Sorry for the wait! My school semester is almost over and my teachers are all trying to squeeze in some last minute tests before finals. I probably won't be able to put out another chapter for a couple of weeks again because I'll be going into finals week next, but after that I'll be free from school for a little while. :D Anyways, as always I welcome any comments, criticisms, and corrections :)
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or its characters, they all belong to Oda Eiichiro. I do however own Arianna :)
Chapter 8: A Date with the Guys
It was getting very late and Law had walked a majority of the town of Breezy Cove with Bepo. As far as either of the two pirates could tell, there was nothing worth protecting, or a sign of something being hidden. Looking up at the dark sky, Law decided to return to the tavern and ensure that his whole crew was at least there, he didn't care whether or not they were in their rooms, he's not their babysitter and the crew is made of full grown men and one girl who was not allowed to leave the building anyways. "Let's go back for the night." Law told Bepo, who hummed in response.
Walking back in the tavern's direction the pirate captain decided to take a series of streets that they had not walked yet, he was returning for the night not giving up. Walking down one of the streets though, he noticed something along the lines that he had been looking for the whole afternoon. In front of an old looking building were two local police officers, and scattered around the area were men dressed in civilian clothes who were maintaining too vigilant a look out towards everyone who passed by the building. Taking in a quick assessment of the building Law could see that while it was old it was also maintained and structurally solid, it appeared to be some kind place of worship though he wouldn't go so far as to call it a church or shrine, and there was more space between the two adjacent buildings to this one than the rest of the town. Not wanting to alert the two guards in front of the building that he was able to pick out the casually dressed guards trying and failing to blend in to the surrounding area, Law simply continued his calm pace down the street with Bepo doing the same. Once they were over a street away from the building Law turned to his companion and smirked, Bepo smiled in return. With their goal for the night accomplished the two resumed their walk back to the tavern smiling, one happily and the other confidently.
Once back the tavern Bepo stopped abruptly and looked up. "Um, Captain…" Stopping and following the bear's line of sight, Law was somewhat irked at what he saw. On the roof of the building was Arianna. "Go ahead inside." Law told Bepo, handing his first mate his sword and their only room key. From where Law was standing there was no direct way up to the roof so he instead looked at the two buildings on its sides. One had a balcony at the second floor, so he instead jumped up to that, then from there to the roof of the tavern. Walking up to the girl he could see that she was sleeping, using her bag as a pillow. Or at least she was asleep, because once he was a few steps away from her, she opened one bright green eye to look at him before turning to her other side with a groan as if it would stop him from bothering her. Kicking her lightly, causing her to flip to her face, Law called at her, increasingly irritated by her behavior, "Get up."
She did, with an unhappy expression. "Am I not allowed to sleep now?"
"I told you to stay in the tavern." The stern tone of Law's voice perfectly showed his annoyance.
"You said not to leave the tavern. I never left. All I did was climb up from the window." In her mind, her reasoning was flawless.
In his mind her reasoning was irritating. She was relying on a technicality. "The intention is the same. You left the building by going outside, even if you just went up here."
She simply pouted unhappily at his reprimanding words, saying nothing.
"Why would you disobey me just to come to the roof?"
Sighing, she leaned back on her hand, looking utterly relaxed "My first night on the ship was the first night I ever spent without seeing the sky. Back with my Family, we'd build small shelters wherever we set up camp, but most of us would only sleep in them on rainy nights, and even then we'd still see the sky first. This was my first chance to see the stars since I joined the crew, I wasn't going to pass it up."
Her explanation was surprisingly innocent and simple, so much so the Law was at a loss as to how to respond.
Seeing his silence as an opening Arianna quickly tried to end the conversation. Putting on her best smile she announced, "Alright then. Goodnight Captain!" Laying back down as she said this.
The words helped Law's irritation towards her actions override his surprise at her innocence. He almost growled out "Get back in your room now. And don't leave it until tomorrow!"
Shooting straight upright, the girl gave him a sound somewhere between a whine and a groan and an angry look, but no words. Instead she stood up and walked to the edge of the roof, above her open window.
Before she climbed down Law made sure to tell her clearly. "Do not leave the inside of this building without one of my men watching you again."
