Mission name: Verdant Vistas, pt IV - Nocturn
Mission rank: C
Objective: An artist has requested you to be his bodyguard during his search for a muse.
Location: Any non-Village
Reward: 300 Ryo for 1500 wc (+ 25 for 100 wc, up to max of +300 ryo for +1200 wc)

Mission Description:  An artist is in need of a new muse and has requested you to guard him on his journey through the nature's untamed environments. The artist admits to have little knowledge of wildlife or survival, hoping you'll be the guiding hand during this journey.

In part IV, the time span is at night. Light and visibility are poor, exhaustion is creeping in. You two are well on your way towards home, when suddenly... a wild bandit appears! He's been shadowing the two of you the whole afternoon and has it for the beautiful art your protegee has been creating, believing that collectors will pay well for his trouble.

Your fight with the bandit at night begins...

Mission Details:
Name: Machi
Age: Between 27 yrs
General Appearance: Simply dressed, with a splash of creativity in the clothes - style and paint marks alike.
Personality: First and foremost, the person is a creative person with a knack for artistry: sketching, drawing or painting. So absorbed in his desire to find a new muse, the artist is a bit of air-head, lacking most sense of danger and any sort of general knowledge of survival in wildlife. The rest is up to the undertaker's choice.
Goals: Finding a new Muse for artwork
Abilities: "Super Beast Imitating Drawing". The artist is able to bring back to life simple drawings (twice a mission) as assistance. While offering great versatility in utility, any one hit is enough to disperse the technique. The artist offers no offensive power.
Items: Any utensils required to sketch, draw or paint.

The trek through the swamps was exhaustive. The sounds of daylight predators had made place for the nightly serenade of croaking frogs, grasshoppers, glowing fireflies, and the ever present mosquitoes which have were a plague to bear no matter the time of day. Most animals had gone to rest now, but that didn't mean the dangers were gone just yet. Nocturnal hunters had taken their place and some plants remained a threat even during the nocturnal cycle.

After a whole day of travel, exhaustion was creeping in. The night allowed little light other than that of the fireflies and the lantern of the artist, making it even harder to find back a proper path. Even if the little bit of light did little for a human's eyes, trained shinobi such as Verdandi and Haka had a generally sharper eye sight than that of a commoner and could thus make the best even with the low light that was being offered - even if it was but lightly. The group had ventured far in the swamps, making the road back feel even further as tired feet moved one before the other in a quiet march.

Haka wanted to crawl into a little ball somewhere. The day's activity weighted heavily on her in various ways. She had found the human exhaustive and taxing on her patience, Verdandi being about the only reason why the man had not been drowned or eaten yet. But even the long stroll through the swamps was testing her focus. Consistent alertness, tested reflexes, focused perceptions. All of this to spot dangers and keep this lowly human safe in hopes to figure out what art was about. Unfortunately, she had yet to grasp the concept of art. So far, all he had done was sketch things that could be found on a daily base in the swamp. Images that he, probably, didn't see as he locked himself up in his atelier. As far as Haka had come to understand, this man's life consisted out of staying inside and shaping clay in the shape of something he could see on a daily occasion if he just would leave the safety of the village. Confusing.

But it had to be said. His art was different from Verdandi's, who was of a mind her weapons were an art form of their own. And yet the spider-nin found it strange to admit to herself she understood Verdandi's form of art more than the art of sketching and clay sculpting. Her weapons served a purpose. Fight, hunt, defend. Weapons offered a purpose and usefulness to the human society that she could not find back in clay. Clay was just a sort of earth, usually turned to pots of all kind. Stranger was that this man had spoken how visitors had come to love his creations. Did that mean there were more humans out there that liked the construction of clay fabrications that took the image of things that could be seen on a daily base outside the city? Art really was something strange, wasn't it?

---

520

At last, after all the sweat and annoyance they had gone through. Verdandi would set up camp, tent and a fire. Placing some stones in a circle, adding small amounts of easily burnable wood on the lower layer. Adding moderate thick ones on top and keeping a few bigger logs ready to add them once the fire would be working well. Haka's katon element might be of use if they had troubles starting the fire. Verd would use her new sword, Wyrm's tooth, ability and turn it into a saw to idly and casually cut the logs into shape with it. The blade would have to be properly cleaned off the trees resin. She didn't want to tarnish her new weapon with tree fluids that could potentially make its mechanism stuck.

