Having spent most of his life traveling on trains and trucks and generally staying away from bodies of water that were more than ankle deep, Kanda did not have much experience traveling on boats. Oh, he'd listened to other people talk about how such and such cruise had been nice, how the weather had been good to them, and so on, no one ever seemed to talk about the absolutely horrid demon of boredom.
There was nothing but water for miles around. He couldn't even see land. As an unsociable person, he was basically packed into a tin can with another fifty or so people, most of whom were crew, with nothing to do other than stare at the ceiling. He couldn't even train as he normally would, as there just wasn't enough space, even on the top deck. The most he could do were sit-ups and push-ups and pull-ups, and even those were stretching the confines of his quarters.
In his desperation, he'd opted to make use of the trip, at the very least.
"Okay, again. 'Kanda'."
"Gaga."
"No, no. 'Ka.' It's a 'k'. 'Kanda'."
"Gada."
"Close enough."
Kanda took a sweet out of the bag at his side and handed it to Nthanda, who buzzed with excitement. At his feet, the dog sat with his head on the man's shins as the Japanese man propped himself up against the wall of Ellis' quarters.
"You're spoiling him too much. He'll start demanding sweets off you every minute if you keep it up like that," Ellis warned as she brushed out her hair. She had a tiny hand mirror and a very small brush, both of which must have come from some inter-dimensional space, given how small their luggage was allowed to be. Kanda hadn't even managed to find space to stick sword polish.
"Are you the one teaching this kid how to speak?" Kanda grumbled without looking at her as Nthanda stood on Kanda's thighs with the man's hands grasping the baby's two tiny ones.
"No, but I've raised at least three sons, so I would imagine I know what I'm talking about. Granted, I hired a nanny once they were all big enough to bite your ankles..." Ellis said as she began to apply rouge. She suddenly set her things down and looked over her shoulder at Kanda, who was sitting quite a ways from her.
"What are you doing in here, anyways?"
"Hiding," Kanda answered. "Okay, say 'ka'. You can do that, right?"
Ellis frowned as Nthanda 'brrrrup'ed and 'gggn'ed at Kanda.
"Hiding from who?"
Kanda finally looked at her with a harsh glare. Who did she think he was hiding from?
As if to confirm his stare, he heard the familiar clop clop clop of ridiculously expensive heels on the steel floor outside Ellis' door. His eyes locked on the door, and he bolted. The dog's head suddenly found itself without support as Kanda scrambled under Ellis' bed with Nthanda in tow. It was one of the few rooms in the whole ship that had a bolted down bed and an actual mattress, and more than once Ellis had found one of the boys sneaking a nap on it. Hammocks were apparently not the height of comfort.
Kanda stared at the box springs in front of him, and his heart beat hard. Nthanda knew the drill by this point. The kid had a strange sixth sense that told him when he was supposed to be quiet, and now he had a hand wound in Kanda's hair, looking out from beyond the bed's shadow. The door opened, and Kanda held his breath. If there was a God who loved him, He wouldn't let her see him. He didn't know how much more of this he could take.
"Good morning, Ellis! Have you seen my pr- um, Kanda anywhere?"
Ellis, barely stifling a guffaw, choked out with a tight smile, "No, I'm afraid not, dear. Perhaps he's in the head? Throwing up? You know how he gets so seasick, and the food is not exactly gourmet on this bucket."
There was a gasp.
"The poor dear! I'll go and check on him, then!"
With that, the door closed, and Kanda let out a relieved breath. Evading her was worse than trying to avoid demons. At least with the demons, he could kill them.
Nthanda gurgled, "Bprrrra."
"You can say that again," Kanda grunted as he shimmied out from under the bed. Ellis was beside herself with giggles, trying to keep herself together. Kanda only glared at her from the floor as he collected his things. The dog had gone back to sleep on his bag and found himself, again, without a pillow as Kanda yanked it from under his head.
"Just... oh, dear, you crawling under that bed... ohohoho, that was just... ah, young love, she's just smitten, isn't she? What did you do?" Ellis tittered.
Kanda groaned and palmed his face. He'd made a single, very dumb mistake. He should've let that broad fall right into the ocean. It would've saved him so much trouble.
