Part 51: Somebody's Watching You

"Well, that went better than expected. Let's commence with the stabbing!"



"That… better. Sleeping people don't fight good."

"Why am I tagging along with you bloodthirsty idiots again?"



"And she just left you here and kept going? That's kind of a dick move.."



"Because we're the good guys, and it'd be just plain boring if we were fighting regular soldiers?"

"Still makes me think that something is fishy. We definitely don't have monsters in Forcena."



"Dunno… looks kinda under-armored and underfed."

"Wait, listen! I'm Hawk… I used to be one of them, but now they're after me!"

"A girl named Isabella put everyone under a spell… I'm here to stop her!"

"Huh.. well, I suppose we probably shouldn't kill you if you're actually here to help. What's this about Isabella?"

"I don't know what her deal is.. it's like she's not even human."



"If you murder a man, you can only rob him that one time. If you let him live, you can come back and rob him again and again."

"Isabella… or "Bigieu" as she calls herself now… was responsible for my friend Eagle's death."

"She aso put a curse on his sister, Jessica. If Bigieu dies, Jessica dies as well…"

"Please, if you ever meet Bigieu, don't kill her, just capture her… I know that sounds selfish, but…"

"Eh, whatever. No killing. Is maiming okay?"

"I… don't know? Do I look like an expert on magical curses?"

"Maiming should be fine. From the sound of it the spell only really has an effect if Bigieu dies."

"Right… I don't know if that's possible, but I'll try."

"I appreciate it! I'll go ahead on my own now… See you later."



"Someone's here."

"Alert Bigieu…"

"What!? Come back here, you idiots! I meant for you to let her go and fight me!"

"The enemy general is in that room…"

"That's even better! Maybe we'll get both of those guys and her at the same time!"

"Leave it to us. We'll do our best!"



"That's the enemy general? Bigieu? I really expected something completely different."

"I'm pretty sure that's just something they threw in our way to slow us down."

"Won't slow us down for long…"



"Combine!!"

"You have got to be kidding me…"

"Afraid not…"

"Don't they realize that a single target is just that much easier to kill?"



"Yes. Yes you are."



"Hahaha… I am Bigieu. I serve the Dark Prince…"

"Yeah, about that… we kinda promised this twerp who called himself Hawk that we've capture you alive. Do you mind coming with us?"

"Hmph… I don't needy his castle anymore. You can have it back now!"

"Hey, wait!"

"Next time attack her first, then ask her to give up."



"But… It won't bring back Father…"

"Bigieu is manipulating the Navarre ninjas? What kind of monster is she?"

"She took my kingdom, my father, and my brother… she will never be forgiven…"

"Well, yeah, but.. what kind of monster? Snake woman? Some kind of demon? Maybe a giant weasel?"

"Smells like… cat, to me."

"A cat monster? Now you're just being ridiculous."



"You don't have to worry about the Sword of Mana. We've got this."

"Just focus on your brother."



"No bigs. Just hope you find him soon."

"So what do we do now?"

"We found the wind spirit. Let's head back to Forcena!"



"Nikita!!"

"Hey bro! Help me out over here, will ya!"

"All right… Anybody who hurts that cat will answer to me! Understood?"

"You, again? Shouldn't you be rescuing your princess or whatever the hell she was?"

"Yeah, but… bros before hos, you know? Besides I was passing through and I couldn't just ignore him."




"Jessica was already cursed, so the spell didn't work on her. Bigieu had her put in jail…"

"Then, they fortified the walls. I couldn't do anything about it… They put me under the spell too."

"It's not your fault… And don't even think about going back for her! Too dangerous!"

"Also, how the hell did we end up in here?"

"I wasn't going to listen to that story without a drink. And where else would we be drinking?"



"That's not exactly the response I was expecting…"

"And we never heard from him again."



"Score! Huh, probably a good thing we didn't have to fight those Navarre goes if they actually had better gear than we do…"



"An empty bar. Is there a sadder sight in the entire world?"

"Maybe a basket full of drowning puppies. Anyway, it's kind f hard to keep a bar running without employees."

"Amazon bartender needs to come back. Boring without her"



"Wait, a free ride? This is a bit funny…"

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Or boat ride."

"The Navarre Raiders left a ton of booze behind when they pulled out. I've got enough to take care of you guys AND sell it for a profit when we hit port."

"Sold!"




"Aren't we at Byzel yet? What's going on!?"

"Why are you making so much noise? What's going on?"

"I swear, there was something in the room watching us…"



"I hope not.. .anything but that. Maybe the Captain got smashed and we're just lost?"



"How have we been on this ship 3 times already and never noticed this creepy sign?"

"You were usually in an alcoholic haze within 5 minutes, so it doesn't shock me…but I haven't seen it either."

"You were drunk every time after the first trip too, but I agree that this sign wasn't here…"

"Gene! A princess is never drunk! Only.. tipsy…why are you laughing at me, Duran?"



"What was your first clue?"

"It should have been the ghosts hovering over you and watching you while you slept."

"I could have went the rest of my life without knowing that…. why would you tell me that?"

"To give you some motivation to blow through this thing and figure out who's actually running the show here."



"What the hell? What is WRONG with this place!?"

"Good eeeeevening…"



"Sorry about that, but you should have seen your face… it was priceless!"

"You son of a….. get over here!

"Hey, watch where you swing that thing! Lucky I'm a ghost right now… the guys at home are never going to believe this."

"You're a ghost… which means you're stuck here on the ghost ship."

"That is a problem…I know! Tag, you're it!"



"Just a little bit around the edges. It looks like some kind of transferable curse…you'd have to give it to someone else to get away."




"That's because they've been around you long enough to see the writing on the wall. Don't worry, we'll find out what's causing this and bust you out."

"The hell with that! Gene, get over here!"

"Aww man…"



"Uh… Duran? DURAN!"

"What is it this time?"

"Window.. skeleton.. out the… watching…"

"So? Ghost ship, remember? If you get upset over every little thing there'll be no end to it."



"You've already pissed me off enough by making me chase you through the entire ship and do all that stupid crap with the books."

"I can't decide if you're just massively arrogant, incredibly stupid, or as good as you think you are. Does it ever cross your mind right before you call some eldritch horror out like a drunk at a bar that what you're about to do is a bad idea?"



"Probably a combination of all three. And why would it seem like a bad idea? It's worked so far, hasn't it?"

"Unbelievable…"



"Oooh…"

"See, things like this are why you get left behind all the time."

"If Shade is here, then the Mana Stone of Darkness is on this ship as well?"

"No, that Stone is lost… it doesn't exist anymore."



"It didn't end well."

"Because of the God-Beast of Darkness?"

"Yeah, it wrecked everybody's shit using the energy of the other Mana Stones, then just disappeared along with its Mana Stone."



"It was the biggest catastrophe in the history of civilization… I'm actually amazed that you've reinvented fire and come out of the caves already."

"You mean it's still out there somewhere?"

"Maybe? Could be here, could be in another universe…we won't know until it shows back up. Or doesn't. But we've got bigger problems."



"What!? No way!"

"Way."

"In that case, I think we'd better start swimming."

"Yay! I love swimming!"



"We've gotta get out of here, pronto!"