Title: Eki Eki, Kami Kami
By: Midnight Unicorn and Lyric

Disclaimers: We do not own the One Piece world, but own all the characters. This is reformatted from an ongoing RP between my friend Lyric and myself. PG-13 thus far for mild language and violence

Chapter One

Weary did not even begin to describe how Anei Hanshou felt at that moment. Dragging her feet across the dirt road, she let her exhaustion overcome her and sat gracelessly at the side of the road, first yawning and then making an irritated expression. "Ew, mud."

The façade didn't last and she sighed, picking at the grass restlessly. "Stupid people, never learning how to pave shit." Shou looked out towards the east, a light wind stirring her hair. "Maybe I shouldn't have wandered away from the water…but no one else could have survived that." She let her head fall, bangs obscuring her eyes.

Absorbed in her thoughts, Shou did not hear the man coming up behind her, and was unprepared when he tapped on her shoulder. "'Scuse me."

Startled, Shou let out a screech and flailed her arms, attempting to spin around on her backside to kick him, but lost any balance and collapsed on her back. "Ugh! Asshole, what the hell!"

The man frowned, adjusting his white scarf and looking down at her, seeming somewhat haughty. "Did you hear me?"

She sat up, ruffling her short, messy brown hair. "What? No, I was busy!"

"I said 'scuse me.'" His pink eyes looked rather tired as he surveyed her skeptically.

"Oh, well, I heard that." Shou squinted up at him through her bangs. "Are you albino or something? What do you want?"

He rolled his eyes, exhaling with mild disgust. "I thought it was obvious." He turned away and marched off, disappearing behind a nearby shrub.

Shou blinked, and jumped up so she was crouching, touching the dirt lightly with her fingers and watching the spot where he'd gone. "What's obvious? I was busy!"

Without warning a slightly bloated, blue-tinged body flopped out from the bush, sclera fully exposed and swollen tongue hanging from his open mouth, barely recognizable but Shou knew him as one of her shipmates. "Hm?" The man stood, and held up the corpse by its shoulders. "Is this yours?"

Eyes widening in shock, Shou skittered back from the two on all fours. "What the hell, you animal!"

He dropped the body, and then flipped a gold coin up in the air, catching it easily. "I just thought I'd ask, because then I'd have to give the money I found on him back to you."

She licked her lips nervously. "Take it, it's fake anyway." He wouldn't know the man rarely had a penny to his name, a compulsive but terrible gambler.

The man frowned and lifted his eyebrows at the same time, slipping the counterfeit into his pocket. "So you do know him. I'm sorry, but…" he drifted closer, stepping away from the shrubbery, and leaned towards her. "He's passed away."

Shou backed up further, a feral attitude surrounding her crouched position. "I know, dipface. Back off."

Another sigh escaped the man. "Woe is the good samaritan. As a matter of fact, I only found his body while searching for that of my brother."

Caught by surprise, Shou sat back on her heels a little less defensively. "What d'ya mean?"

He sat down, the tails of his long scarf fanning in the grass. "My brother…was a crewmate of yours."

After a moment of thought, she relaxed more stably on her heels, one hand resting on her knee, the other still in contact with the dirt. "How you do know that? Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Lomwell. My brother is Ollaimon. He was the sniper of your crew, Anei Hanshou."

"He was a dick."

He chuckled, but without smiling. His contradictory expressions were starting to irritate her. "My brother could be crass at times."

"And cocky." Shou tipped her chin up, expression watchful. "He's probably dead, I can't help you."

His pink eyes suddenly grew wide and he seemed to be staring through her, rather than at her. "I'm well aware of that fact. I'm not looking for help."

"Ooookay, then what do you want?"

Lomwell tipped his head to one side inquisitively. "Did you hear me?" Shou glares at him, pouting like a child and saying nothing to give into the bait. Lomwell stood again, flicking the end of his scarf over his shoulder loosely and turning away from her. "My brother…loved you."

Shou burst out laughing, unable to help herself and not believing him for a moment. "You're so full of shit! Who are you really?"

He opened his mouth but was interrupted by an arrow pealing through the air from behind Shou and zipping through Lomwell's scarf, pulling it from him and pinning it to a tree. Shou dove to one side the instant she felt the wind of the projectile, slamming her back hard into the nearest tree and keeping Lomwell in her peripheral while scanning the tree line that had been behind her. "I'm getting sick of this, people!" she muttered, more to herself than anyone specifically. "Fucking hate being on land."

