A/N: Blech, just when I was about to get back to a regular schedule something happens that binds my hands. Things are back to normal now, though, so expect another update this Monday and we'll see what we can do about staying on schedule this time. In other news, I just powered through Fairy Tail (the manga) and boy is it an absolutely fantastic read. I highly suggest giving it a look for anyone who likes One Piece; it'll be right up your niche (plus I started a fic for it which involves my favored pairing, go check it out!). I know I shouldn't be starting any new stories until I start wrapping up a few of my others, but I just couldn't help it (besides it's only going to be a two-shot). Enjoy!
Creation time: 4 hours.
Written over: 1 session.
Suggested song: The Protomen, all of their work. Seriously, check these guys out, they are amazing. Do it now. I can't stress it enough. (Be sure to pay attention to the story aspect of their music)
"Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!" the energetic captain of the Straw Hat pirates excitedly yelled out.
"All right, all right, all right, we get it already. Give it a rest, would you?" responded one of his companions.
Luffy turned to the orange haired navigator before grinning widely.
"But there's adventure to be had! Come on, let's hurry! Besides, I'm hungry."
Nami slouched her shoulders forward and let her arms dangle limply in front of her.
"You're always hungry."
"Nami-swaaaaaaaan, you're even beautiful when you're disappointed!" a third voice happily called to the navigator.
The navigator cast an angry glance to the blonde haired cook, warning him that he was treading on thin ice.
"Ooooooooooooh, you're even more beautiful when you're scary!" the cook swooned.
Nami looked as though she was getting ready to violently retaliate against her companion, but instead slumped her posture again while sighing audibly.
"Oi, nee-chan, something up?" Franky asked the orange haired navigator.
"Not really, it's just…" Nami began.
"Just?" the shipwright continued.
"The cove we docked at. I didn't mention anything before, but something about it bothered me."
"Hm?" Sanji grunted, interested in the navigator's concern.
"You know those rocks we saw on the beach?" Nami asked the two strawhats.
Both pirates nodded their head.
"Well seeing rocks in and of itself on a beach is nothing too unusual, but the thing that bothers me about them was how different some of them were from the others. Some of the rocks were much rougher than the others, almost as if they had fallen down from the cliffs around the cove. However, there were also extremely smooth rocks. It looked like they'd been worn down over time by the ocean, but I don't know how they got so worn down compared to the others. It doesn't add up."
"Couldn't the worn down rocks just have been there longer and the rough ones recently fallen down? Or the worn ones could have been brought in during a big storm, I mean we saw how powerful Aqua Laguna was. It's not too far of a stretch to think something similar could happen here," the blonde haired cook pointed out.
Nami shook her head.
"That's what I thought at first. However, the positions of the rocks have no consistency. If what you said first was the case, then the jagged rocks would have been closer to the cliffs while the worn down rocks would have been towards the middle. Both kinds were scattered all over the place, it just doesn't add up."
Franky began rubbing his pointed chin in thought.
"Well, I don't know about the first part, but I can say definitely that a storm is out of the question. If a storm had brought in those rocks, then there would definitely have been some other stuff on the beach as well. From what I saw the beach was as clean as a whistle aside from the rocks, no debris or wreckage at all."
Nami planted the palm of her hand against her forehead, running her fingers through her hair and clutching it in her grasp.
"Ahhhhh, it doesn't make any sense, I tell you. Talk about frustrating."
Sanji reached into his pocket and retrieved a cigarette, bringing it up to his mouth before lighting it with one of his few remaining matches.
"That's the Grand Line for you," the blonde haired cook said as he took a drag from the narcotic, "not only do you have to throw common sense out the window while sailing on it, but also when you're on its islands."
"Even still," Nami returned, "something about it doesn't feel right. I'll have to take a closer look when we get back."
"Ooooooh, a forest! Let's go, guys! I'll bet we'll see some pretty interesting stuff in there," Luffy called back before quickening his pace.
Nami grabbed the back of the rubber captain's red shirt before he could get too far ahead.
"Hold it, Luffy! Don't get ahead of yourself, the last thing we need is for you to get lost too. There's no rush right now, we'll get there soon enough."
