Her head was spinning. All the screams and shouts around her moulded together and became muffled. But she wouldn't stop. No matter what came her way, a sword slash, a punch, even canon fire wasn't enough. No, it's not that she wouldn't stop; it's that she couldn't stop. She knew what would happen if she stopped fighting. She would crumble away, until nothing remained.
Then, from far away, she heard a familiar voice, "That's quite enough."
She knew that voice from somewhere, but who was it? She looked at the owner of the voice but couldn't see whoever it was clearly. Actually, she couldn't see anything clearly. She stumbled towards the voice for a moment before tears began to fill her eyes. How could she let this happen?
"I think you've had enough for one day," she heard the voice say as she tumbled to the ground as all strength left her body. She could feel exhaustion begin to overtake her senses as she fought to keep her eyes open. But sleep overwhelmed her, and everything went black.
There was a hell of a racket going on outside as Anka wriggled in her shackles, very eager to get out of the dingy prison cell. The dim light provided by the sparsely placed candles had gotten her feeling quite glum and the cell had made her claustrophobic. The dirt and grime that had filled the cracks in the wall and floor had also made her visibly uncomfortable as she tried to avoid touching it.
"What the hell is going on out there?" she muttered to no one in particular. She attempted to pull away from the musty wall, but the chains held her in place and created more red marks on her tanned skin. She gritted her teeth in frustration, trying again to pry away the metal that held her in place.
Just when she had given up, she saw a moss-headed swordsman walking in the dark hallway located just in front of her cell. He rubbed his head and muttered something under his breath. To her, the swordsman looked a bit dim, but he would have to do.
"Hey you," Anka said, leaning forward as much as the chains allowed her to.
The tanned man turned to her and let out a disgruntled, "Huh."
"Yeah," she nodded eagerly, "could you unlock this cell? The keys are just over there," she gestured to some rusty pieces of metal lying on the top of a rotting wooden desk.
"And why would I do that?" he said in a gruff voice.
She pondered this for a brief moment before she spoke, "How about we make a deal, you give me something I want, and I'll return the favour." Anka was quite famous for this way of thinking. She would often think in terms of "a favour for a favour" and would never do anything for anyone out of the goodness of her heart.
The swordsman contemplated his situation for some time, long enough that Anka began to get impatient. Finally, he made a move towards the keys and quickly unlocked the cell and her handcuffs. The moment the chains hit the floor, she was up on her feet, rolling her neck and stretching out her limbs. She sighed in relief. She had only been locked up for about a day but the filth of the prison had worn on her already miniscule patience.
"These are kairoseki handcuffs. You're a devil fruit user?"
"What do you think?" she replied quickly.
The swordsman looked at the girl with a hint of confusion. His expression neutralized as he seemed to lose interest. "So, my favour," he said finally.
She looked at him expectantly. She intended to honour his request, as was part of their agreement. Unlike many others she had met during her journeys, Anka had always come through with her end of the bargain. This system had been so deeply ingrained in her that the thought of leaving without complying with his request hadn't even crossed her mind. Her curiosity at what the swordsman would ask of her was just an added incentive to stay.
"How do I get to the higher floors?"
There was a moment of silence as Anka stared at the man incredulously, "You're lost?"
The man's face contorted with rage, "Shut up! Just show me where to go."
There was another brief moment of silence before Anka shrugged, "Alright, I guess it's the least I could do," she said, albeit a bit reluctantly, and ran off, gesturing for the swordsman to follow.
They both ran down the dim, mildewed corridor with Anka leading the way. Neither of them said a word until a few minutes later when the moss-headed man decided to break the silence.
"So, who are you?"
Anka had been slightly surprised at the abruptness of the question. She managed to contain her questioning glance at the sudden curiosity the man showed. "Not important," she replied curtly.
"What? Not even a name?"
She sighed, "Anka. What about you?"
"Roronoa Zoro."
She stared back at him in disbelief, "The Roronoa Zoro, the pirate hunter?" she quickly returned her gaze to the path ahead of her as to avoid any sudden misplaced bricks or debris. She had heard of the famous pirate through the newspaper, but seeing Roronoa here had caught her off guard.
"Yeah," he said impatiently.
"What are you doing in Enies Lobby?"
"It's none of your business," he replied, "What you doing here?"
"It's none of your business," she mimicked, attempting to replicate his voice. Behind her, she could hear him emit a low growl. She smirked with satisfaction.
