Plantorsomething

Hiya! A bit of a wait, but I’ve separated this chapter into two segments, since I realized the second part of this was way too long to be added to this one. These next chapters were somewhat difficult to write properly, since my ideas are starting to solidify and I have more goals to include. 
By the way, I appreciate the review, but as I’ve said in an author status before, pressure will only make me less likely to finish the series, and actually builds up to be pretty stressful. I’m just a teenager, and this is literally the longest work I have ever created. Please go easy on me >;  Thank you for reading! <3

          Harold couldn’t sleep. He was far too busy simulating in his mind all the different stories that he could possibly say that would make any semblance of sense while still framing Harold as a bad guy that was being manipulated by a good guy, and yet at the same time, convincing Erica alone that he was a good guy pretending to be a bad guy. Anything too intricate was off the table, and he kept falling back to his original plans, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the infinite possibilities. The biggest complication, and greatest source of his ruminating, was his conversation with Erica. What could he have possibly said that wouldn’t have been translated into something so horrible? He could think of thousands of possible conversation routes, but they were all in hindsight, and there was nothing he could do to change it.

          He supposed it went along with his act, but thinking that the girl hated him still left him feeling annoyingly restless. Besides, he and Kishino would rather she didn't feel depressed for eight years thinking she was engaged to an arrogant puritain. And so, he wanted to use his first impression to make himself look good, but frame it to arouse suspicion by the mature adults who would inevitably question his motives with the letter. But now Erica despised him, and he seemed suspicious to the Summeragi, and regardless of all the possible ways he could salvage this, getting into the situation at all was irritable in of itself.

          By the time the sun finally rose, Harold’s typical headache throbbed in his head, and he hadn’t gotten any rest at all. However, instead of the mansion exploding and Harold being kidnapped, or other equally horrible possibilities, the universe had suspiciously decided to give Harold a break. At the breakfast table, after the morning prayers for good health, it was suggested that Harold get some alone time together with his new fiance while Hayden explored the territory. On top of that miracle, quickly after his father left the mansion, Harold was informed that he had a meeting scheduled with Tasuku-sama, instead of everything being slow and horribly delayed like ninety percent of anything formal and business related. He almost high-fived Kishino in his brain, until he came to the cruel realization that it was possible that Harold would most probably never get enough time to impress Erica and make up for yesterday, what with all the work they had to do.

         As soon as the sliding door to Tasuku’s meeting room shut, Harold jumped straight to the heart of the conversation in the hopes that if he finished quickly, there might be some time left over to spend with Erica. 

         “Thanks for your time. You read the letter, right?”

         “Greetings, Harold. Indeed, I read the papers-“

         “Right. So you’re going to owe me for this, but for now I only need you to provide me with a map of this territory and the vicinity outside of it. I will use Erica and my time together as an excuse to search for the scientist tomorrow.”

         Tasuku was bewildered at the impatient, demanding tone of the boy, who seemed to drop all of his manners from yesterday. He had heard it from Erika, but seeing it for himself was another story. What the boy was saying did make sense, but even so, he could not tolerate such dishonor towards himself from a child.

         “Please, calm yourself. We can discuss this all over tea. I have many questions, as you might imagine.”

         “Every second wasted is another death.”

          With that single comment, Harold’s urgency finally transferred to Tasuku, though it never showed on his face. The Summeragi head also knew that blood puritans would never actually care about anyone from the lower class, so the likelihood that this was some trick to rush Tasuku and muddle his thinking was great. And even if Harold did have some other motives, the shinobi had reported to him that the boy seemed to have some trouble sleeping last night for whatever reason, which might lead to some reckless thinking.

          “...I am aware of this, however, as to how we will go about our transaction-“

          Harold interrupted him once again by impatiently pulling a slip of folded paper out of his jacket.

          “Look here. In this paper is the list of possible ingredients.  This should prove I’m not completely bluffing at the very least. You can research it on your own if you want, but it will undoubtedly go the fastest if we find this person. It’s up to you whether you'll let me help your people or not, but should you choose to accept the hand reaching out toward you, I do have some conditions for my help. Firstly, I have another personal use for this scientist, so I want to be introduced to them first before anyone else can talk to them.”

          Harold held up a piece of paper out in front of him, and if Tasuku held any reaction, he expertly hid it from his facial features. He had to admit, for as fast as things were going, Tasuku was handling it all really well. Kishino, who was panicking on the inside, couldn’t help but feel truly blessed that Tasuku held the inhuman levels of patience he had; he didn’t know why Harold was rushing so much, but if he didn't stop soon, everything could come crashing down faster than they collapsed into their bed after Carmen’s ‘workouts’.

