“Yaugh! Fish sticks *again*? Johnny needs to do something about this!”
May said.
May, Dizzy and April were casually walking along the cafeteria line of
the May ship. It was lunch, and everyone in the crew was hungry.
Mostly from the amount of effort the crew put into maintaining the May
ship. Although Johnny seemed to be aimless and woman-crazy, he worked
his crew very hard. The only one who didn’t get affected by this hard
work was Dizzy. A little of that Gear super-strength still resided
inside her.
May, Dizzy and April looked at the limited selection of food that was
on offer to them. If you seriously thought about it, there was no need
to have so little variety in food there, but the May ship could not
land very often so they couldn’t pick up too much food from the lower
world. They were wanted criminals after all.
May sighed. “This bites. I thought we’d get something different today.
Guess it serves me right for having faith in this cafeteria.”
April picked up one of the deserts of the offer, and placed it on her
tray. “Don’t be such a downer, May. We’re gonna land in a few hours
and then we’ll be able to pick up some more food from the surface.”
May took two desserts, one she placed on her tray and the other she
placed on Dizzy’s tray. “Yeah, that’s true. We haven’t landed since we
picked up Dizzy.”
Dizzy nodded to May as thanks for the dessert. “We are landing?”
“Yep!” May said cheerfully. The three girls chose their meals and
walked over to a far table. Not everyone was in the cafeteria, only
five of the other girls were here, the others were either piloting the
ship with Johnny, or plotting out the maps for the next big heist.
The three girls sat down on the large table, May next to Dizzy, and
April to the other side of them. May and April torn into their
lunches. No matter how much she didn’t like it, May could eat anything
under the sun. But Dizzy wasn’t as enthusiastic as the other two girls
were. She wasn’t really that hungry. Not after what she just heard.
And out of the corner of her eye, May noticed it. “Something wrong,
Dizzy? I know it’s not great but you should try eating. You might like
it if you imagine you’re eating something else!”
“Is that what you’re doing?” April asked.
May nodded happily, closing her eyes and taking a deep whiff of the
fish sticks below her nose. “Yep! I’m imagining a beautiful stake
dinner with tasty roasted potatoes, and carrots...swimming in a sea of
thick gravy...ooh and a side dessert of vanilla ice cream...”
April sweat dropped. “May, you’ve never been centred in reality!”
“What’s that mean?” May crossed her arms and looked away. “You just
have no soul, April!”
“Whatever. So Dizzy, why aren’t you eating?” April asked concerned.
Dizzy stopped poking her food with her fork and looked across to April
with a worried look in her eyes. “It is just that...we are going to
land soon...and...”
May turned her attention to Dizzy again. “Why is that a problem?”
“I just...humans are going to be there. Ones that want to hurt me. I
do not want to go through that again...”
It was then that April and May understood. This would be the first
time Dizzy would be on the surface since they picked her up. And they
had to steal a few things before moving on. Which would in turn mean
that they would have to face off with some people. If they caught on
to the fact that Dizzy was a Gear, they might kick start a truckload
of trouble. May sympathized with Dizzy for that. The Gears were evil
monsters in her eyes, but not Dizzy. Dizzy was the nicest girl she had
ever met and May couldn’t understand why people would see *her* as a
threat.
May put her arms around a saddened Dizzy and rested her head on the
blue haired girl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Dizzy. I won’t let anyone
lay a finger on you or say anything bad to you. You’re my friend.”
Dizzy blushed as a smile crossed her lips. “Thank you, May...”
May leaned up and gave Dizzy another warm smile. “Do you feel better
now?”
Dizzy nodded. “A little.”
“Great! Now you can stop worrying and we can enjoy going to the
surface!” May thought for a second. “Wait. Now that I think about
it...where are we going to land?”
April blinked. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Well of course I don’t. If I did why would I ask?”
April sighed to herself again. Being friends with May was a bamboozle
on the brain. “We are going to land in Spain. Johnny says he wants to
visit that ‘Fallen Angel’ bar again.”
May thought to herself again. She remembered that bar from before,
Johnny had taken she and April there once, a couple of years ago, but
now it seemed so long ago. But for some reason she couldn’t rememb-
“Now I remember!” May yelled eagerly. “That was where I first found my
anchor! Wow, I’d love to visit that place again!”
May turned to Dizzy. “You’ll love this place, Dizzy. All the people
were really nice so I don’t think you have to worry about anything.
They even helped us avoid the police when a bounty hunter spotted
Johnny.”
Dizzy smiled again. “Uh huh.”
“So we’re going to Spain, huh? I was kinda hoping that we’d get to
visit China this time...” May said.
That had April confused. “Why?”
