Another chapter up! And sorry, I was wrong. Chopper doesn't appear in this chapter. :( Next two chapters for sure, though!
Thanks to: ZabuzasGirl, Zany Dragon, and Awesome Guest for reviewing!
Anyways, a bit of angst and fluff this chapter, as well as a pretty fun fight scene, so get to it! :)
Chapter 20
"IZ NABI GUNNA DIE?! WELL?! IZ SHE, BIBI?!" sobbed Sanji, hovering over a bedridden Nami.
"It must be from the climate change," Vivi muttered to herself. "The one obstacle that all sailors who enter Grand Line will crash into sooner or later is sickness caused by the abnormal climate…!"
Vivi, Sanji, Luffy, Usopp, Carue, and I were all in the women's part of the ship. There was a door connecting Nami's room to mine, and the door had opened in everyone's haste to make Nami comfortable. Sanji, Luffy, Vivi, and Usopp were all near Nami's bed, but I was curled up under the covers on my own, the bright flower-print blankets pulled over my head. My tail stuck out and hung limply over the side of the bed, and I listened to Vivi talk as I tried to make sense of the memory that I had just witnessed for myself.
"…No matter how famous or strong of a pirate you are, helplessly dying at the hands of such illnesses is a common occurrence here in the Grand Line," Vivi explained. "Even the slightest symptoms can lead to death if ignored. Isn't there anyone on this ship with some medical knowledge?" she asked.
From the silence, I assumed the others didn't know, or they were all pointing to Nami.
"Oh, I'm sure she'll get better if she just eats some meat!" Luffy said cheerily. "Right, Sanji?"
"Well, I obviously plan on giving her nutritious meals that are easy enough to digest even for a sick person, but…even all that only goes so far as to be called 'Nursing'…It may not actually cure her," I heard Sanji reply.
"And in the first place, when it comes to preparing meals for Nami, Vivi, and Hazel-chan, I put in 100 times more effort than for the rest of you lot," Sanji added. "I only use the freshest meats and vegetables to cook a perfectly balanced meal for them. The leftover scraps and ingredients on the verge of spoiling are then given to you…" Any other time, I would've laughed at that, but right now, I just wanted the others to go and leave.
"WHAT -!" squawked Usopp, and Luffy laughed.
"Even so, it still tastes great!" he said brightly.
"In any case, as long as I'm the chef on this ship, there won't be any troubles related to malnutrition and stuff. Especially with Hazel-chan as my assistant, right, Hazel-chan?"
The last bit was obviously directed towards me, but I chose not to answer and instead decided to huddle further into my blankets, therefore missing Sanji's concerned frown.
"…Anyways, if someone is still sick, then that's because of a completely different illness," Sanji continued after a pause, turning back to the conversation. "And unless I know what that is, I won't know what type of meal to prepare would be best either."
"Couldn't you just eat everything instead?" asked Luffy obliviously, and Sanji sighed in exasperation.
"Not having enough energy to even eat is what we call being sick in the first place, you idiot."
"F-forty degress*?!" Vivi yelped. "Her fever rose again!"
"There should be doctors in Alabasta, right?" Usopp put in. "Just how much longer until we get there, Vivi?"
"…I don't know but it'll definitely be more than a week!" Vivi said, a defeated tone to her voice.
"Is being sick really that painful?" Luffy asked, lost, and I almost choked when I heard Sanji and Usopp say in harmony, "Dunno, can't say I've ever been sick myself."
"ARE YOU PEOPLE EVEN HUMAN?!" demanded Vivi, shocked. I couldn't help but agree. SERIOUSLY. "Of course it's painful! A forty-degree fever almost never happens! In fact, it's enough to even put her life at serious risk!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAA!" Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji panicked, terrified for our navigator.
"WILL SHE DIE?!" shrieked Luffy.
"PREEZ DUN' DIE DABI!" Sanji wailed.
"AAHHHHHHHHH!" Usopp screamed, running around with Carue joining right in.
"STOP MAKING A FUSS AND SHUT UP!" Vivi ordered loudly, raising her voice to silence them all. Hypocrite, maybe?
"WE HAVE TO GO FIND A DOCTOR AND SAVE NAMI RIGHT AWAY!" Luffy yelled, sounding desperate.
