Target 20: Don't Give Up The Ship!
Solana stumbled out of bed way earlier than anyone could have even been bothered to get up. She had a lot to do. She glanced over at Tsuna, her contempt and envy at his worry-free, sleeping face growing with every passing second. Before she could even think about waking him up and making him do all of her chores, with disastrous results already formulating in her head, she got up, pulling on her robe and slippers, then leaving the room to head down the stairs.
Her hair was a mess, but that's only because Lucia and RJ thought it would be fun to play hairstylist with it. Her usually beautiful and take blonde tresses were now multicolored, frayed and cut strangely. The former blonde knew if she even looked at a mirror, it would probably crack before she could even get a good look at herself.
Her face, she was sure, was probably in worse condition. RJ didn't know where half her makeup products were supposed to go and that kid from down the street that Lucia brought over—what was his name?—Solana couldn't be bothered to remember, didn't know much better than he. She knew she was royally screwed in the looks department.
With her coffee made, Solana set about her morning routine. Clean up the living room and kitchen. Do the laundry, cook. Look over Hitomi's homework, correct it. Finish her latest project, start another one, check with the other Vongola techs, shower, wake up Tsuna and the others. Deal with whatever morning crisis came along. And finally, check the mail. Not all in that order every morning.
Reborn noticed it all. Nobody seemed to notice, Hitomi especially, the brunette said her normal graces, ate and went back up stairs. And again, Reborn watched Solana do the same routine for a whole week, not once uttering an ugly word or even doing something crazy. He was starting to think she had the patience of a saint, sort of like Nana, if he remembered correctly.
"How does your mother put up with all of this?" Reborn asked Hitomi one day, after he finished observing the mother. Hitomi wasn't really paying attention, this was the first time he'd ever talked to her without hitting her at least once or twice.
"All of what?" Hitomi said. Her voice was muffled, as she was eating.
"All of you and your nonsense." He elaborated, but not by much. Hitomi still didn't know what he was talking about and shrugged, giving an answer even she didn't understand. Reborn sighed, leaving Hitomi to her games to watch Solana once more.
It was then, during the second week of summer break that she slipped up. Reborn's eyebrow quirked at the reactions of Tsuna and RJ, both of which were asking Solana for something. RJ wanted to play with her hair and Tsuna wanted her to do something for him, Reborn didn't know; he wasn't paying attention to what he said. And yet, the surprisingly calm and collected woman had said something that sent RJ to his room and Tsuna reeling back into his office. The one word they never thought she would tell them.
"No." She'd said and then went about her business. It was simple enough, but there was enough hidden emotion in that one word that would have made an empath overdose. He could see the small, barely noticeable twitch in her eye throughout the day, every time someone asked her for something and finally, she gave in after cleaning up the house, only for it to become dirty once more. Reborn then knew it was time for him to act or someone would get shot, and not by him.
It was a Tuesday, the second week of summer break had just begun and Solana rose a half-hour before the sun. She took her time, surprised at the fact that her face and hair weren't messed up and the fact that the living room and kitchen were just as spotless as they had been when she went to bed the night before.
She looked around cautiously; checking everyone's rooms after making sure Tsuna was still alive. It was strange; she'd never had the house so clean for more than fifteen minutes. She went down into the lab, knowing the mail wouldn't be there until sometime later, maybe she'd actually have time to eat before everyone woke up and tore through the food she made.
Almost an hour and a half later, at around seven, Solana walked outside; dubbing this a small good fortune that nobody had woken up yet and made a mess. The blonde stretched, just as the sun peeked over the town. The mail came early, and Solana was always up and ready for it.
They never got much; just the occasional post card from Tsuna's parents, bills, things from Masayoshi's college and Hitomi's school. Sometimes they got threats, but those were taken care of easily and of course… junk mail. So, after she got the mail, the blonde began to sort.
"Junk, bill, school, threat, junk, bill, school…" Went her little mantra. It was sorted easily. Bills and school mail were tucked under her arm and junk stayed in her hand. This time, they received more junk than she thought possible, but the last piece of mail caught her attention. "What's this…?"
