Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (Private, Solo Job)

Job Link

Sayuri was in good spirits when she got off the train. Of course she was- she'd actually taken the train. She'd been exploring the world since she'd left her home a few years ago, but the string of odd jobs she'd worked up to this point had only covered basic expenses. With very little spending money, she'd been forced to hike from place to place. But when she'd finally given up solo work and joined the Crystal Swan magic guild, she'd actually had a little extra money saved up. Just enough to take the train here. As far as the trip back, well, she'd been told her guildmark granted her the ability to teleport straight to the guild hall on the ship- very convenient, all things considered. And once she completed this job, she should have enough money to cover a good number of train fares. It was a lot easier to make money when you were in a guild, she reflected.

Of course, the reward for this job was rather high, considering what it entailed. Simply come look at the crops around here, figure out what sort of magic was affecting them, and then lift the curse. It should be simple enough. After all, surely the curse was a minor one. What powerful magician would waste their time messing around with a small village's crops? So why was the reward for the job so high? Well, she supposed that farming was the community's livelihood. They were probably just really desperate to get the situation fixed, and quickly. Yes, that explained it. She should just be lucky she was quick enough to get this job before someone else had snatched it up.

After her obligatory meeting with the towns mayor- and oh how she hated those meetings- Sayuri was ready to finally ready to go inspect the crops. The sooner she could get the the roots of the problem, the faster she could resolve it and get paid. Yes, she really needed the money from this job. She hadn't yet figured out just where she would be staying, now that she would be living on her guild's ship. Accommodations might end up costing her an arm and a leg. Maybe she should have saved that train fare...

Sayuri was no farmer, that was for sure, but she could spot the problem before she even reached the fields. It was unsettling, she thought as she walked to the outermost row of plants, reaching out to carefully touch one of the stalks. Oh, she could sense the magic alright. And it wasn't a good kind of magic.

Ow! She jerked her hand back suddenly, wincing. Apparently she'd caught herself on one of the thorns protruding from the plant's stalk. She inspected cut gingerly. Blood was already starting to well on the surface, but she could tell it was just a scratch, really. Not that that stopped it from hurting, of course.

Distracted as she was, Sayuri almost missed the sounds of rustling coming from somewhere inside the maze of tall plant stalks before her. Almost. She jerked her head up. What was that? It sounded like something was moving toward her. Probably just some sort of animal. A squirrel or something. Although that was an awful lot of noise for such a small animal. The rustling drew closer and closer as Sayuri waited with bated breath, her nerves starting to get the better of her.

"Calm down, Sayuri," she muttered to herself under her breath. "It's just an animal. It's just... What the hell?!?"

The sudden exclamation was drawn from her as the source of the noise finally emerged, and she found herself at a loss for words. Surely she couldn't actually be seeing this, right? It all had to be in her head. After all, wasn't that... A person? What was someone else doing out here? She had a sinking suspicion that she was about to find out...

The member 'Sayuri Katsuya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Sayuri eyed the man suspiciously. For a moment, she'd thought maybe it had just been some farmer. out checking on his crops. Even though the crops weren't doing well. And everyone knew that. And all the farmers were scared to come here. Yeah, okay, so that hadn't been the most logical thought she'd ever had. But it had been a vain hope that had now been dashed. No farmer went around wearing such ratty robes. Hell, none of them wore any sort of robes- they were hardly practical. No, this was obviously someone who was not supposed to be here.

"Who are you?"

Okay, maybe that wasn't the most polite way to start a conversation, but she wasn't a great conversationalist. And besides, if you found a shady character way out in a crop field, you should have plenty of right to confront them.

"Well, I'm the one who put the curse on the crops, of course."

Wait, what? That statement was so unexpected that it took Sayuri almost a full minute to process it.

"You... Cursed the crops? Why? Why here? Why this town?"

"Because I wanted to. Why else? I grew up here, you know."

Well, this magician was being oddly chatty. But at least he wasn't attacking her. Not yet. She may as well take advantage of the situation.

"But if you know these people, why are you doing this to them? You should want to help them, not hurt them!"

The magician raised an eyebrow at her, and she wondered if her response had been just a little too vehement. Then he surprised her by responding.

"What do you know about that, little girl? Let me tell you something. I always wanted to be a magician. Since the time I was little. And everyone always made fun of me for it. 'Oh, you want to be a magician? Yeah right, like that's ever going to happen.' 'You're not nearly powerful enough for that. Just settle down and help run your parents' farm.' 'Don't worry, this is just a phase. You'll get over it.' I had to listen to that over and over again for years. Until I left, and studied, and became a powerful magician. And now that I've achieved my lifelong dream, I'm here to show them just how wrong they were!"

