Serious: The Fair Pirates, chapter 1: A new Beginning?

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“Rooftops? Again?” Avery could have groaned, but he couldn’t waste anytime just standing around. “Okay, since you can’t jump across buildings then you’ll have to lead me on the ground,” Avery told Lawrence. The dog barked again and then set off, Avery running alongside him. The two of them made good time considering they could only run across streets. Still, they were slowly falling behind the others. Avery let out a low growl of frustration. “I guess I’ll just have to do that,” he said. He dropped down, wrapping one arm underneath Lawrence and the other under the dog’s head. He then used his hand which was under Lawrence to lift the dog up. Then he sprang towards the nearest building, using his mechanical foot to kick off of the wall and leap up onto the roof of the building across the street. “Point me!” Avery commanded. Lawrence complied, pointing his head in the direction Seppy and Miyu had gone. Once more, Avery set off, using his metal leg to leap from building to building as he followed after the others.

It probably didn't take them long to get where they were going, but it felt like a long time to Seppy. His was a brain used to processing two thoughts simultaneously on a bad day; the sheer volume that he was coping with right now was more than his one-track mind could cope with. On top of everything else, there was something extremely distracting about the feeling of Miyu being in his arms like that. It wasn't like she weighed more than a feather; he could carry a thousand of her without breaking a sweat.

Rather, there was something about the tiny, perennially optimistic and friendly girl that weighed down his mind far more than his arms. No matter how hard he tried to focus through the haze of thoughts, push past his natural fight instincts, or come up with a rational plan, every train of thought ended in a wreck, derailed by the thought of the woman he was carrying. It wasn't until he saw the tarps draped over the alleyways that a single rational thought made it's way through the grinder and out of his mouth.

"'S no problem. Might even be lighter t'carry you then t'carry nothin' at all, nya hyah!" Flashing Miyu one of his fangy, catlike grins, he darted into the air a final time and came down gracefully through a hole in one of the tarps, the landing soft as if she'd used her smoke powers and done it herself. After looking around for a clean, dry spot, Seppy decided on a nearby crate. Brushing away any splinters with the sole of his boot, he set her lightly down upon the wood.

"Sorry t'jus' up an' move y'like that," Seppy apologized, his catty grin fading a bit. He crouched down, hands planted on the ground between his feet, irises glowing bright gold in the dimness of the covered alleyways. If it were just a tiny bit darker and his human profile were less visible, there'd have been no knowing he wasn't actually just a very big cat.

A moment later he heard and vaguely smelled the man and his dog that had agreed to help them catching up, weaving through the trash-heaps and bums that littered Tarp City in varying proportions. Seppy turned his head and nodded to the man, giving a sharp but quiet whistle to let them know exactly where they'd stopped.

"Fleshton," the ex-hunter stated, reaching into a side-pouch of his backpack and grabbing the late Yoren Idulio's whip. Giving it a snap, the thing turned into a massive black and yellow python, it's webwork of gold, stitch-like patterns seeming to glow in the dark. "Keep 'n eye open fer us, 'kay? Don' attack anyone less I tell ya, either." The snake flickered it's tongue belligerently, but seemed to assent all the same.

"An' don' eat any bums!" Fleshton turned it's head back to Seppy, it's glowing snake eyes showing that it wasn't happy with that last command. There was a sort of promise in that stare, something that said - and very clearly so, that anyone looking could tell - if it wasn't fed soon, Seppy himself would be the meal.

"Such a cute li'l guy," mused the feline pirate, turning back to Miyu and smiling a bit more, his teeth lighting up in a cheshire fashion in the darkness beneath his golden eyes. "Anyway, we're gonna stay here 'till we figger out a plan, an 'till yer feelin' all strong an' stuff." His look softened a bit as he spoke the final words.

"Thank you," Seppy finally said after a pause, unusually slow and with very little of his usual drawl. "We only got th'time t'rest because a what you did."

It was a relief, being set down again. Not that she hadn't enjoyed being carried around by Seppy, it was more of a nagging feeling that she was being a hassle to him sometimes. If it hadn't been for her using her smoke powers at the Takojaki stand back then, this all wouldn't have happened.
She felt incredibly tired, and her head was aching.
"No need to thank me... If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead by now anyway."
It was true. she could think of at least three situations in which Seppy had been the reason she lived. Now, how many situations had she been the reason he had survived... And how many times had he been the cause for dangerous situations like this one?
It was kind of ironic, she thought, that she seemed to attract battles and pain so much, when all she wanted was a peaceful live...
Maybe it was just her fate to travel around like this, always in fights or on the run.
But she had to stop thinking about this, now.
She looked at the big snake, then at Seppy, a tired reproach in her eyes, then back at the big snake looking back up to her.
"The poor thing looks starved..."
Of course, she didn't approve of it eating her, either...

“Taking a break?” Avery asked.

He sat down with his back against the wall across from them. Lawrence was about to lie down next to him when he saw the snake and growled and straightened up, ready for battle. Avery stroked him and his growl cut off, but he didn’t lie down.

“So…you have a giant pet snake,” Avery said, trying to make small talk. “That’s interesting.” He cocked his head on one side and squinted at Seppy. “What are you anyway? You look human, but…”

The question seemed to take Seppy off-guard, as he tilted slightly to the side and gave a glance that had all the seeming of one who'd just been asked what colour the sky is.

"'M Seppy... same as ev'ryone ells, jus' got a few extra...senses 'n' stuff. Doc put 'm there when I was all li'l-like." Seppy held up a finger, his eyes looking upward and his backpack writhing a bit. "I been called a cat alot, but I think 'm priddy much human."

Turning back to Miyu, Seppy smiled and tilted his head back the other way.

