Pirates of the Skies

Chapter 20

The Art of the Plunder

"What are you doing?" Hazumi shouted as the air whipped upwards past him.

"I'm riding a fool, fool." Kai smugly said as he tried to keep his balance on the heap of bodies beneath his feet.

"The only fool here is you because now we're falling because of you! I can't carry all of you at once!" Hazumi said. Hazumi closed his eyes and began concentrating. His body glowed brighter and their fall was stalled.

"There you go!" Shinji said encouragingly. "I knew you could do it. Now just get us back to the ship."

Hazumi's silver face looked up, past his father and beyond Kai, to see if he could locate the Dream Glider. He could not. His body suddenly returned to the normal intensity of its silver glow and they began falling again. "I… I can't fly us up! Too... much… weight" Hazumi grunted. He could not even float in the same place for too long so flying back up to the ship was impossible.

Mary looked down at the far away green ground and could not believe this was how she was going to die. She bit back the urge to scream out terror growing in her. There would be time to scream when they were a few feet away from the ground, she reasoned to herself.

Hazumi looked down at an angle and saw the ship that was the target of their plundering. The ship was huge, five times bigger than the Dream Glider with multiple tinted windows. It was a white colour and the words LUX CRUISER were written on its side in big, black block letters. Unlike the Dream Glider, this ship was a proper sky ship, it was designed as a sky ship and built as one from its inception. Not like the Dream Glider which was a sea ship outfitted with equipment that would enable it to gain flight.

Hazumi got an idea when he saw the Lux Cruiser. A vertical climb to Dream Glider was impossible but a diagonal fall to the Lux Cruiser was not. He would just have to supply enough energy to control their fall.

"I have an idea, but the landing will be rough." Hazumi stated. "Kai, put a forcefield around us!"

"Psht, I don't take orders from you." Kai said.

"Kai!" Everyone scolded.

"Alright alright but it's not because you asked, Hazumi." Kai said as he reluctantly put his hands together, the fingers of one hand taking up the spaces between the fingers of the other. He began humming and a protective dome shimmered around them.

Hazumi was already changing the trajectory of their fall to make it head for the cruise ship. He was aiming for the roof of the ship because crashing in its side may bring more problems than solutions. They looked like a shooting dome, heading for the ship below. They crash landed hard on the roof, causing a crater with the impact, along with forcing Kai's shield to dissipate.

The plundering crew lay in the inwardly bent roof of the Lux Cruiser, with limbs entangled in a human heap. Hazumi was aware that his hand was around something soft and squishy. It was almost like the thing was made to be lightly squeezed and therefore that is what he did. He gave it a few experimental and gentle squeezes before he looked up to identify what he was palming. He realised that the hand in question was trapped between the floor and Mary's chest. Hazumi immediately went incorporal, causing the human heap to spill out now that his corporal body disappeared in the stack, and phased up above them. This was another moment where if he was a normal human he would have blushed but he would have to settled for a shy rub at the back of his head while saying, "Sorry."

"Yeah, you should be sorry." Kai said as he got to his feet. "And you claim you can fly?"

"I can fly! I just can't fly when there are fat heads like you on!" Hazumi said flying to Kai to initiate a face down.

Kai was not intimidated and returned Hazumi's look of anger with his own. "At least I have a head to actually use my powers properly and not get the rest of us killed!" Kai said.

"Now come on, guys, don't fight." Shinji said as he helped Mary to her feet. "That is what you're doing right? Cause Ah can only hear one half of the conversation."

Hazumi slowly floated away from Kai, their eyes exchanging looks of hate.

"We're all here now." Shinji said. "Might as well make the best of it. We'll split up into two and plunder whatever we can."

"Fine, I'll wait below deck." Hazumi said phased through the floor.

"I'll go with Hazumi." Shinji said.

"But daaaaad, I wanna to go with you!" Kai said running to his father's side.

Shinji smiled at him and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Let me talk to Hazumi, hey? Hopefully I can get you two to stop fighting."

Kai's sad face burst into a look of understanding and he nodded.

Shinji looked at Mary and smiled at her, "Be careful and… have fun." Shinji said before going below through a roof hatch.

Mary could not help but admire Shinji a little at that moment.

"Yeah, dad's going to show Hazumi how stupid he's being!" Kai happily said pumping his fist in the air.

Mary almost fell over. I hope that's not what he's going to do, She thought to herself as her admiration turned to doubt.

/

Captain Ikazu sat in his swivel chair looking at the little boy who was playing near the controls of the Lux Cruiser sky ship. He had let the boy stay there on condition that he not pull a single lever or press any button and, to his annoyance, that is what the boy did. He got to his feet.

"Alright kid, I told you not to pull anything." He said lifting the boy off the captain's chair. "And that is what you did, so run along."

"Aw! But I didn't even pull it that far!" The little boy whined before placing his swirly lollipop in his mouth.

