Mission: Plant Hunting [Private]

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

• Plant Hunting •

Mission: Plant Hunting [Private] Tomoe_10

• Preceded By •
I'm On A Boat

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Mizu no Kuni was a nation that consisted of numerous islands; several of these islands were inhabited by the locals, while others were devoid of any current civilization. One of these uninhabited islands was Masquerade’s current destination; said island was called “Tomoe Shima”, apparently for its comma-like shape. This island was one of the further ones from the country’s mainland, as well as one of the least-visited. The lack of human presence there was due to a superstitious belief amongst the locals, who claimed that the island was haunted. No one, not even the most daring of people, traveled to Tomoe Shima, a face that had proved to be a problem for Masquerade. Upon reaching Mizu no Kuni’s mainland, Shihon Shima, he had searched for a boat to take him to Tomoe Shima, but the task had proven more difficult that he had expected. As stated, no one was keen to take him to the island, and the Nukenin was rapidly becoming frustrated with the locals’ lack of cooperation. Fortunately, he did find someone to take him to the island, a small ship that was presently lacking any work. For a fee, they were willing to get Masquerade close enough to his destination to satisfy their fear and allow him to row himself there. As there had been no other options, Masquerade had accepted the offer, and they had set off.

That was how Masquerade could currently be found standing on the deck of a ship, arms folded as he watched the distant shape of Tomoe Shima draw closer. He examined the landmass skeptically. It certainly did not look as frightening or sinister as he had expected. As far as he could see, it was just a simple forested landmass with a moderate climate. There was no eerie atmosphere to it from what he could tell; no ominous clouds hung over the island, and no unnerving sounds emanated from it. However, the locals seemed to be wary of approaching it, though Masquerade had no idea exactly why. Everyone he had spoken to had just said that Tomoe Shima was haunted or dangerous without providing any actual reason as to why it should be. A few had spoken of ghosts and demons, but even those had sounded far too unbelievable. Mind you, Masquerade was not skeptical of the supernatural; not entirely. While not superstitious, the Nukenin was willing to accept that some unexplainable phenomena could exist. After all, he housed an entity within him that once was part of myth and legend. That being said, Masquerade adopted a more logical view when dealing with such situations. If there was proof that the belief was true, then he would believe in it. If not, then he would dismiss it as false. And at the moment, he was starting to think that the rumors surrounding Tomoe Shima fell into the latter category.

Soon enough, the boat began to gradually slow down, at which point Masquerade’s attention was diverted from the nearing island and to the crew member that had come up behind him. The sailor informed the shinobi that this was as far as the captain was willing to go, and that he was on his own henceforth. Masquerade merely nodded as the man led him to a waiting rowboat. Once the bigger ship had come to a stop, the smaller one was lowered to the water, and with a word of thanks, the Nukenin boarded the rowboat and set off for the island. As he rowed the one-man vessel over the water, he glanced up at the sky and the low elevation of the Sun. It would take him no longer than ten minutes to row to his destination, according to the people who had brought him here. He had been told by the ship’s captain that sunset was less than three hours away, and that the ship would not be returning to port before the Sun went down. Seeing as it had taken the party a little over an hour to get here, Masquerade had roughly two hours to finish his mission and return to the ship; unless he wanted to row all the way back to Shihon Shima in this tiny boat. His ride had been adamant that they would leave the Nukenin behind if he was back in time, most likely due to the fact that they did not want to be anywhere near the “haunted” island when it got dark.

As the sailors had predicted, Masquerade reached the shores of Tomoe Shima within ten minutes. Once he had pulled the boat out of the water and placed it securely on the sandy shores, he turned to face the forest ahead. Tomoe Shima was not very large, being significantly smaller than most of Mizu no Kuni’s islands. As mentioned earlier, the climate was mostly moderate; as such, no mist hung in the air, and the temperature was relatively warm as opposed to the chillier levels it dropped to on the other islands. Indeed, Masquerade felt he was in one of the forests of Hi no Kuni, rather than an island in Mizu no Kuni. The vegetation here was more similar to that in the former country. However, the Nukenin did not have time to waste admiring the flora; he had a deadline to keep, after all. With that thought in mind, Masquerade clenched his fists determinately and dashed into the forest.

Now, Masquerade was no botanist. In fact, he knew only a little about plant life, at least in terms of species and the like. While he knew the names and appearances of the more-common plants, he was otherwise ignorant of the majority of these life forms. Sure, he was an admirer of the natural beauty of, well, Nature, but that did not mean he was interested enough in them to want to actively seek out more knowledge on them. That being said, he was aware that many people sought more information on the diverse plant life across the world, which was why he did not scoff at the thought his employer wanting Masquerade to go plant hunting. Yuuji Subaru had his own hobbies, and researching plant life might be one of them; or maybe he had another reason for requesting this favor of Masquerade. The Nukenin had only accepted the mission because he felt he owed Subaru, as the latter had helped Masquerade earlier.

Despite his willingness to help the man, Masquerade had asked Subaru why he did not simply go to Tomoe Shima and get his plants himself. The man’s excuse had been that he got seasick very easily, and therefore would not have been able to make the trip to Mizu no Kuni in the first place. Masquerade had not said anything at the time, but he had had an inkling that Subaru had been lying when he had said that. Now that Masquerade was on Tomoe Shima, and given all he had heard about this place since arriving in this country, he was more inclined to think that Subaru’s reluctance to come here was due to fear more than anything. Perhaps he believed in all the rumors about Tomoe Shima, and therefore wanted someone else to go in his stead? If so, then Masquerade had been suckered into doing this job.

Gullibility aside, though: now that Masquerade was on Tomoe Shima, he needed to hurry and complete his task. He only had a couple of hours to get it done, after all, and despite the apparent simplicity of the objective, finding the items he sought was not going to be easy. He needed to locate and obtain three specimens, which seemed simple enough until one realized that the entire island was covered in vegetation. Sure, Masquerade had a few clues that could narrow down his search area, not to mention he had a more-or-less decent description of each item’s distinguishing features, but the fact remained that finding something specific amongst an assortment of similar objects was often quite onerous; especially when the search area was so vast. Nothing to be discouraged over, though: Subaru had warned Masquerade that the job would not be as easy as it appeared. Then again, he had also said that it might be just as easy, or easier, so perhaps relying on his words was not very sensible. Even Masquerade was not sure how difficult or simple this mission was going to be. There was of course only one way to find out, and that was to perform the actual mission; which was exactly what Masquerade was about to do.

