Between the Devil and the Deep
A Rurouni Kenshin Alternate Universe Fic
by Gemini
Rated PG-13 for now. (Well, they ARE pirates, after all!)
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is owned by Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump and a bunch of other people I can't recall and am too lazy to look up. But, the main point here is that I do not own it, nor am I making any money from this fic! (Ha!)
Chapter 2 - Justice
"Shit. I have never seen anyone eat Hiko's cooking with that much enthusiasm before." Sano observed as he watched Yahiko shovel forkfuls of food into his mouth.
"They do say that hunger is the best sauce." The woman next to him observed dryly.
Sano glanced at her. "Doc, there is no sauce on earth that can make that man's food edible." He replied.
Megumi smiled. "Perhaps not. But, don't forget, Rooster, that that boy over there was in a life boat for nearly a week with about a day's worth of rations."
"Don't call me Rooster." Sano said, irritably.
"Then comb your hair." She replied archly. They continuted to insult and flirt back and forth, as was their habit.
Hiko stumped out of the kitchen with a steaming cauldron full of something green. "Want more, kid?"
Yahiko nodded. "Please."
Hiko slopped some of the concoction onto the boy's plate.
"This, kid, is my specialty. Sake stew." The one-legged chef said proudly, seemingly overjoyed to find someone who would eat his cooking without becoming violently ill.
Yahiko didn't care what it was. He shoveled it in as fast as Hiko could put it on the plate.
When he had gotten his fill, he politely thanked the cook. Hiko grunted and made to clear away the table.
"Mister Hiko, how did you lose your leg?" Yahiko asked with a child's frank curiosity and bluntness.
"What are you talking about?" Hiko growled as he hobbled back into the galley, leaving the boy baffled.
"He does have a wooden leg, doesn't he?" Yahiko asked Sano with a bewildered look, calling the older man's attention away from a rather biting remark from the lady doctor.
Sano chuckled and Megumi hid a laugh behind her hand.
"Yeah. But he's really vain and the missing leg is a bit of a sore spot with him. He pretends like its still there." Sano explained.
Yahiko scratched his head. "Okay." He said, still looking a bit confused.
"Having fun in here?"
Everyone turned towards the door where Kaoru stood.
"Captain, this is the kid we rescued." Sano said, by way of introduction.
"I gathered that, Sano." She said, with a tinge of sarcasm.
Sano scratched his head sheepishly, shooting a glare at Megumi, who was sniggering at him.
Yahiko, meanwhile, was goggling at Kaoru. "She's the captain?" He asked incredulously, pointing a finger at her.
Kaoru put her hands on her hips and scowled at him. "Yes. I am." She replied.
She was not dressed like any woman Yahiko had ever seen. Instead of a dress, like his mother always wore, she was wearing black, loose fitting pants that were held up with a wide black leather belt. Her shirt was white linen with tiny mother of pearl buttons. She wore a crimson colored velvet vest, fastened only half way up with ivory toggles and shiny black boots. Her long black hair was pulled back into a pony tail and secured with a crimson colored ribbon, a few shorter strands escaping to frame her heart shaped face. To complete her ensemble, a very large sword hung at her waist in an ornately decorated sheath.
Yahiko swallowed. "I've never met a girl captain before. I didn't know there were any."
"There aren't." She replied tersely. "I'm not a girl."
"Huh?" Yahiko blinked. He was beginning to wonder if he hadn't recovered entirely yet. Perhaps his perceptions were off?
"Never mind." She said. She turned her attention to Megumi. "Kamatari says that the other survivor is awake. You should probably go look after him."
Megumi nodded and left the room quickly.
Sano stood and stretched languidly. "What about me? Anything to do?"
Kaoru didn't respond to his light tone. Her scowl was still firmly in place. "I think we've put off dealing with Otsuka long enough, Sano." She said quietly. "Now that things have died down around here, we can take care of him."
Sano frowned. "I was kinda hopin' you'd just let him rot down in the brig." He said.
"Sano, he knew the rules and he broke them. If I don't punish him, what kind of message will that send to the crew? You of all people know that I walk a very narrow line with them. One misstep and I'll lose their respect." She shook her head. "Otsuka will be an example to the men, a reminder of what happens when they disobey me."
Sano sighed. "I guess I'll go round him up then."
"Please do, and make sure all the men are on deck when I deal with him." Kaoru said, "I don't want to have to do this again."
Yahiko watched this exchange with wide eyes, not sure what he was hearing.
Sano nodded glumly and left the wardroom. Kaoru looked down at the boy, her hard expression vanishing. "Yahiko, why don't you keep Hiko company in the galley?" She indicated for him to stand, and when he did, she guided him to the next room.
