Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Hayabusa Abumi Must Die! ❯ Episode 7: A Fish Named Giru ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: MellyN

XxXxXxXx

Hayabusa Abumi Must Die!

Episode 7: A Fish Named Giru

By: Melissa Norvell

XxXxXxXx

Ikkouku soon came upon the battle area where Zatani and Wagari were engaged in battle. She murmured 'huh' in a questioning tone as she glanced around. There was no one to be found and fish littered the hard wood deck. It was truly a puzzling sight.

'That's weird…Where did all of these fish come from? These are species of tropical fish, like those you'd find at the Great Barrier Reef, but we didn't have any tropical fish here on board…The only fish we had were those that we ate.' The wavy-haired pirate contemplated to herself as she walked cautiously around, trying her best to avoid the colorful fish that littered the ground. "Hello?" She asked in an unsure tone, as she tried to see if there was anyone who would possibly answer her.

"Hey! I'm here!" Ikkouku's eyes gleamed in hope as she heard the familiar gruff voice of her friend Zatani, but she couldn't see it him anywhere.

"I found you!" The woman smiled in delight and relief. Ikkouku was thankful that he wasn't dead. The pirate then stopped the blinked a little in confusion. "But, where are you?" She questioned as she unsurely walked around, occasionally glancing here and there for any sight of the black-clad pirate.

As she strolled around, she lifted up her foot and before she could even place it on the ground, she heard a blood curdling 'stop' shouted from what seemed like beneath her. Confused even more by the direction of the voice, Ikkouku moved her foot and glanced down at a black, yellow and white Moorish idol (1) that lay beneath her feet.

The fish looked terrified as it saw the impending doom awaiting it beneath her foot. Then, the fish did something unspeakable.

It spoke to her.

"I'm right here! Just don't step on me!" The Moorish Idol shouted, much to the pirate's shock. His voice resembled that of Zatani's in miraculous ways.

"You're under my foot?" Ikkouku was still in disbelief of what exactly she saw. If this was a dream, it was the most peculiar one she'd had in a while and she wasn't sure if she wanted to wake up, or continue through the strange dreamscape.

"A little help here!" The fish flopped around on the ground.

"You're a fish!" It had finally hit her. This was no dream, nor was it an illusion but the pure truth of the situation. The lavender-haired woman could hardly believe what she saw, much less what she was talking to.

"Unfortunately…" The fish dead panned. "…and I almost became one with the floor. Guess I should feel happy that I have a voice or you would have smashed me."

Ikkouku bent down and picked him up, holding him in her hands. "Sorry about that. Are you alright?"

"Other than being a fish, I'm fine."

"What about the rest of the crew?" Ikkouku was concerned about the well being of the other members of her crew.

"All dead," Zatani looked a little sorrowful as those dreaded words escaped his fish-beak. "Wagari desecrated them while you were gone."

"So, he did come back?" She had a feeling that her rival would have tried something this low and what had happened to both Zatani and her crew was all the proof she needed of how low he'd stoop to get at her. This…This was just going too far! He had to be stopped at all costs!

"I think he was just waiting for you to leave," Zatani stated. "When you left, Wagari brought his whole crew over and decided to have a party."

Remembering that her friend was a water-dwelling creature, Ikkouku walked over and placed him in a barrel of salt water and placed her elbows on the rim, as she listened intently to what he had to say. "So, everyone is dead."

"That I know of."

"Is it because they got turned into a fish?" The woman sadly glanced over at the massive collection of dead fish that littered the floor.

"No, they were already dead beforehand," Zatani informed.

"How did you get turned into a fish and how did you live?" The pirate questioned. She found it more than strange that through it all, Zatani was the only surviving member of her crew and that he had laid on deck that long without water and didn't die.

"Long story, but the curse could have been worse," the fish replied. "I was walking out on deck and I met up with Wagari." As the fish began to explain his story, the vibrant images of what happened only a few hours ago ran through his head in striking color.

"Huh?" He remembered himself turning around, only to meet face to face with the rival pirate. The two stared each other down as both men exchanged apprehensive greetings.

