Ch 3: bad tidings
Pale eyelids flutter open. Dilated pupils struggle to adjust to the dimness of the room. The only source of light comes from something beside her, casting an eerie blue shadow over the sheets covering her legs.
The young woman is not sure what's woken her up, only that she's sweaty and cold and her head feels like it's being sawed in half. The room seems to rock back and forth and she closes her eyes for a short moment, nauseous.
A flash of bright light appears red beneath her eyelids and she opens them again, bleary-eyed. Not a second later, a monstrous rumble fills her ears and seems to shake the foundations of whatever surface she's lying on.
Thunder, she recognizes the sound as. There's a storm.
She blinks slowly, suddenly feeling compelled to move.
She attempts to sit up, but a sharp pain to her right arm arrests her movements. She turns her head, ignoring how her pulse pounds relentlessly against her temple, and sees what looks to be a plastic tube attached to her forearm. She follows the line to the machine giving off the faded blue light. A bag containing a clear liquid hangs on a pole beside it.
It's an IV line, her fuzzy mind conjures up.
She goes to pull it out only to find her left arm attached to three more tubes.
What… is all this? she thinks, but groans when the hammering to her head grows stronger. She decides not to think anymore.
It takes her a few minutes to pull out all the tubes and tapes attached to her. She lifts a freed arm to her temple only to find a round sticker attached directly on the pulsing vein. She traces it to a cord, then to a bundle of wires behind her head. She wraps her fingers around the bundle and pulls it backwards.
The heavy, fuzzy feeling that lingers around her head decreases and her lips turn upwards into a small smile.
With every movement bringing on a bout of dizziness, she slowly lifts the covers and swings her legs over the bed. Her toes touch cold wood.
She reaches for the metal IV pole beside her and brings herself to a stand, slumping heavily against it. It rolls away against her weight and she stumbles, a hand reaching out to steady herself on a wall.
Long, curly hair curtains her pale, sweaty face as she pants, eyes tightly shut, waiting for the room to stop spinning. Swallowing nothing, she gingerly moves forward once more, right palm on the wall to keep her steady, metal pole gripped in her left to keep her moving.
She gropes for the doorknob and opens the door just as another flash of lightning hails from the dark sky above.
She is welcomed by a pelting torrent of rain, her small form drenched in seconds. The floor beneath her rocks dangerously once more and she finds herself lurched forward onto a curved wooden post. Her walking aid clatters to the floor and slides away from her reach.
She can't quite put together where she is, her mind still occupied by the overwhelming pain in her head.
A clamor of panicked voices can be heard above the downpour, drifting in and out of her hearing range.
"-everything down!"
"Furl the sails… heading… cyclone!"
"Where…the ropes?!"
"Brace yourselves!"
She hears the last command clearly, the male voice just a few meters away from her, and turns her head just in time to see a mountain of a wave towering over the vessel before crashing onto its deck.
A wave of saltwater rips the scream from her throat, swallowing her under its weight before sweeping her away. There is a surreal moment of panic when her head is underwater and all she can hear is the muffled sound of her own racing heartbeat.
Then she's tumbling into metallic rails and grasps at one of them blindly, desperately, but it slips out of her wet grip and she's in the air, falling, falling-
And lands abruptly onto something hard and sturdy.
The air rushes out of her chest as black spots take over her vision. She struggles to remain conscious, the heavy rain pelting over her squinted eyes, streaming over her face like teardrops, but excruciating pain travels now across her whole body.
She takes a deep shuddering breath, closes her eyes, and goes limp.
Sabo shares a worried look with Koala as their skiff bumps onto the sandy shores of a small inconspicuous island. Ahead of them, standing a little ways from the forest's edge, is the familiar figure of their long-time Fishman friend.
Even as they dock quickly behind a shallow crag of rocks, the grim look on his face doesn't change. His stance is rigid, his arms behind his back as they approach him slowly.
