nysalogs | ( closed ) february catch all

Yes, it does.

[ Cain's tone is more contemplative, and he nods in response to Mikazuki's answer, his attention clearly focused on the conversation they're eavesdropping on. His brows furrow. One of his hands clenches at his side.

They came here for a purpose. Getting involved in the workers' troubles is probably only going to make it harder to find out what happened to Cree's birds, Cain knows that.

But Cain's never been good at keeping his nose out of other people's business, and especially not when there's something he might be able to do to help.

He glances over at Mikazuki, a little startled to find Mikazuki already looking back at him. With a rueful expression, he meets Mikazuki's eyes. ]

Ah... I know we've been sent here to investigate the birds, and I don't intend to leave without finding out what happened. But would you mind a detour, as long as we're here? To see if we can lend them a hand?

[ For his part, Mikazuki isn't completely devoid of honor. It runs in him as more of an undertow for his grayer instincts, ones that lend themselves to survival at all costs. His own sense of it might be very different from anyone else's. But he's a protector at heart, those currents no less strong for how deeply they run. Shino had grown up with workers like this — they'd all wanted a bid at better chances, at some point in their lives.

Despite the steel in his eyes, he's quiet for a moment, eventually turning his gaze back towards the path ahead. ]

I don't want to see them in trouble either. [ Honest enough. ] Besides, they might know something.

[ Two birds, so to speak. He's in. ]

[ Mikazuki's agreement earns him a blinding smile, brilliant with relief. Cain would have argued the point if he'd needed to, or struck out on his own, but he's glad that Mikazuki's with him on this. He's glad that Mikazuki's someone who doesn't want to leave people in trouble, too, that if they can help, he'll step in.

With a great deal more cheer, a little eagerness in his step, a bounce, Cain turns towards the women and the room they're disappearing into. ]

In that case, let's go introduce ourselves.

[ Stop, his face is going to get blasted off by a smile like that.

And sometimes, Mikazuki makes decisions that seem sound without actually considering the personal ramifications. Like the fact that after a short turn and walk down the hall, they're in front of an ornate set of double doors and the smell of perfume and skin is wafting out. It just smells like — women. Brow pressing down, he knows there's nothing for it. He agreed, so. In they go.

What follows is a lot of wild nonsense that no one would believe even if he had any inclination to describe what it was like spending a bunch of time secretly locked in a room with a whole host of prostitutes. Cain is a big hit with his winning smiles and easy talk. He makes organization and promoting their interests for better working conditions sound bright and easy, like a casual stroll through a park. There's not much Mikazuki feels he can help with in that manner, though that doesn't stop women from cooing and plucking at him and trying too ease him into relaxing despite still having their mission on his mind.

(Okay, so maybe he fell asleep in a lap. For maybe a few minutes. Talk isn't the most riveting thing in the world to him.)

Eventually though, he stirs, and seeing Cain smack dab in the middle of explaining how to act as an intermediary between prostitutes and madame to three women, decides it's time to get going. However, when he catches his partner's gaze, he thinks — maybe there's a little more info to be found here. So he gives a brief nod on his way to the door. ]

I'll be right back.

[ Cautiously, he listens hard before opening and stepping out, leaving Cain with a different task. ]

[ Cain waves Mikazuki off — a subtle wave, he'll keep his new friends occupied — and continues to talk about the power of organization and how having legal ramifications in place can protect them from anyone who might want to take advantage of them. It'll even help out business, to have a house where customers won't get knifed in the side!

It's a bit surprising to have the prostitutes piping up with quite a bit more information — and Rose bursting into tears — once Mikazuki's gone, but, well. There's nothing to do but handle the situation.

Cain's in the process of trying to comfort them, reassuring them, offering Rose a handkerchief, trying to keep Camellia's hands from wandering, when from down the hall there's the unmistakable sounds of a large commotion. ]

Ah... You wait here. I'll be back once I've seen what that is.

[ He disentangles himself from the ladies and gentleman of the night and goes to investigate.

And finds Mikazuki, with four men, all naked, wet, and very unconscious. Cain looks from the men, to Mikazuki. Then he nudges one of them with his boot. ]

...the guardsmen I was going to tell you we should be looking for, I assume?

Edited 2018-03-28 03:47 (UTC)

[ Commotion is kind of his specialty. And Mikazuki is looking rather like a dog who's doing its best to play off a mess it just made. There's water splashed all over the floor and across his jacket. ...maybe a few droplets and smears of blood from where he'd busted a nose.

