[Akira]

immediately prior thread

After receiving the ass chewing for the lack of use for chakra seals in his immediately previous mission, Hotarubi sat with a sneer as he waited for a superior to enter the room: for now, he was sat on the opposite side of a desk.

"I've gone through the file enough to know that you have a tendency to go for quite violent missions. Now, as your loving superior I've decided that you need a lesson in humility and we're going to do that in a baptism by fire that will make your career or fuck it to the high heavens." Hotarubi shrugged. "Just give me the mission." The reason Hotarubi was nonchalant is because he already knew he'd been given the mission: he was just being facetious. What the other man didn't know was that Hotarubi had picked the mission himself and so posturing it like it had been this man's decision was an opportunity to fuck the man back.

Hotarubi was intrigued at the man's speech but didn't feel that it was worth being combative over. "Oh yeah, how's that?" He asked - leaning forward to place his elbows on his knees and the ends of his hands on the desk, resting there. "You're not being chosen because you're special, you're being chosen because of the mission. Take a look." Hotarubi would quickly swipe from the air a scroll that had been thrown at him, and he would open it up, glance over it and an eyebrow would raise. "There's an insurgency brewing and you took all the time to write this down?" Hotarubi questioned him, undeterred by the man negging him. "Don't be a smartass. You're a Yamakira and we think that your clan ideology and the need for support makes you the closest possible choice."

"Aww, are you trying to ask me out on a date?" The man roared at Hotarubi for that, and none too long later he emerged from the office - Midori had long gone since then and because he hadn't expected the nicety of the wonman to leave behind the money he didn't even think to look back to see his money on the counter, and the woman didn't seem none too enthusiastic to inform the man - so Hotarubi left and immediately set off on what would be a long journey to get to his next destination.

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SPOILER: Click to show

no longer an ingenue MISSION RANK: C NPC REQUIRED: No RANDOM MISSION SCENARIO: Enabled PARTICIPANTS: Yamakira, Hotarubi DESCRIPTION: As an exercise of self restraint and against the different commotion Hotarubi has faced with bureaucracy and an inability to 'murder everything willy-nilly' is taking on a mission that is out of his usual character. Protests have taken place in the capital city of NISHIMA-JŌ. With nearly eight thousand Shinobi and many of them from the Mikatakujira and Yamakira clan, and a mixture of aggravating insurgents and civilians are crowding some of the more tourist areas of the city due to a recent implementation of taxes. It is theorised that there is a specific Yamakira ninja who is causing the aggravation: and as an outsider, Hotarubi was offered an opportunity to show off his 'skills' and dismantle the situation from escalating. The main specific point of the mission is that it must be done using non-lethal force, all of the hostile participants need to be subdued - the primary aim of the mission is to disrupt the protests ability to become violent, and the secondary task is to investigate and/or subdue the aggravating party if there is one.

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[Akira]

Getting to Nishima-Jo was actually not much of an issue. It did take him a while, but everything did when you were moving slowly. Going from the middle of the country to the north was just a bit of a ball-ache. Having moved into more 'terrain friendly' clothing Ruby (as his brother would normally affectionately refer to him) was making headway and his first day would mean that he would arrive at the Capital with one hour left of daylight: which was not much. But it did mean the nightlife would be there for him. This was perfect: an unknown lad in an unknown land meant that he had the benefit of being a stranger and a Yamakira - receiving the respect and admiration he felt he deserved while also being capable of completing the mission.

That was one of the points, which was they hadn't chosen a domestic Yamakira for fear that they would be recognizable since a sizable portion of Shinobi were stationed in the Capital (for good reason).

The amount of people wearing Haori were palpable and Hotarubi felt wildly underdressed in part of his other compatriots in the area. The winter season was cool and while he had definitely packed for the weather (again - pointless endeavor considering he was made of rock!) he still had to fit in enough and was wearing a much more... appreciable clothing style. He did have the capability to dress as such!

