Shayde's POV:
I watched Luffy disappear from my line of sight still being chased by the blonde haired woman but I kept to my steady pace not feeling any need to put extra energy into my walking as I can easily track them back down from the mess they're making. I look around me into the forest soaking up the noise and light trickling through the branches. I tip my head back and close my eyes not needing to look where I'm going as I let my instincts wash through my body heightening all of my senses as I reminisce in how much I've missed forest life even if this one was foreign to me. I can tell by Winston's easy breathing he's enjoying our little walk too I'm sure this brings back memories for him too. I let my mind wander back to my childhood and then it made me think of my sensei and growing up in forested lands of varying levels of terror and certain death. A chill shoots up my spine and I mumble to myself "Yea I'd rather not think of that right now…" Winston lets out a puff of air as if to agree and I lightly giggle it's liberating being back in such a familiar environment but we continue on with our silent walking.
When I begin to hear less wildlife I decide to extend my senses even farther and hear the faint hum of a town that seemed to overflow with life and noise. I turn to my right and head towards the sound, figuring that I'd be able to find something there. Winston clopping alongside me stares at me intently as if trying to read my mind but I ignore him as I'm used to his protective yet quiet nature.
Time seems to pass in a flash whilst in my daze and before I know it I'm standing at the base of a giant wall. I glance up admiring it's shear size with a low whistle before looking at Winston as if to question what he'd do now he simple huffs in distaste and becomes translucent like a silver ghost before twirling around me then into his capsule, almost reluctant to go back, that hung around my neck bundled into the scarf with the rest of my other companion's capsules. I gently run my hands over them touching them all allows their comforting warmth to flood my senses one a fresh breeze, the other a hot flash of adrenaline, another a calming meditative feel lulling me into rest, until I reach the last one that feels stone cold and sends a sharp icy spear into my heart that knocks the air out of me. My eyes tear up and I rip my hand away from the capsules then quickly shake my head like a wet dog trying to fling the feeling off of me like water. Then I looked back up the wall before transforming into the form of a hawk again with my fiery red feathers and stormy colored eyes that together looked extremely exotic on a simple small bodied hawk. Taking off flying up the wall then soaring even higher to get a, literal, bird's eye view of the city which was extremely impressive. It seemed to go on forever and was filled with bright colors, intricate buildings that appeared classical and covered in snake sculptures, and it was filled of all shapes of people that upon further inspection were all women. I smirk and think to myself 'Just my kinda place. No obnoxious men to get in my way.' In general I simply got along better with women since they generally were easier to deal with and had far more common sense than most men, however, that statement is leaving out any drama queen kind of woman.
After a few minutes of circling above the town a few times I steer towards a simple building that appears to be on the outer ring of houses with no one around. After making sure that no one was able to see me I transformed back into my human form in a liquid stream then a puff of red smoke. Despite being this way for years it always baffled me that my clothes and gear stayed on my person as if entering my soul in a storage style area.
In the distance I could hear a bunch of loud commotion all centered in one area and I've learned that wherever action and loud noises are is probably where Strawhat is. I sit still on the roof for a few seconds contemplating if I should head towards the noise. Then wind picks up sending my hair flying into my face where I notice the orange, mostly brown now, tresses covered in mud and has twigs weaved into it from my time hanging in the trees most likely. I quickly make up my mind that I need to find a place to bathe and set off to see what I could find.
After wandering from building to building I begin to grow frustrated as I can't seem to locate a bath house or open spring. I let out an exasperated sigh then close my eyes standing as still as a statue as I focus on my ears to increase my hearing that I normally kept dulled so I wouldn't be nauseous around people. I inhale deeply and release it slowly, as if I'm meditating, while trying to pinpoint any sound of water without being overwhelmed by the insane city noise. My sharpened ears quickly pinpoint the sound of a waterfall that seems to be on the outskirts of the village in a bamboo forest.
I let out a small smirk, proud of my discovery, as I carefully focus my ears solely on the location of the waterfall. If I let my concentration slip I'll be bombarded with the sounds of the entire village which would most likely make me throw up or pass out. It's happened before…rather embarrassing and crushed my intimidating image at the time. Thinking about it set a scowl to my face but I shake my head lightly and quicken my pace towards the springs I can hear growing closer by the second as I catapult myself rooftop to rooftop, nimble as a deer. When the waterfall begins to grow too loud for comfort I dull my hearing back down which feels a bit like stuffing my ears with cotton until I acclimate to the dulling of noise. I drop off the last rooftop and trot through the bamboo forest shield to have a pool of water come into sight. I quickly dart behind a group of bamboo shoots as I notice a bunch of the native women surrounding the pool of water and two women in it seeming to be bathing someone. I crane my neck in various odd directions trying to see who they were bathing and finally catch a glimpse at their face as the chunky woman shifts out of the way. It's fuckin Strawhat… Why is he unconscious and why are those women bathing him?!
