Description: In a secure facility deep in the bowels of the industrial district, Adelheid Bernstein is being held as a prisoner of the Jinchuu fallout. There, as her last act of Security Chief, Sakura and Seishirou interrogate him. Though.. that turns out to only be half the story. Afterwards, Seishirou thanks Sakura. In his own way. (Riko: I told you so~)
What passes for a secure facility deep in the warhouse sector. In truth, Sei was well known for squirrelling away resources where he could--and warehouse districts, with their distinct lack of curious people and numerous unclaimed (or simply unused) buildings, works pretty well.
This particular building was owned by a corporation that barely knows it exists. They'll obviously discover what he's done. Just as obviously, the Ryouhara ninja will simply move the evidence. To the investigative, his machinations are simply myth, nothing more.
The reality is, this is a captive facility.
While it is erected with the utmost of speed, and deconstructed in the same, there still remains something to be said for the engineering talent of the ninja--bars line the walls, arcane sealing work scripted across the wrought iron with precision hand. Ironically, the lock is on the inside--a small box sits on the inside of the large, spacious cell, compartmentalized with a clear cover, and something very ominous looking glowing on the inside. NINKOU: Bento Box Logic.
Not that whether his charge can escape or not actually bothers Seishirou. That's what insurance polices were for.
"Until you collect your check, you're still on the payroll," he reminds his ex-Security Chief, whom he has specifically summoned after three long, and hard days after the Suiryuu sank. Some were in the hospital, some were at home, recuperating. Others were nowhere to be seen. Seishirou? ... He was sitting on a crate, studying the Prince of "R". The subject on the other side of the cage. With his customary harshness, or at the very least, with only a grudging allowance of cvonsciousness. Or food and water.
"I think it's time we started to ask questions," he decides, finally.
Alright. The last few days? Let's call them a blur. His rather expediently - to be polite - arranged task forces almost universally failed in their duties, and while Adelheid himself put up a hell of a fight time and again on the Suiryuu... the odds were not with him, nor was lady luck. Which is reason to question Rugal's motives all over again... the violent resistance is more understandable in retrospect, or perhaps when weighed against the certain blame he'll receive when he gets back to 'R'. One might question whether he even /wants/ to escape. Though the wise, as Seishirou has proven to be at least half the time, might recognize that he's biding his time, saving his strength. Waiting for the right opportunity. The lock may be on the inside, but that doesn't mean he's liable to just stumble on the solution without ample bodily harm. It's a play in probability, and perhaps one that goes along with Ryouhara's little joke, perhaps not.
Either way, beyond a thorough, one might say painstaking examination of his surroundings, Adelheid does little in the way of tampering when it comes to the glowy ninja runes or rubix cube. It may be foggy, but there's one thing he can't forget: that ship of the damned going nuclear. It's not the same sense, perhaps, in this warehouse... but the Bernstein heir isn't going to simply ignore lessons regarding his captor. The rather spartan rations and cool treatment is absorbed stoically. He eats what he can stomach, and expends little energy, and while his haggard appearance dissipates little, it buys time for his injuries to heal, and some measure of his old strength to creep back into his lithe frame. It's hardly the posh recuperation he might prefer, but he shows little sign of wasting away or succumbing to despair. Indeed, he absorbs the treatment, and the incarceration, with a calm stoicism. This ninja wants something from him, or from Rugal, or else he would not be here.
That puts the power back in his court, and means it's only a matter of time before he has his chance. So the platinum blonde in the tattered uniform sucks up his rather disheveled appearance and conditions, and takes a sort of break from the fight. No rage, no shouted expletives, no visible objections of any kind. The calm of a coiled Adder though it may be.
Sakura's hands are folded behind her head, as she leans against a support structure of the warehouse. Even before she'd gotten onto the Suiryuu, she had been well-used to following Seishirou's lead. In a way... she doesn't mind being a pawn so long as he's not doing anything she finds distasteful.
She's already told Riko what she finds distasteful, anyway. Kidnapping... well. That's fine so long as it's with folks' best interests in mind, and she feels that Sei and Riko, =despite= violating people's rights to personal freedom, are looking for out the long-term.
And Adelheid, she's fairly sure, could get out of the box whenever he darn well wanted to. If he wanted to.
Just not while she and Seishirou are standing here, looking all stern and stuff. "Pff, you make it sound like I don't =wanna= be here." Yawning a bit, she looks about the room, exuding not only sarcasm, but boredom. If nothing else, she's eager to see whatever cards Seishirou wants to play at the moment, especially as those cards concern someone who, at one time, interested her greatly!
"Just don't expect me to play nurse or nothin, an' we'll be just peachy," she clarifies, glancing over to Adelheid. "So yeah, Adel. What's up with your pop wantin' to take out everyone on board, huh?" She looks a bit more cheerful now that something's =happening=... having been ultimately disinterested with the menial proceedings up to this point.
