Mirror, Mirror

[Yasashikaze Seiken]

Fortunately for Omoi, she had changed back into her clothing before the smoke bomb went off. She tossed him two kunai. "They're not much, but they're what I've got, Hiraku-san," she told him, her own demeanor turned dead serious.

While Hiraku was turned, the small ferret seemed to scribble something on the ground before him. It was rough, but it spelled out... "friend"?

The silver ferret was fast for it size, and it was obvious that it had been trained by a shinobi. It was still small, though, and Hiraku and Omoi were still able to keep up with it. The path that they took seemed to cradle the western wall of the village as afternoon turned to dusk. Finally, they arrived at a high rock spire with a fifteen foot terrace that extened out with the peak blocking out the moon. This spire was one of several that seemed to surround a crater like depression. They were far away from the major guard outposts, the closest being a small sentry stand half a mile from their location.

The silver ferret hopped on top of the spire and started swinging it's tail in the moonlight. The sheen of it's fur sent out a ghostly glow in the area. It was waiting for something... or someone. That much was certain.

The next thing either Omoi or Hiraku heard was the rough landing of two feet not five feet behind them and a familar voice popped out from behind them. It was Reiyaku.

"Good. You guys got the message," he said quietly. With a deft leap, the ferret jumped on his shoulder from the spire's top.

[Kao]

Hiraku took the kunai in it hand, spinning it by the ring on his pinky finger. "Let's go!" He sprinted forward, not taking his eyes away from the ferret. The more it darted in front of him, the more furious he got. But the time they stopped running, he was seething within, though his face betrayed very little of his rage.

He stopped, the kunai no longer in sight. The chuunin's head slowly turned as someone spoke. When the Reiyaku jumped down, Hiraku had to force himself to refrain from ripping at his body with the weapon. At first, his words caught in his throat. It was him! "You...I-I..." He glanced down at Omoi. "Did you...did you know about this?" Hiraku took several steps backward.

Part of him didn't want to wait for an answer. The vaguely thought that if they were both involved in Minori's kidnapping, he wouldn't think twice about killing them both.

[Yasashikaze Seiken]

Omoi herself was stunned silent, her jaw agape in shock. She was about to speak before Hiraku held up a hand to silence them both. "Omoi knew nothing of what I was doing, Hiraku-san. And I'm not a kidnapper; having been spirited away myself, I'd never put someone through such an ordeal."

He moved towards the side of the spire and pointed towards the crater. "My part in this was tracking the actual kidnappers. I eat at Minori's restaurant often and I had noticed something kinda shady going on: about once a week, the manager would be holding these secretive conversation with less than reputable figures. So, I began listening in on these conversations and recording them. Considering my training in covert reconnaissance, they never even knew I was there."

"Apparently, her manager's been a very bad boy," he continued, turning back to the fuming chuunin. "He used both the restaurant itself and the money garnered from the business as a cover to invest in slews of mid-profile heists and thefts... and he made quite a bit of money doing so. But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted more."

He dipped back into the shadows and reappeared with Hiraku's equipment, tossing them to him one at a time. How Reiyaku got into his house would be something the chuunin would have to figure out later. And that's when he learned of Minori's father. One of the thieves had mentioned that a heist against his company had failed because they had hired shinobi to protect an heirloom he had planned on giving to his daughter. He did a bit of digging and tracked her down."

He sighed as he tossed Omoi her sword gauntlet, who was still phased at seeing Reiyaku here. "And the rest is history," he told the two as he checked his own equipment. "He privately hired two ex-convicts who had flunked out of the academy and continued their training on their own. Then he used his knowledge of Minori's whereabouts to track her and whisk here away to their base in that crater, and I've been on their tails, right behind them without them even knowing it. As soon as I found their base, I sent the message."

With that, he gave a simple shrug. "And that's it, basically. For once, my paranoia served a purpose."

[Kao]

Hiraku ate all of his words...then nearly spit them back out. When his equipment hurled towards him, he caught them, though his eyes were filled to the brim with rage. "Why should I believe you? You show up right after she was kidnapped, but your 'paranoia' couldn't help you prevent it from happening?" He dropped the heavy scroll to snap the weapons pouches to his leg and waist. "Better yet! You couldn't help her out when she was being kidnapped? You just watched it unfold without moving to help her?"

