Time for the things that go bump in the night to meet a couple of ladies who do it a bit more…professionally.
Bounty Seven
Chapter Nineteen: Ghost Ship, Part Four
Adrian wasn't quite sure why, but she found herself thinking back to training. Maybe it was something to do with what separated her from what she was fighting, or trying to distract her from thinking too hard about, again, the thing she was fighting. Or, hell, maybe she was just daydreaming. Someone had tried to say that was good for concentration back at the school, a claim the instructor really hadn't appreciated.
Not that she was reminiscing about that – the association's tutoring had been alright, but it lacked that whole personal touch. She still had some marks on her from just howpersonal the old man used to get sometimes, and they helped more for memorization than anything the school's teachers tried. Probably why none of them ever really took a shine to her; what was the use of a pupil you couldn't make paranoid, right?
But anyway, the old man had had a lot to talk about when it came to Rokushiki. In his opinion (and Adrian had perhaps been a bit overly inclined to appreciate the merits of such a perspective), the fighting style was more than anything else about movement. On the ground, through the air, even over water, Rokushiki-users were easily the most flexible in a battle. Other martial artists could do some fancier tricks, sure, but in a fight the most important thing was being able to reach your opponent and put him down before he did the same to you. Everything else was just window dressing.
But the grass always looks greener when you're in a tight spot, and right now Adrian would sure have appreciated some heavier fire power. She still wasn't certain what this thing was, but survival of the fittest had apparently felt like giving it a body that could shrug off some of the finest assassin techniques in the world - a battleship cannonball might have done as much as she had so far.
To make matters worse, it understood something about movement too: namely that it didn't need air underwater while she did. Consequently its main strategy in the duel so far had been to try and drag her bodily underwater. Not a bad one, considering she'd be dead meat if that happened, but the hell if The Black Cat was going to praise every idiot that tried to kill. She had SOME standards, after all.
Backing away, cursing at how the walking wall filled almost all of the un-flooded area of the room, Adrian hopped from one foot to the other. She didn't dare stop moving - this thing could go from standing still to stampede in the blink of an eye, and trying to test her luck in a charge didn't seem like a wise idea for her health. Not to mention those tentacles; despite the damage they'd all done to them earlier, they were back in full strength now, and if nothing else the big guy had a good memory. All the Rankyakus she'd fired had only made it quickly leap into the water. He knew she couldn't follow him into there, too. If this kept up, he'd wear her down sooner or later.
But predictability was an assassin's bread and butter, and this tactic was the equivalent of knowing what coffee shop was your target's favorite after work, and what window seat they preferred to take. Hypothetically, anyway – that kind of situation was way too ideal for most jobs, and if there was a liquid this thing preferred, it probably wasn't coffee. She wasn't good with metaphors.
The squid advanced toward her, and Adrian did the opposite, leg lancing out to fire a Rankyaku. It had anticipated this, clearly, leaping away from the air blade and toward the water. What it hadn't anticipated, however, was its opponent using both legs, as the woman quickly landed and turned lightning-quick to strike out at the basin with her other. "Rankyaku; Nawa-Neko Kirite!"
As Dagon came down toward the water, and a brief time of lurking before striking out at the morsel once more, his eyes widened as he heard the sound of the water being disturbed, before he had even touched it. Not that the sounds were comparable to the cannonball splash that would have made. He looked down…
…and was hit in the gut as the Rankyaku that had skipped upon the water made one final leap up to him. Dagon groaned as he was flipped head over heels by the surprising force of the blow, allowing him a good view of his prey just as it ran underneath him.
"Rankyaku!"
Adrian grimaced, wrinkling her nose as the creature's foul, discoloured blood spewed forth from the wound, getting into her clothes and hair. "There's another trip to the cleaners, I guess…" That was always a problem for any assassin – some targets just didn't have the decency to bleed on their own stuff.
Flipping around, the Black Cat landed back on the water's surface, quickly bursting into a run again before physics could take hold. That Rankyaku had been powerful enough to send the squid flying back toward the dock, and he was far less graceful in mid-air than her. She sped up: a shot to the jaw aided by two different sources of momentum would mess up anyone, even whatever this guy was.
As Dagon spun around to face her again, though, Adrian could see he still had something up his sleeve. Well, his mouth, apparently, even if that was a pretty disgusting thought. The squid's throat had puffed up like a gecko's, and it quickly spat out the cause; a large glob of nasty-looking liquid. The stench from it was even worse than the thing's blood, but she had a feeling it wasn't just trying to make her smell bad.
Pulling sharply to the left, Adrian quickly found that the spit was just as firmly held together as any other loogie – in other words, not very. A few drops of it flew off and landed on her arm, producing some nasty hissing noises when it touched the bare flesh. Oh, and pain. Flesh melting tended to do that, after all. She quickly gave the water a particularly vicious kick, sending up water to splash at the wounded arm. That seemed to do the trick, but the little pause had given Dagon enough time to get back to solid ground. Quickly she kicked into a Geppou and flipped over, landing on its flank.
