Chapter 4
Teeth of Iron
*Three nights later*
The wooden door-knocker sounded.
Eboshi started and sat up. A muffled voice cried from without, "It's me, Toki. I have a report of another light seen."
Eboshi rose, put on her dressing gown, and opened the door. "Yes, Toki. Another light?"
"Well, we think it's the same one, because it came from the same place, but it was bright yellow this time. No white at all. And it was brighter, too."
"All right. Who was the one who saw it?"
"It was Kyo, Eboshi-sama."
"Take me to her."
"This way."
Toki started off with Eboshi in tow. They passed through the quiet beaten-dirt streets around the wooden walls of the buildings and ascended onto the upper watch balustrade. Three women knelt there, their eyes riveted to the dark southeastern skyline.
One of them looked up when they arrived. "There hasn't been another sighting since, Eboshi-sama, but we're still watching just in case."
Eboshi approached Kyo from behind. "What did it look like?" she asked the woman calmly.
"It was bright and yellow. Almost like lightning. It flashed a few times, and then it just died. We didn't see anything else."
"Thank you." Eboshi stood up and faced Toki. "There should be someone here at all times every night just in case something changes. Even if it's nothing, we should still keep an eye on it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Eboshi went down to the ground level of the town and found Gonza waiting for her outside her tent. "I saw you leave with Toki, and I couldn't catch up. What's going on?"
"Gonza, when the sun rises I want you to send out an investigation team of about five men or so. Head southeast, spanning out and searching for anything out of the ordinary. Take a few days, and then return to report anything sited."
"May I ask what we're looking for?"
"Just anything not normal."
"Yes, Eboshi-sama."
^^^
San awoke in the den with one of her brothers. It had been three days since they last had heard anything from the strange humans. They had been keeping a constant eye on them, going in shifts to watch and make sure that they didn't do anything suspicious, and so far, all they seemed to be doing was staying put in their tents. San quickly rose and went out, heading in the direction of the valley, where she knew her other brother was waiting for her.
He was sitting on his haunches, his back to her, his ears twitching as he heard her come up behind him. "They've had visitors," he rumbled quietly.
"What?" San's voice was incredulous. She stepped up beside him. "Who?"
"There were two of them. A man and a girl. They came, gave something to the intruders, and then left."
"What did they give them?"
"It was a box wrapped in cloth. They took something yellow out of it and used it to make those."
San looked, and she saw something that hadn't been there before--there were markings on the ground inside the yellow circle, a different marking for each of the four poles.
San fell silent, questions running through her mind. She gave her brother a grateful pat on the head, and then he left her. San stood for a long time, looking down at the campsite below, her left hand gripping her spear. After a bit, she sat down in the lee of her favorite rock and continued her vigil, wishing Ashitaka was there.
^^^
Ashitaka would awaken about an hour later. He had told Kurayami Juu that he had written to Eboshi Gozen in Tatara Ba, and now he awaited her response. In the meantime, Kurayami-san had offered to give him a guide for a tour of the city. Ashitaka declined the offer, preferring to find his way around himself. Secretly, Ashitaka wanted to see if he could indeed find his way back to the temporary home of Hana and Baruna. He wanted to know more about them; specifically, where it was that the sphere would find its resting place with Hana's father's friends. He had spent the better part of yesterday searching for the place, but he must have gone farther than he thought that very dark night, because he hadn't found it. However, he had a good idea of where to look, and that's what he intended to do today.
Immediately following his awakening, Ashitaka freshened up, descended the stairs, and breakfasted in the common room. He left shortly and went to see Yakul in the stables, making sure that he had been given proper nourishment. It was now his practice to take Yakul with him when he went somewhere in the city, partially because the poor elk needed to get out and partially because he needed the company. As usual, Yakul greeted him with an eager nudge on the shoulder. Ashitaka smiled. "You ready to get going, too?"
Yakul ruffled Ashitaka's hair playfully and stamped his foot. Ashitaka gave him what he had saved from his breakfast and then proceeded to bridle and saddle him.
Once they were both ready, Ashitaka mounted and the two of them started off. The air had begun to get nippier as the days passed, and Ashitaka had taken to wearing his reed cloak whenever he went out of doors. The snows would be descending upon the mountains soon, as it was nearing the end of the tenth month.
