The Spring Fair

Mission:

It had been a pretty rough day for Moyasu the fire Meijin. He had been running all over the village, going to multiple houses and conducting "spring cleaning" for the families, as he stepped into his own apartment and gave a loud and long yawn of exhaustion. "Man... It sucks being a Genin... I'm practically a maid not a ninja." He walked over to his refrigerator and got out a bottle of water as he took in a few big gulps just as he watched the sun slowly descend down over the mountainous horizon out the window. "Oh well it's not so bad... I've managed to make financial ends meet with this job. Now comes the part I always look forward to and hit the hay for a few hours." He took another swig of his water before stepping over to the bed before suddenly getting the thought 'Actually I should probably shower first.' and went into the bathroom to do just that. Afterwards he had managed to wash away some of his tiredness as he stepped out of the bathroom and put some fresh clothes on. "Well I could always mess around with a smoke until my eyes close." With that thought he got out one of his cigarettes and hopped up over his bed as gravity took hold and he fell down expecting the softness of his bed to take him.

What he felt instead was the cold and hard yet grassy ground as he gave a small "Oof!" before looking around in confusion at his new surroundings. Immediately his inner alarm bells were ringing as he looked around at what appeared to be a large clearing of a forest and the middle of the clearing was a giant ensemble of tents and people. It looked as though he had dived back first into the middle of a festival as there were multiple families of men, women, and children in yukata all enjoying themselves the attractions and sights of the festival. "Hmm... I'd better transform here. Can't really go out in just my bare necessities." With that he formed the necessary hand seals as he became shrouded in a puff of smoke before he was standing there in his usual ninja attire and he put the cigarette in his mouth before directing a bit of fire from out of his mouth that lit the cigarette on it's end. "Ok... Yet another strange location... Is this a dream? Or real?" He walked over to a tent in order to see if he could question someone about what was going on. It was a good place to start he figured.

As he walked towards one of the bigger tents that looked as though it was getting a good amount of attention from the crowds he suddenly heard a voice behind him call out. "Oh sir? You'll need a ticket to get in there!" He turned around to see a small booth with a man inside that he could've sworn wasn't there before as he walked up to the man who had a wide smile on his face along with a mask that covered his eyes. "Just one for tonight, sir?" Moyasu nodded as he reached for his money pouch but realized he didn't come with any of his personal effects. He didn't even have any weapons on him as the guy in the booth punched out a ticket and handed it to Moyasu. "No worries, sir. No charge for you tonight. I can assure you. After all you're one of our more special guests for the evening." Moyasu stood there confused as he took the ticket and was about to ask what the man meant but suddenly sparks of fireworks erupted beside him close enough to blind as he had to cover his eyes from them for only a moment.

After he got his vision back he shook his head in order to get out the confusion that had set into his mind as he looked around to see that the cart and the man had disappeared into thin air. He looked around in order to try and see where it had gone but found that it had completely vanished as a rather flamboyant looking man soon passed by Moyasu and caught the Meijin's attention. "Um... Excuse me? Can you please tell me where I am please?" The man looked up at Moyasu with a look of sadness in his face which made Moyasu wince a bit. "Are... you okay?" The man said nothing but seemingly gave a very heavy sigh as a response causing Moyasu to wince further before looking over to a food stand and walking up to it. "Hey you got something that could possibly cheer my friend over there up?"

The caretaker of the food stand got out a large puff of cotton candy as Moyasu thanked them and walked back over to the man in question. "Here. Maybe this will cheer you up?" The man looked up before his face lit up and he took the cotton candy and suddenly from a cloud of smoke a harp appeared, tied to a necklace around his neck, as he began to string a small tune seemingly in thanks for Moyasu. Moyasu could've sworn he recognized the song that was played as the man gave a slight bow before he, too, suddenly disappeared into thin air right before Moyasu's eyes. "Okay. This is getting ridiculous... hm?" He looked down to notice that there was a sheet of paper where the man had been and he reached down in order to pick it up and give it a read. Immediately he saw that it was a map of some kind... but when it came to where the map was pointing towards it didn't give any clues to that question. 'Well... I'm here. Might as well investigate.' he thought to himself as he left the fairgrounds heading in the direction that the map said.

WC 1,010

Claiming mission rewards: 4,000 ryo (Beloved Presence) and 10 AP

Approved!  Good luck with the remaining pieces of the arc!