All he got for a reply was a click from her tongue then she climbed down out of sight, and within a few seconds Law heard the sound of a window slammed shut. Now alone, the man sighed to himself in thought. *At least she does as she's told, even if she clearly doesn't want to. But if she's going to just barely follow orders I'm going to have to make sure that nothing I say to her has room for debate.* Walking back to the edge of the roof to jump down the way he came up, the pirate captain couldn't stop himself from pausing and looking up at the sky. While it wasn't perfectly clear, the clouds were sparse giving a good view of the stars and moon, which was only a sliver. It had been so long since he had last looked at the night sky though that Law couldn't tell if the moon was getting close to disappearing for a night, or if it was moving towards being full. Looking up at the countless lights could be calming or maddening to the man, depending on his mood. Tonight it was calming. The irritation that had accumulated from the girl was gone from him, leaving him to feel the tiredness that his long day had brought on. After going down to the ground, Law entered the tavern through the front door and into the bar, where about half of the crew were having fun. That they greeted him when one noticed that he entered the room probably meant that they had restrained themselves to the "don't drink too much" order he gave before letting them loose. Locating Shachi and Penguin in the group the captain asked, "Is everyone accounted for?"
Not even needing a second to think they both answered "Yep!"
"Okay then. Don't forget about tomorrow's plans." Law was being purposely vague since the bartender or other patrons could easily warn the Marines that their arrival was no secret to the pirates. After a couple of nods of understanding, Law walked on up the stairs and to the room he shared with Bepo. The door was opened before he made it there as Bepo was waiting for him. Once both of them were inside the quite sound of running water in the room next to them registered in the back of Law's mind but he didn't really give it any thought. Instead he removed his shoes, hat, hoodie, and short-sleeved shirt underneath. Bepo had immediately fallen asleep on his bed, and Law followed suit.
()
After her conversation with Law on the roof, Arianna returned to her room and made sure to slam the window shut in displeasure. The thought of waiting a little and then leaving the building entirely out of spite crossed her mind, but she decided against it. The Heart Pirates were, at the moment anyways, her best chance at growing strong and sailing back into the New World, back to the ocean that those people are sailing. *I can't screw this up.* The thought ran through her mind leaving a bad taste in her mouth, feigning loyalty to these kind men was not sitting well with her. *Well, kind men plus their captain.* Between talking to Law and having to climb back down into the room left Arianna pretty awake. Looking at herself she realized that she hadn't brought her other set of clothes for tomorrow. Closing the curtains at the window, she went into the bathroom. This shower confused her so it took a few minutes of fiddling with the knobs before she got hot water running. Once she did she stripped off everything she was wearing leaving herself naked and started washing her clothes. Once she was finished she threw them over a rod in the wall and then curled up in the bed. It was rather disappointing when sleep didn't come as easily to her as she would have liked.
When she woke up the next morning Arianna peeked out the window, behind the still closed curtain. It was incredibly early, the sky still grey. *I guess I'm still in my normal rhythm.* The thought was a relief, she had been worried that being inside the sub and having such little exposure to natural light had altered her habit of waking up at the start of dawn. That said it was highly unlikely that anyone else was awake now, so she would have to wait to so much as have someone to talk to. Walking into the bathroom, she was pleased that her clothes were dry and decided to start her morning with a shower. After getting dressed she checked the pelts that were drying against the wall. They were dried enough already but she decided it would be best to leave them for a little longer.
Taking her room key, Arianna went down stairs and was slightly displeased that there was no one from the crew out yet, just an employee of the tavern. Getting a glass of water from him, she sat at one of the tables and drank it slowly, doing her best to patiently kill time. Thankfully she didn't have to wait too long, about ten minutes after sitting down Oliver and Connor came downstairs into the room, surprisingly both were dressed in jeans and plain t-shirts, and their hair damp from morning showers. The two boys smiled at her, Oliver wider than Connor, and came up to her. "Good morning Ari-chan." Oliver happily greeted, while Connor gave a simple "Morning."
The girl practically vibrated in happiness at finally having someone to talk to. "Good morning! Why are you guys dressed like that?"
"We are going to eat at a small café down the street. If we walk up dressed in an infamous jolly roger, people tend to be panicked." Connor answered.
