Hisoka was gasping for breath. In the back of her mind, she was fretting over her shredded dress and her absent contacts, but her heart was throbbing in her chest for the safety of her cherished ones. It ached to remind her that she had to protect this island—she had to. She couldn't let them resort to violence. She couldn't let these pirates come and hurt her family! With a jerk of her head, she glanced up at the sky, her lips parted as she prayed to anything that would listen.

"Eri!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt the way the soles of her feet swelled in her shoes in protest to her abuse. She ignored the pain and the fair warnings. "Eri, answer me!" If anyone hurt the sweet little girl she had known from birth, Hisoka would never forgive herself or the pirates.

The sobbing cry that echoed through Hisoka's ears told her that the child was still alive. Her chest swelled with hope, but the shriek from the erratic mother caused a new dread to fill her heart. She saw the northwest coast approaching quickly, and she knew there was no way she could stop her feet now. One foot in front of the other before the previous even hit the ground—with the momentum built up would send her tumbling forward if she tried to stop. She felt people closing in around her, at her far sides, behind her, but her runway was clear, and that was all Hisoka could focus on right now. When she saw the older woman rushing down the hill that lead to the shore, Hisoka let out a yelp, her eyes bulging. With a sudden sprint that used up the majority of her energy, she jolted in front of the woman and shoved her to the ground without a single word or a single thought, her eyes squeezing shut. She just had to stop her—she couldn't let her get close to the pirates. Unfamiliar, boyish laughter from behind her clenched her heart tightly. She looked forward, seeing a gruesome man holding Eri up by one of her pigtails. Thoughts of her reckless actions were banished from her mind

"Eri!" Hisoka gasped.

"Hisoka-chan!" the child screamed. Hisoka's breath was pulled from her lungs in a shrill shriek as she, in a split second, found herself rolling down the hill after the heel on her boot snapped and her feet continued to throb. She heard the child scream again. She panicked, reaching her hands out wildly and gripping the long grass tightly in her fists. She managed to catch herself, gasping for air. Hisoka quickly opened her eyes and examined the ground that surrounded her tangled body. When her eyes landed on the feet of a man and she heard the cries of Eri right above her, Hisoka acted.

Reaching out and clinging to the leg of the pants he wore, Hisoka spoke with alarm, "T-Tell me why you have come to my island and why you are harming my cherished one!" The laughter that echoed through her wracked brain made her soul tremble. It was different from the boyish laughter before. It was evil and it made her sick. With a sudden jerk of the man's leg, Hisoka found herself violently kicked back several feet. She winced as pain radiated through her stiff legs.

"Well, why else would one come to Happy Island but to find the Devil-Pleasure Goddess? And don't think you can just touch me whenever you want, you little brat!"

It wasn't just his laughter. Even his voice made Hisoka's stomach churn. She heard footsteps rushing down the hill and voices ill with worry slammed together.

"Hisoka-san! Hisoka-san, are you harmed? Hisoka-san! Hisoka-chan! You bastard, get away from her! Eri-chan! Let go of that child! Hisoka-san, please, get up and run away from him! If you want to pick a fight, pick it with another man, you fool! You coward, only facing little girls! Hisoka-san, answer us!"

Hisoka felt the panic riding in her chest once again, hot and suffocating. She shot out her hand, still gasping for the air that was knocked out of her during her tumble down the hill. "Please, stop!" she shrieked. "We don't need violence! We don't need it! All of you, please, stop!" Hisoka's gasps and Eri's cries were the only things filling her ears when everyone finally listened to her pleas. Eri once again cried out her name, begging her, desperate and lost. The laughter that followed made it hard for Hisoka to not the empty the contents of her stomach on his shoes.

On top of the hill, many of the residents of this village resided, including the four visitors. Luffy had a slightly hardened expression as he asked out, "What is she doing, surrendering?"

"Why the hell is everyone listening to her?" Zoro questioned with hints of anger.

"What is she thinking…?" Nami mumbled. She lost her concern and interest for the girl quickly, focusing on something else with new emotions. She shook her head and snapped, "If that girl lets any of my treasure get into the hands of that pirate, I'll go down there and deal with this myself!"

