[27.] Loss of Strength

On their way to the mansion Rensuke did his best to prepare Misaki for the worst to come.
The Pirate Leader of Griswold was the little brother of the leader of Rottingham, Kabutenji Yuu. According to Rensuke, the boy was a lousy maggot. A tiny nuisance and he didn't miss a chance to warn Misaki about the governor's clever ways of exposing secrets with the most impossible methods. His words were harsh, almost like he was describing the Devil himself in form of a kid.

"Okay, I get it," Misaki told him, when Rensuke reached the part where Kabutenji's brother reached the same level of a shrimp.

Finally after much hesitation, Rensuke rang the doorbell, and to Misaki's surprise the person appearing in the door was neither a monster nor a seacreature. Yaku could easily pass as someone else's brother because he didn't share any of Yuu's features. As if he had come from a different family. Blonde hair, tanned skin and brown eyes.

"Dropped in for a visit, eh?" he smirked at Rensuke.

"Yeah, I wanted to see your ratface instead of having fun with the boys in the mole hole you call town."

"That was a wise choice. By now, you would be making a shameful display of your alcohol intolerance," a smirk appeared on Yaku's lips. But he still didn't make any move to invite the duo deeper into his house. "And this scallop here? Sharing the same fate?"

Before Rensuke could introduce the merman, he looked up at the Governor of Griswold and lied into his face without hesitation.

"T'is might not be far from the truth. However, I'm just a pilgrim accompanying the seafarer called Ornitier. They were kind enough to let me travel with them after the regrettable attack on Anglers' Reef."

The governor raised his eyebrow, carefully inspecting Yoshimine. He hummed, and made a face. "Weird. Anglers' Reef never struck me as a pilgrim paradise. They mostly worship their own boats…" he stopped, as if he was digging up some kind of hidden information from the back of his mind. "Oh and mermaids. They gotta love the tales of them! I daresay, it's a weird destination for a pilgrim."

"Sometimes God leads us to the strangest of places," the merman smiled.

"Indeed." Yaku nodded with a knowing smile, before he suddenly changed the topic. "But let's continue this inside, the night is getting chilly."

He invited them in, and led the duo to his study. Or so they thought, after the boys took several glances at the maps and paintings covering the wall. But just like in Rottingham, they were surprised by the order which ruled the entire house. Misaki held back a comment comparing Yaku's study and Rensuke's room, knowing that the time was not right when they were dealing with Rensuke's supposed arch nemesis.

Even so, Yaku was faster than them and started a conversation as soon as he sat down at his desk. Rensuke was rather reluctant about even accepting a seat from the governor, but in the end reluctantly sat down in front of him, watching the young leader like a cat which has been dragged out from the river. He was way too tense, but it seemed that Yaku was more interested in Misaki, for now.

"May I ask what brought you here with this lowlife hoodlum?"

"T'is a long story. The Kaiou pirates of Marine Snow were the only souls who took pity on a pilgrim like me. As you can see, my state is hardly normal and alas it scares away most sailors from taking me aboard."

"My apologies. Indeed, it must be hard to reach your destination. Hey, Renno, this reminds me!" Rensuke shivered when he heard the unnatural nickname. "What being bought you by?"

A sea dragon, he was about to say, before he stopped himself.

"Just making sure that you are still alive," he told him with a sheepish grin. However, Yaku was unaffected.

"How kind of you. I hope you aren't disappointed to see me alive, then," he laughed. "After all, it's a state I can't change. But back to our previous topic, I'm more interested in our pilgrim here."

Misaki was the centre of Yaku's attention and with each question he felt like he was being interrogated. Yaku kept his sweet words, the polite little gestures, but deep down Misaki felt that the governor was waiting for the right moment to strike down on him. The governor was slowly backtracking Misaki's fake pilgrim history, trying to find something contradictory.

"I came through Senbayama. A merchant was kind enough to take me to Angler's Reef," he explained.

"That's hardly a short voyage. Where do you come from if I might ask?"

"From the Kingdom of Raimon. There is a rather small settlement near the southern region," he quickly lied.

From the corner of his eyes he could see Rensuke throwing him a warning glance, but Yaku seemingly took the bait.

"Hmm, there aren't many of those in the southern region. But if it's a small settlement then you must be from Misora. Been there once for a short vacation. Lovely place."

"Oh, then you are familiar with the place."

"Almost too well," his said in a low voice. His face distorted into a twisted smirk as he sat back in his chair. "Too bad, I just made it up on the spot. You seemed to have really nice memories of the place."

"Indeed. Wait. What?" Feeling of dread run along his spines. He managed to ruin their completely fool-proof plan in no time and Yaku didn't even bat an eye when he set the trap in the middle of the conversation.

"Oh, c'mon! You didn't think I believed your little story about Rensuke helping you, do ya? You must be hella special for the guy since you're here, but forget about the pilgrim business if you want to make a progress here." He gave them a painful smirk. "It just won't work."

Misaki was about to mutter a silent sorry toward Rensuke, but he kept his head high, not letting Yaku's words get him side-tracked even though his lie was exposed. He needed to work from what he'd already known so he quickly switched to Story B.

