The air around the port’s village became thicker as the man approached the museum, as if the planet itself was concealing something from outsiders.

Amidst the fog, indiscreet figures and other various beings could be made out, though whether or not they were truly there is unknown. As he was passing them, he felt one of them seemingly reach towards him, but he couldn’t make out where and what it was doing. He struggled to make out how real it was.

What was real however were the two guards standing by the entrance. They both look fairly burly and muscular, and in no way would be the type of people who would normally be guarding a local museum exhibit.

They both looked, (or what could be assumed to be them looking as their faces were covered by black masks with a sort of mesh letting them see), at the man. 

What business do you have here sir?

Said the left one.

An appointment?

Asked the right one.

‘Oh no sorry, I’m just stopping here for the day, I’m off later though…’

He started to struggle with a way to convince them as to why he would be at the museum.

‘...And I wanted to see what things were available here and this seemed nice.’

He put on a semi raised tone in his voice which gave him an inflection of sorts, which he hoped would add to his ‘tourist’ persona.

Oh alright then. Well head in good chap, and please remember to read the signs. Came from the one on the right.

And remember, if you want to visit some of our special exhibitions you’ll need to pay for those. Private viewing and that. Said the one on the left.

‘Much obliged.’ The man said cautiously, before entering the museum. Upon his entrance, he noticed a desk with what looked like an old lady, who had a short bowl-cut like hair, and more notably pale green skin.

The man passed her by, as he tried to find the boat belonging to the old man. The first few rooms were just a bunch of sailing tat that didn’t interest the man in the slightest. The next rooms had something more suited to his interests, general and with regards to his mission.

The room held an exhibition of various sailing equipment and tools, and notably part of what looked like a giant fish creature. The sign next to it read ‘The Fish Spirit’ and it described a story about The Fish Spirit, the Spirit wars, and how they ended up with a piece of it during the end of the war.

These things piqued the interest of the man, but he quickly snapped out of it and remembered what he was after. Looking around he found a sign pointing to a special exhibition, labelled ‘The Boats of History’. 

‘Was the old man’s boat important somehow?’ He pondered.

He went over to the door, and was just about to go through, failing to notice the security guard placed behind the door, who was secluded within the shadowy area, helped by their clothing.

 Where do you think you’re going punk?

‘Pardon?’

The exhibit here’s private viewing y’know? So where’s your ticket?

The man quietly panicked, but quickly composed himself, and began to feel around in his pockets for a ticket which did not exist.

‘Haha..um, just a sec…’ 

He kept on rummaging, and after failing for a good minute, looked around. There were a few cameras installed in the room, so anything sketchy would be too risky. Strangely, he did manage to find a ticket, buried in his back pocket. He presented this eagerly to the guard.

‘Here see, there’s my ticket.’

The guard lent forward to inspect the ticket.

I see, I see. Well then, be on your way chap.

They moved back and opened the door to another shadowy area, which led up to a flight of stairs going up, which were dimly illuminated further up. As the man entered he noted there weren’t any cameras for a good while. 

The guard looked at him suspiciously, and their suspicion may have been correct another time. It was a very risky operation, and the man thought that winning over the guard’s trust before breaking it completely would maybe be better.

He went up the stairs, which led him through a long passage, to another even longer staircase, which winded around the wall. As he was going up he wondered if it was all worth it. This was an old man he had never met before, in a world unfamiliar to him, and it was all to do with a conflict he couldn’t care less about.

He then thought about his mission with his family all those years ago, that they would help each other no matter what. He should continue this mission, regardless of whether the old man was family or not, he was a person, well..Reptilis, with struggles still. 

But then he thought about how it was all squashed by his lover, the man he trusted. Something about this mission would go south somehow, and maybe it would be easier to cut his losses sooner rather than later. Maybe this is what the Guardian back in the Abyss ment, he needed to feel pain early to get used to it.

But thinking more about that, the pain there, sure whilst it was somewhat self inflicted, was internal, the pain he would cause by aborting this mission would be to the old man as well, and he seemed to be suffering enough, what with his boat being stolen, in public view, by his government, and not being able to do or talk anything about it.

Just as these thoughts were welling up in him, he reached the end of the stairway. As he opened the door, he was met with a light breeze. The exhibit was outside, seemingly due to the size of the boat. It was a massive thing that took up most of the area. 

There were several guards posted around it, as well as cameras attached to the walls where the wall to the door was. Beyond the rooftops was a gentle mist, just like before. This time however there were no vague figures present. The man strolled up to the display around the boat, which had several signs by it.

The signs talked about how the ship was made in the country of Zankyo and how that it was used during a conflict during the Spirit/Celestial war, although the man couldn’t make out much of what that meant. The part he was focused on was how the boat was supposedly recovered by a local there, and ‘brought back to the museum recently’. 

The man scoffed at this, and one of the guards caught this remark and faced the man. He then reached up to look at something in the hull of the boat, and the same guard came up to him very aggressively.

Keep your hands off the exhibit buster.

‘Is that a threat?’

Why do you ask?

‘Because what I’m about to do is gonna be worse.’

With instinct, he took out the knife the Guardian gave him in the Abyss, which he did keep on to luckily, and swiftly cut through the guard. The guard immediately tried to catch the blade, however it was tougher than they expected, and managed to cut their hand a good amount.

The other guards instantly went over and surrounded the man. They all pulled out batons, which were infused with a form of magical energy. The colour of magic was either red, purple, both, or a mixture of the two. The man spun around trying to slash as many of them as he could, but they were able to predict this, and started to go in on him.

The magic from the batons gave him a pain similar to a fire burn or an electric shock. Either way both were very unpleasant, and he had to do something quick or else he would die. The actions he could do were slightly hindered by the lack of a right arm, but what he was about to do would work regardless, he hoped.

What he did happened all very quickly, but essentially he grabbed one of the batons, and rammed it into the guard holding it, which caused them a lot of pain. He then did the same thing to nearly all but three of them, who caught on to this, and moved back, but still held their batons out.

The man now having room, jumped onto the boat, and broke the security system quite badly. This was annoying as the boat was at least temporarily damaged for a good while, but the old man most likely knew some way to fix it.

He then started the boat by pressing some buttons and using the steering wheel. The other three guards’ batons transformed into guns, and the magic energy now shot at the man and the boat. The boat started to break free, and the propellers on the back blew the guards back slowly but steadily.

As the boat started to move, the man realised that it was also a flying yacht, something he could have never dreamed of. The wind from the boat, as well as the general wind managed to make the guards fall off the rooftop. Some other guards came out at this time, due to the alarm system going off, but they were too late.

The boat had gone up into the air a decent amount, before being brought steadily to the water. The impact was massive, and caused the port to rock slightly. The man found that controlling it wasn’t too difficult.

As he ventured back to the old man, he felt a sense of relief, a feeling of happiness. He hadn’t felt this in a while, and it felt damn good. He managed to get the old man’s boat back! The mist around the area began to clear, and he could make out the old man in the distance.

There were two people standing near him. 

With batons. 

The old man was lying on the docks dead and beaten.

A deafening silence fell upon the man as he screamed as hard as he could. He charged the boat at full force towards the guards on the docks. 

Their body pieces splattered across the boat as they were squashed by it. Part of the dock broke too. 

The man went directly to the exit and towards the open sea, towards the direction of a new country, and new home.

To Zankyo.