I fixed a few mistakes in the last chapter!
amgs: Thank you! Yeah, Kari has a long way to go! I'm glad you're excited for this!
Treavellergirl: Now that's something you'll have to wait and see!
People often didn't give Luffy enough credit. He was, admittedly, a dumbass without a lick of common sense, and anything he couldn't understand on his own was never going to be understood, but people who didn't see past that didn't see what he really was.
Which was, frighteningly perceptive of emotions.
He was also exceedingly blunt.
Kari didn't know why then, she was so surprised that he rolled over, propped himself on his arms, and asked her, "Why are you sad?"
She expected Ace to fling himself across her stomach to smack Luffy for being so blunt. When he didn't, she looked over at him. He was staring at her too, frowning deeply. Sabo, for once, had lost his smile.
Oh.
They worry about you, her phantom said. Wind didn't touch his burning hair.
"That's-" how did she explain this to a child. "Have you ever loved somebody, with all of your heart? Have you ever loved someone so much that whenever you see them your ribs feel too small and just sitting with them makes it feel like, like you'll never need to eat again because all you need is for them to be there?" she wasn't looking, so she couldn't say if her nodded or not. She sat up, crossing her legs and gripping her hands in front of her.
Faded, on the back of her left hand, was a mark she had been born with. A flash of a flame on her skin. The mark of her King.
"Sometimes, when you love someone with everything you have, and they die, your heart dies with them."
Her hands were shaking. She closed her eyes tight.
Your heart isn't dead, the dead man reminded her, you felt it beat.
She breathed out, straightened up and tossed a smile over her shoulder.
"So you see, because of this the only man I can ever marry is the one I acknowledge as strong enough to be my king."
She didn't know it at the time, but that only added fuel to a fire that would reshape the world.
Kari ducked the swinging pipe easily, watching the numbers fly by in front of her eyes. Length, width, density, velocity, force, weak points, pressure before breakage. She blinked, tapped the joint on the back swing and watched the two pieced fly apart on either side of her. Ace growled in frustration and flung himself at her.
The girl was not like him though. She was perfectly in control when she played with the boys.
They weren't like the bear, that was only there for her fury. They were young and soft, not matter how tough they pretended to be and she couldn't stand the idea that she might hurt them. That they might grow frightened of her if she let herself slip.
She grabbed Ace's wrist and threw him easily over her hip. He went tumbling across the ground.
Luffy laugh from where he was sitting in a tree, high above their heads. Sabo at least had the decency to only snicker a bit.
"Shut up!" Ace snarled up at them. He was so temperamental. At least now she had an idea why. It was the chip on his shoulder.
"How'd you get so strong?" Luffy asked, kicking his legs back and forth.
Kari shrugged and flashed her eyes at him. With their change the numbers returned, and the strength in her limbs multiplied. It was a final 'gift' from her grandfather. Before he cut her throat.
"I have to be."
Ace scoffed. "Why? You live in town. That guy takes care of you. You don't have to do anything."
"Chevy," she correctly mildly. "He says he's my uncle," not that she saw him more than a few times a month.
"Kari has to be strong if she's going to marry the pirate king," Sabo teased.
The girl snorted. "I have to be strong so I can protect the kings."
"Protect me from what?" Luffy smiled guilelessly at her, "when I'm king of the pirate's, I'll be the strongest person alive!"
Kari's brows furrowed. "I don't know yet," she confessed, "But I know that I have to protect the Kings from something."
Sabo caught her phrasing, even when the other two were in the middle of an argument over who would be Pirate King.
"Kings? How many do you think there are going to be?" it was spoken lightly, but he really did look interested. Kari considered how much to tell him, then wondered what harm there would be in telling a bunch of children a story from another lifetime.
"Seven," she said with certainty. "The first King will be immortal, made of silver and able to fly. The second King will be golden, he will walk among the stars and bring out the best in those around him. The third will be red, made of fire that will burn all but those he lives. The forth king will be blue, and he will cut down all who stand in his opposition. After that, green, an electric king that can get anywhere, no matter how thick the walls or strong the locks. Then grey, a King with the ultimate defense."