"She should be running away!" Usopp commented as he tried unsuccessfully to hide his shaking knees. The pirate crew down below consisted of at least thirty or forty men. They had no idea how many more were on the ship, which was more than twice the size of Luffy's. Anybody would be frightened for the unarmed girl down on her knees before the captain.

Their prying questions and unwelcome comments were brought to a sudden end. "Just stop," an old man standing behind them demanded. His gray hair was wrapped back in a bandana, his clothing covered in grass and dirt stains. His hardened eyes were surrounded by gentle wrinkles, and his hands were calloused. His muscles were tensed and he drew in a steady breath when they all looked at him. He continued, "Don't speak about her—about us—ever again. Don't question her. Don't do anything. Not until you know her the way we do."

"And why would we listen to you, old man?" Luffy casually asked in a carefree tone.

"You guys don't understand who she is to us. To you, she may be the rumored pleasure goddess with the power of the devil, but to us, she…she is our saint. She always has been, even before she ate the Devil Fruit."

"She ate a Devil Fruit?" Luffy inquired, suddenly more interested, his head perking up.

The old man telling the tale nodded. He sent them each cautious gazes, his eyes flicking down to the teen on her knees, distraught and almost shaking. He sighed before continuing on in a softer voice, meant only for them, although he seemed to be retelling the tale to himself. "Ever since she was a very small child, all Hisoka ever wanted to do was make everyone else happy. It was her only wish. After her parents passed, Hisoka felt powerless to make everyone else smile. She hated it. She would go around town doing odd jobs that everyone else hated doing and then she would go home and throw fits. One day, about four years ago, some of our merchants returned home with a Devil Fruit. Everyone knew what it was, and it didn't take long for everyone to get into a huge argument about who would eat it or who would sell it. The fight went on for days. A fight had never lasted that long here before—at least not one that large. Everyone forgot about Hisoka. Nobody cared about her—they only cared about the god damned fruit. But she didn't forget everyone else. She hated seeing everyone so angry. It was decided that whoever ate the fruit would protect this island forever. Well, while we were all fighting over it, Hisoka climbed inside the merchants' ship, found the fruit, and ate it herself. She always took everything into her own hands, you see? She then climbed out and told the whole town that she had taken care of the problem and that everyone could stop fighting now, that they could all go back to smiling because she ate the fruit herself and she was going to be the best protector of this island. Some men grew furious and went to grab her. They wanted her to throw it up. But the second they looked in her eyes…Well…." The old man's expression grew solemn as he shook his head and reached up to run a hand through his hair, ready to stop the memories.

"What, what? What happened?"

The old man glared at Luffy's curious expression, holding his breath for a moment as his negative emotions stirred within him. He eventually deflated slightly, letting out a sigh, his hardened eyes wilting. "It's just that I can't possibly explain to you how it must have felt. The sight itself was shocking. They all just fell down sobbing and grinning and begging. It scared poor Hisoka to death. She was just a kid—she still is. She learned how to control it after a while, then we got her the contacts, and now she makes sure everyone on this island is happy and she keep others from harming us, just like she promised. She does everything she wants, but she never should have—well. What I'm trying to say is just what you can't see. …She truly is our saint." The old man crossed his arms over his chest, but he didn't even try to hide the tears that pooled in his eyes, a couple overflowing. "Seeing her like this, it's just…." He shook his head and tried to steady his breathing.

"That little girl down there—the one you call some devil woman—she is the best protector we ever could have asked for, and she is the most precious girl you'll ever meet. She hates it when anyone gets hurt or hurts others, which is why she refuses to use violence. I don't believe the power she was granted has the ability to harm others, she most certainly never has, but…she seems to solve all our problems with happiness. All of them." The old man reached up and wiped at his face. "You know, we all hate you. Except for Hisoka, everyone on this island hates you. You just came here and you strolled in and you started to talk about all of those disgusting rumors, talking about them loudly and openly and forcing them in our faces. People seem to think she is some prostitute or that her eyes can only grant sexual pleasure, but that's not true. That's the farthest thing from truth I have ever heard. So when people come here, trying to take her away from us or trying to defeat her or use her, it makes us so angry. But she always smiles in the end and deals with everything on her own, and she makes us feel like we never should have been angry at all, but we keep getting angry anyway. Because she's ours. We would all risk our lives for her, but I think she would risk her life much more quickly."

