Woohoo! I decided to crank out another chapter today, i might crank out another two tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up lovies, i hate to disappoint ya. Anywho, the plot of Drum Island will start to pick up. You'll at least see more interactions on how Yumeko deals with the crew, and her inner conflict with emotions and all. Thank you all to those who read and review, you guys are awesome!
Disclaimer; I own nothing of One Piece, only Juracule Yumeko.
Recap:
"Yumeko, don't." Luffy asked, while Vivi got up, holding onto her arm.
She didn't say anything, but put her hands up, showing that she wasn't going to fight. "I'm not here for anything but for a doctor for our navigator. If it makes you feel better, I'll stay on this ship." She said, more to Dalton.
Dalton nodded, "Alright, the rest of you come, Yumeko will stay there on the ship. Let me warn you, the only doctor we have is a witch." He said.
Luffy nodded, and Yumeko handed Sanji her katana, "use this for when you carry Nami." She spoke before Sanji and Vivi went down below to bundle up Nami and get her ready for the trek.
Ussop looked at Yumeko, "Is this going to be like this everywhere else?"
"Hopefully not, at least not in Alabasta, I've never been there. People will know my name, they just don't know my face, so we'll be able to go through Alabasta without me causing a disturbance." She said, leaning against the railing, still feeling a few guns pointed to her back.
It was Luffy, Vivi, Sanji and Ussop that were going to take Nami to the doctors, Zoro and Yumeko were left to guard the ship, or as the villagers told Zoro, to watch that 'demon.'
"So what?" Zoro said, sitting on a box crate, taking his shoes off and looking at his now healed feet, "Who did you kill in this one?"
"I didn't kill anyone, this one was a failed attempt, I was about 12 when I came here, I was suppose to take down that idiot that chewed on Luffy."
"12?"
"I was declared the Greatest Assassin when I was 13 by the government." She said, not once leaning from the railing, she looked at him, "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
She frowned, why were her cheeks burning? "That thing. When people started pointing guns?"
Zoro blinked, then realized what she was saying, red starting to coat his cheeks, "Oh. That. Well if you wanted to get shot you should have just told me. It's called protecting a crewmate."
"I thought you wanted me dead considering you don't trust me."
He growled, "I don't want you dead, besides, I'm holding that bet with you, it wouldn't be good if the person I bet with dies." Ouch. That stung, hadn't that happened with someone else he knew? Oh yes, Kuina.
She glanced at him then back down to the floor board, "So, what do you want to begin with? With all the weights you usually fling around, it won't surprise me on how-" She stopped, and raised her eye brow.
There Zoro stood, shirtless and shoeless. He clapped his hand together, "If I have enough strong will power I can swim in the middle of winter."
That sent a shiver up Yumeko's spine, "Not even I'm that dumb." She muttered to herself.
Zoro took a deep breath, then hopped over the railing, sending himself right into the cold icy waters. Yumeko ran to the side, watching his head pop up, "Hey, j-jump on i-in! the w-waters not t-that cold!" he shouted to her.
"No thanks, I'm wearing a white shirt under this." She said.
Zoro noticed that she was mocking him, but there was no emotion shown on her face. He shrugged it off and continued his swim. Yumeko watched him for a while, then turned around, sighing a bit, 'Guard duty is so boring.' she thought, and after a while, she realized that it was quiet, too quiet. Turning around, she couldn't spot the green haired teen, and growled to herself, grabbing his jacket, and went to the bow, jumping off of there and landing in the snow. "Damn idiot got lost more than likely." She said to herself, walking alongside of the river that went deep into the forest.
She stopped. Why was she doing this? Why did she care if he froze to death? Why did she even care? She gritted her teeth, this damn crew.. Her feet continued to walk through the forest.
After a while of walking, she finally found the idiot, doing a one handed hand stand and pushing himself up and down. Of course, by then she had thrown his jacket on herself from the cold, "Y-you i-idiot!" She growled to him, coming up to him, "I-I'm freezing my a-ass off l-looking for you and y-your not e-even cold!"
