In the Dead of Night [Arc Part 2]

‘This sucks…’ Miku thought to herself as she continued glaring right across the fire at the marine sitting there. From what she had gathered he was fairly straight laced, hadn’t made any suspicious moves, and seemed to be just as upset about the situation as herself. With enough time passing as well her temper had cooled significantly causing her to, slightly, regret the way she had been treating him. She disliked the fact that she owed him and her weak attempt at clearing that debt earlier was pitiful in retrospect.

The Rascal grit her teeth and looked into the fire contemplating how to fill the awkward tense silence between them. She still didn’t even know the guys actual name she realized with slight surprise. The woman lifted her gaze and took a deep breath to calm and steel herself for what was sure to be a frustrating conversation.

“So do you got a name? Cuz I can only call you ‘bug bastard’ or ‘marine boy’ so many times before I get sick of it.” She said while looking over the flame at him. “I’m sure you know me by now after our last bout but lets pretend you don’t. I’m Miku E. Sato, captain of the Meddling Kids.” Miku said the last sentence with a grin on her face that showed pride at what she had accomplished, she never got tired of saying it.

Her grin however quickly faded as she grimaced and forced out what she was really going to say the whole time. “Oh… and I suppose a thanks is in order… you did save me back there, as much as I hate admitting it. So there, thank you.” She said petulantly while maintaining eye contact despite wanting to look away. “Don’t expect me to say it again though and this stays between us.” She quickly added before looking back to the fire to wait to see what he would say in response.

The Rascal could at least let the corner of her lips curve upwards a bit at Anton’s, nice to have a name to the bastard, acceptance about keeping it from his own superiors. “Yeah, I’m sure the old men that hold your leash wouldn’t be happy with you sharing a fire with the likes of me.” Miku said this teasing Anton. There was no real bite behind her words but it wasn’t like she considered all marines as dogs anyway, especially from what she’d seen in her short life.

His idea of watch wasn’t insane, but it was one that required more trust than she had of him. Miku wouldn’t feel comfortable slipping into sleep with him to watch, he hadn’t earned that yet. “I’ve stayed awake for longer than a day before, you can go to sleep if you want. I’m not sleeping until I’m sure I’m safe.” Miku’s eyes simply looked into the fire, remembering all the times she was alone as a kid, wondering if she closed her eyes that night would it be for the last time. This was especially true on those harsh winter nights where you could feel your toes and fingers going numb from the extreme colds.

“I won’t do nothing to ya, if that’s what you’re worried about. If I wanted you dead I’d have tried finishing you off in the cell block, you were worse off than me after our fights.” Miku said trying to appeal to his sense of logic. “Plus I don’t like the idea of killing the man who saved me that same day.” She added with a glance away from the fire, hating to admit it out loud. “So if you want some shut eye go ahead, I’ll be a proper lady. I’ll even tell you a bedtime story if you’d like.” Miku added with a smirk as she looked back across at Anton.

The Rascal listened with some mild interest when Anton began talking about reminisce about his time training for the marines. Despite describing an obviously unpleasant event she could hear to fondness in his voice and recognized the look in his eyes as one of fond remembrance. At his admittance that he couldn’t sleep either Miku simply leaned back with her arms behind her to support herself. The sky was twinkling with stars and she couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it.

Miku’s thoughts wandered aimlessly until Anton suddenly yelled a warning causing her to immediately jump to her feet. Where Anton was once sitting now stood a large muscular… Woman? Antons disbelieving tone wasn’t unique to him and Miku simply narrowed her eyes and began looking at the sharp angular facial features that were definitely masculine along with the defined musculature of the woman’s body. However the frilly dress, ample chest, and make up all screamed otherwise.

“What the hell do ya want? If it’s a fight then you’re in for a world of hurt.” The Rascal said as she quickly rolled up her sleeves and snapped on her Knuckles. “That ambush of yours was the best chance you had of evening the odds, so I suggest ya move on or you’ll regret it.” Miku growled as she glared at the mysteriously masculine woman. She wasn’t going to judge considering most people confused her for a young man herself.

