Starring:
Date: April 23, 2014
Summary:
Hakumei and a companion are sent on a mission to retrieved some expensive cargo. It’s high quality caviar and expensive wine that must be retrieved before it’s sold.
"A Mission of Delicacy"
Cave village in the Land of Water
Reina was going on a fairly standard mission. A group of thieves had stolen some expensive cargo: high quality caviar and wine. They could sell it for a fortune, and they'd just managed to return to their village when the client hired Reina to fetch it. He would've hired shinobi, but he was planning to sell it in the Land of Water, and he didn't want people to know he couldn't even hold onto his own merchandise.
Reina was discreet. And before Shinime and Emmi came along, she warned them to be discreet as well. Now they're on their way through the Land of Water, approaching the den of yakuza thugs. "They're in caves," Reina says. "A network of tunnels, I heard. They'll probably have the merchandise in the back, so we'll just have to try and sneak in, grab the stuff, and sneak back out. Hehehe."
- Emmi had been invited along on the mission by Reina the other night in exchange for some other stuff that she couldn't remember. Even if there had been no need to return a favor, the tiny foreign girl would have done so anyway , cuz she is just awesome like that. But… discreet? She stook out like a sore thumb among the locals. It wasn't that she looked strange or anything, but she was just definitely not from the area - or the country… which may be more discreet than she figures.
"Ahh, sneaking… I am good with sneaking." She gestures to herself. "The size plays a part in it, I think." She chuckles wryly, obviously not happy with being quite so short. However, there were its advantages, obviously! "What exactly are we looking for? Is it really obvious? Or am I going to have to do some digging…?" –
Moving along with the others, she peers back at Shikyo after Reina's words and sticks a finger over her lips to shush the large figure housed in a massive black robe that covers its whole form. The only visible mark of the creature is its scythe across its back, "You hear that, Shikyo? Be quiet." She nods and gives Reina a thumbs up, "Shikyo will be quiet." She nods and grins before peering at Emmi and hmming, "Who is that?"
Reina rolls her eyes. "I told you, we're retrieving some stolen goods," she says. "Some yakuza stole some quality merchandise. High quality caviar and wine. They could sell it for a boat load of money. But when I said 'discreet' I meant don't talk about it afterwards. The client wants this to be hush hush." She looks meaningfully at both her partners. She runs a hand through her hair. She's wearing her usual cloak, and she adds, "But yes, since this is a stealth mission being discreet in appearance is also useful. There it is."
She points to some low cliff walls, with holes in it. It's hard to tell which one to enter, there are so many. It may come down to guesswork. Reina makes her way to a shelf of rock that provides good cover. "Remember. Sneaky. See anything?"
- Emmi nods. "Okay, so, we're looking for caviar and wine…" She taps her chin a couple times as she logs it away in the back of her mind. "Alright, well, if were going to look for someone in the caves, we should check for tracks leading in and out of them. Chanes are they are sloppy and there will be some." Emmi moves over towards the caves, checking them one by one for tracks, and finds a few moving into the middle cavern. "Tracks lead in here, but I can hear voices further down in that one." She points off to the left. "Which do we go for?" –
Looking at the tracks, Shinime nods her head and then looks over at Reina for a moment before smiling, "Well, I'll let you two lead the way. I'm not a sneaky type so I'll just come forward once you two are attacked or are attackin." SHe giggles and shrugs, "Either way." She then seems to focus for a moment before smiling at Shikyo, "You ok with that Shikyo?" She hmms before looking forward with a grin.
Eventually catching up with the others, Nanashi in its long haired androgynous form walks up. "They're female voices," it notes with a nod to Emmi then peers at the footprints. It closes its eyes a moment, furrowing its brows. "There are no guards outside… anywhere in this place. That's kinda weird. What rank mission was this supposed to be again?"
Reina listens carefully to everyone around her and rubs her chin. "Women, huh?" Reina rubs her chin. They'd all seen the tracks leading into the main entrance. Then, she shrugs. "We got a lucky break. No guards, or maybe a badly timed patrol. Let's go in." And then she'd start towards the entrance. Actually, things go alright, and they make it there…only to see eight paths diverging in different directions, and plenty of footprints along all of them. The rocky corridors are narrow and lit by torches in sconces.
