D-Rank: High Stakes (P, IO, NK)

Spoiler:

Bar watched from the back of the crowd, as the dealer played the crowd as much as the game. Ok, he was good, Bar had to admit that. But he was no match for someone with a trained Byakugan. It was no wonder the guy only targeted the civilians. For his part, Bar was wearing his old grocery store uniform. The game was extremely simple on the surface: Three overturned cups, and one silver ryo piece. Guess correctly which cup had the silver ryo underneath after some fancy shuffling, and you win TWO coins! Guess wrong, and your silver ryo coin becomes the dealer's. The trick however, wasn't about the consolation prize of a cup of cheap sake, encouraging both winners and losers to keep playing. The trick was that every so many shuffles, your coin slipped up the dealer's sleeve, around his back, and popped out of his OTHER sleeve, slipping under a different cup. The dexterity and skill with which it was done was a show in and of itself, but Bar was the only one who could see it. Audience members, some of which were plants, shouted encouragement and cup suggestions, further adding to the confusion. Inevitably, between the sake, the plants, and the dealer's skill, people went away broke but entertained. It was almost a shame Bar had to shut it down. Ah, well. Maybe he could entertain the better-behaved prisoners.

Goon was next in line, it was time to play. With Bar's Byakugan and throat microphone, Goon could listen from his hidden earpiece, and pick the right cup every time. Inevitably, the knife would come out, and that was all the excuse they needed to take him down. In the meantime, Bar would take out people who's calm chakra but external excitement revealed themselves to be plants.

Goon had been standing here for a while, just watching and observing for the longest time. As people were all over taking side bets, cheering, even a few who played too much were weeping. t
Even some of the thugs were around, watching, waiting to seize opportunity it seemed. Who knows or cared, it was too public, a place to do anything crazy, you'd have to be smart to get a hustle going. Like the dealer was doing, Goon watched as he fooled the Guy ahead of him and he failed, and tapped out of the game. "WHO'S NEXT!" The dealer shouted, Goon immediately raised his hand, and pointed at himself stepping to the table. He placed his money down, and the dealer was saying a bunch of stuff maybe to side track him, but Goon wasn't falling for it. He urged him to get the game going, and the dealer went, Goon was able to keep track of the coin the whole time, for the most point anyways, but he would also rely in Bar's eye. The first couple of games were easy, but then the dealer steeped it up a bit, "Ahhhh! so you got more skill than what you show." Goon said, the dealer thought it was a compliment, but he was letting Bar know that the guy was probably a skilled fighter as well,. He figured that much because no ordinary person can do this, and not get hurt in the process, when the people find out they've been played.

As Bar continued to whisper the correct coin's location into Goon's ear, the dealer's suspicions rose. "Kid, I've run this show for quite a while now, and nobody's been so... blessed by Kami. Excuse me a moment while I get some more silver." The dealer grabbed what seemed to be the handle of a drawer under the table, but in actuality, it was the hand-grips to a katar! Bar was already moving, but he shouted a warning! "DODGE BACK!"

Goon hopped back, as the katar came flying towards, saying, "You don't run the show no more." As he hopped back using his right leg, Goon would send his left leg up, kicking the table up, and sending it towardsf the dealer. The dealer was caught off guard by that, "You picked the wrong person to pull that on." Goon landed out of the way of the katar, and the table knocked the Guy's arm up away from him anyways.

As he had landed, Goon was grabbed, from behind, the arms wrapped around his locking across his chest, and picked up by some man. He was thrown against a wall and hit his back. He bounced off and fell to the ground, Goon looked up and saw a big burly man, with a bald head walking towards him. "Well for a person like you, he has me." The man said, as Goon hopped up off the ground, a little winded, he smiled as he took his Muay Thai stance. As the man closed in on him, Goon sent a right high kick to his head. His foot hit the man square in the chin, and the big man fell straight to the ground unconscious, causing a loud boom that shook the area. Goon was shocked, luck it seemed was on his side.

As Goon disappeared backwards into the crowd, the plants rushed forward to put themselves between the dealer and the now-furious crowd, intent on getting their money back, sampling the cheap sake, beating up the dealer, or all of the above. Goon did well to disrupt the table, as the dealer wasted precious seconds trying to pick up his cups and silver.

That delay was all that Bar needed. Dropping into the middle of the thieves, Bar unleashed a Heavenly Rotation at it's full two-meter extension, slamming dealer, katar, plants, and thugs into the walls and ground of the narrow alleyway, and didn't stop until his Byakugan told him that they were all unconscious.

When the dust finally settled, Bar was done tying up the dealer and thugs with strips of tablecloth, and offered the katar to Goon. "If you don't want it, I know a guy who can give us top ryo for exotic weaponry." Bar proceeded to drag the dealer in the direction of the Tenga Jail.

(Bar's WC = 549. Goon's WC = 476. Post an exit if you want, I claim mission completion.)

Approved of Appropriate Rewards