A small vessel danced on waves several floors high. This wasn't something special for the northern ocean, though it required a skilled crew to sail such a small boat through all that. Even then, the skill of the crew did little to counteract the constant, nauseating bounciness. It's been a few days like that, though navigating several troublesome gulfs closer to the shore required a smaller vessel.
"Hmm…" Asuka hummed out into the gloomy clouds shrouding the already stone-colored ocean and making even the foamy waves look boring. The Allied Ninja weren't part of the crew, they were passengers. Just a side gig to make some extra coin for those sailing across the North Ocean and back. "Where's the new guy?"
"You want to pester him? A great idea, he's in the boilers, meddling with his puppets," Endo pointed over his shoulder.
"You do know that he's a Stars' original, right?" Shige-H raised her eyebrow while leading her teammate off with her stare.
"Damisan's back, now we need to figure out how to make the Konoha Black Ops surrender Skaven and the crew will be back together. I guess Tomi's out of the picture for good…" Endo began counting before noting something only he would have pointed out and shrugging it off like it meant nothing to bring up the deceased this way to him. "By the way, have you figured out how you're going to get Mana back on our side? Last time didn't go too well and you can't afford to flub this again, boss."
"I'll… I'll just have to change the way I approach it. I don't know why I thought trying to strong-arm Mana back was the right call," Shige-H sighed. "We were friends once, and we got along and could relate to each other's struggles and I'll just have to hope that still means something and that Mana still isn't indifferent to coming back."
"And what if she's turned herself over?" Endo slammed his arm into the table with surprising restraint for him. "Are you going to have the guts to take her out?"
"Take her out? Endo… Damn it…" Shige-H groaned. "I don't think she's taken up the Getsugakure headband. If she did, we'll leave it to Konohagakure to handle. She's their ninja, her license with Konoha is suspended for the duration she's working with the Allied Ninja as per the cooperation contract between Konoha and the Allied Ninja. If she's turned over, she'll be a rogue ninja, but I won't make you hurt her."
"Eh…" Endo shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, I'd rather she didn't turn sides, and she's a Stars' original too. I've come to like her in a very exotic pet in the zoo kind of way with the dumb things she says and does, but even so, I'd strike her down if you need me to."
"Thanks, Endo, I'll have that in mind. Always good to know I can count on you to kill people I call friends," Shige-H rolled her eyes, not being able to sound any more sarcastic than she did while delivering that last response.
Damisan was working in the boiler room just like Endo tipped Asuka off to. He's been screwing things in, starting small from a couple of screws and moving up to attaching hidden blades, sealing tags and the like, and then placing the mechanical limbs back to where he removed them from. He must have had several puppets unsealed and disassembled as plenty of larger pieces that didn't look like they fit together, laid around waiting for the puppeteer to pick up after himself and clean up.
"Did one of the sailors won your shirt from you at cards?" Asuka teased the puppeteer with a raised tone, referencing the fact that Damisan sat on the floor bare-chested and sweating profusely. It was something that necessitated him to take a brief stop and wipe the sweat off once in a while or else he'd slip up with the more precise aspect of his maintenance work.
"I like the heat. It reminds me of home. It's distracting to some, but it's a distraction I can't work without," Damisan replied without moving his eyes off his work.
"Right… You must have a lot of work 'cause this is all you're doing…" Asuka leaned down and pointed at the mechanical chaos on the floor and several scrap tables that nobody but Damisan cared to use.
"I'm a puppeteer. Puppets need maintenance. They also need upgrades," Damisan replied with bluntness and calmness guiding his tone.
"Hmm… Endo told me you were a real people person, eager to get along with everyone. I don't seem to get that impression out of you…" Asuka noted.
"Odd. The last time I fell for a honeypot scheme, I nearly got Mana murdered for good and now I find out that the newest recruit amongst the Stars has tried to kill her twice on the same voyage. I wonder why we don't just hit it off…" Damisan stopped tinkering only to gaze up at the pumping boilers over his head spewing off rings of steam and then return to his work without looking at Asuka once.
