Pirates of the Skies

Chapter 14

Yuki vs Kazu, To Kill a Rat

"What should we do dad?" Kai asked his father with eyes of admiration and hope. If anyone can get us out of this, he can, Kai thought to himself as the ship was pulled closer to the ground.

"Hm…" Shinji rubbed his black messy beard. I wish Yuki or Shuji were here, if anyone can get us out of this, they could, he thought to himself. "I'll try to pull us free!" Shinji said before running back to the helm.

The helm was not just a big steering wheel. This was a sky ship after all, so there were additional controls, buttons, notches and levers, next to the steering wheel. Shinji raised a small bronze lever forward which made the jet engine attached to the ship above the deck to roar to life. A yellow flame shot out of the back of the engine providing more thrust to assist Dream Glider in pulling free of the Fishing Tanks.

The men on the ground looked up at the ship they were trying to pull down. The Fishing Tank, which was like a giant Spear catapult, shook uncertainly as the Dream Glider attempted to pull free of it.

"Sir, they seem to be trying to pull free of our Fishing Tank." One of the men said.

"Are they crazy?" The commanding officer said. "Unless they have exceptional thrust power, they'll either fail or damage their own ship." The men waited to see what would happen, would Dream Glider escape, damage itself or fail? The answer was fail as it struggled up but ultimately was still being pulled closer to the ground. "That was weird. Shoot the other Fishing Tanks… just in case."

Kai watched as another Fishing Tank shot an anchor connected to a large chain at the ship hull. It crashed into the ship with a loud BOOM the anchor grabbed on to the ship. "Dad, they've shot another one of those things at us!"

"Damn it, and the ship isn't even making any headway." Shinji said looking at the maxed out instruments. "Son, I need you to go down to the ship hull and detach the anchors from the ship!"

"Okay!" Kai said before grabbing Omoi's hand and leading her below deck. "Come on, Omoi!"

"Why is he dragging me into this task, his father said he must do it not we." Omoi thought as she was being led down.

Shinji looked down as saw the ground coming closer. "Hurry son." He said to himself.

/

Tobik thrust out again with the spear point. Riku jumped back and tried to grab the spear but Tobik withdrew it before he could get his hands on it. Riku was forced to retreat again before Tobik made another thrust. He looked to the side, where the shelves of one side of the room had toppled over. He saw a whip on the ground and picked it up.

He wondered how many weapons had guards taken from people. He waited for Tobik's next spear strike. When Tobik thrust forward, he wrapped the leathery whip around the spear shaft, with the point inches away from his face. He used the whip to pull the spear from Tobik. However, he could not control the trajectory of the spear and so it was thrown away from both of them. Now all he had was the whip.

"Are you better with the whip then the spear?" Tobik asked as he took a fencing stance with his remaining weapon, his sword.

Riku took a gedan stance with the whip held like a katana. He raised it over his head as the technique called for but the black tendril of the whip wrapped in between his legs and curled to hit his stomach. Riku grimaced in pain. Tobik raised an eyebrow in a 'really?' look. Recovering from the mishap, Riku swung the whip down the way someone would swing a sword. Tobik tried to lean back but the tip of the whip slapped his forehead. Riku followed up with a swing to the side at an angle. Tobik jumped from the range of the whip and the leathery limb hit Riku when it continued its trajectory.

Tobik grabbed the bump slowly growing from his forehead but smiled at the fact that Riku had harmed himself with his own weapon. It was obvious that Riku had little knowledge on how to use the whip much like with the spear. Tobik still had the advantage. He lunged forward and Riku made a move to block his s***h as if the whip was a rigid structure. The tendril of the whip was sliced off and Riku was cut on the chest before taking a few desperate steps back. Tobik advanced and Riku threw the whip handle he still held at the guard's face. While Tobik was distracted from the projectile hitting his face, Riku ran for some cover, hiding in the back of a shelf.

"Come now, Riku Otake, just surrender." Tobik said as he followed him to his hiding place. "Your death will be quick… provided you tell us where Kazu Ita is."

Mary was still trying to help Shuji free himself from the shelves that had fallen on top of him. "Wait I think I have an idea." She told Shuji before running off and coming back a few moments later. In her hands was the spear that Tobik and Riku had used during their fight. She embedded half its length it under the shelf.

"A lever! Smart!" Shuji said from his trapped position.

