Ryokuryuu ❦ Jae-Ha

8 | Aboard

Yona and her companions stepped aboard the ship. Like they had promised Jae-Ha the day before, they had come to meet the captain with the condition of bringing Hak. What they hadn't expected, though, was to be greeted by a gloomy atmosphere, one that was palpable.

They stood in two rows facing each other - one side looking confused and the other looking down in the dumps.

Gi-Gan motioned to Jae-Ha to step forward and begin his introductions, which he did unwillingly. His dragon leg had a constant itch, one that wouldn't go away until he began to search for the missing girl.

Ailee.

She was the reason for all the downcast looks and the lines that seemed to increase on Captain Gi-Gan's face, ones that were made of worry.

This was why she always wanted her granddaughter - her only granddaughter - to always have someone with her, so these things wouldn't happen. They wouldn't have known she was missing, if it weren't for someone reporting to one of the crew-mates about Ailee entering that shop.

She didn't blame Jae-Ha for not staying with her - not entirely, anyway. The captain's main priority now was to see her safe return. If they stopped Kum-Ji in the process, then that was even better.

As she studied the princess with red hair before her, she wondered if she could really trust such a weak-looking girl. However, there wasn't any time to be wasted on testing how weak she really was. At least her companions looked like they weren't completely fragile.

After they had made introductions, the conversation turned to the matter at hand:

"What matters to me most is trust." She blew out smoke from her pipe and turned to face Yona and the others. "Who would ask for help from people that can't be trusted?"

"But we're strong captain." The man named Hak smirked.

"It's no use captain. Their strength is abnormal." Jae-Ha perched down next to Gi-Gan. "They're like three of me."

Gi-Gan took a moment to consider and thought of her granddaughter who was trapped in some ship and she said, "you pass. But don't get too excited just yet, what can you do, exactly?"

The boy known as Yoon spoke up, "I don't like violence. Other than that I can do anything: cooking, sewing and treating the wounded. I'm also a pretty boy."

☽

"There's a high-risk job that I want you to do for me."

They were all stood around a table in the captain's den looking at a map of the seas. The last known sightings of Kum-Ji's ships were marked on it. Though the ship they were targeting was the one keeping Ailee hostage.

No one was more eager to get her back, except her grandmother, than Jae-Ha. At the very thought of what those bastards could be doing to her made his heart throb, more than his leg did when he first laid eyes upon Yona. He would do anything to have her back on the ship they both called home and in his arms. Nothing like that had ever happened before, but if and when she comes back, he'd let her know just how much he loves her.

He tuned back into the conversation at hand:

"I don't want more victims to come out of this. We will get our Ailee back, and we will stop Kum-Ji!"

"Kum-Ji's ship will be given to the Kai Empire. The problem is, we don't know when it will be carried out and we don't know what ship the girls will be on." Gi-Gan looked down at the map and when she looked up again her eyes were filled with determination, "Kum-Ji will have people at the dealing that can be used as a hostage and if we attack recklessly, the people on the boats will get mixed up in the fights. We need more information before we make a move."

"If it's information you need, I might have some that's useful." Jae-Ha cleared his throat and continued, "an informant told me about the shop that Ailee last entered. On the surface it looks like a shop that offers high-paying jobs, but really it's a place that transports women, who they think will sell for an expensive price."

"The same informant asked an employee who works there. He said it was a place for young women looking for work and when asked how much longer they were hiring for, he said until the day after tomorrow."

Gi-Gan mulled over the new information and then said, "so three days from now. At least we now have an idea, but Kum-Ji is a greedy man. If there is high merchandise on the line, he will wait until the last minute."

"But we don't know what boat the girls will be on."

"If something like a firework is sent up from the boat the women are on, will we be able to rescue your granddaughter and the other women a little more quickly?" Yona suddenly asked.

"That may work but who will fire it?"

"I will!" Yona stood up straighter and declared, "I'll sneak onto the ship and I will launch the firework!"