Time for some bonding!

[seadevil]

Who: The crew of the Katabami
Where: At sea -> Port Chance
When: After leaving the fortress and covering the month of February
What: Catch-all log
Warnings: The usual grumpy, dumb, awkward and maybe some spooooooooky ghost stories
Style: Any
Status: Closed to crew and anyone that may be in the Port Chance area

Itinerary
- Welcoming our poor, formerly-possessed pals back on board
- Visiting Port Chance, finding all their booze, and drinking it
- The subsequent drunken crew bonding time
- Traumatizing Ragna forever

Comments

[harbouredheart]

[Without prior warning, the sight of a stranger prowling on board the Katabami is rather suspicious -- and that is why Xun Yu steps out directly into his path.]

Who are you? Why are you here?

[She gets straight to the point.]

[curseking]

[Mitsunari responds with a degree of annoyance, either not realizing or not caring about how very suspect he looks.]

I am here intending to find Ieyasu.

If you know, tell me where he is, post-haste!

[Introductions and good manners can apparently wait until after this matter is settled.]

[harbouredheart]

[Ieyasu? What has Ieyasu been up to...? She stands her ground, her tone of voice firmer than previously.]

Answer me and I will answer you.

[curseking]

[...Well. All right. If it will expedite things.]

Mitsunari Ishida. Now tell me where he is!

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu takes note. His name suggests that he's one of the captain's countrymen, but that's as much as she can determine with her current knowledge. She's not particularly enamoured of his aggressive disposition.]

Ieyasu is aboard. If you tell me why you seek him, I will lead you to him.

[curseking]

I want to kill him.

[He'll make no bones about it.

It would be easier and far more logical for him to simply lie about his intentions, but that would be wrong, of course.]

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu is taken aback.

It certainly explains the way Mitsunari is stalking about, but to just come onto a ship and address its crew so directly about killing one of its members... it's ludicrous, and scarily focused. Consequences clearly don't matter, a dangerous occurrence.]

Why?! [She can't actually believe that this is happening.] Did you even think your approach through?

[curseking]

Of course I thought it through!

[He kept in mind what Saika said to him upon arrival about his poor tactics, but ultimately the best strategy he came up with was still "board the ship and just try to get this over with as fast as possible."]

Know that he has betrayed my lord, and in return, he must die for it. That is my reason!

[harbouredheart]

[Her hard expression falters at that; she has devoted her life to Cao Cao, and so his reason strikes her like a knife.]

He betrayed your lord?

[She does not know Ieyasu well, but from she has seen he's earnest and friendly, and Motochika assured her of his large heart. Something does not sound right. Yet she believes that Mitsunari is entirely serious.]

...I did not think that Ieyasu was capable of treachery. What exact crime do you hold him accountable for?

[curseking]

Murder. He served my lord only to steal away his very life.

[There is no faking the disgust in his tone.]

Ieyasu portrays himself as a just man, and time and time again, people fall for the pretense. But that is all it is.

He's nothing more than a wolf hidden amongst the sheep!

[Partly he's venting, but he sees these bold statements as offering a fair warning to Xun Yu.]

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu considers his words with a grave expression, torn. It's not her place to dismiss such claims, and death is fitting punishment for the crime. Would she not seek vengeance under similar circumstances? But nor is it her place to cast judgement on Ieyasu. Ultimately she knows nothing of their shared past or their individual circumstances, a fact that she is deeply conscious of.]

It is your right to avenge your lord. [She concludes heavily.] I have no wish to intervene.

[Unfortunately she must. Her loyalty right now is to Motochika, as part of his crew, and she has an advantage in that Mitsunari has no way of knowing that she's a strategist.]

Please follow me.

[curseking]

[Mitsunari was preparing for her to disagree and for the situation to escalate, only to find himself surprised. In fact, this is probably the best surprise he's received in recent memory: most have tended towards bad and worse news. Ieyasu will inevitably fight him here, but compared to the interference he's suffered from day one, what's one last hardship if it means this can be over and done with at long last?

He does wonder if it isn't too good an opportunity to be true. After all the roadblocks and adversity he's faced in this endeavor, could it really end so easily, lead directly to Ieyasu's door?

He quickly concludes that yes, it is going to be this easy. Xun Yu clearly understands his position, and the importance of his task.]

Let there be no delay.

[Suddenly more impatient than ever, he'll follow closely wherever she takes him.]

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu bows her head in acknowledgement, and leads on.

