56. Gates of Heaven
A/N: Thanks to those who fav/followed the story, and all the anonymous readers ^^!
L: Alright, new debate topic! Should I or should I not let Ace live? BAM! Direct question to your faces xD I personally think (though I really like him, promise) that Ace should NOT live. For many reasons.
1. Luffy recognizes his weakness before the monsters of the New World and matures after Ace's death. Well, a bit. Also, he becomes quite strong.
XXXMAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ/WATCHED THE DRESSROSA ARC!XXX
2. Without his death, Sabo wouldn't remember that Ace's his brother, or Luffy for that matter. Thus, their re-encounter at Dressrosa wouldn't have taken place.
3. Also, the event Donquixote Doflamingo organizes to lure Luffy has Ace's Devil Fruit as trophy.
XXXNOW'S SAFE, SPOILERS ARE OVERXXX
Not many reasons to keep Ace dead, but there are damn pretty much justified I think. And um, about why I want to keep him alive... The only reason I have is because I like him. That's it. But I wanna know what YOU guys have to say of the matter! I already know Zelga Lim Li's and King0fP0wers' opinions on the matter (thanks guys by the way). I did say I would try to make Ace survive, but until now I haven't found either the reasons or the method to do it so without messing up with all the consequences. So... Yeah. Thoughts?
OH! A little heads up: this chapter MAY OR MAY NOT be a little disturbing. Nothing too explicit, but... Well, it's not really enjoyable.
You may have noticed that the fic is turning darker and darker the further I write. Also, at the beginning the rate was simply K. I recently raised it to T for good measure. I won't raise it to M because I don't deem it necessary. This is a fic of demons, folks; demons are not good people.
Relieved that the masked guy had already left, and thankful that the armored old knight resulted to be an ally, Koga and the other members of the Monster Quartet tried to regain their breath as Nami berated them for being weak. Sure, it was four against one, but the air was too constricting and their muscles didn't move the way they used to.
"So you're from the Sea Below?"
The old man got properly on board, sitting down on the railing, and glanced around at the crew and the small vessel, seemingly interested. Apparently, the dwellers from the surface were called like this from the cloud inhabitants: Sea Bellow inhabitants.
"I suppose you arrived here from the Blue Sea, did you not? Not surprising to me... Listen, this is the White Sea, located seven kilometers above your Sea Below. Higher above us lies the White-White Sea, ten kilometers away from the ground. The point is, this environment is very bad for you Blue Sea Dwellers-"
"Okay, I think I'm getting used to this now." Luffy cheered and pounded his chest, leaping to his feet, shortly followed by the other three members of the Monster Quartet.
Th Knight's eyes grew wide as the four stood as if completely recovered.
"No-no-no-no, that's not possible."
"We can hold our own, old man." Koga shrugged, watching him warily and making sure his bandage around his head didn't come off.
"Hm..." He narrowed his eyes at them. "It seems you are more special than I thought you would be. Very well, then I'll get straight to business. I'm a free agent working in a sea of many dangers. Since you know nothing about sky battles, if you're not careful, you'll become easy prey to guerrilla soldiers or celestial fish. But one call, and I will save you for the price of five million Extols."
Koga deadpanned. He didn't know what 'Extols' were, but five million sounded excessive!
At the oblivious looks he got, the old man blinked in confusion. "You mean you did not come from the High West? You must have stopped in at least one or two islands before you got here, did you not?"
"W- Wait a second!" Nami stepped in in surprise. "There are other ways to get here?! One or two islands... You mean there are more than one Sky Island?!"
Something seemed to click in the old man's mind as he watched them with renewed bewilderment and awe.
"For you to ask that many questions... Don't tell me you boarded the..."
"If you mean the Knock-Up Stream, then yes, we used it to get here." Robin stated with a serene smile on her face.
"You faced that monstrosity of a current? I thought there were no more brave souls to do such an absurdity..."
Koga snorted as he thumbed at their captain. "I think stupidity is his second name. And what he says goes. Most of the times, anyway."
