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Ritsuka hopped out of the carriage, letting out a contented grunt as she stretched, and gazed out at the ocean that sparkled beyond the town’s docks.
She was finally on her well-earned vacation.
The carriage’s other door slamming shut pulled her focus back to reality as she turned to find Mash rounding the coach—suitcase in each hand and an exasperated gleam in her eye.
“Senpai, remember we have a job to do here…”
“Ah! Yes, of course,” Ritsuka snatched a suitcase from Mash before grabbing another bag from the carriage’s storage compartment and heading for the door of the inn they were to stay in for their trip’s duration.
Okay, so it wasn’t actually a vacation…
Details, details, she grumbled to herself.
Ritsuka and Mash worked for an agency which specialized in investigating and cleaning up anything unusual and problematic happenings within the kingdom of Fayte.
Since said unusual and problematic happenings tended to occur frequently—from the odd unreasonable dragon to a common thief burning an entire village down while attempting to learn telekinesis magic of all things—the Agency’s Investigators were in high demand.
This high demand and short-ish supply were likely the only reasons Ritsuka herself had been able to get the job, seeing as she possessed virtually no combative or magic skill. Sure, she had spunk, but that was more likely to throw her into hot water with the Director than anything.
Mash closely followed Ritsuka as they made their way up the stairs to the rooms the Agency had booked for them, Ritsuka still thinking back to her first weeks after becoming an Investigator…
Ritsuka had spent as much time as possible training in the Agency’s gym and reading textbooks for how best to handle a multitude of different scenarios to make up for her lack of pure skill, and had certainly improved since she first started work.
Even the Director had begrudgingly noticed this, deigning to send her out on a few smaller missions every month…
Oh yes, and Mash had been assigned as her assistant/bodyguard—most Investigators were given one, at least until they were deemed competent and strong enough not to need the help.
… Ritsuka flipped open her suitcase, wanting to change outfits before starting her current investigation around the nearby docks.
They had visited one of the town officials—Sir Strov was his name—before coming to the inn, exchanging the formalities of letting him know they had arrived, as he was the one who had sent the report urging them to come.
During the short meeting, he had repeated the contents of said report; the gist of which was that an unknown group of terrorists were circulating some sort of drug around the town, slipping it into people’s drinks and foods for no apparent purpose other than to be utter scumbags and creeps. According to Sir Strov, a few individuals were still bedridden from presumably larger doses.
Ritsuka had learned beforehand from the Director that Sir Strov was historically quite a silly man who exaggerated stories by way of a favorite pastime, and as such was not to be believed; he had wasted their time on several prior occasions.
“An insufferable fool; I have no more words to waste on him,” had been the Director’s exact words—as well as all the detail she had deigned to give on these wastes of time.
However, the fool being a powerful official, the Agency could not afford to risk offending Sir Strov by simply ignoring him.
Hence, it was Ritsuka’s job to go, conduct a quick “investigation” by way of formality, before returning promptly to the Agency and the daily grind of training and being lectured.
Ritsuka, however, intended to sneak in at least some time at the beach while she was here…
After all, if she wasn’t going to accomplish anything while by the sea, she might as well enjoy it.
~~~~~~~
Ritsuka leaned against the shaded corner of a building, a brown cloak draped over her shoulders as she absentmindedly observed the people going about their afternoon. Mash had gone to fetch a couple of meat pies for their evening meal (as the inn’s food was reputed to be less than desirable) while Ritsuka conducted her formal “initial search” for anything strange in the town.
It had taken Mash lots of convincing to split up like this, and Ritsuka had won out with the reasoning that: (a) Ritsuka would look less conspicuous by herself, and (b) this wasn’t even a real mission, much less a dangerous one.
Having meandered around the docks and several nearby buildings, following the flow of the crowds for almost two hours, Ritsuka figured Mash had to be waiting with their food back at the inn.
Ritsuka was now ready to go back and eat, after which she planned to convince Mash to accompany her to the beach that lay not far from the outskirts of the docks.
I’ll snatch whatever beach time I can, she thought, determined.
At the moment, however, the day’s fullness coupled with the sun’s bright heat even as it began to dip towards the sea still weighed on her. As such, she was loath to move from her peaceful patch of shade.
Just a few more minutes. Then I’ll brave the sun and head back…
Her eyes closed, relaxed.
“Is everything ready back on the ship?” a husky voice inquired out of nowhere, startling her into opening them.
“Yeah, that’s right. All those nobles and their damned fancy food—hah! They won’t know what hit ‘em…Heh, heh, heh…” a slightly raspier voice chuckled back.
Ritsuka tensed from where she leaned against the shadowed wall, deducing that the voices both belonged to men and came from the wall forming a corner with the one she rested against.
No way.
No way she had just found the very thing she had been looking for without even trying. Actually, she wasn’t even supposed to have found it—found anything.
Did the Director really get this wrong??
Determined not to overreact, Ritsuka wracked her brain for a possible scenario in which this conversation might not imply anything illegal and dangerous…
Nope. They’re definitely up to no good.
Ritsuka’s thoughts spun rapidly—she thought the voices were drifting away, and she had to decide what to do—or not do—next.
This is crazy. The Director said there wasn’t anything to the report, and I suppose this might not be related to the report, but it’s got to be something problematic that needs investigating…
I should follow them.
But—should I wait for Mash?...
Now panicking—the voices were definitely moving away—Ritsuka pushed off her resting wall and quickly prowled after the two men, reasoning that she was the Investigator, not Mash, and this was her chance to finally make the Director—and everyong else—see that she was perfectly capable of handling actual, dangerous missions (and actual vacations to boot).