The story was cut off by Hisoka's voice. The brunette finally regained her breath, but her words were rough. "Please, just let the child go, and then I will give you the pleasure of the devil! I promise you that!"

"You guys came here to see her power, right?" the old man asked the group.

"Yeah," Luffy responded, his voice dull.

"Well, watch. You'll see. …You'll see." The four looked at the old man, but his eyes were glued to the scene below.

"Hah! And why should I, Captain Shinkotu, listen to some little crying girl like you?" the sickening voice asked.

"Please!" Hisoka begged. There was silence. Then a soft chuckle, which rippled through the sea of men behind the captain and grew in volume as all the pirates chimed in. That laughter was sliced in half and then intensified by Eri's sudden scream.

"T-That hurts! That hurts! Ow, ow, ow! Stop, stop, STOP! Ahhhhh! AHHHH!" Green eyes widened beyond their limits. An aching heart clenched. Hisoka lost control of her actions, and she immediately gazed up at the scene above her, her eyes practically glowing beneath a knotted brow. Her stomach roughly knotted as blood dripped down the sides of Eri's tear-covered face to the ground as the man squeezed her hair tight enough to rip out locks.

"Eri-chan!" Hisoka shouted. Distraught eyes darkened with fury and she shot her gaze to the captain. "You bastard!" she screamed at the man, climbing to her feet, dragging her weak body up, using the fabric of his outfit as leverage. "If you want to feel the pleasure of the devil," she seethed dangerously, "then fine!" A smile yearned to pull her lips up, but she held to back. Her words darkened. "Look at me," she commanded. "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!" When he didn't listen, she boldly reached up and squeezed the sides of his face tightly with both of her hands, thrashing his head in her direction. Finally, the man did listen. His face was disgusting. Tears loomed in Hisoka's eyes, but tears were automatically falling down the man's face when he saw her eyes. She pulled her hands away from his face as though it were infectious before slamming her palms over his eyes, digging her nails into his flesh until blood dripped down her arms. "Let her go right now or you won't ever feel that ever again!" The child fell to the ground that instant. "Eri-chan, run back to your mother, quickly, quickly! I'll make these men go away, just go!" Eri cried out Hisoka's name once more before running up the hill, her mother meeting her halfway.

Hisoka lifted up her palms, allowing the man to stare into her eyes once again. He dropped to his knees, his mouth falling open. Hisoka kneeled before him. He was trying to make noise, but his voice was stolen. Only whimpers could be heard. "Do you like that?" Hisoka whispered, her voice an unnerving mixture of resentment and delicate inquiry. She normally wasn't like this. This wasn't the normal routine. Yet, they had never hurt her cherished one before. Her hands tightened into fists. She had never let that happen before.

"P-Please," the man begged. "Please, please, please!" His voice was still stuck in a whisper.

A growl surfaced in her throat. "Do you think that feels good—do you?" The man just sobbed. Her brow trembled and her emotions morphed, her voice growing calm and sympathetic. "…You looked so strong before, too. Is this what you were expecting?" Hisoka wasn't even paying attention to his reaction. He looked so happy, in such a far off heavenly land. It made her feel sick and happy at the same time. Tears continued to slip down his face as he grinned to the point where it looked like the corners of his lips would split.

"…You can be happy too, you know," she mumbled to him, her voice entirely soft. He sobbed quietly. She didn't even hear the calls of the men that still surrounded her.

"What did she do to Captain? He's crying! I think he wet himself! What has she done? What kind of power does she have? What is she doing to him? He is the strongest we know! And he's on his knees before her! Is that the power of the devil? I want to feel it, too! Me too! Don't you think it would be nice? Look, he's smiling! Me too!"

Dazed, Hisoka looked away from the captain, who just crumbled to the ground with her absence. The sight of forty men running towards her instantly froze her. She almost forgot how to breathe. Her world slowed down with her thoughts. This wasn't something she could overcome on her own without experiencing some pain. She wouldn't die, there wouldn't be serious injuries, but she may get hurt, possibly even humiliated. Terrible emotions that made her want to run surfaced within her. Her eyes widened, and the world slowly caught up with her. She slowly crawled backwards, panicking as she tried desperately to stare all of them in the eye at once—trying to fix the outcome of her errors. It wasn't working. Some of the men stopped and cried, but when she looked away it only took them a few seconds to advance on her further. And while they were frozen, it didn't stop the men behind them from climbing over them. They were closing in on her, and fast. Hisoka would never admit she was scared.

