Hikaru's story (travel, RP and missions)

[Nickerly]

Kneeling, Hikaru double checked all of his gear, making sure that the journey ahead. The family was leaving Tori no Kuni for the time being, having been there for some time, and the journey promised to be long and he didn't want to risk losing anything on the way. According to the elders, their final destination was  Kusa no Kuni, though they would first travel through the mountani valleys of Tori no Kuni, heading north-east to  Tsuchi no Kuni. Wrapping his cloak around him, to shield him from the sun and putting his wide brim straw hat on, he made his way towards the front of the convoy, checking and fastening gear to the wagons and checking the harnesses of the mules that would drag them. The wagons - which carried the young, old and their food supplies - would have to be carefully guided through the valleys and mountain passes, so he and the others would have to peridoically check them as they ventured out of Tori no Kuni and into Tsuchi no Kuni. Up, from the front of the wagon train, a signal went up and the first wagons lurched into action, slowly moving forward, and slowly every wagon started moving foward, starting their journey.

SPOILER: Click to show

I ain't getting lost

Compass Baseplate (Overview) x1
Rank: "B"
Type: Secondary, 10 per Slot, Gadget, Survival, Compass
Effect: A compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: Picture The Baseplate Compass is one of the most common and affordable types of compass. The liquid-filled compass mounts on a rectangular base made of clear plastic. The Baseplate Compass often includes a magnifying lens for map reading, luminous components for low-light conditions and different scales for worldwide use. The Baseplate Compass is good for plotting purposes, but the lack of advanced sighting features makes it difficult to sight on a distant object. The Baseplate Compass is 2 inches by 2 inches and 0.50 inches thick. Without a Compass there is a percentile chance the user will not be able to determine True North depending on their Geographical location.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Gadget Shop.
Cost: 5,000 Ryo per Slot, or 500 Ryo Each


Compass Electronic (Overview) x1
Rank: "S"
Type: Secondary, 10 per Slot, Gadget, Survival, Compass
Effect: An electronic compass uses a magnetic sensor to digitally pinpoint the location and accuracy of the individual.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: Electronic compasses provide bearings on a numerical readout. They give quite accurate readings and include a number of special features, including the option to store bearings in the memory and the ability to notify the user if he wanders off course. However, Electronic Compasses are not ideal for map work. The dimensions of the Electronic Compass is 2.28 inches by 3 inches with a depth of 0.5 inches. Without a Compass there is a percentile chance the user will not be able to determine True North depending on their Geographical location.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Gadget Shop.
Cost: 15,000 Ryo per Slot, or 1,500 Ryo Each


Scroll: Map: Regional
Rank: "A"
Type: Main, Book, Scroll, Map
Effect: A small-scale map of an area covering at least 5 or 10 degrees of latitude and longitude but less than a hemisphere.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: Regional; nearby towns, cities, etc. Regional Map's dimensions are 40 inches by 24 inches. Regional Maps list the City Capitals, and "D", "C", "B", "A", and "S" Rank Cities of the Regional. Regional Maps list Point of Interests in Regional. Regional Maps list Major and Minor Trade Routes, and Regions that reside in the Regional. Regional Maps lists the Oceans, Bays, Major and Minor Lakes, and Major and Minor Rivers that reside in the Regional. The Maps may be folded and can fit inside Map Holders found in Vests.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Book Shop within that Regional.
Cost: 5,000 Ryo Each

(move to  Tsuchi no Kuni - Earth)

[Skulking Shinzu]

Moved to Earth!

[Nickerly]

The first stage of the journey was complete and they had reached Earth without too much trouble; one of the wagons had lost a wheel, but that had been a simple fix, and now the longest part of the journey to Kusa no Kuni lay ahead. Their path would take them along a large part of the southern border of Earth over, a pair of major rivers and past the borders of Bear, Stone and Rain, bringing them to the northernmost border of Kusa no Kuni. Once they reached Kusa, they would head south for a bit until they reached the capital, Aokusa. It was a rougher path, generally devoid of the well built up roads that other paths possessed, but given the more stable climate in the south, it was a price that the family was willing to pay. They began to move forward once more, travelling the well worn paths that would bring them to their destination.

