You heard of reincarnation? What if you could purchase your next life? One particular girl decides the OP universe would be a great heaven. But what if it turned out to be...not so heavenly?
Through the forest they walked once again, this time with an addition of four to the party. Luffy was some way away at the front of the group, swinging from trees, punching trees, singing about trees. The name Monkey really did him justice. He looked like a true member of the local wildlife, at one with the trees, limbs specifically designed for this one true purpose. And Aniko felt like David Attenborough. Such a shame the man didn't exist in this universe.
Zoro brought up the rear. Rear, ha! Aniko tittered to herself. How childish.
She could almost feel his eyes piercing through her back alike how his swords would if given the chance. He must be itching to spear her like some kind of human kebab, without actually eating the kebab. Cannibalism was not cool. Even if Zoro was into cannibalism (Aniko thanked God Eiichiro Oda had not written that into the plot) he would probably get lost trying to find a place to cook her.
And speaking of getting lost he really should not be at the back. Aniko glanced back, just a quick look over the shoulder look to check he wasn't wandering off the path, and she could swear the glare he sent her withered her soul. He really was not happy with her. She couldn't help it if her mouth was profusely brutal nowadays. The words just slipped out.
The wonderful bloody-nosed cook sulked a few paces ahead of Aniko, having been told in quite a clear-cut manner to go away by Nami. Sanji took it upon himself to take his sourness out on Yona, poor thing. Nitpicking and probing, Sanji was questioning her assistant rather thoroughly on the pretence of not trusting a dirty Marine. Why wasn't Aniko questioned and called names? That answer easy enough, there was two of them sitting on her chest. Perks of being a woman, that more liberal part of her mind was happy to supply. But Hannah had always been prudish- that's what her friends had teased her about at least.
Nami walked with Aniko. They talked and giggled, like two school girls, pointing and making fun of members of their class. It was strange to see Nami willing to bond with a marine so easily. Easily swayed by money, Aniko reminded herself. Or maybe she wasn't trying to bond. Maybe she was doing the exact same thing as Sanji: probing, searching, analysing. She was evaluating Aniko. Oddly enough, Aniko found herself doing the exact same thing to Nami. Marine instincts, she told herself. But perhaps it was something else, something from Hannah. The way she dissected people with her mind, linking one and one to make two. This was her psychiatrist instincts, Marine too. They both had to know how people work to perform their job. She supposed this was one of the similarities Marica had told her about.
However one thing Aniko would not have been able to do as Hannah is to mingle in this way, to act and play in that dangerous social game. At school she kept out of the arguments, sat on the sidelines to make assessments of the motives and wants. Hannah's friends had lapped up her ideas about those fights, ready to feed them into the rumour mill. Hannah hadn't realised her friend's used her as such a reliable source of gossip at first. Most of it had been pure speculation. Fiona is only acting like this now, not because she wants George back, but to know she hasn't lost to Olivia. She had been right on the money every time.
Hannah may have understood people but she struggled to be around people at times. She saw the way girls would flirt or giggle or swear and she couldn't reflect and emulate these actions as others could. It was not her scene. She watched awkwardly at parties, said the wrong thing when someone was crying over an ex, was unaccustomed to hugs. She acted like it was all part of some long running gag, a quirky joke she liked to keep up. This awkwardness isn't me, it's all intended. Bullshit.
Aniko was enjoying the ease of social interaction. It was almost as if she didn't care now. Aniko was beyond caring and she was so grateful her personality was like that. It made it easier to laugh and pretend with Nami, to be that stereotypical girl she had found it so hard to be. It was nice.
"Oi, I see some massive dragon up ahead!" Luffy cried from his perch in a tree.
"A d-dragon?" Yona spluttered.
"How many dragons are we going to stumble across?" Aniko heard Zoro mutter from somewhere behind. You haven't come across that many, Aniko thought sourly. Although they had come across more dragons than most people could say.
"That's what we're looking for Yona," Aniko marched onwards when the rest of the group had stopped dead in their tracks, giving Yona a slap to the head as she passed. "The dragon skull is the Bane pirates' flag. That's what you meant Mr Strawhat, right?" Was it terribly wrong to be worried it might be a real dragon? That would be incredibly unlikely although she would never condone herself to saying impossible, not in this universe.
"Oh, yeah. A flag." A relieved sigh came from the group at Luffy's reply. "Are those the guys we're meant to be beating up?"
"Uh-huh," Aniko nodded, "Go do it."
"Okay!" Luffy took no time in hesitation. He was already zooming off before Nami could call him back.
"What did you do that for?" She turned on Aniko angrily, "We need to plan."
"I believe no amount of planning is going to change the way he fights. Might as well just go for it."
