Natural Enemy 1-11

The water was red as he blinked down at it, so much thick surf lapping at his knees. Warm and heavy, it clung to his skin, the stench of copper and rot almost as thick as syrup.

Bodies floated in it; face down, face up, and missing whole parts as they bobbed in the dying swells of the Great Wave, his warping of the water robbing the water of momentum. The big red ship was barely a ship anymore, the spine snapped… 

Well, not clean, but snapped all the way in two, the front of it pointing straight up at the blue afternoon sky as it groaned and sank, inch by agonizing inch, into the waters off the shore of Kaihua. …fuck.

The screams were gone, the roar of the water — his water — all gone too. All that noise silenced with all the men on the water dead and gone. Even the once-panicked men on the shore had nothing to say as they bled out on the sand, the villagers of O’Kalo doing their own part to fight back with all they had.

All that was left was a ringing in his ears, the sound drilling deep in his skull as his heart pounded hard and his blood burned for more. It was a silent sound, not a noise he could put a name to; high and thin, it still felt louder than all the noise had been.

Still, it wasn’t loud enough that he couldn’t hear his own breath, each pant a ragged ugly gasp that tugged deep at his own chest. 

He wasn’t tired, though.

Not at all and not in the slightest.

Not as he stood in the middle of it all, water still swirling around his feet in time with his breath.

I… I… He looked at the shore as the rage that had helped him turn the whole ocean into an extension of his fist eased itself out of his veins. Burned free as he finally let loose for the first time in forever, it just left a big fat nothing behind in that same space he had carried everything he didn’t think about since he was twelve.

Two years of heat under his veins and now it was just like someone had taken an ice cream scoop and helped themselves to his insides.

Blue eyes blinked as people made their way over, the whole village — and even more — walking towards him.

They stopped a good distance away, eyes wide as his own as they stared.

Just… stared.

No cheers. No thanks. Not even any “Way to go, Kai!” or “You saved us!”

All he saw was a familiar fear staring right back at him on so many faces that were just as familiar.

That pure and simple fear that came for your gut; the fear you had for a hurricane that just took your house or a shark that just bit your boat in half.

Or the fear you had for a Bio-Terrorist.

A smile forced its way on his face, Kai rubbing the back of his neck like it was just another mistake practicing with his powers like he’d done so many times. “That was… that was wild, huh?”

Nobody said a word, eyes still staring.

Can’t blame them, right? Kai swallowed a mouth full of nothing. Can’t… yeah…

They’d known the “water boy”, though. He was the chubby fat kid who could make little fountains and do funny tricks to make kids laugh. 

That kid was safe.

That kid was a mascot. 

They liked that kid.

Lani Moa was the first to move. The chief’s daughter rushed out onto the stained sand and waded into the red soup, Kai blinking faster as thin arms wrapped themselves as far around his bulk as they could manage. “Kai…”

Keeping up with his daughter, Kai raised his head as the Chief appeared out of nowhere, a heavy hand suddenly landing on his shoulder on the opposite side. “You saved us, Kai.”

Chief Milo’s voice was thick with something, maybe gratitude, but Kai couldn’t lie to himself as he looked in the man’s eyes. Something was different in them.

Kai wasn’t sure what but he knew one thing for sure. …yeah, I don’t like that.

“KAI-BOY!”

The teenager looked back out onto the shore as Auntie Loa pushed to the front again, her hands up in the air as the shout left her mouth. Her eyes were wide, a big smile on her face as she brought her hands together in a loud clap.

“Water-brah!” Mako’s hands came together too, and just like that, everybody else joined in.

Villagers and tourists both, cheering his name and shouting as loud as they had been during the festival.

But Kai still saw it.

Too many faces had that… that same look on them. Definitely don’t like that either.

“We’re safe.” Lani whispered in his ear, still hugging him tight. “You… you stopped them.” 

“Yeah,” Kai’s voice came out a croak, all the gravel and brine that he didn’t really notice until he had to speak again. His eyes trailed the red water around them, filled with bodies, and timber and gore. “I… I stopped them, yeah.”

That was definitely a word to describe it.

“Come.” That same heavy hand squeezed his shoulder, Chief Milo’s voice rumbling loud again as he blinked up at the large man. “Come out of the water, Kai.”

Kai let himself be led, not saying another word as he walked out of the ocean. Feet sank in the wet sand as the villagers parted for him, still cheering his name and clapping even as they made a wide path.

A few pats on the back and a hug from Auntie Loa later, Kai walked past the fire pit, where one big pig was still roasting over a half-dead fire. He walked past the colorful banners of the festival, eyes of several elders still on him.

For some reason, Kai felt cold even under the sun. 

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

The Marines came the next day.

