Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
0
The final battle began. Ramone rushed in with his living, freely moving limbs of giant centipedes reeling and twisting around. Rupert had labored breath from enduring the battle up until now. His old, old heart aged rapidly by the drugs that coursed in his blood, was beating beyond its mortal limit. Rupert's consciousness slowly returned as his body faded away into a more normal speed of motion. Then, suddenly, his machine kicked on powerfully and blasted his body with chemicals. His mind was gone again and his power was restored.
Ramone brought both his 'arms' down and blocked Rupert's warp-speed punch with the steely skin of his centipedes. "Ggggg...." he growled. He stepped in and pushed away with powerful swings. His right arm, the orange-plated Mi-Go, whipped forward and chomped at Rupert. The manic king dodged and swooped in with a dash. Yi-Go came down and bit into his stone-solid shoulder to stop him. Ramone stomped his foot into the stone and raised his left arm up to throw Rupert into the air. Once he was airborne he turned and took in a sharp breath.
"Black CLOUD!!!" Ramone called. From his open mouth a cloud of stinging, destructive insects came buzzing out and encircled Rupert. Wasps and Dragonflies, Beetles and more common Flesh-Eating Flies all formed a living cloud around the king. Rupert, in his incredible physical responsive state, was able to flick and squish each individual bug as it came in to try and attack him. The cloud suddenly parted as his arms blazed rapidly around his body and Ramone flew up growling. He reached his body right and let Mi-Go advance to take a voracious chomp to Rupert's abdomen. Rupert smacked the bug away, letting it take with it the strands of flesh and drops of tainted blood that split out. His wound closed up almost instantly and started to sizzle with a toxic green smoke.
Ramone landed with a growl and clicked his teeth. The bugs retreated and surrounded him while Rupert landed and dashed back in. Rupert threw a powerful punch to hit the air, rather that Ramone, and disrupted the flight of the insects enough to kill most of them with a series of fast swipes. Ramone coiled Yi-Go around his body and gave Rupert a launching bash that sent him to the wall. Rupert landed on the wall and sprung back, landing beside Ramone, giving him a terrible punch, and then retreating away across the entire room as he continued on his rebounding force. Ramone had fallen again but was risen up by his insectoid arms and placed back on his feet while the flaky hole in his side from the punch widened. Ramone looked down in shock and then glared forward through his moving shield.
That bastard he thought. I'm out of energy already. I can't regenerate my skin anymore, there's nothing to use around me for wax or resin. Mi-Go and Yi-Go aren't doing too well either. I can tell, from their tired swaying, that they're hungry and my control on them is slipping...Damn! I'm too close to give up now! Ramone started a rush forward as Rupert disappeared in his high-speed movement. Ramone stopped suddenly and blocked Rupert's descending leg with the steel hide of Mi-Go. I've come to far to lay down and die! I'm not backing away!!! Ramone tossed Rupert up and then quickly gripped him with Mi-Go's mouth.
"GGGGAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Mi-Go began whipping Rupert's body around, smashing it against the ground as it reeled and arced violently. Each hit to the ground shattered the marble tile with the king's terribly beaten body. Still, through the attack, Rupert's crazed mind only permitted him to smile, and smile he did, bearing his fanged teeth like the lion he was. Ramone stomped forward with another slam, spun himself and dragged Rupert's body through the tile in a half-circle before throwing him against a nearby wall. Rupert recovered quickly, gripping the sides of the hole in the wall he was sunken into and pulled himself out in a pounce. Ramone retreated in long leaps. Rupert landed and sprung forward again, this time stealing Mi-Go away in his powerful grip. His machine churned down again, but not before he mimicked the attack by whipping Mi-Go's body against the floor and spinning it overhead to build momentum for a massive throw upwards.
"Damn!" Ramone exclaimed. Now he was, quite literally, disarmed. Still, he had to fight, and mode a short dash forward with a furious snarl on his face. He leaped up with Yi-Go wound back and threw him forward, piercing the ground with his platinum head. Rupert was behind Ramone and backhanded him into the floor where he bounced away, leaving flaky chunks of his haggard body behind as he spun. Now he was armless and panting heavily, his face cracked down the middle from the force of the attack against his brittle, hive form.
