Kazu wakes to the sun shining through the window. Anna is still cuddling him. He gently shakes her, softly saying her name. Eventually she wakes up, and looks at him with a drowsy smile.
"Good morning Anna, welcome to tomorrow." He says smiling.
Anna responds as she gets out of the bed, "Good morning Kazu, sleep well?"
"Fairly well. Are you wanting to wash up this morning?" Kazu asked.
She smiles at him, and says, "If you don't mind, I would love to take a bath."
Kazu gets up, goes into the bathing area and fills the tub. He then makes sure she has soap and a towel, then excuses himself. "I'm gonna go ahead and go down for breakfast, come find me when you are ready."
As Kazu waits for Anna to come down, he spends some time chatting with some of the other patrons. A few minutes into a conversation with a wolfkin merchant, he feels someone run into him. Kazu reaches back and grabs the wrist of someone that was trying to steal his bag. He turns around to face the thief, it is a young blond haired human teen girl looking up at him with fear and hate in her eyes. He immediately felt the cruelty in her heart and the bloodlust in the air. Still holding her wrist he went into defensive mode, expecting an attack from her at any moment. She pulls a skinning knife and tries to slice at his wrist. Kazu catches her hand and slides the knife out of her hand. He turns and sets the knife on the counter behind him, then leans down to talk to her.
Kazu begins speaking to her as his eyes glow faintly, "I am the type of person that helps people, but you have to be willing to help yourself. Being a criminal is not helping you, it is only causing you more harm. Choose to be better, and good things will come your way. Continue on your path toward evil and only pain and heartache is waiting for you. Now get out of here before I change my mind and call for a guard." He lets her go and she sprints out of the inn, Kazu then hollers out, I have 5 money pouches I retrieved from a pickpocket, is anyone missing their pouch? Over the next several minutes he was able to return the pouches to the original owners.
Five minutes later Anna joins him for breakfast. 30 minutes after that they are ready to begin their day. Kazu gives Anna a silver coin and 10 bronze coins, and asks her to shop for either some clothes to try enchanting on, or the tools, fabric and leather to make their own. While she is out shopping Kazu plans to head to the hunters lodge to get an assignment for the day.
A few minutes later Kazu is stepping up to the counter at the lodge. "Hello Tara, do you have anything interesting for me to do today?"
"Hi Kazu, I have plenty of interesting things for you to do, Let me check the quests." she replies. Searching through the quests, she picked out three she figured were interesting enough for him. "We have a goblin hunt, a wolf hunt, and an investigation that might end up being a rescue. Which one do you want?"
"What is the investigation about?" Kazu asked.
"Three beastkin disappeared from the market last night, their friends came by this morning to request someone investigate." Tara Continued. "You will be looking for two kittens and a pup. They were selling fruits and vegetables from their stall. They disappeared as they were packing up for the night. None of the goods were taken."
"I understand," Kazu says, "I'll take the investigation, I should be done by dinner. if the other two are available tomorrow, I'll take them."
Tara hands over all three quests, "The other two have been left unaccepted for about a week, so they are yours now. They are too difficult for C rank and lower, and the other A and B rankers are not interested."
"Alright, well… see you when I'm done. Enjoy your day." Kazu says as he walks away.
Kazu makes his way to the market. After entering he notices several stalls selling fruits and vegetables. Only one of the stalls is manned by beastkin, and he heads to talk to the ones operating it.
"Hello," Kazu says, "I am looking into the disappearance of, what I assume are, your friends. Do you mind answering a few questions?"
The young beastkin agreed to answer his questions. He finds out that they were in the same stall, that they were carrying the baskets home when they disappeared. It was their first night selling in the market. The time was just after sunset. They lost sight of their friends when they turned a corner, and when they turned the corner a minute later they were gone. The baskets they were carrying were laying on the ground, with their contents spilled out.
One of the kids offered to show him the area where they found the baskets. Kazu accepts and the two of them head to the location.
Once there Kazu starts looking around. He finds 3 businesses that are open at that time of night. He questions them, asking if they noticed anything the night before. They all remember the beastkin making several trips, carrying baskets, but do not remember anything out of the ordinary.
The only other place nearby is a guard office, so Kazu made his way there.
"Hello," Kazu said as he entered. "I need a little assistance, if you don't mind."
A guard comes out of the back room, "Yeah, we're busy right now, so what do you need?"
"I am looking for the whereabouts of 3 beastkin that were carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables last night." Kazu stated.
"Oh, are you the one they stole them from?" The guard asked.
"N… wait… what?" Kazu stammered. "Do you have them here for stealing the produce?"
"Of course, we can't let thieves run around town stealing whatever they want." The guard stated.
Kazu, hiding his annoyance, continues, "Absolutely, thieves should never be allowed to roam free… I take it you also confiscated the stolen goods so the owner can collect it."
"No, the guards did not bring in the stolen goods." The guard hesitantly stated.
"Did someone come in to inform you all that their produce was stolen?" Kazu Asked, now obviously annoyed.
The guard replies, "Not yet."
Kazu's eyes start to glow a bright blue. "I see… so you arrested three kids for stealing produce, without any proof that they stole it, no one claiming they stole it, and no proof that they ever even had the produce… since your brilliant guards decided that the goods were important enough to arrest children for having, but not important enough to bring with them. No, they just leave the food on the street for anyone to take… Let me ask you this… how do you guards feel about kidnappers? Should they be allowed to roam free?"
The guard replies, "No, of course not…. Wait, are you trying to imply…"
Kazu interrupts the guard, his eyes shining brighter, and his voice lowering to a growl. "I am implying nothing, I am stating what you all did last night was kidnapping, false imprisonment of children… you all treated innocent children as criminals, and in all your guards' well trained stupidity, your guards did not even try to investigate if his suspicion was true or not, just went straight to arresting them. Well let me clear this all up for you, they have a stall in the market to sell produce. They were carrying their unsold goods home so they did not get stolen overnight. Now release them!"
