Chương 22: Book 1, Chapter 22: Offering

"I… honestly don't know what to say to that," he replied, his absolute bafflement overflowing into detached serenity. The dragon woman sure had some ideas, alright. Why would that ever work?

"Didn't you just threaten to kill me a few hours ago?" Rin had the good sense and shame to wince, at least.

"That was a mistake on my part," she admitted, "and I'm eager to make it up to you both." The worst part was probably that he couldn't entirely dismiss the offer out of hand, either, even if he couldn't teach her the way she probably wanted. Sure, it felt fucked up and manipulative… but she seemed to want to protect the weak, and he was pretty sure that if he pointed out the Nameless problem to her, she would pounce on it like a rabid animal. Assuming, of course, that she was actually being truthful.

Besides, there were numerous reasons why they might not want to read her in. First, she was clearly as subtle as a brick through a window and would probably leak critical information like a sieve during the pre-fight monologue. Second, if he actually tried to teach her, there were good odds that she would find out about his true nature, and even if she didn't mind, see point one. Ugh, but he doubted she'd take rejection well.

John might not be the best people person, but even he could tell she'd likely pester them to try by doing things to "convince" him of her value as a student. Hell, maybe she'd have some backers who would be offended by his refusal and come to express their displeasure, and that was a threat and headache he didn't need to deal with.

"I will think about it. Could you leave us for a moment so I can discuss it with Lady Yumi?" he asked, and Rin bowed vigorously before unquestioningly leaving the empty shop. He would be a fool to make assumptions about how good her hearing was, though. The man and the kitsune exchanged a look, and then Yuki gestured to a newly repaired table. The pair settled across from one another, and John pulled out a pair of sheets of paper, sliding one over to Yuki.

The disguised kitsune's expression was calm, if perhaps slightly annoyed. John groaned, writing out the first question that came to mind.

"Please tell me she isn't normal," begged the sheet he passed over to Yuki. He put his head in his hands, massaging his temples, feebly attempting to assuage his slowly growing headache. If the Unbound all across the nation were like this… The mere thought of meeting more than one at a time, with their egos clashing against one another, sent a shiver down his spine. How would you even deal with that? Could you deal with that other than by brute strength to keep them all in line?

Even if there were only a few "minor" incidents, the sheer amount of property damage alone would be untenable. A dull knock on wood brought him back to the present, and his eyes snapped open again, though he wasn't sure when he'd closed them.

"Fortunately, no," the sheet read, and he breathed a sigh of relief as some of the tension left his body.

"Unbound do tend to have bigger egos than most, and some quirks to go with that, but it was unusual for them to be quite this pronounced, at least within my time." How horrifying that it occurred at all. Was it because the Unbinding process attracted strange people, were they somehow more successful, or did it make people odd?

"The bigger shock is what she is, to be honest." …Come on, why did she have to do that? Leaving him in suspense when she's writing things out was diabolical.

"What she is?" he wrote out, asking the obvious question, "Please elaborate."

"There are two primary types of Unbound," Yuki wrote.

"The first is the standard ones. They take yokai material and transform the spiritual energy within into something more than mundane human to empower themselves directly, allowing them to transcend their limits and become dramatically more durable as they are no longer being bound by mortal laws." Below was a drawing of a human eating a scale, with a note of "process simplified," then another drawing of… exactly that same human, only with an aura around them.

"In addition, as they become less flesh and more spirit, it becomes easier for them to manipulate ki, leading to the ability to use or develop more advanced abilities. These are often simply referred to as Unbound due to being regarded as the standard, but they were initially known as the Reforged due to a heavy history with blacksmiths as the first Unbound." Now, that was an interesting historical fact he'd love to dig into another time.

"The second type is the Yokai-Blooded," the text continued, a drawing of a human eating a scale before becoming much like Rin below.

"There's a way to take the energy into yourself, but purposefully make it so it partially overwhelms your natural energy to make yourself a yokai hybrid and take on aspects directly associated with the yokai donor in question. This has its ups and downs. One of the most notable is that empowering yourself with yokai material related to your donor's type is far more efficient. However, unrelated yokai material is far less so.

At best, you may achieve average efficiency with materials from yokai types vaguely related to your donor. A kappa's for her, for example." John's eyes widened, realization striking him. Pieces of a dragon couldn't be easy to come by, therefore…

"So, when Rin talked about her family possessing material from a dragon for several generations, it wasn't because they were saving it so much as it was because it wasn't worth using. It probably wasn't worth consuming normally, but turning someone into a dragon Yokai-Blooded would be impractical in the long run."

"Correct," Yuki confirmed.

"If her family had a large stock of dragon material to slowly feed her, they would have probably kept her at home. It doesn't sound like she stole it, so I suspect Rin consumed it under orders, was used for some end by her family, and then effectively discarded for whatever reason, even if she doesn't realize it. She's almost certainly wandering alone, as she didn't show up with an entourage.

