MapleStory: The Spiral Path, Chapter THREE!
Akito: *ahem*
Huh? What is it now?
Mercedes: Someone forgot something last time.
The hell are you- Oh, right, the disclaimer I think. Anyways, yeah, I don't own anything except for original content like Akito. And I AM aware there is no CANON pirate hero. But I still like Cid better, because Pirates are my favorite type.
Just so you know when it's FLASHBACK TIME, it will be told on third person. I'm trying to avoid the whole POV switch in middle of chapter, and while it may seem odd, I implore you to deal with it. Please, for the sake of this *SACKED*
Akito: I'm sorry, the author who has terrible acting skills has just been sacked- *SACKED*
Mercedes: I'm sorry, the guy who tells you that the author who has terrible acting skills- Okay, are we really ripping off Monty Python already?
Shut up. Here, just say these two words.
Mercedes: Candle Jack? What the hell does th
Alright, let's find out what happened to Akito! Finally, some peace and quiet! This chapter is a bit short, but trust me, next chapter is gonna be pretty long.
Nautilus Bridge
"Damnit!" Akito ducked underneath another punch and tripped his attacker, "Probably shouldn't have taunted like that."
"My crew can keep this up all day." Kyrin remarked offhandedly, sending some pirates to go fix the lights, "But the real question is… can you?"
"Shut-" Block punch, "UP!" Akito roared as he kneed another pirate in the groin, causing said pirate to keel over in pain, "Why the hell don't you fight yourself you damn coward?"
"Perhaps I will." Kyrin sighed as she leveled her cannon at him, "Such a shame. Thought you would've lasted longer. Goodbye." She met Akito's ice cold gaze as she pulled the trigger.
Boom!
"Not today, I'm afraid." Akito brought out his drill spear, and as it began to spin as his eyes glowed, it tore through the cannonball launched at him, spraying shrapnel everywhere, "Next time, don't underestimate your opponents." He swept his drill spear along the ground, tripping up three pirates at once, "BECAUSE I AM AKITO LIERI, SPIRAL WARRIOR, AND I WILL NOT FALL TO THE LIKES OF YOU!"
However, due to his prideful moment and the fact he was already severely outmatched, he was taken down three seconds after his war cry.
I'm afraid this is the end of the story guys. Sorry! Yup, he's dead now.
So, Akito's gone, and the Pirate Hero is lost. Looks like the Five Heroes won't come back to save the world.
Well, it was a good, if short run, I suppose.
Have a good day!
Oh who the FUCK am I kidding?
Let's get on with this story.
"Ugh… You assholes! I was in the middle of my epic speech!" Akito growled, struggling against the tied up bonds he was now in, "And besides, I'm not into this kind of crap!"
"Really?" Kyrin asked, "Also, don't bother trying to sit up or anything. Those ropes are fairly strong, and you can't reach the knots from where you are."
"Gee, thanks for telling me." Akito rolled his eyes, "Now, since I'm obviously not going to be borrowing this ship, can I be let go?"
"…Why would we let you go? First of, why did you even sneak onto this ship?"
"…There are two reasons. The official one I told my friends and my own personal reason." Akito sighed, realizing there probably wasn't any way out of this besides saying what his reasons were.
"Let's hear 'em." Kyrin crossed her arms, emphasizing her… assets which were often used in interrogation which would usually get the men to tell her things.
However, this IS Akito we are talking about, and all he did was roll his eyes the other way and mumble something about maintaining purity. After mumbling a short sanity mantra that went a little something like, "I must remain pure," he closed his eyes and explained.
"Well, the reason I wanted this ship was because it looked the most awesome and intimidating, so I'd take me and my friends after I finished jacking the ship to Mushking Kingdom and liberate them because the plains have been flooded."
"Are… you serious about that?" Kyrin arched an eyebrow.
"And… the other reason is that I was seriously bored. I mean, stuck in the damn taxi cab with Mercedes yapping on about who-gives-a-damn things REALLY drains your sanity. I was just looking for something to alleviate my boredom, and well, sneaking onto a ship where you're pretty sure you're dead if you're caught is a great way to get rid of said boredom. I'm sure you won't believe me, but it's absolutely true."
After Akito finished, she sat silently for about a minute.
Then she began to laugh, and it started echoing through the bustling hallways. The other pirates thought either that kid they had captured had either done something that really pleased Kyrin, or really pissed her off and now she would be doing something horrid to him. It was a really creepy laugh to hear in the middle of the day, after all.