The Kami Kaze's galley was a dark, dank, musty place filled with strange smells. A small fire sulked in the stove, giving off as much light and heat as a candle. Hiko was sitting on an old crate in the corner, massaging his stump and taking large swigs from a jug of sake. Crouched on his shoulder was a parrot, whose feathers, once brightly jewel toned, were now more subdued colors thanks to years of living in smoky kitchens.
"BAKA!" The parrot shrieked as the two entered the kitchen. "BAKA!"
"Shut up." Hiko muttered absently before taking a swig of his sake.
"Hiko, why don't you let Yahiko help you cook dinner?" Kaoru asked.
"Why the hell should I?" He glowered. He was never pleasant to begin with, but when his stump ached, he was near impossible.
Kaoru leveled him with a stern look. "I have to deal with Otsuka. It's not something I'd like a child to see."
Hiko's surly demeanor abated somewhat. "Sure, whatever." He said, waving his free hand languidly in agreement. "I could use a new scullery boy. For some reason, no one ever wants to help me around here."
"Hey asshole!" his parrot shrieked.
Hiko reached into a pocket and produced a cracker of some sort that he unceremoniously shoved into the parrot's beak. "Shut up." He muttered. The parrot, unfazed, ate the cracker with glee.
"Thanks." Kaoru said, patting Yahiko on the shoulder before leaving him alone in the galley with the surly one-legged cook and his psychotic parrot.
"So, kid, you know how to peel potatoes?" Hiko asked, his voice slightly slurred.
Yahiko gulped.
Kenshin was sitting up in bed, sipping a bowl of weak broth when Megumi breezed in.
"Good to see you're finally awake." She said with a smile.
Kenshin put down the bowl and bowed his head politely. "May I have the honor of requesting your name, Miss?" He asked.
Megumi giggled. "Ah, I see we've rescued a gentleman. What a nice change from loud, rude baka rooster heads."
Kenshin looked up at her and blinked, slightly confused.
Megumi giggled again. "I'm sorry. My name is Megumi Takani. I'm this ship's physician."
To his credit, Kenshin didn't look too shocked when she said that. It took him a few minutes to respond, however. Finally, he cleared his throat. "It is an honor to meet you, Dr. Takani. My name is Kenshin Himura."
It was her turn to look surprised. "Captain Kenshin Himura?" She asked carefully.
He nodded. "You know of me?"
She laughed out loud and plopped her medical supplies on his bed. "Do you know where you are, Captain Himura?" She asked mischievously.
"Someone told me, but I'm afraid I was rather out of my head at the time." He replied warily.
"Well, let me refresh your memory. You were rescued by the Kami Kaze. I suppose you can guess why I know your name."
"The pirate ship, Kami Kaze?" He asked quietly.
She nodded.
"I see." He frowned down at his hands, which were neatly folded on his lap.
Somewhere above them, there was the sound of scuffling and yelling. Megumi looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "I suppose it has begun."
"What?" Kenshin asked, momentarily distracted from his musing.
"One of our men is being punished." She shook her head. "It promises to be rather unpleasant."
"Shouldn't you be up there, then?" Kenshin asked.
Megumi shook her head. "I can't help a dead man."
Sano, with the help of two other men, dragged the struggling, screaming Otsuka to the deck. The entire crew, save Hiko and Megumi, was assembled. The three sailors roughly deposited the prisoner onto the deck in front of Kaoru. He tried to get up, but she placed a boot on the back of his neck and held him in place.
"Otsuka, do you know why you're here?" She asked quietly. The men who surrounded her watched, but did not make a sound.
"Fuck off!" He roared, still struggling to get up.
She ground her heel into his neck and he stopped moving.
"Incorrect." Very deliberately, she drew her sword, the rasping of the blade against the sheath sending shivers down Otsuka's spine.
"You are here, Otsuka, because you broke some rules." She rested the tip of the sword on the deck, inches away from his face. He could see it in his peripheral vision. He was sweating heavily, the liquid running into his eyes, causing them to water.
"We have some very simple rules aboard this ship," She continued. "Everyone knows that if you break a rule, you're punished. If you break some more, then you are punished some more. You broke two rules." She lifted her boot off of his neck and gestured for Sano and the others to pick him up.
"You raped a girl. Not just a girl, a child, really. She was eleven. Then, as though your first crime was not reprehensible enough, you then killed her, in cold blood." She turned to one of her sailors, a tall man whose spiky blonde hair added at least a foot to his height. "Chou, what rules did Otsuka break?" She asked, sounding like a school teacher testing her students.
"We are not supposed to rape women or harm children." Chou replied, fingering one of the many swords that hung at his waist and shoulders. He did not like what the man had done, not at all. Kaoru had stopped him from administering his own punishment right after Otsuka had been discovered. He was looking forward to the man's long awaited sentence. Kaoru would probably not show as much mercy as he might have.
"And he did both, didn't he, Chou?" Kaoru asked, her voice quiet, almost conversational.
Chou nodded. "He did, Captain."