"Okay, on three. Three!" Mary pushed down on the part of the spear that was still potruding while Shuji pushed the shelf above him up. The shelf rose a little. "I… don't think… I can make it go any higher." Mary grunted as her measly muscles strained at their limit and the spear shaft was unnaturally bent..

"I'll see if I can get out." Shuji said moving to try and get out.

"Shuji… I… I can't hold on." Mary said once Shuji stopped helping her to keep the shelves up in order to try and get out. Her arms finally gave way and the spear snapped back to its original shape, making the shelf fall. There was a scream from Shuji. Mary and Riku knew from the scream that something was wrong.

/

"Air Torpedo!" Yuki shouted before releasing a concentrated mass of air shaped like an arrow. The arrow flew for Kazu who flipped to the side to dodge it. Yuki sent out some more torpedo attacks which Kazu dodged by running to the side. He got behind a tree before three arrows of air hit the tree, breaking off a few splinters from the bark.

"That is an impressive technique!" Kazu said. "But you'll never catch me with it." He prepared himself before he sprinted from behind the tree. He easily kept ahead resultant air projectiles as he found another tree to hide behind. He smiled to himself as he realised that his unnaturally quick speed was more than enough to deal with Yuki's attacks.

Yuki growled in annoyance before she swung her hand and released another Air Torpedo. She did this four more times, carving a hole into the tree. After a few more torpedoes, she noted that Kazu was no longer behind the tree. Kazu appeared above in the tree branches. He fell down with both his swords angled to her head. Yuki let out another arrow made of air to intercept him. Kazu did an acrobatic flip during his descent to dodge the air attack. The arrow only brushed up against his back before he righted himself and slashed down but Yuki had stepped back and out of the reach of his shorter sword blade. Kazu landed with one foot and used the other to kick Yuki in the gut.

Yuki fell back grunting in pain. She summoned a whirlwind to go up in the air and from there she rained down air torpedoes as quickly as she could, one after the other. Kazu was able to easily dodge the attacks from above. He ran under the leafy branches of a tree and Yuki released another Air Torpedo at the tree, which broke branches and scattered green leaves as it reached its intended target who had already changed positions.

Yuki landed on the ground. Kazu looked out at her from his hiding place. It was a powerful technique indeed but against his speed, it did not stand a chance. And what was the point to a powerful technique if it can't catch its target? As he spied on Yuki, who was looking around for him, he was considering a head on attack. He would dodge her attacks and get close enough to stab her in a lung. He did not want to deliver a fatal blow. After all, I want her to survive so that he could play with her some more, he thought to himself with a sinister smile.

/

Kai and Omoi tried to pry the anchor lodged in the ship from it.

"It's too heavy!" Omoi said.

"Stupid anchor!" Kai shouted in anger before punching the anchor. Clearly he did not know what he was doing as he began jumping around, grasping his hand. "Ow!"

"Kai, what are we going to do?" Omoi said, shouting to get his attention.

"Argh, I don't know!" Kai said. He walked to one of the intercoms on the ship. "Dad, I'm sorry, we can't get the anchor out of the ship." Kai said, feeling ashamed at disappointing his hero.

Shinji looked back, from the helm, at the giant chains being used to pull the ship down. "Now what do we do?" He said under his breath. He kept quiet while Kai asked for a response from his side. "Kai, can you work the cannon?" He suddenly said into the intercom.

"Yes, Shuji showed me how." Kai said hopeful that his father had a way to get them out of this fix.

"Good, I need you to load it with ammo and fire when I give the word!" Shinji said.

"Got it!" Kai said before he and Omoi ran for the only cannon on the ship. Shinji turned the wheel, causing the ship to turn.

"What are they doing now?" The commanding officer on the ground said when he saw the ship beginning to turn. "Stupid pirates!"

Kai got to the cannon. It was in a small room below deck and sat at the side of the ship with a flapping whole made for the cannon barrel. Kai ordered Omoi to pull the wooden flap back while he looked for a cannonball. Now Kai did not know much about cannons but he knew that the only cannonball he found was too small to be the correct one for their cannon but there were no other cannonballs. He ran back to the intercom in the room.

"Dad, there are no cannonballs of the right size for the cannon." Kai informed him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we ran out of proper cannonballs." Shinji said.

Omoi almost fell over in shock. "That's not something a captain should forget." She thought to herself.

