Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Thin-Blue Razor's Edge

The fleet of Pirate Lord Blue, Captain Flint, cut clean through the uneasy waves, walls of licking flames and thrashed through the obstacles of the sinking scrapyard of Ladron's ships. The Flintory herself cleaved clean through the middle of Ladron's ironclad flagship, which laid broken in half by completing the split and sending both sides rolling on their own with a spew of sparks.

"How does a simple wooden ship even do that?" Meemas wondered while warming himself up for a far worse scrap than he was willing himself up for.

"This is no mere simple ship. This is The Flintory," Iapetus corrected his partner while scanning the busy port town. The townsfolk and all the resting sailors saw this moment of the Pirate Lord's interference as something of a breather. Their chance to get themselves together and scrounge up the best resistance they could muster as opposed to being caught entirely off-guard as they were when Ladron tried bombing them to smithereens.

"That is just a ship," Mana observed, giving the big, floating lady a focused look. "I've never seen such a thing before, but it's like they coated the entire ship with chakra. That's how a wooden ship cleaves through tempered iron and ignores natural flame."

"Chakra imbuement? But I can't see anything..." Meemas turned to Mana.

"Neither can I. I can sense it though," Mana closed her eyes to soothe her breathing before focusing her gaze on the Flintory turning sideways and parking itself by an available port bridge.

The noise of splashing, comprised of countless instances, began drowning out the licks of the flames or the rushing waves as barrels of cargo began dropping from the ships. The sailors began brandishing whatever they got their hands on during the downtime, fully expecting trouble. A few of them rolled in cannons that were stored in one of the port town's warehouses and lined them up, ready to intercept the barrels.

"Wait up!" a masculine voice resonated through the port. There wasn't anything special about it, just an ordinary, somewhat melodious, and clean voice, though for whatever reason it spread through the ears of anyone wishing to hear it and soothed them down. Men that were up at arms and feeling like their backs were pressed to the wall, looking to take aim and fire on the barrels to detonate them before they reached the port now lowered their fish forks and long dispenser barrels.

A lone, round, and bloated balloon flew up from the Flintory's deck. It carried a short yet stout man with cartoonishly large leather boots with a flashy silver buckle, a simple sailor's shirt, and a long navy blue military coat with golden threads decorating it. The man wore a wide captain's hat and a bandana underneath it, restraining wild, shoulder-length black hair. From the looks of it, Captain Flint hadn't shaved in a few weeks. For a short and full in body mass and volume man of the high seas, Captain Flint's long and sharp nose had weasel-like properties to it making it impossible to fully trust the man from first impressions alone.

Oddly enough, when Pirate Lord Blue, Captain Flint, let go of the red balloon that had carried him all the way down to the pier from the deck of the Flintory, the red balloon didn't float away anywhere but stayed hanging over the pirate's shoulder. The sailors made way for the veteran pirate's descent. Mixed feelings were reflected on their faces. They were stuck frozen in between the states of bravery and the want to defend their town but also the unfounded terror of this rather simple-looking man.

"I'd rather you didn't perforate those barrels. They're filled with fine booze and loot. Consider it a compensation for what that sea-snake Ladron put you through," Captain Flint snickered, turning to point at the entire sea of barrels gently floating in the port's direction.

Husky grunts attracted Mana's attention from the rather unimpressive-looking Pirate Lord presenting to the port town. An old television box carried by a pair of human legs hopped onto the side of the Flintory's board and stretched the legs so that the oversized tech box could shine a beacon of straight light at its captain.