Rankup Pl0t

A new life. Well, that’s how it always felt when Hinata went to a new home. Whether it was moving to a different area inside her own town or visiting a new place it always felt the same. She felt like she could get a fresh start and make some new friends. Maybe romance awaited her, or was it adventure? Sadness? There was no way of telling. Still, she tried to keep a positive mindset as she walked along the path, pulling a suitcase behind her that was perhaps a little too big. It was nearly bigger than her entire body and it was only due to her training that she was able to pull it at all. She still didn’t know exactly how she was supposed to open this thing. She’d convinced someone to do all her packing for her and they had gone through quite some effort to close this bag to begin with. She couldn’t help but feel like she was hauling around a big ol’ container that could explode at a moment’s notice. There wasn’t many options for her though. It wasn’t like she was going to get other people to haul around her stuff for her.

Eventually she got to the place she was going to. She looked around to see if anyone was here. If not she would just go on up to whatever room or home had been assigned to her. She didn’t know how things operated around here yet so if keeping to oneself was the best way to go about things then she’d be fine with that. As she walked through the town she couldn’t help but feel like this ambiance was unfamiliar to her. That was a good thing. Change, good. Sometimes. She honestly didn’t know whether she should be worried or not. What if the people around here weren’t very friendly? Now all the bad thoughts were entering her mind. Hopefully someone would come around and cheer her up as her expression had soured just a tad.
Hinata was dressed today in a blue miniskirt and a clashing red button up shirt. She wore a leather belt that didn’t look very tight as it loosely moved around as she walked. She had an exasperated look as if the journey had taken a little too much out of her. Anyone looking at her would know how badly that she just wanted to sit down and rest.

Hinata’s face would have a little makeup. Somehow the sun hadn’t done much to make her sweat. That or she’d meticulously wiped it away as it formed. It was impressive, given that her blue hair fell down to her waist and couldn’t be doing her any favors in this heat. The suitcase she pulled was brown. It was basically a big box on wheels with a clasp on one end. It had a large handle that Hinata was grasping and pulling with one hand. Her other hand was empty and relaxed. The only other noticeable thing to mention was that the ground around her seemed to grow flowers and roots as she walked. It was so normal for Hinata that she didn’t pay any mind to the flora around her. She was a little mentally burned out and wouldn’t be excited by something as meaningless as a flower that she passively created just by being in the area. It’d been amazing at first but now it was routine. Some kids ran behind her and picked up some of the flowers and gave Hinata strange look. To them it was just another weirdo showing up into town. Whatever. They could judge all they wanted.

After some more time of walking she happened upon a nice little park. It was lovely in the sense that it had kids running around, the weather was nice, and there were benches to sit down on. She could care less about what was actually in the park so long as it had a bench. She’d wanted to sit down for oh so long… So she did just that. She walked on over, plopped her tired butt onto the bench and crossed her legs. Then she just sat there and took in a nice fresh breath of air as relaxation finally hit her body. She didn’t want to get up. Not now, not ever. She was going to let the whole day slip by unless someone came to talk to her. She didn’t care about her end destination at this point, she was just glad to be this close. A cool gust of wind swept through the area, sending a warm shiver down her spine and blowing flower petals into the air. This was the life… peace and relaxation all the way. Now the question was, who was going to come and say hi first? And would thy be willing to risk making her any more frustrated than she already was?

But alas, nobody bothered her. She dozed off and a few hours passed. Then she realized that she wasn’t’ even in the right town. She got her ass up and looked at her map. Yeah, she was supposed to be miles away. She let out a groan and kept on trekking, forgetting to eat altogether as she made her way oh so slowly to her destination. Why did travelling have to be so difficult? Before long she was in some kind of place… it was like a baren wasteland of sorts. This did NOT seem like the place she wanted to go to but who knew? Maybe there was a secret over here that would make it easy to make money? Was this a great place to gather herbs? There was no way of telling so she started poking around. “Hello, is anyone out here?” She didn’t see anyone. But she was still able to see some herbs that she could collect if this trip ended up being a bust. At least she wouldn’t leave empty handed if she did happen to leave without meeting anyone. “Crap I forgot to eat,” she thought as she realized just how screwed she was. She’d hate to have to hunt for food in this baren land.  

