Chapter 2

"It looks empty…" Celty typed to Shinra, the entire group squatting down in the undergrowth closely huddled together eyeing the grey area which turned out to be a town of a few houses and a road smacked into the forest.

"Or just nobody is home." Shinra whispered. Izaya yet again eyed collie, swallowing his dry throat not just from thirst but from fear too. They had to have been sitting here for hours, now why wasn't it decided to move on already? Besides, they had plenty of excellent fighters here, an extremely skilled trained fighting dog, a brute insensitive to pain, a dullahan, wielder of a demon sword and Saki could be jailbait. Seriously what could they not face?

"Let's check it out but we have to be careful." Kadota quietly announced and the group crept out of hiding near the houses. They weren't huts but modern fully fledged house with electricity. As they ventured in further and no alarm got tripped and Collie got asked if she smelled anyone around the dog shaking her head and trotting around completely at ease, the group relaxed more too becoming louder and bolder. Masaomi outright opened a door to a house and let himself in, Mikado trying to stutter a protest but stopped and followed with the girls. Halfway through they shouted their findings to each other at the top of their lungs sticking their heads out of windows and such, checking out every building while Izaya checked around it finding a nearby dam that powered electricity.

"Hey look, there is food and water in here." Kida remarked opening a fridge while Mikado found cutlery in a drawer checking out a kitchen, the two girls in the living room. The blonde tossed his friend one of the ice cold bottles.

"Isn't this stealing?" Mikado frowned.

"No one was here."

"But the electricity and all is still running. Maybe they are just at a shore, fishing all day or something."

Masaomi sighed, Mikado had a point. Besides if people lived here and they were friendly it wouldn't help to get on their good side via stealing. "I guess we can use the tap water."

"I'll get glasses."

With everyone's water supply replenished and their bowels emptied in the bathrooms figuring if each of them used a different house the missing toilet paper wouldn't be noticed enjoying not having to go into the bush, the burning dilemma of food remained.

"What if we blamed it on wild animals?" Chikage suggested after a long silence with the only sound their stomachs growling uncontrollably loudly again and again as they all stood around a big fridge, Saki pushing Izaya in his wheelchair taking turns with Shinra.

"Now it's definitely stealing." Mikado pointed out.

"We are starving, it's survival Mikado." Masaomi countered.

"Well technically, there is food outside to find but…" Saburo grumbled glancing away.

"Well we can probably do just fine on fruit but Collie could use something else. We haven't encountered any wildlife yet just heard it." Saki mentioned glancing to the collie dog licking her lips at some bread in basket on the counter.

"Still…" Kadota sighed but his stomach retaliated loudly.

"Great… we are doing this aren't we? Why don't we add taking showers too?" Celty added with a joke unfortunately everybody took the shower seriously and Tom even wondered aloud if they would mind just a tiny bit of laundry soap missing.

"I'm feeding Collie and taking a shower, we should totally go with Rocchi's idea." Masaomi broke the ice cutting off a chunk of the bread with a knife from a drawer. "Hey Saki, is there a bit of meat in the fridge?"

"Yeah I think it's unprepared steak or something. Here you go Collie, enjoy." Collie chowed down on bread and happily wagging her tail and the two gave a pet smiling at her. Collie liked her fruits but there was only so much fruit she'd eat as long as there wasn't anything else.

"I wonder if this will be a one-time thing… probably not…" Shinra thought aloud, Anri and Celty hijacking the laundry utilities taking turns before showering themselves while Shinra even though he'd much prefer a shower with Celty, he helped Izaya who was grateful for the help but loathed being stuck like this the more it showed that his very survival entirely relied on the others even more than with anyone else. He was definitely motivated to walk again now.

"That should be good enough…" Walker nodded as they all stared at the slightly vandalized place especially the fridge having been pried open to cover their tracks.

"I just hope there are animals big enough on this island to be framed…" Kyohei sighed at the sight. Maybe they shouldn't have Shizuo given the task which he gladly accepted.

"Well, time to leave the crime scene." Shinra added earning a few chuckles and the group now clean, fed and no longer thirsty set off towards the peak hoping it wasn't a volcano.