"Just put a lot of cannon fodder in there to make up for the small cannon." Shinji suggested.

"You said, 'fodder'." Kai giggled to himself as he looked for cannon fodder. "Uhm… dad, there's no cannon fodder."

"Oh yeah, I forgot we're out of cannon fodder." Shinji laughed nervously.

Omoi's mouth almost hit the ground as it fell open.

"Just stuff anything you can find there!" Shinji said. "If you have to, stuff even the poop barrel in there!"

Kai nodded with determination before he dropped the receiver.

"The poop barrel? Is that the barrel on the poop deck?" Omoi asked.

"No, that's the barrel we poop in!" Kai said it in a 'obviously' kind of tone.

/

"Are you okay?" Mary worryingly asked after hearing Shuji's blood curdling scream.

"I… I think I broke my arm." Shuji said. "Just get me out of here please."

"I will," Mary assure him as she looked around for something else to help him with. Not far away from her, she saw something familiar. She ran off to fetch it.

"Mary?" Shuji said when Mary abandoned him.

Riku was hiding behind a shelf until a sword shot out close to his cheek from behind. He ran for the door. He burst through it and closed it behind him. The crescent moon shone down on him, illuminating his shirt, bloody form the wound he had suffered from Tobik's earlier attack, and his grimacing face. Riku stood at the ready by the door of the wharehouse. Tobik kicked the door open. As soon as Tobik appeared, Riku lunged forward with a punch which caught Tobik on the face. Tobik fell back but swung his sword wildly to deter Riku from coming any closer.

Once Tobik regained his composure he touched under his nose where he found blood trickling out. "That is the last hit you get." Tobik said.

Now that Riku was outside, he could escape. He doubted that Tobik would be able to keep up with him in a foot race. However, he could not leave as Mary and Shuji, who were still inside the building and without his sword, he knew he had little chance of defeating Tobik.

"Riku!" Mary shouted from the doorway behind Tobik. In her hand she held a sandy brown sheath that held a katana sheathed within it. The handle was brown with white diamond shapes along it. Mary pulled her arm back before thrusting it upwards. The sword slid out of the scabbard and flew over Tobik's head to land perfectly in Riku's outstretched hand.

"So you have your sword back. Well that doesn't change a thing!" Tobik said before he took a fighting stance.

Riku also took a fighting stance but this time he had the appropriate weapon to go with his stance. "Deathly Strike!" Tobik said as he rushed forward to thrust his sword point at Riku at great speeds. "12 Noble Samurai Form: Twirling Blade!" Riku moved when Tobik was closer enough. Riku's blade twirled once, swatting Tobik's blade away, and twirled again higher than before, aiming at Tobik's neck.

At the end of their respective techniques, they each stood facing away from each other; Tobik's sword was thrust out while Riku held his own sword above his head at an angle to the ground. They both held these stances for a moment before blood gushed from Tobik's neck as he fell down.

Riku dropped his stance as he walked to Mary. He looked back at his fallen opponent, taking no pleasure in killing him, if he could, he would have spared him but his last attack was too dangerous to be taken lightly.

"I need help getting your brother free." Mary said.

Riku nodded before he followed her inside to help Shuji.

/

Kai was running around like a headless chicken as he found items to stuff in the cannon. The cannon was upturned to make stuffing things in there easier. Omoi jumped on the upturn cannon to help pack the items deeper in the it. The small cannonball, as well as a generous amount of gun powder, was at the bottom. Kai dropped a bunch of clothes that he had been carrying into the cannon before allowing Omoi to resume jumping on them, compacting it even further.

"Whose clothes are these?" Omoi asked as she stuffed them deeper.

"It doesn't matter." Kai said as he tapped his chin in thought. "I don't know what else we can stuff in there. I placed most of our dishes and dining utensils, clothes, our rubbish… what else can I stuff in there." Kai snapped his fingers, "the poop barrel!"

"Eew, I don't think your father was serious about that." Omoi said, stopping her jumping. Her body had sunk waste deep into the barrel of the black cannon.

"He was!" Kai said as he ran out. A few moments later he had the barrel in hand. He overturned it and slid it in the cannon. Because of its wider body, only the mouth and a little of its narrower length was able to fit in the cannon while the rest of it stuck out. Kai turned the cannon down and facing out of cannon hole. They could not push the cannon through the whole because it was barred by chains that had wrapped around the ship because of Shinji turning it. "Dad, the cannon is stuffed to the max but we can't get it past the hole because of the stupid Fishing Tank chains." Kai complained into the intercom.

