"Oi, not so tight with that scoundrel, are we. That was smart of you lot."
"Adler's a right bastard. See, lads, this city's got more kids than homes, if you savvy - and he grabs those nobody wants and puts them to work lining his pockets. Any a them get caught, well look who's going with the coppers and who's sitting pretty. And he does this weird bloody game where you get to ask him a question and he gets to ask you. One of my blokes went in all undercover-like and damn near had our entire presence pulled right from his lips. With Adler, you always trade down and don't ever come out ahead, and if you told him anything, you bet your grandma's knickers he's sold that right on to the kinda people you can't have knowing it."
"Now, if I had the mind to send you off to solve my troubles, I'd try to sell you some crap about Adler being behind the murder - but let's be decent and decently smart here, you'd just end up squeezing him, find out I lied my arse off and come stomping right back at me. No, I don't think Adler was behind it at all. But then" - the boss smiles - "you Ayami lot wouldn't know anything about that hit, would you? I'm sure you're just in town for the bloody sights, wot with the harbor and all."
"That's right," Toshiba says. "Come to see the pretty seagulls and the clear blue water." He turns to speak to everyone. "Here's what we'll do: We take the payment, leaving enough for his man here to leave the city when possible or go to ground for a while. The scrolls are yours to deal with" - he nods to Kagemaru - "and if you see us coming in the future, you give us a wide berth. Is this acceptable?" Toshiba asks the room.
Well, it turns out that some ninjas do listen to reason. After a bit more haggling back and forth with Ryu Zatoichi Akiro - that is his name - you agree to essentially loot his operation, but leave him enough to get the hell out of Kargbeck. You may not have made a friend, per se, but it doesn't look like a clan feud with the Killer Bees is in your immediate future, either.
With your business at the boathouse concluded, you head back to the meeting place.
---
At the abandoned warehouse, fortuitous circumstances let you arrive at almost exactly the same time, sparing you torturous thoughts of what might have happened to the respective other half of the team. Inside, you're surprised to find all three of your erstwhile allies present. A bed of straw has been arranged for Sadatsugu, who lies in it with his chest exposed and some sweat on his brow, though he looks less on death's doorstep than before. Toshi's bowed over him, tending to his wounds. Nagani's pacing next to the two. It doesn't look like she's gotten much sleep recently.
"Praise the Gods you're here," Nagani says. "Our safehouse was found. My brother and I barely escaped Van Synt. If your friend Toshi hadn't shown up with a carriage to hide us..."
"Oh, that was, uh..." Toshi mumbles as he works the wound dressing. "I just wanted to make sure you two had everything you needed, so I took the ride, and I saw those city watch guys with lanterns headed your way...I thought you might need an exit strategy that didn't involve roofs."
"Luck seems to follow you, doesn't it?" Nagani says, throwing a glance at Yukio. "What of our plan, my friends? Do we have enough to give the Count to Van Synt?"
"We have a problem," Kasumi says. "The Count wasn't responsible for Tingarson's death, and we are being set up by Aiko's friend, Adler, to kill the Count and cover up Adler's involvement in Tingarson's assassination. Something deeper is going on here, and I don't like it. We need more info before we do anything else." She looks over at Toshiba and Kagemaru. "What did you find out?"
While the others share their finding, Takao will step over to Toshi and the wounded man, whom he hasn't met. He will watch Toshi quietly for a while, and if it seems like he may need assistance, Takao will offer it in a low voice.
(OOC: I don't have many ranks in Medicine, but my Keeper class ability makes Takao a decent help.)
Then, he will join the conversation again, mostly listening. If no one else brings it up, Takao will mention:"We are still no closer to identifying the true enemy, but time is running short. There happens to be an ample supply of ninja bodies in a known location, should you want to follow your original plan of framing up some of them." The distaste for this plan is plainly evident in his face.
