A/N: Usually I don't like putting notes before the story but I wanted to say that for the sake of the story, I had to VERY SLIGHTLY modify a previously stated fact in the One Piece world. I'll go into more detail at the end of the chapter. I just put this warning here so that you all don't freak out if you notice a discrepancy. Sorry!
Getting to Sabaody Archipelago had been quite a pain for Anka, literally. Her hangover had really caused a lot of trouble. She had managed to find a pair of over-sized aviators but there was nothing to do about the vast array of ear-ache inducing noises. What made it even worse was that her hangovers lasted for an incredibly long amount of time. Now that she was in the relative quiet of "Shakky's Rip-Off Bar", she had some time to rest.
"Drink this, it should help with the pain," said Shakky, sliding a cup of steaming coffee towards Anka.
"Th-thank you," she said. She had no idea how Shakky had known, but she was grateful either way.
She gingerly sipped the coffee, a looming sense of paranoia taking over.
When she had woken up this morning, she couldn't remember anything from the night before. She had a vague memory of talking to someone for a long time, but it was so fuzzy that she had just chalked it up to a dream that she had experienced..
The way Zoro was looking at her didn't help alleviate the paranoia. Hopefully, she hadn't done anything stupid. She had tried to get Zoro to tell her what had happened, but he just yelled at her to leave him alone.
"So basically, you have a coating job for Rayleigh. I hate to tell you, but he's not here right now," explained Shakky.
As soon as she said the name "Rayleigh" Anka remembered something. It was a name her father had told her about when she was young. According to the stories of her father, "He was the stuff of legends," or something. Could it be possible that it was the same person?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Shakky had said the name "Law,"
Anka's eyes flicked back to the woman in front of her, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, Trafalgar Law is here on this archipelago right now?"
Shakky smiled, "Ah, so you do know Law. I thought as much. "
She immediately thought of the transponder snail which she was currently carrying with her. She had convinced herself that it was a good idea to take it because it had uses beyond just communicating with Law. Had he known that she would eventually come here?
Law being on Sabaody caused a new wave of problems in Anka's mind. Having to deal with him plus all the other things happening was enough to make her want to give up and go to sleep. The hangover wasn't helping.
The next thing Anka knew, she was being hauled off by her crew members and taken to an amusement park. She didn't even know why, she hadn't really been paying attention to when Shakky was talking. Either way, she was still way too hungover to go on any of the rides so she just ended up aimlessly roaming around the park stuck in her own thoughts. It wasn't long until she had found she had accidentally walked right out of the park. However, it was probably a good thing; she didn't know how much longer she could bare all that noise.
As she wandered around, she came across a small and shifty store which advertised vivre cards for a self-proclaimed "Best price EVER". She came out of the store with four vivre cards and a huge hole in her wallet.
"Best price my ass," she grumbled.
After a bit more walking around, she had finally found a relatively quiet area and sat down in an attempt to get some rest.
"Aaah! G-get away from me!"
A young girl, maybe in her late teens, stood a few feet in front of Anka with several men gathered around her.
"Stop squirming!" one of the men said as he pushed the girl's face into the dirt, "The auction is gonna start soon and you're our only chance at some quick cash!"
Another man shackled the girl up and began to drag her by the arms, "Yeah, the auction house isn't far from here but we have to get there quick to make it in time."
Anka stared in amusement at the scene taking place right before her eyes. She could hardly believe human trafficking was still so common here. And now she had just learned that there was an actual auction house, just sitting out in the open! It was ridiculous that the World Government just turned a blind eye, but Anka wasn't complaining. If anything, she was intrigued. She would have to see this auction house for herself.
So she followed at least ten paces behind the group as they dragged the hysterical girl to her certain doom.
Anka was astounded; the building actually said "HUMAN" right over the front door, how much more obvious can you get? Going through the front doors, she couldn't help but feel a little excited, her first ever human auction.
But her excitement drained away as soon as she entered. Seated just a few rows away, was the man she had wished so desperately to avoid; Trafalgar Law.
She cursed under her breath as she tried to duck out of view, but someone had decided to make it more difficult for her.
"Well, well, guess who it is. The Silver Dragon in the flesh," a man with fiery red hair grinned.
"Eustass, fancy meeting you in a place like this. I would have never thought our first meeting would be during a human auction," she said.
"Anka-ya, are you looking to buy something?" Law turned to look at her.
Dammit. Of all the places she could have gone, she had to come here. Talk about bad luck.
"No," she sighed, "I'm just doing a little window shopping."
