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7. hurricane hole (see you when the sun's back)

Thrown off-course from the scuffle, they drift. Cast astray by a wild storm, they come across an island that once forsook the world.

Separated, injured, with a storm on their backs-- there's nowhere they can run.

-

-

-

Titus is soaking wet and seething in pure unadulterated fury.

"Now listen here boys, and I'll only say this once."

Takara and Cross were both on their knees. Titus is sitting on the cabin just to be higher than them, his arms crossed and his face twisted in the most disappointed frown in the world.

Takara looked away in shame.

"Jump into the sea one more time," Titus hissed, "and I'll make sure you drown."

Takara and Cross felt shivers down the entirety of their spines. They straighten immediately, bowing down low with sincere and regretful apologies. "Yes, sir!"

Captain was confused, so he just rawred in agreement.

Titus dried Cross' hair while Takara patted himself down, trying to get water out of his metal parts with extra care.

"So Cross ate a Devil's Fruit?" Titus asked, "the Tag-Tag fruit. What does it do?"

"I can whoosh here and there as long as I've touched it!" Cross said, brightly, without making a single lick of sense.

"Is that so? Cool," Titus said. Then he turned to Takara. "Translation, please?"

"He marks a spot," Takara pointed at a red handprint at the side of the cabin that looked like someone covered their hand in red paint and high-fived the wall, "and as long as he can see it, he can come here immediately. It gets washed once it rains, though."

"Ah. I see." Titus now understood. He let Cross go and run off with the bear, and then turned to the redhead. "So why can't you swim?"

Takara stared at him like he was an idiot, "dude, I weigh at least two tonnes."

There's a moment of silence. Then Titus stood up.

"Why the hell were you two playing pirate when neither of you can swim?!" he yelled, bonking them over the head once again.

"But Captain can swim!" Cross said, brightly.

"HE'S A BEAR!!"

-

-

Titus entered the cabin.

There's only one bed, so Takara and Cross were curled around together. Cross had Captain in his arms, and he was leaning into the man's chest.

Though Takara was snoring as if he were fast asleep, there was an arm propped up at his side for his head to rest on, and he was more upright than laying down.

Titus blew out a drag of his cigarette.

"Man, they're just like a family."

Looks like he'll have to keep watch a little longer.

-

-

"You bastard, you stole my cigs, didn't you?!" Takara accused, holding up his packet of King Ground cigarettes. "I never said I was sharing!"

"One cig in exchange for taking your night watch," Titus bargained, blowing out a gust of smoke at Captain, who coughed and then yipped offendedly.

"Wake me up for it instead!"

"Don't wanna."

Takara threw his hands up in defeat.

Titus sighed. The Marine ship had thrown them off course, so now it was going to take longer to find their way back to Vetar. What a pain...

So he left the course to Takara, and resumed sorting through the treasure. He held up a tiny little crown that was decorated with jewels-- and he put it on Captain's head. Captain looked pleased.

Most of it was money in cash. This bear really knew what to get...

There weren't a lot of ornaments, but seeing as they were on a Marine ship, it made sense that they wouldn't have anything valuable enough to be worth stealing. There were bracelets and little necklaces and some expensive-looking things like a pocket watch, but that was it.

"Guess I'll split the loot on a fifty-fifty."

Captain bit him. Titus squeaked, quickly batting him away.

"What, you want a portion too??" Titus sounded so scandalised, "heck, you can understand me? For real? You greedy bear..."

Captain barked at him. Then again. And again.

Titus winced, blocking him with his hands. "Okay, okay."

-

"Here's our money stores, and that's Captain's bed. If you want to steal from us, you steal from the money stores, not the bed."

"You're expecting me to steal from you?" Titus stared incredulously. He'd stolen from ships before, but this is the first time he was given a straight-up invitation and even house rules to obey.

What was the definition of 'steal' again?

Takara rolled his eyes, "just in case. I don't care if we lose cash, I'm just worried Captain will be missing his treasure bed, and then he'll start crying. You do not want to be anywhere around when Captain's crying for real."

Titus groaned. These two were spoiling that bear rotten.

"I'll consider it the next time I ditch you two on the sea somewhere."

"Hey."