"Well…Hello…" Wagari's voice was sinister, yet playful. He was wondering how the darkly-clad ninja would respond to his appearance. Most people were in shock, even the pirates of Ikkouku's group, and they should expect such a thing, but this lone man was different. Zatani held little surprise and his features were so abrasive that it was even hard to tell what little surprise he possessed.

"Wagari, you need to leave," the spiky-haired man's voice was just as cold as his stone-like face. "You're not welcomed here."

"I'm not here to set up a peace treaty; I'm here to take over," the arrogant man smirked as he swung his sword over his shoulder, ready to strike at any time, despite his lax posture.

"You know Ikkouku left," Zatani narrowed his eyes. "You're real low, aren't you? To just go and wait until she's gone to take over her crew. You coward." Wagari was everything that the ninja resented. He was nothing but a school yard bully who waited until the actual threats were gone so that he could move in on the weak and defenseless. There was nothing to adore about a crooked snake like him.

"Well, I've taken liberty to get rid of all of them but one. It seems that I missed you," the blonde looked right at Zatani and if he didn't get the point, then he did now, but still, the stubborn ninja stood his ground, unmoved by his words.

Zatani simply glanced over his shoulder to see his crew, bodies that littered the ground- all dead. He truly was the only one of Ikkouku's crew alive. "There's no way in hell you did this alone," he stated. There were far too many men to just simply whack through as if they were nothing. Zatani knew some of the members of his crew pretty well and he knew that hacking through them was no simple task for one man alone.

"Of course not," Wagari replied with the answer he most expected, as a crew of armed pirates appeared around him.

"We're going to take this ship out from under Ikkouku's nose, and there's not a thing that you can do about it," The blonde announced. He knew that this battle was over before it even began.

"Not if I can help it," Zatani preformed several hand signs. "Kagemiki no Jutsu!" The spiky-haired ninja summoned his attack, which caused the boards of the deck to bow and shoot upwards, slaughtering a vast majority of his crew, who desperately tried to get out of the way.

"What?" Wagari's eyes widened in shock as he watched his crew die before his very sights. "Is this some type of illusion?"

"No, this is my Kagemiki no Jutsu, with it, I can control anything that's composed of wood. Since this ship's deck is predominantly wooden, I can easily control and twist it to my liking." While his enemy had power in sheer numbers, the skillful ninja knew that he could use the structure of the battlefield to his advantage to tip the situation in his favor.

"No matter. You may have killed my crew, but I don't need them to kill you. Ha!" Wagari instantly charged towards the ninja with his blade drawn. Zatani quickly drew his weapon as their blades clashed and the two became engaged in a dance of the blades.

"It was a long fight and I began to wear down…" The fish continued to tell his story. "Wagari, on the other hand, was stronger then he'd ever been before. I didn't know how he became that strong that fast, since we usually defeat him so easily. I didn't notice until the time I was wearing down what exactly he was fighting me with, and how powerful it really was."

It was a mistake that he'd now have to deal with for the rest of his life.

Their blades clashed against each other once more, but after several rounds, Zatani was easily knocked back. His body was weary and the ninja panted as he was thrown through a barrel, shattering the wooden object on contact.

"Huh?" His eyes widened as Wagari pointed his blade at him. It was then that he realized what exactly was going on. 'His sword is sending out pulses that slowly drain my energy. That's why I've been getting so weak lately and so rapidly. Every time our blades clank, the sword emits those waves. Come to think of it, I've never seen him with that type of sword before. I wonder what it is, how it works and where the hell he obtained such a sword.'

Zatani pulled himself up as he charged at his enemy, only to be knocked back as if he were an annoying insect in Wagari's face.

`I have no strength left. I'll just have to hope that Ikkouku isn't too late.' The spiky-haired ninja thought to himself as he said a silent prayer, hoping that Ikkouku would show up and save him from his grim fate. He was hit again and fell to the side on the wooden deck with a thump. Zatani grunted in pain as he opened one eye to see the pirate thrust the sword towards him.

