This New Water World
Ch. 10
A.n.: This chapter.. I lost it once, had to rewrite it, but it was suddenly WAY longer XD So, enjoy the XXL chapter 10 -w- Do not own OP and some of the OC's, I only own Yuki and own Eri partly
Eri was keeping his act up nicely. He played innocently with other kids, made a few friends. Only, he didn't had the energy of a child, so he rested against the wall after a couple of hours. He stared at the rest of the kids, who somehow still seemed full of energy. It somehow amazed him. But he still wanted to get out of here quickly. He felt embarrassed as hell in this dress. His wings also started hurting a bit, because they were tightly strapped up under his dress. He got a bit lost in his thoughts when he was plotting something to get revenge, so he didn't noticed a little girl who walked up to him. She had blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail and wore a red dress with yellow stripes and black sandals. The odd thing about her was that one eye was almost white and the other was blue. The girl stood there for a while, scuffling a bit with her feet and looking down at the floor. "E-Excuse me... The girl said with a shy voice. Eri snapped out of his thoughts, looking up at the shy girl and smiled, even though her eye scared him a bit, saying: "Hia, need something?" The girl suddenly sat next to him and responded: "Well, you were sitting here all by yourself. S-So I thought you wanted a bit of company." Eri kept smiling and said: "Well, thank you, I guess? What's your name?" The girl looked up at Eri, answering: "L-Lilly! Nice to m-meet you, Erin." "Nice to meet you too, Lilly!" Eri said back. There was an awkward silence, before Lilly said: "You're so m-mature, you know. Might sound a bit creepy, but I kind of w-watched how you played with the others and you almost play with them like big sister would!" Eri's mind panicked slightly. Did someone discovered him already? He had to think of something quickly and said: "Well... You're very smart for noticing that, you know." Lilly smiled brightly. "R-Really? Thank you!" She said back. "No problem." Eri said, still smiling sweetly, but his mind sighed in relief. "Haven't you noticed?" She said of nowhere, her smile gone. Eri was a bit confused. "Noticed what?" Lilly sighed, answering: "My blind eye." Eri nodded slowly, thinking about the right words to say. After a while, he finally said: "Of course I noticed. But I don't mind about it." Lilly was slightly shocked, slowly whispering: "The others think I'm scary. Only big sister plays with me every once in a while so I won t be lonely." Eri felt sorry for her. Kids can be really simple-minded sometimes, he thought. But he was somehow curious about how it occurred, so he asked carefully: "How did you get that eye?" Lilly sighed once again, before shakily whispering: "I... I rather don't talk about that. It's a past I w-want to forget." Eri nodded understandable, but he knew it would be something that happened before she got here. He quickly changed the subject and talked about a few things he did today. Lilly cheered up after a while, and they just talked and talked. Until it was time for bed, but they continued their conversation in whispering. But at one point, they decided to go to sleep too.
"Mrrow~, Desti-kun~!" A voice shouted. Eri opened his eyes a bit, hearing a few kids panic. He quickly sat up once he noticed the panicked atmosphere. With wide eyes, he stared at the huge hole in the wall, big clouds of dust still rising up. In the dust cloud, was a dark silhouette of a woman. Eri wanted to grab his Dialyo on instinct, only cursed to himself in his mind when he realized that he left it on the boat. "Desti-kun~! Come out, come out wherever you are, mrrow~!" The weird voice spoke again. The voice sounded very arrogant, but stupid and annoying at the same time. A door in the back of the room slammed open, a very angry Destiney standing in the doorway. She protectively stood in front of the group of kids when the girl stepped out of the dust cloud. She was long and slender, but instead of skin she was covered in tiger fur. She had messy, orange hair that reached to her shoulders. Big tiger ears were sticking out of the hair mess. A pair of piercing, green cat eyes looked at Destiney, together with a sharp-teethed grin. The girl had black polished, cat-like nails, too. She was also wearing a very short, white dress with black accents and black, leather boots. To finish the outfit, she was wearing a golden bracelet, decorated with many jewels and a pearl chain around her upper leg. Her long cat tail was moving from side to side excitedly, as she said in her annoying voice: "So the mouse revealed herself to the cat, hm, mrrow~?" Eri looked at the girl in disgust, but stayed quiet. Destiney glared at the girl, murmuring with her hands close to her swords: "Shut up, Rena. Enough with those lame insults from you." Rena glared a bit fiercer, responding: "Sorry that I broke your poor little heart, Desti-kun. Besides, have you already thought about my offer, mrrow~?" Destiney glared a bit fiercer, too: "You'll never get this house, stupid cat." Rena chuckled amusedly. "So you don't care if I kill your sister? Nice and slowly, mrrow~?" Destiney bit on her lip, raising her voice: "Don't you dare to lay a finger on my sister! I'll make a rug out of you if you ever try that!" Rena grinned wider, a bit wickedly. "Then give me the house. You'll get your sister in return, mrrow~." Destiney raised her voice again: "These kids won t be able to go anywhere when you take this house! You know damn well that the city doesn't allow so many kids on the streets! They'll be brought back to the hell that they used to call home!" Rena laughed loudly. Her laugh was even more annoying than her voice. "Oh, I'm so touched, mrrow~. I don't care about a bunch of brats! Go dump them in the sewers or something. Or give them to me! Might be useful as food for my pets, mrrow~!" Destiney snapped, pulling out both of her swords and dashed towards her, yelling: "Stupid cat! You'll never get these kids!" Rena just smirked, disappearing in less than a second when Destiney was about to chop her head off. Rena reappeared behind her when she lost balance. Rena quickly wrapped her arm around her neck and pulled her back in a strong grip, quickly snatching away her swords with her free hand and tail. She whispered in Destiney's ear: "Not so fast, Desti-kun~, I have different plans now. If I take you away, those kids will die eventually. And I noticed you have a new kid. Remember my visits every time you exceeded the number of kids you're holding here, mrrow~? Hiding them on all sorts of places? Guess what? You exceeded your number. She'll end up like pet food, just like the other exceeders, mrrow~." Destiney struggled like crazy, yelling: "Bitch! Don't you dare! Not again! First taking away the kids you said I had too many, then my sister, now both? You're insane! Let me go!" Rena ignored the struggling Destiney and yelled: "Get the new girl, too! We'll take them both!" Out of nowhere, a whole group of bandits appeared out of nowhere. Two started tying up Destiney, one took care of the swords and another one started looking for Eri. Eri panicked and tried to flee, but got caught around his waist by a thin, but strong bandit. The bandit said: "Not so fast, kid! You're coming with us!" Eri looked around in panic, only to see that in the group of kids, Lilly started to cry. Eri looked away, feeling even more stupid for forgetting his Dialyo. He closed his eyes, concentrating as he tried his last hope.
Meanwhile, back on the ship of the Mizu Pirates, Keii was teaching Yuki a few new sentences. Layla was making Lunch in the kitchen. Until Eri returned, the days were filled with cleaning, eating, fishing and other small things. "How are you d-doing?" Yuki said slowly. Keii felt proud of herself for teaching Yuki something new this afternoon, and ruffled through Yuki's hair as some sort of reward. She giggled happily in response and hugged Keii tightly, shouting happily: "Keii-kun! Keii-kun!" Keii just laughed loudly in response, hugging her back. But the hugging soon ended into chasing each other over the deck, trying to catch the other as some sort of game. That was mostly how they spended their time together when Layla was cooking, teaching and weird games. But when Layla was around, they always teased her or tried to steal food. Both of those activities ending up into Layla chasing them angrily with a frying pan. As Yuki was chasing after Keii, she suddenly stopped. She frowned deeply and Keii walked back to her, asking a bit worriedly: "Something wrong? Tired already?" Yuki just kept frowning, staring into nowhere and seemed to totally ignore Keii. After a while of silence, Yuki widened her eyes in panic and ran to the side of the boat where the land was, jumping up and changing in her owl form, screeching loudly while she flew towards the mountains: "Eri-kun! Eri-kun!" Keii just stood there, confused about what just happened. She ran to the kitchen, because Yuki wouldn't yell Eri like that for nothing. She slammed the door open and said: "Layla, something happened to Eri. Yuki just flew away out of nowhere towards the orphanage in panic." "What? What are we standing around, then? Let's go!" Layla said, slightly surprised. She stopped with everything she was doing, throwing her apron on the ground and they both jumped off the ship, running towards the mountains.
"All ready now, mrrow~? Let's go back, then!" Rena said, laughing. The bandits lifted up the tied up Eri and Destiney on their shoulders, nodding. They all walked out of the destroyed orphanage, but stopped when a loud screech was heard. Eri grinned widely, saying calmly: "Seems like my friend is heading this way." Rena turned around towards Eri, walking over to him and lifted his head up with her nail, glaring slightly and saying: "Who the hell are you talking abou-" Rena got interrupted by a loud noise behind her. She turned around, not even the slightest bit intimidated by the huge, mad owl in front of her. Yuki screeched, a bit worried: "Eri-kun! Eri-kun! How are you doing?" Eri mentally facepalmed at her choice of words in this situation, but responded: "Good, good. By the way, see the cat lady there? Can you beat her up for me, Yuki?" Rena was confused by the sudden change of situations, but was surprised when Yuki slammed her away with her wing, right into a tree. "Good girl!" Eri said and laughed for a moment. Yuki also hooted in amusement, but was caught by surprise when nails pierced through her still stretched out wings. She screeched in anger, turning to Rena, who was standing again with a grin and stretched arm. She said with a chuckle: "Tiger special: Extended claw, mrrow~" The nails in Yuki's wing shaped into a glowing, orange tiger claw. Yuki screeched again when Rena clutched her hand, while at the same time the tiger claw tightened too. Yuki didn't had to think twice and changed in her human form, slipping her arm out of the grip of the glowing, transparent tiger claw. The claw disappeared and Yuki changed in her hybrid form. Rena glared fiercely and said: "Stupid bird. I knew you were a devil fruit user, but" She grinned again disappearing and reappearing behind Yuki "I'm faster." Before Yuki could react, Rena already lifted the smaller girl up by her neck. Yuki tried to haul back with her claws, but couldn't reach her. Rena's grip tightened, her nails digging in Yuki's neck. Yuki yelped in panic, struggling to break free. "Tiger special: Pulse" With a wicked grin, her arm and hand shook for a second. Blood splattered out of Yuki's mouth when a strong force went from Rena's hand through her neck, spine and further through her body. It felt like a strong person punched her with a huge fist. Rena said again: "Tiger special: Pulse, mrrow~" More blood splattered from Yuki's mouth as the force went through her body again. She breathed heavily, but started to glow a light green out of nowhere. Rena raised an eyebrow, but slightly freaked out when Yuki's head turned around in half a circle, facing her with blood still dripping out of her mouth, rolled away eyes and a fierce glare. She screeched loudly and broke out of Rena's grip when she pecked with her beak in Rena's arm. Rena wanted to attack, but was too late and Yuki grabbed her around her shoulders with her claws, flying up as far as she could in her hybrid form. She threw her up as strong as possible, so she would fall a great distance to the ground. Rena thought quickly, and surprised Yuki again by landing right on her back, grabbing her neck and yelled with another wicked grin: "Tiger special: Pulse!" The force ran through Yuki's body again, and she lost control of her flying. She fell and smashed in the ground, Rena jumping off right on time and landed gracefully a few feet away. Yuki stopped glowing, her head and legs up in the air and her face on the ground, her arms spread out and somehow keeping her in that position. Rena laughed loudly, and Eri wad just shocked by the power of Rena's devil fruit abilities. He kept looking worriedly at the defeated Yuki, but hung his head low after a while, hoping she'd be okay.
"Is it safe? Are they gone? How is that bird girl?" The group of kids asked each other after a while. Lilly stopped crying after a while, knowing she had to be strong for her friend. With this thought, confidence burned up in her and she stood up, saying: "We have to help bird girl! Maybe she has friends who can get big sister and little sister back! Maybe they're even stronger!" Everyone agreed after a small discussion and Lilly felt proud of herself. They carefully scuffled over to the still passed out Yuki, carefully laying her on her back in a better position. She didn't seem to have any serious injuries on the outside, so they carefully carried her inside the remains of the orphanage, some of the kids amazed by Yuki's feathers.
A few meters away, Keii and Layla had arrived right after Yuki crashed in the ground. Keii was boiling with anger, but knew she couldn't attack right away. They were bandits, so maybe there would be treasure for them later. Well, Layla thought that would be a better idea. If Keii was alone, she would have kicked that annoying girl's ass right away. To see her friend all beaten up like that, while they've been having fun with games and teasing just a few minutes again, brought Keii in the most dangerous level of anger. She protected her friends, so she was even angrier when Eri got kidnapped by the tiger girl. They jumped down the tree and Keii stomped in the direction the bandits went, grumbling: "I'll beat her up for kidnapping Eri, beating up Yuki and destroying the home of those kids. She'll be a rug for our ship when I'm done with her!"