章 52: Land Of Snow Arc (11) : *cough* *cough*
"Ahh…this truly is the best." A man said looking out the window as he watched the snow-clad mountains.
He took a puff out of the cigarette in between his fingers as he leaned on the window, enjoying the cool and fresh air rushing past him at such a high altitude.
"It's good that I trained Meiru-kun to take over after me soon. Now is my time to retire and relax. I'll miss flying in up so high in this blimp though."
"Hmm…maybe I'll just ask Meiru-kun to sneak me on a ride sometime…"
*crackle* *crackle*
"Hmm?" The man looked at his cigarette which had begun *crackling* as he wondered what was happening.
All of a sudden, the end of his cigarette burst into flames. He shielded his eyes from the flames using his hand after dropping his cigarette but didn't realise that would be the last time his eyes would ever remain open.
Tachibana looked around the room.
Apart from the man underneath his feet who was unconscious, Tachibana didn't find anyone.
'Hmm…this guy was probably a guide or maintenance handler of some sort for the blimp…' Tachibana guessed as he looked at the man.
Tachibana then used spirit vision to look for everyone else around him.
He spotted Koyuki and then saw the several other souls around her, assuming they were shinobi keeping guard around her.
'They don't seem to be treating her poorly, for now at least, so I have time to plan exactly how I want to assassinate Doto and his gang of shinobi.'
Tachibana hid the body of the old man inside a bed in the room after stealing his clothes and changing them with his own. Then he thoroughly examined the old man's body to check for any signs of obvious ailments and noticed quite a few things.
"His lungs are in terrible condition, he will die in a couple more months. His right knee is busted and his liver is practically rotting. So he probably coughs often and limps while walking."
"I don't know how he speaks, but as long as I don't speak in front of anyone else, I might be able to pass off as him." Tachibana nodded before using the transformation jutsu to become the man in front of him.
Tachibana then scoured the room for his belongings and learnt that the man had a grandson whose name was Meiru. He had a daughter whose name was Hina who was married to a logger who was named Hiro.
The man's name was Kaito.
He used the words 'you fool' a lot in his diary, so Tachibana decided to insert it into most of his sentences.
'If I copy the accent Koyuki used while acting in that mountain scene, my dialect should pass off as genuine right? Since the character of Princess Gale is a tribal character who lives in cold mountains too?'
Overall, he was just a simple maintenance man in the blimp and was about to retire.
He picked up the cigarette that had almost turned into ashes and snuffed it out in the ashtray that had even more cigarettes in it.
'Do I wait inside or go outside and explore the ship?'
'Hmmm…'
'Its better I stay inside, will help me infiltrate their ranks easier if they forget about me-'
*Knock* *Knock*
"Old man, you in there?"
'I guess not.'
"*cough* *cough*" Tachibana started coughing as his life depended on it.
He walked up to the door with an obvious limp that made creaking sounds wherever he put more pressure on the wooden floor because of it.
Opening the door, Tachibana looked at the young boy who was about eighteen years old in front of him. He looked at Tachibana with an expectant expression as Tachibana quickly analysed everything about him and spoke while looking away.
"You fool! I almost choked on a cigarette because you caught me off guard!"
"Haha~ Haven't you had enough of those stinking things already?" The young boy asked.
"Stinking!? That's only because you still don't have hair down there. Only a real man can appreciate the taste of fire and smoke."
The boy blushed with embarrassment before he quickly walked into the room and helped his limping grandfather to sit on the bed.
"Why did ya' come here? Done with the maintenance?"
"Ah! I forgot!"
Tachibana gave him an incredulous judging look and was about to rant on about how the young boy was irresponsible, but before he could get to it the boy spoke quickly.
But instead of shouting it out loud, the boy leaned in close to Tachibana and whispered.
"I know where they'll be taking Princess Koyuki after we land! I overheard a few of the shinobi-sama talking about it! We can ask her for an autograph after we land!!"
Tachibana gave the boy a deadpan look, before slapping the back of his head.
"You fool! You think the guards will just let us walk over to her? What will we tell them? That we admire the prisoner they are guarding!?"
"Ahh…" The boy seemed to have realised something and he nodded with a little seriousness, "I get it."
"Goo-"
"I'll distract them while you go in and quickly get a signature!!"
Tachibana raised his hand to hit the boy again but this time his eyes widened again.
"No! I get it now! Truly!!!" The boy said quickly. "I was only joking before."
"Ok, goo-"
"I know you can't be quick because your knee's broken so I'll go get the autograph while you distract the guards!!!"
Tachibana wanted to slam his head into a wall.
It took a little convincing, but the boy finally understood that they couldn't just walk into a prison and meet a heavily guarded prisoner.
The boy stayed behind and talked to Tachibana about various things, like how he would propose to one of the shinobi guards and such, while Tachibana himself mostly just stayed silent to listen to the boy.
He absorbed all the information Meiru told him while silently preparing for the blimp to land and infiltrate the castle with Meiru-kun while pretending to be his grandfather.
He assumed no one would raise questions if Meiru wouldn't about Tachibana disguising as the old man.
Finally, after what seemed to be thirty long minutes, the blimp was going to land and Meiru went back to the engine room to see if they needed his help.
Once he was back, Tachibana walked along with him, into the large black ironwood castle and just as he suspected, none of the shinobi guarding the area suspected anything wrong about him.
Eventually, once they entered their room in the castle to sign off duty, Tachibana turned to Meiru and spoke softly, "You go ahead, *cough* *cough* I'll come back in a little bit."
Although he didn't understand why his grandfather would come later, he nodded obediently and left before allowing Tachibana to go around to the prison block which he learnt the location of from Meiru.
Once there the guards blocked him from going any further.
"You can't go there if you're not a shinobi or don't have permission from one."
Tachibana looked at the two guards and brought up tears in his eyes.
"Please….my grandson is *cough* *cough* my grandson is *cough* *cough* my grandson is *cough* *cough*-"
"Old man! Is there anything after your grandson!?"
"*cough* *cough* my grandson is a big fan of Princess Gale. *cough* *cough* I heard they brought her to this prison *cough* *cough* Perhaps I can get ana autograph for him?"
Tachibana *coughed* a few more times for good measure and just when the guards were about to deny him, he played the emotional card.
"Please!? *cough* *Cough* as you can see I don't have very long *cough *cough* I want to do something for my grandson before I die! *cough* *cough*"
The guards looked unconvinced.
"Please! I worked for Doto-sama *cough* *cough* for ten years, flying that blimp ever since it was first made! *cough* *cough*"
The guards had an unwilling look in their eyes and that's when Tachibana struck.
"Please! What can a feeble old man like me really do *cough* *cough* when you great shinobi-sama are present by my side?! *cough* *cough* I also promise to take you and your families on a ride on the blimp!! *cough* *cough*"
The guards looked at each other and then back at Tachibana who was almost crying and after a silent debate nodded.
"Alright old man. We'll take you. But you have to do exactly as we say!!"
"Okay. *cough* *cough*" Tachibana nodded with a smile.
'My throat is sore…if I have to keep this up I'll end up *coughing* for real soon.'
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N : *cough* *cough*
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