(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 9)

[DracoOmega]

>And she was reputed to be one of the best in the field.
>Taking that into consideration, is it a fair assumption that miss Freebooter here and her crew of thieves might be a better chance of getting the writing translated than we might find in Val Razua?

>So you were told.
>You have to admit that your first instinct here is extreme skepticism - what are the odds of a pirate knowing more about ancient languages than an supposed expert on ancient languages? Particularly so, given what she's asking in return. She might just be making this up as she goes along. On the other hand, she does seem to know a fair bit about some things that she ought to have no business knowing at all. You suppose it's a matter of how much you feel you can trust her assertions of honesty and how much you feel you have to lose by trying.

[Oldmansour]

>Sniff, then wipe our nose.
>"I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask, how much is this oh-so-generous offer gonna cost me?"

[DracoOmega]

>Sniff, then wipe our nose.
>"I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask, how much is this oh-so-generous offer gonna cost me?"

>"I already named my price," Aya says with a confident grin. "You help me find what I'm looking for, and I'll help you find what you're looking for. Only fair, isn't it? I'll even hold up my end of the bargain first. What do you say?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Wasn't I clear the first time?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Wasn't I clear the first time?"

>"I just thought I'd sweeten the deal a little," she says without letting her grin falter even a little. She projects the aura of someone completely satisfied that they're in charge of the situation. It's more than a little vexing. "I'd have figured someone in your position would have to at least be curious, no?"

[Oldmansour]

>Small nod. "I just might be. And on another day, I might just indulge it. But, I think I'd rather eat my own tail than help you steal from good people. Not that you need help doing that, anyway."
>"So, thanks. But no thanks."

[DracoOmega]

>Small nod. "I just might be. And on another day, I might just indulge it. But, I think I'd rather eat my own tail than help you steal from good people. Not that you need help doing that, anyway."
>"So, thanks. But no thanks."

>Aya gives a resigned shake of her head. "It's not theirs any more than than it's yours, you know. They just had the misfortune to be strapped with couriering it. Unless by 'good people', you mean Remilia?" She leans in and gives you a curiously appraising look, almost as this were a matter of academic curiosity.

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't even care who owns it, or where it was going. That's not even the point. You're not robbing Remilia, or anyone else. You're robbing the Maiden and her crew, and don't tell yourself any different. They fought hard to keep their ship safe and free of scum like you, and despite the despite the fact that I'd love to get rid of you that much sooner, helping you means spitting in their face. I won't do that."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't even care who owns it, or where it was going. That's not even the point. You're not robbing Remilia, or anyone else. You're robbing the Maiden and her crew, and don't tell yourself any different. They fought hard to keep their ship safe and free of scum like you, and despite the despite the fact that I'd love to get rid of you that much sooner, helping you means spitting in their face. I won't do that."

>Aya listens to your rebuttal with calm interest. She doesn't even seem to react visibly to you calling her scum; you find yourself slightly disappointed at this.
>"Impressive loyalty to your fellows," she says as you finish, scribbling something in that notebook of hers again. Then she twirls the pen in her fingers and points it at your badge. "Not a lot of people wearing one of those would have said the same thing, you know. But is this really something you're willing to risk your life over? That is, if it's genuinely in as much jeopardy as you've claimed." Her expression is still one of largely-neutral interest; the question does not seem intended to be pointed.

[Oldmansour]

>Pause, then let out a small breath. Glance over towards the railing, then take a few steps towards it.
>"Put yourself in my boots, captain. Would you betray your crew, to save your own neck? And be able to look at yourself in the mirror after all's said and done?"

[DracoOmega]

>Pause, then let out a small breath. Glance over towards the railing, then take a few steps towards it.
>"Put yourself in my boots, captain. Would you betray your crew, to save your own neck? And be able to look at yourself in the mirror after all's said and done?"