The tent was ready and for once Verd wasn’t surprised that Machi was exhausted and went forth to sleep ahead. It would finally get silent. He was a talker. Verd certainly had chatty moments but tended to be more of a no-speak, more-action kind of person. Was however completely capable of getting all chatty sometimes. While Haka was recovering from her own exhaustion near the fire. The two of them would share some hare-meat from a simple hare that Verd had cut down nearby the new camp. With deep respect towards the creature, Dandi would perform the hunters rituals while Haka would watch. Having cut the hare exactly at it’s heart for instant kill and no suffering. She used her dagger to slit the belly open. Removing the organs that were tarnished by toxins and burying them along with the skeleton into the earth. Sometimes she would take the bones as well from larger creatures as they had the capability to be turned into tools and weapons by the right craftsmen in Kiri. The prime meat would be stripped away and carefully slid around a clean wooden stick, then pushing the stick with her superior human strength into the ground. The meat would slowly cook away just far enough away from the flame to not get burned but cooked well. The fur of the hare would be stripped from the rest of it’s remains. Verd putting it in a scroll so she could bring it back to the tanner in town. The lower quality flesh would be discarded a little off away from the camp. Verd would make sure to drop some of the hare’s blood on the meat to make sure a wild animal would find it’s way to the gifted meal. With all done, Verd would pay homage to the animal’s sacrifice, whispering a little prayer in old Hyougaan language to wish its soul good passage and thank the creature for it’s unwilling sacrifice. Verd didn’t know if Haka would understand the way of honourable hunter’s code. She never did this kind of thing while slaying human bandits or rabid wolves. Seeing the hare as yet something she had taken by force as predator, she felt compelled to show the lower creature her own respect.

While Verd was munching on the crispy meat, she would tear off a little bit and offer it to Haka. Knowing that the spider didn’t need much and rarely ate, she wondered if she still could use an energizer at this point.

The bandit that had been shadowing them was slowly drawing closer. Seeing the encampment as an opportunity. But for now, he would not make himself recognizable. Wondering if one or both of the ‘guards’ that he could see would go to sleep. Cold blooded murder while they would be dreaming might be the easiest way for him to et away with what he desired. But his distance gave Verd and Haka some time to eat and rest. Eventually even talk a bit about the virtues of art.


650

A basic camp would be set up. Tents raised for two, as Haka didn't bother to bring one with her. She was used to sleeping as a spider or in one of the rooms of the manor, and it wouldn't be different now. The artist, otherwise talkative and eager to share everything, turned rather selfish as his exhaustion took hold of him. Once his tent was set up, he wished them a good night and crawled into his tent without another word. Finally. The swamps would fall silent once more as the two kunoichi would forage for wood and set up a campfire. The wet wood didn't cooperate too well, but that was easily fixed as Haka spit out a jet of fire to set it ablaze. Crackling, the warmth quickly spread to chase away the cold of the creeping night.

Sitting nearby as she preferred warmth above cold, Haka watched the elaborate hunter's ritual she performed for the dead rabbit she had taken down. It was a long process of emptying intestines, skinning, burying bones and more of that. A ritual that, in the eyes of the spider, took away most of the nutritious parts and dumped them into an earthly hole so as to keep the meat that would be prepared above the burning fire. Haka was somewhat familiar with roasting and cooking, but not with the process of how human meat came to be. It was intriguing, even if the spider considered most of the hunt already wasted. The time it took to prepare the rabbit was much like the spider's venom making its prey edible. Necessary.

When offered a piece of the meat, Haka accepted it. She already knew the meat would be too tough to her liking, lacking any natural softeners like her own venom but she took it and bit of a small piece nonetheless. A piece that would take five minutes of continued chewing before she would be satisfied with swallow it, and even then she felt its texture lacked a proper amount of juice to nourish her. The spider would continue chewing the remainder of the piece of meat, as she was feeling hungry to some extend and hoped the human food would provide some salvation from the gnawing in her stomach.

"The man has strange art."

It was a simple statement. Haka had no idea where to place his seemingly useless art, or how to consider the idea of beauty that his visitors shared with him. Looking at a shaped lump of earth or stone made even less sense than listening to a combination of sounds, but sound at least had the quality to draw the attention, lull people in a sense of security or pain the ears when done wrong. A shaped lump could... be thrown at someone, perhaps? Or take up space and be useless somewhere else. Or placed somewhere that no one would bother with it.