*Leave the tavern?* That thought was all that she needed to decide what she was going to say next, "Can I come with you?"
The boys looked at each other uncertainly, prompting a begging "Please, I'm not allowed to leave without someone from the crew."
While Connor was about to tell her no, the begging desperation in her voice had won Oliver over, so he answered "Sure." first. While Arianna jumped out of her seat with a cheer, Connor turned to Oliver with annoyance, "Hey! I don't want a tag-along!"
Oliver just put his hands together and gave an apologetic smile, "I couldn't help it. She would've been so sad if we left her here to wait for someone else to wake up."
Connor looked down at the girl smiling cheerfully at the two men and sighed in defeat. "Hey Bartender!" Connor called out, getting the man's attention. "When you see our captain can you tell him that Connor and Oliver took the girl out?"
The man looked at the three people before answering. "Of course."
Arianna was jumping from foot to foot. "Lead the way!"
While walking through the town Arianna was continuously moving her gaze from one sight to the next, trying to take everything in. While she looked around, Connor and Oliver chatted with one another, only occasionally glancing back to check that she was still there. Since it was still early morning the streets were mostly empty, only morning people like them and people making their way to work were walking around. After moving through a few streets down the three pirates stopped at a small restaurant with little tables set up both inside and out. Settling in at a table outside, it wasn't long before a waitress came up to greet them, took an order for two coffee's from the boys and an order of milk from the girl, before leaving them with food menus.
Looking it over Arianna had no idea what almost any of these foods are. The pair of boys only needed a minute to choose what to eat before resuming their conversation. After a few minutes Connor glanced over to Arianna and saw a look of utter confusion and concentration on her face. Chuckling a little he asked, "Having trouble Half-Pint?"
The odd nickname caught her attention more so than the question, "Half-Pint?"
"Well yeah. It's boring if everyone calls you the same thing. And you're sofun sized." The last part of Connor's explanation couldn't have come out more mockingly if he tried. Nonetheless it earned a chuckle from Oliver and a pout from Arianna.
*I'm not THAT small!* Though she thought that she sighed and moved on to answer the original question. They were doing her a favor bringing her along after all. "I have no idea what almost any of these are."
Still smiling in amusement, Oliver moved close to her and looked over the menu to explain what each food item was. After hearing him talk briefly about each item, Arianna decided that strawberry crepes seemed the most appealing. Oliver gave her a big smile and unconsciously leaned in closer "Good choice. They're really sweet, I'm sure you'll love them." With him so close Arianna could easily smell the many little details that covered him, including something that caught her off guard. Taking a quick glance at the other man at the table she saw that he had a small, quiet smile on his face. Refocusing her attention to the one next to her and taking another deep and obvious sniff of him, earning uncomfortable looks from the two. The pieces immediately came together in her mind, leaving her feeling guilty. Looking at Oliver with a guilty frown she had to ask. "Why would you agree to let me tag along on your date?"
The two immediately reacted in a big way. Red faced and stuttering, both of them tried to come up with some answer, any answer. Connor came up with a coherent sentence first. "Wh- What would make you think that this was meant to be a date?"
Utterly calm, she answered. "Well for starters you were obviously against me coming. Oliver is actually carrying your scent on him even though you both bathed so it really had to be soaked in, probably from sharing a bed overnight. And honestly just the way you two smile and look at each other is much more affectionate than friends would."
Once again the two stared at her blankly. Just then the waitress appeared, "Are we all ready to order?"
Her question was enough to lighten the tension of the table, and it helped that Arianna was the first to answer. "Yes! May I have strawberry crepes?"
"Pancakes with sausage?" Oliver requested.
"Fried eggs with beacon." Connor finished them up.
Nodding at each order with a smile, the woman retreated to the inside of the café. With her gone Arianna returned her attention to the boys with her. Connor still blushing slightly at her gaze, then suddenly Oliver started laughing. Slightly uncertain, Connor asked him, "Why are you laughing?"
Still chuckling slightly Oliver answered as best he could. "It's just. It's kind of nice, isn't it? Having someone who knows. Actually Captain might suspect something, now that I think about it."
The sudden news shocked Connor, "What?! Seriously?!"
The girl turned to look at Oliver, completely skipping over the subject of the one Heart Pirate that she isn't really happy about. "No one knows? How come?"
