Chapter 15: Hell Of A Truth

another raw chapter yay

So, most of this chapter takes place before the last chapter :)

Misaki was traveling through the water. Her hair was flowing behind her, magically staying untangled. The action of floating- well, rather, zooming would be a better word to describe it- in the deep sea was so incredible and a thousand sensations were twirling through the gaps of the girl's body.

But she had no time for it.

She had no interest in anything but getting to Sentorappu before it was too late.

Misaki could only think about the people who she had put into danger the moment she stepped out of Sentorappu Island. She had promised every slave there that she would come back for them the moment she was free, which didn't make sense at the time, but she knew what she meant. Misaki set her mind, in the past, to rescue her friends and even the people she didn't know, and bring justice to those who were in control, as soon as possible. But she didn't exactly do that. She wasted her time with the Straw Hat pirates, thinking that in order to be ready to take down Sentorappu as a trading island, she had to train with Zoro and get stronger. But in reality, she was ready all along.

She just didn't know it.

A memory, still fresh in her head as it was a memory from not too long ago, came flashing right at her as she was making her way to the dreaded island.

Approximately eight hours ago, in a celestial barge belonging to the Gratius Family

Diamonds dangling from a chandelier attached to the ceiling clinked together in oddly satisfying intervals, making soft sounds that attributed to the moments of silence during Misaki and Rekatsu's private conversations.

"Do you believe in gods?" Rekatsu's rather monotone voice read off the hologram projected in front of him.

Misaki was silent, her eyes blown wide. She was confused about the question, but her gut told her that something was going to happen. Something big. Maybe a revelation? She didn't know, and it killed her.

"There are, in fact, gods, in this world. It all started with one person. And his name was Prowress." Rekatsu continued, but then, in a different, more light tone, he looked up from the hologram and turned to Misaki, adding, "Oh, by the way, we don't know if Prowress was a male or female, but we're just using male pronouns for now."

"Get on with it," Misaki said, gritting her teeth.

"Before Prowress passed away, he also passed his power down to five different individuals of the earth, labelling them as gods to differentiate them from human beings. Prowress deems that a second will not pass on this planet where there are more than five gods, or less than five gods. When one of the gods dies, he or she will be replaced immediately with a newborn baby."

"You're delusional… and a sociopath, if you think I'm falling for any of this," Misaki stated promptly.

"Oh, no, it's real. It's all real. We have proof." Rekatsu took one strange look at Misaki and sighed. "...Just keep listening."

The Celestial Dragon continued, "Oh, here's my favorite part. The Gratius Family discovered the first proven-to-be-true goddess." He read, "The first was a woman with an indescribable beauty. She was intelligent and glowed when she walked. The second the Noble's wife gave birth to a son, the woman was killed. It was timed so perfectly. However, he was not blessed with any power.

'Why didn't Prowress choose me?' The child cried out when he'd learned of the story.

'We do not know. We will know if we learn more about these people and Prowress, as well.' His father answered with a grim expression.

Trial after trial, and generation after generation, futile attempts were made and all went to dust. But the family that expanded into a brilliantly structured superpower of the Grand Line never gave up on the idea that they could be granted the gift that would turn themselves into gods. After all these efforts, they acknowledged the fact that they were the same as humans without Prowress's powers that they so desperately desired, and so, they sneered upon their relatives and isolated themselves in an island called Sentorppu. And… uhh… yada, yada… blah, blah, blah…" Rekatsu continued to read with no emotion in his voice, as if he'd been told the story countless amounts of times, which he probably had. Misaki clenched her fists underneath the table. The dress she was wearing felt uncomfortable and itchy all of a sudden.

"Oh, I guess I'll start here," Rekatsu, a moment after sipping his drink he'd left on the dinner table, pointed at a portion of the writing. "Even the Nobles didn't know who he- Prowress, they were referring to, by the way-" The Noble clarified for Misaki, but she didn't respond, so he continued where he left off seconds after.

Even the Nobles didn't know who he was, and they may never find out. Maybe he was a human being on the Grand Line who thought the idea of giving certain people a grand amount of power would have been an amusing idea. Maybe he did what he did with a purpose, but if that was the case, he should have told someone about that reason. Was the reason good? Or did Prowress use his power for evil?"

