Quest to Nowhere: Black Hat

Chapter 1: Changing Winds

He reclined in his deck chair with his hat over his face. The salty ocean wind wafted over him, as his body was warmed by the sun on this cloudless day.

“Admiral, Sir!” He heard a voice from behind him say.

“What are you doing?” The Admiral asked without reacting.

Before the sailor could answer the Admiral answered for him, “You are interrupting my relaxation time, and what did I tell everyone not to do?”

“Not disturb your relaxation time, Sir.” he answered nervously.

“Good, you aren't a complete idiot,” the Admiral said as he took off his hat, and sat up looking towards the sailor.

“But Sir...” the sailor tried to break in before he was cut off.

The Admiral raised his hand to the sailor motioning him to stop speaking. “So why must you disobey me? Do you not think I'm a good Captain?”

The sailor stood there nervously, while all along the rest of the ship men scurried about looking very busy. One man running past them stopped and threw his arm around the shoulders of the nervous sailor. “It's pirates Admiral, right ahead of us.”

The Admiral stood up and whipped his head towards the front of the ship, where just off on the horizon there was a ship.

“Why didn't someone come get me?!” asked the Admiral as he turned back to the two sailors. The nervous sailor studdered a bit while the other one laughed. The Admiral didn't bother to wait for an answer as he headed off to the helm of the ship.

The laughing sailor messed up the others hair. “Don't worry too much about it, Admiral Smithstone can be a little strange. Once you get used to his quirks everything will go much easier newbie.”

The newbie tried to straighten his hair up a little. “No wonder you guys sent me to tell him...”

The Admiral bounded up the stairs to the helm from the deck. Admiral Gaiyu Smithstone was a large man, easily the largest of his crew. But standing nearly six feet five inches tall, he was rather proportional to his frame. He wore a uniform similar to the other sailors except it appeared more formal and more decorated, or it would if he had not removed the sleeves on it. He also wore a blue and white trilby hat, that he was constantly holding on his head, because of the gusts of wind that passed over the ship.

“How long 'til we reach them?” the Admiral yelled to the navigator as he reached the top of the stairs.

“These winds are very unfavorable. It's likely we might not be able to get anywhere near them, especially if they see us,” the navigator reported back as he kept his hands on the wheel.

“Looks like I'll have to do it,” the Admiral said as he quickly turned around and slid down the railings.

The Admiral ran over to the closest point on the ship to the pirates. The crew started to gather around him a bit, muttering amongst themselves.

The newbie sailor watched the Admiral with a bit of a puzzled look. “What does he plan on doing?” he seemed to say to no one.

The sailor that had helped him earlier stood next to him again. “You'll see,” he said with a big smile.

The Admiral played a little bit with the bracers on his wrists. The right one was a matte gray steel, as if it had one been shiny but over time had lost its luster. The left bracer was a gold and silver, and shown as if it were brand new.

The Admiral then raised his right hand, and pointed it up at the pirate ship. He seemed to adjust it slightly while holding it in the air, before a chain shot out of the base of his palm towards the pirate ship. After a few seconds it stopped, and he tugged on it to make sure it was secure.

“See you guys in a few minutes,” he said before he was quickly whisked off the ship and flew in the air towards the pirates.

“What the hell was that?!” The newbie yelled as the other sailors hooted and cheered on the Admiral.

“The Admiral has two magical bracers, the right one produces that chain which he can control. The left one makes his left hand invulnerable to everything,” said the sailor next to the newbie. “I'm surprised you hadn't heard about them.”

“Of course I heard rumors! But how was I supposed to know they were real?!”

The crew laughed at his comment before the first mate chimed in, “Everyone get ready for the Admiral's return. Get some cuffs and chains, and everyone else get back to your stations!”

The crew stopped laughing and scattered, as the first mate leaned up against a mast and looked out at the pirate ship. He looked down at his watch, before returning his gaze to the sea.

After some time the sound of a chain wrapping around one of the masts could be heard. The first mate looked down at his watch, and then moved away from the mast a bit. Soon after the Admiral landed loudly on the deck, holding the chain in his right hand, and holding a blond haired woman in his left arm. He put her down on the deck, and it became clear her hands and feet were shackled.

The top of her hair barely topped out at Admiral's elbow, and her golden hair ran far down her back and into curls at the end. She was dressed in sort of the typical pirate garb, except for the leather corset like top, that seemed to amplify and accentuate already busty chest. The crew catcalled and hooted on seeing her, she seemed to take a serious dislike to the attention.

“Fifteen minutes Admiral, that's rather slow for you,” the first mate said to him.

“Well I made them throw their treasure overboard, but I brought the captain back with me,” he said patting the woman on the back.

“We should still go take the pirate ship sir,” the first mate said.

“Leave them be, in this wind we'd never catch them, and if there were no pirates we'd be out of jobs,” he said giving a hearty laugh.

“Alright then, someone come here and take her down to the hold!” The first mate ordered, as two men stepped forward and took her chains from the Admiral.

“Actually take her to my quarters and chain her to a chair. I'd like to interrogate her before she goes into the hold.

