A.N.- I am sooooo sorry! I was going to post this on Sunday because I went to UTA band camp this week, and they've given me the Wi-Fi password the last two years, but they had a change of policy this year and wouldn't give it to me. I just thought it would be cool to post a chapter from band camp. Never again. It's just not worth it. That was only the beginning of an awful week. So I've had a bad week, and I feel really guilty, and I'm in a huge complaining mood. Part of it could be that I was actually sick at my camp and I'm still sick. But whatever. I don't have to do anything, and I'm not in any more drama. I can finally sleep at night. On the bright side (or downside depending on the filthiness of your mind) I put a relatively dirty joke in there. It didn't come out quite right, but still. I think it's funny, and that's what matters. Anyways, I hope you guys at least kind of like that chapter (which really doesn't add much to the plotline, but I'm still working out some kinks for the next arc).
Satomi and her incredibly small crew quickly found themselves inside the cabin of the boat, having to decide what they were going to do. Satomi didn't seem too excited about this, but knew she had to go ahead and get it over with.
"So where are we heading next?" Tobi asked calmly, gazing around at his new crewmates.
"Well, we probably won't be able to get anywhere we want to go unless you know how to navigate," Satomi said, appearing for all intense purposes to be greatly nonplussed. She was tossing a plum between either of her hands, contemplating whether or not she wanted to eat it when she knew that she would probably make a mess. Tobi stared at her curiously.
"Why do you say that?" he questioned, clearly confused. Jack decided to comment.
"Because she's lived on a boat since she was fifteen and doesn't know how to properly navigate," Jack said dryly, and Satomi chuckled lightly. There were lots of things she couldn't do that she didn't really care about, and navigation had to be one of the ones she cared least about, right after riding a bike. Who needs bikes anyway? Satomi certainly didn't. She had never once needed a bike, and whether her friends thought it was an important skill or not, she had never bothered to learn.
"First off, I was fourteen, and secondly, I can navigate just fine in the Grand Line. However, the navigational system used in the four blues is very different from my home ocean, so I'm unaccustomed to using the method here. Plus, compasses are stupid," Satomi responded lightly in her defense, though she didn't care about the argument. She was just bored. Aki had opted to skip the 'boring' conversation and instead had headed down to the storage room to grab her things, since she had been hiding down there.
"And you don't know how to use a compass after all these years?" Tobi asked, exasperated. Satomi had to be like, what, twenty? How had she not figured that out?
"You don't use compassed in the Grand Line. Besides, compasses are obsolete when you can look at the sun to figure out the whole north, east, west, and south thing. Navigation here isn't just using a compass, it taking in the stupid weather…" she trailed off for second before huffing indignantly, "Whatever! I don't do navigation here, and that's that."
"Well you're in luck, because they teach basic navigation skills in the Marines. But we'll still have to get a proper navigator, because I doubt I'm good enough to keep us alive," Tobi said bitterly, annoyed at his captain's incompetence towards sea travel. Satomi nodded acceptingly at his words before removing a map from a drawer in the kitchen and sliding it towards his seat at the table. She pointed a finger at one of the islands.
"I want to go there," she said simply, before turning back to head down to the storage room and see what was taking Aki so long. She quickly climbed down, seeing the bright green of Aki's hair sticking out in one of the darker corners of the room.
"What's wrong?" Satomi asked as she walked over calmly, assessing the girl who had removed her stuff from a relatively empty box. Aki turned to her, holding something in her right hand that made Satomi's face turn bright red. That was not supposed to be on her boat.
"Um, what are these? There's a lot in the box," Aki asked, her large green eyes staring curiously at her captain. Immediately Satomi snatched the tiny package from her hands and tossed it into the crate before sealing and lifting the crate.
"Balloons," she lied easily, and she hoped the color of her face didn't make Aki think she was lying. Aki nodded.
"Ah. Well then, what are you doing with the balloons?" the question was innocent, but Satomi really wanted to stop talking about the 'balloons.'
"Throwing them out," she responded evasively.
"Why?"
"Because they're… cursed. Yeah, they're cursed. Let's go with that," Satomi was usually a freakishly good liar, but the words seemed to be failing her this time as she climbed the ladder. Aki seemed too innocent to tell the truth.
"Then why did you have them in the first place?" Aki's question was logical, and Satomi thought back to her childhood. Had she asked so many questions? Yes, she had, and if she had believed in karma, she would have said that this was her punishment for being such a damnably curious child. She didn't believe in karma though, so she brushed it off.
