章 310: CH_8.45 (310)
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———
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When the local newspaper hit the streets in the early morning, the article about the robbery at the high-ranking samurai's house became the topic of discussion and chatter among the city populace. It wasn't something they hadn't seen before, but it was rare enough to be a once-a-year sighting.
It was expected to be talked about for a couple more days as more details about the case and comments from the investigators came up—but by the time evening rolled around, another incident had captured the city's attention.
One of the local radio stations had been broadcasting a developing news story throughout the day,
"Those who are just tuning in for the first time today, let me recap the situation we at 101FM have been following from its first sighting... Around eight in the morning today, a bathhouse in the Middle Candle district suddenly went up in flames. The fire spread fast and hot, and the firefighters couldn't stop it before it had already completely covered the beloved community relaxation spot... Fortunately, the bathhouse hadn't opened for business, and the staff had escaped before the fire consumed the building.
"According to our sources, the fire started in the boiler room, and the cause seemed to be a fault in the machinery... While tragic for the owners and a loss for the community, the story would've ended there"— the jockey paused and let the silence linger to build just the right amount of silence —"but we wouldn't be talking about if it did— because roughly half an hour later, a fire exploded in a restaurant across the district, decimating the popular eatery; once again, no lives were lost as the staff managed to escape... The cause was seemingly identified as a leak in the gas line. An unfortunate coincidence? It sure seemed like that way. But at that time, we didn't know that there was so much brewing in the shadows and that the Ember Imperial City had a huge problem on its hands...
"Three hours later, once again, in the Middle Candle district, a small worker's dorm went down in yet another bizarre fire... Now, you don't need me to tell you that something is wrong when three separate buildings around the district burn down in the span of three hours... These fires were set deliberately. There's a shady arsonist who's going around setting buildings around the Middle Candle district on fire. You don't need to take my word for it because samurai began investigating the incidents after the third fire—but as though the arsonist was saying that he was not scared of them, he claimed a warehouse in the district as his fourth target around noon.
"After four fires in a single day, the Middle Court district is now under a lockdown, and samurai roam the streets to deter the arsonist from continuing his spree while they try to catch him—and it seems to work as three hours have passed with no activity." The jockey paused and sighed as the soft music behind him filled the silence. "Unfortunately, half an hour ago, we received news about a fifth fire in the Middle Candle district. It took us time to gather and confirm the facts from our sources, which was difficult because the samurai were turning everyone away...
"The fires till now have been at places of business; however, this fire was at a residential neighbourhood where a house was burned. It was the home of one Mister Higurashi, who actually owned the worker's dorm targeted by the arsonist... It seems these fires are not random, and the arsonist has a reason to target the ones he did. We don't know what those reasons are right now, but we do have a new piece of information—
"Until now, the arsonist had gone unseen, but this time, one of the neighbours caught a glance of the criminal, and they described him to be a man wearing green and grey shinobi-styled combat gear and a mask—and he saw them skipping roofs... It seems our arsonist is not a normal bloke but someone who might be versed in the shinobi arts. So, now the question is..."
The voice of the jockey faded as the volume of the radio was turned down by Zakahira Nozan, the son of Zakahira Mahachi, whose house had been robbed the day before.
"Did you catch that, father?" Nozan asked as he turned the volume knob. "The arsonist wore green-and-grey clothes with a mask... Do you think he's the same man?"
"Perhaps he is," said Mahachi from behind the desk in his study. He glanced at the empty spot on the wall where the twin daggers sat.
"But what about the woman?" Nozan wondered aloud.
"The man getting spotted doesn't mean he's alone—it can also mean that the woman went undetected. Five fires in a day is a lot; the risk of mistake, capture, or getting spotted increases with each subsequent fire—especially with the lockdown. It's a reasonable assumption that he didn't do it alone," said Mahachi before going silent
Nozan gazed at his, who looked deep in thought.
"What is it? Did you notice something?" he asked.
"It's uncommon for a team to take on tasks so different, and that too, in such a short period of time off. They stole from our home yesterday and then set fires to buildings today? No, something feels wrong here... I think these might be two different teams tackling their own jobs. However, I think they're related to each other," said Mahachi as he stood up from his chair, "and if we catch the arsonists, we might be able to get the thieves..."
Nozan stood up, "Let's go help them catch these bastards."
———
A cautious Sixteen stood inside a tiny bar run by a single man as a hobby, who only opened it on days when his friends wanted to drink and catch up, which, with different friend groups, came up to three times a week. It was such a hobby that he only opened it for friends, associates, and acquaintances and took no actual customers.
The bar made no money because the price of drinks was kept at a level that allowed it to stay afloat without making a loss. The owner had a different source of income. And because he owned the land on which the bar stood, he didn't even have to pay rent.
That unfortunate owner, who had only opened the bar for a few hours, was sprawled on the floor, knocked out by Sixteen, who was currently pouring down kerosene and liquor bottles all over the building. Some liquors were far too valuable to waste, so he stored away a few very expensive bottles he planned to gift to the ANBU-nin conducting the recruitment. Anything to increase his chances of getting the job.
