[h1][b][center][color=ed1c24]Noriko[/color][/center][/b][/h1]
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The din of a rowdy Nohrian bar was a strangely comforting background hum to accompany a round of drinking. It, faintly, reminded Noriko of her days as a pirate. The boisterous laughter, the scent of sweat, alcohol, and other more scandalous items mingled together around her in a cocktail that was as pungent as it was familiar. She tipped back a second mug of ale, draining half of it in seconds.

Gods above, she need this break. Days of stress. Paperwork. Speeches. Her eyes peered out through the gloom shrouded by dark circles from prolonged lack of sleep. Ever since the recent death of Captain Astrid her life had gone from a comfortable, predictable routine to a tumultuous madhouse. Wild accusations about her flew like hawks. That she had betrayed the captain. Poisoned her. Killed her outright in battle. Abandoned her to her death. The very thought of the swine who levied such accusations against her filled her with rage. How dare they. How [i]dare[/i] they? Perhaps one damn Nohrian worth her salt on the planet - and they thought she’d betray her?

Bitterly, she finished the other half of her drink, slamming it down on the counter and pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

“You alright there, friend? You got real quiet all of a sudden.”

She looked up at the man beside her, forcing a smile. “Yeah, yeah, sorry, Satoshi. Don’t need to dump this on ya, thanks for caring though. Rare treat to meet someone else from home out here.” She grinned, bowing slightly, “Seriously, man, lemme getcha something. My treat. You’ve no idea what a relief just a friendly face is at the moment.”

The man sheepishly smiled, “Well, if you insist who am I to turn down such a generous offer. But let me buy you one in turn! It’s only fair.”

Noriko’s grin widened. “See, I knew I liked you.” She turned from him, “Barkeep! Two more!” She called out in fluent Nohrian, winking at Satoshi as the ale was filled. “But don’t think you’ll be able to win that easily.”

Satoshi laughed. “You remind me of my daughter. She wasn’t much cut out for merchant life. She’s a warrior now, training her own little ones to be like her, too.” He smiled fondly, clearly thinking of something pleasant to him. “Ah, it’s good to remember these things, no? Tell me, what was it like growing up in N-”

“I’m from Hoshido.” She snapped, more forcefully than intended, then softened. “I… mostly grew up in Hoshido. My parents died when I was young, so I was taken in by Daimyo Matsudaira Yujiro. He was a good man. Kind.” She smiled, “Heh, I even became his cook for a while! Still got the hang of it too - even if it’s pretty rare I get to do it these days. Ingredients are hard to find, too.”

She looked up, after a moment. “Say… you’re a merchant, right? Would you happen to have some? Any? I’m sure you know how hard it is to get ingredients from home out here. I’m feeling homesick and it’s been forever since I just had a decent meal - not like what they have around here.” She made a face.

Satoshi beamed. “Of course! Now’s not the time to discuss business of course, but I’ve a great many ingredients! And for the, well, the [i]former[/i] personal cook of a daimyo no less? It would be an honor.” He winked at her, “I would scarce believe that there was a single person in a hundred leagues who was more suited to them!”

Her grin grew wider, “Ah you know how to butter your clients up, don’t you? Ever the businessman, ever the businessman.” She chuckled, “Can’t say I blame ya.”

The banter continued, Noriko gradually attracting the attention - and the ire - of the Nohrian tavern patrons within hearing distance. She paid them no heed, continuing to chat without care with the Hoshidan merchant across from her. He, however, had one question that needed answering.

“Alright, it was, truly, a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward to selling you my wares - but I must ask before I take my leave.” Satoshi paused, looking uncertain. “What’s… what’s with the accent, if you [i]are[/i] Hoshidan?”

Noriko’s grip tightened on her mug, and for a second she said nothing, instead sighing deeply. “Look, Satoshi, friend - I’d… I’d really rather not share the details, alright? Here’s the gist. My parents were merchants from Hoshido just like you. They came here to trade but didn’t have much luck - but they had my sorry ass along for the ride too. First few years of your life are pretty formative, y’know? The accent stuck.” She looked him up and down, “Watched some mangy Nohrian dogs murder them, later on. Stripped them of fur like animals. Hah! They’re the fucking animals. Tried to get me, too.” She spat. “So that’s why I’ve got this fuckin’ accent. Don’t worry, it’s not contagious. You won’t start speaking like you’re choking on a whole raw squirrel.”

“If you don’t like it here, Hoshidan cunt, then you can jolly well fuck off!” Came a voice from one of the tables surrounding them. Noriko looked over to the man, standing up from his ale, wobbly, and red in the face. “I’m not gonna just… just stand here and let you run your whore mouth about us!”