"Don't let her feminine wiles affect you Anton!" Miku yelled at the marine, unable to resist needling him after seeing the look of dread on his face. "You represent all of your marines right now and losing to a pretty face is a poor showing." Miku then smirked, "Though I suppose you already have a track record of losing to beautiful women last we met as well." The Rascal mentally imagined Emi praising her for that line along with a enthusiastic and well earned high five.

Miku wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by this large woman even as she approached them menacingly. Though she agreed that women should keep up appearances, such as not stooping to ambushing others instead of fighting. “I would agree with you but ambushes aren’t very lady like, if you had any class you would have approached us openly.” The Rascal said while moving slowly away from Anton so the two weren’t too close to one another, it would force the woman to split her attention hopefully.

Anton’s remark about her getting dragged off wasn’t exactly wrong as Emi practically refused to let her jump into any other fights. So she simply narrowed her eyes at him and let out a low growl to let him know she didn’t appreciate his comment before snidely remarking, “Been keeping an eye on me, Anton? I didn’t realize I’d left such an impression on you.” Miku tossed back at him in an attempt to not let him get the final word in their banter. When he offered his idea of a plan she nodded and kept moving away from him slowly. “Great minds and all that, Marine boy!” The Rascal teased Anton as she was already thinking the same thing, however before she could call for them to rush the woman tugged a tree straight from the ground roots and all.

“Show off.” Miku said before activating her Kenbunshoku Haki and rushing in towards the large woman. [LT - Bum Rush] “Let’s see how well you handle this!” The bluenette yelled as she suddenly windmilled kicked straight up between the woman’s legs. [MT - A Lady’s Kick] The large woman actually managed to push down a scream much to Miku’s surprise but left enough of an opening for her to swing a right hook straight at the woman’s head. [LT - Phantom Right] The Rascal tried to follow up with another jab but was suddenly blocked by a massive forearm that suddenly appeared in her view.

“Wha-” Miku yelled before she was suddenly sent flying to the side when the woman swung the giant tree right into Miku’s side with surprising speed that caught the Rascal completely off guard. [MT - Crit] Miku hit the ground hard and kept crashing through a few other trees due to the sheer force of the blow. [LT] The Rascal finally stopped when one particularly sturdy tree halted her body's motion rather suddenly and painfully. [UT] The young woman groaned and could feel blood trickling out of her mouth. Pain wracked her body but she forced herself up and glared death at behemoth of a woman who was cockily smiling at her.

“You definitely hit like a girl.” Miku said out loud as she began stumbling back towards the pair she was just sent flying away from. “That wasn’t shit compared to what that curly haired bastard did though!” Miku yelled in hopes of keeping the attention on herself.

‘Gah, that hit rang my bell more than I thought.’ Miku thought to herself as she felt the pain and aches in her body refusing to go away. The coppery taste of blood wouldn’t leave her tongue no matter how many times she tried to rinse it away with her own saliva. The shambling form that was the Rowdy Rascal slowly returned to the fight in time to witness Anton land a solid hit on the burly woman. “Good shit, marine boy.” Miku said under her breath, not really caring that she was complimenting a dirty marine.

Miku took a deep breath and began to force her body to ignore all the pain, it was after this that she saw an opening created by Anton’s last second trip. ‘This is my chance!’ Miku thought as she dashed inside of Jolene’s guard as she just finished stumbling from Anton’s last kick.

“Going up!” Miku yelled as she threw all her weight and momentum into a nasty uppercut right into Jolene’s chin. [HT - Glass Chin] The Rascal immediately followed up with a straight while mid-air and finished with a quick kick to create some distance between herself and the surely pissed off woman. [LT - Dirty Straight][UT - kick] Though at the last second Jolene managed to back hand Miku’s retreating form with a light hit, nothing the Rascal couldn’t shrug off. [Jolene’s UT]

"Tch, not bad but I'm better!" Miku taunted as she landed on her feet with only a slight dip as one of her legs, the one that was clipped by Jolene, buckled for a second. "Don't let up on her bug  boy! We got this in the bag!" Miku yelled in a rallying cry as she couldn't help but enjoy the adrenaline pumping through her system. This is what made her feel ALIVE!