"Takara! Takara!" Cross' head was suddenly at the window, upside down from the cabin. "The sky is weird! The sky is weird!"

"Stop repeating yourself, you're not a parrot," Takara said, then, "wait, what?!"

The two adults charged out of the cabin.

Titus saw the sky once, and cursed. The clouds churned a dangerous grey, thick and already curling with lightning at its core. His eyes widened with a sudden startling realization--

"Storm! Bad!" he hollered, snapping toward the figure on the roof of the cabin. "Cross, tie up the sails! Takara, get the oars!"

Titus clambered back to his own ship, hopping up the cabin and getting himself to the sails. They would make this barely. Man, if only he could ditch one of these boats.

"Captain, get inside the cabin!" Titus yelled.

The bear was excited by the activity, hopping and cheering about. At the sudden address, he paused, confused. Then a huge gust of wind carried him right off.

Everyone shrieked, eyes popping out in horror, "CAPTAIN?!?"

There's a shocked silence. Then, chaos.

"TAKARA! CAPTAIN WENT FLYING!"

"WHAT?!"

"AAAHHh!!! TITUS GET HIM BACK!"

"CAPTAAAAINN!!"

All three were panicking. Even Titus was just screaming, because the bear was getting tinier and tinier in the distant horizon.

Then Titus stopped.

In the distance, where Captain was sent flying-- though it was foggy, he could see the faint silhouette of an island.

"It's an island!!" he hollered, "it's not far away! We're going there!"

"What?!" Takara yelled back, "we don't even know where we are! Who knows what island that is!"

"With luck, it could be Ohara remnants!" Titus argued, "our boats can't handle a storm like this! We just need a bit of dry land to ride it out, and we'll be fine!"

Takara tutted. "We won't make it with just the oars!"

"Well what, you got a jet engine we can use to go faster?!" Titus snapped.

"He does!"

"You do?!"

The boats were tied together by a hook and a rope.

Takara stood between the boats, and he pressed a button in his shoulder. His palm opened up, revealing a small cannon in his metal forearm.

"Alright, loosen the nozzle," he adjusted some rinds around his wrist, "power to twenty, alright. Here we go..."

And his arm fired out like a cannon, a deep red blast like a flamethrower. He's pushed back, and the boat soars out of the air for two seconds before skidding forward at top speed.

"Holy crap he does!"

Titus grits his teeth against the cabin, holding on desperately. They lost an oar in the process, but they had a wind now.

"Wait, Titus! Takara's gone!"

"WHAT?!"

"He got sent flying with that just now!"

"You're kidding!"

Cross was probably not kidding. Which meant this was a whole new form of worst case scenario. Takara was going to drown, Captain might just fly into the Grand Line or whatever, and there's a storm behind them.

"Alright Cross, here's the plan," TItus breathed out slowly, keeping his calm.

Cross turned to him, serious.

"We're going to keep heading for the island," he said, and Cross nodded. That made sense. "As for Takara and Captain..." there's a tense pause. "I don't know, we'll make a grave or whatever."

"NO, SAVE THEM!"

-

-

Impossible things certainly are impossible, so first of all, they focused on getting out of the storm.

Fortunately, they had good wind and heavy cargo, so they made it to shore before the lightning shattered or overturned their boats.

In the heavy rain and raging waves, They all but leapt off their boats, binding it tight to a pole in the little cavern just out of the roughest waves.

"Looks like this was a port island," he said, "thank goodness this island had a hurricane hole." When Cross looked at him curiously, Titus explained, "Uhh, you know how donuts have holes? Some islands have holes in the center too. The waves are lighter there, so people go there when there's a storm. That's where we are now."

Titus finished anchoring the boat, tying up the sails, and making sure their treasure was out of the waterlogged flooring whilst keeping the boat as balanced as it could.

Seeing how far under ground level the cavern was, this place must have been abandoned for a long time.

Maybe this island was Vetar, or Toroa.

Or maybe it was...

"Who's there?"

They both swirled around quick, defensively poised to the figure in the shadows.

Titus let out a sigh of relief when the figure was just a boy around Cross' age, holding a lamp and donning a raincoat, looking as surprised to see them as they were to see him.

Pure white hair, Titus breathed out, unable to hide his surprise.

