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You paid attention during 86% of high school!
85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!
Do you deserve your high school diploma?
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ahahahaha
It's kind of embarrassing how difficult a time I had with a few of those questions. XD; Grammar and history can pretty much kick my ass any day of the week. orz
And to show how SMRT I am, here's an exceedingly stupid story about pirates and ninjas. EDIT oh yeah word count...6118??? Seriously? D=
Prologue (Series: Princess Tutu, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, XXXholic)
The path to the lair of the woman who was known as the great witch of the sea was a hazardous one. There were dangerous mythical beasts seen nowhere else in the world at every turn, and the terrain was enough to make the most hardened veteran sweat. It was said that only those with desperate need were able to make it through to see her. Most of the day’s visitors, save the peg-legged boy with only one hand and a parrot on his shoulder, did not look like the desperate type. There was a standoff-ish orange-haired boy, ordinary looking, with a permanent scowl on his face. There was an ordinary looking pair, a tall boy with dark hair messily pulled back from his face and a girl with long orange hair. She seemed too clumsy to have possibly made it through the gauntlet; even now the boy was catching her before she could trip on a very obvious rock. The boy with the parrot had blond hair pulled into a short braid, and had been giving the orange-haired boy a suspicious look, which was returned. It looked like they would start fighting at the least of provocations.
Watanuki sighed. Another day, another migraine.
“She will be here in a moment, settle down,” Watanuki snapped at the blond boy. “Yuuko is a very busy woman. She will make time for you as soon as possible. Be patient.”
“The HELL I’ll be patient!! On the way here I was sucked into quicksand, was almost eaten by a giant fish and then almost FLATTENED by a giant rolling ball! I’ve had it up to HERE...”
“How big was the ball, the size of my fist?” the orange-haired boy told the blond boy mockingly. The two apparently had a history already.
“HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A BEANSPROUT THAT CAN’T BE SEEN WITH A MAGNIFYING GLAS...”
“Nii-san!” the parrot interjected, sounding quite scandalized. “He didn’t say that!” The parrot looked right at Watanuki and Watanuki was not particularly surprised when the parrot told him quite articulately, “I’m very sorry about my brother, sir. He has quite a temper and he’s had a very long day...”
“SHUT UP AL THIS UNEDUCATED PEASANT IS GETTING IT!”
“Bring it on you bastard!”
“Wait wait,” the orange haired girl said frantically, running in between the two of them, waving her arms. “Let’s not fight over this! I mean, we’re all here for a reason right, so we all have problems we need fixed and we shouldn’t fight over this, let’s just be reasonable and get along, maybe we can help each other...”
“Shut up!” and “Get out of the way you idiot!” the two growled at her, as the orange-haired boy shoved her out of the way. Instantly the black-haired boy was between them and the girl, and if looks could kill both of them would be dead.
“No one talks to her that way,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.
“Fakir, it’s all right, really, I don’t want there to be a fight...”
“Shut up you idiot.”
Watanuki was wondering whether he should go fetch a first aid kit or just enjoy the impending three-way battle when Yuuko finally emerged. He sighed in relief and moved to her side. This was out of his hands now.
“I’ve been expecting all of you for a while now,” she said without preamble. “You’re late.” Before any of them could say anything, she continued, “No matter. That you all arrived at the same time is fate. You,” she said, looking not at the blond boy but the parrot on his shoulder. “Alphonse Elric. Your brother wishes you to be free of your curse.”
“Yes Yuuko-san. However, I know that your prices for such requests are very high, and if the price isn’t something he can pay I don’t want to...”
“What you wish is irrelevant here, young Alphonse; you must change your brother’s mind first. Edward Elric,” she said, finally looking at the peg-legged boy. “Are you willing to pay any price to restore your brother to human form?”
“It’s my fault he’s as he is,” Edward said firmly. “The price doesn’t matter. It doesn’t,” he said over his parrot brother’s protests. “I will do whatever needs to be done, pay whatever price you ask. You need only name it.”
Yuuko nodded at him, and then turned to the others. “Kyo Sohma. Ahiru,” she addressed the orange-haired boy and girl. “Your curses are the same, though their origins are different.” The two looked at each other, startled.
“You turn into a duck at night?” Ahiru said in surprise.
“A cat,” Kyo said. “Are you...” He looked like he was having some inner struggle, and he finally continued hesitantly, “...aware...of yourself when you change?”