---

493
Total: 1013

While Verd was preparing the Hare she would proceed to talk a bit about her uncle the hunter. But in time the moon appeared on the horizon. Bright, almost full. Shedding a lot of light onto the usually obscured mist heavy vision. Verd loved it when the mist of Kiri was busy moving somewhere else than where she was. Having a clear view towards the stars above them. A beautiful prospect. She stared at them while Haka munched on the meat. Despite her not being the greatest fan of it, Verd took it as a compliment of sorts that she even tried. Yet she wasn't really familiar with the actual eating habits of a spider. Not sure how they actually nourished themselves. But remembering the empty carcass of the bandit on their mission to save the village... she was pretty content that she didn't want to know too much about this method.

As Haka commented on the mans Art, Verdandi agreed. “It’s not mine either. I prefer the art of the blade. Movements of battle. Display of power and strength but also display of refined skill. That is what my blade dances are about. They are both training and art to me.” She spoke trying to explain her own point on the matter. Verd didn’t like drawings much. Statues… well she could see the artistic value behind it. In Heidel they had tons of pretty statues and pictures for decoration but it didn’t drive her much. “Art is stimulation. When we look at something and it pleases us. It will send dopamine and serotonin into our system. Two hormones that will make us happy. Make us smile. Some art can do that by look more beautiful than other things we have seen. By looking unique or by showing us something new. Others pieces of art try to appease to our sexual desires and use our lust for procreation to raise those hormones into activity. Art can also calm us down if it inspires us visually with something melancholic or beautifully simple. Every human has their own take on art. Machi likes to put the few adventures he can have in his life into memories and pieces of art. I like my sword dances. My mother enjoys pretty flowers and things that have a lot of colours. My sister Skuld loves well designed armor and weapons and Urd loves to stare at beautifully formed constructions in nature. She also plays some instruments I guess… music is a great source of art for many people….”

With that exhaled. Verd had finally spit out her definition of art, hoping it would somehow inspire Haka to find her own style and desire within the practice of art. Not really aware of the whole piano story yet… but maybe someday Haka would be able to surprise Verdandi with that.

Time would go by. The artist would wake up once or twice, probably from the smell of meat. Verd would offer him and he’d gladly oblige and nourish himself. But he was too tired to talk too much to the delight of the two shinobi and soon returned to nap. Verd would offer Haka a rotation system as to whom may stay guard and whom may sleep. Haka would have to take the first hour shift. Being slightly more awake as Verd for sure and so Dandi packed the remaining cooked meat up and bagged it for tomorrow. Adding some more saw-cut wood next to the fire so Haka could just add them piece by piece over time, then she would move into the tent and lay down for a nap.

For the bandit. It was time to strike though. The elder looking girl went to sleep. The artist too and all that stood between him and his goal was a little schoolgirl. He laughed to himself as to how lucky he was… first he would kill the girl outside and then proceed into the tent to kill the sleeping victims. He would have the whole bag of Machi’s artistic creations for himself… they would surely net some nice price if he added some self-invented stories towards where they came from. So, he would make his way up towards the camp, approaching Haka from behind. Ready to bury his dagger into the young girls neck. Time to kill...


730 / 1380

Art is stimulation. Just those words alone would have sufficed for Haka to grasp the most basic of ideas concerning human art. Anything that followed was a nice detail she had barely any understanding about. Dopamine and serotonin? She had no idea what that was, but one of those words seemed to talk about Sero in some form. Completely misunderstanding the second word, Haka would think about how Sero was able to stimulate others. Did Sero make others happy? Glancing at Verdandi, who liked the island and the mansion... Sero did make others happy, somewhat. Was Sero some sort of art then? Possibly so. A strange sort of art, or perhaps a bad sort of art, then, since there were plenty who didn't like him.

What was certain was that art influenced the emotions much like genjutsu could manipulate people's emotions indirectly by weaving their mind into a certain direction. Illusions. Was art like an illusion? That sounded plausible, as this 'art' concept differed from person to person, and the 'muse' they had been hunting for the artist had looked different every time. Art was not tangible. Deceptive in nature as it could show up all of a sudden and be lost in the blink of an eye. Art made people unpredictable. Like they saw things no one else could. Art had to be a genjutsu of sorts, created by humans for whatever strange purposes. Present all over, but generally meek. Like most humans.

