The breeze blew gently across the spring-themed island, rustling the leaves on its wake and allowed the birds to fly almost effortlessly through the air. Said birds chirped, accompanied by the song of the crickets.
Other sounds mixed itself with the sounds of nature, resonating through the forest and created quite a disturbance in the otherwise peaceful island. The sounds came from a small village there were located at the northern part of the island, near the shore. Fishers brought in their catches for the daily market, the local black smith worked hard to finish his jobs properly and the bakery sent out such a lovely scent there mingled itself with the others. Mothers tried to keep their children in a short leash while most of the fathers were either out working or drinking with their friends. A few dogs walked around the streets and searched for food.
No chaos, no fighting and a few arguments between family members as it is fit. A very peaceful and calm place located somewhere in the wild and ferocious Grand Line.
At this very moment, a girl - although to be more specific, a young woman - was walking along the shore, balancing on some bars there seemed to have some kind of purpose. She is not aware of that purpose nor does she care. It was fun to walk along the line like that, just like a circus princess would. Only it would be a thin rope instead of bars and she would have been several meters over the ground. Not like it mattered.
She nearly falls off, lifting a leg up to try and find her balance again. She manages to do so and threw her long strands of black hair over her shoulder - her low ponytail thoughtit was a good idea to follow the gravity's rules and threw itself over her shoulder to the front which she hated. Why couldn't the hair just stay in place like it was supposed to? So problematic.
Ren is her name. She's nearing her twenties and most of the time, she lives in her own little world. A peaceful world with no pirates, no marines and, most important of all, no wars. But she knew that without darkness, there would be no light and without evil, there would be no good either. And if everyone was the same, everything would be boring. Still.
A necessary evil. How cruel.
She sighs deeply. Her amber eyes casts itself over the area surrounding her, looking as if she was seeing the place for the first time. Truth be told, she knew this place almost as well as her own pocket.
Not much happened around these borders, but that was what made it so peaceful. And that was both boring and reassuring for the young woman. How typical. She felt herself torn in whichever situation she found herself in; one, she wanted peace. Two, she wanted some excitement, as long as it wouldn't cause any trouble for anyone. Ren knew that was impossible though. There was never any 'adventures' without danger.
Why did the world have to be so cruel? Everything would have been easier if everyone could live peacefully with one another. But that too was impossible. And it would always be like that.
Ren sighs once more. She better distract her mind or she would go too far down the dark swirl she was slowly creating in her own mind.
Tightening her ponytail, she casually jumps down from the bars and then walks towards the edge of the shore. As the eyed the ocean before her, she stops up and squints her eyes at the horizon.
A ship that wasn't theirs? It surely has been a long time since they last had visitors from the outside. Ren smiled softly to herself, which were hidden behind a tall collar, turning around and ran all the way back to the village to bring out the good news.
Somewhere at sea in Grand Line
"Ah! I'm full!" Luffy exclaimed happily, patting his overly large belly as he was laying on the deck. Beside him was Usopp and Chopper, just as full as their captain although they haven't even eaten half as much as the rubber-man.
"Thanks to our shitty captain here, we're now out of food. We don't have anything left in the stocks." the blond cook told the rest of the crew, blowing out a cloud of smoke from his position at the door into the kitchen area.
"What!?" all three (previously) happy pirates exclaimed in disbelief, sitting up and eyed the cook from their current position.
"There's no meat?!"
"-candies?!"
"-food!?"
Sanji sighed loudly, already feeling a headache growing. How he got stuck with such a bunch of morons, he had no idea. Ah, but of course, Nami wasn't like them.
"You heard me." was all he told the other crew members, closing his eyes and leaned up against the wall while he decided to enjoy his cigarette in peace. Or what he hoped would be peace, even for just a little while.
"But Sanji!" Luffy started, putting up his best pouty face with puppy dog eyes and everything. "What are we supposed to eat then? We don't have anything to catch fish with!"
Sanji groaned deeply. Seemed like his peaceful moment was shorter than he expected. Not that he should have expected much in the first place. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you ate the whole thing!"
"It's your fault!" Usopp and Chopper exclaimed at the same time with identical angry expressions on their faces while hitting the captain on his head, even though they knew it wouldn't do any harm to him.
"Now we gotta starve! Ah, who knows how long we'll be out here at sea..." Usopp complained, growing tired just by the thought of having to starve for God knows how long.
"Luffy! You shouldn't eat all of the food like that!" Chopper complained next, his eyes brimming with tears next as he too thought about the starvation there were doomed to come.
"But I was hungry." Luffy tried to explain, looking as innocent as ever. "Ah." With his legs crossed and his hands on the knees, he bowed deeply for the air in front of him although it was directed towards his nakamas. "Sorry."
"Sorry isn't gonna bring us food!" Chopper and Usopp scolded Luffy at the same time, hitting him atop his head once more while narrowing their eyes at the captain.
