You're a Mean One!

Mission:

Grinch One: Word of the Turboman dolls had spread it seemed there were now copy cats out there. Except now they were going a step further and breaking into people's homes in an attempt to get the precious figures. Whether this was for themselves or the joy of someone else was irrelevant. A good lead on who these thieves were would be to think of all the dolls they had stolen and start by questioning them. Apparently, one of these thieves dressed up as the Hogokage in a Santa costume and called himself the Grinch who stole Transplantmas. Which dude or lady wasn't wrong man was stingy about organ deals. One time the doctor even heard him say "He must stop Stein's transplants from happening, but how?" And that brought them onto the next set of suspects maybe an upset individual who Ayato's policies removed their chances of becoming a better ninja. This pretty much put Kita the imprisoned dude on Akabayashi's current watchlist along with any individual that wasn't the Terumi. People already were quite aware that even with the kage's policies the Nova freely swapped his organs about with full disregard for the law. Some of the organs were already in his body prior to Ayato taking over and BBB had been established before the terrible law banning the sale of organs and transplants took place. The Terumi would look about for anyone wearing a Hoshi headband he himself never wore any attire outside of Hoshi that would identify him as a village shinobi. As it usually was just asking for trouble if one village had a problem with your own. The Doctor would start with whom he spotted first Crom. "You wouldn't happen to be parading around as our kage and calling yourself the Grinch Who Stole Transplantmas would you?" He knew it wasn't Crom it was much too simple. He witnessed the Terumi do this the other night, it made Crom being the culprit too obvious. The Doctor found many other ninja he knew on the search for the exact same bandit. They eventually came across a man in a Santa costume dressed as Ayato. He was crawling through a window his legs caught on the window frame. The Doctor watched as he ripped his pants getting himself unstuck then walked out of the front door with his sack of freshly stolen belongings. The Nova stood before the man and just looked up and down for error in his costume there were none. Meaning this was the transformation jutsu and a ninja was underneath. The person in the outfit knew who he was looking at as panic set in and his concentration faltered ending the technique. It was a genin of Hoshi clearly as his head band showed. "You will return what you stole then come see me for your punishment. If I don't see you at my office, you will never see me coming when I find you again." The kid returned the things he had stolen and would return to the Terumi's office for his punishment the following week.

WC: 517/1500

This festive time of year was in full swing and it seemed that word of their prior acts or rumors of those acts were spreading quite a lot. With the “finding” of the elusive Turboman Dolls that parents and kids alike where in need of and desired it seemed that others were trying to mimic the groups barely legal and somewhat illegal methods of obtaining the items by basically just stealing whatever they wanted. They seemed to be calling themselves the Grinch who stole Transplantmas. Crom wasn’t sure where the transplantmas came from or what on earth a Grinch was but he assumed it was probably a local legend that was being used to facilitate the thefts. It seemed that with further evidence like witness testimonies on what was said and how they looked it could circle back to how the Hoshigakure’s Kage Ayato was against transplants. Crom was more annoyed that people would steal from others due to someone in a different country policies. It didn’t make sense and frankly it was most likely just a cover excuse to make them feel like they were doing the right thing.
 
Regardless it needed to stop and when Terumi approached Crom asking if he did it, “Of Course not. Since you are the one asking I can go ahead and take you off the list of possible suspects.” Crom mentioned as Terumi was the one prior to turn into their Kage and steal some Turboman dolls but now it seemed it was time to figure out who the real culprit was. So with much help from the group they tracked down the latest place and along with it it seemed the culprit caught on the window frame of their latest victim. “You got to be kidding me. A thief caught not by a person but by poor craftsmanship of a window.” Crom pointed out as he watched Terumi took care of dealing with the thief. Crom himself was upset to learn that that particular thief was in fact a fellow genin of Hoshigakure. Such a strange occurrence, A genin of all people thought the best idea during this time was to dress up as his own Kage and steal things. Did they think the punishment would be light for impersonating the kage and ruining the image of the person? Crom shook his head he didn’t understand the thought process that was going on. “People this year have truly lost their minds. First the poles now the thefts.” Crom mentioned to the group.
 
Moving on Crom had hoped that would be the last of the problems with impersonating individuals but it wasn’t as it seemed there were more then one copycat going about stealing things and they had their work cut out for them trying to find and locate the remaining two thieves. “Well at least they aren’t covered in green fur and speaking in riddles.” Crom muttered to himself barely above a whisper at the thought of some of the more outlandish interactions.
 
