It took all of an hour for Rin and company to realize that navigating their way back to the village would be far easier planning than carrying out. Even Makoto, for all his careful observation of the terrain, was struggling to orient himself once ground-side.

As though their luck wasn't running poorly enough, the locals had certainly taken their time in constructing a more formidable defensive perimeter. A wall of stakes was there to greet them when Rin shimmied through the dirt and dead leaves on his stomach, Nagisa trying to silence hysterical giggles behind him.

Being the smallest of their ragtag group it should have naturally fallen to Nagisa to dig out a hole beneath the pikes, keeping a weather eye out for any patrols around the encampment; seeing as he balked at the prospect and looked to be winding up to an impressive tantrum, Rin took the lead instead. Whatever had so terrified Nagisa when he was aboard ship, it had put him horribly out of sorts now that they were on land.

"Sentry to your left, twenty-six paces." Nagisa managed to gasp out, clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle his unwilling convulsions.

"I see him. Makoto, you want to circle around and come in to his left?"

"I stay with you." Mako's tone brooked no argument, low and steady, dead certain Rin wouldn't countermand him. This once he was wrong.

"Nagisa's with me, you're circling 'round. Now." Sometimes Rin himself hardly remembered that he was the captain of this crew, but only fools disobeyed him when he chose to exercise the full breadth of his power.

Makoto was not a fool, but he was not a coward either. Rin knew he would obey- Mako would never cost him face in front of anyone else for all the power games they played behind closed doors- Rin swore he could feel the heat of Makoto's displeasure in his scathing tone though.

"Aye, captain."

There was hardly so much as a rustle to mark his passing, yet Rin knew he had gone. Makoto always brought stillness with him, the feeling of calm in the eye of a storm; with him gone, Rin was painfully aware of every shift of fabric in dirt, every insect chirp and the eerie whistle of the wind through trees. It all seemed unbearably loud; how had the sentries not spotted them lying here?

Twenty paces, eighteen… if this unfortunate came within a half dozen paces the game would be up; the slightest catch in his tread would warn the others something was amiss. Rin was prepared to admit his pride might need a little checking.

Thump.

Fifteen paces and their foe was efficiently decommissioned, Makoto scrambling up to take his place. Rin slipped from hiding and fell into step beside him, motioning to Nagisa to fall in behind.

"Part here. Find the hut, meet at the farthest corner of the barrier in ten minutes. If we can't find it in that time we're getting out anyway." Rin directed his words over his shoulder to Nagisa, locking eyes with Makoto to be sure he understood the order applied to him as well.

"Yessir." Nagisa melted into the darkness, leaving them alone once more.

"Take your own advice, Rin. Make this quick and clean."

"Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs; I was liberating merchant's goods while you were still entertaining your pretty soldiers."

"Do these look like merchants to you?" He was gone before Rin could think of a suitably witty response. Typical.

Rin stalked the perimeter, keeping a weather eye on the men across the way, presumably set to watch the camp. This was not a warlike tribe, he was certain; these rank novices never varied in their paces, only scanned the horizon, pausing now and then when a small animal darted through the underbrush.

Rei would never allow even one of them to take a shift on his watch. Feeling cheeky, Rin nodded to the nearest man, flashing a grin in the darkness and receiving one in return; Mako would not approve, but Mako wasn't here to say so. Besides, what good was it to be captain if he couldn't bend his own rules every once in a while?

He just about jumped out of his skin when a firm hand clamped on his shoulder and hauled him bodily from his post. Mindful of causing a racket, he confined his resistance to a muted snarl and a judicious application of his elbow- the answering wheeze was enough to confirm the identity of his assailant.

"I swear, Nagisa, you had better be on your best behavior for a month to make up for the amount of fuckery you have pulled today."

"I know where they are."

Rin turned slowly, taking in the wide eyes and tight jaw of his fearless gunner. His body screamed abject terror now.

"Who and where?"

"The missing." Nagisa hissed, uncharacteristically intense. "They're after our ship."

"We reckoned that. Rei is in charge, nothing untoward will happen."

"But the dinghy. We left it ashore- if they-"

Shit. "Get Makoto and get out. Forget anything else and move."

Nagisa took off like a shot, leaving Rin alone in the darkness once more. With effort, he managed to take up his old post, valiantly resisting the urge to glance over his shoulder constantly.

