Chapter 14: Fated To Fight

ooffff it's been a hot minute

RECAP: Misaki's a slave from Sentorappu Island and escapes, meets the Straw Hats, and starts gaining powers with the boost of a devil fruit and the lack of restraint on her mind and body. She is with the SHP for a month, training under Zoro, until she runs into a Noble from Sentorappu and is kidnapped.

Enjoy this raw ass chapter.

Not a day and a half had passed before Misaki had returned.

A quick recap: Cara confessed to all the Straw Hat pirates about Misaki and her past and where exactly they came from, and they told her that they would help her rescue Misaki from the Nobles that took her. Zoro had explained to Cara who exactly kidnapped Misaki in detail, and Cara knew who to look for, but where to start searching was another problem.

"Does anyone in this crew have tracking abilities of any sort?" Cara asked, her hands and legs sprawled and standing in a weird position. The woman was in a frenzy and didn't know what to do or where to start.

"No…" Usopp muttered, leaning as far away as possible from the deranged woman while grabbing onto a sandwich with both hands. "Hey, Cara, maybe you should… you know, calm down and get off the table?"

Cara hopped off the dining table as Sanji had cried over the centerpiece meatloaf she'd stepped in when she was making her mini announcement. She put a hand to her forehead in frustration and sat in an empty seat.

"We're never gonna find Misaki," She mumbled hopelessly. Robin patted her shoulder and sighed. "We're going to find her. Franky's using all his fuel for his Coup de Bursts to travel faster, and Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are always on the lookout for any traces of Misaki."

"Lookout…?" Cara turned her head and viewed a pathetic mural image of Luffy scarfing down the meatloaf she'd just stepped in, Zoro sleeping while chewing on his sandwich and mumbling random things white snoring, and Sanji chopping vegetables, not likely to be searching for a certain girl in danger.

"None of them are doing anything!" The white haired woman moaned and dramatically threw her head into her arms.

"Cara-chan, I'm trying to search for Misaki. You don't have to worry, but you also have to realize that this is the maximum that we can do right now." Sanji stopped chopping momentarily and explained to the woman who was kind of being unreasonable towards the rest of the crew.

"I… I know. I'm sorry for all this. I-It's just that I'm so worried about Misaki and all," She replied to the cook, who only hummed in response.

"I'm sure Misaki's just fine. All she's been doing the moment she got on the Sunny was train. She's strong enough to fend for herself," Nami offered Cara a weak smile and tried to cheer her up by passing her a sandwich. "Try eating for now, and we'll get back to the escape plan after lunch."

"I… can't. I'm sorry. I'm gonna go outside and look for her." The nineteen year old refused the orange haired woman's offer and stood from her chair abruptly, walking out of the room.

"Cara, it's not like she's gonna appear out of nowhere," Zoro had woken up and most likely listened into the conversation. "I'm keeping my ear to any slight sounds, which means that any ships that pass by us won't get unnoticed. There's no point in you going outside. Just stay inside, and be reasonable."

"Misaki is my best friend!" The white haired woman whipped her head to face the rest of the crew. "She saved me from Mister Weapons, and she's the most compassionate, kind, sacrificing person I know. You guys are a great help right now, and I can't express my gratitude enough, but I don't think what we, as a whole, are doing enough to prevent something bad from happening!"

In an instant, the woman opened the door from the room, walked out into the afternoon sun, and slammed the door shut.

Cara stood outside the door of the kitchen she so rudely closed on the Straw Hat pirates' faces, and contemplated going back in to apologize. But there was no point. She wanted- no, she needed- to find Misaki as fast as possible. Who knew what the younger girl was going through? The woman knew that the Nobles of Sentorappu were insane and sadistic people, and she was terrified of what they would do to Misaki, someone who'd already escaped the clutches of the horrible place once and definitely didn't need to go through the suffering once more.

Cara decided, after a few moments of listening to the silence of the kitchen (besides a few inaudible whispers), to walk up the ladder into the guest room and open up one of the windows to sit on the sills. It would help her be on the lookout and see everything that she possibly needed to see.

