The island of Tori-shima was full of white sands and lush green forests. And it was also hot as hell.

"Ugh, I hate small islands! This is gonna make my hair frizz up!" Jaehyo complained as they stepped out of the ship and onto the beaches.

"Will you shut up?"

"I'm serious! Humidity ruins my hair!"

"I swear to god ..."

"Are they always like this on missions?" Mai muttered to Taeil, who was fishing in his pockets for candy. He found a lemon drop and brightened up. "Pretty much. You should have seen them in Taiwan. Jaehyo was driving us all mad."

"Why were you in Taiwan?" Mai asked in interest.

"Black market auction. They move around every year. Zico caused a ruckus and I think he destroyed half the stalls."

"That wasn't my fault!" Mai heard him holler from the front of the group. "It was that idiot U-Kwon! He started flirting with a girl with short hair. Then he realized she was actually a man --"

Mai heard a wail somewhere behind her.

"-- and flipped out and punched him by accident when he felt him up, and then the guy crashed into me, and I fell into somebody else, who apparently was a corrupt Russian ex-wrestler or something because when he shoved me I thought I broke a lung, and then --"

"It was a domino train wreck of total -all," Taeil muttered under his breath.

"-- and B-Bomb threw a knife at somebody for punching P.O --"

"How many times have we heard this story?" U-Kwon whined, cheeks flushing pink. "He was pretty, okay?"

"-- and then someone must have dropped a bomb, because holy crap did those stalls fall --"

"You are all insane, you lot," Tomoyo said, looking rather bewildered.

"Yeah, you kinda get used to it after a while," Mai said, looking rather impressed by the story. "So what happened after the drunk tap dancer set fire to the bear?"

Zico looked pleased to have an audience that wasn't complaining. "Well --"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your absolutely fascinating recount of all the times we've made a mess of things," Taeil suddenly said, "But I don't think we should keep walking without even looking at the map."

"Oh." Zico stopped. Everyone else sort of stumbled and bumped into each other and stopped as well, and Mai realized they had been walking straight into the jungle-like forest without even thinking about it. "Right. Okay. Let's do that. P.O, gimme the maps!"

"Yeah, got them, hyung!" P.O struggled with the pockets of his great black trench coat before pulling out the maps, which they labelled with the coordinates of the treasure. Zico yanked them out of his hand and stared at it excitedly.

Mai stared at P.O. "Aren't you boiling?"

"Huh? Um ... yeah. I think I am."

"You're crazy!" Mai was already sweating grossly in the humid weather. Even Tomoyo, despite looking supermodel-gorgeous, didn't look too fresh either. "Take it off before you get heat !"

Mai grabbed the coat and pulled it off of him. "We'll pick it up when we get back, 'K?"

"Fiiine," he whined. "What are you, my umma?"

"Someone has to be. I already cook for you fatties."

"YAH! I'm not FAT! The only one fat here is ... is B-BOMB HYUNG!" He pointed an accusatory finger at B-Bomb, who quirked up one eyebrow. "What did I do to deserve this harrassment, maknae?" 

Mai snickered and B-Bomb turned to her. A fleeting hint of a teasing grin lit up his face. "What? You think I'm fat?" The smile embarrassed Mai, for some reason.

"Yah! Stop dazzling Mai Darling with your coolness!" U-Kwon shouted, elbowing B-Bomb in his side. In an instant, an ordinary kitchen knife was whipped out of his jacket, catching the sunlight. "Don't touch me."

"Will you two quit it?" Mai snapped angrily, hobbling along. Her ankle was coming along nicely, but she still had to limp slightly. That did nothing to help with the sand and dirt.

"Do they always fight like that?" Tomoyo mumbled to Mai.

"Pretty much," Mai said back. "Welcome to the fall of high society, princess."

After a few more minutes of arguments and the occasional childish shoving, the group of pirates (and thief and fake-princess) lapsed into silence as they walked through the jungle. It was incredibly hot and humid, even under the shade, and bugs began buzzing around them.

"Eeuuurgh!" Tomoyo freaked and began slapping at the air. "Get them away from me!"

