Title: Vacation

Summary: Tir meets some rowdy pirates, weirdass priests, and a couple of important Islanders during vacation in the tropics.

Genre: General

Game: A little bit of all 5 released games, excluding tactics (but I like tactics!!!)

Length: A few pages

Warnings: As usual, spoilers abound. Quite a bit of the "Out-of-character" but it'll get serious later.

Disclaimer: The Suikoden series are property of Konami. Works displayed here are solely the imagination of the author without any resell for profit.

AN: Weee!!! Well, I'm sure you can figure out who Sai is, but I'm sure you're interested in the discovery and process.

Chapter 2 - Kitchen Duty

"What the hell do you mean he just disappeared!?" demanded the gaudy old man with a white bearded named Jacob. "A child like that stands out like a Harmonian in Falena! How could you have lost him?!"

The man's peons grumbled and whined about how the entire wharf was about to collapse under the weight of all the merchants, envoys, passengers and even dragon horses and how that deterred them from catching their little run away. The primary peon, Lorry Orir, who was named commander of the brigade, was even worse about the details. He included threats to his manhood because some women thought that he grabbed them.

"Arg! I don't care if Barbarosa came back from the dead and tries to decapitate you! I need to have that child found or I'll make sure that some or ALL of you will haunt this place for the rest of your life!"

The rest of the conversation and argument quickly degenerated from civil threats to a battle of creative torture.

Eventually, the peons returned to their fruitless search for the child. They were sure that the child had boarded the Costa Hellena, but it was impossible to chase down the cruise boat without authorization from higher command. They currently lack that higher command.

Jacob sagged into his chair and sobbed quietly to himself. He was not exactly flustered over the fact that they can't find one single child, but somewhat afraid to know his own punishment for not loosing one of Harmonia's most valuable assets. Death would probably be too great a mercy for such a grievous error.

But what if...

Suddenly the yet-to-be invented light bulb lit in Jacob's mind like a newly born sun. Yes. He'll do just that and blame it on Force Majeure. After all, they were suppose to be on that cruise ship and if the cruise ship sank, that will either end their search and extricate him from all blame, or extend the search time indefinitely. Everything is a win win!

Feeling all too pleased with his idea, Jacob went to consult the flame to find the nearest pirate captain he could find.

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Gremio was not a stranger to kitchen duties. After all, all soldiers had to attend kitchen duty at some point in their career. After that first phase of Gremio's military life, he served the McDohl house mostly as a chef. So strangely, he actually found Captain Cerum's so called punishment less as a menial labor and more as a delightful surprise culinary heaven.

"Wow! Such an exciting aroma and delicate texture with a building sting! It feels as if my tongue is exploding with the flavor, my heart beats in union with each bite and my soul is soaring with each breath!" Gremio exclaimed in unbridled food ecstasy.

Well...mentally, of course.

Tir, though also not a novice at kitchen duties, found himself picking at all sorts of finished dishes. The Islanders served a mean fare, one that lure the eatee into initiation by its delectableness only until the eatee found the food far too spicy about ten bites later. So to stave the burn, the eatee ate more, which was exactly Tir's strategy. So Tir spent most of kitchen duty eating until his stomach was too full to bear.

On the surface, though, Gremio and Tir both donned on a mask of utterly unbearable suffering. One of the eye opening revelations one learns in life is that everyone is a sadist at heart. So to show joy in one's punishment may invite worse fate. Besides, part of their punishment was acting as a poison taster.

Incidentally, the serving part was painful in comparison.

Particularly for Gremio when the cooking was done and he was reassigned to serve her.

Gremio hid behind the kitchen curtains, just watching and mentally curse that Sai.

Curvaceous Bernadette had ordered a cup of aromatic tea while reading all treaty documents she brought with her. This cruise trip was only incidental to going home for a formal report so she had no intentions of enjoying herself. When the coffee came, she did not even acknowledge the attendant who happened to be Gremio. No 'thank you,' no 'ah,' no 'what the hell?' no nothing.

Gremio took it as complete rejection.

"It can't be that bad," said Tir soothingly once Gremio returned to the kitchen. Seriously, he had never seen his manservant so utterly struck dumb. Gremio had faced death multiples times on the battlefield. The blonde was once wanted by all the Empire and he was even once eaten alive by flesh devouring spores. Seeing Gremio so stricken over a woman was very unsettling.

"There's got to be a way to make her notice me!" Gremio said.

"Well, why don't you give her a gift?"

"Like what?"