(move to Kusa no Kuni)

SPOILER: Click to show

I ain't getting lost

Compass Baseplate (Overview) x1
Rank: "B"
Type: Secondary, 10 per Slot, Gadget, Survival, Compass
Effect: A compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: The Baseplate Compass is one of the most common and affordable types of compass. The liquid-filled compass mounts on a rectangular base made of clear plastic. The Baseplate Compass often includes a magnifying lens for map reading, luminous components for low-light conditions and different scales for worldwide use. The Baseplate Compass is good for plotting purposes, but the lack of advanced sighting features makes it difficult to sight on a distant object. The Baseplate Compass is 2 inches by 2 inches and 0.50 inches thick. Without a Compass there is a percentile chance the user will not be able to determine True North depending on their Geographical location.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Gadget Shop.
Cost: 5,000 Ryo per Slot, or 500 Ryo Each


Compass Electronic (Overview) x1
Rank: "S"
Type: Secondary, 10 per Slot, Gadget, Survival, Compass
Effect: An electronic compass uses a magnetic sensor to digitally pinpoint the location and accuracy of the individual.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: Electronic compasses provide bearings on a numerical readout. They give quite accurate readings and include a number of special features, including the option to store bearings in the memory and the ability to notify the user if he wanders off course. However, Electronic Compasses are not ideal for map work. The dimensions of the Electronic Compass is 2.28 inches by 3 inches with a depth of 0.5 inches. Without a Compass there is a percentile chance the user will not be able to determine True North depending on their Geographical location.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Gadget Shop.
Cost: 15,000 Ryo per Slot, or 1,500 Ryo Each


Scroll: Map: Regional
Rank: "A"
Type: Main, Book, Scroll, Map
Effect: A small-scale map of an area covering at least 5 or 10 degrees of latitude and longitude but less than a hemisphere.
Special:
Drawback:
Description: Regional; nearby towns, cities, etc. Regional Map's dimensions are 40 inches by 24 inches. Regional Maps list the City Capitals, and "D", "C", "B", "A", and "S" Rank Cities of the Regional. Regional Maps list Point of Interests in Regional. Regional Maps list Major and Minor Trade Routes, and Regions that reside in the Regional. Regional Maps lists the Oceans, Bays, Major and Minor Lakes, and Major and Minor Rivers that reside in the Regional. The Maps may be folded and can fit inside Map Holders found in Vests.
Limit: These items may be bought inside any Book Shop within that Regional.
Cost: 5,000 Ryo Each

 

[Skulking Shinzu]

Moved to Grass!

[Nickerly]

After the arduous journey to Kusa, the change in terrain was a welcome relief and as they travelled the road to Aokusa, the capital of Kusa no Kuni, their pace increased significantly. When they did come to a stop outside Aokusa, Hikaru helped set everything up for the duration of their stay in the area. Once that was done, and he was free to do what he wanted - the purpose of the family's stay was of no concern to him, and he and others were free to do what they wanted, providing it wouldn't effect the rest of the family - he headed towards the gate of the city. Joining the line at the gates of the city, he waited to be called forward, and when he was, he handed over his identification papers. After a minute or two, he was waved through and his papers were handed back to him as he passed through the gates and into the city of Aokusa.

(enter Aokusa)

[Shallistera]

Moved~

[Nickerly]

The streets of Aokusa were packed with people as he made his way through the city, more people than he had seen in some time; travelling as part of a semi-nomadic family meant one went without seeing so many people for some time. Still, he didn't let them slow his progress as he wound his way towards his destination; the temple were one of the masters of the gyakusatsu sword style resided. He had wanted to become a students of the style ever since he had had his sword forged, and the temple in Aokusa and its master, O-ishi Kuranosuke, had seemed like a promising choice.

When he reached the temple, he paused and took a moment to take it in. It was fairly simplistic in style; a small staircase flanked by rocks led up a small slope to the actual temple itself, which was wooden and minimalist in nature, although it did spread out over most of a block. Walking up the stairs, he grabbed the bronze door knocker and sounded it once, before stepping back.

