Chapter 28 a confusing and frustrating boat trip

We used the wires to get back on the ship dripping water once again and mentally exhausted at the events that just happened. Still laughing a little after the shark exploding.

"I need a vacation." I said ironically since this is my winter break from school.

We were lying down as the crew started to surround us but this time not pointing their spears but just looking at us until someone came forward and squatted in front of us.

"You were amazing out there." The person I assume to be captain said in a serious but now lax tone.

"Thanks?" I said confused about what they are talking about. I am not really paying attention now that my fighting high is over. 

"No, Thank you for deciding to-" The man continued before getting interrupted by the rest of the crew.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Where are you from? What's your Level? Which Familia are you from? Where did you get your armor and weapons'? Can you give me their name? How did you control that gigantic thunder cloud? Did you summon a ghost snake or was that a familiar? Did you use three quick cast spell at almost the same time? Did you shoot lightning? How did you freeze the lake and the shark? How did you do it?" I now got bombarded by questions and I now have absolutely no idea what they are talking about any more.

"All right you lot, One at a time and I was first. Lets grab the shark remains and try to put them to use. After that we are heading back to repair the ship since it could sink at any moment." The person in orange commanded and the rest of the crew followed albeit begrudgingly.

"Sorry about that, they seemed to have gotten a bit ahead of them selves. Any ways, thanks for helping us with the sharks." The person continued what they were saying and I actually understood what he said.

"No problem, well a shark shaped problem. It was our fault that you got attacked in the first place. I just needed to fix my mistake." I said not lying about what I almost did and took responsibility for my actions.

"Yeh, I am not thanking you for killing those sharks. I am thanking you for not just running away and third partying us like some low life thug. You seem to have a good heart. Its rare these days." The man said and I just listened to his talk.

"You seem pretty tired. Might be close to mind zero? How about you get some rest while we get the remains and head back home?" The man finished and I when I heard the word home it stuck with me for a second.

"Home, sounds nice right about now." I said thinking that I will soon be a phone call away from finding out where I am and how to get back home. My family must be worried sick about me.

"Names Rod by the way. I don't like formal greetings that much." He said as he introduced himself in a off handed manner. 

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The crew of people were chatting and started to ask questions amongst themselves as soon as we got back on board. I didn't really want to answer since I would just sound like a crazy person.

I starting to think that being crazy might be the better option if this keeps going on like this.

We took the opportunity and relaxed as the crew brought up the shark remains onto the ship and we began to sail away.

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After a few moments Blood Stalk took apart the rifle to returned it back into the blade and gun form. 

There was water leaking out of them so we shook them a little to help the prosses along.

I got the gun in our right hand and they had the steam blades lie on our lap so we had a hand free.

They then took out the Octopus bottle from the gun and it had a noticeably duller look to its color now.

"Does that mean it's out and needs to be recharged?" I questioned as they put it behind us, disappearing into thin air like our back has infinite storage.

When they did that the screen with the gear logo on it popped up blinking and I took a look by holding the gun up.

When I opened it it was a blank screen with tabs along the top and nothing else.

I clicked the square with wires off it and I am brought to a screen where now I see the two bottles we had on one of the green panel seemingly getting energy from it. The cobra one was on the white panel and seemed to be good to go.

I then turned to the page with the microwave and saw some new smash bottles were added to it. Apart from the blue ones and the one yellow bottle, there was now a brown looking one, a purple looking one, a lighter yellow one, and two slightly different shades of blue bottles now.

The microwave was now open again seemingly waiting for a new bottle.

"Well, since I got more. I might as well put new bottle in and see what we get." I said putting in the lighter of the two blue colored ones in and the door closed. I couldn't open it after that.

"What... are you doing?" Blood Stalk asked as I realize that I never got the chance to explain the screens that I can interact with.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I figured out how to get more bottle, somewhat." I said in order to catch them up on what I am doing.

