Hello, my dear readers (if there are any left)!
I'm truly sorry for this summertime hiatus! So thank you for your reviews and I give to you: A filler chapter, aka The Feast
When Chopper came down the stairs his heart jumped with delight. The foods displayed on the table looked amazing. And there was cotton candy too.
As expected Luffy was the first at the table, already shuffling down meat like the world was ending. It didn't take long for the first men to fall under the table in a drunken haze. Many were surprised of how well the hosting crew, consisting of mostly women, held their liquor.
As the pirates ravaged the table from its contents not many of them noticed the small bowl of what seemed to be unflavoured onigiri. Sanji, being the all-star cook he was critically observed the small bowl. There was something wrong with it.
"Excuse me, who's your cook?" he asked a PunkRock pirate passing by. She pointed to a woman with short purple hair and green camouflage patterned pants. If it wouldn't have been for his questions about the food Sanji would've probably fallen to the floor, bleeding through his nose. Again.
"What's up with the food? Why would you set up this unbelievable meal?" He glanced at the table. When they came down it had been full of different fish, rare animal meat, fruits in the most amazing colours and even some eatable flowers. Even the flowers seemed to have been mostly eaten, by hungry pirates. "Why would you put up such a façade and then have unflavoured onigiri hidden in the middle?" he sounded irritated, but not really mad. Mostly he was curious, why would you put plain onigiri in between baked jewelfish in cloudberry marinade and sugar-roasted tropical fruit?
The woman glanced at him and then her lips curved into an innocent smile. "How do you know it's unflavoured?" He just stared at her. He blinked once. Twice.
"WHAT?" he tried to control himself. She's a lady. Take deep breaths, Sanji, deep breaths. "It clearly has the colour of plain, non-flavoured onigiri. There are no signs of any other ingredients than rice, salt and nori." He brought it to his nose. "And there is no spicy smell or anything."
This time it was the woman who's getting impatient. "So on account of what you've seen. You can conclude that it will taste like, what rice and seaweed? There is nothing special in it. No small imperfections that completes the picture?" She was glaring now.
This was the moment when, unfortunately for them, Shachi and Penguin decided to join the conversation. "You know, my mum used to tell me that depending on what flavour you liked in your onigiri you could find out what kind of girl you liked." Shachi commented, while looking at the, in his opinion too, plain rice balls. This sparked Sanji's interest. "Really?"
Shachi nodded, his hat almost flying of his head. "Yes, if you liked hot and spicy onigiri, your girl would be a brunette or redhead with nice curves." His face got a dreamy look too it. "The plain ones often symbolised plain girls, often with wheat coloured hair and slender form." Shachi whispered to Sanji. "Usually they are goody two shoes or virgins too." The purple haired woman, obviously ignored in the whole conversation looked about ready to explode.
"YOU IDIOTS! Have you even TRIED the onigiri?" Penguin who had stood next to Shachi, silently gnawing on a fried octopus tentacle, jumped high in the air. When he landed he, and the other two men had confused looks on their faces. She felt like facepalming.
"You're the cook, right blondie? Ever heard of tasting before judging? Or better yet getting to know the girl before ditching her. It's the inside that counts, baka." She sighed and left. "Tell the captain I retired for the night. Stupid men, and stupid headaches."
Sanji just stood there, staring at the onigiri. Slowly he picked one up; Shachi and Penguin were quick to follow. With great care the blonde cook put the rice ball to his mouth and took a bite. First he had that "I-Knew-I-was-right"-look on his face. But then his expression changed. Inside the seaweed itself, that was where the spices were hiding. It felt like a volcanic eruption in his mouth. From hot, to sweet, to bitter, to that special taste that is your favourite taste, but if you were asked to describe it, it would be impossible.
He fell to his knees. What have I done? He thought. I've angered one of the world's divine goddesses. After five seconds he jumped up and ran down the same hallway she'd left through. "Don't go, you beautiful woman. Please teach me more of your amazing cooking skills. I didn't even get your name."
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Muse had watched the whole spectacle, sitting next to her first mate. "I bet she'll forgive him after a week, but only in an attempt to get him to shut up." she whispered in Elyza's ear. Elyza let a small smile grace her lips at her captain's comment.
