Graffiti Delinquents (Mission)

Mission Details:

There was a problem that most shop owners were starting to face in the market, and that problem is their shops getting constantly graffiti'd at night. They usually were used to this as every now and then, they knew to expect someone vandalising their store but this was becoming more consistent to the point that shop owners who were previously at competition with each other in terms of business agreed to put their petty differences aside and get a mission up and running for a shinobi to resolve this issue. Kaji wasn't of the same mind on that front and instead he wanted to end this business of grafitti by himself, but he decided it'd be best to stay put until this shinobi would come along.

He predicted this would especially be a day where his shop isn't that booming with business and as per his prediction with a few hours in the morning towards the afternoon, his prediction was correct, not a single customer. He was hoping on that for today so he could actually close it up, but he would keep it running until whoever the assigned shinobi is would run along and investigate this issue with whoever they are, if they didn't want his help then he would simply solve it in his own way, with or without them.

Ann yawned as she strolled around the market place at sunset. She had been assigned a mission during the night and that meant she had spent most of her day sleeping at home. It had really been a lazy day and she was still drowsy from laying on the couch reading all day. She found it more comfortable at home- the world inside her small apartment was easier to understand than the huge world outside. But alas, she had to eat and that meant coming outside and actually working. Plus Kirigaure had been gracious enough to accept her as a shinobi despite not knowing about her origins, and so Ann felt she was honor bound to help however she could.

This time she'd been hired to beat up some delinquents. This was her kind of mission! She enjoyed punching things. The only problem was if her body decided to act up and prevent her from doing her job properly. But she decided she wouldn't think too much about that issue and deal with it when, and if, it ever came.

She found herself outside Tetsu's armory, not noticing the shop's name. She was clad in samurai armor, her usual combat attire. This armor was outdated and probably not very effective but it had been a gift from the Samurai Temple where she lived most of her young years and so she held it dear.

As soon as Kaji could see the ninja outside from his shop, he started to close it up as he already packed away a few things in preparation, making it easier and waved towards her as he started to exit his shop, closing it behind him and locking the door. He made it very visibly clear that he wanted to talk with her and walked up to her to do so, eyeing her appearance as he went over, taking note of the rather... odd armour but he wasn't one to judge ninja's for what they wore, whatever worked for them.

"You're the kunoichi that's looking into this mission? about damn time." he stated, indicating that he's been waiting for a ninja to come along. "My store, Tetsu Armoury has been graffiti'd several times now, I've given up on trying to remove it until this matter is resolved. You can take a look at the side of the store if you're interested, that's where it was vandalised. I honestly want to wrap this up sooner then later so I want to come along with you to investigate this matter." there are a few reasons for this, it wasn't good business for him or any shop owner affected that the perpetrator keeps doing this without consequence and believes his knowledge of the market could come in handy, and on a more so personal reason is to get out of the store for a while.

Ann was alerted to a rough voice coming from her left. It seemed like someone was speaking to her. She turned her head to find a man rambling about how she was late for the mission. Ann raised an eyebrow at him. She looked at dusk now forming in the horizon and then back at him. "Oye, judging by the sun's position we mustn't be long past the 18th hour. I'd not say I'm late." She replied but the man kept on rambling. Well, it wasn't truly rambling, if we're being fair. The man had his shop vandalized and Ann could certainly understand his frustration. The name of his shop piqued her interest. "Tetsu Armory? That's a rather curious name to adopt, considering the Tetsudashi Clan hails from the Land of Earth. Are you then selling Tetsudashi steel tools?" Ann was eager to listen to his answer, but she was also here to do a job and so she turned and walked around the corner where the graffiti had been painted.

It seemed like this man wanted to accompany her and that she wouldn't be getting rid of him that easily. Alas, Ann didn't mind the company. She took a look at the graffiti on the wall. "I'll say, that's s'me really shitty art yer have in Kee-rrigawkure. " She pressed a hardened finger against the paint and ran it across the wall, surprisingly slashing a cut on the graffiti as sparks erupted from the contact point. Then she licked the finger. "Tzeh paint is of prrime quality tho. Much better than what we had."

