Trouble In Hangzhou, China

We get the six-star Dragon Ball without much issue, thanks to Gang Orca going out there to get it. Gang Orca secured it in a secret safe in the control room, hidden behind a painting. It took us a little under 5 hours to get to the coast of China at our cruising speed after picking up the Dragon Ball. Gang Orca coordinated with the Chinese navy to find a place to dock his submarine at their naval docks. Once anchored, we exited and were escorted by a formal escort of Chinese sailors, along with a Chinese/Japanese translator who served as our guide. She bowed to us and said, “Welcome to Hangzhou’s naval base. My name is Jia Hui, and I will be your guide.” Gang Orca bowed slightly and said, “Thank you for having us. Has Admiral Chang been well?” Miss Hui responds, “She has. Let me escort you to the VIP guest reception hall.” 

As we walk, Miss Hui asks, “Are these the two interns studying under you?” Gang Orca nods, “Yes, this is Flustrated, the background dimension, octopus hero. This is Hops, and she is Flustrated’s teleporting, stretchy sidekick.” Miss Hui says with a welcoming smile, “Welcome, you both. Please let us know if you need anything during your stay.” Ayaka nods and says, “Thank you for your hospitality.” I stay silent with my hands in my pockets, following them. As we are walking, Ayaka looks toward a crowd of Chinese sailors quite suddenly like her Observation Haki was activated. I follow her gaze and use my zoom-vision to try and see who it was that triggered her Haki. I whisper to her, “I don’t see anyone. Do you still feel it?” She shakes her head and whispers back, “I think they left when they realized I noticed their malicious gaze.” I pop a jawbreaker just in case, so I can be ready.

Miss Hui glanced back at us like she had heard our whispers and kept escorting us. Gang Orca also seemed to hear the whispers and made a worried face. We pass by a few sailors speaking Chinese, and I hear a familiar word that is mistress/lover in Japanese. Does it mean the same here? Are they just openly talking about an affair? Ayaka and I shared a confused look to make sure we heard it correctly, and it seems we did. 

We made it to the VIP reception hall without any further incident. It is pretty swanky in here with lots of reds and golds. There is traditional Chinese architecture in their interior decoration. We sat down on a very nice red sofa sitting opposite another sofa just like it with a glass/gold coffee table in between. Miss Hui whispers to some of the lower-ranked sailors in Chinese, and they speed walk out of the room. Miss Hui dismisses the others, from what I can tell from her nonverbal gestures, and they leave leisurely for an unknown destination. When we were alone and it was just us and Miss Hui while waiting on Admiral Chang, she asked Ayaka, “Do you have an ability to detect malicious gazes?”

Ayaka nods, and Miss Hui’s face gets more serious, “I will look into that for you to see if we can figure out who was responsible.” She says as she bows. She continues while standing back up, “Please excuse me while I go fetch the Admiral.” She then leaves, and Gang Orca says, “Don’t worry, you two. Admiral Chang, Miss Hui, and I are all very capable and will protect you while we are here. Knowing the Admiral, she will want to race me like always, so Miss Hui will watch you when that time comes.” We nod, and then we sit in silence for a bit. I play with the jawbreaker in my mouth, and Ayaka smirks at me, and she steals my jawbreaker with a kiss. I blush furiously like every other time she does this, and I hear a dolphin-like laugh, then a woman’s voice, “E-E-E-E! You really made yourselves comfortable, didn’t you?” We turn to see a woman with a dolphin quirk in a professional military dress uniform walk in. She has many ribbons on her uniform blazer, her shoes are so shiny, and her pants are very crisply creased. Gang Orca chuckles, “Hope you are doing well, Xiao. These are my interns, Flustrated and Hops.” 

Admiral Chang says, “Jia told me all about you and also how you picked up a malicious gaze while on my base. Can you tell me more?” Ayaka shakes her head, “The moment I noticed it, it stopped. Hops, using her advanced sight, scanned the crowd of sailors and couldn’t find anyone particularly suspicious. It is possible that the gaze was from farther away and possibly not in the group that was there as well. I just felt the direction.” Admiral Chang takes a seat, and she says, “I will open an investigation into the matter. Please rest assured that I will make sure that you both are cared for while you are in my care.” We nod, and Ayaka continues to play with the jawbreaker she stole inside her mouth.

