Pirates of the Skies

Chapter 30

Fighters of the Dream and Rapier

"Hazumi!" Yuki cried as the she saw Hazumi being blown apart. The Dream Glider escaped the friction between it and Sky Rapier and flew into the sky so Yuki had the perfect eye view. "Sh-Shinji, Hazumi is hurt!"

"Is that possible?" Shinji questioned.

"I saw it happen!" Yuki snapped as her eyes began to water. She bit her lip before turning to Kai. "Kai, look for him. Make sure he's okay."

Kai nodded.

"Be careful," Yuki pleaded with him as he rushed over to the railings. She did the same, albeit at the other end, hoping to see some sign that her son was okay.

/

Mord had seen Riku take out one of his men from the second floor balcony on his ship. He glared at him. "Ye must be with the other ship, huh?"

Riku just stared silently back at him.

Mord gritted his teeth. "Ah got ye so scared that ye can't use ye tongue, huh?"

Mord still did not get an answer to his insult which unnerved him a little.

"Fine, Ah'll give ye a real reason te talk, Ah'll give ye a reason te scream!" Mord said before drawing his sword and jumping from his position.

Riku jumped back to avoid the downward s***h which only planted itself into the wood of the deck. Mord tried to dislodge his sword from the deck, leaving himself open for a counter attack. Riku took the opportunity to thrust his sword at the man's head. Mord was able to free his sword by applying more strength then needed, which caused his sword to swing up and luckily intercept Riku's strike as he stumbled back. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mord stopped his backward movements and attacked by slashing at Riku.

Riku was able to deflect his attacks easily. Their swords met and they pushed against their blades trying to push the other back. Mord grunted as he applied more ressure into his blade in order to ppush Riku back but the young man was immovable. He stepped back to break clash and had to contend with two sword strikes from Riku. Mord desperately deflected them but was knocked onto his butt by the attack.

Riku stared at the man on the floor before lowering his sword in a gedan stance. "Leave my family alone and I won't kill you." He said.

Mord was stunned by this. However, before long he began to laugh loudly. "So, it's a battle ye want hey?" He said getting on his feet and pointing his sword at Riku. "Mord's Quaduple Blades!" Mord shouted, which caused Riku to take a defensive stance.

"Mord's Quadruple Blades! Awk!" Polly's mimicking sound echoed throughout the ship deck.

The order was then mimicked by the other crewmembers of the Sky Rapier. Someone came from behind Mord and stood before Riku in a sword stance. Two more people stood at either side of Riku while a fourth jumped from the sky to land behind him. Riku was now surrounded by four swordsmen.

"Seems ye won't be doing any killing but a lot of dying!" Mord bellowed.

/

Yuki and Kai desperately looked around for any sign of Hazumi. "Kai, have you seen him?"

"No, I haven't!" Kai said.

Omoi braved the fear of getting hurt and also helped to locate Hazumi. Yuki accidently bumped into her on her way to looking somewhere else. "Omoi? What are you doing?"

"I'm-I'm trying to help you find Ha-Hazumi." She said, timidly.

"No, you're getting in the way!" Yuki snapped. "You're no use in this, get below deck and stay there!" She said moving along.

Omoi hung her head before walking away to follow Yuki's orders.

Shinji made sure to tilt the ship as it orbited the Sky Rapier, to give Yuki and Kia a better angle to look for Hazumi at the Sky Rapier deck below. Shuji had positioned himself on a balcony a little below the ship helm. This, and the angle given by the tilted ship, gave him a good angle to shoot into the pirates on the other ship. However, he could not get a shot in as he was trying to fire his rifle with one hand, which had the result of sending his bullets to harmlessly embed themselves on the side of the Sky Rapier. He groaned in frustration as he missed his target again.

Mary pressed herself behind him while her two slim hands grabbed onto the gun, surprising him. "You can't do this alone. Let me help." She said and he nodded.

They aimed the gun and he squeezed the trigger. That took out an unsuspecting pirate. Mary reached into Shuji's pocket and pulled out another bullet and by his directions, slotted it in the rifle and pulled back the bolt before helping to take aim and shot at another pirate. Soon this process became refined and they were loading ammo and shooting in almost perfect synchronicity. It was like they were one shooter with two bodies. Together they began taking down more pirates than Shuji had alone.

