DISCLAIMER: KAOMOJIS SOMETIMES ARE NOT COMPLETE DUE TO FORMATTING ON THIS SITE. YOU CAN FIND THE CORRECT KAOMOJIS ON AO3 (where I post on as well). my profile has the link.
gg, abandoning the story for almost a month. Happy Lunar New Year. I've been quite busy and I was terribly sick too. Still having remainders of a cough from a fever that was so bad I almost couldn't cross the border back to my country haha (because of the coronavirus there are temperature takings and I happened to just stress myself out into a fever)
Every time I cough people look at me and I'm so embarrassed
After much fussing and scolding from the adults who had gathered at Makino's house, Yue Xin still got her share of dinner. Dogra and Magra had returned to the bandit house after checking that she wasn't in any danger anymore, and the doctor determined that it was a "miracle" that the poison was all gone from her body.
When confronted by Makino and the boys about where and why she had up and disappeared, the little girl just went "Vermillion was hungry~" and wouldn't say anything more.
It was human calling the sword black, but Vermillion couldn't shake the accusal off because, well, it was black anyways.
Vermillion to Whitey: (ノД`)
Whitey: (っ´ω`)ノ(ノД`)
The change of excuses baffled Luffy for a while, but dinner was served so he got distracted and forgot about it.
Soon the three boys were chased off after dinner, and Yue Xin was told sternly to stay in the bedroom and rest. Makino threatened to sit by the bed and watch her till she fell asleep but the little girl managed to convince the bar owner that she wouldn't be able to catch a wink with a pair of eyes staring right at her.
So there she was, staring at the ceiling with her sword and shield— uh, her sword and stone— tucked in beside her, doing her daily reflection that had kind of been neglected for almost a week.
And she continued staring at the ceiling until Makino called her out for breakfast.
Ace was on a solo mission.
A rare time, to not have two other figures flanking him at all times, one chattering about what new insect he had found in the jungle.
He searched his memory, following down the familiar path to the house.
"Hey, hey, have you heard, the florist who always wore a white dress..."
"The one whose husband cheated on her and died later?"
"Yeah, yeah, that one. Her neighbour realised he hadn't seen her for a while so he went to check up on her this morning..."
"Oh dear, that's terrible...poor woman..."
Gossip was abound in the marketplace, women and shopkeepers exchanging information with hushed whispers. Ace's expression darkened. He picked up his speed.
"Makino-san, I'm really fine!" The girl jumped around, showing just how fine she felt, "Look! I'm all healthy now!"
The bar owner pursed her lips, "Well..."
"It's okay. I'm just going to find them to play. I'm not going to run off again." Yue Xin pleaded, "Please?~"
"Just...Just be back by dinner. And then we need to talk." Makino sighed, giving in to those puppy eyes that Yue Xin had mastered.
"Okay, we'll talk when we get back!"
Yue Xin had no intention of answering any of Makino's questions though.
She bounded out of the door before Makino could regret it, dashing off with Qi towards the Mt. Colubo. Time was running out. She had dawdled here far longer than she intended, and every second was a second further away from getting her parents' bodies back.
Intact or not, she would find every last piece of them and bury them together.
The dead do not rest until they are buried.
Sabo walked through the bandit house, yet not a trace of Ace could be found. He had been looking for him all morning— with Luffy initally, but the rubber boy shot off to somewhere else after a while, saying that Ace would be back soon anyways.
The youngest of the three clearly hadn't had much on his mind, but Sabo had an inkling of where Ace had gone to.
"Tch," Sabo thumped his pipe against the floor in frustration.
He wished sometimes Ace would include him in whatever he was thinking about. Even though they had become sworn brothers, Ace still hadn't shed his lone wolf act.
The scrambling of the bandits brought Sabo back to reality. He watched in confusion as the usually lethargic men picked themselves up with unnatural speed, rushing to the door to greet someone. "Angel! The angel is back!"
"Hello! Please call me Tsuki!"
"Angel!"
"Angel!" Another bandit echoed.
"No, no. It's Tsuki. I'm not an angel." The little girl, now in a new shirt and pants that Makino had impulsively bought, waved at the bandits, blinding them with her cherubic smile of sugar and spice and everything nice.
"Tch." This time, the click of the tongue was reserved for 'Tsuki' standing right at the entrance. Speak of the devil. Or was it thought of the devil? Sabo wondered if the girl knew where Ace had gone to.
Yue Xin tiptoed to look past the crowding bandits, "Oh, Sabo-kun! Hello! Are you alone? Where is Ace-chan and Luffy?"
