A/N: Wow... I am getting so much more reviews for this than I have gotten on anything previously! Thank you all so much! I try to reply to every review, but if I miss one I am sorry. Anyway, here's chapter 3 :) Enjoy ^^,
Warnings: This chapter gets graphic. Rape and abuse. You have been warned.
Chapter 3 - Never shall we die
The straw hat pirates were beginning to look tired. Worn out from looking for their lost crew member. Luffy sat in his favorite spot looking off in the distance. Over a month had passed since their swordsman had been stolen away from them, and the crew had been searching non-stop. Sanji walked towards the captain with a defeated air about him.
"Luffy... We can't keep searching forever" the words, though true, stung. Both for Luffy and Sanji. Luffy turned to look at the ship's cook. He nodded slightly, his hat hiding his eyes.
"I know... But I don't want to give up on him!" he said.
"We won't give up! But we can't search actively any longer. We don't even know what direction the kidnappers sailed!" Sanji exclaimed. He sighed and looked towards the ocean.
"Get the others, and I will tell them" Luffy ordered. Sanji nodded and went to get the rest of the crew. He knew this was extra hard on Luffy. As a captain, the boy felt responsible, and thus he didn't want to give up. Also, Zoro had been the first member of the pirate crew. The cook thought back to the countless fights they had been involved in. He remembered how Zoro had always given it all. He remembered his own fights with the green haired idiot, and the few times they had been relaxed and almost friendly with each other. One memory struck him hard. Their last fight, the day before Zoro disappeared. He recalled calling Zoro a fag. He regretted it almost immediately after saying it, but his pride made him refuse to take it back. He had seen the nearly hurt look in the swordsman's eyes. Sanji could remember struggling to sleep, as guilt wanted him to apologize. He hadn't, and that was eating him up now. He might never get the chance to, either. It was all so... so fucked up! Zoro wasn't supposed to be taken. He was too strong! Things like this just didn't happen to them! It shouldn't... Sanji gathered his crewmates and told them to get up on deck. When they were all gathered Luffy faced them.
"We... we will stop searching for... for Zoro. He wouldn't want us to sacrifice our dreams to... to find him, when we d-don't even know who took him" the captain explained. Tears had begun to run down his face.
"But, we will not give up on him! He is strong, and whether we eventually find him by chance, or he escapes, we will meet him again. Whether or not he is here at the moment, he is one of us!" he said. The pirates looked sorrowful, but agreed with their captain, and with heavy hearts they stopped searching, in favor of continuing their quest through the Grand Line to find the treasure One Piece, knowing that if they found any small trace of Zoro, no matter how insignificant, they would take up the search once more.
Kusachi lay in his room. On the bench as usual, though he was not tied up anymore. His back ached from the whipping. Every hit had dug deep into his back and left rather painful wounds. But that was not the main reason Kusachi struggled with falling asleep. The mere memory of what Master had made him do made a wave of nausea hit him hard, and he almost threw up what little food he had been allowed before the punishment began.
***Flashback***
Kusachi cringed as he finished the last bit of food he had been allowed to eat. Master pulled him over and explained what he expected.
"I want you to please me." he said. Kusachi paled.
"No fucking way!" he snarled. To his astonishment Master merely smiled.
"I think you will. You see, if you don't I will make sure your little 'friend', that red haired slave girl, is both tortured and killed before your very eyes, all because you refuse to cooperate. So put that filthy mouth of yours to good use, slave!" he said with a sneer. Kusachi looked slightly green. He really didn't want to do it, but Anju was like a little sister to him. He felt a need to protect her, and he would not forgive himself if he was the reason she would die! He bowed his head in silent acceptance. Master smirked victoriously and began to unbutton his pants. Then he paused.
"And I suppose I don't need to say, if you as much as try to harm me, your little friend will be harmed in a way I deem equal" Kusachi knelt before Master and let his tongue run over the tip of the man's erection. He shuddered at the taste. It was revolting. Without warning Master pushed his full length into Kusachi's mouth. Kusachi nearly gagged, and very nearly bit the man, but he remembered what had been said about Anju, so he endured. He started to suck and move, making Master grunt in pleasure. He grabbed Kusachi's head pushing his hips forward as he came with a loud groan, and thus forced Kusachi to swallow his cum. Master let go of him, and Kusachi pulled back. A little bit of saliva mixed with cum ran down his chin from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it off. He was given only a few minutes, so Master could get decent again, before he was hauled off for his punishment. As he was chained up, and the whip hit him, the pain was intense, but to Kusachi it still came second when compared to what Master had just done to him.