"Well, an odd friend of mine gave them to me without thinking. Another friend was supposed to have burned them, but apparently he missed a few," Satomi scowled lightly as she thought of the pyromaniac that had failed her. He would regret this. So would his baby maker.
Once she was in the living room and heading for the deck, she realized she had startled Tobi and Jack. She really wanted the 'balloons' off her ship. Both of the men stood as she rushed quickly, wondering if something was wrong.
"What are you doing Cap-" Jack's question was interrupted as she brushed past him.
"Nothing, you lot stay here, I'm taking out some… trash," Satomi ordered lightly, leaving behind two very confused pirates as she walked through the door, tossing thee box over board and watching as the box slowly floated off into the sunset. She yawned slightly as she headed inside, deciding to go back inside and shower. She decided that since she didn't feel like making dinner, her crew could just eat fend, as in 'fend for yourself' type fend. It was a personal favorite of hers.
"You alright?" Jack asked as she shut the door behind her to see Aki standing in the room holding a small bag as well as a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The storage door was once again hidden.
"Yup, fine," she responded quickly, deciding to actually eat the plum from earlier. "By the way, I don't feel like making dinner, so you guys can just munch on whatever you want from the fridge. If any of you guys try and cook, don't start a fire. I will be most displeased if a fire is started on my boat."
The members of her crew nodded easily, and she decided to assess the locations of her dogs. She figured she just had to make sure they weren't anywhere they weren't supposed to be and then she could go off and shower. Harvey had moved on to snooze on the couch in the living room portion of the ship. Shannon was once again on Jack's bed, and Satomi knew that there would more than likely be some sort of epically stupid battle between her first mate and female dog, and she hoped she wouldn't miss it. She'd get a laugh out of that. Jake had, for once, decided to act calm and was sleeping in a funny position on her bed. That made her smile as she went to throw away her plum pit in the kitchen.
"Hey, Cap'n, I know we're supposed to be… searching for freedom and all that, but are we trying to do anything else as pirates?" Tobi asked from his spot at the table where he was eating a bowl of cereal. Satomi glanced at him thoughtfully as she closed the lid on her trash cans. Satomi actually had many reasons for being a pirate, probably more than she could count on both hands, and she really didn't feel like sharing some of them, but she had a few that she didn't mind discussing. She took a seat next to him and Jack, who was busy unsuccessfully trying to open a jar of pickles.
"There are plenty of things I want to do as a pirate. The only thing I wanna accomplish before I die is Freedom, of course, but there are others I would be more than proud of doing. Like, if we find the One Piece, then I'd be happy. I am somewhat tempted to go nowhere near that area of the Grand Line, as I would really like to avoid royalty as a general, pirate kind or not, but whatever. Obviously I would love to do everything in my power to piss off the Marines and World Government, and I'm sure that won't be too hard for us to accomplish. There are a few placed in the Grand Line I want us to visit, and stuff like that. I also want to make sure the members of my crew accomplish their own personal goals. Like I want you to beat my bro- er, Lane so that you can take his title and all that jazz," Satomi paused awkwardly at what she had almost said. It was just an awkward sentence, "I think it'd be totally awesome to score a position in the Kyu no Kyofu. I would just love to manage that."
The room was silent for a minute and everyone was staring at Satomi. Aki had stopped fiddling with an arrow where she sat next to Harvey in the living room, and Jack had paused in his attempts to open the pickle jar. Tobi's spoon was hanging humorously from his mouth, and that made Satomi smile. Without really thinking, she removed the pickle jar from Jack and skillfully tapped the lid of the jar against the table, leaving slight indentions as she spun it in her hands while she tapped. When she was done with that, she handed it back to Jack. Jack tried opening it again and was finally successful.
"Thanks," he said, then looked at Tobi's slightly shocked face and smirked. "Want a pickle?"
"Shut up," Tobi snapped, closing his mouth which had been hanging open. Satomi giggled, and Aki turned back to her fiddling, a cookie hanging from her mouth. "The Kyu no Kyofu?"
"What? They can't be that dangerous. Besides, Lane's a member of the group, so if you want to beat one of them so can I. I am the captain after all," Satomi said with a slight bit of condescension on the edge of her tone. Tobi rolled his eyes.
