Hello and welcome to my first Ragnarok fic! I hope you like it better thanI did (Think my writing style fluctuates)... Anyway, tell me what you think in a review, please!
Disclaimer: ...
The Road to Prosperity
Chapter 1
Introductions
Rune Midgard, a prosperous land that houses many cities, which in turn house many guilds. These guilds are in fact large centers of camaraderie, producing many skilled tradesmen, whether they be thieves or swordsmen, mages or acolytes, or even the mysterious guild of super novices.
One day, a somewhat long time ago, these guilds received their one and only mission, sparking them into action, "Seek all the treasures of this land!" All at once, the guilds sprung into action, intent on finding glory and riches for their community. It is in the middle of this that three new guilds emerged, eager to join the chase for glory. These three guilds, those of gunslingers, tae kwon, and ninja, all short on men to stand up to those daunting giants, must first find brave men and women to join their ranks.
Thusly, we have the guild of ninja, who, after spending large amounts of resources to pull ahead of the other two, find themselves preparing for their first foray into the road of glory…
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CRASH
"GODDAMMIT SKEIN!" Melkin yelled. Shino just sighed as he sat in a corner. This was going to be long.
Apparently, Skein had, for the second time in five minutes, toppled the statue of the king. It was a wonder that something hadn't snapped off yet. "What the hell are you doing! If those diving goggles impair your vision so much then just take them off!" Melkin yanked off the diving glasses.
"Hey, give those back, they're stylish!" Skein complained, reaching out for his goggles.
"Hah! Stylish my ass! These things would make Fabio look like a dork!"
Fabio, who just walked through the door with a bag filled with various weapons and armor, asked, "What about me?"
Skein and Melkin were too dumbfounded at the coincidence to answer. After a few minutes of completely awkward silence, Fabio sighed and said, "Sheena and Karen should be back soon with the food." Dropping the bag in a corner, he stalked off into the boy's room (1) quietly.
Skein, Melkin, and even Shino were staring as Fabio closed the door of his room. "What's up with him?" Melkin asked.
"Dunno. I'll go find Sheena and Karen." Shino said and disappeared out the front door.
"Hold up! I'll come with you!" yelled Melkin, but was stopped from disappearing as he noticed Skein, once again, tottering around with his diving goggles on. "GODDAMMIT SKEIN! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THOSE GOGGLES?"
------With Shino------
He was walking casually down the street, heading to the marketplace and just hoping that he wouldn't see the people he was looking for. It was getting on into the evening he wanted more time to just enjoy the relative quiet and watch the sunset from the streets.
It seemed to him that the gods were not too keen on that idea, as at that very moment, the very two females he was 'looking' for walked past him at the intersection, both looking very lost and at the same time so engrossed with finding their way that they didn't see the young furling ninja.
Now, Shino was not normally one to pull pranks, or any variety of jokes, for that matter, but he couldn't help but try to sneak up on them. This is just training, to test myself. Yes. He kept chanting that in his head, trying to rationalize his quite unnatural urge. His stealthing skills held true as he was now almost on top of the two kunoichi.
Sticking his head in between the two and interrupting their in-depth conversation, Shino said, "When were you two planning on coming back to the guild house?" with the straightest face he could muster (which was pretty damn straight).
The girls took a moment to process the fact that Shino was there. Right there. In between them. He hadn't been there a second before, had he? "EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!" Apparently, the two had worked through their initial shock, only to slam their elbows right into his head.
"Gah!" Shino fell to the ground, clutching the aching bump on his head, "What the hell was that for!" He yelled.
The girls gasped as they realized who they hit, "Shino! Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't realize it was you! You have to realize that sneaking up on us isn't the way to go, you know."
Shino just grunted and nodded his head. He was in too much pain to do otherwise. Seriously, those girls had really bony elbows.
Well, anyway, Shino recovered and the three made their way back to the building which was to double as their clan building as well as their temporary housing. He opened the door only to find himself met with a terrible sense of déjà vu. Melkin was screaming incoherently while chasing Skein (holding a suspicious pair of diver's goggles) around the toppled central statue. The girls only stared dumbfounded, that is, until Sheena managed to work up enough courage to ask Shino, "Hey, what do you think is going on here?"
Shino didn't know how to answer, as he himself wanted to forget the reason, so he just played dumb, "I don't know. And frankly, I doubt anybody would want to know anyway." The two girls nodded and dropped the bags near the door next to the bags that Fabio brought in earlier, scurrying around the walls into the room they shared. Shino decided that it was a good idea, and after putting the equipment into a safer corner and stuffing the food into storage, retired into the boy's room as well, leaving Skein and Melkin to work out their differences.
Soon enough, they burnt themselves out, opting to forget the whole tuff, fix the statue, and sleep.
------Early next morning------
DING DONG DANG
Karen awoke from her peaceful slumber as angry as an Andre that was getting stolen from (2). Her mission: to assassinate whoever was at the door.
She reached the front door after much fumbling (she couldn't navigate well due to her sleep-caked eyes) and opened the door with a kunai in hand, prepared to shut whoever was out there up for good. Needless to say, both parties were surprised, Karen because a royal carrier was at the door, and the royal carrier because Karen looked like an enraged sasquatch, with her mussed amber hair and bloodshot eyes. Why, in her current state, it even looked like she had small fangs!
