"And that's how you pull a bugshoe de haradashi." Hotoke leaned back and beamed. "Cool, right?"
Theo looked around to make sure everyone was as shocked and amazed as she was. The possibility that Hotoke was lying was almost zero. As a fellow girl living with adult criminals, Theo knew the kind of information people like her had access to. While everything Hotoke had just said sounded way overcomplicated, the entirety still made a lot of sense. She checked to make sure she had recorded everything so she could check with Cap.
"Why don't we try that?" one of the other classmates asked.
"We don't have enough people," Hotoke said instantly.
"Nobody old enough to pass as a geezer," Abcde added.
People kept chiming in. "We can do that with makeup, but where are we going to get a trained sea lion that doesn't have ZMM?"
"Do we have to combine orange juice and petrol?"
"And how are we going to make an 89-minute feature film with those kinds of special effects?"
"She said 79, not 89, but still. Who knows when the next solar eclipse will happen?"
"Durians aren't even sold here!"
"Robbing Fursanthany's ammo dumps and the Reserve Bank though, that's easy. We can do that this weeke-"
The sound of a meterstick smacking a desk caused them all to jump. "What's going on here?" Nevaeh demanded. "You're plotting something, aren't you? Huh? Planning something?"
"It's not a crime to talk," Paisleigh said. "You'd know if you had friends."
The meterstick whipped around and stopped right in front of Paisleigh's unblinking eyes. "The ratio of criminals to defenders of the law always skews towards the criminals, and conspiracy is an inchoate offense."
Theo noticed students here and there drifting away from the circle. Hotoke, however, leaned back and crossed her fingers behind her head. "Conspiracy requires intent. We were just learning more about each other."
Nevaeh's eyes flashed. "Spoken like a true mob heiress. You're lucky the sins of the parents aren't the sins of the child."
"I'm sorry that I've done nothing wrong and know more about the criminal mind right now than you ever will."
"Is that mere knowledge? Or is that learning important things for after you graduate? Who ever heard of a mob boss that made it through high school?"
"Maybe I want to join the police and nab more crooks than you."
"You will become an officer the day Hell overflows."
Theo watched their argument with interest. She got along with both girls pretty well, if only because Nevaeh thought her parents worked for the World Government. She had had several fascinating conversations with the zealous girl, admittedly sometimes to distract Nevaeh from their other classmates.
She turned when Abcde grabbed her hand. "You know they're just gonna keep going. C'mon. Yasir finally got his last snail off the ceiling so the race is back on."
The snail she had bet 200 beli on had just started climbing on another snail when the bell rang. Mr. Bakshi stood up and began calling out those whose guardians had shown up. To Theo's surprise, her name wasn't in the first call. She fought to remain calm as her heartbeat accelerated. Even though she had been warned that she might not be picked up right away, she still didn't like being away from her crew. She closed her eye and let her support system HESTIA play one of her favorite stories.
"Anou." Theo spun around with her lunchbox at the ready. Jabu let out an amused cough as he looked at her cocked arm. "You okay?"
"I'm fine!" she said in a way that sounded fake even to her.
He laughed. "Let's go practice hotwiring police stuff again."
Nevaeh's neck practically rotated like an owl's to stare at them, but Hotoke snapped her fingers a few times and Nevaeh returned to their argument. Theo didn't want to disappoint Jabu by mentioning she had already memorized how to do it, so she followed him to the corner where a bunch of assorted broken electronics were piled up amid a bunch of other random stuff. It was so difficult to hold back from using DAIDALOS to fix them, but she couldn't let anyone see her mechanical hand. All she could do was try not to use her mechanical memory so she could appear to be an amateur.
Her heart felt somewhere around her feet when the final bell rang. Mr. Bakshi put away his headphones and got to his feet. "Alright, time to drop you kids off. Jabulani, Gianna, and Joao, you're coming with me. Gianna, if we have another little incident like we did last time, I'll have to turn you in. Anousheh, your dad's waiting."
