35 Vol 1. pt. 35 Patch 6.0: The Voyage South (1/2)
Fenrir knows that he should probably stop Serra from playing with Rock by rolling a bunch of cannonballs around on the deck, especially since they only have a limited supply of them, but they are just too cute to stop. Serra is basically treating all of the cannonballs as if they are tennis balls, and she is trying to overwhelm Rock's ability to decide which ball to chase after by rolling a bunch of them at once!
He even sees Cassiel looking over at the two playing every now and then.
She glares at him every single time she catches him catching her.
Well, as long as Serra doesn't try throwing the balls around, it shouldn't be a problem. He's sure she knows better than to try and toss and bounce a cannonball.
Of course, while Serra may know that, it doesn't stop Rock from managing to coincidentally roll a ball into the back room and down the steps into the deck below.
Fenrir cringes with every crash the cannonball makes as it falls down the steps.
Serra looks at him, expecting to be scolded, but she's just too cute. ”Just be more careful and try to stop her from rolling any back there, alright?” he says. That's all the scolding she needs.
She smiles and nods before heading below deck to retrieve Rock and the cannonball.
When Rock is finally all tuckered out and panting from the intense play session, Serra bothers Fenrir for something to do by tugging on the back of his leather vest as he stares out to the ocean.
”What's up?” Fenrir asks.
”I'm bored,” Serra says.
Fortunately for her, he already has an idea that he's been playing around with.
”You like shooting the cannons, right?”
She nods.
”Then let's get you some more target practice, though I don't think you need much of it with how awesome your shots were the other night.”
A light red takes to her cheeks alongside a smile.
They move over to the cannons. With the attack on Coastedge being over, the cannons have been placed back in their original positions to have three on each side of the ship rather than having all six on one side.
”See that island coming up?” Fenrir asks, pointing at a small desert island off the starboard side of the ship. ”Try hitting that. It's pretty small, and we've got a good speed here, so you'll have to try and time the fuse to shoot at the right moment.”
Serra looks serious and hurries to load the cannons. Fenrir was planning on helping her with the loading parts, but she seems to have it all under control.
She must really like pirate movies if she can do all of this so effortlessly.
They steadily approach the island. Serra stands directly behind the first cannon, looking over to the island and waiting for the perfect time to light the fuse.
Fenrir wants to tell her to light it now, but he lets her choose the right time.
The longer she waits, the harder it is to resist telling her to hurry and light the fuse.
She finally lights it, and then moves to the next cannon to light that one's fuse, and then lights the third cannon.
A few seconds later and the cannons go off one after another! Cannonballs are propelled by the blasts over to the island.
Each cannonball tears right through the center of the island, knocking down several of the thin palm trees before splashing into the ocean on the other side of the island.
”You… shot right through the center of it. Great job,” Fenrir praises her.
He's glad he held his tongue and didn't tell her when to fire. She probably would have missed if he did.
Serra looks up at him with a proud smile. He pats the top of her head a little bit as a reward, making her smile even more.
Fenrir feels like he's being glared at.
When he looks around, he sees Rock taking a nap and Cassiel turned around and trying to busy herself with something.
Weird.
He turns back around to face Serra.
”Alright, those were some great shots. Think you can do it again? I think we can afford to spare a few more shots, plus we can count this as training. You'll be sinking enemy ships in no time!” Fenrir says.
Serra looks excited, nodding her head as she gets to work reloading the cannons.
”Hey, have you felt like you've – this is hard to explain, but have you felt like an internal sense of accomplishment by shooting cannons?” He has no idea how else to describe that sense of learning a skill.
”Yeah. I felt it a couple times the other night, and I just felt it again now,” she says as she loads the cannons. It looks like she's loading them faster than before. ”Just felt it again.”
Going by that, Fenrir comes to the conclusion that she's learning skills for both firing and loading cannons. He wonders whether they count as a sort of siege weapon operating skill, or if they are specific to cannons.
Two more volleys are fired at small islands as they pass by. Fenrir is surprised that Rock is able to sleep through the cannon blasts, and he feels a jealous glare every single time he praises Serra by patting her head. Yet, every single time he looks around, he cannot find whomever or whatever is glaring at him.
Not wanting to shoot all of their supplies, Fenrir puts a stop to Serra's explosive fun. She's disappointed at first, but she understands.
”I had no idea you were going to love shooting cannons so much,” he says. ”You also like fishing more than I thought you would.”
”I – I like making hard things shoot their loads,” Serra says.
”Yeah, I can see that.”
Wait.
Wait one damn second.
What did she just say?
He looks down at her. She's looking away and quietly whistling.
He must have been hearing things.
Wait, this wouldn't be the first time that he's thought she's said or done something sexually suggestive. Is she – is she actually a pervert?
His eyes narrow as he looks at her.
”What did you just say?” he asks.
”Shooting cannons is fun,” she answers.
”Right. I must have misheard you.”
Serra looks up at him. ”Did you?” she asks. The look in her eyes tells him that he didn't actually mishear her.
His virgin self doesn't know how to handle this situation. Every girl he's ever dated, all of which were part of online and long-distance relationships, was a prude that never even gave him a single tease of anything sexual. Yet, now when he looks at Serra, he feels like he's being teased.
He realizes that he's blushing and turns away.
Normally, this is when he would try to run away as his virgin self doesn't know how to handle such situations.
But if he always does that every time he ever gets teased by a girl, he's going to remain a virgin forever.
He's got to man up and learn how to stand his ground. If he can stare down and shit talk the biggest badasses and strongest players of MMOs to their faces, he can try to tease a girl back.
Fenrir takes a deep breath and tries thinking of the smoothest thing that he can flirt back with.
He doesn't want to be like the annoying, virgin protagonists of the harem anime he loves watching. Those guys always get girls making obvious advancements, but never actually do anything. They just stay virgin and dense. Sure, this isn't an anime, and it isn't like he's some protagonist of a harem, but he can't help but compare himself to those guys if he runs away here.
It's time to embrace his inner hentai protagonist.
”I've got a cannon with a full load that you can shoot,” Fenrir says, staring her right in the eyes as he says it.
Oh.
Oh god.
He instantly regrets it.
He's internally cringing and wants nothing more than to jump overboard to be devoured by sharks. He deserves it for that horrible, cringe-inducing, cheesy pickup line.
But, before he can turn himself into a meal for a sea monster, he sees Serra blushing and giggling.
”Does it have an explosive finish?” she asks.
”The harder you… light my cannon, the more explosive the finish is. It can shoot a lot pretty far,” he teases back. As internally cringe-inducing his attempt at flirting is, it makes them both laugh.