The tempest was picking up like the breath of a furious sea monster howling across the Tosa region of Shikoku. The redhead's sultry lips parted from a grin to savour the salty breeze pushing in from the nearby Inland Sea. She glanced up and narrowed her resolute stare at a hand painted shop sign.
Fair Weather, was that supposed to be ironic? She'd never been one for jokes, she preferred people to be more direct with both their actions and their words, this was her way.
This was our way.
Her soft tabi shoes made little more impact to the weathered wooden floors than had already been done as she swayed elegantly across to the ramshackle counter before her.
This was the thing about pirates: the home of a vagabond was never a place to make a home, only to cater to the very basics of human wants and needs; and as the fiery redhead saw it, all she needed was fresh water, seared meat and a healthy stock of gunpowder packed where only she could find it.
There was something about the scent burning in her nostrils; the thrust in her tightly gripped fingers as the powder ignited that really excited her deepest desires. If inconvenience were not an issue, she'd surely have holstered more than six flintlock pistols, but Magoichi Saika didn't care for something hard rubbing between her legs when it came to warfare.
'Firearms?' The finest cliché for a pirate if ever there were one in Shikoku, stood narrow eyed behind the bar staring down at her thigh holstered collection.
'Want a closer look?' Magoichi frowned, pushing the barrel of a rapidly drawn pistol into his grizzly chin,
'Whoa! Whoa!' The eyepatch wielding sailor recoiled, 'You should be wary of whose legacy those weapons carry around here!'
'Hm,' Magoichi uttered, pulling back, 'If you think I'd have any business with the Oda clan now you're gravely mistaken. The Saika forces have provided the lock and destroyed the key to ensuring the Nobunaga tomb is never disturbed.'
'Alright, alright!' The pirate swept the sweat from his forehead, 'But…just be careful alright?'
'Always,' she said authoritatively, 'now I need some information.'
'That's a drink,' The pirate's smile was missing a good few teeth and Magoichi wondered if he'd miss a few more, but she wasn't here for trouble, unless it found her first of course.
'What's your weakness?'
'Something smooth and strong,' Magoichi smiled, swinging her long legs across a stool and propping herself upon the counter.
'Just the thing!' The pirate seemed excited, as he poured a small measure of amber liquor into a china cup.
'How much?'
'It's imported from far Europe, high price, but…ask me the question first and then I'll give you my price.'
Magoichi lowered the glass, before the sweet scented liquid had embraced her dry lips and cocked her head at him, she nodded and slammed the cup down on the table without spilling a drop.
'What scent does the name Maeda Keiji carry on the wind through these parts?'
'Keiji…Keiji…Oh yeah, happy-go-lucky guy with the cute little monkey, wanted to speak to the Daimyo.'
'And where did you send him?'
The barkeep glared at her then readied the bottle above another cup he pushed beneath it,
'Buy me this drink and I shan't tell one lie,' He grinned again. The temptation to empty his mouth of teeth, so that no soul should have to bear that cocky grin again was growing too hard to resist now and Magoichi felt her fist clench by her side.
Just then a coin necklace flew past her and landed perfectly on the end of the tilted bottle, spinning as the weight of the coins settled downward. The barkeep glanced past her,
'A-Aniki!'
'Heh,' Came a familiarly rough accent, 'You sons of bitches oughta close early if this is the kinda business you're attracting these days.'
'Hey, Aniki,' The nervy barkeep protested, 'she was just shooting the breeze!'
'Well the breeze is on me.' Motochika swayed boldly into view as he leant back against the bar. There he was, with that deeply penetrating stare, resolute like her own but combined with his statuesque height and broad physique - this was one pirate you always knew when he was earnest.
'You look well Sayaka,' Motochika declared, fixated on her eyes with a half smirk– Unfortunately, she also knew when he was lying too.
'Idiot,' she looked away, 'That name is no longer spoken, you'll do well to remember that.'
Motochika did not respond, he simply pushed away from the bar and walked around her, one hand propped on his side and the other shoved firmly into his pocket.
'So...Sayaka,' the idiot mused, 'I was beginning to think the crows wings might have been clipped?'