Anton was holding his own against the woman very well, not that it surprised Miku too much. The man, bug man, had gone toe to toe against Emi and herself while barely losing. Something she was loathe to admit but the scarring on her shoulder said otherwise. The Rascal covered her eyes when Anton managed to shatter the tree that had been used to send her flying not just moments ago.

The woman couldn’t help but smirk in amusement when Anton landed and seemed proud of himself for that. It was impressive after all, but there wasn’t time to be a spectator forever. He had bought her enough time to recover and use her leg fully again. The pain was still there but it didn’t cause her to buckle so that was good enough. Though as Miku was about to charge back in the now trunkless woman charged and actually tackled Anton to the ground. ‘Shit, that’s never a good place to be.’ Miku thought as she knew most fights ended soon after gaining the height advantage over someone pinned on the ground.

Miku began to run back in when she saw Anton use his powerful legs to actually launch himself out. A golden opportunity presented itself when the bug marine landed another hit right on Jolene's face causing her to actually stumble but stay focused on Anton. Miku adopted a sprinters pose and began channeling her Haki into her arms. Her skin began to darken and harden as well as the muscles underneath it. Miku then dashed full speed with no chance to evade right at Jolene. It was all or nothing, do or die time. [Toggle - Reckless Abandon][Bushoshoku Haki] The Rascal actually let out a yell as she charged straight at Jolene who turned in her frenzy right on time to allow Miku to slam her fist right into her stomach at full speed.

The Rascal hadn’t stopped moving as she was actually trying to punch through the larger woman and kept taking steps and moving her arm forward causing her fist to dig deeper into Jolene’s abdomen. The larger woman’s face contorted in pain as all the air in her lungs was forced out and a strangled cry of pain along with blood and spittle escaped her mouth. It was only a fraction of a second later that she was sent flying back from Miku whose fist was actually smoking from the power of the impact. Jolene went crashing through several trees just as Miku had but unlike the Rascal, Jolene didn’t get back up. [HT (Crit) - Rascal Cannon]

The bluenette took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves as she was feeling the drain of putting all her strength into that one punch. Miku then put both her hands on her knees and bent over slightly as if she was going to barf only to release a roaring laugh. “PFFT, BWAH, HA, HA HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!” Tears were streaming down her eyes as she couldn’t stop laughing. “Bwah, did, pfft, did you, HA, see her go FLYING?” Miku said as she tried to calm down, wiping her eyes and turning to Anton. “Aaah, hah, that’s was so satisfying. Paybacks a bitch and her name is Miku.” A single thumb was raised as Miku pointed to herself with a satisfied smirk on her face.

After a couple more uncontrollable bursts of giggling Miku managed to regain most of her composure, the adrenaline high still running through her system. Anton's smile was a first for Miku and it didn't look condescending or arrogant as it did on most Marines. It was genuine for once.

"Yeah, we do, I guess." Miku agreed with only slight hesitation. "She wasn't nearly as tough as fighting you was, so of course it was easy." Miku said in a roundabout way of complimenting him back. At this point she had turned away and refused to give him anymore positive feedback. Not that her face had soured at all, she still had a content smile on her lips.

Anton's point about them attracting attention wasn't wrong, the sound of trees being shattered and thrown about would have easily echoed, especially at night. "As much as I'd love to pretend I'm up for another bout, I'm pretty banged up." Miku admitted with apprehension as she wrapped an arm around her tender ribs.

It was at that moment that Miku realized that she was in much worse condition than Anton was and if he decided to arrest her she wouldn't be able to resist very much. Splitting up would also be dangerous as she was hurt and there could be more people on the way here. These thoughts quickly sobered her adrenaline high and caused her smile to fade away. With a slow turn she gave Anton an apprehensive look as she tried to ignore her worrying thoughts.

"Maybe we could find a nice tall tree to sleep in? You're be surprised how many people never look up. Or a cave if we're lucky, that way any fire we made wouldn't be seen and we'd be protected from the weather." Miku suggested hoping to keep Anton focused on their mutual survival and not notice how weakened she was.