After roaming the seemingly endless halls of the underground cellar, the pair had found a large doorway leading to the upper floors. Zoro turned to face Anka and muttered some parting words of thanks. With a mischievous smirk and gleam in her eyes, she bade farewell to the hopeless oaf and continued forward in her escape.
She ran down the seemingly endless halls of the building, she had to get out of here, and fast. Who knew when they would realize that she had escaped? She approached a split in her path and came to a screeching halt in front of it. Should she go right or left? She had a general idea of the possible escape routes but being a prisoner, they didn't exactly give her the grand tour of the place.
Then suddenly, from down one of the corridors, she could hear a soft rumbling noise. She peered down the empty hall but there was nothing there. She heard the sound getting louder. What the hell was going on? She squinted and looked again, this time there was something there, but she couldn't quite make it out. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. As it approached, the rumbling got louder as well. Then she realized; it was coming straight for her. She rushed to get out of the way but didn't make it in time and it hit her straight on. It felt like getting hit by a missile.
She blinked profusely and looked at what hit her. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The thing that hit her, was a boy. He looked up at her with an innocent look.
"Huh? Who are you?"
She was flabbergasted. A boy just hit her in the side and made her crash into the wall with enough force to leave an Anka shaped imprint on the white bricks. Taking a closer look at the boy, she could see that he had a straw hat lying on his back and a scar underneath his eye. Her eyes widened again.
Not only was she randomly assaulted by a boy, but that boy was Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. This was ridiculous.
"You're Straw Hat Luffy," she said dumbly, "Ahh, sorry, I'm Anka," she quickly introduced herself.
"Hey, do you know how to get to the Gates of Justice? I have to save Robin!"
It took a moment for her to properly process his statement; she couldn't believe what he was saying. He wanted to go towards the Gates of Justice? Any criminal in their right mind would be trying to get away from the Gates of Justice. And who was this Robin person? She took a moment to arrange her thoughts and calm herself. She also had to convince herself that this wasn't some strange dream, this was happening.
Finally, she had calmed down enough to ask him a question,"Hey, when you say Robin, you don't mean Nico Robin, do you?"
"Yeah! Do you know her?"
Her eyebrows furrowed in thought, "No, only heard of her through the papers. Apparently, she had joined up with the Straw Hat crew. Good to see the newspapers haven't sunk so low as to start lying or getting misinformation,"
From what she had seen, the comment was completely lost on the empty-headed boy. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed, making a gesture encouraging him to follow along.
After a brisk walk through the strange structure of the navy building, Anka and Luffy found themselves in front of a large metal door which was blocking the way. It seemed like a key was required to open it, and to Anka's dismay, there was no key in sight.
"Damn. We're gonna need some brute strength to be able to get through,"
"Alright, stand back," he said.
"Why? What are you gonna do?"
"This is the way we need to go to get there right?" he cracked his knuckles.
Anka looked at the boy sceptically, was he going break down that door all by himself? There was no way. She had heard that he was strong, but how could he be that strong? She looked the boy once over; he looked rather scrawny for a man with a bounty of 100,000,000.
Straw Hat raised his left thumb into his mouth and shouted, "Third gear!"
Suddenly, his arm became gigantic and blasted through the reinforced door. Anka was shocked. How did he do that? As the dust and debris settled, Anka took another look at the Straw Hat boy, but he wasn't there. That was strange. She then looked down to find a miniature version of the Straw Hat.
"What?!" she yelled incredulously.
"Alright, time to head out!" the tiny Straw Hat boy said and began to make his way through the long corridor.
Anka followed the boy in a daze. What the hell had just happened? She cleared her mind and tersely picked up the shrunken boy and placed him on her shoulders. At least this way they would get there faster. With that, they proceeded into the darkness ahead.
After running for a short period of time, Luffy had eventually returned to his normal height. When they finally reached some large wooden doors, he raced ahead and kicked the doors off their hinges and sent them flying across the room. Boxes littered the area, and on top of one of them was a man dressed in black with a pigeon on his shoulder; a CP9 agent, she deduced.
As soon as the Straw Hat spotted the man, he yelled out, "I found you, pigeon bastard!"
The CP9 agent turned to him with a sinister grin, "Glad you could make it, and with another prisoner no less," he said and gestured to Anka.
"I'll keep him busy, you head for the door, okay?" With this statement, Anka had realized that any childish behaviour Luffy had displayed before had completely disappeared.
The CP9 agent stood up and put his hands in his pockets, "Sorry, but I can't allow that," he said while maintaining his grin.