"Don' worry 'bout him...he's jus' grumpy because Ox-boss overfed him. Thing was eatin' humans day in an' out. A little diet'll do 'm some good..." As if to prove his point, he jerked a thumb back towards Fleshton, who lifted his head. In his maw were nearly a dozen rats.

"'S plenny t'eat aroun', and he'll eat it. Jus' gotta teach 'm not t'be so picky."

After a moment, he started to somber up, his eyes fixed on Miyu's. They scanned over her face, slowly, taking in her mouth, her brow. After a short while they came back to her eyes; by this time, Seppy's smile was completely gone. A second later, though, something like a cheerful grin began to work it's way across his face.

"If y'keep makin' a sad, worried look like that, we won' get any rest. Jus' try'n relax a bit." He paused, turning his head to the side and making a sweeping gesture with his hand. "Think a, like, a beach...with some bright blue sky 'n' water th'same colour, only like two - no, three! - hun'r times deeper! Think a...a nice breeze, an it's warm an' cool at th'same time, and y'...y'just know nobody inna hun'r thousan' miles aroun' is yer enemy."

Seppy was holding Miyu's hand now, though he couldn't say when he'd taken it during his speech. He'd been trying to send her off to a happy place, but had gone along for the ride himself. He let it go, looking down for a moment, and then back up.

"We can go someplace like that, some day." His hopeful grin broke into an optimistic smile. "A girl as nice's you...can' jus' keep fightin' ferever. I won't let you." Again, Seppy's last few words seemed to loose their characteristic drawl for just a moment, as if it were an acquired trait that could be forgotten. Standing back up to full (slouching) height, Seppy walked over to the side of the crate and sat down next to it, back to the wall.

"Jus' rest, righ' now. We're safe."

Taking her hand again...
Wouldn't it be nice, no enemies, no one who wanted her dead? Yes, it would be. But right now, she had to fight for it. and to do so, she'd have to rest up a little first.
She managed a weak smile.
"Thank you, Seppy."
The words were really, truly heart felt. He was right. She worried too much. Wasn't the world generally a nice place?
Miyu leaned back against the wall, took her legs close and put her arms around them. Then she closed her eyes, and a sudden relaxation overcame her. She must have been even more tired than she thought she had been.

Avery looked back and forth between Miyu and Seppy for a moment. Then a wicked grin spread across his face. He nudged Lawrence and then, in a stage whisper, he said, "Do you think they would even notice us if we walked away right now?" Without waiting to see what their reactions were, Avery began to sing, "Can you feel the love tonight..." His voice wasn't bad, but as soon as he had started singing, Lawrence flung back his head and accompanied Avery with a low, mournful howl. Avery whirled on Lawrence, glaring at him. "Good for nothing dog," he muttered. "Can't even carry a proper tune."

(For those who may or may not know, those lyrics come from a song called 'Can you feel the love tonight.' This song appeared in the movie the Lion King.)

Yuki stared at the people that rested...
"Hmm... They seem hungry and be in trouble..."
She threw a mouse as a distraction for the snake then head towards the resting people
She thought, she went towards Miyu and Seppy while they were resting and she didn't do a noice when she came closer to them so they wouldn't notice her, She carefully left two bags beside Seppy and Miyu, she wrote a note and left it on the bag then she lefted them.

15 minutes in the past(information how she got into the base and everything)
Yuki managed to sneak into the base in her cat form without no one notice, she headed towards a special room, a marine officers room, she waited there for the officer to come in and go to bed, when the officer finally fell asleep, she stabbed him with her sword then she left without a trace, when she had sneaked around the base she found a couple that slept.(thats You all and thats how she got in)

(Note): Here is a bag of food and gear that might help you, you might wonder who i am and why i helped you, i tell you this, i'm an assassin who was ordered to kill a officer here, and you people looked like a... family to me... and i don't... attack a family couple...
anyway the red bag is full of bombs and pistols, there is diffrent kind of bombs in the bag, the blue one is sleeping bombs.
Throw one of those on someone it will exlode and sleeping gas will come out and they will fall asleep instant, the red one is deadly gas, they will make any person choke and unable to scream or move, they will feel a torturefull death, they will have 2 minutes to live... but the effect disappear if they drink water..
The black ones are weak explosives, they can only wound someone not kill someone, and the grey ones is smoke bombs, and green is a sound bomb, it can help you distract someone, and the yellow one is a flashbang (there is 15 of each bombs)

The blue bag is full of food that will last for 2 weeks, don't eat to mutch save it so you can make it longer.

If you wish to find me i will be in South Blue, good luck.

((if you wish for more information of the bombs look here https://theonepiecerp.rpg-board.net/t3535-yuki ))

Seppy's eyes opened with a start. His face was cold and clammy, a sense that something wasn't right trying on his nerves. Staying perfectly still, he focused on the dark alley, lit brightly as day to him, for any sign of movement. A moment later, a drop of cold water hit him smack in the nose, and his feeling of foreboding faded.

Taking a look up at the hole in the tarp, through which cold rain was catching to and rolling along the underside of the makeshift ceiling to perform nuisancy tricks like dropping onto people's faces and waking them from restful sleep, Seppy estimated that it was nearly an hour before dawn. The thought was satisfying and disturbing at the same time. On the bright side, it meant Miyu had gotten plenty of rest. The downside was realizing that he had slept so long undisturbed. It'd been a lifetime since he'd last done so, and the pirate could not begin to puzzle out why he'd managed to here, in a city alley, surrounded by enemies.