Said idiot couldn't say anything in his defense, as Nami had grown a crying rage fit and was currently plummeting him for risking all their lives unnecessarily when there was a far safer way to get up there. If they had only known... but information was denied from them.
"Did you lose any crewmate?" The knight asked.
"Huh? Ah, no, we didn't. Everyone's here." Usopp replied.
"That's a relief. Just so you know, you wouldn't be so lucky on the other routes. If you brought a hundred people, it'd be a gamble to know how many would survive the trip, but it wouldn't be the same hundred, I assure you. With the Knock-Up Stream, either everyone does it or they all die. However, just a few souls are willing to risk losing it all, especially in the past few years. I respect confident navigators like you."
Hearing those words of praise, Koga smirked somewhat warmly. He still felt dizzy, his limbs felt heavy, and moments before the Knock-Up Stream he had unaccountably avoided death; but still, somewhat having taken that bet of 'All or Nothing' really paid off. True, they had to face immense peril in which they had bet their very lives, but they were midway their destination; they fared even better than most valiant crews that attempted their same route... without success.
He even had begun to think that luck was really on their side.
Huhuhuhuhu. You have the Devil's own luck.
At the familiar voice that suddenly popped up in his head, the blond chronicler froze. He lost all sense of reality as the darker, more malefic voice of Sankaoken filled his mind, dragging him back to the dark corner of his mind he absolutely despised.
When the writer opened his eyes, he saw the familiar landscape. A dark sky, illuminated only by a gigantic blood red crescent moon, no clouds or stars to outshine its gloominess. He stood on a black rock, isolated from other larger pieces of rock disseminated through all the infinite landscape by black flames and red lava flowing freely through the cracks. The air was stinky and hot, and the only sounds filling the air (apart from the occasional bubbles from the lava) were distant cries coming from somewhere under his feet and rusty chains being dragged on stone floor.
"Huhuhuhuhu."
Oh, and a demon's laughter.
His face showing the disgust he felt, Koga slowly turned his head around to watch the demon tied to his soul. But instead of the red-skinned midget with a creepily wide smile that occupied his mind, now stood a very tall, thin, pale young man. He had black hair with each strand looking strangely like a vertical eye, and red lifeless eyes. He wore numerous long white scarves, encircling his entire neck and a large portion of his head, and upwards of five to six shirts on his body, each of varying style and color. Even this significant amount of clothing was covered by a further layer; consisting of a red and black pinstriped blazer, as well as an extremely long pair of dark trousers, burying the black shoes worn underneath in a mass of fabric.
He didn't want to admit it, but when Koga locked eyes with that man's eyes, dread and fear for his own life and sanity overflowed him for a moment.
"Not what you were expecting?" The voice, too, sounded changed, and the smile; both looked even deadlier than before.
Everything had changed.
"Who are you?" Koga asked...
... Or tried to, considering his mouth wouldn't open and not a single word came out of it. His eyes widened as his fingertips flew to his lips; they were sewn. He even felt the small trails of blood. But no pain came from his newfound injuries. His wrists and ankles, he then found, had extremely tight manacles that bit into his skin. He was dressed in nothing but rags that covered his midsection.
"Ah ah ah." The man waved a finger at him. "Now this is my realm. Whether you talk or not, I'll be the judge for that."
Even slightly shaking at his sheer power (he hadn't realized he had been doing that), the chronicler managed to glare at him.
"It is true that this is the first time that you see me in my real form, but that is no reason to see me with that expression on your face." The man tilted his head to the side.
Even so, Koga's glare intensified.
That demon... He had lied. He had lied all along. How many things he told him were true or not? He lied about his powers, about his origins... What else?
But then again, he was a demon. Being dishonest was one of their traits after all.
The man -demon- drew a creepily wide smile that Koga recognized from the red-skinned midget and tilted his head to the side.
"You already owe me your life twice, shitty host. That sniper would've blown your head off if it weren't for me."
At those words, the pirate's mismatched eyes narrowed dangerously.
