trudging slowly through the intros lol

/

Soyo was unbelievably sluggish when she slowly came to, wondering how many times in the past few days she'd woken up jarringly in an unfamiliar area after falling unconscious. This was starting to become a ridiculous pattern she honestly hoped wouldn't continue. Only unlike the other times, she was way more beyond disoriented than she'd ever been. Her body was aching and creaking, and it felt like she'd been hit by a carriage or something. Her mouth was also dry, unable to produce spit and her lips felt like cracking cardboard.

"What happened?" she slurred, trying to stop the swirls in her vision.

"You left a trail of blood all over our ship down to the gun deck. We thought one of our own had died back there, but then found you. You lost quite a bit." A voice answered back.

Soyo's heart seized in her chest at the unexpected response. She blinked rapidly to clear the spots in her eyes as her gaze focused in on the human shaped blur leaning over her. A fairly young man wearing glasses was watching her patiently with a smile. Soyo tried to open her mouth and speak, but her throat had seized up on her and she could do nothing but squeak in confusion.

"You're in the hospital of our ship. Well, I say hospital, but it's nothing grand," he continued as he turned around to rummage with something behind him. "You got shot in the arm, by the way. You were unconscious during surgery, but I still gave you a sedative just in case. The pain might've killed you. But don't worry, you'll probably make a full recovery."

The glasses boy turned back to face her with a pair of metal tongs in his hand that held a bloody bullet at the end. There was something bloody and clumpy stuck to the bullet as well, and Soyo had a sickening feeling that that was something that had probably been part of her arm. Her stomach reeled immediately, and she quickly leaned over the side of the cot, her body shaking as it tried to throw up nothing. Her stomach had been twisting in hunger before, but after seeing that piece of flesh she had absolutely no desire to eat. The man put the bullet away quickly, looking at her in pity as he handed her a cup of water when she straightened.

"Sorry, this is all we have left. I don't know why you were stowing away on the Amanto, but you're safe from the Feng guards now."

She frowned as she choked the water down. It tasted musty (and vaguely of dirt) and there was some kind of small sediment floating in it, but she fought the recoiling of her stomach to swallow it down. She was parched and needed to alleviate the dry feeling in her throat.

He gestured to the bullet. "Feng bullet. One of the guards must have shot you."

"Oh," Soyo set the cup down and suddenly became aware that her hat wasn't covering her face as well as it had been before. She tilted her head down and pulled the cap more securely over her head.

"Did you escape from the castle?" he asked cautiously.

She glanced at him but said nothing in response. He had kind eyes, and he didn't seem to have any bad intentions towards her, but he was a pirate. This was a pirate ship. She couldn't place her trust in anyone, especially after all the treachery she'd endured in the past several days.

"You've been through something awful and your mistrust is justified, but believe me, I mean no harm," he added when she kept silent. "It probably doesn't mean much to you, but some of the crew wanted to toss you overboard. I convinced them to let me get the bullet out of you so you could live and explain yourself. But you will get questioned and when you do, I can't support you if I don't know your story."

She cleared her throat before deepening it and speaking gruffly so she sounded less feminine. "How long have I been out?"

His brows lifted, as if surprised by something. "…about thirty-eight hours. The sedative will wear off in about ten hours. You'll probably be in a lot of pain after that."

She looked down at her arm. The sleeve had been torn and around her upper arm was a tightly wrapped reddened bandage. This man had gone through great lengths to make sure that her wound would heal properly even though she was a trespasser on the ship.

"Look, my captain will kill you if you don't have my help," the man with glasses said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I know you're scared, but you can trust me. I promise."

"I…" He was right. His captain was that crazy orange haired man laughing on the ship. She had no doubt he would kill her. The bloodlust he'd exuded had been palpable. "I ran away from Feng kingdom because I was about to be s…"

She paused, quickly stopping herself from saying she was about to be sold. She grimaced, hoping he wouldn't try to delve further into her explanation.

He seemed to understand her hesitation and changed the subject. "How old are you?"

If she remembered correctly, she'd been bleeding for about three years now, though she honestly wasn't sure when exactly she had been born. She'd been a baby when the millers had gotten her so they'd guessed her age as a baby and also from when she'd begun to bleed as a woman. She considered her birthday the day the kind old couple took her in.

She shrugged. "I'm grown."