The woman followed through her plan and took a seat on the windowsill. As she looked out into the horizon of the sea, she got more nervous and nervous with each second that passed. She started feeling her legs accumulating more sweat and was gaining the tendency to bite her fingernails, something that she never did and was only starting the habit in the present.

After an hour of looking at the deep blue sea, Cara's eyes needed to adjust to something not-blue and looked away to the wooded portions of the guest room.

'What's the harm of staying in the room for maybe five minutes…?' Cara thought as she climbed back into the guest room and flew into the futon that was in the dead center of the room. Misaki and Cara used the donut room (that was what Luffy ordered everyone aboard the Sunny to call the room) religiously.

Actually, one day, asked Franky for yellow and purple paint (a weird color combination, Franky commented) and painted the walls with little decorations. Misaki drew decorations like beautiful floral-type suns that you would see in the movie Tangled spread throughout, and Cara, being the incredible artist she was, drew a few penises (at first, she drew a whole lot, and then Misaki painted over them with more suns [imagine the sun designs from Tangled]), and then decided to add stars and planets to match the suns. After the paint job, the place looked a lot more beautiful and homey. The blue haired girl and the white haired woman then added a few throw pillows everywhere and installed shelves onto some random areas of the room with wooden pieces from the basement of the Sunny.

The two would sleep there every day, and every day, they'd snuggle up into their futon and share stories about each other to make up for the time that they missed when Cara was in the adult sector and Misaki in the children's sector. Misaki still hadn't smiled once during their small conversations, and even when Cara thought she'd told the latter a really hilarious story, there was silence, or a witty comeback with a passionless expression on her face.

'So she still doesn't know how to smile,' Cara thought, her hands sliding across the smooth floors of the donut room. 'I thought… that maybe, once she was free from Sentorappu Island, that she would finally learn to be happy. And she looked so joyful when she was with Zoro, or literally anyone else… but she's still… not.'

"Hey, you wanna come back down to finish eating?" Zoro poked his head through the open door of the Sunny's kitchen, pointing to the inside of the room. "We saved some food for you." The white haired woman looked out the open window she sat on a few moments ago.

"...No, I'm not hungry. Sorry… but thanks anyways." Cara shrugged, turning her back so he wouldn't see the pained expression on her face.

"...Okay, I get it. Come down when you feel like it." Zoro answered indifferently.

Suddenly, a loud sound that was similar to a splash of water, followed by a shriek, was heard from the outside, and Cara flinched, instantly moving into a defensive position.

"What's going on!?" She called out without budging from her place. Zoro ran down, and he didn't come back up or make a single sound that indicated that he was alive. It was probably just Cara being paranoid, but she couldn't help but be freaked out.

When no one answered the woman's previous question, possibly because of the commotion outside, she decided to rush out in order to find out for herself. Opening the door to the donut room and then jumping out, Cara landed on her feet and looked back up.

All of the Straw Hat pirates were staring in the same direction- the direction of the water. Cara glanced their way and immediately froze up, unable to move a single finger in the amount of shock she was in.

There was a wide geyser of water shaped like a tube, spilling out from the ocean and reaching all the way to the sky.

Misaki was standing on the water, in the middle of that geyser. She was inside of the geyser, her face turned away from the Sunny.

"Misaki!" Nami shrieked, holding her hand out, hoping the younger girl would take it.

The navy blue haired girl took one look at the navigator of the ship and flicked her hand. The geyser dispersed explosively, water particles scattering across the air and back into the ocean, and when it did, many of the pirates on board flinched at the impact while getting hit by a bit of water, too. She continued to stand on the water and walked closer to the Sunny.

"Hello, everyone." Misaki finally stated. "Has anything changed since I was last on the Sunny?"

"Misaki, don't worry about that! What happened!?" Nami responded quickly, shaking her head feverently. "We were all so worried, and we were thinking of ways to look out for you."

"I see," The girl hummed, but there was no emotion behind her voice. "Technically speaking, you never would have found me."

"What are you talking about?" Robin asked, stepping closer to the rails of the deck and nearer to Misaki.

"Think about it. How could you track me down? Do you have a map of the world? Is your log pose reliable in telling you your exact location?"

"...Well, no, but-" Nami sputtered out after a second of hesitance that didn't go unnoticed by Misaki.