He had well and truly fouled the mix this time; the past month had been an exercise in poor decision-making, but a mistake of this caliber might well cost him his ship. After all he had surrendered to acquire it, that wasn't a price Rin was willing to pay. He stalked around the barricade once more, surrendering to the impulse that urged him to scan the scattered huts for signs of Mako and Nagisa. What the hell was taking them so long? What part of "Get Out" had been unclear?

"Watch the forest not the camp, fool."

Rin snapped to attention, fixing his eyes back on the forest and offering a silent prayer of thanks to whatever crooked deity had taken such a shine to him. Red hair was not a common trait, here or anywhere. That no one had noticed his glaring predicament in the failing light was nothing short of a miracle.

Or a trap.

Skin crawling and hair prickling, Rin stoutly maintained his watch; if those idiots hadn't joined him in precisely… six minutes, he was going to find them and drag them out of this mousetrap by their ears- kicking and howling if he had to.

Fortunately it did not come to that, as he passed the place where they had dug their narrow hole in the makeshift palisade, he felt a phantom brush of fingers across his ankle and glanced down just in time to see Mako yanking his hand back as though it had been burned.

"I'll circle once more. Let me know when it's clear."

"It's clear now. Get down before the watchman decides to check the trove."

"You took something after I told you not to? Your insubordination is getting out of hand-"

As if to put a fine tip on the point, Mako seized Rin's ankles and heaved bodily, sending him crashing to the ground in a flurry of limbs and knocking the air out of his lungs so that he lay gasping like a fish on land. The imagery wasn't too far off the mark- and someone had deigned to take notice.

"Rin, move!"

A panicked shout rang out across the encampment and damned if the area wasn't swarmed with villagers scurrying around and frantically demanding orders. Not one of them was certain who their immediate superior should be, and those few seconds of indecision were all it took for Rin to scramble through the gap, still trying to suck in a breath of life-giving air and clinging to Mako for support as he struggled to run. Nagisa took the vanguard, already loading his pistol with a dexterity born of long practice.

Rin offered thanks to his crooked deity again; of the few poor choices he had made as a captain, choosing his crew was not among them. Every last one knew their function in a time of emergency and could carry out their appointed tasks even drunk out of their minds and half-asleep to boot- he knew it from bitter experience, and it was a memory he treasured. These children milled about like chickens with their heads cut off, wasting more time just devising a way to get out of their self-made prison than it had taken to find a way in.

"You breathing, Rin?" Mako wasn't even panting, though his tone was colored with worry.

"Yes, you mutineering scum. You aren't captain yet." Rin gasped out.

Mako's nearly manic laughter brought a reluctant smile to his lips. "Small mercies, captain."

The sharp report of Nagisa's pistol firing brought them up short, lending a burst of speed to their unsteady legs. A steady stream of creative profanity warned them he hadn't made the shot. Even Nagisa, expert marksman that he was, could hardly hit a moving target at night and on the run.

"Nagisa, run now, shoot when we have the advantage."

"They're gaining, we're lost. Steep disadvantages."

"Save your breath for running, both of you." Mako barked out, "Don't look behind."

What should have been a ten minute run to shore soon became twenty of aimless sprinting, muffled curses and the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps behind them. The terrain was unfamiliar and their legs were accustomed to the churning of the sea, hardly the adamant ground. Rin gave a shout of wondering disbelief when he finally spotted the last few, scraggly trees of the thinning forest. They had nearly made it, and their pursuers were nearly neck and neck, disconcertingly silent and focused on their prey.

If they were caught again, it would likely mean death. Treachery did have a way of making people less inclined to clemency. Particularly when one's first mate was wearing a shiny, new necklace he had pilfered from their stock and an unrepentant grin that said he would do it again if left alone for more than a moment.

When they finally broke through to shore, panting and heaving with a combination of exertion and desperation, the dinghy was gone.

Fuck. Had they scuttled her? Could it have drifted on the tide? In the end it didn't matter; the dinghy was gone and even had it been present they would not have had the time to make use of it.

Rin could feel Mako's knees buckle and knew he had arrived at the same conclusion.

"Nearly there, Mako. We have to do this." Mako reached out to grab his wrist, blunt nails sinking into already damaged flesh. This would not be easy for him by any means, but Rin hoped he could put aside his fear for the time it would take them to make the ship and call up for a rope.

"Rin-" Voice strangled, Makoto released the hand he'd taken captive; when their bare feet hit the surf, whatever he had meant to say was lost.