"Well…" Connor started, "There's no telling how the guys will react. They could be okay with it and tease us endlessly, hate us for it, or anywhere in between."
She was confused by the explanation, "Why would they hate you? Shouldn't they just be happy that you two are happy, or at least give you two your privacy?"
"Thank you." Oliver said, smiling slightly. Connor was smiling too, so she smiled back to them.
"Do us a favor though. Keep this to yourself, okay?" Connor told her.
The girl smiled to them and gave him a nod of agreement. With everything settled, Oliver retook his place next to Connor, and a new and happy conversation started, this time it included Arianna.
()
Law woke up somewhat early in the morning, around 6:40. Bepo was still asleep, snoring loudly. Walking over to the bathroom Law took a shower and changed into fresh clothes, pants similar to the ones he wore the day before, and a black sleeveless shirt before pulling his hoodie over it and pushing the sleeves up. He knew it looked like he wore the same clothes every day, he just didn't care since he knew that he wasn't. His activities had woken Bepo, who was now sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "I'm going to get breakfast downstairs. Do you want to come?" He asked his friend.
Bepo yawned out "Yeah, just let me wake up." He then walked to the bathroom, filled the bathtub with freezing cold water and dunked his head in it. Holding it under for a minute, then he lifted it out and shook off the water with a bright smile. Law watched the process, it always made him smile the way cold water could make the bear so happy.
With both of their morning routines finished, the duo left for breakfast. Once downstairs he saw that no one else from the crew had made their way down. Walking up to the employee who was standing behind the bar, a different man from last night, and asked him for eggs and toast for breakfast for both of them, Bepo likes to eat his share of the bread. He also got coffee for himself and a pitcher of water for his companion. When he came back with the coffee and water, and before going to rely the food order to a cook in the back the bartender remembered something. "You are the captain correct?"
A nod of confirmation from Law.
"A Connor and Oliver said that they were taking 'the girl' with them, and left earlier this morning."
The news was unexpected. *Connor and Oliver actually allowed someone to intrude on their time together? That's surprising.* While Law wasn't entirely certain of the nature of their relationship he had a good guess, and either way it wasn't any of his business so he didn't ask. "Thanks for letting me know." He told the man.
As Bepo and Law waited for their food they watched as the various members of the crew made their way down, each putting in orders for food and drinks. It didn't seem like anyone was nursing hangovers. *Good.*
Retrieving a newspaper from a stack that had been delivered and placed near the door, Law began reading while he drank his coffee, looking for any news that could affect him and his crew. However there was nothing new, mostly reports of more pirate crews popping up and causing trouble. The only thing surprising was that Jewelry Bonney escaped custody, but it didn't go into detail on how, trying to keep faith in the world government from weakening probably. By the time Law and Bepo got their food Marcus made his way downstairs he glanced around and then took a seat with his captain and first mate. "Good morning." After getting a response from the two he continued, "Where's the girl?"
"She left with Oliver and Connor this morning." Law answered. The only ones missing now were those three, and the infamous duo: Shachi and Penguin. After another twenty minutes everyone in the room had received food and were eating and the head medic and mechanic finally made their way down, still rubbing their eyes as if they simply rolled out of bed and walked downstairs. Actually, looking at them, they just might of. Getting coffee from the bartender and asking for any kind of food they made their way to a table next to their captain. Both drinking their coffee and trying to wake up. Marcus stared at them before asking the obvious. "Why wouldn't you go to sleep earlier when you know you're going to have to wake up in the morning?"
Shachi shot him a glare, not that anyone could see it with his sunglasses on, "Mind your own business, Marcus."
Penguin, on the other hand looked at Law and asked "Any idea when the Marines are expected to be here?"
"From what I've heard last night, it seems they are expected to arrive later this morning. So wake up quickly." Law told him.
As the two continued to sip their drinks and start to nibble on their food when it came out, they did slowly wake up. Though what really did the trick was the excitement that came when Oliver, Connor and Arianna returned. The little huntress practically darted into the room, bounced around greeting all of the men individually. When the boys walked up to the table that Law was at they were greeted with a question that they seemed to be expecting. "What happened to her?"