"And now you die!" Wagari plunged the sword downwards as the large jewel in the sword's hilt glowed. "Curse of the Dead Fish!'

Just then, the oddest thing happened.

Abumi and Ruri flew right into the blonde pirate, who yelled as his weapon flew out of his hand and spun in the air.

"Huh?" Zatani was absolutely puzzled by what had happened, but thankful that something had, even if it was nothing like he expected from that type of situation. 'What now?' The ninja thought as the sword shot multiple beams in all directions. 'I'm done for it.' He thought in dread, just before a hammer blocked his view and the beam hit it, which caused it to break off into smaller beams, lessening the effects of the attack as it rained down upon everyone on deck.

"What?" Zatani was in disbelief as he was bathed in light. Before he knew it, he was laying on his side on the ground, transformed into a fish as he could do nothing but flop around and occasionally glance at all of the dead bodies around him, which had also been transformed into the same manner.

His black eyes glanced down the deck, to see Wagari running, as if something scared him senseless. Wagari was running so fast, he slipped on one of the many dead fish and landed right on his head. The blonde pirate then yelled in horror as one of the beams shot towards him.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!" He was hit head on and turned into a fish, which flopped around, desperately trying to find water before it ran out of air.

Zatani watched him for a while, until he ceased to move. The sword then ran out of power and fell, slicing his head off as it sunk into the wood of the deck. If Wagari had been alive, he was no longer.

It was a well-deserved end and the black and white fish smiled to himself with satisfaction. There was nothing like being killed with your own weapon that made all of your selfish deeds the more horrible.

Then he frowned, when the harsh truth hit him. 'I'm going to be next. It's a long way to the edge of the ship and I'm not going to make it without drying out or running out of water to filter through my gills.' Zatani glanced down the deck and a sorrowful expression crossed his face. "So, this is the end. Never imagined it would end up quite this way, being a fish and baking in the sun. All of a sudden seafood doesn't sound too pleasant. If I struggle, I'll die before I get there and at a lot quicker rate, but if I stay here, it'll be a slow and agonizing death. I can't win."

"I thought I'd surely die, if I lay there long enough but as the day seemed to go by, I gained strength and found that I could still breathe. I was confused by this, since fish are aquatic. Why could I breathe air and not get burnt easily? I lay there, thinking about what had happened and how it was possible that I was still alive. I had figured that since an object was blocking me from the full effect of the curse, that would be why I could breathe air, talk and not worry about being dried out by the sun."

"So, you have a curse on you?" Ikkouku asked.

"Unfortunately," the fish replied in dead pan. This was, by far- the worst curse of his life.

"We've got to break that curse and find out who was on this ship aside from Wagari. Whoever it was might be trouble. What did they look like?" The pirate asked her friend. Whoever flew into Wagari surely knew of her ship and wanted something from it.

"There was a male with spiky hair and a female with him." That was really all Zatani could make out, since the two of them had made such a short appearance.

'Those two sitting on the boxes…' Ikkouku's face twisted into an expression of realization. 'I know they looked familiar…'

"Thieves."

"Huh?"

Then, the lavender-haired girl's expression turned serious. "We've got to kill those two. They're probably snooping around and seeing what they can steal." That had to be the reason that they were sitting on the boxes, watching them load up their cargo and getting ideas about what they could steal from them.

Zatani hopped on her shoulder. "Right, let's go." He demanded as he thought to himself. 'Maybe they can tell me something about my curse before Ikkouku kills them…I hope…'

…To Be Continued…

NOTES:

(1)-Moorish Idol- With distinctively compressed and disk-like bodies, Moorish idols stand out in contrasting bands of black, white and yellow which make them look very attractive to aquarium keepers. The fish have relatively small fins, except for the dorsal fin whose 6 or 7 spines are dramatically elongated to form a trailing, sickle-shaped crest called the philomantis extension. Moorish idols have small terminal mouths at the end of long, tubular snouts; many long bristle-like teeth line the mouth.