502 | 1500

Shiro’s surprise of recent events involving how they were currently under some kind of watchlist. Everyone knew that their friendly neighborhood doctor was someone not to be trifled with. Shiro’s hands gracing his own sword as he too was attempting to catch the perpetrators involved in this case of stealing presents and breaking into homes. Was it Akabayashi? He wouldn’t steal that much from other kids or families alike… Guy freaked him out, certainly he had gone somewhat insane at some point in time to where he would do crazy acts. Both the snowball and toy incident certainly had made Shiro wary of the man. A good hunt would have to be made if he wanted to end the doctor's life, however that’s if he could get close enough to the doctor. Guy was something special alright, that was for sure. Yet in his current findings of the supposed grinch, any suspects that Shiro could think of were certainly broad. Hell it could actually be the doctor that had transformed into Hoshigakure’s own Hogokage. His eyes flashing into and flexing with the visional prowess of the Byakugan. Allowing him to see if there was anyone nearby currently trying their best into barging into homes unannounced or breaking through windows in order to try and find them. He could see almost everything around him in a 100 meter radius. Thus he could cover a lot more ground then his fellow shinobi could with their own limited eyesight. There was always a benefit to being a part of the clan that had abandoned him. Left him to his own devices as his own mother got sick and layed dying on her deathbed. Would any of these kids have to go through something like that, could they simply live as normal kids within their own lives without worrying about their own parents dying?

His hand latched onto the refined katana strapped to his slim waist, his eyes were finally able to see someone, someone that was dressed as the kage of Hoshigakure it seemed. People were speaking in hushed tones about him as of recent, Akabayashi really had tarnished Hoshigakure’s reputation with all of those little stunts. It was almost too perfect that he was with these people, the ones supposedly hidden amongst the stars, using it to block out the rest of the world. Yet this was much different now, Akabayashi was actually near the crime scene, yet was not the one who had been transformed into the Hogokage. Would the Hogokage actually do a small petty crime like this? It didn’t make much sense in his mind. The Kage should hold themself like the villages hold them up. Yet he couldn’t even fathom the thought of actually going through people’s houses unless it was for some kind of mission. His mind thought simply, ignoring the crowds of people gathered around as the sudden twist had been revealed to everyone. It was a Genin of the Land hidden in the stars.

“So much for being responsible, but hey, a guy with green fur doesn’t sound too bad now that I think about it. Imagine how warm you will be in the winter?” He said towards Crom, his fellow Yuki clan member that both shared similar features. The same snow white hair, yet their eyes were different, his mother was considered a special case in terms of the Yuki, while Croms was also super unique in it’s own right, instead carrying with him amber eyes like that of a cat. Perhaps that is why he had evaded Shiro’s eyes for a moment. Giving the fellow Genin something to think about before giving a swift nod towards the Genin who had seemingly run away. Knowing that now this Akabyashi had influence inside of his own nation. It placed Shiro inside of a spot of being a fish out of water, yet that didn’t stop him from walking over towards the doctor, hands low to his sides before asking the Doctor.

“Jeez, that kid looked like he was about to piss himself, how much influence do you have over your own village Terumi-San?” Shiro asked, awaiting an answer even as they would all continue to investigate for the mysterious other two grinches that could be stealing Christmas presents right now.

WC:715

Grinch Two: Akabayashi listened to Crom there were certainly some absolute special characters in this place. But the pole people were different they were from here. The Hoshi ninja being here and breaking into homes was the odd one out of everything. The question Shiro asked was information seeking, seeking his rank within his village. If this weren't a strange fever dream he'd probably have killed the Hyuga for being so perceptive, but as this whole thing was a figment of his imagination it didn't hurt to answer. "I kill people for their body parts and sell them out in the open, in a village where it is illegal. While it isn't a rank its certainly a sign of what I can get away with."

The doctor reported the result of the first grinch to the law enforcement of this land. It seemed that one was just beginning his crime spree and there were more grinches out there. In the past these holiday themed fever dreams ended when he met a condition set forth by the enviroment. In this case the current objective was apprehending these grinches. Notably, these objectives also build upon another culminating in some weird activity that once completed returns the doctor to his bed in Hoshi. This was one bizarre genjutsu. The police at least had an idea of this next ones location they liked to rob the fancier homes. The doctor would walk to the location the police described along with Crom and Shiro most likely. They were looking for a fat man who was dressed as santa claus and liked rum with his cookies instead of milk. Shouldn't be too hard to find a lush the alcohol probably made them too dumb to care they were breaking into houses during the day.

When they arrived at the area described by the officers the Terumi would ask around for a fat man dressed as Santa, but it wouldn't be long before they could hear the sound of a body impacting into wood. Each loud thud making the noise easier to recognize. The doctor would stop the conversation and leave the residents alone. Walk into the backyard and watch the drunk smack into the door bust through and fall over destroying his bottle of rum under his weight. The man giggled after getting threw then began to cry realizing all of his booze was now gone. "Can one of you two get him? If I do it I may just kill him so as to keep his genes out of our species pool." This wasn't as idiotic as the forbidden popsicle girl, but his frustration was surfacing and was likely to boil over soon. He was going to go berserk all over these figments. Once, the drunk was apprehended they would have to take him to the police station to learn about the last genius thief the one dressed in a green furry suit and carrying a dog with a single antler on its head. These dreams hopefully would be over soon.

