Chapter 10: Adjustments And Surprises
oof I'm back with a poorly edited chapter that's 10,000+ words lol
"Here. Money."
Misaki handed Nami a neat stack of folded bills.
The Straw Hats were in a shopping mall of some sort, where the main logo of the building was a cat with a pink baseball cap. Nami and the others were in the electronics section, checking out different brands of fans.
"E-Ehhhhh!?" The orange haired woman screamed in the store, causing customers to turn and whisper. She opened her eyes as she noticed her surroundings and apologized accordingly with a bow, and then turned back to Misaki, hissing, "How did you get this money!?"
"I found it." She prompted.
"No, you fucking didn't,"
"Just take the money," Misaki ordered, thrusting the wad of beri out for the navigator to take.
"How much is that…?" Robin asked, astounded.
"...I'm guessing around... " Nami flipped through the bills with her nimble thumbs. "F-Five hundred thousand beri…!?"
Misaki had gone to a shop where the workers would exchange jewelry and pure gold or silver for beri, and it turned out the diamonds were worth a lot more than she had expected. The coins, however, proved to be a disappointment. But she came out of that store overwhelming the workers to the point where she just stopped asking for trades out of pity, and she also walked out with a lot more paper money than what the Straw Hats originally had all together. So, she was more than satisfied.
"Woah! How did you get that much, Misaki!?" Chopper skidded back in shock.
"I found it." The navy blue haired girl repeated.
"Bullshi-" Nami started, but got a hint from the scary aura the mothers with their children in the store omitted.
'Actually, I wouldn't find it hard to believe if Misaki asked for money on the streets and people gave her that much in total,' Chopper thought. 'Her face is too stunning to resist…'
"Okay, then, let's buy everything on our list, then." Robin interrupted, stopping Nami's interrogation to Misaki for now.
The girl breathed out in relief. She knew that even if Nami and the others were nice people who wouldn't take advantage of her newfound powers, she could never trust what they would do if they found out that she could conjure all the forgotten riches of the deepest parts of the sea. She needed that money, either way, so she was required to protect every spare amount that was left in the water.
Back to reality: Nami split up the money so everyone could buy new things. Misaki decided that since she had brought the money to them, she had the right to keep at least a portion of it (without Nami knowing that she had a good amount- and when I say "good," I mean pretty good, like, a lot of money), and decided to walk around the malls and stores alone (with Nami's permission, of course) and find some new clothes and shoes. She didn't want to be walking around in shirts that fit her like dresses and bras that were too many sizes up for her chest. Thanks, Nami.
"Come in, come in." A man with that typical "sales clerk" look bowed to her respectfully. He smiled with his eyes closed, but when he opened them again, he frowned.
It was true that Misaki was beautiful, any moron could see that. But he had his head bowed, so the first thing his eyes came in contact with was the horribly baggy shirt.
"Uhh… Miss, this is actually a very high-end store. You might not be able to afford our outfits..." He arched his body back up and took a single glance at the girl's face.
Her brown eyes, although monotone and cool, captivated him in an instant. He blabbered out insufficient words in the beginning, and then completely went still, as if someone shot him in the stomach.
"You were saying?" Misaki asked, cocking an eyebrow.
The gorgeousness captured the simple sales clerk. He bowed once more and stuttered out, "M-My apologies… F-Feel free to try a-anything on."
"Thank you."
She looked around and found a lot of appealing clothes. But she only wanted the simplest. So she chose a white tank top that flowed out so you could make it puffy if you stuffed the ends into your pants, a denim jacket that would serve well to the cold, a pair of black denim pants, red exercise shorts, and a coat for the winter islands. She also picked out a few pairs of underwear, socks, and one pair of combat boots. Misaki was okay with wearing Nami's flip flops.
But because she overestimated her price limit, Misaki decided to shop for some more stuff.
'Can't help that. It's my first shopping spree, and everything looks so amazing.' She thought. 'I never thought that picking out clothes would be such a refreshing experience…' Misaki chose out a few more shirts, since a tank top probably wasn't going to be enough. She also picked out the same style of exercise shorts that was already in her cart, only colored black, and grabbed a pair of sneakers that looked comfortable with their sleek design and cushioned insole.
"How much for everything?" Misaki placed everything on the counter and glanced at the woman who was working behind the cashier. She rolled her eyes, her face glued to the rubix cube in her hands. She watched as the woman's nimble looking fingers twirled around the rows of the colored cubes to try and solve the puzzle without an actual strategy.
"Ahem, I asked, how much?" Misaki cleared her throat, seemingly snapping the cashier worker out of her rubix cube daze, as the latter placed her toy on the counter and got to business.
Without looking up, she sighed, took one look at the clothes, and clicked her tongue, mumbling, "Rich kids," probably thinking that Misaki couldn't hear it.
The woman grabbed the clothes and scanned each one of them with a strange, old looking device that was attached to the register with a twisted cord. Finally, she inputted a few digits into the board of keys with her extra long, blue fingernails. The final price flashed up in front of Misaki's eyes without warning, and she internally shrieked at the high numbers, not expecting half as much as the cost of all her clothes. She gingerly pulled out the stack of bills she had kept to herself.
"Here." She counted the amount out to the girl, who took the money while popping some bubble gum into her mouth as she drawled out, "Thank you for your purchase," in a bored tone.
"Do you mind if I change into these clothes in one of your dressing rooms?"
"Go for it,"
"Thanks." The navy blue haired girl rushed to a dressing room and changed into her new clothes.
Again, she felt so refreshed, since this was her first outfit she had ever worn that she had actually picked out for herself.
Misaki walked out of the store with a new confidence in herself, also carrying two bags filled with the clothes she wasn't wearing from the shop that she had taken for herself because the cashier lady was too lazy to. She then just strolled around the city area to immerse herself in the culture she was missing out on for all these years of her life, taking in the imagery that even the best books she had read could not give her.
"Misaki?"
The girl turned her head to look at Zoro, who was frozen in a kind-of strange stature, as if he had been paused while running.
"Zoro? What're you doing here?"
