[Plotboard] All's Fair in Love and War

[Niro]

Ejiri, Josuke paced back and forth in the living room of his home with his short legs. The master potion maker's brow was furrowed in worry as he awaited the remaining two adventurers he had hired. The woman, her naming starting with a T, had arrived earlier and been directed to his son's room almost immediately upon verifying she was who she had said she was. He had his medic but now he required the muscle to find out why and who committed this heinous act. Josuke continued his pacing as the clock ticked on.

---

Igarashi, Kosuke's trip into Dwarf Country was...boring so far. He had hitched a ride on a cart importing some materials into the country to ease his travel time before finally thanking the driver and getting off at the modest village where the potion maker resided. The young man quickly made his way to the tiny door of the house he had been told to arrive at, trying his best to ignore the copious amount of small eyes locked onto him.

Finally the door opened and a shrewd, older looking gentleman opened the door with a scowl on his face. Josuke looked Kosuke up and down before extending his hand towards the kid.

"The contract?" Josuke asked, his eyes narrowed and weary of the man in front of him.

"Oh, just a second." Kosuke rifled through his front pockets for a moment before producing a crumpled up piece of paper with all of the details of the job on it and handing it down to the man who took it with a look of disgust.

Josuke looked it over and motioned for the kid to enter while they awaited their last member. Kosuke crouched and entered the home where he quickly decided walking on his knees would be for the best. The potion maker escorted the boy into the room with his son and the medic before exiting back to the front room.

[7eleven]

After many months of traveling, Satori had managed to discretely make his way from Lightning Country, passing near or through all of the other great countries, before reaching Dwarf Country- a small area on the other side of the continent. He found this place to be quite refreshing in contrast to the mountains of Kumo. He found that he quite enjoyed forests. The air was certainly richer, filled with the aromas of plant life that he had never seen before. Trees grew so tightly packed that he often struggled to see the sky through the canopy, a stark contrast to the endless blue and white that he had grown accustomed to. He found this to be quite cozy, as if the world around him was a sort of shelter. He enjoyed the way the wind rustled tree limbs and lives, and the sounds of the many animals scurrying around in the distance. He was happy to have found an opportunity to travel the world, though he wished it had been under happier circumstances.

After making his way through the forests, Satori found himself at the village he had set out to find. There were a number of people staring at him oddly, and he could only assume it was because of his height. At 6' 6", Satori stood over most people he met, so in a country of those well below average height, he must seem like quite the oddity. Not to mention that he was wearing a rabbit mask with a big flower on it.

After asking around town, Satori was eventually able to find the home of Ejiri, Josuke. He knocked lightly on the door, and pulled the contract from his belt as he waited for the man to answer.

[Amy]

Tsubaki drew the back of her hand across her brow, wondering how she had gotten herself into this. She was only meant to pass through Dwarf Country maybe working a couple of small jobs along the way to pad her wallet. It had been a few months, maybe half a year, that she had been traveling and looking for a place to settle down. There was always something though, that spurred her to keep moving. Mostly, they were problems she invented so that she had an excuse to not stick around. She had made it this long without being buddy buddy with anyone but that was all about to go down the drain.

Gently laying the boys hand back on the bed, she tried to make sense of the data she had. His body was processing at an unusually slow rate. Heart rate was low, blood pressure was low, but there weren't any nice big signs saying what was wrong with him. He was stable but that could change at any moment and now she felt responsible for him. There hadn't been many people in town who needed any help but a few days ago someone had found her at the inn and insisted she take the job. Heavily insisted. Begged, almost. How was she supposed to say no to a dying kid? Unfortunately, as weird as it was to think, he wasn't just sick because he was sick. Someone had done this to him. And she wasn't the only one hired to help out.

"Ouch," Tsubaki muttered to herself as she stood, hitting the same part of her head on the ceiling for the sixth time. She wasn't used to having to be conscious of her height. A quick glance towards the now open door told her what she expected - one of the others was here. Attempting to not look entirely dismissive, she nodded at the newcomer and tried to not let the fact that he looked like a child to her show on her face. Well maybe not a child, that would be incorrect she supposed. No one in this line of work was truly a child.

"Tsubaki," she introduced herself before gesturing toward the young man. "I'll go over what I know when the other one gets here, but I'll be honest that it's not much. Whoever did this, it wasn't their first time." If she had wanted to be completely honest, she would have told him that she wasn't sure they could save him before it was too late. Complete honesty was still a few steps away though.