"Abuto, get your ass out of bed. It's four a.m." Chiaki yelled a little louder than necessary. She clutched an oversized walkie-talkie and expected to hear static. There was muffled irritated grumbling from the other side, heard her radio's counterpart from the other side slam into the ground.
"Hey, you asked me to wake you up." She pressed the button and waited for a reply. He didn't. The nurse pocketed the device and sat on the floor.
Separating the two females from the unlivable, freezing, soundless void called space was a thick glass made specifically to separate walking, talking, living beings from the unlivable, freezing, soundless void called space. The engineering was quite unique really, took the most likely human like scientists in a technologically advanced planet years to develop. Unfortunately, glass work doesn't interest us one bit, so we proceed to another detail of the story.
"I can't believe you ditched your awesome planet for that funky smelling Harusame pirate base." The nurse sniffed. Beyond the complex engineered glass was a panoramic view of space with a perfectly circular planet in the middle. A planet filled with iridescent blues and greens that would put a shame to earth's beauty –yes, it's green and blue as well, but the pollution isn't helping.
"Once I get back my father's trust. I'll escape again." Yukiko said absently.
Chiaki didn't smack her –although she wanted to.
"And marry the Captain?" Chiaki asked.
The princess smiled.
"You'll have a better chance on seducing the vice-captain." The nurse commented and sighed. The only other female on the ship was going to leave, and even though the princess irritated the wit out of her at first. Living with a bunch of male smelly pirates didn't appeal to her.
"… You can come with me if you want." The royal said.
Chiaki's eyes widened for a fraction. "Like, escape with you?" She said. She suddenly felt like going home.
"Yes. You said that you're from earth right?" Yukiko smiled. "We deal with Japan every month, exchanging goods. A ship comes and delivers people too. You can hitch a ride back home."
The nurse felt her chest constrict, she looked like she was about to say something, but stayed silent, watching the princess with glassy eyes. She opened her mouth and brought her two suddenly cold hands to her lips, silencing herself. Her throat felt unusually dry and she was scared.
Her thoughts brought her to dark places she purposely forgot to enter.
Would, would he kill her if she escaped?
Chiaki had plans before. She wasn't stupid. She realized that she will never live long if she continued to stay on the ship. Her frequent injuries were a painful reminder of that. The nurse had planned hundreds of escape plans, each with their own faults. She could have run away many times, at many instances, when she was out and walking on solid ground, when nobody's eyes were on her.
But she didn't.
She didn't have any emotional attachments to anyone –she unconsciously thought of her Captain. Were they family? Can she live without them?
Chiaki swallowed painfully. She hadn't noticed, but there were tears threatening to escape.
"Yukiko, I-"
"Yooooooo.. Chiaki I'm awake now. What's for breakfast? ... You know what? Never mind. Go to the kitchen. We steal the Captain's Galactic Pops, while he isn't awake yet. Over" Abuto's voice was barely audible, but he was happy.
On the contrary, she wasn't. They were all aware that the dirty blonde was the second to highest in terms of the seventh division. He did most of the dirty work as well. She briefly wondered, if she ran away. Would she die? Traitors and runaways were often run down. Would she impose the task to Abuto, who was nothing but a life saver –most of the time, since she got there?
"Chiaki? Are you still there? Over…"
"I'm going to be there in a few." She replied shakily.
"You alright? You sound constipated…. Are you constipated? Is there toilet paper? You need help?" He offered, but she could tell from his voice that he was wishing for her to refuse his toiletry aid.
"Shush, I'm going to go. Over and out."
Chiaki wiped her remaining tears with her sleeve.
"You should eat something before you leave, you might get hungry." She dusted herself off and observed the princess with a sad smile.
"I'm going after lunch. Consider my offer; you don't have to force yourself too much. We can be best friends, you can live with me for as long as you like!" Yukiko said in desperation. She refused Chiaki's help to stand and glared at the nurse stubbornly. Her smooth hands were balled into fists.
"No, really… Thank you for the offer, but there are certain things I must accomplish before getting off this ship." Chiaki lied. "We can still be best friends even if we're not together.." She was honest with that statement. The human wasn't very good at making friends, but she knew that she couldn't deny the royal. It was a first that someone was so eager to become friends with her. She liked it.
The blonde gritted her teeth in frustration.
"Why do you even do what-…. What you're doing!" She raised her arms in exasperation.
"Because I can?" Chiaki wasn't sure either.
"Is there any trouble here?"
A thin man said from behind the both. He was unusually tall, with greasy hair and yellow teeth. He had a long gaunt face that the nurse would have remembered if she had seen him before. Chiaki frowned, she would have heard him creep close to them if her emotions were under control.
"None that concerns you." The princess huffed and scowled at the stranger.
She would have disapproved of Yukiko's behavior, if only the man didn't agitate her. He gave her the feeling that can be expressed when she forgot something, or put her box of gauze on the wrong place.
"We should be going, now." Chiaki moved quickly. When the princess didn't follow, she grabbed her by the shoulders and urged her to walk faster. They were halfway across the room when another unfamiliar man blocked their path. He was fully bald with a silly eye patch. He was inches shorter than Abuto, but his body reminded her of a war tank.
He blocked their way by spreading both of his thick arms on the air.
Yukiko sensed danger then, she looked fearfully at the nurse who had an unwavering look on her eyes. The princess felt the room go colder.
"What's the rush?" He didn't sneer, but his tone was all condescending.
The nurse stood straight.
"I don't know what you're up to, but can you please move a little. We're going to the canteen." She said politely, pretending to be oblivious of the situation. The princess stiffened and followed her lead.
"Won't be getting anywhe-."
The nurse seized her companion by the arm and ran sharply towards the thinner Yato. He yelped in utmost surprise and with the nurse pushing him off with her shoulder, he lost his balance. Chiaki ignored him and moved.
