The Otohime's Revenge
Part Six
The waiting finally came to an end one morning when a pounding on Yuuta's door jerked them both awake. "Captain! Captain, a sail!"
They tumbled out of bed. The next few minutes were a hasty jumble of pulling on clothes and swearing, and the distant sound of someone shouting in the crew's quarters.
"If this isn't the Rose, someone is going to be in trouble," Saeki muttered, doing up his breeches.
Yuuta laughed, short and strained. "They'd have to live long enough to be in trouble," he said. "Koujirou." Saeki looked up just in time to brace himself against a fierce embrace and Yuuta's mouth on his. "Don't die today," Yuuta ordered.
That was a foolish order, and they both knew it. Saeki pulled Yuuta tight against him anyway. "Don't you die today, either."
"Yes, sir." Yuuta's mouth twisted into a shadow of his normal grin, and they looked at each other in silence until someone thundered past the door and broke the moment. "Let's go," Yuuta said.
The sail on the horizon was barely more than a speck. Shishido handed Yuuta the spyglass without comment when he reached the rails. Yuuta squinted through it. "...looks like her," he said. "She'll have to get closer." Then he stopped, and motioned Saeki forward from the rest of the crew. "You've seen her close. What do you think?"
Saeki took the spyglass and peered at the distant ship, studying the lines of her, frowning. At last, he lowered the spyglass. "That's the Rose," he said, certain of it.
A sigh rippled through the rest of the crew; beside him, Yuuta exhaled. "All right," he said, softly, eyes fixed on the distant speck that was the Rose. "All right." He whirled away from the rail to begin barking orders. "I want the deck cleared of everyone but the last watch. The rest of you, get below and wait for my orders."
"Aye, Captain!" They hustled below. Shishido added his own orders to Yuuta's, calling for them to check over the cannons and powder, and haul crates of guns and shot out of the hold. He kept them moving, too busy to huddle together or think about what was to come.
Nomura moved among them as they worked and waited, distributing a cold breakfast. Saeki forced himself to eat, chewing and swallowing mechanically, since God only knew when he'd see another meal.
The minutes ticked past slowly, even with the bustle, until the shout came down. "All hands on deck!"
The sun was at a more respectable angle in the sky, and the Rose had gained distance on them. "Put on the sails, boys," Yuuta called. "Make it look like we're trying to outrun her."
Saeki fell in next to Davide, whose eyes were dark with short sleep. "Think they're going to buy it?" Saeki asked, more to occupy his mind than out of real curiosity.
"Yukimura's like a shark," Davide grunted. "If he smells blood in the water, he'll attack."
As her sails unfurled and caught the wind, the Heron leapt ahead in the water. Yuuta called out corrections to her heading, bringing her about so that her sails couldn't take the fullest advantage of the wind. Hobbled like that, she wallowed in the water, and the Rose closed the distance between them rapidly.
The Heron's crew watched, and waited, tension winding through them as the pirate ship drew closer.
Predictably enough, Akutsu was the one who snapped first. "Fuck this!" He planted himself in front of Yuuta. "Are we just gonna let them chase us down? Is that your plan, you lunatic?"
"Of course it isn't," Yuuta said, unruffled by the heat of Akutsu's glare or his insubordination, or the fact that every pair of eyes on the deck were fastened on him.
"Then what is the plan?" Sengoku drawled. "Assuming that there is one?"
"We're going to wait till she's too close to outrun us, and then we're going to turn and chase her," Yuuta said. "And then we're going to close with her, and hold her."
"Because there's so much to spend your pay on in hell," Sengoku said.
"No, because the Dragonfly has been following our course for the past fortnight," Yuuta corrected him, serenely.
Bane was the first to break the hush that fell after that. "You are one crazy son of a bitch," he said.
Yuuta's grin was cocky. "Don't talk about my mother like that. Now get back to work, boys. I want them a little closer than this."
They fell back to work, tension eased somewhat. "Did you know about this?" Davide asked, during a moment's pause.
"Not all the details, no. Knew he had a plan, though." Saeki shot a glance up to the helm, where Yuuta was presiding, and keeping an eye on the Rose. "Know he's pretty sure this'll take Yukimura down."
"You know whether he thinks Fuji can get here in time keep us from going down with Yukimura?" Bane asked, voice hushed.
Saeki shrugged at him, declining to answer. From the way Bane's expression went tight, that was enough of an answer in its own right.