***Flashback over***
Kusachi shuddered at the memory. He gagged slightly, but didn't throw up. He sat up, ignoring the pain in his back. Something, an instinct, told him to train. Training would help take his mind off things. He started doing pushups on the cold floor. He didn't get past ten, before his back protested too badly for him to ignore. He let himself collapse on the floor, in pain both mentally and physically. He eventually fell asleep, and fell into the world of dreams. Tonight, his dreams were nightmares of a cruel man and his green haired pet.
He woke up to hands holding him gently. Disoriented and confused he didn't recognize who was holding him, and flinched away violently, looking around with panic his mind finally registered that it was Anju who was in there with him, not Master. He let out a breath and his body visibly relaxed. Anju looked at him with concern.
"What happened to you, nii-chan?" she asked, her voice better, but still slightly rough.
"Nothing, little sis. I'll be fine" he said, though even to himself it sounded false. Anju watched him, but accepted the answer when she realized she wouldn't get another one. She handed him a plate with a slice of bread and a glass of water. He ate and drank in silence as she watched. He knew this was probably the only meal he'd get today, and so he took his time, a vague memory of fine cuisine cooked by a familiar man hit him, but faded almost immediately. After all, he had always been a slave, hadn't he? He studied Anju while he ate. She looked tired and sad. As every slave here she was skinnier than what was healthy, and her eyes seemed hollow. The bruises around her neck had faded a little, but not much.
"Anju... " Kusachi hesitated.
"Do you think we will ever be free? And don't lie to me!" Anju said. She looked at him with blue eyes, which should have been innocent, but instead shone with pain and suffering beyond her years
"I don't know, Anju. But we can't give up" he said with a sigh. He looked towards the barred window of his room with longing. He certainly hoped they'd be free someday. But it seemed very unlikely. He stood up as Anju left and closed the door. He walked over towards the bench he was supposed to sleep on. He had learned quickly that the large bed was off limits, even though it was in his room. Before he reached the bench the ship shook as a massive wave hit it. He lost his balance and fell on his back. Kusachi hissed in pain as the fresh wounds made contact with the floor.
He was actually allowed to rest the next few days. Probably so the wounds on his back wouldn't get too infected. After all, treatments could be expensive. Anju came with food and water for him, and made sure he ate up, even those times he felt too sick to do so. What Master had done to him had made him feel so filthy, and some days Kusachi honestly wondered if it would be better to just give up. Those thoughts were quickly subdued, though, as he remembered telling Anju to not give up. He would make it. Hopefully someone would help them... someday...
"Master wishes to see you, Kusa nii-chan" Anju said sullenly, as Kusachi finished eating. Kusachi seemed to freeze, before he let her fasten a chain to his collar. He followed her with a bowed head as she led him to Master's room.
"It'll be okay, Kusa nii-chan" she said, and opened the door. Leaving Kusachi alone with Master.
Master looked at Kusachi and smiled wickedly.
"Hello, kitten. How are you feeling? Are your wounds healing nicely?" he asked in mock concern. Kusachi looked away, refusing to meet the man's eyes. The chain was harshly pulled at, and Kusachi was dragged along, wincing as the cold metal scraped against his skin.
"You will answer when I ask you a question, Slave!" he shouted at Kusachi.
"Do you understand?" Master struck Kusachi once more, tossing him to the floor. Kusachi landed roughly on his wrist. It hurt, but didn't seem broken or sprained, luckily.
"Y-yes Master" he said. Master grinned again.
"Good. Now, you already know the deal. You please me, and the little slave girl stays safe. So get to work! Oh, and when you're done, you can help out up on deck. It seems that my men are tired, and you might be needed to carry things for them" Master said, as if he was talking about simple everyday chores that even a child could do. Kusachi got on his knees before the man, and began his work.
When he was lead back to his own room that night he was exhausted. Master's men were well aware that he was a slave, and made sure to exploit him as much as they could. He had to carry everything for them, and he had to do the hard manual labor. Well, he and the two other male slaves aboard, but for some reason they seemed to favor Kusachi. Once he had sat down on his bench he immediately felt ill. The work had forced him to think of other things, but now that he was alone the impact of what Master had made him do hit him. He bent over and gagged. As he fell off the bench he vomited up the meager breakfast he had had that morning, along with the semen Master had made him swallow. "Koibito", who had peeked in, sneered at him and threw him a bucket of soapy water, and a rag.
"Master said to give you that to clean yourself with" she said, before she spat on him.