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

Item number one on the list was the “Bonshou Bellflower”, its name derived from the bonshou bell that the flower’s petals resembled in shape. Aside from its shape, the only other distinguishing physical trait that Masquerade had been informed of was the flower’s color: it apparently came in two variations, silver or white. According to his mission details, he was to collect the silver one. As far as it came to finding the plant, well, all Masquerade knew was that it supposedly grew at higher altitudes. While that did help narrow the search area, there was still a problem. Masquerade had no clue exactly how high “higher altitudes” were. As far as he knew, the plant could be growing at the top of any of the trees in the forest, or it could be growing somewhere higher. Since Subaru had kindly neglected to elaborate on this detail (informing Masquerade that he himself did not know at what elevation the plant grew), the Nukenin was in a bit of predicament.

Masquerade looked up from the sheet of paper he was holding, upon which was listed the three items he was searching for, and glanced around. Presently perched on the tree branch hanging over a stream, he could not see much around him due to the denseness of the woods. However, he could see a fair bit above the trees, even from his lower position. His masked eyes stopped as he caught sight of the mountain point in the distance. Tapping his chin thoughtfully for a moment, the boy then folded the note and slipped it back into his pocket, before leaping over the stream and onto a tree branch on the other side. He then set his course in the direction that he had seen the mountain. He figured he might as well start from the highest point possible on this island, and then work his way down from there. If he was lucky, then he would find the bellflower on the highest point on this island, that is, the mountain peak. If not, then he had about several hundred treetops to search through. Oh, the excitement.

A few minutes of flitting through trees later, and the male could be found standing at the base of the mountain. He looked up, up, up until his neck could bend back no further, and examined the climb that awaited him. Needless to say, it was going to be long ascent. Although, he may not have to climb all the way; at least not for the first leg. As he would think this, ghostly wings of a light purple shade would materialize from nothingness on his back. Without a single sound or motion from these insect-like wings, the Nukenin lifted off into the air and began to rise up. He flew upwards, going at a decidedly faster speed than he would have been if he had been attempting to manually scale the mountainside. Masquerade was no expert mountain climber, after all; it would take him far too long to go up like a normal person. Fortunately, Masquerade was not a normal person, though he might not be the first person to say so. Modesty (or whatever this trait should be called) aside, Masquerade did acknowledge that he had a special gift and, at times, an advantage that other shinobi did not. Being able to fly opened up several possibilities for him, even if his ability had its limits. One could say that, of all the abilities he had obtained by becoming the Shichibi’s Jinchuuriki, being able to fly was perhaps his favorite. It definitely made many tasks much easier to perform.

Well, most of the time. It seemed that he had apparently spoken (thought) too soon. Masquerade had just risen about twelve meters into the air when a sudden gust of wind struck him from the right. It was a natural force of nature, not one generated by a shinobi, yet was startling all the same; the primary reason being that the unexpected breeze was so strong that Masquerade had troubling staying steadily in the air. Indeed, without anything to anchor himself to, he had been blown to the side by the force of the wind. Had he not grabbed onto a rock outcropping with a gloved hand just in time, he would probably have been launched far away by the gale. As it was, now that he was holding onto something, the aforementioned launching did not occur. Pulling himself up onto the ledge he had grabbed and holding on to the mountain wall behind himself to avoid being knocked off the ledge, Masquerade took a deep breath and looked around. That blast of wind had been unanticipated, especially since a few moments earlier the air had been completely still. What was more, the wind was still just as strong, and seemed to be unable to make up its mind as to which direction it should blow; it was periodically blowing in from different directions. Also, it was cold - surprisingly cold. Masquerade shivered slightly as he looked up at the mountain with a frown. With a gale this strong, flying any higher would be dangerous. It seemed he would have to climb the rest of the way up manually. Sighing in reluctant resolve, the boy turned to face the mountain wall, and began his climb up.

The ascent was slow and unpleasant. The gale persisted in its ferocity, relentlessly assaulting Masquerade with its forceful push and hair-raising chill. Even the howling of the wind began to grind Masquerade’s nerves. He was half-torn between hoping that the flower was on this mountain, and that it wasn’t. If it wasn’t, then he would have endured all of this for nothing. But if it was, then he would have to eventually climb the mountain anyway. The factor that made this whole situation most annoying was that he had no idea which belief was true; also the fact that he had no idea which belief he should be hoping was true. Luckily for him, he had other things to worry about rather than whether or not the bellflower was on the mountain, such as the fact that he was tending to lose his footing very often as he climbed. By the twentieth minute, he had had so many near-fatal slips that he just decided to cheat in his climb. The boy was now using his chakra to aid him in his ascent. The energy being channeled to his hands and feet were now ensuring that he remained connected to the stones he touched, ironically making him resemble an insect as he scaled the mountainside. While this certainly did make the task easier, it did not mean that the unyielding fury of the wind or the strangely unstable mountain wall ceased in their activities. The only difference now was that the Jinchuuriki was less likely to miss a step. Handholds and footholds were still all too happy to break should he apply pressure to them, and the accursed wind was still aiming to knock him loose.

Finally, after perhaps the most grueling forty-plus minutes of his life, Masquerade at last pulled himself up onto a ledge at the top of the mountain. Rolling onto his back to lay flat on it, the panting boy examined where he was. The literal highest point of the mountain was only a couple of meters above him, but he could see clearly from his position that there was no plant life on it. He did not despair (or rage), however, for there was still hope. As stated before, he was currently on a ledge, and the ledge led into a cave; or more specifically, a tunnel, since he could see the end of the opening from his position. Said end led to the other side of the peak. Having caught his breath, Masquerade rose to his feet, ignoring the exhaustion in his body, and began to slowly walk into the tunnel. He breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the chilly wind and into the much calmer and relatively warmer interior of the tunnel. Not much light entered the passageway despite both ends leading to the outside, most likely due to the fact that the Sun did not face either end of the north-to-south tunnel. Rubbing his goose bump-covered arms and shivering slightly to heat his body, the boy began to walk through the tunnel.

