It's often said that pain is your best friend because pain means you're alive. It can be unwanted, uncomfortable, and annoying, but it means you survived to see another day. And Serenity if the throbbing of her head was any indication, she was very much alive. Minako tried to open her eyes but they watered immediately and she had to squeeze them shut to block out any form of light coming in through the window she was next to. It felt like someone had smashed her head into a brick wall. Her eyes teared up a little at the intense pain and confusion surrounding her.

Cautiously, she raised a hand up to her head and felt a layer of bandages wrapped around her head. Well that would explain the pain, but not what in the hell had caused in the first place. She wracked her brain to work, which throbbed intensely with every thought. As soon as she recalled what had occurred she gasped and sat up, moving much too fast and found herself nauseous from the sudden movement.

"She's up!"

Whoever that was, it did not sound like anyone from her crew nor was it any form of a familiar voice. She'd take Ace at this point. She swallowed the urge to vomit on the spot and carefully opened her eyes to see where the hell she was. Suddenly, the pain in her head was not her main concern, it was the giant coming towards her direction. She noted the two guns, one on each side, and the two-handed sword strapped across her back. Oh, let's not forget the sword sticking out of her boot either while we're at it.

More panic set in as Minako reached for her own sword or gun to find her belt absent and she moved back until she was against the wall, hissing in pain as her head made hard contact. Reaching up, she gently held it as the pain intensified for several agonizing moments and it took a few moments before she could focus on sounds and slowly opened her eyes again. The giant, at the very least, had stopped progressing at her.

"Makoto, don't scare her." This voice was more tender, but if there was a giant in front of her, Serenity knows who it was behind her. Or what, for that matter.

"I didn't do anything though!" The giant, apparently named Makoto, huffed out before turning around to address whomever was behind her. Yeah, that two-handed sword looked sharp and well taken care of.

"You're carrying all your weapons on you still. That's pretty terrifying." That voice was familiar and was followed by a weak noise of protest.

"I told you to be quiet or it was going to hurt."

The giant—Makoto, moved out of the way and she looked over to see Rei laid out on a bed and the towels she was laying on had been stained with blood, showing a red contrast to the white where her injured shoulder was laying at and her eyes widened. There was that shove and then a loud noise and…

"What the hell.." Minako swallowed again, her throat dry. "What happened? What's going on?" Her eyes darted around to realize this wasn't even her ship. Great, captive to pirates. Much less the pirates she had spent half a year trying to eliminate under direct orders. Life couldn't possibly get any worse than this moment. Commander Aino Minako, captive to her one sole job.

"Well...Rei only really knows and she isn't allowed to talk."

Rei went to speak but the smaller girl beat her to it. "Hold her down, Makoto?"

"She's gonna be mad." Sighing, Makoto held her down, firmly.

"Makoto I swear if you do not—OW!"

"This is going to hurt." The smaller girl set a piece of blood soaked wood to the side, giving the warning after. Clearly she had been pierced by it and it went in pretty deep. That meant that…she had shoved her out of the way from whatever caused the explosion and gotten hit pretty badly? What kind of pirate…

"Ami maybe you should be a little less rough with her. She's just gonna be mad at us later and I don't wanna scrub the deck again." Makoto clearly didn't want to set Rei off. Natural for a pirate to have a short temper, especially a captain. Still though, Makoto seemed...polite at best, though Minako couldn't say much for the medical member of the crew other than she was small and knew what she was doing.

"Maybe I would have to be less rough if she would cooperate more. I'm almost done with the stitches now, but if she's wise…" Her eyes cut up to Rei's. "She will do minimal movement and stay on bed rest for the next day or two." Rei was quick to return the look before it was replaced by a grimace of pain and a gasping breath.

Minako, to say the least, was really dumbfounded. She was on a ship with pirates, one of which had saved her life as she tried to hack her head off, and wasn't even bound? Granted her throbbing head limited any quick movements and she had none of her weapons on her. A reach down to her boot confirmed the missing blade there too. They were very thorough. She licked her dry lips. How was one to handle this situation...

"Here." She looked up to see Makoto holding a glass out to her. She raised her hand to take and then hesitated. "Don't worry, we don't plan to hurt you or kill you or anything. You haven't done anything wrong. If we were, probably wouldn't have taken you off the ship or anything like that."