Okay, Sayuri didn't have the patience for this anymore.

"Yes, they were wrong to make fun of you. But how does that justify this! It doesn't mean that it's okay to hurt them like this! You need to stop this!"

"Oh, I need to stop, now do I? What, are you going to make me?"

"I would rather you do so on your own, but if I have to force you to than I will."

The magician made a low growling sound, clearly annoyed by her answer.

"You think you can? Oh please, little girl. Fine, you asked for it. Let's see how you handle this!"

Combat Notes:

The member 'Sayuri Katsuya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Sayuri was so shocked by the sudden attack that she almost missed her chance to dodge. Almost. The spell flew past just inches from her right arm, and she shuddered. That had been a close call. Right, clearly the time for talking was over.

All of a sudden, the wizard was talking again.

"Oh, you're faster than I thought. Shame, that. Oh well. I don't even want to waste energy dealing with you myself. Get her!"

Wha...? There was someone else. She heard movement again, and suddenly two enemies emerged from the field. And were those... Tomatoes? To her horror, they just came coming. And coming. And coming. Just how many were there?!? A quick headcount told her there were twenty. Twenty! Things were suddenly getting out of hand...

Her first solo mission in this guild and this is what she got? She didn't even think there would be any fighting. At least she'd brought her swords along anyway. She never left them behind unless she absolutely had to. She hated being unprepared, lest something like this happened.

She pulled both free from their scabbards. Her main sword, Kizo, was a long katana sword, held in her right hand. In her left she held Chinsai Ken, a much shorter weapon, but quite well suited to blocking attacks. Neither were particularly impressive weapons, but they worked well enough for her.

Combat Notes:

Sayuri barely had time to pull her weapons free before the tomatoes were on her. Oh, this was so wrong. She slashed at the closest ones. Her quick sword work sliced two of them to bits before the others wizened up and backed off a bit.

"You weakling!"

"We'll crush you!"

"Die. Die! DIE!!!"

Ugh. Just her luck. It looked like she wasn't just cursed with tomatoes- she was cursed with tomatoes that talked. She let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Can you just shut up now please?"

The tomatoes seemed taken aback by her response. It clearly wasn't what they had expected. Not that she really cared. She was ready to get this over with.

"Well, what are you waiting for? What, are you afraid of little old me?"

That did the trick. With a wide variety of snarls and growls the tomatoes charged her again, and she began carving her way through them. Not that she could keep pace with them all, of course. One hit her from behind and she went down, rolling out of the way before it could get in a follow-up attack.

She staggered to her feet, backing up a bit to give herself some room to work. She flicked the red goo from her blades, doing the mental math. She'd gotten through half of them so far, and her confidence was rising. Okay, this was doable. Just a little more work here and she could get to the cause of the problem, still loitering a small distance away.

Combat Notes:

A few moment later, Sayuri was back in the heat of battle, but she was starting to get comfortable. The tomatoes were slow, and not particularly skillful. I mean, how much could one expect from a tomato? And that was her first big mistake. One should never get comfortable in a fight. When you stopped being careful, disaster could strike...

One of the tomatoes standing a small distance away suddenly opened its mouth and spewed a stream of red. It hit Sayuri head-on, knocking her backward several paces. She stood there for a long moment, mouth open in shock. She was dripping- literally dripping- with ketchup. Her face, her hair, her kimono... They were all splattered with the viscous liquid.

Oh, she was seething now, and her temper suddenly flared.

"How dare you, you miserable excuse for a fruit! You'd better hope this doesn't stain!"

The tomato in question was dumbfounded. The one next to it, not too much.

"You stupid, human! We vegetable, not fruit."

Sayuri just couldn't help it- she suddenly burst out laughing, with the last three tomatoes staring at her as thought she'd grown a second head.

"Me stupid? I think not. You don't even know what you are!"

Then, after a brief pause, she sighed.

"Oh, what on earth am I doing? I'm trying to reason with a fruit. I must be going crazy."

Speaking of, she ought to just finish this before they had a chance to hit her again. This time, she took the fight to them. It was quick work, and she finally turned her attention to the magician, who had wandered a short distance away and seemed to have completely forgotten about her.

"Hey, you! Mister "I'm-a-Badass"! Where do you think you're going? I hope you realize that if this stain doesn't come out of my kimono I'm going to make you pay to replace it!"