Blood from his jagged gut wound dripping to the floor, Dagon turned to Adrian and growled. She sneered in return, gesturing to herself in a way that was unheard of from prey of his race. The wound, while not serious, had angered him, but now he had had enough.
Letting out a deep bellow, he struck out with his tentacles all at once, sending them lashing forward to smash Adrian into the floor. She grinned. "Now we're talking!" Stamping her foot, she slipped into a Soru, dancing back and forth as the massive limbs pounded rapidly at spots she had just occupied a mere moment ago. One blow would disorientate the prey long enough for Dagon's other seven tentacles to seize them, and then it would all be over – but one blow seemed quite difficult to manage.
The undersea horror sped up its assault, but this form of attack simply hadn't been thought up for someone as fast and unpredictable as Adrian. When Dagon increased his speed, so did she, adding in Geppou to the routine while she was at it. "C'mon, c'mon, is that all ya got!" The assassin gradually slipped closer, while Dagon grew more frustrated at his inability to simply crush her. Slowly he sucked in his breath; the morsel had evaded his acid the last time, but now-
It grunted, nearly choking down on the corrosive spit it was building up as Adrian leapt out of the melee to smash it across the nose with a vicious downward kick. Dagon took one step backward only to rebound instantly, swinging across with one of his massive claws. Still laughing, Adrian swept into a cart-wheel, landing on the hand palms-first and sending one leg crashing into the squid's face.
Moving quickly from that position, Adrian pushed off into the air, launching a pair of Shigans into the hand (any little bit probably helped, with this guy) as she launched herself above him. "Geppou…"
"Kurohyou Zenshin!"
Dagon roared again as he was pushed into the floor momentarily, the splinter-ridden planks aggravating the slash in a way that would have left most normal humans curled up in pain for at least a moment or two. All it did for this beast was make him angrier.
Adrian smirked as he whirled around, roaring into her face as his tentacles rose threateningly. "What, you're gonna try that again? Not too quick on the uptake, are ya?"
Once again the tentacles began their barrage, and as before, The Black Cat began to dodge as casually as someone going for a Sunday stroll. It was such a simple attack pattern compared to what else she'd experienced firsthand that she didn't even need to put much thought into it. Just dodge, dodge…
Sizzle, sizzle. "W-what the-!" Adrian thought, biting back a scream as the melting sensation suddenly came to her again, from all over this time. Taking a long hop backward, she lifted her arm up to stare at it, eyes widening. More of the acid had already eaten its way through her jacket's sleeve to the skin underneath, and she could hear or feel more of it on the rest of her body, too.
Her eyes snapped up to Dagon's mouth, and then further up to his tentacles – currently dripping with the nasty fluid. With how wildly they moved, even if he couldn't hit her straight away the acid flying off them was sure to. The assassin's teeth came together as the burning grew worse all over. Stepping back further, she looked toward the water, sensing the creature's eyes on her as she did.
"So…" she thought slowly, "I can either take my chances in there, or sit here and melt up all nice and juicy."
Adrian looked back at Dagon, the smirk she'd worn now replaced with a frown. "You think you're gonna put The Black Cat in a squeeze, huh? No thanks."
Without hesitation, she threw herself into the water.
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Asakura threw herself blindly to the left, diving into a roll – or what would have been one if not for the shockwave that rent the air, colliding with her from behind. Tumbling gracelessly, the shinobi sprawled on the floor as the sound of ascending wings was heard.
"You know, for someone dressed like a bird, you suuuuuuuure are falling an awful lot." Elly chirped as she circled overhead. "If you ask me, a slug mask would be better!" While Asakura got back to her feet, she laughed. "Or maybe an earthworm – hey!" The parrot pulled aside hurriedly from a thrown kunai and glared downward at the masked woman. "Don't just interrupt me while I'm talking!"
Silently, the bird mask was turned up to look at Elly. Even with the mask, she could sense the glare directed toward her. "Not doing so would be impossible, I think?"
That comment, to excuse the pun, ruffled the undead's feathers a tad. "Excuse me! Oh, you've totally, positively had it, lady!"
"She is easy to anger, at least." Asakura thought with the same calmness as Elly made another dive. The events of the last few moments then repeated themselves: again, she attempted to dodge, and again the attack struck her without actually doing so. "But somehow I doubt tugging her emotions will be enough to carry me through this battle."
Looking up, she watched the bird ascend and circle around, now with bad grace in her flapping. The urchin had been smart enough not to give her much time to think, but such distractions were meaningless for a shinobi. Elly had chosen the area well – or, much more likely, had it chosen for her – given how she fought: the room was wide and open, with the only possible high ground being the perch in the center, and attempting to scale it would leave her even more open. How very vexing.
