Hello. I kinda fixed this up a bit... but nothing you'd notice. If you've already read this, ignore it. If you haven't read this yet, well, go ahead and read it! Hope you like it!

Chapter 7: The giant cloth trampoline

"Well, Miss Turner." Hayashi sat opposite to Rhyth. "Don't you look stunning in that black silk dress." Rhyth just glared at Hayashi, waiting for him to change the subject and get on with the history of the medallion. She was actually looking forward to being thrown around the ship. It sounded like fun.

When the table was finally set and they had started eating, Rhyth didn't touch her food, fearing the worst.

"Elizabeth, my dear. You seem hungry. Why don't you eat something?"

Rhyth looked over at Hayashi, slightly worried about what was in the food. She didn't even know what half of it was.

"Is that...?" Rhyth asked, gesturing to the dish of meat in front of them.

"It's armadillo." Hayashi replied. "The meat is very tender. Try some." He moved the plate closer to Rhyth, who stared at it hungrily. She hadn't eaten in a day... and it did look good...

"Umm..." Rhyth took a leg hesitantly and nibbled at the meat. It did taste good. Her second bite was larger, then her third.

"Try the wine." Hayashi said quietly as he held out his goblet. Rhyth stared at him like he was crazy. "What is wrong?"

"Well... it's just that... I'm only fifteen. I can't drink wine." Rhyth replied timidly.

"Really?" Hayashi leaned forward. "Fifteen, and you don't drink wine? I take it your father's overprotective."

"Um... sure." Rhyth mentally slapped herself. 'What kind of excuse was that?!' her conscience screamed. 'You idiot!!' "Hey, why don't you drink some wine?" Rhyth asked timidly.

"I can't drink the wine... there's no point." Hayashi replied, hanging his head.

"You mean..." Rhyth gasped. "It's poisoned?"

"No." Hayashi replied. "Poison would do us no good... not even on you."

Rhyth gulped. "What do you mean by that...?" She asked with a worried tone in her voice.

"We're cursed." He replied with an evil look in his eyes. Rhyth sweat dropped at this and inched away from him after realizing that he was holding a candle to his face to give the eerie lighting effect. "Cursed!!" He repeated, only louder.

"Er... right..." Rhyth continued to inch away from Hayashi. Cloth-trampoline or no cloth-trampoline; Hayashi was really starting to freak her out.

"You don't believe me?" Hayashi asked, raising an eyebrow. "We didn't believe in the curse either... until it came upon us! That medallion that you gave us is Aztec gold! One of 882 identical pieces delivered in a stone chest by Cortes himself! Blood money it is... so the gods placed a curse on the gold." Hayashi grinned evilly as he leaned closer to the small girl, who inched farther away. Seeing the fear in Rhyth's eyes, Hayashi continued. "Whoever took but a single piece of the gold would be cursed by it for eternity... unless..."

Rhyth rolled her eyes 'Yeah, yeah, this, curse that... just get on with it so I can go on the fricking cloth trampoline! WAHH!!'

"Unless?" Rhyth asked, waiting. Hayashi paused for a moment, trying to bring back the eerie mood. "The gold was returned and the blood was repaid."

"Blood?" Rhyth asked curiously. "What's the blood for?"

The mood suddenly changed from a dark and eerie setting to... how do I put this...? Er... a-conversation-between-two-people-at-a-dinner-table setting.

"Okay..." Hayashi said, clapping his hands together in thought. "We find the gold, we took the gold, we spent and traded the gold, each day we become more cursed because of the gold, we collect the gold until we have all 882 pieces. We sliced our hands and bled on each piece of gold that went into the chest and we continue to do that until we get all 882 pieces and break the curse."

"Wait." Rhyth put her hand out in front of her. "Where do I come in?" She asked irritably.

"God." Hayashi moaned, resting his head in his hands. "You're making this sound like a conversation one of those governors would have. Are you sure you're not brought up by some rich family?" Rhyth shook her head in reply. "Okay then." Hayashi said, taking a deep breath. "You're last name is Turner... and you are the only child he had. Now, Will, of course, died, so we did not get his blood. You have his blood running through your veins, so obviously, we need you to repay the blood for your dear father."

Rhyth was silent for the next few minutes. After several uncomfortable moments of silence... and Hayashi stuffing his face.

