I know I'm a liar, I said it'd be out on Friday or Saturday but hey, life. Also this story has more than 10,000 views! Yay! \(^-^)/

But I would like to thank everyone who reviewed on the last chapter, one worded or not haha so thank you very much. I think I'll try and answer to all the reviews I get each chapter just to show how much they mean to me.

StarliteOracle

belladu57

Cupcakes : Thanks for so many reviews :)

PuddyKatz : Hahaha, glad you enjoyed my humor (I try) and thank you for your Fangirling :3

Anyway enjoy and please excuse my crappy fight scenes -/-


The sound of the gun echoed throughout the hall quickly followed by Artimus' cry on pain as he dropped to the floor clutching his right shoulder, Edda was at his side "You! How dare you!" her screech set everyone else in the room in to action, the other Lance members cried insults and drew their weapons, that's when the Heart Pirates made their move and the fight had begun. As for the Apostles and Artimus, they just stared in shock as Inori smirked at them (her attempt at mimicking Law) and tossed Goldie her gun "I'm returning this for now."

"You little bitch! Who do you think you are!" Kirin pulled her sword and rushed her, Inori took a defensive stance but she didn't need to act since Law's own sword blocked the attack "Ugh, you!"

"I'll be your opponent." she smirked back at him and licked her lips at the thought, his only answer was to push his Nodachi harder and swipe her off the stage, he charged after her and spared Inori a glance "If it's you, you can win." she smiled at him and nodded her head before he vanished and turned her attention back to Artimus. "You've had this coming for a long time Artimus, you couldn't expect to be able to sit on your high horse all your life could you?"

"You insolent little brat, I should have done this years ago!" Edda stood and pulled a revolver from her robes and aimed in at Inori, she fired, everything slowed down, Inori's brain went in to overdrive and she rolled out the way only to be kicked in the ribs mid-roll by Asuou "Let's play baby."

"I wouldn't have it any other way Asuou." she skidded to her feet and jumped to axe kick him, he blocked it with his arms and grabbed her ankle swinging her to the ground but she was quick to recover.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Inori blocked Asuou's attack and looked to the pair of steaming, merged bullets bounce to the ground not far from her, she round housed Asuou in the chest and looked to Goldie who had just shot Edda's bullet from mid-flight, she really was the best "Don't shoot at my kid you fucking bag!" she then shot the revolver from Edda's hands. Inori smiled at Edda's screech of rage and turned herself back to her own fight, she fended him off easy enough but he could dodge like a mother fucker she just needed an opening. Arms and legs were attacking and blocking at lightning speed, any other time Inori would have used her abilities but she need to conserve her energy for later. "Is it just me baby or have you gotten better since this mornings training?" he mocked her as she blocked another of his kicks and quickly slammed her fist in to his knee while she did, she felt a slight crunch and he wailed in pain and dropped to the floor "No, I've always been this good, you and Kirin were just to arrogant to notice."

"Speaking of, Kirin might be a bitch but she knows what she's doing, I don't think your pretty boyfriend will last so much longer." He managed to stand but was keeping the weight off his damaged knee, that was her opening. "You really think you can get away from us, no one leaves here, no one leaves Artimus-sama!" Walking up to him she faked a punch to his head and when he blocked she obliterated his knee with a final kick "GAAAH!" he was one the ground again "You little-"

"Wrong again Asuou, Law-san is my Captain and he is leagues stronger than me and any of you for that matter..." she axe kicked his head then stood on it to press his face to the ground, like he had done to her many times before "Also, after today even if you survive, you wont ever see me again." she stomped his head knocking him out cold.

Kirin was scared, scared of this man, at first she didn't take the fight seriously but his calm demeanor unnerved her almost as much as the gleam in his eyes, but her pride would never let her show how scared she was "Come on honey, that can't be the best you can do?" she purred to him swinging her curved sword at him again.

"Of course not, I just enjoy watching the fear build up in your eyes." he blocked her easily "Also I have a few questions about your dear Artimus."

"Oh? Well I wont promise an honest answer." they were opposite each other talking casually as if they weren't swinging and blocking their swords together.

"What makes him so worthy of such worship, such a clearly weak man can't be worth it." he smirked at her darkly, she lost his composure and pushed her swings harder.

"He is everything!" she growled "He is a man a Godliness! And one day all will know his name and bend at the knee to him!"

"How boring, you're just a brainwashed fool."

"How dare you! In his name I will kill you, for him I woul-"

"Room." he swung and Kirin was sliced in half she wailed when she noticed her state but Law had grown bored of her, and couldn't even be bothered asking her the rest of his intended questions, there was no point she was too wrapped up in her master to answer him as he wanted.

