Hi all! So hope you're enjoying, and I apologize in advance for the incredible length of this chapter (22 pages on Microsoft word). Oh, I also apologize for something else, a pairing that's beginning to develop from this chapter on. Its ZoNa, and it's nothing gross or weird at all, I swear. Also not a focal point of the story, just sort of a side plot. This fanfic is written as a birthday present for my sister, and that's the pairing she loves so I thought I'd include it in this story for her. So haters gonna hate and I'm cool with that, just thought I'd advise you all in case you have some horrible aversion to this romance.
Also, I'm thinking of changing this story's rating to "M". Please let me know if you think this would be a good decision!
My name is Nico Robin. I'm twenty-one years old. I was a member of the Straw Hat Pirates before they lost everything…
And within twenty minutes I'll be dead.
Listen to me! The circus moves wherever it wants to. Watch your back, keep your hands to yourself, stay away from the bushes and don't ever look at your reflection because that's where it comes from.
There must have been tents in my eyes when I was born.
And high-wires.
And blood. So much blood it drowned them black.
What kind of place is this…! I can't remember and shut that damn calliope up or I'll slit my own throat with the sound!
Naked in the dark…
Fizzle out like a candle…
Too soon, too soon…
I'm crying, I know that much. And I know I'm scared. Maybe alone…
Luffy! I want to live, take me to sea with you!
Please…Luffy…?
Good morning…
I sob. "Good night."
"Luffy, stand still! I'm trying to help you!" Sanji gasped. He was holding onto Luffy by a red necktie, digging his heels into the ground.
Luffy, paying him no mind, was running in circles, dragging Sanji behind him. "You'll never take me alive!" He shouted.
I laughed. From my position at the mirror in my bedroom alcove, where I was twisting my hair into an intricate braid, I could see the farce playing out behind me.
Across the tent, from behind the closed curtain of her bedroom alcove Nami shouted, "Luffy! It's just a tie, you've worn one before!"
"Nami," Luffy called, attempting to climb the tent's central support pole while Sanji held onto his head. "That was different and much more badass!"
"We did only get him to wear that by promising he could carry the biggest gun," Zoro said. He was cleaning his blades, lounging casually with his feet on the large table, already dressed to kill in charcoal-grey dress-pants and a vest to match, buttoned over a pale grey dress-shirt whose sleeves he'd rolled up to his elbows to allow his hands freedom. He wore a chalky blue and grey necktie tucked into his vest.
"You could help, you know!" Sanji said.
"Oh, but you have so much more experience handling men," Zoro drawled.
"Shitty Marimo!" Sanji shouted, finally wrestling Luffy to the ground.
"Goodbye, sweet freedom!" Luffy called as Sanji secured the knot and thrust the end of the tie into Luffy's black jacket.
"There! Now Marimo, was there something you wanted to say to me?" He wheeled on Zoro, all but steaming.
Zoro put his sword on the table. "Only that your eyebrows are looking particularly okama-like this evening," he said, pressing a hand to his heart and feigning a swoon.
Sanji's face turned red. "Marimo!" He fumed "You might want to take off that suit or it'll get dirt all over it when I kick you on your ass!"
Zoro sank lower in his chair. "Good luck with that, I'm already sitting down!"
"Boys!" Nami shouted from across the tent, pulling her dressing curtain aside and stepping out.
Sanji immediately dropped to the floor, his nose a bloody mess. Zoro did a double take and stood clumsily, knocking his sword to the ground. He shook his head and I could see the infatuation with which he stared at her. Even I couldn't help looking.
Nami's dress was stunning. Backless and held up only by spaghetti straps, it accentuated the hourglass shape of her body perfectly, hugging her small waist and hips. The dress was deeply blue, so much so that it was almost black. But when she moved it glittered with tiny stones the same color as the wings of the butterflies that had so fascinated her. At her knees, the rich blue taffeta fanned out and trailed behind her, folding upon itself. Where it gathered at her left knee there was a large sliver flower that glittered with real diamonds, and at her throat and ears she wore jewelry of the same make. Her hair was down, curling magnificently around her shoulders, and she wore just enough makeup to highlight her deep eyes and full lips.
Luffy's jaw had dropped to the floor. Literally. "Holy sh-" he began.
"Luffy!" Zoro cut him off with a wave and straightened his lapels, walking towards Nami.
I smiled. Usopp, from across the tent, raised his eyebrows. Sanji stood and staggered into his own alcove to dress. "Well now it's all over…." he muttered as he passed. I conjured an extra hand and sent it with a handkerchief to him. "Thanks!" he said as he snapped the curtain shut.
I turned from the mirror and snapped my own curtain shut, giving Zoro and Nami privacy.
My own dress was laid on my bed, perfectly unwrinkled. It was a deep red, in perfect contrast to Nami's blue, with gold accents and long white gloves laying beside it. It was strapless and the skirt fanned out in a wide, tapering bell. It was the most beautiful piece of clothing I'd ever seen, and I surrendered to my vanity for a second, thinking how the red would contrast my black hair and dark eyes perfectly. Pulling off the short black dress I'd been wearing all day, I sat at the head of my bed and allowed myself a moment to breathe, my shoulders slumped and my face fell into my hands. Nine more days, Robin. You can last nine more days…I thought in an attempt to comfort myself.