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Well nobody was about to come meet her so she went and decided to do some personal development and plot stuff for her rankup. This was about the time that Hinata remembered that she was supposed to help some less experienced people out and let them participate in killing the bear. That was a little big of a mistake on her part. But there was solace in her mistake. She heard a roar and even more people with a whole other vicious bear came running along. It seemed like she was going to have another chance at doing things and she was going to do it right this time. As soon as she emerged from the forest the young ones came running up to her. “Hey, you were supposed to let us help!” shouted one of them. The other two looked very relieved to not have to face off against any powerful foes. “Don’t worry,” Hinata said as she pointed at the enemies approaching them, “see, you’ll get to fight after all.” She looked closely at their movements. The human opponents didn’t seem too special. They were nothing compared to what she had dealt with earlier. The bear though. That looked just as mean and vicious as the first one. “They better be paying extra for having to deal with all this.” She thought.

So there she was with these kids, trying to figure out how the kids could possibly help. “You, set a trap. You, wait in the bushes, you go act as bait.” She pointed at each of the people in her group so that they would know what their job was. They complained. “But I’m not good at making traps. Make her do it!” But Hinata had to put it to a stop real quick. “Listen, that bear can probably kill you with an indirect hit. So why don’t you shut your traps and go do what I asked!?” Hinata felt a twinge of fear come over her. She didn’t like this situation either. She was now liable for these kids and that didn’t make her comfortable. Well, there was only so much she could do. She flowed her energy into her surroundings and called the trees behind her to her aid. She was in a desert type environment so there wasn’t much water in the ground. It made it extra difficult to conjure up any help from the trees at all but she had to make do. She focused intently on creating road blocks that would slow the oncoming opponents. It was all she could do to buy these kids some time.

Hinata directed the kids to do some stuff and they followed through. The one that made a trap caused one of the enemies to fall into a hole and caused one of the bear’s limbs to get snagged. It was an ingeneous trap and Hinata didn’t know why they thought that they weren’t good at what she assigned them to do. Surely these guys had some training so that they wouldn’t be totally useless. The trap could have been better though that was no issue. There was always room for improvement, especially with youths. The trap maker could have put a little twist onto it. Maybe apply some poison to the trap and use some wiring to make sure the trap caused blood to spill. These were little thing that Hinata had in mind and she would make sure to tell them her ideas by the end of the day. She smiled knowing that this was going to be easier than she first thought. That was, until the enemy jumped out of the pit fall trap and the bear tore free of the trap’s restraints. Oh right, these were actually serious opponents. There was no time to dilly around n stuff.

Now, it was time to focus on what the other kids were doing. She’d instructed one of them to wait in the bushes and one was supposed to act as bait. But these two hadn’t really followed her instructions. They had already noticed her. In fact, she suspected that they were in love. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to implicate anyone, and then she really didn't have any evidence. Here, she hope to have helped them. The enemy that fell into the pit got up, picked up his helmet and kept on charging. She did not dare ask the kids for details, but she did not quite understand, he hopes to have helped them. Hinata asked her brain but said nothing to her, no advice. She had been standing motionless now, the couple would soon realize just how much danger they were in. They had both gone in the bushes, see, so nobody was acting as bait. That meant that there was nobody to distract the enemies from discovering that people were hiding in the bushes. It was a big mess and Hinata was going to have to fill in the void. She waved her arms and shouted.

“Over here!” She made noise and called a tree to grow behind her to make sure that the couple in the bushes didn’t get caught. Why she seemed to have helped them so much, she thought about it, then a light bulb lit up. Why didn't she think about it directly, She really was a fool. She wasn’t like really a genius, but she would have to make those kids thank her for her help. The couple arrived then, she threw them a smile, then said to them, “Don’t get distracted again.” They responded, “Do not worry, we made our choice, even if it was late.” Hinata rolled her eyes, “you know you would have been toast if I didn’t jump in to distract for you. Now the whole plan is ruined,” She grumbled as the bear grew nearer. But the kids weren’t going to let their failure define them. The harnessed energy from deep within and upturned the earth. They raised it in unison so that the enemies including the bear were literally flying on a piece of earth that was probably dozens of meters in diameter. Impressive. Not lifting the earth, but lifting the enemies and being able to keep the earth compacted.

