Starring:
Date: February 13, 2015
Summary:
A small but effective team has been put together to take care of some lesser criminals that are attacking travelers in the Land of Lightning.
"Atypical Group"
Land of Lightning
The prison break has led to a number of criminals on the loose, so Michiko has put together a team of herself, Mayuri, Rise, and Yori to deal with the lesser of the evils that managed to escape the prison. Reports of the bandits that have been plaguing people's travels have been becoming more violent than before, indicating that someone new is leading this group of ne'er-do-wells. The assignment was to meet up at the gates in whatever clothes made them seem like civilians. Michiko stands at the gates in a kimono with a cart full of … well, rocks.
Yori got the word on his way back home and went quickly to find something to wear. Civilian. Hmm. In the end he put on his clothes that he used when helping his aunt and uncle garden, pausing outside his house to put a little bit of mud on his face to add to the look. Then, with a small open sack of farming tools, he went to the gate to meet Michiko and the rest. A bow is given when he sees his sensei and he offers her a smile. "Hi Michiko-san."
- Mayuri has never looked overly Ninja…ish… she generally has the 'I'm a traveller' look down quite well, generally dressed in tougher clothing able to weather the road she walks, so when she shows up she has no particular outstanding features. Upon spotting Michiko with the cart of rocks, she steps up beside her. "What's with the rocks, Sensei?"
Upon recieving the assignment Rise looked to her current wardrobe and found it… wanton. With the exception of two, the rest were a carbon copy of her everyday shinobi wear. Add to the fact that she did not naturally appear like an ordinary civilian, and well, she was pretty much doomed from the start. The best she can manage is something akin to Yori's farmhand appearance, but without the sack, lots of bandages to distort her gender and cover an eye, and… that's it really. "I have arrived, Michiko-sama." She bows fully at the waist. "Greetings, Yori-san, and.. I am unaware of who you are, but hello as well," She says to the others in typical monotone for her before regarding Michiko fully once more.
"Yori-san. Mayuri-san. Rise-san," she greets. "The rocks are going to be covered so people think we're carrying something of value. While… It may be a bit difficult to convince bandits that we're normal travelers…" She gives a rather pointed look in Rise's direction, though she does recall that issue would have been… just that. "Anyway… Given the group…" She makes a handseal and uses henge to change her clothes into something more like a farm hand. "Let's go. The bandits are going to attack when he hit the middle road or so."
Yori looks back as others arrive and he waves to Mayuri in greeting, and then…Rise! He swallows loudly and offers a smile. "Hi Mayuri-san, Rise-san." He greets them both before turning to look back at Michiko and nodding. Alright, get your game face on. "Do we know anything about this group of bandits Michiko-san? Or what to possibly expect?"
- Mayuri smiles when Michiko greets her and then turns to Rise and bows slightly to her. "Nice to meet you, Rise-san. I'm Tenjin Mayuri." She stands back up and looks to Yori to give him a little wave. "We can have Yori push the rocks." She smirks at him. Afterall, the man would do the physical labor!
Rise furrows her brows beneath the bandages, then looks to her own clothing. With the exception of the bandages, the rest of her clothing was in line with Yori's, so… what had been the issue? It wasn't as if she could pull off any other look that didn't entail a rough life given her lack of a certain limb among other things. So caught up in her own world is Rise that she doesn't notice Yori's reaction to her appearance. Or was it arrival? Either way, Rise returns Mayuri's bow belatedly before returning her focus to Michiko.
"Yes, we know that when they attack, they don't hesitate to use weapons. Usually there are no traps involved, and they like to take the full wagon, not just a few things." There's a horse to pull the cart… "Hmmm… I think that's all the information we have. It'll take us thirty minutes to get to where they might attack." And indeed, the trail is very quiet the first leg of the journey…
Yori nods silently as he listens to Michiko explain what's going on. When Mayuri offers him up to pull the cart, the cart that has a horse, he just gives her a puzzled look. "I…" he stops, then just shakes his head. Confusion! Oh well. He starts off with the wagon, trailing behind it a little as they travel towards the fated location.
- Mayuri gives Yori a sly smile. "I figured he couldn't do it." She snickers softly and moves over towards the horse to give it some attention and petting. "Who is the big strong horse that is tougher than Yori? You are!"
Rise nods firmly. No Traps. All in. Remorseless. The type the old her would've loved to tear apart. "Mayuri-san… Might I ask what was the purpose of that question?" She asks, sounding toneless as usual, and yet somehow curious too. "I do not believe that horse has been trained to understand our language in such great detail."
