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"Here comes the bride" (KusKus) The fish held on long, and it's a strong one too. It swam left and right, trying to shake off the hook that is stuck on it's mouth, puncturing it's upper lips with the pointy edge that it has been molded into by some talented blacksmith. The hook is big for it's size too. And to hold a worm as big and beautiful that the fish was entranced by it, this hook is almost magical so to say. But nonetheless, the fish still struggles against the will of the hook and the strength of the line. It wiggles it's tail fin left and right in a furious motion. A motion so strong, that the currents of the water has shifted for a bit and helped the fish move on forward, against it's impending doom that awaits right beyond the flowing land. The fish has seen this happen before. To one of it's schoolmates. The fish had thought that it would never happened to itself. Thinking that it is a smarter fish than that of the rest of the school. Since it was definitely a bigger and stronger one of them all. But it seems, that no one, can escape the hook. Beyond the flowing land, a monstrous figure awaits the fishes it has caught with the hook, and the figure will no doubt take the fishes it has caught away from their flowing land, onto where the flow has gone and all fish cannot even move. Just beyond the flowing land, this figure awaits. Beyond the flowing land? BEYOND THE FLOWING LAND!!! The fish then thinks that maybe if it swims up and beyond flowing land, making a monstrous jump to the opposite of the monstrous figure, it can escape it's deadly clutches and make into the rest of the school before they leave it. It then wiggles it's tail fin left and right, almost shaking the fin off the tail, going upwards, towards the light that does engulf the surface of the flowing land. The hook this time moves upwards right towards the eyes of the fish, the fish cringes in pain, but still swims furiously for the surface. What's a little pain if there's freedom rewarded? It swims high and fast, not wanting to lost this little tug-o-war with the monstrous figure that hold the deadly hook. Just a little more until it reached the light. It pushes itself harder now, creating furious bubbles from the motion of it's tail, going left and right as if there's no tomorrow. Well, there won't be a tomorrow if the monstrous figure catches it. TRIUMPH!!! The light beyond the flowing land!! With this, it's freedom is assured! The fish can jump far away from the monstrous figure and be free of it's deadly hook! The fish gets a glimpse of the land beyond the flowing land, with it's greeny surface, and it's weird white boxes that inhabits it, unlike the blackish yellow hard things that inhabits the bottom surface of the flowing land, the one that the school would use to hide from the enemies or the bigger fish. And now, the fish has tales to tell to it's school, of how it has escaped the deadly hook, the fish thought to itself, until it felt a hard yank from the hook, and it was then pulled towards the monstrous figure. Oh good god almighty! It was a mistake to jump beyond the flowing land. It now has no flow to push itself against the monstrous figure. Oh god, it was pulled so far and fast. It's mouth hurt from the hook almost tearing off it's upper lips. It was pulled all 1 meter of the way from the air and the monstrous figure! Oh god, it was flying in the air for a couple of seconds of what seems like long minutes. The long travel on the air(over 1 whole meter, that has to be some sort of flying record for the school) had finally ended when the fish felt that it has been stopped by the hardness of the surface beyond the flowing land. It felt it's air giving out. It can't breathe. It struggles and jumps from the surface non-stop. It's view of the land now has become tilted to it's sides. Oh no, the monstrous figure comes. "Eh..." Yam Koo sneered, "You gave one helluva fight but you're only this big?" The fish wiggles left and right, trying to escape Yam Koo's hook, and jump over back into the water. "Oh well, we can still cook a whitefish anyway, might as well sell you at the market at the end of town" Yam Koo reassures himself, not wanting to admit what a loss he just had with this small whitefish. He then pulls out a little net that he was hanging into the water, and inside the net, a bundle of fishes were swimming in it. Most of them much larger than this small whitefish that he just caught. He puts the whitefish into the bundle and puts the net back into the water, so they won't die and rot while he tries to get more fish. "Ahhhh... this is the life. Fishes are stirring, the cool breeze in the air... I feel so relaxed. I almost feel like.... hmmmm... brother Tai Ho." Yam Koo said to himself, admiring the beauty he has had for the past 4 days, in KusKus. They certainly are getting more fishes than they were getting