Shiver My Timbers

Saturday night at the Pig & Whistle, Kyoto’s best - and only, so far as Kozue knew - British pub. It was a fairly rowdy night, even by its normally high standards. The place wasn’t too big, but it had to have around thirty patrons tonight, maybe forty, all sauced up and ready to go. There was a baseball game on, a big one from the looks of it, and they’d all come in from the cold to watch it and get warmed up. Their feet drumming across the hardwood floors, the cheers at every homerun, the bartenders struggling to keep up with the mounting orders.

It was good energy. Just the sort of thing she needed, right now, as she sat at the bar and stared at the bottle of Bicardi.

Life in Tension had been sort of flat for Kozue in the past year or so. She’d had a good peek for a while, gaining a lot of steam when she kicked the champion - Reira Kirishima at the time and now Reira Kirishima once again, lucky bitch - but things had gone dry since then. Tension, she was learning, had its highs and lows. Things would get superhot for a while, then the fights would slow down, the competition would go cold, and the checks would start getting smaller.

Right now, it was in a definite low period, and she was feeling. When she got matches, they weren’t much of anything special, and her chances on getting another title shot were nil to zilch.

What to do, what to do, what to do.

Well, she was here now, so she might as well do one of the things that always got her smiling: drinks. Better yet, drinking with people. And with a crowd like this…

She took her bottle, and made her way over to a table near the far side of the room, a sway in her hips as she went. Per usual, she wore her booty shorts, and that might’ve gotten a stare at most other places. Here, she was regular enough that it wasn’t anything most of them hadn’t seen half a dozen times. They knew her. She knew them. They knew she liked to fuck with their heads. Which was why they weren’t too surprised with came next.

”Yo! Attention, ladies!” She pulled up a chair and planted one foot on it, while she tossed off her and jacket. Underneath, she wore a black shirt with green Mario mushroom and the words ‘Get A Life’  below it. Never afraid to broadcast her geekiness.

Every eye was on her, now. Time to get things started.

”For those who don’t know me, I am Kozue Kaburagi, of the New Jersey Kaburagis! #1 Tension Ninja, Queen Bitch of the Ring!” She got a hearty yell back from that, plenty of AFW fans around. ”This,” She held her bottle high. ”Is Bicardi 151. One of the strongest rums ever made. 35% proof. Hot damn. Fun fact: it’s the only drink in the world that comes with a stainless steel arrester. For your protection. This shit will burn you.”

She dropped the bottle on the table and cleared it off, as some helpful gentleman brought over shot glasses. ”Here’s the drill - tonight, I’m collecting someone’s manhood. One of you is gonna be stupid enough to come over here, put your money up and try to match me shot for shot, and I will go home with his balls and his bills in my pocket. So!” She clapped her hands and surveyed the area. ”Who is the lucky guy tonight? Huh?”

With a wry, impish grin, she started wringing her hand and looking about, anxious to see who’d take her up this weekend. She’d have a fucking headache in the morning, but it was never not worth it./

A glinting flicker of light danced across the air, catching only the eye of the most observant of onlookers. With a metallic clink, the golden coin pinged off the table before Kozue. It bounces once before spinning in place, jerkily navigating the imperfections on the counter top from scratches and dents before it slowed, jingling along its edges before setting flat. An ornate doubloon, weathered to be certain. While the historical value of the piece was in question, the fact it was real gold, finely crafted and aged was beyond reproach. Have up, a smiling skull missing a tooth or two, on the reverse what appeared to be some manner of coat of arms.

---

Many of the patrons had spotted her early, tucked away in a corner, hat pulled down over her eyes, boots kicked up on the table. An oddity to be sure. An actor perhaps? Cosplayer? It was hard to tell. Past a few glances early into the evening, nobody had paid her much mind. her nostrils flared at the boisterous shouting, rousing her from her nap. It was no small feat, Scarlet managed to sleep easy through most things.

The ambience sounds of chatter, voices rising over one another to he heard, was as normal to her as the winter breeze outside. Perhaps brazen claims were enough, it had been far too long since she had some light competition. Better yet, this one was from Tension. While not her intended course, it was a neighboring port. Cupping her palm over top of her hat, she drew it back to rest easy on top of her head, unfolding her legs from the table top to clap her chair back onto all fours. It was time to make a splash.

