The sound of scissors snipping through cloth is a sharp contrast to the faint sounds of yelling, shuffling of feet, and loud repair work seeping through the walls. Pins slide into black fabric before the whole thing is thrown carelessly into a pile by the bed.
"K, you can't hide in here forever."
"I can if I want to."
Putting the scissors down, she folds and pins the remaining fabric the best she can. It'll be narrow and a little short for an obi, but she'll make it work.
Chilla snorts before dropping next to her, legs sprawled out awkwardly against the wooden floor.
The girls' quarters is the only place big and quiet enough for her to work, and the combined wrath of Nami and Robin keeps anyone from entering. She'd been enjoying the peace and quiet until Chilla barged in with the intent of dragging her outside.
"Bit of bad luck to make your whole outfit black, ain't it?" Chilla asks while making a face.
"The only material that the Straw Hats have enough of is flag material. My current obi wouldn't look right against this."
She holds up the fabric and is barely able to keep her own disdain from showing. The material is thin, coarse, and pure black. She'll be cutting up white bed sheets to go underneath it.
It's a long way from her beloved silk, but no matter how disgraceful, the clothes will serve well enough until Fish-Man Island.
(If she thought the old ladies from Shimotsuki would throw a fit over her modified kimono from before, they'd probably have heart attacks from this one. Especially if they knew it was made from pirate flags of all things.)
"Hey, ya do what ya have to on the sea. It be like that sometimes," Chilla says, nodding.
Chilla begins humming sea shanties, and she's not able to completely tune it out as she continues sewing. Despite some apprehension, Chilla makes no more arguments of forcing her out of the room. She slowly relaxes.
Stitching is long, tedious work, and it always makes her wish for a sewing machine. She doesn't even want to think about the hidden pockets she still needs to create. Chilla waits until she's stuck herself on the needle for the sixth time—it starts becoming more frequent as she zones out—before offering slyly,
"Ya know, if ya want a break, we're throwing a party tonight."
"I want to get this finished." It's an immediate rejection, but it sounds weak even to her own ears.
She is getting sick of jabbing herself with a needle, but stopping means she'll have to get that bath she's been avoiding. Going out means she'll have to see Zoro, and to a lesser extent, Luffy. A party means standing by the wall awkwardly with a drink in her hand.
Being with the Straw Hats means not looking them in the eye because resentment rests within her as heavy as a mountain.
"We're all leaving in the morning. I'd like to share a drink with ya considering it'll be the last chance we got," Chilla says airily. "But if ya want to sit here and work the whole time, who am I to bother you? Surely not a friend."
She looks up. It's a mistake.
Green eyes shine in the cabin's light, bringing to mind the sorrow of one who's been abandoned on a cold, lonely night. Colorful lips are downturned as if the weight of grief holds then there. A quiet sniffle echoes through the room.
She rubs her forehead with sigh. No matter her current feelings towards the pirates she sails with, Chilla has done nothing to deserve the brush off.
"Fine," she concedes.
"Oh, we're going to drink so hard ya won't be able to tell which way is up!" Chilla cackles, expression flipping instantly. "Well, what are ya waiting for? Go get cleaned up!"
The party the Straw Hats and the Rolling Pirates throw is big enough that one ship simply can't contain it. A large plank between the anchored ships is the main culprit for why the celebrations spill from the deck of the Thousand Sunny and onto Brook's old ship.
The night air is filled with laughter and singing. The ones who are already drunk dance without care, and Brook plays music to accompany them, switching between a piano on his ship and the violin aboard the Thousand Sunny.
It is surprisingly a lot more fun than she thought it'd be.
Chilla, showing that she is indeed her friend, keeps Zoro away by clapping anytime he comes near; once a Rolling Pirate hears it, they immediately shove a mug into Zoro's hand, sling an arm around his neck, and lead him away.
As for Luffy, she doesn't think he's ignoring her on purpose, but he's too busy eating or bothering someone else to pay her much mind. She's completely fine with that.
True, she can't avoid them forever, but for tonight—if only just for tonight—she can pretend everything is fine.
"Hey, hey! None of that frowning! Drink up, be merry, and make the memories that last even when daylight comes!" Chilla orders before knocking their drinks together pointedly.
"I don't find alcohol poisoning fun," she says but lifts the mug to her lips anyway.