Her situation could be interpreted as a gambit by her family for her to either get stronger or die trying so they can maybe wring more usefulness out of her without more investment." John shuddered, disgust burning at the back of his throat at the thought of using someone like that only to abandon them on the side of the road on some piece of trash. Who could do that? Who could do that to family at that? Yuki tapped on the table again, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"It's just a theory. We don't have enough information to draw hard conclusions," read her message. He sighed. Yuki was right; it could easily be something else, even if his gut was screaming at him that her theory felt right. There was no point in getting worked up about some hypothetical.

"Right," he began aloud, suddenly stopping upon remembering himself and scribbling a message instead.

"What do you think of Rin's offer?" Yuki slipped into thought for a moment, finally writing a response after a brief pause.

"I think the benefits outweigh the costs. You may not be able to teach her as much as she wants, but I can, with an occasional appearance from you where you teach her something obscure so she feels like she's getting an absurdly good deal."

"And you're truly willing to risk this disguise or her saying something that gets back to your pursuers?" John wrote, and Yuki shrugged after glancing down at the sheet.

"It's not that big of a risk, even if she blabs after we emphasize not talking about it. Kitsune often disguise themselves to interact with human society to some degree. A three-tailed one acquiring some minor influence over a middle-of-nowhere town without approval, though technically against the rules, is unlikely to raise any alarm bells. None of my pursuers are the type to listen to the rambling of someone like that." The 'especially with a war going on' was unspoken, but the message was still clear enough.

Still, it could, in theory, pose a threat with the "tax collectors" if she was to talk, but he was pretty sure those were just an arm of the Nameless anyhow. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. They, or at least their secret leaders, almost certainly knew what Yuki's disguise was. Their skirmishes against the Nameless were conspicuously absent of Yumi, after all.

Shit, now that he thought about it, the militia might ask questions too, given last night… but they were at least ostensibly aligned with them, so that was less of a concern. Okada was presumably smart enough not to rock the boat for the people trying to fix things when the local economy was being choked out by spider demons.

"Perhaps you're right, but even if we say yes, there are practical issues," he responded.

"Where she'd sleep, for one. If Rin's making the trek between Broadstream Town and the fort regularly, she'll eventually get ambushed by Nameless and possibly killed."

"There's an easy solution for that," Yuki quickly replied. John narrowed his eyes.

"... No," he said after trying to puzzle what else she could be hinting at because to even suggest that was insane.

"Why not?" she innocently asked, writing as smooth and steady as ever.

"When I clashed against her, I got a glimpse of who she is deep down, and I can tell you right now that I don't know if betraying someone is a thought that could even cross her mind. She's very earnest." Right, if Presence is an extension of who you are, it would make sense that such an extreme display of power, deeply tied to magic as Presence was, would reveal a lot about oneself to a skilled practitioner.

"Rin's not staying at the fort. Misunderstanding or not, she tried to kill you and threatened to kill me. Even if she's not being deceitful, I'd say there's good odds she'll turn against us at some point. Her attitude changed at the drop of a hat before; why not again?"

"Said attitude turned due to your character," Yuki bluntly replied, eyes narrowing.

"You displayed righteous fury after she endangered others and then unflinching kindness as you repaired all that was broken when you would have been well within your rights to toss some coin or something to sell to the old woman and move on. She rightly concluded that you were innocent and felt guilty for all the trouble in addition to being impressed by your sheer skill and control." John paused, a deep frown creasing his face as he fell into thought. It couldn't be that simple, could it?

Given the circumstances, he was just doing what any reasonable person should do. You don't just… casually destroy one's means of supporting yourself and shrug your shoulders. Much to his annoyance, he knew that Yuki was almost certainly correct about Rin's thoughts—her ability to read others outstripped his own by orders of magnitude, and she had centuries of experience to back it up. Sighing, he replied, "Still, inviting her in seems a bit fast to me. She's still a threat."

"I'm not going to force the issue, as it is obviously your right to decline," Yuki wrote, expression grim, "But I would ask you to consider how much safer her help would make things in the event of another wave of Nameless. If they wise up and attack more parts of the wall at once, there's only so many places the two of us can defend." Fuck, she's right.

Even if any important rooms were barricaded up when not in use, the sheer amount of damage they could do inside before being stopped, not to mention if Aiki and Haru were somewhere less secure… He leaned back, looking up at the wooden rafters above as he drifted into thought again. Why did they attack in such a clumped-up manner? He had been scrapping with them for years, and he had just assumed that they were unintelligent…

but if they were being directed by a greater intelligence, why did they never attack when he was away during the day or at more than one spot at once? What if they suddenly decided to change that pattern? John shivered.

