The Lost Merchant

Waking up earlier in the day Skelmar did a few rounds of training to maintain his physique before strolling his way through the residential area of Dipu only to notice a familiar face out of the corner of his eye, Vicktoria. He decided he would see if she wanted to go on a mission, however the issue was she was currently in her house and seemed to be getting lectured from her parents. He had an idea as to why this was happening as she had told him that her parents wanted her to take over the family business so with a shake of his head he decided to hide in the shadows waiting until her parents finished and left what looked like her room before trying to get her attention.

"Her parents seem strict, but from here I can not tell if they want whats best for her or are being selfish." Shaking his head a little he noticed both parents exited the room and once the door shut he quickly tossed a couple of small pebbles at her window to draw her attention to his presence. He would continue this until she opened the window to find out what was happening in which he would speak just loud enough for her to hear him "Hey Vicktoria, I have a mission pick up in Kohai come with me?"

Vicktoria stood there as she listened to yet another long-winded lecture of her parents telling her the dangers of being a shinobi and how the way they lived was a much better and more fulfilling way of life. At first, she was able to shrug off their lectures but they have become so much more frequent it was hard to not let their words chip away at her resolve. In truth, they were making valid points as she didn’t have much luck finding a team or someone to mentor her, that and she was having trouble even coming up with new techniques to learn so maybe they were right about her? Letting out a sigh, she saw them out before heading back to her room and sitting down. Looking to her left, she would see her bow and a ledger that her parents had given her. “Maybe I really should give this up?” She muttered to herself before picking up the ledger and began going over the notes inside until she heard a few knocks on her window. Making her way over, she’d open the window to find Skelmar standing outside. “Uh. Sure I guess?” She said not really wanting to do a mission but she could use the time to clear her head, as such she would grab her bow before sealing it away and heading downstairs. “So what’s this about?” She said asking for the info on the mission.

It was easy to tell the sort of mentality that Victoria had at the moment her parents must have been pushing hard lately to stop her from being a shinobi with a slight shake of his head he looked at her when she asked the mission details. "From what I was told it's an escort mission we need to meet a merchant and guide them to Kohai, should be super easy from my understanding but we will know all the details upon arrival." While maintaining his regal appearance he simply patted her on the back before leading her towards the boats headed to the mainland.

While waiting at the docks Skelmar was informed which ship they were to take, so he pushed forward to get inline while leaving room for Vicktoria to follow and stand with him. "Not to intrude on family matters, but why don't your parents respect your will to be a shinobi?" his tone was rather straight forward and blunt while he looked at his teammate "Personally I think its unsupportive to push their desires on their kin." Skelmar would say with a shrug before passing his ticket to board.

Upon reaching Kohai the pair would make their way towards the mission briefing before finding out the merchant was notified as missing as they were meant to hold at a checkpoint until Shinobi arrived to escort him. Luckily command had just found out so the odd pair of a team weren't out of a mission to complete. A command Officer approached Skelmar to inform them of the updates to the mission saying "New orders for you. The Merchant is MIA and the mission parameters have updated to locate and escort the Merchant to Kohai. Minimal trouble is to be expected but gear up just in case. We suspect there is an issue with their transport assist them in any manner possible."

Vicktoria would try her best to seem enthusiastic about the mission but in truth, she wasn’t in the mood for it. But since it would give her some time away from the house as well as line her pockets with some xel so might as well she powered through it. “Alright sounds simple enough.” She said as she followed him to the docks. She was pretty much lost in thought whenever he actually spoke to her so he didn’t get much of a response besides her nodding while he was looking in the opposite direction. Not that she wasn’t thankful for his kind words it was more that she just didn’t want to talk about her issues with her family at the moment. “Gear up huh?” She muttered to herself wondering if she’d actually see some combat. She had never actually been in a fight before, training or otherwise so it would be interesting to see how she holds up in a real fight.

Nodding the officer walked away after handling the mission detail. "Its most likely just a precaution. We don't want anything sneaking up on us while we save this merchant" Skelmar shrugged as he was already geared up and ready to move but waited on his partner to get ready as well. During this time he double checked his gear and made sure his shadow twin was along side with him before looking over at Vicktoria. "Inform me once you are ready so we can head out asap." Looking over the details the merchant in question should be relatively close as the last check point wasn't too far from Kohai and if the merchant decided to stick to the main road they should be able to get them moving once again.