Ashitaka leaned over and said to Yakul, "What say we try again where we left off yesterday?" Yakul shook his head as if to say, "It matters not to me." Ashitaka smiled and nudged him in the side; the elk began to canter, a rare thing, but necessary--the streets were too narrow and crowded for a run.
They finally found themselves at the place where Ashitaka's memory failed him, and he knew that this was where they had stopped in the near-dark hours the day before and turned back. He urged Yakul onward. They checked every street for something familiar, backtracking over and over to what seemed to be the main branch.
They did this for a few hours until Ashitaka spotted something. "Over there," he murmured, more to himself than to the elk.
They rounded a corner--and Ashitaka had found it. They were in the tiny alleyway that he remembered, and look! there was Hana's back door, looking stark and forbidding in the daylight.
There were no lights on inside. Ashitaka knocked, but no one answered. He tried the door, but it was definitely locked. Ashitaka did not want to be accused of trying to break in, so he leaned up against the doorpost and tried to make sense of it. If they were really gone for good, that would mean that the round thing was already in place in someone else's hands. Just whose hands those were, Ashitaka still had no idea.
Frowning, Ashitaka climbed back up onto Yakul's back, and the two of them made the journey back in a pensive silence. About halfway there, Yakul reached around and nibbled on the end of Ashitaka's moccassin. Ashitaka started out of his reverie, and then he laughed. "Sorry to worry you, Yakul. I should look on the bright side more often. Now I've only got two things to worry about."
Seeming satisfied that his master was properly brought back to the present, Yakul resumed trotting down to the square and then right back to the inn. Ashitaka's mind wandered off again, but not very far this time. *I wonder how San's faring.*
Ashitaka returned to the inn to find a letter there waiting for him from Eboshi. It read,
Ashitaka,
I have received your letter and understand its contents. I am replying to instruct you thus: go to Kurayami-san and deliver to him the other letter I have enclosed with this one. It asks him if he will allow you to sit in on his board meetings until further notice. I want you to listen very carefully to what is said, but not so much what is said as what is done. You understand what I ask; I want to know how they do business, and whether they are honorable men. I also enclose further funding, just in case. I await your report.
Cordially,
Eboshi Gozen
Ashitaka took note of the second piece of paper, which was folded up separately, as he digested what he had just read. Ashitaka would, if Eboshi had her way, be spending most of the remaining days in a meeting hall, listening--which was just fine with him.
^^^
When the sun rose over the wooden roofs of Tatara Ba, the gate swung ponderously upward, admitting the small search party. They crossed the landbridge and disappeared around the bend, reappearing when they reached the edge of the young forest, only to vanish from view again.
The party traveled steadily south east; they fanned out along a wide area, each keeping track of the two men on his right and left. They did not speak, so as not to announce their arrival to anyone or anything unpleasant--like Moro's pups or the wolf-girl.
As they knew would eventually happen, they came to an area where the forest cover thinned and vanished. They treaded right across this area, keeping their eyes peeled. Ahead was a series of ridges, and one of the men, who had been designated the short-distance scout, ascended the highest accessible point of the first one and peered out.
"There are about four ridges," he reported to Gonza below. "The fourth one drops off into a valley."
"Can you see anything else?"
"No, sir."
"All right then. Let's go."
They moved out, looking like ants running low over the sparsely vegetated mountain ridges. They all came to the fourth one at about the same time, but the scout ascended it first. He looked over, ducked back down, then looked again. He then slid back down and reported. "There are four large tents," he said. "Not far from the tents is a wide circle drawn on the ground in yellow, and there are four posts around the circle making the points of a cross." He demonstrated the sight with his hands.
Gonza then asked, "Was there anyone there?"
"No, sir. Not that I could see. They might have been in the tents."
"Well, there's only one way to find out." He gestured to four of the men. "You four come with me, and you as well. The rest of you stay here and keep watch, but keep out of sight."
After a chorus of "Yes, sir," the men dispersed, and Gonza, the four men, and the scout walked cautiously down the ridge towards the odd campsite.
Gonza knocked on the hanging door knocker, and after a few minutes, the tent flap lifted to reveal a short, strange-looking man. His head was completely bald, and he wore the brown robes of a monk, but there were markings at the hem that Gonza found familiar, but unreadable. The man looked at Gonza, then behind him at Gonza's men, then back to Gonza. His face was strange, but not unfriendly. "May I help you gentlemen?"