"Do you not know your age?" The look in his eyes wasn't one of pity, but one more of empathy. And at that moment, she felt the guard she had around herself crack the tiniest bit. Despite her reservations and her mind telling her not to fall for any traps, she couldn't help but feel like she'd found a kindred spirit in the young man with the glasses. "Orphan?"

"I wasn't told my age growing up, but I am probably around sixteen or seventeen years of age."

The boy nodded pensively. "That makes sense actually. You seem like you haven't hit the change to manhood yet. Hell, you kind of even resemble a girl in some ways."

She felt her cheeks rouge and cleared her throat, lowering it even further.

"I get that a lot. I'm a late bloomer. …balls haven't dropped yet," she added, remembering something she'd heard one of the village boys say once when his friends had been teasing.

He laughed, genuinely, and Soyo couldn't help but crack a smile at his unabashed friendliness and the ease with which she was maintaining conversation with him. She'd half expected all pirates to be cruel, terrifying eye patch wearing burly crooks with rotting teeth and hooks for hands and pegs for legs who only pillaged and plundered. But this guy was already proving her fears wrong and it had a tremendous effect in making her trepidation diminish quite a bit.

"I'm Shinpachi, by the way. Surgeon and occasional chef for the Amanto," he said with a kind smile. "And you are?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but in the next second, the door of the small cabin swung open brutally. It banged against the shelf of supplies, knocking over some stored liquid and another viscous like substance that fell to the ground. The glass shattered, spilling the contents across the floor and they both jumped in alarm and turned to the door.

"Abuto…" Shinpachi said, looking a little concerned.

"So the stowaway lived, huh?"

The man with long, dirt blonde hair, Abuto, was standing in the doorway staring down at her. Soyo bristled, a chill settling in her spine at the bored look in his gaze. Like he couldn't care less whether she lived or died.

Before Shinpachi could respond, Abuto grabbed her off the wooden table. Soyo couldn't get her balance fast enough and tumbled to the ground, landing on her injured shoulder with a cry that resounded throughout the room and reverberated off the walls. She caught Shinpachi's wince and his attempt to help her up, but Abuto was already there, yanking her to her feet and then tying her arms tight behind her back.

Soyo bit her lip to the point of drawing blood from the fiery pain shooting up and down her arm. She felt like her arm was about to get ripped out of its socket, but there was no time to dwell on the pain before Abuto gave her bum a good, sharp kick and she went stumbling out of the cabin.

"Walk," Abuto drawled behind her, giving her a hard shove on the back and once again, nearly causing her to fall flat on her face. "Up the stairs and out of the hatch."

Soyo climbed up the stairs slowly, towards the light, and felt like she was being led to her execution. At the top, she was met by the dank stench of pungent sea water, the sound of waves crashing against the side of the rocking ship, and the unbearable heat of the sun directly above her head, beating down on her heavily.

Soyo swallowed thickly, fighting the quivering of her lower lip and willing herself to keep her head up as she walked in the direction he kept directing her. It seemed like the whole crew was standing around on the deck, most occupied with their tasks but all watching her. Some with thinly veiled curiosity, others with thinly veiled treachery. The crew itself was an interesting mix of bulky, tattooed men and others lean and slim, but there wasn't a single one who she could single out as looking like a potential ally. Shinpachi was fussing to Abuto about being careful with the injured, but Abuto merely snorted derisively and planted his boot on her behind yet again.

Soyo went sprawling on the deck from slipping on a puddle of suspicious liquid and crashed face first. This time, she did cry out when she felt the sharp snapping of something against her skin. Gritting her teeth, she glanced at her injured arm and saw that it was bleeding more heavily through the bandages. She wanted to cry, but her fears stayed her tears.

"Abuto!" Shinpachi said angrily. "You're going to make his wound reopen!"

Too late, Soyo thought, just as an ominous shadow settled over her.

She hadn't heard the footsteps approach. Soyo rose to her knees and glanced up slowly, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the rays of sunlight reflecting off a radiant orange head of hair. It was the orange haired captain himself, braid dancing in the wind and a cheerful grin on his face as he stared her down. She was a little surprised by the friendly smile. From what Shinpachi had warned her about the crew, she would have expected the captain to be rough or potentially violent right off the bat, but she couldn't feel any sort of murderous aura from him. He seemed almost accommodating. But as she rose to her knees and moved herself upright, a quick glance at Shinpachi's blanched face made her stomach flip in trepidation.

