Iris and Freesia both gasped.
“An offer? What kind of offer?” I asked.
“Lord Akio is expected to take over the lordship one day, my lady. Since he turned sixteen he has been old enough to take personal retainers, and begin to consider engagements. He has made many inquiries over the last several months, but so far he has made no additions to his household.”
“Most of the lords just want a devoted wife, a collection of pretty concubines, and a squad of inugami guards for security,” Iris said. “Not Lord Akio, though. He’s been visiting all the assassin academies and experimental programs, looking over their top students. There’s a rumor he even-”
“We don’t discuss rumors with guests, Iris,” Azalea interrupted sharply. “My apologies, my lady. That was unseemly.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “I wouldn’t get too excited, though. The oyabun’s palace is very pretty, but I’m not eager to spend the rest of my life here.”
“It might not be wise to refuse, my lady,” Azalea said delicately. “It could be taken as an insult, especially if his offer is especially generous.”
I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know what happened to people who insult Lord Akio. I sighed.
“Great. I think I’d better go read up on whatever outsiders are allowed to know about Masu-kai customs. I really don’t want to say the wrong thing in this meeting.”
“Certainly, my lady. I can procure a set of guides meant for young ladies, if that meets with your approval?”
The collection of documents she came up with was a lot longer than the equivalent on Felicity would have been. I ate the whole set right away, of course, but I had to seriously think about what it all meant. Masu-kai society was an intricately crafted caste system, with layers of complicated customs and a million kinds of subtle social signaling going on just beneath the surface. You could start a blood feud just by asking the wrong person to pass the soy sauce, or end it by letting them go through a door before you.
Just the kind of thing I suck at. Great.
The politics of the situation was clear as day, though. Saburo Himura had spent sixty years running the Masu-kai. He was getting tired of riding herd on a bunch of rapacious thugs, and he really wanted to retire to someplace private and spend a century or two indulging his various hobbies. But he couldn’t just hand things over to one of his subordinates, because he’d always be a threat to them. No matter how much it looked like he was just puttering around in his bonsai garden they’d be sure he was watching everything they did, ready to step in and take over again if he didn’t like how they ran things.
From what I could gather of the old guy’s personality that was a pretty reasonable fear, too. He didn’t seem like he’d let go of control easily.
So Saburo had decided to have a son to pass on the headship to. Still risky, but if you raise him right he’ll put up with a little backseat driving from his old man, right? It also meant that the new lord would still carry the Himura name, which was a big deal to these people.
Unfortunately, forty years ago Himura had decided it was a smart idea to cement his relations with the other leading Masu-kai clans by having a bunch of daughters and marrying them off to the other clan heads. The Masu-kai weren’t the sort of society where a woman could hold power in her own name, of course. But technically the line of inheritance should have passed through Ai, his oldest daughter, to her husband Noburu Yamashida.
Looking up Lord Yamashida was enough to make me feel kind of sympathetic for Akio. He was in charge of the Masu-kai assassination, espionage and counterintelligence operations. Supposedly he was Lord Himura’s most reliable supporter, but getting passed over like that had to grate. How hard would it be for him to arrange a discrete assassination?
Even if he didn’t want the job, Ai had to be pretty mad about being passed over. Then there were the other clan lords to consider. Seven of them were still married to Lord Himura’s daughters, and two others were his grandsons. They probably all felt like they had a better claim than Akio.
Maybe that was why Saburo had gone so crazy with the mods for his heir? Akio was even more buffed up than Kavin. His muscles and bones weren’t even organic, and he had some kind of fancy micro-fission reactor powering them. He could probably lift, what? Fifteen tons? Maybe twenty?
Mmm, now that’s what I call muscle.
I shook my head. Why was I getting so distracted by this guy? Hadn’t I already decided Kavin was probably the one for me? Was I really that fickle?
Well, it’s not like I made any promises. But pining after some crime lord would be a really bad idea. Why would he even be interested in me? He probably just thought my enhancements would make me a good assassin detector.