On their way to meet with their Strawhat friends, Sabo and Koala had received an impromptu message from Jimbei to meet at a location different from their previous rendez-vous point. Although that meant several more days of sailing, Sabo had been patient, the prospect of reuniting with his brother forcing out any fleeting feelings of disappointment. Luffy's vivre card was still intact, so he hadn't been too worried.
Koala was initially confused about why Jimbei specifically asked to leave Betty and the other former Revolutionaries behind, but figured the fishman had a good reason for only requesting them to come. She reminded herself that the Strawhats weren't exempt from the unexpected events that the New World brought - anything could happen, so no set plans were ever really concrete.
Nothing could have prepared them for the words Jimbei delivered as they stood across from him.
A cold breeze blows in from the sea, shifting the shells at their feet. The small wrapped gift that Koala brought along drops to the sand with a muffled thump.
Jimbei watches sullenly as the orangette's blue orbs widen. Her cry is muffled by her own trembling hands. She falls onto her knees, curls into her stomach and shakes.
Sabo turns a sickly pale, pupils shrinking in shock, a ball of sweat forming near his temple to run down his face. He takes an unsteady step forward only to reel backwards onto the sand. He shakes his head in denial.
A thousand thoughts run through his head in that moment but only one manages to stick out the most - the loudest and most panicked.
"Luffy," he breathes out. "Where's Luffy?"
His brother… right now, Luffy was...
"When did this happen?" he asks, panic creeping in his tone. His eyes blindly roam the sand underneath his feet, thinking.
He needs to get to his brother. There was no way Luffy was dealing with this well, and his nakama must've been in just as much pain.
"Six days ago," Jimbei answers.
"Six days?!" Sabo repeats incredulously, his gaze whipping back to the fishman. Next to him, Koala lets out a muffled whimper.
"Mm," Jimbei nods sullenly. "Five since she's been buried."
"Five since…" His voice fails him. Luffy and his crew had been suffering for all that time already, while he and Koala had been sailing so happily, taking their time to meet with them.
The guilt comes immediately, coupled with anger. "Why are you telling us this now?" he snarls at the helmsman of the Strawhats. "And how can you be so calm? We could've- we could've…!"
The words die in his throat. What could they have done?
The navigator died with the most capable crew in all the seas beside her. If Luffy's crew couldn't do anything, what made him think he could? His hands grip helplessly at the sand below him.
Koala sobs next to him. Jimbei only stares at them, and what Sabo recognizes now as the look of shadowed grief deepens in his dark eyes.
His heart beats so painfully hard he can barely hear his own spoken words.
"Where's Luffy?" he asks a second time.
He needs to see him. Right now. Right now.
Jimbei must sense his panic. The former warlord walks towards the two and kneels in front of them, placing a webbed hand on each of their shoulders.
"Do not worry, Sabo-kun. Right now, Luffy is safe."
"I know that," Sabo replies, exasperated. "But I still-"
Jimbei's hand tightens. "You will have the chance to see him soon, but you must take control of your emotions," he says firmly.
Sabo takes a deep breath, looking at the Fishman straight in the eye before nodding. After a moment, Koala sniffs and finally raises her head, wiping some of her tears away. Her lip trembles as she nods as well.
"R-right."
Jimbei gives them a small smile before taking a seat on the sand, his legs and arms crossed. His smile disappears, his voice taking on a grave tone.
"I need you two to listen closely. Greater things are at stake now. It's hard to bring it up to the crew while they're still grieving, but Luffy is still Pirate King."
A chill crawls up Sabo's back, already understanding.
"There are many people still looking for an opportunity to take him down," Jimbei continues, a shadow coming over his face. "Right now, Luffy is probably at his most vulnerable. He's not going to be thinking rationally. If you want to protect him, you must put your feelings aside in the meantime."
Koala, having kept silent the whole time, finally speaks up. "Of course. What do you want us to do?"
"Nami's death must remain a secret," Jimbei tells them. "Not even our closest allies can know, including the Grand Fleet and-"
"Dragon and the former Revolutionaries," Sabo finishes. It's inevitable. "They'll mean well, but the changes they'll make for Luffy will be too obvious."
