What's up? Yes I know I'm a day late but hey at least the chapter is out now. I just finished the chapter yesterday too.
Anyways I'd just like to wish everyone happy new year (even though it isn't quite 2014 yet) Since this is technically the last chapter of 2013 so woohoo. This story will obviously continue into 2014 and I'm hoping of finishing it by the summer so cross your fingers!
Man there is so much Cain drama going on. Like whatever happened to Damien? Do you guys even remember him? I also find it funny how I never really put in an scenes with Jean Bart (or Jambarl or whatever) since he is a known character on the crew now, but I find it kind of troublesome. Aaaannyywhoo~~~ Let's get on them review replies!
sereneskydragonslayer: Yay :D I'm glad you like her. I didn't want to make her too much of a bitch character
MuffinMan9223: I'm talking about the Raccoon-ya part XD That was just great! Well I'm glad you enjoy the whole creepy/cool Cain. The only reason that Law can't learn about Rose and Cain's relationship is because the angels hide the fact that they kill others from humans. I hope you like this chapter!
10th Squad 3rd Seat: You get it, you totally get it. Filler + Law = More Law time. And I'm glad that you find Cain to be totally awesome! :D
Nagisaa: Thanks and yay you like Rose! You see when people think another female character they usually think bitchy bitch but that's not always the case. I didn't want to make her a bitch for the soul fact that Nightmare is Nightmare which means she'd either attempt to kill her or just not care. Yayy hugs! *Hugs you back* ^.^
Girl-luvs-manga: I can totally see it too but if I made that to be an actual thing then there'd just be this whole other confusing arc and drama and apwgoiajsdk
xXMysteriousCupcakeXx: Well guess what? THERE WILL BE ANOTHER CAIN SCENE! And OF COURSE I'LL BE YOUR SISTAH *SLAPPED* Well I hope that your business dims down a bit so you can relax and such. Unless you like being busy... probably not but whatever. Oooo I can't wait for your pretty review!
And that's it for the reviews. I feel like I keep getting less reviews for some reason. *Shrugs* Whatever, I'm just glad that I get reviews :D So as some of you may notice this chapter was released on Monday and not Sunday... which means I am once again falling behind. But I will not be terrible and go on hiatus again because that would be evil. So I'll try my best to keep up but I think that I'm changing my updating days to both Sunday and Monday so if I don't update Sunday then it'll be on Monday. If I don't update on either then I'll try Tuesday and if not then you'll just have to wait. But I finally got the ball rolling with the plot of these past chapters so let's just hope that I rolled the ball downhill instead of uphill :)
Enough of this nonsense! On with the chapter!
Chapter 35: Pushing Too Far
After that little conversation in the hallway everyone was able to go back into the galley and peacefully eat their dinner. Much to Nightmare's sick enjoyment she noticed that Cain decided to eat his meal in the kitchen this time. She had never seen him so… uncomfortable before, and it was great. While Nightmare was noticing the behavioral differences between the angel and the cook the guys were questioning Rose. As much as they also wanted to know the entire story as to why Rose and Cain know each other she wouldn't tell them. All Rose could really say is that she met Cain sometime back while on a job but couldn't go beyond that. This obviously left behind so many other questions but Rose refused to answer any of them.
Once dinner ended Nightmare left Rose so that she could wash the dishes with Cain. Nightmare gathered all the empty plates throughout the galley and brought them into the kitchen for cleaning. Although Nightmare was slightly surprised at first she began to smirk at the sight before her. Cain had already started drinking a glass of wine from his secret collection. Nightmare knew the man enough to know that he only started drinking his own wine when everyone else was out of the galley or even at midnight for that matter. This was the final bit of evidence Nightmare needed to know that Cain was not in a comfortable spot right now. Nightmare set the plates on the counter next to the sink and turned back around to look at Cain who didn't seem to care for her company at the moment.
"Who would've thought that the ever so great Cain could be shaken up by something like this," Nightmare teased. She let Cain continue on with his wine as she began to clean the dishes alone.
"Shut up," Cain snarled rather coldly. Nightmare just continued to smirk as she cleaned the dishes. If she would've known sooner about this whole situation then she would've done this earlier. It was evident that talking about it around him only pissed him off even more. Maybe if Nightmare pushed far enough he would finally snap and then leave her alone. She immediately shook the thought away from her mind. It may be okay to irk Cain every once in a while but she feared that if she pushed him too far bad things would happen, really bad things.
