Reflection

First Mission

In a small town near the misty mountains, there was a murmur, whisperings of a strange man that asked of nonsensical things and nonsensical beings...

"So... have you seen any... strange stuff lately?"

At the moment said man's partner was considering just packing her things and going home.

How... how is this going to be the hardest part of the mission...

Shinobu shook her head, sparing the confused civilian as she dragged Giyuu away. Her expression resigned after three hours with little to no progress on both the mission and Giyuu's social skills.

Well, that got us nowhere. Even if Tomioka-san wasn't awful at questioning I don't think it would have mattered. None of the civilians looked like they'd heard of anything strange either. We might have to wait until nighttime to-

"Kocho..."

Shinobu stopped at Giyuu's exhausted voice, looking back to see the water hashira wearing an equally exhausted expression on his face. The amount he'd been forced to talk in the last three hours drained him more than anything Urokodaki had put him through.

"How do you talk so much?"

It's exhausting...

Shinobu felt her eyes twitch, veins appearing on her forehead as she gave a small smile, meeting Giyuu's exhausted gaze with an irritated one of her own, "Tomioka-san..."

Giyuu shivered as he felt a murderous aura surround him, looking around for a demon before realizing it was still daytime.

Weird... did I miss something?

Giyuu furrowed his brows in confusion, and pulled out of his thoughts as he heard Shinobu speak in a tone that held no room for argument, "I'll do the talking from now on."

Giyuu nodded, forgetting about the earlier aura as he followed Shinobu so they could book a hotel for the night. Giyuu was simply grateful that he wouldn't have to go through such a difficult ordeal again and that he could get a little bit of sleep to recharge. Meanwhile, Shinobu was hoping that something would pop up at the hotel before they had to resort to simply waiting for nightfall with no information to help them.

...........

Turns out her luck was particularly bad today.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know about anything strange going on lately..."

Shinobu held back a sigh as she looked at the clerk for the only hotel in town, glancing worriedly towards the door she looked around with a frightened expression plastered on her face, "Are you sure there hasn't been anything wrong lately? My partner and I heard rumors about people disappearing lately..."

Hopefully, that's enough to get something...

Sadly her lie didn't catch, since the lady only gaped in surprise, "Really? No, I'm sure they were just joking, there hasn't been anyone in this town that's disappeared you two are the first people here since..."

Shinobu watched with narrowed eyes as the lady seemed to stall in her thought process, her eyes glazing over before she seemed to come back to reality. The lady's expression in disbelief as she shook her head, "That's right, there aren't any people that have disappeared here. I assure you, you both will be fine at our hotel for the night."

Shinobu feigned a look of relief, internally noting down the change in the woman's attitude before she nodded, "Oh well that's a relief. Is there any way we can get two rooms for the night? It's been a long day..."

Shinobu glanced towards Giyuu, having to hold back a laugh as she saw him sleepily nod his head. Giyuu was dead on his feet after the exhausting day he had trying and failing to collect information.