"Yes, you can. I would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."
"Certainly. Won't you come inside?"
They stepped into a spacious tent. The floor was bare, save for the wooden braces that extended from floor to ceiling, a large wooden chest, and a few stools. The summer grass was mostly dead, and the stalks were bent over, flattened to the ground by flat-sandaled feet. The man took one of the stools and brought it up so he could sit on it. "Very well, gentlemen," he said, "you may ask your questions."
Gonza's voice was businesslike. "All right, then. Are there more of you here?"
The man nodded. "There are four of us."
"And what do you plan to do here?"
"That is rather our business, if you don't mind. We do not plan to stay forever, if that's what you want to know."
Gonza made a noise that implied that that wasn't really what he wanted to know, but he continued. "Do you know anything about lights in the sky appearing somewhere near here?"
The man peered up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. "Lights? Oh, you mean that!" The man then laughed, as if it was some inside joke. "Well, you needn't worry about those. I suppose you've noticed the setting out there." He gestured to the yellow circle, which was visible from his tent flap, which he had left open. "My friends and I have been experimenting out there with different types of flares, and I suppose we didn't think about someone seeing them. We thought these mountains were uninhabited by humans." He said this last as if he had known that they were inhabited by something else.
"If it's only flares, then why the elaborate setup?"
"Oh, we like ceremonial things. As you can see--" he gestured to his clothing-- "we even like to look the part. Call it a hobby that we all share."
Gonza considered this. "Where did all of you come from?"
"We came by boat from the landmass of China."
Now Gonza knew why the markings on the man's robes were strangely familiar. He had heard lore of China, that a lot of things they did there were similar to customs on Japan. "Then how is it that you speak Japanese?"
"We all learned at the same school together, and when we learned to read and write, we also learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, so we could learn the similarities and differences. We all went to a school that was taught by a Buddhist who had lived in Japan for a long time, you see, and he thought it important to pass on the knowledge he had gathered there by teaching us the language. We eventually decided that we would visit Japan one day, ourselves, just to see what it was like."
"Sounds like you've known each other for a long time."
"Oh, my friends and I go back a long way, that we do. We did almost everything together."
"Would they mind if we talked to them as well?"
"I'm sure they would not mind being bothered."
The man rose, and Gonza followed him out with his men in tow.
The other four men were much the same, and Gonza was not surprised that they had much of the same tale to tell. That is not to say that he believed it, of course--just that it was very convincing. If it wasn't true, they had gone to a lot of trouble to conceal whatever was. Which, if possible, put Gonza further out on his edge.
Once Gonza was somewhat satisfied with their explanation, the men then requested, not unexpectedly, that Gonza tell them about where he had come from. As the first man had said, they had had no idea that any other humans lived in this forest. Gonza told them a little about Tatara Ba--only what he thought they needed to know, and no more--like their industrial endeavors, how long they had been there, and so on. He made sure not to reveal their location, however, explaining that he was 'not free to disclose that at this time.'
Gonza then realized that they had stayed longer than he had intended, and he thanked the four men and left promptly.
Once they were all reunited, they made all possible speed back to Tatara Ba to report what they had learned.
The four men they left behind, however, did not disperse back to their own tents, but remained to discuss the strangeness in their own language, so if they were overheard, they wouldn't be understood.
"This changes things," said one of them. "We will now have to keep our secret from humans? This will be harder than we thought."
"Are you suggesting that we postpone, Chow Yi?" said another dryly. "As you well know, we are on schedule, and should remain so if we intend to finish on time."
"But he's right, you know," said another one. "We will have to be extra careful. The humans noticed our operations, and they came looking for us. For all we know, they intend to watch us constantly from now on. What will you do then, Soo Tang?"
"They are of no concern to us! They couldn't stop us even if they tried!"
"Then why did you bother to cook up that lie to tell them, hmmm?"
"I just don't want them snooping around! And you all agreed that the lie sounded feasible. Do you now disagree, when it is too late?"
"No, the lie was a good one. It should hold them off for a while. I just see no reason to be unprepared when it does eventually fall through."
"We won't be, Yao Po. We won't be."
^^^
MUAHAHAHAHA! I have finished four chapters! *does happy dance* Now review! I command thee!