As Masquerade walked, he scanned the area carefully, looking for the item he sought. Much to his frustration, he could not find anything that satisfied him. There were a number of floras in the tunnel, but none of them fitted the description he had been given. He had also not seen anything even remotely similar to the Bonshou Bellflower on his way up. Either that meant the flower was not on the mountain at all, or it was on a side that Masquerade had not been to yet - which he guessed was probably four-fifths of the mountain. Suffice it to say, Masquerade was feeling quite disgruntled as he exited the tunnel, and not just because he felt he had wasted precious time climbing this mountain. The chilly wind had returned with a vengeance, seeming more vicious after the relaxing atmosphere of the tunnel. An irritable and cold Masquerade looked around in annoyance at his surroundings, wondering what he should do next. Should he climb back down and search somewhere else, or continue inspecting the mountain? Neither seemed all that appealing, really. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that, at the moment, Masquerade was feeling very annoyed that Subaru had sent him here with such few details. If he had known that finding the Bonshou Bellflower would be this hard, then he might have… But there was no time for this brooding. He had a schedule to keep, and he had wasted plenty of time already looking for this bellflower. The shivering blonde felt it best to climb back down and focus on locating the other items instead. At the very least, he would be able to secure samples from the other two before his ride back to the mainland left. After all, a mission half-completed was better than a mission failed.

Having come to this resolution, Masquerade was about to cease his examination of the area and step towards the ledge ahead of him to begin climbing down the mountain, when something suddenly caught his eye. His gaze locked onto the lone branch protruding several feet above and to his left from the rock wall. What had actually caught his eye were the flowers growing on the end of the branch: the very flowers he was looking. Masquerade grinned triumphantly and moved closer to the branch, all anxiety and frustration having vanished from his mind. He craned his head up to look at the branch, noting that it was higher than he was. That meant he would have to climb up to it. Once again pumping chakra to his extremities, the blonde latched himself onto the rock wall and began to rise up to the limb. In a matter of seconds, he was level with it and inspecting the now-closer flowers to ensure that they were indeed the ones he sought. He had not forgotten that he was supposed to pick the silver one, not the white one, and while those two colors could easily be mistaken due to their similar shades, that would not prove to be a problem in this case. As it turned out, both variants were right in front of Masquerade, and he easily tell which was white and which was silver. Grinning happily, the boy climbed onto the branch, still using his chakra to keep himself connected to the appendage.

The pleased expression on his face was soon replaced by a grim look as he noted how flimsy the branch felt, as well as how it tapered the closer one got to the end. Hoping the weak-looking limb would be able to hold his weight, Masquerade slowly inched forward on the branch. Aside from a few unnerving creaks, the branch seemed to capable of holding Masquerade’s weight, and it was not long until the Nukenin felt he was within reach of the bellflower. A gloved hand extended forward, directed to the left-most flower, and carefully plucked the plant off the branch. The victorious smirk returned as the hand brought the plant closer to its owner’s body. Masquerade’s expression then froze as the branch gave an ominous creak, and before he could react, it snapped. Without warning, Masquerade plummeted downwards, his body now obeying the will of gravity. He gritted his teeth in anger as he saw the lack of a footing beneath him: the branch had been hanging so far off the mountain wall that it had positioned the masked shinobi several feet out of range of the rock wall. It did not help that a suddenly-strengthened blast of wind slammed into him and threw him off-course, sending him tumbling wildly through the air.

However, the wind had worked to his advantage, because just as the first time he was struck by it, the boy was able to find an anchor for himself. Luck or not, Masquerade was able to clasp a hand around another branch jutting out of the rock face. Rather than wait for the branch to snap from his weight, the Nukenin immediately swung himself at the nearby mountainside and glued himself to it. The onslaught of the wind continued to beat at his body, but he remained fixed to the mountainside. Breathing deeply both from fatigue and aggravation, the boy allowed himself a second to regain his composure. Once he had calmed down, he looked down at his right hand, which was still holding the bellflower firmly. Relieved that he had managed to hold onto the plant despite his aerial tumble, the Nukenin reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a small wooden case from its depths. Steadying himself against the still-blowing wind, he flipped the lid open and placed his find inside, prior to closing and locking the case. Once the container was returned to its storage area, the masked blonde took another deep breath and began to descend the mountain.

One down; two to go.

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Age : 31 Posts : 1836

Let’s see… Where, where, where are you? The Seinen’s pace was slow yet purposeful as he strode over the springy grass underfoot, his path currently following the curve (or curve-like shape) of the mountain’s base - the same mountain he had just been climbing a few minutes previously. The raging wind had ceased its assault once Masquerade had gotten low enough down the mountain - specifically, once he went below the trees. After that, the annoying breeze’s presence could no longer be felt or noticed, even now when Masquerade was out walking in the open. After allowing himself a moment to shake his head at the unpredictability of weather, the Nukenin had then set out in search of the second plant on his list. To be more specific, he was looking for the leaves that grew on this plant.

Said plant was an ivy with leaves in a color mixture of red, yellow, and orange; this color combination allegedly resembled the sky at sunset, hence why the plant was dubbed the “Sunset Ivy” (very clever, yes). Oddly enough, the ivy seemed to grow better in darkness rather than sunlight, which was why Masquerade had been told to search in places where the Sun’s rays would not be able to reach it. The immediate possibility that Masquerade had come up with when given details about the Sunset Ivy was that it probably grew underground, and it turned out that he was correct. The ivy did indeed grow below ground-level, but there was more to it than that. Presumably, the plant’s ideal growth conditions could be found in areas such as underground or cave lakes, where it could obtain all the water it needed and not be “bombarded” by the Sun’s rays. Whether or not these traits where what made Subaru desire to study them so much was of no interest to the Nukenin. What mattered most to him was that he had a narrower search area this time than with the Bonshou Bellflower, and one that ought to be easier to locate than for the aforementioned plant. He was looking for a body of water that was below ground-level, most likely in or underneath the mountain he was currently circling. In fact, Masquerade was pretty much convinced that he would find the Sunset Ivy somewhere inside the mountain. This belief was due to Subaru telling him with unshakable confidence that the ivy would definitely be found in that location. In this case, his employer had been as certain of the second plant's location as he had been uncertain with the first plant's.