"You remember the Akuma attack three days ago?"
"Mhmmmm," Ellis hummed. "Three Akuma tracking us down over water, and you and Vanya taking them out quite handily, may I say. You two work as quite the team by now."
Kanda waved away the compliments and (particularly unsubtle) hints. "Idiot walked into the middle of it. Everyone had the sense to go below-decks. She got trapped between the gunwale and the bridge by a flying demon. I stabbed it through it, scared her, and she-"
"Ooooh."
"-almost fell over the gunwale, but I grabbed her. Should've let the moron go overboard," Kanda said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He was going to wear it away, at the rate they were going.
"And thus, young love sprouts anew," Ellis said, waggling her eyebrows. Nthanda gurgled and clapped his hands in agreement, and Kanda teasingly shoved him over with a single finger. The baby pouted and slapped his thighs with discontent.
"Well, get me some pesticide, then. I'm determined to kill it," Kanda quipped as he stood up with his diaper bag over his shoulder. He was losing machismo by the day doing this babysitter job. Pretty soon, he'd be using words like 'nappy-bye' and wearing a dress. Suddenly Nthanda started straining to get to the bag, and Kanda let out a sharp 'hey!' He fought to keep the kid in his arms, but the baby went POP! and reappeared on the bed, exactly at the right height to dig around in the bag at Kanda's hip.
"You little sh-!" Kanda growled as Ellis put her hand over her mouth to suppress a growing grin.
"What did I tell you? You spoiled him. Now good luck un-training him."
"You reach for that bag again, and I will cut your tiny little hands off," Kanda threatened, pointing a finger at Nthanda. The samurai narrowed his eyes at Nthanda, who stared right back.
"Bapu," Nthanda burbled before squirming in Kanda's grip for the deck. He wondered if it was such a good idea to let him crawl across so much splintery wood, but then he thought, eh, why not? It'd toughen the kid up. The deck was full of odds and ends, mostly crates and barrels and coils of rope. There wasn't a whole lot he could mess with at the moment. The deck was fairly large, but now that most of the cargo had been loaded up on it, there was little space left.
Kanda could see across the way that the Captain's grandson (who had apparently inherited quite a bit of ugliness from his family line) was also on deck with a sailor who'd been assigned the duty of watching him. Kanda nodded to the exhausted sailor out of respect for their 'profession', and the sailor nodded back with a thousand-yard stare while his charge screamed and whined at him, yanking on his leg while flailing a wooden caboose.
"Go, have fun. Do... whatever it is you do," Kanda said as he shooed Nthanda over to the other kid. Nthanda happily began to take a few toddling steps forward, fall flat on his face, get up again, and start trying to make headway. Kanda almost smiled at his kid's tenacity, but he was too familiar with how much that bulldoggedness was as much curse as blessing. At least now, he could stand to have a rest for a while. In the meantime, he would...
Well, he couldn't look out at the sea. It made him feel antsy and sick. He couldn't practice. There wasn't enough space to freely swing a sword and not hit some important bit of rope keeping this rusted can together. Then there was the problem with the cargo on the deck. He couldn't go and get something to eat. He didn't trust the sailor over there that much with his kid. And he couldn't even take a crap. The head was a disgusting place, even with it washed out constantly by sea water. Fifty grown men, a single bathroom with three seats- that equation didn't need solving.
That left him with watching his hair grow and banging his head into the nearest wall until his brains bled out. The latter was sounding more and more attractive by the day.
"Oi... hey, stop bitin' at each other, you rug rats- AH!" Just as the sailor shouted, there was a massive POP! that Kanda knew all too well, and he turned around to see that his child, as well as the Captain's grandson, had both literally gone missing in the blink of an eye. The sailor and Kanda locked eyes as the two processed that their charges were missing in action.
"You were supposed to be watching them!" Kanda shouted.
"Your kid can disappear!?" the poor sailor shrieked, holding his face in his hands.
"All hands, all hands, we've spotted a ship that ain' flyin' colors 'n don't look too friendly. Prepare y'selves. Could be pirates," a voice over the tube system said from the bridge, and both men blanched. Not only did they have two kids missing on board the steamer - there were pirates aground as well. Kanda rubbed his eyes and resisted the urge to yell at the nearest human being. There was no way this could get worse.