Rekatsu took a deep breath in and clapped his hand over the device that created the hologram with the writing. Instantly, the hologram disappeared and the boy smiled cheekily. "That was a mouthful. Aren't I the best narrator ever?"

"What did all of that even mean?" Misaki interrogated angrily. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Calm down, Misaki." Rekatsu responded. He sounded like he was trying to soothe a crying toddler, and that pissed her off. "I'll explain it all to you, but you're smart, right? Surely you know what I'm hinting at."

"No, I have no clue. I'm still wondering when this proof of yours is going to show up." The thirteen year old girl answered snarkily.

"Proof?" The dark haired boy perked up, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Yeah, Proof that lets me know that this bullshit fairytale is real." Misaki spat out.

"Why must you be so feisty when you're around me?" Rekatsu questioned. "I think, if you were a bit less resentful of me, you'd be able to understand what I just informed you. And besides the proof in question is already here."

"Where?" The girl challenged.

"Misaki, the proof is you."

The blue haired girl stared into Rekatsu's eyes as he looked right back. He was still grinning, but it didn't look like he was joking around, either.

"Me?" Misaki laughed scornfully in her mind. "Oh, I get it now. You're delusional."

"No, really! You... are a god." Rekatsu substantiated. "Well, I guess it would be 'god' with a lowercase 'g,' since there are five existing right this moment, and you're not exactly all-powerful. And I guess you'd be a 'goddess,' since you-"

"I'm sorry, but I want to laugh at you right now," Misaki interrupted, venom dripping from her words. "You're spouting nonsense because I'm not a god. I'm not a goddess. I'm am sane, unlike you, obviously."

"Think about it for a minute, Misaki. Haven't you ever thought you were a bit different than everyone else? How you magically survived the shipwreck and stayed underwater for who knows how long?"

"How do you know about that?" Misaki asked, her face becoming pale.

"I know that the ship carrying you when you first escaped faced a storm, and we estimated that a normal person who sank into the water would have been dead." Rekatsu answered simply. "I mean, it's our ship, Misaki. What did you expect?"

"That doesn't mean-" Misaki began, but she was interrupted.

"-I'm not finished. Remember, before, when you were on Crystallized Island. What did I tell you? We treated you differently because you're special. You're different. Misaki, you got away with things that normal slaves would be sentenced to death for. You were able to look at my father in the eyes without getting skinned alive. You were able to push me away when most higher ranked prostitute girls would be killed if they'd done that to someone like me." He smiled kindly, but there was so much evil behind his facade. "Why do you think that is?"

"I… " The blue haired girl tried to think of an answer, but she was stuck. Why? Why was she different? "I… I don't know."

"Why are you so dangerously luxurious to look at? Your beauty could rival the infamous Boa Hancock of Kuja Island. Why are you so strong, compared to other normal people? You are faster and you work efficiently. You won every battle to the death that you entered during your time at Sentorappu Island. You seemed to have the highest scores on quizzes and games that we'd make you play, and you even received a perfect score on your ranking exam, remember?"

"It doesn't mean I'm a god." Misaki refused to let go of her belief. There was no way she was actually listening to what Rekatsu was saying, right? There was no way that the story he told was true. It was probably all an elaborate plot to make her believe that she was special, so that she could be brought back to Sentorappu as a slave once again.

But she was already on the ship and Rekatsu believed that there was no way she was going to escape. Why was he telling her all this if she was already secured to return to being a slave?

Misaki's head was spinning. Was she truly falling for Rekatsu's stories, even though it seemed like a complete lie? But all the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly. It explained everything- why she was able to survive the shipwreck, why she was isolated from the other slaves in Sentorappu in terms of treatment, why the people of Sentorappu were going such far lengths just for her, a mere escapee of their land.

"Here are a few videos of surveillance from before you were born." Rekatsu said, pulling up the holograms once again. The blue glow presented a blank screen, some visual buffering, and then the frozen image of a quaint cottage near the ocean. The house was atop a grassy hill, but then the green patch faded to sandy beaches. It seemed like a picture perfect place to be.