"Then the cat is really out of the bag now," he sighed. "And believe me, I'm terribly sorry for trying to deceive you, however I was acting only on the behalf of my Lady, the Sea Rose. She has entrusted me with a task, you see. However, I must stay in the guise of a pilgrim to successfully carry out this mission. As you might have noticed pilgrims can travel without being interrogated much."

Then he looked at Rensuke "Captain Rensuke has allowed me to travel with them as we share our destinations. Today, I wished to accompany him, Governor."

"I see that's very kind of you, even if this scallywag deserves no companionship."

Rensuke was sure that he'd seen a flash of irritation in Misaki's eyes, before the merman started to reel in the governor, taking small bites of him as their conversation went on. "In my humble opinion, Captain Rensuke is the most capable person I've ever met and his companionship is truly unrivalled."

"You saying this as the helper of the Sea Rose or as a member of his crew? Choose wisely, because only one option leads you through the front door. " There was something beneath that cocky smile ad as the governor of Griswold stepped toward him, Misaki could feel the urge of jumping away from his way getting stronger.

He was cornered in the game of wits.

"Who are you loyal to?" Yaku asked again, eyes gleaming playfully.

"I…"

However, before Misaki could open his mouth to answer a voice roared behind him.

"Why are you so keen on interrogating him?" A hand gripped his shoulder. "We are not here for this."

"Certainly." The governor nodded, then sat down in his chair. "But you can admit, it's good to know who I am dealing with."

"If that is your only concern, then I think it's safe to say that we are not here to cause any trouble and that should be enough." Misaki quickly took up the flow of the conversation. "The only thing we want from you is information regarding the curious phenomenons appearing in the archipelago and how the Dukedom might be related to it. Recently they started hunting creatures from the abyss."

"You mean, merfolk," Yaaku corrected him without batting an eye. "There is no need for synonyms."

"Yes. That's another way of naming them. Captain Rensuke has thought that the military movements regarding the Dukedom and the disappearance of sealife might be connected, the thing is, we have no idea how."

"Captain Rensuke is awfully clever lately," the young governor snorted. "But you're right. The two cases are glued together, or so we perceived. However, I'm afraid; I can't really help you, because right now I can't really investigate the case."

"Because of what happened at Anglers' reef?"

"Aye. Losing it was a heavy blow on the islands' defence, so right now I have to focus on protecting Griswold from the Dukedom. Only devil knows when they are going to strike," he almost spit the words as he uttered the enemy's name.

"Well, each to his own," Misaki shrugged.

His words brought a smile to Yaku's lips. Genuine one, devoid of sarcasm. Yet his attention was on Rensuke again as if he was thinking about something. "You better keep your merman safe. He is a clever one. Also…" He stood up as if he didn't notice the two in front of him flinching at the word merman. "Be sure to keep an eye on your firstmate, because apparently not only his hair is green."

"Now, Yaku, are you telling me that my mate is jealous? Of who?"

"Do you know anyone who has a ship around here?" Yaku raised an eyebrow.

"Plenty of people can say this about themselves."

"Don't play dumb, please. This is important. Your first-mate, see. He is helping the Dukedom."

"You can stop now. I've learnt my lesson."

"Look, Rensuke. It's only natural that you don't believe me, but please, believe your common sense. I can see it in your eyes that something has happened between you and Wanda. I'm telling you as a friend, don't meet him! Don't follow him or you'll lose something more important than your honour."

"Like what?"

"Your family."

"I don't know if you've noticed but Wanda is part of my family too," he felt anger bubbling in his stomach, but there was something else too. A feeling which appeared so many times, a thought which kept laughing at him whenever he decided to turn blind eye to Naoto's actions.

"They say every family has its black sheep," the governor gave him a serious look.

"Well and it's the job of the family's head to keep the black sheep with the flock."

"Indeed, I just merely gave you a warning. To stay at our sheep related metaphors; the flock has a wolf in sheep skin. Ya-"

But before he could continue Rensuke was already standing, his hands gripped the handles of Misaki's makeshift wheelchair.

"If you'll excuse us. We still have to visit a church and report back to my crew."

The governor only nodded with an all knowing smile. "Of course. Oh, and Rensuke, if you're so interested in the mermaid, perhaps you should visit Tengawara. Rumours are circulating about their involvement and that they have several members of the merfolk helping them."

However, Rensuke didn't turn toward him as he spoke. His gaze was fixated on the door before him.

"Finished already?"

"Yeah, I think Yes."

"Good."

With this the duo was out of the room. Yaku did nothing to stop them; he knew even if he managed to halt Rensuke's steps any further argument would be pointless. He did what he could even if managed to give him the wrong impression. From now on, it's up to Rensuke.

While part of him still disliked him for that drunken night and wanted to drag Rensuke through the mud for it, Yaku didn't want to see any of the Kaiou pirates hurt and broken.

However, either Naoto or the merman will destroy them. It was only matter of time.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-

Hoooooo, it was so long ago and many life related things happened starting with the big Summer Fever at the cinema, so they boss always managed to keep me busy. Hah. We actually broke the all-time visitor record in the middle of August!

But I also had a major art and writer's block and Etrian Odyssey actually managed to keep my sidetracked once again. Now I know what 8 years in boat hell means.

Still I hope you liked this rather short chapter, next time it's Misaki's turn to calm down Rensuke and have a heart-to-heart talk with him.