Admiral Chang asks Gang Orca, “Would you like to have another race while you are here?” Gang Orca chuckles, “You just want to beat me again.” Admiral Chang dolphin laughs and responds, “E-E-E-E! You are the closest that someone has been to beating me in the water, and I like a challenge.” Gang Orca sighs and says, “I guess one race wouldn’t hurt.” Admiral Chang asks Ayaka, “I can race you as well if you would like?” Ayaka shakes her head and says, “Since becoming an octopus, I would lose to a quirkless human in a race. So you would swim literal laps around me.” Admiral Chang curiously asks, “Do you mean that you weren’t born an octopus?” Ayaka then gives the lie we tell people and how we got these from being experimented on.

Admiral Chang looks at us with worry and says, “I am sorry to hear that. Is that where you got those scars?” She turns and says that last part to me, and I shake my head. Ayaka says, “She got hurt in a villain attack abroad and lost her eye. It was a separate incident.” Admiral Chang looks confused and asks, “Can she not speak?” I let out a laugh, and Ayaka chuckles and says, “She often is misunderstood because of her delivery, so I often translate for her.” I start to blush because she looks at me with that loving, yet slightly teasing face of hers, and I lift my mask up to cover it. Admiral Chang laughs, and she says, “E-E-E-E-E! You two are adorable. Do you have any plans for the rest of the day, Gang Orca?” He shakes his head and says, “I mean, other than losing to you yet again, no.” Admiral Chang claps and says, “Great, you three will be my personal guests during your stay. How about we knock out this race before we lose track of time?” Gang Orca chuckles at her enthusiasm and follows her, and we follow him.

We go to the beach where Gang Orca and Admiral Chang strip to their bathing suits that were already under their clothes, while low-ranking sailors are on standby with towels, robes, and rifles strapped on their backs. Miss Hui is here with us and says, “Don’t worry, I was tasked with being your escort while you were here and protecting you if the need arises. Rest assured that I am very capable and am the second strongest in the Zhejiang province under Admiral Chang.” We nod, and I pop a jawbreaker to be on the safe side. Ayaka whispers, “If I feel murderous intent, I will squeeze your hand.” I nod and look around the beach here, and it is pretty open. There are plenty of tall buildings where snipers could target us from beyond the border wall of the base in the distance. There is a 1-meter-high stone wall on this beach that we could hide behind in an emergency, which I could quickly teleport us to. Ayaka sees me seeing the stone wall and understands what I am thinking and nods.

Admiral Chang and Gang Orca are still out in the ocean, and Ayaka squeezes my hand and glances back quickly. I teleported us to the wall where we instantly crouched. We look to the beach where we were and see Miss Hui guiding a bullet into an open area of sand, where sand pops out with the impact. Miss Hui called out orders to the sailors, pointing them in the exact direction the shot came from. The sailors who were on standby on the beach with towels and robes pulled out their rifles that were strapped to their backs and took cover behind the stone wall in the direction of the bullet, just as directed. Miss Hui looked to the ocean, saying something that made me think she was sending an alarm to the Admiral and Gang Orca. I peer over the wall and look where she pointed when leading the sailors. She was speaking in Chinese, but I followed their gaze and used my zoom and saw a masked person wearing a black hoodie quickly breaking down his sniper rifle.

Miss Hui seems finished with her message as I turn back to her and I tell her, “I have eyes on them and they are making a break for it. Should we surprise him with my quirk before they can get away?” She nods and sends a quick message to the Admiral while I teleport both me and Ayaka over to them and get them to huddle, then I use my zoom vision to teleport us into the room with the sniper as he closes his suitcase. He panics and tries to pull out a small revolver, but the sailors surround him quickly, and he growls and shoots his revolver at a sailor. Ready for him to fire, I made an armament shield, and he used his quirk, which apparently allows him to manipulate steel and control the flight path of the bullet. Miss Hui uses her quirk to manipulate the sound waves coming from the bullet. The sailors apprehend the shooter and confiscate his weapons, but he is still using his quirk to control the bullet currently flying around the room. 