Noriko laughed. “Stefan, Stefan! There’s no need to talk like that! You’re drunk, friend. Go home. I think you’ve had enough.” She reclined against the table, but her words carried a dangerous edge to them that seemed to sail past the man in question. He swaggered towards her, prodding her in the chest as he slurred obscenities at her amused expression. 

She pushed him away gently, raising an eyebrow. “Buddy, hey, buddy. I know it’s hard living in such a shithole, but no need to take it out on me, alright? I don’t want a fight. You don’t want broken bones. Just head home.”

A Nohrian woman stood, now, sauntering over to join her countryman. She clutched a glass bottle in her hand, swaying uncertainly as she pointed accusingly at the kitsune. “You bitsch, thinkin’ ya can jusht… waltz on in here’n start jusht… shayin’ these things? We-” she hiccuped, glaring at Noriko more, “We oughta show you a less- no, no no no… teach ya a leshon! Yeah!”

Noriko struggled to muster a proper response, bursting into laughter at the display before her. Doubled over in her seat, she attracted the attention of the other patrons of the tavern with her laughter.

Satoshi took a nervous glance around the room and, with a final farewell and promise to visit the Silver Hawks’ camp to sell his wares, took his leave. Noriko, for her part, finally recovered from her fit of laughter. Standing up to her full height, she towered over the two of them, her teeth bared in a savage grin. “Is that so?” She said, “You’ll teach me a lesson?”

“Hoshidan whore!” Another voice called, and a third Nohrian stood, joining the previous two to stand in front of her. “Blasted harlot! Scurrilous strumpet! Lowly tramp! Mud-born slut! Ignoble streetwalker! Vulgar virago! You have no right to stand upon these premises and speak such rot! No right!”

She looked at him for a second, nonplussed. “Er, sir.” She said, somewhat awkwardly, “This is a tavern. I think you’re looking for a bard’s college? A place of musical learning? Any university of higher thought?” She grinned, “Or did you just want the only chance to use that tongue of yours to make a girl feel something other than disgust? Either way, I’m [i]delighted[/i] to make your acquaintance but I’m afraid I simply [i]must[/i] decline your eloquent proposition! You’d be spoiled! You’d never settle for a Nohrian again. You’d pine away your days thinking of that one glorious moment. I couldn’t do that, not even to one of you.” She winked at him playfully, blowing a kiss. 

“Like we’d want some mangy dog!” Came another voice, another Nohrian man joining the growing throng of voices that called out insults to the kitsune woman who basked in their anger as though it was a long, soothing bath in a hot spring. 

Noriko beamed at him, and without missing a beat retorted. "Sorry pal, I don't see your wife anywhere near here! Maybe try the brothel!" The man stood up immediately, spilling his drink over himself and nearly falling over his own chair. His shouting intensified as he stormed up towards her, yelling obscenities and insults that she barely bothered to process. She looked him up and down with a careful eye, frowning. “Honestly, guy? I’d tell you to piss up your own asshole - but you’d need a cock for that.”

The man recoiled, his face visibly disgusted, “You dishonor your father by speaking like that, you whore!”

Noriko cocked an eyebrow at him, tossing her empty mug at him where it narrowly missed as he ducked out of the way. “At least the last time I made mine smile wasn’t when I was still in his balls!” She laughed, signaling for a replacement. 

Another voice joined the chorus - different in tone. Equal parts mocking and amused. A woman stood, calling out to her. “Hey, fox bitch, suck my dick if you’re gonna have your mouth open so much!”

Noriko grinned, calling back to her, “When pigs fly, friend!”

Not missing a beat, the woman retorted, “Well, find me when you grow some wings!”

Noriko blinked, caught off guard for a moment. She laughed, pushing past the growing crowd and fishing out a coin and tossing it towards the woman who caught it without moving from her seated position. “Well played, madam!” She replied, “Well played indeed! I’d buy you a round for that if your friends weren’t giving me grief.” She looked to the angry group of Nohrians, “The rest of you lot could learn a thing or two! Or did she get the only brain cell in Nohr?”

The crack of a barstool splintering against Noriko’s shoulders and back cast the rest of the room in silence. Noriko whirled on her attacker - a woman whose cheeks were, like almost everyone else in the room, flushed red from the effects of alcohol. She watched, uncertainly, as her massive opponent seemed unphased by the impact. Noriko took a single step forward towards her - then drove her fist into the woman’s jaw. An attack devoid of finesse, telegraphed like a warship coming into ram - but against an opponent as drunk as this, it sent the woman sprawling across the floor, crying out in pain.