Luffy ignored his nakama while keeping up his attempt to proceed faster. He trudged forward hard enough to the point that the navigator was being pulled along, her feet dragging through the sand.
Nami continued to try to slow down her captain calmly as the rubber man continued to press onwards. It became apparent that nothing she said was going to have any impact on her captain, so the navigator was left with only one option. Raising her fist high into the air, Nami yelled at Luffy before smashing her fist into the back of his head.
Luffy yelped in pain as his head was thrown downwards, his neck even stretching from the force of the blow. The message finally making its way to the captain of the Straw Hat pirates, Luffy slumped his shoulders while maintaining a steady pace alongside his nakama.
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Something wasn't right, Nico Robin decided to herself. She had been walking through the village for almost 15 minutes and had yet to run into anybody. Certainly the village hadn't been abandoned, there were signs indicating that people were very recently living in the area.
Robin found the setup of the town to be extremely fascinating. It was unlike any other she had been to considering that everything was meticulously symmetrical. Every house was built the same down to the last piece of wood and there was nothing to indicate individuality aside from a labeled number on the door of each house. The actual build of each house was relatively simple, only one floor with what seemed to be enough size for a couple rooms, most likely a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living area of sorts.
Even the land around the houses was the exact same, a single tree to the left side of the building and a couple of bushes to the right. Flowerbeds decorated the ground directly in front of the houses on dirt mounds, probably to prevent outsiders from peering inside the windows of a building. That hadn't stopped the archeologist, however, as her interest of the inside was enough for the strawhat to disregard the intentional obstacle.
Walking up to one of the houses, Robin leaned forward to avoid stepping on the flowerbed and peered inside. As she suspected, there was a main living area that connected to a couple of rooms. At the center of the room was a square table surrounded by what appeared to be high quality couches. In the corner of the room was a fireplace with two unused pieces of wood resting inside. Looking behind her to a house directly across from the one she was inspecting, the archeologist saw a chimney, something she hadn't seen nor looked for at first.
The raven haired archeologist had confirmed at least one thing to herself. The island they had landed on was a fall island, though what cycle it was on Robin couldn't decide, perhaps it was probably somewhere around late summer to early fall. It would certainly explain why there were chimneys and fireplaces; the weather was warm enough to have houses close to a beach for recreation but cold enough at times to warrant a fire inside said houses.
"Excuse me, miss. Can I help you?" a mature and slightly strained voice called out.
Robin turned to face who had spoken to her and was met with an elderly lady who held a small, circular handbag in her grasp. A giant grey ball of hair covered the head of the woman and her face was barely visible through the hair. The older woman was short in stature and her age did nothing to help it, the labors of time forcing her to hunch forward. The woman was rather squat in contrast to the shortness and one could say she resembled a ball, the style of her hair and handbag only adding to the image.
"Oh, my apologies, I didn't mean to intrude." Robin responded respectfully to the elderly woman.
The woman waved her hand forward to the archeologist, conveying that there was no harm done.
"Don't worry about it, hun, happens all the time. Sorry to tell you, but we're currently not renting out any of these houses for the moment. We're taking the next few days to clean everything out and make everything good as new."
Robin tilted her head slightly to the side and crossed her arms. Something about what the older woman had sad confused the raven haired archeologist.
"Renting? You mean this isn't a town?"
The older woman's eyes widened in surprise to the archeologist's question and, as with the rest of her body, were very rounded.
"Oh, you didn't know, hun? Are you new to this island?"
Robin nodded in confirmation to the grey haired woman's query.
"Yes, our crew just recently docked on the island. We've never been here before."
The older woman's expression returned to normal and she reached inside of her handbag, rummaging around for something. After a moment, the lady withdrew a tube and removed the top, turning the bottom portion to push up red colored lipstick. After applying an even coating, the elderly woman rubbed her lips together and smiled at the archeologist.
"I see, but certainly you've heard of the island itself? You could have found out much more information back in Old Town, or even New Town for that matter if you're coming from the Red Line."
If she hadn't looked it before, the raven archeologist certainly looked confused now. Tilting her head even more, Robin raised her right hand to rest the side of her head on, an expression of inquiry on her face.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Would you mind?" Robin asked as she moved her arm out forward, her palm raised up.
