And I'm back with the side story I promised at the end of Chapter 6!
It's set a few years before the main story begins, and it covers a bit of how Makoto joined our favorite pirate crew.
Warning, some sexual harassment ahead (poor Ai-chan *cough*). Also some violence, but we knew that already, didn't we?
Side Story 3: Tavern RumbleA snaking hand slithered towards the general vicinity of her rear end, but she slipped skillfully out of range, a skill born out of necessity and daily practice.
Takahashi Ai didn't know whether or not to be flattered that so many of the patrons liked trying to cop a feel of her, or just be irritated by the constant attempts at sexual harassment. She supposed she should be used to it though. As a barmaid working at a tavern whose main clientele were pirates, being harassed was pretty much part of the job description. She didn't have to like it though.
The doors to the Sea Coconut tavern were forcefully thrown open, and a familiar crew swept in. Ai-chan couldn't help but smile. If they were here, that mean that Mako-chan, her childhood friend, was here too. Makoto had joined those pirates about 6 months ago, after they had helped to fight off some troublemakers at the tavern. Ai had hated to see her friend go and join a pirate crew, of all things, but this particular group didn't seem too bad. A bit strange they might have been, but they didn't feel evil. Ruthless and a bit vicious maybe, but not evil.
Besides, they were an all-female crew, so it wasn't as if Mako-chan would be too much out of place. Mako-chan loved the sea and had always wanted to sail on it, which was why she had begged to be accepted into the crew of the Red Dawn in the first place. This would be the first time since Makoto had left that she had seen them again, and she was rather looking forward to checking on how the younger girl was doing. After all, they had grown up together and were sort of like sisters. As the older one, Ai felt that she had a responsibility to look out for the younger girl. It was the right thing to do.
"Ho Ayaka! Bring up the rum!" No guesses as to who had said that. The proprietress just laughed and brought out a whole tray of bottles, passing them to Ai to bring to the table. The barmaid blinked and tried hard to balance everything as she gingerly picked up the load, turning towards the corner where the crew lounged around lazily.
Meanwhile, a decidedly more tanned Makoto bounded up to her "sister" with a wide smile. "Ai-chan!" The slightly taller girl tried to hug her, but the humongous tray sort of impeded that action. "Let me help you with that!" The younger girl grinned toothily and grabbed several of the bottles to lighten the seriously overloaded tray. The older girl smiled gratefully, straightening herself and delivering the alcohol to the pirates.
She had barely set the tray down when Yuko reached out to snag a bottle, taking a long swig, a blissful expression blossoming on her face. Yossi politely thanked her, ever the gentleman, which always struck her as odd, somehow. Oh well, it was a refreshing change of pace from the leering and lecherous...
Grope senses tingling! A familiar instinct kicked in as she made to back away, but it wasn't soon enough. She felt a quick hand slip smoothly down the waist of her skirt, stroking and pinching her butt lightly, eliciting a startled yelp from her as she tried to motor away. Instead, she managed to lose her balance, falling backward...
...only to be caught by a smugly smirking Miki, whose wandering fingers simply refused to stay still even then, this time inching up the back of her blouse. Flaring an intense shade of red, Ai-chan finally found her footing again and stomped off out back indignantly, face still flushed and muttering some of the more creative curses she had heard some of the patrons utter. Makoto came up behind her apologetically.
"Sorry Ai-chan, Fujimoto's always like that whenever she's not feeling grumpy..."
Calming down slightly, the rapid beating of her heart slowing down as she regained her equanimity, Ai-chan smiled at her friend. "I'm fine now, really. That...that woman just shocked me a bit." She said, laughing shakily.
Makoto nodded. "Yeah...Fujimoto is a bit weird...sometimes all standoffish, and sometimes, ah,
too friendly."
Eyeing the young pirate, Ai simply had to ask. "Did she do it to you too?"
Makoto shifted around on her feet, flushing slightly. "Um, well, once or twice..." She mumbled evasively. Then she hastened to add, "But Yossi talked her out of it. Yossi's really nice." Makoto nodded as she spoke of the dashing Second Mate.
Ai was about to ask after her wellbeing when a loud ruckus in the tavern alerted the two friends. "What now?" They both blurted out at the same time, looking at each other, before shrugging and rushing back in.
It was the same group of troublemakers. Except, there were more of them. Evidently, the original group had been pissed at Yuko's crew for kicking their collective asses that time, and had called in more help to revenge their loss after hearing that they had docked in.
Yuko was smiling lazily, still loosely holding a bottle of rum (her 3rd) as she swaggered over to the antagonisers. "Let's take this outside, shall we?" The pirate captain drawled, smirking insultingly at the other group's leader.
"Inside, outside, you're going to pay anyway!" The other group's leader, a heavily scarred man missing an eye (courtesy of Miki and her flying daggers), growled threateningly even as they all spilled out into the street outside. The other patrons all swarmed out to watch the entertainment as well, even as Ai stood worriedly on the edges of the imminent brawl, concerned for her friend's safety.
The crew of the Red Dawn was outnumbered 3 to 1, so the fight took a bit longer than usual.
10 minutes later, three quarters of the antagonisers were either lying dead or dying in the bloodied dirt before the Sea Coconut tavern, much to the roaring approval of the mostly drunk patrons, who didn't really care which side won as long as they got to see a good fight.
Some of the men were clearly aware that staying any longer would be hazardous to their health, and thus attempted to flee. Keyword: attempted.