The princess was slowing her down, but she persisted. "Run faster!" She yelled. They could hear a string of curses from where they came from and soon there were heavy footsteps after them. The curses exploded into yelling, there was a gunshot and someone screamed.
A corner, a meeting room and several turns later when Chiaki realized she had been the one screaming. She shut her jaw too fast that it resonated through her skull.
"What do they want?"
She let go of the princess who was running fine on her own and fumbled with the walkie-talkie she held.
There was a shout then the nurse felt a long diagonal line of pain right between her shoulders. She fell and crashed with the radio transmitter digging into her stomach. She saw Yukiko get hit by an umbrella too. The princess collapsed like a tower of blocks and was immediately in tucked under the large arm of the man with the eye-patch. She could see her struggle from his grip, but of course, he was too strong.
"What should I do with the other one?" The tall one asked.
Chiaki struggled to get up, but she felt her bones creak painfully. There was a pool of saliva gathering in her mouth, she was afraid to swallow and find out it was blood.
"It's human, she's got no value." The smaller one replied.
There was a second of silence, then the larger man tied a piece of cloth to Yukiko's mouth, silencing her screaming.
They left and Chiaki nudged the oversized radio out from under her.
"Abuto!" She whispered loudly. She heard something being poured on a glass, then there was shuffling of clothes. "Abuto!" She said louder.
"Need toilet paper? Over." The vice-captain guffawed.
She swallowed and there was no blood. "They took Yukiko… A bunch of pirates, a tall one an-"
By the gods, she could hear one of them coming back.
Chiaki stopped and stuffed the device back on her coat. She used her legs to get up and succeeded, her back hurt too much. She could hear Abuto yell on the radio, asking what was happening. She turned it off and hobbled away from where she fell.
She skinned her knee and it stung.
She clutched the cold door handle of the supplies closet and twisted it like a wrench. The door opened and the nurse slid herself in the dark room. It stank of strong disinfectant and rat droppings but she didn't notice. The nurse struggled with the lock and grinned when it gave a satisfying click. She immediately dropped herself to the ground and laid parallel to the small space between the door and the grimy floor, where a small ray of light entered in the opening. It was just a few seconds later when she saw the shadow of a person walk past her. She let out a silent breath of relief. She was safe, for now.
The room was small enough to accommodate twice length of an arm and a body from the door to the wall. Chiaki rolled carefully to the side, and then she removed her white coat –caring not to make a sound- and tucked the walkie-talkie in.
She turned it on.
The static was muffled by the coat. It was an improvement. She positioned herself so that she would have a view of the floor outside and spoke on the radio transmitter.
"Abuto. Two pirates took the Princess at the second floor basement, near the supplies closet at the west wing.." She didn't remember what she actually said, but she was trying to convey that message. The vice-captain recalled her sounding like a slobbery mess, but she liked to think that in all of those moments of danger, she was composed and shit, just like a proper pirate.
"Where are you?"
"… in the supplies closet. Hiding, because someone's out for my blood?"
"We're on it. Just… stay there I'll get to you when it's over." He responded.
Then there was gunfire on Chiaki's side of the radio, halting his yelling of orders. There was a pause from the blonde then with a short burst of commands; the loyal subordinates of Kamui darted out of the room like large black ants from their burrow.
Chiaki rolled to her side. The door that shielded her from the kidnappers was now riddled with bullet holes, allowing artificial light to poke into the dark room. There were small sharp bits of metal that stung with heat all over her face and neck –possibly door shavings. A large black shadow covered half of the protruding circles of light and she stopped moving. The man peered through the hole and studied the body on the other side of the door. It was still. He twisted the door handle, but it wouldn't budge.
With one last look, he grunted and walked away to where the other traitors were waiting.
She waited for a full five minutes.
"… I'm not dead." Chiaki whispered to the walkie-talkie. When Abuto did not respond, she lowered the device down and waited.
"Chiaki….. Oi! Chiaki!" Abuto's gruff voice echoed inside the small room. The nurse grunted and clumsily shoved the walkie-talkie away from her ear. She fell asleep.
"… are you dead?"
"No, I'm alive." She replied and winced. Her neck hurt. She slept on the cold floor in an awkward position, with her head resting on her shoulder and her face pointing to the ground. Her outstretched arm ached when she moved it.
"Where are you? Over." It was quiet from Abuto's side.
"You told me not to leave; I'm still in the closet." She wiped the pool of saliva that gathered near her mouth and forced herself to sit.
He paused and scoffed. "You mean… you didn't do some outrageous thing main characters do where they stupidly rush out and save their friend's life even when the sanest member of the group tells them to stay put?" He scratched the back of his neck in worry and kicked a person who almost stabbed his fluffy hair.
"… no? First of all, I'm not the main character… Second, I. will. DIE if I step out and start acting like some overpowered cool mofo who can beat up several people if she had the will to." Chiaki tied a handkerchief on her skinned knee. "The role of overpowered mofos are on you guys remember? I come out when there are injured people. Over." She explained and waited for a reply.
"I need you to do something dramatic that may help all of us."
"… can't someone else do it?"
"No one can get at your area at the moment"
Chiaki weighted her options. Should she do something courageous and die as a result? Or should she stay on the chemical pungent room and suffocate to death.
"Can't-"
"Just do it damn you! I'm in a pinch right now! I want you to go to the main engine room –the one with the blinking lights, not the mechanical looking one and initiate lockdown! … Do you know how to? Remember those shiny red buttons you shouldn't touch when in a facility? The lockdown button is like that, only it's colored neon orange! Like a glow in the dark kind! Just go down a level and press it!" He yelled and her ear felt like it got stuffed by a large cotton ball. There was a particularly loud gunshot that made her jump. Then there was silence.
