Arthur

My hand caressed the railing of the wooden vessel. It was such a gorgeous ship; but not as beautiful as my former ship which unfortunately had been destroyed due to that storm weeks ago. If it had not been damaged, I would have never landed on that ancient island. Well I certainly would not have taken part in this war if my crew and I had not been stranded and bumped into Elizabeta's crew. But it all had happened and I could not be upset about it. I would have never met Sakura or befriended Elizabeta and her Prince. My mouth was set in a grim line: I would have never had to work with that bloody Antonio.

He was not on my ship, which was fortunate for my nerves. Among the members of my crew, some of the marine officers were on the vessel: experienced sailors and young men. The latter were observing my ship and my crew with intense eyes. Only one of them was watching me with curiosity. For minutes he was following me but did not approached him. Hopefully he would stop his movements and leave me to be.

"Sir?" A young man asked, as I turned around. "Or Admiral? Admiral, Sir?"

"What is it, Lad," I harshly replied and was annoyed by his manner; we were seconds away from fighting and he had nothing else to do than addressing me with several names.

"I was just wondering if you could answer some of my questions?"

I mustered his face; such a young visage, his smile as radiant as the sun. The blonde hair shined with the sun while his blue eyes were hidden by glasses. He could not be older than nineteen and I was certain that he was inexperienced. Sailors and soldiers of war would not wear such a grin if they were on the brink of facing a war. Although he seemed friendly, I could not shake the feeling off that his questions would be bold. My head slowly nodded – a sign for him to continue with his speaking.

"Well, Sir, I am Alfred Jones, a new cadet of the marine," he informed me, the smile on his face not ceasing, "You are the one that is engaged to that cool mermaid the Prince has in his army, right? Her magical performance is amazing!"

I wanted to gulp but needed to cough at the same time due to his bold questioning.

"E-Engaged?" I was dumbfounded. But the mere thought of being engaged to Sakura was something I secretly approved. I would certainly not mind but why was he asking me such a question even if he did not know me?

"Yeah, everyone is talking about it," Alfred exclaimed, "We saw how you told her goodbye."

At that notion I felt my face heat again. They saw it? His wiggling eyebrows confirmed his statement and my blood started to boil.

"Brat! Why are you telling me this?"

"Well I wanted to know where you found her?"

My eyes hardened, "Found?"

"Yes, I mean, I would like to be just as swept away by a mermaid as you are. The infamous former Pirate Arthur Kirkland whose heart now belongs to a lovely mermaid," the lad justified his question with a dreamy expression in his eyes. What a bold explanation!

"Jones, concentrate on the upcoming fight, not on some romantic dream you have," I commanded.

"Indeed Sir, but you inspired me to believe so," he continued, "A mermaid that falls in love with a human."

I was growing impatient with this brat; some part of me wanted to protect his innocence from this bloody battle, while the other part wanted to lecture him for approaching a man that was several years his senior.

"Admiral! The enemy ships are coming closer!"

Despite the topic of Alfred's and mine conversation, I was still focussed on our environment. Roberts' ships were closing the distance between them and us; but something was wrong. It was too silent and they were not as fast in approaching us as I thought they would.

Only seconds later, an explosion appeared. The impact was brutal, causing me to fall to the ground. Those bastards had some kind of a new weapon: bombs and cannons under water which were used unseen by all of us. Suddenly, it were not only those tools that attacked us. But their ships were nearby; their crews ready to enter our ship. I perked my head up, looking for the damage they had caused and for any casualties. Some of my crew and the marines were injured and as my eyes fell on my leg I noticed that I too had been hurt in the process.

"Bloody bastards," I mumbled with a frown on my face. My legs were badly wounded and prevented me from standing up. A small light graced the injury and I knew immediately who was healing it. I grabbed my sword as a shadow caressed my form; the feeling of unsettlement spread through my body. They were on my ship.

Seeing that I was in great disadvantage, the enemy wielded his sword in order to strike me. He had clearly underestimated me. I drew my cutlass and blocked his move before using my other hand to pull a smaller knife from my trousers, cutting his Achilles' tendon with it. The man fell immediately, grabbing his bloodstained feed with both of his hands, before I stood up – ignoring the pain in my leg – and ended his life with one strike. Noises of fighting and clashing blades filled my ears.

