<3
20. Iikubo Haruna
She woke up to a strange feeling in her chest. She felt cold all over and she languidly reached out, grabbing onto... skin? She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with another woman...? She looked like she was her age…
"...Who..."
"Oh gods, you're alive!"
Haruna felt a sudden pain and she looked down to find that she had been stabbed in the chest?! Wait, why could she even see her chest?!
"Oh gods, I'm sorry!" the long haired girl freaked out and pulled out the knife.
"No no no no!" Haruna felt all the blood drain out of her quite literally, "Put it back! Put it back! I'll bleed out without it!"
And in went the knife again and Haruna suddenly found time to flash back through her entire life. Was she going to die?
"I'M SORRY!" the other woman had to lower her to the table (did she sit up earlier? She didn't remember) "I swear I'll fix this, I had no idea you were alive!"
She wanted to say something but she couldn't feel her body at all. Whatever came out of her mouth became garbled and nothing that sounded remotely Japanese.
"Sh... Sh... Calm down..."
She was telling Haruna to calm down? She was the one freaking out earlier... though the other woman definitely toned down considerably after... stabbing her again...
That being said, why was it still really cold? She sensed she was still wearing her clothes, but the top half of her yukata was loosened and her arms were out of its sleeves, completely exposing herself from the top. What was going on? She looked around to find utensils lying nearby and various barrels and crates... She was seeing a lot of wood too... And her gravity felt all weird... It was like she was swaying side to side without moving at all...
"You are on The Dschinghis Khan right now..."
So she was on a ship then?
"Wha..." Haruna flinched. It hurt to talk and she just felt so tired all of a sudden... Having a knife stuck in her chest didn't help matters either.
"We found you floating amongst a shipwreck and got you out."
Well at least she wasn't dead, but gods did her chest hurt!
"Yo Wada! What's taking food so long?! I don't remember it taking this long to dismantle a human!" A high pitched voice came from nowhere and Haruna's eyes widened.
Was she... their food?!
"No! She's awake, Kanon," the other said before turning to Haruna, "what Fukuda said was taken out of context."
"What context was there?" another girl came into view, though this one was more filled out than the other girl, and what was distinct about this on was that she had pointy ears. The newcomer was a demon, definitely. "We ate the dead and clearly this last one isn't dead but in fact, alive. Good job, Wada."
Wada and Kanon, names to faces. The one called Wada gave the demon a disapproving look, "You shouldn't be saying careless things."
"Pfft, fine," the demon scoffed, "we're sorry we almost ate you." Haruna definitely didn't like the attitude the demon was giving but she was in no position to talk. She had a knife in her chest after all. She was surprised that she wasn't coughing up blood or anything, that meant her lungs were fine and intact.
"Mou! That isn't nice!" another person chided, hitting this Fukuda Kanon demon in the shoulder, "You need to be more sincere!"
"Hands off, Yuka!" the demon shrugged it off and backed away out of Haruna's sight, "Just because you guys are human doesn't mean you get to school me on how I treat things meant to be food!"
Humans and demons coexisting on a ship? What in the world...
"Can someone grab Kumai-san? We need to get this healed right away!"
"I'm on it!" Yuka saluted Wada before running off.
Haruna didn't hear the demon since then, so she assumed she had already left the scene.
"I completely apologize for everything going on. We didn't really expect you to wake up.... We have demons on the ship and as you might've guessed, their diet does consist of human... Though we haven't killed anyone; we just feed them the ones already dead."
Although the notion that these human-eating demons were on the same ship as her terrified her, Wada made it sound not so bad...
"If you need confirmation that they won't eat you, a good chunk of our crew is human, so let that tell you what you need to know."
Haruna decided to use this moment to test out her voice. "Are you?"
"I am," the other paused, "I am Wada Ayaka, pleasure to meet you," She bowed her head and Haruna wished she could do the same back at her.
"I am Iikubo...Haruna..." she had to pause to take a breather. Talking with a knife in her chest was definitely a bad idea. She looked down to try and place its location... Wada was scarily close with her precision. It looked like she was about to cut her heart out...
"Where is... Oh. That's... Uh..." a new voice came and Haruna tilted her head to find a ridiculously tall lady walk into the kitchen. She was considerably tanned and had shoulder length hair tied to the side. What stuck out about her were two round, furry ears protruding from the top of her head.
