Haha, this chapter is has lots of Kenya's sarcasm, which Ryuu and I absolutely love. :3
Enjoy!
-Kai
~Kenya's POV~
"Wandering. Yay. My favorite activity," I drawled in monotone. "Especially when we're in a damn dark, endless alleyway because a certain someone decided to go and get himself lost, forcing me to go look for him."
"Shut the hell up, I get it!" Zoro-nii growled. "It's my fault, OK?"
"Sure. Remind me again how you managed to get us here? Oh, no wait, even better. Remind me how to get out of here."
"Your sarcasm is not funny."
"It wasn't sarcasm, it was asking you a rhetorical question," I answered. "So we've been in the city for about, what, five minutes? And here we are. What the hell were you doing anyways?"
"Shut. Up."
"Uh huh. I don't see how you could possibly get us any more lost... Wait, I take that back. I can totally see you getting us to the other side of the Grand Line. Thank God you're not the navigator."
OK, so I was being kind of mean today. But I was feeling cranky because we... No, not we. Zoro-nii had somehow managed to get us... Well, you know by now.
"Well if you're so smart, why don't you find a way out of here?" he snapped, stopping in mid-stride to turn around and glare at me. "Go turn into air, and that power you would not have gotten without me, thank you very much, and tell me where we are."
I stared at him like he was crazy. You know, the face of absolute disbelief where it looks like the person receiving the face has just asked the impossible/stupid/crazy of you.
"You do realize that we're on break right?" I asked rhetorically. "Though you probably don't know the meaning of the word, seeing as how you're either on break everyday or never. I've never seen you do anything other than eat, sleep, drink booze, or train. But that's besides the point. Why the hell should I have to do all the work for your mistakes?"
"I dunno, maybe because you were stuck with me for a reason?" he grunted back, starting to walk again. "Aren't you supposed to keep me from getting lost?"
"How the hell was I supposed to know that you would disappear as soon as I turn around to ask a person what was new in the city?" I grumbled, following him. "Not to mention that I spent most of those five minutes tracking you down. When I found you, you were already in here!"
"Gah, whatever, you win, you win," he snarled. "Let's just get out of here."
"I'd love too, but I see a problem with that. I don't exactly see how we're getting any closer to the exit by walking in a straight line."
"Must you constantly pester me by criticizing my every statement?"
"Maybe."
"... You're impossible," he sighed in exasperation, throwing his hands up. "I swear, sometimes you're worse than that perverted cook!"
"Whoa, whoa!" I exclaimed. "Sanji-nii's a great guy and all, but knowing how much you guys hate each other, I don't think I'm that bad!"
"Well your personality changes are worse than Nami's mood swings," Zoro-nii said. "One moment you're bugging me to train with you, the next you're laughing your head off. One minute you're depressed, the next you're bloodthirsty, then asleep, and now you're pestering me about how I don't know the meaning of the word 'break'!"
"... OK, I'd have to agree with you on that one. My personality is pretty inconsistent," I agreed. "Can you really blame me though, knowing who and what I grew up with?"
"No," he admitted. "I can see where you get each aspect from."
"Now then, aren't we getting along nicely," I muttered sarcastically. "And I think I see something that isn't black and darkness! That means we're almost out of this endless hell! Yay!"
There were several peaceful minutes in which the only noise was our feet on the concrete.
"... What the hell. It's not getting any brighter or bigger."
"Thank you for stating the obvious."
More minutes of walking.
"Do I have permission to completely obliterate this alleyway?" I growled at last. We had been walking for a good twenty minutes and we still weren't out of this cursed tunnel... thing.
"No, we'll have to pay for the damage costs," Zoro-nii answered. "We don't want Nami getting pissed at us for wasting her precious money."
"Eh, she'll get enough out of the tournament anyways," I muttered. "Seriously though, what the hell is wrong with the people who built this thing? I do not see the purpose of constructing a never-ending pathway with a single point of light that only gives false hope to those trapped within it. What the hell is that thing anyways?"
"If I knew, I would've shut you up a long time ago by telling you what it is," came his reply. "God DAMMIT, how long is this fucking road?"
"Y'know, this would go a lot faster if we started running."
"Y'know, this would go a lot faster if you actually went with my idea of you turning into air to find out how long this damn thing is."
"Actually, that's a good idea," I mused. "I could just re-materialize outside of this cursed alley and leave you stranded here for all eternity. Or at least until you finally walk yourself out of here."
"Do it and you die."
"I wouldn't. You'd have to get out of here first." A pause. He didn't reply. "Oooh, got ya there, didn't I?"
"This is boring as hell," he sighed. "Do you have anything to do that will get us thinking about something other than walking for days? Cause we're just gonna continue arguing with each other if we go on like this."
"What's wrong with what we're doing right now?" I countered. "I thought we were getting along pretty well."
