Finding Alvida

Just as I was aligning my boat to make a clean getaway, a Marine on one of the battleships caught my eye. For a moment, my breath hitched, fearing recognition or capture. Instead, he just gave me a friendly wave, seemingly dismissing me as part of the regular chaos, not a pirate. The earrings' influence, perhaps making my escape seem just another normal part of the day.

As I hastily rowed away from the cruise ship, the relief and elation of escape surged through me. It felt almost like a dream, the way I slipped past the chaos and the Marines, unnoticed and unchallenged. Each stroke of the oars took me further from danger and deeper into disbelief. The earrings—they were working. They had to be. No one saw me as a threat; no one saw me as a pirate. Just a normal guy in extraordinary circumstances.

Relieved but still on edge, I continued to row furiously until a familiar, booming voice shattered the relative calm. "You! Cabin boy! Get over here and help your captain!"
There, floating on her back in the ocean like a massive, buoyant island, was Alvida.

I flinched. My hands automatically went to the oars, instinct drilled into me from months of terror under Alvida’s rule. I started rowing toward her without thinking, just as I always did when I barked a command.

Wait.

Wait a goddamn second.

I didn’t have to do this.

The realization hit me like a cannon blast. I wasn’t her prisoner anymore. I wasn’t her cabin boy.

And more importantly—she couldn’t make me do a damn thing.

My hands stopped rowing.

Alvida, still bobbing in the water, glared up at me from beneath her sweaty, tangled hair. Her bloated face twisted in anger.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, YOU LITTLE WORM?! GET THAT BOAT OVER HERE, NOW!"

Her fat fingers twitched, gripping the handle of her iron club. Even drenched and floating like a beached whale, she was still dangerous.

I swallowed.

Then I remembered exactly what I could do with the earrings.

A slow smile crept onto my face.

I leaned forward slightly, balancing the oars between my knees, and looked over at the massive, furious pirate captain.

"Hey, wouldn’t it be normal for you to be nicer to the guy you’re begging to help you?"

The words left my mouth before I fully thought them through.

The change was instantaneous.

Alvida’s bloodshot eyes widened. The rage on her face crumpled, confusion flashing across her features like a storm. Her thick lips parted, as if the thought had never occurred to her before, but now it was undeniably true.

Then, to my utter astonishment, her entire expression softened.

"P-please..."

I almost dropped the oars.

Alvida, the Iron Mace Tyrant, the nightmare of my last few months, the monstrous woman who ruled her crew with terror...

...was begging me.

"P-please, cabin boy... I need you..." Her voice trembled, genuine desperation in her tone. Her fat fingers clutched at the air, as if reaching for him. "Y-you’re the only one here who can help me..."

I just stared.

She was pleading.

Not ordering. Not threatening.

Begging.

I had just tried to make her a little nicer, take the edge off her cruelty, maybe get her to ask instead of demand. But I’d used the word ‘begging’ in my sentence and that had made all the difference in her reaction.

She was completely at my mercy. These earrings really could just… change her.

Alvida, the Iron Mace Tyrant, groveling like a kicked dog—all because I said a few words?

She had been changed—her whole attitude, the way she carried herself, the unshakable, violent pride she used to beat into people—it was gone. Like someone had taken a hammer to a statue and crushed it into dust.

And it had been so damn easy.

She reached out again, her massive arms trembling, her triple chins quivering with emotion. "T-Tsujo..." she stammered, voice unsteady. "I-I need you... please... don’t leave me out here..."

I’d never heard my name from her lips without a snarl or an insult.

A thrill shot through me.

She really believed this.

Her mind had shifted to make it true.

The earrings didn’t just influence perception—they rewrote a person’s beliefs, their sense of reality. Alvida wasn't just being polite to get what she wanted—she felt that begging me was the natural, correct way to act.

My stomach flipped with excitement.

This was real power.

And who better to test it on than a violent, domineering pirate who had made my life hell for months?

Alvida was a monster, a sadistic, vain, gluttonous beast who ruled through fear. No one would miss the old her. Hell, if anything, I was doing the world a favor.

