~Sammy~
Sammy grinned as he heard his own voice echo off the town's buildings. The bells in the belfry had also captured his sound, ringing with a fading, "Kay?" He waited for a while, watching as the sun's evening rays gradually disappeared from the sky. Perhaps half an hour passed before Sammy began to worry. The sky was now a deep purple. Where was Noelle? She sure was slow. Maybe she had bumped into some trouble.
"Well, I know she can take care of it!" Sammy said to himself, flashing another grin. His stomach growled and the grin faded. "Damnit! I'm hungry." The young pirate captain sighed heavily. He walked over to a corner and sat down with a tired groan. "Hurry up, Noelle…" he whined.
~with Noelle~
She had heard it, alright. She was pretty sure everyone had heard it. She knew who had shouted that and in all sincerity, despite the obnoxious person who was surely waiting impatiently for her arrival, she would have liked to go to the clock tower. The problem? She was a bit occupied at the moment.
"I remember that voice. What was his name? Oh, right. Joker D. Samuel."
Noelle didn't answer. She sipped on her drink.
After a long stretch of silence, the person across from her spoke again. "Oh, so you think you're funny, huh?"
Noelle blinked. "I didn't even say anything."
"No, no. I wasn't talking to you." Her companion pointed in the direction of another customer at the bar. "That guy. He's trying to pick a fight."
Noelle rolled her eyes. "He's eating a sandwich. He can't even hear you."
The person snorted. "That's what you think, but I can just feel his itch to fight." He unwrapped a few pieces of brightly colored hard candy and tossed them into the air, catching them in his mouth with lax expertise. With his head tilted back, his auburn hair tumbled to the side to reveal his icy blue eyes.
"Are you sure that's not just your own 'itch to fight'?"
Her companion's head lowered and his hair settled back over his eyes. "Haa…no. He might be eating a sandwich, but he's been observing us this whole time. After all, we're his targets." The last sentence was followed by a most delighted smile.
Noelle had to physically restrain herself from punching the life out of this weirdo. First of all, she hadn't forgotten her first encounter with the pirate captain and his psycho crab of a crewmate. Secondly, he had almost gotten her killed by "accidentally" pushing her into the path of a runaway cart. Third, he had apologized politely (too politely) and carried her to a bar on his shoulders. And lastly, he was making her pay the bill, even though she only had forty-two beli.
"He thinks he's clever, he does," said the idiot, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Eating a sandwich? Ha! I know just what he's up to."
Noelle studied the man eating his sandwich. He looked normal enough. Brown hair, brown eyes, simple polo shirt and khakis, a decent appetite. Nothing to suggest he was hunting them down. Of course, looks could be deceiving, as Noelle had learned earlier. That vendor who had offered to sell her some meat at half price? He had tried to blast her head off with a miniature canon. That nice lady who had given her free samples of her new hand lotion? She had tried to stab her with a silver dagger. This was more than a weird town. These people were all…
"Assassins, Skorp! Tauris just led a whole bunch of them this way!" shouted a psycho crab, bursting through the door of the bar and panting heavily.
The man who had been eating a sandwich jumped up in surprise, dropping his sandwich. Recovering a bit, he pulled out a sword.
"Good job, Kanser!" said Skorpio, hopping to his feet. The loose fabric of his black kimono flapped around him as an unnatural wind gushed through the bar. An image of a snarling, golden dragon rippled on his back with the moving air. "Run along and tell Pysces and Cross to come over and join the fun."
Kanser tried to leave, but the Sandwich Man barred his path. "Y'er a target," rumbled the assassin.
Kanser drew back his hand. It transformed into a crab claw and jabbed the Sandwich Man in the stomach, then in the eye, then in the jaw. Kanser finished him off with a sharp knee to the crotch. The Sandwich Man slipped to the ground, eyes watering in pain.
"Kanser disagrees. You are Kanser's target."
"Okey…got it."
Kanser exited the bar, but not before glaring at Noelle and hissing, "You still owe Kanser a glass of spicy ginger milk with diced strawberries!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Noelle responded, subconsciously counting how many pimples there were on the psycho crab's chin. She lost count at around twenty-three. Or was it twenty-five?
