A/N: 51 follows and 20 favorites, wow! You guys are awesome.
There is a bully scene (step-sisters vs Kyoko), so if that disturbs you, you may want to skip over those few paragraphs.
Looking around him at the rest of the slightly nervous crew, Miroku sighed and spoke up, "Why did the orders change so suddenly? Did you find another plaything?" He took the silence around the predatory look in his captain's eye as a yes. "We can find you another one at the next port—"
The men shivered as chills crawled up and down their spines. The first mate blinked in surprise. Had he ever seen Reino so excited or determined to find a specific weird, dark spirit, the kind he was obsessed with?
"This one is different."
And that's all the answer they had as the Vie Ghoul turned back the way it came, back towards the small port and their captain's eventual plaything.
"Those eyes."
"Those eyes," the other step-sister agreed.
"We don't know anyone else with those golden eyes."
"I would recognize that face anywhere. Your face is slimmer and your hair is short, but you're no man."
"Not even a boy."
Sho began to feel a bit nervous as he looked at a stiff Kyo...Kyoko? For a moment there, her face was utterly livid and he had felt this odd choking sensation, but now the usually expressive face was completely blank and the strangled feeling was gone. Was it all just his imagination? And these girls seemed to know her—he should probably step in—
They were laughing. They were wiping away their haughty tears away with exaggeratedly dainty fingertips. "If only your mother could see you now!"
"Her mother?"
"Fool!" he was slapped teasingly on the shoulder, "She is—was our step-sister, Kyoko. Isn't that correct?" they turned back to face their prey.
To his surprise, she didn't even deny it. This deathly-calm Kyoko was...unnatural. "Where is Mother? She is with you, is she not?"
"Are you stupid? Your mother up and abandoned us years ago. She brought our father great dishonor and we had to live without ample servants for weeks!"
"Take responsibility for your actions, and if not your own, for your mother's!"
Confusion settled over Kyoko's face, "What do you mean, my mother? She was just as much your mother as she was mine. If nothing else, she treated you more like her own than she did me."
"Don't joke with us. To us she was just another of Father's women—nothing special."
"And she had money that we had not."
As they chattered on in their patronizing tone, the temperature of the room began to drop. Rage was rolling off of Kyoko in tidal wives. How—they dared to—all she'd ever wanted was her mother's acceptance and all it was to them was—she yelled and tripped backwards, away from Sho's outstretched hand.
"Kyoko, calm down." His face loomed before her, but all she could sense was...condescension.
She blocked out the rest of whatever lies were coming out of his mouth. Trust. No trust. She was surrounded by monsters. Everyone against her, a freak.
"You're breathing really weird. Calm down!" Sho insisted, but the face she once admired as that of her Prince Charming was now twisted and warped into—into—that of a Monster.
"Don't touch me!"
Her step-sisters' horrible fingers slapped her across the face, her cap falling to the ground. Soon they had her by the hair and pulling at her vest. Kyoko's panic had cut off her newfound grudges and now her step-sisters, no longer fearing for their lives, were ready for their attack.
"I always knew you were a lunatic." "Didn't pin you as queer too." Other familiar insults were hurled at her person, bringing up waves of nightmarish nostalgia. In the background, Sho's barely audible voice was trying to get them to stop.
She deserved—NO. She deserved better from these insects. And then they dropped, hands clutching at their throats. They were writhing.
"Kyoko!" Sho shook her by the shoulders. She froze and her grudges stopped.
Whatever he was about to say was cut off by her step-sisters coughing. "What did you do to us, choking us without moving—were you trying to kill us? Witch! She's a witch!" "Call the church—" "How many have you killed in the past year?"
