The Trouble with Stowaways

Kuro had been taking a nap before they left, and knew they would be pulling out before he woke, so he wasnt surprised to wake up to the salty cool air that he always did when at sea. Most firebenders shied away from cold and wet areas, however, Kuro thrived in those specific areas, especially the sea. Then again, who could call this sociopath bent on nothing more than entertainment and pleasure normal? Well, no one who knew him even slightly, but that was beyond the point. He was however, surprised when he felt something new. He barely noticed it, but with how ordinary everything was right now, it stuck out like a sore thumb. He couldnt pinpoint what it was from, but the feeling only intensified as he walked up the deck silently. It wasnt a particularly powerful feeling, but it was odd. Most would describe it as creepy, but then, most would also throw up and lose their minds if they saw Kuro's laboratory. No, the sensation itself was refreshing, but he wished he could place it.

Above deck, there was not much noise going on, and everyone seemed off guard for the moment. That might have been why three men jumped when Kuro silently appeared behind them. They only noticed due to his deep inhaling of the salty moist air. The simultaneous thoughts through their minds involved describing just how fucking creepy Kuro could be at times. Kuro loved being creepy to people, even his friends, provided they could take a joke. Kuro glanced at the three and raised his right eyebrow. They didnt seem to feel what he was, judging by how relaxed and calm they had been, until he practically gave them heart attacks. God he loved doing that. Either way, he scanned the area, making sure nothing was out of place. His eyes paused when they met the invisible creature. Kuro would remember this feeling after he learned it had been a spirit. It was strange, but his eyes paused for only a few seconds before they wandered around further, continuing their scan.

Nothing seemed wrong, but appearances were often deceiving. Kuro knew this because he was a white haired eighteen year old firebender who acted often like a crazy old man. You couldnt think that about him just from a glance. Then again, with how many other natural rules of life Kuro just simply broke, was it any surprise? It shouldnt be. Kuro shrugged, and sat in his usual chair. Most people were sleeping beneath the deck, since most of the work had been done sailing out. Everything was decently clean, nothing was broken. Now, Kuro was no clean freak, but something just bothered him, something was off about today, and he couldnt tell what it was! Most didnt know it, but what got Kuro excited the most was figuring something new out. In turn, what annoyed him most was when he couldnt find anything about something new. It was a pet peeve, but he was working on it. We all have flaws, that was his main one.

Let it not be said that Kuro was harsh. He was a level beyond harsh, so many who had seen this strange occurrence, were worried he would flip out and level the place with lightning. They all knew he could, and would if enough irritated him. He was a kind person until you pissed him off, even with the cynicism and paranoia. So when he was suddenly drenched in water, they expected him to fly off the handle and destroy something, or kick someone into a wall. He probably would have, if he was normal, but as we have gone over, he is absolutely not normal. The crew was almost scared for their lives. Last time someone had the guts to do something like this they had to endure one of Kuro's spars. Let it be said that sparring with a lightning using swordsman is not the most enjoyable experience there is. It wasnt like he actually killed anyone from it, no, he was usually lenient in his spars, not trying to kill anyone. Oh, there had been executions on deck, but never in a spar.

Seeing all that, one might understand why everyone was shocked when he simply closed his eyes and leaned back, laying into the chair, which reclined into something resembling a chair one would see at the beach for tanners, moved the bucket away, and said a simple "Thanks." Oh yes, surprise was the exact reaction the crew had. They really hadnt learned that when it came to Kuro, if you expected something, it probably wasnt going to happen. They knew he was odd, but that was nearing insanity. How could any fire bender thank someone for drenching them in water on a cold day at sea, where it was windy? They didnt know that Kuro rather enjoyed the nice chill from the combined coolness of the wind, natural temperature, and the water. It made him shiver, but not out of cold, more out of that feeling one gets when listening to the perfect song. Admittedly, he was curious as to who had the balls to drench him, but he decided he didnt much care. He guessed it had something to do with the feeling he had earlier, but he dismissed it for the most part, preferring to relax in his chair instead. God it was good being captain.

