After some time had passed it was now a bit after sunset as Ryoko and Ace finished drying all the gun pieces. Ryoko went about systematically putting each part back in place, humming quietly to herself a song she remembered from many years ago. Some emotions stirred in her mind as a few images ran through her mind like posters flying past her eyes, unclear but noticeable. A small smile flickered onto her face as she continued working while her tools. She reached the end of the song, or at least what she could remember in time with her finishing reassembling her gun.
"That's a pretty song, where did you learn it?" Ace asked leaning on his hand once again, but this time watching as the gun got reassembled quite quickly and efficiently. The song had sounded ever so slightly familiar but was curious as to the expressions that kept flicking across the girl's face.
Where did she learn it? Ryoko's brow furrowed in confusion, "I don't think I learned it at all..." She says crossing her arms over her chest as her eyes stayed fixed on the intricate rifle that she had just finished putting back together, eyes narrowing. "I suppose it could have been heard by you anywhere if I did learn it somewhere." She says glaring down at the gun before reaching out and picking it up to place it back in the case.
Ryoko looked at the gun one last time before clasping up the case around it and slinging it over her back. She turned in her seat and got up, "There were words, I can't quite remember them though. The melody is nice nonetheless." She says with a chuckle as she headed for the door to the kitchen.
"You said you were a hundred times better than earlier, but you're limping says otherwise." The boy says from his spot at the table, causing the sniper's hand to stop on the door knob. Letting out a hum she then opened the door and headed out into the colder night air.
She glanced towards the bow of the ship once before looking over her shoulder, "A hundred times zero is still zero." She says calmly before moving out of view from the doorway. Making her way to the stairs once more she glanced up at the door leading into the room where Nami and Vivi were likely already sleeping. Ryoko let out a grumble of frustration as she clasped the railing of the stairs and began to go back up the stairs, which at least felt easier than going down them earlier. Once at the top of the stairs, she glanced down to the deck where Ace was standing looking up at her, "probably should rest up, I feel like we are going to be doing a lot of walking. The boys sleep down the ladder there, I'm sure you could sleep in the dining area if you prefer."
The boy rose a brow at her phrasing, "You said we, are you planning to venture into the desert with us?" he asked eyeing the burn on the girl's leg for a moment before looking her in the eyes.
Ryoko leans onto the railing to look down at him, "I am not going to be left behind again." she says a scowl gracing her face as she glared feeling a boiling sensation in her chest, "I didn't lie when I said I have had worse. I'll just have to figure out something so I am not a burden." she adds before letting out a heavy sigh towards the man.
Ace shrugs his shoulders at that, "Well if you think you can, by all means, you can certainly try. It won't be easy even for the rest of us. So think about it before you decide you want to try to make that trek with us." he says before going over to the door which leads back into the kitchen, "Night." He says with a hand wave before going back inside. Moving over to something like a couch of sorts he flops down on it looking up at the ceiling as he thought to himself before hearing the quiet squeaks of the floor above him and shuts his eyes to try to get to sleep.
Ryoko had stood there for a couple more moments glaring at the spot where Ace had disappeared inside. Finally, she turned around and moved over to the door, opening it to find the two girls were currently awake, although clearly chatting while having laid down in their beddings. Ryoko moved over to where she slept, on the opposite side of the room from the duo, and set her case down before turning around and sitting on the cushioned bed table thing she had made. She was rather proud of the invention she had made out of two tables she had found, and a bunch of padding which for most people would not be comfortable, but she could sleep just about anywhere. She sighed and pulled her right leg up under her blanket and laid back allowing her left leg to dangle off the side, not touching anything so the balm wouldn't rub off. She put both arms behind her head, clasping her hands on the back of her head and relaxing into them, her eyes slowly shutting as she listened to the quiet chatting of Vivi and Nami. A small smile crossed her face as she fell asleep after a little while, "We'll help you stop this fighting, Vivi. I swear."
~~~
"Come on Ryoko. It's time we play tag!"
Not again... Ryoko couldn't help but smile and laugh at the energy of the younger girl that had grabbed onto her sleeve. The girl was only two or three years younger than her, but her bright green eyes shone far brighter than Ryoko's dull steel blue eyes. "You always win Cece, don't you want to play a different game?" she asked a bit nervously as Cece puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
"But I like winning, you always win at hide and seek and then mom and dad have to help me find you." The younger girl says as her voice almost seemed to distort slightly, giving a mix of a sinister undertone to the comment.
"Well, perhaps we can play a different game, or go for a walk together?" Ryoko suggests with a smile as the black-haired child nods fast at the suggestion, "a new game?" she questions and gets a shake of the head as Cece answered that short question, "A walk then, perhaps we can go get a few other people to come with us."
"Okay! Let's go grab some of my other friends!"
Other friends, the term made Ryoko smile softly as she nods her head and begins walking back to the large house that was home. Her eyes glanced at the large and clean windows, taking in her reflection for a moment. A bright smile that didn't fully reach her eyes, round cheeks covered in freckles, and hair tied up in two ponytails. As she reached the back door of the house she dusted off Cecelia's dress before straightening her own frilly green dress before opening the door and allowing Cecelia to run inside first.