What if he did want to hire me as a retainer?
At first glance that seemed like an amazing opportunity. Akio was filthy rich, and household retainers were practically family. It was a ticket to the best training and equipment money can buy, and a life of luxury in exchange for a pretty reasonable level of service. I’d probably end up having minions to lead, and I could even start a clan of my own if I wanted to. Sure, I’d have to kill people sometimes, but I’d already learned that I could handle that.
But he was a yakuza boss. Working for someone like that was a lifetime commitment, and it was just so… distasteful. I was better than that. Heck, I kind of thought he was better than that. It still bothered me that someone with his bloodline was involved in something this skeezy instead of ruling a respectable colony.
I was so wrapped up in my worries that it was a complete surprise when the captain came to check up on me.
Azalea announced him, of course, and settled us in the sitting room while Iris and Freesia bustled about serving tea. The routine gave me a moment to gather my scattered thoughts, although I wondered at how soothing it seemed. I’d never had anyone wait on me before, so you’d think it would be a strange experience for me. Instead it felt completely natural. More so that the chaotic bustle of the orphanage ever had, that’s for sure.
The captain smiled as Freesia retreated from the room with a bow. “The staff here seems quite taken with you.”
“Yeah. I’m not quite sure how I went from being ‘Miss Alice’ to ‘my lady’, but I’m not complaining.”
He seemed amused. “You carry it off well. I suspect word of your display with Lord Akio has something to do with it as well, although it seems it has landed you in a bit of a predicament.”
I groaned. “Don’t tell me everyone knows about that.”
“Servants always gossip, Alice. It’s practically a law of nature. I understand you are expecting an invitation?”
“Oh, I already got it, sir.”
I filled him in on the situation. He listened thoughtfully, and asked a few questions about what I was doing to prepare. He seemed kind of impressed by my answers.
“Your adaptability is serving you well here,” he said. “Should I expect to receive a resignation soon?”
“What? No, sir! Everyone on the Square Deal has been really good to me. I don’t want to leave the ship.”
“Even if there are better opportunities for you elsewhere?” He pressed.
“Money isn’t everything,” I said. “I’d like to be able to live with myself, too. I’m not sure what someone like Lord Akio would want with me, but it probably isn’t going to be a pretty life. A lot of people are going to die over this succession business, and I bet most of them will be innocents.”
“Innocents are in short supply on Taragi, Alice. Aside from the children, perhaps, but they blood them young here. By the time they reach your age they’ve all been swept up in the endless struggle of clan intrigue, and begun plotting terrible fates for their rivals. Most of them are involved in the business side of their clans as well, and I don’t have to tell you how unsavory that is. It would be easy enough to find justification for any act that might be necessary.”
“That’s an even better reason to stay out of it, sir. Maybe
it’s just that I was raised on Felicity, but I’m still kind of ashamed that I can stand to hurt people when they deserve it. I don’t want to get in the habit of rationalizing that kind of thing. I’m kind of afraid of where it might lead.”
“I see. Has the fate of Mr. Desh been bothering you?”
I shook my head. “No, and that’s what worries me. I could have captured him if I’d wanted to. But I was too mad for that, because I thought he’d killed Emla. So instead I beat him to death with my bare hands, and I didn’t even feel bad about it afterwards. I still don’t. I just sort of feel like I ought to feel something.”
“Alice, what do you think we would have done with Mr. Desh if you had taken him prisoner instead?”
I shrugged. “Question him, obviously. After that, I don’t know. I guess there aren’t any peacekeepers out in dark space.”
“Indeed, there are not. I would have ordered his execution, Alice. Merchants do not allow pirates to escape to repeat their crimes. If no one has commented on your actions, it is only because we all feel you acted correctly. Although in the future I would suggest that you finish your battles in a more expeditious fashion. It is never wise to give an enemy the opportunity to turn the tables.”