"But still, aren't they evil or something?" he questioned, and Jack was silently agreeing with his best friend. Satomi saw the look on both their faces and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, so're the revolutionaries, and the Whitebeard Pirates, and every good thing that opposes the World Government. You can't take everything the papers say seriously," Satomi snapped in her best matter-of-fact tone that only she could properly pull off.
"Well, they're dangerous," Jack stated.
"Yeah, and Lane's in the group. You want to beat Lane, and I was thinking it might be interesting to take out someone like Bouvier Mercedes," Satomi responded calmly, one silver eyebrow raised at the men of her crew.
"The Mistress of Mercy?!" Tobi asked, and Satomi smirked lightly.
"Of course, anyone in the organization would do, but I would prefer a fight with her. I've heard interesting things about the woman," Satomi said. She had to admit, she was pleased with the look on Tobi's face. It was rumored the woman was as powerful as Lane, but Satomi was almost positive that the infamous criminal had nothing on the powerful martial artist. Besides, she had a personal grudge against the pirate woman. "There's nothing wrong with me doing something I want to. That's part of what makes me free, right Aki?"
"You bet Captain," Aki shouted, giggling lightly, and Tobi grimaced at the sound. Satomi had brought her in on the conversation for a reason, probably because she was annoyed with Tobi disapproving of her decision.
"That's right, indeed. Anyhow, while you guys enjoy yourselves, I'm off to shower. I feel disgusting," Satomi informed with a smile, standing up and pushing her chair in.
"Don't forget the cream for your back!" Jack shouted at her as she went to the restroom, magically holding her pajamas for the night, and she brushed it off. She probably wouldn't remember if he told her a million times.
After Satomi had finished her shower and gone through her nightly ritual to maintain her wonderful hygiene, she made her way back to the living room where everyone was sitting. She still had to decide the sleeping arrangements for Aki, and she was worried about what they would do. She didn't want the poor child to have to sleep on the couch, but there were no spare beds. The pirate captain also didn't want to have to force the males of her crew onto the couch, and she felt uncomfortable leaving anyone alone in her room for any period of time. So as she plopped down on the couch, she regarded Aki from where she had remained on the floor and was bugging Tobi.
"Aki, we need to figure out where you're gonna sleep," Satomi stated bluntly, and the green eyed child turned to face her captain, the conversation that she had been deeply involved in with both Jack and Tobi revolving around pickles ending.
"What do you mean?' Aki asked, though she didn't look like she cared, which kind of confused Satomi.
"Well, I mean all the beds are occupied and I don't think you want to sleep on the couch, and I doubt the guys want to offer themselves to the couch. I'd give you my room except I don't want anyone in my room without me being there," Satomi responded, informing them. Jack and Tobi glanced at each other.
"I know I'm not giving up my bed to the brat," Tobi grumbled, and Satomi found herself slightly amused by how much the ex-marine seemed to dislike the little girl. Satomi tucked her silver hair behind her right ear, and scratched her chin in thought.
"Well I can just share a bed with you," Aki said to her, and Satomi's eyes widened in surprise at the girl's bluntness. Aki just stared pointedly at her while Satomi considered the 'suggestion' that was really a statement. Satomi really had no problem with the idea, since the girl probably wouldn't get away with poking around in her room, as Satomi was a light sleeper and good at keeping a watchful eye. She didn't mind in the least actually, but Satomi didn't ever expect other people to ever be willing to do such things. It wasn't like there wouldn't be any space either, because Satomi's bed was large enough for the two of them.
"Alrighty, sure. As long as it's all good with you," Satomi nodded, agreeing, and Jack frowned.
"So she gets to go in your room?" Jack wondered, slightly offended. Satomi raised an eyebrow at the doctor.
"Dude, you're a dude. I find it awkward for you to be in my room. Get over it," Satomi responded, giving the black haired man a pointed look. Jack just shrugged. Satomi also knew that if he were in her room, he'd snoop. He was a curios person when it came to her personal history, something she felt irrelevant. When she needed to, she could tell them her story, but until then, it was her story to hide and her story to reveal.
"In that case, now that everything's settled, I'm going to bed. You can get in bed whenever Aki. The closet and bottom two drawers are all yours for your clothing, and you can just put anything else on the ground and we can deal with it in the morning," Satomi stated lazily, forcing herself to get up and move to her bedroom. "'Night everyone."
"'Nigh Cap'n," Jack said.
