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[LOG] inui and yanagi
Who: Inui and Yanagi
What: Awkward shogi and shady swim time
Where: Inui's office and then the pool
When: After Inui’s first post
At precisely 2101, Yanagi appeared outside Inui’s office (which he’d assigned personally, taking Inui’s various habits and preferences into account). After getting off work earlier in the evening, he dressed quite casually in a turtleneck and slacks, and went to retrieve Inui’s UEA-issued swimwear, which he was holding in a small paper bag. Hopefully, Inui would be … cooperative. Yanagi honestly hadn’t expected to see him on Yomi, nor had he thought Inui would be so… affected by his abrupt departure.
Inui’s office was not the structured, organised (and yet uniquely chaotic in its organisation) space that it had been on Earth, still too full of boxes as he moved things in. But he’d found his shogi set and set it up on the desk, which was large enough to accommodate it with sufficient space around it. He moved to the door 30 seconds after 2100, and it opened, precisely 1 minute after the arranged meeting time. “Kyoujyu,” he said, glancing down at the paper bag with a small drawing together of his eyebrows. “Next time you don’t want the elevator holding you up, I suggest the stairs.” He moved aside to let Yanagi in.
“Hello, Hakase. It was not the elevator, but a cleaning bot, which delayed me,” Yanagi responded, entering Inui’s office. He could still remember every detail of Inui’s old office back on Earth, and it felt vaguely unsettling to be in this strange space. He set the paper bag on the desk, and sat down across from Inui’s chair. “I trust you are settling in well?”
“Ah. The reports indicated they could cause some trouble for people.” Mostly the people they deemed as litterers or smokers it seemed… Inui considered Yanagi for a long moment. He shut the door and made his way back to the desk, sitting down and he started to set up the shogi board. “I am. There are many new people to put data to their faces. The photos provided don’t show the updates of 5 months of hair growth and algae diet. You look well.”
“They seemed to be programmed that way on purpose,” said Yanagi with a bland smile, observing Inui on his end. He seemed … a little leaner than Yanagi remembered. More musculature, perhaps? “You’ll learn about everyone soon enough,” he continued. “The algae diet supplies all required macro and micronutrients. I am well, as can be expected. Would you like to toss to see who goes first?” He picked out the pawn pieces and held them out to Inui.
Inui nodded as Yanagi spoke, reaching out to take the pawn pieces for furigoma. “Your opening,” he said, looking at the pieces. He sat back in the desk chair and studied Yanagi with his usual intensity, noting the changes in hair length, the clothes - ones he’d seen before - and the smaller changes - maybe married life was making him look a bit tireder than before? “I’ve been catching up on the conversations from the past two months. They have been insightful to the relationships on the base.”
Yanagi made the opening move that Inui likely expected – a cautious approach testing the waters, meant as reassurance and question both. He could feel Inui’s assessing gaze, of course, but gave no sign of noticing. Inui could look all he liked. Perhaps he would finally notice the lack of a wedding band.
“You should not rely solely on those conversations for data,” he cautioned Inui. “Tone is lost in the written word.”
Inui responded with his standard response move - he was still the same, he hadn't changed from when they last played shogi together in his apartment on Earth. Yanagi had changed, perhaps more than Inui wanted to think about, away from the calculating trainee Intelligence Officer and into someone who would… run away and get married, but he focused on building his data from scratch.
"The chosen tone for the written word provides information as well," he argued. "However, I will remained satisfied with hypotheses until I have a chance to correlate the data from the comments with in person observation."
Yanagi was, truth be told, mildly irritated and more than a little disappointed that Inui had been taken in so readily by the ruse. He’d thought Inui would have seen the discrepancies that others would not have picked up, rather than falling back on assumptions. His next move reflected that, uncharacteristically aggressive and risky.
“If you require information,” said Yanagi, “you need only ask.”
Inui's eyebrows drew together slightly as Yanagi moved away from the standard collection of moves that he could usually predict 10 moves ahead. Interesting. He responded in turn, cautious, poking more at the edges to get an understanding.
"You know I don't believe information sourced solely from other people. Even if they're you, Renji." Inui folded his hands and stared at him. "What is in the bag?"
“Patience is a virtue, Sadaharu,” Yanagi replied, answering with a bold, direct attack he’d picked up from Sanada at some point. “We are playing a game.”
He met Inui’s eyes. “Of course, I would not expect you to take everything I say at face value.”
