Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. I only own Yami.


Chapter 9: Skull Without Crossbones

After a short stop to bring Carue ashore since Vivi had a letter for him to take to her father, they sailed on. It was afternoon and almost dark now, and Yami lay on the grassy ground of the tiny mikan grove. The rest of the crew was still in the dining room or somewhere else on deck. Luffy, after sitting on the lamb head the whole day, had finally agreed to eat something and acted normal again, much to everyone's relief.

The wind blew through the leaves of Nami's mikan trees, making them rustle softly. It was a soothing noise. Not that she needed it, though. She was perfectly at ease with herself at the moment, she knew what she did, and even if she didn't know why, she accepted it. Her captain … or, ex-captain … had given her this strange mission, but she thought she'd better not finish it. Her captain was just another stupid pirate, he didn't know her. Nobody did. And that was the reason why she had jumped from one pirate crew to the other, since she had been thirteen years old – with the exception of one special crew, that is. Always restless, always searching for something more.

But she didn't doubt to find that "something" someday.

She sighed, folding her arms behind her head and looking up to the red evening sky. The sun was just about to go down, and here on deck she had a magnificent view on the changing colours it brought up.

She should have been surprised when someone sat down next to her, but she wasn't. He was the only one who hadn't been there when she had woken up.

Yami smiled. The green-haired swordsman just sat there and kept silent, but that was all she needed to understand.

It was his way of saying 'thank you'. She hadn't expected him to say it. It wasn't his style. He wasn't a man of many words, and thus they sat and lay there until it was dark, before he rose again and went away, without saying a word. But it was perfectly okay.

She looked at the sky. She had always liked the stars, they gave her hope. Seeing the stars, she always thought back at the moments she had sat on deck of another ship, at another time … when everything had still been okay. When her parents had still been alive. Sometimes, her mother had let her stay up until it was completely dark and sat on deck with her, watching the stars and telling her tales about them.

She had loved those tales. But now, they only made her sad.


The next morning …

"We're almost there, just one more hour, I think …" Nami stated, and the crew burst out in chaos.

Usopp, Chopper and Luffy danced around, sing-songing "We're going to Alabasta, we're going to Alabasta …", Ace rolled his eyes and went away to pack his few things, Vivi smiled at the boys' curious antics, Nami rushed into the girls' room to get something, Yami lay on the floor laughing, Sanji went to the kitchen to prepare food for their journey through the desert, and even Zoro showed a slight smirk.

When Nami returned, she gave Vivi some bundles and they started distributing them among the crew. She already wore her white cloak, covering almost every part of her skin, and Sanji, who immediately came down on the lower deck, had his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. "Nami-swan, what's that you're wearing?" he cried hysterically, then turned around, only to see Vivi wearing the same cloak, dark blue this time. "And you, Vivi-chwan! You're dressed in the same thing …"

When he saw Yami putting on her black cloak too, he almost fainted. The girls raised their brows at him. "Sanji, there's over fifty degrees in the desert! You want us to get roasted by the sun?" Nami asked and shook her head in disapproval.

"Oh my God, that looks horrible! What have I done to deserve this?" Sanji exclaimed, dropped and started rolling on the floor in a circle. Yami put her hand on her mouth so as not to laugh out loud at the sight. She took her dark red scarf and draped it around her neck, over the cloak's hood, then tied up the piece of cloth and fixed it with a scarf pin. When she had finished, she looked down herself contentedly, even if she already began to feel the heat building up inside the cloak.

"You look like a giant bat with a scarf," Ace pointed out with a smirk as he went past her. She narrowed her eyes and scrutinised him exactly in turn. He also wore a black cloak, but the brims of his sleeves were decorated with red flames winding upwards. And, of course, he wore his orange hat. Not so bad.

He stopped and raised his brows at her as she cocked her head to the left. "Well, you look rather hot," she replied, showing a smirk similar to his, and he immediately turned away from her, scowling. She chuckled. Gotcha … again! She loved the way she could make him speechless. She saw him walking away … and then, suddenly, his legs gave in and he fell to the floor with a loud thud – and a snore.

