Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 410: The Fin

Chapter 410: The Fin

At a messy, dug up section of the castle was where Lord Mosuke stored the giant fifteen foot long fin of raw, snow-white bone. Chained up and hanging in the air, not daring to touch the earth. Kazi had his arms crossed and his eyes wide with a smile.

"Fascinating...look at that structure! Must be a pectoral fins. They’re kinda like arms, you see."

"Arms, hm? So this killed a dozen men on boats in one fell swing."

"Mhm, yep. This is that fin."

Odin’s Left Eye had three primary functions: infinite mana, future sight, and obscene attention to detail. Kazi could see kilometers away with pinpoint accuracy. Alas, that did not extend to actual magical analysis. He couldn’t deconstruct and reconstruct it. Luckily, he didn’t have to. Samantha was in company.

"Any luck?" Kazi asked.

"Not a matter of luck. This is going to be hard to explain to someone that can’t see on a microscopic level."

On Samamtha’s left eye was a monocle. A special device used among researchers in the University for atomic, or in the case of this magical world, Etherparticle research.

"Explain anyway. You find anything?" Kazi pressed.

"Not...specifically." Samantha squinted. She was very close to the strung up skeletal fin. "I don’t do this type of research."

"Who does then?"

"My professors."

"Ah, so you plan to tell them what you saw and get advice to counteract this thing?"

Samantha glanced over her shoulder and winked. "Exactly."

"It’s a good plan—except with one flaw. Your observations probably won’t be enough." From his inventory, Kazi pulled out a notebook and pen. "Allow me."

Samantha understood just as quickly. "You an artist?" she asked while taking off the monocle.

"Yep." The monocle was heavier than he expected. The device was thick and red with three layers of grey-ish glass. "Huh, so it’s an early build field ion microscope with some additions." He turned it in his hand while pen and notebook was pressed to his side on his other arm. "Magical wiring? Is that lightning? Must be easy to short-circuit."

"Mhm." Samantha side-eyed him. "Try not to break it. It’s sensitive and expensive—"

"Ooh, German carvings! So tiny, I almost didn’t notice!" Another separate device must have been involved to engrave it. Fascinating.

"Take your time," Samantha said, faking a smile. Put simply, she wanted the opposite.

Kazi put the monocle on and immediately his left view changed. "Woah." Everything was grey and bleary. He almost stumbled back but managed to get his balance. He stared at the bones floating one feet away from him. He inched closer. He could see it, the atoms that made up this piece and the Etherparticles responsible.

He drew what he saw. All of it. He slowly side-walked and continued drawing. His hands and eyes were one. He drew, he copied, he analyzed, he stopped. He flipped pages, he made titles, and then drew again.

Thirty minutes later and he was done. Every piece of the pin was reconstructed in the notepad. Every little dark or light shade was included.

Samantha looked down over his shoulder. She was a bit too close for his liking. "Alright, done. Here you go." By handing the notepad over, he regained his much needed space. The blonde happily accepted the compromise.

"You should get going. Lord Mosuke did order you to find Yoemon."

The players that had sworn loyalty to Lord Mosuke were handed a mission: to find the four students of Miyamoto Musashi. Caleb had been assigned to find Iori. Samantha claimed she would find the other two, Mikinosuke and Kurōtarō, on top of doing research on this whale.

In reality, she would have her friends, Skullmask and Dee, do the work to find them while she went back to the University of Magic with the notebook and a small piece of the skeleton fin. Such a shrewd woman.

’That ambition is what makes her useful.’ Kazi chuckled as he walked away. ’And I bet she thinks the same of me.’

***

The streets of Matsue were loud in the late afternoon. Small, tightly packed shops and homes flooded with doctors and concerned citizens. Kazi strolled leisurely. Lord Mosuke had provided a change of clothes, a dark grey hakam, the kataginu, as well as a sheathe and katana. Kazi was a temporary samurai, more or less.

The smell of fresh fish from nearby markets mixed with the scent of sweet rice and saké from the various stalls. It was a scene of tough everyday life. People were asking, not yelling, and they received little in return.

Months had passed and the people were hoping no more attacks would happen.

’Lord Mosuke has suppressed information on the attack at the shore too and telling the people it was a training regiment and nothing more. Still, everybody is on edge here.’

Too much saké and too much fish was being asked for. The locals were hoping, no, begging that things would be alright; that they could continue to live on without fear of being hunted by the Bake-kujira.

Kazi stopped, his eyes catching sight of a local woman sweeping the narrow street ahead of him. Her clothes were simple, a dull brown kimono, worn at the edges from years of use, and her face, though young, looked weathered from hard work. She didn’t notice him at first, too focused on sweeping.

Kazi’s lips curled into a small smile as he approached. He had a way with people—his charm had opened many doors for him before, and perhaps this humble woman could offer some insight.

"Good afternoon," Kazi said warmly.

The woman stopped, startled by the foreigner standing so close to her. She looked up at him with a confused expression, unsure of why someone like him would bother speaking to her. "Oh... Good afternoon." A deep bow ensued after she noticed his samurai garbs. A foreigner he might have been but the clothes made the man.

Kazi’s smile widened slightly. "I was wondering if you might help me. I’m looking for someone. A super young man, average in height, ruffled hair."

"Um..."

"Maybe a sword," he added

The woman blinked, clearly taken aback by the request. He was seeking a samurai. Her hands tightened around the broom handle as she thought for a moment, shaking her head slowly. "I... I’m sorry."

"Any rumours?"

"R-rumours? Yes, I suppose, I hear them."

Kazi hummed thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "That’s a start." He looked at her carefully, sensing the weariness in her posture, the roughness in her hands. She was poor and living a hard life.

He tilted his head slightly. "Do you have brothers?"

The question seemed to catch her off guard even more than his first. "Brothers? Yes... I do."

"Several of them, yes?"

A quiet, almost pensive nod.

Hm.

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