“No,” the girl said sadly, and the boy, Fakir, flinched slightly. “I never remember that I’m a human when I’m a duck.”
Kyo and the girl shared a solemn look, a sad one. Perhaps these people had more in common than Watanuki had originally thought.
“Are you both willing to pay any price?”
“You don’t even need to ask,” Kyo said firmly. “I’m sick of waking up in the morning in places I’ve never been before. I’m sick of having to keep this secret. I’ll do anything to lift this curse.”
“I’ll pay her price for her, I want her to be free from this just as much as she does,” Fakir said firmly, his hand stiff on Ahiru’s shoulder, which Ahiru shook her head fiercely at. “No Fakir, I can’t let you do that...”
Yuuko cut her off. “The price is the same for all of you. As is the cure.”
“Al’s curse isn’t the same as theirs!” Edward exploded. “How can the cure be...”
“The curses are different, but the path to the cure is the same,” Yuuko said sternly. “You will all walk the same path to the cure, and none of you can do it without the others. I suggest you come to accept working together. As much as I’m sure you’d like to do anything but,” she said with a smirk quite out of line with her wise demeanor. Well, out of line to anybody but Watanuki that is.
There was silence at that pronouncement, and three voices cried out in outrage almost simultaneously. Watanuki sighed yet again. How did Yuuko manage to cause so much agony to everyone she met without even really trying? It boggled the mind.
>>>>>>>>>>
The left together in the end, arguing every step of the way. Watanuki watched them go and wished them well. They would go through a lot before they got their wishes, of that he was certain. He went to fetch sake for Yuuko without even being asked, grumbling aloud about it the entire time. She gushed out her thanks to him (he knew better than to take that to heart) and ranted on to her about how all her drinking was bad for her as she drained a bottle--not like it mattered really, she didn't listen to him anyway, but it made him feel better to vent somehow. He waited until she was done before he asked her.
“You only gave them their price,” Watanuki said. “And its basically just a laundry list of items they have to steal. You’ve never done this before. Why? What does stealing the crown jewels of Alexandria have to do with anything? What’s their cure?”
Yuuko only grinned at him.
“Want some Watanuki? This is an excellent vintage!”
>>>>>>>>>>
Chapter 1 (FMA, Furuba, PT, FF9, FF7, FFX, KH, Bleach, Ouran, Digimon 02, D.Grayman, HxH, Tsubasa, Kaleido Star)
Between the five of them, they managed to steal the crown jewels of Alexandria, the first item on their list, without receiving any major injuries. Edward’s skills in magic had been invaluable, and Fakir’s strange ability to bend reality with his writing had saved them from a very close call involving a pack of bloodthirsty Dobermans. And Kyo had been loath to admit that turning into a cat at night could be a good thing, but it had allowed them some flexibility in their plans that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Kyo had actually managed to escape the treasury in the arms of the country’s princess when night fell; Fakir had snuck in to rescue him from her chambers later that night. (Fakir was still a bit peeved about the scratches he’d received that night. It hadn’t exactly improved their working relationship.) Of course, though they had all managed to escape intact, it had been a little too late for them to escape anonymity after their disastrous heist-they weren’t expert thieves by any means. Their faces were now on wanted posters throughout Alexandria, and beyond; Queen Brahne had apparently been quite enraged by their transgression and had been planning to give the country’s greatest heirloom, the Falcon’s Claw, to Princess Garnet for her next birthday. Those plans were now dashed, and she was after their heads.
The worst part about it was that the Falcon’s Claw hadn’t even been one of the things that Yuuko had sent them to steal. During the raid Ed had insisted on taking it, along with an assortment of other priceless artifacts from the treasury. They’d need the funds to be able to finance their grand heisting circuit to get their cures, he had insisted. That was before they realized that their was no way, without any actual connections, to fence off the crown jewels of Alexandria without completely giving themselves away anywhere they went. So they ended up with a chest filled with priceless gems they were unable to sell in the main cabin of the ship they had originally stolen as a getaway vehicle from Alexandria’s harbor. A ship that now appeared to be their permanent home since they were all wanted criminals.
Kyo had sardonically named their new home The Menagerie, considering at that point, half of the time the crew consisted of a parrot, a cat, and a duck. It stuck.
