Enguard Mission [C Rank]

[Guyviroth]

SPOILER: Click to show

☆ Name: Enguard
Rank: C
Repeatable: Once per PC
Description: A local businessman and craftsman is attempting to promote his excellent craftsmanship. In a show of good sportsmanship, a rival craftsman shop has been issued a challenge. A friendly spar between two contestants to see whose weaponry and creation was the best. Our client has reason to believe that they will be fighting dirty, as they have hired a rather dangerous individual to participate as their sponsor. Take on the competition as the client's sponsor, using a special katana, crafted to be unbreakable.
Objective: Fight as our client's representative and prove his craftsmanship is best.
Reward: 50 EXP and 1,000 Ryo plus a C rank Katana. (While supplies last)

The world seemed to pass by so quickly nowadays to the young boy lying upon his bed and mattress. Every night before he’d fall asleep and every morning to the sound of the new morning crow he would stare up at the ceiling, plastered to a neutral white color with the very shallow wave pattern of the Artex coating, he would shut himself out from the world around him to be alone in seclusion within his own thoughts. He began to think about his role in the village as well as his role to the people within said village. He remembered his first ever mission and how successful that was, and then began to think about the first C rank mission he took a few days ago. The boy smiled as he thought about how much he had helped and realised that every mission, big or small, had a reason.

It was probably time for the young lad to get out of bed to get on with another mission. He rolled his head over to view the face of the clock on the wall to the far side of the room; 9:30am he could read. Kicking the covers off him gently he swung his hips so that his legs dropped off the side of the bed with his feet planted upon the warm floorboards. Placing both hands on his knees he pushed himself up and gave a little stretch and a yawn; he felt rather tired still but he knew that the outside air and the beaming sun would wake him up as soon as he stepped out the door.

Helios looked to find he had left his clothes sprawled over the sofa from last evening’s mission ordeal; he must have been pretty tired after yesterday’s mission despite it was only to humour himself the some of the Genin. He sighed lightly and shook his head to find that his clothes were considerably creased from being folded in a heap of cloth mess; his robe he didn’t mind considering the amount of moving he does in it the creasing would be fairly unnoticeable, or in the very least appears natural. His hakama pants would indeed so them off, however. Regardless, he donned his uniform and picked up his equipment heading outside to take on his next mission.

[Guyviroth]

It seemed that whenever Helios was having a good day somewhere nearby there was trouble. As he proceeded out towards the door he heard some sort of commotion along the street near the market place. He could hear raised voices and crowds building along the path way although over the roaring voices of the people he couldn’t make out what the voices where saying or from whom they were coming from. He could discern that one of the voices sounded rather old and frail as though from an old man, while the other tone sounded seedy, high pitched and tempo, with a crack at the end of each sentence like a whip.

Helios proceeded to take a gander at the crowd to see what was going on. However with everyone being consisted mainly of teenagers and adults Helios found that seeing over the heads of the crowd to be considerably difficult. He tried to push through but with so many villagers so tightly knit together it was difficult to get passed them. Eventually he ended up jumping a top one of the dumpsters and onto the roof of a building, peeking down at the men below whilst making sure not to be seen.

It seemed that what Helios had thought earlier was somewhat accurate. The voice he could hear that was somewhat old came from a short old man with grey hair, wearing a white shirt and dull green pants and sandals. The other man, who bore the devilish cynical voice, was of a much taller man with a pair of tinted spectacles and spiked up black hair, wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a red and white striped neck tie. The old man was raising his fists almost in a threatening manner while the man in the suit stood straight with hands behind his back.

Helios had seen enough though. As the voices began to die down the young shinobi hopped down silently from the roof to the dirt below on the opposite side of the building from the crowd. He waited for the people to disperse until he began to walk amongst them, making his way towards the mission office. He had hoped that whatever his next mission was it would be away from those two.
 

[Guyviroth]

It wasn’t of much importance but as soon as Helios found his way up the stairs and into the office hallways he found something a little off; it was hard to discern as to exactly what it was though. Taking a glance around the boy couldn’t see anyone around except for another Jounin down the other side of the hallway keeping guard, which was commonplace in the office. He looked around and found that the interior wasn’t any different; oak cladding lined the walls whilst the floor was furnished with leaf green carpeting. And then it struck him; it was quiet.

