This one wasn't requested by anyone, it's just something I considered putting into chapter thirty but decided would be better to just save for a one shot. There will probably be more, and potential for people to make requests, because a lot of stuff and bonding (or blowing your top off at other people) is bound to happen when you have a dozen people stuck together on a boat for a week. Stuff that has little to no importance to the main story.

But yeah, this one is just for giggles.

x x x

FTaBV Omake: Sushi

x x x

"Whatcha doing, Ace?"

"Hey Letha, want to fish with me?" Karol smiled back over his shoulder at me, but remained seated on the ship's railing. His pole was a long flexible piece of wood with a line going through a few eyelets and wrapped around a rather crude looking reel by his hands. The other end was trailing behind the ship. I wasn't sure if there was a best place to fish on a ship, but would there be any fish in our wake to actually bite?

Well I'm fishing ignorant, so I just shook my head. "No thanks, even if I managed to catch something I wouldn't know what to do with it."

"What to do with it?" Karol looked at me in confusion. "You cook it and eat it of course!"

"Ugh...!" I looked away and resisted the impulse to clamp a hand over my mouth.

"Oh yeah," he was apologetic, "I forgot you don't like fish." He started reluctantly to pull his line back in.

I rested a hand on his to keep him from reeling it in anymore, "Don't worry about it, just because I don't like fish doesn't mean you guys can't have it."

"But-"

"It's not like the smell of it being cooked or seeing other people eating it will make me sick. It's only when I try to eat any myself that I start getting nauseous." I shrugged, "And I can easily find something else to eat."

"If you're sure..." Karol tried to sound like he was letting me talk him into it, but I could see the excited spark returning to his eye.

"Yep. Just be careful you don't get dragged in if something big-" just before I could finish the thought the line snapped tight and Karol was yanked from his perch on the railing into the water. "WOAH! Karol!"

x x x

"I can't believe you guys are eating the mermen."

"Why not? Fresh food isn't easy to come by in the middle of the ocean. And if we just dump all the bodies into the water at once something bigger and nastier will probably show up."

"Yeah, but any fresher and you'd guys would be eating living fishies..."

"Hey, it's not like we're making you eat any of it."

"Yes, you're right, I'll just shut my mouth before one of you decides to put a fish in it." I leaned back against the wall, gnawing a bite off of a piece of dried and salted meat. It tasted terrible, but at least it wouldn't make me sick. Everyone else, including Repede, was feasting on the sudden abundance of sushi we had. The sailors looked totally accustomed to the meal, Kaufman and her crony (I still hadn't picked up his name) made do, and my group ranged from practical to nonchalant to absolutely enthusiastic about the menu.

Washing my jerky down with a swallow of water, a mischievous tickle in my mind made me speak up again. "Hey, have you guys ever heard about mermaids?"

"Mermaids? Don't you mean the mermen?" Kaufman asked.

"No, I mean mermaids. They're very similar to mermen, but a bit different."

"How's that?"

"Mermaids are fish from the waist down and," I grinned in Raven's direction, "beautiful women from the waist up. Usually topless too. Occasionally a beached sailor would claim a beautiful lady saved him from drowning."

"Sounds like my type of monster!" he declared with a laugh.

"Don't be so quick to say that," I warned. "Mermaids are tricky things, and are known for using enchantments to confuse and lead sailors astray so they drown when their ships crash and flounder." Well, that's more like a description of a Siren, but the two myths are fairly closely intertwined.

"That...might not be worth it," the archer said thoughtfully. "Then again..."

"And there are additional legends about the effects from eating a mermaid's flesh." I stopped there for dramatic effect, and there was a moment of silence before they burst with shocked exclamations and protests.

"'Ea-eating' them? But you said they look like people!" Karol's voice cut through the rest of the jumble more clearly. Yuri was looking at me with narrowed eyes, probably realizing I was trying to mess with them all again. Judith quirked an eyebrow up, showing nothing besides quiet interest in my story. Kaufman's mouth was a thin line, and she didn't look all that amused.

"Well, yeah, I think it sounds nasty too." I shrugged, "But according to the stories the mermaids were hunted nearly to extinction for their flesh. Because," I leaned forward and spoke in a secretive whisper, "eating the flesh of a mermaid is supposed to grant you immortality." I drew the last word out dramatically, tapping a finger on my knee to give each syllable an underscored emphasis.

Like I'd expected, after they all stared at me with wide eyes for a moment, their gazes dropped to the mermen sushi in their hands. Kaufman, by the way, had lost the disapproving look in favor of one more calculating. I could just imagine her wondering how much to charge for authentic mermaid flesh.

"But," I snapped my fingers to recapture their attention, "if the other stories are true than the immortality might not be worth it."

"Other stories?" asked Yuri, sensing I was waiting for a prompt.

"Yeah, supposedly if you become immortal that way, you'll also be cursed by the mermaid for the rest of eternity." I smiled slightly as Karol and Rita dropped their pieces of fish. Biggs and Wedge looked at each other, shrugged, and took simultaneous large bites out of their meals. Everyone else either looked at their food in dawning horror, or at me with wry expressions of "are you satisfied yet?"

"Well, I'm going to turn in for the night!" I announced while pushing myself off from the wall. "Have a nice dinner everyone."

x x x

That was not very nice at all. But I couldn't drop the idea and wrote it out in about an hour or two. Letha has such a mean, prankish streak!

For the first half, just assume either Biggs or Yuri had to jump in and rescue Karol.

If it turns out there are monsters in ToV more like traditional mermaids then those shark like mermen, I don't care. This was just for laughs, and I didn't feel like nitpicking at the finer details forever.