Rirry-Chan: Okay, so I think I got this out somewhat early? Not sure. Summer has ruined all sense of time for me. Anyways, I wrote a lot of this while recovering from the removal of my wisdom teeth, so this may be a little funky. Get over it. This was really just set up for the next chapter, probably qualifiable as filler. Whatever, I liked this chapter. So I'm gonna do a little rambling here, because from my spot here on my bed with my laptop (which had a crap ton of viruses for the past week, mind you), I have done very little socializing, and I think it's starting to really effect my mental stability. First off, there's this stupid mosquito in my room, and it won't die, and I've decided to name it Egbert in honor of Homestuck, which one of my sister's has begun to read. Also, for those of you out there that don't have security for your computers, get it! It's so worth it. I'm speaking from experience here. Also, I have decided that, come November, I will be participating for the first time ever in NaNoWriMo. Thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Also, anyone have any suggestions for the crews name? Because I can guarantee y'all that my idea is retarded. Anyways, Read, Review, enjoy.
"I think I'm gonna vomit," Satomi moaned, her right hand placed carefully on her stomach as she walked with the members of her crew. Jack walked next to her, his face pale and eyes wide.
"I… I just don't know what to say to that. I have no words for the filth I just heard…" Jack said, his mouth opening and closing, obviously wanting to say something but not sure how to word it. Tobi was walking behind them, his own expression thoughtful.
"You know, you taught me some new things today Royce. Thank you," Tobi said, causing Satomi to glance back at her crewmate and give him a weak glare. Tobi merely smirked in response.
"Satomi, what's a-" Aki began to question from Satomi's other side, but was quickly interrupted by her captain clamping a hand over her mouth.
"Whatever you're going to ask, don't. This is a conversation to have when you start involving yourself in big kid activities," Satomi said, softly shaking her head, and closing her eyes as if hoping to clear her mind of disgusting thought.
"Oh please, Tomi. You knew all of what that meant when you were twelve, I think you can explain it to the poor girl," Royce scolded, though there was an amused smirk on his face. "And you haven't even been involved in big kid activities."
"This isn't a conversation to be having in the middle of the street. Besides, my discovery of such things was due to one idiotic friend. And by the way," Satomi stopped walking, causing her crew to stop as she spun on her heel to face Royce, who was walking next to Tobi. She brought her right hand up to point rudely at her childhood friend while her other hand rested on it's hip before she continued her lecture, "I can not believe you, getting us kicked out of an ice cream parlor. Honestly, the things you said to that poor cashier lady made me nauseous. In all my years on the seas, of all the places I've been kicked out of, I never would have thought I could add ice cream parlor to my list."
"Good to know I could be your first at something," Royce said with a smirk, causing Satomi's face to redden, although everyone knew it was from anger, while Royce placed his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, pulling off a cool look. "Besides, she was pretty. Figured I'd give it a try. Now e can go to a bar, and drink and party and have fun and pick up wo-"
"If you finish that sentence, I'll give Etoile a second sister," Satomi threatened, and the violence was visible in her dark brown eyes. Royce did not flinch or lose his smile; in fact, he showed no outward's reaction to the intimidating threat other than the zipping of his mouth. "You will not speak to any women other than me at that bar, you pervert."
"Can we just go get some drinks? I'm really anxious to have a beer," Tobi wondered after a long, tense silence. Satomi sighed, turning back to face the front.
"Sure. I need a whiskey anyways. Aki, you can't have any alcohol either, you can wait until you're sixteen to start destroying your liver like I did," Satomi stated, giving a side glance to her green haired crew mate.
"Okay," Aki said with a grin, not minding as she took another bight from her last ice cream cone (the girl had managed to get six within the three minutes the crew had at the parlor before Royce had gotten them kicked out), humming a happy tune that Satomi thought was vaguely familiar but couldn't place. The crew just continued on their way to the bar, a venture Satomi had only given into after much begging on her crews' part, as they desired a party or some reason or another. Satomi wasn't sure she could call anything a party if it didn't have ice cream, but she gave in nonetheless.
Once the crew of pirates had reached the bar, the mood had seemed to lighten up. All three of the guys (after Jack had gotten his poor virgin ears to forget the words that had been uttered by Royce), were conversing happily, discussing all sorts of things that Satomi was sure could never interest her. Aki seemed perfectly content drinking juice and taking in her surroundings, every once in a while commenting on something Tobi said, annoying him. Satomi was beginning to wonder if perhaps the little girl wasn't annoying the ex-marine on purpose.