"It doesn't matter how much you pulled it." Captain Ikazu said kneeling down so that his face will be closer to the boy's. "The fact is that you didn't follow my rules."

"Hm! You're mean!" The kid said before he kicked the captain's knee.

The captain grabbed his leg and bounced around. "Skipper Asaki, get this… boy back to his parents!" The skipper came and took the boy away. "Little brat," the captain said under his breath before taking his place at the captain's chair and looking out depressingly at the image of the blue sky coming through the wide window ahead of him.

This is not what the captain had wanted when he learned to pilot sky ships. He wanted to join the Global Affiliate Protection and fly or command one of their famous war ships. But he was rejected to join as he was older than normal initiates. He rubbed his neatly trimmed black beard in bitter thought.

Now I've got to take care of little brats on this cruise ship when their parents can't be bothered to, he thought to himself. All he has ever wanted was life of excitement and adventure but instead he got hired by some rich aristocrat to fly this ship and be nice to the stuck up passengers.

He looked at his saber, with a shiny, bronze handle, pink pommel with a blade sheathed in an extravagant sheath. It was an ornament; a ceremonial piece that was customary for captains to wear to fit in with the image of a proper sky ship captain. He had never tested its edge on human flesh, nor wood training targets. He looked around the control room and saw that there was no crew member currently in, probably enjoying the live band. He was alone. He quickly grabbed the sword handle and drew it from its scabbard in an overly-extravagant move.

"Hah, do you truly believe you have a chance, pirate scum!" He said to the air before lunging the blade forward. He parried invisible blows from imaginary foes before countering with what he thought was a timely and precise thrust. "You are fools to believe you have a chance. It does not matter if there are a 100 or 1000! I'll defeat all of you!" He stabbed the air a few more times before twisting and turning. He jumped on top of a chair and almost lost his balance. After recovering from his moment of off-balance, he twirled his sword in the air while laughing haughtily.

The captain heard someone clear their throat and saw a man and woman standing at the doorway with a little girl with them. The captain was so surprised that he lost his balance again but this time he fell off his seat. He put his navy cap back on his head and straightened his uniform, in an attempt to rescue whatever little dignity he had left.

"Oh captain, our daughter wanted to see what happens in the control room of a sky ship." The woman said.

"Oh!" The captain said, fighting the urge to droop in depression.

"We thought we'd leave her here for a few minutes and you can… show her what you do." The man said nudging the little girl forward into the captain's hands.

"Uh wait I…" Captain Ikazu was saying as he caught the girl who stumbled forward into his hands.

"We'll fetch her in a few minutes!" The woman said as they ran out of the door.

Ikazu sighed at the parents who seemingly could not get away fast enough. He looked at the girl and said, "Okay, I'll let you sit in the captain's seat but don't pull any…" The girl was already sitting on the captain's seat pretending to drive the ship. "…levers." The captain sighed absent minded as he watched the girl.

/

"Dad, I've found a kitchen." Hazumi said floating to his father.

"Oh great! That's the perfect place to begin our plundering." Shinji said, greedily rubbing his hands together.

"It is?" Hazumi said. "I thought we would locate their food storage and then plunder from there."

"Kitchen, food storage, they're all the same." Shinji said. "Look what I found. This is a storage room for the ship worker's uniform." Shinji said stepping in, followed by a floating Hazumi. "Help me find a uniform."

Hazumi made his hands corporal to help his father look through the clothes. After half an hour, he began feeling like he was about to give up. "Father, all these clothes are too…" Hazumi caught himself before he completed his statement.

"Too what?" Shinji said dangerously.

Hazumi remembered that his father was sensitive about his short height and general small size. "Too… uhm… unconvincing." Hazumi said, hoping his father would believe him.

"Not to worry son!" Shinji said, brightening up again as he took a pair of pants and cut off the bottom with his curved sword before putting them on. Next he found a white apron and put it on and adjusted it to hide his sword, gun and belt of bullets resting by his hip. "I've made them convincing. Now let's plunder!"

Shinji stepped out of the room and led by Hazumi's ghostly worded instructions, navigated to the kitchen. He weaved past the busy kitchen staff who were too busy to notice little ol' him… not that he was little in size but because it's a figure of speech. He finally located two barrels and began rolling one and throwing in any food stuff he could get his hands on.

The barrel was soon half full with a multitude of fruit and cooking ingredients such as flour, raisins and even some freshly baked bread. His activities did not go unnoticed as the head chef came to him.

"Oi! What are you doing?" The chef, a big man with a pot belly towered over Shinji.

"Oh me, I'm just… uhh.. collecting food."

"On who's authority?" He said.

Shinji rubbed his beard. "On the cap'n's."

The chef did not look like he was buying it. Something just told him that he should not believe Shinji., It may be because of Shinji's unkempt beard and hair poking form beneath his pirate hat. It may also be because he could see a red jacket under Shinji's skipper uniform and the handle of his sword poking through the apron. The chef may not have been sure why, but he did not trust Shinji.

