Starring:
Suizei, Yume (emitter)
Date: October 27, 2016
Summary:
On Suizei's travels, he happens upon a call for help. Free room and board and food, for as close to a lifetime as they can manage! There was only one catch to it. He has to find and discipline a band of teenage ruffians that are attempting to form a gang and run away; all while stirring things up for the little settlement. He has to get through to them the gravity of what they are doing and where their path will lead, and he manages to do the seemingly impossible through some tough love.
"Plights of Rebellion"
A rural settlement in the Land of Lightning
As the evening starts to encroach over a small settlement nestled in the land of Lightning, a tension still hangs in the air for most. Not anything deadly or dangerous enough to draw the attention of Kumogakure from the horizon, but enough to leave some of the villagers fearful of leaving their doors and windows unbarred during the night. While some of the larger more well off villages have academies and guards to steer the youth in the right direction, there are still many more that are left to raise their children on whatever means they can find. This leaves some lacking in guidance and a place to go, so they turn to darker and more rough paths.
A group of teenagers that once played in the streets together have taken such a path and have become a nuisance to the village with their need to steal things in the night and harrass children and traders alike when they stray too far into their decided territory. Some of the leaders of the village knew that if left uncheck, this could turn into something far more troublesome, so they decided to put out a request for help.
Whoever could figure out how to straighten out those children, would get free room, board, and food from the village from there on out. Even though some have stepped forward to try, many of them just didn't seem cut out for the job; whether it was because they seemed like they'd be ineffectual from a glance or like they'd end up being too hard on the children. Afterall, many of them still had mothers and fathers who cared for them and they were still a part of the village that only needed a little help and nudge in the right direction.
Moving a hand onto the side of his neck, Suizei sighs while looking up towards the sky. Closing his eyes and forcing his head to the side, it pops audibly into alignment allowing the tension to fade. "From practicing to hunt living Oni, to baby sitting. Just what kind of reputation are you really working on Suizei?" is asked aloud, only replying to his own question with a soft smile and him beginning to march forward towards the village. Didn't bare his sword in open sight rather he left it hidden away in a pack over his shoulder, leaving him seemingly unarmed.
Dressed as if a traveling scribe, Suizei was far from openly intimidating beyond his fearful hair that had yet to be properly trimmed for half the season. The man enters the village with his left hand filled with a scribed sheet rolled up in a tube that he would offer towards one of the first seemingly locals he found. "Excuse me.. I've been on the road for a few days now, does this seem like it is talking about this village or am I on the wrong mountain, again?" The scribed sheet was one of the several dozen copies of the request for aid that had circulated through trade routes to the other local villages and towns.
The first local Suizei finds is a hunched over elderly man with long wispy white whiskers. He has to reach up with a trembling hand to adjust the spectacles on his face as he squints at the scroll Suizei offers him to look at. His eyes light up but grow more serious as Suizei is quickly given a quick inspection by the man before he tells him with his quaking voice, "You're at the right place, talk to the council, they'll be able to point you in a right direction." With that, he points a bony finger over to where the town's center would be. Here it would seem that all of the beaurocratic things are handled; or as beaurocratic of activities a village this small can see or handle.
Inside, is a round table with boards propped up around the walls filled with the town's addresses and bullitens as well as other requests for help more locally centered. There's a staircase upstairs where it would seem hawks are being housed up past the bannisters based on sound and smell alone. Suizei wouldn't have to worry about that, as it would seem the people in charge are gathered near the table in the midst of a heated discussion, "That was the fourth person we went through this week, I say that we stop being picky! We can't deal with this for much longer, and I swear that I am going to pull my hair out and scream at the next person who comes to me raving on about their sheep having crude words sheared onto them."
Smiling softly towards the elderly man, Suizei shifts and bows his head respectfully towards the old man. "Many thanks sir. I will be solving a few of your worries, you can rest at ease." Looking towards where the man directed him, he soon made his way towards the building, taking his time to study just what the building was for but also studying it partially as if it may have been a trap. By the time he made it to the meeting room it was already in session so he let himself in discreetly, trying not to make a sound over the others already arguing.
