And a warm welcome back to Kayo-San! So glad you could join us, I should know it's a rare thing to keep an email address for that long. As I edit this, I think I must have been writing half-asleep because the fatigue is becoming a theme. We'll have to wait until next week to get to the meat of things, but rest assured that nothing good is going on here…hope you all enjoy!
Daisya hovered by the rusted side rail, looking back and forth. This close to the smokestack, it was hard for anyone to sit long without coughing.
Which also mean that there was no one looking here. He was sure he was way out of the light of anyone's candle. God, the smoke was thick. Off the side of the boat he could make out the black surface of the sea just by the bits and pieces of reflected light. The deck was pretty much blocked out. Okay.
One more look, and then…
He gripped the railing and hopped over, hanging from the side. While his fingers got cold around the metal, he stuck his feet out searching for holds. One, there—one, there—it was a good thing he was flexible, with one foot reaching down and the other wedged halfway up his ribcage. Now that he'd taken care of he feet, he felt around with one hand for something firm. Another rail, skirting the outside of the ship. Good. His eyes were adjusted to the darkness, so he could just barely see the metalwork pressed up against them.
Daisya assessed his situation as he hung from the side of the ship. Not the greatest. He'd have to scuttle crabways along the outside of the cabin to get to the bridge, not that anyone would be looking out the windows at this hour, but with the cold sea lapping below him it could be a nasty fall.
"Lena? You there?" he called quietly. The ship creaked.
"Yes," he heard her reply from somewhere nearby. "I can't light up near these windows."
She must have been hovering there, waiting for him to finish getting his grip. Smart move, actually. He didn't know how much he'd flinch hearing her out of the black, but it might have been enough to lose his grip. He risked a look behind him, but her dark travelling cloak and dark-mode boots blended in with the night. She was a ghost. Him too, actually.
"That's fine," he said, "Just catch me if I fall, okay?"
"I'll try, but I can't see you!" she warned.
"Yeah, I know. You'll hear me."
Time to go. Sliding his left foot lightly over the outside of the ship, he eventually found a foothold that—yep, seemed kind of steady. It was easy enough to feel the rivets and joints through his leather boots, but not so much through the thick soles.
He let one hand go of the rail, finding another grip, then the other. Piece by piece, he crawled his way down the ship's side and then moved sideways, reaching the wooden balcony that wrapped around the outside middle levels. It was just there for life rings, but it would take them both along closer to the bridge.
Ahead of him, there was a quiet clunk as Lena's boots touched down.
"Grab my hand," she said.
"Sure, give me a sec."
He checked his footing. Not too bad, his front foot could definitely take full weight.
Reaching out not-quite-blindly, he found Lenalee's hand and readied to jump.
"There's a rail about three feet off the ground, so just make sure to come in above that," she said, tapping her foot to show him where she was standing.
"Be ready to catch me," he joked.
He didn't actually mean it, of course. Daisya was experienced, coordinated, and good at this stuff, absolutely. No matter what Kanda liked to say. He hopped up and over no problem. Even if he did feel the bar brush right under his feet as he cleared the gap, landing next to Lenalee. With a nod, they crept forward up toward the bridge side, hands held out to feel along the side of the ship.
After a few false alarms, they found what had to be an emergency door for the crew. The deck ran into a flat wall here, the bridge extending out beyond it above the hull.
"Daisya, you—"
"Yep."
He wished it was light enough to give her a wink. Instead, he snatched the Charity Bell out from where he'd kept it in his pocket, pushing his awareness into the small, deactivated Bell until it started to hum.
"Innocence, activate," he murmured. It helped to say it.
Letting it grow to about half its size, he kept the noise and glow to a minimum as he floated the Bell closer to the door. He'd been working on this for a while now, with Marie. Time to see if he could actually pull it off on the down low.
As he focused on the Bell, the silver noise coming off of it started to fluctuate. It probably sounded random to anyone else, but those were the sounds of voices. Using the Bell as an amplifier, he could take the vibrations of speech bouncing around the cabin and play them out here. The only problem was, it was a pain to try and make out the words while you were will concentrating on the Innocence.
"Is that good?" he asked.
"Maybe just a little bit louder," said Lena, bent down as close to the Bell as possible. "I think I've got it."
