On The Walls [B-Rank Mission]

Mizu jogged in place near the elevator down into Hakagakure. It was time to go out on her first B-Rank mission and she was really looking forward to it. She'd finally get to try out some of the stuff she'd been practicing and she'd get to do it for a good cause. She knew that the exams would be coming up at some point and she wanted to be entirely ready for them no matter what they entailed so going out was a perfect opportunity. The mission parameters, whatever that word meant, were to go and defend the town. Apparently they had been having some issues with some bandits or maybe a missing nin or something like that, they didn't really know for sure but they needed some additional help.

Cue Mizu being sent! Well... She wasn't really being sent on her own or anything like that, she was being sent with a Chunin to make sure that she'd be safe and the mission would go well but she knew it would. Mizu stopped her jogging and then put her hands behind her head starting to do some power squats, tail held out of the way so that it wouldn't help her at all. She already knew her lower half was strong but she needed it to be stronger! "Wonder when my friend's gonna show up..." She muttered to herself as she continued to squat, she wasn't even sure which Chunin was gonna be taking her on this mission but it'd be interesting to find out!

Yuki wandered around, going iver the mission details in her head. So who was the person she would be going with? Are they are serious as Ocaam? Or would they be as crazy as Mu? ...Perhaps even as obsessive as Kori? She paused when she saw a brilliantly coloured faunus bouncing- squatting in place. Something told her that might be her partner in crime, and perhaps that something was Kotsuzui guessing out loud. She walked over towards Mizu, her voice quieter than she would like for introductions. ”Hello, are you the other person on a town defense mission?”

At the voice, Mizu stopped her internal monologue and then turned to Yuki, giving her a massive grin. "You must be the Chunin then! I'm Mizu, Mizu Kiho, as you can tell I'm a Faunus and I do stuff with water!" She declared before stepping forward as though to give Yuki a hug. She paused for a moment, chewing on her lip before shaking her head and stepping away. "Maybe later when you don't seem so worried. We're gonna be fine though, I've got you to keep me safe after all!" She nodded firmly and then turned on her heel, pointing forwards and starting to walk to where she was... Pretty sure the town was. "I think it's this way, let's go!" She laughed sweetly and then started to stretch her body as she walked, making sure that she'd be ready for a fight.

She was the happy, go lucky type. That worked for her. "My name's Yuki Kuroshio,
a pleasure to meet you." She had to be polite and return the favour of giving her name at least. Kotsu mentioned something but Yuki completely disregarded what was said as something snarky and shook her head. Before following Mizu, she recalled the details of the mission in her head to realise Mizu was....going the wrong way. "Ah, Mizu! It's actually this way...", she called, but wasn't entirely sure if her quiet voice would carry too far.

Mizu paused, her ears flicking for a moment before laughing and putting her hands on her hips. "I'm glad you noticed! That was a test to make sure you actually were the Chunin that was to lead me! Only they would know the actual way and correct me." She nodded and then turned towards Yuki, a massive grin splitting her face. "Okay, you lead the way so we go to the right place! I don't need to test you anymore." With that done, Mizu let out a mental sigh of relief, she wasn't the best at navigating, not a big area like this anyway. On a small battlefield she was second to none, or she thought so anyway, she could feel people moving with her feet. Once Yuki took the lead, Mizu would happily follow along. "Hey so... Just wondering... Do you belong to a clan or anything like that? Just making sure we got our combat abilities down pat so we can be really good together and stuff like that."

'Sure she was.', Kotsu and Yuki thought in unison. Yuki shook her head and smiled, Mizu seemed like a fun person. As they walked, Yuki looked over at Mizu and then back ahead. "I'm part of a clan of ice.
" She kept it simple, mentioning her clan name with Occam made her feel like anyone else would be a bit upset with her lineage being a group of missing now.

"Clan of ice... Clan of ice... Clan of ice..." Mizu muttered to herself, stroking her chin for a few moments. "OH TOKETSU! Yeah, I had a Toketsu in my squad, she was pretty weird and kept trying to eat her boyfriend's face rather than taking part in squad activities. It was a little weird. So that means you make everything like... Super cold right?" She hummed for a few moments, wiggling her hips and tail as she walked. "Well, luckily for you! I make a bunch of water and that means you can freeze it and not only will the water be super soapy but also frozen so even more slippery. I'm really good at balancing as well so I should be able to skate along your ice no bother! Unless it's too slippery, in which case I might fall over but that's okay as well because I'm tough." She continued on in this vein, talking about how they could work together before realising that they were at the town they were to protect.

"Oh... We're here! Now, I have no idea what we're supposed to do, maybe wait for the bandit attack or something? The choice is yours, Chunin-Friend!" She grinned and then sat down on the ground, wiggling to get comfortable before humming quietly to herself and playing with the fur on her tail.

