The winter storms continued to roll in hard. Snow blanketed everything in a pristine sheet of white while dark clouds blocked out the majority of the sun. Nothing was moving in Kumogakure today despite it being only 12pm. The storms this high up in the mountains were nothing to trifle with, even with the chakra barriers that were erected to keep the worst of the wind from slamming their mountain city. Yet, all because the weather was keeping proper business from running, it didn’t mean that the criminal underworld stopped. In fact,they usually thrived in bad weather such as this. Smugglers loved using storms to cover their tracks, pirates to skirt around marine ports, and other ner’dowells using bad weather to do bad things. It was with that information in mind that kept the cyborg quietly moving across the snow in the back alleys.
Rei’s darkened form didn’t leave imprints. The artificial chakra coil that ran through her feet were tuned to emanate the Water Elemental Change, making so that her steps on the fluffy ice didn’t even so much as shift the flakes around. Like a ghost stepping through the snow the cyborg prowled through the alleys with her ears tuned to listen to anyone; but all that returned was mostly silence. The howling of wind through the crevices of her city and the occasional elevated voices from a lover’s quarrel in the buildings she moved between was all that caught the scientist’s attention. It seemed that, for a change, the thieves and murderers were taking a break with the rest of Kumo. Rei finally allowed her body to relax as a large cloud of hot air was exhaled from between her lips.
The cyborg stepped out from the frozen dark allies back into an open but empty street. The dimly lit city under a deeply clouded sun revealed little about what she wore beyond a long jacket, combat boots, and winter pants. Her short scruffy hair billowed in the wind, collecting a nice white sheen from all the snow flurrying around, but she looked completely non-bothered by it. Rei looked up at the dark clouds and glared at them, the true target of her ire; she was bored. Work was limited due to the weather and the same went towards her research and engineering due to a lack of specific parts. So the engineer had taken to scouring the city, for about two hours at a time, and then warmed back up to allow her…more, human parts to thaw out. It had been 2hrs, now it was time to warm up again and crack back open her log book. It wasn’t much to do, but it helped kill time until her next resting cycle where she hoped to wake up to sans blizzard.
Taking a moment to find her bearings, Rei turned crossed the street and went down another alley. In the far back of this one, past all the windows that lead into the offices of the stores that surrounded her, was a simple black metal door. On it was a set of three numbers embedded into the steel and painted in red: 221. The scientist strode up to the door and reached her hand out to turn the knob. As she did, Rei commanded a chakra string to be created within the arm and pull back a little latch inside that made her palm disassemble and eject out the end of a key. As her fingers gripped the knob, the key slid in and turned itself clockwise. A frozen ‘click’ echoed inside of the cyborg as she felt the key doing its job before turning back and sheathing itself back into her wrist; the wrist turned and pushed the steel door open. Ice that had frozen onto the frame fell on the scientist, but she ignored it and moved past the snow to step down onto the floor and close it behind her. Once the door was shut, lights automatically began to turn on with a low hum, and a cold air billowed out of a grate on the floor that would heat up with time.
Safe house number 221. Only Jounin and ANBU staff had the keys to these places, as they were kind of “pop up” interrogation rooms or a safe place that a shinobi could call for reinforcements within the city if needed. There was even a separate room branching off that was an ER, containing everything one would need to conduct emergency surgery if they didn’t think the patient could make it to the main hospital in time. The rooms were created ages ago back when Kumogakure’s shinobi population started to dwindle and were a place for their militants to stop and collect themselves before moving to another part of their rather large city. As powerful as each soldier was, a group of civilians could still over run them if caught off guard.
Before Rei could get comfortable though, the steel door flew open again. Bursting inside were three men and something in a burlap sack. Those that exploded into the room through brute force were welcomed with darkness before one of them closed the door to reveal an empty room. The lights worked like a reverse refrigerator light. When the door was opened the power hit a kill switch; specifically just for moments like these. The very second the light became dark, Rei shot towards the ceiling and clung to the wood rafters with claws that extended from her her finger joins and ankles. Her neck turned 180 degrees to stare down at the intruders and watch them. If they turned out to be Jounin or ANBU, then she would be merciful, but if not, then she would happily execute all three for trespassing on government property. The real mystery here, one that immediately caught her interest beyond murder, was what was kicking around in the sack one of them had slung over their shoulder.
