A Ship Away

**Users Involved:** User:GalaxiaWW, User:Shamankingaursu
**Setting:** 1584
**Characters Involved**: Mr. Biggles, Rajin, Kurai Kage

## The Tale Begins

*The tale that I'm about to tell you is that of a man and a cat. A tale about a partnership that grew between these distinct creatures, fulled by the same lingering desire.*

*"What could possibly link a man's desire to a cat's?", you may ask. "Does the man own the cat?", or even "does the cat own the man?". "Are they related to some extent?" or "is this some kind of sick furry story?". Once you understand who that man is and who that cat was, then these and many other questions should be answered throughout this tale. But, for now, let's meet our protagonists.*

It was around 3:00 PM when Mr. Biggles arrived at the Fishbowl. It was a fairly large ship with a house-like construct on its deck. It was painted blue, with large, red letters flickering its name over the opening that would be its entrance. The ship was anchored, connected to the land through a movable, wooden bridge.

Biggles crossed it, arriving at the door where he was greeted by a single staff member. He looked at Biggles in awe, but his reaction didn't stop him from asking for his credentials. "A cat in a suit or a dwarf-sized hairy man?" The staff member though. Both ideas were a novelty on this side of the sea, but Biggles wouldn't bother to give him an answer. He handled the man an envelope, which proved to be enough to let the bipedal cat pass through.

The Fishbowl was a restaurant, and a busy one at this time of the day. "No reservations", said a sign, which Biggles promptly frowned at the gaze. If it wasn't for the lack of the mafia's influence around the place, he would never choose it as an option to meet someone. But here he was, outlining tables and chairs, dodging a piece of broccoli and hissing at greased kids, making his way to the utmost corner of the room where a man sat alone at the combined table.

Rajin was the scout? Yes the Scout. That his captain Selkirk wanted him to do. Don't mistake that for him disliking the idea, it was just new to him. He joined a crew but he also liked doing thing his own style. So anyway, he served now as the crew scout for that reason. Just use his knowledge to sail around. And hence that was why he had arrived at the massive ship known as the Fishbowl. To gather information. To do what his job described. He did not know much about the Fishbowl until a few days ago. It was place to get some food and maybe gather some information. He could not go in mafia circle anymore, but he heard the mafia had some influence over the giant restaurant. He could not be for sure if that was the case but he had to at least take a look around and find out if that was the case. Give Selkirk the head up of which Mafia goon wanted to hunt them after what they had done back a week's ago!

"I am here to eat."

The staff Member seemed to nod and take his money. One thing to remember, money got people a lot of places. Rajin was not stupid enough to not realize that. In these cases, he might as well take advantage. Hopefully, Selkirk didn't mind the spending as he get himself entered into the Fishbowl. He didn't know exactly what to look for but he was indeed looking. For anything that stand out and what did was what seemed to be a cat meeting in the corner of this Fishbowl. Seemed to be with some shady looking figures. He would watch carefully not making any movement yet but just figuring out what they might be doing here without being too obvious.

Back at the fishbowl, Kage can be seen sitting in the utmost corner of the room. Kage who would normally have his partner working alongside him, but this time he sat alone. This didn't mean that there was a falling out between the two young assassins, but it was more due to the fact that the two would normally take solo missions which would lead to them having to separate from one another. Kage had received a task from his usual handler about a mafia goon needing help so he accepted it with idea in mind that the task that the guy is planning on doing wouldn’t be that difficult. The only main discriptor that Kage had received about the client's appearance was that they had cat-like features, so he guessed the client might be a mink of some sort from the way they were described. While waiting at the table, Kage called one of the bar waitresses over for them to receive his order.

“Excuse me Ms but could I have a Daw Azraq.” He said in his usual expressionless tone. It was a voice that some would call flat, monotone, and inexpressive but it was one Kage had gotten used to speaking with.

Once the waitress had gotten his order, she left to go get it ready. After the waitress had left Kage began to think about his encounter last month with the guy named Geryon. Normally Kage would write him off as one of those one-time meetings that he wouldn't usually remember about, but instead the guy had left somewhat of an impression on him as he wondered what the older boy might be doing?

While Kage was lost in his thoughts, one of the vacant chairs moved as if on its own. Sounds of struggle could be heard, as the cat-creature climbed on it with some difficulty; it was rather tall for his stature, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but Biggles didn't want to mess up his suit.

After a few seconds and a lot of low-pitch meows of distress, he finally made it. In front of Kage, however, all he would be able to see was Biggles from the nose up.

"Meow." He said, looking at Kage with a very, unpleasant face.

After hearing the Meow, Kage cleared his thought as he turned his head to face the thing that made that sound. The moment he turned his head Kage noticed the minuscule cat-like person in a suit that was sitting in front of him as this confirmed his theory of the client possibly being a mink. After putting his thoughts together, Kage began to speak.

"So are you my client." He said in a calm, but emotionless tone to the cat sitting infront of him.

"Meow." Clearly lacking the ability to communicate in the same words as Kage, Biggles took a Den Den Mushi from one of his pockets and put it on the table. It was black in color, with no distinguished features. Almost instantly, the snail started to buzz.

"Yes... I... Am" It spoke. Every few words were followed by static and a clear shift in the speaking voice. It was almost like this tiny snail captured the signal of every ongoing call around it and translated them as Biggles thoughts. "Do you... know why I called... you... here?"

Kage was a bit confused, since he had thought that the client who had hired him was a mink, but due to the few actions that they had made by having a Den Den Mushi translate for them, now he wasn't quite sure of his previous hypothesis. Kage wasn't sure whether or not the person sitting in front of him was either a mink or some kind of experimented cat who had enhanced intelligence, but he wasn't really in the position to question them so he mentally shrugged it off before beginning his response.

"Well, the info I got from my handler was that a member of the mafia needed help with some sort of task, but the info of the task wasn't expatiated on so I don't know the full scope of the tasks that you want me to do." Kage said with an apathetic tone. "Could you please expatiate a bit more on what you want me to do exactly?" He said before waiting on the cat-like looking creatures response.

Biggles started to gesture, raising his paws over the table. His expression where mimicked by the Den Den Mushi, which translated every distressed "meow" that left the cat's mouth.

"Indeed. However, there's... no mafia... involved. At least for... now. You should address me as a cat... a regular cat, perhaps. I go by Biggles. Mr. Biggles. and that should be enough information about me."

"As for the job... You see... This side of the blues isn't the best for... a regular cat, like me. A lot has happened and... well, there's no reason... to share any of that with you." The Den Den Mushi continued with its weird speech pattern.

"It is a simple... job. Right now I don't have the resources to leave the West, so this will be it." The Den Den Mushi said, as Biggles pointed to his side. "I need this ship, and that's why you're here."