The first mate paused for a second and then motioned for the men to head to the Admiral's quarters. As they walked with her the catcalls continued as the crew lined the path to the Admiral's door.

The Admiral put his hand on the first mate's shoulder, “put us on a heading towards Seacroft, it's about time we checked in and we can put her in a real prison when we get there.”

“Yes sir,” the first mate replied saluting him before heading off to the helm.

The Admiral strolled down the deck to his quarters, as he got there the two men that had put the pirate captain inside were coming out. They saluted the Admiral before scurrying off, while the Admiral entered his quarters and locked the door. He turned to face the pirate captain in time to see her removing the last shackle from her right wrist.

The Admiral laughed, “You never cease to amaze me.”

She smiled at him, “Well they didn't do a particularly good job.”

“Probably got distracted,” he rebuttaled as he walked over and sat down in a chair across from her at the table.

“Well you should have probably taught them better,” as she spoke her voice began to change from a sultry salty voice to a more mellow tone. Soon her whole body was changing. Her hair turned black and retreated up her back into a very short and messy cut. Her bust shrunk a little as her figure became more trim, and her clothes changed into an orange tunic with a bandalier belt running right to left across her body. Her pants remained very much the same, only taking on a dark blue color. Her face also changed from a woman close to middle age, into a much younger woman in her 20's. Her face also took on a bit of an air of sophistication to it.

“So now I should be helping out the enemy? I guess you'd like things to be harder,” the Admiral said back as he put his feet up on the table.

“Sorry Captain, I spoke out of turn,” she replied.

“Nah, I like it when you question me Robin, too many yes men around you know?” he said back to her, causing her to give a bit of a half cocked smile back.

“But we should get down to business, who knows how much time we have at the moment,” he said.

She stood up and saluted, “Interim Captain and First mate of the Black Hat Pirate Crew, Robin Arisawa, reporting.”

The Admiral covered his face with his hand, “You don't have to do that, I know who you are. You really gotta relax more.”

“Sorry sir,” she said as she sat back down.

“Now tell me how my ships are doing,” he said, “It's been what? Two years since I last heard a report.”

“As you saw earlier the Santa Maria is doing great, your tips have really helped us. We've been way ahead of the Navy's movements, and been able thwart some other pirate crews too.” she said as she started her report, “The Nina and Pinta last reported in about two weeks ago. Last I had heard they were both bringing in a lot of money. The Nina had an incident not too long ago with the Navy you probably heard of, the Pinta had a few run ins with Bridgar's Navy. Nothing too serious has been born from those.”

The Admiral nodded along, “Sounds like things are going along pretty smoothly.”

“All thanks to you sir, your efforts have been a huge part of our success, and the disappearance of most our rivals.”

“Well that's what I had hoped, so it's good to see my plan is working so well.”

"Although many of the crew have really started to miss your leadership after five years, I'm not quite the Captain you are it seems," she said rather solomly.

"You shouldn't say that, this would not have been as successful without you replacing me."

There was a short awkward moment while Robin looked around the room.

“So how come you guys suddenly appeared like that? You know all the ship movements, and don't tell me it was an accident or just to give me that little report,” The Admiral questioned her.

Robin paused for a moment before looking back at him. “We think that your cover may have been blown...”

He slide his feet off the table and leaned forward and asked calmly, “How?”

“It seems that recently the Captain of the Blood Pirates crew was captured, and in order to get let off he offered up this piece of information to the Bridgar Navy in exchange for his freedom. They took the information, then hung him the next day.”

“Well at least he got what was coming to him,” the Admiral said as he leaned back in his chair.

“Sorry to have to tell you sir,” she said.

“No I appreciate it. I guess I should be expecting to see an inquiry soon into me, if that's the case,” he said looking off into space.

There was a loud knock on the door, and through the door a sailor yelled, “Sir, you are being hailed by Admiral Sorken. We'll connect it to the receiver in your room if you want, sir.”

He stood up and faced the door. “Tell them to connect me in here sailor!”

“Yes sir,” said the sailor outside.

He turned to Robin and asked, “So how long ago did that happen?”

Robin looked to be thinking then said, “maybe a month or two ago. We aren't clear on the exact date.”

The Admiral walked over to his desk, on it a small circular metallic receiver sat connected to stone box covered in runes, by a black wire. As he reached the desk the receiver began to buzz and he picked it up.

“Hello?” he said into the receiver.

A voice crackled from the reciever, "Admiral Smithstone? This is Admiral Sorken."

"It's been a while Sorkey, how you been?"

"I told you not to call me that!... In any case I'd like to meet you over at 'Training Island #8' I need to discuss something with you in private."

"I'll see you there then Sorkey!" Smithstone said before hanging up.

He turned and faced Robin. "Looks like I'm going to have to put you in the brig for a little while. I hope you don't mind."

She stood up and walked over to him as she reattached the shackles. When she got next to him she got on her toes and kissed his cheek, before changing back into the short blond captain form she had originally appeared on the ship in.

"I don't mind at all sir," she said with a smile as she walked to the door.