"Yes, I know, so just calm down or you might aggravate her condition further!" Vivi hurried to instruct anxiously.
"No," Nami suddenly panted, and the din quieted down immediately.
"Hm?! Nami?!" Vivi gasped, and I heard the sound of footsteps as she rushed over to the redhead.
"YIPPEE! SHE GOT BETTER!" Luffy cheered, and I heard a smack and Usopp yelling, "NO SHE DIDN'T!"
"There's a newspaper," Nami mumbled. "On top of my desk…"
I heard the sound of footsteps, then the rustling of paper. There was moment of silence, before Vivi gasped, loudly.
"What -!"
"What is it?" asked Luffy, confused.
"Is it about Alabasta, Vivi?" questioned Sanji, his voice sounding worried.
"T-that can't be," stammered Vivi, dread creeping into her voice. "300,000 soldiers of the royal armed forces switched sides to join the rebels?! Originally, the 600 thousand-strong royal armed forces could contain the rebels who were only 400,000 strong…but now the situation is completely opposite!"
There was a long pause before Nami spoke. "With that, the situation in Alabasta has entered its most critical phase," she murmured. "And that paper was from three days ago. Sorry for not showing it to you until now…I didn't want to worry you any further since we were already sailing as fast as we could…"
I heard her straighten on her bed. "Understand, Luffy!"
"Sounds like an emergency," Luffy declared solemnly.
"That's right. I'm surprised I managed to get through to you so well," Nami commented, sounding almost shocked at Luffy's behavior.
"But if we don't get you to a doctor soon…" Usopp began, but Nami steamrolled over him. From the sound of it, it seemed like she was getting out of bed.
"It's fine," she cut Usopp off, her blankets rustling. "That old thermometer's broken anyways. There's no way a person would have a fever of 40 degrees. I'm sure I just caught heatstroke or something. I'll get better just fine on my own even without seeing a doctor…"
I heard the padding of light feet - Nami's feet - on the bare floor. "In any case," Nami continued tiredly, "We'll continue to head for Alabasta as planned for now. But thanks for worrying about me."
"Sure," Luffy replied. "So is she all better now?" he asked Usopp, who spluttered.
"Of course not! She's only putting up a tough front."
"…If I can't stop this," I heard Vivi murmur to herself, "then it's all over for the kingdom of Alabasta! It'll be taken over by Crocodile!" I heard her give a minute sob. "It's not good enough to just return alive anymore! If I can't get back soon enough, then a million of my people will be killing each other for no good reason!"
"There's a million people there?!" Luffy yelped, surprised.
"That's quite a burden," Sanji exclaimed softly.
"Hey, all of you!" Zoro's voice rang from above deck. "We've got work to do, come out!"
I heard the tromping of feet, before someone stopped by my bed.
"Hazel, are you okay?" I heard Usopp ask, and I huddled further into my blankets. I didn't want to talk to you, Usopp! Just go away!
"Leave me alone!" I said, more harshly than I intended, and I felt a hand tug on my tail.
"C'mon, Hazel, we all have to do our part -" I whipped my tail away from Usopp's hand, yanking it under the covers of my bed.
"No! I-I can't -" I trembled as flashes of the memory rose to my mind, and I let out a choked sob. There was a pregnant pause as Usopp processed this, before he sighed.
"Fine. But I'm telling Sanji about this," he warned, before he marched out of the cabin.
I shook my head and curled further into myself.
"Hazel, what's going on?" I heard Sanji ask, and I shook my head again. It'd been a few hours since the others got Nami back to bed, and Usopp made good on his word to tell Sanji about my behavior.
There was a pause, and a sigh, before a warm weight settled next to me on the bed. I tried not to flinch when an arm wrapped around my shoulders.
"Hazel, we've been through this before," Sanji said in exasperation. "You're like a little sister to me. If something is bothering you, you can tell me."
I thought about it for a long while. Should I tell him? I told him everything else that went on in my life, but this seemed very personal, something I didn't really want to tell anyone. Like a dirty little secret.
"…Does this have to do with what happened while we were inside the goldfish?" Sanji asked, and I flinched.
Dammit, why couldn't he just leave this alone?
"Hazel," he murmured, his voice softer. "What happened?"
I took a deep breath. I guess I didn't have much of a choice.