Coming to a twisted conclusion, Haka could say she had some sort of art now too. It was not just the piano she had taken away. She had copied the placement of hands, the seamless blending of notes, flowing from one into another. Rising up and down. Lingering. Sometimes soft, sometimes demanding. All of that, she had analysed and taken for herself. She could mimic it flawlessly, but that didn't mean she understood the finer details about music just yet. She still needed to learn how to weave her own musical art from scratch.

As time passed, exhaustion expected Verdandi to rest as well and so she went to rest, leaving the first shift to the spider. Haka would assess the situation to calculate the best approach to things. Solitary, open to attacks from all sides. There was light in the camp that created a dim lit area on the outside of the camp, but part of it was blocked by the tents that threw large shadows. She had a technique that could improve her efficiency in making use of that low light. Molding chakra, she would throw up a midnight black ball of chakra as she closed a single eye. 360 degree vision in a low area, combined with her enhanced shinobi senses would provide a decent measure of anticipation. Her technique needed improvement though.

With that settled, she would wrap her arms around her legs, one eye intently staring at the light around the fire. Never into the fire. She knew that blinded her sight. Time would pass by slowly. The dark figure in the back couldn't see the floating eyeball in the air, fixated on the schoolgirl that hadn't moved for half an hour or so now. He assumed she had fallen asleep. After all, little girls needed their sleep. She had an odd way of sleeping, but since no one could hold still for half an hour... An easy target. He had the benefit of the surprise, or so he believed. The shadow would move closer slowly. Out of the dark and into the dimly lit area. A brief pause as he wanted to assure himself she was really sleeping. He couldn't fail in his only chance, right? Then, he leapt at her, intention to kill.

What then followed all happened in a couple of seconds. Haka would jump into the air with the force of a jumping spider, back flipping as he stabbed into the air. At the same time, she would form the Quietus seal, silencing the whole area as the seal formed around her throat, and landed on her feet behind him. He looked surprised, disbelieving what he just came to witness. Then turned around, perspiration visible as he became nervous. He attacked again, screaming she had to die. No sound. As the realisation of the unusual situation dawned upon him, he seemed to lose his nerve. Haka side-stepped, grabbed his arm tightly and kicked him behind his leg. He kneeled. She twisted his arm, forcing him to drop his knife. He compelled, pain shooting through his arm. Locked in her basic martial arts grip, he had no means to escape. A single red amber eye observed him. Bored at his failure to bring up a challenge. He looked back, panic in his eyes. What was she to do with him?

She could use a snack, but to eat a whole human... Not only was she too tired for that, but she wasn't that hungry either. It was a difficult choice. She couldn't let him go, risking he'd return but killing would cause problems with the artist. She could see him scream at the top of his lungs and run through the swamps, scaring away everything like a mad man. Troublesome. Perhaps, just for once, she would have to let Verdandi deal with the man. So she knocked him out and bound him tightly with a rope before she'd sit on top of him, resting in the crawled up state she often did. Waiting for Verdandi to relieve her of her shift and do whatever she wanted with the captured man. Hopefully she'd make a good choice.

Enduring one human idiot was already too much.

---

958
Total: 1971

[EXIT]

Reward: C Rank - Fire Clone Jutsu

When Verdandi woke up. She would find herself staring at Haka sitting on a man. Listening to her brief explanations over what he had done, or rather tried to do. He seemed to be of middle age. Not a teen anymore. Certainly, done some bad things in life. Decided that he’d kill a girl that looks like Haka does. Verd had morals, she had a certain code to protect civilians and those who were innocent. Sometimes she would even protect those she herself deemed unworthy to. Cause following your own code, pride and ideals is what makes you and defines you.

But since the very first day. Verd also had one rule. That rule demands, that the moment you have decided that you are willing to kill, you are no longer protected by innocence. This shield that engulfed many of their encounters. Including the annoying civilian sleeping in the tent still. Was already gone over the man. Verd nodded and accepted Haka’s offer to carry out his sentence.

As morning fully arrived. They had closed down the tent. Packed their supplies. The adventure was over. Time to go home. The artist had gotten all he had asked for and probably more. Verd could say that the mission was more challenging than expected at first. Even in a weird way of sorts. So, they left and Machi would never get to see bandit impaled on an ice spike just behind the hill they were camping at. Machi was innocent and such a thing had yet to be protected. As long as possible.

[EXIT]


260 / 1640

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