*Note:

This is the chapter most recently edited.

If you read onward after this, just know that the rest are currently unedited chapters and are subject to some changes. Feedback is appreciated in the mean time.

When I'm finished editing the chapters, an update is possible.

~Swaben

Chapter 6:

Charades

"Would you mind letting me in on the joke?" The inventor's eyebrows were pressed low enough to practically fuse with her eyelids. She looked unsettled as she leaned sideways, resting a few fingers on her face as she bottled in a noticeable concoction of unease.

"Oh, yes. Everything," Kuro grinned with a brewing chuckle. He laid his elbow on the arm of the chair and his fingers curled in amusement towards his chin. "In fact, I have a very difficult time believing what I'm hearing."

"I thought a man like you would at least consider it."

"Are you kidding me? Do you have any prior experience whatsoever?"

"Let's see..." Nelle Nerz glanced at her fingernails for a moment. "I have experience in more forms of applied mathematics than most people are even aware of. I'm resourceful. Organized. Actually, I... Think I have an obsession with completion. It keeps me up at night. My blueprints are what make me get up in the morning. I'm not ashamed. To keep things short, I'm completely…"

He truly wondered as to how this would end.

"Utterly..."

Surely most normal people would give themselves only a light compliment, perhaps indulge in a shred of self-deprecation to show their good-natured humility…

"... Brilliant!"

Suddenly, the ambiance became all too quiet. The wall clock ticked distinctly. Her snail phone dully hiccuped once in its sleep. The corner of the most recent newspaper flapped from an incoming draft. Kuro stared at her, his face a blank slate short of any semblance of expression.

"From the looks of it, your ego is your most distinguishing quality."

He saw the humiliation hit her like a boulder as soon as the gleam left her eyes. She cleared her throat, holding back the furrow of her eyebrows. "That's… That's trivial, and only half true. I can find discrepancies in patterns and can make just about anything—within reason—out of a pile of junk. I earned my certification of mechanical…"

"Yes, yes, I understand. You're a civilian without a lick of self-defense skills, and all of what you're good for is confined to a workshop." Kuro pressed his fingers to his temple from his morning aches. "Can you ensure me that you're a good employer? … No, wait a moment. You're mad. You're insane," he cracked a complacent smile. "This is all absolutely ridiculous."

She retorted quickly, though quietly, "I'll bet my entire house that you're worse."

"That's not a lot to bet."

What a contrast to Kaya's estate! It was dismal and uninteresting aside from that enigmatic worktable.

"Since when has anything improved by not taking a risk? Giving an idea a chance?"

Kuro appeared pleased at the question, but perhaps this was only superficial.

"I'm afraid that you're missing my point. There's a very likely chance that you're withholding me from any further hospitality on purpose, just so I'd be more willing to comply to this daft idea of yours. Isn't that right?"

Nelle cleared her throat and changed the subject after fussing with her watch, "The sources say you're a deadly intelligent man. Anyone knows that focusing on your own goals while trying to convince another is hardly professional. I'll be frank with you." She rubbed her hands together and squeezed on her fingers, pointing them towards him subtly. "Surely you know what this could mean. What better way to avoid detection than to become the very thing that you weren't?"

Kuro rolled his eyes to the side, licking his lower lip in thought. "I'll give you five minutes to explain to me why this is my best option. I could spare you... But only if it's worth it."

He felt his own confidence gleam through his eyes, and they moved in such a way that he mastered, a way that would charm people regardless of what he was saying. However, Nelle Nerz was unmoved. Rarely did he have experience with anybody avoiding the snares of his calculated charisma without avoidance being a clear part of their personality. He was quickly catching on to the prickly interior behind the businesslike mask that originally manifested.

"Listen, you can calm down. I'm not liking that context." Her brow tightened as her palms raised in surrender. "I don't want to touch your bounty. There's no point when you may be pegged as dead. Come on. That's uneconomical. Something as intricate as this can't possibly be explained in five minutes. There's far too much to cover, and—"

"Would you like to never speak again? I'm awfully good at hiding bodies, Ms. Nerz."

