Chapter 14 - Sea

A month later, Red bid farewell to Ruby and left. The old man had long disappeared, only saying that they might meet in the future.

The smell of salt hit Red as he mounted the ship.

Waves shook the large boat as some people already showed signs of giving up.

He, sadly, belonged to them as well.

Maybe not as bad as others. Nevertheless, he knew that the journey of a few days on sea would prove as a tough challenge in itself.

Never did he finish a meal on a moving boat.

Tough days aside, he liked the sea. It brought thoughts of his old world, one of the very few things that he could do on the ship.

When planning his trip, he wanted to relax and wait for the boat to arrive.

Or rather that's what he'd like to do except that he got bored very fast.

Nothing interesting happened. Reading was hard on the boat and the food already made him feel weak.

So exercise went out of the window.

He felt trapped and isolated. Everyone around him that went out seemed to go in pairs of at least twos.

Seldom did he find a loner, but those had strong will to read.

After a day of sailing. He found an interesting thing to do.

Observing stars during the night.

While switching from day to night did cause him some sleeping issues, he couldn't sleep well anyway.

Sea, stars and the sun. Everything else did look similar or familiar, but it always had that different kind of flavour.

Plants existed, but they looked way different.

When he looked at the stars. He felt something different, a feeling of comfort.

As if someone called amidst the stars.

The night breeze and the only light coming from the captain's deck.

It felt nice.

Compared to the city that never slept, filled with people during the day and crooks at night.

Liberation.

The cage of society weighed on him much less than ever before.

No decorum, giving a single damn about anyone around him.

But a piece of him slumbered.

It waited for him to wake up, grow, and then finally merge into one. Ever since he felt the embrace of death once again, the hidden part of him came out to help him.

He knew it lingered somewhere, and he just had to find it.

Every path worked. He just had to bring it to the peak, become the most powerful.

That's when he'll feel whole again. Yeah, he'll feel whole…

Lost in the stars, he forgot about the moving sea and gradually fell asleep.

...

A female voice woke him up.

"Hey! Are you okay?" She asked as he felt cold all over his body.

Short orange hair alongside jade eyes that threatened to suck you in.

An incredible combo, even for this world.

"Do you think he's alright in the head?" She asked in a not so quiet tone.

"Nora! Be at least quieter. Uhm, I apologize for my friend. She's just a bit curious." He whispered to her as he then apologized.

Lean young man. Quite long black hair alongside a streak of pink that reflected the colour in his eyes.

Red felt more.

A sort of tranquility, peace that no adversity could ever topple.

"Thanks, I'm alright." He said and nodded at them. The Sun had barely risen, and the girl kept shouting something about the breakfast.

An interesting couple in his eyes.

He regretted one thing, though. Sleeping on the deck of the boat may have been a huge blunder.

Thankfully, nothing happened even two days later, except for his aching back.

A fever would greatly influence his future plans and might even ruin some of them.

The amount of Grimm, though.

If it weren't for the cannons that the ship had alongside some professional huntsmen, it'd fall in just a day of travel.

Each day, they met at least one or two groups of Grimm.

Albeit generally small and overall weak. He came to a sad conclusion.

At his current level, he'd die. No lucky ending, just one or two of the same level Grimm and he might die in the situation.

The professional huntsmen that awakened their aura just were on another level.

Like some sort of higher being, that couldn't be bridged with just a bit of physical training.

Not to mention their magical abilities.

Just their average attacks held a big punch, and one of them damaged the ship by accident. The hit lingered inside his mind. Steel embed in wood shattered like a piece of glass.

Moreover, their movement abilities made his own look like a child's play.

It made sense how the old man played around with him. This level...

Even an experienced lucario or hitmonlee might not beat at close range, not to mention against their weapons.

They looked tuned for the sea environment and it showed.

One of them somehow even had a torpedo.

Such long ranged weapon. It even had the option of adding dust.

On the third day.

A particularly bad swarm of Grimm attacked. Both sea and airborne species.

It got so bad that the captain asked any qualified individuals to help and even employed some kind of aura based shield.

Covering the main deck and entrances. Sometimes opened for the still on-deck civilians.

Otherwise they got shut. The fear of the normal populace did bring Grimm to those doors, but they did their job well.

Red wanted to stay on board, but now wasn't the time to play a hero.

Not to mention being naïve.

Inside, it became relatively quiet and although many people were scared.

All of them didn't scream or cause problems.

Some didn't care and even kept reading their books or playing cards.

He also spotted the girl and the young man that woke him up.

While they passed him. He noticed the weapon on the girl's back.

She opened the door and then did something crazy. A huge hammer smacked the invading Grimm into a pulp.

He swore he heard cracks.

The young man also employed some kind of gun blade weapon from inside his sleeves and closed the door.

An hour later, the captain announced the great victory.

People began to sigh in relief, and some even celebrated aloud.

Outside, the ship received quite a bit of damage. Moreover, a lot of the cannons stopped functioning after too much damage.

These sorts of fights. He never saw them as such swarms of pokemon almost never happened.

And if they did. It would be those weak like beedrills.

Some huntsmen looked exhausted and a few outright fainted after the battle ended.

He also spotted the duo. The girl lively as she bounced around the young man who tried to rest.

"Thank you! If it weren't for you, young valiant warriors. Today, we would have lost some of our men. I'd like to invite you to a feast as a thanks." Said a man with a very deep voice.

It wasn't loud, but reverberated throughout the entire deck.

A captain of the ship showed himself. The man who maneuvered throughout the entire battle in order to mitigate the damage.

And he thanked the duo.

The orange-haired girl brightened up and started asking about the foods they had in the storage.

Red observed that most of the huntsmen looked at them in respect.

What could have they done?

...

"Bschhhhiouummmm the big ten meter bird attacked us out of nowhere! But! I took out my hammer and slapped him like this!" said a girl as her voice drowned out everyone else's.

The captain created a feast and invited civilians that wouldn't mind paying a bit more.

And now his previous question got answered. Red sat in the corner as he watched the girl narrate the battle story to two young kids.

Their eyes practically shined.

"Wow! You are so strong!"

"Hehee, of course I am! Watch the news, one day, we'll clean up even the biggest menace Mistral!" She said with a smile.

Her eyes told a different story.

The food tasted quite amazing, though he rather spent his night listening.

From the surrounding recounts. The girl and that young man did have some serious power.

Apparently, they single-handedly defended the back of the boat from the attacks.

Not only they removed a big amount of pressure.

They even defeated alphas and other more powerful types of Grimm.

Crazy.

Not just the powerful people around him. The Grimm as well.

They forced most of the humanity to a few selective places.

Settlements never lasted too long. What kind of power did those monsters have?

Red felt it hit.

He wasn't special. In fact, he was too weak for the current world.

Alas, the world shaking experience didn't help him in the fight against his nemesis.

The damned sleep.

Four days later, after a few smaller skirmishes that he saw personally.

They finally arrived. A new culture and land vastly different from the one he spent his time on.

Over the days, he learned the names of the duo.

Nora and Ren. They gave him a friendly goodbye when leaving the ship as they separated.

He wondered if he would ever run into them again.

Ah, the smell and fragrance of food. The stable ground...

Red quickly forgot about his encounter and visited a lot of food stalls that day...