The males in her crew drowning drinks pretty fast (though Jack seemed to be carefully paying attention so as to avoid a level of drunkenness), but Satomi chose not to join in on the festivities, avoiding the drinking contests of people all throughout the bar. Satomi was pretty good at holding her alcohol, usually entering contests to earn a little money, but she was more in the mood to nurse her bottle of straight whiskey, content to listen to her surroundings and smile at her crewmates and how happy they seemed despite the fact that they knew they'd be battling the next day.
Satomi smiled to herself as she listened to Aki asking the bartender a bunch of annoying, pointless questions and hearing the laughter of her crew. It occurred to her that he group had increased pretty quickly, and she was pleased with this. She now had a doctor, a navigator, an archer, and a martial artist. Now all she found to be true necessity was a cook, a shipwright, and possibly a sniper. That wouldn't be too difficult, right?
Satomi could remember a time when looking for people of such skills were unnecessary for her, and she scowled. 'Tyson, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope it was worth what you caused,' Satomi thought bitterly, as someone slid into the seat next to her. She didn't even turn her heads, just slid her eyes to the right as she brought the bottle of whiskey to her lips for another drink, otherwise ignoring Royce.
"Having fun, Captain?" Royce questioned, making the title somewhat sarcastic. Satomi smirked, rolling her eyes.
"Loads. What about you? Enjoying your crewmates?" She questioned back.
"Totally. But I have to ask, when did you decide to follow in your mom's footsteps?" Royce asked, and though he meant nothing by the question other than the thought to relieve his own curiosity, Satomi was offended. The captain scowled.
"I'm not following in anyone's footsteps, least of all my mother's. The only thing I have in common with that woman is hair color, weapon choice, favorite article of clothing," Satomi fingered the silver bracelet around her wrist at that, "and possibly future health concerns. That's it. I'm a pirate to piss people off and be free."
"Man, I always figured you would grow out of that desire to be free. Especially since something that would have messed up any chances of a career as a member of Tiane's military," Royce said, almost wistfully, "Though I understand where you're coming from. Just sailing around with Etoile has been great. And now that I can start busting people up, I don't think I need to worry about anything ever."
"Oh yeah, you totally don't have anything to worry about. Like, you know, a sister that's, you know, being held hostage by, like, criminals and crap," Satomi stated a little haughtily, but she was smiling nonetheless, because Etoile had always been tough in her own way, and Satomi was sure they'd find the girl in good health. Satomi was never confident in her own abilities, but she never had to worry about Etoile's capabilities. Etoile would stay strong. Royce's face flushed with embarrassment.
"Well, I just figure she'll be safe since we're going to get her together," he retorted half heartedly, and Satomi spared commenting on the dark-haired man's comment. She gave him a small grin.
"So what happened with Ty?" Royce wondered changing topic. Satomi's grin slid of her face as she prepared a reply.
"Well, His Royal Majesty deci-" Satomi's annoyed words were interrupted by a loud, deep voice.
"Oi, Moreau!" Every head in the bar turned to the voice's owner, a tall man that had to duck to enter the bar, and despite his size, there were few muscles like one would expect. Satomi notice a gun at his hip with a frown and glanced to Royce, who had paled.
"Ha-ha, hey there Carsem, fancy seeing you here," Royce said, chuckling awkwardly. Aki moved over to Satomi's side.
"Who's the four-eyes?" Aki questioned her captain as quietly, captivated by the newcomer's bright pink and orange glasses. Satomi shrugged, motioning for her crewmate to be quiet.
"The boss wants the first portion!" Carsem demanded, reaching the place at the bar where Royce and Satomi sat.
"The f-first portion? Wh-what do you mean?" Royce asked, leaning back from intimidation. Carsem rudely slammed his hands flat onto the bar, leaning his face close to Royce's.
"The boss said you were paying it in parts. So just give me the 50 million and I can go," Carsem practically growled at Royce, until Satomi tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to turn and look at her. Now, Satomi was wearing her usual black tank top with a jolly roger on front, but the shirt was relatively low cut, and with the angle that Carsem was facing her, it wasn't hard for him to get a full view of Satomi's cleavage, looking down. Satomi might not be Royce's type, but she could always catch a few lookers.
"What do you need from my friend here, exactly?" Satomi questioned politely, putting on a fake pleasant smile and resting her chin on the palm of her hand. Carsem struggled for a moment before bringing his eyes up to meet Satomi's dark brown ones. Satomi was tempted to vomit with how close he was standing.
"What's a pretty little thing like you hanging out with scum like Moreau here?" Carsem asked dumbly, tossing his thumb offensively in Royce's direction. Royce adopted an offended expression and opened his mouth to retort, but Satomi beat him to it.