"Where is this?" Misaki asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

"The home of your parents," The black haired boy answered. "Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry for the... horrible camera quality. It's been over a decade, but I still can't believe how far we've come,"

The video started playing, and the angle of the camera completely shifted to another place- Misaki assumed they were looking at the interior of the cottage. There was a woman on a light green sofa, her hair was a pale green and there was a warm smile on her face. The visible bump on her stomach indicated that she was pregnant and ready to give birth in at least a month or sooner.

Sitting next to the woman was a tall man with blue hair similar to Misaki's but with skin much darker than hers. His face was stern and almost worried, most likely about his wife, but at the same time, Misaki had this weird feeling that she'd seen his face somewhere before. He resembled someone she knew.

Seeing her parents for the first time, even in video, made Misaki a bit restless, more restless than before. She was also in disbelief, having a thought that these people could have been any normal citizens with their faces videotaped and staged as her parents.

"I know what you're thinking- maybe these people aren't your parents." Rekatsu said. "But just watch the full video."

The blue haired girl wanted to speak up before the video continued. She didn't want to waste time if this thing was all fake. But when she looked back into the faces of the people in the video, she couldn't help but think that those people might actually be her mother and father. They resembled her, and their lifestyle, shown by the two frames she'd been exposed to, was similar to her own dream sequences of her family that she'd always envisioned when she had the chance to fantasize about what her normal life would have looked like. She felt like crying, but strangely, she didn't feel any tears fall from her eyes.

Just then, out of nowhere, the woman slouched over and the man got closer to her, realizing something, and then rushed out of the camera's scope. He came back a few moments later with a coat over his shirt and a blanket and backpack in his hands.

As he was helping the woman get up from the sofa, he was startled by a noise coming from outside the house. He decided to settle the woman, now visibly in pain, back down to sit for a while longer and left the camera's vision once again, probably to check what the noise was.

"What's going on?" Misaki asked Rekatsu as she took her eyes off the video. "What's happening?"

"Someone's breaking into their house while your mother's about to go into labor," Rekatsu purred. "Can you guess who?"

Misaki ignored the question and focused back on the video. The camera angle was the same and the woman was at the same place she was left, but she looked as if she were about to faint. Then, her face grew from an expression of suffering to absolute horror, and she screamed, trying to get up from the sofa to the direction the man went to. She could barely move without feeling excruciating pain every second at this point, so she couldn't get far until the man came back into the screen, this time with a bloody arm that was being held with his hand.

Misaki's eyes widened at the sudden change of mood, and glanced at Rekatsu, who was sipping from his chalice.

The man's lips moved as he gripped the woman's shoulders, turned around, and crouched down. She hurriedly got on his back and he carried her out of the camera frame.

Just then, the footage switched to a different location. Some place dark, gloomy, and all of a sudden, stormy. There was a run down shack in the bottom left corner of the frame that had a red cross painted sloppily on it to indicate a sorry excuse for a hospital. The footage shifted to what seemed to be the inside of the shack, as there were three people present: a doctor, a nurse, and the pregnant woman- Misaki's mother.

"Your father died on the doorsteps of the hospital. His body was taken to Sentorappu where he was analyzed a little more." Rekatsu leaned into his seat while motioning with his hand to procure a maid and whisper something into her ear.

The camera angle changed yet again to a side of the room that showed the faces of the doctor and Misaki's supposed mother much closer, and for the first time, the blue haired girl could see her mother. She was gorgeous and youthful, even while going through labor and in tears. Her hair was drenched in rain, and her skin was all messed up but generally unscathed. Misaki saw some similarities between herself and this woman- the slight wave in her hair and the ambiguity of her eyes, possibly. This wasn't her mother. But, she was. She was her mother and Misaki was just refusing to admit it. She wanted to believe that she wasn't watching her own mother on her deathbed while giving birth to her, and she definitely didn't want to admit that Rekatsu was telling the truth about everything. She knew he didn't have any reason to lie about all this- unless there was some sort of punchline she was missing- and she felt sicker in the stomach than ever before. It was like all the previous injuries the blue haired girl had gotten rid of were burning back onto her skin, one by one, the pain being magnified by a thousand.