"There are plenty of seats available,"
She crossed her arms, "I'd rather stand,"
Law turned back to face the stage and within minutes, the lights dimmed and the auction began.
They had quite a variety of slaves for sale, ranging from male pirate captains to female dancers. They were even selling slaves in a pack of ten, like onions in a supermarket.
Half way through the auction, the front doors opened once again.
"You guys! What are you doing here?" asked Anka.
Nami looked at her with a grim face, "Keimi's been kidnapped. We're here to buy her back."
Anka could hardly believe it. One of her friends had been kidnapped to be sold as a slave while she was off screwing around. If she had known, she probably could have saved her. But now, it was too late, all she could do was wait until the auction reached its climax. And it took a painfully long time to reach that point.
Finally, it was time. With no lack of fanfare, they had unveiled the true prize of the auction. This would be the only chance to get Keimi back before she would be sold of permanently to serve as some sick bastard's eye-candy. The crowd went wild with anticipation. Everybody wanted the exotic mermaid that was ever so elusive.
"Five hundred million!"
The auction house was shocked into silence. No one could compete with a bid that high, not even the Straw Hats.
Anka could tell that the situation was at a tipping point. If she didn't do something, the tension would burst and all hell would break loose. Then they would have a much bigger issue; the admiral.
Just before Anka could act, a huge explosion occurred right in front of her. Instantly, Luffy emerged from the cloud of dust with a grumpy looking Zoro. She was surprised but she had to admit, her captain always had impeccable timing.
"Keimi!" yelled Luffy. As soon as he spotted her, he began to sprint to the stage, only to be stopped by Hatchan.
Screams echoed through the hall.
"Disgusting! It's a fish man!"
"Oh he probably spreads diseases, don't get close!"
"Go back to the sea!"
It was a horrifying display of discrimination. And even more horrifying, Saint Charloss, the Celestial Dragon, had pulled out a gun and shot Hatchan.
Luffy couldn't take anymore, his anger had reached its boiling point, and no amount of begging or pleading would change what he was about to do. Anka gulped.
"Oh shit,"
Everyone fled the room; no one wanted to stick around and see what would happen. The only people that remained were the other supernovas and their respective crews.
Anka's face broke out into a wide, toothy grin. She did freely admit, her captain was insane, but she actually liked him more because of that. She turned to look at Law, who was still calmly sitting with his crew, and laughed.
"And you thought I was crazy."
"You both have no sense," he smirked, "Straw Hat Luffy, three hundred million, that's some bounty."
"You guys, we have to hurry! Navy warships are going to be here any minute!" said Nami
"I hate to tell you this, but the navy is already here, you picked a bad time to revolt," said Law, "The Navy's had this place surrounded since before the auction even began. They have a base on the archipelago, but I'm guessing they're after someone,"
Luffy turned to face him, "Who the hell are you? And what's with the bear?"
Anka pointed to Law with her thumb, "This guy is the one you heard about from Shakky; Trafalgar Law. I've had the absolute pleasure of meeting him before,"
"And the guy standing in back, that's Eustass 'Captain' Kid," added Robin.
While the group of pirates were busy with one another, one of the World Nobles had managed to get on stage and hold Keimi at gunpoint.
"Enough of this! If this fish is worth going through such extremes, I'll have no choice but to kill it!"
Everyone prepared to attack, but before they could, a strange sort of pressure filled the room and the Noble fell to the ground. Without warning, the walls behind the stage collapsed and two figures emerged.
Anka gasped with wide-eyed surprise. The man who stood there on the stage had fit the exact description her father had given to her. There was no mistaking it; it was the Dark King himself, Silvers Rayleigh. He had even possessed the power that she had only heard about in stories, Conqueror's Haki. It was amazing, to see a living legend right in front of her.
"I'd rather avoid fighting an admiral. The longer we wait the worse it'll get," said Eustass as he turned to leave, "If you babies can't handle a few Marines, then sit here and while I show you how a real man takes care of things,"
That statement surely got the others riled up as both Luffy and Law stomped after him.
"Trafalgar," Anka snickered, "I can't believe you let a stupid comment like that get to you. Luffy, I can understand, but the calm and cool captain of the Heart Pirates? Come on,"
"I won't be outdone by anyone," he replied.
Anka sighed as the three bickered all the way out of the auction hall. It was amazing how childish they all were.
While the three captains outside dealt with the Marines, the remaining pirates inside had decided to make their escape from the hall as well. When the stepped out into the open, they were greeted with a huge battle ground filled with chaos. However, this came as no surprise to anyone.
