Thursday, March 13, 2008

Chapter 18: Fear and Loathing in the Eastern Sea

"Come on Shuichi, stay with me!" Eiri was running now, he had to get to the NG he just had to! Shuichi's life depended on it.

He was lunging over dead bodies and ignoring all else going on around him except for the ever slowing heart beat of the Pirate King in his arms. His blood was still oozing out of his wounds and his face was growing paler by the second.

He had come to the last stretch of deck and the only thing separating him and Shuichi from the NG was a short expanse of ocean. His heart was pumping wildly and his whole body ached with fatigue and blood loss, but he ignored the warning signs and blocked off his own pain. The only thing that mattered was getting Shuichi to safety and in the care of Tohma Seguchi's best physicians.

Looking up at the NG, Eiri spotted Maiko pacing the deck anxiously. "Maiko!" She turned quickly and practically threw her self over the railing when she caught sight of her big brother's limp and dying body.

"Eiri-san! What happened!?" She was scared shitless. Her brother was her best friend. If he died she didn't know what she would do.

Eiri suppressed the urge to fall to his knees in exhaustion. "Maiko! I can't make it across to the NG! I'm too weak! You're going to have to help me get Shuichi there." He yelled across the separation all, but completely spent.

Maiko nodded in assent and ran across the deck towards the rest of her mix matched family. "Eiri-san has Shuichi! He's in real bad shape; I need help getting him on board!"

Without a second thought Ryuichi, Suguru, and K jumped up and rushed over to the other side of the ship. K grabbed a thick rope and tied it around his waist. "I won't be able to swing over from that ship, so you are going to have to hoist us up. Got it?"

Maiko, Ryuichi, and Suguru nodded and began securing the rope to the railing. K grabbed a thinner rope used during the initial bombardment and threw himself over the side of the ship landing with a thud in the smaller ship bellow.

Eiri watched as K went sailing through the air and began to shake with relief when he finally landed not six feet away. He smiled and promptly fell to his knees.

Rushing toward the beaten and bloodied man K knelt down in front of him. Eiri pulled Shuichi closer to his chest in reflex and cradled his head against his shoulder.

When K knelt down he got a good look at the full extent of both men's injuries. He shook his head. It would be a bloody miracle if Shuichi and Eiri made it out of this alive. Reaching forward he tried to pull Shuichi away form the bleeding and fatigued blond, but Eiri kept a tight hold. Using a calm voice K spoke. "Eiri, I need to take Shuichi to the NG. He might die Eiri."

Eiri nodded slowly and let his lover slip from his grasp into K's strong and un-weakened arms. "K, I don't know about all of his injuries, but Aizawa shot him in the stomach. He's lost a lot of blood." K nodded and shifted the unconscious pirate so that he was parallel to his chest then signaled for Maiko, Ryuichi, and Suguru to pull the slack.

Tatsuha and Hiro had joined the rescue party while Rumiko, Judy, Mika, and Tohma watched with worried hearts. The group pulled the slack and K lowered himself into the air. He slowly swung across the empty expanse and used his legs to cushion his impact with the side of the NG. He kept a firm hold on Shuichi's limp body while he walked up the side of the ship letting the group above hoist the majority of the weight.

Eiri watched as his lover and K were hoisted over the railing and his lover was promptly whisked away bellow deck to the medical quarters.

He struggled to stand up when Maiko threw the thick rope toward him and he caught it in his fatigued arms. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold his own body weight much less swing in mid air so he wrapped the rope around his waist to tie it like K had done.

He was about to tighten the knot when he felt something heavy and burning hot make impact with the side of his head. It sent him rolling across the deck while the rope hung over the empty space temporarily forgotten.

When his eyes cleared from the skull splitting hit he realized who it was that was standing over his body holding a flaming torch.

"You are my son! You will do as I say!" Old Man Uesugi stood with a burning torch and a small barrel of gun powder slowly leaking its insides ready to strike the blond man beneath him.

Tatsuha and Mika screamed in furry from the deck above at the sight before them. Old Man just looked at his other children and lowered the torch closer to the barrel of gun powder. "If you even think about trying to stop me I will blow this whole ship to pieces."

Mika and Tatsuha both knew it wasn't a hallow threat. They could see the dark black trail of gun powder that lead over the deck, over dead soldiers and pirates, and down the steps bellow deck, no doubt straight to the ship's supply of gun powder.