Water was their element, every caprice known to them after long years spent navigating the sea. Like any who dared to make a life shipboard they knew her to be a treacherous mistress- Mako knew it better than most. To subject him to this now, after promising so long ago that it would never happen again-

Rin owed him a debt for this, and it only grew steeper the farther they advanced.

By the time the water rose to their waists he was beginning to pant in earnest, visibly fighting off his innate reluctance. Mako was by no means new to this, he knew how to navigate the tide and the danger of undertow, but to thrust him into it so suddenly was a risky proposition at best.

Rin didn't dare glance behind them to see if any continued the pursuit. The lack of splashing footsteps indicated not, but neither could they turn back to shore. Nagisa was spitting and swearing, bemoaning the loss of his gunpowder, but Rin could hear no more than ragged breathing from Mako's quarter, an occasional sputter when the bitter salt water flowed over his lips.

They swam quickly and in silence, as near to each other as they dared, but never once did Rin glance to Mako.

!

!

!

Rei set aside his spyglass, keeping his eyes fixed on the horizon; the frigate was visible now even without its aid.

"It must have had a good headwind to cover so much distance in this time." He jumped with surprise, wincing when he realized he had quite literally frightened himself with his own musing. Truly it was a wonder Nagisa tolerated him at all, absent-minded twit that he could be.

That ship was by far the more pressing concern though. The frigate was a better class of vessel than their own barque- at least it was if it ever came down to a confrontation. Anywhere from twenty guns to thirty, and certainly more than the eight Rin had permitted his ship to be outfitted with. The others had been long since decommissioned. They would have to be swift to outmaneuver that ship, and with the sails still damaged and wood-rot in a few highly strategic places, Rei wasn't sure they could muster the turn of speed that would permit escape.

It was only a matter of time before they were caught, and that time was drawing ever nearer while the captain applied his skills to seeking vengeance for a slight he had richly deserved… and there was the tattered remains of Rei's upbringing raring its ugly head. Two years aboard the Samenoe and he had not been able to discard what a childhood of carefully nurtured propriety had wrought in him. Rei did not delude himself that he was any sort of pirate, despite his position aboard this ship.

He turned at the sound of light steps making their way across the deck to his post.

"N-Nitori." He stuttered, remembering the disastrous encounter over supper. Disastrous to his mind, at least, he could feel a blush of shame painting his ears pink with shame. Really, he shouldn't allow Nagisa's preferences to govern his conduct with the rest of the crew… to gossip, and worse yet be caught at it by the object of their speculation, was humiliating.

Rei straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat, a half-formed apology rising to his lips. "I wanted to apologize for my conduct earlier this evening. It was not my place to speculate-" His throat was too dry to continue; he dipped into a graceful bow, hoping it would convey his meaning without appearing too obsequious.

Nitori strode to his side, glancing out to the ship in the distance. "It's far closer now." He squinted, "But still just beyond my sight. How is it that you don't need your spyglass?"

Unsettled by the turn of the conversation, it took Rei a few moments to respond. Nitori waited patiently, no judgment or ire reflected in his pale eyes.

"I have always had exceptional vision-"

"And yet I have seen you squint to read the maps set just before your face, and you have used more willowbark this past month than any of the others combined."

"A consequence of seeing so far, I suppose. My eyes tire easily."

Nitori shook his head, stepping closer in a movement too quick for Rei to track."I think it is less a matter of fatigue and more of focus. You have hyperopia."

"I- Beg pardon?"

"It is nothing that need concern you. If I had the materials to hand, I could fashion spectacles to remove the problem entirely. Perhaps the next time we make land I could find them."

A bizarre peace-offering, but practical too. Unsure of what the protocol demanded, Rei held his silence and only offered another polite bow.

Casting a final discerning look toward shore and then to the horizon, he turned the whole of his attention upon the enigma that was their ship's surgeon. "You have done much to improve the health of this crew since you came aboard."

The look Nitori flashed him said plainly this much should be obvious; "I am a healer. That is my duty, and I am as capable in my performance of it as you are at yours."

"Of course, I didn't mean-" No. He would not be put on the defensive now; this was the longest time he had ever spent alone with Nitori, and the only opportunity he was likely to have for quite a while.

"It's only, why were you aboard that ship? In the brig, I mean."

"It hardly matters since your captain elected to release me." Nitori's smile was deeply unsettling, Rei shifted away from him minutely, thinking of the wicked blades of his profession.

"Yes, but, to imprison a surgeon of your skill-"

Nitori watched him struggle to find the words a few minutes longer before mercifully completing the thought. "My crime must have been heinous."