"Vacation?!" Hitomi stood up from the table, "Wh-What do you mean you're going on vacation?"
"Calm down, Hitomi." Solana said, "You'll be staying with Emiko and her family while I'm gone and Tsuna's gonna be with Enma and his. You'll be fine."
"No, you know I don't like staying at Emiko's for more than two days! Her parents are weird!" Hitomi yelped. Hitomi could clearly remember the last time she stayed over at Emiko's house and shivered.
"Gokudera and Yamamoto aren't weird Hitomi, you just don't understand them." Tsuna crossed his arms, "But I agree with Hitomi, why can't we go with you? Or stay home?"
"Because it's only got two tickets." She said and for proof, pulled out the paper. She showed it to Tsuna, who took the paper from her to examine it himself. "You know that I'd take you all but all that came out of it was two tickets and Amelia called dibs on one of them."
She felt bad, almost, looking at Tsuna and Hitomi's pained faces. But she knew not taking either would be best for them because if she took Tsuna, Hitomi'd complain and if she took Hitomi, Tsuna'd complain. Amelia was the best choice for them both not to fight. Tsuna looked the paper up and down, going as far as to actually read what it said.
"No, look!" Tsuna said, pointing to the bottom of the paper, "You're going on the Mafia Land Cruise!" Solana tilted her head to the side, confused, "They used to have an island before it got blown up by that by that guy… remember?" When Solana shook her head, he continued anyway, "Anyway, I'm a mafia boss and that means I get to go for free and Hitomi's in training, so that's also free."
"Well fine." She smiled, "This works out perfectly, though I wish Masayoshi could go with us. Get packed, guys. We're going on a cruise. Oh, this is gonna be so much fun, just the three of us and Amelia!" Solana clapped. Her up-beat attitude scared him a little and Tsuna watched her go, cringing. Hitomi did the same.
"I think I did a bad thing." He looked to Hitomi who crossed her arms. "Did I do a bad thing? Your mom is way too happy."
"I think you did." She nodded, "You ruined mom's vacation. Now we gotta go and act like a family. You know how she gets on vacations." With that, Hitomi walked away, heading up the stairs as well. In her room, Reborn was waiting for her, a pink suitcase already packed and a smaller black one next to it.
"You packed my stuff?" She asked, looking from the suitcase to him, "Are there guns and explosives in there?" She wouldn't put it past the small Hitman. Reborn shook his head, jumping off of Hitomi's bed.
"No, nothing like that. It's just I've hired out my lackeys—also known as you and Tsuna—to be workers on the cruise that you two finagled your way into." Reborn replied easily. Hitomi squeaked, "Oh, and don't try to wiggle out of it, your mom's already counting on you and the people on the cruise know what you look like."
"Dammit!"
The next morning, they—Amelia, Solana, Tsuna, Hitomi and Reborn—all piled into the limo provided to them by the cruise ship. Crammed into the front with the driver were Hitomi and Tsuna while Solana and Amelia got the luxury of having the whole back of the limo to themselves. "Guys, I'm squished." Hitomi said, wiggling slightly, "Why can't we sit in the back too?"
"It's not your cruise." The driver replied, "Only those who received the lucky tickets get the special treatment—plus you're working for the ship, isn't that correct Mr. Reborn?"
"It is, and we don't want Solana to worry do we? We don't want her to have a bad vacation, do we?" He asked. Hitomi gulped, understanding what this was about now. Tsuna still didn't seem to get it, frowning as he tried to look over at Reborn.
"She was having a good vacation with us at home!" Tsuna argued. He didn't see anything wrong with his wife for the past few days.
"Yeah, and you're my best student." Reborn rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Look, you wanted to come on this trip with her, so now you have to earn your keep. Let's get a move on then, Giuseppe." He nodded, starting the car and pulling away from the curb.
"Tsuna! Hitomi!" Solana called, rolling down the divider window, "Are you two sure you don't wanna ride in the back? There's enough room…" Solana said, moving aside to let them see, "And there's a TV back here too."