Kuro's lips curved into a nasty, morbid smile. Speedily and stiffly, Nelle retracted into her seat, gripping the arm of the chair as if it were her only tether to life. He could hear her swallow her own panic.

"Gee, that's... A little dramatic, isn't it?" She avoided eye contact and stared deeply into the watery pool in her glass. "Let's act civilized about this. That's all I ask."

"I'm all about civility." The former captain swirled one of his digits around the stalk of his water glass. "It doesn't mean that I believe in being sincere to a person who's so obviously looking to exploit my talents." He set it down and pressed his spindly fingers together into a sinister pyramid, leaning them forward. He tried to hide their light shaking, born from a mixture of shock and a lack of the day's nutrition.

"Take your time. I'll wait."

What disgusting honesty. Couldn't she learn to lie? Couldn't this woman even try to fake sincerity?

"You're wasting yours."

"No, no. Hold on. I have an idea!"

Just how many ideas would this stranger come up with in the span of a few hours?

"Use my timer. You gave me five minutes, didn't you?" She rose from her chair. "The rules are… I've got five minutes, and you simply listen to me without moving around at all or trying anything funny. Do you agree to that?"

"Should I?"

"This is my house, not some brigand's playground." Her upper teeth were revealed in a display of firm flippancy, brought about by her masking of her own crippling fear. This was a game with simple rules to be twisted: a brain teaser at his own expense. The timer was set, and he watched and waited, smugly drumming his fingers. She took a deep breath.

"Facts are a lot more convincing than just my words." She disappeared into the garage and quickly returned. "Are you a fan of money?"

He sighed at the thought of Beri, of gold, and of tangible luxuries that were still so far out of his reach.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Exactly."

He felt a flexible zip tie roughly bind around his first wrist. Nonetheless, Kuro abode to the rule. Her breathing shook under the uncertainty. He did nothing while his left wrist was restrained to his right. The timer reduced expectantly. His interviewer cleared her throat again.

"Good things come to those who wait." She walked in front of him and set the second cable tie. "Do you agree with that?" She pulled its line to thread through the other.

"Certainly, if the waiting is in the equation. Waiting in hope of something that may not happen is a fool's line of work. … Oh, look, here. You've only got a couple of minutes left."

Despite the dwindling time, Nelle reclined calmly on the seat in front of him. He appeared visibly disadvantaged compared to someone with free hands.

"So, Mr. Pierce. Now that you've made me comfortable, I'll tell you why this isn't entirely selfish of me." Nelle played with her fingers again, threading and pushing them through each other. This was a motion he quickly caught onto: she was nervous. "You're down on your luck. You can't lie to me about how earth shattering this was for you. Really, I could've kept feeling bad for you, but... You turning out to be some big-name outlaw only replaces that with fear." The descriptive title escaped low, and Kuro was thoroughly chafed by her nerve and her numb indifference in addressing him. "This feeling... I don't like it. But it's only natural. It's what sets the survivors apart from the victims."

The ex-captain paused to contemplate through squinted eyelids, and decided to continue listening. She dissected the situation as it were a machine rather than an enigmatic volley between two separate souls. He figured that it was expected out of somebody who spent so much time researching and developing inorganic machinations and, from what it appeared, turning the wheel of a business single-handedly. There was something intuitive yet very socially confused about the inventor's thinking, and her entrepreneurial stance tainted any chance of emotional persuasion.

"You've no doubt got skill, and… I feel that it should be put to use in a way that would benefit you. There are plenty of criminals around here who need to be brought down, which translates to money—among, among other things. It's what you want, isn't it? Don't you need that? Correct me if I'm wrong."

"No correction needed." He saw her expression lighten up at his statement until he furthered his point. "Quite plainly because it isn't a matter of you being wrong… This entire thing is a matter of whether or not you offer the very best opportunity for a man like myself."