"What have you done to me! That bitch, Inori, this is all her fault, she brought you here!"

"She did, but it was your mistake to choose me as your opponent, you never could have beat me." with a dark look on his face that nearly made Kirin cry in fear he sliced her three more times, separating her head, arms and legs from the rest of her body and used his abilities to stick these parts to the high ceiling so that she could watch the end of this annoying place.

Goldie on the other hand was doing well against Edda, very well, sure she was a good shot but at the end of the day she was a very old woman, always had been according to Goldie, but still a very good shot Goldie had taken a bullet to the shoulder and one to her thigh but Edda wasn't able to move as quick as she could, she almost felt sorry for her as she stared at her lying on the cold stone floor bleeding from two holes in her chest...almost. "Now that I see you like this all I can think is why were we so afraid to make a move against you, it's pathetic really."

"You didn't even realize that Artimus got in your head...ugh" she wheezed on the ground, dying "And since you have an attachment to that brat it only made it easier for us."

"Hou, you said 'Artimus' no 'sama' this time? Lost your faith now you're dying?"

"Not at all, the honorifics were only for the masses, Artimus id my son after all." Now that was a surprise, no wonder she stuck to him like glue "Out of all of you, he was the easiest to manipulate, let him believe he's in charge guh!" she coughed some blood "He was nothing more than a poster boy, I was the real master here."

"So that makes you a fallen Tenryubi too." Goldie scoffed

"No, I was a Tenryubi slave and Artimus was the results of that *cough* but he believes he has the rights of a Tenryubi, such a foolish man sometimes I wonder if I should have killed him years ago."

"You hate your own child? You're a monster!" Goldie growled at the now dead woman.

"Goldie!" the woman tuned and saw Inori jog to her, a few scraps and cuts but fine other than that. She smiled slightly as Inori stopped in front of her, she might not be Goldie's real daughter but it was as close as she was gonna get and she just couldn't understand Edda's hate for her own child, no matter what Inori did or who's child she was Goldie just couldn't bring herself to hate her. "I see you won." Inori grinned at her.

"Of course I did, was there ever any doubt?"

"...no." she averted her eyes.

"Ah! You brat you thought I'd lose! Fine I'm not gonna tell you something good."

"Eh? Good, what did you learn, come on tell me, tell me." she begged getting in her face, Goldie's only answer was to shove said face away causing Inori to fall and roll on the floor away from her. "Mou, ketchi!" (stingy)

"Oi, where's Artimus?" Law walked up to them, stepping over bodies of the former O'bery Lance members and stopping beside Inori.

"I dunno." Goldie answered gruffly.

"You were right here the whole time, how could you not see him slip away?" Law sighed at her.

"Well sorry Captain Fish Legs! I got shot twice and was taking my fight seriously unlike someone else!" Law glared at her, this woman could really push her luck at times but she was important to Inori so he'll bare with it for now, soon they'll be back out to sea and Goldie wont be in the middle of them anymore, he was only interested in Inori and Goldie held no value to him. "Inori-nee, over here!" The three looked to the stage and saw Rowan, Bepo and the crew around the podium. They stepped on to the stage and saw that the podium had been pushed forward and where is stood showed a black hole. "A tunnel?" Shachi asked.

"It's a bear cave." Bepo said in a matter-of-fact manner.

"It's a tunnel, no matter how you look at it!" Penguin and Shachi smacked the back of the bear's head.

"Suimasen."

"Law-san." he looked to Inori and saw the determination on her face "Please let me and Goldie handle this." he wanted to argue but he held it back, after all this was ultimately their fight and their past to resolve. He nodded in response and placed a hand on her head, feeling her soft hair, something he recently decided he liked doing and made a note to do it when he could in the future. "We're going back to the ship." he turned to the crew and started to leave "We'll get it ready for a quick exit so don't take too long." the crew grinned at Inori and sent her a few encouraging words before following their captain out.

"Wouldn't dream of making you wait, Captain."

"Inori, let's go." Goldie jumped down in to the hole and she followed without hesitation. She landed crouching and looked to see a dimly lit cave "Can you smell that?" Inori stood and sniffed the air.

"Gunpowder?"

"Exactly, be careful." they started to follow the dim candle lights and Inori noticed black wires running all along the walls and some separating and vanishing in to the dirt roof "So, you're really happy with that lot?"