Hinata was kind of jealous that she didn’t think of that kid of strategy. But she couldn’t get dumfounded by this. She had her own job to do. She leapt into the air and landed on the floating rock. Now they were stuck there with her. If they wanted to leave they would be falling quite a considerable height and would have to deal with all the pitfalls of falling in a forum setting which was obviously not what they wanted to do. Hinata laughed at their scared looks. The bear didn’t look scared but it charged with shaky steps. It clearly wasn’t used to being in the sky like this. The earth underneath its feet shifted and slipped enough for it to not want to move at full speed. Hinata chuckled a little at the futility of it all. She had backup now and she wasn’t going to waste it. She slammed her fists into the ground, sending ripples of energy towards the bear and literally flinging it off of the mass of earth by growing a tree at top speeds. It acted like a pillar of wood that launched the bear off the edge of the land mass.

That only left the stragglers. These were much more competent at maneuvering on the floating mass but they were a lot less threatening as the bear. They had to have brought the bear because they expected it to do most all the work. But here they were without their precious bear. Hinata glanced down and saw that the kids down below were making spikes for the bear to fall onto. She doubted that the bear would even live a couple minutes after this level of slaughter. She then turned her attention to the approaching enemies. “You can put us down now,” Hinata called to the ground as she flowed energy out to her sides. Flower petals shot from her hands and shrouded her in a very convenient veil of flowers. It worked very well to keep her hidden to some degree. She hid behind the flowers as she ran around at an odd angle and took the enemies by surprise. They couldn’t see or hear very much of anything as they were bombarded by the soft petals. Hinata shoved both of them off the land mass as well, sending them tumbling to the ground. “It can’t be this easy,” she thought.

She was right. The enemies had the ability to fly, apparently. They didn’t have wings but somehow they had energy that let them drift to the ground instead of falling. Hinata jumped after them and bombarded them with energy from above. They shielded it though. Maybe she’d underestimated them? Nonsense, she knew that she could take them. This was especially true since those kids were helping now. They made a circle around the enemies and then bombarded them with so many attacks that they were quite figuratively beaten into submission. “Alright, that sounds like that’s that,” Hinata said matter of factly as she tied them up and left them for dead in the middle of nowhere.” She smiled at the kids and sent them on their way. She still had al ot of time to burn so she would have to go do something else for a hot minute. She didn’t want to seem like she was underperforming by coming back with a bunch of time on her hands. So she had to be a diligent employee and make sure she earned every last minute of her pay. That was the way of the bureaucrat that she was learning so well how to abuse.

She went into the nearest town. “Good evening to you.” She said to the people at the entrance as she headed for the nearest building, reaching out in the air to say goodbye. She wondered if she should head to the person who hried her so she could get her payment. She saw a couple talking heatedly as she walked. It was obvious, two people who bicker like that, they necessarily love each other, according to what he told her, everyone had noticed it in just a few hours. She had spent many hours in the company of very similar people. She is surely aware of their relationship, she don't need to tell her anything, she is already aware, that's for sure. And if it is not the case, it is that it does not pay attention to these people, but she doubt it very much, from what she heard in the enclosure of this space. She wandered around and did her best to ignore the couple. “Now where is that guy,” She mumbled, thinking and recalling the image of what the hirer looked like. Right now she was blanking. She recalled a moustache. And white hair. Oh yeah, he had lost a son to the vicious bear. that’s why he had ponied up to get them taken care of.

In the end there was very little else for her to do today so she just went on home. Dilly dallying all day and hoping for things to get more interesting wasn’t going to do her any favors. But here she was, with so much time on her hands. It was a very pleasant afternoon. Life was perfect for Hinata. She recognized certain faces that she had come to know as she walked through the streets. Everyone seemed looked happy - it was a peaceful time. Hands in pockets, Hinata looked around, she strolled. It was just another day off that she could do with as she pleased. For the first time in almost a week, she was free. She knew that it meant she had a whole day to work for herself instead of someone else. She had learned this mindset from her father who had been very patient with her.

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