She swallowed and replied, but there was no response from the other side.
"Let us remember this to be the day, when Kurosaki Abuto made a sacrifice to promote the preservation of Sugiyama Chiaki's hearing."
"I'm not dead yet! And that's not my last name!" He complained.
Chiaki rolled the door open, she peered silently outside and crept out. The place was unusually cold.
"Gotcha."
"Just do the deed!"
"You're making it sound nastier than it actually is Kurosaki-san."
"That's not my last name!"
Chiaki rolled out of the sight of a nasty looking Yato who happened to pass by. She removed her noisy shoes, tied it to her coat and tiptoed to the map that hung on the wall. It was faded, with vandals, but it was readable. She craned her neck to assure that the long hallway she was going to walk to was empty and half-walked, half-sprinted to the stairs connecting to the engine room.
"… are you doing it already or are you still hiding on the closet?" Abuto asked. There were outrageous sounds of battle in his area, he didn't seem to mind.
Within a second Chiaki switched the walkie-talkie off and threw it into a trash can.
She was found.
She stood there, her small frame illuminated by a flash light.
There was a man with feminine features holding the light. He raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "Ibara-hime?" He asked and walked closer to the nurse. At first she didn't recognize the title, then it clicked to her that it was the stupid-ass name the Harusame pirates thought off. He was holding his umbrella in his other hand, the more dangerous end pointing at her stomach.
"Not to worry, I'm on your side." She held a surprisingly calm voice.
"Really." He sighted. "I'm so glad I'm not the onl-"
"I already checked the engine room, there is so one suspicious here. You should go upstairs; I heard that asshole vice-captain has his men ready to initiate lockdown." She said with her most authoritative voice.
"Uhh… If you say so.."
"Get out of here! It could be anyone!" She shooed the fool off and he obliged. Once gone, she popped off the trash can's cover and retrieved the walkie-talkie which was now stuck to a three week old pizza.
Chiaki ran to the blinking lights section and stopped. It was unusually dark where she was heading.
Her hand unconsciously went to her belt, where she hid her dagger/ knife thing. She frowned finding that it wasn't there. She had stopped bringing it with her, finding it too troublesome. It was irritatingly cold when it accidentally presses down on her waist. Chiaki felt a little regret not bringing it today.
The nurse tensed. She took a sharp whiff and swallowed nervously. The air smelled of blood.
"I don't think I can do it!" She whispered on the radio. It gave an unsatisfying reply of silence. She flipped it over and found the back portion totaled. Chiaki might have fixed it, but it was too dark and she had no time.
She had her own fair share of corpses in her field, but this was… She held her breath and put her shoes back on. Most of the crew had large holes on their bodies and was either on the floor or bleeding on the large machines than hummed quietly with life. She was afraid she would recognize someone, but her fear was most focused on meeting the person who caused all this.
It was really dark too.
She stumbled through piles of debris and bloodied weapons and almost slipped. The nurse accidentally looked down and let out a half yelp when she realized she had been stepping on an organ of some sorts. She avoided looking down after that.
The room was larger than she expected, and maneuvering through piles of dead people and broken machinery wasn't exactly the easy way to go through it. The 'big red button' was being elusive and she wished to be back in the closet.
"Even the ceiling has blood on it. It's impressive…" She said to the broken walkie-talkie, high quality items were a real pain to come by in a pirate ship.
Then she found it, under the armpit of some serious looking old dead dude was the glorious button. She gingerly pushed the man off the table of blinking lights and pressed it down – while making sure to have avoided looking at his dead face.
For a minute, nothing happened. Then all the lights shut down from room to room. No lightbulb was spared, she was completely engulfed with a suffocating kind of black that crept under her skin. After seconds in the unmoving embrace of the lightless room, she felt the entire floor give one sharp totter and then there was light.
It was dim and barely enough to outline the dead around her, but it was better than nothing. Outside was a chaos in the form of angry red lights and repetitive sirens that she could only imagine happening in the movies. Her face twisted uneasily. Aside from the sirens, it was very, very quiet.
Chiaki picked her way slowly avoiding the strewn up corpses as much as possible. She knew it wasn't over yet. When there was no sight of floor and she had no choice, she hurriedly ballerina jumped over the bodies. She tried not to breathe.
"You're the nurse?" Nobuo emerged from the dark. He was clean, aside from his boots that soaked of blood and gore. It wasn't a question, although it sounded like one.
"Crap." She hissed and almost slid uncontrollably on the damp floor.
"Wait! I'm with the Captain! I went here to lock the entire ship." He stepped forward, but the nurse clumsily stepped away. She couldn't trust anyone yet. "Did you lock the ship?" He asked pointedly. She swallowed and gave him a curt nod.
"That's really brave." He noticed the mess around him and looked away instantly. He loosened the scarf around his neck and gave her a sheepish grin. It didn't look right on him. "Do you know who murdered all of these people?" He asked innocently.
She blinked and shook her head. "I need to leave." She said immediately. She turned, wanting to rush to the stairs meters away from her. He cleared his throat and stared.
"How do I know you're not one of the traitors?" He asked and gave her a sly grin. "You have to convince me… I don't believe you."
Asshole.. the nurse thought and felt her feet go cold.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!" Abuto's voice erupted from the speakers. Although he tried to sound cool and hippy, it was flat and neutral. "As we all know, it's only four thirty am but alas…. We are under attack by some traitors whom we found is led by our own disloyal Nobuo-san and his followers. If you want to go back to your beauty sleep –not that it helps anyway. Go on a murder rampage first. On the meantime, while you brandish your umbrellas in excitement, enjoy this overly loud opening theme song of K*ON… Kill them all."