---

The crowd of standing onlookers parted around her, less out of respect and more to do with her unhindered gait as she shoved her way through. Her coming was anything but subtle, the faint clink of metal buckles and heavy clack of her boots across the wooden floors. Once she had caught the eyes of those around her though, people more readily move from her way. She appeared almost otherworldly, having stepped straight from the movies. Battered old long coat draped across her shoulders, the length billowing in her wake her as she moved. her clothing ornate but well used, immaculate pieces of history preserved an a body far too curvaceous and large for values of old. Long flowing tresses of an vibrant pink bounced behind her in every step.

Stepping up slightly behind Kozue, her imposing figure shadowing the table's surface. She leaned down beside the beside the girl, reaching past her to plant two fingers upon the coin she had thrown. A hand still on her hat, she tipped it ever so slightly, a hungry shark's grin from ear to ear as her eyes bore into the girl with a spark of interest.

"Now aren't ye a bonnie lass... 'Fraid I left me balls behind. I reckon it won't be a problem though" She had a thick silken Irish accent which let lessened even the harsher aspects of her choice of speech. "Would be a right shame to waste such fine a spirit on lesser carousers."

She threw her arm around Kozue's shoulder, giving the girl a monstrous embrace with a laugh. "The wager made in foolish boast, not long before I flog me host." She gave the girl a lighthearted shove as she moved away, stepping to the far end of the table, fingers still outstretched to linger on her coin as if it were the source of her circular movement around the table.

"Dread Pirate Captain Scarlet Farley, pleased to make yer acquaintance, Queen Bitch." Reaching up she plucked her hat from her head, placing it to her bosom to nod her head in greeting. "Forgive me for not taking the knee or kissing the ring. I've never been one to see eye to eye with royal types. To full of shit and vinegar I find." She set her cap aside at the table's edge, out of their way for now. A long nail slipped beneath her doubloon, standing it upright. With a flick she spun it idly on its side, captured between finger and table from falling again.

Her eyes shifted among the crowd, giving a few onlookers, there were a few murmuring, having heard her name or perhaps seen her once. her grin never left her face, though her gaze turned expectant as the crowd stood idle to watch. "Chair." She barked, a few more skittish patrons jumped to action, fetching one for her. She slipped her coat from her shoulders, throwing it across the back. No longer burdened by added weight, her attentions shifted back to Kozue in full.

Kozue had seen so much crazy shit since she’d joined the AFW, she didn’t think there was anything left that could really surprise her. She’d fought a woman who thought she was a living cat. She’d fought a guy who’d installed mechanical dog ears and a tail on his costume. She’d fought whatever the hell was up with Killer King and his harem. Taken on a cowboy, taken on a cowgirl, taken on a knight, taken on the oddly obsessed rival of said knight.

She swore she’d seen it all, but apparently there was one box left to check, one she’d somehow missed: Pirate Captain. Tonight, that would change.

She’d been ready to take on one of the guys for the night - maybe someone new, maybe Sasuke was in the mood to lose his money again, who knew - when, out of nowhere, a coin landed on the table. A single coin. A single gold coin, or a damn good replica. She leaned down to get a better look at it, when she heard her the ominous footsteps coming her way from behind. Heavy footsteps. Someone big, with a shadow to match, slowly eclipsing the lights over Kozue’s head and covering her in shadow.

Strange. It would only get stranger.

The woman spoke, sounding like something straight out of one of the better Pirates of the Carribean movies, and gave Kozue an embrace that nearly knocked her off her feet. She was amiable enough, sure, but everything about her totally into her look. Her gait, the way she spoke, the way she carried herself. Every word was drenched in pirate, and Kozue had to take a quick check to make sure she didn’t have a peg leg.

Also, she was huge, stacked, with one of the biggest chest Kozue had ever seen.  It spoke volumes for Scarlet’s ‘personality’ that she was only just now making note of that.

She made her way over to the other side, asking for a chair, and it took the New Jersey Ninja a good five seconds to process that, yes, she was being taken up on her challenge by this woman, and no, it wasn’t a total joke, and yes, she was putting what appeared to be a gold damn coin on the line.

