Doom Voyage [Tsubaki/Pluto]

[odango]

T H E  S T O R Y  O F  T S U B A K I

I - XVI

- D O O M  V O Y A G E -

---

Tsubaki had found a bucket of water to pour on the captain and as she ran back to the sleeping man with it to soak him, the entire ship shook as if two mighty entities had collided. The clouds even cleared up in the sky and the waves tossed the vessel harshly.

”Wh-whoa!” she stumbled to find her balance as some of the water was spilling out of the bucket and, almost walking criss-cross for a few steps, she continued towards Yamamuro. The captain, however, lifted an arm to scratch his stomach as the snot buble in his nose popped.

“!” Was he finally waking up? Tsubaki stopped and stared at the busy mustache blonde. There was no need to soak him in water if he was about to wake up. ”Captain Yamamuro?” she spoke up loud enough to be heard over the ruckus going on further away on the main deck. As it was, the part that Tsubaki and Yamamuro were at was a bit elevated and shielded so she couldn’t see the action going on.

The captain didn’t say anything. In a few seconds the snot bubble was back and he began snoring loudly as the ship ceased rocking. This crushed Tsubaki’s sould a little. Her knees became weak and she could feel her spirit leave her body as she slumped with the bucket of water in front of her. ”Come on! Who doesn’t wake up in these circumstances?”

Getting back up and rediscovering her motivation, the girl poured the bucket over her captain. ”Wake up, Captain Yamamuro!” she shouted at him while doing so. This seemed to finally work and the man quickly sat up with his arms and legs flailing around.

”Wha-where? The pirates!” he exclaimed while pulling his fists up and frantically looking around. In a moment, however, he calmed down to find no one besides Tsubaki in his view. The man didn’t seem to care about the rope marks on his body. He took another slow gaze around and soon spoke out again in a deep, calm tone: ”I see… I was unconscious… Tell me what’s happening. Where are my lieutenants?” he asked while scratching the back of his dark blonde head.

”Also…” he began in the same calm manner as he peered up at Tsubaki, ”Why does my face hurt?” he pointed at it and asked. His face was swollen with a multitude of palm marks on his cheeks. Tsubaki had attempted to slapping him awake at least fifteen or twenty times and she didn’t hold back. His already deep set eyes were barely visible and his lips were swollen a bit too. The cheeks looked like balloons and one could still see the outlines of the POs hands.

The brunette gave a nervous laugh: ”Well… I wonder…” there wasn’t much she could say in regards to the face. It’s not like she could admit to beating his face because his sleep was too deep. She would get demoted or worse, probably.

”Lieutenant Banks is helping with the captured marines. The ship was hijacked by an infiltrated group of pirates and you were captured. The lieutenants were also captured but then lieutenant O’Neil, myself and Pluto – a recruit – came to rescue you. I believe Banks the other marines, O’Neil and Pluto to be engaged in a fight right now. We still don’t know where the engineers are held.” she reported in as detailed yet curt of a way as she could. Time was of the essence, after all.

”I’ll take you to Brody O’Neil.” she said while helping the captain up. The man was a little wobbly for the first couple of steps but quickly regained his posture. The two of them followed to the main deck and the captain would witness a row of defeated pirate thugs and Erwin Star defeated and crashed. It was quite a spectacle. The only people standing were O’Neil and the recruit.

”Oh, lieutenant O’Neil! Thank you for protecting Pluto!” Tsubaki called out as she picked up her pace towards the tall ginger man and her trainee. She would then move on to walk over and inspect Pluto visually from all sides. ”You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked after leaning in to make sure he didn’t get a black eye or something.

”Hmm… O’Neil?” the puffy faced captain looked up at his lieutenant to find the man completely brooding and silent – it was as if he had experienced a shock.

”No… need…” the slow speaking man referred to the thank you he got.

---

Tag: BlacKitten
Words: 757
Tsubaki: 393597; O'Neil: 588be6; Banks: eb7222;

E.Star: dbe23a; Ctn. Yamamuro: cc2c2c

Unknown Bad Guy: 1063a

[BlacKitten]

Pluto - 16

What am I doing?

Just now, he did something unnecessary, going out of his way to land two strikes on the pirate despite the presence of an abled officer doing the fighting for him.

Oh right… he wanted us to fight together.

Somehow, he didn’t feel like he fought alongside with someone. It was too short to really tell. He honestly wasn’t entirely sure what level of power he should output in situations like these. He held back a significant amount, using less energy than even the enemy, yet he wondered if it was still too much. The level of strength he exerted should have been within the realm of a human, he thought. Being a recruit was difficult. Calibrating his natural instincts was difficult.