At that point, Kuro knew something was up. A simple prank of water was understandable, but a flip of his chair? NO ONE touched his chair, not even Kaigen. Which meant either one of the crew had decided to be particularly suicidal, or he was dealing with something new. New. Rather like that new feeling that had spiked before his chair was moved, and before he was drenched. Now, as for his movements when the chair was flipped, well, before the chair flipped entirely, he was already rolling forward, but seemed to stop perfectly to lean against the mast of the ship, whilst sitting down. He took a long drag of a cigarette, no one had any idea how he obtained it, and sighed. "This spot is even better." Oh yes, two could play this game. The chair flipping had obviously been an act of annoyance from his casual dismissal of the water. That amused him, something was up, obviously, and he was someone who would find out just what that something was.

Kuro yawned, and stretched a bit, putting his arms behind his head, leaning back onto the giant pole that held the sails. He momentarily thought about just what the hell it could be, and came up with a few answers. The first, was that someone on the ship was a waterbender or an airbender and tried to embarrass him, which was unlikely, as he could tell any lies from nearly nothing, and none of the crew, aside from him and kaigen, were benders. Well, some of the girls bent, but thats neither here nor there. His crews affairs were their own, so long as they didnt impact business or anyone else on the ship. One other possibility was a low level spirit who somehow wandered into the mortal plane. Oh, Kuro had a bit of knowledge on spirits, at least more than an average person. Training to be a scholar for years will do that to you. He had also heard that some hypersensitive people could feel when a spirit was near, which would explain that new feeling, but he wouldnt be surprised if it were something else. I mean, what kind of spirit would just happen to wander onto his ship just to prank him? Honestly, it was strange, not the strangest thing he had ever seen, but still.

Hilariously enough, Kuro had seen the ropes that held the sail unties themselves. Yup, definitely a spirit. Airbenders could be versatile, but not that much. The funny thing was, when it came to cloths such as the sail, they never fell fast, infact they almost fell in slow motion, especially for someone like Kuro. He simply unsheathed his sword and held it straight up. The edge split the sails almost too easily, and he swung it down. The end result was a bit of a hole in the now lowered sail, enough to leave Kuro completely uncovered. He had no worries about the said. Any pirate worth his weight carried around repair tools. Admittedly he couldnt repair them himself, but his crew could. It was hardly a hole that was a worry anyway, they could easily make it to port as soon as they put it back up. He was probably having too much fun with this spirit, but he was allowed to. Hey, being a captain had its perks.

He hoped the spirit would reveal itself soon. He frowned. He didnt like referring to an conscious being as "it". Doing so made the being seem more like an unconscious reaction than a true life form, spirit or not. Admittedly, he should probably be pissed with the spirit, trying to prank him. He had to admit the spirit was persistent. Most humans just quit when he glared at them, which was intimidating of itself when he had lightning spark off of him, a trick anyone with lightning bending could do. Then when he changed his voice to just say stop, well, most people pissed themselves, thinking a demon had possessed a man. Voice manipulation was a slightly rare skill, and he was glad he was able to use it to intimidate. He took another drag of that cigarette, which still had people scratching their heads, and exhaled deeply. This was the life, pissing off rogue spirits, scaring the hell out of his crew, and that crisp cool air on his still damp skin. Then he realized this was pretty much the average day since he had become a captain. Except usually instead of spirits, he pissed off people who thought they could kill him. Well, the results were obvious since he was still alive, despite their best efforts.

Now see, there tend to be a few reactions when a spirit willingly reveals itself. People were still superstitious, regardless of facts. Kuro wasnt, but his crew was. In the span of a few seconds they just vanished down to their rooms. Seeing the effects of a spirit was one thing, but genuinely seeing and hearing a spirit was another. Several of the crew prayed for their captain. Several more prayed for the spirit. Kuro grinned. "Well I do aim to please. I'm Kuro, who are you?" He had restrained his natural instinct to impale whatever appeared when she did, which was good, as he didnt know whether or not he could genuinely kill spirits. Damned if he wouldnt try sooner or later. With Kuro, something as blatantly insane as killing a spirit wasnt a question of if, but when. Of course he was probably already past blatantly insane just talking to a spirit, but hey, he was already insane, what could a pranking spirit do other than entertain him, and herself? He chuckled.

He decided not to ask why she had randomly decided to prank him, seeing as he really didnt care. He was far more interested in the spirit itself than the reasons behind its appearance. Something as new as a spirit. New things were rare, and he found them interesting, such as when Shi-hao tried to hide things from him. Oh he may not have yet known, but the answer was obvious since she avoided it so much. Regardless, he merely stared the spirit in her eyes, his own grey eyes boring into her blue ones. A spark of curiosity, which for Kuro was more like a lightning storm, shown in his eyes. The spirit had interested him, and he always found out things that interested him. Aside from that, she had a sense of humor! How rare was that, even in humans? Seriously, no one found it funny when someone asked him for a hand, and he held up an actual hand. granted, it was disembodied, but still.

