A Place Called Nowhere Part 2

Previous: A Place Called Nowhere

Rinji sneezed, and sneezed rather hard while he sat at the table. It made everyone in the room flinch a little bit, in case his snot got onto them, but thankfully, it was only a very light mist. He sniffled a few times, and then looked across the table once again. There sat Emily, a young girl with purplish hair, blue eyes, and a sour look on her face. Her arms crossed over her chest over her jacket which looked like an ancient army uniform from a very long time ago, a dark green with a red falcon on either arm. She glared back at the Catman as the two of them sat in the very large main hall of their brand new ship. The Esper Karala, made by shipwrights from The Jolly Pirates, The Marimo Pirates, and The Skyline Pirates, and made almost completely customized to the entire crew of the Tiger-Stripe Pirates after their former ship, The Panno Marie, was sadly destroyed in a horribly destructive tsunami of supernatural proportions. After everything that happened in Hotdog Island was far behind them now, they had only been at sea for about two days now.

Just after they had finally gotten over their battle scars, and settled into their new ship, lost a crewmember to The Pop Band Pirates, and set sail for the first time after such a tragic series of events, Rinji found yet another headache to deal with. The headache were two Revolutionaries, Emily Piece, and David Star. Emily was a subordinate of Jiro's for years until he went off to find the Dragon Fruit that ultimately caused the destruction of not one but two huge sections of land on two different islands. Emily followed Jiro's footsteps and finally tracked him to this location.

Now they sat in the main hall, all three of the other tables were empty, but in the fourth one sat Rinji, Runagai Chio, and Daro Daro Usagi across from the two Revolutionaries that stowed away on their ship, and refused to leave until they had their way, and were given permission to follow Jiro until he came back to the Revolutionary headquarters. After heated arguments caused by the two newcomers, the issue was no longer Jiro's call, as he ultimately could not make the call for them to join the crew on their expedition. Rinji was the Captain, Chio the first mate, and Usagi the second, and as a group, they deliberated, and after much thought and processing the information, it boiled down to one single decision.

Rinji: No.

Emily: What?! What the hell is your deal, furball?! That is unacceptable!

Rinji: Well, you'll have to find a way to cope with it, because Jiro has joined my crew of his own free will, and you're going to have to deal with it like a grownup.

Emily: Jiro is my responsibility, and my superiors have given me express orders to track him down and bring him back to them now that his mission is complete.

Rinji: I don't give the hairy crack of a rat's ass what your superiors want. This is my ship, and I call the shots. He has been a crewmember of mine for many moons now, and Revo or not, he is now my responsibility.

Emily: You watch your mouth! You don't want to invoke the wrath of the Revolutionaries! I have been given permission to use whatever means necessary to bring Jiro back, and if I can't bring him back, then I'm going to stay with him, now either give me permission to stay aboard this ship, or allow me to leave with Jiro, there is no in between!

Rinji: Oh? And If I say no? [Glare deepened into a snarl.]

Emily: Oooohhh little kitty, you don't want to say no. If you say no, then I have no choice but to challenge you...

Usagi's hand grasped her sword hilt, and Chio's muscles tensed up in his legs, ready to kick this table into splinters if it meant getting the edge on these two.

Emily: To a dance off!

There came a very deep silence to the room, and any tension that was felt before was gone in that very instant.

Emily: [Kicked her chair and made it slide back as she stood up in a pose, her leg outstretched and her arms in a formation as her hands pointed to either side.] That's right, cat! I got the moves that will make you wish you were born a bottom feeder!

She started flash dancing, moon walking, doing the watoosi, the batman, the Russian twist, and then she got up onto her head, starting to spin around with her arms crossed around her chest. She stopped suddenly, and gracefully got back onto her feet. Then she dropped down to her side and lied there with her head held up by her hand.

Rinji sat there, flabbergasted, staring at this weird girl who just spontaneously started dancing in front of them. That was when he looked over at the very intense gaze of one David Star. His bright blue eyes were piercing, he had a very clean cut, black hair, and wore a very dark gray trench coat. He paid no attention to Emily as she danced, and sat there, motionless as he stared straight forward without a word.

That was when Rinji turned to Chio. They sat like that for a moment until Chio looked back at him, confused.

Chio: What?

Rinji: [Whispered] Well? Have at her! You have the strongest legs on the crew.

Chio: [Whispered] When did I ever say that I could dance?

Rinji: What?! In all of the years you've been improving your kick, you never picked up a few steps?

Chio: Oh, and you're just a pro at tossing around a ball of yarn.

Rinji: Oh, you rotten bastard! What's that supposed to mean?

Chio: In all your years of being a cat, you've never conquered the ball of yarn? It must be true, you're a cat, afterall. You see what I mean? Don't type cast me as a dancer just because I can work my legs.

Both of them looked at Usagi, who looked back at the two of them, her eyes wide, looking around for a moment, then shook her head at the two of them.

Rinji: Damn...

Emily: Soooo...

She started Rinji as she was now lying on her stomach, her hands holding up her head as she glared at Rinji on top of the table, face to face with the Catman.

Emily: I take it none of you have the steps to step up?

Rinji cringed, and then put his hand on his eyes and rubbed them.

Rinji: Fine... I'll let you stay with Jiro.

Emily: [Jumped up to her feet and raised her hands in victory!] YES!!!

Rinji: But give my crew any sass and your ass is on a lifeboat!

That was when the doors to the main hall opened with Miko Nikk taking two steps in.

Nikk: Captain... we have a problem.