HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Sickness

"Watch his head!" Senchou said.
Noel supported Jansens head to keep it from bashing against anything, and we very slowly set him down in one of the beds in the medical room, laying him on his chest so that we could work on where the arrow hit.
"Where the hell is the medic?"
"The medic went ashore to claim the treasure with them, Captain." One of the crew mates said. "He never came back on the ship."
"Why the hell did the medic go ashore?" She said. "We needed him here."
"He said something about stretching his legs." The crew mate responded. "He wanted to get off the ship for a bit."
"And now we don't have a medic." She said. "Thats fantastic."
She stood up, looking at the arrow that was still sticking out of Jansen's shoulder, and after a moment, she reached forward, grabbed the shaft of the arrow, and yanked it out of his shoulder. All of us winced at the action, but as we watched, Jansen remained completely motionless, just laying face down in the bed, his breathing shallow.
"Alright, what do we do?" I asked.
"We need to find a medic for him." Noel said. "And I know one."
"Where? Who?" Senchou asked.
"She's an extremely good friend of mine." Noel said. "She's in the city of Wake."
"Wake? But that's Kingdom territory." Senchou said, looking back at Jansen.
"As long as you don't show up firing the cannons, they'll let you in, I promise." Noel said. "Its not exactly illegal to wave black flags around, so as long as you don't attack them, they will not show hostility."
Senchou pondered that, then turned to the crew mate that had talked earlier.
"Tell the helmsman to set a course for Wake."
"Aye Captain." He responded, then, in a rush, he was out of the door of the medical bay.
Senchou looked at Noel, and her golden eye was glaring, quite menacingly at her, as if she hated the Kingdom just as much as Jansen did.
"Why is there such a hate between the Kingdom and pirates?" I asked Noel.
"Well, the Kingdom patrols their waters and trade routes, and they take down pirates that come through, threatening the trade routes." She replied, which earned an angry look from Senchou.
"Oh, convenient that you forgot to mention the Long Wars, kingdom girl." Senchou said.
Noel looked hurt by that, and Senchou looked at me, her eyes nearly blazing with anger.
"Some time ago, maybe a few years, the Kingdom launched a huge war against all of us." She growled. "So many pirates were slaughtered, but that's also where I earned my fame. The Houshou Pirates fought valiantly against the Kingdom, and I earned my right as a pirate."
"Wait a minute. The Houshou Pirates?" Noel said, looking at her with quizzing eyes. "That means..."
Her voice trailed off for a moment as he gaze lowered, and then, she looked back up, her eyes wide and a shocked expression on her face.
"Are you Houshou Marine?" She asked.
I looked over at Senchou, who had a panicked look on her face.
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"No, don't act dumb. That golden eye. The red hair. I thought you were her, but I wasn't sure until just now. You are Houshou Marine aren't you?"
"Uhh..uhh...okay, uhhh, Micheal, I-I can explain, I promise."
"Yeah I think you should." I said, leaning forward on the edge of the bed.
"And you had better explain mighty fast." The Storyteller said, a dangerous aura beginning to grow all around him. "Because at this point, our trust level with you, its really in the toilet. So you had better explain it fast and accurate, because right now, we are the only people that know where you are. And if we go belly up, because of a mistake that you make, or because of an intentional decision that you make, or because of a lie like this, you will go belly up. But you, whatever your real name is, you're gonna go really slow. Imagine bleeding out. Really slow."
He paused for just a moment, and in that moment, I noticed that his eyes, which were brown, were starting to have flecks of red appear in his irises.
"You had better PRAY, Senchou. Pray that we forgive you. And if there is anything you can say, that might just make that happen, for the sake of your life, I would go ahead and tell us right now."
For some reason, the moment he said that, a very, very menacing and frightening aura emanated from him. It wasn't the kind that I could see, but as I looked at him, I just though of all the ways he could hurt not just Senchou, but any of us. I got the feeling that this man, this god, was capable of so much more than I originally thought he was. I backed up from him for a little bit, but that part didn't even faze him. He held the stare with Senchou, and that seemed to scare her into telling the truth, finally.
"Okay. Okay okay okay. Calm down. My real name is Houshou Marine. Call me Marine. I was the Captain of the Houshou pirates for a long time. About thirty years, ever since I was twenty."
"Then how are you still so young?" Noel asked.
"Easy. I met a lady, the Goddess of Time. Her name was Kronii. Ouro Kronii. She turned back my aging life, for....a price."
"What was the price?"
"I can't tell you that. Thats between Kronii and me."
I looked at the Storyteller, and he nodded to me.
"She is telling the truth." He said. "For once."
"Aye. That I am." She said, giving us all an apologetic look on her face.
"You..." Noel said, giving her a dumbfounded look. "You met Ouro Kronii?"
"Who is that?" I asked.
Noel completely ignored me, holding the gaze with Marine.
"Aye. I met her. I made a deal with her, and she accepted the deal, turning back the time on my life."
"You're going to pay her back eventually, correct?"
"Of course. I have to." She said. "That was the deal, after all."