Ayaka says to me while dodging the bullet effortlessly with her Observation Haki that seemed to be targeting her specifically, “Get Garlic’s powder from your pocket and make him go to sleep. He can’t use his quirk if he is knocked out.” I nod and pull out the bag, and I pour a tiny bit in his face, and he sneezes himself into a forced nap. Miss Hui has full control of the bullet, controlling it with sound, but it is still flying quickly, and she says, “I am having difficulties slowing it down. I can only keep it moving here.” I ask her, "Can you make it spin in a tight circle right here?” She nods and makes it spin in front of me, and it is spinning so fast that it almost looks like a steel-colored bracelet that is solid. I use my arm skin to wrap around the bullet and use armament and tell her, “Alright, try letting it hit me.” Miss Hui says worriedly, “If you say so…” 

She swerves the bullet into my skin dome, and the bullet spins into my armament, trying to dig in and slowly comes to a stop. I wince in pain as it burns a little from the friction. That dude must have made it go faster or something. The last time I was shot was not like that. I drop the armament and skin dome, and what’s left of the bullet falls to the ground. My skin is a little red from the friction burn and slight trickle of blood, but other than that, I am fine. The sailors all sigh in relief, seeing the bullet fall. I could only imagine him leveling up his quirk and being able to control multiple bullets at once. I don’t think we would have won in that hypothetical scenario. The sailors lift up the handcuffed sniper, and Miss Hui asks me to teleport them back to the beach, where I see the Admiral and Gang Orca looking around.

We got to the beach in an instant since I had a line of sight and scared the shit out of both Admiral Chang and Gang Orca. Even though I tried to be considerate and teleport away from them out of courtesy. I guess it was still sudden regardless. Miss Hui updated them on the situation, and we used my quirk to quickly take everyone to where they want to restrain and interrogate the shooter. Their usual interrogation rooms had steel tables and chairs, so they couldn’t use those because of his quirk. They replaced the steel cuffs on him with a straitjacket. We took him to a room with no furniture and a one-way mirror so people could stand on the other side and talk. I shiver thinking of the terrifying version of Japan again, since they had these same kinds of mirrors.

He started to come around as we were leaving, and Miss Hui told the Admiral, “I’ll take care of everything from here, Ma’am.” Admiral Chang nodded, and then she placed her hand on my back, “Alright, now that we have that taken care of, why don’t we get your injuries taken care of?” I stammer, trying to hide the blood trickling down my arm from the bullet breaking some skin, “I-I-I’m fine.” Admiral Chang says, “Well, I don’t care what you say, I see you're bleeding, so you are going to get that treated.” I sigh and go along with it, “O-ok.” Ayaka pouts in a sexy way, “I was wanting to play doctor with you later.” I remember seeing roleplaying videos on those porn sites with ‘doctors’ and ‘nurses’ ‘healing.’ I blush furiously and get a nosebleed since she said it in a sexy way. 

Ayaka giggles seductively, “You are so cute. You are bleeding more from your nose than your arm now.” I mutter under my breath as I try to catch the blood with my hand to prevent too much from getting on my costume, “And Mom calls me the succubus.” Ayaka, who was holding my hand, heard it as well as Admiral Chang and Gang Orca, who apparently have good hearing. Admiral Chang laughs with her high-pitched dolphin laugh, “E-E-E-E-E!” We made a quick stop by the restroom, and I went into the bathroom stall and got some toilet paper, and it read ‘letter’ when I quickly glanced at it. Upon looking at it closer with my prosthetic eye, it translated to toilet paper. I couldn’t help but find myself slightly amused for a very brief and fleeting moment, imagining someone wiping their ass with a letter. Once my nose was stopped up with tissue, I headed back out with the others. 

Ayaka says in a sexy voice while biting her lip, “Hey, sexy.” I blush furiously and say, “S-s-stop saying things like that with others around. I can’t fade into the background like you can.” I mutter the last part, and she kisses my cheek and says, “Ok, I’ll stop teasing you… for now.” I pull up my mask on my costume to hide my blush.

They escorted me to the infirmary, and the nurse was shocked to hear that my injury was due to a bullet, since it wasn’t that bad. I showed them my armament and said, “Using this ability protected my skin.” The nurse and the Admiral were both touching my other non-injured arm that I used armament on in fascination. I explained the general concept, and Admiral Chang said, “Oh, I think my old classmate who teaches here was telling me something about a paper published in Japan about something like that. I didn’t actually look it up to read it yet. Is everyone really able to use this type of ability?” I nod, and Admiral Chang starts giggling maniacally, “I’ll be unstoppable in the water if I learn that.” My stomach growls, and Admiral Chang says, “Let’s get you guys something to eat.”