That was where teammates came in. Daisya kept his mind on the ball as she listened. For this kind of finesse work, the trick was to stop from zoning out. It didn't necessarily burn through the power he needed for shockwaves or chimes, it just needed a constant concentration on the input. The Bell had to be open to a mouse's footsteps and Daisya had to be listening out for them—it wasn't quite listening, since you did it with your mind, or your soul, or whatever it was that Innocence was supposed to tap into—and letting it all in. It was like trying to suck up an entire glass of water in one go with a straw, except the straw was a grass stem and the water was as thick and sticky as syrup and you couldn't miss even the last few drops in the bottom.
Thinking of that, he realized he'd forgotten to breathe. Oops. He started one now, trying not to let it distract him.
"Okay," Lena said a minute later. "Okay, I understand. You can stop now."
Daisya let the Bell shrink down again. Enough time had gone by that could finally make out the look on her face, even without any light. A frown, actually.
"So what's up? Are they stopping, or…?"
Lena pushed him gently, motioning to go back the way they came.
"I don't think they have a plan yet," she whispered, "But they said that whatever's going on is because there's some kind of disease in the city. Either passengers aren't getting off, passengers aren't getting on, or the ships ahead are being blocked. I'll go first."
Moving past Daisya, she hopped up over the deck railing and hovered. From her position, he could guess where the nearest handholds would be.
"So there's a plague? That would explain a lot."
Once he'd gotten his breathing back to normal, he jumped up as well, going about it more slowly to make sure he wasn't in for a swim.
"We—ah—can't know yet, Daisya," said Lenalee as he scrabbled for a foothold. "Sometimes people get sick."
"Yeah, but how often do Noah just hang around? Yeager said they have armies. A bunch of dead bodies is—ugh—only going to add to that," he pointed out.
His fingers were getting raw on the cold, rusted metal, but he had plenty of calluses from training. You didn't know pain until you were swinging an unvarnished quarterstaff on two layers of blisters.
"That's why we're going to investigate."
"Okay, yeah." He rolled his eyes just for himself. "The longer we're there, the more obvious we're going to be."
"You don't know that," said Lena primly. She was hovering just beneath him.
He wasn't stupid. He knew someone went around with the "keep Daisya safe" talk after Marie snatched his meds. It wasn't like he was going to be reckless any more, either, not after he and Kanda—but anyway, he wasn't going to jump into this for no reason. It was just dumb not to assume that the plague had something to do with the Noah, or the other way around.
The path back was easier to find, now that he remembered where each groove and ledge on the side of the boat. He just hoped his grip would stay strong that long.
"I'll do what Marie says, I'm not going to go off on my own," he said. "But this has to be why things are bad here."
That was the end of the conversation until they made their way back to the roof by the smokestacks. Lena checked the crowds for anyone standing too close, before the two of them sneaked back on to the deck. They split up to wander back to Marie, just in case, where they found Kanda was already waiting. He stepped in and Marie stood up as they approached, closing the four of them into a standing.
"You hear anything?" asked Kanda.
Daisya politely let Lena say her piece, since she was the one who heard it, after all.
"The crew aren't sure what's happening to stop the ships, but there is some kind of cholera in the city, or another disease."
"Hmph." It was quiet, but Daisya heard Kanda clear as day as he tossed his head. They were thinking the same thing.
"Kanda noticed movement on the docks," said Marie. "Most of these ships are carrying freight, so there must be a problem getting the workforce they need to unload. The question is whether our crew will choose to stay until we reach shore, so that they can pick up more passengers, or turn around and go back."
"It's going to take them a few hours to decide, I think," said Lena.
They considered their options. Daisya knew what he wanted, but like he'd said, he was going to wait for the official decision. The four of them moved automatically through a few different expressions as they considered their options.
"It's going to be hard to get to shore from here," Marie commented. "In any case we're meant to observe, not engage."
"A plague means akuma," said Kanda. "We need to go in now."
"Not so fast," Daisya chimed in. "That means Lena's going to have to fly us to shore, and I'm not sure we want to attract that kind of attention. Besides, we'll probably be in port by the end of tomorrow. It doesn't look like there's more than a few passenger ships here. Whatever commercial stuff they're dealing with, it's going to go through a different part of the port. Doesn't affect us."
He looked to Lena, making sure he wasn't off base.
"If I fly us, we'll have to walk to town. There could be akuma on the way. It's also going to take time—I can't see where we are, exactly, but that should be one or two hours. Let's wait, unless the crew turns us back," she said.