"Mm," Jimbei agrees. "It's not that we do not trust Luffy's family or friends, it's that we cannot predict their next course of action after they hear the news. If anything were to change, including their behavior, enemies of the Strawhats would know."
Koala breathes out a shaky sigh. "So we proceed like normal?"
"Until we figure out a plan," Jimbei assures. "Some things we can't control, such as how Boa Hancock is already on her way to meet with Luffy. She will have to be an exception. She will be in the know, but she does not present too much of a threat because of her blind love for Luffy-"
"But what about the others? The ones that also received Luffy's invitation?" Koala interjects, blue orbs far away in thought. "They're expected to arrive at that island in two months."
"Then we'll have two months' time to think of a plan," Jimbei answers grimly. Koala bites her lip.
"Okay," Sabo agrees, but his eyes narrow with suspicion, wondering why the Fishman is avoiding what was potentially their biggest issue. He takes a handful of sand and watches as the tiny pebbles escape through his spread fingers.
"So we keep the others in the dark. Fine. If we include Luffy's crew, Koala and I, and soon, Boa Hancock - that makes 11 of us that know." He pauses, looking up at the Fishman for a reaction.
But Jimbei keeps silent.
Sabo lowers his eyes and lets out a deep sigh, staring at the sand in his palm that hadn't fallen through his fingers.
"But what about the ones that poisoned Nami?" he asks quietly.
At his words Jimbei noticeably stiffens. Then he sighs wearily, his form slumped, his gaze on the sand below. "I… we have yet to find them. Nami had been by herself at the time and Luffy was-"
Sabo's hand closes into a tight fist, glowing red. "How do we know they haven't said anything? The word could be out by now."
"We're counting on the fact that-"
"They poisoned her," he seethes, throwing the now burnt sand in his hand violently across them. The black grains sizzle on the ground. "That wasn't an accident, Jimbei, it was premeditated. They must've known who she was, and who she was to Luffy."
His whole body starts to tremble. He grinds his teeth, coming to terms with the dark conclusion.
"Luffy is not safe."
A silence settles between them. A cold wind blows in from the sea, cooling the blackened sand under their feet. Sabo stands.
"If you're not going to be honest with me, then count me out. But right now, Luffy needs me. He's here on this island, right?"
He starts to walk towards the forest, his steps hardened with anger.
He isn't angry at Jimbei so much as he was angry at their impossible situation. The odds were stacked so heavily against them. The timing couldn't have been more wrong. Luffy was just about to-
"Wait, Sabo-kun."
He stops at the edge of the forest, where the line between sand and dirt meet. He waits.
He hears Jimbei sigh. "You're right. I should be more honest with you two, it's just…"
"We know, Jimbei." Koala.
"You're acting calm but it's hard even for you, too, isn't it?" she says softly. She leans forward and places a hand on Jimbei's shoulder just as he had done so earlier.
"Sabo," she calls to her blond partner. "Let's hear what he has to say. We need to be rational, remember? It's what's best for Luffy."
Sabo turns around, but stays where he is, still miffed. "I'm listening, then."
Koala nods encouragingly at Jimbei.
"Forgive me," he suddenly says, bowing deeply.
"You don't have to-"
"I came alone," the Fishman admits, eyes closed while facing the sand. Sabo gapes and Koala's words die in her throat.
"It is near impossible to predict the weather of the New World and even more difficult to navigate a ship through that weather and to the desired island," Jimbei continues. "I am only but the helmsman of the Strawhats, not their navigator. The only person capable of taking on that role on the Sunny has died."
A minute of tense silence passes before he finally lifts his head. "I swam here so that the crew did not have to change their course. The Log Pose is already set to the island they must go to."
"Swam?" Koala repeats.
"It's faster going alone, and the weather does not perturb me as much," the Fishman explains.
He bows once more. "Sabo-kun. Koala. I came here to humbly request aid from both of you."
"There's really no need for that, Jimbei," Koala assures, hands waving back and forth.
"You don't even need to ask," Sabo says, a bit disgruntled.