But with how Elly chose to attack, this was a problem that solved itself if you were careful. And she was. Standing up in a crouch, Asakura reached into her pouches and grasped hold of two kunai. Looking down, she watched the circling shadow, waiting patiently for it to come closer.
"You're not running anymore?" the girl crowed from above. "Thanks, that totally makes it easier for me!" The shadow paused briefly and then, with a flap of wings, went right for her. "Parrot Piker!"
The shinobi waited a moment or two further, and then leaped, drawing the kunai out of the pouches and throwing them in one fluid motion. Their targets were Elly's wings, spread out on either side of her.
The sight of impending danger did little to ruin the parrot's mood. "Is that it?" Elly didn't even need to change shape with her fruit; lifting her wings sharply was enough to let the knives pass by harmlessly. "See? Your attacks are totally-"
Her sentence was cut off by a pained squawk as Asakura's knee came up, striking her in the beak hard enough to snap it up toward the ceiling, as well as halt the dive completely. The shinobi wasn't done there, however, spinning right around from the blow to launch a roundhouse kick into Elly's feathered chest. The blow sent her hurling backward a short distance before gravity took over and she touched down, losing some feathers as she skidded across the floor.
"T…that wasn't supposed to happen…" Elly muttered wearily as her head spun. She lifted her head gingerly…and let out a panicky squawk as she flailed backward, narrowly avoiding the shuriken that thunked into the wood where she'd been laying. Changing back to her human form quickly, the ghostly girl flipped to her feet and moved away from the one who'd thrown it as fast as possible. She wasn't even watching where she was going, although that was likely meaningless for someone on their home turf.
Asakura followed at a calm walk. "Surrender. If you try to get back into the air, I will cut you down."
Elly continued edging backward, laughing nervously. "Hee hee…that would definitely be a pretty good threat if I weren't dead already, lady."
"Then why are you running?"
"Nooooo reason," she murmured, eyes flickering to the left ever-so-slightly, "except for this!" Suddenly, she dove completely to the left, arms outstretched.
Unfortunately for her, Asakura was used to far better feints than that. A throwing knife left her hand and sank into Elly's leg despite her movement. It was hardly a fatal blow, but it would certainly slow her down.
The girl herself apparently hadn't been told that, however. As she slid to a stop, Elly looked back and stuck out her tongue. "Stuuuuuupid! A little prick like that is nothing to someone from Captain Ripfang's crew! Isn't that right, Cap'n?" Underneath her there came a less-than-ominous creak before the planks underneath her flew upward, revealing the flopping spring hidden underneath.
Asakura's eyes widened behind her mask, and she turned to make a retreat of her own, running toward the perch. Falling to the floor, she felt the rush of air as Elly passed close by overhead, nearly taking her head off with a quick beak snap. As well as the thunk of the knife she'd thrown being tossed downward into her side.
"You sure really don't want to underestimate me, lady!" Elly said proudly as she ascended up the pole. "Cap'n doesn't keep a kid like me around just 'cause he's a nice fella!"
The shinobi got back to her feet, pulling the knife out with a swift tug. "This is…slightly humbling."
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Adrian felt the acid being washed away by the water almost immediately, but she didn't have much time to enjoy it thanks to the massive splash that came behind her one moment later. Turning sluggishly, Adrian struck out with a rankyaku, but Dagon slipped aside the slower projectile like an eel and snagged her around the leg with a tentacle. Gritting her teeth, the assassin kicked backward with the other, thrusting a shigan into the slimy surface as she did. Neither move panned out: the water seemed to multiply the tentacle's grip several times over, and it reacted to the attack like she'd just poked him with a pin.
Growling, the squid brought one massive hand back and sent it forward into Adrian's stomach with twice the speed such a blow would have had on land. Her body was hurled backward, but kept in Dagon's grip by the tentacle (making her arm feel like it was getting ripped out of its socket in the process) which promptly yanked her back to him.
"You're not using me like a yo-yo, dammit!" Adrian kicked forward as it tugged, launching a punch forward at the monster's face. If she could just rattle him for a second, breaking free would be a cake-walk. And better sooner than later – she'd been lucky so far, but her breath sure as hell wouldn't last forever.
Some of the assassin's hair strayed to the left and got in her eyes, at the same moment her fist swerved to the left. Both mishaps were caused by the water: what had once been silent and still was now churning, roaring this way and that. Adrian gulped her lips together, desperately trying to keep the current from sucking the air out between them. It was just delaying the inevitable, though. Water was already forcing its way down her throat, and Dagon, totally unaffected by the sudden tides, decided not to wait for it. Lashing out with two more tentacles, he wrapped the assassin around the waist and began to squeeze.
"Aw…-…"
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Siegfried glared at Ripfang, who was currently looking quite pleased with himself. "I see you don't have much faith in your subordinates."