How… Kai sat on the sandy shore, feet in the water, just blinking as the authorities arrived on the island. That doesn’t… 

It didn’t make sense, especially considering the Marines had no reason to be here, especially so quick. The chief had just sent out a letter by messenger bird to the biggest island with a Marine presence yesterday. 

Literally.

And that was like two days away, even for the bird.

He knew damn well the chief had just sent it yesterday because, for one, he hadn’t slept even a little bit. He was too busy remembering the way the water churned around his fists and how human bodies broke every time he slammed into them. Yeah, yeah… He shook his head, a grunt spilling free as he tried to push all that back down. Maybe the DUP was right. We are kinda violent.

Kai clicked his tongue as he stared out at the boat coming in; a proper boat this time. Not the beat-up shitty thing from before, this was all clean new wood with the Marine bird-thing painted proud on the main sail. It cut through his water, leaving a clean white wake as it sliced right through the lingering scum of debris yesterday.

With a clang, the anchor dropped down heavy into the water.

A man stepped onto the dock, Kai’s eyes going wide at the person that clomped his way off the ship. Mustache…

It was bushy, almost as big as the man himself; so thick and hairy on the little man’s face it looked like a dead chipmunk just plopped onto his lip. If that wasn’t bad enough, the marine was no taller than he was; a round-faced man with a uniform so white and clean it had to be brand-new the way it almost glowed in the sun. 

Huh… He wasn’t alone making his way off the ship, a dozen other officers flanking him with rifles in their hand as they stared with bored faces at the remains of yesterday’s rampage. The Captain — the guy had to be a captain — surveyed the carnage with a face as unbothered as all of his men, gaze drifting over the broken ships, still half-wrecked on the reef.

Those same bored eyes trailed over the bloated bodies far past the shoreline and the captain sniffed, stupid mustache twitching as if it offended his delicate nose. “Messy, messy, messy business here.” The man wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, voice booming louder than should belong to someone his size. “Hear the Barrel Scrapers paid the island a visit. Who did all this to them?”

Kai stayed quiet, the water around his legs tingling again as the static came back; that same rush from yesterday that made him feel alive. It was still there, just waiting for a reason. 

Still listening. 

Still hungry.

All the eyes on the beach slid onto him for a split second before locking onto the new guy, the villagers and visitors saying nothing as Chief Milo stepped forward. “Does it matter?”

The Marine captain gave a little shrug, the man adjusting his cuffs with a sigh. “Doesn’t matter much, anyway. Pirate scum dead is pirate scum dead. Saves us the ammo.”

They don’t even care? Kai’s face turned down in a tight frown. How do they not even… like, there was a whole raid!

As Kai clenched his fists, the captain waved a lazy hand at his men. “Right, we’ll take it from here. Log the wreckage and do it quick, so we can get off this rock.” He turned to one of his men, a younger guy holding a clipboard. “Round up the bodies. Check them against the bounty lists. At least some good came of this mess. Grisly Cawlfield was worth… how much?”

“Twenty-one million berries, captain.”

“Ah,” the man shook his head, “well, that’ll be enough to get me a commendation, a good bounty like that kept in our coffers.”

The word cut through the red haze of Kai’s anger, stopping him cold as a word slipped free of his mouth before he could stop himself. “Bounty?”

The captain turned his way, blinking as he realized a kid had been sitting in the water the whole time not too far from him. “What?”

“You get… paid for this?” Kai pointed at the unmoving body of the red-haired pirate captain broken on the reef. “For killing them?”

The Captain let out a short bark of a laugh as if Kai had just said the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “Y’hear this kid? Of course, boy! That’s how the world works. Every one of these scumbags has a price on his head. Justice ain’t free.”

As the man kept laughing, Kai looked from the arrogant Marine captain and back over to the wrecked ships, all the bodies bobbing around it in the still-stained tide. Oh… oh.

A slow, tired, half-grin spread across his face, a loophole already forming in his mind as he put together a way out. A way to get something out of the ugliest, most dangerous part of himself and make it into a job.

I can get paid. Paid for being a monster to hunt down real monsters. He looked up and back at the short captain, the smile widening so far until it almost hurt his cheeks. “How do I sign up?”

The Captain blinked as he looked Kai up and down, gaze lingering on the gut staring him right in the face. “Sign up for what, boy? The circus?”

“Bounty hunting.” The words tasted solid and real as he nodded back at the captain. “I want to be a bounty hunter.”

The captain laughed loud again, all his men laughing with him as he wiped a fat tear from his eye. “You? A bounty hunter?” He shook his head as another laugh slipped out. “Stick to fishing, kid. The sea eats little boys like you for breakfast.”

Kai didn’t laugh.

“We’ll see.”

END ARC 1 – TWILIGHT’S GRIEF.