No Prey, No Pay

Chapter 11

REITA! COME WITH ME!
Rei... Rei let's go!

No... No no nononono Rei! Rei!

Captain Reita never thought he could finally feel Lady Death caress his heart.

Not when he was holding the most precious gem of the oceans.

The rapier twisted in his flesh, but the only things Reita minding were the cool, soft skin of Aoi, his sweet weight between his arms, his eyes releasing inestimable pearly tears while watching him.

The iron taste on his tongue made Reita cough again, lamenting his pain while Takashima was talking both to him and to Aoi with his honey-smothered smile "Come with me...!" the merman was weeping desperately.

Reita felt the cold blade of the rapier leave his body, his abdomen, and there his body started to shake: he was covered in sweat, he felt his arms starting to loose the grip on the merman's body.

It was... so hard...to hold on...

It was so hard to look at his distraught face, so hard to perceive his frantic claws dig into his shoulders trying to not leave him.

Reita could only gaze at his despairing irises and feel the burn of his deep wound compete with the soft, tender warmth in his upper chest: oh he fell for that creature, he fell hard face-first like a fool, but Reita knew it was the best choice of his life, to let that merman enter his heart with the force of a maelstrom.

The captain heard Aoi saying something to him, with his loving lips moving to form words, trembling in the meantime, but his melodic voice was muffled, distant, a confused gibberish to his ears.

Why Aoi was there? Why he returned to him? He was just a goner now, good only to put a sad expression on his face...

Said expression didn't matched his natural beauty, of course, he was far more beautiful with a smile on his features, god-like when he looked at him with lusty eyes.

It was a sacrilege that those tears were staining his skin with sadness, caress the angles of his mouth, that always sincere lips.

It was blasphemy for those eyebrows to be so inconsolable, his eyes wide open like a terrified child, his sharp teeth showing while almost screaming at him.

Stop crying...
Stop it...!
STOP IT!

Another wave of burning blood started to bubble up into Reita's esophagus and there the blond pirate acted sincerely, his weak heart pounding inside him: he pressed against those lips, closing his own eyes to lose himself in his treasure.

Don't cry anymore, please...
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.

It was pure torment just staying on his feet, but Reita didn't want to leave Aoi, didn't want to send him down into the spiraling hell that was becoming the sinking ship... but what he didn't want the most was let Aoi watch him die.

Aoi slipped from his weak arms and Reita saw him plunge down, disappear into the whirling waters, chest and face sprinkled with his own blood.

At the same time, the Captain fell on his knees before hitting what remained of the deck, HIS deck, and there he clutched to his wounded abdomen "ahhh finally...! I swear I thought you would never let go, Reita" Takashima chuckled, while making a gesture to one of his remaining men "take our guest to the holding cells, let's leave this rattletrap before it sinks with us all" Takashima's voice lost all his sugary tone and those harsh, commanding words were sharp as a dagger.

Reita got picked up by some random pirate, dragged on the Hellion that was already moving away from Takanori's wooden carcass, with his load of men to sell