"- But what? You thought that Luffy and Zoro would be able to find me with their instincts? You all knew in your hearts that you weren't really going to look for me, after you realized that all I brought with me were threats."

"That's not true, Misaki!" Chopper yelled with his high pitched voice. "We were desperately thinking of how to find you. Everyone was agitated to the core when we heard that you were missing, and we didn't know what to do for a while." He sniffed. "But we were really trying, Misaki… Please believe us!"

"Look," Zoro walked up closer to the girl walking on water. "We let you down and couldn't help you when you were taken from us by those bastards. But don't think for a second that we weren't worried."

"Wow, that's fresh, coming from someone like you, who didn't want to risk saving my life because you were worried that while on the verge of death, I would hurt your friends," Misaki referenced to the first time she landed into the Straw Hat crew's hands and Zoro tried to prevent the others from sacrificing for the dying stranger, at the time, who was the blue haired girl.

"That was when I didn't know you! You can't say that, I actually know you now! We're friends, aren't we?" The green haired man thundered indignantly.

"Friends?" Misaki scoffed without a smile. "Zoro, I'd say we were never friends. We're never going to be friends, either."

"Misaki, you're acting strange. You have to tell us what happened, or what we did wrong!" Nami yelled.

"Misaki!"

The blue haired girl looked up from her dark expression which was staring at the water beneath her feet. She saw Cara, running towards her in delight.

"Cara!" Misaki's eyes widened, as if she was surprised to see her. But then, she shook her head as if she were snapping herself out of it and back to reality, and she summoned a wave of water to pull the white haired woman violently to the edge of the ship. "We have to go. Now."

"Woah!" Cara exclaimed as she was dragged by the curtain of ocean.

"What the hell…?" Usopp stepped back when it happened. "I don't remember a power like this."

"Me neither," Sanji added mutely.

"Misaki, what's wrong with you? You're acting robotic," Cara said, laughing away the serious situation and trying to brush off the waves that were curled around her.

"Cara, I know how to get to Sentorappu Island now."

Cara's face drained of all color. "W-What?"

"For the whole time, we were searching for Bruce, but he might be on land. So that's why I couldn't track him down." She let out a long sigh. "We wasted a lot of time because of that one crucial mistake. The thing was, my powers can find mostly anything, which was why I was able to get to the Sunny, But if I were to locate an entire island, one that's grounded into the sea…" Misaki's eyes had a fire in them. Something uncontrollable, burning with anxiety and impatience. "It was so much easier, especially since Sentorappu's a pretty big piece of land. Finally, I found it. It's only two hours away."

"Umm… Hello?" Nami waved her hand to attract the attention of the two who were conversing about Sentorappu Island. "Stop ignoring us, Misaki. You're not going back there. At least, not without us."

The blue haired girl looked as if she was taken aback at what Nami had said. She slowly turned to stare at Cara with a confused expression, and then looked back at the Sunny.

"I appreciate everything that you've done for me, Nami. And everyone else on this crew." Misaki flashed a solemn look towards Zoro. "But I analyzed the physical strength of all of you and it's just not enough to withstand the power of Sentorappu. Their technology is one hundred times more advanced than the Sunny and the brutality of their army is just too much force to take on." Misaki continued after breathing in, "I don't want to cause any more trouble for you. I don't wish for anything bad to happen to any of you, and you guys shouldn't even be messing with Celestial Dragons. Also, I've seen your faces on bounty posters and you all get chased around because of the price on your heads, but haven't you had the tugging feeling that this past month, a lot more people have been going after you?"

The Straw Hat pirates exchanged glances with each other, unsettled.

"That's all my fault." Misaki clasped her hand upon her chest. "I was the one who dragged unwanted attention on you all, and I deeply apologize for that. I owe the world to you all, and I wouldn't be as strong as I am now if it weren't for you, but at this point, I'm wasting time. I have to bring justice to the Celestial Dragons of Sentorappu Island and free the slaves before it's too late, and the people there start killing them."

"And we'll help you!" Luffy stomped his foot on the ground with a smile on his face.