The way she spoke had thrown Kaji a bit off-guard, he found that some of the more formidable ninja were rather odd in their own ways, but he didn't think he would meet one who had such a peculiar way of speaking, it sounded like a drunk person trying to sound all fancy and they just barely nail it. He wouldn't pick on her for that though, as long as he could understand her, that's what he cared about. When the question came about the store's name, he was a bit hesitant at first and simply dodged it as if the question was never asked. He half-expected her to ask about his brother in law, Ken.

He visibly cringed when he saw her eat that paint, only imagining what it would taste like. "I... wouldn't... nevermind." he would ignore it for now, but aside from that odd display and the drunken-like speech... she didn't seem so bad. He decided to answer her last question about the store, hoping she wouldn't ask about the Walking Death. "I'm actually apart of the Tetsudashi family, not by blood but they took me in when I was young. They were close friends with my father who passed away a few years back. He owned the store and it was passed down to me basically." he wouldn't say anymore just yet, he wanted to get her initial reaction to it and figure out her curiosity on his connection to the Tetsudashi.

Ann patiently listened to what the man had to say. She wanted information on the Tetsudashi and as far as she knew the best way to get that was to find a Tetsudashi and allow him or her to speak to their heart's contempt. Once he was done explaining, Ann would ask the obvious question. Since Kaji hadn't answered her question regarding Tetsudashi steel tools, Ann assumed he couldn't craft them. "What kind'o'blacksmith wears the Tetsudashi name but doesn't work with Tetsudashi steel?" In her father's clan the work of metals was a sacred tradition. One had to learn how to bend every metal from the most basic one to the more complex alloys. This was important so that they'd better understand how to bend their steel. This of course resulted in entire generations of famous and genius blacksmiths and metal workers who were well known for 1 thing: Because of the infamous Tetsudashi Steel equipment. Light, yet durable. Nigh indestructible if tempered properly. This is why Ann expected a blacksmith wearing such a name to work wonders with hat kind of steel. "o'course the kids'll make fun of you... But no worries, I'll help gettem. Where would you mount a stake out around here?"

That comment pissed him off quite a bit, he was visibly agitated at it and would be snarky about it right back at her. "Like I said, I'm Tetsudashi by name, not blood so I don't have access to that metal and secondly, becoming a master smith is not that different from becoming a master ninja, you don't learn everything on day one. It takes months, years of practice. I bet even now, you have a few weaknesses as a ninja that you haven't cut out yet, hmm?" he was satisfied with that response, and wouldn't carry it any further on her and focused back on the task on hand.


"Even though they did this last night, they take turns on certain nights targeting one establishment after another so it's not guaranteed they'll go for Tetsu Armoury again, I'm thinking if we can figure out a pattern and get information from other shop owners, we can make a good stake out on the next shop they'll possibly vandalise."  just his own suggestion on the matter, she's the one taking on the mission and her word is something he'll have to follow if he's tagging along, but his suggestion is what he believes to be the best way to handle this.

"Becoming a master smith is not that different from becoming a master ninja? Hmmm..." Ann gave it some thought. To the members of the Tetsudashi Clan, becoming a master smith and becoming a ninja was damn near the same. The Tetsudashi of old wore the tools they made to battle. The best crafter had the best weapons and natural selection dictated that only the best of the best survived. Perhaps it was a tradition built in the clan's own blood but the result from those events was that the Tetsudashi had honed their skill to Steel to a masterful point. "Don't know what y'talking about. I'm pretty much invincible. In fa-"-*splat blood dripped from her mouth which she spat towards the ground. Her complexion quickly grew paler. Her body was still recovering from the deep freeze it went through.

Regardless, she'd raise an arm and flex her muscle. Due to her condition, however, the arm kept trembling. "Damn near invincible, I'd say." She seemed relieved as she finally lowered her arm and considered the man's suggestions. "Hey those aren't bad suggestions old man!" the 521-year-old told the several centuries younger crafter. "Y'know who else was vandalised by these bastards?"

There wasn't a lot that tend to piss off Kaji, but all those subtle comments she's sneaking in is starting to get on his nerves. There were a lot of people he expected this sort of talk from, but not from a trained ninja. He noticed that the higher ranked the ninja is, the more weird they seemed to be but this is just something else. "I'm 21... I'm not that old." he didn't know whether it was compliment or not that he looked older then he should've been, maybe he grew up a bit too fast... regardless, he'd ignore it and actually focus on the task at hand, he didn't comment or react much to her spitting out blood, he had almost went in to aid her but she picked herself up soon enough and even tried to put it off as nothing. He could only assume that wasn't the first time and from what she did just then, she's trying to push through it.

