Border Patrol

Missions:

Malik awoke to the sounds violence, guttural roars and the sound of large objects falling to the ground. He had been sleeping on a large tree, at the borders of Haven Country. He was in his usual attire, a loose white pair of tracksuit pants and thing white shoes, nothing more. Living the life of a Missing Nin was definitely not one of luxury, at least not yet for the large brute. Waking up to these sounds was not necessary uncommon for him. At one time, he had even witnessed a group of bandits ambushing a lone child, forcing him to empty his pockets before laughing as he ran away crying. To think he had 1,000 Ryo on him as well… The sounds he was hearing today, however, were not known to him. Slowly peaking his head around the large frame of the tree, he raised an eyebrow at what he was witnessing.

Two fully grown brown bears were grappling with each other. Malik watched in awe as they would swipe their large and dangerously sharp claws with malice. The larger of the two, clearly more physically dominant female, was surprised as her opponent stuck one of its claws in her left eye. The larger one roared in fury and, instead of retreating, brought down both of its large arms down onto the head of her opponent, dropping the smaller bear into the dirt with a painful crunch. Malik watched in silence for the next five minutes as the now one eyed bear tore its former opponent to shreds, before finally slinking away.

Although he had wrestled with a bear in the past, Malik decided that getting some food was more important, luckily for him, a free meal had just presented itself before him. Checking to see that the coast was clear, the large brute climbed down from the tree, choosing to go down the manual way instead of using the cheap tree climbing technique. He was about to use one of his throwing axes to chop off the dead bear’s back left leg, however, decided to forgo that and simply rip the limb off. It was the only part of the bear that had not been damaged in the fight or aftermath. Malik then moved at a quick pace for roughly 20 minutes, in the direction opposite to the victorious bear. Satisfied that he was far enough, he pulled out one of his axes and began to skin the leg.

He spent the next half hour preparing the leg, skinning and cleaning it. He set up a humble bonfire, which thankfully did not take long due to the warm weather, and made a makeshift rotisserie from some nearby branches. Another half hour of sitting and spinning the leg above the fire, and he was finally ready to eat. He grumbled to himself as he finally bit down into his unearned breakfast, he would kill for a little bit of seasoning, but beggars could not be choosers. His meal was interrupted shortly after by the sound of muttering and the shuffling of footsteps. Malik shot up and quickly kicked dirt onto the bonfire, making his way to the nearest tree and standing behind it, his meal in one hand and his other fist clenched for combat.

After 30 seconds, the muttering became louder and Malik almost laughed out loud. It was a short old lady, shuffling through a nearby path and talking to herself. She appeared to be lost, looking around in confusion and asking herself incoherent questions. Malik looked around suspiciously for a moment before being satisfied that she was not bait. He took a step out from behind the tree, wondering if there was anything he could get out of this woman. She jumped up in surprise as she saw the large man, “Oh my! I am so sorry dear, I did not see you there. Please, do not let me distract your from your meal!”

Malik raised an eyebrow, she did not at all seem intimidated by the sight of him, most people would have turned and run in this situation. It was not everyday you saw a monstrous figure such as he in an isolated forest, especially so when you wanted to live. “It appears to me that you are lost, do you require assistance?” His words were kind and pure, but his intentions were not so. Malik knew that if she was heading somewhere, it was likely where other people were located. Why take some milk when you can steal the whole damn cow? He thought to himself.

The lady seemed overjoyed at his offer, “Oh my, you would do that for me? You are truly a sweet and gentle giant. You see there is supposed to be a small village here, I was told it was called ‘Bordertown’ and yet, I am lost.” Malik had indeed heard of this small village before, yet he had never found it. Apparently it was tiny, so he knew it would be easy to miss, before he could speak however, the old lady went on, “I have been invited to my grandson’s wedding, I have been given directions but I am an old fool, I can not make out where I am supposed to go. Could you help me?” A wedding? This got better and better, weddings involved dowries and Malik liked those.