Hitting the pirate felt oddly satisfying. He didn’t understand what the egg-shaped man was saying, but he hated his tone of voice and attitude towards him. Something about Erwin irritated him, even bringing up a feeling of disgust as if he ate something rotten.

His attention was then drawn towards the brunette who stepped closer to inspect his wellbeing. She asked If he was hurt to which the boy responded with an uncharacteristically positive tone, “Not at all. Lieutenant O’Neil protected me. If he hadn’t stopped that pirate’s strange rolling attack with his punch, I would have been a goner. He sure is strong; the whole ship shook from their collision.”

The bearded red-haired, freckled face lieutenant continued to scrutinize the recruit, trying to grasp at what just happened. When he clashed against Erwin’s attack, their forces were about evenly matched, yet this single recruit landed two ordinary strikes so casually, leading to an unexpected agonizing response from the pirate. The boy’s strikes looked nothing special. Perhaps Erwin simply lacked the durability to withstand hits whenever he wasn’t spinning.

“Tsubaki, you’re so mean,” Pluto muttered quietly as he looked away. “You let a mere recruit like me to get attacked by a dangerous pirate. I could have died.”

[odango]

T H E  S T O R Y  O F  T S U B A K I

I - XVII

- D O O M  V O Y A G E -

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”Oh? Thank goodness!” she nodded and smiled widely as Pluto described getting saved by Brody. ”See? Aren’t we lucky that we rescued the lieutenants? Brody O’Neil and Reinold Banks are awesome. Both of them have really strong fighting moves and they’ve seen so much of the world. I hear that they once got to assist a CP0 top secret mission even..” Tsubaki kept on bragging about the lieutenants and how the captain had, apparently, single-handedly wiped out a pirate fleet.

”…”

Brody still stared at Pluto, confused. He was thinking if he truly saw what he saw. The more he thought about it the more confusing it got and hi eyes got more and more covered by shadow. The ginger strong-man remained completely still while doing so – like a big statue that was dressed like it chopped wood in its free time. ”What… could it…”

Pluto went on to Guilt Tsubaki and the young woman took it hard. She felt a pain in her chest and that pain was being an unreliable superior. He was right! She had made a mistake.

Her hands shot up defensively with palms outwards and she flailed a little. The girl could also feel sweat forming at the back of her neck. ”Ah, you see, I was trying to wake the captain when I said it." she laughed nervously, ”I’m sorry! I was going to tell you to hide while I got there after all but lieutenant O’Neil already stepped to the occasion and I couldn’t explain what I meant-“ she paused to take a deep breath because she had said everything in one single breath thus far.

”I’m just glad you’re ok!” the guilt was getting to her and she reached her arms out to pull the boy into a tight hug.

”I’m soo sorry, Pluto! You must’ve been scared! I’ll never do that again, I promise!” she whined and would nuzzle his cheek with hers – like a pet that had been missing. After all, Tsubaki was responsible for his life.

”Right! Everyone, it’s time we re-join Banks and the others.” the captain spoke sternly. Like magic, his puffy, slapped cheeks were back to normal – only a couple outlines of Tsubaki’s palms glowed bright red on each cheek. He would leave with the group back towards the lower deck where the cells were.

---

Tag: BlacKitten
Words: 388
Tsubaki: 393597; O'Neil: 588be6; Banks: eb7222;

E.Star: dbe23a; Ctn. Yamamuro: cc2c2c

Unknown Bad Guy: 1063a

[BlacKitten]

Pluto - 17

“!” Pluto felt himself being pulled into a hug by Tsubaki, a gesture he would only receive from his little sister who was five years younger than him. To be hugged by someone who isn’t Rebecca felt vacant as if it had been substituted by a fake. It was then that he realized just how much he missed her. He missed seeing her smile, her radiance, and her kindness. He had dedicated his life to protect her; he had long since promised to do so even at the cost of his own life. That was the purpose of living he had given to himself ever since the two of them absconded from their home island in the North Blue.

To be a spy, he had to live a very different life, one where his light could no longer keep his inner monster in check.

Tsubaki… isn’t Rebecca. She isn’t Ara. She’s a soldier. She is… my enemy.

No matter what, he had to repeatedly remind himself to not form any genuine bonds with anyone from the marines. Such sentimental feelings would only unnecessarily complicate his situation.

The captain of this crew, having just awoken from his deep slumber, lead them to the lower deck. Despite his ranking and status, Pluto still couldn’t wrap his mind as to how this man could have gotten himself captured in the first place.