“Well it’s just that there are these two cool restaurants there called
Huma and Hanagata. I know that Dizzy would love the food there.”
All this talk about food made May and April realize how hungry they
still were, and they continued to eat. Between bites, April remembered
something.
“Oh! You don’t have to worry; Johnny says that we’ll be going to China
in about a month’s time. So you can stop whining!”
May huffed at April’s playful snap at her. “April, you’re such a
meanie! Dizzy doesn’t think that I whine, right Dizzy?”
Both April and May stared at Dizzy with looks on their faces that
begged for her to back up their respective arguments. Unsurprisingly,
all that attention made Dizzy nervous.
“Um...well...I do not think...that May...whines...” Dizzy said
apprehensively.
May beamed with pride. “You see! I’m not a whiner!”
“That doesn’t prove anything, Dizzy always sticks up for you. She’s
just too shy to admit it.” April argued.
The anchor-wielding brunette slung an arm around Dizzy’s waist, and
stuck her tongue out at April. “Don’t listen to *her* Dizzy, it’s
always the un-cute girls who are the most frustrated!”
April banged her fists on the table. “Hey!”
May had to stifle her giggles. “Come on, April! Can’t you take a
joke?”
“Fine, that is the last time I cover for yo-“
April stopped herself when she took a look at May. A *good* look at
May. More specifically the yellow dress that she was presently
wearing.
April pointed at May’s dress. “Isn’t that the dress you bought in
Switzerland?”
That had May confused, she thought that April would retaliate against
the ‘un-cute’ crack, but instead she pointed at her dress.
“Yeah it is.” May said. “You just noticed it now?”
April nodded. It may not seem like it but April was not very
observant. Although she was the chief advisor for the May ship, things
did pass her by if she didn’t put enough stock into them. This was one
of those situations.
“Well, why are you wearing it?” April asked questioningly.
The very second that April asked that question, a sensational blush
passed along May’s face, and haunted look of quiet sadness drifted
onto Dizzy’s face. April herself took more notice of Dizzy’s reaction,
but placed her attention back onto May. The blush and longing sigh
gave this pirate girl away.
“Johnny.” April said bluntly. May simply nodded.
Hearing a familiar voice at the other side of the room, May stood up
quickly as Johnny went up to the cafeteria line to get something to
eat. The brunette quickly made her excuses and dashed across the room
to speak to the commander of the May ship. Dizzy didn’t say anything,
she only watched May’s childlike stride and sighed quietly. Deep in
her heart she felt that she was foolish to believe that May could
actually look at her in the same way she looked at Johnny. And a false
hope made it that much more hurtful.
April may have been indifferent about some things but she was not
naïve. The look on Dizzy’s face was easy to read. The chief advisor
took in that distant gaze in Dizzy’s crimson eyes, and realized whom
it was directed at.
May.
And it wasn’t just a look of simple admiration. It went far deeper.
Something that touched a theme close to love. It was easy to believe
that this was just Dizzy’s base reaction to finding someone who was as
accommodating as May was. Even April felt that May was the closest
person in the crew to Dizzy. But the kind of love that was reflected
in Dizzy’s eyes wasn’t just because of May’s kindness. Everyone was
kind to her. April recognized the attraction that Dizzy had towards
May. And with May wearing that dress, it probably made Dizzy feel
something close to frustration.
Then again, these were only assumptions made by April. Dizzy’s
feelings may not have gotten that far.
“Dizzy.” April said soothingly.
The cerulean haired Gear broke out of her May-induced reverie, looked
at April through the corner of her eyes.
“Is something wrong, April?” Dizzy asked.
“No, but I’m not worried about myself...It’s you I’m worried about. Do
you like...May...?”
Dizzy nodded profusely. “Yes. She has been very kind to me.”
“No,” April started. “I don’t mean as a friend. What I mean is...do
you *like* May? *Like* her, like her?”
Dizzy was at a loss to recognize as to what April meant by that, but
when April looked hard at Dizzy, a wave of understanding passed over
her. Blood rushed to Dizzy’s face again and she looked at her tray of
food on the table, awkwardly.
April waved her hands in defence. “Don’t misunderstand, I don’t think
that there is anything wrong with that, but...you must know that May
is pretty much obsessed with Johnny.”
Dizzy nodded slowly, not taking her eyes of her tray. “Yes. May speaks
about Mr Johnny all the time.”
April sympathized with Dizzy. She herself had a little thing for
Johnny but he had his eyes on any women with a pulse. It was the same
thing for this poor girl. It’s hard when you have feelings for someone
who doesn’t return them. May herself had yet to learn this. April
walked around the table, sat next to Dizzy and gave her a friendly
hug.