Reading the letter she was given, Malik took a moment to get his bearings on their location. After several minutes, he finally figured out where they needed to go. “Alright, I know where to go from here. Old lady, let me accompany you there, I recently spotted a very large and angry brown bear in the area. It is not safe for you to be walking alone.” The lady tried to turn him down, not wanting to inconvenience Malik further, but he insisted until she finally gave in. She even paid him 1,000 Ryo up front for his services, which he feigned rejection until she pushed it into his hands. He walked in front of her in silence, a malicious smirk crossing his face, this was just too easy…


Judging by the directions given to the lady, it was only a five minute walk from where they were. She had been so close to avoiding him, but to Malik’s delight, she had been unfortunate enough to come across him. Tenshi noticed, however, that they were walking in the direction that the victorious brown bear had been moving. This was made apparent to him when he heard a furious roar in the distance, the bear was angry about something and Tenshi had no intention of finding out why. “We need to hurry, the bear is not far off from here.” They pushed forward.

A few minutes later, they finally exited the small forest, walking into a clearing with four small huts surrounding a much larger one. It appeared that the four huts were homes, the middle being a town hall of sorts. There was already a woman, roughly in her 20’s, walking around. She spotted Malik and the older lady walking in and she called out towards the huts. Moments later, seven others came out, exiting from each hut. A lone man exited from the hut nearest to the woman, placing a loving hand on her shoulder before spotting Malik. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, however, this changed when he saw the old lady. “Grandmother! You made it!” He quickly ran over to embrace her.

The man looked to be in his late 20’s, he had no remarkable features and a face that Malik would likely forget in the next five minutes. Looking past him at the seven other villagers, he noticed that all of them were looking at him, suspicious of this enormous outsider who had entered their abodes. “Yes darling, this is the man who assisted me in getting here. I was a lost old fool and he steered me on the correct path. He even offered to walk me here, did you hear the angry bear? It was so loud, I would have been toast if it was not for him.”

The lady was singing Malik’s praise loud and proud, thankfully easing up the attitude of everyone else in the village. It was clear that they still did not trust him, but that did not matter to Malik, he could crush them in a heartbeat. Instead, he chose to wait and see what happened, perhaps he could learn more information before striking. “Come young man, please meet the people of this town!” Before he knew it, the old lady was pushing him forward, towards the group. Malik pretended to pay attention to the names and faces of each villager, forgetting them instantly.

What he did remember, was that they were responsible for the dowry of her grandson’s wedding, which would be taking place in a nearby small town. He was to be wed to the woman who had spotted them as they arrived in the village. Apparently a merchant would be arriving soon as well, they would be using his large carriage to go to the wedding location. When he was mentioned, most of the villagers grimaced or spit, this man was clearly not popular in Bordertown. Malik finally spoke up, his deep voice matching his hulking frame, “This merchant does not sound like a good man, but I am in need of supplies so I shall await his arrival.” This was not a request, Malik was staying and he made sure the rest of the villagers knew it.

It only took half an hour before the sound of a carriage pricked Malik’s ears. He had been patiently sitting down and meditating near a large tree, mere meters away from the entrance. He stood up, but chose to casually lean against the large tree, allowing it to hide him from the carriage’s sight as it entered. Observing the carriage, Malik noted that it had two parts to it, the main carriage and an extension. The extension was as large as the carriage itself, the two large horses struggling to pull it forwards. It was also covered by a large brown tarp, Malik wondered why… He assumed at first that it was added to fit the remaining villagers on their way to the other town, but something caught his nose as it passed. It was the faintest scent, but he made no mistake, it tasted awfully similar to his breakfast this morning… before it was cooked…

Malik was very curious now, what secrets did this merchant have to hide? He would make sure to find out before he left, especially if it resulted in him making some more money. A very obnoxious man exit the carriage and attempt to greet the nearby villagers, only the soon to be wed woman would acknowledge him. After several moments, the two stopped talking and he went towards the back of his carriage. Malik was already there waiting for him with his massive arms crossed. The merchant all but wet himself at the sight of him.