He received a sneer in reply. "Funny thing about being dead, lad; ye realize a few things. Like 'playing fair is for suckers', fir instance." The skeleton paused at the look he got. "Well, bad example: I had a feeling about that one while I was alive, too!" Leaning back, he let out a peal of laughter, the joke not being all that funny not seeming to matter much for him.
"Well, it's nice to see the afterlife hasn't worried you much," Siegfried muttered, "but I'm afraid your confidence won't amount to much. It'll take more than cheap tricks to beat those two."
That apparently struck a nerve. "W…WHAT? What did you just say, boy?" One of Ripfang's ghostly eyes widened furiously, twitching, while his burning beard roared into new life, making his captive flinch at the heat. That wasn't foremost at Siegfried's mind, though: he felt the deck underneath him begin to buck and heave as the ghost stamped his peg-leg into the floor, snarling.
"Cheap tricks? Listen up, boy. Devil Fruits are cheap. MY powers are MAGNIFICENT! Straight from the depths of the underworld!"
He paused, breathing hard, and then grinned wide. "And you'll be seein' just how deep very soon, lad." Turning, he looked at the doorway for a moment before suddenly stamping again. "Well? Don't just stand there wearing out yer bones; come in!"
The doorway opened, revealing one of his skeleton crew, looking far more uneasy than a dead person ought to. "Er, uh," he gulped and steadied himself, assuming rightly that babbling wouldn't serve him well here, "we were about to begin preparing up top for the…" He cast a split-second glance toward Siegfried. "Just to let you know ahead of time."
Ripfang nodded, almost gleefully. "O'course. Showing initiative: I like that." He gave his captive a wide grin, and nodded. "I'll bring him up soon, don't worry your skull about it."
Nodding, the crew member left. Siegfried narrowed his eyes. "So, are you planning on leaving me in suspense for much longer? You'll be breaking the rules if you don't give me enough time to squirm in terror."
The old captain belted out his heavy laugh once more. "Ha ha ha…ah, I like ye, lad, I really do. It almost makes me feel bad about what I'm going to do to you – almost."
Siegfried didn't flinch. "Which is?"
Ripfang's smile grew. "O' course. But first…" He turned to the windows he'd made and gestured. Appearing to notice the psychic's grimace behind him, he chuckled. "Aye, I know what ye were doing, lad. A good show of ingenuity, but I ain't so easily distracted, sadly. Huh, I'd be a damned fool if I let my top mates get stomped over my temper, wouldn't I?"
Thunder rolled overhead as he stepped closer, speaking in a lower tone now. "It took me many years, lad, of sailing these dark seas. I didn't think me and me crew would ever escape from these foul waters. But at last, another of those gypsy vessels showed its face, and strayed just a bit too close." His eyes glinted. "They told me everything…eventually."
He allowed the statement to hang in the air a bit before continuing. "Instead o' that…horrible solution I mentioned before, there be another way to get outta here." Against all odds, the smile grew wider. "A loophole, ye might say."
:"They probably didn't imagine you'd ever find it." was Siegfried's two cents.
"Aye, I can't imagine." Ripfang said, nodding. "I doubt they ever imagined I'd turn their little trick into this, either." He waved a hook at the surrounding ship. "Just goes to show ye what happens when I be underestimated, eh?"
Suddenly he frowned. "But even with all this power, I still couldn't escape from here with it. What's the point of ruling an ocean if it's only a drop in a bigger one? I want more; I want it all!"
Siegfried found the hook thrust into his face. "And you'll be the one to help me do it, boy! Time works differently here, ye see, and it's coming up on midnight soon. At the stroke of the new dawn, my powers are at their strongest – strong enough to force my soul into another landlubber's body! YOURS!"
The captive bounty hunter flinched. Not just his body, but entire being shrank away at the idea. Perhaps it was his powers to blame, but he could tell that the ghost meant it completely. "…how?" He said after a few long moments.
Ripfang grinned. "Oh, ye'll find out – very soon."
"…so you don't actually know, then." Siegfried said, all horror collapsing into a frown.
"I-I do too!" the ghost cried, stamping his foot. "They told me everything about it! S-sure, things might have been a bit…vague in a few wee places, but-"
The brunette furrowed his brow. "And furthermore, you clearly haven't tested this out for yourself. I wonder why?" He paused, and in a furtive tone, added, "The great Captain Ripfang couldn't be…scared of something going wrong?"
"Shut up!" Ripfang leaned in even closer, getting right in his face. "You want to lie there and tell me about fear, boy? When have you ever been afraid – not the wee shivers of a babe, but true terror, that kind that steals through your bones and freezes your heart." His voice was quiet and savage, ghostly breath practically forming frost on Siegfried's cheeks. "Do you know about that sort of terror, bo-"
The ghost's head snapped back as though he'd taken a swift uppercut to the jaw. Before he could think or do anything in reply to the sudden, invisible blow, another was directed at his chest, driving him back to the far side of the room bent double. Gasping for breath, or at least the spiritual equivalent, for a few moments, Ripfang looked up to see Siegfried giving him a glare that made his previous one look like minor irritation.