Since he was sure that he would find the Sunset Ivy somewhere inside or under the only mountain on Tomoe Shima, Masquerade had been strolling around its base for the past few minutes. His eyes were carefully inspecting every visible inch of the stone structure, searching for an opening. If he found a cave entrance, he would enter it. If the cave was also an entrance to an underwater source, then he would enter it even faster. Point was, he needed to get inside that mountain, and that was all that his thoughts were presently focused on. A shame for him, for what happened next came as an even bigger surprise to the male than it should have: one moment, Masquerade had taken a step like the hundreds before on the grassy earth, and the next moment, he felt the ground underneath him cave in. Before he knew it, the startled shinobi had plunged into an unnoticeable hole in the ground. He soon found himself sliding down a dark, steep tunnel towards more darkness. Confusion left him unable to think clearly for a few seconds, and in those few seconds, the ride came to an end - as did the tunnel.

Masquerade shot out of the tunnel and into empty air, before succumbing to gravity’s will and plummeting downwards. At this point, his senses snapped back to reality, and he immediately tried to materialize his wings and terminate his fall. “Tried” being the operative word, for he had only just thought of opening his wings before he felt himself plunge into a body of water. Submerged and body smarting from the force of the impact, the Nukenin swam his way to the top and lifted his head above the water’s surface. Keeping himself afloat, he glanced around to see where he was. At first, he could not see much due to his eyes not having adjusted to the gloom; after a wait of a few seconds, they did, and he was allowed a more-or-less clear view of his surroundings. An amused snort sounded from him at what he saw. Lo and behold, he was in what was clearly an underground cavern, and what was more, it had a body of water in it. Needless to say, the light intensity was quite low in here, since the Sun’s light was not able to reach down here. In other words, Masquerade had found the place he had been looking for, or one that matched the conditions well enough.

In his inspection of the cavern, the boy spotted a dry patch of stone a little ways ahead, and swam towards it. Soon he was on dry land, every part of his body soaked and dripping. Ignoring the fact that he was completely soaked, Masquerade instead resumed his scrutiny of the cavern. The walls weren’t that high, and he could easily locate the hole/tunnel that he had entered through. It was low enough that he could reach it easily by flying up, and if he recalled correctly, climbing back up the tunnel wouldn’t be that much of an issue either, since it hadn’t been that long a passage anyway. Getting out wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, he wouldn’t be leaving until he had either found the Sunset Ivy, or ascertained that it was not down here. In the latter’s case, he would have to search somewhere else. Hopefully, though, it would not come to that. Masquerade was confident he would find the ivy leaves down here, even if there was no sign of it as far as he could see. However, this underground area was larger than the range of his vision, as evidenced by the fact that a passageway existed to his right. As the water was also flowing in this direction, there was no reason to think that the plant might not be down that passage. As such, Masquerade turned swiftly on his heels and began to march down the tunnel, with the water channel to his left.

He walked in silence for a few minutes, following the natural curvature of the tunnel. He kept mentally visualizing where he would be if he took this path from above ground, and he easily determined that he would be underneath the mountain by now. Most likely, this water body would head to the surface at some point, and link with the numerous rivers and streams all over the island, but he would hopefully find the plant before that. Correction: hopefully, he would be able to find that plant soon. He was not very keen at staying down here for long. A faint sniffle sounded from the drenched boy as he walked, and a shiver ran up his skin as he noted bitterly that he would most likely end up getting a cold. His clothes were wet, and the cavern was hardly warm. Give it time, and he was bound to catch a cold; and all the discomfort he would feel afterwards would be due to his own body trying to heal him. The immune system was sadistic like that. It was times like this that Masquerade often wished he was a Katon user, since he would be able to keep himself warm that way. He disliked the cold, and he was not all that tolerant towards hot weather either. Extreme temperatures were not an enjoyable experience for him.

Those were all random, and frankly, pointless thoughts to be having at a time like this; particularly at this very moment, when Masquerade’s search was brought to a halt. Bug-like eyes narrowed as their owner squinted to get a clearer view of what lay in front of him. The stone floor beneath him had come to an end now, with the water channel to his left now cutting in front of him to merge into an underground lake. There was neither a further path to his right or left, nor any connected land ahead. However, Masquerade had no reason to despair, for his journey had not been wasteful. The Nukenin had not come to a stop just because he had run out of dry land to walk on: he had also spotted what he was looking for. Several meters before him was a small patch of stone (more specifically, it was a large tapering rock) that was jutting out from the surface of the water. Snaking around the surface of the rock was the plant that Masquerade had been looking for: the Sunset Ivy. Even from this distance, it was easily identifiable, due to the fact that the leaves of plant were glowing brightly with the colors he had been told to look out for. The luminosity of the leaves was a trait that he had not been informed of or was expecting, but he was still confident that this was the ivy he sought. As Subaru had mentioned far too many times, very little was known of these plants, so surprising discoveries were bound to be made.

As the plant’s leaves were radiating with the colors of a sunset, the cavern was illuminated enough for Masquerade to have a much clearer view of the area than before. Not that there was much to look at. There was water and rock everywhere; hardly worth admiring. Sights set solely on his objective, Masquerade channeled chakra to his booted feet and placed one of the pair on the calm watery surface. However, as soon as his foot “touched” the water’s surface, he immediately yanked it away and leaped back in surprise. Puzzled eyes darted from left to right from behind opaque visors as they took in the sudden change in the scene. The moment Masquerade had stepped onto the water, the relatively serene surface had began to bubble alarmingly, and it had only been a second later that jets of water began to randomly erupt from the lake’s surface. They were more akin to geyser bursts than anything else, and there were a lot of them - a lot. As in, Masquerade could barely see the stone anymore due to the columns of boiling water repeatedly blocking it from view.

The Nukenin frowned at this occurrence. He would have to get past these geyser-like bursts to get those ivy leaves, and they were definitely going to present a problem. Along with their number, most of the water jets rose almost as high as the cavern ceiling, meaning going above them was out of the question. He had to go through them, and it was probably best if he hurried. While he hadn’t noticed it at first (but certainly had now), the temperature had been raised considerably, no doubt due to the fact that the water all around him was now intensely heated. Masquerade was not sure what would happen to the ivy if it was exposed to raised temperatures (hell, he didn’t even know if they were still worth obtaining), but he was not going to risk the fact that the plant or its leaves might be damaged by this unexpectedly-bubbling lake. Sighing, the aggravated blonde folded his arms and began to watch the jet streams carefully. He obviously couldn’t just charge through the heated water, not unless he wanted to get scalded in the process. He examined the rising and falling water columns attentively, searching for a pattern that he could use to his advantage. The jets were erupting in a timely manner, of this he was sure; all he had to do was find an opening that he could slip through. He may have to hurry, but he also needed to be patient.