Chiaki's eyes widened.
"Oh and, Captain? Where the hell are you? You're missing out all the fun!"
"Oops." Nobuo said, kicking off a corpse from the metal floor. He inspected his bloody boots and smirked. "I guess I'm caught."
He lifted his head cooly and deadpanned. The only trace of the nurse was her continuously disappearing shadow. She was gone from his sight, her silhouette running on the stairs to the upper floors. He could hear the terrified pitter patter of her footsteps gradually being muffled by the ridiculously loud sirens. The traitor grinned, it wouldn't be fair to keep her waiting.
Chiaki was seconds away from the end of the staircase when Nobuo's foot collided with her back.
The result was cataclysmic. There was a torrent of pain that smashed through her skull and she flew off, back to the bottom of the stairs. Chiaki didn't scream.
The man stepped down the stairs with a satisfied look on his face.
"This is where your decisions led you." To your death. His smile wasn't mocking, it was slightly edging on pity, but he had to do his job. He was a Yato after all, and her act of mingling with his plans would cause damage. Unfortunately for him, even when it was the high time where he was supposed to offer some sagacious advice that would change her outlook on life, forever. With the high possibly to redirect the nurse's thinking into siding with him, providing certain promises of not completely killing her. She wasn't listening; she was too busy writhing in pain, for the pink haired individual was human, and humans were, compared to them weak as hell.
"What do you say?" He said smugly it was the ending of his life changing diatribe and persuasion of her changing loyalties. She was a good healer, no matter how weak she was, it was a silent agreement they all had.
Chiaki was pissed.
He must be a fool, she thought, to let her recover. The man had been an idiot, running his mouth and making strange expressions, his hands moving everywhere, as if making a speech of some sorts.
Her shoes had cleats.
With a roar, the nurse slammed her heel on his knee. There was a loud snap and she fell back into agony. She had no chance against an experienced fighter. He lifted his umbrella and nodding to one last horrified look from the nurse, he brought it down and Chiaki screamed.
"Nobuo-san…. Nobuo-san…. Where are you?" The voice was smoother, more refined, and much more dangerous. Chiaki felt exceptionally heavy, lead like, too tired for limbs and the sensations was increasing by the moment. The pain roared under her skin, reminding her of life, she grabbed onto it.
"You've been a coward you know? Hiding from me." His voice was everywhere. In parts of the ship, fighting ceased. She noticed his speech and smiled.
"Found ya."
Kamui landed softly where the nurse lay. She lifted her head and stared up to him with a slightly peeved expression –not that she meant it. He pretended not to notice her.
Maneuvering leisurely, Kamui, being the practical human looking alien he was, bashed Nobuo's teeth in.
He yelled with a mouthful of blood and charged.
Chiaki, whom normally disapproved upon savage battles was watching carefully from the sidelines. She cursed softly, why wasn't she put in a much more convenient position? Her neck ached when she tried to look at them, and moving her body was an impossibility at the moment.
There wasn't any of her own blood on her body. But her ankle numbed with pain, suggesting she wouldn't be leaving the ground any time soon. Not forgetting the immense stripe of absolute agony running from her clavicle to her waist, she was peachy. The nurse briefly wondered if she was the luckiest unlucky fool in the entire universe and what the hell was keeping her alive anyway?
Eyes shut and barely breathing, she made herself content with the listening of battle. It was not a comforting ambience.
There was the sound of flesh tearing flesh, and the once living form of Nobuo was slammed bloody beside the vulnerable form of the nurse. His arm was missing, but that was not the factor that gave her nightmares in the future. His mouth was gaping wide –some teeth on the back of his throat–, she could see some of his fillings. The man's eyes were rolled back and his head was barely attached to his torso.
Kamui laughingly observed his work.
She closed her eyes immediately.
There were light footsteps and he was standing above her. His face was decorated with blood, but he was looking okay. The warrior pirate captain was very pleased with himself.
Chiaki wasn't moving.
For a moment he assumed that the human nurse had the vitality of a, well, human. He slowly nudged his bloody toe on her warm check. Her eyes shot open, accidentally looked at Nobuo's dead face and cringed.
"I'm not dead." She announced in a flat tone and swatted his blood coated foot away.
He blinked and his lips quirked up to an amused smile. He walked off her body. "I'm surprised you can stand to be here after all that." He gestured to slightly foul smelling lower floor, and the traitors corpse.
"Well, as you can see, I'm not standing" Chiaki didn't say that instead, "If I were you, I'd move my butt, cause I'm this close on puking all over your pretty clothes."
He scoffed and without warning, grabbed her left hand to pull her off the ground, which was a mistake, because she screamed in agony and immediately slapped his hand off.
"Don't, don't touch me." She said hurriedly. "Yet" She finished. "I can't stand, let me just stay here for a while longer." Pain that once subsided fired through her nervous system, making her tear up. She was breathing heavily and the thick smell of blood in the air didn't assuage its difficulty. She knew she was fine, there were no bones broken, no organs punctured but she needed time to stay still, even when it meant lying down for another thirty minutes alongside that, bleeding monstrosity beside her.
He crouched down beside her.
"And I think there are more of his men that you'd be overjoyed to fight" –to kill. She swallowed. "You'd enjoy yourself better upstairs. Abuto-san is looking for you as well."
He brightened up a little, like a child at Huntmas, but he didn't move.
"I'll be fine." She insisted, although deep down, she wanted him to stay. "I'm the medic remember." She flashed him a grin.
He gave her a curt not. "I'll get you back when it's over, meanwhile, pretend to be dead." He said.
"Aye." She saluted.
She watched him stand and walk a little. He stopped and went back to her. "Actually." The captain said. "It would be better if you were downstairs…. Are you sure your injuries are superficial?"