Lomwell extended a steady hand to her, appearing completely calm and unperturbed. "Give me the necklace, or they will try to kill us." His attempt to appear serious came across more comical than effective.

Shou muffled a snicker, recognizing an inappropriate moment as she was currently torn between two threats. "Really now?" Raising an eyebrow in a challenge, she grasped at the bark of the tree and sank back into the trunk, vanishing.

Sighing again, Lomwell shook his head and turned his back to the approaching trio of enemies to pull the arrow from the tree and rescue his scarf, not yet replacing it. One of the men, armed with an enormous long bow, smirked and notched another arrow, aiming at Lomwell. "So you've wandered all the way out here. I hear you have the amulet."

Lomwell blinked inoffensively. "No." With a loud ripping sound the arrow pierced him through the head, directly between his eyes. A breath later Shou emerged suddenly from the ground behind the archer and touched the weapon. It melted to nothing and splashed the ground a moment after she disappeared into it again.

The man reared back, eyes wide in shock. "Ehh!"

The other two are concealed with balaclavas and ready themselves for an attack, but are distracted by Lomwell's heading bursting into hundreds of sheets of unharmed paper, and his body steps forward while the rapidly reforms atop it. "I would have thought you'd learn, Alpose."

Shou's head inches up out of the grass again, now behind the two allies of the archer. She shoots an unfriendly glare at Lomwell, hands rising elegantly on either side of her and reaching out to touch the earth by each of the masked men. It turns to liquid beneath them and the plunge down uncontrollably before she lifts her hands. The ground re-solidifies with a snap around their shoulders, trapping the lower parts of their bodies. "Need help with the last one?" she asks lightly, rising up to sit on the earth, but her knees are still immersed along with the lower part of her legs.

They squirmed and struggled helplessly but Lomwell disregarded them for the moment, limbering his arm dramatically. "No." Alpose takes a step back, looking between intent Lomwell and wicked Shou with fear in his eyes, raising his trembling, bow-less hands. "Tell your boss the amulet has been misplaced. You'll be seeing him soon, anyway." Lomwell lifted his arm and it formed a long, flat sheet of paper and folded rapidly back on itself, forming a tight spring. Retracting his arm, fist becoming a large, solid paper ball, he releases the tension and the fist pummeled the man in the stomach, sending him flying away.

Shou ducked her head as Alpose flew by but didn't look to see how far he went. "What about these two?" She thumped her captives on their heads playfully, and they cursed at her. "Shut your pie holes, or I'll sink you all the way in." The obeyed nervously.

Lomwell walked towards the trio slowly, scrutinizing the men. "Leave them. The giant coyotes are probably hungry…"

Shou cackled, pulling her legs out of the earth and bouncing back into a crouched position while the men struggled helplessly. "Excellent! Doesn't mean I trust you, though, man." She stuck her tongue her tongue out at him.

He only nodded lazily in acknowledgement, looking towards the setting sun. "We should get moving."

Shou frowned, losing her lightheartedness. "What to you mean 'we'? Are you even listening to me?"

Lomwell began to walk back the way he'd come, indicating she follow. "I'll explain everything on the way."

"On the way where?" Overcome with curiosity, Shou jumped to her feet and chased after him, stumbling in her haste but catching up quickly. "Where are we goin?"

He seemed more concerned with his scarf, frowning unhappily at the hole in it. "To my ship."

Eyes widening, Shou sped up so she could face him while running backwards. "You have a ship? Why do you have a ship? Why are you taking me to this ship? I thought you were looking for dip—I mean Ollaimon."

"I do. Because I am a pirate. Because I need you. I was, but you're an even better find." He answered her rapid fire queries with succinct calm.

Shou chuckled. "Ouch. Some brother."

That seemed to bother him as he frowned but kept walking, running a hand through his short blond hair. "My brother did love you. In fact, he loved you enough to steal for you."

A frown creased her brow as well. "I still think that's bullshit. Ollaimon didn't have enough of a brain for love, let alone a heart. And he was no thief, at least no good."

Sighing in irritation and he snapped his fingers and they broke off, forming a paper airplane that soared off ahead of them. "One way or another, he came into possession of a necklace called the Prince's Amulet. It's a prized necklace worn by the leader of a jungle island in the West Blue. Do you remember visiting an island called Yulawood in your travels with your old crew?"

"Uh…" Shou scratched her head sheepishly, flushing slightly. "I know we did but I was…I don't remember the trip is all. So he got a necklace, I guess he could've lifted it from a dead man. Even he could do that, and he was admittedly good at killing." She tripped on a protruding root and toppled back to hit the ground hard. "Ooooow."

