The Moby Dick had been going about the usual course to check on their Paradise territories. When they had realized that their alcohol stores wouldn't last to the next island, it was put to a vote; wait the full two months and ration the alcohol, or grab an eternal log pose and get to an island they could get sufficient supplies on.
The choice was obvious and vote was unanimous.
They had just rounded an uninhabited island -shaped like a crescent moon funnily enough- to stop for the night and drink the rest of their supply. As they turned around the corner piece to dock in the bay, there just so happened to be three marine battleships.
Completely unplanned.
So here they were, marines flying, falling, tripping, and toppling on top of each other to get on the ship and try to take a famous whitebeard pirate down. To some of his ship brothers, it was the most fun they'd had in weeks.
'But...' Marco ran a hand through his hair, thinking, He was so bored
Sure things had gotten slightly interesting. Like when the marines had turned the strategy up a notch when they made a 'U' formation around the bow of the Moby. Until Vista got pissed and sliced the far right marine ship through the middle.
Surveying the the fight with a scowl (as he didn't want to ruin his brothers fun by joining the fight) from the armrest of Pops chair he saw the marine ship in front drag itself between them and the one to the right. Ah. They were planning on using the already damaged ship as cover to evacuate Thanks to the defensive maneuver, the ship was now close enough for them to board and canon fire went off as those manning them started taking bets on who could hit the 'most expensive shit'. Movement to Marco's right caught his eye, and he stomped over to the railing, his usual bored expression more glowering at this point.
"Oi Marco, what's got your feathers ruffled?" Ignoring Jozu, he flashed his talons and with practiced ease, cutting the grappling hooks off the side rail. Despite the pleasant sound of marines screaming and splashing, his glumness seemed to deepen. Sighing, he stuffed his hands in his pocket and leaned back against the railing, as he frowned at nothing in particular, sulking.
Marco was not a complacent man. He was extremely diligent when it came to the safety of his family of outcast brothers. Except for now, when the marine vessels you attacked were used to east blue rookies, and the green leafed twerps wet themselves looking at big bounties like himself.
It was too easy and he was So. Bored. Even his Phoenix was bored.
"Oh wow, is 'Mr. I-never-get-sidetracked-in-a-fight' really spacing out?" Barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Marco leisurely turned his attention to the pompadour pain in his ass. Thatch stood on the railing with his twin sabers in hand, waiting for the next round of grappling hooks that were probably never gonna come.
"Shouldn't you be somewhere else, Thatch?" Thatch gasped, flailing about in what could be interpreted as a great show of offense, or a seizure.
"He's got a point Marco." Izo added from the railing behind him, loading his pistol and firing off three more shots. Seeing his shots land, he sat down on Marcos left, effectively sandwiching him. "You hardly twitched at the bird joke," the geisha raised a delicate eyebrow, eyes suspicious, "usually there's more kicking involved." Izo tucked a stray hair behind his ear as he holstered his gun.
"Izo!" Thatch gasped and Marco rolled his eyes at the theatrics. "I'm appalled! Encouraging physical abuse- and here I thought you were the voice of reason!"
"Then why do you never listen?" Izo raised a delicate eyebrow as Thatch fumbled for a answer.
Marco didn't care to listen to the one sided argument and instead took in the damage around him. The first ship gone beneath the waves, but would need to be scouted so they didn't damage the hull on a stubborn mast. The second ship was listing even as flames coated the stern and part of the mast and the third was pulling ahead. Behind it Marco could make out debris from the fight already washing up on the island. 'I should probably go ahead and scout it... Not like we can dock safely without cleaning up first anyway.' Marco nodded at his self assured reasoning, his brothers could finish what was left themselves. Turning to the center of the deck, he wasn't surprised to see Pops already watching him. Marco inclined his head towards the island, smirking when his Pops smiled and raised the large sake cup in agreement.
Marco felt lighter from the anticipation, eager to feel the wind. Turning his arms to wings, he jumped-
He never saw the canon ball until it slammed into the center of his face.
Marco was sent sailing through the air, causing a sizable -and later on admittedly comical- Marco sized dent in the wall of the Moby. He was stuck there, spread eagle.
Silence became overwhelming, no one daring to move on the front deck except the nurses, who were whispering about possible sea stone. Blue flames erupted from where the canon ball was still imbedded in their 'eldest' brothers face, startling them from their stupors. As the flames died down the canon ball fell, everyone flinching at the rage on Marcos face.
Not one of his brothers said a word, even his Pops staring in slight bafflement.
