O Fantasma de Você

Chapter 2

Sorry for the long long absence…..but school got me down….that and I DID have about five pages of this chapter written, but my computer crashed and I lost everything. So, here it is, and I am truly sorry for such a long wait.

Disclaimer: Please look at chapter one for it cause I really am sick of saying it.

"-means talking

'-means thoughts

The sky overhead was a dull gray, promising a light rain. The wind swept through the ship, making the ships sails jerk violently. The woman on the main deck tossed her head back, letting the wind caress her blond locks. She heard someone call for her and she opened her blue eyes, searching for the source of the voice.

Her keen eyes saw a figure on the yard of the fore mast. The woman slid down and landed on the forecastle deck. Walking up to the blond woman, she stopped and looked east bond. "The ship's heading this way."

"Good. I need a little fun." Her blue eyes twinkled with mischief. "Round up the girls Miho."

The one named Miho nodded her head and headed to find the other women. Soon, a score of women all dressed in vibrant pinks, blues, yellows, and oranges circled around the blond. They started to chant, their voices getting louder and louder as the song progressed. As they sang, their bodies moved to the music in a seductive tempo. The blond squinted, her sharp gaze spotting the approaching vessel. A smirk appeared on her face. "Ladies get ready. The boys are coming out to play."

A red haired young woman walked to the edge of their ship, waiting until the other ship was near enough and as soon as it was, she pulled the trigger on the huge machine next to her. It shot out towards the other ship, securing that ship with theirs. She did that with four other machines.

"It's secured," she said to the blond after she was done.

"Let's get them girls," the blond said as she headed to the mast. Climbing up a bit, she grasped a rope, took a step back, and jumped. She swung over to the other ship, her blond hair whipping behind her. Letting go of the rope she did a front flip, landing in a crouching position. Some of the women were already tying up some of the men to the mast while others where boarding the ship. Her blue eyes scanned the ship, making sure everything was running smoothly. When things settled down, she walked to one of the mast's that was holding the captain of the ship.

"Well, well, well, look what the sea brought in," she said, running a delicate finger under the captain's chin. He turned his head violently, disgust in his eyes. She smiled in amusement. "Oh? Cat got your tongue?"

"You're gonna get it you little wench, you and your siren whores! Navy Gen-"

The blond stopped him with a finger to his lips. Getting close enough so she could whisper in his ears, she said, "Tsk, tsk. And here I was under the impression that you knew me. My name's not 'wench' as you so nicely put it, it's Venus. Please try to remember that so you can tell that little Navy General for me. I'm just dieing to meet him." She smiled when she felt him shiver. "Cold, are we? I'll heat things up for you."

With a sly grin on her lips, she pressed her own lips to his and as soon as she felt him respond she pulled away. "I'll even give you something of mine." With a nod of her head, a brunette came bearing something. The blond took it and examined it. "It's the sign of Venus, captain, and you'll always carry it with you."

Grabbing his hand, she turned it so his palm was facing down. With her other hand she took the symbol and branded his skin with it. Ignoring the howl he let out, she passed the brander back and examined what she had just done. Satisfied with the sign, she turned around and walked to the middle of the ship.

"Did you grab everything Miho?" the blond asked the woman who appeared on her side.

"We got the gold, food, cloths, and weapons. Want anything else?"

"No, I think that will do." Turning to face the other women, she said, "Grab what you want, we're heading out!"

Someone had put a long board across both ships. Using that to get back to their ship, the blond waited until all her women had come across, some bringing men with them. As soon as everyone was on, Miho and the blond pushed the board, pulled the strings with the latches on them that was connecting the ships together back to their ship, and stepped back. When their ship was a couple of feet away from the other one, the blond and Miho aimed their guns on the ropes that were tying the other men to the masts. With accurate shots, they untied them. As soon as they had done that, other women lit the cannons and aimed at the ship.

The blond watched as the other ship was bombarded with cannon balls. They always sunk the other ship when they were done with it. They always untied the menbefore doing it though, so they could have a slighter chance of survival. If the sailors survived to see another day she always hoped they would tell their navy general, or anyone that could put up more of a struggle. She always liked a good challenge. If they didn't survive, well. . .

Turning to face her crew, she saw smiles on their faces. Some where putting away the stuff they had stolen while others where heading to their rooms, a sailor trailing behind them. Her smile faltered a bit and a frown appeared on her face. She turned around and headed to the end of the ship, leaning on the rail and gazing at the sea.