"It was just for a fraction of a second, but it served to get your sorry ass out of the bullet's way. You're welcome, by the way. Not that I expected a 'thank you' from you anyways." He shrugged his thin shoulders. "But then again, without me, your head would now be just a splotch of blood on your ship's planks, and your pathetic bunch of misfits you call your 'nakama' would cry over your headless body."
'So that means beheading is a way of killing us?' Koga quickly caught on the hint, eyes widening at the revelation. 'Then... There is a way of killing us!'
As if disappointed, the man shook his head clicking his tongue. "You got it wrong, brat. You would've died. Not me. The reason I saved you... is because there is no necromancer nearby to liberate me from your dead body. As you can imagine, troublesome."
'I supposed it would be for a selfish reason that you saved me.'
Up until now, Koga had compiled three ways of dying.
1. The same way he had died before. By a traitorous shot in the back, just on the mark.
2. Having his demon forcefully extracted from him.
3. Being beheaded/his head blown off.
However, in those three methods, only one implied the demon's death too; the first one. Because of the demon keeping Koga alive, repeating the exact same action that got him killed (including the act of treason, though he couldn't remember just who betrayed him) would render the demon's powers useless, and the Contract would be nullified. For a demon, a Contract was his very lifetime; once broken, nothing could be remedied, and his very existence would be banished.
That was the reason that, though tricky creatures, demons would always be faithful to their Contracts. Not necessarily to the one he made the Contract with, but the terms implied in It.
However, that didn't mean that they couldn't... modify the terms at their will, giving them different interpretations.
In Koga's case, the term was simply 'keeping him alive from the shot wound that almost killed him'; the demon's purpose was to keep the blood vessels around his heart (that were almost destroyed by the bullet that almost ended his life) from capsizing. That didn't mean 'keeping him from harm'. So, the demon briefly controlled Koga to avoid getting a bullet through the head, but allowed a graze to the side of the head.
'It could've been worse.' Koga begrudgingly admitted. The demon could've thought that having-
... Wait a minute.
If Koga died from that bullet wound, then the demon wouldn't have had to avoid the blood vessels from capsizing. Meaning, the Contract would've been nullified.
Meaning, the demon would've died too if the bullet had hit its mark.
He smirked. 'Gotcha.'
"What?" The demon raised a hairless eyebrow at that triumphant smile. "What do you mean by 'Gotcha', shitty host?"
'You saved me because you would've died too if you didn't. Not because you would've been trapped in my body.'
The pale man's face turned into a frown as his host's smirk widened in defiance.
'Seems like you're bust-'
A growl of pain went muffled through his sewn lips, dropping down to his knees as lightning shot up from the manacles around his wrists and ankles, his muscles involuntarily shaking. He let out a relieved groan when the lightning ended, his forehead resting against the hot stone as he half-listened the demon snickering above his head.
"Be careful, shitty host. Let me remind you that this is my realm. Here, you're my prisoner. And I can destroy your mind in any way I please."
Steps approached the hunched figure and an abnormally cold hand grasped his blond hair, raising his head to look each other in the face. Koga's was slightly scrunched from the pain, but still managed to give a half-hearted glare of hatred at the demon.
"Not every part of your mind belongs to you. This little space... is mine."
And then, the ground shook.
No. Not only the ground. The lava steaming below them, the rocks, even the sky above... The whole dark world shook.
Once. Twice. Three times. Then it stopped.
"Hm." The demon let go of Koga's hair (who managed to sit upright and not slump over again) and glanced up at the red moon. "Looks like some part of your subconscious does have a little control over my small realm. A futile attempt... but might prove troublesome if I retain you here for a long time."
He seemed to debate with himself as he caressed his chin with long, slender fingers, before once more shrugging his thin shoulders. "Oh well. A shame I can't keep you here any longer." He turned to the writer and smirked down at him. "Well, I suppose I'll see you next time, shitty host. And as they say... Bon voyage!"