“I see. Do you think I’m worrying too much, then?”
“I think that if you were some sort of brainwashed assassin we would have noticed, Alice. We do check for these things, you know. It seems to me that you’re simply a practical young woman with a warrior’s courage, and perhaps a bit more emotional stability than most. But if you’re concerned, the wisest course is to keep close comrades at hand and listen to them if they tell you that you’ve begun acting strangely.”
“That makes sense. I guess my medical checkup would show if I was a psycho or something, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed. Now, I’m pleased that you’re preparing properly for tomorrow, but take care that you don’t miss the obvious in your pursuit of subtleties. Have you considered what sort of gift to bring?”
“Gift?” I stared at him stupidly for a moment. I knew what he was talking about, of course, but guesting gifts were a noble custom. Why would a little nobody like me try to imitate a real lady like that?
Then I thought it through, and groaned.
“Crash, this is one of those status negotiation things, isn’t it? Lord Akio is inviting me to act like a lady, and if I can pull it off no one will be able to question it without slighting his judgment. But if I go in acting like I’m nobody, then I’m declaring that I don’t matter and anyone who wants to can pick me off just like I was an inugami or something. Thank you, sir. I didn’t even think of that.”
“Sometimes experience has its benefits,” he said. “You’ve already created some distance between us by bringing your own bodyguard to the palace. If we’re going to be here for a week or more you’ll need to establish your own role in this drama, or else our enemies will establish it for you.”
“Enemies, sir? I thought this was just a misunderstanding.”
“Anything is possible,” he said mildly. “But I wouldn’t count on it. I suspect someone believes that being the man who recovered the Yata no Kagami would bolster their chances of taking power here.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That old mirror?”
“That ‘old mirror’ is one of the three sacred treasures of ancient Japan, Alice. It means a great deal to traditionalists.”
“I guess it would. Well, I don’t know Lord Akio well enough to come up with something personally meaningful, and I’m certainly not rich enough to go for an impressive trinket. Do you have any ideas, sir?”
“A proper gift must be chosen by the guest,” he pointed out. “But I would suggest examining the customs of other colonies that were settled by survivors of Japan. There are thousands of them, and four hundred years of cultural evolution has produced many fascinating variations. I suspect you will find a suitable idea.”
I ran a datanet search, and sifted quickly through the results. He was right, there was an amazing amount of variation in how different colonies thought this kind of thing should be handled. A lot of it was surprisingly old, too. There was a huge explosion of variation in human cultures in the first century of interstellar colonization, when travel times were long and colonies had minimal contact with each other. Since the Masu-kai were all stuffy traditionalists I narrowed my search to customs that went back at least three hundred years, but that still left a lot to work with.
It was kind of funny, how almost all of these colonies claimed they were preserving the authentic traditions of ancient Japan. Even the historians didn’t seem to know who had it right, if anyone did. Had humanity really lost that much history in the Diaspora, and the long cycle of war that had left our homeworld a monster-infested wasteland?
Well, what mattered right now was that it gave me flexibility. I could go with any variation I wanted, as long as it was a few centuries old and didn’t clash with Masu-kai culture.
So, what kinds of things did people use as gifts? I needed something cheap, which usually meant informal, but not anything that implied intimacy. A contribution to the meal was a common idea, but breakfast was too early for alcohol. There was no way I was going to compete with Akio’s cooks, either, so forget any idea that involved making something myself. Maybe… oh! That was cool!
“I’ve got it, sir. Someone in this settlement is bound to have proper osuno.”
“Ah. Yes, that sounds like just the thing. Perhaps you can even find some exotic blend that appeals to an enhanced palate? But if you’re going to go for an evening stroll in the shopping district you’d best be careful.”
“Of course, sir.” I agreed. “I’ll bring Emla, and we’ll both go well armed and keep our eyes open. Um, should I talk to Chief West?”