>You pause a moment, then sigh quietly and gaze out at the wide skies. The Skyfang looms predatorily off the Maiden's side, its size and bearing reminiscent of a warship as much as anything else. At least, that's what it reminds you of - you've never seen a real tengu warship before, though you suppose very few people have. It's rare enough to see a tengu vessel at all, let alone something like this. The graceful precision of its construction would actually be pretty impressive if you didn't resent its mere presence there. A few small forms move about on the deck with no regard at all for your disdain.
>"Of course not," Aya replies easily. "Shameimaru's word is her bond. But you're just a passenger here. In fact, I don't think you've had any dealings with them at all before a day or two ago. That's not very long to put your neck on the line for their behalf."

[Oldmansour]

>"'Shameimaru's word is her bond.'? So, saying you're only hear to steal one thing, and then deciding to pillage a bit more. That doesn't count?"

[DracoOmega]

>"'Shameimaru's word is her bond.'? So, saying you're only hear to steal one thing, and then deciding to pillage a bit more. That doesn't count?"

>"That's restitution for property damage," she protests with a frown on her face, looking almost as if she were disappointed in you. "And I'm sure the distinction isn't lost on you, whatever you think of us."

>At this point, you are interrupted by a new voice, issuing clearly from the other end of the deck. A quick glance suggests it belongs to the onmyouji.
>"Aya?" she calls out in a firm voice. "She's coming to."

[Oldmansour]

>"You really believe that doesn't amount to breaking your word." Give her a sympathetic look. A genuine one, too. She believes her own lies. That's a very dangerous place to be.

[DracoOmega]

>"You really believe that doesn't amount to breaking your word." Give her a sympathetic look. A genuine one, too. She believes her own lies. That's a very dangerous place to be.

>"I do," she replies, her forehead creasing just a little as you give her a look of genuine sympathy. She seems slightly uncertain what to make of this gesture; for once, you think you may have actually made her falter a little.
>"But I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short," she continues, quickly resuming her stride. "I need to go speak with your captain over there before she gets too riled up. I'd still love to hear more of that story of yours later, though. And my offer still stands, if you change your mind."
>She pauses a moment and gives you an appraising look, then gestures to your gear. "If I let you keep that with you as a gesture of good faith, do I have your word you won't cause any trouble with it?"

[Oldmansour]

>Give her a nod. "I'm done fighting. As long as my friends are safe, you've got nothing more to worry about from me."
>Best we might be able to manage is shaking one of these pirates anyway, and that's not gonna help anybody. Although it'd make Chisato happy for a minute... Nah, better not.

[DracoOmega]

>Give her a nod. "I'm done fighting. As long as my friends are safe, you've got nothing more to worry about from me."
>Best we might be able to manage is shaking one of these pirates anyway, and that's not gonna help anybody. Although it'd make Chisato happy for a minute... Nah, better not.

>"Glad to hear it," Aya says, returning your nod. "And don't you worry about your friends. We'll make sure the injured are taken care of; you have my word on that."
>You briefly entertain the thought of inflicting a little more injury on the pirates regardless, but quickly discard this plan as merely making a bad situation worse. And frankly, you're in no shape to instigate another battle right now. You hurt profusely from more places than you care to count and your body is battered, bloody, and exhausted; you're probably only still upright through sheer stubbornness. As much as you hate to admit it, even the thought of having a drag another round out of yourself makes you feel weary to your core, though damned if you're going to let that show on your face.

>With this, Aya turns aside and casually wings towards the rest of the group, clustered together by the rotor strut. Well, it's casual compared to how she was moving earlier, but still pretty swift by any other standard. You can see Murasa starting to stir within the ring of talismans; the onmyouji standing beside her - Karu, you assume - spares a glance back towards Aya as she approaches, then quickly turns back to her restless captive and makes a subtle hand gesture. Ishi looks ready to launch another string of invective at the pirate leader, and most of the rest of the group are splitting their attention between either Aya or the waking ghost, but you catch Neu looking in your direction instead - her expression is hard to read at this distance.

[Oldmansour]

>Press our hand against our head for a second or two. Ward off the headache dealing with that pirate gave us. Plus, yknow, the headache of the pirate battle before hand.
>Do we still have any bleeding wounds? If so, do we have anything on hand to bind them?

