[Hōzuki Keneō]

DRUG BUST
MISSION RANK: C
NPC REQUIREMENT: N/A
PARTICIPANTS: Unassigned
DESCRIPTION:
There has been a rumor going around the lower class residential district of a potential home grown drug dealing 'ring' slowly growing. The problem is, is no one knows where it is. Investigate, determine the exact location and eradicate the ring before it poisons the local youth more than it already has.

These were truly interesting times - that was what Ken was thinking to himself as he went into the office for the first time this week, ready to pick up his assignment. As a new member of the Hidden Mist police department, the boy had been allowed entry at the lowest level, a position that essentially translated to him being a beat cop. But that was exactly what he wanted. Already being an aspiring shinobi that was really to climb the ladder and become a protector of the country, he was more than okay with just staying near the bottom as far as policing went. It meant that he could do what was expected of him, rather than forcing him to go above and beyond.

It meant that he was able to just patrol the streets, respond to any kind of situation that caught his eye and help those that approached him on the streets. That at least seemed to be the job when going by the description provided - that and the fact that he was supposed to be writing tickets and handing out fines rather than actually bringing people in himself. He could, though it wasn't directly what was expected of him. But just because it wasn't directly expected of him was not going to stop him from doing what he felt was the best course of action. He had plenty of training under his belt and had already managed to round up several missions for the village, some of those entirely by himself.

While that wasn't something he was going to flaunt or hold over others, it did serve as a reminder that he was at the very least good at what he did. And that at least demanded some modicum of respect, at least from his perspective. So even though most of the people he worked with still had no idea who he was, and the civilians in most districts had only maybe seen him once or twice in passing, his goal was to make sure the people got to know him - and got to respect him. Not because he wanted to appear strong or lord over them the fact that he held some level of authority, but because he wanted to do what was best for everyone and ensure people could live their lives in safety.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

That was what he aspired to at least, though there was really no telling whether or not he would be able to get to such a point. He was rather on the short side, and due to his age, it could be stated that he would not come across as imposing or threatening. And while it wasn’t a requirement for a police officer to look imposing or threatening, it wasn’t the worst thing to bear some sort of weight in the department of looks. It was the first thing people saw when they laid their eyes upon someone, and if they were not instantly taken seriously, that might be reason for their work to be impeded by impudent locals. And in that one could see the inherent problem.

Unfortunately for Ken, the only thing he could do in order to get people to take him seriously at times was to include the use of his shinobi skills from time to time. After all, when a perp tried to run away from him, the use of the body flicker technique or the ability to run across the surface of a pond or stream or up the side of a building or wall came in particularly handy. Even though he only got to use it once so far in order to get a purse snatcher off of the street and return said person to their owner, at least people had seen that someone with his stature could still pull some amazing feats that belonged primarily to the shinobi.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

This particular mission he had been assigned to was nothing like dealing with a purse snatcher, a cat stuck in a tree or a dispute between two angry drunks in the middle of a crowded street. As it turned out, citizens of the village had been coming in to the local hospital one after the other with signs of overmedication. Or in other words, they had been overdosing on something, and it wasn’t on pain medication or pollen allergy pills. There appeared to be some sort of a new drug on the street, a drug of the illegal variety that had been circulating within a certain demographic of civilians that were either just below or just above the legal drinking age. And that was in and of itself bothersome for various reasons.

The nightlife within the Hidden Mist seemed to be the kind of thing a lot of people between the ages of eighteen and thirty enjoyed, perhaps more than they should. From the perspective of a young shinobi such as himself, it was at the very least good to know that his hard work and that of his fellow ninja allowed these people the chance to live out their days in the way that they did. When he thought about the times when shinobi died out in the field, only so some people could abuse the law and go about making money by creating and selling illegal drugs was honestly enough to ruffle his feathers and awaken his ire. Because to someone like Ken, who’s parents had died protecting the village, it felt like being spat in the face.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

But for the time being, he would put his own personal thoughts aside in order to boot up some good old detective work. Having been given his mission along with a relatively short briefing informing him of what little they knew about the perps and the situation regarding the drugs and the people that had become hospitalized, which was at the very least a decent enough starting point. With the other officers having interrogated those hospitalized civilians that could actually speak as some had even been put into a comatose state to increase their chances at survival after an earlier patient had ended up dying, Ken was given a decent amount of information to work with. And there was one place he knew he should start: the lower class residential ring.

