In the next few hours, pretty much everyone had dispersed and were relaxing, doing not very much in particular except drinking for the most part, Atsuko meanwhile was finally glad to just have food. Finally no more passing out from weakness! She grinned triumphantly as she quickly shovelled down her meal of slightly burnt macaroni cheese. The room she was in was a small cramped kitchen towards one end of the camp, connected to the main room. Through the door she could hear Vaas shouting, and some of the other men cheering and sniggering, curiosity drove her to, reluctantly, leave her food and check it out. She put her ear against the door to listen in closely, she froze from shock with what she heard, there was a girl pleading for someone to stop, and it didn't take her long to work out what was happening. She felt sick and disgusted, and suddenly wished she hadn't just eaten a large dinner. She knew unless she stopped them now that she would never forgive herself, she would die carrying the burden of letting someone by abused in such a horrific way when she could've stopped it, even though she knew that nothing good would come of it for her. She grabbed a kitchen knife and gripped it tightly in her hand, summoning all her courage she burst through the door angrily, pushing past the men in her way to get to Vaas. As she suspected he was on top of an unknown girl, a few of the other men holding her down while she struggled against him, crying softly.

"Get off her!" Atsuko yelled, storming straight up to him with a look of fiery indignation. "Now!"

Vaas stepped back looking amused, his casual response made her even angrier as she grabbed him hard by the throat, she heard a murmur of noise behind her from the other men but she could barely hear them, all could think about was how angry she was at him, and at herself for getting in this situation.

"Let her go." She growled at him aggressively, and he did, grabbing the girl roughly by her elbow so she was forced to stand, the girl looked straight at Atsuko with a look of despair as she sorted out her clothes and followed her outside, the sky had turned dark with an inky midnight glow and a vast expanse of stars hanging ominously above. They sat on the hard floor, the cold wind whipping around them comfortingly and breaking the silence that would otherwise have consumed them as they sat not speaking, both too deep in thought to consider speaking.

Atsuko didn't know what to do next; there was no way she could carry on with Vaas' pirates after what she'd seen. No way at all. So now she was trapped in a country with no friends, except the Rakyat girl, but would she greet her back with open arms after she ran off so rudely?

"Whakawhetai" The girl quietly muttered after what felt like hours. Atsuko just nodded thoughtfully, mostly because she didn't actually know what that meant. She made a mental note to actually learn the language they spoke the next time she visited a new country.

"I don't speak Maori" She finally admitted, after a feeling of awkwardness started to spread from the silence.

"I speak some English. You know Amanaki village? Could you take me there?" She pleaded in a thick accent, looking at her desperately. Atsuko nodded excitedly, gesturing for the girl to stay there as she went back inside.

"I'm borrowing one of the trucks to take the girl home." She explained coldly, slamming the door before anyone had the chance to respond, or stop her.

The keys to the trucks were mercifully easy to find, a testament to the laziness of the pirates. Meaning she quickly managed to drive the long uncomfortable drive back to Amanaki village.

As they left the truck the girl eagerly ran to her parents. Atsuko, however, was not so eager, she was extremely nervous about facing the Rakyat girl after what happened, but her fear propelled her forward until she was stood on the threshold of her small shack where she seemed rooted to the spot, trembling ever so slightly from a combination of nerves and an overwhelming cold breeze that blew straight past her.

"Hello?" She was bought straight out of her thoughts by Rakyat girl, causing her to jump slightly back from shock. She was leaned against the door with her hands on her little brother's shoulders who was standing in front of her with a bemused, but otherwise uninterested look on his face.

"Can I come in for a bit?" Atsuko asked quietly.

"Sure, I'm Marama, and this is Maaka." She gestured to her little brother who briefly looked up at the hearing of his name, but quickly got bored and got back to messily eating an ice lolly. She moved aside to allow Atsuko to enter the house, and while she gave a brief explanation in Maori to her little brother, Atsuko took the opportunity to look around, it was a small, almost dilapidated house with several rooms coming of it, in the middle was an old tattered sofa with drawings on the floor.

She felt two hands on her shoulder and jumped slightly as she was bought out of her thoughts, prompting a small chuckle from Marama.

"Sit." She told her, gesturing to the sofa. "And tell me what's really going on." Her face darkened slightly as her tone turned firm and demanding, not by a huge amount, but enough to unsettle her.

She nervously picked off some imaginary fluff from her trousers.

"I made a huge mistake. I let my prejudice make me make some bad decisions... and I joined Vaas' pirates." Marama suddenly leapt from the sofa where she'd been sitting in anger

"Are you serious?"

"Only for a day, but I ran away after I caught Vaas assaulting a young girl. Now I have nowhere else to go." Atsuko stood up to face her and gently took her hands in an attempt to calm her down, staring into her eyes with genuine regret and remorse. It seemed to work as Marama visually calmed down.

"Did you kill anyone, while you were with them?" Marama murmured shakily, her voice barely audible, as if she was too scared to get an answer.

"No. And I'll admit, at the time I wanted to; revenge for my family. But now that I've seen the awful things they're capable of, and I've met you..." She trailed off, thinking "I don't want to be associated with anyone who would hurt you." Marama went speechless at Atsuko's honest confession. She sounded so earnest and sincere that it bought a subtle red tinge to her already dark skin.

"And there's one other thing: They might follow me here."

"Get out!" Marama yelled "What the hell do you think you're doing? Bringing those evil Kaikohuru here. Into our village, or into my home, when my little brother is here! I swear to god if Maako gets hurt because of you I will never forgive you."

"I'm sorry okay? I know I made some mistakes but this hasn't been easy for me, I was buried up to my neck in sand, if I hadn't asked to join them I would've been shot immediately! This place is so different to Japan, and I need help. I need your help. I don't know how to get myself out of this one." Tears rolled down Atsuko's face, saying it out loud made her realise how out of her depth she was.

"We need to get Maaka out of here, and warn Dennis there could be an impending attack any moment." Marama sighed, reluctantly reaching out a friendly hand to reassure Atsuko.