The Bento Logic Lock is very complex.
He's not facing Adelheid currently. Or, to be completely fair, his stack of crates aren't facing Adelheid. As a function of that, Seishirou isn't. The cane that he relied on during the events of Jinchuu lays across his lap, held across the ball in one hand. That cane taps against his leg idly. "Don't worry," he blandly assures Sakura, his eyes rolling to the ceiling as he twists a lip thoughtfully.
"The nurse outfit is in another castle."
"Hey." Raising a leg, the ninja twists around on the crate, until he's facing Adelheid side-on. It's worth noting that the crate spacing from the bars is exactly the length of Adelheid's arm reach, if he were to dislocate his shoulder in the socket. Plus three inches. Exactly three inches. Adelheid would know this. Seishirou would /know/ he knew this. There's very little pretense between the two, that's what Ryouhara's learned over this time. More or less, there hasn't been a word exchanged for three whole days. He pounds the bars with the end of the cane for emphasis. In the prior silence, it's kind of like a gunshot. "You look like you're ready to go. So listen up. We're gonna ask a few questions. You're gonna answer. Kasugano got the first in one. Kinda."
Seishirou leans to the side, exactly two and a half inches from the edge of the crate.
"What was your well dressed daddy on when he thought he could get my ship?"
Adelheid doesn't even bother to try to reach Seishirou. What, the ninja is going to be /that/ stupid? Even assuming he /could/ subdue the capable fighter just by beaning him off the bars. No, satisfying though it may be, this isn't his moment. ... or is it? His expression cracks only slightly when Sakura makes her appearance. He... wasn't really expecting Kasugano to have a hand in this, and it complicates the equation a bit. ... or maybe it simplifies it. He moistens his lips and takes a somewhat hoarse swallow as Sakura and Seishirou say their piece, planting his back against the bars of one corner of his cute little cage and stretching one leg out in front of him where he sits. Calmer, relaxed, pensive perhaps.
It doesn't stop him from smirking with a bit of disdain at the initial question, "Come on. Why ask me questions you already know the answers to? You know the sort of people some of those fighters on that ship were, the sort this one is." A jerk of his head to Seishirou, "You /felt/ the power and wrongness the moment you stepped on board, as surely as I did. You /had/ to have seen what happened when that abomination was set off. Now you're going to ask me why? What he'd do it for?"
The platinum blonde's crimson eyes drift back to Seishirou, "You'd be better off asking how you could think he /wouldn't/ board the ship. And then board it again. I'd say you should be thanking your lucky stars you managed to keep him from holding it..."
A beat, a bare hand lifting to brush back his dirtied bangs, and his smirk returns as more of a subdued smile, his attention returning pointedly to Sakura "If I were sure that its 'rightful' owners were somehow the more noble keepers of such a creation."
Some things need not be said.
"Well, that's a relief." Sakura says them anyway -- she'd rather stir up trouble than to keep things bottled up under a layer of ice, silent expressions offering slow, lethargic yet ultimately unrewarding conversations. Get it out in the open, she always says!
But wow, that got Adel stirred up more than she was expecting. "... Oh, well! By that logic, you see a nuclear reactor, you just want to go in, kill everyone inside, and take it for yourself? That's smart!" Kasugano rolls her eyes, huffing a little puff of air in petulant annoyance. "Well, since you're so gosh darn smart, maybe you already know this, but I was looking forward to =fighting= on the boat. Real, honest-to-goodness fights that I couldn't get anywhere else. And I think it'd be awesome to teach students there. I saw a thing of beauty, and I wanted to =appreciate= it, not destroy it!"
Hopping up onto another crate, she crouches upon it, glancing down at Adelheid. "I guess the noble thing to do is take over all the pretty stuff and show it all off in the Low-vra or something, huh?" Yes, Sakura tried to pronounce the Louvre phonetically, isn't the prole adorable?
He taps the crook of his cane against his shoulder. "Not quite what I was asking.."
He explains, as if bored. "Motive is easy. Capability, more so. You just run the numbers. Soldiers against strength. Past a certain threshold.." He tilts his free hand.
He cannot help but snort audibly when Sakura starts complaining. "I appreciate the vote of interest." Pause. "There'll be others," Seishirou reminds her. "There always is." After all. If Adelheid is his guest, he might as well save him a few spare words. Right? .. Probably not.
A few spare words are useful to Ryouhara.
"No. That's not what interests me," Seishirou explains quietly. "I'm talking about brains. See.. you've been sitting there. You haven't been fighting. Even though you're probably near full strength by now. You've certainly been thinking of a way to escape. You might even have an idea or two. At least, I'd hope so, after three days. That tells me you've been saving up. Waiting for the right moment. So you have a pretty good idea what's at stake here."