"Sorry but it's just quite the surprise," Nightmare told him as she began drying up the silverware. Cain still did nothing to assist her with the dishes and just watched with a cold stare as he drank his thoughts away through wine.
"I just never thought I'd see that bitch again," he muttered. Cain reached for the bottle out on the counter and poured some more of the intoxicating liquid into his glass. At this rate he'd have the bottle done by the time Nightmare finished cleaning. It was such a pity as well since the wine was a very beautiful Grenache rose wine Cain had acquired a while back. Nightmare had also noticed it to be strange of Cain to drink such a wine. From what she's seen so far she could tell that he loved red wine so why did he choose a bottle of rosé?
"Why do you seem so out of it though? From what Rose said it sounded more like she was the victim than anyone else," Nightmare tried a different approach at this whole thing. Maybe, rather than pushing him to the edge, she'll try to squeeze some meaningful words out of him.
"That's because it was her story," Cain emphasized the fact that it wasn't his view on the whole thing within that phrase. Nightmare had realized this already though. There were always two parts to any story, and there was always the possibility of two victims.
"Then what's your story?" Nightmare urged on hoping to get the answer from him. By this time she had already started on drying all the plates she had washed.
"Isn't it pretty damn obvious? I was fourteen fucking years old and you think I wouldn't be at least a bit shocked? Of course I was crazy back then too but either way when your life is in danger your heart starts to pound. You, being as crazy as you are, may not understand since you have that whole 'being okay with dying' thing, but for everyone else it's frightening. By that time I had already been able to get to a different island but the news of a single sea travels quite fast. I was still in hiding. It's true that on that night I was sound asleep, but somehow I had felt it. A presence that was suffocating yet light, and whatever that presence was it was out to get me. So my first line of action was to frighten whatever it was, and that worked. I was still shaken up, especially when I saw the angel wings, but with a few tricks I had picked up in the past I was able to escape. The thing that shook me up so much wasn't the fact that someone was after me. It was just that suffocating presence that felt like it could reduce me into thin air," Cain explained to Nightmare. He took a sip from his wine and stayed silent as his eyes observed the rosy red color of the wine.
Nightmare took in every word of his explanation carefully. She analyzed every word and thought over every sentence. No matter what there was something that stuck out to her too much. "That suffocating presence… can't just be from Rose can it?" she asked and Cain shook his head slowly while taking another sip. Just as she had thought it to be, it wasn't a suffocating presence that came from Rose but from the angels themselves. "Then what about me?" This time Nightmare was truly curious to hear his answer.
"Just like any other one of those bastards. It may not be the strongest of them all but it's still just as suffocating. The air around you makes me feel like I'm about to keel over and pass out, and that's why it hurts so much more…" Cain muttered that last part rather silently but Nightmare still heard it. Nightmare had wanted to ask about what he had said but before she could he kicked her out. "Enough of this stupid shit, I'll put the rest of the dishes away and you can leave early to write your books or whatever," and with that Cain shooed her away. Nightmare was in no position to fight with him about that and just wandered back to her room in deep thought.
Cain was never a heavy drinker. To be completely honest he hated most sake. Yet there was always one alcoholic beverage that enticed him, and that beverage was wine. He was well aware of his drinking habits already to know what it meant when he drank wine. Whenever he drank the wonderful liquid he was either in the mood for relaxing, troubled by something, angered and had the need of something to calm him down, or in a complete mess. Red wine applied to every single one of those. However he also drank white or rose wine on some of these occasions. White wine either meant relaxation or calming down. Rose wine, on the other hand, meant that he was a complete mess or majorly troubled by something.
At the moment Cain wasn't just thinking about Rose. Although he would be lying if he said he wasn't, but that wasn't all of it. Two women occupied his mind at the moment; the one he hated, and the one he loved. That was never a good combination. Oh there was just no way of showing how angry he was with himself right now.
Nightmare's mind was in the middle of unscrambling those last words that Cain had told her before kicking her out the kitchen, but at the same time it was stuck on something else. She had to plain out stop in the middle of the hallway just to think over their entire conversation. The soul fact that Cain had deemed her presence suffocating stuck to her mind like glue. If her presence was so suffocating then why did he talk to her as if it was nothing? How could he act the same as always if her presence was that terrible? Was it because he had claimed to love her? That's when the words were unscrambled. That was why he said it hurt so much. For once it didn't make Nightmare feel much better after unscrambling a puzzle. It didn't exactly hurt her either but she did feel somewhat bad for Cain. She didn't dislike him but she already had Law.
