OpalescentGold: I do not own One Piece.
You will never know your limits until you push yourself to them.
Nakia was annoyed.
She was facing Penguin in the training room, but they hadn't started yet, so that wasn't the issue.
Her lacy white top, skinny jeans, and the high, tight ponytail she had twisted her hair into were fine, for all that everything was so much more conservative than what she was comfortable with.
No. The hateful thing was her shoes.
Who in the world wore five cm heels, combat-appropriateness be damned? The only reason she had consented at all was because she knew that Shachi, Bepo and Trafalgar Law, all seated cheerfully a few steps away, were going to be judging her.
Not exactly a test she could afford to fail. But, hey, no pressure, right?
Right. Moving on...
Her shoes.
At least her opponent wasn't particularly frightening. Penguin grinned at her without the slightest sliver of malice, although, as a senior crewmate, he had to be one of the strongest pirates on the yellow submarine. "Ready, Nakia-chan?"
"If I say no, am I going to get out of this?" she shot back, working at calming her frantic heart. It had been a while since she had been challenged to an honest, brutal fight, been this far out of her comfort zone.
Still, Nakia had been in other high-stress situations lately and walked out in one piece.
Case in point, a stupid deal with a certain Surgeon of Death. One whose eyes she could almost feel drilling a hole into her.
Penguin laughed. "Sorry but nah, don't think so."
She smiled wryly. "Might as well go ahead then."
"You got it. Dodge!" With that, Penguin ran forward, his right leg already swinging through the air.
But Nakia had bent at the waist a bare second before he had even started to move.
To be born with Observation Haki had its uses and drawbacks, but sensing attacks was most definitely a pro. It wasn't exactly a hereditary trait, which meant her parents had never understood their child's strangeness.
However, in addition to being wonderful, Umeko had been a resourceful woman. She'd also been a prostitute, a good one more than able to handle both pirates and marines, and she had been able to learn all sorts of things from pillow talk.
Nakia had never needed to learn how to utilize it, not when it was pure, raw instinct, but she had required concentration to suppress it when she became of age.
Observation Haki was a rather odd weakness in the world of hookers and whores, but the lecherous thoughts and feelings of some of the creeps that came around the Akasen could be mind-scarring in the worst and permanent way.
Penguin followed up the roundhouse kick with a sequence of kicks and punches that Nakia evaded. Sometimes easily, sometimes not-so-easily, but the vast majority of his attacks came nowhere near her.
Not that there weren't any tight spots. No, that would have been entirely too easy.
Muttering a curse under her breath, Nakia slid into a perfect split—Penguin whistled loudly—to dodge a kick that would have hit her jaw. Prostitution truly did wonders for flexibility.
Getting to her feet with a handstand that conveniently got her out of the way of a punch, she flipped backward four times. She wanted out of his range, and she wanted to stay out of his range, thank you very much.
From there, Nakia twirled, leaped, and cursed her way around every meter of the training room, only skirting various training equipment and the three watching Heart Pirates.
It probably looked like a very awkward dance to them, seeing as she was leading Penguin around on an admittedly odd chase, their movements eerily synchronized. She honestly couldn't be bothered
The barest edge of a boot brushed by her upper arm as she did a back handspring, brown hair flying everywhere. Needed to a get a haircut one of these days. Punch—down, lower right; kick—back and to the left. Punch, kick, punch, punch—
Backing up with one last punch, Penguin called out, "Okay, that's enough for now." He straightened up, hooting playfully. "Damn, Nakia-chan, you're not half bad."
Easy for you to say, she thought wryly, knowing full well he had been holding back. A lot. In fact, he wasn't even winded, and although she was used to pleasing more clients than the men currently in the room, she was feeling rather tired, just from this.
Not for the first time, Nakia regretted not being born a pampered princess with a completely healthy mother and a father who wasn't an absolute bastard.
"Thanks. What's next?"
"Attack me," he said with a wicked smirk, tone just a tad too eager given what he was asking. When she gave him a look, Penguin chortled and held up his hands. "Come on, I might even stay still for you!"
"So chivalrous," she mocked, shifting her stance slightly. Offense, huh? She was terrible at offense. "Will you let me hit you, too?"
Penguin winced. "Sorry, Nakia-chan, no can do. If I let you bust my ass, the others will never let me live it down."
"Poor baby."
All she got was an 'aw shucks' grin and a 'come hither' quirk of his finger. "You going to move or what?" His tone was oh so antagonistic.
Nakia sighed.
She pushed off from the ground in the blink of an eye, performing a triple full layout flip in mid-air to vault over Penguin and land behind him. He moved with her easily, spinning around with plenty enough time to block her kick.
He laughed. "Yeah, just like that."
She flashed a faux sweet smile and began to move. Nakia didn't hit where he was; she hit where he was going to be, not that she came anywhere close to hitting him anyway.
"That really shouldn't be possible," Penguin commented when she did a front aerial and almost scored a strike on his chest. "You sure you're a civilian?"
Alright, that just pissed her off. Time to switch tactics.
"Sure it is," she said brightly, trying to punch his right arm.
"How?" He took two steps backward.
"Kaa-chan had me doing yoga exercises since I was able to walk," Nakia supplied helpfully, trying to hit his lower leg with a kick.
"Why the hell would anyone do that?" Penguin furrowed his brow, confused.
"She expected it to come in handy when I matured."
It took Penguin a few, long seconds to get the full meaning of that statement, though, from the coughing sounds in the corner, Shachi had understood it before his best friend. These poor innocent souls.
When it finally did dawn on him, Penguin choked and almost tripped over his own feet. "Why—how—the hell—?"
Nakia kicked him straight in the solar plexus.
Penguin gasped, bending over. He rapidly jumped back to create some distance between them, and she let him, seeing as beating him black and blue wasn't the point here.
When he recovered at last, he pinned her with a mock glare and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Cheater!"
She smiled innocently and held up her hands. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't expect you to react so badly."
Penguin rolled his eyes. "Riiiight... Moving on, let's get to the actual fighting!" He grinned, rubbing his hands in a way that was profoundly disturbing.
Nakia raised an eyebrow, uneasy but not willing to let it show. "What's that?"
"The defense and offense combined!" He took a combat position, that excited grin widening at the nonexistent enthusiasm on her face. "Ready?"
"You just want to get back at me for the teasing your crewmates will put you through," she deadpanned.
"Yup!" Penguin confirmed without pause, eyes twinkling. "Ready, set, go!" And then he went at her, no playing around now.
Nakia sighed once again and tried to keep up. Which was not easy, really, since he seemed hell-bent on smacking her around like a sports ball, but a girl could try.
It would have been a stretch to say she was holding her own; it was more like she wasn't getting beaten as badly as she could have been. Oh, the joys of a life of piracy.
"No bruises on the face," she scolded when he aimed a fast, hard punch at her jaw and forced her to spin away to avoid it. "Or the neck, shoulders, and legs."