Somewhere behind him, a door banged open.
"Kanda! Oh, I've found you! I have been looking everywhere for you, silly! Ellis told me you were sick, so I, er, whipped something up for you to settle your stomach!"
His nostrils flared along with his temper, and he didn't dare turn to the voice that was speaking. Point taken. It could get worse.
It had been fascinating. Nthanda was used to the odd rush of emotions and weird, babbling thoughts he heard when he touched other people, but when he grabbed this ugly butt of a child - nothing but raw emotion. There were no words, nothing to express the thoughts other than strange pictures that were almost half-formed, no words to clearly define the thoughts, just distilled and pure emotion. Needless to say, it had shocked Nthanda.
So, the baby had decided - well, it was time to get to know this new, hideous playmate.
He was pasty white with watery blue eyes, and he had snot dripping out of his nose. He wasn't too much older, but he was much, much bigger and tubbier. He had this doughy kind of face that Nthanda enjoyed smacking. The child was far too stupid to see a smack coming and would merely scream instead of put up a fight. How disappointing. Nthanda would've enjoyed a bit of roughhousing. He could already take on Kanda's hand, after all! It was no match for him and his lightning speed!
The other kid was easily bent to his will, anyways. If Nthanda tugged him along, he'd follow, as much as he would cry and generally make a fuss. How disgusting! Though Nthanda could not say why this child's penchant for merely doing what Nthanda was doing was abhorrent, it merely was. Well, a king needed his subjects, and some people were just born to be servants.
And this was how Nthanda ended up standing on the other baby's back while the child was on all fours. The pitch and roll of the ship didn't help matters, but there was no helping that. Nthanda would have to make do with what he had. He managed to scrabble into Ellis' chair and look up on the small table that, for some reason, did not move like all the other things did on the ship, just like her bed. Atop it he could see a container full of cream - which he dropped down below on the child he'd used as a stool - something with sharp, thin thingies sticking out of a circle with a handle, a shiny thingie that reflected the things around it, several write-y thingamabobs in a small groove in the table, and a flat, heavy object with something scrawled on it. He knocked over most of the things, just to watch them fall down - that never got old - and eventually grabbed the shiny thingie.
He climbed down carefully, though the rock of the ship made him land on his rump. He pouted and looked around. Where was his stool?! Was it so hard to remain under his beck and call?! After a moment of searching, he saw why his playmate had left his post. His (somewhat loyal) subject was smearing the cream in his hair with glee, gurgling with simple-minded happiness. Pah, he was so stupid, distracted by - oh, was this what he looked like?
Nthanda looked in the mirror at his fleshy little face, his cheeks round and supple, his eyes big and black. He had that cute button nose, tight curly hair. All in all, he was quite the handsome tyke. He could've done without the huge ears though...
There was the rush of footsteps nearby, and Nthanda quickly threw the shiny flat thing at his compatriot to get his attention. Unfortunately, it knocked the cream out of the kid's hand, and the baby began to wail. Realizing that those footsteps were much too close, the baby bowled over his partner in crime and POP! went the two tykes to their next destination.
Ellis walked into her room in a huff. Pirates, pah. They wouldn't be much of a challenge against Kanda and -
Finally, the older woman noticed the carnage that was her desk, her pen rolling all over the floor, mirror shattered, and face cream left open and smeared all over the place by small hands. She narrowed her eyes. She could guess what vandal had done this piece of work.
Vanya, too, had become prey to the lack of work to be done on-board the ship. She had no bugs to pin, or at least no new ones. Heaven knew there were enough bugs on the ship, but they were common and unfit for immortalisation on her board. She had painted so many spell tags that she was sure to go cross-eyed if she did anymore, and she couldn't practice hand-to-hand either, due to lack of space. She'd been reduced to reading the trashy romance novels that Lavinia had somehow stashed along the trip in order to stave off the blasted ennui that had taken over everybody as the ocean lulled them into fat and weakness. This was how low she had fallen. She'd never even tried reading these books before, they were so bad and so cheesy and-
- Fabio had just proposed to Luciana, but she couldn't marry him because of her father's trading business and how she'd be disinherited if she married a potter's son. It was a disgusting affair of the heart, to be sure, one that Vanya was, ah, not at all interested in. She just needed something to read while holed up in her hammock.
