Mutaro emptied the bottle of rum and then belched.
The sound was loud, sharp, and utterly unladylike. It echoed across the water, carried by the wind, lost in the chaos. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.
She brought out an old lighter from her skirt.
It was small, worn, its metal surface scratched and dented from years of use. She held it up to her face, studying it for a moment, her fingers tracing its edges. Then she lit it.
The flame flickered to life small, fragile, dancing in the wind.
She blew her breath across the small flame.
WHOOOOSH!
It created a large flame that blew across the deck a burst of fire that illuminated her face, warmed her skin, and cast dancing shadows across the wreckage.
She smiled.
"Well, now." Her voice was light, almost cheerful. "At least my face is a bit warm in this cold place."
She looked at the lighter with deep intensity.
Her eyes fixed on the words written on it carved into the metal, faded but still legible.
Free.
She read it aloud, her voice soft, almost reverent.
"Free." She paused. "Free were the words written on it."
She closed her eyes.
Then she drew her sword.
The katana sang as it left the scabbard a flash of steel, a gleam of light, a whisper of death. She held it before her, her eyes still closed, her face calm and peaceful.
"You said I would master my sword style." Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. "The moment I get my own conviction."
She opened her eyes.
"Captain." She smiled a thin, cold, knowing expression. "You are a bum."
She ran out.
Her body launched from the deck soaring through the air, cutting through the rain, descending toward the dark water below. A large monster bursted out of the sea a centipede that had scales of a shark and three heads shaped like a dolphin. Its body was massive, its jaws dripping with acid, its eyes burning with ancient hunger.
She cut it into two in one attack.
SHLIK!
Her katana sliced through its body severing scales, splitting flesh, spilling black blood into the sea. The two halves fell apart, tumbling into the water, their blood spreading like oil.
But then the water below her started to bubble up.
It was like a huge force that was about to explode a pressure building beneath the surface, a power gathering in the depths. The sea churned, the waves grew violent, the air grew thick with tension.
From the sea, countless monsters started to emerge.
They were as big as mountains their bodies massive, their eyes hungry, their roars deafening. They rose from the depths like a nightmare made flesh, their forms twisting and writhing, their presence filling the sky.
She was ready to slay all of them.
On the other side of the battlefield, Davina Jones lay in the midst of corpses.
She had detached herself from the world her eyes empty, her body still, her mind lost in a sea of grief and despair. The sounds of battle faded into a distant hum. The screams of dying men faded into silence. The chaos of the Infinite Sea faded into nothing.
She was alone.
Completely, utterly, irreversibly alone.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed hold of her.
The grip was firm, warm, and strong. It pulled her up, lifting her from the pile of corpses, drawing her back to the world of the living.
A voice spoke.
"Hi there, beautiful princess."
in the space between the despair and the hope, between the monsters that rose and the hand that reached out.
Mutaro stood ready to fight.
Davina was pulled from the darkness.
And the sea roared.