As someone who himself lived in the former home of his parents in the middle class ring, Ken knew a good deal of civilians from his own block, knew a bunch of people from making visits to the grocery store and markets and at least recognized a good deal of faces when going around the residential areas. In truth, he felt kind of bad that he needed to patrol the area where those lived that had the least to spend. But if those same people believed that it was fine to flood part of the village with faulty and illegal products, just to make some quick money that might put them higher up in the world, they had another thing coming. But before that, the young policeman needed to find them.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

And that wasn’t as simple as some might have initially believed when they handed the assignment down to Ken alone. Perhaps it was because of how he had spoken when he had tried to sell what abilities and skills he could provide to the police force, that people were now testing to see whether he would be able to live up to the expectations he had set for himself. Of maybe the goal was for him to fail and strand the ship early, asking for assistance in an effort at showing that he wasn’t all that he believed. And finally, there was the slim chance that the higher ups in the force actually had some faith in his abilities to not only find out where this whole problem had originated from, but to put a stop to it all by himself.

Not being the type to shy away from a challenge when something important was on the line, the ashen haired shinobi made his way into the residential area. Not too far from the residential area, there was a strip where people liked to go out, though it was more than likely going to be relatively quiet around there right about now. It was daytime, and not a whole lot of interesting crime happened in broad daylight, as no self-respecting dealer was going to stand on a corner peddling their crap to drunk teens and adults alike. They more than likely made quite the point out of not sticking out like a sore thumb, so he would more than likely not find anyone here right now.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

But scanning the area by day would at the very least give him an idea of the lay of the land, which would come in handy when he came back at night. For now, the boy would head deeper into the residential area to where the lower income families lived. At first, one could be excused for not really seeing the difference between one area and the next, though it wasn’t long before one might notice some of the buildings being slightly more run down. Paint crackling off due to poor upkeep, trash piling up in the yard, a lawn that hadn’t had its grass cut in who knew how long, windows that had their curtains closed even during the day and even a busted glass here and there.

It often made him wonder whether these kinds of people simply did not care about the state they left things in, were just leaving things the way they were while waiting for someone else to take care of it, or if they simply hadn’t noticed. Finding the latter too silly to be true as he himself was the kind that kept his hedges trimmed, his lawn short and his windows crystal clear. If nothing else, moving through this area and seeing some of these houses in such a state just made him that much more motivated to keep his own home tidy so no one else would pass by his home and think of him as some kind of lazy slob. As he thought about his own home, there was something Ken started to notice moving forward.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Most likely due to the attire he wore being that of the hidden mist police force, he could sense that some people were being shifty and on edge with him. For whatever reason, they seemed distrustful and less than content with his presence here, which could either be a sign of them having had trouble with the police in the past, or it meant that they were guilty of something that they wished to hide. Luckily, most people weren’t all that great at concealing their true intentions, not like shinobi were. Ken for one had been trained quite well in keeping his true intentions hidden while going about his business, as a shinobi spilling the beans on the first round of questioning would have been rather bad.

Rather than hiding that he was a part of the police department, the boy decided to own it as he began speaking to people in the streets, asking dumb questions like how things were in their neck of the woods. Inquiring if there were things they needed help with or if there was something pressing that they wished to share, safety concerns or anything of a similar nature. Most did not have a whole lot to say, claiming they were quite content with how things were going on their block. Others outright ignored him and scurried into their homes at the very sight of him or after being asked if they had heard or seen anything. And then there were those who were outright choosing violence by asking what law enforcement was doing in this part of town.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Clearly not being intimidated by a mere civilian with a big mouth, the Hozuki made an attempt at figuring out where the anger was coming from by asking if there was something on the man’s mind. There had to be something that made him act out in the way that he did, but if he wouldn’t verbalize it, there was no way for Ken to know as he lacked the ability to read minds. At first, this seemed to only further antagonize the man, who had no real urge or need to speak to him – that was, until his wife came walking out of the house and brought up the issue of drugs in their streets. While she was being somewhat more cryptic about it, Ken could read between the lines well enough to make out what was being implied here.