"That's only six."
Kari hadn't realized Ace had been paying attention to her. She looked over to see he and Luffy had stopped bickering, and she had their full attention.
"The seventh King… I don't know," she knew that she hated them, though. It was there fault that her world fell apart. It was their fault that she was here instead of where she belonged, burning brightly with the fire of her King.
The seventh King, the Colorless King-
"You're real smart," Luffy said sagely.
"Someone has to make up for you dumbasses," she retorted, no heat behind her words. She swallowed back some of the pain that reared whenever she thought about her mission. She rubber her wrist, the right one, and looked down at the marking on it.
"The Silver King has already manifested," she told them, showing the trio a stylized silver heart that flash across the back of her right wrist.
Sabo leaned in close to see it. "A tattoo?"
"Sort of. Every King can infuse his power in his trusted followers, his Clansmen. That power manifests in a mark on their skin. And on mine, I guess. I'm not a clansmen for the silver King, and I can't use his aura," just her Grandfathers Gold and her true Kings Red, "But this is on me. I guess because I'm connected to the Slate. The magic rock that gives them their power."
"Someone hug me," she said abruptly. Ace and Sabo startled, but Luffy reacted right away, flinging himself through the air to grab her. Kari caught him and hugged the boy too her. Luffy gave such good hugs.
Warm arms slid around her shoulders, and blue fabric slipped into her vision. Ace and Sabo came in from either side, hugging her close.
Between the three of them, Kari could almost relax.
The house was quiet. The house was always quiet. Chevy only showed up when he needs to do laundry, or get something from the house. He didn't talk much to Kari, and she didn't care enough to talk to him. The only people she talked to are wild boys who live in the woods.
Kari could only take the quiet for so long before it becomes a crushing weight that she cannot bear.
This time, there is no escape from it.
It echoes around her, beating in on her ears and Luffy, who had fallen asleep on her couch, will not break it. Ace is too busy glaring at the wall to do anything. And Sabo…
Sabo had left them.
She sat on the chair, her heart in her throat, choking her.
Sabo, sweet, strong, loyal Sabo had left them for a life amongst the nobility, among the people he hated. She didn't understand. She couldn't comprehend why he would do that. After their weeks, months together, after all the time that had spent traipsing through the woods, after all the days, from sun up to sun down they had sparred. Why? Why he do this?
She wrapped her arms around her legs.
Betrayal stung her eyes and poisoned her tongue.
"I hate him," she told Ace.
"I do too."
They were both lying.
It was outside the fire that she first met Dragon. Edge town was garbage, as much as Grey Terminal, but with the fire burning she had gotten into her mind to go steal something of value. She didn't go out to warn anyone, she wasn't interested in being a savior.
Luffy and Ace, who had been distant as it was since Sabo left, had disappeared a few days ago. They had left her behind.
Kari turned a corner into a dark street, ducking out of the way of a pair of masked guards before she was caught. How curious that they had those masks ready. Perhaps they were more prepared than she gave them credit for.
The pair was laughing at something. Kari spat at their backs before she turned on her way and froze.
She knew the curly blond hair, and the scar on the back of the tiny hand that was clutching at a cloaked adult.
"Sabo," she breathed name.
The man looked over at her and so did Sabo, tears streaming down his face. He was covered in scraps and bruises.
"Kari," he recognized her, and started crying harder. "Kari! You have to find Ace and Luffy! The nobles- they set the fire! They're going to burn it all down, and everyone inside! You have to find my brothers!"
Kari's hand curled into fists. Her mind was racing.
"I'll find them," she promised. "But once I have, I'm going back for you, and you better tell me what the hell is going on!"
She didn't have time to think about who the man was, or to contemplate the strange tattoos on his face. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her until she stumbled in front of the Great Gate. She wasn't the only one there. Guards, with rifles, had taken up residence in front of it.
One the other side someone was screaming to be let in.