Rei’s darkened form didn’t leave imprints. The artificial chakra coil that ran through her feet were tuned to emanate the Water Elemental Change, making so that her steps on the fluffy ice didn’t even so much as shift the flakes around. Like a ghost stepping through the snow the cyborg prowled through the alleys with her ears tuned to listen to anyone; but all that returned was mostly silence. The howling of wind through the crevices of her city and the occasional elevated voices from a lover’s quarrel in the buildings she moved between was all that caught the scientist’s attention. It seemed that, for a change, the thieves and murderers were taking a break with the rest of Kumo. Rei finally allowed her body to relax as a large cloud of hot air was exhaled from between her lips.
The cyborg stepped out from the frozen dark allies back into an open but empty street. The dimly lit city under a deeply clouded sun revealed little about what she wore beyond a long jacket, combat boots, and winter pants. Her short scruffy hair billowed in the wind, collecting a nice white sheen from all the snow flurrying around, but she looked completely non-bothered by it. Rei looked up at the dark clouds and glared at them, the true target of her ire; she was bored. Work was limited due to the weather and the same went towards her research and engineering due to a lack of specific parts. So the engineer had taken to scouring the city, for about two hours at a time, and then warmed back up to allow her…more, human parts to thaw out. It had been 2hrs, now it was time to warm up again and crack back open her log book. It wasn’t much to do, but it helped kill time until her next resting cycle where she hoped to wake up to sans blizzard.
Taking a moment to find her bearings, Rei turned crossed the street and went down another alley. In the far back of this one, past all the windows that lead into the offices of the stores that surrounded her, was a simple black metal door. On it was a set of three numbers embedded into the steel and painted in red: 221. The scientist strode up to the door and reached her hand out to turn the knob. As she did, Rei commanded a chakra string to be created within the arm and pull back a little latch inside that made her palm disassemble and eject out the end of a key. As her fingers gripped the knob, the key slid in and turned itself clockwise. A frozen ‘click’ echoed inside of the cyborg as she felt the key doing its job before turning back and sheathing itself back into her wrist; the wrist turned and pushed the steel door open. Ice that had frozen onto the frame fell on the scientist, but she ignored it and moved past the snow to step down onto the floor and close it behind her. Once the door was shut, lights automatically began to turn on with a low hum, and a cold air billowed out of a grate on the floor that would heat up with time.
Safe house number 221. Only Jounin and ANBU staff had the keys to these places, as they were kind of “pop up” interrogation rooms or a safe place that a shinobi could call for reinforcements within the city if needed. There was even a separate room branching off that was an ER, containing everything one would need to conduct emergency surgery if they didn’t think the patient could make it to the main hospital in time. The rooms were created ages ago back when Kumogakure’s shinobi population started to dwindle and were a place for their militants to stop and collect themselves before moving to another part of their rather large city. As powerful as each soldier was, a group of civilians could still over run them if caught off guard.
Before Rei could get comfortable though, the steel door flew open again. Bursting inside were three men and something in a burlap sack. Those that exploded into the room through brute force were welcomed with darkness before one of them closed the door to reveal an empty room. The lights worked like a reverse refrigerator light. When the door was opened the power hit a kill switch; specifically just for moments like these. The very second the light became dark, Rei shot towards the ceiling and clung to the wood rafters with claws that extended from her her finger joins and ankles. Her neck turned 180 degrees to stare down at the intruders and watch them. If they turned out to be Jounin or ANBU, then she would be merciful, but if not, then she would happily execute all three for trespassing on government property. The real mystery here, one that immediately caught her interest beyond murder, was what was kicking around in the sack one of them had slung over their shoulder.