Chapter 36: Syrup Village VIII
Opening Theme: Shining Days (Mai-HiME)
Rein and Winry ran down the road. Mikoto was unconscious on Winry's back due to her extreme hunger. Rein glanced at the sleeping girl and let out a sigh. "If the guys Mikoto and I fought were that strong I can't imagine how strong the person Hanabi must be fighting."
"I know," Winry said. "She was having some problems with Usopp fighting against two of them." Winry looked over to Rein. "What if the enemies just keep getting stronger?"
"Well they have been from what I've seen," Rein said remembering the enemies she had to fight. "I have a feeling they'll just get stronger and stronger."
"I was afraid of that," Winry admitted. "What are we going to do?"
"We'll have to get stronger I guess," Rein said, more to herself than to Winry. "Hanabi and Mikoto are crazy strong, but they are just like us. They are kids. Even if they have unique skills that we don't have, we also have skills they don't. If we work on making them stronger then we can get stronger too."
"I guess," Winry said with a slight smile.
Hanabi fell backwards allowing her to slide under Luke and get behind him. She threw her fist over her head. "Rubber Pistol!" Hanabi hit Luke in the back but Luke flipped to reduce the damage of the impact. He raised his palm and pointed it at Hanabi.
"Buddha's Palm: Force Repulsion!" Luke shouted as energy was fired from his palm. Seeing the attack coming Hanabi stretched her arm out towards a tree. She grabbed a branch and began to retract her arm.
"Rubber Rocket!" Hanabi called as she soared out of the path of the attack. Luke began to turn his palm towards Hanabi again but Hanabi sent her leg out towards him as she flew. "Rubber Whip!" Hanabi kicked Luke just as he began to send out energy and sent him flying to the side causing the energy to miss her again.
Luke slid to a stop and looked up to see Hanabi leaning back on the branch she had landed on. She kept her hands on the branch and slightly stretched them out. She retracted her arms and let go off the branch launching herself at Luke. Luke brought up his hand but Hanabi stretched her arms out and grabbed his wrists and pointed his palms away from her as she stretched her legs back. "Take this Rubber Spear!" Hanabi shouted sending her legs out at Luke while her feet were kept together and hitting him straight in the chest.
Hanabi grit her teeth as she tried to put more power into her attack. Luke had brought up a barrier of repulsion energy and was trying to knock her attack back. Hanabi's face turned red as she put everything she had into trying to push passed Luke's defense.
Ripples began to form from the repulsion energy as Hanabi's attack began to push back against it. It wasn't enough however and Hanabi's attack was forced back. Luke quickly grabbed her wrists and pulled up before quickly bringing her arms down sending Hanabi into the ground. Luke brought one of his hands up in a scooping motion causing the ground Hanabi was on to be dug up sending it and Hanabi into the air.
The ground crumbled around Hanabi as she flipped in the air. Hanabi glanced down at Luke to see him aiming his palm at her again. He sent out a blast of energy at her. Hanabi quickly inhaled as mush air as she could into her body inflating her. "Rubber Balloon!" The energy hit Hanabi's inflated body as she tried to power through it.
Hanabi opened her mouth when the pain became too much and let out all the air in her body along with some blood as the energy went through her body. Hanabi plummeted head first into the ground kicking up a dust cloud.
Hanabi quickly jumped to her feet and glared at Luke. Hanabi began to rapidly throw punches at Luke "Rubber Gatling!" Hanabi shouted as her punches flew towards Luke. Luke repelled the punches and soon grabbed her arms and pulled her in. Hanabi sent her legs out at Luke. "Rubber Spear!" Hanabi shouted.
Luke let go of Hanabi's arms and put up his hands to block her attack. Seeing this coming Hanabi separated her legs and wrapped them around Luke locking his arms to his side while stretching her arms back. "Rubber…" Hanabi began as she retracted her arms. Luke tried to get out of the hold but couldn't in time. "Bazooka!" Hanabi slammed her palms into Luke's chest.
Her attack hit his repulsive barrier for a moment before breaking through and hitting him. Luke coughed in pain but kept his ground. He let out a wave of energy forcing Hanabi's hold to break. While she was still suspended in the air he placed a palm to her chest. "Buddha's Palm: Force Repulsion!" Luke shouted. Hanabi's eyes widened in shock before the same energy as before were forced through her body.
Hanabi's body was wreaked by the attack as she flew backwards. Hanabi gritted her teeth and back flipped back onto her feet and slid to a stop much to Luke's shock.
Ninjin and Tamanegi ran over to where Piiman was fighting and saw him lying on the ground. "Piiman!" they called as they ran faster to get to their friend. Then knelt down next to him and began to try and wake him up.
"Come on you can't be dead!" Ninjin shouted. "Wake up!"
"Please wake up Piiman!" Tamanegi shouted.