She jumped into the air and barely restrained herself as they went to the front gate. Morgan was waiting for her, and after Mr. Bakshi looked him over to make sure he wasn't an impostor, they were able to set off together. She pulled her hood over her head and tightened the strings to hide her identity, and waited until a few blocks away before speaking up. "What took you so long? Where's Cap?"
"Things went sideways. Captain is dealing with them right now, but knowing her, she's just aggravating them. I'm getting you to a safe place until Cain comes for you."
She nodded and hurried to keep up, never letting go of his hand. They wound their way downtown in a way Theo knew was designed to make pursuing them difficult. More than once, they broke into the subway and resurfaced at a distant maintenance entrance. He even had her ride piggyback for a while so he could speed up. As they approached the designated safe space though, they heard something completely unbelievable. There was no mistaking the wild laughter that was coming from a nearby bar.
"Hey, no kids!" shouted the bartender, but they completely ignored him, instead focusing on the man standing beside a good number of women wearing not a lot of clothing and a large collection of empty glasses.
"Why and how the hell are you here?" Morgan asked incredulously.
Damien glanced at them and erupted into another bout of laughter. "Yahahahar! Look wha' the mousecat dragged in! Saves me the trouble!"
He tossed over Scorch, and Morgan clumsily caught the Baby Den-Den Mushi. The receiver was already ringing. "Oh good," Captain said quickly, "you found each other. Morgan, I need you immediately. Pay for whatever this idiot's done, give Theo the rest, and come back here. This needs both of us, and Damien was the only one close enough to watch her."
Morgan looked at Scorch, then at Damien, then at Theo, then back to Scorch. "You want me to do what?"
"Just give Theo the money and get back here."
"But-"
"I know what I'm doing. Let's go."
Completely confused, Morgan tossed the snail back to Damien and gave Theo several bills. Damien pointed his chin at the door. "Now fuck off, pisswhistle. Ain' nice to keep 'er waitin'." Although Morgan obviously had so many questions, he said nothing more and left the bar. "Le's go, squirt."
Instantly calculating his tab, Theo hurriedly dumped a bunch of money on the counter and ran to catch up with him. He ambled slowly along and looked around, evidently enjoying himself. She found herself easily keeping pace with him, which was a surprise. Her lack of nervousness was helped by the fact that although people were looking in her direction, they were almost universally focused on the man - Theo giggled to herself - the teenager next to her. Lots of people looked like they wanted to say something, but Damien was difficult to approach even when he was in a great mood. Knowing him personally helped a lot, but it always felt like being near a live reactor inside battlesuits far bigger than could fit on Dusk Pandion. He was an extremely dangerous but sorta dependable container of explosive energy.
She eventually felt compelled to break the silence. "Who were the people you were talkin' to?"
"Night nymphs." She stared at him blankly. "Street walkers." She shook her head. "Workin' girls? 'Ookers? Prone dancers? 'Ores? Prostitutes?"
"Did you make some of those up?"
Damien lightly shoved her. "They fuck for cash, junkwit."
"What?"
"Stop bein' stupid, Girlie, I know you was told before."
She scanned her memory banks until she figured out what he was talking about. "Ohhhhh! They have sex for money! Why are they called all those other things?"
"Some cunts think 'orin' is the lowest job there is."
"Is it?"
"Yahar! Fuck no! Usin' what you've got t' live? Tha's just fuckin' survival! Ain' nothin' wrong with that!"
"Speaking of survival, why did Cap let me be alone with you now? What changed?"
He hummed three iunno notes.
"But what if you blow my cover?"
"Why're you askin' me?"
She couldn't argue with that. If Cap had decided it was the right thing to do, it was because she knew something they didn't, which between the two of them was probably a lot. She quickly remembered another reason she liked hanging out with him: he let her do anything.
"Ooh!" she shouted, tugging on his pants. "Can we go in there?"
He laughed and followed her to the entrance of the toy store. If he was in such a great mood, she was going to enjoy it as much as she could. She was a little hesitant when he didn't go inside and started doing one of his weird exercises, then she remembered what Cain had said about Damien's ability to detect his surroundings. There was no way Cap would have left her alone with Damien if there was any chance at all about him losing track of her, right?