"Focus…" Michiko says with a small sigh… Though perhaps she should allow the banter. The girl waits until they reach the spot where many the of attacks have been noted to happen. Or at least the area of such. "Everyone, be a bit more on your guard," she says, sending chakra through the ground to try and detect anything or anyone that might be a threat.
Michiko reports that there are around four enemies. Rise would notice a bit of movement among the surrounding trees, but Mayuri and Yori may be at a bit of a loss when it comes to looking around for much of anything. The people themselves are trying to stay hidden, but that doesn't mean much to keen eyes and Jounin-level shinobi…
As Mayuri makes /fun/ of him the boy straightens up and looks ready to respond when Michiko says to focus. Instead he just stares at Mayuri a moment with a small frown and hmphs softly to himself. Girls. As they travel he walks along with his head down to pull off the civilian look a little more. He tries to keep a careful watch on their surroundings as well but apparently he has no skillz.
- "I'm in-character!" Mayuri whisper-hisses at Rise, then smiles. "Horses are much smarter than you give them credit for!" Mayuri stays focused, though, as well as one maintaining her act can do. "So, anyone got any stories to tell?" The Tenjin inquires, clearly just trying to blend.
Rise purses her lips and furrows her brows again, considering Mayuri's words carefully. "Hmm.. This may indeed be true, Mayuri-san." Rise finally replies. Though she opens her mouth to answer the Tenjin's question, Michiko's order for the group to focus prompts Rise to do just that. The disguised woman possesed no fancy techniques for rooting out enemies; only the wisdom brought on by experience. She examined the terrain ahead carefully without giving away too much in the process, then passed along the information to the others discretely.
"Keep going as if nothing is wrong," Michiko tells everyone. "If we break now, the other two might get away," she orders, continuing on like nothing odd is going on. Her voice was a bit lower as she spoke, then she gets a bit louder as if she were speaking normally. "Well, nothing important. I heard that we should keep our guard up because there were bandits, though." As soon as she spoke, of course, they end up getting attacked by a throwing knife…
"Yep, that's right! And we'll happily take that cart of yours, if you don't mind. Which one of you wants to live to send the message to everyone else?" says the man that appeared, sword drawn. Another appears behind the group, wielding a spear to keep everyone in the same group.
Yori doesn't respond to what Michiko says in any way as he continues to look his little farm working self. It's not until the knife comes his direction that he raises an arm to let it deflect off of the metal hidden beneath his sleeves. He looks up then to see what they face, eyes focused on the bandits that attack as he drops his sack of farm tools. Don't really need those. He doesn't respond verbally or move beyond that, leaving it to Michiko to talk to the people and tell them whether or not to attack.
- Mayuri barely avoids a much worse injury than she could have sustained, and the knife that is thrown at her slices through her vest and drwws blood from her hip. She winces and sort of stumbles a little before recomposing herself. "What do we do?"
Rise managed to pull off a startled jump away from the knife pretty well. The yelp that came with it though? Not so much. Hopefully the bandits didn't pay too much to that, or the fact she turned about ot face the spear wielder towards the back. Two out of the four. "More organized.." She murmured to herself, then raised her hands — hand up fully. "Ma.. Please sir, I do not wish to die." She says flatly, trying and failing to sound convincing. Again.
Michiko doesn't move out of the way of the kunai, wincing a bit as she gets sliced by the knife. "Well, preferably none," she says. "So please allow us through. And…" She cuts off as a sword comes slashing at her, though it waves through her. "Well, that didn't work…" she sighs. "Go for them," she tells everyone, immediately sending two bolts of fire at the man who attacked her. "Yori-san, Mayuri-san, you two go after the ones in the distance and keep them occupied. Rise-San and I will take of the people here."
Yori nods Michiko at her instruction before motioning for Mayuri to follow him. The Saito is silent as he moves towards one of the folk a little further out. Unfortunately he can't quite avoid the knife thrown towards him and it grazes his arm. He ignores it for now as he charges in, giving a quick pair of steel covered punches towards the man. He keeps an eye on Mayuri as well, as best as he can at least.
- Mayuri follows behind Yori, doing her best to keep up and fishes her sword out of a bag, but before she gets a chance to do much else she is attacked. Again, her dodge keeps her from being killed but she cant avoid entirely. She does attack back, however.