This is it, isn't it? He thought as Rupert laboriously approached. Rupert stopped just over Ramone's head and slowly raised his leg up. Goddammit. I should have trained harder...I should have waited for something better to come along... Ramone closed his eyes and slowed his own breath. He prepared himself to die.
"ORYAAAAAAHHH!!!" roared the forceful voice of a Buster Pirate as he charged into scene. Rupert turned to him just as he received the powerful shoulder charge the burly brawler delivered. Behind him rushed the rest of his comrades, with swords and guns all in arm, and they all surrounded and swarmed Rupert's body with blunt blows from their guns and the blunts of their swords. The stronger ones stomped and kicked with their own bodies as their preferred tools. Ramone looked over and saw the display of sheer brutality. He tried to inch himself over with insects crawling from his body to carry him over, but a ground shattering arrow stopped him from going any further.
"From now on" Gretta said, lowering her hands from her bow, "it's their fight to finish..." Gretta took a seat against the railing, her back to the rest of the room, and removed her mask to let her tears roll from her expressionless eyes. I really don't know anything she thought. I always thought there was someone, something out there that was fantastic, unreal, unpredictable...but in the end the cruelest reality is always the truest one. I can't keep hoping for a happy ending anymore. I don't live in such a world of miracles...
Just then, Bard pounded his fist to the floor and strained his body up. This Ramone observed and gasped angrily at.
"Damn!" Bard hissed. "I can't just lay around all day! I've still got a fight to win!!!" Bard stood up and took in as deep a breath as his lungs would allow. Ramone saw the red lines connecting the points where he punctured his nerves, an eighteen-point star across his broad torso, and he forced out a sigh.
There are nineteen points there Ramone observed. He must have fallen on a piece of sharp debris to trigger that final one and save himself...Ggggggg, idiot.
0
'Bastard!' 'We'll beat you stupid!' 'No one messes with us!' 'King or not, we'll kick your ass chafed!' Such were the shouts of the Buster Pirates as they mobbed over Rupert's helpless body. Then, with one stray kick led on from someone in steel-toed boots, the machine chugged on and delivered a shocking pulse of raw power through Rupert's body. In an explosive force the wild King shot up and swung both his arms outward to throw the mob away. He was cleared a large circle of peace while the pirates were piled on top of each other and sloppily tossed about. Rupert looked around with his manic, white eyes and just barely caught sight of a leg that consumed all the light in his world.
"RANKYKAUU!!!!" Bard shouted. He delivered a devastating kick from his leaping position and landed as Rupert was tossed head over hell and shoulder over shoulder across the room. Bard took a long, measured breath out and shrugged his shoulders to straighten his posture.
"Captain!" a pirate exclaimed. Bard turned to the pirate and immediately made his way to him. "You're alive! I can't believe-" Bard grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to his feet.
"Get everyone outta here" Bard commanded. "Including Ramone. I'm taking this damn castle down with that old bastard!" Bard let go and aimed his body straight forward, right at Rupert who was still on the ground, holding his bleeding face in pain. Although his body was toned and tense and reflexively a perfect machine-aided machine, his face had no sufficient muscles to train, and so he received the full of a dull blade right across the bridge of his nose and the flying force of a knife in both his closed eyes.
"HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Rupert roared. The painful cry of a beaten animal, the desperate struggle to defy the pain in his voice. Everyone heard it, including Bard, but there was an aura about Bard that no one had ever seen before. Despite the dishonor of beating a downed foe, Bard's rage could not be held back and with a Soru rush he kicked Rupert's body up, grabbed it and spun him around so he landed on his feet again. Then Bard punched him straight in the face. He gave a short uppercut, leaning up with his body and keeping his arm tight and flexed. Rupert staggered away, raising a hand and coughing out in pain. Bard took the forearm of the hand and tossed Rupert to the ground over his shoulder. His attack was relentless.
From the ground Rupert pushed himself up and got back to his feet. Bard threw another straight with his left and Rupert dodged with a quick slide to the side, catching and holding his arm in a flex with his bicep. Bard made a quick jab with his right and landed a hit on Rupert's throat. Another jab and Rupert caught the fist in his hand. Rupert and Bard growled each other down, both just as angry and animistic as the other, but Rupert acted first. He moved in and locked Bard's legs down while Bard drew one back. Rupert's defense worked to throw Bard's balance off and he was able to topple Bard. The blonde boy recovered quickly, thrusting his palm to the floor and spin-kicking himself back up. Rupert got a kick to the face and backed away, keeping his fists up and ignoring the warm, viscous blood that drooled out from the corner of his mouth.