I was still wobbly on my feet and the injury not fully healed. It definitely limited my moves. Even if I was hoping for the recovery of my legs, I was still worrying over Sakura. If she healed everyone who was injured and took care of the magic and the dragon then her energy would be drained from her body in less than a few hours. Without thinking too much, I quickly contacted the Prince to tell him about this new occasion.

Another presence tried to attack me from behind. Unfortunately that person was aware of my condition and kicked my legs, causing me to fall. He hit the sword out of my hand and prepared his weapon to shot me.

I blinked; the trigger on his pistol was never pulled. Jones had positioned himself between us and fought the enemy's attacks. He needed some minutes to make fatal hits which would put his enemy at disadvantage. In disregard of his position as a cadet, the brat had talent. Some of his moves were still sloppy but he managed to claim victory as his opponent's unconscious body faced the ground.

"Done," the young man turned around with a grin.

"Indeed." A small smile graced my face. He reminded me of myself, when I was younger; only that his attitude was more impudent than mine. My legs were completely healed again, ready to steady my weight for the next fights.

"How could I have let you –"

All of a sudden, another explosion caused the vessel to shake violently. It hit the mast next to us. Unfortunately, this time the impact was more intense than before. I was hurled through the air like a leave would in the eye of a storm. The first item that hit my back was the wooden railing I was admiring before. Alfred has not been as lucky as I in this situation, as I saw his body flying off the ship into the dark abyss of the sea.

Blimey!

The ringing in my ears had not ceased because of that bloody explosion. Before I tried to stand up, my nose caught a strange scent that lay in the air: similar to the scent of the ocean. Several other explosions lightened the atmosphere, but the sounded was dimmed. I was not sure if it was because to my deafened ears or if something had occurred until my eyes caught a light bluish veil which surrounded my ship. Some objects crushed against it but did not break through. A protection spell?

"Help!" someone screamed, yet I did not recognise the voice. However, I noticed that it was none of my men as I steadied myself on the railing. It were the enemies who were attacked… but not by any of my men or the marine.

"In the name of God," I muttered; shock written all over my face. Mermaids, sirens, Mermen… Everyone from the merfolk was defending us. My pulse increased as I felt my mouth forming a generous smile. Only one person was capable of creating a shield and calling the creatures of the sea to help us. "Take them down, dearest."

I looked back into the sea where Alfred had fallen into; my eyes searched for any sign of him. Among the numerous sirens and mermaids who drowned the enemy pirates – although some of them were wearing a smirk, probably being enchanted by the female creatures even if they would face death in any moment – I caught the form of the blonde lad in the arms of a mermaid.

He was throwing her a dashing smile, while she looked rather annoyed. My hand caressed my forehead, seeing that his dream of meeting a mermaid had become true, regardless of the female whose expression worsened. The young officer was babbling while she was swimming with him towards our ship. Her long black hair was bound in a low tail and I could see that she was just as petite as Sakura. She caught my eyes and I was not certain if I saw a light plead in her face – I could sympathise with her, Alfred did have a strange way of exclaiming his fascination for mermaids and inspiriting Captains who had fallen in love with one of the merfolk.

It was a paradox sight; Alfred who was smiling because he was saved by a mermaid and the other men who were killed by the same creatures – although sirens were more brutal than mermaids. He was put back on the ship and his saviour wanted to join the fight again as he thanked her sincerely before she dive into the water again.

"Oh, Sir," he breathe, the goofy look still present on his face. "You must ask your fiancée what my rescuer's name was."

I gave him a questioning look, trying to ignore my beating heart at hearing the word fiancée. "Only if we win this war, brat," I answered, pressing his blade in his hand. "We still need to fulfil our part of the fighting."

The enemies were clearly weakened, thanks to the creatures of the sea. We quickly used the cannons to damage their ships – after Gilbert had given me the confirmation through the patch that our bullets could pierce the shield and we would still be protected from the enemy's bullets. During these attacks, I observed Antonio's crew, who by now had encircled the ships with the secret underwater cannons. If the fights would proceed in that way, then victory would not be far.

[A/N: Well while I already am at it with throwing pairings into the story; have some minor AmeViet :D such a cute and adorable pairing :3. I kind of love those pairings where Person A is more energetic and impulsive while Person B is more quiet, reversed but loves Person A despite their behaviour :D the impulsive one needs someone who calms them while the shy/quiet one needs someone that shows them to be more extroverted :3 (in my opinion :))