"Don't worry, just aim it out of the hole." Shinji said answered. "When I give the word, fire!"

The commanding officer did not like how strangely the ship was acting. Did the helms man not know that by turning the ship, he was wrapping the chains around the ship, further trapping it? "Prepare to fire the third Fishing Tank! The rest of you, ready yourselves to board the ship when it gets close enough."

The ship came even closer before it stopped its slow spinning turn. At this point the thick chains of the two Fishing Tanks had wrapped around the ship's hull twice. The cannon hole faced the third Fishing Tank when it finally became relatively stationary. Shinji withdrew his sword and swung it above him as he shouted, "Shinji-ni!"

"That's the word!" Kai said before he pulled the ignition cord on the cannon.

"Fire!" The commanding officer shouted and the men at the third Fishing Tank fired the anchor.

The bottom of the poop barrel was blown out as the cannonball and other things shot out of the cannon. The cannonball shot through the chains, breaking them on its way from the ship. The anchor of the third Fishing Tank was speedily heading to the sky ship and hence would meet the oncoming cannonball. It was as if the projectiles were challenging each other to see who was superior, cannonball or anchor. They met with a loud BONG that sent out aa shock wave that rippled the air. The cannonball shot through the anchor, swatting the Fishing anchor away from its intended trajectory, as if it were not a worthy foe after all and headed towards the Fishing Tank before embedding itself in the structure. The Fishing Tank collapsed on its self.

The men on the ground were not all unscathed. The lucky ones were splattered with human waste and burning fabric, the unlucky ones had been stabbed by forks, bread knives and broken pieces of plates but other than the minor injuries, none of them were dead. The unfortunate commanding officer was smelling the suspicious that had splattered over him and he was quickly realising what it was. He gritted his gritted his teeth in anger as he watched as the ship, now free of the binding chains, fly off to safety. If he listened carefully he could have heard a girl and boy happily celebrating their victory.

/

Kazu finally jumped out of his hiding spot, surprising Yuki. But she quickly recovered as she prepared an answer. "Air Torpedo!" Kazu easily dodged the attack. As he expected, the air attacks could not keep up with him. He continued sprinting towards her. She released another air torpedo and Kazu dodged again. Yuki looked worried before suddenly she smiled. "Air Torpedo!" the shooting projectile air sped towards Kazu but unlike the other ones, it was faster!

Kazu jumped up and over it, barely dodging it. To his surprise the air torpedo curved up and hit Kazu, pushing him further up. "Im-impossible, how is it that f…" Kazu did not get a chance to complete his sentence as another fast arrow of air hit him and forced him to the ground.

"Double Air Topedo!" Yuki declared before releasing two arrows.

"She can release two simultaneously?" Kazu thought as he prepared to dodge the fast moving attacks. Even with the torpedoes increased speed, he recognised that he was still faster than them. He was able to dodge the first one but it curved at the last minute to hit him as he dodged the second one, which also curved around to hit him in the back.

"Triple Air Torpedo!" Yuki said before three air projectiles shot out. Kazu was still reeling from the previous two as he unsteadily got up from where he had collapsed. Kazu dodged the first and had to do an acrobatic flip to avoid it as it curved back while simultaneously dodging the second one. He crouched low to avoid the second one as it curved above his head but was met with the third one which curved down to meet him. Because of its proximity, the third air torpedo caught him in the chest and drove him back into a tree.

"How… How is that possible?" Kazu said out of breathe. "How can your attack suddenly be so fast and how come you can now produce more than one at a time?"

"My attacks have always been this fast, I've just been making them slower." Yuki said as she approached him. "It's a trick I learned from my son. Hold back with your techniques, lull your opponent into a false sense of confidence by making him or her believe they know what you are capable of and when the time is right… show them what you're really capable of."

"So this was all a trick?" Kazu said laughing. "Well, this fight is over then."

"What, you've found a way to beat me?" Yuki stopped getting ready to attack.

"No, I mean you are way outta my league… for now," Kazu said. "Too bad, I really liked you." Kazu dove behind the tree.

"Hey, get back here!" Yuki shouted before releasing three more air torpedoes. When she stepped behind the tree there was no one there. Yuki clenched her hands in anger. Kazu had escaped again.