Suddenly, from the doorway Anka heard someone.
"Did I make it?" said a blue haired man. Anka cringed at his appearance; he was wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and a speedo. Was he some kind of pervert?
A huge explosion occurred next to the pervert as Luffy impacted with a wall. They exchanged some dialogue which Anka couldn't hear and the pervert ran towards her and started explaining the situation at lightning speed. They two were to go and rescue Nico Robin on the Bridge of Hesitation while Luffy was holding this guy back.
Anka nodded in agreement and they both attempted to reach the door, but were stopped again by the pigeon fellow. Anka saw that he was about to do a finger pistol and cursed under her breath. She quickly threw Franky out of the way and braced for the impact. As soon as he made contact with her, she was sent flying across the room and smashed into the wall. Slowly, she got up and regained her balance. Once all her senses returned, she looked down on the red mark on her forearm and grimaced,
"That's gonna leave one hell of a mark,"
The men stared at her incredulously.
"It shoulda' left you with more than just a mark!" Franky yelled.
Lucci gave another one of his sinister grins, "So this is the power of the Silver Dragon, I'm impressed."
"How did you-" Straw Hat started, but was interrupted by Anka.
"There's no time to explain now, we have to go now!"
Franky regained his senses and nodded. The two of them ran for the door while the agent was distracted by Luffy.
"Right! Just super leave it to me!" Franky replied as they both pushed through the doors.
The two had finally reached the Bridge of Hesitation. Once on the bridge, Anka saw Robin and called out her name.
Robin's eyes widened in surprise at seeing Anka, "You're-"
Anka interrupted her, "This is no time for introductions! We gotta get you out of those handcuffs and fast! Mr. Speedo! Open her handcuffs would ya?"
"Got it," he said and hurriedly ran through all the keys, finally coming to the one which opened the handcuffs.
Once Robin was free, she and Franky began to attack the Marines standing in front of them. During the battle, they had decided to steal a Navy battleship to make their escape.
Then, in the distance, a fleet of Navy ships could be seen approaching Enies Lobby. A rain of canon fire engulfed the island as the ships drew closer and closer. Both the marines and the pirates stood still, shocked at their oncoming demise. The island was then blanketed by a layer of smoke and the sky had turned red.
They had finally cleared away the remaining marines and secured a navy ship when there was a large amount of bubbling from the side. Something was coming. Suddenly, what looked to be a mermaid jumped out of the water carrying the rest of the Straw Hat crew. As if on cue, all of them spit out a fountain of water and began to gasp for breath. Soon after, the Straw Hats regained consciousness and proceeded to what only could be described as some sort of comedy act. Anka tried her best to stay out of the way. When they were finished their act, they made a plan to wait there for their captain.
As they waited, the marine battleships finally surrounded the remainder of the Bridge of Hesitation. Anka sighed. She didn't really want to battle anyone; she just wanted to go to sleep. But the marines had other plans in mind. They encroached from all sides, attacking relentlessly, one after another. Anka took a more defensive role, staying back and just taking the hits.
"What? Is she indestructible or something?" An orange-haired girl yelled in disbelief.
"Well, not exactly," Anka replied.
"And who are you anyway?" the girl asked as she hit a marine over the head with her strange weapon.
"Look, we don't have the time to get into the details right now. All you need to know is that I'm on your side,"
The girl shrugged and continued fighting, "That's good enough for me."
Anka smiled as she blocked another attack. Then, from behind, Anka could hear a marine running towards her, preparing for an attack. She turned around just in time to block it with her forearm, the same one she used to block that attack from Lucci. She grimaced and bit her cheek to restrain a yelp. Whatever attack that pigeon guy used sure did a hell of a number on my arm.
As the battle continued, Anka began to question why she was really here. Why should I be helping the Straw Hats? I don't have anything against them, but why am I going through all this trouble? I don't owe them anything, I could have just left and not have had to deal with any of this.
Once they cleaned up all the marines near the ship, the three of them ran up the stairs to the bridge and joined the others there. On the bridge were many more marines. Anka let out a groan of frustration.
Then, out of nowhere was a huge explosion in one of the nearby support columns. According to what the others had said Anka had determined that was where Luffy was fighting the CP9 agent. All the marines and the pirates both stopped fighting for a moment to examine the tower to find a defeated Rob Lucci. The Straw Hats rejoiced at their captain's victory.
The Straw Hat boy screamed, "WE'RE ALL GOING BACK TOGETHER! ROBIN!"