Shuji realised that he was hitting his target with Mary more than he could on his own, even when he had the use of both arms. He took his eyes off their targets and watched Mary in his peripheral vision as a bullet casing leapt from the rifle as he pulled the trigger. At that moment it seemed that time was slowing down and his vision seemed to blur only to frame her clear face and the smoking bullet case as it flew in the sir. Her eyes sparkled in focus and her hair at that moment seemed to be made of the yellow of the sun.

Was she always this beautiful? He found himself thinking. It almost seemed like he had never truly saw her until now, with her body close to his, helping him defend his family by shooting at pirates with his favourite kind of weapon.

"Aren't you going to fire now?" Mary asked, looking intently at the target. "Shuji?" She looked at him and as soon as her brown eyes met his lensed ones, he snapped out of his stupor.

"Oh, uhm… yes." Shuji said as he pulled the trigger.

/

"Four Point Death!" One of the men surrounding Riku said.

"Lassie, Distract!" Riku shouted, causing the brown falcon to drop out of the sky and attach its long talons into the face of the swordsmen behind Riku. The man abandoned his attack to scream and bat at the falcon on his face while Riku blocked two sword thrusts and dodged one.

Polly came and landed on Mord's shoulder. "See what tha' bird is doing, Polly? Why can't ye ever do that?"

"Polly good fer nothing, drunkard." Polly parroted.

"Aye, that ye are." Mord agreed.

With a single s***h, Riku finished off the man that was behind him and was distracted by Lassie. The rest of the other swordsmen recovered and resumed their attack anew, forcing Riku back as he employed 12 Noble Samurai Form: Hexagonal Defence to block their attacks.

"Lassie…" Riku began.

"Some'un shoot that flying rat down!" Mord commanded and almost immediately someone shot at Lassie, which caused the falcon higher up and further away from the shooter and Riku.

Riku now knew that he could not depend on Lassie, not that it worried him as he took out another one of the swordsmen. They simply had no way of dealing with the defence provided by the Hexagonal Defence technique. Another swordsman went down by his blade, leaving the remaining one looking scared and reluctant to attack.

Riku did not wait for him to regain his confidence and instead attacked him. In no time at all the swordsman had fallen to his skill. Riku was surprised when a bronze stump came at him but blocked it before it hit his face. He looked at the stump attached to the rest of Mord's leg. Riku noticed that the silver stump had a hole at the end as if it were a barrel to a gun.

Black soot and smoke spurted out of the hole. The soot landed in his eyes and blinded him. Riku stumbled back while rubbing his eyes in an attempt to clear the blinding soot from his eyes. Mord took the opportunity to unleash a vicious sword attack.

Riku stumbled back as he defended against the wild sword strikes while dealing with the fact that he was also half blind.

"I want us to rise above that ship!" Mord shouted out as he pressed Riku back with attack after attack.

"Awk! Rise above the ship!" Polly repeated as the parrot flew around the ship.

"Place us in a position where our cannons can do damage, Peten!" Mord continued.

"Yes cap'n," a man said.

Shinji watched in horror as Sky Rapier was getting higher. His smaller ship was more manoeuvrable but he knew that the bigger ship had more power and if it got high enough, they would be vulnerable to the cannons. Shinji worked the helm in an attempt to also get higher and the battle became a race to the top!

No matter how fast Dream Glider rose, Sky Rapier rose faster. Shinji gritted his teeth at the inevitable. "Shuji, the other ship's trying to line up their cannons to us!"

Shuji and Mary stopped shooting. This gave Shuji some time to think about what they should do. "Maybe we should prepare to run away, you know retreat."

"They'd easily catch up to us and they have frontal cannons to shoot at our backs," Sinji said as he thought of a plan. Shinji suddenly burst into action by pressing switches and pushing and pulling levers located in the dashboard beside the wheel.

The sky ship's engines went dead.

Shuji heard the engines go off and his eyes widened in surprise. "Father, what are you doing?"