"Don't talk to me about that like you know everything again, Captain. I mean it."
Ripfang could only stare dumbly, as the aura that made up his current existence shuddered like a torch in the wind. He sputtered for a moment or two, searching in vain for a retort, before gathering himself up (and not metaphorically) and glaring. "We'll see how brave you are soon, lad." It was a mediocre retort, all told, but did that even really matter? He could yell all he liked after they'd swapped bodies; there'd be just be no-one to listen. Really, who did the lad think he was, trying to threaten Ripfang Northwind? T-that hadn't a guppy's chance in a shark pool o' working!
Siegfried let out a quiet sigh. "Temper, temper: what would Heinrich say if he saw me being that wasteful? Do you want to make it easier for him to take your mind?"
His mind said back, quite succinctly, that
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"Man…you always hear about guys being 'slippery as an eel', and then when you actually fight a fish, it all turns out to be crap…" Adrian's cheeks strained to open rather than burst, and she bit down the urge with all her might. It was definitely easier than keeping the big lug from wringing her neck like a wet noodle, which he'd been pretty -ing enthusiastic about all-told. Enough to ignore a few kicks that would have turned a human's knees into jelly in seconds, anyway.
Not that she could do much about it, especially with this stupid…current…"Eh?"
The pressure and the pulling she'd felt all over since this little water ride had begun abruptly started to fade, along with their cause. Dagon left off trying to strangle her for a moment and peered around, confused, as the pool settled. Apparently this was out of the ordinary; maybe something had busted. Did spooky ghost ships have plumbing?
Whatever it was, Adrian couldn't really care less, but she wasn't about to let an opportunity like this slip away. While the squid's attention was distracted, she suddenly flexed with a quick burst of strength, loosening his tentacles' grip. Not nearly enough for her to get away, but more than enough to allow her to kick forward and get in close to the monster himself. She only had time for one attack – it had to count. Fortunately, as freaky as this guy was, he was still (probably) a merman, and up close they had one big weakness…
Dagon flinched, then began to thrash and buck as a sharp, lancing pain entered possibly his most vulnerable spot: the gills on one side of his neck. "Gotcha," the assassin grinned, "no matter where you bastards are on the evolution chain, getting your gills plugged hurts like hell, right?" Quietly she shoved the thought of what would happen if that happened to not be the case this time. Just hypothetical crap, that was all.
Sure enough, as the squid's shrieking continued, his tentacle's strong grip loosened. Adrian pushed herself free and swam for the surface, leaving him to choke on a rapidly growing cloud of red. His confusion didn't last for very long, though, and she quickly heard the sounds of pursuit coming from behind. Far too late, though. Bursting out of the water, Adrian flipped, landing gratefully back on solid ground.
Not that she had any time to spend celebrating. Turning, she eyed the water carefully, hands twitching at her sides. The first bubble that popped up was getting a rankyanku, even if it from a fart. But, unsettlingly, nothing happened for a long, long moment. "…okay, what the hell? No way I hurt him that bad."
But whatever the reason for it, it seemed the monster wouldn't be reappearing. Adrian waited a few more moments and then shrugged, looking a little disappointed. "What, was he bored? Shit, if you're gonna run away, do it at the start instead of wasting my time." Turning, she made for the entrance. There had to be some way out of this stupid basement.
The crash that came next practically shook the whole room. Whirling around, Adrian scanned the space intently, but saw nothing. "Okay, what the hell was-" She pricked up her ears as a muffled sound reached her from underneath the water. The assassin had been on boats long enough in her life (nobody ever expected to get whacked on a cruise) to recognize it for what it was. The water in the pool slowly rising was a pretty big hint, too.
"Crazy bastard punched a hole in his own ship!" It had to have been a big one, too: the water was already wetting the dock's surface. However, something else occurred to Adrian one moment later. "…can ghost ships even sink, though? No, wait, before that I should ask how he was able to make the hole in the first place…this is pretty dumb."
Well, he could break stuff all he felt like, but if he really thought she was gonna stick around and drown, mermen really were as dumb as people liked to say. Turning around, she moved toward the door again. Or, as the case was now, the patch of blank wall where the door had once been. "…huh. I guess that's one way to do it."
The water was around her ankles now, and rising. Trying to keep the equally rising panic down, she looked up at the ceiling. It would be a little while before it got up there, but unless another exit magically appeared there it'd only be delaying the inevitable. Besides, that would be being a chicken – and it would take more than a two-bit haunted house and its attack dog to make her do that.
Still, Adrian had to admit, it didn't look good. Maybe she'd pushed her luck a bit too much naming herself after a symbol of the bad kind. No way it could be anything else, right? She felt her pockets for a second, and then nearly smacked herself. "Yeah, enjoy a cigarette for what, one minute? Terrific idea, girl." Looking down at the circling shadow, the young woman growled. "Alright: come on anytime, squidface. You're going to need a cargo full of antacid if you want me to go down easy!"
