ZFighter18

"Man, you really know how to pick a second location.” The walk to the back half of Scuttle Town didn't get any prettier, but at least the smell stopped surprising him. Rotted wood on the bottom, thick flowing harbor sludge in the middle, and the sharp tang of hot metal slicing right across the very

“...you’re joking.” The words were a knife to the ego, his pride slumping to the ground and holding his chest to keep the blood where it belonged. “I know it looks bad…” “Looks?” Kai bit back a sigh as a pair of red eyes snapped his way. – o – o – o – o – o – o – o – The walk back through Scuttle To

The tavern’s low hum of conversation slowly kicked back in, as if a man hadn’t been half an inch from bleeding out like a stuck pig. The noise was a little thinner now in the bar, all eyes on the red-eyed marksman as everyone pretended to be paying attention to something else. Kai didn’t bother pret

Bullshit. A sigh hissed free through gritted teeth. Bullshit. He leaned back in his chair, back to the wall as it kept him from tipping over even as said chair creaked loud under his weight. Just a thousand times bullshit. Roaming around this entire junk-heap of a town had added a new lesson to what

“F is for Friends who do stuff together…” Strings fought back no matter what he did, the guitar off-key under the not-so-gentle attempts from Kai’s fingers. All five digits may have been strong enough to leave indents in iron but they really weren't doing much to keep the chords sounding good. Hell,

The ceiling fan in the Port Town Marine outpost was still doing its best to chug along. With no help from the still busted air conditioner and the repairman taking his sweet time, the thing spun overhead with a slightly off-balance wobble, chopping through the stifling layer of heat and stale coffee

The sky finally gave up on subtlety as rain pummeled the deck in sheets so thick they might as well have been fists, drowning what might have been the whole world as lightning flashed on repeat. Thunder boomed back-to-back as rainwater pooled in the dips of the warped wood, mixing with the red leaki

The deck wasn’t all that useful as a floor by this point, the raging storm making it more or less a suggestion. Suggestion was the best word for it, given that trying to keep his balance was taking all of his effort and most of his focus, especially as the merchant ship heaved up on a swell that fel

Rain felt like fists, hammering down in sheets of water so thick they drowned everything else out. Kai took a breath, blinking half-blind eyes as thunder clapped after another flash of lightning. Both the storm and the pirates refused to leave the merchant ship untouched, the transport heaving up an

The air in Last Resort was thick enough in the air, the way it clung to Kai’s skin like a thick wool sweater. It wasn't just the humidity, which was thick enough to drink, but the specific, gritty weight of having six million Beri snatched out of his hand by a guy with ruffles on his shirt. Cutter C

Kai frowned as he walked past the buzzing sign overhead, the same sound of a dying fly coming off the neon as it cast a sick twitchy light over the main strip of the Last Resort port town. Stepping onto the pavement felt like walking into a mouth; wet and greasy heat slapping him in the face from op

The Naruto sputtered into the harbor, Kai letting the engine die out with a grunt as the skiff bumped against the slimy wood of the pier, the sound swallowed by the noise of the town above. Blue eyes slid up to the constant buzzing and flickering of neon above him, the dying blue light spelling out

Ngggh. The silence was heavy. It pressed down on the deck of The Crusted Crabber; the wind and gulls barely there as the ship creaked and listed from side to side. Kai stood in the center of the wreckage, swaying in time with it as red dripped down the arm that used to hold blue. That same arm didn'

“YOU’LL NEVA GET A CENT OFFA ME!” The shout hammered the air, loud enough to rattle the rigging as Kai’s eyes went wide. The footstep that followed it hit harder though, enough to make the entire galleon shudder. The deck tilted, Kai barely keeping his balance as the entire thing jerked as the ancho

“...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, t

“Seriously, you’ve gotta be joking.” The words were flat as anything, hitting the dull stuffy air of the outpost’s lobby like mud. The fan rotors kept beating above his head, each turn sounding off louder and louder with the wub-wub-wubbing almost as powerful as his heartbeat. Even with the polite p

“—n the front, cruising down the freeway in the hot, hot sun…” The sun was hot, that much was a fact, and the song that popped into his head was true as anything else. Mid-morning heat in Port Town was no joke and seemed to be out to make people suffer for some reason. With no trees or shade to duck

