Steam Powered Pirate AU: 3
Synopsis – A continuation of the previous two chapters.
As the newly dubbed Sunshine Pirates escape Kanda Myojin, they are all (relatively) enthusiastic to begin searching out the Garden of Glass. (I swear I would've thought of a way for this whole journey to make sense.) But the crew has a realization.
You, the ship's navigator, can only take them to places she's been to before. And the only places she's been to before have mainly been those ports around Uchiura and the Numazu Rim.
"Wait a minute, You-chan. When did you ever go to Kanda Myojin?" asked Chika.
"My dad took us there when we were five," answered You. "Kanan-chan was there too. Remember?"
Chika shot Kanan a questioning glance, but the blunette could only shrug helplessly. Looking back to You, Chika gave her answer. "Absolutely," she lied.
You scoffed disbelievingly. "It's so nice to know you hold onto our childhood memories as preciously as I do."
In the end, they decide to head back to the big city of Numazu, hoping the Imperial State's penchant for the propaganda machine keeps the whole 'stole a highly advanced prototype warship' thing under wraps. This assumption is not without basis.
Hanamaru shook her head. "The Imperial Office of Information isn't as forthcoming as the name would suggest, zura," she said.
Beside her, Ruby nodded in agreement. "Hanamaru-chan is right. Their newsletters and notices are tailored more towards keeping the status quo instead of properly disseminating information."
"Did you know a Britannian fleet occupied Hakue Harbor for two weeks before the Imperial Navy retook the town, zura?"
"What?! Why would Britannia do that?!" asked Kanan in alarm.
Ruby and Hanamaru exchanged a concerned glance. "The Nihon Imperial State and the Empire of Britannia have unofficially been at war for the past two years," answered Ruby.
"No way!" exclaimed Chika. "We totally would have heard something about that by now! Totally!"
"How would you even know that?" asked You.
"Kanda Myojin receives many visitors from across the seas in need of spiritual guidance. They talk, and we listen, and assuage their concerns as best we can, zura."
"It's also far away from the mainland and a very peaceful place, so the Imperial presence there is minimal. So long as the villagers pay taxes and don't cause trouble, there's no reason to interfere. The lack of authority does wonders for freedom of information," added the pig-tailed redhead.
Shenanigans in Numazu / Numazu Recruitment:
So, bereft of any other options, the SS Aqours heads to Numazu.
Chika, Riko, and Kanan go off to look for ways to get money, be it from contracted delivery work or finding another warehouse to rob (Riko greatly prefers the former), while You, Ruby, and Hanamaru go off to find some up to date navigational charts they can use when they eventually have cash (or the willingness to steal them, whichever comes first).
After a brief time-skip, Chika, Riko, and Kanan have found a shady merchant willing to pay them to move merchandise from one warehouse to another island, and You, Ruby, and Hanamaru have found a cartographer's shop with all the necessary items. Currently, they're all relaxing in a small restaurant in the lobby of a hotel, using part of their advance to pay for a nice meal. To which most of them are shocked to see Hanamaru's proclivity for eating.
Suddenly, enter Yohane! The fallen angel makes a big show to the hotel desk clerk about this amazing potion she has. To demonstrate, she throws a bottle of ink all over the floor.
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"The floor!" cried the receptionist. She rushed to the pool of ink with a bundle of cloth and began scrubbing furiously, but the damage was done. Though her efforts soaked up the excess fluid, there remained a deep black stain across the once fine and polished wood floor.
"Not to worry!" declared the blunette as she pulled out and uncapped a small bottle. "With this little miracle, your floor will soon be free of this dreadful stain, and any other stain you can possibly imagine!" And without further ado, she threw the contents of her bottle all over the newly created ink stain.
"Now behold!" she cried, throwing her hands in the air in a grand gesture, "Witness the power of Yohane's patent-pending industrial strength omni-cleanser! Removes all stains or your money back!" The receptionist looked to the floor, then back to the blunette, then back to the floor. She was almost hysterical.
Just then, a finely dressed man walked up to the blunette, a stern frown across his face. "Excuse me miss, are you responsible for the desecration of this establishment?"
