"Well, is he a part of the crew or not?" I ask impatiently, still standing by Jin Woo's side.
"Yes, he is our newest crew member." Jin Woo says, raising an eyebrow at Ryuzaki because we can both see he is lying about his real name, thanks to his "system."
"Maybe he just likes to keep things interesting," I tell Jin Woo before taking a few steps towards the weird man. "Hey, why aren't you telling us your real name, sugar goblin?" I demanded, but in a nonaggressive way.
"What are you doing? Why are you letting him know that we know? Jin cuts in, very annoyed.
"I already knew that you knew, and I assume you have Shinigami eyes?" Ryuzaki answers calmly before I can explain myself, not that I would have.
"No, I have six eyes," I responded. I wonder what curse Shinigami eyes are; are they any match against me?
Ryuzaki puts his hand to his mouth, shoving a piece of cake down his goblin's throat.
"Six eyes, interesting." He says, still chewing the cake into mush.
"I see you're not into sharing." Disappointed that almost everything is gone.
"Look, we need you to join my crew," Jin says convincingly to Ryuzaki. Are you trustworthy or not? He continued to ask.
"Your crew?" I turned to face him. "I was here first, so I think it's my crew," I say even more convincingly because I am the captain of this crew.
"You would still be a lost little puppy if you hadn't run into me on that dock. And it's my system, so my crew." He responds more fiercely than before while waving at the hologram screen's existence.
"System, you say," The goblin man stands up, brushing crumbs from his bright white shirt and green baggy pants. This guy doesn't even wear shoes.
"You have a natural gift of giving away all my secrets." Jin looks at me like he's ready to jump on his dragon and leave us behind.
"Me? You're the one who brought up the system right in front of him. Can you believe this guy?" I point with my thumb, fist up, asking our newest crewmate.
"You have secrets, I have secrets, we all have secrets," Ryuzaki responds suspiciously. "I'll join the crew but for my own reasons." He continues to both Jin Woo and me.
"I actually don't have any secrets," I say before feeling the back of a sword hit my head. "Hey... how did you get through my infinity? No physical being can touch me." I looked back, and a shadow stood next to Jin like he had been there the whole time.
"Meet Igris. He's here to keep your obnoxiousness in check. Now that we have established this crew has three members, what can we call you that is shorter than Ryuzaki? Jin stares at him eagerly, waiting for him to slip something useful.
"I think Ryuzaki is just fine." He walks away and heads out of the Drinker Pub exit.
Jin and I follow, and as Ryuzaki leads the way to the shadow dragon without showing any hint of fear, I wonder who will be more of a challenge in competing for the captain of this crew.
"Hey, who is paying for all this food?" Boodle yells out after us.
I turn my head back, "Put it on our treasure tab!" I call back, waving. I hear the man shouting something more, but I can't make out what he is saying as we fade into the distance now, once more on the back of Kaisel.
"What is a treasure tab?" Jin asked
"I have no idea," I laughed. I had a treasure tab in the first town I was in; it's something this world does; they don't use money here.
"Somehow, I doubt that; you just lack the capacity to grasp this world. Dungeons always have treasures, and the treasure tab implies you owe them treasure." Jin says, undermining my authority again.
"I think we should find a ship," Ryuzaki chimes in. "We can't form a proper crew all riding this shadow dragon." He counts out loud, pointing at the four of us, since Jin insists on leaving Igris out.
"Well, I think we should just take the next ship we see." Jin circles the seas, scanning the area.
This place is big; we haven't seen a ship in hours.
"Can't you just conjure a ship up for us?" I asked before getting hit by Igris again. "Come on, why did he do that? I'm ready to blast this shadow into oblivion.
"My shadows don't work that way."
"Yeah, and how do they work?"
"It's not really any of your business."
"You really have trust issues, don't you?"
"Look, a ship, let's go claim it," Jin says, the last word before having Kaisel nosedive straight for it. I can see the sharp wind cut against Ryuzaki's face as we pick up speed. I hope he doesn't plan on crashing his way into stealing this ship.
As we get closer, cannonballs begin firing our direction. Kaisel dodged each one left and right, and I'm hanging on by a thread.
We landed on the ship that has 'Marine' written on the side of it. It's a lot bigger than it looked from the sky.
"These guys must be from the base where we met."
"Yeah, and they were probably sent in search of us."
A man in a fancy white suit, with his light purple hair styled, begins walking down from the deck.
"I am Commodore Pudding Pudding." He says, and I can't help but laugh uncontrollably.
"Hey, sugar goblin—don't eat all the Pudding Pudding yourself. Leave some for the rest of us."
And I move just before Igris has the chance to hit me. But it didn't matter because an ant flew in and took Igris's place, hitting me.
"How many of these shadows do you have?" I hissed. "These shadows are really starting to get on my nerves. Don't make me call on my unlimited void."
"More than you want to count," Jin muttered.
"I am Beru," the new shadow says, hovering just a few inches away.
"Since when did your shadows start talking?"
"Still wondering that myself," Jin says, eyes still focused on the commander.
"Why have you landed on my ship?" The commander speaks again.
"We have come to take it," Jin responded.
I really should start speaking up before they think he's our captain.
I step off the dragon, leaving Jin, Ryuzaki, and the shadows a few feet behind me. "Yes, I am here to become captain of this vessel."
"Yeah, and what is the name of your crew here to take my ship, may I ask?"
"Shadow… Jin spits out a hair before I say
"Domain," I glanced at him, now standing beside me.
"Ahh, the Shadow Domain Pirates are here to take my ship." He looks at the rest of the marines, and they begin laughing in sync.
I lock eyes with Jin, both of us serious, and we're finally on the same page. We both say in sync, "Don't damage the boat," and we throw the first punch at the marines next to us.
Igris nods at me, and I duck under his sword, which cuts through the marine behind me. Jin and Beru take out the other half of the marines, and that's me being generous. This lot was easy. And we did it without help from that lazy Ryuzaki, who is just sitting back, watching on the back of the dragon.
The captain is all that is left, "He's mine," Jin says.
"Sure, my buddy Igris and I did most of the work, I'll let you have him." I grin.
"What is that?" Ryuzaki murmured, his eyes finally narrowing.
A streak of orange light tore through the clouds.
Suddenly, something comes shooting out of the sky, it looks like an explosion, multiple explosions, shooting one after another, but backwards as if the explosions were guiding something, then a young man lands on Pudding Pudding, smashing him dead and leaving no Pudding Pudding for us.
"That was either a meteor... or a very angry teenager."
Jin swings his sword toward the young man, causing lightning to appear in the sky. "Are you with us, or against us, kid?"
"The names Bakugo, I see you took out the fun part. Try not to cry when I win."