Penguin pouted. "You're no fun." He pulled a kick right before it would have hit her hard in the stomach, then whirled under a high kick of her own. "Why not?"
"A purple bruise is hard to hide, sweetie, even with concealer." She bent over rearwards to avoid a jab, managing to place her palms on the ground so that she could come back up in a backward cartwheel.
"That's not normal," he maintained, brushing her upper arm with a roundhouse kick.
"So mean." Nakia sighed mournfully. "What's after this?"
"Know how to use any weapons?" Penguin smirked, blocking a punch meant for his gut.
"I did bring three daggers." She took a blow to her right side but was mobile before the pain could affect her. Not that a hit of that caliber could; her tolerance was quite high.
A confused look, followed by a shoulder tap when she tried to get in under his guard. "Why do you have daggers in the first place?" Unspoken but not unheard was the meaning of 'prostitute' hidden underneath the question.
Nakia smiled impishly. "Some like it rough, or didn't you know?" This time, she didn't quite hold back when Penguin stumbled, hitting him with a kick to the chest that sent him flying across the room.
"Nakia-chan!" Penguin protested when he got back on his feet, disgruntled.
"Sorry." She wasn't sorry at all.
"That's enough," came the abrupt and unexpected order from the Captain, effectively ending the examination spar. They both froze, heads snapping around to stare at him, and got nothing more than a blank face back.
True be told, barely two days in, and she was tired of that look.
'I can take care of myself,' Nakia had said to Law when he had inquired about her combat capabilities, followed up with her belief that fighting the small fry that she would be targeting head-on would be too much.
He found himself echoing that assessment. Hexi Nakia was far from the best hand-to-hand combat fighter he had ever seen, but neither was she the worst, especially for a supposed civilian with no major battles to her name.
Strong in defense, weak in offense, good with flexibility and psychological distractions; she had her flaws, but she'd also showed much more promise than she had led him to believe she would.
Her style of attack would certainly need work, as would her strength, but overall, she wouldn't be utterly helpless in the event of an unexpected ambush.
"Cool down," he said to the two. "I've seen enough."
Nakia's smile was a soft, sly one, as was her sigh. She stretched languidly, tension leaking out of her form. "Water, darlings?"
Bepo tossed her a water bottle that she caught automatically. Shachi grinned, offering her a thumbs-up. "Nice job, Nakia-chan! You kicked Pen's ass twice!"
"Shut up, Shachi!" Penguin snapped back gloomily. Holding back or not, it didn't change the fact that Nakia, an inexperienced civilian, had gotten two good hits on Penguin, the veteran pirate. "She cheated!"
"I didn't know there were rules in our fight," Nakia said mildly. "You definitely didn't outline them for me."
"She's right," Law cut in, crossing his arms. "In a real fight, there are no rules. Penguin, it was your own fault you got distracted."
Penguin brooded pathetically before perking up as a thought struck him. "Hey, Nakia-chan, how'd you do that dodging thing? It was like you knew what I was going to do before I did it!"
There was a moment of silence while everyone, including Penguin himself, realized what it was he had just said, and Nakia just smiled in amusement as she confirmed the suspicion in everyone's mind, "Observation Haki, honey."
"You can use it?" Law asked, quite intrigued. Personally, he was still working on employing Observation Haki, although he was miles ahead of his crewmates. Armament Haki came to him a lot easier.
"I was born with it, sugar."
He was reluctantly impressed at her sheer luck. "Can you use the others?"
"Armament and Conqueror Haki? No, no idea," Nakia admitted without hesitation.
Law wasn't surprised. "How strong is your Observation Haki?"
Her look was blatantly and unashamedly evaluating. "My current range would probably be the size of this submarine. As for potency...I dodged all of the cutie's moves, didn't I?"
Penguin looked torn between blushing at being called "cutie" and sulking because of her actual words. He managed to do both in a superb turnabout. "What about during the fight? I got you plenty of times then."
"That's because I had to actually try and hit you." Nakia pouted. "If I had been allowed to leave out offense entirely, you would never have been able to touch me. Or at least until I got tired."
Law interrupted before the two could work themselves into a full-blown argument, "It looked like you had some combat training in the past." It hadn't been good training by his standards, and it had been rusty, unsuitable, but the signs had been there.
"When I was young." She sipped at her water.
"Alright, Bepo's going to be in charge of training you," Law said, watching the two exchange a glance. While it was all good and well that Nakia was excellent at knocking human males off their game, it wouldn't do for her training to be affected by it. Bepo was a polar bear, couldn't be tempted by what he didn't understand.
"Then we're done today?" Nakia covered a yawn, pulling out her hair tie. Her rich brown strands fanned out in light curls behind her. "I want to take a shower."
Considering the rather distracting visual of her already tight shirt sticking to her skin, Law agreed. He hadn't missed the looks his mechanics had been shooting at her all throughout the session either. "Go right ahead."
"Are you saying I smell?" Her distinctly amused voice followed him out.
"Do wash the stink off, Miss Nakia."
Her low, husky laughter echoed in his head all the way to his bedroom.
Nakia kept under the radar for the two days that it took to reach the next island, which Bepo had informed her was called Ambiance. It was terribly boring sitting in her room all day, but it was for the best and she knew it.
For one, none of the pirates trusted her. No need to make it worse by accidentally poking her head in some obscure storage room to discover whatever dangerous secrets they kept. Sometimes, with the way the Captain acted...well. Better safe than sorry.
For two, some of the pirates might be willing to act on that distrust should she be vulnerable. Nowadays, she was either in her room twiddling her thumbs, getting slammed into the floor by Bepo, or eating with the senior crewmembers.
Not exactly preferable conditions to give her a talking to, but wandering the sub on her own would be pretty much like walking the slums at night. Why, she would have been practically asking for it, as some of the men liked to claim.
Nakia liked to think she was smarter than that. At least in the slums, she was stronger than the murderers. Here, not so much.
Which meant, regrettably, confining herself to her room near constantly. Since her room was terribly barren, Nakia found herself wasting time by staring out the window into silken darkness, doing and re-doing her nails/makeup/hair, or flat-out sleeping.
The Captain probably wouldn't approve if he knew about her increasingly bizarre sleeping schedule, but she barely saw him outside of meals, and he rarely spoke to her anyway, so why should she care about his opinion?
Hmph.
It was on the eve of the third night, after dinner, that anything happened to her at all.
(There had been plenty of commotion involving lava waters, carnivorous underwater plants, and suspiciously calm seas revealed to be some atrocity or another, but aside from some tossing, yelling, and spinning, Nakia had been blissfully unaffected.)
Nakia was lazing on her bed, ready to get yet more sleep, when Jean Bart's nonchalant voice came through the speaking tubes. She hadn't met him yet, courtesy of her self-imposed exile, but she had seen him around, hard not to notice the giant man.
