*peeks from around the corner* U-um hiya. Yoroshiku. My name is De4thless and this is my first publish fanfic. I'd like to apologize in advance for the lack of dialogue in this chapter. I'm sure as all One Piece fans know, Oda-sensei owns all of the super awesome series. Thank you for taking some time to read this.
CHAPTER ONE: SERVANT OF THE MANSION
Just another ordinary day on an ordinary island in an ordinary town with an ordinary mansion and an ordinary servant cleaning...
Banri thinks she's ordinary, but that's not entirely true thanks to her having an Akuma no Mi that only one other person knows about. If the head of the mansion found out about her power, she'd probably be sold off or killed. In the mansion, she's at the very possible bottom of the barrel. There are only a small handful of other servants that don't treat her like trash. A young maid named Elia, the head cook and the gardener. The head of the mansion, Master Richett Dycen treats her...specially.
There were fresh bruises on her face and her shoulders and a cut lip from her lesson(punishment) yesterday when she was caught spacing out in the garden while she was pruning the white roses. As bad as it sounds, Banri has gotten use to the pain. All of the other servants would get yelled out or slapped on the wrist. But not Banri. The master always made sure her wounds showed.
"My goodness Banri-chan. It's almost midnight and you're still cleaning."
The seafoam eyed brunette jumped and quickly glanced over towards the direction of the voice which belonged to the long blue haired, blue eyed maid Elia. She's roughly six years older than Banri, but even at 25, she still looks like she's in her teens. She's one of the maids that tends to Dycen's "clients" needs. For someone that keeps her maid uniform in prim condition and obeys every order, Banri always thought she'd be like the other stuck-up bitches. She's know Elia for three yeas now and it still surprises her that she is one of the nicest people around and doesn't treat her like crap.
"Apparently there's some big party happening the next couple days starting tomorrow. And that stupid old prick wants this place spic and span."
"You would be in a lot of trouble if someone else heard you talking like that."
"But there's no one else awake right now. It's not like the punishments do that much good."
"That's besides the point. It looks plenty clean so I think you should get some sleep alright Banri?"
"I will. As long as I don't get woken up."
Banri gathered up the half filled bucket of soapy water with the sponge and wash cloth that she was using to clean the windows with and left through the front double doors, getting a nasty glare from a night guard. This is rather typical for Banri. She's always recleaning things. It doesn't matter to Dycen. He makes her clean the entire mansion if there's just a small smudge somewhere. Why? Discipline he says. How Banri ended up in this situation is a not so pleasant story.
She was born on this island and raised here in the mansion. Her mother Arra, a young beautiful woman with the same seafoam eyes and dark chocolate hair, use to be a maid when Dycen's father was the head of the mansion and Dycen had an obsession with Banri's mother. Arra fell in love with a traveler who left a couple years after Banri was born and that's when things began to go sour. Dycen wasn't too happy about Arra having another man's child. When her mother was still alive, Banri was treated like a little princess per Dycen's orders. She ate expensive food, wore the finest clothing possible and was tutored by private teachers. Then nine years ago, Arra passed away from an unknown illness that had been developing over the past few years and everything changed. Banri was forced to be a servant and was subjugated to harsh punishments if she did one little thing wrong to the point where she would be unconscious and unable to move for a few days. Nearly everyone turned their backs on her, acting like she never was someone that had any importance.
Her luck changed greatly five years ago when a martial artist master named Kujira came to Muneta Island to "retire". She saw him fend off a group of pirates by himself and walk away unscathed. She beg him to train her. He disregarded her even though she would sneak out in the middle of the night and sat on her knees, bowing before him at his place of residence in the outskirts of Koyn Town at the bottom of the mansion hill. After about a week he asked her why she wanted to be trained. This was her answer that changed his mind:
"I'm weak. Nothing more than a lowly servant in the Richett mansion and a bastard child. I want to get stronger so that I'll be able to stand up to that son of a bitch who tied me down to this place and have my freedom."
There was one more thing she felt like she needed despite hearing it was a bit of a coward move. She wanted an Akuma no Mi. She really didn't care what kind it was; she just wanted one. Banri read what books she could find when almost four months after she started her training she got what she asked for in the from of a prism looking peach sized fruit with swirly designs. Kujira is the only one that knows. She barely uses it though. Mostly because she doesn't want anyone in the Richett mansion to find out, but she also doesn't have that good of a control over it.
