I am such a bad girl. I can't believe I'm starting ANOTHER story when I have so many going already! But I have an excuse, sort of. This story has Jin and I don't have any stories with Jin, and I need a story with Jin! Touya will make an appearance too and...I haven't decided who else. Besides that, I need a story that's light on the romance for a while. And besides besides, I need to write an alternate universe story that doesn't include any OC's, even though I love OC's. I swear I haven't forsaken my other stories and I will get back to them soon, but this story has been swimming in my mind since I got the soundtrack to "Pirates of the Caribbean," which rocks and also happens to be my favorite movie of all time. Music inspires me a lot, so that's why I'm writing this. This doesn't really follow the "Pirates" story line, because we all know that story and it would just make it boring, but there will be plenty of high-seas adventure, so don't get all excited if this isn't the same as the movie, but it should still be pretty good.
I don't own YYH or Pirates of the Caribbean, so don't sue me because I actually remembered to say it this time!
Okay, having said that, listen up because I'm about to explain pretty much all the background you'll need to know to understand this story. First off, humans and demons live in the same world, and that world is largely dominated by ocean, so of course there are pirates. Pirates are usually considered the bad guys, but not all pirates are bad. Although it is a law that if someone is discovered to be a pirate, they are thrown in jail and then hanged. And yes, the YYH guys will still have all their cool powers and all, but there will still be some swashbuckling pirate-style sword action in there too. 'Kay so, have I confused you yet? Well, in any case, I hope you all enjoy what's coming because it promises to be a really jaw-dropping, edge-of-your-seat, cliff hangers galore thriller. And if that isn't enough to convince you, then...(here comes my catch phrase)...ON WITH THE FIC!
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Yusuke sat on the beach, the salty ocean air blowing through his dark hair. He was sure to get it when he got back. He had left Kuwabara to do all the work at the blacksmith's shop where he and the orange haired youth were apprentices to the fat, lazy blacksmith. He could already hear Kuwabara's voice in his head, giving him the same speech he always gave when Yusuke skipped.
"What the hell Urameshi," he would say, "You took this stupid job to learn swordsmanship, but how do you expect to ever learn anything if you're never here! Besides, do you really think Lady Keiko will ever take you seriously if you live out the rest of your life as a worthless slacker?" At this point he would usually lunge at Yusuke to try and 'knock some sense into him,' only to be knocked senseless himself.
Yusuke sighed as the image of Lady Keiko floated into his mind. She was royalty, the princess, way out of his league. And yet, no matter what he did, he hadn't been able to keep his mind off her since they had first met, as children.
"What the hell Urameshi!" he heard a voice call out behind him. Yusuke laughed and shook his head, standing up and brushing the sand from his clothes. He turned around to face his friend, knowing full well what was coming.
"What is wrong with you!" Kuwabara continued. "You took the stupid job at the blacksmith's to learn swordsmanship, but how do you expect to ever learn anything if you're never there! Besides," now Kuwabara paused and gave Yusuke a sly smile, "do you really think Lady Keiko will ever take you seriously if you live out the rest of your life as a worthless slacker?"
"Well, at least you changed some stuff this time. I was getting tired of the same speech over and over again," Yusuke answered, absently cleaning his ear with the pinkie of one hand.
"Baka! Take it seriously, damn it!" With that, Kuwabara brought his arm around in a fast right hook, but Yusuke easily ducked and dodged. With a smile, he took his own hand from his ear and swung upward, connecting with Kuwabara's nose. Kuwabara was thrown backwards, a stream of blood sprouting from his now quite possibly broken nose.
"Ha! You'll have to do better then that, Kuwabaka!" Yusuke cried triumphantly as Kuwabara slowly rose.
"Bas'ard!" Kuwabara swore, his speech nasally and muffled due to his nose which he tenderly touched the side of, wincing immediately. "'ou b'oke it!"
"Nah, I would have felt it snap if it was broken," Yusuke assured him. Kuwabara glared at him, but didn't say anything, still testing to see if his tender nose was indeed still in one piece. Yusuke had turned his back and was about to walk away when he heard Kuwabara suddenly give a cry of surprise.
