Hitshiro slowly opens his eyes and looks around in confusion. He finds himself in a small, gloomy room, lit only sparsely by a narrow door slit and a lantern standing next to him on a kind of nightstand. The walls are made of rough wood and decorated with all sorts of strange signs and symbols. There is a salty smell in the air, and the creaking makes the chambers of the ship vibrate slightly. Hitshiro straightens up and rubs the aching back of his head as he tries to get his bearings.

His thoughts race wildly.

Where am I? What happened? Who dragged me here?

Only vaguely does Hitshiro remember the fearsome pirate who knocked him unconscious and kidnapped him. Gripped by nervousness, he looks around the room.

Where is the idiot? Where am I? Am I still on the same ship? No, this looks different. Much dirtier and weirder than the, the merchantmen.

As he stands up, he presses his lips together and pulls his shoulders back.

I have to get out of here and find the moron who kidnaps children! He messed with the wrong one!

Without looking around the room any further, he stalks toward the heavy, wooden door and reaches for it.

From the corner, there is now a soft sound, as if someone is stroking paper. Hitshiro's gaze falls on the girl sitting motionless in a corner of the chamber, who appears to be barely older than he is. She wears a black robe with short sleeves. This seems a little noble, at the same time, but also somber. With silver zippers and buttons it is provided. On her hand she wears a glove that goes up to her elbow. On her left merely a hoop around the wrist. Her silver hair falls forward over her shoulder in a braided pigtail. Her scary and fierce gaze is fixed on the book.

"Sit back down on your bed. You're not getting out of here." she says softly and in a voice so soft and at the same time threatening that even Hitshiro now says nothing for a few seconds due to uncertainty.

Now her piercing yellow eyes stare directly at him.

"Who are you, anyway?" stutters Hitshiro as he moves sideways back to where he was lying a moment ago. The girl doesn't seem to respond, however, instead returning her gaze to her book. Her eyes follow the words on the pages intently. The calmness in the girl's demeanor worries Hitshiro, making him unable to sit still for even a second.

"Where am I here? What are you going to do with me?", Hitshiro wants to know and starts to fidget around more and more, "Hello?".

"Geez, can't you just sit still for a few seconds and wait?" the girl complains, rolling her eyes, "I'll just finish reading and then you'll know more. Now leave me alone or you'll be swimming with the sharks sooner than you think.".

"Wait, what?! Why would you do that, I can't even swim. Why do you want to throw me in the water?" asks Hitshiro.

Suddenly, the girl loudly flips her book shut and stands up.

"Have you fallen on your head too many times, or are you naturally limited like that?" she insults him, turning toward the door.

Hitshiro startles when he sees her reach for the door, "Stop! What are you up to?".

"You don't have to care about that and now sit here and wait until I get back," she orders as she opens the door and walks out. But Hitshiro is already behind her and grabs her shoulder to hold her back.

Quickly, the girl now turns to Hitshiro and punches him in the stomach with all her might. As if fixed, she stares down at Hitshiro, watching as he holds his stomach in pain.

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"Don't touch me again!" she threatens him and leaves the room.

Hitshiro doesn't manage to get up in time to run out. Desperately, he pulls and tugs at the handle, which again, just like before, can hardly be moved or turned.

"Damn it!" exclaims Hitshiro as he bangs on the door.

A brief moment later, he's holding his stomach again.

Did that girl just beat me with one punch? Really? A girl? That still hurts.

"What, he's awake?" a voice calls from outside his room. The rumbling footsteps echo across the ship, toward the door behind which Hitshiro is. There are three knocks on the door before it opens.

already.

"Why am I even knocking here? It's my ship after all!" says a man with a deep and raspy voice to himself, who now stands smiling in front of Hitshiro. Long, thorny, black hair extends to the back of his knees under an equally black leather hat. A decorated and prominent black beard adorns his face. The outfit consists of black cloth clothing with gold and silver trim. A long sword on one side of his hip and an old firearm on the other, he carries.

"Hello there?", he greets Hitshiro and comes closer to him. The girl from just now also re-enters the room behind him. She sits down again with her book on the wooden stool.

Silently she devotes herself to her book. While Hitshiro is so distracted by the girl, he doesn't notice how the man has already sat down next to him, on the bed.

"Well, young man, how are you?" he asks Hitshiro. The latter flinches, and sits down a few inches further away from the scary pirate.

Now the man begins to laugh a little, after following the boy's absent looks.

"It seems like you've already made a fan, Nyah!" the pirate calls out to the unknown girl. However, she doesn't respond at all.

Hitshiro now inspects the strange man.

For the fact that pirates are supposed to always be dirty, mean and stupid, this one actually doesn't look as bad as Arvid had always told me.

"She can be quite charming and nice when you get to know her better," the man claims, still whispering to Hitshiro, "And when you don't necessarily have her as an enemy!".

Hitshiro leans away from the man a bit again, still not trusting him.

The cliché about bad breath is true enough, though.

"Let's get to know each other!", the pirate suggests and gets up from the bed again, "Come on! Let's go to the deck, then we don't have to stay in Nyah's "Chamber of Darkness" any longer.", he explains jokingly and executes an inviting motion to the deck with his arm.

Still skeptical, Hitshiro now also straightens up and follows the man.

Well, they don't seem to be that evil. Maybe I should just do what they say. They could even become friends.

He also passes Nyah again and her eyes, filled with hatred, follow him until he leaves the room.

Except for her. She and I won't be friends in this life. Probably not in the next one either, or the one after that.

"Thank you very much!" says Nyah dismissively, slamming the door loudly behind Hitshiro and the pirate.

"She values her privacy very much and enjoys her time alone. It's best not to disturb her in the process, remember that. Once you're with us, you won't be getting down from here anytime soon!" the man explains, extending his hand to Hitshiro, "You can call me Eddy by the way, kid!".

Hitshiro can't believe his ears.

I can't get down here? But I have to get down here!

"I have to get to Sangowa! Arvid smuggled me onto the ship so I could get to Sangowa!", Hitshiro explains frantically.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, young man," Eddy tries to calm him down, slapping his back playfully. But he overdoes it a bit and Hitshiro stumbles to the floor in front of him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!", he apologizes and helps Hitshiro to stand up again, "You really need some more muscles on your spaghetti arms.".

Hitshiro starts to get loud himself now and took offense to the comment.

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you think I'm weak, Rapunzel!?", Hitshiro unknowingly provokes the man.

"What did you just call me?" the man verifies, now approaching the boy with a serious expression. Behind Eddy, someone starts smirking and a laugh rings out.

"Not such a bad name, he didn't do that badly at all!" one of Eddy's men mocks him.

Even though Eddy seemed threatening for a second, Hitshiro quickly realizes that possibly there isn't too much danger behind him after all.

Even the others are making fun of him? Is he the ship's clown?

"Who are you here on the ship? Why are the others making fun of you? Are you the cook?" wonders Hitshiro.

Now the crowd behind him and Eddy himself start laughing.

"Do I look like I could cook?" he jokes, "No, I'm the captain of this beautiful ship.".

Now he stretches out his arms with a smile, thus presenting his ship and the people behind him, "Welcome aboard!".

Hitshiro has to swallow deeply once to process what is going on right now.Does this mean they won't let me leave here anymore? They don't really seem intimidating. I don't really know yet.