He had already set a bathhouse and warehouse on fire, and they were very difficult to burn without attracting attention, which was why he had left the tiny bar with a single man as an obstacle as his last target.
"Alright, up you go," he grunted as he stowed the bar owner over his shoulder and left out from the back exit, where he settled the man against the wall over the adjacent building.
He weaved hand seals for a D-rank Fire Release jutsu and three spinners of fire into the bar to set the kerosene and alcohol on fire. The accelerants started burning immediately, and the fire spread almost too fast—but he had done it twice already and wasn't surprised by the speed.
Sixteen closed the door and picked up the owner before dumping him at a safe distance.
Setting the bar on fire was easy; the hard part was leaving the Middle Candle district unseen, which had only gotten more difficult as the samurai's presence had grown stronger. If it were just samurai, he wouldn't have worried as much because there weren't enough numbers to lock the area down—but when you added civilian patrolmen, moving around became a real challenge.
With his work finally done, he decided to take zero risk as he exited the district and spent an entire hour covering the distance, which would've only taken him fifteen to twenty minutes.
"Why are you so late? I've been worrying that they got you," said Five, his partner for the missions in the Ember Imperial City.
"I had to change targets," sighed Sixteen as he stepped on the roof of an apartment building.
His initial target was a teashop, but he had to abandon it because there was a heavy samurai and patrolman presence in the area, so he switched to his backup, the bar, which he found doable.
"You let them see you," Sixteen said pointedly to Five, who looked sheepish for a moment before shrugging.
"It doesn't matter. Three and Thirteen already leaked our 'appearance' yesterday," he said with air quotes. They had read the news about the robbery at the samurai's house in the newspaper, which accurately described the candidate's gear. The reason they knew it was Three and Thirteen was because the robbers were a man and a woman—and between the two teams with a woman, they weren't going to think the Seven-Fourteen team with a Hyuga would let anyone see them.
Sixteen couldn't argue against that. He stepped next to a rusty table they found on the roof, which had a city map sitting flat on it. An area of the map was outlined, and multiple locations were marked in pen inside it. The marked locations ranged from restaurants, workshops, and warehouses to residential houses, worker dorms, and bathhouses.
All those properties were owned by people associated with a territory-based group who controlled the outlined area by owning and operating properties and businesses, allowing them to impose their own local rules and influence how things were done in the area.
Their informant task involved arson. The group that controlled the outlined area had grown too strong an influence over it to the point where they had begun to sway how the government funding allocated for the area's development and maintenance was used—and had begun using it not for the overall area's improvement but for their personal gain.
Their objective was to destroy key locations and bring scrutiny to them to weaken the group's influence and stop their illegal practices.
"You could have just returned without doing the third location," said Five as he also gazed at the map.
The mission only asked them to target any four locations, but the two decided to split up, and target three locations each to be safe in case one of them couldn't fulfil all the targets, the other would make up for the deficit.
"I didn't feel good about not pulling my weight," said Sixteen.
"Get changed quickly. I'm hungry, and you lost the bet," said Five.
They had made a bet about who could complete their three targets first; the loser would pay for dinner.
"First, we go alert the informant," said Sixteen as he began undressing to change into his civilian clothes.
"Of course... Just one more task remaining," Five said with a long sigh.
They had been away from their houses for over a week. It wasn't a particularly long time for a mission, but other missions had highs and lows. The test had been a constant high gear because they didn't know when the ANBU would throw something at them. Even during their free time at the camp, they had been occupied by evaluating and being cautious of their competition being in such close proximity.
Fatigue was natural in the circumstances, and they had no idea if things would end in the Ember Imperial City.
———
"Oh, you're done?" said the informant when Takuma and Three sat in front of him while he was drinking at a roadside bar. He munched on a plate of fried chicken and other drinking food spread on the table. "Do you want to drink? I'm not paying though."
"We just came to inform you because you asked us," said Three.
"Can you make it quick? We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow," said Takuma as he rotated his tired shoulder. He was hungry because he hadn't eaten since early morning, and they still had to discuss the bounty hunt they were going to tackle tomorrow before they could sleep and rest for the day. He wanted to wrap things quickly so he could sleep even a minute more.
"Right, you do have a busy day tomorrow," said the informant with a chuckle before breaking into laughter while slapping his thighs. "Man, those guys can be so amusing sometimes!"
"I don't feel very good about this," Three leaned in to whisper, furrowing her brows in worry.
"Neither do I," said Takuma before speaking to the drunk man. "What do you mean?"
The informant rested his chubby chin on his thick palm and stared at them with half-lidded eyes, his face red from drinking. There was a few seconds of silence on the table before the informant pulled out a set of four scrolls strapped together.
"Here's your second, surprise task... I hope you weren't thinking about sleeping tonight."
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———
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