"Target enemy ship up ahead, all hands on deck, Captain wants more rum."
Of course he did. Apparently, Penguin really enjoyed sea king meat, too.
Momentarily, Nakia envied the pirates, but fighting wasn't her job; seduction was. Besides, she couldn't trust one of the Heart Pirates to not stab her in the back, no matter how much she might like to leave this damn room.
Grumbling to herself, she nonetheless settled down and closed her eyes. She ignored the clatter of boots running past her room, ignored the slight change in angle as the sub began to ascend, ignored...
She had gotten very good at ignoring things recently.
Nakia woke up to the sound of someone outside her room. Years of ingrained survival instincts rose to the surface, prompting her to keep her eyes shut, her breathing even. As if still asleep, she shifted and let her hand burrow beneath her pillow.
Touch the cool hilt of her dagger.
The groan of her door was loud as it opened. A tense pause was followed by a soft, male chuckle that Nakia recognized well from her time in the brothel.
"Well, lookie what we got here," came the whisper while the enemy pirate shuffled closer, his presence at her back sending an unwanted chill along her spine, "Who knew those fuckers had such a beauty hidden away?"
Her skin scrawled. 'Patience,' Nakia counseled herself, able to hear the man come even closer. She had turned off all the lamps before falling asleep, so the room would be shadowy, a lovely environment where she held the advantage.
A step. Two. Three... "Wakie, wakie, pret—"
Nakia lashed out with her foot, snapping her eyes open at the same time. The dim light that came from the crack under her door was more than enough light to identify the intruder. As she had suspected, he was a pirate who had somehow gotten past the Heart Pirates and sneaked into the sub.
Damn vermin.
Her bare foot connected straight into his gut, and he broke off mid-word, air knocked out of his lungs. She took that chance to tackle him to the ground, right hand grasping her unsheathed knife.
"Bitch!" he howled, battering a meaty fist at her shoulder. He was strong enough that the impact rocked her backward, and he took the chance to swipe out with the cutlass he held in his hand.
The tip of the blade grazed her upper arm even as she swerved back, but then her fisted hand slammed into his elbow and sent the cutlass flying.
Cursing fluently, he tried to flip their positions. The enemy was bigger and stronger and heavier, but Nakia had been wrestling with a polar bear for the past few days. She hurled her elbow into the center of his ribs, and while he was distracted, slit his throat in one quick move.
Blood went everywhere, red and hot and wet. The pirate choked, flailed, tried to scream. It was useless, her weight pinning him securely to the ground.
He was dead less than thirty seconds later.
Nakia slowly got off of him, feeling strangely numb as she stared at the man she had just killed. It wasn't her first kill...but it still felt...different. She wasn't on her home island anymore, wasn't a simple prostitute anymore.
Now, she worked for a pirate captain in the New World.
She knew that this wouldn't be the first time she killed for him either, however inadvertently.
Shaking off the offbeat melancholy, Nakia took stock of her situation, as had become habit a long, long time ago.
Learn from your mistakes, indeed.
She was alright, aside from the shallow cut on her arm and some bruises, and there were no more threats to her person for the time being. There was a corpse on her floor, blood dressing her room as well as her poor clothes, and from the noise above, there was still some fighting going on.
Fan-tas-tic.
First things first, she decided as she looked down at the wound. She turned on the lamp and stepped into the bathroom briefly to wash off her dagger, most of the blood from her skin, and the cut.
Shit, she would need to bandage that stupid cut. Talk about complicating things.
Slipping out of her room, Nakia crept carefully through the hallways, paying close attention to the ruckus echoing through the submarine so that she could hopefully remain privy to any sort of drastic change that occurred.
Upon arriving at the operating theatre, she quickly opened the door and nearly threw herself inside, locking it behind her. With the light over the surgical table jumping due to the unnatural turbulence, she stared blankly at the pristine room.
Trafalgar Law was a surgeon, a doctor. This was a pirate submarine. Surely, surely there had to be some bandages somewhere. Sighing, Nakia started to yank open drawers and cabinets.
Needles, scalpels—why the hell did the man have so many scalpels?—pills, bandages—
Aha! Grabbing one roll, she cut the length she needed with her dagger and dressed her cut after pouring a few ounces of alcohol on it over the sink, hissing in pain. Strange, how a massive wound under the influence of adrenaline hurt less than a plain paper cut.
Grumbling curses, Nakia put everything back where it came from except for the roll of bandage, and after a minute of reflection, headed back to her room.
It would most likely be best if the Heart Pirates didn't learn of her little injury. You absolutely didn't show weakness to predators. Slinging on a stylish leather jacket after she stashed the bandages away, she sheathed her dagger and stuck it into the inside pocket.
And then she grabbed the pirate by the collar of his ugly shirt and began to drag him out the door.
Law was evaluating the goods they had obtained from the fight and the condition of his crew while his nakama finished off the rest of the enemy pirates when the door that led below deck was forced open.
Nakia strode onto the deck, high heels clacking loudly on the steel, with a wild glint in her eyes that he decided he rather liked. She was also dragging a dead man behind her, one that she promptly threw on the floor in front of him.
Luckily, the seawater would wash off the bloodstains when they submerged once more. Otherwise, some unfortunate soul would have the privilege of scrubbing the deck for hours.
"Miss Nakia?" Law questioned, one eyebrow raised. He already had a good idea of what must have occurred—given the strong piece of bloodied, lifeless evidence before him—but there was a nearly viable interest in hearing her version of a surely riveting tale.
"He interrupted my nap and got blood on my clothes," Nakia declared, as if that was sufficient reason for why the enemy pirate was dead.
Presumably, to her, it was.
Now that she mentioned it, Law could see the small flecks of red on the black lace dress she had been wearing when they had first met. The fabric was dark enough that it wasn't immediately noticeable...though the jacket he had never seen her wear before was oddly clean.
Interesting.
Without another word, Nakia turned on her heel and went below deck, presumably back to her room, closing the door behind her. The sound was loud in the silence that had fallen over the main deck, the majority of the pirates staring after her with bemusement.
"Captain?" Shachi prompted, taking a step forwards.
Law merely smirked, unperturbed. "Where's the rum?"
A chorus of disappointed groans was his answer.
The next morning, the day that they were meant to arrive at Ambiance Island, Law surprised Nakia when he turned to her at the end of breakfast and said, "Come with me, Miss Nakia."
She tilted her head, seeming a bit confused as to why he wanted to talk her to when he had been practically ignoring her since the second day. Nevertheless, she inclined her head in agreement and followed his lead out of the mess hall.
Bringing her to his operating theatre, he gestured for her to sit down on a bed while he occupied his swivel chair. Only when they were both settled did Law pin a demanding gaze on her and ask, "Why were you in here yesterday?"
Nakia went motionless but didn't break the eye contact. "How'd you find out?"
"You didn't put the materials back correctly."
She considered that for a second and then shook her head. "I've been doing this too long to make such an amateur mistake."