Sitting down next to Shachi, Oliver answered "I think it's a sugar high. Apparently she's never had anything sweeter than honey before."
Sighing, Connor sat down next to Penguin and added on, "Believe it or not this is after we took her to the park and let her run loose for a little while."
Just as he said it the girl ran up behind him, glomping herself on Connor with a big smile and announced to the table, "They did! It was a lot of fun! Can we go again before we leave the island?"
Looking at the girl, all the pirates in the conversation could've sworn that a pair of puppy ears and a wagging tail sprouted from her body. The whole situation was highly amusing to Law, who spoke with a smirk. "You should take it easy. All that energy you got from your food is going to go away at once and you'll crash."
"No fun, no matter what time of the day I see." Despite her unhappy words she couldn't take the smile off of her face.
*Don't say I didn't warn you.* With all of his crew present now, Law stood up getting the whole room's attention. "When everyone is done eating get all of your things and come back down here. We need to assume that we won't be staying here tonight." As he said this Law glanced at the lone tavern employee in the room, who was watching him closely, then smirked dangerously.
With everyone finished eating and retreating upstairs, Law approached the man behind the bar, who was rolling utensils in napkins, probably preparing for other customers. "Not planning on staying another night?" He asked carefully.
Law simply smirked at him. Then calmer than anyone the man had ever seen, he picked up a knife from the stack and quickly sliced the man's artery along the left side of his neck taking blood to his brain, his carotid artery. The slice killed the man instantly. While Law normally liked to play with his victims, he didn't want to waste time on this one man when he had a whole ship of Marines coming. While cleaning his hand of the blood that had splattered Bepo returned with his captain's nodachi and a bag that he had carried his change of clothes in, along with the rest of the crew. No one said anything about the blood that now covered part of the bar, except for Arianna who was flailing her arms in anger as she was still on her sugar high. "Why did you kill him? He hadn't done anything wrong!"
"He might've warned the Marines that we are expecting them. I'm not taking any chances for reinforcements to be called." He explained easily.
She wanted to protest further but suddenly felt a huge drain in energy and the sudden need to sleep, then started getting a dizzy look on her face. Law could guess what happened and couldn't help getting a new smirk on his face. "I see your sugar high is over. Drink some juice, it'll help." He instructed before leading the rest of the crew, who watched the little exchange with amusement, out of the building, turning the sign on the door to indicate that it's closed as he left.
()
After leaving the tavern Law had the crew return to the ship to leave their belongings, then split up into two groups, a smaller group of five lead by Connor to stay and submerge the ship, while he took the other ten Heart Pirates into town to take over that odd building that he and Bepo had picked out the night before. Arianna followed the pirate captain, gingerly sipping from a glass of apple juice that she poured herself before leaving. Traveling into town she couldn't help but marvel at the man's ability to lead them directly back to a building that he had passed late at night. *I will never understand how Worlders don't lose track of where they are walking in towns.*
When they reached what must have been their destination, two men in what were likely uniforms, went ridged and pointed guns at Law as he was the captain. One shouted out "Come no closer pirates!" At the shout random men who were sitting at benches and talking in groups all pointed guns at the crew as well.
Law frowned and murmured "Don't give me orders." Before turning to the pirates behind him, "Take care of them."
At the order Bepo and two other Hearts swiftly struck and knocked out the eight guards, while Law calmly proceeded into the building with the others. On the inside the stone floor was completely exposed with the symbol for the World Government painted in the center while the walls were actually book shelves, all of which were full. The whole thing was incredibly underwhelming to Arianna. "All this protection for a book collection? That's a letdown."
There were some noises of agreement from some of the men but Law didn't seem to be listening. Instead he was walking the length of the room, inspecting the books. After walking one wall he announced, "These are a distraction. The subjects range far too much and there's no organization. Whoever planned this out simply tried to fill the shelves without any specific type of subject."
Standing in front of the group again, Law raised his tattooed hand "Room."
At his command a large blue dome enveloped the room. Moving his hand towards the left wall, with his index finger extended, he moved it to be pointing to the other wall with the command "Tact." At the command all of the books and the shelves shot out towards to other wall.