She paced the deck, stopping in front of another one of her men. This one was shorter than Chou, and younger as well. His dark brown hair flopped over his eyes and, despite the seriousness of the situation, he was smiling. "Soujiro, what is the punishment for rape?" Kaoru asked him, her hands clasped behind her, one hand still holding the sword.
The smiling young man answered as though she asked him a question about his hobbies or the weather. "First offense, you lose a hand, second offense, you die." He said cheerfully.
She paced some more. "Kamatari," She said, stopping in front of a man wearing garishly bright clothes, with a silk scarf tied around his neck. "What is the punishment for harming a child?"
Kamatari glared daggers at Otsuka. "For hitting or otherwise injuring a child, you lose an ear. For killing a child, you die." He absently cracked his knuckles as he replied.
Kaoru nodded. "Men, we are presented with a unique situation here. This is Otsuka's first offense on this ship. A first offense rape would cost him his hand. However, he killed a child, which means death." She paused and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "It wouldn't be fair to the child for me to only punish him once, wouldn't you all agree?"
There was a rumble through the men as they nodded or voiced their agreement. Even pirates have some standards, and the men aboard the Kami Kaze had more standards than most. Their captain walked slowly back over to where Otsuka cowered, his sweat dripping onto the deck like raindrops.
There was no warning, one moment Kaoru was just standing there, looking down at her erstwhile crew member and the next, Otsuka was screaming in agony. His hand lay on the deck, severed, many of her crew members hadn't even seen her move. Otsuka's wrist spouted blood, the crimson liquid pooling and coagulating on the immaculate wood deck of the ship. Beside him Kaoru nonchalantly wiped the blood from her sword off on her victim's trousers and then re-sheathed it.
"Well, I've taken care of the rape punishment." She said. She bent down and picked up the gore-spattered hand. All eyes were on her as she walked to the ship's railing and tossed it overboard. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, the water churned as sharks began fighting each other for the bloody hand.
"Sano, throw him overboard." Kaoru said, her voice low with fury. "Let's show him how we deal with rapists and child killers on this ship."
Sano nodded and tightened his grip on Otsuka. The condemned man began to scream, high pitched wails interspersed with pleas for mercy.
"You want mercy?" Kaoru asked coldly. She held up a blood streaked hand to stop Sano.
The man nodded and cried for her to spare him, all the while desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood from his wrist.
"I'll make a deal with you, Otsuka." Kaoru said, stepping in front of him and looking him straight in the eye. "I'll show you as much mercy as you showed that little girl." She stepped back and gestured for Sano to continue his grim duty.
Otsuka sobbed and continued to plead for mercy as Sano and the other two men hoisted him over the railing and dropped him into the sea. He screamed as he went down. There was a loud splash, a few seconds of silence and then the howls continued, this time, of a man in agony, a man being torn to pieces by hungry sharks. Finally, after a choked gurgle, they stopped.
Kaoru turned to her crew, wiping her hands off on a handkerchief as she talked. "I will not tolerate such insubordination. You know the rules and you know the punishment for breaking them." She leveled each man with her gaze. "I trust I won't have to do this again."
The men all seemed to shake their heads in unison. The message had been delivered.
"Good. You are all dismissed. Beshimi, go find a mop and clean this mess up." The small, bird-like man nodded and scurried away, following the men as they began to scatter, going back to their duties or their hammocks, their voices a low murmur as they discussed the fate of their fellow crewman.
Kaoru caught the attention of a tall, glum looking man standing near the helm. "Aoshi, bring the charts of this area to my cabin. We need to figure out a way to get to Saitou's ship before he reaches the next port." The tall man nodded and disappeared into the bowels of the ship.
Stuffing the bloody handkerchief into her pocket, Kaoru frowned and walked slowly to the bow of her ship, resting her hands almost reverently on the figurehead that looked wistfully towards the horizon. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, a near silent prayer to her mother on her lips. 'Please, give me strength...'
Nodding to Kamatari, who had resumed his post at the helm, Sano went over to stand by his captain. "Are you okay, Kaoru?" He asked in a low voice.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, picking absently at the bow that held the black mass away from her face. "That was horrible. The whole thing…that poor little girl…" She shook her head. "I pray to God that I will never have to do that again."
"You've got a good crew here, Kaoru." Sano said, his eyes scanning the distant horizon. "Otsuka had always worried you, but the others…you trust the others. We've been very careful about who we bring aboard since…"
A ghost of a smile flitted across her lips. "Since Jineh. I know Sano and you're right. They're good men. I'm lucky."
Kenshin leaned against the railing and watched the captain and her first mate as they talked. He had managed to sneak away from Megumi and had been present when Kaoru punished the wayward Otsuka. This tiny, fierce woman commanded a ship full of tough men and had their respect. He shook his head slowly. What a strange world he had woken up in. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember everything he knew about the Kami Kaze and its crew.
