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From what Helios saw out of the window from the mission office the kids were running south down the village square but wasn’t able to determine what route they took. It was going to be a considerable task just finding the kids first, so Helios decided that the best course of action was to be to gather information. From what he remembered they first came from an alleyway that was located near the hospital district and then preceded near the market place. Thinking it the best place to conduct his investigation Helios headed to the market.

The market district was considerably saturated with people today, with a lot of adults with their considerably younger kids that could possibly be no more than four years of age, so they definitely weren’t supposed to be at the academy today. They seemed to be having a lot of fun today too, with their parents buying them treats and toys with smiles upon their faces. Helios couldn’t help but smile, but as soon as he did it dissolved off his face; the boy couldn’t remember the last time he had a day out with his own parents. As he sat in thought of the fleeting times he had with them, a voice called out to him.



A girl called out to the distant swordsman; a stall keeper that sold novelty masks carved out of various kinds of woods, from birch wood to oak to cedar. Her head leaned over the counter of vividly-colored masks of kitsune, ookami, neko, tengu and oni designs as she attempted to get Helios’ attention. Her voice struck true with his ears as he turned to face her before proceeding towards the stall.

”Yeah, I was hoping someone could help me with something,” Helios replied to her concern, digging through the pouch on his waist and withdrawing the folded sheet of paper. Unfolding it he held it so that the girl could read it, holding it over the counter before her. ”I’m looking for these three students who’ve decided to start skipping classes. Do you know if they’ve passed by here and where they went?”



”Ah I see,” Helios smirked and nodded whilst folding the sheet of paper back onto itself before slipping it back into his pouch. He was rather happy that he was able to secure good information with a promising lead; if he left now he would be able to catch up to them. ”Thank you for your help, miss. Have a good day.” The girl smiled and nodded before Helios followed her directions to the southern clearing.

The stair climb was beginning to become less and less of a hassle for Helios the more he kept walking up and down the damn thing. He could feel his entire body get lighter, his legs becoming much looser as he kept having to work them so hard to the joint, and his breathing was become less heavy after the extraordinary climb. He was rather pleased with himself that he seemed to be cutting his time more and more every day he had to come to the mission board. Perhaps tomorrow he would consider sprinting up the stairway?

As the shinobi approached the door he could hear two voices. One of the voices sounded like a young man, perhaps no more than 30 years of age, yelling across the room; the words weren’t considerably clear as Helios couldn’t decipher what he was saying. The other person was much calmer, relaxed, and subtle in his speech. For a moment Helios was contemplating whether or not he should encroach on their conversation, but he needed to get a mission now or he might have to forfeit the entire day. With a sigh and a deep breath he placed his hand upon the brass handle and pulling it down, opening the door casually.



‘What kids are he talking about?’, Helios thought to himself in a brief moment to which he stood and listened to the Jounin talk, taking in the information he was being fed despite his blatant eavesdropping upon a conversation that was irrelevant to his purpose. Regardless he stepped up to the desk alongside the angered Jounin, not allowing the two of the occupants to continue their discussion. As the young boy proceeded he noticed that yesterday’s mission captain was today’s captain as well; perhaps he was a permanent replacement for the old. ”I’m here for another mission, captain.”

The adrenaline kicked in as soon as Helios awoke from his slumber, thinking of what his next mission could possibly be as he lay flat on his back upon his soft mattress. The mind worked like a set of cogs in a grandfather clock, turning, rotating, and setting in motion a small piece of motions that would end in grandeur of well-oiled machinery. Yesterday’s mission replayed through Helios’ mind minute after minute, especially when he delivered three killing blows. He could still sense that fight as though he was still there; the flow of blood as it hit his clothes, the sound of their gurgles as he plunged his blade through them, and the splendour of the killing intent that rushed through his body.

His body began to stir and jolt in rapid movements as he relived those moments. However, the young boy would snap from his trance as he began to recollect that he was in his house, in his bed, waking for his next task. Quickly and energetically he kicked the covers from his bare pale body, pressing his feet upon the quilt and pushing it away before spinning his hips so his legs dangled over the side of the bed, feet planted squarely on the floor before arising. The time, as he saw from the face of his clock, read as half-past nine in the morning.

”Such a good night,” Helios smirked and muttered to himself, rather clear and concise as well; it seemed that he was starting to get used to pulling late night shifts and getting up early in the morning. It crossed his mind that he probably awoke so early today because of the amount of energy and adrenaline that rushed through his mind from last night’s mission. He had hoped that, perhaps, he could do so again. ”I wonder if my next mission will involve more swordplay.”

The young shinobi leaned forwards before using his legs to push him up from a standing position, arching his back up straight and shaking his arms a little, although as his wrists began to loosen up he began to keel a numbing pain in them from where the two brutes had restrained him yesterday. Looking down and holding his hands up to his eyes, palms facing towards his sight, he flexed them forwards then back again. It hurt when he bent those inwards but not outwards, to which began to concern Helios as to if it would affect his swordplay. Nonetheless of the afflictions, shrugging, he turned to his clothing and grasped them, slipping them on before slipping on his sandals and grabbing his equipment and proceeding to the mission office.

