Blanket Disclaimer: The writer does not own any characters created by Rumiko Takahashi but like everyone else wishes she did. All original characters or concepts are the author's Inuma Asahi De's (with the exception of historical figures).
**Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, unedited, you know the drill. My god my head is pounding...**
Chapter Forty-Six
A Decision Unmade
Hiten stared at the wind enchantress, his eyes dipping between her ruby vision and the dark, almost coal like eyes of Naraku Morgan. The room was silent as her words hung in the air, a promise, a strange and eerie assurance. "She can see the jewels, she can actually see them?" He licked his lips slowly, not wanting to believe her words but knowing that her face—her every feature, her scent, the heat radiating off her flesh was not caught in a lie. "How? I've never heard of a demon who could see them?"
Naraku shifted beside Hiten, his eyes focused on the girl intently listening to her breathing as she stared right back at him as if daring him to challenge her words. "Explain." He demanded suddenly, his voice hard and cold in the thick storm ridden air.
The woman smirked, her eyes closing slowly in a long drawn out blink before opening again revealing her deadly looking crimson orbs. A soft hum came from somewhere in the back of her throat and she sweetly pursed her lips, a cruel gesture meant to upset both men. Neither moved, however, and she frowned almost playfully. "They're special-o." She told them with a shrug that irritated Naraku to no end.
Taking a loud step forward, he clenched his fist until the smell of blood hung in the air as it dripped from his now bleeding palm, his irritation manifesting in the crimson radiance of his blood. "Explain," He whispered the word again, venom seeming to drip from his voice. "How are they special?"
The woman gave a slight shrug as she rolled her eyes as if exasperated. "They can-u see jewel shards, of course."
Naraku blustered, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as he tried desperately not to reach for her small white neck and break it. "I know that," He hissed between clenched teeth. "Explain to me how it works, why can your eyes see them?"
She smirked, "They're no-to my eyes." Was her answer as she rested demurely on her knees, the bed beneath her bowing to her slight weight, indenting the mattress with it and creating an impression of her strange sitting position.
Naraku felt some of the tension leave his shoulders, confusion mounting them instead. "What's that supposed to mean?" He wondered and once again got the feeling that she was merely messing with him, that she couldn't really see the jewel shards but was instead using them as a tactic to distract him. "Why is she doing this?" He pushed the question to the forefront of his mind as he glared at her. "What does she have to gain?" He shook his head darkly. "Is she just trying to distract me so she might be able to get away, is this a method of survival or does—could she possibly have found a way of seeing the shards?" Naraku wasn't really sure what to think at the moment, it was all virtually unclear, almost unsound. "There's only one thing I can do." He told himself sternly. "Gather more information."
Course of action decided, he stepped away from her, hoping to give her the feeling of having the upper hand before he spoke. "If they're not your eyes," He asked her, his expression as close to vacant and uncaring as anyone could ever have hoped to have reached. "Then where did you get them?"
She reached for the end of Hiten's long shirt she was wearing currently, her pointer and thumb plucking at the fabric disinterestedly. "I got them," She whispered into the night's air as she tilted her head distractedly, listening to the storm that was dying down outside. The sound of the heavy rain was starting to fade into nothing more than a trickle of its former self, only the occasional droplet hitting already soaked wood. "From a god," She scrunched up her nose before amending. "Or a spirit-o?" It almost sounded like a question and not a statement. "I'm no-to sure of a good translation-u for the word to English." She concluded with a full hearty shrug.
Hiten felt his eyebrows raise all the way into his hairline in complete disbelief. "This bitch is fucking crazy." He heard the thought loud and clear, unable to control himself as he took a step back to better gauge Naraku's reaction to the woman's strange words.
The younger demon was staring at the wind sorceress with much the same look on his face, complete bafflement that soon turned into a hard cold look of determination. "She must be lying." He reasoned as he studied her sitting and looking positively batty. "Or maybe she's just crazy, she does sound like a crazy person." He smirked at the thought, it seemed the most plausible explanation—this woman was simply insane and if that was the case then she really couldn't see the jewel shards and therefore she was useless to him. "Your lies won't save you now, bitch." The weasel demon grunted at her as he took a step towards the woman, only to stop in his tracks as she began to laugh.
It started as a slight chuckle that made her shoulders shake and then turned into a much louder rumble that bubbled from her throat to the point she tilted her head back in sweet delight. "Yuu think-u it's a lie?" She managed to mumble before her laughter took control of even her breath. Her hands came up to her face, covering her eyes and wiping at nonexistent tears. "Are western demons," She smirked as she peered at both Naraku and Hiten through her fingers. "Reaury so—clos'd minded?"
Naraku narrowed his eyes and pushed his tongue against the back of his teeth. "What do you mean by western demons?"
"I meant-o what I said." She replied easily, the words seeming to slip from her mouth like the rain drops did from the clouds outside, slow and trickling. "Yuu western demons are so limited in yuur understanding of the ways of the world-o—of the ways of magic-u."
"Magic?" Hiten mumbled as he stared at her watching as her still slightly damp hair began to move this way and that as if tempted by some unnatural breeze. Vaguely, he registered that she was subtly demonstrating her own magic as she blew her hair dried with the wind that she could control—that her spirit could control. Just as he as a demon of thunder could control thunder and lightning, this woman as a demon of wind could control the very air that they breathed. He grimaced at the very thought, an uncomfortable feeling building inside of him as he imagined what a person controlling their air supply could actually do to them.
Naraku spared the older man a glance, taking in his features for any signs of explanation about the strange girl, before turning back to the wind enchantress expectantly, his eyes pressing her to elaborate on her words. "I know of magic." He told her bluntly when she still continued to giggle and not speak. "I'm a demon and all demons know of magic."
"Really?" She clicked her tongue and pointed at him with one beautifully manicured finger nail, her eyes swirling with something akin to knowledge, knowledge leading to undeniable power. "I guess that's true, yuu're right, demons know-u of demon magic but do they know of the magic of human-o?" Her eyes seemed to swarm with delight as Naraku and Hiten both gave her strange looks—humans had no magic, at least no magic they knew of or understood. "Or," Her voice was tantalizing as she leaned forward towards them, as if about to tell them some strange and amazing secret. "The magic of the death spirit-o?"
"The death spirit?" Naraku repeated and blinked several times. "What on earth are you talking about, what dead spirit?"