As soon as Kanser left, Skorpio turned to the rest of the ten occupants of the bar and extended his arms as if hugging something very large and round. "Come at me, everyone! Just try to bring me down!"
They all complied. Guns were produced from behind table. Swords were drawn from hidden sheathes. A lawn ornament flamingo was raised in an intimidating manner. Then the chaos began. A bulky, six-foot tall man with randomly spiked brown hair rushed into the bar. He grabbed Skorpio and Noelle under his arms, then rushed out to the street where a horde of around thirty more armed people were waiting.
"You know, Skorpio," said the man who still lifted the weight of both Skorpio and Noelle with ease. He looked as if he had been running all day, his dark tan skin gleaming with sweat. "There are lot of them and only, uh…one, two, three…three of us."
Skorpio did not seem concerned. "You mean six, counting Pysces, Cross, and Kanser," he corrected. "And put me down, Tauris. This is embarrassing."
Tauris obliged and let both Skorpio and Noelle thud to the ground. In the same second, he kicked away some advancing attackers. Sensing an attacker from behind, he turned and sent a heavy fist flying into someone's face. That someone wasn't too happy about that.
"That hurt," said the teenage boy who had just been hit. He calmly felt his nose to see if it was broken. After finding his nose safely intact, he glared at Tauris with golden brown eyes. His hair had been shaved down to dense fuzz on one side of his head, but the other side was a tangled mess of black locks accented with golden highlights. Strapped to his back was a large cross made of white stone. It was the same height as himself and the words NULLI SECUNDUS had been chiseled vertically into the stone.
"Sorry, Cross," Tauris mumbled, hanging his head in shame. He dug into his pocket and produced a yellow smiley face sticker. He peeled it off and gently stuck it onto his crewmate's black leather jacket. "All better?"
The smiley face continued to smile in a rather creepy manner. Cross stared at it in horror. "It's the thought that counts, I suppose," he finally murmured, his tone sullen. He managed to tear his gaze away from the sticker to gaze forlornly at his rusty-red boots.
A loud shout erupted from down the street. "WAHOO! WATCH OUT FOR THOSE CANONBALLS, SKOR-PI-OOOO!" howled a long-haired figure riding on a motorbike. Several other motorbikes with angry assassins followed in hot pursuit.
"Oh no! Pysces went Aquario on us!" shrieked Tauris. He looked around frantically. "And they even fired cannonballs? Skorpio, do something!"
But Skorpio was laughing. Maybe he thought the dozen or so steel orbs hurtling through the air contained jokes or something. Really explosive jokes. "This is where the fun begins! Can you feel the fun, Tauris?" he shouted, twirling around in circles with his arms waving in the air.
"No, I can't feel the fun!"
Skorpio stopped spinning for a moment. "Well, uh…can't help you there." Then he resumed his twirling with a maniacal grin.
Cross had busied himself with fighting off aggressors by swinging his cross around like a baseball bat, knocking people off their feet and sending them flying. Already, the snow-white stone was slick with crimson. The cross was merciless, smashing, bashing, and crushing multiple enemies in one sweep. It moved in graceful arcs, the user handling it effortlessly.
Meanwhile, the cannonballs grew visually larger as they neared. The first embedded itself into the street, hitting no one. The second and third crashed into buildings. The fourth barely missed Tauris and instead took down his opponent. The fifth also doomed an assassin, but the sixth was right on course for the captain of the Constellar Pirates.
Skorpio stared at the incoming projectile, his gleaming eyes hidden behind a mangled fringe of auburn hair. He raised a finger at the cannonball and wagged it tauntingly. "Sit down! Zabuton!" The steel ball suddenly stopped, only a foot or two from Skorpio's outstretched hand. It fell harmlessly to the paved ground, all its momentum lost.
The seventh cannonball created a crater in the road directly in front of the motorcyclist. With no time to swerve around, the rider was launched into the air along with the bike. Excited shouting could be heard as the figure flew, long, golden hair streaming behind.