"Although I hate to admit it, I have to agree with her." Zoro admitted gruffly, eyes adamantly turned from Aniko, forcing him to blindly jab a thumb in her direction. "There's no changing Luffy."
Nami pursed her lips in a surly manner but the droll glint to her eyes revealed all, "Yes. There's no changing Luffy."
...
After a quick jog to catch up to Luffy, the group made it to the small inlet where the bane pirate ship was nestled. The ship resided in-between two rocky walls of a headland, jutting out of the coast line and concealing the vessel from view. Obviously Barbossa Bane had not expected anyone to come searching for him who would have the vantage point of a rubber man or the smarts of an ex-physiatrist-in-training/marine detective.
Very quickly, almost scarily quickly, Nami had set about finding a secretive way onto the ship and by extension to the captain's quarters, making great use of the distraction Luffy was providing. The rubber man himself was knocking crew members out like there was no tomorrow, grinning and cackling all the way. Aniko had opted to stay in a tree, clambering up a groove covered ficus found at the edge of the beach, Yona scrambling up the trunk after her with a bit more difficulty. She had decided that it was probably best to remain an observer in a battle like this. She would not trust herself against a merciless devil fruit-using pirate captain, not after she saw the carnage that devil fruit had inflicted on Suijin's parents.
Zoro was simply nowhere to be seen and Aniko could only presume he had gotten lost. How? She had not a clue. She had never had a clue to the prompt of Zoro's strange quirk when reading the manga (although it made for some hilarious occurrences) and now, in the real life one piece universe, she had even less of a clue. After seeing how short a distance they had covered and that the swordsman had still managed to wander off, Aniko was left perplexed. She had faith in him to turn up at the right moment though- that tended to be the one piece way after all.
Hanging back by her tree was Sanji. He seemed reluctant to leave her, even after Aniko began shooing the cook. Apparently, she could not be left with only a ginger buffoon protecting her. Cutting right into Aniko's dry listing of her qualifications and accomplishments to Sanji, in a hope to let him know he was sincerely not needed by her side, there was a deafening crash as the bizarre form of Barbossa Bane went crashing through a door and onto the deck of his ship.
"I think that's your cue," Aniko said and Sanji obviously agreed, for in the next moment, he set off bounding into the thick of the battle.
The odds of winning this battle had very suddenly been turned on its head. Luffy had been doing fine against all the grunts on the deck of the ship, but now that Barbossa had joined the fray Aniko was beginning to feel fear pulling at her insides. He may have been grotesque and bulky, giving the appearance of a slow, lumbering man, but the manifestation was misleading. He was quick and strong and brutal. Luffy had received a vicious punch to the jaw and was now cradling a bloody chin at the base of a splintering mast. Sanji had met a similar fate upon arriving on deck from a beefy looking pirate who had run out of the quarters after his captain.
This wasn't going half as well as Aniko had hoped.
And where the hell is Zoro?
There was part of her that was itching to jump down from the tree, race across the beach and jam an elbow into Barbossa's ugly face. But that was Aniko. Hannah said no. A big fat hell no.
Aniko looked down at the lower branch where Yona was perched. His eyes kept darting between her and the battle. Did he expect something from her? Is there something, as Aniko, that she would do in this situation?
No matter how hard she racked her brain for an answer only two words came to her.
Be ingenious.
The cold metal of the gun still pressed against her flesh, held to her belly by the waistband of her trousers. Bingo. Her hand scrambled for the gun in a similar urgency to earlier. This was her chance to do something. She couldn't shoot to kill though, not directly. But she would be ingenious, and for that reason, having the fore boom fall on the crew seemed like a rather productive idea.
With the grip in hand and eyes aligned with the front sight, Aniko counted. One, two, three. Two ropes and one chain link to shoot, one magazine to use, and no silencer on her gun. But that wasn't the real problem. Could the Aniko of today shoot like the Aniko of yesterday, before the Aniko of Hannah? There was only one way to find out.
The first shot was far off the mark. It was the jitters. Hannah was terrified. She made her hands shake.
"What in the grand line do you think you're doing?" Yona hissed, turning on Aniko as best he could when crouching in a tree. "Firstly, where's your aim? Secondly, and much more importantly, you'll attract people over here!"
And he was right of course. Heads on the ship were turning, drawn by the rogue shot from the beach. If there was another threat to deal with then naturally they wouldn't just let it go unnoticed. Pirates were proficient like that- or simply bloodthirsty.
"Shit." Aniko muttered and lined up another shot. There were men descending down the riggings now, wading through the shallow waters from where the large ship was moored. Aniko needed to make this snappy.