Seishirou breathes out, and looks at Sakura. "Pretty smart, for the son of a guy who just got blown into the Pacific. And since I don't think much more than your looks came from your mom's side.. I have to guess that Rugal's smart enough to do his homework. And, what I can't get.. he knew what I'd do. What, is he just an /idiot/ when it comes to mentally unstable ninja? I would've killed everyone on board, if he gave me lip. And Elle twice."
Seishirou is absolutely serious.
Maybe.
"Did I say logic had anything to do with it?" The agitation flows into his words, and then ebbs. He can't really deny the conclusions. After all, it's something any /sane/ person would wonder. Unfortunately for Adelheid, he already has the answer. Or at least what passes for one, for him, "If there were some mystical property to the reactor? I'm sure he'd be there, and telling all of us to seize it for glory and power. If you hadn't noticed, father believes himself to be a god. Or on the path to becoming a god. It comes and goes." There's an almost flippant detachment to the way Adelheid recites the megalomania, like he's heard it too many times already, and thinks it's about as crackpotted as motives can get. Of course, the Ryouhara aren't far from that scale, even if they DID prove that a god king... can bleed. (It had to be said).
"But really, Kasugano. Listen to your 'host'. You're so wrapped up in the 'honor' and 'goodness' of your righteous combat, but you couldn't have failed to notice you were fighting on, what? A giant spiritual capacitor?" It's Adel's best guess, he didn't have a front row seat, but as Seishirou notes: He's not a moron, either.
"You can't have failed to wonder what your 'host' might have targetted instead. As far as I'm concerned that was a haunted place, a ship of the damned. The Louvre?" Adelheid pronounces it /right/, thank you Ms. Proletarian, "Hell no, the Suiryuu belongs right where it is: the bottom of the ocean." He jerks his head to Seishirou, "He illustrates why all too clearly. Everyone obsessed with power, no thought to the costs, or the consequences. Stolen power, nothing earned, nothing learned." It's a strange perspective for a sixteen year old, but hey. It's not your normal childhood.
"To tell you the truth, Ryouhara... I don't think my father gives a damn who you'd kill or not kill, if it offered him a chance to seize what you had seized. Isn't that the way these things work? But you're barking up the wrong tree if you're looking for deep insight into the minds of the powermad and greedy, I'm just the failsafe. I'd suggest that asking yourself might offer more information in that regard." A snipe back for Seishirou's serious-or-not claim, "Everyone on board that ship was a puppet to you, a means to your ends. It's like that for Rugal, he has his own pawns, yours were blocking the King. Simple arithmetic."
He pauses, sighs, swallows again, "And yes, your attentiveness serves you. If you mean to make me pay for the sins of my father, well. I'm not going to make your scapegoat easy to deal with."
Kasugano tried sitting in on a few sessions of the Taiyo debate club meetings. The feelings she had then aren't that different from the ones she's experiencing now: hopelessness, inadequacy, stupidity. She's smart enough to bring Hadoukens to a knife fight, but she's walking into this one a bit underequipped.
And really, trying to pull a intellectual superiority trip over Adelheid is... not really working that well, if his response is any indication. But as aggravated as she's getting, she can't let one comment stand...
"What kind of idiot do you think I am?! Of course I noticed it was a capacitor! That's what made the ship cool!"
Not really helping her case, no. She did think about what the ship's purpose was. That's why she was there -- to find out why. And if she needed to stop it, she'd have been there to do so -- not that she'd admit so with a paycheck so close. The Ansatsuken Angel is hardly without avarice, despite the moniker.
Really, though... the way in which Seishirou speaks aggravates her almost as much. The suggestion that he would kill everyone on board makes her teeth grind. She knows, from both his and Riko's prior conversations, that it's probably a controlled tactic. Doesn't help.
Still, she's not a =total= idiot. Not all the time. "You sure don't =talk= like you're much of a failsafe." Scratching her cheek as she tries to calm herself down, she adds, "Almost sounds like you're kinda ticked off with the old man, yourself..."
"You'd think that," Seishirou mentions to Sakura idly, past a glance.
He frowns faintly, worrying the edge of his expression with an intense concerntration. The period of silence is only momentary, of course. It's a rarity to actually see Seishirou in deep concentration, after all--calculation is oft easily assumed of him.
"What do you think we're going to do? Torture you?" he finally asks. And when he does, he does so simply and without reflection. "Something you're used to. With your father being evil Ghandi and all." He smirks. "You know as well as I do, torture would be a waste of everyone's time." He shrugs. "Besides. I don't think going for a swim is a sin anyway." After all. Nobody died. "Not even interested in that."
