Twenty Five – Fleeing the Sea! Rumors Among the Refugees
Surfacing, the waters become violent, crashing wave upon wave tossing me about. Torrential rain is pouring down upon the angry sea, lightning illuminating the sky repeatedly. I can spot in the distance the higher tier of Water Seven still above the ocean, though it's getting pounded by relentless waves. This is crazy! I never seen such a storm before! I dive back underwater and swim in the direction of the still safe part of the city, trying my best to navigate the mad water currents the storm is producing.
After about ten minutes of swimming over sunken rooftops, I reach dry (well, relatively dry) land in the form of the tall concrete wall that normally would loom far above the lower sectors of town, but now merely pokes out of the ocean. It's only barely doing its job of protecting the city's upper tier. Wonder how long that'll last. There is a small break in the wall where a steep staircase ascends towards the top, so I choose there to land. The rain and the waves are still attacking the city relentlessly, but it's less tumultuous above the water than below it, and I'm thankful for that. I decide to take a couple minutes to catch my breath, then slip the yellow mask over my face and climb the staircase.
At the top is a shipyard. A large plaza stands before the giant gates that mark its entrance. The plaza is entirely devoid of any people, save for two men wearing large ponchos over official uniforms, rifles in hand. I wave an arm in the air to garner their attention. They notice me, but do not move from their spot, instead motioning me to come to them. I comply, running their way.
"Everyone's taking shelter in the warehouses!" One of the men cups a hand around his mouth and yells. I can just barely make out his words over the deafening roar of the rain and wind.
"What's with this storm!?" I yell back.
The two men exchange glances, confused. "What are you talking about?" The other one shouts. "This is the Aqua Laguna! Are you not from around here?"
I shake my head no. "But over half the city's flooded!" I yell.
"This happens every year. Though I'll admit, I've never seen it get this bad before!" The first explains. "The warehouse where everyone's taking shelter is just inside these gates, to the right. Are you alright? Can you make it there on your own?"
I let him know I'm fine and enter the shipyard. The winds are fierce and the rain is so thick I can only make out a few yards ahead of me, but I find one of the warehouses with little trouble, following the faint electric lights piercing through the sheets of rain. In front of the large double doors leading inside is another pair of city officials in ponchos. As I approach, they block my way inside.
"I need you to take off your mask, sir, or I can't let you in." One shouts through the noise of the storm.
"My mask?" I shout back. I'm about to ask why, but decide before I do that I really don't care enough to waste my breath on it. The two look as though they're expecting something from me as I reach my hand up to remove the mask, but once it's off, they both seemed relieved.
"Err- sorry about that… ma'am. Orders from the top. You can go on in now." One apologizes. The other opens the door just a crack, just enough for me to slip in and not get the people inside drenched.
Glad to be out of that torrential downpour, I take a look around. The warehouse is filled with citizens of Water Seven, spread out on mats on the floor, sitting on boxes, wherever there's room. People are calm in here, some talking among each other, some reading. The kids are playing, cheerful and untroubled. It's nothing like outside, where a maelstrom of noise and fury rages on. My arrival has turned the heads of a number of people. I pretend not to be affected by their stares, but I've never liked being the center of attention, and it does make me a bit nervous. My clothes are entirely soaked, so casually I take off my hat to wring out as much water as I can from it. Apparently that was a mistake; my squid-shaped head elicits a number of quiet gasps from those around me. "It ain't nice to stare, you know." I respond after a moment, confrontational but still gentle enough to remain civilized. Almost all those who were gawking turn their heads, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
While wringing out my cloak, something grabs one of my tentacles and pulls down on it. I let out a tiny gasp, then catch myself and look down to see a little girl, no more than six or seven, frozen in fear, the end still grasped in her hand. I pause for a moment as well, then sit down on my heels so I'm closer to eye level with her. "Can I have my tentacle back please?" I say with a smile.