"Well, he's a good friend of mine, and I just don't want anyone giving him any trouble, that's all. I'm just a bit overprotective," Satomi said, tilting her head as she looked up into Carsem's eyes from her spot on the barstool. Carsem blinked once.
"Oh," Carsem said dumbly, before responding again, "Well, he owes someone money, and he wants part of the money. Any trouble I give him, he deserves."
"That so?" Satomi questioned even though she would know the answer. She could see Tobi and Jack coming closer from her peripheral, and the bar seemed to have slowly begun to empty out. The bartender went into hiding in one of the back rooms.
"Yes, and you shouldn't let yourself get caught up in this. This isn't the kind of business for women t-" Carsem was caught off with Satomi lunging forward and clenching around the man's throat. The momentum in her lunge carried them both to the floor where Satomi straddled the man at his wait, her right hand firmly in place to joke him while both of Carsem's hands came up to claw at her hand, in hopes of getting free. Tobi and Jack quickly ran to aid them, though they weren't really sure who they were supposed to help.
"Not women's business, eh? And who told you that you could decide what qualifies as women's business? Least of all what's my business? It just so happens that I can do what I want, and a stupid boy is not going to tell me what I can and can't do. Now, I understand what business you have with my friend Royce here, and I can guarantee you that all will be taken care of. I can't guarantee that all parties will be happy, but then, I'm not really a people pleaser," Satomi scowled down at the man beneath her, aware of her crewmates surrounding her. She slowly began to lessen her grip, leaving the man conscious as she got up and turned to walk back to her drink at the bar.
As Satomi moved to walk off, the man jumped up despite his dazedness and went to move for her. The pirates surrounding him knew he couldn't hurt their captain, but they reacted anyway. Tobi dropped low to the floor, kicking the man's legs out from underneath him. As he fell, Royce gave the man a good left upper hook, flipping him in the air and making the man land with a thud on his back. Without even thinking, Jack (everyone had brought their weapons except for Satomi) spun his scythe so that the tip of the blade was digging into Carsem's neck. Aki instinctually knocked an arrow into her bow, pointing the arrow threateningly at Carsem, all the while a grin on her childish face.
"Brilliant! You guys really are useful," Satomi said with a grin on her face as she spun around. Her eyes hardened once they reached Carsem, an unforgiving type of expression on her face. "Not a very honorable man, are you? That's incredibly disappointing, though not totally unexpected considering you work in the black market business. But you, mister, should understand that we are pirates, and not particularly concerned about being honorable ourselves. Well, I should be, but I'm in a bit of a bad mood, so that options gone out the window. Now, let him up, gentleman."
"What? Bu- Captain, he was-" Satomi cut her first mate off.
"Don't you worry about it Jack, I'm gonna have a private little chat with Mr. Carsem here, nothing I can't handle," there was a no-nonsense glint in Satomi's brown eyes, encouraging her crewmates to drop it. They let the man up, and before he could do anything, Satomi had grabbed hi painfully by the ear, the ear of all things, and was pulling him roughly to a dark corner of the bar. Her crewmates stared wide-eyed at the action, surprised by how effective such a move was.
"I swear if she weren't a pirate she'd make a good mom. A scary mom, of course, but a good one," Royce mumbled, receiving nods of agreement from his Nakama.
"Now, listen here, Mr. Carsem," Satomi demanded the man's attention by pulling harshly at the man's ear, causing him to flinch and let out a small whimper of pain. "I was here to relax and spend time with my crew, and you have severely ruined my mood. Now, Mr. Moreau's association with people like you and your boss, Mr. Sid, greatly upsets me. I'm going to let you go in hopes that you will scamper off like any good little rodent to tell your boss that tomorrow my crew and I will be showing up at his place to discuss business with him."
"U-uh, and wh-what if I don't?" Carsem tried to act tough, but Satomi saw right through it. She leaned forward, whispering something quietly into his ear, causing Carsem's eyes to widen as one of his hands went to cover his private area in a protective, though entirely embarrassing manner. HE nodded as soon as she was done speaking. "A-alright, I'll go tell Sid."
And Satomi released his ear to watch him turn tail and run for the door, a twisted smirk on her face. Ah, Satomi was such a sadist sometimes. With the image of terror ingrained pleasantly into Satomi's mind, the pirate captain turned to walk back to her crew, who were all staring at her in awe.
"Well, my mood's ruined, do any of y'all mind if we just go back to the boat?" Satomi wondered, already laying the money onto the bar for the barkeep to retrieve when he came out of hiding. She silently reminded herself to replace the crew funds with her own money, since she didn't want their money to get too low when she wanted them to buy an actual seafaring ship in an island or two.