She was able to buy the remote control plane she had seen in the window without any trouble. She gleefully extracted the toy, only to find it needed batteries. After going back into the store and buying the batteries, she ran around the street as she tried to keep up with the plane. She bumped into people once or twice, but Damien's presence discouraged any comments.
"What about there?" she asked, pointing at a clothing store decorated with multicolored ribbon.
"Yer carryin' it."
A few minutes later, she emerged with three full bags, her new plane sticking out of one of them. Damien took one look at her and burst out laughing, and she couldn't really deny he had a good reason. Making sure that none of the bags tipped over had her waddling like a crab. She eventually got so tired of it that she had to find someplace to buy a big bag she could stuff the others in. That helped for a while, but she was still getting tired. "Can we just sit down somewhere for a bit?"
He looked at her like she had told him to quit being a pirate. "We been barely six fuckin' blocks, 'alf-pint."
"It was an exhausting six blocks!"
"Tough shit. Keep movin'."
"Why?"
"Cuz we goin' that way."
"What's that way?"
"'Opefully a bridge I can chuck you over."
"Well, I'm not taking another step." She squealed as he effortlessly threw her over his shoulder. "Hey, put me down!"
"Nothin' doin'. Quit bitchin'."
"You quit bitching!" She always savored the opportunity to swear without fear of getting told off. "Put me down!"
He chuckled. "Ain' happenin'. I ain' chasin' you down."
"Oh, please, like I could outrun you. Put me down!"
"For bein' worn-out, you 'ave all th' breath in the world t' talk."
"That's not the same! Let go!"
"Excuse me?" came a voice from in front of Damien. "I think she wants to be released."
"Tough shit."
They came to a very sudden halt, and Theo was able to wriggle herself free. After making sure nothing had spilled, she looked at the person holding Damien in place with a single hand. The short woman was the most spherical person Theo had ever seen. It looked like a slight breeze would send her rolling down the street. Weirdly enough, Damien seemed confused instead of annoyed. He shook his arm a bit, but the woman didn't release her grip. He looked between her hand and her face. "Huh?"
"That's better. Now, could you please step away from her?"
He was still so nonplussed that Theo felt like she had to speak up. "Please, it's okay! Leave him alone!"
"It's okay now," soothed the woman. "You don't have to worry about him any more."
Theo kept from giggling as he lifted the woman over his head and shook his arm again to no effect. "It's not really him I'm worried about."
He swung his arm in circles with incredible speed, but the woman still didn't let go. When he finally stopped, he unexpectedly staggered to the side clutching his head. The woman landed lightly on the ground and straightened her headscarf. Theo shrank back when she knelt down. "It's okay, it's okay. You don't need to be afraid. What's your name?"
"Hypatia," she said warily, panic rising every second.
"What a lovely name. Mine is Aisha. You don't have to worry any more. He won't hurt you again."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Damien straighten himself out, and all of her tension fell away. "No offense, miss, but I'm not really the one you should be worried about."
Before Aisha could respond, Damien grabbed the back of her shirt and hurled her some ways down the street. "What was that?" Theo demanded as he put her on his shoulders.
"Fuck if I know." His voice was still tinged with confusion. "Line 'as weird shit. 'S why it's the fuckin' tits."
"Why didn't you fight?"
He scoffed. "Don' fight th' weak."
"She wouldn't let go of you!"
"Just 'cause a dog 'as a good bite don' mean it's fit for a bounty." Their shoulders dropped when they saw the crazy woman running back towards them. "Wha's with this bitch?" they said at the same time, before looking at each other and laughing.
"See?" Theo said as Aisha came to a stop in front of them. "We're all fine!"
"You don't have to lie, Hypatia. It's obvious what's happening."
Theo put her face on Damien's head. While she acknowledged that a small kid being carried by a huge, badly-scarred man with a feral aura looked bad, there was still the fact that Damien evidently didn't consider Aisha a threat. He didn't like fighting those weaker than him, but he also wasn't a fan of people continuing to pester him regardless of their relative strength. "I'm telling you," Theo said, "this is for your own good. Just go away."