"And make sure to clean that mess too!" Kusachi was beginning to really hate that woman. She was foul and disillusioned, thinking she was better than the other slaves, when she was one too, as one could clearly see from her collar! Koibito left and he began cleaning, first himself, very roughly, and carefully avoiding getting soap in the wounds on his back. Then he began cleaning the vomit, nearly puking again while doing so.
A little later Anju sneaked in. She closed the door and sat down beside him.
"How come you always get in here?" he wondered. She smiled at him.
"I have the keys. I was given them once, to get some stuff, and I just made sure I kept yours and my own. I'm always obedient around the others, so no one suspects me" she smiled, but her smile soon faded and a frown took its place.
"But Kusa nii-chan... You are obviously bothered by something. You don't have to tell me what, but did Master do something to you?" she asked. Kusachi nodded slightly, and sent her a weak smile.
"It's alright though. I'll be fine" he assured her. She looked worried, but let it drop. Instead she embraced him, noticing the slight wince as she did so, and began singing softly, quietly.
"The king and his men
Stole the queen from her bed
And bound her in her Bones.
The seas be ours
And by the powers
Where we will we'll roam.
Yo, ho, all hands,
Hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
Never shall we die"* She continued to sing the song her father once had taught her, and she saw the man she considered her brother fall asleep. She left quietly, sneaking back into her own sleeping room. She coughed harshly into the palm of one hand, wincing as she saw the blood that now stained her palm.
"I hope you'll be saved, Kusa, even if I don't" she said honestly before she fell asleep.
Another two months passed in much the same manner. Kusachi would be awoken, eat a slice of bread, and if he was lucky, a little meet. The crew would give him orders and tasks for the day, usually manual labor, and every once and a while Master would call Kusachi into his room so that the slave could please him. Anju would visit some days and talk to him, or even sing to him at times. Kusachi was beginning to get used to the routine, it was all he remembered after all. He'd even begun to get used to being whipped or hit for every small mistake he made. Some days he was exhausted and sloppier than others, resulting in crueler whippings, but for the most part he was good, and the crew let him be, with the exception of the chef, who for some reason strongly disliked Kusachi.
But things were about to take a turn for the worse. Kusachi had just gotten back to his room when there was a knock on the door. It confused him, as usually the ones entering would just go inside without warning. A man entered and Kusachi's blood ran cold as he noticed who it was. Master had come down to his room! Kusachi backed towards the wall, and stumbled slightly as a particularly strong wave hit the ship. Master approached him.
"Hello, kitten" he said with a lusty smirk.
"How are you feeling nowadays?" he asked with false concern. Kusachi looked down on the floor, his now longer hair covered his face slightly. Not quite covering his eyes, but close, as Master forbade anyone from cutting it.
"F-fine..." he stuttered. Master's smirk widened, and he grabbed Kusachi's chin, forcing the man's head up.
"Good" he said, and stole a rough, sloppy kiss. Kusachi didn't respond, but had learned not to object either. His eyes widened as Master pushed him onto the bed. The bed he had been strictly forbidden to touch. Kusachi lay for a second, just feeling the comfort of soft sheets and a mattress under his back. He couldn't remember ever having felt something that comfy. But the pleasure and comfort didn't last long, as he quickly sat up, looking confused towards Master.
"Tonight, kitten, I have decided you are ready for the fulfillment of the bond we share. The bond of Master, and Slave" Kusachi flinched, and tried to move away. Sure he had sucked the man, but this was something very different. Master quickly grabbed his wrist with one hand and slapped him with the other. He flipped Kusachi over, so he now lay on his stomach.
"Lay still, slave!" he said, and began tying Kusachi to the bed. The boy struggled, but as he was tired, hungry and overall weakened, and so he was no match for the man. Especially since the man was straddling him, keeping him down. His wrists and ankles were tied to the bed. He could still move slightly, but not enough to put up any resistance at all. Hands ran over his chest, over to his back, and down to the lining of his pants. Kusachi froze as the hands began pulling. He started to squirm, trying to get away from Master.
"Please stop!" he begged. "Please stop it!" Master simply chuckled at the pleadings.
'To think the great pirate hunter Zoro is begging me to stop' he thought with glee as he pulled the pants down completely. Kusachi tried harder to get away from the hands, which were now feeling up his ass. He felt tears moistening his face. He didn't want this!
"Don't!" he yelled as Master began preparing him, using his fingers.
"As you wish, kitten" the man chuckled darkly and removed his hands from Kusachi's ass, only to place them on his waist instead. Kusachi realized what the man had planned, and began tugging at the ropes tying him down. But to no avail. All that did was give him wounds around his wrists and ankles, making him bleed, and it would probably leave some nasty scars too, in addition to the ones already there. Kusachi screamed as Master firmly held his hips and entered him dry.