/

"Report men!" Mord asked as he slashed at Riku, who deftly blocked.

"Report! Awk!" Polly repeated.

"Sir, we be 2 minutes away from lining our cannons with the enemy ship and so far we've taken minimum damage!" o ne of Mord's crewmembers said.

"Count down fer me as soon as it gets to a minute!" Mord said as he made and overhead s***h that was deflected by Riku as he stumbled further back in an effort to get away from Mord.

Riku surprised Mord with a retailotory s***h but the pirate captain was able to block and press on his advantage. Ever so often, Riku would try and wipe the soot away from his eyes with his forearm

"And get me firing crew ready." Mord said. "Ah want to end this!" He said as he parried Riku's thrust and tried to decapitate him but Riku was able to bring his sword up in time to awkwardly block.

"60 seconds, sir." Another man began to count down the time when their cannons would be in perfect alignment to cause the Otakes ship some damage. "59… 58… 57…"

Eri Musigi jumped onto the railings where he could see the other ship quickly drop below them.

"48… 47… 46…"

"As soon as that countdown reaches zero, Ah want all cannons to fire!" Mord shouted as he pressed Riku back.

Riku heard this and defiantly planted his feet and began being more offensive, taking Mord off guard and forcing him back.

"Oh no ye don't" Mord said, blocking Riku's slashes while trying to land a counter.

"30… 29… 28…" The countdown continued.

The other ship then dropped down at a great speed, faster than the man doing the countdown could comprehend and before he knew it, the Dream Glider had dropped down past their cannons.

"Sir, they… they dropped below us!"

"Ye've got te be kidding me!" Mord complained.

Riku sighed in relief on the inside before having to deal with Mord's vicious attacks which drove him back into a defensive position again.

"Git back in line with them!" Mord shouted. "Firing Squad, get in positions!"

"Awk! Firing squad in position!" Polly said.

/

Eri narrowed his eyes as he looked below. After a few moments of contemplation, he jumped.

Down below on the Dream Glider, Yuki and Kai were still desperately looking for Hazumi.

Mary and Shuji eventually ran out of bullets, forcing Shuji to go to his secret storage place for more.

"Dammit! Kai can you see him?" Yuki asked.

"Not yet," Kai said before running to another place.

"Shinji, come down here and help us!" Yuki scolded.

"But Ah'm driving here… well actually falling skilfully…" Shinji could feel the glare that Yuki was giving him and that is why he wisely stopped complaining. "Coming hon!" He said as he turned on a few engines to slow their fall.

Mary saw something coming from the ship above, heading towards an unsuspecting Kai. "Kai, forcefield now!" She shouted a word of warning.

Kai, hearing the urgency in his mother's voice put his hands together, humming, and a forcefield enveloped him in time before something landed heavily on his forcefield. He looked up to see Eri Musigi standing on his forcefield with a non-chalant look on his face and his hands in his pockets.

Kai's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing the man in a white tuxedo jacket, pants and bow-tie standing above him on his forcefield. "No ways, you're dead!"

Thanks to Kai's lapse of concentration the forcefield blinked out of existence, causing Eri to land on the ground, in front of him. The fourth most wanted criminal by GAP reached into his white tuxedo jacket and produced his specially modified si. He thrust the point towards Kai but the boy was pushed out of the way by Shinji who had already drawn his curved bladed sword. Shinji attempted to hack down Eri but he sidestepped the attack before stepped up close beside the pirate captain. The point of his blade found a purchase in Shinji's side and after a quick flick of his wrist, Eri withdrew his weapon, causing Shinji to crumble down on the floor.

"No!" Yuki shouted when she saw her husband collapse onto the ground.

Eri looked at her calmly as she thrust her palm out, sending a powerful stream of wind his way. Eri leapt up and did a back flip while returning his si back into his jacket breast. The wind stream hit the injured Shinji and sent him tumbling into Kai where they both were carried by the momentum to hit the bottom of the deck railings.

Eri landed on top the railing a moment later with both male Otakes below him on either side. He stared at Yuki while replacing his hands back into his pockets.

