Commander Zhao wasn’t in a good mood. To say that he was slightly disappointed with how the day had gone would be like saying Soun Tendo was mildly excitable. As he stood overlooking the ocean from his vantage point on the bridge of his flag ship he reflected on how he had been humiliated by Prince Zuko. Zuko the exile, Zuko the failure of the Empire, Zuko the fool on the fool’s errand; Zuko, the one who had defeated him in the sacred Agni Kai duel. Yes, Commander Zhao was not pleased at all.
“Sir! Sir! There are two figures off the port bow!” called a voice of one of his subordinates. Commander Zhao didn’t even warrant a glance as he dismissed the urgency in the mans voice. “It’s no concern of mine. Keep the current course.”
“But sir, shouldn’t we do something? I mean maritime rules say that” tried the other man before being cut of by his Commander.
“They got themselves into that mess, they should damn well get themselves out. Keep going!”
Signing the hapless officer could only give in to his superiors orders. Looking back through his telescope he gave one last look to the two stranded figures. Sigh “It’s really too bad for such a cute girl to die at so young an age.” He lamented.
At this Commander Zhao’s attention perked up. “Cute girl? When you said young, how young are we talking about here?”
Suddenly turning, the fire nation office responded “She's about …. err ….. about mid twenties, yeah, that’s what it looks like from here sir. Not jail bait at all sir, nope, she looks pretty mature heh heh.” Nervously rubbing the back of his head the nervous officer prayed that he would get away with that lie. It was pretty clear to him even at that distance that the two in the water were still teens but if he had told his commander that then they would have been as good as dead. For as much as Commander Zhao was a cold hearted, hot headed, arrogant SOB, he wasn’t a cradle robber.
“Hmmm, mid twenties you say, and cute to boot. The attentions of a grateful young woman could be just what I need to forget about this whole day.” Zhao mused to himself. “Alright then, men! Set a new course towards those two! Let’s get them out of the water and on board as soon as possible!”
Turning back around to get the proper course setting the fire nation officer who had first spotted the two figures in the water began to mutter under his breath. “Why is it only the bastards who get promoted?”
*Meanwhile out at sea*
“You jackass!!! Were you born stupid or did you just grow that way?! First that little letch Happosai screws up big time, then we’re all sent off who knows where separated from everyone else only to find ourselves floating on a log in the middle of the ocean, but then you have to challenge an honest to god SEA MONSTER and get us nearly killed! Why did I get stuck with you anyway!? Why couldn’t I be with my Ranchan right now?” Ukyo cried.
“Cease your complaints good serving wench,”
“What did you call me buster?”
“For I, the mighty Blue Thunder only did what was necessary in beating off that foul beast of the mysterious depths. Now move over a bit pray thee”
“It wasn’t even attacking us you moron! It was swimming away until you threw that branch at it and called it names!”
“It ignored mine noble challenge; now seriously move over a bit, tis rather hard for the majestic scion of the Kuno clan to hold on to such a small piece of wood.” The young heir complained as he tried vainly to climb onto a small open piece of stump not currently being occupied by a certain Okonomiyaki chef.
“It’s all you’ll get. Remember what we agreed on when we first landed here? This half is mine and that half is yours. It’s not my fault you had to go piss off something big enough to take on Godzilla and have it eat your half.”
“Oh come on! Our craft is smaller now; we clearly need to re-determine what constitutes as half now!”
Ignoring her companion as he thrashed in the water, Ukyo thought about her current situation as she balanced on her half of the flotsam. At first she had merely been annoyed when she found herself and Tatewake Kuno out in the middle of the ocean clinging to a log. With no land in sight it had been Ukyo’s idea to simply paddle west until she reached some land or could signal for help. It wasn’t much of a plan, but there wasn’t really much of anything else to do. It wasn’t until an enormous fin broke out of the water that she began to suspect that there was more to her situation than just being a bit lost. It wasn’t just the sea monster though, although no a forester by any stretch, Ukyo couldn’t recognize the wood she was floating on. Worse still she couldn’t identify ANY of the fish she saw swimming around. As a restaurant owner, especially in Japan, she certainly had a fair grasp of ocean fish and what was edible and what should be avoided the fact that nothing here was familiar really troubled her. Looking up Ukyo felt a brief surge of hope as she spotted a group of ships billowing black smoke heading towards them. It looked like they would be rescued after all, but then again, Ukyo couldn’t help but worry, if this was a different world would she have been better off with the sea monster?
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(Posted Tue, 23 May 2006 18:10)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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