"I know how overwhelming this all must be, so I thank you both for your kind patience."
His cloud-like brows deepen into a scowl, dark eyes downcast. "What I will ask from you both will postpone your meeting with your brother, Sabo-kun, but only briefly."
For a moment, Sabo hesitates, but then he nods once in acceptance. "If it will help Luffy, I don't mind it."
"It will," Jimbei promises. "It has to."
He takes a deep breath before starting. "Since we didn't have Nami to guide us, it took longer to navigate back to the island we were last in - where we suspected Nami was poisoned. Only three of us went using our other ship, the mini Merry. After arriving, we realized the Marines hadn't yet dispersed, so we had to be discreet. Sanji, Usopp and I found some witnesses who had seen a group of pirates gathered in the middle of some rubble, but said they had disappeared when the Marines came."
"What's so strange about that?" Sabo asked.
"They were gathered where Luffy and Nami had previously been," Jimbei clarified. "Nami had told us of how Luffy had destroyed something in the area, which is why we had to leave the island earlier than anticipated."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sabo can't help but smile at hearing his brother's antics. Always the troublemaker, he thinks fondly.
"How were the people sure that the group was a group of pirates?" Koala wonders out loud.
"They overheard one of them call a man their 'captain'", Jimbei states simply.
"And no group of civilians would run away when they hear Marines coming," Sabo reasons. "So you searched the area, then."
Jimbei nods. "And we managed to gain some valuable information. Sanji overheard a man explaining to some Marine officers something that had happened to him. Apparently he was the owner of the bar Luffy destroyed. He claimed he had been kidnapped, held at gunpoint by a woman, and forced to give his clothing to a tall man who then told him he'd be borrowing his bar. He said he remembered their faces clearly."
Sabo's ears perk up, strolling closer to the pair. "And did the Marines happen to get a sketch of those faces?"
"Better," Jimbei replies, reaching into his yukata to pull out two folded pieces of tan paper. He sets them out in front of Koala, who gasps. Having come back to her side, Sabo can also see what Jimbei has laid out and a slow, wicked smile takes hold of his face.
"Their bounty posters."
"Gone?"
The captain looks up from the various papers scattered on his desk, rectangular glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. "What do you mean she's gone?"
The copper-haired girl at the doorway sniffs, a slight pout on her lips as she shuffles from one brown boot to the other, golden eyes shifting from the hardwood floors to the man seated in the middle of the small room. She meets his deep-set piercing eyes and gulps, quickly looking back down at the floor, clawed hands clenched on the hem of her black shorts.
She squeezes her eyes shut and says what she's rehearsed. "W-we've looked everywhere but she's not here, Cap. I don't smell her around either. It's like she just..."
She looks up, a conflicted confusion reflected in her eyes as her hands make a small 'poof' motion. "Disappeared."
There's a dangerous still in the room as the raven-haired man removes his glasses to stare at the small girl for a long second, chiseled visage devoid of emotion.
Then, to the latter's utter dismay, the captain chuckles, shaking his head as he lifts his glasses back to his face and looks back down to reading the papers on his desk.
"Good one, Libra, but this is no time for jokes. Tell Dr. Alexander that I'll be visiting him later today."
Her jaw almost drops to the floor. Her brain scrambles to make sense of his reaction as her mouth clamps shut then opens again. This is far from what she expected.
"B-but Captain," she manages, stepping forward.
He shuffles a few papers but doesn't look back up. "Aren't you supposed to be on lookout?" he asks, a bemused smile still playing on his lips.
It's a clear dismissal.
She reins back the objections threatening to spill out of her mouth and after a short moment, nods dejectedly. "...H-hai."
She quickly bows and steps out, pulling the door shut with her. Hand still on the doorknob, she can't stop the exasperated sigh that leaves her lips as she looks at the porous jolly roger painted on the front of the door. Then she hangs her head dramatically and slowly walks across the ship to the doctor's lab, booted steps heavy.
She's ambushed by five of her crewmates the second she rounds the corner. Her back is to the wall as they crowd around her, eyes wide in anticipation.
