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"Well, it has been a simply marvelous morning," Oboro announced, standing up from the table with a flourished bow, "but I must now take my leave. Farewell, my friends!"
Before any of them could so much as utter a word, Oboro was gone. The group looked between themselves, one after the other, before settling their looks on V'hesko.
"Yeah, that wasn't Oboro," he confirmed with a sigh.
"Yer sayin' that was Karasu, then?" V'kebbe asked with a frown. "But I thought he was so convincin'."
"Kebbe, yer lucky yer a right dimber mot," Jacke replied with a shake of his head, turning back to the Warrior of Light. "Reckon he cloyed back the scroll?"
V'hesko nodded in agreement. "I'll swallow my dagger if he didn't."
"But if that was Karasu," Underfoot added, "then where is the real Oboro?"
"Karasu's a queer cove, to be sure," Jacke mused, "but I don't think he'd hurt the lad."
V'hesko thought to himself for a moment. "I think I have an idea of where he might be."
"Good luck, mate," Jacke called after him as V'hesko left the table. He turned to see V'kebbe staring at him. "What?"
"D'ye just call me a buffle afore our good friend V'hesko?" she asked, her arms folded over her chest.
"A'course I'd never suggest such a thing!" Jacke quickly assured her, hands up. "I've seen ye on end and I've no wish for a reprise."
"Good," she replied with a near threatening look in her eyes. "I'm sure ye recall the last time ye vexed me."
"Aye," Jacke assured her with a nervous laugh. "Keenly."
Oboro groaned loudly, pulling the bedsheets up over his head and willing his body to melt into the mattress. The storehouse was dark, and yet it still somehow felt as though the sun was shining directly into his eyes. He had no idea what had happened, but for the first time in his life he longed for the sweet embrace of an early death. Surely it would be less painful than this.
"Rise and shine, my friend," a voice boomed from what he was sure was directly next to his ear. Oboro simply groaned in response, but yelped as he felt the sheets being torn from the bed.
"Begone, fiend!" he managed to croak, desperately trying to will his eyes to focus enough to identify the intruder.
"Come now," the Warrior of Light replied, "is that any way to speak to your dearest friend in all of Eorzea?"
"...V'hesko...?"
"The one and only," he replied with a grin, his eyes glancing downward. "Well, at least he left you your smallclothes..."
"What...?" Oboro asked, blinking twice and looking about the room. "Where... and why am I...?"
As the thought occurred to him that he couldn't remember how he'd made his return to the storehouse—nor how he'd misplaced all of his clothes—Oboro bolted out of bed, only to fall flat on the floor. He groaned and placed a hand to his pounding head.
V'hesko crouched down next to him, a serious look now gracing his features. "Do you remember anything that happened last night?"
Oboro squinted, half in pain and half in concentration. "I remember our plan to steal back the scroll," he began, "and my plan to... uh oh..."
"Your plan to what?" V'hesko asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Perhaps the rice wine was stronger than I expected...?" Oboro mused, glancing up. V'hesko simply stared at him with a blank expression on his face, almost as if his mind had wandered elsewhere. "V'hesko? V'hesko, are you alright...?"
Oboro waved his hand in front of his friend's face to no effect, but little did he know that the Echo was about to tell V'hesko the story Oboro couldn't remember.
"Perhaps you are not so dim as I have come to believe, Oboro," Karasu said, pouring himself another cup of wine. "I fully expected this wine to bore me nearly as much as you."
"You think me boring?" Oboro scoffed, halfway through his third cup. "I am not boring!"
"You have certainly bored me thus far," Karasu countered with an impish grin. "Ever three steps behind."
"It has been less than three!"
Karasu laughed as Oboro's face immediately fell into a blush. "Well, well, it seems I may have been hasty in my assessment of your entertainment value."
Oboro quaffed the rest of the wine from his cup before grabbing the jug and taking a long swig. During his time in Eorzea, Oboro had heard others speak of 'liquid courage' and figured it could do little harm. After all, he only needed to distract Karasu and meet V'hesko to collect what was rightfully theirs.
