To the Edge of the World(Permission Via Skype)

It is in the mid 1700s, where the day of pirates reigned supreme, and out in the middle of one of the many seas of this world one could witness a battle commencing between a pirate ship and a marine ships. The pirate ship was loosing heavily as they lost more and more soldiers. On this ship there was a small girl, named Millia Hakumei whom was 12 years of age, and close by to her was an older gentleman of the age 19, named Kei Kurosawa who was trying to protect her to the best of his abilities combining his strength with a massive tower shield to block oncoming cannonballs, but even with his strength the cannonballs were beginning to wear down on him.

"I think it may be time to leave yet another ship." Kei said slowly as flays of bullets ricocheted off his shield.

"Yes, these fools are too incompetent to handle a single marine ship." Millia replied seriously, but still with a cute tone because of her age. "Hold on tight, Kei." She said without even addressing him as mister or the such. "If we separate again, you know where to meet up, and do not worry about me if I'm the one who get's split up from you."

"Of course Hakumei-sama." He said as he smiled towards her.

Millia smiled back to Kei as she snapped her fingers together, and the world around them seemed to freeze for a moment as they suddenly disappeared. In that moment they were flung into another dominion as they tried to hold onto each other. Their faces tensed as their grip began to slip. "I'm sorry Hakumei-sama.." He said as their
grip slipped and they were sent flying towards different directions.

After that moment time froze for a mere second as the dimension opened up and through Millia, and Kei out. Kei landed in the back alley of a nearby city as Millia was spilled into a nearby island, and most likely, she thought, was not by herself. "....Fool, there is no need to apologize.." She said as she stood up and looked at her surroundings. "...I can't use that power again for awhile, I do hope a ship or some person will come by before too long." She said as she gave a yawn. "I'll just
rest here for now." She said to herself as she sat against a tree.

_______________________

"My, I sure ended up in a strange location." Kei thought to himself as he dusted himself off. He then pulled out a special compass which seemed to point towards wherever Millia was, and then closed it back up and placed it in his pocket. "First I must find this town's port." He thought as he began walking around the town, looking for the port.

After the shocking death of Mimi's parents she was placed in an orphanage. The feel of loneness and misunderstanding of all around her During the darkest night Mimi
planned to escape this death sentence she was placed in. The night came, she grabbed her electric guitar which she names Lectri, and fled through the dark night's of the city. Running through the stoned streets as far as she could from the orphanage she ran until she couldn't sun anymore. Stopping in an alley filled with trash, taking
all she could take in at the moment. Young Mimi fell to her knees. Tears pouring from her eyes she shrieked hopelessly. "Anyone, someone help me take me away from this pain"

As Kei walked through the cobbled streets walking towards the port which he had found the direction for, he could hear a small voice weeping in a nearby alley. He closed his eyes and walked past the alley ignoring her at first, but as he began to walk away the crying seemed louder then it was earlier as if his conscious was telling him to go back. He sighed as he turned around and walked into the entrance of the alley, his shadow cast along the ground by the small street lamps. He walked up in a fluid momentum, and stopped just a meter away from her before he spoke. "What is wrong, little one?" He asked as he viewed upon her
with an almost apathetic look.


Looking up, wiping the tears from her eyes blood shot eyes. Mimi looked at the tall figure with caution. Fear in her eyes, she stood up. "What do you want, why are you here? Nobody cares about me." Mumbled Mimi in a slouched manner.


Kei half rolled his eyes as he viewed upon what he thought to be another hopeless cause, that is, until he eyed the instrument she was holding. Kei walked closer to her and knelt down besides this young girl and spoke with little words, "Play that instrument of yours." He said it in a order like sound as he awaited her to play her instrument.


"If she can really play that, then Milia may want her around." Kei thought to himself as he continued to wait for her to play her instrument.

With no words Mimi listened to this strange man. She strapped Lectri across her and started strumming the instrument. Playing as if her soul was in this single guitar her
sound was very bold at the same time lonesome. Each strum fitting right in place Mimi suddenly stops kneeling back on the ground she lowers her head in confusion. Shifting around a little Mimi replies. "By the way, her names Lectri."
"Lectri huh...." Kei said, still with an apathetic look on his face. "She is quite weak minded as I have thought, but there may be something deep within, she may have potential." Kei thought to himself before he bent down. He handed her a hand, and for the first time, he smiled to her. "Come with me, I am able to accept you into my family." He said with a soothing voice that would make a Siren swoon.

He awoke with a start from his afternoon nap. He sensed a huge power had just been used and he also sensed the faint residual energy left over. It seemed whatever had caused the energy spike was still here. He stretched and jumped from his hammock. Today would seem to be an interesting day. His name was
Mu Kurashima and this was his island. He had lived here for quite sometime after his old ship had crashed sunk and he had awoken on its desolate sandy beaches. The local beasts had quickly learned to stay away from him for he was a known as Mu the Master of the Bells. True to his name his long, brown hair was adorned with bells, and he held a jingle bell in each hand. From these he spun his Fushigami Strings which could be as sharp as a blade and as strong as steel but still dull to the touch. Quietly he stalked his way through the woods towards the energy source. It was not long before he came upon a strange sight. What he saw was a strange little girl and the energy presence seemed to be coming directly from her. This girl was more than meets the eye but then again most things were. She was sleeping against a tree and had not yet noticed his presence. Suddenly a giant wild boar, and they grew big on this island, ran out of the bush and faced her. Apparently she had fallen asleep in his territory and he was pissed. "Maybe i should help her", Mu thought to himself as he watched the boar get ready to charge, "Then again she does seem to be powerful maybe i should see how this plays out." Mu jumped into a nearby tree to get a better view of the action and he sat back to watch the action. This would be good.

Millia awoke without a stir as she felt two presences near her location, but she kept her cool and her eyes were still shut. "A boar to my right, and possibly another human nearby." She thought to herself as she quickly began thinking of scenarios. Within that time the boar began to charge her, and almost in a panic she acted out herself being startled after just waking up although it was a possible over acting to some considering the situation. She opened her eyes, and widened them as she saw the boar charging her. She quickly got up and began running down towards a tree which had a low limb on it, to which she climbed up upon as
she called out for help, making it seem that she was in actual danger, and to not let the enemy know of her actual self. She was high enough in the tree so that the boar could not reach her, but circled the tree waiting for it's prey. Millia was calm once again, knowing that from here faking her identity will be proven much easier as she continued to do small, innocent cries for help.

Mu almost laughed as he saw the antics below. She had even jumped into his tree. He was almost disappointed at not being able to see her powers but figured he should play along with her little game for now. Grabbing one of his bells he spun his nearly invisible string around the boars neck and snapped it instantly. To the untrained eye it would look as if the boar had died naturally and suddenly but he was sure this little girl would notice. He dropped down from his tree and landed next to the boar his back to the girl. "Well miss that could have been ugly maybe now you'll think twice about where you sleep. eh?"

Millia, staying with her act, clung to
the tree as she gave a small whimper. "Who are you, sir?"
She asked timidly as she examined him. "He seems to have a sort
of power, most likely nowhere near as strong as I, but I still cannot
reveal my identity." She thought to herself as she continued to
examine him through her peripheral vision as to avoid eye contact.




"This one is very clever" Mu
though to himself as he thought of his next answer. "My name is
Mu of the Bells, if you wish to keep your act that is fine but know i
am not fooled. I know not who or what you are but i mean you no harm.
I have a camp nearby if you wish to join me the...lesser
creatures...will not bother us there." He started walking off
towards his camp bells slightly jingling in his hair. Whatever he had
stumbled upon was powerful but he was not afraid it was no threat to
him, if it was well he had ways of disappearing if he needed too.
Whatever was going to happen from then on would surely be more fun
then waiting on this little island. He had rested enough it was time
to find something new to do.





Grabbing the mans hand to pull her up
she replied in a sarcastic tone. "Family, sure." Pacing
back and forth in her calf length black skirt flowing with her every
move Mimi asked. "So what's you name anyway and why should I
trust you the last family I had was murdered while I was gone."





"My name is Rika," Millia
lied straight forwardly. "Nice to meet you, sir."
Addressing this man in this way irked Millia heavily as she has never
spoken up to a person in her life as she is a very high stature
person.

___________________________________________


"Hmm,
that is quite sad," Kei said with a serious tone on his face
before he introduced himself. "My name is Kei Kurosawa, and Miss
Hakumei will be glad to have you in the, family." He said as he
gave off another, rare, smile although an aura of falsehood could be
sensed about it, and yet, it was welcoming. "We, will never
leave you."




Smiling at Kei, raising one of her
thick, long, black eyebrows Mimi demanded "Who is this Miss you
speak of, and when do I meet her ?"





Mu easily picked his way back to camp.
His thoughts completely absorbing all his mental faculties. Who was
this girl and more importantly why and how did she get here. These
questions repeated over and over in his mind and no matter how much
he thought on it he could not think of an answer. He decided to put
his thoughts to the side for now. He looked up from his thoughts and
realized he had arrived in the camp. "Well feel free to make
yourself at home." Mu said to her, "Me im going to do what
i usually do and take a nap." With that he hopped up ion his
hammock and let himself fall into a restful sleep.


"Why, the young Miss is the
soon to be Captain, of our small family." Kei said with his
smile only half as he straightened himself up. "We got separated
after a small....mishap." He said as he pulled out a special
compass which point north north-east. "She is not to far off, we
will just need to have a boat in our possession." He said as he
began to walk out of the alley. "Come young one, make haste, not
waste."


______________________________________________________



"He's
asleep already?" Millia thought to herself as she watched him
fall immediately asleep. "Well, he seems to let his guard down
easily, but he could be useful." Millia moved over to a nearby
tree and laid against it as she did earlier, but just as she began to
get comfortable she got up, unable to rest easy within this man's
presence. "No, he is not one to let his guard down with ease,"
She said as she moved towards where he was sleeping. "How much,
I wonder, does it take to wake him?" Her eyes were half closed,
and her head cocked to the side as if looking down upon him from afar
in disgrace. She was now inches away from him as she continued to
stare down onto him. "Let's test his will then, shall we?"
She said as she lifted a rock and tossed it into the air at a large
fruit which was about the man's head, knocking it off and sent
falling down towards him.





Weighing her options Mimi Wonder".
Humm.. she silently spoke why should I trust this guy and his
captain. Although I don"t really have anything to lose. I have
no family, and this man accepts me into his. I have no food and with
him I may survive. Here on the streets I'm bound to get in trouble
again. I can't keep fleeing from them when I'm alone."
Convincing herself, Mimi decides not to ask anymore questions for a
little while and do as shes told for the time being." Looking at
Kei with a hesitant look in her dark brown slightly squinted eyes
Mimi nods slowly, takes a deep breath, and allows her feet to follow
him.





Mu almost chuckled at the simplicity of
it, this girl was trying to test him to see if he really let down his
guard. For half a second he considered letting it hit his head but
decided to go for the less painful option besides he had nothing to
hide from this girl. In a quick movement he spiraled his string up
through the fruit slicing it in small pieces. These he flicked at her
once again using deft string movements. Feeling that he had proved
his point he settled back into a peaceful sleep.




An exceedingly bright flash lit up her
field of vision as Kairi made the last of her adjustments to the time
altering device that loomed before her. Making sure her glasses were
securely placed, and her long jet black hair was still in a braid,
she jumped into the unknown.

Time seemed to both freeze and
distort. For a moment she was terrified she'd miscalculated. As
things blurred and then re-focused she gained more confidence. She
could see the manifestation of the first path that had been cut
through this noble pseudo oblivion. The essences of the pioneers were
clearly visible. Everything was completely static, just how it had
occurred. She watched the immobile instances pass as if they were an
extremely slow moving television show. Frame by frame, moment by
moment.

Kairi noticed that the end of her journey was nearing
and braced herself for impact, or whatever else was coming her way.
This was the first... or rather second ever, attempt at such a feat.


She tumbled out of the portal with absolutely no idea what to
expect. She landed on her **** with a loud "THUD". Slightly
dazed she surveyed her surroundings. Mostly ratty looking edifices
with smoke coming from every chimney, and a grand view of the ocean
at almost every turn. Hmmmm... she thought to herself. " I
wonder where...or rather when I am." She got up slowly while
rubbing her backside. "Well, no matter when this is, I am going
to have to blend in."

She opened the small suitcase full
of clothes that had been vacuum packed. "This era is looking
rather old english or pirate-esque to be honest." She pulled out
a ruffled white shirt and a pair of black baggy trousers, and put
them on. Her work boots were already the perfect compliment, so there
was no need to change those. When she was done dressing she examined
herself in a nearby puddle of water. "Brilliant!" she said
out loud. "but it needs something. She dug a small jewelry box
out of the suitcase and took out a pair of large golden hoop earrings
and an eye-patch. "There you have it!" Kairi exclaimed as
she gave herself another once over with the puddle. "If they are
old english they will just think I am a strange girl with an eye
condition, and if they are pirates they will think I'm part of their
crew! Oh Kairi does your intelligence ever cease to amaze you?"

With
new found vigor from her so thought, completely convincing
english-pirate
attire, this glasses, eyepatch, golden hooped,
awkwardly adorable, young woman took off running, not at all used to
being blind in one eye.

It wasn't long before she quite
literally ran into two citizens of the era going about their
business....

Kei, without a tumble, but with his
balance being disrupted looked down upon this girl who seemed to look
like himself. He was quite confused for a second as his face crunched
as he looked down upon her, pondering as to why she looked so. It
wasn't long till he realized whom it was exactly. "Oh," He
began as his expression seemed to turn into anger. "Kai.....what
are you doing here?" He asked seriously before he added, "Little
sister." To explain this newcomer to
Mimi.


_____________________________________________


"My
my, so he isn't a useless bumpkin after all," Millia thought to
herself as she watched him spring from sleep to stop the fruit from
falling onto him. "Given how he is so far, he most likely has
already guessed that I've been all an act. I hated talking like that
to a filthy peasant like him anyhow." She thought to herself as
her usual angry like expression was on her face again in true Dere
dere style. "Are you just going to sleep all day?" She
asked out loud in a, rude, but the way a person of higher authority
is allowed to speak, when speaking to those of lower class.


Kai had stopped her own fall. Her
back was arched in a limbo-like position, and her face was pointed
towards the sky when she heard the voice of her past calling her
"little sister". "My my..." she started to say
while she skillfully executed a slow and graceful back flip.

Now
facing her brother she took off the eye patch and glasses to look him
in the eye. "I must say, I wasn't expecting to run into you so
soon." Her expression was indifferent. "It would have been
more fortuitous to run into the girl first. I am fairly certain she
would be very interested in the fact that you have been lying to
her." Kei's face was one of unwavering anger.

"Oh
dear brother of mine, your instincts have taken far too much control
of you, but then again that is why you were the success and I was the
failure... Everyone adores obedience." She looked away and then
looked back with a grin "Personally I prefer freedom."





Mu yawned and stretched. "My my
what manners you have little one but hey i guess its the want of the
young to have energy. If you can think of anything to do besides
sleeping feel free to tell me but until then why dont you act like
most little girls your age and play with a doll or something."
To make the insult even worse Mu jumped up into the tree and hopped
back down seconds later. In his hands was a makeshift doll with a
coconut head and a makeshift body made out of a small sack stuffed
with soft leaves. Mu put on his best mocking voice and said, "Here
you go wittle pwincess why dont you do pway with your dolly huh?"





"A dog runs when it is chased, but
a trained dog listens to it's master, but I guess your a stray."
Kei said with his face still in a scowl while his hand next to his
waist seemed to be at ready to snap his fingers. "I am handling
this situation just fine you are not needed here." Kei only then
just took notice of Kai's getup as he began to gawk. "What in
God's name are you wearing? What, have you been watching too many
movies again? Do more research, not many people dress like that."
He said his anger beginning to subside, but still there. Kei had just
noticed this did not bode a good first impression for Mimi, so he got
himself back into his usual character as he turned to Mimi. "I'm
sorry about this. She's my sister you see, we fight, but it's just
sibling rivalry. In actuality we love each other, with great
allowance." Although as he said this his eye gave a small
twitch.


___________________________________________




"Why
you..." Millia said as her face began to grow red in anger. "How
dare you talk to me like that you worthless ruffian! Never have I
been treated in such a way, do you seek death, because there are
plenty of easier means!" She went on a tyrant rage speaking more
and more proper like a princes as she went before her anger blew a
gasket as she rushed her right arm through the air quickly opening a
small green portal, and just as quickly as she opened it, she pulled
out a rapier, then disappeared herself and appeared behind the man in
front on her, holding the blade to his throat. "Do not dare
address in me in such a way. You are a piece of garbage to me, in my
world. You should bow to me worthless ingot!" She yelled out
loud before she began to slowly regain her composure. Noticing how
she had acted from her anger she gave a a small, hmpf, as a small
green portal opened again taking in her weapon. She jumped down from
behind the man and began to walk away, but turned around before
reaching the tree she laid against earlier. "And since you are
up, why don 't you go hunt some animal to eat, you barbarian."


Mu found himself in a strange
position. He did not know whether to be amused with what he saw or
intrigued by the power of this little girl. He could feel the power
radiate from her and from the sword and he decided that even though
he felt that he could handle her if need be he would rather just
flirt with danger for now. With a deep mocking bow and an even bigger
mocking smile he put on his best butler voice and said " Will
her royal highness prefer wild boar or if i may be so bold as to make
a suggestion my personal favorite wild boar. And would the mistress
like for me to do her dirty laundry as well?" Mu quickly darted
to the side as the same sword pierced a tree where his head had been
moments ago. "Hoo Hoo my my temper temper princess", his
new name for her,"Don't you worry ill bring you back a nice big
boar and ill even cook it for you but with the way things are going
with your face getting so red Might i suggest holding it to your face
and cooking it that way, it would save a lot of time with the fire
and all." Mu gave a quick bow and dissipated into the woods
leaving the clearing far behind. He fancied he could hear her raging
even form where he was. Hmmf me a barbarian really? no one can take
jokes..





Standing behind Kei, conscienceless
Mimi began to stare at this strange looking girl- mainly the patch
covering her eye- wondering, where did she come from. Kei doesn't
seem to be to happy to see her. Snapping out of her trance, Mimi
stepped from behind Kei. A bit jealous that Kei already had a younger
sister she approached the girl. In a sneered tone with pursed lips
Mimi introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Mimi. I didn't quite catch
your name."


Kai rolled her eyes and glanced at
Kei "ANOTHER child? Really Brother? Just how many times a
prisoner do you have to be?" She turned her gaze towards Mimi,
and stared. Kai couldn't look away, she was mesmerized. She shook her
head violently to snap out of this strange phenomenon.

She
closed her eyes and put her hand on her head like she was trying to
soothe a headache. Regaining her composure, but keeping her eyes
closed she replied "What a razor blade of a tongue for someone
so young. Since I really do not have time to argue with you about
your tone, I will simply answer. My full name is Kairi
Umi."

Somewhat reluctant to look back into the eyes of
the child she turned to Kei. "And as for my choice in wardrobe
it was perfectly logical. I had to go on what little historical
evidence that we had left." She looked at the ocean "Well
that is about all the small talk I can take for today. If there's
nothing further, I have places to go and a goal to meet."

Before
leaving she considered pocketing her glasses and eye patch, but
instead took off her earrings and threw all the items at Kei. "The
child can have those, she doesn't appear to have much and the glasses
will make her look smart, as you know I don't need them. Beyond
perfect vision, ha just like the rest of us huh Kei? Don't worry
though....it's our little secret.... for now." She said with a
wink, and was off.

When she got about 2 miles away she
suddenly got the burning urge to turn around and go back. "What
IS this!?" She thought as the feeling got more intense. "This
is quite a unique sensation." If she had been a different person
she would have gone back immediately, but there was a quest at hand,
and her ambition was enough to keep going for now.


As Kai had began to go out of view,
his face grew a more calm expression as he turned back to Mimi. "Do
not mind her as she is not of the greatest manners," Kei said as
he held out his hand to her again. "Come, let us procure
ourselves a boat, and find Miss Hakumei-sama." He said as his
smile grew into an actually truthful smile as he commented on
Millia.


__________________________________



Millia's
face was red with anger at his constant teasing, her hand shaking
with anger. "How dare he, that ruffian, talk to me in such a
manner!" She proclaimed loudly. "Well, whatever," She
began to say as she moved over to his hammock and laid in it, her
face still crunched in anger. "At least he is bringing food and
is at least making himself useful." She said lastly before she
rolled her eyes and began to sleep.





Mu was walking back to camp dragging a
nice sized boar behind him. If the princess didn't like boar then she
would be **** out of luck. Mu suddenly heard sound of talking from
nearby. That isnt right, he thought to himself, no one else is on
this island except me and her. Mu quietly approached the sound and
was surprised to find two pirates relieving themselves on a nearby
tree. One was tall and skinny the other was short and fat. The tall
one was talking to short one. "This here seems like a good
island to stop and take supplies eh Meri." Meri replied back, "I
dunno Geri somethin dont seem to right this place is too quiet like."
Mu quietly spun his threads until both Meri and Geri were trapped
inside the nearly invisible net. He made a slight pulling motion with
his right hand and the strings around Meri tightened until they
broken his neck and several bones in him body killing him instantly.
"Don't move...Geri is it? Yea dont move or else you will meet
the same fate as poor Meri. Now will you tell me what i want to know
or shall we play with my strings?" Geri made a movement as if to
hawk a lugi at Mu and made a rude gesture with his hand. With a pull
of one finger Mu's strings neatly sliced off the offending finger.
Geri would have screamed in pain if he could have but Mu's strings
started to strangle him. "Make it easy on yourself next time
it's the whole hand. Now tell em what your doing here and who you
work for. Despite his recently emptied bladder Geri wet himself and
spilled his guts. He worked for some no name pirate but the
disturbing part was they were heading right for his camp and the
girl. Mu smiled at Geri and said, "Thank you for your
cooperation Geri you were very helpful." Geri smiled as well
completely unaware of Mu's moving fingers. Geri's head hit the floor
with a thud the smile still painted on his face. Mu was already long
gone moving fast towards his camp. Hopefully he would be there in
time. Hopefully.




Staring back at Kairi, Mimi thought
"why the heck is this psyco lady staring at me, maybe I sould
slap her outta it." Chuckling inside at her thoughts Mimi
clamped her hand over her mouth to counter her almost sudden burst of
laughter. Very pleased with her the way her words push Kai's buttons
Mimi accepted the gifts with a curtsey, and a devious smile."
Why thank you Mam', I am most gracious." Thinking in her head if
you only knew how smart I am. While Kai departed, Mimi yelled from
behind her, shaking her hand wildly in the air." It was such a
pleasure Kai. Have a good day!" with a tone that sounded most
plesant.

Grabbing Kei's hand Mimi replied. "Oh her, I
think she's...fun. Yes that's it, fun." Remembering Kai speaking
of a secret Mimi slid her and apart from Kei's thinking, maybe I
should be a bit more careful. Im trusting this stranger to soon.
"Kei" Mimi said and then paused for a second. "What
did she mean about your secret?"

Kei looked at Mimi with a curious look
on hia face before his eyes closed and he smiled towards her. "It's
nothing serious do not worry about it, it is just an inside joke
among siblings. You'll get it soon enough." He finished saying,
while wearing a real smile on his face. "Now, let us go, a boat
awaits us at the dock." He said as he began to lead them down
towards the
port.


_______________________________________________


"What's
this then?" Millia asked herself as she saw three pirates enter
the encampment. She was sitting on the hammock, her legs crossed as
she watched them growing closer to her with evil grins on their
faces.

"What's a little girl like you being all alone in
such a dangerous place? You could get hurt!" One pirate said
aloud as he began to laugh.

Millia, knowing these victims
would soon be eviscerated, did not even bother to hide her real self.
"I think you have got that in the wrong order." She said
with her voice sounding highly adult which gave the pirates a small
scare at such a tone coming form such a young girl.

"And
what exactly do you mean by that?!" Another pirate said loudly
as if offended.

"It means what it means." Millia
said as she hopped down from the hammock and cocked her head back to
over exaggerate looking down upon them. She leveled her head and
stared at the middle one who had basically mocked and threatened her.
"Dissolve into the spirit realm!" She yelled out with a
face reminiscent of Rena Ryuguu as a green portal opened next to the
middle man and sucked him into it, closing up immediately afterwords.
Right after Millia did nothing but smile and stare at the remaining
pirates. "Hmm hmm, you better run, my young pirates. HE'S, not
as forgiving as I am." She said, referencing Mu.


Mu knew Millia was powerful but he
had no idea she was this powerful. He decided to make a mental note
of that. Mu stepped out into the path of the pirates running away
from Millia. "Well Well attacking a young lady you guys are both
dumb and manner less let me show you what happens to those who cross
the path of Mu of the Bells!" With a flick of his wrist he spun
his strong around on of the pirates necks and immediately hung him
from the tree above his head. Mu smiled as he looked at the remaining
pirate who was in utter shock. Turning to Millia he told her, "You
may want to look away this will not be pretty i mean to send a
message to these pirates and what I am about to do is not for the
eyes of a young lady." Mu then worked his strings and a blood
curdling scream came from the pirate. Mu sent the pirate running back
to his boss with a bloody item in his hand, he was bleeding profusely
from right below his waist. "If you run fast you may still live
and tell your captain much worse awaits him here f he decides to
return!" Mu then turned to Millia and bowed deeply. "My
deepest regrets, my dear. I left you in harms way not that it seemed
to matter. I did bring dinner though!"





Kai gazed at the sunset's reflection in
the water as she pondered her next course of action. "I could
easily swim there....but that might draw some unnecessary attention."
she looked at the small radar in her hand.

The device was
made to pin point Millia's power signature, and measure dimensional
disturbances. She needed to make some progress before the others
caught up. "I suppose the best course of action would be to
"borrow" a boat." She scanned the beach and dock for
an unattended vessel. It didn't take long to find the perfect
scenario. A small boat, no boatman, prime for the pilfering.
"Delightful!" She snickered to herself and went to do the
deed.





Arriving upon the port, Kei, while
holding Mimi's hand, walked towards the docks as if he was supposed
to be there. With a subtle look around he spied a boat which seemed
unmanned, which was strange for the time of day as at this usual time
men should be docking still. Seeing this as nothing but a lucky
opportunity he quickly walked onto the boat nonchalantly as he held
Mimi;s hand helping her onto the boat.

"Well," Kei
began, "Welcome to, our, boat." He said as he pulled in the
ramp quickly, and untied the rope which began to slowly drift away.
"Now then, let's move those sails, shall we?" He said with
a smile on his face as he moved over to prepare the
sail.



_______________________________________

"I'm
fine with any gruesome detail." Millia said as he watched Mu
kill one of the pirates, after which Mu apologized for being away and
showed Millia the boar he had captured.

"It is fine for
this moment.....Mu," Millia said as she sat back down once
again. "Now, let's see how well you can cook, Mu." She
said, adding his name to end of each sentence which was out of the
ordinary for her to do. "You are a much stronger man that you
had let on, but do not think you have earned my trust just yet,
ruffian." She added before she laid down in the hammock once
again.