Glancing over at Miyu, the ex-hunter stared for just a few moments before it even occurred to him that he was, in fact, staring. This didn't stop him, so much as confuse him. The catlike habit of staring at people and things was part of his nature, something he did to everyone and everything whenever his slow, grinding thought process was busy puzzling through any issues associated with the targets of his curious and feline gaze. For the first time, Seppy was self-conscious about staring.

"Peaceful," he mused to himself, quietly. His brain went back a bit, searching through all the nights since he'd met Miyu. A bright red colour came to his cheeks when he realized he'd been sleeping longer, more soundly, and worst of all, less attentively, since they'd started travelling together. The lack of duress they'd enjoyed during the short, peaceful leg of their travels had blinded him to this basic and life-threatening shortcoming.

Still, that one word he'd spoken had to be it. Miyu was peaceful, in appearance, in personality, in presence. Just being around him made him feel at ease, even when he was fretting over her wellbeing. When he slept, it was not the wary half-sleep of a stray cat in a wet cardboard box, one eye open in case death should try to steal upon it unawares in the guise of a dog or a Chinese Food Restaurant owner.

No, his had been the deep, listless, careless sleep of a fat housecat at the foot of it's master's bed, safe and secure and dry and warm with four walls and roof to keep away everything bad. His blush intensified as did his shame at becoming so domestic so quickly, and taking so long to realize it. This whole while he'd been putting them both in danger, risking both of their lives, without even knowing it.

"Dumb...how friggen dumb can y'be!" Seppy hissed to himself, quietly, so that it barely seemed the whisper of a breeze in the alley. "C'mon, Seppy...y'gotta think straight, think lika hunn...I mean, not like...jus' think...at all, dammit!" Muttering admonishments to himself, the predatory pirate lost track of time and position.

It completely failed to register, through his shame and angst at his own perceived failure, that he was staring continually at Miyu, a bright blush on his face, for nearly five minutes.

When at last he'd sorted through everything enough and recovered the sense to move and act again, his face paled out back to normal and he stood up, padding across the uneven, wet, debris littered ground of the alleyway with an impossible silence. Finding an unused fire barrel, Seppy picked it up with the faintest of metallic banging noises, carried it over to Miyu, and set it down just a foot or so from the crate, the noise of it touching the ground near as faint as that of it's rising.

Stalking about for dry wood and other debris, making some light noise as he broke apart crates or rummaged through piles of trash, Seppy eventually gathered up a reasonable armful of fuel. Quietly stuffing it all down into the large metal drum, Seppy pulled out his lighter and soon had a reasonably-sized fire going inside.

A pale orange glow escaped from the top, and soon a deep warmth radiated from the drum's conductive sides, but no flame was visible, unless from above. The complete silence and stillness of the alley, broken only by the soft patter of slow rain, was now replaced by the low and calming din of a fire's soft crackle.

Sitting back down next to Miyu, he decided to wait until daybreak to wake her up. This time, he didn't go to sleep. One eye open, like a cat in a wet cardboard box in an alley. Alert, aware, should death try to steal upon them in the guise of Theo, or his freakishly huge sister.

Or Dutera.

The thought of that guy trying to hurt Miyu was all that it took to light another fire, this one inside of the pirate. Burning hotter than the one in the barrel, it's flames were stoked by occasional thoughts of the woman who would be travelling with him. It'd been a long time since Seppy had felt that fire, and it hurt. He'd been happy to have it extinguished, had always feared it would never be. Watching it reignite should have been terrifying.

Somehow, it put a smile on his face. This flame would keep him alert, would not let him fall into the trap of Miyu's calming presence, would not make him content and sloppy and put them in danger. It was a burning that hurt just enough to remind him of how much worse pain could be, to keep him sharp, to keep the knives in his blood.

There was a quiet sadness to it, too, that didn't fully escape even Seppy's "unique" mind. That happy place he had talked about, the peace he wanted to help Miyu find...it wasn't some place you could go when you carried that fire. Once again, Seppy found himself a reprobate of his own devices.

Still, he was determined to protect the two of them for now, whatever the cost. Maybe even the three of them, if the man with the dog turned out to be any fun to travel with. His was a job less satisfaction, but it was a job; never in his life had he treated one as trivial, or given any less than his all. Seppy was blessed with a rare spark of awareness, just the faintest hint of how dull he really was be, and this uncommon trait let him occasionally compromise within the established limits of his own metal powers.

For now, he'd let it burn. Glancing over at the drum and it's ominous orange glow, Seppy decided that a low fire would be okay. It would help, for now, and that was the most important part. And, if he was careful enough, he could always put it out when-

Seppy's thoughts were interrupted by a burst of blindingly bright light. A massive gout of flame belched up out of the drum's mouth, a yellow-red prominence that rose nearly to the tarps before spreading into a dulling fireball and dying out, leaving the alley stained a green tint as his retinas re-adapted. Without realizing it, he must have put something combustible in there.

Fires, Seppy reasoned, no matter how small or carefully kept, had a way of turning into sudden blazes all on their own.

((Thanks for the goody-bag, Neko. I'll get to it in a post or two, when the story has moved on just a little bit.))