Lifting his freed hand, Suizei raises two fingers before speaking up to say, "Half sheared sheep really cut into their worth, is this what that contract that wasn't too clear on the payment was about?" Waiting to see if he was reacted to, he opens his hand, showing that it was empty, along with moving his pack from his shoulder to make it clear he wasn't armed nor did he seem to pose much of an obvious threat nor worth. "I'll submit myself as the fifth candidate to help this village, my clan isn't to be questioned but you can address me as Suizei, the traveling scribe."
The four people turn to look at Suizei in some surprise and briefly turn to huddle and whisper in hushed tones as they consider the offer. When they turn back around, the person who spoke seeming to be the leader speaks up, "What wasn't clear about the payment?" He wonders, walking up to try to take the scroll from his hand to skim it. "As it says, if you can help us, you will get free board and food from the village for a lifetime." He rolls the scroll back up and tries to stand eye to eye with Suizei despite being shorter than him. "Hm…I see. Suizei, a scribe…well…" He trails off and looks more curious about the offer than before, "An educated type could just be what we need to help them…very well."
He turns and walks back to the board, "Sheared sheep are just one of the problems we have from these five." He starts to point at some portraits one by one while introducing each of them in the process, "Noburo, Genmei, Kazuko, Haru, and Junichi…Three boys and two girls that have attempted to band together and are trying to form a gang of sorts." He shudders before shaking his head in clear frustration, "I don't know where they went wrong…many of us in the village can remember when they were small and happy to help with chores. Now they are stealing and acting like complete ruffians. We are at our wits end…some of their parents have tried to put their foot down, but they simply break out and run away when they are cornered off to their houses and rooms…"
A smile spreads across his lips, nodding towards the man who spoke up about the payment. "Yes, quality of the room, the substance of the food and.. I'm rather young, I don't pass away for many scores of years. Who's life time are we speaking of?" Falling quiet when he begins to speak again, Suizei arches a brow at the number but stays quiet as the names are offered in part. Shifting his pack back onto his shoulder, he brings his fingers together and soon forms a single seal before opening his hand slowly. Dancing from fingertip to fingertip was electricity but only for fleeting surges that last a few seconds before fading completely.
"Hormones lead to misguided notions of oppression, unrefined energy, alienation, shame and a feeling of being untouchable.." Lifting his hand and extending it, Suizei moves it to the village leader's shoulder and pats it, not even transferring a static shock. Tending his grip, he looks the man in the eye, earnestly when he states "Your village didn't do anything wrong. Children often play with fire and embers without thinking, only stoping once they realize embers are actually rather painful. I won't be able to snap my fingers and make them as they once were but.. I could help them realize what they are actually doing." Looking away from the village leader and towards the other members, Suizei asks "Can anyone itemize for me all the damage they've done? It would be very useful to me."
"Oh…all of the rooms at our local inn are about the same quality, so whichever are free at the time." The leader starts to clarify once he knows which parts Suizei questions about the reward. "And whatever the inn serves for breakfast, lunch, and dinner…there is a menu that you can look over there. I'm afraid I cannot extend the offer to some of the stalls but the quality is still good I assure…as for lifetime, records will be kept here and at the inn that will make sure that the promise is upheld. I would expect for the offer to uphold for at least a decade, if not more." He falls silent after that to listen to Suizei, his posture as well as other people's in the room starting to relax as they are reassured that none of this is from any mistakes that they had inadvertantly made. "If they can realize that, then we are almost vertain that they can be convinced to stop then…if not…"
The leader trails off uncertainly and one of the women in the group turns to shiver and nearly cry against another man's shoulder at the thought of what is about to be spoken of. "Then there is not much we can do to help them and we will either have to ask them to leave or to imprison them for their crimes…" After the request the leader snaps his fingers and an assistant of him comes in with a list that he passes off to Suizei. "As you can see, tampering with live stock, vandalism, theft and robbery, frightening our locals, and threatening assault…thank the Heavens that everyone they've come across has decided to cooperate, so there haven't been any documented injuries yet…but we fear that it is only a matter of time."
