After the incident her daddy avoided her pretending he was at long business meetings and on business trips. The little girl thought it was strange, her daddy had never been this busy before, but he was a good man and he worked hard. He was the best daddy in the world to her and if doing his work was important she was not going to stop him. The little girls daddy started to look sick and pale. She had heard him pacing around the house in the early hours of the morning, determined to talk to him the little girl got up too. When she arrived in the sitting room her daddy declared he had a meeting and left swiftly. In her mind this never seemed odd, even with her powers her six year old mind could not imagine what was going through his.
The two men stood across from each other. Both looked slightly relaxed but still waiting for something. The swordsman stroked his beard for a second before looking up at the tipsy man in front of him.
"I've been followed here," he stated, not caring much for this fact, just stating that this problem existed. The red haired pirate nodded in either acknowledgement or agreement, the previous silly look on his face was gone and was replaced by a serious expression that marred his happy, scarred face. The more serious of the two continued, "I came here because I need you to look after the girl." The pirate looked up shocked for a moment but quickly hid his expression and again nodded. "The follower in question is behind the tree." He again stated this as a fact though both he and the pirate knew this. He showed no emotion when making these claims. "We will pretend as if we do not know of his existence." The pirate seemed happy with this and this time smiled and nodded, turning towards the clearing and walking away from the swordsman, in just a few steps he was out of sight. The swords man sniffed the air, smelling a particular fragrance of vanilla. He turned his back on the tree, knowing that the intruder would make his move soon. As he had expected the boy jumped out from behind the tree. The swordsman grabbed his sword ready to attack the boy. Swinging his sword towards the boy he saw a familiar blonde blur throwing itself into the back of the boy, but not before the weapon in the boys hand collided with the swordsman sending him flying backwards into a tree.
I looked up from the floor beneath me, feeling a trickle of blood fall from my split lip. In front of me lay Mihawks body. I stared at him, sword in hand ready to attack. I felt a whimper leave my throat. I'd aided in killing Mihawk, the man who had saved me! The boy who had actually killed him stood up a few centimetres away from me looking triumphantly through the mud covering his face. He looked at me smiling a cocky half smile. I stared back at him feeling an overwhelming sadness, I didn't really know Mihawk at all, in fact to begin with he frightened me but I didn't want him to die.
"Funny," The boy said wiping the mud from his face with his hands. "They said if I targeted your companions you'd show up, I didn't really believe them." He laughed to himself. I sat there feeling stupid and manipulated. Then a feeling forced it's way upon me, a feeling that was familiar yet strange to me. A feeling that grew inside of me like a lead balloon, popping after it filled my entire body, the bang caused me to want to hurt this boy so badly. My fists itched to hit him repetitively, to make him bleed. My eyes fell to the sword still held by Mihawk, the dust that had flown up in our fall still falling over him like a blanket, a sickening dust that made his body look uncared for, a corpse left to rot. Prying the sword from his amazingly warm fingers I lifted the heavy wait. The boy laughed mockingly at me, as if daring me to try it, I did. I swung the sword haphazardly missing him and instead hitting a tree. I tried again this time he stopped the blade with his hands jumping backwards at the same time. Beneath my feet the leaves danced, my eyes followed a few of them sending me into a trance. My feet followed the leaves, swinging the blade with more precision now, the boy was no longer smiling but concentrating on where I would hit next. I swung for his legs and he flipped himself over the blade. I jabbed at his chest and he merely jumped backwards. I started aiming for his weaker spots and as I did I smelt the strangest thing, copper blood, salty water and a strange scent I had never smelt before. As I was attacking I became intoxicated with this smell and everything went gradually black.
I felt myself move forwards quickly, and then backwards, my hands touched the floor, my bare feet raised to the sky. I jabbed at something. I felt as though my body was moving incredibly fast, like the wind, weaving with mad precision. I felt something in my hand collide with something solid again and again and again. What a strange dream.
My eyes fluttered open, I was leaning on Mihawks sword, which had been implanted into the ground. I looked around and saw specks of blood covering the forest floor. What happened here? Mihawk sat on the ground where he had been laid previously. I stared at him for a second opening my mouth now and then hoping for a coherent sentence to appear. Why was he not dead?
"Are you finished?" He asked casually as if I had not fallen asleep on his sword.
"I'm sorry." I say to him. "I was sure I was fighting that guy but I must have fallen asleep." I look at my feet in disgrace. "Am I" I pause trying to think of a better word for it, there is none. "Dead?" I finish quietly. Mihawk smiles slightly, he lifts himself from the floor gracefully holding out a hand for his sword, I move away from it slowly allowing him to pull it from the ground. I feel somewhat light headed now.
"I see." Says a calm voice from behind me, making me jump. "He was after her." I turn to the red haired man who is leaning against a tree in the clearing sipping out of a bottle of sake. I look from Mihawk to him waiting for an explanation, it's then that I see it, a body covered with blood hidden just behind a tree, the chest of the boy no longer rises and falls, it remains still. Sticky with blood.
"Who did that?" I ask looking from one man to another. The red haired man looks at me with pity in his eyes but Mihawk looks at me with an anxious expression. He opens his mouth and the word I hear shock me to the core.