'Hm,' she slid her finger through a straying lock, 'crows don't care for the open waters, we prefer to keep to altitudes where the wolves chase the rabbits below.'
'You know, there's plenty of action out here, if you know where to find it.' He smiled implicatively and Saika glanced back to her drink, she wouldn't get trapped in his stare, again...
'Sir Motochika I-'
'Oi oi, no need for the formality, call me Chosokabe, Sayaka.'
Suddenly she spun around, locking eyes with the steely pirate lord, a temperate amber flame surrounding her pupils as though two bullets heading straight for his forehead.
'I told you, never to call me that.'
Motochika held his stare, his ocean blue eyes flickering side to side but never loosing his smirk, then he nodded as he pulled back to take a seat beside her.
'Old habits die hard eh?' He said, tipping back the bottle the barman had 'accidentally' left at the bar.
'So do old people.'
Motochika shot her a reassuring glance -at least her attempt at humour hadn't offended him. He might have been an idiot but she couldn't let him think that she was only using him for information, allies with secrets were far greater than enemies.
"Magoichi, let's talk openly, what brings you to Shikoku?'
Magoichi spoke in a low voice, leaning closer along the bar,
'Maeda Keiji, what did he have to say to you?'
'Straight to the mark as always! Keiji...Keiji...you mean the happy-go-lucky guy with the cute monkey?'
'Happy is not the word I would use...more like persistent.'
Motochika shrugged, reaching across to refill her cup, Magoichi slid her hand between the bottle and its recipient yet he held it for a moment, flashing a smug grin.
'Have a drink, and all you need to know is yours.'
'That cheap trick must be very effective around here, for cheap men.'
'Well, are you going to refuse?'
Damn him, Magoichi thought, damn him and his stupid jokes. This was important; couldn't he see how serious this was to her? Was he that stupid?
'Fine.' Magoichi retracted her palm and once the drink was poured she lifted it to the air as a toast. Motochika's cup clinked against hers and he downed the contents, shooting her an expectant glare. Finishing her own drink was, she accepted, a very bad idea when she was subject to this man's devises.
'So then,' Motochika's scowl passed around the wary faces surrounding them,
'Keiji.'
Motochika leant in closer to her, 'listen, is there somewhere else we can talk about this?'
What was he up to? Magoichi knew that Motochika usually had a glint in his eye when some charlatan scheme was playing through his mind, but seeing nothing she had to take it as a safe move and nodded to the winding staircase at the far side of the room.
'This is an inn, isn't it?'
'Oi! Mr Yarashito,' Motochika waved to the proprietor as he stood up, 'we'll take a room'
'Ah, Aniki, please forgive me but that room is preoccupied!'
'No problem!' Motochika quipped, grabbing Magoichi by the wrist and tugging her towards the staircase.
He marched up two stairs a time until he got to the top where he crouched back on one foot and with one hand in Saika's and the other firmly in his pocket; he gave the door an almighty kick, nearly shattering the hinges. A young, naked couple were tangled on the bed in the heat of an exotic act of sexual experimentation and at the bursting of the door the young girl's moans of pleasure turned to a wild scream of mortification!
'A-Aniki?' The sweat soaked boy sat up, scrambling for his pants.
'Lord Motochika!' The naked girl smoothed back her silver hair and glancing into his eyes she blushed with a smile as he swayed into the room.
'Alright lad, this room's mine for now, bring your lady to Fukaku tonight and I'll see you reimbursed for your troubles.'
The boy seemed stunned, actually bowing as he helped his lady find her dress and pulled her from the room calling back. 'Thank you! Thank you very much Aniki!'
Once the door was shut Magoichi looked across her shoulder at him from where she stood before an open window. The brilliant glow from the setting sun and gentle breeze surrounded her in a radiant nimbus of spectral aura, a painting in Motochika's mind until she whitewashed it with her sharp tongue.
'You didn't need to do that.'
'Pirates don't just come to bars to use their mouths you know, even rum-whores have ears for listening. Besides, a chance to show the young of this land the fairness of their Daimyo is a chance not to be thrown overboard in such turbulent times! Treat your men like unworthy brothers and they'll always be back for more.'