The first man charged at her now, and Noriko rushed to meet him head on. She slammed her shoulder into his gut, carrying him aloft as she barreled through the crowd, sending one stumbling to the floor and knocking the others out of her way. Gripping the man tightly in front of her, she bodyslammed him into the wall, his arm - held at the wrong angle, cracking with a sickening thud. She pulled him back from it, kicking him towards the crowd where he collapsed beneath them, curling into a ball.

The bartender shouted… something. She couldn’t hear through the rush of blood in her ears. The pounding of adrenaline that settled on her as she felt the rush of excitement fill her. The next one to come was the drunken woman, swinging her bottle towards her head with all her might. Noriko swatted her hand away, the empty bottle shattering against the floor. She slipped inside her guard and drove her elbow into the woman’s nose, kicking her aside only to be tackled by another man from across the room, pulling her to the floor. 

Shards of broken glass cut into her skin as she snarled something unintelligible at him. She felt his fists working against her. She felt the impacts - but they were dulled. Every bit of pain filtered out as two more piled onto her. One wielding an improved club from the shattered barstool, another kicking at her face with all his might. A sickening crack from the fist of the man on top of her and searing pain told her her nose was broken. She reacted on instinct, pulling him in closer and biting down on the closest thing she could find. She reached to gouge for his eyes, claws raking bloody gashes on his face. Still the blows kept coming. She couldn’t stay here. Not for long. Again, she lashed out, punching with all the might she could muster at his throat. 

With an explosive burst of strength she surged up from the floor, grabbing one of her assailants as the other man gasped for breath. She clawed at his eyes, too. Kneed his groin. Drove her fists into his gut and his face with an increasingly sickening wet, fleshy sounds. Her hands came away red, and now another man was on her back, pounding away at her head, her neck, her shoulders. 

She threw herself backwards, landing with the full mass of her body and his own with his flesh taking the brunt. Throwing her head backwards, she was rewarded with a muffled scream of pain. The grip released, and she rolled away just as another body landed where she had been. The man who’d been kicking her on the floor hurriedly scrambled to his feet, and, as another woman homed in on the conflict, a sturdier barstool in hand, she made her decision. Rushing forward she effortlessly parried his clumsy swing, grabbing his neck in one hand and hefting him aloft, grunting from the exertion. Carrying along her improvised weapon, she slammed the man’s body into the onrushing woman. A muffled scream rose up from one of them - Noriko was unsure which - accompanied by another crack of breaking bone. Another enemy approached, and, still holding on to the man, she swung him around in turn, his skull connecting with that of the first drunken woman with a stomach churning crunch. 

The faint hiss of a dagger being tugged free from its leather sheath suddenly loomed loud in her ears. Every nerve screamed at her to move. To react. She whirled around to face the new threat, but was too late. Something hit her back. She couldn’t tell what. It hurt, a bit, but she felt barely anything now. She could barely feel the blood and sweat that rolled off her body. The cuts, bruises, and more. As she turned she saw the face of a young man wide with terror as he lost grip of the dagger he had sunk into her back. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that, had she turned a split second later the blade would’ve found her spine. As hot blood began to ooze from around the weapon lodged in her back, she seized him by the throat, her clawed hands digging into his skin and drawing blood. Noriko brought him closer to her, snarling, her teeth a hair from his face, “I hope you enjoyed it you little shit, because it's the deepest you'll ever be in a woman."

Roaring in pain and anger, she tightened her grip on his throat and heaved him into the air above her head. With all her might, screaming in pain an fury, she slammed him down headfirst into the edge of the bar. And again. And again. Blood splashed on the wood with each successive impact. She changed her grip now, claws digging into the back of his head as she smashed his face into the surface with one final grunt of exertion. Chest heaving, she relinquished her grip on him, and he collapsed to the floor in a broken heap, blood oozing from a broken nose and ruptured skin. 

Another man lept atop her, his weight pushing the dagger further into her body as he beat a piece of heavy hardwood about her head and shoulders. She hissed from the pain, clawing for him and seizing one of his arms as he tried to choke her. She bit down, hard, as hard as she possibly could. The man screamed, and blood filled her mouth now. With her other hand she grabbed the arm, pulling as hard as she possibly could. Reeling from the pain and unprepared for it, he was pulled off her back and thrown bodily to the floor. Running forwards, she delivered a savage kick to his jaw, following up with one to the gut, before looking around for more assailants.

The room was filled with bodies rolling around on the floor or lying still. Some groaned. Others swore aloud. More than the Nohrians Noriko had fought lay on the floor, and a few others reigned triumphant over their own personal one on one brawls. The same woman Noriko had tossed a gold to earlier tossed her a lazy salute, another woman curled into a ball by her table as she calmly sipped at her ale, showing no signs of having taken part in the fight except her now considerably mussed hair.