"No. Just... no."
"Fine, be a spoilsport and kill my fun," I mumbled. "Uh... OK, I'm gonna describe someone in our crew using two vague words and you'll have to guess who it is."
"Go for it," he answered.
"Hm... Contrastingly morbid."
"Robin," he answered immediately. "That was easy. She's the only one who's morbid in the crew. Everyone else is..." He searched for the right word.
"Idiotic?" I suggested.
"Good enough," he agreed. "Alright, my turn. Consistently inconsistent."
"Damn, that's a hard one," I muttered.
"Want a hint?" he asked. I shook my head, wanting to figure this out for myself. It was also the perfect chance to analyze each of my nakama.
Captain... He was pretty consistent. Super happy, kinda dumb, but a great leader who will stand up for his friends and fight to his death for them. Though he might grate on the nerves of some, usually people end up (reluctantly) admitting that he's a good guy.
Zoro-nii was the same. He was serious, and his life was based on some simple basics: eat, sleep, drink, train, fight, repeat in no certain order. He's certainly not afraid to beat the hell out of anyone that so much as looks at him cross-eyed, though I think he'd be a little more tolerant than that.
Nami-nee, on the other hand, wasn't as predictable as the first two, what with her mood swings and all.
…
Hang on, on second thought, yeah, she's pretty predictable. Money loving (and I still wonder where she gets that from), short tempered Nami-neechan. Show her something scary or gross, and she's about as bad as Usopp. She's more interested in saving her own hide, but she's tougher than your average girl, and she won't hesitate to fight along with us.
…
Well, maybe she'd need a little encouragement, but still.
Moving on to Usopp. Just like the others, his actions are no big surprise. He's a coward, there's no denying that, and a giant pessimist, but I can't really hold it against him. It brings some change to the crew, since the first three are all fearless, Nami-nee with money as an incentive. It's nice to know what a normal person would think and react like to certain things.
His Sogeking persona is rather interesting. I had discovered that in our first battle together against the Marines, and I had asked him. He explained to me that Sogeking was like the hero he wanted to become, and some stuff like that. All in all, he's pretty predictable too. Your typical brave superhero.
Sanji-nii was definitely not on the list of "consistently inconsistent." His personality, too, could be broken down into a few words. Loves woman, very passionate, loves to cook, determined once he's set his mind on something, and sure as hell won't back down from a fight. He's one of those people where you go, "How did I know you were going to say that?"
Chopper-kun is quite predictable as well, and I'm aware that I'm overusing that word. That's cause we haven't gotten to the people who aren't predictable. Anyways, Chopper-kun is, in a word, naive. He's naive to the point where you can't believe that he's 15, and that fact pisses you off because he's like a three year old. He's also gullible enough to believe Usopp, though I could say the same about Captain. He's shy and tries to act tough (failing miserably, of course), and in the end you just gotta admit: the naivety is kinda cute but annoying after a while.
Robin-neechan, though you might think that she's unexpected, is actually as predictable as the first six, at least to me. She's morbid, something that I can't say anything against since I'm even worse than her, but she states the truth and she's certainly not shy. Her seriousness is almost funny at times, and when she says scary things with a smile, you get that feeling where you have to back away from the person. Like, far, far away.
Franky-san... was Franky. Consistently so. There isn't much to say about a speedo-wearing cyborg that has a tendency to yell, "SUUUUPAAAAH!" and do little dance moves, whip out a guitar from nowhere and start crying as he sings a song, has different personalities depending on the drink that he's using, and is obsessed with COLA.
Brook-san was a perverted, gentlemanly, living skeleton. I realize how many contradictions there are in that one sentence.
…
MOVING ON.
Ammy... Good old Ammy. A definite possibility on the list. NOT. She's overprotective, grouchy, violent, and blood thirsty, as much as I love her. What else is there?
Kairi I know less about, although he's my brother figure. So if I, who can understand him most of the time, don't know about him, what are the chances that Zoro-nii is talking about Kairi? I have my doubts that Zoro-nii is even aware of Kairi's existence...
OK, so that leaves... Me.
Total facepalm moment. How did I not see that one coming?
"... It's me isn't it?" I groaned, wondering how I could've been so blind. And I had to go through all that too...
"Yeah," Zoro-nii said, amusement tinting his voice. "Took you a while too. It was quite peaceful for several moments. Shame that that has to end."
"... I'm going to ignore that statement."
"You do that."
"Zoro-nii, is it just me or is that shiny thing not in the center of the path?" I asked curiously as I noticed that the light was indeed not coming from in front of us, but rather to our right. It appeared to be stuck into the wall.
"Yeah, I noticed that too," he answered. "It's getting bigger too. I think we're almost there. We can go check it out later."