”Huh.” She shrugged, blinked, and sat down. Out came her own money, 5,000 yen, right on top of the coin. ”Okay, fuck it, I’m down.”

The crowd began to gather and cheer, closing in while Kozue unscrewed the bottle. ”Sure you’re up for this, big girl?” She cast glances between her and the bottle as she worked it open. “Kind of getting the impression you’re already under the influence of something.”

"Captain, if ye please. While I won't deny I've cast off a few tonight already, I'd reckon that only puts us about even." She gave a rather carefree shrug, seemingly quite chipper despite haven been woken from her restful reline moments earlier. She planted her boot on firmly a top of the chair she had been brought, dragging it before her with a cringe inducing wail. Straddling the seat in reverse, she lowered herself down to rest her weight against the backing, a forearm settled upon the length as she rested her body forward against it. While she no doubt meant for the coin to be offered for their little game, it didn't stay on the table surface. Floating in between each finger as it slipped around within her hand, rocking smoothly one direction than back the other as if riding a wave. All the while she had nothing but a wide grin for the woman opposite her.

"Yer concern while amicable, be a bit misplace lass." She rose a finger digit, giving Kozue a small tsk tsk waggle from side to side.

"I'd save those words of caution for ye'self once we've hit the bottle proper." With a casual flick of the wrist she popped the coin up into the air, snatching it as it fell to slam it down on the table atop the pot of yen. "Now pour the spirits, I'm right thirsty." She had leaned in on the tail end of that, her tongue flicking over her lips in a quick sweeping motion.

Her hand fell upon the table then, fingers unfurling as she awaited her glass to be poured with two fingers adorned with several gold and bejeweled rings beckoning the for the shot. Rather than wait for it to be past or slid, she would take it as it was poured. "Humor a weary buccaneer. Ye mentioned yer with Tension. Do they treat yer sort well? Yer a wee bit tiny aren't ye?" She arched a slender eyebrow, taking a fun little jab the American ninja. She surrendered her predatory grin for a sweet, somewhat mocking smile to portray her insincere concerns.

”Yeah, no, I’m not calling you ‘captain’.” Kozue was quick to draw the line on that one. Whatever flavor of crazy this woman was on, she wasn’t getting pulled into . ””That’s not a thing that’s gonna happen, Scar.”

She started to pour the drinks as Scarlet kept talking, doing her glass first. As she went, she tried to place this woman’s name - it had a familiar ring to it, and she didn’t think it was something she’d heard in a movie. She was fairly certain she’d never seen this woman before - she would remember a rack like that, bare minimum - but everything else…

Kozue found her eyes drawn to the rings as she started on Scarlet’s glass - a task she didn’t make easy, what with the way she kept pulling it back. If this was all a joke, she was really going the extra mile with it. Above and beyond the call of duty.

Her little crack was enough to drag Kozue back into things, though. Her face scrunched up at it, but she let the calm back inside. ”Tiny? Yup. But all natural.” Kozue gave her chest a pat. ”Anyway, yeah, it’s decent. The pay’s good, hours are okay.  Been a bit rough for me, recently, but I’m getting by.” She began to lift the shot glass up, getting it closer and closer to her mouth. ”Why’d you ask?”

"Captain." She politely corrects as Kozue sees fit to address her otherwise. For all her intimidating size, she had an extremely easygoing air about her, at least here, in this setting. It was only within the briefest hints of her verbage or the way in which she tilted her body with those frequint grins of hers was there a hint of what may lurked below the depths.

She slide her shot glass easily across the battered table to rest on her end where she would pluck it up between two fingers and a thumb, sniffing the contents as they spoke. "Aye, some have been more blessed than others in those regards." There was a few snickers among the crowd. She gave Kozue a wink, taking another small dig at her. It was almost as if The Captain were intentional taking prods at her to rile her a bit. But who would do such a thing?

"Ye sing a fine tune, if Tension be anything like her better, I'm sure ye coffers want for little." She gave the shot glass a small raise, signalling she was ready. "To ye fortunes, Queen Bitch. May ye pockets swell to burst, winds be in ye favor." She offered her shot glass up in a small toast before hammering hers back without a second thought.

