You stare at the page for a long time, turning thoughts over in your head. Ultimately, it had been Ienaga's fault, hadn't it? He hadn't thought about the implications of the flag (though you hadn't either) or about how tense the situation might be (though, again, neither had you) but the difference was that he was the officer in charge. He should have been thinking about such things. You were only there to take pictures. You bent over the page to write out the rest of your report. Carefully, you laid out each step of the lead up to the riot and how Ienaga could have alleviated these things, but failed to do so.
You did not embellish your objection to be more than it was. In some ways, you tried to mitigate it, to be measured without seeming indecisive. It was a bad situation, we tried our best, that sort of thing. It was a careful balancing act, one you tried with all your skill to navigate.
Then all that is left was to stamp the document with your seal and it was done. You blotted the ink and waited for it to dry, then carefully folded it and placed it an envelope which you later forwarded to your chain of command.
You washed your hands of the situation and tried not to think about it. Instead, you turned to the more pleasant task of writing to friends and family to let them know that yes, you were fine. You spent more time on Aiko's letter, reassuring her that you were totally unhurt and that she needn't worry.
----
The results of the report took time to make their way back to you. It's been another month and a half of patrolling the coasts of Joseon and hunting smugglers with the boats before you received any word of the results. First comes a letter from the Admiral in command of the Joseon area. He notes that you have been cleared of any responsibility for the situation and the Navy finds that you acted in a manner consistent with the finest traditions of the Akitsukuni Navy. The next day, you received another letter, this one from Captain Ienaga.
Your Highness,
I write to you not to protest my innocence or to cast aspersion on your for reporting what you did. It is entirely correct that I failed in my duty, both to read the crowd and to be mindful of my duty to protect you. That you were forced to take command of my troops due to my incapacitation is a deep wound to my soul and I will do my best to atone for these lapses in judgement.
Please do not blame yourself, no matter what news you hear of me. My life is in the hands of the Empress, may she rule for 10,000 years. It was one of the great honors of my life to meet you.
Your dutiful servant
Captain Ienaga Saito
It was not until you caught up with a more recent newspaper a few days later that you realized what had happened. It seemed that the captain was suffering from ailments from the blow to the head he sustained, though the newspaper had no other details. What it did detail was that the man put on his dress uniform, wrapped himself in the flag of Akitsukuni, and then blown his brains out in his quarters in a completely honorable fashion in keeping with the fine traditions of Akitsukuni's warriors.
You went to the head to be sick again. Perhaps the rioters and protestors had merely been in a bad spot. Perhaps they had even gotten what they deserved for trying to pick a fight with armed men. But Captain Ienaga had been, from what you could tell, a good man who had done his duty as best he could. And now he was dead. Because of you. You had blamed him and he had accepted the blame the only way a warrior could be expected to do so.
You go back to your desk, feeling shaken and slump down into your chair, numbly staring at your ledgers. When Kenshin arrived later, you barely noticed. Not until he spoke.
"Arisugawa? Are you alright?" You blinked. Looked up at him.
"...Captain Ienaga killed himself," is all you can say. Kenshin winced.
"It's truly unfortunate. But I don't suppose he had much of a choice. He had to try and maintain his honor. I understand why he did it," Kenshin said quietly. His brow furrowed. "Sucks, though."
"He didn't have to do it, though. I never would have asked him to…" You started to speak, then gritted your teeth. It was an outcome you should have foreseen writing your report. Kenshin hesitated, then reached out to give your shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.
"I know. But he died like a samurai, didn't he?" Kenshin's voice was quiet. Perhaps he was thinking about his own family. His own obligations to his line of descent.
"Yes, he did," you allowed that much.
For some reason it didn't feel as romantic as it had in the old tales when some loyal retainer cut his belly open.
---
The worst part was, a week later you were a Lieutenant.