"Fine," he finally replied, "But we do this right, here's my idea…" They marched out of town, Yuki leading the group through the trees back to the fort. Rin had a curious, bouncing energy, looking back at John whenever she thought she could get away with it. It would be almost endearing if he didn't know she went around challenging people in the street to fights. Weirdly enough, while he was extremely bothered by the whole duel thing, he felt he should still be even more hostile. Was that weird?

There was something about how she went about it that coated the whole event in a layer of bizarre unreality that felt like a dream. Maybe that was the only reason he even considered allowing her in, even if he didn't trust her. It was almost like watching a clown goof around, but the clown could pitch a car if they got upset. Yuki turned off the game trail at a small clearing, stopping in the centre with the sun at her back.

"We're here," she declared. This spot was John's pick. It was nice and isolated; nobody would bumble onto them, and Aiki and Haru wouldn't be around to potentially traumatize.

"Here?" Rin confusedly asked, looking around the little patch of rocks, grass, and dirt.

"Do you have something to pick up here? Perhaps have a yokai to meet?"

"Something like that," Yuki chuckled, shaking her head. John wordlessly walked past the baffled Rin, forcibly toggling on his magic protections on the way by, lest Yuki's Presence get to him. He stopped a few feet from the disguised kitsune's side, pivoting to face the tall dragon woman, her brow furrowed and eyes darting between them like she was staring down a devilish puzzle.

"I'm afraid that your knowledge of what's going on is terribly incomplete, like a painting half-finished," intoned Yuki, "and you should know what you're getting into before you commit." A challenge disguised as a warning to target the Unbound's sense of pride.

"What do you mean?" Rin inquired, her long tail irregularly whipping back and forth behind her in agitation.

"This land, these people… a hidden threat chips away at them from within. Like a parasite, it cares not whether it kills its host," Yuki monologued, turning to gaze off toward the horizon before slowly closing her eyes. It was very melodramatic… and perfect for driving the point home to someone with the dragon woman's sensibilities.

"You speak in riddles," Rin growled, anger creeping into her voice.

"What danger do you speak of!" The disguised kitsune snapped back to Rin, opening her eyes and revealing gold-black fire which washed over her form in a towering, impossible inferno. Yuki's Presence washed over him, but he didn't flinch nor even turn, instead watching her out of the corner of his eye, acting like everything was just business as usual. Despite planning it out ahead of time, it took a lot of mental effort.

Even if he knew that he was safe, the idea of the raging inferno a few feet to his side was still both worrying and fascinating, given he had yet to solve the question of how she compacted her true form. Nonchalance on his part was needed for the act. Three massive, billowing tails fanned out from Yuki's back, casting long shadows over the clearing. Rin's jaw dropped.

"You—" she began, only to be cut off by Yuki raising a hand.

"You may call me Lady Yuki," she stated.

"My titles are as many as grains of sand upon a beach, and I care not to list them all." She closed her eyes once more, and a great shadow welled up behind her in what he knew was the shape of a Nameless materialized behind them. John fought down the urge to turn around and look at it.

"Monsters infest the woods and the town both, caring not to hide the true face of their greed, even if their shapes may change. Strands of silk wrap around the hearts of the tax collectors, and they dance like puppets. Do you know what plagues these lands?"

"Nameless," Rin dully muttered, eyes wide as she stared at the projection before it dissolved into ephemeral wisps under the sun's light.

"They tear the people of these lands apart both on the road and in their own homes, growing as a threat while leaving starvation and broken families in their wake," Yuki narrated, "Lord John and myself… we work together to stop them." Rin turned to face him, confusion evident in her expression, but she said nothing. Now was his time to shine; he just hoped he didn't flub his lines.

"It has been five long years since I came to this valley, these forests," John spoke as loudly as he could without straining his voice.

"And I have fought the Nameless endlessly, culling their numbers, despite being cast out by society until recently. Perhaps, by my hand, a few lives have been saved." None of it was a lie. Just… liberal interpretations of the truth.

"I only recently returned to these lands after a long absence," Yuki explained, "and I was shocked to find someone took up duties that should have been mine. Now, we work together. We will see the Nameless reduced to ash in this silent war. We will have you, but the war will go on, and the price of your tutorship is to stand by our side. Do you still wish to learn from us?" Us. A shifting of responsibility from Rin wanting to learn from John to both of them…

with any matter that might expose John's nature conveniently shifted to Yuki.

"But, the Grand Deal…" Rin returned, only to be cut off by Yuki raising her hand again.

"Has no bearing here. Kitsune already have liberties, more so in times of crisis… And yokai bleeding good citizens of the Empire dry during a time of war certainly counts," Yuki explained, although it felt more like an order.

"Now. Do you stand with us, Nagahama Rin?" Silence fell over the clearing. Shakingly, Rin fell to her knees, bowing deeply enough to put her head on the ground.

"I would be honoured!" she called out. Nailed it.