"Well..." Tir was suddenly the one struck dumb. He never really pursued a girl before since girls usually just threw themselves at him once they knew he was the hero of the Toran Republic. So he tried very hard to think what a girl he liked would like to receive.

"Daisies?" Tir suggested, his mind on Kasumi.

"She might take it the wrong way." Somehow, Bernadette seemed like the type who would throw a flower vase at someone.

"Dolls?"

"Does she look five to you?"

"Jewelry?"

"Takes too long to pick one."

"Stew?"

"No....hey..wait a second!" Gremio's mind was now racing. What better to impress the woman of his dreams than his almost-world-famous stew? He smashed his right fist into his left palm in determination. "She'll have to forgive me after my special stew!" So he paddled back into the kitchen and dragooned the head chef for the key to the ingredients stores.

The passing busboys, matre'd, kitchen brats, and other chefs all became interested. For one, they almost never saw Toran natives in the kitchen. This was an Islander owned cruise ship that employed its own. For another, they rarely see a man chop vegetables so thinly or so quickly without dicing his fingers into chips.

"He is making a dish of love!" gushed a chef with an accent. He clasped his hands and smiled paternally. "It's so genuine and powerful, I cannot bear to stop him!"

Meanwhile, Gremio was grinning like a insane maniac. He was going to make his best stew with taste so exquisite and subtle and orgasmic that she would HAVE to like him.

Besides, the trick had ALWAYS worked with Tir.

"Hurry! Young man!" cried a matre'd who became sympathetic to Gremio's inchoate infatuation with Bernadette. "She's packing up!"

It was true, Bernadette was packing away all her documents and notes. Her tea was drained, the spoon laid at the completed meal rest. Now all that was left for the day was her daily exercise routine, meditations and get Sai to bed.

"I'm not done!" Gremio replied urgently. He as covered in flour and all sorts of other stains from the food preparation. In a strange sort of desperation, Gremio quickly poured a soup into a simple bowl, dumped the bowl on a silver tray and shove the tray toward Tir. "Go!"

"But!" Tir's mind raced for a chance to reject. It was not HIM who had a crush on the woman.

"Just go! I can't meet her looking like this!" Gremio said while hustling the young man out of the kitchen. He saw Bernadette had already placed all her documents into a folder. "Appease her, and find out what she's up to!"

"What?"

Gremio replied by kicking his Young Master out into the dinning area. A disoriented Tir literally flew out of the kitchen and promptly skidded to a stop next to Bernadette's table. It was a miracle that he did not spill a drop.

"Wait ma'am!"

"Yes?" Bernadette replied pleasantly. Once she saw who it was, she immediately scowled. "You!"

Her glare was so frosty, Tir literally felt the temperature drop at least five degrees. He wrung his chef hat, mentally cursing Gremio for making him come out like this.

"Well? Are you going to just stand there and gawk at me?" the woman demanded.

It felt like another five degree drop in temperature. So Tir hastily took away the tea cup and small plate. In return, he placed Gremio's almost-world-famous stew in front of her.

"Gremio and I want to apologize for the incident earlier," Tir blurted. He put on his best innocent boyish face, hoping to convince the woman of his complete sincerity. Which he probably did not since a small part of him still want to strangle Sai for putting him in this spot.

"What for?" Bernadette stared at him blandly. Pragmatic to the end, she said, "I wanted you to walk the plank. So why even apologize to me?"

"Because we're good up-right citizens who hope that we won't be having friction since our quarters are next to each other so Gremio made this stew as an apology and peace offering?" Tir said in so many words.

"Stew?" Bernadette glanced down at the steaming liquid, noting the appeasing aroma before giving a rich mellifluous laugher.

Tir suddenly noted how beautiful she was with a smile on her face.

"You know, this has to be the first time someone apologized to me with soup," said Bernadette, highly amused.

Tir mentally patted himself on the shoulder for the exemplary display of complete innocence. "So why don't you have some stew as an acceptance of our apology?"

Bernadette smiled though her penetrating gaze was still on Tir. "Hell, Why not? Have a seat. I believe I have some explaining to do. To put your mind at ease about the incident."

Tir immediately seated himself. All the while, he noted the formal tone. Bernadette was no commoner. That was for sure.

Oh God! What if Gremio had the ill-luck of falling for some type of princess? It'll never work out!

"First of all, it should be me who needs to apologize," said Bernadette, derailing Tir's train of thought. "I finally wrestled the real story out of Sai so I'm sorry. I shouldn't have involved the captain. I hope YOU forgive me."