Zoro looked up at her, stopping and now standing up, and smirked, "Got worried?"
"Worried my ass." She snapped, "As you said, we made a bet." She corrected.
His smirk grew, although it was anger, at least she was showing some emotion. His attention was snapped back, hearing a loud noise, and seeing a wall of white heading towards the two teens.
"Uh. Oh." Yumeko said, then started tugging on Zoro's wrist, "Let's go, I do not want to die by snow!" She yelled, tugging him to start running.
Of course, it was too late, and the two teens were covered in snow…
Zoro didn't know how long it was until he came too, but pushed himself up, "Man! This is bad! It's so cold!" He muttered, shivering and trying to get warm, "and then there was this avalanche! I'm so unlucky, I'll just think of it as training!" He thought out loud to himself.
"Zoro?" A female voice called out.
He turned, seeing Vivi, and… Ussop with a large face, "Vivi? Ussop? What are you doing out here?"
"THAT SHOULD BE OUR QUESTION!" The two yelled, then Vivi continued, "Hey! Where's Yumeko? Is she still at the ship?"
"Shit!" Zoro yelled, now looking around, "She came looking for me! She's got to me before the avalanche!"
"What?! She's still covered!?" Ussop screamed, before the three started to dig around.
Vivi found her, "Yumeko! Yumeko wake up!" She yelled, shaking the teen. Vivi heard Yumeko mutter a few incoherent words, then slip back to being unconscious, "She's alive. Thank goodness, we need to get back to one of the villagers so she doesn't go into hypothermia." Vivi said, while Zoro lifted the teen up on his back, making sure her arms wrapped around his neck.
"How did you two end up here? I thought Yumeko was suppose to stay on the ship?" Ussop said as they started walking.
"My fault. I went swimming." Zoro said.
"SWIMMING IN WINTER?!" Vivi and Ussop yelled.
"yes, there's fish in the river. I wondered if I followed the fish that they would lead me to the village, but I got lost." Zoro said, like it was part of his 'master' training. "Yumeko followed me."
"You're so stupid." Ussop declared.
"Never mind that, can I borrow your jacket?"
"No way."
"How about one of your shoes?"
"Sorry, after you did all of this, you can't blame anyone but yourself." Ussop said.
Zoro felt Yumeko's grip tighten, and he could feel her shiver against his back, "A-all b-because of f-f-fish?" She muttered against his neck.
Her breath was warm. He shook his head, "Shut up, at least you have a coat." he muttered back. He felt her shiver, this time longer and a bit violently. "You okay?"
"N-no. I-I hate t-this f-feeling." She whispered, eyes opening barely.
Her voice sounded like a child, he adjusted her, pushing her up a bit since she was slipping a bit. "What? Feeling cold?"
"W-weak." She admitted, burying her face in his neck. "U-useless. Y-you name i-it."
She was defenseless, Zoro would admit, she was shaking violently and probably freezing, "Don't worry, there's should be a village soon."
"T-Thank you." She whispered, not moving her head.
He didn't reply, he didn't know what to say actually, he wasn't use to this Yumeko or this entire mood at all. Even when she pretended to be a guy, she wasn't defenseless or even caring. Frankly, this side of her was, almost-
"Look!" Vivi said, snapping Zoro out of his thought process.
"The villagers look all stamped." Ussop said, seeing the village, "The buildings look familiar."
"It must be Big Horn, we're back to where we started!" Vivi said.
Zoro walked up to them, "What's going on?"
The villager looked at him, taken back, "What's going on?! I should be asking you that?! Why aren't you wearing any clothes?!"
That took Zoro back, he was wearing pants, so he was wearing clothes.
Another villager looked at Vivi and Ussop, "Dalton's been buried under the snow but those men are preventing us from helping him!"