Teeth of Iron
*Three nights later*
The wooden door-knocker sounded.
Eboshi started and sat up. A muffled voice cried from without, "It's me, Toki. I have a report of another light seen."
Eboshi rose, put on her dressing gown, and opened the door. "Yes, Toki. Another light?"
"Well, we think it's the same one, because it came from the same place, but it was bright yellow this time. No white at all. And it was brighter, too."
"All right. Who was the one who saw it?"
"It was Kyo, Eboshi-sama."
"Take me to her."
"This way."
Toki started off with Eboshi in tow. They passed through the quiet beaten-dirt streets around the wooden walls of the buildings and ascended onto the upper watch balustrade. Three women knelt there, their eyes riveted to the dark southeastern skyline.
One of them looked up when they arrived. "There hasn't been another sighting since, Eboshi-sama, but we're still watching just in case."
Eboshi approached Kyo from behind. "What did it look like?" she asked the woman calmly.
"It was bright and yellow. Almost like lightning. It flashed a few times, and then it just died. We didn't see anything else."
"Thank you." Eboshi stood up and faced Toki. "There should be someone here at all times every night just in case something changes. Even if it's nothing, we should still keep an eye on it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Eboshi went down to the ground level of the town and found Gonza waiting for her outside her tent. "I saw you leave with Toki, and I couldn't catch up. What's going on?"
"Gonza, when the sun rises I want you to send out an investigation team of about five men or so. Head southeast, spanning out and searching for anything out of the ordinary. Take a few days, and then return to report anything sited."
"May I ask what we're looking for?"
"Just anything not normal."
"Yes, Eboshi-sama."
^^^
San awoke in the den with one of her brothers. It had been three days since they last had heard anything from the strange humans. They had been keeping a constant eye on them, going in shifts to watch and make sure that they didn't do anything suspicious, and so far, all they seemed to be doing was staying put in their tents. San quickly rose and went out, heading in the direction of the valley, where she knew her other brother was waiting for her.
He was sitting on his haunches, his back to her, his ears twitching as he heard her come up behind him. "They've had visitors," he rumbled quietly.
"What?" San's voice was incredulous. She stepped up beside him. "Who?"
"There were two of them. A man and a girl. They came, gave something to the intruders, and then left."
"What did they give them?"
"It was a box wrapped in cloth. They took something yellow out of it and used it to make those."
San looked, and she saw something that hadn't been there before--there were markings on the ground inside the yellow circle, a different marking for each of the four poles.
San fell silent, questions running through her mind. She gave her brother a grateful pat on the head, and then he left her. San stood for a long time, looking down at the campsite below, her left hand gripping her spear. After a bit, she sat down in the lee of her favorite rock and continued her vigil, wishing Ashitaka was there.
^^^
Ashitaka would awaken about an hour later. He had told Kurayami Juu that he had written to Eboshi Gozen in Tatara Ba, and now he awaited her response. In the meantime, Kurayami-san had offered to give him a guide for a tour of the city. Ashitaka declined the offer, preferring to find his way around himself. Secretly, Ashitaka wanted to see if he could indeed find his way back to the temporary home of Hana and Baruna. He wanted to know more about them; specifically, where it was that the sphere would find its resting place with Hana's father's friends. He had spent the better part of yesterday searching for the place, but he must have gone farther than he thought that very dark night, because he hadn't found it. However, he had a good idea of where to look, and that's what he intended to do today.
Immediately following his awakening, Ashitaka freshened up, descended the stairs, and breakfasted in the common room. He left shortly and went to see Yakul in the stables, making sure that he had been given proper nourishment. It was now his practice to take Yakul with him when he went somewhere in the city, partially because the poor elk needed to get out and partially because he needed the company. As usual, Yakul greeted him with an eager nudge on the shoulder. Ashitaka smiled. "You ready to get going, too?"
Yakul ruffled Ashitaka's hair playfully and stamped his foot. Ashitaka gave him what he had saved from his breakfast and then proceeded to bridle and saddle him.
Once they were both ready, Ashitaka mounted and the two of them started off. The air had begun to get nippier as the days passed, and Ashitaka had taken to wearing his reed cloak whenever he went out of doors. The snows would be descending upon the mountains soon, as it was nearing the end of the tenth month.
