The Salt Workers Pt 1

Mission Info:

Kannagi had heard of some investors looking to make money near the coast. They had begun setting up an outpost near to the Silk Sand Coast not far from the dead salt Lake Usawoti. The outpost, now named Whiteshire, was constructed to harvest the salt from this ancient lake. Some monstrous storm or risen sea of the past had left behind this large brine lake and because nobody lived there, it was easy for a group of merchants to claim. The merchants had set up smaller tent-based encampments outside of the lake and sent workers in to harvest salt by carrying buckets of water from the lake to the main encampment of Whiteshire for evaporation and collection. Usually the salt workers had returned but this assignment, given to Kannagi who made haste to the outpost in the coast, briefed her on their sudden disappearance. The merchants of Whiteshire didn't want to lose their workers (or their business) and asked the village to send shinobi to help find them.

As far as she knew, she was to do the mission alone. Given that she knew the desert well enough to travel alone without fear, Kannagi had no problem with that. Still, riding in to the outpost upon Cirilla's back, the kunoichi had plenty of time to consider the problems in the assignment. At a new forming outpost, workers had gone missing and nobody had found them. The obvious answer was that the workers had abandoned post, but nobody turned up bodies in the desert or the lake and likewise the village had no reports of the civilians returning to Nikkousato. If it was this much of a mystery, she would have liked a second person to join her on the mission for back up. She might have been confident and capable but she was by no means stupid enough to think she could do everything individually. As she had started to learn with Genkumaru, Sojiro and even Hikari, teamwork was important. The workers didn't even seem to look at her as she rode in on her gray mare but by the time she had climbed off Cirilla's saddle and walked her through the small tents towards the largest conical tent of Whiteshire's outpost, a pair of men stepped out to greet her.

"I am Kannagi of the Sun Village. I was sent here to assist in locating some missing salt workers. How can I help?"

WC: 404

WC: 466
PC: 1/2

Kannagi stopped her pursuit of conversation with the two men who emerged from the tent and faced the... person who approached her. The mask hid his real identity but the attire in combination of the mask gave the deep voiced shinobi authority. Considering that he was here and merchants were fairly important to the village, Kannagi was glad for him to join her. She didn't want to undergo such a mission without back up or care. "I would ask you to only use my first name please. Care to introduce yourself?" She turned back to the two men and gave them a sincere looking grin, "My apologies. I had no information that a partner would be sent to join me."

The merchants looked at each other with furrowed brows. They were clearly related, brothers or maybe cousins. The men had dark brown hair and blue eyes but one of them bore a scar over his chin in the shape of an 'L'. The scarred man spoke first, "I am Akira. My brother, Banko and I were the ones to make the request of the village. It pleases me that the village decided to take this seriously enough to see two, but I also only received order that a single ninja would arrive." He looked suspiciously at Kannagi and the masked man, his distrusting eyes resting longer on the masked man of course. "Can we see your orders please? I would just like to check the seal, you understand." The brother, Banko took a distinct step forward and Kannagi took a single step back with how close he was standing to her. "And remove your mask if you would. We have concerns over privacy and business theft."

Kannagi glanced at her new partner and blinked at him curiously. Some shinobi wore masks, but those were the ones on discreet missions. She had no desire to question him about such things, her faith and trust was to those who sent her on this mission. They had only the best in mind for the people of the Sun village. Still, business theft was a fairly common practice and she could understand the concerns of these two brothers. She waved at the man and said, "Let's handle this formality quickly. I want to hear about these workers so we can get started before the sun gets too low."

WC: 394

Akira and Banko seemed satisfied enough by the papers and the true face, or the face they believed was his true face. Akira gestured for them to come inside the tent but Banko shook his head at his brother. "The masked one is right. There isn't much time for formalities. I assume you both have been briefed plenty, but here is the case. By the lake we keep several large tents for workers to stay in over night. They work each day at the lake and other works come by at night to retrieve the salt barrels. A few nights ago, the workers went down and discovered that one entire tent was empty. Five people abandoned post." Banko shook his head and spoke gruffly. Akira stepped up and added, "We did look for them, of course. We just don't have the resources and since no bodies have popped up... we've run out of ideas. Your task is just to go down to Lake Usawoti and start the search for these poor souls."

