Yamaguchi would have been lying through his teeth if he were to say he wasn't nervous. It had only been a few days, three and a half to be precise, since he had given the large crow his letter, and his nerves had been high strung since. Tension and unease hung in the air like a thick layer of smoke that no wind could blow away. Everyone in the palace seemed to be on edge. The servants scampered around and startled at the slightest noise; they even seemed scared of Yamaguchi, which they never had been before. The overseer of Yamaguchi's mechanical projects had been snappish and clearly stressed all morning. The guards, too, were in a foul mood, angry and paranoid. Very few things could send an entire palace's worth of people into such a state. Yamaguchi had his guesses, though.

Daishou's mood had been on a near-constant decline since Yamaguchi sent the crow away with his audio device. Even with his favourite concubine at his side, Mika had barely left the sight of Daishou since his foul mood started; his mind was not eased. Someone, or something, Yamaguchi figured, must have started to cause problems for whatever Daishou had planned. His message with the crow must have started whatever it was, whoever received his message must've taken action to hinder Daishou.

In the evening, with nothing else to do, Yamaguchi made his way to the royal gardens. He hoped the walk would clear his head; or that it would allow him the chance to meet up with whoever had set the crows. If he wanted to get either of those things done, though, he'd have to lose the guards that followed his every move. It was no easy feat, the men had been trained to not let anyone out of their sights, but Yamaguchi was no stranger to slipping away unnoticed. He waited for a distraction; thankfully, the crows that had also been following him all day seemed to get the hint and slipped away through the decorative maze to a part of the garden where there were no guards.

Perhaps by chance, although it was more likely on purpose as he had been following one of the crows, Yamaguchi found himself just outside the window of Mika and Daishou's shared quarters. A glance at the silhouettes of the two, backlit by candlelight that shone through the gossamer curtains, and it was clear that they had just finished up with rather amorous activities. Yamaguchi wasn't interested in what they had recently occupied their time with, however, he was more focused on their conversation.

"I promise, my love, the northern boy is nothing more than a means to an end. He is a great tool to help me reach greatness and nothing else." Daishou caressed Mika's hair as he spoke, and the woman leaned into the touch. Yamaguchi was not in the least bit surprised to hear Daishou's opinion on him; he knew fully well that Daishou cared not for him.

"Still," Mika whined as she pressed herself against Daishou, "you've off and married him now. What about me? You'll still have that dullard as your husband when you're through with him. What happened to your promise of ruling with me by your side? I don't want to be relegated to some lowly mistress, Suguru." Yamaguchi almost felt bad for her, she did seem to care a great deal for Daishou, and he could understand how she might have felt left behind by her lover. Then again, she was incredibly vain, and her lover was Daishou, so Yamaguchi ultimately didn't feel too sympathetic for her.

Daishou poured two glasses of what Yamaguchi assumed to be wine and took a sip, "Oh, we won't have to worry about him once he's no longer useful." He chuckled wryly as he took another sip from the glass, "Accidents happen, dear, especially to someone who spends so much time around dangerous machines."

Mika giggled, "I suppose they do, don't they? Still, I wish you hadn't had to marry him at all. Whatever happened to your plan with the Miyas being foolproof?"

What? Yamauchi was again unsurprised to hear that Daishou planned to have him killed after he got what he wanted, but what did the Miyas have to do with anything? Yamaguchi was under the impression that the Miyas had, in tandem with Tauveriin, orchestrated the failed communication that led to the almost-war. The Queen of the Slithering Isles had seemed to think so too. Yamaguchi was usually good at spotting lies, and the Queen had seemed genuinely surprised that her original attempts at diplomacy with the Firefly Empire had been tampered with.

Yamaguchi heard a thump, he couldn't see what happened, but Daishou had probably kicked something, if he had to guess. "Yes, well, I didn't plan on a bunch of lowlifes swooping in and ruining anything. It would have worked." Daishou started to pace as he spoke, "But! It wasn't completely useless, love, I gained information, and information is mightier than any military."

Yamaguchi had to lean in close to the building and strain to hear the words that were spoken. The sky had chosen this as the most opportune time to release the floodgates of the heavens. Wind flung around unsuspecting flora and bugs alike, pelting Yamaguchi with bits of natural refuse. He could only assume, by the intensity, that it wouldn't be long before thunder and lightning too made themselves known. It was a good thing the area was too constantly damp to catch fire from a lightning strike. Considering how much more difficult it was making it for Yamaguchi to gather what he was sure was integral information, the storm could've at least had the decency to cool him off from his constant overheated state. Instead, the rain was warm, and Yamaguchi had to crouch on the muddy ground, soaked to the bone and still somehow too hot.

"Oh yeah? And what information would that be? That criminals are unreliable and flighty?" Mika scoffed, unimpressed with the apparent lack of progress.

Daishou whipped around and stalked over to where the woman was seated and grabbed her face roughly. For a second, Yamaguchi thought he might hit her. "Don't sass me." He shoved her back into the chair, "I learned exactly what resources the Firefly Empire and the Iron Wall have at their whimsy. The size of their armies too. We'll need much more than what we have if we want to overthrow them."

Mika rubbed at her cheek where Daishou had applied the most pressure as if to soothe the oncoming bruise, "Maybe you'll have an easier time picking a smaller target to start with. Conquer somewhere else first and then build up from there? Goddess knows it would be nice to have a freshly overthrown labour force."

"You might be onto something with that one, darling, I—" One of the crows that had stayed with Yamaguchi cawed loudly from the boy's shoulder. Yamaguchi lost focus on the conversation as he frantically tried to hush the bird. It was unlikely that anyone would hear it over the storm, but he'd rather be safe. As soon as he settled the spooked corvid, he scanned the dark area around him to try and find the cause of the reaction. The crows that had been sent to him were greater in intelligence than normal crows, along with in size, so there had to be a reason for the misbehaviour. When he found nothing out of the ordinary, he turned his focus back to eavesdropping.

"Damn it! Well, find him then!" a door slammed, and Daishou stomped around in the room, "The guards lost him, the idiots. I might have to dispose of him sooner than I thought. We just need to find him and keep him alive long enough to stage that stupid wedding without him blabbing."

Yamaguchi had been gone for too long; one of the guards must've reported that they lost him in the gardens. If someone found him now, there was no saying what they'd do to him. That must've been what the crow was trying to warn him about; it had seen a guard go to report him missing.

Yamaguchi ran. He needed to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible; stealth be damned. He had no idea where he was headed, the moon and stars were hidden behind constant rain clouds, and the gardens had dense foliage. Yamaguchi spared a glance back and saw what had prompted the crow to cause such a disturbance. A guard had approached the place where Yamaguchi had just been hidden mere moments before. The guard looked up, spotted Yamaguchi, and the chase was on.

Yamaguchi broke into a dead sprint and prayed that it was enough. He was fast, everyone from the Scraplands was a good runner, but he was used to flat ground and a long line of vision, not a dimly lit jungle. Every time Yamaguchi stumbled, every second lost to a downed branch or a patch of slippery moss, the gap between him and the guards closed. The crows flew beside him and guided him as best they could, but Yamaguchi didn't understand the language of birds, and understood nothing of their caws.

He tried his best, he truly did, but Yamaguchi was simply too unaccustomed to the terrain to regain the ground he kept losing. The first guard reached him and tackled him to the ground, knocking the breath out of Yamaguchi's lungs. His face was pressed into the mud as he was restrained with shackles and injected with some sort of sedative.

All Yamaguchi could think of as he was marched to the dungeon was how close he had been to freedom. But alas, Yamaguchi was not a lucky man.