𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞 | 𝐒𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐫 & 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐲

[Saber]

How many days had they been traversing the ocean? Mizu had been keeping track of how many times the sun had set and rose again, but after a month, she started losing track. Several ports had been and gone to gather supplies and make minor repairs to her small ship before she reached the seas of Europe. The only way she knew that was because of the incessant rambling of her traveling companion, slash prisoner. She thought that bringing Fowler with her was a good idea. He knew how to get to England, first of all, and he would know where to find the other European men that had been in Japan. Even though Mizu liked to think that she was infinitely resourceful, having Fowler would make her search that much shorter and easier.

That was, until she found out that he didn't know how to shut his damned mouth. If he wasn't singing some off-key "sea shanty", he was just drawling on about how Mizu hadn't had the stomach to just kill him. That if she would've been his child she wouldn't have hesitated to cut his throat. She almost thought that he was goading her on in hopes that she would kill him, and at times she really, really though about stabbing him in the heart and tossing him overboard. But the reality of this entire endeavor was to keep him alive so he could help her find the other men that had been in Japan when she was born. Not much longer now, according to her annoying captive.

"Aye, child!" Mizu groaned as she ran her hand over her face and stood from her place at the bow of the ship.

"If you say anything about being hungry or bored," She closed her hand around the hilt of her sword and closed her eyes. "I will toss you overboard with an extra hole in your head."

He chuckled as he moved closer to the bars and pointed his finger. "I was just going to tell you we're here." When she opened her eyes, she could just make out the skyline of a city in the distance. A heavy sigh escaped her, relieved that she wasn't going to have to listen to anymore of Fowler's complaining without retaliating. So she didn't waste any time moving to the back of the small ship and unfurling the sail full to catch as much wind as possible. She need to sleep in a bed and she needed an actual meal. Not to mention it would be nice to put a little more distance between her and Fowler, even if it was just for a day. So the couple hours it took before a port came into view and Mizu let a small smile bloom on her face.

"Finally." The city was small, smaller than she had expected as she steered the ship towards its port. "This city isn't as grand as you described."

"This isn't London!" Fowler guffawed as doubled over with laughter. "London is up the Thames about three hours." A smirk formed on his thin lips and Mizu groaned as she adjusted the sail once more to continue on down the river.

After another few hours of sailing, Mizu finally made out the silhouette...as well as the smells...of the much larger city. The water in the river had, at some point run an opaque brown from the run off of the streets and the sounds were almost overwhelming. The port was bustling and Mizu steered the ship into the first empty dock that she saw. When it was successfully moored, she moved the cage to unlock the door and shackle Fowler. There was barely any sun leaking through the heavy blanket of clouds, yet Mizu still shielded her eyes as she looked around.

"Oi, sir!" As soon as Mizu had set food on the wooden dock, a man in a bowler hat and a dirty suit was waving a book at her. "You can't dock here! We've got ships that have been waiting to unload for hours!" Mizu yanked the chain that was attached to Fowler's cuffs before digging into her belt and pulling out a small pouch filled with gold. She tossed it to the man who almost dropped it.

"That should cover the fee for a few days." She walked past him, her captive following like a dog. "Log it under Fowler." The man just nodded as they walked past and Mizu couldn't help but tighten her grip on the chain as they ventured into the streets of London. There was so much commotion that Mizu didn't even know where to start or what to think. The smell of burning coal assaulted her nose as she spotted the black pillars of smoke rolling from tall stacks of a nearby building.

"So where do we start?" She looked over her shoulder at Fowler who had his eyes closed and looked like he was breathing in the scents of the city. "Hey!" Mizu yanked the chain hard. "You can enjoy your homecoming later. Now we need to find the other men that were in Japan. So where do we start?"

Fowler just frowned as he continued to ignore Mizu, his eyes scanning the area before pointing to the east. "There. There's a shop of an old friend of mine." A smug grin settled on the man's face. "He should be able to give us some information."

Mizu just nodded and veered them in that direction. It must've been a shopping district as the number of people increased greatly when they neared. Street vendors were shouting out their deals and prices, haggling with anyone that would offer their ear. Her eyes kept darting back and forth, feeling a bit claustrophobic as the brick buildings seemed to be closing in on her. She kept a firm hold on her sword as she weaved through the mass of people, until she heard Fowler chuckle and turned to face him.