"Right, right," I said. "So it's my turn right? Hm... Contradicting existence."
"Quit choosing easy ones," Zoro-nii complained. "Brook." I grinned and skipped ahead, as we finally reached the shiny object.
"What the hell?" he muttered. I agreed with the statement.
The shiny "object" was not an object. It was, in fact, a door with bright light pouring out of it. It was quite blinding to look at it. I searched for something to toss inside experimentally and found a rock. I kicked it in and we watched it fall into a seemingly endless abyss. We looked at each other in unison.
"... I'm guessing we're not walking through there," Zoro-nii muttered. I nodded and we kept on walking, remembering to tell the others about this mysterious door later.
~Sanji's POV~
I was at the island's marketplace searching for a place that sold cheap meat, seeing as how our entire crew adores it, when I had a sudden feeling that something big had happened. I paused for a moment, looking left and right, past the groceries that I held in my arms, wondering what it was. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had all gone off to play and shop, Nami-san and Robin-san were shopping for clothes, Franky was looking for supplies to fix our battered ship with, and more cola, Brook was at a music store as far as I knew... Ammy and the bird had stayed back at the room and weren't doing anything that I knew of...
"OH THAT SHITTY SWORDSMAN!" I yelled, coming to a realization. I ducked behind a stand quickly before I caught anyone's attention, dragging the food with me. "That shitty swordsman better had not done anything to Kenya-chan," I growled to myself. My uneasy feeling didn't disappear and in fact grew stronger, and with the fact that Kenya-chan was alone with Zoro right now and nobody else could be in danger in mind, I ran off to drop the food off with Ammy and Kairi and search for Kenya.
~Ammy's POV~
Kairi had finally decided to go away and take a quick flight when the idiot perverted cook came bursting in, flustered and spluttering. He dropped the many bags he was carrying, and I presumed that food was in all of them. I was more curious about what had caused him to be in this current state though.
"Ah, ero-cook," I said at his arrival. "What's up? You look messed up."
"I just got a really bad feeling," he told me. I sweat dropped. So flustered over a simple feeling...
"And I just felt that someone was in danger," he continued. "The others can't be in any danger that I can think of, and right now I just remembered that Zoro and Kenya-chan are alone. Those two told us that they'd just be wandering around so I don't know where they are or what they're doing. I think something might've happened to them!"
"Specifically Kenya, right?" I growled. Now he was talking my language. If that stupid swordsman had done anything to Kenya, I would personally rip out his liver and feed it to him. "Alright, let's go. I'll sniff Kenya out." Sanji nodded at me and we left the room and went into the marketplace, relying on my nose. Her scent took us past the marketplace and continued into an alley way. I could see no end to it.
"I don't think she would've gone this way," Sanji muttered. "C'mon, let's go." He took a few steps but I was still suspicious of the alleyway.
"Think about it," I argued. "It would be the perfect place to do something to her. Besides, her scent leads straight into here. Even if nothing happened to Kenya that was the swordsman's fault, then he still may have gotten lost in here and made Kenya follow him in. Either way, it's most logical to think that Kenya's in here."
"Yeah, but it looks like it goes forever!" Sanji protested. "Look!" He grabbed a rock and kicked it. We listened to it clatter down the alleyway. There were no sounds of stopping or hitting a wall.
"So I guess we'll just have to run," I growled, and ended the argument by running in there without waiting for him. He followed, but was still reluctant.
We were right. The alleyway had almost no end.
~Kenya's POV~
We were walking along peacefully, having left the door behind long ago and my anger having died down after the game. We were now just chatting about whatever came into our heads when suddenly, a random rock came out of nowhere and hit Zoro-nii right on the head.
~Regular POV~
"OW! WHAT THE HELL!"
~Ammy's POV~
The yell echoed down to us. We exchanged glances and nods, knowing that it was Zoro. Judging from the timing and wording, the rock that Sanji had kicked has probably hit him or something. Serves him right, for leading us all down here.
"His voice was really far off," Sanji commented. I agreed, but neither of us slowed down. We only screeched to a halt when we noticed a door randomly there.
"What the fuck?" Sanji muttered, raising an eyebrow.
"Indeed," I answered. "I doubt they went down here. C'mon, let's go. We can come back here later." We were off running again.
Hehe, yeah. This was a really fun chapter. Be sad though, because the end of the pre-written chapters is coming to an end soon. :( That means you have to wait very, very long for these chapters to come out now. Yeah, I know. I'm a lazy writer, but motivation from Ryuu (more like, GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND WRITE WOMAN ) helps me keep up. It would help if you guys give your opinion too. :3
Read Ryuu's counterpart to this story, Paths to a Dead Heart. DO. IT. NOW. LYK, NAO. D:
Reviews/comments/questions blah blah blah... Criticism and whatever.
-Air Beast
(KAI)