But then there was a point of the protesting. It had been immediate: on entrance to the horizon of the city he could see the people astride the walls with their signs and their caravans, either not entering the city or yelling in cohesion as their little songs and marches took place. Hotarubi paid much more attention as he grew closer. 'Stop the Tax!' they shouted rhythmically. Staring from afar, joining a crowd of the people watching the commotion and the other Shinobi who were watching (guarding?) Hotarubi crossed his arms and leaned over, having been there for a minute before speaking. "What's the commotion about?" He asked. "Isn't it obvious? We're being priced out of the area by big boats!" The man seemed incredulous he was even asked. "Big response for someone who isn't on that side." Hotarubi shrugged, and that seemed to diffuse the situation. "Obviously."

A flicker of annoyance became obvious. Hotarubi had very clearly understood the reasoning for his being there, but what he didn't understand was how... amicable he had to be throughout all of this. Don't hurt anybody. Don't do this. Don't do that. Yamakira did not not things...

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[Akira]

Ruby carried on into the city with nothing but the backpack on his back - while the sun was setting he still had some time to observe but even from his recessed position to the gates in the south of the village with the ports to the north he could see the looming tower of the Daimyo in the distance and it was absolutely, beyond huge. It made all of the others look absolutely insignificant from its defensible position that utilized the geography to its advantage.

Still - with tens of thousands of people it was buzzing enough and bigger than the fake Takigakure population. To one of his sides was a crystal clear river, enough that he could dip his hand and drink - or observe the colorful Koi running up and down them from the orange to the black and white.

Hotarubi also so evidence of the Yamakira clan buildings: they had a specific look to them because of their boons. Some of which were smaller holes which were 'peep holes' that someone could easily slip through and into. It was just one of those feelings that someone had and it gleamed across him. This was a nice place as well. The houses were a bit more modern than what he had expected to see, but it didn't surprise him given it was the capital of his country.

And the evidence of there being protests was evident - materials were assorted and strewn in various areas. The outside of businesses had signs, the windows - people were still holding them even inside the city. He had to identify where people were gathering, where exactly it was becoming problematic and that was where he would start. Just the one problem - if and when he came out, he would become a target. His actions could influence them further and it could escalate… and him? He wasn't cut out for this shit. The Chunin would rise above it and he would.

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[Akira]

The signs themselves were giving him a flavour of what the people were experiencing - some were pleas that were taking the food from children's mouths. Others were more ... troubling in nature. Right now the urge to put civilians down was high. But - he didn't know who was a civilian and who wasn't, since they seemed to blend all together in their Haori. Taking a deep breath in he would turn around.

What caught the man's immediate attention were how the crowds moved, as someone who was becoming more versed with his 'sensory' powers it had become somewhat of an ability to comprehend more around him. It was a differential in classes or types of people: people were avoiding others. It was divisive crowd tactics, the 'me versus you' type thing. Hotarubi in his walking found himself carried up eventually as he moved toward (as 'all things flowed') the daimyo's castle.

Broke out in a semi-square sort of market area that Hotarubi was usually familiar with as all towns and cities had one. One of the many he supposed. This was different though: the quality seemed to decrease a bit, full of the weaklings he thought to himself. But it was because rather than being any dignified shape it broke off into several different directions, like the planning permits had gone all haywire past this point. Noise grew: and the familiar noise of insurgency was to be found.

Hotarubi scratched at his scar, seeing there had been a scuffle - so he could roughly tell. There was (what he believed) evidence of what ninja had likely been doing: crowd control. Moving through and into the crowds, investigating and not yet talking to people he was snooping, learning.

That was what he did for the next hour.

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[Akira]

Honestly, in the hour that had passed he had learned a few more things. People were upset at a tax (obviously) being implemented, it was in poor form and apparently multiple taxes had been incurred before that. They were taking roughly three quarters what they had been from the year's start. Frankly, Hotarubi felt that was still very good and they were lucky to have the Shinobi presence that protected them as much. They would not find a common friend here.

