The Whipping Boy || Kokuzan/Michizan Vers. ||

The ransom note.

Sanemi tilted the princely crown on his head. "What have you writen down so far?"

Michikatsu glanced up from the sheet of paper. "To the King's Most Sacred Majesty. Dear Father."

"Alright. That sounds proper respectful. What else?"

"Our captors are loyal subjects, but scoundrels by trade. Don't cross them"

"Make that a bit stronger," said the outlaw, beginning to pace. "Tell him we're shameful mean, and rough as a sackful of nails. Warn him we fear no gallows!"

Michikatsu dipped the quill in beet juice and continued scribbling. "I'll tell him you got reserved seats in Hell."

"That's the ticket!"

Genya began gnawing away at a roasted pheasant, and his cheek swelled out as if he had a monstrous toothache. "what about the king's soldiers, Nemi? Now the fog's lifted, they'll be following the boy like a trail of ants. Puts my shine shivering..."

"No worries!" exclaimed Sanemi. "Even rabbits get muxxed up and lost in this forest. We're well hid, Genya"

"I'll warn father," Michikatsu offered generously, "that if you spy out a single uniform, you'll crack my neck like a chicken's."

Muzan sat sullenly on a pile of moldy bed straw. He glared icily at the whipping boy who had seized his royal title.

"And don't forget the reward, Nemi," said Genya. "We want the prince's weight in gold bangers, right?"

"Tell the king that," directed Sanemi. "In big letters. Now let me reckon out a safe spot to deliver the money."

Michikatsu dipped the quill, but then paused. Gosh, he thought, it's not safe enough to choose my words as if I were a prince. Show some high and mighty, Michi. Think like a prince.

"Dimwits!" he flared up. "Catchpenny rogues! I will not be exchanged for such a trifle. My mere weight? A paltry treasure you could carry on a shoulder? How dare you insult me!"

Sanemi's eyebrows shot up in a bewildered surprise. "Insult you? A trifle?"

"A prince is worth a prince's ransom!"

The eyebrows lowered as quickly as they had risen. "No offense meant, boy. How would you calculate a proper ransom?"

"A wagonload of gold at the very least. And jewels mixed in."

"As I'm alive! A wagonload?:

Genya gulped down the wad of fowl in his mouth. "We did forget about jewels, Nemi."

"A wagonload it is, then!" exclaimed Sanemi.

Muzan's mouth was shocked at the whipping boy's nervy mischief.

Sanemi stood over Michikatsu's shoulder and watched the words being scratched out. Finally, he said, "Have you made your sign yet?"

"About to," replied Michikatsu.

With as much flourish as he could manage, he wrote:

Your Obedient son,

Prince Muzan