          “... You’d give us the results of your benefactor’s research for free, like you did with his farming techniques?”

          “Of course not. That was only to show you they knew what they were doing. I will give you this list as soon as you agree to my conditions as collateral. However, like I said, if you want help with the medicine, I have conditions; I will be hiring the scientist after this for my own purposes, and you will not be allowed to pry into any of my projects, nor will you make a job offer in opposition to mine to this scientist. You will also help me gather workers, managers, and equipment, and keep everything safely hidden within the Summeragi domain, even from my own parents. In exchange, I and my research team will occasionally cooperate with Summeragi as partners, and like I said before, give you full rights to the medicine.”

          “...That is quite the proposal.”

          “If you disagree, you can consider this medicine gone.”

          Harold noticed something had changed in Tasuku, but it was only after he stopped speaking that he realized it was his posture. The Summeragi head was calm before, but now he was beginning to get serious, as he squared his shoulders and subtly leaned in toward Harold. It was the signature ‘gamer lean’ that signalled one was starting to get serious.

         “I see…That is a compelling argument but, how could I possibly confirm the validity of this unidentified drug?”

         Tasuku had hoped that the arrogant pure-blood child would be an easy means of gaining some sort of leverage over the mysterious benefactor, but from the talk now, Tasuku was starting to realize that Harold was not all he seemed either. He was frankly horrible at the social aspect of negotiation, and Tasuku figured anyone other than him would need Harold to repeat his words or slow down, but the child at least seemed to have a solid grasp of a lot of important concepts that not many his age would be able to handle. Even still, he was impatient, and arguing exactly how a child would, which somewhat relieved Tasuku, since his naivety might be exploited somehow.

          “Obviously, you will pay me some amount in advance by secretly guiding me to the places I think the scientist resides, without anyone from Stokes finding out about it, and as I said, I and the scientist will make the medicine for you, and give you full access to any research we make. The rest of the payment comes after the fact.”

          “That would make sense, of course. But if I might ask, why is it that we must keep this a secret from your father? Shouldn’t the head of the Stokes family have something to do with such a sensitive cooperation?”

          “Use your head and think about it for five seconds.”

          Harold was attempting to dismiss the question of his secretive attitude, but Tasuku wouldn’t give up so easily.

          “Of course there are multiple possibilities, but I would like to know why you specifically would like to keep this under wraps.”

          It was true that there were a myriad of possible reasons to pick from, but he needed to know something about the boy’s goals; even a fake motive that the Summeragi could use as a foothold would be welcomed at this point. But Harold only stared at Tasuku with an expressionless poker face that gave nothing away.

          “...You’d have to pay extra for that information. And even then, you’d only have my word for it.”

          “It’s only a reason, that’s all; we wouldn’t want Hayden to find out about this after all, would we?”

          Only, the threat proved useless as the young boy maintained his stone face and didn’t so much as flinch. However, inside their head, the two headmates both agreed to tag Kishino to the front, since Harold accepted that it was impossible to rush this discussion. Just when he thought he could glean nothing from the child, Tasuku noticed that Harold seemed to somewhat calm down from his earlier aggressive demeanor. Instead of being aggressive in his words, it seemed all of that energy transferred to his body as Harold started rocking just slightly back and forth, perhaps even unconsciously. Even so, he didn’t know what to make of such a reaction. 

         It could have been a bluff, genuine nervousness, relief that he didn’t attempt a different route of blackmail, or even Harold settling himself in for a conversation that he realized would be longer than he thought. He still didn’t have enough information...

          “He would only be proud of me. If you give him the farming method and tell him I gave it to you, and was acting suspicious, he would only think I was trying to prepare a surprise for him; that kind of parent would never disbelieve his own son.”

          Tasuku tried to interject in the middle of his reasoning, but as Kishino continued his sentence without minding it, he was forced to assume the role of listener for fear that he would miss some important detail.

          “My father would then use the Stokes’ financial backing as blackmail and attempt to sue you for the rights to VP farming and medicine. If that happened, you wouldn’t have the time nor the resources necessary to contest him in court, even if you might eventually win one or both of the cases. It would also be extremely likely for you to make enemies within the pureblood faction with this dispute, and then I could sell the medicine to those enemies, who would give you a much worse deal than now. Do not be mistaken; I don’t need you to buy this medicine from me; you need this medicine to save tens of thousands of your citizens.”

          “...”

