Author's Note: And, here it is! The re-write to Parallel Works that I have been teasing for, like, ever!
I'm going to warn everybody right now: This re-write is going to be dark. It's not going to be a torture/gore/murder fest like other fics that I've read, but I still want to keep things to a T rating. Some chapters might flirt with an M rating, but I will give you chapter warnings if need be.
Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eichiiro Oda. Please support the official release.
Part I: I Preen For Satan
I never really felt right the past few weeks. It was either the pregnancy or the blood on my hands. There was no in-between to the two incidents; both happened around the same time, and both ended with blood.
On top of all of that, my old self is gone. What happened to the carefree, albeit ditzy, girl who wanted to find the One Piece, amass a large pirate crew, and take over the world? Is it the pregnancy or the blood on my hands? There is no in-between. That girl is dead. She didn't survive the horrors of the Goa Kingdom. Her skin was too thin to take any shit, her temperament too fragile to handle loss and trauma in a healthy way. That's why she died.
Nobody cared that this girl died, and it's okay. She was better off dead anyway.
"We got her money."
Location: a fancy restaurant. My crew, the Capricorn Pirates, and I sit around a large table, with me sitting at the head of the table. Waiters bring us fine liquor, oysters, and steak, and we're all dressed in our finest clothes. We're all here celebrating me - My revival, my rebirth, my resurrection - and burying my old self. Come to think of it, everyone at this table is ready to bury their old selves and start anew.
Well, almost all of us. Out of the thirty-some odd crew members, five of them - Hatori, Isabella, Molly, Gareth, and Showtarou - dress in shabby street clothing as if they were at a cheap bar at the Mount Corvo slums. Unlike the rest of us, they haven't touched their food nor do they look happy to be here. Their actions may be seen as "resistance", but I see it as blatant rudeness. They're about to be given the opportunity of a lifetime, and they don't want it.
"How did you get that old broad's money?!" Wolfgang, one of the two merchants of the crew, asks.
"My Uncle Howland was my mom's brother. He's a banker, so he was able to get me the money," I explain to everyone. As my crew's mouths drop in shock and awe, Isabella crosses her arms and shoots me a hostile glance.
"Does he know about the murder?" Hatori, the fisherman, quietly and meekly asks.
"Yep. He's actually glad that my parents are dead," I answer before taking a small bite from my steak. "Now, as for the money, we are going to use it to reinvent ourselves."
"Reinvent ourselves? What do you mean by that?" Gareth, the historian/archaeologist, asks in mild surprise.
"Tomorrow, we will all go shopping for the finest, tailor-made suits and dresses. Nobody would take us seriously if we continued to dress like shabby peasants," Yuki-Rin I explain to everyone. "We will buy the finest wines and liquors known to man, and we use Ageha's connections as a doctor to secure some of the most potent drugs ever. Finally, we must be willing to submit ourselves to sexual activity from -"
Before I can continue, Molly, the first mate, stands up and flips the table over, spilling wine and food all over the immediate area.
"Have you lost your fuckin' mind?!" Molly yells in her quaint accent. "I will not pimp myself out to some creep because you want to get your way!"
"I wasn't finished talking," I harshly state. "What I meant to say is that if you refuse my demands, you will be kicked out of the crew or executed. Do I make myself clear?"
Almost everybody on the crew nods in agreement. A split second later, Hatori and Molly get up from their seats, grab their hands, and walk out of the restaurant. With that, there go our first traitors of the Capricorn Pirates.
"What the fuck are they doing?!" Enlai yells.
"Enlai, sweetie, it's a form of resistance," Karin answers back.
"Looks like we have our first defectors," Kartik observes, taking a long drag off of his cigar. "We'll let them off easy this time. A trial period, if you will. Should they act up again, we will punish them."
"Yuki-Rin, what shall be their punishment?" Kazuma asks from my right side. I wish Molly and Hatori could be as loyal and obedient as Kazuma.
"It doesn't matter," I state. "Hatori Chidori and Molly O'Flannigan are no longer members of the Capricorn Pirates as of tonight. Should they cross our paths again, do not hesitate to kill them or seriously injure them."
"Defection or not, what you're doing right now is complete bullshit," Gareth argues.
"Excuse me?!" I yell.
"You heard me the first time, bitch. It's completely bullshit of you to do a complete 180 personality-wise," Gareth calmly explains.
"You don't get it. You haven't gone through half of the shit I've gone through," I explain. "What was your story? Oh, yeah, your parents lost their jobs and subsequently died in a cave-in at the coal mine they worked at."
"I get it, but you didn't have to use my parents' death to make your point," Gareth argues.
