In which Captain Zaraki turns to piracy
The rippling waves shimmered in the bright sunshine. The sky was a clear cerulean blue, with only a few wisps of cloud stretching over its vast expanse. No land was in sight and the water reached out to meet the horizon on all fronts. The tranquillity of the moment was shattered by the familiar clang of sword meeting sword from the large ship floating in the ocean, aptly (and somewhat unimaginatively) named The Captain's Fury.
"Geddim, Ikkaku!"
"Go, Captain Zaraki!"
"Yay, Kenny!"
As you can imagine, silences were rare on this ship of brash, boisterous pirates.
The captain, a large, fearsome brute with a scarred face and hardened, lean chest grinned as he swung his jagged sword. A matching grin was on his opponent's face, his third-in-command Ikkaku Madarame. The shouts of encouragement from the on-looking crewmembers increased in volume as Ikkaku attempted to undercut his captain's blow, but was blocked instead.
"Ha, this is too easy," Zaraki growled, pressing harder on his opponent's blade with his own.
"You shouldn't be so sure," Ikkaku replied, and in one swift, smooth movement brought his sheath up in front of his body to block Kenpachi, freeing his sword which swung round to the captain's chest. Blood spurted out of the wound, but the man didn't seem fazed in the slightest, bleeding away on the deck.
Kenpachi Zaraki laughed, and renewed his assault on the (very smug) Ikkaku. The crew began to cheer once more.
"Geddim, Ikkaku!"
"Go, Captain Zaraki!"
"Yay, Kenny!"
It never occurred to the crew to say anything different. Suddenly there was a shout from above.
"Ship sighted, Captain Zaraki!" cried the lookout on the mast.
In actual fact this ship had been sighted a while ago, but the lookout hadn't wanted to interrupt the fight. The last time he did, he had lost his eye. It probably said a lot about the management of the ship that they still made him do lookout duty.
Zaraki walked to the railing, Yachiru on his shoulder with Yumichika and Ikkaku flanking him. The other ship had certainly seen them and was headed straight for them.
The miniature first mate placed the telescope over one large eye and closed the other one. "They haven't got a flag, Kenny!"
Kenpachi cursed. "Pirates. They've got nerve even being in the same ocean as me. They'll still be entertaining, but I was hoping for one of the military ships from the Soul Society. Now they'd be fun opponents."
"Not to mention all the beautiful gold they'd have on board," said Yumichika wistfully. Suddenly Yachiru gasped, still looking through her telescope.
"What is it?" Zaraki asked.
"The ship… it's the Estoque del Diablo! Yay!" the girl cheered.
Ikkaku grinned. "Prepare for battle?"
"Prepare for battle," his captain confirmed, eyes gleaming with bloodlust.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the water unnoticed by The Captain's Fury, a third ship floated, watching the proceedings with interest. At least, one person was. The other crewmembers aboard the SSS Ice Dragon watched their captain and subordinate arguing with amusement, as was the norm.
"Captaaain!" Rangiku whined. "Your yelling is making my migraine so much worse!"
Hitsugaya spluttered with rage. "Your migraine?! You wouldn't even have a migraine if you'd just once laid off the sake like I told you to!"
Momo, who was watching the two other ships move steadily closer to each other, couldn't help but sigh at Rangiku's antics. Poor Shiro. Rangiku was one of her best friends, but she did tend to drive Captain Hitsugaya's stress levels through the roof sometimes. Most of the time. Actually, it was a miracle if he went five minutes without screaming at her.
Momo suddenly realised there was something a little off about the two other ships in the distance. First one, then the other, hoisted a flag to the top of the mast. The breeze caught them and they unfurled, flying steadily, revealing an ominous skull and crossbones motif. Momo's jaw dropped. Pirates!
"Shiro!" she cried, spinning, just as the captain prepared to pitch Rangiku over the side of the ship. Momo, remembering his current temperament, hastily corrected herself. "Captain Hitsugaya!"