His self-aggrandizing air engulfed the surroundings. The onslaught of the inventor's questions began, non-stop:

"Can you really judge that before testing the waters? I can promise you nothing but what you're willing to sacrifice. Am I not making a sacrifice right now in hopes of bigger and better things? Why am I not going through the trouble of even trying to turn you in? Tell them that you're still alive? Are you really going to take such blind confidence when you don't know what could come of this? Now, and never again? You, a bamboozler, with no identity to speak of? No real name? No traceable history? Really? When you're legally… Nothing?"

He lifted his chin at her only to be interrupted by the shrill ring of the timer. His interviewer smacked the bulb with irritation. She became silenced along with it. Her face paled, but she attempted to hide it through appearing distracted with the time.

"That's enough," Kuro's gaze raised in dismissal while his fingers wiggled impatiently. "Quit needlessly injecting your words. You're speaking to an expert in the matter. You're out of time."

The woman gave a strong inhale. It didn't take a fool to realize that she was attempting to control her fright.

"Well. I see you're hog-tied at the wrists. Very rude of me. ... It looks like you could still go on a rampage, actually. That... That barely did anything," she muttered into her cringe. "Oh, no. Kicking, flailing your shoulders, and... Never mind. I can't take my chances, you know. I still think you can give my words more attention when you're restrained by zips made of amazingly resilient polyamide. That abrasion resistance can make you think twice of trying to weasel your way out of them without seriously knowing what you're doing, Mr. Pierce..."

And so after giving him a threatening implication, Nelle went on with the technobabble until Kuro's brows turned inwards into a disinterested furrow. He noticed her glance admiringly at them, even going as far as to pinch the material to explain what exactly it was made of. He ignored the drivel. His expression changed on her, and slowly creeping along his lips was a secretive grin. He knew something that she didn't. The monotonous details of those nylon zip ties were nothing but negligible.

The inventor clasped her hands together and rested them on the small table between them. "I'm glad that I made more time to explain…"

As she began, Kuro managed to raise and slowly bring his hands to his front.

"...Now, I know that this was sudden for you, but I'd like to tell you a little something about my economic state..."

He furtively attempted to judge the available space between him and any other objects.

"...And you see, such a field of ingenuity just isn't appreciated in a place like Milltown, where..."

As he expanded his lungs, he focused on her distractions: the engaged movements of her eyes, that nauseating preoccupation with her own lecture, and those random bursts of importance she put on specific words.

"...Make barely anything, after that awful company went under, and I had to…"

His fists clenched once he prepared for a full swing against his abdomen. It was a flash of movement so rapid that it hid in the shroud a blink. The low sound of a distinct pop was its only trace.

"...But, I know how to manage my money, certainly," Nelle nodded as she sat up, imperiously straight, eyes closed over the memory of past events. She blinked to look at him. "It's not a skill I learned for fun, but for necessi…" She froze. Kuro heard her voice piece apart into a hybrid of a gasp and a squeak. "N… Necessity?"

The zip ties were strewn on the floor. His wrists were streaked with brilliant pinks. The man got up with such malevolent nonchalance that it took away the inventor's will to speak any further. Nelle Nerz was dumbfounded. Any guise of calmness and professionalism was broken as her jaw swung downwards like a trap door.

"What…! How in the... Where did you even learn..."

Pirating experience heralded the invaluable skill to slip, snap, tear, or untie his way out of an array of common restraints. He had waited for the opportunity to alarm her, and the reaction couldn't have been sweeter or more amusing. Kuro cracked his neck from side to side and wore a grin of cruel amusement, his hands free and flexing their thin fingers.

"It was an admirable effort. It was just so improvised." He sauntered forward with the slow and stalking gait of a predatory cat. "Especially when it's me that you're dealing with."

Nelle said nothing. The cat got her tongue and was twisting it in his grip.

"Did you really think a clever little handyman trick would do anything?"

During his casual inquiry his shadow met hers, his neck arching.

"I, but—the zips, they—they should've just, just, just—!"

"What's the matter?"

Nelle reacted unpredictably, taking a step to the side. His eyes calmly followed her movement. She sidled herself towards the lower drawer of a cabinet and pulled out something curious: a small flintlock. He noticed that her hands began to clench as he turned.

