( to the victor belongs the spoils )

[outplays]

[ When Akashi had led the kingdom of Rakuzan to invade Kaijou, the plan was the same old same old: being a dry kingdom, it fell upon their military power to exert its power and bring back the necessary gold to pay merchants in times when trade was going poorly and drought killed its crops. The only problem was that when Akashi had stormed Kaijou's imperial palace, they'd found that its coffers had already been plundered.

It would be a terrible blow for not only Kaijou but Rakuzan to go home emptyhanded. Then they would have wasted their military forces for nothing. So Akashi had come up with a compromise: give Rakuzan their kingdom's best mage, and Rakuzan will hold him until Kaijou can pay reparations. He knew from secondhand information that Kaijou's most prominent mage is one of the kingdom's princes and has power over rain and storms, and it'd been the thunderstorms that had tried Rakuzan's army the most during their invasion. Being able to call showers would be useful for Rakuzan; last year's crops had almost withered way entirely under a horrible lack of rain.

What he didn't know was that the mage was one Kise Ryouta, who made for an exceptionally attractive spoil of war. Even if he does do an awful lot of sitting around his room in the Rakuzan imperial palace being (understandably) miffed about being taken from home.

With Akashi's ability to see from afar, it's easy to keep an eye on him. And he can tell that Kise isn't particularly happy, only being allowed to wander around certain parts of the castle, only allowed to practice his magic when it's to call rain to different parts of the kingdom.

So he decides to pay Kise an unexpected visit one late morning, striding into Kise's room without knocking first, wearing unusually normal clothes for him. They're still obviously very nice, but he's usually decked out in full regalia. ]

I want to take you somewhere. Will you allow me to accompany you?

[ ... Not that Kise has much of a choice. ]