The pirate ship Kami Kaze was legendary. Its original captain, Tetsuro Kamiya, had once been a captain in the Imperial Navy. A scandal long forgotten had brought about his downfall and he had taken to the sea with a small band of misfits and loyal sailors to terrorize anyone who had the misfortune of crossing his bow.
It had never escaped Kenshin's notice, nor the notice of several important people in the Navy that the ships that were attacked by Kamiya had reputations of an unsavory sort. When the captain had waylaid a ship whose purpose was supplying young, innocent, island girls and boys stolen from their families to whore houses on the mainland, and had returned the captives unharmed, he became a legend. A brigand with a heart of gold.
He was still an outlaw, however, and Kenshin had been one in the long line of captains assigned to bring him in. He had met the man only once, five years earlier, when their swords were crossed in the heat of battle, but he had not been able to defeat the man and had barely made it off the ship alive.
A rumor had surfaced a few years ago that Kamiya had died, the victim of some sort of mutiny aboard his ship. No one knew anything about who had replaced him, all they knew was that the Kami Kaze continued to sail and continued to plunder.
Kenshin watched as the young woman with Tetsuro Kamiya's fierce blue eyes spoke softly with her first mate, her features beautiful but strained by sadness. She made a final gesture and then turned to face Kenshin.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" She asked as she walked across the deck towards him. She didn't seem surprised by his presence. "You were nearly dead when we fished you out of the sea, Captain Himura."
He raised an eyebrow. "So you know who I am then?" He asked quietly.
She smiled slightly. "I remember you. You were the only man who boarded my father's ship uninvited and lived to tell about it."
"You were there?" He asked incredulously.
She grinned mischievously, looking, for the moment, like a carefree young girl rather than the captain of an infamous pirate ship. "Of course. I was born on this ship and I rarely leave it, Captain. I was in the crow's nest while you fought my father." She paused. "It was almost like a dance, the way you two fought, if that can be said about fighting to the death."
He nodded. "It has been said before."
His mood darkened suddenly and he regarded her with some slight apprehension. Beautiful or not, she had just murdered a man before his eyes. "Since you know who I am, should I be worried about sharing the same fate as your sailor Otsuka? After all, I am a member of the Imperial Navy, and we are supposed to be at odds with each other."
Her blue eyes flashed. "Captain Himura, you should only be worried if you are a rapist or a murderer. Are you?"
He shook his head.
"Then you have nothing to fear from me." She took his elbow. "Megumi, however, is another matter and she will be quite upset to find you out of bed." Gently she steered him down the narrow stairs towards his quarters.
"Dr. Takani said there were no other survivors besides Yahiko and myself?" Kenshin asked quietly as she escorted him into his room.
She shook her head. "There was one other man on the lifeboat with you, but he didn't make it. We didn't find anyone else."
He sighed. "A hundred men lost to the sea, then." He said sadly.
As he sat down wearily on his bed, she regarded him with a quizzical look. "What were you doing sailing this time of year anyway? I'd have thought you of all people would have more sense, Captain Himura."
He frowned. "I normally wouldn't be sailing, Captain Kamiya, but I received an urgent request that could not wait." He crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at her. "And what about you? What are you doing on the water this time of year, if I may ask?"
She grinned at him. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, Captain." She turned to leave, but paused at the door. "Just get some rest, okay?" Before he could respond, she was gone, leaving the scent of jasmine and a mystery in her wake. Kenshin flopped back onto his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes to block out the sun that was pouring through the port hole.
He was a man torn by conflicting agendas. As a Captain in the Imperial Navy, he was honor bound to bring Kaoru to justice, no matter that she and her crew had saved his life. However, as a man, he found himself wondering what kind of woman she was, this mysterious Kaoru Kamiya.
"It was almost like a dance…" He smiled softly, his heavy eyelids closing as sleep finally claimed him. He would worry about these things later, all he wanted now was to sleep, and perhaps, to dream.
Author's Note: This was a very difficult chapter to write. I had a hard time trying to square how Kaoru needed to be for this story, and how Watsuki created her. But, she had to be how I wrote her. The few women who were actual Pirate Queens could not EVER be perceived as weak. They were at a disadvantage because of their sex, so they had to be very tough. I know Kaoru might seem to be a bit unlike how most people see her, but I did try to show that she's not a cold-hearted woman. She did what she had to do.
That said, I tried to put some humor into an otherwise slightly dark chapter. Enter Hiko and his parrot. Yes, I've made Hiko the Bad-Ass into comic relief. If he was real, he'd be pounding on my door, demanding respect. And sake. And I would be glomping him. Ahem, enough about that. Plot twists ahoy! What's Saitou got to do with it? Where's Misao? What exactly IS sake loaf? Stay tuned!
P.S. Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, I've been beside myself with glee because of all the great responses!