Once Vicktoria notifies Skelmar she is ready he starts to move out in the last known direction of the merchant, partly hoping nothing happened during the mission and partly hoping for some action to see how far he had come during his training.

She didn’t have much gear with her in truth as the only gear she really had was the things she was sent after being told she had qualified for a certain sector and naturally she wasn’t going to bring those along now was she? That said she was ready as soon as she was asked and thus made her move through the checkpoint and towards where the merchant was last seen. As they walked the scenario from this morning had constantly played through her head, what truly was the point of all of this? They were doing odd jobs here and there for their superiors for a few coins. Sure it helped those who needed help but what did it do for her? She didn’t feel anything in particular for these people so it wasn’t as if she benefited from it emotionally as most people do. “Why did you become a shinobi?” She found herself asking as they made their way down the stretch.

While walking their path Skelmar had sent his twin out further to scout ahead so they wouldn't be possibly ambushed. Meanwhile he would maintain his composure before speaking out to her. "To be honest... To prove my clan wrong and show them who is stronger. I have no intentions of letting someone else tell me how to live my life." His movement continued forward as he scanned the sides for any motion. "What was your reason for becoming a shinobi?" It was a simple reverse of questioning but he figured it was fair since she asked as well. It shouldn't be too long until they went through the first checkpoint after that they would be entering the operation zone "Shouldn't be much longer until we enter the supposed last known location, hopefully there isn't any complications." Skel looked around hoping the merchant would appear in their view while they ran forward.

In the event of anything happening Skelmar, once they entered the operation zone had his hand resting on the hilt of his sword ready to draw it at any given moment. They were however only roughly fifteen percent through the train itself and if the merchant for what ever reason decided to leave the path would have to look through the area to hopefully find them.

“Prove them wrong? About what exactly?” She found herself instinctively asking having heard his explanation. She was pretty sure it was going to be something reasonable but she still wanted to hear it from his mouth, though if he didn’t want to say anything that was cool but she was indeed curious. As for her? She’d think long and hard for a while but would unable to come up with anything meaningful. “You know. I don’t really have a reason. My uncle was a shinobi once and I thought it was cool being sent on missions and stuff but he ended up getting killed in the line of duty. The truth was he wasn’t that good of a shinobi and was more of a hindrance than anything. My mother would always beg him to stop pretending as if he was some hero but in the end, he never listened and got himself killed.” She knew how much it hurt her mother being able to see that her brother was doing something that wasn’t made for him and how much she probably feels the same with her.

"To prove them wrong about my existence. I've been deemed a failure by some of the clan due to being part Faunus. I'm told my only duty to the clan is to die in a ditch." the slight hint of anger appeared for a brief moment in his voice as he continued forward. "As for your Uncle, he sounds like a hero to me. He chose his path and stuck to it, its easy for someone who isn't a Shinobi to say another person aptitude and most times they are dead wrong." they got roughly 2/5ths of the way through before he got a notification that his twin found the merchant who was roughly at the 3/5ths marker. "The merchant isn't too far ahead now lets pick up the pace" Skelmar started to move at D-rank speed as he picked his pace up some to meet up with the merchant as soon as possible.

The pair would come around a S bend before happening upon the merchant "Is everything okay Merchant?" The merchant happened to be an older heavier set gentleman who pointed towards the rear wheel "I seem to have run in a pot hole now my 'art is stuck, coul'nt just leave my merchandise behind for 'elp." Skelmar noticed the hole and looked over at his partner. "Let us get him free."

I see she thought to herself as having heard his explanation. It seemed as if there was some bad blood between him and some members of his clan which seemed odd considering how her clan considered her family even though she didn’t live near the compound which gave her the impression that all clans were like that. Her lips parted as she was about to say something but decided not to and simply nodded as she didn’t want to say what she felt about her uncle. The truth was she didn’t see him as a hero but more of a fool who threw his life away abandoning his only child and his sickly wife just to try and become some sort of hero like in a movie. She knew that not everyone could be a Kage-level ninja as some only cap at Chunin while others die while trying to become Genin, the world wasn’t some fairytale.

