Author's note: Sorry for the later than usual update! My only excuse is the start of school along with some problematic weather situations in my country. ( storms and earthquakes and floods and whatnot ) Anyways, thank you for all of your amazing support, you have no idea how much I love and appreciate it!
Savage Kill: I'm gonna start making a table of whenever people say Zoro or Luffy would be a good par with her! Anyways, thank you for reading it, dear. Her vision does get worse, but it does not affect her permanently, fortunately. c:
xenocanaan: Thank you, dear.
Guest: I wonder too. ;) Although the repercussions are more severe when she's in battle than when not. We'll have to see. Thank you!
pizzafan123: I'm glad you seem to be enjoying Nora, her bluntness and interaction with everyone! Thank you so much, sweetie.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece ( I am a penguin with imagination the size of a peanut and have no talent whatsoever to create something as golden as One Piece.) I do own my OCs
I hope you feel free to fave, review, comment or follow. It's deeply appreciated. x
Chapter 4: Black
"Is she going to be okay, Zen?"
"Her chances of surviving this are next to zero."
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
"She's most probably going to die."
"ZEN, SHE'S ONLY FIVE. SHE CAN'T DIE THAT YOUNG."
"You idi…"
"SHE HAS SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR. "
"She's not…"
"SHE CAN'T JUST ABANDON HER DREAM OF FINDING THE MAGIC CANDY-GIVING ELEPHANT THAT ADORES CHILDREN WITH BIG EARS."
"Would you liste…."
"WE'RE GONNA FAIL HER AS BROTHERS. OUR LITTLE SISTER CAN'T DIE THAT PATHETICALLY."
"She's got flu."
"WHAT IF OUR AUNT FINDS OUT SHE DIES? SHE'LL TORTURE, THEN KILL US. NORA'S HASN'T EVEN GROWN MORE THAN 35 INCHES."
"Idiot."
Previously…
"I dare you to do it again, kitty." Before Mohji could voice out a command, the lion raged forward towards the girl, eyes red and teeth showing.
'And just when my sight started clearing…' Nora clenched her bat in one hand and pushed her other one forward, preparing herself for the furious beast. She briefly looked at her watch which always showed her the correct seconds. Her eyes closed to focus. Three seconds.
"NORA!" Yelled both famine and boyish voices.
"Wha..?" Came the sleepy mutter of a certain swordsman.
"Woof." Came a bark.
A roar. Ticking. Treasure. And then her hand brushed against some warm fur gently.
"Time Check: Body Removal" She voiced out.
The first time Nora slightly woke up from the blackness she dove into, she felt warm hands lay her against a much rougher and stone surface rather uncharacteristically gently. When she tried to open her eyes, she was met with her old friend, blurriness. Yet, when the familiar grin came into view, all doubt and questions disappeared. There was no second-guessing to whom this radiant smile belonged to. The short girl felt immensely tired, but she could not determine any spot on her body injured or hurt. Her eyelids threatened to lure her into a calm rest once more, despite her stubborn struggles to prevent that.
'I guess I overused it a little bit.'
"You did good. You can rest a bit." And that voice showed nothing but sincere respect and admiration. The short girl imagined she had smiled at that. But, with soft pats on her head and soft fur brushing her side, Nora silently let herself be lured away.
The second time Nora woke up, she confidently assured herself that she had regenerated her strength and energy enough to stand up and clear her vision. Speaking of vision, it was finally starting to get clear thanks to her little nap. A few dots of blurriness were here and there, but it was much better than before. The still dizzy girl stood up gently and put her hand on the stone wall next to her to support her weight until she felt fully functional.
"Woof!" Came a familiar bark way too enthusiastically loud next to the short girl. Yet when Nora turned to look at the furry creature, she found herself smiling at the sight of Chouchou, bruised, but loud and lively.
"Hey. You were quite brave back there." She murmured while she bent down to scratch his ear. To her surprise, he licked her hand.
"You've surely gotten friendlier..." She commented at his small display of affection. But then, something occurred to her and her eyes looked around until they focused on a familiar pet food shop building.
The building stood tall and undamaged. Just like it always been.
"I'm glad…"
"Woof."
"Where are the others, though?"
"Woof."
"So they left me behind."
"Woof."
"And they probably went to kick Buggy's ass and steal all the fun."
"Woof."
"Bastards."
Nora just then noticed the gigantic lion along with his partner in crime Mohji, motionless on the ground, completely dead to the world. She pointed at the beast duo and looked towards the dog in slight confusion.
"I didn't kill them, did I?"
"Woof."
"Dammit."