"Just get out of here, Dalton's dead!" One of the soldiers cried out.
"I don't believe this! Didn't you work under Dalton?! Don't you feel anything?!" The villagers called out.
"Dalton?! I only work for Lord Vapolu!" The soldier cried out.
"I remember them. They attacked our ship right?" Zoro said.
"Yes." Ussop replied.
"So they're enemies, not friends right?"
"Yeah, but why do you ask?" Ussop replied.
Zoro put Yumeko down, making Vivi kneel down and hold her up, Zoro looked at Yumeko, then forward, using his knee to ram the guy in the face, knocking him out.
"Mr. Bushido!" Vivi yelled, holding onto Yumeko.
"Who is that guy?!" Some of the villagers whispered out.
Others were more concerned, "Stop! They'll kill you if you hurt them!"
Zoro didn't care, he picked up the guys jacket and boots, "Man this is warm!" He said patting himself.
"Kill him!" The soldiers cried back.
Zoro looked back, and sighed, "What kind of fools are they? Oh well, I need another jacket." He muttered before going through the crowd, grabbing two swords and easily took the rest out. "Is that all? What a bunch of losers." He declared as he tossed the two swords and took another jacket and walked over to Vivi and Yumeko.
Vivi was taken back, "Wow… Mr. Bushido.."
"Great job following my orders Zoro!" Ussop yelled.
"Let's find Dalton!" The villagers cried out, starting their search.
Zoro knelt down, taking Yumeko from Vivi, "Go ahead and find this Dalton guy." He said, taking his wet jacket off the girl and putting the warmer jacket on her.
Vivi nodded, "Just keep her warm." Vivi said before going off.
Once he snapped the last button and tied the sash on the girl, he lifted her back on his back, looking around, "Yumeko?"
"Huh?" She muttered, eyes opening a bit again, her grip tightening and her shivering still continuing.
"Feeling warmer?" He asked, adjusting her again.
"Y-yeah.. H-how?"
"I got another guy to let me borrow his jackets, he was more than happy to oblige." Zoro said, looking back to his handy work.
"We found him! We found Dalton!" A villager cried out.
"Who's Dalton?" Zoro muttered.
"H-he u-use to work f-for that V-Vapolu g-guy. C-captain of t-the g-guards… t-that's why it s-surprised m-me s-seeing him w-with the v-villagers…" Yumeko whispered to him.
"Oh no!" The villagers cried, seeing the arrows embedded into the man and the man's heart stopping.
"Mr. Dalton isn't dead, he's just frozen." On of the It's twenty spoke, "We will take care of him."
"I thought there were no doctors in this town?" Zoro spoke, looking at the Twenty doctors, again adjusting Yumeko on his back.
"Aren't they the doctors that ran away with Vapolu? Aren't they bad?" Ussop asked.
"How can we trust you? You are doctors that serve under Vapolu! What are you trying to do to Mr. Dolton?!"
"If you want to help him you must listen to us!" The man spoke, "We only served under Vapolu because we were afraid of him, but we're still doctors, we always do the medical research to help people in this country, because we learned from the one fake doctor that we should not give up easily, we shall not lose to that crazy man again."
It was only a second of hesitation before the villagers let the twenty doctors take Dalton and start surgery on him. Of course, while ninety of the Twenty Doctors worked on Dalton, one of the older ones, the man that had spoke, noticed Zoro carrying an unconscious Yumeko, "Young man, what's wrong with the girl?"
Zoro blinked, along with Vivi and Ussop, but Zoro now noticed that he hadn't been talking to Yumeko, "Hey, Yumeko?" He spoke, no response.
Vivi ran up to Yumeko, shaking her, "Yumeko?! Wake up!"
The man seemed taken back, "Juracule Yumeko?" Of course he ran up to her, "Let's get her to another house, she's freezing, hypothermia has set in." He said, leading Zoro to another house, where the green hair teen laid her down, and the doctor shoved him out.