"Get back! I'm warning you. Don't give me that sort of look," she threatened with her aim square at his forehead. "Don't you make another move!"

"You want me as a business partner, and now you threaten to shoot me?"

He leaned against the kitchen counter, unperturbed.

"I see that gleam in your eye! It's the look of someone who knows all too well what he's capable of doing!"

Nelle didn't tear her focus off of him. Her eyebrows were at an angle, their shape like neat rectangles of construction paper. He couldn't help it. He stared not at the fear in her eyes, but at them. They utterly confused him, and this gave them the uncanny ability to disturb him. They never stopped standing out, those charcoal things, black as night compared to her otherwise fair hair.

She frowned. "I'd like to think we could negotiate, but... You're making me…"

"No need to be rude," chastised Kuro. The civilian's attempt at bravery only went as far as to amuse him.

"Don't turn this into something either of us regret!"

A blink. A second. A light smack of the inventor's wrist, and the gun was sent flying out of her hands and into his.

"Fixed it."

Nelle's pupils expanded to an owlish capacity, awed at the speed of his reflex. The former pirate set her firearm on the counter after some inspection. Kuro's studying was casual, a simple curiosity, but he was uninterested in its use.

"Now… Trust is a curious thing. A prudent man never actually trusts anyone." He rose one of his eyebrows at her. "So... Is there anything else you'd like to convince me of before I make up my mind?"

"Without formal identification, if I just so happened to shoot you, there would be no way for me to ever be put in court!" The engineer's teeth grated. She attempted to recoil, but was evidently cornered. "Damn it, I'm giving you an opportunity! A chance at another living."

Her voice fluctuated lightly beneath her breath despite her adamant glance. He knew that fear was close by and lingering all around her.

"I'm true to my word," she continued. "It's about a job that could promise you security as long as you to heed to the law. One that would promise me more resources for my private funds, my inventions, something that could someday change the world! My life." She pointed to the work desk with a wavering frown. "It's not what I expected it to ever be. I saw myself farther, but I'm not there. I'm not! I'm stuck! No one wants machinists here. They want shipwrights. They all want shipwrights!" Nelle's brow tightened and pain fleetingly painted her expression. "Listen. This job is a legal one. The government can't get enough of it. It's one that it wants on its side, that it needs, even. I could employ you, under my name," she insisted, pointing to herself, pinching and waving the fabric of her collared shirt. "There are entire populations of criminals below your standard running amok. Don't you see it? How much it's all worth? How much you're worth?" The inventor treated him as though he was a chaotic weapon, and perhaps this was true. "Don't kill me here. I don't want to die. I, I... I don't see what could come of it."

"Kill you?" Kuro squinted tellingly. The useful emotion of surprise was truly a treasure to mimic. "I've learned more about you in that minute of fear than I ever would otherwise. It's clear that you have a standard of high risk and reward. You aren't the only one dissatisfied with their current situation, or feeling as though they've been floundering in the dark to their true desires." His eyes narrowed. There was a sense of sudden embitterment beneath them. "There are people who submit to their own discomfort, and there are those who fight it by whatever means possible. It's simply ambition. Why would I do such a thing when you've put something interesting on my plate?"

"Are you bluffing?"

To this Kuro chuckled darkly, quietly.

"Oh, I don't bluff." He quickly seized her wrists before she could draw them away while he concocted his own orotund grin. "Bluffing is a clumsy attempt at improvising. It's juvenile, inexperienced…" His composed eyelids lowered while his moon-white teeth clenched, like a panther bearing his fangs through a devilish smile. "I lie intelligently."

The action startled the engineer: her gaze was frozen in place, accompanied by the appearance of clammy bumps forming on her skin. His thumb pressed on the face of her watch as its ticking was all of what they heard.

"But you need not worry right now." Kuro diminished his presence, softening his eyes in an instant. He released her stiff wrists with a deceptively civil smile. "You're not going to get hurt."