Misaki glared at the captain of the ship. "You think that this is another one of your victory rounds where you get to beat up a few bad guys and go home with treasure and a higher status in the pirating world? This is a lot more than that. My friends' lives are on the line, and if I come in with a bunch of happy-go-lucky pirates that cause a commotion wherever they go, I'll end up losing a lot of them!"

Luffy's smile vanished and Zoro stood up against the navy blue haired girl, who had elevated herself to a higher point in the air with the water table she was standing on. Cara had been released from her water squeeze onto the same surface as Misaki and was sitting down nonchalantly, listening to Misaki with unreadable eyes.

"Hey. You don't seem very grateful towards us with that tone, do you?" Zoro asked. Something had snapped in him, as if he forgot his friendship with the girl and was now turning to his captain, following through with his promise to Luffy [see note below].

"I'm merely rejecting your assistance." Misaki spat out.

"Then I guess we no longer need each other anymore, correct?" Zoro asked, clenching his fist and throwing towards Misaki her swords.

She didn't catch them. Instead, she simply flicked her hand upwards and a wave blockaded the katana from hitting Misaki. The two swords slid from the obstacle all the way into the ocean, only to be caught by a wave, brought back to Misaki's water table, and dropped onto the surface.

"I guess so." She muttered without expression. "Turn back before you get hurt."

"What's up with Misaki? It feels like she gained a lot more power than before," Chopper whispered to Usopp, who didn't bother to even look at the former due to his occupation of keeping his eyes glued to the girl on the ocean.

"You're right. She's changed." He mumbled. "Maybe not for the better."

"Misaki. What are you doing? What do you plan to do once we get there!?" Cara tugged at the girl's shirt. "I mean, I'm so, so glad that you're safe. But we're going to die if we return!"
"So? What if we die?" Misaki asked. "If something bad happens, we'll die knowing that we did the right thing- turn back to save our friends."

The older woman didn't return Misaki's sentimental answer with an excited cheer or a hyped agreement. Instead, she seemed small, smaller than before. Her stance was hunched and she had fear in her eyes.

"What? Don't you want to save them?" The blue haired girl asked, as if she knew her friend's response already.

Cara looked down at the clear surface she was sitting on. She twiddled her fingers. "...I think… I think we should stay with the Straw Hat Pirates."

Misaki looked back at the older woman. "What?"

"We shouldn't go back to Sentorappu."

The navy blue haired girl was in shock. "What the hell are you saying!? Cara, you promised me. You promised that once we got up on our feet, once we were all fine, we'd bring hell to this place and rescue all the other slaves!"

"We can't! We can't do that, Misaki, you have to come to terms that you can't save everyone!"

Misaki grabbed Cara's shoulders in a moment of rage, her grip tightening on the woman's flesh as if she were holding onto the last string of her life. But when Cara showed a sign of pain, she immediately loosened up in shock, but kept her hands on the latter.

"Listen, Cara. We're the only people to have ever escaped from Sentorappu. That means we have that chance of letting everyone else out. We've been the only people in decades to have left that hell. But guess what? Even now, more and more innocent people are dying." The girl said slowly, enunciating every word. "We have to go back there. Even if it means burning our bodies down along with the whole place, we have to. It's for all the lives we'll be able to say, and all the future pain we can help avoid."

"Oh, stop it!" Cara snapped, slapping Misaki's hands away from her and standing up. She pushed Misaki to the ground, and the younger girl fell onto the water table. "Stop acting like this! Everyone in the whole damn world's suffering, and it's not like you're going to save them, too!"

"Cara-" Misaki tried to calm the woman down, but her attempt was fruitless.

"You're pushing this burden onto my shoulders, but Misaki, did you ever think about how I felt! I just wanted to live a normal life for once! I didn't want you to barge in after I rescued you and bring me back into this fucking mess!"

"I didn't ask you to save me, either!" Misaki stood back up in vexation, her eyes puncturing Cara's own.

"Shut up and act more your age! Why are you so reluctant to let go of that place, Misaki!? It was hell for all of us, but now you're seeing paradise here!" Cara spat back.

"No, Cara, you need to act more your age. You have no awareness of the people around you, either, and you don't understand what suffering they're going through, too. I can't just let go of a place that I was exposed to for my whole life, and I won't. Ever."

