The Man, the Music, the Mystery!
Ridley's Time at Sea!
Ridley tossed and turned. Sage's ban on alcoholic beverages was really taking a toll on him, it made the pain more prominent. He sat up with a fright. His bed was wet. And not a normal kind of wet. He looked all over, it was smeared with red blood. He fingered the hole in his stomach. It was still leaking.
He stood up and headed up to the deck taking his soiled sheets with him. The deck was quiet and the moon was still high. The rest of the crew must still be asleep downstairs. Ridley went about his business. He lowered the sheets into the water and waited for them to get a nice rinse with the choppy water.
Ridley looked down and noticed the water wasn't even turning a reddish color, yet. He shrugged and started to move about the ship. What he would give for nice cup of…anything alcoholic. His wound from Karasu's attack had ripped itself open, despite the decent stitching the doctor gave him. His mind floated back to when he first took the attack from Karasu and then it drifted off into a few hours later, his first time ever being alone on the sea.
(~Flashback~)
Ridley gripped his stomach in sheer agony. His flesh was ripped open like no man's flesh should ever be. But that wasn't what was driving him insane in pain. The real problem lied in what Karasu told him. His own father had apparently dipped some poison into the flesh. A complicated mix of poison. Diluted puzzle scorpion poison, a couple of death strawberries, and some other random poisons. It created a highly volatile mixture. Or so he was told.
The mixture wasn't meant to be death on the spot. It was designed to be untreatable. An untreatable mixture of poison that would kill the unlucky sap who got stung with it within a week, maybe two if they were strong-enough willed.
Ridley had said his heartfelt goodbyes to his friends. He was ready to die. He may have been dying but he still didn't want to his friends to see him like this. Not dead, not dying. Just upset at his disappearance.
He liked to imagine Mikoto hopelessly ignorant to his passing, Sage dancing on his grave, Zesiro being reasonable and feeling a little sad at his passing, and Hiro-Shu working on getting the entire crew through it. Knowingly though that wouldn't happen.
He looked over at his guitar, or his former guitar. It was smashed. Karasu certainly didn't waste anytime doing that. He wished he could play it, maybe write a song about himself that would become known far and wide. That would've been a piece of work. Nobody would know it by heart because of all the falsettos and baritones it would include, but he would still be known by it.
Onto happier thoughts. The next island was on the horizon already. With the breeze he had it looked only a day or two away. Rowing would've sped it up, but he was injured and was going to die. He wasn't going to spend his last days working.
The shore came up longer then expected. Three, four days tops. Ridley stumbled onto shore. He 'borrowed' some food from Karasu and his crew. But that quickly ran out. Ridley made his way onto the shore and into the village. The idle chit-chat of the villagers quickly made Ridley thankful for being away from the quiet sea. The mixture of fear and boredom nearly drove him insane.
The shops were empty and many people were keeping close to their own doorways. News of some pimp guy running around and kidnapping women was spreading rapidly and it didn't seem like a good idea to be too far from a lockable doorway.
Ridley ignored the news, of course, as one, he wasn't a woman and two, he was going to die. He stumbled around and found a nearby doctor's clinic. The clinic was just a tent as was all the other buildings on the island. A doctor should know where all the good booze was in town, after all, he is a doctor. He must get a lot of business from bar fights and drunken people doing things only drunken people would do.
He stopped inside and looked around. There was only one man and he was busy tinkering with some gadget. He had numerous stitchings covering his face, many of the stitches crisscrossed over each other. He was huddled in the corner with goggles on and his hairdo was nearly twice the size of his head. The man immediately turn around when he saw Ridley. His hands were shaking fiercely.
"I AM HERE TO DO WORK!" he shouted confidently as he turned back around and started back on his gadget. "NOW GO!"
"I'm just looking for some alcohol," said Ridley, "and maybe a girl."
"WHAT?" shouted the man.
"I want some alcohol," said Ridley.
"WHAT?" replied the man.
"A-L-C-O-H-O-L" shouted Ridley.
"AH!" shouted the man, "it is lovely weather, isn't it?" The man swerved around and put the gadget he was working on into his ears, he returned and looked at Ridley square in the eyes. "You sick?"
"Yeah," replied Ridley, "got a wound in my stomach. I'm poisoned."
"Did a girl do that to you?" asked the man, "women are evil."
"Certain ones," said Ridley with a certain female chef in mind. "But no my…crew got into a fight and I lost. I got kicked out of my crew and now I am here, wounded with nowhere to go."
"No one has nowhere to go," said the doctor, "you could always go East, then again I heard a Yonkou has been attacking islands and establishing bases there using the local bandits as leaders. Argost, Windmill, we've lost so many to pirates."
"Argost," repeated Ridley, the name seeming familiar. "Anyways, I just want some booze."
"Booze?" said the doctor, "I thought you were poisoned? Booze is no duplicate for good medical care."
"Huh?" said Ridley, "I didn't really think about getting treated. My plan was to drink myself into a stupor, find a girl, then die of poisoning. Anyways, can I get directions to the bar?"
The doctor slid back, "I'm going to tell you the tale of how I became a doctor. Once upon a time a young boy wanted to be a doctor. He worked very hard and became a doctor. Beautiful, ain't it?"
"Yes, you should be novelist," said Ridley, "now about the bar?"
"What have you learned from my story?" asked the doctor.
"I'm not going to get any alcohol today, am I?"
"Not until you learn a very valuable lesson."
"Fine. I give up."