Lomwell failed to react to her clumsiness, not even slowing his pace. "Well, the leader who it belongs to is furious, and somehow became aware that Ollaimon took it. He was unable to find your crew at all so he tracked me down and blackmailed me into hunting down my brother. That leads me here."

Shou didn't rise, staring up at the blue sky through the leafy canopy. "Blackmail, huh?" She angled her icy blue eyes at his back. "So what were you gonna do? Kill him? And you think I have the necklace?"

"No, I was going to ask him for the necklace back." He finally stopped, back to her still. "And no. I don't think you have it." Finally he faced her, glaring. "I know you do."

"Pfft." She rolled over, standing with dignity, but then raised her hand to twirl a lock of uneven hair like a child. "Sooo…you want me to get on your ship to bring the necklace back?"

He nodded at the same moment a red flare exploded in the sky. Twisting to look at it, he grimaced in irritation. "We're late. Let's go."

Shou crossed her arms, widening her stance. "No."

Glancing back at her, he raised a brow, appearing slightly enthused. "Did you hear me?"

A toothy grin split her face, an ugly smirk. "I'm thinking yeah, this time. Maybe you're a pirate, but I'm not, 'least not the ham-handed type you and your brother are. You gotta give to get."

In response, he stretched out his arms, spreading his fingers. "You're one of the few people who know my real name. On the great sea, they don't call me Lomwell. To the pirate world, to the marines…I'm known as The Gleaming Knife."

Her smile faded and after a moment Shou tipped her weight to one leg, lifting her hand to stroke her chin. "I dunno." She lifted a sharp, articulated eyebrow. "You don't look too bright to me…"

He smiled in turn and his hands unrolled into hundred of triangular cuts of paper, all floating around him benignly. "This is your last chance to come peacefully."

Shou shook her head, dropping to a crouch again. "It takes a lot more than that to scare me, dipface."

The scraps of paper fluttered with ominous delicacy. "I'll try not to kill you." The paper launched towards her, whistling as they cut the air. In a fraction of a second Shou sank cleanly through the ground and out of the path of the paper blades. Lomwell sighed with aggravation and motioned with his arms, commanding the paper to curl and form drills, spinning quickly into the ground.

Feeling the vibrations in the ground, Shou quickly moved away from her location to the side of where Lomwell had stood until she felt the roots of a tree and rose up, cautious, hiding by the side of the tree while peering around at the man. Smirking, she took a breath and sank under again, easing closer to him before popping up, not quite behind him, which she figured he would expect by now, but within his peripheral.

"We got your airplane, Lom." Two men strode into view, and the three now formed a triangle around where Shou had just emerged. "Looks like she's got a pretty troublesome fruit." One man was wearing large goggles and his hair was in the shape of two antennae; the other was a large, dark-skinned man and he had an electric guitar strapped to his back.

Eyes popping wide in surprise, Shou immediately ducked back into the ground, not interested in play as she darted between the thick, deep roots of several trees. She surfaced a significant distance away, double checking that she was not in the view of the three men, before clambering with a monkey's grace into the tree she emerged beside. From there she could observe them unseen through the thickly leaved branches.

Lomwell moved to join the two, the paper he had distributed reforming and –joining his body. "Obviously she refused to come."

The black man wiped his forehead, sodden with sweat, looking at his companion. "Use your eyes, Ixio."

The goggled man sneered. "Partial transformation: Zoan-Model Insect…Compound Eyes!" His eyes split into a multitude of segments and he shifted the buttons on his eye-wear, analyzing the landscape before his gaze locked on her. "Got her."

From across the distance Shou squinted to see them, noting the man peering around but unable to hear them and the danger they presented, muttering to herself, "What an ugly bugger…"

Lomwell and Ixio, knowing what was coming, searched in their pockets and quickly found earplugs, shoving them in. The swarthy male pulled his guitar forward and plucked the strings softly. "Ballad of the Sandman…" He played a few chords and an air of drowsiness wrapped around Shou from across the distance.

Her eyes began to feel heavy and Shou felt her grip loosen and only a brief surge of panic allowed her to tighten her hold, but her body began to sag. "Bu…fu…" her eyes shut and her fingers relaxed, tumbling out of the tree and slamming into the ground.

A dozen tendril of tightly curled paper drifted over and wrapped around her, scooping her up and bringing her sleeping body closer to the trio. "What a troublesome little thing…"