Cool in Sakura's book. Ominous and forboding in Adelheid's. It's telling of the different worlds they come from, if one thinks on it. The different impressions left from the source of power, and the potential for its use. Of course, it isn't really Adelheid's intention to deride Sakura - more than a little - but he's not going to agree with her perspective. Especially not while he's locked up in a cage, "It's an imperfect system." Is his initial response to Kasugano, a wry sort of look coming to his austere face, then. The first real spark to his rich red eyes. It's a gamble, even now, letting on how he feels, but he's hinted at it more than once in Sakura's presence... he doesn't do business the way Rugal Bernstein does, or at least... not beyond surface appearances, when the necessity arises. His actions speak for themselves, if sometimes very quietly and less than clearly.
His trapped bemusement becomes a frown at Seishirou's words, brow furrowing as he draws inward, leg bending up towards his chest. Evil Ghandi indeed. He can't really argue with the assessment, he's been steeled to stand things, likely worse than Seishirou could cook up if he wanted to. It is indeed a waste of time, regardless of the outcome, in the platinum blonde's book. He chooses the simple course, after a moment, simply asking the ninja, "Then what do you want?" If not enmity, demands, danger... well, his experiences of being in a cage are notably limited to draw from.
Kasugano frowns at the way the conversation's turned back to simple sentences, steel control keeping the agitation at bay. The ex-Suiryuu ex-chief-of-security estimates Adelheid is probably about as ticked off as she is, but she of the ever-changing moods can't help but feel a faint bit of amusement from Adelheid's understated confession. She knows he's ticked off, but -- at least for the moment -- had forgotten it was shared in private and =might= not be that public. Laughing a bit uncomfortably, she glances back to Seishirou.
Really, she can't help but be amused. These are funny people, despite the serious words! But really, she's as interested in Seishirou's answer as Adel is, so she shuts up and watches Sei with interest. Dun dun duuuun!
"It's simple," Seishirou answers without pretense. "I've already gotten it."
"Out there on the water next to the gumbies, it seemed like you had a mind of your own. That interests me. And... I made a guess."
In short, Seishirou doesn't do anything without reason. The seemingly glib remarks about Adelheid's parentage provided the idea. The pretense of interrogation.. "His motives, his acts, his methods. None of them interest me. He threw a cannonball into a lake. Makes a cute splash. Annoys the fish. But he has one less cannonball.." Even Sakura's line of questioning was suited perfectly to his interest. On one hand, it annoyed Adel. On the other hand, she knew how to ask the really obvious questions. Somewhere in there, he could also judge Adelheid's sincerity. To some degree.
Ryouhara's interest was never Rugal.
He slides off the crate, landing neatly on his feet. "... So. Just wanted to find out if you were as big an ass as I thought you might be. Otherwise I'd have just had you pitched overboard to soak with the rest..."
"Looks like I wasn't wrong." His cane slides between the bars, hooking the handle of the Bento Lock and pulling it up off the inner bars. It dangles there a moment. And then falls apart into its individual compartments. "Suppose we've got something in common, then." Then.. and /only/ then, does Seishirou touch the bars, pulling a gate open. "Get out of here."
Well. That... certainly was not the outcome Adelheid was expecting from the cagey and dangerous atom-bomb assassin, or his cohorts. In fact, his first response is to just sort of stare at Seishirou for a long moment, even after the door is open, like he doesn't believe a word that Ryouhara is saying, "Well." He murmurs after a moment, shoving off the floor and back to his feet with as much grace as his haggard appearance can manage, which considering it's Adelheid, is still a tangible amount. He comes to his feet with several steady strides, quickly slipping out the open door, and moving to stand off to Sakura and Seishirou's flank. He pauses a moment, eyes narrowing as he turns back, "Sate my curiousity, first." A situation like this, a get out of jail free card he expected to suffer for, fight for....
... and he looks the gift horse in the mouth. Why? Like he says, his own curiousity, "If my father hadn't tracked down your ship, and attacked you. Forced you into a corner...." no, he's not buying that the turn of events went entirely to Seishirou's plans, "What were you going to do with all that power? What was /your/ target?"
Kasugano didn't =quite= know what Sei was planning here. She assuredly walked with him the whole way here, but... well, no, she wouldn't have been able to figure out the answer then either. As she'd stated before... she'd have left if it suited her. She wanted to know =why= she was here.
Seems she finds out, though she'd rather have learned something more... quintessential than the verdict Sei claims to have been seeking.
After all, Sakura already =knew= Adelheid was an ass.
The young woman smiles and steps aside as Adel walks out. She twiddles her fingers in a vaguely apologetic gesture. "Sorry 'bout before. Just... doin' my job. Like you an' yours." A brief smile follows. She doesn't hold malice towards him, knowing from his prior explanations that he doesn't =like= it, but neither does he get to choose his parentage. She gets that, and there's -- at least now with the cage no longer an obstacle -- mutual respect.
The Ansatsuken Angel asks obvious questions -- an apparently useful trait! But her... shall we say, "unconventional" genius extends in subconscious fashion. She inherently knows =who= she's asking obvious questions of. And once she's talked with people enough, she can usually gauge who'll respond to what questions.