She takes us to a restaurant on base and says as we sit down in a booth, “I recommend both the sweet and sour west lake fish or the dongo pork. It is quite the specialty here in Hangzhou.” Ayaka says, “How about I get the sweet and sour west lake fish and you can get the dongo pork, and we can share?” I nod, really loving that idea. Sir Floof and Garlic come out, and it startles Admiral Chang. Ayaka introduces them to her and gives her the cover story when she asks about them. Ayaka smiles while rubbing the back of her head, “They come out whenever they want, and they always quickly come out when they smell food.” Garlic says, “Saur.” and Sir Floof chirps like he does, and I reach over and pet him. Admiral Chang says, “We can get them something to eat as well.” The waiter comes and takes all of our orders.

When the waiter is gone, Gang Orca, who is sitting over there with Admiral Chang, asks, “Are you sure you can handle the bill? They don’t pay you that much over here.” Admiral Chang waves her hand and responds, “They may pay me only around 392,000 yuan a year, which I think is about 8 million or so of your yen annually, but I live comfortably enough. I don’t need your fancy paychecks like you get in Japan to want to help my people.” Gang Orca chuckles, “Look at you trying to out-hero me, too, Xiao.” Admiral Chang laughs, “E-E-E-E!” Gang Orca continues, “I will reimburse you with my yen, and you can have it exchanged to yuan.” Admiral Chang puts up her hands and bows to Gang Orca and says, “No, it is fine. Treat this as a thank you for helping us capture someone shooting bullets on my base.” 

Gang Orca also puts his hands up and bows slightly and says, “No, you have treated us with hospitality and your personnel protected my interns.” Admiral Chang replies, still bowing, “According to Jia, they more than handled their own and were exceptional. She said without them she would have probably had to use her quirk to stop the villain's heart, so please accept my generosity.” Ayaka nonverbally gets Gang Orca’s attention and motions to me while Admiral Chang is distracted in her bow with the polite fight, and he nods and says after a fake sigh, trying to act like he lost, “Ok, fine. You win this one.” Looks like I will be doing a reverse break-in later. Instead of stealing, I will be leaving money instead. 

Wait, is he going to trust someone like me with MONEY???!!!! 

Ayaka sees my expression and types on her phone, “What is it?” I take the phone and type out my thoughts, and Ayaka quickly types passionately, “AND???!!! You are a trustworthy person, and he has seen that!” My right eye waters, and she hugs me as I sniffle, which is caught by the other two. Admiral Chang asks what is wrong, and I separate from Ayaka and shake my head, “N-n-nothing.” Before Admiral Chang could ask more follow-up questions, the waiter brought our drinks with bean sprouts as an appetizer. I take a bite and moan at the sour and spicy combination, and Sir Floof wants to try. To distract her from asking further questions, Ayaka asks, “So… does everyone here openly talk of mistresses and lovers in the workplace?”

Admiral Chang laughs, “E-E-E-E-E-E! No, someone who is bilingual like me understands why you would think that. What you guys say for mistress or lover, we use for spouse. We most definitely would NOT be talking about anything like that in the workplace. E-E-E-E-E-E!” Ayaka winks discreetly to me as the waiter comes out with everyone’s food. We all say, “Thank you for the food.” I moan when the dongo pork hits my tongue. Ayaka says, “Say ‘ahhhh’.” I turn to her after I swallow my dongo pork and open my mouth, blushing, and accept her offering of sweet and sour west lake fish, and it is just as refreshing as the dongo pork, and I moan while eating that as well. I get my chopsticks and pick up some dongo pork and take it to her lips, and she moans as well. Admiral Chang says after giggling, “E-e-e-e-e. They remind me of how I used to be with my husband.” 

After we ate, Admiral Chang drove us to her modest, comfy home here in Hangzhou, where she introduced us to her husband, Jun, who has some scales and gills on his neck. She showed us to her guest room and told Gang Orca to use a futon in the living room so we could have privacy. Gang Orca texts Ayaka using Admiral Chang’s wifi, “I’ll take care of the money thing after all and try to be stealthy out here. Pretend like you don’t know anything, AND DON’T WHISPER ABOUT IT. Her hearing is just as good as mine, if not better.” Ayaka responds, “Got it, sir.” We hear Gang Orca immediately hit his head on a light fixture in the limited space of the living room. He curses a string of curse words loudly in reaction. Ayaka giggles, “Gang Orca is funny.” I responded while removing my hero costume and putting on a t-shirt over my underwear, “People usually don’t think those of us with image issues are funny.” Ayaka says, “You are funny, too, Sekai. Remember when you made those students from class 1-B laugh during the sports festival? And I haven’t even mentioned the many times you made me laugh.” 

