Starring:
Date: January 30, 2015
Summary:
Further investigation leads to some history on the Glass Master. Who is he and what’s his story? While there’s no formed picture, this has key hints.
"The Shadow Man - Looking Behind the Curtain"
Land of Wind: Rakuen
It's been a while since Ping had investigated the Glass Master. He had been digging around various files, underground links, and other sources in order to figure this out, and he finally has discovered a prime location: the hometown of the Hachiro. This mission was for those already involved with the Glass Master, namely Rikuto, Arika, and Jiro. The trio has been tasked to find out more about the man's past. Their trip would bring them to the Merchant District in Rakuen.
Arika is mostly on Rikuto's back for the journey for however long it's allowed, the girl not minding if she has to travel herself, but she'd rather hitch a ride. "So, we gotta find where Hachiro-san used to live?" she asks with a tilt of her head. "D'you have the map, Rikkun?"
Jiro didn't mind going along on this trip for various reasons. First off it gets him out of the boring parts of school and dealing with other stupid kids. And secondly if Arika is going to go somewhere he wants to make sure he's close so he can protect her. Cause that's just what he does. His hands are clasped together on top of his head as he walks along a little behind the other two looking quite bored at the moment. He gives a glance around every now and then but mostly just keeps quiet and to himself at this point.
"Yes I have a map.. you're the one who needs to work on working on your Kanji. It's sloppy still." Moving his hands upwards before over his shoulders, Rikuto uses a rolled up map to bat a few times at the top of her head. Turning to the side, he glances to Jiro to ask, "When did you meet the glassmaker or his son? Did Arichan drag you around by your collar until you ran into them?" Rikuto was slightly annoyed with the trip as he traveled most of the way with a certain little girl on his back and shoulders, constantly shifting to a better position.
Arika pouts a bit. "I told you I didn't make the map!" she huffs, scrambling off Rikuto's back now that they're at their destination. She looks around a bit before eying the map in Rikuto's hands, batting a bit at it when he baps her with it. "We met him on the trip to Konoha and stuff happened. I didn't drag Jiro-kun on anything he didn't wanna come with me to," she says, answering Rikuto's question not-very-well. The map would lead them to a house that was medium in size. Not the largest, but it certainly wasn't small.
Jiro's bored gaze turns up to Rikuto when the older boy talks to him. He opens his mouth to answer when Arika does it for him and he just shrugs, hands still resting on top of his head. "Yea', wha' she said. We were goin' ta Konoha an' met 'em both on the road. We rode with 'em for a while an' then he went all crazy." Crazy seems like a good enough explanation for the moment. "She doesn' 'ave ta drag me anywhere. I always go so I can protect 'er." Even though she /really/ doesn't need it.
Tilting his head off to one side, Rikuto hums lightly before squinting. "I don't feel.. see anything within. Might be things I'm over looking though." Even though Arika had the map now, the young Miira rests his forearm onto the top of her head as he leans down to look at it as well. "Sure she didn't Jiro-san. I have a feeling neither of you really have to work all that hard to drag each other all around and get into lots and lots of mischief." A light chuckle escapes Rikuto when he hears Jiro wanted to stick his neck out to keep the younger girl safe.
Arika rolls up the map once she and Rikuto both took a long look at its contents, already moving off towards the destination. As they walk, she says, "We don't /try/ to get into stuff! It just… happens." Because they were doing something that warranted a giant chase? Likely. But she's not going to say that… "And I don't need protecting, Jiro-kun…" she huffs faintly. If he says it, she'll argue. The house itself that she lead the group to was simple, yet big. Arika peered at the door for a bit before turning to Rikuto. "Should we knock?"
Ehh? Mischief? "We don'." Jiro agrees with a nod, letting his hands drop back to his sides now that they're at their destination. "It jus' happens sometimes." It's not like they /actively/ seek it. They just tend to cause it. The boy walks up behind Arika before reaching out to muss her hair and grin. "Yeah, sure, well I'm still gonna protec' ya whether you need it or not." Why is he so protective? The world may never know.
"..Just 'happens'.. right." Rikuto slowly shakes his head, the smirk on his lips never seeming to disappear for very long. Turning his attention back to Arika as she moves off after a huff. With a nod, he agrees, "Would be best to, though who are you hoping would be inside? This is supposed to be an old address anyways. Knock, wait ten seconds for movement, then try the door. If anything jumps out, I'll cook it."
Arika nods and proceeds to knock on the door a few times. Then she waits. Nothing can be heard from the house, though. Apparently no one's home. Arika turns to Rikuto. "Ready, then?" she asks, putting a hand on the knob. A small turn and… It's locked… Arika huffs a bit. "It's locked," she reports. "Now what, Rikkun? How're we supposed to talk to people who aren't even around?" she grumbles.
Jiro waits until Rikuto's back is turned before he sticks his tongue out at the older boy. Darn tooten it just happens! While they go to the door the boy goes to glance in a nearby window before glancing back at the other two as they try the door. Of course it's looked. Good thing any decent thief knows how to bypass that. Rock through the window usually works…but maybe that's too far. "I can unloc' it." He says, reaching back to his pouch and pulling out two small tools. He doesn't really wait for an answer as he pushes his way in front and just starts…working on it. Hopefully there's no traps or anything.
"Arichan.. like I said, noone was inside. Anyways, we could check around though I could just burn through and.." The young Miira was caught off guard when Jiro steps up in front of him and moves to the door, plucking out a pair of tools and already begins on working. "Or Jiro-san can try something silly."
Bringing his hands together, Rikuto rapidly begins making a set of seals before tensing faintly. Lowering his hands, would show that nothing changed, almost. Arika would also be locked into the illusion, forced to watch Jiro turn into a small whirlpool which breaks apart before being sucked into the lock in a moment. 'This is why you wait.. anyone could of seen you working Jiro-san'. Fortunately for Jiro, he wouldn't notice anything at all.
Arika gives Jiro a curious glance when he pulls out tools to pick into the lock. Nothing like a trap activated as Jiro messed with it, so the house likely didn't belong to a shinobi. Or the owners were lulling everyone into a false sense of security. Arika squeaks a bit when she feels the illusion enter her mind, the girl glaring at Rikuto. "Don't do that!" she huffs, eyes dark for a brief moment. It clears away, fortunately, but it was there all the same.
The door would swing open, revealing an empty home. One that was normal in appearance though. A small rug to greet those coming in was present at the door. And a small table with flowers atop it and as well as a clock. There were stairs that led to the second floor, and a few doorways that lead to kitchen and living areas.
The boy doesn't respond to that whole 'silly' comment as he works fairly quickly. It becomes obvious early on that this isn't the first time he's done something like this. It takes less than half a minute before the pins align and the tumbler turns. A little twist and it unlocks. Jiro grins over his shoulder…not that people can really see it if he's covered by a genjutsu, but hey! With that he straightens up and reaches out to turn the handle and push the door open before stepping in slowly to look around.
"Jiro-san.. if you make a habit of doing this I'll force you to learn how to use Genjutsu properly. You realize the fine for picking locks without permission is fingers, right?" Rikuto's voice was somewhat soft, quieted so others didn't over hear him. Soon he plops a hand onto the boy's head before giving him a light push, encouraging him into the home and motions with his head for Arika to follow. "Arichan, just what are we really looking for. You're the one who snagged the scroll before I could read it fully."
Arika follows after, peeking around curiously. "Just information on the Glass Master's background," she tells the Miira. "They weren't very specific with /what/, just as long as we find something, you know?" the girl says, pressing forward and looking in the family room with care. "Jiro-kun, don't take anything!" she calls over, using her indoor voice.
"S'only if ya get seen. Then they have ta catch ya." Jiro grins widely over his shoulder at Rikuto though that doesn't exactly sound like a horrible idea, learning how to genjutsu himself for a short time. Hrm…The grin turns to a bit of a glower when the older boy plops his hand on his head but Jiro follows the push and goes further in, looking around curiously. He started towards some dust covered yet still shiny knick knacks and stops just short at Arika's words, ducking his head like he just got smacked on the back of the head. Grumble. He doesn't really know what he's looking for so…exploration time! He looks around, then heads back to see what other rooms there were.