She had used up a lot of her power on the captain. The adrenaline that had over-powered her eyes was diminishing. She had faith if she had trained this power often enough, she could knock them all unconscious with a single glance from yards away. She could even overwhelm them to the point of death. Hisoka rarely put her power to use, though. If she added together all the time she actually used it, it was as if she had only had the power for less than three weeks, not four years.

She could hear the captain mumbling on the ground, begging for her return, and it put a tiny crack in her heart. She had turned such an evil man into a tiny crying baby—a baby that was saying it needed her. She let out a gasp, her eyes going wide when men started to grab onto her shoulders and tug her towards them. She couldn't hold back the sudden scream.

"W-What's going on?" That question was running through the sea of people on top of the hill like crazy.

"Everyone, please listen to me!" Hisoka screamed as loudly as she could, her entire body tensing when she realized her slip. She had to fix this. She could still do that. Men were falling on top of her, yet those that got close enough to her eyes found themselves easily pushed away and trampled by other men as they laid on the ground and panted and smiled as they experienced the aftershocks of pure bliss. It was hard to keep count, but she was sure she had gotten rid of almost ten of them by now. The feelings of the grimy men crawling all over her body made her want to run into a shower and scrub the skin raw. She knew that she would do just that the second she got a chance.

"I-Ignore me!" she cried to her cherished ones. "Go back to town, all of you! Please, please! Please!" Hisoka cut herself off with another panic-filled scream that she failed to hush as she found herself kicking her legs rapidly as someone started to let their fingers crawl up her calves. She felt her foot collide with something and the feeling stopped. Three other men were down now, but there were still so many more. "I'll be fine!" she shrieked. "Don't worry at all! They'll be gone soon and it will all be okay, so just go, just go!"

"Oh god. I can't even see her anymore! It's like she's covered by them! Oh god, oh god! We should listen to her! No, we should help her! We can't leave her alone! If we go down there, we could hurt her!" The voices of all the panicking villagers combined into of long stream of dread.

"Why did anyone let her go down there in the first place?" Zoro snapped, suddenly drawing out one of his swords. "I don't care what she says, she doesn't have much of a defense down there."

"T-The most Hisoka-san has dealt with is twenty men—they generally all back off when their captain starts screaming and crying. They don't wait around to see if it's in pleasure or pain. This normally doesn't happen, something must have gone wrong," the old man explained with a worried voice. "She won't die, that's impossible. You can already see the number of men she has taken down, but she will have to put up with that for a while longer until she can get rid of all of them." His worried tone vanished as he said strongly to the visitors and himself, "Don't you underestimate her. She's stronger than you think."

"But I bet that if we save her, we can ask her to join our crew again! Would you deny after that?"

"Whatever!"

"I'm going to go secure the treasure!" Nami was the first to take off down the hill. Zoro followed her. Usopp seemed to be readying his slingshot, which he expertly aimed at the already fallen men, who were still conscious and groaning. He knocked them out easily, cheering about how he could take on all the men. Such proclamations didn't have as much power, seeing as how he was so far away from them. Hearing Hisoka cry out once more, there was a quick dash of movement above them, and three quarters of the men on top of her were thrown backwards, blood spilling from their mouths and their wounds.

The shock of that sudden change left Hisoka open to several other men climbing on top of her. She quickly looked back to them, and they cried out, collapsing helplessly. She heard a sudden cry, but she couldn't focus, let alone understand what was happening. Her heart stampeded within her, trying to get away from her and her mistakes. Fight or flight.