A Rurouni Kenshin Alternate Universe Fic
by Gemini
Rated PG-13 for now. (Well, they ARE pirates, after all!)
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is owned by Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump and a bunch of other people I can't recall and am too lazy to look up. But, the main point here is that I do not own it, nor am I making any money from this fic! (Ha!)
Chapter 2 - Justice
"Shit. I have never seen anyone eat Hiko's cooking with that much enthusiasm before." Sano observed as he watched Yahiko shovel forkfuls of food into his mouth.
"They do say that hunger is the best sauce." The woman next to him observed dryly.
Sano glanced at her. "Doc, there is no sauce on earth that can make that man's food edible." He replied.
Megumi smiled. "Perhaps not. But, don't forget, Rooster, that that boy over there was in a life boat for nearly a week with about a day's worth of rations."
"Don't call me Rooster." Sano said, irritably.
"Then comb your hair." She replied archly. They continuted to insult and flirt back and forth, as was their habit.
Hiko stumped out of the kitchen with a steaming cauldron full of something green. "Want more, kid?"
Yahiko nodded. "Please."
Hiko slopped some of the concoction onto the boy's plate.
"This, kid, is my specialty. Sake stew." The one-legged chef said proudly, seemingly overjoyed to find someone who would eat his cooking without becoming violently ill.
Yahiko didn't care what it was. He shoveled it in as fast as Hiko could put it on the plate.
When he had gotten his fill, he politely thanked the cook. Hiko grunted and made to clear away the table.
"Mister Hiko, how did you lose your leg?" Yahiko asked with a child's frank curiosity and bluntness.
"What are you talking about?" Hiko growled as he hobbled back into the galley, leaving the boy baffled.
"He does have a wooden leg, doesn't he?" Yahiko asked Sano with a bewildered look, calling the older man's attention away from a rather biting remark from the lady doctor.
Sano chuckled and Megumi hid a laugh behind her hand.
"Yeah. But he's really vain and the missing leg is a bit of a sore spot with him. He pretends like its still there." Sano explained.
Yahiko scratched his head. "Okay." He said, still looking a bit confused.
"Having fun in here?"
Everyone turned towards the door where Kaoru stood.
"Captain, this is the kid we rescued." Sano said, by way of introduction.
"I gathered that, Sano." She said, with a tinge of sarcasm.
Sano scratched his head sheepishly, shooting a glare at Megumi, who was sniggering at him.
Yahiko, meanwhile, was goggling at Kaoru. "She's the captain?" He asked incredulously, pointing a finger at her.
Kaoru put her hands on her hips and scowled at him. "Yes. I am." She replied.
She was not dressed like any woman Yahiko had ever seen. Instead of a dress, like his mother always wore, she was wearing black, loose fitting pants that were held up with a wide black leather belt. Her shirt was white linen with tiny mother of pearl buttons. She wore a crimson colored velvet vest, fastened only half way up with ivory toggles and shiny black boots. Her long black hair was pulled back into a pony tail and secured with a crimson colored ribbon, a few shorter strands escaping to frame her heart shaped face. To complete her ensemble, a very large sword hung at her waist in an ornately decorated sheath.
Yahiko swallowed. "I've never met a girl captain before. I didn't know there were any."
"There aren't." She replied tersely. "I'm not a girl."
"Huh?" Yahiko blinked. He was beginning to wonder if he hadn't recovered entirely yet. Perhaps his perceptions were off?
"Never mind." She said. She turned her attention to Megumi. "Kamatari says that the other survivor is awake. You should probably go look after him."
Megumi nodded and left the room quickly.
Sano stood and stretched languidly. "What about me? Anything to do?"
Kaoru didn't respond to his light tone. Her scowl was still firmly in place. "I think we've put off dealing with Otsuka long enough, Sano." She said quietly. "Now that things have died down around here, we can take care of him."
Sano frowned. "I was kinda hopin' you'd just let him rot down in the brig." He said.
"Sano, he knew the rules and he broke them. If I don't punish him, what kind of message will that send to the crew? You of all people know that I walk a very narrow line with them. One misstep and I'll lose their respect." She shook her head. "Otsuka will be an example to the men, a reminder of what happens when they disobey me."
Sano sighed. "I guess I'll go round him up then."
"Please do, and make sure all the men are on deck when I deal with him." Kaoru said, "I don't want to have to do this again."
Yahiko watched this exchange with wide eyes, not sure what he was hearing.
Sano nodded glumly and left the wardroom. Kaoru looked down at the boy, her hard expression vanishing. "Yahiko, why don't you keep Hiko company in the galley?" She indicated for him to stand, and when he did, she guided him to the next room.
