Part 37: Byuu's Journal: Entry Twenty

5th month, 11th day, 1st year of Kahna's Revival



Later in the morning I woke up to the sun shining in my eyes, a pounding headache, and Truce asking stupid questions about whether or not we'd actually won the last battle we were in. It was not a good start to the day.



And it descended still further when a couple of street urchins tried to kick us off of their turf. Seriously, what kind of delinquents was Kahna churning out while Granbelos was in charge?



They want to be soldiers in the Dragon Squad, but don't even recognize its captain. Not only vicious, but stupid to boot.



I took a certain amount of pleasure in telling him that naming a dog after a dragon wouldn't help his chances.



Even if he did name it after my dragon.



About the point when we decided to head back to the ship we noticed that something was missing. With what we know about Bikkebakke, it's possible he went off with a girl last night... or he's still stoned out of his mind from eating those mushrooms that they saw him with.



Or crying in a corner after having his dreams crushed. I don't know how he doesn't have enough money for a house by now, I've bought literally hundreds of mushrooms and a couple of expensive porno mags from him, plus there's his pay and share of the loot. He should be rolling in cash... are houses that expensive, come to think of it? I've never thought about buying one.



Hungover, hyper-aggressive hooligans, and now Bikkebakke's self-esteem issues. And that doesn't even cover some of the stuff from last night. I want another drink already.




Luckily Rush and Truce came to the rescue on this one.



Although now I think the day has just about hit rock bottom.




.. or not. Okay, I'm officially on record as saying that this needs to be restarted and done correctly.



Matelite's called us all together once again for some kind of announcement.



Although Hornet certainly seems cheerful. I guess he had a good night at the party.



I've got to say that not using their ultimate weapon in earlier battles was probably fairly stupid of the Empire. I think now we can definitely destroy it whereas earlier it would have rolled over us and ended the rebellion right there.



Bikkebakke's bounced back nicely and is trying to come up with some other strategy. How about taking the thousands of gold you already have and buying a house? Or hell, find one you like whose owners were killed in the war. I doubt it'll be a problem.



Frederica seems to be feeling about as good about today as I do.



Anastasia confirmed my suspicions that those fireworks were a bit too nice to be Matelite's work on their own.



I now have a sneaking suspicion about why Hornet's so happy today.



I kind of want to see Anastasia and Diana fight this one out now.



No Matelite as of yet, and Sendak's quarters are locked. The princess isn't in her room although... wait, what do you mean "us?"



TWELVE? TWELVE?! Wait, twelve others... thirteen... fourteen guys? Holy Bahamut's hanging testicles, how did I miss this?



I don't want a book. Unless you've got something with twins in it.



The mini-devils are running wild right now. It's actually kind of funny to watch the shop keepers cower.



The weapons shop keeper has a picture of the Trafalgar. It looks like it was designed along the same lines as DamnShip.



I share the item salesman's feelings about the Mini-Devils breathing fire. Luckily this ship isn't flammable.



One of our assassins is sitting in a corner smiling to himself. I'm more than a little creeped out.



Wait, what did you just say?



I.. how... we only decided yesterday? Or have they been..?



It's actually pretty cute. So I guess you're the father, or something, being the dragon keeper?



I can accept being the surrogate mother for a baby dragon, actually.



I've decided on a name as well, since I have no clue as to how this thing was born so quickly.



And little Clue promptly shit on my shoes. I've heard some things about this stuff..



The next thing I know I'm the dragon keeper and talking to Bahamut.



I don't think I've ever heard of a trip like this. I wonder what would happen if Bikkebakke grew some mushrooms in dragon dung?



Is this what talking to a dragon feels like for Yoyo and Sendak?



I couldn't do anything other than just go along for the ride.



The next thing I knew, I was back on the captain's deck listening to Matelite give a speech.



Or, I should say, what will be my deck. I'm coming up in the world pretty quickly. Between this and the baby dragon this day might not be half bad.



I don't even know how to be captain of a ship, but it can't be that hard.



Matelite had one last thing for us to do... rededicating the ship as the flagship of the Orelus Freedom Force.



He even felt kindly enough toward Taicho to make someone else climb up and hang the flag.




Although the results were the same.



We were near the Empire's sky fortress, but there was something else drawing our attention away...