By the time she finishes half her drink, Chilla's already downed enough alcohol to pass out. She hands the rest of her drink to someone passing by who gulps it down immediately. With her companion drooling on a table, there's no longer a reason to stay.
"Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew. Sea wind blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide!"
They've all been singing that same song for the last hour. She'll probably hear it in her dreams tonight. For some reason, she finds herself still tapping along to it anyway.
"Hey, you're not leaving already?"
Someone's caught her trying to slip away to her room. She tilts her head. Usopp, drink in one hand and a fried bird leg in the other, smiles back at her nervously. She hadn't thought her movements to be so noticeable.
"I still have to finish sewing," she says.
Not that she has any intention of working right now, but it's a nice excuse.
"Really, you're still doing that? You didn't look very happy when you bought the rest of our flag cloth from Nami," Usopp comments.
As if embarrassed over his own words, Usopp takes a comically large gulp of his drink before not so subtly shuffling away from her. It's a little insulting, but that's how he normally acts around her.
"That's because it's black," she says.
"You don't like black?" Usopp pauses in his shuffling.
"I used to wear a lot of it. I didn't have a choice." His brothers' hand-me-downs were always black. "Now that I do, I want to wear lots of color."
Pink dresses, purple shirts, yellow shoes—they'd been forced onto her in this new life, and she'd taken them without complaint because that's what it means to survive. She hadn't realized until her father had asked her, "Kuina, what do you want to wear?" that she had a choice to begin with.
She'd gotten so used to color being part of her wardrobe by that point that picking something black hadn't even crossed her mind.
"And I want to wear patterns and flowers and things like that. I didn't use to have the courage to before. I want to show off and be beautiful."
He'd been unable to buy his own clothes until the end with the reason only partly being due to money.
(What if he buys something and it looks awful on him? What if he accidentally wears something girly? What if he buys something and it looks nice on him?)
"Sorry," she says upon realizing the alcohol has loosened her tongue, "I'm grateful that you guys had enough material to make another kimono. And it's very hardy and weatherproof, so."
"No apologies necessary! The great me was once a grand sew master of a world renowned clothing line! I completely understand your feelings!" Usopp laughs heartily.
She sincerely doubts that. Still—
"I'm going to turn in for the night, but I'd like to hear about the kind of clothes you designed," she says softly.
("So Kuina's gone, and Zoro's having his dumb contest over there. Alright, gather in people!" Nami orders.
The Rolling Pirates have pulled Luffy into a conga dance that moves from Brook's ship to the Thousand Sunny. Brook plays the music for it all even as he dances in the line himself. The rest of the Straw Hats surround an empty table that Nami seizes.
"What's up, sis?" Franky asks before loudly sucking cola through a crazy straw.
"I've got some news to pass on," Nami says, folding her hands in front of her face. "Our passenger told me something very interesting."
"What, did that person say something about being a fork now?" Sanji mutters.
"Sanji!" Chopper scolds before turning to Nami with a questioning look. "Did she?"
"She is an unpredictable one," Robin smiles.
Nami scowls at them before motioning everyone to lean in. They all do so, bending at the waist dramatically like the good audience they are.
"Get this! Zoro has Kuina under contract," Nami pauses dramatically, "as his personal assassin."
They all blink at her. The silence lasts for exactly one second.
"WHAT?"
The music in the background swallows up their combined screaming, but only because Robin's hands pop out of everyone's shoulders to shut them up. Nami nods at Robin to cancel her technique once everyone puts their hands up in surrender.
"No way! No way, no way!" Usopp shrieks upon being released.
"Got to agree with Usopp," Sanji says, rubbing his mouth. "Have you met that moss head? He'd say something about it tarnishing his dream or something."
"I know! That's why I have a theory!" Nami says, pumping a fist.
Despite their vocal reluctance to believe such a thing, every single one of them leans in with wide eyes. Franky continues sucking on his crazy straw, not realizing that it no longer resides in the bottle of cola.
"So, apparently the contract happened when they were children, right? And she said she did it to protect him, but she can't get him to release her from her contract," Nami says lowly.
"But Zoro hasn't ordered her to do anything!" Chopper exclaims, slamming his hooves together.
"She called herself his sword," Nami points out.