"Oi~! SORRY ABOUT THAT! FOR WHAT ITS WORTH, I WAS AIMING FOR THE OTHER CANON! NOT YOUR FACE!" Everyone- marines included as they had noticed the silence and the situation with growing horror- turned to the source of the voice.
There, behind the canons, stood a young person wearing a hat two sizes too big so that it covered their hair and eyes though he could see the outline of stitches from a head wound of some sort, and a uniform that swayed slightly in the stiff breeze. By the distance and the way the marines uniform outlined a smaller frame during strong wind, Marco guessed he was maybe 5'2 and probably in his late or mid teens. Of course his age didn't matter much- Marco was gonna scare twenty years off the little bastard either way.
"Hmph. Try to refrain from killing, Marco. It's just a kid after all." Marco reluctantly looked away from his new found entertainment. The little shit had the nerve to turn his head talk to the guy next to him like he hadn't just pissed off a Whitebeard Commander. "Well he apologized. It sounded oddly sincere." The end of the sentence was strained, Izo obviously trying not to laugh. Marco sighed turning to look at the boy again who, by the way the fellow ensign was sweating and flailing, wasn't getting the message. Marco opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by the indignant yelling of the marines.
"CHORE GIRL! You just shot Marco The Fucking Phoenix! Get off the ship before he sinks it!"
"HUUH?! Why the hell would I do that? S'not my fault the turkey got in the way!"
The sound of his Pops choking on his Sake brought him out of his shock. Marco felt his eyebrow twitch, not daring to look at his idiot brother at the moment he pointed a finger at Thatch. "Don't even" was on the tip of his tongue but it was too late.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA~"
"GURARARARARARA~!"
"...You're both dead to me, yoi~."
"You... Ya' got knocked... Chore boy...!" Thatch went back into incomprehensible chortling. Tears were trailing down his face already and even Izo looked on the verge of uproarious laughter.
"Technically, Thatch," Izo snickered, "the 'chore boy' is a chore 'girl'... If you didn't hear the ensign."
"Izo... The, the point is the 'chore' part!" How Izo managed a delicate snort was beyond him, but then again by this point Marco was beyond caring. Done with them, and the rest of his traitorous, snickering brothers, Marco took flight.
He was gonna get that girl... And find out what the hell they put in their canon powder.
/line break/.
It had been a long month for Kida.
She had been forced -quite physically- into joining the marines. Which she wouldn't have a problem with, if she had actually wanted to join. When she finished her training, completing it in a too short time frame, she had been immediately shipped to work under the most sexist, ignorant, and arrogant son-of-a-bitch she had ever met. She being paid a quarter of what she should have been, she had been given a uniform two sizes to big to wear (her small chest was now nonexistent but luckily her hips were big enough she could get away with wearing the pants), and if it weren't for her long, brown, hair, her hat wouldn't have fit either. Kida had promised the old fart that she would stay a year, and while she had never broken a promise so far, she was tempted to jump off the ship and swim to better places.
Not only was she not being allowed to continue her marine training, she had been given every demeaning chore on the ship. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, and paperwork. If it wasn't done to perfection she didn't eat. And if she still refused, she was then denied coffee.
She could not live without her coffee.
The worse thing out of all of it had to be the dishonesty. She was a blunt person. She was thought of by many as kind, dependable, and as brutally honest as she was strong. Bottling up this much bullshit was grading on her non existent patience. If she got out of it without killing someone she should be considered a freaking Saint.
Even though she hadn't showered in forever and was sleep deprived she had to admit it could be worse. Hell she'd been through worse. She wasn't being physically abused and it would only be five more days before they got to a marine base. In which she would immediately issue a transfer.
That was the plan, until they got word of a pirate vessel in the area. The ship was turned around, even though Kida could actually see the island, and they joined two other marine battleships in the inward curve of an island to wait for the Pirates to come around the jetti. Adding salt to the injury, the ship came around and turned out to be -not 'a' yonko flagship- the yonko flagship of the strongest man alive. Soon there was talk of defensive maneuvers, and which island they would be calling to go to get repairs. In which Kida new that they did not have a marine base.
So she wasn't happy when her shitty twit of a 'captain' told her to 'man the canon', that they were supposed to teach her how to use. Her mood only worsened by the fact that she had been looking forward to beating her anger out since the third day on the ship.