Mika slowly lifted her arm behind her head and clasped her fingers tightly to the stock of her rifle, while Tatsuha's fingers itched to grab for his pistol and gun down his treacherous father. The only thing keeping them from letting their insane father blow himself up was the fact that Eiri was laying on the deck with him.

"Uesugi-san, there is no need to take such rash measures." Tohma stepped forward and leaned over the rail. He was a master at finagling his way through things with words and by God he was going to try now.

Old Man looked up at Tohma and let out a disturbing laugh that made them cringe. "You can't talk me out of this, Tohma. I will have order. I will be in control. I will... I will..."

K Leaned toward Judy and whispered so that the crazed old man couldn't hear. "That man is literally off his rocker. Not only is he willing to kill himself, but he has no qualms about blowing his own son to Kingdom Come." Judy nodded and looked on worriedly as the scene continued to unfold.

"Old Man I warned you once! You lay one finger on Eiri and I swear to God-"

"Mika, my dear, you can't protect your brothers any more. They are my sons and if I choose to kill one of them, then I will kill one of them." To add insult to a festering wound he pulled back the arm holding the torch and swung it with all his might aiming straight at Eiri's head.

Mika let out a horrified scream just as Eiri rolled away in the last second. Old man's torch hit nothing, but air which infuriated him even more. "You dare to defy me, son?"

Eiri coughed releasing the slightest amount of blood from his mouth. Pulling him self up on shaking arms he struggled to his feet. His whole body ached and his head felt as though it was going to explode. Even more than that was the raw furry that was filling his gut. "Old Man; you think you can kill me off that easily?"

An angry scowl covered the lunatic's face. "Eiri, you are no longer my son and I will kill you for the dishonor you have plagued my house with. You will die just like that flea infested pirate will!" He took a lumbering leap toward his son dropping the barrel of powder to shatter spilling its contents over the wooden deck.

Eiri, although severely weakened, was ready for it and pulled back his arm punching Old Man right between the eyes. The geezer howled in pain as his nose snapped and blood gushed down his face.

Bellow deck on the NG Sakano was overseeing the medical care of Shuichi.

The doctor raced around barking orders at his assistants and gathering the tools he would need. "Rip his shirt open and clean that wound. Where the hell is Angus with those candles and mirrors I requested?" The immediate priority was the life threatening, gaping hole in Shuichi's abdomen.

Angus appeared in the door way carrying a small box filled to the teeth with candles, following behind was a cabin boy juggling several free standing vanity mirrors. Angus went about lighting as many candles as the room could hold while the cabin boy set the mirrors up in strategic locations amplifying the candle light to blinding proportions.

The doctor finished cleaning his hands in the wash basin set aside for him and let a nurse roll up his sleeves. He quickly walked up to the dying man and placed a hand on his forehead. "Shuichi, can you hear me? If you can hear me I'm going to need to you nod your head." A deathly moan escaped the pink haired pirate and his eyes began to flutter open.

The doctor smiled at him and continued on. "I'm going to operate on you. Your abdomen is in pretty bad shape and we will have to operate in order for you to heal."

Shuichi's eyes began to dart around the room in a lethargic pain induced haze. "Eiri... Where is Eiri?" His voice was a whisper and sounded croaky and slurred.

Rumiko stepped through the door and quickly ran to her son's side. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Eiri's coming baby, you're going to have to listen to the doctor and do as he tells you, ok?"

Shuichi was practically shaking from head to foot in pain and blood loss. "Mama, I want Eiri... It hurts, Mama, make it stop!" He was becoming delusional. Sweat had begun to break out on his forehead and his hands were shaking.

Rumiko reached up with her other hand and began to stroke his hair away form his face. "It's alright baby, you'll feel better in a little bit." She looked at the doctor with a glare as if to say, 'Well? What the fuck are you waiting for?' He nodded to his nurses and they all converged on poor Shuichi at once.

The majority of the blood had been cleaned off, but the crimson liquid was continuing to ooze slowly form the wound. Luckily the bullet hadn't impacted into any vital organs, but the hole left by it was a large one. It was off to his left side and just bellow his rib cage in plain sight.

Rumiko continued to stroke her son's face and hair while squeezing his hand reassuringly. The doctor barked some unintelligible orders and began to lower his scalpel toward the wound. He glanced at Rumiko before making the incision. "The wound is too small for me to find the bullet, so I'm going to open it up so that we will be able to find it faster. It will be painful and I suggest you distract him as much as possible."