Yuki's eyes went wide when she realised that her attack harmed her family instead of the enemy and she was visibly angry at Eri for it. She summoned another powerful stream of wind and Eri simply jumped high over the much stronger attack.

The jump, and the fact that the ship he was on was falling in altitude, sent him high enough into the air to allow him to look down on Yuki. With a perfect view of her, he reached into his jacket to produce his black semi-automatic gun. His keen eye noticed two glinting objects coming at him from the side. He used the length of his gun to block the two throwing knives that were headed for his face. He narrowed his blue eyes at Mary who had thrown the knives.

Eri twisted his hip so that he could spin in the air. When he came back around again, he had drawn his si and threw it at Yuki while shooting at Mary.

Mary ran for cover as bullets embedded themselves on the wood beside her, where her head had been moments before. She had to dive to the ground to avoid the last bullets.

Yuki held out her hands, where she directed air to engulf the oncoming si. Once it was under her ability's control, she spun around with the si, surrounded by a layer of air, inbetween her palms. "Return to Sender!" She said as she turned back around and unleashed the si at Eri Musigi with more power than it was initially thrown at her.

As Eri was falling back to the floor, he leaned back a little to avoid being impaled by his own weapon. As it passed above him, he grabbed the handle which propelled him back, thanks to the added momentum the si had.

He did a flip through the air before landing back onto the railings. The darker ship hull of the Sky Rapier appeared behind him as it lowered itself in an attempt to line itself with the Dream Glider. "Thank you for returning this to me." Eri said as he twirled his si and put it into his jacket pocket before he pointed his gun at Yuki.

"Mom, lookout!" Shuji shouted before Eri fired a few shots. Shuji shouldered his mother out of the way, only to have his back hit by three bullets.

Yuki fell onto the floor and she watched as her son fell face first onto the ground with bullet wounds in his back. She gritted her teeth in red hot anger.

"TRIPLE AIR TORPEDO!" Three arrows of air sped out from Yuki and headed towards Eri.

Eri simply fell back and watched as the first arrow of air pass harmlessly above him and sent his jelled hair into disarray. The air torpedo began curving around and so did the other two. He pushed off the side of the ship and shot through the gap presented by the three encroaching air torpedoes before they hit the spot where he had been a second before. He put his gun away before producing his si. Using the blade of his weapon, he stabbed into the hull of the Sky Rapier to hault his falling. He began climbing up the side of the ship with the assistance of his si.

/

On the Sky Rapier, Riku was still fighting for his life as he parried Mord's attacks. What Mord did not know however was that Riku's vision was beginning to return to him as the soot was being cleared away. Soon the only proof of the soot that would be left would be the black marks around his eyes.

"Are we catching up?" Mord asked as his sword clashed with Riku's.

"We should be catching up in a few… the ship just opened up more space between us." A crewmember reported, looking at the ship below theirs.

"It seems they're fallin'." Mord said as he blocked an ill aimed s***h from Riku. "Tell whoever be the helms master to shut off some of our engines!" Mord said and his order was echoed out.

"Turn off engines! Awk!" Polly echoed out.

Riku's vision fully returned just in time as he had been forced close to the deck railings. He blocked a wild s***h and answered with his own.

Mord was barely able to block it and out of fear he had to jump back.

"Is me firing squad be ready?" Mord said as he continued to step back.

"Aye cap'n!" Some people behind Mord said which caused Mord to smile at Riku.

Riku prepared himself to charge at and kill the pirate captain.

Mord stopped beside a rope tied to the deck. "Mord's Firing Squad…" Mord began before grabbing the rope. "Fire!" He shouted as he cut the rope, which pulled him into the air only to reveal four men who had been standing behind him. Each of these men had a rifle pointed at Riku!

"Awk! Fire!" Polly repeated.

They fired and Riku fell off the side of the ship.

Mord flew through the air, holding tightly onto the rope. He let the rope go and did a few flips over the heads of his crewmen.

Eri, who had gotten on the ship after his harrowing climb, looked up at the impressive display of the pirate captain flipping through the air. Of course, Eri was capable of such and even better acrobatics but it was totally unexpected from a figure such as Mord, which made it an even more impressive sight to watch.