"Leave the rest to me! Gomu-Gomu no PISTOL!" Hisoka's breath left her body as a fist soared over her body, taking the remaining dozen men atop her with it. Her eyes spun. Her back hit the ground. Her shock made it hard to breathe. She was left free of all bodies and staring up at the bright blue sky. She blinked dumbly. Just this morning, she gazed at this sky and allowed it to warm her soul and her smile, yet now she was gazing at it and fighting the urge to let tears pour down her cheeks. She didn't even have to look up to know what she would see. Violence and bloodshed were the only things that could have ended her battle so easily. Violence. Bloodshed. Hearing loud footsteps approach her, Hisoka closed her eyes as tightly as she could, praying her tears wouldn't show themselves.

"Hey, hey, did you see that? You're all good now! You know, that was cool, the way you handled that captain dude. You need to fight for things like that! Because you're such a good person, I insist you join my pirate crew!" Hisoka couldn't even listen to him properly. She just forced a smile on her face and nodded slowly, her laughter escaping her lips softly in an attempt to cover up her sobs. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Feeling hands suddenly pinching her cheeks and stretching them out, all Hisoka could do was squeeze her eyes closed tightly and shake her head from side to side. "You should say something, I'm talking to you. Why don't you open your eyes?"

Hisoka gritted her teeth and flung her head to the side, freeing herself from his grip and rolling over onto her stomach as her tears finally overflowed, hidden from the view of any others. "I'm trying to talk to you! Did you get hurt, or do you just like putting your face in sand?"

"Is it safe to go down there? Can we? Hisoka-chan! Are you okay? We want to come see you! Hisoka-chan! Hisoka-san! We're coming, just wait!"

Hisoka froze, her eyes going wide, her misery momentarily forgotten. She couldn't let them see her like this. She just couldn't. It would be so shameful. They would think it was their fault, they would feel guilty. They would never be able to feel as happy as they did before, and it would be her fault. She couldn't let them see her cry. Hisoka hated feeling this terribly desperate.

"Hey, she alive?" Zoro asked as he approached. Hisoka winced as she felt someone poke the back of her head several times.

She suddenly reached out and grabbed onto the fabric of Luffy's pants, never looking at him but knowing it was him once she spotted his flip-flops. "I will give your offer the proper consideration on one condition." Her voice was strained. It didn't sound happy like it always did, but it didn't sound sad, either. It was bland, and it was taking all of her energy to make sure it stayed that way.

"Only consider it? That's a cheap bargain!"

"It's more than I normally would have done," she confessed.

"Fine, fine!" he whined. "But it better be really generous consideration."

"Yeah, sure," she breathed.

"What's your condition, then?"

When the brunette's eyes widened at the realization that her tears were suddenly falling forth again, she buried her faced in the sand, biting down on her lip with shame. "P-Please keep them from coming down here. Don't let them get close to me—make them go back to town. Just get my contacts from Ringo-san and make them all go back to the town."

"Ehhh? That's it?" he crowed.

"Tell them I'm sleeping, that I'm tired but safe. Don't let them believe that I am harmed at all. Okay?"

Luffy paused. "You're a weird girl." Hisoka remained silent, giving his comment no response at all. "But okay!"

"Wait a second, wait a second!" Luffy cried carelessly, getting to his feet and walking away from Hisoka, leaving her hand to fall limply to the floor. She quickly drew it to her chest and curled tightly into a ball, allowing the sand to absorb her tears. She felt weak and terrible for letting them escape. It was so selfish of her. "Nobody can come down here!" Luffy continued to instruct the crowd.

"What, why not?"

"Because if you do she won't join my pirate crew! Give me her contacts and just go back to town. She's safe, she just wants to sleep on the beach. Ehhh? What? I don't know why!" Hisoka shrunk her head further into her shoulders and blocked out the rest of the noise. Several minutes later, she felt the familiar poking on her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, weird girl, they're all gone now and we have your contacts! You should wake up!" His child-like laughter warmed Hisoka's heart gently. She has already forced her tears to come to a stop. She lifted herself up slowly, wiping the remaining liquid from her cheeks as she did so, keeping her head bowed. Luffy wasted no time in jumping to his point. "So, have you considered it yet? Are you gonna join?" Hisoka laughed softly, carefully bringing herself into a sitting position. You couldn't tell she had been crying. Her eyes remained closed.

"Are they all dead?" she asked calmly. The fact that her lips were still resting in a gentle smile was surprising to even her.

"What? Well, they aren't going to be getting up anytime soon. Probably some of them," he stated bluntly.