Seishirou, for instance, won't be quick to answer directly. Doesn't hurt to =try=, of course; she commends Adelheid in that regard.
If by 'commends' we mean 'snickers at'. She's fairly confident Adelheid won't get a satisfactory response, though she'd welcome the chance to be pleasantly surprised!
Smirk.
Seishirou's hand stays at the bar of the presupposed cage. He doesn't move when Adelheid walks past. There is the possibility of a sudden attack, but.. let's face it. That would get really ugly, really fast.
In the realm of intellectual superiority, Seishirou has the advantage. But in the realm of physical superiority.. well, that is the other reason he brought Sakura. Even if she can't get his reasoning.
Pushing his luck, Seishirou blandly observes. His eyes go down, a sudden and very violent detached rationalization consuming every blink of those deep brown eyes. "...You remind me of someone," comes the ninja's eventual response, a calm, logical thing. It wasn't quite luck after all. At that moment, the three are simply equals--grace, strength and cunning all in the same room together. "We all have our own histories to deal with," he explains. That much, Adelheid deserves. As if that much encompasses the entirety of the tournament, its purpose, and his target.
For him, it's a simple enough notion.
"But.. don't entertain any illusions that we're close like that."
Sorry, Sakura.
"Keep that mind of yours," Seishirou advises, not even looking back. "If you really want to know."
It's not altogether unsurprising that Seishirou chooses not to share his target with Adelheid. He probably wouldn't want to entrust such information in Ryouhara's shoes, himself. Much like Seishirou's layers, however, there were several reasons the Bernstein heir was curious, beyond the obvious. His answer to Sakura's comments, and apology, is a slight shrug. It's not dismissive, though it may well appear as such... his job. Right. At least she has the choice, or at least, that's the difference from where he's standing.
"Suit yourself." He answers back to Seishirou, "But I can't say I'm sorry you lost your cannonball as well, in that case." Ugly very fast? Maybe. Whatever status he's lost in Kasugano's eyes, it's impossible for Adelheid to see her helping Seishirou kill, maim, or otherwise brutalize him over words. She may have a sense of people, but she's not the only one, and the pensive youth has his own conclusions and thoughts about that particular Ansatsuken prodigy. His words reflect only one of his concerns in this affair, but definitely one of the biggest... something like the Suiryuu is not really something Adelheid wants in anyone's hands, much less this unpredictable ninja. Nonetheless... "Still. You put up a valiant fight, and you have my respect for that.... even if your own pawns didn't seem to think things through, per se." No, Sakura... he's not looking at you. He's thinking about those damnable other fricken' violent... yea, you get the idea, "It's too bad you couldn't do more than slow the real threat down." But as established, he'll take the pair burning themselves out on each other. If only for a very temporary span of time. He does move towards the door now, tossing a wave over his shoulder, "Times are what they are, Kasugano." is all he spares for Sakura. Cool, perhaps callous-seeming.... but as of right now, it's her line drawn in the sand, and he's got bigger things to worry about. Not the least being cast off to his fate after being AWOL this long.
Kasugano knows Adel's mad at her. Ohhhh, it's obvious. But she knows Arika was mad at her too, and through the course of the Jinchuu tournament, she managed to win =something= out of that.
Truth be told, Sakura was aboard the Jinchuu for at least as much her own benefits as for the sake of the combatants aboard. She'd told Arika, and the others, as much -- she wasn't protecting Seishirou's interests so much as protecting the people on it.
However Adelheid wants to daub black eyeshadow onto the facade, she still saw him, in every way, shape, and form, as a =threat= that night they'd fought. To her, the choice, the path was clear. Pawn or not, she =made= the choice, and she's living by the results of it.
So if Sakura's smile to Adelheid is pulled a bit tightly, that's why. She's not going to concede anything -- anyone who knows the stubborn tomboy ought to know that much.
Really, why'd that guy have to have such a =dick= for a dad, anyway? Geez...
Kasugano twiddles her fingers again as Adelheid steps past. "Guess so." She'll meet him again, and... well, she'll see how things have changed then!
But for now she has Ryouhara's cryptic comment still lingering in the back of her mind. Was that 'remind me of someone' referring to her? Rock? Megumi? Seishirou himself? ... Egh. Inwardly, Kasugano shakes her head in mild frustration, figuring Sei still has his back turned. The best part about an internal debate is that no one else can call out her mistakes!
The ninja raises an arm. The end of his cane hangs off a high rung on the nin-cage. His hands free, the ninja slides both into pockets at either side of his pants. He turns, to face Adelheid as he goes on his way. The seemingly hostile sentiment rolls easily off the ninja's back--something he takes wirth a tilted expression--and the vauge indiciation of a sharp canine tooth in the resulting facial expression. Lost his cannonball?
".... right."
