That Time I Got Sent to Another World Where All of the Girls Are Super Hot and Super Into Me Because I Am Super Strong and Have Very Powerful Abilities that God Gave to Me Because Me and Them Were Friends When I Was in Grade School and God Is Actually A Loli Who is Also in Love with Me Because I Am A Super Epic Person Who Will Defeat The Demon Lord Who Threatens The Entire World but the Demon Lord Actually is in Love With Me and the Demon Lord is a Super Hot Busty Babe Who is Actually Just Trying to Get My Attention Because I Have a Cellphone That Can Contact the Internet and Can Get Anything Shipped To Me Within 2 Days But I Barely Need It Because I Am Actually the Most Strongest Guy Alive Because I Have Super Strong Powers Like Being Able to Lift Your Mom Really Easily Which is Nearly Impossible Because Your Mom is So Fat But is Actually A Secret Anime Busty Babe Who is Really into Me Because I Am Super Cool and Better Than Your Dad Because He is Super Lame Which I Am Not

Crash 2.44 (p. 2)- That time I was reincarnated into another world and had a tragic boating accident

Wanda picked herself off the ground. Her ears were ringing, and every part of her ached. Every movement she made sent a stab of pain screaming through her, like a middle-aged mother who had been served the wrong dish at a restaurant. She blinked her eyes open. The ship... to call it a disaster would be putting it lightly. Both of the ships had been shattered, utterly, their wreckage scattered in chunks across the sea.

Wanda realized that what she'd thought was the floor was actually the back of the captain's chair, which was apparently bolted to the deck. A good thing, too, as the entire upper level of the deck had been blown off, and was listing sideways in the water. Wanda peered over the edge of the chair, looking down at the churning water below. Where... where were the others? She looked around, her eyes darting between the dozens of chunks of ship that were floating and burning. The ship shifted below her, tilting dangerous and giving off a low groan. She quickly leapt to a nearby barrel before the deck she'd been on tipped and capsized, taking on water and sinking beneath the waves.

She looked around. The water was red and foaming with shark meat, which was kind of ironic if you thought about it too hard. Wanda pulled out a bottle of the restorative soup that Bonbon had made earlier, chugging it down like a particularly thick and chunky milkshake. She felt her wounds start to knit up, and the throbbing slowly fade. Where were they? Her eyes darted from flotsam to jetsam searching for a body. There was no sign of either Ciel or Bonbon. She didn't see Hiro either, but the odds of him being damaged in any meaningful way were basically zero, so she didn't give a shit about that.

"S-somebody help!"

Wanda whipped around in the direction of the feeble, Elf-like cry. The back of Ghostbeard's ship had been blasted off in one massive chunk and was floating near the edge of the debris field, bleeding crates and barrels into the water from its shattered interior. Flames danced across its surface, and it was surrounded on all sides by a jagged sea of burning debris. She scanned it quickly, her eyes widening as she looked up.

The mast of Hiro's ship had been blasted clean off, and must have spiraled through the air to stab top-first into Ghostbeard's ship. The wooden pole was jutting up into the sky, mostly obscured by smoke. At its summit, a lone figure was clutching to the rigging for dear life. Wanda's heart surged. She was still alive! There was still a chance!

"Bonbon, wan!" Wanda shouted. "Hang on, I'm on my way!"

Wanda leapt from her barrel onto a slab of planks, using her [Parkour Basics] skill to quickly leap off of it, wall-running along a burning chunk of deck sitting that was sitting sideways in the water. After three long steps, she launched herself off and into some rigging dangling from a surprisingly-intact mast. She looked around for another landing point, trying to plot a course through the flames and wreckage to Bonbon's current position. Her stomach roiled. It was so far... was there even a way through?

"Hang on, Bonbon, wan!"

She jumped down to a chunk of capsized ship, activating [Catfall] and landing with a light tap before running along the barnacle-crusted hull. She had nearly reached the edge, and was preparing to leap across the water to another stable chunk of ex-ship, when a sudden blur of green shot from the waves. Wanda came skidding to a halt, tearing up the soles of her sandals on the barnacles below.

Ghostbeard rose up from the depths, his eyes and body glowing with a sinister light. He stared down at Wanda, his face contorted into a grimace of grave fury. (TL Note: "grave fury" is a pun because he's a ghost)

"Look at what ye've done. Me beauty... me precious ship! You've BLOWN HER TO KINGDOM COME, YOU MANGY CUR!" He roared, drawing his ghostly sword.

"Wow!" Wanda said, placing her hands on her hips and scowling at him. "That's racist, wan!"

Ghostbeard blanched to a lime green. "Wha? N-no, that's not what I... I only meant that ye... I didn't mean..." He stammered and waved his hands, looking over at two nearby surviving mansharks, who gave him vacant and mindless stares of disapproval. He grimaced and turned back to Wanda, only to find that the spot she had occupied was empty, his quarry having since Wanda'd away.

Wanda scrambled across a fallen ladder, her feet plunging into the water as she lifted her legs, doing her best to keep balance on the largely-submerged fixture before making a mad dive for a crate. She splashed into the water, clawing her way on top of the box before hopping to another chunk of sinking ship.

"LANDLUUUUUBBER! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Ghostbeard screamed behind her. Wanda looked over her shoulder as the ghost streaked towards her, the edge of his blade glistening with a deadly sheen. Her foot caught on a bit of rope and she ate shit onto the deck, pain ringing through her chin. Thinking quickly, she looked around and seized an iron bar that had been blown off a brig or something, and had embedded in the wood. She gripped it with both hands and spun away from it, wrestling it out of the wood and bringing it up just in time to block a swing from Ghostbeard's cutlass.