And her lips were bright red with passion as she threw her arms around his neck, basking in his scent and richness, those bronzed hands at her back and pressing her close to his chest-
"Vanya?" a voice called, and she nearly slammed shut the book on her own nose. She sat on top of the book and asked, "Who is zere?"
Kanda stopped in the door way and, flustered, asked, "Why aren't you up on deck? There are pirates."
"Oh. I vas... preoccupied," Vanya replied. It wasn't a lie. She hadn't heard the announcement over the intercom. She carefully got out of the hammock, making sure she didn't rock it and expose its sordid contents. He'd never let her live it down if she did.
"Jyou are sure it is pirates?" Vanya asked seriously, finally taking in the gravity of the situation. There was a bit of a thrill there, too, seeing as that meant a relief from the endless nothing they had to do on the ship. Kanda walked past her and looked around the room, and she frowned. Her eyes flitted to the hammock, and she tried her best to hold her tongue as Kanda lifted it by the bottom and searched under it for something.
"Someone over the tubes said it was pirates, so I'd be happy to believe them. What are you staring at?" Kanda asked as he turned around with a sulky expression, arms crossed and eyes glowering.
"Nozing. Just... did jyou lose something?" Vanya asked, her usual mask of indifference falling for a moment to reveal curiosity. What was he looking for so much that he had ventured into the girl's quarters? Unless... where was Nthanda?
Her eyes must have given her away as the realization dawned on her. Kanda pointed a finger at her and said, "Listen-"
"Ze ship is a dangerous place, end jyou lose our child, again! He could be in ze boiler right now, or in ze kitshens, playing wit' knives or-"
"Just, go fight some pirates, you irritable midget," Kanda shot back, shoving her out of the room as he himself stormed off down the hall. Vanya made a face at his retreating back, wondering if she should also join the search, but she figured that there were more pressing matters afoot. It seemed it was up to the decks for her...
She suddenly turned around, ran into her room, and snatched her book. Who knows? Perhaps these pirates would be boring, and she'd need something to read while fending them off.
Nthanda had found a much funner place to play with his little mate. The galley was always warm, and if he really made a fuss, he could convince the cook to hand him something. As of now, the cook was nowhere to be seen - a pity. Nthanda motioned for the other baby to follow, and the two toddle their way into the galley proper to see what they could find. To his disappointment, it wasn't much. It was a small space, merely two counters inside of what amounted to being a large closet.
The two roamed for a little while. Nthanda managed to turn on the stove (what strangeness! It spouted fire!) as well as open several drawers. He found an odd assortment of instruments, most of which looked like spoons but had holes in them, and he used these open drawers as stepping stools to the top of the counter. At the top, it was quite the cluttered mess, with a bag of flour and several racks of spices. Nthanda felt the loose flour that was around the bag and, fascinated, he opened it, only to receive a puff of the stuff to the face. He sneezed and stuck his little hand into the bag curiously, pulling out a whole handful of the white stuff.
He turned to gab at the ugly child who was his new servant, and he was surprised to find the child playing with his little toy caboose instead of exploring this wonderland. Oh well, it was his loss.
Nthanda was putting the flour over his head (because, why not?) when he heard a familiar voice.
"We got to mehke sure the stoves is off, gas is off, and the - Boy, what you doin' in here?"
Nthanda froze as he was caught redhanded, Din standing with his hands on his hips and a look on his face that Nthanda didn't particularly like. Behind him were several sailors, and one of them snickered at the baby who was nearly white as a ghost now. The captain's grandson had begun to cry, and one of the sailors picked him up.
"There you are, ya li'l idjit! Darcy thought he'd end up strung on a jib for losin' ya," the sailor said.
Nthanda realized that his reign was about to come to an end as Din shook his head and began to come forward. Nthanda looked around uncertainly. There were no exits. There was only the man approaching him and the tile floor so far below him. He was trapped as rat in a corner. There was only one thing he could do.