They hadn’t really meant to become pirates. It just sort of happened. At first their boat had just been their base of operations for stealing all of the items on Yuuko’s list. There were barely enough of them to crew the ship, let alone be able to pull off raids of merchant ships for supplies. They had to sneak into towns at night to get supplies they needed. But soon, their little ‘crew’ started to grow. Their first additions were a trio of cheerful young men they met in Gonzaga, who for some reason had taken quite a shine to Fakir; apparently he reminded them of some friend of theirs named ‘Cloud’. Zack, Tidus, and Zack’s little brother, Sora, had saved them when they had been on the verge of being caught by a pair of overzealous bounty hunters. They had somehow ended up becoming permanent parts of their crew after that, to Fakir’s chagrin. They put up with the trio because they were truly amazing fighters, something they sorely needed, because as they stole more and more of the artifacts on Yuuko’s list, the prices on their heads got even higher, and even more skilled bounty hunters came after them.
The rest of their crew had been picked up in similarly random ways. They had rescued Orihime who turned out to be able to take care of herself anyway, but she and Ahiru had gotten on so well that she decided to join their crew as well. She had always wanted to be a pirate, she had said enthusiastically. (A mecha-ninja-pirate with laser beams shooting from her eyes, the girl had said specifically, but they all tried to ignore that.) Lord Tamaki Suou had heard of the heroic and chivalrous exploits of the Menagerie pirates, saving damsels in distress and giving their booty to the poor (Tamaki had made up this second part and now it was already part of urban legend) and had decided that he must become a pirate as well. A pair of twin noblemen, Lords Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, had accompanied him-though they seemed more interested in seeing what havoc Tamaki could wreak than in doing heroic deeds. At least with Tamaki’s addition, they were never short on funds.
They had also somehow ended up with a number of defected bounty hunters who had previously been after their heads. Takeru and Daisuke were a pair of eleven year old apprentice magicians who had decided it would be more fun to hunt down criminals than actually go to class. They looked innocuous, Daisuke with his floppy-eared puppy familiar and Takeru with a large, winged hamster, but the two of them were a force to be reckoned with; for one thing, the puppy shot lasers from the marking on its stomach. That was not normal. They had decided that being piratea was even more interesting than being a bounty hunter, so they had insisted on joining the crew. Lavi had also been hunting them, but had happened upon them during one of Zack and Tamaki’s infamous parties, and had decided he’d rather join the crew too. Orihime may or may not have been part of the reason he stuck around. And though they didn’t look it, Gon and Killua were expert Hunters, and were frighteningly powerful for a pair of twelve year olds. Luckily, Gon had liked the bunch of them so much that he had convinced Killua that they should join the crew too, and so they had.
And then there was Fye. They still didn’t know what to make of Fye. He had just shown up on the ship one day, an apparent stowaway, and they hadn’t been able to get rid of him since. The lazy one-eyed man had seemed completely useless, but not a week after he had joined the crew he had saved them all from the Sirens of Anthemusa with his ridiculously powerful magic. However, he hadn’t used it since, and preferred to spend all his time joining Zack and Lavi in teasing Ed about his height.
Up until then, the original five had still been quite adamant that they were not pirates, and refused to let any of their crew refer to themselves as pirates...at least in their hearing. The situation was finally driven home to them, however, during a certain incident that involved a troupe of female acrobats and, unsurprisingly, Lord Tamaki. When the five girls and their young male friend arrived on the ship one night before they left port, escorted by the loud blond nobleman, no one seemed particularly surprised.
“Business at Cape Mary had been slow for these poor maidens”, Tamaki explained, with dramatic flair, “so when they were offered a job they took it gratefully.” The magenta-haired girl, the apparent leader, looked down, shame-faced. “How could they have known that they were being tricked, by the vilest of villains!! Yes my friends, these gentle souls, these fair and honest maidens, were scammed, their honor compromised, by...”
“Shut up Tamaki,” Ed snapped. “Why in the world did you think it was okay to bring a bunch of civilian girls onto our ship!??”
“But my good captain, they were being pursued by the law, just as we are daily, and they for a deed they were tricked into! It would be unconscionable to allow them to be...”
“What happened, miss?” Al said, cutting in and trying to sound soothing. The magenta-haired girl stared at the parrot incredulously for a second, but perhaps she was so distressed that talking to a bird seemed perfectly ordinary, because she responded.
“We accidentally stole a diamond,” the magenta-haired girl said tearfully. “We didn’t mean to really!! We thought it was just supposed to be part of the act! It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have...”
