A Fun Time, Not A Long time: Orange Island 2.2 (ch. 6) (Patreon)

If Kobeni had to summarize her entire life in a handful of words, they would be ‘a series of unfortunate events.’ She had been born underneath a lucky star, as her mother had once said, but her mother neglected to mention that luck was completely neutral. Being lucky meant as much bad luck as it meant good luck. Her birth marked an unfortunate turning point in her life, and ever since then, it had just been one thing after another.

She thought that being a Devil Hunter would have been the worst of it. An incredibly dangerous job with a high attrition rate that entailed fighting the last predator that humanity had left -- the physical manifestations of their own fears. Kobeni was never under the delusion that she could make a career of it, but she had hoped that she could scrape together enough money to pay for her brother's college in a few short years. Then maybe pay her own way through college.

It had only taken one brief meeting with Denji and Power, the two fiends, who showed her how utterly out of her depth she was. Kobeni had screamed and panicked and cried the moment that she understood that they had been trapped by the Eternity Devil. Denji fell asleep and Power just laughed at her panic.

Those two were made to be Devil Hunters. Kobeni was sincerely considering quitting the moment they got out. A pen had been hovering over a resignation letter when the next unfortunate event happened. She was whisked away to some island and terrorized by a man every bit as crazy as Denji and Power had been.

And now…!

“Run! Run away!” Kobeni squealed, tears and snot dripping from her face as she dragged Bocchi by the wrist, fleeing for their lives into a dimly lit forest.

“I'm going to getcha! I'm gonna getcha!” The lunatic behind them exclaimed, racing after them on a unicycle as two swords menacingly sliced through the air. “You arrived with that blue haired idiot! Captain Buggy will forgive me if I bring him you two!” The man shouted, and Kobeni braved a single glance over her shoulder. The man was burnt and bruised, but there was a delirious smile on his face as he chased after them despite the rain and mud.

“I don't know who you're talking about! I've never seen anyone with blue hair! You've got the wrong people!” Kobeni lied, shouting at the top of her lungs, willing to say whatever it took to not be chased by a deranged circus freak through the forest in the middle of the night. She would never look at a circus the same way again. She was going to be seeing this in her nightly night terrors for the rest of her life.

“You can’t fool me! You’re leading me away from the people of this festering shit hole of a town! You’re a couple of wannabe heroes, just like him!” He all but howled, enraged and it sounded like he was getting closer with the swishings of his sword.

“AHHHHHH!!” Kobeni screamed, running that much faster. Bocchi wasn’t even touching the ground anymore as she fled for both of their lives. Why was this happening to her?! She just ushered the people to the tree line. Then she tried to vanish inside of it too, letting Kaine follow through with whatever harebrained plan he’d come up with in that empty head of his. And now she was being punished for her good deed by probably being murdered by a deranged circus man on a unicycle.

Life wasn’t fair.

Life was so not fair.

“Stop running! Or I’ll-” Kobeni heard, tears flowing so freely from her eyes they could have mistaken for rain. The threat fell on deaf ears as Kobeni found herself falling forward, a root treacherously sticking out of the ground. Kobeni watched as the ground raced up to greet her, her heart hammering at her ribs and thundering in her ears as loud as any clap of lightning.

She tripped.

The world was so unfair.

But, sometimes, you had to make a deal with a devil to balance the scales a little bit.

Her body felt like it belonged to someone else as Kobeni pulled a frozen stiff Bocchi to her chest before Kobeni flipped forward, landing on her feet with a reverse pivot and a splash of mud. She saw the man’s eyes widen as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky above while her own eyes narrowed into slits.

The Black Cat Devil. Every Devil Hunter had a contract made with Devils that couldn’t or wouldn’t fend for themselves, deciding that it was easier to feed off of humans with lopsided deals -- a portion of their power for prices that were all too high. A limb. A sense. Years of your life. A personal sacrifice.

The Black Cat Devil didn’t ask a thing of her. There wasn’t a need, she had said. For Kobeni had already been born underneath a lucky star, and there was nothing that she could do to Kobeni that she wouldn’t already face. The only thing that changed was that she gained the skills to survive what would kill her… and a few extra lives in case that wouldn’t be enough.

