Furen, lounging around on the Going Merry's deck, scanned her surroundings as noise permeated through the walls of the ship. Zoro and Sanji had started arguing again and splinters of broken doors littered the floor outside - of course they did, somehow the two always ended up slashing or kicking things if nobody stopped them on their bad days. Sure, it was all a very common sight, but Furen still wasn't quite used to it. She had only been traveling with the Straw Hats for about a month now and the noise and mess they made still caught her off guard every now and then. ...She would have been annoyed at them if a certain someone hadn't interrupted their bout.
"Calm down, you two. We don't need more broken doors or windows. ...Why don't you just take a breather and go do something to let off some steam?" the voice she knew all too well followed the noisy pair out of the doors (or what remained of them... they had managed to destroy the frame this time). Their somewhat irritated stares didn't seem to faze the older man much, and his mellow smile and unthreatening demeanor soon quelled their boiling tempers.
"...Your dad's a pretty good guy." Usopp had been fishing nearby and observed the situation with half of his attention. "I just don't see how he's not scared of those two. ...Ah, of course I'm never of scared of them either, I'm Captain Usopp after all! Ahahaha-"
Furen turned to look at him quizzically, his statement making her blink a few times. "...What do you mean? My dad is..." Then realization dawned on her and she slapped her forehead, beginning to laugh. She had entirely forgotten to tell the Straw Hats about this. "Oh, you mean Darus! We're not actually related - he's just been raising me for the past decade or so."
"...Oh. I thought, since you guys were so close and everything..." Usopp's nose twitched in curiosity. "What happened to your real parents, then?"
Then he seemed to notice how his question had sounded and flailed his arms, nearly losing both his balance and his fishing rod. It took a few moments of pretending to be a windmill before he regained his composure. "It's not like you need to tell me, honestly! I just asked that on a whim!"
"No, I owe it to you guys. If it wasn't for you, we'd never have gotten off that sinking ship. Besides... I've already heard all your stories and it wouldn't do if you didn't get to hear mine." Furen had noticed Luffy and Chopper sneaking toward them and sitting on the floor near her. Sanji was leaning on the upper deck railing while smoking, Zoro sat by one of the walls and even Nami and Robin had put down their map and book. Darus stood by the mast, looking as awkward and low-spirited as she'd always seen him whenever their past came up in a discussion.
"My story started on an autumn island called Ballantree, about two-hundred nautical miles to the northwest of Alabasta. I was born into a working family of a blacksmith and a trader. My mother, Masako, was an adventurous, beautiful red-haired woman who loved her work and was often away from home. ...Then, one day, she passed away after an accident. I was only five years old at the time so I don't remember much of her, only that my father began to dedicate even more of his time to his work as a blacksmith and lost a great deal of his former energy and joy of life."
Furen touched one of the two spears by her side, running her hand down the wooden handle. "She had been looking for Adam Wood to help my father with his work and when she was coming home, her ship sank from a stray Marine cannonball. She went castaway for several weeks, before she floated to our shore with a piece of the precious Adam Wood she'd tried to procure. ...The injuries from the shipwreck were too much for her and she died, and my father - about to fall apart - took that piece of Adam Wood and made two spears from it. He kept them as a memento of her, and after he passed away, they came into my possession... the Lightweight Stone spears Tasogare and Shinonome." There was a smile on her face, a jaded, somewhat tense smile. "Dad stopped going out... he didn't really even see his friends anymore, and blacksmithing soon became one of the only things that connected him to me. He stopped talking about things unless he had something to teach me, and I was forced to play with the other adults and kids on the island. He'd always been a practical, calm and quiet man with enough time to dedicate to everybody around him... until what happened with mom. He began to take on smithing projects without really enjoying them at all, accepting payments no matter how small or big they were. It was as if he just didn't care anymore."
"...That is, until I turned seven. He'd been showing signs of slow recovery for a while, but one day after I got very sick, I found him asleep by the side of my bed. He had left a half-finished sword on his anvil and taken time to tuck me in, make me hot soup and watch over me. It made me happy." Furen's smile was forlorn and she knew she wasn't far from bursting into tears. "Happier than you could ever imagine. He was finally going back to the friendly, loving father of my past and he kept getting better for an entire year... until..."
"Until what?" Chopper had his front hooves firmly planted on his crossed legs, his eyes big as plates as he listened to the story. Furen couldn't help but let out a choked sound... her heart ached, her throat parched... droplets of tears fell from her eyes, and she fell silent for a few minutes to try and gather her composure. Zoro glanced over and mentally commended her for managing to stay largely calm, despite the pain she seemed to be feeling. He knew all too well what she was going through. Losing people you care about... it's never easy, is it?