But he had - however, found himself whipped up in the middle of a protesting crowd. He had slunk in like a common villain, but without his own board, without really saying anything: he stood out. The man wasn't participating like other people were, and him being there was as a presence that could absolutely interrupt anything, and frankly, he couldn't be everywhere at once.

Actually, maybe he could. Hotarubi resolved that he would make clay clones when he was able to get away from this. But realistically - this was him doing his job and he shouldn't have been the only person (at least, for a C-rank - and a place like this?) performing. From inside the crowd, nobody was getting aggressive.

And that was when a lithe, mostly-clothed woman practically stomped toward him, and Hotarubi would not have been able to tell it was a woman had it not been for her long black hair going down to her tailbone, because their appearance was highly androgynous and he had trouble understanding if it had been a man or a woman, or both, or neither - whatever it may had been. Well - in truth he still didn't know. But they were older - in their thirties, perhaps. Their expression reminded Hotarubi of a cat by the way a placid smirk was plastered to their face.

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[Akira]

"Yamakira Juno. I haven't seen you before!" She spoke cheerfully and offered a hand. Hotarubi nodded. "Yamakira Hotarubi." "OH! Another clansman!" They were a big enough clan that it was enough they wouldn't have met each other before. A head-buttroduction, and they would be acquainted with one another. It was a little test of sorts and sometimes used as a greeting between clansmen and one that the Chunin knew well.

"Here to join in on the oppression?" She spoke almost too cheerfully - it was one of those ironic types of humour one used. "No. I was visiting to learn Yamakira stuff and got caught up in one of these waves." "Yeah - I didn't see you doing much protesting." He was being watched? The news was too easily shared and while she could have been friendly (hence the approach) it was also a comfortable way to let Hotarubi know that he was being watched, if not by him than others and he would look around - seeing that there were eyes on him just as much as her.

"Well. I need to find my spot for the night. I'll see ya. Maybe not." Hotarubi would shrug, knowing that he had found 'the spot' where everybody was seeming to crowd. "Hope not! This isn't the greatest place to be in Nishima-Jo!" Juno was trying to be cordial and it wouldn't bother him further right now as he made the decision to leave it there. This mission wouldn't be solved by him going balls deep in the first hour of his arrival.

Obviously - he had no intention of going to find a place to stay. The man would break away from the crowd enough to get off the road, onto more 'green' spaces and see if he could find himself another district to see if it was as bad there as it was where he had just been.

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[Akira]

It seemed that it did not.

Before he actually went off, on finding a quiet spot created several clay clones and dispersed them to the points he had been already: they were already of limited intelligence but their primary part of ensuring that fights didn't break out would be helpful enough. They would have the 'one and done' that would temporarily, at the least, prevent people from being overly worrisome.

The other parts of the city as he walked through them were more residential in nature and through the fruit stalls, the side hustles and the people selling food on the street as they approached and Hotarubi waved them off, he did not see the same unrest here that he did there. It was quieter certainly - but when someone had redirected their attention it wouldn't have surprised him if he had found more nefarious things here.

The buzzing of noise continued though, flooding his senses with the sounds, smells, and visual stimulus: on top of his touch. The Chunin took a moment to collect himself and closed his eyes; sensing for a larger group of people. It didn't take far: within his range he could feel them, and would move to that direction.

Then he heard cries out that immediately got his attention.

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[Akira]

As he grew closer to the new crowd - he had already walked a few extra miles. This was widespread... Why had this been branded as a C-rank? Any fuck ups, and he would be the one paying for it. "They keep on killing us! They won't silence us!" The resounding roar of ten, twenty - maybe more? People who had resolved to vent their frustrations and it was more immediate.

Hotarubi heard it there first and it was the first sign that he'd heard of there being an aggravating factor. The man had first come around them and then turned around. Ah - a Shinobi building. That made sense. Outside it stood two guards on either side. But nobody directly engaging with them.

So that was what Hotarubi did.

Hotarubi spent a lot of time interrogating the best he could. It was... difficult. There was a lot of time that had been spent clutching his fists behind his back, but as a ninja they were under his care and guidance. Well. Not his guidance but was there not a moral or ethical purpose that he needed to bide by? He couldn't... didn't feel it.