And the demon kicked him in the chest, throwing him into the river of lava behind him. Because of his sewn lips, he couldn't scream.
Koga closed his eyes tightly upon the first contact with the lava...
... And in the next moment, he found himself staring at the worried faces of the crew.
Confused, he blinked once, twice, before he abruptly sat upright, fingers frantically looking for the seams closing his lips and the manacles holding his wrists prisoner. They were gone. He then looked over his body, finding no trace of burns or anything that indicated that he had just fell into a river of lava...
Only then did he notice that he was on the Merry; in the infirmary's room, to be precise, and he had been lying down on the bed.
"... ga! Koga!"
"Huh?" Wide-eyed, his breath slightly ragged, the chronicler turned towards the concerned-looking crew. Chopper sat right beside him, Nami and Usopp just behind the little doctor. The other three members of the Monster Quartet, along with Robin, stood at the far back of the room, silent but watching him closely with blank faces.
"Koga." Chopper's stern voice made the writer turn his bewildered gaze to the reindeer, still figuring out what was going on. "When you're not feeling well, you have to tell me right away. I can't help you if you keep your secrets to yourself; even more if they hurt you."
The chronicler visibly swallowed, before attempting a closed-eye smile at the reindeer. "I told you already, I'm feeling fine-"
"Falling unconscious while conversing with the Sky Knight is not feeling fine!" Nami roared in anger. Koga dropped the smile attempt, surprised at her outburst, and she calmed herself before continuing with a censoring look on her face. "You had a small fever, and you were thrashing and mumbling to yourself. You looked like in pain."
For some moments, Koga merely returned his look at her and the others, before he bit his lower lip and glanced away.
By chance, his gaze fell on the rusty katana someone had put at the feet of the bed. A small tendril of darkness fleetingly flared around the sheath before disappearing. The writer's face hardened, his hands closing into fists around the sheet covering him.
"... It's the demon, right?"
Zoro's voice snapped him out of his reverie, but didn't make him take his eyes off the katana. He refused to answer or look at his nakama, hoping the truth wouldn't be brought out to light by the swordsman's speculations.
He heard Sanji sigh.
"Mifune told us to keep an eye on you." This time, Koga closed his eyes with a grimace. But the flow of words didn't stop. "To avoid you snapping. He said we had to avoid you killing anyone... That it would make you lose yourself." A silence, probably to see how the blond reacted. "Of course, we promised we would. Not that we needed an incentive to keep you at bay."
"We were going to help you anyways." He felt a soft hand (maybe Nami's) resting on his arm. But still, he didn't acknowledge their concern. "Please Koga... Tell us what's wrong."
How could he tell them? How could he tell that he was slowly losing it? That the demon inside him was slowly gaining territory on his mind? That he was even able to snatch away his consciousness at will, even if it was for a few minutes...
His head tilted forward, hiding his eyes under the bangs of blond hair. His hands slightly trembled, both for the pressure he implied in gripping the sheet and the -though not admitted to himself- slight fear flowing through his veins.
No. He couldn't tell them.
He couldn't bear becoming a monster. But admitting it to his nakama... They would change their view on him. They would start to mistrust him, to watch him closely, to snatch away his freedom.
It would devastate him.
And so, his mouth let out another lie, to cover all of his other lies.
"... I'm fine."
He forced himself to let go of the sheet. He forced himself to open his eyes, to raise them to his face-stoned nakama, to direct them another fake smile. To dismiss their worry with another lie.
To feel himself like trash at their side because of not being able to tell what was going wrong with him.
To be a coward.
"Everything's okay now."
Would he ever look at his nakama with truthful eyes? Would he ever say that phrase and say nothing but truth?
He didn't know. And the uncertainty was what was killing him inside.
No matter how many questions they asked, how different approaches they tried, Koga remained adamant and reiterated his well-being at his nakama. His falsity was worthy of an actor, even though the keenest members of the crew saw right through his lies and fake smiles that he used.
The writer managed nonetheless to direct the topic away from himself, instead asking what had been happening during his unconscious state.