…
Nora should have guessed that all the cursing, explosion and loudness were because of her captain, new crew mate and fox. It shouldn't have been also surprising when she saw the old mayor on the ground unconscious with a vivid bump on the side of his head. The girl knew better than to be surprised when it came to the straw hat wearing boy. Still, she crouched down to the old man and shook him slightly to gain some kind of reaction out of him.
"Maa, old man. Are you still alive?"
"Ugh." And then he slumped back to the ground. The girl sighed. There was really no need for him to be hit that hard.
"Oi." What a stupidly monotonic and boring voice, the blue-eyed girl thought. But just then, a little ahead of her, her vision focused on the familiar green-head leaned on a wall with his arms confidently crossed in front of him. And while Nora approached him, she quickly came to notice two things.
First, the unicycle man was out cold on the ground with blood rushing out of his nose and mouth.
Second, Luffy was toying with a pair of very colorful feet.
"Yo. I guessed I missed out on quite a bit." She waved.
"A bit." He retorted.
"What's Luffy doing?"
"Obviously playing with the clown's feet." Nora fought the urge to voice out her sarcastic comeback.
"Obviously." She didn't win against the urge. The swordsman only glared at her.
"What was that, anyways?" He asked suddenly.
"What was what?" She turned to look at him.
"That move back there, with the lion..."
"Oh. That was time check. An ability to manipulate one's sense of three-dimensional time. I guess you could say I made him confuse and dropped him into a coma. But it drains a lot of my energy and damages my sight sense."
"That doesn't really explain anything." He murmured.
"Later."
Alas, it was when the clown himself yelled something along the lines of "Reattach" that Nora finally took notice of the orange fox. She was tying some parts of Buggy's torso. What was she up to now…..? Speaking of Buggy, he should have reattached himself fully right about now but what was...
What the fuck was that?
"OH WOW, OH GOD, I DIDN'T EVEN THINK YOU COULD GET CREEPIER. I WAS WRONG." Nora was thankful that her sight had cleared to its fullest, otherwise she wouldn't have been blessed to see this masterpiece. The girl roared with laughter as both her captain and the clown in question finally took notice of her, their reactions towards seeing her completely different from each other.
Luffy happily waved whilst yelling out her name in recognition.
Buggy twitched his eyes in annoyance as he screamed he would kill her slowly one day.
Buggy, in a lack of words, was reattached, alright. The only problem was his missing chest, neck and shoulders. So, that's what Nami was up to. Yet Nora couldn't find herself stopping with her laughter. The green-haired man beside her only loudly sighed.
"Nora!" Finally exclaimed the orange-haired thief as she took notice of her and the shorter girl only waved back whilst grinning.
"Hey, Na-baba!"
If looks could kill, Nora would be tossing in her grave right now.
Everything went almost smoothly after that, if you didn't count the terribly long chase between the straw-hats and more than furious villagers. Turns out, seeing their mayor half covered in dirt and unconscious hadn't really left good first impressions of the pirate crew. And so, after knocking Buggy to God knows where, Luffy had quickly pushed both Nami and Nora into a sprint, while the said fox had kindly tossed her two heavy bags of coins on to Zoro. Naturally.
It was when the straw hat captain decided to randomly turn left, that Chouchou appeared miraculously and fended off the angry villagers, blocking their way and giving the pirates the chance they needed to run towards the docks and quickly mark their departure.
It was another shock just then, when the mayor himself started yelling something about gratitude and his thankfulness. They were kind and tearful words, so the small crew took them with their hearts. Except maybe Zoro. He didn't quite seem to care.
And strange as it was, they took off in two vessels. One small dinghy courtesy of Luffy, and another, bigger, stolen Buggy ship, 'borrowed' by your one and only.
It was one empty bag of coins and Nami choking Luffy in the water later, that something dawned upon Nora. Unlike her usual childish and slight immature way of thinking, this thought provoked her heart to clench in excitement, relief and strangely, anxiousness.
It was one, small step closer towards their dreams and the Grand Line.
'It's one, tiny step towards finding them' Was the thought.
…
"So, you're a helmsman, Nora?" Inquired Nami curiously as she eyed the dark-haired girl who was just finishing in tightening the Buggy-flagged sail.
"Yup, I was taught by one of the best." The girl reminisced as she uttered those words. Her fingers touched her old hand-watch and she smiled fondly at the memories.
"That means you possess some kind of navigational skills." Nami said with a dwell of amusement.
"I do. But that doesn't mean I'm any good at it. I understand the language of the sea and the ship, but I couldn't understand direction or weather even if my life depended on it."
Nami practically face-palmed.
"Yet, you say you are a helmsman." Nora only laughed.
"Well, now that we have a real navigator, you'll teach me in order to become better."
"Don't say it like you've already decided that! I haven't even said yes!"