"Bit of a culture shock, lass?" He sneered as he looked around. When Mizu followed his gaze, he took advantage of her lack of attention and rammed his shoulder into her back. She lurched forward, the chain slipping through her hands as fell to the cobblestone beneath her feet. Her teeth clenched as she jumped back up to her feet and took off after the giant man.

"Bastard." She hissed under her breath as she began to weave through the crowd of people, keeping her eyes locked on his graying red hair. In a city she didn't recognize, losing Fowler would be disaster. There was no way she'd be able to maneuver through this city without a local's help and Fowler was the only one she knew.

 

[Risky]

Catherine could feel her heart rate accelerating as her fingers curled around the shipping manifests for the day.

It had become a common occurrence for the woman to approach the Dockmaster and request that he hand over the manifests, the man rolling his eyes and handing them over lest he experience what happened to those who opted to thrash against the grain of the Undercity. She imagined that he never minded so much considering she never found what she was looking for, and always fucked off to whatever dark alley she had skulked out of that day.

But today was different, today was finally the day. There was a new ship appearing on the manifests, one whose name had been practically scraped into the skin of the paper. The dockmaster had most likely been annoyed when he had been forced to write in a ship that had no business being in London today of all days.

The touch of a grin tugged at the corners of her unblemished features as her green eyes flickered up to the dockmaster. The man's eyebrows were raised with interest, maybe her arrival and request for his manifests was the most exciting aspect of his day of whipping and yelling, or maybe he had grown so accustomed to her shoving the papers back into his calloused hands with a defeated malice that she had piqued his interest.

"Which way to Pier Three?" Catherine's voice was soft and silky like nobility, it often helped that her beauty and soft voice caused people to underestimate her. Sure she wasn't the most physically imposing, but the flintlocks that bit into the soft flesh of her thigh spoke of the danger that she was more than capable of bringing. They itched to be used, even now she could feel them raging against the constraints of the holsters that she had sewn into her baggy trousers so that they could remain unseen to those who didn't know any better.

"Thatta way Miss, but the crew already skipped off down the road," the man pointed in two directions. "Gave me a right scare, had no permission to be docking today," that explained the blotted ink that served as an addition to an otherwise finished list, the ship hadn't even been expected.

"You're the best Henry, I won't be needing the manifest tomorrow," Cathy gave him a toothy grin as she fished around in her pocket for a small bag of money for the man. "For your trouble these past years," she had been saving for quite a while, hoping that her consistency would net her the man she had been waiting for.

Following the crew turned out to be easy enough, Catherine knew this city inside and out, there were no surprises for her while she ducked through alleys and clambered up onto shoddy rooftops. Her eyes had narrowed seeing the figure of a man dressed in an alien manner pushing his way through a crowd, the sword on his hip was even more foreign. Considering how anomalous the arrival of Fowler's ship was, she figured that the strange man would be related in some manner.

She was quick, knowing the city had its advantages, and allowed her to narrowly spot the hulking red-haired bastard that had taken everything from her. Her teeth gnashed together as she reached down to grab the grip of one of her pistols, she was so close. She was shaking as she dropped down from the roof she had been using as a vantage point, pulling her coat tightly around herself as she moved adjacent to where she had spotted Fowler, hoping that her route would allow her to cut him off somewhere along the way. She glanced left and caught another glimpse of the man, nervously checking over his shoulder as he pushed through people he had once considered compatriots, now obstacles to his freedom and potentially his life.

Catherine saw her opportunity and took it, ducking into an alley and drawing one of her flintlocks beneath her cloak. Her breath began to quicken as her heart took over her hearing once again, making it difficult to hear the scuffing of his fancy leather shoes against concrete that did not agree with them. As if the city was reaching up to envelope him, to stall his progress while Catherine tracked him. Her body moved quickly as she cut him off, surprising him enough that she was able to at least shove him into a wall before he knew any better. Fowler's greatest advantage was his raw strength, but he was dense in the head, somehow not expecting to be ambushed by the woman he had scorned years before.