"But now, aren't you happy that you're not stuck in that place?"

Misaki's eyes widened fanatically, like she was shocked by what she'd just heard. "No! Not one bit! In fact, for all the good times I experience during the day, I receive back tenfold during the night. I can hear the screams of my friends in that basement in my dreams, and I can't stop thinking about the voices of those torturers! In my nightmares, all I see are memories of Sentorappu, and every day, I'm more and more afraid to fall asleep!" Misaki screamed out. "No, I'm not happy, Cara! Because I'm free, and all the other kids I abandoned-"

"-You didn't abandon them-"

"-They're dying." The blue haired girl fell onto her knees. "Because I escaped, they might be getting killed this instant- boiled in hot water, or pierced with steel needles. Maybe worse-"

"If we go back there, we'll end up just like them, Misaki! Listen to yourself- you going back to Sentorappu might even make things worse! It's suicide for you and the people there will just get their fates given to them in the same exact way, even if you don't show up." Cara shuddered, unable to conjure any image of what might happen if Misaki would return to Sentorappu Island and its Celestial Dragons. "Stay here." She breathed out, calming herself and lowering her tone. "Here, you're safe. I'll protect you."

Misaki's lower lip quivered and her eyes watered. "After all that you've been through, Cara, I only hoped that you could hold enough room for the pain of other people." She glared at her. "But in the end, you have no humanity left inside of you. You can't protect me. You know why? Because you have nothing that can protect anyone. Not yourself, not me, not Bruce."

In a moment of pure indignation and madness, Cara stepped closer to the thirteen year old, stopped to look down at her, and then, she slapped her.

"What I have left inside of me is common sense. Go by yourself. I'm not following you into this… this suicide mission."

The pain was left there like a mark singed onto the flesh, and Misaki grabbed her cheek, only able to remember the suffering she'd felt in the past. She whipped her face back up to Cara with a heavy stare. The blue haired girl took off one of her hands from the injury she'd received seconds ago to flick it upwards, and the portion of the geyser Cara was standing on disappeared- turned into tiny water molecules that fled back into the sea because of gravity- causing the white haired woman to fall down all the way into the ocean with those molecules.

The Sunny hadn't moved from its position. The Straw Hat pirates had witnessed it all, not wanting to miss a single detail on what the hell was going on, but as Misaki and Cara continued their conversation, they were just dragged in by the almost tangible agony in their voices as they spoke to each other, and the only thing that could finally snap them out of their stupor was the loud splashing sound of Cara's flailing body crashing into the ocean.

"Cara!" Some of the Straw Hats called out simultaneously, pulling their heads downwards to look over the railing of the ship. The woman's head and arms were bobbing up from the surface of the water as she shrieked in anger at what just happened to her. Luffy used his rubber arms to pull her up to the Sunny, but he had forgotten his weakness to water, which in turn made him fall into the sea, as well. Sanji rolled his eyes and stepped off the railing of the Sunny to retrieve both people who were sinking in the sea, and hadn't surfaced yet.

"I have to-" Misaki couldn't even finish her sentence before Zoro had launched himself into the air and took out his sword to slice through the water table she was standing on. The surface the girl was standing on returned to the ocean faster than the blink of an eye and Misaki, too, was falling to the sea. She waved her hand upwards in mid-air and summoned a wave-shaped surface of water to catch her from below.

She snapped her fingers before she touched the new hill of water, and thick strings of the ocean surrounding that creation flung itself onto Zoro, attempting to encase him in ocean. He cut through them before they could get to him, however, and he continued to pursue Misaki, as she now stood on the surface she made previously.

Zoro slid the blade of his katana across the side of Misaki's stomach, and a clean gash of fresh blood appeared.

"It won't kill you, but it'll damn sure keep you from doing any more of your tricks again." The swordsman snarled, stepping onto the surface Misaki had collapsed on. "You're such a child, thinking you're the hero of your own story. You're weak, and you won't be in Sentorappu for two seconds before your throat is slit."

Misaki grabbed at her side and turned her body into water, then returning back to her original state to reveal no injury.

