*barges in two months late with Starbucks and a new chapter*
I just want to thank everyone who reviewed and is still following this. I love you. You're the best.
Oh, and if you didn't see the edit in the last chapter's A/N, this fic is now on AO3 too, in case you'd rather read there! Same title and penname.
Hyphen: She did! She hasn't realized it yet, though. Thanks a lot for the review and the good wishes!
25. Calm before the storm
(I can feel it coming in the air tonight)
Hissing under her breath, in a corner of the unnecessarily big mess hall, Saki tried to sew the hem of a shirt's collar, but so far she was being more successful at stabbing her thumb without mercy than making three straight stitches in a row.
As soon she'd been able to move at a reasonable, albeit somewhat limpy, pace, she had gone on a quest to scavenge any piece of clothing that wasn't her own torn ones or a Marine uniform, and while she had miraculously found some women's civilian clothes, whoever had left them behind had been a fan of pants and a foot taller than Saki.
She had already been able to fix a grey tank top's straps, which had been well within her ability, and, fired up by the smallest of successes, she had decided to take in the waist of the only skirt she was able to get her hands on and get rid of the blue stripes of a Marine shirt to wear it knotted at the waist, over the tank top.
Seeing how she wasn't doing so hot with the collar, she suspected that the initial victory had led her vastly overestimate her capabilities, but dang it if she wasn't going to keep trying for the sake of fashion.
She pricked her fingers for the umpteenth time as Mack entered the hall, gave the desolate area a quick glance, and sat a chair away from Saki. She looked up from her own work to see he had put some blank sheets on the table and an ink pot.
"Do you mind?" He asked her.
"Oh, no, of course not," she replied, and right away moved her sewing supplies to give him extra space. The ship was enormous and empty, and Saki appreciated the company, if only not to feel as she was a spirit haunting a ghost ship. In the Polar Tang, it seemed impossible to go anywhere without bumping into someone along the way, but here she needed to go out of her way just to find signs of life. "Writing letters?"
"Just the one. Do you want to say anything to Feli?"
"Tell her to ditch the coconuts and come with us."
Mack snorted. "She won't."
"Had to try. She seemed very attached to the inn," Saki commented.
"She's lived there for nearly ten years, and Ernie's known her since she was a kid. He's even invited to the family reunions."
"Her family lives nearby?"
"Her parents are in the neighborhood," Mack replied, checking the contents of the ink pot. "Nice old couple."
"Oh." That wasn't the impression Saki had gotten, from what little Felicia had said about them. "I thought they didn't get along very well."
"Hm?" Mack frowned questioningly, but it he found the answer he was looking for by himself. "Oh, they had arguments when she was a teen, but they came around a long time ago. They are at the inn every Friday for dinner now."
Knowing that made Saki feel a bit warmer inside. "And she never went back with them?"
"She likes it at the inn, and you know how parents are. Always get along with them better when you aren't living with them."
Saki didn't actually know, and Mack's statement made her doubly confused after seeing him burn his mom's letter, but there wasn't enough money in the world to make her bring up the subject. "Well, she can't get any farther than in a ship."
Mack just smiled as he began to write. Saki kept redoing her stitches until she was more or less satisfied with the result, and by the time she had half of it done, Mack had finished writing.
"What are those stitches?" He asked, and the skepticism in his tone took a stab at her pride that hurt more than the ones to her fingers.
"What's wrong about my stitches?" Defensively, she brought the shirt closer to her so he couldn't see them.
"They're a mess."
"I like to think they're eclectic."
"For the love of—" He reached for the shirt and she moved farther away. "Let me see that."
Saki would say that her suspicion was natural and it came with the territory of living with a bunch of little shits, so she wasn't sure he had good intentions in mind. "…Why?"
"Do you want to actually have something to wear, or are you only doing this to pass time and lose some fingers?"
Saki, defeated by cold logic, relented.
After looking at the stitches, Mack said, "Go on."
Feeling very self-conscious, she started to stitch again, and before she could drive the needle into her thumb again, Mack stopped her hand.
"You're holding it wrong; you're going to prick your fingers."
"You're a little late, buddy."
"Quit the sass and watch," he replied, gesturing towards the shirt and needle, which Saki dutifully gave him. "You hold the fabric like this, and don't make these stitches one by one." He passed the needle several times through the fabric before pulling to tighten the stitches. "See?"
A row of three aligned stitches of the same size appeared on the collar, and Saki's mouth dropped a little. "I didn't know you could do that!"
"You haven't sewn very much, have you?" He passed the shirt and needle back to her. "Try it."