"A-Ace-chan?" Sabo gasped, "He's going to kill you if he hears that."
"Flowers? Oh, yes, thank you...excuse me..." Yue Xin graciously accepted the bunch of wildflowers a bandit offered up, weaving through her adoring fans like a celebrity to reach Sabo, "Ace-chan wouldn't dare."
Something twinkled mischievously in the girl's eyes.
Sabo felt a headache coming on.
"I was just looking for you. Great timing."
"Me?" Sabo pointed at himself quizzically, "Why me?"
Yue Xin pushed the wildflowers into Sabo's chest, forcing him to take it. She was certain she had gotten rid of the fear she experienced, but her liking for flowers had dropped to an unsalvageable degree ever since her encounter with Ms Chicatory. She never particularly liked them even before that. They were pretty, but pretty useless too. Yue Xin liked things that were useful.
Like the three brothers.
The Churian girl grinned, and the bandits behind her swooned. "Let's go, Luffy is already waiting for us."
"Wait what— You mean..." Sabo gaped at the smiling girl, "...Ah! How could I not have noticed!" He smacked the flowers in his face for his moment of stupidity. The obvious, lying fish lips that the rubber boy always made with eyes that would slant to one side as he told Sabo was getting bored and wanted to go somewhere else. The obvious, out of character decision to go somewhere else without Sabo or Ace, saying he was bored of searching for Ace? Especially when said Ace is off to god knows where?
It was so not-Luffy that it would take an idiot to not realise something was up.
And Sabo was the idiot that was too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice that clearly something was up.
The Idiot pointed the flowers back at Yue Xin's, "W-When did you..."
"Last night during dinner at Makino's. I told him to keep it a secret." Her grin grew wider, "He even practiced how to in front of me, and he's really bad at it. I can't believe you didn't notice." Her lips tightly pressed together to stop the peals of laughter that would erupt at Sabo's exasperated expression.
Sabo could feel that headache pounding away merrily now.
"You should call me Tsuki too. Just forget about pronouncing the other name. Actually, just forget about that other name," Tsuki picked up a flower that had fallen to the floor in Sabo's shock, "C'mon, let's go." She stuffed the flower back to him.
She must have been struck her head on something that night for her to reveal her name to the three dumb brothers.
"Yuo Sin? You Jin?"
The little girl looked straight into his eyes and said, "Tsuki is my real name. I remembered the wrong name in my dream."
There was no fish lips, no side-eyeing nor any suspicious waver in her voice. But—
"You're lying." Sabo's eyes narrowed.
Tsuki shrugged, "I'm just telling you, it's up to you to believe it or not."
She turned, walking to the door.
"Wait! If Luffy's there I'm going to!"
Success.
She picked up her speed.
"You— !" The blond boy called, catching the devilish grin as she glanced back. "Ugh."
Tsuki giggled, running lightly to make sure the distance between her and the boy behind was neither too far nor too close. Just enough to make it seem like he could catch her and beat her up. But of course, she was just out of reach.
It was always fun to tease the three. Even if it was just a little, it made her heavy heart lighten.
Now she just had to get Ace to complete her punching bag, but Luffy said that they had been searching for him all morning. She had no idea where the hot-headed boy went either.
Ah well, she thought, two is enough.
If she had invited them 'out to play', Sabo and Ace definitely wouldn't agree. So she had to use Luffy as bait, convinced Luffy that they were going on an adventure to "learn about the world", which surely would be useful in his path to becoming the Pirate King, and then hook the two reluctant fishes who definitely wouldn't leave their blockhead of a little brother alone together with a suspicious girl.
One fish escaped, but he would surely appear soon.
"Hey!" Sabo called from behind, "Where are we going?"
Their stamina was something else. Not even a pant after running for so long. Tsuki wasn't using Qi, or else Sabo would be left in the dust, but she wasn't running slow either. She glanced back to the boy who was still holding the wildflowers, lips curling up in amusement. She thought he would have thrown it away sometime along the way.
"You can do whatever you want with the flowers, you know? I gave it to you so it's yours now."
Sabo looked down at the bunch of flowers which had lost most of their petals in the run, "Oh...no, wait! Don't change the topic! Where are we going? Where is Luffy waiting for us? Is Ace..." He swallowed the rest of the sentence. Yue Lin(?) had asked him earlier where was Ace, so she didn't know where he was either.
"You'll know when we get there!" Came the reply from up ahead.
Sabo scowled at the figure in front of him.
Luffy squatted in the corner, drawing circles with Vermillion and Whitey.
