Colony 6: Inland Sea 3, by DarkBeta
(Shura's ship is a half-and-half, a sailing hull with a steam engine plunked into it. This works about as well as you'd expect. I rather think they're undermanned also. That she's sailed so far without major problems indicates Shura's preternatural skill! I'm not at all certain of the rig, so forgive my vagueness on that point. I did add a few paragraphs to the first chapter to explain why [beside pre-existing hostility) Saito's cabin is to the rear of the smokestack.)
[Inland Sea, Afternoon and Evening of the First Day]
"Hard about!"
More of the lake-dragons basked on the muddy shore. They needed to find a better landing. At the bow Iwa-jii watched for shallows, with the heavy plumbline ready to cast. The wind was mild and inconstant, blowing now inshore and now offshore and now not at all. She didn't need to signal Sarujiro. He watched for cat's-paws on the water and turned the sail to catch the wind they needed.
The covey of passengers scattered out of his way. They didn't understand. They couldn't understand. Shura cursed the wind and the shore and the scaled monsters, but she could feel poor ungainly Yasuo straining to stay clear of the silt, and Iwa-jii and Sarujiro working with her so smoothly that they might share a spirit.
"Dark water!" Iwa-jii called.
A river had sliced its way down to the lake. Its delta was drowned now, by waters high enough to fill the river's mouth. The wind was stronger, funneled up along the river's course. What the gods gave, you didn't question. Shura spun the wheel again.
The current slapped at the hull, trying to toss the Yasuo back to the lake. She didn't go far up the river. She'd skulked along Japan's coastline long enough to know that even without tides rivers ebbed. A channel today could be mudflats tomorrow. Fresh water was no place for a sailor!
A wide tree, its exposed roots gripping the bank like an octopus, was the best anchorpoint she could see. The hauser was far too heavy for Iwa-jii. Shura was about to call Sarujiro to take her place at the wheel, when Kenshin's tall follower grabbed a hank of it and leapt for the bank.
He looped the hauser several times around the tree and tied it off. (Shura planned to make a better knot the minute she came ashore.) Then he dropped to his knees and kissed the muddy bank. She decided she was insulted on Yasuo's behalf.
ooooooo
Sano turned back to the ship and glared at Megumi.
"Fox-lady, tell your foxy friends to send us home!"
"Oh-ho-ho! I'm threatened by a black-faced oni. Dear Kenshin, will you protect me?"
Sano scrubbed at the mud on his face, and only made it worse. His friend Katsuhiko – whom Kaoru had never seen with more than a sardonic smile – laughed hard enough he had to lean against the cabin wall. Yahiko made a ringmaster's gesture with his bamboo sword.
"Everybody come look at the stupid rooster-head!"
"My idiot student has made such suitable friends," Hiko said.
Saito smirked. Even Tae giggled. Megumi rubbed up against Kenshin like a cat begging for attention.
"That's enough! We're going ashore."
Kaoru grabbed Kenshin's hand and jumped for the bank. She landed on her feet at least, but swayed backward, flailing. She felt a firm push at her back, and then Sano caught her hand.
"Thank you. Kenshin, what should we . . . ? Kenshin?"
"Oro-o-o."
He wasn't there when she turned around. After a moment she looked down, at a small, damp, dazed bundle by the river's edge.
"Kenshin! Get away from there! What if one of those armor-lizards is down there?"
He crab-walked backward from the water's edge so quickly it might have been funny, if Kaoru wasn't watching every ripple for eyes and sharp teeth. She clutched her bokken. The eyes were deepset, but she should strike there first. Could she gag it with the wooden sword, or wedge its jaws open?
Sano, skidding halfway down the bank himself, caught the back of Kenshin's shirt and hauled him up.
"Look at you! Kenshin, you idiot, you're dirtier than Sano! You'll have to do the laundry as soon as we get back . . . ."
She stopped, and swallowed. On the deck of the ship the laughter had ended. People looked at her as if she'd said something inappropriate. Kaoru closed her eyes.
"I think . . . I think we should go look and see where we are! Come on, Kenshin."