The current helms master saw the captain coming at him fast and dove out of the way just as Mord landed where he had been standing. The floor underneath Mord's feet, the ground had been dented to fit Mord's remaining leg and stump perfectly, as if it had been damaged over continuous and long-time use as a landing platform.

Mord held the wheel in front of him like he had always been there and Polly came to perch on his shoulder. "Ye ho, me matey ye ho!" Captain Mord sang before laughing out loud.

/

Riku had not actually been shot off the ship. At the last moment he simply dove back and off the ship, seeing it was the only way he would avoid death by the firing squad. However, now he found himself free falling through the sky towards the ground below. He was surprised when his back hit a conical structure and began sliding down it. He realised that he had landed on the blimp-like structure above the Dream Glider that helped it achieve flight.

He turned onto his stomach and tried to desperately stop his momentum as he slid down the structure. He was finally able to stop his descent with one hand. He sheathed the sword held in the other and with both hands climbed down the blimp onto the deck.

Riku noticed that his family had crowded around a single area and as such had not noticed him.

He jogged to them but stopped when he noticed something… or more accurately felt something. He looked back towards the ground there Was a feint outline of colour that almost looked humanoid. He could also hear a faraway yet familiar voice coming from the strange thing that would flicker in and out of his sight.

"Kai!" Riku called out. "I think Hazumi is here."

Yuki looked up from her husband at Riku who was staring at seemingly nothing. "Kai, go check on Hazumi."

Kai looked at his father who was groaning in pain while holding his side. "But I… but I…"

"Kai, go now." Yuki said more sternly.

Kai reluctantly left his father's side, as tears streamed down his check to go check on his brother. Kai saw Hazumi floating above the ground, flat on his back.

"Hazumi, where have you been?" Kai shouted angrily as he got to his brother's side.

"It's the first time my energy has been dispersed like that." Hazumi said weakly. "It took everything I had just to get back here."

"Oh suck it up!" Kai said. "You're okay and more importantly, dad has been hurt bad."

Hazumi was about to scold his younger brother at his inconsiderate words but stopped when he heard his father had been hurt. "Father? I'll be okay, you go to him."

"That's what I said," Kai said as he ran back to his father's side.

Riku walked closer to where he thought he saw Hazumi as Kai left him. Although he did not clearly hear what was said between Kai and Hazumi, he knew that Hazumi may be putting on a brave face so that no one worried about him. So he resigned himself to stay at his side until further notice.

"Shuji, can you help him?" Yuki asked looking at Shinji.

Shuji opened his father's jacket and lifted his shirt. Upon seeing the wound there was a sharp intake of air from Mary which earned her a glare from Yuki. Shuji fixed his glasses on his face as if to confirm what he was seeing was true.

Shinji's side had gone purple around the puncture that Eri had made with his si.

"This… is amazing." Shuji said. "The cut was not only made to kill the target but also to ensure that the target suffered while dying."

"Yep, that definetly sounds like what's happening to me." Shinji spoke up.

"You're going to be okay, honey. Shuji will stop that from happening." Yuki said, caressing his face.

Shuji stayed quiet as he collected the knowledge and every piece of information he had read about treating internal injuries. He opened his mouth but was stopped from saying anything when there was an explosion that rocked the ship. They all immediately looked at the ship that they had momentarily forgotten about, Sky Rapier.

"Leave us alone, you bastards!" Yuki shouted.

"Mother, we need to get away from them before we can help father." Shuji said.

"No, your father is in a critical condition, you need to help him now." Yuki said as she stood up. "I'll deal with the scum." She said before marching to the deck.

"Don't fight them, mother. Just help us escape!" Shuji said. "Kai, you should take over the helm and steer us away from them."

"But I want to help dad!" Kai protested.

"You will be helping him by listening to what Shuji says." Mary assured him.

Kai found himself reluctantly leaving again.

"Mary I need you to fetch me alcohol and any clean towels and water." Shuji continued. "Get Riku to help if needed."

Mary nodded and went away.

Shinji laughed weakly at this. "I knew you had it in you, son. Sounds like a good party we're about to have." He said before throwing up blood.