"Huh?" the question caught her off guard, Goldie wasn't one to ask much, she just accepted how things were and left it at that, then again Inori had been away from Goldie for 8 months, the first time they had been apart since she was 8 years old "Yeah, I feel at home, you know, like I don't have to worry about leaving after a while because I've been there too long, it's...nice to be able to stay in the one place."

"I guess I get what you mean, so when this is over you're gonna go back out to sea?"

"Yeah, there's still so much to see and I haven't met my dad yet, I want to do all those things I've read about-"

"With Law?"

"Yeah-what no! No with the whole crew, why would you mention just him?!" her face turned beat red.

"I know you kid, you have feelings for that Sadist."

Inori sighed in defeat and fumbled her fingers together "It's true I have feelings for him but he's not interested in me like that and I don't want to mess things up so, I'll just leave it be."

"You really think he's not interested in you?" Goldie was shocked, she thought Inori could read people better than that, even she noticed the difference in the way he looked at her compared to now and back when they first met. "Oh well, just don't get yourself hurt over it, let the chips fall where they may."

"Ok...what about you? Will you come with us?"

"No way, I can't stand your lover boy..." she chuckled at Inori's puffed out pink cheeks "I'll just tag along to the next island then I think I'll go home."

"Home?"

"Yeah, think Ill go see Liz." Inori couldn't stop the pang of sadness she felt, Liz was what Goldie called her Mother "Stay there for a while, maybe go back to the church at some point."

"Say hi for me will you." Goldie nodded in answer and they walked in silence for a few minutes before they noticed the lights getting brighter and the tunnel widening and the end was in sight. Artimus was there sat at a desk and all the wires collected in front of him "Artimus, it's over, everyone is gone and your the last loose end." there was silence for a moment and then a faint giggled that slowly built up to a hysterical cackle and Artimus turned to them, switching something to his other hand and the wires on the wall moved slightly as he did. The Mother daughter duo notice that it was a detonator and all the wires on the wall were attached to the bottom. "Is that a-"

"A bomb? Indeed it is Goldie, I've rigged this whole place to blow for this exact situation." he had a crazed look in his eyes "Mind you I never thought it would have been one of my own to cause so much trouble, but you'll pay with your lives all the same."

"And you don't care that you'll die too?" Inori didn't move, she couldn't in case she set him off.

"What do I have to live for now, you and your little friends have destroyed my organisation, no doubt most of them are dead so I might as well take the rest of them with me." he casually looked to the big red button on his detonator "To think I would be taken down by scum like you!" he was enraged and fixed them with a glare "Me! Who has the blood of a Tenryubi, A GOD, running in theirs veins, I always thought the Tenryubi themselves would come to finish me, I'm a threat, they fear me..." he rambled to himself like a crazed person and Goldie saw the twitch in his finger "But to think it would be plain scum that would dare do this to me, I thought you were so special Inori, a little defiant but I could have gotten rid of that in time, so pure, so beautiful, so innocent-"

"You saw to it I wasn't innocent for long." Inori hissed at him and Goldie went pale, she knew what Inori was saying, he dared, Artimus dared to touch her, just because he thought it was his right?! No way, no fucking way!

"Well at least we can die together, as we should so...SHALL WE!" he laughed manically and Goldie acted, whipping her gun out and sending a bullet straight through his skull, he dropped to the floor dead and they waited a few seconds and noting happened so Goldie charged to Artimus and emptied her gun "You dare to touch my girl! You fucking pervert, I hope you rot!" Inori couldn't react to that since she felt a rumble behind her, then a flash "GOLDIE!" another explosion went off right behind her and she covered Goldie in layers of thick course vines into a protective pod, she then sent a single vine up into the roof as a signal of where they were, and just as she finished the wall with all the wires and table exploded and threw her back, pain racked her body and her stomach felt cold, but she ignored it as adrenaline pumped her body to cover herself with her own protective pod. She sat back against the pod wall and panted, felling faint as something warm ran down her stomach, in the dark she reached for the liquid and felt the sticky familiarity of blood, then she felt something sharp and jagged protruding from her stomach, she could feel herself slip into darkness "Shit..."


Law and his crew were sprinting back to the cathedral, they could feel the tremors and see the flash of explosives all the way from the shore. Instant panic rose among them as the cried their little cook's name and took off back the way they had come. Law's face had a dark expression as he sprinted with them, inside however his heart was thrumming with fear and worry, he didn't care if she was dangerous to his plans, he didn't care that his feelings were getting the better of him, he just wanted her to be ok.