Kobeni dropped Bocchi in the mud, her hand darting to the knife in her boot before she leaped forward. Pouncing like a cat to meet the circus man in the middle, her kitchen knife meeting his twin blades. His expression was taken aback, caught off guard by the sudden violence. A foot lashed out, catching him in the stomach and knocking him off of his unicycle. He landed in a heap, crying out when his burnt side hit the ground first.

Her contract only had one term for activation -- death had to be absolutely certain.

“You- why were you running before?!” The man exclaimed, his scarf falling off as it was soaked with rain and now mud. Kobeni answered by reversing her grip on her kitchen knife before sprinting forward, the fear and anxiety that had plagued her all of her life washing away in the rain. The trembling and the tears and the snot stopped, replaced with a catlike grace, reflexes, and instincts.

It wasn’t enough to save her in a world full of monsters. It wouldn’t do anything to stop something like the Gun Devil or the Eternity Devil. It merely pushed her to a physical extreme. But, that’s all she needed to escape death a hundred times before, and it was all she needed to escape it once more.

Kobeni dove in as the man raised to his feet, hiding a reverse jab with her knife by angling her body. She leaned out of the way of an upward swipe that would have taken her head off before delivering the blow of her own, flicking the knife to her other hand before jabbing it up into his exposed shoulder. Hot blood flashed down her hand as he cried out and with a cutting yank, she rendered the arm useless.

“C-Captain Buggy!” The man yelled out, his tone fearful. Afraid. Every bit as afraid as Kobeni had been but a moment before. The knife that was going to slash his throat wavered ever so slightly as he stumbled a step back. Instead, Kobeni pivoted as she leapt into the air, a heel lashing out that caught him in the temple with enough force that he was sent flying and crashed into a tree hard enough that it toppled.

Kobeni wanted to live. Being alive was the most precious thing a person could have. There was no price that she wasn’t willing to pay to live, and taking a life wasn’t something that should be done lightly. She couldn’t. Not when she valued her own life so highly.

“W-Wow,” Kobeni heard, and looking over she saw that Bocchi was out of her stupor. A normal girl. A perfectly normal high school girl that was having a perfectly normal reaction to being chased by a half burnt circus freak. It was more reassuring than Kobeni wanted to admit -- that no matter how surrounded she was by freaks and monsters, that she was still normal. “You… you saved us! That was amazing!” Bocchi exclaimed, speaking up for the first time.

No. Not us, Kobeni wanted to correct. She saved herself and by virtue of that, she saved Bocchi.

Still, it was nice to hear.

“Y-You!” Kobeni heard someone else shout, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She pivoted to see that it was… a man with a poodle-shaped pommarade? He was an older man, showing signs of exertion and smudged with mud. “You saved us!” He echoed Bocchi, and Kobeni trembled. The relief. The joyus rapture… “Who defeated the pirate Cabaji?”

He hadn’t seen? That was…

An opening.

Expectations. There was nothing in this world more deadly than expectations. Expectations led to work, and work led to death. If they learned that she could fight… that blue haired idiot would expect her to. He would expect her to spar, thinking it was a grand old time.

No.

No way.

I’m so sorry, Bocchi, Kobeni thought in the confines of her own mind, pointing at Bocchi without having the will to look at her. “She did,” Kobeni lied through her teeth.

“Eh?” Bocchi blinked at her, not processing what was going on. For it, she missed her chance to correct the misunderstanding. Because not a second later, the forest became filled with the sounds of cheering as people stumbled forward, picking Bocchi up and hefting her onto their shoulders. “EH?”

Their eyes met as they cheered her on, announcing the defeat of not only the Cabaji guy, but the Buggy the Clown with him.

Kobeni looked away. She lacked the courage to stare someone in the eyes as she stabbed them in the back.

“EHHH?!”

…

The guy with the poodle-inspired haircut turned out to be the mayor of the town, who was named… Doodle. I'm not sure if the hair was just a coincidence or not. He quickly put me in one of the still-standing houses after a nurse patched up my wounds. Buggy and the other pirates were tied up and locked up. I was pretty shocked to learn that Bocchi had apparently taken out one of the ones I thought I dealt with.

