Serious: The Aurora Pirates Part 4: An Island Within an Island

One Week Later...

James stepped out on deck. He almost went up to the wheel to steer the ship, but then reminded himself that that wasn't his job any longer. They had a navigator for that now. Smiling slightly, he went to the front of the ship. The new crew mates seemed to have settled in after a week of sailing. James still hadn't told Heiki that he remembered her from years ago back on Aurora Island, but he wasn't about to let that slip any time soon. He just wanted to keep a lid on it for now. People changed, he had realized, and he would give her the benefit of the doubt even if she had been the most... He shook his head to clear it. No reason to start reflecting on the past when it was a beautiful day like this one. Except for the dark clouds gathering in the distance. He could do without the clouds.

"Wow, I didn't know they--I mean we--were called the Aurora Pirates. How nostalgic," Heiki smiled. She was resting on the mass of blankets she had stacked inside her small boat that was on deck and staring at the sky. A news ku came into view and dropped a newspaper on her head.

Ignoring the fact that her cheek was probably red because of the force of the paper being dropped, the girl opened the newspaper. Seeing the mass of gray and black in front of her eyes suddenly made her very drowsy. "I'll read it later." She covered her face with the newspaper and went to sleep.

Pyriss was still attending her normal agendas. She was observing the speed of the waves and the boat. She was on deck, looking down at the ocean. She had seen the current was a little faster than normal. Anyways, Pyriss did not know which island they were going to land on next, she was curious to find out.

Though she didn't want to bug James at the time. Pyriss knew it was a long cruise to the next island and she took that to mind. She took out her binoculars to see if there were any treacherous detours ahead. After confirming she sat down. She then started to polish her weapon. The shadow claw.

Kaori looked at the news ku as it dropped the paper on Heiki, who promptly fell asleep. He took the newspaper and started slowly reading it, mostly because he wasn't such a good reader. No formal education and all that. "Wars.. Hmmhmm.." Kaori was absorbed in the magazine.

"Heeey!"
Jake hit Kaori on the back.
Henry was right behind him. There hadn't been any chances for him to escape yet, so he settled on making sarcastic comments and pouting for now. Jake had been right, it was good to have someone around who'd get him from becoming too optimistic.
"Beautiful day, isn't it?"
Jake was grinning widely, as he always was. Henry was sulking.
"Except for the clouds... oh, I get the feeling I forgot something... right, I'm being kept prisoner by a pirate! A pirate with a bounty of 2.000.00 on his head, never the less! But wow, you're right, it's such a beautiful day, isn't it?"
Jake ignored him, and instead looked over Kaoris shoulder. The little black signs made no sense to him, but there were some nice pictures.
"So, anything important?"


((since Henry can... talk now! (Dundundun.) I decided to give Jakes lines a different colour.))

Pyriss stopped polishing her claw as she seen the man she still did not know reading the newspaper. To her it looked as if he was fully interested in it. Pyriss went to her chambers to get her book. Her book was a diary of adventures, she began to write about the crew she just met. 'Interesting bunch. It seems Heiki is kind and innocent, sleeping. Then Captain James seems to be relieved, he was smiling slightly. Probably trying to be tough. Then the guy I don't know the name of seems to be interested in reading the newspaper. He doesn't talk to me at all and I wonder why.'

Pyriss thought to herself -Maybe I should try to talk to this guy again, I'm not going to give up-. Pyriss went to the man reading again. She smiled as she said" Hmm, What are you reading about? You seem to be interested in it a large deal. I see so you like reading.... Well me too, I love reading and writing." She had seen Jake above her trying to grab his attention. " Oh so your name is Kaori."

Kaori did his best to ignore Henry. "Well, there's been a great battle in Enies Lobby. Haven't read very far yet." He looked at Pyriss, sighing. He obviously wasn't going to get to read the news with the constant interruptions. "I don't really like reading. I just like knowing the news. And yes." He said.

Pyriss gathered a very mixed expression. They didn't have much in common, Pyriss and Kaori. Though unlike James, he didn't seem to be calculative, unlike Jake he was kind and easygoing, and unlike Heiki he wasn't innocent. He seemed to be more dull and direct, more credited to the task at hand and distinguishes any distractions as annoyance. To sum it up, Kaori was a little to stiff and serious. She wondered why, he said he didn't like reading, and people who don't like reading aren't like Kaori, there more like Jake. Kaori was a little odd, there was a time when Lucy was like that, until she developed her cocky and hotheaded personality in her thirties. Though it just irritated Pyriss that he was so serious, thought there really isn't any use to try to change him. Pyriss tone started to gradually slow down into a more depressing voice.

"Alright! I'll just leave you alone. I guess i'm a nuisance sometimes though that is just me." Pyriss rolled here eyes and went to her corner to polish her claw. She took out her binoculars to observe the sea. Seeing any islands nearby, if she did she would tell Capt. James about it.

James stared out over the waves. He spotted something in the distance. A ship maybe? He peered at it for a moment, but then called out to the crew, "There's something up ahead," he said. "It looks like a ship." James looked around to see Pyriss holding some binoculars. "Pyriss, take a look."

