Post by Shinku on Dec 18, 2015 22:34:31 GMT -5
Got permission from Surua to have Erwyn help out in my post, and he's got my okay to involve Kyou in his next post, should he need him.
“Oh right, that guy in the cell is their mate.” Kyou thought, annoyed with himself that he had completely forgotten the fishman. Though rather than forgotten, the pink-haired man had simply not considered the consequences connected to it. Two years after losing all his nakama and the thought of having someone to protect or save had become a stranger to him, which in turn kept him from expecting that others might go to great lengths for their crewmates.
It wasn’t that the young man wouldn’t go and help Otto or maybe even Erwyn should they be in trouble, but such act didn’t’ came naturally to him. How could it, if the feeling that drove him to protect others was hiding like a wounded dog deep down in one of the darkest corners of his mind, too much in pain to even lick its wounds.
With a glare at the fake Marine Kyou showed him his displeasure about the inconvenience he was causing them, though the unconscious fishman was oblivious to that. That the man in the cell was wearing a Marine uniform was also pissing him off more than he wanted to admit.
“Sure, I’ll watch your back…” Kyou started, when something occurred to him. “How am I supposed to watch his back and get the cannons ready at the same time?” the pinkhead wondered, but when he turned around to ask Otto, the only thing his green eyes saw was his friend’s back vanishing as the monkey-man headed upstairs.
“…”
It had been quite a while since he had felt so dumbfounded by the moment. Like… about two hours. Things had gone comparatively smoothly since Erwyn had killed a tree with his sword, but now that they faced a potential fight, Kyou was contemplating the thought again that he would fare better on his own.
“Shall we go then?” the teenage boy said to fill the awkward silence that was spreading inside his head.
Leaving the cell with the lonely prisoner behind, the Bounty Hunter and his companion in misfortune went to follow the ship’s Captain’s orders. After all, Kyou mused, what good would it do to rush after him? No, rather than taking action, it was better to just do as one was told.
However the pink-haired man kept one ear open for any sort of disturbance coming from above, just in case.
And yet he just stood there quietly at first, giving the two cannons evil stares and trying to remember how they worked. It had been quite a while since he had come into close vicinity of the iron beasts.
One hand on the hilt of his sword as was his habit, running the fingers of the other hand through his messy pink hair, Kyou looked helplessly around the room.
Save for one horrible time, the boy had successfully managed to avoid being on cannon duty during his time in the Marine, but now the chickens had come home to roost. His lack of knowledge was picking on him, making the neglects of the past more hurtful than they should have been.
“This can’t be that difficult, I’ve watched others do it.” He told Erwyn, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
Nervously Kyou picked up the ammunition, but the heavy ball nearly slipped through his sweating fingers when the chain connected to the other ball unexpectedly brought his lifting movement to a stop.
“Can you take the other end? I think we just need to push this into the cannon’s muzzle and then we’re good?” he wanted to know from Erwyn, but his memory gave him a painful nudge before he could finish his intention.
“Explosives idiot! You’ll need explosive or those heavy balls won’t fly anywhere, save maybe down on your foot.” The pinkhead berated himself. Carefully, as if the cannon ball was explosive in itself, Kyou put it back down and looked around for a stock of gunpowder.
“You have to fill them with gunpowder first.” The ex-Marine explained, just in case Erwyn didn’t know and went to one of the two weapons, in order to do so. Using the long rod with the iron “spoon” at the end, Kyou had no clue how it was called, he filled the cannon with a scoop of black powder and stamped it compact.
With Erwyn’s help he managed to insert the chain-shots and now only the fuse and the fire were left.
How much time had passed since they came to prepare the cannon? They couldn’t have missed Otto’s signal, could they?
But no, there was no hint from above that they should have fired already.
Just to ease his nervousness, Kyou double-checked that the cannon was firmly positioned on the ground. Cannons were heavy things with a big recoil and things could go really wrong if one forgot to lock them in place. But everything seemed fine and all they had to do was to wait for Otto’s signal.