Didn’t know she had it in her.

"The Navy has been notified," Doodle informed me, putting the receiver back onto the snail that acted like a phone. Because that was a thing. A thing called a transponder snail. I wanted one. "They'll send a ship as soon as the storm ends. I can't thank you enough for what you did, Kaine. You and the hero Bocchi," Doodle repeated for like the tenth time, bowing his head deeper than he had all ten times before.

Bocchi was currently out like a light, the fight taking a lot out of her according to Kobeni, who had watching over her while I dealt with… this.

I liked the gratitude, but there was a limit before it started to get a little uncomfortable. "You've thanked me enough, Mayor Doodle. I was just in the right place at the right time. Couldn't stand back and do nothing, you know?" I tried, making the man choke up a bit. He was a good guy, I decided. He was the kind of person that cared. About Orange Town, about the people, and about me for saving the first two.

"Son, I could thank you for a thousand years and it still would be enough. When the Buggy Pirates arrived, I thought this town was done for," he said, bowing his head a little lower before he raised his head up. "If there's any way we can repay you, then you only have to ask. Orange Town will see you repaid for this kindness you did for us and we won't hear anything otherwise!"

What a stubborn guy.

"All I really need is a place to stay to ride out the storm and we'll be even stevens," I told him, and he looked like he was going to refuse the paltry favor for being too small and simple. But, he nodded.

"Of course!" He decided, "You can stay here for the night. I'll make breakfast in the morning. The Marines should be here by then, so… while Orange Town might not be able to pay you in full for everything that you've done, I imagine collecting Buggy's bounty might help." I nodded, having absolutely no frame of reference for how much a beli was worth. But, when he left the room to give me some privacy, I turned my attention to the newspaper that was resting on a nightstand next to a comfy-looking bed.

Grabbing it, I saw that I could read it, so that was convenient. And, just by flipping through the pages, I started to get a wider view of the world I found myself in. It seemed that this world was mostly oceans with a bunch of islands marking most of the landmass with something called the Red Line dividing the world. The Navy that Doodle had mentioned was the policing force for something called the World Government.

I had no clue how old the paper was, but for East Blue, one of five major oceans that the world was divided into, the headlining news was an attack on a marine base by pirates and some Axe-Hand Morgan getting stripped of his rank for allowing the attack to happen and being sentenced to prison for it. Seemed a little much for something outside of his control. Poor guy. Still, the newspaper was informative.

This was the Great Age of Pirates according to the newspaper. The world seemed to be in the colonial era for the most part, but there were some wild spikes in tech development. Like a camera for the pictures of the navy ships that had modern warship cannons on their wooden frames. I was still piecing things together, but… in all, it looked like a wild, wacky, crazy world.

I was in the middle of flipping through the paper when I heard a sharp 'Beep' before my bracelet vibrated sharply. Frowning, I looked at the interior of it to see that my sigil was glowing again. I had tried to press it earlier, but nothing had happened. When I did it now, a small screen appeared before me, revealing… Mikasa?

"Kaine!" Mikasa exclaimed, her eyes widening as we seemed to activate a video call function. What exactly were our bracelets? I didn't have much time to ponder the question because Mikasa's expression darkened, "You've been injured." She spoke the words like a death sentence. Preferably for whoever injured me.

I nodded, throwing on an easy smile to show her I was okay, "Yeah, I got into a fight with some pirates. I found land and some stuff about the world we're in. I think I just became a bounty hunter too," I told her, and that didn’t exactly put her at ease. Behind Mikasa, who seemed to be in our room, I saw Momo poke her head into the screen of the call.

"Kaine! You're okay!" Momo exclaimed, looking incredibly relieved. She placed a hand in her heart and let a small sigh of relief out. "What about Bocchi and Kobeni?” She asked, sounding faintly nervous that they weren’t in frame with me.

“They’re fine. They’re sleeping together in another room. Oh, and Tink is fine too,” I added, making Tinkerbell announce herself by making faces at the video feed. Mikasa narrowed her eyes ever so slightly but Momo simply sighed with relief.

