[h1][b][center][color=9e0039]Noriko[/color], [color=ed1c24]Alba[/color], and [color=A7CF00]Toda[/color][/center][/b][/h1][hr]
Noriko sighed, lowering her voice so only Toda could hear, as she became more cognisant of Bhaskara listening in. "Yeah, yeah, I may be THE leader, I know. But... shit, this is why I picked you." She gestured vaguely to her injuries, "I'm good at finding a way out of trouble - but I'm also prone to getting into it in the first place. I'm plenty smart at some things - and terrible at others. I may be THE leader, but I'm not a leader. Not a natural one like old Astrid, at any rate."

As she opened up to the Oshan, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He matched her tone with covert intent and he couldn't help but prod her with a silent quip. "I don't need your résumé," he gave her a small smile, "but that doesn't change anything. Everyone's a leader when they are one. How they lead, whether good or bad, will come clear soon enough."

Noriko grinned. "And you know how that's gonna go, don't you? Bad. Definitely, definitely bad. I've gotta intuit my way out of this mess somehow with half the company thinking I killed the previous leader and the other half barely seeming to remember her. Still, one vote of confidence is far better than zero, true enough." She sighed, thinking for a moment before she spoke to him again. "Guess I never really did tell you why I picked you, did I?" 

Immediately, he returned her with a half-serious, half-jovial retort. "Lesson one. Don't tell your second in command you're going to do bad until you've done bad - otherwise when I have to report to all they'll either be fed a terrible truth or I'd have to lie, and I'm not one to do so to honest friends." Then, he pondered over her lead on point. Picked him? Well, the chosen usually do wonder, he thought. "It's crossed the mind once or twice. Depends if you think now is a good time to tell me, or if you'd rather wait for a more private hour."

"A more private hour, is that it?" she replied, raising an eyebrow as she spoke. "Why, Ujiteru-san I did not know you harbored such feelings! And to be so bold!" She grinned widely at him, almost as if a predator surveying a particularly juicy cut of meat. "But of course, the discourse of such important matters of the company must wait, sorry, kid." She said, winking at Bhaskara, "It's for 'private hours' only."

Ujiteru paused for a second. He should've been used to that sort of quip, if it were one, and he should've been ready for it, having practically given her an invitation to make such a fool of him. Nevertheless, he didn't try to let it squander or crush his self-esteem. After all, if she were insinuating that he was never the type for anyone. "Stop projecting." He first huffed, rolling the eyes, "Someone might start thinking you were desperate."

"Thinking I'm desperate, is that it?" She mused out loud, "Guess that's why I've got this new knife, huh? Some poor fellow mistook the signs. Saw a lonely girl drunk in the bar just begging to be penetrated, eh?" She grinned wider, "Ah but alas both of his blades are surely far too small to satisfy anyone. A shame."

At that moment, his grin turned to a mixture of discomfort and the feeling of being unsure. He looked at Bhaskara, then back to the Captain before them. Poor child, he thought to himself, even if the lad was old enough to not be called such things. "Uh - well...hmm." He was stumped for a second on what to say. "Perhaps your first step as being a leader is choosing which words you say around...certain members."

Noriko recognized the meaning behind his words, but after a moment's introspection, scoffed at him. "Bah! If the boy's old enough to hear a man choking out his last breath miles from home, he's old enough to hear the captain making a dirty joke." She shook her head. "Honestly, what are you lot coming to? Tch, back when I was his age..."

"-back when you were his age, you weren't the mercenary Captain." He gave a deadpan stare before huffing to himself once more. It mattered not in the grand scheme, and the two were arguing over what might as well have been spilt milk, not to mention removing the agency from Bhaskara. He raised his hand and settled for the status quo of changing subject, he turned around and occupied his eyes elsewhere down the street, watching over all that bustled around them. "Another time, then. You have a day to spend free."

Noriko shot him a look filled with a mixture of amusement and disdain. "A day to spend free?" She asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously. "A whole [i]day[/i] you say? Tch, no, no. No that's for you, and for the others. I have the morning free, and that's about all there will be. Let the captain enjoy her free morning." She shook her head, sighing in exaggerated exasperation.

Her ear twitched, and she turned to face another direction, away from her second in command, following the sound. A second later the words of that one wolfskin girl - Alba, if she recalled correctly, drifted in to her. Noriko's features instantly widened into a smile, and she waved back, striding across the square towards the other woman, heedless of the stares directed her way at the dagger protruding from her back, or the cuts and bruises that marred her skin, or the blood clotting in her clothes. "Alba! A pleasure as always!"

Alba jogged over to the group. "Cap'n!" Alba's eye went wide as she drew closer.  She eyed Noriko's various scratches, cuts, and bruises. Alba detected the smell of booze wafting off Noriko. "Wow. You look like shit. Already havin' fun without the group, eh?"

Noriko grinned wide. "Aye you bet I am! Got a free knife out of the deal too! Such [i]generous[/i] fellows here in Nohr! Perhaps I've been wrong about 'em!" She winked, clapping her on the shoulder, "So what's brought you into the city today? I never much took you for the type. You seem more at home elsewhere."

"S'pose you can say that. The city's too much for myself." Alba let out an awkward chuckle. "Just sellin' some game from earlier today." The wolf-woman's ears twitched in visible frustration. "Not much coin in it though. Guess it was probably just a waste of time." She paused for a moment. "Between you in me, I'm really hopin' for some work soon. You know, just to stay busy."

Noriko smiled, reaching out a hand and patting the other on the back. "Nah, I get you. I like cities, spent a lot of time in 'em growing up. But these Nohrian ones... bad memories." She sighed, "But there should be work aplenty soon enough, I think. We've still matters to resolve about our last contract before, eh... before Astrid died. I've got some paperwork to do once I find a healer and get these little papercuts closed up. Then we'll get you something proper to fight."

Alba patted Noriko on the back in kind. "A fight sounds good. I'll leave that business stuff to you and Toda." Alba took a step back, awkwardly scratching the back of her head. "I'm not really cut out for all that. S'pose I'll try and be makin' myself useful someplace else, yeah?"

Noriko chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, tell y'the truth it's hardly my preferred field either." She sighed, "Always been more at hand hitting things and thinking about how to get people in the correct place to hit things. The details for how much we get paid for hitting things?" She shook her head. "Eh, practice makes perfect, I suppose. I'll leave you to it unless you'd like to tag along, best I get back to work."