"Can you see this?" I asked them pointing to the screen to which we nodded.

"That surprising." I said since I thought it might have been just a 'me' thing. Like only I could see it or something.

I was about to close the screen when I noticed some of the tabs were blinking and I click on the first one that my eye looked at.

"I just found something new about it so give me sometime to figure it out then I will explain to the best I can." I said since I don't think they could help in this situation. Even I don't know what is happening with this thing since it keeps changing.

We nodded again and they looked at the screen with me in anticipation on what would happen next.

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The tab had a icon of a red circle with a line through it. I herd a voice after I clicked it.

"Stand by." A monotone robot voice played as I was brought to a 2000's robotic animation of machine parts and glowing lights with the word smart brain on a build board.

"What is all this?" I asked myself as a key pad appeared with numbers 1 to 9 in three columns and a zero at the bottom.

"No way." I said getting an idea on what this is.

"Is this Faiz?" I asked as I pressed the number 5 three times and with each press a sound played and the screen opened like a vault.

"Complete." As the voice played I see what looks' to be a facility with a table and all kinds of tech on there. There were also a set of numbers on the top right that said 15,155.

"Oh. This is going to be good, I can feel it." I said as we zoom in to the table and see everything it has to offer.

The table had many items on it but a lot of them were in silhouette at only a few at the front of the table were visible.

"Where are the belts? I thought I could get a phone at least." I complain as I didn't see the thing I wanted most.

There was a camera, a laser pointer and a boom box.

A boom box?

"Since when did Faiz have a boom box? I don't remember that." I said as I have never seen this in any of the shows with Faiz in it.

I hovered over the boom box and it highlighted a red glow and transformed into two speaker like cannons.

"What... is a boom box?" Blood Stalk asked as I was about to click it.

"It's like a old device that can play music. I only know about it because I have a friend that is really into retro stuff like this. I thought boom boxes were a 80's or 90's thing though. I believe that Faiz takes place in the early 2000's, but I guess I'm wrong." I said trying to explain the best I can but I think I confused them more as we tilted our heads.

I clicked the boom box out of curiosity and sound played when I did.

It scared me for a moment as the item disappeared.

"Where did it go?" I asked as I looked around and noticed the number in the top right changed to 5,155.

"Did I buy it? Quick Blood Stalk, try and bring it out. " I asked and they reach behind and pulled out a fist. I then try and and nothing came out as well.

"Great. I hope I just waist all those points or money or whatever on literally nothing. What a rip off." I said my words drenched in so much sarcasm that it could fill an ocean. 

"Why... do you want that?" Blood Stalk asked with genuine curiosity which made me more mad than I already was.

"Its fine. I fine." I said trying not to let the rage get to me as now there are two objects still remaining. I don't know how much I can get so I should buy the most important things first in case I can't buy both.

"Which one would I like more, a laser pointer or a camera." I said debating which to get.

"And... these are?" Blood Stalk asked pointing to the other items.

"They are ordinary items that are secretly weapons' when you add a chip into them, but since the belt isn't here we can't transform them into their weapon modes." I explained since they were designed to look like ordinary items to everyday people, But secretly used to enhance the evolution of humanity.

"The laser point basically just a light that points in one direction that when the chip is inserted, it shoots a drill that can stun an enemy for a finisher. The camera can take pictures and turns into a knuckle duster." I summed up the two items as brief as possible to avoid confusion and I think they followed the weapon part.

"A laser pointer would be pretty useless for us since we can control our bullets and a camera would be more fun since we can capture memorize. So I vote camera." I said to which Blood Stalk seemed to agree as well so I clicked the camera and It played the same sound and disappeared.

The number on the top right now says 1,100. 

"Did we get this one?" I asked Blood Stalk and they reached back and brought out nothing again.

"Ok, we have to be doing something wrong." I said since we can interact with the bottles just fine but the Faiz gear is being unintuitive.

