Pirates <Town Requiem>
"Where's that little girl?"
"It seems to have run to the front of the first-class cabin."
"Idiot, then why don't you go up and arrest someone?"
"Boss, I don't dare, what if that dead fat guy is telling the truth? I've read in the papers that that Apophis guy is a total monster!"
"Rubbish! If there was some powerful person, how could he hide in his room and not dare to come out? Go on, show me some pirate spirit, kick the door down in the most savage way possible, and drag that little girl out in the most brutal way possible and kill her!"
"Kick and smash...and kill..."
"Yes, that's right, and remember, you are the fiercest and most violent pirate of all!"
Hearing the noise from outside, Robin didn't have time to think about it and got under the bed with a bite of his tiny tiger teeth.
Dah! Dah! Dah!
The pirate with a six-footed pace reached the door and was about to kick it open as the captain said. But suddenly a sudden and irrational feeling of panic made him instinctively suspend his right foot in the air, "Wait, isn't that a bit rude of me, perhaps I should do it more gently?"
"Ahem!" He straightened his shirt collar, withdrew his right foot, cleared his throat, and knocked on the door with a rather polite, "Excuse me, is anyone there?"
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
"Oh! Excuse me!"
Seeing the pirate turn away without any delay, the pirate captain asked in confusion, "Why have you come back?"
"The owner of the room doesn't seem to be there, so I'd better come back another time."
Hearing his answer, the pirate captain just felt his lungs explode and kicked the eyesores idiot to the ground, "Get out of my way rookie, I'll show you how I kill people!"
"It's terrible luck, looks like we need to be more careful when recruiting next time, we can't pull all kinds of trash into the ship." The pirate captain reached the door and was about to kick it down when he suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the room, grave, solemn and imposing, but with a feeling of overwhelming sorrow.
For some reason, listening to the strange tones, memories of the past came to the pirate captain's mind as a walkthrough.
There were older men, children, and women, and the haunting wail could still echo in his ears at the moment.
Those who died at his hands, their spirits seemed to come back from hell. And speaking of the pain of their souls, not being redeemed.
There were familiar or unfamiliar faces, with tears of blood in their eyes, pouncing on him, constantly gnawing at his soul and flesh, pulling him down into the bottomless abyss with them.
"No, don't..."
"Captain, Captain..."
The pirate captain was only suddenly awakened when hearing the panicked calls of his men and saw that there was nothing undead flying around his side and fluttering from relief, "Whew! Are you hallucinating from the pressure?"
"Captain, your gun..."
"What the fuck about your gun and my gun...fuck!" The pirate captain realized, to his horror, that somehow he had pointed the dark gun at himself!
"It's so fucking sinister!" The pirate captain quickly put his pistol away in a cold sweat, looking at the door close at hand was a bit hesitant.
"Captain, we'd better go, I've already told you that Apophis is simply a monster!"
"Are you kidding me, you think I'm afraid to open the door?" Hearing the persuasion of his men, the pirate captain refrained.
Bang!
"Damn, what the hell did I do?" It only was when he heard the music that had become peaceful and serene again that the pirate captain woke up abruptly, but what had been done was done, and he could only continue to walk inside.
Robin, who was hiding under the bed, saw the door to the room being rudely pushed open. She was wondering at the same time, "Why did it take so long for someone to come in?"
The captain of the pirates who walked into the room saw a man wearing a ghost mask, who seemed to be leaning back in a chair, sleeping quietly, and suddenly his mind exploded at once.
"This guy is Demon Sword Apophis? It doesn't look like a powerful person, and I didn't see any items like swords, so does it look like I'm scaring myself?" Seeing no reaction from Apophis, who was leaning back in his chair, the pirate captain relaxed even more, "Whether he's Demon Sword Apophis or not, as long as I give him a shot while I'm at it, no matter how powerful he is, he'll just have to go back to hell!"
"Hey! Instead, I now prefer you to be Demon Sword Apophis, and if I can kill such a big man, I'm sure I'll soon become the top sea pirate in the entire West Blue!"
Just as he was about to pull the trigger in ecstatic joy, the eyes beneath the mask opened suddenly.
What kind of eyes were those, scarlet pupils reflecting the colour of endless blood, cold and dead, even if he said that the man across the street was a death god from the underworld he would not hesitate to believe.
"Shh! Can I ask you to keep quiet, the fourth movement will begin soon!"
The pirate captain nodded numbly, knowing that his finger was on the trigger, but not daring to make any move.
The room was frighteningly quiet!
Robin, who poked her head out of the bottom of the bed as if she were bunny, also frightened by the bizarre sight of the pirate still holding the pistol. His face pale and his eyes blank, like a dead man crawling out of the grave.
Robin covered her mouth tightly and ducked back under the bed, the fear beginning to creep in uncontrollably, "Is this going to kill me? Will it be a grudge that can never be broken, as the papers say?"
As time passed, the tune became graceful and hollow again, as if it were like heaven sprinkled with remaining light, and under the soothing music, Robin also temporarily forgot her pain and hatred, as if she had returned to the warm embrace of her mother.
The pirate captain with bloodied hands blossomed into a holy radiance right now.
The last movement is serious, grave and devastating!
Darkness falls upon the earth, and gloom over the soul, In a world of nothingness, where only death and silence are eternal!
Bang!
The pirate captain eventually pulled the trigger, only the gun was pointed at himself, and he had a serene smile on his face as if he was atoning for his sinful past.
Awakened by the sound of the gunshot, Robin realized that she had strangled herself without even realizing it, and if the gunshot hadn't awakened her at the last minute, she might have been a dead body by now.
"This is for you
The steep sound made Robin's soul nearly freeze, and her limbs cower stiffly under the bed.
Ta-da! Ta-da! Ta-da!
It wasn't until the footsteps were completely far away that Robin's nervousness relented a bit, "Requiem? Is this a ritual or sacrifice before he kills?"
Loneliness is man's worst enemy!
In this cramped space, Robin's thoughts had trouble managing to disperse with restraint.
"Why would both me and that pirate want to kill ourselves? Was it affected by his ability? But it's never been reported that he's an ability user!"
"Or... is that his momentum?"
"Wait, why isn't there any sound out there, could it be that... they're all dead?"
Terrified, Robin dared not go out at all and could only crawl under the bed without moving.
As the day passed, exhaustion, hunger, and thirst kept coming, and Robin was finally falling asleep.
...
"That's weird, are they running into a ghost ship?"
"It should have met the pirates first, and then those pirates were punished by the ghosts of the sea!"
"Let's...let's just get out of here, it always looks creepy like those dead people are smiling at me."
"Right. The ship must have been cursed!"
Faintly hearing the sounds of the crowd calling, Robin rubbed her eyes and dragged her hungry body out from under the bed.
"Risen, risen, the dead have risen!"
"It must be a ghost, run!"
Noticing the noise Robin made, a group of fishermen fled in tears.
"Am I the only one left again? However, not even half a sound was made, and that man called Apophis is truly terribly strong... No, it's hard to tell if he's human or not!" Robin whispered with a bitter little face.
"Is it because I escaped from suicide and he didn't bother to do it a second time?"
"Anyway, I'd like to thank him for saving me." Robin knew very well that hiding under the bed was impossible for her to hide from a strong man like that.
"Kuzan, Longinus, Apophis..." said Robin, standing among a field of dead men, looking out over the sea, "Is it only by growing to be as strong as they are that you can truly control your destiny?"
"Mama, Saul, is that what you all meant when you said that you couldn't give up hope for the future...?"
"Come on!"
Published in Qidian, March 05 2019