How to Skin an Animal

Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:22 pm

Mission Specs:

The morning was cloudy, misty, and rather warm. The day would open up before the sun peaked. For breakfast, Kaito toasted sesame seeds in a dry frying pan, set them aside and rubbed some olive oil on said pan, buttered two slices of bread and toasted that as well, crushed the seeds finely, served the bread, spread honey on top of the buttered side, and sprinkled the seeds on top of that. He brewed some coffee too, and sweetened it with milk. A banana would complement the meal, which was interrupted by the sound of his mailbox fold opening and a letter falling inside. If the mailmen were already up and about, he must’ve really let himself sleep in. The letter fell atop other letters, one of them being from the Mission Board Office. Kaito cursed under his breath, looking into the mission details. What he read brought a smile to his face.

Kaito travelled through the edges of the village where the slaughterhouse was, wherein a summons came. It requested that a genin assist the slaughterhouse, and he figured it had been a standardized request, but he knew the people of the slaughterhouse quite well; after all, he had been a cook before he took up the genin mantle once again. Upon reaching the warehouse he was met by the workers, outside having a smoke, and immediately the banter and cheer sparked among Kaito and the workers; they had known each other for the best part of ten years, and they asked where he’d been. Kaito spoke of how the restaurant burned down which was why they had not seen him for the past couple weeks. Still the slaughterhouse asked for help, and help Kaito would. He made his way inside, where the superintendent explained to him the bulk of the work he’d do during the coming week; he would have to collect, kill, skin, dismember, and sort 20 chickens, 10 cows, and 10 pigs total. Kaito scratched the nape of his neck; that was quite a bit of work. Moreover, he would have to wash and soap the barn, as though that was a cherry on top of the bloody cake.

Kaito got to work though; he was given a belt of tools which included a killing blade, long and sharp to kill, a skinning blade, a tiny thing but with a thin and incredibly sharp, meant to slice the skin and slice beneath the epidermis to separate skin from meat, and a sharpening iron, to keep the skinning and killing blades sharp and effective. He made towards the east with a cage in a wheelbarrow. He collected the chickens; though they ran and flew in the air for a few seconds, none of them stood a chance against kaito’s speed. He brought the chickens back, and he had help from an actual butcher to kill the chickens; first they would place then in a cone, head down, and after a small prayer of appreciation for the animal, they would swiftly kill it. Once the blood drained, usually under two minutes, they would dunk the chicken in warm water for one minute so as to loosen the skin and make the plucking process easier. After plucking the chicken and removing the meatless feet, a finger is slid along the neck muscles not to punch any tubes, but rather to break the membrane around the ribcage which allows the organs to be taken out. On the butt, a small square is cut around the butt very carefully so as to not break the tube, but deep enough to cut through the fat deposits. Once done, the entire digestive system, along with other system, is removed through the opening at the bottom. Certain organs are separated as they can still be consumed. Kaito and the chicken butcher were done quite fast, and Kaito thanked the help in cleaning the chickens before making home.

The next day, he made directly to the north part of the property, where the pigs were located. Once again, the same butcher would help him in the process, in this way he wouldn’t have to spend an entire week butchering them or having to learn by himself the process of butchering the creatures. One at a time, the pigs were lured with the smell of food into a rolling platform; once they peaked their heads through the “slaughter hole”, a heavy and sharp blade slid down as a guillotine to end to their life without unnecessary suffering. The katana had an etching on the side which read “May Those Cut By My Hand Find Peace”. Kaito thought it was a nice touch. From the rolling platform they were rolled about where they were hung by the hind legs to be drained of blood and have their hides scorched to clear the hair. Still hanging, a Y shape was sliced from between the legs of the pigs down their sternum, with extra care being put to make sure the digestive system isn’t pierced or sliced open while taking care of the tail. Once handled, the guts would spill onto the floor and preparation would be done for the day. Butchering proper would be left for someone else more skilled; after all, proper butchering would make the piece more appealing to a buyer, and Kaito knew that very well; an ill butchered piece of meat would always make Kaito think twice about taking it with him to the restaurant, and he didn’t even have to expose it to the clients. Ten pigs took the entire day, from sunup to sundown, even with two people and one being an experienced butcher.

The next day, Kaito could feel the muscles bulging in a very specific manner; all the butchering he had done on the previous day really left an impression on the body of the genin. But on he went today to handle cows, on the south side of the property. Cows were killed in a fashion similar to the pigs, except they had to be guided to the place where the butchering took place, once again their heads peeking through the slaughter hole where the guillotine effortlessly took care of a painless end. The cows that to be taken care of on the spot, hooked and lifted up by heavy chains, drained of blood on the spot. It was the messiest process by far. The blade had to be sharpened with the sharpening iron quite a bit more than usual, for the fat deposits beneath the skin allowed for a lot of slicing, which wore the tiny blade fast. Not only that, but the cow’s anatomy deviated much more than the pig’s, and as such, preparing the carcass was that much more tedious. After each kill, a quick hosing of water to clean most of the blood so the next cow wouldn’t be freaked out by the sight or the smell; stress released chemicals that made the meat taste fouler than it needed to. By the end of the day, he had only got five cows prepared, meaning another entire day of preparing cows on the morrow.

The last day at the slaughterhouse he got to clean the barn. It wasn’t a pleasant task and he would rather just butcher some more; this mission had the intent of teaching genin to be habituated to blood without having to immediately kill a human, but Kaito had spent plenty of time in slaughterhouses, and he did kill his former teammate in a beach of the Kumo. This mission offered very little in means of worldly experience except for the actual skinning process which might come in handy out there in the open world if he had to do out of country missions. Hell, might even help for out of village missions. But the barn was as boring of a task as it could be given, and it reminded him that as much as these missions could give experience, they could also be actual work. He tried organizing the tools in the barn as best as he could in accordance with clues of previously hung and arranged tools before he started hosing it with water and scrubbing with a hard bristles brush. Every inch of the barn floor had a soaped brushing before Kaito moved to the hosing once more. By the time he was done, the floor of the barn looked entirely new, or so he would like to believe. As a matter of fact, he decided to do it once again just to make sure it would be clean.

By the end of the week, every muscle ached, but in a good way. What was the point of being a ninja if hard work would make you feel bad? Instead he went to visit the owner of the slaughterhouse, a good friend of his from all the years of buying meat from him. He thanked him for the opportunity to let him work there and he explained that this was a common thing for him; genins would come here to get bloodied, he saved some money on expenses since genin were paid less than his regular workers, and sometimes his regular workers got an extra day off because of the genin’s help. The advantages mounted! The only downside was once in a while a less than able genin would step up to the task and ruin a piece of meat, but even then the village would cover any actual brought about by a ninja, and the meat would be used as best as it could be minus the affected area. They drank whiskey and talked about life, which they hadn’t been able to do until then, and feeling good about himself, Kaito stayed exchanging stories and drinking the fiery drink until sundown.

***
WC: 1632
Claiming 1100 Ryo (base + genin salary), +3AP
Claiming 1 Speed, 1 Strength, 2 Stamina
Claiming 1000 words towards B-Rank Bull Rush
Claiming 632 words towards Iai Beheading

Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:15 pm

Sorry for being late. approved

How to Skin an Animal

How to Skin an Animal

Re: How to Skin an Animal