The Otohime's Revenge
Part Three
By the time they were rousted from their quarters the next morning, worse for the wear and the rum, the Dragonfly had already set sail, and was a distant speck on the horizon. Yuuta looked after her, face still and impossible to read, before calling orders to his hungover crew to weigh anchor and unfurl the sails, and bring them around to a northeastern heading. Saeki fell to as readily as his crewmates, watching the captain pace along the deck, speaking with Shishido and giving no sign at all that it had been past midnight before he'd had Muromachi row Fuji back to his ship, and life settled back into its routine.
Saeki wasn't sure why it surprised him that Yuuta joined him that evening—surely the man had better things to be doing than sitting at the stern, watching the sun go down. It was Yuuta's ship, he reminded himself, and hardly his place to question what Yuuta did.
Not that he planned on letting that stop him.
"You could have said," Saeki told him, after Yuuta had been sitting next to him for some time.
To his credit, Yuuta didn't pretend not to understand. "I suppose I could have. Would you have believed me?"
Saeki thought about it. "Probably," he said. "It would have made everything make more sense." More sense than any of the other wild theories he'd been trying to put together.
"Mm." Yuuta looked at him. "I didn't figure you'd stay."
"I told you I'd find a new ship once Tachibana's family knew what happened." Saeki shrugged. "This is a good ship."
"Says the man who could barely stand us a few days ago."
"A few days ago I barely knew any of you, and thought you were smugglers," Saeki said. He paused, and added, "A few days ago, I didn't know you had revenge on your mind."
The corner of Yuuta's mouth turned up. "Ah. The truth comes out. Should have known that it wasn't my vast charm that was keeping you around."
"What charm?" Saeki asked, and waited until Yuuta looked properly affronted to laugh.
"Hmph. Think you're funny, don't you?"
"It was a perfectly serious question," Saeki protested, still grinning.
"Sure it was." Yuuta shook his head. "I wonder if it's too late to chase Shuusuke down and give you to him to deal with."
"Probably is." Saeki scratched his chin. "You may be stuck with me."
Yuuta gave him a glance, sidelong. "I suppose I can live with that." He stood. "Goodnight, Sae."
"Night, Captain."
"The thing is," Sengoku said, but quietly, eyes fixed on his work, "why now? He didn't go this crazy after Mizuki went and got himself killed."
"Maybe blood's just thicker than water," Muromachi offered.
"Thicker than something," Akutsu rumbled, and a little ripple of laughter ran through the knot of men as they exchanged knowing smirks.
Had it been like that, between Yuuta and Mizuki? Saeki, hovering on the edge of their discussion, blinked and filed that speculation away for later thought.
"Hey, now—Saeki, you got to go to their big meeting. Why's the captain lost his mind?"" Muromachi asked, folding Saeki into their discussion (whether he liked it or not).
Saeki hesitated. "I—he didn't actually say why. Just argued a lot that he was going to do it, whether the navy approved or not."
"Damn," Muromachi muttered, shaking out the sail he was mending. "I don't mind doing it. I just wish I understood what the hell he's thinking."
"He did sail with Tachibana's crew, once," Saeki offered.
"We knew that already," Sengoku said, dismissing it.
"I didn't," Mori said. "Huh. That makes sense."
"Not to me," Akutsu grunted. "A man doesn't go nuts just because he lost an old captain."
"And brother-in-law," Muromachi said. "And yeah, he does. I mean, look at Sae."
"Sae's also crazy," Sengoku said, grinning.
Mori laughed. "Matched pair, aren't they?"
Saeki made a rude gesture at them, glared at their laughter, and moved away from their conversation without trying to explain how Tachibana had been the kind of man to inspire this kind of loyalty.
Later that evening, Yuuta joined him, and stayed silent for long enough that Saeki decided that it wasn't going to be a talking night, and had drifted off into his own thoughts, and it startled him when Yuuta finally said something. "So. How much of my crew thinks I've lost my mind?"
"All of it," Saeki told him.