Ah, something that would disrupt from their game then, because he would be more interested in it than playing shogi. Inui glanced at the bag and ran through at least 10 options of what it could be based on the size of the bag and volume of whatever it was inside. "Of course. I always needed my full concentration when playing with you."
Yanagi was playing more like Sanada in a bad mood and Inui's own moves took much the same tone. "Only a fool would take you at face value," Inui said. Fools like he had been apparently. "Are there other shogi and go players on base, or have you been playing only Genichirou this whole time?"
Wholly aware of how Inui’s curiosity would be piqued by the presence of the paper bag, Yanagi derived some petty satisfaction from drawing out the mystery. Though it seemed their game might take much less time than usual, considering their aggressive approaches.
“Genichirou is my usual partner, though I also play Niou, from Engineering,” Yanagi replied, taking one of Inui’s pieces. “Niou leaves tsumego for me, sometimes.”
An easy trap to fall into - Inui took one of Yanagi’s pieces in return, evening the board again. “That’s disappointing that there aren’t more opponents.” Particularly with internet delays meaning that any sort of online game wasn’t an option either.
He glanced up at Yanagi’s face at the mention of tsumego, the memory of his own steadily more challenging tsumego to Yanagi coming to mind. “I would suggest long conversations with Niou Masaharu from Engineering as a more effective way of generating interest.”
“There are a few other players on base, but I haven’t played them yet,” said Yanagi, considering the board. He had to admit he’d missed Inui’s lightning quick thinking and ability to predict his moves. It was difficult to find a match to Inui’s intellect in the UEA proper, much less a far-flung planet like Izanagi.
“Masaharu and I have our own long conversations,” he added. “The two are not mutually exclusive.”
“Yes, you’ve been very busy keeping the base running.” Yanagi in Command doing what appeared to be mostly admin work confused him a little, but also… a fine cover for information gathering. “Hopefully there are others who can give you a challenge. Genichirou is an aggressive opponent.”
Inui’s eyes narrowed slightly - interesting change to the given name usage. “At first I thought Niou Masaharu might have been a cover for you, to extract information from others.”
“You are here now, are you not?” Yanagi scoffed. Unless Inui was planning to shun him after this… which was unlikely but not wholly implausible.
“Masaharu is a friend,” he said of Niou. A friend who had the side perk of being a sub-contractor for data collection, but a friend nonetheless.
“I meant for my own games, beyond playing you and Genichirou,” Inui said, because the chances of Sanada agreeing to a game were 100% and Yanagi had agreed readily enough.
Inui nodded at the description of Niou. He had seen that conversation - it seemed that both Yanagi and Sanada had decided that together. “He is an interesting contrast to Genichirou. Much more difficult to figure out.” He was silent as they exchanged a few hands between them and Inui glanced again curiously at the bag on his desk.
“I will forward you a ranked list of potential partners for various board games,” Yanagi agreed. He followed Inui’s gaze back to the paper bag, and shook his head.
“Pay attention,” he chided, taking another of Inui’s pieces. “We will deal with that after the game.”
“Thank you. I’ll go through it and make my own list and we can compare.” It would give him something to do in the assigned down time that he had, as well as fitting in his daily training.
Inui frowned at the reprimand, both verbal and in the game. “It’s a good thing that I’m not prone to giving up easily,” he said, moving his next piece, more aggressive than before as he settled into the rhythm of the game again. “Besides the milk production to make cheese and other dairy products, it seems that alcohol may be a valued commodity here. Would you agree with this?”
Giving no quarter, Yanagi answered with his own move, lightning fast. “Alcohol is a valued commodity anywhere,” he replied noncommittally. “The sale and distribution is regulated, so you will have to apply for a permit if the alcohol produced is not just for private consumption.” He wasn’t surprised that Inui was already thinking about it.
There had only been a 46% chance that Yanagi would for that move and Inui changed his tactics quickly as he moved another piece. “Your preference is tea. There was a plentiful supply on the shuttle, and I have some.” Mostly out of habit to always have some, rather than his own enjoyment. “It will be privately consumed in my presence by other people.” He might just become extremely popular.
Should Yanagi be glad that Inui still considered his preferences to be important? “Thank you,” he said, with a slight incline of his head. “Your alcohol distribution plan is …” an acceptable loophole, “ … legitimate. You will make many friends.”
A few more exchanges later, and it became clear that Yanagi’s brashness in the early game had put him in an unfavorable position.
“I concede,” he allowed, after determining there was no way out of the checkmate.