"We don't have a lot of film for this tape, since it's all old tech and some of the recordings got ruined in the rain," The black haired boy pointed out. "That's why there are so many cuts. This is the final footage." He paused the video.

Misaki's hands were trembling underneath the table, sunken into the material of her dress. She really wanted to throw up and cry for a good hour. She felt so, very sick, even though she hadn't eaten anything. Watching the video made her ache for someone warm to embrace her, rub her skin in therapeutic circles and smooth over her hair, whispering that it would be alright. But nothing was alright. Not even a little. A billion things were going on in the girl's mind- the littlest things, like, 'What day is it?' or, 'What did I eat three weeks ago?' or, 'Is this all a lie?' and even, 'The window. I need to walk to that window.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt clattering onto the table. Rekatsu dropped an embellished chest near the projection, making the vessel it was emerging from rattle.

"Want more proof, right?" He said.

Misaki didn't answer. She was sweating profusely and the plethora of thoughts raced back to her.

"Here's some old stuff from East Blue that we picked up. Some picture books, a baby blanket..." He rummaged through the container a little longer. "...Oh, and this."

The navy blue haired girl glanced at what Rekatsu was holding in his hand in curiosity. It looked like a broken snail transponder.

"This... This is some old... old technology." He gripped it unenthusiastically. "It's a recorder. Your mom recorded her voice reading some classics to you. To Kill A Mockingbird. Romeo And Juliet? Her voice is like honey, honestly. No doubt in my mind that she was a goddess."

Misaki was nauseated already, she'd feel even worse if he started playing the recording. She hoped this was all a joke, that hopefully Hakotsu, or Bell, or some other douchebags she despised would pop out of nowhere and would throw a pie in her face and laugh at her. Hell, seeing those hateful, shameless people telling her that this was all just a twisted, everyday Sentorappu-style prank was better than this.

"Misaki, this is my favorite part!" A bright, feminine voice remarked. The voice thrived with energy and love, every ounce that a human being could possibly store in their hearts, and then some. The voice was familiar. It was like a distant call from years ago. But Misaki'd heard enough.

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs. They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." The voice paused. "Are you listening, Misaki?" Then, a small chuckle.

She didn't want to hear it anymore.

She wanted to disappear. To eradicate her existence off the face of the earth. Anything to stop the pain in her stomach and her heart.

"Do you remember the voice? You must have recalled it. You heard it so many times when you were in her stomach, didn't you?" The brunette asserted, smiling innocently and kindly, as if he were consoling her about a sudden grievance she was having trouble with.

"Anyway, let's finish the rest of the camera film. There's a little left. Just the ending."

The footage resumed and this time, it skipped over to the end of the birthing process. There was no sound- of course, the entire film had no sound, but somehow, Misaki could tell that all was silent when this footage was recorded. Something about the mood. The look on their faces. And the dead body on the hospital bed- the hollow face of Misaki's mother.

The doctor and nurse bowed their heads in silence, and the nurse mouthed something to the doctor. She held the baby close to her chest, as if she was scared that it would die, too. She gasped at something the doctor said, and her blond locks jolted in surprise.

"Lucy Inchairan, someone who came from an exotic island of the Grand Line. She was banished from her old home due to being framed for a crime she didn't commit, and she ended up working as a nurse-in-training for this doctor, Samuel. He used to be a part of a bigger hospital in another island of the East Blue, but my father pulled some strings to get him to work here." Rekatsu looked pleased. "We needed to get the best doctor to successfully deliver you so that there were no complications in our plan."

Misaki took one look at the baby, but she already knew she'd be looking at herself. Brown eyes and a small mouth. Nothing about the baby scream "special," but it was definitely her. She could feel it through the holographic screen.

"So, do you believe me?" Rekatsu smirked. He popped a maraschino cherry into his mouth and stood up to exit out of the video on the display. The look on the thirteen year old's face seemed to be enough to convince him that she did.