Holding onto Kei's hand Mimi walked
briskly to keep up with Kei, though he wasn't walking fast her legs
were just short. As they approached the boat Mimi beginning to feel
dragged she squeezed Kei's hand with a hasty look on her face
relieved when they finally reached the boat. This boat was very old
looking never being on a boat before, Mimi was a little trembled for
it to actually move. Looking up at Kei with a worried look she said
in a questioning tone and look on her flushed face "Move those
sails, Ive never been on a boat"


Mu almost laughed at Millia's
feeble attempt to goad him. He then thought of a very clever plan to
get back at her. He got up quietly and took the boar with him and
went back to the place where he found the boar. It wasn't long before
he was able to find the Boar's lair. Mu worked his strings and made
the Boar into a puppet. He then hopped up into a tree and in his
boredom decided to make it into a little game in his head.

Fred
the boar had a long day at work, he had just been fired form his job
at the mud pit and he was forced once again to forage for his
family's food. He was dreading what his wife and babe would say when
he returned home empty handed again. Then again what did he care he
was dead.

Fred reached his little rock cave and walked right
in. His wife greeted him with a kiss on the snout saying "Fred
dear you look a little pale! Are you all right? Fred? Fred? It's me
your wife Mildred? Fred? ANSWER ME!". Just then Fred's little
baby walked up screaming "DADDY DADDY HOLD ME" Stepping in
the way Mildred held her son back. "Junior go to the back of the
cave. Now." "But i dont wanna!" "Do it no-OH GOD
FRED STOP! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Fred then preceded to gut his wife
in front of Junior. Junior screamed but had no where to run. Junior
could only scream as Daddy impaled each of his legs one by one with
his tusks. Junior was reduced to a whimpering hog and the last words
out of his mouth were "Daddy we were supposed to play catch
today....why?" Fred then impaled his son through his left eye
into the brain. That ends the story of Fred the Boar.

Mu
chuckled to himself as he watched the events unfold and once again
was almost shocked at how perverse he could be. Maybe he had been
alone on this island from too long. Hopefully that would soon change
but for now some fun. He trotted back to camp and prepared each of
the boar. As they were cooking he carefully placed the still bleeding
head of the baby boar onto the sleeping Millia's lap with its one
good eye looking straight at her. He chucked too himself and then sat
down to watch the fireworks.




"Do not let that worry you, young
Mimi," Kei said as he finished preparing one sail. "Just
undo the knots at each bow end of the sails, and I'll take care of
the rest." As he continued preparing the other sails one could
see several men yelling towards their boat to which Kei just smiled
towards them and
waved.


__________________________________________



As
Millia began to shake awake, she began to blink, and she slowly saw a
severed head of a pig in her lap to which she just stared at for a
moment. "....Really.." She said aloud, and before Mu could
even reply to her words, a head was flung at high speed towards him,
followed by a string of words that were not to lady like of her to
which she followed up with by forcing herself to get talking like she
normally would. "As I was saying, you are nothing but a damn old
ruffian, you piece of dried seaweed!" Her face was red with
anger to the point she seemed like the flames of a fire. "Now I
am all covered in blood, damn you Mu!" She yelled out loud,
speaking his name for the first time in a non mocking way, but with
pure anger, abandoning her usually tone once again although rarely it
happens.





Mu burst out laughing as he caught the
pigs head in his hands and threw it into the fire."DRIED SEAWEED
HAHAHAHAAHAH" " Oh come on its all in good fun Milli"
, he said giving her a nickname that he knew would anger her, "Don't
be so uptight go clean yourself up and dinner will be ready when you
get back." Mu was really getting bored of this Island but at
least pushing Milli's buttons was fun. HE would stop soon of course
but he couldn't help shaking the feeling that something big was about
to happen. Something life changing and life threatening and all he
could do was quiver in excitement.





Kai could hear footsteps and voices
coming from above. "For a while there I didn't think I'd get to
have any fun." She said while rolling up her sleeves. She
arrived top deck to a smug Kei waving to some angry boatmen still on
shore. "You idiot!" She shouted. "This is MY STOLEN
BOAT!" What's more is NOW you've made a spectacle of yourself
and those cannons they have mounted over there ARE NOT for show!"
Kai tried to catch her breath while outraged.

In trying to
regroup she noticed Mimi. "Ah of course he would still have the
young one." she thought. "Look girl this man is just in it
for himself and his littl..." By total accident she looked into
Mimi's eyes again. Kai felt weak and immediately fell to one knee
subserviently. "No, why is this happeneing...?" she
whispered. "What IS this?"

Fighting to free herself
she struggled to get up, but all she could do was crawl. She glared
up at Kei as she made her way to the cabin "I am going below
deck, KEEP THE CHILD UP HERE!" She spurt with venom in her
voice.





Doing as Kei said, with some struggle
that she tried to hid Mimi untied the knots. Seeing the guys yelling
for the boat excited Mimi. She loved a rush. Mimi let out a loud
chuckle still laughing Mimi finished untying the knots. "Ok well
im.." Seeing Kai Mimi's laughter came to a stop. Her face grew
hard and her words were silent. "Why is she here I though she
was gone for good, well this is just great" Wearing a facade,
completely cheerful, Mimi yelled "Miss Kai, what a surprise to
see you here" Staring at Kai, Mimi was once again confused as to
what this lady's issue was. Mimi turned her back to Kai and walked
over to take her place beside Kei.

After seeing such violent reaction towards Mimi a thought popped into his head, and his face grew serous, and possibly angry. Kei walked at a high speed towards the crouching Kai and bent down to her and grabbed the front of her shirt, dragging her close to his face. "No, you will stay up here, Kairi," He said with scary and serious tone as he stared into her eyes. "You will stay up here, you will not retreat into a lowly cave and escape this little problem you seem to have, you got that, Kairi?!" His voice began to get loud, almost to a yelling level as one could see a vein in his forehead, and his eyes turning red for a moment as if delivering a message into her mind, he stared into her eyes for a straight few seconds with the mean look placed on his face the whole time. Kei then let go of Kai, letting her fall to the deck. "Or do whatever you'd like, I honestly don't care. As you said, you enjoy being free, so whatever you want, you little fool." He said after turning around , but keeping his look on her as he walked away from her, saying, "fool" as he turned his head around, leaving Kai there to wonder what just happened. Kei's face, although not back to normal, no longer looked as angry as he moved over to Mimi who seemed like she may need help with a knot. "Here, let me help you." He said without smiling as he moved to help her.



Hitting the deck snapped Kai out of her semi-stupor, giving her back control of her body. She was clearly shaken. She'd never seen Kei past that point of anger in all the years they'd been together. She yelled over at Kei somewhat apologetically "Brother I do not want to quarrel, but I have a job to do. If you and I must be at odds for this time, it's a necessary sacrifice."

Avoiding eye contact with Mimi "There is however no "little problem" as you put it. Everything is fine. I just got a little dehydrated is all. If everything is resolved I must adjourn to the lower deck."

"Oh, and Kei, don't think you will ever get away with speaking to your sister like that again."


Finishing the last knot Mimi kept silent as Kei and Kai had their little fight. She went back to the side of the boat where she laid her guitar. This as her only true insight to life she begin to play Lectri while humming a song "Here alone in a world so torn, Theres gotta be more to me, they will see. I will be" cutting herself off Mimi just placed her head on her
Guitar tired from this long day.


Kei closed his eyes as he looked down. "Whatever you say, Kairi..." He said as he sighed. "You just better be prepared for what is down the road." He said quietly to himself as he looked towards Mimi. Kei walked over to Mimi, putting his hand on her shoulder. "That was a nice tune," he began as he placed his false smile on himself. "I am sorry about what just happened between her and I, just forget it ever happened, ok?" He said as he continued to smile towards Mimi. "Now come, you must be tired I'll bring you to your cabin." Kei afterwords walked to the end of the bow where the captain's quarters were usually held, but had decided to house Mimi there for the time being. "I myself will lay out here with the stars tonight," He said, holding the same smile. "Have a good night." He said lastly before walking to the end of the boat, and laying down.


"Thank you Kei, its just something I was thinking it's not really much." Mimi replied sluggishly as she stood up with the black guitar outlined in red strapped over her shoulder. Looking up at Kei, Mimi shook her head in response to Kei and Kai sibling rivalry. Completely out of her self, Mimi replied "She's your sister. I don't understand why you argue so much.
You should be grateful to have actual family." Mimi dragging her feet followed Kei to the place she would rest." Mimi looked around this room. "Well this sure isn't home but I guess it will do." Falling to the bed Mimi instantly fell asleep.


As Kei slept, he began to dream. Images of Millia would go by, and past events showed themselves to him. Then suddenly the image of Kai appeared while holding Millia's hand and staring down onto him as he, in first person view, was knelt on the floor as he stared up at them, his hand outstretched towards Millia who turned away from his gaze and walked away. After another flash his, now nightmare, began to get worse as he viewed himself, still in
first person view, strangling Kai in her sleep with her eyes ablaze in red, along with his, and as he did so, he spoke five words, "You are in the way." At that sudden instant he sprung awake, sweating from the nightmare, completely out of character. He found himself having awoken standing up almost about to enter the door to the below deck cabin. His eyes widened as he realized where he was and backed away quickly from the door as he tried to regain his
composure as quickly as possible. "It's just a coincidence," He thought to himself. "That dream and my sleepwalking." Even though he believed it to be a coincidence, he decided to stay up the rest of the night, and control the ship manually to get to the island quickly. The night did not last long as he woke up deep into it, and soon the sunrise began to rise, just in time for the island to come into view. Kei smiled as they grew closer to the island, and
by the time they arrived to the island he had a real smile on his usual false face. He then rang the upper deck bell to wake everyone as he would need help to settle the ship without a dock.




Fear was not something Kairi was used to.... She was conditioned to have a resistance to it, but that night it took hold. The disturbing images of a Kei so full of rage and
madness he'd never be stopped. She'd been witnessing Kei's nightmare
and feeling his emotions. She awoke trembling, not only for the fact that Kei may one day reach that plateau of insanity and try to end her life, but for the fact that it wouldn't stop there. "It's worse than I thought." she whispered in the dark. "I
suppose that makes my job all the more important."





After dinner Mu decided to take his usual stroll around the island. "Things are always the same, blue water.....green foliage....random boat.....Wait a minute....whats that random boat doing here...this looks like fun...", Mu thought to himself. He quickly made his way down to the boat and hid in the nearby tree. While he observed his targets he quietly spun a web of string around them. His targets were very odd. One was a male who looked to be in his late teens. The other two were both girls. The male seemed to be arguing with one of the girls who
sort of looked like him while a smaller one with a very strange looking guitar. They seemed to tense up and notice his presence. "Hello there friends", he said jumping down into the midst
of them, "I wouldn't move just yet if i were you, you might notice some bits of string in the air around you. Do as I say and tell me who you are and none of you get hurt. Make no mistake i can destroy any of you within an instant." Mu laughed to himself at how easy it was to trap his foes. Oi you reckon hes gonna do the same thing to these saps like that he did to us?
Hey, Geri arent you more concerned with how we's are dead but we still talkin. The way i reckon it Meri we be ghosts ya see and it's our job to haunt him and stop him from killin innocents or somethins like that. Thats mighty smart of ya Geri. Nah
Meri, its just whats in these pamphlets we gots called How to Haunt the Livin. Mu suddenly fell to his knees releasing the stringshe had. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD I KILLED YOU STAY DEAD! DAMN YOU MERI AND GERI WHAT IS THIS" Mu then proceeded to pass out from having so many voices in his head.




After waking from the loud bells. Mimi tossed in her bed, thinking to herself "uggh it's way too early." Standing up Mimi falls down on the floor "Och!" She screamed. Picking herself off the ground she went above deck to see the beautiful sun beaming on the boat. She then noticed Kei. "Good morning Kei" Mimi said as she seen a smile that shes never seen before. "You seem pleasant this morning."



"Yes, well this man here certainly can give one some laughs, whoever he is." Kei said with a smile. Kei walked on over to the man who had passed out in front of them. "Kai, would you kindly drag him onto the ship for now?" He asked as he began to walk towards the forest of the island. "Oh, Mimi, stay here please, I will be right back." Kei waved behind him as he walked into the woods slowly disappearing out of sight.


_____________________________________________


"What is taking that man so long?" Millia thought to herself as she rocked in the hammock, back and forth. After having been forced to wait so long she decided to head out for herself to see what taking Mu so long. Millia began walking towards the direction Mu had gone, expecting to see him sleeping in a tree as she thought of how much of a lazy fool he seemed to be. As she continued to walk through the woods, Kei had started to draw closer to Millia. Slowly, but surely they seemed to be walking in a direct line to one another as if fate
has possessed them. After many minutes the two slowly came in view of one another as Kei's face seemed to grow a real emotion of happiness, having found her, but at the same time guilt for having not held on strong enough during the warp. Millia's face held a hidden expression
as she looked onto him with her usual frown of anger or spite. "I am very sorry for have taken so long, Miss Hakumei." Kei said to her as he gave her a large, long bow. "Fool, there is no
need to apologize to me as we will always find each other once again." Millia replied with her face although hidden behind her frown, had a small sensation of happiness about her as her face seemed to form a small smirk. "So," Millia began. "Who's crew are we joining this time?" Millia asked as she wondered what her next ship would be her home.

"Why, your crew, Miss Hakumei, or shall I now say, Taijou-Sama?" Kei said with a large smile on his face as he bowed once again. "It is not custom built, but it is a high graded vessel which I believe you will find to your liking."

Millia's face was surprisingly, filled with surprise at this new development of her being a captain like she always talked of. "Are you serious? I guess you are, you would never lie to me." She said with a sound of pure trust in her words and voice. "Let's go to the ship then, Kei." Millia said as her walking pace seemed to increase with she seeming happy, and as she walked past Kei in her haste, she turned around and said, "And as I have said before, you may call me Hakumei if you so wish, it is not necessary to address me so formally." Although she still wanted him to show respect by using her last name, and not her first. "Of course, I will try to remember that, Miss Hakumei" He replied with a slight hint of himself sounding like a smart ass, to which Millia simply rolled her eyes as they continued to walk towards the ship, and withing a few moments, they had arrived at the ship.

Seeing no need to escalate the
situation just yet, Kai decided to drag the seemingly unstable
lunatic onto the boat as requested. She was slightly annoyed at being
asked to do something so tedious by her condescending brother, but
was reassured that her own special brand of passive aggression, that
was sure to haunt him later, would be retaliation enough. Though she
was tempted to give him a marvelously modern middle finger
salute.

"Ugh." she said getting a whiff of the
strong coppery scent of boar blood as she threw the man over her
shoulder. "You're going to need to be hosed off." Kai
placed the stranger on deck, and looked at him. "What a peculiar
personality." Not wanting to leave the task half done, she got a
bucket and sauntered off the boat to scoop up some seawater. "Let
us make this interesting..." she found a sand crab and plopped
it into the bucket. By the time she returned her grin was quite
large. Taking the bucket in both hands, she dumped it.
*KERSPLASH*!!!!





"Hey...what the....OUCH OUCH GOD
DAMN IT OUCH GET OFF ME!....DAMN FIENDISH FO- Well hello there..."
Mu said as he simultaneously reacted to having cold water thrown on
him a crab attacking him and seeing the strange girl. He reached for
his bells but they seemed to be missing..."Great first I am
haunted by the dead and now i have no bells....better play this cool"
he thought to himself. He studied the girl before him in silence. Her
clothes looked like the normal clothes of the time but there still
seemed to be something strange.... something different. "Great
another weird one....first the princess....and now whoever this one
is not to mention the other two on the beach. Either way Millia can
handle herself i almost feel bad for that tall guy if he meets her."
Mu once again thought to himself. Standing up he stretched and
offered his hand with a bow. "Hello there my name is Mu of the
Bells. It is a pleasure to meet you have you seen my bells?"





Mimi stood at the foot of the forest
waiting for Kei return as he asked. Looking around Mimi though what a
strange island it seems to be deserted. Mimi being to wonder around,
she bent down feeling the gritty sand between her fingers. She stood
back up and started pacing back and forth , as never leaving Kei's
sight since shes been with him she begin to wonder just where exactly
they will be going. Also thinking back to what Kai first said about
him lying, and if she could really trust him. Maybe she would talk to
Kai, although it seemed Mimi was a wasn't a favorite of hers. Mimi
notice she had moved further away from the forest as she was pacing
back and forth. She felt more comfort near the water then the
surrounding of this island.




"Bells?" Kai repeated. "I
have not seen them. Besides there are far more important things to be
discussed. For instance, your presence in general, not to mention why
you passed out. Do you require medical attention?"

Just
then a distinct tinkling caught both their attentions. Kai looked
over to the edge of the boat. The crab from the bucket was teetering
there with two claws full of Mu's bells. "Are those yours?"
she asked as the crab fell into the ocean.




"HOLD UP YOU DAMN CRAB" was
all one could hear accompanied by a loud splash. Mu jumped in after
the crab and the thing nearly got away. Grabbing the crab and getting
pinched in the process he climbed back onto the boat and collapsed
onto the deck soaking wet. "I am truly getting tired of all of
this", Mu said as he shook his bells dry and tied them into his
hair. "Well at least i found dinner i guess. As for your
question earlier no i do not require medical attention." Mu took
off his bells and examined them in his hands shaking them each and
frowned. "It seems the souls of two lowly pirates by the name of
Meri and Geri have stowed away in my bells....I guess you have them
to thank for me not killing you." Mu shook each once again and
then returned them to their places in his hair. "I shall have to
have them checked when we reach the next port...what don't give me
that look obviously I'm going with your crew at least to the next
port. You and your crew are too interesting to let go. Am i wrong to
assume you are in some way connected to the ferocious and very small
Millia?"


"You were going to kill us
hmm? That takes the word hostile to a new plateau, but I doubt it
would have been as easy as you anticipated." Kai rolled her
eyes. "We aren't your average bunch of garbage, we are far more
than 'interesting'. Especially by your standards" she thought
for a minute "Although most of this isn't your business I will
say that even you, Mu of bells, need to be wary of the chain of
events that may occur should you choose to stay with us." It was
the most purposely mysterious, friendly warning that Kai could
muster, and she meant it. She thought Mu to be rather fascinating and
eccentric. She also felt that it was not fair for a denizen of this
era to be unnecessarily affected by people and events that really had
nothing to do with him.

She turned away from Mu so he wouldn't
see her look at the radar in her hand. It was time to go find Kei and
Millia.




Mu raised his eyebrows at the
mysterious stranger and her warnings. "Listen, in case you
didn't notice I'm stranded on an Island, any chain of events no
matter how dangerous it is probably better than being stuck here with
that brat of a girl or killing boars for fun. As you can see I'm no
pushover either." Mu studied the girl in front of him like
Millia she seemed different out of place somehow but then again who
was he to judge he was a grown man who plays with string. "I
really gotta stop talking to myself....wait did i say that out loud
dammit.....As you can see i'm going quite insane. Whats your name
anyway?"




"My name is Kairi." she said
looking over her shoulder. Then looked back at the radar. Millia and
Kei were coming closer to the boat, but no telling how close. Kai put
it back in her pocket and turned to Mu. "So my be-jingled
lunatic, you've "joined" our crew, what's your next move?
I'm sure my brother will be prancing in on his high horse at any
mome......!"




"Prancing on my high horse eh?
Well even as rude as you are, I can understand your feelings, for
having.....failed." Kei said with a devilish smile as he began
to walk out of the woods with Millia in front of him. Millia stayed
silent, her eyes closed and head tilted up as they both walked up the
plank onto the ship.
"Ah yes, now who is this rough housing
character then?" He said after noticing Mu being awake.

"Do
not worry of him, he shall be coming with us. That is all you need to
know, Kei." Millia said in a stuck up voice before she noticed
the young Mimi girl. "And may I ask who is that?" Millia
asked harshly as she pointed towards Mimi, holding an anger like look
on her face.

"Why, this is young Mimi, who shall be
joining our family." Kei said with his usual smile as he
bowed.

"And who gave you permission to do that?"
Millia asked seriously, and angrily towards Kei before turning away
from Mimi and heading straight to the Captain's Cabin of the vessel.
"Fine whatever, do as you like, but I do not like her, so tell
her to stay away from me." were her last words before she
slammed her door shut, which seemed to actually take Kei aback.

"She
seemed to have responded more harshly then I had originally
thought.... but no matter," He thought to himself as he turned
to Kai, and without speaking continued his thought. "As there is
still a possibility on someone to be able to succeed. Smiling he
bowed towards Kai, Mu, and Mimi as he walked towards the cabin as
well. He knocked on the door lightly, and without a word able to be
heard, Millia let him in, and again the door seemed to be closed
harshly by Millia who then laid down on the bed, anger on her
face.

"I do not know what you mean by bringing her along,
but you must have some reason to bring her." Millia said as she
leaned towards Kei';s direction.

"And what about you,
Miss Hakumei? That man who plays with string." Kei asked her
with a smile on his face his eyes half closed giving off a tone of
smart ***.

"I was not just going to leave that man to
stay on that island for his life, enough talk of that buffoon."
Millia said with a tsundere tone as she twisted her gaze away from
Kei and began to take a nap.


With the sharp words of Millia,
Mimi was uneasy "Man what have I done to her, she doesn't even
know the first thing about me. Oh well! I'm here now and there's no
turning back." Mimi said to her self as she boarded the boat
taking in the new faces. Walking over to the rather odd man with the
bells Mimi smiled a little sheepishly looking up with her face
slightly lowered. "Hi, I'm Mimi nice to meet you, I guess"





Millia, Mimi was uneasy
"Man what have I done to her, she doesn't even know the first thing
about me. Oh well! I'm here now and there's no turning back." Mimi said
to her self as she boarded the boat taking in the new faces. Walking
over to the rather odd man with the bells Mimi smiled a little
sheepishly looking up with her face slightly lowered. "Hi, I'm Mimi nice
to meet you, I guess"

Mu silently watched the events unfold,
he was carefully gauging the strengths of his newfound comrades. The
girl named Kairi seemed to be his best bet for an alliance if need
be. The impromptu leader of the group besides the princess herself
seemed to be the one named Kei, and the other girl Mimi seemed to
just be there to be there. What a wonderful band you find yourself
with Mu, he thought to himself. "Hello there little one, if
you'll excuse me I'm going to head back to my camp and see if I left
anything important. Mu climbed down the ship and started to walk
across the sand. Mu looked ahead..."Oh Crap!" was all he
muttered before running back to the ship. Mu called out, "Hey
Kairi we need to get out of here or were gonna have one hell of a
fight on our hands." Not far behind him was a large group of
pirates. they seemed to be the same group he had taken care of
before. "Well this is as good of an excuse as any to leave the
island eh?" he said to no one in particular as he climbed to the
top of the ship. It seemed like the adventure was about to begin.





Mu had an excellent point, to come all
this way and get killed by pirates was not part of the plan.
"Everybody hold on." Kai adjusted the sails and went to go
steer. In no time at all they were on their way.

A few hours
later they lost the pirates. "Mu why don't you take the wheel
for a bit?" Kairi had a job to do and it needed to start now.
She made her way to the captains cabin. She knocked before opening
the door to peek in. She saw Kei in the room with Millia on the bed
and blushed. She shook her head and told herself it couldn't be what
it looked like. "Captain," she started as Kei glared at
her. "I don't know if you remember me, but I knew you as a
child. Even then many commented that you had the makings of
greatness." she thought she heard Kei huff in disgust.

"I
was wondering if you would accept this trinket I found, as a gesture
of appreciation for having me as part of your crew." she said
giving Millia a soft, warm smile. The item in question was a small
golden, jewel encrusted watch that would have surely been familiar to
Millia under different circumstances. "Well I''ll leave to your
business." She placed the watch on Millia's bed while mentally
flashing Kei "You couldn't be...." with a cringe on her
face and leaving before he could answer.

Kai then returned to
Mu. "Fine job for a man who wouldn't seem to have that much
experience with a boat." She went to the edge of the ship and
let the sea spray hit her face. "If you're tired Mu, I can take
over. It's proving to be quite a day."




Mu took the wheel from Kairi. Its good
to be back on a ship again, he thought to himself, I wonder how the
world has changed. Mu had spent about two to three years on the
Island alone for most of it and he was eager to see how life had
changed, who was on top in the world of pirating. He was woken from
his thoughts by Kairi. "I beg your pardon miss but I was a
pirate long before I was trapped on that Island. I know my way around
a ship." Mu looked at the darkening sky, "Oh good the stars
are coming out I will be able to guide us to a port if you wish or we
can anchor here and all get to know each other. I'm curious is the
little bi-i mean brat princess going to be our captain?"





"Yes, yes she is." Came Kei's
voice as he exited the cabin leaving Millia to look at the trinket
Kai had left her. "And I do hope in the future you will refrain
from calling her what you almost did as it would not be good for your
health." Kei said as he kept on his usual fake smile. "I
was coming out to pilot the ship to give Kai a break, but I see we
have run into a man who knows his way around an oar, so I will
instead inspect the rest of the ship. If you will excuse me." He
said lastly before he began walking around the ship inspecting
different aspects of the
ship.



__________________________________________

"This
doesn't feel familiar at all." Millia said simply after looking
over the watch for a time. "Although it brings up another
subject..." Millia thought to herself as Kei walked back into
the cabin from checking on the ships various functions and items.
"Kei Umi, you said your sister had died." She said to Kei
seriously while she still held the watch in her hand.

Without
even being taken aback Kei said, "I had always thought she had.
I am happy to see her alive and well." He said to Millia with
his common smile.

"You do not seem happy to see her
whatsoever," Millia said in a higher, and sorta of dire town.
"Kei, I trust you as you will always be by my side, but I do
hope you are not hiding anything about her from me." She said as
she gave an almost threatening look towards Kei.

"Everything
I do is with your best interest in mind, do not worry, Miss Hakumei."
He said with a real smile that Millia could sense that was a truthful
statement.




Mu rolled his eyes at the threat that
Kei had barely concealed. "For you information this is a wheel
not an oar you might want to learn the difference otherwise it wont
be good for your health not to mention everyone
else's." Mu saw Kei leave and keep walking. He turned to Kairi
and asked "Is he always walking around with a stick shoved up
his ass. I mean seriously someone needs to get off his high horse if
hes gonna survive the seas. You're all not from around here are u?"




Kairi chuckled. "My brother has
always been this way I am sad to say. However It is a very important
part of who he is and his purpose in life...so I really can't fault
him THAT much for it. Deep down I feel sorry for him. As I'm sure he
must feel sorry for me. Also you are correct we are not from around
here."

Kai's gaze moved around the boat for a minute
until she saw the back of Mimi's head. Her eyes widened "Listen
Mu," she said in an almost panicked voice "I'd love to
answer all the questions I can, and I know it's a little early to be
asking for a favor, but.... PLEASE try to keep the little one away
from me! Strange things happen to me when I'm around her, and it's
not a pleasant experience. If you'd like to continue our conversation
we're going to have to go elsewhere."