He smirked. Nakia did appear to be a woman who liked to sneak around. "You have a very unique perfume," Law conceded. As soon as he had stepped foot in his theatre yesterday night, he had been able to pick up the smell of camellias.
She twitched, annoyance painted all over her face.
"First time it's ever worked against you?" he taunted blandly.
Nakia sighed before she explained. "I've been taking more showers than normal. I suppose the scent has intensified as a result." It came from her washing products and lotion, after all.
"How is your training with Bepo going?" He had been getting periodic reports from the polar bear, but it would be interesting to see what Nakia thought herself.
"I have a very nice array of bruises," she said. "Would you like to see them?"
"Take off your jacket," he retorted.
Nakia blinked slowly. "Darling, my bruises aren't under my jacket. They're under my dress." Today, she was in a snug deep purple number with sideways creases that strained tight against her waist with a pair of nude heels.
Law ignored the flirting. "Your bruises might not be, but your injury is." The one that she hadn't yet admitted to, though the lack of blood on her jacket had been more than enough indication for him to conclude that it had been meant to conceal.
"It's small and shallow."
"Jacket."
"I took care of it already."
"Jacket."
"Honey-pie, do be reasonable."
"Miss Nakia, take off the jacket."
They glared at each other, Nakia with exasperation and Law with irritation. Silver and turquoise gazes collided for an indeterminable amount of time, neither of them willing to back down.
Law didn't concede for anybody.
Maybe she saw that notion in his eyes or maybe she finally felt the fear that he incited in others so easily, but Nakia belatedly blinked and capitulated reluctantly, shrugging out of her jacket. "And here I thought you were logical."
Law smiled lazily. "I'm also the doctor of this submarine and you're my responsibility for the length of your stay here."
Something flickered in her eyes, unfamiliar and dark and lethal, yet when she blinked again, it was gone. When she spoke, it was simply to say, "Here," while tapping the white bandage on her upper arm.
Law propelled himself forward with his foot and grabbed her arm lightly to examine it. "It's adequate," he grudgingly admitted at last, moving back.
She put the leather jacket back on with a roll of her eyes. "See? There was no need to make such a fuss, darling."
"If you had informed me when you had gotten injured, I wouldn't have had to press you on it," he countered calmly.
"Alright! We'll be arriving at Ambiance Island in twenty minutes. It's within sight!" Bepo announced cheerfully through the speaker tubes, unintentionally yet effectively bowling over their brewing argument.
Nakia frowned thoughtfully, dismissing their previous topic to ask, "Who's the pirate you want me to lure?"
Law grabbed a bounty poster from the drawer of his desk and held it up, showcasing a man with dark brown hair, multiple scars, and a toothy grin, beady eyes glinting darkly. "Wyatt 'Cutthroat' Pao, 84 million beli and Captain of the Cutthroat Pirates."
"That's low for the New World," she commented.
He shrugged. "I'm going more for quantity over quality."
"No devil fruit abilities?"
"Not according to his bounty."
"Who's my honeytrap buddy?"
"Shachi."
"He can't wear that uniform of yours," she said flatly. "It's too much of a giveaway."
"He won't. For all purposes, he'll look like an average, women-loving guy."
"Should be easy for him to do," Nakia muttered.
Law chuckled. "Probably."
"So, what'd Captain want from you, Nakia-chan?" Shachi asked as the two walked onto the deck, Ambiance Island in the distance as a small blackish-green blur. It was, admittedly, a minuscule island to begin with, not particularly special.
On the log pose, it had rated as the least dangerous of the three islands they could have gone to.
"Oh, he forced me to strip," Nakia responded idly, leaning on the balustrade next to him to flash him a radiant smile.
Shachi almost fell overboard.
"Miss Nakia, please. I merely asked you to take off your jacket so I could check on the cut you neglected to inform me of yesterday," Law chastised from directly behind them.
She waved a hand dismissively. "Details, details."
It was amazing how unimpressed the Surgeon's glance was.
Nakia giggled and swiftly turned her attention to Shachi before Law could skewer her. "You look very handsome today, sweetheart."
Shachi blushed a curious shade of red, adjusting his shirt self-consciously. Je had kept his hat, but instead of his usual boiler suit, he wore a gray button-up shirt and black pants. "Th-Thanks, Nakia-chan."
Her smile widened and she winked playfully at him before turning all business. "What's the plan, darlings? We do have a plan, right?"
"Sure we do," Law said evenly. "Shachi goes in first and certifies his position. You go in after, make contact with the target, and convince him to come around to the back of the building where I'll be waiting."
Nakia sweat-dropped. "There are so many things that can go wrong with a strategy like that." She smiled slyly, eyes dancing. "Alright then. Let's rock 'n roll."
Shachi could confess shamelessly that his Captain had great taste.
He had gone into the bar where Pao was rumored to be before Nakia and situated himself in the corner so he had a view of the entire place, darkly-lit and smelling strongly of smoke.
Then, he had ordered a drink, flirted with the giggling waitresses, and waited for Nakia to make her entrance.
She didn't disappoint.
Ten minutes after Shachi had entered, the door swung open and Hexi Nakia strutted in. And, oh, it was very much a strut, her red, red lips curled in the smile of a woman who knew she was a siren and relished in it.
Her dress clung and caressed every feminine curve lovingly, her dark sunglasses giving her an air of mystery and enticement while the swing of her hips and the clack of her nude pumps caught attention and held it.
Fucking hell.
Shachi had his eyes on her. He wasn't the only one.
It was that grim mental reminder that enabled him to tear his eyes away from her, scan the bar. It was natural for people to look up every time the door opened, check out the newcomer, and this time was no different.
It just so happened that this time quite a few of the men hadn't looked away.
One of said men was Wyatt Pao.
Shachi watched from the corner of his eye as Nakia, pretending she didn't notice the scrutiny of a dozen men, sauntered to the bar and began to flirt with the barkeeper. Her low, husky laugh rang out several times and then she grabbed her drink, looking around openly for a spot to sit down.
The area around a certain pirate was suddenly free of space, despite it having been occupied by several women two seconds before.
Nakia smiled and approached the target.
Shachi sank back down in his seat, eyes hooded and coiled like a spring. His katana was with Penguin, wherever he was, but he didn't really need it to cause enough chaos to bring every last pirate on the island running.
Nakia placed a hand on the target's shoulder and smiled warmly at him. "Excuse me, handsome, is this seat open?"
He grinned back in a way that he probably thought was charming. "For you, beautiful? Always."
Years of experience kept her from rolling her eyes. She sat down instead, purposefully arranging herself so the curve of her waist and her bare legs were nicely displayed. "I'm Susan. And you?"
Pao puffed up his chest. So proud...the arrogant ones were always the easiest to placate and cajole. "I'm Wyatt Pao! Perhaps you've heard of me?"