"Well, of course," said Tir gladly. "He wasn't too much trouble. Err...what was the truth?"

"He was just running away from his nurses."

"And why did he run away?"

Bernadette stirred the soup idly. "Schooling I suppose. Who knows why a fourteen year old would run away. What did you do at fourteen?"

"Running away as a fugitive of the empire" was what Tir had thought of saying. However, he suspected that Bernadette would probably consider him crazy. So he settled for, "Learning my father's trade."

"Ah," said Bernadette with a note of approval. "I did that too. A little too well, I suppose."

Tir decided not to probe any further into that. "So, where is Sai? I think I saw him earlier."

"He's meditating or sleeping in my room."

"Meditating or sleeping?" Tir could not really wrap his mind around a Luc doppelganger meditating.

Bernadette pursed her lips. "He doesn't look like it, but Sai is an gifted mage," Bernadette explained. "He was so talented that when he was only a toddler, he couldn't control his natural affinity and unintentionally hurt people when he is unhappy. Meditation helps him with control."

"I heard of that," said Tir, agreeing. "Unfortunately, unless discovered by other magicians, aren't those type of children accused of witchcraft or demonic possession?"

Bernadette took her first sip of the stew. Surprisingly, it was actually really good. "Yes, but it also depends on where you were born. In the Islands, a child born with a rune already attached isn't an unaccepted phenomena." Bernadette held up her right hand. A Flow rune glowed faintly just underneath her skin. "I was born with this as did many members of my family through out history with different runes."

"So you're really good with a Flow rune?"

"I'm decent. Just because you were born with one doesn't always mean you're skilled with it." She smiled at the texture of the soup in her mouth. It was very smooth. "Besides, I am an Islander. Almost everyone here keep a rune handy and nearly everyone had some type of rune affinity. As I recall, this is not the case everywhere else." Bernadette gave a nod to Tir's right hand. "I can tell you keep a special rune there."

Tir withdrew his hand, feeling uncomfortable.

"Don't be defensive," said Bernadette with a wave of the hand. "I don't particularly care about your rune. No one on the Island will ask you what it is. It is considered rude. But you should know that most of us can tell."

Tir nodded, feeling an appreciation for Gremio's careful selection. Cultural indifference to special runes would afford the much needed time to himself. "So was Sai one of those who were born with a rune?"

Bernadette nodded. "Yes, and he is far more talented than normal. Since he was not born in the Islands, no one sealed his rune like my own mother sealed mine, and caused quite a bit of trouble. But he turned out alright, so far."

"How is he now? With rune craft?" Tir asked.

"Oh, he is very good," replied Bernadette, eyes far away as if remembering something.

Tir had an obvious question. "So when he was being chased back at the wharf, why didn't he use his rune?"

Bernadette smiled warmly. "Because Sai is a kind person. He doesn't like to hurt people. Otherwise, he would had blasted anyone into oblivion if he wanted."

Tir looked up startled. He had that same thought, only for Luc. He'll have to ask her about that, but Bernadette already continued.

"Sai mediates to keep his abilities in check...but I suspect that he sleeps mostly now like any boy who wished to shirk his duties."

"I see. What is his rune?"

Bernadette shook her head and gave a mysterious look. "That, you'll have to ask him. Remember, it's rude to ask." Bernadette finally finished the stew. "This is excellent. Please give my compliments to the chief. Perhaps we'll see each other again."

With that, Bernadette picked up her belongings, stood up, pushed in her chair.

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Somewhere else, in a rundown inn down near the docks where the so many ships passed, was a sniveling man speaking to an image in the fire.

"Jacob did what?" spoke the fire.

Lorry winced as the image in the flame phantom in the fire suddenly roared. Ambers kicked themselves out of the fire pit. "It's true your eminence! He had contacted the pirate Igor to sink the Costa Hellenia!"

Boom!

Lorry Orir jumped back as the flame in front of him rose up and completely blackened the stone masonry surrounding the fire pit. He frenetically patted out the flame in his hair.

The hominid image in the flame disappeared. In its place was a full sized flame as a man enraged, stepped out of the fire. With heavy burning steps and smell of ash, it paced toward Orir, the heat was scorching. It looked down on Orir menacingly with black eyes.

"Listen to me well, Orir. Stop Jacob. If you cannot by the time I get there, you better make sure I cannot find you and your crew or I will personally ensure that all of you suffer for the rest of eternity!"