"Maybe we shouldn't leave a trail…" Erika remarked, Shizuo just about to start the crude deconstruction of the local fauna. The girl had a point, they did see some vehicles mainly some dirt bikes which could have an easy time tracking them especially with convenient roads.

"We have Collie; we don't really need the trail anyway." Saburo agreed while Shizuo just grumbled under his breath. He needed them if they didn't want him to rip Izaya's head off!

"So no more trails?" Celty asked.

"Yeah but we can probably start further away again." Kadota glanced back before they continued walking, Izaya keeping his eyes on Collie but trying to look away at the same time as shivers ran down his spine. Halfway to the peak, Shizuo found himself not needing to take it out on the trees as Collie had started playing with him, the blonde man throwing sticks for him in between talking to his friends. Their heads turned as the whole group stopped, eyes falling to the noise of rustling leaves and a rabbit freezing up. Collie tensed, ears perking up and eyes moving to Masaomi for orders. A few hours had passed from the town, the teen not sure what to do. The rabbit looked cute and they had found more fruit on the way… The herbivore unfroze and sped off into the green undergrowth, the group slowly moving on awkwardly.

"I wonder what else lives here…" Mikado glanced back to where the rabbit had been.

"Let's take a break." Shinra sighed, sitting down on the ground. He'd never done so much walking in a day in his entire life!

"We should be able to make it to the peak today." Tom remarked glancing towards the sun already in the downward arc.

"That last one didn't have much loot." The guy sighed running a hand with slightly pale skin through black hair with dyed in strips of red and blonde. A bit of blood stained the T-shirt with hoodie clothing the slim, tall body along with pants and boots. Amber eyes wandered to the other guy.

"Well there is always next time to score big. It's not like we can be found here. Picking a fight with us is a mistake anyway." A guy smiled lighting a cigarette. The rugged black shirt had been thrown off revealing a lean, tall but well muscled body with fair skin. A belt held a knife and pants tucked into boots and messy black hair was swept aside over icy blue eyes.

"Hey, everyone get to my house right now."

"Okay." The other guys answered the radio giving his comrade a shrug to the questioning glance from Sawyer.

"Okay… wild animal, huh?" One of the assembly of guys broke the silence as they all stared at the wreckage specifically the broken fridge.

"Idiot! It obvious!"

"Shut up, crow!"

"Hey don't tell my crow to shut up!"

"Ha sucker!"

"Crowy don't be snarky now, save it for later." The crow stopped talking hopping onto the guy's shoulder aka its owner.

It wouldn't be the first time that an animal had wandered through town after all the island wasn't small and no one but them could reach it. At least that's what they thought although they had very good reason for their thinking, the glowing pendant in the leader's hand gently swinging back and forth. But something felt off the longer he looked yet had no clue or reason for it.

"What's wrong boss?"

The 'boss' turned to his large crew, deep brown eyes matching not quite matching the lighter brown hair and the long black coat swished a little as he turned to them, his skin fair and body well muscled and tall but lean. A linear scar downwards rested on his cheek giving a vibe of mystery to the handsome face rather than making it ugly. Aside from the imposing coat, a rugged shirt with wide ripped v-cut clad his body along with boots and pants held by a belt also holding a machete and handgun."I don't know. Well, keep an eye out in case that animal comes back for seconds. Let's enjoy being back before we set out to sea again."

"That's it, come out!" The tree groaned ripped out by Shizuo as they stopped and turned around yet again, the terrain become rockier and stepper as the peak worked itself in before in skyrocketed in height. Masaomi, Chikage and the van gang took a fighting stance and Izaya remarked silently to himself yet again how he'd rely on them and how much he disliked it. Their eyes shifted to the rustling leaves in the trees and Collie gave warning bark but seemed to remain rather calm trotting closer to a specific tree and barking at it again as something had leapt into it.