And the way he heard it, it seemed clear as day that the man and woman were parents to a child that had been hospitalized due to the effects of this poorly designed drug. Keeping their voices down, they seemed to be under the impression that there were those around that were benefitting from the drugs being pumped out into the streets and were planning on making much, much more. That, and they were violent, violent enough to shut up any who raised their voices against them in protest. It was why a lot of the people Ken had approached thus far had kept their mouth and crept away as quickly as they could, just so they would not be seen talking to the police about the obvious issues at hand here.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Asking why they were now talking to him as he was a police officer himself, albeit one at the very bottom of the barrel, they said that there was nothing these people could do to them that had not already been done. Claiming their son was fighting for his life in the hospital after being put into a comatose state, doctors were honestly struggling to figure out where to start due to the horrible way in which these drugs had been designed. It was clear that they had only been made to be pushed out quickly, make people feel good for a bit before causing them to collapse in the majority of the cases that had been seen so far. Those that had managed to get one of the ‘good’ pills, or perhaps ‘better’ would have been a better wording, had only struggled from mild headaches.

Providing Ken with a few physical descriptions and the number of a house that he should be looking into because of presumed illegal activities, the rookie honestly knew that he needed more. Presumptions did not provide him with a decent enough basis with which to go barging into a house, even if his intuition told him that it was a place that needed to be looked into more closely. For now, he would need to wait for it to get dark. Once it did, it would be much easier to snoop around the outside of the house, keep an eye on anyone coming and going into it, as well as potentially having a look inside under an altogether different guise. Going in as Ken would be problematic, but if he could figure out a good enough cover, he would stand out a lot less.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

And so the waiting began. Patrolling the block various times while continuing to try and talk to people to varying degrees of success, Ken retreated to one of the local dining establishments. The rates here were not as high as they were in some other parts of the village, though the food they provided for the amount they requested for it was actually fair and decent. And that was something someone such as himself could respect, business owners knowing the kind of people that served as their target demographic and adjusting their prices so that they could spend what money they earned for a decent meal. It was due to things like that that he honestly felt like most of the issues here could be worked out, as long as people were willing to work with him.

But that meant building up trust, and trust was best earned by providing people with something they truly needed. But that could wait until after he had eaten, or rather, it had to. Serving some plain Ramen without a whole lot of fresh ingredients aside from some mushrooms, a bit of chicken and a boiled egg, the young man made sure to work it down slowly as he wanted to sit in this spot behind the window for a while. Not only did it serve as a proper vantage point, it also allowed him to kill some time while getting his fill and keeping an eye on the street for anyone that might match some of the descriptions he had been given. Mulling it over in his head as he slurped down some of the noodles, it was bothersome that he only had three separate descriptions to work with and not a single name.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Long after his last bite had come to pass, darkness had started falling over the village, as the young shinobi left the dining establishment in order to do some more recon of the area. Knowing what type of people to look for based off of the description of the three people he had been given, Ken decided to give himself a little makeover. Utilizing the Hozuki's more advanced version of the shapeshifting technique, he took on the appearance of an older teen roughly in his late teenage years. Aiming to look close to the age of twenty, most of his features would remain the same, including his white hair, though he had imitated a more modern style of clothing to mimic that of people he had seen in the nightlife area.

With his new attire, taller stature and older appearance, he would be able to traverse this area without having to worry about people thinking he was a police officer or simply too young to be here, or worse: both. He needed to fall into the target audience, the demographic decided upon by these individuals that were dealing in faulty illegal drugs in order to get a reason for breaking into the building. As these kinds of things often required permits or higher ranking officers to do the bust, Ken had to be sure that when he broke in, he followed up on all of the rules and did so only after he had gathered up plenty of reasonable cause for a bust. After all, entering into someone's privacy by kicking the door down was heavily frowned upon.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

And understandably so, as he too would have been incredibly angry if someone knocked down his front door based on faulty reasoning and lacking evidence. So as he trekked on through the strip, he watched as people were taking shots from bottles outside and having a rowdy and good time. At least for now, as he assumed they would be up for a rough awakening during the next morning when all of that alcohol would come back to bite them in the ass. The boy didn't understand one's need to poison oneself in order to have a good time, understanding the need for altered medication for the same exact goal even less. Because people often blamed the people who sold drugs for the issues it caused.