"Isn't it cool? Your father was shot three times, apparently- in his stomach, his arm, and his collarbone. He could run without too much trouble- while carrying your mother, mind you- and lasted for a longer time than anyone could have expected." Rekatsu whistled in amazement. "He is the apex of a human form, along with your mother, who was able to give birth to you without any issues. We assume that she died because of you."

"No, it's because you killed my parents!" Misaki shouted. She couldn't believe she was arguing for this story that she now believed in, but she didn't care anymore. She couldn't stand listening to this deranged Noble feed himself the assurance that everything he did was law and just. She felt like vomiting every time he opened his mouth to speak so casually about the people he murdered. "You killed them."

"No, not that." Rekatsu stated, as if it was obvious.

The blue haired girl blinked. "Huh?"

Rekatsu switched his gaze back to the electric projection in front of him and made a few hand gestures to scroll through the document pulled up while humming nonchalantly. He gasped rather excitedly and glanced at Misaki. "Found it! There's a lot in this script, but it's really helpful."

He cleared his throat before reciting the words off the hologram. "...before Prowress passed away, he also passed his power down to five different individuals of the earth, labelling them as gods to differentiate them from human beings. Prowress deems that a second will not pass on this planet where there are more than five gods, or less than five gods. When one of the gods dies, he or she will be replaced immediately with a newborn baby." He whipped his hand downwards in front of the hologram and just like that, the mysterious image zapped back into the little black box it came from.

"So, technically, you killed your parents." Rekatsu said. "You killed your mother, probably, since the father was tested and shown to have died a few minutes before you were born. So he couldn't have been the sacrifice. It must have been you."

"You're only saying this so that you don't have to take the blame for killing-"

"Misaki, don't you get it?" Rekatsu interjected, his face looking exasperated and tired all of a sudden. "We did the physical actions of murdering your parents- we'll take credit for at least that. But everything else was up to fate. Fate is what helped you become who you are now- what molded you into the physical being of perfection and splendor. It helped you stay alive, and it kept you alive because you're not a normal human being. You're what every Celestial Dragon aspires to become- someone higher than a human being, someone who is stronger, smarter, more attractive, more developed in every single way. Someone like you.

"And fate is what made you a goddess. If you weren't a goddess, your mother might have survived the pregnancy- of course, she would have been killed by my father, since she knew too much already, and you'd most likely be dead, since you would have been no good to us. But fate was what killed your mother, along with your existence."

Misaki couldn't breathe. She couldn't feel whatever she was sitting on- she felt like she was swimming through a suffocating space, although what she saw in her direct field of vision was the same image as always.

"You... You're a monster," were the only words she could spit out while heaving thick breaths in and out.

"No, Misaki. You're the monster. You're the one responsible for your parents' deaths, along with the deaths of another few thousand people. Every action you take, whatever path you chose to follow- it's all going to lead to glory for you, but the devastation of so many others." Rekatsu took a sip out of his chalice and stood up from his chair. "You know what responsibilities a god has, don't you? To oversee and rule the beings below them, and to judge everyone who deserves it." He smirked. "You're only doing what you were made to do. You are a monster, Misaki, but that is your inevitable role in life. A monster, at least, to most people."

"...I-"

"-Not to me, of course. No." The raven haired Noble cut her off with a loud voice. "I love you too much to think of you as anything short of perfection. I want you, Misaki," He walked over to where she was sitting, frozen in fear and sickness, getting closer by the second. "And I will marry you. It is our destiny."

She wanted to get up after grabbing a nearby piece of cutlery and stab him in the gut. Anything to shut him up so she didn't have to listen to another word come out of his mouth.

"I'm not done, though!" Rekatsu exclaimed, as if he'd read her mind. "Here's the punchline. You have an older brother."

"A... A what?" Misaki cocked an eyebrow, trying to stay as still as possible so that he didn't notice her shivering. "I have a twin?"

"No, not a twin. I'm sure he's... around ten years older than you. Maybe less."