In the tent's main chamber I could hear Zoro and Nami talking quietly, and though my Devil Fruit ability would have allowed me to eavesdrop easily, I resisted the urge. With a sigh, I stood and unzipped the sleeveless dress. After slipping on the strappy gold heels beside it, I pulled the dress over my hips, amazed at its perfect fit. Really shouldn't be surprised. They know everything else about us. There settled over me a feeling of inevitability, almost a doom. Maybe it was then that I first sensed the circus would be the end of all of us, myself included.
"Stop it." I said to myself out loud, pulling on the full-length white gold gloves and fastening a gorgeous gold and ruby necklace around my throat, with ruby drop earrings to match.
"Marimo!" Sanji called from next door. "You'd better not be kissing my Nami-swan!"
I opened my own curtain at the same time Sanji did. He caught sight of me and immediately turned around, his nose gushing blood again.
I laughed, leaning back a little. "Are you alright, chef-san?"
Sanji collapsed on his bed. "Yes. They gave me an extra shirt," he said.
"Well thank goodness someone thought of that!" I teased.
My attention turned to Zoro and Nami, standing together in the center of the tent. It was hard to ignore Luffy, sitting on the table trying to undo both the button on his jacket and the knot in his tie. But standing there the two of them seemed separate from the rest of us. I could not see Zoro's face, but Nami's was turned up in a pretty smile as she looked up at Zoro through her lashes. Jokingly, Nami reached out and straightened Zoro's tie. In return he brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on the diamond earring she wore.
"Oh God," Usopp said as he emerged from his bedroom and saw the two of them. "Franky, you got a drink?" He asked, turning to his friend who had also just emerged.
Franky walked across the tent towards me, with Usopp following him. As he neared, he bowed to me elegantly and picked up my hand, kissing it delicately. "You look beautiful, Robin," he said.
I laughed. "Thank you, shipwright-san."
Franky squeezed my hand and then straightened, producing a flask from the inner pocket of his suit-jacket. "What kind of question is that?" He asked, turning to Usopp. "Of course I have a drink!"
Luffy gave up in his quest to eat his tie and came to join us. "What's up with Zoro and Nami?" He asked loudly.
Franky clapped his hand over Luffy's mouth. "For God's sake Luffy!" He whispered.
"What?" Luffy replied through Franky's hand, not quieting his voice at all.
I hushed my own speech before replying. "Captain-san, we don't talk about some things."
"Damn, well it's been a long time coming," Franky said.
Usopp nodded, drinking deeply from the flask Franky had handed him. He tucked it into his own pocket, glancing sidelong at the cyborg and clearly hoping he wouldn't notice.
"It has indeed," Brook said, joining our circle. He craned his neck to see over my shoulder. "Where's Chopper? Isn't it almost time to go?"
I noticed for the first time that the sun had indeed set. The sounds of night had descended on the Avalon Circus, and the smells. I could almost taste the sea in the air and longed to run to it. "Franky," I asked suddenly. "Did you see the Merry today?"
He looked down at me in surprise. "I'd almost forgotten…" he said, his voice trailing off into silence. "No, I didn't. I got lost and ended up back at the gypsy camp. They told me not to go looking. Then the Bell-Viper found me on the beach…" he pressed his hand to his forehead as though to block a sound from his ears. "I don't remember seeing the ship at all…"
"You did have us all worried sick, though!" Brook said.
"Especially Robin-swan," Sanji added, coming up to join us, lighting a cigarette.
Franky looked lost. "Yes, I…I'm sorry about that. I don't really remember what happened." His eyes met mine. My pale, worried face was reflected two times back at me. "Robin, you remember…?"
The horrid grin he'd worn flashed vividly across my brain. I felt my fists clenching, my shoulders straining involuntarily. "You just left, Franky. The Bell-Viper's whip poisoned you and made you see something that scared you, so you said you were going back to the ship. You were gone all day."
"Franky, are you alright?" Usopp asked, leaning close to examine Franky's face.
"Yeah," the shipwright replied. "Just…remembering that made my head hurt." He looked into me again, as though he could see empathy in my eyes.
I opened my mouth to reply, but just then Chopper emerged from his own alcove dressed impeccably in a full black tuxedo with a white shirt. The tails of his little coat fanned out elegantly as he unbuttoned it. Around his neck he wore a bowtie, which he'd apparently attempted to tie, though the knot looked more like a bird's nest than anything. "How do I look?" He asked.
None of us could resist smiling, all moving to gather around Chopper, who tipped his hat at Nami and I. "You look pretty," he said to both of us. Nami and I exchanged glances. I could see her happiness painted fully in her eyes.
"Ototo-chan, come here," Zoro laughed, kneeling to help him. He undid the complexity of the knot Chopper had tied, struggling with the tightly wound fabric. Within a few seconds the bow tie was fixed and Chopper stood smiling up at all of us, the picture of excitement.
"I wonder when we'll get cotton candy!" he said.
"Probably at the performance," Nami replied with a smile.
Chopper reached out a hand to touch the fanning fabric at her knees. "This reminds me of the butterflies," he said. Zoro looked at Nami again, and though he was smiling I could see uncertainty in his eyes. The purple stones on her dress reflected on his face, turning him an odd and unearthly shade in that light.
My heart sank. For so long I'd been sure Zoro saw Nami as more than just a companion, and I knew that despite what she said, she'd dreamed in the same way. I hoped her happiness would not be short-lived.
"Good morning." The abrupt clockwork voice from behind us startled me half to death and I let out a little cry as I turned. Brook put his skeletal hand on my back, steadying me.