A sharp crack sounded through the enclosed space of the alley, a smoking hole in Catherine's cloak from the spiked musket ball that she had swiftly deposited into Fowler's chest, she wasn't taking any chances that he would overpower her.

A sharp gasp left the man, a dense mist of blood that was oddly reminiscent of the Irish-born hairs atop his head now splattered to the wall behind him as his body struggled to keep itself standing. He buckled against the wall, smearing his blood down with him as he collapsed, blue eyes widened with shock as he looked up at the woman who had shot him without so much as a word.

"You should've never come back to London, Fowler," Catherine reeled back before spitting directly onto his face, causing him to wince. It didn't get the angry reaction that she had imagined so many times when she had pictured this moment, most likely because the man was dying and had greater issues to worry about than his pride. The musket ball she had prepared for his demise was special in the way that it enjoyed bouncing around the inside of the flesh rather than finding a way out, causing a maze of devastation within his internals that would never be fixed by a surgeon or doctor.

"I fucking got you,"

 

[Saber]

"Fowler!" The streets of London were dense with people and Mizu was getting frustrated. Shoving people out of the way to try and keep track of her target as he bowled over any obstacles in his way. That was something he had on her, size. While usually she was agile enough to weave through crowds, this crowd was like sifting through mud with a fishing net. She growled softly to herself as she surveyed the area to try and find any advantage she could to try and get ahead of the man.

Blue eyes finally spotted a chance in the form of a sturdy, wooden vendor cart that she leapt up to and launching herself towards Fowler. Still a distance away, but closer than before. She would take it. When she was almost in reach of the chain dragging on the cobblestone when a thunderous bang resounded off the brick buildings. Close enough the Mizu staggered and her ears began to ring. Her brow furrowed as she searched for the origin of the gunshot before she saw Fowler stumble with a gaping hole in his chest.

"Fuck." She looked around and saw a woman standing over Fowler, a smoking pistol in her hand and a sneer on her face. Normally, Mizu wouldn't have thought twice about the man's demise, maybe angry that he didn't die by her hand, but in this particular situation, she was at a disadvantage. She rushed over and shoved the woman out of the way before kneeling down to examine the wound. It was grotesque and gnarled from some sort of projectile that was not a normal bullet.

Fowler was going to die if he didn't get immediate help, but that was being optimistic. There was so much damage to his tissue that she wouldn't be surprised if he lasted another minute. She was going to be stuck here in a foreign country searching for men that only Fowler knew the locations of and had communication with. All because of this woman. Mizu clenched her jaw before drawing her sword, pushing the woman up against the wall with her blade hovering over her neck.

"Normally I wouldn't hesitate to slit your throat," Mizu drove her point home, she touched the blade to her neck, just enough to brush the skin. "but I'm in an unfamiliar country and in need of him." She nodded her head towards Fowler who was coughing up blood and trying feebly to apply pressure to the wound. "So you are going to take us to the nearest doctor or I'll cut your head from your shoulders."

Surely Fowler had other enemies than her, and in his native land and city, they were bound to come out of the wood work when they learned of his return. But she wasn't expecting something like this as soon as they'd docked. She was trying to keep her rage in check, but if Fowler died, she was going to be stuck without any sort of assistance. She didn't know where to start searching or who to talk to. She had no names or contacts in this city that could even give her a place to stay.

 

[Risky]

Catherine felt the sweltering pride in her chest turn cold at the touch of a folded blade to her neck. Her green eyes darted to meet the blue ones of her assailant, the woman's words causing her hand to tighten around her pistol. The idea of helping the man who lay bleeding before the two of them was as offensive as it was absurd, and Catherine couldn't help the scoff that left her lips at the idea.

"You'll have to get to cutting, I wouldn't help him if he were the fuckin' King," her eyes burned with the challenge of the statement. Despite her outward confidence, her heart raced with the possibilities of the encounter, not ready to die just quite yet. "You know who he is, don't you?" Catherine hadn't had the time to observe her assailant, but from the obvious features that threatened her beheading, she didn't appear to be an ally of the bastard.

