Those of Us Alone

Chapter 69: And You Thought Awa was Bad Before

Midori's POV

The Earth Tribe's Port Awa had seen better days.

In the past, I always thought that there was no way that this town could get any worse than it already was. How could you top being the country's largest underground black market - with most sales being that of the human trafficking sort?

The answer: you start a regime where if something is done out of line - the person in question gets whipped. Publicly.

Most people tended to stay as far away from the main intersection of Awa as possible - that's where the 'disciplining' takes place. The area was always littered with blood, old or new - it was there. At the center of it all, there was a post that held a new 'criminal' every few hours. They were always guarded if they did anything specifically against the regime or its dictator.

So, there always was a pirate chained to the post - getting their lashes.

Most days, I'm not attached to the post.

According to our fearless leader, Gi-gan, I needed to be careful. Of all the people that Dante would like to capture, I was top priority.

Today was not 'most days'.

Today, I wasn't even attached to the post, but I might as well have been, as I boldly stood in front of a young girl - no more than five years old - taking twice the amount of lashes that were supposed to be dealt to a girl who did nothing more than accidentally nudge past one of Dante's hooligans.

I'd never live it down if I admitted it, but I was starting to agree with Gi-gan - was it really worse off in the Water Tribe than here?

~~~~~~~~

Apparently, it was.

From a relative point of view, anyways. As Awa got worse and worse, we deployed many spies to many areas around the port - though the majority were brave souls who hung out around the deranged lord. There was a report coming in from such a source as I stumbled through the door to one of our 'safe houses'.

Of course, the conversation halted as I managed to fall on my face, "Midori! Are you alright?!"

"Who, me? Nah," I spoke into the floor, muffling my speech, "I just thought the floor needed a hug . . . with my face, apparently . . ."

There was a sigh, and I could hear movement on either side of me, and I was quickly hauled to my feet. When you're nursing welts and lacerations from the 28 snaps of the whip, you don't quite have the ability to not hiss at the irritation of those wounds.

And Gi-gan being Gi-gan, I was quickly sat in a chair, as she quickly went about unbuttoning the clasps on the open-back, town-issued-and-required, black, sleeveless shirt, "How many lashes today, Midori?"

"Weren't you just getting a report?" I nodded my head to the other person in the room - a familiar face, Yuri, "We can talk about me later, please Yuri, could you finish your report?"

Yuri was one of our main spies - and she was the bravest. She ran so many missions for the pirates and was our main form of information gathering. She'd approached Gi-gan weeks before I arrived, and when I met her, she kindly informed me of how she helped with the take-down of the previous Kumuji by showing Yoon and Rina (aka: Yona) to the deck of the ship.

"Right, of course, Midori," Gi-gan was treating as many of the wounds that she could. Yuri quickly resumed her report, "We just got word from Kem-chi - he owns the bar on main and 3rd street. He says that Kumuji has issued an order for all bars to carry Nadai."

I leaned forward, towards our comrade in disbelief, "Nadai's gotten this far? Ah-!"

Gi-gan quickly silenced me by pouring an excessive amount of alcohol on my open wounds, "You wanted to hear the report - don't interrupt." I sent a weak glare over my shoulder, but she just began to wipe the alcohol that wasn't soaked up by my wound-covered back, nonchalantly muttering, "They needed to be disinfected."

After a few seconds of silence, Yuri took the chance to continue, "Apparently, Kumuji's seller works out of Sensui - a man by the name of Hiyou." I frowned, it was wonderful that we had this kind of information, but we could do nothing with it - unless we managed to get out of Awa. Apparently, Yuri thought the same, "Which is all good and well, but . . . we're unable to go after this man. If there was any chance for outside help, we couldn't call for it. The mail is being watched, inspected."

"And it's not easy to leave the port either," we turned to our Captain, who spoke with as much disdain for the situation that she could muster. With a heavy sigh, she continued her thought, "It's not an easy feat to escape Awa, nowadays. And the only person who could . . ."

As Gi-gan wrapped my torso, I spoke softly, " . . . is me." 

Yuri bit down on her lip, "Is it worth the risk? The possibility of losing our only source of morale?"

"You tell me," my voice was somber, but I understood the situation. As much as Gi-gan fought against it, I still managed to end up as the face of the resistance in Awa - as small as it was. Which meant that I was sought after highly, and I was the only thing currently holding together our rag-tag group. Losing that would be detrimental, "If we think it's worth it - to track this guy down and stop him, I'll do it . . . but . . ."

There was the possibility that I couldn't even get out of Awa.

"Let's . . ." Gi-gan sighed in annoyance, "I hate this, but . . . Let's see how bad the appearance of  Nadai is on the port."

________________________________________________________________________________

Hello, hello!

I'm back!

I decided that I would write another chapter. Was it good? Did it make sense?

How's everyone's summer? Mine's good. I've got nothing much to do, so I thought I should update from the nice, air-conditioned inside of my house (it's very hot in Texas - which is normal, but . . . yeah). I'm also getting ready for the upcoming semester in August.

Whelp . . . I hope y'all like it!

Thanks,

~Ashley