She stared at him wide-eyed before she started laughing so hard that she fell to the floor herself.


The crew watched the coast come nearer and nearer with mixed feelings. The three boys, on the one hand, were eager to go ashore and experience adventures, while the others, especially Vivi, seemed rather thoughtful.

When they had docked and moored the ship, Luffy immediately jumped off and ran in the direction of the town whose buildings they could already see. "We made it! Yuba!" he exclaimed happily, then looked around. "Huh? Wait a minute … there's nothing here!" He turned around to his crew. "Let's look for the leader! Where is he?"

Of course he meant the Rebel Army's leader, but as they looked at the town, it was barely imaginable that there was anybody in that town. It looked … dead. Yami eyed the ruins that were left of the city she herself had been in once when she had been a child. It was disturbing.

"No, Luffy-san, this isn't Yuba yet," Vivi corrected his mistake. "We still have to walk north-west through the desert for a while."

"A while? How much is a while?" Usopp asked, and Vivi showed them on the map. "We crossed the Sandora River and we just landed here at Erumalu, the 'Green Town'."

"Green Town?" Luffy asked incredulously. "But there's nothing green around here!"

And indeed, there was just desert everywhere, and it looked like the sand was about to devour the ruins of the ghost city that had once been looking the way that someone actually gave it the nickname 'Green Town'.

"No, not anymore …" Vivi said, and in that very moment, a strange animal broke right out of the water next to the ship. It looked rather cute, like a turtle crossed with a seal for it had a shell like a turtle and a tail fin like a seal, with its left arm held up high and such a cute look on its face that it was just adorable.

"KUO!" it exclaimed.

"Gaaaah!" Usopp screamed in surprise. He stood right next to the place where it had appeared.

"Whoa, what the hell is that, a turtle?" Zoro called out.

"A seal?" Usopp approached the cute being, and Yami had to slap a hand on her mouth in order to prevent squeaking in happiness. This animal just looked so damn cute …

"No, a Kung Fu Dugong!" Vivi screamed. "NO, USOPP-SAN, GET AWAY FROM IT!"

"Kung Fu?" Usopp asked confused.

"Kuo!" the animal confirmed, and in the next second the sharpshooter already lay on the ground, littered with lumps and bruises.

"Owww …" he moaned in pain.

Yami's eyes almost came out of their sockets. Was that really … had this cute being just … finished him off?

Vivi brought one hand up to her mouth. "They're strong …" she stated worriedly.

Yup, I can definitely see that, Yami thought dryly as she stared at the Dugong now standing with both fists in the air in a victorious pose.

"You lost …" Zoro muttered.

"Umm …" Nami cleared her throat, "we have a winner over here …" She pointed at Luffy who had just successfully defeated the Dugong in no time.

"Don't beat them, either!" Vivi screeched, but as the Dugong bowed at Luffy, she sighed.

"Huh?" he asked and scratched his head.

"It's Kung Fu Dugong law that the loser of a fight becomes the winner's student," she explained.

"That's so cute!" Yami squeaked into her palm, staring as more Dugongs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and crowded around Luffy who showed them some fighting stances. Ace chuckled as he first looked at her who didn't even notice for she absorbed the incredulous sight right in front of her, then at his brother in the middle of that Dugong sea.

"HOW DID YOU GET SO MANY?" Vivi yelled, unable to believe this.

Five minutes later …

"Now let's go to Yuba!" Luffy exclaimed after having waved goodbye at the Dugongs. They had to leave some of their supplies with them, in order to make them stay, and fortunately (and still a bit unbelievable to Yami) Chopper had talked to them to convince them to stay right there and not go with them, even if Luffy wanted that. But, as Nami said rightly, with a horde of Kung Fu Dugongs in tow it would be impossible to go unnoticed in towns.

"God, how cute …" Yami mumbled as she went backwards to watch them as they waved their goodbyes, with the food in their cute little mouths and tears streaming down their faces.

"Tch … girls," she heard Ace mutter next to her.

