Chapter 37: Bloodlust

Two Angels clashed in an unbelievable battle on a grassy island. The Straw Hats barely had time to move the party accoutrements to the ship. The fight began as soon as Sienna disembarked with her blade. She slashed downward and Teal parried with his foot. Sienna sent a wave of fire as she twirled away and sent a kick to him. He crossed his arms to block it but the force sent him back quite a ways. He recovered in less than a second and dashed forward aiming a feint towards Sienna's face. She dodged but was hit by a surprise punch to her middle. She was knocked backwards and Teal was on her before she could stand. She rolled over with him and used the butt of her spear to pin his shoulder as she stood up. She sensed his next move and jumped out of the way.

Teal stood up and the opponents looked at each other. They were both out of breath and sore. Teal had burns on his arms and Sienna possibly had broken ribs and a scrape on her forehead.

"I wonder…" Teal began as he settled into a fighting stance.

"You wonder what?" asked Sienna as she aimed her blade at him.

"Can you do 'Bloodlust'?" he asked.

Before Sienna could asked what that was she heard a click and slashed upwards with her blade. Next thing she knew, she heard Luffy's voice as he held her. "SIENNA STOP!" he yelled.

"She asked, "why?" Then she tried to aim her blade at him. He used his body to trap her and she couldn't move. She grew frustrated and wanted to break free. She struggled but that made Luffy hold her tighter. Then she screamed her frustration.

Sanji went to them and took a hold of her face, bringing his lips to hers. The kiss brought her back to her senses and tears flowed down her cheeks as she dropped her blade. Luffy let her go and she dropped to her knees. Sanji went down with her and she cried in his lap. Luffy took his hat off and placed it on her head, using it as a cover. He turned to leave but Sanji told him to stay and he sat next to his friend and girlfriend.

"Bloodlust is…umm," Sanji said, and he took a second to figure out what he was going to say. They were all on board the Sunny and inside the dining room. Luffy and Sanji let Sienna cry for as long as she wanted on the Island. They didn't talk, just let cry until she was ready to stop. When she felt better they went back to the ship.

Chopper was taking care of Teal. Sienna had inflicted an almost fatal wound on Teal; cutting him from left hip to right shoulder and slicing his right arm off. It was because he was Angel that he survived and was already healing. It freaked Chopper out when Teal's arm started to reattach itself; the cells in the arm began to seek out the body and he moved the arm closer to the body. However, like the professional he was he tried to make sure it reattached properly (swallowing the bile that threatened to come out). As soon as the epidermis connected Chopper guessed that the muscles, tendons, and bones must be healing so he bandaged the arm in a splint so that Teal arm wouldn't heal crookedly. The burns Teal had were disappearing and Chopper felt that his patient could be healed up in a few hours. So he left him in his office and went to check on Sienna.

Sienna was healing as well, but not as rapidly as Teal. She appreciated Chopper fussing over her and she did her best not to let her guilt show. She felt exhausted and Luffy forced her to take a nap; promising her that she could open gifts when she woke up. So she had gone to bed. Zoro was in charge of watching her and he kept her blade next to him.

The others gathered around to discuss what happened. Only Sanji seemed to know. He finally figured out what he needed to say.

"It's an extreme state of being. Angels are designed to go into this state when they are fighting anything not wholly human, so, Devil Fruit users, Angels, giants and animals are. There is a trigger sound that Angels hear and they go into that state."

"What kind of sound?" Usopp asked.

"I don't know. We've only seen her in this state twice. The first time was on the island with the other Angels. While in that state, Angels are conditioned to kill non-humans. No matter what they must kill all non-humans in her vacinity," he said.

"Okay, how were you able to stop her? How come she didn't come after Robin the first time?" Usopp asked.

"Simply put, I as a human invaded her senses. She could smell, see and taste me. Robin must have been masked by you and Nami the first time. This time if Luffy hadn't grabbed her, she would have gone after him."

"So in this fight, Teal must have triggered the bloodlust in himself, and Sienna was just caught in it," Luffy said.

"Yep," said Sanji as he lit a cigarette, "and he lost incredibly."

"Sanji, how do you know so much about this? Why didn't Jorge tell us about this?" Nami asked.

"I don't think Jorge knew. He didn't teach them to fight, that was left up to handlers. There's probably a lot he doesn't know about them. I found out from a friend on Winterlandia. She suspected that Sienna could use it as a weapon if she could learn to control it."

"She won't even try, will she?" Luffy asked. At that moment he understood why she hadn't told him, but he wanted to hear it said out loud.

"She didn't want to hurt you," was Sanji's response.

"So what do we do about Teal?" he asked. "I'm all for dumping the little shit in the sea and moving on."

Everyone agreed with Luffy. Knowing that Teal could trigger this bloodlust not only for himself but for Sienna as well made him even more of a danger for the crew.

"We can't, he's our bait remember?" Nami said. Their plan to capture an Angel was turning out to be the worst thing they could do.