Something is in our nets! [mission]

Age : 33 Posts : 159

The day started badly for Toyata, when he got out of bed, he found that one of his parents had borrowed his katana, thus he spent a good hour looking for it around the house before finding it hidden behind an awful lot of teacups on a shelf in the kitchen. The rice balls that he usually ate as his breakfast had gotten hard and crunchy as they hadn’t been properly covered but a moist cloth last night. And on his way out of the door he nearly stumbled over a pair of shoes in the hallway. Coming outside Toyata realize that he needed to bring an umbrella, as it rains cats and dogs. Returning inside to get the umbrella, he did (of cause) strip over the shoes that had nearly gotten him the first time, but this time they succeeded. Finally leaving his house Toyata had a bandaged right ankle, a horrible headache and a gashed left hand. He fell head first into the small shoe rack in the small hallway. Normally he would easily have avoided giving the shoe rack a header, but as he stuck his hand to the side to push himself out of the way, his hand connected with the wooden frame, but unfortunately the wood gave way and Toyata’s hand went through the paper wall. This was just one of those mornings.

Making his way towards the fishing port Toyata began wondering about his upcoming mission at the docks, the information given to him were, at the least, limited. The fishermen’s nets are being cut, causing a lot of problems. ”They should at least give me some sort of USEFULL information, when they give me a mission. Anyway it will be fun to see Fumou again.” It had been more than a month since Toyata had helped Fumou win the fishing contest, and he had not been back at the fishing port since, as he had focused on his training, constantly trying to improve himself physically and mentally for the dangerous life, that is the life of a shinobi. After his mission with Fumou, Toyata had actually taken a little time to enjoy the quite relaxation that is fishing. He had yet to catch anything worth mentioning, but he enjoyed the silence of the solitude and the calming motions of the water. Toyata’s train of thought was interrupted as he turned a corner and was now facing the fishing port, but something was … wrong, usually full of life the place was almost abandoned. The only people around the docks were a few elderly men starring out over the water, an old woman hanging some clothes out to dry in the salty wind, and near the waterfront a familiar face, Fumou, and another young man that Toyata did not know.

”Hey lad, it has been a while.” Fumou greeted Toyata with a wide smile. ”This is my son, Kichirou, but let us get down to business…” Turning away and slowly walking towards the area, where the large fishing nets usually stood to dry, Toyata noticed that today the nets were not out to dry, but to be repaired as large holes was evenly spread out across the nets as holes in a cheddar. The young man Kichirou made a small motion with his hand indicating to Toyata that he should follow. Fumou halted in front of the nets that were spread over the large wooden frames and turned around facing Kichirou and Toyata, ”As you can see our fishing nets are ruined and no matter what we do: locking them safely away or standing guard…” Fumou made a frustrated gesture towards the nets, then continued ”I told them that it was a waste of time, but would the listen… nooo, they tell me that I am crazy, but I am telling you that it isn’t some petty vandal, but a yokai!” Fumou was almost fuming when Kichirou spoke up ”Dad…, calm down, maybe you should just give this up and retire, you are not getting any younger…” Toyata was surprised as Fumou slapped his son across the face while given him a hard look ”I am not retiring just because of some yokai, I am seeing this through and won’t stop until this demon has been vanquished” Fumou shifted his gaze to Toyata and pointed a finger at him ”Lad, you get this taken care of, my son obviously doesn’t have what it takes to do so” Turning away Fumou stormed (for a man his age) away leaving Toyata and Kichirou behind. ”You should probably get started, a young boy saw something the other night you might want to go talk to him first…” Kichirou’s voice seemed both distant and sad, he turned away from Toyata and walked away, in the opposite direction of his father.