Whitey always drew perfect circles, complete with some beautiful runes and patterns, while Luffy tried to copy with his wobbly circles. Vermillion unexpectedly could draw some beautiful circles as well, though not as complex as Whitey's.
The two sentient, clearly powerful and ancient weapons had been left on babysitting duty.
Vermillion swore once again that it would find a new master to follow instead.
"Luffy!"
The rubber boy shot up, abandoning the stick he had been drawing with immediately. "Sabo! It's you!"
"Sorry, I couldn't find Ace though," Tsuki ruffled the shorter boy's hair. "But I think he'll come later."
Luffy nodded. Tsuki had explained to him that she would bring a surprise if he waited here for her. The surprise ended up being Sabo. It suited Luffy just fine, he liked going on adventures with his brothers.
"So, why did you bring us here?" Sabo looked around the street located in the Town Center, "There's nothing here."
Tsuki: "Exactly. I don't know where to go."
"What?"
"Just kidding," she stuck her tongue out at Sabo, "I'm not familiar with this place, so I wanted you guys to bring me around. Do you guys know where to find merchants that have travelled very far places?"
Sabo and Luffy: "Merchants?"
Tsuki nodded, "Not only them, but any travellers. Sailors— uh, not Marines, but those from trade businesses or anything...Actually, pirates are fine too."
"Why are you looking for them?" Sabo glanced at the two floating objects behind Yuo Sin(?). They always appeared and disappeared without so much as a warning. Was this related to her trying to learn about her missing memory? Maybe even about this two weapons? Honestly, the blond boy couldn't trust whatever she said.
It took one look at Sabo's dubious expression to know that she couldn't just pass over this matter with some vague excuse. Tsuki sighed, and beckoned them to come closer, "Whatever I'm going to tell you now, is a very, very important secret okay? You can't tell anyone else about it."
Luffy bounded closer immediately, stretching his ears with his hands and whispering, "I promise I won't tell!"
Sabo inched closer, still holding that skeptical look.
Tsuki whispered into their ears: "To tell you the truth, after I woke up from...that incident, I regained all my memories."
"What! Really?!" Luffy shouted.
"Luffy! Shhh!" Tsuki whisper-yelled, flicking the rubber boy on the forehead. A small 'ow' from Luffy made Sabo glare at her instead. "Sorry," the girl quickly apologised. Tch. Overprotective. He can flick him but I can't?
"So? Who are you?" Sabo hurried her to continue her story.
"I'm a witch."
"A WITCH?!"
"Luffy!"
"Sorry!" Luffy covered his mouth with his hands, "I wof mat a sunf norf..."
"Anyways, I'm a witch from a long line of witches. My family is in the Grand Line, and we are the strongest family of witches in our country. I happen to be the first daughter of our Chief, my mother, so I'm next in line of succession," Tsuki whispered conspiratorially, "and I have relatives that want to take over in becoming the Chief, so they are trying to kill me off so they can be next in line."
She even managed to bring out indignant fury in her voice as she spoke about 'her relatives', "I know they are doing something to my Mother as well. I wanted to find out what it was— but then I fell into a trap they set, and they almost killed me. My...uncle managed to save me and teleported me here." Tsuki bit her lip, forcing her abused tear glands to squeeze out a few watery drops, enough to make her eyes teary.
"I have to get back," Tsuki's voice cracked unexpectedly here, surprising even herself, "I have to get back and save my Mother. But I want to learn some information about what's happening over there first."
Sabo watched the sniffling girl who was trying to hold back her tears. It seemed like the truth...
Luffy awkwardly tried to comfort her, though he didn't know how. His brothers always punched him for crying, but even he knew it didn't seem right in this situation.
"Then...what is your real name?" Sabo told himself not to waver, and pressed on, "And how did you get teleported here? You're from the Grand Line. This is East Blue. It's impossible."
"I have two names, so I did lie to you a bit back there," Tsuki looked up sheepishly at the taller blond boy, "But you can't use my other name, because it holds power."
"Power?" Sabo frowned.
"It's...It can only be used when holding ceremonies." Tsuki was taking inspiration from a legend back in the Empire, where there was once a sect of elusive witches. Their art had gone extinct hundreds of years ago. She learnt this from her mother during a bedtime story. "Th— We perform ceremonies to bless the lands, and other specific requests that people come to us for help. Our name will evoke the magic, and can only be used during ceremonies. It's...uh...sacred. My other name should only be known by me and my close family."
She looked pointedly at Sabo and Luffy, "So you guys shouldn't speak of my other name. Call me 'Tsuki' instead. And if possible, please forget about my other name."