"Oh, damn!" shouted Skorpio. "Tauris, go catch Aquario!"
Tauris's jaw dropped in shock. "Why me?" he called over the clamor of battle.
"Because you're the farthest away from her!" Skorpio replied, pulling an innocent smile. "Anyways, captain's orders! Do as you're told!" He then turned his attention to Cross. "Cross, got any weapons I can use?"
Cross shook his head. "Nope! Sorry, Skorp!" He threw his cross to his left side, wiping out four unlucky souls who were too slow to evade the stone missile. A chain connecting the top of the cross to his wrist forced Cross to sprint after his weapon.
Skorpio dodged a few swipes from an assailant. "Kanser! Where are you? I need a weapon!"
Seemingly out of nowhere, Kanser appeared with a wakizashi in hand. "Here you go. Kanser just got this from a nearby shop," said the crab, extending the sword to his captain.
"Did you buy it?" Skorpio asked, cautiously eying the weapon.
"No. Kanser forcibly removed it from the shop."
"Great! Good work, Kanser."
Both whirled around at the sound of someone crying out in pain right behind them. A slender, clean-shaven man collapsed. The tip of a kitchen knife was visible in the center of a growing spot of blood.
"Thank you," said Skorpio, bowing graciously to Noelle.
"Keep your thanks. I was just taking care of a nuisance," growled Noelle, her red eyes flashing. She yanked her knife from her victim's back. "But you should pay attention to what's going on around you."
Skorpio spat out what little remained of the candy he had been sucking on into the face of the person with the flamingo lawn ornament. He grasped the sword from Kanser's hand and in one swift motion, slashed the blade across his opponent's throat. "I'll take your advice to heart, Miss Noelle." He stabbed another person through the heart as he spoke.
"WAHOO! THAT WAS FUUUUN!" shouted a young woman currently standing on Tauris's shoulders. She had a wild look in her stormy, blue-gray eyes. Her hair whipped around her face as she howled into the wind. "LET'S DO IT AGAAAAIN!"
"NO!" Tauris vehemently protested.
Immediately, the woman pouted. She leapt to the ground and crossed her arms, refusing to look at the muscular man. "Taur-is-oooo, you're no fun at all! At least try to feel the fun!"
"I can't feel the fun!"
"WHAAAAT? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST FEEL THE FUN?" the woman screamed, furious. She stomped her foot angrily and threw a mini temper tantrum, yanking on her hair and cursing at her crewmate.
Skorpio hurried over to the two and faced the blond-haired woman. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, Aquario! I feel the fun!" he said in a reassuring voice.
"Kanser also feels the fun!" Kanser said with a dutiful expression.
"I feel the fun as well!" called Cross, hefting his bloodstained cross into the air. His mouth fell open in dismay as he noticed the sticker still stuck securely to his jacket, undisturbed by battle.
Skorpio turned expectantly to Noelle. "Do you feel the fun?" he inquired, a sparkle lighting up his eyes. He jumped up and down excitedly.
"I'm not going to answer that," Noelle said, flicking a bead of blood from her cheek. She ducked as a silvery blade sliced the air where her neck had been half a second earlier. She elbowed the person behind her in the ribs, spun around, and stuck both kitchen knives into the assailant's chest.
"You're good with knives," Skorpio noted.
"I'm a chef. What do you expect?"
"Food, of course!"
Skorpio never saw it coming. The fist had already slammed into his head before he even knew he had angered the silver-haired chef.
After beating the auburn-haired boy into the ground, Noelle realized the battle had already concluded. The assassins who had attacked were either dead, unconscious, or had fled. Most of the damage had been dealt by Cross and his cross. Pysces (or was it Aquario?) was still yelling at Tauris, who had his ears firmly plugged with two fingers. Kanser tried desperately to dig out his captain from the ground. Finally, the last of the sun's rays had faded behind the horizon.
Kanser managed to yank Skorpio free. The latter lay sprawled in the middle of the street, staring blankly up at the dark sky. After a while, he bounced to his feet in one swift motion and clapped his hands together with a satisfying smack. "That was fun, crew! Now, let's go to the clock tower and have a party!"