"I plan to observe everyone initially, before moving potentially into making 'friends'." He did need to talk to Gakuto, as the other chemist and Oshitari Yuushi of course. But otherwise, standing on the side.
He inclined his head at the predictable resignation. "Your imitation of Sanada was interesting. But you couldn't quite carry through the aggression." Inui spoke for 3 minutes of analysis before he fell silent. "I enjoyed playing with you again. I want to look in the bag."
Truth be told, Yanagi was a little ashamed of himself for that poor showing, and was more than aware of all the mistakes he made in the game. Feeling uncharitable toward Inui’s brutally honest dissection of his shortcomings, Yanagi quickly tidied the board, then swiped the bag.
“Will you come somewhere with me, Sadaharu?” he asked. “I’ll show you when we get there.”
Ah, Yanagi was in a bad mood and Inui saw his chance at looking in the bag slip away. He blinked in surprise at the sudden request and stood up. "Of course. I'll go wherever you need me to." And he didn't have any data right now to be able to predict where exactly… but enough to know that he wasn't about to be kicked out of the tower at least. "Lead the way."
Inui was far too trusting, thought Yanagi as he led Inui out of the labs and toward the elevators. They encountered a few personnel on the way, who all gave them a wide berth. Yanagi was glad, not feeling particularly inclined towards small talk at the moment.
They took the elevators up to the ground floor, where Yanagi directed them towards the pool complex. Once in the changing rooms, he pushed the bag into Inui’s arms. “Put that on.”
Inui followed Yanagi along curiously, tracking their movements through his mental map of the base. And… up to the greenhouses perhaps? To agriculture or the bioreactor? The pool was a low probability, as was being corralled into the changing rooms. Inui looked into the bag and oh okay, pulled out a rather small sized Speedo with UEA stamped across it.
"There is 0% chance of an explanation until I put this on," Inui said, already starting to strip out of his clothes, folding up each later neatly. He was not a vain person, but he was suddenly quite glad that he had actually spent the last 3 months rigidly training every day on the shuttle.
“Mm.” Yanagi also undressed, having worn the speedo under his clothing. He set his clothing (and crucially, his communicator) in a locker, before turning to Inui, glancing over him with a critical eye. He was fitter than Yanagi remembered, and showed none of the muscle loss associated with space travel. Once Inui had fitted the speedo properly around himself and was communicator-free, Yanagi started herding him towards the pool.
Inui took the communicator off his wrist as well, followed by his glasses, placing both on his pile of clothes. And okay, no words apparently. Inui frowned at the uncharacteristic impatience - something was definitely off. "Kyoujyu give me a moment," he said, squinting a little at Yanagi's blurry self. "I haven't had a chance to acquaint myself with the location." And it was harder to figure it out with his bad vision.
“There’s no need for that,” said Yanagi, taking hold of Inui’s wrist so he wouldn’t bump into things. He dragged Inui all the way to the shower station where people rinsed off before and after entering the pool, and backed Inui up against the low wall.
“The walls have ears,” he commented after turning on the spray to muffle the sound of their conversation.
Inui stared at Yanagi, whose face was quite in focus with how close it was and he was acutely aware of that, and the wall digging into his back. "And eyes everywhere," he said. He'd seen the cameras, and knew that they fed into Command. It took Inui a second to piece together the purposefully brought along swimwear, the visit to the pool where there were showers… and an excuse to take off the communicators and leave them in another room, and then transmitting everything back to Command. "Ah."
He moved to press a kiss to Yanagi's neck, conveniently angled so his ear ended up near Yanagi's mouth. "Talk."
Yanagi sighed, both in relief that Inui got it, and in resignation at the high probability that he would be on the receiving end of one of his own warning powerpoints. Perhaps it would have been better to do this in one of their rooms’ ensuite showers…
“Do you recall the recent leadership reshuffle? I found something that led to that.”
Inui squinted at the blobs of people moving quite quickly away from the next shower over. That was convenient. He moved his arm to wrap around Yanagi's waist, thinking through his words. Yes, there had been that very sudden leadership shuffle, not long after Yanagi's departure and… oh, now he felt blind.
"... My personal bias clouded my judgement on the situation," he admitted into Yanagi's neck. "Corruption? Concrete evidence on human experimentation and testing?" He'd had some questionable requests come through to his labs before.
Yanagi nodded. “I let slip some vague hints to Genichirou. That meant I had to take him with me… he’s too straightforward, as you know.”