"'ey!" Kuwabara exclaimed, his words still strangely pronounced as his nose began to swell. "Ishn't tha' a pi'ate flag?"
"Where?" Yusuke asked, spinning on his heal to face his friend, who was gazing into the ocean before them.
"There," Kuwabara said, pointing, "On tha' s'ip."
"Sip?" Yusuke teased, knowing exactly what his friend meant. "What in the hell is a sip?"
"No! S'ip! S'ip!" Kuwabara cried angrily, trying unsuccessfully to pronounce the word correctly.
"Alright, alright. Don't have a heart attack. I know what you mean," Yusuke soothed between fits of laughter. Now he turned and stared out at the ocean. There was indeed a ship on the very edge of the horizon.
"Damn that's far away. How the hell can you see the flag on that?" Yusuke asked, turning to Kuwabara. Kuwabara only shrugged, not wanted to be teased for the way he was talking again.
"Come on, let's get a better look!" Yusuke said, taking off down the beach.
"'ey! Wai' fo' me!" Kuwabara cried after him, kicking into a run as well. Yusuke turned sharply and found himself back on the main streets of the town. He ducked and dodged his way through the crowds, heading for the castle. Kuwabara was some distance behind him, yelling at him to slow down, but Yusuke paid no attention. He cleared the last of the houses and began to bound up the steps to the castle, which sat on a cliff above the town. There was a kind of observation platform along the castle's outer walls, placed there for military strategy since it gave anyone looking from it a clear view of the sea on all sides of the small island the town thrived on. This was where Yusuke was heading.
Once up the steps, he raced to the very edge of the stone railing, leaning dangerously over the side and squinting at the now slightly larger ship in the distance. Kuwabara came huffing and cursing behind him not long after.
"D--damn it Ura--mes'i," Kuwabara croaked, his nose now nearly three times its original size as well as bright red and slowly oozing a constant drip of blood down Kuwabara's face.
"Hey, Kuwabara," Yusuke said after a moment of carefully studying the ship.
"Wha'?" Kuwabara asked, having given up on pronouncing T's and R's altogether since the sharp sounds they made had proven to send painful jolts through his battered nose.
"Does that ship look lower in the water then it was before?" Yusuke asked. Kuwabara walked forward to stand beside Yusuke and squinted into the distance.
"'ey, yeah. I' does. Ish it sin'ing?" Kuwabara answered.
"I don't thing ships can commit sins," Yusuke snickered.
"Shu' up!" Kuwabara screamed, but Yusuke only continued to laugh.
(xxx)
Down on the dock, two guards waited anxiously, watching the slowly sinking ship come closer. Both of them were onis, armed with bayonets and rifles, not that that made them feel very safe considering the ship might hold a demon much stronger then what rifles could stop. The ship was close enough now that they could indeed see the tattered flag, and they could also see the skull and crossbones upon it. One thing was strange about this particular pirate's flag, however. The skull had an extra eye in the center of the forehead, sending a chill down the onis' spines.
"Um...maybe you should...er...get backup," the red one said nervously to the blue one. The blue one, Jorge, nodded and took off for the castle. Everyone gave him wide birth as he bounded throughout the town, this being a mostly human community, and he was soon racing up the stone steps to the castle doors. At the top of the steps, he caught sight of two boys staring down at the alien ship below. One had dark hair and had his head thrown back in a deep laughing fit. The other, an orange haired boy who looked as if he had broken his nose, was yelling something intelligible at the other boy. Normally, Jorge would have stopped and asked them what they were doing, but now he had no time.
He ran trough the arch leading to the courtyard and passed two more oni guards at the door, who paid him no attention. Now he was in the castle itself and climbing a set of spiraling stairs. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, he flung the door open and half-stumbled half-ran into the King's chambers.
"L--lord Koen--ma!" Jorge cried, gasping for breath.