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Everyone seemed to be having a good time. After the incident with the onigiri there weren't any major spectacles for the rest of the evening. Untill…
"Well, I'm tired. So I'm going to sleep. Good night Rin-chan." The man who spoke looked like a true northerner. But if anybody cared enough to ask he would tell them he hadn't much cared for his home island. Rin had cared. Some would say she cared to much, their captain just waited for the moment when they would leave their insecurities behind and just be together.
"Good night, Shasha." Rin answered with a blush. After he left she nervously twirled one of her braids around her fingers. When she didn't see him anymore she walked over to where her captain sat, talking with some of her new allies.
"Muse-sama?" The girl was painfully shy, but her captain had heard and nodded for her to go on. With a few careful steps Rin bent down at her captain's side and whispered something in her ear.
Especially Nico Robin and Trafalgar Law strained their ears. But the young woman's whisper was as faint as a breeze and only her captain was able to decipher the meaning of her words.
Muse closed her eyes and she split in two. An illusion. The illusion followed through the door that Shasha went through only minutes ago. After approximately one minute the real Muse opened her eyes and nodded to Rin.
The younger woman smiled in relief and went off to get… a flute?
With an apologetic look she glanced at the people around her captain. "If you don't mind, Muse-sama promised earlier to listen to a little thing I made." her captain smiled encouragingly and Rin put the flute to her lips.
The melody that followed was quite something else. The long notes felt longer, the sharp ones sharper and that vibrato put goose bumps on your arms. To the trained ear it wasn't just a tune. It was filled with unspoken feelings, shyness and first love. Muse had never felt these feelings and was unable to write this kind of music. But it didn't bother her much, her only wish was for those two to get a grip of their selves and tell each other how they felt. Maybe this song would help them. And so another of Muse's master plans was formed.
When Rin stopped there was a complete silence, except for the snores. Everybody were either listening or sleeping from too good booze.
Muse whispered something to Rin and she ran eagerly through the door, her braids came undone in the process and her hair cascaded like a waterfall down her back.
The masses blinked and soon the noise level was back on track.
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"I must say, Muse. You're quite something else." Nico Robin stated with a small mysterious smile. The pirate captain in question nodded acknowledging the compliment. "But I must ask, why would someone who escaped want to go back?"
At this the brunette laughed out loud. "Well, what is it that has drawn old family names into oblivion, because of petty vendettas? Revenge, of course!" her face got a playful look too it. "But who says, I can't have some fun while getting it?" earlier in the evening she'd explained the mother of all master plans to them.
Killer was deep in thought. He'd realised why her bounty was so high during this evening, because of numerous reasons. Her mood was constantly changing, making her unpredictable, like the Straw hat captain. Her plans were devious and well thought through, just like that ice cold bastard Trafalgar Law. She had a useful devil's fruit ability, like the most of them. She had a background story with the world government. And her stamina was even better than his captain's, which slightly worried him. Besides, she was a woman with a goal and from past dealings with Jewelery Bonney, he knew how scary those could be. Killer shuddered, and not from the cold.
Trafalgar Law was silently observing. He had to admit that her plan was good. Neither marines nor the World government had healed completely from the escape from Enies Lobby and the total destruction of the Marine HQ, but he was sceptical. There was something she wasn't telling them. They were a powerful bunch, no denying that, but they weren't the strongest in these waters. There were the four emperors and the seven Shichibukai. Not to mention the marine admirals, they weren't any small fries either.
How was she going to either fight them, or hinder even one of them from interfering?
While Dr. Law was thinking it took a while before he realised where his thoughts had taken him. I bet there's some puppy love between Rin and, what was his name. oh right, Sasha. He blinked a few times. It reminded him of the girl from his past. That wheat coloured hair, those kind eyes. It was her death, right after he became an orphan, which drove him away from his home island.
He felt tears building up in his eyes, but only Bepo his loyal first mate who could smell the saltiness in the air, noticed. None of them said anything out loud, it wasn't needed.
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What none of her allies knew was that she had a secret weapon and powerful friends. So before going to Mariejois, she felt her blood start too boil even at the thought of that damn place, they would have to make some stops. But first, everybody needed to get their ships back.
So tell me what you thought in a review? In the last chapter I told you about not knowing what would happen "in the middle" but now I know, so hopefully you'll see another chapter soon :))