She closed her eyes dwelling in the invasive flavor and numbing burn which came with it. Nodding slowly as she took the alcohol by the reigns and reeled it back in. As her eyes opened she set her shot glass down before Kozue in demand of another. She hadn't missed but a beat.

"I've come to drop anchor in Friction for a spell, while ye be no old salt, I can't right complain. After all, a lass such as ye who can hold her drink is a wonderous treasure indeed. Would be foolish to overlook ye." She gave a small nod of her head. "I must admit, ye have me right interested on this spot of trouble ye speak on. Care to indulge a surly Captain in more than a simple clap of thunder?" Despite such a claim of her disposition , she still remained in relatively high spirits all things considered.

”Nope.” Kozue threw the title right back at her again, replying in the same tone to the unspoken demand. It was a small point, sure, but the more Scarlet wanted her to do it, the less she wanted to do it. Stubborn that way, always had been.

She brought her glass up as Scarlet did the same, mirroring her as they prepared to plunge, but not with out one, final jab to send her way.  A small dig at the barren plain that was her chest, if she wasn’t mistaken. Nothing knew. ”Blessed with a good surgeon, maybe.” She got a few of her own snickers with that one.

But that was enough verbal fencing. Drink time, now.

Kozue matched Scarlet, letting the liquid fire go down her throat, burning all the way down. She shivered as it seared her throat and worked its way through her, making every nerve tingle and every hair stand on edge. ”Phew! Good shit!” She gave the table a hard slap and exhaled, clearing out her lungs for another go. She was already pouring when Scarlet started to speak once more, laying it on thick.
”So you’re a wrestler, too, huh? Wow. I swear, spit out a window and you’ll hit one of us, good chance.” That was her glass, nice and full. ”Anyway, it’s nothing big, nothing earth-shattering.” And that was Scarlet’s glass.

She sat back and held her shot up, ready to plunge when Scarlet made her move. ”I guess I’m just tired of the grind, you know? Been in Tension for about four years now, have jack to show for it, really. Feeling like I walk around in circles.”

A finger idly tapped the side of her glass as it was filled to the top. Her plan hovered over the glass, plucking it from the table to sit before her, not a drop spilled. "Aye, I've been known to wrestle a spot, here and there." Her lips peeled back into a wry smile, a faint chuckle bubbling up.

As Kozue drew back into her chair, Scarlet have leaned in, resting her weight firmly on her for arm atop the tabletop. "In a wee bit of a rut, are ye? Pity that. I find it strange, perhaps bit vexin' as well. I took ye as a woman of initiative, to hear ye plight is a bit a sour note. " She lifted a hand from the table, a single digits twirling in a circle to draw attention to their drinking game and the onlookers.

With a carefree and somewhat dismissive shrug she raised her glass. " To these fine folk, whose idle nature has brought them closer than they know to the Queen Bitch." She offered no chance to clink glasses this time, just a raise of her own with a nod. A few of the onlookers raised their glasses with her, missing the fact it was a jab at them and Kozue. Some people just liked being shouted out.

She primed her shot before letting it loose, in one swift motion she had thrown back her head and the alcohol. She set the glass to the table with a steady hand, flicking the tiny glass across the table to Kozue's side for a refill. She drew in a sharp breath through her teeth as the alcohol sunk it's teeth into her, rasping a loud belly laugh as she gave the table a thump with her forearm.

"So what makes ye so royal, adrift in a sea of mediocrity for so long? Unless the bitch in ye title be that of a whippin' girl and not a badge o' pride as I took it for." She pursed her lips, brows raised aloft at Kozue. It seemed as though she wasn't taking subtle stabs any longer. Despite it all, she never lost her sing song tone, as if all of this were just idle thoughts not needing any real examining.

"Sounds like ye need to make a change... If this here be not working for ye." She raised a finger gesturing the whole of Kozue. It was the frank delivery coupled with the almost smug smile that drove it all home. She was being downright dismissive of her at this point. Scarlet seemed rather content to take every inch she was given to ramp up her assault on Kozue's character. She seemed intent to light a fire in the girl, though the reason for that wasn't made readily apparent.

