Yukiko was sitting at the desk in their bedroom while Karasuko stood to the side holding a poster for a newer cartoon called ‘Necromancer Girl Tiramisu’ and watching her sister work.
Yukiko looked at the image often as she used it as a reference to get the main character’s proportions correct on a small round piece of paper in front of her. After about 2 hours they had a finished image that they covered in clear plastic and inserted into a pin badge press they made with help from their dad.
Their father simply believed that the girls wanted to decorate their possessions with pins featuring their own art and was happy to see them want to take up the hobby as it seemed like a good way for them to express themselves and possibly make friends.
What the twins did not share with their father was that inside this pin badge, in particular, was a covert listening device. It only had enough battery for about a week of operation, but considering it was made by a pair of six-year-olds fumbling through their father’s books while he was at work and gathering parts at second-hand electronics stores, it was an impressive feat to have it stuffed into a 1.5-inch character badge.
Examining the badge the twins smiled before packing it and a few things into their wagon and making their way to Professor Pork’s Pizzeria.
When they arrived they had a little look around but saw their intended target had not arrived yet. No matter. The girls did as they always would normally and start abusing the games that they earned the most tickets reliably for their change. While these games and the ticket prize system were a vicious scam for most, they once explained in great detail to a poor fellow named Kyo at the library how exactly one could earn a decent profit by doing this and since then had truly mastered the art.
A couple hours later, and finding themselves a couple thousand yen richer after selling prizes to other children and a couple rather sad adults, the twins finally noticed their target enter the establishment.
Eiko of Kunoichi Scout Troop #321 cheerfully paid the entrance cost after showing her scout id for a discount and as proof of her age and the fact she wasn’t an academy student (starting at age 8, people couldn’t play the games for prizes or tickets unless they had identification for being non chakra sensitive citizens as chakra sensitives had cheated many times before) and exchanged a bit more for tokens before going to join the rest of the children (and a few adults) swarming a buffet and playing a wide selection of arcade games. There were even a couple off duty shinobi still in their gear playing Alley Ninja 2 or the non-ticket bearing skeeball game and eating pizza or desserts.
Those odd individuals aside the girls started making their way towards the unsuspecting 5-year-old, but rather than speak to her directly they went to a crane game just a bit away from where the girl was wastefully gambling coins at the coin pusher game. The crane game they were playing was a well-known rip off as not only were the prizes sealed in these balls that were near impossible to pick up, the balls were opaque, so you wouldn’t know what was inside until it was opened up, nine out of ten times the prize being junk. But for once this was perfect.
They chose a ball at random with Yukiko at the side directing how to move the crane arm, and Karasuko with her better reflexes following along they won a prize in short order making a small cheer sound from the machine.
The twins opened up the ball to find a 100 prize ticket stamp, a small profit due to them only using the one coin and switched out the ticket with the badge they made.
“What is this even supposed to be?” Karasuko turned her head to ask Yukiko I’m not an overly loud but clear voice.
“I think I have seen this somewhere, it is that witch cartoon that started showing a couple weeks ago. Cannoli or Zeppole or something.”
Yukiko’s reply was rather targeted as both of those names were characters on the show and pulled the attention of the unsuspecting prey Eiko to look at what they were discussing before actually noticing who was speaking. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw the infamous twins holding a Necromancer Girl Tiramisu badge, her current favourite cartoon character ever!
It… was nicer than any of the badges she saw on market, and larger too so the details of the art really showed!
Oh no! The black haired twin saw her staring! She quickly averted her gaze. Those two were well known for selling the prizes they won, but they charged an arm and a leg if they knew you really wanted something!
… She glanced again and saw the white haired twin holding the badge up while looking her straight in the eye. Eiko bit her lip trying not to change her expression. Yukiko began waving the badge side to side watching Eiko’s eyes follow it.
Eiko realized what was happening and averted her gaze while covering her mouth with her hands and said, “Th-that is an odd b-b-badge you have there. I suppose if y-y-you don’t want it I could-“
At this point Yukiko took the badge into both of her hands and made a motion like she was going to crack it in half.