Mu looked from Kai to Mimi. "Alright
if that is what you want. How about we go below deck and continue the
conversation in private." He walked over to one of the barrels
on the ship and looked inside. "Ah perfect" he said as he
reached in and picked up an apple. HE chucked it at the door to the
captains cabin and it hit with a loud thud. "HEY YOU IN THERE!
I'm going below deck time for you to get some practice steering the
boat." He laughed and looked to Kai. "Shall we?" he
said pointing to the stairs to the deck below.




Kei opened the door which was no
covered in apple in which he just frowned at as he shook his head.
"Such a mess," He said as be began cleaning the door. "That
man better not waste food like that again."


"He
is a moron, and he is immature to quite a far extent, but what elkse
could be expected of a man who was on the brink of insanity."
Millia said simply as she hopped off of her bed, pocketing the watch.
"I'm going to pilot the ship." Millia then said quickly as
she began moving towards the bow.

Kei smiled as he nodded to
her while he finished cleaning up the door. "Then I shall
prepare a light dinner for Millia, and I may as well serve them as
well." He finished saying in dismissal.


Mu walked over to a barrel and sat
down indicating another for Kairi to sit down upon. "Well Kairi
you seem to be opposed to Millia as well so how about we make a pact.
I watch your back you watch mine? The way I see it your brother seems
to be some kind of a body guard or lapdog to her and i have no
intention of becoming her pet. That and i don't trust her at all she
has her own agenda and I am guessing you do too and since I'm not one
for jumping on the bandwagon and also not afraid to piss off Millia
or Kei, I'm willing to offer my services in whatever you need. I can
assure you I am no pushover I used to be first mate of a powerful
crew of pirates and I have a large bounty on my head. I can assure
you that if you step in Millia's way you're going to need backup and
I'm just the backup you need. So how about it?" Mu sat back and
waited for her to think it over. "In the meantime here." Mu
seemingly produced two apples out of nowhere and handed one to Kai.
"My full name is Mu Kurashima by the way."




THIS IS
A POST FOR MIMI TO MOVE STORY ALONG Mimi caught a
glimpse of that strange girl Kai again and not for the first time
wondered why this girl was so afraid of her, maybe it was because of
her closeness to Kei. Was Kai jealous? Mimi did not know and for the
moment would not know all she did know was that it was strange. Mimi
was woken from her thoughts with a loud thump. Apparently someone,
the tall strange almost girlish Mu it seemed, had thrown an apple at
the door to the cabin. Kei came out shook his head and continued
walking. Mimi then realized that noone was steering the ship/ She
decided that it was time for her to step up. Taking a deep breath and
puffing up her chest Mimi walked up to the wheel and grabbed it.
Suddenly the boat started shifting back and forth rapidly as large
gusts of wind overpowered her small frame. They were all headed into
a storm and she was stuck at the wheel.

"Well everything's rather
complicated, but the short answer will be yes." Kai felt
slightly guilty for affecting the era more than she'd intended. She
had to reason that it wouldn't matter how much she affected the past
if there wasn't going to be a future, in order to get peace of
mind.

"To call you interesting is an understatement Mu,
and on top of finding your offer of help very useful, I'd much rather
be with you than against you. Your potential for chaos seems
abnormally high. That's just the sort of unpredictable element that's
needed to rock my brother's boat." Just as she'd finished the
sentence, Kai felt the sharp jerky motions that literally were
rocking the boat. She raised one eyebrow and half grinned at the
thought of what could possibly be going on above deck, and asked
"What do you suppose that is?"





Mu felt the rocking back and forth of
the boat and he suddenly grew tense. "I have been away from the
sea too long indeed." He rushed to the deck and was immediately
assaulted by strong winds. He paused as he looked over to the wheel
and burst out laughing. The short one named Mimi was trying to keep
the ship straight as the waves buffeted the tiller off course. The
waves were getting so strong that she no longer had control and was
off the ground being tossed back and forth. Mu was about to make a
move but decided to sit back and see how his new ship mates would
handle themselves.




Mu felt the rocking back and forth of
the boat and he suddenly grew tense. "I have been away from the
sea too long indeed." He rushed to the deck and was immediately
assaulted by strong winds. He paused as he looked over to the wheel
and burst out laughing. The short one named Mimi was trying to keep
the ship straight as the waves buffeted the tiller off course. The
waves were getting so strong that she no longer had control and was
off the ground being tossed back and forth. Mu was about to make a
move but decided to sit back and see how his new ship mates would
handle themselves.




Millia stepped out of the cabin as she
slammed the door open to see Mimi at the wheel and Mu too busy
laughing to do anything about it. "What are you all doing?! Get
to work, now!" She yelled out loudly at the people taking this
storm lightly. "Mu, take control of that wheel now! Kairi, get
that girl down into the lower deck, now!" Millia looked around
for a quick second to see if Kei was anywhere near as she just yelled
out more instructions as if he was there. "Kei, raise the sails,
they will tip us over soon!" The entire time she had cast out
instruction her attitude was completely serious and her face held the
look of a true captain on it while she handed out orders to
people.

"Yes, Miss Hakumei." Came Kei's voice from
behind Millia as he hurriedly moved over to the sails. Mu may have
taken noticed of the facts that Kei appeared behind her, when he was
in the kitchen, which was on the other side of the ship.

Millia
herself then went to drop the anchor quickly, not at a running pace,
but a quickened pace walk, and as she did so one could sense a
feeling of leadership emanating off of her.





Mu rolled his eyes and turned to Kai
who had just come up the stairs behind him. He pointed to both Millia
and Mimi. "Well you heard little miss Captain get the kids below
deck captains orders", Mu said with a wink hoping Kai would get
his meaning. He immediately ran over to the wheel and wrested it form
Mimi's hands. "Hey there little miss let me take over." Mu
guided the ship through the crashing waves with ease. Suddenly he
heard a loud snap. He turned to see Kei holding onto the rope thats
hoists the sails. It has broken off in the wind and now the sails
were running wild. Mu yelled over to him, "Hey blockhead you
come over and take the wheel let me take care of the sails. Do me a
favor though, DONT BREAK THE WHEEL, THAT I CANNOT FIX!." Mu
plucked the bells from his hair and immediately spun his web. He
climbed like a spider up the main mast and jumped to the end of the
broken sail rope. As he fell with his weight added to the rope he
tied his string to the end. When he reached as far as he could go he
dropped the last three feet to the deck and pulled as hard as he
could, hoisting the sail up into position. Mu quickly climbed up the
mast again and this time climbed to the sails crossbeam. He expertly
tied the sail into place securing it so that it would not fall. With
a triumphant look he spun another string and swung down to land right
next to Kei. "Now that my friend is how you hoist a sail."
Mu said with a bow. "Good lad i see you managed not to break the
wheel. There's a pirate in you yet." Mu slapped Kei on the back
and went to check on the others.




Holding on to the wheel with all her
might, the winds were too strong and out of control for the young
Mimi. Thinking to herself Mimi promised "I will not let this
wheel spin out of control. I can do this if I just keep holding on."
As brave hearted as Mimi is hearing the voice of Mu relieving her was
a blessing of its own. Mimi's attention fell to her guitar given to
her by her late father, seeing it rolling from the fwd end to the aft
end of the deck as the boat shifted she took off to save her guitar
before crashing into the side of the boat. She reached for it's neck
grabbing on to her only prized possession. As the winds became
stronger her will became weaker. Screaming for help she reached a
corner there she held onto her and the guitar she named Lectri. She
seen Kai blurred figure in the storm they encountered. Despite the
differences Mimi yelled to her sounding like a scared child crying
for her mother. "Kai please help me I'm over here, Kai!"

Kai had already been struggling with
the dilemma even before Mimi called. She didn't know what would
happen if she got too close to her. If she became practically
paralyzed like before that wouldn't be be of any use to anyone.

The
decision was made for her when she saw Mimi catch hold of her guitar
and slide across the deck into a corner. As the weather got more
violent by the second, Kai started walking towards her and Lectri. By
the time she heard Mimi cry out she was sprinting. The panicked voice
affected Kai to her very core. An awakening was starting to take
place. An instinct more ingrained than self preservation, more
important than breathing, was coming forth.

When Kai arrived
at the corner, easily and without hesitation she scooped up Mimi and
Lectri then ran back below deck. She found a towel and tossed it to
Mimi, who was soaking wet from the sea spray. Kai wanted so badly to
say reassuring things to her, and leaving them unsaid felt like
daggers in her throat. She looked down still reluctant to make eye
contact for fear of what might happen. Kai started squirming, she was
trying to resist the call. She'd accepted her failure and made peace
with it long ago, she couldn't imagine what this feeling was or why
she was having it, but she knew it was the most significant thing
she'd ever felt in her life, and it scared her. Feeling torn apart,
all Kai could do was say "I'm sorry young miss, I have to see if
I'm needed above." and take her leave.


Kei said nothing, but complied with a
smile to all of what Mu had said as he moved over to the wheel,
holding it steady with it moving barely an inch from his strength. "A
pirate eh? Yes, it does seem like so, does it not?" He said in a
msart *** tone as Mu moved away. Soon after that moment Kei saw Kai
help out Mimi, and as he saw such he said to himself, "So, it
seems I was right about her situation." With his normal almost
frown look on his face once again he continued to hold the wheel
steady.

Millia had come back from releasing the anchor as she
watched everyone, and everything that had happened within those few
moments. Seeing the lack of speed in which Mimi was brought down to
the inner cabin, Millia had gone down to see Kai to which she and her
met in the hallway between the inner cabin and the stairs to the
upper deck. "Kairi Umi, why did you hesitate in bringing her
down to this deck?" Millia asked seriously, as she gave her a
look which had Millia's usual face she had towards anyone other then
Kai. "Well?" She asked again seriously as she walked closer
to her and stopped a few feet away from her.


"To be honest Captain...."
Kai looked Millia in the eye "The only reason I took her at all
was out of respect for your orders, the next time I will obey the
moment the orders leave your mouth."

Kai's pained
expression softened even more. "There are many things I don't
know about myself....and there are quite a few you don't know about
yourself either.... But for now my fearless leader, we might both
have to go on the information we do have."


Millia listened to Kai all the while
maintaining her look as she looked upon Kai. "I do not like her
myself, but as long as she is part of this crew, it is my
responsibility to keep her safe as it will be for everyone on this
ship. I do not know what problem you yourself has with her, but get
over it and make sure that you do follow the order immediately, like
you just said you would." Millia, after finishing her lecture,
turned around and began to walk towards the stairs that lead up to
the deck, but as she stepped on the first step she took one look back
and said, "As for information we do know, you seem to be missing
a key note in yourself, and as far as Kei is concerned, he believes
you are shirking some sort of duty." She said as she then
continued to walk up the stairs. "Not that I know what he means
by that." She lied as she added that last bit.

Kai watched Millia go up the stairs.
Fresh rage started to boil up. It was time to have a speak with Kei.


She found him keeping things steady above deck. Through
clenched teeth she uttered "A word with you please...."
Embarrassment was a deep rift in Kai's confidence. It was one of her
only weaknesses. On top of that she was naively curious as to what
sort of problem her hypocrite liar of a brother could possibly have
with her work ethic.

It was still exceedingly windy and rain
started to pour. Kai motioned for Mu to take the wheel, it was better
for an experienced sailor to be in control of the ship than a
seemingly demure, unpredictable guardian. Lightning could be seen in
the distance and thunder started to roll.

The storm was
mirror image of the tempest going on in Kai's head. She looked for a
sheltered place to speak, Kei following. When she found it she looked
in every direction to make sure Millia wasn't close by. Satisfied the
location was semi-private, she unleashed. "Shirking my duties!?
What is going through that poor delusional brain! Nevermind... I KNOW
what sort of lies roost there...I'm going to tell you a secret Kei."
she said with a voice as cold as ice. "No matter how many
unfounded fallacies you try to tell Millia to make her doubt my
competence, you will NEVER succeed in sabotaging my mission to
shatter your grand illusion!" She then punctuated her outburst
with a resounding slap to her brother's face.




Kei's face barely altered his look down
upon look as he got slapped, his head bent to the right from the
force of the slap. He turned his look back onto her as his face
seemed to glow with an aura of anger while still keeping his
aforementioned look on his face. "You seem to be mistaken in
your information, little....sister...." Kei said slowly as he
walked closer to her. "First off, sister, the duty you are
shirking you have yet to even realize of it's existence," He
began to say as his voice seemed to slowly raise higher. "Because
you are to daft to realize what is in front of you!" Kei yelled
as he grabbed her collar and pulled her close to his face. "And
as for my, "grand illusion" you say I have, I have nothing
but the duty I was born to do." He said seriously right in Kai's
face. "You have no right to speak to me in such a way, when you,
a failed experiment, have not even attempted to fix what you have
failed!!" After speaking loudly into her face with that little
bit, he picked Kai up by the collar and threw her to the ground, and
immediately swung his arm to the right grabbing at the air and
opening the dimension gate, pulling out his lance, and slammed it
into the deck right next to Kai's chest, but soon after let go of it,
and without even putting the lance away, began walking away. Kei
stopped walking and breathed in long as he closed his eyes as he
said, "Sister, stay by Mimi's side, or not, I do not care about
your failure of a life, but don't you dare get in the way of Millia
and I." He finished saying as his voice calmed down a bit. It
was weak, but it seemed there was slight hint of regret in the
physical actions he took against Kai.


Mu saw the argument between Kei and
Kai and didn't like what he saw. He started walking towards Kei who
had stopped some distance from Kai. Suddenly Kei started walking
again and Mu got a clever idea. Mu spin his string and made Kei trip
and fall on his face. "Ahoy there matey seem you haven't gotten
your sea legs yet." Mu said as he ran over and bent down to
seemingly help Kei up. He grabbed Kei by his ears and forced him to
look up as him as he whispered. "I don't care what problems you
and your sister have but if you lay a hand on her in anger again I'm
gonna do worse then make you trip. Do not test Mu of the Bells. Just
a fair warning....boy." He added the boy with a mocking
sneer and he threw Kei's face on the ground. Getting up he called out
"Hes fine he just took a nice trip. Now Kei if you're done with
your vacation can you steer the Ship I have things to take care of."
Mu walked over to Kai and bent down to help her up this time for
real. "Are you ok there miss?"





Kei walked away after the whole scene
with his usual face although albeit angrier then normal because of
Mu. On the way to the wheel he passed Millia who was laying against
the mast. "That was quite a scene you two just made." She
said simply to him as she walked over to him. "Please try to not
do that again, and I am not saying because she is your sister."
Millia then inordinately, and only because no one else was around,
walked over to Kei and held his hand. "You and I must keep this
crew together, it is almost time." She said as she looked out
upon the sea in the direction of the next city they were heading to
next.

"I will handle my anger better in the future,
Millia." Kei said smiling as he viewed the same direction. "Very
soon the world will know your name, and you will be among the best
pirates of all time."

"Yes," Millia said as she
actually gave a small blush in hidden excitement. "But let us
now get back to work. We are in a storm still." She said as she,
once again, did something she would never do in the presence of
anyone else, she hugged him lightly before she went back to giving
out orders.




Kai wanted to thank Mu, she wanted to
tell him she appreciated it, but that wasn't what happened. Still
holding on to more fury than even what a rabid bull was capable of
she watched the back of Kei's head. He was talking to Millia,
typical. Then the ever so discreet hug sent her over the edge.

A
young woman led astray by someone she was supposed to be able to
trust, not only was he lying, he was allowing her to develop feelings
for him. That was not a hug typical to such a bond. Kai found it
immoral and unethical. Millia went back to work. Now was the time to
strike.

She left Mu without words, and waited in a shadow. Her
red eyes flashing. Just as Kei was sauntering by, no doubt going back
for his lance, she lunged, leading with a hard kick to his back,
sending him flying into a wall, the sound of wood smashing was lost
in the storm. Kai was there in an instant and before he could get up,
had him in an arm lock. She whispered menacingly in his ear. "I
know you didn't forget we can do no real harm to each other unless
one of us is taken by surprise. I guess it was your turn..." She
looked over at the lance which still hadn't disappeared. "Come
to think of it, the lance you summoned out of cowardice might have
been able to do some damage. Shall we test that theory?" She
dragged him over to it. Securing both of his arms in a different lock
she reached over with her free hand and tried to pick it up. "ACK!"
She yelled in pain as the lance sent a powerful shock through her
body, loosening her hold.




Kei showed actual emotions of pain
through some of the pain inflicted on him this go around as Kai
attacked him. As soon as Kai got shocked by his lance he took
advantage of the situation immediately and quickly slipped out of her
grip, and afterwords grabbed her and flipped her over his shoulder
down next to the lance. Kei pulled the lance out of the deck and
press the side of it against Kai's neck sending shocks throughout her
whole body, but pulled back quickly as to not harm her badly, but
leaving temporary marks around her throat. "Enough of this
Kairi. I do not know what you mean by doing all this," He said
as he seemed to show signs of breathing heavily. "But," He
began to say as he seemed to stumble for a moment while he placed his
free hand against his forehead. The lance suddenly disappeared as Kei
opened his hand around it, and began to talk once again. "But
stop with all this, that is enough." He said a bit brokenly.
"There...there is no time for this, we must focus on this storm,
so please.." He said slowly and very surprisingly seemed to ask
in dire although the only thing on his mind was to keep Millia safe
from the storm. "Please, just hold it off, at least until the
storm ceases. That is all." He finished saying while he slowly
regained his composure back to his usual self.




As Kai tossed the towel to Mimi she
took it with a strong thank you in return. Mimi was drenched from
head to toe. Mimi didn't look at Kai she just keep the appreciation
to herself not wanting to become soft or seem to varnurble to her or
any of the other people who was a part of this crew. She felt she had
already failed herself once by crying out for help. She didn't feel
very welcome and decided her only defense and alliance was with
herself. Watching as Kai left the room, Mimi dried her dripping black
hair ,pacing back and forth in this room that filled with an aura she
didn't quite understand. Deciding a change of clothes might been in
need Mimi was thankful for the bag she had of a change of clothes,
though they weren't the most fashionable they would due. Bringing her
guitar with her into the restroom Mimi changed with relief she lasted
through this retched day. Looking into the oval marble framed mirror
Mimi looked flushed. Her face pale with her freckles complimenting
her nose. Talking to herself "Look at you Mimi, get it together
girl. Who cares they don't have to like me. I just need to get to
land and Ill be out of their way. Walking out of the restroom coming
abruptly to a stop she encountered Millia. A few shared glances to
this Captian of hers who also didn't look too friendly Mimi, she
decided to keep with her attitude and stay nutural. She kept a face
of no emotion as she past by Millia with the knowing of eyes
following her from behind. Mimi came to a place where she felt she
was alone and decided to rest.




Mu saw what was happening with Kai and
Kei and decided that Kai could handle herself. "I see that there
is still noone handling the wheel.....again...No No don't bother Mu
will get it as usual.....Not like theres a storm or anything just
keep on fighting." Mu said as he walked to the wheel. He passed
Millia and saw her sitting by the mast. Mu couldn't resist saying
something to her. "Well well what have we here our self
appointed "Captain" sitting down and cowering. I dont think
I've ever heard you this quiet... normally your barking at me or
throwing orders around. If you haven't noticed were int he middle of
a storm and it's getting worse. "Captain" if i may be so
bold as to suggest that you take control fast unless you want us all
to die. I suggest you start with that Boy-Pet you keep around. You
might want to actually add a leash for more then just looks. Keep him
under control or else were going to destroy this ship before we even
sight land. First and foremost though you might want to stop
shivering and act like a real Captain." Mu stared at Millia
right in the eyes for a ten count just to make his message sink in.
The humor that was always there in his voice and that which was there
at the start was completely gone. Mu was serious, Millia wanted to be
Captain and this was no game. If she didn't step up they would all
die. At the end of the count he tore his gaze away from hers and
walked to the wheel without waiting for a reply or even wondering if
his words had reached her. "Now to find a way out of this storm
before those blasted twins kill us all."





Kai fell back into sanity as a result
of Kei's aftershocks. The electric pain still echoed through her
body. She had no remorse for what had just happened, but was a tad
bit more enlightened as to what he meant by "shirking your
duties".

"Lunatic..." she thought as she tried
to get up. "He couldn't possibly have meant what I think he
did..." half way up she faltered and had to start over. The
second try was a success. The smell of her own burnt flesh nauseated
her. It wouldn't take long to heal, but she hated that there would be
marks on her body for any length of time.

She wanted to go
thank Mu for his aid, but saw that he was talking to Millia and
thought it best to wait until they were finished. In the mean time
she decided to stand in the pouring rain and enjoy it's soothing
persistence. Mimi was now a constant presence in her mind, but she
continued to try and push away the inevitable.





Looking down upon Mu, Millia got up
from leaning against the mast an began to talk away. "Hmph, I
had already given orders to Kei, and if he would stop getting into
those minuscule fights with that women we would be stable right now."
She said with a tint of anger in her voice. "As for you, just
continue to hold the wheel still. The storm should not last too much
longer, and then I want you to direct the ship towards Italy."
Millia said lastly before she walked off brushing off any comment Mu
may have made to her during her walk away, though listening.

Kei
was busily handling miscellaneous jobs around the ship, and during
the action he came upon Kai again. He simply asked a question when
their eyes met, something he was wondering a lot of the time. "Did
young Mimi get to a room, and is she resting nicely?" He asked
her nonchalantly.

"If you're so concerned, go check
for yourself." Kai sneered while her face contorted to an
expression of disgust. "Oh, and if she didn't slip through the
floor or get knocked overboard since last I saw her, tell her to stay
away from me."

Kai tried to push such thoughts away as
she approached Mu. She found her words of denial disturbing. They
felt very unnatural when they fell out of her mouth.

"Mu,
I wanted to thank you for intervening on my brother's episode."
Her face lightened. "It was quite a sight to see him fall in
such an embarrassing manner." The rain was still going strong
and under normal circumstances Kai would have been inside, but Mu
seemed to be the only half-sane insane person on the ship and Kai
didn't want to be alone with her thoughts.


"Now thats more like it."
Mu said as Millia walked away. He turned his attention back to the
storm. Millia may think this is just some storm but she obviously had
no experience with these kinds of things. Storms get bad quickly and
without warning. Mu was a pirate for many years and his ship and crew
were wiped out in an instant by a storm very much like this. It was
right as Kai came over that he vowed to make sure these new found
friends of his made it out alive. "It was pretty interesting to
embarrass him like that but he needs to learn to keep his temper
under control. Losing it so easily is not a wise choice he will get
not only himself but the rest of us killed. I lost my crew once to
petty squabbles and a storm like this. I will NOT let it happen again
Kairi." Mu took a deep breath and looked quickly at Kairi's
wounds. "Those are not bad but as soon as we get to port ill get
some supplies and make some medicine to make sure no scarring occurs.
I was First Mate and Doctor of my old ship." MU then put on his
characteristic cocky smile and let out a laugh. "It's going to
be interesting doing physicals" and then under his breath to
himself he added, "At least one of the crew is a female of
proper age eh?"





"Thank you." Kairi said
sincerely. Her body was already a canvas of scars, she didn't need
any in plain sight. "...and I'm sorry about what happened also.
I feel it was partly my fault as well. I could have ended it sooner,
but....if only you understood...never mind." she bit her lip
trying to decide what amount of information was necessary. "I
will say this, if you see something like this again and it doesn't
look favorable..." she looked Mu directly in his eyes "...well
let's just say some things are predetermined, and..." she looked
down and gave an uncomfortable chuckle. "Ah, I'm hungry are you?
Never mind my babbling, you are doing an excellent job at keeping
this steady through such a mess by the way. What did you say the name
of your crew was?




"Well....uh....we were
uh.....called the PiriPiri Pirates. We were...uh...well you could say
we were well known...The only one of the crew with a bigger bounty
then myself was my captain. He died of a rare disease right before
the storm and the rest were killed when the Red Rum capsized in the
storm." Mu looked at Kairi who seemed to be trying to hold back
her laughter. "Hey now I will have you know we were a band of
ruthless pirates in our day and very feared." Mu turned back to
the wheel and said "Whatever you were trying to say it's fine it
will come out when your ready and i may understand more than you
think. Whatever your problem with your brother is and whatever the
underlying cause of your journey is stop caring so much that its
affecting me. If not for you i would have died on that island. Now
I'm stuck on a boat with a toddler with a guitar, a little girl who
has yet to realize this isn't all a game, and two twins with creepy
powers who like to beat each other up for giggles...now that i think
about it that Island is sounding pretty nice." Mu laughed whole
heartedly despite the storm. "Hey at least you're an
entertaining lot."


"Fine then." Kei said to
Kai before he walked away towards the lower cabins. Kei came upon her
room and politely and quietly knocked on the door, but to no
response. Kei opened the door slightly to see Mimi sleeping quite
contently. Kei walked in after seeing the blankets had fallen off of
her. Kei lightly grabbed the blankets and pulled them over Mimi. "It
has been a rough day, rest easy young Mimi." He said he smiled
before turning around to the leave the room which after he had left
turned around and close the door.

"That seemed to be a
touching moment." Came Millia's voice from the stairwell. "Why
exactly did you bring her along, Kei?"

Kei, still with
his smile intact began to speak as he gave Millia a bow in greeting.
"It has to do with Kairi, that is all that will be necessary for
you to know, Miss Hakumei."

Millia looked down upon him
in suspicion but decided to not care about it for the moment as there
are more important things to get done. "Whatever you would like,
but at the moment your help is needed on deck." She said as she
turned around, blushed and walked towards the captain's
quarters.

Subsequently Kei went and began working his duties
around the ship during the storm that he hoped would end soon. Even
so, the next town was only hours away, and he seemed to be in deep
anticipation for that.




Kai believed Mu...somewhat. It would
have had to have been a good crew in order to compensate for the
name. "Thank you Mu, I'll try to keep what you said in mind.
Somehow despite being a pirate, you ended up a half-way decent
person, but don't worry that's another secret only we will share."
she said with a friendly wink. "I think I'm going to go see if
the captain needs something."

Kai walked to the Captain's
cabin thinking of what to say. When she got to the door she took a
deep breath and knocked. The door swung open. "Captain, I have
some things I'd like to discuss with you. Would now be a good time?"





Millia stared at Kairi as she stood in
front of her. After looking around outside of the cabin's door,
heavily hinting that she should be doing work around the ship at the
time, Millia let her in. "Fine, come in." She said almost
violently as she walked over to her main chair behind a large desk.





Kai noted the tone and thought it
comical. If you only knew were you came from, you'd be even worse,
she said to herself. "First of all, where's the watch I gave
you? It was not a frivolous gift, it should be kept with you at all
times. It enhances your power." Kai sat on the desk.

"If
that doesn't peak your interest my Captain, I must point out to you
that your trusted servant is a brazen liar." She twirled her
hair nonchalantly. "Now my young leader, I have information that
would cave in a lesser mind, I however think you can take it. The
question is, are you ready for your world to collapse around you? Are
you ready to know the truth?" Her face was serious and now
inches away from Millia's. Kai was reminded of the past. Millia's
skin looked just as smooth as it did when she was an infant. Her tiny
face was perfect, Kai had wanted so badly to be this child's
guardian, this almost flawless, noble child. Unfortunately it was
never so "The bond is not a choice, it's an instinct in both
individual's hearts." her master would say, but not only was
there no bond with Millia, there was no bond after her either... Kai
sighed a deep sigh at re focused on the present.