Combat Notes:

The dark magician whipped back around to face Sayuri, apparently aghast.

"You? What are you still doing here? Those demons should have taken care of you!"

Then he seemed to register the red liquid that Sayuri was currently wiping off her face with the sleeve of her kimono. Or trying to wipe off, at least. From what she could feel, she was probably just smearing it around.

Then he looked behind her at the puddles of red goo that were all that remained of the tomatoes that had attacked her. He seemed rather dismayed at his minions' failure.

"Well. I guess you're a little tougher than I thought. I guess this is a job that requires someone a little stronger."

Oh great. When someone said that, it usually meant more minions on the way. And sure enough, there they were. Corn this time. Why corn? This fiend was ruining her favorite vegetables now. The whole ragged group rubbed her the wrong way. Several were wearing dresses made of corn husks, and a couple sported corn-silk mohawks. One even had a monocle. A monocle of all things! No corn needed one. They shouldn't even have eyes...

She eyed the approaching danger, then decided to take the fight to them. They might be a little tougher than the tomatoes, but she wasn't caught off guard this time. She closed the gap first, while the enemies were still strung out. She didn't want to be surrounded again.

She began hacking her way through them, taking several hits in the process. Ow, they hit hard. Her saving grace was that four out of the ten had gotten distracted by checking out their appearances in a nearby puddle of water, adjusting their hair like so many humans did whenever they passed a mirror. It allowed her to deal with the other six first. Pretty soon there were bits of corn kernels and husks scattered across the area, leaving Sayuri bruised and panting, but still alive and kicking.

Combat Notes:

Unfortunately, the sudden calm didn't last very long. The distracted corn demons finally took notice of the battle- and how poorly it was going for their side. Mr. Monocle was the one who reacted first. He opened his mouth, spewing corn kernels at her. It would have been more effective, except that it looked very similar to the tomatoes' special attack, and that one was seared into Sayuri's memory. She dropped to the ground, allowing the attack to pass over her before jumping back to her feet and charging the corn.

She targeted the nearest enemy first, for obvious reasons. The first thing she removed was the offending mohawk. I mean, really? She couldn't let that stand. Her next strike was about a foot lower- and did a lot more damage. Two more slashes brought the pest crashing down. One down, three more to go. And then, of course, the sources of the problem.

Another of the corns shot its special attack at her, and this time she wasn't quite fast enough. She missed most of the stream, but a few clipped her. Damn that hurt. She needed to finish this quickly. Her quick flurry of blade work ended the hectic battle, and she was finally able to turn her attention back to the mage. And this time, she wasn't wasting time on words...

Combat Notes:

The magician seemed resigned as Sayuri advanced on his position.

"Oh fine. I underestimated you. My demons simply aren't strong enough to defeat you."

Then the corners of his mouth turned up in an evil smile.

"I guess that means I have to take care of you myself. Finally, a worthy opponent. I'm going to enjoy this."

Sayuri sighed.

"Blah blah blah. You dark mages just love to talk smack, don't you? And yet you never seem to be able to back it up. I always get the last word."

She didn't bother to respond. She lunged forward, swiping at him with her sword. He dodged the blow- right into the path of the stab from her smaller off-hand weapon. Blood welled as he jerked back in shock.

"You little brat!"

Yes, he totally used the word brat. Totally. Because dark wizards never swear. He launched a curse at her, and at this close range, Sayuri was too slow. It hit her and she froze for a moment, an odd feeling spreading over her.

"Ha! Take that! Let's see you try to beat me now, newbie. Mages like you are totally useless without your spells!"

Sayuri stared at him. And stared. And stared. He finally noticed her expression and suddenly looked suspicious.

"What, did I grow a second head or something? Wipe that ridiculous look off your face!"

"You... Blocked my magic?"

The mage sighed dramatically.

"Are you just now realizing this? Yes, I blocked your magic. You may as well just yield now. I might even let you live."

Combat Notes:

Sayuri stared at the mage again. And then looked down at her bloodied sword blade. And then back up at the mage.

"You... Blocked my magic."

The dark mage frowned deeply, clearly annoyed at her repetition.

"What, are you daft? We've already been over this you idiot! Can you not get this through your thick skull?!?"

A long awkward pause ensued. And then, suddenly, Sayuri started to laugh, as the dark mage stared at her in bewilderment.

"Me, an idiot? No, but you probably are. You actually sealed my magic!"

She laughed again, then waved her swords at him.