"Maybe we should pay this man Adler another visit. Maybe the threat of violence will decrease his appetite for games. And if we beat around the bush, we might find out who else Adler is connected to... or if he will just take the threat lying down."
Aiko sighs. "First," she clarifies, "Adler isn't my friend. I very much doubt he has any. Second, is everyone so caught up in our subtefuge that we've forgotten that we are seeking to establish a deserving patsy for Tingarson's assassination as the author of the deed lies here before us?"
She gestures to the ninjas. "It is the masters of your clan who know why the Sea Lord was murdered. All Adler is doing is using the confusion to his own advantage. And that makes what we must do next simple. It is clear that Herr Adler is a crime lord who for whatever reason has thus far escaped the reach of the law despite his crimes. We take him from his lair, dress him in the garb of a ninja, and throw him head first off the tallest building in this place to the feet of Van Synt."
Kasumi looks over at Yukio. "We're here for more than just cleaning up after the Ayami's mess," she says, plainly but still with great import. "It's not that simple."
"Adler was impersonating a ninja to throw the investigation off the trail and to take advantage of the gaijin/Imperial prejudice," Toshiba muses. "Most seem to know of his penchant for machinations, and his street urchins have the requisite acrobatic skills. It is too bad that his plan collapsed before he could be taken in alive to stand trial, but at least now the city - and all the merchants and nobles wishing for a return to normal - can lift its quarantine."
"Of course, the revelation would have to be preceded by some event establishing the veracity of the discovery," Aiko continues uneasily. "There would have to be a pursuit, instigated by the constables of this city fortuitously spotting the prowling ersatz-ninja, that culminates in the discovery of the miscreant cast down by the cruel happenstances of divine fate. Something that allows van Synt to be seen bringing the murderer of the Sea Lord to justice."
She turns her head and spits, emptying her mouth of the bile that has crept into it because of what she is participating in. But this too shall pass, she tells herself, as did the shame of being made ronin. There is a higher purpose, an end greater than the means.
"But if we just kill Adler, we don't learn what he knows," Kasumi says. "Tingarson's assassination is clearly tied into our Olafsen friend, who is connected to...why we are here. If we just throw Adler off a roof, we learn nothing and have no leverage for when Olafsen arrives. We need to dig deeper, first." She looks over at Nagani and Toshi. "Is Sadatsugu able to answer a few questions?"
Nagani looks to Toshi, who nods back at her.
"You may," Nagani says.
Kasumi takes a knee next to Sadatsugu. "Sadatsugu, how did you know about Tingarson's predeliction for younger men?"
Sadatsugu looks at her with glassy eyes. "Adler," he coughs. "Came recommended as source."
"Recommended by whom?" Kasumi asks.
"Came from...the original contract," Sadatsugu says. "Met him...when I arrived." He pauses to take a breath. "I think he figured it out...what the plan was. From my questions."
Kasumi raises an eyebrow. "He met you? As in, he made contact when you arrived? And are you sure he figured it out, or did he already know what you were here for? This is important, Sadatsugu, so think hard."
"Yes, he made contact." Sadatsugu breathes heavily for a few seconds. "Don't know how much he knew and what he figured out. I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Kasumi says. "Is there anything else you remember about Adler? Or anything you might have surmised about whoever issued the contract? Presumably, they knew Tingarson, do you have any suspicions about who paid for you to come here?"
"No," Sadatsugu says. "My first assignment - important. Wanted to be sure. Plan had to - had to work."
Toshi looks up to Kasumi. "He needs to rest, soon."
"All right, I don't have any more questions for him." Kasumi stands and looks at Nagani. "Do you have any ideas? If you handed him the assignment, anything you can tell me about it could help us get to the bottom of this."
"I do not have any knowledge of the contract's origin," Nagani says. "It reached us by courier, drafted by a calligrapher's office. A common precaution against clans that would seek the original reward and then try to blackmail the client. And yet..."
She thinks for a moment.