"…" She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Yes." She replied.
Kamui, being the gentleman he was, abruptly shoved his foot under her back –Chiaki screaming in protest the entire time– and used it to hoist her up and kick her down the blood stained stairs. He watched her, with a smile, roll down like a barrel to the bottom floor and crash to one of the more disfigured bodies. She didn't move after that, but he trusted her, it seemed like she too had cockroach level vitality. Had she gained that habit from her extended stay in his ship, he didn't bother knowing, but those who battled alongside with him noticed that he was sadistically happier than the usual.
What the–
…
Was… was it a dream?
"It's not a dream you fuckwit."
Chiaki's eyes hardened. There was something comforting seeing the ceiling of your own bedroom/clinic/hovel after a disastrous event. Allowing the hope for rapid conclusions such as, "Well, ahahahhaa, It's just a dream after all." or "I should stop drinking." Unfortunately for a certain pink haired individual, such conclusions were easily disapproved by factors such as; she never drank anything close to a shot and that Abuto, whom she never wanted to see ever again, was bandaging her foot. There was a close feeling of stabbing yourself to death when waking up from a sadistic captain's sadistic act of rendering you unconscious via staircase roll and seeing his subordinate's face first thing while at it.
"Don't be so mean." There was a cut at his eyebrow, making him look cooler than normal.
"I even did all the nursing the crew back to health since you were unable to." Abuto snapped her foot back to its proper place.
Chiaki would have screamed and ripped his hair off until he had bald spots all over his fat head, but she was not in the damn mood. She was pissed. It wasn't even 7 am.
"Abuto-san." She said with a voice filled with wisdom beyond her years. He raised his eyebrows, signaling her to continue.
"Have you ever considered cutting your hair, I mean, getting bangs? I know you are only 33 years old, but you look like fifty with that mane of yours, I gave scissors at the comfort room."
He was not amused.
"What's with the sudden interest on my hair, eh?" He said incredulously, grabbing his brownish goldish locks with his prosthetic arm. When he saw her look he understood, for Abuto, in reality, possessed wisdom beyond his years, not the fake kind Chiaki pretended to have when she wanted to fuck around with people's heads. "What is it, really?" He propped his chin on his arm and wriggled his eyebrows in a speed of 20 miles per hour.
Chiaki blanched in horror.
"It's nothing." She pushed his face away with her bandaged hand. She was going to ask something super important that would probably make the older man cry, but she decided against it. She would confront her problems from the source.
When Abuto didn't give, she told him to go eat something vaguely unpleasant and leave her hovel with an unnecessary word synonymous to copulating in the most unpleasant spirit on consonant substitutions. He merely laughed and told her that she was becoming a genuine pirate.
"Thanks for bringing me here." She said at last.
Abuto smiled.
"Thanks also, if it weren't for you, the princess could have been shipped off to some dealer who'd sell her to her parents for a higher price, thus removing our income for the month." Chiaki was glad to hear that her friend was fine. She also felt a little selfish for forgetting about Yukiko and focusing only on her needs.
She looked at Abuto expectantly.
He scrunched his eyebrows in disgust.
"Heh, we would have taken her back with or without your help, you just made the process faster." Because he was a douche.
"It wasn't me who brought you here though." He grinned ear to ear. It didn't look good on him.
With a slier grin he whispered, "It was the Captain."
Before Chiaki could egg him for more details, a relatively unharmed Princess Yukiko burst into the room with mascara tears all over her cheeks. She was unusually dressed, and her hair was perfect. The nurse lifted her head up to greet her and cried in pain when the princess decided that it was best that she slammed herself on Chiaki's chest.
"Careful!" Chiaki winced in pain.
"Oh gods, I'm sorry!" She removed herself immediately.
"It's just a couple of bruises, stop overacting." Abuto cleared his throat.
Chiaki shot him a look.
On the –oh my god, finally it's fixed– clinic's doorway, Kamui stood there silently. He was munching noisily on a few crackers.
Yukiko was crying. "The ship has arrived on my planet. Chiaki, I need to go now. Come with me please."
Chiaki swallowed. The room was in silence. She rubbed her hands together and pursed her lips. She looked at Abuto who was staring back at her questioningly, and Kamui who had nothing but a blank expression on his face. Her heart felt a little too heavy for her liking.
"It's not up to me to decide." She said quietly. Brown eyes wandered to heavy blue ones.
"Everyone, out." The captain said.
Abuto knew that tone. He immediately jumped from his foldable chair and yanked the princess off the room. He left the clinic in an instant, shutting the sliding door with a click. Chiaki watched the chair flop noisily on the floor; it rolled forward, only to be stopped by Kamui's foot. He took his time, unfolding it and sitting down beside her. She suddenly felt very squeamish.
He looked disappointed.
"You're going to say 'I don't belong here.' Right?" Kamui snapped a cracker in half.
Chiaki was motionless.
"You kicked me down the stairs." Chiaki said.
"You're also going to say, 'I want to go home' or 'I will die here soon if I don't. This is proof of that.'" He replied.
"You're eating my cracker. I've been saving that since last week." Her voice was wavering.
"I'm not done yet." His voice was strangely calm. "Inside, you wish to say 'I miss my family, let me go. Unlike you, monsters, I'm normal.'"
She didn't have anything to say for a bit.
Instead, she pulled herself up slowly to stare at him equally. Now that she had a good look on him, he was slouching. He was clean, but he still smelled faintly of blood. She felt her throat tighten and her toes went cold.
"Oh please, I'm far from normal." Chiaki laughed and twitched at how foreign it sounded, at how loud it was. She folded her legs back and beamed. "You should have been there when I ballerina jumped over those corpses. I even struggled to get my form correct. I was afraid but…" She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Are your habits rubbing off me?"