"I mean, what a waste of magic! You sealed my magic? I haven't used a single spell yet, have I? No, because I don't need my magic to handle this. Steel does quite nicely, thank you very much."

"You... You..."

Apparently her opponent was at a loss for words. He hadn't even made the connection until she'd pointed it out. Using his magic was so second-nature for him that he automatically assumed the best way to disable an opponent was to disable their magic. Except that didn't work very well when your opponent wasn't using magic.

"I mean, really! Did you even think that through. Man, and you thought I was the idiot."

The mage was still agape, and Sayuri was too much of an opportunist to pass up on her advantage. She lunged at him again, hitting him with two rapid strikes before he withdrew out of reach again, flinging another curse at her.

Combat Notes:

This time Sayuri dodged the curse as she pursued her retreating target. That was one of the good things about being small- you presented less of a target.

Slash, stab, strike.

The mage kept dodging, but he wasn't always fast enough, and with no weapons or armor he couldn't block her strikes. Instead he struck at her with his fist, striking her in the fase. Blood streamed from her nose, but she didn't care. That had been a bad choice. Sayuri was used to pain. She could handle it. But by moving within an arm's length from her the mage had put himself well within reach of both her blades. He cried out as he began retreating again, trying to buy time by flinging another curse at her.

Sayuri couldn't afford to let her advantage slip, so she didn't bother trying to avoid the spell. She simply charged straight through it and began slashing at the mage again.

"Not so mouthy now, are you brat?"

Sayuri opened her mouth to respond... But no words came out. What...?

"Oh yes, I think I like you much better when you're quiet. Now if only you'd just stay down!"

He aimed a low kick at her, and she failed to react, tripping over his leg and falling to the ground. He tried to follow up with another kick, but she released her hold on the sword and grabbed his leg, pulling him forward and off balance, and he crashed down to the ground as well. Well, this was going from a fight to the death to a no-holds-barred wrestling match, and it would appear that she was outweighed and outclassed. Or so some might think...

Combat Notes:

Sayuri managed to regain her feet first, deciding to get a little pay-back on her opponent. She delivered a flat-footed kick to his face, sending him reeling backward. He retaliated by flinging another curse at her, and she decided to err on the side of caution and avoid this one, then quickly dropped to one knee to retrieve her swords. She got another two good hits in with her sword before he managed to back up again. For all the tough talk, he was sure doing a lot of retreating. Some spectacular magician here. His spells hadn't really hurt her once.

She stared him down as he scrambled to his feet. She had a very good not amused look. She'd give him a piece of her mind if she could talk, but since she couldn't right not, she'd just have to give him a piece of steel. Shame, that. Maybe that would teach him to be careful who he cursed.

She gave him no mercy, continuing to force him back as he attempted to dodge. Another curse, this time too close to avoid, and she felt her left arm going numb. No big issue, she still had three working limbs. No hesitation, and no mercy. She would finish this if it killed her.

Combat Notes:

For a few minutes, the two opponents were in a stalemate of sorts. The dark mage managed to dodge Sayuri's strikes now that she was reduced to one weapon, and she managed to dodge the curses he flung at her. This was a more difficult battle than Sayuri was used to, and she was starting to get winded. That was the downside of relying entirely on physical attacks. Still, something had to give, and Sayuri was determined that it wasn't going to be her. And a faint idea was starting to form...

All she had to do was wait until the magician tried his next curse. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long. She swayed to the side as usual, but then she suddenly lunged forward. And not with her sword- she literally just threw herself at him. He was too startled to avoid her, and they both tumbled to the ground. He hadn't been expecting it, but she had, and she was ready. She managed to pin the magician down, using her knees to pin his arms down. She'd ditched the swords before the fall, seeing as how she wasn't trying to impale herself, so she punched him instead. A couple of times, actually. She wasn't a very violent person usually, but it felt good. Apparently she had a lot of irritation to work out. Her hits weren't quite enough to take him out, so she locked him in a choke-hold to finish him off. As he seemed to have learned, she was a lot stronger than she looked, and it only took a few minutes before he was down for the count.

Combat Notes:

Sayuri let herself lay back in the dirt for a moment, breathing heavily. Man this had gone south quickly. This job wasn't even supposed to have combat, especially not anything this difficult. She'd barely won the fight at all. She groaned, then forced herself to sit back up. She still had work to do. But at least the negative effects of the spells seemed to have worn off with their caster's defeat. She glared down at the magician.

"I told you I'd have the last word."

Man it felt great to talk again. If only he was able to hear her. Oh wait, never mind. She didn't want him conscious again. Beating him once had been hard enough.