"Yes.. and nothing's too eye catching of three fools messing around someone else's house with tools in their hands" was grumbled and closes the door behind himself not saying much more before looking around. Turning his attention onto Arika, he nods lightly before sighing. "Try to commit everything to memory. Everything could also be a trap.. he's a retired shinobi, a sensor at that. He is rather adept at what he does but he's also trying to play down being weak or helpless." Rikuto moves his hands to his pockets before looking around but then stops and gives the house a slow and more careful look, trying to see if he detects any seals active in general within the house.
Rikuto would notice that there was a seal near the door. Coming from the picture, to be precise. Arika looks around on her own, not noticing anything of importance. The house itself was very bland… Even Jiro would see that things are more normal than could be considered normal. There were shiny pieces of jewelry in a box if he was tempted to look into it, but other than that…
The place sure is pretty decent. Might even make a new hideout for Jiro since it's abandoned and all. Something to dwell on ohhhh shiny! The boy loses focus as he sees jewelry and he walks over to it without even really thinking about it. Seems safe enough after all! He reaches down to see what all there is and ponders what he should take. Surely if no one was coming back for it…
"Jiro-san.. You are a shinobi not a thief. Leave no tracks if you can help it." Not once did Rikuto look at the boy, not to Arika as his gaze was locked onto a simple picture. Walking over to it, he looks carefully at the framing before carefully touching the edged of it as if it was an explosive on a hair trigger. 'Hmm..' The fewer reactions he would get from it, the more he would shift it, attempting to move it out from where it rested.
The seal that Rikuto found would do nothing unless a bit of chakra was sent through it. Arika returns in short order to Rikuto's side, peeking curiously at what he's exploring. "What'd you find, Rikkun?" comes the inevitable question. The girl bounces a bit in her spot, excited to see that there might be something worthwhile. Jiro would find jewelry. Rings, necklaces, earrings… Below all the shiny stuff was another picture.
Wellllll he's a student, not really a shinobi. Yet. The boy mutters under his breath at Rikuto's words and he starts to begrudingly return the jewelry. But then the edge of the picture catches his eye and he reaches through the stuff to pull it out and look at it, squinting at it a moment before putting the jewelry back. Most of it. A ring might've just, you know, fallen into his pouch. He heads over to join the others and shows them the picture. A woman with two babies and a man too tall to be in the frame. "Who's tha'?" He asks before he looks over at what Rikuto is doing, "What're ya doin'?"
"I.. don't know." Fishing around his mouth with his tongue, Rikuto moves a hand to his pouch, pulling out a kunai. He gently uses the edge of the blade to see if it was fully applied to the picture but doesn't try to remove it. Looking back to the ball he begins to check just what it might of been anchored onto. "Either of you two find much? I think we need to take this back to the village. I don't know that much about seals like this."
Arika sighs. "I wasn't able to find anything…" She peeks at the picture Jiro has, shrugging a bit. "I dunno, but we should take it with us. And what Rikkun has. Let Ping-san look at it a bit, too?" Rikuto would notice the seals were created directly on the picture and won't be able to be removed easily. Something was protecting it. He might even notice a light 'zap' from it when his kunai touches the edges.
Jiro peers at the seal on Rikuto's picture for a moment before shaking his head. Yeah he was slowly learning some seal stuff from Ping but that's not anything he knows. "Doesn' seem ta be much here ta help." He mutters. But at least it wasn't a total loss with that, uh, ring that dropped in his pouch. Cough. He slips the picture he has into a pocket for now before giving one more look around.
Rikuto quickly whips his hand after the zap and puts the kunai away grumbling. "Geeze.. Ya, ya.. we'll take it with us. Nice work Jiro-san." Turning his attention to Arika, he nods his head lightly a few times. "Lets return, we have a few clues but.. not the way we came. Through the back or out a low window.. I'll try to have us disappear before we are outside, should give us some cover" Moving the picture to the side, he slips it into his cloak and then into the satchel at his hip, keeping it safe while keeping his hands free mostly.