Meanwhile, Miyu was in a deep, dark sleep.
During the first hours, she didn't dream, or at least she wouldn't remember dreaming later.
Then, in the matter in which dreams seem like real life sometimes, she found herself on the small ship her and Seppy had bought to start travelling together... The sky was blue, not a cloud in sight, and behind her, Seppy had climbed on the mast to look for land. Miyu herself was sitting on a barrel, looking out on the sea.
She could hear a loud bark and turned her head to see the dog, Lawrence, jump into her direction, wagging his tail wildly.
She laughed and kneeled down to pat his head, as a thank you for which he started licking her cheek, covering it in dog slobber.
His owner, Avery, ran up to her and apologised, trying to get the dog away from her, but she laughed and shook her head.
By her side, Seppy had dropped down and gave the dog a suspicious, almost jealous look. He said something as well, but all Miyu couldn't hear it. It was like he was just moving his lips, but nothing came out. It was strange, and mildly worrying... Just now did Miyu notice that, even though Lawrended was still barking, and Avery moving his lips as well, seemingly trying to calm him, she couldn't hear anything.
Seppy looked at her askingly and she pointed to her ears to signalise she couldn't hear. What was going on?
Avery moved his lips again, now that his dog had calmed a little, he was talking to her, and both of them were looking at her.
She tried to speak, tell them she couldn't hear, but nothing would come out of her mouth, and both of them were still looking at her.
Then they turned to each other and seemed to talk about something. Suddenly, Miyu saw something behind them. Well, not so much something as someone. He had his back turned to her, small, barely a kid, his blond hair a mess. Why did they have a child on board? She looked at him curiously, then she stepped towards him carefully. Her two companions didn't even seem to notice. The closer she got to him, the brighter the environment seemed to get. At first it was nice, but it soon started getting blindingly bright, a if a white star had fallen on their ship, landing directly behind the boy.
She sheltered her eyes with one hand, and for a moment, couldn't see him anymore. When she took the hand down again, he was gone. so was the light. Miyu turned around to ask Seppy and Avery about the child, but they were gone, as well. She was alone in the middle of the ocean.
She was starting to get a little scared. Where was everyone? She tried calling for them, but still, her voice was gone.
And then, the cloud appeared.
It had been cloudless, deep blue a moment ago, but now there was a gigantic black and purple cloud at the horizon.
It was moving faster than any cloud she had ever seen, and, though it did look a little like a storm cloud, didn't seem quite... normal...
The sails! She ran over to them and tugged on a rope, but nothing happened. But she knew it was the right one! she had done this before! She started tugging harder, but still, nothing happened.
And suddenly, the cloud was not only above, but around her.
The ship was thrown around like a nutshell, and Miyu desperately held on to the mast.
Then, suddenly, her hearing returned. The storm wasn't roaring, it was... there was no better word for it, it was screaming.
On the wind, there were screams, bloodcurdling and scared, filled with pain and desperation, and laughter, just as bloodcurdling, but brutal and mad. It was horrible.
But below it all, the wind, she knew it... it was trying to get into her ear. It was wispering to her whenever it came close to it, words she couldn't understand, but she knew she didn't want to hear.
It was too much. She had been shocked by her hearing disappearing all of a sudden, but now she just wished it would go again. She let go of the mast and pressed her hands on her ears.
The moment her hands let go of the mast, she was swept off her feet by the wind. She knew she was going to hit the sea, but she couldn't do anything about it, and so she just closed her eyes and kept her hands on her ears.

Miyu waited for a long time, but nothing happened. She wasn't hitting the water, she wasn't drowning. Carefully, she opened her eyes again. She was sitting in a big, polstered chair. Before her, there was a dark brown table, and on it, food and drinks from all the world. The room was big and coloured in dark red, filled with things made of velvet, silk and silver.
She noticed her hands weren't on her ears anymore, and tried to move, only to see she couldn't. Her eyes darted down, and she saw a rope, tieing her to the chair tightly. She tried to activate her smoke powers, but found she couldn't, and she couldn't get loose by herself either.
When she looked up again, there were other people sitting at the table.
Miyu smiled when she saw seppy on the chair next to her, and Avery on the one behind that. Even his dog was there. None of them was tied up, and they were all looking at her with calm smiles on their faces (save for the dog, who was... looking contempt enough).
On her other side, there were three men she didn't know, a tall blond one, a man with very dark skin dressed in a white shirt, and behind him a man with brown hair. She hadn't seen any of them before.
"Welcome."
A mans voice said. Miyu looked to the other end of the table, where another man was sitting. She couldn't see his face, but knew he must be the mastermind behind this meeting.
Miyu wanted to say something, only to notice she was gagged as well now.
She looked to Seppy for help, and a muffled scream came from her when she saw him and the other two lying there faces down, in pools of blood. Tears filled her eyes and streamed over her face, but she couldn't turn her head.
"Now."
She heard the man say.
"It's your turn."
She turned her head to look at him and saw the man with dark skin stand up. The other two remained seated, the one with the brown hair looking at Seppy with a contempt look on his face, the one with the blonde hair looking away from her with a tense look on his face, the kind people had when they wanted to look anywhere but at her.
The man with the dark skin came towards her, now a knife in his hand, which he raised up to his chin. Miyu started struggling, but he grabbed her chin and held it up. She could hear herself crying, perhaps also trying to plead in a muffled voice, but the man didn't show any sign of compassion. With a gentle smile, he pressed the cold iron to her skin.

Miyu woke up, breathing heavily, and was disoriented for a moment.
Then she remembered: she was in the same town still, Seppy and her were being hunted, and they had decided to fight back for once, or something along the lines of it...
There wasa fire in front of her, but she still shivered a little. That dream had seemed so real, so incredibly real. She knew about dreams that seemd real, but this one had been worse...
She pressed her knees to her chest and embraced them with her arms. She was feeling so incredibly cold, despite the fire... fires couldn't warm everything.

((Very intense dream sequence! I couldn't make much sense of it in standard Freudian terms, so I'm guessing it's more a prophetic dream...I guess I'll find out! So suspenseful!))

He couldn't fall asleep. As far as Seppy was concerned, doing so would have been a betrayal of Miyu, himself, and their new traveling companion. Even if it was only one more hour, one last little stretch in the grand scheme, he had to be awake. Fleshton would keep watch, sure, but he himself would be on guard. The fire inside told him it had to be that way.