He opened the scroll, his hands forming rapid handseals. His open palm slammed onto the center of the scroll, causing a long nagamaki to appear in a cloud of smoke. He used the leather strap connected to the scroll to sling the blade across his back. "Not to mention instead of rushing to help her - which I'm sure you're perfectly capable of - you instead thought it would be a good idea to run around Iwa for our weapons." The chuunin tied his boots tighter, violently pulling on the laces. "If you had time to do all of this, you could have easily rescued her and had her back here." As he raged, not once did he stop preparing himself to save Minori. He slapped on his metal wristbands, twisting them to ensure that they were secure. The boy approached the crater. When he reached the edge, he turned his head. His eyes all but flashed red in his fury, his voice an piercing hiss. "Stay away from my house. Got that?"

When his eyes rested on Omoi, he growled before turning away. He still wasn't convinced they weren't involved. "Give me any reason to think you're pulling something, anything at all, and I'll cut both of your throats. Understood?" Threats weren't like Hiraku at all. The chuunin was never one to advocate unnecessary death. But when Minori was captured, something bubbled within him, something malevolent. He would certainly not hesitate to kill it if meant protecting someone he truly cared for.

[Yasashikaze Seiken]

Reiyaku met Hiraku's rage with his own freakishly cool demeanor as they got ready to depart. "Hiraku, do you really think it would have ended just like that had I gone and saved her immediately? Yes, it would have stopped them; yes, the manager would have had to go into hiding; and yes, Minori would be safe... for now. That man isn't a mere peon in this crime ring; he's practically one of the leaders. Do you truly believe there wouldn't have been retribution taken? What's more, what's to say that it would have stopped at kidnapping? These men are connected to something much larger than any of us can see, and what's more, this manager's the nice guy; any other of those men would have simply killed her outright and fooled us all into thinking she was still alive for the ransom. Though I can appreciate your rage, I did what I thought would keep you both safe for good, not just for the time being. Also, at the time she was kidnapped, I was tracking them to their base. As it is, the manager was especially careful about making the arrangements for this heist; I literally found out about it today."

He slipped a few scrolls into the pockets of his pants. "Had I come back to try and rescue Minori, he would've gotten away, and we would have no way of tracking them. She would have been gone, Hiraku... and you know very well what would've happened next. With this arrangement, however, not only do we have surprise on our side, but we can catch the bastard red-handed. We can track his associates and disassemble this crime ring piece by piece, and you won't ever have to worry about someone else kidnapping her ever again. And I can assure you she's unharmed; they won't dare touch her so long as the ransom's unpaid. Though I know you don't believe me, this was the only sure way of ensuring her safety now and in the future."

Not giving any chance for a response, Reiyaku stepped off the ledge and began running down the spire. "Let's move. We've wasted too much time with unneeded speech as is."

---

The room was plush, lots of red velvets and silks adorning the quarters. There was fresh fruit on a delicate glass table in the middle of the room which sat next to crimson suede couch. Everything was warm and soft, the only contrast being the thick steel door that remained barred, preventing her escape.

Minori's sleeping form rest on the bed at the far end of the room. Though still a bit drowsy from the chloroform, she would find herself unharmed.

[Kao]

This is going to be short so you can go ahead and describe where we are going.

He scoffed as they continued running down the spire. The farther they traveled, the more Reiyaku's words rang in his head. He was getting steadily pissed off. He clenched his hands at his sides, opening and closing them in frustration. Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT. He wanted to punch something, someone, anything. He knew that the first person he saw once they reached their destination, he would pummel them until their face looked like chopped meat.

The boy scowled. His nagamaki, strapped onto his back, was itching to cut someone, to sink into flesh. Hiraku came to a stop, signaling the others to follow his example."Omoi! His voice was a harsh, low growl. "Pull back an stay in the middle. Reiyaku, bring up the rear. Since you're the one with intel, tell me everything you know. We need to know what we're up against before we go charging in. What are their numbers?"