But what he had managed to do by being talkative and not using his angry voice, or perhaps as an outcome of recognizing he needed Doton tools that weren't to destroy, he needed verbal ones to disarm individuals. So - there was some benefit to him.

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[Akira]

Though he felt the longer he stayed around there the less they were becoming likely to speak to him. It seemed that in fact - there had been someone killing the loudest speakers and they were upset.

"How'd we know you're to be trusted?" "I'm here to solve it." "Bull shit!" And the roars of the people who he had been speaking to echoed the sentiment. There were more.. directed insults at him. "Well, you want any killing to stop? What do you know?" Hotarubi was already losing his cool. "Shut the fuck up. Talk to me." They had tried to interrupt him before he could finish his previous sentence and the rather brutish language seemed to get a group to start mobbing toward him as a semi-circle developed in front of him. Hotarubi closed his eyes, crossing his arms - doing some deeper breaths.

Gods he wanted to smash some faces in - as his earthen teeth ripped against themselves he opened up. "Relax." And that did not relax the crowd as they continued. Man he wanted to shut up these - "Be. Quiet." and they would respond that they would not be silenced. Hotarubi pulled at the shirt of one woman, pulling her close - "I'm here. TO. HELP." He pushed her back - and that did quieten them some, but others were calling for the brutality to the point that the four shinobi had moved forward to quell the crowd. "Nice going..." and Hotarubi was sure that sentence finished with some not nice words from one of them. "One AT A TIME! I CAN'T THINK!" The croak of his voice ripped through the area as his gravelly voice lost its tone. People still made their noise but they did so in their small group with some more hushedness between them as one person did offer and come forward. "Someone is killing you. How'd you know it was a ninja?" One of them produced a Kunai for him to look at. "This is a regular ninja tool." Hotarubi looked at it.

Having pointed it out, Hotarubi inspected it more - on it, an initial. YJ. That was all. That was.. coincidental. That was such a rookie error - or it was a red herring. Ruby wouldn't reach much into it to begin with, but it was a good start... if he just had the opportunity to maybe speak to Juno again.

"Look. I will look into this. You keep this. You guys gotta calm yourselves - alright? Nobody's saying to not protest. Do what you gotta-" Hotarubi hated how informal he was having to be. "-But you gotta not get violent. There are monsters about." And he wasn't talking about a killer in the dark.

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[Akira]

Hotarubi spent some time getting back to his original position and in his defense he had come from a different way: for an unfamiliar land he had certainly not covered it well - relying on his sensory abilities to manouvere his way back to the start. He did not immediately find the woman in the crowds and it was unsurprising. Juno seemed more involved, so he definitely believed that she would be around a bit more.

Besides, it was stupid. YJ to mean Yamakira Juno? It was too easy. Hotarubi was never that lucky and even when he was, lightning never struck twice: his first instance of luck being that he didn't just beat the shit out of a bunch of civilians. Yeah, go discipline! As he wandered he was settling into the lifestyle of investigation again, and he came across more of the crowds with similar reasoning (and thankfully: clay clones strewn about - arms folded and watching them.)

But he did find Juno - recognising her by the erratic hair style and she turned at some point as he was walking, and he waved. He waved down Juno - and was gunning straight for her the way that her reaction warranted further suspicion.

Hotarubi saw fear. That was odd. Maybe it had been the way that Hotarubi moved through the crowd for her specifically, maybe it had been the woman doubting her own messes - that she looked around like a prey looking for a way out.

That was when Hotarubi realized what his real objective was:

Capture Yamakira Juno.

And Juno seemed to realise that as well because she turned tail and began to run: Hotarubi immediately in pursuit of her. But, she was faster: with a grunt he removed his excess weight returning to what would be a 'human weight' and that would allow him to keep up with her, but what he lacked and she gained was her vastly superior knowledge of the land as she ducked and turned - throwing back items as they ran out of the warehouse, into the streets and side alleys as he kept up pursuit.