A part of her mind told her she was making a stupid decision, but she drowned it out with her other points of reasoning. After all, she knew what to do from training and books—just hadn’t done it yet; which she was about to change.
I will prove myself.
~~~~~~~
Following the men to their ship—hidden in a small cove, of course—had been both nerve-wracking and a little bit fun; they had chattered and grunted the whole time, swinging bottles of what appeared to be beer in their fists as they strode through alleyways, around buildings, then across the rock and sand of a small beach on the opposite side of town that Ritsuka had been meaning to take Mash to. She held her cloak close to avoid unnecessary swishing that would give her away.
Thankful for the bit of magic she had already managed to learn in the Agency’s training, Ritsuka cast invisibility around herself before light-footing up the ship’s lowered ramp, trying to keep her steps in time with the two mens’ to avoid detection.
Since she hadn’t yet obtained the endurance to cast magic for more than a few minutes, Ritsuka scurried impatiently after the men into the belly of the ship before it ran out. They clambered down a small stairwell into a dark area which looked to be mostly food and supplies storage, though it took her eyes a minute to adjust to the dimness.
Watching the crew members stash their beer bottles away in a crate with a few other identical ones, Ritsuka willed them to hurry back on deck, feeling her magic trying to slip off and away from her.
They finally left, and Ritsuka released her waning invisibility, plopping down to rest against a barrel in a corner farthest from the stairs. She felt safe for the moment—safe enough to plan what she would do next, anyway.
Mixed feelings of smugness at having snuck onto a terrorist group’s ship and panic at not having the guidance of Mash with her swirled through her brain as she fought to focus on her next course of action.
After a session of inward debate, Ritsuka realized how hungry she was.
Hmph. Mash got to be the one with all the food…
Ritsuka’s jealousy diminished slightly when she realized there had to be more than beer and rum in all the barrels and boxes surrounding her…
The hold had been pleasantly quiet since Ritsuka had settled there. Since there had been only a couple of other people on deck when she had snuck one, Ritsuka assumed most of the crew was out on the town for the evening.
Perfect for me.
She popped her head over the top of her barrel wall to peer around at her selections. The barrels were labeled, but the food listed on most of them weren’t of the appetizing sort.
-Ah.
Several bags of apples hanging unassumingly from a post near the stairs caught her eye.
Stepping lightly across the irritatingly creaky boards, Ritsuka wincingly made her way to the fruit, fiddling with the bag’s ties before giving up and making a small slash with the dagger hidden at her waist. She snatched two of the apples before twisting the bag around so the slashed mesh was hidden.
Hurrying back to her wall of barrels, the spot she deemed the safest for remaining undiscovered, Ritsuka set to work crunching her first apple as quickly and silently as humanely possible. While chewing, she calculated how much time she would need to recharge her magic; in other words, when she would be able to sneak into the captain’s quarters, where she was sure to find incriminating information to take back to the Agency.
Ritsuka had just set the apple’s core aside, planning to sneak above deck and toss it over the side at a later point, when a noise from the ceiling above froze her in place, her hand stilling midway to the second apple.
The noise morphed into footsteps, thumping increasingly closer until they stopped for a moment at the top of the stairwell. The door creaked open in perfect rhythm to Ritsuka's inner stream of curses.
My magic isn’t recharged yet!
She tensed, back to the barrel as the hold’s newest intruder descended the stairs.
Ritsuka swore the steps sounded absurdly elegant, each methodical boot placement painstakingly purposeful.
The elegance was an added torture to Ritsuka, who could only wait behind her barrels, hopelessly hoping they would not betray her to the unknown crew member.
As the boots neared the bottom of the stairway, Ritsuka recalled that she was not one for superstition—for giving serious thought to unexplained senses, stories, and the like...
...But she swore the air in the hold changed when the booted presence descended that final step.
Again, the steps stilled.
Before they began softly clipping towards her.
Muscles stretching tauter with each step the ominous presence took towards her hiding place, Ritsuka's mind whirled uncontrollably, grasping and utterly failing to catch a feasible plan of escape from what she grew ever surer was her impending discovery, and likely death.
The footsteps came to an excruciating halt on the other side of her barrel wall, the one vain semblance of protection she possessed in this increasingly hostile place.
Ritsuka’s heart skipped a beat when cloth shifted, the person leaning over her barrel to speak from only a couple of feet above her head.
"It seems my hunch was correct," he spoke softly, nearly a whisper.
His words blew the top of her hair slightly, giving her an involuntary shiver.
Ritsuka twisted around, staring straight up and into the man’s eyes.
By the moonlight streaming through the portholes, she saw they were red—deep and sharp like rubies—and framed by wisps of silver hair gleaming in the dim. His face was set in shadow.
Ritsuka would later realize that she possessed a sort of mental wall—formed of a disbelief that nothing really dangerous would happen to her, because it never had. That was how she knew to describe it, anyhow. Despite all the reading and training for life-threatening situations she had done at the Agency, a part of her mind always whispered that nothing so grand and trying would ever actually happen to her.
The man's red eyes adopted an unearthly gleam, and the tiniest of smirks cracked his shadowed skin.
Ritsuka’s wall of disbelief was about to shatter, giving way beneath her terror as the otherworldly gaze pinned her in place, robbing her of the gift of speech with its power.
Running off without Mash had never seemed such an utterly stupid idea.