"Suck it up and quit whining," I scoff. Gareth grabs an empty wine bottle (one of the many Thierry drank out of tonight; guy can drink) from the floor and breaks it, pointing the jagged glass at me.
"I'm not going to suck it up for you! You used to be my friend! What the fuck happened to you the past six or so weeks?!" Gareth shouts.
"You know damn well what happened!" I answer.
"I'm not dumb, Yuki-Rin! I know what happened! All of us know what happened!" Gareth shouts. "Oh, and I guess watching Kaoru, Mina, and Maki-chan get murdered didn't affect you THAT much, but that's none of my business!"
Silence. All activity surrounding us seems to come to a standstill. All eyes are on us; we're suddenly a spectacle, seen as bread and circuses to the other diners at the restaurant tonight. The words that come out of my mouth next feel both natural and unnatural.
"Leave now and I won't have to kill you too."
Gareth's face grows pale, a sign that he is intimidated and taken aback by me.
"E-Excuse me?" Gareth stammers out.
"You heard me Mr. I'm Not Dumb, Yuki-Rin. You have a five minute head start," I explain. Gareth throws the broken bottle at my head and runs off.
"What a coward," Kazuma comments. "If he faced us like a true man, we wouldn't have come to this disagreement."
"Speaking of disagreements, who else is planning on leaving?" I ask as I shoot everybody an icy glare.
"Count me out," Showtarou answers as he slowly stands up.
"Fair enough. You weren't very useful anyway," I comment.
"Neither are you. I didn't ask for this life anyway. I was dragged into it by my dumb whore of a cousin," Showtarou explains. Everyone gasps, with Aki covering her mouth in shock, being that she's Showtarou's cousin.
"Showtarou... Why?" Aki quietly asks. Oh, God, here come the waterworks. Is Aki that much of a spoiled bitch to the point where she's crying about our resident dead weight leaving the crew?
"Don't come crying to me. You were the one who ran away from home and an arranged marriage, and I was the one who was sent to come get you," Showtarou calmly explains before he picks up a steak knife. "It's not my fucking fault that I got Stockholm Syndrome-d into this rabbit hole of narcissists and mentally disturbed ingrates!"
He did not just go there. He knew that the Stockholm Syndromes were the name of the pirate crew who ruined me. They're the reason why I have blood on my hands. Before I can scream and shout at him, Showtarou walks over to Aki and puts the knife to her throat. "I want my life back, Yuki-Rin. You and I both know that this wasn't the way things were supposed to be."
At that moment, Aki starts full-on sobbing. I don't know if they're fake tears or not, but they get the attention of Heathcliffe, who rushes over and tackles Showtarou to the ground.
"You do not mess with my girlfriend, bastard!" Heathcliffe yells as he puts his hands around Showtarou's neck. Showtarou doesn't fight back or make any move; instead, we watch as Showtarou's face slowly turns blue.
"Enough!" Isabella shouts. With that, everything dies down, Aki stops crying, and Heathcliffe lets go of Showtarou. Finally, there's somebody on this crew who understands order and stability.
"Isabella, thank you for your willingness to take control of the situation," I say to her. Isabella says nothing as she saunters over to Showtarou and picks up his knife. A split second later, she throws the knife in my direction. I duck under the table, allowing Wolfgang to take the knife and throw it back. I get out from under the table when I heard muffled cursing.
"What happened?" I ask. Wolfgang holds up a bleeding hand.
"Isabella and Showtarou got away," Wolfgang explains in-between breaths. I scream in anger.
"No! No! No! They can't get away!" I scream, pounding on the walls in anger.
"Is there any way we can track them down?" Daisuke, one of the thieves, asks.
"It's too late to do that. God knows where they're hiding in the city," Kartik explains to everyone. "Now, I think it's best that we go back to the ship for the night. We'll draft out new plans tomorrow for our first steps to becoming one of the most powerful and feared crews in the world."
One by one, everyone slowly files out of the restaurant. I am left alone, surveying the damages of tonight's dinner, tonight's defections, and what will certainly be tomorrow's revenge plots, battles, and wars.
So, this was just a re-write of the final chapter of Parallel Works, mainly setting the stage for what's to come and seeing things through Yuki-Rin's perspective.
Now, I do plan on making some changes to the Capricorns; the most notable change is that Isabella is no longer just a ghost. Instead, she's a human who ate the Borei Borei no mi (Ghost Ghost Fruit), which allows her to turn into a ghost. I am also changing Matsu's name to Katrina, so if you see somebody named Katrina VanBelle show up in this fic, it's Matsu Takeshima because her name got changed.
Well, I have to say that it feels weird writing about the Capricorns again.