WC: 508
TWC: 1025/1500

The red headed bandit couldn't help but find himself drawn to this place. Cid found the bulletin board filled with all sorts of tasks, most of which were honestly kind of pointless. Once mission being offered was really shitty pay, another looking to go head first into a god damn blizzard in order to rescue someone stupid enough to be out in it. Cid didn't want to find himself being the next one stuck out in a horrible snowstorm, and the bandit was far from dressed to tackle a blizzard if he was being honest here. One of the listed jobs though was a fairly simple one, one that any idiot could do. It was stopping criminals in the area from stealing gifts and decorations? What kind of stupid ass thieves did this place have? These were some petty ass criminals. Robbing the homes of civilians and stealing the gifts left under the tree for children? How much money could there really be in such stupid crimes? It truly baffled the pirate, but he also knew firsthand that the 'criminals' in this town were about as effective as trying to roast a pig with nothing more than a lighter and your hopes and dreams. 

The bandit would stroll around the village, looking for what he expected to be sure signs of these criminals. With how skilled they were the man half expected them to be standing around in a group, holding up a large sign that said "Hey, we are about to steal some stuff. Sure would be a shame if someone stopped us." Fucking amateurs around here they were. The rogue would form a few seals and conjure up his jug of rum. If he was going to have to deal with piss poor thieves again he might as well get a good buzz going. Hell he could be completely sloshed and not have to worry about retaliation from these supposed criminals. 

Despite all of the trash the pirate was talking regarding these bandits, they sure were playing hard to find. Maybe it was because it was daylight and they only operated at night? Nah, that couldn't be it. The job listing said that these rogues were hitting targets all over the place and regardless of the time of day. It wasn't long before the man strolling through the town encountered another group of people that were asking very specific questions. Probably also trying to find the thieves. Part of him wanted to avoid them, no desire to split the reward for what he expected to be such an easy task. Then again, he currently had no leads and perhaps they did. Hell, maybe they were only a short step away from capturing the targets. Upon a closer look, the group appeared to be shinobi of some sort, though the one was speaking of openly breaking the law. Perhaps they were cool, and wouldn't cause issue for the missing ninja pirate. Part of him, the cautious part, thought that it was a bad idea. The other part of him was a little on the inebriated side and didn't consider that they would cause problem. 

He wasn't really sure that they could be trusted, and he wasn't one to wish to compromise himself or his friends and allies due to his careless behavior. So he would choose to keep his distance, keeping the others in view but attempting to blend into the crowd. There were a great deal of people out and about, trying to do their holiday shopping for this or that. Blending in shouldn't be too hard... or so the pirate hoped. Instead he would look around for other sketch individuals. Once such individual could be seen eyeballing the door of a nearby house. The person was giving off very clear "I don't want to be seen or watched because I am about to do some crime" vibes. Or at least he was to the pirate. Maybe Cid was just really sensitive to these sorts of things since he was a criminal himself. 

The man would slide around to the rear of the building, trying not to be seen but Cid would just meander his way towards the back of the building himself. There were very clear noises coming from the man as he was kneeled over and trying his best to open a lock with a set of picks and tools. Cid wondered if this one was more capable than those other ones had been, but after watching for a few minutes as the fool struggled with the lock the tall red headed pirate would shake his head. He was half tempted to walk over and offer the idiot some pointers regarding how to move around a lock and actually crack the damned thing. Still the bandit wouldn't budge and instead just watched as the petty thief finally opened the lock and breached the home. 

"I guess its showtime..." Cid would mutter to himself as he turned the corner and followed behind the target. The house was... far from nice. Clearly this home belonged to someone of lower income. Something like this didn't even pop up on a real criminals radar, but these rogues were just rookies. Dumbasses playing at being criminals. It really was a shame to think that these were the sorts of types that came to the common mans mind when the word 'criminal' was used. No finesse, no skill, just a stooge ham fisting his way into a house and stealing from people that couldn't afford to be stolen from.

Cid would walk up behind the man as he was grabbing the wrapped gifts from under the tree. The thug would spin around and drag a knife on the pirate, to which he would just laugh. "Kid you don't realize just how out of your league you are right now, do you?" The young man would shake his head, clearly terrified of the older pirate. "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. The answer to that little question is very much out of your league. Now, what say you put that little knife down and we walk out of this persons lovely home without causing a scene, huh?" Cid wouldn't really take no for an answer here, regardless of what the target said.