"Sleep tight," Tobi threw in.
"Alright Captain," was Aki's response to Satomi's information, and then Satomi was gone off to her room, tired and ready for sleep. It wasn't until Satomi was almost completely asleep that she remembered she had not put on the cream for her back, but she brushed it off as unimportant. Then she smiled as her last thoughts for the day were that poor Jack was going to have his hands full with trying to keep her healthy.
Back in the living room, where the three pirates sat, Aki decided to ask some questions. She was, after all, a bored twelve year old girl, and liked to be occupied. She went to ask her question, but was first interrupted.
"What was Satomi's deal earlier anyway?" Jack asked, and though it was more to himself than anything, Aki figured she'd respond to the doctor, who had just begun munching on an orange. A slight flash of annoyance passed through her at the horrid color, but she held in her feelings of repulsiveness, which were directed to the sight of her least favorite color. She hated orange.
"When she was throwing out the balloons?" Aki questioned, referring to when her captain rushed out with the box, and making sure she had the right event. Tobi and Jack both looked at her.
"Yeah… do you know something about that?" Tobi questioned, almost unsure if he actually wanted to know the answer when it had something to do with the 'little brat.' Aki nodded lightly, a grin on her face as usual.
"Yup. Satomi said she had to throw out some cursed balloons," Aki informed nonchalantly, as if that wasn't the oddest sentence she had ever said. The sad thing was, it really wasn't the oddest thing she had ever said. Not that her brain registered what was odd and what wasn't. Tobi and Jack glanced at each other, thoroughly confused. Jack frowned.
"Um, Satomi doesn't believe in stuff like that," Jack said, not sure what to make of what his younger crewmate had just said. Satomi didn't believe in a lot of things, and curses were on that list. She didn't even think Devil Fruits were technically cursed. Jack honestly didn't understand the way his captain's mind worked.
"Well apparently you're wrong, because when she saw the balloons in their packages, she looked very nervous," Aki said, very matter of fact manner. She looked like she wasn't going to give in to this argument. Jack and Tobi glanced at each other again, this time very skeptical about the entire ordeal. "By the way, is Trojan a good brand of balloon, or do you think that's what makes them cursed?"
At Aki's curiosity both Jack and Tobi turned a bright red, no longer wanting to have this conversation with the naïve little girl. They looked anxiously at each other and then back to Aki, whose green eyes were wide with anticipation of an answer.
"That's definitely wh-what makes them cursed," Tobi stuttered out, not sure of how else to answer without going to places in the conversation he did not want to go to. Especially not with Aki. He wasn't sure why, but he really didn't like Aki.
"Oh, okay. I'm going to bed then," Aki responded, getting up and going to Satomi's room to sleep. When the door closed, Tobi and Jack looked at each other awkwardly.
"Satomi didn't strike me as… that kind of woman," Tobi said, almost disturbed at the thought. Jack raised an eyebrow at that, surprised Tobi would actually think that about their captain and shook his head.
"She's not. Apparently she had some friend with some… problems and when she tried to help the woman, I think her name was Candace or Cadence or something with a C in it, gave all of the stuff that helped encourage her problem to Satomi. Satomi said she got rid of all of it, but apparently she hadn't," Jack informed, too bad at remembering people's names to recall what the woman's name was. Tobi stared at him for a moment.
"We have an odd captain," he responded simply, and Jack nodded in agreement.
"She likes to say she has, and I quote, 'diverse interests,' and if you've seen that storage room you'd have to agree," and Tobi did agree. His captain did have a lot of interests from what he'd seen. After a moment, Jack released a sigh and stood up.
"Alright, it's getting kind of late, but Satomi's got some sort of what she calls a vendetta against not having someone keep watch during the night even in the South Blue where it's safer than the Grand Line. I usually take first watch and then she gets me when she thinks I've been up enough, so you'll probably have last watch. I'm going to go relax on the deck, but you probably ought to go to bed," Jack told his best friend and crew mate, and Tobi nodded.
"Will do. I should probably listen to you anyways, since you seem to be my superior," Jack grinned and smirked at Tobi, but otherwise didn't respond, instead heading outside with Shannon (much to his displeasure) so his Captain wouldn't get annoyed, because she was pretty annoying herself when she was annoyed.
Tobi did go to bed at that point, wondering how the hell he was supposed to survive with a crew like this, but not overly bothered. He'd be having some fun pretty soon.