"Doll, let 'em stay. Reborn said they wanna stay, let 'em stay!" Amelia, sounding slightly drunk, yelled.
"Y-Yeah," Tsuna waved it off, "We're fine up here. You just, uh, have a good time back there." Solana eyed them both before she nodded, rolling the window back up.
"Just say if you wanna come back here, kay?" And she was gone, laughing at something with Amelia.
"…I shouldn't have turned her down…. Should I?" Tsuna looked at Hitomi who shook her head.
"Dammit, dad."
The ride continued on mostly uneventful. Tsuna was the first out of the car and Hitomi and Emiko followed closely, having fallen out after Tsuna removed himself. Giuseppe opened the door for Solana while Reborn made Tsuna fetch their bags.
"Wow!" Solana exclaimed, "The ship's huge!" Hitomi nodded, almost scared of it, "We'll have a great vacation, right Hitomi?" Hitomi smiled at her mother. The woman didn't know she was working on the ship.
Once on the ship, Hitomi was looking around on the main deck. The ship was big and no doubt, she'd be up here cleaning it before the cruise was over. "Psst!" Someone called. Hitomi's head snapped up, "Pssst! Hitomi!" She looked around, frowning, "Over here!" She squeaked when a hand shot up and went back down behind a group of bags.
Cautiously, Hitomi crept over to the bags, looking behind them. There was Teru and R.J., along with Emiko. The three were crammed in between the ring of labeled suitcases and bags. "Wh-What are you three doing here? Th-This cruise is—AAAAAAAUUUIIIIEEEEE!" Hitomi screeched just as the horn blew. She looked up and over the rail, noting the large amount of people standing on the docks waving them off. They'd only be gone for the rest of break, which happened to be two weeks, there was no point.
"Oh, man!" Hitomi said, looking back down at the stowaways. "What's Reborn gonna say when he finds out about this?"
"Finds out about what?" Tsuna asked, thoroughly startling Hitomi. She squeaked, turning around quickly to look at him. When she finally registered that it wasn't Reborn, she calmed down.
"Ah… have a look for yourself." She said, pointing to them. Tsuna leaned forward and frowned.
"Great. Have none of you ever been to Mafia Land before it blew up?" When all he received where confused looks and shakes of the head, he sighed, "Well they toss stowaways to whatever wild animal they can find."
"N-No way!" Teru shook her head, "That's not true, is it Hitomi?"
"I-I don't know, Teru, I mean this is my first time being here too." She said, "But don't worry…. I, uh… I'm sure you'll be fine if you're not caught. Just act like you belong on this cruise…"
"And stay away from Solana and Amelia. They're sure to draw attention to you." Tsuna said. R.J stood up almost immediately.
"Well, you don't have to worry about me!" From the pocket of his female sailor's uniform, he pulled out a ticket, "I got this from my mom in the mail." Teru lowered her head, frowning.
"So you made us sneak on this boat for nothing!" She stood up too, smacking R.J repeatedly, "I could be at home, watching soaps and pigging out on ice-cream!"
"And what of you Emiko?" Tsuna pointed at her, "Why'd you come?" Emiko scratched the back of her head.
"Well I told my parents I was going camping with the baseball team… and well, I'm sure you know how well that turned out…" She said sheepishly, "They've probably pulled out the big guns by now." Tsuna gulped, pulling at his shirt collar.
"Well you're here now." He said, "And I think there might be some extra uniforms for… wait, where's Teru?"
The three looked around, "R.J's not here either." Emiko said, stepping around the luggage. "Oh great, now we'll kicked off for sure."
"We don't have time to worry about that… let's get out of here, the captain is coming to greet the passengers!" Tsuna said, looking over at the man, "And I hear that this guy is really strict."
"Tsuna! Hitomi!" Solana yelled, walking over to them, "C'mon! The captain's going to greet us and he wants all of the passengers there!" Hitomi looked at her mother with wide eyes, "Hey, bring your frie—wait, is that—Emiko? Is that you?"