"So you're the infamous stowaway who tried to steal passage on my ship," the orange haired captain mused with a finger to his lips and head tilted a bit to the side in interest. He sounded almost playful, but something about his demeanour made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "Do you know what pirates do to stowaways who don't earn their keep on a ship?"

Then he reached down and grabbed the collar of her tunic, twisting it in his hand until it was tight enough to make breathing uncomfortable. Soyo gagged and struggled as the captain lifted her up by one arm high above him, her legs dangling uselessly. She wheezed for breath that wouldn't come easily, her eyes bulging as she tried to release some of the pressure on her neck. She couldn't even use her arms since they were tied too tightly.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled his sabre out of the scaffold with his other hand before pressing the tip at her neck. She sucked in a sharp breath when he pressed harder, and she felt the sting of metal piercing through her skin. Warm blood trickled out from the shallow wound, trailing down the side of her neck and travelling under her tunic. At this rate, she was going to die!

"P-please!" she heard a voice saying that was definitely her own, though she didn't remember telling herself to speak. She snapped her eyes tightly shut, focusing on sucking in one breath at a time while her lungs protested the lack of air. "Don't kill me! I mean no harm! I just needed somewhere to hide to get out of Feng!"

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears in the ensuing silence as she began to countdown whatever seconds she could possibly have left in her life. Not one sound was made from the crew, though she could feel all of their eyes on her.

"…Are you a spy for the Navy?"

To her relief, the sword tip moved from her skin. She cracked an eye open to look down at her assailant and almost immediately wished she'd kept it shut. That jovial smile she'd thought was friendly had warped and looked sadistic and vile. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen the pure killing intent running off of him in waves. It oozed off of him like a concealed second skin, lazily lapping around him and impatiently waiting to be released on the next unsuspecting person.

It frightened her, and it took everything she had to swallow her fears to respond with a steady voice. "No. I was escaping bandits when I was shot during the raid in Feng. I want to join your crew. Let me join your crew."

She had no desire of joining a despicable pirate crew, but she would say anything if it could save herself. And she was taking that chance.

The captain laughed hard at that. "You have nothing of value to consider you an asset. Why would I induct you in my ranks?"

"B-because I do have something of value. A treasure map!" she lied, hoping he didn't call her bluff. That stupid map she'd been holding on to looked like it could be a treasure map. At the very least, she could try her luck to trick them. "If you let me down and cut my binds, I can show you."

That certainly got his attention. He stared at her contemplatively as if trying to gauge how much of her words were true. But after a few seconds, he dropped her back on her feet and cut the ropes binding her wrists. Soyo nearly whimpered from the pain of her joints finally moving in a less tight, painful position. She rubbed her wrists with a frown, tempted to throw them all a glare. Now that she was free, she would have to come up with a quick scheme to get out of harm's way. But it looked like they were out in the middle of the ocean, and she didn't know how to swim.

The sword reappeared directly in front of her nose. "The map. We don't have all day."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled map, unfolding it carefully before holding it up. There was a deafening silence as everyone stared at the article in her hand.

"Where did you get that from?" the orange haired captain asked.

"I stole it from some bandits."

"Captain," Abuto suddenly said with raised brows, discreetly giving his captain a poignant look that Soyo caught. "How does she have a copy too? Didn't we already steal it from Feng?"

There were murmurs of confusion by the crew as well. Soyo didn't know what was so important about this damaged piece of parchment, but they looked too incensed about her having it that she knew she could use it as a bargaining chip. Whatever this thing was, it was definitely important. Abuto aside, the smile on the captain's face had gone a little stiff and sour.

"…Because it's not a copy," the captain muttered with grit teeth, as if realising something. "It's another piece of it."

The comment made Abuto frown as well and a few others cursed under their breath.

"Wh-what is it a map to?" Soyo asked tentatively.

He ignored her inquiry and responded with a shark like smile that made chills travel down her back. "Interesting how we've been looking for this, and all of a sudden, you show up with just what we need, huh?"

"It's just a coincidence!"

"Of course," he drawled, his tone implying he didn't believe her. The sabre came dangerously close to her throat again.

"How about you strike me a deal? I was a miller's d— son so I've grown knowledgeable about bread and usually made the meals. If you allow me passage on your ship, I can work as an assistant chef. Or…" She swallowed thickly. If he was planning to kill her regardless of what she said, she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Soyo took a deep breath and knocked the sword out of her face. She ran as fast as she could to the side of the boat and held the map over the edge of the rail. "O-or I'll drop this into the ocean!"

