Chapter Eleven
(Evil Woman; What Happened at the Bar; Flee; The Dog)
Reunion
WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A PANIC ATTACK, SPOILERS AND BLOOD.
Summary: Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing. Kim discovers this when she's torn away from all she knows and thrust into a world where danger and death is an every day occurrence. Now she has to find away back to her family and there's only one way she can do that. Travel the Grandline in search of some answers.
Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters are copyright to Oda-sama and Funimation (plus all the other companies who have the rights, lucky bastards). OCs are copyright of me along with anything else the general public doesn't recognize, apart from certain characters that have been borrowed with explicit permission from the creators themselves.
Beta'd by Omicron the IceQueen (now, go give her praise and affection because she always reminds me to add stuff in!)
"We're here, Zoro-sama! Leonore-hime!"
At the sound of the still new voices, Kim opened her eyes and swatted Zoro's hand away as he prodded her in her ribs insistently, "Already?" she yawned, rubbing at her aching eyes.
"Seems like it," Zoro said, helping the teenager out of the boat and onto the dock.
"But it doesn't look like anyone lives here. This village is empty."
"Probably because the Buggy pirates showed up, right?" Kim asked, turning to the three men for confirmation.
"Yes, that's right. At the moment, our Buggy pirate fleet is raiding this village," the biggest of the three men said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. His crew mates ignored them in favor of arguing about what to tell Buggy since all the treasure they had been sent out to collect was stolen by Nami.
"Well, we'd better go meet this Buggy guy, Kim. We might be able to hear something about Luffy." Zoro sighed, stretching and yawning.
"I am afraid that you will have to go by yourself, Roronoa-san. I plan on stealing your Chronicler for a few minutes." A familiar, nails-on-a-chalkboard voice rang out over the docks, making everyone jump and look for the mysterious speaker. Zoro was the first to spot Akane from his place on a nearby roof and but Kim was the one who scowled at him irritably.
"You again? What the hell do you want now?" she snapped, amber eyes flashing. The three Buggy pirates shied away from her, hiding behind Zoro as if he would protect them from the brunette's ire.
"A moment of your time, my dear," Akane said, sliding off the roof just in time to avoid being blown away by the Buggy ball that shot through the house. Kim yelped and threw her good arm up to protect her face.
"I'm thinking that you'll find Buggy over there," she said shakily, pointing towards where the cannon ball came from. The explosion had woken her up, leaving her without any traces of exhaustion.
Zoro grunted in agreement, pale faced, "If you're not coming, then let me know now." he said, fixing her with an intense look.
Kim bit her lip. Go with Zoro and try to prevent him from getting stabbed or go with the guy who dragged her away from her home world and forced her to join a pirate crew? Decisions, decisions... "I-"
"I wish to speak with you about your brothers." Akane said bluntly, cutting her off and making Kim froze.
Her brothers...
"...I'll meet up with you later." she said finally, her face empty of all emotion. Zoro stared at her a moment longer, searching her face for something, and nodded, walking off towards the origin of destruction.
Once he was gone, Kim turned to Akane.
"Walk with me." he said casually, stuffing his hands into his pockets and strolling away without waiting for Kim. She hurried after him, scowling.
"What's going on with my brothers?" she demanded after a few minutes of silence. Akane looked at her in surprise, as if he had forgotten about her.
"Your brothers..." he hummed, looking up at the sky, "That cloud looks like a butterfly..."
"STOP GETTING DISTRACTED AND TELL ME ALREADY!" Kim shrieked nearly at the top of her lunges, slapping him upside the head with her fist.
Akane grimaced, rubbing at the area where Kim had hit him. "So, impatient!" he huffed, putting some distance between them before stopping. Kim stopped following him, leaving a good foot of space between them. The red head sighed, fixing her with a bored look. "Your brothers fail to take your disappearance well. Your oldest brother has been arrested for battering a police officer when he refused to let him help in the search for you, and the other two are a pair of miserable children."