"Well let's go then!" Hitomi said, grabbing Tsuna and Emiko and running away, leaving Solana to watch them go in a confused manner.
Hitomi looked down at her attire. The overcoat and shirt were pristine white; she knew they'd be dirty by the end of the day. The skirt, shoes and tights, however, were all black. What exactly was she to be doing? The ranks on the shoulders were that of a private, much like everyone else to her left, which was just her father, Emiko and two other guys. Everyone looked serious except the three who were out of place there.
"I hear our commander is the Captain's cousin!" One of them said, "And it's a girl!"
"Keep your mouth shut!" Another one said, "She'll shoot you! I swear! I saw Jimmy get shot by her earlier! He's still in the infirmary!" Loud clacking of boots was heard coming down the steps and into the lower deck.
She could tell before they even got down the steps that it was two women and when they were all the way down the steps, she was surprised to see two people she recognized very well standing in front of her.
A pale-skinned girl with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes narrowed in anger, wearing the same type of uniform, only the rankings on her shoulder were that of a Commander and she wore a hat with the same marking on it. The girl standing slightly behind the blonde had green hair in a long braid that ended at the edge of her skirt. She, too, wore the same uniform and her ranking were that of a Lieutenant Commander. The green-haired girl's eyes widened as they landed on Hitomi and Emiko.
"It's… Aoba and Collins!" Emiko whispered, paling considerably. Hitomi gulped, trying not to make eye contact with the two, except it was too late: Hikaru had tapped Skye before she started speaking.
"Well, well. Sawada! Yamamoto!" She barked. Hitomi's head snapped up, looking at Skye as her eyes teared up a little, "I didn't know we were having under-aged workers on this boat!"
"I'm doing this against my will!" Hitomi cried out, quickly slapping her hands over her mouth.
Skye stared at her a little longer, "I don't have time for you to mess you, dammit. So better watch yourself or I'll be feeding you to the lions in the circus act, got it, dammit?" Hitomi nodded quickly and Emiko did the same. "Alright, now it's time for roll call!"
Hitomi and Emiko were being made to clean the bathrooms. How they were dirty when this was the first time the ship had been in use, Hitomi didn't know. "I wonder why Skye is a commander on this ship." Emiko asked, mopping the floor. Hitomi shrugged, taking care as she cleaned the mirrors off.
"I don't really care to find out…" Hitomi admitted, "She's scary and I thought I'd be done with her since it's summer break…"
"Well, I guess things don't work out as planned." Emiko replied, "You almost done? I need to mop over there." Hitomi nodded, moving out of the way as Emiko moved slowly, mopping towards the area.
"I'm sure we'll probably find out, even if we don't want to." Hitomi said once they were done and leaving the bathroom. "Somehow I know we'll be even more involved with—Aiiee!"
Emiko pushed Hitomi into the male's bathroom, leaving the mop and bucket of supplies outside. Hitomi turned to her friend, giving her a look of confusion. Emiko held a finger to her lips and listened. Hitomi did the same. She could hear the distinct voice of her mother and Amelia talking as they headed into the bathroom next door.
"That was close! You don't want your mom knowing that you're working on the ship, do you?" Emiko said. Hitomi nodded, "I don't get it, though—why can't she know?" Hitomi leaned against the wall.
"We don't want her to worry while she's on her vacation." Hitomi said, "Besides, she finds out and she goes to Reborn, I'm gonna get hurt." Emiko made a noise that she understood. "Well, we should leave—wait." She listened for a moment and pulled Emiko into a stall, locking the door. "Someone's coming!" The two got up on the toilet just as the door opened and two men were loudly talking.
It was Hitomi's turn to shush Emiko and the two listened as the men went to the urinals, not even bothering to stop their conversation. "So yeah, th' ship'll go up north an' we'll drop off da goods dere. And den it'll circle back 'round an' we'll get off." His accent was thick, but they could clearly understand him.