Another bullet whizzed forwards and this time it met its mark. The support rope snapped and pinged away from the mast. Then the second rope was shot. And then the chain link. There was a moment of ominous creaking before the beam's weight became just too heavy. It broke away from the mast, pulling the sail with it and fell upon the raging battle below. Fortunately Luffy and Sanji had the awareness to leap out of the way. The same couldn't be said for most of the crew, who had either been trapped underneath the heavy fore beam or flailed beneath the fabric of the sail.
Aniko's face split into a wide grin. Despite her nervousness, her gun skills had not failed her. Aniko was somewhat of an ace shooter it seemed. She turned to Yona to share her joy but all she was met with was an empty space.
"Yona?" Her call turned into a screech as a hand wrapped around her ankle. She was tugged from the tree and hit the ground head first. She was lucky it was mostly sand, if not she may have been knocked out. As it was, her head was spinning. Aniko could barely work out up and down as she was dragged across the beach, hand still clutching her gun as it moved limply over the ground in her wake. She felt short nails digging into her leg and the sand running like water across her back where her marine uniform rode up her midsection. There was distant yelling to her side and through her hazed vision she could see a flash of red. Yona's hair. She needed to get up but couldn't find the energy to fight. Her head felt like lead.
Now she was flying- no- dangling. She was starting to find her focus, her eyes slightly less blurred. A gruff man was above, hauling her by the foot up the side of the boat. Her clothes were soaked. They had just gone through water? She was thrown onto the deck, in a dripping heap. Yona landed next to her. "Aniko!" He exclaimed, crawling on his forearms towards her.
A boot stomped down between them. Yona was kicked away. Aniko wanted to leap up to growl, hiss, claw and punch. She wanted to help Yona, but still felt lifeless. She was an immobile mass curled up on the rough wooden floor. Was it the devil fruit's fault? The sea water? Though her movements were sluggish, her mind was faster than ever, whirring away like Hannah's old cassette player. She had always been a fan of retro.
Aniko was hoisted up by the scruff of her shirt. "Marine?" The pirate snarled, his putrid breath wafting over her.
"Yeah," She said hoarsely, throat constricted by the material that bunched around her neck. "Marine. What's it to you?"
The man growled and suddenly she was yanked downwards. The pirate smashed her head against the deck with vicious brutality. "If there's one thing I hate more than meddlers, its meddling marines."
Aniko would have quite liked to snap, it's our job to meddle jackass! But instead she was confined to a quiet gurgling. Blood was washing over her mouth. She had bit her tongue upon impact. The red spilled over her lips and matted into her hair, trickling down her temple from a wound on her head. This was a bad situation. There was no sign of saviour this time. Sanji was occupied, Yona was restrained. Everyone had their own problem right now. There was no room to rely on other people.
The sea water was evaporating. She could feel the breeze against her skin, lifting away the moisture. "What's up with your eyes, huh?" The pirate hovered over her, a hand pinning her skull to the floor. "All pink."
Something was bubbling in Aniko. It was like earlier, when an indescribable feeling swelled within her. But this time she could pinpoint it. This was anger, fury, uncontrollable rage. She watched with wild eyes, seeing the man through blurred vision. His hair was patchy and dark. Teeth crooked and slightly off colour. His eyes a common dull brown. Such an average appearance for a man who had inspired so much ire within her.
His expression wrinkled in distaste. "They're turning red now. Freaky."
With an animalistic shriek Aniko lunged forwards, pushing against the man's grip, finding the power to shoot out an arm. She was aiming for his eyes, his average brown eyes. She was ready to scratch them out of their sockets if she had to. Yet there was a split second, before she made contact in which her mentality changed. An image of Suijin formed in her head. She could almost hear him calling her. Aniko!
Now other voices joined. The fishboy, it's the fishboy!
How odd it was to hear a voice in her head that was not her own. Aniko! And it certainly was a voice that would not shut up.
"Aniko!" Aniko was snapped into reality by a boiling jet of water narrowly missing her head and instead whooshing past her ear straight into the face of her assailant. Aniko, wide-eyed, span to look behind. Standing on the railing of the ship was Suijin, the very person she had been trying to keep away from here.
This has been a long time in the making, which it shouldn't have been really. But I had major writer's block, so major in fact, that I ran off from this story and only recently remembered it. This was a longer chapter but I split it because I wanted to get something out and the rest isn't done yet. Soon though. Soon. (hopefully)
I've sort of lost my grip on One Piece. I still love it dearly but I haven't watched or read it in a long time. I really need to get back into it. It makes me sad not knowing what's going on in the story. No spoiler!
So... 69 follows, heh? That is likely to change after this but I found it amusing because my I have an ever youthful mentality. Hope you liked the chapter!
(Edit: Oh! And before I forget to answer the question, yes, Aniko will eventually be paired with someone but it won't be revealed until it actually happens. I like surprises.)