The brunette's shoulders tensed and she turned her head away from him gently. "I don't think I could join such a violent organization," Hisoka murmured quietly.

"All pirate crews fight, you know! We gotta be, to get where we want! We don't beat up the good guys, anyway. And we always win, 'cause we're strong!" Luffy spoke as if his argument was as solid as a rock. Hisoka's smile twitched as her brow wrinkled.

"Aren't pirates normally considered to be the bad ones?" Hisoka questioned, her voice still soft, but not to the point where she would be considered weak.

"Yeah, so?" Luffy immediately replied, his voice practically booming over her softened tone. "What do you say? Have you thought it over yet?"

Hisoka was quiet for several moments. Though her eyes were only closed so she could have a normal conversation without burying her face in the sand, Hisoka knew that she wouldn't want to open them even if her contacts were in. There had to be blood around her. She had to look like a wreck. Everything had to be a mess. "I'm not very fit to be a pirate."

"I say you are, so you are!" Luffy's ways of logic made it easier for her to keep a smile on her face, but the brunette didn't take any initiative to respond.

A new voice entered the conversation. "Hey, why aren't you opening your eyes?" Hisoka took a moment to recognize who was speaking.

"It's hard to have a normal conversation without my contacts in, Usopp-san." Her voice was louder, less timid.

Luffy snorted. "Why don't you just put your contacts in, then? You made me go through the trouble of figuring out who was Ringo and getting her to give them to me, after all."

"…I will," Hisoka commented quietly. "There is just something I have to deal with before I can do that." She moved her hands, pressing them into the sand, readying her tired body to lift it off the ground. She asked calmly, "Is the captain still alive?"

"YES! But I knocked him out good! Captain Usopp, the strongest man of the sea, has got your back!" Usopp cheered, laughing loudly at his self-declared wonder.

"Hey, I'm the captain!" Luffy snapped, jerking his head to look at the sniper with playful upset.

Hisoka's smiling expression never changed in the slightest. She bowed her head and raised her voice further to avoid sounding muffled. Her eyes fluttered open and she lifted a hand to rest on her brow so that she could shield her eye, from the sun and any lines of peripheral vision. It took her a while to get to her feet, and once she did, she turned around as hesitantly as possible. Her stomach knotted and riled within her, pressing further inside of her, trying to force her away from what it didn't want to see. She ignored it all. She walked with a slight limp, trying to deal with the broken heel on her boot as best she could. Her secretly shameful walk of silence was cut by another voice.

"What're you looking for?" Her walk never faltered. She was happy for the interruption of the judging silence. Hisoka had trouble remembering the name of the speaker quickly, but she recognized him as the swordsman.

"Captain Shinkotu," she responded, her voice still in that same bland tone. Her expression relaxed, although they couldn't tell. Her brows pressed down on her bright eyes as she asked out in a breathy voice, the soft, sad smile on her face growing, "Do you remember his actions? He almost ripped out all of Eri-chan's hair and he probably would have wrecked our village and damaged our happiness if we hadn't shown up."

"He sure is a bastard," Zoro grumbled. "People like him aren't worth mercy."

Hisoka's movements paused when he voiced his opinion, but she continued on steadily when she regained her composure. "I understand," she said, "You wouldn't be hurting the same person, though."

"Huh? He looks the same to me. Does he have a twin or a clone?" Luffy questioned. His question was ignored.

"You keep saying that you are against violence, but this violence could have saved your town all that trauma of watching you get covered and harassed by men. It would have taken them all out in just a few seconds. No matter how you look at it, it's much more efficient than your current way of protection," Zoro insisted, his eyes spanning the beach to look over his handy work.

Hisoka mumbled softly under her breath before clearing her throat and sighing. "Maybe it would all come to an end quicker, but…. I like the results of my method better. Much better. It serves my whole town, in the end. So what if I have to suffer humiliation and panic to get there—it's not like I will die. And if my town had just listened to me, they wouldn't have had to see something that could possibly traumatize them. I could have achieved the same results as you did with several more minutes, and there wouldn't be blood covering my beach, and my island wouldn't be upset at all."