The other women would take a man to bed, saying that they would get lonely if they didn't. She wasn't against it; she too understood the feeling of loneliness and had even bedded a man once. She had done it out of curiosity, since Miho said it was the most fun any girl could have, but afterwards she had felt worse. She felt like something was missing, like the whole love aspect of it. She was always a strong believer of love, even as a child.

"Minako!"

Hearing her name brought her out of her trance. She turned around to face Miho, who held a brown haired, green eyed man with her. "You sure you don't want him?"

Minako gave her a grin. "Yes, I'm sure. You go have fun now." Her quick eyes caught the subtle change of expression on the man's face. She almost laughed at the disappointment noticeable in his expression. But as soon as Miho started to lead him to her room, Minako saw a pleased look on his face again. Everybody had already headed to their quarters and Minako was left alone to her thoughts. Lying down with her legs and arms spread apart and her long, blond hair fanning around her, she closed her eyes and let the wind lull her to a peaceful but light sleep.

The fast beat of his own heartreached his ears as he took another sharp turn. Dodging people in the streets, he took another turn, turning his head back to glance behind him. He didn't see any officers but continued to run, making sure to lead them as far away from his crew as possible.

They had ventured into land, stealing the supplies they needed, but a newbie had gotten caught so he told his second in command to gather all the things they needed and to meet him in the next port, Cayonne. Cayonne was in the Low Country, three miles from where he was, a place called Basse-Terre.

Hearing shouts and footsteps, he took a left into a busy street. Knocking things down as he passed them, he dodged people and little children in the road. He took a right this time into a narrow path with small structures on each side, his shoulders barely touching the structures. He glanced back again, this time his keen, sapphire eyes caught a glimpse of men in red uniforms.

Cursing under his breath, he hoped he could get rid of at least half of them with the plan that he was concocting in his head. Seeing the sign that said "Blacksmith" and a wall that was at least ten feet high, he quickly came up with a way to escape. His feet not once making a sound on the cobble road, he jumped sideways, using the structure on his left to propel him higher and to his right, where the sign was at. Using the right structure to propel him even higher so he could grab the sign, he grabbed on and swung forward twice before letting go. He flew over the wall easily, doing a small flip and landing in a crouching position on a roof top.

Looking to where the officers where at, he saw that all of them skidded to a halt. He grinned, congratulating himself on his narrow escape. He quickly ran across the roof top, just in case the officers decided to shoot at him, and jumped down into another alley. Glancing to his left, he strained his ears so he could pick up any sound. Satisfied that he heard nothing of importance, he ranstraight and back out into the busy market life.

He ran without stopping for a couple of minutes, letting the wind sweep through his sweat soaked body. He stopped for a minute to take off the mask that was covering part of his face. Wiping the sweat off of his face with his shirt, he was just putting the mask back on when he heard footsteps behind him. Glancing back he saw one officer running after him.

Cursing, and his face in an unhappy scowl, he started running again. He heard the officer shout for him to stop, but he kept on running. Soon, his breath was coming out in short rasps and he had a stab of pain on his left side, but he didn't stop running.

'Damn this hill!' He growled to himself as he climbed the slopped hill. As soon as the slopped hill went even again, he put on a burst of speed, but stopped abruptly because he almost tumbled right over the edge of where the land stopped.

For the first time in his life, he felt fear gripping him and felt an uneasy feeling crawling up his spine. This couldn't be it, he couldn't fail! Whirling around when he heard the footsteps of the officer that followed him coming to a stop, his mind quickly raced through his options.

The blond officer had pulled out a wheellock pistol. He, too, was trying to catch his breath. "Steady now. Don't do anything stupid."

The dark haired man snorted, a grin appearing on his face. "Please, will you be so kind as to define stupid for me?"

The blond man slowly inched closer to the other man. "If you come with me, I promise we will not hang you at once."

At this the dark haired man laughed. "Well, well officer, such a promise that is. Enlighten me, what will you do if I don't cooperate?"

"I'll shoot you," said the blond officer.

The dark haired man laughed again. "You must be a really good officer, chasing me down all this way, and a sense of humor! I'm surprised you got this far, but I really do have to be going." With one fluid motion, he turned around and jumped. Seconds later he heard a gun fire and felt pain shoot through his left thigh, but he didn't care because he was hurling towards the ground.