Reina rubs her chin again. "Nanashi you stay here," she says. "Feel free t explore /nearby/ but be ready to hold the ground in this area. Each of you take a route. If you can't handle it, run back here and team up with Nanashi. I'd suggest you henge into the first yakuza you come across, I heard they're not overly powerful." Reina looks down a tunnel where she hears more voices—but not too many and makes her way down it.
- Emmi looks back to Reina. "Don't underestimate women." She comments with a little smirk. Most of their group was made up of women, but this Nanashi person was throwing it off. She peers at Nanashi, trying to figure out who they were, before she nods. "Alright, I'll go this way." She picks a tunnel and takes a step or two towards it. "I should be able to handle a Yakuza or two, I'd think." She chuckles softly before making her way off into the shadowy depths.
Apparently, she picked a 'correct' path, because it is not long before she stumbles across a random goon sitting and eating. The two lock eyes for a moment before they break into combat. As the goon attacks her, the bodyguard blocks the first blow effectively, however the second one is a tad sloppy and she grunts as pain shoots up her arm. She then performs a swift set of blows: a quick return to the combatants solar plexus, a spinning elbow to the floating ribs, and then a follow-up legsweep that uses her spin as momentum to take them down. Hopefully. –
Having gone off on her own, Shinime ends up skipping down the tunnel with a little grin on her face. He then points at something on the wall and grins at Shikyo with a silent giggle as she pulls it off before suddenly she is hit by an explosion from behind and eeks. SHe smashes into the wall and pout as she gets up brushing off dirt and then pouts some before starting further down the hallway, grumbling about explosives.
SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLASSSSSH! An apparently overly strong Yakuza that Nanashi nor any of the others noticed is suddenly striking his swords directly through Nanashi, cleaving it right in half! Just when it seems he's victorious, there's no blood, and the being's body just reforms unharmed as it looks back at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Why you little," it growls out as as stares at him, and, unless he's somehow studied in Genjutsu, he would suddenly feel as if an extremely hot venom were overtaking his body.
Reina makes her way down the tunnel when she notices an explosive tag on the ground in clear sight. "Hehe, idiots," she says, as she carefully peels off the tag. That's when she hears the fizzling over her head, and looks up just in time as the tag on the ceiling smolders. She yelps, and jumps back as rocks rain down. Then, she freezes. There are some shouts coming closer. But instead of fleeing back she moves forward to face them soon.
Emmi fares well against the yakuza. Though she gets hit, he's also overwhelmed by her assault and falls, defeated. But it's a dead end. Emmi will have to go back and try a different tunnel. That or stay and help Nanashi.
Shinime ventures forward. And she'll only meet with more traps. However, two people down that tunnel has heard the trap and comes running around the corner to get her. One leaps at her with kunai slashing. The other is dumb. He runs straight into one of his own traps and is blown away. Now Shinime has just one opponent.
Nanashi severely drains the yakuza, and it makes crying out for help hard. But he charges again, aiming to cut her down.
- Emmi looks around a bit after defeating the Yakuza. There was little to find, however, except she does filch a bit of the goon's food before making her way back down the tunnel only to be stuffing her face when she sees Nanashi bisected by the Yakuza. The poor girl practically chokes on her food in surprise before he reforms, allaying her fears that he had been killed. "You got this?" She asks before running off without waiting for an answer. What was the point in asking? Well, there wasn't. And she just finds another dead end and lets out a sigh before making her way back towards the central area. –
A look over at the Yakuza and they attack. The first yakuza getting blown up and Shinime tilts her head inconfusion until she is..STABBED! OH no! Then there's a poof of smoke and instead it is Shikyo that has been stabbed and doesn't really care. It looks down at the poor Yakuza, the scythe in hand before it swipes the scythe across toward the Yakuza's chest before moving it back across to reap the man's head, whether alive or dead, SHikyo flips the scythe around and up into the Yakuza's gut upward into his chest cavity. Shinime merely grins sa she watches, safely behind Shikyo, fingers moving slightly.
For once, Nanashi actually gets injured, falling back as it's stabbed and actually bleeds. "… That…" It pauses a moment, brows furrowing as its arm starts to growing in size. "Was a mistake." Suddenly, its arm grows huge as it reaches forward to attempt to grab the man and squeeze him to try to hold him down for a much deadlier attack to come.