“Try not to let it get you down, Dizzy. These situations always work
out. Somehow...”
Across the room, May was standing next to Johnny while he waited to be
served by one of the girls at the line. The leader of the entire ship
and yet he still had to wait in line to get a slice of cherry pie.
Darn it.
“Hiya, Johnny!” Johnny looked down when May’s cheery voice called out
to him.
“Oh, hey May.” Johnny said, his attention trapped on the line.
May blushed again, and she looked down happily onto her attire. “So,
do you like my dress?”
Usually Johnny would have noticed what any member of his crew was
wearing, but he was just too hungry and too tired. Hearing May’s
question he gazed at her clothing, and was so taken aback he had to
nudge his hat back up.
Johnny couldn’t get out the words. “Whoa...um...urh...well I...”
May’s happy expression fell by a tad. “You don’t like it?”
Johnny sweat dropped and chuckled nervously. “No, no I like it...it’s
just...aren’t you a little *young* to be wearing clothes like that?”
Before May had a chance to say anything, one of the girls behind the
counter stepped up, wiping a glass in her hands. Johnny turned away
from May and faced the girl over the counter, looking at what food was
left to masticate on.
“What would you like, Johnny?” The girl asked.
“You got anymore of that cherry pie I asked you to bake for me, June?”
June shook her head. “Nah. Sorry.”
“Dammit!” Johnny yelled. The one time when he left the bridge all day,
to get the one thing he had wanted all day, and it was gone. Sometimes
it just doesn’t pay to be a captain.
May pulled on the fabric of Johnny’s dark clothes. “Um...Johnny?”
The chivalrous pirate gave out a perturbed sigh. “Not now May, I’m not
in the mood.”
A hurt look crossed May’s face. Johnny meant no harm but it still
bothered her. The amount of effort she put into preparing for this and
Johnny just dismissed it so easily...
{But why? Dizzy liked it.} May thought.
**********
Back on ground level, at her abode in the ruins of the city that she
was safeguarding, Baiken was at her pine wood table with a bottle of
sake and her pipe in her mouth.
The war-withered woman looked around her surroundings. The place where
she was currently living was not in the least bit fancy. Dull curtains
and paint work, simple furniture, two bedrooms. It was wasn’t much but
it suited her needs. Baiken didn’t like tying herself down to one
spot. It made taking up roots more difficult. Her ultimate goal was to
kill ‘The Man’ whomever he maybe, and to do that she needed to stay on
her feet. She was a traveller, in the same way that Millia was a
drifter.
As Baiken put her pipe down and swigged at her bottle of sake, she
recalled how much time she had spent in these city ruins. Mostly for
Millia’s sake, but now things had changed. The checkpoint block the
Union of Nations had put around the city had been absolved and time
was fast passing. Baiken was refilled with an urge to move on and
continue her search.
The problem was Millia.
Millia Rage seemed to have settled quite well in these ruins. It was
safe for her there though. That was the key thing to remember. She had
not been attacked by any assassins at all since she came there.
Whether it was due to the disarray the assassin organization had been
put into or the seclusion of city was irrelevant. Millia appeared to
be happy here. At first, Baiken had thought about asking Millia to
join her in her quest, but that contradicted her beliefs and her
pride. She was a lone wolf, striking at her prey with a deadly
lightning-like quickness that only came with total independence. For
most of her life, Baiken had been alone. She had trained herself into
powerful fighter, mastering the sword and her fists.
For her to do such permanent things with someone she met only three
months ago seemed out of character.
Loneliness was not only her way, but also the way of the samurai.
Her isolation served an inner purpose, or more correctly a desire.
Baiken had felt that way since she witnessed the brutal massacre at
her old Japanese institution. It seemed natural to the one eyed woman.
She wasn’t interested in socialising herself like Anji Mito. He
himself had Japanese blood. And the few Japanese left in the world had
been given preferential treatment. Remaining alone helped to conceal
that simple fact. If she didn’t, she would be swamped with people
begging for her to have more respect for her life, and not to risk it
over something as foolish and trivial as retribution.
That was another thing that she hated about today’s society. A hundred
years of war had made them not only fearful, but also cowardly. The
hunt for the presumably ‘second self reliant gear’ proved that. They
hate Gears and yet every nation in the world is prepared to wield one
in the event of a second crusade.
Despite all that, segregation from the world seemed less appealing
now. She had Millia in her life. The one woman Baiken felt that she
could relate to.
So this was her choice. Postpone her ultimate endeavour for Millia’s
benefit, or move on and return to an existence within a solitude that
asks for nothing in return.
Baiken was rarely indecisive but this day was an exception. The
scarred samurai decided to keep her views hidden for a while, and let
this scenario play out before her.
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