Diclaimer: I own nothing within Sengoku Basara, any characters seen in the anime or games are clearly not my property or else I would not be writing this. Original creations however are indeed my own.
"Catch of the day indeed! What do we have here?"
"Brought up with the haul, aniki, we池e not sure how it happened but the men sure ain稚 complaining. A low laugh rumbled throughout the crew, their leader only just holding back his own throaty laughter. All eyes were trained to the sight dangling in a fishing net just above the deck, dripping wet and covered in still squirming fish.
"It seems the boys have caught themselves a mermaid! The men laughed at his sarcastic words, ignoring the black stare that touched each and every one of them from behind the ropes of the heavy fishing net. The figure at whose expense they found the situation so humorus began to struggle within her prison, her flailing arms becoming caught in the woven rope and sticking out at odd angles. That could not be comfortable, so the captain decided to have a little mercy. 展ell bring her down then, can稚 be so rude to such a special guest."
"Aye, aye sir!"
The net hit the deck with a loud splat, opening from the top where the huge crane had fished it out of the sea and sending all manner of marine life wriggling about. In the midst of the gleaming silver fish, occasional squid and precariously pointy sea urchins sat the so called mermaid. She was shivering with what might have been cold had it not been so oppresively warm out, so it must be anger or at the very least a healthy dose of humiliation she shook with instead. Perhaps a mix of the two, that seemed about right. The woman was coated in slime, ink and scales from the terrified cluster of future food stuffs she was trapped with, her black hair was a tangled rat's nest mixed with several feet of seaweed that fell over her face like the theatrical image of a drowned ghost. There were two legs instead of the much hoped for fishes tail of a mermaid sprawled out before her from her rather unceremonious drop onto the hard wooden floor. A plain, thin, dark green robe held precariously closed with a narrow belt was all that covered the woman. Narrow sleeves and a visibly rough texture clearly said the garment was of peasant make. She must have been out for a swim beside the ship and became entangled in the net as they pulled it up. But who in Shikoku wouldn稚 recognize the Fugaku?
"Well for a mermaid she痴 certainly ain't as ugly as the stories say. No tail, no monkey face, not real pretty but not ugly. One of the sailors said then turned and went to pinch the woman痴 cheek, before Chosokabe might have called him back for being overly rude but was beaten to it when the man began screeching damn near bloody murder. The fool痴 seeking fingers were currently trapped like a fish in the jaws of a hungry shark, said jaws belonging to the tormented woman who was clearly not so helpless as they had thought.
A hurried scramble broke out as more sailors ran forward, some pulling their fellow back as others tried to drag the now hissing female as far away from her victim as possible. All through this the white haired captain stood there, leaning on his anchor, staring at the strangely hilarious scene before him. His man was freed, a few small cuts from the woman痴 teeth leaving behind welts and even some bleeding but upon closer inspection found the wounds to not even need a single stitch. Well the man learned his lesson, do not touch where touch was unwelcome, he was sure to take that one to heart. It took four rather large men to hold her down, one on each limb, clearly she was not some simpering miss either, the girl had some strength to her.
"Alright you dogs, let the lady go,he called out, slinging his weapon over his shoulder and slowly sauntered over to where the pile of flailing limbs was quickly falling apart. 展e might be pirates but even we have some manners, let her up and get her clean, I have some questions for our mermaid. The crew did as he ordered, no more injuries were inflicted but the scale and weed covered guest wouldn稚 even take the hand offered to help her to her feet, flinging her matted hair in the face of the captain who did so. Chosokabe spat out a fin and watched the soggy figure disappear into the bath house, wondering what the hell he had just let loose upon his ship.
It took time, a few hours actually, for him to meet again with his strange house guest, during which he almost forgot she was even aboard. A knock on the door of his private quarters reminded him of this little situation. In the meantime he had sequestered himself away in his work room. Diagrams of future projects were tacked onto every wall, half finished mechanical engines lay piled up in every corner, shelves overflowed with hand written notes. The room was the definition of organized chaos and he liked it that way. Removing the magnifying device from his eye, he set aside the prototype he had been tinkering with and closed the door behind him. Moving to the receiving room with the long veranda looking out to sea he sat down, placing his weapon next to him not for defense per se but more of a show to the clearly violent nature of the person he was about to meet with. A man slid open the door, announced the as of yet unnamed female and left rather quickly. Chosokabe riased a brow, apparently either word spread fast or this mermaid was of the deadly upon first glance variety. Maybe even the human flesh eating kind, either way she sure left an impression. So the daimyo prepared himself for this unusual encounter, gathering his thoughts, straightening his spine, threw back his shoulders and called for the odd woman to be let in.
And promptly felt his jaw hit the floor. What came through that door was definitely not what was hauled up in the fishing net.
Tall for a woman and strikingly pale, with long wavy blue-black hair, more curves than a winding river and clad in a deep purple haori with a hem that just barely reached the middle of her generous thighs. In short his men were correct in saying she was nothing like the ugly ningyo but she certainly couldn稚 be just a mortal woman either. Not when she could actually render the Ogre of the Western Sea into a silent stupor by simply walking through a door.