This breaks the girl out of her shock. She looks back at a couple of boys her age poking their heads out from behind a large box nearby. "See! I told you it wasn't hair!" She says proudly, letting go of me.
"Nope." I say. "I ain't got hair. Got these instead." I wiggle the tentacle around a bit, frightening but also exciting her.
The boys emerge from their hiding place. "That's so cool!" One of them exclaims. My smile changes into a stupid grin. "What else can you do?"
"Well…" I say, thinking for a moment of just what to tell them, "See these?" I point to the holes in my shirt. "They let me breathe underwater."
The kids are impressed. "My daddy says fishfolk are really strong!" One of the boys says. "Are you strong, too?"
"You bet your hide I am!" I say, my ego swelling. "Why I can lift you up without even thinkin' 'bout it!" I tuck a tentacle underneath the boy's knees, and raise him up, letting him sit comfortably on the ride up. He's startled for only a fraction of a second, before he becomes enamored.
"Higher!" He says, in between laughs. I stand up, and raise him up above my head.
"No fair! I wanna ride too!" The other two complain. I'm happy to oblige; I lift them up to get a good view of the warehouse as well. Our shenanigans have attracted a bit of attention to me, but it doesn't bug me as much as before. The kids are happy, and I'm happy.
Of course, this is all swiftly broken when a voice exclaims "Jacob! Get down from there!" Coming towards me is a somewhat heavy-set, middle-aged woman. She must be his mother. "Oh! Put him down, you monster!"
Taken aback by her remark, I stammer for a moment. "M-Madam! I guarantee you they're in no harm-" I set the three down safely on the ground to prove my point, and the woman snatches up one of the boys immediately.
"Oh, Jacob! Are you alright? She didn't hurt you, did she?" She takes him back into the crowd and the other boy follows. I sit down with a sigh. I've encountered prejudice countless times before on account of my species, but it still hurts. It's usually only in places heavily influenced by the rule of the World Government though, and I was under the impression this city was a zone of neutrality.
The girl sits down next to me. "Whats the matter, fishlady?" She asks. I glance down at her, then up at the lights dangling from the high ceiling.
"Nothin'." I say. I look back at her. "C'mon, let's go find your parents. I'll give you a piggyback ride if you want." That makes her happy, which in turns makes me happy again.
I snake through the mass of refugees on their mats to where the little girl on my shoulders is directing me. Plenty of people give me weird looks. Some give me ones of disgust. I suppose I am trailin' a bit a' water everywhere. Though I doubt that's the real reason.
"Over there!" The little girl exclaims, and points to a young couple, a few years older than I, sitting in the middle of the room on a large blanket with two other folks, a couple guys around my age.
"There you are!" The man, who I assume to be the girl's father, says. "Oh? And who's your friend?"
I hand the girl off to him and introduce myself. "Aki Sinagra." I say with a small bow. "But just 'Aki' is fine. I found this little critter over by the exit."
"Pearl! What were you doing over there?" Says the woman, admonishing. "It's dangerous!"
"I had to show Eddie and Jacob that it wasn't hair!" Pearl explains.
The two haven't a clue what she's talking about. "Are ya'll her parents?" I ask.
"Yes." Says her father. "Here, have a seat!" He scoots over, and gives me room to sit on their blanket. Still wet, I decline out of courtesy, but they insist, so I give in.
"I'm surprised." One of the couple's friends says. "I thought it wouldn't matter to people of your type if the city floods."
I try not to take his comment as derogatory, as I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it as such. "You been out there?" I say, slightly changing the subject. "It's mad! And ya'll go through this every year?"
"Oh, you're not a local?" Says Pearl's father. You couldn't tell from my accent? "You certainly picked a bad time to come to Water Seven, then. Well, it's not so bad. As long as you completely seal off the buildings, there won't be too much damage." I think back to the inn which I inadvertently flooded. "Although, this year certainly has me worried. I've never seen it this fierce before."