"Most of it," Davide called over his shoulder, correcting him. "I already knew he was a lunatic."
Yuuta's smile was faint. "At least they all agree on something, for a change."
"Enjoy it while it lasts," Davide said.
"I'll be sure to," Yuuta said. He rested his chin on the rail. "I suppose you think I'm crazy, too."
"Fed up, maybe," Saeki said. "Out of whatever patience you might have had. If you ever had any." He had his doubts on that score. "Really angry, too." And grieving, but he wasn't going to say that. "And yeah, maybe a little crazy."
"Hah." Yuuta's smile was curving into something less sardonic. "That's more nuanced than being a lunatic, isn't it?"
"Sort of, I guess."
Yuuta chuckled. "You should have been a diplomat, not a sailor. Or a spy."
"I'll remember that, next time I need work," Saeki murmured.
Yuuta laughed outright at that.
Yuuta swept onto the deck one afternoon after they'd been sailing for a week on their new heading, and called for his three new crewmembers to leave off what they were doing. Saeki shrugged at Momoshiro's look, and tied off his line before following him over to where Ohtori had been mopping the deck and the captain was waiting.
Yuuta folded his arms, inspecting the three of them. "I don't suppose you boys know how to fight?" he asked, sounding doubtful enough that it was clear he didn't expect much.
"Some," Saeki said, with half a shrug, to Momoshiro's indignant, "Of course I do!" and Ohtori's confident, "I've had some training."
Yuuta grinned. "Glad to hear it," he said. "Let's see how much you know." He scooped up a sheathed cutlass and tossed it to Momoshiro. "You first."
"Er—" Momoshiro began, looking at the sword. Yuuta let out a yell like a banshee and attacked him. "Holy fuck!" He stumbled back, getting the cutlass unsheathed and blocking Yuuta with an awkward sweep of the blade. "Are you trying to kill me?"
Yuuta laughed. "What's the point of fighting if you're not trying to kill your opponent?" he demanded, and attacked Momoshiro again.
Saeki and Ohtori backed away from the two of them as Momoshiro set his mouth in a thin line, defending against the flurry of Yuuta's attacks. Watching Yuuta harry him across the deck, Saeki decided that it wasn't too unfair a fight—Momoshiro knew what he was doing with a sword, and if Yuuta hadn't caught him off-guard to begin with, it would have been even.
He winced as Yuuta knocked the sword out of Momoshiro's hand, sending it skittering across the deck. Probably even, anyway.
Momoshiro lifted his hands as Yuuta rested the tip of his cutlass at the hollow of his throat. "You attacked before I was ready. That's not—"
"I hope you don't expect Yukimura to be fair," Yuuta interrupted him. "Or were you thinking he'd send out engraved invitations?"
"No, but this was practice—"
"Practice? Where'd you get the idea that this was practice?" Yuuta snorted. "Feh. Practice!" He rounded on the other two and charged.
Saeki ducked left and Ohtori ducked right, which put Ohtori much closer to the abandoned sword. Yuuta veered after him, and Ohtori scrambled after the blade and brought it sweeping up to block Yuuta's sword. Either he was quite a bit better than Momoshiro, or he simply dealt better with surprises, because he found his feet faster than Momoshiro had—or, possibly, it was both. Ohtori refused to let Yuuta keep him on the defensive, and matched him attack for attack.
Standing well back from the two of them, Saeki decided that it was probably that Ohtori really was a damn good swordsman, because he moved like a dancer, sidestepping a coil of rope on the deck as Yuuta maneuvered him backwards, and then returning the favor by pressing forward with a flurry of attacks. Yuuta's grin had changed, too, to something fierce and pleased, and he locked their blades together.
They strained against each other, and Saeki frowned—with Ohtori's superior height, he was certain to overpower Yuuta. Ohtori knew it, and smiled—
And then Yuuta kneed him in the groin, and wrestled the sword out of his hands as Ohtori's face went white with pain. "Good," he said, as Ohtori staggered back. "Learn to fight dirty, and you'll be all right." He grinned. "Talk to Shishido, he'll give you lessons."