"Ah, that's good. Y'know, this was pretty well thought out. Let's just hope that girl doesn't find out. She looks more dangerous than the captain." The other said.
"Yeah, but she's pretty cute. If worse comes t' it, I wouldn' mind dealin' wit' 'er, if y'know wha' I mean." He said and Hitomi could practically see the sexual undertone in his voice.
"Dude, sick!" The other said as they finished up and left the bathroom.
"Did you hear that, Emiko?" Hitomi said as the two climbed off of the toilet.
"Yeah, they didn't even wash their hands. I'm not touching that doorknob." She mumbled, sticking her tongue out.
"N-No!" Hitomi squeaked, "They've got a drug smuggling ring! Didn't you hear? They 'wouldn' mind dealin' with Collins! And there's drugs! Drugs, Emiko!" Hitomi shook her, "Drugs are bad!"
"Hitomi, stop." Emiko held her still, "Look, if anything's going on, I'm sure the people on this cruise, and need I remind you most or probably in the mafia, can handle themselves. There's no need for us to get involved. Collins can handle it. We have work to do, now c'mon."
Emiko pulled Hitomi out of the bathroom, unaware that R.J. was in the next stall, listening in. "Hm… interesting…"
In the end, Emiko had gone off with Tsuna to work the boiler and Hitomi was left to herself. She decided she'd change her clothes and go see what her mother was doing. When she found the woman, she was tanning and being ogled mercilessly by a group of men. "Mom." Hitomi said, tapping her mother. Solana looked up, removing her glasses then sitting up.
"Hitomi!" Solana exclaimed, "Hey! I haven't seen you since this morning! Where have you been? Have you seen your father?"
"O-Oh, I've been…. Around…" Hitomi said, "We, uh, went to go check out the room."
"Oh? Well I went by it but everything was still packed… actually, it didn't look as if anybody had been in there before me… you guys are messy even when you aren't trying to be." Solana said, "So do you know where Tsuna is?"
"No… but he might be in one of the lower decks." She said.
"Did you know they had an arcade in here?" Solana said, swinging her legs onto the floor, "I was looking for you—I thought we could go there since you like playing games so much. Apparently my ticket gets me free everything!"
Hitomi was tempted to go to the arcade, "No, that's alright, mom. Um… how about we do something you want to do?" Surprised, Solana stood up and felt Hitomi's head and compared it to her temperature.
"Hitomi… are you okay?" She asked, sounding worried.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Hitomi asked as Solana removed her hand from Hitomi's head.
"It's just… I never thought you'd say something like that."
"Well it's your vacation, mom." Hitomi said, looking behind her, "So you should be able to pick what we should do."
"Wow…I… I don't know what to do!" Solana said, laughing slightly, "I, um… let's go see the water show then!"
"There's a water show… on a cruise ship?" Hitomi asked. Solana nodded, picking up the map she had and handing it to Hitomi.
"I know! Amelia ditched me for the buffet and I wanted to see the water show but I didn't want to go alone." Solana pulled on the shorts she had laid out for herself and pointed to it on the map. "It's on the top deck."
With Solana dressed and ready, the two made their way up to the deck.
The seats the two found weren't seats that Hitomi would seem desirable. She'd rather be in the back. Behind some sort of shield instead of right in front, in the splash zone, but, it wasn't her choice nor was it her vacation. She looked up when someone called her name.
Tsuna was approaching them through the surprisingly large crowd, dressed casually. Solana waved, smiling as Tsuna came and sat down next to him. "Hey girls." He said, "What're we doing?"
"We're about to watch the water show!" Solana beamed. Tsuna nodded, looking over at Hitomi. "Anyway, where were you? Hitomi said you went to the room… were you there the whole time?"
Tsuna's eyes darted over to Hitomi who was giving him a signal to say 'no'. Solana looked back at Hitomi, who quickly turned to look at the pool instead of Tsuna and Solana. Quickly, the blonde turned back to Tsuna, expectant of an answer.
"Oh, uh, no. Actually, I got caught up talking to someone from the Gigilonero Famiglia…" He lied, scratching the back of his head. "Seems they want to join with us…" Solana nodded, accepting the answer.