~~~
Ryoko's eyes opened before immediately shutting as sunlight shone through the porthole and straight into her eyes. She sits up and stretches before rubbing her eyes and opening them to look around the rest of the room. "Seems like Vivi and Nami headed down already," she says with a sigh before turning to get off of her bed of sorts. She let out a hiss as her skin rubbed against the blanket that dangled off the side of her bed. She noticed a glass of water and a note set on her end table with a pill of medicine.
Her eyes scanned over the note, "Medicine should help with the pain, take it with water and wait in bed so Chopper can come up and apply his burn medicine and new bandages. Vivi will bring up some food after breakfast." Of course, Nami would send Vivi up with food. She grabbed the pill and popped it into her mouth before drinking the glass of water all in one go. The pill went down at some point in her drinking, but as to when she didn't know nor did she care.
Ryoko sighed heavily as she scoots along the edge of her bed and grabs a new outfit out of the bag of clothes that she had, shoving other clothing over top of the items at the bottom of the bag. She then slowly stands up and removed her red shorts and top, begrudgingly putting on the flowing garb that was used on this island. She made sure to keep it rolled up past her knees in order to keep it from rubbing on her burnt skin and sets her headpiece off to the side along with a white porcelain-looking mask that lacked any design other than the two eye holes that were cut out of it. "What are you doing?" came the small voice of the reindeer doctor that had opened the door without her realizing it.
"Chopper? How long have you been standing there?" Ryoko asked as her eye quickly darted and locked onto the sweet creature, heart pounding immediately.
"Once you rolled up the ends of your outfit... Are you really planning to come with us?" the reindeer asked looking at Ryoko in concern at the idea as he walked over holding the bowl of ointment and a roll of bandaging.
"Of course! I can't miss out on all the fun can I?" Ryoko says with a grin before frowning seeing the reindeer's eyes tearing up slightly, "Hey now, it is better than if I was left alone here. Not to mention I would be around you, which would mean if anything happens with my injury you could help me rather than me having to try to figure out how to deal with the issue myself." She says in a comforting tone before letting out a hiss of both pain and relief as the little reindeer quietly began to spread the ointment over her leg.
"But it's going to be a lot of walking and a lot of sand... It could get in the bandagings... or you could make the injury worse by moving too much." Chopper started with tears in his eyes, hugging onto her right leg since it was the easiest thing to grab onto that wasn't injured. "Not to mention the heat, you seemed to have issues with it yesterday when we were in town too." he whimpers.
Ryoko's expression softened as she leaned down and grabbed the doctor and pulled him up onto the bedding beside her and hugged him. "You should worry more about yourself and the heat, we both came from drum island, but you have fur and I was all bundled up. I can handle the heat better than you likely will. As for the sand and possibly making the wound worse, I don't have a rebuttal for that. I just don't want you guys to leave me behind you know?"
The reindeer doctor sniffled a bit in the hug before pulling away, "You really shouldn't be going along... but I can see you really want to... if anything changes, anything at all you need to tell me okay?" he says quietly which made Ryoko smile and give him a gentle pat on the top of his hat.
"Sounds like a plan," she says with a wide smile before helping him to hop off of the bed and allowing him to wrap up her leg with the bandages he had brought with him. She then scoots over to the other side of her bed and reaches down, grabbing a new pair of boots that were slightly higher, "hopefully this helps keep the sand out a bit better." She says pulling on the right boot and then carefully pulling on the left boot and tying both boots and standing up.
She then leaned down and grabbed her case and a small tool set which she slipped into the pouch at her waist before wrapping the head wrap around her neck and setting the band from her mask around her head, keeping it to sit at the side of her head. Her eyes flick to the door as it opened revealing Vivi currently holding a tray of food, "Good morning Ryoko, I brought up some food for you, how are you feeling?" The bluenette walked over and set the tray at the end of the bed table as Ryoko sat down and sat the tray on her lap.
"I feel twenty times better than yesterday." She responds with a chuckle at the confused face Vivi pulled at that, "went down but the starting point went up." She adds as she began to quickly eat the food that she was given.
There were a couple of minutes of mostly comfortable silence before Vivi spoke, her voice showing concern, but Ryoko didn't look up to see her face as she spoke," We should be reaching land shortly, are you sure you want to come with us?"
"I have already said this to two other people, yes I am sure I want to, and no I am not going to take people telling me to stay behind as an order," Ryoko says cutting the princess off as she quickly finished the last of her food. "I am coming with you, and that is that," she says looking to the princess with a look of pure seriousness in her gaze.
Vivi looked a bit startled before she smiled and nodded her head, "Alright, just please don't push yourself too hard for my sake."
"I make no promises princess," Ryoko says teasingly while setting the plate back on the tray and finishing her cup of juice, snickering at the embarrassed blush that crossed the princess' face. "mind carrying the tray down for me?" She requests Chopper who takes the tray quickly as she looks back at Vivi, "And would you mind lending me your shoulder to get down those stupid steps? I'm ready to head out as soon as we can otherwise."
"Of course."