"Aye, Captain," Ohtori wheezed.
Yuuta spun on his heel. "I think it's your turn," he said to Saeki, with a grin that said he knew perfectly well that he had both swords.
"I hadn't noticed," Saeki replied, and dodged out of Yuuta's way as he charged.
Ohtori's mop and bucket were still sitting where he'd left them; Saeki seized the mop and the bucket overturned, sending water sluicing across the deck. He brought the handle up just in time to block Yuuta's first blow.
The force of it shivered up his arms, and the wood in his hands creaked alarmingly. "Resourceful," Yuuta noted, teeth bared in a feral grin, and attacked again.
"Not real eager to lose another fight to you," Saeki corrected him, and skittered back, away from the boot that had nearly come down on his toes.
Yuuta laughed. "You called that a fight? That was an embarrassment, Sae." He sidestepped the stab aimed at his gut, and parried Saeki's next blow.
"Whatever. It was a fight, and I lost," Saeki grunted, as they circled each other, watching for an opening. "I'd rather not do it again."
"You've certainly got the right attitude," Yuuta mused, and pressed him again, low and fast. The chips flew from the mop's handle as Saeki blocked them. "Huh. This would be almost even if you had a sword."
"Then we could stop while I got one," Saeki grunted, driving Yuuta back with a sudden flurry of attacks. "But pirates don't give breaks, hn?"
"We should be so lucky," Yuuta snorted, and then his foot came down on a patch of soapy water and went out from under him.
Even that almost wasn't enough; if Saeki had not been waiting for precisely that opportunity, Yuuta's defense might have been sufficient to allow himself to regain his feet. Saeki didn't give him that chance, hammering away at Yuuta until he twisted the sword out of Yuuta's hands and could rest the tip of his battered mop in front of Yuuta's nose.
Yuuta's eyes were sharp, and smiling even if his mouth wasn't. "Not bad," he said. "This is why it's good to have a back-up plan." And suddenly there was a pistol in his hands.
Saeki snorted, and stood back, relaxing his stance a bit, keeping a wary eye on the gun. "You don't like losing much, do you?"
"Not especially," Yuuta sniffed, climbing to his feet and tucking the pistol back into his belt. "You could all do with some practice. Now get back to work." He strode off, whistling.
Saeki looked at Momoshiro and Ohtori. "I have to ask," he said. "Is his brother crazy, too?"
Ohtori climbed to his feet, gingerly. "Not as overtly," he said, and accepted the battered mop back from Saeki.
"Hear I missed a good show today," Davide said, when Saeki nodded to him that evening.
Saeki made a face at him. "If your idea of a good show runs to comedy."
"It does, sometimes." Davide paused, reflecting. "Would have liked to see you take on the captain with a mop. Been a while since he's had a proper challenge."
"I got lucky, that's all." He shrugged. "Ohtori gave him a better challenge. I just had the advantage of watching him fight, first."
"Luck's got nothing to do with it, unless you're Sengoku. You got him, fair and square. At least, until he changed the rules on you." Davide sucked on his teeth. "He's big on breaking the rules."
Saeki affected astonishment. "You know, I hadn't noticed that."
Davide laughed outright. "You're a lot more fun now that you've loosened up."
"And you're a lot less obnoxious now that you aren't keeping secrets for the hell of it," Saeki told him.
"Hah. Now you're mixing me up with the captain," Davide said, swatting at him lazily. "G'wan and watch your sunset or commune with the ocean or whatever the hell it is you do up here of an evening."
Saeki went.
A little while later Yuuta himself joined him, dropping into place without a word. Saeki didn't say anything for a while, until curiosity got the better of him. "Did I pass?"
"Beg pardon?" Whatever Yuuta had been thinking about, the lesson in swordplay hadn't been it.
"This afternoon," Saeki said, looking out at the waves. "Way I figure it, Fuji wouldn't have given you any but the best men he had to spare, and I don't think you would have accepted them in the first place if you hadn't been sure they were capable."
