Chapter 38
The Straw Hat Pirates finally set sail for Fishman Island from Thriller Bark.
It was a pretty calm and sunny day with no Marines or Sea Kings about.
Luffy, Chopper, Usopp and Brook were sitting on the railing of the ship, fishing and extremely bored. The others just sat around enjoying themselves.
"Hm? What is that?" Chopper asked looking up at the sky.
"Let me see. It looks like a bird or something. It has wings and it's huge." Usopp said looking at it through his goggles.
"Can we eat it?" Luffy jumped up excitedly as everyone looked at the thing in the sky.
"No. It's a human." Usopp said as it got closer.
"Ahhh! Who is that?" he yelled shaking.
"It's a person. Oh look he's falling." Luffy pointed out. He ran to the other side of the ship and launched himself to catch him.
They managed to fish Luffy out of the see and pulled him back onto the ship along with the guy that was flying.
"No way." Nami went wide eyed in horror.
"What happened to him?" Sanji asked shocked.
"Is he dead?" Usopp asked shaking.
"Doctor! We need a doctor!" Chopper yelled running around, panicking.
"Timi. Wake up. Hey!" Luffy yelled shaking the unconscious red head who was covered in blood and looked like he was in a pretty bad shape.
"You're the doctor." Robin said to Chopper, who stopped running around and looked at Timi.
"He's in a critical condition. Take him to the infirmary." Chopper said tearing up. Zoro picked Timi up and did as Chopper told him. Everyone was kicked out of the room and he got to fixing him as best as he could.
"Who was that?" Brook asked, looking at their worried and shocked faces confused.
"That was Blood Viper, right?" Franky asked.
"Yeah, that was Timi." Nami nodded frowning.
"Who would do this to him?" Luffy asked slightly pissed.
"I dunno. I thought he was really strong." Nami said.
"He is." Zoro frowned at her.
"We met him in Alabasta the last time but some of us met him before that." Sanji explained.
"I've heard a lot about him. He is feared all over the seas. A member of the Heart Pirates and has a bounty of 300,000,000 Beli. Same as our Captain." Robin said.
"He's not a bad guy." Luffy said sternly.
"I wonder what happened to Cori as well." Usopp frowned looking around.
"I dunno. They must have gotten into a pretty bad fight to end up so battered." Zoro said and they fell into silence again.
It was only after a few hours that Chopper came back out of the infirmary and everyone bombarded him with questions.
"His condition is stable." the little reindeer said but tried to hold back his tears.
"He was severely wounded; a lot of internal bleeding and his body is covered in bruises and cuts from head to toe. With the amount of damage done to his body, he should have been dead by now." Chopper explained shocking the others.
"No way." Nami said covering her mouth.
"Who did this to him?" Luffy yelled annoyed, now wanting to know who it was.
"He won't be able to move for a long time. The most damage was done to his torso, with 6 of his ribs broken and the rest cracked. His lungs were punctured in several places but something is stopping his blood from entering it." Chopper said sitting down with a sad expression.
"He was hand cuffed to something but I managed to take those off. By how old the wounds on his wrists are, I'd say a few days. He was very badly beaten all over his body. His head . . . his skull was nearly cracked open. He has a concussion and I worry he might have amnesia." he cried.
"No. Who would do such a thing?" Nami cried.
"It's hard to believe that he's on the brink of death. He was so full of life the last time I saw him." Franky said.
"You met him before?" most of the crew asked surprised.
"Yeah. He was on Water 7 looking for his father and asked me to show him around." the blue haired cyborg explained.
They were suddenly hit by a storm and ran around trying to make their way through the bizarre weather and massive Sea Kings.
They finally made it to the spot directly above where their log pose was pointing; Fishman Island.
They looked at the Red Line in wonder and recalled all their memories connecting to it.
Luffy, Robin and Brook decided to use the ship's Shark Submerge to search for any signs of Fishman Island. They however, found nothing after reaching the limit of 5000 meters below water but an angry rabbit Sea King.
They were chased to the surface by the creature but Luffy defeated it easily with his Gum-Gum Rifle. Which made it spit out a small mermaid, who landed right on a super-excited Sanji and a starfish.
The mermaid introduced herself as Keimi and tried to sell the crew some Takoyaki.
Keimi, after having introduced herself and her talking starfish, Pappug, called Hatchan but was shocked when someone else answered his den-den mushi.