"You think I do not know that he
is a liar?" Millia asked harshly to Kai's face. "And tell
me whatever you like as I will always trust him with my life, and
that is all I need to know." She said just as harshly. As Millia
stared into her eyes a spark went off in her mind while she
continuously stared into her. "You for some reason seem
familiar, and it is not because you two look the same, and I suppose
it is another one of Kei's stories he has decided to hide from me,
but I do not care, tell me what you wish, but make it quick, do you
hear me?" She said as her voice seemed to show signs of actual
anger.





"Very well my princess, and yes
I am familiar." Kai uttered sweetly. "You are not from
here, there was an accident when you were very young. No one was sure
of what happened. Many thought you to be dead." She put her hand
a top Millia's angry head. "Would you like for me to go on?"

"Go on as long as you'd like."
Millia replied as a mix of both anger and curiosity filled her young
voice while she moved Kai's hand off of her head. Millia took the
watch out of a pocket and placed it on the table as she did so. "Hit
me with everything you have got."




Kai was about to divulge everything,
but fate had other plans. KRAKATHOOM!!!! Lighting struck the ship
sending pieces of the captains cabin everywhere. Fortunately Kai and
Millia were completely unharmed, but there was a gaping hole where
the lightning had struck.

Kai looked over to make sure Millia
still had her watch. "My lady we are sinking at a remarkable
speed, I could whip something up to correct the damage but we are
taking on water much too quickly! Something must be done!" Kai
was about to wait for Millia's command, but her mind flashed to a
soundly sleeping Mimi who was sure to drown if she didn't get above
deck. With a panicked heart and not a word Kai left immediately.





Before Millia could even give an order
to Kai she sped out of the cabin. "Well it looks like she is
getting the hang of this." Millia said to herself as she grabbed
the watch and strapped it onto her wrist. Millia ran out of the cabin
towards the wheel where Mu was sure to be steering as she yelled out
on the way over, "Mu, how close to the city are we now?"
And in the next instance before hearing his response she shouted her
next order to Kei who had just arrived on the scene. "Kei,
quickly go and help Kai keep the hull together, now! And do not argue
whatsoever with her!" She added to her order as she ran to the
front of the ship, and turned around facing towards the back, still
within earshot of Mu. "Mu, I want you to release the sails after
they are done with the hull! Trust me!" She yelled out in
despair, quite out of character for her even in such a dire
situation.




If it wasn't for his years of
experience Mu might have flinched when the lightning hit the cabin.
He might have panicked when he heard the sound of the hull splitting.
Fortunately for his Crewmates Mu was no novice pirate. He immediately
took out two small hooks from his pocket and tied his string to each.
With all his strength he slammed each into the deck. Taking out two
more hooks, he tied the other end of each string to each hook. With
these hooks however, Mu ran through the wood of the wheel holding it
in place. With the wheel secure Mu turned to answer Millia's
question. "We are about maybe an hour from land half as much
from the edge of the storm." Mu then processed what Millia had
said next and in a split second decided to trust her. Mu nodded
quickly to his Captain and with a quick "Aye, Aye" he
practically ran up the mast and across the cross beam positioning
himself perfectly to release the sails. Mu stood there on top of the
world in the middle of the storm. He stood there as if he wasn't even
affected by the wind. He was the picture of utter determination. He
would either die here or keep his promise and get his new found
friends to shore. Mu stared out at the center of the storm with a
face of steel. Taking a deep breath he said, voice carrying despite
the wind and thunder, "STORM I MU OF THE BELLS SAY THIS TO THEE.
YOU TOOK MY CREW AND SHIP FROM ME ONCE BUT YOU SHALL NOT EVER AGAIN.
I WILL DEFEAT YOU HERE AND NOW. SO GIVE ME YOUR WORST." Mu then
stood stark still as the storm let out thunder and lightening as if
in angry response to his cries. Silently he poised himself waiting
for Millia's word. Waiting for death.




Kai rushed to Mimi's room and threw
open the door. She was still sleeping and seemed completely
unaffected by the chaos outside. She sloshed through the water that
snuck it's way into the room and picked up the girl.

Kai was
halfway out when she remembered Mimi's guitar, "Children and
their toys." she muttered to herself shaking her head. "I
bet she would have come back down here after it if I would have
forgotten." Kai held Mimi in one arm and Lectri in the other.
She very nearly ran into Kei on her way up, he wore his usual
expression, but when he saw Kai with Mimi it grew to a new level of
smug. "Not a word." She whispered and frantically motioned
him up.

The upper deck was an even bigger mess than when she
left it. "Mu! No!" Kai yelled when she saw the severity of
his heroics. She had to think fast, all they had to work with were
parts of the ship. "Kei, look for large pieces of the cabin!
I'll start dismantling what still stands of it. We'll use the nails
that are already in the wood but we will have to make due with our
hands as hammers." She looked up at Mu "Everyone's making
it out of this, no matter what."




Millia watched everything that was
happening on the ship, almost in slow motion making sure she took in
every detail. She watched as Kei and Kai hurriedly fixed the most
important parts of the hull, and watched Mu lock down the wheel and
prepare to let go of the sails. Millia then began to focus all her
attention towards the back of the ship and to the direction of the
wind as her nose began to bleed to a slight amount. "Mu! Release
them now! Now!" She yelled out loudly over the raging storm. As
he was commanded he let go of the sails releasing them to their full
length. "Everyone, hold on to something, now!" She yelled
out further as her nose began to bleed further even giving Kei a
worried look towards her. Slowly a very large green portal began to
form so that the wind would flow into it stopping the boast from
rocking back and forth so strongly, and at the same time another
large portal began appearing towards the back of the boat, releasing
said wind energy flowing at double it's normal speed. Kei picked up
on what Millia was doing and hurridly ran into the middle of the to
help Millia keep her focus, and to keep the portals in their position
around the ship. In that sudden instant the ship took off like a
large rocket speeding towards the same direction. After only five
minutes of holding the power like this Millia;s nose was now in full
bleed effect, dripping to the ground. "Just a bit longer, just a
bit longer, I will get us out of this!" Millia yelled as her
eyes grew wide and veins began to show on her forehead as the portals
grew substantially larger, even causing Kei's nose to begin to bleed
from the stress, and he was only assisting her. The sudden pickup of
speed made sure that within minutes the port that they were on a
course to came within view in only ten minutes, but the ship showed
no signs of slowing as it continued on a collision course with the
main docks. Millia began to try to reverse the wind cycle with any
power she had left, but as she tried to do so her eyes began to
bleed, and at the same moment her eyes closed as she fell into an
unconscious state, and fell from her high stand on the bow onto the
deck with a hard slam, and like a rag doll was tossed around until
her body collided with wheel which snapped in half as she hit it.
Following suit, Kei had also fallen unconscious, but did not suffer
from the same rag doll effect as he was close to the cabin, but now
they were in trouble as everyone prepared for the crash into the
docks, brick, and metal docks.




With the lack of Mimi's previous sleep
routine and the unfortunate living arrangements Mimi made for herself
since leaving the orphanage she went into a deep sleep in the bed
that to her felt like sleeping on clouds. In her unconscious state
Mimi live in life before her parents death. "Mimi come to the
back I have something I wanna share with you" Yelled her father
in a excited tone. Mimi walked out the sliding doors of their home to
the cement ground and sat in her fathers favorite red plastic chair
with a flower pot of orchids sitting to the right of the chair legs.
With a questioning look mixed with excitement when she seen the red
guitar she loved to here her father play she replied clapping her
hands spasmodically "Are you going to play me another song? I
love you you play dad!" With no reply her father being to play a
song he wrote himself stopping in the middle he removed the guitar.
Calling her by her given name her father gestured for her to stand
and come to him. "Miyuki." Confused by this action Mimi
stood and walk to her father with a questioning look watching his
eyes for answers she stood 2 feet away when he signaled her to stop.
Her father looked at her and smiled with a glitter in his eye and a
hit of sadness. He placed the guitar around Mimi and adjusted it to
her. "Miyuki I want you to have her and you to finish the song I
wrote for you. I want you to remember me and know always that I love
you with all of my heart. No matter what happens I will always be
with you." Looking into her fathers eyes Mimi could see tears
trapped, she begin to cry for her father. Mimi opened her mouth the
begin to speak and her father vanished. The ground beneath her begin
to open to and shake. Everything around her being to become more and
more faint. Running around lost soon Mimi was in darkness hearing
nothing but the loud sounds of thunder and the wind screaming. Mimi
was drenched in the tears that seems to be beyond her control at a
very rapid unusual rate which soon flooded the blackness she was
trapped in. Remembering the guitar her father placed around her she
grasped it pleading to the darkness to release her. All at once the
flood she created with her tears Mimi was thrown into the ground of
blackness waking her from this sleep in a frantic scare.

Looking
around her Mimi panted in her head lost and scared confused what had
just happened. She looked over it Milla and Kei "What is going
on, where am I" Mimi screamed. Looking at Kai she ran to her and
looked up full of questions and confusion in her eyes. "What's
going on, what's that?" she demanded as she pointed at this
strange circle that seemed to be floating in thin air.


Mu clung onto the mast for dear
life as Milli's spell rocketed them forward. It seems they had
survived the storm but now they were going to die by crashing into
the docks. Mu was not about to let these young ones die. He had one
last trick up his sleeve but it he had never truly perfected the
technique. Mu knew that it took a lot of energy and he might even die
in the process but if he saved his new friends he wouldn't care. Mu
immediately set to work by cutting off the already torn sails. Next
he took a bell in each hand and began to hum. Suddenly Mu began to
float in the air and began to fly in front of the ship. Mu brought
his hands together as his voice hit a crescendo and became one high
pitched sound as if the constant single note of a bell. He stopped
moving backwards and spread his arms apart a bell floating dead
center in each palm. From the bells came a cross wave net of
thousands of threads and at each cross section was a miniature
version of Mu's bells. The ship collided with the net but instead of
breaking through or breaking apart the net spread to the form of the
ship until each end tapered off at the bells in his hand. Mu was
immediately dragged backwards with the ship. To those who watched it
seemed as if Mu was trying to stop the ship with pure strength, but
what was really happening was that the thousands of tiny bells in
Mu's net were absorbing the kinetic energy from the ship but as he
feared he was not yet powerful enough to control it. The ship was not
slowing fast enough and Mu was already getting exhausted. Suddenly as
all hope seemed lost Mu felt the familiar presence of two very
annoying little souls.

"Hey Meri looks like he's havin a
bit o' trouble eh?" "Seems like it Geri, it's a shame to
see em fail what with all those innocent lives at steak" "Thats
stake you dimwit not steak" "How can you's be's hungry at a
time loik dis shame on ye! We need to help these peoples" All Mu
heard next was what he thought was the sound of a palm against a
forehead but he was never quite sure. He thought he was going insane
again but anything was worth a try to save his friends. "Hey you
two....I need your help....i need to to concentrate with all your
willpower on stopping the ship just command it to stop with all your
thought. Please if you want to save them...do it now....", Mu
said talking with his inner voice. Alrighty then matey we shall do et
for ye crew mates"

Suddenly the bells in each hand began
to grow bright green and pink respectively and the energy poured out
form each through the net until the net was a glowing cascade of
pulsing pink and green. The ship began to slow rapidly until it came
to a halt just a few 100 yards short of the docks. The net
disappeared and Mu ceased to hum and float, his energy spent. Mu fell
from the sky into the ocean losing consciousness rapidly. As Mu sank
deeper into the ocean and into the unconscious depths of his mind his
last thoughts were of peace. "at least i saved
them...."


Meanwhile back on the boat just next to
Kairi's feet were a pair of daggers with a string attached to them
and a note, the note saying 'Dear Kairi in case of Mu falling from
ship after saving all of your behinds. Pull this string as fast as
you can. There is a prize at the end. and it was signed "Your
partner in crime and might I add doctor and person who just saved
your life, the great hero to you all. Mu of the Bells."




Kai Laughed heartily at Mu's note. She
was concerned about Millia and Kei, but was extremely relieved that
Mu wasn't going to a watery grave. "Child," she said
picking up the string. "Help me pull him up, 4 hands are faster
than 2." Mimi and Kai began pulling, and in no time had Mu on
the edge of the ship. "Hold it steady girl, I'm going to pull
him the rest of the way in."

Kai hoisted Mu onto the
deck. He was unconscious and not breathing. She laid him down and
started doing compressions. Pushing the water out to make room for
oxygen. Mu sputtered as the last bit of water left his lungs. His
breathing resumed normally but was slightly labored. "Please
stay with him for a moment." she said motioning for Mimi to go
to Mu's side. "I'm going to check on the others."

Kai
found Millia's limp bloody body and laid it next to Mu's. She checked
her pulse and decided no immediate resuscitation measures would be
required. She repeated this process with Kei.

"Mimi,"
making rare use of her name "would you please fetch the
dressings and other medical supplies. I don't know how long we'll
have to patch these 3 up before we have to start doing some damage
control." Kai was referring to the men and women of the port who
must have seen the seaside spectacle. They would have to either
explain, or flee the scene all together. She looked at her three crew
mates and felt a wave of sadness. She never anticipated how emotional
it would be to see Kei and Millia again, and she certainly never
imagined she'd make any new friends.





Mu coughed and sputtered as the
remnants of his ocean plunge exited form his lungs. He sat up and
immediately noticed Millia and Kei lying broken and bleeding on the
deck. He immediately ran below deck and found the meager medical
supplies the ship had. He ran back up to the deck and patched up
Millia and Kei as best he could. He stood up and walked over to Kai
and said, "Thank you for pullin me out of the water. I stopped
the bleeding on those two the best I could but the real healing will
have to wait until my strength comes back. I think the best course of
action is to anchor here for now until they wake up and we should all
rest. Help me move those two below deck and onto some cots and then
we both should rest." Mu indicated to Millia and Kei as he
spoke. He moved off to check on Mimi to see if she was injured and he
escorted her below deck before coming back to get the others.

Looking at Kai he said "Well what are you waiting for I need
a hand."

To Mimi these events were all happening
soo fast. She was a bit tired from pulling in Mu alothough very
pleased to feel she finally accomplished something. Mimi was still
wondering what exactly was happening but noted to herself with all
that is going her her mer questions would have to wait. She did as
Kai said and went to get medical supplies as she seen Mu rushing out
with them.She admired him from a distance. As Mu brought her below
deck Mimi thought to herself. "Wow hes incrediable, it seems
nothing can stop him. I bet I could learn a few things if I stick
around him." As Mu briskly walked away to go check on the others
Mimi yelled. "Thanks Mu, Mu of the Bells!" hoping that
slight bit a respect she has yet to show to any one else except Kei
might get her on Mu's good side.





As Kei and Millia were being brought
down to the bottom deck, Kei began to stir as he shook his head and
slowly opened his eyes after several blinks. "Wh-where is
Millia?" He struggled to say as he tried to cause who was
carrying him to lose grip, and hastily, but wearily went to see
Millia who had not been picked up as of yet. Kei fell to his knees
next to Millia as he looked upon her with a hesitant look on his
face, worried, but still trying to keep his usual composure in front
of everyone else. He ran his fingers through her hair which was
covering her forehead and pushed her hair behind her ear as his
vision faded in and out from a small concussion. "Never mind
this hell hole of a ship...." Kei began as he leaned over to
pick Millia up himself. "We-we'll need better beds, we-we must
go into town." He said as he picked Millia up and began to
slowly limp towards the exit plank of the side of the ship that was
close enough to a dock. Kei rested Millia on the deck, and afterwords
began to twirl a knob which slowly caused a plank to extend towards
the dock as his vision continued to fade inwards and outwards.





The portside city of Romala, known for
fine wines, dancing, and women. This was a local pirate haunt, and a
place known throughout the world as a place to avoid at all
costs.

Isaiah Roma was one of the best ship-hands in town. He
had helped build ships for years before he joined his first crew, and
he sailed with them for at least a year before he returned to his
beloved Romala. There was only one thing that truly held Isaiah in a
grasp of fear: The shadows.

Roma was a superstitious man, and
he knew of many evils lurking in the dark, but he didn't let this
stop him from enjoying his life to the fullest.

As Isaiah
stumbled across the pier in an alcohol induced daze, he saw a blip
out in the distance of the sea.

"Eh? Wuzzat?"

He
pulled a peroscope out of his jacket and looked out into the
distance, and saw a battered ship.

"Well wouldja look at
that...Disgusting. Wonder how the crew of that thing let her get so
badly tossed about?" He asked aloud as the alcohol started to
wear off, and his serious eye as a repairman started to take notice.





Grey Naria professional thief son of a
pirate and love of women stood watching his adoptive brother Isaiah.

Grey was a well known man in the slums and brothels of Romala. He
was also the strangest thief most had seen considering unlike most
thieves who carried knives, daggers, or swords Grey had two hand
scythes on his back. Some who knew his father in the past weren't
surprised. His father was a pirate known as Giovanni the Grim as in
Grim reaper. the man carried a scythe as a weapon. So in a way his
son took after him.

'i wonder whats ruffled his feathers'
Grey thought.

Grey jumped down behind Isaiah.

"Whats
wrong bro what do you see?" he asked concerned




Isaiah merely snorted and handed Grey
the peroscope.

"Take a look." He scoffed as he sat
down at the pier.




Grey looked through the
telescope.

"wow that ship is dieing" Grey looked
again. "badly."

Grey sat down next to Isaiah.

"Now
i see why your upset."


Kai was surveying the hull waiting
for Mimi to return when Mu sprang to life. She watched him out of the
corner of her eye, but was more concerned with the condition of the
ship. "Just a moment Mu, I need to make sure this is going to
hold until we can get some real repairs done." she responded to
his call to action.

The ship was still taking on water, but
not fast enough to be a a current priority. "I guess this will
have to do." She shrugged her shoulders.

Not two seconds
later Kei dragged his pseudo corpse up to Millia. He said something
inaudible, and picked her up, clumsily making his way to the exit
plank.

Following closely behind, Kai waited until Kei put
Millia down. In one swift, silent chop to his neck she knocked him
out. "That was for your own good." she murmured.


Carefully placing both bodies over her shoulders she went to
look for Mu. He was standing with Mimi just a few feet away from
where the bodies were previously.

"Perhaps my brother
had the right idea. The injured need to be comfortable, you included.
I think we should go find an inn and get some rooms for the night."
she looked concerned "You need rest some rest before you
continue tending to these two, and please don't make me knock YOU
out. I can carry all three of you at once if I must.




Isaiah merely chuckled as he sat at the
pier, and he took out a piece of gold, held it to glimmer in the sun,
and began to wave it back and fourth as a signal to the
ship.

"AHOY!" He shouted as loud as he could,
knowing he would barely be heard.


Grey laughed at his brother. "That
little coin wont work."

He pulled one of the scythes off
his back. and twitched his wrist so that the silver part of the blade
glimmered brightly in the sunlight.

"That should work
right bro?"




Mu shook his head and smiled at Kairi's
comment. "You are correct of course, My dear. We must get
ourselves to an Inn so we can all rest....you included your wounds
are not as light as you would think. We have all been through alot."
Mu was about to start putting Millia and Kei into the row boat that
they would use to get to shore when he was suddenly blinded by a
flashing light and a barely heard ahoy. Mu squinted and looked back
and was blinded by an even bigger blinding light. "WHAT THE
HELL! YOU TRYING TO BLIND SOMEONE??" Mu yelled at the idiot who
decided to blindside him. Mu waved back and quickly found a piece of
glass and signed to them.
"NEED...HELP....HAVE...INJURED....SEND...BOAT...."

As Isaiah heard a shout from the
ship, he watched as a light began to blind him.

"Morse
code...."

After a moment of watching, Isaiah nodded and
got up, moving towards the docks.

"It's an SOS."


"Aye." Grey said "it
said that they have injured"

Grey began to follow
Isaiah.

"Bro you want me to call the boys from the back
steets to help?"

Grey followed Isaiah waiting for an
answer.




Isaiah laughed and continued moving
towards the docks.

"Heh! Lemme see how they're doing
first, I'll signal back if we need more men. You stay here."




"AWW come on isaiah!"

Grey
growled at his brother.

"Fine"




Isaiah laughed as he hopped aboard the
Veritass, a moderately sized vessel bearing the symbol he had proudly
made himself, a hammer and anvil, coated in blood.

Isaiah
hoisted the sails high and took off for the ravaged ship, swiftly
making his way with the wind at his back.




Mu saw the ship approaching and quickly
lowered the ladder to help the man on board.

"Hi I am Mu
of the bells. Thank you for coming!"





Isaiah merely blinked.

"Hail!"
He climbed aboard the ruined vessel and chuckled.

"Izzy
Roma, welcome to Romala!" He shouted with a hearty laugh as he
shook Mu's hand.





"Welcome Izzy," Mu said
shaking his hand. "We ran a-muck in the storm and a few of the
crew were injured." With that Mu and Izzy moved Millia and Kei
into the boat and lowered the boat for himself Mimi and Kai. "Thank
you Izzy we shall see you on shore." With that Mu saluted
finally passed out and fell off the ship and into the row boat. There
lay completely passed out with his salute and smile still on his
face.


He sat in a corner table at a
raggedy, dusty inn. He slowly opened his eyes that felt as if they'd
been closed for years. A long thin piece of pipe extended from his
mouth to his hand. He closed his eyes once more and puffed. Thoughts
raced through his quiet mind. "Who am I? What am I doing here?
Where am I going? When's dinner? The cooks getting lazy." The
barmaid saw that his pint was getting low and decided to come and
refill it. She slowly walked to the dark figure and asked meekly,
"Moar sur?"

A low grunt was emitted from the
darkness. She poured and left without turning her back. The mans
eyebrows furrowed with harrowing thoughts of nightmares from a life
he never had. War, blood, tragedy. All these dreams haunting him as
if sins from a past life were catching up with him. "Just
dreams..." he muttered. "Dreams..."

He
scratched a branding scar on his left arm. "Wish I knew when I
got this or who gave it to me..." He scowled at the nearby
patrons. No one sat with this man. No one spoke to him either. A
stranger's stranger.

His eyes opened and closed once more.
Remembering a feeling of duty that overcame him when he looked upon
this particular inn. as he arrived. Following instinct more than the
warning in his heart, he had entered. Waiting for something or
someone...





Kai shook her head, she tried to warn
him."What he said, except I won't be passing out. Nice to meet
you." she helped Mimi into the boat. After securing the Mu she
started heading to shore.

Isaiah merely chuckled at that and
tipped his hat.

"Miss." And with that, he turned
back toward the harbor and steered the ship back to port.

When
they arrived in the port, Isaiah immediately hopped off of the ship
and looked to the nearby men that Grey had gathered.

"Alright
boys! Let's get these sorry lugs outta here! Move!"

And
the men took the injured Kei and Milla off of the boat, lifting them
up and bringing them into a nearby inn, which had the mark of an
anvil and hammer carved into the wood.

"Come on boys!
Look sharp, we have a couple of ladies comin' in, injured too! Put on
your best faces and show 'em that men of Romala can be gentlemen when
we wanna be!" He roared with a laugh.


Grey sighed. Then bowed to Kai.
"Miss"

he then picked up Kei and walked toward the
inn.

"You fucker's better not get any ideas with these
poor ladies or i'll get Guard Captain Isabela on you."




Isaiah laughed at his 'brother's' stern
tone.

"Lighten up, Grey! It's not like they're gonna do
anything! Learn to trust my men a bit more, eh lads?!" He asked
his men, who proceeded to roar in laughter.


Grey snorted. "its not your
boys i'm worried about." he said while glaring at three men in
the crowd. "i'm worried about these three drunk back street
assholes."

"They were drinking in the bar and saw
me gathering your guys together and decided to follow." Grey
grimaced. "These three have been banned from every house of
night in Romala. So i dont trust them with any women." he looked
at Kai. " you look like a woman who can handle yourself but do
watch yourself. Please."




From the moment the ship first was able
to be seen on the horizon, and until the crew members had been
brought into an inn, a young girl, perhaps not even in her teens, had
watched the entire scene including seeing the power that Millia had
released and Kei helped control. "The Umi family....., but that
is an impossibility, they are currently over two hundred miles away,
why would they be here..?" She thought these things to herself
before she turned away and began to walk towards a large and
expensive looking house. "It's probably nothing, but I better
let him know anyway." After not to long a walk she arrived at
the house and entered, nearly slamming the door on her way
in.


___________________________________


Meanwhile
while be carried, Kei began to blink again as he began to stir. "Damn
that Kai." He said as he rubbed his neck before realizing he was
being carried to which he just stared for a moment, blankly, until he
spoke up. "WH-what the hell? Why am I being carried like this?"
He asked as it seemed to have hurt his pride to be given help when he
was the one who had wanted to help.




"Shut up Kei and act your age."she
scowled at her brother, secretly relieved he was conscious. "You
over exerted yourself again, so just pretend you have some shred of
maturity and take the help."

Suddenly there was a low
beeping in her pocket. Kai turned away for a moment so no one would
see her radar, and looked. "Oh no..." she whispered before
putting it in her pocket and turning back around.

"I
hate to be rude, but think we need to hurry up." She glanced
around the room before her eyes settled on a dark man in a corner.
"Yes, chop chop gentlemen!"




The mans silent peace was interrupted
by a band of what looked like loud children. Carrying each other like
drunkards, they stumbled into the inn. He looked up from his pipe and
examined each of them. Sinking further into the shadows he noticed
one of them looked into their pocket and pulled out something shiny.
Her eyes darted across the room and locked with his. Her pale blue
icy eyes locked with his.

Immediately, a horrible jolt of
pain shot through his head as if a bolt of lightning had struck him.
Flashes of fire and screams echoed through him. He closed his eyes
and opened them again only to find himself at the top of a tower with
his sword held high above his head. A small girl was standing in
front of him covered in blood. She pointed at him and he lowered his
sword. Tears streamed down his face, closing his eyes and opening
them again, he returned to the inn. He grunted softly and composed
himself. His hand descended slowly to the hilt of his sword and
gripped it as if getting ready to use it. Nothing like that had ever
happened before, but he was determined to find out why. The group was
shown their rooms and he decided to take a closer look.





As the guests slept in their rooms,
Isaiah began to look at the battered ship in the dead of
night.

"This hunk of wood and metal is useless, hardly
worthy of a pirate vessel. Maybe I can salvage some of
it..."

Immediately he began to toss battered wood and
twisted metal left and right, looking for pieces to add to the pile
of possible salvage.

"Pathetic. Useless. Crap. How is
there nothing good left on this floating wreck?!" Isaiah became
frustrated very quickly and began to throw more debris.




