#kyam

(Late, I know. For the SC Community writing prompt: Another Part of Me.)

Maxi ran his fingers through his long forelock, holding it out toward the sun. He saw sandy yellow strands without a trace of black. A tart whiff of lime lingered on his hair, but he grinned into a small mirror. Weeks of washing with watered-down shiikwāsa lime juice and every hour in the sun he could get did the trick. Maxi’s hair had gone from its natural glossy black to a brassy almost-red that had stunned his father—the captain—and the rest of the crew until it lightened to blond. The gawking had been a small price to pay.

At this sight, his sworn brother Kyam hoped this morning’s run for shiikwāsa would be the last one for a while. “What a difference,” he said diplomatically.

“I’ll say,” Maxi said, putting the mirror aside. “I wasn’t expecting much after the whole thing with the lye, but I think I like it.”

“Frankly, I wasn’t expecting you to keep it up after you burned your scalp,” Kyam said with a grimace. He remembered the first attempt, when Maxi screamed loud enough to jolt him awake and send his father bursting through the cabin door. It was then that he noticed that his eyebrows had also changed. “You bleached your eyebrows too?”

“They’d look funny if I didn’t.”

“Well, you got me there.” Kyam shrugged. The idea of doing the same with his hair, wavy and long enough to reach his shoulders, had sounded more like a bother to him. A simple red skullcap was enough for his liking.

Maxi already had on green pants with golden dragons, bound with a yellow sash, and his midriff wrapped in white linen—a favorite of his when he woke up itching for a fight. A yellow scarf covered his bare shoulders somewhat. He started to ferret around the cabin, as though he had just realized what he was missing.

As Maxi dug through a chest, Kyam left the cabin. On deck, he watched a group of crewmen inspect the riggings, for a storm had blown the night before and the captain would leave little to chance on a vessel that bore the banner of the king. There had been talk of delaying the next voyage for one more day, owing to the sight of dark, towering clouds lingering westward over the sea. For the moment, the air was muggy and hot, and the wind was hardly strong enough to stir the sails.

Maxi soon emerged from his cabin with his head held high. He had added a broad leather baldric with a single iron plate of armor and a pair of pauldrons, each embossed with a red dragon. One by one, members of the crew turned their heads as he strolled by.

“Hey, brother,” one of the younger sailors called out from the mainsail, “are you keeping it like that?”

“We’ll see!” Maxi answered with a laugh. But when he looked starboard and saw the huge clouds over the sea, his face slowly fell. “I don’t like the look of that sky. What do you think, Kyam?”

Kyam clucked his tongue. “Wind’s blowing towards us. We’re going nowhere fast as it is.”

“Just our luck.” Maxi idly twirled one handle of the nunchaku. He cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered, “We could head off into town.”

“Oh, what are you up to now?”

“I don’t know. A drink or two?”

Suddenly, shouting from below deck startled them. Maxi nearly dropped his nunchaku at what sounded like a girl yelling. Crewmen began to gather uneasily near either side of the prow as Maxi and Kyam muscled past them. Maxi crouched into a fighting stance until he finally saw his father step out from below, leading an indignant-looking young girl by the hand. The captain cleared his throat.

“The cargomaster found this little stowaway aboard,” he announced sternly. He looked down at the girl as though ready to scold her, then his eyes softened in pity. “Kadena, you’re lucky the ship is still moored.”

The girl was pale-faced and nearly shaking. Her black hair fell over her shoulders in disarray. “Captain, let me go,” she pleaded. “I can work. I swear I won’t get in the way.”

A weary sigh escaped him as he turned to Maxi. “Son, you and Kyam take her home. And don’t dawdle. Come back as soon as you can.”

Maxi reluctantly nodded and held his hand out, but Kadena refused. “Come on,” he coaxed. “There’s a storm on the way.”

Kadena shot him a disbelieving look, but then shuddered. The breeze had hardly changed, but she quietly followed him and Kyam down the gangway. With a gloved hand, Kadena smoothed her hair as nonchalantly as she could.

A strange, musty smell hit him, sort of like the inside of a moldy old cask. He was in no doubt that she had been hiding among their supply of awamori. Before he could open his mouth, she suddenly spoke.

“Maxi, what did you do to your hair?” Kadena asked.