Kamui's face was unreadable.
"Do you want to leave?" He asked. There was that god-awful feeling on his chest again, burning him from the inside.
"I want to leave because I know if I don't, I will not live until thirty five." She wasn't finished yet. "But if I leave, I will go back to my old life, which was good, but not as happy as this one." Her sentence ended with a question. Chiaki groaned and slapped her palm on her forehead. Maybe she wasn't making much sense. She didn't know.
"You're making this too easy for me." He remarked.
There was a small sigh of relief between the two of them, and she couldn't help but smile too much.
"What do you mean?" She knew what he meant.
"I mean…" His lip quirked and his eyes shut. "I don't have to say embarrassing lines like, I'm not the kind of person to sacrifice my entertainment for the happiness of others… or something equally disgusting as that." There was shuffling outside the door and some inaudible noise, which was abruptly put to a stop by Kamui shooting deadly bullets out of his conveniently held umbrella. There was a muffled sound and Chiaki swore it sounded like a body dropping dead from the inside. She smiled nervously.
One more thing. Kamui thought. "If you were given a choice, would you leave?"
The answer was immediate. "Of course I would leave. Self-preservation goes first."
"If I swear that you will not find yourself dead if you pledge your allegiance to me, will you not leave my side?"
Chiaki stared wordlessly at him for the longest of times. Kamui looked strangely attractive than normally so. Was she turning blind? Was it because she invested too much time sitting in the dark tapping away at her Gameboy? Damn you Nintendo!
"… can I have bottle of hair conditioner every month?" She was starting to get jealous of their silky hair.
It was of course, a simple feat for someone of his rank. He nodded to the desperate human and she rejoiced. There too seemed to be an unwanted act of rejoicing by undesirable eavesdroppers and the strongest of the Yato shot them dead, shot Abuto dead, but Abuto was somewhat of an important character. So he missed. Purposefully, mind you.
"I'll write to you, every week!" The nurse said. Her new friend handed her a paper with her address in beautiful handwriting. Yukiko smiled weakly. Her planet was always windy; the princess disliked the wind, although today, she didn't even notice it. They were at the harbor of her planet. Beyond the mile of a wooden bridge were her subjects waiting for her, barely contained by a number of elite guards from her castle. Yukiko's parents were smiling sweetly behind her, especially the father, who handed sacks of gold to Abuto, who was pleased with himself.
"You better!" Yukiko said incredulously. She wrapped her arms around the nurse and hugged her lightly, she was mindful of her injuries.
The wind carried Yukiko's purple hat to the ocean below them, no one bothered fetching it.
"We have to go!" Abuto yelled. His cloak was already stolen by the harsh wind, and his shirt was getting blown off by it.
"Be polite to your parents, pass that friggin entrance exam! DON'T RUN AWAY ANYMORE. I will visit!" Chiaki waved off as a frustrated Abuto hauled her back into the ship.
….
Chiaki's cheek was pressed to the glass separating her from the unlivable, freezing, soundless void called space. Her injured, tired, body was leaning against it. She watched as Yukiko's planet shrink back into a tinier and tinier ball. Until it was nothing but a star.
Chiaki lay amid the prickly grass of the local Kabukicho park, far from the chatter of excited children and their evidently impatient parents being dragged by the mentioned little shits. The uncomfortable patch of grass she positioned herself in attracted a few choice visitors. There was a time when she spotted a rare specimen, a sandy haired Shinsengumi officer with an amusing sleeping mask strapped to his forehead. He was searching for something –someone maybe. He saw her studying him with an amused look and forced her off with a threat regarding some kind of made up law for his own convenience and settled on her spot.
There were other far more unusual sights, a naked gorilla, a vagabond wearing nothing but a large tangerine printed carton, and a genetically mutated dog which was unusually large and fluffy white which took a crap anywhere it pleased.
This time, she was alone, under the pleasant warmth of the sun. Her eyes followed a bird, flying too fast for its flock to follow.
She closed her eyes.
She remembered running away from her parents, running away from college, she remembered defiance and the looks her relatives shot her at every event they could. Her father's patience wore thin, and she ran further.
"You have to anticipate where those choices will take you." The doctor on the old run down clinic back home said when she arrived one night, her eyes puffy with crying. The day after that, two Amanto robbed her away.
Her heart thumped loudly and the warmth of the sun morphed into cold that seeped into her bones. The grassy patch smoothened and turned into sheets. Distant laughter of children drowned into the steady hum of an air vent –providing marginally fresher air–the park disappeared and all she could see was four metal walls of her room back in the pirate ship. She lifted her eyes to the pink cat themed clock, given by Aiko-chan in Huntmas- nailed to the wall that read 11:47 pm.
It was too damn cold and something was missing.
A few minutes later, while she was trying to coax herself into sleeping with a cup of hot water, someone rapped the door with an umbrella.
She blinked lazily and called out to the unwanted guest.
"Shigeru-san, I sent a letter to your room this afternoon. Come back tomorrow, my hand still hurts, I can't remove your molar." The crazy schedule was not made by her. They insisted on late night operations, where barely anyone was awake, because apparently, it was a little shameful to visit her humble clinic. She preferred them not visiting at all.
To her utter surprise, the door slid open. In her panic, she recoiled from the bed and reached out painfully to the knife on her desk. (Not under the pillow, that's too dangerous) Her mug flew off her hands, splashing scorching water all over her bed and on the floor.
Kamui was peering at her curiously from the doorway.
She sighted in mild relief and dropped the knife on the floor. She immediately removed herself from the bed and used the drier parts of her blanket to wipe some of the water off her shirt.
The hell do you want?
"Um, can I help you?" She stood up and squeaked when her foot made contact on the freezing floor. She had forgotten to wear slippers and hurriedly shoved her feet into them, while effectively staring at her amused captain with as much eyebrow raised effect as she could muster.