It took a good five or so minutes and a cup of tea from Sanji to calm Furen down enough to allow her to continue. She berated herself for her momentary lack of control... she was a martial artist, for the love of all holy! So what if she was a woman? She was a trained spearwoman and she was tougher than that- well, not exactly trained. Self-taught was more like it. Without wasting any more time wallowing, she continued with her story...
Ten years ago, on an unknown island in the Grand Line...
It was raining. A soft, silvery drizzle encompassed the town and the people gathered at the main square were drenched and cold. But they didn't really care since they were about to see something that was very rare in their small community.
...The execution of a traitor to the World Government.
They didn't know this man who was being accused of such a crime - he was brought from another island and all they knew him by was his name and his reputation. ...Boadicea Sengo. A blacksmith renowned for his extremely light yet nigh unbreakable alloy of an unknown metal and kairoseki, keiryoseki - otherwise known as the Lightweight Stone. And the fact one of his swords was now in the possession of Shanks, a Yonkou in the New World.
Furen didn't really understand what was going on. Men in black suits had showed up at their door and dragged her father away in chains. When they had noticed her hiding under her bed - as her father had instructed her - they dragged her out and took her with them. She had kicked and screamed until one of the men had bopped her in the back of the neck and everything went black. She only woke up hours later on a ship bound for another island, and this was where they were now. She hadn't even seen her father on the ship or at the unfamiliar port. Where did they take papa? And why was she still with these scary men in black? Hey? Where were they taking her? That hurt, let go! One of them was holding her arm, entirely too hard for an eight-year-old girl. It was not like she could have wrestled herself free or run away in the first place. Or that she wanted to... she just wanted to find her father and go home. The men around her talked a lot... what were they talking about? She was too young to understand everything they said, but she could tell they somehow seemed to dislike her. Well, it suited her just fine! She disliked them back anyway for being so mean and secretive.
Where were they? They had somehow walked through a large crowd and emerged in front of a clearing with a high platform towering over it. The men stopped and the one holding her arm yanked her in front of him. "Watch carefully, little girl. You don't want to end up like your old man."
Papa? Where was he? End up how? She tried to look around her at the crowd, but she couldn't see him anywhere. It was scary. She didn't know anybody here, where were the people she'd lived with? Like the nice lady from the bakery and her kids...
A loud noise of drums startled the little girl, and as she looked for the source of the sound, she finally saw her father. He had a chain around his neck and lots of men with sharp spears and swords were by his sides. What? Papa? Why are you with people like that?
The host marched past her and she could see injuries and dried blood on her father's face. As he saw her, he attempted to move toward her but a spear was jabbed in his side to keep him walking. "Don't do anything to Furen! I beg of you, please!"
"No talking, you criminal. Up the steps, and be quick about it!" the man behind him kicked Furen's father in the back and sent him tumbling on his knees on the platform staircase. Furen couldn't help attempting to run to her father, but the firm hold on her arm didn't budge.
"Why is he doing that to him? Papa's a good man!"
The man in black barked a short laugh. "Hah! Criminals are never good people. You should know that by now, girly."
Furen feared the man behind her. She didn't open her mouth anymore as she didn't want him to squeeze her arm any harder... she simply watched as the group advanced up the staircase to the top of the platform. On the top, they pushed her father to his knees and pointed two spears at his head. A man by his side opened a piece of paper and began to read.
"Boadicea Sengo. You have been accused and found guilty of weapons trade with known pirates and other lawbreakers. As we all know, aiding pirates is a felony punishable by law and in extreme cases, warrants a death sentence. The judges have ruled this an extreme case due to the involvement of a Yonkou and thusly, you have been sentenced to death by beheading. Do you plead guilty?"
Furen looked up and tried to see her father... he was too high up, but she heard his voice as he said "No, I do not.". Then there was the sound of something cracking and a pained groan.
"You are supposed to plead guilty, blacksmith. Do not forget that." the man with the paper folded his letter. "We'll be starting the execution in a matter of minutes. If you will, Mr. Executioners?"
The man in black holding Furen smiled wolfishly and all of a sudden knelt behind her and wrapped his hands around her face, turning her to face the platform. Then he leaned over her shoulder and said "Now, let's watch. You need to remember this well so you don't do the same mistakes as he did. Opposing the World Government is a big no-no."