"I got a memory back." My voice wobbled, and I swallowed hard. "And it wasn't a good one."
"What do you mean?" he asked, still holding me with the blankets still over my head, and I shuddered against him.
"I-I was on a pirate ship, and they - t-they pinned me to the wall with k-knives, and said they o-only wanted to p-play -"
Sanji was completely still. "…And you said this was a memory?" he asked, his voice dangerously low, and I nodded, hiccupping as my sobs returned.
"Y-yeah…they said I was their f-freak, t-their t-toy -" I cried, and Sanji was quiet for a long time before he pulled the blanket off of my head.
"It's okay," he said, a small, gentle smile on his face as he pulled me into a firm, comforting embrace. "They can't hurt you anymore. You got away from them, remember? And we found you. You don't have to worry about them any more."
I burst into tears, and Sanji rocked me back and forth, murmuring to me in a soothing manner.
"And remember what I told you when you first arrived at the Baratie?" he asked, smiling down at me, and I blinked up at him, sniffing.
"What?"
"You're not a freak! You're just a pretty girl who's going to grow up into someone incredible!" Sanji declared. "And remember; you're my little sister. Next time, just tell me what the problem is instead of crying over it, okay? Your big brother will help you out!" He sounded so enthusiastic and so sure about this, that I couldn't help but feel a little bit better.
And I did. I felt a little lighter, now that I shared this with him. I felt better that someone else would be able to know what I was going through, and do their best to help me get through it.
Tears streamed down my face, and I nodded, burying my head against his chest. He really was a great older brother.
Now that I had gotten this out of my system, I felt really tired, and Sanji noticed.
"Come on," he said, tucking me into my bed. "Why don't you rest? When you feel better, come up onto the deck, and I'll make you some hot chocolate!"
"O-okay," I mumbled, and he pressed a scratchy kiss against my forehead, his small beard scraping against my cheek as I drifted off to sleep.
Sanji stared down at Hazel's sleeping figure for a long moment, feeling very conflicted. He was worried for Hazel, but he also wanted to go out and find the shitheads that traumatized her so badly. He struggled, trying to calm himself for a while, before Nami spoke up from the next room over.
"I wonder what happened to her," the redhead murmured, still pale-faced and sweaty.
"Me too," Sanji agreed, looking up over to the Navigator through the connecting doorway. She was looking over at the pair, a small frown on her face.
"She mentioned something about amnesia when we left Loguetown, but I completely forgot," Nami admitted, grimacing. "How long has she been like that?"
"Since we found her at the Baratie two years ago," Sanji answered, reaching forward to smooth Hazel's hair back. "She was in a tiny rowboat, covered in blood and would have starved to death if it weren't for us." He spotted her tail dangling off the bed, and with a fond smile, tucked in in next to her. It twitched for a moment, then lay still.
"Then something must've happened, and she got away without any of her memories," Nami murmured, before coughing. As Sanji hurried to get her some water, she continued to talk. "And it must've been something terrible, if it's still affecting her this badly."
"But she wants to get her memory back, and I don't know if that's such a good idea. It almost seems better for her to not remember," Sanji replied, helping Nami take a few sips before setting the glass down.
"Well, if she does, it'll be up to us to help her get over it," Nami said, before smiling tiredly up at Sanji. "Also, you make a good older brother."
Sanji, for once, actually flushed in embarrassment at the compliment. "Ah, I don't -" he protested, but Nami's smile grew wider.
"Yes, you do. It's kind of sweet," Nami said with a yawn, her eyes fluttering shut. "Imagine, one of the monster trio could be such a softie…"
And before Sanji could reply, Nami was back asleep.
He stood there for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around what Nami said, before he shook his head and headed back to the deck.
But not before throwing Hazel one last, fond smile.
The next day found Luffy, Usopp, and I playing in the snow that was falling, giggling and laughing like mad as we made snowmen and had snowball fights while Zoro kept watch, and while Sanji and Vivi kept an eye on Nami downstairs.
I was feeling inordinately better, and promised myself that I would never keep something from Sanji again. It felt good to let it out, and not be judged for it. I was feeling much lighter, and happier, and it showed as I romped through the snow with Usopp and Luffy.
"Hey!" Zoro suddenly exclaimed, and the three of us stopped in our frolicking to stare up at Zoro.