“I’m sorry I could not tell you.” Inui was wholly UEA-funded, and so many eyes were on him due to his many successes and accolades. It was better that he remained ignorant. Of course, then was then, and now he was here, as far away as they could get from the UEA’s central leadership.
“The chances of Genichirou passing on those hints to someone else… 71%. 89% if he didn’t work out what they meant.” Far too high to take a risk with.
The pieces were sliding into place quickly though, with the fast departure, Yanagi being at his apartment one night and then gone the next day… Inui slowly exhaled. “I would have shared data with you if you had asked,” Inui said. “I had suspicions as well, not about the people you uncovered.”
Yanagi shook his head and smiled, then pushed Inui’s face away with his hand. They’d been dawdling for quite a while under the spray, the weight of Inui’s arm felt like a brand on his waist, and Yanagi had no desire for additional censure regarding “inappropriate actions”. They were done with secrets for now, anyway.
“I’m going to swim for a bit,” he told Inui. Might as well, since they were here.
Inui straightened up, but took the chance to move his hand along Yanagi’s waist, down to his hip bone before he let it drop. “Your body fat percentage has dropped since I saw it last, by approximately 1%.” It was difficult to get a more accurate number without looking with his glasses. “Either from listening to Genichirou and exercising more… or you’re not eating properly again.”
Inui earned a sharp swat to his arm for being handsy and unhelpful. “I have been very busy,” was Yanagi’s excuse for his weight loss. “We’re always short-staffed, here.”
He guided Inui safely to the edge of the pool, before stepping into the water at the shallow end. There were other people around, who were mostly watching them in a sort of horrified fascination. Yanagi could only imagine what the rumor mill would churn out overnight.
Too busy to eat properly, then. Although not without likely significant amounts of fussing by Sanada to both exercise and eat more. Inui noted that down with interest.
Inui stepped into the pool carefully, squinting at the water to judge the distances appropriately. “Shall we race? To give you a chance to redeem yourself after the shogi game?” he asked, moving to the next lane over.
Yanagi rolled his eyes at Inui. He normally found Inui’s competitive streak to be quite charming, but Yanagi was still in a bit of a bad mood. “I’m tired, and out of shape,” he said. “So, no thank you.” He swam off with a dignified, leisurely breaststroke.
He watched the Yanagi-blob swim off and… how interesting. Out of shape as well. Maybe also still in a bad mood after losing, and trying to get an endorphin release from the exercise? Inui wished that he hadn’t left his glasses in the changing room so that he could observe better. He swam as well, into a steady front crawl so he could duck under the lane rope and cut in front of Yanagi. He blindly grabbed Yanagi to stop him from swimming past and blinked chlorine water out of his eyes. “I am returning to my office to recalibrate my data on you,” he said. He needed to consider the new information from Yanagi and continue to try and consider the situation without his analysis clouded by bias. Particularly on the marriage with Sanada. “My office and room are open to you, if you wish to continue to talk or shower together.”
Time to get Sadaharu some prescription swimming goggles, thought Yanagi, as he watched Inui grab a completely random person.
“I’m over here,” he called, amusement evident in his voice. The terrified NPC quickly took advantage of the distraction to squirm away and escape from the pool. A sharp glance from Yanagi was quickly received and acknowledged – hopefully that would ensure he didn’t loosen his tongue elsewhere “Whatever will we do with you, Sadaharu?”
… What? Inui squinted a bit closer at the person’s face and oh, oh no that was a random person with similar brown hair and same skin-coloured face. Inui’s grip on them loosened as he turned around to find Yanagi. “I will need to get some prescription swimming goggles.” Now that he knew where Yanagi was though, he did swim closer to grab onto his arm. “Showering or talking over tea together, Renji. I am happy to do either with you when you are willing.”
“Some other time then, Sadaharu,” Yanagi agreed noncommittally. “Do you need help finding your way back to the changing room?”
Inui stared at Yanagi’s out of focus face for a moment longer before he shook his head. “I can find my way back. Enjoy your swim.” He let go of Yanagi’s arm and nodded at him before using the edge to pull himself out of the water. And it took a few moments of blindly looking around to orientate himself and lining it up with the map of the pool area in his head before he could stroll off.
He’d find the changing room eventually.
Well, Yanagi had expected that. He hauled himself out of the water with a sigh, and caught up with Inui. He slowly guided him to the changing rooms, mindful of the slippery floor. Once out of sight of the surveillance cameras, Yanagi leaned in and pressed his lips to Inui’s cheek.