Mu awoke with a start in a strange
room. "Well this is interesting.", Mu said as he got up
stretched and headed out the doorway. He entered what must have been
the main room of the building. The room was filled with all sorts of
drunkards and whores and anything one would expect to find in a port
side tavern. Mu was disgusted....Mu was home...and he loved it. He
grabbed a pint from a nearby wench and made his way over to Kairi,
who was standing near the Wanted posters and seemed to be trying to
hold in her laughter. Mu could just make out what was on the poster
she had in her hand. "Oh....No..." Mu said as he realized
with horror what she was looking at. He approached her silently and
quickly made a grab for the poster in her hand.





Kairi put her hand on Mu's forehead and
held him at arms length away from the poster. She couldn't hold in
the laughter anymore "AHAHA Relax!" Mu was still frantic
"Relax, I said!. haha!" trying to gather her composure.

Mu
stopped struggling and Kai took her hand away. "Don't worry..."
she was still snickering "no one will ever hear of your stint in
the apparently benign 'Bubblegum Pirates' crew!"

Kai bit
her lip as she looked over the poster again. It read "WANTED: MU
OF BELLS" with a horribly unflattering image of everyone's
favorite doctor/psychopath wearing bright pink trousers, a matching
shirt, long narrow high heeled shoes, and a pointy candy striped hat
with a cluster of bells at the end. The bounty was obscenely low,
half a pence and a hearty handshake.

After another bout of
laughter she handed the poster to Mu. "Ahaha!!!!! I have to go
ahahahaha!!!!!! wash up." She pointed to the poster "heeheeahaha
don't say I've never done you any favors!" She stumbled into the
wash area in tears. The room consisted of buckets, rags, and not much
else. It was a place for the working girls to come and try to wash
their sins away. Kai splashed some water on her face but was too
smart to use one of the whore rags.

They seemed to be nothing more than a
bunch of misfit clowns. Hissing and bickering like a dysfunctional
farming family. The walking cat collar was talking to the girl that
induced that vision. It was time to ask her some questions. She
separated herself from the rest of the group and headed into the one
area of the inn you should never go in by yourself. The wash-room.
She calmly splashed water on her supple ivory skin. It trickled down
her face and a sigh of refreshment was emitted from her. It was time
to make my entrance.

I lithely descended from the rafters
above and positioned myself behind her. Walking over to the one
unbroken mirror in the room, she slowly bent over to unbuckle her
boots. When she rose, she looked in the mirror. Startled, she turned
around only to get spun around once more and tripped. Falling on her
****, I quickly shackled her legs behind her head. Unsheathing my
sword, I held it a centimeter away from her throat. "Who are
you? And what are you doing here? Where did you come from? Don't
scream or this will be a very short conversation."




Looking around with wonder and sights
Mimi's never seen she thought to herself, "Well this place is
interesting, these women here are barley wearing anything" She
watched Kai leave to head to the restroom. Shortly after she went
behind her to the bathroom also. She noticed a larking dark figure
heading in the same direction. Mimi waited a little not getting a
good vibe from this man. She noticed the figure was following Kai.
Almost ghost like she proceeded after him. peering into the
relatively small bathroom that was clouded by many perfumes. She
noted the actions this man was making and a sharp object in his hand.
Startled by this sight she had to regain focus fast. "Think girl
think!" she thought to herself. During this time she noticed the
blade rising to Kai's neck. "I cant move him or she might get
hurt." In the corner of her eye she noticed a hand held mirror
made of what looked to be sterling sliver. With this thick mirror she
launched the heavier then normal mirror with all her strength towards
the cowards head. Running to go get help she thought to her self
"That has to give me sometime." She spotted Mu "Perfect"
she announced to Mu, quickly explaining to him what she had just seen
and the danger she though Kai was in." "Move Mu move why
aren't you doing anything!" Mimi exclaimed , presenting herself
as a child having a fit.




Eventually Isaiah gave up on the
tattered ship.

"I'll just torch this thing in the
morning. Not like there's anything worthwhile on board."

He
quickly hopped of the ship and gathered up all of his salvage,
bringing it to his workshop, where he proceeded to dump it all in a
pile of warped wood and mangled metal, his salvage pile.

He
walked over to his work area, full of chains and half-finished ships,
and models of complete ones.

"Hm....These idiots are
gonna need something special...."





Mu heard what Mimi had said and
immediately reached for his Bells. As he burst through the door he
saw that the mysterious figure had recovered from Mimi's attack and
was making a move towards Kairi once again. "Hands off the
girl!." Mu said as he spun his string around the strangers sword
hand causing the sword to slam into the wall a foot away from Kairi's
head. Mu then flicked his wrist and his string bound the mysterious
stranger's arms behind him. Mu then proceeded to kick him in the
back, knocking him down, and straddling him, wrapped his string
around his neck and pulled back with more force then one should, but
Mu didn't care. "You made a mistake pal...Now tell me why i
shouldn't just end your life here and now!"




I found myself lying on the floor
whilst a "man" straddled me like a horse. My hands bound
behind my back. It would seem I was trapped and at his mercy. It
would seem. The man yanked on his strings harder, digging
deeper into my neck. I grinned and looked back at him. "Done
yet?"
He cocked his head to the left in confusion, not
knowing what to make of my comment. I slipped one hand to my wrist to
reveal a collection of assorted colored needles, and stabbed his ***
hard with a green one. Like a stone, he dropped. A pre-pubescent girl
had "followed" me into the wash-room. She stood at the
doorway getting ready to scream for backup.
"Nope. That's
enough interruptions for one night." I raised my arm and
revealed a miniature wrist bow. Right between the eyes. She went down
cold.
"You'll both be alright in a few hours. When you wake
up, you'll feel like you've just went a few rounds with a giant ape.
Tsk. The victory is in the preparation. Just be glad I didn't use the
black ones. You'd have a mess to clean up afterwards."
I
turned back around to the girl that was in the corner. Scrambling,
looking for a weapon.
"Now you and I are going to have a
civilized conversation. Starting now..."





Mu got up and threw himself in front of
Kairi defending her from the mysterious stranger. "Listen
pal....whatever was in those darts wont affect me. I'm immune to most
poisons and know how to cure those in which i haven't worked an
immunity to. I would really like to know what your obsession with my
crew mate is. I suggest you answer me now. My friends behind you
aren't as forgiving as I am." Mu looked behind the mysterious
stranger to see that help had arrived. "Now where were we."




As all the commotion and loud noise
began to quiet down the door to the main building where it all
happened was slammed open, revealing Millia and Kei standing there as
Millia yelled out, "What the hell is all that noise?! Can't
anyone be quiet in this damn place!" Millia walked into the
middle of the room as Kei followed contently as Millia looked around
at the undesirable place. "Not to great a place is it, Kei?"
She asked as she looked around the place.

"No, I am
afraid it is not, and it is quite rowdy, even with how they treat the
injured, pride and all." Kei said with a small twitch in his
eyebrow, to which Millia responded with nothing but one eyebrow
raised.

"Anyway, it seems most of the commotion is coming
from that filthy washroom, come Kei." Millia said angrily as she
motioned towards the door to which she soon slammed open although
feeling grossed from touching such a filthy door, getting the
attention of the strange man, Mu, and Kairi. Millia walked in quietly
with Kei right on her heels until she got in the middle of the three
of them. She slowly cleared her throat as she yelled, "Can;t any
of you be quiet!?" Angrily she looked at each person, wanting to
hit Mu, give Kairi another talking to, and to severely injure this
new guy. "Kei, the new guy," She said as Kei bowed
replying, yes my Lord, as he stepped in front of the newcomer. "Now
Mu," Millia said as she walked toward him, "Why could this
not be handled while bein quiet, hm?" She asked him as she
slapped him across the face although it seemed not with her full
strength at all for some reason, as Mu could tell. After locking eyes
with Mu she moved over to Kai and unraveled the chain binding her
hands. "Come Kai, we have words to speak I believe, words that
were not finished on the boat." She said as she grab Kairi ear
and pulled as punishment for the noise. "We shall go and talk
near the dock, away from people, you are free to stay here or come as
well Kei." She said as Kei stared down this new man.

With
a smile and eyes closed, Kei nodded as he spoke, "I will stay
here for now, I am always a call away." He said as if expecting
something to happen in the near future.




Targeted right between her eyes with
this mysterious dart from the figure who seemed to be was invincible,
countering every blow sent young Mimi flying off her feet and
crashing into Lectri on the floor beneath her. Seemingly this action
did not affect her the way it expected to. Mimi lay on the cold floor
of this restroom with her eyes shut trying to get rid of the slight
pain this blow caused her. Hearing all the fuss and the sound of
Millia's authoritative tone Mimi decided to prolong her incident
until Millia came from off her rampage.

Hearing the foot
steps louder then she normally would and placing them with Milla
departing, Mimi screeched as she sat up. First analyzing her guitar
to make sure it wasn't harmed then she proceeded to the man "What
the heck was that" peering at this dark figure who had knocked
her out for a split second. Mimi was filled with rage, a feeling she
didn't often let other see. Walking up to this man who so carelessly
attacked a child her heart was beating an extensive amount, Mimi
froze in her footsteps 10ft away from this man as she realized the
heart beats she was hearing were not all her own. She simply said to
the man in a hushed tone who's heart seemed to be beating twice as
much as those around him. "Well I guess your not so strong after
all huh bub." He had sour look confused as why this little girl
was even standing at the moment.

She felt her self begin to
get a little drowsy. Turning her back to him she walked over to the
sinks as she spoke in a snickering tone loud enough for him to hear
"What a complete fool, he should be ashamed of him self."
Mimi turned the faucet knob and splashed the ice cold water on her
face. Looking into the mirror searching for a mark Mimi that wasn't
there Mimi was relieved. She turned off the faucet, walking past this
coward of a man she looked into his eyes and said nothing she stood
next to Kei in silence.




Kai was not in the mood to have her ear
tugged on. "My lady please, that's quite enough of that."
she said gently prying Millia's fingers off. After being chained,
threatened, and emasculated in front of everyone, she refused to walk
on egg shells. Kai's cheeks burned with embarrassment. To be taken by
surprise, in a whore washroom no less, was a rookie mistake to say
the least.

She had never been in a good enough position to see
this man's face during the ordeal, but her radar, along with her
instincts told her he was out of the ordinary. " I don't think
it's wise to leave them all alone together. That man is... well
he's... I think he's someone I may have come across in my travels, I
just can't place him."

Suddenly Mimi appeared in her
mind's eye. Kai was very proud of the spirit and determination she'd
demonstrated, but Mimi was inexperienced and it was not her job to
protect Kai....In fact quite the opposite.

"Please can we
speed this up your highness, I must get back to the little one, it
was very unwise of her to challenge that man. His darts can be quite
lethal." "Wait," she thought "how do I
know that?"




"Hmph," Millia said as she
looked down upon Kai. "Fine, let us go and get her." Millia
said as she let go of Kai's ear, still with an angry look on her
face. "Get up, go and find her, now, and be quick about it. I
want you out here in five minutes." She said as she gently sat
down on a nearby bench royalty
like.



_____________________________________

"You
are sure?" A man asked the young girl.

"Yes, it is
most definitely the Umi family.

"But they have no reason
to be here, and the way they got here sounds off." The mans said
as he rested his chin on his knuckles. "Let us go see
them."

"Of course." The girl said in response,
"They should be at the inn near the docks."

"Then
let us make haste, come." He said as he opened the door ,
allowing the girl to go through first after which walking immediately
down towards the inn.

Isaiah sighed as he looked through the
last of his premade ships and shrugged. "Nuthin' here
worth givin' away...Oh well! Guess I just have to start from
scratch!" He grinned as he looked at the supplies around
him, and his stockpile of ships ready to be scrapped and rebuilt,
cracked his knuckles, and got to work.

Grey merely sighed as
he stepped out of the inn and took a deep breath of fresh air,
oblivious to the ongoings of the patrons inside and performing his
nightly watchdog duties.




As everything began to go back to
normal at the inn, well as normal as it usually was, the front door
was approached by, a young women of perhaps the age of seven to
twelve, and an older, yet young man in his late teens or early
twenties. "Is the inn as filthy as it ever was, Grey?"
The man said as he looked at him with a smug look."Don't
be so rude, Ren, they cannot help it." Said the girl with a
smirk. "Now I am only here for one reason," She began as
she announced to Grey. "I have reason to believe the Umi family
is here, or has been here. Why they would not come straight to my place
of residence I do not know, so I ask you again, is the Umi
family really here, or are they not?" She finished asking as she waited
impatiently for the answer.






Grey merely sneered. This was not the
first time he had dealt with Ren and the troublesome girl, and every
time he had dealt with them it was trouble for the inn."Alright
Lass, listen up. First off, do NOT treat me like an inferior. You
live in this town, you deal with the people in this inn. Second off, NO,
I have not seen anyone from this damn Umi family you speak
of. Grey stepped in front of the door and continued to
sneer, moving to grab his scythe. "You still are not
welcome here, you remember what happened last time?"

Mu took a look around at everyone in
the room and decided now would be as good a time as any to set things
in motion. Stepping into a shadowed corner, he slowly started to
concentrate putting focus into the web he had been weaving for
days... Mimi froze suddenly as a strange yet familiar presence
tugged at the back of her mind. It felt as it always felt...a strange
suggestion,a want for something. It wanted what she wanted...and she
wanted what it wanted. Usually it was simple things like moving here
or there or certain foods and such but this time it wanted something
more. It was hungry for something...it wanted blood....Mimi wanted
blood. Mimi immediately left the washroom in silence. The presence
was looking for something...someone and Mimi was content to follow
its guidance, for it was Mimi's friend and would no cause her harm.
It even said so. Mimi turned and immediately found her
target...yesssssssssss, the voice whispered to her as it saw
the girl and the man from the Umi clan walk past Grey as if they
didn't exist. Grey moved to stop them but stopped suddenly as if he
decided against his previously planned action. Kiiiiiiiiiiiill
them Mimi......kill them both..... Mimi removed a previously
hidden dagger from her shirt and ran at the girl. She grabbed the
girl and stared into her eyes with the completely innocent look of a
child and said, "Ippen Shin Dem Iru?"....the girl happened
to know Japanese and was able to translate as the dagger plunged into
her chest. Mimi had said..."Do you want to try dying this once?"
and now she lay bleeding as Mimi pulled out the dagger, causing the
girls life blood to spill everywhere, and immediately consigned the
one called Ren to the same fate. Millia and all onlookers were frozen
in shock at what had happened. Without a second thought Mimi picked
up Lectri, her magical electric guitar and smashed it into Millia's
face breaking it into one million pieces and sending bolts of magical
energy flying into Millia as she was rocketed back into the nearby
wall as she lay motionless but still very much alive. In the
meantime back in the washroom..........Kai and the Mysterious
Stranger seemed to lapse into a trance and each fell to the floor.
Kei looked about in shock wondering what had happened when to his
surprise Kai jumped on his back and immediately stabbed Kei with
twenty of the strangers knock out needles. The large dose of sleeping
poison was enough to knock even Kei out but Kai was not satisfied.
She picked up Kei and slammed him into each of the walls as if he was
a rag doll and eventually ended with a pile driver leaving his head
stuck in the cracked and broken floor. Mu laughed evilly as
he came out of his trance, a line of his magical string was flowing
from some of his finger tips and one connected itself to Kai, another
connected itself to Mimi and yet another connected itself to Grey. He
sent his commands through the string and he felt the reply each in
turn. He ordered each to move towards the docks to find Izzy. Each of
them moved out and he severed his string connections. Mu
walked out of the washroom with a look of pure evil on his face. He
saw the bloody form of Millia and decided he couldn't resist one more
jibe. He was surprised and delighted to see that the half dead
princess of the brats was still conscious albeit barely. Mu picked
her up with one hand by her head and punched her in the stomach three
times and then slammed her into the wall a few more times for good
measure. He looked into her eyes and smiled an evil smile. "I
warned you not to screw with with me Chibi Princess...i dealt with
your shit....now you pay the price....I am taking your crew from
you...I warned you this wasn't a game.... Welcome to Pirating."
With that Mu laughed even harder and carried her body back to Kei's
twitching form. He threw Millia down onto the floor next to him and
left the Inn. They would need to make it out fast and if his
assumptions were correct Izzy would be more then willing to become
his crew mate...for the right price of course and Mu always paid the
right price.....







Kai didn't have much time to bask in
her handy work, although she enjoyed every second she could. She
found it unfortunate Millia had to suffer Mu's wrath, but in the
confused and excited state she was in, Kai surmised it would end up
being for the greater good.
Grabbing Mimi by the blood soaked
arm and hoisting her up to carry her on her back, she rushed out of
the bar to find the shipwright Izzy. Kai was rather disturbed at
Mimi's sudden blood lust, but was bound by strong instincts to
protect her at all costs. If that meant defending her from a
righteously angry mob, she was forced to comply. Mimi clung to
Kai like a baby spider monkey, as the mob poured out of the bar
reminiscent of a molested ants nest. Clearly witnessing two murders
did not sit well with any of them. The blood started to cake and dry
fusing the two fugitives in a literal fashion. With no hesitation Kai
bowled through people indiscriminately. Burly men tried stopping them
but to no avail, broken noses and gouged eyes befell the unarmed.
Those foolish enough to brandish a weapon were swiftly impaled or
bludgeoned with it. Everything was a blur She would never
remember everything she had to do to get to the docks, nor would she
want to. Sneaking through some back alleys managed to through off
their pursuers. Racing up to the shipwright while pretending they
were not both coated in a red nightmare of dried plasma, Kai asked
"Do you think you could set us up with a sea worthy vessel..."
She took a few deep breathes "NOW!?"

Izzy was immediately caught in a
daze. "Wait, for how many?! Oh sod it! It doesn't even
matter, sure, I can get something for you. Just give me a bit of time
to work with here! Go get your crew ready, if you wanna be out of
here ASAP you better go make sure they're set by the time I'm
done!" With that, Izzy began to frantically throw ship
components together, until he finally had a working ship. The
design itself was rather rustic, a basic wooden vessel on the
exterior, but inside the ship was much more than met the eye. The
hull was enforced with a metal lining on the interior, making it more
resiliant than most. The sails were a specially tempered fabric,
overseen by Izzy himself in the creation process. The sail was barren
as of now, as the ship had no crew as of yet, and the body was lined
with cannon windows to allow for clear projectile fire. With a
smirk, Izzy opened the back hatch to his workshop and watched as his
newest creation backed out into the water. He quickly hopped
aboard the ship and took control, using the winds to direct the
beauty to the port, and with a mighty inhale, shouted as loudly as
his voice could allow. "ALL ABOARD LADS AND LASSES!"




Mu walked down the road to the dock
dispatching everyone in his wake who dared to confront him. He
incapacitated most but there were some he regrettably had to kill.
Alas that was the life of a pirate. His bounty was bound to go up
after this. These fools have no idea who they are messing with....
Mu thought to himself as he strolled casually towards the docks. He
came upon a very old wanted board and something he saw made him
smile. On it was his real wanted poster and he was worth quite a lot
of money, his true name was Mu Ran Executioner of the Bells, the Piri
Piri pirates were a disguise for him after a certain incident with
the world powers caused him to be injured gravely and to lose his
crew and status. Now he had returned to the world to once again leave
his mark upon it and ride it unto the new age. He just had two more
things to do before he left. First he walked into a clothing
shop and changed into a giant blue overcoat that hung over his
shoulders like a cloak and a giant Admirals hat adorned his head. Now
he was the spitting image of his old self. The final task he had left
was one more difficult but one he had done many times. Mu
jumped from rooftop to rooftop and made his way to the towns center.
Every town in this age had a bell to ring out warnings and time. This
was his target. The bell was a beautiful one and he almost regretted
what he had to do but alas this was the life of a pirate. He rang the
bell three times which was most towns warnings for a immediate
emergency. He waited and was soon awarded by the sound of
hundreds of footsteps as the entire town it seemed had gathered into
the square. People started to stare and point at him with looks of
shock and surprise and others just seemed plain angry. Well looks
like its time to get this show rolling. Mu took a deep breath and
spoke softly into one of his bells. The strings he had laced across
the entire Square amplified his voice 100 fold as he spoke his
message. "Citizens of this great town, you have all been such
gracious hosts to me and my crew but I am afraid I must be taking my
leave." He heard mutters from the crowd, some were wondering who
he was but soon cries came up from the audience, some of them had
noticed who he was at last. "I am Mu Ra the Executioner of the
Bells and i have returned to the world." He laughed maniacally
and snapped his fingers and the entire bell tower, bell and all went
up in flames. The bell started tolling and everyone in the square
immediately cried out in shock as Mu's strings amplified the bell and
his laughter, some fell unconscious with their ears bleeding others
tried to make sense of it all but suddenly the laughter stopped and
all that could be heard was the sound of the dying bell as it tolled
its death toll.Mu suddenly seemed to appear as Izzy called
them all to board. He shook Izzy's hand and handed him a modest sack
of gold. "I hope this covers your expenses for now and I can
certainly promise more loot than you can imagine if you come with us,
but I will not force you. It will be dangerous. What say you will you
join my crew?"



Izzy looked back at his beloved
hometown and sighed. He knew the life of a pirate was gruesome, but
he did not expect this much from a man he had just met. However, he
had sworn to himself that he would see the world one day, be it a
child's dream or not. He looked at Mu, a scowl on his face
with the torched blaze imprinted into his mind. "I will
join you, Mu of the Bells." He quickly shook his new captain's
hand as a shadow loomed overhead from a building nearby, slowly
creeping closer to Izzy. "But I will not do this for
you..." The shadow leapt about and eventually appeared
atop the mast, an evil sneer piercing from the darkness as the
shadowy figure's presence intertwined with Izzy's. "I do
this to fulfill an oath to myself." Izzy quickly turned
and snapped his fingers, ordering the shadow to climb down and reveal
itself as Grey, an angry and evil sneer across his face, a cold gaze
in his eyes. "You have torched my home, betrayed the
trust I have instilled in my visitors, who I have protected under my
own crest. You have broken the trust I had with the villagers, and
have crippled this village for years to come..." Izzy
turned back, the bag of gold now sitting comfortably in his
jacket. "But you have paid me, and given me an
opportunity to serve as a true pirate once more." Izzy
sneered at Mu, and danced his fingers along the wheel of the ship he
now controlled. "I will serve as your shipwright Mu of
the Bells, but be warned..." He clenched his hand, and
the wood began to splinter. "One day I will kill you."





Mu looked at Izzy with cold calculating
eyes, he respected Izzy a great deal and when he looked him in the
eyes he saw that Izzy truly meant to kill him. Mu let out a great
roar of a laugh and slapped Izzy on the back. "I wouldn't expect
anything less of a man strong enough to take care of a pirate ship me
heartie. Welcome to the crew Izzy and Grey. Although i do warn you I
am not easy to kill but on the day you choose I will honor you and
meet you for a duel. We shall settle it as men and as pirates. Until
that day I only ask that you learn and grow as you see the world and
never lose that fierce pride and determination. You as well Grey, may
neither of you be swept away by the currents of the world. With that
Mu walked to the helm and started to bark out orders. "ALL RIGHT
MATIES, TIME TO BE GETTING SERIOUS. UNFURL THOSE SAILS AND BE QUICK
ABOUT IT YE LAND LUBBERS WE BE SAILIN HARD FOR THE NEXT PORT."
Mu looked around at the shocked faces of everyone on the ship. "Well
what are ye waiting for ye bilge rats GET A MOVE ON unless ye want to
answer to the Navy as to why this town is aflame." Mu laughed as
he pointed to the horizon where there already were the outlines of
several navy vessels. Mu looked at Izzy with cold calculating
eyes, he respected Izzy a great deal and when he looked him in the
eyes he saw that Izzy truly meant to kill him. Mu let out a great
roar of a laugh and slapped Izzy on the back. "I wouldn't expect
anything less of a man strong enough to take care of a pirate ship me
heartie. Welcome to the crew Izzy and Grey. Although i do warn you I
am not easy to kill but on the day you choose I will honor you and
meet you for a duel. We shall settle it as men and as pirates. Until
that day I only ask that you learn and grow as you see the world and
never lose that fierce pride and determination. You as well Grey, may
neither of you be swept away by the currents of the world. With that
Mu walked to the helm and started to bark out orders. "ALL RIGHT
MATIES, TIME TO BE GETTING SERIOUS. UNFURL THOSE SAILS AND BE QUICK
ABOUT IT YE LAND LUBBERS WE BE SAILIN HARD FOR THE NEXT PORT."
Mu looked around at the shocked faces of everyone on the ship. "Well
what are ye waiting for ye bilge rats GET A MOVE ON unless ye want to
answer to the Navy as to why this town is aflame." Mu laughed as
he pointed to the horizon where there already were the outlines of
several navy vessels.

Isaiah merely smirked as his new captain gave his first orders."Aye, Cap'n!" He quickly spun the wheel and watched as Grey ran up the mast, laughing maniacally, and one by one undid the ropes binding the mighty sails. Then, as he reached the top, laughed with a madman's smile as he reached out to the endless waves, shouting: "To the mighty seas, where none may catch us!" Izzy grinned as he caught the spinning wheel and began to steer, taking a piece of the splintered wood and putting it between his teeth. "To the pale blue skies, where dreams are born!" The two looked to one another, and grinned as the sun rose. "To the endless horizon, forever filling our souls with fire!" And the two began to laugh, almost as one, as the ship began its perilous journey across said horizon.

Ren coughed as he staggered to get up as he peeled what looked like hundreds of thin vines covering his body off of him while he looked around for Ai who was completely brown and rugged like tree bark which protected her from most of the on lashes of attacks. Ren, although still staggering hurried over to Ai's still wooden body and strapped the vines around her which seemed to be absorbed into herself closing any wounds although not completely healing her as she slowly came back into her normal shape. "It looked like the Umi child was brought into the tavern, let's check it out." Ren said as he brought Ai to her feet as he held her hand and walked into the inn. Millia struggled to get up as she viewed upon Kei's badly hurt body. "God damn it Mu, you will suffer for what you have done...." She vocally said aloud as she coughed up blood while she crawled over to Kei holding his head in her lap. "My my.... trouble on the home front?" Came a young girls voice from outside the washroom before opening the door, revealing Ai, and Ren. "You both had almost died, and I would say you are weak, but even I would have to admit that would of nearly killed Ren and I." "I don't know if I would go that far with that assumption, Miss Kurasu." Ren said with a higher then though laugh. Millia just stared onto these newcomers with both anger, and question as to who they were. "Who are you?" She asked angrily as she held Kei close to her. "Well that does answer a riddle for us, you seem to not be the Umi family." Ai said towards Ren who just nodded in agreement. "We are of the Kurasu family, one of the family's of power." She added with emphasis. "Umi family? Well it is true I am not related to the Umi's, but this man here is of the Umi family, who adopted me when I was but a child." Millia explained before she realized something. "Wait, how do you know of the Umi family?" Ren, as Millia looked towards Kei, he thought to himself that Kei looked mighty familiar, but ignored it for that moment as he spoke up suddenly. "Such questions can be answered later, your guardian there is in dire need of medical attention as are you. He looked towards Ai and nodded who nodded back as Ren picked up Kei, and Ai, who after convincing Millia to ignore her pride, helped her up and supported her as a crutch. "We shall go to our family home, we have all the medicinal supplies you'll need." They carefully brought Millia and Kei outside the shop and began to head towards their home when Ai thought of something to ask. "Wait, so if you were adopted, but have a power, what is your surname?" To which Millia chocked out, Hakumei. "....." Ai kept silent after hearing that name uttered, and there was silence for quite some time until the silence was interrupted by Mu's speech in the square. After the speech had ended, nearly immediately Mu had boarded a ship and had already began to leave port all the while Millia's anger grew to a tempest of value. "MUUU!!!" She yelled out loudly giving Ai a small jump at her sudden burst of energy as her eyes began to glow brightly. Ai attempted to immediately suppress Millia and to stop her from using her power to an extreme, but with little effect as he power seem to explode while many dark green portals began to spawn in the sky sucking in cold air through some, and hot air through the other half. After only second of sucking in air which caused such destruction that anything near any portal got devastated crushing many buildings for the portals collecting the warming wind. Millia clasped her hands and pointed towards the docks as one enormous portal spawned, shooting out a tornado from the different temperature winds towards Mu's ship, but that was all she wrote from that moment as she then passed out while Ai and Ren shook their heads at Millia loosing her cool and causing harm to herself in such a way, as they completely ignored all the destruction she caused. Ren and Ai quickened their pace after that catastrophe and quickly brought them into their house, and as soon as they entered they were greeted by their butler. Who took note of the situation immediately as he, Ren, and Ai began heading towards the basement where they would be able to heal Millia and Kei. Soon after seeing that Millia and Kei would be alright, Ai turned around and began to walk towards the front door again. "I'm going to see if anyone in town needs treatment." She said strongly as she nearly slammed the door, not in anger, but in a quick fashion.