"Come on!" Marco shouted as he rode on the back of a more healthy pirate. Rupert turned curiously and saw his former prey swiftly evacuating. Ramone was in the reluctant hands of another large pirate as the entire group fled.
"Wait..." Rupert moaned, turning and reaching out for them with a gripping hand. He made the effort to dash over to them, but Bard kept the pace. Making a Soru-speed leap he stayed up in the air long enough to hook Rupert's neck into his leg and pushed off to get ahead of him with a steady fist wound back. Once he hit the ground and slowed down he saw Rupert slow down as well. Then Bard stepped forward and threw his punch, sending Rupert across the room once more. Rupert lay on the ground for a moment before turning himself over and coughing up a nasty amount of blood. He held a hand to his mouth, trying to keep as much blood inside his own body as he could, failing to take notice to his broken machine. The tubes were still connected into his flesh but they fed nothing and had nothing taken into them. There was a pale green, pasty liquid lining the interior of each tube, meaning the last transaction with his mechanical organ was one to send even more power into him.
"No..." Rupert groaned. He had regained his full clarity of mind, fuller than he had ever experienced, a total reversal of his natural age. He could see back in time as if looking at a bundle of pictures, and what he saw were visions from a monster. "No...!" With frantic hands he reached for his head, the madness of all his years finally catching up to him, and he gripped his brittle white hair as tight as his weak fingers could. "No! NOOO!!!!" Bard was still on his raging heat and kicked Rupert's mouth shut, literally, lifting him off the ground with the straight punt he placed. Bard's jaw was clenched, his teeth fully flashing, his nostrils flared, his brow furrowed and his eyes, oddly, were the same terrible shade of white that Rupert had not too long ago.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" Bard, still aloft in the air, planted the sole of his boot on Rupert's sternum and pushed off with a straight, flat pushing kick. Rupert went through a wall, Bard landed in a crouch and immediately pursued. There was no rest for this mighty pirate warrior. He would fight until somebody was dead. Blinded by rage, Bard blasted through the new hole and continued his attack.
0
"Is that everyone?" Marco asked. He looked over the crowd of panting, tired, beaten pirates and gave a quick head-count. "Good. That's everyone."
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Rez roared. He and Reginald rested closer to the castle than the rest, of course Rez was unable to move from the cobblestone ground that he angrily pounded at. "Why did you drag us out here too? Huh? What about the goddamn plan!?"
"The plan's gotten too old to work" Reginald said. "If you wanted the glory you should have gone for it when you had a chance. Now that Bard's started fighting on Rupert's level, it's only a matter of time before this whole bastardized castle becomes a ruined grave for that smug, white-haired devil..." Reginald took a tired, final look at the castle and fell to his back. "I can't wait...when those walls come crashing down, one of you wake me up..." Reginald closed his eyes and his head fell limply to the side. He slowed his breathing until it couldn't be heard. Rez took a worried look to his old friend and dragged himself over to his peaceful face while the crew watched in collective dread.
"Drake?" Rez said. Reginald didn't move in response. Rez started to become frantic, thoughts of terrible dread circulating in his head. "Drake? Drakengard, are you alright?" Rez tapped his head but saw nothing happen. No movement at all. Even his beard seemed to be totally stiff. Rez sat up, removed his bandana and clutched his forehead in his palm. The rest of the pirates looked away and shied their eyes to the sky. Many were filled with sadness, some had eyes sparkling and filling with tears...but Rez's eyes were filled with regret. "I'm sorry...old man." Rez took his gunblade and stabbed it into the ground in front of him, near Reginald's arm. He took a sullen moment of silence, as did everyone else.
Reginald's body shot up with his eyes wide and his mouth wider.
"KRUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!"
"BWAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!" screamed the entire company of pirates. Reginald blinked, took a quick glance around, and then looked at a shock-white Rez curiously.