Well, seeing as how she'd likely be executed for killing this guy, she calmed down, though she did still look stupendously angry (though only on the inside ). So, it was understandable that the man's voice was shaky as he said, "H-hello. M-m-my name i-is I-Ichiban B-Benri (3). I-I am h-here t-t-to g-give you t-this o-o-official d-dispatch" He said, handing a scroll to the still irate kunoichi.
Karen was only annoyed even further by his voice, though, and so instead of replying with a thanks, or other word of gratitude, she slapped a limp hand against her chest and said, "Great, and s-stop st-st-stut-t-tering l-like a r-retaaaarrrd." She rolled her eyes up and lolled her head about as she did this. Before the carrier could piece out a retort, she slammed the door in his face and turned around to read the scroll, eyes widening as she finished.
Having read the scroll, she ran around knocking on the doors and making a general racket, waking everybody up, yelling, "GUYS! GUYS! ANOUNCEMENT! WE'VE GOT OURSELVES OUR FIRST FREAKIN' MISSION, BABY!"
The boys and girl walked slowly out of their rooms in their pajamas, rubbing their bloodshot eyes and trying to smooth their ruffled hair. Sheena was fastest and shuffled up first, mumbling incoherently, still half asleep. Karen waited patiently for the boys to fully emerge from their rooms before telling the obviously good news.
They boys did get there eventually, even though it did take them ten minutes to fully comprehend where they were supposed to be and shuffle/waddle over there. And by then Karen's ire had returned in full and she was glaring at them with a tic in their eye. How did the men respond, you ask?
"Dude, your eyes are really bloodshot." They all said in unison, sounding as if they all just experienced some kind of life-changing epiphany.
It was all Karen could do to not pound them unconscious. For the moment, she just shot back, "And yours aren't?" (Yeah, weak, I know. But it's morning, so forgive her for not being at her wittiest.)
Karen ignored whatever they said in their defense and bulldozed right on to the main point. "Ok! So, just a few minutes ago, I received our first official dispatch from the king!"
This served to wake up her companions a little. They weren't by any means totally functional yet, but they were paying mild attention and could retain everything she said.
"What're we supposed to do?" Sheena asked dumbly, still working to clear the fog from her mind.
"I was just getting to that." Snapped Karen, "Apparently, he wants us to go to the mines near Einbroch in the Schwartzvaldt republic to retrieve a rare mineral called the…Crimson heart's diamond?"
This six ninja just kinda sat there, staring cluelessly at Karen for a few minutes. It was obvious that none of them knew what the Crimson heart's diamond was, but was hoping the Karen knew (she didn't know either XD).
Fabio spoke. Everyone know Fabio spoke. Do you know why everyone knew Fabio spoke? Because it is common knowledge in their guild that Fabio was the tallest and buffest, and thus had the honor of having the deepest and most sexy voice. Yes, people can differentiate by voice sexiness. "Do you know what the Crimson heart's diamond is?"
Karen just melted at his voice, and she would have done everything in her power just to keep him talking (Fabio tended to be quiet. Nowhere near as quiet as Shino, but still quiet nonetheless). However, she couldn't lie out of good conscience, and so had to reply no.
Sheena sighed, "Well, we can at least assume that the crimson heart's diamond is red, and thus be able to find it. Don't worry though, if we can't find it then it's alright. There'll be more missions in the future."
Karen was in her face immediately, "NO! We cannot fail this mission!"
Sheena laughed nervously and raised her hands in supplication, trying to calm her friend down, "Ehe…ehe…ehehehe… Why not?"
"Why not! WHY NOT! Because this is our first mission, that's why not! Don't you realize that this mission will affect our futures! How many missions come our way (and subsequently how much money we make), as well as how many people come to our guild instead of some other one all depend on if we do well on this mission!"
Well, that realization depressed everyone. A dark, gloomy aura hung around the group as their heads drooped. "Ah…" Karen grunted I said something wrong, didn't I? She sweatdropped.
Trying to dispel the oppressive atmosphere, Karen said, "Well then! Let's get ready, pack our weapons, and meet in at the doors of the building in about an hour! Got it?" Everyone nodded and retreated back into their rooms.
------1 hour later------
The gang of merry ninjas met in their battle gear and skipped off from Glast heim and towards the fields that would lead them to Al de Baraan, and from there, Juno, where they could take the airship toward Einbroch and from there ride the train to the mines. There were sure to be dangerous monsters on the way, and so they prepared for the worst and took extra orange and blue potions with them along with Fly and Butterfly wings.
It would be a long journey fraught with monsters and mazes, but readied with their best ninjutsu and weapon skills, the ninja were prepared.
And thus, the first mission of the guild of ninjas began.
1) There are two bedrooms so far, the boy's room and the girl's room. The girl's room has two single beds pushed to the wall in the center with one nightstand between them, and a desk and dresser each on opposite sides (along with various paraphrenalia spread around the room). They boy's room has two bunk beds also pushed to the wall in the center, but instead of a nightstand there's just free space. The roomis spread with various tables and drawers filled to the brim with their stuff.
2) You know how Andre's are like theif bugs in that they take items? Yeah, I would imagine they get angry if you stole from them.
3) Ichiban Benri means #1 convenient in Japanese.
: These are only the current settings. There will be change as more recruits flow into the guild. On that note, because there will be more people. I am more than happy to include characters that reviewers suggest in their reviews. Just include: Name, Appearance, A small personality and background (bio), Ninja abilities (special skills, etc.), and anything else that you want me to know.
On a side note, where is the ninja guild based? (you know, where you go to test to become a ninja) And what is the test to become a ninja? If someone could tell me, I'd be really grateful.