Eruditio Exploration [Open]

[Kuru Watashi]

Watashi had been waiting a good hour for this meeting, and breathed in deeply to take in the glorious smell of cleaning chemicals and rat traps before sneezing and knocking a broom over. "Ugh," He muttered to himself, righting the broom and almost tripping over a fat roll of paper towels. "Looks like he stood me up! No good foreigners, I knew they couldn't be trusted at all!" Carefully maneuvering around the obstacles around him, the blind lad made his way to the door and threw it open. "Well, now that I'm here, might as well mess around."

He made his way down the hallway that he knew - the direct path from the academy entrance to the janitorial closet - but turned towards a fork in the path that he had managed to discover weeks ago in a raid for toilet paper gone wrong. The lad knew it would be a bit of a waste to not know the ins and outs of the school, especially since it looked like he was going to continue being a student for a very long time, and set out along the path.

It must've been a school holiday or something, since Watashi couldn't hear the normal everyday bustle of students in class, and he had a sudden moment of inspiration. If he could never find a class to attend for graduation, then he might as well just figure out where the Headmaster's Office was! Changing records would be easy as pie, and once it was done, no one would be the wiser that he hadn't finished all two of his classes that he needed done!

With a goal in mind, Watashi started feeling out the name plates of every door that he came across, shaking his head at each one and moving on before being struck by another moment of realization. Would the Headmaster's Office plaque even say 'Headmaster's Office' on it? What if it just said the name of the Headmaster!? Watashi wracked his brains, stopping in the middle of the hallway before letting out a shout of frustration upon realizing that he didn't actually know. "Who even is in charge of this stupid place?"

 

[Tanuki Rinko]

*chink chink chink* The sound of light metal scraping against itself radiated from the headmaster's keyhole. A bead of sweat trickled down Rinko's brow as she finagled with the lockpicks. She needed to do this perfectly. Any slip-up and the school would be on to her. For the past year, Rinko's paperwork for promotion had been lost, to the relief of the tanuki. Who wanted responsibility? Well...a lot of people, but not her. But something in her gut told her that things were going to be set in motion soon, and if she wanted to avoid the real world, she needed to act fast. First things first, she needed to see if that mysteriously sneaky paperwork had been found. Rinko's ears strained to hear the faint click that would come from the lock at any moment...aaaaaaany moment now...aaaaaaaaaaaany...

A shout from down the hallway caused the tanuki girl to jump, snapping the thin metal pick in the keyhole. "Son of a-" She mumbled curses under her breath as she evaluated the damage. She could probably fix the lockpick with metal jutsu, but that would probably leave a chakra signature, especially being an advanced elemental and all. Not many of the kiddos in this school could pull off jutsu like that. Instead, she opted to use wind jutsu. It would be far more difficult to incriminate her that way. Rinko placed her mouth over the keyhole and flashed a few hand seals. She sucked in, causing the broken metal piece to shoot into the back of her throat. Rinko grabbed at her neck and began hacking. "F-*cough*" After a few strong heaves, the metal fragment clattered to the ground, and the tanuki girl flopped next to it.

After recovering from that ordeal, Rinko lifted herself up and slunk to where the earlier hollering had come from. There stood a boy, one she didn't recognize. Unsurprising considering she'd been shirking her responsibilities as of late. Well, if she wasn't going to get into that office today, she could at least try to swindle some kid out of his lunch money. Rinko pushed the corners of her mouth into a smile and approached the lad. She wasn't sure what he shouted earlier, so she decided to keep things general. "Heyo my fellow hip classmate! I mean, I hope you're a student here if you're in the halls. Anywhoozles, I heard ya yippin' down the hall. You need some help? I happen to be a senior student." That probably wasn't something to tout...but hopefully it would get this new acquaintance on her side.

 

[Kuru Watashi]

By this point in the day, Watashi was having a real bad time. Not only did he get stood up for his little meeting, but there was also no one in this school that he could find that was willing to help a poor blind kid out! Waving a clenched fist up at those invisible Gods - though if they actually were visible it wasn't like he'd know - and cursed the whole lot of them. Actually, they probably were visible just to bully him even more! Everyone was out to get him, and the blind kiddo was having none of it!

So when Watashi heard someone coughing from further down the hall, he immediately bee-lined that direction. Finally, there was someone else that he had found! And the faster he got to them, the less they'd be able to run away! It was a genius plan, because Watashi knew that he, in fact, was a genius. Praying that the path to the coughing was straight and there wasn't something blocking his way for him to trip over, Watashi prayed to someone else to keep an eye on the first prayer. Gods knew how much they misplaced those stupid things.