Yes, it was rather unsettling for Helios to find that, indeed, the office hallway was quiet. There was no loud voice, no arguing, no raging; no nothing. The shinobi couldn’t help but smile and take a sigh of relief as he trekked down the hallways to the door of the mission captain. The door was closed too; something that was rather rare nowadays, especially whenever Helios wanted to go grab himself a mission.

The boy used the rear of his hand to tap twice upon the oak door with his knocked, letting everyone know someone was here before he put his hand on the brass door handle and tilted it down, opening it slowly. As he opened the door he saw the mission captain at his seat behind his desk with two sheets of paper in front of him, a Jounin seated in a chair that sat on the left side of the desk in front of the mission captain, and another empty chair stood upon the other side of the desk. As the boy walked in, the mission captain and the Jounin lifted and turned their heads respectively to the boy’s sight. The captain gave a light grin as he caught glimpse of Helios face.

”Ah Helios! Early as usual; just how I like it. Come in, take a seat.”

The boy did as instructed, walking over to the empty chair and taking a seat. The Jounin followed him with his eyes until the boy did so before turning back to facing the captain. The captain, in turn, did the same before looking down at the two sheets of paper and then slid them in front of Helios for him to look at. The boy began to glance over them but the captain spoke aloud, telling him exactly what was on the sheets.

”I guess you saw the commotion earlier, right? Those two men were Mr. Fuji and Mr. Karasu. Mr. Fuji is our main supplier for our shinobi equipment and is considerably respected here. Mr. Karasu, however, guarantees that his quality and prices are much better than Fuji’s. As a demonstration to his testimony Karasu has offered a challenge to Fuji; a sparring match between his representative and Fuji’s representative.”

”And you want me to be Mr. Fuji’s representative, correct?” Helios muttered audibly as though he wasn’t bothered by such a task. All he had to do was stab a guy in the arms a few times to make him drop his weapon and done. ”Well, doesn’t seem like the most difficult mission in the world. Consider it done.” Helios sat up and spun off the chair rather quickly as he began to make his way to the door.

”Another thing before you go; his representative is also a wanted bandit. Whatever you do, capture this man by any means necessary; alive!”

[Guyviroth]

It was any wonder why the Jounin wasn’t picked for Mr. Fuji’s representative although it was more than likely because Helios was specialised in Kenjutsu. The sheets said that the sparring match was going to be involved using swords although Helios began to wonder if the term “sparring” was being used as a looser term for “death match”. Still, Helios didn’t mind the implication of whatever sparring would occur considering he was all but ready to maim him although the captain needed him back alive for interrogation.

The boy would make his way down the path towards the village square noticing that the crowd was still there although in much smaller numbers. He could hear voices in the forms of questions and statements, as well as various forms of praise and ridicule. Helios followed the voices down the dirt path in which the voices could be heard much clearer, as well as to where they were; the shinobi looked up to a house-like structure with a sign post of soft wood with the words “Fuji’s Wares” painted upon the grain. The boy began to understand that these words were directed to Mr Fuji, whom was probably inside.

“What are ya gonna do about the spar?”, “You ain’t got anyone to represent you!”, “Hey, I could represent ya old man!”, “You’re nothin’ but a washed up hack holdin’ on to old traditions!”, “Why should we come to you when the other guy has much more stuff at lower prices?” Helios could hear all of these being said and then more. It almost sickened him to the point that he just wanted to draw his sword and start carving a path of limbs and torsos; how could people treat this man with such disrespect just because he had some sort of fierce competition?

The boy fiercely shoved through the crowd of men, pushing them from his direction as he began to infuse chakra into his hands to increase the force of his pushes; two men even fell down but dared to challenge the boy after seeing whom he was and that he was carrying his sword with him. As Helios got to the front of the crowd he managed to meet face to face with the man; he had no facial hair besides a trimmed moustache, with a rounded head with bushy eyebrows and short cut greying hair. He was holding a small hammer that was probably used to shape smelted metals and had a pair of goggles around his neck.