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[Akira]

"Just - WANNA- TALK!" Hotarubi yelled after her. Obviously that was a pointless effort, but she was a shinobi he could tell by her speed, he would have caught up several times over if she had not been.

She broke through a building - and Hotarubi stopped, tutted, and began working his way around. He did not need to see her to see her, and as she broke through he came to a stop. She stopped moving. Hotarubi wondered if she had used one of their discombobulation techniques... and she had not. She began to slowly work her way back to the window she had broken into - and back out the way she had came in.

Hotarubi grinned. This was a way to catch her by surprise as she began running again, and Hotarubi would keep up: parallel to her but not in her direct line of sight. While it had been difficult in the early days for him to comprehend all of the different senses, this one had been more developed the more he used it. Through the crowds, he found a grin breaking on his face as he kept up with her. She thought she was safe. How incorrect she was.#

This journey took him through a park. Through a few different monuments: a noodle shop that smelled so appetizing. Making a small mental note he would carry - until she came to a slow. Again, thinking that she had gotten away. This actually solidified, in his mind, that there was some guilt there.

Through one warehouse and then another. They came to another semi-empty warehouse of grey and effervescent yellow from electricity. The Chunin slunk: breaking apart himself as she worked her way inside and obviously, there were vents - there were broken windows. It was easy. Astride a metal balcony, he had found his spot as he reformed. He observed for a time - weaponry. Was it really this easy to break into a place? That was a suggestion that he would need to make. Maybe that was an additional mission he could capture and get paid for?

Though semi empty there was a forge line - mechanical workings that people were using to turn presses, twisting metal things to push out kunai. That was... again. Too easy. Hotarubi wanted to learn more but then it went wrong.

That was were something went wrong: his enhanced weight, crumpled the metal grating and he felt through it. "Fuck," and it immediately caught the attention of not just her, but of the other workers. Hotarubi pushed the grate open, allowing himself to filter through it instead of being stuck in the grating and fell to the floor.

As she came to a stop realizing that her plan of evasion was unsuccessful - and Hotarubi knew what that meant. It meant a change of tactic. "It's already over." Hotarubi would start but he would be interrupted by her. "It's never over." She hissed with absolute venom. "Fuckin, really you stupid fuck?"

Hotarubi performed some handseals: huge hands breaking from underneath the flooring, through the metal and began to cause havoc - but it caught nothing but thin air. As an additional fuck you, the workers would end up fleeing as he spent a few hands to ruin the absolute shit out of the working machines. Were they legitimate? Probably. Were they being used for illicit behaviour? Also probably. In his mind, he was fine and still acting within the confines. "I'm pissed off, Juno." Hotarubi stopped - looking around as he knew she was hiding from behind one of the large containers. "I've had to keep my mouth shut this entire mission, but god, I'm going to enjoy ripping your fuckin' head off. You'll survive it." Again, as a Yamakira went.

She didn't yet break through: and so he pushed out his hand and a softball worth of earth punctured through it - causing the woman to spring from behind it. "You're not getting anything. You ruined this place. You're the villain." Her face was grim as was his own: and she began to engage. It was a Taijutsu battle, fine: as Yamakira, they both knew the stakes. A punch here, a kick there: Hotarubi blocking and punching a hole through the woman's shoulder, only for it to regrow.

She was likely a Genin, by the way she was fighting. There was skill there: but she wasn't a Chunin or Jonin. The other Yamakira was not convinced this woman would have had much easier luck against an actual ninja.

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[Akira]

As they continued fighting, she was doing her own work - it was a degenerative and pointless fight by the way they scored rock and earth from one another. Hotarubi would have to regenerate earth from his residual size, as would she. Clocking his arm back and into a cross-block, he dodged left, hooked right into her lower armpit and raised the woman from the ground, and slammed her into the floor. She would dissolve and reform from afar. That was this part done. Hotarubi had been the victor of Taijutsu. "That's it? Pathetic Yamakira. Letting civilians do your job. You know how easily you got caught? Leaving behind a weapon?"