After several seconds the doors to the temple opened and he was ushered in by someone who he assumed was a student of the temple.

"Do you wish to speak to master Kuranosuke?" The student asked.

"Yes" Hikaru said with a single nod. "I would like to ask him if he would accept me as a student."

The student nodded and told him to wait in the atrium, saying that he would be called for.

[Nickerly]

Hikaru's first mission!

Name: Review and Transcribe Financial Earnings
Rank: D-rank
IIC – not needed
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: Help unwell business owner with the yearly financial review and all it entails
Description: Due to her failing health Ms, Gaunt of the Butcher’s store, located within Aokusa, has requested that someone aid her with the checking of the store’s yearly finances and transcribing them into the store's general ledger, before depositing the shop's money with the bank. This mission will involve cross checking the earnings and spending of the stores throughout the year with the amount of money kept within the store’s safe to ensure that all money meant to be within the safe, is, and then copying all the transactions from Ms, Gaunt’s income and expenditure folders into the store’s general ledger. Finally, you will have to deposit the money kept within the safe in the bank.
Reward: 8000Ryo
Minimum Number of Posts: 2 (at least 1000 words.)

[Nekomata Minh]

-Mission Accepted-

[Nickerly]

Post 1:

Having realised that he was in need of money, Hikaru had gone into town to look for work. He didn’t feel like doing anything too strenuous but there were people always in need of help, help that didn’t warrant an official mission that hired out shinobi. None of the potential work he could think of was glamorous; they were all far cries of hunting down rogue shinobi or the like, but they were still important and had to be done by someone. To try and find potential jobs, he headed to the main shopping district of the city; he figured that he could ask around with the merchants and store owners if there was anyone in need of help, or there hopefully would be a job board with requests for help.

The market itself was busy and he had to wait awhile before he could approach a merchant and ask if there was a job board like he was hoping for, and to his luck the merchant was able to point him to such a board. Unfortunately, though, there were only a few job requests to choose from and he quickly found one that didn’t seem too bad. The owner of a local butcher’s store was looking to hire someone for a day’s labour to help out with sorting out the store’s year finances and transcribing the income and expenditure into a general ledger. Tearing the paper off the board, he followed the directions provided and made his way to the butcher’s store.

Knocking on the door to the store, he waited. After a few seconds the door opened and a sickly woman greeted him. Handing her the piece of paper, he explained what he was there for and recognition flashed across the woman’s face. Beckoning him into the shop, she led him past the shop workers and into the back of the shop, to the manager’s officer which contained a safe and a number of thick bound folders. The woman pointed out what he needed and explained what he had to do; first to check the folders containing the expenditures and income of the shop for the previous financial year, working out how much money the shop had acquired. He would then have to check the amount with that contained within the shop’s safe and ensure that it matched the amount he had come up with. After that he would have to transcribe the income and expenditures into the shop’s general ledger, then take the money from the shop to the bank.

Thanking the store’s owner, Hikaru took his position behind the desk and pulled the folders towards him, as well as several sheets of paper that he would do his calculations on. Opening the income and expenditure folders, he flicked both of them to the start of the financial year and paused. There were over a dozen entries for the first day alone. Realising that his planned approach wasn’t going to work, Hikaru grabbed one of the pieces of paper and set out a pair of columns and set to work; calculating the totals for each of the income and spending for the first months. Given the sheer number of entrances of each of the areas and the sums he was dealing with, he was forced to tackle each of the areas separately, scribbling calculations on the paper as he worked in the columns he had drawn for himself. Once he had done the calculations from the two areas and clearly marked them, he subtracted the total expenditures from the income, which gave him the first month’s total profit.

The whole process had taken him about fifteen minutes, which meant, that if each month took the same amount of time, it would take him a full three hours of work to simply get the year’s profit. Groaning, he set about the work; he was going to get paid for this in the end, so it wasn’t too bad. The second and third months continued the pattern of having lots of expenditures and incomes – which probably had something to do with the fact that they were the summer months – and meant he was having to deal with large amounts of numbers on both sides, though the store continued to turn fairly decent margins of profit. Each of the summer months took him just as long, if not longer, then it had to complete the first one, though he once he got used to working out the calculations, the speed he worked at increased.