Kim's shoulders slumped, her expression depressed.
She hated this, hated not being able to see her family, to rid them of the trouble Akane had caused them. She just wanted to go home, dammit! Kim wanted to see Kaine get mad because he couldn't work the microwave. She wanted to listen to Ken whine about how hard it was having curly hair. Kim wanted to joke around with Mike and show her classmates the pictures from his latest photo shoot. The teen wanted to be able to crawl into bed with them when she had a nightmare, just like she did when Kim was a little girl.
Kim wanted the real thing instead of Zoro and Luffy as substitutes. The brunette's shoulders shook from silent sobs, her teeth clenched and eyes wide.
"I will find my way back." Kim said fiercely, her voice thick with emotion and eyes glassy with tears. "I don't care what it takes. Lying, stealing, killing. I'll make it back even if it takes me a hundred years to do it! I won't let you take away my life!" She was screaming by the time she finished her vow, but Akane didn't flinch.
"I believe you." he said simply.
Another sob tore its way from Kim's throat, this one full of anger and hate, she raised her head to snarl at the boy before her, "And when I do, I'll make sure no one ever has to be taken away like I was! If you ever bring someone else into this world, I'll find them and take them back! No one deserves to have their will, their life, snatched away from them!"
Akane smirked, triumph in his eyes, Kim didn't know or care why he looked so pleased with her; at least for now that is.
"That is exactly what I wanted to hear." he said quietly, stepping forward and sweeping her into a hug. Kim stiffened, angry about his completely random affection, hadn't she been yelling at him a second ago? Couldn't he tell that she hated him?! "There are many things that I regret in my life. The thing I regret the most is taking you away from the family that has lost so much. However, it was not my decision to make. I intend to aid you with your Einstein-Rosen Bridge research and keep you alive in this world."
"That's great." Kim said flatly, glaring at a tree from over his shoulder. "Now get the fuck off of me."
Akane laughed and released her, quickly moving away so she couldn't hit him
again, "You are truly amusing, young one. Now, I believe I have a few things for you." he said, rummaging through the backpack he wore. Kim blinked, wondering why she didn't notice it before. Come to think of it, she had never truly looked at Akane other than when he attacked her. Akane looked like an average man aside from his gravity defying hair. Beneath his cloak, he wore a plain white T-shirt and a pair of worn jeans with a few holes in them. The jeans were tucked into a pair of soft-looking black boots that had a few chains hanging from them, matching the black backpack he was currently looking through.
"Huh," she mumbled, amazed that someone so strange could look so normal. Then again, Luffy looked normal and he was anything but!
"Found it!" he said triumphantly, pulling two objects out of his backpack and tossing them to Kim.
She caught them awkwardly, "Hey! This is my iPod Touch!" Kim exclaimed, staring at it. "How did you get it? And why does it look so weird?"
The device was barely recognizable with all the strange wires and boxes hooked to it. The only reason Kim knew it was hers was because it had her name on the back in black lettering. She had asked Ken to personalize it for her when she bought it, not wanting to have someone steal it and claim it as theirs if she tried to get it back. Now, however, there was a painting of some strange, silver serpent twirling around the letters. It's yellow eyes stared back at her unblinkingly.
Her iPod had some sort of strange box like thing over where the camera went. The box pulsed beneath her fingers when she touched it and lit up a bright yellow color.
Attached to the box were dozens of tiny wires that connected to the iPod's dock and earphone jack.
Kim hesitantly pressed down on the power button and turned it on. The iPod started up like normal, waiting for her to unlock it and type in her pass-code.
"I got it out of your room. It's been upgraded so that it can work in this world without needing to be charged. However, there's a catch. It can only receive information, not send it out. Also, I downloaded an app that has all the One Piece chapters, so you can stay up to date with that. You might want to watch the filler episodes in case they pop up. This world isn't set strictly to the timeline of the manga or anime and it's quite possible that the two will merge somehow.