”You’re Mr. Fuji, right?”

[Guyviroth]

The boy looked at the man as he was hammering down on a still red-hot kunai over a small anvil. It was nice seeing something like this up close in person, Helios thought. ”You’re Mr. Fuji, right?” the boy gave his question to the man. It was probably the only question he wasn’t expecting, and so rested his kunai and hammer on the anvil to look up at the boy. ”I’ve come to let you know that I will be representing you in the sparring match.”

The crowd drew silence as the boy’s statement left his pale lips into the air itself. The statement would linger upon the minds of those who were present, to which various mutterings from one person to another arose from the flames of his words. “Is the boy serious?”, “That Karasu guy’s got no chance!”, “But he’s only a young boy!” No matter what the words were, Helios would not be denied this as his mission. From his pouch he unrolled the two sheets of paper with their names, profiles, and the mission statement itself.

”It’s my mission to make sure that you win the spar in accordance with the rules of the competition and the rules of this village.” The boy did not show any emotion as though he was simply a tool for war. But of course that’s all he was at the moment, a tool to be used by Mr. Fuji to defend his honour and his living, but the boy was fine with this. However the man merely sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

”Is this what the village can be bothered to send me, after all of the work and supplies I have provided for it? Is this what the captain “strongly suggested” to me when I put in this request for a representative for my store; a lousy damned kid of all things? I’d be better off putting my own decrepit ass on the line…”

The crowd was horrified of the man’s words; the boy had been considerably helpful throughout the village on multiple occasions and has become quite the respected Genin in the village. However, Helios began to understand why he was chosen; it wasn’t visible that he was affiliated with the leaf by neither attire nor looks unlike the Jounin. This would lead Karasu into a false sense of security as he would assume he was some sort of kid. Helios instead raised his hand to stop people from interfering in their talk.

”I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Fuji,” Helios replied in a calm, collective demeanour. The boy needed to remain as low profile as he could, at least when factoring out how the people of the village sucked up to him at this point. ”But I assure you I will do my best by you and your shop no matter what it takes.”

”Oh bravo sir, bravo; what an excellent speech!”

[Guyviroth]

The voice sounded considerably familiar to the young shinobi. Suddenly the crowd began to part to both sides as though it was some sort of royal entrance. The entrance gave room for Helios to view two men; one of the men wore a dark suit with white shirt and a red and white tie, his face wrinkled from an overzealous grin that spread across his mouth, slicked back gelled hair and dark shades showed he was a big shot business man; his representative was the other man whom had wild spiky red hair and a goatee, wearing what looked like skin tight nylon clothing and a brown belt that held a katana.

”Oh? This scrawny little brat here is going to be YOUR representative? Bwahahahahaha! I can already taste the sweet and sour that is both my victory and leaving you with a broken child. Oh dear, it’s any wonder why we’re even going to wait for this spar. You should back your things and move on, Fuji.”

Helios’ eyes narrowed down at the man before looking at his representative. He had already known that this red haired guy was a wanted bandit criminal so he wasn’t so scared of him despite his overwhelming physique. ”Any more of your nonsense, grease monkey, and I’ll personally remove you from our village; limb by limb.” Helios was becoming considerably agitated from being conveyed as a small scrawny boy without the authority to deal with them as he saw fit. Regardless, Mr. Karasu chuckled at the threat.

”Oh what ever happened to the village’s peaceful atmosphere? But boy, if you wish to meddle in my affairs I will not hesitate to unleash my champion. In fact… why don’t I show you a piece of his strength?”

As soon as he finished his words Karasu snapped his fingers. His unknown representative, his “champion”, quickly drew his katana and swung downwards down the side of Helios and causing to boy to move out of the way, but the strike was not aimed at Helios but rather at the shop’s sign, cleaving it in half down the middle. In retaliation, Helios grasped at a nearby Katana from Mr. Fuji’s weapon racks and unsheathed it, preparing to strike at the man’s legs but was parried well. It felt awkward for Helios to wield a much heavier blade than he usually does but he was able to hold his own.

