Tsuiraku-town

[Graybeard]

Time seemed to stand still, yet drag on endlessly, as the frog-boat continued down stream. There were air holes in the compartment where Rhett was confined, and the amount of light entering them was visibly diminishing, so time must have been passing, but who could tell how much? Finally the rocking motion of the boat ceased, and the unnatural light of light globes started to filter through the air holes.

And so did a voice.

"Ah, Rhett Courier," an upper-class, but utterly lifeless, voice spoke in a Tsuirakuan accent. "So good of you to come."

Captain Kitaura may have been an utterly ruthless, amoral, unapproachable hardass, but you had to give him one thing: he was polite.

-------------

"It happened somewhere around here," Layla said as the hack reached the waterfront. "I think our people were engaged in a little burglary on the side, from what I understand of the story." She'd rehearsed that "story" for some time before setting out. "Too many of them were leftovers from the previous owners of the vineyard. They were a bad lot, low-lives who had criminal leanings. We're going to have to be more careful about who we hire from now on." (That was even truer than she realized.) "So are you detecting anything here?" she asked the elf.

[Kincaide]

"Would the good Captain be so kind as to let me out of the box we can have this conversation as men?" Rhett growled out, not unlike some kind of feral animal, and scrabbled around the box for dramatic effect, "Come on, this thing is built for you midgets, not a big guy like me," he made sure the flare gun was well out of sight before Kitaura decided to oblige him.

[Graybeard]

"I believe we both know that that would be unwise, Mr. Courier," the flat, reptilian voice answered. "However, certain accommodations may be possible." The compartment was filled with a magical glow, and when it cleared, the width and length might have been an inch or two greater than they had been. Maybe.

"Now if you would be so kind: please explain why you have found it necessary to bring yourself to my attention in this manner," Kitaura continued.

[Kincaide]

"Grah, fuck it," there was a thump from within the box and then another, the wood at the impact sites began to buckle under the blows. Suddenly, a pair of boot clad feet burst out through the wood. Another blow opened the hole wide enough for Rhett to crawl through, "Fun fact I learned a lifetime ago, things like stone and metal respond best to magical manipulation. Fiddle with wood like that and you can break down the structures that give it its strength," Rhett said standing up and glaring down at Kitaura.

"You look like a gods-be-damned lizard, mate," Rhett grinned, "Alright, the answer ain't all that hard. You know something I don't. I woulda played nice but you ain't all that easy to get a hold of," He took a moment to fix the collar of his coat and tug the sleeves into a state of smoothness, "I'm a reasonable man, ask any of my clients, I'm sure you've arrested some, and you're... well... you. Are we gonna continue this pissing contest or are we going to be reasonable men?"

[Graybeard]

If Kitaura was impressed by Rhett's sudden escape from the box, he didn't show it in his face. "Let us indeed be reasonable," he said, "and consider your surroundings."

They were under what appeared to be an open canopy above the stream, not far from the ocean. Light globes were suspended from the canopy's roof, providing more than enough light to see the small force that Kitaura had with him -- small, but quite adequate. Four large men carried Yuuki staffs that were trained on Rhett. One was recognizable as Brother Cosimo from the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, although now he wore a Tsuirakuan battlemage's uniform rather than the weird mock-dwarven getup. The amorous couple who'd been piloting the frog-boat stood nearby, and Rhett noticed that they too carried Yuuki staffs. More of the paddleboats were under the canopy; it appeared to be the jumping-off point for a commercial operation, closed now for the night. The Tsuirakuan consulate was visible in the distance.

"I am a reasonable man, Mr. Courier," Kitaura said, "but my patience is not inexhaustible. If you would be so kind, please explain to me why your desire to speak to me causes you to interfere in an internal matter of interest only to my people, in which there is no role for foreigners." He didn't say "barbarians," but he didn't really need to.

[Kincaide]

Rhett's grin faded to another scowl, "Yep, we're gonna continue the pissing contest," he said, mostly to himself, "Alright, I'm here because you know more about the people dropping dead around me than I do. You're gonna tell me what you know and be sure to use small words so my slow foreigner brain can keep up," if he was put off by the staff wielding Tsuirakans, he did not show it. He was either dumb, gutsy, or knew something Kitaura did not.

To be honest, people like Kitaura were the reason he did not play by the rules. It was far to much fun to make them eat their words and stumble around when their plans came down around them. They also really pissed Rhett off, especially if they insulted him like Kitaura just did. This was not the berserker rage that trashy theaters from here to Veracia were so fond of typifying the Northerners with. He was too well trained for that sort of thing.