Patience was not needed for long: in about a minute or so, the boy had figured out a pattern in the jets’ eruption that he felt would give him the opening he needed. Taking a deep breath, he got into position to begin a quick charge over the lake’s surface. As he waited for his opening, he repeatedly ran over the directions he needed to take in his mind. To say that he was fully convinced he would make it across was erroneous; he was not that confident of his calculations, but he had nothing else to go on. All he could do was hope for the best. If he failed, then at least he wouldn’t have to worry about catching a cold…

Three... Two... One... Go! With the metaphorical timer counting down, Masquerade charged forwards, pumping chakra to the soles of his boots as he run out onto the water. The boiling jets hissed all around him, but he kept his focus on the path he had to follow. Sharp turns; curved sidesteps; brief pauses; these maneuvers and more helped him keep from getting burned, as well as get closer to the ivy. While there were a few close calls and slight slip-ups that could have ended with painful results, all went in Masquerade’s favor. It helped especially that he could predict when a column was about to emerge from the noticeably-intensified bubbling that appeared moments prior to the eruption. Eventually, the boy had navigated around his last obstacle and was now a handful of feet from his objective. With a victorious smirk, he took a step forward to hop onto the rock and keep himself out of the reach of the water jets.

He was caught off-guard, however, when the water directly underneath him began to bubble ferociously: a familiar warning. Without thinking, the boy leaped back just as a violent burst of water shot into the air from where he had just stood. He did not have further time to focus on this matter, for two other occurrences had drawn his attention. In this order: the surrounding jets of water had all ceased, with only the one in front of him currently present; secondly, the water beneath his feet was once again bubbling in preparation to erupt. As before, Masquerade moved away from that spot, but once again, he was treated to the sight of the bubbling water appearing where he landed. Change position - eruption imminent. Change position - eruption imminent. In a few seconds, Masquerade could be found running across the water surface as fast as he could, all while being chased by rapidly erupting geyser bursts. The Nukenin’s face was set in aggravation. These bursts were no longer widespread or fixed; they were literally following him now, trying to douse him in their boiling contents. No, they were not only following him: they were herding him.

As he ran, the shinobi was trying to swerve around the eruptions and get close to the rock with the Sunset Ivy. However, every time he tried to veer his course in that direction, his path would be blocked by an unexpected eruption. Said eruptions were no longer as slow to build-up as before; they were pretty much instantaneous now. It didn’t take an IQ of over 200 to figure out that Masquerade was being kept away from the ivy. He had no idea what the hell was going on, and he did not care all that much right now. He was more focused on getting the damn ivy leaves than caring about how all this was happening. His frustration and anger was reaching dangerous levels now. Like hell he was going to let boiling water outsmart him. Teeth clenched in determination, the boy made yet another dash for the rock in the center of the lake. Thirteenth time would be the charm, hopefully.

As expected, the water directly in front of Masquerade began to bubble dangerously as he approached the plant. However, he did not stop this time, instead continuing his mad dash. Strategy had failed him; he was now going in blindly. Whether his renewed resolve had made him faster or not was debatable, but the boy did manage to cross the oncoming eruption in time, the water only striking the hem of his trailing coat. The fun was not over yet: water jets prepared to burst upwards from underneath every step that Masquerade would take. The bubbling was no longer in front of him, but directly beneath him even as he ran at breakneck speed. He kept his eyes on the goal and not below him, focusing only on where he had to get to. His determination seemed to be helping, for he was managing to clear all the ensuing eruptions just as closely (or slightly less-closely) as the first.

A gloved hand shot forwards to snatch at the leaves on the plant, despite the rock still being a few feet out of reach. The arm was abruptly pulled back and its owner came to an equally-abrupt halt when the largest burst yet blocked his path ahead. What made this one special was that it had erupted around the rock, completely encasing the shinobi’s objective within in its watery boundary. Masquerade was barely given time to recover from nearly running into the column when the he noticed the entire lake’s surface beginning to bubble. Coming to the realization that the whole lake was about to erupt like some giant geyser, the Nukenin performed the only action that came to mind: he leaped forward at the rock and into the erupting jet surrounding it.

A second later, the column of water encasing the stone died down. It fell to reveal a fully-soaked Masquerade crouched frog-style on the top of the rock, his teeth clenched tightly and every muscle on his body tensed. Behind his mask, the boy’s eyes were wide. A loud hiss of pain issued from behind his bared teeth, resultant from the numerous scald burns covering every inch of his visible skin. He was not going to lie: he was in pain. The burns did little to calm his rage, which was had been boiling as much as the lake’s surface moments ago. Holding back the desire to curse everything in the world to hell, Masquerade glanced down at the glowing leaves of the Sunset Ivy. He ripped off a fistful of the foliage with his hand and looked at it briefly, before adding it to the samples case he had been given. Face still set in that murderous look and teeth bared in an animalistic manner, the blonde directed his attention to the surrounding waters. His entire field of vision was filled with innumerable, fierce eruptions that remained constant and unending. There was absolutely no clear, open path for him to take to get back to his starting position; there was no timed sequence that he could use to his advantage. There was only unyielding, scalding water surrounding him. Masquerade clenched his teeth so tightly that they felt like they might break, and his whole body shook with silent rage.

He then leaped forwards off the rock.

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Age : 31 Posts : 1836

If looks could kill, everything in Masquerade’s line of sight would have been wiped from existence right now. If his emotions could somehow manifest themselves through his chakra, then his rage would have left the entire island ravaged and lifeless at this moment. Every muscle in his body was tensed as he stomped through the forest, each step heavy and deliberately destructive towards any vegetation underfoot. His gloved hands were balled into fists, so tight that his fingernails were on the verge of tearing into his own palm’s skin. His lips were pulled back in a vicious, animalistic snarl, teeth clenched firmly. Bug-like eyes were wide behind the reflective visors, as if ready to pop out of their sockets at any moment. The boy was silent, however, both in mind and voice; though, his psyche was currently centered on nothing but fury and frustration. He had successfully made it out of the underground cavern with the Sunset Ivy leaves, but he had not done so unscathed. After running several meters through unyielding, boiling water, the boy had obviously been left in even worse condition than when he had started. Thermal burns and boils had been covering every part of his body (literally, every part), so he had spent the next thirty minutes healing every inch of his body, from top to bottom. He was now free of any blemish or wound that the incident had caused, as well as the pain, but the anger had not been cured. He was livid, furious. Woe be to the person who dared cross Masquerade at this moment, for even this passive-aggressive individual would be willing to maim/murder someone in his current mood; and not in a very pleasant manner.