When Banri passed through the rose garden, she stopped when she noticed a bud beginning to bloom. She saw the wrinkled white petals underneath the dark green wrappings of leaf. The white seemed to shine under the light of the moon. She reached out to touch it, but quickly drew her hand back when her middle finger got pricked from a thorn. A drop of blood had landed on the rose bud, turning it almost black and there was a slight red sheen to it. Being a rather superstitious type of person, Banri took that as an omen. With her finger in her mouth, she jogged the rest of that way down a stone path towards her sad excuse of a house. It use to be a tool shed, but when Arra died, it became her new place to sleep.
It looked a lot worse than it actually was. A few boards loose along the walls. A couple of small holes in the roof which makes for a terrible resting spot when it rains which it does quite often on the spring island. Banri doesn't mind all that much. She can sit on the roof and watch the ocean and the town's harbor that the back of the shed faced. It was a very nice view. She dropped the bucket next to the shed and hurried inside to right down her "omen". The pain in her finger was long gone and it stopped bleeding, but Banri ripped a piece of cloth from her already tattered shirt and wrapped it up anyway. There was a single candle, halfway gone on the floor which she lit with some matches she managed to steal. She then took her dark leather bound journal that Elia gave her from under her makeshift mattress of several blankets along with a broken feather pen. Many of the pages here filled with sketches of flowers and leaves and different items or people that caught her attention when she'd sneak out. Mingled in with the sketches were notes of odd things that would happen. She wrote down her strange occurrence in the garden, adding a quick sketch of the rose bud dripping blood. This was her way of keeping her sanity.
"You haven't eaten yet Banri."
She freaked and let out what sounded like a screech before quickly covering her mouth. That's a bit of a problem she has. Banri is quite the scaredy cat, sometimes jumping at nothing. She really isn't the type to get serious unless she has to. Which isn't often. She recognized the old grumpy voice though. It was her teacher Kujira. She heard a board be pushed to the side and something slide in. It was food. Four onigiri on a light colored cloth.
"These people should at least feed you."
"Ish no proflem," Banri muttered through a mouthful of rice and sweet plum filling then swallowed. "I've gotten use to hunger."
"That's not a good thing you stupid brat. You need to keep your stamina up Banri. Your Akuma no Mi requires a decent amount so you need to eat as much as you can to keep up with it."
"Since when did you become a doctor Kujira?"
"It's common sense. When is this plan of yours going to be carried out?"
"After their long party is done. I'll wait until that fat piece of shit and all his buddies are drunk off their ass to give them a good beating."
"And then what are you going to do?"
A question Banri has been thinking about for months. What is she going to do after getting her freedom? She doesn't know how to navigate a ship. Stowing away could work, but it would be dangerous. For now, she just needs to worry about breaking the chains around her neck forever. She scarfed down the last onigiri, letting out a little burp in satisfaction.
"I'll worry about that afterwards."
"What ever works with you. Get some sleep stupid brat."
There was some shuffling on the other side of the wall then it went quiet. Sleep never comes easy for Banri. Several times she was woken up barely an hour after she fell asleep to clean or wash clothes or what ever else Dycen thinks she should do. She placed the journal back under her mattress and stood with the candle, going over to the broken mirror nailed to the opposite wall from her bed.
Behind the dirt, bruises and cuts is a young big eyed pretty face. Puppy like seafoam eyes. Dark hair, almost black unless seen under bright light when hints of chocolate brown show. She keeps it short and slightly spiky in the back while the strands before her ears brush just under her jawline and her bangs gently sweep over her short brows. Under the torn grime covered shirt and loose trousers was the delicate yet strong lightly tanned 171cm tall female body with several pale scars etched into her skin. A near perfect image of her mother. Arra had softer eyes though.
Banri pulled off the shirt, dropping it to the floor followed by her pants and light gray slip-on shoes that had seen better days and leaving her in a pair of tight shorts and a breast band. If she gets more than an hour of sleep, she'll be very surprised. Physically she wasn't tired. Mentally she was exhausted. She carefully flopped down on her bed, laying on her back and stared up through the hole in the roof, seeing a clear and starry night. Only a little bit longer and she'll be free from this place.
As her eyes slowly grew heavy, Banri faded into the dark sleep, completely unaware that tomorrow was going change her life forever.
Goodness me I haven't typed that much in one night for awhile. Again sorry for the lack of dialogue. I try to go into detail as much as I can. That's what happens when you take a creative writing class. Review if you'd like. Please no flaming. Chapter 1 has been completed. Do have a nice day~