Wolfram [Mission, Open to 3]

Shinji nodded along with everyone's conversation, not speaking as he had nothing to add. Afterward, they all adjourned to rooms that the client had arranged for them. Shinji went to his room and washed and prepared to sleep the night off, but he had not expended enough energy and therefore went for a night walk around the grounds. Ending up back on top of the building where he had first seen his teammates. Shinji lay back on the tiles of the roof and looked up into what was a perfectly clear sky and a full moon and took in the sight for an hour before returning to his room. 

After a few hours of sleep Shinji awoke and took in some breakfast and then joined the rest of the crew in the cart to go off to the mine, Shinji greeted them all energetically and waited for the team to leave and arrive at the mine.

WC: 156
TWC: 923

The rest of the team is kept waiting for several minutes, to the point where the mercenary begins to become visibly irritated. He does not openly question what's taking so long, but he does light up a cigarette and tap his fingers in impatience.

Finally, Murata emerges from the manor, and she is not alone.

Murata approaches the cart with a deeply irritated look on her face, armor fastened slightly askance and club slung over her back. Following behind her, face carefully neutral, is their client.

The Lord of Horoichi is a tall, unassuming older man with short curly hair, dressed in a tidy black suit. When the pair enter the cart, a miasma of tension follows them inside like a toxic cloud, and the two pointedly avoid looking at one another. The moment the mercenary catches sight of their mutual momentary boss, he swears quietly to himself and snuffs his cigarette.

"I hate the smell of that," the Lord says, voice quiet but laced with authority. He looks over Kita, Travin, and Shinji, dark eyes searching for... something. Whatever it is, he does not betray it in his expression. "Don't smoke, kids."

The mercenary scoffs. "Kids," he repeats, as though the very word is amusing.

Murata is silent where she has settled into the cart next to Travin, arms crossed, looking pointedly ahead. The rest of the team is left in awkward silence as the cart begins to move, with their squad's leader for some reason unwilling to speak in their client's presence. The Lord appears to be working to maintain an appearance of serenity, but the corners of his mouth are tense.

"There has been a change of plans," he addresses to the other three - Murata has clearly already had this conversation. "I will be at the head of negotiations. Your duty has been amended to simply guarantee the safety of myself and the others that will be joining us at the mine, and no more."

---

328
TWC: 1176

Kita remained silent as the cart began moving, slowly beginning to bring the group towards the inevitable confrontation with the miners. Even Bobo knew to stay quiet as an uneasy silence hung over the cart. Bobo turned to the driver of the cart. "So buddy, do you know how long it'll take until we get to the mine?" The driver snorted, not looking back at the monkey as he continued driving their cart forward. "Ask your owner next time. It's about two hours out, and even if I try to be gentle we're going to go over some rough terrain. I'd settle in for a while." Bobo clamored back onto Kita's back with a deep sigh. This was going to be a long ride.

As the cart dragged along, Kita could feel the terrain that the driver had mentioned earlier. The cart shuddered and clamored over loose rocks in the soil as they drew nearer and nearer to the location of the mine. Kita had spoken very little over the journey, mostly speaking when spoken to and answering with quick replies. There was one question in particular that was nagging him throughout the journey. "Why do they think that we're coming to kill them? Their job was explicitly to be peacekeepers, not peacemakers. Where on earth did they get the assumption that we were out to get them?" Kita supposed that it didn't actually matter much now. It would simply have to be an idle curiosity of his while they completed the mission. Kita's eyes absentmindedly drifted back to their employer, whose face contained a certain air of rigidity. Kita wondered how he was really feeling underneath his stiff exterior. If he felt nervous at about the upcoming meeting, or if he doubted his ability to handle the situation in question. Kita certainly didn't envy him, that was for certain. Kita's eyes drifted once more to the road as they grew closer and closer to the location of the mine, slowly growing from a pinprick on the horizon into a very real, and very dangerous destination. Kita could just barely see workers milling about the mine, awaiting the arrival of the lord for negotiations. Kita could only guess at the location of any potential mining bombs. With an exhale, Kita whispered to himself under his breath. "It will be fine. What's the worst that could happen?"

Word Count - 396

Total Word Count - 2008

Shinji greeted his friends and village mates as they entered the cart, last to join them was Murata, who was accompanied by the employer. Shinji did not much mind this addition, and the awkward tension that it brought washed over him, his attention span quickly allowing him to move on from it. As the cart started to journey he took in sight after sight of the new location finding amusement in any little thing. After half an hour of traveling, Shinji began to sing to himself quietly and then gradually got louder and louder until he was singing at a normal speaking volume. He sang about far-reaching mountains and green rolling fields, his hand tapped on his knee as he sang and his foot tapped on the cart, his singing voice had a beautiful soft tone to it and his rhythm was almost perfect. Shinji continued to sing as Kita asked the question, a slight look of worry crept into his eyes as he thought about having to hurt people who just want to defend their livelihoods, hopefully, it would not come to that, and that the employer was going to be successful in his negotiations. 