Kuro raised his eyebrow. Ahura wasnt any of the three spirits he had heard about. Admittedly, he only knew one of their names, the other two had descriptions. Of course he heard about some Roku spirit, but after hearing that it involved the Avatar, he rather tuned that out. Why should he care anything about the avatar, not like he was the avatar, and certainly not for a lack of trying. Hell, he came into bending a few years earlier than most thanks to his desperation to be the avatar. It was funny when he thought about it, how he thought he could actually become the avatar if he just willed it to happen enough. Admittedly, his firebending father and earth bending mother were both shocked when he bent lightning rather than fire, but hey, they were still proud. Even then they still pushed him to become a scholar. Anyway, she didnt resemble that face thief that he heard about once. He may have more knowledge about the spirit world than most civilians, but the information he had seen into spoke of only two. However, the idea of a face thief meant that either mortals could go into the plane, or that spirits could come into the mortal plane. The spirit infront of him confirmed the second idea, but was the first still possible? He didnt doubt it.

She circled him, which was probably the least threatening thing she did, what with trying to drown him with water, crush him with a chair, or suffocate him with the sail. Hey, if she lit him on fire, she could claim to have used all the elements to try to kill him! She was right though, there were three. In fact, there were a lot of threes, the amount of times her pranks failed, the number of pranks she tried to pull, the number of white haired people on the ship, the number of people left on the deck, as one crew member was still steering the wheel, not even slightly paying attention to the world around him, and it was also the number of similarities between the two. White hair, a grin, and barefeet. Kuro loved being barefoot, but mostly did so when relaxing. Something about shoes felt constrictive to him. Probably because he had large feet. In any case, he examined the girl a bit, and laughed. This, short spirit, had the chance to kill him and didnt take it, so he determined she was little harm, at most a bit of fun.

He still didnt understand why others were scared of spirits. She didnt look that intimidating. Granted, he would probably say the same thing when faced with a dragon, but even then, he was pretty sure even by normal people standards she was only slightly creepy. If anything she seemed like one of those fae a few fiction books had talked about. Apparently it was a common race based on the concept of fairies. Fae were short, mysterious beings who often meddled with human affairs for no more reason than fun. Look at this particular spirit, Kuro had to wonder whether or not they were actually real. She certainly did what she had for fun, and she was short, at least to him. He may have been over six feet tall, but she was what? Four feet? Honestly he was amazed that she would appear so small to him, but he had little doubt it was all part of another prank. He had to admit that at least with her around he wouldnt be as bored. He wondered if he could convince her to torment his brother for a bit..."So what are you doing here?"

Her manner of speech was odd, but he didnt suppose you could expect a spirit to actually try to be understandable. They were spirits, as if they gave a fuck what mortals thought. He chuckled lightly. She had been playing then, not trying to kill him, which meant he didnt need to attack her. He idly wondered whether or not it was wise to let a spirit ride on a boat, which it didnt understand, judging from the words she chose. She was rambling, not annoyingly, but in a manner one would use when trying to explain something. He noted her hands were behind her back and held back against the instinct to stab her. This was a playful spirit, only to be attacked if it attacked first. He had to remind himself that so he didnt accidentally impale it. He idly wondered if spirits could even die, but since it was a manifestation of one in physical form, it most likely could. Whether or not it could come back was the real question.

Kuro stepped away from the sail, which someone was bound to repair soon. Thankfully, it had crumpled up, so it didnt stretch far, it mostly piled in one small area. Not that small, but the ship had been designed to hold thirty people comfortably, so in comparison to the ship itself, it was small. The deck, for the most part, was wooden. There was a layer of steel right beneath the deck, just in case a fire broke out, with him being the main fighter, and a firebender. The ship itself was mostly steel, with wood coverings, except on the sides and bottom. By now, he had to wonder why he even bothered with wood coating, but remembered most people on the ship liked being barefoot, so a steel floor at sea wasnt the best idea for that. Kuro had to wonder what kind of crazy spirit boarded a ship just to play with sails. "Very interesting." The curiosity in Kuro's eyes was unmistakable. He circled her for a moment. "Are all spirits like you?" He hoped there wasnt much harm in that question, frankly he didnt know how to speak to a spirit, if they had their own language, if they even COULD be insulted by mere words. He hated not knowing something.