Rumiko turned her body just enough to block Shuichi's view of the wound and began to speak in low comforting tones. "Look at me Shuichi. Will you tell the story of how you fell in love with Eiri?" It was the only thing she could think of that would distract him.

Shuichi let a small smile grace his pale features. "I think... I loved him from the beginning-" Just then he shut his eyes and screamed in pain.

Rumiko gripped his hand tighter and cupped his cheek with her other one. "Shuichi look at me!" Shuichi let his tears leak form his eyes. "Tell me the story."

He continued to whimper as the doctor drew the scalpel down to open the wound further. "I- I thought he was stubborn- he wouldn't talk-" His weak hand gripped hers tighter when he felt the pressure and excruciating agony of the doctors hand moving inside of this abdomen in search of the lead bullet. "He-he has beautiful... eyes-"

The doctor listened to his patient talk about his lover while he fished around for the bullet lodged somewhere inside of him. Finally grasping his fingers around it he gingerly pulled it from Shuichi's body and dropped it into the pan on the table next to him.

The burning torch flew out of Old Man's hand when he felt the bridge of his nose crumble underneath Eiri's angered fist. It landed away from the fighting pair on the chest a dead soldier with a trail of gun powder running over him. The powder ignited sending sharp sparks traveling quickly over the trail.

Eiri stood there in anger watching his old man's blood drip down to the floor. "Don't you ever speak about my Shuichi that way!"

"Eiri!" Mika and Tatsuha screamed his name from aboard the NG. "Eiri, the gun powder, hurry!" Mika was clawing at Tohma as he restrained her from flying over the railing and retrieving her brother her self.

He looked up at his sibling's worried faces and began to run toward the railing. He was going to take a flying leap over it and try to grab the rope that still dangled in between the two ships.

He was almost to the rail when he was tackled form behind and both he and Old Man went sprawling across the deck. "I won't let you get away! You are mine! I will have my perfect world! I will!" Old man struggled with all his might to hold Eiri down, but the younger Uesugi was too much for him. Eiri quickly flipped them over and began to pound his fists into Old man's bloodied face.

Tatsuha, Mika and Tohma watched in horror as the sparks of powder jumped from the deck to he stairs leading to the powder supply. "Eiri, Got out of there!" The ship was going to blow! God knows how many barrels of gun powder are down there. The explosion could engulf all the ships within range.

Tohma released his wife and ran up the stairs to the helm deck. The anchor was already lifted and Tohma had every intention of getting out of there before the ship exploded.

Tatsuha ran to the railing and yelled over the ocean. "Eiri, you have to come, now! The ship is going to blow!" Eiri landed one more punch on his father before struggling to his feet and rushing toward the end of the deck.

The doctor was slicing the dead tissue away from the wound to keep the scaring relatively minor. The pain, however, was excruciating.

Shuichi couldn't keep his mind or his eyes focused over the agony racing through his body. All that registered was pain and the absence of Eiri. "Eiri! Mama! Eiri needs me! He's in trouble!"

Rumiko didn't know what to do. She could feel the ship moving and had seen Old Man Uesugi attack Eiri, but she knew nothing of the out come. "Shuichi, honey, calm down. Eiri's on his way!" She was crying now. Tears streaming down her face as she watched her son shake with pain and fear.

The doctor threaded the needle and began to sew the first layer of tissue. The whimpers of his patient were echoing off the mirrors. He had seen many a battle wound worse than this, but he had always been well stocked with some kind of anesthetic. He tugged the thread tight and began on the other layer of the wound. The process is almost over.

Shuichi was in a near panic. Eiri wasn't with him. He didn't know where he was and his whole body was aching in pain. He could feel the ship moving, but why wasn't Eiri there with him? The only thing he was certain of was that Eiri needed his help. Eiri needed him and Shuichi couldn't get to him.

The moment Eiri made it to the railing, throwing him self over it and into the ocean with one thought in his mind the whole ship exploded in flames.

Shuichi, my love...

A/N Jesus, I almost cried while writing the scenes with the doctor it was so intense. I couldn't imagine being in Rumiko's shoes. I would be heart broken. I hope ya'll aren't completely freaked out. I told ya'll I would get the next chapter out soon so here it is. Enjoy and look for next one! It's not over yet...

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