“See you around, Sadaharu,” he said, and slipped away.
What: Awkward shogi and shady swim time
Where: Inui's office and then the pool
When: After Inui’s first post
At precisely 2101, Yanagi appeared outside Inui’s office (which he’d assigned personally, taking Inui’s various habits and preferences into account). After getting off work earlier in the evening, he dressed quite casually in a turtleneck and slacks, and went to retrieve Inui’s UEA-issued swimwear, which he was holding in a small paper bag. Hopefully, Inui would be … cooperative. Yanagi honestly hadn’t expected to see him on Yomi, nor had he thought Inui would be so… affected by his abrupt departure.
Inui’s office was not the structured, organised (and yet uniquely chaotic in its organisation) space that it had been on Earth, still too full of boxes as he moved things in. But he’d found his shogi set and set it up on the desk, which was large enough to accommodate it with sufficient space around it. He moved to the door 30 seconds after 2100, and it opened, precisely 1 minute after the arranged meeting time. “Kyoujyu,” he said, glancing down at the paper bag with a small drawing together of his eyebrows. “Next time you don’t want the elevator holding you up, I suggest the stairs.” He moved aside to let Yanagi in.
“Hello, Hakase. It was not the elevator, but a cleaning bot, which delayed me,” Yanagi responded, entering Inui’s office. He could still remember every detail of Inui’s old office back on Earth, and it felt vaguely unsettling to be in this strange space. He set the paper bag on the desk, and sat down across from Inui’s chair. “I trust you are settling in well?”
“Ah. The reports indicated they could cause some trouble for people.” Mostly the people they deemed as litterers or smokers it seemed… Inui considered Yanagi for a long moment. He shut the door and made his way back to the desk, sitting down and he started to set up the shogi board. “I am. There are many new people to put data to their faces. The photos provided don’t show the updates of 5 months of hair growth and algae diet. You look well.”
“They seemed to be programmed that way on purpose,” said Yanagi with a bland smile, observing Inui on his end. He seemed … a little leaner than Yanagi remembered. More musculature, perhaps? “You’ll learn about everyone soon enough,” he continued. “The algae diet supplies all required macro and micronutrients. I am well, as can be expected. Would you like to toss to see who goes first?” He picked out the pawn pieces and held them out to Inui.
Inui nodded as Yanagi spoke, reaching out to take the pawn pieces for furigoma. “Your opening,” he said, looking at the pieces. He sat back in the desk chair and studied Yanagi with his usual intensity, noting the changes in hair length, the clothes - ones he’d seen before - and the smaller changes - maybe married life was making him look a bit tireder than before? “I’ve been catching up on the conversations from the past two months. They have been insightful to the relationships on the base.”
Yanagi made the opening move that Inui likely expected – a cautious approach testing the waters, meant as reassurance and question both. He could feel Inui’s assessing gaze, of course, but gave no sign of noticing. Inui could look all he liked. Perhaps he would finally notice the lack of a wedding band.
“You should not rely solely on those conversations for data,” he cautioned Inui. “Tone is lost in the written word.”
Inui responded with his standard response move - he was still the same, he hadn't changed from when they last played shogi together in his apartment on Earth. Yanagi had changed, perhaps more than Inui wanted to think about, away from the calculating trainee Intelligence Officer and into someone who would… run away and get married, but he focused on building his data from scratch.
"The chosen tone for the written word provides information as well," he argued. "However, I will remained satisfied with hypotheses until I have a chance to correlate the data from the comments with in person observation."
Yanagi was, truth be told, mildly irritated and more than a little disappointed that Inui had been taken in so readily by the ruse. He’d thought Inui would have seen the discrepancies that others would not have picked up, rather than falling back on assumptions. His next move reflected that, uncharacteristically aggressive and risky.
“If you require information,” said Yanagi, “you need only ask.”
Inui's eyebrows drew together slightly as Yanagi moved away from the standard collection of moves that he could usually predict 10 moves ahead. Interesting. He responded in turn, cautious, poking more at the edges to get an understanding.
"You know I don't believe information sourced solely from other people. Even if they're you, Renji." Inui folded his hands and stared at him. "What is in the bag?"
“Patience is a virtue, Sadaharu,” Yanagi replied, answering with a bold, direct attack he’d picked up from Sanada at some point. “We are playing a game.”
He met Inui’s eyes. “Of course, I would not expect you to take everything I say at face value.”