"Are you always so warm and welcoming to your guests or am I a special case? Her voice, which was slightly breathy and sarcastically cutting at the same time, brought him out of his inner monolog and back into the present. He blinked his one eye, shaking the dust off his conversation skills and regained his lost composure quickly as she gracefully sat down before him.
"Well you did come out of the sea, maybe I知 simply being cautious in case you prove to be an evil spirit in disguise,he said, tilting his head to the side, doing his best to appear nonchalant.
"More like your idiot crew fished me out of my daily swim like a prize tuna,she replied with a tight lipped smile.
"And for that I apologize, you are lucky they hauled you up when they did or you might have drowned in that net. An unpleasant thought for the both of them no doubt.
"And who do I have the honor of receiving such an apology from? Her eyes, he noticed, were a flashing violet that shone like crystallized plums. He sat quiet a moment, running that peculiar thought through his head again. Where the hell had that poetic crap come from?
"I知 Chosokabe Motochika, Lord of Shikoku and the Seto Inland Sea,he bowed his head just enough for an introduction but never once took his steady gaze off the beguiling stranger across from him.
"Well that does explain a few things,she said softly almost to herself, looking pointedly at the anchor laying on the floor.
"But it doesn稚 explain who you are or why you were swimming so close to my ship."
"What ship?"
"The one you池e currently sitting in. How did she not know that she had been swimming right against the port side of the flag ship to the fleet of the Shikoku daimyo? Hell how did she not notice an island that had not been there the day before? They had only made port in this part of the Inland Sea last night, it had sort of been a big deal to the common folk and word spread quickly. Every peasant for miles knew the look of his floating fortress, it was a rather large thing to miss. But as he looked more closely at the woman he noticed little hints to her identity that were overlooked before, hidden under a layer of muck that said she did not exactly match the poor farmer痴 clothing she was wearing earlier. Her skin was much too smooth to have been working hard, manual labor outside for a lifetime, her graceful manner of sitting and posture too well practiced to be a commoners daughter. Something was fishy here…
"This is a ship? But it痴 enormous!"
"Biggest in the world,he smirked proudly. 釘ut I can give you the grand tour later, right now I want some answers,his grin faded as he leaned forward, looking her straight in the eye, looking for the first sign of deceit. 添ou池e no fisherman痴 wife, you池e too proper for that and it shows. And you池e not from around here or else you would have known the Fugaku when you saw it, never mind choose to swim right next to it. And you would not have needed to know my name, everyone for miles knows me by face alone. So who are you? The beautiful woman sighed, running a hand through her curly bangs and biting her plump lower lip, that must have been a nervous tick for her but sent the blood rushing to places that made Motochika ever so grateful to be wearing baggy pants.
"I suppose my acting skills are a bit wanting,she turned those pretty eyes away for just a second, took a deep breath and turned back to him. 溺y name is Saito Nana, sister of Saito Toshimitsu formerly of Mino now in exile in Echizen. Please forgive my intrusion on your ship. The bow she made was low, her hands to the floor, waves of ebony hair falling like a dark waterfall around her. Also the angle caused the neckline of the borrowed jacket she wore to fall precariously close to revealing a tantalizing amount of cleavage, he was not sorry to take just a little advantage of the situation. He was a pirate after all, he was allowed.
"And what would the sister to one of Oda Nobunaga's former flunkies be doing all the way out here? The lady now known as Nana shot up from her bow, glaring daggers at him.
"I take it back."
"What? Your half baked apology? My lady if you hadn稚 noticed I happen to be a pirate, lying is part of a job description and that one you just threw out there was terrible. She puffed up like an angry blow fish, eyes alight, hair bristling and he thought to himself she was kind of cute when she was upset.
"I was attempting to be polite, you asked for the truth so I gave it to you! And for your information my brother痴 failed alliances have nothing to do with me,her arms folded under her rather ample bosom and it took more will power than he wanted to admit to keep his gaze from straying that far south, again. 的f anyone should be apologizing it痴 you for nearly drowning me in your net."
"And that only tells to me you池e one feisty wench to deal with. Well, mermaid, that solves one problem, now to figure what to do with you,he scratched his chin and made an exaggerated contemplating expression but ended up smirking at her quickly reddening face.
"I have a name,she hissed.
"I know, I prefer 僧ermaidhe replied.
"And please, do tell what exactly do you intend to 租o with me Chosokabe-sama? The sarcasm seeping from her words could have been cut with a knife it was so sharp.
"Well, you値l just have to wait and see, won稚 you my mermaid?"
Author's Note: Thanks to all who reviewed and favorited! I was really surprised how well this story has been taken, and so quickly too. So what did you think of this chapter? Was their first meeting up to snuff? Hope you all enjoyed it, leave a review if you wish and I'll be back hopefully next Monday with the next installment.