"I advise you not to let anyone in this world know about your iPod. It could have disastrous results. And, Kimiya Leonore, it would be most unwise to change too many things that would affect the future. Your presence in this world will have a butterfly effect. It might take some time to become noticeable, but you will eventually see the effects of your actions. Be careful not to change anything too big."
"Like Marineford?" Kim asked dejectedly, put out by the fact she might not be able to save Ace's life.
Akane pointedly avoided looking her in the eyes. "Well," he coughed, toeing the ground like a child beating around the bush. "I might make a few adjustments of my own. I am still working out the bugs..."
"Marineford has to happen, though." Kim frowned, her mind working quickly. "It would be pretty bad if the time skip didn't happen. And if Newgate doesn't die, then Big Mom won't take over Fishman Island. If that doesn't happen, Luffy won't be able to take control of it from her and I don't know what kind of repercussions that might have on this world."
"Exactly." Akane sighed, seeming just as disappointed as Kim felt. The brunette took a step back, unaccustomed to the unusal display of emotion. "I would rather not have people die when I can do something about it. I won't feel too bad about Newgate dying, though. He is an admirable person, but he is quite old and sick. At least, old in your terms. I will try to save the Portgas boy, though."
"Well, let me know what you decided about that." Kim sighed, annoyed by the lack of animosity they were having. She was feeling very bipolar lately. Pissed of like Hell one second and then having a civil conversation with the guy she was angry with the next.
"Aa," Akane made a sound of agreement, "The other thing I gave you is what you would call a familiar." The brunette perked up, an excited grin spreading across her face and making her cheeks ache.
"Really?!" she squealed, stuffing her iPod into her backpack and holding the other object up so that she could get a better look at it.
It appeared to be an egg of some sort with a majority of the shell being a pearly white, and very smooth to the touch. Blue and purple stripes that crisscrossed over its surface felt bumpy under her fingers when she ran them over the egg's surface. The egg itself was smooth and surprisingly pliant, having an almost leathery feel to it. It reminded her of the DigiEgg that came out of Tai and Kari's computer in 'Digimon: The Movie.' It was about the same size too, if not a little bit smaller, able to fit in the crook of her arm with room to spare.
"What is inside the egg is a mystery to me." Akane informed her, looking just as curious as she felt. "It should take about a month or so to hatch. I shall come back to see you when it does. You can email me from your iPod. The information for my communicator is in the contact book." He pulled out a small, phone-like device and showed it to her before putting it away again.
"Kay," Kim said, silently promising to contact him only if he was absolutely needed. Just because she was able to talk to him without killing him didn't mean that she'd voluntarily invite him to hang out with her. Besides, Zoro and Luffy could help her if she needed them, right?
"You might want to consider getting a Den Den Mushi." The image of the transonder snail came to mind and Kim winced at the thought of all the slime a snail could produce. "They are the main form of correspondence in this world. It would be wise to have a way to keep in contact with people."
"I'll think about it," Kim said, annoyed that she might have to buy something else. She wanted to accumulate money, not spend it. She might have to start stealing stuff to pay for clothes and other things. In addition to that, the familiar Akane had given her might require things that cost money. If the egg was large, the baby inside it was sure to be just as big and grow to be even bigger. Big things (and Luffy) needed a lot of food to survive. All her money... down the drain...
"H-hey! Are you alright?" Akane called in alarm.
"It's not worth it..." Kim sobbed, dropping to the ground with a dark cloud of gloom hung over her head, "All my money is going to disappear... so many expenses... it's going to kill me..."
"Oi..." Akane said in exasperation. The only Leonore girl of her generation was already conforming to the dramatics of the One Piece world.