The same could be said of Adel and his own, but Seishirou's not in that frame of mind right now. For a moment, it seems as if Seishirou isn't interested in exchanging any further notes of respect amongst the man. At first, it seems as if he could be simply content to not care at all what was said.
At first.
"...Don't get used up before I can see your real strength," Seishirou notes, a distinct and clipped tone forming his punctuation. For Seishirou, it's a considerable investment of honor to acknowledge someone in that fashion.
He turns away again.
Sakura's smile is tight, her demeanor uncertain... to Adelheid, he's just seeing the impact of his life once again, and the problem with trying to keep friends or acquaintances as Rugal Bernstein's son and chief pawn. So he takes the cool way out, saunters his way to the door, shoves one thumb into one pocket, which happens to still be perfectly intact, fancy that. The black-suited Bernstein listens to Seishirou's words, but doesn't comment. Turned away from the ninja.... Ryouhara can't see the vague smirk that crosses his face. Satisfaction.
That single, initiating word speaks volumes, tells Adelheid exactly what he had been hoping to find out. If not the specifics, as with his former query. It's enough, and combined with the request, or advice, or mandate.... means something indeed. Perhaps it's like he said before: just a product of the times. But then, that can be said about just about anyone, in just about any time, can't it?
Out the side door of the warehouse, the platinum blonde doesn't look back as it slams shut behind him, banging shut with a dull, metallic finality as he steps out into the open air for the first time in some time. There's a vague sense of forboding, and uncertainty, but one thing he's sure of... this was only the start of whatever Ryouhara has intended. And the ninja's plans might not have been as thwarted as one might have hoped.
Only a scant few moments after the graceful prince takes his leave, the Ryouhara's own orphan prince scoffs, his hand returning to his pocket. "That guy..." he observes, to no one in particular, "Is one dead body away from becoming the world's greatest morality strobe."
It's a shame Sakura is standing right there to hear him remark this to no one in particular.
"Anyway.." the ninja slides back into reality with a harsh snap, "The Suiryuu would be a good place to teach people," he repeats, making a great show of sliding the gate of the cell shut again with his tabi. One would presume from his tone that it was a statement, if he didn't turn to look at Sakura, eyebrow arched in expectation.
It was a question.
Sakura's still trying to pick up the comment Seishirou made before Adel left -- a morality strobe is a concept completely opaque to her at this time. Scratching her cheek, she looks over her shoulder at Seishirou, one eyebrow raised as if to infer, 'Are you talking to me?'
And with her still not understanding the second statement, there's a third. At least she can pick =this= one up, and realize the prompt inherent in it.
"... Y-yeah, it sure would." Pause. "I mean, if that's what you built it for, I mean, mission accomplished, right?" She laughs weakly, uniform skirt swishing as she turns the rest of herself about to face Ryouhara. "Plenty of people learned stuff, just nothing they would've wanted to do if there wasn't a tournament involved." Kasugano may have been confused before, but at least for one moment, her smile shows the self-confidence she's known for.
Both brows arch at that, before he shrugs. It's an interesting sentiment, but..
"... People rarely learn more than more advanced ways of being who they already are," Ryouhara responds simply, with not a lot more emotive cues. Subtly, he steps to a side, pacing methodically as if deep in thought.
"At least, it's been my experience," the ninja allows. "Adelheid was right." It's worth noting that Seishirou doesn't refer to people by their first names very often. For some reason, he seems to make an exception for Rugal's special little creature.
"We were lucky.. but in the end, the result doesn't change. Most of the goals we set out to accomplish were realized. We proved something to the world," the ninja reasons, hollowly. ".. We should probably even thank Rugal." He turns to face the schoolgirl again, having traced a perfect quarter circle from his initial position.
At Sakura's expression, a faint ghost of a smile chances his own--
Sudden subject change. "I've sent Riko to verify that the Suiryuu sank about where we expected it to. With that confirmation and the release of Adelheid from our prison, so ends our need of a Security Chief," Seishirou explains. "That would be the end of our business relationship," he continues, coldly.
"Of course, all that leaves is compensation."
Well... perhaps that's right. "Aww..." she interjects, when appropriate. Sakura's hopeful and optimistic when it comes to people! Which is probably why she gets so mad at folks like Rugal who ignore that completely and try to crush their respective wills.
"Eh. Everyone's got a bit of truth to their words, even when they're trying to mislead someone." Sakura smiles a bit slyly there -- oh, it should be very obvious she's trying to indicate Seishirou and Riko there. "And really, Adel's a good guy, I just hate his dad!"
So... something was proved to the world. It =sounds= like that was the objective, anyway. Kasugano raises an eyebrow at Sei for a moment, judging whether that was what he -wanted- to say. Perhaps it's as much of an admission as she'll get from him. She opens her mouth, about to ask the obvious questions she's known for--
And then Sei abruptly switches topics. Kasugano shuts her mouth, frowning for a moment afterwards at the sudden change of mood... but then she smirks. "... So does this mean I don't get to find out about this whole 'chapel' thing Riko mentioned?" Kasugano smirks a bit, twirling a finger as if to indicate that she doesn't really know! "Down in the hulls, she was hard at work, wearing herself out an' all..." She could live without the answer, but she wants to at least try!