It was because of his vigil that Seppy felt it; tremors in the wood. The crate against which he leaned was shivering, was trembling. The brief and momentary impulse to smash the thing for being so inconsiderate to the woman sleeping atop it raced through his mind. Some repressed, ancient, and unused part of his brain reminded him that wood couldn't do things like shiver or tremble, and the here and now focused back on Miyu.

Somehow, a foot away from a warm and comforting fire, she was still cold. Seppy found himself sick at the thought of it. The girl...the woman who had brought him so much comfort was shivering in her moments of rest, cold against the warmth he'd tried his best to bring her. The fire inside died to embers, the thought of anything but her comfort and rest fleeing his mind. It didn't make any sense. She should...she couldn't be cold.

Without warning, Seppy found his thoughts wandering to a distant place in the past. He'd seen the same thing; people freezing to death at the foot of a warm hearth. An affliction that stole warmth away, that no fire could cure. A disease, an illness that could be cured neither by blaze nor blanket. It was a sickness, he recalled, of the heart, soul, and flesh. Unless it was treated, it was fatal.

Knowing absolutely nothing of a true fever, it's cause, or it's cure, Seppy puzzled through his brain for ways to treat his afflicted companion. It was warm, yet she shivered. Fire could no longer warm her, and a reaper stealthier and more insidious than any he had imagined was coming for her. For a moment, he recalled his meeting with Miyu.

Without question, the girl...the woman had sought to help him. He'd been fine; it wasn't his blood he was covered with, after all. Even so, it was him she'd worried about. Back then, he'd killed - would Miyu call it murder? - some pirates. He'd engaged in - would Miyu call it senseless violence? - combat with people who'd threatened him. Seppy had simply resorted to - would Miyu call it savagery? - self defense. He wondered why it would matter so much what Miyu would call it. Still, she'd wanted to help him.

Without thinking another second on it, Seppy lifted himself to his feet and wrapped his arms around her; one beneath her back and the other beneath her legs. Doing his best to lift her gently, Seppy drew Miyu up from the crate. Trying his best not to disturb her from the last few precious moments of rest she'd have before the fight began anew, the pirate sat himself back down, craddling Miyu in his arms. Tucking her bare feet under one leg, he sat her across his lap. A protective, burning-hot arm wrapped about her chest. His chin settled atop her head.

"Jus' res', alrigh'?" Seppy stated in the barest, most silent of whispers he could imagine. "Even if th'fire won' warm you...even if y'got the fever..."

Seppy ripped his backpack off, tentacles rising before pressing against the bare brick wall behind him. He draped the large, ungaily mass of burlap over her, then wrapped his other arm around her, blanketing her in his disguise, in his arms.

"Even if, I'll keep y'warm..."

"Coz..." Seppy thought about times before he'd been there, before he'd been here, before he'd been with her...with Miyu. He would be really unhappy if she were gone, and he felt himself cool down a bit at this thought. She couldn't leave, but he didn't have anything he could use to stop her.

Then it occurred to him that she was always saying things like 'thank you,' that maybe she might feel indebted. Being such a good person, Seppy reasoned, she wouldn't do anything irresponsible like die from an ague without paying off all her debts, right? It seemed worth a shot; Seppy didn't feel like she owed him a thing, and didn't want her to worry about paying back any such imaginary debt, but...

He'd explain that to her later. For now, he needed something to keep her from succumbing to the fever.

"Y'owe me, Mew. Y'owe me a lot. Y'can' get sick, y'can' be cold...y'can' be tired or scared...y'can' leave 'till ya pay me back...a hun'rd - a hun'rd thousan' - times over!"

Avery had not slept. He had simply closed his eyes and blanked out his mind to allow himself to rest. He had been having trouble sleeping ever since his family and his mentor had been killed. Even so, he did not notice when the cat girl came and then left. Lawrence had, though. Unlike his master he did not have any trouble falling asleep. But this dog was not one to miss that scent: the smell of a cat. He had caught the girl’s scent and raised his head to watch her as she came towards them. However, she did not make any move on them and she had left so he simply lowered his head back onto Avery’s lap and was out again.

Some time later, Avery opened his eyes and stretched, yawning. He looked over at Seppy and Miyu and was surprised to see the cat-man-person with his arm around Miyu.

“Ooooh-kay, this alley just got a lot smaller,” Avery muttered. He shoved Lawrence’s head off of his lap to wake the dog up. “Let’s take a walk,” he said to his dog. The two of them stood up and started out of the alleyway. “We’ll be back in a few minutes!” Avery called to the others. “We won’t go far! You two play nice.”

Though he'd heard the man with the dog getting up, Seppy hadn't imagined he'd do anything so rude as to wake up a woman with a terrible fever in the middle of her rest. Miyu's body was busy fighting off a hundred hundred hundred tiny little men with torches; at least, that's what The Doctor had told him. Fevers were dangerous, and if you didn't rest and take care of yourself right, the tiny little men would burn you down from the inside out.

Shooting a glare at Avery, the ex-hunter held onto Miyu a bit tighter. He wished that his embrace could also be proof against sound, but it didn't look like it'd work out. Instead, he mouthed the word "Fever" as deliberately as he could before he broke his gaze, hoping to communicate the direly precarious situation they were in.

And what the hell did "play nice" mean anyway? Who'd want to play with a hundred hundred hundred tiny little men with torches?

Avery couldn’t quite make out what Seppy was trying to say to him. “What was-“ he began to call out, but Lawrence whipped around and bit him on the leg. Avery yelped and looked down at the dog, clearly annoyed and surprised. Lawrence never bit him. Why would he being it now? Unless… Avery looked back up at Seppy and Miyu and realized for the first time that the girl didn’t look so good.