Kannagi listened, keeping her face expressionless, although she was sensing a disturbing amount of nonchalance from these brothers. It appeared they cared solely for their business but were making a big deal of this to protect themselves from any prosecution or future blame. To them, these missing people were just an inconvenience and shinobi were mere hounds, tools for them to use to sniff out the workers and make the brothers look good. For all she knew, this entire situation might have been staged for awareness and publicity of Whiteshire. She had ridden Cirilla into Whiteshire, passing the strange blue-grey lake as she came, and had a good idea then of where to begin. She looked to the masked man though, noting that he had more authority than her, and said, "I'd be happy to take us down on my horse. You can decide what we do from there. Does that seem amenable?" This man who called himself the Black Spider might have been in charge of the mission if he had been sent after Kannagi, but the kunoichi knew she was plenty capable and should not take it as an insult. Kannagi would lead them to Cirilla if he had agreed.

Standing beside her great gray mare, Kannagi gave her head a nuzzle with her own. "Good girl, don't worry. I'll fetch you some water when you get to the lake." The woman stroked the coat of the horse while the Spider requested to drive. Her hands still upon Cirilla, almost as if the horse understood, she shook her own head right alongside the mare's. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Cirilla isn't an ordinary horse, she is a friend. I am better than most men at riding, so you have nothing to worry about." Kannagi climbed atop of Cirilla's saddle and looked down at the Spider with a suspicious stare. "Unless you think as a woman I couldn't possibly fulfill my duties here, I suggest you just get on the back." It wasn't really respectful language, but she wasn't known for beating around the bush when it came to justice or feminism.

If he did board, she would take Cirilla down to the lake, just a ten minute or so ride away. She would feel him behind her, a strange presence that unnerved her, but then, so many strangers did. The lake was large but murky looking. She could smell the mud flats from where she was, like salt and like death, there was no lurking scents of seafood here. Kannagi wasn't surprised by that because she doubted any living creature could sustain itself in such a brine pool as this. There were various hills about, speckled in reeds and weeds, no doubt hiding insects or birds' nests within them. It was a strange little shrub like oasis in the desert, a place between the sea and vast wretched heat of the dry lands. A murder of crows flew overhead and landed in a stubby tree by the workers' tents, the only tree within sight, though possibly not the only tree there. She pulled up the tree and waited for the masked man to get off before making a move to get down herself.

When Kannagi dismounted, she was shocked to hear him speak. He had said nothing the entire ride there and the closeness of his hands and body had made her feel strangely wary of him. It was clear he was a good rider, almost as good as she was, she was certain. It was likely some strange bout of jealousy given that a comparable rider was rare, much less a strange shinobi simply boarding Cirilla like they were made to ride in triplicate. Kannagi faced him and shrugged, "I suppose it can't hurt to lead this mission. I have practiced in this role enough." Her voice was teacher-like, confident but not vain. If anything it seemed she was tired of the shinobi already and the way he wanted to measure her up. She was always looking for a reason to feel angry about her station in the world, Kannagi had taken note that this man might be just testing her for a promotion and not because she was a foreign woman.

She waved a hand passively at him and then approached the tent. At the first few, the tents were empty, but the final and largest tent was not. A few dusty looking people with cracked lips and cracked hands gawked up at them from a card game on a little table. It was dark and cool inside the tent andby the light of their small lantern, Kannagi cleared her throat. "I am Kannagi. I have.. We have come, pardon me, to help locate the workers who have gone missing." The youngest woman there had an edgy and dark hair cut, sharply outlining her features. She spoke with a saucy tone, "Like everyone else who has come by? Let me tell ya lady. We aren't sellouts. We can't be paid to lie." The middle aged man sitting beside her, pointed at the two shinobi with his cards in hand, flashing them to the table absently as he spoke, "They didn't just run away! They wouldn't abandon their posts! It discredits us as people to spread such a thing. Merchants, liars, bandits is what I call em." Kannagi blinked and then gave a nod to her partner, "My partner and I are not here for a show. We want to genuinely be of aid here. I assure you. Trust me, talk to us, we can help locate them."