"It is one thing for a foreigner to speak our language, but another thing entirely to write it, much less to the degree that it would not be recognizeable. And who benefits from the chaos this city is bound for? This smells of a thief's ploy to me. To name himself as a trusty source of information - and that would explain how Adler knew of the plot, too."
"My thoughts exactly," Kasumi says. "I think that we should have a more personal talk with this Adler before we throw him off a roof, yes?" she asks the assembled group.
"I think we may even want to go one step further", Takao says.
"Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that a known criminal, whose "men" mostly consist of children, yet whose whereabouts are well known, is still alive? Even the low-class assassins of the Killer Bees should have been able to make short work of him. Wouldn't it be interesting to know who his friends are, for surly he has some?"
"I propose we stir up a bit of mess in his hideout, throw around a couple of threats, and see what comes out of the woodwork."
Kasumi claps her hands together. "I like this idea. We're going to need someone to stage as something that he's actually afraid of, something that he thinks that he'll need more than his gang of scamps to deal with." She looks at Aiko. "It might be best to use someone he already knows. He knows that Kagemaru is Ayami, but what does he know you as?"
Kasumi frowns. "It might be best if you spend as little time in the complete armor as possible, Toshiba, or at least if you don't try to be the Blue Oni as often. If it can place memories and information into your head and change your body, I don't want to have to add 'will the armor make Toshiba think like the Blue Oni, and try to betray and kill us' to my list of worries."
"There's no cause for paranoia," Toshiba dismisses Kasumi's concern. "This is a perfect opportunity to use my usurped notoriety - if there was ever a better time to wear the armor, I have yet to see it."
"Toshiba," Kasumi says, "listen to yourself. The Toshiba that joined us would...well, would have never said something like that. He was paranoid, mistrusting, especially of magic, and spoke much...plainer than that."
Toshiba bristles with... not exactly offense, but something more akin to annoyance. "And despite your opinion of my mannerisms, your concern for my sanity, and your accusations that I've somehow changed, the fact remains that I - as the Oni - supply a convenient and infamous underworld figure with which to approach Adler." He spread his hands. "Name someone better and we shall throw them at the Thiefmaker of Kargbeck."
"How about a reverse of our visit at the Killer Bees?", Takao suggests.
"It doesn't usually take much to frighten people", he continues. "A single seasoned swordsman will often do, or maybe in this case a ninja or two that Adler doesn't know . But they would need a credible excuse to not kill Adler on the spot. We want to give him enough time to believe he can call in his cavalry. Maybe the messengers could deliver an ultimatum from the Killer Bees, and underline that they know exactly where Adler can be found, at any time."
"Adler doesn't know me, so I could serve as a messenger. But to set up the Bees as a threat, a ninja would be more credible. Incidentally, the Killer Bees shouldn't be interfering with the plan or complaining, as they are leaving the city..."
Aiko had noticed Tosh's blue armour and thought nothing of it, but mention of the Oni's name however causes her breath to catch. As it becomes clear that the miscreants, spies and assassins she has fallen in with seemingly have slain the brigand only to take his place, she doesn't know whether to be thankful or not that her blade remains hidden in her apartment.
Parading the Oni down the main street of the Imperial capital would set an Inquisitor up for life. Certainly it would force an end to her unofficial exile and even quite likely elevate her to the station of Inquisitor. And with that would come... what? For all that it would give her the infrastructure to continue her Lord's crusade, it would ironically make doing so and avenging his death even harder as she was forced to navigate the intricate web of courtly honour she is as yet ill prepared for.
No. No matter how much it sickens her, the obligations of honour demand that she continue to tread this dark path.
"We tell Herr Adler that the Bees have sold him out to the Oni for some reason," she speaks up. "Or rather, I should be the bearer of these tidings. The..." she pauses for a beat to master her distaste, "The warehouse where so many of the Bees fell should bear the brigand's autograph for one of Herr Adler's urchins to report back to him."
Gatac