“Please don’t! 500 yen!” Eiko broke instantly as if she had been believable before this point.
“800,” Karasuko replied flatly.
“6- 600 yen?!” Eiko tried.
“1000, don’t try to haggle with us,” Yukiko said mercilessly.
“That isn’t fair!” Eiko half accused, half begged.
““1200 or it breaks,”” the twins went for the kill and went ahead and began to bend the pin.
Eiko floundered and started nodding while trying not to cry due to being overwhelmed by this sales tactic, “1200! I have it please don’t break it!”
““Thank you for our business,”” the twins said cooly. The girl helped cover some of the expense they put into making the thing at least and she was more likely to take good care of it, and by extension the bug inside considering how much they just robbed her for.
Eiko felt a sting in her heart as she opened up her coin pouch and pulled out 1200 yen for the twins, but upon exchanging for the pin and feeling how heavy it felt compared to the rest she owned and the fantastic pose Tiramisu was in on the front of it with her signature spell blasting out of her staff she felt a bit better about how much lighter her funds were. She proudly pinned the badge on her jacket and ran off to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror without another word to those mean twins!
The twins watched Eiko retreat with her precious character pin and after a moment, devious grins appeared on their faces and the started giggling. That had been too easy! The girl actually paid them to bug her! Though it was still a bit of a loss due to the cost of the bug. Still it was a resounding success and they were quite satisfied, a red color showing in their eyes lasting for almost two seconds, before their pupils returned to normal, the change unnoticed by both. They went to the front desk to trade their tickets for a receipt to save for later and quickly left the establishment, going into the tea shop next door.
They had left their wagon at this tea shop and the twins went to the back table and together slowly lifted a large and heavy box out of the wagon. Inside was a metal box that appeared to be a modified radio. After plugging it into an outlet the twins put their heads together and listened to a large set of headphones attached to the box by a coil cord.
“By the world of oblivion, I call upon the vengeful souls of those that refuse to return to the earth! Revenant Army Stampede!” Eiko’s voice shouted through the headset when they turned it on, both twins feeling somewhat embarrassed by what they just heard.
It worked! The sound was rather staticky and they had trouble hearing background noise but they could at least understand what was said by Eiko herself! The main problems were that the bug would only last for about a week and that the range was a bit limited, not to mention how heavy the radio was. But according to the rules they were limited to things they could get from civilian stores and make themselves so they would have to make due.
“Alright phase 1 has begun,” Yukiko said somewhat proudly as they listened to Eiko shout spell incantations for another minute before giving up on hearing anything good for now.
Karasuko nodded. “Leaving Eiko aside for now, and saving their Captain for last, there are three girls we need to learn more about, particularly Sena their Vice Captain and holder of a recently awakened bloodline. The other two are… well compared to most they are above average.” The unspoken fact was that the two six-year-olds in question were some of the better scouts among their age, they were a full tier below the twins. Karasuko alone could handle both without much trouble. Still removing one or both of them would be beneficial to the overall goal of victory. What they knew about each member of Troop #321 seemed substantial but didn’t contribute too much of their current goal of removing members from the competition.
They were fairly sure the tactic wouldn’t work at all on the Captain so they wouldn’t waste the energy or resources, but Sena was… adorably stupid, Eiko was the youngest and easily manipulated, and the remaining two named Kasumi and Akina were observed to be quite frustrated by the obvious gap between them and the twins despite being the same age, and more importantly both had already become gradually less active since the departure of the invincible previous Captain of Troop #321.
Head on the twins wouldn’t be able to rise from second place and overthrow #321, but for each member they could get to stop scout activities, the gap should lessen dramatically.
““But there is an issue…”” The twins sighed together. They could go all in with information gathering and psychological guerrilla warfare, but they had to maintain their own scout activities, particularly their cookie sales. There was no way just the two of them could do everything and maintain quality performance, it wasn’t a matter of competence, but one of time.
