The Party Pirates - Part 16 - Phantom Smuggler Bakuwara
A girl with short blond hair and large glasses knocks on the door of a large estate. She is met by two seedy looking guards.
"Who goes there?"
"The green dove swims upside down."
The men recognize the password and bow. "Miss Katsuta, how nice to see you again."
"I wish to speak to your boss. I may be able to move some product to Niigata."
"Right this way."
...
Rina makes it back to the ship with a large bag. "Captain!"
Haruna looks at her with bleary eyes. "You're back. And, what's with the disguise?" Haruna who is tipsy on rum slurs her words a little bit.
"I'm famous now as a pirate so I wanted to not draw attention to my clients."
"Good, good, good. Have some rum. We set sail in the morning."
"Great. I will put this bag in the captain's meeting room. Tell sleeping beauty not to look at it."
"Sure. Sure."
Karin watches Rina drop the bag off in the captan's meeting room.
...
The Joker escapes the river that runs between Takarazuka and Chiba and enters the Sea of Happiness. There was no need to take the canal since Chiba was downstream.
Karin Miyamoto stands up in triumph. "I did it!" She holds up a earring. I am sure Oden will enjoy this one better than Taguchi's earring.
Karin walks from her workstation below deck to the stairs and then behind the stairs where there are six compartments, each with an entrance covered by a dark cloth. Each compartment was about seven feet long (running to the front hull of the boat) and three feet wide, so there was room for a futon and some storage space.
Karin had been given the compartment closest to port side. She knew that Oden slept in the compartment next to hers. I'll just put the earring on Takeuchi-senpai's bed. Won't she be surprised?
Karen pulls aside the black cloth. "What?"
Yamaki Risa awakens with a start. "Is it evening?"
"It's not even noon."
"Go away!" Risa turns over and tries to hide from the dim light of the gimbled lanterns.
"Why are you here?"
Risa yawns and sits up. "Moe! Now it will be hard to get back to sleep. I hope you're happy."
"Why are you here?"
"The night shift sleeps in main crews' compartments during the day. Since I am the night lookout why wouldn't I have the same compartment of day lookout?"
"Aren't the other girls jealous?"
"I don't know. As you know, The Cyclone was a larger ship. Everyone had their own rooms. We haven't been on The Joker for long, you know."
"Sorry. I need to stop getting jealous."
"Look, if you're jealous about this, then you're going to be pretty miserable on this ship. Especially because how everyone feels about her."
"How do you feel about Takeuchi-senpai?"
Risa smiles. "Well, let me start at the beginning."
...
Below deck in the Joker the main area is almost pitch black. Suddenly a small candle breaks the darkness.
"Are you okay? Can you eat anything?"
Yamaki Risa, dazed and starving, struggles to focus her eyes. She is barely able to mutter.
"It's soup. It's good!"
Risa smells something under her nose. She tries to open her mouth.
"Take your time. There's plenty here."
Risa takes in a spoon of soup, then another. Her eyes start to focus. "Who are you?"
"Takeuchi Akari, but my pirate name is Oden."
Risa flinches. "Are you here to sell us?"
Akari laughs. "We're here to help you guys. We found your ship adrift. We're docked now."
Risa starts crying. "I thought I had already died."
Akari keeps feeding her. "You'll do just fine. What's your name?"
"Yamaki Risa."
"That's a nice name."
"Thanks."
Risa is able to finish a bowl of soup.
"Can you walk now?"
Although a little unsteady, Risa is able to make it to her feet.
"Cool, let's go on deck, the others are waiting to help you as well."
Akari leads Risa up a spiral staircase to the deck. Risa is wobbly on her feet.
Risa covers her eyes in pain from the midday sun. "You have a high voice for a guy."
Akari laughs. "I'm a girl."
Risa squints at Akari. "Sorry, but you're pretty handsome for a girl."
"Thanks. But, you should talk to Rose Quartz next. She can help you with your muscles and get you walking normally again."
"Another pirate?"
"Yes. However, she won't hurt you, unless you want her to."
Risa smiles. "Thanks, Oden-san."
...
"Akari-san did this for all of the crew memberes of the Cyclone, so Akari is sort of an angel to us, the girl who brought us back from the dead."
"The attack on the ship that left you adrift must have been terrifying."
"It was. The Cutthroat Pirates boarded us and beat us down. One of those pirates held me down with his boot on my neck and mocked me. He said that normally he would have his way with me but I wasn't good looking enough."
"How cruel."
"It was pretty horrible."
Karin nods and smiles. "And yet, your crew was okay with becoming pirates. Was it because you were saved by pirates?"
"Pirates? Us?" Risa laughs. "Well, after I got a massage from Rose Quartz-sama, after I then got some exercises from Yagi-sensei, and after I then got a pep talk from Captain Honey, Bakuwara finally told me the truth about her smuggling. Up until that point I thought I was a normal worker on a merchant ship, one with a strict captain who paid us well. Rina explained to me that the better than average wages were because of the smuggling and gave me a chance to quit, which I declined."
"Isn't smuggling bad?"
"Yes, but since I have never seen Rina actually do it, I figured that if she got caught I could always say that I thought that Rina was just kidding, or trying to sound tough."
Karin laughs. "Well, if you guys had gotten caught for that, it would have been the luck of the draw if they let you go."
Risa shrugs. "Oh well."
"And, now you're a pirate."
"Hey, for the last two years I was a part of a normal merchant vessel crew who just happened to have four ladies with shady pasts who were trying to go straight by working as bodyguards for the Cyclone. You talked Rina-san into turning into a pirate."
"Sorry, but it was to save my country."
"Well, I will forgive you if you let me sleep."
"Okay." Karin takes the earring with her and walks out of the compartment.
To be continued