“We're on our way to you. The storm blew us off course, so we should arrive in the morning," Momo informed, catching my attention.

I cocked an eyebrow, "How did you know where to find me?" I questioned, and it was Mikasa that answered.

"The bracelets have a tracking ability," Mikasa voiced, sounding disquieted by that fact, making Momo frown deeply.

"They have a variety of abilities, but there seems to be some unknown conditions to accessing them. They also seem to be guided by conscious thought -- we were able to access the tracking features because we wanted to find you, and communicate. Given that it didn't work on that island, there does seem to be a minimum distance required to use it." Momo theorized and it all made sense to me. So far, it all lined up with what she said.

"I… wanted to talk to you, Kaine. And see you," Mikasa admitted, seemingly embarrassed by the admission but deciding that figuring out how these things worked was more important.

My smile grew a fraction and became a tad softer, "Sorry for worrying you, Mikasa. I just took some lumps and scratches. Me and the others are all fine. Turns out Bocchi is a scrapper -- didn’t know she had that in her, but we’re all fine," I reassured her, earning a small nod but she wasn't able to hide how the words put her at ease. I could practically see a huge weight being lifted from her shoulders.

Momo, however, was focused on the task at hand. "We have a clear pattern. While the origin of the accessories remains a mystery, it is clear that they have some benefits and practical uses. I believe we should use them and further explore what they are capable of," she decided.

"Sounds good… to me," I said, stifling a yawn. I… hold up, was there a time function…? There was, I saw, the current time appearing just above Mikasa's face while Momo looked thoughtful. It was only ten at night, but it had been a rather eventful few hours for me.

"You should rest," Mikasa decided, seeing that I was tired. Not just sleepy, but tired. I hadn't really felt it when my adrenaline was up, but Flame Breathing took a bit out of me. If I was going to keep using it, then I really needed to up my endurance. "We'll talk when we arrive," she said, earning a nod from Momo.

"When you do," I spoke up, "You should be stealthy about it. I don't think this world has airships, so they might freak out if they see one. Or worse, try to take it."

"I'll tell Tae and Kim. Get some rest, Kaine," Mikasa said, sounding like it was an order before the video call abruptly ended. I looked at my bracelet to see that it wasn't glowing anymore. It was a little black band, completely unassuming in nature. Pursing my lips, I decided to try and guide it into doing something else. Map. Communication. How about… storage?

The emblem glowed brightly, and I brushed a thumb over it. Nothing happened. Then I grabbed the newspaper that I had been reading and, to my astonishment, the newspaper began to feed into the bracelet. I fed it in entirely, and then I was able to reach into the space, searching for it, and it felt like the newspaper was being pressed into my hand when I withdrew it. I looked at the newspaper, then the bracelet… “Huh,” I muttered, suppressing another yawn.

They were a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. Worse, we were no closer to answers than when we first woke up on the island.

Deciding that Mikasa was right, I tossed myself onto the bed to find that it was as comfortable as I thought I'd be. Especially when I wasn't stuck in those mud-covered sopping wet clothes. My torso was left bare, leaving me in a pair of loose shorts. I preferred sleeping in the buff, but I wasn't going to do that in a stranger's house. Plus, I was getting used to it because of my time on the Icarus.

Tinkerbell reminded me of her presence, landing on my stomach. I was a little worried about her, but she seemed alright after shaking off the after-effects of that explosion. Her eyes were half-lidded and she was biting her bottom lip at me, her hands running up her thighs, going to the hem of her dress as she pointedly turned around and began to march to my groin, an exaggerated sway in her hips.

I cocked an eyebrow, "Now?"

Tinkerbell made her desires known with little hesitation, nodding deeply as she turned around, one hand cupping her breast through her leaf dress.

"I know I promised when we had some privacy, but there's still the issue of logistics," I pointed out, but I really didn't think she could care less about that. She made that abundantly clear when she began to pull down her dress, giving me a sultry look all the while.

