Walk me through the Valley
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter Three: Negotiation
After dinner that night Shiemi brought down a thick tome of herbal properties and set to writing her names for the planets beneath the common and scientific ones to help her translate her existing plant knowledge into something comprehensible by her teachers. Bon pulled Rin aside to quiz the half-demon on the catch up work he was to have studied that afternoon. Shima started clearing the plates off the table. Konekomaru started running water for the dishes while Izumo scraped the plates and piled them up beside the sink as Shima brought them in from the table.
"We'll be going first," Konekomaru said, thinking about the Seven Mysteries. "We should have some sort of plan to deal with the Bride."
"I'll summon my Byakko, you can chant at it," Izumo said with a shrug.
Konekomaru sighed. "What good are Byakko against a ghost? And I don't know anywhere near enough about the Bride to guess her fatal verse."
"So we're both useless," Izumo said with a frown. "Is that what you're saying?"
Konekomaru shook his head. "I'm saying we need to think about what we're trying to accomplish. Generally with ghosts, you should play along a bit to figure out what's keeping them on this plane. So to start with, I think you should rent a tux… Unless you were really looking forward to wearing Rin's clothes?"
Izumo flushed. "You're planning on using me as bait?" she demanded, changing the subject.
"The bride doesn't appear to women," Konekomaru pointed out. "If something goes wrong you can just pull off your hat and chances are she'll just vanish."
Rin, Shiemi and Izumo knocked on the door of Mephisto's office for their first class in Contract Negotiation. Grinning broadly, Mephisto opened the door and ushered them in "Come! come!"
Instead of a typical classroom set up, the three Exwires found an armchair and a small loveseat. Mephisto took the chair behind his desk and watched them intently. For a moment all three Exwires hesitated over the seating. Then Shiemi smiled, "Izumo-chan, you should sit with Rin. You're the best at keeping him awake and Sir Pheles said this class was important for him." She took the armchair. Rin flushed as he and Izumo tried to arrange themselves on the loveseat and quickly discovered that they couldn't share it without touching.
"Moriyama-san gets the first point of the day!" Mephisto announced grandly. "By taking the initiative she controlled the negotiation. The three of you were presented with a situation where you had to come to an agreement. First you had to decide what you wanted and then you had to convince the other two to agree. I am unaware of Moriyama-san's agenda, but she made her choice and presented it before the other two of you knew what you wanted and so you went along with her without thinking or arguing. The best negotiation is one that is complete before the other party is aware that they were negotiating. Never summon a demon without knowing exactly what you want to from them. Know what you want, always."
"We didn't know it was a test," Izumo protested.
Mephisto steepled his fingers and smirked at her. "And that is lesson number two. This is a class in negotiation. Any time two beings interact it is an exercise in negotiation, whether or not you are aware that you are negotiating. Whether or not you acknowledge it there are always at least two agendas on the table: what you want and what they want. To be honest it doesn't even take two beings and thus two agendas is a gross oversimplification."
"If there's just one person how could there be anything to fight over?" Rin asked frowning.
"Ah, there is what you want, what you believe you should do, what you believe is expected of you, what you think you are capable… and so on," Mephisto replied. "One can and should have extensive negotiations with oneself on a regular basis. Preferably before you enter negotiate with a second party because if you do not know your own agenda you will always be at a disadvantage to someone who does."
"At the very least you should know, consciously know, your own agenda." Mephisto continued. "Of course, it is preferable to know your opponent's agenda as well. This class is technically about negotiating formal contracts with demons. Or in Rin-kun's case, with humans as they love their small print every bit as much as demons. Between humans contracts are enforced by laws, by consequences and by the personal conscious of the individual who makes the deal. For demons contracts are mystically enforced. Once given a demon cannot willfully go back on his or her word."
"What if you can't do what you promised?" Izumo asked. "For example: Rin could swear that he's going to sprout wings and fly. Mystical enforcement or not, that won't be happening."
"A very good point," Mephisto agreed. "It would depend on the weight of the vow naturally, and the nature of it. To simplify matters let us say the vow is taken in all solemnity and holds weight. If it were made as part of a deal, the other party might consider Rin-kun's likelihood of growing wings and feel relatively secure in not fulfilling their half of the agreement. There are certain dangers in assuming the other party is incapable of carrying through... because if Rin-kun does somehow grow wings then anyone who was counting on him not upholding his end of the deal is screwed."