"That wasn't a person…" Mikado noted, Shizuo keeping the tree anyway. Collie hopped up and down barking again as a small fluffy light colored monkey with rather cute face and long tail poked out its head. With a hiss and screech at Collie it revealed sharp teeth that weren't so cute. Collie snarled in response with another bark and the monkey retreated further into the leaves again. the group turned to leave but whipped around again as the monkey moved back into a sight with more noise and suddenly pulled back its arm without warning flinging something forward right at Collie with the dog looking straight at it turning out to be fresh poo smearing on her snout. Izaya started laughing trying to keep it down while Masaomi's eyes narrowed with Collie and the dogs lips lifted into a snarl before she backed up and shot forward straight at the tree running up the bark as much as she could and leapt higher with her teeth closing around the tail ripping out some fur before the monkey could pull back enough and the Collie herself dropped harshly down again. Izaya abruptly ceased laughing shaking on the inside having seen yet again what Collie could do and the nightmare of her attacking him tried slip into his mind. The monkey screeched loudly and disappeared, Shizuo adding to the desire yelling at the animal to piss off and swinging the tree before the monkey decided to throw more wisely deciding to back off.

"Collie, are you alright?" Saki started to giggle causing the others to have to chuckle too although they refrained from laughing to hard at the dog's expense sneezing and trying to smear it off on plants with a whiny sigh as it didn't help that much. After what seemed like ages due to their legs not used to all that walking the peak finally fully spread out, plant growth ceasing as nothing but bare rock paved the way now with the peak climbing into the sky in front of them.

"So what are we looking for here?" Anri asked quietly into the group stepping out of the vegetation, Shooter's hooves clip clopping against the rough surface as Izaya held on tighter.

"Well, the huts we made are fine only as long as the weather stays nice. A cave-" Kadota's words cut off, they barely noticed the whistling sound Collie thankfully picking up on it and giving a warning tackling Chikage out of the way with the arrow whizzing over her and embedding in a tree. Collie's hairs rose, legs tense but ready to move and lips lifted into a dangerous threatening snarl as they tried to find the source, Saki pulling Anri closer and away from fire and Masaomi dodged almost cut by the edge as two more shots fired. "Find cover!"

Celty nodded for Shooter to take off as an entire fleet of arrows rained upon them from almost all sides sending them scattering and driving them apart, any attempts to retreat into the forest being cut off by a line of projectiles. The fire upon them whizzed by relentlessly, the group barely managing to stay together in pairs or barely up to three driven apart and chased by death like wild animals unable to stay, forced to move about and apart.

"I think we have our answer about the town people!" Shinra complained, backing away with Celty who quickly asked if the he could see Shooter anywhere in this mess.

Shooter swerved hunted by the unseen force although Izaya had heard yells and shouts his grip slipping from the swerve and crashing to the ground. Izaya ducked pressing his face right against the ground to miss an arrow and dragged himself to a speck of green to at least try to hide unable to use his legs. His lips slowly pulled into a smile, the man panting as his hand closed around more rock and the pulled with all his might and possibly too much, Shooter seeing the man suddenly tumble forward out of sight. Poor Shooter didn't really know what to do, rearing with a whinny to try to hog all the attention and ran off trying to find Celty in the hopes that his pursuers didn't look for the man although the supernatural being didn't care about him. Izaya rolled to a stop with groan, tiny rock rolling to a stop beside him. Well, at least he wasn't dead but he might as well be if his attackers saw him tumble away. Lying on his back, Orihara turned his head into the opposite direction he came from, eyes narrowing on a glow in the opposite direction he came from. Outside wasn't an option and curiosity beckoned, Orihara flipping on his stomach with a groan starting to drag himself forward. His arms were sore by the time he got close, the glow almost touching his face and before he could react the ground took a downward dip, the man yet again tumbling down. Water splashed as he struggled feeling the liquid soaking his clothing as Izaya instinctively pushed himself on his feet to avoid drowning. His eyes widened catching his breath, eyes fixed down on his shaky legs; he was standing. For a moment, he considered having died or hallucinating but touching his legs and just bending one a little convinced him with a smile spreading slightly unwilling at first growing before it buckled with his legs collapsing with a splash. The pool of water wasn't deep and Izaya's smile dropped as he swallowed before trying to get up again slowly able to stand up again on shaky legs wading to a wall and leaning against it before looking down at his weak but working legs growing steadily stronger. His head dipped before he couldn't keep it in, smile breaking into laughter throwing his head up. He didn't know what just happened but it felt good to be able to walk again. He couldn't believe he had just accepted defeat like that. Couldn't believe he was fine with just taking a hike out of Ikebukuro and he couldn't believe that he had been willing to just accept to possibly never toy with Masaomi and Mikado again. It was even more funny in a way because everyone had been so glad for him to be gone, for him to have gotten what he deserved yet here in all this chaos he found a magical healing pool. Although the thought of just leaving once they returned and not coming back still lingered deep down although right now he was laughing so hard he wasn't really thinking of anything.

