Chapter Text
There were a great many things that a sailor hated seeing on the horizon, but nothing could strike quite as much fear and panic into the hearts of a small crew in the middle of the ocean than rapid darkening of the the skies overhead. Than black clouds that broke open with cracks of white lightning, striking down into the water mere metres from their unprepared vessel. Than the strong fierce winds that shook the hull and pulled waves up and over the bow, soaking everything in seconds, sending them all running for cover. For all three to strike at once was nothing short of an omen of doom.
Momo did her best to make the ship safe, to sail through on her path in any conditions that the great gods of the oceans threw her way, but for the first time she looked into the face of the storm and saw that her odds were bad. She ran back and forth with her crew, shouting instructions and securing lines to try and minimise the damage that the storm would inevitably bring, giving bearings to the man at the helm, searching for a path even as the waves battered against her ship. They had sailed through bad weather before, they could make it again. They had to make it again. Her crew depended on her, and she wasn’t going to let them be lost on her watch.
The next bolt of lightning tore down the main mast, a booming strike that rattled the deck, cracking and blowing the old structure apart, sending huge fragmented shards of wood flying in all directions. Jagged pieces so large that her crew scambled to hit the deck as they passed, covering their heads and praying not to be hit.
Momo ran for cover too, but the lightning was cruel, a second strike catching one of the barrels of pitch in a terrifying spray of sparks. Before they knew it there were flames lapping across the deck, catching anything that wasn’t entirely sopping, and snaking slowly even up the sodden ropes and into the remaining sails.
“Captain!” Someone shouted from below a ragged terrified cry that made her chest lurch. In all her years onboard the deck she had never heard a voice so full of fear. “We’re taking on water!”
That was the last thing they needed. She ran down into the galley, wading her way towards a great crack that the lightning strikes had driven through the hull. Water was pouring in faster than they could hold it back, and ell eyes were on her.
“We can’t patch it, Captain. It’s too-”
Too big, breaking open too quickly. She’d heard those same before, but she was the captain, and it was her job not to listen when her men were afraid. “I can do it,” she said, pulling off her jacket and lifting her shirt up over her head, revealing as much skin as possible to ensure that her quirk could work. “Start getting the water out. Pump as much as possible to give me space, use buckets if you have to. . We can-”
Another deafening bang sounded above them, followed by shouts and screams from the decks. A third strike, someone on her crew must have really pissed off whichever deity was using them for target practice.
And the crack widened.
“Everyone to the life boats!” Momo shouted, trying to think of a new plan as quickly as she could and finding only the desire to preserve the lives of those who had served her. “Get off the ship. Everyone off!”
“But Captain-”
“I’ll follow if I can’t get this patched, and I’ll pick you up if I can. Just go! No need for us all to drown.”
She shook herself, taking a few breaths as she turned away from her men, determined not to show the fear that was pounding through her veins. She was going to use every bit of energy she had if that was what it took to keep her crew safe. There would be time for the consequences later. She spread her arms wide, and started to work. It took a lot of concentration to use her quirk in such chaos, but her crew were depending on her. She had to succeed. Planks fell from her arms, her energy waning as she created more and more supplies. It would take everything that she had left to hammer them into place, to spread the pitch and hope that she could make a seal that would stop the water from flowing around them so fast.
The water was up to her chest, feet starting to lift from the ground. But she couldn’t give up, taking up planks as she created them and hammering in nails as hard and fast as she could. The ship was her life. The crew were her family. She couldn’t stop.
But the water didn’t stop either. She heard the splashes of boats landing in the waves behind them. Heard the shouts of her men getting off of the deck and trying to make for whatever safety they could find. It was her job as Captain to stay with the ship come what may. To ensure the safety of her crew by any means possible and accept whatever fate the waves made for her.
Over and over she secured planks that did nothing to stop the flow, until her eyes were heavy and her hands numb. Until her head was slipping beneath the surface of the rising flood. Until she was running out of air.
The world went dark, the cold seeping into her bones and the sounds of the storm fading until they seemed a long way away. She was floating, drifting listlessly in the deep.
She had failed.