Chapter 9: Lightweight Captain Ken!

The boy is thrown off of her back and falls hard on his bum. "Welcome back.. brat."

Miku feels cold beads of sweat forming under his brown fringe. 'I'm screwed,' he thought to himself. She dusts off her jumpsuit then looks down at him with a chilly glare. He gulps. She holds one finger "1." He stands up. "2." He starts running for his life. "3!" A purple suited monster chases him around the deck, down the ramp, and onto the dock with a hammer and wrench in hand and a belt full of other dangerous tools. "Miku Shimizu! How many times have I told you to use the ramp like a normal person? You and Issa both are going to be the death of me if I have to fix another dent on this ship!"

The purple monster, Akemi Nanami, age 24, is a completely 'normal' human being, one that does not possess a Blessing, as well as the engineer/handyman of the ship (thus the belt full of tools). Miku, too scared to use Chi against her, runs as fast as he can without using internal power; because of this, Akemi is actually able to barely keep up. Residents of the other boats walk out in excitement, expecting an entertaining sailor's brawl, but when they find out that it was cold-hearted, beauty Akemi and the powerful, bishonen Miku making the ruckus, they hurriedly move their boats toward the open sea.

It's like a brutal game of cat and mouse. Akemi throws her hammer toward his back, but without looking, the boy dodges it. "How dare you dodge that," she growls. The truth is she knew that it wouldn't hit him and that him running away from her was nothing more than a joke. Being born as a non-Blessed, there was no way in hell, she would ever be able to hurt or even catch a Blessed kid like Miku.

The two reach the edge of the dock. With nowhere else to go and every other ship sailing away in fear, Miku jumps 6 meters up to the crows nest of a lone, unfortunate boat whose owners weren't home. "I'm sorry! I didn't see you," he shouts down to her.

She runs up the ramp, ignoring the sign saying 'Private Property. Do not enter.', and throws her wrench up like a throwing knife to his face. It falls short, crashes onto the boat's wooden floor and creates a gnash. She grabs her next weapon. "Get down here now or for the next two weeks I'm going to tell your brother to halve your allowance!"

Back at their own ship, a weak looking man around the age of 30 wakes up to incessant bickering. He stretches his thin arms and legs then tiredly walks himself out of his cabin and up the stairs leading to the deck. "Not again...," he sighs. Up the dock, he sees the rowdy scene of Akemi trying to kill the young boy on someone else's boat. Sluggishly making his way over, he slouches his bony back, decreasing his height by a few inches. Respecting the sign, he stays on the dock. "Can you two stop.. please? A couple of guys came this morning saying that they were going to file a noise complaint on us.. and they were sailors.."

The two ignore him. "Guys! I begging you here! You guys shouldn't be up there!" He tries raising his voice a bit more. "STOP!" For a Captain's crew to not listen to his orders or pleas, tears start to flow from his mud-brown eyes. He starts sniffling. Akemi stops throwing her tools and Miku comes down from the crow's nest. Seeing their pitiful Captain crying makes their guilt overtake their feelings of fear and anger. The two collect the tools and lead the poor man back to the ship.

The Akemi and the Captain sit at what is the 'dining booth' as Miku whips up a light snack to hold them over until dinnertime.

"So, it has been some time since the last time we've taken a mission. It's not exactly necessary, but I believe we should start do a few more jobs before winter comes," the Captain starts. Akemi nods. "I told Issa to head to the job center and look for doable jobs for the three of us. He should be back soon." Miku walks out of the kitchen with a platter of cleanly sliced sandwiches. The Captain scoots over to make room for him. "Miku, we may be leaving at any moment again, so you will have to stay by yourself at Harbor Inn until we come back. Miku takes a decent sized bite of his sandwich then gives an indifferent "'MKay."

Although they've been back for a few months already, the Captain couldn't help but feel bad for leaving Miku behind again. 'For his age, Miku is actually quite mature. Though he acts uncaring, it's more than likely just his way of not wanting us to worry,' the Captain thought. The three finish off the rest of the sandwiches. Miku begins to clean up then asks, "Is Issa coming back anytime soon? I think I'm going to prep dinner right now."