“Oops,” Avery muttered. Still speaking quietly he said, “Come on dog.”

They turned away from the others and started off again. Avery did his best to keep away from the more crowded streets and he made sure that Lawrence stuck by his side and didn’t run off at the first sign of a cat. The two of them did not wander far from the others, just a couple streets over where they watched the daily life of these people.

“What I wouldn’t give to be able to go back to that life,” Avery said quietly. “Or even to have someone that I really care about…that would be fine too. Those guys back there…Miyu…Seppy…they don’t know how lucky they are.” Lawrence growled at Avery and the young man looked over at his dog, once again surprised by his aggressive attitude. Then he smiled sadly. “Heh…listen to me. How pathetic. I’m not totally alone, am I? I have you.”

Avery sat down next to his dog and slung one arm over the creature’s back. Not for the first time, he felt that lonely ache that had been haunting him.

Still…even with Lawrence…it’s not the same, Avery thought to himself.

At the way towards her ship she almost forgot to give those people one more thing...
She stopped and turned back towards the peoples.

She got there pretty quick but was extremely quiet and carefull so no one saw her or noticed her, she went closer the people and stared at Seppy and Miyu lying on the ground together, she hold a white bag with a marks on it (japanese mark 医学、応急処置キット) Which mean't "Medicine, First aid kit"

(heeey,guys, no more wonderfully mysterious dream sequences anymore, Miyu's out cold, feel free to go on)

((Taking a short break? We can go on without you if you want, but...it's just not as much fun!))

(yeah, but I'll most likely be back for the weekend or something. Just posting a little right now, and since I'm not really that needed here right now, I leave it up to you, first mate.)

Avery shuddered. A chill had just run down his spine, but he wasn’t sure why. He scanned the crowd, looking for anyone suspicious. He noticed a young woman standing in the crowd, watching him. She had fiery red hair and very pale skin. She was wearing a long, dark cloak, which covered her up to her throat. When she saw that Avery had noticed her, she quickly pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and slipped away into the crowd. Avery stood quickly, surprising Lawrence, and he ran out into the crowd, but the woman was already gone.

For a second Avery was turning to call Lawrence over so that he might pick up the trail. There were only a couple of problems with that. For one thing, it would be nearly impossible for Lawrence to pick up a scent with all these people around and for another, Avery was supposed to be lying low. Now irritated, Avery returned to his dog and headed off down the street. He wasn’t going back to Seppy and Miyu just yet. He needed to cool off first before he went back to those lovebirds. He rolled his eyes, amusing himself with the thought of how awkward they were around each other. Could they both be any more oblivious? Or were they trying to hide it from him? They were doing a lousy job of it if they were.

The sounds of the alley waking up stirred Seppy out his vigil. The grey light of a sky lit by early dawn crept in down through the holes in the tarps. Though he'd wanted to let her rest longer, he realized it was an impossibility. Miyu would have to wake up, and it might as well be him that did the deed.

"Hey, Mew. We gotta move."

For a brief moment, Seppy was relieved that she didn't wake up. It meant that she'd been deep in that restful kind of sleep that had it's own way of healing all wounds, of regenerating the body and making it stronger for the trials that put it to sleep in the first place. However, as the din grew louder and the light brighter, her inability to wake began to worry him. Standing up, shaking her gently, Seppy renewed his attempts in earnest.

"H...hey, Mew..." Seppy stared at the pale face of the girl in his arms, the beads of a cold sweat on her brow. "Y'gotta wake up...'s time t'go..."

When she didn't respond, Seppy froze like a statue. Fever or no, something was much too wrong. It occurred to him that the dog and his master were missing, but this didn't seem important at the moment. If she was still out, that meant the tiny men with torches were winning the fight. A sudden wave of panic, unlike any the pirate could remember, seized him.

Through the haze of his panic, a single line returned to Seppy. Something The Doctor had told him long ago, around the same time he'd learned what fevers were and how to treat them.

"Of course...men of my stature can wave away a fever. Such a trivial nuisance could never stand in the way of my vision!"

The Doctor was dead, and Seppy knew it. He'd lost his life in the fight he'd started when he asked five of the ten to kill Seppy for his social failings. Though a brief and fleeting warmth passed through him at the memory of the Four Friends and how they'd protected him, the more chilling reality laying comatose in his arms stirred him to action.

While Doc was dead, there were other "doctors" in this world, even if they weren't "The Doctor." Hard as it was to bring himself to do so, Seppy set Miyu down, still wrapped in his backpack. Tentacles exposed and writhing, the ex-hunter leapt down the alley in search of somebody who could give him direction.

"Hey!" Seppy shouted, picking up a random hobo, shaking him by his grungy lapels. "I needa doc." There was a threatening tone to his voice borne of desperation. "Now."

"D...doc!?" the frightened vagrant asked, trembling in the huge feline man's grasp. His eyes were transfixed by the purple tentacles writing in the air behind his assailant.

"I needa friggen doctor, now!" Seppy reiterated, unable to understand why he hadn't instantly been provided with the information he'd so clearly and concisely requested in the first place.

"Wh...what k-kind of doc-"

"Jus' tell me where t'find the fuggin' doc!" Seppy screamed back at his randomly chosen victim. The man cringed and hid, but managed to worm an arm out and point down the alley.

"Th-three blocks down, 'round the Yirkstreet corner...there's a man who calls himself 'Doc.' Fixes up all us homeless guys cheap or free, depending on what you got to pay him with...He's just-"

Dropping the hapless and terrified bum, Seppy bounded back towards Miyu. Finding her, her lifted his head and gave a single sharp whistle, just as he'd given the night before, to alert his new companion as to where he was and, hopefully, to the fact that he was above to move...fast. Rushing like a purple and black blur, Seppy carried Miyu through the winding corridors of Tarp City, desperately seaking this 'Doc.'

