The Behandsoming of Maxim

Life, Publicity

Stepping out from Ago Manor to the chill night air beyond, Knight Commander Maxim found his retainers Kitsuno and Shishikura Makiko. The former, in particular, wore an expression of satisfaction bordering on smugness. Kitsuno had made no secret of the fact that it would be in Maxim's best interest for them to act together more often.   Intending to make for Shimonoseki before the late hour grew even later, Maxim once again encountered some hesitation on the psychic's part. She was watching some kind of fight, apparently. To judge by her mental tone, it must be a very exciting one at that. When Maxim asked for more details, the psychic grew suddenly evasive. Maxim decided, however, that now was not the time to pursue answers. He merely asked for a jump to Shimonoseki and then allowed Fujino to be on her way.

It was normally her wont to land closer to the city center, but this time Fujino dropped Maxim and his companions off near Shimonoseki's eastern edge. Indeed, he was only a few streets away from the coliseum, whose looming silhouette almost looked like a great turtle blocking part of the horizon. This location would work well enough for Maxim's purposes, anyway. His destination was the Old Ōuchi Manor, located on a bluff not far from the eastern outskirts. Before he could even orient himself, however, Maxim heard the thunder and felt the ground shake.   Something immense was happening somewhere near the center of Shimonoseki. If the gathering storm clouds, arcing with fierce lightning, were not warning enough, the violent shaking of the ground spurred Maxim to action. Foreign land though this was, it was still his duty as a Knight to see to the safety of civilians during a disaster. Setting off at a brisk pace, he felt Kitsuno and Makiko wordlessly fall in behind him. No doubt both were following similar lines of thought.   When, a few seconds later, the quaking ground suddenly ceased, Maxim nearly stumbled. The sheer abruptness with which the earthquake had stopped did not seem natural. He quickened his pace even as the other side of the street began to crowd with onlookers. The thunder and shaking had roused most residents of Shimonoseki from sleep, and they now began to throng in the byways of the city looking for the source of the racket.   To Maxim's relief, the faces he saw as he shouldered through the crowd didn't look frightened. Instead, they bore expressions ranging from exasperation to curiosity and... Why was that man grinning at him like that? As the Knight Commander's eyes swung around, he caught a woman blushing as she looked right at him, then away. Someone called out, egging him on, asking what was happening. All around, Maxim could feel the approval of the crowd as they urged him forward toward the thunderclouds ahead. "Foreign Champion," they called him.   Was this how Aotsuki felt all the time? Maxim allowed a confident smile to grace his features. He would see to whatever was happening, he assured the growing crowd of admirers. Just leave it to him.   From there, it took only a few minutes more to reach the center of the city. Judging from the number of people packed about its yard, The Tanuki's Glee seemed to be the nexus of all this. The raging lightning above did indeed seem to be centered over that very spot. Walking up, Maxim found that he did not even need to push his way through this crowd. They opened before him with exclamations of delight and joy that the great foreigner had arrived.   Reaching the front, Maxim could see the aftermath of what must have been a battle of truly staggering scale. The nearby stable was ruined, collapsed in on itself, while a roiling thunderstorm hovered inexplicably just off the ground behind Ryūzaki Sanosuke. Beside him, Hōzōin In'ei was sheathing her own weapons. Of the two, Sanosuke clearly seemed the most winded and battered, yet In'ei was the one conceding the fight.   The Silver General turned his back for a moment to blow away the lingering lightning with a powerful huff of his lungs. The thunderstorm above, too, seemed to be dwindling now. He turned back just in time to hear Fujino apologizing for how she'd hidden the ongoing fight from Maxim by dropping him off at the side of the city. How that had been wrong of her. That didn't sound very much like Fujino's usual tone and... Had he ever heard her apologize like that before?   When Niiro Tadatsuru's husky voice called Maxim a "hunk," Sanosuke's brow furrowed further. Something was wrong, he could feel it. Looking over, he saw that the crowd had all but forgotten him despite the recent spectacle. They were clustered around Maxim instead. There, the Silver General saw what the Knight Commander himself could not. Maxim's features had been subtly altered. All the roughness of his face was smoothed out, made symmetrical, and molded into a classically handsome shape. From his jutting, chiseled chin to his kind, sparkling eyes, every bit of Maxim was a treat to the eyes. Indeed, this dashing young knight, with his beautiful flaxen hair, might even be on the level of Aotsuki. Could that really be Maxim? What had happened to him?