A problem solved when she found a three foot pipe and started hitting the canon balls at the ship. She had had a brief moment where she sent a silent 'thank you' to the crazy vice admiral that visited during training but didn't dwell on it long. Because this was grand line, and they were still in the middle of fighting. Admittedly, Kida new she was a bad shot and -in theory- just because something seemed easy didn't always -technically-mean that it was.
Now that she'd hit someoneshe couldn't say for sure that it was or wasn't . Because on the plus side she had hit an opposing pirate (though she would have preferred hitting that damned captain). On the downside he was on fire and looked pissed.
Unfortunately for Kida she was born without a filter. So after the initial shock off hitting a person wore off the first thing she thought to do was apologize in the most sincere way she let everyone know who did the hitting. Now, given the situation, if she were a normal person, Kida would have shit herself as everyone turned to her at her shout.
But she wasn't a normal person- worse then that she was sleep deprived, mentally exhausted from the self restraint (she didn't know how she possessed even half of) it took not to hit a commanding officer, her patience was thread bare at best, and quite frankly she had an itch in her hand that could be solved by bonking a few of those googly eyed bastards staring at her. Of course exploding in a show of any kind of emotional outburst would prove that stuck up twit-of-a-captain right about 'women in the marines'. Taking a deep breath she held it for a minute and exhaled just as slow, if not a bit heatedly. Looking at the closest ensign, who was sweating an impressive amount, she jerked her thumb at all the people staring.
"What the fuck are they looking at?" She knew she could be scary when she was mad, hell she must of had a impressive frown at this point. Kida still couldn't help but think the Ensign was being over dramatic when he just shook his head, mortified.
"I'm gonna need you to get on one of the damaged ships." She blinked at him, face scrunching up in obvious confusion. The fights and canon fire started picking back up, the sound of annoyed chatter in the distance just mildly misplaced in the current setting.
'He's probably messing with me again like they did during the 'emergency evacuation. Nodding at the sound logic in that thought, she went back over to the 'reload rack' for another canon ball, calculating the aim.
"CHORE GIRL!" Startled, the canon ball she threw up hit the deck with a thud, and she turned to the ensign. "You just shot Marco The Fucking Phoenix! Get off the ship before he sinks it!" She blinked at him twice before her jaw dropped and she rested the pipe over her shoulder.
"HUUH?! Why the hell would I do that? S'not my fault the turkey got in the way!"
At least Whitebeard and that auburn haired pirate is getting a kick out of it.
Just great. First these guys ruin the first coffee break she's had today -well past noon!- now she's being told to stay behind on the sinking ship?! Suddenly the Ensign in front of her, and several behind him, turned every shade between ashen gray to an interesting blue. Making a noise of confusion, she noticed the rest of the crew gathering into what few life boats there were. She sweat dropped at the sight before turning around to see who had her crew jumping ship like den dens...
And came nose to nose with the guy she pegged in the head.
Now from a distance she didn't understand why everyone was so freaked out by the guy. However, when she had been fighting since she could walk and didn't sense someone behind her? Or when this person was bent down to hover half an inch from her face, flames lighting those half lidded azure eyes, and sadistic smirk like something out of a nightmare?
"Fu~cking shit." Though Kida had her teeth clenched, he widened his smirk at hearing her soft exclamation.
"You got quite the mouth on you there, Girly. Maybe you should use it to explain why you thought it'd be a good idea to fire a canon at me, yoi~." 'Mouth?' She thought, 'what the hell does he mean explain?!' "Course I suppose I could forgive all that if you don't mind telling me what I want to know. What do you say, little one?" His posture, that infuriating smirk, the way he was talking to her like...
She could forget about his weird hair, weird blue-flaming-combustion episodes, and weird open shirt. And while she didn't hate men like the infamous Amazon Warriors she had had enough of being looked down on for a good long while. So for a pirate to come over and be condescending to her...?
Maybe it was because she wasn't meant to be a dishonest person for so long a time. Or it was that vein pulsing on the blonds' temple. Hell, for all Kida knew it was the way that damned smirk twisted to the left just so. Whatever it was, the last three months came flooding to her in that one moment. A dull roar sounded in her ears and she did the most peculiar thing.
She smiled. A genuine, albeit tight lipped, smile as a dangerous calm seemed to fill her. It was a good thing the pirate stepped back when he did.
Kida had snapped.
Thanks for reading! Reviews and critiques are welcomed and appreciated!
Most of all, I couldn't have gotten the motivation to do this without SourCustomer! Thanks for being a great friend and beta reader! I decided to divide this into two chapters on my Archive of our own account, it's under the same title so I hope you enjoyed!