"I need to show you something." He said offhandedly, because he was rotten bastard.
"Eh, sure" was the sleepy reply. She couldn't really deny him now, can she? Chiaki's cloudy mind made up scenarios where she will get dragged out without her precious anti-hypothermia lab coat and turn into an icicle half way through him pulling her by the foot. She fixed her bed first, roughly brushed her hair with her fingers and wore the coat.
She fidgeted when he observed her with those calculating eyes. She furrowed her brows in confusion and stared at him back, with eyes in unamused slits.
"What now?" She asked a little rudely.
The captain chuckled and she could easily see that he was forcing down a smile.
She squinted further; this time bending to his direction, trying hard to decipher what the hell was he seeing.
Kamui lazily stepped forward, Chiaki twitched and took a step back, but his strides were greater. Within a few moments, he was directly in front of her. The nurse swallowed hard and tried not to squirm. Her hand was unconsciously inching back, to the knife on the floor. His eyes flashed something, but she was too intimidated to actually open her eyes wide and see.
He bent down and she felt his warmth crawl to her skin.
"Wear pants before we go out."
He was a pure bred gentleman, really, totally unlike those country bumpkins of, labor slaves, SUBORDINATES he collected through the years. Thus, as all gentlemen do, they face back when a woman decides to put on, or remove clothing. In this case, the nurse was barely a woman, so he made himself at home, munching on what's left of her food while she put on some pants in her cabinet. Which was barely enough space to change clothes in.
Why not the comfort room you ask?
Well, she wanted to avoid the awkwardness of accidentally seeing the vice-captain taking a shit in her sanitized toilet. (Because it was totally better than the public latrines in the ship, and his personal comfort room was too far anyways.) It scarred her for life and she had avoided entering that place without initially throwing a smoke bomb in the slits of the comfort room's door. While waiting for either complete silence, (indicating the vacancy of the place) or a girlish scream, a flush and a blur of dirty blonde and black dashing off like he was going to lose a part of his salary.
She had stocks of those hockey puck shaped bombs from the weapons room.
It would take too long to do that.
"I'm done." This time, she had made sure that everything was in place. Chiaki could do nothing but frown as the remaining pack of cookies she received get eaten away by some salmon haired alien.
He smiled and clapped his hands once in satisfaction.
Soon enough, the pair was walking through a deserted hallway through a familiar part of the ship.
The silence was in a way, pleasant for the both or them, until he broke it.
"… Chiaki." He said. He was still getting used to it, her name sounded strange when he said it.
The nurse stopped from behind him. "Just say it." She felt like it was time to release her no bullshit policy in full force. Her sight was getting blurry from the need to sleep, and bright light still fried her eyes.
"I promised that you will not die, but I never promised to protect you. It was never our agreement that you will lose a limb or two in the process. Am I clear?"
Her limbs felt like dropping in exhaustion, but even that thought was pushed to the side. She briefly wondered if she said something wrong. She sighed softly, thinking she was to blame. "Did I say something?" She murmured.
The Captain furrowed his brows lightly then realized what he implied. "Ah, no, I was just making it clear for the both of us."
"…oh" Chiaki expected it. It wasn't like he was the pope or anything, being the representative of honesty and virtue. He was a pirate. She partly expected something like this to happen, but the promise was good enough. He promised for her to live while she served him. She thought of Abuto, who lost his arm, and Aiko, who lost … most of his humanity? She felt like it was the right choice to agree to him, that the other option would make her regret going home.
"I already knew from the start, but thanks for clarifying." She gave him a smile, but he knew she wasn't up to it. Please don't forget about the conditioner thing…
He raised an eyebrow.
Chiaki sniffed.
"You're a murderer, pirate, thief. Just some qualities to assure me that your word is a hundred percent free from loopholes like that one." She didn't mean for it to be offensive, but he took offense nonetheless.
"You think so little of me." He could have snarled if it was his character, but it wasn't.
She scoffed and feign bravery. "… but it's true isn't not? You just said that it's below you to pro-"
"We need to have more trust in this relationship, nurse." Kamui said too quickly for the both of their liking.
"OOOOOHHHhhhhHHhhh!~!" Aiko couldn't resist himself. He was following the pair eons ago. The okama was behind an oversized pillar shaking his ass like there was no tomorrow. When he saw his Captain's expression twist into peeved to pure murder, he felt a satisfying chill creep up his spine. From a nifty looking umbrella holder, Kamui unsheathed a weapon and shot the man to death.
Chiaki could only silently scream as the tanned man fell to the floor with foam bubbling rapidly from his mouth. She motioned to run to the aid of the okama when Kamui held her wrist to stop her. There was a moment of terrified brown eyes meeting calm blue ones, then:
"He will live." He said to assure her.
Aiko, still face down on the floor, lifted a manicured hand and gave her a thumb up.
Whatever irritation he had felt against the nurse disappeared. Shooting someone to quasi-death was the most rejuvenating method that erased all stress, according to The Yatoclan Telegraph, he had proven it correct.
"That is why I wanted to give this to you." He handed the nurse a parasol. A pink parasol.
"It's the version of our weapon, only for women and young children to use." He watched her inspect it carefully. "It's also considerably lighter than what we use… I expect you to practice on your own." She loaded and unloaded the gun with deft fingers and smiled at him.
She could not imagine hugging Kamui, nor giving him a high five. As a solution, she held out her hand and he shook it, his pale calloused hands covered her cold small ones. It wasn't satisfying, but they had reached something that wasn't entirely heading for the friendship route.
A slight tremor broke whatever moment they shared. There was a small happy tune from the unseen speakers followed by a, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at the Harusame base. Local time is 12:39 am and the temperature is two degrees Celsius.
