Robin woke up in the middle of the day under incessant banging of footsteps above and active pitching of the moving ship. Her first instincts were to jump to her feet, bring her arms together and look around. Having found neither danger nearby nor harm done to her, she sighed and sat back down, rubbing her stinging eyes.
She yawned, reminded of the foul smell from her mouth. Her stomach growled, bringing attention to its complete emptiness. Her bladder ached, taking priority over the rest. Robin rushed to the watercraft at the bow, the book always by her side.
Having done the deed, she made her way to the deck in search of food. Yet before she could climb the stairs up, someone bumped into her climbing them down, their mouth hard at work shouting orders:
"Are you done with that stupid sail!? Hurry, then! You still have to clean the–"
It was a woman in her twenties, dressed in a green crop top and loose beige pants, with crimson pigtails perfectly matching her scarlet eyes. Many accessories adorned her hands and neck, shining with golden glitter, and thick aroma of numerous perfumes surrounded her short frame. She studied Robin from head to toe
"Finally woke up, huh? I am curious, what's a stinky rat like you even doing on this worthless ship?"
Robin pursed her lips and looked down, walking past her. Suddenly, she felt something tug on her hair.
"Are you deaf, stinky rat?" asked the woman, pulling harder.
Robin knit her eyebrows in fury, turning around at once. She brought her arms together and formed wing–
She felt someone put a hand on her shoulder.
"Go shit already, Flower..." said Asim, breathing heavily.
Flower gasped, "You won't talk to me like that, bandit!" a scowl twisted her face, "And this smell! You reek even worse! Ugh!" she strode away towards the watercraft, stomping forcefully, "Pests, all of you!"
Robin removed Asim's hand and took a step to the side, proceeding to climb the stair–
"Go brush your teeth..." he offered her a cup and a toothbrush, "And take a shower..." he threw a towel on her shoulder, "The Captain's cabin is to the right..." he disappeared inside the hull.
Robin emerged outside and quickly identified the aforementioned cabin, stepping inside reluctantly. The interior appeared as fancy as the shop from yesterday, furnished with leather chairs, fancy portraits and a royal carpet on the floor. She noted the obvious contrast between this room and the rest of the unmaintained ship.
"Good morning to you, Robin," said Vasily with his back, staring into a porthole, a cigar in his mouth.
Robin made a tiny nod and entered a fancy bathroom, greeted by a large mirror. As she got closer, she was repulsed by her unsightly appearance: patches of dirt, a bunch of dandruff, fading bruises, healing scratches. After hastily washing her hair in the sink, she picked up an intricate hair brush and began purging all the knots.
When it came to bathing, Robin refused to get naked, opting to quickly cleaning herself with a wet towel. In a moment the bright cloth turned dark, laying abandoned on the floor. She washed her underwear, too, wringing it out and puting back on. Finally, she brushed her teeth, leaving the used toothbrush in the basin.
"Done already, Robin?" asked Vasily as she left the bathroom.
She made another nod.
"Good, good," he smiled, "You are probably hungry, right? You can ask Flower for breakfast, she is most likely in a cabin on the bow."
Robin left to the de–
"Oh, she should have some spare clothes, too. Enjoy your morning," another wide smile.
She left to the deck.
Robin bore no affection towards the Sun, or open spaces, or other people. She wished not to remain here for long, eager to hole up inside the hull instead, away from others. Yet something forced her to stay just for a little bit. It was Nora. The boy stood next to the taffrail, his weapon pointing down. He grinned. The crossbow fired.
"Got it!" he exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air, "Take that, stupid shark! That's for following us, ugly!"
Robin felt her heart skip a beat. She stood there, stupefied, her mind filled with gruesome imagery. For a second she wanted to check the waters, to prove her intuition wrong, to help. Instead, a quiet sigh escaped her mouth. She was relieved. The weight of responsibility cleared off from her heart, leaving only the unpleasant sting of regret and unexpected... sadness.
She heard someone appear from the hull. Robin wiped away the cold sweat from her forehead and turned towards Flower.
"Breakfast..." she mumbled, "Please," she added.
"Got no grain on this ship, rat," she pushed her with her shoulder, walking past, "Beat it."
Robin clenched her fists and rushed downstairs, making way to her hiding spot. She sat down, placed the book nearby and hugged her knees tightly. Her head was overflown with ugly thoughts. Exasperation germinated in her guts. She grinded her teeth, contemplating the means of dealing with her unfortunate shipmates. And she knew only one way of going about it. Robin considered cold-blooded murde–
"Here..." a hand appeared, holding a colorful cloth, "It's dried meat..."
She hid her head in her knees, refusing to acknowledge the man for a time, but decided to speak up shortly afterwards. "Is... Is there something you want from me...?" she asked.
"What I want...?" Asim squatted down, pondering, "The safety of everyone onboard, I guess..."
"What...?"
"Your bloodlust... It reeks..."
The man left the food and a waterskin on the ground, having hard time getting up. He released an exhausted sigh and trudged away. Robin stared at the thin slices of meat, feeling her mouth water. She reluctantly reached out for a piece, giving it a try, and felt her nerves relax. She chewed thoroughly and breathed out most of her pent up frustration, leaning against the wooden wall. She finally felt a tiny bit of comfo–
"It's the fish-men pirates!" yelled a female voice from above.
"Shit, shit, shit!" cursed Nora.
Robin ate another slice, following it with a sip of water.