She smirked, the blood red color of her lips actually causing Hiten's skin to crawl with anticipation. "Death spirit-o—don't you know of their magic-u?"
"Death spirit?" Hiten felt the name reverberate throughout his skull, something about the way she had said it sparking a long forgotten memory of his childhood within him.
A much smaller version of the same man ran into a small cottage that was covered in wines of Spanish ivy. His tiny hands hitting the door and forcing it opened as he looked this way and that expectantly trying to find any hint of his grandfather in the small sea side home. His large black eyes blinked as they took in the sight of a candle flickering on a small table and a frail hunched over man with a book on the table beside it, using the slight light to read.
"Abuelo!" Hiten called out for his grandfather happily as he ran up to the man, his small hands reaching out for him with trust and love that didn't befit the man's grouchy and angry appearance.
The older demon glanced at him from behind the pages of the book and snorted as the small boy clamored into his lap without permission, reaching pudgy fingers for the pages of the old worn out text. "No." The old man told the boy firmly, swatting his hands away in an attempt to save the already decaying manuscript, his old eyes firm as the small boy's lip trembled before he nodded and obeyed.
He just managed to hold back a sniffle as his grandfather carefully marked his place in the book with a small piece of parchment before closing it and setting it aside, his old eyes appearing almost relieved and thankful for the chance to rest themselves after having read by the dim candle for so long. With a sigh he inclined his head and the boy understood without the need for words that he had been given permission to finally speak.
"Cuéntame—." He started to ask but his grandfather cut him off with a snort.
"In English boy." He demanded stiffly as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes already knowing what the boy was going to ask of him but determined to make the question into a much needed English lesson.
The large black eyes of Hiten blinked in response but he nodded, easily switching to the other language "Tell me a story?" He questioned and after a well pointed glare from his Grandfather added, "Please?"
The old man nodded but did not smile or open his eyes as he put a hand on Hiten's back so the boy would not fall while he adjusted his position to be more comfortable. "Let me see," He grumbled as he finally opened his eyes and looked out at the dark night air. Perhaps it was his age that made him tell this particular tale or perhaps it was the night—moonless and dark—that made him remember folklore of the most depressing sort. "There are spirits in this world far different than us, young Hiten. " He whispered, his voice raspy with age.
"Different?" Hiten questioned, his small voice smooth by comparison. "How are they different?"
"Well they are not like us, they are not demons nor are they humans." The old man replied and for the first time smiled but the expression came off sad. "They are Spirits that no man can tame or even know. Spirits that prey on humans and demons alike and that neither species can even truly comprehend but must embrace in order to understand the finalities of life." He took a deep ragged breath, thoughts of his own mortality pushing at the back of his mind. "They are, my dear boy, Spirits of death."
Hiten took a deep breath as the memory faded into nothing. His grandfather had often spoken of those death spirits when he had been but a child—telling him that they were grim reapers, who wandered the earth in search of people who were about to die so they could take their souls away from the earthen realm to a place that no human nor demon could know but in death. It was their eyes that gave them the power to find humans and demons who were at deaths door. They could see a dying man from continents away, through doors and walls, foggy windows, and thick bricks. They could find them in thunder storms, in hurricanes and typhoons. In the center of tornados or even beneath icy seas—death spirit's eyes could see you anywhere, in any place, at any time as long as you were going to die.
With eyes that could find a dying man hidden even beneath the very earth it walked on, would it be possible for their eyes to see other things, not just dying souls but things beyond that, inanimate things, things like Shikon Shards? Hiten pushed the thought from his head not wanting to believe what he was even considering. "It's just a legend," He told himself firmly. "Even among demons, death spirits are nothing more than children's fairy tales."
Beside him Naraku grunted in response to the wind demon's words, "Death spirits?" He groused and shook his head with a dark chuckle. "You are completely insane, aren't you, yes—that's the only thing that would make any sense at this point." He brought a hand to his forehead rubbing at it as if it was sore. "You're not even making sense anymore, after all."
"Am I not making sense?" The small woman fired back as she lightly brushed her hands over her arms, wind seeming to come out of nowhere from her fingertips drying her still slightly damp skin as she had her hair just moments before. "Or are yuu unable to make sense of what-o I'm saying?"
Naraku growled low in his throat. "Enough with your games." He told her as he stepped forward his expression reaching deadly. "I know when I'm being given the run around girl, so stop with the nonsense and tell me who gave you the shard."
"I tourd yuu that's frivolous." The woman shrugged and let her hands drop down to her strange under skirt, pushing air through the fabric as she began to dry it too. "I can see the shards and that," She looked up at him through thick black lashes. "Is far more important-o than who gave me this first one."
"Fine, god damn it, fine!" Naraku yelled as grabbed his pounding forehead. "Let's say you can see them, okay you can see the shards, but why—," He asked her, the question coming across as more of a demand than a question. "How did you get the power, who gave it to you?"
"I auready told yuu." She told him as she looked towards her rumpled dress still laying on the floor, her expression a grimace as she realized the delicate material was most likely ruined by the rain and the fact it had not been dried immediately but instead crumpled and discarded on the floor. "The death spirit-o shared power with me."
Naraku felt his frustration start to over flow as he laughed darkly, his voice coming out more insane sounding than the girl he was interrogating. "Let me get this straight." He told her as he rubbed at his eyes fiercely. "You're trying to convince me that a death spirit gave your eyes the power to see the shikon shards?"
"So close." She told him, her voice actually coming across as disappointed as she snapped her fingers while giving him a cheeky grin. "But not-to close enough-u."
Naraku blinked and dropped his hand, he was silent for a moment as he clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles popped and more blood dripped down his hand. "Then what?" He barely managed to whisper before he looked at her with eyes flashing with silent rage as he bared his teeth and snarled slamming his hand into a nearby table, taking his frustration out on the delicate wood instead of the woman's delicate head. "What am I missing you god damned good for nothing whore!"
She didn't even flinch at his words or the anger and malice behind them as she shook her head sadly as if disappointed. "Yuu obviously must have trouble hearing." The woman sighed and shrugged her shoulders as she raised her hands in the air as if she was actually pitying Naraku. "The death spirit-o didn't give my eyes the power." She blinked slowly as if trying to draw his attention completely on her irises. "The death spirit-o gave me his eyes."