back in Coronet. This certainly is a much better place than Coronet in terms of fishes and people. But they can't really do anything about this since Kun Tze, their employer, lives in Coronet and they really can't be away from him for too long. He'll probably kill them. Yam Koo then suddenly jerks up at the mention of his brother, "Wonder if brother Tai Ho is up yet? He's missing such a good morning." As he remembers that they finally got a room at the inn yesterday morning after a person left. There was a rumour that the person who had rented that room was also a sailor. He wonders if it was anybody they knew. Maybe it was Shai. Or maybe Kun To finally made it to City-State. Or maybe Anji! If Anji was here, that would be cool. Or maybe it was that guy from... nah, can't be that guy. Besides, if it was that guy, it wouldn't be much of a good news. Since brother Tai Ho considers that guy as a big rival. Yam Koo then takes a worm from inside his little bait case, and puts it on the hook. He lets the hook puncture thru one end of the worm and then slides the worm thru the hook and let it go thru the middle of the worm, so that the other end of the worm(of which Yam Koo assumes it's the head) would not be hooked so it can wiggle in the water. This is done to attract the fish. After doing so, Yam Koo takes off his glove and puts it aside. "Heh, I think I need some new bait handling glove." he said as he looks at the worn-out glove that he have been using since before the Gate Rune war. That was like... 3 years ago. I think I had this glove since 6 years ago. Wow, that is a long time, Yam Koo thinks to himself. He then swings his fishing stick to the back and was about to jerk it into the water with a flick of his wrist until something caught his eyes. Something afar on the monstrous lake Deunan. A boat. A familiar one. Coming to this dock. Someone is on the edge of the deck. Standing proudly on his boat with his two hands beside his waist. Now, this is actually a normal thing for a harbor town like KusKus, but what really caught Yam Koo's eyes was that this someone is familiar. He squints his eyes thru the strand of hair that covers his face to try and see who that someone is. His eyes grew bigger as he finally realised who it is. Hmmmm... All the fishes are jumping towards him. That's funny, he thought he saw a glint in the fishes' mouth. He was about to throw the hook into the water when all the fishes jumps onto the pier he was fishing on. Now, they're on land and they're even trying to struggle to live. He took one fish by the upper lip and saw inside it's mouth. 100 potch. What the? He took another fish, again by it's upper lips, and saw inside it's mouth. 100 potch. Huh? He then looks at another fish. This one, he doesn't even need to pick it up, it opened it's mouth for him. 100 potch. What the hell is 100 potch doing inside a fish's mouth? He then looked at the mountain of fishes that has landed on the pier. And more is still coming. He now fears for the sturdiness of the pier, so he looked down at the pier. Huh? The pier is made out of metal. THICK metal. He then looks at the lake and saw from afar that more fishes are jumping towards him. He thought he saw an expression of happiness in them. As if they wanted to be caught by him. As if they wanted him to eat them. Or sell them. They came closer and closer, and when they arrived, they jumped onto the mountain of fishes that now resides beside him on the pier. The mountain is now practically a real mountain. It'll take weeks to climb to the top of this mountain. But he doesn't care anymore, he smiles and thinks of how easy his life will be now, he can even create a little market, maybe, selling fish, after all, these fishes can last him for a lifetime. And then, one of the fish came down to his feet. It moves it's little mouth. "Wake up, Tai Ho." Yam Koo shakes Tai Ho quite violently, "Geez, wake up, Tai Ho! Wake up! We gotta get outta here and I mean NOW!" Tai Ho then sleepily looks at Yam Koo and mumbled something. He turns back and face down onto the pillow to continue his sleep. And maybe his wonderful fish dream. "No no no no no no! We gotta go now Tai Ho! This is a REAL emergency, even for YOU!" Yam Koo said as he pushes Tai Ho off the bed. Tai Ho lands onto the ground with a loud thump, hurting his backside in the process, "Hey! That hurts you know. I mean, hell, I know your butt is sore with that dice incident, but you don't have to make mine sore as well!" "Look, this is no time for jokes, we need to go now!" Yam Koo said to Tai Ho with an etch of seriousness in his face. "What? Is Kun Tze calling for us?" Tai Ho asked wondering if it was their nosy boss that made his brother-in-law this nervous and scared. Though, now that he remembers back, Yam Koo has never been scared of their boss. "No, I was thinking we'd go to South Window for awhile and until things clear up and then go back to