"Knowing what a man is supposed to be able to do doesn't mean you know what he can do," Yuuta replied.
"I guess."
They lapsed into silence again, until Yuuta snorted. "Yeah, you passed."
Saeki grinned. "Thought so. As long as I've got a bucket of soapy water to depend on, I'm in good shape." He could feel Yuuta looking at him, so he glanced over. "What? You going to tell me that pirates don't believe in soapy water?"
Yuuta's mouth turned wry. "It's been my experience that most don't."
"I'll have to come up with an alternative, then," Saeki said. Yuuta was still looking at him, eyes odd. "What?"
Yuuta just shook his head. "Never mind," he said.
It wasn't long after that he murmured his good-nights, and went below.
Some weeks later, after life aboard the Heron had become routine, from the daily work to his evening conversations with Yuuta (was it odd that Yuuta still sought out his company in the evenings? Saeki thought that perhaps it was, but then, Yuuta seemed to have made a career out of his peculiarities), they sailed into a port that Saeki had never heard of. Since there was no flag flying over the collection of ramshackle buildings and warehouses, he suspected he knew why he'd never heard of it. After Yuuta had haggled with an unsavory assortment of men, they spent most of a day emptying the hold of its cargo and moving it to one of the warehouses lining the docks. Yuuta supervised, grinning like he was pleased with the deals he had made, and when the hold was empty, he called all hands to the main deck to distribute their pay. It was more generous than Saeki had expected, even when he considered the fact that it had been doubled.
A fist full of straws shoved under his nose interrupted his thoughts. "Pick one," Shishido said.
Saeki did as he was ordered, and looked at the straw curiously as Shishido moved down the line.
Bane settled an arm over his shoulder. "Lucky," he said, nodding at Saeki's straw.
"It is?" Saeki asked, blankly.
Down the line from them, Ishida groaned after he picked out his straw.
Bane grinned. "If you want to go ashore tonight, it's lucky."
"I see," Saeki murmured, shrugging Bane's arm off his shoulders absently as Mori picked his straw and groaned, too. "How democratic."
"The captain's pretty fair that way," Davide murmured. "They'll get their turn tomorrow."
"All right, gentlemen." Yuuta clapped his hands together. "You've got shore leave until tomorrow afternoon. Try not to show up still drunk when you come back. Akutsu, if I have to get you out of jail again, I'm busting you back to cabin boy and Dan can take your place." He paused. "Sengoku, you're in charge of keeping Momoshiro out of trouble. Davide, keep an eye on Saeki, and Shishido, I want you to do the same for Ohtori." Saeki wondered whether Yuuta was wearing the tiniest bit of an evil smile, or it was just his imagination. "Now keep your mouths shut, all of you, and get the hell out of here."
Bane slung his arm around Saeki's shoulder again as the crew began to disperse (with the exception of Ishida and Mori, who hung back, exchanging quiet words with Yuuta). "Looks like we're on nursery detail, eh, Davide?" he drawled.
"Sounds like it," Davide agreed, rueful.
Saeki scowled at them both. "I don't need a nanny," he grumbled, as Bane propelled him to the gangplank. Half the crew was well down the docks already, and scattering fast.
"Of course you don't," Davide said, grinning. "Think of us as your guides instead."
"Nannies," Saeki grunted, trying and failing to dislodge Bane's arm.
"Whatever. This nanny has a powerful thirst," Bane declared as their feet hit the docks. "Let's get this tour started, shall we?"
"Sounds perfect to me," Davide agreed, linking an arm with Saeki's.
Some hours later, with the contents of his pay packet sadly diminished and his head swimming with ale, Saeki excused himself from the table the three of them had claimed to weave his way to the privy behind the bar.
When he came back, Bane had slid over into his seat, and he and Davide were tangled up in each other.
Saeki blinked, thoughts sorting themselves out slowly, thanks to the ale, before he leaned over and tapped Davide's shoulder. "Get a room," he said, when Davide came up for air and turned slightly-glazed eyes on him.
"Hard to nanny you from a room," Davide objected.