The man smirked an evil grin as he went for an overhead chop; a very basic yet open attack but Helios did not want to strike out yet considering he had a mission to accomplish, and part of that mission was bringing this guy in alive. Helios held the katana up in front of him to block but, as though with the might of the gods, the man struck at the blade and causing it to shatter, making Helios fling back from recoil onto the floor against Mr. Fuji’s workbench. ‘What the hell was that?’ Helios couldn’t help but think to himself; was the guy really so strong?

[Guyviroth]

It was unfathomable that such a brilliant sword would be shattered so easily against another of its kind, making Helios believe that the only way such a thing could happen is if the bandit was naturally that strong or if his was able to supplement chakra into his weapon. But Helios couldn’t believe in such things; the man’s frame was too slender to be able to pack such power considering he didn’t even follow through with the strike; it just stopped there. Also he was a bandit, someone who would have no knowledge of ninjutsu or chakra forming. What was he, then?

”Ahahaha! Is that what you make, Fuji!? Cheap pieces of trash that I wouldn’t even use to trim my hedges!? Oh I can tell we’re going to have a good, and quick, sparring match later! I’ll see you in eight hours old man!”

Helios couldn’t help but feel humiliated at his rather swift defeat at the hands of such a man. The crowd couldn’t even believe it either but they had decided to pin the blame on Fuji’s sword and not Helios’ skills. It seemed that everyone had lost their confidence at this point in Mr. Fuji’s wares, as everyone sighed in disappointment or started making “I told you so” comments to those who still relied on Fuji. As the masses scattered back into the streets, Helios himself sighed before standing up and dusting himself off.

”I’m sorry Mr. Fuji,” Helios muttered softly, his head bowed in shame as he still held onto the handle of the shattered katana before placing it on the workbench. ”I was certain that I was able to beat him, but he’s just as fast and stronger.” Helios sighed as he looked down to the floor to the shattered remains of the katana, their fragments glistening in the light. Even with their purity it was not strong enough.

”It is not your fault, boy. You showed a great deal as a swordsman, but it was the sword that had failed you. However I can tell you now that for someone like him that feat of strength is impossible; even most Jounin have trouble breaking a sword. I don’t know what he is using but we can’t do anything about it, except… to create a new sword. Come.”

[Guyviroth]

What Helios saw was an absolute marvel to be desired of which no picture of any amount of quality could capture the majesty of a smelting foundry. Down into the basement of the store was an entire manufacturing station of several labourers of whom would smelt down the ore, pour into a mould, cool it etc. Mr. Fuji however would always be the one to temper the steel and to shape it into how he saw fit. The amount of heat and smoke down here was unbelievable with only three grates on the ceiling leading to the upstairs chimney stack was the only source of ventilation besides the stairway.

”You see, boy, my items are made almost entirely of steel and iron depending on the tool required. For our swords we use steel; a mixture of Iron and Carbon to create a more hardened steel; the less carbon, the more stronger; more carbon removed the needed iron bonding and thus makes it more brittle. However, steel is now out of the question; those swords were made from 0.7% Carbon additive to make them well-balanced; any more carbon and it becomes brittle, and any less it’ll blunt more easily.”

”I see. So we need to find a way to make the steel more stable while still keeping its sharpness?” Helios began to ponder how he would be able to do so considering it was hard enough trying to find iron ore in this land.

”No. What we need is a metal that is entirely stronger than steel altogether; something that can withstand impact and stay sharp both at the same time. And I think I have just the metal…”

Fuji quickly shifted past the work force and the machinery to find a large, blackened wood chest with a small padlock on it. Digging through his pocket he revealed a small steel key which unlocked the chest. Removing the padlock he lifted the lid with an audible creaking sound, likely rust on the hinges, and pulling out a lump of ore.

”Yes … Titanium!”

[Guyviroth]

It was wonders watching as Mr Fuji and his staff started working around the clock without breaks getting the materials sorted; cabinets, chests, drawers and such started flinging open quickly before shutting again. Within around twenty minutes or so Mr. Fuji had compiled an entire table of elements, hoping that he would have enough to create such a weapon. A nice smirk sprung across his face as he rubbed his hands together roughly at the thought of making such a weapon.