The short, snow-haired young man dumped Rangiku onto the deck and turned, frown reappearing as he saw Momo's alarmed expression. He looked past her at the ships behind her, which they could all tell, even this far away, that they were busy hives of activity.
"No-one panic," Hitsugaya said in an authoritative voice. "By the looks of it, they haven't seen us, or if they have they have not acknowledged us. So long as we stay ready for anything, and as long as we calm ourselves…"
He was interrupted by the sound of someone vomiting behind him. After a while, Rangiku spoke up.
"Um, Captain? You remember that fancy-looking captain's hat you had, with all the feathers?"
"You mean the one I told you specifically not to touch, on pain of death?"
"That's the one! I think someone might have thrown up on it a little bit."
He did not turn to look at her, which she should have taken as the opportunity to run. It was a very, very foolish thing that she remained where she was. "And you have no idea who it was?" Hitsugaya asked.
"Not a clue, but I'm sure whoever they are, they're deeply apologetic and are probably thinking about what a horrible thing they've done to their wise, hopefully merciful captain."
"Is that so?" Hitsugaya said in a dangerously serene tone. "Well, Rangiku, I have only one thing to say to you."
The crew at this point mysteriously disappeared, finding anything else to do and anywhere else to be. Momo, who also knew her captain's moods well, tried instead to speak in order to calm him down but was forestalled by Hitsugaya's next word.
"BANKAI!"
Kenpachi was just about to give the order for the men to fire the cannons when the sense of someone's powerful spiritual pressure stopped him. As he looked around for the source, he noticed the brown-haired, pristine captain of the other ship do the same.
It wasn't hard to find what that spiritual pressure had been. Behind the ships, in the distance, was a huge column of ice, clearly from someone's temper tantrum.
Excellent, thought Kenpachi, time to ditch this show off and fight for real!
Just then, a thunderous sound ripped through the air and the Fury swayed violently from side to side. Kenpachi regained his balance quickly and turned – to see another Estoque on the other side! Where the hell had that come from? Yachiru swung onto his shoulder and pointed.
"Kenny, look! We can fight that one first, and then we can fight the other one after! It's gonna be like fighting them twice!"
On the second ship, Captain Sosuke Aizen chuckled softly. "You underestimate me, Zaraki," he said. "You can't even tell which one of my ships is real."
Kenpachi deliberately leaned far over the side, took a long look at where the wood had splintered from the impact of Aizen's cannons, and moved back to look at the still smoking weapons protruding from the opponent ship. Then he looked at Aizen.
"Well," he said, his grin that of a predator's, "I'm pretty sure that illusions can't blow massive holes in my ship, so you must be the real thing."
Aizen's eyebrows lowered slightly and the corners of his mouth turned up, giving his smile the appearance of evil smugness. Through Kenpachi's extensive experience with having to deal with certain members of his crew – here he tried very hard to dismiss the image of a certain young man with plumage on his eyebrows – he just knew there was a speech coming, somewhere along the lines of 'you're wrong and I'm going to spend an unnecessary amount of time explaining why'.
"Captain Zaraki," Aizen began. "I expected more from the fearsome leader of The Captain's Fury. You have absolutely no idea about the extent of my power." Kenpachi rolled his eyes. Sometimes he hated being right. "My Kyoka Suigetsu has the power of complete and utter hypnosis. That means that I can control all five of your senses, and you have no way of knowing what's real and what's not. Therefore, though you say you know which ship is real, you can never know for sure until I lift my complete and utter hypnosis. In the meantime, I am quite content to leave you feeling insecure and uncomfortable about the inevitable outcome of the fight, which will no doubt end in my favour. You see, I have planned this out already."
Kenpachi shrugged. "I don't feel uncomfortable."
"You don't?"
"Not even slightly."
"Oh. Really?"
"Nope," replied the spiky haired pirate, his feral smile showing more teeth.
A silver haired man next to Aizen spoke up cheerfully. "And there is a way to break the hypnosis!"