He wipes his sleeve across his face, and in his defense — ]

They attacked first.

[ Look, he didn't even kill anyone. ]

[ Cain takes another look around the room. Uses his foot against one of the men's shoulder to roll him over, taking in his broken nose and state of unconsciousness, but the steady rise and fall of his chest. And then Cain laughs, letting his hand fall away from the hilt of his sword. ]

It looks like that was their mistake. [ Helpfully, it is a bathroom, and a towel is easy to find. Cain picks it up and tosses it to Mikazuki, since he's gotten soaked in the fight. ] They didn't hurt you, did they?

[ He may not like killing, but he doesn't mind beating up some ruffians. The guilty dog look is really entirely unnecessary. ]

No, I'm okay.

[ Mikazuki isn't so quick to move about the space in contrast, though he does glance to the bath the men had been using to wash up their armor and hands. Gaze cutting to the weapons laid out on the floor, he steps over the unconscious guard closest to him. ]

I followed the blood here. They didn't say anything, though.

[ Before coming at him. Not that he would've even known what to say in return in the unlikely event they did want to hold a friendly conversation instead of a brawl...

It's neither here nor there, now. ]

That's fine. It's better that you didn't let them hurt you.

[ Cain leaves Mikazuki to examine the weapons and clothes the men have left behind for the moment. He's searching the room, finding some spare linens, busying himself tearing them into strips. He'll have to pay the brothel for them, but it's easier than having to try to find rope at the moment. ]

Besides, I think it's safe to say we've found our culprits, anyway. We should bind them before they wake up. You handled them quite handily.

[ Mikazuki flashes a long look at Cain as to say, "Yeah?" Of course he wouldn't let them touch him, he's got other things demanding his attention. While he might not look capable of it, he makes quick work of turning out the pockets of the guards' clothing for anything they might need...

Bodies are well enough, but he knows his employer.

When his shuffling stops, it's because he's tugging a letter free from between plates of armor. Kneeling, he discards the armor and begins unfolding the paper. ]

This is really how they pass information along, huh.

Looks like it.

[ Not a very effective method, but... Then again, the men probably weren't expecting trouble in a bathhouse. Most people, Cain's discovered, aren't exactly at their best when pressed into a fight without their clothes.

He leaves the searching of their pockets to Mikazuki and starts tying the men's wrists, quick, tight, practiced knots that won't be easily slipped. ]

What does it say?

[ "most"

Just how many people have you fought without clothes, Cain.

Mikazuki is used to an era of data encryption, and no amount of time on the planet is really curbing his awe at people using pens and paper to convey information. So he might take a minute to unfold the letter, as if it's delicate in his tough hands.

And the truth of it is that Mikazuki is not a deft or quick reader, and it takes him a long moment to actually pick out what the note says. ]

They're talking about getting rid of the birds. What is this?

[ Flashing the letter, it's "blackmail" that's holding him up. Not because he doesn't know what it is, but because he doesn't know how to read it. ]

[ Not as many as you're thinking, more than most people have...? His tactics are unconventional!

Though not so unconventional that he's exactly used to attacking men in the nude in bathing rooms...

Cain's more than a little amused by the whole situation, shaking his head at the sheer ridiculousness of it as he stands, leaving one man tied, to see what it is that Mika wants him to take a look at. He glances at the letter, skimming it, humming as he reads — no mention of how long it took for Mika to read the letter, or asking why he needs Cain to look at it now. ]

Huh. They're worried about Cree. If he finds them with the birds, he can use it as blackmail. It'd risk their position in the guard. No wonder they were so on edge...

[ With that information out in the open now, Mikazuki hums, mulling. He lowers the letter to look at the men still unconscious on the floor. ]

So they are the ones responsible.

[ There's a slow flicker in his eyes as his understanding shifts. ]

Cree wants them, then.

Yes. He does.

[ They're the ones Mika and Cain have been sent to find, after all. If they want to complete the job, all they have to do is deliver the men to Cree.

Or kill them, and bring Cree their heads — proof that they won't be bothering his birds again.

Neither option sits well with Cain, but the latter is unthinkable.

He hands the letter back to Mika and returns to his task of binding the other men — leaving his back to Mika, vulnerable. ]

He'll do just as they're worried about in that letter, use this as leverage over them. Or torture them for information. Or worse. He loves those birds. He may just want them dead.