They reached the building in record time, well, what was left of it. But the explosions had already don their job and had turned the place to rubble "Fan out, search for them!" Law didn't even finish before his crew did as he ordered and began yelling for the two missing women. "Inori-nee! Goldie!" Rowan was desperate, he couldn't lose them, not those two who had been a rock in his life, the ones who gave him his new name and new life. "Sencho!" he ran back to Law an idea of desperation in him "The tunnel! They might still be in the tunnel!"

"Tch! Gather the others start moving the rumble at the tunnel." he turned to the still slightly burning building "Room!" he looked to the near by river "Shambles!" suddenly most of the rubble was substituted for the rivers water which doused the remaining flames "Get in there and find the tunnel!" the crew did so without hesitating. It was a painful ten minutes and another couple of 'Shambles' but they found the tunnel, Rowan ducked his head in and saw it was caved in but it did used to go to the right only "Sencho! It only goes right, but we can't get in!" Law looked at the floor on the right and saw that it did indeed dip quite a bit "Room..." he looked for what he could use this time and saw one of the huge banners, half burned but it would do "Shambles!" the banner fluttered to the ground and Law motioned for Jean Bart to move it, he did and Law's eyes instantly caught the thin charred vines that clung to a brick in the floor "Dig there!" he pointed to the creeping plant and Jean Bart set to work, it didn't take him long before he saw two tips of green "Sencho!"

"Room, Shambles." he had subbed the pods for rubble and Jean Bart carefully carried them out of the ruin and sat them on the grass. Law was quick to bring up another 'Room' and slice a side off of each pod. The crew were in at them instantly and the pulled an unconscious but relatively fine Goldie from one but the crew around the other stood stock still, Law and Rowan pushed passed them, they were met with the sight of Inori impaled by a piece of polished wood and sitting in a pool of her own blood. The fear that came over Law almost knocked him sideways "Inori, Inori wake up!" his growl was met with her head twitching then slowly raising to look at him with half lidded amethyst eyes "Inori."

"Ah, Law..." she breathed heavily and he guessed it was a punctured lung "I think I'm gonna...need an operation..." she was getting weaker and he handed off his sword and picked her up as gently as possible and tried to keep a calm face "Don't worry...I don't plan to die yet...too much to do..." he let her talk, the longer she was awake the better "There's dinner...then the laundry..." she rested her head against him.

"What else?" he had to keep her talking.

"I want to see more...do more..."

"Like what?"

"...Kiss you..." he couldn't help but look at her, she was obviously out of it from blood lose and the situation didn't allow him to enjoy what she said, but he tried.

"Later." he smiled down at her from a sideways glance.

"...Ok..." she didn't talk anymore after that.


The operation took 13 hours, 13 fucking hours, but none of them cared they didn't even take any breaks, not that were able to or would have if they could. But it worked out, Inori was alive, in a bad shape, but alive. Her insides were a mess and if Law wasn't the doctor he was, she would have died, they did what they could but she wont be allowed to wake up for a while, her stomach was badly damaged and she wouldn't be able to eat so the best thing for her was to stay in a coma for a while she had also lost a small part of the bottom of her left lung, it wouldn't affect her daily life but it was still horrible to see, it was the first time the crew saw there Captain cringe while operating. Now of course everyone was asleep and Inori would be fine under Law's watchful eye, he couldn't sleep right now anyway, he had something to do.

Goldie and Rowan were sat at Inori's side, it took everything the crew had to stop Goldie from barging in to the operating room but she calmed eventually and turned her attention to calming a distraught Rowan "So she'll be ok?" she asked Law who was leaning against a wall staring intently at the coma'd girl.

"Yes, it's safer to keep her in a coma for a month maybe, her insides were-"

"I don't need the details, just answers."

"Very well, but there is something else I must talk to you both about." That caught their attention. "We are heading back to Shabondy."

"Why?"

"You and Inori, and you Rowan if you so choose will be leaving the ship, Inori is no longer a part of my crew."


...well that's where I'm gonna have to end it today. SORRY! To be fair I did plan to end it when Inori was in the pod and said 'shit' but I just couldn't do it haha.

Sorry for the crappy fight scenes, no matter how good they look in my head I just can't write them :/

Now I will be working on the next chapter tomorrow, I just can't help myself since I know what's coming and I really want to get this story moving, my head is bursting for ideas for the next arc :) i bet most of you can guess what's gonna happen. So there might be a new chapter tomorrow but don't quote me on that. Also I've changed the cover image to one I think suits what I had in mind for Inori's appearance :)

Anyway drop a review or a fav or follow if you liked it.

See ya soon!

Reckless