WC: 197
TWC: 1120

It is a long, long day. It quickly becomes obvious that the situation has degraded such that nobody wants the team there, even for protection. Still, they have a job to do, and they must do it. The only silver lining is the lord and the driver soon joining in with Shinji's song, both of them vying for some escape from the tension themselves.

Cramped into a tiny overseer's office outside of the mine, the team sits with the lord as he speaks with a representative of the mine. None of the owners are present. Murata is not sure if any of them will even be present in the mine, or if they have simply riled the workers up to serve as human shields. Negotiations go... slowly, but the team has been informed in no uncertain terms that they are to remain silent and not interfere unless violence breaks out.

A few hours later, there is a brief break in negotiations for the mine's representative to go talk to the workers, and everyone is brought some lunches by the lord's attendants. The warm, sticky breeze outside is little reprieve from the sweltering heat from outside, and Murata is grateful for the cans of chilled tea that they bring.

"You see why I was so irritated on the way over," she says to her teammates with a little chuckle, tearing into her meal. This is about what she had expected. At the very least, nobody has been blown up.

The good news is no violence. The bad news is that negotiations continue into the next day. With the lord so obviously unwilling to send his hired shinobi in to clear the way by force, the mine has called his bluff and is demanding exorbitant terms in order to surrender quietly. On their side, and slowly whittling away at the mine's resolve, is that the lord is fully capable of legally cutting off the mine's revenue through other means and starving it out if necessary.

Eventually, finally, negotiations start to turn for the best - and when the lord and the representative of the mine finally sign a deal to begin clearing it out (one that seems like it will take months, from a brief glance of the wording), the team is finally free to return to the estate for their belongings (and monkeys) and then head home. Murata stretches with a sigh, grateful to be back on her feet.

"Wasn't that exciting?" she snorts. "I did not think I would ever say I missed Kirigakure's weather, but here we are."

---

428
TWC: 1604

Claiming mission rewards: 1x Tungsten, 6,000 ryo, 30AP

spending WC on augmenting Country Borders Armor in inventory with 1x Tungsten earned with this mission and 1x Meteoric Iron from inventory at max stat discount (2 x 750 = 1500 words necessary)

Approved.

Kita sat along quietly during the meetings as he listened to the negotiations between the lord and miners. Part of him had wished that he had left Bobo behind, as Kita could feel just how bored the monkey was getting, and Kita simply had to hope that he would remain silent through the meeting. The back and forth between the two parties was a bit much at points, and Kita found himself spacing out as he tried to picture how terrified the miners must be. He simply couldn't shake the image out of his mind. Was that really how other people saw him? As a murderer? Those were the thoughts that carried him through the meetings, until eventually their mission came to a close.

On the way back to the estate to pick up their things Kita seemed somewhat glum, mind still dwelling on his thoughts from earlier. "Weather doesn't matter to me by this point. I'm just glad to finally be leaving." Bobo snorted at that. "You're telling me kid. You all took forever handling those miners. I still don't understand why you didn't just clear out the mine like they thought you would. It would've saved everyone here a lot of time." Kita's eyes narrowed dangerously, and anger was easily visible inside of them. "Shut your mouth Bobo. Faster or not, too many people would've died, and shinobi shouldn't get blood on their hands if there's another option. This isn't just about power Bobo, or bullying people through shows of force. It's about helping people. I'm training you to be a shinobi Bobo, not a butcher, and you need to learn that fact." Bobo held his hands up in defense. "Hey don't get so pushy kid! Sorry alright, I didn't mean kill them, maybe just rough em up a little. Teach em not to be so rowdy next time huh?" Kita turned back at Bobo, meeting his gaze over his shoulder. "How about you Bobo? Did you like it when the R&D team roughed you up? Did that stop you from getting rowdy? Grow up." Kita turned back forward and started walking for his room with heavy footsteps. "I'm done with this mission. Lets just get going."

Word Count - 369

Total Word Count - 2377

Exit Claims:

approved

It turned out to be a very long, boring, and bumpy ride to the mine. Some of his team chatted with small talk but Travin mostly just stayed quite trying not to think about how much he was getting bumped around. Once they made it to the mine shaft Travin was mostly done he was fine with just slaughtering everyone and walking back as long as he didn’t have to get back into that blasted wagon. Only he remembered that they were not going to be killing anyone. They were bluffing and he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t work out. 


Once the negotiating actually started it was quick to escalate and then quick to settle back down for lunch. Travin was so bored that his greatest challenge was not falling asleep in the meeting. He had been on several boring missions by this point in his career but this one was taking the cake for it. During lunch Travin sat with his team with small talk between them all before they were forced to go back to the meeting. Grudgingly Travin agreed and followed the team in. 

It wasn’t long they were told they could return and get their stuff mission over, and it was probably the best moment in Travin’s life. He was done and tired of the politics and it showed on his face as they got back in the wagon to drive back. Travin was quite on the ride back just wanting to get this bumpy ride over with already. Once back he grabbed his stuff, told his team members bye and left headed back to the village. 


(WC-272 TWC-1982)


Exit
Claiming
19 stats for Render
all WC towards Seigan: Upwelling

Mission Rewards- 6k Ryo, 30 AP, 1 Tungsten