Cross hopped to shore, tearing off his hoodie to wring it dry. He approached the strange with all the innocence of someone with no self-preservation nor suspicions, and smiled. "Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Cross!"

And the stranger took a step back, alarmed.

Titus quickly fixed the issue. "We're really sorry if this place is a private area. We were caught up in the storm and lost a few companions to the waves. Would you let us stay until the sea is calm enough to set out again?"

The stranger loosened just a little, but his face was still tight with suspicion.

"This island is off limits to outsiders," the boy says, apprehensive. "But if you stay here... you'll catch colds." On cue, Cross sneezed.

The boy lifted his lamp a little higher, but kept his hood on.

"Come to my house. You can dry off there."

Titus hung back just a second longer. This island is off limits, but come on to my house? Yeah, right. No fucking way was this safe.

"My name is Nozomu," the boy said, raising his arm. "It is... nice to meet you as well."

Titus spotted his strange clothing-- long, satin robes. Fishnet. Arm guards-- He'd seen those clothes just once before, in a distant land far into the Grand Line.

Oriental clothing native to the land of Kiku. And that name...

Oh no.

"Cross!" Titus yelled, panicking a little more than tactically recommended. Cross stiffened a little at the tone. "Get back over here!"

They're in Shikke Island.

Any real information about this island was cut off twenty years ago, when they were plunged into a major civil war and outsiders were no longer tolerated.

Sensing the emergency, Cross stepped toward Titus, only to freeze in his spot when a kunai was placed under his neck, the vertex pointedly placed at his chin.

There were at least three more cloaked figures now, emerging from the shadows of the cavern.

Titus took another moment to realize he, too, was trapped. A figure behind him had a shuriken to his spine. Not to attack-- just to threaten into surrender.

"Shikke Island is a hidden village," Nozomu walked up to Titus, his tone stern and threatening, "the only ones capable of even finding this island has to be a Clan member."

Titus gripped his fists. "We found this place in the eye of the storm. It was only a coincidence."

Nozomu closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Perhaps Elder Yuzen will humour your excuses," the boy said. He pulled his hood back over his head, and the three cloaked figures seized Titus and Cross by the arms.

"Wait--!"

Cross looked at Titus, but the blond shook his head as a sign of don't fight them. They had treasure on the boat, a storm behind them, and two comrades missing in the sea. 

They have nowhere to run to.

-

-

Takara was being dragged around by the waves.

He was too heavy to swim, but that did not particularly mean he didn't know how to.

The weight a brace against the waves, he fired another beam underwater, just to give himself the boost he needed to snatch the drowning bear out of the sea, into his arms.

One problem solved.

Then he slams against wooden debris, his foot is caught between stone and the side of an island scrapes against his side. He loses the breath in his lungs, and chokes out a strangled sob as deep red burns through his side.

But it's shore. He hit it and probably cracked a few important things, but it's okay, the vital parts are metal and they don't break.

It hurt like hell. Almost as much as getting impaled but about a few times worse or-- what the hell is he trying to compare, anyways? God oh god this hurt.

He was going to fucking die here and it'd be because Captain was a stupid bear and decided to have goddamn joyride through a typhoon's air currents.

He grabbed at the sharp point of the rock before he was thrown further into the hellhole of a current.

He gritted his teeth until his lips bled, holding the bear close to his chest.

It's okay. He can do this. His arms are made of metal. There was no pain to worry about, even if he knows the rocks are digging dangerously through his metal fingers and threatening to blow off a couple metal plates.

It's okay, he can do this. He has to do this.

He's done this before, and back then, his arms were made of flesh.

He managed to get Captain up on shore first, the bear coughing and hacking and weak. He rubbed it soothingly, scraping his metal knees as he clambered up, throwing up a mouthful of seawater before laying on the ground, breathing.

Somehow, they made it to the island.

He collapsed, the seawater eating into his limbs and the blood loss gnawing at his side. There's a wheeze in his breath, and his mind was hazy. There was a forest before him, and darkness everywhere else.

As long as they were safe... he collapsed and blacked out.

Not quite away from the storm, and the two weakly breathing figures slept, slowly dying.

A figure came forth from the woods, clad in sandals and a thick raincoat.

Phosphorus white threads dance at their fingertips, and they approach.