"Sheesh, it's always the same with you guys. You know what, Mana said we're cool about all that business so you guys have no business getting butthurt over it all over again!" Asuka crossed her arms and tried acting exasperated with the returned Stars veteran but that act didn't last too long. The moment the entire ship quaked in place, tripping the young woman off her feet and making her fumble over the bare and sweaty Damisan, her faux hurt vanished in a snap.
"Get off me," Damisan grumbled.
"Also… What the heck was that? Maybe that's the thing you should ask first?" Asuka obliged since she didn't trip over a sweaty and hairy guy whose idea for passing the time was to close himself shut inside a scorching, dark room and tinker on mechanical artsy stuff that, Asuka suspected, may have been his only friends.
"Good idea, let's check that out," the Stars veteran nodded and slipped off a dirty sailor shirt off the nearest scrap table that he previously used to wipe oil and varnish off of his puppets.
It didn't seem like the blonde needed any additional encouragement as she took off in a mad dash to the tiny staircase room leading up to the main deck. Damisan kept up with the sight of Asuka's rustling golden hair that took double time to get anywhere she wanted to go. It didn't take too long before the salty ocean air socked his nose again alongside the spray of ice-cold droplets that made him feel glad he tossed a sailor's shirt on before leaving the boiler room. The contrast of temperatures felt highly bitter to the skin yet also, oddly, goosebump-inducing.
"What the hell's going on? Did we hit something?" Asuka yelled out at the sailors, who were still struggling to understand why the ship reacted with a violent jerk the way it did.
"We're standing in place. Why?" Damisan looked around, acknowledging the curious fact that despite the sails being wide open and the boiler room doing its thing at full capacity, they were oddly lagging and just going along with the salty waves. "What is everyone on about? Can you include us in this conversation too?"
"Wait! Shut up!" Shige-H snapped her fingers. With the medical kunoichi being an attractive and highly charismatic leader-type personality, she had the effect of even people that weren't immediately subservient to her doing what she said for the few seconds that it took them to consider if they absolutely had to. "I know that reeling noise. It's steel wire."
"Are you saying someone took the time to lay out some giant steel wire spider web trap for us?" Endo grumbled, examining two of his most recently obtained swords and picking one with an obsidian-colored leathery belt attached to it. The swordsman thwacked the leathery belt in thin air only for the whip to stiffen in a snap and form a rod-shaped obsidian blade with sharp thorns sticking out from its sides and ending in a sharp tip, a bit like a lance.
"Hmm…" Shige-H scratched her chin. She had a few ideas about who or what may have done this, though it didn't seem like she was willing to share them before more information became apparent.
"Pirates!" a sailor atop of the rudder shrieked out with enough dread in his voice to make it heard all across the main deck. "A full fleet of 'em too!"
"Pirates?" Damisan mumbled to himself. He found it odd that pirates would target some snubby fishing vessel that wasn't large enough to carry enough loot home to pay off for its own maintenance, crew, and the voyage, forcing it to take passengers looking for a cheap voyage on an inopportune time when no one else was sailing on the side.
"A fleet of them? This makes no sense," Asuka shook her head. "There's no point for a full fleet of pirates to bother hitting a flea like this."
"That's not just any fleet. That black flag with brass frames and a rocket in the middle. That's the flag of Pirate Lord Blue, Captain Flint, the Adventurous Sword of the Four Seas," an older sea wolf lit up a pipe, figuring that he may as well have gotten a good puff if some pirate was to cave his face in for getting in their way.
"Is that good or bad?" Damisan asked.
"Nobody knows for sure until they know. Pirate Lord Blue and his crew do whatever the hell they want," the old chubby shrugged his shoulders before flinging a match he lit up on his greasy belly overboard behind him. "If I had to guess, they've got to be interested in you lot. None of us would be of any interest to a Pirate Lord."
"Shit, I really don't like the sea air. It'll leave my puppets all rusty," Damisan sighed.
"Tell me about it, how am I supposed to get a solid footing when the damn boat's rocking around like a baby's crib?" Endo joined in on the sentiment as a row of at least a dozen ships on the vanguard of the pirate tide closed in like an improvised spearhead upon the lone, meek fishing vessel carrying Allied Ninja aboard.