POP!
"Have you acquired any new information just yet?"
"Oh, you. You never knew the meaning of patience."
"Well, that isn't an answer!"
"Of course I haven't. This sort of thing takes time."
Ellis sat up in the bridge with the phone to her ear. Din had left it up at the bridge for safekeeping, and she, er, needed it. Her cousin was going to get anxious if she didn't check in now and again. She sat back as the bridge master kept a lookout, trying to contact the ship that was drifting nearer and nearer to them with the radio. So far, they had had little luck. That was not a good sign.
"My superiors are getting quite unhappy -"
"I would say they can stand to be unhappy just a little while longer. It's not like they can fire me. I'm doing this as a favor, remember? And as far as I know, favors are not culpable for a judicial review," Ellis snapped back.
"Sir, they ain't radioin' us back. It don't look too good from this end. Harkness also says he ain't seen a single person onboard so far," the bridge master said into the tubes, and Ellis waved at him.
"A little quieter, would you? I'm on the phone, and this is important!" Ellis said.
Well, truth be told, it was a bit of boredom that had driven her to this, seeing as she couldn't stand her cousin. Yet, it was too easy to push his buttons. It had been a pastime of hers when they were children, yanking his leg until he finally either blew up or his mother had to chastise him for hitting a girl. Either was a good reaction, in Ellis' book.
"You know as well as I do that this is important to the order, and it is of utmost haste," Malcolm griped.
Suddenly, the door banged open, and Vanya strolled in. For someone so small, she did have a commanding air, as the bridge master, who was by no means a small man, straightened up and stood at attention. Vanya gave him a tiny nod, and Ellis felt sweat drip down her back. As far as she knew, Vanya was not a part of Malcolm's little... project. She was merely backup in lieu of an actual Exorcist. A pity what had happened to her brother, really, but that was the nature of the game.
"Yes, yes, I got that you old windbag. Now, I will call you later. Tata! Send my love to Auntie!" Ellis chirped. Before he could answer, she slammed the phone into its cradle and looked back at Vanya. The woman was reading... something or other, her face completely neutral.
"I vas told dere vould be pirates," Vanya stated, idly flipping a page.
"So far, we ain't seen nothin' yet, miss. Ship ain't headin' toward us 'r away, neither," the bridge master stated.
"Quite right. I've been watching it drift for the past twenty minutes. Not a peep," Ellis sighed. She looked out at the rogue ship and wondered if perhaps it was just abandoned. It was about fifty yards away now, taken in by the current that ran along the coast. They were much closer to Dar es Salaam now, and they should be there in a little over five days. Perhaps this ship was out of their port and had run aground, been left behind, and swept back out.
Suddenly, Vanya's head snapped up, and she closed her book with a smart stip. She went stiff as a hunting dog catching wind of its quarry, and Ellis stared at the young girl with curiosity. It was fascinating to watch the CROW work - though much more desirable to do it at a safe distance.
"Do jyou hear... anyzing?" Vanya asked quietly, standing up.
The glass burst inwards with a hail of bullets, and Vanya dove towards Ellis, shielding her body from the glass and metal. The bridge master was a pile of dust on the floor, his clothes riddled with holes, and Ellis gasped in surprise. She had several gashes in her face from the spray of glass, but besides that was no worse for wear. A cackle was heard outside, along with the flutter of insect wings.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are! Awwww, are you all gonna hide? Well, fine, that makes it more fun when I root you out, you rats!"
"What... is that?" Ellis wheezed as she looked out the now-broken window. Vanya turned, the clink of glass surrounding them with every move they made. A baby-dollish monstrosity fluttered out near the deck, its face crazed as a halo ringed its head. Ellis looked to the smaller woman on top of her, and her blood was shot through with lightning as she saw Vanya's stricken look.
"Hide," Vanya ordered as she got up and crept out the door, leaving behind only the bell chime of falling glass.
He'd pinned down where the little sucker was. Din had told him he'd seen the tyke in the kitchen, and Kanda had figured he'd poofed his little butt somewhere else. Luckily it seemed that he was running out of places to go. He hoped the baby knew better than to teleport somewhere like, oh, off the ship. His range wasn't huge, but he still had a range. Seeing as he'd already hit the bedrooms and bathrooms, he figured the last place to go was the boiler.