"I will show you who's boring," Oboro grumbled, wiping a few drops of rice wine away from the corner of his mouth before setting the jug back down on a nearby stone. And with one last deep breath, he began.... to dance.
"The audience gasps in surprise!" Karasu announced, seeming more than a little surprised himself. "The dim one can dance? What a shock to one and all."
Oboro's feet trudged sluggishly through the calf deep water—he could not hide his pleasure as Karasu took a seat to watch him intently. Oboro did his best to focus on the movements, trying to capture what he remembered of the Hingan dance they had both learned as children. Despite his best efforts, he could feel his foot begin to slide out from beneath him on the slippery stone below.
With the lightning fast reflexes that came with being a shinobi, Karasu bolted up to catch him, and Oboro found himself mere inches from his childhood friend's face. "You do truly earn your title, do you not, Oboro the dim?"
"I don't need your help!" Oboro complained, trying to wriggle himself free from Karasu's grasp. Rather than freeing himself, he managed to place them both off-balance, and with a loud splash the two men found themselves tumbling into the water.
Karasu was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment as they laid there in a tangled mess, the water nearly covering them. "Well this certainly wasn't in the script," he finally managed with significantly less theatric flair than usual. "Exactly how much of that rice wine did you drink?"
"Uhhh..." Oboro began to try to count the number of cups in his head, but found himself distracted as he realized just how close Karasu was. The man had done nothing to change their precarious positioning, and Oboro was surprised when he felt Karasu's lips on his.
There was an awkward silence between them for a moment, but then Karasu's impish grin returned. "Well, well, perhaps I shall have to call you Oboro the bold."
"You... how dare..."
"Oboro the dim, it is," Karasu added with a sigh, reaching down the pull Oboro from the water. "The audience groans with disappointment."
"Unhand me, fiend!" he complained as Karasu set him down on the rock next to the nearly empty jug of wine.
"As exciting as it would be for the villain to meet an untimely end in a shallow pond, my friend, I would much rather meet again," Karasu explained with a smirk. "Besides, I believe your friend is waiting for me."
"W-wait..."
"Farewell again, dim one," Karasu returned with a bow. He turned and headed away from the springs as Oboro slumped deeper into the water.
V'hesko blinked twice as he emerged from his Echo vision. Oboro still stared at him in confusion.
"Are you quite alright?" the shinobi asked, his brow furrowed with concern.
"I am more than alright," V'hesko explained with a smirk. "How are you feeling? Remember anything at all?"
"Unfortunately, no," Oboro confirmed. "I recall the wine, but it must have been stronger than I expected. Or I drank more than I should have..."
"That's a shame," V'hesko replied, the smile still on his face much to Oboro's chagrin.
"How did I get back here to the storehouse?" he asked after a moment.
"Well, I have some good news and some bad news," V'hesko began, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "The bad news is that Karasu pretended to be you and stole back the scroll."
"Damn it all," Oboro growled. "What of the good news?"
"The good news is we had a wonderful meal with Fake You, and I brought some back for you," V'hesko replied with a grin to rival Karasu's.
"That's the good news?"
V'hesko shrugged lightly. "I had to give you something."
"Damn it all," Oboro fumed from his position on the floor. "Karasu was right-I am always three steps behind."
"You remember him saying that?" V'hesko asked, leaning closer.
Oboro sighed loudly. "Would that I could remember anything else."
"I'm sure it will come to you in time," V'hesko assured him with a grin. "And when it does, I expect you to tell me all about it."
"I certainly hope so," Oboro agreed, earning a chuckle from the Warrior of Light. "I must immediately plan how to retrieve the scroll from Karasu... again."
"Perhaps first we should get some food and water into you," V'hesko suggested, getting to his feet and holding out his hand.
"Yes, I suppose that would be wise," Oboro agreed, groaning as he allowed V'hesko to help him up. "If I ever drink rice wine again it will too soon."
V'hesko just smiled. "That I can believe."