"I'll wait until you say yes, then."
"Ugh, Nora!"
"It's not like I'm forcing you into it. You ARE on our crew already."
"It's a temporary alliance!"
"Do you know what I smell?"
"…what?"
"Bullshit."
Bump. There goes Nora's precious head.
"YA! FOX-BABA. WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"
"STOP CALLING ME A BABA, DUMBO BRAT!"
"WOULD YOU PREFER ME CALLING YOU A FOX? CAUSE I DIDN'T HEAR YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT THAT."
"NO."
Bump. There goes poor Nora's head yet again.
Sonnuva…
"LUFFY. OUR NAVIGATOR IS ABUSING ME."
"Shishishi." The captain only laughed while the swordsman joined him in his laughter at the girls' comedic banter.
'Traitors.'
…
"It'd be reckless to go straight towards the Grand Line like this unprepared."
"Says you." Grumbled Nora as she rather childishly crossed her arms in everlasting annoyance as she was sat cross-legged next to the green-haired swordsman. Her head hurt. She had the right to act pouty. Nami chose to ignore her, feeling the tiniest of regret for punching her so hard tingle through her bones.
"That's right. We have to get some meat. It's not good to be eating only apples." Said the oh-so wise captain of this small crew.
"Some booze would be great as well." Nami simply threw an apple at him.
"What are you guys thinking? The Grand Line is the most dangerous place in the world where lots of powerful pirates come looking for the One Piece with their powerful ships!"
"We'll just make them our friends!"
"Not only do we lack manpower, but our ship is nowhere near suitable for the Grand Line."
"You're talking on deaf ears, Nami." Answered the other girl of the group as a sigh left her throat.
"Looks like we still need a chief. A musician also." The simple-minded one said as if on cue.
"A musician?" Zoro laughed while Nami finally realized the meaning of Nora's words. The navigator's shoulders slumped forward in defeat.
"If we continue heading south, we should be able to reach a small inhabitant island." Nonetheless, the navigator read her map with some sort of newfound hope and wish that this crew wasn't as absent-minded as it seemed.
"An island? We're going to get to eat meat!" Exclaimed Luffy.
"Don't forget the sake." Said Zoro.
"I hope they have good tea." Added Nora.
Nami's newfound hope came crushing down when she reminded herself that this crew was indeed as absent-minded as it seemed. She sighed.
'These guys are idiots.'
…
"Although it's a small village…" Muttered Nami as she looked at her map, slightly confused, slightly intrigued as they docked near the shores of the island.
"Meat, meat, meat! A village is a village! We could ask them for meat!"
"Could you not think about meat for one second?" Did this girl even dare to ask that question?
"You're hilarious, Nami." Chuckled Nora while the orange-haired simply titled her head in puzzled irritation.
"What are you…?"
She was most rudely interrupted by loud rustling among the hill bushes above them. Zoro turned to stretch his arms and yawn like the bear he was, when the loud rustling became evident that something else had created it, and not just the simple wind. The instinctive swordsman narrowed his eyes just the slightest. His hand grasped the hilt of his trust-worthy sword, inching to use it at any sudden threat.
"Be careful. Someone's here."
"Of course there is, there's a boy in the bushes over there." Said the shortest.
"Where? Where? Where, where?"
"Watch out!" As if to answer Luffy's obvious question of 'where' tiny darts flew right to his feet, which he comically tried to avoid by jumping.
At that moment, black pirate flags rose from the bushes, which caused their own pirate captain to baffle in amusement.
"HOW AWESOME!"
"It's lame."
"Bahahaha! I am the leader of this great pirate crew that conquered this village, Usopp! Everyone praises and addresses me as the great Captain Usopp. If you're planning on attacking this village, you should save your energy. Otherwise, my 90 million men will crush you like bugs!
"AMAZING." Awed the only dull-headed boy.
Eh?
The man who had addressed himself as "Captain Usopp" was a tall, lanky,skinny tanned boy who had undeniably fabulous Afro hair and a freakishly long nose.
Why was it that every person Nora met had some kind of bizarre nose problem or crazy bone structure? Nora brought a hand to her chin as she thought of the person this boy reminded her of.
Bing!
Of course! How could have she missed it! The wavy hair, big and childish eyes which misplaced fright with false strength, long nose and cloth attire. It was coming to her. There was no doubt about who this boy was related to! She pinpointed her finger towards him.
…
"OI! You look like Pinocchio's long lost twin!"
Nora grinned.
Luffy roared with laughter.
Nami managed to giggle.
Zoro tried to suppress his laughter and nearly failed.
The poor verbally assaulted boy nearly fainted from shock and embarrassment.
What a rude idiot she was…