Purring could be heard from behind the citadel, nearby the veranda on the back. When walking outside the Master had not expected to see him there, let alone that he would be moving one of his hands side to side on a head on the, touching the soft fur of a yellowish kitsune. Said kitsune was not even close to looking like the one assigned at the citadel but seemed close enough. At least that's what the Saniwa concluded from afar.
She had stopped in her tracks already when spotting a familiar face. Well, familiar back rather but details. A young male with messy black hair and darker skin, wearing a black jacket and fitting trousers. She only smirked to herself when seeing this, deciding to sneak up. After all, like one sword usually likes to say it himself: " Surprises are important in life! "
With that in mind the female was able to make her decision rather quickly, pulling out a device which would leave any sword warrior stare in mere confusion. It was slim and flat, with buttons to push on its two sides, two on the right and one on the left. It had a flaccid window put on some sort of black plastic, said plastic having a big, black circle seemingly carved in. When pushing the button on the left the screen suddenly started to brighten up, revealing a picture of someone. On closer inspection it was one of her Sword Warriors, dressed in his usual citadel attire, having a wooden sword in his hands and seeming to imitate a swing. A picture she had taken right inside the dojo.
Click.
"What the- Master!? What are you doing!?" Having been distracted by the sudden noise the male had turned around, only spotting Etsuko with a curious device in hand, something he had never seen. Assuming from the click she may just have taken a picture, resulting in his cheeks lit up slightly red. He had heard this sound plenty of times after all, everytime Mutsunokami was on his photo shooting spree. He usually doesn't mind but that was because Mutsunokami took the picture. But his very own Master, that's a whole different story! It's not the same actually! What if she caught him at a bad timing or angle? She would-
"Nooothing~" She would reply, staring at the screen for quite some time, even chuckling to herself while smiling. "Woha, that's not bad! Despite you not wearing your battle clothing and having a piece of wood as a weapon you're looking good!"
Not sure how to properly respond to that he turned away for a moment, removing one hand from the sword and starting to play with a few strains of his own hair for a little, moving them around all over the place. "Th… Thanks?"
"Just saying facts. Anyway, gotta set this as one of my backgrounds! It's just too cool not to use!" She added, nearly chirping as he heard some sort of tapping noises coming from her direction, slowly turning his gaze over to her to see her swiping a finger on this device.
"You don't mind if I do that, right?"
"Eh!? N… No, not at all. Just don't go overboard Master."
"Relax, I'm not going to show this to just anyone. This is our own little secret. Just you and me, alright~?"
Just thinking back to it made her chuckle yet she quickly shook her head. There was something else she wanted to do and it was not staring at one of her photos in her gallery. Not yet at least. She had something to focus on, someone to focus on.
The redhead sneaked closer and closer, starting to tip toe as slowly as possible, trying to first get as close as possible behind the sword spirit before moving to the side to catch his face at least a little bit as he was patting the small kitsune in front of him. Each step was taken as quietly as possible, wanting to take just the perfect shot of the scene. Or at least a decent photo of the current scene. It was just too hard to resist. Who knew the sword who would usually just stay all by himself, always repeating that he had no intention of getting along, would be patting a small kitsune behind the citadel, moving his hand in its soft and fluffy looking fur.
Getting closer and closer by the second she put up the device, aiming the back of it right at the male and the kitsune though one more step and the ears of the kitsune moved right up, suddenly turning around and jumping right into the next best bush.
"Wha- Hey, wait! Where are you-" The male wanted to stop it and was about to get up yet then turned around, his gaze meeting his Master's who clicked her tongue for a moment, turning away as one of her cheeks puffed up. "And I was so close too…" She complained yet then let out a sigh, putting the device back into one of her pockets and putting her left arm on her waist, then turning back around, grinning a little amused. "Well, well, well. What do-"
"What do you want?" The Sword Warrior interrupted her, his gaze meeting hers, though his being clearly unamused all things considered.
"Hey, c'mon. I didn't do it on purpose… Ookurikara, was it?"
The male nodded, getting up as his gaze wandered down after he was standing straight, given that he was visibly taller than the female, still refusing to say a thing.