"Yes."

"I do not regret it even the slightest."

"But it was heinous?" Rei wasn't sure why he felt the need to press, but Nitori had not rebuffed his inquiry even now. That was not to say he invited it, but Rei would accept his tolerance for the gift it was.

"Far beyond what most agree to be the boundaries of human decency."

"Most?"

"I've always found the human capacity for cruelty far exceeds the depth of our compassion." It was a dismissal and a warning. If Rei had been good at detecting or heeding either one, he would still be the spare child of an aging aristocrat bound to military service rather than the life he had chosen in its place.

"And yet you chose to be a surgeon." Rei smiled triumphantly.

"And you are a pirate. Our respective professions do not represent our characters." Rei's smile vanished as Nitori's grew wider. "I think you are the only genuine man of conscience aboard this vessel, Rei. You should be wary of assuming we all possess one."

It was a shock hearing his name on those lips, and spoken with such respect as Rei had not heard in years. Often the crew called his name with a ring of mockery just beneath; Nagisa imbued it with warmth and affection, Rin with command, and Mako with the same courtesy he accorded to the meanest drudge. Even in his days prior to joining this questionable outfit, Rei had only ever heard it pronounced with the artificial deference due his station.

He was pathetically grateful for that single, thoughtless word, and hoped it did not reflect too greatly in his expression.

Flustered, he peered over the edge of the ship and marveled at his good fortune.

There were sharks in the water of the human variety, and it appeared they were just preparing to set to work with the chisels they held in hand.

He opened his mouth to shout for aid, but Nitori placed a silencing hand over his mouth, featherlight but more effective than any gag. Rei bent to hear his words, shivering unconsciously at the feel of warm breath tickling his ear, "Arm yourself and return. We can pick them off before they are even aware they have been spotted."

"Kill them?" Rei murmured with dismay, eyeing Nitori with a new understanding.

"Death is exactly what they intend for us, therefore it is what they will receive in their turn."

"No. We'll find another way-"

"What other way?" No annoyance in the tone, only idle curiosity overlaid with blatant indulgence.

"We arm ourselves. Hold them at gunpoint until Rin returns; we can negotiate a release."

"I think neither party will be open to negotiation."

"With murder as the only alternative, that will change." Rei spoke with more confidence than he felt. These people had no long-range weapons, and Rin had always preferred not to end a raid with a bloodbath, but this time was different. His crew had been held, however briefly, and it was not an insult he was likely to forget soon.

Nitori left him without another word, presumably seeking out the weapons he had promised. Rei watched, and waited.

!

!

!

Makoto's breathing did not slow until he could feel the wood of his beloved ship against his fingertips, resting against it as his heartbeat slowed its hectic rhythm. It was a wonder they had managed to come so near without Rei spotting them; either he was too focused on the approaching ship or there was a more pressing emergency aboard. Makoto favored the former, personally, while Rin was clearly fretting over the latter.

"Where the hell is he?" Rin hissed.

Nagisa opened his mouth to shout out, but Rin raised a quieting hand, treading water gracefully. "Listen, do you hear that?"

Now that his panting breaths no longer dulled his hearing, Mako could just make out the hum of voices… men and women. It couldn't be coming from the ship then.

"I think it must be a sneak attack." Rin whispered, dipping farther beneath the water to cover the sound of his movements.

"How do we proceed?"

"Call up the warning to Rei." Nagisa growled, clearly taking this attack far more personally than it strictly merited. Any attack the Samenoe was an attack against all of them.

"Then we lose the benefit of surprise."

"Not much of an advantage here in the water. They're island dwellers, they have grown up in these waters and drawn their livelihood from it." Rin blew impatient bubbles in the water, grimacing at the salty aftertaste.

Mako smirked, nudging Rin playfully, "You did promise me a dolphin."

"I did." Rin agreed, catching his meaning instantly. The ability to communicate beyond mere words was a talent they had shared for some years now.

"What do we do?" Nagisa growled, "My gunpowder is wet and useless, otherwise we're unarmed!"

"We'll circle around quietly, see how many there are and if they have any more weapons than we. If not, we call up to Rei for assistance and take one to ensure the good behavior of the rest."

"Done." Makoto mouthed.

!

!

!

!

A.N.: For everyone that just giggled at the chapter title or those that just now noticed it and are starting to- I just want to state for the record that wikipedia informs me this particular slang term derives from 'the cask used to pour water'. And full confession, it still makes me giggle. :p