"Aw!" The Captain jumps up from his seat. "How about, for dinner, we go to the Dragon Festival? I heard from Grandma Mari that they're going to be running a stall again this year!" Excitement stretches on his pale face, but the two look at him in disinterest.

Akemi, who has been reading a book since they started eating, shakes her head. "Land? Um.. no thanks." The Captain turns to Miku with hope, but Miku shifts his eyes away. "I have an exam tomorrow that I should prepare for."

The Captain sits back down dejectedly. "Oh... I see.."

Akemi shuts her book with a somewhat sorry face. "Why don't you just go with Issa when he gets back?" She suggests.

"...Whenever I go with Issa alone, it's kinda... tough." He hangs his head low. They completely understand what he means by that. Being tall, handsome, and rugged looking, Issa attracts attention just by standing there. Matched with his abnormally friendly personality, being alone with him makes one tend to hate their self.

With the Captain being the Captain, an completely plain, frail looking man, going somewhere with Issa means becoming invisible to every female store-clerk, waitress and woman in general. Something like that can really mess with a man's psyche. The two sigh simultaneously, sneaking a glance at each other, they nod their heads in agreement.

"I guess I won't mind going if you pay for the drinks," Akemi says listlessly.

"And I was asked to go visit Grandma Mari today.."

Once more the Captain jumps up. "That settles it then!"

~~~

[ 7 pm]

"Guys, Issa's back," the Captain yells while looking through his telescope.

The silver-haired, handsome man finally makes it back to the ship. "You were all waiting for me?Sorry... I was a bit caught up by the girls at the job center.... They kept asking me to help them with some favors." The three of them can't help but feel annoyed at his excuse, regretting not leaving him behind.

With Issa completing their quartet, the four walk a 100 meters to the shoreline walkway where thousands of citizens and visitors alike have already gathered. The sun has already set and the last hit of orange is fading from the the horizon. Paper lanterns are lit up all over, reigniting the orange hue back on Earth. With Issa being hungry and the rest being a little less than satiated, they choose eat before anything else, sitting at an empty table nearest to the first bar they see.

They are all well into their meal when Issa comments, "I'm surprised you were willing to get off the boat, Akemi. How long has it been since you've gone out without it being a complete necessity?" He raises his glass for the blushing waitress to refill.

Akemi elegantly sips down the rest of her beer and holds her glass out as well. "Well I couldn't resist the Captains offer." She turns to the Captain with a evil smirk. "Captain here said that he would pay for our drinks tonight."

Issa raises his brows, happy hearing about the information. "I didn't know our lightweight Captain Ken had it in him! I guess to that we should drink our fill in his name tonight!" He raises his glass. "To Lightweight Captain Ken!"

Akemi raises her glass over the Captain's head and clinks his glass. "To Lightweight Captain Ken!"

With one passed out after a one drink and the other two being alcoholic tanks, Miku knew that it would be more than appropriate to excuse himself before things got any more interesting.

For awhile he walks through the crowd of people, observing the diverse body of people, all varying in height, age, ethnicity, status. He saw how most people walked around in groups or pairs. There was rarely someone alone like he was. Around the middle of festival grounds, he hears the aged voice of Grandma Mari. "MIKU!" He turns around and sees the the sign, 'Come-for-food Restaurant's Stall'.

"Hello, Grandma Mari." He bows his head to the woman stirring a large pot of deliciousness.

"Oh don't act all sweet you sly boy! I haven't seen you for quite some time now! How can you do that to this sweet old lady? Did I not say you were welcome anytime?" She hands over the stirring to her restaurant's worker then calls out, "Mai come here for a bit!" From the back, Mai comes out holding a knife in one hand in one hand a carrot in the other. She sees Miku and immediately realizes what is going to happen. Grandma Mari takes the items out of Mai's hands and pushes her out of the stall.

"Miku, take this girl along with you. She's been working since you guys have gotten out of school, so she hasn't had time to take a look around yet."

Mai frowns at her grandma's craftiness. "Grandma, it's fine. The festival is always the same anyways."

Ignoring her grandaughter, Grandma Mari takes 10 dollars out of the register. "This is for snacks and games. If you take her with you, I'll make you my exclusive Earth-berry pie."

"Deal." Without any hesitation Miku takes the money and drags Mai by the wrist.