Chương 27: Book 1, Chapter 27: Scarce Answers

John sat on the wall under the night sky, a knot of worry sitting heavily in his gut. Maybe he should have gone with Yuki. He knew that she could more than handle herself, but heading out solo always ran the risk of being blindsided by something. He knew that he would only slow her down, though. While able to sneak, he doubted he could match a kitsune with centuries of experience and the ability to shapeshift in that department.

Maybe he could figure out how to make a simple handheld radio so he could hang out somewhere nearby as backup for next time? He never had a reason before, but now that he was actually working with others… Rin stood guard a fair bit down the wall, watching the forest. Even though he still didn't entirely trust her and didn't want to be within melee range, he couldn't deny that having her as backup in a fight would be helpful.

He had to admit that something was endearing about how she gave her full attention and effort to every task he asked of her. The security tablet buzzed, and he quickly straightened up and snagged it from his pocket, checking it. The indicator for the main road went off, quickly fading soon after. One person, or at most a very small party, standing side by side. Brushing himself off, he stood above the gate, slightly on guard but ready.

While he didn't expect trouble, he'd rather not be caught off guard; for all he knew, Yuki might run into unexpected issues and return with a small army on her heels.

"Rin, look alive, we have someone coming," he ordered after he tucked the tablet away. The woman straightened, looking over at him with an unspoken question, but opting to not say it as she pivoted back to face the road. She was in something akin to a parade rest but with her hand on the hilt of her blade. John, for his part, took cover against the ramparts, poking his head around the corner to watch the road.

While confident in his ability to take a few arrows on his warding, he wasn't exactly eager to experience the terror of seeing sharp metal bits flying towards him again. The next few minutes were tense as the incoming entity triggered the following two proximity sensors one by one, although it at least confirmed that they were neither hurried nor sneaking, so it was almost certainly Yuki, at least. He heard steps coming from the woods, relaxing further once he realized there was only one set of footsteps… pawsteps?

It was still weird to have to think of terms to use for someone with inhuman anatomy. The kitsune of the hour rounded the corner with a self-satisfied smile on her face and a squat coffer perhaps a foot and a half long under one arm, with a… John blinked, unsure of what he was seeing and needing to take a moment to process what was before him. Why was a limp man under her arm like a sack of potatoes? He just… hung there, limbs drooping down with no sign of life. Was he dead? John's heart caught in his throat.

There was no way Yuki killed a man and brought him here like a cat with a bird, right? That'd be insane. He was probably just knocked out, which… probably wasn't that much better, to be honest, because she still went out to find some information and came back having committed a kidnapping. It was probably one of the tax collectors, given they felt vaguely familiar, but that's a hell of an extra objective to pick up while you're out.

He glanced over to Rin, who relaxed a bit when she saw it was Yuki, and seemed to be completely unbothered by the kidnapping. Was he the only one who was bugged by this?

"Hey, Yuki, what do you have there?" he nervously asked. She stopped in place and shot him a mischievous grin as she held the chest up.

"I got us some money!" The kitsune then proceeded to bite the lock, tearing it off with her jaws like someone opening a bag of chips. Flipping the lid open, she showed him it was positively overflowing with copper and steel coins. John glanced at her, unamused, then at the… hopefully not dead man. He hoped that she didn't knock him out with blunt force, being unconscious for that long could have devastating results.

"You know what I meant," John sighed, and she laughed airily before running at the wall and leaping up with contemptuous ease. The man started to stir upon landing, and John tensed, but Yuki just glanced at her cargo, and he stiffened before going limp. The kitsune glanced toward Rin.

"Please leave Lord John and I alone for a moment, we have things to discuss. You may retire for the night if you wish," she gently ordered, and the dragon-blooded woman bowed before retreating to the second warehouse he had set a bed up in earlier, away from where everyone else was sleeping. It would still be plenty warm enough, granted, but he couldn't imagine the bizarre Unbound would take too kindly to sharing a room with some peasants even if he decided to inflict her on them.

Both opted to wait until she was well and truly gone before continuing.

"Yuki. Why have you brought a random man back here?" he groaned, rubbing his forehead to try and delay the aneurysm that was doubtlessly forming.

"Well, he's not a random man," she explained.

"He's actually the one from a while back who managed to pick out that you used your 'techniques' on that one tax collector. He happened to be guarding the room where I had to go, and I made a choice. There was no easy way to get in without rousing at least some suspicions about who broke in, as I'd have to get past him somehow. By stealing the money and taking this man, they'll assume it was a simple betrayal by one of their own for money, rather than an attack by us or the townsfolk.