-break-
"What do I do?" Inuyasha asked himself as he looked around the deck at the chaos that was threatening to suffocate him. Everywhere men were screaming, running and attempting to obey commands. The mizzen mast was in shambles from where the cannon had effectively cut it down, wood and splinters of debris littered the deck causing men to fall and stumble as the tips of their hastily moving boots were caught upon the upturned pieces of mast.
Inuyasha's hand rose to grip the helm (even though it was tied down and his grip was therefore relatively useless) his fingers wrapping around the still safe wood of the old ship. His heart raced and for a moment his vision went black.
Inuyasha held the wheel of the ship firmly as he forced it to turn even further away from their attacker. Below him the men were doing their best to keep the ship afloat, fixing lines and sails and mast as fast as they cold in response to his rushed orders. "Come on." He groused as the ship flew as fast as it could over the water, behind them the ship that had been attacking them followed hard pressed to get a hold of them—to kill them.
He felt his fingers grip the wheel tighter, he felt his mind race with a million different scenario's. He thought of what he would do if they caught up to them, what he would do if he could get away from them, what he would do if the Captain really was nowhere to be found, what he would do if he had to take charge of the ship until they found out whether the Captain was alive or dead, he thought of his own abilities, if he would even be able to command a ship for more than just a brief amount of time such as now.
Inuyasha cursed at his thoughts. He didn't want to be Captain, not yet at least. He was far too young and inexperienced, he had only been on Captain Robert's ship for a few years, not even a full decade. He knew nothing about commanding a ship—nothing about steering one either. All he knew was how to fight and how to rig the sails and he had just barely started learning that—he hadn't even been at it for five years yet.
"Inuyasha!" Totosai yelled from the front of the vessel, his voice carrying easily over the den of men yelling back and forth and sails floundering in the rough winds. "We're entering the shallows."
Inuyasha bit his lip, he might not know much about working the helm but he knew being in shallow water was not a good thing especially in Puerto Rican waters. "Keep your eye out for reefs!" He yelled to the whole of the crew who responded back with a collective grunt of yes ser's and aye ser's that barely registered in his brain as his mind hung on the dangerous word he had just yelled down to Totosai. "Reefs." The word slipped from his lips as his eyes traveled upwards looking out to his left at the island that was forming beside them little by little.
There was one way to get the other ship off their tail, it was practically a guarantee. He gulped, he looked at his knuckles that were turning white from the strength with which he gripped the wheel. "No man would be stupid enough to take a boat through reefs?" He muttered out loud knowing it was dangerous, knowing it could very well get them all killed but also knowing that the ship pursuing them would not give up unless it had nothing to gain. And no ship has anything to gain when pursuing another ship to a certain death.
Recklessly, he turned them more towards starboard, adjusting their position to the point that they might as well have just planned on ramming the island itself. He heard the crew gasp almost collectively, warnings flying from their lips, panic ensuing as they dared to enter the heavily reefed area of the North West Puerto Rican coast.
The memory faded away and Inuyasha was left with the raw sensation of it in his gut or was that sensation brought on not by the memories but instead by current experience? The sounds of men screaming, the sights of a ship in dishevel, the smell of fear and desperation, it was all reminiscent of that day so many years before. "It's the same," He thought to himself as his grip on the wheel loosened to the point that just the tip of his pointer and middle finger were really hanging on. "It's the same as it was then," His mind told him, he told himself. "I had to take a chance in order for us to survive, a desperate and life endangering chance." He gulped as dark thoughts gripped his mind, he had to do something, he had to find his chance even if it was life endangering and yet he couldn't think of anything, any chance that might be able to save them now, his mind was empty, he was out of tricks, he was out of luck.
Inuyasha tightened his grip on the ship's wheel instantly, all four fingers and his thumb surging back into their natural places as he gritted his teeth, a stark realization flitting in the back of his mind. "It's not the same."
Against even his own will he found his vision traveling to Miroku, to his own pup. Miroku had experienced near death countless times but that was before—before Inuyasha had admitted, before Inuyasha had accepted, had acknowledged that Miroku was officially his son. Yes, Miroku had always been his son, from the first moment he had saw that dirt covered face in the gutter Miroku had been his son but now when he looked at Miroku and knew it, was aware of it, and understood that the bond between father and son where Miroku and himself were concerned might as well have been by blood: it became that much harder to think of his death.
"If I let him down, if I let him die." Inuyasha heard the words and felt the sting. "Then I—then I'd be responsible for my own pup's death." He felt a shutter all the way down his spin, his eyes slipping downcast as he allowed the sensation to hit him. Before the feel of the unnatural tremble met him, however, his eyes took sight of his boots and then traveled passed them as if subconsciously trying to look through the wood of the floor to what laid beneath it.
His eyes widened, his face went as white as a sheet a very real and very gripping thought flowing from his heart to his head. "Kagome." The name slipped from his lips but it was so quiet not even he could hear it. "She might die." He thought to himself as pictures of that young girl filled his mind, pictures of her, of Miroku, of Sango, of Shippo. "If I fail—they'll all die." His heart went cold in his chest just as the voice of the demon within him came alive.
"Protect them!"
The sound of his boots hitting the deck was lost to Inuyasha's twitching ears as he ran from the helm, passed the semi-hysterical Miroku, down the stairs, through the throng of panicking men on the Quarter Deck, and round the sharp corner that lead to the back hallway which hid Miroku and his cabins; that one single loud thought echoing over and over again in his brain.
"Protect them!"
His demon side's words rang loud in his head but didn't faze his feet at all as he entered the doorless entrance to the hallway, nor did it concern him in the least as he hit the door to his cabin full force not even bothering with the handle, the wood actually splintering as he launched himself against the locked wooden frame, literally bursting into the room, an explosion of wood and metal fixtures flying through the air in his wake.
"Protect them!"
It didn't even distress him when his whole body jumped as the sound of a gunshot ran through his sensitive ears momentarily deafening him, yet reminding him just in time to dodge to the side and protect his head, his mind only vaguely recalling his conversation with Sango not ten minutes before. "Holy shit!" He cursed loudly as he felt the nick of the bullet on his arm, grazing and cutting into his flesh just enough to cause him to bleed, the slight scent of his own blood hitting his nose instantly. "God, fucking—damn it!" His lips had a will of their own as he cursed unable to control his mouth, his heart hammering in his chest. "Damn it to hell!" His small inner voice growled, temporarily forgetting why he had burst into the door without warning. "How many times can I be shot in'na month?"