The Macro Pirates have caught Hatchan, intending to sell him into slavery. Keimi asked the Straw Hats to save him and Luffy agreed to do so after consulting with Nami.
Keimi used her ability to be able to speak with fish and navigated the ship towards Grove 44 of the Sabaody Archipelago. Having been told that Hatchan was being held at the base of the Flying Fish Riders, that was on this route.
Before they arrived, they were attacked by the Flying Fish Riders but beat them up.
The Straw Hats approached the base, attempting to figure out ways to defeat the flying fish, although Luffy really just wanted to ride one. Keimi was worried about Hatchan, although Pappug assures her that he will be safe.
Then the whole ordeal with Duval happened. (I don't need to explain this, I'm sure you know it already. Besides, Timi's out for the count during all that anyway.)
The Sunny was back at sea and the Straw Hats were headed for Sabaody Archipelago now while they had a Takoyaki party with Hatchan cooking. Chopper, Brook, Sanji, Usopp and especially Luffy were gorging themselves, enjoying it thoroughly.
The entire crew enjoyed the Takoyaki, with even Sanji being amazed at the flavour, until the 'eating trio' of Usopp, Luffy and Chopper could continue no longer. Just as well as Hatchan collapsed exhausted from trying to keep up with their servings.
Then Duval, whose face has become handsome, found them again. He expressed his gratitude for the change, then gave the crew his den-den mushi number, saying if they need anything to just call him up. Then he and his gang, now renamed the Rosy Life Riders, departed.
They heard a deafening scream come from the infirmary and most of them ran there to see Timi squirming in pain.
"Timi. Calm down. It's alright." Chopper called turning to his heavy point and held him down until he finally stopped moving.
"Where am I?" Timi asked weakly, hardly above a whisper with a breathing maks over his face and a lot of wires connecting him to a machine..
"You're on the Straw Hat Pirate's ship." Robin said.
"I see. I'm safe." he said closing his eyes.
"How bad is it?" he asked turning to Chopper.
"Uhm. You shouldn't even be awake. Who did this to you?" the little reindeer asked as everyone gathered around the bed, worried about the red head.
"Don't worry about that. Answer my question, please." he said, taking the mask off and tried to sit up. He was covered in bandages, practically all over his body and Chopper had put his binding back on, after making sure his ribs were alright.
"No. Don't try to move." Chopper called and pushed him back down.
"Your body is bruised all over and covered in cuts, it's all black and blue. Your torso suffered the worst damage; a lot of broken and cracked ribs, punctured lungs and damaged organs. You also have concussion and severe internal bleeding." the little doctor said tearing up again.
"Maaaaan. Law's gonna kill me." Timi sighed.
"He really did a number on me. Is it okay to stay here until we get to Sabaody?" he asked looking at Luffy.
"Of course you can. We're headed there now. Who did this to you?" he asked worried.
"That's not your problem. Thank you for treating me." he smiled but winced in pain.
"You should be dead by now. The amount of damage done to your body should have killed you a long time ago." Chopper cried.
"My power protects me. My blood is working on fixing everything as we speak." Timi said closing his eyes.
"That's insane. What kind of crazy power do you have?" Usopp asked frightened but Timi had already passed out.
"Let him rest." Chopper said kicking everyone out of the room.
"Is he gonna be alright?" Keimi asked looking upset.
"Of course he will be. He's a lot stronger than one might think." Zoro said grinning and a few others agreed.
'I feel like I've been put through a meat grinder.' Timi thought struggling to keep his breathing even. 'The pain came back like a ton of bricks hit me. I hope I will be able to move by the time we get to the island.'
They arrived at Sabaody a few hours later, after Pappug and Keimi explained to them about the two ways of getting to the new world; one, requesting permission from the government and passing through Mariejois and the second to go through Fishman Island.
At this point, Timi woke up again and after a great struggle, he managed to get up, untangle himself from all the wires and put on a pair of burgundy jeans and a black tank top over all the bandages and moved to sit outside of the infirmary.
"What are you doing?!" Chopper yelled at the red head.
"Me?" Timi asked tilting his head to the side as he held his stomach. He was in quite a lot of pain but knows how to hold it in and pretend he was absolutely fine.
"Yes you. You should be in bed. Get back in there. Do you want to die?" Chopper asked freaking out.