“Just something I’d heard about from some Portuguese sailors. They say it’s popular in Italy—if their interpreter wasn’t messing with me. Lemon juice and sunlight, one of them said. They didn’t have the lemons, so I made do with shiikwāsa. I’d go and thank them if they hadn’t already left for Nagasaki.”

Kyam arched an eyebrow. “What about the one that suggested using lye?”

“Don’t you start!” Maxi snapped. “I still say I should’ve given him a piece of my mind.”

Kadena covered her mouth, but softly laughed into her hand. “You do look tough, Maxi,” she said.

“Now, that’s more like it.” He immediately received a swift elbowing from Kyam.

“Kadena, where’s your mother?” Kyam asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered sheepishly. “Probably looking for me. Again.”

For a moment, he considered leaving her halfway and sparing himself and Kyam at least some time for drinks. Kadena was hardly a child to be led around anymore; she would insist as much. He could surely trust her to find her way home at some point, and if all went well, he and Kyam could continue with his father none the wiser.

Maxi took the lead as they walked around the harbor. The wharves of Nāfa teemed with merchants and sailors, island-born and foreign alike. Tribute ships bound for Great Ming waited, the flags atop their masts fluttering uncertainly in the wind. Fishing boats, junks, and Japanese ships slowly sailed by while a black carrack faded into the horizon. To his dismay, the sky steadily dimmed as the clouds loomed closer to the shore. Kadena cast an anxious eye on them.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “It’ll be gone by morning.”

Kadena inched closer to Kyam. Her eyes flitted to the both of them. “And you’ll be off to Ming by then, right?”

Maxi nodded. “It should be our first stop before Ayutthaya.”

“Akisamiyō,” she breathed.

“And with any luck,” Kyam said, “there won’t be as many pirates along the way.”

“But if any of them try their luck with us,” Maxi cut in, “I’ll show them just what these are for.” He gestured for the two to back away, then held his nunchaku aloft. With a piercing cry, he swung them over his head in dizzying circles. Passersby soon slowed and watched him kick and strike at the air, and the more that gathered, the more spirited Maxi got. It seemed that it had been the sight of blond hair on him that drew them just as much as his display of martial arts prowess, but the sight of Kyam and Kadena’s rapt attention would have also sufficed for him. Finally, he caught the free handle of his nunchaku, stopped, took a few deep breaths, and bowed. Kyam and Kadena started a round of applause.

“Young lady!” A woman cut through the front of the dispersing crowd. Kadena froze as she approached, but the woman’s anger quickly faded as she took her hand. The backs of her fingers were marked with tapering black arrows, and the backs of her hands with a thick black circle.

“Anmā,” Kadena said, “they wouldn’t have taken me with them anyway.”

“That’s right,” Kyam calmly said. “We were just bringing this stowaway home. Ask the captain’s son if you don’t believe me.”

Her mother stared at Maxi for a moment. “Oh my, I hardly recognized you. You two found her?”

“Nah,” Maxi said, brushing his forelock out of his eyes. “My father found her hiding in an empty cask below deck. She’s, uh, getting good at sneaking aboard.”

Kadena blushed furiously, but smirked to herself.

Her mother gave a deep bow. “Tell your father he has my thanks,” she said.

Maxi and Kyam each returned a bow. As Kadena left with her mother, looked back at them over her shoulder once before vanishing into the streets.

“That was easier than I’d expected,” Maxi mused.

“Still hankering for a drink?” Kyam asked wryly.

Maxi felt a thick drop of rain land on his head, then looked up as more began to fall from the dark gray sky. “Maybe later. Let’s get back to the ship.”

In an instant, they hurried back to their wharf. By the time they reached the ship, Maxi’s hair fell in a thick yellow mop over his right eye. Kyam reported the stowaway was now safe at home. The captain had been pleased with the news.

I am eyes that sing

Smile that brightens

Touch that rings

And supplies euphoric release

I am a Grand Dame Queen Beast

Womanifesto - Jill Scott (2011)

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Soul Calibur Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Maxi (Soul Calibur), Kyam (Soul Calibur), Kadena (Soul Calibur) Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Hair Dyeing, Boats and Ships, Banter, Light-Hearted, Prompt Fic, Cross-Posted on Tumblr Series: Part 11 of Laika's SoulCaliblr Community Prompt Fills Summary:

1582: Maxi wants to show off his new hair color and some fighting moves, but gets stuck escorting a stowaway off his father's ship.