"If the second party does fulfill their obligations regardless of Rin-kun's ability to grow wings then the mystical enforcement of a demon oath comes into play. He will be obligated to try, possible or not; it could easily become an obsessive compulsion to look for the means to grow wings. If the vow is extremely weighty, for example if he chose an oath that had particular significance or history for him it could drive him to jump off a building and try to fly even in the absence of wings." Mephisto frowned at his two Tamer candidates. "Binding a demon to a contract they are incapable of fulfilling is particularly cruel thing to do. If you succeed the consequences to the demon are severe; if you fail their retribution will likely be equally cruel."
Shiemi's eyes widened with concern. "Can we ask a demon what they can do before making a contract."
"Of course," Mephisto replied. Then he grinned. "But unless a demon is oath-bound to speak the truth, they can lie. It is always best to do your own homework. And you must always understand the terms of the agreement."
"Like how when someone promises to 'consider' doing something it's pretty much worthless?" Rin asked giving Mephisto a dark look.
Mephisto beamed at him in return, "Precisely. Also you swore to stay away from holy water, it didn't swear to stay away from you. Your vow has no relevance if a third party throws a holy water grenade at you. Demon oaths never cover third party intervention."
"What is the difference between third party intervention and being incapable of fulfilling a contract?" Izumo asked. "I'd think there would be a lot of overlap."
"Mystical enforcement," Mephisto explained. "To you the inability to sprout wings may sound no different than an inability to not be in the path of a grenade but to the powers that be there is a difference."
"So, um, what if I promised someone I'd cook them dinner then I got detention," Rin asked. "Would I be forced to sneak out of detention?"
Mephisto's grin widened, "Maybe you aren't going to be hopeless after all," he remarked. "That is a complex question, because chances are you also made an agreement with your instructor to be in detention. In the case of two competing oaths, which one holds?" he asked then continued without giving his students a chance to answer.
"The weight of a demon oath depends on two factors: Formality; a demon may say 'I shall see you tomorrow,' and I would give it slightly better odds of happening than if a human were to say the same, but if they say "I swear that I will be here next Friday for your class," you may count upon it. And history: both the history of the oath and the history of the individual demon. It is exceedingly rare to meet a divorced demon. Variations on the marriage oath have existed in most cultures for hundreds of years, the sheer weight of repetition makes it practically ironclad, then add in the ceremony…"
"Til death do us part," Izumo said, looking thoughtful.
"Exactly," Mephisto said. "You may be wondering why it is that a demon would make a deal with a human when a human can choose to go back on their word while a demon cannot. But remember the final and most compelling reason humans have for upholding their end of a deal: Consequences. If you renege on a contract with a demon they may take everything up to and including your soul… Unless you've specifically agreed upon a different forfeiture ahead of time. Many a summoner has come to a bad end because they assumed that they would never go back on their word and left the consequences of a broken promise fully at their summon's discretion."
"But to go back to Rin-kun's initial question: If a demon is bound by two competing oaths the more weighty one will hold and, all else being equal, the oath first given will hold. Stacking oaths can be very useful… For demons. It is one of the few ways a demon has of creating loop-holes which they aren't obligated to state upfront."
"There is one final point I wanted to bring up in today's lecture," Mephisto finished. "You should already know this if you're up on your fairytales, but it bares repeating. There is no such thing as 'intent' in contract negotiation. There are only the words of the agreement. Elaborate wording and metaphor provide rich grounds for loop-holes. A strong contract is simple and literal in its terms."
Monday evening while Angel and Rin traded their demon swords for wooden bokken, Bon made himself comfortable leaning against a wall with a textbook in his lap and his gun laying on the floor beside him, "It's not comfortable," Bon excused himself to Rin.
Angel looked annoyed at the unsubtle reminder of Bon's earlier warning. "Lets see if you can manage to last longer than a minute this week," Angel said to Rin, his expression making it clear that he doubted it.
Rin set himself holding the bokken. Almost before he could blink Angel knocked him off his feet. Rin scrambled back to his feet and tried to get his sword up in time to intercept Angel's next blow.
Bon had watched the last several lessons with steadily growing fury as Angel simply using his much greater experience and speed to knock Rin to the ground over and over again. On the rare occasion where Rin managed to get his sword in place his strength was at least equal to the Paladin's but Angel knew better than to let Rin bring his raw power into play. To Bon's eyes it looked like every so-called lesson was more brutal than the last.
Fifteen minutes into the spar, Angel raised his bokken to deliver a follow-up blow while Rin was still on the ground only to quickly hop backward to avoid a bullet. The Paladin turned to glare at Bon, "That wasn't a warning shot," he observed.
Bon didn't lower the smoking gun in his hand. "I told you I'd shoot you if you tried to hurt Rin again. You need more of a warning than that?"
"You need a lesson in respecting your betters," Angel declared taking a step toward Bon. A moment later Rin was on his feet again and planted between Angel and Bon, even without Kurikara drawn a faint halo of flames surrounded him.
Angel lunged, intending to knock Rin out of his way again. Rin took the blow on his shoulder and used the opening in Angel's defense to attack. For the first time Rin's bokken connected, driving the air out of Angel's lungs. The Paladin leapt back. As he paused to re-evaluate the situation Bon took another shot him.
Now that both teens were involved a different pattern began to emerge. With his emotions running high, Rin's powers enhanced both his speed and strength. Angel's skill was so far beyond Rin's that Rin was still taking repeated hits, but with Bon in the line of fire Rin accepted that he was going to take damage and used moment when the blow landed to launch his own counter-attacks. Whenever Angel tried to gain a little space to take advantage of his greater reach and height, Bon took a shot at him. Even when he closed with Rin, Angel kept his attention divided between the two boys in case Bon was willing to risk a shot.
Ten minutes later, Angel still hadn't managed to get past Rin to get to Bon. But this time when he fell back Bon's gun clicked empty. Angel smirked drove into Rin with a new intensity. Desperately Rin tried to match the increased pace, but he was steadily being pushed back.
"You're an Aria," Angel said with a disparaging glance at Bon. "Naturally, I don't have a fatal verse, but you can still shield your knight."
Bon's jaw dropped in shock but he recovered quickly. The next time Angel was about to land a blow on Rin Bon chanted a quick sutra. Angel's bokken bounced off of a barrier. Rin barreled forward and tried to tackle Angel.
Angel leapt over him and went for Bon. Rin threw his sword at the back of Angel's head. Angel twisted around and grabbed the sword out of the air, but the delay was enough for Bon to establish a barrier around himself. Rin quickly darted across the room to put himself between Bon and Angel once again.
But to the boys' surprise, Angel stood down. "That was stupid," Angel informed Rin. "What exactly do you propose to do without a weapon? However you aren't as completely hopeless as I initially thought. Perhaps I will be able to get a bit of a workout training you."
Saturday, after the lunch dishes were cleaned up, Izumo and Shiemi followed Nagatomo up to the third floor lobby for their joint Tamer class. Once everyone was settled in Nagatomo asked, "How was your Negotiation Class?"
Izumo shrugged.
"A little scary," Shiemi answered. "I don't want to hurt anyone or make them feel trapped."
"Good," Nagatomo said. "You'll have a much better relationship with your summons if you strive for an equitable, honest arrangement. Our fairytales are replete with stories about desperate people making bad deals with demons then finding a loophole so they get what they want without paying anything at all. Those are not the sort of deals you want to be involved in. Don't trust, most demons have lived a very long time and you don't know what their history is, but don't try to take advantage either. You don't want to be part of the history that makes them bitter and vengeful toward Assiah."
Shiemi nodded determinedly.
"How so?" Izumo asked.
"Make deals you're willing to keep," Nagatomo said. "Which brings us to your homework. It will be awhile before you're ready to make contracts, but I want you to start thinking about which demons you want a contract with. You'll want to prepare ahead of time to deal with a broad range of circumstances, but like I said: Only make deals you're willing to keep. So you'll need to research both various demon's abilities and what they are likely to want in return."
"I'd like both of you to have a plan prepared for approaching two middle-level demons from a kingdom outside your affinity by next week. Explain to me what benefits you gain from a contract with them and what you intend to offer in return."
The following Thursday the Exwires gathered in the hallway leading to one of the school's upper walkways to take on the first of the seven mysteries.
"I don't think your plan's going to work," Shima said to Konekomaru, never taking his eyes off Izumo.
"And why is that?" Konekomaru asked. "Given that you don't know our plan."
"'Cause Izumo doesn't look like a guy in that tux, she just looks insanely hot," Shima replied. Izumo scowled and Rin elbowed Shima hard enough to knock the wind out of him.
"I could have done that myself," Izumo told Rin, not sure whether or not she was pleased that he had rushed to her defense.
Rin shrugged, "I was closer."
"I suppose that's okay then," Izumo decided, a faint hint of a blush coloring her cheeks.
"If you're all done flirting, we do have a ghost to deal with," Tsuzo said with amusement. "So get a move on it, we haven't got all night."
Konekomaru frowned and bit his lip.
Izumo rolled her eyes. "You never said there was a time limit," she said. "We have a plan."
"Oh?" Tsuzo asked.
Konekomaru took a deep breath and stepped forward. "The Bride has been around for ages, this isn't urgent," he said. "And I don't have enough information to figure out her fatal verse. Izumo is just going to talk to her tonight, then we'll research the Bride and exercise her next Thursday. Or if you don't want to lose your schedule, we'll come back Saturday night on our own time. There's no reason to rush in unprepared."
Tsuzo smiled encouragingly. "Good point. And I'm sure my little bro isn't complaining about putting off cross-dressing for another week."
Bon frowned. "Will taking longer affect our grades?"
"If it's the difference between me bailing you out and you finishing the exorcism on your own, oh yeah that'll affect your grades," Tsuzo replied. "Actually I agree with their evaluation: the situation is not urgent and taking their time to do the job right is a valid choice."
Izumo twisted her long hair into a messy bun then plopped a top hat over it. "I'm ready, lets see what the Bride has to say," she said and strode off toward the walk where the Bride was known to appear, Konekomaru jogged after her. The other Exwires cautiously peered out of the door. As expected a figure in white was standing at the end of the walkway, staring out over the Academy.
Konekomaru stopped about halfway to the ghost, "Remember, you want to play along and get her talking. If we can find out why she became a ghost, we might be able to help her move on willingly," he said.
"I know the plan," Izumo said irritably. She continued out to the end of the walkway, when she was about a meter from the ghost she said. "Excuse me, are you waiting for someone?"
The wedding-kimono clad figure turned and Izumo drew back at the sight of his stubbly chin. The ghost smiled brilliantly and exclaimed, "My groom!" in a wavering falsetto voice as he tried to glomp Izumo.
Back in the doorway, Tsuzo caught Rin by the collar as he attempted to leap to Izumo's rescue. "Lets see how she handles it," the staff-knight warned. "And what are you going to do about a ghost anyway? Physical attacks won't work."
Izumo's chin came up stubbornly and she gave the cross-dressing Bride an icy look. "No kissing before the wedding," she declared.
The Bride giggled girlishly and hid his face demurely. "Sorry," he said.
Izumo sighed with relief. "What brings you out here?" she asked.
The Bride started to answer then hesitated. "I- I can't remember." He looked down at his kimono. "I didn't get cold feet did I? … No, that wasn't it… There wasn't a boy." He fluttered his lashes at Izumo, "But now you're here!"
"Why are you dressed for your wedding if there wasn't a groom?" Izumo asked after giving the ghost another quelling look.
"I… The girls were always so pretty in their wedding dresses," the Bride sighed. "I wanted to dress up like that and play with dolls."
"You wear it well," Izumo said, then her innate bluntness prompted her to add, "The five o'clock shadow detracts a bit, but other than that…"
"Thanks," the Bride smiled. "You look cute too, although you have a bit of an edge at the Bishie thing…" He faded away.
Izumo turned around and walked back to the rest of the class. "That was easy," she announced.
"Good work," Tsuzo told them, then turned to Shima and Shiemi. "Next up is the toilet."
"Well, Shima can't be a worse girl than that," Rin remarked, Bon and Konekomaru snickered.
"I hate you all," Shima informed them.