"Worth, they lack the knowledge nor can they relate what they are doing to worth. Everything is a game with no true penalty." Turning to look towards the assistant and nods lightly, taking the list before slipping it into his pack, not once looking at it. Shaking his head gently, "Oh no, they will have an injury caused by them. As I said, they will learn that fire is hot once the ember burn their little hands." Lifting his hand up, he extends his pointer finger and nods lightly, "Burn, I will not mar any of your children, I promise this to you. They might become hurt.. but any wound will be treat able." Those looking at Suizei would notice the soft smile that had stayed with him for so long was gone, muted with a more somber tone.
Turning his attention back to the leader, Suizei lowers hand hand and extends it, offering it to the man to shake, confirming the arrangement. If his hand was taken, he wouldn't waste much time as he had yet to earn the room, so he would depart, namely to look through the streets to see what the level of mischief and chaos that was done in the open compared to what was done hidden from the shadows.
"So long as they learn…it is a solution that we can live with." The leader somberly says, shaking Suizei's hand once it is offered to him. "You can usually find them loitering in the inn's storm cellar when they aren't out causing trouble…if they are, you should be able to find their trail easily enough.." With that advice given, the leader walks back over to comfort one of the woman; who bears a likeness to one of the boy's portraits posted on the board. Suizei would get grateful glances once he turns and makes his way out of the door. As he wanders through the villager, he can find that it has been arranged simply. Most of the houses have been arranged in a circle, with a section of it claimed by traders and their inn; as well as some buildings where ale, sake, fabrics, and other supplies for crafting are made. Most of the farms and livestock appear to be kept down the road somewhere else in more rural country. All in all, it adds up to a lot of alleys where anyone and anything could be able to hide and travel through the settlement easily. Speaking of, a cart of fresh fruit topples over from its careful balance and a young female trader shouts out, "H-hey! Come back here!" If Suizei goes over to investigate the source, the distraut trader can only point out where an indistinguishable figure takes a turn down one of the alleys to slip out of view.
Not rushing towards the unknown assailant, Suizei makes his way to the merchant, turning his back to the runner. Kneeling down he soon begins to look over the cart to see how badly it was damaged, "I was told this was a nice village, why does it seem at every turn worthless punks are trying to take over?" is half asked, half murmured. After some effort, he manages to get the cart leveled enough to start loading it once again with the fruits though a few of the ruined ones he left on the ground for last. Looking at how much was bruised beyond being salvageable for the market, Suizei moves a hand deep into his sleeve and pulls out a coin purse to begin haggling to purchase the ruined fruits. In the end, along with the haggling of price, Suizei offers at almost free of charge to act as a guard for the merchant and any 'friends' to keep the punks at bay while he is paid to stay near. That much is said openly, though more details were whispered about how he wasn't actually going to charge them nearly as much as what he more loudly said to lure the thieves out.
"I think it is it's…I just don't know where it went wrong…no matter how any of us talk to them, they just tnever stop." The trader mumbles quite frantically. Upon closer inspection it would seem that the trader would detail that the thief had taken an armful of apples from the stall. She is grateful for Suizei's help, despite looking confused at first over why he doesn't seem to help or give chase to the assailant. One by one each of the varying apples, plums, and peaches are piled back into their respective piles. "I-I think most of them are still okay…" She hazards a guess, though there are one or two that she has to set aside to keep the public from seeing or buying them. Despite at first refusing to take Suizei's money, they eventually reach a compromise that is minimal to Suizei. After accepting it, she beams a bright but tired smile before dipping into a curtsy. She still looks fairly confused, but tries to nod her head along to keep with the act. The figure, though still cloaked by the shadow of the building can be seen in the peripheral of Suizei's vision, eavesdropping on the talk of deals and money being thrown around.
