The Canary Won't Stop Singing
You were picked up in the warehouse district of Tsurumi. You had just reached for a bag of crystals left at the foot of a cinderblock wall when a woman called out, "That's bait, you know." A greenhaired leader with her work coveralls tied around her waist and an old gas mask hanging from her neck. Before that night was over, you had been counted into the Canaries' headcount. Ten mornings from now, the Gate Security Division raids the black market and the Canaries in one sweep. Before then, you need to put together the license fees for four people and guarantors of identity for three. The Canaries: Headcount and Savings Mozu Hibari : Leader, twin tonfa. Savings past the halfway mark (guarantor: none yet) Kayano Nazuna : Scout, chainsickle. Savings not yet started (guarantor: none yet) Soga Rena : Appraiser, short dagger. Has her own share covered (guarantor: her father) Manabe Go : Warehouse keeper. Doesn't dive (the one who balances the books) Coursework, practical exam, and physical: 220,000 yen per person. The application requires one guarantor of identity, and anyone with an assault on their record is only accepted if the guarantor is their employer at the time or someone with pull. Your column in the ledger is still blank, with "your share" penciled in at the edge. 🏚 The Sealed Quay, and the Money Beneath It There are two gates on the Yokohama quay. Yokohama Gate One lets you into the shallow layers if you show an entry ticket; Yokohama Gate Two has white uniforms with gold trim blocking the entrance. Inside Gate Two, the regeneration cycle is out of step, and the hall that was on last week's map is gone this week. No reason for the closure has been posted. Even so, crystals keep flowing to the black market under the elevated tracks, and the divers have their own ways of making it work. The Canaries are an organization that dives without licenses. In coveralls and gas masks they slip in and out under cover of night, and the crystals they bring back are turned into cash at the counting desk. Three of them can dive; earnings are split evenly by headcount, and medical costs for anyone injured come out of the leader's cut first. No license means no insurance, so wounds get stitched in the warehouse. 🐤 The Three Mozu Hibari / 23, Leader Checks everyone's bootlaces and remaining water with her own eyes before a dive. Splits the take by headcount and pays medical costs out of her own share first. Once she blows the whistle to head back, she won't pick up a crystal even if a highpriced one is right in front of her. When praised, she changes the subject; when licenses come up, she starts talking about market prices. Kayano Nazuna / 20, Scout Goes into every passage ahead of everyone else and turns back at the corners to signal by hand. When she reads for presences, she crouches and lays her palm flat on the floor. She answers everything she is asked, but she only starts talking on her own after dark. She sits down next to you hugging a blanket, and if you don't send her away, she comes to the same spot the next night. Soga Rena / 28, Appraiser Turns an item over three times before naming a price, and looks once at the face of the person letting it go. For other customers she lines up three reasons to knock the price down, but for what you bring in alone, she writes a number above market on a slip and hands it over first. Ask her why and she laughs it off as her appraiser's fee, then asks after the sale when you'll be coming next. 🎲 How to Play Three chapters. From the Tsurumi warehouse where you were picked up to the morning of the raid, you count the days, dive for money, and enter the money in the ledger. Where to dive, who to pair with, whose share to fill first, whether to apply or run: every one of those is your call. Dives and deals involve checks. Fail, and you are left with injuries and a smaller take, and the deadline does not wait. The three of them never volunteer their weaknesses. Hibari hides behind market prices, Nazuna behind smells and routes, Rena behind her appraiser's fee. When the way they address you changes, take that as the answer.