Chapter 8: Raging Sea – Part II

On the deck…

It was almost dawn. The thunder was quite loud and lightnings were dreadful. The ship's mast was waved by the storm and could be break at any time. Captain Rodrigo ordered the sailors to drop the sails and fix the stuffs on the deck with ropes. The injured sailor was already in the clinic and Helen was bandaging him.

"Have you fixed the mainsail?" captain Rodrigo asked a sailor.

"The storm is too strong! we need more help." the sailor answered.

"Damn it! What should we do?" captain Rodrigo was confused about this since they didn't have enough members.

Suddenly, a voice was shouting, "I'll do that!"

Captain Rodrigo and the sailor turned around and saw Poney was carrying a bundle of ropes and standing behind them.

"I'm coming to help!" said Poney when she was binding the rope on her waist.

"You are so young! Don't toy with me!" the sailor saw Poney was a teenage girl and curled his upper lip in a show of scepticism.

"I'm not an ordinary person!" said Poney with confidence, "I also promised to help on deck, so please tell me how to do."

"All right." Said captain Rodrigo, "we now have to drop off the mainsail. Someone has to climb on the beam."

"Roger!" Poney answered.

At the same time, at the Capital City of the Empire

In a secret hallway at the imperial palace, Honest the Prime Minister was talking with General Esdeath.

"Hoho… General Esdeath, don't you really think I called you back is just for this huge fire?" said Honest with a usual sinister smile.

"Hum!" Esdeath was very unhappy with the Prime Minister's mystifying, so she gave him a cold shoulder.

"Hehe…" Honest smiled and opened a hidden door at a corner in front of them. They both went into that door. There was a dark and deep hallway behind the door.

"The reason I called you back is because some unasked guests will come." said Honest.

Few minutes later, they arrived at a large door and Esdeath was still confusing the meaning of the "unasked guests". She then finds the answer just after Honest opened the door.

"What is this thing!?" Esdeath was surprised about what she saw behind the door. It's a broken Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer in a large and bright factory building. The Star Destroyer was totally disabled but looked still aggressiveness. Many dead storm troopers, imperial officers, and admirals were lying on the ground next to the Star Destroyer with their modern technological equipment.

"Is…is this the cause of the fire?" Esdeath suddenly realized.

"You are right, General." said Honest. "Dr. Stylish sent all his new inventions and spent a long time to bring it here. It's too huge so we had to build this factory and give a curfew to the Captial City to keep it secret."

"Just think about it. How powerful a nation could be if it can create such a technological battle machine like this." said Honest with a usual sinister smile.

"Their technology must be much superior to us!" Esdeath was amazed. She then went next to a dead body which was covered by a sheet. Esdeath opened the sheet and saw an admiral in green uniform. She also saw the Galactic Empire insignia on the admiral's uniform and unable to identify. Esdeath also found some wounds on the admiral's body. She not only knows these wounds were caused by a kind of insect-typed danger beasts, but also know the owner of the insect.

"It's Oarburghs! I heard this organization was destroyed by the Assassination Division." Esdeath was surprised about this.

"Oarburghs have a lot of branches among the whole Empire. It's not a surprise if they have some survivors." Honest answered.

Esdeath also checked a storm trooper's body. She was attracted by the trooper's helmet and E-11 blaster rifle. They were much advanced than the weapons they have.

"I think I found how Oarburghs are going to avenge us." Esdeath said, "They attacked other nation's military and decide to shift the blame to us."

"That's the reason Captial City needs you." Honest said, "I believe the nation of this battle machine will come to visit us in a short period of time."

"Interesting!" Esdeath smiled. She was bored about the "Hero of the North" and cannot wait to fight with a stronger enemy.

"However, this nation is not the one I want you to fight." Honest broke Esdeath's wonderful dream. "I would like you to clean out an assassin organization called Night Raid. They often come out at night and disturb my dreams, Ogre the Imperial Police Captain, Zanku the Beheader, and Iokal my blood relative. They are unforgiven!"

"Hum! Why don't you ask this mysterious nation to clean out Night Raid for you?" Esdeath said angrily, "This nation has so powerful technique like this battle machine. They can kill them all within a fraction!" What Honest asked her to do made she felt humiliated.

"We have to keep the Captial City's safety, general. To make sure that none will be able to do harmful things to these guests." Honest said, "as I said before, this nation has advanced technology rather than us. If we can form an alliance with this nation, they will share their resources with us. You will also benefit from this, general." Honest advised Esdeath.

"All right…" Esdeath finally agreed, "prepare for me seven Teigu users and I will build a special team against Night Raid.