Emmi would have to go back to where Nanashi is still fighting the monstrously strong yakuza. But once again, Nanashi /is/ providing a valuable distraction against a very strong opponent. Emmi has the choice once again to go down a tunnel, and perhaps her navigation skills have improved.
Shinime makes short work of the yakuza and after a trap-free walk she'd find it. In a cavern is barrels of wine, sealed tight. They're on the cart that was used to wheel them in, so she could make a quick run back or take her time hauling them by herself.
Nanashi is still holding its own against the yakuza, but he knows how to use the terrain. Maneuvering around the rocks and ceilings of the tunnel—he's fought in here quite a bit. And now he lunges down from the ceiling, aiming a straight stab at it.
Reina would run into two more yakuza and rush forward to face them.
- Emmi was down to… well, she had taken two trails, and the other two had taken two between the two of them, at least, so that meant there were only four options left… she had much better chances than before. She looks to Nanashi who was still enaged with the other person, and then picks another non-travelled tunnel at random in hopes of picking the proper pathway to victory! –
"Yay!" She declares and claps her hands before pondering as she looks at the cart. She ponders and taps her chin before saying, 'Nope!" She then turns and starts back toward the rest of her group with a big grin on her face, "Mission accomplished, thanks to Shinime and Shikyo!"
While the others are all 'mission accomplished', Nanashi is busy with this freaky super Yakuza! It reforms against one strike, then is struck by another. Then the drums… 1234… 1234… 1234… 1234… As it cuts an eye up, one has suddenly turned yellow with an odd design. "Can you hear them?" it asks as suddenly sand comes up from below, hands reaching up to grab at the man and attempt to pull him into the ground.
Reina summarily defeats the duo, knocking out one with her attack. "Time to die, you trash yakuza," Reina says, and she gathers her flames finish off the conscious one. But he recoils and says, "Wait! Wait! Spare me and I'll tell you where the food is! It's being guarded by our leader."
He gives details and ironically it'd do Emmi well to hear, since it's the tunnel she just chose. Surely she'd meet with an unhappy fate if Nanashi hadn't lured the powerful yakuza out from the tunnel he was supposed to be guarding. And she'd find the caviar…being eaten. Around tables about twenty villagers are consuming the priceless caviar, clearly starving from how fast they wolf it down. There's only a few casks of the caviar left.
Nanashi's last violent attack overwhelms the man. Before he can even scream, he's been drawn inexorably into the ground, where only death awaits him.
Shinime gets back without event and with the wine in tow. As for Reina she comes to a pantry that's almost empty of food. As if the people here are hard pressed to feed themselves. No…it can't be… Reina starts running back and soon makes it to the checkpoint. Things seemed uneventful here, lucky Nanashi! "The caviar is down that tunnel," she'd point where Emmi had gone. She glances at Shinime's cargo. "Well done," she grins. She'd take out a scroll to store them away, and toss to Shinime. She found it, she gets to carry it.
- When Emmi comes across the people devouring the caviar, she is somewhat unsure of what to do. Sure, Reina's mission was to retrieve the expensive delicacy, but at the same time, she almost felt morally obligated to allow the obviously starved people to consume the food even if it would likely make them sick. She watches, and takes a few steps forward, preparing to defend any remaining caviar cases from being consumed by the ravenous horde. –
After allowing itself to return to normal and patching its wounds, Nanashi would find its way back over to Reina. It steps up behind her, tapping her shoulder. "The guy I was fighting got away again," it says with a sigh, putting its hands in its pockets and waiting for the others to finish up.
Reina rolls her eyes at Shinime's response. She's never actually been on an official sanctioned mission with certified shinobi. But something tells her this isn't how they usually behave. But Shinime has a point, she chose the right tunnel and go through it. Reina makes her way to the den where she winces at the villagers consuming pure gold. They're clearly starving. They'd stolen this high caliber caviar…to eat!?
It doesn't take long for Reina to grab the remaining caviar though. But she actually does pay for it fairly well—a pittance of what it's actually worth, but ten times more than it being eaten like potatoes.
Then Reina goes to her teammates. "It's too bad," she says. "Most of the caviar was eaten. We'll return what we can, he's already paid us in advance. And the wine was also gone." She'd divide up her own money to pay, a quarter of how much she's going to sell the booze for, to each of them. "Let's go."