He was left in the bed when Master considered himself done. Untied, but still naked, covered only by a thin blanket. He curled up, clutching his knees to his chest, letting out sobs that would have broken his nakama's hearts had they heard him. He felt so weak. If he couldn't protect himself, how could he protect Anju? Or anyone else for that matter. And as if that wasn't enough he felt so... filthy. Like he would never be clean again. He shuddered and wiped away the tears staining his face, before slowly falling asleep.
Anju had come by a few days later, to find Kusachi spacing out, looking lost.
"Kusa nii-chan... Are you alright?" she asked, concern staining her voice. He snapped out of it, and looked at her with saddened eyes. He simply nodded.
"Don't lie to me, nii-chan. I hate when people do that..." she stated with a stern look. She repeated her initial question of whether or not he was alright. He seemed to hesitate a while before shaking his head.
"What happened?" she wondered. He simply shook his head, desperately wiping at the tears that began to run down his face. Dammit! He didn't want her to see him like that. Anju seemed stunned for a minute. She had never seen him like this before! She walked over to him and tried to pull him into a hug, but was shocked as he not only flinched violently, but actually panicked and backed off into the wall, so hard that his head slammed into it with a loud thud, before slipping down to the floor. Anju looked at him, and a light seemed to have been lit for her. Tears escaped her eyes as she realized what had been done to him. Sure, she had been asked to give Master hand-jobs before, but he had clearly gone much farther with Kusachi, and apparently it had broken the boy.
"I'm so sorry, Kusa! I... I'm so sorry!" she sobbed. Kusachi had calmed down, and reached out to the girl. He pulled her into a hug.
"It's okay, Anju. It'll be okay... There's nothing you could've done..." he said. Anju left the room shortly after. Hoping Kusachi, her ''big brother'', would be okay.
'It's my own fault... Maybe if I'd protected myself better, or obeyed more... Maybe if I had done a better job at what his crew asked of me, maybe then he wouldn't have done this to me...' he thought as a single tear streaked his face.
Sanji looked to the starry sky. He seemed to do that a lot now. They had stopped searching for Zoro around two or three months ago, but every time they stopped at an island everyone paid extra attention just in case any clue as to where the swordsman was would show up. The rest of the crew was asleep. Sanji inhaled his smoke and slammed a fist into the railing.
"Dammit, marimo! Why did this have to happen?" he cussed. Something wet dripped onto his hand, and he realized he was crying. He fell to his knees.
"Fuck it!" he let out a sob. The swordsman was the first official member of their pirate crew. He was important to them all, and not knowing what had really happened to him was... horrible. If they at least knew where he was it might be a little easier to bear, but not knowing anything... Damn! It shouldn't hurt this much!
"Where are you, Zoro..." he whispered.
"Hello, kitten" Master said, and pulled Kusachi by the leash attached to his collar. Kusachi followed, only wincing slightly by the pain of the collar being yanked like that.
"Master" he greeted with a deep bow. Master grinned and gave him a kiss to the forehead. Kusachi held back a disgusted shudder.
"Today we're going to mark you as mine forever, kitten. Only a few chosen slaves get my mark." Master smirked. He had taken to calling Kusachi "kitten" now, much like he called that slave woman "Koibito"
"M-mark me?" Kusachi stuttered. Master slapped him hard. A ring on his finger cut into Kusachi's cheek, making a bleeding cut under his eye, not unlike Luffy's scar, but longer, more angled and on the opposite side.
"Do not question me!" Kusachi cringed, and bowed before his master.
"I'm sorry, Master" he said. Master gripped his leash tight, and pulled him along, up onto the deck of the ship. Kusachi followed obediently, his eyes squinting slightly as the sun hit his face.
"Now, if you behave, you might get a warm meal tonight" Master said, and Kusachi immediately listened closer. After so long with only bread and water, a hot meal sounded heavenly. Suddenly his arms were gripped and tied up, and he was stuck. A man, one of Master's loyal subordinates, handed a long metal rod to Master. Kusachi's eyes widened as he realized what this was. Master was going to brand him. Burn a slave mark into his skin. He began to pull on the ropes restraining him, but to no avail. Master grabbed him by the hair and held him still before touching the glowing metal to the skin on Kusachi's chest. It burned, and it was painful. Kusachi barely held back screams of pain. When it finally was over Master pet his head.
"You were good, kitten" he said, and left. Kusachi was put to work almost immediately. He and some other slaves had to scrub the deck, and they had to do it well, because the pirate crew held whips ready to hit them if they didn't work hard enough.