"Sorry" Reginald said, rubbing his head. "I passed out for a second, didn't I? It's been a long-ass day for me." Reginald looked past Rez at the castle, heard the rumbles of battle within, and then looked back down at Rez with a grin. "How long you think it'll take that kid to win?" Rez was clutching his fists so hard that his callouses were creaking and splitting open. Rez took his gunblade from the ground and slammed Reginald on the back of the neck with the blunt butt, then spun it around and sheathe it. Once it was safely in its holster Reginald groaned and leaned forward, out cold once more.
"Jackass" Rez growled. "You don't pretend to be dead...and then scare the living crap out of all of us!!!" The pirates were chuckling as hard as they could, so utterly amused with Rez's antics they turned a blind eye to the fact that he potentially concussed an old man. Rez did take a long glance back at the hug castle behind him and wondered the same thing. "That guy's strong enough. I'm sure it won't be too long..." A sudden shaking boom from inside the castle. The Buster Pirates all huddled around to watch as the front gate and the wall around it went tumbling down inside the castle, the first major link in the chain of destruction that took out the entire frontal area of the fortress.
Araly and the company she kept saw it all too. A Buster Pirate walked over with Ramone in his arms to deliver him to a proper medical care. Araly was still upset about the fact that she had accidentally given herself a tattoo, but upon seeing Ramone's body she immediately returned to professional, healing thoughts.
"We'll you're screwed up" she said, wiping her cheeks.
"Ggggg" Ramone growled. "What're you cryin' about? That kid'll be fine..." Colleen rushed over and looked down at her captain with tears in her eyes. Ramone looked up at her and closed his eyes with a harsh, laboured sigh. "He's a lot stronger than you think..." Araly looked down at him, then up at the castle that shook with the destructive notes of ruin once more. A soft wind blew her hair and moved the clouds away, revealing just how far into the evening sky the orange sun was setting. The coup of one day was nearly over, but for Araly it meant something much more terrible.
"Oh Bard" she said. "Don't go too far..."
0
"KAAARRRRYAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Bard roared. Rupert could only back away and receive the powerful blunt force that the manic blonde boy threw at him. With each step of advance Bard threw another punch or swung another mighty elbow or made a hooking kick to knock Rupert over only to use the same leg to kick him up to his feet again. The attack was endless, relentless, inhumanly ruthless. Bard seemed dead-set on making his enemy dead through the power of his fists alone. Bard pushed Rupert away with a solid palm-blow to his chest, jumped up and kicked a Rankyakuu blade out. Rupert jumped to the side and rolled on the ground. Bard kicked off the air and punted Rupert off a wall, then kicked him down to the ground with a might ax kick as he came bouncing back to him.
"Guu....." Rupert coughed. His blood climbed through the air and fell short back onto the floor around him. "Mmm.....aaaagggghhh....." His groaning was low and dying, the final painful notes of a man whose life was rapidly losing. Bard reached down and grabbed him by his neck, squishing his fleshy muscles and placing him back on his feet. Rupert just fell over, right onto his face, and slowed his breathing. Bard was panting and wringing his hands wrathfully, looking down at the fallen glory of King Lioncrest. Bard took a quick look at his knuckles, which were red from the force of his own ferocious pummeling. Bard recovered his clarity and his pupils returned to his eyes. Finally he saw the result of his angered tangent.
Rupert's body was a broken heap of incorrectly bending joints and disgustingly angled bones. A pool of shallow, thin blood started forming from the wounds near his chest and his still bleeding face. Rupert still breathed, but it was a harsh and labored breath that sent the dreadful signal that it would soon end. Bard went down to one knee and lowered himself to get a better look at Rupert. He turned him to his side so he could cough out the blood he was breathing and saw him smile.
"Mohohoho...." Rupert chuckled. "I've had this a long time coming!"
"......" Bard just silently looked at him, keeping him from drowning in his own blood so he could peacefully see the results of all his hard treachery fall and crumble. The castle was shattering already, along with the life of its King.
"You're a good lad" Rupert said. "I...wish I had a son like you....a young man to put me in my place when I get out of control." Bard looked at the floor. He felt bad looking at a man so grateful to be dying. "No...I already had someone like that, but he wasn't a son of mine. He was a brother, and a friend. I tried to do away with him....because I didn't want anyone to try and fix me. There wasn't anything wrong with me, that I could recall....but looking back......I was a monster....." Bard could feel it instantly. In his final repentance, Rupert had died. Just as Bard moved away, looking down at the fallen foe with a regretful somber look, the castle began to shake ever more violently and Gretta walked out from a dark doorway, drawing a protective veil from her face.
