Author's Note: Alright, so, I've started a second series though this is a little bit different from Insatiablein the sense that I literally put in several names into a list generator and chose the first name as who the canon One Piece character in the relationship would be (Killer) and then in a random number roller I set it at four to roll for whether it would be a reader insert or an OC thing. So, I did the thing; odds are for OC and even is for reader insert. I rolled a two. So, here we are. I've never written for these guys so it'll take me a bit and a lot of YouTube One Piece clips to get a better understanding of their personalities.
Out of all the things that his captain had to feel threatened by, it just had to be a pesky small blue will-o-wisp. It taunted him. Or so his captain had explained as Killer, the captain and four more crew members were ankles deep in a bog. Said pesky ball of fire was at the shore across from where they had entered, flickering at them. The flicker set something off in Captain Eustass Kidd and he promptly screamed expletives at it. For a whole complete moment Killer thought that his captain had finally lost it.
Behind them Heat shared a confused glance with Wire, who only shrugged in response. Meanwhile the other two members who had been unfortunate enough to join the other four were too busy trying not to lose their shoes.
Choosing to ignore the looks he knew he was receiving from his first mate, Eustass soldiered on until he reached solid ground. His hand shot out and in a vain attempted, tried to snatch the sprite. However, the wisp was faster and the blue flames disappear and reappeared several feet away. With a frustrated growl, Eustass stomped after it while Killer trailed after him, more interested in their surroundings.
They had been hoping to avoid said remote island seeing that their supplies were running short. However, instead of taking them to the nearest town, their log pose picked up the magnetic waves of this island in particular. Though, the moment they'd docked to wait for their log pose to reset, their captain… changed. Well, nothing major- he remained irate and loud and sarcastic; his usual self, but… He seemed more anxious. More on edge.
The crew had agreed to remain at the coast and scourge the beach and small bits of the forest for resources and nothing more but Captain Kidd had kept staring off into the horizon. Into the woods. Much to Killer's surprise.
Despite this small anomaly, Killer wrote it off and busied himself with work. However, peace only remained for so long. It started with the lanterns and candles being blown out despite the lack of winds. It confused the crew who still bustled about the deck. Heat and another member had gone to relight their sources of light but before they could even light a proper fire, the small kindle was snuffed. Startled, Heat dropped the box of matches.
Then came the will-o-wisps. Strange little creatures, truly. They appeared as if out of thin air, Killer noted as he had raised his weapons. Kidd stood up from his seat, the chair scraping against the deck obnoxiously.
"Oi-oi!" he growled, "the Hell is this?"
Several crew members murmured around them, just as perplexed as their captain. The wisps didn't seem responsive and continued to float, flickering softly while bathing the deck in a soft, blue light in the darkness of the night. For a moment everything was quiet, tense, but quiet none the less. It only served right that half of the underlings yelped in surprise when the captain suddenly… went off on the wisps. Well, one wisp in particular.
"Didn't you fucking hear what it said!?" Eustass seethed as he turned to Killer. His eyes were wide and pupils nothing but pin pricks. A vein bulged in his neck and his nostrils flared with aggression. The will-o-wisp let out a noticeable flicker which caused the captain to combust and approach the flame with threats of dousing it with water.
Killer could vaguely hear someone mutter in the background that wisps were spirits and not actual fire. Instead of turning around to address said crew member, he beckoned Heat and Wire and two other members to follow upon noticing that Kidd was in the process of climbing off the ship and that the pest was leading him across the beach and into the woods.
Which is how they ended up in the bog. It turned out that the further you went it the more harder it was to see despite the lanterns they'd been smart enough to bring. Killer held his lantern up higher as he scanned the area while still keeping tabs on his captain who seemed to be moving recklessly through the mist in pursuit of the wisp. Highly unusual behavior, he remarked before following him. So far they'd come across some stone ruins- probably a small home judging by the foundation, the bog and not what seemed like a narrow path that the forest was slowly reclaiming.
"Be on guard," he advised the rest of the crew behind him, "we don't know what's out here."
They kept a relatively steady pace, not worrying much about their captain seeing that he was making enough noise the scare off half the forest.
"Captain," Killer called out to him after the red haired man had wandered off too far and fallen silent, "captain!"
Not liking the lack of response, Killer broke out into a run. He knew as well as anyone that their captain was more than capable of taking care of himself. Though that didn't mean that he couldn't worry. Each island possessed their own threats and as far as the crew knew, the threats of this island had been undetermined. Several seconds later, the trees had began to thin out before they opened up to a clearing. Well- more like a… courtyard?
"Well, would you look at that," one of the crew members murmured behind him after the rest had caught up.
Before them lied something akin to a manor. Killer tried imagining the building in it's former glory, and truly- it would have been a magnificent establishment. But now, it was nothing but shambles. One wing had seemed to burn down while the rest of the building seemed to have been crushed into rubble. Very much like the path, the forest had been eager to claim the architecture for itself. Something obviously happened here.
"Let's keep moving," Killer instructed before running across the front lawn and to the side of the building where he had seen their captain disappear to. The grass was tall, almost up to their knees. The bushes that grew around the land like a fence had grown unruly and tall. Killer almost- dare he say, felt caged? Whatever vibe he was getting from this manor was far from a good one and it showed with the way he gripped his hand guards tightly.
They noticed their captain standing at the center of what seemed more like a chaotic jungle than a garden. There was a water fountain, a piece missing off the basin as well as the dancing figure's head. The water had long stopped flowing and algae had slowly began to consume the white marble. Off to the side there seemed to be a greenhouse- glass shattered and vines and branches peeking from every opening, eager to crawl out.
"Master Kidd!" Heat exclaimed behind Killer. Their captain flinched before whipping around. He stared at them owlishly before belting:
"Oi, oi! Where the fuck are we? How'd I get here?"
Killer jerked back, thoroughly caught off guard by his captain's response.
"You don't remember the will-o-wisp?" Killer asked after composing himself. The pirate walked over to stand next to his captain while surveying the strange building in front of them, "you ran off chasing one because it "mocked you"."
"You… You fucking serious?" his captain said after a moment.
"Yes," came Killer's dull response before walking up to the strange enclosure. It was made out of white stone- smooth with elaborate carvings. There was a door, except it was more like a stone slab. And despite the vines growing around it, it seemed to be the only thing that was intact.
"What is that anyways?" Kidd asked while eyeing the structure.
Killer furrowed his brows behind his helmet as he traced some letters on the door. There were several words and what appeared to be numbers. Raising his lantern higher, he allowed the light to illuminate the text.
"It's a tomb," he said, finally. And just as the words had left his mouth, a loud thump came from inside of the tomb. The whole party suddenly held their breath as their expressions varied from utter confusion to mild interest and finally downright terrified.
"Uh," Killer grunted, gracelessly; surprised at the sound- before another thump could be heard from the other side of the door.