The Kami Kaze's galley was a dark, dank, musty place filled with strange smells. A small fire sulked in the stove, giving off as much light and heat as a candle. Hiko was sitting on an old crate in the corner, massaging his stump and taking large swigs from a jug of sake. Crouched on his shoulder was a parrot, whose feathers, once brightly jewel toned, were now more subdued colors thanks to years of living in smoky kitchens.
"BAKA!" The parrot shrieked as the two entered the kitchen. "BAKA!"
"Shut up." Hiko muttered absently before taking a swig of his sake.
"Hiko, why don't you let Yahiko help you cook dinner?" Kaoru asked.
"Why the hell should I?" He glowered. He was never pleasant to begin with, but when his stump ached, he was near impossible.
Kaoru leveled him with a stern look. "I have to deal with Otsuka. It's not something I'd like a child to see."
Hiko's surly demeanor abated somewhat. "Sure, whatever." He said, waving his free hand languidly in agreement. "I could use a new scullery boy. For some reason, no one ever wants to help me around here."
"Hey asshole!" his parrot shrieked.
Hiko reached into a pocket and produced a cracker of some sort that he unceremoniously shoved into the parrot's beak. "Shut up." He muttered. The parrot, unfazed, ate the cracker with glee.
"Thanks." Kaoru said, patting Yahiko on the shoulder before leaving him alone in the galley with the surly one-legged cook and his psychotic parrot.
"So, kid, you know how to peel potatoes?" Hiko asked, his voice slightly slurred.
Yahiko gulped.
Kenshin was sitting up in bed, sipping a bowl of weak broth when Megumi breezed in.
"Good to see you're finally awake." She said with a smile.
Kenshin put down the bowl and bowed his head politely. "May I have the honor of requesting your name, Miss?" He asked.
Megumi giggled. "Ah, I see we've rescued a gentleman. What a nice change from loud, rude baka rooster heads."
Kenshin looked up at her and blinked, slightly confused.
Megumi giggled again. "I'm sorry. My name is Megumi Takani. I'm this ship's physician."
To his credit, Kenshin didn't look too shocked when she said that. It took him a few minutes to respond, however. Finally, he cleared his throat. "It is an honor to meet you, Dr. Takani. My name is Kenshin Himura."
It was her turn to look surprised. "Captain Kenshin Himura?" She asked carefully.
He nodded. "You know of me?"
She laughed out loud and plopped her medical supplies on his bed. "Do you know where you are, Captain Himura?" She asked mischievously.
"Someone told me, but I'm afraid I was rather out of my head at the time." He replied warily.
"Well, let me refresh your memory. You were rescued by the Kami Kaze. I suppose you can guess why I know your name."
"The pirate ship, Kami Kaze?" He asked quietly.
She nodded.
"I see." He frowned down at his hands, which were neatly folded on his lap.
Somewhere above them, there was the sound of scuffling and yelling. Megumi looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "I suppose it has begun."
"What?" Kenshin asked, momentarily distracted from his musing.
"One of our men is being punished." She shook her head. "It promises to be rather unpleasant."
"Shouldn't you be up there, then?" Kenshin asked.
Megumi shook her head. "I can't help a dead man."
Sano, with the help of two other men, dragged the struggling, screaming Otsuka to the deck. The entire crew, save Hiko and Megumi, was assembled. The three sailors roughly deposited the prisoner onto the deck in front of Kaoru. He tried to get up, but she placed a boot on the back of his neck and held him in place.
"Otsuka, do you know why you're here?" She asked quietly. The men who surrounded her watched, but did not make a sound.
"Fuck off!" He roared, still struggling to get up.
She ground her heel into his neck and he stopped moving.
"Incorrect." Very deliberately, she drew her sword, the rasping of the blade against the sheath sending shivers down Otsuka's spine.
"You are here, Otsuka, because you broke some rules." She rested the tip of the sword on the deck, inches away from his face. He could see it in his peripheral vision. He was sweating heavily, the liquid running into his eyes, causing them to water.
"We have some very simple rules aboard this ship," She continued. "Everyone knows that if you break a rule, you're punished. If you break some more, then you are punished some more. You broke two rules." She lifted her boot off of his neck and gestured for Sano and the others to pick him up.
"You raped a girl. Not just a girl, a child, really. She was eleven. Then, as though your first crime was not reprehensible enough, you then killed her, in cold blood." She turned to one of her sailors, a tall man whose spiky blonde hair added at least a foot to his height. "Chou, what rules did Otsuka break?" She asked, sounding like a school teacher testing her students.
"We are not supposed to rape women or harm children." Chou replied, fingering one of the many swords that hung at his waist and shoulders. He did not like what the man had done, not at all. Kaoru had stopped him from administering his own punishment right after Otsuka had been discovered. He was looking forward to the man's long awaited sentence. Kaoru would probably not show as much mercy as he might have.
"And he did both, didn't he, Chou?" Kaoru asked, her voice quiet, almost conversational.
Chou nodded. "He did, Captain."