The entire Straw Hat crew were beaming and the orange-haired girl began to yell, "Luffy won! Everyone! Get on board the ship! We'll take it to Luffy and get out of here!"
"Fire!" One of the Vice Admirals commanded. The escort ship which the Straw Hat's were planning to escape on was blown to pieces with a single cannonball.
Then from the smoke, the man with the curly eyebrows came running, carrying everyone who was on the ship. He dropped all them to the ground and explained what was happening. Suddenly, a rain of cannon fire began to destroy the bridge. Eventually, the large platform had been whittled down to a single support column. The situation was looking grim. The group of pirates were outnumbered and surrounded with no means of escape. Then, all ships took aim at the tower where Luffy was.
"No good, at this distance I can't reach him," said Nico Robin. There was a lot of screaming for the Straw Hat to get up, but it seemed that he had hit his limit.
"Dammit!" Anka gritted her teeth. She was backed into a corner and there didn't appear to be a way out. Suddenly, all the Straw Hats started to space out strangely, like they were hearing some sort of voice.
The long-nosed guy started bawling and cried out, "JUMP INTO THE SEA!"
Anka looked at him incredulously, "What?! What the hell is that gonna do?"
"We have to get Luffy! Can someone get to him?" the long-nose cried
"I can," Anka said, "but why-"
She was cut off by long-nose, "Do it, please! Just trust me on this one! When you get to him, jump into the ocean!"
Anka didn't move for a moment and contemplated the situation. It didn't look like there was any other option, so she just nodded and ran towards the edge of the pillar and jumped off without hesitation.
"Hey! What the hell is she doing?! I thought she had devil fruit powers!" Zoro yelled.
The Straw Hats looked over the edge in disbelief. The girl didn't fall into the ocean, rather, she was flying above it. Huge, silver wings had sprouted from her back and kept her aloft. Each beat of her bat-like wings had enough force to create waves in the open water below her. Her skin had been morphed into glistening scales that reflected the red fire which had engulfed the island and large horns protruded from beneath her umber hair. No one had seen anything like it before. She landed harshly in front of the Straw Hat kid and gave him a toothy grin, showing off her fangs.
"Your long-nosed friend better have something in mind," Anka said and lifted Straw Hat up off the ground, trying to avoid harming him further. She slung him over her left shoulder and began to run to the giant hole in the wall through which she had entered. She hesitated for a moment; then leapt off the edge.
"TO THE SEA!" the pirates yelled as they too, jumped into the open water below.
To Anka's surprise, she landed on solid ground with a loud thud. She looked around and found herself on a worn-down ship. She transformed back to her human form out of sheer astonishment.
"Wha… what the hell?!" Anka said breathlessly.
"You… you were a dragon?!" Straw Hat shouted.
"And you have a magical ship!" she yelled.
Their disbelief was cut short by some oncoming cannon fire.
However, the cannonballs missed the pirate ship and the marine battleships started to crash into one another. As it turned out, the curly-brow guy had closed the Gates of Justice making the whirlpools reappear. With a sudden blast, the crew was out of harm's way and at a safe distance from the judicial island.
Once everyone had reached Water 7, they were escorted to some empty place away from prying eyes. As soon as they got in, the Straw Hat boy began inhaling food like crazy. When he was finally finished, he looked up at Anka and a huge smile appeared on his face.
"Hey Anka, I wanted to talk to you!" he yelled.
"Oh yeah? About what?"
"I want you to join our pirate crew!"
Anka stumbled back a bit. Was this kid crazy? She didn't know why, but something inside her head told her that she should join the crew. However, knew she couldn't, "Uh… I don't think that-"
"Aw come on," he whined, "it'll be super fun!"
She bit her lip. Should she accept? No, she couldn't. She was already wrapped up in more trouble than she could handle, she didn't want to put the group in a more dangerous position than they were already in. "No really, I can't accept."
Zoro looked at her suspiciously, "Yeah, this girl is pretty mysterious, Luffy. I found her locked up in Enies Lobby. Who knows what she's done to get in there,"
"Who cares about that? She can turn into a dragon! And if it wasn't for her, I'd be dead by now,"
Zoro scowled, "Whatever; do what you want,"
"So? How about it?" Luffy asked again, expectantly.
She frowned in thought. She wanted to say yes. Finally, she convinced herself that everything would be okay. I mean, they took on the entire world, how much more damage can I do? Her frown turned back into a smile. "Alright, fine. I'll go with you,"
"Alright!" he yelled and threw both his hands into the air.