"Can you see a doctor from up there?" asked Luffy hopefully, and Usopp and I both shot him flat looks.
"Of course not, you idiot!" Usopp hissed.
Zoro lowered his binoculars, staring out at the water ahead of us with a confused frown. "Uhhh guys? Do you think a person could stand on water?"
"Huh?"
He scowled down at us. "Can a person stand on top of an ocean?" he repeated, and we tilted our heads in confusion.
"What the heck are you talking about, Zoro?" I asked. "It's impossible!"
"Then how do you explain that?" he demanded, raising his binoculars back up to his eyes in order to stare at something out in the water.
"What?" We all looked out to the water, in the same direction Zoro was looking at, and stopped dead at the sight.
There, in the middle of the water ahead of us, stood a man.
We hastily rubbed at our eyes, wondering if what we saw was an apparition or some sort of hallucination, but when we looked again, there still was a man standing on the surface of the water.
We stared and stared, none of us saying a single word, before the man spoke.
"Quite cold today, isn't it?" he asked calmly, like what he was doing was nothing.
Luffy glanced over at us. "…Yeah, it is pretty cold today…"
"Y-yeah, for real. It's freezing today," Usopp stammered, and I choked, unable to come up with anything to say.
"Is that so?" asked the man blandly. He looked like some sort of demented joker as he stared at us solemnly.
Then, suddenly, the water began to shake and bulge, and everyone began to yell when it exploded before us.
"AHHHHHH!" we screamed, scrambling for purchase as the Going Merry rocked violently. I yelped in pain when my back hit the mast of the ship.
"WHAT'S THAT?! A WATERMELON?!" Luffy hollered, clutching onto his hat, and Usopp shook his head.
"Out here?! In the middle of the ocean?!" he snapped back, and I clutched onto the mast for dear life.
"Is that really the issue here?!" I demanded. "What kind of watermelon would be metal and gray?!" I asked, and Usopp shook his head.
"No watermelon is that size!" he screeched, before Zoro spoke up from the crow's nest.
"Is this…a ship?!" he exclaimed, and I scowled up at him.
"What else would it be?!" I groaned aloud as the said 'watermelon' snapped apart to reveal a sail and mast, and then a bow and masthead.
"WAHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed a loud voice raucously. "Surprised?! Has my submersible ambush-ship 'tin can king' left you speechless?!"
"Crap!" Usopp yelped, jerked back. "A pirate ship?!"
"Whoa…" Luffy breathed in amazement, staring avidly up at the ship before us, and Zoro groaned, a scowl fixed on his face. He hopped over the rim of the crow's nest, and began to hurry down the rigging.
"Why now of all times?" he muttered, and I glanced up at him, detaching myself from the mast as the waves calmed.
"I know, right?" I asked in a hushed tone of voice, as men began to swarm our deck from the pirate ship. I grabbed my axe, but I heard the click of guns before the men pointed them at everyone on board.
"Well…shit," I said, effectively summing up the situation, and Zoro, Luffy, and Usopp all nodded in agreement.
The door to the women's cabin burst open. "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE?!" roared Sanji, stepping out.
We remained quiet as he took the situation in at a glance, before he stuck a cigarette into his mouth, struck a match, and lit his cigarette. "Well? What's going on?" he asked, dangerously calm, and Luffy looked at him critically.
"We were ambushed," he said blankly, like Sanji was an idiot, but the cook exhaled and glowered at the gun that was pointed in his face.
"Yeah, that's what I figured from the looks of it," he drawled, obviously annoyed, and Luffy made a face at the gun pointed in his own face.
"We're in a real hurry, you know," he pointed out, and I groaned.
What a situation to get caught up in.
"Hmm…that makes five people in total," grunted a loud voice. I looked over to the speaker, to see a man in furs with an obnoxious expression on his round face. "There can't only be five people on this ship," he said, almost sounding like he was complaining. Something about him was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was like I had seen him before, long ago, but I had absolutely no idea who this guy was. But my attention was drawn somewhere else. He seemed to be chewing on a dagger, but that was impossible, right?
A few seconds later, my eyes bugged when I realized that yes, he was eating the dagger, and he crunched on it absently, shrugging. "Well, whatever. Let me ask you something."
"What the hell?!" Luffy looked disgusted. "He ate through that knife!" Zoro had a similar expression on his face, but he remained silent as Usopp gagged.