"... Uhh… I…. M-More importantly, what are you doing alone?" He questioned, reverting back to a normal pose while folding his arms against his chest. "And you got new clothes?"
"I was shopping. And looking around."
"How much money have you got on you right now?" The swordsman asked with a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"Uhhh, about one to two hundred thousand…" She estimated.
"Seriously? Let's go drink some booze." He grabbed her by her new jacket, but she brushed his hand off. "No way. I'm not going into a bar. I hate the smell of beer."
"You don't have to come in with me. Just give me some money, please."
"No, I'm definitely not supporting your unhealthy lifestyle, either. And also, beg with hopefulness in your tone, not assurance. Your plea sounded more like a statement than a question."
"You owe me, either way. Besides, I've been drinking since I was fifteen. I think I'll be fine."
She thought for a moment.
She really didn't want to give him any of her precious money. Going into that high end store was a mistake, since it drained a lot of money- more than she expected. She should have noticed that it was an upscale shop, but she'd been stupid and pranced in like she owned the place. And now, she was stuck with this nagging, apparently broke pirate who was thirsty and definitely had an alcohol problem.
"I don't!"
"Oh, did I say that last part out loud?" Misaki covered her mouth with a hand in fake surprise. "I'm so sorry."
"I don't... have an alcohol problem, okay?"
"Your breath always smells like beer and the first time I toured the entire Sunny, I found at least one barrel in every single room and hallway." Misaki explained. "There was even a glass of champagne in the bath."
"Okay, not fair, since that was Nami's... or maybe Robin's." Zoro pointed out.
Misaki let out a loud, annoyed sigh. Oh, well. A few beris wouldn't hurt. "Fine. I'll give you money." She rolled her eyes when his expression turned from a regular Zoro to a kinda happier Zoro.
"Yesss-"
"But first! You have to help me pick out a weapon." She interrupted him. "I can't just rely on my water powers. They must have some kind of limit, so I'd like to use those sword skills you've been helping me with, too."
"Fair enough. But you'd better give me a lot of money, since I've been training you for the past few days."
"Okay, then."
Together, they switched glances of agreement with each other and looked around for a store that would sell weapons, and more specifically, swords.
"By the way, how did you end up here?"
"I… was walking around…"
"...Did you get lost?"
"Fuck no!"
"Do you get lost easily?"
"I told you that I didn't get lost!" Zoro argued.
"Then why aren't you with anyone else?"
"Because I decided to go out alone."
"...Whatever you say,"
"You probably think that they have no faith in me at all." Zoro crossed his arms over his chest and snorted in disdain.
"That was the exact thought that crossed my head," Misaki hummed, looking around at the vibrant lifestyle of the residents in this island.
"Oh, fuck off."
"By the way, hold one of my bags."
"Jesus, you're becoming Nami…"
"It's just one bag, Zoro. Man up. I have no other clothes, and you can look at whatever's inside, since it's just my coat."
Their conversation was minimal because they really had no other thing to talk about, and also, they found their first stop quickly. Apparently, this city had stores that sold weapons, just not in the main, central area. They had walked away from the busy, urban streets and into the more deserted areas. There were small vending markets which were completely open air and were presenting strange goods, such as vials filled with whatever and herbs.
They went inside a tavern where the door was literally just gone, and was replaced by beaded strings hanging from the top of the frame. Zoro wrinkled his nose, giving off the vibe in which he knew that this was not a place where he would normally go to buy swords.
"Zoro? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just that I don't think that this is a weapon selling store…"
She cocked her head. "But the sign said 'Mister Weapons…'"
"Mister Weapons… Mister Weapons…" Zoro closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He couldn't think straight with the intoxicating amount of perfume flourishing the room.
Wait.
Perfume…
Mister Weapons…
That wasn't a name you gave a weapons store, even if the exact word, "weapons," was used.
Zoro came to the realization that they were in the wrong kind of store.
"Misaki, let's fuck outta here-" Before the green haired man could finish his sentence, a man with a round stomach, wearing an incredibly tacky velvet suit, walked out of another room connected to the one Zoro and Misaki were in. They turned to stare at him with obvious cringe lacing their expressions, but he paid them no mind.
"Welcome to Mister Weapons~!" He bubbled with an overly sultry voice. "How may we be of service to you?" He glanced at his two potential customers, and flinched when he saw Misaki.
"A-Are you thinking of giving her to this store?" He asked. "She's goooorrrgeous-"
"What? Me?" Misaki pointed to her chest, almost dropping her bags at the insinuation that Zoro was about to drop her off at a cat house. After Zoro warned her, the girl quickly caught on. After all, she knew what prostitution looked like.
"She's extremely beautiful, I might be able to offer you around-" The man started, but the green haired swordsman sent him a death glare.
"No one's selling no one. We got the wrong place."
"Well, if you'd like, you can leave your sister outside and have some fun here!" The boss of the store snapped his fingers, and before Zoro could utter another protest, a curtain opened before them, and a bunch of girls lined up were behind said curtains. These women were wearing bikinis and barely anything else, except for a surplus amount of jewelry and makeup. When the girls were revealed, they seemed surprised that it had happened so suddenly, so they were shuffling around a little bit, most likely to get into some planned position.
The girls were probably supposed to act "sexy" for their next client, but they couldn't help but squeal over the pirate and his undisguised abs. They whispered to each other and were filled with anticipation, thinking that he would pick one of them.
Well, he wouldn't.
Zoro turned to the owner of the shop- the one wearing the suit- and pointed an accusatory finger at him. "Why the hell would you name this store, 'Mister Weapons!?' Who the fuck makes such a tacky name like that!?"
"W-Well, that's my name, actually… I'm Herman Weapons. So, I'm Mr. Weapons, hence the name. It's pronounced Herr-"
"Did anyone ask!?"
"You just did…"
"Forget it, Zoro, let's just go." The thirteen year old muttered, tugging on his sleeve and walking to the exit. She felt embarrassed that the two walked into such a store.