"Yes, what is it?" Koenma asked, sounding irritated. Jorge looked up to see his ruler, a mere teenage boy with brown hair and large eyes and who had never quite grown out of the habit of sucking on a pacifier. He wasn't alone in the room either. His most trusted maid, Botan, who acted more like a soldier and a spy then a maid, was there as well with her elegant violet eyes and mysteriously blue hair. The commander of Koenma's army was there too, General Kurama Minamino. He was a superb military leader who was known throughout the seas as having the most unusual and unstoppable strategies the Seven Seas had ever witnessed and always keeping a cool head no matter what was going on around him. With his long, fiery red hair pulled back in a pony tail and his bright, intelligent emerald eyes he was an imposing figure indeed.
"A ship!" Jorge gasped, finally regaining his breath. "A ship with a pirate flag!"
"Humans or demons? Do you know how many there are?" Koenma asked urgently, quickly crossing to the window and gazing out at the ship, which was now 100 yards from the dock and only barely above the water anymore.
"I don't know," Jorge answered sheepishly.
"What do you mean you don't know! You come here to warn me and you don't even know what you're warning me against!" Koenma shrieked, snapping around and advancing on Jorge as the oni winced and backed up against his lord's desk.
"Lord Koenma," Kurama interrupted, stepping between the young ruler and the frightened guard. "Do not worry. I will deal with this ship personally." Before Koenma could answer, Kurama swiftly strode towards the door, giving Jorge a glance that clearly said 'follow me,' a command that the blue oni was only too happy to comply with.
(xxx)
Kurama stood patiently at the edge of the dock with ten or so armed onis behind him. There was almost nothing left of the ship above water anymore as it slowly drifted towards them. He had to wonder at the flag though. Pirate flag's were known to vary from ship to ship, but he had never heard of a third eye being added before. What could it mean?
As he stood there wondering, the ship drifted within arm's reach. Leaning forward slightly and being careful to keep his balance, he gripped the railing of the ships deck and swung himself over, landing with a splash in knee-deep water. He sloshed a few steps forward, the water level growing higher with each passing moment. He was about to declare the ship deserted and all its crew drowned, when he heard a creak above him.
Looking up, he could just barely see the shadow of a figure clinging to the rigging of the ship, concealed by the pitch black sails. The figure seemed to sense it had been caught and released it's hold on the ropes, landing with a splash before the surprised general.
Kurama blinked the water from his eyes to find himself staring at a short man who didn't even come to his shoulder, dressed all in black, with his sword drawn and ready to fight. He had black hair that looked like it usually stood straight up, but now drooped with the weight of the water from the his splash landing. But it was his eyes that really drew Kurama's attention, he had never seen a creature with such deep, blood red eyes.
"Who are you?" Kurama asked, trying to be peaceful and not fight this man just yet. Despite his spine-chilling glare, Kurama could tell that the man before him hadn't slept or had anything to eat or drink in a while.
"Who wants to know?" the man replied, narrowing his crimson eyes.
"General Kurama Minamino, commander of the armed forces of this town. I'll ask you again who you are and if you don't answer, I'll have to assume you're a pirate and arrest you," Kurama answered, watching the dark figure before him carefully.
"Hn, then you'll have to arrest me anyway," the man snorted. "If you really must know, I am Captain Hiei Jaganshi."
"Well Hiei, a captain isn't much of a captain without a crew, now is he?" Kurama answered coolly, making note of the fact that the water level was now up to his waist, and halfway up the short pirate's chest.
"My crew was nothing but a sorry group of fools, they deserved to die," Hiei spat.
"So you killed them?" Kurama asked, slowly raising a hand to scratch behind one ear.
"I only wish I had. That would go against the Pirate's Code," Hiei answered, wearily watching Kurama's hand.
"We'll, I must say I've enjoyed this little chat," Kurama said as he lowered his hand, something small and brown clutched between his fingers. "It's not often I come across an intelligent pirate." With that, he gave the seed in his hand a flick in Hiei's direction. In a blink of an eye, it became a long-stemmed flower that looked like a dart. Hiei, suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and starvation did not have the strength to dodge and so tumbled back into the water with the flower-dart in his neck. He wondered vaguely, as his world was slowly swallowed by darkness, why this red headed general reminded him of the terror of the Seas, Youko Kurama.