The furnace shot up in a huge pyre of flames, heating up and reaching temperatures that Helios had never encountered before and was probably safe to remain in blissful ignorance to its temperatures. He watched as for a surmountable amount of time the heat began to rise further and further until Fuji, from the side of Helios with a smile on his face, gave a thumbs up to his workers. Suddenly each material started being flung into the furnace with somewhat care so the molten flow wasn’t splashed anywhere.

It was amazing seeing this process work. First, most of the titanium harvested from the containers around the place was put into the furnace; it began to molten quickly as the impurities of the rock began to funnel out of the bottom into a deep metal container. As the titanium began to melt the workers started placing in the tin, silicon and aluminium. For a while they too began to melt and forming with the titanium to create a considerably dense yet somewhat pliable alloy.

Fuji, again, gave the thumbs up to which the workers began to pour the metal into the cast, still heated. For an hour or so the metal hardened slightly for Fuji to begin shaping it. For Helios he was amazed it was done so quickly. However, to his ignorance and surprise, it wasn’t; this only formed the core of the blade, the “shingane”. The alloy would be hammered and flattened before being folded over itself to increase its durability. At the same time this was being done, the rest of the titanium was placed into the forge along with the bismuth, molybdenum and zirconium were added. Mr Fuji was done folding the shingane before placing it on a nearby anvil.

The rest of the titanium alloy began to pour into the mould as the mixture of the components meld together perfectly. The metal, unlike with steel construction, formed only a single alloy that was dense and very durable to which could become considerably sharp due to the zirconium included. The alloy began to cool down to a more workable metal so, like the shingane, could be folded numerously. Mr. Fuji began to heat up, hammer and then fold the metal several times, each time he would mix in clay, water and straw-ash to protect it from oxidation and carburisation and acting as a flux to remove impurities.

Finally, the hardened titanium was starting to fold over the shingane core to fully create the sword. It was to near completion. The entirety of the blade was left to cool for an hour or so as Helios and Fuji waited for what could possibly be the ultimate forged sword.

[Guyviroth]

It was such an amazing sword to say the very least. It was so pure and so brilliant that, with all of the other materials added into the alloy, the blade had a pale golden pearlescent shine to it that sparkled in the glistening light like diamonds. The grain of the sword was almost unnoticeable; the alloy folded and melded so well that it was almost impossible to tell where the folding had occurred through the naked eye. Both Helios and Mr Fuji marvelled in awe at the blade as it lay upon a wooden plaque.

Within the next couple of hours the scabbard, hand guard and handle had been made for the sword. Neither of them were considerably intricate and only served for practical purposes instead of for decoration. The hand guard was of a circular titanium ring with four tomoe, while the handle was constructed of black steel with white cloth wrapped around. The scabbard itself was also constructed out of a thick titanium alloy with painted black oak as its covering.

With the completed sword both Helios and Mr. Fuji trekked to the nearby forest in order to give it some basic tests and rundowns. Helios couldn’t help himself but to swing the blade around time and time again; it was considerably lighter than the katana he had used earlier and with each cut through the air he gave it emitted a light whistling sound. A smirk sprung along Helios’ face as he first cleaved into a nearby tree, hacking it down with a single swipe before striking at a nearby rock. The blade imbedded itself six inches deep into the stone before Helios could pull it out. ”So old man, what made you think of this weapon?”

”I had first thought of the sword when I was in my apprentice years. I had spent twenty years thinking of the equipment, the ingredients, the formula, and the temperatures. I never made it because I was planning on using diamonds instead of zirconium powder for it but I guess it can’t be helped. I dubbed the alloy “Titanium 11” for being roughly eleven times stronger than steel.”

”Hm, seems like a good name to call it as any. But old man, now you need a name for the sword, right; something good, something tough, something… unexpected for a sword so plain to be mistaken for an old antique right?”

”I had named the sword in my youth and I never went back to changing it. I’ll call it “Jyuichi kamisatsujinken”; the Eleven God-Slaying Sword.”

[Guyviroth]

The spar was just about to begin and both Helios and his client Mr Fuji were considerably confident with their new sword. The sparring would take place within the village square and cover its entirety; the crowd would be held back by steel railings as they waited for both of the representatives to make their way to the square. The tension was starting to thicken amongst the people of the hidden leaf as they began to speculate, and even bet their ryo, on who was going to win.