"So, I was thinking after the show, we could go somewhere else." Solana said. Tsuna looked from the pool to his wife and back again. Why did she want to sit in the splash zone?
"Yeah? Like what?" In all honesty, he was tired from carrying missiles and loading them into the cannons. He didn't even know a cruise ship could have cannons.
"There's like four different restaurants and I want to try Indian!" She said, "I know you're not a fan of spicy food, but I really want to try it." Tsuna seemed surprised by the docile-ness of Solana, so he shrugged.
"Well then I guess we're having Indian, then." He said, watching her cheer. He'd have to talk to Hitomi later.
"It's starting." Hitomi said, drawing their attention to the pool.
In the end, both Hitomi and Tsuna got thoroughly soaked and neither were happy about it. The Indian food had nearly (he didn't go even though it was advised) put Tsuna in the infirmary and then Solana wanted boxing lessons. Tsuna could still feel the pain from hitting the wall. He'd never doubt Ryohei or Katsumi ever again. "Y'know… it's hard pleasing your mom." Tsuna said that night as he and Hitomi were on deck duty.
"Yeah, but I kinda get it." Hitomi said as she stopped mopping. "Mom is always doing stuff for us and she doesn't complain, so I think that we shouldn't complain about having to do the stuff that she wants to do."
"I shouldn't have read that fine print, and then maybe she wouldn't have to worry about us messing something up on the cruise." Tsuna said.
"Well it's only been one day." Hitomi said, looking up. "And the cruise is two weeks." Tsuna frowned but didn't say anything else.
A few days later, knock on the door brought Hitomi to her feet when Tsuna didn't move at all. They had been first to take their showers, which had been quick five-minute rinses, so as to conserve the water for Solana. Tsuna was getting tired of working, and then doing something that seemed like even more work. He may have loved Solana a lot, but he felt like she was picking things that she knew he had no interest in—because he knew it'd hurt a lot—and doing it just for shits and giggles.
Hitomi opened the door and standing there was Emiko, still dressed in her uniform. "Hitomi, we need to talk."
"Who is it?" Tsuna called from the bed. Hitomi looked back at him, frowning.
"It's just some… er, help." She said, "It'll only take a minute." Tsuna nodded and Hitomi stepped out of the room and into the hallway, closing the door behind her. "What's up?"
"Those two guys from the bathroom. I recognized their voices. They're two of the workers here on the boat and apparently… they're pirates." Hitomi squeaked, her hazel eyes widening.
"Wh-What do you mean they're pirates?!" Hitomi yelped, quickly covering her mouth as someone walked by.
"I mean just how it sounds. I heard them talking and then I saw them. Apparently they're smuggling some drugs—like they said, but there's been a change in their plans…" Emiko said, "So their pirate ship is gonna attack the ship."
"We-We gotta tell someone!" Hitomi said, "Emiko, who can we tell?!"
"You already told someone." From around the corner stepped Hikaru and Skye, the latter glaring at the two.
"If you two knew somethin' was goin' on, why didn't you say a damn thing, dammit?!" Skye yelled, walking towards them. "Now we gotta deal with damn pirates!" Hitomi squeaked, stepping back.
"I thought it wasn't too serious a few days ago, but that's changed, Collins." Emiko growled. "Give us a break, we didn't know."
"Didn't know? I'll tell you something you didn't know. This is a ship mostly filled with mafia spouses, if you hadn't noticed and if we're taken over by some pirates, that'll give us bad ratings, dammit! And we'll be hunted down by those famiglias!" Skye yelled again, glaring at Hitomi, "So now you're on the emergency task force."
"Emergency Task Force…?" Hitomi repeated, "What's that?"
"It means you do what I want, when I want you to and your goal is to protect this ship." Skye replied, "No matter what happens, don't give up the ship, dammit! Hikaru!" Hikaru nodded, "Take Yamamoto and go identify these men and see if you can stop them from calling on their-!"