"Oh dear lord!" Sango's cry met his ears not seconds after the thought formed in his brain, followed by the sob of a tiny kit.
"Inu—oh god—Inuyasha," Kagome's voice came out as a surprised gasp and half sob. "Sango—is—he—," She gulped audibly, the sound muffled by her hand coming up to cover her mouth. "Are you okay?"
Inuyasha winced at the hum of her desperate and panicking voice, he looked from the smoking gun in Sango's hands to the hysterical face of Kagome who was staring at the blood on his arm as if it might at any moment sprout a second head. His heart clenched in his chest at the sight of her distressed face but he quickly pushed the feeling aside with a shake of his head. "I have to protect them." He told himself firmly. "I have to get them outta here." With that thought, Inuyasha pushed himself forward out of the doorframe, nearly falling into the room as he tripped over his boots, his arm shooting with already healing pain. "We're in trouble." His words came out in a gasp, a rush, as if they were just as completely uncontrolled as his earlier cursing had been—in truth, they were.
"Are you okay?" Sango questioned, whether she was ignoring his words or hadn't heard them, Inuyasha didn't know. "Oh my god, I could have killed you."
"Goodness no." Kagome's breath hitched from Sango's words and she stole her way off the bed, Shippo falling from her lap with a great cry and whine.
"Ma—." He cried out, the implication behind the half said word causing Kagome to pause in her steps, one hand outreached towards Inuyasha, her eyes trained on his arm as her fingers shook and grasped at thin air. "Mi—Kago—m-e-e-e." The small kit pushed the words out as he sobbed, his hands blindly reaching for anything to hold onto, only barely coming in contact with Sango who scooped him up and tried to comfort him, the gun falling to her side.
Inuyasha smiled slightly, the expression strained as he watched the small boy take minimal comfort from the shell shocked Sango. "I don't think I've ever seen her—with a child before." He thought, it was a strange thing to think about during a time such as this. Coming slightly back to himself, his eyes traveled to Kagome who was still frozen in place, her eyes looking at him with tears just brimming on the lashes, slight ponds that seemed to pool underneath her grey cloudy eyes.
He inhaled sharply when she stepped forward on one hesitating foot, his own feet involuntarily making a step backwards as he took her in. His mind raced for anything to say, for comforting words that all seemed rather trivial at the moment. "I'm fine." He settled upon as he looked away from her, unable to take the soft pained look in her eyes. "The kit needs you." He told her as he motioned for her to return to the bed with a wave of his good arm before he growled with a grimace as his other arm throbbed just slightly, not from the bullet wound but from already healing flesh, he could almost feel his body knitting the opened skin together, forming a clot to stop the bleeding.
"But you're arm?" Kagome's voice came as a slight, small plea. "Sango could have—you almost—if you wouldn't have ducked, if you would have been just a little more to the right," Her voice seemed to hitch in her throat once again as she tried to speak, the words a jumbled mess on her tongue. "She could have, you would have—you—would—."
Inuyasha merely snorted. "I thought we had this conversation before?" His voice was harsh but his words brought back memories that halted Kagome for now, her own mind racing to a time when she had been the one to aim the proverbial gun at the Captain's demon flesh. "Get the kit."
Reluctantly, she obeyed and turned for the baby kit, plucking the crying boy from Sango's clumsy arms. The older woman let the kit go, still appearing to be shell shocked and almost traumatized, her eyes wide as they traveled over Kagome who was cooing for the baby Shippo and then down to the gun that rested upon the soft cotton of the bed sheets. Her normally fiery irises were glossed with disbelief and guilt that seemed to find homage in her every feature. Inuyasha clutched his fist at the sight, wanting nothing more than to reassure her but knowing that now was just not the time.
Taking a deep breath he started to speak, turning his attention from Sango to Kagome. His breath hitched in his throat, however, before he was able to say even a single word. Kagome was standing, rocking the kit in her arms gently, comforting the small boy with hushed words both in French and in English, her body gliding back and forth as if her movements were the most natural thing in the world. In return the kit buried his nose in her neck, his little fingers pawing the hair at the base of her skull, worrying at the silken strands as he hiccupped and sobbed.
"Don't cry." Kagome whispered into his red hair as she closed her eyes and attempted to reassure him. "We'll be safe." She rubbed his back gently, the motherly gesture not lost on Inuyasha who stared. "The Captain will protect us—all of us."
Deep inside his heart something tightened dangerously so and Inuyasha felt his eyes widen, the demon in him once again speaking and this time speaking so loud it might as well have been screaming.
"Protect this—." He blinked, the voice was strong commanding and urgent as it welled up inside of him. "Protect mate—," Visions of Kagome, beautiful and care free and laughing as the mark on her flesh glowed with the symbols that composed his name, filled his heart. "Protect pups—," Visions of Miroku, of Sango, even of the little Shippo nestled within Kagome's protective arms assaulted his brain. "Protect pack." Visions of his crew, of Myoga and Totosai, of men whose names escaped him, of people he had known and had lost, people he had long since forgotten—his brother, his father, his mother, his Captains—the whole entirety of the pack he had always known, filled his very soul. "Protect them all."
The voice inside of him pressed, pushed, pulled, taunted, and teased, telling him with such minimal words what he already knew he had to do. Inuyasha clutched his fist, his heart beating hard against his rib cage. "I have to protect them, all of them." He told himself, agreeing with the voice but unsure of how to proceed. How could he protect them all, how could he insure that every man, both women, and even this one child would live through this. He had no idea how to protect this many people with so much against him—his ship was a sitting duck, the vessel attacking them had some kind of magic power like a miko's, and he only had two life boats. They were close enough to shore to swim but that wasn't an option. To lose the Shikuro, would be to loss his pack's home—he couldn't survive without it, he hadn't for sixty years (a drop in the hat for a demon but still). "Protecting Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippo—would be easy, I just have to throw them off the ship in the shore boat but how can I protect the rest?"
Inuyasha closed his eyes tightly. It was his duty as Captain to protect the men of this vessel, it was a duty granted to him long, long ago because of his own ability to keep these men alive. But could he protect them all this time or in protecting them all would he just lead them to their deaths including Kagome and Shippo and Miroku and Sango instead? He gritted his teeth, his heart crumbling in his chest.
The ship suddenly rocked violently, pitching all the occupants of the cabin towards the back of the boat. Inuyasha launched himself forward, grabbing Kagome into a tight embrace before she was thrown from her feet, his much steadier demon footing barely keeping them upright as the ship jerked and bobbed in the water.