At midmorning, the Rose crossed what ever arbitrary line Yuuta had drawn in his mind—or, possibly, Yuuta liked the way the wind had shifted. "All right, it's time to show those pirate bastards what we can really do," he called. "Let's bring her around, boys."
The Heron creaked as they hopped to the lines and Yuuta brought her prow around, surging forward like she was glad to shuffle off the artificial constraints. The Rose kept her own course to meet them, until a starburst of green broke across the clear sky above them.
Yuuta's laughter rang out over the startled oaths of his crew. "Have to get the Dragonfly's attention somehow, don't we?" he shouted.
Ahead of them, the Rose's course changed as her captain smelled the trap.
They were all crazy, Saeki thought, working as feverishly as the rest of them to coax the maximum speed out of their ship. This plan was crazy, balanced as delicately as a house of cards, depending on Fuji to be close enough to intervene and their being able to stand down the Rose's crew—and they were trying anyway. He couldn't decide what that said about them, or Yuuta.
Yuuta fired off more fireworks, periodically, either to mark the shifts in their course or to rattle the Rose—maybe both, given his personality—and crowed as the Heron gained on the Rose. His excitement was infectious, and even his order to bring the crate of guns up to the deck only lent an edge to the energy running through the crew.
"Another sail, Captain!" Sengoku sang out from the crow's nest, and every head on the ship turned to follow his pointing finger.
Saeki found himself shouting with relief like the rest of them—it was going to work, crazy as it was. He looked to Yuuta, and saw that he was squinting at the distant sail, and checking the horizon with a faint frown.
Saeki didn't have time to ponder what that meant, because Sengoku shouted again. "The Rose, Captain!"
She had seen the sail, too, and Saeki marveled at how such a large ship could manage to pirouette so gracefully, coming around to meet them.
Yuuta began snapping out names, ordering men below to the cannons. Saeki's wasn't among them; he was left on deck with a handful of others, manning the sails and watching the Rose loom larger and larger.
"Captain...?" Momoshiro called out, voice rising on an uncertain note.
"Easy, boys," Yuuta called back, grinning. "We're not going to ram her... this time."
Saeki half-listened to the mutterings around him, eyeing the range between them and the Rose, which was dwindling rapidly, and picked up his rifle. He shouldered it, and sighted down the length of it, thoughtfully.
"Are you crazy?" Davide demanded. "For God's sake, don't waste—"
Saeki pulled the trigger, and smiled as someone on the Rose's deck went down. "What was that, Davide?" he asked, fingers moving fast as he talked, reloading.
"Don't waste time reloading, take mine." Davide relieved him of the rifle, and handed Saeki his own. "Keep shooting."
Saeki grinned and took aim again, feet braced wide against the deck. He squinted, and fired, and hissed with satisfaction as whoever was at the Rose's helm fell, and the Rose yawed away from them.
"Nice shot!" Yuuta yelled, bringing them around. Saeki's shouted reply was lost as the Heron's deck shuddered as the cannons thundered below.
The Rose's discipline held, and she returned fire, though most of her shots went wide. Her crew lined the rail, shouting; a few had the presence of mind to shoot back as Saeki picked another of their number off.
And then the two ships were past each other.
"Why didn't you say you were a sharpshooter?" Davide demanded, as they began to come around for another pass.
"It never came up," Saeki told him, grinning.
"Get Dan up here," Yuuta called. "He can load guns just as well as Davide can."
Saeki considered the higher vantage point on the quarterdeck, and climbed up to join Yuuta. "Clearer view," he said, when Yuuta raised an eyebrow at him.
"I see," Yuuta murmured, as Dan came scrambling up from below. "Dan, keep Koujirou loaded, will you?"
"Aye, Captain!"
Saeki took the moment's breathing space to scan the horizon for the Dragonfly—getting closer, good. Then he looked again, and frowned. "Yuuta, that's not—" Yuuta shook his head, sharp and angry, and Saeki shut his mouth on the rest of what he had been about to say.
If Yuuta didn't want to announce that it wasn't the Dragonfly, that was his prerogative. The rest of the crew would realize it, soon enough.
"Just shoot as many of them as you can, huh?" Yuuta told him, as they closed on the Rose again.
Saeki nodded. "Aye, Captain." He looked down and ruffled Dan's hair. "You ready, kid?"