Kyoko's eyes widened even further as she saw the three pairs of eyes. In her eyes, blurred with tears, they leered accusingly. "It's her fault that her father died, you know?" "He probably killed himself looking for a stupid rose!" She'd hurt them...this was all her fault, she shouldn't have left home—she shouldn't ever have thought she could be loved—
She wrenched herself from Sho's grip and stumbled out the door, bumping against the walls before fleeing past a stiff Aki, his fingers lifted towards the doornob, shut down by what he'd just overheard. She didn't care. She didn't even notice. She flung herself out onto the open deck, ignoring the calls of confused crewmates. Kyoko just ran—and ran...and ran...
Aki pulled at his hair. How did this even happen—he'd come down there to hand Kyo the paperwork for the tea they'd exchanged, which Kyo had forgotten on the kitchen counter, only to find out that he was not a he after all. And it was one thing to suspect it, but for it to be revealed in such a messed up way... What kind of childhood did Kyo have for such a character to be totally undone by two spoiled women? Aki stared at the candied fruits that Kyo had been so eager to give to the Captain. After Kyo...Kyoko, was it? After she'd bolted out the door, Sho had actually glared at the two young women standing in the room—and told them to get out! Aki had never seen him interact with any females in that manner. Sure, he'd complained about particularly clingy ones after the fact in private, but this was much, much different.
As for Aki, he had his own outburst. When the girls had had the audacity to flirt the moment they'd looked him up and down, he practically shooed them away before exploding at Sho. For once, his Captain took the lecture without any signs of the usual calm-down-I-don't-care attitude. The moment the sweets were mentioned, Sho swiped up the bag, checked the contents, and then was running after their cabin boy. His love? Air rushed out of Aki's lungs. What in the world...?
His confusion was interrupted by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, "Captain! We have a problem!"
"Me?" Aki blinked, incredulous.
"Captain's orders. You're acting-Captain right now."
Another tired exhale. Aki followed the sailor up to the deck, "What is it now?"
"There's a ship blocking our path and it refuses to move out of the way—" They emerged into the sunlight to the sounds of general confusion.
Aki's hand instinctively went to the pistol in his holster, "Excuse me, are you authorized to board our ship?"
A smirk. "Stand down, Captain." Aki bristled at the sarcasm from the mysterious intruder. "Oh, my mistake. I haven't properly introduced myself. I am Miroku, First Mate of the Vie Ghoul. We're hired privateers. And we know you're not technically registered. We've merely been overlooking the issue since you seem to have a simple, honest trade in the transport of tea and other goods." The white-haired man smiled, "Ah, my apologies. We'll be searching you anyway."
Immediately, a party of foreign men backed the crew around the mast while another went down into the hold of the ship. Aki could do little more than glare. They had gotten a head start funding most of their day-to-day needs by trading in goods, but they were still technically waiting for the kingdom to grant them a license. "Privateer," Aki scoffed as he eyed the strange men warily. "More like entitled pirates. Where is your Captain? I demand he—"
"I am his spokesman. He believes you have something of his interest on your ship."
As Miroku spoke, a man all clad in black came into view. The other men backed away from him, and it was apparent to Aki that perhaps he was the Captain. His gaze was that of a bored tramp, but there was something about it that also gave one the impression that one's soul was being dissected at the same time. The man sighed.
"Is it not here, Captain?"
A distracted look, a shrug of the shoulders. The man's nonchalant, arrogant attitude made Aki's blood boil and he was about to tell 'im what he really thought of him when suddenly the man became quite alert. He stood straighter and he had a certain calculated look about him, as if he were trying to remember something, or perhaps find something. And then he grinned. And there was nothing strange about the grin itself, but Aki got chills just looking at it. There was a very similar—almost demonic—vibe he was giving off... Immediately, the Captain of the Vie Ghoul whirled around and walked briskly down the gangplank, and not before Aki caught sight of the elaborate sword scabbard at his hip.
A ridiculous, completely irrational thought entered his mind, but Aki couldn't help but believe his instinct. It couldn't be—the Captain was after Kyo!
"Relax, Vice Captain," Miroku gestured for his men to be sure that nobody left the ship. He gave an icy half-smile of his own, "Nobody is going anywhere."
Aki sent a prayer into the heavens. Please, let those two be safe.