Walk in the Rain Part 4

Hidden in the many canyons of the outskirts, the Panno Marie was finished with its very minor repairs. Chio and Usagi sat at the breakfast table, eating something Chio had whipped up with his limited knowledge of cooking.

Chio: How long has he been out?

Usagi: Five hours so far, but that's not exactly what I am concerned about. He seemed a bit more distant than he usually is. I think something might have gotten to him in that last fight he had.

Chio: Uh, you think? [Holding up a news paper with the headline "Marine Lt. Commander defaced"] This just came out this morning. I had to go under the radar just to buy this paper, and even then I had to duck under three marine guards on the way back. I think our dear, fearless leader will be a little more on the Wanted side after something like this. The guy had to be rushed to the hospital, and even after all of that, they tried to cover it up as best they can, because after that it's nothing but witness statements.

Usagi: Then he destroyed a full-blown battleship. Yes, I think his bounty will be up in the tens of millions after something like this. And we can't leave the island, they set up blockades on all of the exits. We're stuck here for the foreseeable future.

Chio: So how are you holding up?

Usagi cocked her head to the side.

Usagi: Me? I'm doing fine, why do you ask?

Chio: Just wondering [sipping his coffee]

A moment of silence, until Usagi turned her head toward the Captain's quarters.

Usagi: I hope his dreams are at least somewhat comforting. I can't imagine what made him fall off the deep end.

---

A room all around him, constricting like a straight jacket. He was a straight jacket, he had on a straight jacket. No padding, just white tiles, ceiling, floor, and walls. Claw marks tattooed the room, it wasn't a room, it was a prison. His eyes were not eyes, they were windows that never shut, always wide open. The claw marks move, they are unmoving, but the blood began to drizzle from their openings. Blood began to pump faster, ever sinking now as it coated the floors under him, deep stains.

Rinji: Watch me as I fountain crimson, fountain red with burning hate in all its glory, in all its horrid discontent I rebel, there I stand in the pond, there I die with anguish and love but no love from dismembered vision, vision of the door I must walk. There I live.

Blood to his neck now, only a head in the pond of dark red, the fluid essence coming to his maw, hunger fills his life, there will he sleep for all of his own being, he is the creature they all fear. He murders--

---

Rinji: GAH! [flew out of bed and hit his head on the wooden floor] Ooohhh.

He slowly got to a sitting position and rubbed his ear, as it pulsed a bit from the hit. The door flew open with both Usagi and Chio coming into the room.

Usagi: Captain?

Rinji: I'm okay I'm okay. [waving them off] Don't worry about me.

He rubbed his eye as he slowly walked across the room, grabbing his towel off of its wrack and going to the bathroom.

After watching this, both of his crewmates looked at each other, shrugged and walked back into the kitchen where there were several papers strewn about.

Chio: Alright, so from what I've gathered on my endeavors today, our Slobbering Stanley is the first mate of the Half Sun Pirates. And as his name suggestions, he did have a bit of a saliva problem. In fact he used it to his advantage to distract his opponents in a fight. [he snickered as Usagi cringed at this] And our honorable Mayor apparently had some connection to this, it seems he had a sweat problem. I followed a group of Marines to a barbor shop, as he fequented it, and even the tailoring shop, as he constantly needed new suits that didn't smell like perspiration.

Usagi: So two victims with excessive bodily fluids... so it's likely that they will kidnap either someone with a very large bladdar, or a very obese person with a great amount of blood. We'll need more of an outlook on who we have here in this town. It's rather small, so that will make our job that much easier. We just need eyes and ears on the streets.

Chio: Well they certainly don't seem averted from the public eye, Stanley was kidnapped on the street, though it was at night. That seems to be their general hunting time.

Usagi: Then we'll need to get some sleep, we've got a long night ahead of us. [She gave a devious grin, the thought of the hunt was enthralling to say the least.]