"Kumai-san, you're here!"
Wait... Kumai-san...? Is she a bear? Haruna couldn't help but zero in on the demon's ears.
"What in the world did you do to her?" the tall demon inquired, bending over to stare at the knife that was still embedded in her body.
"Um... Long story short, she's alive and I almost cut her up for you guys. Can you heal her?
"Oh I see..." the giant said aloud as she still looked on inquisitively. "Well it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Here, this might tickle..." Kumai-san pulled out the knife quickly and pressed a finger from the bottom of the cut and lightly dragged it up, effectively sealing the wound and stopping the bleeding. When she took her finger away, Haruna was good as new.
She sat up and looked down at her wound, finding that there was actually a cross shaped scar dangerously close to where her heart was. "Why is this cross shaped...?" she was surprised at how casual she sounded. She was not out of breath like she was earlier.
"Oh uh... I have a habit of marking where the heart is before I make the cuts. One crew member absolutely hates it when I don't leave the heart intact since she loves biting into them whole and I’m probably freaking you out right now, that's quite the face you're making...?"
Ayaka was correct, Haruna's face had contorted further the more she had said.
"Though... Um... Let me just..." Ayaka walked closer and Haruna was confused as to what her intention was. She felt Ayaka's fingers at her sides and she could have sworn her heart could have leaped out of the wound before realizing that Ayaka was pulling her yukata top back into place. Embarrassed, Haruna slipped her arms into the sleeves and fixed herself up as Ayaka stood back, quietly clasping her hands behind her.
They heard a laugh in the room and it was then that she realized that the healing demon was still there. "Cute..." Kumai-san smirked before going out of the room. Haruna thought she was tall but seeing Kumai-san was...
"If you were wondering, yeah, she is a bear. As if her name doesn’t already make it blatantly obvious. And I thought I was tall..." Ayaka sighed and Haruna perked up.
"Exactly what I was thinking..." now that she had taken in Ayaka's appearance, she realized that they were the same height. It was just too bad that Kumai-san had left though, she would have asked for her to heal the scars on her chest as well.
Suddenly, Haruna was grabbed from behind and she immediately squirmed to get out.
"Moooouuuu, Ayacho~ When did you fight me this muuuuch?" a singsong voice whispered and Haruna proceeded to do the double-eye poke.
"Gah!" the new person stumbled backwards, releasing the other, "Seriously, Ayacho!"
"Aarii... That's not me."
The other woman shook her head vigorously and opened her eyes wide at Haruna. This Aarii character reminded her of a white cat. Her facial features were long and slanted downwards with a triangular frame, much like a foreign cat she had read about once, with the white fur, dark face, and blue eyes.
"Wow, you look just like Ayacho from behind."
"I'm Iikubo Haruna..." She got interrupted on the last syllable of her name.
"Though on closer inspection, you're definitely a lot scrawnier than her..." Aarii looked at he with the tilt of the head, resembling a kitten. Suddenly she swooped forward and hugged her, lifting her right off the ground and Haruna's chest started to ache again. "Wow, you could certainly break in half if I squeezed a bit tighter..."
"Cut it out," Ayaka sighed, "I nearly cut her heart out and Kumai-san JUST healed her..."
"Oh," was all the other said before releasing Haruna, "I'm so sorry," she gripped Haruna by the sides and began to massage them, "I tend to not think things through."
Wow, personal space violation much? The other was all up in Haruna's bubble! "I-I'm fine..." she tried to pull away but the other girl persisted.
"Give it up," she heard Ayaka next to her, "Uemura Akari, or Aarii for short, may look human but she is one-fourth cat... And that part of her is definitely dominant. You should let her go, she's clearly not comfortable right now."
The cat-like girl smirked, "But we're all ladies here. We could even run The Dschinghis Khan naked if we wanted to."
"We're not traumatizing Hauna on her first time here. Now shoo!" Ayaka waved her hand and Akari all too gleefully bolted away, smiling the entire way out the door. Even if she hadn't known about the cat demon blood within Akari, all the signs were definitely there for her to figure out.
“I’m really sorry about that…” Ayaka ran her fingers through her hair, “our crew is… pretty weird.”
