The White Devil Dreams of Alice!
Mikoto vs. the Drunken Swordsman!
Enma's eyes fluttered open. He sat up immediately to the sound a girl screaming outside his window. Enma was only 11 at the time and he didn't have his signature tattoos decorating his body. He knew immediately his father would be downstairs taking care of the house and getting ready for work. His mother had disappeared off the face of the Earth, without an explanation, when Enma was three. Not to say that Enma's father lived the rest of his life alone, no he remarried to a widow. A widow with a girl one year younger then Enma. And that would be who was screaming outside. She was a bit of hothead, but Enma liked her all the same, except when she…
He didn't get to finish the thought, because Alice jumped through the window sensing that Enma was up. She knocked him straight down to the ground and pinned him. She smiled at him from her spot of superiority. "Looks like I'm winning this fight," she mocked.
Enma flipped upwards using his superior strength and his step-sister's lack of knowledge around effective pins and soon he was on top of her holding her down by the hands. "Nope," said Enma confidently, "I'm still ahead. That makes 1,467 wins for me and 0 for you."
Alice struggled and tried kicking out, but Enma had her pinned very effectively. She finally admitted defeat with a pout. Enma let her up and stretched. He wasn't used to fighting this earlier. He went over to the window and closed it, he will never sleep with the window open again.
"Still planning to be a pirate?" asked Alice with a coy smile on her face.
"Yup, one of the best," replied Enma as he took a quick inventory of the room. "Still planning to be a Marine?"
"Uh-huh," she said, "that way we can fight!" Enma chuckled her naivety. Alice coughed sharply.
"You okay," asked Enma. She had been coughing a lot lately, she'd also sleep in on some days till noon. Enma had been growing worried about her, but she'd never let him stop fighting her long enough to show it.
"Yeah," shouted Alice she jumped at Enma leaping at him. She knocked him back and onto the ground. The girl had amazing stamina. This time she copied Enma's pinning technique and held Enma down to the ground. Enma struggled for awhile, he was just planning to flip her off when he grip lightened and she collapsed on top of him. Her body felt heavy on his and…hot. He rolled off and he searched over her body.
Her face was red, beet red. She was sweating all over and she still let a cough out every few seconds. Enma stuck his hand to her forehead and immediately released it due to the heat. She was sick. "DAD!" shouted Enma at the top of his lungs.
His father rushed up to his room and immediately ordered Enma to help him carry her to his bed. The two did so carefully. Enma looked over her, worried about his little sister, while his father ran out to get the town's doctor. It was a small town and they only had one doctor and even he was an hour away. Enma waited by her bed worrying about her. That was the worst hour of Enma's life so far to sit there in front of his dying sister. He was panicking. The next hour dragged on until Enma was sure a week had passed. He heard his father run up the stairs with the doctor in tow.
The doctor examined her over and made some small checks up in his notebook. He made her left her arm, breathe in and out, and even did some urinary check. When he was satisfied with the tests he laid back and let out a breath. He turned to Enma's father and said, "good news, its treatable."
His father let out a sigh, "okay. Come with me, we'll go downstairs and discuss payment."
Enma smiled. He looked over at Alice, "He…hear that Alice," said Enma through tears, "you…you're going to be better soon."
Alice smiled back, weakly, it didn't reassure Enma, but it was a start. She'll just have to smile even more brightly at him when the doctor treats her. Enma couldn't stop smiling until he heard his father shout.
"That much! That's more then I make in a year! That's more then this house!" it then went quiet, but Enma could swear he heard someone weeping. The front door quietly shut.
"Wait, here Alice," said Enma, "I'm going to go get you some juice." Enma slowly headed towards the door. Juice is one of nature's medicine it seems. Juice and chicken noodle soup always seems to make a sick person feel better. The door opened and his father was standing there. His face was as white as a ghost. He limped over to the bed and collapsed in front of it, he grabbed Alice's hand.
"I…I'm so sorry," said his father. He said something else but his voice died in his throat.
"What's the matter, dad?" asked Enma nervously, "the medicine won't get here for another day or something, its okay. Right, Alice?" Alice managed a weak 'yes'.
"No, I can't afford it!" said his father burying his head into the blankets, "I'm too broke to save my own daughter's life."
"We can…we can cut back, can't we?" asked Enma, "not buy juice or steak for awhile, right? That'll save up money for awhile."
"It won't make a difference its two years pay," said his father, "the…the doctor says she won't make it through a week."
"No!" shouted Enma, "we can afford it somehow…somehow we can afford it, take out loans, sell some things, maybe…maybe even rob some pirates…we can make it still. Alice can make it long enough, right Alice?" Alice nodded from her bed to weak to even talk.
"No," said his father, "I'll save up what I can…but I won't make enough fast enough. Alice, I'm…I'm so sorry!"
The next week was a blur to Enma. He still can't remember what happened, he can't remember eating, sleeping, talking to his father, he doesn't even remember Alice. He can't even remember what his hometown was like during that week. It was all just a blur. He did remember one thing, a doctor coming to the island at the end of the terrible week.
The doctor was nothing special. Small built, thin, almost sickly looking. He wandered into town and had mistaken their house for an inn. How that's possible is a different story in itself. Anyways, the doctor had wandered upstairs into Alice's room where Enma was sitting and praying.
The doctor walked straight up to Alice and sat down next to Enma. He joined in with his prays. When Enma finished he looked over at the man. The man looked back and asked, "so, who are we praying for?"
Enma, sniffling, replied, "My sister…my dad doesn't have enough money to pay for her medicine."