“It would be great if we knew people under the age of 8 or didn’t run away from us screaming about ghosts and such… But if that isn’t an option we can always go with our age old method of getting the results we want.” Karasuko said with a glint in her eye as she exchanged a look and nod with Yukiko.
““We will trick older kids and adults into doing stuff for us.””
“What would help more than anything-“ began Karasuko.
“Would be finding either a really time-consuming activity or someone to serve as a proper distraction,” hummed Yukiko.
““But it would be best if they are gullible, or at least helpful morons.””
But how best to pick out the most gullible and helpful morons from a crowd without knowing them? It was a bit of a tricky problem, but the twins looked at their earnings for today and grinned devilishly at each other, causing the tea shop granny who saw the expression to be startled and make a gesture to ask for Raiden’s protection. She had seen these twins around a lot, but something about that scene made her a bit fearful somehow!
Sometime later the twins were setting up a little stand, similar to what small Cloud children would use to sell hot cocoa or tea, in the entrance of the alley between the tea shop and Professor Pork’s Pizzeria.
But rather than a sign announcing the sale of hot beverages, a very unusual sign was above the stand.
“¥¥¥ Unofisel Mishons for Ninjas, Akadmy Stewdants Welkom. ¥¥¥”
Under the sign we two small children, their actual ages were six, but due to their small size they could pass off as four or five-year-olds, and they went through the extra effort to seem… less intelligent.
“Mishter ninja, would you like one of our mishons?” Karasuko called out with a slight lisp and wide innocent eyes though her mouth was oddly expressionless. The shinobi in question smiled at the cute kids and gave a slight wave before shaking his head and moving on.
“Nee-Chan would you like a mishion?” Yukiko called out with a similar lisp to a woman who was definitely more of an Auntie at this point than a sister, who was almost flattered enough to come entertain the girls but realized she was going to be late to a time sale and also kept moving with a little wave.
The girls were a bit irritated that they were embarrassing themselves like this with no luck trying to get one of these fools to fall into their grasps, but shook the feeling off and kept putting in the effort of appearing like sweet little girls and calling out to individuals that appeared to be shinobi, at least in training, by looking at their clothing, equipment, calluses, lightness of step, and visible scarring and injuries. Particularly the younger ones...
Yukiko looked at the image often as she used it as a reference to get the main character’s proportions correct on a small round piece of paper in front of her. After about 2 hours they had a finished image that they covered in clear plastic and inserted into a pin badge press they made with help from their dad.
Their father simply believed that the girls wanted to decorate their possessions with pins featuring their own art and was happy to see them want to take up the hobby as it seemed like a good way for them to express themselves and possibly make friends.
What the twins did not share with their father was that inside this pin badge, in particular, was a covert listening device. It only had enough battery for about a week of operation, but considering it was made by a pair of six-year-olds fumbling through their father’s books while he was at work and gathering parts at second-hand electronics stores, it was an impressive feat to have it stuffed into a 1.5-inch character badge.
Examining the badge the twins smiled before packing it and a few things into their wagon and making their way to Professor Pork’s Pizzeria.
When they arrived they had a little look around but saw their intended target had not arrived yet. No matter. The girls did as they always would normally and start abusing the games that they earned the most tickets reliably for their change. While these games and the ticket prize system were a vicious scam for most, they once explained in great detail to a poor fellow named Kyo at the library how exactly one could earn a decent profit by doing this and since then had truly mastered the art.
A couple hours later, and finding themselves a couple thousand yen richer after selling prizes to other children and a couple rather sad adults, the twins finally noticed their target enter the establishment.
Eiko of Kunoichi Scout Troop #321 cheerfully paid the entrance cost after showing her scout id for a discount and as proof of her age and the fact she wasn’t an academy student (starting at age 8, people couldn’t play the games for prizes or tickets unless they had identification for being non chakra sensitive citizens as chakra sensitives had cheated many times before) and exchanged a bit more for tokens before going to join the rest of the children (and a few adults) swarming a buffet and playing a wide selection of arcade games. There were even a couple off duty shinobi still in their gear playing Alley Ninja 2 or the non-ticket bearing skeeball game and eating pizza or desserts.