One of the men from the line-up had turned to look their way and he was about to come over, but decided against it as the crowd behind him began to grow noisy and wild. The blue-haired man looked at Furen for a moment, met the girl's eyes and then turned back with a guilty, pained look on his face. Furen still couldn't understand what happened around her. Death? You mean, papa would never come back? Like mom?
"Furen! Don't look!" her father screamed from the platform, there was a strange whirring sound and a crunch... and then something dropped on the cobbles in front of her. There was a splash of water and as Furen looked, something red mixed with the rain-
Hair...? It was purple like hers and... were those eyes? Open eyes stared at her and... what?
She knelt by the side of the bundle to take a better look, and the blue-haired man from the line-up broke to a run. "Wait...!" He was too late.
As soon as she had touched it, the bundle had rolled over and she was staring at the head of her father. His eyes were still open as was his mouth, blood seeping from it and the stump that had once been his stout neck. The neck she had loved hanging from whenever they'd played together. If his head was here... did it mean that the rest of him was still up on the platform? And... if that was so... it meant that he had...
"PAPA!" Furen's mind drew a blank. All she could do was to scream and cry hysterically as she fell to her hands and knees on the wet stones. Her eyes narrowed to pinpricks, as if she was a wild animal being hunted through the woods, or a person going through a psychotic break. Primal fear and instincts had taken over her and she couldn't hear any of the voices around her anymore. Papa is dead... and so bloody...! Why was he here?! He hadn't done anything wrong!
The crowd at the town square had turned toward her the moment they heard her scream. They began to mumble among themselves, and soon someone was saying how they pitied the poor girl for having lost her father.
"Why would you pity the brat of a criminal like that? Chances are, she's just as bad as he was." one of the townspeople snorted. "She's better off dead in a gutter somewhere."
"How could you say that? She's just a little girl!" a woman pushed the man who had spoken in the chest. "She'll end up on the streets at this rate!"
"Well, do you want to raise her?" the man's reply made the woman fidget a little and then she closed her mouth. It was this reaction and the cold expressions of the men in black around them that made the blue-haired man's mouth twitch, and he quickly ran over to the hysterical little girl. Then, much more calmly, he knelt by her side and laid his coat over her shoulders.
"I'm..." the words caught in his throat. "I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, little girl. I'm sorry..."
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Darus?" the man who had earlier been holding Furen's arm looked at him.
The blue-haired man's eyes shot a searing glare at him and the crowd behind him, making them take an instinctive step back. The sheer hatred and venom in his voice was nearly palpable as he began to speak. "Why? Why on earth would you- forcing a little girl to..." He gritted his teeth. "To witness something like this? What's WRONG with you people? Do you even have a conscience?"
"Huh?" the man in black cocked his head. "Well, she's his daughter so she needs to know what happens to bad guys..."
"Bad guys, my ass! You probably just derive some weird form of sadistic pleasure from this, don't you?! If the World Government's sense of justice is this crooked, I don't think I want to work for them anymore."
"Hey, Darus..."
"I am going to quit. Right bloody here. I've had enough of this wretched organization and its neverending violence and frankly," Darus paused with a cold, indifferent look in his eyes. "The air around here has turned rancid from all the bigotry. I'm taking the girl with me, and don't even try to stop me."
Furen felt herself being lifted in the air. The coat around her was warm and she had cried so much she was feeling heavy and drowsy and achy. She attempted to peer around the coat's edge to see what was going on, but then a gentle, soothing voice told her to calm down and sleep. The blue-haired man's face came into her line of sight and the look on his face made Furen's eyes fill with more tears. He was crying. His face had flushed from sheer shame and his eyes were red, and Furen couldn't help but start crying herself at the pitiful look he had shown her. "My... my papa is..."
"I know... and I can't... you just need to rest."
The rain began to ease. The crowd dispersed as the man carrying the small, traumatized little girl made his way to one of the alleys by the side of the town square. It had been a horrible day for both of them, but it was what connected them to each other and gave the girl a chance at starting life anew.
"...Darus saved me that day. He took me in out of sheer kindness and, initially, guilt. He's been my foster father for ten years now and I couldn't even imagine where I'd be if he hadn't stepped up and offered me a new home." Furen rubbed the back of her head. "I haven't exactly been easy to raise and he's been kind enough to take care of me during even my bad moments."
"It was the right thing to do - I couldn't leave you out on the streets to die. That would have been completely inhuman." Darus coughed into his sleeve and averted his eyes.
"Well, that sort of explains your reactions whenever we've been near the World Government's flags." Nami clutched the front of her skirt. "I honestly thought you were just kind of crazy, but you actually have a really good reason for that..."