Boots stopped in front a rushing stream, and their wearer dropped to a crouch to enable himself to dip his cupped hands into the channel and scoop some water up to his parched mouth. For the next couple of minutes, Masquerade remained by the stream, quenching his thirst and splashing cool water onto his face to calm himself. The latter action did help slightly, for the Nukenin was feeling far less murderous after a few seconds. Slipping his mask back on (which he had removed to wash his face), he flopped back onto the grass into a sitting position, arms stretched behind him to prop him up. He sighed heavily and looked around with a disinterested expression at the environment. Two of the three plants that he had been sent to retrieve had been found. He mentally calculated how much time he had left to search. The estimation was narrowed down to about half an hour, give or take a couple of minutes. This all took into account the fact that he would need roughly ten minutes to row back to the main ship, of course. Masquerade hoped to locate and obtain the third item well before his deadline.

The third plant… Well, it was not actually a plant. To be more specific, the third item was actually a fungus, an as-of-yet unnamed mushroom species. As before, Masquerade had been given specifics about the mushroom’s appearance, but that was it this time. He had no information to go on in regards to where he might be able to find it on the island. It existed, but no one knew where or under what conditions. As such, Masquerade’s search range was now pretty much the entire island. Thirty minutes, to search an entire island. No need to explain why Masquerade was not feeling all that confident or enthusiastic about locating the mushroom. He had such little information available on its attributes, and even the knowledge he did have was rather underwhelming. The mushroom was green with white spots. Yes, that shouldn’t be too hard to find…

His thoughts were put on hold as a sound reached his ears. The blonde blinked and looked over his shoulder in the direction he had heard the sound originate from. He slowly rose to his feet, brows knitted together as he listened for the sound. He heard it once more, and his curiosity was piqued even further. He was sure that was the sound of some animal grunting nearby, and he could definitely hear the distant sounds of its footfalls. With casual yet cautious steps, the Nukenin began to walk in the direction from which the sound was coming. It would not be odd to wonder why Masquerade was taking such an interest in an animal. However, if one had seen all that Masquerade had on Tomoe Shima, then they might perhaps share in his curiosity; and what Masquerade had seen was nothing. Since arriving on this island, despite having visited a decent portion of it, Masquerade had not seen anything other than plant life. Not a single animal - terrestrial, aquatic, or aerial - had come into his sights. It was rare to find a location so suitable for animal life to have no such life forms. Masquerade might have just missed them, but he was inclined to think otherwise. He had not heard a single animal’s sound since his arrival, until now. As such, Masquerade was interested to investigate the sound. If this island had strange plants growing on it, then could the same not be possible for animals?

Even if the creature was nothing extraordinary, Masquerade would not feel as if he was wasting his time. He had not forgotten his actual task, to find the mushroom. However, since he had an entire island to inspect, he figured he may as well start from whatever location the animal was at. Besides, he was not all that motivated to find the fungus. The difficulty and near-impossibility of the task was making him less interested in locating the mushroom, and his pessimistic nature was telling him that he would most likely run out of time before he came across it. He was inclined to agree with his pessimism at this moment, not only because it was right, but because even Subaru had told the Nukenin to not worry if he could not find the mushroom. Subaru had acknowledged that the task might too hard to complete with the limited information they had, especially when the lack of knowledge was coupled with time constraints; hence why he had told Masquerade to drop the search if he felt he could not complete it. While Masquerade had initially been determined to complete the entire mission in spite of the potential difficulty of the final stage, it was now a different story. Frankly, after all the annoyances he had faced so far, he was finding the thought of leaving the island to be a more likeable prospect every second.

In fact…

Masquerade stopped suddenly, biting his lower lip in thought. A second later, his expression turned to one of uncaring. He waved his hand at the air in front of him as if he was waving off some comment it had given. The gesture was that of someone deciding to “screw” a task and drop it. That was exactly what Masquerade was doing now. He was certain that he would not be able to obtain the mushroom’s sample in time, so why bother wasting time trying to locate it? He might as well return to the ship and head back to the mainland to send the items he had found so far. Having come to this decision, the Jinchuuriki turned around to head in the direction where he remembered the boat to be. He no longer cared about inspecting the source of the grunting eithe, since leaving the island was more appealing to him than investigating the landmass. As such, when he turned his back to the area from where the sounds had come and faced the direction in which the boat lay ahead, he began to casually stride forwards. Or rather, he made to, since he had barely taken two steps before he abruptly stopped once again. This time, however, his stop had been due to something directly ahead catching his eye. There, growing out by the roots of a large tree, were a cluster of white-spotted, green mushrooms.

The surprise on Masquerade’s masked face transformed into amusement. “Well, what do you know…,” he remarked in an impressed tone. He never would have thought that he would just stumble upon the mushrooms like this. There was definitely no doubt that these were the mushrooms he was looking, for a check of his list revealed that the fungus matched the description he had been given. Triumph visible on every part of his face, the Nukenin pocketed the list and advanced towards the fungus. This worked out splendidly. He had found the mushroom, which was right in his sight and just waiting to be picked, and he had more than enough time to return to the ship waiting for him at sea. Things couldn’t go any better than this.

He spoke too soon. Masquerade had only taken three of the ten steps he needed to cover when a loud bellow caused him to halt in his tracks and glance back over his shoulder. The next moment, he had to dodge to the side as something very big and very hairy came charging at him. The blonde flipped back to a safe distance before glaring up at the creature that had interrupted him. His glower turned to surprise as he surveyed the animal before him. The interrupter was a boar, but it was not like any boar Masquerade had ever seen. To start off, it was huge. As in, it was about eight feet tall on all fours, and nearly as long. Its tail was long and whip-like, flicking through the air angrily. It stood on thick, muscled legs with sharp-edged hooves, the foremost right of which was currently pawing the ground aggressively. The boar’s curved tusks were nearly as long as Masquerade himself. Maniacal and seemingly-luminous red eyes were glaring at Masquerade from above the wide, flat snout. Trickles of saliva were hanging from the beast’s mouth as it bared its herbivorous teeth at the Nukenin. A loud snort sounded from the boar’s nose as it growled threateningly at the human. Masquerade was too bewildered to speak or react at first. He was willing to bet that this pig was the animal he had heard earlier, but he was more focused on the fact that it had just tried to skewer him. What, was he on its territory or something? Well, too bad for the boar. Masquerade’s eyes shifted to the mushrooms that were to the boar’s right. He needed those mushrooms, and he highly doubted a boar would be able to keep him from it; even if it did look like some demonic boar straight out of Hell.