And the boiler was big. He'd had to enlist help.
"Look, the minute you see him, run for him. He can't go far. If you lose him, I swear to God, I will personally peel off your fingernails," Kanda explained painstakingly to the four people in front of him. Lavina's idiot servants all swallowed with trepidation while Lavinia herself clapped her hands with glee.
"It will be just like hide and seek! Won't it be fun? Just like at home, right? Oh - but shouldn't I change clothes for this? It looks positively filthy in there, and this is new..."
Kanda tried his best not to reach for the sword at his side. It wasn't worth the mountain of reports explaining why a civilian under his care spontaneously lost an ear or two.
He motioned for them to go forward and search the boiler room, which was dark and smelled strongly of coal. Kanda's mind summoned unbidden images of Nthanda touching hot irons or falling into cauldrons of boiling water, and he shook his head as if that would dislodge the grisly thoughts from his mind.
To his right, he could hear Lavinia humming Where O Where Could My Little Dog Be somewhere deeper into the boiler room, and he sighed through his nose. His ire was perhaps unnecessary... but for the love of God, if she wasn't annoying. At the very least, she was so infatuated that she'd do anything to help him, including grubbing around in a dirty boiler room.
He stood in the center of the boiler room and closed his eyes, trying to imagine the space he occupied using only his ears. He could hear the thump, thump, thump of the pistons going somewhere nearby, and the clang-cl-clang-clang of pipes shifting from the heat and pressure of water moving through the boilers. There was the roar of the boiler somewhere near him, along with the gentle footsteps of four other people. For a moment, he thought Nthanda might not be there, that perhaps the kid had crawled into the vents or something, until he heard a distinct "Gabprrruuu" somewhere in the bowels of the boiler room.
Unfortunately, the three idiots and their mistress also heard him.
"I got him!"
"I think he's over here!"
"Oh, look, he's crawling your way!"
"Euch! He's covered in coal dust, how unseemly!"
POP! POP! POP!
Over and over again, the sound of a POP! resounded in the boiler room as the servants fell over each other trying to get the wayward child. Nthanda, however, was faster, teleporting to a different portion of the boiler room only to encounter another servant. Kanda himself was tripping over the morons as he wheeled around corners in his bid to reach him. He couldn't hope to use his unnatural speed in here - it was too cramped and there were too many people. He'd needed them as a set of eyes, but now they were a whole chorus of mouths, and that was no good to him!
"Just SHUT UP A MINUTE!" Kanda shouted, and the entourage froze in their places, half hidden among the pipes and massive boilers. Kanda stopped and thought a bit, then finally motioned on servant to go to the far back corner. He motioned to Lavinia to go around to that back corner a different way, as well as her second and third servants. He crept forward through the forest of giant boilers and moving parts, eyeing a very dirty, very happy Nthanda, who was banging on a pipe with a piece of metal he'd found. The kid had yet to see the five of them closing in on him, and he had to be getting tired at this point. Kanda certainly prayed so.
With a burst of speed, he dashed forward and picked up the baby, who squirmed and gabbled but otherwise didn't try to put up too much of a fight.
"It is about ti-"
Kanda was flung to the ground, the rest of his 'helpers' also being dashed into nearby machinery as the ship keeled to the side. He winced as he scrambled to get up, wondering what was going on above his head. Nthanda wailed in his ear with discontentment. Were the pirates...?
"What's going on?!" one of the servants shrieked as the ship shook.
"I remember them saying there were pirates," Kanda muttered.
"Pirates?! You had us down here, and there were pirates above us?!" Lavinia protested.
Kanda rolled his eyes.
"If I had told you, you'd be whimpering in your room under your five blankets. This is much more productive," Kanda said over Nthanda's crying.
"All hands... all hands, please, go belowdecks... all hands, go belowdecks and whatever you do, do not come out," a voice said over the intercom, and Kanda frowned as he looked up at the tubes near his head. Was that Ellis? What was she doing on the comm system? Why were they fleeing the decks, and why was she whispering?