"There is no desecration to speak of, my good man," replied Yohane. "The ink stain has been completely removed from the floor thanks to my finely crafted solution, now only 99 marks per bottle! May I interest you in a purchase?"
The manager was not amused. "Removed from the floor? Yes, I suppose you could say that. On the other hand, it's quite clear to see that your 'finely crafted solution' hasn't just removed the stain, but it's melted a hole in the floor as well!"
Yohane blinked. She looked to the spot where she'd uncorked her masterpiece. There was indeed a very new, very noticeable hole leading to the basement.
"Um..."
"Since you're the one responsible for this, I expect you to pay for the damages in full. Now."
"Well," gulped the blunette, "I, ah, don't really have any money for floor repair..."
The manager's gaze turned severe. "Guards!" he called.
From their table, the crew of the SS Aqours watched as a pair of uniformed deputies led the blunette out the door.
"W-Wait a minute! We can work this out!" she protested, "I have some dish washer solution that will accelerate the dish-washing process five-fold! I swear it! Sixty percent of the time, it works every time!"
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While some of the crew are concerned with her fate, others are simply content to enjoy the entertainment.
After lunch, the crew split up to spent the rest of their advance on shopping. You gets her maps, Kanan gets spare parts, Chika gets mikans, Riko gets yuri, Ruby gets medical supplies and equipment, and Hanamaru gets some books and a quarterstaff.
Then, the crew tends to their job and go to the warehouse. Ruby and Hanamaru are too physically weak to really help, so Chika gives them leave to wander Numazu for a bit. The pair come across Yoshiko sitting in an outdoor jail cell as a lazy guard watches her.
Either through the goodness of their hearts or through the employment of Yoshiko's feminine wiles, RubyMaru free her and she joins their crew.
Yoshiko:
Yoshiko is a traveling entertainer / fallen angel / alchemist. She often consults Maru's encyclopedic knowledge about anything she might know about her current experiment, and sees Ruby quite often to get patched up because of (surprise, surprise) her latest experiment. She also slips Riko quite a few strange requests for supplies. She utilizes smoke bombs, fire bombs, grenades, and whatever other chemical concoctions she can cook up.
Ruby: "Yoshiko-chan, can you please stop experimenting until we get to the next port? I've run out of poultices to treat your burns.".
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As the crew finishes up moving the cargo to their ship, Riko takes it on herself to sign for its movement, as per her duty as quartermaster. When they arrive at their next destination, their discover from their contact that they actually stole someone else's cargo and sabotaged them. Their contact shows them an updated Bounty! poster for Phantom Thief Sakurauchi, much to Riko's displeasure.
In addition to causing Riko more problems, this would have been used to introduce another faction to the world, the Free Trade Federation. The FTF stands mainly for tariff-free, legality-free exchange of goods, which is a nice excuse for smugglers, thieves, fences, and other shadier merchants to form a guild. The FTF representative they meet is quite thankful to the crew for keeping the Nihon Imperial State off their backs for a bit, as without the scapegoat of the Phantom Thief, the FTF would likely have been blamed and subsequently hounded. The FTF promises to keep in contact, which is good, since they're gonna need some friends when they eventually get into bigger and bigger shenanigans.
DiaMari Ideas:
Dia is a naval officer / elite marine who originally goes after the crew to bring them in, then she sees that Ruby is kinda sorta complicit at best in their antics and decides to abandon her allegiance and protect her sister; always carries a katana; she is offended by the lack of discipline on the ship, but is even more offended that Kanan can use such a haphazard fighting style with any degree of functionality; takes it upon herself to teach Kanan some structured melee combat; her Wanted! poster displays desertion and treason.
Mari is a traveling saleswoman peddling electricity and electrical accessories; the crew encounter her at a port that has recently installed an electrical grid. When she sees the Aqours, Mari is drawn to the steamship and talks about the cool things she could do to it with the power of electricity. She convinces (read: cons) Chika into accepting her help and proceeds to wire up the ship with impunity, disturbing everyone and causing great upheaval much to Dia's distress. She also does lots of stuff in engineering and disturbs Kanan; (Maybe the crew has their own little adventures while Mari works her technological sorcery) When she's finished and presenting the finished product to the crew, she grabs a jolt of power from the port's power grid and completely short circuits the city's entire new electrical grid, rendering it useless; with only the lights of the Aqours giving off any power, the locals rightfully throw suspicion their way; the crew leave with Mari along for the ride.