"I said I was sorry!"
"It's still not gonna bring us food!"
"Oi! I see land!" Zoro's voice suddenly cut through the air, catching everyone's attention immediately. All eyes were on him and they saw that the swordsman was pointing diagonally to the right, if you had to measure with the ship. And true enough, there was an island nearby, but there was still a great distance to travel.
"Haha! We're saved!" Usopp said with happy tears streaming down his cheeks. All three males located on the deck got up on their feet and trudged to the edge to take a peek on the on-coming island.
"That's good." Chopper said softly, a relieved smile appearing on his lips as he gazed at the island along with the others.
"Yay! We can have meat! Shishishishi." Luffy laughed, his overly large belly shrinking in and made him jump slightly from the sudden action of his body.
"Honestly." a feminine voice muttered to herself, a hand reaching up to rub at her forehead. "They've just eaten and yet they were so worried of not being able to get anything to eat." Nami shook her head gently. It was still a mystery to her how she had ended up going along with these guys. They were so silly and energetic (some of them pretty idiotic - scratch that, all of them were).
Soon enough, they reached the shore and laid ashore somewhere a bit further away from the harbor. They didn't know if there were any marines on this island, so they wanted to be safe and decided to duck at some other place.
And as soon as the Going Merry stilled, a flash of red, yellow and blue dashed through the air and the Straw Hats were able to hear the excited shouts of their captain a moment later.
Zoro and Usopp stayed back on the ship while the rest of the crew went out to refill the stocks - Luffy being the only one to go out on an adventure, as he had stated earlier.
"Shishishi! I wonder what kind of adventure we'll be going on today." Luffy said to himself with a laugh, smiling widely as he glanced up at the tall trees, a hand on the straw hat to keep it in place.
He could hear the birds chirp and the sounds of cricket, but something felt off. Luffy weren't sure how he was able to tell that, but the animals were warning him - sounding somewhat panicking in their beautiful songs.
Something was gonna happen.
And of course, being the thrill-seeker he is, Luffy merely grinned wider and decided to speed up. His sandals clapped as he ran, his head ducking whenever he came past a branch there were too low for him to just walk past.
Sooner than he had expected, he found himself in a small village - so this place was inhabited. Luffy figured the others would have found this place by now or very soon, so perhaps he'll see them very soon. And maybe ask Chopper to go out on an adventure with him. Walking around by yourself was kind of lonely even though he knew the others weren't that far away.
The rubber-man stops up, glancing around in his current surroundings. It's a small village, he can tell right away; everyone seemed to know everyone and they were all chattering amongst each other in small groups, talking about shopping, their latest catch or whatever seemed to be on their mind. Pretty peaceful, Luffy noted with a smile and listened more closely to two elder women there stood not that far from him.
"...doesn't get too terribly hurt because of us all. To think someone would sacrifice themselves like that. And she seemed so young too."
Luffy frowned; that didn't sound particular peaceful. Rather cruel in his ears. He stepped closer, wanting to catch the entire conversation.
"Yes, but you know her. She wants to do everything for this village. For what reason, I'm not sure."
"She has grown up here, surely you know that."
"Ah, that's correct. But still." The elder woman shook her head gently and sighed deeply. Whoever it was they talked about, she seemed to be close to these two, at least.
"Who are you talking about?" Luffy interrupted, popping up between the two elder women. They yelped, not having seen him approach. "Sorry." the rubber-man muttered to them, waiting patiently for his answer.
"Ah..." The woman that seemed to be struggling with her words had short greyish hair with a dark red hat adorning her head. She wore a dress of matching color and seemed pretty ordinary with her numerous wrinkles and tiny purse clutched in her in her hands. The other looked about the same (to Luffy's eyes, at least) with natural curls and a white dress with flower prints all over it. On the other hand, she had no purse or hat as accessories. Despite their obvious old age, they stood straight and tall as if they were no older than twenty.
"It's Ren. A girl from this village. Although she's becoming a woman now. How fast these youngerst grow, don't you think so, Emi?" the woman with flower print spoke, addressing the last part to the other woman.
"Ah, yes, yes. Fast indeed."
"What happened to her? What you said earlier sounded like something terrible had happened." Luffy interrupted once more, not paying any attention to their small talk.
"You don't know? Ah, I suppose you're not from this village then. Last week, we, uh..."
"We were attacked by a group of pirates. This is a small island, so it's rare for travellers to even come by here. But two weeks ago, actually, a group of pirates arrived and declared this island for theirs." the woman with flower prints explained softly with a pained look in her eyes. The other woman had a similar look to her, glancing towards somewhere - it appeared to be somewhere outside the village.
"What happened then? What does the girl have to do with any of this? Is she a pirate?" Luffy said hurriedly, his patience running thin. An energitic boy like him could only be still for this long.