"Yeah, that is.. a little more than weird." Yuki listened to Mizu ramble. Soapy water? At least she seems confident about skating, that meant they would work well together without worrying about terrain problems. "We're supposed to be protecting them, but that's all I really know... We should probably ask around for more details, the mission note itself didn't really say too much." Yuki waited for Mizu to get up before walking into town and looking around. It was probably a bad idea for them to be so out in the open like that, but what else could they really do with such little information?

"Awww man, I just sat down though!" Mizu huffed loudly but stood up after a moment and dusted herself down, flicking her tail to free it of any grit. With that done she followed along behind Yuki. "We should go find the head of this little town, a mayor or something maybe? They'll probably be able to tell us when the bandits attack and where and then we can go be big heroes and save the day and punch people, pow!" She swung her fists around a bit before laughing softly and nodding. "I'll leave the talking to you though, you've got more authority than me because I'm just a genin. Even though you're younger than me... But then again, age doesn't really matter around here, does it?" She scratched her chin and shrugged. "Onwards, to glory!" She declared, pointing forwards and hoping Yuki would move a bit faster.

Would a place this small really have a mayor?. Yuki shrugged. She figured there would at least be a village head, but anything was seemingly possible. ”We should be careful though. Sometimes people lie and set up traps and ambushes.”, she said to Mizu with her voice staying quiet. There was a nagging feeling Mizu was actually being too loud, maybe potentially giving them away? Regardless, it was good that Mizu seemed to let Yuki do the talking. Lesser chance to have things slip up. Now... Where would this town head be? Yuki looked around, taking in any details that gave way to damages that summed up the village’s need for help. Bandit rundowns always left a mark, it only mattered how large of a mark it was.

The people of the town simply continued about their business, giving the two young ladies little heed. Many of the men were openly at work, making repairs to buildings, several women too in some areas, that seemed to have been damaged quite recently. Despite them being new faces, none of the townsfolk seemed at all worried about the two. "Excuse me!" One man fixing up a store front sign stopped his work to call down to the two of them, a bandage wrapped around his head as he shouted at the two. "Are you the ones hired to help us with our bandit problem?"

"Well I doubt they'd leave traps in the actual village, those would get cleared up pretty qui- HI THERE!" She turned, interrupting her own sentence and grinning at the man. Her tail swished around happily and she nodded a few times. "Yep! We're here to save the day, delivering a package of butt-whooping to these bandits, like pow!" She swung out her fist and then bounced on her toes a few times, her energy just seeming to grow even more, she was so excited about this mission. "Oh wait... I'm not supposed to do the talking. Uh... This is Yuki! She's the person in charge and like super cool... Heh.... Cool." She giggle-snorted to herself and then stepped out the way, hands behind her back, swaying slightly as she waited for Yuki to talk to the guy and get this mission sorted.

All the ice cold puns that could be delivered didn’t bother Yuki really, especially with Occam using them almost every time they met up. Although, she wouldn’t deem herself as ‘cool’. Occam and Mu were definitely cooler, as was Kori. She was rather plain, if she was being truly honest with herself. She stepped forwards and looked over at Mizu for a brief moment before looking at the man. ”Yes, what Mizu said. We’re here to help with keeping bandits off your turf. Is there anything we should know about them? Anything you have would help really...”, she asked, silently hoping none of them were capable of fire release. I’m just hoping we don’t get overwhelmed by what’s coming. ’You worry too much. I CAN’T HELP IT!

The man was a little taken back by the larger young woman, and especially by her excitable nature. But after it settled in he let loose a very hearty chuckle. Somehow he just felt more confident with them around, a little safer. "Yes, of course." He began to descend to speak more directly to them. He stood at a good foot shorter than Yuki even, a rounded in the belly. "I can't tell you too much. All I know is that they were chased off by the blacksmith last night, and they intend to come back tonight. I would suggest you head on over," He pointed out down the road to the one stone built building. "He can inform you on the ring leader at the very least,"

Mizu made sure to keep her mouth shut, she wasn't supposed to do any talking. So instead she distracted herself by kicking around a stone that was on the ground while the other two were talking. She hummed quietly and then kicked it into the air before spinning and smacking it with her hip, causing it to careen into a wall and explode. Thankfully it didn't hurt the wall but it was only a small pebble. Mizu giggled happily and then smiled at Yuki before nodding towards the other building and starting to skip towards it, tail swinging around happily behind her. She really couldn't wait to test out her abilities! She was gonna be great at this and with Yuki's help these bandits didn't stand a chance!

The sound of an explosion sent Yuki twisting around quickly only to seem remaining dust of a pebble hitting a wall. She looked over at Mizu and sighed. ”Onto the next one then. Thanks mister.” She might as well buy Mizu a rubber ball if she was so bored to make a rock explode. She was too anxious for things like that. Yuki followed Mizu to the blacksmith, not as enthusiastic about it. In fact it seemed more hat they were personality opposites. Now that she thought about it, she might be taking into Occam’s serious nature.