"Well? What'd he say?" a slim woman with a sleek, violet bob cut hisses. Behind her, a short bald-headed man hands a pixie-haired woman wearing a red polka-dotted dress a suspicious stack of beli.
"Eto…" Libra scratches the back of her head and avoids their expectant gazes.
"Well, you're here in one piece," Jiro, the former known bartender, drawls, leaning casually on the wooden bars of the quarter deck. "That's a good sign."
"You think so?" A pudgy, red-faced man asks Jiro, still wearing bandages from his altercation with the Pirate King, then looks at Libra with hopeful eyes.
The younger girl shakes her head and his face falls. "Cap didn't believe me. He said he'll be going to the doc's room soon to see how things are going."
Silence.
Then Jiro is bent over, tears in his eyes as he hiccups, the bald-headed man hands the pixie-haired woman another stack of beli as she grins smugly, and the pudgy-faced man goes white as a sheet.
The woman closest to Libra blinks multiple times, then leans her head back to slap a hand to her forehead. "Fantastic. So now we have a missing girl and a captain in denial."
She drags a manicured hand down her pale face, her expression thunderous, tone scathing. "Kami, I knew something was gonna go wrong with this, I told that bastard-"
"So what do we do now, Ran?" the bandaged giant of a man almost whimpers to the woman, his huge hands habitually fidgeting with something metallic.
Ran's electric blue eyes shift back to Libra, locking the girl in her place. "What did you tell him exactly?"
Libra sniffs. "Exactly what happened: that she disappeared and that we couldn't find her."
Jiro burps loudly in response, wiping his tears away as he stands back up. He shrugs nonchalantly. "Well, then, I guess that's that, isn't it?"
At Ran's disgusted look he cocks his head. "What?"
She only rolls her eyes and sighs, deciding to ignore the lack of manners for now and turning instead to the woman in the polka dot dress. "Penelope. Find anything?"
The woman she's addressing goes still, her charcoal eyes misting over then closing. After a couple seconds, Penelope shakes her head, opening her eyes once more. "No, sorry. They've got nothing."
Ran scowls. "Then there's nothing else we can do but wait and-"
"Guys!" A boy with bright blue hair and yellow t-shirt calls up to them from the deck, wildly waving his arms to catch their attention. "Hey, look over here!"
"Eh? What's up, Delio?" Jiro responds, leaning back over the railing once more. He hiccups.
In response, the young boy runs over to the side of the ship and points to something on its hull. From their vantage point, they could see what looked like a piece of torn rope hanging loosely from a broken mechanical axle.
Ran narrows her eyes, wheels in her head turning. "Isn't that where…?"
"Ahhh," Jiro breathes, snapping his fingers. "So that's how it happened."
The boy, Delio, looks up at them, innocently proud of his find. "I noticed the lifeboat we kept over the side of the ship here was gone. It must've broken off during that storm we had last night. We should replace it soon in case we ever need one!"
"Ohhh, we are screwed," Libra whispers.
Ran pales.
"Great job, kid," Jiro hollers down, throwing him a thumbs up. "Why don't you go ahead and tell the captain what you found?"
"Should I?!" He exclaims, stars in his eyes, before turning bashful. "I dunno if it's worth all that…"
"Yeah," Jiro continues, before his tone changes, low and serious. "And how our only leverage against the Pirate King disappeared with it."
"Oh, really?" The boy laughs, not yet registering the words. "Then for sure I can go and- WHAT?!"
Jiro's laugh echoes across the black ship, but it's mirthless.
A young girl sits at the edge of a wooden dock, a fishing pole held loosely in her hands. Her roughly chopped hair is tied back into two pigtails and a flower-adorned straw hat sits comfortably on her head.
She yawns loudly, garnering an annoyed look from a boy with similar dark curly hair that sits a few feet away from her. She ignores him, squinting up instead at the cloudless blue expanse above. It's mid-day and the scorching hot rays of the sun are particularly brutal on her exposed skin. She leaves her head tilted back so the broad rim of her hat can provide some protection to her neck and shoulders.
The high-pitched calls of seabirds on the shore fill her ears, the noisy chatter from the villagers around the dock comfortably blending in with the distant rhythmic wash of waves on sand. There's an occasional shout followed by a splash of water that alerts her of another successful catch of the day. A gentle breeze from the sea sweeps over the docks, and she welcomes it with a soft smile, tanned legs swinging lazily from her perch on the wooden seat.
The girl takes a deep breath but almost instantaneously regrets it, gagging on the strong smell of freshly gutted fish on ice, her face twisting in displeasure.
She can hear the boy cackling, "What kind of expression is that?" but just as she swivels her head around and opens her mouth to deliver a sassy retort, her reel starts whirling and the fishing pole suddenly weighs ten pounds more than it did a second ago.
A surprised yelp escapes her lips before she halts the reel, adjusts her grip on the handle, and scrambles up to gain better footing. The top of her pole starts to bend forward as she alternates between turning the reel and pulling up on the line, heart pounding in the only excitement she's felt in hours.
The boy - her brother - is quick to appear beside her, curious azure eyes roaming the surface of the waters below them. He says something to her but she misses it, preoccupied with the heavy catch that bit into her baited hook. She starts to perspire, the sun unforgiving in its assault to her back and shoulders.
A terrifying thought suddenly passes through her mind. What if it's one of those sea monsters?
She shakes her head, reassuring herself that the stories her Obaa-chan tells her of large sea creatures living in the deep sea are just a way to keep them out of water and closer to shore. A lot of the stories they've heard from the elders about the outside world were meant to do just that.
A dark shape starts to take form on the surface of the water and she readies herself, placing a steady foot back, a slight bend to her knees like she's been taught.
Her brother exclaims, "I think you got a big one!" and a small smirk starts to pull at her lips.
With one last heave, her catch comes breaking through the surface, its body thrashing in the air, dark red fins glistening in the sunlight-
The girl blinks.
Then she blinks again. Her mouth falls open, freckled cheeks slowly burning with a heat that doesn't come from the sun. Sapphire blue orbs stare disbelievingly at the dripping object on her hook, long bits of seaweed dangling from its straps.
"Is that a...?"
Her brother''s loud, barking laughter only serves to increase her irritation. So much for the catch of the day.
The initial rush of excitement long gone, she jerks her fishing pole back towards her and reaches to unhook her 'prize'. It falls to the ground at her feet with a wet squelch - a red backpack.
Definitely not a fish.
"What's this even doing in the ocean?" she mutters darkly.
Except for the green plants tangled in its strings, nothing stands out from this seemingly normal backpack. Curiosity momentarily replaces her embarrassed anger as she bends down to take a closer look at the waterlogged bag.
Her brother, apparently finished laughing at her, peers over her shoulder. "Think it's one of ours?"
Her eyebrows scrunch into an uncertain frown before she shakes her head slowly. Tentative fingers reach out and rub the rough cloth to confirm her theory - this wasn't animal skin or woven backpack came from elsewhere.
"Let's look inside," her brother whispers, and she wonders why he's whispering. It's not like finding things from the outside world was anything new. At her sidelong glance, his grin grows wider.
"There could be a head in there... or treasure!"
She sweatdrops, then rolls her eyes. Leave it to Kai to be enthusiastic about seeing a decapitated head.
Still, there's a slight tremble to her fingers when she finds the zipper and slowly drags it across the metal zigzags. The two huddle close together, keeping the bag hidden from any prying eyes.
"What's in it?" Kai whispers impatiently.
"Hold on," she finds herself whispering back. It's too dark inside to see and she's not stupid enough to stick her fingers inside (she still has a tiny scar from the last time she did so and got rewarded with an unrelenting pinch from an angry crab) so she grabs hold of the bag - it sloshes heavily, still filled with water - and gingerly flips it upside down.
