Emma looked down at the corpse of the bird. It was a sparrow she had seen in the garden eating from her mothers bird feeder. She just stared, unsure what to think about it. Behind her, the sound of arguments raged on as they always did.
“Is this your uncle's influence huh!” Emma’s Father, Adam S Nash, yelled out.
“Hardly since you won't let us meet him.” Haruka yelled back. He was still young, yet stood up to the vice admiral boldly.
Emma felt the presence of her mother beside her. She looked at her, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her face was soft with kind eyes, she was the image of dainty if Emma knew what that word meant at the time.
“Everything okay Emma?” Akari S Nash said, a look of concern on her face.
Emma just pointed at the bird. “It died.”
Emma's Mother looked at the bird with sorrow in her eyes. “Oh no, poor thing. You want to bury it?”
Emma shook her head, why bury it? “Boat.” She said in her tiny voice.
Emma's mother smiled at her. “I see, you want to give it a marine funeral huh.”
Emma nodded up and down.
“Alright, let's make a little boat for it then.”
Her mother walked away, breaking up the fighting. The two male Nash’s glared at each other as they separated into separate parts of the garden. Haruka approached Emma.
“What's wrong Ems?” Haruka said. He was taller than Emma, though he had stopped growing, his height matching his mothers. He bore the soft face of his mother, but the hard eyes of his father. Emma was reversed, she had the hard face of her father, but the soft eyes of her mother. Yet they were quite indistinct, people sometimes would confuse the two for each other, though that was mostly due to Haruka growing out his hair past marine length like father wanted.
“Bird.” Emma said, pointing.
Haruka looked at the dead sparrow, a different type of sorrow filling his eyes. “It could fly anywhere, yet it had to die here huh.” A gloom spread across Haruka’s face.
“Emma, I got the materials lets make a boat!” Her mother yelled out.
Emma got up and rushed towards her mother, leaving Haruka, who just stared at the bird.
It was late into the night when Emma awoke. She found her brother standing over her in the dark, shaking her slightly. Emma blinked the sleep from her eyes.
“Haruka?” Emma asked drowsily.
“Emma, I'm leaving.” Haruka said. Emma noticed the bag on his shoulder then, along with his bow. He had taken up the bow and learned from their mother, another slight against their father.
“Leaving?” Emma asked, rubbing her eyes. “You going to get a snack? Ill go too. I want ice cream.”
“Emma, you can't go with me.” Haruka said. “I'm going to steal a ship, and i'm going to become a pirate.”
“But dad will be mad.” Emma said.
“I can't live in fear of dad forever can I?” Haruka said with a bittersweet smile that was lost in the darkness. “I gotta do my own thing. I won't be like that bird Ems. I'm going to go and join a pirate crew, and become a big name pirate.”
Emma didn't know what to say, was she still dreaming? “I'll miss you.”
Haruka pulled Emma up into a hug. “I'll miss ya too Ems. This isn't a true goodbye, we'll see each other again sometime, out at the sea.” With that, he took his leave, and Emma drifted back to sleep against her will.
“That brat!” Father yelled.
“He couldn't have gotten far, I'll go after him.” Mother said.
Emma awoke to her parents yelling.
“No, I will go, I can catch him faster.” Father said angrily.
“And you think you can convince him to come back? No, I will go.”
“This isn't up for debate!” Father declared.
“You're right, so let's both go. I can get Starstruck to watch Emma for a bit while we're away.”
Emma emerged from her room to see her father and mother frantically gathering things.
“Emma.” Mother said. “Rear Admiral Starstruck will be watching you for a bit, we gotta go get Haruka, he got lost but we'll find him okay?”
Starstruck came shortly after that, he was an interesting man. He had his hair gelled back and wore a leather jacket below his rear admiral jacket, the rear admiral jacket was bedazzled and given tassels that draped across the ground, he also always wore star shaped sun glasses.
“Don't worry yourself any, I'll take care of little Emma ahuh.” Starstruck said in his strange exaggerated way. Starstruck combed back his gelled hair as he spoke.
“Thank you Starstruck.” Father said, as he began to leave the house.
Emma’s mother crouched down and pulled Emma into a hug, as she always did before leaving for an assignment. “Its okay Emma, well be back soon okay? Will you be a good girl? If you are, we all can go and get ice cream together.”
“Haruka too?” Emma asked.
“Of course honey. He is family, it will be a family outing. Of course Starstruck will come too.”
Emma smiled. “Okay! Come back soon mommy!”
It was unfair how sunny it was. It was like the world was spitting Emma. Mom did always love the sun, she grew pretty flowers and said the sun gave them the energy to grow big and strong. But it only felt right for it to rain today. Rain would hide the tears that were falling in a cascade from her eyes.
Commodore Akari S Nash lay in a boat surrounded by flowers. On her chest rested a Vice Admiral Jacket, a promotion for the greatest duty a Marine could do, die in the line of duty. She still held that kind smile on her face, even after death, yet her eyes would never open again.
Emma had screamed so much in pain over the last few days that she had lost her voice, now she just screamed in silence, a futile effort at getting her mother back. Maybe if she yelled loud enough for her she would come back as she had when she scraped her knee as a kid. She would run to her now, as they pushed her small boat out to sea, had it not been for her father holding her hand so tightly it would hurt. The pain from that was not noticed by Emma, as the pain in her chest was far worse.
She wanted her mother, she wanted to hug her mom one last time, she wanted another family dinner with the bickering. She wanted to learn to ride a bike and swim like her mother had promised she would teach her. She wanted to learn to shoot a bow like her mom, she wanted her to read a story to her again. She wanted to hear her laugh, hear her scold Haruka, feel her warmth, feel her love. But it all sailed away, before igniting in a blaze of fire.
Emma fell to her knees on the ground, watching the fires claim her mother. She could feel the warmth of those fires, they felt like mom. She felt like mom was holding her one last time.
“Emma.” Her Father said angrily, staring out at the great blaze unblinking. “Pirates killed her. Do you understand what that means.”
It was true, they had been attacked by pirates while looking for Haruka, and her mother had died during the battle.
“You have to become a great marine, pirates are bad people, do you understand that now. We have to catch them all, especially the one that did this to your mother”
Emma just stared forward. Feeling her mothers warm. She knew she would never feel this feeling again, so she savored it, which brought on the tears again.
After that, Emma began training with the blade every day, for hours on end. When her father would be sent on an assignment Emma would be watched by Starstruck, sometimes Fleet Admiral Ormr would come by and take Emma out to fish, or get ice cream, yet the activities lost the feelings they had when she had done them with her mother and Haruka. When she would look too low, Ormr would give her candy which helped. He said that Emma should get a cat, it would help her with the loneliness, but father never let her. The only thing that caught her interest were when Ormr would read to her at night.
“Maybe I'll get one for your birthday and we will sneak it in.” Ormr said with a sly wink.
When Emma had turned thirteen she had been approved for the special marine training program. She walked and stood as tall as her little frame would allow, waiting for her lessons to begin. The other two were something else, one looked like a messy kid, the other was lying below a tree with an oversized sword at his side.
