>"You don't need to tell me how odd it sounds. It's my disease, my story. My death sentance."
>Look at the lead tengu, let her see the sincerity in our eyes. "Look, you kept trying to get us to stop fighting. And I heard you order your troops out of that fight. I'm willing to believe you don't want to see anyone here die. That's all that will happen if you take that sword away from me, what the ugly black patches on my skin mean. We ALL die, painfully. Human, youkai, tengu, kappa, it doesn't matter, we're all dead."
>Pause a moment to let that sink in. "I don't want my friends to die. Can you say the same?"
>The tengu before you regards you gravely as you elaborate, barely seeming to blink. She seems neither frightened by your claim nor dismissive of it, and any hint of doubt she harbors is well-masked beneath professional stoicism. Her blade-flipping companion, on the other hand, is snickering openly before you even finish your speech.
>"This is great stuff," she says. "Should've gone into theatre."
>"With all due respect, Ren," the tengu behind you says in a voice commesurate with her statue, "can we really afford to waste time on this before the ship is secured?"
>"Nah, this is way too much fun," the snickering tengu says. "C'mon mouse, what else you got?"
>"I would thank you to be
quiet," the lead tengu firmly, with more than a hint of ice in her voice. The other subdues her mirth just enough to pass for compliance. "And you're right," she continues with weary sigh. "We shouldn't prolong this." She takes another look at your face, then speaks with a note of resignation. "Bind her hands, arms, and tail. Make sure they're double-secured. She can keep the sword until Aya decides what to do with it."
>"What?!" The sarcrastic amusement on the shorter tengu's face is replaced almost immediately with genuine outrage. She takes an aggressive step towards you. "What kinda bullshit is this? First you go and get your squad chopped up and now you're playing nice? I say we-"
>The one in front of you rounds on her. "That's
quite enough! I'm not interested in your opinion and this isn't up for discussion. If you can't restrain yourself, you can leave. And if you don't back off immediately," she adds in a more dangerous tone, "I'll remind you that an open invitation can be revoked just as easily as any other. You would not be the first."
>The shorter tengu falters slightly, traces of hesitation diluting her fervor.
>"Sorry, Ren. I'm just a dumb thug who's lucky you went first and saved me having to stuff my own organs back inside me." Though the voice belongs to the insubordinate tengu, its source is from the other direction entirely. "I should probably just stick this sword up my butt and go jump off into the abyss, where I'll actually be useful to someone. Why, I think I'll go do that right now! Bye-bye!"
>The true owner of the voice bristles in silent fury.
>You hear Chisato and Miyuki led around the corner. "What? Where's the jumping?" their captor asks in what you assume is her own voice again. "Not going to disappoint us, now are you?
>The tengu in front of you lets out a sigh, and the other's face twists with a turbulent blend of hot shame and bitter resentment. She takes a step away and sheathes her sword.
>"You heard Ren," the copycat says. "Get to it."
>Throwing you a dark look, the shorter tengu picks up a coil of rope from the side of the deckhouse and moves around behind you.