Nakia had, in mere passing before this day and never with any interest. She gasped softly, filling up her face with awe. "As in 'Cutthroat' Wyatt Pao? Of course I've heard about you! I never thought I'd meet you in person!"
Pao preened, smirking pretentiously. "Well, it's always wonderful to know pretty girls know of me. I can't believe any man would ever let you come to a bar alone. How 'bout we have some fun, sweetheart? I promise I'll give you the time of your life."
She smiled dreamily, putting down her drink to latch onto his arm without reservation. Nakia could feel what he wanted through her haki—an adoring, submissive sweetheart who just happened to be the most gorgeous girl in the room.
Not exactly her natural state, but this was all an act for his falsified pleasure and she was the leading lady. "Aww, Wyatt-sama, I would be honored. Won't you tell me about your adventures?"
He petted her hair like she was some pet, leering openly. "I'm not sure such delicate ears are suitable for hearing them, Susan-chan. The Grand Line ain't no pretty place, you know." He shifted closer a bit, the other hand settling on her thigh, a heavy, somewhat oppressive weight.
She let her head roll back with a pout, removing one hand to brush her fingers down her neck to toss some stray strands off to the side. Nakia saw Pao watch her hungrily from the corner of her eye.
Hook.
"Oh, but, Wyatt-sama, they must be so exciting!" she gushed, licking her lips.
"They are," he agreed, staring blankly at her painted lips. That hand on her thigh started to wander upwards, and she clenched her legs together, pressing closer to the target.
"Are they long and hard and dangerous?" Nakia arched her back slightly, giving him quite the generous view of her cleavage. The double entendre was no mistake, no doubt giving him all sorts of interesting thoughts.
God. So, so easy, this one. The greenest prostitute could take him without a problem. And here she had thought she would actually need to do some work.
"Very." His eyes were dilated, concentration faltering. There was a noticeable flush to his cheeks when she stroked her hands down his chest, lingering here and there. Her sunglasses were a blessing; she didn't have to worry about maintaining eye contact.
"Then..." she breathed huskily, blushing vibrantly herself, "...perhaps we should go somewhere else for...story time."
Line.
Pao grinned lasciviously, gaze clearly set below her face. "You're right, Susan-chan. Do you have any place in mind?"
"Well..." Nakia drew back slightly, as if remembering that good girls didn't proposition pirates in a bar, even as she let her hands settle a bit too close to the slight bulge in his pants for comfort. "Oh, Wyatt-sama, I wouldn't want to be brazen..."
The target brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear in a supposedly comforting gesture. "Trust me, Susan-chan, I won't mind. At all."
She turned her head away a fraction and shifted subtly so her dress pulled perfectly taut against her body, saying shyly, "Umm...maybe we should visit the back of the bar to have some...fun." A perfect make-out spot, in his mind.
Sinker.
Pao's face went slack for a moment, before a depraved grin stretched across his face. "I think that's a great idea, Susan-chan! Come on, let's go!" Grabbing her arm, he began to drag her out of the bar bodily.
Brute. Nakia caught Shachi giving her a questioning look and jerked her head in a subtle negative. Stumbling out, Pao wasted no time sprinting to the alley behind the bar. She could feel the bruises forming from his overtly enthusiastic grip.
When they got there at last, Law was nowhere in sight.
She would have thought that he had ditched or something had happened if she couldn't sense his presence with her haki, a tightly-contained gray storm. Powerful, she couldn't help but acknowledge to herself. He was so powerful, even when he wasn't trying.
Good thing that, for now, he was on her side. Or she was on his side. Whatever.
Just as Pao shoved her against the brick wall none too gently, a single word was spoken from the shadows. "Room." In an instant, a thin sheen of blue expanded around them in a sphere, though Nakia felt nothing physically.
A devil fruit user, huh?
The glazed look in Pao's black eyes turned into confusion, and he stepped back from Nakia to look around. "Wha—"
Nakia smiled kindly and spun out of his grasp. She was at the other end of the alley before he realized what was happening. She supposed she should feel guilty for leading him on like this, but she didn't.
"Mes," Law ordered, stepping smoothly into view.
Nakia watched in fascination as a literal heart popped out and landed in the Surgeon's palm. Pao gasped, glanced down, and collapsed into a heap on the ground, whimpering. Well. That looked painful.
Paying him no mind, Law casually took a brown bag from his pocket and slipped the heart inside before tying it back up again. One down, ninety-nine more to go. Though, admittedly, she was only responsible for the most important ten.
"Sweetheart, your powers are strange," Nakia said bluntly, placing a hand on her hip. She wondered what devil fruit he had eaten. Did he consider the power worth the price paid?
He smirked coolly, turning his head to look at her. "Jealous?"
She sighed dramatically. "Why, of course. Now...about that clothing store we saw earlier..."
Law rested his nodachi on his shoulder comfortably, lips twitching upwards. "I didn't know you were this high maintenance, Miss Nakia."
"Oh, I know." Nakia wandered over to his side as they made their way back to the bustling streets. "Oh, are we leaving Shachi behind, the poor dear?"
He shot her a vaguely amused look. "He was joined by the rest of my crew, and I believe they are currently beating the crap out of the Cutthroat Pirates."
She blinked and laughed, visually browsing the many, many stores the busy town of Ambiance Island offered. Various foreign spices perfumed the air, a few street stands here and there, starving folks hidden in the shadows...
"Well then, we mustn't interrupt their fun. Oooh, that looks like it panders to my taste. Over here, sweetie."
Nakia tried not to laugh at the look on the Captain's face. Honestly, shopping wise, an hour and a half wasn't a very long time. There had simply been so many beautiful, unique dresses with styles she had never seen in her hometown, and...
(Okay, so, maybe she had wanted to torment the pirate a little, but she would keep that to herself.)
She snuck another glance at the Captain and couldn't help it. Law had the blankest damn expression on his face, lips pressed into a firm line and brows drawn together, left eye twitching with irritation.
It was too much.
Nakia broke down into (carefully) graceful laughter, arms wrapped around her middle.
Instantly, she was subject to a death glare, along with mental threats of various experiments, punishments, and dismemberment. It wasn't enough to get her to stop laughing. To Law's annoyed indignation.
"Miss Nakia, do stop making a scene in the middle of the street," Law snapped after another minute of consecutive laughter. People were starting to stare at the apparently hysterical girl.
"Gosh, what did he do to her?" whispered a nearby woman to her friend.
Nakia forcibly stifled her amusement, eyes dancing. "Of course," she giggled disarmingly. The bags carried in the crook of her arm swung in the air, rather light for the six dresses and two pairs of lingerie she had eventually decided on.
"So nice to know I'm entertainment," he said blandly, taking her other elbow and steering her out of the traffic flow. There were a good amount of people wearing amulets, he noted absently.
Nakia grinned, gleeful. "Don't worry, honey. You're good entertainment."