"That's kind of a lame line."
"Well, yeah, but let's see you – hey, wait a sec!"
Whirling around, Adrian found the smart mouth instantly…although maybe 'smart bone' would be a better description. Leaning against a new opening in the far wall, he regarded the catty fighter with a far more casual air than she'd seen from anyone on this ship with that complexion. "Evening, sir. You seem to be in a bit of a predicament, if I do say so myself. Don't suppose you could use a hand? Or a bone of one, anyway."
Adrian stared, thinking quickly. The thought of it being a trick had crossed her mind even before the guy had finished talking, but fooling someone into getting out of the flooding basement? It wouldn't be the most pointless faint she'd ever seen, but it'd be close. Besides, you only ever got stuff like that from gloaters, and he didn't seem like one. Call it fe…well, no, don't call it that, but she could tell.
She approached, glaring. "If this is a trick, I'm gonna make you wish you…hadn't…died."
The skeleton stared. "Yep, I'll sure keep that in mind."
"Shaddup!" Pushing him aside, Adrian stalked into the passage. The bone man rolled his eye sockets before quickly shutting the passage behind him. As soon as he had, the wall looked as though it had never had the opening in the first place. A few moments later, there came a massive splash from the room behind them, and then a furious roar that practically shook the hidden passage.
"Bark away, you walking sushi bar."
"That one was a little better."
"What'd I just say!"
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"This is…becoming tiresome."
Flighty and childish though she was, the girl was proving to be a dangerous opponent in the long-term. She had smartened up after her near-defeat, and now made certain not to take any chances, and capitalized on every opportunity she could. The result, as of now, was that while Elly had dodged every projectile she'd thrown since ascending back into the air, Asakura bore several new wounds from the parrot's dives and passes. And this was her at full strength; when fatigue set in the battle would be all but over.
"Huh, what's wrong?" Elly chirped from above as she circled the wounded shinobi. "Don't tell me you're totally, definitely done already?"
Behind her mask, Asakura allowed herself a glower. She would gladly accept defeat if it came – there was no-one to blame but herself in that case – but receiving it from someone like this…"Is not going to happen."
Retrieving a kunai and a shuriken from her pouches (she had dropped their predecessors after a previous run from Elly, and there was no point in retrieving them), she held them at her sides, awaiting the next attack intently. She did not have to wait long. Spiraling down out of the rafters, the parrot-girl opened her talons and beak. "Eat this, you nothing nincompoop! Polly Corkscrew!"
The spin increased in speed, practically becoming a drill of green and yellow. Asakura retreated, but frowned; with as flexible as Elly had shown herself to be in the air dodging did not seem likely. Quickly tossing the shuriken at the oncoming bird (and not reacting with much surprise when it was completely deflected), she produced a second kunai and brought them up before the colorful missile hit her head-on.
No weapon that came out of Konoha was given any less than the finest blacksmithing attention available, but this could only go so far – especially when you were attempting to block a transformed Zoan's strike with mere knives. Asakura was thrown off her feet by the force of it, and received a nasty jolt to both arms that ran through the weapons, nearly hurling them out of her grasp. But she held on, and managed to avoid getting gored by the beak or raked by the talons. Rolling the instant she hit the floor, the shinobi flipped to her feet and watched the parrot ascend. She contemplated throwing the kunai, but thought better of it: the pouches were growing thin as it was.
"Hahahahahaha! You're really not very quick on the uptake at all, are you, Miss Mask?" Elly crowed as she flew overhead. If nothing else, her attacks had a noticeable pause in-between each one. No doubt she intended for the long pause to make her grow apprehensive. She was quite mistaken in that belief – instead, it gave her time to think…a good thing, considering how elusive a clear answer was to this situation.
So caught up in her thoughts was the masked woman that she failed to notice the voice coming from below until the floorboards shook, nearly knocking her over. "Hey, are you listening, Birdie! I thought it was bats who were s'posed to be deaf?"
"That's blind, actually. Bats have very good-"
"Shut up."
Only one person had a voice like that. Asakura cast a quick glance upward, but Elly appeared not to have heard. "Is that you, Assassin?"
"Who the - else would it be? Listen up: there's a hidden passage under here that can take us straight to Siegfried, but this guy doesn't want to get in trouble. Could you knock whoever you're fighting out or something?"
The casual tone of the question made her eyebrow twitch. "Incapacitate my foe? What a novel idea; I shall have to try it."
"Yeah, right, exactly."
Asakura tightened her grip on the weapons for a moment. "Very well…I may have a method of doing that. But you must be quiet; this will take concentration."
"More of your voodoo stuff? Whatever floats your boat."