Behind his captain, Abuto visibly flinched and was making a rapid motion for her to stop. And even Shinpachi facepalmed, shaking his head like she'd done the singlehanded most stupid thing she could have done in this situation. Some other crewmembers were also wincing.

The orange haired captain slowly turned to face her, sheathing his sabre calmly. Her heart leapt in her chest when he dragged out a pistol from his coat and made a show of checking the bullets in it. His eyes were open now, and she was met with the frightening gaze of a startling blue that rivalled the ocean. They were the eyes of a predator hell bent on capturing and destroying its prey. They held a promise of violent retribution, but he was still smiling and somehow, that made his gaze that much more terrifying.

"What is it with you prisoners that get all confident just because I didn't kill you first chance I got?" he mused darkly, cocking his pistol and aiming it at her head. "We just took a bullet out of your body. Do you want another one to take its place?"

"I mean it! I'll drop it in the ocean!" Soyo shouted, though her resolve wavered when she saw the unforgiving gleam in his eyes.

"You'll die before that."

Her legs shook. "Do you really want to take that risk? I'll make sure I fall over the edge with it. You'll lose it in the sea forever."

They stared each other down. Sweat dampened her tunic, making it cling to her body. She was nearly holding her breath, though she kept her gaze steady. She didn't feel confident though. He was going to kill her. She could see it in his eyes.

"It's not like we couldn't use the help, Captain." The silence was broken by a sandy-haired guy chewing on a blade of wheat in boredom. "We lost a lot of crew with that last raid."

"…And I'm up to my neck with all my work as surgeon," Shinpachi added cautiously, though he was partially cowering behind Abuto. "We haven't had anything great to eat since you made our last chef walk the plank. If you hire him as a chef, he can handle most of the food related stuff I haven't been able to. Think about it. Real food."

Soyo sent a mental thanks to Shinpachi and that other guy for steering the conversation away from the blackmail, though she kept herself alert and focused on the volatile man a few paces ahead of her. In retrospect, maybe it hadn't been the best idea to try to threaten the captain when she really wasn't in a position to pull a stunt like that.

"I won't be in your hair for long," she tried again, deciding to focus her argument on her skills. "I just want to work for passage on this trip so I can return to my kingdom one day. I'm very good at making bread."

The captain did have a look of interest on his face. Or rather, after Shinpachi had mentioned the chef business, she'd noticed his more relaxed disposition. Actually, from where she was standing, she could actually see a lot of the crew looking interested and desperate for food. How long had they been going on with barely anything to eat?

"What kingdom did you live in before Feng?" he asked.

"I don't know. I was hoping I could figure it out on this trip so I could get back home."

He scrutinised her with a look of mistrust, though she let out a sigh of relief when he uncocked the pistol and replaced it in his holster. She was safe for now.

"Very well. You will work in this crew until we fulfil my objective. Only then will I return you to your home."

"Wait…" Soyo blinked in surprise. She honestly hadn't expected success. But what was his objective? "Really?"

He turned on his heel. "I'm hiring you as chef hand. You'll be working with Glasses—"

"My name is Shinpachi, Captain!"

"—as his assistant until you can take over duties on your own. What's your name?"

"M-my name? I uh… it's So… ummm…" Soyo's mind went blank as she scrambled to think of something. Abuto gave her a weird look and she nervously licked her lips. "…Souji. I don't have a last name."

"Glasses, you're in charge of him. You're also responsible for him, so if he messes up, you're punished too." The orange braid swished lightly in the wind as the captain stuffed his hands in his pocket and headed away. "All of you get back to work. Abuto, bring the map to my quarters."

As the crowd dispersed and crewmembers went back to their duties (although many were still giving her curious looks), Shinpachi went over to her with Abuto. The amount of relief that Soyo felt at the attention no longer being on her was almost all encompassing.

"Congrats on joining the crew. So no hard feelings, kid?" Abuto cracked a grin as he took the map gingerly from her. "I was just putting on a show."

"You… what?" She glowered up at him and he chuckled, patting her head gently. "So kicking me in the behind and making my injury reopen was you putting on a show?"