"Not at all," Jack said pleasantly, the rest of the crew nodding.
"Lovely, Tobi, you can show me that newspaper that you said mentioned us," Satomi said with a grin, and the man nodded, although a little hesitantly. Perhaps his captain wasn't as friendly as originally thought.
Once the pirate crew reached their little boat, Satomi quickly found her hands occupied with that days newspaper. Her eyes skimmed over it quickly, before reading it again in more detail. It wasn't a bad report, informing the reader of the names of pirates and marines alike, mentioning ways to take notice of the pirates in public (Satomi's hair color), and also stating that the still tiny crew was a force to be reckoned with.
"Jones Kenneth?" Satomi mumbled unhappily to herself that night, recognizing the name to belong to that redheaded man from before, the one that had made her feel awkward. This made her scowl; she hated feeling awkward after all.
"Well, ladies and gentleman, we are officially in business as troublesome pirates," Satomi informed her crew with a grin, scratching at Jake's ears affectionately. The dog looked dumbly up at Satomi, his stubby tail wagging, making Satomi compare Carsem's intelligence to Jake. As a matter of fact, Jake was probably smarter than Carsem, and Jake had been known to run into solid walls on more than one occasion.
"Woo!" her crewmates cheered, though the only real enthusiasm came from Aki. Satomi rolled her eyes at that.
"Please, gentleman, contain your enthusiasm," Satomi said sarcastically, gaining some chuckles from her crewmates.
"I don't think it should be important until we either a) make front page or b) get super cool bounties," Royce said, and Satomi took this into consideration. She nodded a bit.
"Alright, I see where you're coming from here. We can hold off real hardcore celebrations until we get one of those two," Satomi consented, watching amusedly as Jack attempted to push Shannon off of his lap. Satomi was tempted to help her doctor, but was really finding it far too fun watching instead. After all, Shannon generally hated people, and she had chosen to like the one person who didn't want her attention. Was that what was considered ironic? Satomi was pretty sure it was.
"Well, I'd suggest we all get some sleep tonight. We have a big day tomorrow, and I want everyone's brains functioning properly," Satomi stated, rising from her seat with all of her crewmates, who seemed to agree.
"Aye, aye, Cap'n," they all chorused, off to prepare for the next day's plan.
The following morning found Satomi, Jack, Tobi, and Royce walking down the street, Aki having already run off to get into position. The pirates walking down the street were already prepared for battle, as Satomi had her flip-flops gone, her hair in a ponytail, her staff at hand, and both her jacket and bag on the boat. Jack had brought his scythe, Akuma no Nayami, Tobi was prepared to beat in some faces (then again, when wasn't he ready to do stuff like that?), and Royce had his brass knuckles (which were, in all actuality, made out of silver, much to Satomi's glee).
"You in position?" Satomi questioned into a mini den-den mushi as the four pirates came to a stop outside a very square, very drab looking building.
"You bet captain! I have a perfect view," Aki said, and Satomi felt a smirk cross her face.
"So you're ready?" Satomi questioned, though the glances she gave the rest of her crewmates told them that the question wasn't just meant for the green-haired little girl. The three men nodded. "You won't hesitate to take a shot?"
"Of course! Go ahead whenever you feel like," Aki's voice responded from the snail, and Satomi shut the device/creature off, handing it to Jack who put it in his pocket for safe keeping.
"Well, gentleman, can you be patient enough for me to bring the party to you guys?" Satomi questioned with a troublesome smirk on her face despite the politeness of her tone.
"Can you handle setting up the party?" Jack responded to the question with a question of his own, and grin gracing his face.
"Of course! Don't doubt me," Satomi said, mock offended.
"Well, there's your answer then," Royce replied, a grin of his own on his face as he sort of stretched his arms for a second.
"Splendid," Satomi responded gleefully as she spun on her heel, heading towards the door with her staff resting in the crook of her elbow in a manner that allowed it to follow the length of her body as she effortlessly entered the drab building. "I'll be seeing you boys momentarily then."
"So are we gentleman or boys?" Royce questioned after a pause, already bored of the silence. Jack waited a moment before responding.
"I don't think you can be considered a gentleman with the way you talked to that ice cream lady yesterday," Jack stated calmly, Tobi nodding sagely next to him. Royce rolled his eyes in a manner not unlike Satomi's.
"Well, that's offensive," Royce retorted, but no one responded to that. Seven minutes later, a girlish scream came from the building that Satomi had entered.