"What the hell just happened!?" Saburo panted leaning against a tree, the group having shaken them off for now thanks to Celty using her shadows and Shizuo hurling a ton of trees certain a few did hit some targets. Upon the chase they caught glimpses of tanned people hardly dressed and wielding spears and bows and arrows.

"We have established that the town people hate us!" Shinra gasped.

"That sounded like thousands of people." Chikage pointed out.

"They didn't look like they would live in town though." Walker added.

"Does that really matter?" Mikado questioned gasping for air.

"Technically yes, if they are not from the town that means there are three factions and potential for another enemy or an ally we could use the second option." Masaomi replied.

"We are way off course… everyone okay?" Kadota asked.

"Yeah but we are missing Shooter. And Izaya." Celty typed showing it to Kyohei. A neigh interrupted the conversation as Shooter skidded to a stop with a snort. "Shooter, I'm so happy you're alright! But where is Izaya?"

"Do we really need to look for the flea?" Shizuo grunted.

"We're sticking together." Shinra grumbled. Celty seemed to have a silent exchange with her friend and Shooter started walking away, Celty motioning to follow although he wasn't sure himself on where to go.

Walking wasn't quite as easy as it seemed, Izaya using a stick sort of like a cane a little and his legs often demanded a break. Luckily for him, the assault in front of the hole he'd fallen into had ceased with no sign of their attackers and climbing out was rough. He didn't walk too far though rather taking short hikes around the hiding place and circling back seriously wondering if Shooter would alert the others. The only one who'd probably be in for searching for him would be Shinra and Saki. The man tilted his head as he heard voices and lips pulled into a smile at the familiarity, Izaya inching closer to find Masaomi and Mikado talking with their backs to him.

"Do you think he showed up on purpose? He looked surprised…" Mikado pondered aloud to his friend.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I don't think he planned on seeing us." Masaomi replied, Mikado tilting his head curiously. "Strategically it's stupid too, he's scared of Collie and I asked her to make sure. She nods or shakes her head to yes or no questions. And Shizuo has no problem crushing him and he's not the only one who can't stand him. And on top of all of that…" Izaya inched closer into hiding as the two moved, Masaomi having paused and walking backwards turned to his friend, Collie having been told to stay with Saki as they continuously joined up in between before continuing to search. "…he's a sitting duck now!"

"Maybe rethink that one, dear Kida-kun!~" Their eyes widened, both stopping as Izaya's blade touched Masaomi's neck, the informant having swiftly stepped out of hiding and snuck up behind the blonde busy declaring his previous helplessness.

"Y-you… h-how!?" Mikado gasped.

"Lucky me stumbled upon a magical pool during the vicious attack, amazing huh?~"

"There's magic on the island?"

"Definitely.~"

"Mind stop being a dick for a second and put away the knife?" Masaomi growled tilting his head a little.

"Aw you know, now that I can walk again I realize just how much I missed you and Mikado.~"

"I miss your wheelchair." Masaomi deadpanned, Mikado unable to hide a snicker. Izaya tucked away the knife but kept a hand on the blonde's shoulder for a moment before grabbing his stick almost tripping in doing so.

"Not magical enough for the likes of you after all Izaya-san, huh? Karma is a bitch, isn't it?" Masaomi quipped as their eyes trailed the man sporting a slight limp.

"Oh my, you're as chatty with me as in Siberia again! I think field trips are good for us, ne?~"

"You know every field trip I take, Collie takes too." Masaomi smiled just as Saki waved and called to them coming over a small hilly bump with Collie bounding to them.

