Patrol the Town [Claymore,Rasparov/Job]

With his passport taken care of and partaking in a small entertainment of the masses at the same time it was time for Claymore to get back to Rune Knight business. He weaved his way through all the traveling merchants and tourist that populated the docks and headed his way towards Hargeon’s town hall. He figured that if there was any news on what was going on with the Rune Knights then that was the place to go.

Claymore was at awe when he came upon the massive building. The white lined columns and triangular architecture brought a small tear to his eyes as he could see the beauty in its construction. He wanted to just stand there all day and stare at the building but his duty to the Rune Knights was eating at him so in the end he wiped away the tear, pushed back his feelings, and headed through the door.

Before he could get to the center desk one of the smaller attendants in the building cut him off. “Excuse me but are you Claymore Rampore?” The man seemed a tad bit timid as Claymore easily dwarfed the attendant.

Claymore striked one of his famous poses flexing both arms above his head puffed out his chest. “Yes it is I…the GLOURIOUS CLAYMORE!” To Claymore there was a bright light shining behind but to everyone else it was just another buff goon showing off to some random person in the middle of a cramped building.

“This letter came for you today by speed mail.” The man handed Claymore a small letter with a holo lacrima encased on the back before disappearing back into the small crowd.

Claymore flipped the letter around and holo image of a knight from the barracks popped up. “We meant to tell you before you left but we need you to take care of a situation at Hargeron Town. There’s been a rash of petty thefts taking place and we want you and one other recruit to look into the crimes and to catch the thief. Your partner should already be on their way. Good luck recruit.” The holo image fluttered before shutting off leaving Claymore just standing there.

“Alright…I’ll accept the job but who are they sending?”

Hargeon town seemed like the worst town for criminal activity. If it wasn't pirating, or murder, it was theft. 'We need to start setting up some routine patrols in the towns, make it easier to stop some of this before it's too late' He was already in the town that his mission was taking him to, and was walking into the town hall. It was here he was supposed to meet a man named Claymore, a new recruit that was going to be going along with him as they patrolled. 'Well, at least he's part of the same division,' he thought to himself as he looked around the place before spotting him. Not that one could miss the man.

He was slightly shorter than Rasparov was, maybe by a few inches, and looked like he had the strength of more than one person in his body. White, medium length, hair was combed back neatly and he had a matching white mustache that was obviously taken care of. He walked up to the man, so he could introduce himself before they set on their way.

”My name's Rasparov, part of Intelligence. Pleasure to make a new acquaintance.”

The introduction was simple, having been sent on a mission with all the information given to both of them for it already. They were to simply patrol the town to find the suspect of a rash of thefts that were starting to drive merchants away from the port town.

”It seems you've been in town a bit longer than I have, so I'll let you lead the way.”

Claymore was impressed with the man standing in front of him. The one who claimed to go by the name of Rasparov stood tall and stiff with an air of respect for his position floating about him. The bulging biceps and six-pack abs clearly showed that the man prided in his workout regime but it was the mustache that brought it all together. The thing of beauty, so neatly trimmed and preserved, rivaled that of Claymore’s own glorious mustache.

It was as if the gods had shined favor upon both of them giving them such wonderful bodies. It almost sent Claymore to tears…almost. “It’s spectacular to meet you Rasparov. I’m pretty sure two glorious men of our caliber should be able to handle this miniscule task given to us.” He said this while looking off into the distance and flexing both of his arms.

Once he felt the moment had passed Claymore pulled out a folded piece of paper from his satchel revealing a crumpled map of Hargeon Town. “I suggest that we start at the marketplace and do a little recon first. Would seem rather suspicious if we just outright started asking questions and scare the person off before we even got started.”

The other man he would be working with seemed to have a thing for his own looks, at least with how he acted. It could just be a flair for the dramatic, which could help or harm depending on the situation they could be put in with their section of the Rune Knights. It would be interesting to see his magic, if it was needed for the patrol they were about to go on. 'Who knows, maybe the thief will try to fight back and I can see what he can do.'

He watched as Claymore brought out a map from a satchel he had with him, he unfolded the paper that turned out to be a map of the very town they were in. The suggested course of action by the other man was to do some reconnaissance, starting off in the marketplace, before they started asking any questions. It was a sound plan as Rune Knight patrols weren't that uncommon to see, although there needed to be more of them in the towns and cities than there were currently. ”Sounds as good of a plan as we're going to get,” the crystal eyed man said as he smiled lightly and nodded his head; eye closed in the process. ”You have the map, so lead the way and we can get this simple mission done.”

With Rasparov in tow the two men made their way for the far end of the marketplace furthest from the edge of the pier. The town was bustling with energy as people brushed by and pushed each other to get to the best products available at all the affordable prices. Being new to Hargeon it thrilled Claymore to see the vast amount of people but it also depressed him that someone would throw chaos by committing petty crimes.

Once it looked like the two had reached the end of the marketplace Claymore stopped and turned to Rasparov. “So from here it should take roughly twenty minutes to make it to the pier. I’ll take the south side of the marketplace and you can take the other side.” Claymore held the map out so that the two of them could easily see and pointed to four different locations, two on each side of the market place, that were marked with red dots. “From what was given to us by HQ these are the spots that are having the biggest issues. I suggest that on our way both of us should stop by and talk with the workers there to see what they have to think about what’s going on.”

Claymore folded the map back up and stuffed it into his satchel before staring down the street with his arms crossed. To him Rasparov looked like the kind of man that would take this kind of job very seriously. However something deep in his gut told him that this wasn’t the typical petty thief that the two would be dealing with. “If we’re lucky we might actually be able to catch this guy today.”