Pyriss overheard her captain. He mentioned something about a ship. Though the ship wasn't sightable at first. The ship appeared very closely on Pyriss' binoculars like a rock right in front. Pyriss wondered why a ship was out there. The place was just a random sea route. Pyriss of course did not have a map, so she couldn't identify where they were located. No islands were near there, so why was there a ship? " I see it, wanna communicate with them captain? Or should we just avoid them. Its all on your call captain.", Pyriss responded. Pyriss was just as curious as anyone, though she was a little hesitant to communicate with other ships. In fear of destruction of her own, but this wasn't her ship.

Kagirinai was laying beneath the mast. Eyes shut as he was sleeeping peacefully. He decided to sleep and catch up on some needed rest instead of interacting with the rest of the crew. He would rather keep to himself it was only in his nature. he could hear everyone talking about a ship/. he slowly cracked open an eye and gave a loud yawn as he cracked his neck. hands behind his head as he continue to sit in a laid back position. His single open eye watching the rest of the crew talking to one another.

(OOC: Sorry i haven't been posting guys i've been to sick to post)

James nodded absentmindedly. "Keep us on course..." he said. He was watching the path of the ship. It seemed to be moving almost erratically. Whoever was sailing wasn't doing a very good job of it. As the ship came closer James could see the sails were in tatters. That much explained why they were moving in that fashion. Without the sails, they could only move with the ocean currents or with oars and they didn't have any oars in the water. James looked up at the sails again and was surprised to see the familiar shape of a skull and crossbones. They were pirates! James frowned. The ship was almost upon them now, it was coming up alongside them at a distance that usually wouldn't be thought of as safe. As it did, the whole Aurora Pirate crew had a good view of the main deck, which was covered in bloodstains and bodies.

((woahhh!! I can smell an adventure coming up!! :])

The stench of the blood and the bodies was bothering the sleeping Heiki's nose. She rubbed her nose and rolled over to her stomach in her sleep.

James jumped over to the other ship. He looked around at all the bodies. Obviously there had been some sort of battle. Many of the wounds looked like ones that a sword would make. He would know. He crouched down beside a man's body, which was lying face-down, and he rolled it over. The man's eyes stared off into the distance, his mouth was open in a scream. A small hole was on the center of his forehead. So apparently they had also been killed by bullets.

James stood back up. Without looking at his crew he called out, "Search for any survivors. I want to know what happened." He walked across the deck, taking a look at each of the bodies, checking to see if any of them were still breathing.

Kaori discarded the newspaper on the deck of the Aurora Pirates' ship and followed the captain, poking the bodies on the foreign ship with the back end of the spear for any response.

Pyriss listened to the command of her captain jumping into the next ship. Though unlike the others, she was a little terrified. Pyriss was the kind of person that would get terrified of a horrific site and never get over it. Pyriss stepped on each body to trace a movement. Though she was hesitant through the entire experience.

Kagirinai stepped towards the ship and looked over it as he stood besides his captain, "You probably already know this but its obvious a battle took place." He leapt off the ship snd landed on the other ship in crouched position and looked about, "But this is more of a massacre these guys from the looks of it whom ever they were fighting....didn't stand a chance. Like cows to the slaughter they went."

"Yeah...it's looking that way," James said, standing back up from yet another dead body. "And from what I can see, all these people were from the same crew. What I mean is, I can't find anyone who looks out of place. They've all got the same style of clothing. See this?" He held up a red scarf. "Each of the bodies has one of these. It seems this was a way to identify crew members. That suggests that whoever they were fighting didn't lose a single man, unless they took the bodies away after the battle."

Kagirinai folded his arms as he looked at the red scarf, 'Like i said Massacre. Basically a pirate crew Genocide." He sighed as he leaned against the mast of the ship looking over the bodies scanning each of them, "Whom ever did this knew what they were doing nice clean kills." He pulled out a cigar from his cloak and lit it up, "Work of a professional just hope there long since moved on and arne't still lurking about."

Pyriss looked around with caution and a horrific imagination flowing through her young head. She believed that the marines or something even more powerful must have killed these unknown pirates. This force having some kind of vast killing intent like a serial killer or serial killers. She looked at how the killings were processed, could have been a single man or a small group. Probably trained in an elite way to assassinate and make the battleground look tremendously outmatched. Pyriss had her focus on finding the captain of the ship, probably she could determine if the captain himself was a threat to the men who conducted these assassinations or just as simple and effortless to kill like the others.

James nodded and headed down below deck. He had seen enough up top. James immediately found the crew bunks at the bottom of the stairs, but each time he opened a door he was met time and time again with another gruesome scene of death.

"Just how many people were on this crew?" he wondered to himself.