Those odd individuals aside the girls started making their way towards the unsuspecting 5-year-old, but rather than speak to her directly they went to a crane game just a bit away from where the girl was wastefully gambling coins at the coin pusher game. The crane game they were playing was a well-known rip off as not only were the prizes sealed in these balls that were near impossible to pick up, the balls were opaque, so you wouldn’t know what was inside until it was opened up, nine out of ten times the prize being junk. But for once this was perfect.
They chose a ball at random with Yukiko at the side directing how to move the crane arm, and Karasuko with her better reflexes following along they won a prize in short order making a small cheer sound from the machine.
The twins opened up the ball to find a 100 prize ticket stamp, a small profit due to them only using the one coin and switched out the ticket with the badge they made.
“What is this even supposed to be?” Karasuko turned her head to ask Yukiko I’m not an overly loud but clear voice.
“I think I have seen this somewhere, it is that witch cartoon that started showing a couple weeks ago. Cannoli or Zeppole or something.”
Yukiko’s reply was rather targeted as both of those names were characters on the show and pulled the attention of the unsuspecting prey Eiko to look at what they were discussing before actually noticing who was speaking. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw the infamous twins holding a Necromancer Girl Tiramisu badge, her current favourite cartoon character ever!
It… was nicer than any of the badges she saw on market, and larger too so the details of the art really showed!
Oh no! The black haired twin saw her staring! She quickly averted her gaze. Those two were well known for selling the prizes they won, but they charged an arm and a leg if they knew you really wanted something!
… She glanced again and saw the white haired twin holding the badge up while looking her straight in the eye. Eiko bit her lip trying not to change her expression. Yukiko began waving the badge side to side watching Eiko’s eyes follow it.
Eiko realized what was happening and averted her gaze while covering her mouth with her hands and said, “Th-that is an odd b-b-badge you have there. I suppose if y-y-you don’t want it I could-“
At this point Yukiko took the badge into both of her hands and made a motion like she was going to crack it in half.
“Please don’t! 500 yen!” Eiko broke instantly as if she had been believable before this point.
“800,” Karasuko replied flatly.
“6- 600 yen?!” Eiko tried.
“1000, don’t try to haggle with us,” Yukiko said mercilessly.
“That isn’t fair!” Eiko half accused, half begged.
““1200 or it breaks,”” the twins went for the kill and went ahead and began to bend the pin.
Eiko floundered and started nodding while trying not to cry due to being overwhelmed by this sales tactic, “1200! I have it please don’t break it!”
““Thank you for our business,”” the twins said cooly. The girl helped cover some of the expense they put into making the thing at least and she was more likely to take good care of it, and by extension the bug inside considering how much they just robbed her for.
Eiko felt a sting in her heart as she opened up her coin pouch and pulled out 1200 yen for the twins, but upon exchanging for the pin and feeling how heavy it felt compared to the rest she owned and the fantastic pose Tiramisu was in on the front of it with her signature spell blasting out of her staff she felt a bit better about how much lighter her funds were. She proudly pinned the badge on her jacket and ran off to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror without another word to those mean twins!
The twins watched Eiko retreat with her precious character pin and after a moment, devious grins appeared on their faces and the started giggling. That had been too easy! The girl actually paid them to bug her! Though it was still a bit of a loss due to the cost of the bug. Still it was a resounding success and they were quite satisfied, a red color showing in their eyes lasting for almost two seconds, before their pupils returned to normal, the change unnoticed by both. They went to the front desk to trade their tickets for a receipt to save for later and quickly left the establishment, going into the tea shop next door.
They had left their wagon at this tea shop and the twins went to the back table and together slowly lifted a large and heavy box out of the wagon. Inside was a metal box that appeared to be a modified radio. After plugging it into an outlet the twins put their heads together and listened to a large set of headphones attached to the box by a coil cord.
