Episode 1The Deconverstion of Tenkawa Kaori
Kaori was hanging around just outside of the gates, sitting on a blanket just off to the side with a small tea set, sipping some green tea out of a classical European-styled teacup. She lifted the cup up to her lips as she watched people going in and out of the village. She watched all of the colorful and different people enter and exit the village, all with smiles on their faces and stories to tell. Ninja were returning from missions abroad and visitors to the village were returning home after a casual stay. It was a nice day with a cool crisp early morning and a temperate afternoon. Why was Kaori away from the Shrine? She didn't have to stay there at all times; she was, after all, the one that the rest of the Shrine worshiped ever since she slew the demon that took the facade of a dragon. The demon that hungered for praise and adoration using fear and manipulation as it's weapon. Ever since she drew that creature into the light and slew it, the people in the Shrine now look to her for guidance. Even more-so now that the Shrine had expanded in membership with the addition of the members of the Behemoth Cult joining her flock.
As Kaori took a quick sip from the cup, she noticed a man rushing to the village gates on a quadrupedal demon. Yes, she still finds horses repulsive and demons, but due to the domestication of the horse, she foregone slaying and exorcising those monstrosities. Her eyes went from fluttering from one place to another and fixated upon the man that dismounted his horse and ran into the village, only to be stopped by the shinobi there. The man was restrained by the gate security, causing Kaori to roll her eyes as she stood up and adjusted her black gothic lolita dress. She left the blanket and tea set upon the blanket, only for the set to be cleaned up by a faceless follower a moment after. She made her way towards the aggressive guards and the man, who seemed quite distressed. She walked passed the horse and glared at it as she passed only to stop beside the man, wrapping her arms around one of his arms. She overheard the frantic screaming of the man for help as she tugged at him and gave him a bright smile.
"Foreign army, you say? Did you happen to see how many?" Kaori asked the man, drenched in his own sweat and the look of fear and anxiety upon his eyes. The very look of the woman's smile eased him slightly (but not entirely) giving him a chance to catch his breath and speak in a more calm tone. He cleared his throat and moved away from Kaori and nodded his head.
"Yes, sorry for the-the-the rushed nature of my visit. But there are 3 foreign soldiers. They don't look like ninja. They wear heavy metal armor and some strange looking weapons. They have come to my village, Kusono, down to the southeast near the ocean. They arrived on a boat from who-knows-where and they-they-they," the man said before her started to burst into tears. "Oh god. They killed my husband and niece! They wouldn't accept their god so they killed them!" the man said as he wiped the tears from his eyes using the grimy palms of his hands.
"Three you said? People in metal armor invading the small town of Kusono?" Kaori asked as she turned to look towards the guards. They moved away and clicked down their headsets to relay the information to the intelligence unit. Kaori knelt down and placed a hand upon the scruffy man's face, feeling each individual bristle upon her calloused hands. "I will help you. But let's get you to my place and clean you up, alright?" she said before giving him a smile. She helped the man up to her feet and she was then approached by one of the gate guards and was told that the information that he gave was good information.
Kaori nodded to the gate guard. "Could you tell them that Tenkawa Kaori is going to be returning to the village with Kusono? A handler would be great as well. I would prefer Aoi as she was my handler thus far," Kaori said as the man nodded his head and radio'd it in. Upon speaking the name 'Aoi' the voice on the other end of the headset changed. A single wave of the hand from the gate guard was made as he signaled to Kaori to put on her headset. After fixing the man's position, she put the headset into her ear and clicked it on.
"Good. Welcome back, operative. One of these days, you need to assign yourself a codename,
"Yes, I should sometime," Kaori simply replied.
"Great. Switching to encrypted channel," the handler, Aoi, changed the channel to a scrambled and locked channel. Only those with the proper encryption code could access this channel. As long as Kaori had worked with this handler, she wasn't even certain that the name 'Aoi' was even the handler's actual name. All she knew was she was about the same age as Kaori but she was a very, very powerful sensor nin. She even recently developed the ability to remotely view Kaori progress as long as the two were linked onto the same channel. While Aoi could spy of Kaori whenever she wished, she decided that giving her operative her privacy was paramount as it had nothing to do with the mission.
"Alright," Kaori said as she put a hand underneath the man's armpit and pulled him towards the direction of the Shrine.
"M-my horse," the man said frantically, turning to look back to see the horse standing in the middle of the road firmly.
"Leave it. I don't allow demons in the Shrine," Kaori stated. The man laughed in reply. "It's not a demon, it's a horse," he stated before Kaori tugged at him before escorting the man to the Shrine. She clicked on her headset. "I'm escorting the client to the Shrine to get cleaned up. If it's true that those... What are we calling them?" Kaori asked as the handler merely said "Sign Knights," she said as Kaori raised a brow. Too many of these knights have too similar of a name. "Alright, I'm taking the client to the Shrine to get him cleaned up. Assuming he left undetected, we can play a facade of me being his young girlfriend and we will ride into the village as if we were on holiday. They will put us through the procedure again and we will both accept," Kaori said as she turned her eyes towards the man. The look on her face telling the man to comply to this ruse that she is going to pull.
