Moonlight

Chapter Four-New Members

They both ran at each other at lightning speed, scythes clashing before they jumped back. They continued to exchange blows like this until Mizuko dashed to the side of Masa, aiming her scythe for a low blow at his legs. Before her scythe came in contact with skin, Masa jumped up and did a flip, landing neatly away from Mizuko.

"Shadow Scythe." Masa whispered the name of his attack before he disappeared. Mizuko seemed to know exactly what would come because she dodged as Masa appeared behind her and slashed downwards, leaving only a small scratch on Mizuko.

He seemed to be using that move a lot. Mizuko on the other hand was showing her special attack. She didn't whisper like Masa but rather yelled her move, "Sunlight Scythe!" I smirked a little, they may look alike, but their personalities were very different.

Basically Mizuko shouted this while using her scythe to reflect the sun into her opponents eyes and slashed at him, giving him a shallow cut across his stomach.

I watched as they continued like this for almost an hour until they both were covered with cuts and panting.

The two both flopped onto the ground at the same time, basking in the sunlight and Ace smiled, "You two are pretty good." He stated.

"Was it good enough to join your pirate crew?" Masa raised in eyebrow.

Ace's grin grew wider, "Totally."

I on the other hand was baffled, *Ace invited those two to join our crew? When?*

Flash seemed to sense my confusion, he probably didn't understand what was happening yet either, after all I hadn't introduced him to anyone.

"Um, anyone care to explain?" I asked.

Ace glanced over at me, "I asked Mizuko and Masa if they wanted to be part of the crew, remember? How you said we needed people who could swim on our crew?" He said.

I nodded, I was just surprised he would pick the twins, although they were pretty good at fighting.

"So you guys want to come see our ship? Also we're kind of low on supplies and money so if you don't mind helping us restock a little..." Ace sheepishly said, running the back of his head.

Mizuko chuckled a little, "Alright, why not?"

Their house was on the outskirts of town, so after giving their mom a quick explanation by simply stating they were off to explore and would be back soon, Masa and Mizuko followed us back to the docks.

As we walked through town I noticed most people were walking around in their bathing suits. They must spend a lot of their time swimming. Masa and Mizuko had changed back into their clothes at their house.

Ace dragged some supplies onto our ship when we finally had reached the docks. Masa and Mizuko immediately took to exploring the boat, I trailed behind them a little. They inspected the kitchen and then went below deck and inspected the three rooms, the room full of cots, a small bathroom and a storage room where Ace was finishing up with the items we had bought for traveling.

"It's kind of small isn't it?" Mizuko asked. I shrugged, it wasn't a problem when there was two people.

Suddenly I felt a flutter as a certain black-feathered bird perched on my shoulder, it had seemed he had finished exploring the ship as well. I waved at the twins as I headed back onto the deck with Flash. I could hear them talking to Ace as I climbed up into the sunlight.

*Alright, I should be able to do this soon.* I thought to myself as I hopped off the ship onto the dock, nobody else was around as my arms became wings again, my feet became talons and I even shrunk down in size a little.

"Alright, Flash, I want to try flying." I told the bird, who looked at me confused.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? You haven't even completely transformed yet." He replied.

I nodded, if I couldn't fly like this then I was weak.

After Flash ran me through on the basics of it one more time on the ground, I felt more than ready to try.

We had actually moved off the docks onto a small, but hidden beach. White sand sparkled in the sunlight, and turquoise blue waves lapped at the shore. I took in a deep breath and let it out as I jumped into the air and flapped my wings, managed to keep myself floating.

I smiled in pure joy and laughed a little, "This is awesome!" I told Flash, who was flying next to me. The next thing I didn't expect to happen was black feathers sprouting out of my body, as I shrunk down in size even more, and small beak formed on my face. I had finally managed to finish the transformation.

I laughed some more as I flew up higher, above the island. Flash got caught up in my joy too and we flew in circles together and looked down at the view. We stayed like this for a while before floating back down to the ship.

Still, I wasn't sad about that, I'm pretty sure that today I had the most fun I'd ever had in my life.

Mizuko led the way as she and her brother made their way back to their house to pack up their things and tell their mom where they planned to go.

Mizuko had to admit though, she was going to miss her little sister, Katsu. She remembered when they had picked out matching charm bracelets, she always wore it for good luck now.

"Are you going to stop reminiscing?" Masa asked as they stopped in front of the house they'd lived in their whole lives.

Mizuko sighed, "Yeah I guess, but you're not? How heartless." She smirked.

Masa shrugged, "Maybe a little."

Mizuko laughed as she got back to her normal self. They made their way through their yard and into their house.

Mizuko sighed once more as they were inside the familiar entry way. "I'm going to say bye to Katsu, can you explain to mom. Even if she doesn't care we still have to tell her we're leaving, okay?" Mizuko said as she started to climb the stairs.

Masa gave her an exasperated look, "Fine." He said as they went their separate ways.