Shuji was unsure if he was joking or simply delirious so he decided to not answer him. Instead he insured that Shinji could still breath.

"Riku, I need your help." Mary said, stopping by Riku who was simply kneeling on the ground.

"I don't want to leave Hazumi's side." Riku said.

Mary looked around, expecting to see a silver bpy but was confused when she did not.

"Riku Help tHem." Riku heard a faint voice beg.

Riku nodded and got to his feet.

/

"Alright, no more Mr. nice pirate cap'n." Mord said. "Are we ready to board and take over that puny ship, men?"

"Aye cap'n!" The men roared.

"Then board!" Mord ordered, pointing his sword at the target ship.

The first wave jumped over the railings for the ship. They were stopped in midair when a wave of wind pushed them back and sent them crashing back into their comrades.

"What's the meaning o' this!" Mord said as he was trying get up from the tangle of limps that had landed on him

Yuki was standing, facing the big ship alone. She began twirling her arms over her head as a thin spiral of air began to form between their ships.

Kai had taken the helm and was currently steering the ship away from the bigger one. Riku and Mary returned to Shuji with the items he had requested.

"What are you going to do?" Mary asked as she placed the towels down.

"I don't know." Shuji said. "I wanted to use the alcohol to help numb his pain but then I realised I can't give him anything to eat or drink. I definitely know that I can't see what the problem is unless… unless I open him up."

"Can you do that without killing him?" Mary asked worried.

"Everything I know about medical treatment is from books or whatever little knowledge mother and father gave me." Shuji said. "If I do it, he may die. I if don't, he'll definitely die." Shuji said as if to convince himself more than anyone else. "I… I need a knife."

Mary provided him with her silver bladed knife that he accepted.

Shuji's hand trembled as he put the blade edge to his father's skin.

Mary stopped him by placing her hand over his. "Maybe you should let Riku do the cutting." She said.

Shuji nodded and told Riku where he wanted the cut and how big it should be. When he tried giving Riku the knife, his younger brother surprised him by withdrawing his sword and making a s***h to the targeted area. Blood sprang out of the newly created wound and splashed onto Riku, Mary and Shuji collectively.

Shinji screamed at this and wriggled in place. "You cut me? You are no son… of… miii…mine." Shinji lost consciousness.

Shinji took his place in front of the wound and began working on his father with a shaking hand.

/

"You, shoot her before she uses her powers on us." Eri Musigi ordered the nearest pirate with a rifle.

"Whoa whoa whoa, don't be shooting the love o' me life now." Mord protested. "Ah'm gonna marry that lady!"

"If we don't take her out, she'll escape!" Eri said.

"There must be another way," Mord placed his hand on his ginger beard in thought.

"Stop thinking with what's between your legs and think with your brain!" Eri shouted. "Take her out now!"

"Na' wait a minute young 'un." Mord said, putting his face to Eri's in a stare down that would make wrestlers envious. Neither Mord nor Eri backed down and they narrowed their eyes at each other challengingly. "Ah be the cap'n of this here vessel 'n Ah'll think with whatever body part ah so damn well please. So if ah wan' to think with me big toe, then Ah'll do it without your direction o' comment!"

"Cap'n, the wind is getting stronger!" The two arguing men returned their attention back to the swirling wind. It had now almost reached typhoon sized proportions.

Yuki poured all her effort into the monstrous swirling air in front of her. The ship was already turning around and turning her away from the Sky Rapier and her newly created typhoon. She used her powers to jump over the upraised helm of the ship down to the back, where she faced her typhoon and the other ship on the other side.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. She took a deep breath as she pulled her hands back and thrust them out while opening her eyes. A powerful monsoon-like wind came from her direction and collided with the typhoon, pushing the typhoon towards the Sky Rapier and the Dream Glider away like a jetpack. The ship began rapidly widening the gap between it and the Sky Rapier, assisted by its engines and the extra thrust that Yuki was providing.

When the Sky Rapier was nothing more than a speck in the distance, Yuki stopped using her powers. She felt like she had been furiously blowing out air for a very long time, leaving her lightheaded and weak. She turned to return to her family but the side-effects of using her powers as intensively as she did finally took their toll and she collapsed.