Alarmed at the gunshot, Russo rose from his seat. 

Takara stood up as a howl ripped through the air and chaotic cacophony rose. 

A marine soldier burst into the room, not bothering to knock in polite procedures-- Of course, Russo would've snapped at the incredible rudeness of it all, but now wasn't the time.

"What the fuck's going on?" Russo demanded.

The soldier was in horror, "Sir! The pirate we captured, he- The Lieutenant was-"

Takara groaned with an instinctive facepalm, "not again."

Heads snapped towards the redhead in alarm. The situation was clear-- that kid wasn't some sane shit, and this person knew, and they had their guard down.

"What's the deal here?" Russo grabbed him by the collar, "you know something? Spit it out!"

Takara was just resigned now, "not my fault," he groaned.

ー

"Riiight, psychopathic kids aside," Titus found his way to the basement without being caught, "since I'm on a marine ship, why not?"

It wasn't as if Titus couldn't ransack a ship like a pirate, much less a Marine Ship probably holstering food or gold. Although he didn't like to admit, Titus was very much a bandit.

"Gao!" a bear piped up in excitement at his presence, uprooting from under a sack.

"Shhh!!!" Titus snapped in shock.

The bear flattened its ears in guilt. 

"Seems like you're the most pirate-like of your owners, huh," Titus joked under his breath, "Are you here to steal too?"

The bear grinned, dragging a little sack of beri and metal valuables in Titus' direction. 

"Wow," Titus gasped, "This is a lot, where on earth did you--?"

Probably not the treasure room, wherever that is. Maybe the dorms, where some soldiers hid personal trinkets? You mean the bear was smart enough to snatch them??

"Gawrah," Leer sent Titus a judgmental gaze-- one that was like, I'm not giving it to you, okay?

"Oh," Titus realized the issue, "You're small, so you can't carry this, huh?"

Emptying the sack into his backpack, Titus tied the empty sack to Leer's neck. 

"There you go," Titus ruffled the bear on the head, "Cross might almost be done out there, so let's get back here in five minutes, okay?"

"Grah!" Leer nodded.

ー

The air was thick. So, so, thick it was hard to breathe in. Each and every marine held their guns pointed toward the young boy in the center-- this gunpoint, rather than to shoot, was meant to surround and prevent escape. 

No one moved-- not even the young boy at mercy.

"Cross, I told you not to kill people!" the whole Marine ship flinched in horror as a holler cut right into their tension.

"But they were bullying me!" the odd-eyed boy whined back, turning to the redhead.

The Marine ship snapped back in the direction the boy was shouting towards-- but nothing was there.

"No means no," Takara stepped within the crowd, right in front of Cross now, and chopped him on the head, "you promised to listen to me before we left the island, Cross."

No one saw him trot past, but he had already gone through. Monsters, the both of them-- and now the Marines knew the consequences of underestimating an enemy.

Cross pouted, "okay, I'm sorry."

The call to fire was given. With an ear-shattering symphony of gunshots, the deck was riddled with bullet-holes.

In the center, Cross and Takara stood, unharmed. 

A long whorl of wire was wrapped around Cross' forearm, drawn from somewhere deep in his sleeve. It drooped low like a loose bracelet, the string coming to an end as a triangular blade not meant for slicing, but stabbing.

For a moment the string seemed to freeze into a solid steel beam-- and Cross was spinning it in such rapid circles, bullets deflected right off of it.

"No, how the fuck is that possible?"

Cross' gaze was stern now-- his hood up, his eyes sharp and his expressions void of his childlike cheeriness. 

"We've overstayed our welcome," Takara urged, him, "let's go."