The girl had a point, she was already unconscious for an unknown period of time and she was shoved out of the way of an explosion. She decided it was wiser to take the glass and downed it, pleased for them at least knowing freshwater over saltwater was better. If she had to drink saltwater right now, Minako was sure she'd shrivel up like a slug in two seconds. Quickly, she downed it, almost wanting to ask for more.

"Where..what…is going on?"

"Well…All I know is we had to get off the enemy ship. It was sinking quickly after a few blows so I had to grab Rei and then go back for you 'cause she told me to."

"Sinking quickly? You were too close to sink it that quickly."

"We didn't sink it. I think your ship did."

Minako blinked at that a few times, her brain slowly registering the sentence Makoto had just uttered. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah. You were far enough away to aim your cannons low enough to—"

"Mako, she has a headache, tell her later." The smaller girl, with blue hair and eyes to match was walking over to her as she dried her hands off. "You had a concussion and I couldn't get you to wake up." With no room for privacy, the tiny girl invaded Minako's space and held her still as she looked at her eyes. There was something unsettling in them in a way, too….distant. "You're still showing effects of it. It's best you try and stay awake for the time being until I can determine it's safe without the risk of any further brain swelling."

"I—" What the hell was even going on? "Why am I not in a brig?"

Makoto pointed at Rei who was slowly sitting up which earned a dangerous look from the smaller girl.

"Honestly, you were unconscious to begin with so you weren't going to do any damage. On top of that, Makoto would be quick enough to take you down with you unarmed. Or armed, maybe, depending." Rei seemed to pause to think on that. "No, just unarmed."

"I beg your pardon?" That just served to really piss Minako off. She was a Navy commander, combat with or without a sword was something she was very skilled in, something she had worked hard towards having the ability to do.

"Oh. She didn't mean to offend you, it's just…well I'm pretty strong." She flexed her arm and showed off that she wasn't lying. Honestly, that just terrified Minako more about the girl. "Anyways, we didn't get your name, sorry."

"I..uh.." Did she give her real name?

"Aino Minako."

Minako turned to look at Rei when she spoke her name without hesitation. "How do you know if that's my name or not?"

"Because you're the only Navy commander who has been specifically targeting to get to me." Rei moved to lay back down when breathing became too hard while sitting up. "Can we at least get rid of these stupid towels now, Ami?"

Well at least she was getting names to go with everyone. "Why did you shove me out of the way? Clearly I'm a nuisance to you. On top of that...how did you know I had orders to track you down?"

"Because you weren't a pirate. And word gets around pretty quickly at ports. You ask enough ports, people tell me that aren't concerned whether I'm out at ocean or six feet under. And honestly, at this point.." She grunted as the towels were carefully removed from under her. "You should be more concerned with who has your ship."

Panic started to set in at that. If pirates got ahold of her ship she would become the most shameful Navy commander to exist. All her hard work to prove the right a woman had that was as any good as a man's, down in flames. "Pirates got my ship!?"

"No. Your crew was a touch more smart than that…Some guy with white hair had it turn and fire on us. What an idiot to do that." Rei looked over at her and was suddenly aware of how angry she had made Minako with this information.

"I'm sorry. I must have misheard you.." She smiled a little, as if trying to be polite through her anger. "Did you say white haired idiot?"

"Yes. The only one I saw with hair that color."

There was a ripping noise as Minako pulled on the sheet she was gripping in between her hands. "I'm going to murder him. Get me off your ship right now."

"No."

"Excuse me? I didn't ask. I told you to get me off your ship." Regardless of if she was with pirates or not, she had just been thrown off her own ship by Ace and needed to put his ass right back into place if she didn't kill him first. Probably put him in his place and then kill him, say it was treason. Now the man had crossed the line beyond just insufferable.

"And I told you no. My word is final." Rei glared at her as Ami stepped into her view to give her some medicine to take.

"Both of you stop it. Rei you're too injured for this and Minako, you shouldn't let your blood pressure get any higher while dealing with a concussion. Makoto, move Rei to her room."

"Yes ma'am." Makoto moved and carefully picked Rei up, who had a fit at having to be carried out of the room and Minako turned her glare to Ami.

"You will let me off this ship."