Before she escaped the battlefield with the rest of the Straw Hats, she ran over to Law.
"Hey, before I go, take this," she said and produced a blank white piece of paper from her pockets, "It's my vivre card,"
His eyes practically twinkled with amusement, "Does this mean that you want to meet again?"
"Just shut up and take it will you."
His smirk widened as he took the paper from her hand. Before he could make any more fun of her, she began to run back in the direction of grove thirteen.
"Are you running away from me?"
She groaned, "Just shut the hell up already!"
"If you could take a vacation, where would you go?"
That was the last thing that Anka heard before getting shot into the air. She cursed herself for not being strong enough to fight back, but she soon realized that the situation had been so hopeless that even the strongest of fighters would have a difficult time.
First it was one of the Pacifista and then another accompanied with a strange man named Sentomaru. To make matters worse, Navy Admiral Kizaru had decided to join the fun as well. To top it off, the real Kuma had appeared. Sounded like a fun Friday night.
From what she gathered, she had been flying for roughly one day before landing on an island. Though, it wasn't really an island, it was just a large rock with some grass on the top. There wasn't even a single hint of human life, but looking at her surroundings, she didn't find it all that surprising. She was pretty sure that this boulder didn't even have any sort of magnetic waves for a log pose to point here, so the probability of escaping was quite low.
She thought that maybe she should try and fly back to Sabaody, but quickly realized that it was a bad idea. She had been sent flying by Kuma non-stop for over a day at an incredible speed, there was no way she could last that long in even her best condition, and she was definitely not in her best condition. With no source of food or water insight, it was looking less and less likely that she would be able to recuperate at all. She had recovered from her hangover though, so at least she no longer had to worry about that.
Taking a deep breath, Anka decided to take inventory of the items she had on her. It had been a basic survival technique she had learned in her early years of adventuring.
She had her sunglasses, a small amount of money, three of her own vivre cards, Rayleigh's vivre card, her voice-altering pendant, a small pouch filled with custom made rumble balls which Chopper had explicitly told her "not to use in combat" because she still lacked the experience on how to use them and finally, she had the transponder snail which Law had given her.
The obvious solution was to use the transponder snail to call someone. There was the problem of who to call or, more importantly, whose number she remembered. The answer was zero. She couldn't recall the number of a single person. The only number she had on hand was the one Law had so conveniently written directly on the snail itself, much to her disgust.
She reluctantly dialed his number and waited for a response. He picked up on the third ring.
"Hello," said Law.
"I need a huge favour," she started.
She could practically hear him smirk, "What is it?"
"Okay, I need you to," she hesitated, "I need you to give me a ride back to Sabaody."
For a few moments, there was complete silence. She held her breath; if this didn't work, she would be screwed. He finally broke the silence.
"I didn't expect you to call me,"
"Trust me; you're the last person I would call,"
He chuckled, "I don't doubt it,"
"So are you going to do it or not? If no, I'd rather not waste my time talking with you. I have better things to do,"
"I'll save you if you need me to,"
"Hey," she snapped, "I don't need to be saved. What I need is a taxi, and you happen to fit that role,"
"Is that any way to talk to your saviour?"
"Just do it asshole,"
"I will need compensation for my favor. I don't work for free, I'm not a philanthropist."
A heavy sigh escaped her lips, "What did you have in mind? I'll tell you now that I'm not gonna be one of your test subjects. I'd rather not end up with my foot connected to my forehead or some creepy shit like that,"
"That's an excellent idea, but what I'm planning is much worse,"
"I don't like it when you're ominous,"
"I know," and with that, he disconnected, much to Anka's displeasure.
This signaled the start of Anka's hibernation. It had taken her over a day to reach her current location from Sabaody, so that meant that it would take Law a minimum of two days to get to her. In that time, she would have to conserve as much energy as she could. She thought that it could be done with relative ease, all she had to do was not move too much and she should be fine.
It was much more difficult than she expected.
Did any of you notice the rule I ever so slightly bent? In the world of One Piece, vivre cards are only made in the New Word, not in Paradise. But, for the story to work (Law would have to find Anka somehow) I had to extend in to the Archipelago. Hopefully I didn't piss any of you off, and I'm sorry if I did.
Well, either way, that's the end of the chapter, hope all of you enjoyed it. I'm actually super pumped to get into the next chapter, I have some really good ideas (or at least I think so anyway)
See ya!