"Another cannon!" Sango gasped out from her place on the bed, her hands grabbing hold of the bed frame tightly, glad that the bed itself was fashioned to the floor to stop it from moving around.
Inuyasha gritted his teeth pulling one hand away from Kagome but keeping the other around her form loosely as he looked out the window. That last hit had spun them, changing their direction to the point that the ship that was attacking them was now to their rear. Biting his lip, he watched as the ship glimmered in the light, the sight of the barrier causing a weight to fly to his stomach. "Fuck." He whispered out loud, his one-armed grip on Kagome's waist momentarily tightening.
From her position in his arms, Kagome turned, her eyes lighting on the ship through the large back windows of the Shikuro. Vaguely, her poor human vision noticed a strange glimmer coming from the vessel but her untrained and terrified mind couldn't focus enough to figure out what the glimmer actually was. "We're in trouble, aren't we?" She whispered into the fleeting still, Inuyasha's grip tightened on her waist in response, his mind only vaguely registering the kit that was now clutching onto his shirt as well as Kagome's.
Sango blinked rapidly as Kagome's words registered, her earlier focus on nearly shooting her own Captain waning as the reality of what was going on around them hit her full force. "We're been hit several times, haven't we, Captain?" She looked at him with determined and unblinking eyed, commanding him to tell her the truth, telling him with no uncertain terms to be straight with her because now—those eyes seemed to say—was not the time for lies. "How bad is it?"
"For lack of better word, fucked." Inuyasha verified as he moved forward, the splinters of wood from the broken door crunching under his boots, his own blood trickling down his arm as he stepped towards the bed depositing Shippo and Kagome onto the mattress next to Sango.
"Fucked?" Sango repeated ignoring the shift in weight as Kagome joined her on the soft matress. "We're fucked?"
Inuyasha took a deep breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring before he nodded darkly. Somewhere outside a man yelled for everyone to brace themselves and Inuyasha instinctively dropped his weight downwards landing on his knees just as the ship shook violently once again from a direct hit. "Damn it!" He yelled both from the mild yet annoying pain in his forearm and the nearness of that last hit.
That cannonball had been way to close to the helm's deck for comfort. "At this rate I won't be able to protect anyone." He growled at the very thought. "I have to—I have to at least protect them." He told himself as he forced weight back onto his feet, standing up right with trembling hands. He couldn't recall the last time he had ever actually trembled from anything. "I have to at least get Kagome, Sango, and Shippo off this ship and Miroku—if I can find a way to knock him out so he won't fight me." Yes, at this point, that was the very least he could do.
"Protect pack!"
The voice in his head was loud, screaming at him in a voice a million times more scary than any cannon blast. He cursed silently at the venom in it, knowing what it was saying, what it was telling him—you must protect everyone, they are your pack, you are their leader, if you don't protect them, then you have failed every single last one of them—even the ones you managed to save. "God damn it!" Inuyasha wanted to scream at his instincts, cursing his father as Kagome had briefly suggested just a few days before.
"What in the world is going on?" Kagome spoke abruptly, her voice filled with fear and doubt now that her adrenaline had worn off from the Captain's sudden entrance. Sango clutched her tightly, holding Kagome to her breast as a mother would a frightened child, whether it was for Kagome's comfort or Sango's was hard to say.
"We're under attack." Inuyasha replied bluntly his voice dry.
"No shit." Sango practically growled as she glared at him, her eyes dark and not amused. "So those loud explosions and the strange earthquakes weren't just a figment of my imagination, huh?"
Inuyasha clenched his teeth together loudly but didn't bother snapping back. "I'm still not sure who the other ship belongs to." He spoke calmly, the actual tone of his voice surprising him. He felt like he should be yelling, like he should be grabbing both women and hurrying them out the door, throwing them on a lifeboat and telling them to row until they couldn't see hide nor hair of the Shikuro anymore but he didn't—he already knew he couldn't—he already knew the voice was right. He had to protect everyone, it was his job, his duty, it was—simply put, who Inuyasha was. "But—it doesn't matter anyway—they've got the advantage, they're got some kind of—barri—." The word halted in his brain, mocking him relentlessly. "Barrier." It whispered to him, a soft voice in the back of his mind that he was trying wholeheartedly to ignore.
It had been there for a while, a teasing suggestion made by Miroku that he had bluntly decided early on to ignore but now—now?
"Protect all."
What if it was the only way he could? What if risking her was the only way he might be able to ensure that they all would survive? "No!" Inuyasha practically snarled at the voice, he couldn't do that, anything but that, anything but put the one person he held dear in danger. He had promised to protect her from all things and that included herself. "I have to just get them off the ship, I have to at least protect them."
"Protect all."
"Shut up!" He internally groused in response not wanting to hear the voice anymore.
"Did you say—barrier?" Kagome whispered, her voice small and yet somehow growing in strength, knowing what he had said even if the words had been cut off.
"It doesn't matter," Inuyasha quickly brushed her words aside with a shake of his head, not allowing himself or Kagome for that matter to think further on the possibilities. "You both need to get outta—." His voice froze in his throat suddenly and his whole body went numb as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. The voice of instinct in the back of his mind growled low and deep, the sound rushing through his ears so loudly that for a moment he thought it was not in his head but right next to him, right beside his ear.
"Listen." It snapped and he felt like the prey to a predator. "Protect all—," It commanded him and then much to his surprised calmed, a soft almost groan issuing forth from the demon within him as if its next words were said with much pain and self hatred. "She protect them."
"Are you insane?" He asked the demon in him as the words left the nonexistent lips.
The gruff voice ignored him, perhaps unaffected by Inuyasha completely, and pressed its own suggestion once again. "She can."
Inuyasha closed his eyes tightly, the demon in him had gone insane—there was no way it would ever suggest to him that it was a good idea to voluntarily put their mate in danger. No, it wasn't right. He had come rushing to the cabin with the right intention, he had flown to be by her side for the right intention. He had to send her away, send her and Sango and Shippo and Miroku away. To stay here, would be like sending them to the ninth layer of hell. If they stayed and he was incapacitated for whatever reason and couldn't protect them, then they would be fair game. They could be tortured, they could be raped, they could be brutally beaten to death by the men aboard that other ship and there would be nothing he could do about it, nothing at all.