There was almost certainly a lot of politics happening behind the scenes you hadn't been privy to on that decision. You doubted that the promotion of any junior officer in any Navy had ever so much scrutiny from as high up as you have, save maybe Miss Olive Wingfield of the Albian Navy in their 1600s.
Aiko had sent you a book about her. It was fascinating, though you doubted she ever actually fought a giant squid with a hatchet.
The promotion had happened on the deck of the
Hachinosu and your cousin had beamed with apparent pride as he pinned the small silver bellflower crests onto your shoulder boards. You had a pair that denoted you as a junior lieutenant. A small step up, but a step up.
"My congratulations on a well-earned promotion,
lieutenant." He beamed. You smiled. Or tried to smile.
"Thank you, sir," you replied and bowed as he stepped back to the polite applause of the assembled officers.
That night you got more drunk than you had ever been in your life and mercifully, remembered almost none of it.
----
Two weeks later you had a fun emergency when the huge electric motor which operated one of the boat winches malfunctioned. Despite having been scrubbed to a mirror sheen on the outside, actual preventative maintenance had been neglected, and a fire had broken out in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, said winch then exploded, rupturing the pipe which would have carried the water needed to fight the fire in that section easily, turning what should have been a small contained incident into a nine-hour battle against smoke and flame.
Fortunately, no real casualties, just some cases of smoke inhalation and such, and an emergency like that meant the CMO actually had to be on-hand to tend it instead of sitting in his cabin writing his novel, the thing you learned that he did.
(You had read some of it over his shoulder. It was a knock-off of those pulp Europan fantasy age of sail books some of your cousins liked, and it was
truly terrible.)
Fortunately, the port city of Geochil on the south-eastern tip of Joseon was not far, and the ship works there just so happened to have a replacement engine, originally earmarked to replace the steam-driven cart for moving ammunition inside a battleship. The ship was quickly redirected there, and the Captain was quick to give everyone leave until the repairs were finished.
Kenshin said he was always like this. He was convinced that the worst thing for his ship was to have sailors getting their boots on everything. Whenever he could, he cleared it out so that he and his senior officers could have the run of the place. Kenshin had heard he liked holding parties on the bridge.
Which is how the two of you ended up in the Akitsukuni quarter in your uniforms, trying to figure out what to do with your lives.
"Drinks?" Kenshin suggested. You put on your best serious face.
"Now, Lt. Kusakabe, we haven't gotten our dear captain's permission, have we? Spirits forbid we drink after dinner." You joked.
"We'll leave it out of the report. Come on, let's enjoy ourselves."
Coming to a compromise on where to go drinking was surprisingly difficult. The businesses here were all specialized to various clienteles. Some bars were for the Army, others for the Navy. You'd had a disastrous experience in your first Navy bar and had sworn them off soon after, and Kenshin was very understanding. Most of them had men only in mind and you weren't eager to be surrounded by men for any longer than you had to be. There was a tea house for Akitsukuni businesswomen, but you weren't sure it was the kind of place you could actually take Kenshin.
"I'm in." He said.
"Really?"
"I just want a drink. Either we go in here, or we take another walk around the block looking at the same signs again."
"If you're certain…" You lead the way into the establishment. It was a bit rough by these standards… which meant it was an absolutely pristine, quiet little place filled with young businesswomen, drinking and relaxing socially. A couple of them were even smoking.
Heads turned as you and Kenshin walked in. And again, as some of the women realized what they were looking at. You found a quiet corner and got drinks.
"Ooh, comfy." Kenshin settled in quickly. "Cheers!"
The beer was cheap and terrible. It did not stop either of you.
"Ken, my friend, how are you still single?" It was about an hour later. You… had probably had slightly too much for the dignity of the uniform, but it wasn't like the MPs would be looking for drunken officers in here. Kenshin had been getting glances all night from various ladies. Apparently not ALL modern women were exclusively into other ladies… tragically.
