Jade Force

Chapter Eleven: Aiyi

*dies* The dig was pretty successful, but man have I been flat-out! Did you know that fulltime employment, a weekend job, volunteering in your community, and university all at the same time was a bad idea?

Thankfully, it only took another two days after Aubrey first awoke for their ship to dock at the next island. With her nose, it was only a matter of minutes before she had sussed out the closest foodhouse, and begged a meal, claiming that her 'captain' would settle the tab. As far as Aubrey was concerned, it was the least he could do! Unfortunately for him, by the time he arrived, she had already devoured most of the menu. In her defence, of course, Aubrey had eaten precious little more than seaweed, fish she had had the crew cook and then toss back to her, as well as berries that passing birds had dropped for her – after some encouragement, of course.

"Aubrey-chan!" Redhair exclaimed when he finally found his new magician – I mean addition! "What's with running off like that?! We were worried sick!"

Aubrey glared at him through her glasses, looking up from the book she'd started to read once she'd gone from "starving" to plain "hungry".

"I haven't eaten properly in almost a week," she scowled. "I haven't gone that long without since I was very small, and I can't say that it agreed with me, especially with swimming for the last two days straight. You've been well fed and rested, so you can hardly complain."

"If you'd come aboard, Roux would have fed you," Redhair moped; Aubrey gave him her best glare.

"I told you, you dope, I get severe motion sickness, and in the case of a fight, I'd rather be tired than incapacitated!"

"Well, then let me pay for your meal!

"A-ano, your name is already on the tab, Akagami-san," The waitress stuttered. "This is the current bill."

His eyes widened in absolute horror. "How the hell did you spend this much already, Aubrey-chan?!" He shouted.

She grinned wickedly in response. "I'm used to eating a lot to replenish my magic. Add on the last two days, and really you should be asking why haven't I eaten more?" Redhair started to sob comically to the Dark Haired man with a pipe, and Aubrey went back to Yeoleum's book. She was gradually relearning Draconian, her father's language – which is half of the reason why she'd taken seven months to read the small journal. The other half was that she was afraid of what she'd discover…

Finding a strange character in the middle of her current page, Aubrey paused with her next mouthful only halfway to her mouth. It didn't look Draconian… and Yeoleum's epitaph was "the Scholar", so maybe… But then what was it doing in the middle of a page on the Dragon War? To Aubrey, it seemed as though the glyph was pulsating, the dark blue ink glowing brighter and brighter to her eyes.

"Aubrey-chan? Are you even listening?" Redhair asked. It was enough to brake whatever spell she'd been under. With a start she drew back, and blinked.

"Beg pardon?" She asked distractedly in Boscan. Had they been talking to her? …. Wait, she wasn't in Ishgar anymore! "Sorry, what?" She recovered, using the common tongue.

The Darkhaired man narrowed his brows. "What's in that book?"

Aubrey immediately scowled and held the journal close to her chest. "Clues about my father," she answered sharply. "He's missing."

Immediately the men all looked apologetic.

"We'll help you find him!" Redhair volunteered.

Aubrey snorted derisively – she knew exactly where her father, where all of their Dragon parents, were. Calling upon her power, she crafted a jade figurine of her father on the tabletop, a magic circle lighting up pale green and white seconds prior to its creation. "Quartzerine is larger than your ship, though he is much thinner, and more serpentine than the other Dragons. His claws are delicate in comparison, the better to pick up rune stones and weave soul string and cast bone fortunes. His wings are as batlike as the others, only that his are paler on the underside, and as such he is harder to spot in the skies."

There was a brief moment of silence before Redhair and his blonde Sniper shattered it with their scream – sorry, "manly yells", as they would later call it.

"EH?! A DRAGON?!"

Aubrey huffed, giving them another mulish look. "Why does everyone have that reaction? I'm not the only Dragon Slayer, and I'm not the only orphan who doesn't look like their adoptive parents!" Though she was loathe to admit it, it had always hurt that people said she couldn't belong to her father because of how little they resembled each other. So what if there was no blood between them?! She didn't love him any less for it!

"If your father is a dragon, then why are you a Dragon Slayer?" The Darkhaired man asked abruptly. Aubrey looked at him as though he were an idiot.

"That's my magic. Metsuryū no Mahou. Only Dragon magic can harm a Dragon, and it was originally used during the Dragon War in the X300s to turn the tide in the human's favour."