"Ack! It hurts just looking at it!" he yelped, clutching at throat in mock pain. I totally agreed with the sharpshooter. Every time I saw him take a bite, I cringed. Geez, didn't that hurt?!
"We wish to head for the Drum Kingdom," continued the man, finishing the dagger's jeweled hilt. "Do you happen to have an eternal pose or even a log pose on you?" he asked, happily crunching away, and Sanji folded his arms.
"No, and we've never even heard of that place before," he explained.
"If you're done asking, hurry up and go away," Luffy added impatiently with a childish glare at the man.
"Oh, there's no need to rush through life like that," the man said comfortably. "Well, if you don't have it, then I might as well take all your treasures and your ship instead."
"What?!"
"But hold on," the man said, before leaning down. "I'm feeling a bit peckish…" His mouth extended, he took a bite out of the ship's side, and snapped it off, chewing hungrily.
My eyes popped out.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" I shrieked, my jaw dropping as everyone echoed similar sentiments.
"WHAT IS WITH THIS DUDE?!" Usopp screamed, waving his hands wildly, and Luffy leapt up from his perch on the ship's railing.
"DON'T EAT OUR SHIP!" he roared as the man began to eat our anchor's rope, and the man pointing a gun at Luffy brandished it threateningly.
"Don't you dare move! His Highness is in the middle of his meal!"
"SHADDUP!" Luffy punched the man solidly in the face, and all of the strange men on board readied their weapons at our captain.
"HE'S RESISTING! SHOOT!"
"Should've done this from the beginning," Zoro grinned, grabbing at Wado Ichimonji and drawing it with a slight clink.
"So can I beat their asses now?" Sanji asked with a bright smile, tugging the scarf wrapped around his neck more securely as the men opened fire.
"W-wait! I'm sure we can talk this out!" Usopp protested, diving behind the ship's mast to avoid the bullets on the deck.
I growled low in my throat, swinging my axe and deflecting a few, watching them ricochet in mild fascination. "You assholes think you can take over our ship? Well, take that you shitheads!"
I rushed into battle, easily knocking several men to the ground with my axe, and I heard a shout.
"Get her! She's just a kid!" I ducked under another spray of bullets, and whirled around, slicing at their legs. They shrieked and stumbled to the ground, where I then smacked them with the flat of my blade to knock them out.
"Yeah, a kid that just knocked you out whaaat!" I bragged childishly, and grinned when a few of the men groaned in pain or at my behavior.
"HEY YOU!" Luffy roared, approaching the man eating our ship, and the enemy pirates scoffed.
"Hahaha! That idiot thinks he can fight his majesty!"
"He'll be eaten alive by the power of the Baku-Baku Fruit!"
"Fruit?" I gasped, before I twisted in Luffy's direction. "Luffy! He's got -!"
Luffy looked up, just in time to see a wide, gaping mouth before it snapped shut.
"LUFFY!" Usopp and I screamed, horrified, but something was weird. Luffy's arms were reaching out on the opposite side of the boat and into the ocean, and Sanji and Zoro didn't look too concerned.
The door to the women's cabin opened, and Vivi stopped out, her eyes boggling at the sight of all the downed enemy pirates, and Sanji blinked at the sight of the blue-haired woman.
"Oh, hey Vivi. How's Nami doing?" he asked nonchalantly, and Vivi tried to formulate a response.
"She's - what - what's gong on?!"
"Hmm…a tough one to chew though, aren't you?" the leader of the enemy pirates muttered, before a muffled voice broke through.
"Why you…" Our eyes widened, and Luffy bellowed, "GET OFF MY SHIP!" His arms snapped back, ricocheting with tremendous force into the man's face, and he flew off into the sky in an explosion of splinters and snow.
"This is extremely bad!" the demented joker from earlier shouted. "His majesty Wapol was flung into the ocean!"
"Craaaaaap! And he can't swim either!"
"Back to the ship, everyone!"
"If we don't go rescue him, he'll drown for sure!"
"Hurry! Save his majesty!" the pirates on the enemy ship screamed, and they scrambled off the deck, most of them bleeding, sporting bumps, or dragging friends and companions.
"And as for you scum! We'll have our revenge one day!" shouted the demented joker as the anchor was raised.