The Clockwork Child had dark skin and hair, like a gypsy boy. It was dressed as formally as we were, in a suit identical to Chopper's. "Good morning," it croaked again, its large mouth opening mechanically as it spoke.
"Are you here to take us to the performance?" Luffy asked it.
The thing did not reply, but its head opened wide as its brother's had, and as it turned it began to sing. "Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run, see how they run…" Without speaking to any of us or replacing the top of its head, the Clockie turned and walked out of the tent.
Excitedly, the crew exchanged glances and followed it at a brisk walk. Usopp and Luffy were in the lead, with Chopper trailing just behind. Sanji, Nami, and Brook all walked together. Brook had already begun composing his own lyrics to the Clockwork Child's song, and they were clearly about drinking.
I turned as I walked out and saw Zoro standing alone by the table where his swords lay. He put his hand on each one of them, looking at them in earnest.
"Zoro…?" I asked quietly.
His hand tightened on Sandai kitetsu. "Why does her damn dress look like the butterflies?" He asked, pain lighting his eyes as he looked up at me.
"I don't know—" I began.
Zoro cut me off. "They know everything!" he said passionately. "Somehow that goddamn snake saw her today…" he took his hand off the sword in resignation, running it through his hair. "I just want to keep her safe."
There was nothing I could say, but when he looked up at me I held his stare, angry and starvingly sad as it was.
"And you," he said. "You already look like you belong here."
That startled me and I took a step back. "What?" I asked.
"You're becoming Miss All Sunday again." Zoro came around the table, putting his hand on my back and leading me out of the tent so we would not fall too far behind. "That snake knows you aren't fooled. You're too smart for your own good, Robin!"
I looked at Zoro and saw his eyes wide, his teeth chattering between his lips. His hand tightened on the fabric of my dress as though he would tear it. "What do you mean?" I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.
"Just let the circus be fun…!" He hissed through his teeth, his tongue almost flicking like the Bell-Viper's as he spoke.
Chills ran through me and I could not stop myself reaching out and slapping Zoro across the face hard. "Wake up, swordsman-san!" I said.
His face cleared and he took his hand off me instantly. With a little laugh, he shook his head and continued walking. "Jesus Christ…" he said, offering no further explanation.
Nami dropped back to talk to us. "You alright, Zoro?" She asked, tracing her hand down his forearm.
He smiled at her, actually taking her hand for a second. "I am now. You look beautiful, Nami."
Even in the twilight I could see her blushing. "What makes you say that?" She asked quietly. The jewels on her dress winked in the light from the tents and the bulbs dangling on poles between the tents.
"Life's short," Zoro said. "I could die at any moment and it would be a big damn shame if you didn't know I thought that before I died."
She stopped walking. I continued ahead but listened to their conversation.
"Zoro, you're scaring me," she said. "We're safe here, nothing here could kill us."
Ahead, the Clockie was still singing. "…they all ran after the farmer's wife and she cut off their tails with a carving knife. Three blind mice…"
I almost thought of giving up once. I've grown older than dust in these tents, mold and rust and wood-rot keep company in my pores.
I forgot what it was like to feel the sea, or blood in my veins. Sometimes at night I hear myself speaking and then I become afraid I may die. I can't forget what I've suffered, that makes everything bearable and if I lose my desire to kill…
No! Luffy deserves to die! I'm not old yet, and so very far from powerless. I am strong as the day I died and was born from phoenix-ash into fear.
All it takes is one puzzle piece to send it all tumbling down.
Tomorrow, I think, the mirror maze will do.
Now let the games begin.
The whole Avalon Circus had turned out for the performance. And the Bell-Viper had not exaggerated in our choice of dress. Everyone on the island was clothed as nicely as we were, though looking out at the crowd in the big top I could see clear divisions among the island's people. There were a race of porcelain-faced people who looked like Nila, and they were dressed to reflect an age gone past, the women in enormous bell-skirts, corsets, and low-necked dresses and the men sporting coats and bow ties that looked as though they were straight from Victoria's court. Multitudes of Tentmasters sat around them, all clothed in what appeared to be glorified rags. Their poverty was clear, but their conscious effort to hide it was, too. They were loud but dignified, shouting to friends and neighbors all over the tent. Along a wall nearest the door sat the gypsies, dressed in their beads and fine, sea-like lace. They were quiet and odd, and nearly all of them carried blades at their belts. Two other groups were strange, from places on the island we had yet to see. Interspersed with the Tentmasters and porcelain-faced rich were people with skin so dark they almost seemed to be part of the night. Their eyes were wide and bright blue, so in contrast to their skin that it was impossible to look away. Their women and men were angular of face and body, and the loose-fitting yellow, orange, and pink clothing they wore made them look mysterious and fascinating. Another group of pale people sat in front of the gypsies. Their clothing was all silk, embroidered with black or white trees, frogs, and flowers on colorful backgrounds. They wore no shoes on their feet, and many of the men carried paintbrushes behind their ears. They were speaking a different, clipped language than the rest of the people in the tent, but could apparently slip in and out of it easily as they engaged in conversation with the Tentmasters scattered among them.
The big top was easily the largest structure I had ever been in. Ten ships the size of the Merry could have fit end to end without trouble, and the ceiling was so high that some of the tallest tightropes and trapezes were left in shadow. Unlike most circuses, where multiple rings would have meant several performances at once, the Avalon Circus's big top had only one ring, and its massive, dusty surface was entirely empty. Our crew had the honor of sitting directly across from the gateway from which the performers would emerge. This put us directly in front. I sat beside Luffy—since I was the most adept at keeping him quiet—with Zoro on my other side and Nami beside him. Luffy was bouncing in his seat, pointing at various things and asking me all sorts of questions, all of which I did my best to answer quietly and with as much dignity as my lovingly childish captain's voice allowed.