"I dunno, I just don't have much luck I guess." He replied, finishing off his glass. "Nothing ever seems to work out."
"That's
bu-…" You weren't quite drunk enough to swear, but you were drunk enough to almost blunder into it. "... nonsense. You're like, the most attractive-ish man on the planet or something." You stumbled through the sentence drunkenly. "For a guy."
"That was implied." He was much better at holding his drink than you. "I dunno, it's always so awkward. I don't know how to talk to women."
"We're talking right now." You said, puzzled.
"No, like… there's no pressure with you. But with women who are attracted to me I'm always
like oh no will they hate me did I say the wrong thing am I moving my hands too much etc etc." He said. "I used to have to go to all these parties while I was in the academy because my parents wanted me married and I was always a total disaster."
You found this categorically hard to believe. Ken was smooth, witty, and very funny. He was the sort of guy who, were this an earlier era, you probably could have put up with having to marry. For women who were actually into men, he was probably perfect.
"Kenshin. I'm willing to bet actual,
real money that you could convince one of these very fine young ladies to take you home tonight if you were so inclined," you said with more articulation than you had thought possible in your current state.
"I dunno…"
"Like, home to her bed." You paused to drink more beer. "For the sex." Oh, there we go. That was more in line with your current state of intoxication.
"How would that even happen?" He said.
"Well…" You leaned in conspiratorially. "The way I've heard it works is-"
"No, I mean, how would I even start talking to one of them? They're all…" He gestured vaguely, trying to find the right words. "They're all so much like you in this place."
"What, gay?" You had your suspicions about a few of them...
"No--I mean, probably, but they're confident. Composed. Elegant. Beautiful! How am I supposed to impress a woman like that?"
You got ready to stand up and planted your hat on your head with conviction. "If you're not gonna take the initiative,
I will! I'm gonna go to one of those girls and I'm gonna tell 'em, girl, you gotta meet my friend, because if somebody doesn't take this boy home he's going to be a sad sack forever."
"Are those the actual words you are going to use?" He said, his voice at the edge between amusement and despair.
"Probably not! Now, we just need to select a target." You scanned the room. "Gunnery officer Arisukawa reporting for duty!"
"What the actual-"
"How about that one? Off the starboard beam, estimate the range to be six meters. Classy businesswoman type, mid-20s? Single, glancing at you all night. Want's to be wow'd by forward action and initiative."
"Now, really-"
"Target dead ahead." You measured her height with your fingers like you were trying to estimate distance through a ranging scope. She was
tall. If he didn't talk to her, you might. "5 meters distant. A bit nervous. Will require a careful, tactical approach so you don't scare her off before you get into range."
"What are you
even talking about, Haruna?"
"Astern, in formation with three of her fellows! She's been staring at the back of your head all night it's super distracting. She wants you, but we'll need to separate her from her friends. We'll need a good strategy."
"You know, I never thought I'd say this to a princess but don't you think you'd better lay off the beer--?"
"Hard to port, four meters to target. Intelligent looking type. Spectacles. Couple years younger than us, I'd guess. She's been nursing the same glass all night and reading her book but she's been looking at you every time she turns the page and then blushing and looking back at her book. Probably kind of shy but definitely wants to get to know you better. We'll need to signal her subtly..."
"Haruna, you're scaring me."
"Finally, just coming back from the washroom. A bit older, very interested, but has some concerns. She's been looking at her wristwatch, she has somewhere to be, but if we play our cards right that somewhere is with you. We just gotta talk her into it."
You had a field of targets. Torpedo tubes flooded, guns locked and loaded. Now you just needed to zero in on one of them.
[ ] The Classy Businesswoman.
[ ] The Tall Nervous One.
[ ] The One With Friends.
[ ] The Bookish One
[ ] The Older One With Somewhere To Be
In case you are wondering, yes, each of these will require a different skill check.
This is the most important vote you will ever make in this quest. I expect 10 pages of discussion at least.
