Silver Infinity ((Kamukura X Komaeda))

Chapter Forty-One: The Separation Of Family

The girl looked out to the water, her fingers nervously twiddling and twining together.
The water rocked the galleon ever so gently, the men onboard paying it no mind as they guzzled down rum and laughed amongst themselves.

Not unexpected, there wasn't a pirate alive that would pass up a bottle of rum. She exhaled, her nerves exposed by the way she twitched in her small movements.
A sudden tap of her shoulder made her jump and look back to the man that had done it, meeting face to face with a fellow crewmate.
"Hey Toko," He grinned, making his strange-looking beard look even more awkward. "Calm down a little, we got this."

"Leon," She frowned before looking away from the orange-haired man. "As if it's th-that easy. What if I'm wr-wrong, huh?"
"Not possible," He nodded confidently. "You came from Spain, there's no way you could've got it wrong!"

It wasn't even worth arguing, the fact that Toko came from the country didn't mean she automatically knew every trade route they had. She had only happened to overhear the one they were going after because it was one of the more popular ones. But that being said, it was also one of the most heavily guarded ones.

"Look," He attempted to comfort her by lowering his voice, "Once we do this, we'll have more gold, sugar, and tobacco than we'll know what to do with. Doesn't that sound great?"
She kept herself from replying, or she probably would have snapped at him.

As if on cue, another man took her side, wrapping an arm over her shoulder and leaning over to give Leon a smile.
"It's only natural to be worried, why not leave her alone for now and keep drinking until your belly is full of beer?"
It looked as though Leon wanted to argue, but the man was fast to drop it and with a sigh, turned away, and left Toko be. As she said, no pirate alive could pass up rum.

Once the pirate had left, the man dropped his arm away from her and exhaled.
"I understand it's stressful-"
"What an und-understatement," She didn't even bother to look at him as he spoke, instead focusing her attention on the water below. She was grateful for the save, but it was still difficult to be calm just then. Everyone else was as happy as could be, but...

"We're not at-attacking a fishing boat, this is the Sp-Spanish Treasure Fleet. We probably won't have enough men to hold them off if we ha-had an army if things went wr-wrong."
"Captain Oowada is in over his head again," The man laughed softly, "But we always get out with a few bruises."

His attempt at comforting wasn't quite working well. She closed her eyes a long moment before looking back,
"What if this i-is a mistake, Rantaro? Maybe I never should have men-mentioned it. If anyone dies, it's my fa-fault!"
He held up a hand, shushing her and looking her down with his calming gaze, "If anyone dies, it's the fault of the one that killed them. The only thing you're guilty of is giving us a chance to get more trading goods."

The woman had a hard time thinking of a response to such a remark. Could Rantaro be right after all? She had told the Captain of the Trade route on an impulse, she didn't expect him to actually go after it.

Without thinking, she rested her hand on her sword, softly grasping the handle. Not that she had any trouble killing who she needed, but that sword would be her only barrier between life and death.
The silence was cut short by a short holler from the Captain, bringing Toko to pull her eyes to him, "Merchant at nine o'clock!" He grinned widely. "You ready, damn rats?"

What followed was drunken cheering from all the crew, even the woman couldn't help herself from raising her voice proudly with them.
"For the blood of swashbuckler, for the rum in our bellies, and coin in our pocket, hell is here!"
"Hell is here, el infierno esta aqui!" Toko echoed Oowada, drawing her sword.