"No, no, no. Ren isn't a pirate even though she doesn't have anything against them. Now, if you just waited for your answers, young man, you would get them." the red-cladded woman said to him, nodding continueusly.
"But I want to know what happened!" he protested loudly, frowning deeply and put a hand atop his straw hat. He attempted to be intimidating like Zoro is sometimes, but it didn't seem to work as well as he had hoped.
"Listen here, young man." the woman with flower prints spoke up next, catching Luffy's attention. "Ren made a deal with the pirates; she told them something about that she would give herself up if they left this village unharmed. It's been two weeks since then and the village has yet to be harmed. But who knows if those pirates will keep their word? Pirates are liars and do whatever they please regardless of the consequences."
"Ah, indeed, indeed." the red-cladded woman agreed with the other, nodding a few times.
"Where is she now?"
"Huh?" both woman said at the same time, giving the rubber-man confused looks.
"That girl you talked about. Where is she now?" Luffy repeated, lowering his arm and letting his features soften as he waited for an answer. He wanted to talk to this young woman himself and figure out what really happened. And why she did what she did.
"Ah, I believe she's, uh..." The red-cladded woman glanced at the other, looking for an answer.
"I'm not sure, but I believe it's at the southern parts of this island, in the forest somewhere. They must have found a cave or something else to take shelter in. Or maybe they're on their ship? No one really knows even though people have searched for them."
"Hm." Luffy thought hard (or as hard as he could), looking fairly concentrated for a long while. For a moment, it seemed like his face would turn red before he brightened up, seemingly to have come into terms with himself.
"Alright! Thanks, old ladies!" he said to the two elder women, waving with a wide smile before taking off in a run. "Now I have to find the others and then we'll find that girl."
Luffy kept running around the village until he found his nakamas - they had a few bags on them and seemed to be eyeing another store. The rubber-man easily caught up to them, stopping up in front of them and surprised a few of them.
"Luffy?" Nami questioned out loud, her delicate features wrinkling up slightly as she frowned. "I thought you went out on an adventure." The rest of the group agreed with quiet murmur and silent words.
"I did! But I came across these two old ladies and they talked about this girl that had been caught by other pirates -"
"WHAT?! I must save her immediatelly!" Sanji exclaimed, giving Chopper the bags he was holding for Nami and then ran off faster than lightning - or so it seemed like. The others merely watched him leave in quiet awe, blinking curiously at the blond cook. They shouldn't be that surprised though; Sanji would do anything for a lady.
"Luffy, why are you telling us this?" Nami said to the captain, catching everyone's attention and speaking the thought of all present.
"I want to go talk to her and find out what really happened here. Those old ladies said she sacrificed herself to protect this village. They didn't say why she did it though, so we're gonna find out."
"Do you know where she is?" Chopper said next, looking up at the captain with large, brown eyes.
"Nope!" Luffy exclaimed with a smile, earning a tired sigh from his crew. Nami was shaking her head while she tried to figure out where they could look first.
"Do you even know how she looks like?" she questioned as the thought suddenly hit her, setting her hands on the hips.
"Nope! But her name is Ren." Luffy said as his smile brightened a bit more. Nami groaned softly, having expected that for once her captain had used his head properly, but clearly she had expected too much. Still, they had a name to go by and that was always something. If only a little.
"Alright." Nami said with a sigh. "Come on, Chopper, let's go looking for her."
"Oh. Okay. But what about the things we've bought? Shouldn't we go back to the ship with them first?" Chopper asked curiously, glancing over his shoulder to look at the bags slunged over his back.
Nami hummed thoughtfully. "Right, that would be best. After we've brought the bags to the ship, we can go looking for this 'Ren', whoever she might be..."
At the other end of the island
On a ship ducked at the shore a group of pirates have made themselves at home. Chattering could be heard as the majority of them sat around their respective tables, clanking their glasses and laughing at jokes while they ate the delicious food the chef had made for them all. One other person located some place else in the building was sitting by himself at a desk, taking a nap. Not far from him was a young woman chained to the wall.
Her breathing was slightly abnormal and her hair had become messy, as if she hadn't been showering for days. There were evidence of loss of weight indicated by the draw lines of bones all over her body, safe for the places there were hidden beneath the clothes, of course.
Ren was on the verge of death, she could feel that very clearly. A day or two more and she would surely be dead. And she couldn't imagine a worse way of dying than the one she was currently in; having her stomach gnawing at her insides, desperately searching for even the slightest bit of nutriene. The feeling of hunger had subsided a few days after she had been chained, but she knew for a fact that she was still hungry despite the lack of warnings from her own body.
And even though she had tried to save as much energy as possible, her death still came faster than what she first believed. Reality was just that cruel.
"Only two more weeks..." she whispered to herself.
She can't even last two days.