Loyalty, it's a strange thing. People claim that the definition of loyalty is "A strong feeling of support or allegiance" but it went much further than that, it was something that most people would willingly risk themselves over,However, as true as that was, some people claimed there was no such thing as loyalty, only continuous willing stupidity. Oshiki was not one of those people, he believed that loyalty was one of the things that kept people together. Animals could do it, so why couldn't some humans? It was disgusting to him the concept of people only looking out for their own interests, abandoning people they should be owing their loyalty to simply because it was either convenient or because they had some paltry argument. If what they were being loyal to was truly wrong, then that was one thing, but simply because they didn't pay enough or because the boss was a bit of a jackass? That was no reason to just break loyalty unless, for instance, it paid so little you couldn't afford to have a decent life-style. It was this very reason that, when offered the chance to track down and deal with someone who clearly had no sense of loyalty, although he didn't exactly jump at the chance he took it without too much question, seeing someone's lack of loyalty to the place that they were being paid to work not only foul but also a personal insult and a clear example of someone being just like the filth of the earth, the monstrous animals that were cats.

His job, it turned out, was to track down the fault... in more ways than one. Not only was he the one that was hired to find out who was doing the sabotaging, but he was also supposed to find out where the problem was. They had checked the machines already and it had been pretty damned easy to find out what was wrong with it; Everywhere else was fine, yet they still didn't get the silver that they were supposed to be getting. It was all filthy, and people believed that there must have been something to do with the purification process, and it had only taken a look inside the machine to notice that the glass of acid that was supposed to be poured onto each individual piece of iron had been shattered. How they had managed to get their hands that far inside the machine without getting injured, let alone not have let anyone notice the change in the machine was impressive. Hell, he couldn't even smell acid. It was a pretty noticeable thing when you looked inside the machine, but when you just walked past it there would have been no way to find out what was going on. Still, it was probably fortunate that he wasn't being forced to find out what damage had been done to the machine, he would have been absolutely clueless. There were many things that Oshiki could claim to be; A fighter, a politician, a lover, a tactician and an animal lover, but he definitely wouldn't call himself a mechanic. In fact, he was a genjutsu and taijutsu user so he had no idea how machines like this worked to begin with. He'd had a five minute explanation of how it works, but that still wasn't doing enough to explain how things like this worked. So, when he'd mentioned it to the overseer, he got the feeling that he sounded like an absolute idiot. Oh well, he thought resignedly, he'd been hired to take this guy out before he could do more damage so now all he had to do was wait.

Hiding behind the machine, he waited there for several hours until he was seriously beginning to wonder whether they were actually going to becoming tonight or not. Maybe they had been tipped off someone was coming down upon their heads and was waiting until they were no longer being inspected. However, that didn't seem likely, the bosses had gone through a lot of pains to keep this silent and the people who were able to know about it were the old members of the factory that had spotless records. If they were going to do it, they would have done it before now, surely. Still, before he could begin to cast aspersions upon their loyalty, the real perpetrator emerged from his recesses of the factory, walking through the door and heading towards the machine. Of course, Shi knew it wasn't sure that he was doing it, but the factory was supposed to be closed. As he got far enough away from the door, Oshi moved out of the shadows and walked towards him, his hands clearly in his pockets but his jacket's hood popped over his head, obscuring his face.

"So... what are you doing?" he asked, but a spanner thrown at his head was his only answer. He had almost been expecting that, although the spanner was a surprise. He had expected to be assaulted, but this guy had come prepared... well, as prepared as a normal worker would be, he doubted that this guy would have had any access to ninja weapons. Side-stepping it easily, he caught it as it moved past before moving in quickly and slamming him around the head with it. He heard the sound of breaking bone and the bastard went down like a sack of potatoes. He guessed that he had seriously damaged the skull, but as he put his hand to his neck to check for a pulse, it was still there. He was injured and unconscious, but he was not dead. That was something at least, because whilst he might have just attacked an innocent, the spanner to the face was a pretty clear misdemeanor. It was only after hauling the body outside that he realized that he had never actually found out what this guy's motivation was... oh well, he thought, some people just want to watch the world burn.

1001/1000

---