The Midnight Prince

[Shisou]

"I-i," stammers Soushi-hime. "N-no, it-- I was f-fighting those s-summoners."

[Rokag]

"...Wait, are you sure you're okay? And your head's feeling fine?" Rokag tried to take a breath. "You're starting to stutter again."

[Shisou]

Her eyes widen, and she takes a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "I'm fine," she manages, more smoothly, and that helps calm her even further. 

[Rokag]

"No, you got beat the fuck up. And it's definitely not lightening up." Rokag shook her head. "Look, I don't know what those summoners were up to outside of thinking they were gonna attack your boat, but they're a big fucking deal. Can't you just...get guards to fight them, or something?" She tried not to let her concern into her voice too much. "I sure as shit wouldn't try fighting them if I had another choice."

[Shisou]

"Well, I don't," she says quietly. "They're threatening my family."

[Rokag]

No, they're probably threatening Indou. "Okay, but do you have to fight them on your own? Why can't you tell the guards or something about it? Pretty sure no one wanted demons to be running around like before and they'd be willing to get rid of them somehow, right?"

[Shisou]

"Some of them are in the guard. Have to be, to get that close."

[Rokag]

"Okay, but it's NOT that hard to sneak onto a boat. I managed to sneak onto a whole island and the only reason YOU caught me was because I was tired and no one should have been UP that early!" Rokag paused, feeling something close to a cool mist on her hand before taking a breath. She wasn't going to lose control over...this. "Can't you...send some kinda message to the Emperor or something? Isn't that what the families usually do when shit like spirits or pirates, or anything like this happens?"

[Shisou]

"What? No! That's not it at all."

[Rokag]

"Well, okay, then what IS it? How do people handle this without-" You getting your head bashed in. Rokag had to visibly take another breath. The fuck is wrong with you? Shit like this happened all the time. Someone would get a big idea, it wouldn't go well, they'd get roughed up or worse. It happened to YOU, remember? And she did. She'd been beaten trying to steal from people faster than her. She'd seen people get killed trying to steal from bigger gangs or one of the crime families. It's why she was so sure about leaving for the Islands. They danced and moved on the lake and it didn't seem like any of this shit touched them.

"There's gotta be another way to do this, right?"

[Shisou]

"The men in the family are m-meant to protect us, keep us safe. But.. Lord Cicada is old. His sons are older -- I mean, more elderly. Father is dead, and his cousins are fighting each other more than the enemies. Stepfather is worse. I'm too young to have any pull yet. So..."

[Rokag]

"That shouldn't fucking matter!" Rokag snapped. "You know it shouldn't work like this. -I- can fucking tell it shouldn't work like this, and I can't even fucking read the shit on some of the scrolls you have here." She took another breath. She needed to be calm or she'd start pacing and ranting and Shisou wouldn't understand. They needed some kind of way to get someone to lis... "You...mentioned your Father. Everyone keeps saying that you're the only one who knows what happened to him. Everyone else just keeps going around it."

[Shisou]

"I don't know anything about it. That's all Shisou," she says automatically. 

[Rokag]

"Fuck that! It's only the two of us here! I get that it's fucking hard to talk about, but you don't have to fucking act like I don't already know!"

[Shisou]

"I don't know!" she snaps. "I honestly don't!"

"Kid.." begins Carbonne.

"I don't remember. I don't want to remember."