If she thought that it was remotely possible to trick him into the brig, she might have tried, but the way that Mitsunari moves makes it clear that his instincts are on alert. She cannot take any route so suspicious. Instead she aims to bring him directly to the Captain, where Motochika may decide what to do about this whole affair. If fortune should have it that they encounter Ieyasu first, despite her efforts, well... she will consider it the Will of Heaven that Mitsunari gets his opportunity.]

...How long have you pursued him?

[She asks, not entirely certain that Mitsunari will answer.]

[curseking]

[He answers her after all, finding no reason not to.]

I cannot say for certain.

[Once Hideyoshi was killed, the days became less and less individually distinct, and they blurred together one after another. Mitsunari left minding the calendar to Yoshitsugu, no longer caring to keep track of the time himself. Whether it was Sunday or Monday was irrelevant. It didn't make his lord any less dead, or Ieyasu any less alive.]

It feels like it has been far too long.

[harbouredheart]

[She knows that Ieyasu has been in this realm for longer than her two months, so at least three months or more. The chances of Mitsunari following him here must have been miniscule.

A consideration previously obscured by his level of conviction occurs to her.]

How did you determine that the Ieyasu aboard this ship is the very same man?

[The journals are no doubt the means by which he did so, but how much does he know? Has he spoken to any of the crew? What can she anticipate?]

[curseking]

Through that strange journal, I spoke to Ieyasu myself. It could have been none other but him.

[Any concern that this Ieyasu might have been another name-double would have been nullified by that interaction, had Mitsunari considered the possibility to begin with.]

It was Motochika who said he could be found on the Katabami.

[While it did not please Mitsunari in the slightest to know that Motochika was palling around with Ieyasu, it presented him with a perfectly viable opportunity to confront his enemy.]

[harbouredheart]

[Surprise tinges her voice.]

The Captain invited you aboard?

[What Xun Yu doesn't say is knowing your claim on Ieyasu's life, but it's implied all the same.]

[curseking]

He seems to think me capable of excusing Ieyasu's crimes.

[To Mitsunari's own great surprise.]

I have agreed to no manner of truce, and he knows it. His logic is beyond me.

[harbouredheart]

[The prospect of a neat resolution is looking slimmer by the moment. Xun Yu understands the desire to hold pieces of home close by, but she cannot fathom Motochika's logic in this case either. In all likelihood he was thinking with his heart and not his mind.]

Perhaps he thought that the futility would dissuade you.

[curseking]

There is nothing in this world that could make my abandon my task. Motochika is an ignorant man if he cannot recognize even that.

He will see for himself just how "futile" my efforts have been once Ieyasu is lying dead at my feet.

[It's very telling that he has no qualms about talking like this in front of a person he's only just met, about her very own crewmates, no less.]

[harbouredheart]

[It's certainly leaving a memorable impression.]

That's not the futile aspect.

[How will he take the transience of death in this realm? Despite her alignment with the crew, part of her cannot help but pity him knowing what she does. To be so loyal and yet fail his lord in life and death because of circumstances beyond his control... it's tragic by her culture's standards.]

Once this is done, what is your plan?

[curseking]

I have not felt a need to worry about what will come after. In fact, it does not matter what happens.

[Whatever will be will be.]

What about my goal do you find futile?

[If there was one thing he could say he knew well, it was the utter finality of death. All the strangeness he's seen this world offer still won't be enough to prepare him for way it works here.]

[harbouredheart]

[Mitsunari's mindset explains to an extent why the man lacks knowledge of the fundamentals of this world. Xun Yu takes note before answering his question with a question of her own.]

Wouldn't you rather learn ill tidings from someone that you know?

[There is a warning in her words.

She wonders why neither Motochika or Ieyasu informed Mitsunari before things reached this point. The truth cannot be concealed for long; whether through direct or indirect means, it will come to light soon enough. Hearing it from a stranger is no one's first choice, surely.]

[curseking]

Not in this place.

[And it's because all the people here that he knows personally are people he isn't terribly fond of.

If Ieyasu were to be the one to tell him, he would flat-out refuse to believe him. Perhaps he'd accuse him of cowardice, of making up excuses for why Mitsunari shouldn't bother to kill him a pathetic bid to escape his fate.

Motochika and Magoichi would make for slightly more trustworthy sources, but the news would not be any more palatable coming from them than from Xun Yu.]

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu cannot tell if he will believe her without proof, but she does think it's kinder to leave the notion somewhere in his mind before he experiences death and revival firsthand.]

This realm revokes our deaths. I know how foolish that sounds, but please hear me out. Those amongst us who die will be alive and perfectly well within days, as if they never took injury in the first place. It is as though by not belonging to this world we have no place in its afterlife. You might be able to take Ieyasu's life, but you simply won't achieve true vengeance here. I'm sorry.