Mizuko stopped in front of her little sister's bedroom door. She knocked and it was slowly opened as her sister peeked out. When Katsu saw it was Mizuko, she opened it up the rest of the way. "Hi Mizu." She said.

Mizuko smiled as she entered Katsu's room. The pink paint on the walls were chipped off in some areas. One wall sported a large window and she had her pink bed pushed against it so she could look outside while she fell asleep. Mizuko knew all her sister's habits.

Mizuko flopped down on the bed that was too small for her and her sister hopped on too. "Me and Masa are leaving." Mizuko stated simply. Katsu blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Mizuko looked over at her seriously, "We're leaving with some people we met, we're going to go explore the world as pirates. You know we've wanted to leave for a while and now we have the chance to." Mizuko explained.

She could see tears starting to well up in Katsu's eyes and leaned over to hug her. "Mom'll definitely take care of you, you're her real daughter, unlike me and Masa, so she definitely will." Mizuko whispered.

Katsu nodded, "Mm." was her only reply, she was glad her sister and brother were following their dreams.

Mizuko leaned away and smiled at Katsu, "See ya around." Mizuko said as she stood up and left the room.

"Bye, Mizu." She heard her sister whisper as she close the door fully and went off to pack her things. A single tear escaping her eye before she regained her composure.

Mizuko came downstairs as Masa was walking to the front door, "What did she say?" Mizuko asked.

"She said she didn't care, what did you expect?" Masa replied.

Mizuko shrugged, she was a little disappointed, but she was ready to leave. She had packed her's and Masa's bags while she was upstairs and just needed to put her shoes back on. "Let's go." She said, opening the door and handing Masa's bag to him.

He pulled it onto his shoulders and the two were back in the streets.

As they walked back to the docks one last time they could hear various yelling.

Mizuko looked at Masa, "What do you think is happening?"

Masa shrugged, whatever it was, it didn't sound good. They turned the corner just in time to see a large group of marines, about 50 or so, poised with weapons of all sorts, including swords and guns. What seemed to be the leader standing at the front of the group was yelling, "Everyone surrender! We were sent here to take care of this cursed island!"

I stood on the docks as I watched the marines that had decided to invade. Ace came up behind me, "They sure are getting cocky, sending such a small group to wipe out a full island of people." He observed.

"They seem to be making good progress to me." I said as they were barging into homes and buildings, forcing people out. The streets were overrun with panicking citizens. "Should we help them?" I asked right as I saw Masa and Mizuko running at us.

I was about to ask where they had been until they ran straight past us on to the ship, coming out with their scythes. They seemed intent to get rid of those marines, of course this probably was their hometown so I could see why.

"I guess that's a yes." Ace said, answering my previous question. He ran after the twins, his arms becoming fire.

I looked at Flash, and jumped into the air as my arms became wings. I gracefully flew up high, then spun back down and kicked a marine straight in the face, Flash laughed a little bit.

I could see the twins taking out the marines fast with their scythe attacks and Ace was easily wiping them out with his ability. I got the feeling I wasn't really needed, so I shrunk down into my raven form and lazily searched for any stragglers, any of the marines trying to escape. Luckily I caught one right as he was trying to kill a citizen, I flew by him quickly and slit his throat with my talons and jumped back to the ground in human form, Flash landing on my shoulder.

I helped the citizen up and sent them on their way and turned back to the fight to see the marines had been wiped out.

Except for their leader, who seemed to be battling Ace at the moment. The marine swung his sword aimlessly as Ace pummeled him with his fists made of fire, it really was a one-sided battle.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a gunshot, too late, I felt pain prick my arm. It seemed a bullet had grazed it. I turned around to glare at a standing marine who had aimed for me. It looked like he was already pretty injured, probably the work of the twins.

I quickly ran at him, avoiding another bullet he'd shot and punched him in the gut, he doubled over and then collapsed.

I examined my arm, the wound was pretty deep, thankfully the bullet hadn't hit somewhere else that could've killed me. I grabbed on to my arm to stop the bleeding as I walked over to where Ace had finished up and Mizuko and Masa had gathered.

"That was surprisingly easy." Mizuko said.

"They probably only sent weaker marines because they weren't expected people outside the island to help the citizens." Ace observed.

"We should get going soon." Masa said.

Ace nodded.

"Alright let's get on the boat then, we have all the supplies we need for now, right?" He asked.

Mizuko nodded her head as the four of us climbed aboard and we prepared to set off.

I leaned against the railing and stared at the ocean as we floated away from the island, everyone else had gone below deck. However, I quickly saw bad news as there were black storm clouds heading straight for us, I could already feel strong waves lightly pushing at our boat. "Ace!" I called, startled to find him right behind me.

"There's a storm coming." He noticed, and I nodded, before a particularly large wave crashed into our boat, harshly rocking it. I stumbled a little before realizing I was falling backwards off the railing. Surprised, I said nothing as I felt the sensation of falling, and right towards the ocean as well.

A/N: Cliffhanger because I felt too lazy to keep writing and figured the chapter should be long enough. Thanks to anyone who's reading my story :)