The fall wasn't high, but as soon as he landed on the uneven dirt, his left leg gave in, not being able to take the strain of landing. His leg giving out, and with the motion of his jump, he rolled the rest of the way down the hill. When he stopped rolling, his face flat against the dirt, he tried to catch his breath. His whole body protesting, he got up slowly, wincing when he put pressure on his left leg.

Glancing back to see if the officer had jumped (he hadn't) he tried walking. He grunted when the pain shot through his leg. He grabbed his dagger and cut his right and left sleeves. Tying them together to make a bigger piece, he tied it around his leg tightly. Glancing around to observe his surroundings, he spotted what looked like a temple towards his right. Bracing himself for the pain, he started limping towards the temple, each of his steps making him grimace.

Half-way there he stopped walking and leaned against a tree, his breathing coming in rigid gasps. He took off his mask, stowed it away, and began walking again, this time ignoring the pain. When he finally got to the side of the temple, he leaned against it and walked towards the front, looking for the stairs.

'You've got to be shitting me!' He thought as his eyes scanned the stairs. There were at least 100 steps. Cursing the gods that ever made temples with steps, he started climbing very slowly. Finally not being able to take it anymore, he fell down, exhausted and clutching his left leg. His sensitive hearing picked up a female and male voice just above him.

"Hey! Can anyone hear me up there?"

The voices stopped abruptly and soon he saw a man and a woman coming down the steps. The woman, who was wearing priestess garbs, bent down and examined him. Her eyes were a deep shade of violet and her raven hair reached past her backside. She was an exotic beauty, something he had rarely seen. She touched his left leg lightly and he drew in a sharp breath.

She turned to the man beside her, who had on a very colorful scarf on his brown, curly hair. When she started speaking to him, his chocolate colored eyes bore down on the other man on the steps. "Help him up, he's been shot on the leg."

The dark haired man was fighting consciousness, trying to keep his sapphire eyes opened long enough to explain his situation. He felt the other man heave him up and noticed that he was quite a few inches shorter than his helper, which was saying a lot since he was already considered tall. Putting all of his weight on the taller man, they followed the priestess up the stairs and into the temple.

"Put him in the spare bedroom. While I clean the wound head into town and ask for the doctor."

While the two men took a left, the woman took a right into a smaller room. The brown haired man led them into a small room and placed the injured man on the bed. He turned around and without even saying anything, left the room, sliding the door closed behind him.

The injured man heard whispers behind the door; straining his ear, he heard that the woman was getting impatient with her fellow friend. But she obviously got her way since she walked into the room caring a bowl and cloths with her. Setting the bowl beside her, she examined his wound again.

"I'm going to have to cut your breeches." Taking out a small dagger, she didn't wait for his reply as she gripped his breeches and cut a line on the left side. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she got closer to the wound. "May I ask how you got this?"

"I got shot by an officer," was his reply.

The woman refrained herself from rolling her eyes. 'If that's not obvious, I don't know what is.' "Would asking why be too much?" Her violet eyes met his, her gaze scrutinizing.

"I . . . stole an apple at the market . . . for this little kid I saw that looked hungry." He almost had the urge to pat himself on the back for such a great lie! He got shot for being chivalrous, something any woman would find intriguing.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, continuing on cleaning the blood off of his leg. "My name's Rei Hino," she said after awhile, placing the fourth bloody cloth in the water basin to clean.

The man was silent for awhile. He had been enjoying her soft touch a little too much. He thought about what she just said and she probably wanted his name in return. Well, he could tell her his real name, but then she might recognize it from somewhere and order his death. He would settle on his middle name, a name no one knew. "My name's Mamoru."

"What? No last name?" She couldn't stop the biting remark that came out of her mouth. He looked slightly taken aback, but recovered hurriedly.

"I do not think last names are important," he said with a smile.

"Well then, you most certainly are a sailor. Any other man would be proud of his last name, unless of course, he had something to hide."

Once again Rei had caught him off guard. "And what a tongue you have. You are right on two of those remarks. I was a sailor and I do not feel like my father's name would give me enough credit and as for that last remark, I would never hide anything from such a beautiful lady as you." He smirked.