She slid the bokken into her sash and turned to climb. A kimono and getas were not the best costume for it. Kenshin had to catch her again, although this time he didn't fall himself, and then Sano shoved her over the rim with a hand in a rude place.
"Maa!"
Kenshin and Sano scrambled up beside her. Yahiko followed them.
"Stupid ugly hag, wants to keep all the fun for herself . . . !"
She had never seen a place so wide or so empty. By the lake was a dark border of trees and brush. Beyond it, stretching up to distant shaded foothills, was a plain of grass. She couldn't see any roads, any bridges, any villages, and the horizon was the only straight line.
"We . . . we should go back. The sun is low. We need to tell everyone . . . ."
Her voice trailed off, since she could not think what they would say, but when she turned back the others followed. Even Yahiko was silent.
ooooooo
Shura didn't like to have an open fire on her ship if she could avoid it. They built a fire up on the bank to cook rice and vegetables. By sunset the coals had burnt down, so they wouldn't be visible from a distance. If Kenshin needed a beacon though, he had a stack of scrap wood he could toss onto the coals.
In this strange place, they needed to keep a watch. He had not mentioned it as the others planned where to sleep, but he made sure he could climb the bank even without light. It was not difficult. They'd wedged a few supports among the roots, and strung cord as a kind of railing, so even the women could climb up to find some privacy.
Once the orange sun went down, and the passengers had gone back to their cabins, he came to sit with his back to the river. He'd be happier with a wall behind him, or even a tree, but those were few here. Only the necessary screens, set inland from the river, and those were too flimsy to be any use even if he wanted to sit near them.
"I will take the next watch," Shinomori said.
His approach had been silent, as suited the head of the oniwabanshu. He didn't surprise Kenshin.
"Thank you."
Shinomori didn't turn back. He stared into the dark like Kenshin, looking for some twinkle of another fire, or trying to make sense of the strange stars.
"What are you thinking?"
"The sailors on the Black Ships . . . what did they expect, when they sailed to a strange shore?"
Shinomori said nothing, but Kenshin knew he was understood. He kept his eyes on the dimming plains. Finally he added another question.
"If there are people, will we be the Black Ship here?"
Some time after that Shinomori left as silently as he'd arrived.
His next visitor wasn't silent at all. He could hear Kaoru from the time she scrambled down from the ship's rail. She started scolding before her head was over the top of the bank.
". . . chilly out and you don't even have a coat, didn't bring a mat to sit on or anything. Kenshin, you idiot."
She lifted a bulky roll from her back and slapped it down. The coals flared a little in the wind. She kicked the bamboo mat to unroll it.
"There. At least you don't have to sit on the ground, with the dew settling. I know you have to take care of us, but you need to take care of yourself too."
He'd survived the wars. He was alive twelve years after Tobashima. What part of that was not taking care of himself?
"Come on, sit down. I brought a mantle too."
Kenshin found himself pushed into place and the mantle thrown around him whether he cooperated or not, as if he were a stone Jizo. Quickly he rearranged the folds to keep his swordarm clear. Kaoru dropped onto the mat beside him.
"So much excitement today; it's no use my going to bed yet. I'll just stay up here until I feel sleepy."
He heard her rub her arms, and then fold her hands into her sleeves.
"You are cold. Take the mantle, Kaoru-dono."
"No! That's for you! I'm fine. Aren't the stars bright up there? Amazing."
She was definitely cold. He knew she was shivering. She'd said the mantle was for him though. She'd be angry if he offered it back again.
Kenshin risked moving one side of the cloak around her shoulders. He hoped she wouldn't hit him hard enough to knock him out. Who would stand guard then?
She didn't hit him. She moved closer. A little later her head leaned on his shoulder.
When she fell asleep she started to slump forward. Kenshin tried to shift her back up against his shoulder. Somehow she curled down instead, ending up with her head on his thigh and one hand clenched on his pants' leg.
This would definitely interfere with swift movement. Even so, Kenshin didn't move her.
"Mine," he thought, staring out at the dark world, and if his eyes had an assassin's fire no-one was there to see.
(Jizo is the priest who guards the souls of children in the afterlife. His statues stand alongside roads, and it's considered kindness to provide a cape or hat to one in bad weather.)