"Don't worry; I can handle myself."
"Fine!" Theo threw her hands in the air, only remembering the problem with that when she heard her shopping bags hit the street. Damien dangled her by the leg so she could pick them up before swinging her back onto his shoulders. "Thanks."
"If you insist on continuing to abuse her," Aisha said, "I'm going to have to take action."
She put her hand on his shoulder by Theo's leg and, to the pirates' shock, pushed him into the ground up to his waist. Nobody could see Damien's fist as he sent her down the street again and pulled himself out. Theo yelped as he tossed her high into the air, only to be surprised when she reached the apex of her trajectory and landed perfectly on the roof of a nearby building. Contrary to her expectations, he didn't chase after the woman assaulting him, simply waiting next to the building Theo was on.
Aisha ran back in, and what happened could only be described as a one-sided beating. Theo switched to ARGOS to better see what happened. Aisha's attacks were even sloppier than Miserie's and didn't connect with him once. Damien was pulling his punches, but more to the degree of his spars with Morgan and Cain than those with Lyn. No matter how much Aisha got hurt, however, she never let up. She got knocked away several times, but she always came back. She didn't give up no matter how her injuries slowed her down.
Then something happened that Theo couldn't even see. Damien abruptly toppled backwards and crashed to the ground. Theo hastily switched eyes as Aisha leapt up and crouched down in front of her. "I've made sure he can't hurt you anymore. He's received his just desserts. It's important that we get out of here and go somewhere safe."
"I'm not really sure you're going to make it anywhere safe."
"I assure you I'll get you to safety."
Theo looked over the edge of the roof, where Damien was climbing to his feet with flames materializing around his body. "I'm still not talking about me."
\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\
No conscious physical sense detected anything, but Cassandra somehow knew that something had happened. She sighed more out of resignation than resentment. "I'm sorry, but we're going to take a quick break before we continue this conversation. My friend and I are going downtown."
Morgan quickly put the pieces together. "I told you leaving him alone with Theo was a bad idea."
"I know it wasn't the most ideal situation, but let's hold our judgments until we find out what's happening."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to a nearby rooftop. After emptying the vial around his neck, he concentrated only his water elemental's lower half and exploded them into the air. The watery foot lessened the impact and let them push off once more. "Glad to see you working on partial elementals," she commented. "Have you figured out whether it's possible to do two at once?"
"While so far unsuccessful, I'm not ruling anything out."
She directed him to the roof of one of the buildings downtown where, much to their surprise, Theo was just sitting down and playing with a remote control airplane. "Hi guys! You knew about Damien, huh?"
"He just left you here?" Morgan asked incredulously.
Theo leaned to the side as she made the plane do a tight corkscrew. "Not really. It's not his fault!" She tapped a few buttons on her lunchbox, and the back panel opened up to reveal the screen hidden behind it. Cassandra listened to Theo's story while the recorded confrontation played out in slow motion. Her eyes narrowed when Damien fell backwards. She had Theo play the proceeding several seconds a few times.
"Okay, throw me towards them and stay with Theo."
Morgan did as he was told, and she was soon soaring towards the distant fighters. She sprinted across the roof she landed on and leapt off the building. She kicked off Damien's head and threw a knife, easily attracting his attention. "Hey! Hey, dumbass! I know you're still here! Stop for a sec, will you? You know you can beat her, even with her little trick! I'll even show it to you, okay? Let up!"
He snarled at her, but released his badly injured opponent. She smiled as he avoided Aisha's grab for his foot and kicked her in the side, sending her rolling away. "See, you even know how it works even if you don't know what it is." She looked him up and down to confirm her suspicions. "Okay. Stop glaring at me; you're barely even hurt. Ready to see?"
Once he nodded in agreement, she went over to Aisha and crouched down, lightly resting one hand on her to show support. "Now, I know this sounds crazy but you have to do your thing with me." The woman rolled a little to stare up at her. "I'm serious. I'm that moron's captain, as is evidenced by the fact that I talked him down. That means I'm stronger than him, okay?" She relaxed when Damien made a noise of amusement. "I promise you, Aisha, I can take whatever you can do. We'll both be completely fine. The other option is taking you to a hospital, but you'll just take months to recover. This way makes everything shipshape instantly. I swear. Will you do it?"