Arianna stood in awe, she had not been expecting him to have a special power like this. *This must be one of those Devil Fruit powers.* She thought as she watched him. Apparently the desired affect didn't happen though, as Law turned his attention to the wall in front of them and repeated the process, this time bringing the books and shelves forward. Then again at the last wall. This time however something odd happened. Instead of all of the books flying away one appeared to get caught on something, and simply tilted. "There it is." She heard Law say.
Just as he said it, there was a low rumble and vibration from the floor. The brick flooring in between the emblem and the far wall slowly descended into a cavern in the ground. The girl stared in shock. "How did you know that was there?"
"It's a pretty basic type of 'secret' passage that the government uses." The pirate captain almost seemed bored in his explanation.
The girl heard a chuckle of amusement from Shachi, so she turned to him with her arms crossed and an unhappy look "What's so funny?"
He at least tried to contain himself when he answered. "Nothing. Just like Captain said, it's really basic. Almost every Marine base has this type of mechanism. We've seen them plenty of times."
"Aw come on. It's not like she's been raiding bases like us. She had no reason to know." Though Penguin tried to stand up for the girl, she didn't miss the fact that he was chuckling too. She wanted to make some type of comeback at them but something outside caught her attention, and she turned her head back towards the door. Bepo informed the crew "There's a large group gathering outside, probably the Marines."
Turning back to the room, Arianna saw Law walking towards the door, saying with a smiling "Well in that case let's go and greet them." All of the pirates smiled at their captain's words, and followed behind him out the building. Outside there was a large group of Marines, too many for Arianna to bother trying to count, all pointing their long guns with blades at Law and the ten pirates standing behind him. One Marine stepped forward and announced, "Surrender peacefully, or we will open fire!"
Arianna watched Law closely to see how he will react to being ordered again since he obviously didn't like it. At first he was simply frowning, but then a dangerous looking smirk spread across his face as he lifted his hand and once again gave the command "Room."
As the blue field surrounded Law and a fairly good sized portion of the Marines they started to panic. Faster than they could compose themselves, Law drew his sword and started slicing the air multiple time in front of him, and with each cut the men in the blue field were split apart and screaming. The sight of the pirate captain's offensive power was astonishing. She couldn't believe the way his slashes traveled across the air, it was unlike anything she had ever seen.
Sheathing his sword and leaning it against his body, Law turned to his crew "Go ahead and cut loose, I'll have my fun with these fools." Returning his attention to the men he sliced up and raising both of his hand and then moving them in circles, he gave a new command, "Shambles." Upon his command the body pieces that he had cut up, yet oddly enough were still moving and heads still screaming, began floating and all started moving at once, twisting all together.
Though the Heart Pirates were more than used to the captain's powers, Arianna was not and she stayed in her place watching for an extra few second. *How do you defend against a cut that you can't see?* She wondered to herself. The sound of a loud battle cry snapped her out of her focus and she redirected her attention to the other men. Bepo and what seemed to be a majority of the pirates all fought close ranged, including Shachi, Penguin, and Tom-san; she also saw Marcus in the fray throwing and swinging his rope dart with a great deal of skill, not one Marine was able to get close to him.
A big smile came to her face. *I guess it's okay for me to cut a little loose too, huh?* Drawing her tomahawk, Arianna leaped into the chaos. Perhaps it's because this was her first run-in with the Marines so she was an unknown factor or maybe it was her harmless appearance at first glance but at her first few steps in the battle ground none of the Marines seemed to pay her any regard. That quickly changed though when she skillfully swung he uncommon weapon into the base of a man's skull causing it to dangle at the mercy of gravity, killing him.