"Not mine, yours." She spoke - as what appeared to be a smile, similar to the one he had said hello to him earlier in the day with. What time was it now anywho? Early hours of the morning, he supposed. But she had a running plan and it was to frame him. "Won't be too difficult to make the newcomer responsible for all of the deaths." And that was it. He had everything he needed to make it work, and she overestimated how much he knew... and the woman would summon a flood of clay and mud from her mouth. Hotarubi would raise a wall by slamming his palms into the floor.

The wall had done its job - and the warehouse itself would be enveloped in a thin layer of mud. Looking around - Hotarubi could see that one of the workers were trapped, so he would take care of that first - going to one of the hands to manipulate it up and over so that he could pull the man up. Then turned and continued walking back to where he'd been - the woman had broken around the corner of the wall - kunai in hand. Looking between Hotarubi and the worker, a thought had come to her mind and it came to Hotarubi as well what she wanted to do. Quickly, and effectively: she threw the Kunai. Not at Hotarubi: at the worker.

It was slow motion to him as he thrust his hand out for the Kunai she had thrown - it had not been intended for him and he knew he could take it - but it sailed far past him. There had to be something he could do.

Pushing chakra through to the extremities, injecting it into the area, rather than pulling it into him he just… made it work. Not quite like a wall: not quite like a projectile. Lots of little visualizations in his mind raised what happened - and to the untrained eye, the earth and rock and dirt wobbled in form as it rose: capturing the Kunai before they could hit any protester. In truth, this was like… super Doton stuff. No hand seals for some of his techniques was already enough of a win for him, but this flat manipulation? That was really something else.

The earth raised up, restoring itself to the floor once it had taken the projectiles down with it. They were done. Hotarubi smirked - knowing that the woman's ruse was up. But he was knocked from his own stupor and amazement to what sounded like utter disbelief as she took a step back.

"How did you do that?" The woman seemed shocked. Hotarubi didn't answer - and it was in that moment that Hotarubi looked his most frightening as the smile dropped from his face.

No casualties. She had forced him - and nearly caused him drama and paperwork. Hotarubi hated paperwork.

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[Akira]

Hotarubi gripped her arm - hard. And yanked: arm ripped off. He would slap her with the arm - sending her barelling. But just as quickly as that had started, he had mounted her: hammer fisting with actual hammers for fists.

The noise was palpable as it crunched from rock against rock and Hotarubi's bare teeth broke off some of the rocks inside it - that was how angry he felt at it. The shitty, fucking-thing-would-not-stay-down. Hotarubi was more than certain it would need more than just the feeling of subjugation. This was personal now: The man would continue beating into the rock desperately trying to reform. Whatever noise had been attempted by the dirt and earth was being muffled by the inability to form any working mouth - until it simply gave up and began to form into dust. Hotarubi spat, more earth from his mouth.

And even when – tried to reform, Hotarubi was there. She simply...

Ran.

Even when it tried to run, Hotarubi carried on. Dust himself they raced through the streets as he kept locked on to her presence. Visually: very difficult, but she hadn't focused on hiding herself and she knew that she would be hunted... they had long since passed the Nishima Jo's capital building - out of the walls and into the wilderness. But, Hotarubi refused to let up. It was difficult in the dark to keep an eye on wooshing noise and dust and stopping the woman from hitting him when she tried every now and again to throw items at him between rocks, branches and anything she got her hands on. She must have known that it was a pointless endeavor against another Yamakira - right?

Hotarubi was putting it to the test to ensure it hadn't been a fluke - replicating the feelings. Rather than try to block them (a tactic Juno was using to gain distance) he injected more chakra yet again, and a wall would just rise: just enough to block it. This was awesome.

His focus becoming ever clear in the rage that he had to keep pursuit until a point which seemed like an hour had passed that it formed into a lump, crumpled on the floor. "Just… enough…" – croaked out, holding out a hand and 'stop sign' for Hotarubi who also reformed around the same time.