Soon Kusachi was thrown into his room again. He tried to refrain from touching the burnt skin, but looked at the mark in disgust. It was a simplified wing with the kanji symbol for slave under it. Kusachi recognized the wing. It was a part of this crew's jolly roger. This ugly burn scar would forever mark him as their slave, and he hated it. He wanted it gone. He lifted a hand to claw the mark away, but another hand grabbed his before he could do anything. Master had arrived.
"Now, now, kitten. That wouldn't do any good. You'd only get the brand ruined, and then we'd have to brand you again" he scolded as if he was talking to a child. Kusachi stopped, and looked at Master, without meeting his eyes. He let his arms go limp, he wouldn't fight.
"That's better. Now, let's eat" Master announced, and the chef came in, placing two plates on the table. Master sat down by the one with the most food, and signaled for Kusachi to take a seat. Kusachi sat down. He looked at the food. Master had a huge steak, potatoes, salad, gravy and more, plus a glass of wine on the side. Kusachi on the other hand had a tiny piece of the same type of steak, half a potato and a little lettuce, with a glass of water to drink. Even so he ate it gladly. It was the most food he'd had in one meal since he'd arrived here. When he was done eating he had to wait for Master to finish, before he could stand up.
"Was it tasty, kitten?" Kusachi nodded. Master smirked.
"Get on the bed then. Show me your gratitude!" he demanded. Kusachi had no choice but to obey. He got onto the bed and shuddered as Master began removing his clothes. It had happened several times since the first time. Kusachi had stopped protesting after only a few times, but he still screamed. Master liked it when he did, and when he didn't scream Master would make him scream. But this time, just as master had removed his pants, the door creaked open, and Anju entered.
"No! Anju, get out!" Kusachi yelled. Master grabbed his face and glared at him, before throwing him to the floor.
"Silence, kitten. Slave girl, you have opposed me. You are not supposed to be here!" Master snarled, as he held Kusachi to the floor. Anju tried to back out, but Master fired a gun. He hit her hand.
"NO!" Kusachi shouted. Anju held her hand close to her chest, and glared at Master.
"You will stay here now!" he growled at her, she obeyed, but kept scowling at him. Kusachi looked down in shame. Master moved again, and seemed intent on fucking Kusachi, even with the girl in the room.
"Stop it!" she shouted as Master started. He sent her a dirty look as she coughed.
"Don't do that to him, please!" she begged. Tears ran down her face. That was when Kusachi noticed. Blood! Not from her injured hand, but from the corner of her mouth. She had coughed up blood!
"Shut up, slave!" Master shouted, but she ignored him. Instead she glared at him, choosing to sing, just to defy him. Her hoarse voice rang through the room.
"Yoho, haul together
Hoist the colours high" Master made a growling noise as he raised his arm and shot her again, this time hitting her shoulder. She cried out in pain, and Kusachi could do nothing but stare at her, wide eyed as she kept singing with clenched teeth.
"Heave, ho, thieves and beggars" she sang and walked closer
"Stop it, Anju... He'll kill you!" Kusachi said. Anju looked at him with sad eyes.
"I don't care, Kusa nii-chan. I'm dying already..." she said, before walking up to Master and spitting in his face!
"Never shall we die" she sang with a sneer as the spit, mixed with blood ran down Master's face. He wiped it off and glared at her defiant posture. Master fired one more shot, hitting her right between the eyes. Kusachi watched in horror as his surrogate sister fell to the floor, dead. One could practically see the exact moment the former pirate hunter finally broke completely. His gaze went blank and he stopped resisting Master. Master grinned sadistically and thought to himself
'Had I known that was the way to break Roronoa Zoro I would have done it a long time ago'
Meanwhile in another part of the ship, the slave-woman who had named herself Koibito was fuming. That green haired slave had taken Master's attention away from her! She was his favorite before he came along! She even bore his mark, proudly too! And now he had gotten it! He! The filthy, disobedient boy! She was so much better than him! He was untrained, untamed, disobedient and opposing! She had been brought up as a slave. She knew to obey, and she liked it. She was obedient, caring and most of all loyal to her master! So how could he take her place as his favorite? She didn't understand it at all! She wanted her master's "love" back. She wanted to be his favorite again! And in order for that to happen, she'd have to get rid of the green haired one somehow. But how?
**the song is called Hoist the colors and is originally from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I thought the mood of it would fit the story. (Also I really like the song :P )
And here's how I avoid Mary Sue's and such. I kill OC's off... yeah... I'm cruel like that.
Anyway, please review. It makes me update faster ;D