About another minute later, Akito finally gave into the urge to laugh with her as well.
"Boys, get in here. I think we have a awesome pirate in the making!" she yelled.
Meanwhile (thousands of miles away!), after some time passed
Mercedes shut another book as she finished it, also letting out a heavy sigh.
"How long has it been?" she asked Evan.
"Mercedes, it's been a week." Evan said, exasperated.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you like him!" Mir cheered rather silently. Being in a library tends to make those who are normally loud silent, but they find ways. They always do.
"S-shut up!" she whispered harshly, "I already told you I don't!"
"Heehee! Merc's getting embarassed!" Mir teased, causing Mercedes to simply let her head smack the desk she was sitting at. Why did Mir have to tease her about this?
"I'm going to get some air." she got up and put her book away, leaving a rather excited Evan, who was in the middle of an action novel about the future where robots have taken over and a time traveling hero who stops them and a smug Mir.
Stupid Akito, she grumbled as she left, Thing is, it's all my fault! If I hadn't shot his foot he wouldn't have fallen into- What am I saying?! This is all his fault! If he hadn't decided to be stupid and think about even hijacking a pirate's ship, let alone the most armored one, then we wouldn't be in this mess!
She thought back to the days of before, when she was still traveling with Cid. They were the first together before any of the others ever joined, and they might've hooked up, but he had to do what he had to do to save the world he apparently loved over her. A noble decision, but a heartbreaking one never the less. While it had been easy for her to overcome his death due to the fact her village was at the time freezing over, now all that she had been pushing out of the way was coming back to haunt her.
She could still remember their first meeting…
Flashback!
Mercedes spotted a rather young man with black hair in trouble with a few Slimes. His weapon of choice was interesting. It looked more like a tool than a weapon, but it looked to be working right now. Until the Slimes started surrounding him at least.
It was then she realized that the drill on his spear began to spin as his eyes also began to glow.
This was, of course, when he had no trouble destroying the Slimes.
"IRASSHAIMASE!" he roared, "Oh fuck me with a br-"
However, one can handle only oh so many Slimes before you can't start swinging a drill spear at all of them.
"Damn!" Mercedes cursed, dashing towards him, drawing out her dual bowguns, opening fire on the attacking Slimes. It took a short while, but after her assistance a drill burst forth from the pile of slimes. All the rest of the slimes were destroyed within a few seconds once the two began working together.
End Flashback!
Mercedes didn't know it, but she was smiling at the memories. Maybe it was how Cid used to always be under her was what she liked. She did feel a little bit of her liking of him diminish when he started to surpass her…
Was that the only reason she ever liked him? The fact he had always submitted to her?
No, no! She told herself, No, I really did love him! I never loved him because he was submissive towards me because he depended on me! It was… real!
Now she was pissed. If Akito hadn't been so stupid, she wouldn't be having this crisis! It was always his fault now! Everything he did always got them into trouble! Even Phantom back then wasn't as annoying with how he always talked like he was in a play!
Ugh, this is so frustrating! And the fact he looks so damn much like Cid doesn't help! You know, what, screw this! The least I can do is TRY to get along with him… I don't want to have my memories of Cid tarnished by someone who just looks a lot like him and acts a lot like he did later on… I'll save these thoughts for later.
She shoved the last five to ten minutes of thinking out of her head into the mental incinerator, lit a match and threw it into said incinerator. Then for good measure she turned the incinerator on. For three minutes.
Anyways, the thoughts of the last ten minutes were absolutely gone and she was in a great mood.
Then she saw a sight that was not a pleasant one, which made her run into the Library and drag Evan out.
The sight in question?
Akito dressed with a flowing black coat with a golden trim, black leather pants and a white dress shirt that seemed to fit with the rest of his outfit.
And the real kicker was the hand cannon strapped across his back. Of course, his drill spear was still in his hands, as it always was.
"No. Just no." Mercedes grumbled, "What the fuck happened over the last week?"
"Whoa! He looks awesome!" Mir and Evan gasped, running over to him, "Aniki!"
"Ah? Oh, hey! What's up Evan? Guess who's a new Cannoneer? With whatever the hell 'second job advance skills' are!" Akito chuckled as a monkey leapt from the ship and landed on his shoulder, "Oh yeah, you might want to meet Seva! By the way, where's Mercedes?"
"Um… hello…" she eyed his monkey with caution. She had… a bit of a bad run in with monkeys beforehand. Living in a forest doesn't help.