“By the world of oblivion, I call upon the vengeful souls of those that refuse to return to the earth! Revenant Army Stampede!” Eiko’s voice shouted through the headset when they turned it on, both twins feeling somewhat embarrassed by what they just heard.
It worked! The sound was rather staticky and they had trouble hearing background noise but they could at least understand what was said by Eiko herself! The main problems were that the bug would only last for about a week and that the range was a bit limited, not to mention how heavy the radio was. But according to the rules they were limited to things they could get from civilian stores and make themselves so they would have to make due.
“Alright phase 1 has begun,” Yukiko said somewhat proudly as they listened to Eiko shout spell incantations for another minute before giving up on hearing anything good for now.
Karasuko nodded. “Leaving Eiko aside for now, and saving their Captain for last, there are three girls we need to learn more about, particularly Sena their Vice Captain and holder of a recently awakened bloodline. The other two are… well compared to most they are above average.” The unspoken fact was that the two six-year-olds in question were some of the better scouts among their age, they were a full tier below the twins. Karasuko alone could handle both without much trouble. Still removing one or both of them would be beneficial to the overall goal of victory. What they knew about each member of Troop #321 seemed substantial but didn’t contribute too much of their current goal of removing members from the competition.
They were fairly sure the tactic wouldn’t work at all on the Captain so they wouldn’t waste the energy or resources, but Sena was… adorably stupid, Eiko was the youngest and easily manipulated, and the remaining two named Kasumi and Akina were observed to be quite frustrated by the obvious gap between them and the twins despite being the same age, and more importantly both had already become gradually less active since the departure of the invincible previous Captain of Troop #321.
Head on the twins wouldn’t be able to rise from second place and overthrow #321, but for each member they could get to stop scout activities, the gap should lessen dramatically.
““But there is an issue…”” The twins sighed together. They could go all in with information gathering and psychological guerrilla warfare, but they had to maintain their own scout activities, particularly their cookie sales. There was no way just the two of them could do everything and maintain quality performance, it wasn’t a matter of competence, but one of time.
“It would be great if we knew people under the age of 8 or didn’t run away from us screaming about ghosts and such… But if that isn’t an option we can always go with our age old method of getting the results we want.” Karasuko said with a glint in her eye as she exchanged a look and nod with Yukiko.
““We will trick older kids and adults into doing stuff for us.””
“What would help more than anything-“ began Karasuko.
“Would be finding either a really time-consuming activity or someone to serve as a proper distraction,” hummed Yukiko.
““But it would be best if they are gullible, or at least helpful morons.””
But how best to pick out the most gullible and helpful morons from a crowd without knowing them? It was a bit of a tricky problem, but the twins looked at their earnings for today and grinned devilishly at each other, causing the tea shop granny who saw the expression to be startled and make a gesture to ask for Raiden’s protection. She had seen these twins around a lot, but something about that scene made her a bit fearful somehow!
Sometime later the twins were setting up a little stand, similar to what small Cloud children would use to sell hot cocoa or tea, in the entrance of the alley between the tea shop and Professor Pork’s Pizzeria.
But rather than a sign announcing the sale of hot beverages, a very unusual sign was above the stand.
“¥¥¥ Unofisel Mishons for Ninjas, Akadmy Stewdants Welkom. ¥¥¥”
Under the sign we two small children, their actual ages were six, but due to their small size they could pass off as four or five-year-olds, and they went through the extra effort to seem… less intelligent.
“Nee-Chan would you like a mishion?” Yukiko called out with a similar lisp to a woman who was definitely more of an Auntie at this point than a sister, who was almost flattered enough to come entertain the girls but realized she was going to be late to a time sale and also kept moving with a little wave.
The girls were a bit irritated that they were embarrassing themselves like this with no luck trying to get one of these fools to fall into their grasps, but shook the feeling off and kept putting in the effort of appearing like sweet little girls and calling out to individuals that appeared to be shinobi, at least in training, by looking at their clothing, equipment, calluses, lightness of step, and visible scarring and injuries. Particularly the younger ones...