Three Tentmasters behind us engaged he and I in conversation, and through them we learned that there hadn't been a performance or a visiting crew in over two years. When I asked where that crew had gone, the three women went quiet and told me they'd left. I sensed foreboding in their quiet voices, but dared to ask no more.
When the lights began to dim Luffy clapped his hands together and bounced excitedly. Franky, on Luffy's other side, reached across the seat and clapped his hand on the top of Luffy's head, keeping him still.
That performance, of all the things I saw and heard on the Avalon Circus or in my life, was without question the most stunning thing I have ever experienced. From the outset, it held us all enraptured and astounded, swept away in a magical, grotesque, and entirely unbelievable world of sensory enchantment.
Once the lights were out, everything went quiet. The whole island seemed trapped in a bubble of anticipation and wonderment. Not only did the people hush to the point of nonexistence, but every part of the universe paused. The sea made no noise, the wind outside quit its acrid hushing through the canvas tents, no bird or animal sang or cried anywhere on the island, or anywhere in the world it seemed. We were outside reality, in a parallel space that left us holding our breath.
It began with ticking, a deafening noise that crashed through my hypnosis and made me wonder if a bomb weren't about to explode somewhere nearby. But then a single light appeared, a wan spotlight shining from a light source directly above. The narrow beam revealed a tiny metal alarm clock sitting on a brightly colored stool in the middle of the enormous circus ring. It was the source of the enormous ticking, though how so small an object made such a penetrating sound, I was unsure.
For a few more seconds we hung suspended in the anticipation of centuries of audiences, waiting for the catch, the catalyst that would begin everything. I jumped, and heard many members of the audience gasp, when the alarm clock's ticking gave way to a shrill alarm bell's ringing. It jittered and twitched on its stool as though it were animate, but the noise was endless, endless…
The Bell-Viper's black-gloved left hand shot out of the dark and pinned the alarm clock down, stopping its monotonous ring with the force of his curling fingers. The spotlight did not widen as he stepped into it. He was once again wearing the purple and scarlet clothes we'd first seen him in, though they appeared to have been repaired, almost shined. His pale skin glowed with unearthly radiance as he stood beside the stool, his hand resting still on the alarm clock. In the way only a true showman can he held us on the edge of breathing, waiting for his next move as though it would decide the course of the rest of our lives.
When he opened his mouth, it was to sing. The words lifted heavily off his lips, but the clarity and strength in his voice told me instantly where he'd gotten his name. The song was one I had never heard before, though it stirred a longing for the sea deep within me, which I heard echoed in a sigh from Luffy.
"As I was a-walking one morning by chance;
I heard a maid making her moan,
I asked why she sighed, and she sadly replied
'Alas! I must live all alone, alone,
Alas! I must live all alone.'"
As he sang, the Bell-Viper picked up the alarm clock, still holding his finger over the hammer that sounded the alarm. He moved a step and exhaled onto his palm, sending a tiny flurry of dust up from it. Moments later, a second spotlight appeared far from him, at the far end of the ring. Nila hung suspended on a trapeze, one of her legs supporting her entire weight, while her body and arms dangled towards the ground. Her other leg was bent so far it nearly touched her head, creating an unearthly and beautiful frozen image out of her body. A sheer white, sequined leotard clung to her slender frame, and her gold hair tumbled in perfect ringlets like a waterfall around her face. All was silence again for a moment. She was still as a statue until the Viper began to sing again.
"I said, 'My fair maid, pray whence have you strayed?
And are you some distance from home?'
'My home,' replied she, 'is a burden to me,"
Nila had moved now and was twisting her body in intricate forms around the trapeze, hooking her legs around it and setting herself spinning upside down as she continued her aerial forms.
The Bell-Viper's voice continued to ring, as clearly as before and absolutely enchanting. "For there I must live all alone, alone,
For there I must live all alone."
He drew out the last word, adding a dramatic pause. Nila froze as though a terrible pain clutched her, pressing a hand to her chest. She sat on the trapeze as though it were a swing, and in the moment of quiet she surveyed the entire audience, her chest heaving in dramatized breath.
I joined in the collective gasp as the Bell-Viper put a knife into the heart of the tense silence, releasing his finger from the alarm. The harsh ringing elicited several screams, and the entire audience was horrified as Nila convulsed like the sound had dealt her a blow, and fell backwards off the trapeze. The light on her shut off before she had fallen a foot.
Now we were alone with the Bell-Viper again, and he allowed the clock to ring and ring before it ran its course and sat in his hand, weary and metallic. He looked up at us, putting a hand on the brim of his hat. "Good morning," he said.
The circus came to glorious life then. A lively calliope played by a small orchestra on one side of the ring set the awe-inspired mood as every light in the big top came on simultaneously. In one instant there were so many different and spectacular performances I was struck dumb. Luffy was doing his best to keep quiet, touching my arm and pointing at things to draw my attention. I needed no assistance from him. I was raptly attentive to the circus from the outset. The sheer volume of performers astounded me, and their acts made me speechless. Around the ring's edge were gypsy dancers, their exotic skin and long hair gloriously accentuated by deep green, coquettish costumes. They twirled and moved in perfect unison, adding low, husky voices to the calliope, deepening and enriching the timbre. Midnight-skinned fire-eaters and Tentmaster sword-swallowers paraded inside the ring, spewing blades and flames, enacting some sort of battle as they did. Animals, too, were lead in by serious-faced people in silk kimonos. The horses we'd seen struggled against reins glistering with rhinestones and riders of Nila's race, all blonde-haired and dressed in pink. Four of the big cats thundered around the ring's edge, almost out of their handlers' control, and collided in a fight that was only broken up as three handlers sprayed a red and sticky concoction in the cats' faces.
