Motley (#Wattys2016)

8: An Alliance?

PRESENT DAY

"Evening, general," captain Nori said loudly. A white-uniformed figure swung over to the Oxblood and took off his mask.

"Good evening, Nori and company," he said.

"Anything I can help you with?" she asked him casually. "I assume that you want something?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"I mean, that's why you're here, isn't it? Why else would the general of the Rose Marquis deign to pay us a visit?" Nori hated playing this little game with him, but maybe it would amount to something.

"You assumed correctly," Kei said smilingly. As quick as lightning, he withdrew a sword and Nori did the same, parrying his attack as fast as it had come. He held his sword in front of her face and she kept her sword against his in a kind of death grip. Both of them were smiling despite the situation.

"Your skills aren't too shabby, Kei," Nori said. "I guess you aren't as scared of fencing as I thought. But care to get to the point?"

"Of course," said Kei. He took back his sword. "My superior has ordered your arrest."

The Ivory Prince? Nori shuddered thinking about it. "Was he firm with you?"

"Quite firm," he confirmed. Something deeper passed between words. So he probably was being threatened to do his job, if the Ivory Prince was 'firm' with him like he said.

"Right... In the meantime, does the Rose Marquis care to take the harpoon out of our ship? I'm pretty sure it's illegal to harpoon without a license."

The trace of a grin flitted across Kei's face, but it was gone in a flash. "I don't think that will be necessary. I just need all of you to come with me."

"We'll go with you? Yeah, right!" Reiko shouted. Ryota quickly covered her mouth.

"Well, I can call my crew over, but I don't think you need that much do you? You're smarter than that," Kei said. "Come on."

They all hesitated, but they brought a plank out and used it to cross to the Katsu (which, they learned later, was the name of the ship). The ship was much larger than the Oxblood and it pained Nori to leave her ship in the hands of a group of murderers. Although, she reminded herself, the Marziale Motley were not much better.

She was anxious to meet this mysterious Ivory Prince. But it made the knot in her stomach tighten when rope was tied tightly around her wrists. "Hey, what's this for?" Nori said sharply to Kei.

"Just a precaution," he said. They followed him down into the living quarters. "My employer wants to interrogate you, so one of you step forward," Kei told them. They all stood quite still, until Ryota bravely walked forward. Kei opened a door for him to go through, and led the rest to the brig. It was dim, damp and mainly quite dingy. The air seemed foul with saltwater. They all went into one of the cells, but Kei pulled Nori out.

"I'll stay with my crew, thanks," Nori said, wrenching her elbow out of his grip.

"Can you trust me?"

Nori considered this. "No."

"Wise choice. Come on, you'll be back soon." Kei grabbed her again and locked the cell door on Satoru, Masa and Reiko.

"Hey! What are you going to do to her?" Satoru yelled.

"Bring her back, you-" Reiko began, but Satoru covered her mouth again before she could start spewing curse words.

Kei ignored them all and dragged Nori to another room. It really was quite a big ship. This one was the room where Nori had met Kei on the raid.

"Now tell me what this is all about," Nori said, sitting down on the bed furiously. "You'd better let us go soon. You should have killed us, or at least tried to fight."