The trio had set off for the sea and had not said much their journey, just the occasional line from Taiga as she announced that she was hungry. Ryuuji had planed for this and Ryuuji just being Ryuuji had made a lot of rice with meat. He knew she wouldn't be full so he made her favourite too. Pork cutlets. Hazuto had not said much and waited till they were far away from the coastline. He was watching this couple intently, and he often thought to himself "How can this man stand this woman, she treats him like dirt. But I think she treats dirt nicer than him." After they were quite far away from the coastline Hazuto had took out his swiss army knife. Ryuuji had started to eye him intently wondering what he was doing. It looked like he was cutting some sort of solar panel off the motor.
"Hey what are you doing! That solar panel probably gives energy to the motor." Ryuuji said in a distressful manner.
"I'm saving our lives that's what i'm doing. That 'solar panel' is a tracker and I rented this boat so I can only keep it for a day. But i'm a pirate and I am not going to keep it for a day. I'm going to keep it until we find another boat."
"Ok then sausage dog. How does the motor get power then?" Taiga questioning him gleefully as she knew he would be stumped.
"It's hydroelectrically powered. It basically means it gets energy from the water. I don't really want to go into details." Hazuto said proudly.
Taiga blushed and hid her face in Ryuuji's chest. "I'm going to sleep." She announced. Although they all knew she was wrong and couldn't handle the embarrassment. After about an hour of sailing, they spotted a rather big boat. It was not as big as a galleon but it was still quite miraculous. It was a bit bigger than a yacht and most probably didn't have a name. It had a sail which implied that the boat was being carried in the direction of the wind. Even though there was not that much wind it was still going faster than them. Hazuto whistled as he saw this boat then suggested
"Hey Ryuuji, let's go take that boat."Suddenly out of nowhere Taiga turned her head around and looked at the boat. This then meant that Hazuto and Ryuuji's accusation was correct. Taiga had suddenly blurted out, "And look, the ship has no crew just a lonely man sailing it. Come on let's go climb aboard."
The two men understood and Hazuto steered to intercept the ship. He knew they would have little time to board and that their small boat will most probably be destroyed. "Ok i'm going to try and steer next to it, you guys climb onto the rope then jump inside. I'll be their soon after you get on."
"Uh..guys. There is a little problem. I don't know how to climb a rope." Taiga said as her face turned a blood red.
"Your kidding right? Ah well your gunna have to climb on Ryuuji's back." Hazuto responded. Ryuuji then hoisted her up onto his arms. Taiga was very small so was easy to carry and she was also incredibly light despite the fact she ate so much daily. Hazuto steered the ship and lined it up neatly next to the frigate. Ryuuji jumped as high as he could and got a hold of the rope. Hazuto waited for a chance but was getting it rarely as the ship zoomed past. He had no choice but the jump and hold on to one of the ledges where a cannon usually would have been placed. "Woah, this ship's quite old. I'd have expected more of a turret than a cannon." Hazuto thought. He managed to climb up and was on the bottom deck. His mouth gaped wide open as he saw what the contents of this ship were and understood why it had no crew. It was a cargo ship. There were crates half opened with many goods inside. He could see so many different things and all of this would probably be worth at least a million yen. He didn't even see the other half of the bottom deck. Suddenly he remembered about Taiga and Ryuuji. He poked his head out one of the cannon ledges and saw them climbing onto the top deck. He half hid under the ladder as he saw the captain come out with a small pistol. "Damn it! How could i have been so careless as to not bring a weapon?!" Hazuto scolded himself in his thought. Then he suddenly remembered the katana Taiga had attacked him with. He poked his head out the ledge again and motioned Taiga to hand over her katana. Taiga had no intention of giving it to him, she couldn't trust this man. Ryuuji had saw what was going on and heard footsteps. It must have been the captain of this ship. Suddenly Ryuuji jerked downwards and tried to hide on the side of the ship. They would obviously be find soon. He snapped at Taiga. "Just give him the sword!" Ryuuji snarled. It was these moments when Ryuuji got angry and very serious. Everyone had been scared of him because he looked like a delinquent. He had the eyes of a killer which he had inherited of his father. When he snapped at people they instantly did what they were told to do. Even the palmtop tiger had not questioned him and dropped her katana where Hazuto caught it just before it fell into the ocean. As quietly as he could he climbed the ladder to the top deck. He tiptoed as fast as he could and as quietly as he could. He suddenly bashed the captain on his head with the wooden katana. "It's lucky it's made of wood." Thought Hazuto. He extended a hand as he pulled the couple up onto the top deck.