Rise cannot help herself. She twists about with the intent to see if Michiko faired well following the sound of another blade cutting through the air, and paid for it. Still, she twists back in time to turn a full on chest stab to a glancing shoulder strike. The spear man comes close a second time, but this time Rise was ready. She steps beneath the strike, then leaps forward, lashing out with both legs in quick succession before ending in a final circular sweep kick to knock him off his feet. If her luck held, she'd rip the spear from his hand and direct at his throat, daring the man to make another move.
Michiko watches as the man she was attacking goes down in flames, the girl offering a nod before trying to seek out further trouble from anyone else… Nothing on her radar, which either means people are too far away, they are being /really/ still, or there's just nothing there. Rise would find that the man she was facing is quite easy to knock down with her skill-level, and he's probably not getting up now that he has a spear through his throat.
Yori chased after and found the man throwing the knives. This guy scrambles to avoid the attacks sent his way, but ends up getting punched first before the next attacks miss. He grabs a few more of his throwing knives from his pouch to throw at Yori while another goes after Mayuri, aiming to punch her in the stomach and follow up with a kick at her shin… Weakling.
Yori is ever so slightly distracted with everything going on as he tries to keep an eye on Michiko and Mayuri. It's not good to split his attention so but that's what happens. As a result two of the knives hit him while he manages to jump away from one. When he sees that Mayuri might be in over her head he launches himself in her direction, bringing up his arm but only slightly deflecting the punch as it hits him in the forehead. His arms swing down quickly to stop the kick at least. Regardless there's no way he's attacking either of the men right now. "You okay?" He asks Mayuri over his shoulder.
- Mayuri steps back so she doesnt accidently poke Yori with her poisoned weapon while he absorbs every attack in the vicinity. "They hit you, not me… You should worry about yourself!" She does toss a kunai past him at the bandit.
The bandit moved, so she hilted the spear in his throat. Rise turned away immediatly after, neither caring or worrying about how long it would take the spearman to die. The only thing that mattered to her was to regroup with the others and assist. At least, that is what should've mattered. Fortunately for her and unfortuantely for the leader of the group, Rise couldn't shake the feeling of something being off. Without warning or seeming reason, Rise dug out one of the few shuriken she still had hidden in her tunic and launched them abruptly in some seeming random direction. "You're not that good at hiding your killing intent." She states boldly, turning fully to face the leader.
The leader yelps and hops out of the bushes he was hiding in, immediately rushing to try and Attack Rise. However, as he moves, he ends up getting roasted by Michiko quite a bit, leaving him a mostly-burnt mess on the ground. Still alive, but in severe pain… Good! "Rise-san, I can tie him up… Go and help Yori-san and Mayuri-san," Michiko requests.
Yori and Mayuri would be dealing with an onslaught of attacks. While Mayuri's attack managed to scratch one on the surface, the pain isn't enough to keep him back. The two continue to throw knives and punches at the Genin with little interruption.
Yori doesn't respond to Mayuri's comments about himself being okay. That's not the worry that is on his mind as he turns his attention back to the knife wielder. A few quick jumps take him away from most of the thrown blades but the third one grazes his side across the ribs. No attention is given to the injuries as he comes down out of the air towards the knife wielder, bringing his arm and it's metal guard down towards the shoulder before following with two solid chest punches.
- Mayuri prefers to dodge, as opposed to block, and thankfully she was able to avoid being struck this time and throws down a few slashes of her dangerously poisoned sword.
As the man rushed forward, Rise shifted around and lowered her stance, repositiong herself to defend and strike back the moment an opportunity presented itself. A sweatdrop forms as the man gets roasted alive instead. She shrugs off the surprise quickly and replies to Michiko with a curt, "Hai" before taking off. Though she doesn't arrive in time to intercept the attacks, Rise still gets within range to launch her last two shuriken at the legs of the duo's opponent. Her throw is high, but the shuriken curve sharply just as predicted in mid-air.
The man Yori is facing, the one throwing all the punches and kicks, ends up going down thanks to Yori's attacks, and he's pretty much down for the count. The second man, the one that's been throwing knives, gets cut by Mayuri and then ends up getting hurt in the leg my Rise, which… Is really painful and disables him for the time being. With all the bandits down, it's a wonder that they were a threat to pedestrians. Then again, most of the people here were experienced shinobi. Michiko ties up the 'leader' and tosses him into the cart after emptying it of the rocks that's within it. "Alright, let's get back… I don't sense any other people, and most reports only mentioned four people at the most."