With the wind at his back and a smile on his face, Izzy looked forward to the rest of his journey, preparing for his revenge on Mu of the Bells. However, this entire conspiring of forces was immediately destroyed when the wind changed swiftly, and the sky darkened. "What in the name of Mary..." Izzy looked back, and his world shattered. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS THIS?!" Izzy was mortified as he watched a typhoon begin to rip his home to shreds. "Captain! WHat is this!? We're going back! NOW!"

Mu turned at Izzy's beckoning and saw the portals and yawned knowing full well that Millia would rage in fury if she could see his reaction. "Well now looks like I upset the kitten by taking away her ball of yarn....YAWN....." He looked at Izzy and immediately noticed the dangerous look in the mans eyes. "Izzy....we have three choices....one escape...which would be my preferred choice....two die by the little brats hurricane which is juvenile... albeit a small threat....or three go back and get captured by the Navy...It's really up to you..", Mu said as he took a seat on the railing, "In the meantime i think someone should do something about that Tornado....No? No one is going to do anything? ....sigh....fine I, your benevolent leader, will take care of it all...this time...but you all should really start pulling your own weight around here...." With that being said Mu made a great show of getting up, stretching and yawning once more and set to work. He stood on the opposite railing looked towards the storm and uttered a single command that seemed to be amplified 100 fold. STOP, was all he spoke, his face calm and serious. The tornado immediately stopped moving towards them and stood still. Mu then pointed with his right hand towards the line of Navy ships and uttered another word of power. DESTROY. With that the tornado moved on to attack the Navy boats utterly destroying them before winking out of existence. Mu then turned to Izzy and chose his words carefully as he said, "We can return to the broken city if you wish but there is not much you can do. Those who were lost cannot be brought back but the buildings and material things will be rebuilt with time. In the years to come Romala will be rebuilt even better than before. If it is revenge you wish then I will not stop you but heed my warning. Millia is as powerful as myself and possibly even stronger. As you are now you wouldn't be able to hold your own against her body guard." Seeing Izzy's face flush with embarrassment and anger Mu quickly added, "Even if you were able to kill her and complete your revenge the world around you, the people of your precious town, would only see it as you, a full grown man, killing a child. It is your choice Master Shipwright but I humbly implore you to sail with me and my crew and weather the adventures we will have and grow stronger. I promise you that we shall meet her again, and that day you will be able to have your chance. The choice is up to you." Mu yawned once more and started heading below deck all the seriousness replaced by his normal lazy laid back self. "Now if you will all excuse me I need my beauty rest."

Izzy was infuriated at the idea of letting whoever did this to his home get away for the time being, but he knew his captain was right, and he knew that going back to Romala now would only spell disaster for himself and Grey. "...Aye, Captain." He begrudgingly looked away and focussed once more on the horizon, allowing himself to take in what he had just watched his captain do, controlling the very elements with commands, as if he were a celestial being of some kind. His eyes fiercely painted onto the rising sun before him, Izzy growled to himself, an action mimicked by his brother. "Mu of the Bells, this mysterious Millia...." They both inhaled deeply as the sun finally began to brightly shine in the face of their mighty ship. "You will feel the wrath of Romala's Watchdog's one day, of this I swear!" They both roared to the heavens as the wind slowly began to carry the vessel off into the sunrise, further and further away from the town they had known most of their lives, slowly departing from their world and into the unknown.

Mu stretched himself out on his bed. This is comfy He thought to himself. Then he spoke out loud to no one in particular. "It seems that I have found myself with a strange crew. There is adventure afoot and I am right in the middle of it as usual. Just the way I like it." Mu stretched again and fell asleep.

Grey looked out back at the horizon where he new Romala or what was left of it lied. He jumped out of the crow's nest to the deck below. Landing easily on his feet he walked over to his brother. "Romala is probably gone isn't it?" he asked sadly.

Isaiah sighed as he looked of the horizon. "Maybe. We have no way to know at this point. We made our bed, now we have to sleep in it."

For two years, everyone has been separated from the original crew. Many adventures Mu and his new crew must of been on must of been on since they set out. Millia narrated to herself in thoughts. "Something on your mind, Miss Hakumei?" Kei spoke up as he saw a mind consumed Millia mixed in thought. "Nothing really." Millia responded as she looked out at the sea as she rested on the wheel of this new ship she had obtained. "And it has been four months since I set out with my new crew from that island." She continued to think to herself as she briefly remembered the past events. After the commotion that Mu and herself had caused, Millia had been out for weeks while a caring Kei watched over her. All the while the usually abrupt and mess making duo of the island began to help and rebuild the town, as they used Ai's unique power to easily rebuild, and reconstruct the entire town in just a year and a half while on the side, she built a rather large galleon for Millia and Kei. It seemed Ren and Ai wanted to join them as well to which Millia opposed to at first as she at the time mistrusted the two of them, but after a long while of continually insisting Millia did let them join, not that Ai would not of joined either way. Millia chuckled to herself as she remembered the many arguments that had gone down between the two. It may have only been two years, but in that time Millia and Ai began to grow very close although they did continuously get into arguments, but now they are more like twin sisters from how well they both get along, and have similar arguments against each other. It's only been two years, but it seems Millia had really grown up, it seems these two girls have a sped up life, both only being 14 and 16, but easily looking as if they were in their early twenties. "Milliy! Milly!" Came a voice from above the ship inside the crows nest. "The island we've been searching for is on the horizon!" Ai said gleefully with a smile that beamed towards Millia. Snapped out of her day dreaming of the past Millia smiled in return towards Ai. "Yes!" She called out towards Ai as she waved with a happy attitude in full force. "My my..." Ren said towards Kei as he came out of the cabin with fresh cups of tea. "It has only been two years and look at how much they have changed, and for the most part, for the better." He said with smile towards Kei. "Hm, yes I would say so. You know, before they met, Miss Hakumei would barely ever show a sign of emotion, it is a nice change. I just hope this hasn't softened her up too much as I;m sure we will run into Mu again." He said as he singled out Mu, completely ignoring his sister Kai. "Even if it has been two years, I think Mu leaving like that hurt her, more then just physically." "Come on, Kei and Ren! Get in gear!" She commanded, but at a happy tone. "My, looks like the excitement is only beginning, eh?" Ren said towards Kei. "Yes, it does appear so. Well, let's get going on those sails, and prepare to anchor down for the long awaited island." Kei said as he viewed into the distance, seeing the island they sought. After a small amount of time passed they had anchored down on the island as Millia and Ai hopped off the ship leaving Ren and Kei to finish up anchoring.
"Energetic as always." Ren smiled towards them as they ran into the deep forest. "Well, let's hurry along we don't want to be left behind." "....Of course not." Kei responded slowly before glancing towards Ren with a tired look on his face. "Either way, I'll need some rest after the day is over." After catching up to Millia and Ai it seems they had already come upon the old structure they had been looking for which was on a small map they found which seems to relate to the Umi family history. "It seems this was built here as a shrine to some sort of god originally." Ren said as he tried to translate the old language on the weathered away building. "Well, why are we standing here, let's opne'r up and see what's inside!" Millia said in excitement as Ai nearly said the same thing in unison. In one fast, but swift movement Ai threw her arm forward as vines grew out from her arms sliding in between what used to be a functional stone door while she slowly opened the door. After a few moments the door was rather more then slightly ajar, and Millia being able to see inside seemed to disappear suddenly leaving black dust flowing through the air towards the ground as she appeared on the other side of the ancient door. A few second later and the door opened with haste revealing a smiling Millia with her hand on some old rope which seemed to open the door. "Good work you two." Ren complimented them while Kei just gave a small facepalm at the waste of power used to just open a door. Inside laid only one small room, and a large stone throne decorated in jewerly and riches which shone as the light opened in on the place. Eyes shining brightly Millia and Ai began to quickly approach the throne, but stopped suddenly as the light made more clear on the throne. Kei and Ren looked to each other as they as well saw what it was that halted them. In the throne, sat what seemed like an old, life sized doll which was dressed in a single long black or dark purple dress with a white cartigen worn around her chest as her hair was tied up in a wild ponytail like style. "Well, that's quite strange, is it not?" Ren asked allowed as Ai moved closer to it to examine it. "There...doesn't seem to be anything too special about this do-" She stopped as she felt the dolls skin. "Although it does seem to be made out of some old material which does relate to your family's power, Milly." "Oh...right." Millia said as she viewed the doll. "Alright. Kei, Ren, grab the treasure. Ai and I will handle the doll." "Your going to bother with that?" Ren asked before Kei interjected. "I think I have the same idea that those three have, Ren. Let them bring it along." Kei said as silence soon covered the group as they all became deep in thought. It took two hours to haul everything out of the small room. Millia had placed the doll outside the cabin door, resting it on a small chair. The doll seemed to need no supportive help to sit upright as it ghostly looked straight ahead as if it were alive.

"IZZY FIRE THE CANNONS ON MY MARK"...."FIRE"...."MIMI GET BELOW DECK, KAI GREY PREPARE TO BOARD WE TAKE TAKE THIS SCUM DOWN NOW! MAKE THEM RUE THE DAY THEY DECIDED TO CHALLENGE THE RA-DAN PIRATES." Mu leaped forward and easily crossed the 8 foot gap between ships. He was now on enemy territory...his favorite place to be besides a warm cot. When he landed he heard shocks and gasps as some of the weaker minded crew recognized his power. He knew that with a simple exertion of his will he could send most of them into a deep slumber but what was the fun in that. Some of the enemy crew thought they were brave and instantly charged. Each stopped short as their hands were replaced by bleeding stubs. Mu smiled and flicked his wrists. The enemies were instantly drowned in a sea of their own blood as their bodies fell to the deck in pieces. "MY CREW YOU MONSTER WHAT HAVE YOU DONE" Mu dodged to the right as a giant hammer pulverized the deck where he had just stood. Hmmm i see....you are going to be fun. Mu flicked his wrist and kicked the captain his weapon instantly broke and he was blasted back into the cabin from whence he came. Mu checked and was disappointed to see he already had killed the captain. "Meh this is no fun. I want a challenge..." Mu hopped over to his ship and sulked to his cabin. "You guys go loot it...Izzy the next ship we come across is yours." Mu took a look around his ship and smiled. It was a strong and sturdy ship and had been through countless battles in the last two years. They had yet to give it a name for Mu decided that it was Izzy's job since it was his creation. Mu turned to Izzy and asked, "You think of a name yet?"

Izzy crouched down on the deck of the raided ship, and smirked as he pondered. "I call her Orlanna, after the roses of the Romalan pubs, she's the epidemy of Romalan engineering, the finest work I have EVER made." Izzy stood up and leaned on the siding of the deck, a grin on his face. "Does it suit your needs, captain?"

Mu smiled as he looked Izzy over, he had changed much in the last two years they all had...even Grey who as always was just a few steps behind Izzy, both mentally and physically it seemed. Mu was proud of his crew and how they had grown together, he would trust his life to all of them even Izzy although the time would eventually come when Izzy would try and extract his revenge. Mu awoke himself form his thoughts and squatted running his hand along the beautiful strong wood that made up the deck of his ship. Orlanna eh? Sounds like a good name for a good ship. Izzy remember the next ship that attacks us is your's and Grey's show me how much that combination style of yours has improved.

Izzy grinned as he flipped forward on the deck and ran up the mast to the crow's nest. Izzy had harbored anger at his new captain for some time, remembering the chaos and carnage he had caused in Romala the night he fled from his past. However, over the past two years, Izzy saw that Mu was indeed ruthless, but a strong captain as well, a man worthy of his respect. He honored his agreement with Mu, despite the many opportunities he had to exact his revenge, and he planned to one day duel the mighty Mu of the Bells for the right to command, and to avenge the fires of Romala. In the meantime though... "Got it Cap'n! We'll show you just what we can do! And soon, we'll have a fleet worthy of the command of the mighty Mu of Bells!" He roared with a laugh....He was happy to live free of anger and regret.

2 years of waste was all Kai's stint with her new band of pirates amounted to. To a person with tunnel vision this endeavor had proved to be nothing more than a distraction. "Hey don't forget that I haven't seen any action in a while, I would like at least a small piece." she said to her shipmates. With the faint hope that one day they might run into Millia's crew. Mimi suddenly perked up from her sunbathing, or whatever else she filled her days with. "I don't want you fighting." she chimed in with concern in her. Kai muttered angrily at herself for saying anything about battle with Mimi in the vicinity. "I assure you I won't get hurt, " she offered as a weak defense. "I don't want to risk it." Mimi finished with a nonchalant wave of her hand. She was quite confident now that Kai would heed her, and that no more discussion was necessary. That confidence was based on the obligatory nature of Kai's existence. It felt unnatural to Kai, having spent most of her life without such a burden. The freedom she prided herself on having, the freedom that she held over her brother's head for all those years, was nothing more than a cherished memory. One would assume that some form of strong resentment would surface for such a binding restriction on life, but the ancient bond had that accounted for. The motivation for loving Mimi was programmed into Kai's DNA. The mother daughter relationship between them, however grating to Kai, was an involuntary response. For the entire 2 years Mimi had made requests for Kai not to fight. Intense frustration bubbled up when such a command was issued. Being forced to obey, Kai would sit out all the battles Mimi was awake for. She was really unsure why Mu kept them around, although Mimi did cook a mean unsalted boiled potato. Ever since Lectri was smashed into tiny, tiny, itty-bitty, broken, busted up, scattered, shattered, unable to be repaired, molecules, Mimi was a crippling handicap. Her body however, took to womanhood well and she was beautiful to behold. With things as they were in their present state, after Mimi waved her hand, Kai rolled her eyes and mouthed to Mu and Izzy "We'd better get attacked in the evening, or I might go insane."

Mu had quietly observed the strange relationship between Mimi and Kai over the past two years. It seemed strange to him that Kai would follow Mimi's every order after hating her so...he had also not forgotten the promise he made those years ago to keep Mimi away form Kai. It seemed he had failed for Kai was all but a slave to Mimi's every whim. Mu sighed and walked over to Mimi and squatted in front of her. "Hey there, would it be alright if i borrowed Kai for a little bit. If your a good girl I will give you a cookie." As usual whenever Mu talked to her like a little kid Mimi got upset and stormed off below the deck. She would stay in her room for a while which got her out of his hair. Mu then turned to Kai who had a look on her face that was half relief and half mirth. "Kai would you please accompany me to my Cabin there is something i wish to speak to you about."

Here it comes. Kai thought as she nodded and followed Mu into the cabin. Mimi's compromised our standing on this ship for the last time, he is going to kick us off. She couldn't blame him, as a driven woman herself she knew it was far from ideal to have any dead weight lying around. If she had been allowed such a luxury Kai might have felt some very ugly rage towards the orphan.

Mu walked quietly to his cabin with Kai in tow, his face an uncharacteristic mask of seriousness. When he reached the door to his cabin he realized he left his key in the kitchen so he walked, still in silence, to the kitchen and found his key. He felt a bit peckish after the battle so he made himself some food, still in silence, the tension growing with every second. When he finished his sandwich he stood up and moved to his cabin and invited Kai inside. He motions to a chair for her to sit in and then pulled out a bottle of brandy and poured two glasses. He downed both himself and then poured another two which he again downed himself. Mu finally sat down after pulling out a third glass and handing it to Kai. Finally breaking the excruciating tension and silence Mu said, "Please drink up. I believe you know why I have asked you here?"

"Yes."

Mu looked at Kai and chose his words carefully, "I know about your connection with Mimi, it seems she has some hold over you and also that you are compelled to protect her always from harm. This is making you useless to me as a crew member and I cannot have it.....So I have devised a way to make you useful again. If my assumptions are correct you are compelled to protect Mimi from harm and also listen to her every command. I propose to make it so you can protect her without having to listen to her in any, way, shape ,or form." Mu saw the relief and confusion on Kai's face and laughed. "Did you think i would remove one of my most valued crew members and even more valued friend all because of some child that has a hold over you? I would never, I made a promise to keep her away from you...I failed... something that doesn't happen often but when i fail i right my wrongs." Mu stood up and walked to the window of his cabin. "I propose to seal Mimi inside the Kharos Gem that we found on that cursed island. With the help of Meri and Geri I can do it but i would require a bit of your blood and of hers. She will not be harmed beyond the blood which I will take under the guise of her doctor. Your compulsion to protect her will not be activated for it will not cause her harm. I will also bind her so she cannot order you to stop me. Once bound into the gem she will be put into a deep slumber and age as normal time progresses but she will no longer have any verbal control over you and you should be able to treat it as if it is a normal necklace. It will of course give off a magical aura but you will have full range of your powers while she remains safe." Mu turned to Kai and walked over to her, "If I fail...you could die but i feel as if this is worth the risk. Your choices are live a life of servitude to a girl who acts as if she is royalty and you merely a dog, like your brother....or be who you truly are. The choice is yours."

The proposition both startled and intrigued Kai. She sipped her brandy daintily, then gulped the rest. Not to be drunk under the table by Mu she kept pouring and drinking until they were even. With her inhibitions out of the way, Kai walked over to the counter, glass in hand, and picked up a knife. She quickly slit her ring finger and milked the red droplets until there was a substantial amount of blood in the glass. Handing the glass to Mu, then sticking her finger in her mouth she muttered "Make sure it doesn't hurt." With nothing more to say Kai turned, grabbed the brandy bottle, and went to nurse her shame on a remote part of the deck.

Mu smiled grimly as he moved to his dark task. He found Mimi, much as to be expected, asleep in her bed. Concentrating he willed his strings to surround Mimi in such a way that she was completely at his mercy. Mimi awoke suddenly and started to struggle in fear. Mu could feel the deep magic emanating from her through the strings. "Geri" he spoke mentally more as a command then a thought and suddenly the strings pulsed blue and Mimi fell into a deep slumber. "Well that is step one." Mu gently pierced an exposed bit of Mimi flesh and let the blood fill the cup until it was even with Kai's. Mu flicked his wrist and Mimi was then wrapped tight inside his string as if she were a fly in a spiders web. Mu placed the Kharos jewel, a small blue jewel that they had all nearly lost their lives for, on Mimi's forehead and then poured the blood upon Mimi's chest. "Meri", Mu said aloud and suddenly the strings turned crimson as the blood was absorbed into them until the entire cocoon glowed crimson with blood and magic. Mu moved his right hand over the Kharos gem and closed his eyes. He spoke the final word "Bind" and instantly the room was filled with a blinding darkness followed by a light so bright is forced Mu to scream in agony as the magic ripped through him body and soul as he screamed he thought that he heard another above deck screaming with him. "Good", he thought "The magic is working it is all up to Kai now whether we live or die." Seemingly as soon as it started and yet what felt like an eternity later the light and pain seceded. Mu stood shakily, completely drain of energy. He quickly moved to the bed but all that was left was the Kharos gem although instead of its natural blue it had turned a deep crimson, to mark the soul that was sleeping inside. He picked it up carefully and he could feel her presence inside safe but sleeping without any way of accessing the outside world. Mu then fastened the gem back into the necklace it was originally a part of and climbed slowly to the deck and over to where Kai was, empty bottle of brandy lying abandoned. "I....have solved your problem."

Kai looked at the despicable sin that Mu held in his hands. It was her most heinous crime to date, and her soul was struggling to comprehend her own fallibility. She heard Mu's words through her stupor and started to laugh maniacally. Between her spurts of inappropriate laughter she muttered something about the ambivalence of loopholes while shaking her head. She put her hand on Mu's shoulder (after a few misses) and was about to thank him, when a sudden disturbance interrupted her strained gratitude.

"...THat was a strange burst of power just now..." Ai said to herself as she hung in the railing of the crows nest. Fidgeting slightly as sge stretched she climbed down the net to see Millia, who had since been sitting in front of the strange doll they had found. No one was sure, but the doll emitted a strange presence about it although Ren and Kei don;t really feel the need to pay it attention, Millia seems consumed by the doll which worried Ai who was quite interested in the doll. "Maybe we should bring it to the Umi family of this time plane." She spoke up to Millia. "Maybe you are right. I do not think we shall be able to figure anything out of this doll by ourselves." She said dismissively. Peeved at not being able to do anything with the doll Millia got up from her seat hard inj anger, which knocked the chair over. "Go back up into the crows nest." Millia ordered Ai as Ai nodded her head as she began to climb back up to the crows nest. "....Next boat we see we shall take over, give the word when one is found." "Yes, Captain Hakumei." Ai said as she addressed her in a proper manner. She knew that when Millia was in this mood she could not call her Milly as she has learned in the past. "Looks like we'll have a fight soon." Ren spoke up as he pushed his hair out of his eyes to see a clear view of the ocean. "Good," Kei began although with a tired look on his face that he has had for nearly a year now. "Because she needs to reach her full potential faster." Kei finished in his head to himself.

Lelu wasn't sure how much longer she could run. Her hand clutched her chest and even though her soft, dark blonde ears were pressed to her head and hidden under a hood, she could still hear the loud pitter patter of the navy soldiers feet as they chased her through the streets. If only her hood hadn't slipped off this afternoon in the market. She went form unnoticed and minding her own buisness to the center of attention in what seemed like half a second. It was only moments later that the screams started. She had heard them all before, she was different and being different wasnt exactly welcomed in this world. Her mind had gone to a different place long enough to cause her to trip. Her foot connected with the gravel before she was able to crash to the floor. After taking a second to regain herself she headed out again. She had a chance, a very small one, but the ship dock which was right around the corner offered her the escape she wished for. "You! Stop!" The voice of a breathless man echoed off the walls from behind her. He sounded closer than Lelu had remebered them to be. That trip may have costed her more than she wanted to. Just a little more. Her heart beat in her ears, every breath peirced her lungs like the agonizing stab of a knife, and and her poor bare feet certainly had cuts and blisters. There, right there, was the dock. At that dock was a small naval boat that was really fast, it was meant for chasing pirates and scouting. It was always preped and maintained, the navy around this town liked to be ready for action. It would be a little difficult, but it was a boat that could be crewed by a single person. That was her chance and she was going to take it. Of course there were guards at the dock, things were never easy for the young woman. The two burly guards heard the comotion as it drew nearer and their heads snapped up from the go fish card game they were playing Not fast enough. As they scrambled to get up and grab their weapons Lelu had already passed them and pulled the small knife from her pocket and slashed the rope keeping the boat docked. As it began to float away she leapt with every last drop of energy she had and landed gracefully onto the deck. She dared not to turn and look at the men who were sreaming and cursing after her. The woman had made it, barely but surely. Now an even greater predicament was before her. Not only was she headed out to see alone, she had only the very bare minimun of supplies. It would need to be a short journey. This journey had three objectives, one, avoid the navy, two, find a new place to hide out, and three, maybe most importantly, avoid pirates.

Grey lay on the deck staring at the sky. Two years. Two whole years since they had watched Romala's destruction from afar. Truthfully he like Izzy wanted revenge but had decided to leave that to his brother. He had come to a conclusion. If he and Izzy ever wanted to go back and help Romala they would need gold and lots of it. So he sat thinking about this a lot. He had decided even though he was the best navigator on the ship he would leave for a while. He would find other pirates and steal their treasure and find a place to hide it. Izzy was a good enough Navigator that things would be fine. He suddenly heard a familiar sound and sat up then stood and looked out in front of the ship. when he saw what made the noise he dashed back to Izzy. "Brother! Whales Ahoy!!" he said quickly. "A large pod of whales out in front." He got quiet. To tell Izzy or not. "Brother i need to talk to you." he said in the strongest voice he could muster.

Izzy sighed as he heard Grey running towards him going on about whales, some things never changed, he supposed. However, when Grey confronted him, he cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "What is it?"

Grey looked Izzy in the eyes. "I've decided to leave for a while" he said resolutely. "I want to go out and steal other pirates treasure separate from this crew so we have gold to go back and help Romala."

The boat that was only on horizon quickly came into view which did not need a telescope to spy. "Large, possibly galleon sized, boat approaching! It appears to be anchored!" Ai yelled to Millia who then silently commanded with her hands for Ren and Kei to unravel the sails further to increase speed towards said boat. "She may not have said anything," Ren began as he was going to work. "But I could tell that she is excited. I don't know what her problem with that doll was, but she is back to normal now it seems." He finished saying as he left room for Kei to comment on like usual. "..." Kei was silent for the longest time and only after finishing his work did he speak. "I don't like that doll, she was right to worry about it, but she wants it so I cannot say anything against it, but as for her being back to normal, she is not, you can trust me on that." "Hmm, you really are close to her then, aren't you, Kei?" Ren said smiling is usual smile. Kei only responded by giving him a look as he went and prepared canons, planks and grapples still holding a look on his face which seemed to show how weak he seems to be. After a few moments they arrived near the ship, and with the skillful hands of eveyone on board were able to slow down the ship and rest perfectly next to the ship, quickly rolling down the anchor as Millia stepped towards the ship that laid in front of them. "Alright everyone on board ti-me....to...." Millia stuttered at the end as she realized who they just tried attacking. Millia suddenly had a look of actual fear in her eyes which is never a thing she does. She took a step back shakily nearly falling over as Kei quickly stood next to her. "I...I..." Millia tried speaking, but words seemed to have escaped her. "I did not think we would see each other again so soon, Mu." Kei said with a look of hatred on Kei's cold and tired face. "But first thing is first, is Kai with you?" Which is a question anyone who knew Kei would be surprised at, even Millia who turned to look at Kei with a most surprised look on her face. Ai and Ren only looked upon the scene before them in shock taken a back as well, words escaping them.

