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The good thing about living on the streets is that it teaches you how to be tough.
Mina is still a child when she learns that lesson. The streets aren't kind to anyone, not even to a young orphan left alone in the world—and the people, ah, the people aren't kind either. They're even worse. The rich look at her with disgust, like she's a rat walking amongst them; the poor will take what they can get, even if it means taking from those who share the same godforsaken fate; the drunks are loud and violent and care for nothing but the way to the closest tavern.
It's not pretty. When you're part of the scum of society, begging for coins at the filthy ports and wearing rags for clothes, you need to adapt if you want to survive. You need to play by a dangerous set of rules in a world where breaking the rules is the norm.
Luckily, Mina has never been much of a quitter, and she enjoys living so very much.
It takes countless days of hunger gnawing at her stomach. It takes winter nights spent shivering in empty alleyways, and sleeping with one eye open and a knife tucked inside her boot in case anyone is looking for an easy target. By the time she's seventeen, Mina's not only still alive, but she's made a name for herself on the streets.
"Are you Pinky, the so-called best thief in Musutafu?"
And a pretty good one at that.
"Depends who's asking," Mina says, leaning back against her chair and twirling a toothpick between her fingers. She carefully eyes the man standing before her. He's young, with the slightest hint of stubble on his chin and a mop of reddish-brown hair partially hidden by a fancy-looking hat. His composure is a stark contrast to the rest of the tavern—his white linen shirt is properly tucked into his breeches, his waistcoat free of unidentifiable stains, and he isn't stumbling over his own feet after a few bottles of cheap rum. He has an air of arrogance to him that most of the idiots drinking their gold away around them lack.
Mina doesn't have to wait for the man's answer. She knows a pirate captain when she sees one.
"Name's Chisaki." The man pulls a chair towards him, turning it backwards before sitting down and leaning his arms on it. "Y'see, I've been lookin' for some people to join my crew. Need some more hands on deck, and I could use a thief. Not just any thief though. The best of 'em."
Chisaki smiles, and Mina shifts uncomfortably in her chair. It's a polite smile—a little contained, if anything—but her instinct tells her that there's something off about it.
As if sensing her discomfort, Chisaki's expression turns neutral again. He taps his fingers against the chair, and the rings he's wearing clatter against each other. "There'd be gold. Lots of it. And the sea—y'know, there ain't nothing like sailing 'cross the sea. She gives you freedom that you ain't gonna find here on land. 's a pretty good deal, I'd say."
Mina hums.
"Whaddya think? Wanna join my crew?"
For seventeen years, trusting her instincts has kept Mina alive. She knows that the smart answer would be to deny Chisaki's offer, but in a way, he's right. It does sound like a pretty good deal. She's always been stuck in this small corner of the world, lurking the same streets, watching the faces of pirates and travelers alike come and go while her own life remains unchanging.
Chisaki might set off every warning bell in Mina's head, but it's a risk she's willing to take. She trusts herself to get out of trouble if she needs to—she's the best thief in Musutafu for a reason, isn't she?
Mina flicks the toothpick aside, tipping an imaginary hat towards Chisaki, and makes a decision.
"Aye aye, Captain."
The first few days with Chisaki's crew aren't as bad as Mina expected them to be.
The ship itself is a beauty. It's sleek and fast and the lodgings aren't awfully cramped despite the fairly-sized crew. The word Overhaul is carved in big bold letters on the side—a bit of a disappointing name for such a good ship, if Mina said so herself—but regardless of Chisaki's questionable taste in names, no one can deny the Overhaul makes for quite the intimidating vessel, especially when the black and white flag decorated with a skull is raised up high.
Chisaki was right about one thing—there isn't anything like sailing across the sea. Mina loves the way the wind blows through her hair and the constant tang of salt every time she licks her lips. She even enjoys the pain weighing down her limbs when she goes to sleep after a day of working the ship's sails. It makes her blood sing.
And despite some of the shady characters that make up Chisaki's crew, Mina makes friends surprisingly quick.
"Here, I'll help you," a guy with six arms and gray hair tells her on that first day when he catches her struggling to assist in reefing the sails. The ship wavers as strong winds whip against it, but the guy easily holds himself steady with two hands as the others work on the sails. Mina observes the motions and commits them to memory for next time.
"Thanks." Mina smiles. A blue mask covers most of the guy's face, but his eyes seem to smile back. "I'm Mina, by the way."
"The new thief," the guy nods. Apparently, news in the ship spread fast. "I'm Shouji."
"Been with the crew for long, Shouji?"
"A few months."