After holding her gaze for several seconds, Aisha slowly reached out and touched Cassandra's offered forearm. It felt like she had gone ten rounds with Damien in less than a second. Bones cracked, skin split, and every muscle in her body vibrated with pain. She took a deep breath and focused on ever-expanding concentric bubbles inside her body that pushed the pain away. Her body mended starting at her core and head and spreading outward. She climbed to her feet and flexed her fingers, watching them snap back into position. "Fucking hell, you did this to a civilian?"
"She wasn' gonna die," he said dismissively.
"We talked about keeping a low profile!"
"Always whinin', arentcha?"
She swiped her hand dismissively at him and turned to the extremely surprised woman next to her. "Sorry, I'm Cassandra. This idiot likes fighting more than the average person and is extremely hard to take down. I like what you do, but you were never going to win against him."
Aisha looked between them. "I'm sorry, what just happened?"
"Damien, here, can take an unbelievable amount of punishment, and hurting him just pisses him off. Me, Cassandra, can take a slightly more believable amount of punishment, but I have an accelerated healing factor, so I'm good as new after being hurt." She leaned forward so her head was level with Aisha's. "You, Aisha, can give your injuries to someone else and take theirs unto yourself. Am I wrong?"
She stared at Cassandra for a moment, then shook her head. "Who did you say you were?"
"Carry me up so we can have a more private discussion. I may be tough, but I'm not terribly strong."
Aisha obliged. Damien, evidently unsatisfied with the brief explanation, followed them up. Cassandra helped Aisha stabilize, as the round woman seemed out of practice regarding precise jumps. Morgan and Theo were waiting for them, with Morgan sorting her new clothes into distinct folded piles. They looked up and frowned when Aisha landed. "What's she doing here?" Theo demanded.
"We are clearing up some misunderstandings so certain people will drop it. I'm Cassandra Libera, wanted captain of the Black Glove Pirates. These three fine people are my crewmembers, all of them also wanted for various amounts. Yes, that includes Theo. Her presence on my crew is not up for debate, so don't waste your breath. As bellicose as he is, Damien would not hurt Theo, no matter what it looks like. We're not going to threaten you to keep silent or anything since it's well known that we're here, but I would appreciate you not identifying us as such in this city. This is the closest we've gotten to getting her around kids her age in a structured setting, and our extremely temporary stay was acquired under false identities.
"You are, of course, free to divulge as much information to the authorities as you wish, and we will not seek retribution. We're trying to remain on more or less good terms in Fursanthany. As such, it would be greatly appreciated if you would not press charges on Damien. I would also like verbal confirmation about your swapping thing to convince Damien not to fight you anymore. This is more for your safety than his."
Aisha warily looked between them. "I have a Devil Fruit that allows me to switch injuries with another person I touch. Is that good enough?" Damien scoffed and looked away. "I have some questions of my own, but I would like to ask them in a more neutral location one-on-one. Would that be possible?"
"Absolutely. Tomorrow at a restaurant of your choice?"
"Hour of the Star on Geranium Street. Eleven o'clock."
"It's a date," Cassandra confirmed. "Now, you are naturally free to do whatever you want, but I would recommend you find an activity in another part of town. Do you happen to have a last name so I can address you properly?"
"No. Eleven o'clock." After looking at Theo one last time, she hopped off the roof and began walking away.
"As for you two," Cassandra said to her two youngest crewmembers, "please try to keep out of trouble. As best you can." She sprinted off the roof, and Morgan caught her with one viney arm. Cassandra made herself comfortable as she called Raven. "I need you to get all the information you can on a restaurant called Hour of the Star and a woman named Aisha Rasul, lives on Cyclic Ave, community worker, horticulture club member, avid herbal tea consumer with two punches to go before she gets a free cup. Wallets are so useful," she explained to Morgan. "She's actually someone I've been looking into. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but she just might be the solution to many of our problems."