[Yasashikaze Seiken]

The kunoichi feared angering the chuunin any more than he already was, dropping into formation. Reiyaku did likewise, but offered Hiraku no mercies. It seemed odd how despite his seeming lack of common sense in the situation, he still was so confident in the decisions he made. Either he was the most arrogant person that either Hiraku or Omoi had met, or he knew something more about the situation. He tossed Hiraku a small scroll which contained a rough layout of the lair and regular patrol points. The lair seemed to cone its way out with vertical interjections There seemed to be thirty men accounted for. There were also horizontal paths that seemed to cut through each point. It was a simple but effective layout; reinforcements could quickly deploy to any part of the underground fortress. There were also five rooms circled at the end of the main hallways. "Courtesy of my little silver friend," he noted, the ferret popping out of his jacket.

All the while he looked at Hiraku, and his eyes only spoke one thing:

'You'll understand why, Hiraku. When this is done, you'll understand why.'

[Kao]

Hiraku touched his hand to his chin and began to calm down as he studied the map. With the way the hideout was set up, it was definitely not a good idea to blindly go barging in. He'd set up the formation with a blinding veil of anger over his eyes. Now that he stood and contemplated what they were doing, he was able to think clearer. "Shit...change of plans." He looked around, though was still avoiding either siblings' gaze.

"That ferret of yours knows its way around, right? Get it to find a clear-ish pathway, and find out where Minori is. We don't need to go running in there and not know where she is."

[Yasashikaze Seiken]

Reiyaku nodded, reaching into his pack and pulling out what appeared to be a mini backpack. Though somewhat big, the ferret slipped himself into the attached jacket and scampered off towards the hideout entrance. Omoi simply kept her head down. Ever since they had been brought her, she had been silent.

For the first time in a very long time, she wanted to cry.

---

The door started to jingle and clank. The noise would be more than enough to wake Minori from her fume induced stupor. Finally, it swung open with several young women filing in. They were all very beautiful, but their clothing was decrepit and their eyes full of fear and sadness. Once inside the room, they immediately began tidying up, making the room even more immaculate than it had been before; they straightened pillows, dusted the glass tables and mirrors and replaced the fruit bowl with another, its contents fresher than the last.

From behind these women entered two more figures, men this time.

One was a willowy pale man with lanky limbs, short and spiky jet black hair, and brown eyes. Two khatar were sheathed on his waist, and he wore a simple tunic with tight-fitting pants and shinobi tabi.

The other... was her manager.

With a snide grin, her former boss chuckled. "Well, well... it seems that you've finally woken up, Minori-chan," he jeered derisively. "How are you feeling?"

---

Silver, as Reiyaku had aptly called the ferret, knew what he had to do. He was to find Minori and get the info back to his master. Reiyaku, having trained him for low-level recon, had taught the pseudo-rodent a systematic approach to infiltration, so naturally, after having snuck into the base, hugged the walls and started with each hallway ending. He jotted down what he saw and moved on.

His current notes were as followed:

Cell 1: 20 women.
Cell 2: 25 women.
Cell 3: ...
Cell 4: ...
Cell 5: ...

[Kao]

I can't tell if the ferret came back or not...so...

Hiraku waited with deteriorating patience on the man's pet to return. While he waited, he incessantly went over his plan in his head. In reality, the man had no plan. He would burst into where she was, defeat anyone there, and make sure Minori was safe. And, just for good measure, he would kill the masterminds responsible.

Very little in the world warranted Hiraku's hatred, but he felt utterly violated. Minori was taken from him, right from under his nose. He normally would not even think of killing someone if he was not ordered to do so. But this was different. In all honestly, since the ferret scurried off, he slowly sunk into his mindset of Destroy All Enemies. He could not even convince himself that Omoi and her elder brother had nothing to do with the kidnapping. He looked over at Omoi, her eyes threatening tears.

Hiraku felt nothing.

If anything, he wanted to tell her to toughen up and focus. In the boy's mind, she and Reiyaku were part of the blame. Neither of them were able to prevent this from happening. Reiyaku was capable of stopping the event, but did not; Omoi, on the other hand...

"Omoi." His voice was a steel bark, slamming through the silence. "Lift your head and focus. Shinobi do not let emotions stop them from doing what was being done."

They should have left her behind.