Mission name: Verdant Vistas, pt III - Evanescence
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 III, the time span is from evening to night. Like all things fleeting in life, the day slowly comes to an end and as such the artist wants to capture something emotional and timeless all together. For this, he wishes to find a good vantage point so some climbing will be necessary, bringing with it the necessary challenges (vertigo, avalanches, climbing difficulties, angry animals...).

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.

WC Needed: 1500

When one took the time to explore all of the swamps, the area was admittedly much larger than presumed. The waters covered all but the highest grounds. Deep enough to make walking difficult for the artist who did not hold the shinobi's ability to walk on water or the Unmei's inherent spider step that allowed the same effect, but not deep enough to pose any danger of drowning. The marshland reached up to the artist's knees most of the time, with a couple of exceptions pushing make the water rise to his chest. Despite the water world that the swamp seemed to be, greens grew everywhere. Patches of trees rose up to reach for the skies, giving the entire swamp a little bit of shadowed shelter with their canopy. They offered fruit or nuts, even though most of those were not quite meant to be eaten as their quality was poor or poisonous. Plenty of bushes, thistles and ferns creates seas of verdant annoyance. These plants blocked the paths, covered the better places and offered shelter for insects and smaller critters that foraged around in search for food.

Machi has been sketching vividly the whole time, his sketchbook well over half of what he had begun with. He had mostly been sketching a variety of small animals as lizards and geckos, birds of all kinds, snakes or boars. On rare occasions he had succeeded in sketching one of the more dangerous species that roamed the lands. A sleeping alligator, though that one almost bit of his hand, a giant spider, even if that one had been a trick from Verdandi, and a komodo drake, about the only one that had taken a long time thinking if he should fight or flee in the situation it was in.

So far, the man had been rather safe but knowing the Administration's general division of missions, Haka wondered if this was truly but a C rank mission. The man could have died several times, and wrestling an alligator or a komodo dragon was hardly a non-deadly fight. On top of that, there had been a time where they were being shadowed. The legend of the spider turning human Haka had told before had not been a joke in the least, as that very same legend - an Unmei much like herself - had quietly been stalking the group to see what it was doing in its own hunting territory. It had not attacked, nor had it proceeded to stalk them, but Haka had been rather on edge during that moment as she was well aware not all Unmei recognised Sero as their Creator, deciding to take a different route than being one of his living weapons.

That had passed now though. Instead, it was the artist's turn to be anxious. He was missing something for his artistry. He wanted a sketch that would embody emotion and give off a timeless feeling. Something that would last through the ages. The sun was setting, and with it visibility would dwindle, making it even harder for him to find the moment he wanted as he feared it would be too difficult to find the Muse of Emotions in dim light. He started yammering about it, a dramatic woe about how he'd never find his muse again. And of course, Haka had to be the one he talked to, as if he knew it would irritate her to no end. Haka could not help him, however, as 'art' was not something she quite understood. Suggestions so he would stop whining would not come so instead she made it easy with a, "Go ask Verdandi. She's artistic."

---

615

Verdandi lazily followed suit, it was boring, Haka alone could easily take care of the man. Once more she wondered why to heavens sake she had been sent here. It was like trying to write an exam on a subject that you should have studied ten years ago and don’t quite remember the answer but can’t really be bothered with to try either.

The amount of times this man should have died was unreasonable. How could he still be alive with a seemingly suicidal lifestyle as this? Verd shook her head, the idea to think about this topic made her sleepy. Sleepy enough that she almost doze away while walking. Surprisingly enough, Haka was somewhat able to hold out with his babbling and didn’t bother to kill him, yet. Probably more cause the mission pay was on the table here.

As they climbed various walls and hills, mostly with Mr. artist being carried or thrown his way up the steep path, Verd almost fell asleep while climbing as Machi was still on her back. Luckily enough a loud noise rattled from above. Quickly, Verd jumped her way over the cliff to see… nothing. Instead as they reached the top, the artist demanded to be mused for his wonderful painting. Verd made something up about the power of live, the soul of an artist and the true worth of all the little details in their artworks, making them far more valuable than any price tag could ever tell.

She started to talk about the moon and the princess of the night. Eventually creating another clone and turning her into a pretty looking angel that just accidentally happened to come this way and hover towards Machi while Verd just had mentioned her. Since he wasn’t naturally bright kind of bulb, he totally swallowed it and quickly started to paint the picture for the perfect princess of the night. But how often would this trick still work? It seemed unrealistic to be able to use it twice without very obvious faking potential ridden into every fibre of the play at hand.

Verds eyes continuously tried to fall shut. Once the artwork of love and inspiration was done, the ghost princess of the night would slowly disperse into the mis of the swamp. Verd was slapping her cheeks. Something had to happen before she literally would fall into deep slumber right there and now. As eventually, one of the bushes behind them suddenly began to rattle and shake. Verd was certain this is going to be another bear, snake or whatever coming to try and kill the suicidal guy.