A plethora of items come tumbling from the bag - some she recognizes, and some that are new to her: a rope, a small white box with a red cross over it, some colorful cloth wrapped in a plastic bag, what looked like canned peaches, a pair of round sunglasses with abnormally long lenses, a packet of long dark red strips that had a weird smell coming from it, brown gloves and a hunter's knife.
What amazes the brunette the most, though, is that none of those items have even a drop of water on them, unlike the sack that carried them. She doesn't even have to look to see Kai's eyes turning into twinkling gold stars in complete awe.
"S-so...cool!"
She's a little less impressed. The objects she recognizes look similar to the items that were piling up in the miscellaneous storage pit behind the village when things from the outside world had started to drift onto their shores.
"Someone from the outside world probably just lost this while they were at sea," she says to Kai, but he's not listening as he moves to open the smaller compartment of the backpack.
"Wonder if there's anything else we can find in here."
A leather-bound notebook, a small mirror, and a whistle is added to their loot. All dry.
"There must be something in the backpack that keeps the water from getting into the bag," the tanned girl thinks aloud, fingers curled to her chin as she notes the growing pool of seawater around the backpack and remembers how heavy it was to reel it in. "This material can be useful to us if we can replicate it. We can probably harvest it from this bag and-"
"Ugh," her brother groans, picking up the round glasses and giving its dark lenses an experimental poke. "There you go again with all your scienc-y talk. Can't we just have fun with this stuff?"
He places the black glasses over his eyes as a tick sprouts onto his sister's temple.
"Whoa!" Kai suddenly exclaims, arms flailing as he loses his balance and falls back onto his butt. His head looks this way and that in apparent confusion. "Huh? That's weird - I can't see anything!"
The other brunette sighs. "That's right. I always seem to forget that I'm talking to an imbecile."
"Hey!"
"You look ridiculous." She stands up and looks around the dock, hands on her hips as she searches for a particular face. The other islanders had yet to notice their unusual haul. "Let's find Gio. She'll help us-"
"Hey, what's that?" Kai blurts out, interrupting her (again). He still has the ridiculous glasses on, one hand tinkering with something on the frame. She looks down at him, allowing her annoyance to creep into her voice.
"What is it now?"
Kai stands, tongue out in concentration, the lens of his glasses slowly lengthening. His eyebrows are scrunched together in confusion, shielded gaze fixed on something far away. "That."
She follows his gaze to the strip of white sand a little ways away from them, where they had left their knapsacks this morning. Blue orbs search up and down the coast, nothing of particular interest catching her attention.
She huffs an irritated sigh. "I thought you couldn't see anything with that thing. If this is one of your stupid pranks again-"
"No, look. In the water...I think..." he starts to explain before he suddenly bolts off, glasses clattering to the wooden boards. "I think it's a person!"
His words register about a second later. "Wait, what?!"
Her head whips back to the shore, narrowed blue eyes scanning the waters, for the first time noticing the odd bits and pieces of random wood floating in the sea and-
There. At the opposite end of the beach, where the island curves into forest brush and crag - something quite large floating in the deeper parts of the water. Or rather, according to Kai, someone.
She doesn't bother putting the glasses on to confirm his statement.
"Kai!" she calls after her brother, running after him, a hand on her hat to keep it in place. "Where do you think you're going?!"
"To help!" he yells back at her, and she resists the urge to shout back, You don't even know how to swim!
Their pounding feet and panicked voices eventually rouse the attention of the other villagers on the dock.
"Eh? Kai? Mina-chan? Where are you guys off in a rush to? Dinner's right here!" one of the villagers chortle jokingly as the siblings rush past him.
"There's a body in the water!" the young girl - Mina - announces, glancing once more toward the sea as she sprints across the wooden dock.
"Eh?!"
She catches up to Kai just as his feet hit the sand.
"Think it's a foreigner?" he pants out.
"Unlikely," she says after a moment. There's only ever been one instance when someone from the outside world has made it onto their island and even they mysteriously disappeared after some time.
"Then one of us?" he says, the doubt clear in his voice.
She doesn't answer, eyes locked on the drifting shape in the water.