“Oh no, it’s fine,” Haruna couldn’t help but chuckle, “I was once in a band of weirdos myself. Though…” she thought back to the orphanage. She had been there for such a long time. She was pretty sure it was Yasuda-san who had taught her how to walk and talk. She never knew her parents. Her family was essentially the other kids and Yasuda-san.
“Do you want to go back?”
She wanted to. But she was worried about everyone… If she were to come back, it’d have to be with Ayumi, Duu, and Maachan in tow. Since they had lost contact with Maachan, finding her would be the first priority above all else.
“What direction are we headed?”
“North, why?” Ayaka raised an inquisitive brow.
“May I speak with your Captain?”
“Maybe in a bit… Around this time, the Captain is busy.”
“Oh, that’s okay. It’s not like I’m in a hurry to be anywhere,” Haruna said dryly, taking a stab at the fact that she had no where else to go on a piece of wood in the middle of bleak waters.
“Meanwhile, would you like to go on deck?”
That’s right, they’ve been in the kitchen the entire time. Since she was definitely stuck here for a while, they might as well take a little tour. “I’d be honored.”
Ayaka led her out of the kitchen and into a long hallway. There were several doors on either side of the hallway and a ladder right in the middle, leading both upwards and downwards.
“This ship has two floors, not counting the deck. We’re in the living area right now. A good chunk of the rooms are occupied or doubled up. Storage is down below and the deck is up above. Also up there is the captain’s quarters.”
Haruna nodded.
"Ah, hello!" a demure, yet high voice said and Haruna looked to the new comer. Another female, though shorter than Ayaka and Haruna, had just exited the door closest to them. She had neat, short hair and looked to be as adorable as a pale white ferret. This girl looked to be about Duu's age...
"Oh, Karin! Meet Iikubo-san!" Ayaka placed her hand on Haruna's lower back and brought her closer to the younger girl, "We just picked her up!"
"A-ah! Nice to meet you! I hope you enjoy your stay on the Dschinghis Khan!" the petite girl bowed her head before running off. Ayaka couldn't help but chuckle at the other.
"That was Miyamoto Karin, another human member of the crew, she's endearing, that one. Though strange in some ways... You'll find out later."
Haruna could only nod. She wondered exactly how many people were on this crew...
Ayaka walked further and made a stop. “Here’s my quarters,” she pushed aside a tarp and opened the door, leading to a room.
“Oh how fascinating…!” Haruna’s eyes widened at the sight before her.
The room looked to be small but somehow it seemed spacious all at once. If Ayaka was completely in charge of decorating, she had a smart way of creating a wide space in such a little area. There was a hammock hanging at the side of the wall, with a porthole within its view. Beneath the hammock was various chests of sundries lined against the wall.
In the middle of the space was a small table with what looked to be a map pinned by its corners with… miniature buddha statues? The rug that was on the floor had many intricate lines imprinted on it as well. Haruna recognized the design to be something of buddhist works as well. In fact, what lined the walls were scrolls and paintings of various imagery.
“You really like art, I see...Do you do some painting yourself?” Haruna came in to get a closer look at all the art on the walls. There was one of a tiger, a scroll of a woman, a samurai brandishing his sword… Ayaka had it all.
“As much as I like doing art, I do enjoy looking at it just as much. The crew deems it a waste of a hobby when I’m on a ship so much but that’s precisely why I value it so much. An artist works hard to give their imagination a tangible existence and I can’t help but admire that drive.” Ayaka had this sparkle in her eye and Haruna couldn’t help but smile. This woman was truly passionate about her craft and it certainly showed. Ayaka then looked at the other, “A silly thing to fawn over, don’t you think?”
“Oh no, not at all!” Haruna shook her head vigorously, “Like this painting of the tiger, you could feel the ferocity of the strokes which gives it a very aggressive texture. Oh, and the way that the lines and space work together to create a form makes a distinct harmony between all the elements. I enjoy this one a lot.”
The spark in Ayaka’s eyes returned tenfold, “You indulge in the arts as well?”
“I do!” She used to get made fun of a lot for that. But now that she had finally met someone who shared the same interests as her! Finally!
“We’re going to get along quite well, aren’t we?”
“We definitely will.”
Gee, I wonder who got paired from the get-go xD