Instead it was a tiny man in heavy armor, behind him many of his kin. All suddenly shouting “Ni! Ni!” in chorus while staring at Verd and the rest. After some very gentle and nice introductions. The leader seemed to be head of the knights of Ni and demanded payment to be allowed to venture further into the deep swamp. As to Verd’s question how much they demanded, the leader clearly designated his love for bushes and that if they wanted to go forth they would have to buy them a nice and cozy bush.

Verd just happened to know that the next bush vendor was very far away and so she decided to punch the man in the face and kick the second one in the groin. Slap the third on his ass and chased them off as they ran away cursing into the night. If anyone would dare and ask or judge her she would simply react with a “What?” and shrug it off.


600

Haka had successfully redirected the man to Verdandi. He was now bothering her with his desire for muses and his explanations on art, giving Haka some pause. She was tired too, much like Verdandi. In fact, it felt like the only one who wasn't tired enough to remain quiet was the man himself. As if he held some insurmountable amount of energy hidden in his pockets somewhere. Haka brushed her hair back, sighing softly. As her red amber eyes overlooked the dimly lit area in search of dangers still, she could hear Verdandi give her explanation on arts. Weird topics such as the power of life, the soul of an artist and the true worth of all the little details in artworks were being mentioned, making Haka wonder where exactly people found such strange explanations.

Sure, she could relate the power of life to that of survival. That made sense. That was the most basic thing in life and a natural thing to abide by. Even humans, who had mostly given up on instinct, were driven by survival if you pushed them far enough. Fear was the living proof of this. But the soul? Now that was something Haka couldn't relate to. What exactly is a soul? What did it do and how could she hunt it? Did it even exist, or was this one of the many stories civilians wove themselves just so they could maintain their unrealistic lifestyles? She assumed so. After all, Sero was rumoured to be a spectre and yet he looked very much like flesh and blood in her eyes, even if he had a strange habit of disappearing without a sound.

Did all of this even matter? Haka still had no distinct idea of what art entailed. One considered sketches an art, the other went on about music, the third was all about weapons, the fourth decided dancing was a form of art, and the fifth one had yet a completely different point of view on it. It felt like humans just considered everything they cherished as a form of art. Did that mean Haka would have to consider hunting as an art? What a strange thought.

The spider did possess a form of art, however. An art she had claimed for herself much in her usual way of going about it. She took what she wanted. In this case, she had taken the grand piano of a dead widower. The instrument forgotten and unused. It was hers now. She liked the dark sounds that could come out of it and had proceeded to copy that. The multitasking eight-legged virtuoso of Osada manor. Humans considered piano and music art, so Haka was the rightful owner of some sort of art now as well. But she still didn't understand what exactly made it artistic in the eyes of humans. It was just a series of acceptable sounds to her.

Glancing back at the two of them, she could see Verdandi create some clone all nicely dressed up which the artist called a 'princess'. Curious. Haka compared the two princesses in turn. The princess clone looked nothing the sort of the princess she was used to. Pretty dresses, uncomfortable for any battle situation, probably not meant to get dirty. Hm, though it was a far cry from Verdandi's dressing style, she did recognise the part where Verdandi disliked getting her clothes dirty too. Whereas Haka preferred the 'battle princess' above the pretty one, the artist considered it differently. If he so could, he'd drool all over her, mumbling on about her beauty, the charm, the magic inspiration she gave off. Haka would take a glimpse at Verdandi, as if to ask her if he was real about all of this.

Verdandi almost seemed to sleep though. Her attention wavered, the princess disappeared in the mist. She mumbled something about shrubberies moving, but Haka couldn't see it. The spider blinked. Would she have to watch her rival as well now? How annoying. She had to do something about this, so as her instincts dictated she moved behind the snoozing Verdandi and wrapped her arms around the kunoichi's neck, whispering into her ears in a distinctly cold tone.

"Want me to make sure you stay awake?"

To the artist it would look like a sisterly cuddle, but to the two of them it would be a completely different scenario. Haka wasn't hugging. Haka was threatening Verdandi to bite her, allowing the injected venom to burn through her veins just to make sure she would not fall asleep again. If reminding her rival that she should never drop her guard while the spider was around wouldn't suffice to keep her awake, she would add the deed to the word.

---

800
Total: 1415

Verdandi would snap back out of it at the sudden hug of Haka. Rubbing her own cheek slowly and teasingly to the young spider in the process and being all coy and cozy about it. Barely able to avoid the immediate bite effort from her friend before she quickly hurried to distance. Verd wasn’t sure if she had actually met the Knights of Ni or if her sleepiness was making her see things. She might have beaten up some trees, bushes and a shrubbery in the process. It was a pretty one though. Very high quality.

The concept of following Haka whims annoyed her, but the scary spider had a point. Boring or not this was supposed to be a ninja mission and as such she had to keep a certain level of professionalism. To be fair, this guy was annoying and boring that it immediately made her sleepy again the very second, she thought about it. Not a fun person. Couldn’t he at least play a piano or stuff? Something cool to entertain her. But no, he had to be drawing abstract art and photogenic realistic art of things he was seeing. So, he was either a blurry observer or a photographer with ancient methods. Still, the quality of detail in his drawings was amazing, she had to give him props for that.