"Now spill it, short stuff, I'm sure the killers are an issue, an impediment to the 'matters of interest only to your people'. I'd be more than happy to provide a nice big and stupid problem for them to take care of,"

[kagome_kino]

OOC: looks like i missed the cart i'll just wait and eat my chicken paitently

[Graybeard]

Remarkably, a thin but distinct smile crossed Kitaura's face, and he emitted a brief, dry laugh, getting startled looks from three of the four goons with him. "Most excellent, Mr. Courier!" he said, his voice perhaps a tiny fraction less lifeless than previously. "I do like a man with, as they say in a long-extinct language of my country, chutzpah. Perhaps we can do some business after all."

He snapped his fingers, and a lifelike three-dimensional image appeared in midair, just to his left. Its features were unmistakable: Dasuke Kinabalu, the mage sifu who had been tutoring Layla, and had died messily in the coffee shop after the mugging. "I believe you were present when this man died, were you not?" Kitaura said. "Let me offer you some reassurances: his death poses no threat to you, nor to the lovely and talented Ms. Sorensen who was also nearby. You just ... happened ... to be present at a particularly inopportune moment. Why was it 'inopportune' for the unfortunate Mr. Kinabalu? That, I fear, is one of those things that it is not for you, a visitor to Tsuiraku-town, to know."

Rhett was just winding up for a snarky retort when Kitaura snapped his fingers again. The image disappeared, to be replaced by a table bearing a teapot, steam issuing from its spout, and two cups. "Please be seated," Kitaura continued. "While his death need not concern you, I am very interested to learn more of the interaction you had with him before his unfortunate demise ... and an exchange of information regarding that interaction may prove to be mutually beneficial."

He held the chair for Rhett as Brother Cosimo poured tea. The other three goons remained at attention, their Yuuki staffs at the ready, of course; Kitaura may have thawed just a fraction, but he was no fool.

[Kincaide]

"Any more caffeine and I'll end up jittering in corner," Rhett said, sitting in the chair. If people kept offering him tea and coffee then the hypertension might kill him before his work did, "As far as I could tell Kinabalu was your typical hack mage, his ability seemed mostly focused in growing his ego," he was toying around with just how much to tell Kitaura.

"Anyway, about two weeks ago he contacts me and we draw up a contract for me to bring in some goods for him from the Anuban Colonies and Veracia without the usual import fees. An easy gig, not too exciting and decent pay. Job goes off without a hitch until I get to his place when the two of us get mugged by two goons, one which threw a binding spell on us. The goods are taken and Kinabalu wants nothing to do with me."

[Graybeard]

Kitaura's face went blank, and Rhett could just about see the wheels turning beneath the impassive exterior. Something was being calculated; Luminosita alone knew what.

"That is most interesting," he finally said. "As a man in your profession would surely recognize, we normally have other channels through which to bring duty-free goods into this land." (That was delicately phrased, Rhett had to admit.) "For the late sifu Kinabalu, whom by the way you underestimate severely, to resort to other methods seems ... anomalous. By chance, would you happen to know exactly what manner of no doubt highly valuable and sensitive materials you were carrying? Examination of that question might prove illuminating." He sipped his tea.

------------

"Well, that was unproductive," Joe grumped to Layla. On arrival at the inn, Neverinal had rather imperiously instructed them not to wait up for him, then disappeared in the building's general direction, humming a strange little tune under his breath and not looking back at the hack. He'd seen cabbies treated with more sensitivity. Of course, Neverinal was an elf...

"Patience," Layla counseled as they drove the hack toward the liquor store. "Elves live a lot longer than we do -- forever, if you believe the stories. That probably means they take their own sweet time with things, and if it just happens to annoy us mere mortals that they do, tough. He'll get back to us eventually. Besides, look on the bright side: now he's out of our hair."

"Point." They reached the liquor store, which had closed for the night. The downstairs lights were out, but two lights on the second floor suggested that Oskar and Stevo were present. That was good. "Want to do anything else before we head back to the farm?"

Layla thought about it. Zachary wasn't due for another feeding yet for an hour or so ... "Would you mind a quick run by the magic lab? It isn't far from here, and I wonder if it's all buttoned up after what happened."

Joe didn't mind, and a few minutes later, they were passing by Kinabalu's lab -- every window of which was glowing as though there was a party going on. Joe raised an eyebrow in Layla's direction, got a headshake in return. This wasn't the time to crash the party ... but that there would be one going on was interesting. Layla sat silently, lost in thought, as they went back to the vineyard.