"There has to be some sort of mistake," Shige-H scratched her head while observing the bold fleet combing through the ocean toward them.
"Unlikely. Pirates of this caliber don't make mistakes. Even someone as lax as Pirate Lord Blue wouldn't hit a small fishing vessel unless he knows something or someone he wants is here. These guys are no lowlife vagabonds, they're essentially the mercenaries of the oceans," Asuka picked up a shut umbrella and flipped it over her shoulder, preparing in case a struggle were to break out. "I'm not sure what your bounties are, but that is the most likely reason they're here."
"We're Allied Ninja, we don't have bounties on any allied village Bingo Books," Shige-H noted.
"Something tells me pirates prefer the black-market Bingo Books anyway… Fine, let them come, I can test out my new sword on them," Endo placed his sword over his shoulder, instantly widening his eyes and stretching his lips out as the thorns on the sword's obsidian surface bit him in the shoulder. He hadn't been used to this weapon and his muscle memory was yet to realize that he couldn't just flop this sword on his shoulder like he did any other blade.
"No killing," Damisan muttered. "If this is a misunderstanding, we can easily turn it into a real beef with needless slaughter."
"Since when did you become a pacifist!?" Endo barked out at the side of his returned teammate. All the while Captain Flint's fleet surrounded the lone and helpless vessel from all sides, circling it like sharks though giving it some space. Asuka's focus sharpened to follow the reeling noise. The attentive ones amongst the Stars could have realized that the steel wire reeled back to its user that set the trap originally. "Didn't you leave the Stars to kill some guy?"
Pirates of all shapes and sizes began lining up by the edge of the board and brandishing their preferred weapon. Not all the buccaneers aboard Captain Flint's fleet were human. A decent handful of them appeared to have been ninja animals separated from their tribe or having joined a pirate crew for some training and polishing of their skills, seeing it as a type of pilgrimage.
"I did, and it brought me and those around me nothing but trouble. The best call I've ever made was quitting while I was ahead and focusing on what counts. When I got the boss' message about Mana getting hurt and leaving, I realized I could actually accomplish something by using my talents to help people rather than take their lives," Damisan replied calmly while following every new face popping up from the massive, chakra-coated ships that seemed to suffer no air or water resistance or degrade with time and clashes with the natural elements.
"That's probably the most delightful thing I've heard whole month," Mana's voice came from atop of the largest and the best armed of Captain Flint's ships, making the Stars all widen their eyes in surprise as a dark-haired young woman soared through the air with graceful flips, riding the artificial wind currents before landing directly in the middle of the fishing vessel with the dazzled seamen and the Stars alike stepping aside to let the magician make her stunning entry. "Even if it's just a handful of people, it's nice to know that I'm leaving the world better than I found it."
The Stars took a second to gaze at the changed appearance of their comrade. Mana hadn't grown, nor did she gain any weight, though her complexion had gained a few shades dimmer than even her already exotic-looking skin. On top of that, the magician appeared to have adopted the hygiene habits of her fellow pirates by letting her hair grow even longer and unrulier than usual while sharpening her make-up job and switching the blushes and paints to an eye-raking, all-black esthetic except for her pink lips. Mana also had replaced both her usual magician's uniform and the flamboyant dresses of the Getsugakure high-society for simple pirate rags and a black and golden military-style long coat. Odder still was that the young woman had switched her top hat out for a triangular captain's hat. The incredible changes that their friend had gone through made the Stars utterly oversee the fact that she tapped across the deck with a wooden peg leg replacement to spare herself the trouble of using crutches or constantly keeping her ninjutsu active to support herself.
"Mana…" Shige-H gasped, struggling to find the words or a way to start the conversation she needed to have with the ninja magician. This reunion had been too sudden, the leader of the Stars thought she'd have more time to think of something.
"Well, I, for one, am glad we're not getting butchered by pirates today," Asuka shrugged with a cringing smirk on her face.
"Can't see why you would be. You're not worth Captain Flint drawing his saber," Mana teased the young woman who tried to kill her a few times and stated her intention of trying it again sometime in the future.
