Or High Water - Part II
Captain Ari - Ariesu of the once-noble Barajishi family - arrived back to her three-mast vessel, the Exiled Princess, somewhat out of breath. She had a bit of headstart on the angry mob at her heels, but she wasn't comfortable enough with it to walk. She had run all the way back to the ship, weaving her way down the maze-like short streets of the village.
She climbed aboard, pressed her hands to her knees and breathed deeply, calming her hammering heart the best she could. That stranger in the inn had given her the creeps, not just with his keen eyes but the sort of strength he was emanating; something not entirely human, like he had meddled with things that weren't of this world. She didn't like to think she had been frightened; she preferred to dismiss it as being knocked out of her element for a moment.
Straightening, she smothered her hat onto her head and puffed her reddened cheeks up in indignance. 'That jerk…! What right did he have to treat me that way?!' She raised her right hand and curled then opened her fingers once. With the glove on, it looked like any other human hand, really. She had oiled the joints just this evening; the automail didn't make a single sound. 'He shouldn't have known, yet he had. The only other person to have realized it had been that insufferable rogue, Izaya...' She paused, swallowing a tiny squeal that threatened to bubble from her at the thought of the man. She had encountered him a few times and their meetings invariably ended in some sort of feud which then led to… things she was sometimes ashamed of, but mostly excited about. In her opinion, there was no resisting Izaya's charms, so it was difficult to feel bad about giving in to them.
Her crew began to board the ship too. Most of them were out of breath but their shining faces showed they still feared nothing and saw this latest little brawl and chase as just another adventure she had led them to. She tossed two gold coins to each man and still had plenty left for herself; the night's pickings had been great despite the interruption. As they pocketed their coins, she could not help but wonder. With her reputation soon to be soiled with rumors of her as a cheater, how many would leave her when she could not provide for them anymore?
"Alrighty, lads!" She yelled. "Set sail! To open waters, I want to be in the next port by noon for a good, warm lunch!" She was answered with a general cheer of 'aye!' before the men went to work according to orders, drawing up the anchor and steering the ship out from the dock.
Tossing the streets one last look, Ariesu concluded that they had safely escaped the angry mob and perhaps that mean stranger too. With inexplicable unease still in the pit of her stomach, she turned to walk down to her cabin. Removing her hat, she unlatched the door and stepped in.
"Yo-"
The man barely had time to try and finish that cheerful greeting; Ariesu had stooped, pulled one of her daggers from her boot and tossed it at him. It flew past his face as he moved away, and landed in the wood behind, four of the seven inches blade lodged in. Ariesu drew her scimitar next, not fooled by the other's raised hands. "Get off of my ship!"
"I guess I could swim ashore, but I prefer my clothes dry." The man said, giving the curved blade of the sword a brief glance before returning his clever carnelian eyes to Ariesu's own. "Besides, I'm here with an offer."
"You have some nerve!" She chided, the tip of her weapon firmly pointed at him, as though trying to keep him a safe distance away. "Ruining my evening and then coming here to negotiate! I'm not dumb, you know! I said get off my ship!"
"I heard you the first time. My answer is the same." He sighed, slipping off from the heavy oak desk he had been sitting on. "Now, could you put that away? It's making me think you want to cut me again."
When his feet touched the floor, Ariesu knew it made no sound. She wouldn't have been able to say she had heard so because the waves licking around the ship outside were blocking out most soft sounds, but she had seen the way his toes touched the wood. She had only seen cats move that way before. Clearly, he was something superhuman.
"I will cut you if you come any closer!" She insisted, wrapping her free hand around the hilt of her other sword. "Who are you anyways? What business do you have with me?"
"That's overkill, don't you think…?" The man muttered when he saw her grab the other scimitar. His hands were still raised in a placating manner… which could easily turn into a free-hand attack, Ariesu knew. She needed to be on her guard. "My name's Ging Freecss. I'm a hunter… and I'm looking for a good ship with a-"
"You're NOT taking the Princess from me!" She screamed, more panic in her voice than she had first intended there to be. She pressed her lips together tight and stepped closer, tears springing to her eyes unbidden. Fury coursed through her, desperate, unyielding, frightened fury. Her voice rose in a yell again, but this time her panic was paired with a spite that burned. "Over my DEAD BODY, you hear me?!" She took another step closer, drew the other sword and pointed both at Ging. She was ready to kill again, face setting in that vicious mask she was not aware of herself. "Get OFF of my ship or I'll-"
"I don't want to take it, I'm trying to say I want to hire you!" Ging didn't back away, not even when the tips of the scimitars were touching his chest through his clothes. The way he looked at her wavered her anger despite her better judgement. There was an unabating passion in his eyes, and feverish, almost childlike curiosity. "I have an expedition in mind. To lands yet undiscovered. That can't leave a captainess like you cold, can it?"
