Rebellious Duo (#Wattys2016)

1: A Foggy Day in London Town

Nori's eyes fluttered open slowly. Her head pounded and her chest ached. She sat up, rubbing her forehead. What just happened? Flashes of light. A dark figure. A rush of pain flooded into her head so that she cried out and her back hunched over. "What happened?" she groaned. "Kei? You there?" Ignoring the dancing spots in her eyes, she squinted around the ship. She was laying on the deck of the Oxblood, but there was nobody in sight. "Reiko? Akira?" Nori stood up, with some difficulty. Now her ears were ringing. "Ugh, stop!" she shouted, doubled over. She staggered to the railing of the deck and vomited over the side. When she was done, she wiped her mouth and fell back to the ground. That, if anything, had cleared her head. "What the hell just happened?" Nori muttered. She was trying to wrack her brains. They had been sitting in a circle, like they always did, for dinner. Kei cooked up some eggs. And then-- then what? There was something dark. Something came onto the ship. Something... But remembering was excruciatingly painful. The cloying taste of sick in Nori's mouth drove her to conjure a handful of water and splash it over her face. She shook her head, like a sobered dog, and looked up. The Oxblood had sailed close to shore. But this wasn't an island she had ever seen before. It looked large, like Colla Voce, but the air was icily cold and whitish fog hung like lazy curtains over the ocean. Nori narrowed her eyes. "What choice do I have?" She got up and steered the Oxblood to the docks.

---

This town was even more strange than Nori originally thought. She tied up the ship, praying that nobody would dare steal it. Nori stumbled off the rocking docks onto solid ground. Above her, large buildings loomed overhead, made of brick and stone. Men and women in strange clothes roamed cobblestone streets. They all wore top hats or bowlers, just like Akira's limited edition gambler top hat (as he had reminded the crew every time they mocked it). And on top of that, all the women she saw were wearing tight dresses with bustles and skirts. Every now and then someone would glance skeptically at her. "What kind of place is this?" She muttered angrily in response to a woman's disdainful stare. "Hey! You! Where am I?" Nori demanded of the woman. The woman paused in her brisk walk. She pushed ironed red curls behind her ear.

"Are you an orphan?" She asked Nori haughtily.

"No, I'm not!" Nori replied angrily. "Why?"

"You look like you belong in the gutter," the woman said. As Nori glared, she straightened her skirt. "No proper woman wears short pants like that, or has her cut so short that she looks like a boy."

Nori looked down and gestured to her cargo pants. "These are shorts! S- h- o- r- t- s, lady! And I'll have you know that I don't belong in the gutter, whatever my hair looks like! I got it cut after my friend died, are ya happy?"

In response, the woman made a dainty little sound like "hmmp".

"Listen," Nori continued, a bit desperately, "can't you tell me where I am? I'm looking for my--"

"London," the woman interrupted. "Now find yourself something decent to wear and get out of my sight. I don't want others to see me talking to the likes of you." She bustled away.

"What kind of manners are those?" Nori grumbled. But she continued all the same into town. She crossed her arms. The frigid air pricked her skin, creating goose bumps. But now Nori was regretting her choice of clothes. Perhaps the rude woman was right. Nori hugged her peacoat close as she sped up her walk. A boy on the corner had a pile of newspapers next to him, shouting in a strange accent.

"Extra, extra! Special article on the genius Kaine Kiln! A mastermind takes the form of a small girl!" The boy shouted at passersby, who mostly ignored him. But Nori stopped next to him. "Take a paper, miss?" he exclaimed at Nori. She obliged the boy and grabbed the top one off the stack. "You have to pay first," he told her reproachfully.

"Be grateful that you ain't payin' with your life, kid," Nori growled at him, and trudged on. She took a closer look at the headline.

BRILLIANCE AND ELEGANCE! A MASTERMIND TAKES THE FORM OF A SMALL GIRL!
Detective Kaine Kiln has made a name for herself as the greatest detective of our time. With her sharp deductive skills, it is no wonder that she has solved every single case that has been assigned to her by the police. Her talents will soon become as legendary as the great Sherlock Holmes.

"What a load of waffle," Nori told the paper sternly. She threw it to the ground and stepped on it unconcernedly. "Now. If I was one of my crew, where would I be?" Nori considered her own words. Masa would find a bookstore. Michi would check out the latest clothing stores. Akira might find a hospital or a mortuary. Nao and Reiko would go to a tavern for some food. And Kei... Kei would be with me, wouldn't he? Dammit!

Nori's thoughts were interrupted when something collided with her. Nori was able to take a few steadying steps back, but the smaller thing had fallen to the ground, moaning in pain. "Get out of my way, I'm in a hurry!" Nori spat at the girl on the ground. She had a peacoat and a fedora, and she was rubbing her pale jaw reproachfully. "And whose style are ya tryin' to copy? I was the one who started the peacoat-fedora thing!" Nori added furiously.

The girl looked Nori over skeptically. "You aren't from around here."

"No, genius, I'm not!"

The girl stood up and brushed dirt off her peacoat, unfazed by the fall. "Then you do not know who you're talking to."

"Not that I want to know," Nori mumbled under her breath.

"My name Kaine Kiln," Kaine said, raising her eyebrows. "You come from the south."

"I know that."

"You want help."

"I kn- wait, what?" Nori took another step back. "How the hell-"

"Wandering around the street? Bumping into people? Looking extremely worried?" Kaine said, a hint of smugness now crossing her face. "You're looking for something, aren't you?"

"What if I am, little girl. It ain't your business."

"And from your hastiness and overall frantic antics, I assume you lost something."

Nori crossed her arms. Who did this girl think she was? Was she like Akira, well-versed in mind reading magic? She didn't want to deal with a second Akira, not at all. A dull embarrassed blush crept into Nori's cheeks. "So what? It's not like you can help me."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. So get out of my way."

Kaine jabbed her finger in the direction of the newspaper boy. Then it dawned on Nori. The mastermind detective from the newspapers-- was Kaine! Kaine chuckled. "Do you get it now?"

"Shaddup." Nori thought quickly. This girl might be her only hope right now if she wanted to find her crew. "Is there somewhere we can talk in private?" Nori asked quietly. "It's just that my crew-- they disappeared. And, ah, I might have gotten hit in the head pretty damn hard."

Kaine was finally intrigued. She narrowed her eyes. There were several other cases that had come to her attention of missing people. Maybe this rude girl could be a key piece of evidence. "Come with me. We'll go to my house. I'm on my way there anyways. It would be too much trouble to head all the way back to my office." She turned on her heel and lead Nori down another street.

"You have an office?"

"I would prefer it if you stayed quiet for now."