"Remember us!" shouted a strange man with an afro, pointing at us dramatically.
"Yeah, you better run!" I shouted, shaking my axe at them. "If I see you assholes again, I'm going to kick your trash, ya got it?!" I heard Sanji sigh in exasperation, and I scowled at him. "You're cramping my style," I complained.
"You had a style to begin with?" he asked with a flat expression, and it took me a few seconds to realize that he had just insulted me.
"Why you -!" I tried to jump at him, but a hard tug on my tail from Usopp stopped me in my tracks. Laughing, Sanji retreated with Luffy and Vivi in tow, and I huffed in fond annoyance.
"So what now?" I asked, turning to Usopp as Luffy, Sanji, and Vivi went downstairs again to check on Nami, and Zoro yawned.
"I'm going to take a nap," he muttered, striding off, and Usopp chased after him, scrambling in the snow.
"Oi, Zoro! It's still your turn for watch!"
I stood around on board for a moment, fingering my axe and with nothing else to do, before I shrugged and headed over to the kitchen to get myself a cup of hot chocolate.
After I had gotten my drink, I headed down to see Sanji, Luffy, and Vivi talking.
"…We'll need someone to stay in here with Nami, to make sure she doesn't get any worse," Vivi was saying, and I interrupted, sipping at my hot chocolate.
"I can do it. I sleep right next door anyways," I said, and Vivi shook her head.
"No offense, Monkey-chan, but you're a little young," she rebutted gently, and I puffed out my cheeks indignantly.
"I'm not that young! I'm thirteen!" I exclaimed. "I'm old enough to fight off pirates!" I held up an arm and flexed, as if that would help prove my point, but Vivi just shook her head.
"But this is a bit more serious than fighting pirates, Monkey-chan," Vivi said seriously, and I wilted, a little hurt at the implication that I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on my comrade.
"It's alright, Hazel-chan," Sanji assured me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder and pulling me into a side-hug.
Luffy watched me for a moment, before he suggested, "How about a sleepover?"
"Huh?" We all looked at him, and a wide, impish grin spread across his face.
"Let's have a sleepover! And get everyone to come down here!" he cheered. "It'll be fun! And Sanji can make us snacks!"
I felt my gloom vanish instantly at the suggestion, and I beamed brightly. "Yeah! We can play games and tell ghost stories!"
"Let's do it!" Luffy chortled, before racing up to the deck. "OIIIIII! EVERYBODY!"
"Idiot! You're too loud!" Sanji snapped, running after him. "You'll wake up Nami-swan!"
I shifted awkwardly, being left alone with Vivi, who sighed and let out a small smile.
"Monkey-chan, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," she said, reaching over to shift the covers more comfortably against Nami. "Nami's condition is pretty severe, and we need to pay the utmost attention to her, something that I thought you might be a little young for."
"I'm not that young," I muttered sullenly, my good mood gone. "I'm thirteen."
"And you're a very capable thirteen-year-old," Vivi assured hastily, before approaching me and smoothing my hair. "But you're still a kid, okay? So leave it to the adults for once."
My eyes widened, and suddenly, I was thrown back, caught in the middle of a memory.
"Get out of here!" a large man said to me as he quickly led me across the deck, over to the lifeboats, and I clutched at him, sniffing.
"No, I won't leave you! Let me fight with you!" I begged, but he shook his head, smiling sadly.
"No, you're too young," he said, embracing me in a hard hug and shoving a bag into my hands. "This is something that kids shouldn't have to handle, much less someone like you. So leave it to the adults, okay?"
"But I want to -" I began, but pirates suddenly burst out from the galley, hollering and brandishing weapons.
"Dad!" I screamed as the large man shoved me over to the ship's railing, swinging his axe as he faced the oncoming wave of pirates, all of them screaming for his blood - our blood.
"Go!" he ordered, decapitating the first pirate to reach him before spinning and slashing another across the chest. "Get out of here! Quickly!"
Biting back sobs, I scrambled over to the lifeboats, my fingers almost shaking too much to undo the ropes, but I managed somehow.
The lifeboat fell, dangling next to the ship, and I jumped in, before facing my father. "Dad! Dad! Get in, quick!"
He glanced back, and raced towards me, his hand reaching out to grab mine-
BANG!