"And why did the captain tell you to collect food, mm?" The chef said.

"Well… uhmm.. you see… the food is… is kind of… of… of haunted." Shinij said. "Yes, the food is haunted and Ah need to collect it so that it can be exercised."

"What? Don't you mean excorcised?" The chef said, now sure that Shinji was lying. "Dtsh, I don't believe you."

"Ooo! Haunted." Hazumi's voice came over uncertainly.

"What was that?" The chef said, looking around worriedly.

Shinji sighed in relief before focusing on the task at hand. "That's the food ghost. I'm surprised a chef like you has never heard of it."

"Ooooo! Ghost." Hazumi said, floating next to the head chef's ear.

The chef looked around, his body trembling in fear as if he was cold. "O-okay, just do what you have to do to get rid of it."

"Okay!" Shinji said. "But Ah'll need some help. Get some junior chefs or something to grab an empty barrel so that Ah can take all the possessed foods."

"You mean the 'haunted food'." The head chef corrected.

"Yeah… that's what Ah said." Shinji confirmed.

In a few minutes, three junior chefs had grabbed barrels and were following behind Shinji as he directed them to put things in the barrel with a point of a finger. "That lettuce be haunted. Those tomatoes are haunted. Those three bottles of wine are haunted, those two bottles of rum are haunted… on second thought four bottles of rum are haunted."

Shinji said as the workers placed the 'haunted' food stuffs into the barrel. Hazumi was floating by them, quietly impressed by his father's ingenuity. He was using the victims of the plunder to plunder them. They were plundering themselves for his benefit.

"That soup…" Shinji took a wooden spoon and used it to stir the soup before he took a careful taste of the steaming broth. He smacked his lips a few times before nodding. "Yep, it's haunted." Shinji said. "Bottle it up and put it the barrel," Shinji commanded one of his helpers before moving on. "That bag of sugar is haunted. Those eggs are haunted… careful you don't break them while putting them in the barrel. Wait is that… is that a sweet grape pie with lemon dribbled over it and honey glazed on top?"

"Uhm… yes." The junior chef said, surprised at Shinji's perception.

"Yeah, then it's also haunted." Shinji said as he moved on.

Eventually the job was done and he had three barrels full of food and ready-made meals. The kitchen staff gave him a trolley to carry all three barrels with ease to wear Shinji said he would 'exercise' the food of its ghosts.

/

"That was really good, father." Hazumi said, floating beside him.

"Thank you, son." Shinji beamed. "When you've been doing this sort of thing for as long as Ah have, you learn a few tricks." They walked in silence for several moments before Shinji spoke again. "So what's this thing with you and your brother?"

"Kai is annoying?" Hazumi said.

"Because he used your clothes as cannon fodder?"

"Among other things." Hazumi said.

"Well, whatever the case, I don't think Kai ever means to hurt you," Shinji said. "I mean you two are as close as… brothers. Which is funny cause you are brothers."

"Aw dad, you've been selling me that line since…!" Hazumi calmed down and looked at his hands. He looked at his hands, to him they looked solid, to Kai they looked transparent, to his father they were not even there. "…since I've become this. I feel like I'm taking a back seat to everything and everyone, especially when it comes to Kai. I feel like he has replaced me."

Shinji stopped and looked up, hoping that his son was where he was looking. "You think we replaced you with Kai?"

"No… I… I didn't mean that," Hazumi said. "I love Kai, really I do. And I don't mind protecting him even if he makes the job difficult. But sometimes I feel… I feel like I don't matter nor exist outside of him. He's the only one who can see and hear me without the assistance of my powers. When people think of me they think of Kai, when they think of Kai, they think of Kai."

"Son, no matter what form you're in, you'll always matter to us irrespect… irrapect… no matter if Kai is around or not." Shinji said. "Ah can't say Ah know how you be feelin' but we care bout you, boy. I'm not sure if Ah can make you feel better but if you needs someone to talk to, you can always talk to me, your mother, Shuji or even Kai. Ah'm sure they would give you an ear to listen to you." Shinji added after a moment.

Hazumi smiled. "Talking to you… like this makes me feel better, dad. Thank you."

"Good!" Shinji said as he opened a big round hatch in the wall.

"What… what is this?" Hazumi asked as he looked as his father unloaded the barrels into the hole in the wall. He had noticed where they were going.

"This is a life boat." Shinji said. "We're going to use it to escape with our loot! You didn't think Ah'd make you carry it back to Dream Glider did you?"

Hazumi smiled. "I hadn't even thought about how we'd get out of here with our loot."

"Heh heh, tis not over yet, son." Shinji said. "Now that we've the food, tis time we move on te the fun stuff to plunder: gold and all the other shiny things in the world!"