'Fear is something that can be lost, Masaomi.~'

"Izaya-kun you're alright!" Saki's head tilted coming to a stop beside her boyfriend, the smile staying while everyone else behind was baffled. "And you're walking!"

"Indeed, the island has a supernatural side to it. During the attack, I took a rough fall and stumbled upon a magical healing pool in a small cave."

"I don't know if I should be relieved or not." Shinra sighed, Celty tilting her head. "Well, think about it Celty with supernatural stuff here, what if there is something that could hurt you?"

"Aw, I'll be fine don't worry!" Celty quickly typed embracing Shinra in a hug.

"Now that you can run flea, get started!" Shizuo growled ripping out a tree and Shinra jumped between out before he even knew it along with Celty.

"No fighting until we're off the island!"

"Hmph!" Shizuo cast aside the tree, Izaya smiling to himself on the inside although he shuddered noticing Collie's curiosity in the wondrous change in his capacity to move his legs. The man swallowed which went unnoticed and took a deep breath tentatively stretching out his hand to the dog tilting her head but quickly pulled back in fear limping away as fast as he could shouting, "Let's find a cave!"

"It's almost dark, let's hurry." Kadota added taking the lead after Izaya.

"I liked it better when he didn't talk." Shizuo grumbled as they set off.

"Well at least when he talks to you in doesn't sound like flirting unlike with Masaomi; it's like back in Siberia where they'd throw one thing after the other at each other." Mikado accidentally said aloud, his face reddening and whispering sorry to a flinching blonde while Saki and Anri giggled, Chikage curiously inquiring about Siberia.

"Could you find it again if you had to?" Saburo asked placing some more wood down by the fire being constructed, the group having finally bumped into a bigger cavern although they carefully scouted it out first. Izaya looked up sitting on a slightly large protruding rock from the surprisingly soft dirt ground, the informant resting his legs.

"You mean the pool?"

"Yeah"

"I think so but I can't promise that."

"That will have to do…" Kyohei sighed, the group having improvised with anything they could find, mostly large leaves to make makeshift beds of some sort and Celty had volunteered for shadow blankets but the offer got declined in favor of her saving her energy in case something supernatural would attack.

"Got fire!" Walker happily announced, the group huddled around with a bit of fruit. The showers might as well have not even happened and Shinra had tended to the luckily minor scrapes.

"So… are we going to mention the attack?" Erika asked no in particular.

"We can't ignore it…" Anri softly responded.

"Yeah but I don't there is more to do than run." Masaomi joined.

"Maybe they own the town…" Mikado added.

"Think your parents are close to finding us?" tom inquired glancing to the blonde teen.

"I don't know… It's weird, the island isn't far off the route but maybe give it another day… something is off about this island though…"

"I think so too." Celty agreed.

"Of course of all the islands we could crash on, it's a weird supernatural one!" Shinra sobbed. "I don't know if I'm happy and intrigued or more concerned to die! I'm so conflicted!"

"How many do you guys think there were? Sounded a lot more than the houses…" Walker pondered.

"If we consider the worst case scenario with one bow per person there had to be over a hundred…" Kyohei sighed. "Whatever we do, the best option is to hide and let Leena and Anska find us."

"Do you think they see the entire island as theirs?" Mikado asked with a little worry. He liked excitement but not to die.

"Maybe, we should take turns keeping watch; I'll take the first one. Each shift is an hour, is that alright?" The others nodded and after some shared silence and the rest of their fruit, everyone but Kadota started to settle down for some shut eye while Chikage quickly suggested that they should look for another water source closer by. While moving back to the shore was one option they didn't like it as it left them pretty much with the only option of trying to fair out in the water possibly with sharks if the arrow shooters got too close. The peak itself was fairly central to the island, although the dam was pretty wide possibly leading a shore edging the island.

"Seventeen wild fat chicken things instead of one wild pig thing…" Shinra pondered.

"She had babies Shinra!" Celty typed.

"Technically these could have eggs somewhere… Sorry." Mikado glanced away biting into a piece of roasted fowl.

"Man, Collie was so fast and deadly…" Saburo sighed with admiration, said dog currently chewing and some meat and bones wagging her tail, slightly ruffled and her nose and mouth bloody.