"Shut up. I'm fine. Thank you for treating me though. I don't need any help, I'd just like to borrow a den-den mushi to call my captain." Timi said bowing.
"Here." Luffy said handing it to him.
"Thanks." Timi smiled and dialled Law's number.
"Prepare to be shouted at." he added.
[Who's this?] asked a tired voice.
"Law." Timi smiled.
[Timi? Where are you?] he asked sounding surprised and his tone quickly turned worried, then angry.
[What happened? You told Cori to hide and wait for me. Who did you fight? Why did you disappear for days without telling me? Do you know how fucking worried I was? How worried Cori was? Even Karma refused to sleep. Why do you sound so weak?!] he yelled freaking out.
"Law. I'm fine. I went up against Vergo and lost. I managed to get away but I got beaten up a little bit. I'm with the Straw Hats now. I will meet you on Sabaody as planned and please don't make a fuss." Timi explained.
[You idiot! Why did you fight him? He could have killed you or worse!] Law yelled.
"I'm alive. That should be enough. Now stop yelling, you're giving me a headache. I will come to you, so just relax." he said rubbing his head.
"But you're not okay." Chopper cried.
[How badly has he been injured?] Law asked worried but before Chopper could answer, Timi ended the call.
"Okay, that's enough. If he finds out I'm in this condition, he'll throw a fit. It's best if he thinks I just got beat up a little. Besides, I'm stronger than to just get put out of commission from just this." Timi grinned.
Everyone just stared at him amazed and their attention was quickly drawn to the island as they neared it.
They were all amazed at its structure, the large trees and blowing bubbles. Timi watched grinning as well. He could feel his energy returning along with his power slowly.
'Wow. I've never been able to regenerate so quickly.' he thought to himself.
'You awakened more of your powers back with the tribe. I'm also keeping your body in check. It will take a while to completely heal your organs, so no fighting for a while.' T said sternly.
'Got it. Thanks T.' Timi grinned.
'Shove your thanks up your ass! It's your own fucking fault that you're in this condition in the first place.' T growled and disappeared.
Hatchan then explained that they will need a special coating to make sure the ship gets to Fishman Island all right. He promised to take them to a mechanic he would 'bet his life on' but they had to promise not to oppose the World Nobles, even if someone was to be killed before their very eyes.
They all promise, except Timi who they just stare at waiting for him to say something.
"I'm an assassin. I won't promise anything." he said smirking.
"What? You can't do anything to upset them. Are you crazy?" Hatchan asked freaking out.
"I don't care who they are. I do what I want, thanks." he frowned, sending him a glare that shut him up.
"Now, let's see if I can stand up again?" Timi mumbled as he used the wall to support him. He soon doubled over in pain, clutching his middle.
"Don't move. You're badly hurt. How are you even awake?" Chopper said helping him stand.
"Thank you but don't worry about me." the red head said.
"Hey T? You know that numb feeling I got after being beaten and I couldn't feel pain anymore?" he asked as T woke up again and looked pretty pissed.
'Yeah? What about it?' the entity asked in Timi's head.
"Mind doing that? I don't think I can walk around for long with the amount of pain in my body." Timi said freaking the others out.
"Who is he talking to?" Usopp asked shaking in fear.
'Fucks sake Timi. Get your act together. It will only last a few hours so use it well.' he said then disappeared.
"Ah. Thank you." the red head smiled and straightened up.
"What just happened?" Nami asked looking at Timi.
"Bye bye pain. Okay, I'm ready for action." Timi grinned.
"What are you?!" Chopper yelled hiding behind Zoro but Timi just shrugged.
"Now that I can move without it hurting, I can take on a couple of missions. This island is pretty interesting, I'm sure I will get a few calls." he said grinning and freaked out most of them. He summoned a pair of completely black converse and tried to put them on, until he doubled over coughing up blood.
"Ahh! Maybe you shouldn't bend over like that. Be careful with your stomach." Chopper said helping him sit against the wall.
"I'll help you." Usopp said and put his shoes on for him.
"Thank you, Usopp." Timi smiled at him gratefully.
"I owe you guys my life. I hope I can repay you somehow." he said sitting cross legged.
"Don't worry about it." Luffy grinned. The Straw Hats knew that Timi was a good guy but they also knew that he could be very scary if he wanted to be.