Once they were at the blacksmith’s forge, Yuki peeked around inside, not stepping in out of being wary about the heat. ”Hello?”

The man would wave the two off, looking at little nervously as he watched the larger Faunus kicking a pebble with some real force. For a moment he was worried that she was going to cause more damage, but to find there was no damage there at least, that he could get back to the repairs.

At the blacksmith forge there would be only silence, with even the furnaces cold. In the background the knocks of repairing were heard, but here at the forge was nothing. Every sign pointed to little having happened there, the floor clean, but no tools or fires to be found anywhere at the first glance.

Perhaps further in?

Mizu leaped in through the door, skipping through to the back where the noises were coming from. The moment she cleared the doorway she let out a loud "Hellooo~!" and wiggled her hips. She stood up straight and immediately started to look around at the stuff in the room, trying to see if there was anything interesting. She didn't really have the money to buy any weapons or anything like that and it wasn't like she was going to use them even if she could. She wasn't allowed to really talk after all and she had to leave that to Yuki so she was just going to amuse herself. She could find fun anywhere though and she was more than happy enough, humming quietly to herself with a massive smile on her face. She was just so eager to get started.

Yuki stepped inside warily, looking around to find the forge not hot at all weirdly enough. ”I thought forges were supposed to be warm...”, she mumbled. Kotsu seemed to be amusing itself with the picture it saw in Yuki’s mind, a warm orange glow with embers flitting out of the smeltery, the sound of hot metal clanking and forced into the shape of something like a sword, bubbling of water and hissing of steam as the metal was dipped to cool. Don’t touch anything... Don’t touch anything... She had to remind herself in case there was something would get triggered by the sound, either merchant or enemy or blacksmith. Two of those three odds were not what they were looking for. Instead she looked around for signs of life or the bandits striking here too.

The cold smithy, normally giving off light from the ever lit forges was left cast in shadows. The adjacent room after entering the main floor was clear the storage room, large wooden box open with it's shipping manifest plastered on to the side; 'Armaments for Bandits Strike'. Poking out the top where the grips, and even a blade or two, of weapons, including a splintered tipped bow, the strong needing rethreading but yet to be done. There was still no sign of life though without some form of sensory.

As it happened, every Faunus had uniquely powerful senses, though rarely was it all of them. Mizu's was one of the rarer ones for her sense of touch was enhanced. So as she stepped across the room she tapped her feet against the ground, tail coming around to drum against it as well. This would send out vibrations that she could pick up through her massively powerful sense of touch. If they bounced off anything or any others were made she'd be able to pick them up and hunt down the source of them. If there weren't any she'd continue dancing around looking at stuff to try and find something really shiny. If there was someone she'd immediately run after them to try and get their attention so Yuki could talk to them.

Spoiler:

Yuki kept looking around, unable to really feel the thumping and not really paying attention to try to detect it. She just kept looking around for signs. It was just weird that a forge was so empty and quiet and dark. It was just unnerving and Kotsu came in to snap her out of panicking. Yuki began to look for anything out of the ordinary in the room, some weirdly placed object or something that just didn't seem right.

Enhanced touch or not, Mizu would find nothing out of place. The drumming of the tail would find little movement, but as the only other room, where else could the earlier knocking have been. With the Faunus approaching the middle of the room and the box of armaments however, the feel of a hollow spot grew easier to find. There was an echoing spot right beneath the box of armaments. There was no movement nearby, but there was clearly something hidden under the box bolted down to the floor.

Feeling the hollow space under the box of armaments, Mizu cocked her head to the side for a moment and stopped moving. After a second or two though she resumed, bouncing and drumming her tail, a bit louder this time to try and draw attention so she wouldn't scare the person they were supposed to meet. "Hey, hey Yuki! There's something under that box there, you wanna budge it aside and see what's going on? I might get in trouble for touching stuff but you're like, high rank and powerful and brave so they won't bother giving you into trouble." She declared, a bright smile on her face as she continued to bounce and drum away, waiting to see what her ally would do in this situation.

Yuki came over when Mizu called. This whole thing wasn't setting right with her. She crouched down tolook around the hollow bit Mizu was pointing out to her. "Mizu, don't you think this is a little weird? We were told we might get information at the forge. The forge itself isn't active and you find a hollow spot inside a seemingly abandoned forge?" She reached into her pockets, pulling out a few needles. "Mizu, I want you to keep a watch. I have a really nasty feeling about this." She may be paranoid, but she had every right to be. It just didn't add up to anything good. Yuki quietly moved the box, or at least as quietly as she could and peeked in, one arm drawn back and ready to throw some needles.