Mu smiled his typical smile as he noticed the arrival of his guests but his eyes slimmed when he realized who it was. With a quick glance he took in each of his possible enemies. There were four of them, two of which he only knew form his mutiny they seemed to have survived his brutal assault, the other two he knew very well. Millia Hakumei, powerful brat, Mu's former captain and possible the only person of both crews who could stand evenly against him.

Mu stared at Millia trying to read her, was that fear he saw in her eyes,Come on Milli, don't be the same scared little girl you always were., Mu thought to himself. Just then the silence was broken by Kei the twin of one of his crew. Mu smiled even more at his request. Not wasting any time are we Kei.
"All right you may board but know this, you are allowed a board because I allow i. Do not think you can harm a member of my crew without me knowing.You have been warned." Just as Mu's speech ends a bit of Kei's hair falls to the floor, a minuscule amount cut by Mu's stealthily laid string.

Turning to Millia, Mu laughed heartily as he got a good look at her. "My my my you have certainly gotten taller Princess Milli."

Millia's sudden look of fear was quickly replaced with anger as her face grew intense. She naturally raised her hand into the air as normal when she was about to use her power, but held back. Instead she drew her sword which was also different now Mu could take notice of. It was no longer the small rapier or dagger that it was, and it seemed to be a small one handed broadsword, very bulky. It must of surprised Mu to see Millia not relying on her power alone, and in addition using a weapon which does not seem to suit her. "Mu....you...how dare you smile so casually," Millia began to speak as an actual tear seemed to come to an eye. "I've been waiting for this day to see you again, and you stand there with that simple smile on your filthy ruffian face as if nothing happened!?" She yelled out as her speech drew more closely towards her princess tone which it did when she got angry to this point.

Millia, a second away from springing towards Mu, was stopped by Kei who simply gave her a look which could even back down a sea monster. "Millia, stay calm, and sit still." Kei actually commanded to Millia who was quite taken aback. Ren and Ai as well stood there in a amazement as Ai then moved closer to Millia.

"Milly.." Ai began before she was cut off.

"Don't talk." She said as if trying to hide her embarrassment.


Kei, compeltly ignoring Millia walked on board Mu's ship as he simply brushed the hair that was cut off of his shoulder. As Kei passed Mu he gave him a stare with such killing intent that any other person would have fainted at the sight off, but he quickly moved on after spotting Kai. Kei slowly walked towards Kai and stopped right before her, and his face grew from his angry self back into his nonshallant look as he suddenly held Kai tightly which may have even been the first hug he had ever given her. "I am glad you are alright, my sister Kairi," He spoke softly towards her, causing nearly everyone to stare, jaws dropped. As he let go of Kai he noticed the gem around her neck which opened his eyes in surprise. "But, why did you seal Mimi?" He asked without anger at all.

Lelu was hungry and thirsty. It had been several days that she had been out to see with barely and food or fresh water to drink. She would need to find an island or something soon to find food. Any other person would most likely be lonely and have gone loony by now. Oh, but not Lelu, she was always alone. It didn't bug her anymore.

Again her thoughts drifted away. Her journey was actually rather enjoyable. She had not run into anyone at all and that meant she could finally take off her cloak. It was very rare when the woman was safe to remove the large black velvet cloak that shrouded her from the world. Her ears were free to move in any and every direction. Better than that, Lelu couldn't remember the last time her tail was able to swish around freely as it did now. A small gurgle erupted from her stomach that painfully brought her back to her current situation.

How long had she been lost in thought? She certainly didn't remeber seeing that island way in the distance. Oh, an island! Someone must be looking out for her lately. It would be maybe an hour or so before she would reach shore. You couldn't be sure who would be on eit, so the cloak was grudginly replaced an her shoulders and the hood went up.

She passed the time daydreaming somemore. That was a horrible idea. Her daydreams would be her undoing. As the island got bigger and she came more into veiw of it, her eyes saw two large ships. It was obvious they werent naval ships, that would mean pirates...

She had three options. Again she liked to have her options plainly laid out before she made a final decision. Sail around to the other side of the island, hope no one was there, and search for food. This option would take some time, and her stomach made it's protest clear as it roared yet again. Then you had the turn around and continue the search option. An even worse idea that was quickly ruled out. Lastly and the one that her stomach voted for was to sneak onto one of the ships, locate some food, grab some supplies, and hi-tail it outa there. That was not the greatest option she had even been given, but she was a very sly girl if nothing else. Her mind set she pulled her small boat up behind the giant ship closest to her and used her bare feet to climb up the side and onto the back of the deck, making not even the tiniest of noices.

Kai's eyes widened as her typically no nonsense sibling showered her with what seemed to be some sort of affection. The embrace also gave her a small glimpse into what her brother had been up to these past 2 years, it was somewhat overwhelming, no doubt he was having a similar experience. "Ugh" she uttered, both for the hug and the strong wave of nausea that overtook her. His question only exacerbated her discomfort. "Dear brother," she choked, while trying to keep the contents of her stomach private. "we are going to have to have that rather complex conversation later....Which I doubt will be so necessary after this... this... thing you just did to me." With that she pried him off and hastily sought the edge of the ship.

While mentally scolding herself for not thinking about the consequences of her binge earlier, she thought back to just a few moments ago. She could feel Kei's fatigue. Something wasn't quite right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flynn Mcgregor.... By this time the mysterious lad from the bar had remembered his name... and his mission. "It won't be long Millia..." he said to himself. Flynn was a highly specialized assassin. Dealing mostly with Royalty of legendary power, or Royal Pains as they were dubbed. His employers were members of an underground organization that feared these power wielding rulers would threaten all forms of balance in the world. His accuracy was unmatched, be it with the arrow, or the more subtle dart.

He spent the last 2 years searching for a rare herb. This herb was the only poison with the proven potency to kill someone of Millia and the guardian's caliber. Ordinarily access to such a thing would have been much easier. The Crimson Scale society had a small garden of it, but unfortunately Flynn was far from his own home, and more inconveniently, his own era. He'd found the herb on a remote island, but was only able to get a vial of extract from it. There was no margin for error.

He'd been tracking both crews for months, and was jubilant they'd so auspiciously connected. Flynn noticed another small boat behind them now, Manned only by a single young lady. He got close to her vessel, but not close enough to be detected. He watched as she silently climbed aboard. Soon after he'd accelerated his own craft, he just as silently climbed aboard. "It may turn out to be advantageous to gain an ally"

After grabbing the lass and putting his hand over her mouth, he pulled her behind a cabin, a bit taken aback that his new captive had such unique ears. He leaned in close, and as soothingly and quietly as he could he said "I'm very sorry miss, but I think I've just saved you from making a huge mistake. Those people are extremely notorious." He then remembered to loosen his grip on her, so that she could breath. "If you want me to let you go I will, I won't keep you, but if you'll allow it I'd love to take you somewhere safe and maybe get you something to eat."

Izzy had let the statements that Grey had made previously slip his mind for the moment, all that was on his mind now was Millia, Kei, and the fires that engulfed Romala two years previous.

"You have some nerve coming to my ship, after what you did to my people! Let me make this perfectly clear: I don't want to hear your excuses, and I don't want to hear apologies. You will pay for the destruction of my home. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I promise you, little girl..." He said with a scoff.

"I will make you pay."

And with that, Izzy walked off, ignoring what would come of the discussions between his captain and this other monstrous crew, as personally right now he cared not what his captain ordered.

He slowly climbed the crow's nest, ignoring the outside world completely, reliving the sight, the sounds, even the smells of the fires that burned Romala to the ground as he watched from the seas.


Grey glared at the other crew.

'Well this changes things.' he thought.

With a sigh and a shake of his head he followed Izzy up to the crows nest.

'This may change my plans completely.'



Lelu was sure her heart had stoped. Not even just skip a beat or two, she was sure it stopped for a good four or five seconds. Just as she had made it over the railing she was grabbed from behind and her slender body went rigid. It wasn't a scream that the hand over her mouth prevented from being heard but a high pitched hiss. This would be how she died? Killed by cursed pirates?

When a gentle voice whispered into her ear it tickled the fur there softly and she squirmed in discomfort. It had been a very long time since she had ever been so close to a person let alone being so tighly held against one. She squirmed again to get out of his grip. During all the surprise she had missed what he said. It didn't seem like he meant her any harm, so she regained herself.

In a low whisper close to a hiss she spoke to the man. "What is it that you want from me, exaclty." Did he catch the emphasis on the last word? Lelu didn't speak much, but when she did someone had better be paying close attention. She was angry at herself for getting into this situation and failing so quickly just to steal some food. So whatever the man wanted, where it not to unreasonable, she would comply just to keep her secret safe. If only she could move her arms she would have pulled her hood back over her head as that thought crossed her mind.


"No need for such venom in your voice dear." Flynn cooed "I simply want to help a distinctly unique, beautiful young lady." He turned her around so she could see his face, keeping his hold on her all the while.

He removed one of his hands and slipped his index finger under her delicate chin. Slowly he moved his finger, and consequently her head, up so she couldn't avoid looking into his eyes. "Now it's just as I've said, if you don't want my help I'll let you go, but I'll tell you right now those are hardened criminals. They wouldn't hesitate to end you on sight. You will owe me nothing if you come with me right now, there is no obligation on your part."

After releasing her entirely and taking a step back, he finished with "The choice is yours."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Kai finished throwing up what felt like most of her major organs, she rejoined the awkward, yet fortuitous event. She'd pulled her hair back into a braid to keep it from sticking to her sweat drenched body, and positioned herself at Mu's side in case the deceptively docile Kei had a relapse of his normal personality.

Suddenly she felt something, something familiar and ambiguous. It was a presence. A very hard presence to read. *beep beep* Her old and somewhat less reliable, radar activated. She flinched and and turned it off before anyone else could hear. If her suspicions were correct, she knew things would deteriorate very quickly. Trying to look as if she was paying attention to the matter at hand, she racked her brain for possible strategies . Outwitting an assassin was hard enough, but outwitting an assassin employed by the Crimson Scale was impossible.

Mu smiled even more at the anger he provoked in Millia, still as simple as ever...if it wasn't for her insane and unpredictable power this wouldn't be any fun. Suddenly something happened that brought an even bigger smile to Mu's face. Kei gave Millia a command...and she obeyed....Mu almost lost his composure, just barely avoiding a fit of laughter.

He felt Kei's killing intent and was not surprised at it's intensity but he was surprised at what he felt just below that. Kei was hiding something and it was affecting his health although without a proper examination Mu could not truly place it but instead made a mental note. He was shocked to see Kei hugging his sister and couldn't help but let out a roaring laugh.

When he finally got his sense of humor back in reign he turned to Millia and once again smiled. "Well Well it seems you have changed....you went from bratty princess who listens to noone, to bratty princess who takes commands from her pet dog...you really are moving up in the world Milli. Mu eyed the two strangers warily. They were an unknown element, Mu would have to watch them carefully.

Mu bowed to the two strangers knowing that this sign of respect to them was a sign of complete disrespect to their Captain Millia. "Ahoy Mateys, I hope the little princess here as behaved herself while in your care. I thank you for looking after her. We feared we had...misplaced her when we left Romala. I'm sure you will forgive any trouble she has caused you after all she is only a child."


Lelu did not like the way he touched her, this stranger had his hands all over her. When she was finally free from his grasp she straightened out her cloak and stood at full hight. It probably wasn't a good idea to stand around and argue or drag out a conversation. Her decision would have to be made quich so for the first time her her life she acted on a total whim. Pulling her hood up onto her head and hiding her face in shadow along with flatening her feline ears, she nodded at the man.

"I shall help you so long as it is in my best interest." And with that she moved to a position slightly behind the man. A small flash of a memory played through her mind and she whimpered. Her mothers small yet strong back blocking her from gunshots. The sudden image made her crouched forward and her hand instinctevly grabbed for the cloth of the mans shirt. Just as soon as she touchedthe material she snapped out of it and staightened back up. She cleared her throat and removed her hand. "Uh, dont get any ideas." She said trying to cover the odd moment.

Izzy's comment infuriated Millia as she grew even stronger with embarrassment. Millia clenched her teeth and gave Izzy a stare of death after his comment. "Don't you dare speak to me in that manner!" She yelled at him with fire in her eyes, but she held herself from attacking him, not because of Kei, but out of her own control.
"D-don't call me Milli!" Millia clamored towards Mu. Millia closed her eyes for a few moments to gather her thoughts and exhaled. She seemed to cool down after that although you could tell the anger was still there.

Ren simply bowed back towards Mu without a word until he rose from his bow. "She has been a lovely captain and I am quite proud of having her as one." He said with his usual upbeat tone while he smiled, eyes closed.

Next to Millia, Ai only bowed towards Mu as she clearly did not trust him while she stayed on guard ready at anytime to use her power to protect her fellow crew.


Kei, with a frown, began walking back towards their ship, and as he passed Kai he heard the slight beep that came from Kai's location. He at first was going to simply ignore it, uncaring, but then decided otherwise. He slowly towards Kai and spoke softly. "I guess we aren't alone anymore, are we?" Kei said as he forced a smile. "Ai, Echovine." He said towards Ai as he got back onto his ship. He got to the chair he usually sits in and slunk down as if his energy was peeling out from just that small amount of moving about. Millia, turning away from Mu's gaze quickly moved over to Kei as she held his hand, perhaps to give him energy one could think, and it seems that that could be a correct statement as a small deep purple color could be seen in between their held hands.

"Ye-yes," Ai said, worried about Kei. "Mu, could you please keep still and quiet?" She asked quietly so that sounds coming from any person would not mess with her. Ai walked slowly over to Mu's boat and placed her hands onto the deck, and as she did so small vines sprung up around the ship in the shape of hollow cones which all lead to the central point where Ai was kneeling down. "Do not worry Mu. Izzy could tell you as well, my vines are not permanent unless I will it so."

Ren, watching from the middle of the ship, kept his vision among all the possible enemies across the ship. "Heh, I'm sorry I couldn't be more useful at a time like this.." He said quietly to himself, but loud enough so Ai's vines heard it to which Ai turned towards him giving him the look to keep him quiet. Ren just nodded and smiled as he looked on over to Millia and Kei, and below them the strange doll they had found earlier. "Did that doll just...? No, just my imagination." He thought to himself as his view went back onto Ai.

Izzy heard Millia's order and merely laughed.

"Captain! Could you please explain to our guests that they do not control this shipwright? If they cannot maintain a certain level of respect and dignity, I will not hesitate to throw them off of my masterpiece!"

Izzy was actually hoping Millia continued, he REALLY wanted a reason to start a fight with the little girl, the fire still burning in his mind.

"You heard the man Milly my dear there shall be no ordering around of the shipwright...hell not even I do that...." He was about to continue when he was alerted as one of his security threads was broken and it wasn't by a vine. There was someone else on his ship. He didn't like it. "Millia I hate to postpone annoying you some more but I'm afraid there may be someone else from our past a rather...annoying little worm. If you'll excuse me." Mu turned to Kai and Kei. "I suggest both of you put away whatever differences you have and help us find this stowaway."

Smirking, Flynn held his hand to his heart and said "Ideas are like precious gemstones, that being the case, I'm sometimes sorry to say I am a rich man." The commotion happening elsewhere on the ship caught his attention. "Taking into account you are a total stranger, trusting me is going to be hard for you. However..." he started, leaping into his vessel, grabbing his possessions then leaping into hers. "I think once we spend a little more time together, you will find my intentions are..." he paused searching for a phrase "quite noble." He reached for Lelu's hand to help her onto the boat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ARE YOU REALLY THAT ARROGANT!?" Kai raised her voice, inadvertently adding to the force of her pounding headache. She walked over to Kei, "You needn't interfere with things you know little of, brother. "I was given this assignment, and yours was chosen for you long ago..." She threw her hands up in frustration before turning to Mu. "Captain, if we search for this stowaway now, it will be a total waste of time, and effort. My impetuous sibling has miscalculated, and gravely underestimated the situation."

Lelus' sensitive ears could catch most of what was being said not too far from them. She didnt have time to waste being afraid. If this turned out badly she could always escape. If Lelu had mastered anything while being on her own it was the art of escape, she could find a way out of any situation.

Ignoring the hand that was offered to her she leapt gracefully into her tiny boat. Once there she sat as far from the man as she could and pulled her hood even further forward completely obscuring her face from veiw. If this man was as smart as he claimed to be then he understood the message.

Her tail was so uncomfortable in the confinements of the cape, but alas, taking her cloak off would be a no-no. This man had already regretably seen her ears, it was best if he did not see her other secrets. Speaking of secrets, she had no idea who he was, why he was here, and what plans he had that she seemed to now be a part of.
"What are these "noble intentions" of yours?" Her voice was a kin to a purr as it added his own words with hers.

Mu looked to Kai and for once was at a complete loss as to what do do in such a situation. Mu knew that this day was to come for a long time, but he never expected it to be like this. He looked around observing the strange sight they must all be. was this alla bout Mu> Yea whas goin on? Will you two keep quiet the last thing i need in a situation like this is my conscience made real affecting my thoughts. Wes gonna haunts yous untils we feels that yous 'ave paid for killin us. Yea untils yous paid SHUT UP MERI
NO YOU SHUT UP GERI "ALL OF YOU SHUT UP I CAN'T THINK WITH EVERYONE TALKING AT ONCE" Mu yelled out loud without realizing it. He stormed off to his cabin and slammed the door shut to give himself space to think.

Izzy blinked several times as he watched his captain roar to those aboard the vessel and storm off of the deck. In response, he jumped down from the Crow's nest and landed elegantly in front of the crew and visitors.

"Alright! Kai, and whatever YOUR name is!" He shouted to Kai and her stubborn sibling.

"Go find who the hell is aboard my ship! I'll have no stowaways aboard my masterpiece! Grey, search the decks until you find something, anything!"

He then turned to Millia, his rival and well-entrenched enemy.

"And you! I don't care what you do, just stay out of my way, and don't touch anything on my ship!"

With this, he ran off into the captain's cabin to check on his competitive rival and fierce leader.

"Cap'n Mu, everything alright? You...Well, it's clear you weren't exactly yourself back there."

Kai's eyes grew red. On another occasion she might have let that total lack of respect slide by, but today it was personal. She stomped after Izzy, and threw open the door. "Listen shipwright..." she said gripping the knob so tightly her fingerprints indented it. "First off, even for all of your pomp and circumstance you are not my captain and I will never allow you to get away with speaking to me like that. Secondly, this is not some silly rivalry between Kei and I, I'm not some frivolous twit who does something without reason. If we find this stowaway now, I can promise you that at least 1 life will be lost, and I will also guarantee you that it will not be his." She brushed the hair out of her face "I may be hungover, but this is a point I won't back down on, and if you continue to push the issue I have no qualms about making it physical." She turned, gently closing the door behind her, only to open it a second later. "By the way it may have been your ship once, but it's his ship now," she glanced at Mu "and as for the craftsmanship, eh." Before closing the door for a final time, she spit on the deck and smiled.

Mu didn't even hear Izzy enter because the voices of Meri and Geri were overwhelming his senses. Suddenly though as the argument between Kai and Izzy grew there came a buzzing sound on the edge of Mu's awareness. A buzzing sound that got louder and louder until it drowned out even the twattle-brained imbeciles that inhabited Mu's brain. Mu had to make this sound stop he had to make it his number one priority. Suddenly a large noise resembling a door slamming rocked Mu's consciousness.

Mu opened his eyes and saw Izzy. Mu's face was devoid of emotion. His face a mask, all except for his eyes. His eyes were ablaze with fury. Mu very stiffly walked over to Izzy and turned that gaze upon him. "Izzy...", Mu said in an unnaturally calm and refrained voice, "There are voices inside my head named Meri and Geri. Now if you'll excuse me I am going to go kill someone." Mu then turned and opened his door crushing the knob into an unrecognizable mass of metal and walked slowly out to the deck leaving Izzy alone in the room. Residual energy seemed to spark and crackle in the room long after Mu had left.

"My my," Ren began to speak aloud. "There sure is much hate in the air already." Too which he laughed at as he viewed all the goings on. Ren walked on over towards Kei and Millia as he grabbed a small board that rested alongside the wall of the cabin. "Well then," He said to Kei as he put the board on the table. "Shall we have a game of Othello then, and let the girls handle it?" He said with his usual smile.

Kei kept silent for a moment before simply answering yes and they began to play as Millia moved over to Ai who was on Mu's ship, and was just removing her vines. "Did you find anything?" Millia asked with a voice that seemed tired after having given Kei energy, or what seemed like energizing Kei.

"Yes...Captain," Ai began as she stood up. "There were at one time two people who seemed to have boarded the ship, but have since left it, but are not far."

"I see." Millia said before Mu seemingly slammed his captain's door open leaving the doorknob in a disheveled shape. Normally Millia may have had found a way to mock him in his state he appeared in, but seemed to not care to do so, but instead asked, "Mu.....What is wrong?" She asked as she felt the abnormal energy coming from him. "Either way, just sit tight, I will see to it what these miscreants are." She said while she walked to the back of the boat and looked around. It wasn't long until she spotted a small boat not even twenty feet away from their own. "What have we here?" She asked aloud as she smiled, her energy seemingly back to normal.

Izzy resisted the rage-filled urges he had regarding Kai's outburst. He felt regardless of his feelings towards the crew, he would treat his shipmates equally in respect or disrespect, but to be insulted as a craftsman was far beyond a level Kai was allowed to push in Izzy's mind.

"I'll be having a talk with that wench later, for now though, I better go see what the captain has planned. I don't want rats crawling around my masterpiece..."

Izzy smirked as he walked out of the room calm and composed, ready to take whatever orders Mu may send his way.

Mu stormed onto the deck and surveyed his surroundings his mind was a roaring torrent of anger and only one thought was present among the storm....kill...
He saw Millia and was about to turn his fury upon her, but then she asked her question. Mu caught himself long enough to say...Its nothing....
Mu then turned and walked to the back of the ship and fixed his eyes upon the small boat . He instantly appeared on the boat and fixed his eyes upon his quarry.

"YOU", was all he said to Flynn as he grabbed him by the neck and both of the disappeared and then reappeared on a nearby island. "YOU....why is it that you are around every time something happens. What is it you want with me and my crew. IF YOU WONT ANSWER ME THEN DIE!" Mu then preceded to kick Flynn in the stomach with such force that he rocketed backwards into the woods only to be brought back to meet Mu's foot again. This time Mu let him fly into the woods and slowly walked after him.

Before Mu could take 5 steps a dart came whizzing out of the thick brush, right into his temple. Flynn's laugh could be heard from above. "Stings a bit doesn't it?" He continued to laugh "I know you're a physician of sorts, it's my job to know that kind of thing, but I'm certain you know nothing about Marusikai." the laughter stopped and a serious tone was projected. "It's an extremely modern form of acupuncture, developed to level the playing field when dealing with magic wielding individuals like yourself. As a matter of fact your body will not be able to channel or emit magic for at least 24 hours." Flynn's voice was moving the entire time but pinpointing his silent landings as he hopped from tree to tree was not an option.

"And now for a bit of irony." *swoosh* *swoosh swoosh* *swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh* Arrows rained down, these arrows had a formidable yet lightweight rope attached, and created a complex web around Mu. "Even if you're not stuck in that, you are stuck on this island, Until either A. You wait 24 hours, or B. You do things the old fashioned way and make a vessel. Both ways give me plenty of time to do what I have to do."

Just as they were beggining to get away from the large ship someone appeared in their boat and vanished a second later with her newly appointed comrade. The commotion had rocked the boat causing it to tip and Lelu fell into the cold water. Not having been able to take any breath she flailed to reach the surface of the water. Once their her lungs filled with air and she climbed to sit carefully on top of the overturned boat.

This would be where she would cry if she could. Her clothes were now drenched, she was drenched, and water had gotten into her ears. With a tiny whimper she shook the water gently from her ears and rang out her clothes the best she could.

What was she supposed to do now? She was still starved, now alone, the pirates knew she was there, was there anything right at the moment? Didn't seem that way. There was something that was puzzling her though. That person obviously had magic, did that mean she wasn't the only outcast? The only one that was "different" or "strange"? It probably wasn't the best idea, but the curious side of her, the side she usually likes to pretend ins't there, wanted to know more.

Back to reality for a second. She was stuck here on this upside down boat and would most likely be taken captive. How to get out of this one?

Izzy stepped back into the sunlight, and looked around the deck, only to see that his captain was nowhere to be found.

"Cap'n Mu! Where the blazes did you run off to this time?!"

Izzy quickly ran across the deck, unintentionally knocking into Kai as he ran up to the Crow's Nest to look out across the boat and the seas.

"Damnit! Where could he have gone now, he was in NO condition to go somewhere on his own!"

Izzy focused all of his thoughts on filing through everything he knew about the captain. For him to have vanished that quickly, and with no sound at all, was not a calming thought.

"Grey! Search the ship! I'm taking the upper decks!"

Izzy quickly jumped down, creating a wave of air and dust as he made contact with the ground, landing in front of Kai, looking past her to start searching the deck.

Mu winced as the dart bit into his forehead, and winced again as the arrows and ropes fell around him trapping him. Mu could feel the poison take effect immediately and felt the magic stripped from him. Then something happened that not even Mu expected. Mu started to laugh, low at first building into a deep maniacal roar of laughter that could be heard from even as far away as the ships. "IM FREE AHAHAHAHAHAAH FREEE NO MORE MERI AND GERI FOR 24 HOURS HAHAHAHA" Mu became calm again and a look of pure deviant malicious glee took over his face. "Thank you stranger...you have helped me more then you know...and for that you are rewarded. I shall fight you with all my current strength. Prepare for a battle like no other." Mu then flicked his wrists and the net seemed to explode around him, arrows shattering, rope fraying and dissolving. Mu laughed again, "Your job is to know everything? Well then you have failed at your job. My strings are not entirely magic they are just as deadly even without. Allow me to show you." Mu then flicked his wrist out and leveled the first few feet of the forest felling the trees. "I am excited...be prepared stranger for you have awoken MU-RA TYRANT OF THE BELLS!"

Seeing Mu transport to the small boat, then be transported away by the man on the boat did not phase Millia in the least other then herself shrugging. Her eyes then laid on the young girl who seemed to over cover herself. Millia watched her antics and grinned with a small laugh as she stabilized herself on the overturned boat.

"Don't be shy," Millia began with a almost seductive like tone. "Come on board." She said as she lifted her hand which immediately spawned a portal to which she thrust her arm through which appeared near the small boat along with the second portal. She smiled and laughed as she grabbed the girls arm pulling her through the portal and onto the deck of the ship. While inside the portal for that brief moment she could see almost nothing but the deep dark purple that the portal itself exhibits although bits and pieces of what seemed like random objects lied in it's wake, but there seemed to be more to it, as if the portal was linked to Millia's mind itself, housing any emotion or memory inside of it.

"Welcome aboard," She said smiling before yelling out to Ai. "Ai! Go get some dry clothes for this girl!" To which Ai nodded from far away and hopped inside the cabin. Not to long after she emerged with some of her own clothes and a towel, but also came out with bread and water.