When he hit Yirkstreet, Seppy cut a sharp left. A little ways down he came across a door in the back wall of one of the buildings, down a short staircase to a basement. It had a sign of a hand, bandages wrapped around it, hanging at head-level. Deciding that whoever lived inside was a doctor - or had better be, if he had his way - Seppy kicked the door open and plunged inside.

"Doc!" Seppy yelled, looking around in the dark room. "She's sick...she's real sick!"

There was a pause, a sound of settling wood and shocked silence filling the air. Just as the ex-hunter resolved himself to raise more of a fuss and get somebody's attention, and old and tired voice answered him.

"What's she got?" It was a strained, tired, old man's voice. The voice bore to it a quality of hard years, of time upon time that nobody but the man that owned it could ever comprehend. Something about this voice weighed on Seppy, delivered it's gravity. Calming a bit, the predator responded somewhat more calmly.

"A fever," Seppy informed the mysterious voice. "Doc...she's not wakin' up..."

Though he couldn't hear it himself, Seppy's voice was crackling and nervous. Each word bore in it the emotions he didn't dare let himself know he was feeling, the trepidation and anxiety, the fear. "Doc" apparently got it.

"Lay her down on the table."

Not knowing what else to do, Seppy laid Miyu down on a table that seemed to materialize out of the darkness infront of him as his feline eyes rapidly adjusted to the near non-existant lighting of the room. A moment later a spectre in gray, aged beyond mortal belief and aglow with a halo of his own wild, white hair, came into being above her.

"What will you pay?" the man asked, plainly. His eyes were as grey as the rest of him, shining with an ancient patina. They were stern, intense, and penetrating eyes. In all his days hunting pirates, Seppy had never seen anything so humbling, so cowing. They were eyes that would accept only one single answer; somehow, Seppy knew what this was.

"Anything."

Pausing just a moment, "Doc" nodded and put his hand on Miyu's head. He closed his eyes and nodded, then opened them and fixed the pirate with a look that chilled him to the core.

"She's bad," he said, simply. "It's gonna cost a lot."

Seppy simply nodded. He couldn't say why, but his animal instincts told him that whatever price the doctor asked would be worth it. Though anxious as sin, his nerves calmed slightly. Beyond all reason, Seppy had faith this mysterious "Doc" could fix Miyu.

Yuki decided to follow Seppy since she found him... interesting.
She followed them to the docters place, and listened what they was talking about.
She heard it was going to cost abit for helping Miyu...
She was thinking if she was going to help Seppy or not... Then she decided, she threw a bag with money (100,000 Belli, she got them after all assassin jobs she have done) and a note inside.
She threw the bag gently on Seppy's bag.
Then she left so he wouldn't see her.

*NOTE*:
I don't know why i'm helping you, but i find you peoples... interesting... so here is some money that i have earned from my works...

"They're late!"
Theos voice was soar from the night. He had not rested a moment, running circles in the room like a caged tiger, waiting for the two "hunters".
Nerissa had taken a seat on a coach, which she alone filled, and watched him, dark shadows under her eyes. As long as Theo stayed awake, so would she.
"It's been over an hour by far! Where are they?!"
He yelled the last words, bowing down to the third person in the room, who had sunken down in her chair and dared not look into his eyes.
"I... I don't know..."
Esther had hoped she could stop the hunters from leaving, but they were already gone when she had arrived. Now all she hoped is that Miyu had somehow escaped this mess...
Theo spun away from her and continued his prancing.
"I will not wait any longer! We should have set out hours ago!"
He grabbed his coat, which he had thrown over a chair, and headed for the door. Nerissa got up as well and followed him slowly.
"Nerissa, wait..."
She turned to Esther and waited for what the girl had to say.
But nothing was said, only looks were exchanged, until Esther turned her head. Her pleading look had been stronger than any words. Still, Nerissa turned and followed Theo.

"Don't make such an ugly face," a voice came, confident and calm. A moment later the brown-haired hunter appeared, nose tipped up, smiling down at Theo.

"I-I'm sorry...that we're late," the female, gold-haired hunter added, stepping into the room behind her partner, bowing deeply and meeting Theo's gaze with her own. Almost as soon as she'd made it she broke it, averting her silver gaze off to the side.

"We spent the entire night tracking that fu-...Your prey. He seems to be using somebody else to avoid our detection."

"Smoke," Uni stated, calmly. "All that Duo could smell was smoke."

"It's not like I didn't try!" Duo shouted, whirling around on Uni. When he saw her cringe and retract, he calmed down significantly, a look of regret on his face. Turning back to Theo, he resumed his report.

"Miyu Delany...that fiend's partner," he stated somewhat calmly. "She's using her powers to cover up their scent. I hunted them all night, but I couldn't track them. But!" His last word was excited, a primal light blazing in his eyes.

"But they're still close. None of the docks had their scent, so they're hiding out in the city. They're close." Giving Theo a knowing look, a look only one man with a vendetta could give to another, he continued. "They're really close."

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

"I can fix it," Doc explained, walking away from Miyu, fading into the darkness.

"Do it," Seppy responded, leaning against a wall near to his fallen comrade.

"One."

"One?"

"One of your friends," Doc retorted, nearly invisible in the recesses of the room.

"One of my fr-" Seppy froze in the middle of his sentence, his tentacles twitching wildly. He had a feeling that he understood what Doc was asking for, and it hit him hard. "Wh...which one?"

"You pick," Doc responded coldly, approaching Miyu with a syringe in hand. "Left or right."