A small smile appeared on her lips. 'So he's just as pig-headed as any other man around here.' "Well," she said as she got up. "That's all I can do. You'll have to wait until the doctor gets here." She had walked to the corner of the room and he had noticed how graceful she was. She returned to his bedside caring a set of clothes with her. "Put these on since I tore yours. Nephrite should be here with the. . ." She trailed off as the sound of crows reached their ears. Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip. She turned towards him and bowed. "Excuse me. It seems like I have company. Please put that on and I will return shortly with a glass of water and something for you to eat." With that she was out of the room, her long raven hair swishing behind her from her movement.

He had arrived later than what he originally planned. The masked villain could have easily gotten away by now, but he hoped he hadn't. Climbing the last set of stairs, he stopped at the top to catch his breath. He heard wings flutter and looked up, spotting two crows on top of a pole. The crows seemed to linger a bit and then shot down on him, cawing at him as their pointed beaks and sharp talons cut his arms and face.

"Phobos! Deimos!"

The crows stopped their vicious attack on him and he looked up, startled. His breath caught in his throat when he gazed at the figure before him. She would have been considered god-like if it weren't for the scowl etched on her face. He hoped it wasn't because of him that she had that look.

She came closer to him and he noticed she had the most unusual set of eyes; eyes the color of violet. Her delicate touch on his face made him jump a little. The scowl was back and her eyes were ablaze with a fire he really hoped was not directed at him. "Please follow me so that I can make amends for what my crows did to you."

He just nodded dumbly and followed her, liking the way her hair swayed as she walked. When they arrived in a room, she ordered him to sit down and he did so. She took out a basin and some cloths and walked towards him and sat down. Taking his cut up hand, she dipped the cloth in the water and started cleaning his wound.

"I'm sorry," she said, her words coming out a bit strained. "For what my crows did to you back there. I don't know what got into them. My name's Rei Hino by the way."

"My name's Jadeite Aino. No harm done . . ." '. . . Except for my pride.'

Rei grasped his chin and turned his face to the right, examining a small cut on his cheek. She wiped the blood off with the cloth, noticing how he stiffened when her hand brushed against his cheek. "Your arms are cut too," she said, looking at his uniform that now had small cuts winding around his arm.

"So they are," he said, for the first time noticing the stings coming from his arm. "I appreciate you trying to help, but I'm not here to be pampered."

"Why did you come here? It's not because of that damned tax collector, is it? Just because he fell down the stairs on accident I'm getting arrested?"

Her temper had flared so suddenly he was caught off guard. Rei had gotten up during her sudden outburst and was now narrowing her eyes at him. "He was harassing me, he deserved what was coming."

"I'm sure he did, but I was actually looking for a masked man. He has a wound on his thigh."

Rei raised her eyebrow. This time when she spoke, her voice came out even and not strained from an attempt to mask her anger. "Masked man?" She decided to play dumb; it was none of her business what Mamoru really had done. If Jadeite found him, good for him; if he didn't, then it wasn't her fault.

"Yea, you don't mind if I have a look around, do you? I also need to speak to the owner of the temple."

"You're looking at her."

Jadeite laughed but stopped when she narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I thought you said-"

"I did," she bit back at him. "My grandfather died recently, leaving me his temple." Her tone had become cold now.

Jadeite almost hit himself. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Cutting him off again, she said, "Just hurry up and have a look around, I don't have all day. I have more important things to do than to talk to an ass all day. Some of us actually have work to do." Her sarcastic tone did not go unnoticed by Jadeite.

"What do you mean by that!" He bit back, his anger also rising.

She gave him a crude smile. "Masked man? Come on now, sounds like you're chasing something you made up. Maybe my crows did more damage than I thought." She let that thought linger in the air as she turned around and walked out of the room. Jadeite blinked once. Twice. Today just wasn't his day.

Rei bit her lip in frustration as she turned the corner. 'The nerves on that guy!' She thought angrily as she let her feet guide her through the temple. 'He even had the guts to laugh!' Her mind was reeling with what just happened when she stopped abruptly. A thought had just occurred to her; she had the man that Jadeite wanted, but he didn't know that. She raised her eyebrow as a small smile appeared on her face. No man was going to make her look like a fool, oh no, on the contrary. She'd just have to return the favor.

So I thought I'd leave it at that. Once again, sorry for such a long wait, but it's out now. The other characters will appear in the next chapter, so I guess you'll have to wait and see what Rei has in store for Jadeite! Please, please review! I'm not one to ask for reviews, but it really does make a difference on how fast I get chapters out……