The ship rocked, knocking Hitomi and the others to the ground. "What the hell is going on?" Emiko yelled. The ship rocked once more, tossing Emiko down the hall a little. They could hear screams from in Hitomi's room and the other rooms in the hall.
"Clearly we're being attacked!" Skye said, standing up and bracing herself against the wall. "Dammit! Let's get up to the deck!" The ran as fast as they could, even with the ship shaking like it was.
When they arrived, people were cowering away from the edge of the boat, where a lot of men were seen climbing onto the boat. Two other ships were surrounding the boat and Skye frowned, looking at them. "Who are you, dammit?!" She yelled.
"I think you know who we are…" One of them said, smirking. "We're pirates, in case you could tell."
"What are you doing on a mafia cruise ship?! We don't have a beef with you!" Emiko said, "Pirates and Ninjas have a thing!"
"Well, that's not making us much money," The man said, shrugging, "So; we've decided that from now on it'll be Pirates and Mobsters!"
"That's awful!" A passenger said, "Leave us alone!"
"Hey!" He pulled out a hi-tech looking gun, "I'm the one callin' the shots here, so calm yourself! Now, Fred, Rick! Get the goods, we're outta here."
"N-No!" Hitomi said, "You, uh… stop!"
"And who said?" He laughed, "Some girl with a weird haircut and her band of merry-woman? Yeah right."
"My hair isn't weird… is it?" Hitomi said, grabbing some of it. Emiko disregarded it and stepped forward, pulling out her Tonfa.
"Well it doesn't matter, you're messing with this ship and you'll go down!" She said, "Honestly, if you were smart, you'd have waited till the ship stopped in the north like your buddies had said in the bathroom!" Skye pulled her Bō staff from her pocket, pressing a button and it enlarged itself.
"Now you've gotta deal with me, dammit. And I'm not happy." She growled.
"Oh yeah?!" One of them said from behind. He grabbed Hitomi, holding a gun to her head. "Try us and the girl dies."
"Hitomi!" Emiko turned to look at her friend who looked deathly afraid. "Tch, dammit."
"Now let us get what we came for!" It was then that a gunshot rang out. The passengers screamed, running around. Most, if not all of them had never seen a person get shot, even though they had married into the mob life.
"Hitomi!" Emiko yelped, running over to her.
"Derrick!" The man growled, "You weren't really supposed to shoot her!"
"I didn't! Honest! My gun's not even loaded!" To prove the point, he clicking the gun and no bullets came out."
"REBORN!" Hitomi yelled, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP!"
The cannons went off just as soon as Hitomi stopped yelling, knocking into the ship and tossing some of the passengers off. Emiko slid, letting go of her Tonfa as she slammed into the railing. Hitomi couldn't get to her, as she had jumped onto the pirate ship, dealing with them. They were easy, as most didn't even know how to fight while the rest were too stunned by the fact that a half-naked girl was beating their comrades.
Solana, though Tsuna had tried to stop her, came up onto the main deck. She looked around. The ship was still rocking, but she was able to stay up right, as opposed to Tsuna, who was crawling after her. "Emiko?" She spotted the silvernette lying on the ground, holding her arm.
Familiar screaming brought her to the edge of the boat, looking over at another ship. "Is this some sort of… show? Where's the captain…?" She asked, though nobody seemed to be listening. She squinted, leaning over more, "Is that…? Hitomi?! Hitomi! What're you doing?!"
Just as Solana called her daughter's name, Hitomi's flame went out, returning her to normal. She was surrounded by a group of pirates who easily tackled her to the ground. She screamed and Solana's eyes hardened, "Hey! Get off my daughter!" With that, she climbed the railing and jumped off of the boat, tucking into a roll and landing on the pirate ship.
With all of the chaos stopped for a moment, those still left on the deck of the cruise ship came to the edge, watching the pirate ship. "Mom! It-It's okay… uh… don't worry." Hitomi said.