The door to the tavern crashed open, shaking the floor beneath its occupants as a dozen guards poured through. The din of armor and weapons ensured the attention of everybody in the room, and Noriko, hesitantly, waved at them, an uneasy smile on her face.

“Evening, chums!” she called out in the local language, “They’re breathing! We got a little heated is all. They had to take a nap.”

One of the guards did a double take at the tall woman that stood in the center of the chaos, bleeding from a hundred cuts, a knife visibly protruding from her back, a black eye, broken nose, myriad bruises marring her features, and more. Clearing her throat, she seemed unsure of who to address first, but kept her sword raised pre-emptively. 

Noriko, slowly, raised her arms over her head, “Hey, hey, no need to worry! I’ll just… uh. A fine? Right? That’s standard protocol? Pay for my part of the damages?” She gestured to her person, “I didn’t draw a knife on anyone, swear on my life. This thing’s from that fuck over there.” she gestured to the unconscious man lying where she had left him. From across the room, a few others nodded or voiced their assent to her story, confirming that she had not drawn a weapon, or started the brawl.

The guard cleared her throat. “Ahem. Yes. Just… pay your fine and… don’t let me catch you here again.” she said uncertainly, “At least, not without someone a… just pay the fine and [i]go[/i] before I change my mind!

Noriko nodded, slowly, gently, making her way towards the guards while reaching into her pockets. She counted out enough gold pieces to, by her estimate, cover the damage - and an extra premium for keeping the guards happy. The lead guard glared at her and jerked her head toward the door. 

Noriko half walked, half stumbled towards the door and out it, pausing for one final second to yell into the bar. “And I’m keeping the dagger! Once I get it out! Cunt!”

With that, she staggered off into the city to search for her Sergeant-At-Arms. And a healer.

[center]~🙘🙚~[/center]

Stumbling through the streets, Noriko’s eyes alighted on a familiar sight, and her face turned from a pained grimace to a bright eyed smile as she jogged over to him, ignoring the pain from the dagger still protruding from her back. “Toda! Glad to see you!” She called, pulling up beside him. She looked Bhaskara up and down, “This one of ours I take it, yeah? Wait, wait. Bhaskara, right? New guy. Signaler.”

Toda glared at her with a look that expressed a myriad of sentiments at once. Noriko was, almost, impressed by the expressiveness of his features despite his visible tiredness. A mixture of [i]’What the actual fuck?’[/i] and [i]’Holy fucking shit’[/i] abd [i]’Why are you coming to me like this at this ungodly hour?’[/i]. Noriko coughed awkwardly. Toda watched her for a second more before he spoke. "Captain...?" He spent a few more seconds, pondering what to say, looking for a way to properly express his opinions of the sight before his eyes. "It's-...It's my day off...it's our day off. Does it really take that much effort not to leave me with the thought that you might've started a fight?"

"Well, technically," she began, wiping a mixture of blood and sweat from her brow. "They were the ones who started it. 'Sides, I've spent... far too fucking long dealing with the aftermath of, y'know... it's almost refreshing to be surrounded by a bunch of fools who literally stabbed me in the back, instead of a bunch of fools who think I did it metaphorically to Astrid."

After a moment, she sheepishly added, "Any of our healers around here? Don't want one of... [i]them[/i] to do it."

"Well there was Sanji," Toda began with a look to Bhaskara, then back to the direction he'd seen the apothecary go, "he just passed us."

For the time being, he brushed off her comment of the populace. It wasn't that he himself had a care about them, nor was it that he held any sense of attachment to the nation as a whole, but the locale of their conversation was all but inconvenient. Sure, she was a capable warrior, and a damn good fighter, judging by the spoils of her won brawl, but she was also their Captain - at times like those, there was a slight amount of inner-regret toward accepting the position of Sergeant-At-Arms. Then again, when hadn't a second-in-command position come with such baggage. Of course, the two were somewhat polar opposites in their way of command, but his opposite mindset was what mattered, he assumed.

"Please, stop trying to make it seem like you want to end up like Astrid. The least you could do is not mentally prepare me for taking over the Silver Hawks." It was a slight scoff, and it would've being a bit playful had he not experienced the most unpleasant of comforts that morning.

Noriko’s smile fell. “Yeah, yeah I suppose so. I just, tch. Shit, man, I needed a break. I’m not good at intrigue. I’m barely a leader. I’m good at breaking stuff and figuring out battle plans to help other people break stuff. Navigating this morass? I oughta glue you to my back for the duration, let you do the talking.” She shook her head. “Ah we’ll find Sanji when we find him. If it was serious I’d not be walking right now.”