Abuto's face only looked more amused. "Being easy on prisoners leads to mutiny by the crew. I'm not your enemy. But word of advice. Cap' doesn't respond well to disobedience, anything against what he wants, and above that, threats. You'd do well to steer clear of him for a couple days. If you piss him off again, he'll shoot you for real."

He slinked away while taking a swig of a flask he kept on his person.

Shinpachi smiled. "It's true. Abuto is more reliable than he looks. And he didn't want to throw you overboard when we found you either. He cares about the crew. But with a Captain like Kamui, you really can't afford to be soft around him."

Soyo nodded, carefully adding and filing this information in her mental column of allies on this ship. So far she had Shinpachi for sure, and one maybe ally who she didn't quite trust in Abuto, and a potential maybe ally in that sandy-haired guy. Everyone else seemed a danger to her livelihood.

The next slap of waves against the boat rocked the boat, and Soyo's stomach jolted as what little energy from the excitement left her body. Her legs buckled and she nearly collapsed. She turned over the railing and heaved, releasing some brown liquid mixed with what looked like dirt.

Shinpachi gave her a look of pity as he carefully moved her uninjured arm around his shoulders to support her. He must have seen her legs shaking from the effort of standing. "I wish we could offer you something real to eat, but there's not much left right now but some moulding bread."

"Better mouldy bread than nothing at all," Soyo groaned, wiping her mouth with the bottom of her tunic and instantly regretting the motion when a sharp pang of pain travelled through her arm. She felt like she was going to die soon if she didn't get some real food in her stomach at some point too. It was bad enough that she hadn't eaten anything in quite a long time, but if she kept throwing up what little was in her stomach, she wouldn't last very long. "How do you all survive in this environment? What do you eat?"

"You don't really want to know…" Shinpachi grumbled in disgust as they began their trek across the main deck to head back to his surgeon quarters. The sky had already darkened considerably. "But welcome to the Amanto."

She had no intention of remaining a pirate, and she didn't want to stay on this ship any longer than she had to, but at least there was a decent person on this ship. And if she stayed away from everyone else and kept to herself, maybe the voyage wouldn't end with her as food for the fishies.

"Why are you on this ship if it's captained by such a dangerous man?" She still felt unsettled by that jovial expression that he'd had on his face. It was a façade, she knew, but she believed it was to cover the bloodlust that dripped off of him. She would hate to see him actually angry, and she had a feeling many of the men on this ship were loyal to him because they'd seen what his anger did to his enemies. "And no offence, but some of you don't quite look like you're fit for being pirates."

"Not all of us are here because we want to be pirates or join the pirate's life, Souji. But believe it or not, Kamui is one of the better captains I've seen." Shinpachi gave her a strange, almost pained smile. "He's ruthless and an awful person and living on this ship is hard, but we all have selfish goals we're trying to reach, and we all know he's our best shot at getting to those goals. No matter what means."

His tone brooked no further questions and something about the way there was a haze in his brown eyes made Soyo decide not to press what he meant by that. "How did your captain manage to find such a large, loyal crew? Are most of them scared of him or something?"

She felt Shinpachi's chuckles more than heard them. "Most of these men are criminals for short term hire who chose this life instead of prison, but there are a few of us who are contracted crewmates of our captain. I'm one on contract. On this ship—thanks to our captain—we're free to do what we need to to accomplish things. Things that we wouldn't be able to do if we were tethered to the law or our pasts. "

"What do you mean?"

"Make no mistake, some of the crew have absolute loyalty to Kamui no matter what, but many of us who are only on this ship for the purpose of achieving our own goals. Being under contract gives us higher payment and more benefits, though our commitment is longer."

"You seem like a good man compared to many of these others." She didn't voice her thoughts that she wouldn't have ever seen him as the type to end up on a pirate ship. In fact, she would have imagined him more as the kind to work in a navy or something more righteous than some scummy pirate ship full of thieves, killers, and outlaws.

They walked across the deck in silence, and Soyo watched the crewmembers as they raised the sails and pulled ropes and scrubbed the deck in tandem. Some were shouting orders she didn't quite understand, but it was pretty interesting to see the work they collectively put in to make the ship function. They were like one well-oiled machine, a unit where each person had their own place and task and putting all the tasks together resulted in the success of this ship.

"…I wish I could agree with you, but I'm no better than some of these others. I'll do anything if it means helping my sister," Shinpachi said quietly, with a hint of shame in his voice.