She turned her head to study the field of crops. The plants looked... Normal. They weren't withered anymore, although some seemed to tend a little to the sickly side. The thorns were gone too, and the strange glow. It seemed that defeating the dark mage had ended the curse he'd cast on the plants, just like it had ended the curses he'd cast on her. Well, that was a relief. Her plan B had been to interrogate the mage whenever he came to, and that was a dangerous prospect.

Combat Notes::

Well, the problems with the crops were solved. Now she just had to figure out what to do with the mage himself...

Sayuri looked around to see what she was dealing with. The answer was... Nothing. She was in the middle of a field, almost half a mile from the town. So that left her with two options- leave him here, or take him with her. Except that leaving him here wasn't really much of an option. She had no doubt he'd be gone by the time anyone came back out to deal with him. Which meant she had to figure out what she was going to do. Because clearly, she was going to have to haul him all the way back to town by herself. While she was injured. Yeah, she'd get right on that. The mage was almost six inches taller than her and had to weight at least sixty pounds more. Where were those strong farmers when you needed them? Oh right, hiding from this curse...

She sighed. Well, she'd solve the issue of transportation later. First, she had to figure out how she was going to keep the mage from causing problems once he regained consciousness, since she was sure that would happen before she got him back to the town.

Combat Notes:

Sayuri took a few moments to make a mental list of everything she would need to do to secure the dark mage. First of all, she would have to tie him up. At the very least, she'd have to make sure his arms were bound. She didn't want him hitting her, or worse. His curses could get pretty nasty, as she'd already found out. And as nice as the idea of him walking himself back to town seemed, she knew trying that would probably be calamitous. At best, he'd probably try to run on her. He also kicked pretty hard. Even if she managed to convince him that fighting back wasn't a good idea, he still wouldn't be very cooperative. No, she really should bind his legs to, which meant she'd have to haul him back to town herself.

And finally, she would have to gag him. That one was a no-brainer. Even if she had the patience to listen to his whining and insults, as someone whose magic was triggered verbally she knew that you should never leave a mage with the ability to speak, if you had a choice. Again, she didn't want him trying to curse her again. She'd had enough of that for the day, thank you very much.

Combat Notes:

As Sayuri had noted earlier, the setting they were in offered her very little tools at her disposal. The only things she had to work with were what she had on her person, and what the mage had on his. Besides her swords she didn't really have much other than her kimono, and she has no desire to ruin that any further, so she decided to do a quick search of the mage himself.

Her first big find was the belt he used to keep his robes in place. It was one of those typical rope-style ones that was just tied in place. Perfect. After untying it from its current position she wrapped it around his arms and chest, pinning his arms to his sides, and tied it securely, with a couple of different knots just as a precaution.

The only other things he had were the robes themselves, the ratty old boots he was wearing, and the socks under them. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. If she had to guess, she'd say he didn't wash any of those three too often. It seemed that she would have to come up with some sort of creative solution to further incapacitate her opponent...

Combat Notes:

Then inspiration suddenly hit Sayuri, and she smiled mischievously.

"Oh you're going to hate me for this. But consider it payback for the kimono."

Unsurprisingly, the mage made no comment, and Sayuri liked it that way. She drew her short sword again, then cut a thin strip of cloth from around the hem of the voluminous robe skirt, which looked ridiculous, all things considered. Then she removed the mage's boots and socks, almost gagging in the process.

"Eww. You really need to bathe more often..."

She put the boots back on, but kept the socks, tossing them off to the side until she needed them. She didn't want that small anywhere near her. Then, still using her blade, she cut a long slit all the way up the robe bottoms, all the way up to his thighs. Then she made a series of cuts all the way down both sides of the gash, running perpendicular to the original cut, making a series of strips of cloth the whole length down. She tied the corresponding strips on either side, pulling the fabric of the robe tight against his legs the whole way down to his ankles, successfully binding his legs together. Well, he'd get over it eventually. He really needed to find a new outfit anyway. Then a thought occurred to her, and she tied the laces of his boots to each other, further hobbling him. That ought to keep him from running on her.

Then it was time for the final piece of the puzzle- the gag. She retrieved the offending socks, then eyed the mage for a moment.

"Well, sorry. But maybe this will teach you the importance of proper hygiene."

She did feel slightly bad for what she was about to do. Just slightly. Well, whatever. It was his own damn fault for messing with her. She shoved both of the disgusting articles of clothing into his mouth, then grabbed the strip of cloth she'd cut from his robe earlier and wrapped it around his mouth several times before tying it securely, preventing him from being able to spit out her impromptu gag. That ought to hold him for a while. He was probably going to hold one hell of a grudge for this though...