Turned out, not much had happened. After his inexplicable fainting (which lasted about an hour or so), the Sky Knight advised them to go look for Heaven's Gates before flying off with his trusty mount, promising to aid them next time they used the whistle he lent them. Before they departed though, the whole crew decided to wait and raise anchor once he regained his consciousness.
Their touching gesture almost made Koga regret his decision of protecting them by not telling anything. Almost. The demon's malicious eyes reinforced his will before his mouth betrayed him.
After a quick check-out made by Chopper, he deemed the writer good to go after giving him some painkillers for his head.
Not even ten minutes later, the Straw Hat pirates were on the move once more, towards some strange clouds Chopper warned them of. It looked like a waterfall cloud, with a cloud seemingly moving vertically from up to down. They couldn't get to the waterfall, however, as two giant clouds that mounted some sort of barrier and that floated above the sea stopped them.
Of course, at the sight of those strange clouds, Luffy couldn't help but to volunteering in 'investigating them'. Koga smiled warmly as he used his 'Gum gum pistol' to reach the clouds, bouncing on top of them as if they were balloons. Luckily, he wouldn't sink anytime soon. Chopper and Usopp, excited at the whole adventure, couldn't help but to join in, and the chronicler watched with a serene smile their naivete.
"Hm..." Nami mumbled from beside him, narrowing her brown eyes at the floating clouds. "If these clouds keep floating here, we won't get through... Hey guys!" She raised her voice to the Idiotic Trio. "You're there already, so could you please go around and search another route we can go through?"
Koga smirked at her. "What, you managed to tell them 'please'?"
She sent a seething glare at him while Luffy, Usopp and Chopper disappeared behind the clouds. "I can be kind too, you know. Don't you dare imply otherwise."
His smirk widened, but stayed quiet. Not worth risking his life.
They walked on the bouncy clouds, searching alternate paths. When they returned to the ship, they said they discovered a giant gate-like structure nearby the waterfall cloud. Thus, the Merry sailed on a slow journey, sneaking through the gaps between the elastic clouds and getting to a section of open sea where the tunnel they spotted indeed was, immediately leading the pirate crew to classify it as a human construction. The waterfall, away on the horizon before, now showed its true size and stateliness, falling right behind the tunnel which carried the banner 'Heaven's Gate'.
"'Heaven's Gate'? Aw man..." Usopp protested, putting a hand on his head. "The entrance to the heavens? What a tasteless joke! Sounds like we're dead and going to the afterlife!"
"What's wrong about it? What if we actually are dead and going to the afterlife?"
Koga sent a warning glare at Zoro. He actually knew more about life and death, and a bit of what was beyond (he had seen just a glimpse, but was enough to form an idea).
"That's right..." Oblivious, the swordsman continued. "The weirdness we saw so far would make sense if we were..."
Pinch.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
Not so subtly, Koga had decided to cut him short by forcefully pinching his arm, and he directed a deadpanned glare at his angered one.
"If you felt that, then you're not dead. Don't talk so lightly about those things, Zoro. Gives bad luck."
The green-haired teen groaned. "What would you know about this?"
"Actually, a fair bit."
Then Usopp called out to the entire crew to the front of the ship as they slowly approached the main gate. Apparently, a person had appeared in the gate, probably to bid them welcome or some kind of warning before entering.
It wasn't long before the Merry brought them inside the gate, turning and stopping right in front of the person. The person turned to be a short very elderly woman with an extensively wrinkled face. She had purple hair, put into two buns, thin arms, and wore a pink tunic. Two small white wings sprouted from her back. The granny snapped some pictures at them.
"She's got wings!" Chopper exclaimed.
"Wings? You mean she's an angel? That means all the angels here are like her! But she's like, what, a dried plum!"
Bonk!
"Ow! Koga, why did you do that?" The captain whined while holding his new lump.
"That was rude to say, Luffy." He nonchalantly said with a smirk.
"I am Amazon, the ward of Heaven's Gate." The elderly woman introduced herself after a long pause. "Did you come to visit or to fight?"