Of course, I could have killed him and dropped him in the woods, but I figured that squeezing him for information was preferable." Oh, fuck. John averted his eyes, gazing out into the distant forest. It was easy destroying the Nameless or talking about disrupting the plans of the tax collectors through whatever means available, but… It was a bit different to see a man with his own hopes and dreams in front of him, alive not due to mercy but sheer practicality on Yuki's part.

Yet, he couldn't dispute that the kitsune made the right call. Extra information was always valuable, and there was almost no chance of any of this making its way back to them. What sounded more likely: that an ancient and powerful kitsune with centuries of presumably built-up wealth decided to rob them blind and kidnap someone, or that someone already doing glorified banditry decided to get greedy? John shivered. As grim as it might be, this man's only chance to survive was probably him and Yuki at this point.

Even if his boss didn't kill him, he doubted the Greater Nameless in charge above him would take too kindly to this wealth being lost, and would almost certainly put a kill order out on him. Even if they released him now, he doubted he'd survive a few weeks. If he tried to hide amongst the townsfolk, he'd probably end up getting lynched. If he tried to flee to another town, John doubted that there was a local spot where he didn't make enemies of the folk there.

If he tried to live in the woods, he'd almost certainly be hunted down like a rabid dog and slowly torn apart… or turned into a puppet. John prayed, for the sake of all the poor souls that had those horrible spiderlings burrow through their flesh, that the process killed them. Wait, how would they deal with this guy in the long run? They can't just tie him up and keep him forever! Whatever, that's a problem for future John to deal with.

He had to worry about the short-term effects of Yuki bringing a man back with her first. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself before he could panic. This is fine. He could deal with this. He just had to slow down and break it into small parts; do this one step at a time, like always. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. John reopened his eyes and saw Yuki's expression slip into an uneasy frown.

"John? Are you okay?" she asked. He couldn't really be that mad at her. From her perspective, she was being merciful, even if it caused him more headaches.

"Yeah," he began, starting again before trailing off, unsure of what to say.

"I'm just thinking about where to keep him and that type of thing. Our food usage is already pretty high. I think we might have to figure something better out soon." Yuki nodded and pulled her lips tighter before jostling the coffer she brought with her.

"We do have funds now, and he isn't going to be here for too long. Food shouldn't be an issue… As to housing him safely, we don't need much, and I only need to sleep once every week or so, every two weeks if I desire to push my current limits. With my senses, it'd be easy to keep an ear on him no matter where we are in this compound once he's restrained, and if we need to leave the area, it'd be easy to just weigh him down with rocks to doubly ensure he can do nothing." Again, correct. It was…

strange to think about having money again, of all things. The idea of having things he didn't directly make, gather, or scavenge felt like a long-lost dream to John. He could save up and not be one bad harvest away from potentially starving. He could eventually skip the tedium of making many of the boring things. He was getting distracted again.

"Are you sure he's going to be alright? He's been out for a while," John questioned, carefully picking his words. He had no clue if Yuki had a concept of brain damage, but…

"Of course. I just smothered his consciousness. Remember how it felt when you were near Rin and I clashing?" Yuki asked, and John scoffed.

"How could I forget?" he asked. It was stifling, almost overwhelming, at least before he toggled on his warding full time! It was like being a child in a windstorm.

"I did that to him, but more contained to not alert anybody, and much more… up close and personal. I crushed his consciousness into compliance by completely overloading his Presence with mine," the kitsune explained, glancing down at the man under her arm and shaking him slightly to demonstrate how he was still completely limp. Great. That was yet another threat for him to worry about. That was an issue for him to deal with later, he supposed.

"Fine," he grunted.

"Can you wake him whenever you wish?"

"Yes," Yuki confirmed.

"Do you have some spare rope?" she asked, and he confirmed he did with a nod. She grinned. The two of them hauled the man to the main building, and Yuki tied him to a chair while John dimmed all the lights and covered the windows so the sitting room was in complete darkness. From there, they left him, although not before Yuki gave him a little jolt of Presence to make him stir. John heard him shout something a few seconds after they left, but neither of them answered.

The dark room and lack of answers would serve well to set him on edge, at least according to Yuki. The two of them did some late-night studying to pass the time. John taught Yuki a bit more about math, and some basic physics equations on top, and she taught him more than a few extra words, including a few extra at his request that probably wouldn't come up too often, but he was dying to know.

They both agreed to leave the details about the tax collectors' plans until the end, so they'd be fresh on it when they interrogated the captured man. Kaito, Yuki called him. Still, knowing his name made everything around keeping him captive even less comfortable.

"Say, I've been meaning to ask… How does the coinage system work?" John suddenly asked to shake himself out of his thoughts. The kitsune looked at him, blinking.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's pretty simple. Ten copper mon to an iron, ten iron to a silver, ten silver to a gold."