The ghostly blade went right through her iron without stopping, cutting her straight across the chest. Oh. Right. He was a ghost. Wanda felt her HP plummet, and she quickly rolled out of the way of another strike, pushing herself to her feet. Where could she go? Bonbon was still struggling to hang on. The closest standable platform was far enough away that she'd need a running start. There was no way she'd get one with Ghostbeard here. And even if she ran, he seemed to fly faster than she could outrun anyways. Wanda gulped, her mind racing through her various [Skills] and [Artes] to see if there was anything of use.

"Looks like it's the end of the line for you, lassie." Ghostbeard growled, hovering closer to her. "Any last words?"

Wanda backed up to the edge of the deck, her eyes flitting this way and that. He drew closer, and her expression suddenly became defiant, confident of her own victory.

"Yeah, wan!" she replied, "Look down."

"That were two words, not one," Ghostbeard replied, before realization struck. He quickly drifted back, looking down at the deck of the ship. But... it was empty. He'd expected there to be some kind of rune trap, or something. So why would-

Ciel slammed down onto Ghostbeard's head from above, her mace glowing with a brilliant gold light.

"[GIGA IMPACT!]" she shouted, slamming the ghost face-first into the deck. The piece of ship shattered from the impact, bending inwards and catapulting Wanda into the air. She quickly folded her limbs and did a somersault just to be tight as hell, before grabbing a short length of rope hanging from a broken mast and swinging off into the air again. She landed and skidded on the shattered remains of Ghostbeard's ship. From here, she had almost a straight run up to Bonbon.

The doggirl looked back at Ciel, who had retreated to a more stable, less exploded piece of debris. Ghostbeard rose from the waters, furious, but most importantly, looking like he'd taken actual damage from the blow. His form was less solid that it was before, his features wispy and incoherent around the edges.

He roared in anger, drawing his sword and slashing down towards Ciel, who blocked with her shield. The sword clanged off the [Divine] protection woven into the metal, driving Ciel back towards the edge of the deck with the force of his blow. Ciel shoved the ghost back a few feet and waved Wanda on.

"Go! I'll handle this guy!"

Wanda nodded, leaving the [Paladin] to fight as she ran towards her imperiled party member. Two mansharks ran across the deck towards her. One suddenly disappeared, plunging through some broken planks into the depths below. The other lunged at her, mouth gaping. She quickly activated her [Extend Claws] Arte before swiping with a [Stunning Blow]. The shark seized up, stunned for long enough for Wanda to run past. She had no time to waste on small-fry. She pushed herself further, leaping across a gap to land on the half of Ghostbeard's ship that had begun to capsize.

"Wanda!" Bonbon shouted. "Be careful! The ship is falling apart!"

"Wan! Just hang on!" Wanda snapped back, stabbing her claws into the vertically-tilted deck and starting to climb. It was slow, hard work, as she dragged herself up, stabbing hand after hand into the wood. But she couldn't give up. Bonbon was still safe. Fate hadn't won yet. She had fought so hard to get to this point. All her struggles, all the choices she'd made. She could do it. She had to keep telling herself that. She could defy Fate! She wasn't going to let it take her friend.

Wanda blinked. Her friend? Was that what this was about? Was that why she felt such an urgent need to fight a battle she knew was already lost? She'd sworn off personal attachments a long time ago, so why...

"Wanda, LOOK OUT!"

The troubled [Nihilist] looked up at Bonbon, who was pointing fervently behind her. Wanda let go with one hand, hauling herself to the side and flipping so that her back slammed flat against the wall. A cold settled in the pit of her stomach. The manshark she'd left alive had managed to man one of the magical cannons, and had it facing directly towards her. She was a sitting duck. She was good at climbing, but you needed a little bit more than [Climbing Mastery - Lvl 4] to dodge an artillery strike.

A light flashed from the cannon, and Wanda let go, falling out of the line of fire and plunging into the icy water below. Darkness closed around her, the murky water closing over her head and distorting the flames above her into dancing lights, ghostlike in their beauty. The shockwave rocked through the ocean, knocking Wanda a bit deeper, out of range of the jagged planks of wood which rained down from above. She reoriented herself, kicking and breaching the surface and grabbing onto a nearby barrel to steady herself.

She wiped the water from her face to survey the manshark's handiwork. Towering above her, the capsizing back half of Ghostbeard's ship had a massive crater in its back, which was spreading slowly into a yawning smile as the weight of the protruding end threatened to tear the half in half. The slow and ominous cracking of wood snapped and punctuated the rest of the cacophony that echoed about the wreckage.

Wanda searched and found Bonbon. The Elf had somehow managed to hold on to the embedded mast, even through the magical blast. There was a loud crack, and she dropped a foot or two, the ship slowly bending backwards, the crack widening. Wanda tread water helplessly. Maybe if she... if was moved quickly. There was still...

"Wanda..."

Wanda blinked, locking eyes with the Elf [Chef], who wasn't crying, or trembling, or even tearing up. She looked composed, steeled, elegant beyond measure, so that even hanging by one hand from a pole, she still managed to convey an otherworldly beauty and grace. Bonbon gave her a weak smile.

"Don't worry, Wanda..." she reassured the doggirl quietly. "Hiro will save-"

With a loud CRACK that drowned out the rest of Bonbon's sentence, the top end of the ship collapsed, falling backwards into the sea, and hauling Bonbon out of view with it.

Wanda closed her eyes.

Notice: [Enterprising Cook] Bonbon A. Petit has left [Party]: [Hiro]