“No Sora, it definitely wasn’t your fault!” the young man cut in, sounding very distressed. “I’m your manager! If I had been paying attention...”
“But you were sick Ken, it’s definitely not your fault! I was the one who booked this job...”
“Regardless,” Fakir said, Ahiru’s small duck form tucked in his arms, “We should probably drop the six you off in the next port we come to. We have no place for a bunch of entertainers...wait, did you say you accidentally stole a diamond?”
All of the girls looked down shamefully except for one with long black hair, who just looked proud of it. “Yeah, so what?” the girl said. “At least those scumbags didn’t get the diamond after we found out what they were up to...”
Ed blinked. “So do you still have the diamond?”
The girl with pig-tails fished something out of her pocket. “Yes,” she said. She held up the gem, the size of her fist. “Please, take it, Captain Edward. It’s yours. Please, just let us join your crew. I know we’re just a bunch of entertainers, but now that we’ve stolen the Eye of the Phoenix, we won’t be able to show our faces in any civilized country again. It’s a lot like your original situation, isn’t it? We’re fast learners, and I’m sure we could make excellent pirates, and I saw a girl in the crew earlier, so I’m sure we could fit right in...”
“Yes, I think that’s a wonderful idea!” Lavi said suddenly, butting in and draping his arm around the girl. “What is it, Miss, um...?”
“Uh, it’s Mia,” the girl said, looking rather discomfited. Meanwhile, Ed had slammed his good arm into a railing. “We are NOT PIRATES!” he snarled. “MY BROTHER and the CAT and the BIRD,” Fakir sent Ed a dirty look, “are under CURSES and we need to BREAK THEM. The rest of this is just temporary until we can...well...even when we get the cures we’ll still be wanted....and....we’ll still have this crew...and...all this treasure....” He trailed off into nothing.
He looked at Fakir. “We really are pirates, aren’t we?”
Fakir nodded. “I was serious about getting you a hook you know. You’re not very intimidating otherwise.”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BARNACLE ON THE SIDE OF A WHALE??”
So there they were. Three lords, five bounty hunters, five acrobats and their manager, a lazy magician, three cheerful young swordsmen (though one fought with what appeared to be a giant key), a girl who thought she was a giant robot, a hamster, a puppy, and the original five. Pirates. At least the stories about them held them to be something like a seagoing version of Robin Hood and his merry men; apparently they were heroes amongst the common folk, after all the stories about their daring rescues, heroic deeds, and generous gifts to the poor, only about half of which were actually true. They never killed anybody, and they only stole things from the rich. Ed, Kyo, and Fakir thought it was all very ridiculous, but they had to admit, they sort of liked being heroes, and Al and Ahiru seemed absolutely delighted by all the company, so it was really quite alright. Later, Fakir really did get Ed a hook, and Ed wore it with relish.
In any case, Ed, Kyo, and Fakir, who had settled into being co-captains of their ragtag bunch of sort-of pirates-none of whom were actually pirates-agreed to let the girls and their friend stay on board. “The more the merrier,” Al and Ahiru had said cheerfully. The two twins had smacked Tamaki on the back and had announced enthusiastically and in stereo, “Good job my lord!” They had been rather short on the female gender in their crew after all-now there were five new ones, all very pretty and uh, flexible. And they soon found out that the girls, Sora, Mia, May, Anna, and little Rosetta, were very good pirates indeed when they raided a merchant ship for supplies. They had been all over the rigging, quickly rendering the ship dead in the water, while their small but powerful fighting force, consisting of Ed and Kyo, three swordsmen, and five bounty hunters with varying skill sets, disarmed the bodyguards.