"So your father taught you how to kill him." He replied bluntly.

If Aubrey were a dog, her hackles would have raised at the comment, though as it was, she managed a very threatening growl. "My father taught me the magic of his people," She snapped back. "Slayer magic is for protecting the people dearest to you, not patricide!"

Standing abruptly, she turned and bowed to the waitress, saying in a clipped tone, "Thank you for the meal. They'll cover the tab."

With that, Aubrey stalked out of the foodhouse with her head and shoulders held proudly.

"Good going, Benny!" Redhair's voice drifted to her sharp ears. "You pissed her off again!"

'Benny''s reply was dry. "Not that she wasn't mad to begin with, of course."

Redhair spluttered. "Well, yes, but –"

"Shanks, even if it was for her own benefit, she's still mad about joining the crew. She's miserable aboard ship, and she just ends up wasting her energy swimming behind us. You should have spoken with Rayleigh-san before we left Saboady"

"He's right, as usual." The Sniper added. "She doesn't know you, like we all did, Senchou. Plus, she's a woman! I know Banchina would put up a hell of a fight, in Aubrey's place. Even if sailing with us gets her home and even helps her find her father, she might not trust us, since we didn't start on the right foot."

Sounding petulant (and as if he were finishing up what was left of her steak), Shanks added his rebuttal. "We show her the Wanted Poster that came out the day after we left Saboady. For a first bounty, it's incredible."

There was a sigh from the Darkhaired man. "'s not as if we can do anything about it now anyway, the damage is done. Even if we show her that, and explain the situation again, that's hardly going to make her feel any better."

Shanks' response was gruff. "What do you suggest we do, then? Take her back to Saboady, where she's a wanted criminal? Leave her on this island, until someone blabs to the Marines? She doesn't exactly have a lot of options, here! She's safest with us!" In a mumble that Aubrey almost missed, he added, "It'd be nice if she liked us, though."

Clenched fists shaking, Aubrey decided to use her ears for something else. If she didn't find something to hit soon, she felt like she might explode! This is why she'd joined an all-woman's guild!

_ * . * . * _

Hours later, and Aubrey felt that she could safely say that the rogues of the island were pathetic in comparison to those of the Lawless District on Saboady. Using her senses, she had sought each and every one of them out, and promptly started a fist fight. The local law enforcers had been too terrified to stop her – and besides, she was kinda doing them a favour. Shanks managed to find her just as she finished up her last 'bout' with a firm kick to the sternum, sending the would-be thug into a house.

"Aubrey-chan, is this where you've been this whole time?"

"I needed something to do. How long will we be on this island for?"

"It will take five days for the log to set." He suddenly looked very awkward. "Aubrey-chan, we'll be staying on the ship, but if you want a room in the hotel here, I'll pa –"

"No thanks." Aubrey interrupted. "I'll sleep in the forest. You can cover my food bill, though."

Shanks looked anxious at that. "Will you, uh, be eating as much as before?"

Aubrey snorted, before giving in to laughter at the look on his face. "Of course not! Today I was starving, that's not how much I normally eat!"

Shanks sighed in relief, before giving her a bright smile. "In that case, then please eat with all of us! Roux can cook something good for you, and we can all share a meal together!"

A memory of Risley on Aubrey's day at the guild sprung into her mind, at that.

This guild is like a family for many of us. Families eat together so that they can share their feelings and memories with each other. In this guild, we always eat at least lunch with everyone, so that we can laugh and cry and remember, altogether!

With thinned lips, Aubrey inclined her head, deep in thought. Even though she didn't like the circumstances that had brought them together, she had known for some time now that this man would influence her future – really, she shouldn't have been surprised to wake up on his ship, since for three years he'd asked her to come to sea with him.

"Sure… I'll eat with everyone…" She finally whispered.

Shanks sighed in relief. "Ah, that's great to hear! Oh, before we head back, this is your wanted posted. It came out the day after we left Saboady, but we didn't know how to tell y – "

"AIYI?!" She screeched, interrupting him.

The portrait showed her in full Dragon Force, eyes glowing an eerie white, set in a face lined with jade scales, white hair blown upwards, teeth bared in a snarl. The caption read as follows:

Aubrey the Dragonet

Wanted for destruction of property, attacking a Tenryuubito and an Admiral, and for lawful misconduct.

215, 000, 000 Belli Reward