“I’m afraid it wouldn’t do for Jim to escort anyone else during our stay,” he pointed out. “Nor would it be wise for our entire party to attempt to leave the palace at once. Perhaps you can find a vendor who will accept remote orders?”
“Like I can trust datanet ads in this place? No, I need to go in person if I’m going to know what I’m buying.”
“Then I shall leave you to prepare for your shopping.”
I checked the time. Already five, and I needed to eat before we could get going. Was I really about to wandering around a shady market in yakuza central at night? When the port registry said there were eleven pirate gangs, three slavers, four drug dealers and a flotilla of nomadic colony raiders in port? A pair of cute little girls would get eaten alive, wouldn’t they?
The captain put his hand on my shoulder. “Courage, Alice. This is far less dangerous than your last battle. Simply keep your wits about you, avoid trouble if you can, and act decisively if words fail you. You’ll find that you meet far less trouble than you might think.”
“Really? Why is that, sir?”
“Because you and Emla look far too much like a trap, Alice.”
I giggled. I guess he was right about that.
Naturally Emla wanted to fab up some heavy armor and a giant gun or two for the trip, but I had to veto that idea. We didn’t have the time, and besides I figured it would just make us look insecure. Instead I had her wear a professional-looking armored skinsuit in the local style, while I put together a variant of the look I’d used for the club back on Zanfeld. This time I added a knife to go with the pistol, and my gloves had electric stunners build into the knuckles just in case.
“Why are you bothering with those things?” Emla asked, as she checked her pistol. “If you’re that close to a normal person you could just crush their heart with your field or something, couldn’t you?”
“I might not want them dead,” I pointed out. “But mostly I want anyone who scans me to see some hidden weapons, so they think they know what to expect.”
“Gotcha. But what if that isn’t enough?”
Ash pulled his tail out of a power outlet, and hopped up into the couch next to her.
Guard! He declared.
“That’s right, Ash. You can just breath a puff of nerve gas right in their ugly faces, can’t you? Show Emla your weapon loadout.”
He head-butted my shoulder, and I petted him while Emla read over the list. He had some smoke mixture to help with getaways, but mostly his little storage tanks were full of lethal agents. Swarms of microbots loaded with neurotoxins. A nasty strain of gray goo that would eat anyone who didn’t have milspec defenses. More microbots configured to spray tiny amounts of hyperacid into a victim’s eyes and nasal passages. None of it would do anything to a warbot, but he was a pretty lethal threat to street toughs.
“Nice,” Emla said. “Alright, I feel a little better about this now. So where are we going anyway?”
“Our first stop is Illustrious Imriel’s Exotic Imports, over on the far side of the Middle Tier.”
Kabana City was a huge settlement for something built on a planetary surface. It was a good six kilometers across, and the public maps showed four tiers of cityscape between the upper towers and the waterline. Each tier was about sixty meters tall, with its own layout of streets and plazas lined by buildings that were mostly about half that height. The rest of the space was used for weather management, and all the little tricks that created the illusion of being outdoors.
“I wonder what’s below the waterline?” Emla mused as we boarded a taxi. The little robotic groundcar rose silently onto its lift field, and glided off towards our destination.
“Barracks and training areas for the inugami,” I guessed. “Probably a lot of engineering spaces, too, and living quarters for the techs. I’m sure it takes a lot of people to keep a giant criminal empire running, plus the city is bound to need a crew. Did you notice how a lot of the Lower Tier is little clan compounds for low-status retainer clans? I bet the part you can see is just the tip of the iceberg, and they have lots more floors below decks.”
The important yakuza clans all lived at the top of the city, of course. There were a dozen towering clan homes that rose above the top of the city’s hull, giving a spectacular view of the surrounding sea. Although they were all designed to retract into the main body of the city if there was an attack, which had to be expensive. I guess it said something about how rich they were, or maybe just the size of their egos.
Perilous Waif (Alice Long Book 1) Page 35