As she picked up the pace, she would notice what seemed to be a traveling merchant on the horizon which must have been the person they were looking for. Upon hearing his story she would rush over to help him even though she didn’t have much strength but she was certain that they would get it out when they worked together.

Skelmar looked over the issue, it seemed the pothole wasn't too deep but the wheel was still stuck. He would wonder the possible ideas on how to get the wheel out without damaging it. "Vicktoria, any ideas come to mind?" he wasn't exactly stumped however he wanted more ideas vs just shoving a couple branches behind the wheel and cart to get it moving again so he wanted to see if there might be an alternative method he wasn't possible thinking of. "We might be able to jam a couple branches under it to get it moving again." he would speak up shortly after asking Vicktoria as he continued to ponder what would be the best solution to their problem before looking around at their surroundings.

While waiting on a solution to be decided on he chose to gather the needed branches to go through with his own idea it would definitely be a team effort with the merchant driving the cart and the two shinobi propping the backend to the best of their abilities then it struck him. In conjunction to the branches he could stab a kunai into the ground at an angle just in front of the wheel to give it the help of a "ramp" effect assisting in getting the cart up. Needless to say the kunai would probably be destroyed afterwards and unusable but it would be worth the effort if it indeed worked, but he held his tongue for a moment to hear out what his partner had to say if anything.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have many ideas when it came to taking a carriage out of a ditch but when he had the idea of jamming branches under it she would get to work quickly to find some branches and she would follow his lead by jamming the branches inside the wheel once he had done what was necessary to create the ramp all that was left was for to put her to push the carriage out of the ditch and though it was taken what little strength she had, they were actually able to get it out of the ditch much to the amusement of the merchant. “Quick thinking Skel, now all that’s left is for us to get back home.”

"As long as it works I'm happy with it haha." Skelmar smiled slightly as they worked together in assisting the cart from getting out of the pothole. It wasn't exactly hard to push the cart or anything but it was still a workout to say the least. the two successfully got the cart moving. "Lets start heading out with the Marchant make sure nothing else happens." Skel made the comment and started to stay along side the cart as they made their way through the checkpoint and then off to the village. These missions weren't the best however considering their levels it was enough to keep them busy.

Wiping the sweat off her brow, she would nod in agreement before she began following the carriage back to the village. She highly doubted that anything else would happen since the area they were in was pretty secluded so bandits wouldn’t be around or any stray fauna but she would keep an eye out nonetheless. She had spent most of the time thinking in silence about what she needed to do and by the time she had come to a conclusion they were back at the village. The merchant would thank them for their services before separating from them. “I guess that’s that. Thanks for taking me out and helping me make a decision, Skel.” She said with a smile.

Smiling at her he decided to attempt to inquire what sort of decision she made. "No problem, what is it you decided on?" he slipped his hands into his pockets as he looked at her knowing their mission was finished the only thing they would need to do is report the completion to the mission control and be on their way. All in all it was an easy mission however things can always go wrong and the two of them keeping vigilant possibly prevented any issues from arising. "I'll inform them of the success if you don't feel like heading that way. Either way thanks for teaming up with me." depending on if she had responded to his earlier question one of two outcomes would have happened if she didn't want to tell him he would simple let her know that's fine before walking away with a slight wave of his hand while he headed off to let mission control know. However, if she did tell him he would be supportive of which ever choice she made as like he said before it was her choice and she was the one who needed to make it without letting someone else make the choice for her, but he would still walk off like the previous option a slight wave with his back turned.

/Skelmar has exited

Her mouth would open but she couldn’t find the courage to say what she wanted. It was obvious that her answer didn’t matter to him as he was the supportive type so she simply nodded and watched him walk away. She didn’t want to be like her uncle who had no direction in life and was a slave to his idiotic ideals, she was tired of drifting from one village to the next doing menial tasks for people who probably could’ve done it themselves. Unknown to everyone, she was given the invitation to be a part of something greater and this gave her the opportunity to please herself and to get her parents off her back if she managed it correctly. “I hope you prove everyone wrong. Maybe we’ll see each other again someday” She said with a smile before making her way back home.

-exit