There were few problems he had in the area of persuasion by his appearance: it was simply another form of manipulative fraud aided by a fanciable appearance. He noticed that her hands were peppered with a faint residue of soot that appeared as though it failed to wash off. Faded, grey marks were visible in areas past her fingertips. She uncomfortably responded to his lingering stance with a curt shooing motion.

"I'll be very truthful," he started as he drew away, hands behind his back. "Killing you wouldn't benefit me at all. Instilling too much fear would also be all too pointless." The greys in his eyes darkened as he stepped away from the window. "You play some lucrative cards, Ms. Nerz… Are you a gambler, by any chance?"

"No," said Nelle. She flexed her hand and wiped it with the other as if to be rid of whatever contact reached it. "I don't have that kind of money to waste. What a brainless hobby."

"You've certainly spoken like one," he replied. "I'm tickled by the deal. It's true. It's completely opportunistic and acquisitive." The former captain swung himself to the side. "Those two things go together like the smoothness of ink in water. Brilliant…" His words streamed out like a ring of smoke forcing itself through a strainer. "Becoming exactly what those government dogs would never expect. You're very much in luck. Give me a night to think about it, or, perhaps, a day or two."

"What? Do you have a problem with guarantees? That's what I want. What about the fact that you might still kill me afterwards?" Nelle grated her teeth, her black irises shadowed by her squint. "I've got a lot to live for! If you don't want my management, you can just walk away and pretend that this never happened! There's something I must do, and nothing's getting in the way of that!"

"Who do you take me for in a time of opportunity?" The tone of his voice tactfully shifted to something smoother. He kept his inflection desirably amenable. "I'm a man who enjoys thinking. I'm also a man who naturally needs adjustment. We'll keep that between you and I."

"That never answered my question."

"What a narrow view you have of pirates…" He lowered his head with a wry, budding smile, and their gazes were grey against gray, flat against flat. "Though I must admit that I have one as well."

His type of narrow was very different from hers. Pirates were tools to be used, pawns to push and pull across the proverbial chessboard, and bodies to throw away after their use was fulfilled. They were outcasts of society, unfit for assimilation in anywhere but crime, and it was the only place that most of them had left to retreat to. He took advantage of this similar to a prowling lion who visits a watering hole. It would wet its teeth at the sight of how the herds of gazelle gather in such an easily accessible place. It would inconspicuously make its rounds, rolling its shoulders and readying its tactic: closer, and closer, until there was no foreseeable escape. Captain Kuro wrangled his pawns with false words and aggressive opportunity to bring their criminal urges to reality, but somehow, he made a separation between his form of wicked and theirs. He had put himself high above them, thinking himself to be deserving of success while they could crawl among the dirt like a swarm of insects. It was grandiose and entirely irrational: a view that threatened his own sense of self. It alienated him beyond belief, and he had grown all too used to his own shallow fabrications. In this respect, he was truly the most wicked of them all, and far more damnable than the most incompetent of his crewmen.

A few feet and a long pause separated them. He crossed his arms after his conclusion was well-formed. He wanted to relax, to lay low, to feel normal. He wanted somewhere warm to sleep. A roof over his head until he gained a luxurious one. Water to drink, and food to eat, and at least some promise of money after he regained his strength and sanity.

It was all or nothing.

"You said you wanted an answer. It appears that my choices are limited, and my other plans reckless and tiring," Kuro admitted with surprising honesty. "It's fairly sensible."

"You'll take it, then?"

The stranger's mouth stretched like putty to make room for her incredulous grin. His nod was slow and expressionless, yet obvious enough.

"Fantastic! You're serious, aren't you?"

Kuro interrupted his idle flick against the glass lamp beside him.

"I am."

Nelle Nerz was surprisingly calm as the tension dissipated. They completed the obligatory handshake and stepped aside.

"Tell me when the money is close and nipping, Ms. Nerz, and ..."

There was a sudden pause in his trail of the thought. The inventor had formed a self-praising smile of victory as she busied herself with satiating her appetite at the counter. But her happiness didn't matter to him: Kuro was slowly leaning himself to the side like a teetering bridge, mouth longingly parted while his gut begged.

"... And give me some of that toast."