Ken Robbins, the former manager of the troupe, while not an acrobat or a fighter, had turned out to be an excellent bosun, and Fakir was a phenomenal navigator; he was far more bookish and scholarly than he let on. Orihime was a decent fighter, but she was even more valuable as a healer. Ahiru wasn’t really good at fighting or anything in particular on the ship, but she was so enthusiastic in whatever she did or was assigned to do that no one really cared. The trio of lords and Fye were the only ones who didn’t really seem to do anything on the crew, but even they had their roles. Tamaki, for example, was their main source of funds since they couldn’t actually sell off most of what they stole since they were saving it for Yuuko, and insisted on paying all the merchants they stole anything from with money from his own deep pockets; it had improved their reputation even more. They had to be the only pirates ever with a patron. The twins had collaborated with Orihime to clothe the entire crew, and even Kyo had to admit, gruffly, that they were the best dressed bandits he had ever seen. Ed had agreed to wear the pirate clothes that Orihime had made for him, and he looked like the very model of a pirate captain, with his peg leg, hook, and parrot. He was an excellent figurehead for their crew, especially as he was the only one of the bunch that actually looked like a pirate, except perhaps for Lavi and Fye with their eyepatches. As for Fye, he always appeared to be completely oblivious of his surroundings, but the number of times he had appeared out of nowhere to save the ass of one of his comrades belied his nonchalance. He never even needed to use his magic, instead relying on his very respectable skills with a polearm. Eventually, even Ed stopped complaining about how Fye never did anything around the ship.
Besides, Fye was the only one old enough to buy them booze. And all pirates needed booze right?
They were actually enjoying some of that booze at that very moment. They had set down anchor in a cove of an uninhabited island that they often used as a base and a source of fresh water while they planned their next heist. Most of them had nothing in particular to do, so they did the usual-they partied.
“Ah, the sunlight and salty sea air! The joy inherent in a cloudless blue sky, the invigorating call of the open ocean! Surely there is no better life than this, as a noble rebel on the high seas, going where the wind takes you! Surely there is no calling so sweet!” Tamaki was posed dramatically balanced on top of a railing, looking quite fetching in a billowing, open white shirt and tight black pants. A light breeze ruffled his hair and tugged at his loose shirt. Too bad all of the ladies were elsewhere, so his audience consisted solely of men, but it seemed that it didn’t bother him. “A toast, my comrades! To freedom, to friendship, and the call of the sea!!”
“Yay!” Gon called out happily and bumped his cup of apple juice against Killua’s. “To friendship!” he cried out enthusiastically. Killua grinned at him and downed his rum. The boy could drink the entire crew under the table; the contrast with his best friend Gon was quite funny, as Gon was pretty much the only one on the ship who politely refused alcohol on principle, because after all, he lawfully wasn’t old enough to drink. No one else really cared about that. Daisuke and Takeru just giggled; they didn’t have the alcohol tolerance that Killua had, but then, they weren’t reformed assassins that had been raised on routine torture and they couldn’t, after all, have literally torn out a person’s heart out using their bare hands by the time they were six. It was sort of hard for most of the crew to ignore that fact about Killua, but they all did an admirable job of it. Gon constantly being at Killua’s side probably helped, as it was impossible not to feel at ease around Gon. Even the three co-captains had soft spots for Gon and his sweet disposition.
Zack and Tidus were teaching (boy) Sora a naughty song, the twins were elsewhere, playing a prank on a very drunk Kyo, and Fye and Lavi were trying to make Ed wear one of their eyepatches. Al was chatting with Veemon and Patamon, Daisuke and Takeru’s familiars-they had come to be very good friends. Patamon appeared to be very tipsy; you couldn’t really handle very much drink if you were a hamster. He was so lightweight that his hiccups knocked him out of the air, which made Veemon, who was also quite tipsy, giggle.
They were all probably having a little too much fun, because Fakir soon burst out of the first mate’s cabin, which he had converted into a study, and he looked absolutely livid. “SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU. How can I get any research done when you all won’t STAY QUIET? And if I can’t get the research done, I WON’T find the location of the Dawn Shard and we’ll be stuck here even longer. Ed, stop trying to gut Fye and get back to work! Do you think I know enough about waystones to even attempt to get through those books on waystone travel? You're the mage, it's your job to figure out that crap! The rest of you, go help Ken fix the mainsail or something! Why can’t you all be as useful and hardworking as he is?”
His answer was an assortment of laughter, drunk giggles, and an insincere chorus of ‘yes sir!’s. Fakir resisted the urge to bang his head against the door.
A particularly powerful hiccup careened Patamon into the doorframe next to him, barely missing Fakir’s head. Fakir caught the rebounding hamster with a sigh.
The girls, meanwhile, were not being quite so loud, but they were being just as useless. They were holed up in the captain’s suite, which had been converted into a lounge and was where all the girls’ hammocks were hung, looking through all their latest ‘acquisitions’. Because honestly, what girl could resist that many sparkling objects gathered in one place?