"About two businesses close to here, a restaurant which... in my personal opinion, deserves it. The shit they cook makes you want to never eat food again, at least that's how I felt when I tried one of their meals. I'm surprised they're not shut down at this point... what else..." he thought about all the close by stores, just singling them out in his mind. "Right, the general store. I heard the owner is a bit of a pervert, so look out for that if we go there but I don't think that would be the reason for his store getting vandalised, or any of our stores for any reason really. It's just been random." with the two targets in mind, they could go to investigate and she could pick which one to go for first.

"21? Well you're still older than-" she interrupted herself. This wasn't quite true. Ann was frozen at the sweet age of 17, and defrosted 500 years later. So while she felt and acted like a 17-year-old who walked the earth 500 years ago, she wasn't 17 years old. She was 521. It was hard to get used to that idea. Not just that, she was old without the wisdom that regularly comes with age. In fact everyone in this time and era seemed to be so much smarter and know so much more about the world than her, and that was pretty hard to deal with. Ann sighed, listening to the two suggestions Kaji had given.

"Well it ain't quite dinner time yet. And I dun feel like visiting a shitty restaurant just now, t'be honest. Let's go see this purv-herbert store. That's a really weird name by the way. And how does that work? I mean how does a store sell generals?" Ann began walking, assuming Kaji would lead the way towards this "general store". "And do they keep'em in fridges? Can we fight them or are they just strategists? Hmm...Maybe I'll buy one. I'd certainly like to duel a general!"

Kaji couldn't tell if she was joking or not, he had the feeling something was odd about her from the get go but she couldn't be serious about thinking that the store sells "generals" as in, people of that rank. "... Are you for real?" he just outright asked her, refusing to believe at first that she really had no idea what a general store is... and she's supposed to stake out the people who vandalised the shops by herself? yeah, no, she definitely needs Kaji's help after hearing that. Kaji started to lead the way to the general store, during the time they would take to get there, Kaji felt obligated to describe what a general store is.

"As in general, like it sells a broad range of items like food, drink to supplies, weapons and so on, where it doesn't specialise in one type of shop like a restaurant or a weapon shop like mine, think of it as like... a shop that sells everything." he was going to say a shop that's like a jack of all trades, but he had the feeling she wouldn't understand what that meant either. He's suddenly glad that he came along now, he's pretty sure that when it comes to battle, she can be quite strong since she is a ninja but she's not exactly hitting him as the brightest tool in the shed.

"Aye, I am real. But why do ye ask? Should I be concerned with yer mental health?" Ann raised an eyebrow when the man asked her whether or not she was "For real". All of her questions were quite legitimate, she couldn't see why else he'd ask her that other than him being under the effect of some sort of drug. The Yuki didn't do anything immediately tho, she just let him keep talking until her mistake was cleared up. She suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

"Oh...well, that's disappointing." she would say, almost feeling sad. "I was really looking forward to fighting generals. Wouldn't a shop that sells everything also sell generals? Tee hee" she chuckled as the two of them kept walking. Kirigakure no Sato's market district was rather large and with many parallel streets. It was fairly easy to get lost in there, and in more than one occasion Ann had found something she wanted to buy at a store only to discover she couldn't quite find the store again. The place was almost magical to her. Luckily Kaji was bound to know the district pretty well since he, uh, had a shop here. She'd follow him until they found this perv's shop.

The irony of that statement... so he could only make the assumption for now that he's dealing with an idiot, great, the last sort of person he expected to deal with is the ninja assigned to this mission, when they finally got into the main square of the district it was lively with crowds running through, if one didn't know their way around here they would've gotten lost very easily but Kaji has been around this district for years, he practically knew the place like the back of his hand. Although the crowd was relentless a few times, not giving him enough space to get through certain spaces and whatnot, it took a few good minutes until they finally arrived at the general store which thankfully wasn't that populated.