Ah, something that would disrupt from their game then, because he would be more interested in it than playing shogi. Inui glanced at the bag and ran through at least 10 options of what it could be based on the size of the bag and volume of whatever it was inside. "Of course. I always needed my full concentration when playing with you."
Yanagi was playing more like Sanada in a bad mood and Inui's own moves took much the same tone. "Only a fool would take you at face value," Inui said. Fools like he had been apparently. "Are there other shogi and go players on base, or have you been playing only Genichirou this whole time?"
Wholly aware of how Inui’s curiosity would be piqued by the presence of the paper bag, Yanagi derived some petty satisfaction from drawing out the mystery. Though it seemed their game might take much less time than usual, considering their aggressive approaches.
“Genichirou is my usual partner, though I also play Niou, from Engineering,” Yanagi replied, taking one of Inui’s pieces. “Niou leaves tsumego for me, sometimes.”
An easy trap to fall into - Inui took one of Yanagi’s pieces in return, evening the board again. “That’s disappointing that there aren’t more opponents.” Particularly with internet delays meaning that any sort of online game wasn’t an option either.
He glanced up at Yanagi’s face at the mention of tsumego, the memory of his own steadily more challenging tsumego to Yanagi coming to mind. “I would suggest long conversations with Niou Masaharu from Engineering as a more effective way of generating interest.”
“There are a few other players on base, but I haven’t played them yet,” said Yanagi, considering the board. He had to admit he’d missed Inui’s lightning quick thinking and ability to predict his moves. It was difficult to find a match to Inui’s intellect in the UEA proper, much less a far-flung planet like Izanagi.
“Masaharu and I have our own long conversations,” he added. “The two are not mutually exclusive.”
“Yes, you’ve been very busy keeping the base running.” Yanagi in Command doing what appeared to be mostly admin work confused him a little, but also… a fine cover for information gathering. “Hopefully there are others who can give you a challenge. Genichirou is an aggressive opponent.”
Inui’s eyes narrowed slightly - interesting change to the given name usage. “At first I thought Niou Masaharu might have been a cover for you, to extract information from others.”
“You are here now, are you not?” Yanagi scoffed. Unless Inui was planning to shun him after this… which was unlikely but not wholly implausible.
“Masaharu is a friend,” he said of Niou. A friend who had the side perk of being a sub-contractor for data collection, but a friend nonetheless.
“I meant for my own games, beyond playing you and Genichirou,” Inui said, because the chances of Sanada agreeing to a game were 100% and Yanagi had agreed readily enough.
Inui nodded at the description of Niou. He had seen that conversation - it seemed that both Yanagi and Sanada had decided that together. “He is an interesting contrast to Genichirou. Much more difficult to figure out.” He was silent as they exchanged a few hands between them and Inui glanced again curiously at the bag on his desk.
“I will forward you a ranked list of potential partners for various board games,” Yanagi agreed. He followed Inui’s gaze back to the paper bag, and shook his head.
“Pay attention,” he chided, taking another of Inui’s pieces. “We will deal with that after the game.”
“Thank you. I’ll go through it and make my own list and we can compare.” It would give him something to do in the assigned down time that he had, as well as fitting in his daily training.
Inui frowned at the reprimand, both verbal and in the game. “It’s a good thing that I’m not prone to giving up easily,” he said, moving his next piece, more aggressive than before as he settled into the rhythm of the game again. “Besides the milk production to make cheese and other dairy products, it seems that alcohol may be a valued commodity here. Would you agree with this?”
Giving no quarter, Yanagi answered with his own move, lightning fast. “Alcohol is a valued commodity anywhere,” he replied noncommittally. “The sale and distribution is regulated, so you will have to apply for a permit if the alcohol produced is not just for private consumption.” He wasn’t surprised that Inui was already thinking about it.
There had only been a 46% chance that Yanagi would for that move and Inui changed his tactics quickly as he moved another piece. “Your preference is tea. There was a plentiful supply on the shuttle, and I have some.” Mostly out of habit to always have some, rather than his own enjoyment. “It will be privately consumed in my presence by other people.” He might just become extremely popular.
Should Yanagi be glad that Inui still considered his preferences to be important? “Thank you,” he said, with a slight incline of his head. “Your alcohol distribution plan is …” an acceptable loophole, “ … legitimate. You will make many friends.”
A few more exchanges later, and it became clear that Yanagi’s brashness in the early game had put him in an unfavorable position.
“I concede,” he allowed, after determining there was no way out of the checkmate.
