Title: ARR! (#010)
Author: Blue and Red
Characters/Pairings: …a lot.
Word Count: 2236
Summary: In which Atobe talks a lot. And many pairings are hinted at.
Author's Notes (Blue): We're back! Uberly long chapter to make up for our extended period of absence and more pairings in it than you can shake a stick (or a bundle of sticks) at. Read the long, tedious explanations of Atobe's…thing because it's kinda a major plot point. Red and I will probably post chapter 11 pretty soon and then after that it's back to hibernation for the both of us while we try to study for major exams. So 11 will be a scary-long update too.

A soft knock sounded at the door of the room Echizen and Momoshiro shared. "Seigaku pirates?"

"Go get the door, Echizen." Momoshiro prodded Echizen lazily with his toe; the two of them were dozing in the too-comfortable quarters Atobe provided.

"Don't want to."

"I'm your senpai."

"But you're too nice to force me."

Momoshiro hated it when Echizen was right. Still, he dragged himself out of bed and answered the persistent rapping at the door. After exchanging a few words with the man outside their room, Momoshiro shuffled back to where Echizen was.

"Get your ass moving, Ochibi. The king demands everyone's presence at the Central Lake."

It shouldn't have been surprising that a short time later the duo found themselves standing in front of a lake – probably artificial – in the middle of the island, complete with another mini-island in it. Everything on Hyoutei was so over the top; at this point in time Echizen was ready to accept anything.

Momoshiro shielded his eyes. "Ah, there's the rest of the Seigaku party. Let's join them."

Echizen had to make it a point to stick close to his senpai for there were many other pirates milling around the lake. He couldn't recognize any because he was relatively new to piracy, but he was able to gather that almost everyone there knew each other. Not all acquaintances were friendly, though. Quite a number of glares were to Momoshiro in between the grins and slaps on the back he received. Echizen had just been introduced to a madly grinning pirate (who mutilated Momo-senpai's name into 'Omoshiro-kun') when there was a fanfare of trumpets.

"Ah, here we go. Up, Ochibi." The spiky-haired pirate easily hefted his short friend onto a handy rock which gave him a decent vantage point. "Atobe's entrance is always worth watching."

"And you'll get to see everything from up there. L-U-C-K-Y! ♥"

"Shush Sengoku-san. It's starting."

From around the mini-island came a strange boat with a curling prow that was propelled by two long lines of rowers. Standing at the helm was Atobe, dressed to the nines in white silk that contrasted sharply with the ebony boat. Musicians seated on the boat provided a theme song to the craft's stately advance.

"Nice. A little more mellow than usual for Atobe though."

"Maybe he's tired. I heard rumours he was injured."

"Injured?" Momoshiro squinted. "He looks fine to me."

Echizen remained silent, a smug smirk on his face.

The barge glided smoothly onto the mini-island. The Seigaku cabin boy watched carefully as Atobe stepped off the boat, but there wasn't any sign of their fight. Atobe, for all purposes, seemed his usual arrogant self. He strode up to the centre of the elevated ground on the island and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, everything fell silent. Momoshiro and Sengoku halted their running commentary. The musicians seemed to freeze. Even the birds and the crickets and the peripheral noise produced by tropical flora and fauna were muted. Echizen was almost afraid to breathe – it seemed too loud.

When Atobe spoke, his voice was able to carry over the lake. "Welcome to Hyoutei," he said grandly. "I have summoned all of you here because you have been invited to participate in my treasure hunt."

A buzz broke out at the words "treasure hunt" but it died down when Atobe raised a hand.

"I'm sure that the more experience of you have heard of the previous pirate king."

"Suspicious old geezer," whispered Momoshiro to a blank-looking Echizen.

"Recent findings have shown that my predecessor hid the bulk of his fortune throughout the seas. The treasures belong to me, the reigning pirate king. However, I have amassed much wealth of my own. I doubt that the treasure can add much to mine.

"So, being the benevolent and generous king that I am, I will share a part of this treasure with all of you. Every captain interested in this quest will receive a part of a map."

