Let's just jump right into it, shall we?
Peace,
L & D
Anne would have liked to say that she was a woman of above average sense faculties, which, indeed, she was, but lo and behold, being exceptionally sensitive meant nothing when you were obviously surrounded by loads of people with guns and pointy objects. She caught Maigo's eye, and he winced out a cautious grin.
Anne sighed, and knew that this situation wasn't exactly the best. So, she did the thing she did best: Anne laughed.
She didn't chuckle, because chuckling was suspicious to be frank, but she did let her inhibitions go and she just laughed, from the deepest part of her belly.
It was a pleasant, contagious sound, even if no one joined her, and after a good minute, Anne stopped, wiped the tears from her eyes and sighed.
"Okay. Now that I'm in the mood for some shit, tell me what's with the weapons." Anne plopped down, legs folded, blinking intensely at whom she assumed to be the leader of the group—the young, stern looking boy whom all the other folk were looking to for support.
He grimaced, his glowing viridescent eyes reflecting the sunlight quite nicely, but with a deep distrust as he stepped forward, "Who are you, and what do you and your crew want."
"Well, since you asked nicely, I'm Anne, that's Maigo, Jeanne, and Poppy," she aided the names with appropriate pointing, "And we kinda just wanted to explore? But we really didn't know what we were gettin' in to."
He sneered at her, and she opted to grin even wider.
Man, she thought, I hate talkin', and all that bullshit, but I ain't killin' anybody today.
"Yeah, no shit," he raised his hand, waving off his small army, "you just walked into a war zone."
The captain laughed, almost hysterically, and Maigo laughed too, but he was crying so it wasn't a good sort of laugh. "Yeah, you know, that would be just our luck." She paused, considering, "Hey, would you mind not tryin' ta kill us?"
He hummed.
"I'll think about it. I'm Hyoji, and you are gonna be our prisoners for the time being."
"What." Anne said, not really bothering to properly object.
"Well, it's that or we kill you here and now, so it's your pick."
"Okay, look, we're not 'ere to cause trouble, and I'd rather not be a prisoner. Could we work out a deal?"
Hyoji raised an eyebrow at her and she clapped her hands together pleadingly. "I'm beggin' ya, if it's war, then we can crack some skulls, just let us be. I don't wanna hurt anyone here, and ya don't seem too bad."
"How do you know?" Hyoji taunted, stocking his chin high in the air. "We could be the bad guys."
"Nah. I know these kinds of things." Anne laughed. "And also, I spy at least ten children and twenty elderly people in this crowd, so I'm assuming you can't be too bad. Plus, you're also short on people."
"She's got a point, son," A middle age man commented, stroking his beard.
Hyoji gave a sidelong glare. "I didn't ask for your opinion, Bob."
"I gladly accept Bob's opinion," Anne chuckled nervously, her eyes shifting around, reassessing the situation.
They were still vastly outnumber—not that it concerned Anne—but now, with the exception of Hyoji, the rest of the group seemed to be less on guard. Anne could use that.
"Okay, 'ere's the deal." Anne started, her eyes wide with earnest delight, a flicker of genius floating in her grin, "You tell me what's eating your brains, and I'll see what I can do."
"Marines-!" One child shouted, only to be silenced by his mother.
Anne laughed.
Just her luck.
"You know, personally, I ain't too fond of Marines. They once took something very important from me. If Marines are your problem, then that's something I can fix; I'll happily fix it, in fact."
Hyoji made a face. "We can't trust you."
"And we can't trust you, Mr. 'I want to make y'all prisoners', but here we are," Anne waved her hand flippantly, "so cut the shit and make a decision already."
Hyoji sneered at her, and pulled at his hair furiously. "Fuck." He spat, looking over the crowd that shifted anxiously. "If you shits do anything funny I'll destroy you, ya hear?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Anne hollered, grinning sidelong at Maigo, who breathed out a sigh of relief. Jeanne looked as though she was going to hurl, and Poppy's face was beginning to get some color back into it.
"I managed to not get us killed! Mark this day in the calendars folks!"
"You're such an idiot." Maigo muttered.
"Hey, Poppy was the one who wanted to come here."
Poppy whipped her head up, "Hey now, you shitty captain leave me outta this you wanted to come here just as badly as I did-"
"Oh yeah-?!"
"Do you wanna go-"
Poppy and Anne's faces were uncomfortably close; therefore Jeanne, tired of everyone's shit, walked straight up to them and knocked their foreheads right together.
It had been a crap day for every member of the Vyssini Zephyr. Not that that was unusual.
The crew was led (ever so hesitantly) back to the insurgents home base... or home cave, if she were to put it correctly.
Anne looked around the cold, damp setting her crew and she were to be calling home for a good week at the very least. Anne luckily had nothing against caves. They were cold, but also extremely awesome, so the positives naturally weighed out the negatives.
She gave the area a once over.
There were broad palm leaves scattered all about the floor of the cave. Stacks of blankets were neatly arranged in one of the crevices, hastily woven baskets filled with food sat in the center of the small encampment, and from all that Anne could perceive, Hyoji was running a humble campaign against the marines.
"This way." Hyoji veered away from the rest of the crowd, towards the back, going deeper into the side of the mountain in which they were nestled.
They stopped barely twenty paces away from where the rebels settled into familiar, cautious chatter. Hyoji sat down. Anne and her crew followed suit.
The black haired captain settled in a gestured in a sort of 'begin' motion. "Explain the situation to me."
The rebel leader nodded, shoulders ever so tense.
"Swallow Island has always been loyal to the World Government, always." Hyoji stressed, eyes aflame. "Until one month ago," he shifted, resting a forearm on his knee.