I stared, horrified, as his hand dropped, half of his head missing from the shotgun blast. I stared, and stared, as blood trickled down the limp appendage, to land on my face, and I screamed when the ropes holding the lifeboat up snapped, landing in the water with a loud crash-
I felt a wave of nausea and anger as I clawed my way back to reality, and I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath. "Sometimes they shouldn't," I sniffed, feeling tears begin to gather at my eyes at the new memory. "Sometimes it's too much for them, and they need help, so they die for stupid reasons -" I choked, and saw that Vivi was staring at me in confusion through blurry eyes.
"Hazel?" she asked slowly. "…Did something happen?"
"What? What's wrong?" Luffy asked. He, Usopp, Zoro, and Carue had come down the stairs, all bearing blankets and pillows, and I burst into tears.
"Wh-what's wrong?" stammered Vivi in shock as all the guys began to panic.*
"Uh-oh, why's she crying?!" I heard Usopp yelp, only to be shot down by Zoro.
"Hell if I know, I just got here!"
"Hey, why are you crying?" That was Luffy, and he was standing in front of me, and I shook my head, feeling sick and nauseous and upset and hurt-
"Bleeehhhh!" I looked up, spotted Luffy making a funny face, and promptly began to cry harder, just overwhelmed. Luffy looked up, flailing his arms.
"It didn't work!"
Zoro punched him, knocking him into the nearby wall. "Of course it didn't, you idiot!"
The door slammed shut, and everyone quieted to see Sanji standing at the top of the stairs, completely livid.
"Who did it?" he snarled, every step down the stairs sounding like a death toll. "Who made Hazel-chan cry?"
Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Carue pointed to Vivi. "She did it."
"W-wait a minute!" Vivi protested, a bit stunned with how quickly the others sold her out to Sanji's wrath, "I didn't mean to -!"
They were getting it all wrong. It wasn't Vivi's fault that I was having a breakdown over a flashback. And goddammit why was I crying so much lately? "S-Sanji-nii -" I hiccuped, and he smoothed back my hair. His furious expression had disappeared, replaced by a much softer expression.
"What'd she say?" he asked gently, and I fought back enough tears to formulate an explanation.
"S'not her f-fault - something s-she said - new memory -" and with that, anything I said after that was a blubbering mess of incoherency.
After a moment, Sanji nodded and wrapped his arms around me. "You can tell me about it whenever you're ready then, okay?" I nodded, and he looked up at the others.
"It's not your fault, Vivi," he said with a reassuring smile towards the Alabastan princess. "You just said something that triggered a memory, that's all."
"Oh!" Vivi gasped, a hand flying up to her mouth. "I didn't mean to -!"
"Like I said, it's not your fault," Sanji said quickly, leading me over to Nami's couch and settling me down, grabbing a nearby blanket and tucking it around me. "Hazel-chan's an amnesiac, and something you said made her remember something."
"Amnesiac?" Luffy asked, completely lost. He then nodded. "So it's a mystery power!"
"I-idiot!" Usopp spluttered. "It means that she doesn't remember anything!"
"N-not anything," I mumbled indignantly, still sniffling. "Just stuff from when I was a kid."
"You've said that before," Zoro said, folding his arms, and I sniffed at him, still trying to get over my raging emotions.
"I did? When?"
"When we were at Cocoyashi Village, after Luffy defeated Arlong," Zoro answered, quirking an eyebrow. "You told me you didn't remember anything."
"Oh, t-that's right…" I slumped against Sanji's side.
"Did you remember something yesterday?" asked Usopp curiously. "Is that why you were upset?" At Sanji's nod, he leaned back, satisfied.
"So what'd you remember?" asked Luffy eagerly. "Was it about your family?"
"I-I guess," I hiccupped. "I learned h-how my d-dad died -" I shook my head, feeling a fresh wave of tears, and Sanji pulled me closer to him while everyone else stared at me in quiet, solemn surprise.
"Let's leave her alone," he suggested. "She's been through a lot today." The others nodded in agreement, before Vivi spoke.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking downcast. "It's great that you're remembering things, but to make you so upset…"
"I-it's fine," I told her. "It's the s-same for me."
It was true. While I was glad and relieved that I was getting parts of my memory back, the worse and worse they seemed to be getting. I was starting to think that maybe I was better off not knowing what happened to me.