"Yeah, I managed to figure out that from texts, but I saw references to other currency systems in some of the books I've read over the years?" he expanded.

"Sometimes, certain people refused to engage with anything other than the barter system; other times, they only dealt with another type of coinage." Yuki's muzzle immediately dipped into an annoyed frown.

"Oh, right. Do you recall how the first Nameless threw the country into a complete collapse? Afterwards, there were… measures taken amongst the yokai and mundane alike to stop that from happening again. If you are either a yokai or sufficiently along the path of becoming Unbound, you are disallowed from making a purchase beyond a certain value from mortals, with the value being based on the state of the economy, although I'm unsure as to what it is right now.

Among themselves, the more spiritually inclined use special coins made from material only found in the Spirit Realm, which mortal merchants are forbidden to take. Any purchase of 'mortal' goods or properties past that rank must be approved by a joint government group to analyze its impacts." Oh god, bureaucracy. Well-meaning bureaucracy, but the same cursed thing nonetheless.

John imagined trying to buy a home, or a nice set of tools, only to have to deal with government approval, and in a land with no telecommunications at that.

"Is your issue with the idea, or something else?" John asked.

"It's a fine idea," Yuki explained, sighing.

"Mortal markets are rather vulnerable, but… You know how unhurried at the best of times government groups can be. Even worse, it's a joint project between what might as well be two different nations, and one can't visit another, and one is even less hurried than what you're used to due to effectively being a punishment detail for beings that generally live for several times your lifespan." Oh no. John didn't even think about those aspects.

The mere thought of dealing with it was enough to make one break out in a sweat. Wait. His cover was that of an Unbound, wasn't it? John shivered. He'd have to deal with them eventually, wouldn't he?

"This sounds like personal experience," he neutrally added while worriedly thinking over what type of nonsense a magical financial institution could pull. She huffed, leaning back and looking toward the ceiling.

"Once, when I was still a good little peon, I was tasked to retrieve a special pearl that used to belong to someone more important than me from a mortal auction. At first, I sought to purchase it. Of course, the Bureau of Mortal Expenses would take approximately four years to examine even that relatively minor purchase, and if I went against them, I faced either minor mutilation of my soul or a few decades of servitude." She closed her eyes, the edges of her muzzle twitching even lower.

"I stole it instead. Four men got executed for negligence by the noble who employed them, a dozen more were fired, and I paid a token fine that was covered by my employer. They believed I consumed the pearl's essence to empower myself without question, so it was never retrieved. It was one of my first exposures to the absolute obscenity of the system at large." Holy hell, that was about eleven different kinds of messed up in ways that he struggled to unpack.

He couldn't really blame Yuki for resorting to theft in circumstances like that, and he knew she had a death toll already, but it was another thing to hear about—He supposed it didn't matter that much. The two of them faded into silence for a time, neither speaking.

"Our guest is growing more agitated," Yuki suddenly stated.

"He's thrashing around and calling out names. Shall we leave this until morning, or see to him tonight?"

"Tonight," John quickly responded, imagining how he'd be up all night thinking about his distress otherwise.

"We have some information to review first, don't we?" Yuki grabbed a few sheets of paper, sliding them across the table to him. They were mostly short form, not exact copies given the briefness of her visit, but pretty complete nonetheless. It was strange to see such hurried, almost jagged brush strokes from Yuki rather than her normal flowing, elegant script, but it was still plenty readable.

"What are all these names?" John asked, shuffling a sheet to the top.

"That one? Informants. It isn't well organized, though. Sadly, some of those may be in other towns," she sighed, glancing over the list like she hadn't already memorized it. Sometimes he wondered how many of her little gestures were for his benefit rather than being natural.

"I don't recognize these names. Perhaps Aiki or Haru would." Troublesome. Yet, John could sympathize—he had felt powerless in the past before others, and if his only choice was to play into the hands of awful people for a reprieve… he didn't know if he'd be able to resist, especially if he had people depending on him. He resolved to make a copy of this later.

Maybe he could make a rough English transliteration to make it extra-secure, so if anyone managed to get hold of it, they wouldn't be able to do anything with it. The supply list was also clear, but the copy of the letter, though… The calligraphy was harsh, jagged. It wasn't hurried, exactly, but it felt like whoever wrote this prioritized efficiency above all else. Baisho Fuma. The situation has changed, and your current location is no longer safe.

Expedite the collection process to get everything you can and leave Broadstream for Breezetown no more than nine days from receiving this letter. Give no concern to sustainability. Stay longer, and you will be killed by hostiles looking to ingratiate themselves with the local population. K.