"And everyone lies in their words, no matter how honest they're trying to be." Everyone. Some just lie more than others. Hence, his reasoning for luring the truth out of Adel as he did. The only way to make people tell the truth without breaking every one of their fingers is by making them think they're not.
"You can leave it to yourself which outlook you prefer."
A slow, calculated blink is given at the last.
"No clue what you're talking about," comes the idle answer, stepping forward. As always, the method is everything, something directed in every step he takes. One hand reaches past Sakura--plucking an envelope tucked somewhere between the crates Sakura was just perching on. It would be theatrical, if Seishirou's face wasn't absolutely dead serious in every way. "She works rather hard at everything. If she doesn't, she would very likely be dead now."
It would be a lie, if Seishirou wasn't absolutely dead serious in every way.
The envelope snaps up, held crisply upright in his hand, and only inches away from the schoolgirl's face. "Sixty-two thousand, enough to cover two weeks of your time as an administrator of the event." He's not exactly facing Sakura, turned partially, in the same fashion of a martial artist whom is smart enough not to get kicked in the groin. His eyes turn away. ".. Of course, though the cathedral went down with the ship," he mentions, apparently having lied only a moment ago, "We're still alive. I suppose that's something to be thankful for... And there was something about a marriage to be addressed.. guess I owe you."
Psychological tactics. Is Sakura really ready to discuss this?
Is she fast enough to get out the way when he steps forward into her guard? His positioning--the pacing earlier--was to put Sakura's back against the bars and crates, systematically cutting off avenues of physical escape. The moment of candidness on his part--just pretense enough to keep Sakura off balance mentally. From the vantage of superior tactical position, it will allow the Ryouhara ninja to make an attempt of taking Sakura about the waist with his free arm. To pull her forward. To.. press his lips to hers. It wouldn't be something he takes half-measures with, closed eyes conveying a long, long moment of a tense, heated affection, blurring a line between the real and the manufactured--
The method, ultimately, is everything.
"I like thinking they're mostly honest, when I can." Kasugano smiles hopefully, folding her hands behind her back. She =tries= to give people the benefit of the doubt, but some people -- Adelheid, and even Sei and Riko -- she has to keep at arm's length. For her own safety.
So it's ironic, then, that she hadn't even noticed Seishirou's pacing about, so caught up in his words. "... Oh. Huh, nah, me and Riko were just talkin' trash back an' forth..." she explains. Another broad, if slightly vapid smile. Really, the envelope has the lion's share of her attention, and as it's held up, presumably for her, she raises her hand to accept it. She touches the envelope, but won't tug it free from his hands, especially when he's still talking...
... about the cathedral he claimed ignorance about.
Blink. There's a pause as the Ansatsuken martial artist considers the words that were just said. There's another pause as she processes the marriage. If he didn't =know=, then how does he--
It would not be the first time Kasugano was led off-guard by simple conversation. Her hand remains on the envelope, as she's pulled forward abruptly. Her eyes go wide instantly with surprise. Her heart skips a beat. Her face colors a deep red.
Her mind is suffering the equivalent of a 'division by zero' error, as her body hangs in Seishirou's arms, motionless... but neither limp nor taut. For a good three seconds, she's simply =present=, naught more... stunned into perfect, innocent immobility.
The very next expression is anger, as her eyelids shut fiercely, her face recoils. Her hand would still be on that envelope, but its grip would tighten for just a moment before it flies out of the way... making way for a knee to rocket upwards at Seishirou. It's not unlike a reflexive reaction, really... if not for that three-second delay.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" she barks, once she gets a moment to catch her breath. She never was good at surprises...
And as simple as that, the moment is broken.
Luckily, Seishirou rated the possibility of a knee to his groin at about 76%. Hence, his turning his waist /just/ so prior to kissing Sakura. That peculiar martial artist's stance adopted only a moment prior. What this means is 6 levels of damage are absorbed mostly by the soft spot abovehis hip and below his midsection moreso than his groin. He winces as he hears.. /something/.. snap inside him.
The ninja is thrown back from the movement, gripping his hip with some degree of suppressed pain. The intimate space is open once again, and the boy's hair shrouds his eyes in darkness. It leaves only the.. faintly bemused expression to be seen of the ninja. And, of course, the envelope, left in Sakura's hand.
"Given your history, I shouldn't think that you're that inexperienced not to know," he points out, breathlessly.
From his detached expression, he seems grimly satisfied with Sakura's violent response, for some bizarre reason. No, it's hardly the self-satisfied grin most would show--a cat who just got away with stealing tuna. It's .. something more subtle than that.