"Lovely," Law deadpanned. "We're going back to the bar to collect." The other Heart Pirates were almost certainly done with their fights by now and were probably flirting outrageously with women. Luckily, there weren't any marine bases nearby.
Her eyes danced, but she made no complaint when he herded her towards the bar. "Hai, hai."
Nakia found herself back in a different bar on the same island the next afternoon.
She wrinkled her nose discreetly at the stench of alcohol, pointedly ignoring the men making eyes at her. Swirling her glass of apple juice, she looked over the bar with a mild frown. Really, what was she doing here?
Ah, yes. This morning, while she had happily slept in, the pirates had wandered off to some far-off mountain, defeated some ancient god while vandalizing some temple, stole some goats, and started a rockslide that almost crushed the town.
Thankfully—or not—the Captain, according to rumor and widely exaggerated boasting, had waved his hands, muttered a few magic words, and the rockslide was mysteriously halted.
The townspeople were torn between awe and terror, fear and reverence.
Nakia wasn't in the least interested in being involved in the chaos, but no, the pirates had wanted to celebrate.
Uni, her 'watcher' and a surprisingly sweet man once you got over the gray bandana covering half his face, had wanted to be with the rest of the crew, and well, here she was.
At the moment, Law, uninjured but for the bandages wrapped around his neck, was almost buried in women, as were Shachi and Penguin and Bepo, who all looked like mummies. The others had wandered off somewhere, hidden in the press of bodies.
As she had expected, beer and wine were everywhere, the air heavy with smoke and desire.
It reminded her of—
Nakia placed her drink on the counter. There were too many people in this place, and it was difficult to breathe. She wanted to leave. It wasn't like she was a prisoner or anything; she had already bagged Trafalgar sixteen hearts without incident.
Well, technically, she had gotten the target, and without their Captain to protect them, the rest had fallen like dominoes, as told by Clione, a boisterous man with a very questionable blue hat, last night. He had been drunk. She had wanted to throw up.
There was no legitimate reason why she couldn't leave, was there?
She rose to her feet, subtly waving the female bartender over. "Would you mind doing me a favor?"
The woman blinked at her curiously, the laugh lines on her face making it clear she was in her forties, if not fifties. "What is it, sweetheart?"
"If any of the pirates over there ask, would you tell them that I went to tour the island and would be back before nightfall?" Nakia couldn't think of any reason why one of them would want to find her, but it paid to be cautious.
Especially with pirates.
"Up to no good?" The bartender grinned heartily, deep brown eyes twinkling. "Ah... I remember when I was your age. Never mind those pirates, I'll tell them."
"Thank you." She was itching to leave, to get out of this place. Roam a little. She had been kept under near constant watch for too long, and Nakia had never been good at following the rules, even the unspoken ones.
"Psst!" The older woman winked conspiratorially and gestured under the bar to the right. "There's a back door there. Have fun!"
"I will." Nakia slipped out and found herself in another dark alley, shielded from the sun close to the horizon. Figures. Turning, she walked out of the alley and moving into the constant stream of people, blending in seamlessly.
Now, where to go from here?
She wanted to see, Nakia thought. She wanted to see everything but not be a part of it, didn't want men pawing at her and asking for sex. She wanted to be above it all...but not be solitary. To be alone without being lonely, the truest conundrum, surely.
Nakia whirled around, eyes scanning the skies, thinking. Shachi had told her this was a mostly advanced island with strong architecture, albeit with backward religion. They had tall buildings here, even compared with the other civilizations he had come across.
She fixed her eyes on the tallest one, the one that seemed to reach for the skies, near the outskirts of the town, and started to walk. Half an hour, an hour later, Nakia was at the base, craning her neck back to look up.
It was abandoned, judging from the dust and holes and crumbling paint. Nakia didn't understand why, but then, she didn't care.
Kicking off her shoes, she reached for a low window sill. With a fierce smile, she started to climb up the building, aiming for the rooftop she could just barely see.
Nakia had been climbing for years. It was a practice that Yuezhi had first started.
"But Tou-san! What if I fall?"
A masculine laugh accompanied the strong hands holding her. "I wouldn't let you fall, little darling."
He had lied, Nakia thought. He had let her fall. Not at that moment in time, but later, much later. And it had been a devastating fall.
"You stupid little girl. Did your papa really think he could get away with it?" Taunting laughter, the little girl curling up in a ball as fists and boots assaulted her from every direction. "Boys, let's teach her a lesson that she'll never forget."
They had taught her a lesson. One she never forgot. It was one of the few ways they had won, and sometimes, she hated herself for it.
Nakia reached for a window sill that crumbled underneath her weight, left her hanging by the fingertips of her other hand. Reckless. Gritting her teeth, she hacked herself free of the memories and got herself out of the situation through sheer bullheadedness.
It was a talent.
Later, both feet on a safe ledge, hands clinging to secure holds, she glanced down. The ground was far away, her shoes now a small speck. If she fell down from this height, she would be lucky to escape with mere broken bones.
Those hurt. She knew exactly how that felt, because when they'd peeled her off the ground when she was twelve, she'd had forty-seven broken bones. Seven had been from broken ribs. Of the five that were left, three had fractured.
But Nakia had been fortunate. She had gotten out of the ordeal alive and well and only "slightly" depressed. Umeko hadn't been nearly so lucky.
She pulled herself onto the rooftop of the rotting building with a gasp, muscles burning. But compared to what they were like after training sessions with Bepo, this aching was easy to handle.
Nakia sat down and stared at the town spread out in front of her, whole and distant and lovely.
Reaching up, she unbound her hair, slipping the hair tie onto her wrist. The locks were blown back by the wind, so strong at this altitude. It felt good against her heated skin, a wild force that no one could leash, no one could control.
Nakia wrapped her arms around her bent legs and let herself drift away from reality for a second.
Just a second.
It was something she had developed after that night when everything had fallen to pieces, a practice she found herself turning to more and more as she matured and the requests asked of her and her body became ever more strenuous.
Maybe it was unhealthy, maybe it was futile, but it kept her going, so who had the right to judge?
That's right: nobody.
Sighing, Nakia closed her eyes, letting the stress of the past week fall away. The Heart Pirates were nice pirates, she would be the first to admit that. They hadn't harassed her, hadn't terrorized her, even though they certainly could have.
She couldn't help but feel angry that they could, that they were strong enough to hurt her if they so wished, but it was the truth, and Nakia was a realist when all was said and done.
These people could wipe the floor with her without breaking a sweat, as Bepo did so daily.
The Heart Pirates had left Nakia be. But that didn't mean they weren't watching her 24/7, and it was tiring, to put up a front all the time, to pretend that, at her core, Nakia wasn't utterly ruthless and coldly manipulative so long as she got what she wanted.
She wasn't a psychopath or a sociopath. At least, Nakia didn't think she was. She wasn't apathetic, at the very least. If she didn't love her mother, why would she be traveling with this dangerous pirate crew?