Koga cocked his head to the side. 'If we wanted to fight, then she wouldn't be here to ask that question.'
"Um... Visiting is much more appropriate, lady..." Nami answered, trying to keep a polite tone but tripping over her own words.
"We want to get to Sky Island!" Luffy interrupted with his usual goofiness. "It's beyond this waterfall, right?"
Silence...
"Doesn't matter to me. I just want you to pay the immigration fee. One billion Extols per person and you're free to go."
Everyone gaped at the excessive amount.
"Again that Extol thingy..." Sanji commented.
"The currency up here, most likely." Koga shrugged. "I don't know how much is that in Berri, but eight billion Extols sounds excessive to me. We don't have that amount of money."
"Then here goes nothing..." Their navigator breathed heavily before turning again to Amazon. "Um, excuse me, about the money... What happens if we don't have-?"
"You're free to go."
...
"WE ARE?!"
"Also, you're free to turn back."
"Huh?!"
"I'm not a guardian in a classical sense, nor am I in the shape to be a warrior anymore... I just listen and accept the decisions of whoever goes through here."
"Yeah!" Luffy threw his arms to the air, cheering that they didn't have to pay for entering. "Let's go to Sky Island! We don't have any money, but we're going through, Obaachan!"
"I see! Eight of you, right?" Amazon asked and snapped her old fingers with a loud 'snap'.
Seconds later, two huge crab pincers grabbed the areas where the Flying Merry's wings used to be and hoisted them up. Among the surprised cries, Koga heard the wrinkly woman say something about Speedy Shrimps, whatever those things were, before the giant crustacean holding them sped up towards the road beyond the gates, the crew desperately getting a hold on whatever they had at hand to avoid being blown off the ship as an ascending spiral stream appeared before them, the crab taking that road. As they ascended the three kilometers before their destination, the clouds grew increasingly darker until, at their destination, a light appeared at the end of the road. The Merry only sailed faster through the curves until it sped past another inscription buried on the clouds near the light.
"The God Land, Skypiea!" Robin read it just as they zoomed past it.
'... God?' Koga fleetingly thought... before everything flew away from his mind at the landscape that awaited them beyond the light.
L: And that's it! Not a long chapter, and not much happens here either, but I wanted to keep my weekly schedule! Sorry everyone! And now, review answers~!
-14fox: Hey, Ryo, Fox!
K: Shut your trap Ryo! I may be a magnet for problems, but blame THIS IDIOT *points at Author* for putting all those shitty situations on me!
L: Can you really blame me? I have to keep the readers entertained and give them something that isn't actually from the anime/manga.
K: That doesn't mean TORTURING ME IN EACH AU SCENE, dammit!
L: *shoos Koga away* Don't you worry, Fox, I completely understand you! Getting used to the school routine again is a pain. But I thank you anyways for your efforts, it gladdens me ^^!
K: *gets inside the room again with an angry stomp* Don't overestimate this idiot *bonks Author in the head, who whines in pain* They're actually NOT that good. They're not even writing in their native language, so more than one mistake they've missed for sure.
L: ... You know that's actually a compliment, right?
K: ... Not if it's me who says that.
L: ... Alright, I'll buy that. Moving on~! I completely agree with you, Ryo-kun. I wouldn't want you to die at Sanji's hands (or should I say 'feet'?) for hitting on Nami and Robin. Nami's nice once you get under her greedy witch layer...
K: *mumbles to himself* Tell that to everyone else's bruises...
L: ... And Robin is really knowledgeable. I personally admire her a lot. Oh, so you also want the entire crew to be on Koga's Arc? Alrighty then! Aw, thanks Ryo-kun, you're too kind!
K: Oh, that's okay. He's right, in truth. But I don't envy you and your near-death situation. *Nonchalantly looks at the Reaper behind Ryo, not bothering to warn him*
L: *sees the same thing too* Uh. Rest in peace, Ryo-kun?