"She only one who can." The demon told him, the voice calm, almost comforting now that it had gained his full attention. "She protect, she can."
Inuyasha opened his eyes, that demon voice of reason issuing forth in his head. He had come with the intent of saving them, but now standing here looking at Kagome with the very dangerous voice of the demon pushing at the back of his head, he was beginning to think differently.
"Barrier." It said this time, telling him the only way to win.
The world seemed to slow down as he stared at the tear strained face of Kagome, she was trying to look brave but it was coming across easily as terrified. He couldn't blame her, honestly he couldn't. Part of him wondered why though, why hadn't she looked this way with Jinenji, why did she look this way now? Maybe it was because she knew there really was no escape at sea from her attackers, maybe it was because she had nothing to protect so only thoughts of her own immortality were sitting in her mind. Did she know she might die? Did she realize how close her powers had pushed her into death the last time she had used them? Or was she only aware of the death that could befall her at the hands of their enemies? Whatever the reason or logic behind her fears, one thing was certain, Kagome looked every bit the seventeen year old she was, she looked small, like a fawn or a cult or a calf or a pup that had strayed from its mother's side and now found itself lodged within the sharp razor teeth of a waiting wolf.
"I can't do it." He told himself bluntly. "Look at her," He spoke to that voice in the back of his mind, the voice that was controlled by the demon within him. "I can't—I can't risk her." Inuyasha squeezed his eyes tightly shut once again but her face was imprinted on the back of his eyelids. "What do I do?" He asked the Kagome of his eyelids but she didn't answer, only jumped this way and that, her bluish after image taunting him with its own allusiveness, mirroring the answers he so desperately needed.
"Barrier." The voice whispered and he shook his head, ignoring the strange looks he was receiving from Sango, Kagome and Shippo.
"I can't," He told it frankly. "I can't put her in danger," He couldn't, he just couldn't, it was better to insure that she might live than to see her die and know that he had been the cause of that death rather directly or indirectly. "I have to protect her from herself."
Sitting on the bed Kagome watched the Captain's internal battle with fascination. She had no idea what he could possibly be thinking but she knew one thing for certain—they were running out of time. She had never been in a fight like this before, mind you, but she knew by the frequency and the violence of the cannon's hits to the ship that they wouldn't last much longer.
Clutching her hands as her sides she bit her lip to the point that she almost drew blood. "Earlier." She told herself, her own voice coming off dark. "He was about to say that they have a barrier," She turned to look outside, her eyes catching that strange shimmery ripple that waved in front of the enemy vessel. She furrowed her eyebrows at the sight watching as a slight pinkish color tinted the sky. It looked familiar, and yet not so. "That's the barrier." She acknowledged with a nod. "But it's different than mine, isn't it?" She brought her hands into tiny fist, her eyes gazing at the barrier as if attempting to pick its inner most secretes a part.
Suddenly, a pulsating feeling filled her and her whole body went rigid as the sound of a now familiar voice flittered to her ears.
"Kagome."
It called and she turned to look at the compass that rested upon the Captain's table. She didn't have to stand to know that it was pointing. "They have a shard." She said without preamble. "The barrier—their barrier is created by a shard."
Inuyasha snapped to attention as her surprisingly strong voice cut his thoughts off, his wide eyes taking her in. There were no tears on her cheeks anymore, in fact she looked distinctly determined as if she knew what had to be done now—as if she had read his mind not moments before.
The air in the room grew thick, and without having to be told he turned and looked for the compass perched upon his desk not four feet away. It was glowing softly on the table, the red arrow distinctly pointing out the window to the ship that was directly behind them as he walked over to the compass looking down into its face before he reached forward taking it into his hands. "It's pointing?" He questioned the air around him pointlessly but Kagome still nodded in return.
As he looked at the compass in his hands, his world shut down. It was not a miko—it was a well used jewel shard. In a way he felt as if he should feel relieved but in a very different far scarier way he felt even more out of control and at a loss. A miko he understood: he knew their limits, he knew that they could die but a jewel shard—the only demon he knew that had ever used one was Manten and that was the limit of his experience. He had no idea what that ship was capable of if it had a jewel shard aboard. Could it only produce the barrier that protected it or perhaps the jewel shard endowed it with even greater feats like cannonballs that aimed themselves or demon powers that were amplified beyond reason.
Inuyasha reached for his arm with the hand that wasn't gripping the compass, holding the minor flesh wound that marred his skin, his hand growing sticky with some left over blood that was already starting to dry. "What do I do?" Once again the question had changed—it wasn't about just protecting Kagome from herself, or protecting his pack and children, now it was about protecting Kagome, protecting his children, protecting his pack, and fulfilling his promise to Kaede.
"We have to get the shard."
His heart stopped as Kagome's voice filled the air; not because she had spoken suddenly but because her voice might as well have been his own.
On the bed beside her Sango gasped, her jaw dropping. "Kagome you can't do this," The older girl started to speak trying to be the voice of reason. Sango wasn't scared to fight herself but she knew that Kagome was the fragile one in this situation—and she would never forgive herself if Kagome might be injured or worse, if she died within the fry. "This isn't going to be easy—these men—they're not like us they're like Manten." Sango gritted her teeth as a flashback stole its way into her psyche. A man above her, grunting, thrusting violating—she would never let another woman suffer that same fate if she could help it. "If they get a'hold of you—." Her voice trailed off but the dark promise in her words did not.
Kagome smiled knowingly in response, the look of such bitter seriousness strange on her normally charming face. "It doesn't matter, I have a promise to keep." She whispered softly. "I promised Miss Kaede, didn't I? I promised her I would collect all the shards and destroy the jewel." Kagome's eyes sparked with a strange grey fire. "And I'm the only one who can help us do that, aren't I?" She spoke as she dared to look at him with those grey stormy irises that did at the moment look as if they were truly storming, a swirling of white and black, of right and wrong, of determination and utter fear. "I can make a barrier to protect us, we can get close to them and then you can board their ship and fight, right?"
Inuyasha felt his ears twitch at the sound of the question. It was the only path, wasn't it? It was the only means of them coming out of this alive; of all of them coming out of this alive. And yet, the pit of his stomach burned, his eyes clouded with doubt, and the loud voice of the demon in his head faded into the background of his thoughts. "If I let her fight, if I let her cast a barrier, she could—she might." He cut the thought off, and refused to let it manifest. "No." He felt the word leave his mouth before he could even hope to control it.