Sabo slowly nodded.
Tsuki thought about how she would need to remember her elaborately crafted lie well enough to repeat it to Makino.
"And the teleportation?"
It took all of Tsuki's effort to not roll her eyes at Sabo. Was her story still not convincing enough? This type of 'kill the Head and usurp his position' story could be seen anywhere in any of the Empire's powerful family of martial artists, so it wasn't a totally new concept. Based in reality? Check. Plausible? Check. Just enough details, but not too much? Check.
Some concrete 'evidence' was sure to put the smart little twat and his diddly hat in place.
The girl waved a hand at Vermillion and Whitey—
and realised with a jolt that Vermillion could tear through all her lies if she 'talked' to Luffy. It had been a miracle that the sword hadn't been pinging "SHE'S LYING" signals to the rubber boy.
Damn it. She had been quite careless recently.
Tsuki mercilessly opened the black Pocket and stuffed Vermillion in.
"Wormmy disappeared!" Luffy gaped at the space where Vermillion had been, "Did you teleport Wormmy?"
The girl checked their surroundings, ensuring that no one but the two boys had seen the sword disappear. It wasn't what she was going to show the two, but she could work with whatever she had right now.
"Uh, yeah! It's a small imitation of the real teleportation magic!" She side-eyed the white stone, as she continued spinning her web of lies.
Could Whitey speak to Luffy as well?
Whitey, sensing its master's intention, sent a chain of kaomojis over.
Whitey: Σ(°ロ°)
ヾ(=`ω´=)ノ" yes
└( ̄- ̄└)) but
┬┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬┴ he can only hear me if I speak directly to him
(Disclaimer: Only subscribers of this work can view the magical words that doth stone speaks)
Tsuki (an unfortunate non-subscriber) on the inside: I don't get it, you stupid stone.
Meanwhile Tsuki multitasked, explaining her 'witchcraft' to the two brothers: "I can teleport things to a small space I own!" Saying this, she demonstrated it again with Whitey, pulling him in and out of the Pocket with her Qi. She was extra careful while opening the Pocket dimension with her Qi, taking care not to let the sword squeeze out of the Pocket. When a martial artist uses a Pocket that is registered under their Qi, only their Qi signature will be recognised, and only their Qi signature can open a gateway to the Pocket's inner dimension. Pockets could also be unowned, which meant that it could be opened by anyone as long as they have Qi. Objects didn't usually squeeze out of Pockets...unless they were sentient and hated being cooped up all the time. Stuffing things inside didn't include any real action of stuffing either. Tsuki only had to touch the object she wanted to send, and pat the Pocket to open the dimensional gateway with her Qi signature. Retrieving things from the Pocket was much easier in comparison; she could make the object appear anywhere in a small radius around her.
Of course, there was a method of opening the Pocket without touching it, but
Sabo and Luffy stared at her wide-eyed. They couldn't see the Pockets that were in— well, the pockets of her pants, but they could see the stone blinking in and out of existence. Like magic. No wonder the sword and stone was not always by her side as anyone would have expected.
"Y-You're really a witch?" Sabo stuttered.
Tsuki let her eyes roll so far back that they could only see the whites of her eye, "You want to see something else?"
Sabo was still wide-eyed in disbelief, "Yeah...show us."
"Come here, Whitey. Show them a simple spell." She poked Whitey, sending a desperate message to the mystical stone.
Tsuki: Just draw some mystical circle that can make flowers bloom or something. I don't know how to draw one.
Whitey: (⌐■_■)
Under the expectant gazes of the three children, Whitey floated its way to a couple of small weeds springing out from between the smooth cut stones of the pavement. Thankfully, the street had little people and whatever Whitey was doing could be blocked by the figures of the three children.
Whitey glowed, and a circle of light complete with mystical runes and patterns was projected onto the tough weeds.
Tsuki tried to memorise the pattern— it might be useful in the future.
The weeds shivered, then started to grow, as if they were pulled by an invisible hand, growing longer and larger. Whitey retracted the mystic circle before their roots started to crack through the stones. The weeds now came up to Luffy's neck. The girl was a little disappointed that no flowers bloomed.
"See? This is called growing magic. We can make our herbs and plants grow with this spell," Tsuki plucked the weeds out, throwing it into the corner. Leaving the tall weed in the middle of the street was too conspicuous.
Sabo and Luffy's eyes followed the weed. "Wow," both exclaimed in tandem. The two personally went over to check that the weed didn't dissolve into magical light particles under their touch, "It's real!"
"Do you believe me now?" Tsuki crossed her arms, doing her best to look offended.
