Probably should be rated M for MATURE, though technically no sex scenes or tons of gore, but rather for adult situations, cursing, etc. also as this chapter makes it plain to tell, i got the idea while listening to Mad World by Gary Jules so have fun and comment to tell me what you think.

*a*s*c*e

She grasped at the strong metal protruding from her chest, her own blood coated the cold steel and it dripped from the tip of the blade. Behind her she heard an unfamiliar laugh, though the face that came to mind when she heard it was a familiar one. The laughter of Roronoa Zoro, the young swordsman who had been best friends with her sister as a child. Why he'd choose to pop up in a dream, the young woman had no idea but she had no qualms. She was at peace in this dream as she had been in every other when she lay dying in them. These were her best dreams, for in them she was finally painless.

"Wake up, Witch. It's your final hour." The familiar husky voice of Captain Smoker fell upon her, jolting her easily from her sleep while her hand slapped onto her bloodied chest with a wet smack. Moments ago, a sword had pierced it and the girls body showed the signs of it. Blood, her blood, puddled onto her chest and as she sat up it could be felt running down her abdomen.

This was no surprise to the white haired man, after holding the girl captive for nearly a month he had grown accustomed to her lifelike dreams bleeding in to her reality. But after today, neither her nor her dreams would be an issue. She was due for death.

Chise, the Red Mage had racked up quite the bounty in the last two years. A meagre five thousand berries as her first bounty after having attacked a marine vessel, only so low a bounty due to the fact that she had done it purposefully while no marines were on the ship and therefore was thought of as less of a threat and more of a rebel. But, here she was two years later with the second highest bounty in the East Blue, preceded only by the rookie who's thirty thousand berry bounty had just been issued.

After today, it would be Krieg with the second highest bounty and Chise would no longer be the White Hunter's concern.

"What a fun day we have planned out for you, Chi-se," Private Grey drawled, smirking as he pressed his face against the iron bars that kept the mage caged. The young mans eyes flashed, their natural brown color glinting black in the dim lighting.

"Actually, I planned it. This is practically a picnic as far as I'm concerned." With a snap of the womans fingers, the offending marine's black hair caught fire and left him screaming as he fought to extinguish it. "Please remember that I'm not wearing sea prism, so I can escape or cast a spell whenever I damn well please, Private."

Sighing, Smoker snuffed out the fire on the man's head before exhaling a large cloud of cigar smoke. "Don't antagonize the inmates, Grey. Go find Tashigi, I'll get the Mage her last meal."

Once the young marine had left, Chise calmly let herself out of her cage before leading the way up a stone staircase. Under normal circumstances, she'd worry that the White Hunter wasn't following behind her but on this day she was positive he was. It was their last day, after all.

The Red Mage let herself into his quarters, the scent of stale tobacco lingered in the air and rested upon each piece of furniture in his room. Her eyes trailed over the book case that leaned against the wall, near the door; each book had been placed perfectly, not nearly as haphazardly as her own books had been thrown into their shelves in her childhood home.

"One last hour..." Chise trailed her fingertips across the back of a couch as she walked behind it, unable to comprehend fully that her time was truly up, it would come to an end at long last and her pain would be gone.

Smoker's hand wrapped around her upper arm, pulling so that she'd have no choice but to turn and face the man who stood steadfastly behind her or risk dislocating her shoulder.

"Let's make it count."

*a*s*c*e

Thick calloused fingers gripped her thighs as Chise collapsed atop the Marine captain, her breathing came in stuttering gasps, her body slick with sweat and her mind plunging off the cliff-face that Smoker had thrown her from as she rode above him.

Thin lips trailed across his collar bones as the mage worked to calm her body, somehow, the woman noted, he even manage to taste of smoke and salt. Chise's mouth made its way to Smoker's own, for once not housing two cigars, and the kiss, the one she swore to herself would be her last taste of him was anything but chaste.

She didn't love him, it was too dangerous to fall in love with the man who would also be her executioner but she could see the adoration burning in his eyes and fought with herself not to call the man out on his stupidity.

Don't fall in love with the woman you're going to kill, Smoker. She wanted to chastise him but knew it would be hypocritical of her to do so. If she had another week with the man, she knew she'd feel the same as he did about her in this moment. It didn't matter, she didn't have a week, she didn't even have an hour. Five minutes, maximum, was all she had with the marine before he'd have to shackle her and lead her to the execution platform. Twenty seconds at the least, if the stomping coming from the hall kept heading towards the bedroom.

With the captains devil fruit ability, the room was immediately filled with smoke that even she, with her trained eyes, could not see through and the red haired woman was tossed off from the top of him and onto the other side of the bed as Smoker jumped up and quickly donned his military trousers before stumbling over to the couch and plopping down.

