Coming from #254, Aisu Bay.
After leaving the revelry in the galley, and the improvised meal the crew were still sharing, Emiya returned to his quarters to find them empty thankfully. Most of the crew were enjoying their meal, while the few that were left were maintaining their course, watching for hazards, and other boring jobs. They had either finished their meal, or were soon to be relieved to have their share, providing Emiya a precious moment to steal himself into the captains quarters, curious as to the nature of his company's exact business in the Outer Lands. The captain was quick to stash her seemingly valuable documents after all... That, combined with the nimble class of vessel they ran, and the rather slapdash attire of the crew, he held his tongue but feared they were pirates. He hoped they weren't as corrupt as the blatant red flags were indicating.
Without leaving the privacy of his quarters, Emiya calculated the rough distance to the captain's quarters, and attempted to teleport directly into the room. It was tricky as his target destination was in motion, though not impossible. The worst he could manage was bumping into the furniture upon arrival, but that was the issue, as it would result in immediate detection if anyone was nearby. Bracing himself against any unforeseen issues he might encounter, he vanished in a wave of Prana, appearing within the captain's room, far enough away from the furnishings to not cause issue, though as expected going from being in motion aboard the ship, to stationary within the Throne even for only a moment, to being in motion once again caused him to lose balance, though that was easily rectified. He'd done it. Alone with the captains secrets. Concluding he shouldn't loiter any longer than necessary to confirm his suspicions, he made his way to the back end of the room, and began rummaging around in various drawers and compartments of the desks and units that made up the area behind the captain's desk. Only one was locked, meaning it was the only one of interest. Not wishing to test his skills at lock picking, for he had none to speak of really, Emiya instead opted to send the entire drawer to the Throne with his Prana, causing the entire thing to vanish, documents and all. Retrieving them was a simple matter, but he would first call forth the contents. In a flash of blue Prana, the stack of papers he'd seen previously appeared in his hand, and he began to swiftly flick through them for anything of immediate import. Among the contents were various official documents including the Mistakæ's previous tenure within Blaubaume, the "pink slip" for the ship made out to one "Mistress Takæ", and a number of documents that were at a glance pure gibberish. It's clear they were written in code, and seeing as he didn't have all night to try and crack the cipher, he skipped them. Tightly bound were a series of hand-written letters to the captain, no doubt from her sister back in Veskals. As he'd intruded enough, he left those alone. The only remaining item was a scrunched note that almost read like a shopping list. It was so generic, and commonplace that it couldn't have been put here by mere coincidence. If he were to guess, this seemingly useless scrap of paper could very well hold the cipher to the coded missives, though once again seeing as this act was time sensitive, he wouldn't have time to figure it out. As he was beginning to arrange the papers to a state similar to how he'd found them, a loud click echoed throughout the room.
"You know... If you had asked me I could have saved you all the cloak and dagger."
He'd been found out. As the captain confidently strode across the room, the audacity of her gait intent on displaying a confidence she'd been lacking previously, the captain continued.
"I do hope you're going to fix that. It's a precious family heirloom. Not my own family of course, priceless antiques are so hard to come by when you grew up unsure of where your next meal will come from, but I enjoy them just as much as their original owners. What's the matter dear, has a feline filched your tongue?"
Emiya watched her every action intent on not being caught off-guard, especially given how their first interaction alone turned out. Despite claiming he'd had her beat, she was no slouch. Perhaps not on the level as a Shinobi, but she possessed a strength of her own. Despite having numerous advantages, he wasn't untouchable, and the captain seemed very intent on pushing him. With a wave of his hand, Emiya returned the stack of documents to the Throne, and returned the drawer to it's rightful place. If he hadn't been caught red handed in the act, it would have been the perfect crime.
"Well isn't that a neat trick. I don't suppose you could teach me how to do that?"
"Not a chance."
"Shame. It would be so handy in my line of work."
"Smuggling, right?"
"Well now, how do you figure that? I know you didn't have enough time to crack those documents."
"Educated guess. The shopping list was odd, but specific. First thing that struck me was to think it's a key to a cipher, but it's not, is it? You're transporting whatever flora and fauna you can get your hands on in the Outer Lands, right?"
"So what if we are? Nobody is being hurt, least of all the 'cargo'. In fact most of our clientèle wish to study these new discoveries, if not preserve them. The bookish types get to study new and interesting species, and I get to keep myself and my men in business, and legitimate business at that, funded by a wealthy benefactor who is overseeing all aspects of our operation to ensure there's no foul play. It's quite elegant, wouldn't you agree?"
"I guess. If you don't do it, someone else will, yeah?"
Seeing the tension leave the air, the captain moved closer, placing her rapier on the table as she passed, and leaned against the desk next to Emiya.
"Answer me this; Would it have been easier for you? If we were pirates? Would you have felt better about this if we were all criminals who were preying on every ship trying to make some coin in this little endeavor? Taking advantage of those taking advantage so to speak? What if we were? Would you have felt justified enough to cut us down? Would you have hesitated? Or would you perhaps try to convince us that our actions were wrong, and that we should change our ways? Because I'll save you the breath, we don't have many options open to us."
"I don't know. Maybe. I guess I can get preachy, but I understand desperation.
I just didn't know what to expect, and now I don't know what to do."
"We were once you know. Pirates that is. Previous captain was a bull headed, ignorant, sexist piece of shit.
Ran this ship like a tyrant, worked us to the bone. Grew fat from our hard work, and we saw none of it."
"Is that why you killed him?"
"Kill him? Why what an imaginative world you live in. I wish I had killed him, but no. I was robbed of that honor by the tides. Stubborn bastard decided sailing through that cesspool in the East, the Hokubu, was preferable to subjecting to inspections and authorities at Innovus or the Bastion. We got hit by something big, and his fat ass fell overboard. And don't get me started on his disagreement with Veskals. Spider wanted his head."
"Disagreement? Over what?"
"Whether or not he deserved a cut of the Mist's 'privateering profits'. Despite what you hear, we have a code. Only kill if you have to, and don't take more than you need.Most importantly, you always honor your word, otherwise you're nothing more than a common criminal."
"So what happened after he fell in?"
"If the bastard turned, we never saw hide nor hair of him. We all figured whatever hit us ate like a king, and fucked off more than satisfied. Turned out to be the best thing to happen to us truth be told. While we weren't exactly innocent, none of us really enjoyed piracy. We simply never had a better option. But that all changed, and us with it. The Mist learned from it's greatest mistake."
Unlike their earlier conversation, this time the mysterious femme fatale held little back. It was a more honest moment where, for no apparent reason, she began to talk about what could very well be her most vulnerable moments. From her rise to captain, and the trials the crew of the Mist went through to get to this point, it certainly wasn't what Shirō was expecting when he was found rummaging through the captain's quarters. The pair continued to speak until the Outer Lands were within sight. The hat stayed on the entire time.
Leaving Landmark. Heading to #264, the Beachhead.