"As you wish, general." said Honest. He then suggested, "Dr. Stylish is doing research about this machine, let's go and see what he found."

Esdeath went closer to the Star Destroyer with Honest. By the time they arrived at the bottom of it, they saw Dr. Stylish came out of an entrance of the Star Destroyer. He was holding a plate and his face looked so excited.

"Hello doctor! Have you found anything new?" Honest asked.

"Prime Minister…" Dr. Stylish said with an amazing face, "you cannot image what I found in this strange thing!"

"What have you found?" Both Esdeath and Honest come closer and see what's on Dr. Stylish's plate. What they saw were some small, strange crystals shining different colors.

"How cute! What are these things?" Esdeath was amazed.

"I don't know." Dr. Stylish answered, "but these crystals are special. By the time I found them they were colorless. However, after a few minutes they began shining different colors. I found these crystals have some sort of energy. I also found they are living!"

"Interesting!" What Stylish said attracted Esdeath. She picked up a little crystal which size is like a young girl's thumb and had the same blue color as her hair carefully and took it in front of her eyes and watch it.

"General Esdeath!" Honest was shocked. He tried to warn Esdeath to be careful.

"Don't make a fuss!" Esdeath didn't like Honest's warning. "I can hear this crystal is calling me. It's the same kind of feeling when I got my Teigu. This crystal is blue, beautiful, and elegant like me! I will keep it as the reward for hunting down Night Raid."

"Impressive! Like what I thought, these crystals must have some connection to Teigu." Dr. Stylish said, "I will do some more research on them. Maybe I can find out how the Teigu was made."

Back to the ship

Poney and three sailors climbed on the first beam of the ship while many other sailors were pulling the ropes. The ship shook badly, and the rain made the canvas slippery. Poney and the sailors drop the two canvases of the mainsail with an immense effort, there's only one left.

"The top sail is on top of the beam. The place is narrow so only you can climb on. Are you brave enough?" A sailor asked Poney.

"Of course!" Poney answered.

"Then good luck." said the sailor.

Poney started climbing to the top of the beam. The storm was stronger, and the water struck the ship heavier. This made the ship heeling over to the right.

Poney finally caught the rope of the topsail. However, the rope was so tight that Poney was on able to untie it.

"Try to cut the rope with your knife! If it doesn't work, then cut the canvas!" A sailor shouted to Poney.

"Sure!" Poney pull out a knife which was bond on her chest and began cutting.

Since then, a door open and a boy came out with Helen. The boy's name is Cleante, he was the carpenter's apprentice of the ship.

"Helen, look!" Cleante point at the top of the beam.

"Oh, that's Poney!" Helen saw Poney was dropping off the canvas.

The ship shook so badly and Poney narrowly fall. She held the beam tightly which made her unable to move.

"This is not good!" Poney thought, she suddenly realized that the sailor told her that she can cut the canvas.

"I have no choice!" Poney was a little apologize. She then aimed at the canvas and threw her knife to it. The knife successfully cut the canvas and the huge wind teared it.

"That's enough! Just come back quickly!" The sailor shouted to Poney.

Poney looked at the sailor. The storm was too heavy, so she was unable to climb back. Poney thought a little and decided to jump into the sea.

"What are you doing!" the sailor was surprised when he saw Poney released the beam and jumped off.

"No!" Helen and a group of sailors shouted. They saw Poney fell from such a high place and dropped into the sea in like a cannon ball!

"Poney!" Helen went to the ship's border with a lot of people and tried to search for Poney. They looked around the surface of the sea worriedly.

Under the sea

"Hummm…" Poney opened her eyes difficultly and found she was at the bottom of the sea. Although the storm was heavy but it's quiet under the sea. Poney was a good swimmer and can hunt a lot of water-typed danger beasts. It's a piece of cake for her to swim to the surface of the sea.

Before Poney swam back to the ship she looked around and see if it's safe for the ship's sailing. She suddenly noticed a black shadow following behind the ship in half a mile. The black ship was about 80 meters length. It has cigar type body and two shining eyes. Poney also noticed that this monster's body cannot wriggle like the water-typed danger beasts she hunted before.

"What is that thing?" Poney was a little afraid. She then swam quickly to the surface of the sea.

Dear audiences, I am very very sorry. Sorry to update my writings so late. For the issues of COVID-19 and a lot of works to do. I was terribly busy before. Finally, I finished another three chapters and posted them together. The Dark Lord of Sith finally arrived at the planet of Akame Ga Kill! world and stated his new journey.