The Constellar Pirates all roared in approval. However, Noelle had other opinions.
"Hell, no!" Noelle turned away from the disorderly crew. "Get lost. I don't need even more weird people in my life."
"Wait, what? I want to see Joker D. Samuel again! We have loads to talk about!"
"No."
"You're a mean one, Miss Noelle."
"Do I look like I care?"
No response.
"Look up there!" exclaimed Cross, pointing to the clock tower. "Someone's going to commit suicide!"
~with Sammy~
Sammy was not committing suicide. He knew perfectly well what he was doing when he jumped from the belfry, and it was not suicide. If he had wanted to commit suicide, there were flashier ways to do so. Besides, he had no reason to commit suicide. So why would he jump off a tall building? For the fun of it! Duh!
"What? Is that kid crazy? We try to kill him and he jumps instead?"
Well, he jumped for the fun and to escape the assassins who had blundered in on his nap. Sammy had grown so tired of waiting for Noelle that he had fallen asleep. When the assassins had burst into the belfry, waking him instantly, he made one of those quick decisions all sea-ready pirate captains would make.
"This is like flying!" Sammy yelled. He let out a scream of exhilaration before crash-landing on the stall selling fabrics at the base of the tower. He separated himself from the mess he had made with only a few scrapes and bruises to show for it. "Lucky me," he remarked as he jogged away cheerfully. "It's a good thing that stand was selling carpets and not kitchen knives!"
He wandered the streets, calling out for Noelle. People stared at him oddly as he passed by. One particular person stopped him. He rested under a large tent where two other people were forging iron pots and tools.
"Hey, you there!"
Sammy turned at the sound of the voice and bowed politely. "Hi! I'm looking for my crewmate! She has silver hair and red eyes and is really, really short!" he said.
The person stood and walked towards Sammy. He had a menacing air around him. His muscle-bound arms, nurtured through years of striking hot metal, were covered in tattoos. A grimy white bandana kept the hair from his eyes. "You're not from this town, I see."
"Yeah, we're just passing through," Sammy replied. "By the way, have you seen my ship? It's called the King Dan's Payback. It has a dragon head and my flag on it and—"
"You should leave," the blacksmith said, not even slightly hesitant at interrupting Sammy's speech.
Sammy frowned. "Why?"
The blacksmith gestured vaguely with his hand. "This half of the island is under the rule of the Blood Berry Pirates from North Blue. Their captain is a D-list with a bounty of thirty-two million beli."
Sammy shrugged indifferently. "So?"
There were a few moments of staring from the craftsman before he grunted and retreated back to his tent. "They've probably already made you a target. You're dead, kid," he said.
"Me? Dead?" Sammy laughed heartily. "You sure are funny, mister!" With a wide smile still plastered to his face, he marched off, humming merrily.
The man scowled. That scowl would become permanent as a thin blade sliced into his heart from behind.
~with Noelle and the Constellar Pirates~
"WAHOO! RUN FASTER, TAUR-IS-OOOO!"
Tauris was sweating like a monsoon. He desperately needed water.
"FASTER! FAAAASTER!"
Tauris skidded to a halt. "You're heavy, Aquario! Why can't you walk on your own?" he complained loudly.
"Onwards, Taur-is-oooo! I want to see the suicide guy!"
"But you're heavy!"
"I don't CAAAARE! Hurry up, Taur-is-oooo!"
Noelle clasped her ears in agony. This incessant shouting was going to drive her mad.
"Stop being such a spoilsport, Tauris!" Skorpio called as he pranced along the sidewalk. With each step, his geta-clad feet smacked into the ground, creating an infuriatingly annoying sound.
"S-sticker," Cross stammered, trying to remove the sticker on his jacket without touching it. His attempts proved futile. "Get it off! Get it off!"
"Let Kanser help!" Kanser ended up stabbing his crewmate in the chest with a crab claw.
Cross howled in pain. "Stop it!" he cried as Kanser made to try again.
"Hold still! Kanser will remove the sticker."