Coronet." "Clear up? Wha?" "No time to explain, pack, and let's go!" He was about to get up when suddenly a voice is heard at the door of their room, "Awww, leaving so soon?" Tai Ho looked at the door and saw a sturdy looking figure, wearing a Japanese sailor outfit, with his long hair slicked and tied at the back of his head. The man had a big chin that he can probably use to shatter rocks. Hell, the chin itself looks like a rock. The man looked at Tai Ho with a smirk on his face, "Hey Tai Ho, long time no see" "Amada" Tai Ho then voiced out his name, "Long time indeed." Yam Koo slumps himself on the bed and slaps his forehead, "Oh god, too late." "So, how goes it for my rival of the seas?" Amada asked for Tai Ho's well-being, in a mocking, cocky way. "It's going pretty good, Amada, and yourself?" Tai Ho looked back at Amada and smiled with a comparingly smuggish grin to Amada's mocking, cocky smirk. "Pretty well, did a little work for a trader in Radat about something and got me an assignment at Lakewest." Amada answered Tai Ho's question, revealing that he had so much to do for the past week. "Ahhh, good good, well, I had some shipping done for some private investigator," Tai Ho now retaliates with his own workload, saying about the time he had to ship Richmond to KusKus, "and also Kun Tze is just dogging me with work from Coronet to Lakewest to KusKus." "It has started" Yam Koo said as he rolled his eyes back and listens to the bickering of both his brother-in-law and the "rival" of Tai Ho. "Wow, that sounds like a wonderful little haul you have there, Tai Ho. Looks like you beat me this round. But anyway, I'm not here to duel with you, I'm here to bring you a little... gift." Amada said in his mocking duel voice, and his smirkish grin, still etched to his face. "Gift?" Tai Ho wondered. His curiousity has been piqued. "Yeah, you see, on my way back from Lakewest on my, fast and sturdy ship, I thought I'd visit Coronet for awhile, you know, for the sake of fun, and then I met someone. She said she knew you" Amada answered Tai Ho. "Ahhhh, dear Tai Ho, you thought you could escape me?" a voice can be heard in the hall. And all too familiar voice. Tai Ho's eyes widened as he remembers who this sultry, silky voice belonged to. He then proceeds to jump out of the window, until he was stopped by his brother-in-law. "Oh no, you don't, you're not leaving ME behind! Not with..." Yam Koo scowled at Tai Ho who was trying to make a getaway from "...Kimberley" Yam Koo finishes just as Kimberley enters the room, "Oh, am I that bad?" Tai Ho then climbed back into the room and puts on a sheepish smile on his face, cursing his bad luck today, "Oh no no no no, you're not that bad, in fact, you're not bad at all, it's just... well... just..." "You cramping our style." Yam Koo finishes the sentence for Tai Ho. Tai Ho looks at Yam Koo with a certain awestrucked expression and then turns back towards Kimberley, smiling, sheepishly again, "In a way." he said. Kimberley then hugged Tai Ho tightly and cried on his chest, "I missed you so much, the days you've been gone, working for that horrible Kun Tze. I finally got a chance to come here to the City-State, and finally be with you again." Tai Ho felt a little jerk in his heart as he starts to melt into Kimberley's warm hands. He's starting to feel sorry for leaving Kimberley behind. Forget about how Kimberley almost made him quit his Chinchirorin, or how Kimberley always dogged him to go out and go to work, or even how Kimberley always asked for him to buy more Sake. Kimberley is still a good woman. A woman that would still, no matter how they quarrel, live with his faults. "I... I'm sorry Kimberley." Tai Ho said with a sympathetic tone in his voice. "Ahhh, Tai Ho, you never told me you had a beautiful and caring wife." Amada starts and smiles at Tai Ho, "You keep good care of her, you hear me?" and he goes out of the room. Just as Amada left the inn, Kimberley takes her head off Tai Ho's chest and then starts to put Tai Ho in a headlock. "AH HAH! I finally got you, you sneaky rascal!" Kimberley shouted and then proceeds to give a little noogie on Tai Ho's head. "Ow ow ow, wha?" Tai Ho was baffled by the sudden change of mood from Kimberley. Kimberley then hugs him again, "Well, I really did miss you tho, but let's cut this sappy stuff and let's go back to Coronet. At least there you guys have your own place." Kimberley drags Tai Ho out of the room with Tai Ho only looking towards Kimberley all baffled and surprised. "Ahhh well, I guess we're back to the old drawing board" Yam Koo sighed behind them. "That's right Yam Koo-chan," Kimberley calls out at Yam Koo, "And this time, wherever you guys go, I go as well!" and with this, the trio starts out of the inn and onwards toward the harbor, where they'll be going off to Coronet. "Okay." was all Tai Ho can reply to Kimberley.
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