Piiman moaned and opened his eyes. "What are you two yelling about?" Piiman asked annoyed at the noise. The two stared at him with looks of confusion mixed with disbelief. "What?"
"You're alive!" Ninjin and Tamanegi cheered.
"Of course I am!" Piiman shouted in anger. A thought then popped into his head. "Where'd that girl go?"
"We don't know, we just found you laying here by yourself," Tamanegi said.
"Great so she beat me," Piiman said in annoyance. "Next time I see her I'm going to win!"
"You plan to see her again?" Tamanegi asked in shock.
"I think out Piiman might be in love," Ninjin said much to the shock of the other two.
"Why on earth would I be in love with a bird brain like her?" Piiman asked with a flushed face.
"I see," Tamanegi said adjusting his glasses causing them to gleam. "That makes sense. He is at that age."
"Shut up Tamanegi!" Piiman shouted causing the other two to laugh.
Hanabi stumbled a bit before bracing herself and looking up at Luke with a smirk. "I'm not done yet," she said.
"No but that attack almost ended you," Luke said. "One more hit like that and…" Luke faltered and took a few steps back as blood pooled up in his mouth. He spat it out and glared at Hanabi. 'Her attack did more damage than I thought. I need to end this soon.'
Hanabi panted as she tried to figure out a way to finish off Luke. 'I get that he can put up a shield around himself. I also know that I can push through it with a strong enough attack. But the only move I can think of right now is Bazooka.' Hanabi glanced around. "And there isn't any metal around. If only I could power up one of my moves."
Hanabi looked down at her right arm and a thought came to her. "I know!"
Hanabi sprinted towards Luke who waved his hand at her sending out an attack. Hanabi leaned back and slid under the attack before getting back onto her feet and continued running. Luke sent another attack that Hanabi jumped over while her right fist compressed into her arm. Hanabi landed before rolling under yet another attack. Hanabi stood up and was right in front of Luke. Hanabi brought her arm up and punched him.
Luke brought up his barrier and blocked her attack. "Did you think you could get through my defense with a normal punch?" Luke asked.
"No, not a normal punch," Hanabi said. "Rubber Shotgun!" Hanabi let her fist shoot out of her arm like a shot gun shell and pierced through the barrier and punched Luke in the chest sending him flying back. Hanabi grabbed Luke with her still outstretched arm and pulled him back towards her while stretching her leg up into the sky. "Rubber Axe!" Hanabi shouted bringing her foot down onto Luke's head smashing him into the ground.
Hanabi stumbled back as her limbs retracted themselves. She panted while she stared at her downed opponent. She had won. Hanabi's eyes went wide as she heard something flying towards her. She jumped out of the way in time to dodge several feathers.
Celica flew in with Shield in her arms and scooped up Luke before taking off into the sky. She looked down at Hanabi with a look of anger and confusion. "I don't get what's going on," Celica said flying off.
Hanabi sighed in relief that she wasn't going to get attacked anymore. "Hanabi!" a voice behind her called out. Hanabi turned to see her crew running towards her. She noticed Mikoto on Winry's back and tilted her head in confusion.
"What's wrong with Mikoto?" Hanabi asked.
"She's hungry," Rein and Winry said simply.
"Oh…" Hanabi said before her stomach rumbled. "I'm hungry too."
"What the hell!?" Rein shouted. "How can you both be thinking about food, eating and stuffing your faces after the fights we just had!?"
"We need to eat to bring back up our energy," Hanabi argued.
"You've got an answer for everything don't you?" Rein deadpanned.
"Anyway can we go somewhere or at least get Mikoto something to eat?" Winry asked. "Mikoto is getting heavy."
"Oh yeah!" Hanabi said turning towards the hospital. "We should check on Usopp!" With that Hanabi ran into the hospital. Rein and Winry blinked in confusion before following their captain into the medical building.
The group ran up to the reception desk to see that no one was there. "Great so how are we going to find out where Usopp is?" Rein asked.
Mikoto's stomach rumbled and she moaned on Winry's back. "I'm starving…"
"Look I'll take Mikoto to go get some food, you two find Usopp," Winry said running to look for a lunch room. Hanabi and Rein nodded to each other before running to the stair case to begin searching for Usopp.
The two reached the second floor and saw Usopp standing outside a room. The two ran up to him. "Usopp how are you doing?" Hanabi asked.
"Oh Hanabi," Usopp said noticing them. "Did you all finish your fights?"
"Yeah but they left," Hanabi said. "I don't think they'll come back anytime soon."
"So how's your treasure doing?" Rein asked.
"Just fine," Usopp said with a relieved smile. "In fact how would you two like to see my treasure?"
Hanabi and Rein looked at each other before smiling at Usopp. "Sure," they answered.