"One month ago, our most respected elder got assassinated. No one knows why—only that the marines are responsible. Now, Mrs. Jane wasn't exactly a saint, but she didn't deserve to get shot in the head in her own bed either. Not when she had offered so much kindness and aid to her village." He swallowed thickly. "We asked and asked and asked for a reason that would warrant such a killing, but no one would answer us. None of the marines thought it was of any consequence that an integral member of our community was gone. They laughed, and drank, and ate like other had ever happened."
He paused. "But I couldn't forget. We couldn't forget." Another pause." But most of all: I couldn't stand for a system that could kill a harmless old woman in cold blood."
Anne felt goosebumps crawl up her back—that night in the forest haunts her, the smell of blood wafts up her nostrils, and all she can see his Maman, bled out, cold, dead, in what world could this happen, in what sick, cruel world could her Maman just be executed like a dog—and she nodded.
"I understand."
His expression flashed before her eyes.
"Do you?"
Hyoji's eyes were hard—hard like hers many years ago—and Anne knew that Hyoji had people to protect and a home to save.
"I do."
There is something nostalgic and terribly heartbreaking about it all.
She doesn't think her crew understands why she stared at Hyoji and Hyoji at her. He searched her features for dishonesty, for betrayal. She could recognize the routine with ease. She had done it so many times, just the same as him after all.
After a moment of silence, Hyoji sighed, running a hand tiredly over his eyes.
"Give me one reason I should trust you."
Anne pondered this. Hyoji honestly didn't have a reason to trust her or her crew at all, but here they were.
She tilted her head to the side, and smiled. "Because I hate the World Government with every fiber of my being."
There was a sort of finality in her tone that made it hard to argue with her. Her crew glanced at her, and she caught eyes with Maigo.
Is that true, he seemed to ask her.
Anne was almost insulted. She tsked, bristling at the fact that Maigo assumed she would lie to save their skin. She wasn't a complete asshole, nor was she disingenuous in anyway. She wouldn't lie about something that was so quintessential to her identity.
"Why?" Hyoji asked. The word left his lips, and it sounded desperate, it sounded wet with past agony, with grief Anne hadn't witnessed, and with experiences that would surely haunt him for the rest of his life.
Why, he asked—why his island, why the World Government, why did justice disappear, why, why, why—
Why did she want to help them?
Anne laughed.
"Because I can."
Her eyes shifted in the dark of the cave. The lighthearted glimmer that they emanated sharpened, and the cold, calculating gaze of a business woman filled its place.
The air seems colder. Anne grins as she sees Hyoji look taken aback.
Perfect.
She stands, brushing off her pants, gesturing back to the central meeting area.
"Do you have anymore questions, or shall we go back?"
Hyoji pauses. He looks at her incredulously, with wild, perplexed awe. "Who are you?"
Anne doesn't mention that she had already answered that question. She was Anne, plain and simple.
She opened her mouth to reply, but hesitated, looking deeply, and realizing—
Oh.
She considered his question.
—dirty alleyways, breathless laughter, sunshine smiles, closed windows, fluttering curtains, purple under eyes, rotting doors, hushed whispers, stolen food, cackling brother, simple words, simple deeds—
...
"Nee-chan, can you hear the sea singing—"
For just an instance, she could, she swore she could.
...
"I'm just lil' ol' Anne, captain of the Vyssini Zephyr. No one to be worried about." She flashed a grinned.
That is the only answer that seemed appropriate; the only answer she was fully qualified to give. Every other formulation in her mind fell flat, utterly unconvincing on her tongue.
She was the daughter of no one, the servant of no one, the associate of no one; she was nothing to anyone of consequence.
In the dim light, the shadows flickered off that crooked smile, and Anne looked a bit more like an animal that anyone in that tent would ever admit.
Hyoji muttered: "You haven't answered jack shit, you wench. Why the fuck are you being enigmatic? We ain't got time for that."
"Look here, I'm helpin' you outta the goodness of my heart, and this is the kinda shit I get rewarded with? Did your mother ever teach you manners, asshat?"
"I'm an orphan." Hyoji rebutted dryly, looking for horror to flicker across Anne's face.
It never did.
"Oh yeah," she snapped, instead, "Well, boo boo. So the fuck were plenty of other kids. That doesn't justify you being an ass."
"The hell—" Hyoji lunged at Anne, only to be hugged ferociously by Poppy.
"Oh, Hyoji-san, we really appreciate your hospitality, thanks for all you've done for us, but we really need to go get some rest and plan a strategy for tomorrow, thankyoubye—"
Poppy then proceeded to grab Jeanne, while Maigo grabbed Anne, and they bolted out of the tent, into the safety of the crowd of people anxiously awaiting their reappearance.
"What the fuck," Hyoji whispered, "what the actual fuck."
There was a second in her conversation with Hyoji that stunned her sensibilities.
There was a moment when the world quieted, and everyone faded, and it was as if the air was melting into her skin, as if the walls of the cave were whispering every secret of its history, every moment. They spoke of the carving of the land, and great heroes that had rested on its floors. The trees rustled and swooned with steady recollection of each year, of each leaf that had fallen from their branches.
She was trapped in eternity, in the eternity of the earth, in its vast eras, in its silent knowledge of the happenings of the past, and it was as if, for just a moment, she could see everything and nothing all at one.
She didn't really understand how to describe that moment, or what it meant, or even if it was real.
Memories of Roger murmuring to cobblestones and crooning to oaken shutters resurfaced to her mind.
She considered this that night, and as she fell asleep, the knowledge of all things lulled her to sleep with a canticle that she was surely to forget by morning.
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Thank you for your patience and your reading,
L & D