"I need mission objectives," Kaori stated. She continued to drag the man to the Shrine and pushed in through the Shrine Gates with the man in tow. She had looks from the Shrine Knights before she simply said "I'm not sleeping with him. He's gay. He's also a client," she simply said before quickly vanishing into the building and prepared a bath for the man as well as retrieve a set of her father's clothing to give to the man after he was done. The relief of the Shrine Knights when they knew she wasn't going to sleep with the client was heard in a loud and collective sigh. While the man took a bath, Kaori changed her clothes to something a little bit more casual. However, her mind changed as did her clothing.
The man walked out feeling cleaned and wearing clothes that oddly fit him and Kaori walked out in a white and red miko outfit, bearing long detached red sleeves. The man tilted his head to the side before Kaori grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him back to the gate. Before the man had a chance to say anything, Kaori clicked on her headset. "Change of plans, Aoi. If their aim is religion, I'm going in under the facade of a Shrine Maiden. If the town knows the client is gay, him coming back with a girlfriend sounds like a bullshit excuse and someone might call him on his bullshit; especially if someone that converted didn't like him," Kaori stated and a single click could be heard over the headset as a confirmation from the handler. The client, who's name still remained unknown, gave a big smile to Kaori before the two eventually found themselves in front of the horse.
The creature didn't budge an inch and Kaori just glanced at the abominable creature for a moment. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said before turning to look towards the man. "We got foreigners to kill," Kaori said as the man nodded and mounted the horse. After a moment of hesitation, Kaori mounted the horse behind him and made non-verbals showing her absolute disgust of being on a horse. She shook her hands and legs a bit as if to get something off of her body. With that, the man clicked his heels and the horse started to run back towards the village.
As the duo traveled by horse to the village, they had to take a couple stops as it was a couple day's ride. On the second day, as the town is now clearly in-view, Kaori mic'd in, stating that the village was near. It was then that the Handler appeared and spoke to Kaori. "You are officially given the codename: Miko, for this mission. This is declared a B Rank mission by the village. Your first objective is to discover the Sign Knight's hideout. Discover where it is, giving the exact location. Our sensors out in the field are only able to see and they couldn't get too close without being noticed. It seems there are only 3 individuals and they appear to be Chakra Sensitive, so our Sensors couldn't get near them. So we need you to find the location of the hideout as your first mission. Do you understand?" the Handler, Aoi, stated.
"Copy that. Miko will infiltrate the town and find the location of the Sign Knight's hideout and then await further instructions. I am now within clear visual distance from the town. Going dark. Will report in click-code when the objective is discovered," Kaori said before turning off her comms and pocketing the headset. She leaned in towards the man, tickling his ear with her breath. "You're going to need to play it cool alright? Your story is that you went to go get a priestess for whatever reason you see fit. I am not a shinobi, understand?" Kaori stated. While she had her Gloves of Divine Dragon Flame with her, she didn't have them equipped just so the facade she was pulling seemed more legitimate. The man nodded his head as the horse pulled into the town, only to be greeted by three fully armored individuals.
Three women, one dressed in red, one dressed in blue, and one dress in green approached the two. Kaori turned her head a bit. The information given to her was faulty. The information told to her was that there were 2 women and 1 man in this group of knights. She needs to berate Aoi and her Sensor nin about the intelligence gathered. The one dressed in red stood forward and halted the duo and the man coalesced and stopped the horse. The man then jumped off of the horse and assisted Kaori off of the horse before the horse took off back to where it belonged. The woman pulled out a double-edged blade from a scabbard attached to her hip and pointed it towards the man. "Identify yourself!" the woman stated.
Kaori took her place behind the man as the man identified himself and Kaori. "My name is Rokubungi Kinta. Behind me is the Priestess Miko. I was out of the village to retrieve Priestess Miko because our priestess had died. Please let us pass," Kinta said. The woman turned her took to the man before turning to look towards Kaori. The red-clad woman sheathed her blade and held out a hand towards the two. As she did this, the other women unsheathed their weapons and surrounded Kaori and Kinta.
"Then kiss my ring and accept our lord and savior. Give up your false gods and embrace the one-true god," the woman said sternly and she tilted her head backwards a bit with a big grin upon her face. The man turned to look towards Kaori with an inquisitive look. He didn't want to give up his faith, but for the two to not get skewered, they had to give in and do this. Kaori nodded towards the man and he looked at the woman's hand and leaned down to kiss the ring. After Kinta kissed the ring, he was moved off to the side and the woman moved the hand up towards Kaori's lips.
"Now, for the priestess of the false god. Kiss the ring," she said in a condescending manner. Kaori walked up to the woman and without hesitation, leaned over, grabbed the woman's hand and kissed the ring. She released the woman's hand and the red-clad woman smiled, moving her hand back. "Good, you heathens chose wisely," she said as the other two sheathed their weapons and turned their shoulders to allow them in. The two started to walk towards the town, as if being funneled in. "Curfew is at 10 PM. Do not get caught outside after curfew or you will be killed," the woman said as Kaori and Kinta nodded their heads.