It wasn't long after telling Claymore to lead the way that the two began the simple trek through the town towards their target location. They were in town while it was at its busiest, people pushing around each other to try and get to the items they wanted, when they wanted. It was a mess, the randomness involved that the people caused. There should have been order, not this insanity! 'One day I will help fix this...' That was the only thought he had as the two large men scoured the town with their eyes until they got to the marketplace spot they had decided to start from. He listened to the other Rune Knight's plan to split up before he showed Rasparov the spots that had been struck previously.

”All right, I'll head around the north side and meet you at the pier soon enough. If you find him before I do, chase him that way and we can catch him off guard with the two of us.” He quickly headed towards the first of the many stalls and stores that had been hit, intent to ask them if they had seen anything out of the ordinary. After a small questionnaire, mostly things such as; “Did you see anyone suspicious in the area before it happened?” and “Around what time was it when it happened?” He got no decent answers, so he just walked off towards the next spot that Clay had pointed out to him.

It didn’t seem like Claymore was getting anywhere with his questions. Each of the vendors that he went to talked about how something small here and there went missing but nothing significantly big disappeared. What made matters worse is that no one truly got any sight of the culprit and most of the time if they did it was only the last glance of the person’s hand disappearing around a corner but again they couldn’t tell whether or not it was a man’s hand or a woman’s.

“This seems almost impossible.” Claymore leaned back as he had finished talking with the last vendor and stared down the row of merchants. “There’s just not enough to go on.” Just then he noticed a man dressed in a black cloak mixed in with the massive amounts of people that filled the streets. Claymore would’ve just passed him off for another person if it wasn’t for the fact that the man seemed to be dodging in and out of people and particularly away from Claymore’s current location. He followed the man for what felt like a few minutes, stopping and starting every time the mysterious figure would turn around as if looking for someone.

As Claymore was about to come up on the man it happened! The guy reached over to one of the vendors as the merchant was working with another customer and swiped a diamond necklace off the counter space. Claymore bolted for the man pushing a few people aside. “Hey! You! Stop you thief!” The man realizing that he had been caught too began pushing his way through the crowd in the direction of where Claymore had last seen Rasparov searching. All Claymore could do was yell as casting any spell he knew would sure hurt any of the surrounding citizens.

It was seemingly pointless to be out on this patrol. Why had they sent someone from Intelligence to do something so petty? His skill set was more inclined for stealth, subterfuge, and close combat. 'I should be out gathering information, or getting into an operation shut down from the inside. Not this stuff. How can I change the world with something so small?' It was as he thought this that he heard Claymore suddenly yell for someone to stop, calling them a thief in the process. Turning to look in the direction of his voice, the large man saw a man dressed in a black cloak running towards Rasparov and away from Clay. 'Must be the culprit, time to put a stop to his escape.'

A hand raised into the air, Rasparov's hand closed into one you would normally see from one wielding a sword. A forty inch sword would appear in his hand before he slowly lowered it down as people started to make a way for him to safely move through, a sword being a good reason to getting out of his way. As people shuffled an milled in confusion at a created weapon and a shout of thief, Rasparov moved until he could point a sword at the man; the stealthy figure stopping for fear of assault on his life. ”Don't move, and everything will be just fine.”

Claymore was astonished by the sword that his partner had drawn out of thin air. Not only did it shine of power and strength but of determination and thoroughness. ‘This man clearly takes this business personally.’ He watched as the figure stopped just short of the sword, his legs slightly shaking and the hand holding the necklace clenched in fear. At least that’s what it looked like from Claymore’s perspective.

In a blink of an eye the mysterious figure reached behind his cloak and pulled out a small black ball. He slammed it hard into the ground and plume of black smoke erupted around the area. Claymore began coughing and gagging from the smoke but out of the corner of his eye he saw something dash from out of the smoke down the alleyway closest to him. ‘I must not let him get away!’ Claymore scampered to the alleyway and saw the cloaked figured running towards the fence at the end of it. “Oh no you don’t!” Claymore struck the ground with his left hand and pulled up a large chunk of clay. He slammed it hard with both fists, one after another, in a punching motion. Chunks of smaller clay shot forth and splattered against the runner, entrenching him in sticky moist clay.

The man was struggling as Claymore hauled the entrapped person up and onto his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. As he was walking out Claymore also picked up the necklace that the thief had dropped in his attempt to escape from his pursuers. He saw Rasparov standing at the end of the alleyway waiting for Claymore. With one motion he plopped the man onto the ground at Rasparov’s feet. “Can you book him please? I’m going to go return this necklace. Then we can be done with this mission and let the other authorities deal with this man.”

So Rasparov would be the one to turn in the ne'er do well that had brought them all around Hargeon. It seemed his job partner that the Rune Knights had sent him out with would simply take the stolen jewelry back to the owner of it as he finished their given mission for them. ”All right. I'll see you back at headquarters, seeing as we're in the same division.” With that said Rasparov would pick up the thief by the color to stand him up to his feet. ”Struggle and I uncomfortably bind you so I can turn you in as soon as I can. I don't have the time to deal with small time crooks like you. There is much  more pressing issues I should be dealing with.” The man did not struggle the rest of the way as he got him back to the town hall to turn the poor kid over to the people meant to be doing this job. 'And I'm sure the little pay they give us will be seen as just compensation for this pitiful mission too.' The crystal souled man brooded as he slowly made his way back home.