"Oh hey there Mercedes!" Akito smiled, "Oh don't worry, he doesn't bite! Go on Seva, say hello!"
The monkey let out a few noises, which Mir nodded to, seeming to understand.
"So Mir understands him? Awesome!" Akito cheered.
"But wouldn't dragons be unable to understand monkey-"
"No objections!" he cut off Mercedes, who was the only one that wasn't admiring Akito's shiny new cannon or clothes, "But hey, I secured ourselves a way to the Mushking Kingdom! We're gonna liberate that place! However, since you're all probably so confused, I'm going to tell you all the stuff that happened over the week!"
Flashback time!
Anyways, it all started after I was interrogated by Kyrin on why EXACTLY I snuck upon the Nautilus.
"Wait, what do you mean 'pirate in the making'?" Akito asked, utterly confused.
"Kid, don't you know the number one rule of pirates? It's to have fun!" Kyrin said with a smile that was even more confusing the Akito since she was just about one step short from being dead serious literally three seconds ago, "If you thought trying to hijack this ship would be fun, I can't even begin to think about all the stuff you'd find fun as well!"
"So…" he started as Kyrin undid the ropes tying him down, "How did you end up joining the pirates then?"
"Same way as you, ki- What's your name?"
"Akito. Akito Lieri. I thought I screamed that right before I got taken down." Akito said as he stretched.
"Well, I'm sure you'll make a good pirate! After all, you're gonna have a lot of fun!" Kyrin chuckled.
And so began my training… FROM HELL- Damnit Mercedes why did you try to punch me! I'm trying to EPIC and FUNNY here! What the hell do you mean I'm not being funny? Shut up! Every person knows that if you add 'FROM HELL' at the end of just some normal action it makes it funny! Stop denying it! Ahem!
Akito ducked again as another cannonball went for his face, "WHY ARE WE SHOOTING AT-" Matrix dodge! "ME?!"
"You'll have to be fast, FASTER if you want to be mobile with a cannon, now run, boy, RUN!" Kyrin cackled as she continued shooting at him, faster this time, however.
"Oh what the hell was in her coffee?" Akito grumbled as he jumped, avoiding a shot to his foot.
"Coffee? What's that?" Kyrin asked as Akito dived to dodge another.
"…Never mind. It'samiserablepileofsecrets!" he quickly added as Kyrin shot ahead, behind, and at his feet.
"There, see how much easier it is when you're honest?"
Don't even get me started on the shooting… FRO- Stop shooting at me!
"Damnit Akito, how is your aim so terrible?!" Kyrin asked as he missed the target… again. For the three hundred and seventy third time. Kyrin had been keeping count.
"I'm not used to shooting!" he complained.
Don't you mean whined?
Shut up Mercedes!
"Besides this thing is HEAVY!" Trying to line up his target to the best of his abilities, he pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
"Holy crap I hit the target! Hell y-" Akito didn't notice where his fingers were.
BOOM!
"Akito…"
Akito turned around to find a hole in Kyrin's hat, still smoldering.
"Fuck me with a br-"
Oh, and don't even get me started on the flying!
Flying, Aniki?
Yeah, it's like flying lessons… FROM HELL! Oh shit! HA! YOU MISSED MERCEDES!
Damn you! Come back here!
Wait! Let me finish!
"It's so simple! Just jump in the air and then pull the trigger!" Kyrin slammed her head into a wall at how difficult this was for Akito. Everyone else seemed to be able to pull this off pretty well.
"Jump and HOLY CRAAAAAAAP!" he screamed as he flew through the air uncontrollably, crashing into Kyrin, "Ugh… what happened…?" Pushing himself up, he neglected where his hands were going when they pushed on something rather soft.
"O-oh, Akito… if you wanted to, you could've just said so…" Kyrin gushed, blushing madly.
"Eh? What are you- HOLY SHIT MY GOODNESS I'M SO SORRY!" Jumping off, he shot the cannon, flying far back away from Kyrin before she could embrace him. While Kyrinn was disappointed, she was happy that Akito had somehow mastered the technique in an instant.
Fear is a great motivator.
Did that really happen, Aniki? And Mercedes, why do you look so angry?
I told you, Master, it's because-
SHUT UP, MIR! NO ONE WAS TALKING TO YOU!
Waaa~aaah! Akito, Mercedes is being mean to me!
Mercedes! How could you! Mir's such an innocent per, er, dragon!
He was insinuating that I- Never mind!