Earlier this day…

"If I have to eat another one of these, I'll puke. Where did all the other fruit go?" Tom sighed holding guava fruit, the only fruit they'd found so far after setting out to very carefully go past the dam and see where it led.

"Maybe you got your wish." Shizuo quietly said, everyone tensing as the green beside them rustled and Collie's hairs raised. Suddenly with a squeak a smallish, fat, hairy wild pig of some sort shot out of the bush startled by them.

"Uh Collie go get it!" Masaomi shouted, quite frankly sick of their monotone food too and really it wasn't any different than when someone bought meat or they ate sushi. Fish wanted to live too. Collie hungrily sped forward, having chewed some guava fruit out of desperation, quickly catching up everyone sort of awkwardly shooting forward too trying to help. Chikage and Masaomi took the lead trying to somehow corner or cut of the animal, Collie launching off but slightly missing the pig making a U turn so sharp it threw up dirt.

"I got it!"

"Over there!"

"Here!"

"Masaomi is chasing a pig… I wanna help!" Mikado resolved, the chase a crazy back and forth with Collie coming closer and closer her paws so gentle and quick over the soil just strides away. The fat pig, quite more agile than it looked darted for the bush again with a squeal covering up the trampling and rustling within, Collie the only one to pick up on it and veer off while Chikage was too close to the bush as a bigger pig of the same kind shot out with noise more akin to a roar ramming the man with all its might sending him flying and rolling back, the pig throwing up its head with a snort. The smaller pig cowered behind it and more smaller snouts fearfully poked out of the bush and an even bigger pig came out with a threatening grunt easily reaching Shizuo's hip in height. If they thought the young pig was fat, than those two were two muscular meat bombs with one bigger than the other probably being the pissed papa beside the pissed mama.

"Aw, it's a family!" Celty exclaimed breaking the ice.

"A very angry one, we should leave." Tom rushed.

"Hey Chikage, you're alright?" Kadota yelled.

"I'm fine!"

"I think they are going to charge!" Mikado stuttered, everybody worried now as the angry grunts did not cease but turned into bloodthirsty roars instead and pawing the ground made tiny mounds of dirt right behind scratched out holes.

"We can't kill them!" Celty exclaimed.

"Then let's run!" Tom suggested, already starting to run away from the hairy beasts and Collie whimpered a little at the loss of meat but did know it'd be too risky to lose. Plus she didn't want to tear apart a family either. The group took off, Izaya hauled on Shooter as the beasts decided to give them hell for messing with their babies chasing relentlessly.

"Damn it!" Shizuo suddenly stopped ripping out a tree turning around while Celty screamed, or rather furiously typed and shoving it in his face, to not kill the family. "I won't, move away!" The dullahan obeyed trusting Shizuo and hoping she didn't make a mistake as the man swung out at the pigs hitting them sending them flying in a gentle arc with fading squeaks. Faint roars and hyper squeaks from a distance out of sight confirmed survival, the group sighing in relief hoping they gave up. Collie suddenly barked leaping forward at the same time as birds fluttered up from the undergrowth looking like some brown wild chicken or pheasant things, the dog leaping, chasing and pouncing with all her might at the flock killing with expertly placed bites offing them instantly or taking away the ability to fly away leaving the group to gape in awe. Out of the flock of 20, Collie caught 15 with their help catching the disabled ones before they could run away looking ridiculously hilarious while doing it unlike Collie sitting down with the last one in her mouth and gazing at Masaomi.

"We should make ourselves spears or something." Walker suggested as Celty suffocated the fire with a shadowy blanket after their meal and rest.

"It's too bad we can't go back to the town and take showers." Mikado sighed covered in dirt.

"Well, we could if we don't get caught." Masaomi smiled.

"You're crazy." Tom sighed with a smile.

"Hey, this is a random thought but what if the town belongs to someone else?" Saki threw in.

"Who?" Saburo blinked.

"I don't know." The girl shrugged. "It just seems small if there are so many people."

"She has a point…" Kadota grumbled.

"Well maybe the town people are friendly then." Celty suggested hopefully.

"Or they are dead." Shizuo added.

"Either way, we're not going back there." Shinra crossed his arms.