The chatter that broke out this time took a little longer to quiet down.

"Nevertheless, I expect half of the findings to be delivered to me. Even then, the remainder ought to be greater than any treasure you might have stumbled upon. My men will be sent out to monitor all who opt to join in – the penalty of deserting is not something you wish to contemplate."

Out of the blue, someone called out, "What's the catch?"

"Who said that?" A wild-haired youth stepped forward and licked his lips, hungrily.

"I did not think a pirate of Rikkai would be quite so fearful. But since you ask boy, there is no catch. Save of course that the voyages will be hard and the route to the treasure perhaps dangerous. But there is no 'catch' as you so quaintly put it. Ore-sama is above such things."

There was a moment's silence as the pirates present thought about it. Backstab Barry, fabled to be the richest pirate king ever had scattered and hidden all his treasure in his old age due to a fit of selfish paranoia that the lire of treasure might prompt an assassination attempt from his possible successors. He'd died without revealing any of the treasure's location and to find even a single cache was guaranteed to meet any pirate's wildest dreams.

Mizuki of the St. Rudolph stepped forward with a twirl of his new purple coat.

"Where do we sign up?"

"Those of you interested can put down your names and obtain your respective maps from Kabaji." Everyone looked where Atobe was pointing and saw the silent giant seated at a table under an open tent a little way off. Several secretaries were of course also in attendance. "The maps you will receive are each part of a whole." Everyone's attention snapped back to Atobe. "Nobody has the whole map, some show more than others and there are duplicates. You will select your maps at random."

A murmur rose at this and Atobe raised a hand for silence. He got it.

"Every participating ship will carry 2 Hyoutei pirates, at least one of them must return with you – alive. Or, the consequences will be severe." A quieter murmur went up at this and Echizen smirked.

Atobe might literally live in an ivory tower but he was far from naïve.

ARRRRR

It was near evening now and the Seigaku pirates were only just signing up for the treasure hunt. The crew – minus Oishi – had almost instantaneously voted for participating. Still Tezuka had taken his time to make the decision, returning to the ship first and remaining cloistered with Oishi for a long time in what could only be consultation. In the end though he had said yes and the Seigaku pirates had trooped back out to the registration tent.

"Took your time I see," drawled Oshitari Yuushi, a Hyoutei pirate high up in Atobe's ranks. "Atobe had you people pinned as one of the first to sign up." He handed Tezuka a scroll. "He reserved this piece for you."

Tezuka's face remained impassive. 'Where's the paperwork?"

"Follow Kabaji behind that partition over there."

The Seigaku captain seemed to take a long time to the restless pirates. Echizen, itching to take a look at the map, was on the verge of asking Momoshiro to spar with him to get his mind off the hunt and dissipate his twitchiness when two pirates darted in.

"Ibu Shinji and Kamio Akira of Fudomine?"

The pirate with dark red hair flopping over half his face answered, "Aye. First mate Kamio, here to register for Fudomine."

"Strange. Why isn't your captain here?"

"Ta-Tachibana's busy, so he sent me here on his behalf…"

"More like, Tachibana never wanted to sign up for this in the first place," an angry voice cut in."

"Senchou!"

A man with a bindhi and dark hair cropped close to his head stood outside the tent. "Kamio, Shinji. We'll discuss this elsewhere."

Echizen pondered the Fudomine trio until Tezuka's return jolted his mind back to the treasure hunt. Unbeknownst to him, another Seigaku pirate also had a thoughtful look in his eyes…

ARRRRRRRRR

"Tachibana-san, may I come in?"

The pirate captain looked up at the taller man wearily and nodded, stepping back to allow him to enter the cabin. Tachibana seated himself at his desk and gestured for Ohtori to take the chair on the other side.

"I can guess why you're here. It's about the treasure hunt, isn't it?"

"Yes. Why didn't you allow your pirates to participate in this? They have a lot of talent, only overshadowed by their ambition."