The next day, she introduced herself to the remaining crewmembers and got her arm treated by the crew's doctor, a reindeer. Anka wasn't shocked at the presence of the reindeer; she had seen much stranger things on her journeys. After getting her arm looked after, she heard the news from Zoro who was reading the papers.
"They didn't have much to say about the Franky Family, but they had plenty to say about us. I guarantee that our bounties are gonna go through the roof after this one," he said with a smirk. After reading a bit more, he recoiled in surprise from something in the papers, "Huh?! What the hell is this?!"
"What, what's the deal?" Sanji said coolly.
"It's her!" he said, and pointed at Anka, "It says here, that she's a pirate, and a pretty famous one at that. Her bounty used to be 70,000,000!"
Everyone in the room stared at her in disbelief. She frowned.
"Let me see that!" she said, and grabbed the newspaper out of Zoro's hands. She began to read the contents of the article that involved her, "Infamous pirate captain Taverens "Silver Dragon" Anka has escaped from imprisonment, joined the Straw Hat Pirates in their attack against the World Government and aided in the escape of Nico Robin,'" she put down the paper and groaned. "I had really hoped you could hear it from me first, but I guess what's done is done,"
"What, that's it? That's all you're gonna say?!" Nami yelled.
"Well, what else is there to say?" she said calmly.
"Cool! You must be really strong then!" Luffy shouted.
"Not strong enough to escape by myself apparently,"
"What did you do to get a bounty that high?!" Nami asked.
Anka contemplated her answer thoroughly before speaking. "Oh, this and that," she said nonchalantly, "I'll tell you later,"
Luffy whined a bit, "Aw, why can't you tell us now?"
She flashed a cheeky grin, "Keeps the suspense,"
Zoro scowled, "So that's it? She keeps this secret from us and we just go along with it?!"
She dropped her grin and faced him "I wasn't keeping a secret. You never asked so I never told,"
"I don't trust this girl," Zoro placed a hand on his swords. He was promptly kicked in the face by Sanji.
"Shut it moss head! Anka obviously had a reason not to tell us that. Be a little more considerate!"
Anka smiled at the scene in front of her. The room was silent for a while until the crew decided to go stock up for their journey. As Anka left the room, Zoro kept an eye on her. Anka knew that it would be difficult to gain this guy's trust. But maybe it was good that he didn't trust her.
The log pose had finally set. The Straw Hats had just learned that the next island was Fishman Island; they were practically beaming. They had also learned that their ship had finally been completed and that their wanted posters had been updated. It turned out that every single one of the crew had a bounty on their head. All of them had their own reactions to the posters. Anka picked up her's in disgust.
"The amount is lower than I expected, and they still haven't updated the picture," she said and showed the poster to her crewmates.
WANTED
DEAD OR ALIVE
TAVERENS ANKA
100,000,000
The picture was of a scaly creature with wings; a silver dragon with yellow eyes. It was the same as the creature Anka transformed into at Enies Lobby.
"Hey, you never did tell us. What exactly is your power? It's a devil fruit right?" Zoro asked.
Anka smirked, "Yeah, Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Silver Dragon. It gives me the power to fly, and unbreakable skin. Of course, while the skin is unbreakable, the bones inside are not," she said and gestured to the cast on her arm from where Lucci had used his finger pistol. According to Chopper, her arm was broken in three places.
Luffy and Chopper's eyes began to sparkle.
"Oh that's so cool!" Luffy said.
"So you can fly? That's awesome!" said Chopper.
While Anka was busy trying to conceal her excitement from the comments she was getting, Luffy had decided to add Franky to the crew. They all made their way out of the building and to their new ship.
A few minutes after they set sail, a rain of cannonballs surrounded the ship, the crew was then ordered to furl the sails. After a short kerfuffle regarding the name of the ship, the crew was off, and flying towards the horizon.
After they had landed, a celebration had begun. The entire crew was singing and dancing except for Anka. She looked over the sea and glanced back at the crew she had just joined. They all looked so happy and joyful. She gave a smile before silently dropping over the railing and into the open sea.
First chapter completed! I know that I didn't have Law in this chapter but he will be in the next one so just stick with me on this one. I wanted to introduce Anka fully before getting into the main plot of the story so hopefully this chapter wasn't too boring. Anyway, thanks for reading, please leave a review and all that stuff.
Update: Just a heads up, I merged chapter 1 and chapter 2 together and did a few adjustments here and there. No major changes in story though.