"Do you have a dream?"
"To get alcohol today."
"No! A real dream! A fantasy that seems so far away from you, you'll never be able to reach it?"
"Right now, that sounds alcohol."
"Be serious!" The doctor struck out with his left hand landing a nice clean karate chop onto Ridley's shoulder. The blow from the chop forced him to the ground.
"I'm injured!"
"You are fine with dying, but not with being hit? Tell me your dream!"
"My dream?" Ridley shifted into sitting up, "its to be a great musician. One that the world will never see again. To carve out my own musical abilities throughout my journey and have people, admire me."
"Oh, well, that's never going to happen." The doctor returned to his work.
"I thought you were going to give me a pep talk!"
"Why would I give a pep talk to some worthless trash like you? You want to die, don't you? So, go on over to a pit and do yourself in."
"That's still no reason to crush someone's dreams!"
"What are you going to do prove me wrong?" A smile appeared on the doctor's face. His sedative was fast-acting and super strong. His operations were number one in the town.
"If I live long enough I will! I'll devote a song to you, I'll call it 'Stupid old dream-crushers'!"
"Oh, if that's the case! SEDATIVE!" The doctor leapt into action he struck out with his syringe and buried the needle deep into Ridley's left thigh.
"What…did…you…dooooo," said Ridley as he fell to the ground with a crash.
"I'm going to fix you," said the doctor. He fumbled around and found his good old needle and thread. "People may comment that my methods to get volunteers is…unorthodox, but what can you do in this world? So few people are willing to subjugate themselves to the advancement of science. Maybe you'll grow to like your NEW body…"
A few hours later. Ridley struggled to wake up. He shifted up. He got up and looked around the room. He had passed out in the doctor's office, but why? The last few minutes with the doctor were a blur. He remembered asking him for alcohol, but nothing more.
The doctor scooted back into the room he had a bottle of wine in his hand, "nice day, isn't it?" He sat the bottle of wine on the table and handed it to Ridley. Ridley murmured something and greedily drank all of the wine straight from the bottle.
Ridley sighed as he downed the last drop. He put the bottle back onto the nearby table and noticed something…different. He didn't feel any pain. His stomach felt as good as new, no harmful toxins floating around in there.
"Happy with my handiwork?" said the doctor as he returned to his work from the day prior.
"It certainly feels interesting," said Ridley. He lifted up his shirt to notice a circle of stitches decorating his abs. "You fixed me up?"
"Free of charge," said the doctor, "your story was quite compelling."
"What story?" asked Ridley.
"Going to be world famous," said the doctor, "I don't much care for music myself, but I may stop and listen to some of yours."
"Right…" said Ridley he stood up and stretched his arms, "anything you need me to do? To make sure I am all right?"
"Nope," said the doctor, "I know if you are alright. I just operated on you after all. And trust me, you are not alright."
"Wait!" said Ridley, "I thought you said you just operated on me."
"I'm a doctor," said the doctor, "if I was a miracle worker, I'd charge even more. Due to my genius I managed to dilute the poison, but diluted poison is still deadly. It will kill you, the only question is when. I probably added an additional year, maybe two to your lifespan."
"So, you mean to say you saved me from dying, but I'm still going to die," questioned Ridley.
"Basically," said the doctor, "now please leave. I have other patients I need to tend to."
Ridley looked around the empty house and noticed no one was around. He shrugged. He went to collect his jumbled guitar, but noticed it was completely fixed. Untouched. It looked brand-new. He grabbed it and left. The doctor was a nice guy, after all.
The people in the city streets were a buzz with new news. Apparently Pimp had captured a new female and was going to leave soon. They were all joyous about it and were just waiting for him to get up and out. He was still clueless as to who this Pimp guy was or why he sold slaves, but he knew it didn't bother him. A doctor just performed a free upgrade on him and he now had two more years left. He had enough time to be famous. Heck, dying would probably make him more popular then ever!
"Quick! Enma said Sage should be in the harbor!" shouted Zesiro as he skidded past not noticing Ridley.
"Sage?" asked Ridley as he watched Zesiro run by.
Hiro-Shu was the next one to run by. "That Pimp better not hurt her!"
"Huh?" said Ridley. He watched his two former crewmates run past him. "Sage is in trouble?" He looked back to where the other two had come from expecting to see Mikoto run by. He must've done left. He wouldn't abandon his crew like that. Ridley sighed. With two more years left, being a pirate may be good for him. He joined in the chase.
(~Back to current time~)
Ridley sighed as he hauled his wet sheet back up onto the ship. His memories distracted him and he wasn't paying attention to how soaked his blankets were becoming. They were clean and void of blood stains. He was thankful to say the least. The crew didn't need to know what was happening to him. He quickly headed back down below the ship and to his cabin.
Hiro-Shu peered up from the book he was reading. He normally would've been downstairs sleeping, but since they were backtracking across the ocean he decided he should be keeping the boat on track on the way to their next destination. He hadn't bothered to call out to Ridley, because he seemed distracted. He had seen everything, however.
Home, Sweet Home!
Arrival at Argost Island!
Yes, for you slow-pokes out there, Ridley is fatally sick due to his little fight with Karasu. He may die at anytime now (don't count on it). And the only person who knows about this little secret of his is Hiro-Shu, how will this secret fair in the hands of solemn golem? Only time will tell.
The next story arc technically begins in the next chapter! New villains, new story, and some new problems…man, I love my job! (Now only if I got paid for it).