"Who do you think you are to issue orders to a guard?" The guard yells.
Kazu's eyes glow brighter as he coldly addresses the guard, "I am just the hunter that was assigned to find the kidnapped beastkin, now that I have found them, and know who kidnapped them, I am allowed to rescue them from whoever is holding them illegally, by any means I deem necessary. Let them go, NOW!"
The guard, lacking any desire to disagree, says mechanically, "Yes sir, follow me, they are in the interrogation cell."
Kazu follows the guard into the interrogation room, and sees the kids sitting on the floor in chains, a guard is sitting in a chair angrily interrogating them. The guard that Kazu was following walks over and tells the other guard that they have been cleared, and that he has to release them immediately.
The second guard looks angrily at Kazu, then with a sigh, he nods at the first guard. Without a word he walks around the room and unlocks the kids. He throws the chains into a corner of the room, and glares at the kids as they leave. "Sorry to take away your sadistic fun." Kazu says sarcastically. "May you grow a conscience one of these days, and learn how to do your job right." Kazu's eyes stop glowing.
Not knowing who Kazu is, the kids stand around outside the cell nervously.
Kazu smiles at the kids and says, "Hello, I'm the hunter that was asked to find you. Let's get you back to your friends, they should still be at their stall."
The kids smile and hurry out the door, heading back to the market. Kazu follows them back to the stall. The kids are greeted with hugs from their friends. Kazu tells them, "If you have any more problems like that, just let me know, you can reach me through the hunters lodge. Wait here for a moment, I'll be right back. There is one more thing I need to do."
Kazu hurries off down the street. Seventeen minutes later he comes back into the market with a small wagon, just big enough to carry all their goods. "This is for you kids, It will make life much easier, and help keep the guards from being morons again. Here is the bill of sale, in case they ask you where you got it from, show this." Kazu says with a smile. The kids hug him as he excuses himself.
As he walks away he notices the shadows are still short, it's just after noon. He decides to take care of one of the other jobs. The goblin hunt is an older quest, so he heads off to take care of it first.
Once Kazu exits the town he begins jogging. An hour later he arrives in the area the goblins are expected to be in. 20 minutes of searching is rewarded when he comes across 7 goblins hiding next to the road. Kazu startles them when he steps out into the open behind them, and loudly and jokingly says, "Hello, can I interest you in any Jamway products?" Immediately the goblins attack him. As Kazu dodges, he continues speaking. "So is that a no? And I'm so close to getting that pink Caddie." Kazu pulls his knives, slicing deep into the first one's chest. As the second one comes in for an attack, Kazu dodges left, and counter attacks, slicing cleanly through its neck. 3 more goblins are taken out over the next few seconds. The two remaining goblins took off running while Kazu was still fighting. Kazu followed them hoping they were heading back to their lair. Several minutes later they lead him to a cave, and they go inside. Kazu slowly enters behind the goblins.
It is brighter in the cave than he expected. He sees no source of light, but he can see clear enough to clear each area as he moves deeper into the cave. After several minutes the cave opens up into a large cavern. In front of himself Kazu sees well over 100 goblins staring at him. Immediately after seeing him, the goblins start yelling and attacking him. Kazu spends the next 10 minutes slicing, punching and kicking goblins until only a handful are left. Kazu turns his attention to the remaining goblins as another goblin comes striding next to them. He towers over them, but is still much smaller than Kazu. The new goblin pulls a sword, yells some gibberish that Kazu assumes is a war cry, then lunges in for an attack. Kazu catches the sword with his left hand, and pulls the sword away from it. His knife in his right hand plunges into the goblins chest.
The handful of goblins remaining fall to the ground in a submissive pleading posture. Kazu walks up to them, his eyes glowing blue, and explains to them, "I am not here because I hate you, I am here because you kill and rob my people. If you continue attacking us I will have no option but to come back. Live and let live, hunt animals for food, learn to farm, and if you need help, ask for Hunter Kazu." Kazu's eyes stop glowing as he turns away to leave.
Kazu stops when he hears a goblin's raspy voice say, "Hun.ter. Ka.zu… We. be. bet.ter. No. need. kill. We. show. good." Kazu nods at the speaker, and heads out of the cave. The glow leaves his eyes as he exits the cave..
His jog back to town was uneventful. As he neared the inn he saw Anna carrying several bags and a box. Kazu catches up with her and takes the box, and a bag. They make their way back to their room.
Once in the room Anna starts showing off the items she bought. She explains that since she did not know his sizes some of the items like the boots and gloves are for her, but the other clothes were sized by estimating the size difference between him and the shop owner. She ended up buying in his size, a shirt, leather vest, pants, leather forearm armor, a cloak, a belt, and leather strap on armor for the left shoulder. The final items she bought were in the box, some leather, some fabric, and a sewing kit.
After finishing going over her purchases, they head downstairs for dinner. After eating, both of them being exhausted decide to call it a day early, and head up to the room. Once in the room Kazu goes to take a bath, and Anna locks the door then puts away her purchases. When Kazu finished his bath, Anna took her turn. While Anna was bathing, Kazu, practicing wind magic, uses it to dry his hair, offering the same to Anna when she finishes her bath.
Eventually they both make their way to the bed, Kazu lays down as he normally would, but Anna immediately cuddles up to him. He looks down at her with her head on his chest, and kisses her forehead, "Goodnight Anna, sleep well." he says with a grin.
"Goodnight." She replies as she cuddles closer. A few minutes later they are both asleep.