If they didn't open them for dying people, they wouldn't open them for a little girl. So she did what she was good at. She beat them, the same way she did the bear, leaving little more than bloody pulps in her wake.
"How the hell do I get this thing open?" she grumbled, laying her hand on the metal. It was hot. If she was anyone else it would have burnt her.
You know how, her phantom told her. She felt the warmth of his power surge through her. It was not the Gold Aura of her grandfather, a boost of her own abilities, nor her own power as a Strain, the one that showed her the numbers.
It was hot, filling her up and spilling out, boiling under her skin until flames licked up her arms and swallowed her body whole.
She blinked, looked at the numbers on the door, and sunk her hands into the metal. Steam rose around her wrists and she grunted, gritting her teeth. She dug in her feet and pulled so hard that the metal groaned and creaked under the pressure.
The two huge steel doors of the Great Gate went flying behind her, decimating the buildings at her back. The reek of burning garbage and human bodies washed over her, stinging her nose and burning her eyes.
People, poor people, young people, old people stumbled in after the destruction. There was only a second where they stared at the tiny girl who had ripped apart the obstacle, and was by all means burning herself.
"Thank you," one of them men whispered. Tears slid down his cheeks. He wasn't the only one who was crying when they spilled into the city, dozens of desperate men, women and children rushed into Edge Town.
Kari took a breath, regretted it, and plunged into the fire.
She wasn't how she used to be. She wasn't a Clansmen if the Red King, and by all means she shouldn't have had any of his power left in her veins, let alone carried the mark that now glowed brightly on her left hand. Yet, here she was, Red Aura burning across her skin and shielding her from the fire.
"You were right," she told the phantom. "This power. It's for protecting."
That's why I used it to die for you.
Kari ran harder, even when she knew she couldn't outrun a ghost. Fire was everywhere, tents were ashes and corpses littered the ground. She focused, numbers flying past her. Where were they?
Where were her boys?
Someone screamed to her left. Someone she knew.
Kari spun, stumbling in her haste and bolted towards Ace. She past Dadan and the mountain bandits along the way, flying by like the wind itself had possessed her. The scar on his throat throbbed, her hand burned.
She had punched Bluejam before she was even aware of the gun in his hand. She barely heard the rapport, barely felt the pain in her abdomen before it cauterized itself.
She could only hear the blood in her ears, could only feel the fire in her blood. She could only see red. Red, the energy that danced across her skin. Red the frantic gleam in her eyes. Red, the hair is her phantom, her King.
Red, the blood leaking out of Bluejams neck. His head smoldered in the fires some twenty feet away from them.
Slowly, and turn around to look at Luffy and his brother. They were hurt, like Sabo had been. Covered in bruises, cuts and burns. All because of the nobility.
Did you know about this world, Grandfather? She turned her eyes to the heavens, the numbers vanishing as the energy left her body. Did you know about the scum that controls it? Is that why the Dresden Slate chose to come here? Is that why it brought it's changes, the way it did to our world?
"We should go," she said softly. She wasn't looking at Ace or Luffy. She feared what she might find. "Sabo sent me. We should go find him."
"Sabo?" Luffy struggled to his feet, swaying in place. He was in bad shape.
Ace, at least, had the energy to make a face.
"Why would Sabo do that?" He grumbled. Kari shrugged.
"I don't know, but he looked pretty touched up. We should hurry, before someone drags him back to his parents."
"I- I wanna see Sabo again," Luffy's started watering and Kari, realizing he wasn't frightened by her display, opened her arms to scoop him into them. It was awkward, Luffy was almost as tall as she was these days.
"That can wait," Kari wondered when Dadan has gotten there. She had passed them what felt like years ago. The large woman reached down and picked up Ace, who complained but didn't fight.
"We gotta get Sabo," Luffy argued. "He's hurt!"
"Someone was helping him," Kari admitted. "A man, with a tattoo on his face."
Dadan tensed up. She distinctly looked at none of them.
"Then he'll be fine. We need to get you boys home. We'll find Sabo after that. "