[... that gets his attention, as does the pretty trap connected to it. I don't want it, I can't use it, he'd said, only to have it offered all the same. The offer pitches Akechi's suspicions right back up to the rooftops. For there are deals he'll make rather than cross the street; there are deals he'll make regardless of their price. And then there are deals he's learned will always have too high a price.

This may or may not be one, for sure. But everything in him, reasoning and unreasoning, screams no. And so he politely declines, with just a suggestion of what he's feeling in his voice.] That's very generous of you. But like I said, I'd end up losing an eye. Or costing someone else theirs, which would make me no friends.

[And, if there's one thing he's figured out about this place, it's that he's going to need a structure around him to survive people like this. Offer something you don't need; incur a debt, do a favour. And then you can call on that debt forever—if your target is stupid enough, greedy enough, weak enough. Easily enough controlled.

Of course, sometimes something is just trash. And sometimes paranoid kids see traps where there are none.]