Ashitaka leaned over and said to Yakul, "What say we try again where we left off yesterday?" Yakul shook his head as if to say, "It matters not to me." Ashitaka smiled and nudged him in the side; the elk began to canter, a rare thing, but necessary--the streets were too narrow and crowded for a run.
They finally found themselves at the place where Ashitaka's memory failed him, and he knew that this was where they had stopped in the near-dark hours the day before and turned back. He urged Yakul onward. They checked every street for something familiar, backtracking over and over to what seemed to be the main branch.
They did this for a few hours until Ashitaka spotted something. "Over there," he murmured, more to himself than to the elk.
They rounded a corner--and Ashitaka had found it. They were in the tiny alleyway that he remembered, and look! there was Hana's back door, looking stark and forbidding in the daylight.
There were no lights on inside. Ashitaka knocked, but no one answered. He tried the door, but it was definitely locked. Ashitaka did not want to be accused of trying to break in, so he leaned up against the doorpost and tried to make sense of it. If they were really gone for good, that would mean that the round thing was already in place in someone else's hands. Just whose hands those were, Ashitaka still had no idea.
Frowning, Ashitaka climbed back up onto Yakul's back, and the two of them made the journey back in a pensive silence. About halfway there, Yakul reached around and nibbled on the end of Ashitaka's moccassin. Ashitaka started out of his reverie, and then he laughed. "Sorry to worry you, Yakul. I should look on the bright side more often. Now I've only got two things to worry about."
Seeming satisfied that his master was properly brought back to the present, Yakul resumed trotting down to the square and then right back to the inn. Ashitaka's mind wandered off again, but not very far this time. *I wonder how San's faring.*
Ashitaka returned to the inn to find a letter there waiting for him from Eboshi. It read,
Ashitaka,
I have received your letter and understand its contents. I am replying to instruct you thus: go to Kurayami-san and deliver to him the other letter I have enclosed with this one. It asks him if he will allow you to sit in on his board meetings until further notice. I want you to listen very carefully to what is said, but not so much what is said as what is done. You understand what I ask; I want to know how they do business, and whether they are honorable men. I also enclose further funding, just in case. I await your report.
Cordially,
Eboshi Gozen
Ashitaka took note of the second piece of paper, which was folded up separately, as he digested what he had just read. Ashitaka would, if Eboshi had her way, be spending most of the remaining days in a meeting hall, listening--which was just fine with him.
^^^
When the sun rose over the wooden roofs of Tatara Ba, the gate swung ponderously upward, admitting the small search party. They crossed the landbridge and disappeared around the bend, reappearing when they reached the edge of the young forest, only to vanish from view again.
The party traveled steadily south east; they fanned out along a wide area, each keeping track of the two men on his right and left. They did not speak, so as not to announce their arrival to anyone or anything unpleasant--like Moro's pups or the wolf-girl.
As they knew would eventually happen, they came to an area where the forest cover thinned and vanished. They treaded right across this area, keeping their eyes peeled. Ahead was a series of ridges, and one of the men, who had been designated the short-distance scout, ascended the highest accessible point of the first one and peered out.
"There are about four ridges," he reported to Gonza below. "The fourth one drops off into a valley."
"Can you see anything else?"
"No, sir."
"All right then. Let's go."
They moved out, looking like ants running low over the sparsely vegetated mountain ridges. They all came to the fourth one at about the same time, but the scout ascended it first. He looked over, ducked back down, then looked again. He then slid back down and reported. "There are four large tents," he said. "Not far from the tents is a wide circle drawn on the ground in yellow, and there are four posts around the circle making the points of a cross." He demonstrated the sight with his hands.
Gonza then asked, "Was there anyone there?"
"No, sir. Not that I could see. They might have been in the tents."
"Well, there's only one way to find out." He gestured to four of the men. "You four come with me, and you as well. The rest of you stay here and keep watch, but keep out of sight."
After a chorus of "Yes, sir," the men dispersed, and Gonza, the four men, and the scout walked cautiously down the ridge towards the odd campsite.
Gonza knocked on the hanging door knocker, and after a few minutes, the tent flap lifted to reveal a short, strange-looking man. His head was completely bald, and he wore the brown robes of a monk, but there were markings at the hem that Gonza found familiar, but unreadable. The man looked at Gonza, then behind him at Gonza's men, then back to Gonza. His face was strange, but not unfriendly. "May I help you gentlemen?"