Along the way to the cells, several bodies were scattered across the path, armed with weapons – the only sign to indicate that they belonged to the pirates’ group. The other Lieutenant, Banks, stood there victoriously, a dark-skinned man with tribal tattoos over one side of his bald head.

Pluto had expected more tragedies on their end, but it seemed the pirates weren’t as problematic if these middle-ranked officers were present. It seemed he didn’t need to get in on the action at all. A while ago, he had worried about being the only survivor on this ship, but if there were people to hide behind, everything should go a bit more smoothly from here on out. He didn’t like crowds, but they were at least useful to blend in.

There was one notably different looking pirate taken down, armed with a scythe, someone he hadn’t seen before. The very sight of that scythe reminded him of someone who he’d rather not think about.

[odango]

T H E  S T O R Y  O F  T S U B A K I

I - XVIII

- D O O M  V O Y A G E -

---

”Banks! What happened here?” the captain called out to his other lieutenant as the four of them entered the scene. The enemy forces were defeated, as it appeared and most of the soldiers were ok. A few were down and it looked like a couple were dead, sadly. Some of the men had cleared up to the main deck and others were helping some of the injured with first aid. The couple of ship’s doctors had survived and were tenting to as many as possible.

”Captain!, O’Neil! Taighana and Pluto recruit! You guys are ok!” Banks came running over to the group between the cells. The walls around were slightly cracked and riddled with bullets. The man himself had a shoulder wound. The shoulder of his suit was torn off and gauze was wrapped around the notably crimson injury. Now it was visible that he also had tribal ink running down his arm as a sleeve tattoo.

”We’ve managed to subdue the hijackers. It’s all clear and we’ve rescued the engineers as well.” he reported after suddenly taking a serious expression when in front of the captain.

”Right, tend to all the wounded, pirates included, and put the surviving pirates in the cells.” The captain turned to O’Neil after that. ”Go get the helmsmen and get this ship back on track. Also, report on how far off-course we are. Have them raise the sails and let’s try to get out of here as quickly as possible. We don’t know what was in store for this ship.”

The ginger lieutenant saluted and went into a light jog ahead. There were a couple of people helping one of the wounded up the stairs and the big man picked up all three of them close to his chest and climbed up in a matter of seconds.

”Petty officer! Recruit!” Yamamuro spoke up sharply which made the young woman jump a bit. She wasn’t expecting the sudden change in character for the captain she had slapped so many times. It was, however, how she remembered her encounters with him before. The two weren’t friends. To the man she was just a soldier and he kept a firm grip on his subordinates.

”Yes!” she called back and straightened her posture, and her hand shot up to salute to the man.

”Get some help and disarm the enemy bodies. We don’t need someone coming to and shooting up the place.” He explained. To this the brunette nodded and motioned Pluto to come with her. The two would enter up to the main deck and start taking rifles and other weapons from the laid down enemies.

”Ooooh? Now here’s one…” came a voice from the sky – a bit out of earshot for Tsubaki. Big wings flapped up and down and, suddenly, the flying creature let go of a small keg full of gunpowder and pieces of metal that had a fuse lit on it. The bomb dropped and Tsubaki only noticed something as she was walking forward and saw an odd shadow. It was but a dot in front of her but was growing bigger and bigger. The bomb wouldn’t destroy the ship but it would do serious damage to anyone involved.

”!?!” She looked up quickly! The girl could see the incoming object and it felt like her heart stopped.

…

KA-BOOM!

---

Tag: BlacKitten
Words: 556
Tsubaki: 393597; O'Neil: 588be6; Banks: eb7222;

E.Star: dbe23a; Ctn. Yamamuro: cc2c2c

Unknown Bad Guy: 1063a

[BlacKitten]

Pluto - 18

Pluto had to consciously suppress his annoyance upon receiving an order from Captain Yamamuro, the man who was utterly useless during the hijack plot. This man was the one who got himself captured and was used as a hostage to render most of his subordinates captured as well. The boy didn’t hold a particularly high opinion of him and being ordered by him felt almost insulting. Even his respect for the lieutenants were higher.

Silently, he followed Tsubaki’s motioned gesture to tag along as the two of them went back out to the main deck to disarm the pirates of their weapons. The boy squatted next to one of the pirates, the same one he knocked out with a whack of his ‘club’.

”Ooooh? Now here’s one…” a foreign voice from the sky sounded down.

“Hm?” the recruit looked up in the sky to spot a winged creature hovering in the far distance. He noted feathers on the large brown wings. Was it a bird?

“Heh!” He tensed his brows in discomfort. “What is up with my luck today?” It was just one problem after the next. First, they were hijacked by pirates, and now a bird decided to drop a keg of gunpowder with a lit fuse on it. He had less than a few seconds to react.