Obviously this particular spirit was not malevolent. It seemed to suggest most spirits hid from humans due to dislike. That was interesting. If nothing else, it would make sense why the crew fled. Well, it would have, if any of them were actually informed about spirits. No, they were just superstitious. This spirit was nothing but playful. She rather reminded Kuro of a childish little kid, wanting nothing more than to have fun, but not realizing how dangerous some fun was. He couldnt remember being like that, as he really hadnt had a childhood. He had been trained to become a scholar, against his wishes. Scholars, by default, were mostly just writers who didnt truly think, but just memorized. Kuro wanted to learn, to think, and to test. He would rather be out there exploring and learning things than stuck in a house learning nothing but pointless history. He liked some history, sure, but did he give a damn who the third uncle of some noble was? Hell no. Nobles pissed him off, pure and simple. Not all of them, just those with those damned god complexes. Arrogance was understandable, if you could actually back it up, but no, most nobles were just stuck up men prejudiced against anything different, who had less common sense than a dead cougar.\

Kuro himself had problems with arrogance like that due to his age. Many see a teenager and immediately assume he is like their own children, who probably misbehave in some meager way which really changes nothing in the long run. Kuro had problems getting respect from anyone older, for the simple fact he was younger. It didnt matter that he could beat them to death with ease. It didnt matter if he was smarter than them. Hell, he doubted their opinions would change if he made it rain cows for a single day. All they would see was another teenager, never even attempting to use common sense to determine anything about him. He was rambling to himself though. However, it did make him realize why he was sympathizing with the spirit in a few ways. Both were different than expectations, but people simply refused to realize it. At least the spirit could carve a path of blood and not be punished, unless the avatar decided to do it. He however, would have to contend with a few dumbasses who, like most of the world, jumped to conclusions.

Admittedly, knowing all this gave him a large advantage. He could play any role he needed to manipulate people into doing what he wanted. Be it the reserved gentleman, the cruel sociopath, the nervous child, the man wise beyond his years. In a way, he was all of them, and none. A strange thought. Turning his main focus back to the spirit's question, he grinned. Oh yes, she could play with his crew. Hell, if he could get her to mess with Kaigen, or even Shi-hao, he would be extremely pleased. "Certainly, have something in mind?" By his manner of speaking he had shown he wanted to be part of it, hopefully the spirit would understand. Actually, come to think of it, he was intensely interested in spirits now, did they have their own culture? Their towns? The feeling he noted that was connected with the spirit was the same strength as before, but not nearly as alarming, since he had seen the spirit.

Kuro twitched at the mention of his chair. Seriously, that thing had been the most comfortable chair he had, and to just flip it like that? He ignored it though, and had to grin at what she said. Scaring was something he did best, though perhaps intimidating was a better word. He was taller than most, an expert bender and swordsman, with an absolutely evil cackle, what wasnt intimidating about him? Oh, right, his kindness. Was he too kind? Perhaps too cruel? He didnt know, he was him, and that was all that mattered to him. Let others be scared of him, or look down on him, he was still better than those fucknuggets, because unlike them, he accepted who he was. He still wasnt sure who actually thought he was too kind, but there had to be someone out there who thought that, after all, he would take a hit for anyone on his crew. And by anyone, he meant Shi-hao, or Kaigen. The rest of the crew were just people to him, no one he cared deeply about. The crew as a whole was different, but individually, no.

Kuro's grin at her mention of scaring people was so demonic and insidious, he nearly looked like a spirit himself, except he was more like those dark spirits that made many superstitious, like that one thing that stole faces. Actually, come to think of it, that was a perfect metaphor for him, considering his vast array of personality masks. Not to mention how cruel and loathsome he could truly be at times. His threat to beat someone to death with their internal organs wasnt a joke. He was probably one of the most brutal people out there, if not the most brutal period. He wondered briefly if he could be as creepy to spirits as he was to people, but put that thought away for later. Now was the time to see how exactly Ahura was going to scare his crew, who had begun to file out, warily glancing at the spirit. They were still scared, but with the lack of screams, it was obvious she wasnt a direct problem.