Age : 33 Posts : 159

Standing in front of the small shack near the waterfront Toyata had been told the boy lived in; he couldn’t help but wonder how different this area was from his own neighborhood. Knocking on the door Toyata had to wait for what seemed like half an hour, he had the feeling of being watched and he could swear that at least one of the curtains moved at some point, finally the door moved although not very much. A small woman had opened the door a few inches and was now looking at Toyata without saying anything obviously waiting for him to speak first, ”excuse me, I am here to talk to your son about the recent vandalism in the area, and I understand that he might have seen something. If he saw something it would be very helpful…” Toyata flashed his most charming smile at her hoping to be allowed to talk to the boy. The woman in the doorway looked at Toyata for a moment clearly measuring him, before given a subtle nod and opened the door for Toyata. Toyata stepped inside and followed the woman to a small boy sitting in a corner of the room playing with a wood carved ship although he didn’t seem to be really playing it felt more like he was in some sort of trance or a world of his own. Toyata slowly approached before sitting a little way from him ”hey, that is a nice boat you have there... is it a fishing boat?” Toyata tried to sound friendly, the boy didn’t say anything, but he looked at Toyata and gave a small nod, which Toyata took as confirmation and then continued ”I heard that you saw something cutting in the fishing nets a couple of nights ago is that true?” The boy nodded again ”Did you see who did it?” He looked at Toyata with a fearful look then with trembling lips, said ”Mm…monster” This confused Toyata ”Can you tell me what kind of monster? What did it look like? A bird? A fish?” The boy started to shake his head violently form side to side, Toyata put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting look ”Cr…crayfish” The young boy then closed up, he stood up and half ran to his mother. Realizing that we would get anything useful out of the boy, Toyata stood up and gave the mother, now trying to comfort her son, a grateful smile and nod before leaving the small shack.

”A crayfish? An enormous crayfish has been haunting the fishing port? That sounds crazy enough to actually look into. I guess it would not hurt to contact a sohei and ask for his opinion even if nothing comes off of it at least Fumou can’t say that I didn’t try.” Toyata thought to himself as he strolled along the waterfront, deciding to give it at try, as he didn’t have much else to go after. Turning away from the water and with a determined walk Toyata began making his way towards the village. As he entered the village gates a sudden thought came into Toyatas mind. ”Where do I find a sohei?” Looking for help in the matter Toyata went to the administrative building in the village, and was referred to a well-known sohei living alone in a small temple a few miles outside of the village. Although the helpful receptionist did more than hint that the sohei in question a certain Eisai aren’t completely balanced. Slightly worried Toyata made sure that his katana wasn’t tangled in any way and easy to get to if a quick draw was needed. Walking through the village Toyata was pleased that the rain had at least stopped for the moment and the village seemed far more alive than it had been just a few moment earlier. Leaving the village the weather had begun to clear and as the rainclouds began parting beams of sunlight reached the ground looking like pillars of light all around the area. Toyata had left his umbrella at the city gate as he didn’t feel like carrying it around anymore when it wasn’t needed. As the temple wasn’t that far away from the village Toyata decided to make use of the short trip to stretch his stiff legs as he had been standing around in the rain and the cold most of the day. The exercise felt refreshing and Toyata felt rather good as he reached the small temple, the building itself had obviously seen better days, the roof was missing more than a few tiles, the area was overgrown with various weeds, and the wooden panels looked like that were about to fall apart. In the middle of the yard facing the road a monk was sitting, apparently meditating in the middle of one of the light pillars. As Toyata approached he realized that the monk wasn’t meditating, but that he was fast asleep, the snoring made that increasingly obvious as he walked closer. The monk himself was a middle-aged man with only a few patches of hair left and a nose that seemed larger than life, as Toyata got closer the sound of small stones crushing underneath his feet woke the monk up, the sound took the monk completely by surprise causing him to try and stand up too fast resulting in him stepping in a fold of his robes and falling into a small water pool face first. ”Welcome to this blessed temple, I am the humble monk Eisai…” The monk told Toyata while trying to dry his face with a part of his sleeve. ”This just keeps getting better.”

Age : 33 Posts : 159

Sitting in the temple Toyata thought to himself how he had gotten himself into this situation, the monk Eisai had excused himself a moment, in the background Toyata could hear him loudly throwing up. Earlier when the monk had finally gotten up the wind and shifted and a foul stench of old sake came drifting to Toyata, how this drunk monk could possibly help was beyond Toyata , but being stubborn by nature, he would at least hear the monk out before dismissing him completely. As Eisai returned Toyata saw a completely different man, he had washed his face and changed out of his old robes now wearing a completely white kimono, but what had changed the most was his expression, he now wore the face of a respected and reliable leader. Quickly telling his story so far Toyata was curious to see what the transformed monk would say and if he could help, Eisai sat starring into the air for a few moments before his facial expression changed into an understanding one. ”It sounds like you have an Amikiri on your hands, it is a Yokai well-known for cutting nets apart and it has an appearance quite similar to that of a crayfish though far larger. Luckily for you, I posses the knowledge to help.” Eisai was practically beaming with confidence borderline arrogance.