Her words fell on deaf ears. The shinobi had already shut out outside noise…perhaps a bit too much, considering the simplicity of the technique she was about to use, but the use of it far less so. Her impish opponent had already shown herself to be quite skilled at dodging thrown weapons, and the target Asakura was going to aim for was certainly the most difficult of those available. It would take focus, and knowing where exactly how to throw.
As she returned her weapons and retrieved another, she shut her literal eyes tightly, thinking back to the parrot's previous attacks. Even after Elly swooped, there was time enough for her to ascend if it seemed dangerous to go further. The proper time to attack, then, was just before she was struck herself; a risky strategy, but one with the closest chance of success. "I am sure my instructors would not approve…but they are not here at present."
Slowly, she made the signs for her technique on her free hand, trying to keep both it and the new weapon out of the ghost girl's view. A parrot's vision was not as great as an eagle's, but still powerful enough to see such things from above. Hopefully Elly's flighty attitude and this ability would counteract each-other – she was owed some luck at least once, surely? Wind gradually began to build up around the weapon's end as the shadow overhead circled slowly, coming closer with each pass. "I hope you're really, definitely ready to lose, lady! This next move will defeat you for sure; I'll bet a million, no, two million beri on it!"
…silencing the urchin was all the more incentive to make this strike a successful one. Asakura ignored her and continued focusing her chakra, standing motionlessly: a helpless, inviting target for anyone without much perception. Which, as it turned out, Elly was. "Oh, so you give up? That really makes my job posi-lutely easy!Thanks!"
Asakura ignored the high-pitched taunt, continuing to concentrate on the technique at hand. Wind continued to gather around the weapon she held, practically making a miniature storm around it. That was enough; anything further would risk Elly veering off at the last moment. Besides – the power behind it was more than enough to end the fight now, at least temporarily.
Abruptly, the shadow once again split off, racing across the remaining distance within a moment. "This fight is super-totally all over, lady! Parakeet…"
"Just a moment…just a moment more…"
One moment before she reached Asakura, Elly suddenly pulled straight up, spread her wings, and dropped almost straight down. "BOMBER!"
So, her fate was to be crushed, then? Sadly, she would have to decline that opportunity. Bringing her arm low, the shinobi threw the weapon she held in a strong upward throw toward her opponent. At the same time, the wind that had been gathered burst, propelling the weapon forward like a cannon-shot. "Kaze no Ninjitsu; Kaze Taihou!"
Taking the recoil and using it to roll out of the way, Asakura watched as the massive parrot tumbled beak over tail-feathers before crumpling to the floor. If she were as childish as her foe, she might have waited for smaller ones to start circling around her. "….owwwwwwww…." Elly moaned, her own eyes circling just as much – and more importantly, facing the floor. A large bruise was present on her beak now; a very natural wound when you were hit with a hammer. Stooping to grab it, she lingered to listen perhaps a moment longer than necessary, and turned to jump down the hatch the second it opened.
A long few moments later, Elly rose slowly, swaying on her talons as she tried to sound threatening. "Y-y-you think you can do that to meeeeeee, you dumb faaaaalcon...I'm gonna…gonna teach you what happens when you m-mess with a parrot." Swiveling around, the look-out found her threat was a bit deflated by the annoying grown-up being nowhere to be seen...she hadn't gotten hit that hard, had she? It was only a little hammer!
Taking to the air as quick as her dizzied head would allow, she looked around the room, but saw nothing. Slowly, she let out a gulp. "Uhhhhhh…Captain's definitely sure not gonna be too happy about this, is he?"
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"Yo," Adrian said as Asakura hopped down, "nice to see you're not completely dead, Birdie. Not like I'm one to talk, though, heh."
Even a master poker player would have envied the other woman's expression. "Indeed. I assume you were forced into fighting an officer as well?"
"Bingo; that damn squid. I nearly had him, too, 'till this dude got in the way."
Bob had been around Captain Ripfang enough to know when not to question something. "Yep, that's me," he said to the ladies of the night when they both turned to him, "I thought I'd give him a hand, since it looked to my untrained eye like he was in a bit of a predicament. Awfully sorry for getting confused."
Adrian nodded firmly. "Yeah, that kind of mistake happens a lot with untrained people like you. No harm done, just don't let it happen again."
Asakura, on the other hand, gave the skeleton a look of suspicion. "But why?" she asked, hands close to her pouches. "You are a member of this crew, after all."
"Heh, heh, I guess that's pretty obvious, ain't it?" Bob said with a chuckle. "But look," his voice grew serious, "just 'cause I'm on this ship doesn't mean I'm really a part of his crew, or at least not by choice. Think about it – everybody on this ship is dead, right? So how do you think the Captain gets new recruits: sways 'em with all the perks of being a damn bag of bones?"
A moment's thought later, the assassin's mouth twisted in disgust. "Son of a – that's disgusting! What the hell right does he have to go playing around with the dead!"
Asakura gave her companion a brief glance of surprise, but held largely the same expression. "This is more serious than we first thought, then. With such an ability at his disposal, if left unchecked this vessel could become a threat to the entire Grand Line."