Kim ended up finding her crewmates half-an-hour later after a rather long search. Akane had left a few minutes after telling her to get a Transponder Snail, promising to bring her back updates on her brothers every once in a while. She guessed that if he was going to bring her news of her brothers, she could stand
his presence occasionally.
"What happened to you guys?" she asked incredulously, looking around the scene skeptically. An unfamiliar girl stood off to the side, her red hair marking hr as Nami, who looked very pretty in person. She blinked at Kim in surprise as the brunette approached. A few feet away from her, sitting on the steps of a Pet Food store were Zoro, who was bleeding heavily from his left side, and a small white dog that sort of resembled a terrier. A giant iron cage was sitting on its side in front of those steps, Luffy sitting inside and glaring at the little white dog Kim believed to be Shushu.
"Kim!" Luffy cried happily as she approached, pressing his face against the bars on his cage and reaching out towards her, glad to see his missing nakama. Kim smiled at him sweetly and moved forward to hug him around the bars. "Where'd you go?"
"An... acquaintance of mine showed up to give me some information and a couple of things." she sighed, pulling away from him and prodding the cage's lock. "Now you tell me what's been going on. I leave you guys alone for a little while and when I come back you're either stuck in a cage or bleeding." She grimaced as the metallic stink of blood filled her nose.
Zoro scowled at her, one hand on his sluggishly bleeding rib wound, "She got Luffy stuck in a cage." the swordsman grunted, pointing at Nami. Kim smiled at her and waved enthusiastically as Zoro continued, "I got stabbed by that Buggy guy when I was rescuing them. Damn guy's a Devil Fruit user. He can break his body up into pieces so I can't cut him."
"Well, great!" Kim said sarcastically, pulling out one of her hair pins and fiddling with the lock. Kenny had taught her the basics of lock picking since she had a tendency to forget her house keys when she went off somewhere and had to wait around outside the house until someone came home.
Click~!
The young woman grinned as the lock gave way under her skills after a few minutes of poking and prodding and a couple of broken hairpins. She tugged on the cage's opening, but it was too heavy for her to lift.
"I can get out by myself," Luffy reassured her, rolling onto his back.
"Alright." she said, moving away from the cage and out of his way. Luffy tensed his legs and stared at the door intently for a moment, then lashed out his rubbery appendages with the force of a small canon. The heavy iron door flew off almost effortlessly. Kim ducked out of the way, grinning appreciatively and shifting the egg in her arms so that she could high-five her captain. "Nice!"
"So, what's up with the egg?" Luffy asked attempting to poke it, making Kim frowned and tried to escape his fingers as she didn't want anyone touching her new baby, at least not yet.
"It was a gift. Who's the red head and the poodle guy?" The young woman asked, ducking under Luffy's arm as he tried to take the egg from her out of curiosity and a need to tease his friend.
"That's Nami, our navigator." Luffy informed her, a step behind the brunette, still reaching for the unborn creature. It looked as if they were doing some kind of strange dance around each other as Luffy kept talking, "The poodle-ossan is Boodle, the chief of the village." Kim glanced over at the old man, surprised by the fact he actually looked like a poodle!
"I'm not your navigator, dammit!" Nami shouted, looking extremely irritated but the two seventeen year olds ignored her.
"There's not much of a village to be chief of," Kim commented, kneeling beside Zoro, her body curled in over the egg. Luffy frowned and prodded at her ribs, causing her to giggle. The rubber boy took advantage of the opening and swiped the egg from her grasp. "Hey!"
"What's in it?" Luffy asked curiously, running his fingers over the stripes. "Can we eat it?"
"No!" Kim shouted, snatching the egg back from him. She pouted at him. "My baby."
Luffy looked disappointed at the loss of a potential meal but left her alone.
"What kind of animal's in it?" Zoro grunted, pale faced and panting. Kim felt a stab of guilt about goofing off while he was slowly bleeding out.