"Miss Mizuki what are you doing here?" as if on cue the voice of her captain reached her ears. Nightmare looked up to see Law walking down the hall, probably headed for his room to go to bed. No one else was roaming the halls at this time so Law was safe to use her name as he pleased. He stopped in front of her and waited for a response.
"Just thinking…" she muttered absentmindedly while looking up to Law. He raised a brow at this knowing that Nightmare's usual answers didn't contain a lack of thought. Before Law could question her she spoke up again. "How would you react if you found out that someone from your crew had feelings for me?" she suddenly asked him. Law's raised brow lowered as he narrowed his eyes at her. Why would she ask such a question?
"I wouldn't particularly like it depending on the person," Law mumbled. "Why are you asking this?"
"No reason," Nightmare said with a shrug. "Goodnight, Mister Captain," with that said and a quick kiss on the cheek Nightmare left Law for her own room.
When Nightmare returned to her room she saw that Rose was already sound asleep on her bed. It was obvious that Rose wouldn't have been able to stay with the guys so Nightmare was stuck with her. Nightmare wasn't in the mood to write anything else for the time being, so with a push and a shove she knocked Rose off her bed and got in.
"Hey what was that for?" Rose whined in a tired voice.
"Sleep on the floor," Nightmare mumbled.
"Why? There's enough room on the bed for both of us," she complained.
"I don't care." Before Rose could retort a pillow and blanket was thrown to her face. Rose let out a sigh knowing that Nightmare wouldn't change her mind and just went to sleep.
The next morning the Heart Pirates had arrived at the next island. While everyone else couldn't wait to get on the island and explore Nightmare only thought of her target. After breakfast everyone went out on deck to view the island. It was an amazing site actually. Although the town at the docks looked pretty normal, what was behind it was a vast vineyard that stretched for miles and miles. The Heart Pirates had reached the island home to the best and most abundant wine.
"Whoa," Shachi muttered in wonderment as him, and just about everyone else on the crew, looked out upon the island.
"There's got to be tons of wine here," Penguin commented causing a chorus of nods. "This seems to be your type of island, doesn't it Cain?" he then turned his head to the black-haired cook.
"Sure," Cain muttered tiredly. Some of the guys stared at him questioningly. Everyone knew how much he loved wine so they thought he'd be at least a bit more enthusiastic about it. The truth about that though is that Cain had stayed up until two in the morning trying to drink his troubles away. Since Cain usually has to be the first one up to cook breakfast he was dead tired. Of course he was excited to see such a place but at the moment he couldn't find the energy to even marvel at the sight of the island. With all the drinking he's done recently he hoped to get a few more bottles of wine and then go back to sleep.
"How long will it take for the log pose to set?" Law asked Nightmare, who was standing next to him.
"Four days," Nightmare gave out a straight answer. He nodded in response and after that everyone went their separate ways onto the island. Rose stuck with Nightmare as she walked through the island.
"Why are you following me?" Nightmare muttered in annoyance.
"Because I want to," was all Rose responded with. Nightmare didn't argue and just kept walking along the streets of the town. "There are wine shops all over this place," Rose said.
"Apparently this island has the best soil for growing grapevines and the amount of sun they get it just right to grow every type of grape," Nightmare explained to her.
"How convenient…" Rose mumbled as her eyes scanned the area. "So do you know where he is?" Rose decided to change the subject but kept the casual tone that they had been using.
"Apparently he's supposed to be the son of the wealthiest family on this island. They own the most amount of property on this island," Nightmare stated factually. "Which means that he lives in the biggest mansion on this island," just as Nightmare finished her statement the two girls stopped in front of a grand mansion. The mansion seemed very aged and behind it was a massive vineyard.
"This place is amazing," Rose said as she viewed the mansion. Before Rose could examine the mansion any further Nightmare gave her a light shove on the back.
"Come on, we don't need to be standing out here like idiots. I just needed to get close enough to know the layout of the house. Let's go," Nightmare stated in a bored tone and then walked away. Rose had no choice but to follow after her. Normally Nightmare wouldn't want to walk around on an island for so long but Rose was somehow able to drag her around everywhere. Since Rose only ever came to these lands on a mission to kill someone she never really had the chance to explore so everything on the island was somewhat new to her. The only thing Nightmare was interested in was a simple bookstore while Rose was interested in every little shop they passed. The two girls arrived back that the submarine at around three. Nightmare only had one bag which held a book and Rose had a couple bags with clothing and a bottle of wine.