         All of the sudden, Harold’s demeanor made a complete 180, and rather than indignantly stating a list of demands, he was cooly and logically applying an ocean of pressure onto the Sumeragi head, and obliterating any possibility of leveraging Hayden as leverage against him. His tone of voice was also noticeably calmer and slower than before. Unfortunately, since Harold refused the tea, he couldn't pretend to sip his beverage, and it was evident that Tasuku was ruminating. The sudden switch had left him shocked; he wasn’t sure if he could say that the child was suddenly better at negotiating just from a few sentences, but he was certainly more patient and level headed.

          “...If Hayden were to know about this mysterious figure manipulating his son, I wonder what he would say?”

         In a last ditch attempt to fish for information, Tasuku raised that issue. But instead of trying to deceive him with any bluffs that could give anything away, Harold’s face remained as still as stone.

         “I wonder. I do not think that one who managed to remain in the dark for so long would be completely unaware of the possible risks involved in this transaction, do you? Now, I have written everything we discussed on this paper here, if you want to review it.”

         Similar to before, Harold pulled out a titleless folder from his Jacket, and slid out a thin stack of paper tucked within the pages before putting the folder back. Before the talk, Tasuku had two main objectives; he was to ensure the medicine would fall into the hands of the Summeragi, and gain as much information as possible from Harold. Any other plans required further knowledge; they couldn't move recklessly, especially with the territory in its current state. But with the current discussion, he only seemed to have ten more questions and zero answers; if he wanted something more, he couldn't afford to play it safe. Even if it meant… 

         “...I am certain that you are aware that if the Sumeragi regain their feet, it would be possible to cancel your engagement to my daughter.”

         “That is a possibility.”

         Nor reaction. But even so, he had to try. For the sake of his people. If the Sumeragi continued to stumble around in the dark, moving along according to invisible puppet strings, there was no telling what the result could be.

         “If you will tell us your motive, and yours alone, in this negotiation, then I will also guarantee the status of the Stokes house...”

         Tasuku’s heart clouded over as he couldn’t bring himself to even mention Ericas’ name. And finally, following that gut-wrenching proposition, Harold gave the Summeragi a lead. Surprisingly, Harold’s face actually twisted in anger and disgust towards Tasuku before returning to his usual stone-face that was unbefitting of a child his age.

         “Hm? I don’t care about that arbitrary status; I will have connections with you regardless of the engagement when you accept this deal.”

          That was it! Harold didn’t care for something like status; something a typical blood puitan could never bring themselves to say! Whether it was a bluff, he couldn’t be sure, but it was a string to grasp nonetheless! Noticing Tasuku’s shoulders naturally relaxing, Kishino was curious, and even a little panicked that he screwed something up, but he could also tell enough to know that it was a moment of weakness. He took out another piece of paper and flaunted it in front of him.

         “If you’ll also allow me to keep the identity of the scientist anonymous, and fully cooperate with me so that we can arrange the team and location optimally, I will also give you the ‘benefactors’ predictions of how far the plague will spread over the Sumeragi territory in the future.”

         Unfortunately, as Kishino mentioned another condition, Tasuku immediately straightened again, and he realized with regret that he probably should have led his sentence with the benefit, or worded it differently. He still had a lot to learn.

         “A map of its future spread range…? I suppose I should not be so surprised anymore. I assume the same rule applies; we will pay you a small amount initially from our side, and later, we will pay in full should it prove effective?”

         “Yes. We can discuss the particulars about money and other details now; I wrote blank spaces into the contract since I figured we would have to discuss that here today.”

         Tasuku readied himself for the next battle to come, shaking away his somehow already tired mind. The conditions suggested for predictions on the spread were actually rather small, depending on the accuracy, so he didn’t argue the point much further. 

        The shinobi hiding behind walls and in the ceiling were similarly tired, having been told to write down any and all observations and lines of dialogue from the negotiation, with the work split evenly among them. After the weeks of stress weighing down on their shoulders from the pandemic, suddenly having so many new problems and possible solutions dumped onto them was a bit much even for the elite warriors of espionage.

        Tsuku offered tea again, and poured a cup for himself, but Kishino was wary about poisons, so he politely declined. The talk ended up lasting all the way until lunch, which had rushed both parties as they realized Hayden would be coming back from his tour soon; they still needed to come up with a cover story of Harold’s ‘sightseeing’ after all. The Stokes weren’t going to stay over at the territory for long, so they needed to make use of Harold’s time while they could.

        Throughout the rest of the meeting, Tasuku couldn't help but wonder; was he seriously holding a negotiation with a ten year old child? He wasn’t great by any means, but it was strange enough for someone his age to even be able to hold his own in a serious discussion. Just what in gods’ name could possibly be happening over at the Stokes territory? And in what way did the Summeragi have anything to do with the mysterious benefactor’s schemes?