Rekatsu then perked up, like he'd remembered something important. He swiftly strided to his side of the dining table, sliding his hand across the smooth edge as he walked. The Noble placed a hand on the stationary black box that was resting on the table and proceeded to click a button on it. Instantly, the small contraption revealed the same hologram as before, and the black haired boy waved his hand around the glowing blue screen. Different pages whizzed by until Rekatsu stopped his hand motions at a page with nothing on it but a play button. He pressed on the center of the screen, and instead of an image or video, an audio recording started playing. It was a distant and garbled recording, but Misaki could make out the words, along with the person the voice it belonged to: her mother.

"-child..."

A different voice. "-...have any oth-... children-"

"...I… I had-...son… years ago-"

The recording resumed its original screen, with the blank background and the play button. Misaki's lips tightened as she bore holes into Rekatsu, whose face was highlighted with the glow of the hologram.

"...Why is this relevant?" She interrogated harshly.

"Because... you know him." Rekatsu responded. "You've known him for a month now. Can you guess who he is?"

The girl gulped. It was one of the Straw Hats. Misaki's head was racing, and her heart was running a marathon, too. Who was it?

"Want a hint?"

The blue haired girl sent a glare at the older boy, who jumped slightly, but only smiled wider.

"Your parents were both originally from East Blue, and they frequently visited Shimotsuki Village, for their son at the time. They abandoned him after they felt like someone was constantly watching them to have a completely separate life on Fern Island in the Grand Line to conceive you." The Celestial Dragon said. "Your father's name is Hito, and your mother's name is Yuuka. After a small wedding in Shimotsuki, their shared forename became Roronoa.

"Your brother is Roronoa Zoro, that previous bounty hunter."

It was a suffocating bathroom. Even though it was bigger than the Sunny's library, the overly decorated walls and furnishings made Misaki feel uncomfortable and even more sick to her stomach. The blue dress she wore looked dirty and ragged, although she knew for sure it was in pristine condition. The air around her smelled putrid, reminding her of the years she spent inhaling the fumes of dead bodies and raging fires in the basement of Sentorappu.

The blue haired girl looked at herself in the mirror, splashing some more ice cold water on her face as the stream flowed down from the faucet into the glass sink.

Misaki had walked away after that last truth bomb, not caring whether he chased after her or not. She knew already that he thought she couldn't escape because of the shackles on her wrists, but she didn't even have the energy to do anything at this point. She just wanted to get out of this fancy, stuffy ship so that she could disappear off the face of the earth. A maid followed her down the halls, her footsteps so silent that the girl almost hadn't noticed she was even there. Misaki turned around after walking for a solid ten seconds and asked the maid where the bathroom was, which is how she ended up here.

'Zoro? My brother? He really tried it on this one.' Misaki stared at her reflection, as if it would respond to her with words of encouragement or agreement. Instead, the reflection was just her eyes of devastation and horror, actually worried that Rekatsu was right. Or maybe she was just scared that she was starting to believe his words.

'No. It's too much of a coincidence,' Misaki shook the thoughts of doubt away and splashed another layer of water onto her face. 'I fell into the hands of the Straw Hats. They could be part of the whole plan, for all I know. They could have been contacted after I was found, and they'd been keeping me safe so we landed on Crystalized Island and would be able to meet.'

The thirteen year old looked down at the sink with furrowed eyebrows. 'No... Then, Rekatsu would have known that restraints wouldn't work on me. The Straw Hats would have reported to him that I can't swim. And they wouldn't have fought with the guards back at Crystalized Island if they were working together... Then... what? Is it all pretense? Is it all an act so that I keep trusting them?'

A knock came at the door. "Miss? Is everything alright?" The voice belonged to the maid that followed her. "You've had the water running for ten minutes-"

"I'll be out!" Misaki half-shouted, and covered her mouth with her hand. She didn't mean to be that loud. "I'm... I'm sorry, I'll be out, just wait a little longer..."

The navy blue haired girl started to meld the water particles into her skin and let all of the excess water drip off her hair with her power. She reached for the door handle after turning off the water. The maid was outside, bowing her head with posture that was uncomfortable to even look at.

"Uhm..." Misaki felt uneasy to touch her, but the angle of the maid made it seem like it would be hard to get her attention in any other way.

"Yes, Miss."