Tumblers, mostly gypsies, emerged in sensuous waves from the tunnel we sat directly across from. I recognized several faces from our brief trip into the gypsy camp. Men lifted women onto their heads, where they, on tiny feet, danced along with the other gypsies. Some stretched in impossible contortions, moving like water, without the hindrance of bone or muscle, through the throngs of people in the ring. Men, both of the gypsy and Tentmaster races, were juggling with indescribable precision and talent. Two large men even tossed three porcelain-skinned children back and forth between them. One child was caught and thrown straight up. A spotlight followed the tow-headed boy as he somersaulted vertically and was caught by Nila, who swung by on a trapeze. After two swings, she delivered him into the hands of a woman frozen on a tightrope. The boy's presence seemed to bring the woman to life and she bent to retrieve the child, placing him on a platform before stepping into the arms of a man standing on the same highwire. They began to waltz incredibly.
Again and again my breath was taken away at the indescribable ability of the performers. Amid the magnificence of the opening act, the Bell-Viper strode casually, dancing with a gypsy girl, deftly catching and returning a sword tossed to him by a juggler, facilitating the performers with his whip in his hand, more for show than anything, though he did crack it fiercely at a bull elephant that had escaped its master. The elephant trumpeted magnificently, waving curved tusks at the Belll-Viper. He stuck his hand out and spoke a loud word of command, cracking the whip again, and the elephant, though it struggled fiercely, was taken into custody again.
As the calliope wavered to a climax, the Bell-Viper stepped up on the stool where the alarm clock had rested and shouted above all the noise. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, distinguished Straw Hat Pirates and members of the Avalon Circus, I give you the largest and most spectacular show this circus has ever seen! Tonight we will play host to wonders and magnificence beyond comparison, magnificent feats to defy reality, and performances never to be repeated!" Almost unnoticed, the calliope had receded to a thin melody and the performers were dancing gracefully out the way they had come in. The Bell-Viper jumped down from the stool, his whip trailing him like it was actually a serpent's tail. "Illusions and mystery to delight your fancy! Oddities and freaks, monsters, demons. Keep on your toes, ladies and gentlemen, you never know what will be coming next!"
With that, the Bell-Viper vanished effortlessly in a puff of green smoke. In his place stood a beautiful dark-skinned girl, a long yellow dress covering her from neck to toes. She held a conch shell, and as the smoke disappeared, she blew into it, creating a low, thrumming pulse. Noises from the ring's edge echoed her, and the dirt actually vibrated. She blew the horn again, a higher note, and the sound of drums started to accompany her. From nowhere, the Bell-Viper's voice echoes throughout the tent "Ladies and gentlemen I give you the earthquake drummers!" he cried.
With that, the rhythm of the drums picked up, the dust around the ring moving so violently it was as though there really were an earthquake starting. And then they appeared. More of the midnight-skinned people were suddenly pushing their way into the ring from out of the ground itself, striking gigantic drums with arms that seemed made of the ground itself. I gasped at the wonder of it, the magnificence of the people actually removing themselves from the crust of the earth, oozing onto the surface like candle wax. The girl blew her conch shell and set the drummers a new beat to which she began to dance.
In the way of a circus one act effortlessly followed another and within minutes of watching the unbelievably talented drummers emerge from the earth, three of the winged horses with women standing on their backs galloped out of the tunnel across from us. As they entered the big top their riders dropped to sitting and kicked their mounts in the side. This spurred the horses to run straight at us, and when they took off it was so close to our crews' heads that we could feel the wind from the hoofs. The drums, accompanied now by the circus's musicians, belted out a melody that bespoke daring. The women on their horses indeed seemed fearless. The first, a girl who looked like Nila only with fiery red hair, stood and somersaulted from her horse's back when the animal was at least fifty feet in the air. We held our breath as she spiraled towards the ground. She was saved by one of the other riders, who made a similar leap but caught herself on a trapeze, where she hung upside down. The two women swung, joined shortly by the third on a different trapeze. Their synchronous movement was accompanied by that of their horses, who circled the tent's edge in different formations, joined shortly by five more of their bretheren and five more similar women, all clothed in pink like their sisters on the trapezes. The Bell-Viper appeared as instantaneously as he had disappeared "The lovely Nila and the tumblers of the Diamond-eye race with their Leatherback horses gathered from a distant shore. Watch your step, girls!" The Viper shouted as the remaining riders tossed themselves fearlessly from their horses. Three added to the now swinging pattern on the trapeze but two caught themselves in winding bands of silk dangling from the ceiling, around which they twisted and moved in time to the music.
All through the performance, the energy and liveliness continued to increase. I'd forgotten myself in it, the tumult replaced a heartbeat, the beat of the drums a need to see. Nila and the Bell-Viper played off one another throughout the acts, she emerging to accompany nearly every act. Her languid movement clearly haunted the Viper, and as the performance progressed he snapped the whip more fervently. The big cats returned and were actually pitted against each other, with their silk-clothed handlers riding on their backs. The Bell-Viper was left to face one, and I watched in horror as he subdued the thing with only his whip. As it charged him, he held his left hand to his lips and casually removed the fingerless glove with his teeth. The cat was only feet away when he threw his hand up, shouting a word that sent the animal skidding back in a spray of red sparks, howling in rage.