In addition, Mari: may or may not be a runaway princess from the foreign nation of Italia; got fired from whatever electrical company may have employed her; uses a taser, as well as a more powerful shoulder-mounted Tesla Rod Cannon
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Italia Interference Arc:
I threw around the idea of Mari being a hook for an adventure involving another nation, starting with some low-level DiaMari antagonism.
"I admit, it took me quite a while, but now I understand." Dia's glare was unyielding, severe enough to erode the wills of even the most hardened marines, yet this traveling saleswoman was shrugging it off as nothing. "What are you doing on this ship? Your Majesty?"
Mari's face gave off a small twitch, which Dia was willing to consider a small victory, but the hint of vulnerability was gone instantly as if it were never there. "I don't know what you're talking about," she replied evenly.
She started to walk away, only to be held back as a hand fell on her shoulder. Dia's emerald stare demanded her attention once more.
"There are few princesses left in the world," said Dia, "And only one with hair the shade of sunlight and eyes of molten gold."
"You flatter me," said Mari, not rising to the bait.
"Don't be coy," snapped Dia as she shoved Mari roughly against the wall. "Do you really expect me to believe that you, the heiress of the De Luca family, just happened to encounter the most advanced steam ship this side of the Grand Line by chance?"
"Didn't you?" retorted Mari.
"No. And unlike you, I haven't spent the better part of a month crawling through this ship's interior doing who-knows-what to it."
"Now, now, Dia. Every girl has her passions. Mine just happens to be electric-steam hybrid vessels. And strong women, of course."
Dia only growled.
"Ah, that was referring to Kanan, not you," said Mari with a cheeky smile.
"What do you want from us?" Dia practically snarled.
Mari frowned. "I want you all to be my friends. I want to go on a fun adventure and see the oceans. What I don't want is to be accused of having a hidden agenda that would cause harm to the people I've chosen to care about. Which includes you, by the way, despite your terrible attitude."
"The De Lucas aren't known for being good-natured."
"Well then," said Mari, shoving Dia off her as she began to saunter away. "It's a good thing I'm not a De Luca."
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Dia is suspicious of Mari and believes her to be an advance infiltrator from the De Luca family; she shares her concerns with Kanan during combat training; Kanan thinks Dia's being paranoid and should apologize; Dia brings up prior incidents where the De Luca family has used infiltrators to advance their interests in the Grand Line; Kanan volunteers/gets roped into keeping an eye on Mari; they eventually see her conversing with some other Italia operative where Dia can only understand every fourth word; eventually culminates in the three of them working together to destroy an advance demolitions flotilla from the Romano family
Perhaps this can tie in to how the Sunshine Pirates got the Aqours in the first place. Like, the De Luca family wanted to interfere in the affairs of the Nihon Imperial State, but Mari refused to drag a foreign nation into Italia's troubles. So she staged a small coup with the assistance of the Marino family. Sadly, she was unable to prevent the theft, but fought aboard alongside the Marino's against the De Luca's as the Aqours plunged headfirst into a tropical storm. Mari was thrown overboard in the chaos and she never got to see what happened. She was found and assisted by some nice locals, and has since worked with the Marino family to prevent the expansion of Italia territory into Nihon waters and the Grand Line. (Despite being the heiress to the De Luca family, Mari's last name is not and never was De Luca.)
Dia and Mari can bond over how they both burned the worlds behind them for the sake of personal conviction.
Other Notes:
Some kind of rivalry with the S.S. Saint Snow? And with Kazuno Seira, the even-tempered stepford smiler of a captain, and her younger sister Ria, the aggressive and less talkative enforcer. The former fights with Santoryu. The latter fights with a massive oversized hammer with a cannon built into the handle. And maybe there's a fight between the Kazuno and Kurosawa sisters.