Aizen glanced sidelong at his subordinate, his soft brown eyes filled with pure murder. "Yes, thank you Gin," he said coldly. He turned back to Kenpachi. "You don't seem to be taking me seriously, so let me show you a taste of my power. Arrancars, attack!"
Immediately the crew on the other ship began preparing to swing across, using ropes hoisted onto the top of the sails. Kenpachi noticed others set up long planks which provided a path for them to board the Fury.
His deck became a fighting frenzy. The fierce captain soon found his opponent: an incredibly tall man with lank black hair and an eye patch. His sword was strangely curved, but extremely powerful. Kenpachi's eye narrowed. This guy wasn't going to last against him. How boring.
Suddenly a sharp blade slicing through his back made him gasp in pain, and he turned. An exact copy of the tall man stood behind him, his sword dripping with dark red blood. He smiled widely and raised his sword, just as his mirror image did the same.
Well, thought Kenpachi. Now things are getting interesting.
Even further away, the largest, most extravagant ship in the Soul Society floated on the waves. The SSS Noble's Pride watched the SSS Ice Dragon which was watching The Captain's Fury which was trying very hard to keep watch on both copies of the Estoque del Diablo at the same time.
Byakuya lowered his telescope at the sound of a woman's soft voice, and saw his adopted younger sister standing there, head bowed respectfully. Truly, she was an officer any captain should be proud to have.
"Excuse me, brother," she said. "But shouldn't we intervene soon? This would be an ideal time to catch them off guard." From her sidelong glance at the three ships currently in the heat of battle, there was no ambiguity as to what she had meant by 'them'.
Byakuya turned to face her. "No, Rukia," he replied. "I believe the ideal time to strike at them would be once one of the pirate ships emerge victorious. That way, not only will our work be cut down by up to a half, but the winning side would also be weakened from their previous fight." Byakuya looked over to the slowly dissipating ice column in front of the child prodigy's ship. "I believe that was Captain Hitsugaya's plan also." He paused, and then added, "At least, that was what I thought until he decided to release his bankai and give away his presence to the pirates. Now I have no idea what his intentions are."
Rukia nodded. Suddenly she pointed. "Captain! Something's happening!"
Byakuya raised his telescope once more and directed it at the pirate ships. There was a distant booming sound – cannons, no doubt – and one of the two copies of the ship sank into the water, splitting down the centre. Just before it submerged completely, however, it disappeared. Only the real ship remained.
Byakuya decided it was time for him to intervene. There was no longer any use in waiting; the other ships had probably seen him by now. If fighting was not an option for the pirates, running away was a possibility. And at this distance, success was highly likely.
"Renji," he said, turning to his second in command at the helm of the ship. "Let's go."
"Yes, sir!" replied the redhead, and spun the wheel.
"And for the last time," yelled Hitsugaya, "I am not cute!"
"Oh, but Captain –" began Rangiku with a cheeky grin on her face.
"No!"
"But you didn't –"
"I didn't need to!"
Rangiku, also known as the Source of All of Hitsugaya's Migraines, opened her mouth again but stopped as a looming shadow fell over the ship. Even Hitsugaya paused mid-yell to look.
The SSS Noble's Pride sailed by, almost twice the height of the Ice Dragon. At her head stood Byakuya Kuchiki, wind flowing through his ebony locks. The gilded ship passed and Hitsugaya realised where they were going. Finally, it was time to join the battle. He felt honoured to be fighting alongside one of the most famous captains in the Soul Society. With great pride, he instructed his helmsman to follow.
It was at that exact moment that Rangiku decided to wolf-whistle at Byakuya Kuchiki, accompanied by an inappropriate wink once he had turned to look.
And once Toshiro Hitsugaya's rage had subsided, Rangiku was flailing in the sea, spluttering as she yelled for her captain to save her from the sharks she was sure were coming after her.
He conveniently ignored Momo throwing out a rope to pull the woman back up with.