Bane leered. "Unless he comes with us," he suggested, eyes roving over Saeki, assessing him. "I wouldn't kick him out of bed."
Saeki rolled his eyes. "Get a room," he said again. "I'll be fine. I'll go back to the ship, stay out of trouble."
Davide frowned, but he looked very tempted—Saeki thought that the fact that Bane's hands were nowhere in sight might have something to do with that. "But—"
"This is me, going back to the Heron," Saeki said, grinning. "Have fun."
By the time he made it to the door and looked back, the two of them were already on their way upstairs. Saeki grinned, and stepped out into the street.
The cooler night air cleared his head, and he hesitated. Left would take him back to the docks. Right would take him further into what there was of this town—he nodded to himself, mind made up, and turned right.
There wasn't much town to explore. There were a handful of streets lined with warehouses, and an equal number of streets filled with whorehouses and taverns loud with men drinking and fighting. Satisfied with his explorations, and not inclined to drink the rest of his pay (and ignoring the solicitations of the prostitutes leaning out their windows), he turned his steps back to the docks.
He promptly ran into someone coming out of a brothel. "Sorry about that," he said, picking the other man up and hoping he wasn't drunk enough to want to fight. "I didn't—"
"Aren't you supposed to be with Davide?" Yuuta asked him, while Saeki stared. "I'd swear I told him to keep an eye on you."
"He's keeping an eye on Bane now, instead," Saeki said, brain sputtering back to life slowly. "I was just going back to the Heron..."
"Of course you were," Yuuta said, brushing at the mud on his breeches. "I suppose I've inherited you. Come on." He set off, moving briskly, and there was nothing to do but follow him. "Get enough of being ashore already?"
"Not much to do here but drink and fuck," Saeki told him, mouth trundling along without asking his brain whether that was the most politic thing to say when his captain was reeking of cheap perfume.
Yuuta snorted. "You don't say."
"I guess I do," Saeki said, awkwardly.
"No one can fault your powers of observation," Yuuta said, and stopped outside another tavern. "How drunk are you?"
"Not very," Saeki told him. "Sober enough to get back to the ship on my own—"
But Yuuta had already made an impatient motion and was going inside. Saeki sighed, and followed him into the din.
Yuuta elbowed his way through the crowd and called for ale at the bar, and then greetings to a raucous group in a corner, before he steered them to another corner. "We'll sit here," he announced, with a grandiloquent gesture that sent ale slopping out of his tankard. He gave the drunkard slumped over the table a kick to rouse him.
Eventually the man bleared awake, cursed Yuuta roundly, and staggered off. Yuuta snorted, and slung an arm around Saeki, urging him down. "Spill more of that than you drink," he said, against Saeki's ear, breath hot. "And try not to look so poleaxed."
Saeki took a drink to cover his confusion, and set the tankard down with a thump and a splash. "What in the hell are you doing?" he demanded, as Yuuta's arm wound around his waist.
Yuuta leaned into him, grinning. "I never come in here with anyone," he said, through his teeth. "You need an excuse to be here."
"I could have—"
"I don't let my crew go through this town alone," Yuuta murmured, hand sliding over Saeki's stomach.
"You go through here alone," Saeki muttered, covering Yuuta's hand with his own and stopping its journey south.
Yuuta laughed, softly. "That's because I know how to take care of myself."
Saeki drew himself up, offended. "And I don't?"
Yuuta laughed again, and then shouted. "Akazawa!"
"Yuuta!" came the answering roar, and a man slid into the seat opposite them. "See you haven't drowned yet."
Yuuta leaned back in his seat, grinning. "See they haven't hanged you yet."
"Not for lack of trying." Akazawa nodded at Saeki. "Who the hell's this?"
Yuuta ran a brazen hand through Saeki's hair. "Got myself a new man," he said, proudly.
Saeki tried not to choke on his ale.
"Kind of chilly-looking, if you ask me," Akazawa observed.
"I didn't," Yuuta said, tossing back his drink and splashing a lot of it on Saeki in the process. "How's business?"