Watashi looked suspiciously in the direction of the person talking when he eventually got within proper-speaking distance of them, not too sure who they were and why they were talking so weirdly. Didn't sound like any sorta kid that he had ever known and Watashi figured that it would probably be prudent to keep his true goal somewhat hidden. "Uhhhhhh, do you know where the Headmaster's Office is?" He asked inquisitively before hurriedly following up with that weird greeting. "My, uhh, fellow hip classmate?"

The blind kid thought a bit about the word "Anywhoozles" before chalking it up to some kind of weird ninja-talk codeword that he didn't know yet. Using big words like that definitely meant that they were here to trick him for something and behind his darkened shades, Watashi glared in their direction. "I gotta go to the office for... fellow student stuff." That'd fool them for sure! Watashi was as sneaky as ninja-ly possible and he knew it! It'd take more than an 'Anywhoozles' or two to be able to crack him!

 

[Tanuki Rinko]

Rinko's tail bristled at the mention of the headmaster's office. Had the boy seen her messing with the lock? She couldn't read his eyes through his sunglasses, so for now she'd feel him out slowly. "Fellow student stuff is my spe-ci-ali-ty. The name's Tanuki Rinko by the way." She slipped her arm around the boy's shoulder as she paused to let him introduce himself and then began leading him to his desired destination. "But, uh, between me and you kid, I don't think we even HAVE a headmaster anymore. Rumor has it some old stuffy lady used to run the joint, but then she disappeared. Poof!" Rinko held up a fist and flicked her fingers outward, unaware that the lad was unable to see her hand gestures. "It's one of the 8 Wonders of the Academy AND 14 Mysteries of Kumo!"

The two reached the door and Rinko lightly rapped her knuckles on it. "At this point, I hear this is just a storage room for all the paperwork." The girl pulled away from the boy and turned to face him. "Were you asked by a teacher to grab something?" She rubbed her hands together. "Perhaps...the teacher gave you a key?" Rinko grinned widely, praying to Raiden that this kid was her big break.

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Watashi bristled for a slight moment when the other kid put her arm around his shoulder before realizing that he was probably just being led over to the office. Probably. Hopefully. Watashi put his hand into his pocket to reach for his lighter anyways – better prepared than punished! With his other hand free to move around, the lad abused it to great use with gesturing! Gesturing was always great for making people think you could actually see! Turned out that doing something useless for yourself was a wonderful way to make people think it was useful for you!

“Hooray for fellow student stuff!” The blind lad led with, unsure about whether or not this ‘fellow classmate’ thing was some sort of cult that he had gotten himself in to. But if getting in to a cult meant getting in to the office then it’d be a sacrifice that he’d have to make! “Poof!? Eight Wonders of the Academy!? Fourteen Mysteries of Kumo!?” The blind kid looked suspiciously in the direction of the other student as he walked. “How big of a number is fourteen?” It sounded like a lot. Maybe enough mysteries that no one would notice if he stole one of them. Maybe few enough that he’d be able to sell it for decent money!

Getting to the door, Watashi gratefully took the location of the door after the other student tapped on it to find out where the doorknob was. After attempting to open it and failing, Watashi was horribly taken back. “What sort of school just puts a lock on a door if there’s no one even using the office!?” Disgusted by the audacity of the school – practically robbing free real estate from the students – Watashi got to using his massive cranium to think of a way past this one. He was using so much of his small brain capacity that he didn’t even have time for the rest of what the other student said!

After a moment or two of thinking, Watashi started tapping the edges of the door and the surrounding wall to get a feel for what they were going to be working with here. Decent lock, solid door.. Watashi thought, retrieving his lighter to tap on the lock with. good thing there’s another student here. Straightening up, he turned to the other student to grin. “So if no one’s using the big desk in there, then if we get in, it’s ours, eh? Headmaster Watashi sounds like it’s got a nice ring to it! If we manage to get in, you can be Deputy Headmaster, uhh, Other Student!”

Watashi started pacing around the hallway directly outside of the Headmaster’s Office, trying to figure out how they’d be able to get in. If the lad knew any useful jutsu then they’d be in in a snap, but he figured that if that worked then some other actually competent student would probably already be in the Headmaster’s Desk. No, it probably had some sort of chakra inhibitor or absorber or something to keep people from using jutsu on it. In a village with mostly shinobi, anti-shinobi measures were probably the most common. So they’d have to do something un-shinobi like!