"See, see. Besides, I had no idea that you could be so cute Kara~"
Once Etsuko said this out loud the sword's eyes widened for a moment, maybe being caught off guard by her sudden bluntness yet all she was doing was wanting to speak the truth. r at least say what she this was something she didn't expect, far from it, even if this could be compared to a discovery a protagonist of a shoujo manga could make. Said protagonist would just spot one of the many guys around her, usually the tough guy, doing something which does not fit a 'tough lone wolf' like him. For example, they may have a sweet tooth, love kids or, like in Ookurikara's case, love small, fluffy animals, a thing she would only expect from someone who was already loving cute things to begin with. Actually, scratch that, she would expect this from nearly any other sword. Ookurikara of all people however, she won't lie, she didn't intend to be surprised today. But here she was, finding herself being at least slightly caught off guard by this. Though it wasn't unpleasant. Far from it.
"Sh… Shut up…" He finally managed to sutter out loud, turning his head away from Etsuko, as if he were to hide something from her at this very moment. This reaction only made her disgustingly smug grin grew bigger, making her unable to hold back any longer. Oh she just had to mess with him right now! Let's see how cute he can get!
And thus she put both of her hands behind her back, stepping a little closer and shifting her body a little forward, continuing: "Such a cutie pie~ Does little Kara have many fluffy friends like this~? Do you love being surrounded by a crowd made out of fluffy fur? Do you enjoy petting them all so-"
"I said shut up!" He interrupted, his voice becoming louder and louder with each word yet sounding even more flustered. She seemed to do something right to get him all worked up like this. The Saniwa won't lie, it was a funny and cute reaction to go with, so much so that she ended up chuckling at it soon after straightening herself out again, unable to hold it back. This was something she could find herself getting used to, she won't lie. Seeing Ookurikara all flustered like this. It had some charm to it. That or she was just in her element, ready to go all out. Or because it reminded her of someone?
Nah, no way. Kara was Kara. Nothing more, nothing less. It was just fun seeing him like this.
"Haha, alright alright. Enough of that. My bad~" She then apologized, more or less, before carrying on, her smirk disappearing as she started to sound more calm as it may be enough for today. "Though why hide it? I think anyone would get behind this side of yours."
"This side of- What are you talking about?" Ookurikara sighed, finally ready to make eye contact with the woman again.
"Just saying. Maybe if you open up more you might be one of the most-"
"I don't intend to get along."
"You sure? You seem to get along with-"
" I don't intend on getting along Master . Don't make me repeat it a third time."
"Aww, bummer. Not even if I were to tell no, order you to?"
"You may be our Master but don't get ahead of yourself now." Ookurikara nearly scoffed at her, visibly unamused by her attitude right now. She knew that to anyone else she may just seem plain silly right now, like a little girl abusing what little power she had. But it was kind of concerning to listen to. All she wanted to try was to get him out of his shell, maybe make new friends with other Sword Warriors. It would improve the overall morale after all. Even acquaintances would do!
"Look, if I gotta drag you to my next tea party with Yasusada I'm soo going to do that!" Etsuko suddenly brought up, trying to sound threatening but this was just a plain, silly thing to say, as menacing as she tried to be. Not even the sword in front of her was very impressed right now. Actually, he looked more annoyed than anything.
"Don't you have better things to do?" He then sighed. "Even right now. Why do you bother?"
"About that? Well, it has many reasons. One of them being me running from-"
"Master!" A familiar voice started to echo across the halls, making the female's voice freeze in a moment, chuckling rather awkwardly as a result and making her nearly sweat. "Get back here and do your work already! These troops don't assign themselves!"
Noticing her sudden shift in attitude Ookurikara was about to ask yet would receive his reply soon afterwards as the redhead suddenly said rather quickly: "Shit, Hasebe. I gotta go before he catches me. It was nice talking to ya! Bye bye!"
Before he could even reply she was running right past him, her feet carrying her as quickly as she could, nearly stomping on the wooden floor, being clearly in a hurry.
The sword warrior was watching her flee, as quickly as she could, only shaking his head. There was only one thing he could say:
"Master is an idiot. I can't tell if she cares or if she was just searching for an excuse here."