"That should do it" she said. "All that black, explosive powder that father worked with and all those glowing liquids should cause a big enough explosion to bring down the castle." She looked up at the shaking rafters and the falling dust that they knocked loose. "I hope I did it right, or I could explode with the castle..." Gretta began running to where she knew the front gate would be. That was where Bard was, setting Rupert's body aside and covering it with a fallen tapestry that was hung on the shaking wall. He pounded his fists together and lowered his head in an honorable prayer.
"You were a strong guy" Bard said "but everyone has a weakness. I'm sorry that you couldn't be strong against it in your worst time..." Bard finished his prayer, raised his head and took a deep breath. He patted his hands against his hips and stayed them there as he gazed around in confusion. "Right. Now, for my escape!...How?" Gretta came running as Bard stupidly glanced around for a way out. She beheld him before seeing the giant pile of rubble that sealed her in. She slowed down, never stopping until she was right at the edge of the pile, and placed a hand upon it. She looked over at Bard sadly, seeing that he was just looking at her and blinking, perfectly natural in his surroundings. Then her sharp eyes caught the cover over the body, and she immediately concluded the predictably obvious with a sigh.
"I hope" she began "you can atone for this..." Bard blinked.
"Eh?"
"Taking away a young girl's father..." she said, cupping her elbows with her hands, tightly holding her arms together to comfort herself, "What kind of monster are you?" Bard placed his hand on her shoulder and saw that she was holding back all her sadness. He could see her eyes shaking, flat as they were, ready to start spilling tears and he smiled at her.
"I'll think of something" Bard said. "I promise..." A tremendous force shook the ground. The chemicals and gunpowder down in the basement laboratories of the castle were mixing and becoming incredibly volatile. Explosions were shaking the floor in rapidly paced intervals. Bard suddenly wrapped his arms around Gretta and time all slowed down. Gretta's breath was stolen from her as Bard steeled his body with a mighty, iron flex.
"TEKKAI!!" All the rocks that hit him fell apart and buried them both in a mass of rubble and stone. The castle imploded, the towers toppled and fell inward as the entire foundation was shaken and dismantled instantaneously. The entire structure, entirely evacuated, was dead along with the king. The mind-warped citizens and staff of the grand estate all sobbed upon watching this historic sight, and only a single man among the collected mass of people bothered to shed his tears with a grin. Jed, for reasons and from memories he didn't know, was so happy to see this sight that he felt was too long coming.
Thank merciful God Jed thought. I thought I'd never see such a beautiful sunset... And yes, that glorious golden orange sunset poured itself out over the sky, over the island, over the ocean below and echoed the world's beauty. The great hallowed skull of Ookumaiwa was fallen, and its citizens were free of its binding glare. Jed fell to his knees, still so surprised at his relief, and let his sobs be heard. It's so beautiful...Why am I crying? Though he couldn't see, many of the others were crying as well. With the genetic hatred for that building long built up in them their eyes just had to swell from the knowledge that their parents, convicts all, suffered to see that place raised, and now it was gone.
Rez was smoking a cigarette, his hard-earned mark of victory, while Reginald continued to snore beside him. "Oh yeah" Rez said, watching the dust fly. "He wanted to see this, right?"
"Don't bother him" a pirate said, looking down. "He needs sleep more than he needs to see something like this. He'll be just as happy to see the ruins when he wakes up." The pirates all watched the castle fall. Araly kept her mouth covered so her voice was quelled down. Zan sat at the top of the bleachers with a telescope, darting his view from place to place among the ruins, wherever he could find a place unobstructed by dust. Colleen stayed close to Ramone while Kura stayed near the still unconscious Sally to make sure she tried nothing nefarious.
"Bard..." Araly whispered. Her tattoo began glowing, a sign that her emotions were being withheld, and still she began to sob softly. A step down from hysterical wailing, most likely, but the sadness was still the same to her. Harriet watched the chemical reaction on her back and noted silently on its effects.