The elderly woman's eyes shot open again in shock.
"You mean to tell me you've never hear about Handel Island?" the woman asked in bewilderment.
Robin again nodded in confirmation to the question.
"I'm afraid so, yes."
"Well then, why don't you take a seat over here?" the woman gestured to a bench near her, "It may take a little, but you seem like a very nice young woman, so I'll tell you everything you'd need or like to know."
Robin smiled, crossed her hands, and tipped her body forward to indicate her gratitude.
"Thank you very much, that would be a great help."
The grey haired woman continuously waved forward again to the raven haired archeologist.
"Nonsense, hun, it's nothing. My name is Circa, by the way."
Robin seated herself on the bench Circa had pointed to and patiently watched as the older woman took her own seat on the bench directly across from the archeologist. What a lucky turn of events, Robin decided to herself, gathering the information she needed looked like it was going to be much easier than she originally thought.
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Zoro furiously rubbed his eyes in utter disbelief. There was no way that what he was looking at was real, he must be seeing things from being too tired or something like that. Moving his hands from his vision so he could see again, the swordsman looked at the same exact sight as before. His eyes may have been heavy from sleepiness, but they were certainly not lying to him.
Before the green haired swordsman was the strangest looking town, no city, he'd ever seen. Buildings had no reason nor rhyme to them and some towered high into the air while others stretched out across the city. At the center of the city was a giant body of water that went inwards into the land in a perfect circle. Surrounding the body of water were multiple docks and hundreds of ships were either docked, entering the port, or exiting. The worst part about the dock was that at least half of the ships donned the Marine's emblem. The island that he and the rest of his nakama had docked on looked to be almost completely under marine control. This certainly didn't bode well for the Straw Hat pirates.
The green haired swordsman considered going back to the ship to warn his nakama before it was too late, however Zoro figured that they'd have already departed by now. He decided that his best chance was to look for them in the city and try to get them before things got out of hand. The swordsman hadn't been paying much attention back on the Thousand Sunny, but he remembered something about how they were supposed to be looking for someone to buy something that the crew had. All he had to do was find the market and soon enough his nakama would turn up like they always did.
Having decided on his plan of action, Zoro pushed through the last of the brush ahead of him and made his way down to the city on a path not too far from where he exited the forest. After some time, the swordsman finally found himself entering the confines of the bustling city. Everywhere he looked, people were frantically moving from place to place with a clear purpose on their mind. There were other people who were taking their time in their actions, but Zoro was simply amazed at how hectic everything was.
Zoro walked through the city for a while, occasionally asking around for the marketplace while keeping an eye out for his nakama and any marines that may notice him. Whenever he asked a person where the marketplace was, the person either laughed at him or simply said that everywhere was the marketplace. Getting frustrated at his lack of progress, the swordsman simply began wandering around aimlessly while looking at the various buildings and shops.
A lot of the shops carried items Zoro had never seen before and the swordsman could have sworn he saw a couple of people with conspicuous looking shells in their possession. The shells looked strikingly similar to the ones used in the sky islands, but aside from in Usopp's workshop Zoro had never seen the shells anywhere else. Speaking of, Zoro thought that Usopp would go head over heels for this city. Everything the craftsman could have ever dreamed of having was probably somewhere to be found in some shop.
Other shops, the weapon shops in particular, claimed to be selling devil fruit items. What a ludicrous notion, Zoro thought to himself, there was no way that a weapon or object could consume a devils fruit and gain its powers. They had to be scamming people. Scratch the previous thought, it was probably better that Usopp hadn't come with. Despite his experience with lying, the sniper was surprisingly gullible and he no doubt would buy some stupid and useless item with his money.
The green haired swordsman had been keeping his eye open for a bar and a clothes store, whichever came first. He figured that he'd be able to get a cheap shirt and spend the rest on some booze since it had been quite some time since his last drink. Not to mention that he'd be able to see if there were any wanted posters of him and his crew in a bar. With any luck the newest batch of posters wouldn't have made it to the island yet and the Straw Hats would at least be able to mingle with the people more easily.
