Sea Battle (1)

Schierke reinks the talisman on Guts' neck, noticing how the heavy burns leave his skin hot under her hand and remembering the time she rode against his back in her ethereal state. Her face betrays the thought, and Ivalera quietly needles her about her feelings for Guts. Flustered, she finishes quickly, tells him to rest, and steps out, still turning over the conversation between Guts and Roderick that she had overheard. Even though nothing reached her ears when Guts named what Casca meant to him, she resolves to make peace with it, comforted that she and Guts share a bond all their own.

Bathing Casca, Farnese accidentally gets soap in her eye, and Casca retaliates by dumping a bucket of water over her. The splash lands harder than usual, and Farnese erupts, shouting at the uncomprehending Casca that Guts endlessly risks himself for her while she only seems to spurn him. Farnese drops to her knees in tears, and after a pause Casca pours a bucket over her own head, prompting Farnese to embrace her.

Peering through his telescope, Roderick spots three ships that, on sighting the Seahorse, altered course and ran up the flags of Ys, his own homeland. Alone in knowing their real aim, he calls the crew to battle stations and sets the alarm bells ringing, alerting Guts' group. Aboard the lead ship, a man grouses that his stint at honest trade led nowhere and that the first vessel he meets on returning to his old trade turns out to be a warship. When a sailor floats the idea of ransoming Roderick and his crew, the captain, Bonebeard, cracks him with a crutch for failing to call him Boss, then adopts the plan, ordering the true colors raised and an attack readied. Roderick's crew, seeing the change of flags, mark the trio as pirates, though Roderick stays composed. He turns down Serpico and Isidro's offers of help, insisting that since they rescued him at Vritannis he will now shield them, though he does ask Serpico to keep Farnese safe. As the raiders draw near, Roderick concentrates every cannon on one ship, and Bonebeard is stunned to find the Seahorse outranges him as that ship's masts are shattered and a second comes under fire. Only when close enough to make out the horse-shaped figurehead does Bonebeard realize exactly who he is up against.

Schierke redraws Guts' talisman and quietly accepts her own feelings toward him. Farnese, bathing Casca, breaks down over Casca's apparent rejection of Guts, and the two reconcile. Roderick spots three ships flying false flags of Ys and calls his crew to battle stations. The ships reveal themselves as pirates under Captain Bonebeard, who plans to ransom Roderick's crew. Roderick opens fire, his longer-ranged cannons crippling one pirate ship, and Bonebeard recognizes the Seahorse by its horse figurehead.

The first half of a two-part sea engagement in the Millennium Falcon Arc, this twenty-one-page chapter was published in Young Animal issue fifteen on July 27, 2007. It introduces the pirate captain Bonebeard and showcases Roderick's command of the Seahorse.