And while that was honestly a fair approach, one had to keep in mind that unless there were people that wanted to buy and use them, they would have no business trying to peddle it on the streets. It was a case of supply and demand where the suppy depended on how high the demand was - meaning that if nobody 'demanded' it be made, the 'supply' would stop as there was no money to be made in order to balance out the risks they took just by making and trying to sell it. In many ways, it was the fault of these partying people that kept having to chase greater highs, as it had now brought a lot of them to their deepest lows. But just as he was pondering who was at fault for what, his eyes fell upon a guy that seemed to meet every physical description given to him earlier.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Following the guy around for a bit, Ken made sure to keep his eyes on the man's hands, wanting to be ready the moment he saw him handing out anything from his pockets. Still, he wasn't entirely sure if this was the guy, he just matched the description absurdly well. So unless he had been lied to by the parents, who honestly had no real reason for doing such a thing, this had to be one of the three that was responsible. And that was when he spotted it. Him stopping to hand off a small package to another man, who also matched one of the vacant two descriptors before they both went their separate ways. This put him in a tough spot, as he could either follow the guy that took out the drugs to be distributed, or he could take down the one doing the distributing.

There was a chance that the guy that had the package handed to him was just being paid to do so and had nothing to do with it, which would make his case weak when it came to storming the house and taking the drugs that were undoubtedly being manufactured inside of it. On the other hand, if he followed the guy that had brought the drugs into the strip, he wouldn't be able to intercept the distribution that would certainly lead to more people falling ill, getting hospitalized and potentially dying. For reasons that seemed entirely logical, the right decision to make was to go after the one that took the drugs in and leave the fallout for someone else to deal with, as it was likely better to cut off the head of the snake so the body would end up dying.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

But just as he was about to go after the guy, he thought about the parents that were left sitting at home, praying for their son to get out of their coma and return to them in one piece, even though the possibility of that seemed unlikely due to being in a coma for too long had some truly detrimental effects on the body and brain alike. Cursing under his breath, he ended up making the more emotionally driven choice and going after the man that had the drugs handed off to him. Following him from a reasonable distance that wouldn't outright give away the fact that he was in fact following him around, the Junsa quickly started closing the distance, waiting for them to pass by an alley. The moment they did, he pounced the guy from the side by pushing him into the darkness of the alley.

Placing the guy in an arm lock while wrapping his other arm around the man's neck, Ken just waited for the man to lose consciousness. He didn't need the guy to be awake for him to frisk him and check his clothing for the drugs he knew that he was carrying. Looking inside of the pocket he had seen the guy store it into with his own two eyes, he took out the big that was filled with tiny pouches full of pulls. Having enough evidence with which to bring the guy in, he made sure to tie up his arms before he slapped the guy awake. At first, the guy decided that he wanted to work against his arrest, but when he noticed that Ken had a rather large knife hanging from his waist, the guy seemed to reconsider his options as he'd rather not get stuck like a pig. Not that he would have been, but the guy didn't need to know that.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Dragging the guy all the way to the nearest police station, Ken handed him over to the officers while also handing over the entire bag of confiscated drugs, leaving them with the request to properly search his entire being as he had only gone far enough to locate the drugs but not far enough to look for any potential concealed weaponry or perhaps even more drugs. Since his hands had been tied behind his back, it wasn't like the man was going to be a real threat to them, as long as they made sure to check him properly before removing his bindings. Regardless, Ken would not stick around to find out whether or not they found more, leaving straight away in order to find the other guy.

For while the drug bust had been successful, he would not rest while the other two men were still unaccounted for, as they would undoubtedly just work even harder to make more once they realized this entire batch had been confiscated and would end up making them exactly zero money. And judging by the fact that their work was already highly unstable and ended up putting a whole bunch of people into the hospital, there was no telling what a batch might do that was cooked up in a great rush. Their drugs would likely be a lot more dangerous, and that was if they even finished making it, as there was also the ever growing risk of their setup overheating and causing the entire appartment building to go up in roaring flames.