Not giving the swordsman any time to respond to her, Hisoka fell to her knees suddenly, having finally located the body. With a bruise on his forehead, tears on his cheeks, and a grin spread across his face, it was a sight to behold—one that stirred many emotions. Hiding them well, Hisoka gently reached out and cupped his face. Her smile grew sincere.

"S-S-Stop! He may w-w-wake up!" Usopp suddenly exclaimed, jumping forward and waving his hands wildly.

"Oh, losing faith in your knockout?" Zoro joked.

"O-Of course not! I have been doing this for three decades; my aim and talent have won me countless rewards!" Usopp argued, pushing himself back from the girl and puffing out his chest as though those actions would raise his credibility.

"Do you want to meet the type of men you just killed?" Hisoka whispered quietly.

"We already met them! Do you have bad memory?" Luffy questioned in his same loud voice. Hisoka refused to reply as she calmed her mind slowly. She finally had control over her emotions—over her eyes—again. She was finally ready to finish off the threat.

Hisoka allowed her fingers to gently stroke the rough skin that covered his face. She felt the bumps of old scars and the prickles of a day old shave. "Captain Shinkotu, Captain Shinkotu, it's time to wake up." Hisoka gently moved his head from side to side. "Wake up, Captain, wake up." Hisoka's heart shivered in its chamber, but her eyes remained calm. She felt like a mother tending to her child. That is always what she reduced these men to.

"Heyyy, ugly faceee! Wake upppp!" Luffy yelled, leaning closer to the girl and her enemy. Hisoka had to restrain from looking over her shoulder and scolding him for interrupting her. Yet, his loud voice was enough to stir the captain. Hisoka quickly spoke again to keep Luffy from aggravating him, moving closer to his face, hoping her voice would create a chamber just for them—one these visitors couldn't destroy.

"Captain Shinkotu, how do you feel?" she inquired. The man let out a loud groan, muttering about his head hurting as he tried to move. "Look at me, Captain. Look at me," Hisoka urged. The man listened to her voice, and once their eyes met, the anger on his face vanished into a look of tranquility. She found it unnecessary to force her smile to remain, for it could do so on its own when faced with such an expression. He smiled right back at her, seemingly speechless. She informed him slowly and gently, as though she cared about him greatly and wanted her words to last longer, "You made it to your destination, Captain. You found me, the rumored girl you were looking for. You succeeded. Aren't you proud?" The man nodded slowly. It was like he was in a dream. Hisoka blinked, her smile unaffected. "But, I'm not too happy, Captain. You hurt my feelings and my cherished people. You hurt them badly." The man's expression slowly started to change. Hisoka continued, "Do you remember what you did to Eri-chan, the small child? Do you recall her cries, the way she begged for you to stop? Don't you remember how sad we both were?"

The man's faced was still relaxed, but his smile morphed into a frown and his eyes filled with tears. He found it was hard for him to withhold any emotion. "Y-Yeah," he said to her.

As Hisoka's smile became melancholy, she questioned, "Wasn't that wrong of you? Don't you feel bad?" The man's eyes filled with tears. "You can tell me what you're thinking."

"How could I hurt such a little girl?"

A silent sigh of relief left Hisoka's lip. "Yes, yes, you understand, right? You know how wrong what you did was." The man nodded again. "That's good. Do you remember how you felt when you looked at me before? You were so overjoyed. You can feel that on your own, without my help, as long as you never, ever hurt someone like that ever again. You also must apologize to Eri-chan and accept the consequences of your actions." Another nod, this one more intent. "You can rest here on my island for a few days, if you wish. But I have a favor I must ask of you when you recover."

"I—I feel fine, honestly. I can do whatever you need me to right now," he insisted.

Hisoka shook her head, a kind look filling her eyes. "No, that is fine. You must rest, and there is something you have to deal with before you are healthy enough to leave this island and find happiness as a changed man. It will be hard, but if you're strong, you can overcome it." He nodded hesitantly as Hisoka's smile fell almost completely. Her shoulders slumped forward as her heart clenched, making her suffer for having to deliver this news—for allowing these things to have happened. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the pain this will cause you. I never meant for it to work out this way. But… many of your men won't recover. They were threatening the safety of my island, I apologize." Hisoka paused to stroke his cheek with her thumb soothingly, idly. "You do have a few left, I believe, and you are still alive." The man didn't nod. He just stared at her. He wasn't smiling. "If you don't let yourself feel your emotions, you will be unable to find that bliss I showed you earlier. Do you want to go without that feeling forever?"