"Dunno. It won't hatch for another month." she shrugged, carefully pulling the bloody shirt away from his ribs. The sticky-sweet stench of fresh blood filled her nose and she felt a stab of panic, her mind plunging back to the time she had been shot in Shells City, her arm gushing blood and feeling so (so painful and oh God she was going to bleed to death before going home and she didn't want to die again, not again, she didn't want to go back to the white space ever ever ever again; not where everything was white, white and empty and dead and oh God her arm hurt!) –
"Kim!" she heard someone cry out in alarm, and she jolted back to reality, her breathing difficult and shallow. She stared at the tan hand clamped around her wrist and realized dully that her finger nails were digging into the bandages on her forearm, leaving bloody gouges. Kim yanked her hand away hastily and wiped the mixture of Zoro's blood and her own onto the ground almost obsessively, desperate to get that damn blood off her fingers.
"We need to take your shirt off so we can bandage you." She murmured, avoiding her crewmates' eyes.
She set the egg down beside her and carefully cut off Zoro's shirt, trying not to put too much strain on his ribs. She took a second to admire his bare torso before turning to Boodle.
"I'll get a first aid kit for you." The old mayor said, knowing what was needed.
Kim smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks," she murmured, taking the box from him when he returned and opening it. Luffy flopped down beside her and picked the egg up. Nami eyed them warily as she leaned against a nearby building.
"What are you going to name the mystery-baby?" the rubber man asked curiously, holding it up to the sun and squinting. He could sort of see through the shell, but whatever was inside of it didn't have any definite traits that would make it recognizable.
"I don't know." Kim sighed as she disinfected Zoro's wounds with some alcohol and cotton swabs. The swordsman growled in pain from both the alcohol and when she accidently pressed too hard on his ribs, her hands unsteady from remembering what happened in Shells City. She glanced up at Zoro apologetically. "Sorry. I guess I'll name it when it hatches, seeing something first usually helps with naming stuff."
"Oh," Luffy hummed, setting the egg back down. He looked at the little white dog sitting in front of a pet food store curiously. "Hey, ossan! Is that dog's name Shushu? That's what you called him, right?"
Kim tuned them out as she wrapped the bandages around Zoro's chest, already familiar with Shushu's story. It was like the story of Hachi (she thought that was the dog's name). After the master died, the dog would spend all his time waiting at a train station for him to come home, be it rain or snow. Shushu was pretty much doing the same thing, but sitting in front of his master's store instead of at a train station. Kim wasn't too concerned with the specifics of the story, seeing as she was carefully threading a needle and thread through Zoro's open wound, the swordsman barely even flinching at the pain.
"This isn't necessary." Zoro sighed, trying to push her away. "I just need a nap and I'll be alright."
"Idiot," Kim snorted, reaching out and slapping the side of his head. "If this isn't treated, then it'll cause you pain and be a burden on us. You don't want that happening, do you? And what about being the World's Greatest Swordsman? How the hell do expect to reach that goal if you're dead from blood loss or an infection for that matter?"
Oh, she was so going to Hell for being a manipulative bitch. It was worth it though, if she could scold the "demon" of the East Blue and make him see sense.
Zoro shut up quickly, but didn't seem too happy about it. Kim had poked and prodded in all the right places to make him stop arguing. "Gaki," the swordsman snapped at her, as close to pouting as he would ever get. The brunette scowled at being called a brat (or at least, that's what she though gaki meant.
"But I'm not the one bleeding out of the gut, am I?" Kim sneered, wanting the last word. She ignored his spluttering and turned to Boodle. "Hey, ossan! Do you have anywhere we can put him?"
"Sure," the old man agreed, putting Shushu's story on pause and helping her carry/drag Zoro away. Before they left, Kim shoved her egg into Nami's arms ("That's my treasure. Don't let it get hurt. I'm Kim by the way, welcome to the crew."), "He can stay in my house. You can stay with him if you want."