"So… what did you want to show me?" She asked after being satisfied that Aiko was okay.
"There has been word that there's a group of samurai currently in the base, I believe they call themselves the Kiheitai."
Honestly, if Chiaki wasn't too engrossed on her newly acquired weapon. She would have shown some decency and pretended to act all surprised. The nurse didn't give a rat's ass who the Kithewhat was and why they were at a Pirate base. She didn't have a single clue even why she was dragged out there in the freezing Harusame base filled with nosy pirates and smelly old men. Didn't the captain have Abuto for that? Where was he even?
"Nice." was the lame reply.
"Samurai, Humans, your race, in this ship, with your culture, food and they're from Japan."
She quirked a little when he mentioned food, her lack of response and sudden penchant on stroking her magnificent umbrella unnerved him. He was so sure that she would feel happy, maybe show him one of her smiles, talk to those pink monke- humans and maybe become best friends with an actual female and not Abuto.
"… Are you going to fight them?" She asked.
He would have slammed his forehead with hers, but there was a chance that it might kill her and not just render her unconscious. He would not feel pleased to drag her corpse back.
"I thought you could spend a little more time with them and form a small peace between our divisions, humans are, troublesome. I would want them out of my way when I start gunning out the big fish." He reasoned, and she would have shot him right between the balls if she had the actual strength. She gaped at him like a gold fish the made an incredulous sound.
"Captain!" She exclaimed dramatically. "I understand that you of all people can rise to a rank like … like this and not look like some lecherous, half bald man with a handful of scantily clad women clinging onto him like he's made of gold. Do you have any idea how gross and terrifying mafia dons are especially if they are Pirate Mafia Dons?" Her point was pretty much solid. There was no way she was going to interact with some overweight balding old man who probably has half of his teeth made of gold.
She shivered and pleaded, but there was no sympathy on the Captain's smiling face.
"Yo, yo, what's the fuss all about?" Abuto said lazily from behind the two. There was an attractive woman from planet blond bombshells clinging onto him. He stroked her chin and gently pried her leg and arms off his body then he talked to her in a foreign language. She giggled and bounced off.
Chiaki was gagging. Kamui puked a little. He stared at them blankly as a wave of vomit washed off a number of screaming aliens in the spacious dome they were in.
When they were both satisfied. The nurse complained. "The Captain's forcing me to… hang out… with some human pirate group." She said gently. Kamui crossed his arms and the vice-captain had no idea what the problem was.
"People of the same race should stick together. I don't think you'd have any pro-"
"Pardon my interruption." A certain human lolicon said excitedly from behind the trio. He had a weird hairstyle with large almond shaped eyes that would make children make a run for their mothers. Takechi Henpeita, the strategist of the Kiheitai.
"What is it?" Kamui said to the human. He regarded the Captain with a nod and focused on the young on vulnerable Chiaki.
"Excuse me, young lady, but I can't help but notice that you are at your, peak."
There was complete silence. Both of the male Yato stared at Henpeita who has both of his hands right on her shoulders. His face was too close for comfort. She could have sworn she saw his nostrils flare as if he was trying to smell her.
Soon enough, Kamui was kneeling to the ground while happily reforming the lolicon's face, who was on the ground, with his fists when some blue-green homo sapien with pimp shades butted in.
He was saying something like "I daresay, you blah blah blah! Daresay motherfucker." It might have been much more refined, knowledgeable and attention worthy, but he wasn't paying attention. Abuto needed to haul the Captain by his cape and chide him about bad habits before he calmed down.
"Apologize." Abuto grunted. Kamui kicked him in the face.
Seconds later, he faced the man named Kawakami Bansai and gave the slimy pimp shades the most innocent smile he could muster. Which was him having all teeth shown, eyes blazing with bloodlust while cracking his knuckles for sound effects, Abuto may or may have been expressing some impressive knife sharpening skills in the background to support his Captain.
"I heard you Samurai were a beast in battle, I couldn't resist trying out some of my new moves." He said, Abuto might have screamed something in the back about him having bad habits, and Chiaki might also have nodded in approval, but their actions were unimportant.
"I see, I'm sorry to have disappointed you." Kawakami Bansai bowed respectfully, he would have loved to jump at the opportunity and bash Kamui's face in, but he needed to compose a song for Otsu and the deadline is at sunrise. He barely had hours left. "But I assure you that you will be not disappointed the next time you fight one of us." He kicked Takechi twice for good measure and dragged his bloody corpse away.
"Are you sure it was a good idea doing that?" Abuto flicked a lump of earwax at an unsuspecting passerby. They were all heading back to the ship, Abuto a little too happy with his little tryst with the bombshell, Kamui pleased to have shed some blood and Chiaki, perched on the vice-captain's shoulders ,was staring at nothing in dire horror. As if something traumatizing had happened.
"I'm never leaving the ship again." She hugged his skull too tight.
"They can't do anything to me." Kamui remarked.
"What about your peace-"
"Shut up Abuto." The captain felt unsatisfied, he knew he should have punched that Henpeita in the jewels as well.
"I should have whacked him with my baby as well." Chiaki, sensing Abuto's discomfort hugged her umbrella instead, whose end slammed against his face, leaving a horrible red mark. She felt somewhat useless to be standing there earlier.
Kamui raised an eyebrow at her and forced down a small smile. The days were getting shorter and even if nobody talked of the topic. They all felt that something was coming. He knew the superiors were starting to get suspicious of the seventh division. He studied his two companions who were bickering about proper placement of an umbrella when one is sitting on a man's shoulders. His eyes moved to his bloody fists wiped them with the underside of his uniform. It doesn't matter, he thought. Soon enough, he will destroy them nonetheless.