"Try not to talk, or they'll fly into your mouth," Mai suggested.

"Would they actually?" Taeil muttered to her.

"Nope. I just wanted her to stop complaining."

Taeil sniggered and handed her a lollipop. Strawberry. Mai's favourite.

There was a sudden burst of arguing in the front of the group, and everyone stumbled to a halt again. Zico and Kyung were fighting over the maps.

"I think I know how to read coordinates better than you, Zicoya. Gimme the stupid thing!"

"You don't know jack-! You'll just get us lost like you did in the Phillipines!"

"That wasn't my fault! Jaehyo wrote the wrong coordinates!"

"No I didn't!"

"SHUT UP, JAEHYO!!!"

"Now what's going on?" Taeil sighed, pushing his way to the front of the group. "Oi! You two! Stop fighting and just give me the map! I can read the coordinates better than any of you."

This was a certain piece of logic no one could avoid. Zico grudgingly gave the tattooed and pierced man the maps.

"It should be close."

"You mean like, there?" Tomoyo pointed in a direction.

"Yeah. Exactly that direction." Taeil said, surprised. Jaehyo and Kyung looked impressed. "How did you know?"

"Because there's a whole bunch of naval officers in that clearing over there."

"SHI --" Kyung immediately clapped a hand over Zico's mouth and tackled him to the ground, the others following suit. Mai took significant pleasure in tripping Tomoyo to bring her down.

Zico placed a finger over his lips and gestured silently to the nearby clearing. Mai took the hint and dragged herself slowly along her stomach. She moved closer to the clearing and discovered a gap underneath some bushes she could use to spy on them.

Peeking through, she noticed it was indeed full of officers that had beaten them to the punch. They were all standing at attention as what appeared to be the leader of the Japanese navy was inspecting something.

He yelled something, and there came a lot of excited Japanese chatter as they pulled something out of the ground. It was hard to make out through the throng of feet and legs, but Mai was certain it was a dirty old trunk.

"What are they saying?" Zico whispered.

"I don't understand Japanese! Get money-bags over here!"

There was a brief scuffle behind there, then with a grunt Tomoyo came sliding along beside her. "Move over, ."

Mai scoffed but did as she was told. Tomoyo peeked through the bushes and listened. She whispered, "They're talking about that trunk over there. That must be Ching Shih's treasure."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"They're going to open it ... no, that leader guy -- is it a general?"

"I think it's an admiral. Or a captain?"

"Whatever. THAT guy is telling them to wait. Um ... pirates ... thieves ... he wants to use it as bait. He knows pirates are going to try and steal it."

"Did you hear that, Zico?" Mai hissed over her shoulder, flipping onto her side to look behind her.

A wide grin appeared on Zico's face. "And that's where the idiots make their first mistake. Let's get out of here."

There was another few minutes of silent scuffling as everyone tried to escape (and fight about it) without making a sound. Once they were safe, Zico began jumping around like a wild animal.

"Zicoyah, calm down, it's bad for your health," Kyung snickered.

"Screw health, Kyungie! We got it! Our ticket to Ching Shih and stardom!"

"I don't understand," Tomoyo huffed, looking lost. "The navy is already here and beat us to the treasure. What's the point? We lost already."

"Not quite," Mai explained with a grin almost as bright as Zico's. "See, we would have lost if they decided to bring it straight back to their ship. There has to be at least thirty officers in that clearing, and we weren't expecting them to show up so fast. We'd have definitely lost. But they're leaving it here as bait."

"But that means it'll be rigged. It'll be a trap!" Tomoyo looked frustrated.

"But it's also going to be out there, right in the open!" Zico added. He and Mai high-fived each other in their excitement, then realized what they did and looked away. "Point is, all we have to do is sneak past them and break through the traps. Then the treasure is ours for the taking!"

"And you expect the navy to just LET you walk in and take it," Tomoyo scoffed.

Mai exchanged glances with the others, who were all grinning.

"Not us, exactly ..."

"What do you ... oh." Tomoyo's eyes grew wide. "Oh. Oh no."