"I believe the Captain told you no." Ami turned to look at her with a critical eye. "And if you didn't have a concussion, I wouldn't hesitate to knock you back out. Even if you leave this room, no one is going to help you leave. We're in the middle of the ocean to begin with. With a person in a good condition and stocked with fresh water and food, would still take over a month to reach a shore from this point in a rowboat. Even the ship would take a solid three days before it reached a port. So what you're going to do is stay put and stop harassing the Captain while she's hurt." That last part was most certainly a threat. "Or I'm going to have Makoto make sure you stay put."

Great, threatened with the giant girl. "Have your way, but you and the freak giant stay away from me." She blinked and suddenly Ami was in her face with a look that would kill if it were possible. It could kill miles away.

"You will be kind to Makoto and you will not insult her. You will respect our Captain and we will respect you. If I hear you talking bad about Makoto again, this concussion—" She pressed into the side of the head Minako had been hit on to remind her of the insanely throbbing pain. "Will be the very least of your concerns. Are we clear?"

Minako didn't answer her, just leveled her with a watery glare as she put a hand up to her head. Ami must have taken it as an answer because she stood up and prepared to walk out of the room. Minako just couldn't hold her tongue any further.

"I'm sure you're so concerned about your Captain when in realize you're going to go get off thinking of that…" She paused for a moment. "Her." She wasn't taking a chance on her head suffering any further.

"No, there you would be wrong. I'm going to check in on the Captain, then once I'm sure she isn't going to further harm herself, I will go see Makoto and then I'm probably going to destress by sleeping with her." With that, Ami left a stunned Minako alone.

The good thing about being stuck on a merchant ship run by pirates is that it meant you were in a place that wasn't falling apart. Minako knew this as she slowly moved to sit on the edge of the bed and determine what other injuries she had suffered in whatever explosion had taken place. Her head was still throbbing, that was for sure. Obviously Ami had not been joking about her having a concussion, though the pressure she had applied only made it worse for the time being.

However, as a commander, she didn't have time to worry about that. She noted that her upper left arm was wrapped up. She reached up and touched it, hissing a little. It must have gotten cut open in the explosion, but the bandages were clean still so at the very least, it wasn't too deep.

"Couldn't she have thrown me more gently? Serenity, I'm the only good looking commander out there right now." Well, was she even one now that Ace had stolen her ship? Had her entire crew undergone a mutiny? Minako frowned at that thought. She was nice, she thought, to her crew. Maybe she needed to reanalyze that one for a later time.

Not seeing anything else too obvious, she stood up and almost went straight down from the spinning her head. Thankfully, there was a support beam to the ship nearby for her to grab onto before she pitched forward and blacked out again. For about two short seconds, she debated on finding Ami to ask her to check her out again before recalling what a bitch the girl had been about everything.

"Well..maybe I can still find a way off this ship if I convince someone that she said to let me go." Pirates, no matter what, always had someone stupid enough on their crew to believe anything they heard that their Captain said. There had to be at least one dumb idiot on this ship.

Moving carefully and slowly, Minako used the wall to leave the room into a hallway and looked both ways. Not a person in sight, which seemed strange. It was also very quiet for that matter. Pirates were loud, rude, and morons. So far, she had yet to see two of these three. Perhaps it was best to look into each room and determine who was the best aspect into getting her off this ship and strangling her second (ex-second?) in command.

The first room opened up into what appeared to be a library lined completely with books and two tables. One was completely empty and the other one was covered in papers and handwriting. Stepping closer, she realized that one of them was…questionable to call any form of writing.

"…is that an a or a q?" She couldn't help but look over it, unable to decipher what it said and looked over at the other crisp handwriting that seemed to be a bunch of medical jargon. She assumed this to be Ami's given she was medically treating Rei and herself. This room really didn't provide anything to her her, so she moved along.

It was what was in the next room that really floored her. Minako heard a noise inside and leaned against the door to hear…humming? Slowly pushing it open, she was stunned and could only stare as Makoto was humming while wearing a floral printed apron and cooking. This was what had terrified her? This was the giant? Ami was more terrifying than she was!

"Oh! You're moving, that's great!" There was a moment of panic as she realized Makoto had spotted her and opened the door all the way. "I was just cooking you something to eat. You were out for a quarter of the day so I figured you had missed lunch and wanted something to eat."