"I plan to observe everyone initially, before moving potentially into making 'friends'." He did need to talk to Gakuto, as the other chemist and Oshitari Yuushi of course. But otherwise, standing on the side.
He inclined his head at the predictable resignation. "Your imitation of Sanada was interesting. But you couldn't quite carry through the aggression." Inui spoke for 3 minutes of analysis before he fell silent. "I enjoyed playing with you again. I want to look in the bag."
Truth be told, Yanagi was a little ashamed of himself for that poor showing, and was more than aware of all the mistakes he made in the game. Feeling uncharitable toward Inui’s brutally honest dissection of his shortcomings, Yanagi quickly tidied the board, then swiped the bag.
“Will you come somewhere with me, Sadaharu?” he asked. “I’ll show you when we get there.”
Ah, Yanagi was in a bad mood and Inui saw his chance at looking in the bag slip away. He blinked in surprise at the sudden request and stood up. "Of course. I'll go wherever you need me to." And he didn't have any data right now to be able to predict where exactly… but enough to know that he wasn't about to be kicked out of the tower at least. "Lead the way."
Inui was far too trusting, thought Yanagi as he led Inui out of the labs and toward the elevators. They encountered a few personnel on the way, who all gave them a wide berth. Yanagi was glad, not feeling particularly inclined towards small talk at the moment.
They took the elevators up to the ground floor, where Yanagi directed them towards the pool complex. Once in the changing rooms, he pushed the bag into Inui’s arms. “Put that on.”
Inui followed Yanagi along curiously, tracking their movements through his mental map of the base. And… up to the greenhouses perhaps? To agriculture or the bioreactor? The pool was a low probability, as was being corralled into the changing rooms. Inui looked into the bag and oh okay, pulled out a rather small sized Speedo with UEA stamped across it.
"There is 0% chance of an explanation until I put this on," Inui said, already starting to strip out of his clothes, folding up each later neatly. He was not a vain person, but he was suddenly quite glad that he had actually spent the last 3 months rigidly training every day on the shuttle.
“Mm.” Yanagi also undressed, having worn the speedo under his clothing. He set his clothing (and crucially, his communicator) in a locker, before turning to Inui, glancing over him with a critical eye. He was fitter than Yanagi remembered, and showed none of the muscle loss associated with space travel. Once Inui had fitted the speedo properly around himself and was communicator-free, Yanagi started herding him towards the pool.
Inui took the communicator off his wrist as well, followed by his glasses, placing both on his pile of clothes. And okay, no words apparently. Inui frowned at the uncharacteristic impatience - something was definitely off. "Kyoujyu give me a moment," he said, squinting a little at Yanagi's blurry self. "I haven't had a chance to acquaint myself with the location." And it was harder to figure it out with his bad vision.
“There’s no need for that,” said Yanagi, taking hold of Inui’s wrist so he wouldn’t bump into things. He dragged Inui all the way to the shower station where people rinsed off before and after entering the pool, and backed Inui up against the low wall.
“The walls have ears,” he commented after turning on the spray to muffle the sound of their conversation.
Inui stared at Yanagi, whose face was quite in focus with how close it was and he was acutely aware of that, and the wall digging into his back. "And eyes everywhere," he said. He'd seen the cameras, and knew that they fed into Command. It took Inui a second to piece together the purposefully brought along swimwear, the visit to the pool where there were showers… and an excuse to take off the communicators and leave them in another room, and then transmitting everything back to Command. "Ah."
He moved to press a kiss to Yanagi's neck, conveniently angled so his ear ended up near Yanagi's mouth. "Talk."
Yanagi sighed, both in relief that Inui got it, and in resignation at the high probability that he would be on the receiving end of one of his own warning powerpoints. Perhaps it would have been better to do this in one of their rooms’ ensuite showers…
“Do you recall the recent leadership reshuffle? I found something that led to that.”
Inui squinted at the blobs of people moving quite quickly away from the next shower over. That was convenient. He moved his arm to wrap around Yanagi's waist, thinking through his words. Yes, there had been that very sudden leadership shuffle, not long after Yanagi's departure and… oh, now he felt blind.
"... My personal bias clouded my judgement on the situation," he admitted into Yanagi's neck. "Corruption? Concrete evidence on human experimentation and testing?" He'd had some questionable requests come through to his labs before.
Yanagi nodded. “I let slip some vague hints to Genichirou. That meant I had to take him with me… he’s too straightforward, as you know.”