The longer Scarlet went on with this whole pirate schtick, the weirder it was getting, and it was already going pretty damn long. Kozue had known a few people who liked to bring their gimmicks out into the ‘real’ world, but she couldn’t  think of anyone who was this damn into it. The accent was real, she’d known enough Irish lads and lasses back in New Jersey to make a good guess on that. But all this, the whole routine? And if what Kozue was feeling from the finger she had tracing over it, that was a real goddamn gold coin. Who went this far?

While they talked, she decided to put that finger to a better use: placing her phone on top of the table and doing a quick Google search. She held that finger down on the home button leaned down, and spoke righ into it - quiet enough for her voice to be picked up, load enough for her new ‘friend’ to hear. ”Siri: search for ‘Scarlet crazy pirate wrestler’.”

While that went on, their duel of words continued, with Scarlet getting in some decent stabs. Kozue joined her in the quick parody of a toast, then down came another shot, blazing a trail to her gullet. She’d be feeling this in the morning, and the morning after that, and the morning after that, but if it meant getting Ms. Anne Bonney under the table, it was more than worth it.

”You know,” She slapped the glass down and looked back at the larger woman through narrowed eyes, taking on a bit of edge to her voice, too. ”Maybe try ‘Kozue’ over ‘Queen Bitch’. Kind of feels more like a dig when you say it. Plus, really want to hear my name with that accent.”

Scarlet’s smack on the table was enough to knock off a glass that she’d set to close to the edge, but Kozue’s hand darted out to catch it in a blur, nabbing the cup before it could truly begin its journey to the floor. She sat it back and started to pour once again, while her other hand worked on scrolling through the results her phone had picked up.

”Bigger nuts than you’ve tried to make me their whipping girl.” Okay, one bigger nut, Killer King, but a little embellishment wouldn’t hurt. ”Didn’t work out well for them. Wouldn’t mind showing you why, too.” With that light, implied threat, she finished pouring and flicked a glass back at Scarlet, letting it slide right back to her hand.

”Been thinking about a change of pace, yeah. Just not sure the other side of the coin’s any better.” She held up her glass and tipped it Scarlet’s way. ”Round 3, Galbrush.”

There were probably only two or three people in a half-mile radius who got that reference, but screw it. Made her smile.

"Consider ye plea noted" Her lackadaisical tone seemed to suggest it would be ignored however. She lightly scratched the corner of her lip with a thumbnail. "A curious thing that, ye've a preference in name, aye, but ye refuse to recognize mine." She raised a finger with a sly smirk, tsking softly. "Bad form, truly. Perhaps next time m'dear, ye'll not introduce ye'self to a room with a title ye want to not wear 'round ye neck." She barked a laugh at Kozue, clearly amused by the her demand/suggestion. "Own what ye are and what ye say, what more is there, hm?" She arched another brow, giving it a small wiggle. The unflappable Captain Scarlet put her pearly whites on display again, grinning from ear to ear. She seemed amused easy and often, mostly at the expense of Kozue.

As the shot glass slipped along the table, she brought a finger finger down to stop the slide directly at the glass. The alcohol within sloshed, but remained within. "Rightly so?"He rhead cocked delicately to the side as Kozue presented what had been a mild threat in the American ninja's mind.

The chair beneath her creak as she suddenly rose up, leaning across the table. The humor was gone from her face, replaced with a grim seriousness that was worn strikingly easy on her scarred visage. Voice low and harsh, regardless of if the words were understood, had a fine edge to them which cut through the language barrier to clearly spell out a threat. "Best not send ye shots across the bow least ye want for me to flog ye stem to stern." The bar had suddenly gone quiet as merriment lay dying at her feet. before her was not a woman, nor a pirate, but a being of unwavering stone with a savage dangerous air about her. Tired angry eyes narrowed to slits before she... slipped back into her chair with a thunderous guffaw, slapping the table. Had she been serious? The onlookers around them weren't sure. A few noticeably distanced themselves while others awkwardly chuckled as if it all had been a big joke.

"To ye makers of fine spirits that finds us here today." She remarked casually, leading the duo in their third toast, throwing the shot back. She gave the glass a light toss allowing it to roll on the corner of its base before settling upright again. She breathed in long and slow, letting to the tune of a low rumbling growl as the alcohol charted a course through her. The air itself felt like razors in the presence of the drink, it was a wonderful sensation the Captain had come to love throughout her many years.