"I really do, don't I?" Furen's eyes had turned a lighter shade of brown and narrowed, almost to the point of losing her temper. "They killed my father and I'll never forgive them for it. ...Their agents are the worst."
"Ah... but... wouldn't that mean..." Usopp glanced over at Darus. "He was an agent, right?"
"Darus is different. He quit his job because of me. He actually has a heart and it's in the right place, unlike those soulless bastards from the Cipher Pol."
Darus then cleared his throat and made his way over to the small crowd. "I think it's time we switch to another subject, Furen. We really shouldn't dwell on the agent matter for too long due to your, well... feelings about the matter. ...We've already had enough destruction for the day with what the boys did."
"Sure, dad." Furen's reply was sarcastic, but a little on the playful side. She could never keep up her irritated attitude when he was around. Darus flushed bright red at her comment and he turned to go back toward the mast. "Wait up, Darus! I'm probably going to need your help on the next story since I don't remember a lot about my first years on your island."
"...Ah. All right - I'll make sure to fill in if there are any holes." Darus stayed close by as Furen stretched and changed the position she had been sitting in. Then her eyes grew thoughtful and she began to weave another tale.
The girl had been with the blue-haired former government agent for around a year now. It had been difficult at first to get used to her new surroundings and this stranger who had taken her in. ...It was only recently that she had summoned enough courage to ask him something that had been on her mind for a long time now.
"Darus... do you..." Furen fumbled to find the words as the man sitting at the table turned to her. "Do you think I could go home for a while?"
"If you were homesick, you could have told me." Darus's kind smile always put her at ease... it worked like a bedtime story which almost felt like magic.
"I... I'm not homesick. I just want to make sure our house and all the things dad made are OK. He spent so much time on them and I don't want to see them broken." Furen had matured considerably in that one year and now, as a nine-year-old, she understood some things incredibly well - including the concepts of work and honor. "Though it's not like they can break."
"We just have to make sure we don't run into any trouble. The agents already know you're living with me and if they think you'll be continuing your father's work, things will get ugly." Darus rubbed his cheek and closed his book. "We could as well leave today - I've been meaning to visit Ballantree one day to do the exact same thing you suggested just now."
Furen's eyes lit up. "Really? I'll get my things!"
The girl rushed to her room and gathered everything she thought she'd need on the long trip to Ballantree. She was excited, but at the same time very sad. She was going home... but to a home where her mom and dad would never welcome her anymore. Maybe someone else already lived in their house. She shook her head on that last one... if anybody had taken their house, she'd drive them out alone if she had to! As soon as she was done, she made her way to the hallway and called out to Darus that she was ready. The man poked his head around the corner and sighed. "Can we go now, Darus?"
"All right, just wait a bit and I'll get my things in order..." it took around half an hour for them to finally leave for the port. They boarded one of the ships there and headed for Ballantree - the island was a reasonable distance away and it took them around a week or so to reach its shores. As soon as the ship was moored, Furen jumped on the railing and landed on the stone wharf - as soon as her legs hit the ground, she broke to a run and her foster father had to try very hard to keep up with her. ...The sight that awaited them left them both speechless and staring - the Boadicea house was half demolished. Some of the walls had caved in, the roof was partly burned... there was lots of ash inside and the only things that were still intact were Sengo's blacksmith's hammer, anvil and a pair of spears. Somehow the fire hadn't managed to damage the Adam Wood in the handles - they had only slightly darkened from the ash rubbing on them. Furen knelt in the soot in the ruins of her home, drawing the two spears longer than her body into her arms. "I... I'm happy that at least these are left... mother..."
"...Your mother?"
"Dad made these... mother lost her life trying to bring this Adam Wood to him. He couldn't bear selling the spears so he kept them as a memento of her."
"And now they've been handed down to you." Darus crouched by her side and looked at the spears carefully... names were etched into the blades. "Tasogare and Shinonome... Dusk and Dawn. That's very poetic."
"Dusk because mother died and would never return home... dawn because even after her death, life goes on." Furen rubbed her eyes. "That was what dad told me. I still don't really get it, but it sounds pretty."
"It does. Your father sounded like a good man."
"He was a good man! Nobody has the right to claim he wasn't!" Furen's eyes flashed and she hugged the spears even tighter. As soon as she did, she saw a shaken look pass over Darus's face and she turned to look at her feet. "...Sorry for snapping."
"No, I am." Darus ran his hand through his hair and heaved a heavy sigh. "I'm too weak... if I'd just had more power at the time, I could have prevented all that and saved you and your father..."