“Oooh, look at this one!” Orihime giggled, taking out a sparkling tiara, and placing it on Rosetta’s head. “You look so pretty!” she gushed. Orihime had a priceless collection of hair clips and combs in her hair; all the gems on her head could have easily purchased a small nation.
Rosetta giggled and peered at herself in a large antique floor-length mirror, also from one of their raids. She was already decked out in necklace that consisted of so many giant sapphires that she looked like she was drowning in them. Anna, crouched next to her, was wearing a set of decadent, jewel-encrusted, decorative armor, chased in gold and platinum. A spectacular sword, with garnets and rubies arranged to look like a firebird curving around the hilt, hung at her waist. May was looking quite self-satisfied in an ermine-lined red velvet cloak, a crown almost engulfing her head and a scepter, formerly the property of the kingdom of Roshtaria, held imperiously in her hand. Mia was flipping through a large, old book, written in what appeared to be gold ink. She would often look up and babble on excitedly about some random piece of information, long lost from common knowledge. (Girl) Sora was holding up an old-looking but gorgeous silk gown to herself and admiring her reflection in the mirror, looking dreamy. It was heavily beaded with pearls, opals, and diamonds, and looked like it had probably been a wedding gown for some enormously important person.
Ahiru, in contrast to the rest of them, was looking a little distressed.
“...um....” she mumbled, tugging a little more at the necklace hanging around her neck. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry-perhaps not so decadent as some of the other pieces that they had, but very beautiful, looking almost like a butterfly that had come to rest at the base of her throat, a delicate but regal butterfly of crimson and gold. Ahiru considered herself a rather simple girl, and so she almost unconsciously shied away from the more opulent pieces they had in their collection, and had found herself naturally drawn to the simple yet elegant piece of jewelry, lost admist a sea of riches. But she had of course forgotten that she, as Fakir always said, attracted bad fortune like a country bumpkin at the city bazaar. The bad things that happened to her really weren’t her fault, exactly, but that didn't negate the fact that if there was even a coil of rope in her general vicinity she would trip over it. Or, in this case, if there was a piece of cursed jewelry in a pirate's horde, she would put it on.
Mia noticed first--she had always been the most observant, and probably the smartest, too, since she often helped Fakir with his research, and he never complained about her, and even praised her efforts at times. Ahiru was sure that meant she was very smart indeed, and would sometimes find herself a little jealous that Mia could help Fakir and she couldn't, not without getting in his way and making him mad at her. But Mia was so nice that Ahiru felt horrible being jealous of her, especially since it wasn't like Mia was purposefully making Ahiru feel a bit dumb, so Ahiru did the only thing she could do to help and always helped Mia when she was researching too, bringing her drinks and food and providing her company when the other girls were off doing girl things. And that made her feel better, and Mia too.
But anyway, she wasn't surprised Mia noticed first, since Mia was really smart. "Is something wrong, Ahiru?" Mia said worriedly, adjusting her reading glasses. Fakir needed reading glasses too, but he didn't like anybody knowing it. She personally thought he looked really handsome in them, very dignified and intelligent, but Fakir had some weird insecurities. It's not like everyone didn't know he preferred books to fighting anyway, as good as he was at the second, and that's how everyone liked him to be. He'd never accept that though. "Ahiru, what's..."
"Um..." Ahiru stumbled over her words, trying to put together something coherent. "I...thinkit'scursed."
"Come again?"
"I think it's a cursed necklace!" she said in a single explosion of breath. She tugged at it a little more, unable to get it up past her chin even though there was more than enough clearance for it to do so. "I can't get it off! What will Fakir say?? Well, I know what he'll say, he'll say 'you idiot, what were you thinking?' and 'only someone as idiotic as you would get yourself cursed TWICE'..."
"Oh no, that's awful!" (girl) Sora exclaimed, the dress forgotten. She was suddenly next to Ahiru, kneeling gracefully at her side. Ahiru was a little jealous too that everyone else was so much less...clumsy than she was, but they never let her feel bad about it. Ahiru was happy to have such nice friends now, except for May maybe; Ririe had been one of her best friends growing up back in Kinkan, but Ahiru was now convinced the girl had a sadistic streak the size of humpback whale, and Ahiru had been her favorite subject. "Here Ahiru, I'm going to try to get it off too." Ahiru nodded, and Sora tugged up gently at first, and then more firmly. Soon she was straining so hard to pull the necklace off that her face was turning red, and finally let go, panting hard. "No luck," she said sadly, "I'm so sorry Ahiru!"