"I'm sure she is hungry and thirsty at this moment as well, so I brought these if that is alright." Ai said to Millia as she rushed over to the two. She noticed that the Lelu seemed to cover herself with an overabundance, but decided to not question it, at least for this moment.

Millia took a quick look around to see if any of Mu's crew was in earshot or eyesight before she began to speak again, "What is your name, l'il miss?" She asked surprisingly sweetly as she gave off an actual smile of caring while she offered the food, water, and materials to her.


She was dreaming. Lelu had to be dreaming. Maybe while out at sea for a long time made her lose her mind and become delusional. The last sane thing she could put together in her mind was running from the navy and stealing the small boat. There was no way that she had met these other strange people with their strange powers, there was no way that a man had just vanished infront of her very eyes, and there was certainly no way that a pirate was showing concern for her.

Oh, but it was real, the loud growl that tingled her stomach made that clear. Her eyes staired at the bread that was offered for just a short second before she slowly reached out to it. Sure, it was probably poisoned, but right now she didn't care. Death would be a sweet escape. Taking a bite of the bread she fought to hold back the moan of pleasure it stirred in her throat. Oh what the hell? She reached for the water as well and took a large swig. She wasn't dead yet, that was a good sign.

Realizing how absolutely rude she was being she swallowed the food in her mouth and bowed deeply. "Thank you for the food and water. My name is Lelu." It seemed like a good idea to be polite to her captives to be spared any unneccesary harshness. Standing straight again she glaned at the clothes that were offered to her. She really couldn't wear them. They would reveal her secrets, but at the same time, she did not want to remain in her wet clothes. Bowing again breifly she grabbed the clothes. "Is there somewhere I might change in private?" Her voice was low and the fur on her hidden tail was standing straight up with nervousness.

"Yes go on in, " Millia began as Izzy and Kai seemed to be in earshot again. "Use the cabin, go." She said suddenly in her forceful tone. "Take her, Ai."

"Yes Captain," Ai replied as she grabbed Lelu's hand. "I'll show you the way, we have an extra room you can use." Ai said as she lightly tugged Lelu along. "Well this is it," She said as she pointed to a vacant room in the boat. "I'll wait out here for you, then I shall introduce you to the rest of our crew."

Back outside of the boat Millia walked over to Kai. Seeing as it has been two years she wanted to say something to her. ".....Good to see you again." Was all that came out of her mouth before she began to walk back to her ship, but she stopped after passing Izzy. "I cannot say anything that will repair what I have done, but I will honor you with a dual you so seem to want in the near future." Millia forced herself to say with her head turned around to look at him, and which afterwords she snapped it back fron and walked onto her ship and back to Kei and Ren and silently sat there quietly watching their game of Othello.

Lelu said nothing as she was pulled to a small room and shut inside. The plan was simple, do what it takes to stay alive at the moment, even if that means cooperating with pirates, and the moment they dock at a port with any form of civilization she would make a run for it.

Looking down at the bundle of clothes she grudginly changes into them and finds somewhere to set her wad of soaked garmets. Thanks to her tail she had to have the large shorts rest very low on her watse to allow the extra appendage that set at the top of her tailbone to be free from uncomfortable confines. Seeing as the taptop style shirt was not very long there was a gap that left her slender stomach visable to others. There was no point complaining now. She was onboard a ship with pirates, the last thing she needed to worry about was modesty.

Her ears swiveled on top of her head listening for different sounds as she looked around for a brush. Finding one she ran it through her extremely long hair till she was satisfied with it. Curiousity was getting the better of her. The more she stayed in that tiny room the more she wanted to know about her situation. Darn the feline instincts in her. Timidly she knocks on the door. "Im finished." She whispers through the door.

"Alright." Ai said as she opened the door smiling. As she opened the door her eyes immediately laid on Lelu's ears and tail while Ai looked at her in wonder and amazement. "You...uh... have the traits of a cat..." Ai said with a small stutter as she moved closely to her. "Are you a power?" She asked quietly although more to herself then to Lelu. Ai walked around Lelu as she looked her over, and as she got back in front of Lelu, Ai reached out and touched her furry ears to which Ai seemed to blush for a moment. Ai then looked at how the clothes looked on her while it seemed small vines grew from her hair. "Sh-she is so adorable..." Ai thought to herself as she backed up from her. "Lelu," Ai began to say as the vines in her hair grew more apparent. "Um, ar-are you a power or guardian, or....what are you?" Ai asked in curiosity as she continued to view Lelu.

Lelu couldn't stop the small moan as the girl infront of her touched her ears and she shivered gently. They were the most sensitive part of her body and normally people didnt even see them let alone get to touch them.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Lelu answered honestly in a frazzed voice left off from the ear touch. She really didn't. All she knew was that she was different and that her mother hid her away from the world till she was killed by a group of pirates. Then she was left to wander alone, stealing food, avoiding crowds, and most of all, avoiding pirates. Great job she seemed to be doing.

Getting kind of nervous Lelu grabbed her tail and began to rub it gently. What the hell was she doing? Now that she thought about it she was on a ship in the middle of nowhere that belonged to pirates. Rubbing her tail more vigorously she tried to calm herself. They havent done anything to her yet, they were even...nice, perhaps...this could be worse. Focus on the possitive for now, deal with the negative when only if need be.

"oh.. I guess you don't know either then," Ai said with a small tone of sadness in her voice. "Well either way, come along and I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew." Ai said as she grabbed Lelu's hand giving herself a small blush while the vines still remained in her hair. Quickly Ai tugged Lelu back onto deck and the in the bright light turned around to see Lelu. "You look much cuter now in the light then you did the dark." She said happily as she brought Lelu to where Kei, Ren, and Millia were sitting with the creepy life size doll they had found in the far corner. "Kei, Ren, this is Lelu." Ai said as if she was proud of Lelu's mere presence.

"Well, nice to meet you Miss Lelu." Ren said as he stood up to give a welcoming bow.

Kei said not a word, but nodded towards Lelu with his usual scorn or boredom like face.

"Don't worry about him," Ai whispered to Lelu. "He's a grouch." She said giggling.

"I heard that," Kei said as he got up. "I'm going inside to rest, do what you like." He said as he quickly moved to the main cabin.

"Well?" Millia demanded Lelu. "What do you think of this crew?" She asked before she soon followed up with, "And would you like to join us?"

Lelu was so confused by everything that was happening. These people were so different from the pirates she had remebered. This Ai girl was even holding her hand like they had been friends for a long time. That was new, Lelu had never had the pleasure of friends.

Being caught off guard by the super warm welcome the young woman bowed deeply, her long light brown hair sweeping the ground. "Thank you very much." She stood again and smiled, actually smiled for the first time in who knows how ong. These people deserved a chance.

Turning to the one who had asked her a question. "I do not yet know this crew well enough to judge anyone." She pauses, "But I think that I would like to find out more." With that she bowed again. Honestly, this whole situation was so strange, but maybe she could get some answers with these pirates...

"Just to make one thing clear," Millia added after Lelu finished speaking. "I am not the one who requested you to join us, Kei was the one." She said flat out directly. "I will need you to show me what you can do both fighting wise, and ship handling wise, but as for now I need to talk to Kei." She said with a more mean tone in her voice as she quickly followed Kei to the cabin. Leaving Ai motioning to Lelu to take a seat around the table with her and Ren.


As Millia entered the cabin the door nearly slammed shut while she walked right up to Kei. "I don't know why you keep bringing these people on board, and I really don;t care to know either, but I am getting sick of this Kei." She said loudly and angrily.

"Ah, but Miss Hakumei, why do you not refuse them?" Kei replied with his ass like attitude. "She has potential, let us see what she can do." Kei replied with his devilish smile that he wore whenever he spoke of the word, 'potential.'

"This one better turn out the way you imagine her to. I'll train her myself if it's necessary as it will stop you from wanting anyone else to join us." Millia finished her yelling as the sentence drew on, and she exited the cabin soon after as she slammed the door shut when she left the cabin.

"Ohhhh Mu." echoed from the heavens. "You almost got me." Flynn descended from the tree tops. "Almost, but not quite. Feeling a little warm by any chance? No, still a tad early for that." he said, pulling out a dagger with his right hand and three throwing knives with his left. "Surely a man as wise and well versed in string as you, would recognize a diamond powdered rope, laced with an extremely concentrated acid. I saw from my perch it made contact with some exposed flesh, pity. That should start hurting right abooout.....Now. The acid on your clothes, well, that may take a little while longer." He assumed an at ready stance before adding "I ruined my best gloves and went to a lot of trouble to get that diamond powder, I hope you appreciate it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kai ignored Izzy for the time being, feeling slightly guilty she'd reacted so drastically. Curious about the new passenger, she sauntered over to the table. The first thing Kai took note of, of course, were the ears and tail, but to anyone looking on it was clear that Kai was not at all surprised, as if she'd seen it before. She offered her hand to shake "Hello, my name is Kairi Umi, and yours?" She smiled.

Izzy turned on his heel at the sound of a newcomer, and stormed back to the cabin.

"So THIS is our stowaway!" He huffed, giving Lelu a once over with his eyes.

"Hardly someone worth sending the ship into an uproar over, I suppose. GREY! Stowaway has been found!"

At this, crept out from behind Izzy's shadow, staring at the young girl, with both frustrated and confused eyes.

"Well, what do we do with her?"

Izzy smirked.

"Nothing, as of yet. The captain isn't here, remember? Our main priority is to find him so we can get out of the middle of the sea. Once we deal with THAT..."

He stared at Lelu, then Millia, then Kai, each time baring the same stare of disgust and annoyance.

"We can deal with any OTHER outstanding business."

Mu scowled as he felt the acid start to burn his skin. He turned a smile on Flynn and said, "This is nothing to people on our level how about we stop with the petty games? No? Fine how about I even the playing field again. You are not the only one with tricks and traps my friend. You should be feeling a little nauseous right about now. Since the beginning of this battle you have been breathing in several poisons, each poison takes different amount of time to take affect. The first one should be slowing your reaction time." Mu jumped to Flynns level and easily kicked him through the tree and into the next. "Hahahaha Time is running out, if you do not hurry you will soon be blind deaf mute, unable to smell and unable to even move. Defeat me quickly or beg at my feet and I may spare you." MU then preceded to kick Flynn around the woods. "Come on...are you telling me you underestimated The Mu-Ra?"

Flynn found that the sensations the poisons were giving him were comparable to a long night in one of his favorite taverns, in other words he felt quite drunk. Which was perfectly fine, he fought better drunk anyway. To buy some time he got up, shook the splinters from his hair, and pulled two small filter plugs from his jacket. He held the plugs where Mu could see them. "yya shee thesesh? Don luk leik much duu tehy?" then quickly shoved them up his nose. "Weeell tehy git teh job durn." He took a deep breath, wobbled a little, and faster than the human eye could see, whipped two of the throwing knives at Mu, Impaling both of his hands. Oh yeah, he loved it, this kind accuracy could only be described as a drunk fluke. With the final knife he took even more care in aiming...at Mu's family bells, but decided at the last moment to go for the real jingle jangles. *DING* the sound seemed to reverberate for miles, birds flew from trees, scared out of their wits, and some birds simply dropped dead. This dramatic sound was the result of denting one of Mu's legendary bells.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Izzy please," Kai said with the threat of battery in her voice. Her feelings of guilt for treating him so harshly were on the verge transforming into gunpowder rage bombs. "At least let us get a proper introduction in."

Izzy sighed, he knew he had to at least be a gentleman of some sort, even if he WAS dealing with a stowaway.

"Pardon me, Miss. I am Isaiah Roma, the Shipwright of Romala. And this..."

Grey had vanished into the shadows behind Izzy and reappeared behind Lelu.

"Is Grey, my shadow, if you will. Grey, stop harassing our guest, the captain will deal with her when he returns. In the meantime, I'm going back to the Crow's nest to watch for Captain Mu. Grey, you continue searching the ship and see if you find anything."

Grey nodded and once again vanished into a nearby shadow, while Izzy walked off towards the mast of the ship.

Before Lelu could even react to Izzy's actions, Ai already got up throwing her arm in front of Lelu. "You do not have the right to to anything to her." Ai said sharply towards Izzy as she walked up to him. "Why don't you go crawl in a, dark, corner and be surrounded by the emptiness of space as the darkness closes in on you slowly you scared of the dark little pusssy!" Ai yelled out face flushed with anger at Izzy's actions while scattered memories fill her head of the past. After the flashing of memories Ai turns her head and walks away back towards Lelu.

Izzy twitched as he heard Ai's comment, and slowly he turned from his position in front of the mast.

"I'm sorry, would you care to repeat that, little girl? You're on MY ship, remember that. I'm sure I could always find a GHOST ship or two out here and leave you stranded there!"

Ai winced as he spoke those words causing her to blush in embarrassment and anger as she turned back around as she quickly walked up to him till she was inches from him. Ai was shorter then Izzy by a small amount and she had to look up slightly to see into his eyes as she said, "All those....ships in the entire world couldn't effect me like a small enclosed dark space would as you piss yourself from the fear of nothingness!"

As the scene went on Ren went ahead and put away the othello board as he held his usual smile on his face while Millia, coming out of the cabin, stared on at the sight in pure awe while she wondered what had just happened.

Grey was suddenly there behind Ai one of his hand scythes to her throat.

"I dont normally threaten woman or girls but you WILL show my brother respect."

Grey growled a little.

"This is HIS ship. Remember that."

Izzy grunted and stared coldly into Ai's eyes.

"Grey, didn't I tell you to search the ship for anything suspicious? Get back to work."

Izzy watched Grey vanish back into the shadows without so much as an argument, and he quickly walked up to Ai and stared her down.

"Now, is there something you would like to talk to me about, little girl? Something HAUNTING your memories?"

Izzy was very aware of what was going on, he was being goaded, tempted to attack her AND her captain. But he knew his place. His captain was gone, in a fight for his life, and as such he was to protect his ship and all aboard it. He had not forgotten Mu's last order though, and if need be he would carry it out.

"The next ship we saw was to fall prey to the combined skills of Grey and myself. They had better not push me, or I will follow that order." He thought to himself.

Mu heard the ding as the knife hit his bell, he didnt even need to look down to know it was dented, in fact there was only one thing he needed to do...kill...Flynn. Mu landed and pulled out 3 red bottles and two blue bottles, he had been saving these for Millia but right now he needed them. He popped he corks on each and downed them in one gulp. Mu immediately felt the potions affect him and let out a roar that could be heard from miles around. Mu started spinning his arms in wide furious circles as the surrounding woods were ripped to shreds. Soon dust and debris obscured the view as Mu let out his fury. When the dust finally settled only two trees remained on the entire island and strung between them hopelessly wrapped in Mu's string was Flynn.

Mu laughed evilly as he admired his handiwork. "Never...underestimate Mu-Ra..." Mu charged towards Flynn with a dagger in hand aiming for the kill and reach his neck when he suddenly stopped. Without his magic to regulate the flow the potions had drained the last of his stamina so that Mu stood only through sheer willpower. Keeping the blade at Flynn's neck Mu smiled and said, "How about we call this a draw...I could kill you right now and then die in the process...or you can kill me...and become a vegetable for the poisons can only be reversed by a special combination of potions taken in a specific order. You can kill me and try...by the way there are 7 potions you have to take....any of which taken out of order will kill you immediately...or...we call it a draw head back to my ship and for once talk like civilized grown...men. Your choice.

I tfink the uption wehre no one dies is prrrferable, owever I'd leik to add somefin to dhat." Flynn smiled a crooked smile and drooled a little bit. "yah gaiin a nuuw curew memember. Thaas waht I beeen affer since afore teh fihgt, but I's plannin ta duu it latre. Asides taht I thouhgt tihs woodd be ffurn." Flynn's head drooped while he waited to hear Mu's response.

"Damn it Izz!" Ai yelled as he began to yell loudly as she said what seemed like a nickname coming from her mouth, nearly completed ignoring Grey's actions as she suddenly backed down. "You never think straight!" She yelled lastly before she slapped him across the face with a small tear ran down her cheek as she turned around with a heavily blushed and embarrassed face while she quickly hurried towards the stairs to the lower deck where Ren was waiting. As she got to Ren he put his arm around her, with his smile never ceasing as he walked her to her room, but before he walked down he turned to face Izzy and for once, and a very rare moment, he frowned towards Izzy as he shook his head towards Izzy.


Giving Izzy a dirty look Millia walked by and towards Lelu. "Get inside the ship now." She said with direct order as she turned to face Kai, now completely ignoring Izzy. "Kai, I would like to speak to you."

Izzy simply blinked a few times as Ai walked down the stairs to the cabin below.

Frustrated, he walked back to the mast and ran up to the Crow's Nest, where he sat and watched the sea, the clouds, and the island nearby.

"So I'm the one who never thinks straight hm? Guess I shouldn't be surprised..."

----------------------------------------------------------

Izzy stood in the middle of a street during a fierce rainstorm in Romala.

"You never think straight Izzy! EVER!"

A swift clap of thunder was heard, masking the sound of Izzy being slapped across the face.

Mu smiled weakly as he let Flynn loose. "Welcome aboard", Mu said as he tossed him 7 different bottles, each one after he drank the previous. Mu then helped Flynn to his feet and produced two extra bottles. "These are powerful potions that I have concocted that will reverse all damage that your body has suffered over the past 24 hours but you can only take one of these every 6 months...or you will die. " He drank one himself and passed the other to Flynn. Mu stretched as his full strength returned to him. He even felt his magic return to him as the potion worked its own magic upon his body. "Your initiation into my crew is this, Find your way to the ship. That is all." Mu then disappeared and reappeared on his ship next to Grey who he grabbed and then appeared, Grey in hand, on Millia's ship and preceded to bring Grey before Ai. Mu then pushed Grey to the ground on his knees in a groveling position at Ai's feet. Mu smiled as he looked at Ai, his face back to its normal almost childish look. "I do believe this one was rude to you...please forgive him...Beg for forgiveness Grey...because on my ship...we don't threaten guests...or break rules...do we Grey?"

Lelu wasn't sure what was going on, but she didn't like the tension. It was making the fur on her tail stand and her back was rigid, as if she could take of running any second. What had she gotten herself into? This seemed like a very disfuntional group of pirates, but they all knew eachother somehow.

As soon as she was ordered Lelu didn't hesitate to make her way back into the small room. Usually she would have been, no pun intended, catty with the rude treatment. This however, was not the time nor place to start an uproar.

Inside the room she couldnt help it but to begin tidying up the place and dusting. Still, that didn't take as long as she would have liked. Instead she found a small corner to sit in. Having been up for a few days she was unbeliebably tired, so she couldn't fight when her eyes began to droop and she fell into unconsciousness.

Mu had appeared before Ai had reached her room as he held Grey down and apologized for him to which Ai just nodded as Ren continued to hold his arm around her. "...Thank you." Ai said weakly as she was choked up. Afterwards Ren had dropped her off at her room and preceded to his own.

As Lelu walked past Ai's room, Ai wanted to make sure she hadn't become too uncomfortable now. Ren had already gone to his own room after walking AI to her own so he was simply taking a small nap. Ai got to Lelu's room, and knocked twice before opening the door. "My, it's dark in here," She said a she forced a giggle as she took a lantern from the hall, lighting it. "Here, this is much better." She said as she brought the lantern in. The light bouncing off of her face illuminated what seemed like wiped away tears mixed in with her mascara. "Hehe," She giggled again. "I hope that my little display did not scare you..." She said disappointed with herself.

Grey sighed. "i Apologize" he said shaking his head.

"My brother is all i have. I dont take people talking to him in such a way easily."

Grey left and sought Izzy and found him in the crows nest.

"Sodding people. How are you holding up Izzy?"

Options ever plenty options. That is the common thread of every situation. Even if the options are ridiculous or ill thought out, they were always there. Flynn smirked and raised his eyebrows at Mu's attempt to haze him. "Child's play." he murmured to his battle damaged surroundings.

He decided to go with the most obvious choice. He walked around the island and hand picked a tree that would best suit his purposes. He put his hands on the firm bark and felt for a point of weakness. The humid tropical air formed sweat droplets on his forehead while he searched. Finally satisfied he'd found the absolute weakest point, he made a fist, wound up, and.... knocked gently. As silly a tactic as it seemed, it was precise and quite effective. With the tree felled all that remained was dragging it to the sea and paddling.

The ocean was rather rough, but this was of no consequence. Flynn paddled, with great vigor. Part of it was fueled by his ridiculous stamina, and the other part was a result of Mu's potion. Water splashed his face, it was a welcome aid to his glistening physique.

The ship wasn't hard to find, in fact it had been relatively close the whole time. Once near enough to the side, Flynn lept easily from his wooden flotation device to the vessel. He shook the water off like a dog and looked around the empty deck. He noticed the shipwright from before up in the crows nest. He yelled up to him "Ahoy!" after backtracking through his memories to find that they might have something very important in common.

The neko had not heard the door open, nor the words spoken to her. No, she was deep in sleep. A nightmare that haunted her constanly was replaying like a broken record through her mind. It was eating away at her slowly.

Blood splattered against her and her lungs seared with pain as she creamed bloody murder. Her eyes flying open she saw that there was no blood, but she was indeed screaming. Silencing herself she pulled her knees to her chest and sobbed into them, not even noticing the guest in her room. Why did that dream haunt her? Clearly there was something she was missing from it, something that was important...

Now that he had finished his matters of discipline Mu finally had time to reflect on events and asses the situation. So much had happened in such a short day, he lost a crew member, who was more of a nuisance then a help, he had met up with his former captain and her crew, which in and of itself did not seem horrible...yet... but if he knew Millia they would come to terms soon enough. He also discovered two intruders...went into a rage..brutally attack one of those intruders and gained another crew member. He also got to discipline Grey which he had been meaning to do for a while...because manners are so important for a pirate after all. Yes, Mu reflected to himself, he had a very eventful day and it wasn't over yet. With a deep breath and a few quick limbering exercises he had invented to learn to dodge Millia's habit of throwing sharp inter-dimensional objects, Mu summoned up all his strength and resolve and went to find Millia. Whatever happened between the two he wanted it done when he was prepared for it and with the least amount of involvement of their respected crews...after they were the only two even remotely able to go toe to toe among those present, it wouldn't end well for either side if they got involved...specially the twins. Mu walked to Millia's cabin and knocked. OOOO PRINCESSSSS DO BE A DEARIE AND OPEN UP...UNCLE MU WANTS TO HAVE A WORD WITH YOUUUUUUU!

The cabin door slammed open as Mu called out Millia in such a mockingly way. Before the door even had opened fully an item had already careened towards Mu who seemed to have dodged it as if he had been training just for her. With an angry look on her face, Millia invited him in. "Come in," She said as she walked towards her captain chair and sat down corssing her legs. "Now, what is it that you want with me, Mu of the bells?" She asked with emphasis on the rest of his name.

Mu dodged Millia's dagger on pure reflex as it passed by him. He chuckled to himself as he realized how thankful he was that he hadn't lost that particular ability. Mu looked around and noticed there was not a chair for him to sit in. "Tsk Tsk Milli my dear no chair for your guest. I guess I will make one myself." Mu spun a hammock and hung it from the walls, which was a bit of nostalgia for them both, and then he laid down on it and pretended to sleep, snoring loudly for about a minute. Then finally when he sensed that a dagger would probably be flying at him he awoke with a start and said"What..oh yes..There is not need to be so formal Milli...It has been a long time and I have one very important question that I have been meaning to ask you...." Mu let the silence drag on for another minute before adding, "How have you been?"

Lelu had felt the arms enclose around her. At first she was startled, but the tragety in the dream prevented her from pushing the gesture away which she would have done under any other circumstance. Her head moved to the girls shoulder as she sobbed into it and her arms encircled the girl. Had it been seconds, minutes, or hours that she sat there souking the poor victims shirt with tears?

Slowly the tears faded and the breathing became more and more steadied. Fianlly she had regained herself and wiped the tears from her eyes after releasing Ai from her hold. Lelu straightened her hair and rubbed her ears which had gone numb from the volume of the screaming and sobbing.

"Please forgive me." The neko whispered ashamed of her actions. She really did not know anything about these people or this girl in front of her yet, so it was best not to explain exactly why she was crying and instead asked her own questions in the hope for answers. "T-there was a man that got on the ship with me. As we were rowing away someone else appeared on our boat and they both vanished. How is that possible?" Her eyes were peircing as she examined everything about Ai while waiting for an answer. If she could get answers to these questions, surely she would be closer to the answers she needed most.

Wiping away the nearly dried tears from her eyes, Ai smiled towards Lelu as she patted her head softly. "Well hun, the first thing you have to know is that you are not alone in this world..." Ai said as she let vines grow throughout her hair, and a small branch from her wrist which she snapped off and held in her hand as the small branch portrayed a red rose. "Lelu, we are like you. We're different." She said as she stood up. "Those men you saw, you could call what they did magic, but it is more one;s ability to fluctuate their own, and the energy around them to do their bidding. You yourself should be able to do that if you trained, and are taught." Ai walked over to the middle of the room as she placed the lantern on the hanging structure to illuminate the room more clearly. In this bright light one could see clearly the many vines she had grown in her hair, either portraying beautiful flowers, or thorns. "But even so, there are those who are far different then even those two as for me, I am what is known as a 'power.'" She said as she withdrew all the vines back into her. "There are not many of us, powers, but each power goes hand in hand with a guardian, and cannot function well if the guardian is not present. Our power is legendary, very few believe us to exist." AI finished saying as she thought of one last thing, "Oh, and from the looks of you, you may actually be a power yourself, judging from how you look, you seem to be closer to myself or Millia, then to those two men, and yes, Millia is also a 'power'" She stopped talking and walked over to Lelu and held her hand as Ai gave her time to let all this new information sink in.


_______________________________


After staring angrily at Mu's antics and had actually spoke Millia got up from her chair, and walked towards Mu slowly. Mu probably expected a harsh response from Millia, but she surprisingly spoke quite clear to him. "I have been good, thank you very much, Mu. Tracking down my families' ancient treasures more recently, like that doll I'm sure you noticed on deck, but tell me, how have you been, Mu? I;m sure you must have been getting around."

Mu laughed at Millia's question and said, "Oh there are more then a few tear stained lassies in more then a few ports that miss ol Mu...but thats neither here nor there..." Then getting serious Mu leaned forward and looked Millia right in the eyes, his usual mirth drained form his face and replaced by an uncharacteristic stone face devoid of emotion. "So...Millia...I suspect you are wondering why I mutinied against you and almost killed you....if you wish I will tell you and then after you are free to fight me for revenge if you wish...but know this..if we do fight to our full extent those around us may not survive. So what say you?", said Mu his face still devoid of emotion even as he leaned back to wait for Millia's answer.


Of course she was surprised she had gotten so much information. She was expecting a glare at the very minimum. As she sat there and took in the information she began to get restless. Something was trying to come back to her. The answer was right there, just barely beyond her reach. Certainly she would get the answers she needed here.

Lelu stood and dusted herself off, her tail swishing gently back and forth as if it had a mind of her own. "Tell me more about this 'Millia'". She asked moving to Ai and smiling.