Starring:
Date: December 31, 2016
Summary:
Reports of another bear on the loose, this time connected with bandits, gets a Jounin of Kumogakure on the hunt for those responsible.
"Bear-Handed - Prelude to Bear"
Land of Lightning
Rumor has it that a bear is on the loose in the vicinity of Kumogakure! Trees are getting kicked down! Travellers roared at with a ferocious (if high-pitched) 'gaoooo'! Merchants robbed! All typical bear activities! However, for some reason it seems the bear is always in the company of bandits or something and so a call has gone out to deal with the bandits, since there is clearly nothing unusual at all about the bear.
Snow has fallen recently, and the mountain paths are treacherous, but a thin line of smoke rises up from the snow-heavy pine trees at the base of a particular slope, and the sound of merry making and carousing after a recent raid on a traveling bacon merchant.
Because bandits like bacon too.
Miyu just got done dealing with (or observing as other ninja dealt with) a ninja bear on the loose recently, so bandits being tied to the rampaging of a bear already has the Kemonoken suspicious that this may be the same bear… Or that someone is trying to weaponize wild animals by taming them and teaching them ninjutsu. She has heard rumor of trouble in the Land of Bears of late. Maybe these bandits are connected to such?
Doing her best to navigate the wilderness without betraying her own presence, the monk eventually spots the smoke. That in itself is not an indicator of banditry, but the smell of bacon after a recent bacon merchant attack (?????????) is a bit more evidence. Thus, she approaches calmly, hoping that the bandits have been careless enough or overconfident enough not to post any sentries.
That would make matters easier.
As Miyu approaches, she'd clearly be able to see the group of bandits. Quite a number of them. Fifteen or so. Also, there is a small bear in striped leggings, and a scarf, and a yellow sweater. It looks a lot like a teenage girl for some reason but that there could be a girl among all these bacon-scented bandits is totally ridiculous. It makes much more sense that they have simply trained a ninja bear.
They seem to be intoxicated on bacon and unable to pay attention to the approaching Jounin, even if she didn't have the grace of a cat.
The bear-girl is ferociously devouring multiple slices of bacon at once as she sits around the fire with the others. Wow! How fierce~!
Despite the very clever disguise and ferocious behavior, Miyu is pretty sure after scanning the crowd of bandits and finding one of them standing out that the one in the fuzzy-ear hat is not, in fact, a bear. She appears to have gone unnoticed, so she walks right up to the edge of the camp, and asks a bandit from behind her mouth wrap, "Where did you obtain this bacon?"
Best to make sure. Maybe they're just some guys (and a girl) in the woods who like bacon.
Yeaaaaah. Just as unlikely as the girl being a bear. But she isn't about to strike first at some people sitting around.
The bandit looks up, finds a cat woman standing there, looks down at the exposed cleavage, blinks, and then back up at the ninja the chest is attached to. Then, instead of answering, he leaps up and draws his sword, yelling around a mouth full of half-chewed bacon, "INTRUDER!" His observational skills are in top form, clearly.
Others begin to scramble for weapons, but with the cold they are not demonstrating great speed or manual dexterity. Lots of fumbling and stumbling and trying to figure out why this white-haired, dark-skinned woman is out here in the snow in such weather-innapropriate attire.
The (not!?)bear just keeps eating bacon.
Even when the bandit leaps up and draws his weapon, Miyu does not act to defend herself. Instead, she tries reasoning with the bandits, even though she has the opportunity to jump them all right now while they're slowed down by the cold and unable to react quickly. "I have heard that a merchant was attacked recently, and his wares stolen. It would be in your best interest to return them. I would rather avoid violence if possible."
She seems completely calm and collected, but she is ready to act the instant someone tries something.
It's pretty clear that this crazy cat monk lady intends to use force if they don't do as she says. And they don't even seem inclined to try to lie about where they got it all. So, seeing as they outnumber her 15 to 1, they choose the path of bandits everywhere…
"ATTAAAAACK!" one of them yells, and soon they are all charging forth, swinging their weapons, preparing to take down the intruder!
The bacon-eating bear girl just keeps eating bacon and watching for now. She is content with her current position by the fire and sees no reason to leave it just for an intruder.
Miyu sighs. Predictable, but unfortunate. As the bandits rush to attack her, she stadns and waits for them. And then she begins using her skills to turn their own momentum against them, to help them along to crash into trees or into each other. To disarm and deflect, rather than fight back. Though skilled enough to smash them all, she chooses the path that winds up with the bandits hurting themselves instead of her. There is simply no need to go all raging-Jounin on them.
Though the fact the bear girl remains seated the entire time has Miyu wondering what the story of the stripe-legging'd 'bear' is. It's doubtful she's ordinary if she's hanging out with bandits…
As Miyu beats the stuffing out of the bandits, or rather helps them beat the stuffing out of themselves while avoiding any injury, the bear-hatted girl just watches, bacon wiggling to and fro between her lips as she stuffs her cheeks with the delicious meat and chews. One of the bandits bloodied from running his head into a tree, crawls over to her and calls out, "To-Toto! What are you just sitting around for!? Help us out already!"
The bear girl looks from the bandit lying at her feet, to the cat woman making such easy work of her allies that it's like the tanned monk isn't even trying. And maybe she isn't.
Swallowing down the bacon in her mouth, Toto gets to her feet and performs a serious of quick jumps until she is standing atop a pile of firewood. From there, she looks down on Miyu. Then she draws in a deep breath, and lets out a savage, fearsome roar, even if very high-pitched and not-bear-like!
"GAOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Then she holds her hands out to her sides, fingers spaced apart, and claws spring forth where her fingernails should be.
Miyu is conserving her energy, but she's still having to move at least a little bit to toss these bandits around and take them out of the fight. When she overhears someone named 'Toto' being asked to save the bandits, she finishes walking a bandit around in a circle with the man's arm behind his back and shoves him aside into a snow drift face-first, before focusing on what's going on over by the campfire. What she witnesses is a girl leaping up onto a pile of firewood and… 'Roaring' at her. It's indeed, an unusually loud roar, but not terribly intimidating.
When claws grow from the fingers of this 'Toto', however, Miyu's functioning eye widens briefly in recognition before narrowing. She faces Toto fully. "I see. This is certainly unexpected. Someone else using Ki… That means that you're…"
Toto does not give Miyu a chance to finish that sentence. She doesn't understand the implications of the other ninja's words, though she does catch on that 'Ki' was mentioned. But right now, she is annoyed that her bacon-eating has been interrupted, and that all of her allies she was content to let get mauled while she watched until they actually ASKED for her help have been shown what for so easily.
She leaps from the firewood, swinging her claw-tipped fingers, and attacks with a roar enhanced with Ki bellowing forth from her lungs!