Nami suddenly leapt from their ship with an angered expression on her face, but she froze when she saw the scene in front of her. Her eyes widened, wiping away her previous expression. Her three crew mates watched in silence as Hisoka held Captain Shinkotu in her arms and he burst into hysterical sobs. She slowly patted his head and soothed him as best she could. "I know, I know, that's it, that's it. Just cry. Cry yourself to sleep. We can discuss more when you awake. I promise you will see me again in the morning. Just remember what you felt like when you look at me. Never forget it, ever, for as long as you live." It only took the man, practically twice the size of this small girl kneeling next to him, a few seconds to fall asleep in her hold. Once his sobs quieted completely, Hisoka let out a loud sigh and slowly allowed his limp body to slip out of her arms and gently lay on the beach.

"Do you see?" she asked, staring down at the empty space her arms now held. As she continued to speak, she stood to her feet, her back facing the crew. "All the remaining men will be like this when they wake up. If things had continued to go my way, I would have been left with forty crying old men that I could have sent off happily to live a good life and possibly do favors for me along the way."

"So? That just leaves you with a bunch of leftovers that you have to deal with. Look at him, he's a basket case. He can't go on adventures anymore when he's like that."

Hisoka tightened her hands into fists at her sides, bowing her head again so she could allow herself to grit her teeth. She held out her hand to the side, palm facing the sky until someone finally gave her the glass with her contacts. She emptied the contents into her other hand, waiting for all the water to be absorbed into the sand below. "…I suppose I understand where you are coming from," she grumbled. She sounded completely deadpan. She was trying her hardest to grind away all of her oncoming anger between her teeth before it could seep into her voice. She expertly put her contacts back in, wiping her hands on her dress as she waited for them to adjust. She grimaced as she heard Nami approach, Usopp questioning where she had been all this time.

"I looked through our entire ship, and I don't know how it's possible, but that brat took at least a handful!" Nami snapped. "I don't care what you say—I'm not leaving this island until I get every jewel and coin back!" Some of her crew members laughed.

"Hey, hey, did you hear that, Hisoka? That pigtail girl took some of our treasure! You should join my crew to compensate."

"I-I'll have to sleep on it," Hisoka gasped as a response. Only seconds earlier, her knees had suddenly started to twitch, aching to hit the ground. She hadn't expected herself to be this exhausted. She hadn't felt such boiling anger inside of her in quite some time. It was draining her of her normal façade and energy. "Please have Hiro-san come down here and fetch me and the surviving men. Make sure he boards up the rooms of all the men tightly, although he should already know that."

"Eh, eh? Come fetch you? What are you talking about?"

Hisoka's first response wasn't one she expected herself to give. With a short, quiet shriek, she lost her balance, ungracefully collapsing onto her back. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth tighter. This emotion brewing inside of her, which was something far from happiness, was unbearable. It was throwing her left and right. It was filling her with urges that she hated more than anything. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't make them go away. She couldn't look in her own eyes. "Hey! Are you dying or something? That's not a good idea!"

"I'm just resting. Those men were heavy. They tired me out," she griped.

"Oh, really?"

"T-There's just one last thing, though, before you leave to get Hiro-san…."

"Why are you assuming we're just going to go find him?"

Something inside of the brunette snapped. It was something she hadn't felt come to life and explode within her in a long time—something she hadn't missed in the least. Hisoka snapped her eyes open. She was happy her contacts were in, but that was about the only thing she was happy for. This living, breathing, dying, reviving, burning emotion within her—it was so unbearable that tears pooled in her eyes once again. She drew in a deep breath and shouted as loud as she could, failing pathetically at remaining composed, and not caring in the least. "Never look down on people experiencing the bliss of that I give them ever again!"

Silence was the only response she received. She exhaled roughly as parts of her fought to get up and yell more, to be angry and angrier and angrier until they left her island, until they left her life, but instead she just gave up her hold on consciousness. She hated that she showed them what she did. Nobody should ever have to see her anger. Her anger shouldn't even exist.