She almost misunderstood what he was saying until she realised he was responding to her earlier comment. "Your sister?"

"My sister works on the island of Yoshiwara as a bar wench."

"Is that where you grew up?" Soyo asked tentatively. She wasn't sure how to react. "Yoshiwara?"

"No, Yoshiwara is a free trade port. We're heading there right now to get more crew and sell some stuff to prepare for our long voyage. But it's a filthy place and a hovel with brothels and other saloons and bars and illegal transactions unfit for someone of her calibre. She raised me since I was a young boy because we're orphans, so I just want to give her a carefree life," Shinpachi said through grit teeth, his fist clenched. Soyo glanced up at him in slight alarm from his darkened tone. "It's the least I could do for the sacrifices she made so I wouldn't end up being forced to join the navy or become a sea merchant. She hasn't been able to get married because she works in such an impure place, but our late father left us so much debt. The only way she won't be thrown into a brothel is if we pay it off."

"Is that why you're working on a pirate ship? The easy access to treasure?" Even though pirates did awful things?

Shinpachi nodded, chuckling awkwardly in a bit of shame. "Our captain is looking for one of the biggest lost treasures in the world. If we find the treasure, the cut I get from it could fix all of my family's problems. And knowing that, I joined, regardless of what that meant I would become or would do. Selfish, isn't it? Still think I'm a good man?"

She swallowed thickly, feeling like part of her wanted to distance herself from him. It was appalling, and it wasn't right. He'd joined a horrible crew who did all sorts of untold horrors to towns and people and ruined lives just for the sake of his own desires. He was selfish. But deep down, she knew given the opportunity to help her parents, she'd do the same thing without hesitation. She was human too. She knew exactly the lengths she would go to to make sure her family was safe. Hell, wasn't that what she was doing by using this pirate ship to get herself back home?

Soyo knew it was time for a change of subject. "Are there any places I should avoid on the ship?"

Shinpachi looked grateful for the shift of the conversation topic. He gestured to the hatch leading to the ladder that Soyo remembered she'd climbed down when she first snuck onto the ship.

"Down there are our ship's stores, the brig, and cargo hold. The other deck has the galley, hospital, and other stores." He gestured to where the wheel of the ship was. "That's the helm, and behind the helm is the poop deck. I'm sure you can take a guess as to what happens there. I wouldn't recommend going there at night because that's when most people relieve their business." He stopped in front of a closed door underneath the helm. "And these are the captain's quarters and the navigation room."

So that was where the maps would be. If she snuck in there at some point, maybe she could get it back to help her find her way home.

She must have had too much of a look of interest on her face because he raised a brow. "That's the one place off limits in this ship. Don't ever go in that room, or you'll probably end up with a bunch of holes in you. If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask the crew. They may look scary, but some of them are really nice."

Soyo's eye twitched. "Only some? And what about the ones who aren't?"

"Any questions about the ship?" Shinpachi replied, ignoring her question entirely. He guided her to the hatch, being very careful to help her down the steps. They walked back to hospital, and he held the door open for her as they walked in. "You'll be living in the galley or food stores for the most part, since you probably shouldn't sleep near the rest of the crew. I can put an extra cot I have in the galley."

"…Shouldn't?" What did he mean by shouldn't sleep near the rest of the crew? His comment alarmed her and her stomach dropped to her feet in fear of him knowing her true gender. She swallowed thickly as he set her down on the cot she woke up on. "Why not?"

He stared at her as he pressed a cloth to her wound and instructed her to hold it in place. "I mean, you're new and until you get the ropes, it's hard to lead a life like a common pirate. It's not the cleanest or easiest place to live. And it doesn't smell very fresh where most of the crew sleeps."

"Right, right…" She let out a discreet sigh of relief.

"For now, you can sleep on this cot." Shinpachi started to leave. "I'm going to re-bandage you, but for now sit tight and keep pressure on your arm. I'll go get that bread for you to eat."

Soyo sat back against the wood of the ship, trying to relax from finally being out of danger and harm's way. For the time being, she could try to gather her strength and get some rest until she figured out the next step to take. She was safe now, but how long would that last living in a pirate's world? Not to mention Kamui being incredibly erratic, and she was already on his bad side. If even someone who seemed like a good person like Shinpachi had their morals compromised by being a pirate, Soyo definitely didn't want to stay and potentially lose her morality.

She had to get out of here. The sooner, the better.