Verd was still sleepy. This was a bad mission. What should she do to entertain herself and keep herself awake? Haka’s nasty teeth coming awfully close were one way to think about it. But in desperate situations of boredom even death might sound a comfy way out on a very very sleepy person. The ultimate sleep. The eternal slumber. There was no better option to it than sleeping forever. It sounded delicious to her logic-starved brain. Then again, sleepy or not. She didn’t really have a death wish just yet.

She’d slap her cheeks and pinch herself. Pain was a good way to keep yourself awake. But what she needed was adrenaline. At some point she got tired of it. Machi was in good hands with Haka. Verd decided to move off a bit. Spotting a rattling bush. She expected one of the knights of ni would jump forth again. But it was just a hare…. A very juicy looking hare… with a lot of thick meat to it…. Verd’s eyes, despite sleepy, widened all open. She was hungry and that fella will end up as her dinner. While chasing the creature she’d realize that he wasn’t going to make this easy on them. He almost made it to his hole back home. His cute little face all fluffy and angsty. Holding the animal by the airs to quickly end its distress and suffering. Crushing his heart under the power of her sword.

With a nice dead hare mounted on her belt she’d move on forth, they would soon be able to camp up and get ready for the meat to feed them. Back in the group they were climbing past the last few hills to almost top height in territory. Verd would toss him again if he dared to act too stupid to climb. They would get soon to where they were headed to. Even though Verd didn’t understand or grasp the concept of what he was really searching for but there were no doubts about the fact that he was having a tremendous amount of fun. Guessing that’s Ryo well spent if you can amuse yourself almost like a kid in that regard.


600 / 1200

The hug had somewhat the effect Haka had intended to achieve, albeit with an unexpected return of human affection. Taking a safer approach, Verdandi decided that staying awake was a better option despite her hastily escape out of the spider's arms. Haka would have flashed a bemused smile, but the princess was already gone to find something to do against the encroaching sleep, leaving Haka alone with the man. Again. Haka was starting to think she was not the only one who wanted to avoid keeping the man around, seeing how Verdandi succeeded at slipping away time and time again to avoid her human companion. Well, he sure was living in his own little world, oblivious about anything but his own interests.

The two of them would drudge on despite the fatigue, conquering the hills as they climbed their way up. Verdandi would rejoin them, a hunted hare now attached to her belt but not necessarily happy with the idea of rejoining the man's continued obliviousness of the dangers he was so dead-set to meet for his artistic purposes. Sooner than expected, they would reach their final destination at the top of the hills. The place was broad enough to set up camp. The spider found it too much in the open, but the artist was already dropping off his luggage without so much as a request for the shinobis' thoughts on the matter. He had decided this place would be good, and so he instantly started to take out his sketchbook again, the stars in the clear sky above becoming his muse for a timeless piece of art. How one would shape stars out of clay was beyond Haka, but she had already given up understanding this poor excuse of a human.

Even a child would have done a better job at paying attention.

In comparison, Verdandi's hunt was interesting. She had taken down a rabbit with the idea to eat it, but unlike spiders would certainly not cocoon it, inject it with venom and suck it dry afterwards. She had picked up some sort of cooking from Fuyuko before, but in this place there was no such thing as a kitchen. Haka could only ask how Verdandi would go about this.

"How will you prepare the rabbit?"

---

[EXIT]

383
Total: 1798
Mission Reward: C rank Dragon Fire Jutsu

Verdandi smiled, finding it unusual that Haka would take interest in such an easy topic. Then again it was hunting. Something she could do well. Being naturally gifted in this sort of action. Verd explained to Haka that she had learned the techniques of hunting from her uncle. A strange man that Verd didn’t speak often about. In Heidel he was considered a monster not a man. Having reshaped his body with twisted experiments and demonic rituals. Having turned himself into what the people of Heidel would indeed call a demon. But Verdandi knew better than that. Despite his scary looks he was a wonderful man. A smart and charming one and an incredibly strong hunter.

Verd would indulge into various stories of how the would hunt for seals, wolves and cave dwellers. How he had shown her which parts of the animal were edible. Which parts potentially riddled with bacteria and toxins that were unhealthy for the weak stomach of a human. How to make senbon’s, little knife’s and other useful tools from their bones. And most important of all. Making sure that the sacrifice of the animal would be honoured. Understanding that the organs and meat that were toxic for humans would still be eaten by other animals.

Verd explained the hunter’s rituals and that she was looking forward to see him again someday. Having left on his very own adventure many years ago. He was yet another father figure in Verdandi’s life. Despite that her real parents didn’t really like him much. He supposedly had done many cruel acts to obtain what he desired. There was even a rumour that he had killed his own wife at some point to gain her unique powers and add them to his own. As fascinated as she was with her uncle. As sad it would make her to think about him. So they would quickly proceed to set up camp.

[EXIT]


320 / 1520

WC Usage: