Back at a warehouse in the Port of Naoetsu, Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture...
As soon as Yahiko Myojin entered the warehouse along with Sarujiro the monkey-like (and somewhat mute) sailor wearing a kerchief bandanna, slacks, and a shirt, a circus jingle rung inside the young samurai's head. He half-expected clowns and sideshow attractions to appear.
The door to the warehouse screeched in pain, its warning screams resonating across the receding darkness. The frayed flags of cobweb curtains flew all over the spacious, cavernous building. Light seared through the worn stone-tiled floor, revealing their grotesqueness. The stale air suffocated Yahiko, along with the cascading dust.
Out from the shadows of the dimly lit establishment came an out-of-left-field whoosh that whistled at Yahiko's blind side. The teenager's ears wiggled while he thanked his lucky stars the attack was nowhere near his injured right shoulder.
By instinct, he grabbed hold of the object thrust right at his head, gripped it tight, and broke it in half the same way he broke the longsword of that person who was once a member of Makoto Shishio's group he encountered way before (it was a long story).
It was one of many shirahadori or sword-snatching techniques Yahiko mastered.
"HADACHI!"
The stick broke in a puff of wood chips from Myojin's steel grip, and the wielder of the weapon... a seaman that the young samurai wannabe hadn't met before... yelped and stumbled back from the display.
Meanwhile, Sarujiro himself backed off and scampered towards a shadowy figure from across the hall of the warehouse. A motley crew of professional sailors and not-so-professional buccaneers surrounded this unknown person.
Yahiko wondered if he was led into a booby trap. Was the Crimson Captain a traitor like Munenori Minoe (whose main allegiance wasn't to the Meiji Government but to Shogo Amakusa)?
Then again, what allegiance was he supposed to expect from the leader of this questionable crew to have? Who was the good captain betraying, exactly?
Sure enough, from across the room stood a lithe figure in a red vest, white pants, and a cloth mask wrapped all over the face save for the eyes.
Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation Story by Chester Castañeda
The Crimson Captain's true identity is...!
Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 35: A Port in the Storm
Back inside a warehouse in the Port of Naoetsu...
"HEY! What's the big idea, Shura?" called out Yahiko to the mastermind behind all the shenanigans as he stomped his feet on the cobblestone ground.
"That's Captain Shura to you, boy," said the (seemingly) short-haired female pirate-turned-privateer as she pulled down her cloth mask and turned it into a scarf while her white bandanna remained in place.
Kenshin and company once fought the so-called Scourge of the Pacific, who had since gone legit.
Years ago, when Kenshin Himura had recently met Kaoru Kamiya (the daughter of a kendo school master) and Yahiko Myojin (the street urchin) as well as defeated Sanosuke "Zanza" Sagara (the Street Fighter) and Jine "Kurogasa" Udo (the Black Hat Assassin), the "Kenshingumi" ended up on a boat that was attacked by pirates named the "Kairyu".
In turn, Captain Shura served as leader to these Kairyu Pirates. About half a decade later, and here they were, with Shura forming a new Kairyu full of sailors working as privateers this time around instead of outright pirates.
Although the Kenshingumi and the Kairyu were once at odds with each other, the Kairyu captain had become fast friends with the Himura-Kamiya group, hence Yahiko coming to her aid when he heard she was in need of a "favor".
Captain Shura put her hand on her waist and did a shushing gesture. "Our tests aren't quite through yet, so keep quiet. You passed, by the way."
"Tests...?" asked Yahiko as he turned to his left and noticed the other doors leading into the warehouse.
Out came Munenori Minoe from the nearest door, while one of Shura's goons swung at her head like he was participating in that beachside game of splitting watermelons in half.
Minoe dodged the stick headed towards his noggin with the jittery movement of a fly, moving mere inches away from it. This made it seem like the stick passed through him instead of missing him.
Yahiko almost heard Kaoru Kamiya lecture to him in his mind that Munenori's control of maai or "engagement distance" allowed him to do this.
Literally, maai meant "interval", but in the context of Japanese martial arts like kendo, it referred to the space between two combatants. As a concept and school of thought, it included not only the distance between two opponents, but also the rhythm of attack, angle, and the time it would take to cross distances.
With spittle and foam flying from his mouth, Minoe's attacker tumbled and fell a yard away from the former eye-patched Togakudan member, his assault barely grazing his target.
As Munenori did a wider sidestep from the skidding sailor for good measure, he spotted Myojin, waved, and asked with a smile, "Yahiko-chi, are we being ambushed?"
"N-No, wait! It's... HEY! Stop trying to hit him!" stammered Yahiko while the sailor that attempted to hit Minoe tried to do it again. And again.
Of course, thanks to past experience, Myojin was actually more worried about the sailor than Munenori.
Regardless, the attacker might as well have swung his stick a mile away. The optical illusion of the diminutive Munenori just standing there, smiling, fooled the seaman's eyes. "Do mine eyes deceive me? Are you a ghost?"
"...No, I mean, it's just a test! A TEST!" Myojin finally revealed, which prompted Munenori to stop dodging and allowed himself get hit on the head with the stick.
"I'm sorry! This was the captain's orders! Are you okay?" The sailor retracted his stick, spouting out the first words that came to mind. "Wait... what?"
Munenori waved him off and gave him a thumb's up sign while rubbing his wigged head "Mochiron!"
Another crack of the stick was heard from the other side of the warehouse opposite the door Minoe came in. At the third(?) available entrance of the building stood the Bemused Gan, who scratched his bandanna-sporting head and dusted it off of sawdust at the same time.
"Ow. What the hell, man?" the Goofy Gan asked the wide-eyed sailor holding the broken stick in his hands. "Do I owe you money or something? Yoshi-boy, what's going on?"
"Yeah. What the hell, Captain Shura?" Yahiko called out the former pirate. "Are you really going to hit all my... these people who came with me with sticks? Honestly?"
As if to answer Myojin's question (and before Shura could answer), a fourth attempt at an ambush echoed after the samurai kid's statement.
"Uh-oh," intoned Yahiko, Minoe, and (even the Clueless) Gan as they realized which one of their quartet was struck down by sailor on the head with a stick.
"OOWWW!" said Chizuru. She squatted down and grabbed her throbbing head, tears streaming in her eyes. The bearded sailor who hit her promptly dropped the stick he was holding and went beside her, asking, "Are you okay?" and the like.
Myojin remarked to Shura, "You do realize that not all of the people I'm with are fighters, right?"
"You dare hit a lady with a stick? You... ball-grabbing circus monkey! Come back here!"
The Three Stooges then winced as they witnessed Chizuru pick up the stick and start running after the bearded sailor while screeching like a banshee, her eyes so bloodshot their redness could be seen from a distance.
"YAHIKO, WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH HIM, YOU'RE NEXT!" screamed Miss Raikouji. She stalked the crawling, bleeding crewman who bonked her head with the same bloody stick he hit her with.
"I don't know what you're talking about, kid. She sure looks like a fighter to me!" the Crimson Captain said with a knee slap and a chuckle while the rest of her crewmates laughed along with her. However, their smiles didn't quite reach their eyes.
The Crimson Captain of the Kairyu finally addressed Yahiko's concerns. "I was in need of the strongest warriors I could find on short notice, so when you started showing interest in the job I'd offered you, I had some of my Kairyu crew members 'test' you out."
"Are you kidding me? Do you ambush everyone you try to hire?" asked Yahiko. "Gee, that's not a questionable business practice at all!"
"Stop whining, landlubber. I'm a privateer now, but I'll always be a pirate at heart. Nothing is too questionable for me," said Shura. "Besides, true samurai will be able to handle sneak attacks."
"Huh. You'd think the Oyakata would've come up with the same nifty test, since that cop killer Kumamoto Amakusa mowed down all of those cops they got from all over Kanto like grass!" said Gan.
"A test like that wouldn't have helped. Plus, it's not the cops' fault, Gan," said Yahiko. "No one expected Amakusa to still be a one-man army after nearly dying the last time he fought."
Yahiko cleared his throat, remembering the sacrifices that had to be done for the sake of keeping Tetsuo Akahori and his daughter alive.
Minoe bobbed his head, his wig almost falling off, and said, "Mochiron," while at the back of Yahiko's mind, he knew... knew... that the Togakudan double agent had a part in why Shogo almost succeeded in his assassination attempt of Akahori.
Yahiko sighed. How long must they both feign ignorance? 'Until there's a knife stuck in my back, maybe,' he thought as he rubbed his sore, still-healing shoulder.
"I am surprised at how such a boy no older than Yoshi-boy is leading his own crew," said the Blissful Gan as he slapped Shura's butt. "Keep up the good work, Captain Kid!"
This resulted in Yahiko doing a facefault, Chizuru doing a facepalm, and Minoe peering at the two in seeming askance over their "overreaction".
Myojin extricated his face on the warehouse pavement and shrugged at Munenori. At the back of his head, he thought, 'Seriously? You of all people couldn't tell?'
Meanwhile, the Touchy-Feely Gan ended up on the wrong end of a wristlock as the Crimson Captain twisted his arm until it bent in a way that Yahiko was sure wasn't supposed to bend. "Touch me again, and I'll wrap your scrotum around your neck."
True to her heritage, she certainly talked like a sailor. All the males present grabbed hold of their crotches by reflex. Chizuru raised an eyebrow when Minoe didn't grab his own "crotch".
"Jeez! ALRIGHT! Ow. Don't make me walk the plank or anything, matey," said the Groaning Gan. He then waved the feeling back in his arm. "I don't get why you're so sensitive, Mister Crimson Captain! It's not like I'm into doing boys or anything."
That not only pissed Captain Shura off, but also the rest of her burly crew of salty sea dogs.
"I'M A WOMAN, YOU INBRED DIPSHIT! A WOMAN!" screamed Shura. She then twisted the Clueless Gan's arm all the way through, enough so that the gigantic bandanna-wearing hooligan ended up on one knee.
"Really? With a chest like that? No way," said the Wincing Gan as though he had a death wish of some sort.
"AAAUUUGH!"
As if she wasn't aware of the irony or the cognitive dissonance between her words and her unladylike actions.
She then put the Brainless Gan down face-first on the floor, her arms wrapped around his lantern jaw while her legs were wrapped around his.
No, she was actually wrestling him down, not doing anything dirty. However, her chest was finally in close enough proximity on the Choking Gan's back for the huge galoot to turn red in embarrassment and yell, "Okay, so maybe you really are a woman."
Crimson Captain released her hold, grabbed hold of her chest, and kicked the thug upside the head.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU BLUSHING FOR, YOU UNWASHED CUNT CHEESE?"
"Say that shit again, and we're going to deep six you, got it?"
The rest of Shura's crew chimed in while they stomped and kicked on the Prone Gan.
Even the mute Sarujiro got into the action by biting the Pummeled Gan's leg, making the sailor-looking landlubber yelp and shriek like a girl.
All this filthy sailor talk had left everyone else who weren't sailors blushing, chuckling in a way that appeared like a coughing fit, eye-twitching, neck-scratching, collar-pulling, and thumb-twiddling... even the doe-eyed (well, one-eyed) Minoe.
After everything settled down and the Kairyu left the Bashed-and-Bruised Gan alone like a heap of garbage, Yahiko squatted down and told the idiot, "You only got three brain cells left, and they're all fighting for attention."
To the good captain, Yahiko said, "Mister Inbred Dipshit and Unwashed Cunt Cheese here is the Not-So-Great Gan. Also known as Soba King or some other nonsense because... I don't know... he really likes soba or something? Oh, and meat buns too, although he doesn't call himself Emperor Meat Bun."
"Go to hell, Yoshi-boy," Emperor Meat Bun retorted.
Tapping Myojin's shoulder, Chizuru asked, "Hey, Yahiko. Who is that anyway?" her head still hurting from the sudden smack it suffered from the ambush earlier.
After Myojin recovered from his facefault, he introduced to Chizuru, "Oh, this is my friend from way back, Shura..."
"Captain Shura."
"Captain Shura," Yahiko corrected himself. "When she and the Kenshingumi first met..."
"...Seriously, Kenshingumi?" deadpanned both Chizuru and Shura. "You just combined the vagabond's name with 'gumi'," added the Raikouji daughter.
"Yeah. Kenshingumi. Get over it. Anyway, we used to be enemies with Captain Shura. She was the leader of a pirate crew called the Kairyu, plus she managed to kidnap Kenshin off to a remote island. The rest of us... friends of Kenshin tried to rescue him from her, but..."
"But?" repeated Raikouji, seemingly mesmerized by the story. Of course, Myojin long ago figured out that any story involving the "vagabond" was an interesting story to her.
With a shrug, Yahiko said, "Well, long story short, we're all friends now and Kenshin helped rehabilitate Captain Shura while they were together in that island. No idea how that came about, but that's what happened."
Were it the Twentieth Century instead of the Nineteenth Century, Myojin would've had a name for the phenomenon that occurred between Shura and Himura: "Lima Syndrome", otherwise known as the inverse of "Stockholm Syndrome", involved the kidnapper becoming enamored by the plight of his own victim.
"...That's it? Really?" asked Chizuru with half-lidded eyes. "She kidnapped the vagabond, and after a while, she ends up being 'changed' somehow by his... vagabond-ness? If I didn't know better, I'd say she's..."
Raikouji trailed off as she put her finger on her lips and smiled.
"The... rurouni?" repeated Shura.
"She means Kenshin," clarified Myojin.
Chizuru peered at Shura, her nose upturned by the supposed captain. "Can we really trust this pirate tomboy and captain wannabe?"
"P-P-Pirate tomboy? C-C-Captain wannabe?" stuttered Shura. "The nerve of you, Kao...!"
Yahiko interspersed himself in between the two before their catfight could begin. "She's not a pirate anymore. She's gone legit. She's a privateer now."
The Captain cleared her throat and relaxed her tense body. "Yep. I'm on the straight and narrow now," she said while eyeing Chizuru in return.
Even Myojin had to back away from the lingering stares that not only Raikouji but also Minoe and the Battered Gan gave.
The eye-patched and wigged spy said, "We got ambushed by Shura-chi's..."
"Captain Shura."
"...By Captain Shura-chi's men and you expect us to believe that she's gone 'legit', Yahiko-chi?" resumed Munenori with no irony whatsoever. It became Myojin's turn to look at the Kakure Kirishitan double agent with a raised eyebrow.
Yahiko merely introduced, "Oh, and this is Minoe Munenori."
The Crimson Captain and the former Togakudan spy exchanged bows.
"Huh. Eye patch. Bandanna. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you had pirates for friends, Yahiko," said Shura while nudging her elbow into Myojin's ribs, thus making the latter wince. "I had my share of eye patches and bandannas during my time with the old Kairyu. Or even now, come to think of it."
The captain then said, "I know your ribs are okay, but how is your shoulder? Are these people here to help you out because you can't take the heat of this mission by yourself, landlubber?"
Yahiko waved her off. "Of course I can take the heat. That's why I said yes to your proposal, right? Besides, they're not really with me, so if you want them to take the job too, you'll need to talk to them, not me."
Minoe and Yahiko's eyes met, and the former looked away.
"Well, anyway, I don't quite understand why I had to get conked on the head with a stick to begin with!" said Chizuru while rubbing the bump on her noggin.
Meanwhile, the Significantly More Damaged Gan rolled his eyes. "Well, la-dee-da, Kaori-neechan. Poor you."
Scratching the back of her head, the twenty-something captain of her own crew and ship... an overachiever in every sense of the term... Shura the Crimson Captain apologized directly to Chizuru.
Shura said, "My bad, my bad, Kaoru! I didn't know you've retired from swordsmanship! I wouldn't have had my men hit you with a stick if I knew you couldn't dodge it!"
Chizuru blinked repeatedly as she asked Shura, "Er... Pardon me? Come again? What did you just say?" for clarification.
"Sh-Shura, you got it all wrong. I mean, I myself have made the same mistake, but this woman is actually...!" said Yahiko, but the good captain didn't hear him as she continued talking (she obviously didn't or else she would've insisted he call her Captain Shura).
"I mean, you've actually become a lot more... laidback than the last time I saw you. I should've been clued in from the start when all you could talk about in the letters you sent back to me is your son or your husband..."
Chizuru narrowed her eyes at Shura's sudden pause as she scoped out the pirate woman's body language. Before Yahiko could get a word in edgewise, Rakouji asked, "By 'husband', you mean the vagabond, right?"
Shura turned away and harrumphed. "What about your husband, Kamiya Kaoru?"
Reading between the lines, Chizuru put two and two together. The Crimson Captain left an implied and unsaid, 'Did you come here to brag about your husband?' judging by her body language and intonation, thinking that Raikouji was actually Kamiya. 'Oooh... I see what's going on here.'
As Yahiko attempted to correct Shura, Chizuru covered the boy's mouth with her hand and decided to have her revenge for being ambushed by a sailor with a wooden stick then and there.
"Oh yeah. I, uh, Kamiya... Kaoru, was it? I haven't been doing my, uh, stick exercises as much as I used to." Chizuru started fanning herself. "It's just that Kenshin and I, we can't get our hands off of each other, you know what I mean? No time for exercises when you're busy with, um, other exercises..."
Myojin shot a wide-eyed, tight-lipped, jaw-clenched look towards Raikouji, who herself had cheeks as red as the circle on the center of the Japanese flag. However, she decided to move forward since she already crossed the line. No point in going back on her word.
Chizuru sneered while the tomboyish captain clenched her fist and teeth. The rich girl hugged herself and mimed... stuff. "You wouldn't expect it out of a wimp like the vaga... I mean, K-Kenshin, but... he can be quite manly. I mean, you do know we have a child together, right?"
To Raikouji's chagrin, the Crimson Captain looked upwards and gave the cobwebbed ceiling a wistful look, the strands of spider silk glimmering in the sunlight of the open warehouse doors. "Yeah. Himura Kenshin truly is something else, isn't he?"
"Kamiya Kenshin," corrected Yahiko without thinking, which earned him the glares of both Chizuru and Shura. "I-I'm just saying. Don't shoot the messenger."
Minoe blinked and stared wide-eyed (since he only had one eye exposed) at Chizuru. "Chizuru-chi, since when were you having an affair with the Battousai?"
Had Chizuru drunk anything at the moment, she would've spit it out at Munenori's face. Since she hadn't, she ended up spraying a small gust of saliva at him instead. "W-W-What are you talking about, you weirdo? I-I'm...!"
"...Eh? Wait a goddamn second. Chizuru-chi? Who's Chizuru-chi?" demanded an incensed Shura.
A little later...
"She's not Kaoru? What are you talking about? She's totally Kaoru! Look at her! That new hairdo, stupid hair, and tacky boots won't fool me!" sputtered the Crimson Captain after Yahiko finally told her the truth about Chizuru Raikouji.
Myojin sighed. He could only imagine the look on Shura's face if she were to see Minoe without the eye patch and wig (or the dyed black hair and haircut underneath it).
This reminded Yahiko of when the Kenshingumi first saw Tae Sekihara's identical twin Sae. The memory gave him goose bumps. The identical stranger who looked like the female version of Doctor Gensai also came to mind. Or that prince that Yahiko was supposed to look like too.
Goddammit, they had twins all across Japan! It was getting ridiculous! To Shura, Yahiko whispered, "I know, right? I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw her. Could she be a sister from another mother?"
Shura sighed. "It's a damn shame that the real Kaoru isn't here. It's been a while since I heard from her."
"Oh right," said Yahiko while rubbing his nose. "You still write to each other." He chuckled. "Don't you really want to meet up with Kenshin instead?"
The way the Crimson Captain coughed and turned away spoke volumes to the samurai boy.
"And here I thought this was just Kamiya Kaoru, putting on a hair bow, boots, and a different hairstyle in order to look younger than she really is!" said Shura in a stage whisper (i.e., not a whisper at all that an entire theater full of people could hear).
Yahiko winced as he practically heard the pulsating vein form over Chizuru's temple as she glared daggers at Shura. "Now, now. Let's not get carried away, Captain..."
With a toss of her hair, Chizuru struck back with, "That's a funny statement coming from someone whom I think is about the same age as I am, but looks a lot older."
Even the rest of Shura's crew had to backpedal from that remark. The red-vested captain in white pants and a bandanna confronted the Kaoru look-alike.
"And you. I can't believe you'd stoop so low as to pretend to be Kamiya Kaoru even though you're not! You're such a seabag!"
"I don't know what a seabag is, but fair's fair. I didn't intend to be hit on the head with a stick today either," said Chizuru with her arms on her hips and a pout.
Incidentally, a "seabag" was sailor talk for an aging mermaid. "Fine, then. We're even," said Captain Shura.
"Even? Even? Even is when I have Yahiko pummeling you by surprise with that blunt sword of his that can't even cut through butter!"
"Oh, come on! Don't get me involved with your mess, Chizuru!" With a cough, Yahiko asked Shura. "Okay, your tests are done and introductions are already over with... somewhat... why don't you tell me what you want me here for?"
Captain Shura nodded as she ordered her crew to get her stools and use one of the boxed cargo as her makeshift table. "I'm kind of shorthanded right now in terms of crewmembers, if you didn't notice."
The Bitter Gan grumbled, "It doesn't look like that's the case, Captain Shuriken. Not after your entire crew gangbanged me to submission!"
"I had a lot more crewmembers than before, Bandanna," said Shura.
"Captain Shuriken? Really? Are you even trying anymore, Gan?" deadpanned Yahiko.
"Eat shit, Yoshi-boy," snapped the Disgruntled Gan. "I hope you get scurvy."
Shura quipped to Yahiko, "See what I told you? Your companions are practically pirates and sailors already! For landlubbers, they sure got the lingo down as well as the pirate look."
"What is she talking about, Yahiko-chi?" asked Munenori while he looked at Myojin with one eye, his other eye wearing a patch that kept his wig in place. Yahiko groaned.
"So... you want us scurvy dogs to help increase your numbers or something? It looks like this is the Togakudan all over again," the Tokyo Samurai Descendant mumbled the last part to himself.
"In not so many words, yes." The Crimson Captain put her elbows on the crate and propped her chin up with her intertwined hands.
"I remember Kaoru's stories about that white-haired kid who immigrated to China in order to train himself to take revenge against Himura... oh, pardon me, Mister Kamiya. Especially the part about you and the rest of Kenshin's gang butting heads against him and the Shanghai Arms Dealers."
Yahiko's eyes widened in recognition of the name. The Shanghai Arms Dealers were the ones who supplied Makoto Shishio with the Rengoku warship as well as various armaments for his rebellion. Enishi Yukishiru also made use of them to fund his "Jinchu" or "Earthly Retribution" against Kenshin by rising up their ranks and turning into their leader at a young age.
"What about the Shanghai Arms Dealers?" asked Myojin while the rest of his own "crew"... the Sanbaka plus Chizuru... leaned in closer.
"Simply put, they're the reason why my crew and I don't have a ship no more," said the Crimson Captain as she clenched her jaw and cracked her knuckles. "I wrote to the Kamiyas that I've decided to become a privateer. Did they tell you about it? Do you even know what that means?"
Yahiko hazarded a guess. "Does that mean you're a legit pirate?"
"No such thing. All it means is that I own... owned... an armed ship and I'm commissioned and authorized by the Japanese government to use it to wage war against my fellow pirates and capture enemy merchant goods."
Myojin nodded. "So what happened to your ship? What does the Shanghai Arms Dealers have to do with anything?"
According to Missus Kamiya's correspondences with Shura, the privateers doubled as the government's personal anti-piracy maritime police that had more leeway than even the national coastguard.
Captain Shura pointed a thumb at her crew and said, "Me and the boys have been sailing around the South China Sea in our ship, the Kobayashi Maru, for half a decade. We were able to defend ships from pirate attacks and recovered quite a lot of contraband coming in and out of Japan."
"I think I know where this is going," Yahiko said. "You and your crew at the Kobayashi Maru happened to get in the way of the Shanghai Mafia for far too many times, so the organization decided to take you meddlers out for good."
"Bingo. On a routine mission to protect Japanese shipping routes from the Wokou, our ship was ambushed in the middle of a fake siege and destroyed by the pirate ship known as the Hizoku, which had coat of arms representing what we'd later find out to belong to our old friends, the Shanghai Mafia."
It had been three centuries since the heyday of the Wokou or Wako (Wako being the Japanese name for the pirates and where the term "wattoujutsu" got its name).
On that note, it was through these raiders that Enishi learned the deadly art of wattoujutsu, which was essentially a combination of Chinese martial arts with Japanese swordsmanship born out of the battles between Asian pirates and sailors.
"Wait, so the Wokou is in cahoots with the Shanghai Arms Dealers?" asked Yahiko. He'd once heard that name before. All modern-day Nineteenth Century pirates like Shura and the Kairyu owed their existence to the ancient Wokou.
While the Wokou were traditionally depicted as Japanese pirates, these raiders were actually more multinational than people expected.
Sure, they were called Japanese or "dwarf" pirates for a reason (early Wokou truly did come from outlying Japanese islands and were composed of ronin, ex-soldiers, merchants, smugglers, and defectors from Japan).
However, eventually, they gathered enough non-Japanese members (like Koreans, Chinese, or even Southeast Asian people) by the Sixteenth Century onwards to be considered an international menace.
This partially explained the ties between the Wokou and the Shanghai Mafia or even the connection between the ex-Kairyu members and the Shanghai Mafia. The Wokou weren't one nationality, but instead were composed of multiple ethnic origins.
"Well, how else would that Shanghai Mafia be able to steal materials and distribute their contraband? Through the Wokou, of course!" chided Shura. "What's worse is that my old ex-Kairyu crewmates have joined forces with the Shanghai Mafia's Wokou."
"Oh, you mean that large, long-haired, and eye-patched muscleman and that sallow, hook-nosed pirate with the underbite and embarrassing fundashi is now in cahoots with the Shanghai Mafia? Small world," said Yahiko.
"Yes. Good ol' Ginjo, Gekki, and everyone else from Shikanoshima Island." Yahiko could almost taste the sourness of Shura's laugh. "That was how our ship was destroyed, actually. They knew me like the back of their hands, so they immediately predicted my actions at sea."
"Wait, what?" said Yahiko. "You lost the Kobayashi Maru to the Wokou?"
The Crimson Captain gripped the handle of the sword on her side. "Those traitors backstabbed me again while ending up in the pocket of the Shanghai Mafia. Plus, the Hizoku is a ship painted pitch black so that it could maneuver through dark waters undetected until it was too late."
Shura looked around her crewmembers with misty eyes. "Some of us weren't even able to make it, including my former first mate." The rest of the captain's shipmates, particularly Sarujiro, took their hats off and bowed their heads in silence.
She stared straight into Myojin's eyes. "I want to know everything you know about the Shanghai Arms Dealers. I'll make them and the Kairyu regret messing with the Crimson Captain and her crew."
Yahiko considered the captain's words. "So do you and the Kairyu have a new ship handy so that you can sail again and meet the Wokou head-on?"
"No," Shura confessed, which made Myojin almost fall off his stool while the people from behind him listening closely ended up off-balance themselves.
"We don't even have a ship? What kind of pirates are you?" said the Exasperated Gan before Chizuru hit his face with a slipper. "You're too close to me!" she said.
"Pardon? How can you hope to exact revenge against these Wokou bastards if you don't have a ship? Couldn't the Meiji Government commission you one or something?" asked Minoe.
"Actually, the Meiji has no intention of reimbursing me for my lost ship." Captain Shura sneered. "After all the blood, sweat, and tears I've sacrificed for them, this is the thanks I get. Everything is honky-dory as long as you're useful to them, but at the first sign of trouble, they'll kick you off the curb."
Yahiko made a hollow guffawing sound, remembering what happened to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police army that Tetsuo Akahori hired to subdue Shogo Amakusa. "Yeah, that sounds exactly like what the Meiji Government would do."
"So how are we going to go about the job? Are we even going to get paid for this or are you only asking a free favor off of Yoshi-boy, Captain Shuriken?" asked the Inquisitive Gan.
"You will get paid. I've had my share of loot and commissions as a privateer, so you'll all be compensated," assured the captain.
Chizuru remarked, "I don't care. My family's already loaded. I'm just here for the vagabond."
"You're just here for the what?" repeated Shura as the Raikouji daughter looked away and murmured, "Nothing, nothing."
"I don't get it. If you're rich enough, then why not simply buy a new boat?" asked Minoe, only for him to backpedal after Shura answered, "You can't buy off the lives that were lost at sea that day, Eye Patch. I have a responsibility for my crew. I will not back down. I'll avenge every one of them."
"His name is Patches, Captain Shuriken," said the Garrulous Gan, but neither acknowledged his statement. Even if they did hear him, neither Shura nor Minoe gave any indication that they did.
His heart caught in his throat, Munenori was about to tell Captain Shura off that revenge wasn't the answer and that she could end up losing even more lives at sea. However, bile gurgled inside his gut while he remembered recent events, so he chose to keep quiet instead.
"I won't be working for free either, but money isn't what I'm after, Captain," interrupted Yahiko before the intense Shura ended up strangling the hapless Minoe. "I've heard rumors about you, Crimson Captain. You've been busy for the past half decade."
Shura turned, smiled at Myojin, and flicked her nose at him, much to the relief of the tense Minoe. "I hope those are good rumors you've been hearing, Yahiko."
"I've recently inherited Kenshin's sakabatou, and I'm slowly but surely learning how to use it to its fullest potential." Myojin unsheathed his sword, showcasing its reverse edge.
Yahiko faced the smirking Shura eye-to-eye. "Once everything is said and done, I want you to show me the strength that allowed you to become captain again by your own hands and not through heritage or by your ex-captain father's will. I want to know firsthand how strong the Scourge of the Pacific is."
The Crimson Captain rubbed her chin and grinned. "I see what you're getting at. Sure. I kind of owe Kamiya Kaoru a favor for giving me the idea for what you're talking about, so I guess I can return that debt by showing you what I've learned."
"What the hell are they talking about, Patches? Kaori-nee?" asked the Perplexed Gan.
"I have no clue, Gan-chi," replied the eye-patched, bowl-wigged spy as the Kaoru doppelganger continued to give the captain the stink eye.
Since the Crimson Captain and her crew didn't have a ship to speak of, she made arrangements and used her Naoetsu connections so that she and her people could serve as bodyguards to a major Naoetsu shipping line.
The company's boats happened to follow the same route as the Kobayashi Maru had before its untimely destruction and sinking off the waters between Korea and Japan.
Shura's crew then had to take a ferry over the nearby Sado Island to get to the "Akibatsu" cargo ship before casting off to the Wokou-plagued sea routes.
However, despite Myojin's insistence, Chizuru... the lone heir to the Raikouji fortune... refused to stay at the Naoetsu Port for her own good while insisting on tagging along.
To think that they'd had to go all the way to the harbor city of Niigata in order to get a trading company willing to go with their crazy plans of ambushing the ambushers.
However, not everything was, as the saying went, "smooth sailing" from thereon end. Retching sounds reverberated at the starboard (right) side of the Akibatsu, right on the poop deck, even before they had cast off.
"Are you okay, Yahiko-chi?" asked Minoe while massaging the shoulder that she... Kaede Morinaga... had stabbed with the Scorpion Death Lock.
"M-Mochiron," stuttered the pale, kind of bluish, and sort of greenish Yahiko.
A smirking Chizuru made her way to the poop deck in order to click her tongue on the roof of her mouth at Yahiko while he made a spectacle of himself.
"Really? You were the one who was making such a big fuss over how you want to take this big job and challenge Shura... Captain Shura, don't even start," Raikouji corrected herself before the captain had an opportunity to do so, "to a duel or something as partial payment for being part of her expedition, and yet here you are, unable to take the roll of the waves?"
Yahiko growled but did nothing more. He hated it when Kaoru was right, even if the Kaoru who was being right wasn't Kaoru at all.
"Maybe you should've been the one to stay in Port Naoetsu, huh?" quipped "Not Kaoru".
"..." said Myojin as he turned to his side in time to see the Tactless Gan eating a piece of barbecued meat in front of him. The great big galoot shrugged.
"What?" Gan asked. In response, Yahiko went green and pressed his fingers against his lips, the sides of his mouth ballooning. "Ew, Yoshi-boy. Gross. Don't make me lose my appetite."
"You still haven't gotten your sea legs, and you insist on becoming part of my crew, Yahiko?" asked Captain Shura with an upturned nose and a smirk that lay parallel to a raised eyebrow.
"You sure have a set of balls on you, kid. You're like a mountain climber with a fear of heights. I like that in a man."
"Leave me alone, Captain Shuriken," said Yahiko before he puked some more, expelling the rest of his breakfast to the Sea of Japan while the rest of the sailors (and his so-called allies) laughed at him. The bastards.
He could've sworn he'd be over his seasickness by age sixteen. Apparently, age had nothing to do with it. Whether he was ten or sixteen, he'd still be seasick unless he gained his sea legs, whatever the hell that meant.
After Yahiko, Gan, and Minoe gave their consent to work with Captain Shura, she revealed her plan.
According to the so-called Scourge of the Pacific, she'd been scouting the movements of the Shanghai Mafia Wokou and her former Kairyu pirate shipmates even before recruiting Yahiko and company.
'Ginjo. Gekki. All the rest of you ex-Kairyu scum. You're all sons of bitches. I'm ashamed to have ever called you my comrades. You've shamed the memory of my father and Iwazo,' thought Captain Shura while she stared across the Sea of Japan overlooking Port Naoetsu of Niigata.
Incidentally, Iwazo was the old man and friend of her father whom her former first mate Ginjo had drugged with opiates after making a deal with the secret drug dealer known as Senbonya to test their effectiveness.
It was quite possible that being drugged in his old age helped shave off years from Iwazo's life. He was already one foot in the grave five to six years ago.
'I'll make sure you fucking bastards will pay for the lives you took when you double-crossed me again,' she swore over the Pacific Ocean, remembering the mutiny the ex-Kairyu staged so that they could become "real" pirates and drug dealers.
Furthermore, instead of having to worry about getting their cargo stolen, shipping lines tend to leave a little something for pirates in order to keep them out of their hair.
These bribes became less common as privateers like Shura and her Kairyu helped the coastguard defend the shipping lines while confiscating black market contraband from pirates from time to time.
That was also the reason why the shipping company that owned the Akibatsu allowed Captain Shura to conduct her little revenge expedition. They owed her a lot from the many times she kept their cargo safe from the Wokou, so this was the least they could do.
The Kairyu were now vigilantes of the sea; essentially naval officers working for private concerns. Then again, they still attacked foreign shipping while under authorization of the Meiji (which was what privateers were supposed to do) to fulfill the government's "Fukoku Kyohei" (Rich Country, Strong Army) philosophy.
The closest traditional Wokou-infested trading route from Niigata was the one between Shimonoseki in Japan and Gangneung in Joseon (Korea's old name; more than a decade later, in 1897, the nation would be renamed to Daehan Jeguk or the Great Han Empire).
This was many nautical miles away from Chongwu Fortress off the Fujian Coast (a well-known headquarters of Wokou), much more so with Shanghai.
In fact, the final resting place of the Kobayashi Maru was right in the middle of the East Sea, in between Joseon's Gangwon-Do (this would later be renamed to Uljin County in 1963) and Tsushima Island.
Traditionally, the Wokou sites for Japanese raids were way south of Japan, right over at the Kyushu and Ryukyu (Okinawa) Islands instead of the Kanto Region. They covered routes from Hanseong, Korea to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, China.
With the help of the Shanghai Mafia, the Wokou had slowly but surely spread its reach in territories far beyond that of the normal routes that the raiders frequented, specifically the ones leading straight from Japan to Korea.
It would take a few days for the Akibatsu to get to where the Kobayashi Maru sank. They might even have to wait for a whole week for any Wokou raids to happen.
However, the likelihood of attack was a safe bet because the assault on the Kobayashi Maru happened fairly recently on nontraditional Wokou haunts. Like they were specifically targeted by the Shanghai Mafia.
The assault on the Kobayashi Maru was a no-win situation that forced the captain to sacrifice a few good men and the ship itself to the marauders in exchange for making sure that the rest of her crew was safe.
She had no intention of turning her fellow Kairyu's wives and children from Shiomi Park in Shikanoshima Island into orphans and widows.
She executed a tactical retreat that couldn't even be called a Pyrrhic or Moral Victory. There was no victory to be had there. The drunkard she ended up with as a first mate... her stinky, greasy, bombastic, bearded, womanizing, and barely coherent first mate... had to go down with her ship instead of her.
Her first mate insisted that he had nothing to live for and dying for the one woman he'd never slept with was something he'd never regret within a thousand lifetimes.
He said that she should live on because there were too many people who depended on her; that a captain need not go down with her ship.
'Damn you.'
Aboard a black gunboat that cut through the waters like a shark's fin...
"Captain, we've received word from our spies that the Kairyu are on the move. They're out for blood," said a multilingual Wokou from Joseon after acquiring the message tied to the talons of a hawk. "What are your orders?"
The towering, bearded Wokou holding the ship's wheel served the captain of the "Hizoku" (or "Flying Demon") steamship, which shared the size and design of Makoto Shishio's "Rengoku" or one of the "Kurofune" of Commodore Matthew C. Perry that helped start off the Bakumatsu way back when.
A bulky, eye-patched man interposed himself between the messenger and the captain, his great axe slung against his back.
"Don't call those privateer misfits the Kairyu. We're the Kairyu. We're not the tamed dogs of the government who follow their every beck and call. We're wolves of the sea who serve no master."
"Hey, Ginjo, should we blow her up like her first mate boyfriend?" cackled the big-nosed, sharp-eyed "caveman" with the underbite and loincloth as he played with a spherical bomb. "She must've cried for days after he went down with the Kobayashi Maru. Maybe we can do her a favor and send her after him."
"Nah, Gekki. I want to finish where we left off instead," said Ginjo as he admired his physique and armor on the smooth surface of his freshly sharpened battle axe. "She'll either become my bride or my whore. I swear as the true captain of the Kairyu."
"But you're not Kairyu anymore. You're Wokou," said the captain of the Hizoku. "Don't demean yourselves into thinking you're ordinary pirates. The freedom of the Wokou is infinite. They are not bound by race, creed, or nation on land, sea, or air. They are the citizens of the world."
"O-Of course we're Wokou, Captain Inoue Masakichi," said Ginjo as he pulled at the collar of his vest while resisting the urge to blanch from the captain's halitosis. He bit his lip as he held his breath while the pungency from the pirate captain's mouth made his eyebrows sizzle in its intensity.
"It's Captain Inoue Masakichi Hananuma to you", the captain corrected.
"O-Of course!" Ginjo looked down and gulped at the curtain of ropes and counterweights that served more than simple decoration on the captain's western-styled belt.
He'd seen how the bearded commander killed a man with those... pointy conical things. He'd seen what the huge, barrel-chested marauder was capable of.
Masakichi Hananuma Inoue... "The Alchemist"... harrumphed, his nostrils flaring as he looked down on the ex-Kairyu like pieces of garbage or fish guts.
"As long as you know how privileged you are, then it should be fine. Isn't that right, my precious 426s?" asked the Hizoku's captain.
Four identical shadows emerged from behind the ex-Kairyu members, their shiny grins the only things visible from their shady silhouettes.
"That's exactly right, 415," the quartet chorused in thick, singsong Mandarin Chinese accents, "You Blue Lanterns should listen to our esteemed leader so that you could learn a thing or two about the Three Harmonies Society of the Heaven and Earth Society."
"B-Blue Lanterns? You mean we're not initiated yet?" asked Gekki as he retracted his retractable claws. He then put them away as the heavy glare of the four smiling shadows robbed his will to fight.
"Of course you're not initiated. You haven't even taken the 36 oaths yet. Don't get ahead of yourselves," they again said at the same time.
"I've already taken your 36 oaths, sworn allegiance to Guan Yu, and even trained hard enough to become more than just a 49er! I'm the 432 now, remember?" said Ginjo.
According to the hierarchy of the Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) branch known as the Sanhehui (Three Harmonies Society)... the Shanghai Mafia that Enishi took over... the third-tier members of the organization were referred to as 415s (White Paper Fans or Administrators).
As for the 426, they served as the gang's Red Poles or Enforcers, which was what the four shadowy figures (each as large as Captain Inoue, if not more so) were supposed to be. As for Ginjo, he was the 432 Straw Sandal or Liaison Officer that made this union between Kairyu and Wokou possible.
Finally, the Blue Lanterns... the ex-Kairyu minus Ginjo... were among the uninitiated while the rest of the Wokou working for Masakichi Hananuma Inoue were mostly composed of 49ers or Ordinary Members of the Sanhehui.
Two days later, at the supplies and stores portion of the Akibatsu...
"Do you want to suck the monkey or kiss the gunner's daughter, oh Great Gan?" asked one of the Kairyu's motley crew of unlisted and unlicensed sailors-turned-privateers.
The Kairyu consisted of AWOL, retired, and court-martialed former naval officers and a good sampling of the population of Nineteenth Century Japan that just happened to be seamen.
They gathered around the Humongous Gan below deck during the long journey from Niigata to the sea routes in between Shimonoseki and Gangneung, where there were entire hours of waiting, swabbing the decks, battening the hatches, and so forth.
"Well, while fellatio with a monkey sounds really tempting, I think I'd rather have some lip action with a daddy's girl. You know, as long as her father doesn't mind."
"You heard the man! Let's have him kiss the gunner's daughter!" The group then gathered en masse and pushed the pirate-looking thug towards the gun ramps of the cargo vessel.
"So who's the gunner and where's his daughter?" asked Gan, which for some reason resulted in the Kairyu laughing even harder.
As much as Chizuru claimed she couldn't care less what happened to Gan, the (recovering and nauseated) Yahiko still spotted the Kaoru duplicate marching over to the throng of Kairyu, ready to give them a piece of her mind.
"Don't bother. If there's anyone who could take care of themselves, it's that idiot." Without looking, Myojin attempted to grab Raikouji by the collar, but instead ended up grabbing her long hair and tugging her head back as she was about to speak.
Chizuru returned the favor by poking Yahiko's eyes out. "I can't stand it when people bully other people. Can you? I thought he was your best friend!" she said without irony.
"Best friend? Hold your horses, lady! I only met the guy a few weeks ago!" said Yahiko. After he recuperated from the ocular assault, he karate-chopped Raikouji on the noggin and said, "Relax. No one can bully that moron. Believe me, I tried."
He added to himself, 'And so did Amakusa.'
"Where are my Kairyu going?" the captain of the Kobayashi Maru popped out from behind Yahiko and Chizuru, startling them. "Where are they taking Bandanna?"
"Your Kairyu is going to make Gan kiss the gunner's daughter. I didn't know your crew had women on board aside from you and Chizuru," said Myojin.
Chizuru chided, "I bet it's supposed to be a metaphor for something violent... Isn't it, Captain Shura?"
Without another word, Shura ran after her crew, and Chizuru followed suit. Yahiko would've run had he any sea legs to make it happen, but for the time being, he chose to walk instead of sprint.
While walking, Yahiko figured out what "kissing the gunner's daughter" meant. The cannon was the gunner's daughter, and someone tied to that cannon while he was being flogged or something was "kissing" it. 'Clever.'
By the time he got there, instead of the Oblivious Gan tied to a gun while the Kairyu took turns flogging him, they were instead having a debate over frothy drinks atop casks of rice wine and wooden mugs.
'...What?'
"If I'm kissing the gunner's daughter, shouldn't I pucker up and have my face inside the cannon's hole or something?" the Curious Gan asked with a bit of froth on his upper lip.
"Go put your face inside my dick hole, asshole! It's a figure of speech! Now are you going to kiss it or not?" asked a Kairyu.
"And what about sucking monkey semen, huh? How does that translate to 'Let's have a drink'?" Gan pointed out. "Are you telling someone to suck themselves off or is it a pickup line for bar wenches to suck men off?"
"It's 'sucking the monkey', ya disgusting scabby sea bass, and all it means is that you're drinking rum through a straw stuck inside a small hole in a purser's cask," said another Kairyu.
"No, no, ya scurvy dog! It's the coconut shell you drink out of using a straw if you don't have enough money for a mug!" piped up yet another Kairyu. "Doesn't the three holes from an opened coconut look like a monkey?"
"You're both shark bait!" Shura herself said. "It's called sucking the monkey because everything was a 'monkey this' or 'monkey that' in a ship! You used a 'monkey pump' to 'suck the monkey', be it a coconut or a purser's cask full of alcohol!"
"Of course, if someone other than a sailor or a pirate asks you to suck a monkey, then you can invite him to go kiss the gunner's daughter," said the pirate who originally asked Gan about monkey sucking and kissing the daughters of gunners.
"Well, shiver me timbers, I'll drink to that," said the Great Gan while making a toast to the other sailors with a mandatory, "KAMPAI!" After a minute of thinking, he then asked, "...And what does parley mean?"
A memory from Kaede Morinaga's past, during the time she served as Shiro Amakusa the Second's Fake Battousai...
Kaede had wiped out the entire troop of soldiers in Nagasaki, as usual. She and her fellow impersonator, the Kagemusha of Amakusa, struck fear in the hearts of the Imperial Japanese Army at the time.
However, in the middle of the bloodbath, she cried. She cried and she didn't quite know why she cried. As usual.