Combat Notes:

With the mage properly constrained to her satisfaction, it was time for Sayuri to start the long trek back to the village. Well, the distance wasn't that far- it was the dead weight she'd be hauling that filled her with dismay. The mage didn't look like the type to skip meals. With sigh, she hauled him half-upright, holding him over one arm. He was teller than her, so unsurprisingly his feet dragged on the ground.

Sayuri managed to make it half way back to town like that, although by that point her muscles ached horribly and she was sweating. That half-way point was also when the mage began squirming. Apparently he was conscious again. She dropped him on the ground and stared down at him, her cold, unforgiving eyes meeting his, wide and shocked. Probably pretty disgusted too, if he'd realized what his gag was made with.

She drew her sword, holding the point against his neck, and his eyes grew even larger.

"Let's get one thing straight. I know you said you had problems with being bullied in the village. Well, I hate bullies. I hate anyone who purposely hurts others. That includes the people that hurt you. But it includes you too, because you came back here to hurt everyone here. Just because they hurt you, that doesn't mean you have the right to hurt anyone else. That makes you the same as them! And now you're going to have to answer for your actions, just like they have to answer for theirs. I'll make sure of that. And if you try to run, try to get away from me... Well, that will probably be the last thing you do. Do we understand each other?"

He made a few mumbling sounds, and then nodded slightly, apparently realizing that his words were completely unintelligible. She stood over him, then finally re-sheathed her sword.

"Right. I'm going to untie your lower legs so you can walk yourself back to town. If you try anything I'll bind your legs up again, and then I'll end up dragging you the rest of the way. I don't think you'd like that. Is that clear?"

Another head nod. Good. She untied the boot laces and tied them properly, rather than being tied together. Then she untied the bottom few strips of the shredded robes, so that he had just a little bit of space. He could take small steps now, but he wouldn't be going anywhere fast. She grabbed him by the arms and hauled him to his feet.

"Keep up, or I'm going to grab you. That means walk fast! Or hobble fast, I should say."

She set a punishing pace the rest of the way back to the village. Just slow enough for him to be able to keep up with his limited steps, but too fast for him to be able to do so comfortably. It was a continuation of his punishment for his crimes, the one she had started earlier when she'd bound him. She already knew just how this was going to end, and she had a feeling no one would like it, no one but her, but it had to be done.

Combat Notes:

It didn't take too long to reach the village. By the time she reached the mayor's office they'd attracted a crowd. They were all gaping at the mage. No surprise there. He made quite a spectacle, enough of one to distract from her own appearance. Or at least he was until she actually got into the office.

"Good heavens girl! What are you doing in here? Look at you, you're a mess! Clean up, please, or you'll ruin the furniture!"

She regarded him levelly.

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that. I'm not going to sit down, and I'm certainly not going to stay long. I simply came to tell you that my job here is finished. I've lifted the curse on the crops, and you should have no further problems with that."

The mayor considered her words.

"And what about him? He looks familiar. I feel like I should know who he is..."

"Oh yes, you should. I hear he grew up in this town. He's the one who cursed the crops in the first place."

"My god! Why ever should he want to do that? Please, take him away! Call the council and have them send the rune knights to get him! He should be in prison!"

Sayuri nodded briefly. That was what she had expected to hear. But he had something... Different coming.

"Indeed. I'm sure the council would be very glad to take him off your hands."

She drew her short sword and, before the mayor could protest, she cut the rope tied around the mage's arms.

"What...?"

Sayuri cut the mayor off.

"You hired me to take care of the crops, and I've done this. No one hired me to handle a dark magician. I'm afraid that this is quite beyond me. I'd suggest you call the council."

Then she couldn't help put add one last comment.

"This is a problem of your own making. I'd suggest you solve it."

And with that, she walked out of the office. They had both created issues for each other. It was up to them to pick up the pieces. The citizens would have to face the fact that this would never have occurred but for their own callous actions. The mage would have to pay for his crimes. But with his hands freed, he might at least get in a few hits at the people who'd abused him before he was taken in. Without being able to run or use his magic, he wouldn't get away before the council arrived. She had finished the job she'd been hired for, and all parties involved would get their comeuppance. Maybe they would even learn a lesson from this, although she wasn't optimistic enough to think it would really change them. All in all, it was a job well done, as far as she was concerned. It was time for her to go home.

Combat Notes: