I've never had to move out from a house before, since my family(s) were always contented with where they lived. So I didn't really know what to expect.
There were was a lot of packing, of course. Over the next five days everyone crammed in furniture around the house and other objects that were of importance into boxes. Personal belongings were stuffed into such boxes as well. This world had a lot of inconsistencies with my previous one, but luckily enough there was such a magical thing called duct-tape. Those boxes were sealed with it.
I'd only arrived at the place, so most of my belongings were the token I still held on to from Juanas, the white neckerchief, and my card. New clothes were unneeded since there were some old clothes from when some of the people here were young, so I used them. These small items I had didn't really need to be packed up. Although, it was high time I toss the white neckerchief away. There was no reason for this anymore.
I tried to help everyone out to the best of my abilities, since I had no designated role yet. Some allowed me to carry out small boxes they deemed light enough, others outright refused. They treated me like a small child which I knew I was, but I carried heavier stuff than this for the Whites anyway!
Such times when it happened, I was shooed away to accompany Eve – who too was in the same situation as I was. She wanted to help everyone out, but in her case she was refused immediately since she was the young miss. Right now, I could see her sulking in a fetal position on her bed as I entered her room. She wasn't even wearing up her hair; it was strewn messily everywhere.
"Eve, " I began, but hesitated. I was generally bad at initiating conversations with people, so I was stuck in a loop on how to cheer her up.
Eve looks up from her knees, "What is it, Lyn? You're not allowed to help them out again?"
"Uh yeah…" I scratched at my ear sheepishly.
"Me tooooo," she groans, falling back into her bed, "Father made everyone not let me carry the boxes to the harbour! Or at least outside! And I've pretty much done all my packing. I'm so boooorreeeddd."
I chuckle. I didn't have anything much to do since all the books in the library were already in boxes, so I had not much entertainment for myself. Oriana and Jerry were both busy helping out too, so I couldn't bother them. Which was why I came to pester Eve.
But seeing her hair in a mess made my eye twitch. I had to do something about it before I went mad.
I went over to her dressing table(which was probably the last of things to go onto the boat) and I rummaged around its drawers.
"Hm? What are you doing?" Eve sits up on her bed, looking at me curiously. At the same time I managed to find a hair brush and let out an "Aha!" of delight. I noticed her looking at me, so I patted the chair in front of the dressing table.
"Let me fix up your hair for you, Eve," I offered.
"Huh? Oh, okay," She slides off the bed and walks over, taking a seat. In the time where she was walking to the seat, I found some bobby pins and hair ties to use.
I begun brushing her hair, tugging and easing knotted locks away. As I worked on her hair, Eve started to chatter away.
"Father says that he hired the Marines to accompany us, but I wonder who they'll send out? Or how many people? I hope they aren't too scary. It'll be a good experience to see them up close too! I really like that we're going on a long trip across the sea; Father never lets me go on his sea trips. He thinks it too dangerous for me, even though its just the next few countries over."
"I heard there is an increase of pirate activity," I murmur offhandedly, thinking about the newspaper reports. I read about a rising power called the "Donquixote Family" and I knew what exactly it was. Law… He's still with them now, right? It's best for me to avoid him. I don't need to disappoint him again.
I shook my thoughts away, and started separating locks of hair to braid. The bun Eve always had had a braid hanging at the edges of the bun itself, so I wanted to recreate that. My fingers deftly swung locks of hair up and under several others, like a practiced habit. It felt nostalgic having to handle this much hair again.
In my previous life I too, had long hair. I missed playing around with hairstyles with that amount of hair, since this life constantly had me cutting my hair short. I know it's typical for a male to have short hair, but I swore to myself once I reached adulthood no one was going to stop me from growing my hair out.
"You're pretty good at this," Eve speaks up again, "Did your mother teach you how to do it?"
My hands unwillingly stopped.
From the mirror, I could see Eve's eyes widen in realization and she quickly tries to fix her mistake.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mention such a -!"
"It's fine," I cut her off, urging my hands to move again, "I used to do my sister's hair all the time. She couldn't even tie her own hair without my mother's or my help."
I smiled wryly, thinking about how Lami used to get her fingers tangled up in the hairties she used until I helped her out. I also loved to play with her hair, although she'd always tell me to tie back her twintails after I was done.
"Still though, I'm sorry. Mentioning your family must've brought up some bad memories..." Eve sighs, wringing her hands .
"It's fine," I repeated firmly, "You wouldn't have known."
A few minutes go by as I fixed her bun, then Eve decides to break the silence again.
"I never had a chance to talk to you in private like this again since you've arrived," She begins and I looked up to her reflection in the mirror questioningly.
"You know, back then, when I said I didn't remember what happened to the thugs? Well, I lied. I remembered, and I kept trying to come up with an answer to why it happened."
What?
"I couldn't come up with any sensible answers, and you seemed to know what you did, so I thought… that it was best to ask you directly instead," She continued, "I haven't told anyone the truth yet, even Father."
I bit my lip in hesitation as I finished pinning down the last strand of hair. My hands left her head and fell to my sides. Eve took the opportunity to turn herself around from the hair to face me.
I didn't dare to look at her. How was I going to explain this Devil Fruit business? No ordinary citizen knew about it in the first place; they'll think of me as a monster. Eve will think of me as a monster. Being able to manipulate people's minds with a few words is already scary to me as it is, and I didn't want to know how others would react.
"Lyn, won't you look at me?" I could her the silent plea in her voice.
I hesitantly looked up at her. She was staring at me with earnest eyes, yet somewhat gentle and receiving at the same time.
I found myself answering.
"I-I'm an esper, you see."
"Esper? Like you can read people's minds and stuff?" Eve gasps, "That's so cool!"
"No, its not," I bitterly corrected her as I shoved my hands into my pockets, "What I did back then was scaring them out of their minds."
She shifts in her seat, "You can do that? I've heard its very rare for espers to even put stuff in people's heads."
"You don't get it, Eve," I looked at her in the eye again, "I mentally scarred them. That's like they've received a huge gash at their side physically."
She stares back at me, expression neutral, and crosses her arms.
I looked away, waiting for her to call me out.
"Lyn, what you did back then save our lives. You cannot deny that," Eve finally says, "But if you think I should start thinking of you as a monster of sorts, you are wrong."
My head jerked up in surprise.
"But -!" I tried to protest, but Eve knelt down from the chair and grabbed my shoulders.
"Look, Lyn. Even now, you regret doing that to them, right?" I nodded slowly.
"Then it means you're a good person. If you enjoyed actually hurting them, that would've made you to be a monster instead," She tells me, "You're kinder than you give yourself credit for, Lyn."
"I could've hurt you guys though! It could've been like that time, when I was desperate or angry enough to-" I was cut off when Eve pulled me into a hug.
"Iiiiiiiidiot." She scolds, patting my head, "You could've, but you never did."
"I…" My protests died down as I realized it was futile to argue with her. Eve's points made sense, even if I hadn't really accepted them fully.
"Just… Don't tell anyone about it," I finally murmured.
I felt her body shake with slight amusement as she giggled.
"Don't be stupid, Lyn. I know people are naturally scared of things they don't understand, so I won't tell anyone. You don't deserved to be hated," She assures me.
"… 'anks," I muttered as I buried my head into her shoulder.
We spent a few more moments in the hug before I felt her start to play around with my hair. Then I realized that I was really close to her, so I quickly pushed myself out of the hug, face burning.
"What's wrong?" Eve asks, tilting her head. I waved my arms about in a frenzy trying to find an excuse.
"T-time! I-I remembered Ma'm Glinda wanted me to help her out near lunchtime!" I quickly backed off to the door, "Seeyagottagobye!"
I ran out of the room, feeling really embarrassed and awkward.
The day to leave eventually came. The Horand's mansion was half a day's ride to the docks, so most of the furniture and items were already there in many different boxes and crates.
I knew that the sea was going to be troublesome for me, especially since even taking a normal hot bath weakened me slightly. It was proof that I did eat a Devil Fruit, since my powers weren't really physically seen by others.
Despite that, I was really excited of course, since I never had the chance to go to sea at all. All my travelling was done over land, and in my previous life I couldn't even go out of the country at all. The sound of a new experience, a new adventure made me really eager.
We set off from the mansion at dawn, waving goodbye to the place that housed me temporarily for the past five months or so. The others had more attachment to the place though, so it was a really tearful goodbye for them.
Orianna sniffles as she dabs her tears away with her handkerchief, while Jerry was just dramatically bemoaning about missing the good things this mansion offered for them. The blackberry bushes that produced the sweetest fruit in the nearby forest, this one tree that had low branches so that we could climb up it and hop from one tree to another, the garden hedge maze the gardeners grew for the heck of things, and many various things. Some things he mentioned I was shown before but there the others that I haven't seen yet. Welp, as interesting as they sounded, its not like we could stop and go back right now.
We three youngest were sitting in a wooden cart, where there were some boxes on board. The cart was being pulled by two horses led by Kiri, who was chewing on a piece of straw. The older man was facing forwards so I couldn't see his face, but I could see his aura darting from slight amusement from Jerry's antics and feeling sad.
This particular cart was the last to leave the mansion, since it still had boxes and the rest of the adults had already left earlier in other carts. The Horands themselves have already headed out first.
I wrapped the coat I borrowed tighter around myself. The colder season was already approaching, so it was rather chilly right now. I leant against Orianna who pulls me closer, and I closed my eyes to sleep the long ride away.
Upon arriving it was already the late afternoon, and we all hopped out of the cart. The dock was bustling with activity despite the chilly weather, with people going about doing their thing. A few of the men from the Horand's household came over.
Adrien goes over to Kiri and smacks his back lightly as a greeting, which the other protested somewhat good-naturedly against. Both men were good friends, I'd come to realize. Most of the time they got paired up to do work together. This time was different though – Kiri drove our cart while Adrien drove the main carriage that held the Horands. They were the few among us who knew how to handle driving horses around.
The other two men ignore the two's antics and heaved up the boxes from the cart onto the ground. Adrien, done with bothering Kiri, gestures towards us three to come with him. He leads us further down the docks, where there sat an impressively big ship. Pardon my lack of knowledge on what it was – I could only guess that it was a barque of some sorts? It had three masts from where I could see. We were led up to the bottom of the stairs that led down from the ship.
"Don't we need to do anything?" Asks Orianna, and Adrien shakes his head.
"Go on up and familiarize yourself with the ship, book your spot, whatever," he suggests, "Grab a crew member to guide you. The others are also packing the stuff in as well."
He leaves us standing there, and Jerry reacts first.
"C'mon, lets go up!"
He dashes up the steps before any of us could reply, and Orianna sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Seriously…" she mutters, then looks at me. I gestured for her to go up.
"Ladies first," I tell her, and she laughs.
"The difference in attitudes between you both are really huge, I sometimes wonder how you guys even get along so well," she comments, then turns around and heads up the steps. I follow suit.
We find Jerry talking to a boy around his age when we got to the deck. He grins and waves us over.
"This is Ruth!" He introduces the darker skinned boy, who smiles and greets us. We reply with our names in return, and Jerry takes the cue to ask where our sleeping quarters were.
"Oh, I can lead you down there. Not sure about Ori-sis's room though. I only know where the males area is. But tell you what," He quickly adds when he sees Orianna's face droop slightly, "I'll get one of the adults to show you your quarters are! You can just follow us in the meantime."
We were shown the main areas of the ship first – the main deck, the cafeteria, the toilets and then the male sleeping quarters. The boat's figurehead was that of a horse head wrapped in chains. I asked what the ship's name was when I saw the strange figurehead.
"Centaurius!" Ruth declares proudly with his chest puffed up. Huh, what a weird name. But at least it was better than going with dumb names like "Chained horse" or "Chaintaurius". Wait, the second one did sound nice…
"Why a horse though?" Orianna asks, and Ruth shrugs.
"Dunno, the cap'n wanted it that way."
I grin. I somewhat understood its meaning.
"Horses, in a myth, was said to be created out of sea foam by the Greek God of the Ocean, Poseidon," I told them, "Both the sea and horses were of his ownership and I think what your captain was going for by putting the chains on the horse head was to symbolize 'taming' it. So in a really weird but elaborate meaning, it probably means taming the sea."
Ruth and Orianna gaped at my explanation, but Jerry shakes his head.
"As expected of a walking library," He jokes and ruffles my hair. I glare at him for doing that, and he grins cheekily back at me.
Orianna claps her hands in delight, "I knew you read a lot but that was actually fascinating to know!"
"I've gotta ask the cap'n if you're right," Ruth tells me. I shrug. It didn't really matter if I was right or wrong; figureheads were usually made with tons of symbolism to them and there were many ways to interpret what such things mean.
He shows Jerry and I our sleeping quarters, then brings us back to the main deck. There were more people on board now - Charles was there talking to some men clad in white. Eve stood awkwardly next to him, and the four of us tried to discreetly approach and listen in on their conversation.
