Chapter One

A Pirate Tale part two

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“Convicts spend their entire lives trying to convince others that they’re innocent. I’d expect you of all people, Misao, to know that!” the town mayor, a portly, grandfather-like man, paced up and down the hallway in front of Misao's prison cell.

“That Shinomori is a dangerous fugitive. He is not to be trusted! Do you hear me, Misao! Misao? Misao, are you even listening to me? Are you awake?”

Misao sat in a tight ball against the corner of the far wall. Her black hair that had been once so filled with the velvet of the night lay in filthy, mattered waves over her shoulders coved in dirt and grime. She eventually lifted her gaze from the rotten, rancid, dirt floor, to the mayor standing before her outside the bars.

“You don’t know the whole story. You only heard one part of it. There’s a whole story behind it--”

“I don’t need to know the whole story!” the mayor stressed rattling the cage. “The part that I heard was enough. You’ve been keeping in touch and helping Shinomori Aoshi!”

Misao charged toward the mayor and grasped the bars on the cell until her knuckles turned white, imagining they were the mayor’s neck. “I was not helping him! How could I be helping him if I was all the way over here in France and he’s somewhere on the other side of the world!”

“The day Shinomori was caught!” he shouted back at her. His round face was splotched with red. “He managed to escape, and when they went to take him back, he vanished; I get the feeling that you were somehow involved!”

Misao drew back instinctively. She sat back on the floor and drew her knees up. The mayor sighed and motioned to the guard with a large black hood covering his face. The guard resumed his place in front of the cell and the mayor prepared to leave.

“Oh, Misao," he turned back to her. “If you agree to help us capture Shinomori tonight by meeting him at the river as he suggested in his letter, we’ll set you free.”

She hissed. Like a furious cobra. He scrambled away quickly without another word.

“To think I actually voted for that coward,” Misao took a seat against the bars behind where the guard was sitting. “At the time I thought he’d make a good, just mayor.”

The guard probably wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to her, but she didn’t care. Did the hang man care when Marie Antoinette apologized for stepping on his foot? At least there was someone to talk at if not to.

“Maybe he is being a good mayor. By capturing the pirate everyone’s after and all…and maybe I’m just being stubborn,” she smiled softly. “I am stubborn…”

“So I’ve been told,” Misao jerked her head up to look curiously at the guard. He smiled down at her, his eyes twinkling. Realization slowly hit her in the face. “The letter was a ploy. The captain knew someone was most likely reading your mail from his own…experience… he sent me to get you and bring you to him. He’s in dire need of your help, Miss. Are you willing to assist him once more?”

Misao gazed up at Shinomori’s first mate, unshed tears filling her eyes. The thought of seeing Shinomori for the first time in six months filled her with unspeakable joy. She may as well commit the ‘crime’ she was being accused of so that she had a reason to be where she was. Misao reached her arms out from behind the bars and crushed Hannya as closely to her as she could. “Aye, sir!”

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wow this came out short. oh, well. the next chapters should be longer. The story's alive and continuing! If you see any LeBaus or Mayuras mention it, and I'll change it. It'll be my mistake. I'm sorry that I haven't been replying to my reviewers. I've been really busy, and when I reply I rant on about how much I love you for reviewing and how much of a wonderful person you are and how punk rock your review was. So, can you drop by a review? I'll try to reply this time!