"I don't believe you." She said, but she already did. Her lips melted from the harsh snarl they were set in into a soft, pouty expression. She was feeling less furious by the second. Hurt was showing now, and sadness, tumbling from her lips before she could censor the emotions in her words. "You've exposed me back in the bar… what good was that for? Word will go around… how do I feed my men? Sailors are always hungry, you know?"
His face screwed up oddly and his eyes shifted away almost immediately. He didn't seem to want to answer at all. Eventually, he muttered something under his breath and Ariesu's eyebrows knitted. She poked his chest a little with the tips of her swords to emphasise she was expecting a proper answer. "What was that?" She demanded, cheeks beginning to puff with annoyance. "Speak up, mister!"
"I said it was a spur of the moment!" Ging snapped, smacking the scimitars away. With the tips pressed into his shirt, the fabric tore open and he grunted in dismay. "Oh joy!" His eyes flicked back to hers and Ariesu saw his eyebrow tensing, about to twitch. "What does that matter now, anyways?! What's done is done!"
"Oh you can say that now, can't you?!" She returned the scimitars to his body, now crossing in front of his neck. His eyes hardened into a glare with that threat but she would not start fearing him now. Not when he was obviously flushing in the face with something akin to guilt. "Spur of the moment! My reputation will be ruined on your spur of the moment and my men will have to go back to starvation and living from one day to the next! What spur of the moment, you cur!" She stomped, her foot thudding hard on the wooden planks beneath.
"Cur?!" He echoed incredulously. "Where did that come from?!"
"Did you LOOK in the mirror lately?!" She flicked her wrist and the blade of her scimitar turned towards his chin, brushing over the stubble with a soft, scraping noise. No harm done, except perhaps to his oversized pride. Served him right, she thought. "You're obviously a messy, scruffy, good-for-nothing-"
"Oh so SORRY I'm not a clean-shaven officeboy!" He snapped, halting her tirade and nicking himself on the blade of her sword. "Ow! You're an idiot!"
"YOU'RE the idiot!" She yanked her scimitars back and sheathed both, pulling out a clean handkerchief to press it to the small, bleeding wound on the left side of his chin. "Who told you to mangle yourself on my sword, idiot?!" She pursed her lips, but it rather ended up as a pout as she glared up at him. "Idiot! Idiot hunter! Stupid!"
"Shut up!" Ging growled, grabbing both her wrists all of a sudden. The tiny nick on his jaw line was barely bleeding now. The handkerchief was still clutched tight between Ariesu's fingers. "Want me to shake you, aaah?!"
She watched his eyebrow twitch, his lips curled down in irritation, his carnelian eyes glowing. He was clearly unable to properly display emotions but she was not about to take mercy on him for it. "You're a childish, egomaniac dick!" She sniffed. She tried pulling on her wrists but found him much too strong for her. "Choke on it!"
"What did you just-" He did begin to shake her, but right after the first yank her foot collided with his shin, earning her a tut of the tongue and nothing more. "Tch! You want to play dirty, I can play dirty!" He whirled around, smothering her into the wall behind. "Take back what you just said!"
"Jerk!" Ariesu yelled, kicking out again, getting blocked this time… and god, it hurt, it did. "Nh…" She bit on her lip after that tiny noise that escaped her and hissed hard, squeezing her eyes shut. Her foot was like an extension of her leg made entirely of blinding pain, like she had just kicked a concrete wall full force, not a human being. The ache rang through her unforgiving and her eyes watered behind the lids. She exhaled through her nose and pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth so she wouldn't scream.
"Serves you right, now take it back!" Ging said… then fell quiet at once. His hands slackened around her wrists and she could have wondered why, what made him falter in his anger, but she didn't want to. Her hand pulled free, shot across her body, grabbed the knife in the wall beside her head and yanked it out of the wood with a mighty sob. She glared at the man through her tears as she held the dagger in front of her. Her teeth showed between her lips and she shivered against the wall, face tight and grim.
She knew how much weaker she was than him and still she stood defiant. "...you've exposed me." She seethed between lips that felt achingly numb. "You've ruined my reputation. You've starved my men. I don't care what spur of the moment made you do what you did, but I want you to admit you've wronged me!" Her lips trembled and she struggled to hold them stiff as she needed them to be. "Ari-chan is DONE taking anyone's shit!"
TBC