Applying Life Skills to Make Money (Mission/Solo)

”Mission Details”:

I remember when this place was a home Otōsan...when you would teach me in the back yard...before the house was ruined...Look at us now, sleeping in the rubble under the desert sky, it’s a good thing you sent me on that journey...too bad I didn’t get to say goodbye...

It had been a rough year for Kensai Tanahashi, living in the rubble of his former family home and foraging for his food, which fortunately was a skill he had picked up in his two years alone in the desert. It wasn’t an optimal place to have to slum it, but while it could be unforgiving, it did provide for him. He had learned to watch what the predators of the desert fed off of, making a diet of different prey species, as well as cactus fruit. He had decided that he would rather be able to buy food, however, and so he looked for postings on the mission board, trying to break himself in easily. They wouldn’t let him take anything high ranked, due to his relatively unknown status in the village, but he was able to find a simple enough job for someone with his skillset locating a woman’s lost Scorpion. He was informed that the scorpion was the size of a child, which was a bit concerning, but apparently it was too young for it’s poisonous gland to have fully developed, meaning it would be easy enough to track due to its size, as well as being non lethal.

Ken would reach into his robes and pull out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling deeply as he examined the sands, looking for the telltale signs of giant insect legs on the ground. The smoke would stay in his lungs until his head began to swim, exhaling and using the new found clarity to help him with his task. He was fairly observant, but his true skills tended to rest in his ability to outsmart an opponent, and Skarry would be no different. Tracking a predator like a scorpion, realistically, was fairly simple. You had to know what their prey was, and what their hunting style was, and unfortunately for Skarry, Ken had tracked many a scorpion during his time in the endless sands. They were ambush predators, and their general prey was Spiders and other Scorpions. Ken could only assume that a bigger scorpion would hunt larger prey, and that concerned him a little bit as it could seek out children to eat.

When he finally spotted it, it was an interesting sight to behold. The scorpion was domesticated, of course, and realistically it looked like a lost puppy, nervous around all of the larger humans and attempting to hide itself down an alley. Ken had become quite accustomed to these spots, as it had been a year where he had to do many things he wasn’t overly proud of, and he began to calmly and quietly approach the scared massive scorpion. He watched as its tail began to poise to strike, doing all he could to try to calm the scorpion. He would use his chakra and ability over the mind to try to influence its emotion, though with humans and animals it was a little bit different. He ended up simply sitting on the ground in front of the scorpion, waiting for it to approach him as he held his hand out to it, like one would do with a dog or cat to gain their trust. It was an odd choice, but it seemed like it worked as the Scorpion calmed down and made its way towards the swordsman. Ken would lead it back to its owner, who would thank him ecstatically and explain that Scarry had a bad tendency to run off, but he was mostly harmless. Ken would bow and make his way back to his “home”, satisfied with a good day of work.

{exit}