That's just our mission, right?

[ Mikazuki doesn't balk at the mention of wanting the men dead. He naturally assumes that will be the end result anyway — death wants death, in most cases. Though he's dragged enough dead bodies in his lifetime to know that maybe taking them in alive to Cree will be easier than killing them here.

If they weren't prepared to face the consequences of being caught, they should have found different work. ]

Our mission... Hm.

[ It's not agreement from Cain, more contemplative. He's done many missions as a soldier. He's taken on many orders and seen them through, for the good of his kingdom, even when he didn't entirely understand why his sovereign had ordered him to do them. But he'd trusted her. He'd believed that she wanted to protect their people, that she wanted to keep the peace in the skydom, that she wanted to prevent another great war.

He doesn't have any such illusions about Cree's motives. He doesn't trust Cree at all. ]

What these men did was cruel. But it doesn't warrant their deaths. Hey, Mika... what do you think about turning them over to Koralle instead?

[ All that would warrant deaths were orders to kill, but Mikazuki pauses on his way back to rummaging through the armor pieces and other belongings in search of anything else Cree might want. More notes, feathers...

Instead, his gaze cuts up over the scene now laying defeated and dormant save the flowing of the baths. There's something sharp to it, more curious than accusing. ]

To Koralle? Why?

[ Cain turns, feeling Mika's gaze on his back. Curious, he can work with. That's much better than stony-faced or accusing. Much, much better than glowering or angry. ]

Because they deserve justice for what they did, but they don't deserve to be tortured or killed.

[ Koralle might deal with them harshly. Cain can't guarantee she won't torture them, either, but it's a lot less likely she will than Cree will. He'd trust Koralle to treat them fairly over Cree, if nothing else. ]

And Cree's kind of known for taking an extreme view of what "justice" entails.

And? You took this job knowing that.

[ Cree doesn't exactly make it a secret, which is why he finds it easy to work for him. No airs, no gossamer layers to make this seem like a prettier affair than it is. Mikazuki only knows one method to "dispose" of someone with, after all. Still, that curiosity remains for the sudden change of heart on mission parameters.

Or maybe it'd been his intention all along, making something that's not entirely a frown touch his expression. ]

I did. Since I thought that maybe I could do something about it.

[ He says it blithely; he's not making a secret of it now. He'd taken this mission because Cree hadn't asked them to murder anyone, only find information. And Cain had known that he'd probably have to make this choice, to choose between pleasing Cree or saving a life.

For him, there'd never been a question of what choice he'd make. ]

I thought there must be a way to find justice that would be better than what Cree would do. And there is. If you'll help me with it.

This time. [ Mikazuki throws his answer like a knife, still calm, but pointed. ] Next time, it might not end like this.

[ It's only by the virtue of thinking Orga and Shino wouldn't want him to inconvenience the establishment that he'd left them alive in the first place. As it is, his demeanor rapidly shifts, closing off in short measure. He's not out to differentiate between justices, which means what to who. ]

Of course not. Nothing ever happens exactly the same way twice.

[ Cain's calm, accepting of that. History repeats, but it's not the same thing over and over again. That's the good part; you can learn from the past, change things. Make different decisions, try different things.

Try to find a different ending to a tragedy. ]

But this time, it can end this way. So we shouldn't give up on this time.

[ WHATEVER, RELENTLESS DO-GOODER. ]

Let's just do it then.

[ Mikazuki leaves the impression that he could sigh, but there's little point now. There's still a goal in mind, even if it annoys him.

So he simply approaches the first man to be tied up, leaning down to grab him by the wrists and hoist him up to his shoulder. With a roll, he has him in a fireman's carry, which looks pretty comical, given Mikazuki's height. But he's making it work. ]

[ Do-gooding wins out in the end~! ]

Don't worry, I'll give you my half of the take.

[ Cain says it wryly, faintly amused. He didn't miss that desire to sigh, and he might as well give Mika something for the trouble. And as a hopeful precaution against Mikazuki telling Cree what really happened to their troublemakers.

He heads over to the other man, taking a moment to admire the way Mikazuki hefts his prisoner so easily. Cain doesn't even try, himself. He just grabs him by his bound arms and prepares to drag him; he's sure he'd only manage to look foolish if he attempted to mimic Mikazuki's carry. ]

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sparsity - 2018-05-10 03:33 (UTC) - Expand