(Dia: "The only thing I'm mildly surprised by is your ability to speak with twelve centimeters of hard steel between your teeth.)
And then Ruby throws something into Ria's cannon as she's about to fire. The cannon explodes in her face and Ria visibly struggles not to cry. ("O...Onee-sama..." she cried softly. )
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I guess they would've eventually found Pirate Queen Honoka alive and well, befriending her and the other Muse girls. Nozomi and Eli appreciate the wedding garments You stole from Kanda Myojin. Chika realizes the real treasure was the friends she made along the way.
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Crew Roles:
Chika - Captain, Gunner, Misc. as needed (Bosun, Carpenter, Cooper)
You - First Officer, Operations, Navigator, Gunner
Kanan - Engineer, Mechanic
Riko - Quartermaster, Requisitions, & Supply Officer
Hanamaru - Scholar, Historical Detective (but learns from Chika and You as needed)
Ruby - Doctor
Yoshiko - Entertainer / Alchemist / Gunner
Dia - Tactical & Security Officer / Gunner
Mari - Engineer, Electrician
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Running Joke:
Phantom Thief Sakurauchi - Every time the Sunshine Pirates attract more notoriety, Riko's bounty increases significantly more than anyone else's. Even Yoshiko's.
"Why is my bounty so much higher than everyone else?!" cried Riko.
"BOUNTY?!" exclaimed every layperson and destitute squatter within hearing distance. Dozens of eyes turned to the redhead, all of them recognizing a meal ticket when they saw one.
For a few moments, no one moved. Then...
"...RUN!" screamed Chika as she tore down the docks to the Aqours. Behind her, You scooped Riko up in a fireman carry and followed, the latter shrieking in terror. Behind them came a stampede of amateur bounty hunters.
The three members of the Sunshine Pirates hopped aboard as the rest of their crew was just getting ready to disembark. You immediately set Riko down and she and Chika got to work on retracting the gangplank.
"Chika-chan? You-chan? What's wrong?" asked Kanan in concern.
"Riko-chan did a bad thing and we have to leave RIGHT NOW!" shouted Chika. "Raise the anchor! Fire up the engine! Lower the sails! Someone get on a cannon and destroy the dock!"
"On it, cap'n!" acknowledged You as she scrambled to follow orders. The others followed suit.
Kanan sighed heavily as she turned to head back to the engine room. "It's a good thing the engine hasn't fully shutdown yet..." she muttered.
Meanwhile, the crowd of greedy townspeople rushed down the pier towards the SS Aqours with the sole intent of claiming Riko's bounty, not a one of them noticing as a hatch slid open on the steamship's hull, exposing a large circular aperture. A few seconds later, they all noticed when a cannonball absolutely demolished the creaky wood in front of them, courtesy of the steamship's special boiler batteries. Several unlucky souls who had led the charge soon found themselves drenched in cold, salty sea water.
From the crow's nest high above came a rain of smaller projectiles, exploding in all manners of shapes, sounds, and colors as they spread their payloads across the crowd.
Amidst the screaming, no one could make out the shouts from above of, "Face the wrath of a fallen angel!"
(From this incident, Riko can add "Inciting a Riot" and "Destruction of Port Authority Property" to her list of crimes)
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World Factions:
Nihon Imperial State (Imperial Navy, Imperial Office of Information)
Britannia
Italia
Free Trade Federation (FTF) - a loose coalition of smugglers and merchants
Ariake Armaments - Nihon based weapon company
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Bounty Monikers/Epithets/Nicknames:
Chika - Mikan Shot
You - Aquatic Temptress
Kanan - Handyman / Wrench Wench?
Riko - Phantom Thief
Hanamaru - Thunderbolt God (I don't know how, but I really want to make this happen. It definitely involves help from Mari...)
Ruby - Bloodstorm Apothecary (Yoshiko is jealous. Riko on the other hand... "Why is my bounty higher than someone called Bloodstorm Apothecary?!")
Yoshiko - Scheming Saleswoman
Dia - Onyx Dragon
Mari - Golden Maned Tigress (Mari has fun with this. She raised her hands in emulation of cats paws. "Rawr," she said playfully, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.)