The way Shouji averts his eyes and the bitterness in his tone don't escape her. Once again, Mina's instincts buzz, but the quartermaster tells them to get back to work before she can ask Shouji anything else.
After that, Shouji is constantly by Mina's side, helping her learn the ropes of being part of a pirate crew. On her second day aboard, he introduces her to Tsuyu, a green-haired girl her age who's often responsible for climbing up to the crow's nest and acting as the ship's lookout. Tsuyu's just as sweet as Shouji, and Mina is thankful for the way they welcome her in their midst. She isn't blind—she notices the way some of the crew, especially those of higher positions, look at her with suspicion, with a glint in their eyes that gives her the ghost of that same feeling she had when she first met Chisaki.
But Shouji and Tsuyu are nice, and the wide ocean calls out to her with the promise of a life of adventure, so Mina chooses to pretend nothing's wrong.
The next person to become Mina's friend is Tooru. Their first meeting is, at the very least, extremely embarrassing. Tooru is scrubbing the deck when Mina, distracted by a flock of seagulls flying noisily over the ship, fails to notice the floating clothes that signal Tooru's presence and accidentally trips over her. They're both sent sprawling on the floor and doused with water and soap.
Mina's cheeks are so hot she doubts her pink skin can hide her blush.
"I'm so sorry!" she repeats over and over as she helps Tooru up, but Tooru waves her off and laughs.
"Don't worry, 's fine!" she says. "Ain't the first time that happens. Doubt it'll be the last, too."
"When Iida joined the crew, he used to bump into Tooru every time he ran across deck," Tsuyu, who's just hopped down from the crow's nest, tells Mina. She quickly joins them in helping scrub away the spilled water. "Made the Captain quite angry with so much commotion, kero. And you don't want to make the Captain—"
"Tsuyu!" Tooru hisses in a warning tone. Her cap swivels around, as if she were checking if no one else has heard them.
Mina raises an eyebrow, the warning bells growing louder in her head, but Tsuyu and Tooru's worried expressions keep her quiet.
It isn't until several weeks later, when they run into another pirate ship, that Mina gets to put her abilities to use.
Living on the streets taught her how to wield a knife; how to move with nimble but quiet feet; how to face the worst the world has to offer and come away unscathed. When you grow up as part of the scum of society, you get to a point where you think you've seen it all. That nothing can shake you anymore.
And then you find out humans can always, always surprise you, and not necessarily in a good way.
The beginning of the raid is thrilling. Mina greets the shadows like old friends, using them for cover as she and a couple of other crew members row a dinghy up to the unsuspecting ship. Getting inside is trickier. It involves a lot of climbing and near-plunges into the murky depths below, but when Mina sets her foot on the main deck, she's back in her natural element.
It takes her less time to locate and immobilize the three pirates guarding the ship than it does for her crew mates to get aboard.
"Hm," the quartermaster—Kurono—hums when she drops the men's weapons at his feet. He glances at the enemy pirates, tied up with rope and gagged. "We'll deal with that later. The signal, now."
Mina doesn't have time to ask what deal with that means before she's being handed a torch, which she's quick to light up and wave high in the air as a signal for the Overhaul to approach. For a few moments, everything's quiet, and then a series of lights surge in the distance as Chisaki's crew lit up their own torches. By the time they're noticed and a commotion starts in the lower levels of the enemy ship, at least half of them are standing on the main deck, the hooks holding the ropes they used to get from one ship to another glinting in the moonlight.
The sound of a cannon resounds at the same time as pirates come spilling from below deck, and Mina's plunged into the fray.
Years surviving on the streets hardened Mina enough for her to know when it's time to be ruthless. With a knife in one hand and a sword in the other, she fights back those who dare attack her. Her hands turn slippery with sweat, her clothes stained with blood, and all the while adrenaline sings through her veins.
She doesn't realize something's wrong until the enemy pirates have all been defeated or surrendered, and yet Chisaki doesn't seem inclined to cease the carnage, starting with the pirates Mina had rendered immobile at the beginning of the raid. The pirates who are unarmed and defenseless.
We'll deal with that later, echoes in her mind and her stomach twists.
"What're you doing? They're no threat anymore—"
Her words are muffled by a hand over her mouth, and Mina looks up to see Shouji's face. He pulls away almost immediately, with a dead look in his eyes and a barely there shake of his head, but it's too late.
Chisaki is already making his way towards her. That politeness from when they first met, the casual aloofness he held himself with around the ship until now—all of that is gone as he wipes his blade on his breeches, stopping before her with his lips pressed into a thin line. He grips Mina's jaw with red-stained fingers.
She holds back a wince at their strength and the metallic smell of blood.
