And a Bottle of Rum

Shanghaied? Stowawayed? In the wrong place at the wrong time? No matter how you looked at it, Rinji was in some serious trouble. The Iceberg sailed for three days while Rinji was trapped in the cargo, with a gigantic amount of guards all around him. To his surprise, it was filled with booze. Rum, beer, ale, whiskey of all kinds. The sake and wine alone were worth over seventy thousand belli. While that three days in the cargo bay started out kind of unpleasant, it went on with cheerful glee as Rinji started guzzling them down along with ten wedges of cheese.?

The happy cat saw that they finally came to the shore, and in his drunken stupor, he remembered that he needed to hurry up and find Chio and Usagi. He needed a plan of escape, but once they found him in their cargo, having drank a ton of their sake and wine, he was one dead cat. He quickly crawled into one of the crates, sticking his claws through the top so that it would at least feel secured.

The workers carried Rinji's crate, and while he was hugged up against a jug of malt whiskey (slightly nursing it along the way). However, once they started to exit, one of them began to sniff around. That was when Rinji's eyes widened. That was when he started to think of how much his pee must have stank with all of the alcohol he was consuming, and the cheese probably didn't help a great deal in that area.?

Lifter1: What the hell is that smell? Damn, it smells like your mother's feet!

Lifter2: Hey watch your mouth you friggen nutsack! Still, it does smell like a papermill in here. We should check it out in case the boss finds out.

That was when they accidentally dropped the crate, and it landed on one of their feet.

Lifter2: GAH! You fricken idiot!?

Unfortunately, a splash of liquor got into Rinji's throat and went for his trachea.?

After a fit of coughing, the jig was up. As the top came off, Rinji had to spring straight into action. The wooden crate top, shot straight up, and smacked both of them in the face, causing them both to slide straight back as Rinji came to the edge of the crate.

Rinji: Mewhahahahaha- *hic* oohh... need to take it easy on the sake next time.

Lifter1: Who the hell is this?!?

Lifter2: Bloody Tom Cat, it is! A dead Tom Cat!

Rinji: That!-mew is where you're wrong! *hic!* That's Tabby Cat! I didn't get these stripes for nothing!

Lifter2: ...he talks!

Rinji stood there for a moment, slapped his forehead with his paw and shook his head.?

Rinji: Why are people so slow?

That was when both of them pulled out their scimitars, and began to approach him.

Lifter1: Mum always said there was more than one way to skin a--GAH!

That was when claw marks traveled through the air from Rinji's paws and cut both of them with a stylized fighting move.?

Rinji: Rinji Tsume!!!

As both men grabbed hold of their cut faces, Rinji made a break for it, still holding onto the whiskey as he ran for the opening. He got most of the way up when another lifter came with a pistol in his hand.

Lifter3: What are you two idiots d-AH!!!?

He saw Rinji, not as a Nekoman, but as a demon as those eyes glowered back at him with a shine coming from the pupils. The lifter's surprise gave him long enough to grab the pistol out of his hand and push him down the steps, out of his way. Then he swiftly bolted onto the deck, instantly catching the attention of everyone there. Before any of them could make a move on him, Rinji quickly threw the alcohol onto the deck and fired his pistol, making it catch ablaze. That small window of distraction was all he needed as he quickly ran out onto the pier and ran out onto the dock.?

With no time to lose, Rinji scurried off, making his way down the dock before he found one ship that was out of the way, and hopefully not on their radar system, it wasn't long before he realized, he was on a Marine ship. What all of that booze was doing on a Marine ship, he didn't know, but he knew he pissed off the wrong people.