Three of the four who attempted to run away received a parting gift of a knife in the back, courtesy of a viciously grinning Miki. The last one, already a good distance away and thinking that he would make it to safety, was roughly disabused of that notion when a well hurled harpoon from Reina impaled him through the chest, the wonky eyed pirate having already dispatched of the opponents around her and thus could afford to do so.
One burly man, seeing that running wasn't an option, turned on Yuko with a desperate battle cry. The often-drunk captain currently had her sword stuck in the chest of an offending sailor, and it seemed that she would not be able to pull it out soon enough to meet the downward stroke aimed at her head. Kei cried out in horror, and the rest of the crew, too far away to help, could only stare as the cutlass descended with terrifying certainty...
...only to be met by a bottle. The strike broke it, sending rum and shards of dark glass flying, but the original route of the slash had been interrupted. Yuko smirked.
The burly sailor raised his cutlass for a second stroke, but it suddenly hung in midair as his whole body stiffened. Yuko had shoved the jagged edges of the broken bottle she was still holding right into his belly. Still smiling, Yuko twisted the bottle for good measure, before letting go and kicking the other corpse off her sword. When the heavily wounded man behind her made one last, clumsy attempt to swing at her, Yuko only spun around, and laughing, disarmed him...literally.
The wet
splotch that the severed limb made on contact with the ground had a triumphant ring to it.
Mari and Yossi absently cleaned up the last couple of men around them, having turned back to their "work" upon verifying that Yuko was in no immediate danger.
There was only one man left, a weasly fellow who had a shifty-eyed look around him. He had been on the edges of the fight, and after seeing what had happened to those of his comrades who had tried to flee earlier, he decided that he needed a better way to ensure his continued survival.
"Ai-chan!" Makoto cried out in horror, as that last man grabbed the nearest person, who just happened to be the currently futilely struggling barmaid.
"Just let me go and I'll let the wench live!" The wretched sailor called out, holding his cutlass to Ai's throat as he used her as a convenient body shield, apparently all too aware of the effiacy of Miki's flying daggers.
Miki, who was the closest to the man, smirked. "Do you think we care about some tavern wench? Go ahead and kill her, I'll send you straight after her into the next world." She had casually slipped a knife from out of her sleeve, sensually licking the gleaming blade as her eyes bored deep into the terrified man's, making his knees shake involuntarily.
Makoto was about to protest, but the twins quickly stopped her, Tsuji holding her back and Kago clamping up her mouth. "Just wait...Miki knows what she's doing." Tsuji hissed into a struggling Makoto's ear.
Takahashi Ai was terrified. She had never been so scared in her life before, and that was saying something. And now that smug, annoying creature of a pirate was willing to let her die just to get to the bastard that was holding her hostage! She made up her mind to kick that Fujimoto's ass should she get out this safely.
Miki walked a couple of steps closer, just about 5 feet away from the two, never taking her eyes off the cowardly man before her. Said cowardly man backed off a couple of steps, desperate to flee from the monster that was bearing down on him. His cutlass pressed just a bit closer to his captive's neck, drawing just a thin trickle of blood...
Ai-chan fought the urge to to scream. That knife-wielding devil was staring at them. No, she thought. Staring at
her. That was a strange gleam in those fiery eyes.
Get ready, it seemed to say. The barmaid had barely enough time to process that thought when a flash of quick movement hurtled through the air, burying itself within the rogue's right shoulder, eliciting a pained howl. The subsequent knee-jerk movement as the pain kicked in caused his cutlass-wielding arm to move back and away from the girl's throat.
The young woman didn't need a second hint. Pushing away from her captor, she stumbled forward, right into a waiting Miki's arms. For her part, the pirate had already drawn yet another knife from somewhere on her body, reversing it smoothly and using the hilt to rap smartly on the wounded man's wrist, forcing him to drop his cutlass. He was whimpering in pain and fear when the knife-throwing devil edged up to him, still holding the gasping barmaid close to her.
"You know," Miki started conversationally, "I really really hate assholes like you who don't even have the balls to go down fighting like a man." Even as she spoke, the pointy end of her dagger moving down from his throat, down the chest and stomach, ending up down below at a very sensitive region. The man started sweating even harder, if that was even possible.
Miki was smiling with all the warmth of an iceberg. "Since you're such a poor excuse of a man, I don't really see the need for you to have them."
Ai-chan buried her face in Miki's chest as the man howled in agony. All the other males in the general vicinity winced, unconsciously using their hands to cover that portion of their anatomy at the same time. Miki didn't bother to extricate her dagger even as the pathetic creature in front of her collapsed. She did, however, yank the other knife out from her victim's shoulder before escorting her prize back to her amused shipmates.
"You know, as much as I like the fact that you're clinging to me, it's ok to look up now." Ai-chan looked up into the smug face of her rescuer, embarrassed by her own actions, and was about to thank the smirking pirate, when she felt those damned hands going
too far south for her liking.
Gratitude turned immediately to embarrassment, and then quickly on to anger. Without even thinking about it, she made to stomp on the pirate's foot, but Miki simply jumped back laughingly out of the way, releasing her at the same time. Miki smirked again, deliberately licking the fingers that had touched her down
there...
Her face flaming, Takahasi Ai fled, too mortified to stay around that infuriating, arrogant and lecherous groper of a pirate, Miki's mocking laughter following her all the way as she made her escape.
Miki kicked ass. I had a lot of fun. Haha. Chapter 7 might be delayed though...hope this sort of makes up for it until I finish the chapter. *apologetic*
Topic: All Aboard!: The Hidden Files [#8: Break] (Read 11267 times)