"Well, lets see if the laser pointer does the same." I said as I clicked it and it disappeared just like the others.

The number on the top right now says 100. 

"So, nothing again?" I asked and the results were the same with Blood Stalk drooping our head a little.

"This just sucks." I said upset on not being able to figure this out. Blood Stalk agreed as we shake our head up and down.

I wanted to leave so badly and now that there was nothing left to interact with I click off the screen and a voice line played.

"Open your eyes for the next Faiz." It said as I left the page and went to the another tab that was glowing.

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The other new tab had something like three a saber tooth tiger skulls head butting each other.

It was black for a moment until I herd drums pounding two fires erupted from the sides revealing a jungle like setting with exercise equipment and camping gear all around.

"Is this Hibiki?" I asked since it has been a while since I watched Hibiki and I don't remember much of it. I started clicking around to find the items but there I found nothing so far.

"What can I do here?" I asked myself since there hast to be something in this place.

Then I reached the farthest corner to the left an arrow appeared. 

When I clicked that it took me to a tent and a table with stuff on it.

"Yes, maybe this time we could buy something hopefully useful like weapons'." I said which Blood Stalk nodded to as well seemingly reenergized at the thought.

When we got to a wooden table there were just pages of what looked like Hibiki's drumsticks and how to make them. There were other blue prints around the table but Hibiki's was the most prominent and clear.

I then tried clicking around more but nothing happened so I was stuck again.

"Ok, now I hit a road block, What do I need to do here?" I asked since nothing I am clicking is moving me from here so I should be able to do something.

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"Is there danger?" Someone asked as to them we were just staring at our weapons' in a dais for a long time.

"No, just making sure it still works." I replied not wanting to explain this hole complicated idea to someone. I am already having trouble trying to explain it to Blood Stalk and I can feel a headache just thinking about teaching others about it.

I decided that this was to frustrating and turned of the gun for the rest of the way.

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As we were trying to relax most of the crew kept taking glances at us as they worked. They never seemed to get too close even thought they seemed to want to.

I understand being weary about someone in a strange suit on your ship but I really need a break and I don't want to start any trouble. 

We have been attacked by so many fantastical creatures that I would be crazy not to be jumpy at every turn.

At the same time Blood Stalk suddenly got up and started to walk away from our resting spot and headed to where they were keeping the shark parts.

"Where are we going?" I said to which I got no reply.

They began to examine the parts closely. 

"Are you looking for something?" I asked as the continued to look and come across a jaw part with red teeth. They then grabbed it with our left hand and broke one of with their one hand like it was nothing.

"Wow. Cool." I said as I didn't expect them to just yank it out like nothing.

"What are you going to do with that." I asked and got no reply and they went back to sit down.

"Keep... it." They said and I have no idea what they have in mind with this shark tooth.

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We turned around and I was about to reopen the screen to take another crack at it when I saw a small town was in view.

It had what looked like a board walk, a beach, and a place to dock boats in. 

It all looked a little old and did not look like a modern place at all. Hopefully they at least have a phone or something here. I should have asked if anyone had one on the crew. Well I still can.

As we started to approach a dock area we were greeted by a dude in a tunic who was waving to us on the dock. The captain jumped from the ship to talk with him.

As soon as we hit it the crew went to tie it down so I didn't want to interrupt them so we waited. After they finished that, they went straight to the captain and the tunic guy and started talking to them.

I feel like we are being pushed to the side for some reason, but it is probably my imagination.

"Hello I heard you saved my Familia from getting attacked by monsters while they were out fishing. I thank you for your help." The tunic person said with a smile and a weird presence.

Is he the captains dad? No, maybe a brother. They said I saved there family so I assume so, if a bit weirdly at the end with the ia in family. It could be a culture thing?

As I was lost in thought about this person with a weird vibe was still talking until they suddenly yelled something that took me off guard.

"Welcome to Melem."