"Kanda, if you can hear me, we need you on the deck. Desperately. There's a... there's a thing attacking the ship. I-I-I don't know what it is, but its killed the bridge master and slaughtered several more crew members. Vanya is trying to distract it."
Kanda's eyes widened as he took in this information. What could be so powerful that it shook a whole ship?
He dumped Nthanda into the nearest pair of arms he could find and walked over to the nearest tube. He opened it and pressed the button for the bridge, and he said, "This is Kanda."
"Oh, thank heaven. Kanda, it's... I don't know, I've never seen an Akuma like this. It's small, has wings, a halo -"
"Baby doll face, scary as hell, has Gatling guns?" Kanda finished.
"Yes. What is it?"
Kanda sighed as ice began to settle in his veins. He was right. He was always right. Traveling by sea was never a good idea, not for an Exorcist.
"Level Four. Find cover and do not let it see you. I'm coming up."
Small, slippered feet padded across the polished wood of the foredeck. Vanya barely drew breath as she slunk along. She could hear the faint sound of insect-like wings somewhere in the distance, and she prayed they were far away. Her exploding spell tags had kept it occupied for only a short time, and no doubt it was looking for her now. The small woman peeked from behind a crate at the decimated deck, her stomach churning with anxiety as she surveyed the piles of dust littered around. Bullet holes continued to smoke in the metal gunwales nearby, and the remaining crew still trapped on deck cowered in nearby doorways with what weapons they could find.
"Come out, little CROW. I wanna hear you sing me a song."
Vanya took a tentative step out onto the deck, unsure of what to do next. There was no way she could fight it on her own. She'd only heard rumors of Level Fours from the other CROW, how they seemed to clear out whole towns by themselves, taking apart whole platoons of Finders before the Exorcists could come and tend to the issue. It was amazing how something so small could cause so much destruction.
"What, you don't know it? I'm sure you do. Here, I'll jog your memory. It goes like this..."
Her heartbeat sped up as she realized the voice was much closer than she'd anticipated. Her mouth went dry as she screwed her eyes shut and held her breath. The wing beats were a constant hum, and Vanya reached for a single knife, the metal blade feeling puny in her hand-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
She ducked and covered her ears as an earsplitting screech raised the hair on her arms and neck. She twisted around, trying to locate the source of the noise, but she couldn't seem to find it anywhere. Her midsection cramped with terror as gunfire littered the deck again, the Level Four swooping in with malicious glee. It landed on the deck heavily and spun around to survey its prisoners. The men were openly sobbing now, some of them only holding lead pipes for shields. The doors behind them had long been locked shut, leaving the men to fend for themselves. A wide grinned split its babyish face as it advanced towards the doorways and their poor souls. With leering eyes, it swiveled its head at the piles of crates Vanya was hiding in and chuckled.
"Oh? You don't want to sing my song? What, you don't like it? Okay, okay, well... if you want to play that way, we can play that way. I'll count to five. Every second you don't come out, I'll make someone else sing it."
Vanya pressed her back close to the wooden crate behind her, sweat dripping into her eyes. Her eyes were wide and looking up at the sky, her heartbeat flooding her eyes, throat, and stomach. Her hands shook as her slack face stared out at the clouds drifting overhead.
"One," it began. She could hear a man's body hit the deck, a solid shtump! that drew sympathy pains. The man screamed and moaned, but Vanya dare not look around the cart.
"Two." There was a wet sound, like a thumb going into an orange. Vanya covered her ears, but no matter how hard she pressed her palms into her head, she could still hear the man scream, "My eye! Oh god, my eye! No, no, not the the other one-"
"Three." There was a stomp on the deck, the sick sound of something being squashed under foot. Tears streamed down Vanya's face. Wouldn't the sailor just die already?
"Fou-"
The Level Four was only aware of a dark black blur coming from the side before a blade sank nearly hilt-deep into its head. It shrieked happily as it opened fire on the smudge of night racing across the deck, turning the wood into nothing more than a mass of splinters.
"SING, CROW, SING!"
