Pirate AU. This story will be M rated.
disclaimer: i don't own gintama
/
Kamui stood at the bow of the Amanto amidst the noise of his crew celebrating a successful pillage down on deck, tossing the jewels and coins and chugging down ale. He watched in the distance as fire engulfed a ship, eating its way through the wood of the side and slowly climbing up the mast to the sails. Even over the ruckus of his members, Kamui could still hear the shouts of men on the crumbling ship trying to salvage whatever they could of their ship, but Kamui knew it was futile. He'd had his men plant bombs all along the cargo hold below deck. In a matter of time, they would go off, fully destroying what was left of that pathetic ship and killing off the rest of the men in the crew.
It made no difference to him, truth be told. After all, he'd already gotten what he was looking for from the ship and the rest was of no use to him. And watching people in any of the kingdom navies perish was one of his favourite pastimes.
A few seconds later, there was a blast that tore the remaining parts of the ships to pieces, lighting up the dark night with bright orange light. Everything was illuminated, shouts growing louder, and the smell of smoke and burning wood permeated the air. The explosion rocked the seas and a few seconds later, a sharp gust of wind blew past him, his cape billowing behind him and his sails flapping wildly from the impact. A slow smirk crept up on his face as he watched the now silent ship get sucked into the dark abyss that was the ocean.
"Kamui, you look creepy standing there with a smile on your face, you know?" Abuto drawled, sidling up next to the vermilion haired captain with a yawn.
"How many times do I have to tell you it's Captain, Abuto?" He rose a brow, glancing at his quartermaster with a thinly veiled threat in his eyes. "I suppose you'll have to die to get that right?"
Unperturbed, Abuto gestured to the deck behind him. "Before you kill me, I thought you might want to know that the messenger is awake."
That got Kamui's attention from the destruction he'd been watching. Disarming smile growing, he turned around, cascading down to the main deck to converse with the man they'd abducted during their attack of the merchant ship. His men made way, parting and creating an easy path for him to reach their current prisoner. Now whether he would remain a prisoner for long or not—and alive—depended on how cooperative this man was. They'd tied him firmly to the main mast, tight enough that not a single part of his body could even move.
The messenger stared defiantly as Kamui approached him, though he could easily tell that the man—a scrawny boy who'd probably only just recently had his coming of age—was shaking, eyeing him warily. He knew from some of his crew that he had a tendency to strike fear into the hearts of others with his empty gaze, but was he really that terrifying? Yes, Kamui had punched the man until his face had raw, bleeding welts and until he was nearly unrecognisable from bruises and sure, he'd broken a couple ribs and snapped several of his fingers to the point that the man had passed out from the pain, but that was only because he wouldn't cooperate. Kamui had asked him a simple question and the idiot had spit in his face.
Kamui didn't believe he had to use gratuitous violence against weaklings, and in fact was indifferent about the whole spitting thing, but his crew was there watching and if he even gave in an ounce or gave them the impression that he was getting soft, there could be mutiny or other annoying things to deal with.
"I hope you've had a chance to think your answer through." Kamui smiled brightly, slipping his hands innocuously in his pants pockets as he stopped in front of the man. "Are you ready to cooperate now?"
The man leaned back as far as he could—which wasn't far—to get away from Kamui. "W-what do you want with me?"
Kamui sighed, scratching the back of his head. "I thought I'd made that clear from the start. You're a messenger of the Kingdom of Feng, correct?"
The man let out a shuddering breath, but nodded rapidly.
"I've heard rumours that your king has a map that will lead to the mythed Tokugawa treasure. Is that true?"
The man swallowed thickly, his gaze dropping to the ground. "…I don't know what you're talking about."
Without a word, Kamui pulled his short pistol out of his holster and shot bullets in both the man's knees. The prisoner let out a bloodcurdling scream, jolting violently against his restraints and struggling to breathe normally through his pain and the tears that were dripping from his eyes. Kamui didn't give him the chance, wrapping one hand around the man's neck and gradually putting more and more pressure until he was squeezing just enough for the man to start choking. His eyes started bulging, his face pale and lips turning blue as he struggled for breath.
Kamui wasn't an idiot. He could see the anxiety and nerves and fear plain as day in the man's eyes the minute that Kamui had mentioned the treasure that many people had been seeking to find for many, many years.
"Be careful. Mistaking my passiveness for safety will get you killed," Kamui drawled. "The next wrong answer will have you losing an arm."
"I will be hanged if I betray my king!" he hoarsely cried out, gasping for breath when Kamui tightened his grip on his throat.
"You're going to die either way," Kamui responded deliberately slowly in a low and dangerous tone of voice, "but by my hand, it'll be much more painful. I don't afford people the benefit of a quick hanging. I'll cut off your limbs and carve out your organs while you slowly bleed out in agony. You'll be wishing for your king's merciful death down to your very last breath if you don't tell me what I want to know."
They were lies to spark fear into the heart of the man. Kamui was more interested in a good fight to the death than any of that mundane torture stuff—that was his helmsman's inclination—but it was certainly amusing to watch the man's face go pale and his eyes widen to innumerable proportions.
"He has a map to the treasure! He was going to send us on an expedition in a month's time to go get it," the messenger said quickly.
It was exactly what Kamui had been hoping to hear. He supposed that was where they should start their search then. Any leads were better than no leads and they were certainly better than a couple of rumours. He'd spent way too many months in lethargy, looking for as much information as he could without having the opportunity to really start the expedition. It was by sheer stroke of luck that he happened to hear about Feng's king potentially having a map and then running into one of the kingdom's merchant ships a few weeks later. Now they had an actual course of action. It wasn't a lot of information to go on, but it would do.
"For your sake, that had better be true. If you're lying to us, well… I don't think I need to tell you again what will happen to you," Kamui said in a singsong voice, smiling as he released his hold on the man's neck. The man gasped for breath, taking deep breaths graciously. "Men, we have a new lead! Onward to the kingdom of Feng! Onward to the Tokugawa treasure!"
The crew started shouting for joy, recommencing their merrymaking and drinking. Kamui spun on his heels, ignoring the shouts for mercy from the man they'd forced from the Feng Kingdom's merchant ship. Kamui was full out laughing by the time he reached Abuto. Months of looking around aimlessly, months of trying to find more information and he'd finally managed to track down something he needed to a nearby kingdom.
"You live to see another day, Abuto." Kamui clapped him on the shoulder, and Abuto let out an exasperated sigh at this captain's continued exhausting behaviour. "Chart a course for the Kingdom of Feng. Time for us to get the Tokugawa treasure."
"Kamui… you don't really believe in those fairy tales do you?"
Kamui turned away, staring at the horizon where the sun had finally begun to set, painting the sky in a splash of orange and purple as it began to darken. He'd suddenly grown so quiet and stoic that Abuto thought he was about to get shot by his volatile captain for questioning his orders.
"It's not a question of whether I believe in them or not…" he finally said, contemplatively. "I just need to get that treasure. That's all that matters."
Abuto stared at his captain for a few seconds before he nodded, turning to head to his quarters to chart the course to give to their helmsman. "I sure as hell hope you have a plan for when we reach Feng, Captain."
"Pillage and plunder, Abuto." Kamui's dangerous grin returned, his expression jovial. "It's what we pirates do best after all."