Now, Tinkerbell was about six inches tall. Her breasts were each about the size of a thumbtack. But none of that really mattered because breasts were breasts. Tinkerbell exposed hers, revealing perfectly perky pale yellow breasts that were capped with light pink nipples that seemed pebbled. To be honest, it was a little difficult to tell. I, a teenage boy, stood absolutely no chance at the sight and my cock began to stiffen and Tinkerbell gave a very pleased smile.

She stepped out of her dress, letting it pool around her waist, revealing herself in her entirety. She was bare on her groin with the barest hint of a cleft between her legs. Honestly, if Tinkerbell was, you know, a bare minimum of four feet tall, she'd be an absolute bombshell of a woman. She seemed aware of it too because she proudly displayed her body pointing her tiny ass in my direction, revealing the near-invisible slit between her legs when she pulled at my pajama bottoms to free my cock.

It sprung out, pointing up at the ceiling and lightly bobbing in unison with my heart rate. Tinkerbell gave it a ravenous look like she was a starving woman that just seen her first meal in a decade. She floated up, lightly putting a hand on the surface of my cock, and used it as a pole to spin around on as she went to the top. In plain view, Tinkerbell gave the crown of my cock a smooch before giving me a look that conveyed, 'Let me worry about how this is going to work.'

So, I sat back and watched the fairy work. Tinkerbell pressed her body against my cock, wrapping her legs around it too, and proved that my cock wasn't just bigger than her, but wider. Still, she simply pressed her cheek against the vein in my dick and began to jerk me off with the entirety of her body. All the while, she ground her tiny pussy against my cock and I could swear I felt her rock-hard nipples pressed into the soft flesh of my cock that was wrapped around unyielding steel.

It felt good. Not sex or blowjob good, but there was something undeniably intoxicating watching her run her entire body along the length of my cock, kissing it all the while as she worshiped it like it was her god. Tinkerbell was sexy and she looked like she was in love with my dick, completely head over heels, and the fact that I actually couldn't just flip her over and fuck her made the sight that much more arousing.

My cock throbbed in appreciation for her efforts, a dollop of precum escaping me. Tinkerbell looked up at the dollop of clearish liquid that emerged and kicked her lips as it began to drip down. My cock throbbed in outright arousal when Tinkerbell let the precum wash over her, starting at her head and continuing down her body, soaking her in it as if she had taken a bath. Tinkerbell seemed to love it, rubbing it into her skin -- her glossy breasts, into her stomach, and pussy. She licked her hands, treating the substance as a feast before she wiped her eyes, and I could see the lust glowing in those blue orbs.

Tinkerbell fluttered her wings, sending a few small droplets of pre before she flew over to the newspaper that I had tossed into the bed. She laid her back down on it, throwing her legs out wide in a V, while her hands reached down and spread her pussy to reveal the smallest hint of pink.

I wanted to fuck her. Desperately. More than anything in the world, right at this moment, I wanted to either shrink down or grow her so I could slip my cock into her pussy and fuck her brains out until my balls were orgasming puffs of air because they were completely drained. And, based on the look that Tinkerbell was giving me, there was nothing more in this world that she wanted more as well.

But my bracelet wasn't glowing. It wasn't an option.

Instead, I took my dick in hand and hunched over her, jacking off at a lightning pace despite the lack of lube. It didn't take long for my balls to tighten, warning me of my incoming orgasm. Between the island and the ship, I haven't been able to jack off in more than a week. Honestly, it was nothing short of a miracle that I didn't pop my load the moment I saw Tinkerbell's tits.

I erupted onto her, painting Tinkerbell white with rope upon rope of gooey white cum. I aimed at her pussy, but it could barely fit a thimble, much less the amount of cum that sloshed in my balls. Tinkerbell's jaw dropped while her eyes rolled into the back of her head, her toes clenching as her body went stiff as I came on her, covering her in cum. She absolutely loved it, running it over her body, as if she were bathing in it.

My heart pounded harder than it had during the fight, my cock slowly wilting when I saw that Tinkerbell was out of it, satisfied with the mutual orgasm. Letting out a breath, I rolled into my side, feeling like a puppet with every string cut. It felt like I just came out every ounce of tension and stress in my body, and there had been more than I thought there'd be.

I fought a pirate, saved a town, and ended the day with an epic orgasm.

All things considered, today was a great day.