"Not to mention all of the Blues, either." Adrian added. She turned back to Bob. "That's why you helped both of us out, right? You want us to bust this Ripwhatever guy up for you."
The skeleton swabbie nodded nervously. "Yeah, that's about the long and short of it. I just figured, hey, you two seem pretty strong, and you're here anyway to rescue that fella the Captain has hostage, so we can help each-other out, right?" He shrugged.
The Black Cat nodded firmly before Asakura had a chance to reply. "Hell yeah we can. I want to beat that bastard's head in already, and I haven't even met him yet!"
Beside her, the shinobi gave a small sigh and said, "For once, I must agree. With as elusive as this ship is, there is no telling when another chance to defeat it will present itself to anyone. We must act now."
Even in the face of the answers, Bob looked uneasy. "Uh, I appreciate you saying yes so soon, but are you two really sure about this? Ripfang was one of the most dangerous pirates on the seas in his day, and he's only gotten worse as a ghost. Death has made him crazier than a giant barrel of sea monkeys; he'll as soon stab you as look at you!"
"So? I meet guys like that all the time." Adrian paused. "Okay, usually they're already dead, but-"
"It is irrelevant in any case." Asakura interjected, quickly derailing that train of thought. "I greatly doubt we will be able to negotiate for Siegfried's release or escape covertly now. A fight with him will happen regardless of our wishes." She tried to ignore Adrian rolling her eyes off to the side.
Bob nodded. "You're right there – us dissenters could barely make this passage in the boat without him noticing. But come on, we're wasting too much time jawing here. Follow me," he set off down the dark passage, "this tunnel can't go anywhere, but I can take you pretty close to where your friend is held hostage. You'll have to take care of the rest, if you catch my meaning."
In the darkness, Adrian grinned. "I couldn't be more ready: there's nothing better than giving the boss a good sock in the mouth after dealing with his goons for so long, eh?"
"…" Asakura nodded slightly. "I must admit, facing a different opponent does have a certain appeal now."
"See, now you're getting it." The black-haired woman said, slotted eyes flashing. "We're gonna show ol' cross-bones just who not to mess with in these parts! Heh, nobody messes with Sieg but us, right?"
The shinobi paused for a long moment.
"…What? I said us!
To be continued…
Next time, on Bounty Seven…
Dagon: *bellow*
Adrian: Fighting the same guy all over again sounds pretty boring to me.
Siegfried: There's no need. I have a plan.
Ghost Ship, Part 5
Ripfang: I'll show ye all…the true power o' this vessel.
I've decided to stop doing the attack descriptions, since, really, it's pretty obvious what they're meant to do in the narrative, isn't it? I'll still translate their meanings, though.
Rankyaku; Nawa-Neko Kirite – Japanese for 'Skipping Cat Cutter'.
Disciple of Bob – Well, glad I could get a new reader, Bob; lately it's just been the usual suspects it seems like. Yeah, I definitely agree about that. There hasn't been a single bounty hunter yet in canon that's been anything more than a punching bag. I even did that once in Skull Pirates. So I'm hoping I can give them a better reputation in these stories with this one, even if the hero isn't quite a genuine one.
I also wanted to make his personality a bit different, as well, since the idiot hero thing is kind of played out in fanfics, especially when Luffy does it so well already. And, actually, I did first create him and his group (in a different form) as a group of major arc villains. But he grew too developed for his own good, and I couldn't very well just confine him to one bit of the story. So here we are.
And yeah, I pretty much intended for Gaikan to be a punk: not scary, not skilled, not really much of anything. Nor did I really intend it as a mystery; there were only four named characters on the boat at the time, and none of them would have any motive for it. Rest assured, later opponents that come gunning for Asakura will have more bite to them. And uh, that's neat I suppose. I didn't really imagine her being voiced by Jennifer Hale, at least.
I basically did create Adrian with having some comic relief in mind, even if she's one of the main fighters. The person that'll be joining next will also be a personality they kind of need. I'll definitely be trying to make her opponents just as crazy as in the game, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to match Suda in insanity.
Next to One Piece, Monkey Island is probably the best pirate-related form of media I've ever experienced. It's got so many great things in it that I'm surprised it hasn't gotten referenced somehow in the manga yet, really. Who knows, maybe in later arcs I'll have the chance to pay tribute to the other games in the series, if you catch my drift.
OPFan – Well, depends: by 'soon' do you mean after you read it, or after I posted the last chapter? The first one is actually sort of true considering my schedule. And yeah, I had a lot of fun writing his dialogue too.
Well, this chapter looked a lot longer while I was writing it, and I suppose there's no real excuse for it taking so long. I could simply come to terms that this is how I update, but that's not totally fair to you, is it? I'm going to look into some methods I could use to get chapters out faster, and hopefully they'll pan out. But until next time (which will hopefully be this year), see you guys.