"If it takes me two seconds to die, I'll use two seconds to kill the Nobles and set everyone free," The blue haired girl spat out, sitting back up and swinging her entire arm towards Zoro. He fell into the water and was stunned for a second, but resurfaced quickly. Cara and Luffy had also resurfaced. But by the time the two were on the deck, Misaki had disappeared.

"She went underwater," Robin muttered, the only person who kept her eyes on the young girl for the entire time as the others were either tending to Cara or still ensnared by the dialogue by the fierce argument of the two former slaves.

Luffy, recovered completely from spending some time in the ocean, grabbed at Zoro's marimo head and pulled him into the Sunny. He jumped back onto the deck of the ship and looked out to the horizon.

"She left us," Usopp stated blandly.

"I'm gonna go get her," Zoro announced as he stepped onto the edge of the Sunny, but he was stopped by Robin's phantom hands which had bloomed on the railing close to his feet.

"You're gonna jump in again?" Nami folded her hands across her chest.

"Yeah! Don't you stop me now-"

"No, don't." The archaeologist said. "We have to follow her."

"What? Why!?" The swordsman demanded.

"Robin-chan's right, shitty swordsman." Sanji blew a puff of his cigarette. "If we get her now, she's just going to try and escape from us and make sure that we won't be able to follow her at all. We have to be able to follow her in order to save her life."

"It's not like she's totally incapable, though…" Usopp murmured. "Her powers, in such a short period of time- literally like half of a day- increased considerably."

"Yeah, but we don't even know what the opposing side can do to her," Sanji combated with Usopp's unwillingness to head into a dangerous place. "Usopp, we have to go there. Misaki-chan might not live to see next week if we don't, based on what Cara-chan tells us about Sentorappu Island."

"But do we reeaaally have to go?" Usopp squeaked weakly.

"She probably travelled far already, thanks to her powers." Franky concluded, ignoring his friend. "So we have to hurry, too. Usopp and Sanji, you guys go to the basement and start driving the mini submarines."

"Why me!?" came a cry from the long nosed man.

Cara spit out some salt water she'd accidentally swallowed during her time in the ocean and looked up at the pirates surrounding her, more perplexed than ever. "What the fuck are you guys trying right now?"

"We're going to follow her. Weren't you listening?" Luffy stated in an as-a-matter-of-fact way as he brushed his wet arm off of the water onto the grass of the ship's deck.

"Wait!" She stood up defiantly. "Why are you all so stubborn!? And ignorant? There's a reason why Misaki didn't want you guys to come with her, and it's because it's dangerous! You're all going to die!"

"So?" Luffy asked emotionlessly. "Would you leave your friends alone to fight all by themselves when you could be helping them?"

Cara stiffened and couldn't think of anything else to fire back at the rubber man.

"Don't try to sway her mind, Luffy." Franky muttered. "Cara's already set on saving her own skin before anyone else's."

"Zoro, are you tracking her down with your Haki?" Luffy directed his eyes to Zoro, who was already walking towards the steering and navigating portion of the ship.

"Yeah, I know where she is right now. We have to get the Sunny moving as soon as possible or else I'll lose track of her- she's getting farther and farther away from us by the second." The green haired man answered explicitly.

"Franky, we have enough resources and all, right?" Nami checked with the blue haired cyborg.

"It's super!" Franky returned the question with a cheeky smile and a thumbs up.

"Are you sure we have enough fuel?" Luffy added cautiously. "We don't even know how far away this Sentorappu Island is,"

"Nah, we probably have enough," Nami responded instead of the shipwright. "Misaki came to us pretty quickly, even after being kidnapped. That means that the ship of those guys is close by, which also means that the island can't be far behind, either. We just need a bit of Franky's cola to get us through this journey."

"You know what to do when we get there, right?" Franky stated, pumping his fist.

Chopper popped up and timidly padded close to Cara. "We'll find and get Misaki, first of all,"

"Then, we'll help her save her friends," Luffy continued, smiling broadly.

"Finally, we wreak havoc on Sentorappu Island, I'm assuming," Brook completed as he held up his bony pointer finger.