It wasn’t a feeling that Helios had ever recognized before. The bloodshed, the thrill kill, the act of ending one’s life with his own hands felt like a huge adrenaline rush; Helios needed more of it. It was like an addiction for the brief moment in which he was suddenly overwhelmed by the opponent, and then in a split instance was turned on its head to his favour. A smirked spread across his pale lips as the blade retracted back into his sleeve before placing a firm grip upon his sword, beginning to close the distance between himself and the last two, approaching them.

The two robbers were shocked, horrified, and terrified that a kid was so easily able to strike down two rather strong, burly-looking in a second or so with such a contraption. The smaller man with the bag was visibly shaken and dropped the bag, stepping backwards. However the leader, as it were, grabbed his shovel in two hands and stepped forwards and went for a powerful overhead swing with the sharpened edge of the tool, aiming to repeat what he had done two days earlier to the bandit.



What did he mean by “Explorer”? Doesn’t he mean the bandit in the forests outside of the village gates? Regardless of what the person meant, Helios decided that this guy had to be dealt with in whatever way he saw fit. Before the shovel could come crashing down atop his head, the swordsman made a quick back-foot turn and spun to the side, avoiding the attack. As he made his spin, he quickly drew the sword in a reverse grip, held it forwards, and then plunged the blade past his right side, impaling the robber through the stomach. The shovel dropped from his hands and into the dirt of the crypt with a loud, echoed *CLANG*. Blood poured from the open mouth of the man and began to slump to the floor as Helios withdrew the blade.

Helios turned to notice the other smaller man, cowering behind a rock to which he could tell from the light of the lanterns formed his shadow upon the floor and nearby wall. ”Get out here now before I kill you as well,” Helios exclaimed, his voice booming across the crypt and into the man’s ears. Hurriedly the man scampered from behind the rock and looked at Helios. ”You’re coming with me to confess your crimes to the captain, and all that you know of what happened.”

The hours passed by slowly while the darkness in the crypt remained ever constant; it was impossible to tell how much time had passed in a place where night and day had no connection to one-another. Shadow imposed all around the graves, coffins and burial chambers without restraint, enveloping the stones and rocks like a blanket of dusk. One could still see what was what, however, as the crypts were not completely soaked in the darkness; tiny lanterns hung upon the ceiling, held by chains of iron, that gave off small cones of light down to the floor.

Helios had been sitting, waiting, biding his time until someone should arrive. He assumed that they would arrive, although it was under theoretical evaluation; he remembered back to yesterday at the night of the theft when the Jounin stated that he had to wait a few days before his next heist to throw people off his trail. Taking on board that information, the seated, huddled shinobi hoped that that information could be used here as well. If someone did turn up, he would know it would be the grave robber; earlier he had notified the Jounin to keep the crypt unguarded and open, the way it was two days ago, to not ward off the robbers.

As the time passed, Helios heard a few voices outside; more than one grave robber, it seemed. The voices couldn’t be deciphered since the large stone door shielded most loud sounds from getting in or out of the chamber. Quickly, the swordsman tumbled across the floor and pressed his back upon a large, thick stone pillar and waited for the infiltrators to open the door.

The door slowly jarred open and let in a bright glow of silver moonlight into the crypt, lighting up the scenery that lay in front of it, though Helios still remained within its shadows as the light struck the flat side of the pillar. Helios peered around the corner and noticed two people walk in; the main target who was dressed in the attire detailed in the report, wearing a brown uniform and carrying a shovel that was already dirty, while the second person was a small man, hunched over with a sack that rattled with metallic clangs, presumably more equipment.

As the two men began to move across the corridor, Helios waited before they moved past the pillar fully before tumbling to the door’s entrance, standing up and placing his hand on his sword, ready to attack if necessary as it called out to the two robbers. ”Hold it there, scum,” Helios taunted as he called out, his voice echoing across the walls of the crypt. The two robbers turned with dumfounded expressions upon their faces, seeing a child hold them up. ”Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”

That was rather unexpected; Helios began to ponder as he followed the doctor, although he assumed loosely that the Jounin had notified the hospital of his arrival in order to conduct a report upon the body. After some walking, the doctor led Helios into a large, cold room; the lights were dimmed in shadow that gave the room a darkened, ominous blue color; various metal tools glistened in what little light there was; the floor was made up of rough yet polished tiles. As Helios gazed around to familiarise himself with his surrounding, the doctor opened up a chamber on the far wall, pulling out a metallic slab that housed a body, that of the victim in the photograph.



Helios took a look over to the head of the corpse. Along the top of the skull and down to the left side was a huge wound, around 6 inches long, and considerably deep; it cleaved through the skin and into the bone. Looking through the documents the picture displayed the body with a surmountable pool of blood located directly underneath the wound with no other visible wounds, indicating it was the only point of injury and, by extension, the cause of death. Helios decided to question though, to see if he could get any more information about the body. ”Is there anything else about the body I should know?”



”So what about the wound on the head; some sort of bladed weapon?”



”So a knife or a dagger?”



”So a tanto blade of some kind?”



The doctor concluded his explanation by sliding back the corpse into the chamber, closing its door and locking it. It was a bit to go on but Helios decided that he could make a go of what he got, although it did baffle him; if a bandit killed the guy, why would he not use a sword? What sort of make-shift weaponry could cause such a wound? Regardless, Helios nodded as he packed the picture away into the file and gave his farewell to the doctor, leaving the hospital.