Mission:

Gross. Animal poachers. Shigeru could go far for money, but even he wouldn't go that far. Torturing innocent creatures like that. So disgusting. How could they even think of doing something so vile. People like that deserved to die, human or not. Perhaps it was the same for ninja. They poached ninja, somewhat. No, it wasn't the same. At least the ninja knew the risks, the animals were far different. They were all cute and cuddly, unlike ugly ninja who just slaughtered each other. They knowingly cut each other down. Even if one had a wife and kids or perhaps an ill mother about to pass away. The world was just so damn unforgiving. Hw hated that sort of crap. Still, if he didn't fight, then others would have to in his place. He couldn't do that to someone else. Force them to kill or be killed. He wasn't able to coward out and let those weaker than him do the job instead. There were somethings only he could do. This wasn't one of them, but hell, he could always do it so no one else had to. Now he had just walked out of the kage's office, ready to go bring back some heads for mama Isais. Some poachers deciding to abuse of Hyouga's beautiful and vivid wildlife that it had spent to years to grow and protect. Queue laughs. No, but in all honesty, Hyouga had a very different ecosystem than the other villages. They had all sorts of animals you could find no where else and so making sure they didn't die out was a priority. Not a top priority, probably not even a middle priority. More like low priority, but a priority none the less. One could view the uniqueness as a sort of treasure or hidden charm. Shigeru didn't care too much, but poachers got on his nerves. He wasn't going to be able to put up with that. They'd have to either move out or die. He wished he could resolve it without using violence, but nothing ever went as planned. He wasn't above getting a little rough in order to complete the mission, after all. He was almost near the village outskirts. Maybe they were all to blame for this war and hostility between each other. It was still not too late to change. They didn't all have to be enemies. If there was no other choice, then Shigeru only had one option. Profit. Perhaps the only thing war was good for. The neutral parties profit. Just look at the hidden moon. They were just a bunch of hooligans till war turned their situation around and even allowed them to become big enough to join the small circle of major villages, otherwise, they probably wouldn't have had a chance at rising up and being able to compete. They got lucky. Really lucky.

He eventually arrived at the cave that was supposedly holding the bastard poachers. He could tell just from the entrance that people were here recently. He wasn't able to count how many himself, but he recalled an estimate of six. Whether that was right or not? He wasn't sure. He was surprised that the poachers had already been tracked down before he even toke the mission. Perhaps they just needed a little more man power in order to actually subdue them. Or maybe a citizen had walked into their operation site and told the village. Either way, it saved Shigeru from having to do a lot of extra work. He could be nothing but thankful. He wanted to end this quick after all. The longer he allowed those bastards to work, the more animals they would hurt. Shigeru could say that he was Hyouga's very own PETA representative for the moment. No wonder they did it. As he got deeper into the cave he saw cages, some which actually looked they had held something recently. There were traces of fur and feather as well as a little of blood. It was all over the place. He was sure he was in the right place. With all these clues, how could he not be? Were they worth using Greed or should he stick to Temperance. He knew at least one of his weapons would have to judge them and send them off into the afterlife. Where they went from there wasn't his business but he had a pretty good idea. Yes, he expected a few hundreds of years, perhaps an eternity of screams in their ears. Bloody screams and endless pain. That was just a guess, though. It wasn't too late for them to redeem themselves. They could still attempt to lead a normal everyday life, but they would need to work a lot harder than that. They would need to do years of good deeds to make up for the atrocities they were committing here. Maybe he was better off killing them, stopping them from making their lives any worse and stopping them from making the lives of the poor animals any worse, too. It was an option. Not one he was excited about, but if you take a life, you have to be prepared to lose your own. It was a rule Shigeru lived by. Not one he liked, but he knew that his own life could be taken from him at anytime. If he didn't put his own life on the line, then someone else would have to do it instead. He didn't want that. He was going to do it himself. He'd rather die a hero in a blazing glory than as a coward. Becoming a hero, gaining fame, perhaps even his own legend or statue. It wasn't likely that just fighting poachers would push him toward that goal, thats why he wasn't expecting to let himself die here. He hoped fate was on his side. That fate would respect his wishes and help him achieve his goal. He was the good guy after all. He was going to be the knight in shining armour of this story. Saving the weak from the heartless. Still, he wondered. Why were there so many pirates, so many bandits, so many of these people considered criminals. They couldn't all just be evil. There had to have been some motive behind it. Were there own villages destroyed? Were they forced into the trade in order to make ends meet. He didn't want to believe that so many people just chose this lifestyle cause they wanted to. That was insane. They must have had some sort of other motive. It was thinking like that which made it so much harder for Shigeru to take their lives. He only hoped that they would die honorably. He wished he could wipe away their regrets too, but he was not all mighty. To kill for money, was he even allowed to feel sorry? He was almost just as bad. Ninja were no better than these criminals, were they? They really weren't. Shigeru accepted that. Maybe he was alright being a monster like them. Now was not the time. He had to prepare for an execution. 