"Shoot them, moron!"
"These turtles are too fast, stupid!"
She swallowed one more pie–
She remembered something. The reason she came here in the first place. Robin finished swallowing and covered the book with a blanket. She got up leisurely, walking towards the deck, her hands at the ready.
Eight riders surrounded the moving ship, standing tall on armored turtles, as if surfing, tridents in their arms. Varying in color and blessed with thick skin and well developed muscles, they were practically naked, save for the dangling loincloths between the scaly legs.
A large bolt was fired from the ship.
One of the fish-men leaned right, communicating his turtle to dodge in that direction. The bolt whistled next to his left ear.
"You're so useless!" barked Flower, peeking from the captain's cabin door.
"S-shut up!"
The turtles got closer to the vessel. They dove underwater.
"Fuck..." whispered Asim.
As Robin's skinny frame appeared from the hull, she noticed something in the sky. Under the scorching Sun, eight large animals flew over the ship, flapping their flippers. As they disappeared overboard, eight fish-men appeared instead, descending upon the deck, tridents first.
"Eat this!"
A bolt pierced one of them, right through the chest.
Seven others landed on the wooden boards, four of them dashing towards a single man in the center.
The fifth went for Nora.
The sixth chose Robin as his target.
Robin brought her hands together and formed wings. As the pirate approached, several arms grew from his body, crushing his–
Dozens of severed fingers flew up in the air. Splashes of blood colored the deck red. The limbs were cut as fast as they appeared, one after another, displaying colorful gore for anyone watching. Robin's heart rate increased.
Three trident prongs appeared right in front of her eyes.
A tiny arm pulled her by the hair, allowing to avoid certain death. She took several steps back, creating more limbs around the pira–
Chunks of flesh dropped to the floor. He continued advancing. Robin began to sweat.
The spear bit once more. Robin felt sharp pain between her left ribs, continuing to walk backwards. She soon hit the taffrail.
The fish-man aimed his final strike.
Robin closed her eyes tight. She took a deep breath and brought her hands together. Her palms connected gently, as if in prayer.
"There will be no mercy, child," he said, "No one on this ship deserves any mer–"
The pirate disappeared.
Where he stood materialized a gigantic arm, made from hundreds of tiny limbs
Flower's eyes were wide open. She just witnessed that same arm swipe its target away, treating it nothing more than a pesky fly, crushing its tiny body under the monstrous weight. She gulped, possessed by fear.
Robin exhaled, taking a step forward, several limbs pressed against her bleeding side. Her merciless eyes searched for the next target. They stopped on Asim, glued with intrigue.
The man appeared to stand still, surrounded by sharp prongs that refused to touch his body. Each attack of the fish-men missed within a hair's breadth, no matter where they aimed or how fast they struck. Despite that, Asim made no effort to retaliate either, as if waiting for a specific moment. And he soon found it.
One of the pirates struck in desperation, putting just a little too much weight into his trust. Next instant, his forearm was bent in an unnatural manner, and his elbow had red swelling, fractured. The fish-man gritted his teeth and took a step back apprehensively.
That gave Asim enough room to attack once more. The second pirate whimpered, his wrist swollen and unresponsive. The third person drew the short straw – his Adam's apple went into the back of his throat. The fish-man chocked to death.
Suddenly, shouting rang out from another part of the ship. Nora abandoned his crossbow and was running away as fast as he could.
As he passed by the captain's cabin, the door flung open. A man in a white suit emerged, a cigar in his mouth. He had a trident in each arm. Their central prongs were broken.
"Enough fooling around, Asim," he tossed the weapon.
As soon as it touched Asim's hand, the fourth pirate had his chest pierced. He was dead immediately.
"It's him!" shouted the chasing fish-man, pointing at Vasily, "Kill the bastard!"
Right on cue, someone jumped from the cabin's roof. The seventh pirate, the biggest of them all.
"You never learn, do you?"
As Robin expected, the pirate's weapon struck nothing but a cloud of smoke and the boards beneath. Before he could swing again, Vasily had already materialized behind him, his trident piercing the fish-man's stomach. Blood escaped his mouth as he fell to the floor, motionless.
"Wrap it up," he ordered Asim, disappearing inside his cabin.
Robin turned her head to the tall man, expecting to witness a one-sided slaughter. Instead, she watched the remaining pirates escape by jumping into the sea, picked up by the giant turtles.
Asim fell on all fours, clutching his chest. He was wheezing. Fighting for his life.
"Oh? Is this bum finally going to die?" wondered Flower out loud after coming out of hiding.
"W-we should help him!" panicked Nora.
Robin held her breath, watching, while conflicting emotions continued to strike her brain. She wished not to care, to feel indifferent, but her body forced her to stay and learn the outcome of this life-and-death struggle.
A wave of relief passed through her soul as Asim stood up, taking several deep, long breaths.
"A pity," said Flower, making way to her cabin.
Nora ran up to the man, "H-how are you, sir?!"
"Fantastic..." he wiped away saliva from his mouth.
Asim turned around and trudged to the hull, passing by Robin.
"You did well..." he mentioned.
Just for a moment, for a single second, a tiny smile took shape on her lips, unnoticed by anyone. She cleared her throat and returned to her hiding spot, set about taking care of the wound. Robin's mood got just a little bit better.
"H-hey, why do I have to clean the corpses alone!?"
Nobody cared about Nora's whining.