"The guard outside said the same thing." I remark. I ponder for a moment. "That reminds me – why'd they make me take off my mask before comin' in? Coulda saved me a headache if they let me keep it on."
"You didn't hear?" Says another one of the couple's friends. "There's a band of pirates what shot Mayor Iceburg." 'Iceburg'? Ain't that the guy that old drunk lady mentioned? "They wanted to make sure you weren't one of 'em."
"Pirates?" I say.
"That's right. They were called what – The Straw Hat Pirates?" I almost jump in my skin at the name.
"That's what I heard too." Pearl's mother adds. "I hate to say it, but that's just what happens when you do business with pirates like Mr. Iceburg does." The Straw Hats? Seriously? I have a hard time seein' them up and murder someone, or even fixin' to. They're too gutless.
"You sure that was their name?" I ask.
"That's what I heard anyway. What, you don't know them, do you?"
Crap. Backed in a corner. "I… I came across 'em once in my travels, some time ago." I tell them, twisting the truth around a bit to avoid suspicion.
They exchange glances. "Don't tell me you're a pirate too, miss?" One of the other guys asks, a bit apprehensive.
"Me? No, no! I'm just a simple traveler, that's all." At least that's the truth. "So'd they say whether they caught 'em?"
"No word." The guy replies. "They got the entire Galley-La Headquarters building on lockdown. The mayor's inside. He's still alive, but I imagine he's in critical condition. The city's best are protecting him though, so there's no way those Straw Hats could get to him."
"The Straw Hats?" Comes a woman's voice from a couple mats over. "Didn't you all hear?" The five of us respond with blank faces. Pearl is playing with her hair, inattentive to everything around her. The woman walks up to our mat and kneels down. "It turns out the Straw Hats weren't the ones responsible."
The others gasp. I on the other hand am not too surprised to hear that. "So who is?" Pearl's father asks.
"They don't know yet, but Paulie himself declared the Straw Hats innocent." I've never heard of this Paulie before, but he must be someone important if his word alone is enough. "He said the real assailants returned to take the mayor's life, but the Straw Hats helped in defending him. The assailants then set the entire building ablaze and fled."
A shiver runs through my spine. Ablaze? "In this storm? There ain't nowhere to run, is there?" I ask.
The woman scoots in closer, and lowers her voice to a hush. "This is just rumor, mind you, but… they say the Puffing Tom ran in secret for some World Government officials just before the storm hit."
"The Puffing Tom? That's that sea-train, right?" I ask. The woman nods. "Where's that go?"
"Oh, it goes just about anywhere." She explains. "But if it was carrying people from the Government, then I'd bet it's off to Enies Lobby, the Government's judicial island."
I don't really care where specifically it's going to; it's the fact that those idiot Straw Hats will go chasing the culprits all the way to Raftel if they're able to. I gotta find out how to get to this Enies Lobby and track 'em down. I pick up my hat and cloak and stand up swiftly, startling many of the people around me.
"Miss Aki, what's wrong?" Asks Pearl's mother. "Don't tell me you're going after them!"
"I actually got a bit of a grudge against them Straw Hats, so I can't have 'em gettin' caught by the World Government just yet. Sorry for not bein' totally honest with ya'll earlier." I apologize and fit my hat atop my head.
"No! Fishlady, don't go!" Pearl cries quietly.
I give her a reserved smile, and gently pat the top of her head with a tentacle. "Sorry, but there's somethin' I gotta do right now. Somethin' very important. You understand, right Pearly?"
"Promise you'll be back?"
I honestly don't know if I'll ever come back to this city, but I tell her I will, and that returns a smile to her face. It's hard, though; I don't say it, but she reminds me of myself when I was around her age: naïve, curious, just a little reckless. Before everything went to hell and I turned into a crazy, brawling idiot. I say my goodbyes, then weave through the people in the warehouse again to the exit, pull the cloak around my body and tie it around my neck, and head out through the double doors, back into the storm.