"Yes, you can. I would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."
"Certainly. Won't you come inside?"
They stepped into a spacious tent. The floor was bare, save for the wooden braces that extended from floor to ceiling, a large wooden chest, and a few stools. The summer grass was mostly dead, and the stalks were bent over, flattened to the ground by flat-sandaled feet. The man took one of the stools and brought it up so he could sit on it. "Very well, gentlemen," he said, "you may ask your questions."
Gonza's voice was businesslike. "All right, then. Are there more of you here?"
The man nodded. "There are four of us."
"And what do you plan to do here?"
"That is rather our business, if you don't mind. We do not plan to stay forever, if that's what you want to know."
Gonza made a noise that implied that that wasn't really what he wanted to know, but he continued. "Do you know anything about lights in the sky appearing somewhere near here?"
The man peered up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. "Lights? Oh, you mean that!" The man then laughed, as if it was some inside joke. "Well, you needn't worry about those. I suppose you've noticed the setting out there." He gestured to the yellow circle, which was visible from his tent flap, which he had left open. "My friends and I have been experimenting out there with different types of flares, and I suppose we didn't think about someone seeing them. We thought these mountains were uninhabited by humans." He said this last as if he had known that they were inhabited by something else.
"If it's only flares, then why the elaborate setup?"
"Oh, we like ceremonial things. As you can see--" he gestured to his clothing-- "we even like to look the part. Call it a hobby that we all share."
Gonza considered this. "Where did all of you come from?"
"We came by boat from the landmass of China."
Now Gonza knew why the markings on the man's robes were strangely familiar. He had heard lore of China, that a lot of things they did there were similar to customs on Japan. "Then how is it that you speak Japanese?"
"We all learned at the same school together, and when we learned to read and write, we also learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, so we could learn the similarities and differences. We all went to a school that was taught by a Buddhist who had lived in Japan for a long time, you see, and he thought it important to pass on the knowledge he had gathered there by teaching us the language. We eventually decided that we would visit Japan one day, ourselves, just to see what it was like."
"Sounds like you've known each other for a long time."
"Oh, my friends and I go back a long way, that we do. We did almost everything together."
"Would they mind if we talked to them as well?"
"I'm sure they would not mind being bothered."
The man rose, and Gonza followed him out with his men in tow.
The other four men were much the same, and Gonza was not surprised that they had much of the same tale to tell. That is not to say that he believed it, of course--just that it was very convincing. If it wasn't true, they had gone to a lot of trouble to conceal whatever was. Which, if possible, put Gonza further out on his edge.
Once Gonza was somewhat satisfied with their explanation, the men then requested, not unexpectedly, that Gonza tell them about where he had come from. As the first man had said, they had had no idea that any other humans lived in this forest. Gonza told them a little about Tatara Ba--only what he thought they needed to know, and no more--like their industrial endeavors, how long they had been there, and so on. He made sure not to reveal their location, however, explaining that he was 'not free to disclose that at this time.'
Gonza then realized that they had stayed longer than he had intended, and he thanked the four men and left promptly.
Once they were all reunited, they made all possible speed back to Tatara Ba to report what they had learned.
The four men they left behind, however, did not disperse back to their own tents, but remained to discuss the strangeness in their own language, so if they were overheard, they wouldn't be understood.
"This changes things," said one of them. "We will now have to keep our secret from humans? This will be harder than we thought."
"Are you suggesting that we postpone, Chow Yi?" said another dryly. "As you well know, we are on schedule, and should remain so if we intend to finish on time."
"But he's right, you know," said another one. "We will have to be extra careful. The humans noticed our operations, and they came looking for us. For all we know, they intend to watch us constantly from now on. What will you do then, Soo Tang?"
"They are of no concern to us! They couldn't stop us even if they tried!"
"Then why did you bother to cook up that lie to tell them, hmmm?"
"I just don't want them snooping around! And you all agreed that the lie sounded feasible. Do you now disagree, when it is too late?"
"No, the lie was a good one. It should hold them off for a while. I just see no reason to be unprepared when it does eventually fall through."
"We won't be, Yao Po. We won't be."
^^^
MUAHAHAHAHA! I have finished four chapters! *does happy dance* Now review! I command thee!