Another large group of people madly made their way to their next destination and Zoro found himself becoming even more tired than before watching everyone around him acting so frenetically. Soon it became too much for the swordsman to bear and he looked around for a spot to take a quick nap in. Within minutes Zoro found a secluded spot by some empty crates and rested up against a building. His left leg was withdrawn to support his arm to better hold his katana against him and the strawhat quickly dozed off.
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"Come on Sally! We're going to be late if we don't hurry! The head nurses are going to have our heads if we're late for another class!"
A salmon haired female turned to her friend who was frantically trying to hurry her up. Sally's friend had dirty blonde, shoulder length hair and eyes of the same color. The two friends were wearing nurse clothing since they were on their way to their instructional courses. Ever since they were little, the two had wanted to go into medical practices and nursing stood out above the rest of the choices.
"What are you talking about, Lucy? We've never been late for a class before!"
Lucy continued to pull on her childhood friend in her attempt to speed Sally up.
"Ok, fine! We've never been late to a class, but we've missed a bunch which is way worse! If this keeps up, we could get in serious trouble…"
Sally tugged her shirt free from Lucy and began to laugh, swiping her hands across the sides of her outfit to brush off any dirt from it.
"Those were ok, though! We were helping people, after all. I think that should excuse our absences."
In response to her friend's carefree attitude, Lucy clenched a part of her shirt and put it in her mouth, chewing on it while pulling to stretch the shirt in frustration and impatience.
"Maybe if we were actually helping people, they wouldn't mind. We keep picking up people that end up not needing help! Plus they tell us that if we actually went to class that we'd be able to tell that they didn't need help to begin with… C'mon, Sally! Let's just hurry, ok?"
Sally reached up and began scratching the back of her head, sticking her tongue out at Lucy and squinting her eyes.
"It couldn't be helped, what if we didn't help them and they actually did need help? I'm not just going to idly stand by and—"
The salmon haired nurse noticed something alarming up ahead of the two. Running ahead of Lucy, Sally made her way to the disturbance and was shocked to see a man resting against a building. The man, who had three swords next to his side, looked like he was passed out and his white shirt was completely covered in deep red splotches. Sally could recognize those splotches anywhere, it was dried up blood! How long had the poor man been out here in the open with an untreated wound? Had it been hours? Days? More?
"LUCY, COME QUICK!!! SOMEONE NEEDS HELP!" the salmon haired apprentice yelled out to her companion.
Rushing over to where her friend was, Lucy yelped in horror as she came to the same conclusion as Sally had. Without hesitation, the dirty blonde haired student reached into her backpack and withdrew a thick white board. The nurse in training unfolded the object until it made a handheld stretcher.
"There's no time! We need to get him to a hospital, Sally!"
"Should we take him to our hospital?"
Lucy shook her head violently.
"There's no time, the closest hospital near here is in Central. We need to get him there as soon as we can!"
Sally looked over the injured man and took notice to the three katana he held close to him.
"What should we do about these, Lucy?" the salmon haired girl asked as she pointed to the swords.
"Leave them! They'll only get in the way," Lucy quickly responded.
Sally grabbed the katana in the clutches of the green haired man and began to pull at them, but they wouldn't budge. The man had an iron grip on the weapons and it didn't seem like he was going to let go of them without a fight.
"Ahhhhh forget it," the salmon haired nurse yelled, "He's not letting go."
The two students worked the green haired man onto the stretcher before each taking a side and lifting him up. Running as fast as they could manage, the two wended their way through the bustling city and crowds of people towards their destination. Within minutes the two had made it to a bridge connecting the city with Central and were quickly allowed to pass considering the emergency.
Sally and Lucy sprinted onwards to the hospital in Central with their unsuspecting passenger in tow.
Ending note: Phew, lots going on here. The pacing is going a little differently than I originally intended (I wasn't planning on getting to Zoro until next chapter), however if I continued on with Robin like I intended it would have taken up way too much of the chapter. Like I said earlier, even though everything isn't happening at the exact same time, I'm trying to keep it within reason. On a side note, I'm fairly certain that up to this point Zoro hasn't seen a devil fruit weapon (I don't think he saw Spandam's), so the concept is probably an impossibility to him right now, hence why I put it in there. If that's not the case, just let me know and I'll change it. Hope you all enjoyed the new chapter! See you guys Monday.