-King0fP0wers: Hi King! Okay, I'll stop~! Just kidding, hahahaha.
K: Hey. Maybe you should, and then I could get a rest for every shit you've been throwing at me.
L: With me as Author? No way in Hell! I'm having too much fun with this to end this story like this! Besides, more than one reader would want my head if I leave things like this.
K: Yeah, damn Blackbeard and his goon almost blew my head off...
L: I have, actually! But I personally don't want to impose any specific OST. What's more, once I read a fic whose author used to post OSTs to each of their chapters but stopped doing so because they got some reviews telling that the music they posted distracted them from reading. So, I don't really know if I should do it too or not. Maybe I'll post that question next chap. And about Ace's survival... I already answered (not directly, but well...) at the beginning of the chapter. I'll still leave the decision to you guys, though thanks for giving your opinion. And don't worry, it's your opinion; you're not a jerk for giving it!
K: There IS an Underworld, but I really hope we won't have to go down there. If we went down there, it would be US as human beings who would be at a disadvantage. The demons would obliterate us.
L: I'll also try to avoid that situation. Aw, Chrona-chan (yeah, I see her as a girl xD)! Don't worry, I won't ignore you! It's not really my style!
-Guest-san: In truth, it isn't really instinct what saved Koga from being shot, Guest-san. Maybe this chapter explained it better. But remember that he had been just shot at and he's terribly confused at what happened. And even if Van Augur is at Usopp's level of sniper-ship (I know it's not a word xD), he still can't outmatch a demon. But thanks to you I managed to give a logical (in my opinion) explanation for Koga's survival in this chapter.
-Tengu Brunch: Okay, hi, Brunch! Yeah he is: remember that demons are originally creatures of darkness. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if in Whitebeard's crew was a Cursed... Nah, but it would be really cool, huh? Well, I try to make Koga feel close to everyone, but right now he's injured, so their closeness is more or less justified, right? Oh no, I couldn't substitute Zoro and Chopper's bond, or anyone else's for that matter! Having Koga have his moments with everyone in the crew doesn't mean substituting their bonds. Well, if you had an email address, I could send you my idea (to see if you like it, mainly).
-Boopadoop: Hi there again! Come on, cheer up Boop! It's always nice to have you reviewing, even if it's a little thing! Aw that's so nice! Having such a positive effect on people is really good!
K: *gets his hair ruffled somewhat annoyed* The problem is, I think I'll never get rid of the pain with this idiot directing the whole thing... *glares at Author* But thanks for the attempts of cheering me up.
L: I hear you. I really hate- uh- *Ahem* HIM. That bastard...
K: *looks at both Author and Boop with narrowed eyes* Who the hell are you two talking about?
L: You'll see soon!
K: *grumbles something* Yeah right. Oh, a real pain, let me assure you. I don't recommend getting on a ride to the skies with a headache.
L: Hahaha, that comment from King made me update as soon as possible xD No worries, I understood what you wanted to say hahaha! Well I'll be reading you soon!
-Kakusei: Hey, welcome! What a surprise, didn't expect you to be reading one of my fics! Aw, thanks so much! Sometimes it's a pain in the ass getting Koga and all his backstory into the original storyline, but the effort really pays off when you see you've updated over fifty chapters already. It leaves you with a warm sensation!
-Guest: Hi! Well, they propose to me many characters alright, but remember that this is still my fic. I can make them OOC to fit in my story. After all, remember that Angela DIDN'T have any demon in Soul Eater, and probably Mifune won't be entirely himself in my fic. I'll do just the same with Free and Akim. Actually, I have already a plan for Akim, and it doesn't have anything to do with immortality. And you know? Once I read that 'being immortal doesn't make you invincible, just impossible to kill'. There are other ways of defeating people without killing them. But still, thanks for pointing that out to me, it's much appreciated ^^! Hope to read you soon!
L: Okay, remember the previous question I posted up there: do you guys want Ace to survive or not? Well guys, hope you liked it, stay beautiful, and please feed the hungry beast!
K: See ya guys next time.