[DracoOmega]

>Press our hand against our head for a second or two. Ward off the headache dealing with that pirate gave us. Plus, yknow, the headache of the pirate battle before hand.
>Do we still have any bleeding wounds? If so, do we have anything on hand to bind them?

>You put a hand to your head and rub a little. If you don't have a headache, it would be about the only part of you not aching right now.
>The bleeding from your leg has slowed greatly from when Fuuka first dug her sword into it, but you don't think it's stopped altogether. For many of the other wounds, it would be hard to tell without wiping aside the blood already shed them from. Unfortunately, about the only thing you have on-hand that could bind your injuries would have to be salvaged from your own clothes.

[Oldmansour]

>Left to our own devices, free but helpless, during a pirate's looting party. Wouldn't have predicted THAT a week ago.
>Come to think of it, how close ARE we being watched? And the Maiden crewers, for that matter?

[DracoOmega]

>Left to our own devices, free but helpless, during a pirate's looting party. Wouldn't have predicted THAT a week ago.
>Come to think of it, how close ARE we being watched? And the Maiden crewers, for that matter?

>There's precious little about your current situation that you would have predicted last week. At the rate you're going, you'll have filled a whole career worth of surprises by the end of the month. ...well, assuming you're still around by then.
>Aside from Neu, you catch the other tengu throw a subtle glance in your direction, but Aya herself doesn't appear to be paying you any mind at all. Neu and Ishi are only under light watch, with most eyes on Aya and Murasa, though all three of the pirates are near to them and they're both incapacitated and bound in one fashion or another.

[Oldmansour]

>Not like any of us are a massive threat anyway. Aya could probably handle the lot of us herself rather handily, even without her cronies backing her up.
>Are there any bleeding/open wounds present that we can see on either of the wholly living good guys?

[DracoOmega]

>Not like any of us are a massive threat anyway. Aya could probably handle the lot of us herself rather handily, even without her cronies backing her up.
>Are there any bleeding/open wounds present that we can see on either of the wholly living good guys?

>In the shape you're in now, you don't know if you could handle a single one of the tengu you fought in the corridor earlier. Neu looks like she has even less fight left in her. As much as it bothers you to admit, you're done here.
>Neu still has the very visible hole in her wing, though it isn't bleeding as such. You think you can spot a few other scrapes and minor cuts, but none of them look very serious. Ishi still looks more aggravated than actually injured.

[Oldmansour]

>No sense hanging around here and brooding. Make our way back towards Neu and Ishi, at a pace easy enough not to angry up the hole in our leg too much.

[DracoOmega]

>No sense hanging around here and brooding. Make our way back towards Neu and Ishi, at a pace easy enough not to angry up the hole in our leg too much.

>You shrug and lazily make your way back towards the others in the hope that a ginger pace would be easier on your injuries. It probably is, to be fair, but it still hurts to move. Though given that it also hurts to stay still and would probably hurt to lie down, you suppose this is the best you're going to manage for now.

>"Welcome back to the land of the living," Aya says cheerfully. Murasa's eyes seem more focused now, and she slowly directs her gaze upward to lock with the pirate's. Her face is writ with an oddly muted defiance. She says nothing.
>"Those were some neat tricks you pulled off back there," Aya continues lightly. "Though I'm sure that last one wasn't much fun for you." There's even something of a sympathetic look on her face as she says this. Murasa's glower only deepens. "What's it like, anyway?" the tengu asks. "I mean, I know what everybody says, of course, but I've never heard it from a real drowned ghost themselves." She flips her notebook open again and looks at Murasa expectantly. There is silence for a moment.
>"I've got nothing to say to the likes of you," Murasa eventually replies, her tone cold and strangely dull.
>Aya frowns. "Nothing at all? Not even a little something? It would help pass the time, you know."
>Murasa's grim expression is broken only by a slight widening of the mouth that seems to say "Are you serious?" Though, if you were to guess from the resigned look on the other tengu's face, this is nothing out of the ordinary. Aya herself doesn't seem to pay Murasa's reaction any mind.
>"It seems like such a shame," she continues. "It isn't often I get to meet a skyfarer of your caliber, and I know you've racked up all kinds of interesting stories in your day. I'd really love to hear some of them from your own mouth. I've read what I could get my hands on, of course, but we both know the official record doesn't always tell the whole story. Like, say, what really happened to the Nordfalke?" She asks this with a knowing smirk on her face. "Or something else, if you'd rather; I'm not picky!"