She paced the deck, stopping in front of another one of her men. This one was shorter than Chou, and younger as well. His dark brown hair flopped over his eyes and, despite the seriousness of the situation, he was smiling. "Soujiro, what is the punishment for rape?" Kaoru asked him, her hands clasped behind her, one hand still holding the sword.
The smiling young man answered as though she asked him a question about his hobbies or the weather. "First offense, you lose a hand, second offense, you die." He said cheerfully.
She paced some more. "Kamatari," She said, stopping in front of a man wearing garishly bright clothes, with a silk scarf tied around his neck. "What is the punishment for harming a child?"
Kamatari glared daggers at Otsuka. "For hitting or otherwise injuring a child, you lose an ear. For killing a child, you die." He absently cracked his knuckles as he replied.
Kaoru nodded. "Men, we are presented with a unique situation here. This is Otsuka's first offense on this ship. A first offense rape would cost him his hand. However, he killed a child, which means death." She paused and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "It wouldn't be fair to the child for me to only punish him once, wouldn't you all agree?"
There was a rumble through the men as they nodded or voiced their agreement. Even pirates have some standards, and the men aboard the Kami Kaze had more standards than most. Their captain walked slowly back over to where Otsuka cowered, his sweat dripping onto the deck like raindrops.
There was no warning, one moment Kaoru was just standing there, looking down at her erstwhile crew member and the next, Otsuka was screaming in agony. His hand lay on the deck, severed, many of her crew members hadn't even seen her move. Otsuka's wrist spouted blood, the crimson liquid pooling and coagulating on the immaculate wood deck of the ship. Beside him Kaoru nonchalantly wiped the blood from her sword off on her victim's trousers and then re-sheathed it.
"Well, I've taken care of the rape punishment." She said. She bent down and picked up the gore-spattered hand. All eyes were on her as she walked to the ship's railing and tossed it overboard. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, the water churned as sharks began fighting each other for the bloody hand.
"Sano, throw him overboard." Kaoru said, her voice low with fury. "Let's show him how we deal with rapists and child killers on this ship."
Sano nodded and tightened his grip on Otsuka. The condemned man began to scream, high pitched wails interspersed with pleas for mercy.
"You want mercy?" Kaoru asked coldly. She held up a blood streaked hand to stop Sano.
The man nodded and cried for her to spare him, all the while desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood from his wrist.
"I'll make a deal with you, Otsuka." Kaoru said, stepping in front of him and looking him straight in the eye. "I'll show you as much mercy as you showed that little girl." She stepped back and gestured for Sano to continue his grim duty.
Otsuka sobbed and continued to plead for mercy as Sano and the other two men hoisted him over the railing and dropped him into the sea. He screamed as he went down. There was a loud splash, a few seconds of silence and then the howls continued, this time, of a man in agony, a man being torn to pieces by hungry sharks. Finally, after a choked gurgle, they stopped.
Kaoru turned to her crew, wiping her hands off on a handkerchief as she talked. "I will not tolerate such insubordination. You know the rules and you know the punishment for breaking them." She leveled each man with her gaze. "I trust I won't have to do this again."
The men all seemed to shake their heads in unison. The message had been delivered.
"Good. You are all dismissed. Beshimi, go find a mop and clean this mess up." The small, bird-like man nodded and scurried away, following the men as they began to scatter, going back to their duties or their hammocks, their voices a low murmur as they discussed the fate of their fellow crewman.
Kaoru caught the attention of a tall, glum looking man standing near the helm. "Aoshi, bring the charts of this area to my cabin. We need to figure out a way to get to Saitou's ship before he reaches the next port." The tall man nodded and disappeared into the bowels of the ship.
Stuffing the bloody handkerchief into her pocket, Kaoru frowned and walked slowly to the bow of her ship, resting her hands almost reverently on the figurehead that looked wistfully towards the horizon. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, a near silent prayer to her mother on her lips. 'Please, give me strength...'
Nodding to Kamatari, who had resumed his post at the helm, Sano went over to stand by his captain. "Are you okay, Kaoru?" He asked in a low voice.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, picking absently at the bow that held the black mass away from her face. "That was horrible. The whole thing…that poor little girl…" She shook her head. "I pray to God that I will never have to do that again."
"You've got a good crew here, Kaoru." Sano said, his eyes scanning the distant horizon. "Otsuka had always worried you, but the others…you trust the others. We've been very careful about who we bring aboard since…"
A ghost of a smile flitted across her lips. "Since Jineh. I know Sano and you're right. They're good men. I'm lucky."
Kenshin leaned against the railing and watched the captain and her first mate as they talked. He had managed to sneak away from Megumi and had been present when Kaoru punished the wayward Otsuka. This tiny, fierce woman commanded a ship full of tough men and had their respect. He shook his head slowly. What a strange world he had woken up in. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember everything he knew about the Kami Kaze and its crew.