She remembered the words that Amakusa... the real one... told her after he saw her bawl out in the middle of their assassination mission. "You remind me of myself when you were my age."
"...I'm the same age as you are," deadpanned Kaede while she kicked her beloved leader's shin.
Amakusa continued. "When I was about the age that you look like you're in right now..."
"Hey." She kicked him again.
"...I remembered leaving Japan and going to a foreign land to train myself to become stronger for the first time."
That was when the tearful Morinaga went silent and listened to the rest of what Amakusa had to say.
"My uncle and his friends, our remaining followers, always told me, 'You can do this because you're the Second Coming of Shiro Amakusa,' to reassure me. It's a line that gave me strength but I always hated it from the bottom of my heart. Just because I'm the supposed chosen one, my followers took it for granted that I could do anything and face anyone."
Amakusa himself went misty eyed. "I was a little boy and they expected great things from me before I even accomplished them. I was so scared, but I couldn't let that fear take over me because so much is riding on my shoulders. Even if I was just a scared little kid."
The Christian leader grabbed hold of the petite, blood-drenched Battousai look-alike's shoulder.
"I felt sorry and proud of you seeing you deal with those policemen tonight, fighting till the very end. People will have great expectations for you because they believe you look like the Hitokiri Battousai and have skills like him."
Kaede winced but nodded. Amakusa understood.
The Hitokiri Battousai. That name made her cry. Clench her jaws. Scream at the heavens. That name and having her life dictated by the shadow of the man that bore that name brought her to tears without her noticing.
"There will be times when you hate being you or being associated to Himura Kenshin. I want you to be stronger, though, not because you're the Fake Battousai, but because you're Morinaga Kaede, one of my disciples, and I have my own expectations of you."
"Expectations...?" Kaede reiterated.
Shiro nodded at the Himura look-alike. "I won't pretend to know what's in your heart. Nonetheless, are you willing to fill the emptiness within it by fighting for others instead of yourself for a change?"
Four days later, inside the crew's quarters...
Minoe stirred in his sleep, only to be roused by the stench of the Unhygienic Gan's dirty (possibly fungal) feet. The odor wafted right into his face.
Yuck.
He got up from his hammock down the lower decks and made his way up to the quarterdeck of the ship while rubbing the sleep off of his eyes. He slept while wearing his wig again, which had turned into a lion's mane.
What happened? He couldn't remember. Ergo, he checked his journal that he kept with him at all times to see if he missed anything. There was nothing written there on the latest pages, so he could either presume that nothing of importance happened, or his other self "slept" too quickly to write anything down.
Oh well. It was no skin off of his nose. Let his other selves keep their memories. He had other things to deal with, like figuring out what he was doing there and how it was supposed to help Lord Shogo Amakusa out.
Maybe it had nothing to do with his mission for the Kakure Kirishitan. Perhaps he was merely keeping a close eye on Yahiko for the sake of... of what? To keep him from meddling again? Or to use him for the sake of their revolution?
Munenori Minoe had no idea right now, but he trusted he'd put two-and-two together soon enough. Like why he had dyed his hair the same color as his wig.
Or maybe he didn't want to remember. After all, just a few weeks back, he was part of Tetsuo Akahori's Togakudan, most of whom were now ashes inside urns while incense burned beside them and their pictures on the altar.
Why did they have to die again?
Ah. His head was throbbing.
"Hey, weirdo. What's up?" greeted Chizuru from behind Minoe. She stayed on the waist of the ship near the mast, her hair blowing from behind her like a flag or a banner at the port (left) side of the boat.
"Nothing much, Chizuru-chi. Can't sleep, that's all," said Munenori with a yawn. "How about you?"
"Same. But more because I'm bored as hell. I'm already missing Nonoko-san and Kyoko-san back in Shinshushin. I never imagined I'd end up traveling the Pacific on boat again."
"Again? You've traveled before?" Minoe tilted his head, joining Raikouji and rested his elbows on the railings of the ship while they both looked at the cloudless sky and the new moon.
"Yeah. I was 'halfheartedly' trying to find the vagabond, but he ended up finding a person who looked just like me. Tragic, ain't it?"
"...M-Mochiron?"
Minoe sighed as memories of him helping "Kaede Moringa" look for her look-alike flooded his mind. It consisted of notes and reminders from his notebook.
He himself was looking for another him. The "him" that was hidden behind an eye patch and a wig. Since when did he start doing all this note-taking and giving hints to himself? Naturally, he couldn't remember.
Munenori wondered what "Kaede" thought of the Battousai. She almost seemed as enamored with him as Chizuru was, but for different reasons.
He then ended up backing away as Raikouji ended up too close for comfort. "Ch-Chizuru-chi? What's the matter?"
"Is it me, or did something happen between you and Yahiko?" came Chizuru's piercing question that caught the former Togakudan flatfooted.
Minoe tilted his head to the side. "Wh-What do you mean?"
"I mean, well, when I first met you, you were full of pep and zaniness. You're like some sort of walking Manzai act. A comic that's begging for a straight man, if you will."
"No, I'm not," he said like a petulant child, pouting.
"Yes, you were. Remember how you were acting like a total giggling ditz when Yahiko was around? I do. I'm guessing that was all an act, seeing that you're a lot more subdued now. Is this who you really are or did the kid do something to you?"
"I WASN'T A GIGGLING DITZ! I was going for bubbly and alluring!" said Minoe before realizing he was only proving Raikouji's point.
"Ah, so it was an act," said Chizuru with a smirk.
"You can think what you want, but it wasn't an 'act'. I really was... am... fond of both Yahiko-chi and Gan-chi."
'So why did you end up stabbing one of them and letting the other almost get killed by Amakusa Shogo-sama if you're so fond of them?' asked one of the voices at the back of Minoe's head.
He had no answer. He only had headaches and a willingness to forget everything.
The female voice in Munenori's mind cackled. 'Whose side are you on? You can forget everything in your life, but in the end, you'll always remember whom you're most loyal to.'
Minoe nodded to himself. That was the only way he could justify all the backstabbing that he'd done. As long as he was working for someone's sake, then he could paint himself as a hero for that person, even though he was a villain to everyone else.
Such was the life of a spy.
Next: Landlubbers and Privateer Revenge.
The stick test is included in the story as homage to the similar test conducted in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai that Kanbei used to recruit the best men he could find.
Also, here's some anime trivia. Naoetsu is where the Monogatari series takes place (specifically, the high-school-aged characters there go to Naoetsu High).
Finally, the name "Kobayashi Maru" is a Star Trek reference while the mention of "parley" is a Pirates of the Caribbean reference. Look 'em up.
Tayo na at makipagsapalaran,
Abdiel