mission briefing:

While the morning sun rose into the sky, Kegare had already been awake for a few hours, annoyed about what had happened at the Stone Bridge. he had not only lost miserably to the person he desired to apprehend and interrogate, but he had also been slammed with what could only be called the best psychological attack possible: deminishing one's spirit and ideals by having the perfect counter for them.

While he was brushing his teeth, the old man looked into the mirror, which reflected his torn up and shredded face. In a sense the reflection made Kegare realize that he and Reikarou Kijin weren't as different as he initially thought. In fact, they were more alike than he would've wanted.

Both had seemingly put on masks to hide whatever their face stood for. In Kegare's case it stood for despair, loss and the burden that came with the corruption which poisoned the world to its very core. yet just like with Reikarou Kijin and his skeletal features, one thing remained brimming with life, one aspect seemed to remain unbreakable: the spirit reflected in their eyes.

Kegare's golden eyes reflected his determination and his desire to go on no matter what, while Reikaou Kijin's eyes were brimming with hatred, anger and cold motivation. "What is it that I don't know yet, why are you still able to mock me in such a way?"

Deciding that he needed a breather, Kegare dressed himself and put on his mask, before moving out of his apartment and walk through the village towards the Administration building where's he'd hope to find himself a mission that could and would put his mind at ease for the time being. A mission would be a nice distraction, a relief from the stress that had been plaging him ever since the incident with the Yamada clan heiress. "Some fresh air might prove to be indespensible for my health at this point."

While he walked towards the large building at the center of the village, the masked man was surprised to see that it was apparently market day, with the streets filled with stalls and vendors, people visiting from all over the stone country came to have some shopping done or just simply to relax, yet for Kegare it was way too crowded, so he moved hastily forward to get his hands on a decent mission, preferably one that would lead him to somewhere deep in the countryside and away from the problems that had been plaguing him.

Upon his arrival at the Administration building, he quickly greeted the recptionists with a faint wave, before hurrying himself to the mission board, where he glossed over each and every posted mission to see what could be something up his alley.

And there it was, the perfect mission: it had the countryside, bandits and the opportunity to let loose, this was enough reason to take it, so he walked over to the receptionists, asked them a copy of the mission briefing and went on his way. "A nice trip, I could certainly use something like that. A trip and some relaxing excercisions."

wc: 530

When he finally moved about to the place where his mission briefing had mentioned the bandits to be, Kegare was surprised to find out that in reality these bandits looked mostly like a bunch of poor sobs who generally had no luck in life. It was easy to deduce such a thing after watching their appearances, their tools and weapons from a safe distance in a tree nearby the first camp he had found.

It was actually quite sad that the village would concern itself with such small groups, yet with still a few camps to go, the masked shinobi steeled his emotions and jumped down from the tree, walking towards the camp with a strange feeling creeping up his neck.

Almost as if he was dreaming, he felt sluggish and somewhat hazy, so when he finally seemed to regain control of his thoughts and reason, Kegare could not believe what he was watching, as the bandit camp was no more.

All the men and women that formed the bandit camp he was supposed to take care of, were killed, with various black crystalline structures littered around the destroyed camp. In shock, the masked shinobi realized what had happened here, it was the person who he had been hunting recently, there was no doubt about it: Reikarou Kijin had been here.

"How...when?" Kegare was confused and slightly terrified, that he could've missed it, that the stranger could've done something like this in such a short time. Annoyed by his own confusion, he looked at his pocketwatch, only to be shocked that apparently his daze had not taken just a few second, but a whole half an hour. Had he been drugged or did he eat anything wrong or perhaps a lack of sleep as he was feeling lately?

Given that in a sense, despite the horror that had transpired, his mission had been done. Kegare decided to check out the two other camps nearby and make sure those bandits were gone as well, yet as he arrived at the first of the other camps, all he saw were horrified bandits, who's leader had been crusified to a pole by black crystals and the bandits simply ran at first sight of Kegare.

Apparently Reikarou had done a good job for once, a bad and horrific way to deal with bandits, but somehow the masked shinobi actually agreed with the skeletal man's displayed method for once: terrifying them is better than killing all of them.

When he arrived at the second of the camps, the expected black crystalline structures were littered everywhere and it was obvious that his elusive prey had done a pretty good job, but despite all of it, Kegare couldn't get rid of the feeling that yet again he was missing something, a piece of the bigger picture. Not to mention the question that was now burning in his mind: What had Reikarou Kijin to do with those bandits, what was his goal with these killings and executions?

Thinking it best to contemplate such questions after returning home, Kegare decided to go back to the administration building and report his findings and ofcourse claim his reward...even though he didn't do it himself, or at least so he thought.

wc: 547
twc: 1077 COMPLETED/exit thread