They walked in towards the town, seeing a bunch of the remaining townsfolk burying those that didn't kiss the ring. They stopped as they saw Kinta walk in with a stranger. Kaori smiled and nodded her head in a bowing manner. Under normal circumstances, she would say words for the fallen and assist with the burial rites, but due to the tense situation that was in the town, she had to let it go. Now all that's left is for her to wait until nightfall to use the cover of the dark to follow the Sign Knights back to their base.
Nightfall...
Kaori hid in the shadows, having changed out of her priestess outfit into something a bit more suited for stealth. Certainly, the foreigners hadn't had the experience dealing with shinobi and their underhanded tactics, so they wouldn't be expecting any guile; especially not from someone they deemed as an outsider. Kaori waited in the streets, hiding in the darkness for a moment before she spotted the blue-clad knight. She could easily dispatch her,
but her mission isn't to kill anyone. She continued to track the blue-clad girl, utilizing her chakra to try to keep her presence off of the ground so she didn't step on twigs or rocks and make a sound. If she had to, she could change her form into something a bit more suitable for the night, but now wasn't the time for that.
Kaori kept her eyes on the girl as she calmly walked around only to find the blue-clad girl meeting with the blonde of the group. Kaori kept her profile low as the two started to chat for a little bit. With how long the blue-clad girl was alone to this point, it seemed that there was a changing of the guard;
a way for these three to maintain their oppressive presence in the form of their curfew. Must have been difficult for 3 people to keep tabs on such a spread-out community.. It didn't matter to her, she will find a way to thin this herd. Just now isn't the right time. She had to send back proper intelligence to the Sensor Shinobi so they could keep an eye on her. After the two separated, Kaori had to be patient before pursuing the blue one once again. After waiting for the blonde to disappear, she regained her trail on the blue girl.
She continued to pursue the girl while clinging to the shadows until she found herself at the Mayor's house. She didn't have to follow the girl into the manor to know where she was going. After seeing her take off to the biggest building in the town, she immediately knew. After she tracked them down to the Mayor's house, Kaori fled out of the village quickly so she could make a call to the headquarters.
"Miko to Aoi. I've discovered the headquarters of the Sign Knights. They are residing within the Mayor's house," Kaori said quietly over the radio before Aoi responded. "That's a good copy, Miko. Our Sensors can't seem to remotely view the Mayor's house.
Looking in that direction only picks up static. We figured that's probably where the base of operations would be, but we needed someone on the ground to get confirmation of it," Aoi responded.
"I don't know who you have on your intelligence team that told me there were 2 women and 1 male, but there are 3 women here,
and they look VERY feminine so that must be a rookie mistake," Kaori stated. "Copy that. But our Sensors DID pick up a male presence there. The presence didn't have any chakra signature, however. They claimed that the male looked like he was covered in large black armor."
"Copy, I'll keep it in mind. Male, black armor, no chakra signature. What's my next objective?"
"Your next operation is to evacuate everyone in the village." Aoi stated.
This caused Kaori to raise a brow and question the reason. She could easily dispatch these knights, so why the round-about reasoning.
"I'm sorry, Miko. That information is classified. You're just going to have to evacuate the entire town. Once everyone is out of the town,
you will have to call in. Make SURE you are outside of the village, yourself," Aoi said.
"This is suspicious. Stop hiding information from me," Kaori said. While she remained quite, there was obvious stress in her voice.
"I'm sorry, Miko," her handler said before the radio went silent. Kaori ripped the headset out of her ear and grit her teeth. She squeezed the device in her hands on the border of crushing the item into smaller pieces. She released the object before putting it back into her pocket.
Something was amiss. Why was her handler keeping information from her now? This was the first mission that she had that the main objective,
which probably wasn't her side of things, was classified at a clearance higher than her own. She didn't toil on it for too much longer before stealthily returning to the safe-house, which was Kinta's place.
As she crawled her way into the house, Kinta turned on the light and showed Kaori sneaking in. Kinta was accompanied by several others. Her eyes darted around for a moment before she ran up to the light switch and flicked it off, grabbing the man that turned it on and slammed him into the ground, placing a hand over his throat and the other in the air ready to bash his brains in with her fist. She turned her eyes towards Kinta for a moment as she held this man down by the throat, applying pressure to it and depriving the man of oxygen.
"What's going on, Kinta?" Kaori asked as the other man that was still standing looked mortified.
"They are friends. They already know what you are and why you're here," he said as Kaori turned to look towards the man she had pinned before letting him go. She took a seat upon the floor and sighed outward as the man choked, coughing as he tried to regain air into his lungs. "If he snitches, I'm going to kill him. Anyway, I received information from headquarters and they said I am to evacuate everyone from the town tomorrow. We're going to need a plan. But before I do that, I need to make sure you are all on the same side. I won't be able to do this one alone. So are you all in? We can get rid of these creeps once-and-for-all," Kaori said as she looked towards the two strangers and then towards Kinta.
The two men looked around and then towards Kaori, nodding to them, signifying they were in on this plan. "Good. Now to get us out of here, we have to..." she said as she started to address her plan for mass evacuation.
Episode 1 End
WC: 3420