Tachibana sagged into his chair. "It's funny how we're both sitting down here talking like civilized people rather than the pirates we are."

"Huh?"

"All the pirates who pay tribute to Atobe… we're not so much pirates as privateers, no? We take this life on the seas by choice and not from forced circumstances. Above all, we prize the freedom afforded to us. That is why I do not want my crew to recklessly go on a quest that will lead them down a path of bloody and violence. With the wealth that the map can bring them, they might just while away their lives with rum and prostitutes. They could destroy themselves, which is a pity because they do have the potential to do better in life."

"I'm not sure I understand, Tachibana-san. If this is their choice, why no let them follow their hearts?"

"You're a captain too. Surely you feel some responsibility for your men."

"I trust them," Ohtori said, unruffled. "You should trust your people too. To know what they want, to know that they can achieve their goals, to know that they cam take care of themselves." He got up. "I hope I got my point across. Do consider your decision again."

Tachibana studied Ohtori for a moment. "Shishido Ryou… he's your first mate, right? I hear that you're rather close to him. Don't you feel some resentment towards Fudomine on his behalf?"

"I think… that incident made him a better person. And for that I owe you thanks." Ohtori gave a little bow and walked out.

"A better person aye?" Tachibana mused. He did not move from his chair for a long time.

ARRRRRRRR

"Argh! I can't believe the captain won't let us do this! I thought you said he was having a bath, Shinji. Rargh, I was so sure we'd make it."

"It's not my fault," Shinji muttered at this irately pacing friend. "I couldn't tell what Senchou was doing for sure without going into his quarters and that would just have been rude to say nothing of suspicious since I have no good reason to. Besides, I heard water splashing through the door for quite a while."

"He has a leaky basin in his room. Of course you heard water splashing!"

"Aye, but how was I to know that? I'm not his first mate like you are; I've never been in Senchou's room before. Kamio should have told me about the basin. Aren't friends supposed to tell each other everything? I would have thought that the contents of the captain's sacred cabin would be worth mentioning fellow curious crew members. This is all Kamio's fault. In the end, it's just like him to blame me."

Having Shinji mutter aloud practically everything that went thorough his pretty head was useful in knowing his thoughts but Kamio didn't always like what he heard. The red-headed speedster flopped down on a chair with a sigh.

"M'not blaming ye, Shinji so quit muttering 'bout it. I just don't see why Senchou – Tachibana won't let us do this. Hellsteeth, even Seigaku's doing that and they've got some brat on the crew."

"Senchou's being paranoid," Shinji stated, unusually succinct.

"Ye got that righ—"

"Kamio! The door burst open and Ishida stumbled into the room. "Problem! Senchou's fighting Seigaku's Fuji!"

ARRRRRRRRRRR

He staggered into his cabin, shirt soaked through and breathing hard. Fighting with someone at that level and who never tried to push him to his limits like Tezuka did… It was liberating. Ironically, Tezuka's expectations were holding him down.

"Where were you?" a cool voice questioned.

Speak of the devil. It was times like this he hated Tezuka. Fuji hated his captain for demanding so much from him, for wanting him to maximize his potential. And for trying to keep tabs on him all the time.

"Out.

"There's no need to hide it. Almost every ship has heard about your fight with Tachibana now."

"Then why do you ask?"

"I…" Tezuka leaned back into the wall. "I am concerned."

"I can handle myself, Tezuka."

"But why did you do it?"

"Why do you keep pushing me?"

Tezuka paused. "If the rumours about Tachibana changing his mind regarding the treasure hunt are true, I suppose whatever you did must have been effective. I wonder… How come it never works when I duel with you?"

"You lack subtlety."

"But…" Tezuka pushed off the wall and slinked towards the shorter man. "Someone has to be direct here." Maybe it was the predatory glint in his captain's eye but Fuji found himself backing away – until his back hit the opposite wall. "And as your captain, I can always order you to…"

"Order me to what?" Adrenaline was still running high in his veins, and his close proximity to Tezuka made his pulse race even faster.

"I think you know."