"So, I think we did pretty good for our first day." Hazuto said confidentially.
"Poor man, he was making a living legitimately and we've just gone and ruined it." Ryuuji said which made Taiga feel guilty but Hazuto's face didn't show any guilt or remorse.
"Actually, he was more of a pirate than us. It's against the law for anyone to have a gun. Even on a trading route where there could possibly be some dangers, and look at this paper he dropped. It says this cargo is from Italy to Japan. Yet this man doesn't even have a license to trade which means he intercepted a trading ship and somehow took all this loot." Hazuto exclaimed.
"Well we can't just leave him here. He'll wake up and we'll have to knock him out again." Taiga responded. Amazingly as Ryuuji looked down the side of the ship the little schooner they rented was still in one piece. "I have an idea, we can put him on our old boat. That way he can get to Japan without us having to take him." Ryuuji said thoughtfully. They all picked up the man and Hazuto was quite impressed by Taiga's strength despite her petite frame. They dropped the man on the boat and watched intently for blood. "Nope, looks like he's ok." Hazuto chimed.
"Well, i'm going to try and clean up this boat. It's a wreck. Look at all this rubbish." Ryuuji said in disgust. Ryuuji had always loved doing housechores. It was very odd since everyone thought he was a thug but really inside he was a housewife who loved cleaning and hated seeing a sock by itself.
"Typical mongrel." Taiga said.
"Well, i'm going to look at all the cargo this guy has. It's probably worth a fortune. And Taiga will help me." Hazuto said as he eyed Taiga. Suddenly he picked her up and took her to the bottom deck.
"Hey put me down you sausage-dog! How dare you hold a woman like that." Taiga said as she blushed.
"Well to me, your more of a little sister. I think we got off on the wrong foot. So i guess this sort of activity will help us 'bond'." Hazuto said as he started snickering loudly.
"Hmph!" was the only thing Taiga could say. After about half an hour of looking through all the crates they came to the conclusion that it would sell for about 3 million yen. It was nowhere near enough for the hospital fees. "It looks we can pay our rent for about a year. But even then we will still not have enough for ourselves." Taiga pondered to herself.
"Well little sis, looks like we only need about 47 million more yen and then we are practically done. I can pay off my hospital fees and you can pay off your rent. Or even better you can buy a new house and pay for the up keep." Hazuto exclaimed.
"So you really treat me like i'm your little sister?" Taiga asked. Hazuto nodded and suddenly Taiga charged at him. Hazuto had almost no time to react but then suddenly instead of bulldozing Hazuto Taiga had hugged him. Hazuto felt tears on his shirt and had heart a small voice say "Thank you." Hazuto simply returned the hug. He had no intention of embraces like this but he thought that little sisters should get them once in a while.
"Now let me ride on your back sausage-dog!" Taiga ordered.
"As you wish, little sis." Hazuto responded. He bent over and Taiga jumped on his back. It looks like Hazuto really could befriend the fiery tiger. They climbed up the ladder and were astonished when they saw how clean the top deck looked like.
"Woah! You did all this by yourself Ryuuji? Well I can't say that i'm not impressed." Hazuto said admiringly.
"Ah, it's nothing. And I see you two have become friends." Ryuuji responded. At this comment Taiga simply blushed but Hazuto took full confidence and said "Well I guess she's my little sister now. You kind of have to become friends."
"Little sister? Well I'm not surprised that she hasn't attacked her big brother yet. She's always wanted a sibling she could connect him."
"Th-that's not true!" Taiga intervened into the conversation to try and hide her secret. At this the two men just started laughing and began to talk about dinner.
"Man i'm hungry. I'll go rustle up some dinner with the things we have on board." Hazuto said.
"You can cook too? Look's like I proved Taiga wrong." Ryuuji responded as he chuckled.