The pirate ship Kami Kaze was legendary. Its original captain, Tetsuro Kamiya, had once been a captain in the Imperial Navy. A scandal long forgotten had brought about his downfall and he had taken to the sea with a small band of misfits and loyal sailors to terrorize anyone who had the misfortune of crossing his bow.
It had never escaped Kenshin's notice, nor the notice of several important people in the Navy that the ships that were attacked by Kamiya had reputations of an unsavory sort. When the captain had waylaid a ship whose purpose was supplying young, innocent, island girls and boys stolen from their families to whore houses on the mainland, and had returned the captives unharmed, he became a legend. A brigand with a heart of gold.
He was still an outlaw, however, and Kenshin had been one in the long line of captains assigned to bring him in. He had met the man only once, five years earlier, when their swords were crossed in the heat of battle, but he had not been able to defeat the man and had barely made it off the ship alive.
A rumor had surfaced a few years ago that Kamiya had died, the victim of some sort of mutiny aboard his ship. No one knew anything about who had replaced him, all they knew was that the Kami Kaze continued to sail and continued to plunder.
Kenshin watched as the young woman with Tetsuro Kamiya's fierce blue eyes spoke softly with her first mate, her features beautiful but strained by sadness. She made a final gesture and then turned to face Kenshin.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" She asked as she walked across the deck towards him. She didn't seem surprised by his presence. "You were nearly dead when we fished you out of the sea, Captain Himura."
He raised an eyebrow. "So you know who I am then?" He asked quietly.
She smiled slightly. "I remember you. You were the only man who boarded my father's ship uninvited and lived to tell about it."
"You were there?" He asked incredulously.
She grinned mischievously, looking, for the moment, like a carefree young girl rather than the captain of an infamous pirate ship. "Of course. I was born on this ship and I rarely leave it, Captain. I was in the crow's nest while you fought my father." She paused. "It was almost like a dance, the way you two fought, if that can be said about fighting to the death."
He nodded. "It has been said before."
His mood darkened suddenly and he regarded her with some slight apprehension. Beautiful or not, she had just murdered a man before his eyes. "Since you know who I am, should I be worried about sharing the same fate as your sailor Otsuka? After all, I am a member of the Imperial Navy, and we are supposed to be at odds with each other."
Her blue eyes flashed. "Captain Himura, you should only be worried if you are a rapist or a murderer. Are you?"
He shook his head.
"Then you have nothing to fear from me." She took his elbow. "Megumi, however, is another matter and she will be quite upset to find you out of bed." Gently she steered him down the narrow stairs towards his quarters.
"Dr. Takani said there were no other survivors besides Yahiko and myself?" Kenshin asked quietly as she escorted him into his room.
She shook her head. "There was one other man on the lifeboat with you, but he didn't make it. We didn't find anyone else."
He sighed. "A hundred men lost to the sea, then." He said sadly.
As he sat down wearily on his bed, she regarded him with a quizzical look. "What were you doing sailing this time of year anyway? I'd have thought you of all people would have more sense, Captain Himura."
He frowned. "I normally wouldn't be sailing, Captain Kamiya, but I received an urgent request that could not wait." He crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at her. "And what about you? What are you doing on the water this time of year, if I may ask?"
She grinned at him. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, Captain." She turned to leave, but paused at the door. "Just get some rest, okay?" Before he could respond, she was gone, leaving the scent of jasmine and a mystery in her wake. Kenshin flopped back onto his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes to block out the sun that was pouring through the port hole.
He was a man torn by conflicting agendas. As a Captain in the Imperial Navy, he was honor bound to bring Kaoru to justice, no matter that she and her crew had saved his life. However, as a man, he found himself wondering what kind of woman she was, this mysterious Kaoru Kamiya.
"It was almost like a dance…" He smiled softly, his heavy eyelids closing as sleep finally claimed him. He would worry about these things later, all he wanted now was to sleep, and perhaps, to dream.
Author's Note: This was a very difficult chapter to write. I had a hard time trying to square how Kaoru needed to be for this story, and how Watsuki created her. But, she had to be how I wrote her. The few women who were actual Pirate Queens could not EVER be perceived as weak. They were at a disadvantage because of their sex, so they had to be very tough. I know Kaoru might seem to be a bit unlike how most people see her, but I did try to show that she's not a cold-hearted woman. She did what she had to do.
That said, I tried to put some humor into an otherwise slightly dark chapter. Enter Hiko and his parrot. Yes, I've made Hiko the Bad-Ass into comic relief. If he was real, he'd be pounding on my door, demanding respect. And sake. And I would be glomping him. Ahem, enough about that. Plot twists ahoy! What's Saitou got to do with it? Where's Misao? What exactly IS sake loaf? Stay tuned!
P.S. Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, I've been beside myself with glee because of all the great responses!