Just then, there was a shuffle from the display of the prostitutes and a few muffled protests. Both Misaki and Zoro turned their heads to see what was going on.
"M…Misaki?"
The girl widened her eyes at the oh-so familiar voice. She let go of the man's sleeve and brought a hand to her mouth in sheer shock.
Cara was at the front of the stage of women, her golden green eyes brimming with tears. Oh, how Misaki had missed those eyes that gave her such hope every now and then when she would see her during her stay at Sentorappu.
"Misaki!" The woman rushed to her old friend, but was stopped, and pulled back into the group of ladies.
"Cara!" The girl ran towards the dark skinned woman instead, and hugged her tightly. "I-I… I thought you were dead…!"
"I thought you were dead, too!"
They were now both sobbing and crying hard, although Cara couldn't hug Misaki back, due to the condition of her arms and hands.
Zoro stood at the entrance of the shop, scratching his head as he didn't know what to say or do.
"Why…. What-" Misaki made one more quick check to see if this was really Cara, and then inspected for any injuries. She then saw what had restrained her from running to Misaki.
Shackles on her wrists.
The blue haired girl turned to the manager. "What is the meaning of this? Do you tie down all of your employees here?"
"Only the ones who misbehave." He prompted nonchalantly. "And also, this young woman owes a lot of money. I can't just let her roam free!"
"Cara, what is he talking about?" She glanced back at the white haired woman, who looked down.
"She needed a job." One of the skimpily clothed prostitutes nearby Misaki spoke up. "But the boss-"
The manager of the shop sent a look to the girl who had mentioned him. She stifled her words and became silent.
Misaki stood from her emotional embrace with Cara and looked the man in the eye with a fierce glare. "What did you do to her?"
He flinched.
"Answer me!"
"I… I didn't do anything. I just offered her this job. But I gave her a few drinks. I thought she could afford it."
"Bastard, you didn't just give me a few drinks! You gave me barrels of the most expensive alcohol on the bar menu!" Cara flipped her head towards the manager in rage and disgust.
"Why would you even take the alcohol in the first place?" Zoro sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. Misaki shot a look at Zoro. "That's not the point," she snapped.
"I… I didn't know that it would get me into this much trouble… And I didn't know that this son of a bitch was the owner of a cat house!" The woman tried to fling herself to the man, but forgot about the chains holding her back.
Misaki sent another bone chilling scowl at Mr. Weapons. "This is trickery."
"He did it to a lot of us." Someone from the back of the group piped up.
"Silence!" The manager roared.
Misaki and Zoro weren't affected by the man's demeanor at all, however. She put a hand to her forehead. "How much do I have to give you so you let her go?"
He sniffed. "You couldn't afford it,"
"How much?" She glowered at him. Cara pulled on the younger girl's sleeve. "That's enough, Misaki. He's serious- you couldn't pay it all. Now, get out of here and pretend you never saw me-"
"No, I'm not leaving you, Cara!" Misaki grabbed the older woman's shoulders and shook her violently. "I already lost Aika and I left everyone else back at Sentorappu! I'm not leaving you, too."
Cara's expression twisted from hopelessness to shock.
"Tell me, how much!?" Misaki quickly turned her head to Mr. Weapons.
"Well, if you're so confident, you'll have to give me one million beri."
Zoro and Cara winced at the immense amount of money while the other girls started whispering to each other.
"That was more than I owed you before-!" Cara tried to shout out, but a cold stare from the boss silenced her rather speedily.
"Fine." Misaki began rummaging through her jacket pocket. She cupped in her hand what she was looking for, and thrust out her arm in front of everyone to see.
Jewels clinked to the carpeted floor, along with a nice looking pearl necklace and a diamond ring.
Zoro's eyes widened at the sight of the gems.
"You said that you only had one hundred thousand beri on you." He whispered.
"In cash. I have more that I couldn't convert to beri. The person in the building told me that they ran out of bills," She mumbled.
The girls onstage and Mr. Weapons were both in shock. Cara's eyes went wide, as well.
She dumped out more of her jewels to the ground until there was a considerably large pile on the floor, sparkling and looking pretty for a greedy, fat man to collect.
"Will this be enough for you?" She looked down at Mr. Weapons, who was already knelt down on the carpet, trying to collect every single piece of forunuity for himself. He gave her a salesman smile and nodded. "Yes, this is a good amount."
Snapping his fingers, Cara's chains were broken.
The brown skinned girl was free, and once she was, she gave Misaki a bear hug.
"Misaki…! I missed you so much!"
"I did too, Cara!"
And they were back to crying again. Zoro put a hand to his forehead and started to walk to the exit.
"Wait! Don't leave yet, Zoro." Misaki yelled at the green haired man.
"Z-Zoro?" The manager of the shop recoiled at the mention of the name, repeating it with a quiet hiss.
"Everyone, step off from the stage." Misaki ordered the women.
Some of them walked off casually, putting their hands to their hips, and others were hesitant at the command, exchanging glances with each other and taking peeks at the expression their boss was making. However, most of the prostitutes could not because of the familiar chains binding them to their places.
There were around maybe twenty to thirty women standing, and probably about ten to fifteen didn't move because of their shackles- so basically, roughly half of them.
"Do you all owe him money?" The navy blue haired girl questioned the ones who were bound, and they all nodded slowly.
"He used tricks on us to make us work here…" A girl uttered.
"He doesn't pay us any money, and continuously adds onto our debt."
"And he barely feeds us anything."
Misaki closed her eyes, and then opened them with a new hatred for Mr. Weapons. This was no better than slavery.
"I guess we have no choice, then." Zoro scratched his head. He turned to the manager. "Mr. Weapons."
"Y-Y-Yes!?"
"Release those girls and free them of their debts," Zoro ordered, patting Misaki's shoulder, as if he was sending her a mental message that went along the lines of, 'I got this,'
"I can't do that…" The man stuttered out, shivering in fear of what might happen to him in the next few seconds. "I have bills to pay… I have my own life to worry about, as well!"
"I wasn't finished," The green haired swordsman quickly unsheathed Wado. He pointed the tip at the center of Mr. Weapons' stomach, the point of the katana almost touching the suit.
"Eeeeek!" The boss knew not to make any sudden moves, but any person in their right mind would have screamed like he had.
"Release them, or you won't have a life to worry about any longer." The marimo smiled evilly.
Misaki, Zoro, and Cara were seated at a nice, upbeat restaurant in the central area. After the whole fiasco, Misaki and Cara had hugged and cried for a little longer. Then, the three got the hell out of Mister Weapons, which Mr. Weapons was very grateful for.
They then went to get Cara a new outfit in a nearby store, which took longer than Zoro and Misaki wanted because Cara insisted on picking out her first official outfit meticulously. They finally came out of the clothing store with a satisfied Cara and a worn out Zoro and Misaki, although they still hadn't discussed anything together at all.
"So, how are you? How did you end up on this island and everything?" Misaki leaned in closer to face the white haired girl on the other side of the table. The waiter was ordered to get the three of them shakes- a bit of alcohol in two of the orders to shake things up a bit, just for Cara and the swordsman.
"W-Well… I guess I should start from the beginning…" Cara muttered.
"I'd blacked out after we were ker-blammed by the storm. I ended up here and woke up about a few hours since I washed up on shore, as the people who found me said. Then they told me where I was and all, and they even gave me some money for a ship boarding ticket, since they assumed that I had a home to return to." She chuckled. "Anyway, since I had the extra money, I looked for a job that would get me some cash, and so I started working at a bar… which was where I met Mr. Weapons. After my shift, I had a break and he ordered so many drinks for me. I thought he was going to pay, since, like, who orders something for you and expects you to pay for it?"
"Right. Proceed." Misaki nodded.
"Alright. So after a while I passed out, and when I woke up, I was still at the bar. I was fired from my job on the first damn day for drinking during my break, and the man was waiting for me… sitting besides me. He demanded that I return his money."
"It's kind of your fault for drinking so much." Misaki said.
"That's what I said when she first mentioned it, though!" The green haired man sitting next to her protested.
"Shut up, Zoro. Cara, continue."
"...So, it turned out that I'd been drinking the most expensive shit on the menu…"
"Oh, dear Lord."
"...By the barrel."
"Cara, are you serious?"
"...Fifteen barrels."
"Cara!"
The green eyed woman slumped into her seat, closing her eyes in disappointment at herself. "Yeah, I know, I know. I'm an embarrassment." She sat back up straight. "Anyway, there was no way I had enough money for all of that. So he told me that he would pay for the alcohol if I came to work for him." Cara smiled grimly. "Little did I know I would just end up the same way I was when I was a slave. Selling my body against my own will."
There was an eerily lengthy silence between the three of them until the waiter came to break the tension with their vanilla-coconut specialty shakes.
"Here are your Vanilla-Coconut Specialty Shakies!" He chirped cheerfully.
"Why do you call them 'shakies?'" Zoro cringed, taking a sip out of his "shakie."
"I'm very sorry; our manager makes us say it." The waiter bowed his head in embarrassment.
"I'll forgive you if you add more brandy into this thing," He waved his drink in front of the waiter, who obliged by taking his shake back.
"Misaki, by the way, where's Bruce? I don't see him here… Is he in a hotel room in this island or something?"
The navy blue haired girl turned to face Cara who had an oblivious look on her face, taking a sip out of her alcohol-infused shake.
"...Uhmmm… Cara, Bruce isn't with me. I thought he was with you." Misaki answered carefully. "If you're joking around, it's not funny. Bruce isn't with you?"
"No. Why would he be? He's with you!" Cara smiled knowingly.
"He's not…"
"Who's Bruce?" Zoro asked while munching on a panini.
Just those words from the two were enough to devastate the dark skinned woman.
"A-Are you serious now?" She quivered in her seat. "Is Bruce… Is he really not with you guys?"
"Nope." The swordsman said. "Is he your son or something?"
"He's her brother," Misaki turned to Zoro.
"Younger?"
"Yes."
Cara shook her head rapidly, causing her hair to sway dramatically. She slammed her hands onto the table, causing neighboring customers to veer their heads. "No! He might not be with you, but he's definitely not dead. I know it!"
"Okay, unless you guys were twins with that creepy 'intuition' thing, I don't think you can say you know for sure…" Zoro pointed out very unnecessarily.
"Shut up, Zoro." The blue haired tween elbowed the older man, who grunted in response. She glanced back at Cara, who didn't look so sure of her own words. She needed to say something to Cara to make her lose at least a little bit of tension.
"Ahem… Cara, let me introduce you to Roronoa Zoro." Misaki cleared her throat and let a hand fall on the man's shoulder as he brushed it off coldly.
"I'm sheltering her until she dies or leaves." said Zoro.
"Roronoa Zoro… okay." Cara mustered a weak smile to cover up her concentration on another matter.
"Zoro's part of a pirate crew. The Straw Hat Pirates. They're apparently very notorious." Misaki stated. The three of them didn't realize that some of the people around them were listening to their conversation and Misaki's claims.
A few were murmuring things like:
"Roronoa Zoro, she said…"
"The Straw Hat Pirates!?"
"Isn't Roronoa Zoro the one who sliced an entire ship in half?"
Well, the navy blue haired girl was catching onto these statements, and so was Zoro, who didn't look at all happy that he was being recognized. Cara, who was still new to the outside world and didn't read any books, magazines, or pamphlets as Misaki did in their years of slavery, was clueless as to even what a bounty was.
"Wait, you do know what a bounty is, right?" Misaki asked.
"Uhhh… yes?" She responded with uncertainty dripping from her answer.
"Oh, for crying out- Zoro, will you stop eating the baguettes!?" Misaki hissed as they were still seated. Zoro shook his head swiftly as he stuffed one more piece of bread into his mouth.
At this point, the same waiter was coming over with his hands behind his back, putting on a somewhat strained smile. He didn't have any of the food they'd ordered. Not good, and also, terrible service, as Cara commented.