On the other hand…

I could leave her here.

Just row away. Let her float off into nothingness, fat and helpless, lost at sea.

But the way she was looking at me now—her heavy eyelids fluttering, her swollen lips parted, a deep breath pushing her massive chest forward as she pleaded for me to help her—

—she wasn’t a monster in this moment. She was just a person, stranded, ****, and completely at my mercy. The Alvida I knew would have never lowered herself like this, but this version of her—reworked, ****, and uncertain—looked more human than she ever had before. Even after everything she had done to me, some part of me—the part that hadn’t been hardened by months of scrubbing decks and dodging her club—couldn’t just watch someone drown in their own helplessness.

But at the same time, I couldn’t ignore the thrill curling in my gut. For the first time, I had the power. And Alvida was mine. I let the moment stretch, savoring the way she hung on my answer, completely dependent on me, her body trembling, her wide, fearful eyes locked on mine.

Then, I took a long, slow breath, letting my grin widen. "Alright, alright, quit looking at me like that," I muttered, reaching out to grab her thick, trembling wrist—but not before letting her squirm just a little longer.

Getting Alvida into the boat proved to be a logistical nightmare. Despite my best efforts, I simply couldn’t haul her aboard. She was monstrously strong, though, and eventually managed to hoist herself up with a grunt, directing me to balance out her weight. "Shift your skinny rear to the other side, you oaf!" she commanded, her **** manner vanishing with astonishing speed.

I complied, hanging out over the water as far as I dared, and with a great heave, she clambered into the boat. The vessel rocked dangerously, but stabilized.

As the boat rocked gently on the open sea, Alvida, sitting heavily and making the small craft list slightly under her weight, turned her gaze on me. It was a sharp, calculating look that seemed to pierce right through. "So, what happened back there? How did it end?"

I hesitated for a moment, considering how much to tell her. Deciding honesty was the best policy—at least for now—I recounted the events. "The Marines showed up and captured most of the crew. It was like everyone just... gave up. I grabbed a lifeboat when I saw the chance."

Alvida's face darkened, her usual fierce demeanor shadowed by a rare look of defeat. "Lost my ship... my crew," she muttered, her voice tinged with a bitterness that made her seem smaller, somehow less formidable. "All I've got left is this damned lifeboat, and you," she added, her eyes flicking over to me with a mix of disdain and resignation.

I almost snorted at her casual claim over me, as if I was just another asset to be counted along with the lifeboat. Given how much physically stronger she was than me, she probably felt that made perfect sense. However, the earrings I wore—a hidden ace up my sleeve—gave me potential control over the situation in ways she couldn’t imagine.

"Of course," I replied, keeping my tone neutral. Inside, my mind raced with possibilities. The power of the earrings could redefine our dynamic, could alter what was 'normal' about her behavior and even our relationship. If I chose to use them, I could change everything between us.

Alvida seemed lost in thought, likely pondering her next moves in this drastically altered landscape of her life. After a moment, she grumbled, "We’ll need to get to my Hideout, lay low. I need to think, plan... rebuild."

Her words hung in the air, heavy with the weight of her lost empire. The idea of Alvida, once a fearsome pirate captain, now reduced to plotting her comeback from a tiny lifeboat, would have been laughable if it weren’t so pitiable.

Glancing at her, I mulled over the power I held. With a few carefully chosen words, I could make her more agreeable, less domineering. I could even flip our roles, making her dependent on me. Using her to experiment with their powers was a good idea at the very least.

For now, I decided to wait, to observe. How Alvida handled this setback could tell me a lot about her, information that might be useful in deciding how best to use the earrings' power. "We’ll make it work," I offered, more to fill the silence than out of any real conviction.

Alvida nodded, her gaze returning to the horizon. "We have to," she said simply.

As we continued to drift, the slow sway of the lifeboat seemed to rock us into an uneasy truce. I sat back, the earrings warm against my skin, a constant reminder of the choices looming ahead. Whatever I decided, the path forward would not be simple or straightforward. But then, nothing about my life had been since the day I got dragooned onto her crew.