I quickly make myself take a deep breath to clear my mind from my thoughts and take to observing what these women do and then decide if I should intervene or not. Of course I'd only do it because Rayleigh-san seems to have taken a liking to Strawhat and asked me to help him before. As I zone out thinking about Rayleigh and possible connections between him and Strawhat I fail to notice when the women calm down and start moving Luffy out of the water and to who knows where. After they had left and I finally snapped out of my daze I notice all the women have left.
Using this moment of peace and pushing Strawhat to the back of my mind I quickly strip off my clothes, save the cuffs around my wrists and my companions capsules, revealing a large tattoo on my back of an ancient looking tree. It was pure black ink and in the trees leaves initials could be faintly made out. As I step into the naturally warmed water I quickly submerge myself fully and start working the dirt out of my hair and off my skin as best I can.
A flash of more black ink out of the corner of my eye caught my attention as I stare at the twisting thorned vine wrapping up my left arm it was shaded black to grey the whole way the vines obscured as if the arm was tainted there was two words written on the arm running horizontal on my outer forearm in blood red, World Government. Normally the tattoo is hidden under a mid-upper arm length glove, I'm not used to seeing it bared to the world. It wasn't something I was embarrassed of it was simply a dark reminder of my purpose in life that I did not need to sit and stare at all day.
Sometimes I regret getting the tattoo in such a noticeable spot, but deep down I also understand why I chose to do exactly that. A bitter reminder of my weakness and failure towards my own tribe. Closing my eyes and taking a few deep even breaths to clear my mind I remind myself to keep moving forwards and towards my goal.
I rapidly finish cleaning myself off then shove my clothes back on painfully as the damp skin on my legs did not allow my jeans to go on easily. My face twists in disgust as I wish I had a change of clothes, but I've gone longer without. After straightening everything out I start walking out of the bamboo area back towards the populated areas looking for a crowd and listening for any loud commotion to direct me towards Strawhat's location.
It didn't take me long to find a large crowed of native women surrounding a cage where I saw Luffy at the bars frowning at a brunette holding a pad of paper as though she was interviewing him. I hid in an alley way and waited to see what Luffy would decide to do. It didn't take long for it to truly sink in for him that he was completely separated from his crew and he immediately broke out of his 'cell' and tore across the rooftops trying to find a way back out to sea. The women took off in pursuit shooting arrows at him volley after volley.
I was left almost choking from holding in my mirth, my body shaking as I muffled my giggles. I could not believe it took Strawhat that long to figure out his situation… I almost cringed at the stupidity behind it all.
Deciding to leisurely follow after Strawhat whilst staying under the natives radar I set off ducking between alleyways and over rooftops following the path of arrows and direction of yelling. I did contemplate shifting into an animal form, but decided doing this old school would be far more interesting.
~Couple Hour Time Skip~
Strawhat had managed to piss off the princess of this island, who was the self-proclaimed most beautiful woman in the world. She was quite beautiful, but her nasty personality tainted any outer beauty. I watched from the shadows of the colosseum styled ring as Strawhat struggled to strike a deal with the 'Snake Princess' to free the women she had turned to stone. It quickly fell into a battle between the snake sisters and Strawhat.
I was itching to jump in and get in on the action, but respected Strawhat too much to interfere in his battles. My foot bounced and tapped random beats during all the high stress situations, but I quickly realized Luffy could handle himself and there was no need to worry about him. Watching Luffy fight was almost hypnotizing and I quickly realized why people naturally were drawn to this boy. I had made my decision in deciding to follow my gut and Rayleigh's intuition, I hope to any god out there this wasn't a huge mistake and would help heal my bitter, dark soul and achieve my goal.
I averted my eyes from Luffy and instead bore my eyes into the Snake Princess and as if sensing my intense stare she began scanning the area as if searching for something. I averted my gaze to the sky lazily watching the clouds move, and patiently waited for the battle to end before I would go confront Luffy on my newly made decision.
After the girls had been freed from their frozen state I jumped out from my shadowed hiding spot and towards the platform of the battle. Gaining everyone's attention and confusion I kept my gaze zeroed in on Luffy. The Princess looked royally pissed as she was about to give Luffy yet another long winded speech. He gave me a toothy grin and a thumbs up as if he knew I had been there silently cheering him on. I smirked then said bluntly "I think it wouldn't be too terrible to follow a man as interesting as you…"
Luffy immediately lit up as his grin seemed to get even wider, if that was possible, as he said "I'll take that as a yes on joining the crew then!"
I let out a sarcastically exasperated sigh saying, "Not like you gave me much of a choice to begin with…"
"Shishishi~, nope!"
Long time no post... Ha..ha... Yea, sorry. More to come! I will be doing this same shorter chapter style to kind of skim through the upcoming events in the One Piece Story as I don't want to change it too much yet. However, it will diverge soon as a bit of soulmate action is brought in and conflict as it's not gonna just work perfectly immediately. ;) Anyway till next time and thank you so much to those who have stuck around, means a lot to me!