Furen laid one of her hands on Darus's arm. She wanted the man to know that she liked him and didn't think he'd done anything wrong. She just couldn't find the proper words to say it, and touching had become their way of communicating through her year of being awkward and unfamiliar with everything around her. "But wasn't that an order from a very important person? You could have died if you'd tried to do something. ...I prefer you here with me than on that high platform."
Furen then stepped away from the blue-haired man and skipped outside, a slight awkward blush spreading over both their faces. Once outside in the clean air and away from the soot and rubble, the girl rubbed all the soot off her new spears and raised them to the sky to look at them better. "These are really light... and if I remember right, dad said they're made from Lightweight Stone so they're really strong..."
With that, she swung one of them at a nearby boulder and the spear bounced off and sent Furen tumbling backwards and over her head. She was still too little to swing them around properly, but she noticed that while the spear was undented, there was a tiny crack in the stone. Darus had joined her outside and with a small grin threatening to break through, lifted her under her arms and set her down on her feet on the ground. "Well, what are you going to do with them now that you have them?"
"Train." was the girl's short, simple answer. "I'll train... and one day go out in the world and take back what they stole from us. And I'll make sure only good people get to have his weapons, so that nobody can call my dad a criminal again. I'll have to become really, really strong, right?"
"Yeah... stronger than anyone. I heard very strong people have some of your father's weapons and it will be difficult to get those back." Darus paused, likely because he was concerned for her.
"Then I'll just have to become the best spearman in the world!" Furen clutched the two spears in her hands. "I'll use these and... and then I'm going to punt the World Government SO HARD they-"
"All right, now. Calm down, little lady." Darus tickled Furen in the side and made the small girl giggle and topple over laughing. "This is one thing that you need to train, anyway... great spearmen don't have weaknesses~"
"This isn't a weakness! Who would tickle their opponent in the middle of a battle?!"
"You'd be surprised." Darus snorted as the girl attacked him back and slapped him on top of his head. "We'd better get ready and find an inn... we'll get up and leave first thing in the morning."
"I know the innkeepers on the west side of town! Darlew Coll and his wife are really great people! Come on, Darus!" Furen leaped to her feet and tugged on the man's sleeve to make him come along. "I wanna introduce you to everybody! Maybe Martha from the bakery is still here, too!"
The girl with her two spears, tugging along a blue-haired awkwardly smiling man. It would have seemed like an everyday occurrence if the man with her had been her father... now, this man the townspeople did not know. But they were happy that their little Furen had found someone to care for her. They'd all liked Sengo and his family and his death had sent them into shock... they were sure Furen had died, but here she was. With this kindly man who seemed so much like Sengo had in his younger days. The Darlews were so glad that they even let the two sleep at their inn for free, and made sure a ship would be at the port for them to get them back home.
"I want to go to Ballantree! It sounds like a really cool place!" Luffy announced immediately. "Do they have any good food?"
"Always with the food..." Nami sighed, getting ready to rap their captain on the head. Furen, however, began to laugh raucously and brushed stray strands of her hair behind her ear.
"Yes, Luffy. Ballantree's very famous for Ballantrene tripe, a stew made from the stomach of a tree cow."
"Ooh, what's a tree cow?" Chopper piped up, always curious about new animals.
"A Ballantree cow. It's a very large cow with only one horn in its forehead." Furen made a face at Luffy who was drooling on Chopper's hat. "Stop that, Luffy. I know the recipe for it and I can just ask Sanji to borrow the kitchen for a while."
"You can use the kitchen any time you want, Furen-san~ I could always cook it for you if you told me the recipe, though!" Sanji was swaying from side to side like a weird form of algae. "Ladies shouldn't need to bother themselves with such hard, dirty work~"
"She's ignoring you, eyebrow mook."
"What was that, you shitty marimo?!"
Furen happened to catch a glimpse of Zoro staring at her. That was strange, he hadn't fallen asleep in the middle of storytelling like he usually does? He turned away from her with a slightly self-conscious look on his face, and attempted to keep his composure in the face of Sanji's provocations. ...Oh, that was right, he had lost someone close to him when he was little, too. Maybe he was concerned about her? No... that couldn't be it. A feeling of kinship for what they'd gone through? Maybe? She was curious now and wanted to know more. But that would have to wait. She still had more stories to tell the crew, of her days with Darus on his home island. Snorting, she had to admit that living next door to a bakery was far, far different than living next to a tavern. At least Darus had been smart enough not to let her interact with the tavern regulars until she'd been old enough to defend herself. ...Now, where'd she put that whetstone of hers... a loud crash and sulphurous swearing later, she realized Zoro had tripped over it. "Oh god. Again?"