KA-BOOM!

A destructive explosion led the entire vessel to violently shake as a deafening boom could be heard for miles. A large gaping dent was formed on the main deck with a ring of small traces of orange flames and smoke slowly starting for form. The wooden surfaces cracked.

As the blackish smoke and dust subsided, it was revealed that the recruit was left standing in the same spot as before, holding a pirate’s body by the neck in front of him to be used as a meat shield while taking on a wider and lower stance to stabilize himself.

With a casual swing of his hand, he cruelly tossed the dangling body to the side as the corpse crashed with a heavy thump. What once smelled like fresh salty air was now contaminated by the scent of gunpowder and smoke.

His eyes shifted towards Petty Officer Tsubaki and asked with a cautious tone, “Hey, are you alright?” Although he had a human shield to defend himself against the scorching wave of heat and force, in that split second, he had only considered his own safety.

[odango]

T H E  S T O R Y  O F  T S U B A K I

I - XIX

- D O O M  V O Y A G E -

---

Everything happened so fast.

”I’m here!” a voice came out behind a couple of pirate corpses. The bodies were now singed and riddled with small pieces of metal shards. The deck was damaged by the bomb. Soon, however, Tsubaki would emerge from behind the two bodies. It was only by luck that she had managed to leap behind them.

The brunette propped herself up with one arm and the other was clutching at her shoulder. Her right side had suffered some damage. She had a couple cuts on the outside of her leg, her shirt was a little singed and a small shard of metal had landed in the thick skin of her right bicep. She could still move her arm but the wound would probably leave a small scar.

Blood dripped down her arm and stained the already bloody shirt from her previous encounter of cleaning up the pirates. She slowly got up to her knees and then propped one foot up to stand. The shock made her a little lightheaded and the girl stumbled to the side as she got up.

Her head was lowered and her hair covered most of her face like some chestnut brown curtain but she soon raised it through more shallow breaths to search out Pluto. ”Are you…” she began before taking another shaky breath, ”alright?”. The Petty officer voiced genuine concern. Her body was lightly trembling, however. This was the first time she went through anything like that. The adrenaline from the moment – the same that forced her to survive – had taken a toll on her body.

”What is going on!” came a yell from the lower deck as Banks, Yamato and a couple of other recruits ran up to investigate the blast.

”What happened?” Banks shouted at Pluto and Tsubaki while inspecting the area. ”An explosion? Where?!” The man thought and quickly ran to the side railing to take a better look across the waters. In his mind some enemy ship might have snuck up to them. ”!” The man gasped and was taken aback by the sight he had in front of him.

”Banks! It came from above! Men, take the bird down!” Yamato ordered to the men and women around and was the first to point a rifle upwards and fire a barrage of shots at the flying figure that still hovered over them to inspect the consequences of the bomb. Right after the captain’s initiative, the surrounding men started firing their guns as well.

”Heh.” A smirk plastered over the lips of the mysterious half-human, half-bird creature and he flapped his huge wings to create more distance between the sea and himself.

”MAELSTROM!!! HOLD ON!” Banks yelled as the ship got pulled to the side. This was probably their unluckiest day ever because the vessel was being pulled into a whirlpool that was forming right underneath it.

---

Tag: BlacKitten
Words: 479
Tsubaki: 393597; O'Neil: 588be6; Banks: eb7222;

E.Star: dbe23a; Ctn. Yamamuro: cc2c2c

Unknown Bad Guy: 1063a

[BlacKitten]

Pluto - 19

Pluto traced the sound of Tsubaki’s voice with his eyes where he saw the brunette emerging from behind two bodies which appeared to have shielded her from the worst of the explosion.

But it did not seem that the Petty Officer came out unscathed. The boy was silent as he saw the cuts on her leg and a metal shard piercing her right bicep. His superior was bloodied, crimson fluid trickling from her wounds. He looked at her with a frozen expression as if reminded just how fragile people can be. Just because he could endure something did not mean the average person can too.

Could I have… protected her?

Had either Ara or his younger sister been in Tsubaki’s stead, could he have reacted in time to protect them?

Probably. When he thought about it, he realized that it was a matter of priority. He prioritized Ara and Rebecca over his own wellbeing. But just now, he had prioritized his own safety over Tsubaki. Was that the right decision to make? To what extent did he value her life? How much was he willing to sacrifice?

”Are you… alright?” asked the brunette who made shallow breaths with her body slightly trembling.