Vanya managed to climb her way up the stairs, towards the mid-deck, the Level Four on her heels. It crashed into the railings of the ship's stairs, destroying the metal walls and tearing up the gunwale in its haphazard search for its prey, and Vanya suddenly found herself with nowhere to run. She could go up to the bridge, but Ellis was hiding there, trying to wait out the storm. There was no way she could go back there. The path belowdecks was sealed off, just how she'd told Din to do. The men on the foredeck were safe now, able to flee belowdecks and drag their tortured compatriot with them, but Vanya herself had no shelter.
She skirted back around and looked at the Akuma. It was ugly, a baby doll full of disappointment and madness. Its halo mockingly glimmered in the sun as it surveyed her, flitting to and fro like a bloated fly. The thing tilted its head and cooed in what it must have considered a sultry voice, "Ready to start sin-"
The Akuma was blasted off the gunwale by a sudden Eight-Lotus Strike, and a loud splash went off in the distance. Vanya stared at the space the Akuma had occupied before looking back at the source of the attack. Kanda panted as he stood in the middle of the deck, hair whipped around his head by the sea-torn wind. Vanya collapsed to her knees and buried her forehead into her legs, thanking God and his angels for this prickly, annoying, grumpy Exorcist.
"Save your Hail Marys. It's not dead yet," Kanda said, still in a fighting stance. "Get belowdecks."
Vanya gave him a long, hard look before nodding. She scurried towards the nearest open door, probably the one through which Kanda had come, and shut it. She winched it shut, looking out the single porthole at the samurai who stood waiting on deck, and her heart finally began to slow. Only now did she notice the tautness of his shoulders, the spring in his legs as he danced back and forth. He was fidgety, his eyes roving with unnerving quickness, and only when he wiped the sweat off his forehead did she realize he was afraid.
She had a choice. She could either go below and hope that Kanda on his own could defeat the creature that would no doubt be hurtling back to the ship. It would be easy, to place all her trust in this single, horrid man. Or... she could help fight, despite the terror she felt at thinking of the thing's beastly power.
She pressed her back to the door, hiding her silhouette as she heard, even through these thick walls, the hum of wings. Something heavy slammed onto the deck of the ship, and she bit her lip.
With slumped shoulders, she disappeared into the ship, ignoring the yells and the fury going on just outside the door.
A/N: Yoooooo! Sorry this chapter is a bit late. I meant to publish it in October, but I got caught up with life and things in general. This is a pretty long chapter, so hopefully that makes up for the lack of reading lately!
Much thanks to all my reviewers, subscribers, and favoriteers! I'm surprised by the amount who are still reading! I'm so glad that so many people are still invested in this story, especially seeing as I've got so many other ideas going on for it. I'm hoping to have it finish, actually finish, perhaps in the next ten chapters or so, but who knows? I may end up writing way more than I expected to.
To karina001- Me writing 7k would mean the chapter would've been published so much later! ... I'm so lazy. I also love to see how much you like the story. Sorry for being so scarce these days, I've been running out of steam for Art of War and how to end it (so hopefully you can forgive me that). I still love your commentary! There's so much insight that goes on in there while you're reading.
To amenokuma- It's amazing to see someone with so much of a passion for writing and reading. I also started writing mostly for the DGM fandom here, and it's a great way to practice and get better at the craft. Just keep writing, and things turn out alright. I also liked your input on the juxtaposition. You really hammered it home in far fewer words than I would've thought to use.
To FrenchMacaroni- Thanks! I'm glad to know I'm not the only other slowpoke... Another college student, I see! You know the struggle!
And to my guest - Wow! It always makes me so happy to know my story helps someone out, and that you're learning English while reading is so cool! That you love it enough to read it in another language is phenomenal and makes me feel so special! Practice is the best way to learn to speak and read English, and this is a great way to do it. You're doing awesome with writing English, by the way, with how you wrote the review. Don't give up! You're doing fantastic!
And now, for the review questions: How has the story really changed since you started reading it? Do you notice any sort of style changes, or has it really been consistent? Do you like the mix of genres/moods? How do you like progression so far into the story? What do you think is going to happen next? If you could have them go through any country in Africa, what would it be?
Thank you so much for keeping up with this story, and I hope that it continues to brighten your day! God bless you, and happy fic-hunting!