Usopp led the two into the room he was guarding to find a woman lying in a hospital bed. She had a bit of sweat on her brow and her long blonde hair was in disarray.
- Kaya, 36 Years Old, Owner of Mansion & Wife of Usopp -
"Kaya!" Hanabi said in shock seeing to woman lying in the bed panting for breathe and looking weak. "What happened!?"
Kaya slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the three. "Oh hi Hanabi how are you doing?" she asked with a weak smile.
"I'm fine," Hanabi said. "What about you?"
"Tired," Kaya said before closing her eyes for a moment. She opened them back up and looked over to Usopp. "How is it outside?"
"There was a bit of damage but no one was hurt," Usopp said. "Hanabi and her crew help stop them and keep the damage to a minimum."
"That's good," Kaya said with a sigh of relief.
Usopp walked over to her and sat next to her and took her hand. "We can't thank your crew enough Hanabi," Usopp said. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up."
"Don't mention it," Hanabi said as she and Rein walked farther into the room. "But I don't understand why you are so tired. Are you sick again?"
"No," Kaya said with a slight giggle.
The door to the room opened and a nurse walked in carrying something wrapped in a blanket. She walked over to Kaya and handed the bundle to her. Kaya took in into her arms with gentle care. "Congratulations it's a girl."
Hanabi and Rein's eyes widened in shock before looking more closely at the blanket to see a little baby wrapped in it with a long nose and a bit of blonde hair. "So this is…" Hanabi said slowly.
"Yes," Usopp said with a smile as he stared at his daughter. "This is the treasure I wanted to protect. Thanks you for helping to protect her and Kaya."
"No problem," Hanabi said. "Right Rein?"
The three turned to the girl to see she was looking down with tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?" Usopp asked.
Realizing she was crying Rein quickly wiped her eyes. "Nothing just thinking about my parents," she told them.
"Why would that make you cry?" Usopp asked confused.
"Well I never knew my mother and my father left when I was little," Rein told them. "Seeing how much you love your daughter makes me wonder if my parents loved me."
"Of course they do!" Kaya said. "I'm certain they love you very much."
"But then why did they leave me!?" Rein asked as new tears flowed from her eyes.
The other three were quiet while Rein began to sob to herself. Hanabi walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. "That's why you joined my crew," Hanabi told her. "You wanted to find out where your dad went and why he left. Don't forget that." Hanabi pulled away from Rein after saying that.
Rein looked up at Hanabi in shock before she smiled. "Your right," Rein said whipping the tears from her eyes. "I can't give up when I've only just started, taken the first step, and began my journey!"
"Right!" Hanabi said.
Usopp and Kaya looked at each other with a smile. Usopp nodded at her and Kaya looked down at her baby. "We know what we'll name her," she said getting the two's attention. "We will name our daughter after you Rein."
"What me?" Rein asked in confusion. "But why?"
"Why not?" Kaya asked. "You are a strong young woman with a kind heart and you aren't afraid to help others. I think it will be a good name."
Rein smiled warmly at the little baby now known as Rein. "Just make sure that this Rein doesn't have to go through what this one had to go through," Rein said.
"You don't have to worry about that," Kaya said with a smile.
"So when are you going to be leaving?" Usopp asked.
"As soon as we get back to the ship," Hanabi said. "I think it's time we find a new crewmate."
"Alright I'll go get Mikoto and Winry!" Rein said running out of the room.
"So do you know what kind of crewmate you will be looking for?" Usopp asked.
"A navigator, cook, doctor or musician!" Hanabi said with a huge smile on her face.
"Just like Luffy," Usopp said. "Well I hope to hear about you in future papers."
"Of course you will!" Hanabi said before she ran out of the room.
The four now on their ship had gathered in the bridge. Winry had turned the ship around and was steering them towards their next adventure. Rein was staring out the window with new determination and Mikoto was sitting on the desk behind the wheel. Hanabi however was deep in thought. Winry was the first to notice.
"What's wrong Hanabi?" Winry asked causing the other two to look at their captain.
"I got it!" Hanabi said taking out the Jolly Roger that her dad gave her. She laid it down on the floor and began to draw on it. She back away to show she added several blue bangs on the front of the skull from underneath the straw hat and a blue ponytail from the back of the skull. "This is our Jolly Roger!" Hanabi told them. "From this day forward we shall be known as the Nefertari Pirates!"
"The Nefertari Pirates?" the others echoed. They went into thought for a moment.
"That sounds nice," Winry said with a smile.
"I like it," Mikoto added.
"We finally have a name, title and label for our crew!" Rein cheered.
The crew hoisted up their new Jolly Roger and clanked four glasses of cider together. "The Nefertari Pirates are going on a new adventure!" Hanabi cheered.
"Yeah!" the others cheered along.
Ending Theme: Kimi ga Sora Datte (Mai-HiME)