Dan nodded, resolute. "Of course I am."
Then they were on the Rose again, cannons roaring and the Heron shivering as the Rose returned fire, more accurately this time. Someone below screamed; Saeki winced as he methodically took aim and shot, picking off one of Yukimura's crew, wounding another, and winging a third before they were out of range again.
"It's too bad we can't just let you shoot them all," Yuuta grunted.
"I'd love it to be that easy," Saeki agreed, eyes straining after the ship that wasn't the Dragonfly, trying to make out whether she was navy, or something else. The glare on the water was too bright to mark her colors; he cursed softly.
"Where the hell'd you learn to shoot like that?" Yuuta asked him, bringing them about again.
"Got an uncle who didn't go to sea. He taught me," Saeki shrugged. "Liked to go hunting."
"Huh." Yuuta raised his voice. "All right, boys, this is the last pass! Ready the grappling hooks!" He laid a hand on Saeki's shoulder as he started forward. "Koujirou, you stay back. Shoot as many of them as you can."
Saeki started to protest, but the look in Yuuta's eyes forbade it. "All right," he said, resigned, and spared a final look at the mystery ship.
The two ships closed again; the Rose had evidently got the range of them, because her cannons opened fire sooner, much more accurately than before. Yuuta shouted with rage when the chain shot came screaming over the Heron's bows, cracking into the mast with deadly accuracy. The mast groaned in protest, but held for the last crucial seconds, and the sturdy timbers only cracked and gave way when the entire ship shuddered as Yuuta brought the Heron crashing into the Rose.
"Board them!" Yuuta roared at his crew, as he snatched up one last firework and set it off before diving down to the main deck, brandishing his sword. His crew roared back at him as red sparks burst against the clear sky, and the cannons spoke again as grappling hooks went sailing through the air, catching against the Rose's rails.
Saeki ignored the shouting, aiming and shooting as fast as Dan could load the rifles, as the two crews swarmed each other—it was difficult to tell who was boarding whom, as men shouted curses over the crack of gunfire and the screams of the wounded and the dying.
In the corner of his mind that wasn't wholly absorbed by shooting and reloading, Saeki wondered where the hell the Dragonfly was.
As if in response to his thoughts, a cry went up from the Rose. "Captain, a sail!" Saeki whipped around to find it—yes, to the west, from their original heading. "Navy, captain!"
Yuuta's crew roared again, surging forward, which was all well and good, Saeki thought, distantly, but they were outnumbered. There was no way the Dragonfly was going to get to them in time to do anything but mop the Rose up, or deal with the mystery ship.
But then, everyone aboard the Heron knew that.
Saeki shot again, dropping the burly pirate menacing Momoshiro, and held out his hand to Dan for a freshly loaded rifle.
When Dan failed to provide it, he looked around, and cursed.
Dan was studying the red spreading across his chest, eyes wider than usual. "It doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would," he said, absently, and pitched forward into Saeki's arms. "Jin's gonna be pissed," he added.
"No, he won't," Saeki told him, mouth dry.
Dan laughed. "You don't know him as well as I do," he whispered, eyes sliding shut.
Saeki eased him down to the deck, and picked up his rifle to load it himself. As he stood, something brushed his temple. He flicked at it impatiently. When he brought his fingers away, they were wet and sticky.
So that's how it was. He smiled grimly, and took cover behind the helm, picking out his next target. Someone had finally realized he was up here, picking them off.
Akutsu was in a four-way brawl; Saeki evened it out to three ways, and barely flinched as a shot splintered the wood next to his elbow. Instead, he scanned the Rose's deck, looking for his next shot—there. That one, standing in a puddle of calm like the eye of a hurricane, calling out orders to his crew, the one he'd missed, last time, when the Otohime had been dying.
Saeki took aim, careful, and smiled with grim satisfaction to see red blooming against that white shirt.
Yukimura's circle of calm collapsed as he folded in on himself. Saeki didn't bother to watch, busy reloading his rifle and looking for his next shot.
Something punched into him, half-turning him; pain bloomed bright in his shoulder, and then again, in his side. "Fuck," he breathed, rifle slipping out of nerveless fingers, and then his knees gave out and he toppled over.
The blood was roaring in his ears—sounded almost like Yuuta yelling. Wasn't that funny? Saeki closed his eyes, and sighed as he slid into darkness.
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