But up here, so high above it all, she was free to do as she was no one putting her under a microscope, no one at all. She could dream all she wanted...
Nakia blinked and suddenly the sun was setting down the horizon, the sky orange and pink and red. What...? She glanced down, saw that the town was full of twinkling lights...night lights on the rise.
Was it that late already?
Patches of the sky were blue, as blue as the thin film coming straight towards her...
Wait. What?
Nakia furrowed her brow, struggling to make sense of what was happening around her. After so long, it felt like awakening from a long sleep, and her mind wasn't functioning so well, drowsy yet.
She looked down at herself. She was covered in the film...no, that wasn't quite true. She was in a sphere of a pale blue color. Wasn't this...?
Without warning, a screaming sense of disorientation assaulted her and then she was falling two feet to...the ground? Nakia was on her feet and spinning around to meet the man her haki had only just picked up on before she knew what she was doing.
Only to meet a pair of furious, blazing gray eyes.
Oh.
Shit.
Law had been the first one to notice Nakia's disappearance. Even then, as perceptive as he was, it had taken him some time. He had been distracted. Sorely so.
"Law-kun, don't you want to take this somewhere else?" purred the woman who had draped herself all over him, strawberry blonde hair splayed over his hoodie.
He smirked wickedly, hand on her lower back. "Relax, there's no rush." As it was, the Surgeon wasn't quite drunk enough yet.
The blonde pouted, milky blue eyes wide and beseeching. "But, Law-kun! I want you!"
So shameless, he thought, amused. Law leaned close and let his lips brush her earlobe. "Would you beg?"
She trembled against him, breaths coming in quick gasps. "Yes," she hummed throatily.
'Shameless,' he thought again, and then, 'weak.' Law's hired prostitute wouldn't beg for anything. Rather, she would look at him with those knowing eyes, smile flirtatiously, and completely reject the idea in an off-hand manner.
Speaking of Nakia...
Law surveyed the bar, looking for a glimpse of the white minidress with outrageously wide sleeves and metallic gold belt that she had chosen to wear today. It was far more modest than he would have expected.
In fact, all of the clothing she had bought yesterday had been less showy than he would have anticipated.
Well, except for the lingerie. But Law wasn't dwelling on that, hence the alcohol.
He had foreseen spying Nakia at the counter, nursing a drink and disregarding all the men trying to catch her attention. When money wasn't involved, she was remarkably cold towards unwanted suitors...and they were all unwanted suitors.
Perhaps the slobbering locals were why she was no longer sitting on her bar stool. But nor was she anywhere else in the bar.
Law narrowed his eyes and rose to his feet, taking no notice of the dismayed cry of the blonde as he pushed her away. Searching out Shachi, he forced his way through the crowd to curtly interrupt his with a curvaceous redhead. "Shachi, where's Miss Nakia?"
Shachi glanced up sharply, a frown forming on his lips while his entertainment hurriedly excused herself. "Nakia-chan? She's at the bar..." It took a single glance before he was forced to correct himself, forehead creasing with concern. "Well, she was at the bar."
Law scowled and stalked off to the bar, a muscle twitching in his cheek. Waving the bartender over, he said, "Miss, did you see a woman with blue eyes and brown hair here earlier? White dress, gold belt?"
She grinned deviously. "Sure I did. She asked me to pass on a message to you."
"What is it?"
"She said she wanted to go tour the island and would be back before nightfall," recited the bartender dutifully, cleaning out a glass with a towel.
Law's eyes narrowed dangerously. "And when was this?"
"Oh...I would say around...two hours ago?"
He whirled around with a snarl.
How. Dare. She.
She was the weakest of all the individuals under his flag and the most obvious target for the Cutthroat Pirates to go after if they had awakened on the barren field the Heart Pirates had dumped them on after removing their hearts.
He had known she was reckless and disobedient, but this crossed the line into abject stupidity.
Paling civilians rapidly scurried out of his path as Law stalked back to Shachi, eyes shadowed ominously beneath the brim of his hat. Shachi was already on his feet, the other Heart Pirates pushing forward at the visible and negative change in their Captain.
"What is it?" Shachi wanted to know. "What happened to Nakia-chan?"
Law's voice came out ice-cold and viciously quiet. "Miss Nakia appears to have wandered off because she wished to 'tour' this island."
Kaperin's scowl was dark and he crossed his muscular arms. "Let her wander then. See what happens when those pirates catch hold of her."
"What if she gets hurt?" Tara cut in, open worry on his face. "What then?"
"Then Captain patches her up and she learns her lesson."
"I don't think the Cutthroat Pirates would be satisfied with beating her up, Kaperin," Penguin said with a frown. Nakia had personally been the one to doom Wyatt Pao after all. "They'd probably kill her."
"So? She's just a common whore. We can find another one easy."
"Enough," Law said, and everyone shut up. "Shachi, stay here in case she comes back. Tara, Uni, get to the hotel. The rest of you, split up, find her, and I'll see to it that she doesn't do this again." He'd make sure she'd never do this again.
There were some unmistakable grumbles and complaints, but his crew obeyed, trailing out of the bar in groups of two or three. Law strolled out by himself, the nodachi resting on his shoulder near ensuring he would have little trouble.
Temporarily putting his irritation aside, he leaned against a building and thought about where a woman like Nakia would go with no one to look after her, or, in this case, oversee with suspicion.
The shopping market, perhaps, simply to browse after he had cut her visit there short yesterday. Then again, it was quite a conspicuous zone and one that she was most likely to avoid.
He didn't know, and he didn't know Hexi Nakia well enough to say whether she would or wouldn't. What other options were there? The beach, the coastline, might hold enough attraction for a late stroll, particularly for a newcomer to traveling.
It was too long and strenuous of a journey to the mountain. He doubted she would go there.
Law pushed off the building and walked out of the town. It took an hour to circle around the entire island, and by the time he was right back where he had started, the sun was setting, his frustration was set to boiling point, and he was still short one unruly whore.
She had said she would be back by nightfall, he remembered. Perhaps he should go back to the bar or hotel? But Tara and Uni were holding the fort there and he remained too savagely infuriated to stay still.
By chance, he looked up and caught a glint of light from one of the higher buildings.
Not one of the higher buildings, Law realized after another look, the highest building. A figure was on the rooftop, the metallic gold of her belt having snatched his attention, dark brown hair blowing in the wind.
There.
Tension churning beneath his skin—fuck, what had she been thinking?—Law was at the bottom of the building ten minutes later. He looked up and only grew angrier, his jaw clenching.
From the abandoned shoes and the scuffles on the crumbling sills, Nakia had climbed her way up there, a highly structurally unsound building that had been abandoned to rot.
Notable for her apparent skill in climbing, but one mistake, one misstep would have sent her crashing down to the unforgiving earth. And from the rooftop, she, as a barely trained civilian, would be a flat pancake on the ground.