Talking idly with the merchant for a while, Suizei would excuse himself to start looking around the market to 'secure the area' and left her side. Walking around the stalls and carts, he begins to walk down some of the many alley sections between buildings to sniff out barely hidden schemers. Suizei tried to see if he could heart the cumbsily heavy footsteps of the would be thieves as he makes his rounds before mildly voicing his thoughts "I should thank those punks, they are going to be making me lots of Ryo in fake protection. A village of cowards all too happy to give up their coin, ha." Speaking without restraint, Suizei was visibly rather amused at the idea though it did make sure tucked his coin purse back into his sleeve. If he doesn't manage to find anything amiss, nor anything finding him, he would return to the market place and stay in the public eye for a time.
After thanking Suizei once more, the trader is left to try to put on a smile and salvage the appeal of her cart that was just inadvertantly robbed. As Suizei gets closer, the eavesdropper leaves their post to start running away. He's still hard to see, but at least he can still easily hear the patter of the perpetrator's feet. Around the back of the inn, like the village's leader had mentioned, is where they lead. A faint echoing of snickering can be heard, before a large wooden door can be heard closing. Once Suizei turns off at the opening, the clearing is empty. There are some bins where wasted food is being stored and being turned in some sort of compost that likely gets donated to the farming lands and there is a wooden door that leads down to a storm shelter. If Suizei gets closer and tries to listen past the door, there is definitely movement inside and muffled voices talking amongst one another, "Guy is just flaunting it! We should keep an eye on him, and when he's not expecting it, get the jump on him."
Suizei was far from a skilled tracker, though with the poor and untrained movements the teens made it was almost insignificant to follow them at a distance. Once he makes his way to the compost bins, he deposits the ruined and bruised fruits before listening to the shifting of movement just behind the door. Leaning close, his ear hovers near the hinges to listen inside through the cracks. "Heh.." Standing upright again, he brings his knuckles across to knock loudly onto the storm cellar's door once before raising his tone to say, "Squeek squeek, this town's got a mouse problem. I wonder how much they'll pay per tail." Stepping away, Suizei gives room for the door to open but also listens to see if that silences the teens within. If it was the later, he would only wait a minute or two before departing, turning his back to the door and returning to the market place.
The noises inside silence momentarily, before some hushed whispers can be heard as if the people inside were debating something. It is only just as Suizei is about to leave that the storm cellar bursts open and the five teens flood out to try to get Suizei surrounded in a semi circle. "Ah hah, it is you!" The shortest boy of the five says, before pointing at him and tugging on a taller boy's sleeve, "That's the guy flaunting the ryo he's going to get. Let's just beat him down now, I don't even care if he has anything, he's just been a pain."
The shortest boy has a shaved head and looks a little gangly like there isn't muscle on him. The tallest boy has longer brown hair and looks like he's seen some hard work or at least maintains his shape. The last boy is a bit portly, while the girls look similarly untoned and scrawny, carrying an inexperienced demeanor with some childish features on their faces still struggling to stay strong despite adolesence starting to affect them.
They are all dressed in darker tunics that look to have been purposefully stained that way by someone who didn't know entirely what they were doing. The leader lowers his head and shakes his head, "For once I think you're right, Twigs…you." He lifts his head to look at Suizei directly, "What are you doing on our turf, don't you know talk like that will get you hurt?" As he says this, he brings his hands up to crack his knuckles audibly.
Turning around, Suizei looks at the gathering and doesn't fight to try and keep from being surrounded. Turning his gaze to the short one, a smirk appears on his lips, lifting a hand he waves it side to side as if banishing a foul and sour smell. "Twig? Sounds proper for a runt like you though.." Turning his head towards the tallest of the teens, he looks him over slightly only to try and fight himself from chuckling. "The thickest and tallest is the leader. Looking at you though, compared to me? I think you should be calling me boss now little boy. I'm taller, more thickened than you too."
Turning away from the leader for a moment, he tries to mentally match each face to the sketches that he was shown of the five to see if they gained any additional members without the village leader knowing. "As for getting hurt.." Using his right hand, Suizei brings it up and twists it to a half seal once, then a second time before aiming towards the leader's head. Using a faint amount of chakra, a erratic bolt of lightning arcs from his finger and towards the tallest's teen's mouth. "..You should watch your mouth. You shouldn't talk to your boss like that" is said not so much in a threatening tone, but a belittling one as he tries to see how resolute the leader or the rest of the 'gang' was towards even basic Ninjutsu displays.