That wouldn't make sense, either. Their people all had assigned tasks for the day, with everyone not out on the docks either hunting or farming or babysitting the younger ones.
And each and every one of them - even the babies - knew about the number one rule that kept the village safe for years: no swimming in the ocean.
No venturing out into the sea.
Not even the skilled fisherman could go out on their boats - they had to fish out on the docks.
They're halfway down the beach when there's a sudden swell in the ocean far behind the poor excuse of a raft.
Mina slows down, every breath like fire down her lungs, belatedly realizing the futility of them rushing - even if they did get to the end of the beach, they wouldn't be able to swim out and help the person anyway. (And she's close enough to see that it is a person - possibly a girl, with long hair and pale arms stretched over a flimsy but buoyant piece of wood.)
And just because Mina knows how to swim, doesn't mean she's allowed to.
The current, like always, would have to bring the person to shore. They are at the sea's mercy.
Her brother keeps running but, never quite the athlete, Mina settles for a walk - albeit quickly and with long strides - across the sand.
It's better to save her energy for rescue efforts, she reasons grimly. She watches the first swell lift the person up, shifting their body slightly off the piece of wood before descending slowly back onto the seawater.
A glance behind her shows that a few of the villagers are following close behind, among them the tall form of a man named Haku, one of their leaders, a grave look on his face. The rest of their people stand on the dock, watching from afar. She also recognizes the slim form of Gio, the person she was looking for minutes ago, running towards the path back to the village - probably to alert Obaa-chan and the Doc.
Mina looks back toward her brother.
Kai has gotten to the spot that is parallel to the drifting person. Breathing hard from his full sprint, he cautiously draws closer to the ocean, the frothy waves licking at his ankles. He cups his mouth with his hands.
"HEEEYYY!" His shrill voice travels across the body of water. "ARE YOU ALIVE?!"
Mina is too far to slap him upside the head. Of all the things to say...
"CAN YOU SWIM?!"
And they're probably unconscious, you idiot!
"HOLD YOUR BREATH - THERE'S A WAVE COMING!"
Mina quickens her pace to a jog when she sees what Kai is talking about - another swell, bigger and father than the last one. With a sinking heart, she realizes it will become a wave long before it hits the shore.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME? HOLD YOUR BREATH!"
Mina reaches Kai just as the crest of the wave reaches its peak, towering over the makeshift raft and its defenseless passenger.
There's a split second where the piece of wood is carried up into the body of the wave - and the siblings watch, powerless, as the person slips away from their buoyant lifesaver - airborne for a split second - then is swallowed up by the sea.
Kai curses, then curses again when the waves that reach the shore lap up to his knees. He quickly backs away.
In her head, Mina starts to count.
She bites her lip, widened gaze darting to and fro across the water. Kai is silent next to her. Wood of various broken sizes decorate the sand around their feet - the remnants of what looked like a small sailing boat.
Twenty seconds pass.
"Come on, come on," Kai mutters.
Mina is at twenty six when her brother wordlessly touches her shoulder. His head is turned to the left and she leans forward to see past him and-
And there she is.
Like a washed up gift from the ocean, lying frighteningly still on the sand just a few feet away from them, knotted wet hair tangled in various bits of kelp and seaweed - a foreigner from the outside world.
A long chapter for a loooong wait. (Better late than never?)
A thing I've noticed as I write is that my writing style? tone? whatever you call it, is always all over the place. I feel like it's because I'm always in a different place in my life every time I write a certain section. The first section, for example, was written a day ago, while the last part was written since last year o.O They have a different... vibe. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing things. lol. My point is, I hope the story is coherent enough for you all to follow. If not, do tell me.
Any theories for what's going to happen next? Angry that I took so LONG to update? (Are LuNa fans even around anymore? *cries*)
Vent your thoughts in the reviews, please! I missed yall.
- forgottensongs
P.S. I wrote the first scene while listening to thunderstorm sounds on YouTube. Although I did it more to immerse myself into the story, I recommend listening to it in general just for its calming effect. :)