It was time for his test for second job advancement. All he had to do was take out a few monsters and grab the Marbles that they dropped. Thirty would be his mark, and unfortunately, he had no drill spear.
"Hm, hopefully this won't be too hard." Akito shrugged as he was teleported by Kyrin…
…Right into the horde of enemies. They were small octopi with cannons mounted on their heads.
"Well fuck me with a br- Shit!" Akito ducked underneath a cannonball, "Well, all of that dodge training with Kyrin really paid off." He sprinted for an open area, jumping over a cannonball, ducking underneath another then going into a roll. Kicking off the ground as he finished, Akito unclipped the cannon off of his back and set it on full power as he fired in midair, sending him flying back, "Try doing a barrel roll, assholes! Yeah, how do you like me now?!"
The sound of at least thirty cannons being loaded reminded Akito he was very much unliked here.
"Yeah… screw you guys too." he chuckled, "Eat this!"
Focusing his magical energy into the cannon, a comical PWING! sound came out as he pulled the trigger, a cannonball shooting out on a series of joints, hitting several octopi like a supersonic punch to the face. As the cannonball retracted, Akito let out a laugh, "Damn, that is awesome!"
Using the same technique to ward off a few cannonballs coming in his direction, he spun around to knock a few more octopi out of the way.
"Ha! OW! Damn," he snarled as a cannonball hit him in the ribs, knocking him down, cannon skittering away, "Stupid… damn…" Struggling to get up to his feet, he was interrupted mid swear as he was launched and then shot in the face. Tasting his own blood as it leaked from his nose as he was face down, he got up, snarling, "Fuck you guys too…"
As the remaining octopi closed in on him, Akito closed his eyes…
Then let out a powerful scream, stunning the octopi in awe as the sheer amount of determination, rage, and hotbloodedness washed over them. Taking his chance, Akito sprinted over to his cannon and in desperation, put all of his magical energy into his final attack, launching instead of a small fireball, a blazing hot ball of hellfire that exploded upon impact with one of the octopi, killing the group.
"No… wonder we have to… watch just how much damn magical energy we put into our attacks… guess those guidelines exist for a reason… but I'll be damned if that wasn't FUCKING AWESOME!" he cheered, beginning to pick up the Dark Marbles off the ground.
Now, how do I end this scene?
Aniki, did you say something?
Uh… no.
Then suddenly a giant anvil fell on top of Akito-
You're lying about that one!
Okay, fine. Excuse me for trying to add some humor and stuffs.
At least be realistic about it.
Fine, maybe TEN THOUSAND anvils fell-
Okay, never mind.
"And, so here I am!" Akito cheered, "Am I awesome or what?!"
"Yeah, you're really cool, Aniki!" Evan smiled at him, hugging his 'brother', "But I'm glad you're safe as well! When you were gone over three days I feared the worst! Heck, even Me-" he noticed Mercedes' death glare, "…even Mir was worried!"
"Er, I guess so," Akito shrugged, heaving his drill spear over his shoulder, "Well, let's go! To Mushking Kingdom, we sail on! Let's go liberate us a kingdom!"
As Akito brought his two friends on, he nodded at Kyrin, who gave the signal to start hauling the Nautilus towards Mushking Kingdom. He took note of the sky… clear and sunny, a bright blue that he would never forget.
Such a pure day, he smiled, I want to see this sky again, later on in life. For now… there's a Kingdom we have to save…
And my real adventure starts here… Where everything is bright.
So we have Akito getting the first bit of Pirate abilities and-
CJ: Take her back! She talks way too much!
Mercedes: I do not talk to much you foul, hooded… hoodlum! Geez, the fact you tie me up like that and then just kidnap me! Do you have any idea who I am? Let alone the image you give off with that-
I see what you mean. Anyways… begone!
CJ: You can't get rid of me- *Poofed away with author powers*
Rawrz. Fear me. Anyways, did anyone catch the Castlevania reference!
Akito: You are having way too much fun with referencing things.
Also, did you know that Akito means 'a satisfied man'. Kinda funny, the way this story turns out.
Akito: I don't want to know, I don't want to know-
Uh-
Akito: I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
Alright then. Sorry for the short chapter, but it was mainly just a set-up chapter with Akito getting his first abilities and stuff. Next chapter begins the Mushking Kingdom Liberation arc. And IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!
Next time: Will the trip there be smooth sailing, or will they encounter other sinister things before they can even get to Mushking Kingdom? Will Akito survive Mercedes' attempts at his life? Place your bets now!