As soon as Kaji entered, the owner's eyes instantly looked up at Kaji with a bit of disappointment. "Oh, it's you again... going to criticize the state of my wares again asshol-" but he stopped his sentence as soon as Ann got in, the owner's eyes suddenly lighting up and a bit of a whistle came out of the man when he took in her appearance. "And hello there missy, looks like you came through for me Kaji... I might forgive you now-" Kaji stopped him midway, "I'm not here for that you idiot, she's the ninja investigating the person who keeps vandalising our stores, though she might not get everything when you explain it to her... she's a bit simple-minded." he knew she's right there, but he decided to be blunt about it.

Ann followed Kaji through the market district. The place was utterly fascinating to her- there were so many people walking around, going from shop to shop to buy all sorts of items. There were food stands yelling out to try to draw in clients, selling many kinds of different foods. The scents around the market were also something else. Ann could smell not just various types of food, but other items like incenses, powders, and oils. Even the people smelled funny here, one would never know what scent to expect from a foreign looking merchant passing next to them on the street. Plus the languages...all sorts of weird languages with the strangest accents were spoken at the market district- most even stranger than Ann's own poor attempt at the local dialect.

She followed him into a store. At first, the man behind the counter seemed to be angry at Kaji- possibly because he'd done something to him. But when he gazed upon Ann, a smile appeared on his face and he whistled. Ann glanced at Kaji- she didn't know what this meant. He didn't seem to notice her tho, as he kept on speaking and - *THUMP* a dry but harsh impact was felt to Kaji's left. Ann was on his right. Should one look in the direction of the impact, they would find a solid white steel kunai stuck to a wall, seemingly having come out of nowhere. Ann had thrown it, creating it out of Tetsudashi Steel in an instant. She'd missed Kaji's head by mere inches. "Watch it. I quartered the last man who insulted me into tiny, tiny pieces." Her tone had changed.

You see, Ann had been raised and trained by samurai. Not just samurai, but samurai who had lived 500 years ago. In a time with no hidden villages nor largely organized governments, honor was a very important thing to these people and, in extension, to Ann. To slander one's name was a serious offense, worthy of being cleansed by combat. Reputation was everything.

"Now will you please tell me what you know about the graffiti delinquents who vandalized your store?" Her tone was back to normal, and she was smiling at the man. She'd found a weak spot in him and she would explore it.

Kaji had gotten a bit used to his simple-mindedness that he had forgotten that she is still a capable shinobi, he probably deserved that threat with the way he did indeed badmouth her, usually on a better day he wouldn't say something so confidently, especially in-front of the person he's talking about badly but this whole vandalising business plus dealing with her so far has taken a bit of strain on him, but it was wrong of him to try and vent it out in that sense. Regardless, he learned his lesson and focused back on what the owner was trying to say, who seemed a bit intimidated by the display as well by her.


"Okay... I can deal with an airhead, but not one that's crazy." the owner commented, moving on to answer the question given to him. "Right, can't say I know much about the person who's vandalising our stores but some of the graffiti is a bit... personal, some of it has a bit of adult material that's making a jab at me, since I have a bit of an infamous rep for being uh... indecent. That's all I can really say about the graffiti on my store." Kaji nodded to him, giving a wave of goodbye to him. "Thanks for your time." and with that Kaji exited the store expecting Ann to tag along.

Once they were outside, Kaji would give his thoughts on what they heard. "So I'm guessing it's a personal attack, the owner has a bit of a reputation but not that huge, it's more so on the level of gossip that's passed around the establishments, meaning the person who are vandalising these stores has some sort of connection to one of the nearby stores... hmm... nevermind, it's too early to draw a conclusion. We should go to the restaurant now, see what they have to say."

Ann listened to the man's explanation but frankly she wasn't all that satisfied with it. Shje felt like they hadn't learned anything new or of extreme importance...well, at least Kaji seemed to have learned the boundaries of his mockery. Ann decided to play it off like it hadn't ever happened- she wasn't a strange to forgiveness and men in her time used to see how far they could push their boundaries all the time. She guessed it wasn't much different nowadays. It was just something they seemed to do once they found out she could fight.