"Yeah, I believe you now."
"So do you want to help me or not? I can give you something in exchange. What do you guys want?"
Without hesitation, Sabo requested: "Can you make gold appear? We want treasures. A lot of treasures."
Damn it.
"Uh, it's illegal to make gold—"
"So you can do it?!" They interrupted, eyes twinkled with expectation.
"No! I can't!"
All the excitement leached out of their bodies. "Oh."
Tsuki had nothing on her, except some Churian currency and Qi Crystals. However, Goa Kingdom didn't accept any of these.
"Now that I think about it I don't have much to give you in exchange." Tsuki checked her black Pocket, decidedly avoiding the blue one. It might have Beli but she wasn't prepared to open it yet. The green pouch only contained a few more scrolls on other spells other than the Teleportation Door. "Maybe I can go and find some treasures for you?"
"We usually search for treasures in the Grey Terminal— "
"Hohoho, I must have accidentally mixed up my words," Tsuki suddenly flashed a bright smile, cutting off Sabo before he could continue, "I meant, maybe I could steal some treasures for you?"
Whitey: (눈_눈)
Tsuki: ( ̄▽ ̄)︻┳═一
Whitey: C= C= C= C= C=┌(;・ω・)┘
Sabo looked at her like she was an angel who had descended from heaven right before his eyes. "Right! You're a witch! Stealing should be easy for you!"
"Haha. Yes."
Tsuki had no idea how things turned out this way.
They were in High Town, where all the nobles of Goa Kingdom reside.
And she was sneaking through the hallway of a noble's mansion, presence-repressing spell activated, snatching up whatever vases or paintings she thought looked valuable and poofing them out of their places and into her Pocket.
She was committing sins. The King of Hell would banish her to Stone Mill Hell, where her body would get grinded— hold up, didn't she commit the sin of lying as well? She was going to suffer two Hells at least.
Tsuki groaned inwardly. Why did she agree to this again? Maybe she should have just endured going back to the Grey Terminal.
The little girl swiftly swiped a golden vase sitting on a marble stand into her Pocket. She had stolen quite a few items by now, and she was feeling rather guilty. Tsuki decided not to venture any further than the two hallways she had gone through like a vacuum cleaner, and jumped out the nearest open window. She landed without a sound, climbing over the towering wall surrounding the estate that did nothing to keep her out (or in), avoiding the guards with ease.
The fleet-footed girl made it to the tree where Luffy and Sabo were waiting within seconds, jumping up to the empty spot beside Sabo. They were both watching the mansion intently, waiting for Tsuki to pop her head out and announce a mission success.
"Boo," she whispered into the blond boy's ear.
"AHH— "
"AAAA— "
Sabo and Luffy screamed at the same time, but Tsuki had expected it, and slapped a hand over their mouths immediately until their screams died down. Startled, the two brothers had scrambled back from the terrifying witch, and almost losing their balance on the branch.
"W-What the hell! You just appeared out of nowhere!" Sabo looked to the mansion, then back at the girl who was grinning wickedly at their flabbergasted faces. "I didn't see you come out of the mansion!"
Tsuki just continued her wicked grinning.
"I stol— found some things in their hallways. I didn't take everything they had on display." Tsuki laid out her palm, retrieving a small, fancy carving of white opal and garnet koi fishes riding aquamarine waves. "There are larger things like paintings and vases, but it's difficult to take them out now...Luffy? Luffy stop it, you're glowing too brightly..."
hello i am a shining horizontal line ・゚:*(✧ω✧)*: ・゚
On a nondescript island not drawn on the official maps of the World Government, lies a nondescript research facility.
"Careful, the new samples are the best we have gotten so far..."
"Shush! I know what I'm doing!" A tiny mechanical hand extended out from the frame of the high-tech glasses, pushing the glasses up for the frazzled scientist as he threw his colleague an annoyed glare.
"But Dr— "
"You're disturbing my progress. Get out and don't come in until I call for you," The scientist turned his back on his colleague, giddily watching the neon green liquid working its magic on the two samples in the tanks, "There's something different about them. I need to take my time and dig out their secrets..."
The colleague sighed and shook his head before leaving the room. There was no stopping him once he dived into 'research mode'.
Why does Yue Xin call Vermillion 'she'?
Because she thinks of the sword as a female. That's it. No other reason. Vermillion doesn't give two shits about what people call them.
P.S. Mrs Yue thought of Vermillion as a female as well, that's why Yue Xin thinks Vermillion is female.
P.P.S. 'Vermillion' is a name given to the sword by Mrs Yue.