Keeping both the boar and the mushrooms in his line of sight, Masquerade began to slowly inch towards the fungus. The boar growled angrily again and advanced a step closer to the Nukenin, its fiery gaze never leaving him. Masquerade’s own eyes narrowed for a moment, before he made a dash for the mushrooms. The boar roared and charged to intercept the shinobi, covering the distance between them at a startling speed; it forced the human to backpedal in his course to avoid the being run over by it. Once again, Masquerade placed some breathing room between himself and the animal, or tried to: no sooner had the boar shot past Masquerade and missed him when it skidded to a halt and shifted its course at the backtracking Masquerade. The Jinchuuriki’s eyes widened in surprise as he rolled out of the way of the boar, but had to immediately leap to his feet and continue running as the beast came round for another charge. As he ran and dodged, Masquerade learned two very important facts. First: the boar was really fast. Second: the boar was not letting him near the mushrooms. Third: the boar was really fast.

Eventually, Masquerade had no choice but to retreat. He turned tail and ran in the opposite direction of his objective, and soon enough the boar stopped giving chase and returned to the cluster of mushrooms. This was Masquerade’s cue to stop running and look back. The boar and the tree with the mushrooms were no longer visible from his position due to the numerous trees blocking his line of sight. Scratching his head in confusion at what had just happened, Masquerade turned around and began to sneak back as silently as he could towards the area where the mushrooms were. Making sure to keep himself hidden behind a dense bush, he managed to get close enough to see the mushrooms and the boar. What he saw set off the alarm bells in his head. The boar was currently eating the mushrooms. Masquerade’s hands tightened into fists as he tried to calm himself. Obviously, if he did not hurry, then the boar would eat all those mushrooms, and Masquerade was not going to go search the rest of the island for them. He had already been prepared to abandon the mission before he had found this batch. At the very least, he was going to get these while he still had the chance. But that chance would soon vanish if he did not stop the boar from eating all those mushrooms. No doubt this had been the reason why it had attempted to keep Masquerade away from them. Masquerade doubted that the boar would be generous enough to let him take one of the mushrooms for himself. He would have to take one by force, but to do that, he had to figure out a way to get past the creature. Taking a deep breath, the Nukenin readied himself to make an attempt to seize the mushroom. All he had to do was get past the boar, grab a mushroom, and get the hell out of here.

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Age : 31 Posts : 1836

All he had to do was get past the boar.

Turns out, that was easier said than done. As it turned out, the boar was a bigger hindrance than Masquerade had predicted. His initial attempt to obtain the mushrooms had been the same as his first encounter with boar: he had tried to go around the creature and get closer to the tree. But the result had been the same before. The boar had kept intercepting him whenever he neared the mushrooms, showcasing its speed to the human. After two failed runs with this plan, Masquerade had then tried to lure the boar away from the tree, which had failed as well. Following that, his plan to silently approach the boar from the top and seize a mushroom while it wasn’t looking failed, too. He tried several approaches, but they all failed just as spectacularly as the previous ones. Outwitting, outmaneuvering, or outrunning the boar seemed impossible. The animal seemed sentient enough to figure out when Masquerade was trying to trick it, which resulted in it managing to foil Masquerade’s plans before they even came close to succeeding.

Damned pig. Suffice to say, Masquerade was losing patience very quickly. No matter what he tried, the boar kept intercepting him. He had even tried to paralyze or restrain it with his jutsu, but to his surprise none of them had worked. The only option he could think of now was either fatally wounding or killing the boar, however he was completely against doing that. Masquerade could not properly explain why, but he was against the idea of harming the boar. Perhaps it was the fact that he had been taught to treat all animals with kindness. Whatever it was, the Nukenin could not bring himself to harm the boar, despite how much it was annoying him right now. Besides, Masquerade was sure that even if he unleashed his most deadly jutsu on the animal, it would find a way to survive and continue to obstruct his path. He did not know whether to feel respect or dislike for the persistence this pig had displayed so far. Hmm, probably dislike, since it had come close to impaling him far too many times. That, and it had head-butted Masquerade plenty of times in the rear. His bottom was currently very, very sore.

Exhaling deeply in aggravation, Masquerade glanced from behind his hiding spot at the boar, which was still occupied with its meal. By now, it should have eaten all the mushrooms, but Masquerade’s constant interruptions meant that it had had to stop eating to defend its meal. However, more than three-thirds of the mushrooms were already gone, so Masquerade had little time left. Not to mention, he only had about twelve-to-thirteen minutes left until his ship left. A resolute expression appeared on the male’s masked face. He had only one chance left to get those mushrooms. Either he got them now, or he left without them. He could not afford to waste time on a second run, not when he was almost out of time. Taking a deep breath, Masquerade rose to his feet and casually strolled out from his hiding spot. His presence was noticed instantly by his adversary (yes, he had just called a boar his adversary); the savage beast turned to face the human, its eyes filled with the same murderous ferocity as all the times before. Masquerade may not be willing to harm or kill the boar, but it certainly was willing to. Those mushrooms must taste really good.

Once Masquerade was three meters away from the boar, he stopped and calmly stood his ground, as if inviting the boar to attack him. The creature was all too happy to oblige: with a fierce roar, it lowered its head and rushed at the human. At this point, Masquerade would normally have tried to dodge, but he did not do so this time. Instead, he began forming a sequence of handseals, and as he completed the last one, he slammed his foot onto the ground; at that moment, the boar was exactly five feet from impaling Masquerade on its tusks. It did not get the chance, for the ground beneath the two had collapsed the instance that Masquerade had slammed his foot on it. With a squeal of surprise, the boar dropped into the deep pit, while Masquerade remained hovering atop it using his wings. The boy did not waste any time, though. Immediately after executing the jutsu, he had landed on the edge of the pit behind him, and had then proceeded to sprint around it and towards the mushrooms as fast he could. He had just managed to get within arm’s reach of the fungus when he heard a loud growl behind him, followed by an equally loud “thud”. Masquerade instinctively glanced back to see the boar standing at the edge of pit, having clearly jumped up the five meters from the pit’s bottom (needless to say, an amazing feat). The creature spotted Masquerade and immediately charged at him without any warning.