The two workers looked at each other and then back. "I assume we are going to be questioned separately?" Kannagi saw no reason to separate them but it must have been a routine to the workers from the others who had come offering money to hide the disappearance of the salt workers altogether. The middle aged man was conservative, stern, and had a temperment of a businessman, as if he would take no guff. The girl was sarcastic at best but her tongue was no piece of silver, plenty information could be usable from these two. "The others must be at work on the Lake itself. I'll talk to the miss, you handle the gentleman."

The middle aged man had joined with the Spider as he left the tent and gave Kannagi privacy to talk to the woman alone. Kannagi had felt happy that he had trusted her to do this on her own and didn't insist for this to be part of his observation of her capability. The man lumbered out to the near treeline, though even the trees were sparse and coated in a crust of salt from the lake nearby. "All right, all right. First off, know you're down here at Whiteshire. Ain't nobody above us workers unless you're paying to be. Secondly, it's not like I'm hiding anything. A group of us went out to the lake for work and they ain't never come back. That's all." He crossed his arms, stubborn and defensively.

Meanwhile, inside of the tent, Kannagi spoke with the woman. "So tell me who you are hiding information from? Has someone threatened you?" The saucy woman nodded, "The brothers who run this place. They say it'll run out of business if people think people are dying out here. They give us a little extra ryo to not talk about it." The kunoichi nodded and sat down across from the woman at the table of cards. "Sorry for interrupting your game. Were you winning?" The woman frowned at her deeply, "Trying to act all friendly? What do you really want?" The blue haired woman placed both her hands on the table, palms down, showing that she had no weapons or ryo to use against the worker. "I only desire the truth about what happened. I won't speak to the merchants, you have my word." The woman tugged on her short black hair until realizing she had fidgeted out of nervousness. She pushed the locks of hair behind her hair and exhaled. "All right. But I will tell everyone you're lying and you attacked us if you go back on your word!" Kannagi gave a shrug, "Fair enough, go on then miss."

"The group that went missing was on the east side of the lake. We never go over there. Rumors say that people have gone missing there for decades. Some say the local natives have an establishment nearby and they kidnap workers for food or blood rituals. Complete heathens, if it's true." The woman looked shyly at Kannagi, "I have no idea if that's what you're looking for. We don't know where they are past them going to the bad part of the lake and past the superstitions of the other workers. My friend out there, he even has a pendant he claims he found on the eastern side of the lake. Thinks it came from the native people. I don't know what to think."

Kannagi nodded interested in the woman's story. "You have been very helpful, thank you." When the Spider walked into the tent, both women looked up at him from the card table. Kannagi listened to his information and then groaned. The brothers sure were a piece of work. "We can hold on to that trinket for now. We should head to the eastern side of the lake. I'm sorry about your friend," the kunoichi finished by resting a hand on the woman's hand and giving her a genuine expression of sympathy. The edgy woman hardly seemed to notice, jumping to her feet. "I have had just about enough with these guys..!" She straightened her back and with clenched fists, pushed past the Spider and exited the tent.

Kannagi got to her feet, "At least we can confirm then that their stories match. She mentioned something about rumors of a tribe out here. It's not impossible, but it does seem unlikely considering the expansion of the salt industry out here. Though, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine Whiteshire's development might threaten a tribe if there were one." Kannagi spoke with an almost inquisitive tone as she worked through the facts in her head. She considered the masked man and then shrugged, "We weren't hired to stop every thing those merchants do, but perhaps after we find these missing workers, we can report them to Nikkousato for investigation." The blue eyed woman smiled at him and gestured, "Let us go then."