Kenpachi could see he was losing. Even after he had managed to get rid of one of Aizen's ships, his men were badly weakened. Many of Aizen's subordinates were now on the Fury yet a surprising number had decided to hang back.
His confusion was cleared when an old, white-haired pirate on the Estoque suddenly yelled, "Now, Arrancars! Mutiny! Let's take back what's ours!" A select number of men suddenly began attacking the other members of their crew.
Kenpachi Zaraki laughed aloud, catching the attention of his rival Captain. Aizen still looked calm, despite the small civil war erupting on his ship.
"Some captain you are, Aizen!" Kenpachi growled. "You can't even control your own people."
Yachiru swung down onto his shoulder from out of nowhere. "Yeah, dummy!"
Aizen glanced to the side. "Gin?"
"Shoot to kill, Shinso."
There was a flash and blood spurted out of the old man's chest. He fell, and the sword returned to the perpetually smiling man's sheath. "Well, wasn't that short lived?" he said to Ikkaku, whom he had just been fighting. "Now where was I? Oh yes, I was just telling you about how bored I was getting the other day! I decided to spike Ulquiorra's food, but instead of making him hyperactive like it was supposed to, it just –"
Suddenly a high pitched shout from Yachiru drew all attention to her. More specifically, to her pointing finger, which was indicating the arrival of two of the Soul Society's ships.
Kenpachi, covered in grime, sweat and blood (only some of the sanguine liquid was his; the rest belonged to that tall man he had killed earlier) straightened and grinned. This was turning out to be an excellent day.
The Noble's Pride and the Ice Dragon approached quickly. Kenpachi, despite loving extremely high odds against his favour, could see that unless he decided to retreat immediately, he would get smashed to smithereens by the Soul Society ships. His reasoning was pretty simple:
(2 x Estoques) + Captain's Fury = Battle and/or Death;
(2 x SS ships) + Estoque + Fury = Minor skirmish + Instant death for both pirate ships
However… Kenpachi thought, analysing the way the ships were moving. If he were one of the captains aboard either of those ships, he would have decided to go for the Estoque, seeing that they were the ones who had boarded and were clearly beating their battered opponents. Then the other ship, seeing their imminent defeat, would have surrendered. Yes, Kenpachi mused. We could have surrendered. But we're not that predictable.
The sound of cannon fire signalled a warning shot. The captain from the larger ship had just demanded Aizen's surrender, but the pirate had refused. Kenpachi grinned as he heard Aizen saying, "You cannot defeat me."
The tall, dark-haired captain aboard the Pride raised an eyebrow. "I doubt you are in any condition to fight, even given your hypnosis ability. Captain Hitsugaya, if you could –"
Kenpachi followed the noble's gaze to see why he had broken off so suddenly, to see a short young man – was that really a captain? – on the Dragon yelling at a tall, well-endowed woman who even at this distance Kenpachi could see was dripping wet. Kenpachi laughed aloud and Yumichika sighed in impatience. At this, Captain Hitsugaya turned, face flushed from all the shouting, and glared icily at Kenpachi, who merely grinned insolently back, swiping his sword through the air as if to make the statement that the young captain could come at him if he wanted, but he wouldn't get very far.
The noble said something in a low voice, and suddenly his ship became a frenzy of activity. First one, then another crewmember swung across onto the Estoque del Diablo, now almost empty since most of her crew was on Kenpachi's ship. Aizen smiled and drew his sword as the captain of the SSS Noble's Pride boarded the ship. As soon as this happened, the so-called Arrancars on The Captain's Fury regrouped back on their own ship, and Ikkaku and the few others aboard the Estoque returned to the Fury.
Kenpachi grinned. Well, isn't this perfect?
The Noble's Pride floated in front of the pirate ships, so it was blocking both of them from in front, with the Ice Dragon on the other side of the Estoque, ready to shoot it down with their large array of cannons. To put the icing on Kenpachi's proverbial cake, it seemed that Hitsugaya was also sending some of his officers down onto Aizen's ship.