"That's a good plan, I like that plan," The straw hatted captain shook his head up and down in approval. Using his rubber body, he launched himself up into the air and strung his elongated arms onto the top of the crow's nest, the highest point of the Sunny. "Let's go get Misaki, then!" He yelled loudly, causing his crewmates to cheer in retaliation.

"Why would you do this all for Misaki?" Cara asked to no one in particular. "Why would you go so far?" The white haired woman was probably still confused as to why the Straw Hat crew was willing to risk their lives once again for Misaki, even after they had their own taste of Sentorappu thanks to the guards accompanying Rekatsu who attacked Luffy and Zoro. There were so many reasons why, in any other circumstance, everyone else would have just left the thirteen year old pave her own fate and leave her alone to save their own skins.

These people were just so careless and stupid. They didn't know what they were facing, and besides, Cara didn't even really know the limits to their strength. They could have been total weaklings, for all she knew (she actually did think that they were weak, considering the fact that the captain and the first mate had lost to a fight to Sentorappu's puny guards). They most likely had no chance against people like Hakotsu and his army.

But even as no one answered her question, the question similar to what she had asked before, when the Straw Hat pirates first set out to rescue Misaki from her kidnapping, she already knew that she wasn't worthy of having a say, or literally saying a single thing to Misaki or the pirates. She was weak, incapable, and a coward. She made Misaki go out to the deathly island all by herself and didn't even try to think about what would happen to the other slaves that were still in Sentorappu. She didn't even know what was going on behind most of Sentorappu's experiments, or their true intentions. She didn't understand a single thing, and yet, even though she was older than the blue haired girl, Misaki, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to leave the Sunny, a rather convenient and safe place, to return to Sentorappu once again and face the troubles she'd faced for nine years of her life.

She was beyond shocked at the mannerisms of everyone surrounding her. Why was she unlike them, in the aspect of sacrificing and being selfless? Why was she so unwilling to go and save Misaki from killing herself? Why was she such a weak human being?

"You're not a weak person, Cara." Chopper patted her leg.

Cara looked up from her shriveled state. She'd just realized that she was crouched on the ground, her head looking down.

"How did you-"

"-You were mumbling something, and I happened to overhear." The reindeer responded quickly. "You're not weak, Cara." He repeated, slowly this time.

"Why do you think that way?" Cara sighed shakily. "It's not like I have any redeeming qualities. I'm just a person who cares about my own life. I'm selfish."

"You cared about Misaki. You helped her escape Sentorappu." Chopper reminded the woman. "That's a sacrifice Misaki will never forget. You essentially saved her life, and gave her hope, as she left that island."

"And, might I add, Cara-san!" Brook joined in, sitting down next to the white haired woman. "Misaki most likely understands all your concerns about returning to Sentorappu. She knows the dangers, but she dives in anyway to do what you did. You saved her life, and she feels the need to save someone else in return. We can all understand that, in our own ways. That's why we want to help."

Cara let out a heavy breath. "Do you really think you can get out of Sentorappu alive? With full determination?"

"No." Brook replied.

"W-What? Then-"

"Alas, I am a skeleton. I'm not alive, anyway."

Cara went red in annoyance.

"You don't have to overthink things, Cara," The doctor continued. "We're a lot stronger than you think. Misaki and Robin told you about us, right?"

"Yes, no matter what it is, our captain always finds a way to beat the enemy. It's almost magical." Brook added.

Robin also came around and sat herself next to the white haired woman and chuckled. "We understand the power of Celestial Dragons. Luffy, in fact, punched one before."

"R-Really?" Cara asked, bewildered.

"Really!" Chopper's adorable smile said it all.

Cara managed a pained, but at least, genuine, smile, before it disappeared rather quickly.

"...But I can't help but be a little anxious." Cara's doubtful tone made the reindeer's cheery mood fade a little. "These Celestial Dragons are a bit... different than what you're used to. They beat Luffy and Zoro easily and they're strange."

"Strange? In what way, may I ask?" The raven haired beauty questioned, glancing at the dark skinned woman.

"They're not... They don't cover themselves in luxury," Cara spoke slowly. "Rather, they think that knowledge is the most luxurious thing of them all. They feed themselves knowledge by performing experiments on slaves. But not only to become smarter, but also, to enhance their strength. I wouldn't be surprised if they had an inhuman army right now to defend themselves against us… Or maybe they had the army for the entire time."