Saki nodded, eyes fixed in concentration in the collar. "Okay."
She did try, and, upon seeing the results, she said, "I'm never going to get the hang of this."
Mack huffed. "Do you think you can learn in five minutes? Keep at it."
"But—"
"You aren't moving from this table until the collar is done."
Saki thought about protesting, but she knew how to pick her battles. "Yes, sir."
—
'I've been thinking about what we talked about, and I think you were right. I can't let my life be stopped here. It's not fair for any of us.
I spoke to the new captain, and he's agreed to take me into his unit. I'll receive basic training here, so no fancy academy for me, and thank the Mother for it. I can't see myself surrounded by kids ten years younger than me.
I can't thank you enough for all your help. I don't know if I would have made it without you. I hope we can meet again soon. Who knows, maybe we'll see each other soon in one of those meetings they like to have at Marineford?
Love,
Banu'
Marina set down the letter on the desk with a soft smile and leaned back on her chair. If she closed her eyes, it was easy to remember the sea breeze and the sparkling water of Qaryn's bay at noon, shining like a million jewels floating in the water. The busy market, the colorful fabrics fluttering from clotheslines, the bone-chilling normality in which daily life kept going on after the crimes committed only weeks prior to her arrival.
It was miles better than the sound of the repairing efforts at the base.
She opened the first drawer of her desk to take a paper sheet, and the woven bracelet the pirate had lost fighting against her greeted her from the top of the stack. Saki, she recalled. The way she fought had caught Marina's attention enough to ask headquarters for a more thorough background check, if only to make sure there wasn't a rogue Marine in North Blue teaching criminals how to fight.
(And she knew for a fact there were some of those, but the more they weren't allowing to roam free, the better.)
She wasn't sure why she kept the bracelet. Maybe it reminded her of her brief stay in Qaryn, which, she was fairly confident, was the place where it had been acquired. Maybe it was a warning of how close she had come to losing that one battle.
Not that she didn't have bigger worries.
She brought her left hand to rest on her chest, right where her heart should have been and only an empty space remained.
She didn't know how, and most importantly, why she was still alive.
She hadn't told anybody what had happened. She still didn't know what to make of it, and she was sure her superiors didn't want to hear that her life was now subject to the whims of a pirate.
He'd given her heart to Mack.
Mack said he had written to her, all those years she'd been away.
Was that true? Was he the one keeping her life safe right now?
Old and recent memories kept popping up in her mind, prompting questions she didn't have the energy, nor the context to answer.
Instead, she dipped her pen in ink and began to write a reply to Banu. Her personal problems had to take the backseat in the face of duty.
It was one of the small mercies of life.
The Den Den Mushi on the desk made a choking sound, and the device it was attached to started to print the new bounties assigned by headquarters, as well as some interesting information.
—
"What's up with this weather?" Saki complained over the roar of the wind.
She and Penguin were fighting with a rope to hoist a sail as Law and Shachi were doing the same with another one. Gusts of wind came and went, and, while at the start they had seemed a blessing helping them reach land sooner, now they threatened to capsize them. It was also sunny, and an incessant drizzle was coming down, making the ropes slippery. She'd had enough foresight to change into clothes she didn't mind getting messed up, but that also meant she was uncomfortable on top of annoyed.
"Sailboats are an offense to current technology," Penguin grunted, trying to tie down the rope with Saki's assistance. "What's the government's excuse for not going hybrid?"
"I have a feeling that they don't care much about their sold—ah!" The rope almost slipped her hand, but she was quick to catch it with the other one. "I hate them."
"Me too." He tightened the knot as much as he could and let go. "There."
Both looked up to make sure the sail was staying in place and the one that was flopping wildly was not theirs.
"Should we help?"
Saki glanced at her red palms without any energy. "I guess?" She looked up at the sky. "I never thought the day I'd miss being underwater would come."
"Not to mention Bepo smells bad weather miles before we come across it."
"It's animal instinct. I don't think you can blame Sturgeon for this one," Saki replied.
"I can and I will," Penguin declared, already moving towards his companions, who were running after a rope. "Come on, the sooner we get this over with, the—"
And just like that, the wind calmed down, and the rope smacked Shachi in the face. The rain was getting even thinner, and a gentle breeze remained.
"Well, isn't that nice," Penguin said with a smile, though the tone suggested that he wanted to throw something – someone – overboard.
"Everyone!" Mack's voice made everybody look towards one of the deck's windows. Half of his body was out. "Sturgeon says to unfurl the sails!"