"But that's the only way!" Kagome argued as she stood from the bed, a scarce two feet separating them. "I'm the only one who can make a barrier and without it we can't get the shard—," She paused as her thoughts jumbled on her tongue. "We might not even be able to live without it."
"I said no," He repeated even as the demon yelled at him, trying to be heard over the den of Inuyasha's own fears. "I can't let her die again, I won't do it, I refuse even if it means—." He couldn't even try to finish the thought as visions of his crew being hurt, dying, bemoaning that he had ever been made Captain floated through his brain. Every face and every cry making him feel more and more like a failure. "I've failed them." He realized as he finally made his decision, he would not let her die.
"Why not?" Kagome fired back as her hands flew to her hips, perching their defiantly. "It's not like we have very many options here and you know it, don't you?"
He didn't respond, he knew she was right; she was the only hope, their only hope, the men who even now were running around above their heads, fighting for their right to live—Kagome Dresmont was their only real hope: a hope he wouldn't let become real.
Kagome nodded firmly, taking his silence to mean he couldn't argue against her words. "We have to try," She told him, pleaded with him as she took a step closer to him, her hand extending outwards. "We have to at least tr—."
"We don't have to do anything," Inuyasha roared as he lost all forms of self control, his mind racing a mile a minute as fear gripped his heart, as feelings of guilt built up in his chest. He was letting everyone down but he couldn't let Kagome do this again, he couldn't watch her cast a barrier again because this time she might not come back from that blackness, this time it might take her for good, this time he might truly loose her. "You need to get the hell off this boat before one of those cannon's rips it apart!" He yelled as shoved the compass absently into the inner lining of his jacket (the table being too far away for his current level of patience) and grabbed hold of Kagome's arm before pointing at Sango. "You too Sango."
"But I can fight!" Sango started to argue as she finally rose from the bed.
"I need you to protect Kagome." He ordered as he hauled Kagome around towards the door, the splintering of wood and glass under his feet loud as he enacted the plan he had had all along. "I won't let her die. We'll find a way to survive, I've always found a way—this time will be no different."
"You'll die."
He snorted at the demon's words and continued pulling on a startled Kagome who was limp in his hands.
The young girl was stunned by the force of his voice, by the command in it, by the very desperation that seemed to be hidden within its deep brass quality. She felt like a small child, like a little girl who needed constant protect, who was incapable of protecting herself or others. "But that's not true." She thought to herself as he pulled harder on her arm, the pressure of his fingers against her delicate flesh causing her a slight pain which she ignored. "I can help, I'm not weak. I've done it before. I know my barrier will work I just have to find it—I can find it, I did it with Jinenji, I did it at the mouth of the Mississippi, I can do it again—I know I can!"
Kagome forced herself to dig her heels into the ground and yanked her arm away from a stunned Inuyasha as hard as she could. "No!" She yelled her voice loud and fierce as she stared the shocked Captain in the eye forcing him to see her. "Why can't I do it?" She questioned her voice strong. "I did it with Jinenji, I saved you then, didn't I?" She threw in his face. "You were there, you know I can do it, you saw it with your own two eyes, even if they were human!" Behind her Sango's mouth actually gapped opened, not from her ferocious words but from something else she had just let escape from her flowing lips.
Inuyasha blinked but didn't have time to really fully grasp what Kagome had just yelled in front of Sango. "It was an accident," He snarled back viciously as he reached for her only to get his hand smacked out of the way. Immediately, he growled in return practically cursing at her in the language of his father as his eyes tinged with red. "We don't know if you can do it at will," He barked at her darkly. "Fuck Kagome, there's no way you can, you've never been trained." Somewhere behind him Shippo started crying loudly his small hands gripping blindly for something to hold onto and comfort him, they came up empty.
"At least let me try." Kagome pressed, her voice tight. "I have to try, I have to. I'm not just some weak puny girl, I'm a miko and I was given that power for a reason."
Inuyasha sneered at her words. "I can't risk it." He told her bluntly the scowl on his face turning darker by the minute as the demon in him taunted him, telling him over and over again that he should—that it should be a risk he was willing to take, that he should—
"Trust mate."
Kagome huffed at his response, not finding it adequate at all as she stomped her foot and crossed her arms. "Why not?"
"Gaw!" Inuyasha screamed at the top of his lungs, frustrated with her to the point that he just wanted to knock her out and throw her into the shore boat without another word; unfortunately that was something he could only think about, not do. "Because I won't!"
"That's not a good reason and you know it!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs as well just as another cannon made contact with the ship, this one right above their heads.
Wood splintered and books fell from their shelves, oil lamps upended and swords hung up for decoration toppled over as the ship pitched so sharply to starboard that Kagome got the distinct feeling she was standing in the air sideways for a moment. She shrieked in terror as her body seemed to float upwards, her feet having no ground to stand on and then she felt something solid—but not beneath her feet, around her waist. Warm arms circled her, pulling her against a hard and firm chest that was far sturdier than she could ever hope to be. His scent hit her nose, the smell of a forest, of a hidden stream, a phenomenon impossible to find in the middle of the ocean and she closed her eyes inhaling that fragrance as the world went upside down before righting itself once again.
Her hands came around his waist instinctively and she buried her nose further into his shirt, her face laying against that soft material finding comfort in every thread. A hand touched the back of her head, pressing her further into that cotton material and she shuddered, the feeling of safety strange after such a brutal hit from the other vessel. And then, right beside her ear, she felt lips, sensual and hurried pressing into her skin as if to kiss the hidden lobes of flesh.
"I can't."
At first the words were so soft that she could barely hear them. She strained her ears, hoping for him to speak again but the words didn't come for several minutes, at least not until her feet had somehow found the ground again and the sensation of floating had disappeared. The room went silent and her heart pounded in her chest so loud that she thought all the occupants of the Shikuro both outside on deck and within this very cabin, would be able to hear the deafening echoing of it pounding.
"I can't—I won't," He repeated, his lips brushing her ear causing her head to snap from his chest her bright eyes searching his face for his own but his eyes and very visage were covered by his choppy bangs: closed off from the world. "I won't," His voice was determined and strong, scary and commanding. "I won't let you—not again—I can't watch you—I can't see you like that—not again."
Kagome narrowed her eyebrows, there was a word omitted from those sentences, a word she felt she had heard before in the chaos that had been the past two weeks since they had returned from Jinenji.