She waved until the cute little beings were out of sight, then turned to him with a happy smile. "Don't you think they're cute?" she requested, but he just rolled his eyes. "But they'll surely be a nice watch for the ship …"

Ace nodded. "Yeah, that could be right. They seem to like Luffy."

"Well, who does not like Luffy?" she laughed. He just smiled.

In the meantime, Vivi explained why the 'Green Town' was now a ghost city, but it was nothing new. Severe drought, the nearby river not having enough water, and it was almost ironic that a city at a coast, right in front of masses of water, could run dry. The people couldn't use seawater, and it was as easy as that. She also told that Nanohana got its water from an oasis so it couldn't suffer the same fate.

Luffy bent down and picked something up, but nobody paid attention except Chopper.

"Even in Alabasta, no rainfall has never been something to worry about …" Vivi went on, "but there was always one place that got more rain than anywhere else. The capital, Alubarna, where I grew up." She sighed. "The people called it the 'King's Miracle' … at least, they did up until that day …"

She explained how a huge amount of Dance Powder had been seemingly accidentally found, with its deliverers emphasising the fact that they were to deliver it to King Cobra, Vivi's father.

Dance Powder … Yami mused and recalled all she knew about the matter, while Nami illustrated it to the others. She already knew where that was leading to … Vivi had mentioned about Crocodile making her father seem unreliable and traitorous to the people of Alabasta.

While Luffy exclaimed that Vivi's father was very evil, not checking anything and immediately earning himself a kick in the head by Sanji for daring to talk such bullshit, Vivi herself sighed again and looked at the ground in front of her feet. As she knelt down, she continued to talk about the treachery and intrigues that led the country into civil war, but Yami didn't listen. She only saw the thing in front of her … the thing that stared up at them with wide, dark, never-closing eyes …

Vivi brought the skull up and pressed it to her forehead, talking on, but Yami heard nothing. She was suddenly surrounded by silence, silence everywhere, creeping upon her from all sides. Her widened eyes were focused on the smudgy-white piece of bones in the princess' hands, as if the world around her ceased to exist. Just her and the skull.

No … no …

Her mind went blank except the pure horror establishing there, all caused by the human remains laying on the ground. She gasped soundlessly as she was sucked into her own memories, long ago, skulls on poles, impaled like a nightmarish fence around the Marine outpost, some still with hair tufts attached to their withered skin flaking off like brown torn fabric in the sun …

"CROCODILE!" She was torn out of her own personal nightmare with a start. "WHAT RIGHT DOES HE HAVE TO DO THOSE THINGS?" Vivi's voice …

She swallowed, but her throat was dry, and this was definitely not caused by the sun.

"I WILL NEVER EVER LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS …!" the princess yelled out and buried her pretty face in her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Somehow, Yami couldn't realise what was happening. She gulped a second time. It hurt like hell. She knew she should pity Vivi right now, or the country at least, but right now she couldn't. She was still somewhere else with one half, torn between past and present, and even if her eyes started to burn, she couldn't even blink to make the pain disappear. She still stared wide eyed at the skull now in Ace's hands as he helped Vivi bury it.

Then, a loud crashing sound reached them, and they saw the highest building in the ghost town collapse like a house of cards.

"Tch … stupid kids …" Zoro muttered under his breath as Luffy, Sanji and Usopp made their way back to them.

Yami blinked, bewildered. She hadn't even seen them disappear. "Let's move forward already," Luffy said with an expressionless face as his swirling arms finally came to a halt. "I'm freakin' out."

Yami stared at him, and the occurrences of the last few minutes slowly came back. Crocodile … had no right to do this … civil war … Luffy, Sanji and Usopp crashing a building in their rage. She shook her head violently to get rid of the other thoughts lurking in the background of her mind.

The skeleton was buried more or less properly, and now that the former head of a human being didn't look at her so terrifyingly, she could breathe again. Silently, she followed Luffy and his crew out of the town.


Author's note: Yup, Yami has an aversion for skulls. Just good that Brook's not yet with them xD Or else her coolness would have melted away like ice cubes in the desert of Alabasta …