Her skin is absorbing the paint. At such a rate it may not only become permanent but directly impede the flow of her nervous system through her back. What she's done to herself may take more extreme measures as it wears down. I can't predict anything good coming from this, but what does this old witch know? Harriet took out a long and pointy hat to place upon her head so the sun's rays didn't get into her eyes too much. "I never thought I'd see that crappy old castle fall down, that's for sure..."
0
A great time had passed. The sun's light was now a cool blue. The pirates had blockaded themselves inside the castle walls as the peasants were angrily rioting with pitchforks and torches, chanting to kill them for coming to their island and raising such intolerable hell. Kurateka was taking care of the injured, as was her main job as a nurse, while the more aware nurses that fled the castle through its more secrative routes joined her.
"Zan?" Araly called. "Do you see anything yet?"
"Not a thing" Zan answered, still peering through his telescope. He turned to Birdman, the lookout proper of the crew, and asked him the same. "Anything?"
"Nada" Birdman said. "Captain Bard hasn't come up yet. He might still be inside the castle ruins!"
"What about that chick?" Rez asked, referring obviously to Gretta.
"I don't see her either" Birdman admitted with a hefty tone of frustration and defeat. He lowered his spyglass and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ugh. Even if seeing is believing, I can't help but think Bard survived!"
"Of course he did" Zan said.
"You honestly don't think" Birdman began in disbelief "that there's even the slightest chance he didn't survive!?" Zan lowered his telescope and looked over at Birdman with his cool, steel eyes.
"Of course not" Zan said. "Bard's not the kind of guy to just let a building fall on him and admit defeat! The whole world has to topple on him to properly seal him in the ground. He's just not an average man..." Zan looked down at the other above average man, Ramone Cervantes, and monitored his healing as his insects chewed apart the garden to gain the proper build of bark and grass to reform his lost body parts. So far his wounds were repaired but he was still armless. Colleen helped him eat, holding out rations of bread for his insects to steal and carry into his mouth.
"How is it...?" Colleen asked. Ramone just chewed and looked at the castle.
"Gggggg" Ramone growled. "When's that little bastard coming out?" Colleen held onto her motherly grin and kept feeding Ramone, this time with a spoonful of soup that his insects couldn't carry for him. "He's making me impatient. Doesn't he know who he's worrying?" Ramone chomped the spoon and let one of his beetles eat the head. Colleen looked at her defeated attempt and threw the spoon away.
"He wouldn't stay in there for long" Colleen said, looking back at the castle. "He's not the kind of guy who would disappoint people. At least, not from what I know."
"And whadda you know?" Ramone asked. "You haven't even met him yet."
"No" Colleen admitted, looking at the concern and worry on the crew of Pirates, and especially the concern that kept Araly restlessly pacing around the courtyard. "He just doesn't seem that way." Rez, who staked out near the fountain, was half-asleep already as he waited for his captain to emerge from the broken heap of rock and mortar that he buried himself in.
"Come on" Rez lowed. "Give up the dramatic tension act you bastard. We get it already..."
But throughout the night there was nothing but waiting. The Buster Pirates all waited together, the Ghost Killer Captain and First Mate waited together, the Alchemist supreme waited along side the pirate girl Araly. They all waited, all through the night, until the peasants all stopped their raucous bickering and loathsome chanting and everyone was asleep. Even in their sleep, though, they dreamed of their Captain, all of them waiting even through their sleep for the good news of his survival...
And in that lull of darkness Bard emerged, silently and unstylishly, covering Gretta as they both crawled from the dark ruins that Bard had punched through. His knuckles were bloodied from the task and his bare chest was marred by the dusty marks of struggle.
"Raaaahhhhh....." Bard groaned. He panted and dropped his body just outside the ruins. Gretta made a staggering walk and then elegantly seated herself on the cold night ground.
"Why did that take you so long?" Gretta demanded. "You defeated my father. You're supposed to be strong! How can a man as big as you and as strong as you..." She turned to see if her voice had landed but instead saw a sleeping, snoring boy. Gretta curled her arms around her knees and watched him sleep.
What a strong, fascinating man she thought. I feel that...he's a reliable man. I should stay with him for a while...but for now, I suppose as it is night, I should sleep. Gretta laid on the ground, curled up in her own arms, her white hair forming a cloudy pillow for her to lay on.
The coup was over, and the pirates won. Yet another saga comes to a close in the early career of Bard D. Samekawa...