"Could you take me to an exit? I'm feeling nauseous, being indoors." What a bullshit lie. The ship was structured in a way so that any rocking that was caused by the ocean outside turned into a raindrop of power. The ship hadn't felt like it was actually on water for the entire time Misaki was here.

"Of course, Miss." Well, it worked, nevertheless. Misaki guessed that everyone on board was already told that it was okay to put their guards down since the captive was powerless in her handcuffs and couldn't even swim. Fantastic.

The maid stood upright once again to start walking towards the opposite way of the dining room and then opened a nearby door for Misaki to exit through. The blue haired girl followed and could the ocean breeze swished past her cheeks.

"It's lovely weather, isn't it, Misaki?" Rekatsu, out of nowhere, placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and stared out at the horizon. Misaki felt herself tense up and accidentally gulped heavily, which the black haired boy definitely noticed.

"What, don't be afraid of me." The boy chuckled, almost like they were just having a casual chat as normal friends. They were not friends. Misaki shoved him away, feeling herself shiver in fear, even though the air was warm.

"Don't touch me." She snapped, backing away. The maid had disappeared, and she and Rekatsu were the only two people out on the deck.

"Were you thinking of ways to escape? Don't you think an easier way out is to just listen to what I say, and then save your planning for later?" Rekatsu shrugged. "I wouldn't try to leave, if I were you. The wife of a Celestial Dragon in Sentorappu lives fabulously. We try to keep human values when it comes to things like love. I know that some of my uncles have more than ten wives, but my father only married one woman. I plan to do the same, but do I even have a choice?" He stepped closer to brush a hand to Misaki's cheek, sending another chill down her spine. "You're more than any girl I've ever met."

"I will never marry you, Rekatsu." The girl hissed. "I hate you more than anyone on this planet! I would rather die than marry you."

"You probably would. But you'd marry me if your friends were on the line, wouldn't you?" Rekatsu rummaged through the pocket of his pants and then pulled out the same device he used last time for the holograms. He whipped it upwards to show to Misaki and pressed a button. On the glowing screen was an image of all the pictures of the low class slaves in the children's section.

"No..." Misaki mumbled, her eyes growing wide at the thought of...

"We will get married. If you don't want these kids to suffer, of course."

Rekatsu looked like he was about to say something else, but Misaki didn't let him. Instead, she sent him to the ground with a sucker punch. He couldn't do anything for a few seconds due to the shock, so during that time frame, the blue haired girl also kicked him in the ribs, making him jump across the wooden deck of the ship. She kicked Rekatsu in the arms, face, and head a few times, and then some more for good measure, and when she knew that he was unconscious, she transformed into water so that the cuff around her neck would slide off and clatter to the ground. Turning back to flesh, Misaki ran inside the ship. Just then, she was pulled by a woman's tight grip. "Miss!"

It was the same maid who led her outside. Misaki was about to shake the maid off and knock her out, too, but she was pulled in closer for the woman to whisper something shocking into her ear.

"Run to the left, the door that you see in front of you is the door to the cargo hold downstairs. Go there to sink the ship and leave in one of the escape boats." The maid pushed her away. "Go!"

Misaki bowed to her in thanks and ran to where the maid told her to go.

anyone think i should give this story up because of all the complicated shit that's going down?

okay to be honest, once Zoro's real family gets revealed, everything about this story becomes shit for me, so I might alter the whole thing about Misaki being Zoro's sister anyway. If anyone wants to know more about how I really planned this whole thing out, ask me in reviews or something because it took me a while to decide on how everything would fit and all- I even did some research about Zoro's name and the origins and shit :)))

anyway review and have a wonderful day, you wonderful child(ren)

UPDATE WHEN I POSTED THIS ON JANUARY 25, 2020: I just wanted to publish this because I had it in drafts and wanted to give anyone who was still reading a chapter to look at that I had finished writing (but I kind of neglected to edit it sorry)... it's been a while, I've been coming on this site sporadically to edit the cringey parts of my chapters and then update them, but this is an actual chapter update haha. I'll probably edit it if I get the motivation to finish my ch.16-20 drafts. Bye for now and keep watching/reading One Piece until we get to the actual ending where Luffy discovers the true treasure is actually friéndship.