Strong men and fire-eaters and sword-swallowers of all races astounded us with their feats, and, as the Bell-Viper promised there were a collection of disfigured freaks, all Tentmasters, put on grim parade around the ring's edge. The audience booed them, and I was horrified to hear my crew and myself joining in the taunting with riled shouts. It made me wake up, and I watched the rest of the performance, a magnificent display by the gypsy dancers, from a distance, now actually aware of what I was seeing.
But the terror didn't return for me until the final few minutes. I could have forgotten where I was, been lost in a lustrous imagining of performers and animals and the Bell-Viper's sweet, sing-song voice for the rest of my life. But in the end, the ring was mysteriously, ominously empty, with only the Viper standing at its center and Nila, now in green, on a trapeze a few yards from the ground.
He extended his powerful left hand to the audience, spinning in a full circle as though showing everyone the oddly glowing tattoo on his pale skin. I was close enough to notice that the tent's grin had changed to an exaggerated frown. He paused on our crew, looking each of us in the eyes. Even Luffy made no noise, frozen in a sort of wonderment. "Now, Straw Hat Pirates," he said musically, "you will see this circus's true power!" His eyes went that odd dark color and the scales all over him flashed to the surface of his skin. The teeth elongated and the tongue seemed to sharpen. In the center of the ring, his arm shot skyward, the hand flexed, palm to the tent's ceiling.
The rumbling was subtle, more like a purring from the ground and sky and atmosphere than anything. I thought it could be the earthquake drummers again, but the pervasive thrum was more feeling than sound, and dreadfully ominous. The Viper had moved to the side of the ring nearest our crew and stood with his back to us, holding his top hat in front of him. The merry go round horse around his neck was vibrating fiercely. In the ring's center a tiny hole appeared. The dirt receded as though some switch had been thrown and out of the hole rose a tent. Perhaps a three feet across and perfectly circular it sat in the middle of the ring, a miniscule calliope emanating from it. Screams echoed from inside it, chilling screams in a high-pitched female voice. They ripped through my composure and I found myself clutching Luffy's hand. The pressure with which he returned my grip told me that, horribly, Luffy was as scared as I was.
A tiny figure erupted from the tent. It was a Clockwork Child, smaller than the others, with its head tilted awfully back into the singing position, the gargantuan mouth stretching beyond logic's allowance, almost fleshy lips parted. The screams were emanating from the thing and as it ran, the cause became clear. Fire was licking at the bottom of the tiny tent, the flames animate and eating while the Clockie tottered in horrible circles around and around. "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!" It cried in a chillingly human voice, "your house is on fire and your children all alone!" As it finished singing, three sets of pitiful shrieks ripped through the air from the tent.
"Mama, mama!" They called, barely coherent.
The tent was growing. Now large enough that Chopper with his hat on could have stood upright inside, the flames spreading and distorting its shape, bending one side into the weird frowning face that the Bell-Viper had tattooed on his hand. As it bubbled and oozed upward, it began to take on a shape, the fabric spreading into a narrow, waspish face complete with two swallowingly empty eyes and hands that reached out to either side, awful fingers congealed and twisted around themselves, dreadfully mimicking the roots of the animal trees. It looked like a man was standing beneath the fabric, as though he built himself of the miniature tent but struggled for freedom, his long arms tearing at themselves. Legs shaped themselves and a toothless smile spread wide on the noseless face. The shrieks had not stopped.
The Bell-Viper had his hand on his whip as the circus monster turned towards him. He took three authoritative steps forward. "Funhouse!" He said loudly.
The thing's head twisted all the way around on its narrow shoulders, the grin still firmly in place. It spoke without speaking, without moving its lips or eyes ringmaster! You woke me up…
"There's a job for you, Funhouse! Send me the magician Lustre."
The Funhouse cocked its head, righting its body to face the Bell-Viper. I could see the entirety of the thing as it grew still taller and ever thinner, as though its bones really were tent-poles. Yes it replied. Stilling the fingers on one of its long arms it reached awfully down its own throat, bending and convulsing, pulling ever more of the fabric of its own body down the hole at its center. There were no feet underneath the fabric. Suddenly the thing's hand froze and withdrew, holding a green ball like the one the Bel-Viper had extracted from Franky earlier that day. Funhouse tossed it to the ground and without explosion or illusion a man stood where it fell.
He had no eyes. They had been covered by skin, as had his ears and most of his nose. He was short, taller than a Clockie but far shorter than the Bell-Viper. His lips were red and he licked them often. He was wearing all black and walked with a limp on his left side.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the Bell-Viper called, "in this circus's greatest performance in history, the magician Lustre will now complete a trick so complex, so astounding, that no description can be offered of it! Simply watch, ladies and gentlemen, and be amazed!" The Viper's eyes met mine cunningly.
I felt more than heard a voice inside my head. Are you watching closely?
"Yes…" I breathed.
The calliope began again as five clowns emerged toting a large sack from the dark tunnel where the performers hid. They were grotesque, white faces and disheveled brightly-colored wigs, all with large red-rimmed smiles and black circles around their eyes. They walked in the way of animals, crouched and low, and all laughed quietly as they moved. None of them blinked.