Chise vaguely remembered his rock pile, he often attempted stacking them atop each other after sex in order to calm himself and with a click of her fingers, the rocks stacked until only the one he had managed to pick up remained un-towered.

The thundering steps reached the door before it was thrust open and the marine equivalent of a rushed and harried mailman burst through the newly made opening.

"Captain Smoker! Terrible news! A message from Headquarters! They've received word that a Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew are headed here, to Loguetown!" Chise grimaced, knowing that she'd have to leave the smoke filled bedroom and that the hour before would be her last hour alone with the muscular, handsome Captain. With a measley flick of her wrist and a nearly silent incantation, the Red Mage was back in her cage with nothing to show for her time away besides the finger-shaped bruises across her thighs.

Two minutes passed before the telltale stomps of Smoker's boots began to head downstairs towards the cells. In his hands, he held a pair of cuffs that were undoubtedly meant for the woman who leaned casually along the stone walls of her cell.

Bottlegreen eyes watched carelessly as he tossed the chains to the younger man following behind him though the boy didn't quite manage to catch the iron shackles and they clanged loudly as they slapped into the floor.

"Get your shit together, Mikael. That was a simple catch. No wonder you had to join the Marines, you're probably shit at sports." In an instant the cuffs were around her wrists due to her own magic and with a startled raise of his eyebrows, Smoker unlocked the cell door. The cuffs weren't made of sea prism, proving to Chise that they were merely for show and that Smoker had no second thoughts about her making a run for it.

She was here of her own volition, and he knew that she wouldn't get scared and run away. She'd dreamed every night for the last two years of dying, of finally being painless. The fire rushing through her veins caused by the magic she'd inherited from a cursed fruit finally being put to rest and calm, lasting, painless peace. The dreams in which she lay dying were the best she'd ever had.

"Don't let your pace falter," Smoker demanded, and though he had turned to face Private Yamamoto Mikael, the young woman who walked calmly out of the cage that had housed her for the last month knew that it was directed at her. Standing straighter, she let her lithe legs lead her out of the marine base and walked beside the Captain like the dutiful prisoner she pretended to be.

The mans kairoseki jitte laid against his white marine coat starkly, the word JUSTICE printed across the back stood out to anyone who dared to look at him. He walked with pride in each step and with confidence that if anything happened, he could take care of it.

"Pirates were spotted at the port in town, please go there at once!" A young private, no older than eighteen stood before us, hand lifted in salute and the same terror that bled through his words shone through in his face as well, for all to see.

"I don't want to delay my execution, Smoker." Raised brows seemed to threaten her after she'd finished her sentence, causing a huff to leave her lips before Chise began walking once more.

"Where is Tashigi?"

Chise perked up, wondering about the girl she'd yet to be able to meet. Tashigi wasn't allowed in the jails after an assault from what she'd understood though occasionally, at night, she'd hear a feminine voice followed by the husky tone of the White Hunter.

"She said she'd be gone today but would return in time for training.."

"Dumb girl," he received a small nudge in admonishment from the mage but continued on, "Where in the hell did she go?"

The elder of the two privates, Mikael, began to reply before he was abruptly cut off by the happy squeals of a young child, her eyes closed as she ran towards the executioner's group exclaiming about her triple scoop ice cream. Her father could be heard, vaguely, calling out for the toddler, mentioning that she'd drop her ice cream if she didn't watch where she was going.

Chise saw it from a mile away, the girl not paying attention and running in to the most powerful man on the small island of Loguetown, and cream getting splattered onto his black cargo pants. It came as no surprise when exactly what she assumed would happen, did.

The child looked far different from Chise's younger sister but an instantaneous comparison happened in her mind as the young girl gasped in astonishment as she lost her ice cream.

"Captain Smoker! I am so so sorry for my daughter please, I humbly do apologize on her-"

"My ice cream..." The child's eyes filled with tears, tears that the mage's younger sister never would have shed if such a simple thing as ice cream had been lost. The father kept apologizing, and the witch stared at the scene with cold interest, wondering idly if she'd have to step in to stop the elder man from punishing the child or not.

"I'm sorry.. my pants ate your ice cream. Go get five scoops to make up for it." A gold coin was tucked into tiny hands, and a small yet brilliant smile lit up the toddler's face.

"Thanks, mister!"

With a wave of his hand, Captain Smoker directed his small entourage to keep moving while along the way, the ice cream which had once splattered his pants had magically disappeared. When they made it to the port, the pirate had already begun stealing everything he could get his hands on and stocking it up into his small brigantine ship.

The pirate was captured along with his entire crew but it didn't take a genius to recognize that whoever the captured man was, he was no rookie worth thirty million berries.

"So if this isn't Monkey D. Luffy, then where is he?"