>"Perhaps," Neu interjects in weary voice, "It would be in all our best interests if you simply got down to your business so that we could get back to ours."
>"But information is my business," Aya replies with a smile, twirling her pen deftly.
>At this point, Ishi lets out a mightly blow of air through pursed lips. You think it may have been intended to knock the spinning pen out of Aya's fingers entirely, but at this distance succeeds mostly in making the little kappa red-faced. The other tengu snickers. Neu sighs.

[Hello Purvis]

>"So what happened on the Nordfalke, then?"

[DracoOmega]

>"So what happened on the Nordfalke, then?"

>Neu throws you a wary frown as you ask this question. Aya glances back and you and grins.
>"That's a very good question!" she says with some enthusiasm. "It disappeared with all hands a couple decades ago. Was rather convenient timing, too, given who happened to be on board. They never confirmed Waldstrom had been poised to depose the Northswald ruling council, but you can read between the lines. Unfortunately, the story goes cold pretty soon after that - hard to pull evidence back from the abyss, after all. That was probably convenient, too, given certain family connections among the still-living. You'd almost think somebody wanted it to play out that way," she adds innocently. "Though no one seemed to bother investigating that possibility for some reason." She turns back to Murasa. "I wonder why?"
>For her part, the ghost captain's glower seems to have darkened further. While her countenance is still a far cry from the disquieting hollowness of her ghostly form, it's still not a pleasant gaze to find oneself under; you can't help but wonder if just a little of that is directed at you, now.

[Oldmansour]

>In retrospect, Aya harassing Murasa for 'stories' really shouldn't surprise a mouse too much.
>Let the tengu bait us, make her veiled accusations. Murasa let us on her ship, even after what we and Neu told her.
>And yet, that doesn't change  the fact that we just helped the pirate's cause. Damned curiousity....
>Swallow uncomfortably and look away from Murasa.

[DracoOmega]

>In retrospect, Aya harassing Murasa for 'stories' really shouldn't surprise a mouse too much.
>Let the tengu bait us, make her veiled accusations. Murasa let us on her ship, even after what we and Neu told her.
>And yet, that doesn't change  the fact that we just helped the pirate's cause. Damned curiousity....
>Swallow uncomfortably and look away from Murasa.

>You find yourself a little annoyed at your own curiosity and the fact that you seem to have given the pirate leader a chance to soapbox a little. Not that she seems to need a very willing audience to start doing this.
>You swallow uncomfortably and look away from Murasa, though the ghost captain doesn't seem to actually be looking much at you at all. You suppose that's probably a relief; the last thing you want right now is to draw any of the crew's ire.

>Aya lets her last question hang in the air for a few moments, and when it becomes clear that Murasa doesn't intend to answer it, moves on with a dismissive wave of her hand.
>"Well, we can talk about that later," she says. "I suppose I ought to ask you where you've stowed that thing the archeologist gave you, so that you can tell me you don't know what I'm talking about, right?" She smiles. Murasa doesn't. "Well, it doesn't really matter," Aya continues easily. "We'll find it eventually. But what I would like to discuss is how you intend to make up for almost smashing the Bunbunmaru to pieces? In the shape she's in right now, I don't even know if we'll get her flying again at all!"
>Murasa's reply is positively frigid. "Good."
>Aya frowns, looking more disappointed than surprised. "You're still culpable for the damage, you know. You deliberately attacked another vessel, which - I should point - had neither attacked you nor was in a position to do so and you gravely endangered the lives of her crew."
>"You can fly."
>"Not all of us!" Aya replies chasteningly. Her expression is probably the most genuinely serious you've seen it yet.

[Oldmansour]

>What do you expect, pirate, your victims to just roll over for you? Or do you just steal more things when people actually defend themselves.
>Bite our tonuge to keep from popping off at the self-righteous theif.