Akazawa shrugged. "So-so. Navy's riding us hard."
Yuuta scowled. "Navy rides us all too damn hard," he muttered. "Getting impossible for an honest man to make a living. Between them and the pirates... eh."
Akazawa raised his eyebrows. "You have a lot of balls to be talking like that in this town," he said.
"Didn't see any colors in the harbor," Yuuta retorted.
"No," Akazawa drawled. "So what's your point? There are ears everywhere." He paused and glanced pointedly at Saeki.
"He's with me," Yuuta said, quietly.
Akazawa hummed thoughtfully, and leaned forward. "You been up to see her yet?" Yuuta nodded. "Won't be able to tell you anything much, then. It's been quiet. The small fry are keeping their heads down."
"And why do you suppose that is?" Yuuta murmured.
"Seems like people who get noticed get taken," Akazawa said.
"Hmph. They're careless," Yuuta said, and Saeki snorted at the undercurrent of smugness running under his tone.
"Some aren't," Akazawa told him. He took a long drink of his ale; it was only because he was looking that Saeki saw how little he'd actually swallowed. "Word is that Yukimura thinks it's not an accident, how many times he's had a brush with the navy. Word is, he's angry."
"Is he, now?" Yuuta said, softly.
"Very angry," Akazawa said. "Navy'd do well to watch their backs."
Yuuta shrugged. "Their loss, if they don't."
Yuuta was scowling when they finally stumbled out of the tavern, leaning on each other and lurching back and forth. "Damn it, damn it, damn it," he muttered under his breath, so quiet that Saeki could barely hear him.
"Captain?" Saeki murmured. "What—"
"Not here," Yuuta hissed. "Back to the ship."
Saeki bit his tongue, and didn't say anything else as they staggered back to the docks, and the Heron. Yuuta whistled loudly; after a moment, Ishida looked over the side of the ship. "Captain?"
"Who else?" Yuuta said. "Run out the gangplank."
"Aye, sir."
Saeki steadied their way up the gangplank, and then blinked when Yuuta abruptly shook himself free and stood straight. "You think fast on your feet," he said, grinning. "Good job. Night, boys." He strolled off, whistling softly.
Of course it had all been an act. Saeki rolled his eyes at himself, gave Ishida a cordial nod, and went below to his hammock.
The rest of the crew came staggering back in twos and threes over the course of the morning, in various stages of hungover. Yuuta, who Saeki suspected had been up with the sun, greeted them with the news that they'd be spending the afternoon loading fresh cargo into the hold.
The afternoon passed in sullen quiet, work proceeding efficiently in spite of all the red eyes and short tempers. Yuuta prowled the wharf and the deck, supervising. By the time the light began to fail, the hold was nearly full again, and he was grinning. "Good job, boys," he called. "Go ahead and take the night off, eh? Davide, Saeki, you're on ship duty."
"Damn it," Davide murmured. "How in the hell did he—"
Saeki coughed, embarrassed. "I managed to knock into him on my way back last night," he confessed.
"Damn it," Davide said again, scowling.
Bane draped himself against Saeki's shoulder. "How about you take first watch, and—"
"Bane, you're still here?" Yuuta inquired, mildly, with a smile that showed all his teeth. "For fuck's sake, get off the ship and enjoy your night off."
Bane sighed, doleful. "Aye, Captain." He trudged off.
Yuuta looked at Davide. "I give my orders for a reason," he said, voice deadly quiet. "And I expect them to be obeyed."
"Aye, Captain." Davide drew himself up. "It was poor judgment. It won't happen again."
Saeki frowned. "I was the one who decided to leave," he said. "It's not Davide's fault that I didn't realize that it was an order proper."
"He should have made sure you knew," Yuuta said. "Just be glad it's a night on duty instead of lashes." He turned and walked away.
"He's right, you know," Davide said, after a moment. "He might be casual about some things, but orders are still orders." He pushed the hair out of his eyes, and sighed. "So, you want the first watch or the second?"
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