“Oh h-h-hello there sir, I d-did not s-s-s-see you there… how did I not see you there?” At first Malik thought the merchant was simply intimidated by his presence, but then he noticed his beady little eyes moving around frantically. He was trying to see if anyone else unexpected was in the area, very suspicious. Malik spoke, “I hear you are a merchant. Yet for some reason I smell something very suspicious in this carriage over here…” He began to raise the tarp covering the extension, but the merchant frantically begged him to stop. “Wait wait wait! Please, I beg you, do not open that. I will pay you to leave it as it is. Is that what you want? Money? I can give you that!!” The merchant jumped suddenly as another loud roar was heard in the distance, he began to sweat.

Malik smiled menacingly and let the tarp go, he had the merchant in the palm of his hand now and he was confident he knew what was being hidden. This was confirmed when he heard the sound of heavy muffled breathing from within the tarp. “Very well, pay me 1,000 Ryo and your secret stays safe with me. Although I do not know how you plan on keeping this a secret from mommy…” The merchant’s eyes widened in horror, but he kept his voice calm. “All I ask is that you say nothing of me or my carriage, please that is all!” He exhaled as Malik nodded. Handing Malik the ryo, the merchant went on, “This place will not be safe very soon, I would recommend you make some distance.”


As Malik turned and was about to leave, he was intercepted by one of the older villagers at the gates of the village. He had forgotten the man’s name, but did not bother recalling it as the man spoke. “Sir, please wait! I am sorry to get in your way but I have a request to make!” He had a small package in his hand, was everyone in this area so stupid that they just handed out resources to strangers? “This is the dowry for the wedding, I cannot take it with me as my wife has just fallen ill, I ask that you take it with you to the wedding. I will pay you for it!” This was ridiculous, these people were absolute fools, Malik was having the time of his life, but simply nodded and responded briefly. “Very well, but I need to be paid up front, I will not be returning here after.” The man breathlessly thanked and paid the large brute, before turning and returning to his hut. Malik rolled his eyes and turned away continuing to walk out the gate.


Instead of leaving, however, he looked around to make sure nobody spotted him, before quickly climbing up the largest and thickest tree in the area. From there, he spent the rest of the evening watching the village from above, keeping an eye on the carriage especially. His suspicions were proven correct at sunset, when he saw the shady merchant sneak over to the carriage extension. He removed the tarp as everyone was having dinner inside the large central hut, revealing a baby brown bear, chained, locked and muffled inside. Malik was intrigued as he watched on. The merchant removed the muffle from the bear cub, however, he kept it chained as it began to call out.

He watched the merchant run to another tree and began to climb it, not very well of course, he had no physical prowess at all. When he finally made it to the top, a loud roar came from the opposite side of the village. The one eyed mother bear came bounding in, making a beeline toward her little cub. She roared once more as she attempted to free her baby, but the thick metal bars were to solid for her. Enraged, the bear charged towards the only nearby source of sound, the central hut where everyone had gathered…

Cheers and laughs turned into screams of terror as she burst in through the front door. Malik could not see what was happening inside, but the sounds were enough for him, none of the villagers would survive this. In the corner of his eye, he saw the nearby merchant accidentally fall out of his tree, landing on his backside and groaning. This was not for long however, as he realised the situation he would be in. Instead of trying to climb back up the tree, Malik watched the merchant freak out and run away, not wanting to try his luck and get caught out by the mother bear if she returned. This was Malik’s chance…

Quickly, he dropped down from the tree and made a dash to the caged bear cub. He passed it towards the first carriage, where he snatched everything of value that he could see, robbing the merchant as he ran away from his own dirty work. Before leaving, Malik turned to the cage and ripped open the door, pulling it clean off its hinges and breaking the shackles that bound the cub. Without wasting any more time, Malik ran away from the village before the mother bear exited the central hut, his earnings in tow.

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TWC: 2,741

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Claiming 4,000 ryo
Claiming 20 AP

Using 2,000 WC to claim Eight Inner Gates Skill (741 WC remaining)
Using 741 WC towards Block at C-Rank (741/1,000)

Using 2,700 WC to claim 27 points in Strength

Approved