[X] Hijack the small ship.
- [X] Consult Deis for a destination that may be interesting or fun.
You stare at the ships for a moment, then turn to Ershin. "I'll be right back!" Before it can respond, you throw yourself toward the moving ship. It's fast, but you're much faster, and even as it picks up speed you plummet toward the small deck. Your logic is simple: You need a sandflier, and here is a sandflier! And you know it works and is ready to go, because someone is leaving in it! The other small one might be broken, and the big one is … well, it's a little much, at least for now. Some of the soldiers on the ship stare at you in confusion as you land, and you smile as you begin pitching them overboard. The pilot jerks his head back, eyes wide, and the ship slews to the side in a vain attempt to throw you off. One of the soldiers falls past you, and you giggle at the snapping of bones before you lunge for the pilot. He tries to struggle, but an arm through the chest makes that difficult, and you hold the controls steady with your free hand.
The ship turns a little stiffly - probably to keep humans with poor reflexes from tumbling it accidentally - but the controls are simple enough. You aren't sure why someone would want to pitch the bow, but you can. Slowing and accelerating takes you a moment to figure out, but then you realize that speed is controlled by a mechanism by the pilot's feet. Satisfied, you clap your hands and head back toward Ershin. If there's something special that needs to be done to start it up, stopping out here would be a bad idea, after all. You frown at the sail as the ship skims along above the sand - you suppose you'll have to get used to the Chinese sail-type, since that's pretty close to what this uses … not that you're really fond of any sails, if you're honest. They usually mean you're over water. You shake your head and fire off a few danmaku shots to slow down the other ships as you pass by the anchorage. Ershin is still waiting on the road - and there are soldiers surrounding it, weapons drawn. Sighing, you slow the ship as much as you can and slide it sideways toward the armor. A handful of crossbow bolts hum past your head or bounce off the thick armor hurrying toward you.
"Come on, come on, up!" Ershin jumps at your call, and you catch the outstretched arm and haul it up, nearly yanking it onto the ship. "You pilot." You stick out your tongue at the assembled soldiers as they try to board as well and let loose a burst of danmaku to drive them back. The ship spins around and hurtles away from the troops.
"You did not kill them." You don't reply immediately, instead picking up the dead soldier and tossing him overboard. The other soldier is still alive, but unconscious, and probably prefers it that way, considering how many bones you can see.
"Nope. Better this way." You lift the body and carry it with you as you sit on the railing, then tear out his throat and feed on the soldier's blood as Ershin steers.
"That does not make sense! They'll come after us! Says Deis." It turns a little to glance at you, and when you're finished you toss the body over the side as well.
"Deis, what do you think about humans?" You give her a bit to think it over, then continue. "Some youkai pity them - they have such short lives, they're weak, they have no intrinsic goal or purpose. Some youkai fear them - despite their weaknesses, they can believe fervently, and they can change their beliefs. And they will build a ramp of their own dead, just to make a single useless attack on their betters. That drive, that need to prove themselves … it makes them dangerous. Especially when heroes are present - humans who reject human weakness, who set themselves apart from other mortals and have the power to make it stick. If that single attack comes not from a human, but a hero - well, it's not a useless attack." You grin. "Deis, I want the Imperial Army to come after me. I told you that I'm trying to have fun, right? Humans aren't any fun, but maybe I can provoke a hero into making a try at me, and then I'll have a fun fight." The silence continues for a while, and you take out a parasol. Your new ship isn't too bad, at least above-decks. Fifteen meters long, bowsprit to stern, with three smallish sails that you really hope you don't need to mess with. The rails would be four meters above the ground if the ship were sitting on the ground..
"You want something fun to do? And you think fighting strong enemies is fun?" You shrug.
"Pretty much. Or something interesting. I've seen a lot in the past few months, but I know there's a whole lot of stuff I haven't seen, and I haven't seen as much as I could have! Haa~ Do you know any good places to have fun or excitement?"
"… If you want fun and excitement, and you're willing to take on an empire, the best thing to do would be to make sure the Empire sees you as something worth taking on, says Deis." The ship turns to the northeast. "If you have no objections, we will travel around the mountains and north to Kyoin. From there we will utilize the Imperial Causeway to reach the western continent." Ershin turns toward you. "But if things look bad for you, I want you to get away, because I would really like to go home, says Deis." You nod.
"Of course. Kyoin, and then the Empire's continent …."
"If Deis knew where powerful monsters lived, she would direct you toward them, but civilized people usually kill them," Ershin says, almost as an afterthought.
"Hm. Well, I'm going to see what's in the cabin, okay? Call for me if you need me." You put your parasol away and slip through the heavy curtain into the back of the ship. It's pretty stuffy, and it'll get hotter as the day goes on, but it's out of the sun, and that's what's important. There's a table, fastened to the floor, although the four chairs weren't, and they're tumbled against the walls. The walls are bare, annoyingly enough, and you don't see anything left out up here. A trapdoor beckons, however, and you drop down into the lower … hold, you suppose. The hold. It has bunks fastened to the walls, with storage trunks at the foot of each bed. Nothing in any of them, though, which is extremely frustrating. You hop onto one of the beds, thinking. Kyoin is the Imperial holding on this continent, and probably fairly well-defended by their standards. You wouldn't have any trouble sneaking through, especially since they won't be expecting an enemy presence, although Ershin might … or you could just blast through the place. At least the Causeway should be large enough that you can take your sandflier through! At least, it should be, since the Empire seems to use it for logistical purposes. And you should probably name your sandflier ….
What do you do?
[ ] Open assault on Kyoin.
[ ] Sneak through Kyoin.
[ ] Change your mind about going to Kyoin.
- Where to?
[ ] Name the Sandflier.
- Write-in.