It seemed to be enough to convince other Marines who saw it that she should be treated just like any of the other pirates. Two charged her, probably hoping to stab her with the blades on their guns, so she caught one the blades in nook at the bottom of the rounded hatchet blade and guiding it to intercept the other one. When the two weapons collided she jumped and flipped over them, then midair and upside down she swung her weapon into the skull of one man, before landing and cutting through the ankle of the other in one fluid motion. When that man fell to the ground she slammed the blade through his neck, decapitating him. Still on the ground, she sensed something small about to come at her, but gave it no thought. Because of that mistake she felt a tearing and burning sensation on her right arm. Looking at it, she saw a gash running straight across her upper arm, then looked at where her Sense had previously warned of the projectile's origin. A Marine was pointing one of their weapons at her. *So that's what they do. Great…*
Sensing another small projectile about to come at her she made sure to get out of the way and started charging at the man who had hit her previously. Twisting her tomahawk so the spiked end was facing the outside, getting up too close to the man for him to defend himself, she thrusted the spike up through his chin. Sensing rather than seeing a group of three Marines with their weapons aimed at her, she twisted herself around the Marine she just hit to use him as a shield. But it was unnecessary as a now familiar blue film surrounded them and they were swiftly cut in half. Looking at the pirate captain she could see that he was smirking like a devil to her. She couldn't help but sweat with a thought. *Aren't you having a little too much fun?*
Turning her back to him and looking at the now almost empty battle ground, she saw something that unexpectedly sent a sharp panic through her body. A Marine that was a few feet from her was pointing his gun at Marcus, who was facing the other way. Glancing around and realizing that she was the closest to the man, she instantly kicked her tomahawk out of the dead man's chin and into her hand then threw it at the man pointing his gun at the Heart Pirate. It landed with the bladed side embedded deep in his skull, the sound of his body hitting the ground seemed to be enough to grab Marcus' attention because he then turned to see the Marine on the ground with Arianna's weapon in his head. He must have been the last Marine standing because the Heart Pirates were no longer fighting, instead they were watching as the girl walked over to pry her weapon out of the dead man making her feel a little self-conscious, especially since she knew there was more than her fair share of blood splatter on her.
"What?" she asked, trying her best to not let them know their looks were making her uncomfortable.
Marcus looked at her with an odd and somehow negative expression, but said nothing. Instead he walked past her and on to Law. "Are we clear to find out what's under the building?"
Readjusting his nodachi to a more comfortable position Law began walking back to the building. "Yeah, looks like it."
Arianna put her weapon in its place then slammed her hands on her hips with a sour expression. "What's his problem?"
Penguin who had walked up to her, answered. "Marcus is a nice guy, but he's a bit on the proud side in a fight. He doesn't like other's making it look like he needs help."
Groaning a little at the answer, Arianna followed Law and the rest of the pirates that were returning to the building, though not before voicing her opinion. "Pride's no excuse for rudeness when someone saves your life."
Back inside the building the group continued down passage that they had uncovered previously. Law turned on switch at the bottom, lighting up the short hallway. At the end was a tall, square stone pillar.
With everyone up close and inspecting the pillar Shachi asked loudly. "What is this?"
"Hm… Not sure." Law answered thoughtfully.
Thankfully Jean Bart stepped forward with an answer, "It's called a Poneglyph."
Everyone turned to him, hoping he would explain further, so he did. "They're stones from the Void Period. That's why they're written in a dead language. For whatever reason though some people go to great lengths to find them, even though being able to read the language it's written in is illegal. That's a law that the World Government enforced with great prejudice too if the rumors I've heard to too be believed."
Law frowned deeply. "Useless to us, huh? Room." With a blue dome filling the room, the pirate captain began cutting the stone into many pieces.
"What are you doing?" Shachi shouted in surprise.
Apparently satisfied with his work, Law closed his room and sheathed his sword. "We obviously can't use it, but I'm not leaving it for the World Government to go back to researching, or whatever they were doing here. Let's go."
With that Law and the crew left, all in obvious disappointment.
A/N: I almost broke this into two chapters, but thought "I'm not waiting another chapter for the fight!" So now you have a long chapter to read. Sorry, it felt like the lesser evil in the decision. And sorry if a little bit of BL makes anyone uncomfortable, I don't plan on going into deep detail on their relationship, I just couldn't pass up having a gay couple in my story. Hehe (´。• ω •。`)
Just one more reminder. I don't expect to be able to put out another chapter for a couple of weeks, so please bear with me.
0030Savage Kill: I hope you enjoyed the fight, it's my first :)
sarge1130: Another mistake! (°Д °;)
Thanks for the "secrete" heads up, I can always count on you to notice my fails lol :)
And I hate to say it but the respect is going to take some time, I want their relationship to develop over time. Stories where characters just wake up one day and decide to have a completely new opinion of another character kind of bug me.
Son of Whitebeard: Yeah, well I wouldn't expect any less from Law. Would you? ;)