Seppy froze in place, his mind unable to fully process what was being asked of him. He wanted - rather, needed - Miyu to be healed, so they could fight and win their happiness. And here was this man, this nameless hobo doctor, the only barrier between Seppy and his goal. And he wanted one of them.

"R..." Seppy started, looking down.

"If you don't want to pay..."

"NO!" Seppy shouted, bounding from the wall to crouch before the table Miyu lay sick on. "I'll pay!"

"So which one is it, then?

"...Right," Seppy finally replied. His right tentacle grew still motionless, as it's master offered it up for his friend's treatment. "Y'can take th'right one."

Nodding, a grim smile on his face, Doc gave Miyu a shot of whatever it was he had in his hands. Turning from the table, he faded once more into the darkness.

"She'll be fine in a few hours, but weak for a few days." Seppy let his breath go, a wave of relief taking him. Before he could respond, however, the doctor resumed speaking.

"I'll come for you when she's fully better. You'll pay then, or I'll put the fever back."

Unhesitatingly, Seppy nodded. Both tentacles resumed their endless squirming in the air above his back.

"Thanks, doc."

"Leave that bag, too," Doc commented, pointing to the satched of money that Neko had left. Seppy hadn't seen it, and seemed puzzled by it's presence. It was easy for him to guess what it contained, though he couldn't guess why he'd been gifted it. Still, compared to the true price he was paying, it was hardly a suiting tip.

"'Kay."

Lawrence’s ears perked up slightly, hearing a familiar, faraway whistle, but Avery did not notice. Both the boy and his dog were still walking through the streets. They had gone farther than originally planned, but both knew the way back. Avery stopped and looked on ahead. The street just went on and on into the distance. The young man sighed and turned back.

“Come on, Larry,” he said. “We’re heading back now.” The dog barked and pranced on ahead with his tongue sticking out, tail wagging furiously. Avery smiled at his pet and then he saw her again. It was the red-haired woman. She had been following him! “New plan,” Avery said, keeping his voice low, but urgent. “Woman. Red hair. Long cloak.”

He and Lawrence had worked out a way off dealing with situations such as this one. The words, ‘New plan’ indicated to Lawrence that his previous orders were null and void without any exceptions. Then he knew that his master would follow those words up with a rapid-fire description of the person, animal, or thing they were going to be tracking.

Lawrence easily caught sight of the woman and dashed towards her. At first, the woman did not seem to pay any attention to the dog, but then she suddenly realized that she had been spotted, again, and she melted into the crowd once more. This time she was too late. Lawrence had caught a whiff of her scent and locked on to it. He confirmed this to Avery with two sharp barks, startling a couple of kids who had been running past.

A moment later, Avery was at Lawrence’s side and they both took off running. Avery kept back slightly so that he could watch Lawrence and glance around the crowd. A couple of times he spotted the woman ahead of him, her hood pulled up, but then she would vanish again. She was good. Really good. But no one could escape Lawrence when he had their scent.

The duo turned off onto another street and found themselves facing a fish market. The stench of death and decay filled Avery’s nostrils and he flinched back. Lawrence had it worse. The overwhelming smell nearly knocked the poor dog down, but he managed to keep going and tried to pick up the woman’s scent once more. However, the fishy smell was to strong and he returned to Avery’s side, whimpering with his tail stuck between his legs.

Avery managed a weak smile and a small chuckle as he reached down to pat Lawrence on the head. “If this is bad for me, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. We better head back to the others. That lady is long gone by now.”

As both the boy and the dog walked away, the woman watched them from a window of one of the buildings. Her face was shrouded in darkness by the hood she was wearing, all except for her mouth. A satisfied smile spread across her lips as she reached down and picked up a Den Den Mushi. She spoke into the phone briefly before hanging back up and turning away from the window.

(Hope you don’t mind if I borrow your NPC, Newspeak.)

Avery and Lawrence entered the alleyway where the others had been hiding, but Miyu and Seppy were gone. “Well, that’s just great!” Avery muttered.

Lawrence set off down the alleyway sniffing the ground. After a few steps he stopped and turned his head around to bark back at Avery.

“You’ve got the scent already?” Avery asked. “Good boy. Lead me to ‘em.” The boy and his dog began walking again, but they had not gone far before Lawrence stopped, sniffing a man in street clothes. “Huh? Why did you lead me here? This guy isn’t Seppy or Miyu!” Avery objected. Then he stopped and sniffed the air. “Oh, I see. That’s Seppy’s scent alright.” Avery looked down at the man lying at his feet and he kicked the guy lightly on the side. “Hey! Wake up!”

The man groaned and his eyes opened slowly. “Am I…dead?” he asked. His eyes widened suddenly and he leaped to his feet wailing, “AUGH! Tentacles! Monster!” He grabbed Avery by his shoulders and began shaking him. “You’ve got to help me!”

Avery seized the man by his shoulders and slammed him against the wall behind him, and then proceeded to slap him several times across the face. “Calm down!” Avery snapped. He kept a firm grip on the man’s shoulders, but quit slapping him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Some guy jumped me!” the man said hysterically. “He demanded that I tell him where the nearest doctor was! H-He couldn’t have been human! He had these tentacles!And…”

“Forget the tentacles!” Avery said. He couldn’t remember Seppy having tentacles and he knew for certain this crazy guy wasn’t talking about Miyu. No one could mistake her for a boy. So he would have to find out by other means. “What about his voice?” Avery asked. “You said he talked to you. Did he pronounce any words the wrong way?”

The man simply nodded, now speechless. That confirmed it.

“So where is the doctor’s office?” Avery asked him. The man gabbled out the directions again and Avery released his shoulders, turning away from him and running off down the alleyway with Lawrence at his side.