When he hit the autumn months, the number of entries in both income and expenditure dropped, and there were several weeks were the store lost money; although, given the smaller number of entries the time he had to spend on the calculations and making sure he hadn’t missed anything, dropped as well, meaning that instead of fifteen or twenty minutes per month, it only took him ten minutes or so.

Things slowed down again when he hit the winter months as expenditure initially soared, before the profits picked up as sales increased significantly and it took almost a full hour to get through just the winter months so busy the shop had apparently been. Spring was the quickest period to do the calculations for, mainly because there were nowhere the levels of income and expenditure as before. Finishing the calculations for the final month’s profit, or in this case, loss, he pulled the sheets he had done his working out, together, and began adding up the monthly profits and losses. This second step only took a few minutes and once he had his final profit amount, he headed over to the safe and unlocked it using the combination that the store owner had provided him.

[Nickerly]

Post 2:

Withdrawing the money in several stacks, he put it on the table he had been working out and started to feed the notes through the money counting machine in the office; noting what each of the stacks of money was worth before putting it back in the safe. When he had finished the process, and relocked the safe, he added up the money in the safe. There was a difference between what should have been in the safe and what was actually there, a difference of ten thousand ryo. To make sure it wasn’t an error on his part, he quickly went over his sums again, but still came to the same answer; money was missing. But where could it have gone? From what the shop owner had told him, she was the only one who had access to the office, so none of the staff could have taken the money.

What about the cash float, thought to himself? There had to be money in the register so that change could be given to customers. Momentarily leaving the officer, locking it using the key given to him, he made his way to the front of the store and got the attention of the worker at the register. The man was more than happy to tell what the amount of cash that started each day in the register; ten thousand ryo. Having gotten his answer, Hikaru returned to the office and began the next stage of the job; copying out all the information from the income and expenditure folders into the single general ledger.

It was a process that was longer than counting the income and expenditures, and was far more tedious, as he had to copy out every single piece of information out of both folders into the single book for each day of the year. He couldn’t rush, given that a missed detail could prove damaging for the shop if they had to claim insurance or something similar, so he had to painstakingly copy out everything. Four hours it took him to complete the transcribing of every detail, and by the time he was finished, it was the middle of the afternoon and as he put away the general ledger into the safe where it was kept, he grabbed back out, the money in the safe.

His final task for the day was to take the money to the bank and it put into the shop’s account for the shop owner. Several money bags had been provided to him to carry the money in, and he had also been given the account details that he was to put the money into, along with instructions for the bank. Carefully filling each of the money bags, he made sure that he kept note on just how much ryo was in each of the bag to ensure that nothing was left behind, and once he was done, attached each of the money bags to his belt, where they would be hidden from sight by his cloak; he didn’t want worry about potentially being mugged.

Locking the office after him, he left the store and made the ten-minute walk to the bank. When he entered the stone building, he was approached by a hesitant bank worker who asked him about his business. Explaining what he was there for, he was led by the bank worker to one of the tellers, where he handed over the bags of money along with the account details and the written instructions he had been given by the shop owner. For several minutes, he stood around waiting as the staff at the teller put all the money through their own money counting machines. Once they had finished, they took all the money and disappeared for nearly five minutes; they were probably taking the money deeper into the bank. When they reappeared, they came bearing a single, smaller money bag and several slips of paper, which he was told were for the eyes of the shop owner only.

Nodding in understanding, he thanked the bank workers for their help before leaving and making his way back to the store. When he reached the store, he made his way to the back to the office, where the shop owner was waiting for him. Greeting her, Hikaru handed over the money bag and slips of paper, and waited as she read over the slips. Once she had read whatever was on the slips, she thanked him for his help and handed him back the money bag, explaining it was his pay for his work.

Thanking her for the money, he left the store with a promise of being available if he stayed in Aokusa. Heading back to where the family was staying, he opened the money bag and let out an impressed whistle. In it was a large amount of ryo.

Not a bad amount for a day’s work.

[Nekomata Minh]

-Mission Complete-
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