"It's simple," he begins, barkening back to something explained much earlier. Emotionlessly, he continues. "There was a thread left in the plan that needed to be tied." He considers, self-reflecting if only for a moment. Limping back only a step to taking his cane off the cell bars and lean on it. It services his favored side well. It's rather convenient, for someone whose strength hardly required the Jinchuu cane any more. Exactly how far ahead does he think?
"One thread left," Seishirou repeats, genuine for only a moment.
"... I wanted to say thank you."
Meanwhile, a highly disgusted Kasugano's busy spitting and wiping her mouth off onto her forearm. Repeatedly, and not in that precise order. "Ugh, geez! Shut up, already! I-- man, if you =ever= do that again I swear..." The only salve to her wounded pride is the fact that she nailed Sei but =good= with that knee -- and it's because of that she's able to keep from pursuing the tricky ninja further.
"Yeah, but don't let it go to your head or nothin'..." Sulking, she crosses her arms in petulance, glowering over at him as he speaks, cheeks still fiery hot from the exchange. She might feel kind of bad for the limp, if not for the events leading up to it.
In fact, she does feel bad, after he thanks her. Her expression softens for a split-second before she shuts her eyes, sifting her fingers through her bangs, grown long from two weeks of inattention. "Eh, there were better ways to say it than that!" Opening her eyes, her cheeks only a bit pinkish, she admits, "But sure... It was fun! ... The Suiryuu, I mean." Can't have him getting the wrong ideas.
Having been a bit dense when the figure was announced, it only now comes back to her: sixty thousand. She looks down at the envelope still clutched in her hand with a concerned half-frown... but that disappears when she looks back up to Seishirou with a half-smile. She's still embarassed, sure, her heart still pounding... but, well. Some sentiments can't be displaced!
... Kasugano opens her mouth as if she wants to say something else, but then her jaw shuts. There's a time to say stupid things, and there's a time to =stop= saying stupid stuff, too.
"I'm glad you had fun." He smiles back. It's surprisingly genuine. For a moment, he's not an obsessive maniac recluse. Just a boy from a ninja clan. For only a moment.
".. hmph." Comes the narrowing of eyes.
When that moment passes, the frost returns.
"Still. There were many ways," Seishirou agrees. "But none that were as interesting to me." He takes a heavy padlock off the ground, tucked behind the crate he was sitting on previously. "Trust is inherently about costs and gains. The gain is in not having a variable. The cost is when it becomes a variable and you don't notice. It is efficient to assign trust to control the level of variables in any given plan. For the duration of Jinchuu, there was a certain amount of trust assigned to you. It allowed for Jinchuu to proceed as it did. That much was useful to me. That is what you're being thanked for."
He begins to limp away, methodical as always, but this time he's heading for the door. "You were paid because you did your job. You were kissed..well. Because there was a thread to be tied," he explains, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. "Look on the bright side. Could have married you, instead." He seems to imply that Sakura wouldn't have much choice in the matter. He throws the door open with his free hand, the one in which the padlock still dangles. He leans for a moment, thinking without looking back.
"Besides. For a fighting girl, you have a nice ass," Seishirou admits, cold and clinical.
The door slams behind him. You can hear the padlock snap shut.
Sei's smiling! Sakura smiles back! It's a good smiling time for everyo-- oh damn. Narrowed eyes. Kasugano, likewise, narrows her eyes. Frowns a bit. It's probably a bit fun to watch her expression change for no real reason.
And here he goes talking about stuff Sakura ought to be able to understand, but won't until she gives it more thought. But, as before, she =can't= give it thought when there are more words coming down the pipeline.
And there's a tiny thought in the back of her mind that says: don't let him kiss you AGAIN.
Kasugano follows him this time, tucking that envelope into her waistband. It's time to go, clearly, so she follows along afterward. "-- yeah, yeah..." she grumbles, addressing the mention of the kiss first, and backtracking from there for a moment. So she was instrumental to his plan, he trusts her, and trust is useful, and... okay. Got it.
And then, insert casual mention about marrying. That's fine, it's joking, right? "H-heh. Yeah. I'd definitely be kicking your ass if you tried that..." At least there =wasn't= a chapel.
... Dammit, she still doesn't know that for a =fact=.
Seishirou's moment of thought gives Sakura pause as well. Tilting her head at the same angle, she considers the words that follow.
Twitch.
More than enough time for the door to hinge shut.
Two seconds afterward, the two heavy doors resound with the thunderous boom of the aforementioned fighting girl's palms slamming into them. "YOU BASTARD!!"
Sure, she'll take a side door outside. As much as she'd =like= to just Hadouken the doors down right now, and possibly even catch Seishirou with the blast... not today. She's been embarassed enough!
Log created on 22:33:28 11/12/2007 by Seishirou, and last modified on 17:20:35 11/18/2007.