"Er... Hay-I mean... Barbossa..." Rhyth mentally kicked herself for nearly calling him Hayashi... again! "You said there was a curse. You don't seem cursed..." Rhyth tried to act suspicious by narrowing her eyes and frowning. "You're not using me for... other reasons, are you?"

"You want to see the curse?" Hayashi asked raising an eyebrow. "Well, then... why don't you come outside and have a look?"

"Uh... sure..." Rhyth stood up, placing her fork and knife down. She strode over to the door, anxiety running through her veins. She opened the door to reveal dozens of pirate skeletons, running around the deck.

"See this?" Hayashi asked from behind her. "The moonlight shows us for what we really are... CURSED!!"

Rhyth jumped at his last word and ran down the deck. She finally stopped when she reached the hold. After looking down to see if the cloth was there (which it was) she let herself fall into the hole. She landed on the old material, which immediately sent her flying back up.

Despite the fact that she had been on roller coasters that went higher than this, Rhyth was having the time of her life. She let out a shriek of excitement as she flew upward again.

"Well?" Hayashi's skeleton form asked Ragetti. "Is she screaming in fear? Are we scaring the wits out of her?"

"Uh... actually..." Pintel started, looking down at the old wooden floor. "I think she's screaming in excitement." His statement was proven by a 'YAHOO!!" from Rhyth, who was sent flying once again.

"Well... Turner's were always a strange folk..." Hayashi mumbled, looking down. "This'll be a long night."

& & & & &

"Well, here we have it." Corn, Beat and Yoyo stood in front of a long line of GG's that they had found the previous night. "I've recruited all the GG's in this dream I could find that are as crazy as you, Yoyo." Corn explained.

Yoyo strode down the line until he reached Garam.

"Alright, Garam..." Yoyo started. "Do you have the courage to follow fortitude and stay..." Yoyo coughed and started again. "Do you have the courage to follow fortitude and stay brave in... God I hate this bloody line!" Yoyo said as he stuck his tongue out slightly, "Okay. Do you have the courage to follow fortitude and stay brave in the sea so help you God?" Garam didn't answer.

"Uh..." Corn leaned over to Yoyo. "That's Mr. Cotton in the story."

"Oh! You're a mute!" Yoyo laughed. "Sorry, dude." Garam shrugged as his parrot spoke up. "No biggie."

"I like that bird." Yoyo said, laughing. "Well, anyway... there's only one other person I'm looking for..." Yoyo searched the line until he found what he was looking for. "AHA!" He stepped up to a girl wearing baggy clothes. She wore a scarf around her neck and a straw hat over her face.

Yoyo reached his hand out and swiped the hat off her face. "Hey it's-" Yoyo was stopped by a sharp pain across the face. "... Jazz."

"You stole my boat you dumb ass!!" Jazz snapped. "Do you know how long it took me to get off that goddamn island away from those drunk, perverted, lame excuses for pirates?!"

"I...er-" Yoyo was stopped by another slap. "Oh! You mean those pirates! I thought you meant the other pi-" Yoyo was slapped a third time. "ALRIGHT!! Alright! I'm sorry!" Yoyo yelled. "Just... quit slapping me! I wasn't having the greatest time with those whores!!"

"So?!" Jazz screamed. "You could've brought me along with you!!" The two then started a glaring contest, despite the fact that everyone was watching.

"Are you going to stop them?" Corn asked, nudging Beat in the arm. Beat shook his head.

"Are you kidding?" He asked incredulously. "It's just starting to get good." The two had now gotten into the name-calling.

"Does your scarf represent how cold you are?!" Yoyo asked hotly.

"Oh, shut up, neon, boy!" Jazz bit back. Several 'oohs' echoed through the line.

"Nobody..." Yoyo growled "...calls me 'neon-boy!'" Jazz just chuckled.

"Well, I guess there's a first for everything." She snickered.

"THAT'S IT!!!!" Yoyo screamed. "Everyone aboard!!!"

The crew bustled onto the deck of the ship to avoid Yoyo 's murderous attitude.

"Okay." Yoyo said after taking a breath. "Let's set sail."

TBC...!

Well, that's one more chapter fixed up! brushes off hands Chapter 8 is coming up really soon! Believe me! I've been working on it full time for three days! The flashback took a while- oops... hehe... spoiler...

Well, neway, my computer is still screwed up, so I have to go look at my reviews online. And No, the review alert is still enabled. I'm sad...