1 Rook | Crime Tue Oct 23, 2018 2:28 am
Hika
D-rank
It wasn't a terribly bad day to kill time. Last night certainly wasn't a bad time to kill a guy.
Oh, no. That wasn't me. The guy upstairs just got strangled to death. I, uh, watched. The noise was so much that I couldn't sleep 'till it was over, but the fact that he was a cutthroat business mogul distanced him slightly from me. The world of money and power was something entirely foreign, one of the few things which I knew being that those with power typically worked to keep it. And that they could work people unfairly just to make a few extra Ryo. This, of course, was simply the culmination of errant complaints I could receive during my child-hood or the travels that have shaped my life thus far.
I could easily remember the time when I met Aki, one of the few that I trusted with my life back then. Her entire family worked on a grand hill full of rice paddies, owned by the mayor of her village - a not-very-notable settlement to the north of the Land of Waves, resting just on the border of the Fire and Snow countries. She and her family worked their hands raw each day hulling each grain, straining their backs and legs stooping and swinging to gather the crops. The excess was sold off to other hamlets, the profits reportedly being put back into the community. Squalor abounded the place, dilapidated homes encroaching on what little natural space remained. The actual trading district on the docks was entirely composed of storerooms, the local government preferring to house its products before its own people.
This wasn’t particularly nice to abide by, but I stomached it for the few days before I found the mayor’s personal residence. Oddly hidden, save for from my own….methods. His skimming was evident, a look around his personal office displaying nothing but a pauper’s haul - riches to one who grew up in such a small town, much like one I had. The conversation, however, was clear as day between himself and his various co-entrepreneurs. They were all taking a cut - the twenty-percent of the haul that wasn’t exported was split in half again to store for further sales when the crop was small.
A quick exposition left the village to its own devices for leadership, at which point Aki gave me the benefit of the doubt and accompanied me on my way to the Land of Lightning.
Reminiscing had left my eyes coupled to where two walls and the ceiling met, that point a tunnel into my own subconscious. I could feel my pupils shift as I seemingly receded back into my own body from somewhere within and yet outside. A few blinks introduced me to the timepiece on the bedstand next to the place where I’d had the first restful slumber in months. This struck me as almost odd, the luxury I was now treated to as if it were standard fare. False documents were not hard to come by. Er, or rather, create. The officials certainly thought nothing of their validity, but rather straightened their stances and uttered words more sycophantic than my tastes would allow for. Getting out of the presence of these hierarchical drones was more comforting than having them accept my proof of identification. Though, by admission, one was based in skill while the result was actually natural for them.
And I’d completely forgotten I had a meeting at the tea ceremony today. We were arranging for a quorum hopeful on the connections that I’d made through….certain key information my associate Verdandi had provided. However, it was…. other associates, willing or not, that one of the up-and-comers of the Mist’s business sector had a hit on him. A common enough occurrence when the suits were just as cut-throat as the shinobi, my opportunity knocked.
Oh, no. That wasn't me. The guy upstairs just got strangled to death. I, uh, watched. The noise was so much that I couldn't sleep 'till it was over, but the fact that he was a cutthroat business mogul distanced him slightly from me. The world of money and power was something entirely foreign, one of the few things which I knew being that those with power typically worked to keep it. And that they could work people unfairly just to make a few extra Ryo. This, of course, was simply the culmination of errant complaints I could receive during my child-hood or the travels that have shaped my life thus far.
I could easily remember the time when I met Aki, one of the few that I trusted with my life back then. Her entire family worked on a grand hill full of rice paddies, owned by the mayor of her village - a not-very-notable settlement to the north of the Land of Waves, resting just on the border of the Fire and Snow countries. She and her family worked their hands raw each day hulling each grain, straining their backs and legs stooping and swinging to gather the crops. The excess was sold off to other hamlets, the profits reportedly being put back into the community. Squalor abounded the place, dilapidated homes encroaching on what little natural space remained. The actual trading district on the docks was entirely composed of storerooms, the local government preferring to house its products before its own people.
This wasn’t particularly nice to abide by, but I stomached it for the few days before I found the mayor’s personal residence. Oddly hidden, save for from my own….methods. His skimming was evident, a look around his personal office displaying nothing but a pauper’s haul - riches to one who grew up in such a small town, much like one I had. The conversation, however, was clear as day between himself and his various co-entrepreneurs. They were all taking a cut - the twenty-percent of the haul that wasn’t exported was split in half again to store for further sales when the crop was small.
A quick exposition left the village to its own devices for leadership, at which point Aki gave me the benefit of the doubt and accompanied me on my way to the Land of Lightning.
Reminiscing had left my eyes coupled to where two walls and the ceiling met, that point a tunnel into my own subconscious. I could feel my pupils shift as I seemingly receded back into my own body from somewhere within and yet outside. A few blinks introduced me to the timepiece on the bedstand next to the place where I’d had the first restful slumber in months. This struck me as almost odd, the luxury I was now treated to as if it were standard fare. False documents were not hard to come by. Er, or rather, create. The officials certainly thought nothing of their validity, but rather straightened their stances and uttered words more sycophantic than my tastes would allow for. Getting out of the presence of these hierarchical drones was more comforting than having them accept my proof of identification. Though, by admission, one was based in skill while the result was actually natural for them.
And I’d completely forgotten I had a meeting at the tea ceremony today. We were arranging for a quorum hopeful on the connections that I’d made through….certain key information my associate Verdandi had provided. However, it was…. other associates, willing or not, that one of the up-and-comers of the Mist’s business sector had a hit on him. A common enough occurrence when the suits were just as cut-throat as the shinobi, my opportunity knocked.
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