"H-HEY!" The youngest boy yelps out, narrowing his eyes over at Suizei, "You can't call me that, why we oughtta…" The leader extends his arm out to 'Twigs' to call for a silence despite glaring at Suizei too, "You might be taller, but I still think that I could take you…" The other three stay quiet, but the portly boy starts to bring out a board that they've covered with nails haphazardly. The girls fold their arms over their chest and twist their lips, though the shorter one does seem to watch Suizei with a fascinated expression that she tries to keep hidden. All of the teens jump backwards when Suizei shows off his basic lightning prowess, and though the leader looks shaken momentarily he steels his feature. "Twigs, Chunk, follow my lead." After reaching down, the leader retrieves what looks like a homemade knife and twigs just gets what looks to be a mallet meant for crafting use and not actual use in combat. The leader tries to jump forward and jab at Suizei, while Chunk tries to slam the board around Suizei's legs and knees. Twigs hangs back and actually looks nervous just like how the girls start to step back when it looks like there's going to definitely be some physical conflict.
Stepping backwards suddenly, Suizei manages to stay a few centimeters out of leader's thrust but then stumbles, slowing him down. Chunk manages to use that stalled time to strike him in the knee.. only for him to partially explode with a messy sound and a rancid scent. Suizei had replaced himself with a clone which wrapped around several large pieces of half rotten vegetable stock from the compost bin. The man himself was now behind thee assaulting pair, soon resting his hands onto the back of the girl's heads lightly. "These are the ones you're following? Are you sure you don't want better boss than a punk and a lackie?" He was careful, standing defensive even though they were behind him, anticipating one of them to try and stab him at any moment. Turning to look towards the back of Twig's head, he speaks up some to ask "Wouldn't you like actual food and not just the scraps he lets you have? You might hit a growth spurt then. Could end up matching at least Chunk, maybe even 'leader' himself."
"Ugh!" Chunk yells out, dropping his nailed board to instinctively reach up and cover his nose, "That wasn't there before!" The leader snarls quietly, and looks around until he sees Suizei. The girls jolt in surprise from Suizei's presence and though one tries to withdraw a glass shard with a simple cloth hilt, it shakes in her hand like she doesn't want to use it. The other just steps back and watches Suizei with quiet awe, "We're all family, and we work together to feel safe -and- in charge…" The girl with the glass shard explains to him, and Twigs hop into the fray swinging as he shouts too, "We…share…everything…equally! I can't help that I grow slower than them and you don't get to make fun of me for it!" The leader continues to watch from afar, knowing that it's too crowded to leap in swinging like Twigs did, and Chunks is still trying not to get sick as he musters up the resolve to try to awkwardly pick up his compose covered board once more.
"Are you sure? Are you trying to tell me that I magically moved from over there to over here? I'm standing with the young ladies that are smart enough to not attack." Looking from the girls as one talks but soon he skips backwards, shifting his pack in the way, letting Twigs punch it rather than punch Suizei in the flurry of swings. "Not much of a family from what I heard. A group that threw away their families to start a gang. A gang that doesn't know what it means to be a gang." Stopping his back peddling, he thrusts his pack forward, trying to move past Twings' last punch to thug the pack against the boy's forehead. "Half of you don't want to do this, the you're just following the big guy because he says to. If you actually were a family, you'd take care of each other, not live like mice. Then again.." A smirk appears on his lips as Suizei uses his left hand to form the same seals as before but this time points towards Twigs, taking aim at his left knee before giving it a jolt. "..they paid me to be an exterminator."
"You…you did -something-." Chunk decides, despite sounding like he's at a loss for how Suizei did that exacly. The girl still yelps as he starts to hop away and they have to scramble backwards to avoid Twig's mallet, "What where you're swinging that!" The awe-struck girl yelps over at Twig, who mumbles out a hurried apology before he goes back to trying to chase Suizei down. Now that Suizei is out away from the rest of his gang, the leader runs back in and attempts to clock his elbow against Suizei's chin, before trying to swing a punch at Suizei's jaw. "T-they didn't understand." The girl holding the glass says, before Chunk agrees, "Yeah, they wanted us to get jobs we didn't want, and they were just going to push us into the lives they wanted that they were stuck in! We aren't going to put up with it, so we're deciding what we want to do and we're sticking together. We just have to get enough money to move out of here and make a name for ourselves somewhere else." When the spark hits Twig's knee he cries out audibly and falls over on his side to cling to his knee, making everyone freeze as the fighting brakes to an immediate standstill. If Suizei doesn't try anything else, the other four attempt to head over to Twig to check on him. The leader grunts and tries to get Twig to roll up his pants leg, "Come on, let me see…that isn't too bad. You gotta shake it off like I taught you."
Evasion seems to be what Suizei was skilled at though the sudden elbow strike his his.. slimy jaw. The leader would learn first hand what Chunk did as what he hits partially explodes, in the end looking like it had been a tomato maybe two weeks ago, more compost. "Oh yes, so cruel of them to make you want to pay for your living. Unlike now, where you cost them money when you steal, cost them money when you ruin their livestocks and ruin THIER jobs." With the assault coming to an end because of Twigs, Suizei brings his hands to his pack, opening it and using his right hand to reach in, grasping the scabbard hidden within. "Yes, having them pool their reduced money to hire me to bring a stop to you. When you all move to another city, I wonder.. will they care of I end your terror by crippling you all?" Tossing his pack to the side of the alleyway, he holds the scabbard in his left hand, the sword still sheathed for the time being. "I'm not sure why they were still crying over the idea I might hurt you when you don't care about them though."
"They didn't even try to learn what we want to do." Chunk grumbles as he sits by Twig and the girls give him a hug as he starts to sniffle a little. "Thought it'd be payback if they saw what it was like to get their lives messed with, with nothing they can do about it…but we gotta eat too…at least they're not paying to feed us and we're taking care of it." The leader narrows his eyes at Suizei when he starts to reach for a scabbard and he stands up from his guidance to stand between Suizei and the four as they try to sit together. "They want us gone so bad, we're working on it. But you aren't getting to them without getting through me." The leader does frown briefly and Suizei has the group's attention when he mentions the crying, "Nuuh…they weren't really crying, were they?.." Twigs asks as he struggles to not cry and hide his sniffling.
"If they wished for me to kill you," Moving his right hand to his water skin, Suizei take a slow drink from it but then swells his cheeks with water before lowering it. Tilting his head back, he spits it high into the air while his hands come together, still holding his scabbard with two fingers. "I could have done so.." The leader before the others would realize not a single drop of water fell back down, looking up, the water had gather together in a series of bolt like daggers, numbering almost a dozen. "I have been paid to do so before, but they only hired me to help you realize what you are doing. You say they don't pay for what you do, what you eat.. who do you think pays off the merchants for their losses? Who do you think is protecting you from them hiring someone like me to make you all 'disappear'?" Extending out his right hand towards the leader, he offers his hand to the boy. "You are the leader, tell me.. when did you last -speak- to them, negotiate different jobs to help pay your way in this village? Or did you never try and thought you could just bully them into permitting every whim you have and act on?"
The leader rolls his eyes a bit and eventually all of them look up at the gathered daggers. "What's your problem?!" One of the girls snap at Suizei, frowning as she hugs Twigs a little tighter, "We aren't even fighting with you right now you psycho, why do you have to insist that you can kill us…if anybody's bullying anybody, it's you." The leader looks back over and gently straightens an arm and gestures with his hand to call for a silence. He huffs and shakes his head before folding his arms over his chest, "We don't ask for them to do any of that, that's their own fault…we're trying to not burden them anymore." When the question is asked, the leader frowns to himself and shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know…guess a long time…whenever they talk they just have this way of sounding like their hopes are so high, so just…easier to run away than to try to make them see we aren't what they thought that we were…but we don't bully them for that. We just want our own space, we're getting ready to be on our own…last thing we need is for someone to want to turn us in thinking they can be some hero over a bunch of thieves."
"Why? Because if they didn't care -this- is what they would of hired me to do. Did that not yet sink into your heads?" Closing his eyes and letting out a slow and steady sigh, the bladed water separates and falls to the ground, splashing but staying still, normal water. Focusing onto the leader again, Suizei nods his hand lightly and draws back his hand, bringing it to rest on his hip. "You didn't ask, yet they protect you again.. and again. Did you really thing I was the 'first' that came offering to 'take care' of their little gang problem?" Turning and looking towards the market place at first, he then turns to motion with his head towards the village meeting hall. "So you in truth have never talked it out with them, too hard to do it and find it easier to cause chaos and run away without actually explaining yourselves." At the mention of 'getting ready' Suizei turns towards the boy scoffing, "You are planning to run away, with no skills, stolen supplies, no connections and no real plan either.. Most of all, noone to protect you like they are now. Convince me of a plan of surviving and earning money then I can help you leave, if you can't then you will come with me and kneel asking forgiveness to the village chief."
The teenagers just sulk amongst themselves as they listen to Suizei quietly and let the water splash around them. The leader does sneak a side glance, before he shrugs a little and looks away, "…Maybe I did. Didn't really hear or see anyone else wanting to help them…just saw the fliers they had posted." When he does peek at Suizei again, his eyes follow Suizei's gesturing hand over to the meeting hall. The mention of no skills does ruffle the leader's feathers a little and he tries to defend them, "Hey, we have the skills to get these supplies at all, that's something. And some of us got some really good heads on their shoulders. Smartest I've seen yet at least…" He trails off and tries to formulate a plan, looking back at the four huddled in his shadow, "Well…we were going to follow the road. See what other village it brings us to. Genmei was wanting to find an instrument of some sort, maybe to play…Chunk's good at telling stories, andd Twig's good with fabric…we could…I dunno, kill some animals and skin them, see if he could put together some stuff we can sell…Gem's good at cooking…we'd figure something out, and I would do what it took to make sure they found something to make themselves happy."
Nodding lightly a few times but then, Suizei slowly shakes his head. "So.. you all wish to become professional beggars and thieves? Living off scraps with put together clothes from what game you hope to catch.." Shaking his head, Suizei begins to walk forward then off to the side, fetching his pack but keeping his scabbard in his left hand. "All of you, come with me.. you failed to offer a plan of your own making that doesn't make you as urchins. Seeing as you fear talking to the village leaders, I'll be your negotiators. You already have told me the roles you wish you to have." Rather than asking, Suizei spoke firmly as if they had already agreed to it and proceeds to walk out of the alley. "Come on, we don't have all day, if things continue as is, you'll have to deal with me 'everyday' until you meet with them. Anyways if you ran, they would be worried and hire me to find you and return each one of you home."
"Weren't you listening? It'd…it'd just be for a little while, before they figured out what to do…" The leader of the gang starts to insist, despite watching Suizei turn and try to beckon them along. His kips twist into a frown and he looks down at the four. The threat seems to erase the hesitations lingering on the leader's mind and he lets out an audibly frustrated sigh, "You really won't, huh?…Fine. If it'll get you and your…weird talents off of our backs." He walks over and helps Twigs to his feet, that has completely recovered from the supervicial zap that scared him so. The others rise up and look to the leader for reassurance. He places his hand on one of the girl's shoulders and nods, before they all turn to follow him. Once they arrive, Suizei is able to help the teens communicate their wishes and they gather their parents as well to actively work on a compromise. In the end, it ends up with a lot of happy tears being shed as families are reunited and they appear to be stronger for the experience. As for Suizei, the village made sure to make good on their reward promised and a contract is drawn up that guarantees Suizei a constantly free place at the inn along with free meals there. A copy is drafted for both the council and the inn owners, so some longetivity in the offer is assured. Suizei is free to either stay for a night, enjoy a meal, or be on his way now that a good deed is done.