6 straight executions in a row. He was just so popular. He sneaked around the icy cavern, making sure he didn't overlook anyone. He wanted to do this quickly and not make a huge mess if he could avoid it. His first human encounter was an old man. He sat there with a book. He didn't seem to be reading the book. In fact, he didn't even look like he could see it. He just sat there, head up. A good look allowed Shigeru to see his face. It looked almost as if he was... blind? A blind watchman? Was that really what this was. Now that he looked, the book was empty. It was like some sort of journal perhaps. Who was cruel enough to gift a book to a blind man, even worse, an empty book. Shigeru would stand up and slowly draw Temperance. "Who's there?", the old man said as he moved his head around, unable to see Shigeru standing out in the open. "Shhhhh", Shigeru said as the flame lighting up the cave flickered. The shadow off his sword was straight through the blind mans neck. He removed the blood of his blade before sheathing it again. Yes, he performed his own sort of Iaido with a rapier. Although lacking the powerful cutting and striking, he remained with the discipline of sheathing the sword when not in use as well as cleaning the blade after every kill. He wasn't through just yet. 5 more of them were hiding in the tunnel somewhere. He was going to have to hunt them down. They were as good as dead, though. His sword was going to hit its mark, whether they wanted it to or not. There was a fork in the tunnel. He toke the left. Farther down the icy tunnel he found 3 men. They seemed to be looking at some sort of animal in a cage. From what he could see, it was some sort of wolf or bear. Something wild and vicious. "It was damn hard to get this thing in without it killing us, man." said one of the men. "Who cares about that now. Just think of how much we'll be able to make off of him." said another, who seemed unscathed compared to the other guys. The other two had all sort of bite and claw marks. Their clothing seemed noticeable torn and ruffed up. First a bear, now a ninja. What a rough day it must be for those two. Oh well, it will soon be over for both of them. Then they will be able to rest as long as they want to. In fact, their bodies were going to rest for a long time. One could say forever. "Hello gentleman." Shigeru said, walking out in the open. They said somethings, Shigeru blocked out most of the noise. The two ruffed up ones soon started rushing towards him, both with blunt weapons in hand. Apparently the third guy was too good to get his hands dirty. Shigeru wanted to change that. He quickly stabbed one of the two straight in the stomach and pulled his sword out almost as quickly as it had entered. As the other swung down with what looked like a metal bar of some sort, Shigeru grabbed onto and threw the body of the one he had just stabbed, at the others attack, using him as a meat shield. He hated to harm the others body more than necessary, but he'd just have to pretend that this was necessary. He stabbed straight through the already dead body, into the eye of the other one. He'd drop the body and let out one more stab to finish him off. He looked back at the third guy, the only one left now. The bear looked pretty happy seeing those two die. Not quite overjoyed. Just glad enough that they weren't going to be messing with him anymore. "So do you wanna play too? I'm just kidding, you don't have a choice." he said as he dashed. Body low and sword bursting forward. He was done. Who knew that he was such a small fry. Why did the other two let him push them around like that? Who knew. 4 down. Two more. He also freed the bear. Breaking the door with one swing. It didn't seem interested in him. Luckily, he didn't need to kill it right after releasing it. He'd trace his steps back till he reached the crossroad again. This time he'd take the right path. He didn't have to walk long before he reached a small room with beds and some sort of chest. One man was searching through the chest, the other was laying on the ground. A dagger pointing up from his back. Shigeru's fist tightened. It made him so angry. Even if he did do it for money. What a cowardly way to do it. Sneak attacking an unarmed man. One left. Shigeru's shadow loomed over the last man. He looked down on him word ready to stab straight through his skull. The mans eyes widened as he saw the shadow. "Please, no. Don-" his sentance cut short by a sword to the head. His blood splattered over the money and the icy walls. Shigeru was done here. All that was left was to release all the animals from their cages and send back a confirmation that the deed was done back to the office. He didn't want to spend any more time in the presence of that trash. His body could just rot away for all he cared.