Aino Minako considered herself a pretty damn good Navy commander. She had been eradicating pirates left and right from the seas, allowing for easier and safer travel for merchants and messengers of Queen Serenity. However, there was one thing that would cause her to grind her teeth in frustration if you brought it up: the pirate Hino Rei.

Minako had spent the past six months trying to track this infamous pirate down. She had gone down the coast lines, out in the middle of the ocean, inspected ports for days at a time with no luck. All she got were stories and rumors of a woman pirate who had long black hair and eyes that could pierce your soul.

"Commander."

Turning around, Minako was met face to face with her second in command Ace. Honestly, she found the man exasperating because he was always hitting on her and trying to get in her bed.

"What is it, Ace?" She didn't bother to hide the annoyance in her voice at seeing him.

"There's a fight up ahead with a merchant ship and some pirates. Should we intervene or wait for them to duke it out?"

Minako went stiff and rigid. A merchant ship? There shouldn't have been one all the way out here, there no ports anywhere nearby for efficient trading and it was a route that was usually avoided because of the excessive number of pirates.

"We're going in. Merchants aren't well armed enough to deal with pirates. They must be in some pretty serious trouble if they're all the way out here." Moving, she pulled on her belt that held her scimitar on one side and gun on the other. "Get close enough that we can board, but try to stay far enough away that our ship doesn't get hit by any random fire from the pirates."

"Sir!" With a tap to his forehead, Ace left and the ship changed its course and worked its way towards the fight. Minako moved up above deck to inspect the scene before she had a realization at watching the fight. Merchant ships were not armed with that many cannons.

"STOP!" She turned to the navigator but it was too late. They were already on the fight and she had to grit her teeth. Pirates pretending to be merchants, of course. It was rather intelligent, she gave them that one. However, it was almost…too intelligent for a normal set of pirates who believed in showing their cross and skull flags and blood soaked ships.

Once the ship was close enough to the fray, it was almost immediately hit by a stray cannonball that sent it rocking. Minako had to pray that she didn't go down because of a stray cannonball striking her on her own deck. With that thought in mind, she moved her men to action.

"Take whatever you can alive! If it's too threatening for your own life, then kill them, but keep as many alive as you can!" A firm believer in keeping as many alive for trial as he should, Minako had a policy that involved killing as few as possible. It also meant much less paperwork when she had to account for dead bodies.

She watched as her men boarded the ship that fit more of the bill of a pirate ship, where plenty of hand to hand combat was already ensuing between the two ships and followed suit. Never one to just jump into a fray, she assessed the situation before her. It was clear to tell who was a pirate from the ship that didn't seem to be a merchant. They were filthy, covered in hair that hadn't been shaved, and the clothes looked more like rags than anything else. It caused a frown to tug at the edge of Minako's mouth. They didn't make for very good fighters it seemed.

That was, until she analyzed the so called "merchant" ship crew. They were as clean as one could really get out at sea, but none of them seemed...brash or really threatening. She watched as some rather tall pirate proceeded to clock another in the face and knock him straight out. The man didn't even have his sword or gun drawn for Serenity's sake.

"Ace."

"Sir?"

"Did you catch the name of that merchant ship by chance when we came up? You know. The one that blasted us when I told you to keep us far away enough so it wouldn't happen." Her eyes darted to him, slightly narrowed. She was pissed about the hole in the side of her ship, that was clear.

Ace fumbled a bit before he could answer at the look he got. "I-uh…Sniper or something."

"Sniper?" Minako snorted a little. "Yeah real original merchant ship name. Look I'm going to find a Captain and kick some ass a little to let some steam off. Keep an eye on the men."

"Yes, sir." Ace nodded and stepped back as Minako drew her sword out, the sun glinting off the polished surface of her scimitar. She wasn't really one for violence, but once in a while she needed to vent off her frustrations and a hole in the side of her ship fit that bill pretty damn well.

There was always a certain look a Captain held if they were a pirate. Tricorn hat, typical of course. Long coat with some shitty tunic under it that looked torn to shreds. Sometimes she wondered if they ever bothered to read fashion magazines when they hit a port or at least look at the current style. Needless to say, grizzly and dirty was not in at the moment.

As her thoughts trailed off through her walking around on going fights, she nearly ran into someone who had just taken a pirate down. When she looked up with a frown, hand griping her sword, she had to do a double take.

Right in front of her was a woman with a tricorn hat on, but she most certainly did not have the long coat or shitty tunic. She almost looked pristine and clean outside of some gunpowder on her hands and the front of her shirt. None of this, however, is what caught Minako's attention. It was the long black hair and deep violet eyes that stared back at her that caused her to come to a complete halt as her brain temporarily shut down.

If rumors were to be believed, this woman was the pirate she had spent months hunting down. And god did the phrase "eyes that could pierce your soul" become very real. She felt like suddenly every single secret she knew was being laid out in front of her just to shame her. It took a hand reaching for her collar for her to snap out of her daze and immediately take a step back and swing her sword in defense.

"God. All you Navy people want to do is cut a damn limb off." The woman grumbled as she held up the short sword she had just taken the man at her feet down with, which looked like it had been very well kept, which probably meant it was sharp enough to slice skin with little to no effort.

The retort came out before she could stop it. "All us Navy people want to do is make the waters safe to travel from heathens like you!"

"….Heathens? Well…I guess that's a new one." Her eyes trailed over to the ship and caught the name and she frowned. "You must be the commander."

If Minako was shocked, she didn't know it at this bit of information. "And if I am?"

"You'd be wise to get your little shitty crew back together and leave before someone dies."

There were a number of insults that were just thrown at her and Minako knew it showed on her face. Shitty crew? Dies? What kind of asshole…As if that wasn't offensive enough, the woman shook her head and put her sword back away and started to walk away. Did she seriously find Minako not a challenge? Oh hell no.

Stepping forward she brought her sword forward towards the back of the girls shoulder, intending on wounding her enough to hinder her ability to even wield her sword. In the moment she blinked, the short sword was against her own, pressing back. What the hell just happened?

"Perhaps you'd be wise…" Minako started, pushing hard, "to just give yourself over, Hino Rei."

Well if that was the woman's name, she didn't really react to it. All she did was draw her sword back before swinging it right back at Minako, full force. The jarring of the metal meeting felt uncomfortable as they started to face off against each other. It almost seemed like the woman was just toying with her, wasting time. She really was putting no effort into this and that made Minako grind her teeth. She was going to need some dentures if she kept doing that today, she realized.

Suddenly the woman paused with wide eyes and dropped her sword down, allowing Minako's sword to slice the skin at her left shoulder deep enough to spill a decent amount of blood. Confused, she stumbled back until she was grabbed and shoved into another direction behind the woman. Before she could turn around to ask what the fuck was going on, there was a loud explosion and Minako was sent flying forward and everything went black.

I am writing this story in my free time around school and work! (And at this time, a hurricane). I want to give a big shoutout to PD for encouraging this to happen and helping give me awful ideas.