Masquerade hurriedly snatched a mushroom from the bunch and leaped upwards, as high as his legs would allow. He managed to get high enough in the nick of time, the boar’s tusks missing his feet as it reached his position. The human’s free hand grabbed onto a low-hanging branch and he was able to pull himself up. He shot a glance down at the boar, whose tusks were momentarily stuck in the thick tree trunk. However, it had pulled itself free a second later, and glanced up to see Masquerade holding one of its mushrooms in his hand. Masquerade jerked in surprise as it gave a howl of fury and proceeded to ram its head against the base of the tree. The entire tree shook, and the Nukenin had just enough time to leap onto another neighboring tree before the first one fell over. The human and the boar’s eyes met for a moment, before the former began to leap through the trees as fast as he could, away from the boar. The pig gave an enraged roar and went after the human, eyes glowing madly.

As Masquerade made his way across the treetops towards the beach where his rowboat would be, he could not believe how determined the boar was. He had only taken one mushroom, but the boar was chasing after him like he had just kidnapped one of its children. Not only that, it seemed to be craving blood as it madly pursued him. It repeatedly tried to knock him off the tree branches he was flitting across. More than once, Masquerade nearly lost his footing and almost fell down to the waiting beast, but with some fancy aerial moves he was able to land on another branch. The boar would then continue trying to knock Masquerade down. This pattern continued for several minutes as Masquerade ran, until eventually the Nukenin found himself at the edge of a cliff. From here, he could easily see the beach he had to get to. Hearing the boar coming up behind him, Masquerade leaped forwards off his branch and the edge of the cliff, plummeting downwards towards the treetops below, using his wings to slow and guide his fall. He would glance above himself once at the edge of the cliff to check for the boar, but would see no sign of it as he would drop below the treetops. Masquerade literally hit the ground running, and was soon bolting as fast as he could in the direction of his rowboat. He was not going to relax just yet: he knew he had not outrun the boar.

Soon enough, Masquerade shot out of the trees and into bright sunlight. He skidded to a halt and glanced at the spot where his rowboat was, only to find that it was not there anymore. He gaped in disbelief, wondering where it had gone. The rope that had been holding it had been severed, and as the Nukenin’s eyes shifted out to the ocean, he spotted his boat. It was several meters out at sea, and Masquerade wondered how it had managed to get there. He was not able to ponder on this any further, for a heart-dropping howl from behind alerted him that the boar had caught up. Without thinking or looking back, Masquerade dashed forwards and dove into the sea. He swam as fast as he could away from the island’s shore and towards his small rowboat. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that boar was skirting the edge of the beach, wailing and roaring madly at the retreating Masquerade. Relief overtook Masquerade as he realized that the boar was not going to follow him into the water. He did not lower the speed of his freestyle, however; he maintained the same pace until he had caught up to his rowboat; with a grunt, he pulled himself up into the vessel and collapsed on the wooden floor, panting heavily as he lay in a sprawled position. His hand shifted to the pouch containing the samples, to which he had already added the mushroom sample. A weak smirk managed to slip onto his face. Mission accomplished.

Or not: a loud squeal, followed by a splash, snapped Masquerade back to his senses. He shot up to a sitting position and glanced over the edge of the boat to see the boar swimming furiously towards him. The Nukenin cursed mentally and grabbed the oars of his boat, but he had barely begun to row when the boar slammed into the side of the boat. The determined animal rammed its tusks into the side of the boat and tore off several of the panels, allowing water to rush into the vessel. Masquerade gritted his teeth in annoyance and leaped out of the boat, channeling chakra to his feet so that he stood on the water’s surface upon landing. He and the boar glared at each for a moment, before Masquerade spun on his heel and ran over the water in the direction of the ship waiting for him. Even now, the boar continued to give chase, swimming as fast as its limbs would allow. Noticing this, Masquerade quickened his pace, bending his upper torso forward to give himself a more streamlined shape. Luckily for him, the boar was not as quick at swimming as Masquerade was at running. The shinobi was rapidly increasing the distance between himself and his pursuer, and he was not planning to stop or look back. All the Nukenin had his eyes set on was the distant shape of the ship ahead.

After a minute or so, Masquerade heard the boar’s cries cease, and when he looked back, he saw that the creature had finally given up on its chase. It was now swimming back to the island, and the sight nearly made Masquerade lose his concentration and fall into the water. But the hurdle was not over yet. With a deep breath, Masquerade resumed his run towards the ship. With the rowboat destroyed, running was the quickest way back to the ship, even if it was a long way back. After over five minutes of nonstop sprinting, a gasping and breathless Masquerade reached the ship, staggering as he called up to the crew to pull him up. He was noticed by the men pulling the anchor up, and with their help he was brought onboard. Glad that he had literally made it just in time, Masquerade collapsed onto the deck of the ship, completely exhausted and drained of energy. He felt like lying down on that uncomfortable wooden floor and just sleeping for two days straight, but that luxury would have to wait. One reason was that he had return to the mainland and have the three samples sent to Subaru. Another reason was that he had to answer, deflect, or ignore the questions being asked by the curious sailors. The entire crew was eager to hear Masquerade’s story, but he was too tired to tell it to them; though, he would not have even if he had had the energy. All he told them was that it was better to just avoid the island altogether.

While his words merely fed everyone’s belief that Tomoe Shima was indeed haunted, Masquerade was still not willing to believe that. Sure, there had been a number of unexpected occurrences throughout his mission, like the wind, geyser bursts, and that psychotic boar, but that did not mean that the island was haunted. There had to be a perfectly logical explanation for why an unexpected wind storm would try to knock him off a mountain, why an underground lake would suddenly turn into a giant pot of boiling, sentient water, or why a demon pig would go to great lengths to ensure he did not get his hands on its meal. There was bound to be a practical reason for all that. Right?

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~ Mission Complete ~

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