"This is the man who personally oversaw the murder of my parents, he deserves every bleeding moment," her eyes closed as she waited for the pressure that would draw blood from her esophagus. "Even if I wanted to help him, the bullet in him isn't meant to be removed," Catherine laughed. She had planned every second of this killing, even if one of Fowler's cronies killed her she had ensured that he would be in the grave by evening.

With the moments she had seemingly bought she pressed her case further.

"I've three more bastards like him to kill if you don't mind leaving my neck intact,"

 

[Saber]

Mizu clenched her jaw as she listened to the woman speak. It was as she thought, Fowler was past healing and she was going to be stranded in this crowded city with no chance of finding her targets. Still, killing her wouldn't get her anywhere except more attention which is not what she wanted or needed. She growled in frustration before pulling her blade away and sheathing it. Her hand came up to massage her forehead. Of course Fowler had enemies here, that should've been a given and something she was more prepared for.

"Well this is fantastic." Her blue eyes stared down at the now twitching and gurgling Fowler. She glanced at the other woman and frowned. "You said three other people?" She crossed her arms over her chest as she turned completely to face the woman. She was young, maybe her age "Were they, by chance, associates to Fowler? I'm searching for a man that was in Japan around twenty or more years ago."

It was a shot in the dark, but if she knew Fowler, perhaps she knew of the other man that had gone to Japan. Not to mention it would help for her to have some sort of contact in London if only to help her navigate through this new land. Even though this woman had effectively murdered her previous plan. Not to mention it was a stretch to assume that this woman was searching for the same men that Mizu was.

"Someone that possibly looks like me." Mizu narrowed her eyes a bit as she stared at the other woman. "Maybe we can help each other. Clearly we both hate the same people." She flourished her arm towards the unmoving corpse of Fowler. "I know nothing of this city, the least you can do is help me find the man I'm looking for."

While Mizu wasn't in the habit of asking for help. In fact, it was literally one of her worst personality traits, but at least she was aware of it. What made this predicament much harder was that she was asking someone she didn't even know for some sort of assistance. This woman who really owed her nothing and would probably have no issue turning her back on this foreigner who was traveling with a known enemy. Perhaps having a common enemy could play in Mizu's favor, if that was indeed the case.

 

[Risky]

A quiet breath left the woman when Mizu's blade was withdrawn from her slender throat. It had been a gamble to call her bluff, but it seemed to have paid off considering the warrior before her was now pacing the alleyway, considering new courses of action. Her eyes closed as she listened to Fowler's last breath leave him, it was a satisfying sound that she had been looking forward to for many years. Her body noticeably relaxed when the man died, green eyes flickering open to regard Mizu while she began working on a plan that no longer involved the corpse at their feet.

"Yes, three others that worked with this filth," she motioned toward Fowler's corpse with her otherwise dainty hand, flecks of his blood adorning her pale features. "One of them moved to Spain to help with the war effort, one went East with Fowler, and the other is hidden here, somewhere deemed impenetrable," Catherine sighed. Her eyes narrowed with thought when the woman offered that one of them looked like her, her eyes looking to meet the blue hidden behind glasses.

"Ah, so they killed my parents but did something far more terrible to yours," Catherine watched her for a reaction, she had grown skilled in the art of reading people. Part of Catherine was relieved that Mizu wasn't an associate of Fowler, though that should have been obvious by the fact that she didn't take her opportunity to kill Catherine just then.

"I was lucky to have found Fowler outside of Japan, I didn't think I was going to be able to reach him," she admitted with a laugh. "Him and his lot never like peeking their heads above the underground, they're like gophers," she leaned against the wall of the alley and reached into her pocket for the warmth that presided there.

Her eyebrows raised at the prospect of them 'helping each other', those words were too often used for evil purposes. But there was something dangerous about the Eastern woman that flicked her arm toward the corpse of Fowler, perhaps they could help each other after all.

"Well, I could certainly find out where Klein is hidden, but getting to him is another matter entirely," Catherine figured that was where the Eastern woman would come into play. "But on one condition, I want to be there when you kill him," Catherine held out her hand in a gesture that was most likely unfamiliar to Mizu, it had become a force of habit for Catherine when striking a deal.