Of course Kaji was doing it for entirely different reasons. It wasn't because she was a woman or because he doubted her ability to fight. Rather he doubted her ability to reason and that was to be expected considering Ann was still adapting to this new and incredibly strange world. She couldn't really blame him for doing that, but she couldn't allow him to step over the line either. Alas their relationship was going to be a difficult, but perhaps interesting one.

"Well we learned the bastards know his reputation at least. But that still doesn't help too much...hm..." she pondered for a bit while Kaji suggested they headed for the restaurant. She wasn't too hopeful for good information there, but was the next logical step in this investigation. "Yeah we might'swell go there. The simplest solution would be a stake out at night in the market district, but we still have some time of the day left until such hours. Might as well make use of that time. Is the restaurant any good?" She would ask, wondering whether she could have dinner there.

Kaji would at least hold onto that little theory of his, since now that he thought about it, these attacks of vandalism are oddly coordinated, he just considered it coincidence as the owners of these establishments had something going on or had to leave their business for a bit just to come back to their establishments in graffiti, he would've considered it as coincidence if it only happened once, but most of the cases happened when the owners of the respective stores wasn't around, which could help towards his theory that it is indeed someone who's in the establishment business themselves.

Regardless, it's still just a theory and he's hoping that it can be more solid with their investigation of the restaurant, to which Kaji started to walk towards, expecting Ann to come along. "The food there is terrible, like I mentioned earlier I went there once and it almost ruined any appetite I had for good cuisine ever again... ah, good food I mean. We can go to a different restaurant if you'd like, but I really wouldn't recommend this one to eat at." just thinking about it now, he still cringed back to the meal that he ate at the very same restaurant.

They had finally made it, with the receptionist holding them back. Before he could even have a chance to speak, Kaji went first. "Were here investigating the vandalism crime, this is the ninja investigating the case." he motioned towards Ann as he said that last bit. "Let us through." and with that, the receptionist let them through and when they entered the restaurant, they had very few people at the tables, it was mostly empty. "Told ya." Kaji says.

"Oh yeah..." Ann commented as the memory of Kaji commenting on the shitty quality of the restaurant earlier that day came to her mind. She was a bit hungry so the idea of a restaurant- any restaurant really, appealed to her. Alas, as she entered the building she immediately changed her mind. Not only were only a few costumers at the tables, they all looked awful and shady. There was a weird scent in the air as well, not something Ann would call the scent of delicious food, but a rather putrid smell in the air.

Kaji took the lead after the receptionist and as they entered the actual restaurant Ann moved towards the counter. "Hmm, excuse me..." she would ask the waiter who was turned towards a small window which connected the dining room to the kitchens. He was scribbling something on a piece of paper, with his back turned towards Ann.  He seemed very busy but Ann couldn't quite tell with what since the restaurant was do damn empty. He ignored her. "Heyooo, I'm the ninja sent here to help with the graffiti issue." still nothing. He kept on scribbling. Then someone said something from inside the kitchen, to which he replied with a sort of grumble. So the man wasn't deaf. This pissed off our little Ann.

*CRASH*

The counter came down with an impact as Ann landed a single punch on it. She was hungry, she was getting tired, she was getting pissed. "Knock. Fucking. Knock. Anyone home?" she glared at the waiter's eyes as he immediately turned towards her.

He decided to end his part of the investigation there, leaving it to Ann to solve. He'd trust her judgement to handle the rest of this mission.

(Exit)

She was relieved that Kaishi had let her do her job. It wasn't really that hard to persuade this shop's owner to tell her what he knew. And from there on she initiated an investigation which led her around the entire market district of Kirigakure no Sato. Interrogating people, sweet talking her and intimidating there, Ann played the game of influences until she found the information she had been looking for.

From that point on, it was only a matter of tracking down the delinquents to their home. They turned out to be small teenage kids, so instead of beating the crap out of them Ann found herself in the awkward situation of needing to have a serious but strange conversation with their mothers one-by-one. Ann's disciplinary methods were ancient and perhaps outdated, so she couldn't understand why the children's mothers looked at herin a strange manner when she suggested the kids be beaten for punishment. Alas, she ended up confirming what she already knew: a lot had changed in the past 200 years, and that included the way kids were raised and punished.

In the end she gave up on trying to enforce her methods and simply went home with the mission accomplished.

[Exit]