Chapter 4

...

It had been a week since they had been kidnapped and still no rescue. Not even so much as a glance of Tess on the ship. Tsukushi was back on deck in the scorching heat scrubbing the deck. She wasn't sure how, but they still had no idea she was a girl...

She wiped her sleeve across her forehead and cringed. God, she needed a good bath. She had been wearing the same outfit the whole time as no one had provided her with additional clothes. She wasn't exactly in any position to ask for some either.

The only redeeming thing about this was-

"Hey, stowaway," a gruff voice demanded.

Tsukushi lifted her head and used her hand to block the sun out to stare into Alphere's ominous whiskey colored eyes.

He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "Paolo has some work for ya."

Tsukushi left the scrub brush in the bucket and got up to head to the kitchen. At least they allowed her to walk to her destinations without that ridiculous blind fold.

Upon entering the room Paolo threw his hands up in greeting, "Ah! You goin' to help me with the uh, fish,no?" His heavy Italian accent stuttered when translating some words.

"Yes. Where did the fish come from?" she inquired.

The short Italian got on a stool to grab a bowl. "Crew catch, I cook."

That was enough for her. She walked over to the table set up with sheet covering it. When she removed it she jumped in fright.

"What is that?!"

"I tell you already, fish."

Tsukushi ran a finger across the dull silver flesh of the four to five foot beast, hoping to god it was completely dead. It felt thick and smooth, with no scales at all like every other fish she had seen. It still had somewhat of fins.

"I've never seen a fish like this..." she grimanced.

"It big fish, hard to catch." He shuffled through some drawers. "You know how to fillet?" He held the blade of a long sharp knife, handle out for her to grab.

With wide eyes she took in the knife. Was this some sort of test? Some images and thoughts about fighting off pirates and finding Tess flashed through her mind. The crew were just hoping for a reason to throw her over board though and, as much as she would like to accept the challenge, she needed to stay on this ship.

Tsukushi nodded and took the knife's handle but still not fully convinced it was a fish, she went to work on the mystery creatures carcass. It proved to be a much harder task, as the flesh was thick and hard to puncture. While jostling the body around, the creatures mouth fell open to reveal sharp jagged, white teeth. It reminded her of some kinda demon in child's story book.

She was definitely staying on the ship if that's what awaited her in the water.

...

The man might be almost impossible to understand, but he cooked good food. Whatever he had done to the 'fish' to make it so delicious was a miracle.

With lunch done she went to pull a bucket of sea water off the back of the boat with the wind going slow. She needed to at least attempt to clean the blood off her clothes from filleting.

"I hate it here! I want to go home!" A shrill voice shouted.

Tsukushi froze. To her knowledge there was only two females on this boat, her and Tess. Unless one of these men had a secret of their own.

Looking around to see the crew all relaxing in the shade they could find to protect against the heat of the day, she tried her luck. "Tess?" she called.

"...oh god! Now I'm hearing voices!" The voice shouted from below.

"Tess! It's me, Tsukushi!"

There a few moments of silence. She watched as a blonde head of hair poked out of pair of open windows swung outwards a few feet below. For the first time in a week, she was looking into the blue eyes of her best friend.

"Tsukushi! It really is you!" Her lips started to tremble and she swiped at her eyes. "I, I didn't know if you were alive or, or," she hiccupped.

"Shhh...I'm ok, promise. I've just been doing a lot of chores. It's like I'm back in town working." She pulled the bucket up and started to wash her sleeves, pretending to be working. "Have they hurt you?"

"No..."

Tsukushi sighed in relief.

"Where did the stowaway go?" someone shouted in the distance.

"Tess I have to go."

Her eyes got wide in fear. "But-"

"I'll find a way to talk to you again. Same time tomorrow hopefully." She caught a glance of Alphere walking toward her, his braid swinging as he moved.

"Now go back in, hurry!"

Tess waved before ducking inside and closing the windows.

"Stowaway," Alphere ordered. "Take lunch to the captain."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why send me?"

"I'm not loosing another man to one of his sour moods. So the crew has voted to send ya instead."

Out of all the times for a pirate to be honest...

"Go get the food from Paolo, and do it quickly. The longer he has to wait the testier the captain gets."

He walked away and Tsukushi had no choice but to head to the kitchen to grab a platter of food. The captain's quarters were on the top deck nearest to the steering wheel for the ship. Walking up the steps her heart rate accelerated. She was going to meet face to face once again with the captain of this ship. The arrogant devil of a man. When he's in a bad mood he simply takes it out on the nearest person? What kind of respectable leader did such a thing?

As she reached the door, she took a deep breath and prepared to flee if needed. She rapped two times on the door and did not receive an answer. She knocked once more and with no answer still, she relaxed. If he wouldn't answer she wasn't just walking in uninvited.

Turning around to leave, a younger man with his black hair pulled back was walking up the steps. She recognized him as the navigator.

"Is that Tsukasa's lunch?" She remembered his face, but not his name.

"Yes," Tsukushi answered. "But he is not answering the door."

"He's probably in the navigation room. Go inside and set it down on the table. I'll let him know it's ready." With that he left just as quickly as he had come.

Was everyone on this ship trying to get her killed?

Wanting to get it over with, she turned the handle, and entered the room. Inside she found a bed with canopy styled red tapestries. A light colored wood desk was pushed against the wall with multiple books organized and loose paper pinned down with a compass to serve as a weight. Where a large window was facing the ocean, was a sort of window daybed, padded with a thin mattress.

She placed the platter of food down. Really, she couldn't believe how neat the room was... For a pirate she expected dirty plates, lots of maps, and dirty clothes with stains.

Time to get out of here, she thought and took a step back.

"Hsss!"

Tsukushi turned around to see a flash of brown and spots dash into the red canopy of the bed. In doing so a few books fell off the desk.

She snapped into action picking them up.

Argh! Since when did they have a cat on this ship?!

Glancing at the books she noticed there were numbers and cargo listed. She recognized the style of inventory. Her eyes bulged at the prices written down for some of the cargo. Had they really paid that much?!

"Bengal, want some shark..."

Tsukushi gaped wide eyed to see the captain staring right at her. At first he was surprised too, but his expression quickly became menacing as his eyes narrowed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"The books fell and I was just picking them up, I'll be leaving now." She set the book down and tried to walk past him but was yanked by the back of her shirt collar.

She was turned around and he grabbed a handful of the front of her shirt. She was silently praying he would not look down at her chest even if that was the least of her worries.

"Make no mistake, the only reason you are on this ship is because of that girl and free labor. Don't think I won't still kill you for sport." He threatened with a hint of amusement. As if killing her would be a wonderful pass time. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't do it right now?"

Her mind rushed to come up with an answer and she blurted out what came to mind.

"B-because you're over paying for supplies!" She flinched waiting for the blow, but it never came.

"What?" The captain asked incredulously.

"I saw the numbers, whoever is doing your buying, they don't know what they are doing!" She opened one eye to peak at him.

His dark brown eyes concentrated on her only as she was pulled closer. All at once, he released his grip and she did not hesitate to scramble out of the room, gasping for air as she was met with the outside salty air. Truth be told as she went back to her regular chores everyone seemed to be very surprised she was still there.

Honestly, Tsukushi was just as surprised herself.

...