"Why should I trust you? What ensures me that you won't just kill me?" The petty thief would ask, to which Cid would just shrug. "Honestly nothing but my word, but just think. I came up on you from behind. Don't you think that if I wanted you to be dead right now you would be?" The question was rhetorical, but something that could be answered if the petty criminal wanted to. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours. So how about you make this easy and just come with me?" 

The man would shake his head. "No, I ain't going to jail again!" He would reply, thought Cid just smiled. Jail again? Man, this guy has been caught before and still thinks he can get away with this? With a few seals weaved, a blinding ball of light would form illuminating the room and blinding anyone that was caught in its luminous glory. The man would hurry and try to cover his eyes after the searing light burned away at them, but it was too late. Cid would then just kick the man in the nuts as hard as he could, the now stunned criminal dropping his knife to the ground with a clatter. Cid would then casually pick it up and place it at the throat of the man. "Do you really want to keep doing this the hard way? I don't, but I'm not the one who makes this decision." The man, unable to see and tears pouring down the sides of his face would shake his head. "No, please no more!" To which Cid would then drag the man out of the house, locking up on the way out of the back door where they came in at. 

The pirate would direct the criminal to the nearest law enforcement agent. "I caught this guy breaking into that home right there. I apprehended him and now I am looking to claim the bounty on the capture of these rogues." 

The police would take the suspect and slap him in cuffs. Cid wasn't fond of it, but the criminal apprehended meant more ryo in his pocket. Maybe since the man was caught only in the attempt he would get a lighter sentence, but even if he didn't Cid didn't care. The petty thief was far from skilled, and if the man expected to make a living in this field of work he would need to get a lot better at what he did. Some time away would let him reflect on this reality, and possibly scare the man away from the lifestyle entirely. 

At the end of the day though, Cid only saw the man as a payday. After counting the reward money, he realized that it was a far better payday than expected. How do these people afford to pay so much for the capture of petty criminals? Cid would shrug and make his way to the tavern. He had some cash to spend and he was parched. 


wc: 1562/1500

---exit---

Claims:

30 AP trained
1500/1500 toward C rank Space Time Amplifier

1x C Rank complete
2x Duplicate C ranks (cannot be used for rank up)
Mission Rewards:
24,000 ry [12,000 ryo doubled from Beloved Presence skill]
60 AP
3000 Tickets

Cid wrote:
---exit---

Claims:

30 AP trained
1500/1500 toward C rank Space Time Amplifier

1x C Rank complete
2x Duplicate C ranks (cannot be used for rank up)
Mission Rewards:
24,000 ry [12,000 ryo doubled from Beloved Presence skill]
60 AP
3000 Tickets

Exit claims Approved for Cid!

Grinch Three: Finally, they were onto the last rogue breaking into and stealing from random houses. This one was supposedly quite conspicuous. He was said to be running around wearing a green furry suit which included whiskers. How incompetent were these police that they could not catch someone with such a clear appearance. It was not as if they would have to look hard to find someone wearing something like that. Just ask around and then go to whatever direction they point. Though seeing the surprising number of police reports and the lack of officers he had to guess this was less a problem of incompetence and more a problem with staffing which is why they were paying top dollar for ninja.

The doctor would walk outside and ask the first person he saw. "Did you see a guy in a green fuzzy suit. Has a brain made out of spiders and garlic in his soul. Has termites in his smile. Looks as cuddly as a cactus or a seasick crocodile?" He did not know how he'd gotten that detailed of a description as all he was told was fur suit. But the person he asked seem to know exactly whom he was talking about. In fact they could bring them to wear they had last seen the guy. The person walked the doctor and the others to the area they had seen him and the doctor looked around he noticed an open window. Perhaps this Grinch had gone into this home. Using a bucket the doctor would use it to jump through the window and into the home. Unlike othere houses this one was lacking the typical decor of stockings and christmas lights and their Christmas tree had arms with many missing ornaments. Wait the Christmas tree had arms. The doctor would walk back to the tree stand in front of it and fold his arms. "Okay, you can come out we know you are in the tree. Actually, I think you even moved a couple feet since I was last in this room." The tree would shake and the arms would pretend to hold its tree belly as it laughed and ho ho ho'd.

What Akabayashi did not know before the giving tree had explained it was that one of the light bulbs on the tree was busted and this guy had to bring it into the workshop. The doctor told the tree man to walk on by to complete his repairs as the guy crossed the Terumi a foot would find itself in this Grinch's path. Oops the doctor would yell picking up the weird guy in the strange suit. Time to bring this one into the station for the reward as well. Apparently, the lights on the tree were actually busted now that a fat guy had crushed them with his body.
WC: 478
TWC: 1503/1500
Claims: 12k mission ryo, 22500 rank ryo, 3k winter equinox tickets. Using the WC for Coiling Dragon 1503/2063 using max stat discount.

Exit claims approved for Akabayashi!