“I’m sorry I could not tell you.” Inui was wholly UEA-funded, and so many eyes were on him due to his many successes and accolades. It was better that he remained ignorant. Of course, then was then, and now he was here, as far away as they could get from the UEA’s central leadership.
“The chances of Genichirou passing on those hints to someone else… 71%. 89% if he didn’t work out what they meant.” Far too high to take a risk with.
The pieces were sliding into place quickly though, with the fast departure, Yanagi being at his apartment one night and then gone the next day… Inui slowly exhaled. “I would have shared data with you if you had asked,” Inui said. “I had suspicions as well, not about the people you uncovered.”
Yanagi shook his head and smiled, then pushed Inui’s face away with his hand. They’d been dawdling for quite a while under the spray, the weight of Inui’s arm felt like a brand on his waist, and Yanagi had no desire for additional censure regarding “inappropriate actions”. They were done with secrets for now, anyway.
“I’m going to swim for a bit,” he told Inui. Might as well, since they were here.
Inui straightened up, but took the chance to move his hand along Yanagi’s waist, down to his hip bone before he let it drop. “Your body fat percentage has dropped since I saw it last, by approximately 1%.” It was difficult to get a more accurate number without looking with his glasses. “Either from listening to Genichirou and exercising more… or you’re not eating properly again.”
Inui earned a sharp swat to his arm for being handsy and unhelpful. “I have been very busy,” was Yanagi’s excuse for his weight loss. “We’re always short-staffed, here.”
He guided Inui safely to the edge of the pool, before stepping into the water at the shallow end. There were other people around, who were mostly watching them in a sort of horrified fascination. Yanagi could only imagine what the rumor mill would churn out overnight.
Too busy to eat properly, then. Although not without likely significant amounts of fussing by Sanada to both exercise and eat more. Inui noted that down with interest.
Inui stepped into the pool carefully, squinting at the water to judge the distances appropriately. “Shall we race? To give you a chance to redeem yourself after the shogi game?” he asked, moving to the next lane over.
Yanagi rolled his eyes at Inui. He normally found Inui’s competitive streak to be quite charming, but Yanagi was still in a bit of a bad mood. “I’m tired, and out of shape,” he said. “So, no thank you.” He swam off with a dignified, leisurely breaststroke.
He watched the Yanagi-blob swim off and… how interesting. Out of shape as well. Maybe also still in a bad mood after losing, and trying to get an endorphin release from the exercise? Inui wished that he hadn’t left his glasses in the changing room so that he could observe better. He swam as well, into a steady front crawl so he could duck under the lane rope and cut in front of Yanagi. He blindly grabbed Yanagi to stop him from swimming past and blinked chlorine water out of his eyes. “I am returning to my office to recalibrate my data on you,” he said. He needed to consider the new information from Yanagi and continue to try and consider the situation without his analysis clouded by bias. Particularly on the marriage with Sanada. “My office and room are open to you, if you wish to continue to talk or shower together.”
Time to get Sadaharu some prescription swimming goggles, thought Yanagi, as he watched Inui grab a completely random person.
“I’m over here,” he called, amusement evident in his voice. The terrified NPC quickly took advantage of the distraction to squirm away and escape from the pool. A sharp glance from Yanagi was quickly received and acknowledged – hopefully that would ensure he didn’t loosen his tongue elsewhere “Whatever will we do with you, Sadaharu?”
… What? Inui squinted a bit closer at the person’s face and oh, oh no that was a random person with similar brown hair and same skin-coloured face. Inui’s grip on them loosened as he turned around to find Yanagi. “I will need to get some prescription swimming goggles.” Now that he knew where Yanagi was though, he did swim closer to grab onto his arm. “Showering or talking over tea together, Renji. I am happy to do either with you when you are willing.”
“Some other time then, Sadaharu,” Yanagi agreed noncommittally. “Do you need help finding your way back to the changing room?”
Inui stared at Yanagi’s out of focus face for a moment longer before he shook his head. “I can find my way back. Enjoy your swim.” He let go of Yanagi’s arm and nodded at him before using the edge to pull himself out of the water. And it took a few moments of blindly looking around to orientate himself and lining it up with the map of the pool area in his head before he could stroll off.
He’d find the changing room eventually.
Well, Yanagi had expected that. He hauled himself out of the water with a sigh, and caught up with Inui. He slowly guided him to the changing rooms, mindful of the slippery floor. Once out of sight of the surveillance cameras, Yanagi leaned in and pressed his lips to Inui’s cheek.
“See you around, Sadaharu,” he said, and slipped away.
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