There was a tall man with a purple mohawk and moustache wearing a white coat of sorts, who seemed like he was the one in charge. He was flanked by two uniformed men. I recognised the uniform as that of the Marines. So these were the men that was supposed to escort the ship?
I caught Eve's eye, whose face slightly lits up at the sight of us. She hurriedly tells her father something, then leaves his side to head towards us. Ruth jumps back as she approaches, "Oh no, the young miss's headed this way! Why?"
"Calm down," Jerry tells him as Eve stops in front of me.
"How was the ride here?" She asks me.
"I slept for most of it," I replied, "Could've been worse. We could've been attacked by wild animals."
Eve frowns at my cynical reply, but Orianna interrupts her before she could tell me off.
"So? Those people your father's talking to are the Marines, right?" She excitedly asks. "Are they an Admiral or something?"
I snort at this. As if the headquarters of the Marines would despatch such a high-ranking officer for a non-world noble like the Horands. They most likely shoved a Captain at us.
Eve smiles wryly, "While I think being called an Admiral would be extremely flattering to him, that's Commodore Momonga."
I take that back. At least they gave us someone higher ranked. I wonder exactly how much Charles gave them though.
"Ohh I see. Do you think they'll let us interact with the officers though? I hope there's some hot guys in there," Orianna shamelessly declares.
"Seriously, why do you keep thinking about such things when we go out," Eve huffs, "There's more to the world than just stupid men."
"Hey!" Jerry protests. I roll my eyes at him. Seriously, why is he even acknowledging that? It's just proving that he's stupid.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ruth go from extremely panicked to very confused as the conversation continued. I guess he wasn't used to seeing servants like us converse that easily with our employers.
I tugged his sleeve to get his attention as Jerry and the girls started talking about the scenery on the ride to the docks. He looks down at me, perplexed.
"The young miss likes talking to us since we're about her age," I inform him, "It is kind of our job to entertain her as well."
I could see the invisible bell in his head go 'Ting' as he slowly made sense of what I told him. I wanted to laugh at his antics. What a funny guy.
Soon the Marines headed back to their ship, and the Centarius's crew started to get ready for the ship to leave the port. Ruth disappeared from our group to help man the ship, and we were left on the main deck. I was standing on a box to look over the railings on the ship due to my height, while Jerry, Eve and Orianna stood next to me(to look out for me should I lose my balance).
We watched as the boat slowly creak to life as it slowly reversed out of the dock. I could feel the slight bobbing of the ship because of the waves on the sea. The sensation was a strange one, yet it felt comforting. And as we cleared the numerous amount of ships docked at port, my heart pounded loudly in my ears, and I never felt this excited of a feeling before.
Travelling, back then, seemed like a faraway dream. I could almost never leave my bed without heavy precautions, but yet it was still dangerous for me even with those. Right now I was glad that I decided to live. It was so exhilarating to experience going out as it was, but now I'm actually on a ship and heading out to sea. I knew that pushing the Amber Lead disease aside was never going to cure myself of it. I knew that I had a timer ticking down on my life, but I'm not bedridden like before. I could explore as much as I want to, go anywhere I desired.
I will experience life to the fullest, for her. I will live, like she would've wanted to.
"Look!" Eve excitedly said, "It's the sea! It's really the sea!"
She was right. Before our very eyes, the vast ocean was upon us. Miles and miles of water all around. We were flanked by the Marines at the rear, so the Centarius was leading the way.
"It's like the start of a new adventure," Jerry joked, and I couldn't help but agree.
This trip across the sea will definitely be an interesting one.
A/N: Holy shit I realized its been almost a month since I last updated D:
It's alright though, since it was just life happening. I had two events and datelines to meet, so you can imagine how busy I was the past weeks. At least now it's term break, so I can (probably) update this story more.
A esper's pretty close to what Lyn is so why the heck not?
Some of you guys expected canon Marine characters to appear, and well, they did. Momonga is actually Vice Admiral right now in the OP timeline, but since this is even before Luffy sets out, there was some degrading of ranks to be had. I mean, not everyone starts where they are y'know.
I've also added some RL influences on some of the OCs used here - for some characters are kinda made up on the fly. You can spend time guess which ones were just suddenly given names lol
Anyway, enough about me and my elaborations! Honestly I tend to go on a while talking about why things are certain ways haha. You guys want to read the story not my rambles :P
Thanks for the follows, favourites and reviews! I hope to see you in the next chapter~
-Riki