"We'll be almost right next to it if we take a closer look at the dam." Anri pointed out causing Shinra to sigh, Celty rubbing his back.

"We'll look where it leads. Should probably make a big circle around the dam though." Chikage joined.

The wild pigs had driven them slightly off course but it was quickly corrected, the group heading off checking their progress via climbing trees. Shinra, Celty and Tom kept Shizuo from snapping and Izaya did his best not to provoke it as he still limped. "Alright, let's check again, we're past the dam. We also don't have much time left until we have to head back to the cave unless you want to set up camp out here. The weather looks alright till now." Walker, Masaomi and Chikage nodded at Kadota.

"You're good at this." Shinra remarked as the three headed into trees.

"At what?"

"Leading, keeping everyone together."

"Dota-chin is a born leader, Shinra.~" Izaya joined.

"Don't call me that."

"Erika-chan does.~"

"I tell her the same thing."

"ERIKA, A DREAM CAME TRUE! THERE IS A PIRATE SHIP! A PIRATE SHIP!" Walker suddenly exclaimed loudly for everyone to hear.

"Looks just like in those classic depictions!" Chikage added.

"Then it sinks easier." Masaomi added.

"Guys come down, what's going on?" Kadota shouted, the trio climbing down. "Did you just say there is a pirate ship?"

"Yeah" Masaomi replied, Walker booming into an avid description.

"Why did we get closer? What's the point of taking a closer look?" Shinra whispered, the group crouched down in underbrush staring at the ship daintily sitting on the water surging into a bay leading to the dam to its right and to the ocean to its left. Indeed as described, the craftsmanship was exquisite but sturdy its appearance fancying the older books with a black flag with skull and crossing bones. While it was big towering in the water like a beauty ripped out of pirate tales and placed in the modern world it might protest at the idea of holding plus hundred people over a long time on the sea.

"This is kinda cool…" Celty wrote. "Maybe they aren't so bad, like maybe they are even friendly pirates."

"Not with our luck." Tom chuckled dryly.

"Maybe they own the town…" Anri suggested.

"Phew, that'd be two factions to deal with…" Saki sighed.

"Nothing your knight in shining armor can't handle!" Masaomi boasted with a smile.

"With help…" Mikado deadpanned.

"Hey, maybe we don't have to fight at all…" Saburo pondered. "If there are two factions they might not get along…"

"That'd be convenient." Chikage agreed.

"So… steal or trash it." Masaomi raised an eyebrow.

"Geez, what's up with you!?" Shinra groaned. "It's like you get high on danger…"

"Hey that does kind of sound like him.~"

"Unless you have a comment about the boat, shut it." Masaomi growled.

"It's actually a ship." Mikado corrected, everyone staring at him. "… Well, would Leena and Anska find us on the ship?"

"Totally."

"We just have to stay close to the island since we don't have a map and we can't be certain there is one on the ship but it could keep any pirates or other parties off our backs. Your parents are probably closing in quickly so we wouldn't have to hold out for long." Kadota agreed.

"So, we're stealing it?" Saki cheerily summed up.

"I can see it already… Shizuo is the Captain ruling with an iron fist and Izaya is in the crow's nest and they constantly fight but can't live without each other. The tension is high on the ship from the arrival of the two slave boys, tied up in the belly of the ship-"

"ERIKA, STOP!" Everyone yelled, Kadota muttering they should set up camp for the night and further away since they just yelled including himself.

"Why are we stealing again?" Shinra wondered aloud with nobody answering that question. "Hey everyone, we don't know how to drive a ship."

"It can't be that hard…" Masaomi pondered.

"Guess we'll just have to try." Shizuo agreed.

"Like right now?" Walker blinked.

"Nah, tomorrow let's hope no one will be there." Kadota suggested.

"It's already getting dark? We did like nothing except walking all day…" Mikado frowned.

"Guess we're setting up camp somewhere close since there is no time to get back to the caves?"Saburo inquired turning to his beanie wearing friend.

"Yep."

I feel like Mikado there… It feels so short… Ah well, things will get more heated^-^

LarvestaLight: Hi, I'm glad ya like it:D I was wondering when ya would stumble upon this oneX)