A few hours later Eisai gave Toyata a handful of small scrolls and instructions to place these in different areas throughout the dock, this should take care of the Amikiri. As Toyata had just left the temple on his way back to the fishing port the heavens opened up once more and rain came pouring down, ”Of course I left my umbrella at the gate, this is just my luck, what is up with this day?” Toyata thought bitterly to himself. When Toyata reached the fishing port the sun had already begun to set in the horizon, he hurried to the open area where the nets are kept, first Toyata put up the protective scrolls at every entrance and exit to the area, then on every pole used to hold the fishing nets. As Toyata had completed this tasks he went to a hidden vantage point in the middle of the open area, hidden beneath an old tarp between a few old bait barrels, he had a good view of the whole area as he tried to find a comfortable seating position, Toyata watched the sunset, it was really quite a nice evening if not for the rain and the horrible smell of old fishing bait.

Age : 33 Posts : 159

As the evening went on nothing really happened and Toyata found it very hard to keep focused as he sat still for hours on cold and wet rocks, the moon was now clear in the sky and Toyata was beginning to dose off into sleep as he heard a sound from the water. Wondering whether or not he had actually fallen asleep and this was just a dream a giant crayfish-like creature rose from the waters of the dock. Rubbing his eyes Toyata slowly got on his feet whilst keeping a close eye on the creature, which had now gotten completely onto the dock. ”It seems like those scrolls were as useless as I thought, now let’s dance.” Reaching into one of his pockets Toyata retrieved a kunai and an explosive note, carefully wrapping the note around the kunai, then as the creature reached the first pole with the fishing nets, Toyata threw the kunai and as the knife is about to reach the giant crayfish-ish creature, Toyata detonates the note. As the smoke clears the creature turns its head towards Toyata’s hiding place, then very much to Toyata’s surprise the creature disappears in a large cloud of smoke. ”A summoning…!”

Out of the corner of his eye Toyata saw a shadow near a building, whoever it was immediately tried to escape. Rushing from his cover Toyata began pursuit of the unknown individual, the trail of the escaping person was fairly easy to follow, it was clearly not a well-trained shinobi, and due to Toyata’s superior speed he was quickly able to catch up to the fleeing person. Drawing his katana being ready to make a speedy flash Toyata grabbed the right arm of the fleeing person flipping him around and seeing the face of the one who has been causing so much trouble for the fishermen of the area, it was Kichirou.

Shocked Toyata asked ”Why? It didn’t make any sense to Toyata that Kichirou was the one behind the vandalism. Kichirou gave Toyata a painful smile ”It was to force my father to quit the fishing business, he is getting too old for that work, but he is too stubborn to stop, so I had to use more drastic measures… However this really backfired didn’t it… flashing a tired smile at Toyata before continuing ”I haven’t seen Fumou this fired up in decades, but I thought that if I kept it up long enough he would eventually give up.” Kichirou was now slowly shaking his head and his voice was filled with remorse and sadness. ”None the less vandalism is NOT an option, but I have an idea: the stupid scrolls from the monk took care of the monster vandalizing the fishing nets and just talk with your father, I have been told that you are quite a fisherman yourself, but you don’t have a boat yourself yet. Why don’t you take over the family business, allow Fumou-san to tag along once in a while, slowly facing him out of the hard work, but leaving him the sense of being useful.” Toyata suggested, Kichirou didn’t respond for a few minutes, and then he raised his gaze and gained eye contact with Toyata, agreeing with the suggestion he nodded, forcing a small smile and walking away. ”This should be it, I’ll stop by the administrative building on my way home” Suddenly feeling extremely tired Toyata began walking to the center of the village to fill in his report of the mission and then returning home for some well-earned and very needed food and sleep.

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