"An inhuman army?" Chopper echoed with a hint of fear in his voice.

She continued after nodding. "I don't know what they want from Misaki, but to go this far just for a single slave? It shows that they probably won't stop at anything if it means getting her back. And, not to mention, their technology is crazy. You guys still use Den Den Mushis, right?" A nod from Robin confirmed what Cara just said. "They have holograms and invisible force fields without the powers of a Devil Fruit."

"Holograms?" Robin questioned, perplexed. The word was foreign to the world outside of Sentorappu.

"It's advanced technology… It's complicated stuff, but just goes to show how different they are from the rest of us. I don't think we stand a chance against them." The white haired woman stuttered out.

Robin faltered to bring a counterargument to the table for a while. But then, she responded to Cara with, "Well, we have Luffy."

"What about Luffy?" Cara asked skeptically.

"He has his rubber powers and he's immensely strong. You've never seen him in battle, so you don't know how serious he can get. His power is infinite." Robin smiled knowingly.

"And the Nobles might recognize Zoro from his bounty poster, but they have no idea why he's worth that much. He's a demon and always cuts down his enemies without fail." Robin's smile widened. "I'm sure he'd be worth more if he showed his full potential, but that can be said about a lot of the members of this crew."

"Nami can summon the weather with the blue staff you see attached to her waist," Robin pointed to the orange haired woman arguing with the rubber man about something irrelevant, "and she's one of the most intelligent people in the Grand Line, as mentioned before."

Cara, after hesitating a bit, mumbled a pathetic, "That's pretty amazing,"

"It is." Robin agreed. "Usopp, as you might already know, has his astounding sharpshooting skills, but he also has a few tricks up his sleeve and can defeat an entire army with a single seed from his gardening bag."

"That makes no sense," The other woman deadpanned.

"It will when you see him in battle." The bookworm replied simply. "Sanji may be a ladies man and an extraordinary chef, but his legs are comparable to Zoro's swords. He can walk on air and his feet actually light on fire when he's fighting his enemies.

"Chopper doesn't look like much, but he can bring down a high number of people with his own Devil Fruit power, the Hito Hito no mi, and transforms into a monster at will. Franky is a superb inventor and modified his own body to become a one man army- a killing machine. And Brook, as you could imagine, already frightens many with his outward appearance, but his music is tranquil and deadly."

"What about you?" Cara asked. "What do you bring to the group?"

"Me?" Robin asked. She crossed her arms together in an "X" position. Instantly, arms floated up from the grass in a patterned formation and the white haired woman yelped as she jumped back, falling to her butt.

"I ate the Hana Hana no mi, and I can conjure any of my body parts in different places. It may seem like a strange power to acquire, but I've found ways to make it useful."

Suddenly, a splash of water was heard near where Cara, Brook, and Chopper were sitting. The trio who were on the ship closest to the noise simultaneously walked up and looked over the rails of the Sunny. There, Usopp and Sanji were in a mini submarine that was built by Franky, and it was bobbing up and down in the water.

"Hey, you guys! We spotted Misaki! She's a while away, but we can catch up to her if we do a Coup de Burst!" Sanji shouted to the three, and Chopper and Brook nodded while responded with their own noises of agreement.

"Let's go get Franky!" Chopper yelled.

"Ah! Wa-Wait, tell him she's going southwest!" Usopp added quickly before he could forget.

"Idiot, wasn't it southeast!?" The cook sitting next to the sniper in the small vehicle lightly punched the arm of the latter, who winced in pain.

"No, it's southwest!"

"Oh wait, you're right," The blond said after glancing down at what seemed to be a compass built into the submarine. The carefree attitude they had, even when they were rowing their boat into a perilous situation, certainly didn't assure Cara and bring comfort to her troubled heart and mind.

But it did, however, give her hope. It gave her hope that these people knew what they were doing. Hopefully, of course.

Luffy nodded, still sitting atop the crow's nest, positive energy and determination emitting out of his entire body. "Let's go kick some celestial ass!"

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