"Worry? How could I not! You're tied up! I'm starting to think that this isn't a part of the cruise…"
"Of course it's not, y' dumb broad!" One of them said, "We're pirates, in case you didn't know." Her eye twitched. Abruptly, Solana turned to face him, advancing on him rather quickly.
"Oh, now you've done it, you dumbass." Tsuna called, "Stand back, people, things are about to get ugly."
"What did you call me?" She growled out, "Wanna repeat that?" He gulped but stood his ground.
"You heard me! I said you were—AH!" He yelled, being slammed into the side of the ship with enough force to make it rock.
Hitomi's eyes widened as she looked at the rest of them, "Anyone else got any names to call me?" Another gunshot rang out and in a split second, Solana pulled out a large wrench with a wrapped grip. She frowned, cutting the bullet in half. "Don't test me; I've rigged this ship to blow!"
"So tha's wha' y'were doin' in th' ship's c'ntrol room!" Amelia hiccupped, leaning on the railing of the ship.
"Lady, you're crazy!" One said, "We were paid t' do this by some guy so that girl," He pointed to Hitomi, "And her friends could save it!" Confused, Solana looked to Hitomi.
"Is this true?" She asked, walking over to Hitomi.
"How should I know?!" Hitomi replied, "I've just been worked to the bone as a servant on this ship like dad because Reborn said you needed to have the perfect vacation! My feet hurt; I've been wearing heels off and on for the past five days and I don't like Indian food or water shows! Mom, I'm sorry that I'm complaining and your vacation is probably ruined, but I just can't do it anymore! I wanna go home!"
"Oh, thank goodness!" Solana said, confusing everyone, "Indian food makes me want to punch a wall and I'm tired of water shows and knitting! I've just been doing all that stuff so you guys would complain. But you were acting so weird… I thought something was wrong."
"…So wait," A new voice said, "These guys aren't really pirates?" They looked up, catching sight of a blond who looked like a male version of Skye.
"Colonello!" Tsuna yelped, "When did you get here?"
"I've been here the whole time, dammit." He said, "I'm captain of this ship, duh. Skye, C'mere." In a second flat, Skye was standing next to him, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"
"It was nothing I couldn't handle, kora." She crossed her arms. "If I can run a school, I can run a ship."
"You don't do too good a job of that…" Emiko mumbled. "Anyway, back to the pirates. Are they really pirates or not?"
"No," Reborn said, sitting on top of Colonello's head, "They're just some stray actors I hired."
"I knew you had something to do with this!" Hitomi said, "Can you guys untie me since you're not real pirates? I'm not scared anymore."
"Alright, get this mess cleaned up, then, Skye." Colonello said, walking away. Skye frowned, nodding.
"Alright, get a move on then! And get those people out of the water!" She yelled.
"So… you're not mad?" Hitomi asked. The cruise had only gotten as far as the middle of Japan before they were to turn around and return to Namimori. Solana leaned back, looking up at the fireworks.
"Nah." She said, pushing against Hitomi, "I'm fine. Though it's nice to be waited on every now and again."
"I'll keep that in mind, then." Tsuna said, "Still… those pirates did put on a pretty good show… even if half them got beat up pretty badly by Hitomi."
"I didn't even know you could fight like that… even if it was because of the dying will flame." Solana laughed.
"So who's Colonello?" Hitomi asked out of the blue, "And he seems to know Collins too."
"Ah, he said that Skye was his little cousin or something. He used to be a member of some cult-thing Reborn's in, though why he isn't the same size as Reborn, I'm not sure." Tsuna shrugged, "Anyway, let's have a good time since we're not working on the ship anymore."
"Yeah!" Hitomi and Solana cheered.
"Teru, are you alright?" R.J. asked, looking around his room. He hadn't seen the woman since they left Hitomi and the others on the deck last week. He found her curled underneath the covers, looking a little green.
"Thish shucks!" She said, "I got shick!"
R.J. laughed, "Didn't you know you were allergic to seafood and that you had motion sickness?"
"No! And shtop laughin'!"
Nothing much to say here, so I won't say anything. Arc is ending in two more chapters, so be ready for that. :D