From the looks of things, half of the crew was up on the main deck when the slaughter started, but the rest were down below in bed sleeping. He supposed this made since considering that this allowed the ship to remain in constant motion, however it just made his job a whole lot more unpleasant. James eventually reached a room that was much different from the others. It was the kitchen. Inside the ship's cooks lay across the floor or on counters. In this room the smell of blood was mixed with the odor of burning flesh. Apparently the cooks had been cooking at the time of their death and some of them had fallen on the stoves where they had been working. Utterly disgusted, James was about to leave the room when he saw a doorway on the other side. He really didn't want to leave the place without searching it throughly, James crossed the room as quickly as possible, covering his nose and holding his breath as he went. James reached the doorway and put his hand on the handle when he heard a sound. It was coming from the other side of the door. It was the sound of someone breathing. James placed a hand on Kazeshini's hilt and turned the handle. Before he could get the door open, it was flung open from the other side. James went down as a small figure slammed into his chest. The figure landed on James's chest and raised its arms above its head holding a knife in its hands. It was a young boy wearing a chef's outfit. He had a crazed look on his face and he was screaming as he brought the knife down at James. Quickly, James's hands shot up grabbing the boy's wrists with his hands. The boy struggled for a moment before James squeezed his wrists, forcing him to drop the knife. Unfortunately, the knife was falling directly for James's face. The pirate captain swung his head to the side and twisted his body slightly, but the knife still cut a small gash on the back on his head. James winced, but regained his composure. He released one of the boy's arms which flailed about. James pulled his free hand back and then sunk it into the boy's chest causing him to gasp in pain and double over. James's head snapped up to meet the boy's face, shattering his nose and knocking him backwards. James pushed the unconscious boy's body off of his own and he stood up. James stared at the boy for a moment with a look of pity on his face, but then he picked up the boy and slung him over his shoulder. Before he left the kitchen, James swiped a cloth from the supply closet in which the boy had been hiding. He held it to the back of his head over his cut trying to stem the flow of blood.

James went back to the main deck and set the boy down at the center of it. He stepped back a few paces and then sat down.

"There," James said. "I found a survivor."

Pyriss was still observing the scene as she had seen James discovering a survivor. She observed the boy, he possessed a chef's outfit. She could not decipher where he came from, though he could provide at least some information on what island he came from and what happened on this ship. He looked terrified, a little worse than herself. Pyriss possessed a more piteous sense of fear, like an entire family being murdered. The boy might have possessed a natural fear, a fear of dying and a fear of watching people die in front of him. Pyriss walked to the boy, she wanted to ask some questions, though she preferred that James ask the first so the boy wouldn't be overwhelmed by the way Pyriss talks. She looked to James to ask the first question and get some information.

"Hey," James pulled one of his swords from his back without drawing it from its sheath. He reached over with the weapon and poked the boy with it. "Wake up."

The boy groaned and sat up weakly. He looked at James, saw the sword, and scooted backwards, but when he saw that there were people all around him, he stopped and looked fearfully at them.

"Who are you?" James asked. "And what happened here?"

The boy looked at James again. His face scrunched up in an attempt to look brave. "I don't have to tell you anything!" he spat at James.

"Then I guess you can just stay here," James replied. He stood up. "Let's go."

"NO!" the boy cried out. "Wait..." he looked like he was about to cry now.

James went down to his level again. "You don't have to try and act tough with me," he said, his voice soft. "Just tell me what happened."

The boy remained silent for a moment longer, but then he began his tale, "We were sailing towards the Grand Line. In fact, we were almost there, but then we came upon an island. Since we had not had much time to stop and rest in about three weeks the captain suggested we stop there to restock our ship. We were headed towards the island when they came. There were only three of them. I was up here, on the main deck at the time and so I remember seeing them arrive. There were two men and a woman. They didn't say a word when they arrived, they just started killing people. The first mate was on deck and he tried to stop them, but one of the men crushed him with this massive sword. I ran at that point, but as I did I saw the captain coming out. I thought we would be safe with him out there and his devil fruit power, but the woman threw these knives at him that cut through him like he was nothing! I kept running and went downstairs and hid in the closet where you found me. Fortunately when they came in to kill the cooks they didn't search in there for anyone. I've been hiding in there for about five days living off of what food I could find." The boy stared down at the deck sadly.

Pyriss automatically thought, A woman with knives? Someone is copying Lucy's style. The style only I should know. It seems like these people are more barbaric than deadly. Pyriss wondered if she knew them. The only people Pyriss knew in the world that could use knives was her and Lucy, no one else. Probably the girl was a novice? Pyriss asked," Um boy I have a question, what did they look like?" Pyriss might be able to decipher who these people were. She smiled at the kid, so he wouldn't be afraid, though she did suspect it might backfire.

The boy looked over at Pyriss and said, "The man who carried the big sword was huge. He looked kind of fat except I think that was mostly muscle considering the way he swung his weapon around. He had dark hair, but that's about all I can give you on his appearance. The woman was smaller then him. She had long blond hair. She was fast and like I said, she had knives that she used to fight with. I think she said something about 'seastone' as well, although I'm not sure what that is so I could be wrong. The other man was a lot younger, but I only saw him for a moment. I don't think he actually fought. From what I saw he just watched the battle from behind the other two. He had light brown hair. When they first arrived he looked straight at me..." The boy shivered at this point. "...and his expression was terrifying. That's all I know! Can you get me off this ship?"

James looked over at Pyriss, but then addressed the whole crew. "Does anyone have any other questions for him?"