"Hazel."
Blinking back tears, I looked up at our unusually serious captain. He was standing in front of Sanji and I, gazing down at me with an unnatural intensity that seemed so unlike him.
"If something's making you sad, let us know," he said to me, his eyes meeting mine. "You're an important member of our crew, and we want you to be happy, so tell us!"
My expression crumbled, and I nodded, reaching up to him. He smiled, and wrapped his arms around me, yanking me into a rough but comforting hug. I cried against him, but this time, it was tears of happiness.
Luffy looked up, and he laughed. "Alright! Let's have a sleepover!"
"You really surprised us, Luffy," Usopp said hours later as everyone settled down to go to sleep. Hazel was snuggled up against the rubber man's side, already snoring softly and gripping her captain's vest.
"Yeah, we didn't think you had it in you," Zoro said with a smirk, and Luffy blinked obliviously at the two.
"What do you mean?" he asked, not understanding at all, and Usopp posed.
"'You're an important member of our crew, and we want you happy, so tell us!'" Usopp quoted, before grinning slyly at the rubber man. "That!"
"What? She was upset, and I don't like it when my nakama are sad," Luffy said simply, looking down at the slumbering girl, and Zoro grinned at Usopp.
"That's our captain for ya," he snorted, leaning back against Carue with his arms crossed behind his head. "You're not going to get much else out of him."
"Yeah, well, it's surprising that Monkey-chan's an amnesiac," Vivi pointed out, glancing down at Hazel with a sad look on her face. "I had no idea that she was missing that much of her memory…"
"Well, she was living at the Baratie before we met her, and it seemed like she'd been there for a while," Zoro said. "That, or she probably trained around it."
"You can't just train around it!" Vivi hissed at the swordsman. "It's not something you can just ignore!"
"You can't?"
"No!"
"Well, either way, it's still surprising," Usopp interrupted, stalling the argument short. "And the memories seem really bad."
"Yes, and that's what makes me worried," Vivi added, her brow furrowing. "She completely broke down from a single memory, and from what happened before, it seems like it's not the only time. Which means that her memories must be really traumatic."
"Traumatic?" Luffy asked in confusion.
"Scary, or bad," Vivi explained simply, and Luffy nodded in understanding. "But regardless, it's just something that we'll have to help her work through." She paused, thinking. "Maybe I'll talk with Sanji; he seems to have some experience in it already."
"Yeah, they're really close," Usopp commented, and Vivi smiled.
"Yes, they are. Like brother and sister," she agreed, glancing down at Hazel again. "I wonder how they met."
"Me too," Usopp agreed. "I just thought they both lived on the Baratie together, but she's thirteen. If she lost her memories as a kid, when did she start living at the Baratie?"
The others thought about it, before Zoro let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
"Well, I'm going to sleep," he said, tilting his head back. "Honestly, does it even matter? She's part of our crew now. And I'm sure she won't mind if you ask." And with that final statement, he fell asleep, snoring loudly.
The others thought about it for a long moment before smiling and nodding.
"Zoro's right," Vivi murmured. "We can just ask her in the morn -" a snore interrupted her, and she saw that Luffy had fallen asleep as well, his arms wrapped around Hazel as he drooled in her hair. She smiled, before turning out the light and snuggling down in her blankets.
Everything could wait until tomorrow.
And that's that! Drum is in the next chapter, and I have a great fight scene planned for the Drum Arc. Like, it's awesome.
*Approximately 104 degrees, which is dangerously high for a fever.
*About the guys' reaction to Hazel's crying. Most people (usually guys) tend to be really awkward around crying kids, or girls. Honestly, if my brother didn't have three younger sisters, I'm sure he'd be really awkward too. But Vivi, Zoro, and Usopp never had siblings, while Luffy had two older brothers that were tough as hell and frankly, a bit intimidating. And Vivi, being an only child and a princess, wouldn't have that much experience dealing with those younger than her. Just in case you were wondering why the others seemed a bit OOC and desperate to cheer Hazel up. That, and the added threat that Sanji would kick their asses to kingdom come for making Hazel cry.
Please review! My goal is to get 10 reviews per chapter, and I can't really get that without y'all helping! :)
Posted: 5/11/2014, 12:31 PM
Edited: 5/11/2014, 9:35 PM