“Got any idea where something real heavy is? Or explosives? Or both! The possibilities are endless!”

 

[Tanuki Rinko]

Rinko cocked an eyebrow as the boy declared his intention to take over the position of headmaster. His line of reasoning would have been sound for a simple object on the ground, or money of course. But to take a room owned by the government seemed like a stretch. Regardless, the tanuki was intrigued to see where this would lead. Worst case scenario, they would probably be forced to clean the academy bathrooms. Meanwhile, the pros were looking more and more tantalizing. Rinko stroked her chin in thought at the boy's suggestion to find a more barbaric way to enter the door. "I like the way you think kid. Hmm...trying something heavy will make less noise than an explosion, but I'm kinda drawing a blank on what we could use. An explosion would be easier to make. Especially with that lighter of yours. Or fire jutsu if you've got it."

Rinko paced in front of the door as she continued. "But what can we find in the academy that can explode? I'd rather not go out and buy something specifically for this, that would be leaving an obvious trail, and would provide evidence that it was premeditated. We gotta think of something easily accessible. Something a bunch of stupid kids would try to use for a prank and just happen to do it in front of the office." Rinko paused before bopping her fist in her palm. "Aha! The Home Ec room! Come on...Watashi was it? I have an idea." Rinko made her way down the hall, turning around a corner and stopping before a classroom. She turned to Watashi with a smirk. "Have you taken a cooking class? It's definitely not a popular subject when you can learn to throw fireballs. Anyway, there should be cans of cooking spray in here. If we throw them in a fire and let 'em heat up, there should be a pretty big explosion. I'm not sure if the blast will be strong enough to take out the door in one go, but at least it can weaken it."

Rinko entered the classroom and began rummaging through the cabinets. "If you don't know what I'm talking about, we're looking for tall canisters that have a circumference a bit bigger than your hand. If you pop the top, there should be a nozzle you can push to make the contents spray out." Not finding what she sought, Rinko moved to the next cubby. Noticing a roll of paper towels hanging on a rack, she swiped it and slipped it under her arm. "When we get back to the office, we'll use this to make a fire and throw in the cans. We should have enough time to hide around a corner or in another room before the big boom causes shrapnel to scatter everywhere." Seeing a large lidded skillet in the cupboard she was currently searching, Rinko stole the cover and mocked holding it like a shield. "Maybe I'll take this with us just in case." She continued the search for the catalyst that would set their plan in motion.

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Senior student sounds about right, Watashi reasoned as he followed the other kid towards the supposed ‘Home Ec’ room where it seemed all of the explosives were kept. Only other big brained students would know where the materials for good pranks would be. The blind kid was real eager to get to the blowing-stuff-up part of the plan and getting the stuff to put it in motion would be a real blast. But her introduction to what the class was for stunned Watashi for a hot minute before running into the room after her.

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me that there’s food in here!?” The title of Headmaster would have to take a back seat as the blind boy ran to the walls and starting going through the cabinets and drawers as fast as he could. Dumping all of the useless buckets and water sprayers that he had pouched from the janitor’s cabinet out of his satchel, Watashi started filling it up with food and cooking supplies once he managed to find them. Rice was a given for him, and he had to taste the sugar, salt and flour to double check what they were but soon his bag was bulging and Watashi was real satisfied.

He had even managed to find two of the strange, cold metal cans that the other kid had mentioned with a weird nozzle. They seemed real funny for storing food in – who would want sprayable food – but Watashi sprayed some onto his hand anyways and licked it. “What the heck is this stuff even supposed to be?” The blind boy complained as he wiped his tongue on his sleeve and his stained hand onto his pants. “You sure that this stuff will blow up, Lady? Doesn’t really seem like it! I’ve heated cans over the fire and they never made the boom boom.”

Watashi considered revoking his earlier compliment as he grabbed a few sealed food containers for his satchel and paper bags, rolling them up and stuffing them into his pocket. Going back to his flour cabinet, he grabbed another bag to hold in his hands, shaking his head at the weirdo wanting to burn liquid cans. When the weird cans didn’t blow up, Watashi would try and rig a dust bomb to get through. He might not know how to do it, but he’d heard of it happening before in the papers and the cooking class had lots of flour to use for experimentation.

Grabbing the two cans that he had gotten for good measure, he started heading back to the office first. “I got two of them, and I’ll take them back first and, uhh, look out to make sure no one else is around to hear the explosion or see the fire.” Watashi shook his head a bit, muttering “can explosion” a few times before heading in the direction of the janitors office. Maybe he could get a bucket or two for even more flour!