Shachi replied right away. "Tell him he can unfurl his—!"
"Shachi," Law said apathetically, "don't shoot the messenger."
"Does that mean I've got permission to shoot the sender?"
He seemed to consider the answer. "No."
They got to work again, and as soon as they filed into the ship to change into something dry, the familiar ringtone of a Den Den Mushi caught their attention.
"Bepo," Law said as an explanation as he started to hurry to his temporary sleeping quarters.
The other three shared a quick look and diverted their course to go after Law. He had picked up the receiver and was about to speak when everybody else crowded around the Den Den Mushi and got the jump on him.
"Yo, Bepo!"
"How's our favorite navigator?"
"We miss yooou!"
"Give me space," Law grumbled, pushing them away with his free arm as everybody else complained. "Any news, Bepo?"
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line, and there was worry in the atmosphere until Bepo spoke. "Am I really your favorite navigator?"
Law facepalmed, which allowed the others to get closer again.
"Of course you are!" Penguin replied immediately.
Saki stood on her toes and propped herself up on Shachi's and Penguin's shoulders to reach the receiver. "We love you, Bepo!"
"We need you back!" Shachi shouted.
"Everybody, out!" Law snapped, swatting them away mercilessly towards the door, and he made them back away until they were on the hallway.
A faint 'I miss you too!' reached their ears right before Law shut the door on their faces, which prompted much whining but no retaliation, because they knew better than to try to open the door with an annoyed captain on the other side.
"I want him back," Saki said, dejected.
"It's been weeks, I'm sure the island isn't far now."
"Never thought I'd miss that furball so much," Shachi admitted, lowering the brim of his hat.
"Our boilers."
"Our sets of wrenches."
"My clothes," Saki added.
"That wouldn't be a problem if you wore the uniform," Shachi ribbed her.
"You don't get to say that that while you're in regular clothes."
"I do and I will."
"Whatever," Penguin said with a sigh, interrupting the argument. "There's no point in complaining. We've got to wait it out."
Saki lowered her eyes to the floor. "We're making a puddle."
The other two looked down too.
"I'm not moping that up," Shachi said.
"Me neither."
"Last one to change has to clean it!" Penguin yelled before breaking into a sprint.
Saki and Shachi crossed alarmed glances and Shachi pulled her from the back of her shirt, so she shoved a hand on his face to push him back .
"That's dirty play!"
"Be grateful I didn't snatch your glasses!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Try me!"
The walk to their quarters was a petty struggle and Penguin was ready by the time they even reached them. He watched them as they hurried to their respective rooms and took off with distilling smug satisfaction.
Saki managed to trip over a loose floorboard on the way to her room, and so she would always blame Marine incompetence for those few precious seconds that netted her third place in the competition.
Later, she was mopping the floor when Law opened the door on her face.
He looked behind the door. "What are you doing there?"
"Waiting for a free rhinoplasty, clearly," she replied, rubbing her face with a hand.
He closed the door, ignoring the sarcasm. "Bepo said they spotted land already. The Den Den Mushi has reception, so we can't be too far away either."
Saki sighed with relief and slumped against the mop. "Finally!"
"You tell me," he replied, tired.
"Missing Bepo, huh?" She guessed, smiling at him.
Law looked taken aback by her vile accusation, but it was just a moment before the regular frown came back, he shoved his hands in his pockets and started to walk away. "Don't miss any spots."
Saki stuck her tongue at him when he couldn't see and kept mopping the floor while humming a melody out of tune, in considerably brighter spirits.
—
True to word, a few hours later, the silhouette of a new island appeared on the horizon, and having nothing better to do, Saki went out to stand on the deck and take in the sights.
Absentmindedly, she ran a couple of fingers over her shirt, right on the spot where one of Marina's chisels had left a scar that was itching. Law had told her that it was normal, and that it was healing well, but Saki had seen enough of them to know that that one wasn't going to fade completely. She didn't mind, and it wasn't in a particularly bad place to keep hidden. The wound on her right thigh, ironically, had been bigger, less clean, and harder to heal, and now the remaining scar insisted on peeking out of the orange skirt she had altered with Mack's help.
She didn't mind it, either, but she did mind that every now and then one of the guys would see it and stare for a brief moment. That was uncomfortable. It was one thing for her to look at it and remember that she almost didn't live to tell the tale, and another for the others to get reminded of it, too.
She had to do something about it.
"That's a big island," Penguin said behind her.
"Yeah," she replied. She'd leave her idea for when they were back at the sub. "I don't think the Polar Tang's going to be wherever we dock."