"Thanks, but I thought that I might go look for some food. We haven't had a decent meal in weeks." Kim said wearily, allowing Boodle and Luffy to carry Zoro into Boodle's house.
"You're welcome to whatever's in my fridge." Boodle offered, grunting as they heaved Zoro into his bed. The swordsman groaned in pain and moved until he was in a comfortable position.
"Thank you," Kim grinned, following him back downstairs and into the kitchen. She was definitely going to take the chance to relax before they had to fight Buggy.
A/N: So, Kim's starting to face the side effects of being in the OP world already and it's not just emotional. This story does have some realistic elements to it. Kim's not just going to go through being shot and whatever else happens to her without having scars, both mental and \physical. And it'll only get worse for her as time goes on. This story isn't just adventure and fighting. I like morbid stories, if that's not evident already, and getting into a person's head to see what makes them tick. This story isn't any different and I'm going to try and balance everything.
Now onto some lighter stuff!
Poll update! 1st is Luffy with 30 votes, 2nd is tied between Sanji and Ace with 21 votes each, and 3rd is Zoro with 17 votes. Akane and ZoSanZo are tied for fourth with 3 votes and Usopp is no longer in last place! He is one vote ahead of Other, who has finally made its place in the poll. Though, who that "other" is I don't know…
Fun Fact: I stayed up until nearly midnight writing two essays for school. I referenced a Disney song in one and got extra credit for it~J Apparently my teacher is a Disney fan and I'm "extremely creative with my sources".
QotC: What's your favorite Devil Fruit power?
Answer: Doflamingo. He's a funny bastard and he's blond. I have a weakness for blonds. That and he looks fluffy~J I will be sad if something happens to him.
SBS!
Thanks for Favoriting and Alerting: Woopa, AnneTesla, Shoulda Been Grace, Quantum Physics, MockerDelight, hannah-dimond, and moonlightshade.
angelrider13: I suppose you're right, but I can't really think of anything that would make Luffy mature like that. Lol, Zoro does make a good babysitter thoughXD
Shoulda Been Grace: Thanks!
10th Squad 3rd Seat: Luffy's always cute:)
i (Guest): Haha, glad I could entertain you for a bit. I don't blame you for liking the original more. I still kind of miss it myself. I feel more confident about this one though, so we'll see how it turns out. I hope you'll stick around. Maybe you'll come to like this one too?
Kine X: Ooh, I'm looking forward to introducing her powers again;) Thank you for the review!
dartya: Thanks:) Ah, I know what that's like. Sometimes mobile sucks.
AnneTesla: Thanks!
A-chan (Guest): XD I hadn't thought about that but that's an excellent idea!
Shinningheart of ThunderClan: Glad you liked the one-shot;) Gin counts since he was a bad guy for a little bit. He's a sweet bad guy though! Haha, Kim is a Slytherin. My cousin puts all of my OCs through the House quiz out of curiosity and Kim's the only Slytherin out of all my characters. That's alright though. I like Slytherins, though, I'm technically a Hufflepuff... A Chronicler was actually quite important to have. They kept the log for the ship (seperate from the Captain's log) and kept up with all the supplies that they needed and the islands they stopped at as well as the general happenings onboard the ship. So yeah, an unbiased story keeper. XD I think Usopp would be the dramatic one and have an overexaggerated account of what happened. ...y'know, you just keep giving me more and more ideas. Zoro just might quote Kim's brother word for word later on now...
camierose: Thanks!
Miki Naomi: Welcome to the South! Prepare for hot summers and occasionally hot winters. I hate to say it, but I'm starting to warm up to the idea of Luffy and Kim... but I'm still hoping that Sanji can pull through since I had the entire romance planned out in the original story all the way to them having kids!
yonet-chan (Guest): And many more moments to come! Buggy's so loveable! I want to see him again! I can't imagine how much cooler he's become now. Yeah, they do that, don't they? Thanks!
moonlightshade: Thanks! Luffy it is!