"There's one thing you should learn, little thief," he croons. "Dead men tell no tales."
His fingers leave Mina's skin, but she stays rooted in place. Nausea claws at the back of her throat and fury replaces the adrenaline from before, but she keeps her eyes on the empty sky and her mouth sealed shut as Chisaki's sword cuts through the air repeatedly.
If there's one thing she has learned, it's when to back down if she wants to stay alive.
Backing down once doesn't mean Mina has given up. Agreeing to be a pirate was different from throwing away all of her morals, and that included not sitting by idly and watching a man murder people not to keep his own life but for what—fun? Power? So his crew would be too afraid to do something about it?
Perhaps, on that night at the tavern, Chisaki had been the one to make a mistake when he thought Mina would fit into that mold.
"Are you serious?" Tooru whispers when Mina quietly shares her plan while scrubbing the floor. Ever since the raid, Chisaki has gotten Mina on cleaning duties almost every day. "You know what that is, right? That's mutiny."
Mina coughs to hide the smile that threatens to escape. "That it is. You in?"
Tooru is lucky that no one can see her smile, because Mina hears it clearly in her voice when she answers without hesitation. "You bet."
It takes a lot of time figuring out who to trust, whispers exchanged under apprehensive breaths and hearts racing with the risk of being caught, but by the next time they dock, Mina has convinced a reasonable part of the crew to join her in mutiny against Chisaki. As it turns out, she's not the only one dissatisfied with their captain. All they'd needed was for someone to take the first step.
Tonight, this ship will be ours. The words that had been murmured throughout the day echo in Mina's ears as her feet touch solid ground. She breathes in the unpleasant but familiar scent of the harbor, satisfied to see this is the busiest one they've ever been to. Busy is good—easier for people to get lost in a crowd, for suspicious movements to go unnoticed.
For a pirate ship to be stolen.
"Have fun, kero!" Tsuyu shouts from above her. Beside her, Shouji leans on the ship's rail and waves.
Mina gives them a thumbs up, schooling her expression into that of someone who feels bad that her friends are stuck guarding the ship while the others get to enjoy a night on land. It couldn't be farther from the truth. If everything works out, not only Tsuyu and Shouji but Mina, Iida, Tooru, Jirou, Tokoyami, Kouda and Ojirou will all be back aboard and sailing across the ocean soon.
For now, Mina walks towards the tavern most of the crew—the ones who are truly Chisaki's men—have gone into. She stops a few feet beside the entrance, pretending to check her coin bag while she sneaks glances towards the Overhaul.
One by one, her accomplices sneak back onto the ship's main deck. Once they're all out of sight, Mina's fingers start to itch. It's her turn now—they must be close to subduing the few opposing crew members Chisaki left on guard duty, and they'll need to get the ship away from port as fast as possible—but an idea crosses her mind that makes her hesitate. She glances at the tavern.
It can't hurt if she makes a quick detour, right?
Not long after, Mina is running across the ramp and jumping onto the ship with her prize clutched tightly in her hands, incapable of stopping the smile forming on her lips.
"About time!" Jirou shouts at her from where she's busy securing the rope around three knocked-out men. No luck convincing Chisaki's henchmen to turn against him, then. "C'mon, we ain't got all night before good ol' Captain notices what happened!"
"Aye, aye!" Mina gives her a mock salute, sprinting across deck to help the others lift the anchor and get the sails ready.
By the time they hear outraged screams coming from the harbor, the Overhaul is sailing away in all its glory, leaving most of its previous crew behind. Mina watches the silhouette of their old Captain growing smaller. She can almost imagine Chisaki's furious expression, the way his eyes must be burning with hatred and betrayal.
"Wanted the best thief, didn't ya? Bet you regret that now," she laughs.
As the harbor disappears in the distance, the air resounds with nothing but screams of victory, and the sweet taste of freedom is heavy on everyone's tongue. Mina has never tasted anything better.
"Where do we go now, Captain?"
Mina turns around to stare at the first people in the Overhaul's new, much improved crew. "First, we send those on a merry trip on the rowboat," she points towards the gagged men, still knocked unconscious. "Then we can go wherever we want."
The crew erupts in cheers again. Mina grins, twirling the fancy hat she stole from Chisaki back at the tavern in her fingers before placing it in her head. With her horns, it's not a perfect fit, but its weight is one that she could get used to.
When Mina takes her place behind the helm, all of her instincts scream at her that this is right. This is where she's meant to be, who she's meant to become after all those years living on the streets.
The world unravels around her, a horizon of dark waters and gleaming stars shining brighter than any amount of gold.