"So why'd you buy wine?" Nightmare asked as they walked towards the door of the sub.
"Well the wine in the angel community is all the same so I thought why not bring a bottle back with me?" she said with a small smile as she held up the slim bag that held the wine. As the two were walking down the halls they ran into Law who had returned some time before them.
"Finally back," Law said when he noticed it was them.
"Yep," Rose replied chirpily while Nightmare gave a tiring sigh. She was exhausted from walking around all day and her head throbbed from all the information she absorbed.
"Well if you want lunch you're either going to have to go back out on the island or wake up Cain," Law muttered.
"Why is he asleep?" Rose asked.
"He was walking around on the island with Bepo and I, bought a few bottles of wine, and then left stating that he'd be going to sleep. He hasn't woken up since," Law explained to the two. Rose seemed like she was up for going back onto the island but Law could tell just by looking that Nightmare would refuse to go back for the rest of the day.
"Is there anyone else from your crew out on the island having lunch right now?" Rose asked, ready to leave.
"Yes there is a good amount of them at the restaurant by the docks," Law confirmed for her. Rose gave him a thanks and then turned to Nightmare in hopes that she would come with.
"No," Nightmare stated flatly before Rose even had the chance to ask. Rose pouted for a good minute before giving up and leaving.
"So what do you have there?" Law questioned Nightmare when they were alone.
"A book," she answered. Law let out a light chuckle, what else would she have bought anyways?
"I suppose you plan on cooking your own lunch then," he brought up and Nightmare just shook her head. She did know how to cook but with her throbbing headache she wasn't in the mood for it.
"I'm going to wake Cain up and tell him to do his job," she told Law plainly. Law stopped in the hallway and stared at Nightmare causing her to stop too. "What?"
"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, Miss Mizuki. Out of everyone on this crew the one you absolutely do not want to wake up is Cain, especially if he's tired enough to sleep midday," Law told her in almost a serious manner.
"What is with all of you? First your crew is afraid of waking you up and now everyone's afraid of waking up Cain? Even the captain of this ship is afraid of waking him up. It's not like he'll kill me or something," Nightmare mumbled getting slightly annoyed.
"He might," Law gave a short shrug. "Well have fun with that Miss Mizuki, I'll be in my room minding my own business," Law said when they stopped at his room.
"You, minding your own business? That's a shocker," Nightmare muttered as Law went into his room. Nightmare proceeded down the hall towards the men's quarters with her bag still in hand. She stopped at the room that Cain slept in and opened the door. The door revealed Cain sprawled out on one of the beds below the hammocks. At first she attempted in ripping the covers away from him, he was still asleep. Next she decided to just shake his arm, but he just brushed it off and kept sleeping. "Well then I guess we're back to that method…" Nightmare muttered as she recalled waking up Law a while back. Just as she had woken up Law Nightmare hopped up and landed on Cain's stomach, jerking him awake.
"What in the ever-loving fuck do you think you are fucking doing?" a low and tired grumble came from Cain's mouth as he glared up at Nightmare. The intent to kill was written across his face in big bold letters as he shot daggers at her with his eyes.
"I'm hungry," Nightmare gave a plain response. His glare sharpened and that's when Nightmare started to think that she had made the wrong decision. Well there was no going back now, was there?
A/N: Once again my title as The Great Cliffhanger Queen is proven to be correct! I wonder what Cain is going to do. Will he cook for Nightmare? Or will he go on a rampage...? Yeah I'm not sure where I was going with this... It'll work out though :D
So how has everyone's winter break been? I've been watching the totally-not-gay tennis anime (Prince of Tennis). That shit is funny as hell, especially at like one in the morning.
Ugh why Oda whyyyy? You finally give me the filler I want but postpone the next episode of the filler to next week! Why must you torture me?! I'm a good kid. Kind of... sort of... maybe... okay I may have questioned how Law would look in a mini skirt before but that means nothing!
So anyways sorry for any grammar issues, please tell me if there are any!
PLEASE FAVORITE, FOLLOW, AND REEEEEVVVVIIIEEEWWWWW!
Till next time,
~Your Lovely Ruler Zellers