'Idiot.'
'You know...Saika...' Motochika mused, 'it was not long ago that might have been you looking at me with those eyes.'
'Eyes?'
'How long has it been d'you suppose, since we...?'
'Hmn?' Magoichi folded her arms.
'Never mind, just old mermaids singing from distant rocks. Now, what business do the crows have with monkey boy?'
Magoichi turned to pace the room,
'I seem to have attracted the interest of Uesugi Kenshin and, that lovesick puppy Keiji seems to have been let a little too far off his leash, now he's come sniffing around here and I want to know why? What business does the God of War or the Maeda clan have with the sea devil of the Western seas?'
'Well, I'd say that puppy came barking up the wrong tree. Ieyasu Tokugawa was to me but another sun too far to feel its burning heat. Then, after the death of Hideyoshi the bastards stormed our unguarded backs and now look at us, trapped in a corner with no support, waiting to be swept to sea. Tokugawa took down one greedy tyrant, only to become the very same!' Motochika's face was tensed with wild ferocity, Magoichi had never seen her friend so angry, yet so confused at the same time. Magoichi wondered if she should have asked more questions when announcing the red bell contract with Tokugawa, but it was too late now, she wouldn't drop her guns and start picking fights just for sake of old allies, Motochika had to learn somehow that the Saika way takes no emotions into their dealings, those ties were severed long ago.
'Monkey boy thought I'd drink his saltwater convictions,' Motochika growled, 'thinking I wouldn't taste the tears of those who have died at his puppet masters hand.'
'So you made him…walk the plank?'
'Far from it,' Motochika spotted a sake bottle and cups that the young couple had forgotten in their haste. He poured two generous cups and handed one to Magoichi who eyed it warily.
'Let me guess,' she said sardonically, 'I drink you talk?'
'Come on Sayaka, what happened? You used to be fun! Join me, for old time sake?'
Mess with her head, fine; mess with her guns, if you're lucky; but mess with her pride? Now he'd hit the spot he'd been aiming for. Magoichi downed the sake and gestured for another.
'Heh,' Motochika gave her that look again, but this time she held for a little too long, had she been caught in his net?
'So, Magoichi wrapped her arm defensively beneath her chest, 'this Maeda Keiji may be more innocent than I suspected. He had nothing else to say?'
'What can I say, the man's motives are little more than delusional. Seems he'll fight for or against anything as long as the end result is the fools idea of a peaceful unification of states.'
'Motochika...' Saika seemed somewhat apprehensive all of a sudden, 'where do your allegiances lie now?'
'Mitsunari is assembling a coalition of those who will not be oppressed by Ieyasu's fists, I strongly advise you meet with him and hear his side.'
'The Saika faction take no sides, we will do only what is asked of us.'
'Which means?'
'I will see to it Ieyasu's bonds are made as to his requests.'
Motochika was quiet for a moment as he faced the giant, glimmering amber sun falling down into the irredescant sea far beyond his small island and its small affairs.
'That man sure loves his bonds eh?' Motochika smiled wryly and Magoichi couldn't help but find his words funny, but trying to resist laughter only made it worse and she erupted with a giggle of laughter soon turning into a side splitting explosion of pent up pleasire releasing free from her own control or even care.
'There,' Motochika chuckled, 'that's the Saika I remember, no, Sayaka.'
Rather abruptly, Magoichi found Motochika's fingers gently caressing her cheek. Frozen, what was she doing? What had she said? Why did she drink so much sake? Magoichi quickly slapped away his hand and made for the door.
'I must leave.'
Motochika did not speak but as she pulled open the door he caught her by the wrist.
'Sayaka...'
'Release me,' she cautioned, her fingers twirling above the pistols handle.
'Sayaka, I wish to speak with you, in a more private setting. Remember that place, where we used to go? If you aren't there at the dawn of the rising sun, then I'll take it as good I know your word stands that the crows have decided to fly west.'
He let her go, hoping it wouldn't be for the last time.