"Here, let me try," Anna and Mia said almost simultaneously, and so everyone did their best to remove the necklace, even May. When Orihime tried, she frowned as she tried to use her magic on it, and when she cried out in pain and recoiled away from the necklace, Sora rested her hand on her shoulder protectively. "Don't push yourself," Sora said worriedly.
"What happend, Orihime?" Mia said, her voice a mix of worry and fascination. "Are you all right?" Ahiru added, very unhappy that her friend was hurt because of her.
Orihime nodded, her eternal smile quickly returning. "I'm fine, I'm fine...sorry to make you worry! It's just, um..." She paused, tilting her head, as if thinking of a way to explain herself. "Well, I don't think it's a curse exactly... It's actually very benign, that necklace. Good, even. Benevolent."
"Your reaction sure didn't look like it," May muttered peevishly. Orihime laughed, sounding a bit strained. "Well, yes, but that's because I was trying something it didn't like. It feels very protective of Ahiru, and it considered my trying to remove it to be...bad, I guess."
"Can we convince it would be good for me to come off?" Ahiru said hopefully. If she could get this taken care of before Fakir saw then she wouldn't have to worry him with it...
Orihime shook her head, smiling sadly. "I'm so sorry Ahiru, I think it's beyond me. It's very powerful...and I'm afraid I'll hurt you if I try to force it. Maybe we can ask Ed or Fye to take a look at it..."
Ahiru shook her head vigorously. "I don't want to worry anyone else about it. If Orihime says it's benevolent, than that's good. Maybe it's like a guardian spirit or something." They grinned at each other. Orihime was definitely Ahiru's closest female friend. Not only had they been together the longest, they had...similar minds, Ahiru supposed? Fakir called them spacey, or clumsy, but he was always affectionate when he said that. It wasn't so bad to be spacey. Sometimes, with their minds in that other space, they saw things that no one else ever did, or could. "I can just hide it under my clothes for now...and if anyone sees it, it should be fine anyway. They'll just think I'm wearing it for fun. It'll be fine!"
"What'll be fine?" a familiar grumpy voice said from the doorway, and Ahiru's shock and dismay at hearing the voice just at that moment made her head spin. Oh no, he was going to be so pissed at her for getting cursed again...
"Um, um, well," Orihime sputtered, as they all tried to come up with a way to gracefully get themselves out of the situation. Well, except May but she just looked like she was enjoying it all. May wasn't exactly a nice person, Ahiru had realized.
Fakir raised an eyebrow at the incoherent group of girls, then sighed and shook his head. Lazy crewmen, giddy teenaged girls, and intoxicated hamsters. What had he done to deserve this? "Well, whatever. We're pulling up anchor; I know where we're going next. Hurry up and get ready to sail, we've been stationary too long already for my liking, and all the idiots out there are too drunk to tell the mizzenmast from the bowsprit."
Ahiru blinked. "Uh, Fakir, I don't really know that either..."
Fakir at that moment looked so frustrated that he might cry, but he quickly contained himself, and said, a little too calmly, ".....the third mast and the...pokey thing sticking out in front of the boat. OKAY? NOW PLEASE, PLEASE GET US READY TO SAIL."
They hopped to it after that. Not only was it a good way to distract Fakir from Ahiru's...curse, for lack of a better term, once Fakir started getting really, truly annoyed it was wise to do your best to appease him. His power to bend reality was at its most powerful when he was emotional; if you really pissed him off you really shouldn't be surprised if you found yourself deciding that cleaning the deck with a toothbrush was not only a wonderful use of time, it was also an amazing tool for building character. It had happened to Kyo once and he'd tried his best not to piss Fakir off since.
"Where are we heading?" Mia asked curiously.
He turned to her, looking quite serious. "West, past the Yensa lands. We'll have to take an overland team part of the way. We're headed for the Tomb of Raithwall."
End Chapter 1
...lol wait I lied the ninjas aren't in the story yet. XD; Xover Princess Tutu, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, XXXholic, FF9, FF7, FFX, KH, Bleach, Ouran, Digimon 02, D.Grayman, HxH, Tsubasa, Kaleido Star and more series in the future......if I write more. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING I'm really this crazy/dumb!
This is so much more fun than studying. D=
EDIT2: AHAHAHA. The bottom fell out of my teapot when I poured the water in (????) and I burned my foot a little. Today is NOT my day.