One, in horrid pantomime, lifted his harlequin pattern shirt and unzipped a zipper that ran straight from his belly to his throat. Red insides pulsed and steamed as he pulled a table from inside himself. Members of the audience laughed. Beside me, I heard Zoro gasp, though Nami laughed along with the people of the Circus.
The clown tottered and fell to the ground, the other four silently ran around him, tittering their strange little laughs and setting up the table quickly. One was horridly impaled as three ran the table into place in front of Lustre and the Funhouse.
Are you watching?
"Yes…!"
The remaining three clowns set the cloth sack on the table and skittered a few feet away. They dragged their dead comrades with them, pulling the impaled one's body through the table leg, leaving awful chunks of his flesh there. In the corner they set to what looked like feasting on their dead.
At the table, Lustre was standing with Funhouse just behind him. The sack remained closed. Lustre conjured a bird, blowing on thin air to make it appear then wringing its neck with a sickening crack. Waving his hand over it with a snap, he turned the bird into a kitchen knife. It curled grotesquely in his hand as Funhouse bent over him, guiding his hand to the sack's top.
"Behold!" the Viper shouted. "Lustre, with the aid of The Funhouse, will bestow human life on an inhuman thing!"
Three more clowns appeared with a second table. Strapped to this one was a gypsy boy of about fourteen, his hands and feet tied to each corner of the table and his mouth stuffed full of brightly-colored cloth. His face was beaten, nose bloody and one eye black as though he'd struggled against captivity. The clowns stared weirdly down at him, pushing the metal table up beside the other. As the three of them neared, Funhouse directed Lustre's knife directly into one's eye. The thing shrieked in pain, but the other two set upon it instantly, dragging the thrashing body only inches before they set in to feast. Noises of dying echoed horribly in the tent where the audience of the Avalon Circus's people cheered, anticipating the brilliance of the trick.
Lustre held high the now bloody knife and sliced open the sack. The crowd roared and I held my breath as he ripped the sacking off the thing's face. It was a bird's head half-sewed to a human body. The bottom half of the body was a squid's tentacles, but two cloven hooves emerged from the middle where the beak should have been. It was horrifying, like a monster from an old story come to life.
Funhouse guided Lustre, who was laughing and sniffing around eyelessly, to the table where the gypsy boy struggled. The brightly colored fabric could not disguise the boy's screams, could not stop his protest as the curled knife came down on his forehead directly between the eyes. Frozen, the boy did not move as the blade traced a perfectly straight line from the top of his brow down his face, slicing his nose cleanly in half and disfiguring his lips with blood. The blade did not pause at the chin or collarbone, continuing down the ribcage to just above the navel, where it finally stopped. Funhouse sniffed, its gigantic, depraved eyes sucking into its face. Lustre was licking his lips, his face moving closer and closer to the boy's trembling body.
See me make him squirm…?
"Yes…!"
With a cry of glory, Funhouse drove Lustre's hand down. The boy's blood boiled almost black and his sharp-toothed mouth opened around the fabric in a cry of sheer agony. The blade ripped back up the way it had come, stopping just below the boy's throat. Without pause, Funhouse took its hands off Lustre, allowing the half-man to dig his whole face into the boy's stomach.
Red-black blood erupted in a vicious fountain and the crowd cheered, many on their feet. Lustre crawled deeper inside the screaming boy, his whole hand and shoulders now inside the cavernous hull of the boy's entrails. His eyes had gone wide, tears streaming down his cheeks as they turned black with the blood in them. The shape of the magician could be seen moving up the boy's body, tearing the young gypsy's flesh and breaking his ribs from inside. Suddenly Lustre surged upwards, effectively tearing the boy's body in half as he went. The young gypsy gave one more scream, vomiting up the cloth in his mouth and all the contents of his stomach, before subsiding into twitching and pulsing convulsions. The blood was everywhere, scattered over the two tables and covering Lustre in a glorious sheen. The magician was smiling wickedly, mumbling to himself and licking chunks of bone, flesh, and refuse off his face. In one hand he held the boy's pumping heart, in the other a giant black cockroach, at least six inches long.
Funhouse pushed the dead gypsy boy out of the way, leading Lustre straight at the bird-thing, where he forced the magician's hands down the throat. The heart vanished and the twitching cockroach crawled of its own accord to the human belly, where it used enormous pincers to carve a quick hole, burrowing into the body's flesh. The magician pulled his pus-covered and bloody hand from the bird throat and pressed it down on the chest. "Live!" He shouted. Pounding two open hands, with Funhouse's cloth palms on top of them, down on the thing's chest and stomach, he shouted in desperate agony as the thing convulsed, bending in half at the waist. It sat up and shrieked, the voice half hawk cry and half human gasp. There was enormous rage in the black eyes as it turned on Lustre, snapping the sharp edges of its beak down into the space where Lustre's eyes should have been. Green ooze erupted from the magician's face and he fell forward into the bird. Its beak's sharp points came through the back of his head and as the bird snapped its beak shut his head was cut in half. The brain pulsed wet and grey as Lustre collapsed, leaving the bird-thing alone with Funhouse.
Bloody, bloody blood! Save the brains for last, they're best. Save them for me…?
"Yes…!"
Struggling to stand on its squid limbs, the bird-man toppled from the table towards Funhouse. The tent monster had grown imperceptibly, now towering over eight feet tall. A slouched stature and abnormally long neck made him look unearthly, as did the arms that were now so long they dragged on the ground at its sides.