Placing his nodachi down by the black stilettos, Law held out a hand. "Room." The blue sphere spread out until it covered the whole building, including the roof. And a certain Hexi Nakia he needed to discipline.
"Shambles." A flip of his fingers and the rock a few feet away was suddenly occupied by a maddening woman who made a soft sound as she landed on the ground. She leaped to her feet and spun around to face him in a blur of white and gold, sleeves trailing behind her.
Nakia froze when their eyes met.
But only for a second.
And then she hissed, "Darling, what are you doing?"
Law was furious. Oh, he was goddamn pissed and he didn't bother with holding back. "What am I doing? What are you doing?"
"What does this have to do with me? You're the one who decided to interrupt my very nice break and drop me on my very nice ass!"
She was upset that he had dropped her two feet above the ground? "Miss Nakia, do you think you can just go off without telling anyone?" he snarled, pacing forward like a predatory cat. "Did you spare a second to think about the damn consequences?"
"The last time I checked, I'm a hired call girl, not one of your nakama and not a prisoner!" Nakia snapped, standing her ground, to his paradoxical satisfaction and acrimony. "I can go wherever I damn well please!"
"Shut. Up. You stupid girl, did you really think the Cutthroat Pirates wouldn't go after you, the one who put out their precious Captain?" On her own and weak as she was, she wouldn't last a full five minutes. They would have ripped her apart.
A flicker in her eyes, one that he caught only because he was so close. It was gone a moment later, but he had seen it.
"You didn't." He shook his head mutely, stunned at the sheer boneheaded idiocy of her. "You didn't have a clue."
"So what?" Her voice cracked like a whip, though she made no effort to dispute his statement. Regardless, her eyes burned like turquoise flames. "I would have handled it. I'm not helpless, sweetie."
The usual idle endearment came out like a curse, but Law didn't focus on that. "What are you are is foolhardy beyond belief. You're weak," he said brutally, refusing to give a centimeter to this obdurate, stubborn woman.
"You're not strong enough for the New World." It was why he had left her behind on today's expedition to begin with. "Keep on going like this and you'll get yourself torn to shreds."
"That doesn't mean you get to dictate what I do," Nakia responded, effectively turning the subject of the fight from her stupidity to the matter of his authority over her. Or lack thereof. "You're not my Captain, Mr. Trafalgar Law. Don't you dare act like it!"
"No, I'm your employer, so stop being a damn brat and listen to me!" Law hit the nearby wall with his fist, glaring murderously at her. "If you go off on your own, you are going to die! If you're suicidal, fine! Just get to it after you finish your job!"
"Why the hell should I listen to your orders? I'm not one of your crewmates!" No, she certainly was not. For one, none of them would challenge him like this. For two, no one was anywhere near as pigheaded as this woman who continued to shout at him.
For three, they knew what their Captain could do if pushed.
"I could inject venom into your bloodstream and stand by and watch you scream. I could break you until you were nothing but an empty shell. Is that what you want?" he threatened silkily.
It was an empty threat, not one he would follow through on when it would be no easy feat to find a replacement with Hexi Nakia's sheer potential, but she didn't know that.
Nakia shivered, her lips pressing together into a strained, pale line, but still, she defied him without a hint of hesitation.
"Go ahead then." She lifted her jaw, fixing him with an unblinking stare that contained only brash challenge, none of the horror that any sane civilian should be consumed by. "Do it."
"You really are suicidal." He didn't know whether he was fascinated or incensed. Possibly both in equal measures.
She was opening her mouth to shout at him some more when she unexpectedly froze. "Did you hear that?"
Law hesitated, stretching out his senses immediately. "Hear what?"
"That—" A loud crack echoed in the abrupt silence. "—noise."
They both looked up in unison, studying the spider-web fissures spreading up the building. It had been fragile in the first place, deserted by its builders when they realized it would never have been safe to live in, but with all of their recent abuse...
"Fuck my life," Nakia muttered.
Law rather agreed at this point.
The upper left half of the roof collapsed.
Dust and debris flew everywhere with a massive crash of sound, the rolling dark cloud spreading outwards with terrifying momentum and speed. Cursing under his breath, Law wheeled around and lunged for Kikoku before the actual matter could fall and potentially crush them.
He had already been put through the wringer today. He was slow, wasn't exactly at his best.
It was why he had been relaxing in that bar in the first place.
"NO!" A hand grabbed his arm and tugged him back with a startling bout of strength. Law collided with Nakia, the impact knocking the air out of both of them, just as a chunk of brick dropped on the nodachi and heels.
"...I liked those shoes," she said plaintively.
"Not the time," he replied, but he was smiling.
"Can we run now?"
"Too late." The building tilted down, and, just their luck, it happened to fall in their direction rather than the other way around, where the majority of the damage could be avoided.
The upper half of the building hurtled behind Law, the lower half of the building crumbled where it stood, and the middle...
"Hold on," he warned grimly, grabbing her around her waist and throwing them sideways so she landed on relatively clean grass. His hat fell some distance away, flopping limply.
The dust from the fallen segments was hitting them now, and he bent low, eyes stinging and no space between their bodies, to avoid most of it.
And then the middle gave away above them.
Law gritted his teeth as bricks and glass and rubble fell on his unprotected back, some leaving mere bruises and others, the sharper glass, going straight through his hoodie to cut harshly into his flesh, the pain acute.
Warm blood trickled slowly down his skin, filled the air alongside the scents of grime and soot and dust.
Nakia was utterly silent underneath him, but he could hear her carefully controlled breathing, feel her wildly thudding heart, see her wide, wide eyes. She wasn't ready for this, but in the Grand Line, it was always sink or swim.
And she hadn't screamed, hadn't panicked, so he knew which one he was betting on.
He would have mused on her a bit more, but then a great big hunk of stone hit him heavily on the head and he blacked out entirely.
I've been reckless, but I'm not a rebel without cause. —Angelina Jolie
Great thanks to everyone who favorited and followed, as well as my fabulous betas! Couldn't have done it without them, XD!
Sayonara One Piece: Kyyaa! Thank you so much for being the first one to review! I'm delighted you enjoy my story and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!
Yuki Artsa: Lolz, course they don't! ;D, thank you so much for all of the help you so generously provided!
cherryvampiress: Hahaha, she didn't quite kick his ass, but I think she still did pretty well. Nakia doesn't like damsels in distress either, so that won't come up much often. Thank you so much for the review!
AgentChan: Ah, I'm so happy you think so! Nakia and Law are having tons of fun, aren't they? Lolz, I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you so much for the review, darling!
Guest: Awww, thank you! *blushes* It's wonderful that you enjoy my story! Here's the next update, I hope you like this one as well! And thank you so much for your lovely review! It really made my day.
Guest: Thank you so much! I'll do my best with the long chapters and I'm so glad you like Nakia's character. Again, thank you for the review, dear!
Thank you all! Until next time!
~OpalescentGold