"Sing a song, and play along for all the oceans wide. After all is said and done, you'll end up a skeleton!"
The lines of Binks' Sake drift in and out as they ponder this new development. It's true that assassins have a tendency to call themselves the weapon of their masters, but Kuina had seemed so independent. Then again…
"She is scary like an assassin, and she used to be forced to wear all black clothes," Usopp says with consideration.
"Right?" Nami nods. "What if Zoro is trying to keep her from being someone else's assassin?"
"You mean using the contract to keep a leash on her? Like, if he tore it up maybe she'd be working with the Marines," Franky says, crazy straw finally falling to the ground.
They all picture Kuina kneeling to Smoker and telling him, "It is done," in that flat voice of hers. It's surprisingly easy considering they have Tashigi as a reference.
"Bwah! NO WAY!" Usopp shouts, crossing his arms in an "X" shaped denial.
"Oh, crap! Zoro's made her so mad she won't talk to him!" Chopper screams while clutching his hat.
"What if she decides to end her contract with a beheading?" Robin muses.
"A BEHEADING?"
"Think she'll put us on plaques before she sends them to the Marines, or do you think she'll let the blood drip everywhere?" Sanji asks only half-joking.
"Clearly, there is only one way to keep our heads," Robin says, hiding a silent laugh behind her hand. "We must make it so she doesn't want to leave Zoro's side."
"How are we going to do that? Kuina's not exactly sociable, and Zoro's a moron," Nami says scathingly.
Roronoa Zoro is many things, but charismatic is not one of them. No doubt he'll say the wrong thing at the worst possible moment, making things spiral out of control. Getting Kuina to reconcile with him will be next to impossible.
"How about we make it so she doesn't want to kill us?" Franky suggests. "Maybe we can have her sign a contract with one of us!"
"You know of a way to make that guy happy? Because I'm drawing a blank," Sanji counters.
Kuina's ability to talk about herself rivals a brick. For all that she'd swoop in with her outrageously pink katana to save the day, none of them has a clue as to what she likes outside of Zoro and swords.
"I've got an idea," Usopp suddenly says, eyes lighting up.)
...
"Hey, take care of yourself, ya monster killer," Chilla says before smothering her in a hug.
She's barely able to breathe, and she resists the urge to throw the woman overboard. She pats back frantically when it feels like Chilla won't ever let go.
"Look at me getting so emotional!" Chilla finally releases her with a laugh. "But really, we owe ya guys everything. I never thought I'd get to see the sun again. Thought I'd waste the rest of my life in that forest, or end it suddenly by getting snacked on by a zombie."
One night in Thriller Bark was enough to scar for a lifetime. She can't imagine being parted from her soul for years like Chilla. She probably would have charged out into the sun from despair.
"Gecko Moria can't hurt you ever again," she says firmly.
He'll have to get out of hell first.
"Don't know if we'll ever see ya again, but we're buddies now. So if ya want to jump ship with me, I'll vouch for ya." Chilla's expression is completely serious.
Leave right now with the Rolling Pirates? It's a tempting offer, one she almost accepts. How easy it would be to grab her stuff and sail off with them. There'd be no need for resentment to continue weighing her down.
A swordsman must stand their ground and face their enemies head on.
"Thank you, but I have someone I need to meet at Fish-Man Island," she says.
"Alrighty then. Just don't forget. Painful things happened, and painful things await ya still. Killing a Warlord and angering another ain't no joke," Chilla tells her.
"Even still, 'wave goodbye, but don't you cry, our memories remain. Our days are but a passing dream, everlasting though they seem,' " Chilla sings before laughing. "We got to make the most of our moments of happiness. Maybe we'll meet again beneath the moon!"
"Yo hohoho, yo hohoho," she says more than sings. "That's all I know. You'll have to teach me the rest of the song next time."
"That's a promise then, K!"
The Rolling Pirates disappear on Brook's old ship—with Brook staying with the Straw Hats for good as part of their crew—and she goes back to sewing up her temporary kimono.
But even she gets hungry eventually.
Her efforts to avoid Zoro mean timing her movements so he'll be up in the crow's nest. She almost manages to sneak into the kitchen without being caught.
It's when she's crunching into an apple that she gets ambushed by Nami, who places a hand on her arm to ensure she can't escape.