I sigh and say, “I guess you are right, but I don’t particularly think I am a funny person. I always thought that people laughed at me because I am a garbage pers-.” Ayaka says while smiling her usual warm smile while putting her finger to my lips, “Shhhh. You are many things, Sekai. Not just funny. You are a beautiful person. You are dependable. You are caring. You are strong. You are patient. You are passionate. You are resilient. You are adorable. You are smart, and let’s not forget that you are my everything.” My eyes start to water with my voice choking on my tears, “Do you really think I am beautiful with all of these scars?” 

Ayaka holds me as we lie in bed under the covers, “You're familiar with Kintsugi, right?” I nod and she continues, “To me, your scars are beautiful, just like the gold glue that fixes a broken plate or glass. They show me the abundance of love you have for those you care about.” I start crying, and Sir Floof comes into bed and joins us, and places his ribbons on me as I cry into Ayaka’s chest as she strokes my pink hair. I say with a breaking voice as I cry into Ayaka, “I love you so much, Ayaka.” She echoes it back, “I love you, too, Sekai.” My tears stopped after a couple of minutes, thanks to Sir Floof and Ayaka comforting me. Ayaka says after looking like she just remembered something, “Shit, I totally forgot! The radars should be ready today, according to that Bimbo. Let’s go visit Miss Bulma real quick. Hey, Gang Orca, we will be back.” She says the last bit a little louder, even though it technically wasn’t necessary, just in case he had put earphones in out there. 

We do the ritual, and we arrive outside of Miss Bulma’s laboratory. We straighten up our appearances and knock as we enter. Miss Bulma turns with dark circles under her eyes, “Hey, kids. I got what you asked for right here.” She picked up two radars and handed them to us, and continued, "I don't know which one is which, so hold them and move around a bit to figure out which one is which.” Ayaka holds them, and I move around the laboratory, and Ayaka holds one of them up, saying, “This one is tracking you.” She holds the other to me, and I grab it. She says while taking it back momentarily, “Oh, wait! I just had the perfect idea!” She makes the radar tattoo on the back of my right wrist and shrinks the size to something I could easily cover up. She does the same for the back of her left wrist, so we are a matching set. The tattoos are cool, and they are moving as the radar blinks. We thank Miss Bulma, and we say our goodbyes. She takes herself to her master bedroom to crash while we borrow her guest bedroom to go back to Admiral Chang’s house.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes, and we left Admiral Chang’s house using my quirk. Gang Orca stops us halfway to where the submarine is parked, and he says, “I wasn’t as slick as I thought. She put my money back in my bag. Sekai, can you take us back really quickly?” I nod and take us back, and Admiral Chang is leaving her driveway in a chipper mood, and I hold off on teleporting to her yard until she is out of sight. Gang Orca chuckles deeply, really bringing out his villain energy, and says, “Let’s break into her house now.” Ayaka laughs, “Not a very heroic thing to say, sir.” Gang Orca says, “Nothing is black and white… I mean, except me.” He says the last part, looking down at his person. Ayaka dies laughing at his joke as I teleport us into her yard, and I quickly teleport us inside through her window. Gang Orca says, “Give me one moment while I put this somewhere where she will see it.” Her husband Jun catches us, and he laughs and says, while taking the money from Gang Orca, “Have safe travels, Kugo.” Gang Orca nods as we leave. 

We finished leaving Admiral Chang money so we could officially win the polite fight, and we teleported back to the military base and set off to the next dragon ball location. For efficiency, we will be travelling through Phillipine, Indonesian, Papua New Guinea, and Australian waters according to Gang Orca. Ayaka asks while brimming with curiosity, “How often do you need to refuel? I noticed we haven’t stopped yet.” Gang Orca says, “This submarine runs on nuclear power and won’t run out of fuel for another 50 years.” Wow. That is a long time. Gang Orca says, “Give me a few moments, kids, while I radio these countries and let them know we are passing through briefly.” We nod, and he does his thing while Ayaka texts Mom and Dad. She contemplated leaving out the incident with the sniper, but decided to tell them everything instead.

***Current Inventory: 1 Dragon Ball. 6 Remaining.***