"Nice leg, would be a pity if it went overboard in the middle of the night and you'd have to wobble around like a penguin again," Asuka returned the tease back with the two kunoichi staring at each other with cheerful glints that made it nigh impossible to tell if either of them hid searing distaste for the other behind the façade of friendliness.
"Speaking of that, where's Gwirlon?" Mana looked around. The big guy wasn't the type to miss out on a meeting with her, nor would he have been able or wanting to stay hidden.
"He stayed at the HQ. The Supreme Leader isn't too excited to just enlist him into our ranks, what with him barely being able to speak right and being responsible for crippling you and all…" Shige-H replied. "Although that isn't the only reason he stayed. Because we vouched for him… Hesitantly… The leadership agreed to try to help him by replacing as many of his involuntary metal intrusions with healthier alternatives. Upon first detailed inspection, the medical consensus was that life should have been endless torture for him with those things inserted all around his body."
"Then, even if the Supreme Leader allows him to join, he'll still have to go through the recruitment program. Ain't no way that I'm letting him skip ahead of me, as oddly lovable as the big guy is," Asuka drew her hand through her hair and tossed a lock behind her back, flaunting it.
"And what about you?" Endo stepped out from behind Damisan and pointed his black, thorn-covered sword at Mana, to the extent where its sharp end nearly touched the tip of Mana's nose. "Whose side are you on? It doesn't seem like you've joined up with the Getsugakure folks, but you look awfully chummy with those pirates. Pirates may not be nukes, but they're the next best rogue thing."
"No, Captain Flint is just sailing me to the continent. I was worried about you landing in Getsugakure right now, so I asked him to pick you guys up. Went through some trouble to convince them but, luckily enough, pirates are very enthusiastic gamblers so I won pretty much everything I needed. My Getsugakure dresses got totaled during all the deathmatches and back on Polybius. Damn… Polybius… We have something to discuss. You guys need to come aboard," Mana became distracted upon mentioning Polybius, mainly because she left the Four-Tails behind, which was a huge bit of news for the Allied Ninja and she wasn't sure how they'd react to it.
"Aboard a pirate ship?" Endo looked up at the Flintory that had the stern eyes of Captain Flint looking down at the Allied Ninja aboard its front alongside a pair of stilts holding a television suspended in mid-air and a lone barrel. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Come on, Endo, don't be such a diva. It's just a ride home, and it's way fancier than sailing on this poor old thing. Besides, you've caused these poor people enough trouble by scaring them half to death, leave them be now and go your separate ways," Mana waved the swordsman's worries off.
"You were the one who rolled up to us with a Pirate Lord's crew and taught these guys the fear of death. If anyone's to blame for their troubles, it's you…" Shige-H squinted at Mana. "However, I have a feeling that you want to discuss joining Stars with us and just because of that, I'll humor you and enact my executive power as the Stars' leader."
"Mana…" Damisan approached the magician and hugged her. This seemed to stun Mana momentarily and make her cheeks flush with red and her eyes bulge out in the moment's suddenness. "You were right," he said after nuzzling her away from their embrace. "Killing Fennec, waging an endless war against him, it's not the answer. I can just hope that I've done enough good in the Wind Country to warrant all the pointless bloodshed that led me to that realization. To think that's how you feel all the time… It's only now that I learned what it feels like."
"Damisan… I'm glad to see you back with the Stars and that you're okay. Come aboard and you can tell me all about what happened," Mana nodded while gently brushing her hand against the puppeteer's shoulder to comfort him. He clearly went through a lot, though the magician could recognize some familiar emotions flashing through his eyes when she looked at them. He may have truly turned a similar leaf of beliefs to Mana's. It couldn't have been easy and by no means could it have come cheaply to him.
"Alright, but stop embarrassing yourself with that peg leg. I'll build you a proper prosthetic that'll be better than the ones I used back in the day. Rocket jets, grappling hooks, water skis… I have so many ideas," Damisan rubbed his hands with a sheepish-looking grin. It was still odd to see his face so clearly and to see him emoting. It wasn't that far ago that the puppeteer had regained his previous healthy appearance and the Stars didn't get that much of a chance to get accustomed to the new status quo before the puppeteer left.
Hopefully, now the Stars had reunited for good.