Curse of the Zodiac Serpent
The Snake

Dimitri was crouched low in the forest foliage. “Mr Dragon?”

He and the rest of the crew were hiding not far from the unfolding scene, and sitting still was starting to make him antsy. They’d already lost two to this lying bastard, he didn’t want to lose the captain or the girl.

“Not yet.” The black-roped figure was standing with his back to a tree. He returned a moment ago as planned.

“Sir!” Dimitri hissed in protest as he could see the bald man toying with some jars beside the altar that the princess was lying on. Well, now he knew that she wasn’t the princess but still, he didn’t know her true name so that was all he could refer to her as.

“The serum needs more time.” He hissed back. “Boy, I don’t like this any more than you do.”

“Why must we wait so long?!” The young pirate asked.

“Zodiacs can’t harm each other. I wouldn’t be teaming up with a band of pirates otherwise. Now Shhh!” He snapped back.

A few more agonizing minutes passed with him watching that asshole drool over the princess. His hand tightened around his sword at his waist. Surely it had to be enough time now.

“Don’t be a fool!” Dragon scolded him as he was about to lunge forward. The man wasn’t even looking his way and yet he had known. “You must wait for her to make a move, or we risk never getting another chance. Her surprise attack is all we have.”

With a displeased grunt he proceeded to wait.

Ayako eyed the snake angrily, she could feel that her body was her own again but remained still. Which proved harder than one might think. Her first instinct was to just grab whatever it was behind her back and stab the bastard. But she needed an opening, needed to do this right.

Kenji managed to remove the gag from his mouth and continue shouting insults at the snake. Excellent! It was just what she needed. The snake turned its back to her and strode over to the raging pirate in huffed anger. At this point it almost seemed as though Kenji was doing it on perhaps, had he seen the hooded figure, he must have.

She slipped off the cold hard surface of the stone altar very carefully grabbing hold of the weapon that had been left for her. It was a small dagger, not dissimilar to the one that snake had used to cut her hand, this one had a hilt of a beautifully designed golden dragon head.

Just as she was about to strike from behind men emerged from the tree line. Running and screaming. Snake’s attention divided he spun on his heels coming face to face with her. He raised his hands to stop everyone on the spot. But no resistance came to her form. His eyes widened as relosation sank in and he tried to dodge her incoming strike. She took advantage of his shock. She plunged the dagger into the bastard’s heart with a precise swift blow.

He looked down in disbelief at the embedded weapon. “If y- you do this... you’ll never b-be free, you’ll be as s-stuck here as I am!” He warned somewhat breathlessly.

“Yeah, and so what! At least I won’t be eating people for fun!” looking him directly in the eye as she twisted the hilt making sure it hit its mark. His wide-eyed shocked expression left her feeling fulfilled and satisfied. It didn’t take long for blood to coat her hands. His hands clasped her shoulders, a last effort to attack her but his legs appeared to give out. She stepped back letting the weapon go, leaving it in his body as he fell to the ground in a gasping mess. She knew she’d nicked his lung when he started coughing up blood.

With blood dripping from her fingertips, she watched as he drew his last breath. His eyes remained open as though still staring at her, but the light faded from them as quickly as the blood soaked into the forest floor.

The crew erupted in an uproar as with his death they were set free of his paralysis, but she couldn’t hear anything other than a ringing in her head that was growing stronger in pressure and louder by the second. She winced as she pressed a bloodied hand to her temple. The world before her eyes seemed so far away, dejected and unfamiliar. A steady hand caught her as a wave of dizziness washed over her.

“What’s happening to her!?”

She couldn’t tell who that was, her mind clouded.

“Her body is taking on the spirit of the snake.”

She hissed as she felt her back and shoulders burning, the heat intensifying and spreading down and around her arm as though a hot liquid were scorching her skin. In a matter of minutes, the feelings faded and the world stopped spinning. Her eyes fluttered open, not realising she’d closed them. A smirk spread across her face as she realised whose arms she was in.

“Still trying to save me?” She joked.

“I think it’s safe to say that you saved us.” Kenji appeared to be trying to hide a smile of his own.

Sitting up she looked down at herself to find a delicately designed snake tattoo had emerged on her body, stretching across her back and down her arm. “This is really happening.” She muttered.

“It was meant to be me.” Kenji’s demeanour changed.

She shook her head. “What’s done is done. But,” Looking down at her hands she could feel things that she hadn’t before, had an understanding of the curse that she shouldn’t and knew things that would seemingly be impossible to know. “I- I think can help you with the curse.”

Standing she looked around at the crew, her gaze stopping on the youngest of the men. “Dimitri.” She held out her hand for the boy. “Come here for a minute.”

The young pirate glanced at his captain.

“Go! You baffoon, she wants to start with you.” He commented with a roll of his eyes.

“Right!” Nervously he approached Ayako before tentatively taking her hand.

If she wasn’t so focused on how she could help these men she would have found the action laughable. She placed her other hand on top of his and closed her eyes. She needed to understand what the previous snake had done to them to undo it.

She furrowed her brows as she found what she was looking for and didn’t like it. “He’s completely changed your genetic makeup. If I undo it, it would mean an early death for everyone, I can’t repair the damage that has been done if I remove it.”

“What about changing it.” The name she suddenly knew as the Dragon was lingering with the group and she was glad for his presence, he had an air of knowledge about him and she knew he was the one to help her earlier.

“That’s doable, but they would still have a snake form.” She opened her eyes to find several worried expressions.

“We can’t get rid of it?” Someone asked.

Regrettably, she shook her head slowly. “However, I could make it so that the transformation was by choice and not forced every night. I can reverse its effects on your body, meaning it will heal you instead of decaying you. But I can’t remove it completely.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Dimitri smiled. “We’ve used the snake form to our advantage many times and if it doesn’t hurt or make our teeth fall out after every change then that’s a win right!?”

Ayako couldn’t help but smile at the young boy. “I will do what each of you wants. Remove it, or alter it, it’s your decision to make.”

“Can you really heal the damage that has already been done?” A man with a missing eye spoke up.

She smiled, it seemed they had already made up their minds. She answered questions as best as she could and then it was time to begin.

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