"A dying sister, a broken dad, and still hopeful brother," said the doctor, "that really pulls at my heart strings."
"She ain't dying," said Enma.
"Isn't dying," corrected the doctor. He put his hand to her forehead to examine her temperature. "Get your daddy, boy."
Enma returned moments later followed by his father. The doctor was sitting there and he asked, "I want to stay here."
"This isn't an inn," said his father sternly, clearly upset that a stranger was upstairs with his daughter alone.
"I want free room and board for a year," said the doctor, "then I'll be out of your hair."
"We aren't a charity either," said the father.
"I'm not asking anything for free," said the doctor, "I just think free room and board for a year is a small price to pay for your daughter's life. I can cure her."
"You can?" asked Enma.
"I'm not falling for your tricks," said the father, "you look like rundown hobo. Have you played this trick before?"
"I'm a doctor, not a magician," said the doctor, "no tricks, only cures."
"Come on, dad, trust him," said Enma, "please! He can save Alice."
His father flashed the man an angry look, "if you save Alice, I will let you have free room and board…but if you're tricking me, I'll hurt you something terribly."
The doctor cackled. "Sure, sure." He got up and started to walk out the room.
"Hey, mister," shouted Enma, "aren't you going to give her some fancy medicine."
"Already done did," said the doctor, "she'll be better in three days if she stays in that bed no matter what!"
Enma was grateful to the doctor, but something felt funny. His leg. It felt as if the skin was being peeled off. It hurt, but he was just to grateful to scream in agony. Then he woke up.
(-Present time-)
Enma shot to attention. Long white spears exploded from his body in all directions pushing Zesiro, Hiro-Shu, and David away from him by another good few feet.
"Holy crap!" shouted David ducking for cover, "I didn't know he would do that!"
"Where's…where's Alice at?" asked Enma.
"No idea," replied Zesiro, "you were knocked out when we found you on some random dude's back."
Enma looked at his arm, he had those tattoos all over him. His memories flooded back to him and breathed out. It was a good twelve years after that incident. "Oh, okay." Those long white spears retreated back into his body.
"Now time for my question," said Zesiro approaching him with his sword drawn, "where is Mikoto?"
"Mikoto?" asked Enma searching his mind for a face. It hit him, "he went to Pimp's ship to prevent him from capturing Sage."
"Pimp's ship?" asked Zesiro, "this island just keeps getting weirder. Where can I find it?"
"Hold on and I'll go with you," said Enma, he spun around and was about to get up when he caught sight of his eye. "What the hell happened to my leg?"
"He did," said Zesiro pointing at David, "Stay here and have him bandage you up. Just tell me where Mikoto is and me and that big guy back there will handle the rest."
"Yeah, sure, okay," said Enma, "its down by the dock. Big, purple, you can't miss it."
"Cool," said Zesiro, "come on Hiro-Shu, let's go." Hiro-Shu grunted in agreement.
"I'll come, too," said Corra picking up her bag.
"Don't," said Zesiro, "so, far from what I've seen, there's nothing you can that can possibly help us. Stay here and stay out of our way." With that Zesiro and Hiro-Shu left leaving Corra there, depressed and alone with a mad doctor.
(-With Mikoto-)
A sword sailed above Mikoto's head cutting into the wood above him. Mikoto briefly yelped. He looked up at the large man. The man had on a dirty poncho and his sombrero wasn't much cleaner. He had a large sake bottle next to him from his he had produced his long blade. He hicced as he took another swing at Mikoto. Mikoto avoided the blow, but he quickly lost his balance. He was feeling odd. Something was definitely wrong with him. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary. He had exchanged a few blows with this man, but that was it. He smelled the air, but only thing he smelled was pure alcohol.
"I am Ovid," said the man, "Ovid the drunk! And I ams huving sum fun!" He nearly fell over with that last statement, but he quickly righted himself.
"Yeah, drunk, sure suits you," said Mikoto morphing into his half-beast form, "do you mid if we take this fight inside, I don't wunt tu be seen on a purple ship."
"Aye!" said the man, "I wuldn't wunt to be seen on un eider."
"You are on one," said Mikoto he felt tipsy. He doesn't remember ever feeling like this before. Maybe once before, but only once.
"Tis sheep needs more sake!" shouted Ovid. A colossal man came up from below the deck he had to be at least 7 feet. "Go gard da duck! I'll tak care uf dim." The man nodded and jumped down from the ship and onto the dock to await for more enemies.
"Sheep?" asked Mikoto, "where's da sheep?"
"Yus are on her," said Ovid. Mikoto looked around himself and when he looked back up Ovid had thrust his sword at him driving him backwards, barely nicking his underarm but the sword broke straight through the railing.
Mikoto nearly fell off, but he quickly grabbed onto the railing. He collapsed back onto the ship. He looked up at Ovid, or should he say Ovids. He was seeing three identical men, three brown haired, pink eyed, sandal wearing men. He rubbed his eyes. Something was definitely wrong with him.
Blades versus Blades and Fists versus Fists!
Hiro-Shu and Zesiro Arrive!
Well, that was fun. And in case you were wondering, yes, Mikoto is getting drunk. I will explain how though…soon. And don't you worry I won't leave the Ridley cliffhanger going on for much longer. At least I don't plan on it, but you know how it is. And don't worry, the doctor's fighting capabilities, namely Enma's, will be displayed shortly. Also, I would like to this time to apologize to the readers who did remember that Ridley is missing and that Sage was kidnapped, for those of you who do deeply care, I apologize.