"You know, when you asked me to deliver a suit to a zombie, I thought you were completely insane," Nami tells her brightly.
"It saved us in the end," she says defensively.
She really hadn't known if Kaito would help or not, but she knew as long as her shadow remained in there somewhere, there'd be no peace for Moria.
"Well, all that's done with. So how about coming to the library real quick?" Nami says, pulling her towards the ladder. It's not a request.
The Thousand Sunny's library still takes her breath away. The urge to run her fingers over the spine of each book means she rarely allows herself to set foot in here. The temptation to touch the Straw Hats' personal belongings is simply too great.
Robin looks up from a notebook and papers splayed out over the table. She pauses in her scribbling long enough to give a polite smile.
"How about hanging out here for a little while? You and Robin have a lot of things in common. I'm sure you'll feel better once you talk to each other," Nami says as if it's nothing more than a gentle suggestion.
"In common?" She echoes.
"Well, you're both quiet, and you're both assass—"
"We both like books," Robin interjects smoothly.
Nami laughs shakily before telling them to have fun and running away. Robin motions for her to have a seat when she continues staring at the ladder with narrow eyes.
There is something suspicious going on, but she has no clue what it could be. She sits down, attempting to avoid looking like she's trying to read Robin's writings.
"It's been a long time since I've read anything," she admits somewhat awkwardly.
"Perhaps I can recommend a few to you? What books have you read?" Robin asks without looking up from her notebook.
Robin is frighteningly serene and comforting in a way. Little by little, words spill out of her, and she talks more than she means to.
She finds herself mentioning the manuals and dry textbooks she used to read. She speaks of the books she wished she read as a child. She couldn't have of course—knowledge is power, and she needed power—but now that she has the chance to read leisurely, she doesn't actually know what she likes.
Eventually, their conversation leads to what Robin is putting so much effort into writing.
"It's a new book I'm working on. It's about a swordsman who falls in love with his childhood friend who turns out to have been assigned as his personal assassin," Robin tells her.
"I'm sure it'll be great?" It comes out more as a question than a statement.
She doesn't do romance, but at least this one sounds interesting.
"I haven't figured out if it will be comedic or tragic," Robin says with a secret smile, "but it should be entertaining either way."
Nami eventually comes back to drag her down to the kitchen. Sanji has a meal waiting for her, and when she's done eating, she's whisked away to the infirmary where Chopper runs every test he can think of on her.
When the little reindeer can find no other thing to prod her with, she's forced to the lowest deck where Franky towers over her with a sketchpad.
"Not to worry sis-bro, we're going to get you some new wings and they're going to be super!"
"I don't want—"
Her attempts to reject him are waylaid by the fact that Franky pays her no mind. She's soon twirling around and covered in measuring tape. He pauses every now and then to talk about possible designs.
"Oh, how about rockets!"
"Absolutely not."
When Nami comes for her once more, she's pulled back to the library. Usopp's in the middle of straightening something on the table when she comes up the ladder.
"I'm sure it's a shock to hear, but you've been trapped in a distraction this whole day!" Usopp crows, spinning around with a finger pointed to the ceiling.
She doesn't bother telling him that it was obvious. She's too busy studying the white splotches dotting his skin. It looks like paint; there are even a few spots of it in his hair.
"I was the one who planned this out. The mastermind if you will—"
"Would you hurry up?" Nami says through gritted teeth. "I've had to deal with Luffy and Zoro all day for this. The only reason I haven't murdered them is because Brook stepped in to help."
Usopp shuts his mouth immediately and takes a big step to the side. He gestures to the table grandly.
"You said you liked color, so I used my amazing skills to deliver a masterpiece!" Usopp says, words at odds with his slightly shaking knees.
She approaches the table with a strange sense of apprehension. Lying there is her half-finished kimino. The sleeves are still attached by pins, but it's not as she had it. They've been taken apart and pinned back into place.
That's not the important part.
Instead of pure black, she's greeted by what is, indeed, a masterpiece.
White birds fly among white branches that end with pale pink cherry blossoms. A skillful hand means even the tiniest flower looks detailed. Her eyes move to the obi stretched out next to the kimono. White flowers border the edges while pink ones fill the middle, and the black of the fabric runs through the flowers artistically.
It's very beautiful.
She looks up at Usopp who's rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.
"Thank you." She's unable to say anything else.