Steam. Thick white clouds of the stuff rolled off Kai’s body in waves, so much fog filling the room as he stepped out of the shower. Mmmm. The whole bathroom was dripping with the aftereffects of his show, water clinging to the tile like it didn’t want him to leave. The air had plenty evidence of hi

The heels of Stench’s boots scraped against the paved road as Kai kept walking, the teen walking with half-lidded eyes as he ignored the stares aimed his way as he walked down the street. He ignored the whispers from the townsfolk of the blandly-named Port Town. “...nggghhhh.” He also ignored the un

Round Two wasn’t starting off the way he expected it. The Grime Brothers didn’t stop their grossness with just their bodies, apparently. With the sludge coating their hands, they somehow managed to turn their stink factor up by at least twice. At least. “Stay!” Stench’s fist slammed down where he wa

There was no warm-up, no fancy stance or anything like that. He just surged forward with a straight shot, floorboards groaning as he threw a hammer fist aimed right at Patch’s ugly bearded face. Except Patch wasn’t there. Whoa. Kai’s knuckles hit nothing but dead air, the world tilting as the big ma

It took almost a half day at that speed to get to the next major island. Well, "major" was doing a lot of heavy lifting. Port Town. That was the name on the map. Creative. Kai slowed the Naruto down as the harbor came into view, the jet stream from the skiff’s stern ports dying down to a gentle gurg

I thought we already got this over with. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Kai adjusted his bucket hat, the frayed black cap almost falling off his head as Auntie Loa womanhandled his face again with all the love and care she could put into hands that could probably knock a grown man clean out. He knew s

“I… I…” The words were thick in his throat, a single syllable all he could get out. Like chewing down a bunch of old pork jerky with no water or mango juice to wash it down, his mouth was dry as it had ever been. “Is… is this for real? Nobody answered his question, so many eyes on him as he just kep

The water was red as he blinked down at it, so much thick surf lapping at his knees. Warm and heavy, it clung to his skin, the stench of copper and rot almost as thick as syrup. Bodies floated in it; face down, face up, and missing whole parts as they bobbed in the dying swells of the Great Wave, hi

The grin on his face was as wide as it had ever been. Wide, hungry, and eager, it felt good on his face even as it stretched the scars on his left cheek tight, pulling at the tangle of his beard as it split to show teeth the color of old sailcloth. The smell of salt and stale rum tickled his nose, a

The morning of the Great Wave Festival started with all the noise in the world. A noise that shook him from his sleep and sent his butt tumbling off the bed, as a hundred shouts went up at once with the bang-bang-BANG of tin drums alongside them. Blue eyes blinked at the roof of his hut, Kai blearil

The drama didn’t stop there, that same night in front of the healing hut. Because why would it? Why would things ever be that easy? The chill life was harder to hold onto, because the world didn’t like chill and didn’t like people being chill. It was somehow in the rules of every world, not just his

“Over there!” Mako’s hand lashed out, finger pointing to the far end of the reef where another shorter piece of hull stuck out of the water with white foam churning around it. Almost enough to hide everything else, the seafoam couldn’t fully cover the tangled net; a mess of green and brown seaweed d

The sigh left Kai’s throat, a burst of air with nowhere else to go but out. One hand rested on his stomach as he sat on his board, eyes still on the edge of the sea where he couldn’t see any further. The month might as well have dragged on — sunrise after sunset thirty times over — with each day fee

Chapter 3 There was no killing. Nobody seemed to want anything bad to happen to him. That same night, the older lady with the heavy boobs walked him over to a small hut that was apparently all for him, and for the first time in a long time, Kai slept like a baby. He woke up the next morning, confuse

Chapter 2 Salt. Thick on his lips, his tongue, and everywhere in his mouth, all he tasted was salt. His mouth opened in a rattling breath, more salt coating the back of his throat as he took in air and Kai couldn’t do anything but cough. The sound rattled as much as the breath did, more even, but it

Chapter 1 TWO YEARS AGO Lauderdale… place is barely a city, son. His dad used to say that all the time, mostly while he was complaining about traffic after he got home from work. Just a big ol’ swamp they’d paved over. Kai didn’t know all that, but he knew the air was wet and too heavy to breathe ha

Chapter 0: Broken Piece “Stop running, ya rats! It’s only pain!” Splinters that used to be the thick painted wood of the fruit stand — Mama Elina’s pride and joy — bit into her palms. Her fingers half-curled, two fingers on her left refusing to go any further as sticky-sweet mango pulp mixed with so