"She died!"
Her heart went cold in her chest as the memory hit her like bricks falling from a high ledge. "Did I—?" She tried to speak but the word was stuck on her tongue. Could it be that she had died, not Kikyo, but her—had her dream been more than a dream, had her memories of it felt real because it had been real. Was that why, why he had changed, why he was speaking to her differently, treating her as if she was made of glass and precious and in need of great care and delicate handling. Was that why he wouldn't let her help?
Slowly, he looked at her, his deep golden eyes barely peeking out from behind his hair. "Kag—," He started to say but his voice actually broke in his throat, the words dying as he looked down once again away from her as if deeply ashamed of something. Little did she know, he was. He was ashamed of letting her die in the first place, he was ashamed for choosing her safety over his crew, he was ashamed that he was failing, that he was not completing his role as Captain to the best of his abilities. "What would Captain Roberts say if he knew?" Inuyasha knew the man would laugh in his face and call him a damned fool for allowing a woman to cloud his judgment.
Kagome gulped as everything fell into place. Inuyasha thought she had died. When she had woken in his arms two weeks ago and saw his worried yet relieved and loving face it had been because he had thought she was returning from the dead not simply awakening after being unconscious for a time. Inuyasha really believed that by some grace of god she had come back from the dead and now, here she was, some precious gift given to him by some caring deity and he refused to give it up, refused to share it, to give it away, to let it slip from his fingers once again. Captain Inuyasha was scared to let her go, he was scared that she might once again be lost to that blackness, to death.
But she hadn't gone to some blackness, no it hadn't been black at all, where she had gone hadn't been any color, it had been white, pure and gentle white. "What was that place?" Kagome asked herself, for the first time seeing it not as some strange dream but instead as a strange reality. "Was that place hell or heaven?" She thought to herself as she shook her head slowly back and forth. "Did I really die?" She wondered to herself as she tried desperately to dig up her memories of the event. Something told her that she hadn't and she believed that.
She tried to open her mouth to speak, but all the words she could think to say came up short and fickle and inadequate. "I—." Her voice hitched and she blinked back forming tears as she studied him, his eyes still hidden behind a mass of silvery hair. "I didn't die." She wanted to say but a loud explosion hitting her ears cut off all her thoughts.
Behind her Shippo screamed as the windows of the cabin seemed to explode shards of glass flying through the air as the room was engulfed in debris. Her feet lifted up from underneath her and she flew backwards in the air, her back coming into contact with something instantly before she fell to the ground in a heap. Her head spun from the collision and she gasped as she tried to make her body focus but her mind was far too confused by the sudden connection with the wall to even attempt to calm itself.
She felt something pull on her arm as another explosion hit her, this time so loud that everything went quiet except a dull ringing that just pushed to the back of her skull. She thought she heard a scream but it was muffled, she felt something trickle down her back but she couldn't identify what the substance was: sea spray or oil from a broken lamp or perhaps morbid blood? Something tugged on her arm again, a wave of dizziness hit her head, she blinked, silver lined her vision. For a moment, she thought that was strange.
Then the sky, she could see the sky, above her head, no, to her side. Her eyes came into focus, she was looking at the back of the ship, the windows were gone and a hole was gapping where a cannon had entered the cabin violently tearing at the abused wall. She could just see the ship that was attacking them beyond it, it seemed to have gotten closer, the barrier still shimmering as it hit the light just right. She squinted—she could see the cannons, she could see one rearing back. "Is it—going to fire?" She wondered vaguely her mind moving far slower than it normally would.
The thing that had pulled on her arm pulled again, this time even more firmly before it hastily moved down nipping at her waist. She felt the world rush as she suddenly was brought to her feet, everything moving in slow motion. "Is this what it feels like to be drunk?" She wondered as her body staggered. She saw Sango clutching Shippo to her chest, she watched as the woman motioned with her hands to the door. The silver lined her vision again and she was able to recognize the Captain, she was able to follow his shoulder, to his arm, to his hand that was clutching her tightly around the waist.
"Go Sango, get on deck, Miroku, get to Miroku."
She heard the voice but it sounded very far away. Sango moved passed her hurriedly but she wasn't even really aware of it until the Captain turned her and shoved her after Sango, pressing her through the door, forcing her outside the cabin hastily. She watched Sango's back disappear around the corner of the hall, she watched the small red head of Shippo as he held onto the other woman tightly.
"Shippo," She wanted to call, something telling her that this might be the last time she saw that red head, the last time she saw Sango's retreating back, something told her this might be a lot of lasts—this might be the last time she saw any of them alive.
She knew the next hit was coming before it made contact. She felt the hair on the back of her neck and her arms stand on end, she felt the air as it was sucked tight around her, she felt the ship as it spun, she felt her feet as they left the ground, she felt the Captain's arms as they were violently yanked away from her, she felt his finger tips gripping her jacket, desperately trying to hold onto her, she felt his hands as they managed to grip her arm, she felt his claws as they dug into her flesh in an attempt to pull her back to him, she felt the rush of cold air on her face, she felt the Captain's breath on her neck as he pulled them tighter together and cursed, she felt the sunshine as it touched her cheeks—she felt the cold Atlantic water engulf her the second she made contact with it.
End of Chapter
Please Review
A/N: Well this doesn't look good at all does it? If I didn't know any better I would say Kagome and perhaps Inuyasha as well just got thrown overboard. If only you would have just made a decision earlier Inuyasha maybe that wouldn't have happen! Men...
Bonus Point:
Kagura has referred to a death god giving her 'special eyes' in this chapter. What mythological Japanese creature has the ability to do this? Hint: Death Note
Last Chapter's Bonus Point:
Yes the Lynx and the Bobcat are from the same family! Congrats to the winners:
Ravenraymoon, Kagome39, Alice's Secret Lover, HeavenlyEclipse, Warm-Amber92, Kiarra24, TheRealInuyasha, HentaiLemn, Purple Dragon Ranger, CupofTeaforAliceHatter
Notes:
Captain Bartholomew Roberts - (17 May 1682 – 10 February 1722), born John Roberts, was a Welsh pirate who raided ships off America and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, as measured by vessels captured, taking over 470 prizes in his career. He is also known as Black Bart but this name was never used in his lifetime. He also had "Sunday services" on his first vessel.
Next Chapter:
N/A
See you then!
UNEDITTED
POSTED 3/5/2012