The Bell-Viper had retreated to the ring's edge, but he now stepped out to the ring's center, beside Funhouse. "You see, ladies and gentlemen, this creature has been given life!" The audience erupted into spectacular shouts as the newly-made monster righted itself and shrieked again, flapping its arms like it thought they were wings. The Viper gestured to Funhouse, who glanced down at him hungrily as it bowed to the enormous applause that greeted it.
The Viper turned to our crew, extending his hands to us. His pants were soaked to the knees with the blood of the dead clowns and the gypsy boy. "Straw Hat Pirates, for you we have created life, and now for you we must take it away!"
The Viper whipped around, his hand extended to Funhouse. The monster shrieked in delight and set upon the remaining clowns. The first it slaughtered with four fingers through the face, turning its palm around and extracting the clown's skull from his face. Two more Funhouse beheaded with hands that sharpened into blades, and the last he fell upon with that ravenously open mouth, swallowing the clown whole. Funhouse tilted its head back and screamed magnificently, the sound ripping through the center of the world. I was sure they heard it in every place on the Grand Line. It was the sound in the back of your mind while you're dreaming, the noise you're most afraid of hearing when you walk down the hallway past the dark, open door and think you see a face, the noise every soldier knows is waiting for him when he dies and the deepest fear of every human being. As it screamed, Funhouse imploded back into the tiny tent it had come into being as. The form was small and blood-soaked, but still perfect and now tiny, harmless. A little light glistened from inside it and the perfectly hypnotic calliope emanated like a pleasant stink from it. The bodies all around could have been mountains in comparison to the tiny, innocent canvas tent. It could not have hurt anyone, not that picture of petite innocence. The blood-spatters were an accident, the bodies had nothing to do with Funhouse. The Bell-Viper stepped up to the tent, surveying the bodies as though he, too, were surprised they were there. Casually, he kicked the clown's skull, still fill of brain and blood. He moved up to the struggling creature, which was still attempting to walk on the too-small feet. With a click of his tongue, the Bell-Viper took the whip from around his belt and lashed the thing. The whip caught around its throat and it almost instantly strangled, leaking blood onto the floor along with the dozen other bodies that would never breathe again.
"Good night," the Bell-Viper said.
All the lights shut off.
Bloody, bloody blood, blood!
Bloody, bloody blood, blood!
Bloody blood and fire flame
burn the bodies take the blame!
Bloody blood and mortals dead
never sleep again!
Haunt the dreams behind your eyes
where out's the same as in!
The audience erupted into magnificent applause, everyone instantly leaping to their feet. I sat in horrified silence, apart from the applause and fervor of the Circus's citizens. Luffy released my hand as he jumped to his feet to clap, and the sensation in my hand told me I'd lost all circulation there long ago. I sat numb and terrified and empty as around me everyone else applauded fervently. Almost everyone. Franky remained seated, clutching the armrests on his seat so tightly they had snapped off in his hands. And Zoro, beside me, was shaking so badly I could feel his arm against mine. Turning to look at him, I could see him sobbing in his seat. Beside him, Nami had leaped to her feet and did not see him turn to me, shake his head.
Confused at the crew's fervor and wickedly drawn to the carnage that was still present onstage, I turned back to the ring. The Bell-Viper had taken off his hat and was turning slowly, bowing to all sides of the ring. He gestured to the high wires, to the performers' tunnel, and to the circus's band, and the audience applauded more, whistles and shouts accompanying it. After minutes of applause, the lights in the tent began to dim and people filed out, all chatter and excitement, children bouncing up and down extatically, recounting the performance already.
Because we were so near the front we milled about, waiting for our chance to exit. We were close enough to see the Bell-Viper look down at the bodies in disgust. The Funhouse had vanished without a trace. The Viper walked a few feet away, bloody footprints in his wake. "Burn it," he said to the merry go round horse around his neck.
The theatre was more than half empty when a man appeared from the performers tunnel, undoubtedly to follow the Bell-Viper's order. As he drew closer, I cocked my head. There was no way…
Beside me, Luffy gasped and leaned forward into the ring, his voice a cry more full of deep longing than I have ever heard. "Ace!" he shouted.
The man looked up, his face a mask of terror. The familiar face broke my heart, and the rest of the crew was shouting at him as well, desperately looking for ways down into the ring to reach him. Luffy vaulted over the wall keeping us from the ring and ran straight at his brother. Ace caught him in an embrace, but he did not hold Luffy tightly. His eyes remained open and stunned, his face frozen in an expression of pity and pain.
The rest of the crew had found a way down into the ring, and everyone had run to see the man they all thought had been dead for years. But I stood petrified, looking Ace up and down. He was pale and small in the ring, and the Funhouse stood glittering at his feet, tinny calliope still humming a soothing melody.
"Oh God, Ace!" Luffy sobbed into his brother's shoulder. "My brother…"
Ace's countenance fell into tears and he wept bitterly, now clinging to Luffy as Luffy was clinging to him. The blood stained Luffy and Ace's feet and had spattered all over the rest of the crew as they stepped haphazardly through and around the bodies to reach Ace and Luffy.
"Oh Luffy…" Ace said desperately, pulling away from his brother long enough to look him in the eyes. "What have you done…!" Luffy pulled his brother close again, but I followed Ace's eyes to where the ringmaster stood, the last one left in the tent aside from us and the bodies.
In the shadows at the ring's edge the Bell-Viper stood quietly smiling.