The question made him pause as he felt almost guilty to have suffered no damage from that while she did. Such a feeling was ludicrous. “A little shaken, but I am fine. Worry about yourself more; you’re in a worse state than I am.”

Lieutenant Banks, Captain Yamato, and couple of other soldiers stormed onto the main deck, clearly alarmed, and startled by the explosion that shook the whole vessel and left its singed markings. It was the captain to first verbalize the threat being above them. Sailors were likely used to viewing the ocean as a flat plane where enemies would traverse along the same altitude.

As someone who was could fly himself, Pluto was more intrigued to encounter someone else with the same ability to cross great distances without ever touching the ground. As he gazed skywards towards the target of many gunshots, he can confirm that the winged bomber was a Devil Fruit user, a Zoan-type just like him. At such high altitudes, cannons were ineffective, and he imagined that most soldiers were not accustomed or trained to aim right over their heads just from a posture standpoint.

Without tapping into his own supernatural power as well, there was little that Pluto could do to take down that human-bird hybrid, and he had little reason to act either.

However, there was a disturbance in the seas as the vessel was caught up by a massive maelstrom right beneath them. While the pirates, bomb, and the flying birdman did not cause Pluto any alarm, this sudden change in the water currents certainly did. Stepping towards the railings, he gazed down towards the water, feeling his heart sink.

Flying away was certainly a good idea right about now.

His eyes grew stern at the sight of the massive vortex reeling in the marine ship closer and closer towards the center. As if a beast had just opened its mouth, the ocean threatened to swallow them whole.

You got to be kidding me.

He could not swim. But then again, he doubted that even a fishman could swim against the current of a maelstrom. With no intention of sinking to his despair, he needed to address this problem fast. He could not reveal his Devil Fruit power; it was too soon for him to do so. Without the skill of either flying or swimming being viable options, he had to think outside of the box here.

He began to detach the sling strap belt off his rifle.

I have a bad feeling about this.

[odango]

T H E  S T O R Y  O F  T S U B A K I

I - XX

- D O O M  V O Y A G E -

---

”MEN!!! BRACE YOURSELVES!!!!!” Yomamuro roared over the sound of the sea as the ship was being pulled into the whirlpool. The wood cried and twisted with the movement and together with the waves it sounded like eerie moans of a huge being.

The ship shook and the crew would be shoved around on board. Screams and yelps could be heard around – the men in the lower decks were probably on edge and not everyone had heard of the predicament yet. Panic was in the air.

Tsubaki, stumbled backwards as they went through turbulence and fell down at first. Still gripping at her arm, the young marine fell on her butt end winced in pain: ”Gah!”

She would force herself to calm down a little even though her heart was pounding like mad. The stress of the situation got to all of them and, most simply put, they were scared. What would they do when pulled under water? Where would they go if the ship was destroyed? Their best hope was an island near by – if sea kings didn’t get to them first. Unbeknownst to her, there was an island nearby… but those events would follow later – if they managed to survive the current predicament.

”Calm down… calm down! Think!” The brunette clutched at her wound so that the pain would wake her from the immobilizing fear she felt. It wasn’t a good solution but it was the first she could come up with. What would she do?! What could she do?

”Pluto!” Tsubaki yelled out over the waves and the screams and the panic but the noise was overwhelming. They were getting closer to the mouth of the maelstrom. There were only moments left before they’d go under.

Having gotten herself to her knees and then her feet, the petty officer forced herself to move towards some of the toppled barrels. Some of them were emptied that day – they had washing powder in them for laundry and Tsubaki was present when they emptied the last on chores that morning. The ship was rocking heavily getting trashed side to side by the waves so she took a couple of attempts to grab a hold of the loose barrel and push the lid shut.

”You can’t swim! Hold on to this, Pluto!” The superior marine officer looked back at the dark haired recruit after shutting the barrel completely and pushing it towards the boy now behind her. It rolled over to him quickly due to the added slant of the ship. Most others were clinging to the rails and tying themselves to masts. Tsubaki had spent precious time to try and help her trainee but it was just the way she functioned. The deck was slanted by about 45 degrees and the young woman gathered all her might and energy left to climb up to one of the railings and wrap one of the ropes around her forearm and pull herself close to the wood. All she could see around was water. The ship was already swallowed by the see and it was getting darker.

”SHE’S CLOSING!!! HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!!!” Banks screamed as loud as he could to the rest of the crew.

. . . to be continued.

---

Tag: BlacKitten
Words: 536
Tsubaki: 393597; O'Neil: 588be6; Banks: eb7222;

E.Star: dbe23a; Ctn. Yamamuro: cc2c2c

Unknown Bad Guy: 1063a