"Misaki, we gotta bounce." The marimo wiped his mouth with the napkin, speaking to the girl softly. "You too, Cara. We'll act like we're just talking to each other, and when I say go, you get up and run with me."
"What!?" Cara whisper-hissed.
"Just do what he says…" Misaki sighed.
"Three…." Zoro whispered.
Misaki looked at Cara and pretended to say something, as if they were having a jolly conversation about the weather. Seemed to fool the waiter, since his expression became a bit more relaxed.
"Two…"
The waiter misstepped and revealed a pistol in his left hand, shocking the customers next to him.
"One- Go, go, go!" Zoro shouted the last few "go's," and they were up and out.
A few of the consumers abruptly stood up, seconds after the trio, and ran after them. "It's the Straw Hat Pirates!"
"I'm not a pirate!" Cara wailed and zoomed out of the door.
"Sorry for getting you involved, Cara!" Misaki looked back at the woman who was running for her life and very angry and the younger girl. "THAT'S NOT GOING TO CUT IT!"
"Just keep running! Come on!" The green haired man ushered them closer to him- he was literally jogging. Unfortunately for Misaki, his "jogging pace" was her "super-sonic-sprinting pace."
Cara was in the middle of the two of them, running from the mob of people who were after Zoro's head, and in the midst of everything, the waiter was firing bullets into the air like a maniac, which the dark skinned woman found amusing.
"Can't you just distract them!?" Misaki huffed while speeding through the streets, staring at Zoro's back.
"Oh, right." He skidded to a halt and the other two girls mentally facepalmed.
'And I thought I was an idiot!' Cara grumbled internally. But her unawareness of the situation came back as she also stopped in her tracks and glanced at Zoro. "Wait, what're you going to do?"
Before they knew it, the two simple but powerful slashes sent the people's way sent them backwards a few yards away, causing havoc in the crowd. Zoro sheathed his swords back into their rightful places and scratched his head. "Let's get going while they're still being held back."
"Yeah," Misaki nodded, taking Cara's hand and pulling her along the way, giving the latter no time to be utterly shocked by what had happened.
"Wait, Misaki! What's up with your friend!?"
The girl kept on running and didn't face her, but she did explain. "Zoro's a pirate. He's extremely strong and all, so he can pull off attacks like that. Isn't it amazing?"
"Yeah… But, how'd you end up with someone as deadly as that!?"
"Long story." Misaki answered. But then she remembered something that would force the three to stop once more.
"Wait! Zoro, I have to buy a weapon."
"We can do that on another island!" He grumbled. "And also, we're being chased to the death, remember?"
"I'd rather do it sooner than later," She muttered, lowering her head.
Cara just stood next to Misaki, oblivious of the current situation. 'Aren't we supposed to be running away?'
Zoro was hesitant, at first, to Misaki's request, but then he looked at her face. It was a face of desperation and the need to do something quickly and at the moment. He knew that this was important to her, and him asking for the reason wouldn't help anyone, anyway.
"...Tch, fine." The swordsman rubbed the back of his head. He started moving again, but at a walking pace, ushering the others to follow him.
"This time, let's go to a simple-looking weapons store. They say you can find the greatest treasures in the smallest places." He suggested.
"Alright," Misaki agreed. "Let's do that."
The store was simple, alright.
But there were varieties of weapons, and it was a pretty large place, considering all the considerably smaller stores lined up with that specific one. So that was a plus for Misaki. She looked around and window shopped for a bit.
"Call me over when you find something that piques your interest." The marimo said. "I need to buy cleaning supplies for my swords."
"Okay." Misaki turned to Cara, who was only staring at the small shop in awe. "Cara, you have to pick out something, too."
"What? Why?" The woman asked in confusion.
"It's for your protection. The Sunny doesn't really have any weapon storage place, so you can't get anything there." She answered.
"I see." Cara smiled. The three were now separated and wandering around for their own interests.
There were so many things in the store, believe it or not. The tween was overwhelmed by all the different types of blades and bullets in one section.
Well, since this was a Pirate Era, it was essential to have a good supply of weapons just in case anything happened in your island, such as a raid or an attack.
"Why the hell are you in this section?" Zoro popped his head around the aisle labelled, "Heavy Explosives," and deadpanned at Cara. She giggled nervously.
"What? Misaki said it was for my protection!" She laughed. "This is the strongest item in this dingy store!"
"Come on, pick out something more practical." He dragged her away from the piles of grenades and time bombs.
Before Misaki could check out the handheld guns, something grabbed her attention.
She sensed something strong.
A strong presence in the store was lurking around, and Misaki wanted to locate it, in case it was a threat to her or her friends. Or the store.
But no. The energy was coming from a tall, woven basket that was only about half a foot shorter than her. It was so powerful that the basket was rattling.
"Uhm, store manager?" She called, waving her hand, gesturing him to come to where she was.
"Yes?" He picked up his glasses from the bridge of his nose while tiptoeing around his cashier desk.
"What's inside this basket?" Misaki pointed. He smiled broadly.
"Ah, those are our cursed katana. The lid is always shut on these things because heaven knows what they can do if they were exposed to air, where they could attack whoever they wanted."
Although the blue haired girl had read quite a lot on cursed swords, she never really found them so interesting because the thought of a cursed sword in all of its aspects seemed so unrealistic and strange.
She wanted to lift the lid.
"Do you mind if I take a look?" She asked.
"No, go ahead, please." He sniffed.
She slowly opened the basket and looked inside. In the basket were about thirty or so katana in total, all encrusted in ominous symbols and designs.
"Yes, yes, cursed swords have actually became quite the fad, ever since many swordsmen have been using them, and they proved themselves to be quite useful and powerful." The store manager rambled on about his greatest weapons, making hand gestures and becoming so absorbed in his stories, not noticing that Misaki was taking out a certain sword from the pile.
'This one is the one. It's calling out to me.' She thought. The girl turned to the storekeeper. "Excuse me, how much is this one?"
"All of the cursed katana are each two million beris." He responded cheerfully, with his eyes closed, as if he had rehearsed the line. When he reopened them, they were instantly widened at the sight of the sword. 'T-That o-one… B-But that's...'
Misaki sighed, noticing his reaction to just taking one glance at the sword she chose. "Well… The thing is, I don't have two million beris in cash at the moment."
"Well, then, you can forget about buying this. Cursed katana are quite rare, and the only reason why I have so many here is because the last pirates who swung by left such a big batch, saying that they didn't want anything to do with them." The man folded his hands against his chest. "They are pretty dangerous. The captain of the ship told me before he gave me the swords, that the previous owners of some of them killed themselves."
Misaki flinched just a bit.
"I don't care. I can pay you, just not in cash."
"Then how will you pay me?" He demanded.
She drew out a sack from one of her shopping bags that looked as if it were made out of burlap, but still sagging. As she moved it, the contents of the sack made clinking sounds.
"I can pay you with these jewels," She dropped the burlap bag on the floor, and the opening revealed pretty gemstones and coins, in both gold and silver.
The storekeeper gulped. "Well… This seems adequate enough."
"No. It's more than enough. I'll be taking another sword. That bag is probably worth around five million." Misaki put her hands on her hips. While she kept that one katana on the ground of the shop, she rummaged through the cursed swords to find another.
Then, she felt another strange aura. She immediately looked down at the blade she had placed on the floor, thinking that the power was coming from it.
The sword was still.
'Does that mean that there's another one…?' Misaki turned back to the basket and scanned the swords for something- anything, and rummaged through it.
"Are you looking for something?" He asked.
"I felt something else. But it's not in this basket." The girl said.
"Felt something? I-I'm sure that if it was the energy of a cursed sword, it must be in there somewhere-"
"You're lying." Misaki interjected. "Where is it?"
The storekeeper grumbled at her persistence and scratched the back of his head. "I'm afraid I won't bring it here."
"Why? Did someone already purchase-"
"No, it's not that. Rather, I can't." He interrupted the navy blue haired girl, who cocked her head to the side.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Those two katana are siblings." He answered.
"How can swords be siblings? What does it even mean?" Misaki asked. She always cringed whenever people used personification like that.
The storekeeper cleared his throat and straightened his posture. "Legend has it that long ago, twin assassins haunted many islands as they killed and tortured people with their blades. For their evil deeds, the gods up above sentenced them to an instant death after the two's one thousandth kill together, and placed their souls into the katana. You can't keep them together. The energy is too overwhelming."
A rough, calloused hand was dropped onto Misaki's soft head of hair. "I'll be the judge of that."
Zoro stood, looking down at the shorter girl. "You found a pretty good sword to use. Bring the other one here. I promise that no one'll get hurt."
"No! I refuse!" He folded his arms across his chest.
"Bring it to me," Following behind Zoro's words, Misaki gazed at the shop owner with her intense eyes, commanding him to comply.
The old man gulped. But he remained stubborn and still.
Misaki picked up the sword she chose from the pile and sighed. She placed it right on top of her hand.
"Uhh, what are you doing, Misaki?" Zoro reached out his hand in hesitance.
She unsheathed the sword with her other hand, and sliced through her wrist.
"Oh my god!" The old store manager jumped a mile backwards right when she made the blow.
Her hand was fine, naturally. Misaki had made sure that whenever she was attacked with a weapon by someone, even herself, the body part that was affected would turn to liquid a millisecond before it happened.
"H-How…"
"Even though it's a demon sword, it doesn't possess any supernatural abilities so that it can hurt me." Misaki said. "If something happens, I'll protect you. And he's a talented swordsman, so he'll make sure that this shop will stay together." Misaki motioned to Zoro, who was still standing behind her, half-shocked at what just happened.
The storekeeper was stationary, still on the floor in shock of what just happened. After a few moments, he skittered away and came back with a wrapped katana.
The dark energy was overwhelming, and Zoro, Cara, and Misaki could all sense the incredible energy the two swords possesed.
Misaki held both swords after unwrapping the one that had been put away, and just keeping them in her hands was a struggle.
"That's enough, Misaki-" Zoro tried to stop her from continuing her attempt to control the twin katana, but he was interrupted.
"No. I'm keeping these swords. I just need to show them that they won't overpower me." Misaki strengthened her grip on the swords, and she felt flickers and slashes of retaliation and anger spewing out of the hateful weapons. Zoro and Cara blockaded the poor store owner from the small strikes and slices that traveled via the air, while Misaki transformed her body into water to avoid getting hit, since she was the most prone to the attacks, as she was the closest to the swords.
Then, wailing emerged from the katana. Wails of not only two people, but many, many people. Voices of agony and suffering. Misaki came to realize that the owners of the screeches and cries were the victims of the two assassins. The story the old storekeeper explained was beginning to unfold.
"Look up." Zoro pointed to the ceiling. Cara was shocked to see that the entire store was dark- covered with black mist and the negative, evil energy drawn out by the death that the siblings brought to so many people.
Misaki was sweating and straining to continue her efforts. And just when she looked like she was ready to pass out, the wailing stopped. The dark clouds cleared. The violent, miniscule attacks ceased.
The swords were silent.
"Phew." The navy blue haired girl wiped her forehead with her right arm, as she was still holding onto her newly retrieved katana. "That was interesting. Are you guys okay?"
"Wow." Cara stood, bewildered at what had happened. Actually, the swordsman, the store owner, and she were all crouched behind the counter table to avoid the slices that were produced from the swords and their anger. The three swiftly emerged from the counter and gave Misaki a quiet, quick applause.
"Thanks, I guess?" She responded, tucking her hair behind her ear, mind you, still dangerously holding the swords. "Zoro, should I name them?"
"What?" He snapped out of his awkward state of awe and glanced at Misaki again.
"Names. Should I give them names?"
"I don't think swords are given names by secondary owners-" Zoro started.
"And they already have names! Aku and Waru (Aku means "evil" and Waru is shorted for Warui, which means "bad.")!" The storekeeper butted in. "Please! Let's not anger the katana again by naming them like new pets… at least, not in my shop! It's bad luck, it's bad luck, I tell you!"
"I think I'll call this one Kura." She lifted the sword with the white handle.
"LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY!"
"And this one will be Yami." She twisted the black handled sword.
"Kura and Yami." Zoro smirked. "Kurayami, meaning, 'darkness?'"
"Naturally. If I can't name the swords I own, then they'll completely own me in a matter of minutes." Misaki said.
"Alright. Strong words spoken by a complete moron." He clapped her back roughly. "Nice work, Misaki!"
"Please don't call me a moron."
In a few minutes, Misaki, Zoro, and Cara, who was in another aisle of the shop, were out of that store with their purchases. Cara got herself a revolver because it apparently looked "super fucking cool," and Zoro bought some cleaning supplies, as he had promised.
"Do you even know how to shoot with a gun?" The marimo raised an eyebrow.
"No. but hey, everyone starts somewhere!" Cara let her hands up into the air.
"No, that's not how it works." The green haired man said, raising his eyebrow. As they left the store, the three could see the owner spreading salt all over his floors and windows, holding up a cross and comically praying, as if the demons from Misaki's katana would come and kill him.
"For now, you should stay with us, at the Sunny. Everyone there is really nice." Misaki said.
"...Misaki, do they know, though?" The dark skinned woman twiddled her fingers, her gun hanging from the loop of her pants.
"Know what?" The green haired man asked, and Misaki narrowed her eyebrows. "Zoro's the only one who knows, I think. The rest of them have no idea. They think I was in a shipwreck."
"Oh." Cara mumbled.
"Oh, are you talking about the slave thing?" Zoro snapped his fingers.
"Please don't say, 'the slave thing,'" The blue haired girl rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "And, yes. You already know about how I was a slave. Cara was, as well."
"How old are you, exactly?" Zoro interrogated.
"I'm nineteen," She responded, bringing her shoulders up to breathe in. "I've been a slave since I was ten. Misaki's been one her whole life, if you didn't know."
"Your whole life?" He turned to Misaki, unbelievingly.
"Well, I was cared for until I turned four." She corrected her older friend.
"Oh, right…"
"That's not what matters here. What matters is that we find Bruce, wherever he is, and go back to Sentorappu."
"Why would we-" Cara tried to speak up, but was interrupted by Zoro. "We should head back, now. The mob's gonna catch up any time soon."
"Oh, right." Misaki recollected the crowd of people trying to chase the swordsman down.
"Oh, and also, Cara…" The green haired man faced the woman.
"Yeah?" Cara was still a bit timid around the swordsman, since they'd just met. Her voice quieted down, as if Zoro was bringing her some bad news.
"Misaki swallowed a Devil Fruit."
"What's a Devil Fruit?"
"You don't know what a Devil Fruit is? Misaki knew what a Devil Fruit is and she's a moron-" Zoro started to speak, but Misaki interrupted his salty sentence.
"We'll tell you when we get back to the Sunny…" The blue haired girl stated while running.
"What's a 'sunny?'"
"...And so, I'll have to ask you for another favor." Misaki bowed to the Straw Hat Pirates, who had already returned to the ship. It was around supper time, and Sanji was cooking dinner- steak and vegetables with a side of frozen yogurt. Cara wasn't even bowing down with her friend, but rather, she was smelling what was going down in the kitchen.
"Why… Why does she have so many scars?" Nami pointed at Cara's arms and legs- the dark skinned woman still not paying attention- but Robin smacked down the orange haired woman's hand. "It's rude to point," she said.
Cara's body contained a fuckton of scattered scars. When she was younger and new to the prostitution world, she would get tortured mentally so her brain could be trained to satisfy her clients' needs. She pretended to cooperate for nine years, and she was only herself around her brother and closest friends, while she was a submissive meltdown whenever she entered her "workplace." However, she was never injured, since "merchandise and precious items couldn't be manhandled in such a way." Bruce was also untouched, and so Misaki was the one who really looked bad while standing next to the two caramel siblings.
Misaki knew that she was back into the brothel business before she was rescued, but she never imagined that she would be beaten by the manager. Then again, she was bound in chains, so that was poor judgement on the blue haired girl's part. She didn't question Cara about the injuries because she was afraid that something would trigger deep inside the white haired woman's heart. Misaki snapped out of her thoughts and cleared her throat.
"...Uhhh, I don't know...?" The thirteen year old thought up of a lame excuse quickly. "But she doesn't have any money, and she's an irresponsible drinker, so I couldn't leave her alone there. She isn't dangerous. I promise."
"Of course she can stay with us! She's your friend, Misaki." Usopp put his hands on his hips.
"Thanks!" Cara whooped. She brought out her pistol and twirled it around her index finger a few times. "Does anyone here know how to shoot really well? I want to learn,"
All eyes directed to the man who just spoke: Usopp.
"Aw, man! I never thought that there would actually be a sniper on this ship!" Cara raised her arms in happiness. "You like booze?"
"I-I'm not really the teacher type…" Usopp stuttered, but the similar skin toned woman had already linked her arm around his shoulder. "Ahhh, don't worry about it! I'll be in your care, Long Nose!"
"His name is Usopp, Cara…"
"Long Nose, it is!"
The rest of the crew chuckled.
Adding Cara into the Sunny wasn't a problem, and pretty soon, even Nami came to accept the woman's imperfections. She was more social and seemingly more emotional than Misaki, so she got along with the navigator and the idiots of the crew. When Sanji saw her, he was knocked out.
"Another lady~!"
"Shut up, you damn pervert!" Zoro slapped the cook's back with his sheathed sword.
And thus, they fought again. Misaki and Cara looked at the group of troublemakers in silence.
"Misaki…"
"Yeah, I know. They can be weird at times. But apparently, not all people act like them."
"Hmm." Cara hummed and put her hands to her hips. "Let's talk a little bit more. In private."
"Of course." Misaki led her to the library, but didn't know another figure was following them.
When she shut the door behind them and made sure no one was looking at or for them, she switched her face around to direct her attention at Cara, who was worried, her happy and animated expressions that were just there a few moments ago long gone.
But when she realized Misaki was looking at her, she made her mouth turn to a small smile, even though her eyes were forlorn and dark.
It was clear that Cara wasn't ready to say anything. Not yet.
"About the Devil Fruit we were talking about before…" Misaki tried to start up a conversation and hoped that after listening to her, the dark skinned woman would escape from her sadness and talk about the more important matter at hand.
The navy blue haired girl, in their small amount of alone time together, told Cara about Devil Fruits and her Mizu Mizu no mi. She demonstrated to Cara her magic- at least, the little that she was able to do at the moment. Cara gasped in awe when she experienced the little water fragments rotating around her friend's fingertips, and even staggered away in surprise, but didn't say anything else.
"I was rescued by them. And they're good people- not like the ones we're used to." The girl coughed. "I only told Zoro about our situation, but to be honest, when I was confessing my past, I could feel another presence in the room, listening to our conversation…" Misaki said. "It doesn't look like we can't trust them, but we should still stay cautious."
"Is your power the reason why your injuries disappeared?" Cara asked, and Misaki nodded. She then remembered Cara's back.
Wherever she went during the time they were together, Misaki had seen Cara wearing quite revealing clothing, but nothing that would exhibit her back.
Probably because there was a large emblem of the Celestial Dragons, forever remaining and much too large to humanely remove; to stay on her body until she grew old and wrinkly to the point where the branding would be hardly recognizable. The mark wasn't removable, either, and Cara probably never wanted to go through the pain of having something large enough to be branded over the already enormous marking. The marking that Misaki didn't have.
She thought back to the time at the torture chambers when everyone was being branded, but the person in charge of the marking was stopped by Hakotsu himself when it was the blue haired girl's turn.
"Stop. You cannot mark her."
"My Lord?"
"She is the one… She cannot be labelled as a lowly slave for the rest of her life,"
Misaki never really understood what Hakotsu meant by those last words.
"I'm worried about Bruce." Cara cleared her throat, and Misaki was just glad that she finally decided to speak.
The girl frowned. "Cara, where would he have gone? If you got to an island after the storm, he must have gotten on that same island, too."
"There's... something I didn't tell you about that time." The white haired woman averted her gaze.
"What?"
"...The day of the shipwreck, I was with Bruce on the railing of the deck. We were just looking at the ocean and all, and we just couldn't believe that we were finally free from the hell hole we were in for nine years." Cara's lower lip trembled. "Somewhere in the conversation, we started arguing… bickering, and then it gradually got worse. We started shouting, and people were looking at us… I punched his face and he shoved me onto the wall of the ship… and then the storm came. And that was when a wave of water was about to hit me."
Misaki looked up at her friend.
"But. But… it didn't." Cara cupped her head into her hands. "Bruce pushed me away so I wouldn't get hurt… But he got dragged in by that water…! And I was safer. And the last thing we said to each other was an argument, followed by a punch and a shove. I don't want that! I'm so scared to death that he might be dead, or worse, just brought back to Sentorappu! And even when I was a prostitute, I couldn't sleep at all. I could only think about how much I regretted fighting with him… And losing the two of you."
The blue haired girl frowned. "Did that really happen? I must have been lamenting so much and being a baby that I didn't even realize the danger my friends were in…"
"None of this was your fault, Misaki." Cara sniffled and rubbed her eye. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were red to indicate that tears were welling up. "Don't think like that. I'm just hoping to God that Bruce is still alive and well… Maybe he's still out at sea."
Misaki perked up. "Maybe…" She pumped her fist. "I can track him down with my powers!"
"Would it expand to that extent? We don't know how far he went, due to the shipwreck, and we don't even know if you can even do it!" Cara protested.
"We have to try." The girl responded firmly, wondering if her idea would work.
She really hoped it would work.
It didn't work.
"Misaki, what in the world are you doing?" Usopp asked, cocking his head to the side.
Misaki was floating on water and plunging her hands into the cold ocean, trying to see if she could pick up a signal of Bruce. A familiar voice, scent- something.
The water felt warm to touch as her arms became more absorbed into the sea, and she could feel sea creatures swimming underneath her submerged feet, which were pretty close to the surface of the sea, long with the ginormous Sunny- that was weird, since sea creatures being that close to a ship was uncommon.
"Are you getting anything?" The brown skinned woman called down to the young girl, who shook her head solemnly.
"It might pop up somehow, maybe later. I can find him!" She replied with determination.
"What is she doing?" Nami pointed towards Misaki. At this point, the Straw Hats were used to her powers, since most of them were Devil Fruit users, too, and something like this wasn't out of the ordinary.
"She's looking for… uhh… something, that she lost in the ocean…?" Cara stumbled with the proper excuse to make, but came up with something, at least. Misaki overheard her friend's response and replaced her look of concentration with a look of internal death.
Soon enough, the girl became drowsy and void of strength in her limbs. She let the ocean carry her back into the Sunny, and sit her down on the floor of the deck. It was hopeless- either her powers didn't have the ability to do something like finding a person that could have been far, far away, or Bruce wasn't in the water. Or he could have been dead, which was an option Misaki refused to think about.
"I couldn't find anything." Misaki muttered, looking down in shame. "I wish I was more useful."
"Come on. You saved me once today, we'll save Bruce another if we have to." The white haired woman patted her friend on the back in encouragement. She had no intention of believing in the chance that Bruce was dead. That was what Misaki had expected, and she paid it no mind.
"Dinner's ready! Hurry up and get grubbin', ladies and assholes!" Sanji called out from the kitchen, the aroma of meat and sugar stronger than ever. The navy blue haired girl wasn't surprised to see Cara fucking sprint to the direction of the cook's voice. She must have really been looking forward to eating, which was something that the thirteen year old girl appreciated because it let her know that her friend was still herself. Misaki huffed in exasperation, but a hint of relief, and followed shortly after a moment of stillness and silence.
Edited May 16th, 2019
Thank you for reading, and please review! I appreciate constructive criticism~