Hotarubi was tired. It had not exactly been easy on him either from the use of his own chakra to keep pace, but it seemed he was fresher than the rest. "I don't … fucking care." Hotarubi spoke through his bated breath as he stumbled toward her. This would not be the way he would go out - and he would seize what was his. Performing some handseals, many hands would burst from the ground and begin to cover her - entirely, fully. And it wouldn't stop there as it pulled her up and the hands would raise as they began to coil around themselves, longer and longer until it formed a sort-of boulder comprised of his own doton chakra and techniques. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was water tight and it would stop her from escaping. But, it meant that he had a timelimit: she would be able to rest, and he wouldn't - but he would at least take a few minutes.

He turned and sat his back against the boulder, resting his eyes…

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[Akira]

Waking again with a sudden rush Hotarubi could almost be heard taking a swift breath as he jumped to his feet, looking around the area and immediately 360'ing around the boulder as he was worried that he'd just let someone get away. This did not happen.

The sun was peeking from the horizon, so it had been a few hours. The man chided himself. That was stupid. He could've got fucking killed- powerful men didn't need rest. That was stupid. But on inspection of his handiwork he had not seen any evidence that there had been an escape. Hotarubi just had to trust he'd done the job well enough… but he sighed - fully rubbing at his earthen temples as he looked to the grassy floor. He had to trust it had worked.

Just to give himself some further confidence he slapped the boulder: it reverbed back at him, telling him the core was still there. While that was not definitive, it was certainly something knowing that it wasn't an empty space.

Hotarubi knew that there was a task left: to roll this boulder back to Nishima-Jo, and to do it before there was any possible fight he would have on his hands. The mixture of noises and faces he made as he looked around this area, barely really glancing at anything in the dark he'd just completely ignored where they'd come from as well. But the damage made over the distance gave him a rough idea. The land was not forgiving to him. But - he was strong enough… if he could just get it to a path he could roll it from here.

He sighed, using his strength to grasp, and pull - thankfully the way it had been made there were plenty of ridges for him to grasp as he pulled it up and over him. Heavy it was: and heavy it would continue to be as it weighed him down and his feet into the vegetation by the weight being pressed into the small space that were his tiny feet. But nonetheless, he walked.

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[Akira]

Surprisingly, there was no noise in the hours that followed Hotarubi and his return to Nishima-Jo. Nothing that warranted an additional fight and it just seemed that he had more reserves than his counterpart.

The crowd outside that he had seen on his entry to the city a few days prior had dispersed quite effectively: now, he hadn't exactly 'finished them off' but they were definitely more tame. The tax had not been fixed, but their aggravation had. He himself ignored many of the stares he received for pushing a boulder in the road, distantly creating an obvious mark in the road he'd been pushing it down - which would likely perplex individuals for a time to come whilst it got restructured underneath carriage and foot.

He'd managed to make do effectively enough to know that the job was done, and as he rolled it he was stopped. "Why … are you bringing a boulder in, pray tell?" Four guards forming a semi-circle in front of the boulder with Hotarubi standing behind as they inspected it. "I apprehended Yamakira Juno. They were causing all the tension and headaches you've been dealing with from the protesters. As you know, Yamakira are difficult to keep down. She's down. Inside there. If you get some Fuinjutsu, chakra seals, that'll stop her from being a problem." Hotarubi was happy to wait and he also kept answering their various questions, but rolled inside the city walls, placing the boulder next to a guard station building that attached itself to the wall of the city and he would wait there, arms crossed. Tired. Hoping that he could just go and have a nice meal.

But - if anything, he was pleased with himself. The Chunin had not used force (except perhaps on the one individual) - had kept himself from damaging things, people, or just about anything that was not prescriptive on the mission scroll he'd read. That was a good fucking job well done. In the moment he'd wished that Nageku was there to witness it - to be proud of him for accomplishing it. "That fucking git. Not being here. Weak ass." And there it was, the return back to the original.

But Nishima-Jo was safe for now.

Hotarubi spent the next few days helping to stabilize the situation - and though it wouldn't stop here, it would absolutely be within an acceptable risk.

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