Minako hesitated before slowly moving into the room, limping in order to make herself appear as less of a threat in the even she could leverage any advantage towards herself. Carefully, she sat down at a table and was immediately offered a second glass of fresh water. "Th..Thanks."

Something wasn't adding up right here by any means. The ship was clean for starters, in the three rooms and the hallway she had already encountered and inspected. Second was how quiet the ship was despite it being run by pirates. This made her have a startling realization. Every one she had encountered on this ship was a female. There had yet to be a single male present.

"Uh..M..Makoto was it?"

"Yes?" Makoto turned to look at her as she worked on moving what appeared to be a soup into a bowl.

"How many of you are on this ship?"

There was a noise of thought, as if she wasn't sure it was okay to answer. "Four of us. Five I guess, if we count you."

"FOUR!?" The noise startled Makoto enough to cause her to spill some soup and frown.

"Yeah. It's always been..well almost always. One was a little later I suppose."

Four people and she had already dealt with three that said getting off the ship wasn't going to be allowed. Which more than likely meant the fourth was in the same boat, in more than one way.

"How…How do you run a ship this large with four people?"

"Most of the rooms are just storage. And we each have a job that we do as a main priority, but we all do a bit of everything." Makoto sat the bowl of what was apparently a fish stew. Was every moment going to surprise her on this dumb pirate ship? "Sorry about Ami, by the way."

"Pardon?"

"She's not normally like that." Makoto gave her an apologetic smile. "She was in doctor mode, you see, and that makes her more brash. She's honestly really really nice."

Minako scoffed at that, but didn't even dignify it with a response. Nice was not the word she would use after the girl had shoved onto the side of her head with a threat. Picking up her spoon, she started to eat the stew and had to stop after the first bite she swallowed. How is it…this tasted better than anything any professional cook she had on her ship had ever done.

"Is it bad? I thought I added too much fish and I was afraid it was going to be too salty. I'm sorry about that!"

"I..No-it's fine. It's really good, actually." What the hell? Did she just compliment the giant?

"Oh that's good! Well I have to go let the others know I have some food ready, so you can just leave your bowl there when you're done. I can clean it up since you're still hurt pretty badly. But I don't think Ami will be very happy to see you up and moving, concussion and all." Nodding, Makoto left Minako alone to stare at her bowl of food.

"What kind of fucking ship am I on? Am I even being held captive?" Deciding that finishing eating and continuing her inspection was the best idea, she quickly ate the rest of her soup and got up and moved back into the hallway. All that was left was a room way down back from where she started, a room at the other end, and the stairs up to the deck. She heard voices up on the deck and decided it might be better to check out the room further back down and then lay back down. She was getting tired quickly.

Carefully moving down the hallway, she opened the door to discover it was Rei's room and the girl was currently laid out on her bed and asleep. It was clear she was in pain by the way she flinched and her face twisted at it.

"Okay…" This was her chance. She could take this moment to completely eliminate Hino Rei with no one to stop her. Even if it meant she would die trying to escape. She eyed the room and saw her own belt with it's weapons still attached hanging on the back of the door before looking back at the girl laid out and frowned.

Something about it didn't feel right. Something about taking her own sword and swiping it across Rei's throat for a quick death or even stabbing her into the abdomen for a slow one, felt wrong. The entire time she had been conscious on this ship, maybe half an hour, had not been unpleasant. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she felt better treated here than she had her entire time in the Navy, commander or not.

Her head started to throb with a new pain and she shakily raised a hand up to it and realized she was sweating. This couldn't be the concussion. Minako had suffered more than her fair share of concussions in fights the last six months to know that sweating was not a side effect of one. She needed to move to lay down and now.

In what she thought would be a smooth move, she turned to take the few steps out of the room and to the door of the one she started in. However, things took a turn for the worse. She stumbled and had to brace on the desk next to her, sending things flying to the ground as she gasped in pain.

Suddenly someone was holding her and she managed to turn to see Rei was up and had caught her to keep her from bashing her face into the ground and then someone was running to the room. All Minako could hear was a loud rushing noise in her ears as her vision started to try and black out and she had to grind her teeth through the pain and nausea that hit her like a wall.

For the second time that day, everything went black despite her attempts to fight this one.