"No! Get away from me!" Cross glanced down at the sticker and immediately paled. "Too…smiley…" He tipped over and fainted on the spot.
Kanser turned to Skorpio with a grave face. "Cross has fallen, Skorp."
"Yes, I can see that." Skorpio stood still and scratched his chin. Over a minute went by as he simply stood there, thinking. His crew members waited patiently, but Noelle grew more and more irritated by the second. Her mood didn't improve as another pirate captain appeared from around the bend just a yard or two away.
"There you are! I'm starving, Noelle! Make me food!"
Noelle waited until Sammy drew closer, then aimed a solid punch into his gut. "Eat that."
"Ow!" Sammy rubbed his stomach, which ached with the pains of both hunger and forceful impact. He took a second to stare at his crewmate. "What happened, Noelle? You're covered in blood."
"I fought with assassins," Noelle answered, glancing back to the section of the street riddled with the destruction of cannonballs.
Sammy nodded. "Oh, I see…was it 'cause they called you a midget?"
Noelle's eyes blazed. She gripped one of her kitchen knives so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Do you know what's on today's menu?" she asked in a quiet voice.
The spiky-haired pirate captain shook his head, confused with the sudden change of subject. "No. How would I know what's on the menu?"
"YOU!" Noelle screeched, pointing her knife threateningly at Sammy. "You'll be on the menu once I roast you over hellfire!"
"HELP! SOME CRAZY MIDGET GIRL IS TRYING TO KILL ME!"
~somewhere in town~
"They defeated all of you?" The voice that spoke those words was cold and menacing. It originated from a figure slouching in an armchair backed with green leather. His face was hidden in the shadows created by the several gas lamps situated around him. Next to the chair, a man with a droopy face and incredibly long eyelashes stood with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He wore a sweater vest over a dark purple dress shirt and stark white trousers. The two men resided in the only furnished corner of a large, warehouse-like room. Above, large skylights provided a clear view of the night sky.
Another man, shabbily dressed with a large scrape across his cheek, stood awkwardly in front of the armchair. He wrung his hands nervously and kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. His voice was small and timid when he answered. "Y-yes. They were very strong. We d-didn't stand a chance."
The owner of the first voice gently peeled the light blue skin off a small fruit resembling a lychee. He slipped the fruit into his mouth and crushed it between his teeth, drops of juice splattering anything within range. "And you ran?" His frigid voice took on a jagged edge.
"It's like I s-said, capt'n," the injured man mumbled feebly. "We didn't stand a chance."
After a few moments of unbearable silence, the captain of the Blood Berry Pirates smirked. "That's good judgment on your part, then. Men who stand their ground foolishly don't deserve a spot in my crew."
The injured man smiled in relief. "T-thank y—"
"However, you still failed to kill the targets. Sorry, Tenhu, but failures also don't belong in my crew."
The man with the long eyelashes smiled with faint pity as he held up a golden pistol. Poor Tenhu could only gape in terror as the bullet penetrated his brain from between his eyes.
The seated captain used his thumb to wipe the juice from his lips and deliberately licked his finger, relishing the taste of the sticky, sweet liquid. "Rest in peace, Tenhu. You were quite useful while you lasted."
Yep. Chapter 25. I have achieved silver.
The Constellar Pirates make their grand entrance in full! As you all know, their names and some of their characteristics are based off constellations. They've also been made into 'targets' but what does that mean anyways? What is the motive behind the Blood Berry Pirates' actions?
Alrihgt, this whole story is by far the longest piece of continuous writing I have ever done, so I'm really proud of myself. To celebrate a quarter of a hundred chapters, I feel like writing a one-shot about either Marie and Kokie, the Constellar Pirates, Tundra, or Boss. There's a poll on my profile page where you can vote, or you can just tell me in a review which one you'd like to see. Or you can do both and get two votes...? Or you can not vote at all and make me feel dumb for even suggesting this (—do this)
Okay, then. Next chapter is the conclusion to Tavvy's first mission. How will King Ravioli and Queen Lasgna be stopped? Who will be able to take down the huge Magnus Bursun? WHERE IS THAT COFFEE ROOM!?