The welcome chaos of battle ensued, providing Kenpachi with the opening he needed. As soon as the rest of crew saw what he was doing, they followed, greed providing them with enough adrenaline to temporarily overcome their fatigue. The tattered sails of the Fury swung down, shielding them from the other ships.
It was a simple matter of not being seen and getting away. There was absolutely no chance of Zaraki taking on the Soul Society captains, with their advanced weaponry and numerous men, and surviving. So he just had to even the odds. Once he had boarded the ship, the crew barely put up a fight. Their senior officers were not on board and wouldn't be able to be any time soon as they were fighting Aizen and his men. They wisely saw that they were wildly outmatched and surrendered.
"Get everyone's attention," Kenpachi instructed. He was answered by a thunderous bang which reverberated through the air as one of the cannons was fired. Immediately the fighting ceased, and everyone on the Estoque and Ice Dragon turned to look, their expressions varying between a slight widening of the eyes (Captain Kuchiki) to utter outrage with teeth bared and glaring eyes (his redheaded subordinate).
Kenpachi stabbed his sword into the air, laughing. "Thank you, captains!" he said, his deep voice bouncing back off the sides of the ships. "Without you, I wouldn't have this fine new ship I have today. It's a great gift you've given me! I must repay you someday. Until we meet again." With that, he gestured to Ikkaku, who spun the wheel at the helm, the ship following suit.
Yumichika hoisted a new flag onto the mast, the flag of the Fury. Instead of the usual skull and crossbones, Yumichika had altered it slightly. Kenpachi hadn't minded the swords instead of the crossbones, but the skull now sported – to use the man's words – "resplendent decorative brow enhancers". He had insisted that they were absolutely nothing like his own, which were merely "beautifully ornamental… um… beautifiers." Kenpachi had rolled his eyes and just let him get on with it.
"Byakushi!" Yachiru cried suddenly. "You left your stuff!" Kenpachi noticed her dragging a large chest to the rail and opening it. Before he could say anything, the young girl had thrown out a smaller, gilded box, probably aiming for the impassive captain. Yachiru was quite strong, so the box sailed quite far, reaching the Estoque. However, she had not banked on the box bursting open during its flight, showering a significant amount of gold over the gathered seafarers. Immediately, they all scrambled for the money.
Captain Kuchiki's grey eyes narrowed slightly.
"Sorry, Byakushi!" Yachiru shouted. "Lemme try again!"
Several more expensive looking items flew over to the other ship. Some, such as clothes, didn't get very far and now decorated the surface of the sea. Others, such as a portrait of the captain standing side by side with a dark-haired woman, were caught by miscellaneous people who found themselves in the possession of very personal items. Finally, the distance widened between the ships, enough so that Yachiru was forced to stop.
She handed a gold bracelet to the amused pirate. "Can you throw this? I think Byakushi wants it, but I can't throw that far."
Kenpachi merely shook his head, and Yachiru yelled out across the water, apologising to the now presumably angry-beyond-all-reasoning captain and promising that she'd give them back the next time they met.
The Ice Dragon was now beginning to pull away from the Estoque to follow the SSS Noble's Pride. Kenpachi grinned. He had just faced Captain Sosuke Aizen, Captain Hitsugaya, and Captain Kuchiki, and made off with the latter's ship: the largest, richest, most powerful ship in the whole of the Soul Society. For now, Kenpachi's men needed to recuperate. But there would be a next time. And they would win.
But, for now, Kenpachi thought. Let the chase begin!
Author's note: Estoque del Diablo means Sword of the Devil in Spanish. The alternative translation for sword was 'Espada' but I wanted to use something different. Also, did you know Arrancar means 'tear' or 'rip'? How cool is that? I think it fits perfectly!
Anyway, as I said in the description, I'll be adding plenty more drabbles as they come to me. See you then!