"Stop making fun of me! Just cos you can cook and I can't. Your both dogs and a dog can't do things that a master can do. A dog rolls over for a biscuit but the master doesn't, besides if i really wanted to cook I would have asked you to teach me. So Ryuuji, I order you to teach me to cook!" Ryuuji hadn't expected this sudden outburst but had smiled when Taiga had asked her to cook. Ryuuji had gone into the captain's quarters but only found fish. "I guess it's sushi today then." Ryuuji thought. He took two fish to a makeshift chopping board. Taiga was intently watching behind him and finally butted in. "Ok I get it. You want me to make sushi. It can't be that hard." Taiga said confidentially. Ryuuji had left Taiga by herself and wondered how long till she cut her fingers or made a disaster. Ryuuji had started walking towards the center of the top deck when he was suddenly jerked backwards by a rather strong hand. "Wha-?" was the only sound Ryuuji could make. He found himself on the bottom deck facing a rather proud looking Hazuto.
"Well what do you think?" Hazuto inquired. In front of Ryuuji lay two immaculate futons with probably the nicest silk around as a blanket. There was also a tatami mat underneath these two futons with two plates on top ready for food to be served and chopsticks lined up neatly on them. An even more interesting thing was that there were also two cups filled with water that had somehow been clean. "You did all this by yourself?" asked Ryuuji looking amazed at the amount of effort gone into this and how quickly he had managed to make it. He had started to wonder where he got all of these things. "Yep, I'd do anything to try and please my little sister and her husband." smiled Hazuto.
Ryuuji chuckled, "You don't even know how cheesy that sounded." They both started laughing at this but there was something else on Ryuuji's mind. "Why is there only two of everything?" He was about to ask but then suddenly Hazuto said "Your wondering why there is only two right? Well it's for you and Taiga. Don't worry about me I got mine sorted but i'm doing this because with the time i've spent with you guys i've noticed that you love Taiga dearly and that you don't necessarily need her to help you but instead she needs your help. So i'm going to try and help you guys as much as I can."
"Thanks a lot. But shouldn't I tell her that you made this. Maybe she'll like her big brother better." Ryuuji inquired.
"Tell her what you want, I've only got two goals in life. To try and make both my sisters happy and healthy." Hazuto said look at the night sky.
"Your two sisters?" Ryuuji said looking confused.
"Oh yeah, remember when I said that I was trying to get 50 million yen for hospital fees? Well it's for my sister. 2 years ago my parents died in a car crash and my sister was in that car. She has been in a coma ever since with a slim chance of survival. But now it's been guaranteed that she will survive. But to wake her up it will cost 50 million yen. That's about $40,000 if you were wondering."
"Ah I see. Well it looks like you've got a good-hearted goal. My goal is to make my family happy, and I guess your my brother in-law which makes you family. So what can I do to make you happy."
"By saying that i'm already happy." Hazuto exclaimed.
About 5 minutes later a tired looking Taiga came in and said "You two better eat this sushi or else." They both tried it and Taiga was bursting with excitement by the look on their faces. "This is great! Since when did you become a good chef? inquired Hazuto.
"He's right, this does taste quite excellent." Ryuuji agreed. Taiga was very happy and smiled when suddenly Hazuto stood up and ruffled her hair.
"I'll be going to sleep then guys. Seeya later...family." Hazuto walked up the ladder to the top deck where he had somewhere and somehow made his own little personal space. Taiga and Ryuuji were left alone and while they were eating Taiga had only thought of the question now when it suddenly popped into her head "Hey Ryuuji, did you bring this tatami mat and futons along with these plates and cups full of water?"
"No, actually it was Hazuto who did it. I guess you can always rely on your big brother." Ryuuji answered. Taiga had blushed and then scoffed all her food down. "Eat slower or you'll choke." Ryuuji said looking concerned as always when it came to Taiga.
"Well I guess I can always count on you Ryuuji."
"Life wouldn't be fun if there was nobody to count on."
"Yeah your right, well i'm going to bed."
"See you in the morning Ryuuji."
"As always Taiga.
They drifted of to sleep unknowingly of what was then going around them.
The small boat had drifted onto a beach, there in front of it stood 3 men. The biggest man picked up the captain of the ship which was now under Hazuto's control. "What happened to the cargo!" The biggest man said.
"I was attacked by surprise, I never knew he was behind me." The captain had said.
"Well then it looks like your attackers have made a serious enemy. Nobody messes with us. You hurt one of us, you hurt all of us."
"Yeah that's right." the second man had now joined in.
The third man opened his mouth and looked towards the sea.
"You better watch out, the Yakuza are coming for you."