Both shop owners first made their way to the center of the square; Mr Fuji approached with a stern yet hidden confidence in his face still covered in smoke, soot and dirt from the furnace while Mr. Karasu approached in his slick suit and even slicker hair, hunched over with both hands behind his back with a darkening grin. The man extended his hand in friendly competition to offer his handshake although his eyes displayed deceit that could not be discerned as to what of. Fuji scanned the man briefly before extending his own hand and grasping that of his opponent.

After a moment, Helios and the bandit representative walked up to the square, about ten meters apart. The two of them bowed in respect to one another before revealing their weapons. The bandit gave a little smirk as he looked at the rather bland-looking sword and scabbard and not taking notice of its potential, something that would prove to be his downfall. Likewise, Helios smirked at his opponent’s weapon as he noticed it was the same katana as before.

No signal gave for the match’s commence and so the bandit quickly dashed in with his sword drawn, aiming for a vertical downward slash upon Helios. Again, the boy stepped to one side and, with a back foot turn, unsheathed the blade to reveal its glistening silver and golden blade and attempted for a rear thrust on his opponent. The strike dug into the bandit’s side but only scraped through and missing any organs; a purposefully executed near-miss to weaken but not fatally wound him. However the man seemed to ignore it as he swung his sword back towards Helios. The boy was rather fortunate to be aware of such an attack and raised his sword with both hands; this was the moment.

The bandit smirked to see a repeat of what happened hours earlier but, as the blades struck one-another, the platinum sword stayed intact. The bandit could not believe it as seen from the look of his expression, but Helios simply returned the smirk and, while the opponent was still in awe and open, raised his sword for an upwards slash and slashing into the bandit’s wrist, cutting it near deep but also making him drop the sword. It seemed the match would be near over…

[Guyviroth]

Helios noticed something metal shining as he cut into and through the arm of the bandit’s skin tight suit. His hand went limp as the sword dropped and he himself fell backwards but as he landed on his forearm to soften the fall several scraps of fractured metal flew from his arm. Helios didn’t know what it was but he knew that it was some sort of ancillary equipment used to cheat his way through this fight. Helios did not let up however and with the sword sliced off the bandit’s right hand. The man gave off an audible scream as the pain shot through his body, while the hand with the contraption on it spun off to the floor nearby.

”What kind of contraption is that, Karasu? Is that what you use to swindle other businesses out of their livelihoods!?”

Fuji yelled across the square to his opponent while Helios stood over the bandit, no longer wanting to fight considering he had just had one of his hands sliced clean off. Karasu stood amongst the crowd with a face of grimace and his wrapped a fist around his shades and crushed them after he had taken them off.

”Yeah, you’re damn right! I made that contraption to increase the strength of a person two-fold! I could of become a conglomerate business had I been able to sell that here you old bastard! I’ll get you for this!”

Suddenly the man made haste with his getaway although no one bothered to give chase; as much as people wanted his blood or wanted to see him punished he broke no law whatsoever. It seemed that they had no choice but to let the guy off. The bandit however, shivering and quivering from the loss of blood in his hand, was immediately taken into custody by three nearby Jounin who had recognized his fame from documented wanted posters.

Mr Fuji ran to Helios as the crowd cheered in his victory. It was great to of been such a valuable asset to his village that Helios couldn’t help but smile and wave back. He turned to Mr Fuji who had one of the biggest smiled on his face that the boy had ever seen as though his face was about to split in half. ”Hey old man, what’re you gonna do with the sword now?” Helios had pondered. He himself felt he did not deserve such a blade in all its excellence.

”I’ll keep this safe and perhaps work on the blade more, perhaps reforge it with diamonds as well should I find any. But here, I wanted you to have this; I’m sure you’ll recognize it.”

Helios did; it was the same Katana that the bandit had shattered earlier, except this time reformed with using a more rigid steel alloy. Helios smiled and nodded before shaking hands with the man. He guessed this was mission accomplished.

EXIT

[KEITH]

+94 - guyvi