If Daisya hadn't glanced back over, he wouldn't have caught the hint of embarrassment wafting off of Kanda. Even if he could beat them all in any fight, he didn't always use that brain of his to best advantage.
He grinned. Kanda made some kind of face, but at least he didn't glare.
"Good thinking," said Marie. "We'll stay on the ship and wait to get into port. There's a limit to the number of new akuma that can form in one night. The crew won't want to turn around when we're this close to port, and if they're not turning the ships away, we should be on shore by morning."
Daisya just nodded, too busy savouring the victory to think about it for a second.
"Wait," he realized, "Does that mean we'll be here all night?"
"What do you think?"
That was Kanda, the jerk. All at once, the night breeze seemed an awful lot colder.
"We'll take a watch so that none of us stays awake the whole time," said Marie. "Be prepared to work tomorrow."
As Daisya stewed, the three remaining set out the night's schedule. Lenalee was sent out to tell the other passengers about the delay—just to be nice, Marie insisted—and Kanda, Daisya, and Marie all broke out their bedrolls for as much of a nap was possible on this floating, freezing rustbucket. Jesus. For once in his life, Daisya wished it was scorching summer.
At least it was wide enough back here to fit three of them in a row. Laying the thin sleeping mats side-by-side, they layered their woollen blankets to cover all three and tucked them under the edges. Maybe no one could really sleep like this, but they'd at least be warm. Lena would take first watch.
…
Somehow, he must have fallen asleep that night, because he remembered lying on the hard deck for hours, and the next thing he knew Kanda was tapping him on the cheek.
"Daisya."
He cracked an eye open, grateful for the darkness.
"I think I've broken something."
"Good. You're awake," said Kanda.
"My head's the wrong way around. Tell me. My neck's been twisted all the way."
He pulled himself up to sitting, and wished he hadn't. Damn if it wasn't cold. And dark. He also wished he'd put on a fourth layer of long johns. But, before he could say "bastard," Kanda was already helping him to standing.
"You're just sore."
"I am sore. There's no more me here, it's just sore."
Kanda spun him around before he realized, and sank both hands into his shoulders for a moment, pressing the muscle down like an iron as they ran up his neck and down again. The shock of pain nearly made him fall right back down, but at least it did seem to help after. And it was too sudden for him to make anything louder than gasp.
"There, you're fixed. I'm going to bed. We moved two ship-lengths up last time, so we might finally get in. Wake me up first if we start moving," Kanda finished, already slipping into Daisya's nice warmed-up spot. Thief.
"Sure, yeah," he said. "You get some sleep, if you can."
He heard Kanda toss and turn as he stretched himself out, feeling each and every crick and knot that had formed in the few hours he may or may not have been asleep. It looked like most of the other passengers had taken the cue, curled up in little mounds all along the deck. It looked like some of the crew must have carried blankets up here. Least they could do. It was a long while until sunrise.
There wasn't much to look at. Daisya contented himself with folding some of the paper sheets he always carried with him, following well-worn creases. When that got boring, he did a full round of stretches and exercises, and when that got tiring, he sat down and checked his bandages for loose bits.
Kanda was right. The ship did pull in before his watch was up. In turn, Daisya did wake him up first with shake of the shoulder.
Funny, it seemed like Kanda had fallen asleep even in just that hour or two. He was looking somewhere else while Daisya watched him sit up, hazy in a way you didn't often see him. And not just because of the dim light.
"Good sleep?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"Did you sleep? I didn't think you were actually, you know, out of it."
Kanda got to his feet before he answered the question, picking scum out of the corners of his eyes. Darn. Whatever kinds of dreams he was having, they must have been something to make him this…blurry? Not-there? Dull? Soft?
"Can't remember," he said.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," said Daisya blithely. "We're almost there."
"Yeah."
Crouching down beside him, Kanda started to pack up their kits. Not a word of complaint to Daisya for making them so messy.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked. "Doing all right? Backache didn't get to you?"
He counted it as a win that Kanda looked at him.
"Just dreams."
Once Kanda turned away, Daisya tried sneaking a hand on to his shoulder. No dice. Kanda stopped it before it made contact, but then he just…let it go. Let Daisya grab him by the shoulder.
"Was it…"
"No." Kanda cut him off. "I've got a lot of different nightmares."
"Okay. Just let me know what you need me to do," Daisya said.
"Stay alive."
"Was that a joke?"
It was just a flash, but he saw Kanda smiling. "You can't tell?"
Come on, Daisya, you've known this guy for how long?