Natural Enemy 2-8A

“...Jesus.”

The ship was ugly.

Worse than ugly, no simple old boat could compare to the floating tumor that sat on the open ocean in front of Kai, no matter how busted.

The Crusted Crabber.

It loomed out of the blue like something the sea had tried to digest and vomited back up; the thing so tall, thick and layered over with so much dead coral, waterlogged driftwood and barnacle growth that it looked more like floating garbage. 

A mix of rotting fish and wet wood wafted over his way, the smell of low tide left out in the sun for at least a week. 

Not like I expected any better. Now, that was a lie. Yeah…

He definitely hadn’t expected much from a pirate — not any pirate given how they lived on the ocean and almost never bathed — but he definitely didn’t expect this. Kai clicked his tongue against his teeth as he neared the red-hulled near-wreck of a ship. Not from a guy named Barnacle Bill, at least. 

It was larger than Kai expected, the floating fortress of rot enough to make his teeth itch. Is this stupid? The answer to that was obvious, something he’d already figured out an hour ago headed this way after leaving Port Town. All that had kept him going was spite, ego, and the fact he wanted to make some money back.

Honestly, none of those felt like the best reasons right now.

On top of that, the last time I fought a whole crew… Well, the last time he was firing on all cylinders, going all “protect my family” and throwing more water than he’d ever been able to manage before. 

Could he pull off the same? Probably not.

Could he get close enough? Who knows?

Was he going to try anyway? “...hell yeah.” The words felt hollow in his mouth, but he said them anyway. Fake it ‘til you make it, bro.

He didn’t bother to slow down the Naruto, hands still on the helm as he spun the polished wooden wheel of the orange skiff. There was no point drifting in silent since they had to have seen him coming from a good distance back, and that meant no point in looking for a blind spot either.

The skiff shuddered violently, water jet reversing flow and acting as the brake he needed. Foam churned white around the orange hull as the little boat rocked in its own wake, fighting momentum hard.

Finally, the Naruto skidded to a halt just thirty feet off the port bow of the pirate ship.

High above, someone on the Crabber shouted something Kai couldn’t make out in an accent too thick for him to even try. The lookout’s voice sounded out for barely a couple seconds before a bell started ringing in a heavy clang that echoed over the water.

Standing up on the skiff, Kai adjusted his bucket hat, pulling the brim low over his eyes. “Let’s get this bread.” That said, he stepped off the edge of his boat and the ocean welcomed him in, the wetness of the deep fitting him like a glove as he sank.

Down, down, down, ten feet turned to fifteen; the light filtered above him into a wobbly ceiling as the blue turned the world into muffled silence, the only sound the beat of his own heart.

Kai swirled his arms, pressure gathering around him. Hold.  The weight crushed in on him as he sunk futher, deep water pressing tighter against his skin as he already felt it pulling back, pulling in, pulling at him. Hold. 

He looked up at the dark shadow of the hull above him.

Knock knock.

He shoved.

And the ocean detonated around him.

Mouth opened in a scream that gurgled nothing but saltwater, all two-hundred-and-sixty pounds of him broke the surface in a foamy white pillar of pressurized water, piercing the top and shooting him even further up. “-AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

Up past the barnacles. Up past the railing. Up past the stunned faces of the lookout who looked like he’d just seen a ghost.

He crested the deck of The Crusted Crabber at the peak of the jump, suspended for a split second in the salty air as water poured free off him.

Blue eyes widened as he spotted them.

The crew. 

…Pirates of the Carribean wasn’t wrong. It might have been about a lot of other stuff but the movie was on point here as Kai found himself staring at a bizarre bunch of people that looked more like reef hazards than actual people. Starfish dried onto their jackets, seaweed woven into their beards and barnacles growing off a heap of wet, dirtied men staring up at him.

Kai couldn’t helpt the grin as gravity took over.

He landed.

The wet human cannonball hit the deck in a crouch, impact shaking the planks and sending a shockwave of water splashing out from his sandals. “WHERE’S MY MONEY!”

One pirate to his right, an oversized spotted blue crab shell tied to his shoulder like a sealife shoulderguard, stared with his jaw open wide; half his teeth missing and the other half almost black. “...huh?”

A gloved fist sent him flying back, the punch to the face probably loosening a few dark molars by the time he clattered to an umoving heap against the gangplanks.

It was quiet for a second.

Just one. Then...

“Get ‘im!” Another crew member, wearing some kind of octopus as a beanie, snarled and raised a chipped cutlass his way. 

The sword swung out fast but Kai barely had to duck. Being barely over five feet was useful sometimes. Not always, but sometimes.

Still grinning, Kai stepped inside the next swing as metal brushed past his face, already rushing in. One hand out, he slammed it into the guy’s chest.

Hydro Palm. A blast of water, short and concussive, fired from his hand the second his heavy palm hit home.

Like he’d been hit by a cannonball, the pirate flew backward at speed. He crashed into the mast and crumpled, gasping for air that wasn't coming as his octopus fell off and slid away,

The rest of them charged.

The bounty hunter ran right towards them, a black bowling ball crashing into a horde of dirty pins. The first pirate nearest him yelped, suddenly surprised as two meaty hands slid past him and hooked him by the belt and the collar. 

Kai knew he was nothing close to a martial artist and he barely knew a couple wrestling moves on top of that. What he did know was that he could toss logs like a baseball, and these guys probably couldn’t.

His grin widened. Heave.

The yelp turned into a full-body scream, the sound getting fainter and fainter as Kai tossed the man over the rail of the ship. With a loud splash, he became one less problem.

The air thickened and a pair of blue eyes went wide, before Kai forced himself into a crouch, barely ducking a swinging hook on a chain that took the space where his head just was as a pirate yelled curses too gargled to understand. 

Without wasting a moment, the teenager swept the guy’s legs with a kick that had at least a good ton of force behind it.

“My leg!”

Water sprayed everywhere as Kai spun again, half-breakdancing as the water sent him rotating as much as he put effort into it. Not that he was controlling it carefully. Hell, he was barely controlling it all, his hydro-powers leaking like a broken faucet. Ha!

Every punch threw a spray of salt and fresh water, every step squelching beneath his feet as he left the deck a slip-and-slide in his wake.

Pirates scrambled for footing, boots sliding on the wet wood like they were on ice. Kai didn't slide, though; no, he darted from place to place in a near blur, water boosting him forward as much as it gripped to the soles of his slippers like glue.

Eyes widened as a click-click-click went off in quick succession, three identical sounds making his ears prick up over the chaos of the scrum. His eyes shot up, grin falling away at the sight of a group of three lining up muskets near the opposite railing.

Nope.

Kai lashed out with a snapping arm, the puddle in front of him bubbling as it cracked out with force and speed. A single wet tendril wrapped around three muskets and Kai yanked backwards hard.

The guns flew off into the sea, pirates looking at their empty hands for a few seconds before  they jerked back up to Kai. 

He charged.

Shoulders down, Kai was every pound a linebacker as he bowled them over, sending the wannabe shooters tumbling into a heap of limbs and cursing.

“Where is my money?” Kai stomped the ground with a single foot, water splashing high into the air. “Yo, Bill, get out here!”

A split-second later, the whole ship rocked.

Kai blinked up. Oh.