"It's not like we have a choice." Penguin sighed. "We'll run into each other as long as we stay in contact."
"I wonder—" Saki started.
Penguin's tone was harsh when he cut her mid-sentence. "We're going to reunite with them for sure."
"No, not that! I'm wondering what kind of shit we're going to get pulled into this time."
Penguin opened his mouth to reply, closed it, turned to look at the horizon, and the ensuing pregnant silence spoke by itself. "I'm sure it won't be as bad as the last one."
She reached up to pat Penguin's shoulder. "Let it be known that I honestly admire your optimism, friend."
"Yeah, well," Penguin said, sounding less convinced than before. "While there's life, there's hope."
Saki let that sink in. "It's amazing how true that is." And then she added, "Do you want to bet?"
"Nope."
Not long after, they anchored the ship near a small beach. There was a dense jungle past it in which animals were making a ruckus. Saki knew it was going to be a joy to sleep in the island, should they not find Bepo and the others before night fell.
They packed lightly, making sure to carry a few valuables from the ship they could pawn off when they got to a town, and took a small boat to the shore.
The sand was very light and thin, the kind that stuck everywhere and hurt the eyes when the sun shone down directly on it. During their inspection of the area they found a narrow forest track, and when they got close to it, something pink and feathery flew past them.
It was a sort of pink toucan, circling the beach and screeching like there was no tomorrow.
And it talked. "HEEEELP! HEEEEELP!"
They watched the bird for a few seconds until Penguin broke the silence. "That sounds promising."
"We should've made that bet," Saki told him.
Sturgeon didn't seem too keen on the idea of going forward. "Sounds like a good idea to stay on the beach, doesn't it?"
"It doesn't," Law retorted. "Come on, it's just a dumb bird."
Their courageous captain was the first to step on the path, followed by Mack, who was clearly the rational adult of the group, and after a sharing looks of deep understanding and solidarity, Saki, Shachi and Penguin followed suit. Sturgeon was the last to join the line.
They walked a few minutes, paying extra attention to their surroundings because everybody was waiting for a tiger to jump them from a tree, but other than the sounds of animals trying to make their ears bleed, there were no signs of danger.
That was, until they saw someone running through the bush right outside the beaten path and yelling their lungs out. Someone else was after them, and when they approached, enough to see, what they found was a big monkey pelting a girl with pomelos. At one point during the chase, she jumped to grab a low tree branch and climbed up at an enviable speed until she disappeared from view.
Now, the monkey could not climb after her while still holding onto the fruit, but it could make a racket on the ground while yelling menacingly.
Saki fought back the urge to ask if they should do something, considering it had been pointed out once or twice at her that she had a debilitating tendency to lend a hand to complete strangers, and she did not want to be responsible for whatever happened to them this time.
Fortunately, she did not need to say anything, because Shachi did it for her after a few seconds of group contemplation.
"Should we help?"
"Probably not," Law replied with the conviction of someone who knew that they were going to do the silly thing anyway.
Shachi took the reply as a sign to proceed further into the forest, pick up a couple of nuts from the ground and throw them at the monkey, yelling at it to go away.
The animal, who was not going to cave into a puny human's demands, tossed the remaining pomelo at Shachi's stomach, but thankfully for every human involved in that interaction, Mack picked up another nut and flung it at the monkey with righteous fury.
Nobody commented on the instant KO.
Menace gone, Penguin helped Shachi back up as he regained his breath and the others approached the tree the girl was taking refuge at, eyeing the monkey with distrust.
Saki looked up, and between the foliage she spied a pair of big warm eyes hiding behind a mess of black hair.
"Are you okay?" She yelled up.
"Is it gone?" Someone yelled back.
"Yeah. You can climb down."
Despite that, the girl didn't make any attempts to move. "Who are you? I haven't seen you before."
"Heart Pirates," Law replied, stepping next to Saki to look at the mysterious person. "We're looking for our friends."
"Pirates? So you aren't from the west swamp?"
"We just got here," he explained.
The girl didn't reply, so Saki tried to make her talk some more. "Can you guide us to a town, or tell us where to go?"
"I guess…" The girl replied, unconvinced. "Um, let me try to get out of here first…"
Sturgeon, looking enthusiastic for the first time in days, said, "Jump and I'll catch you!"
Saki gave him the stink-eye, and she wasn't the only one.
"I'll pass."
Leaves rustled as the girl shifted from her branch, and right then an arrow cut the air and hit the tree trunk, just barely missing the Heart Pirates. It was better to assume that it was a threat, rather than a mistake, and everybody prepared to attack as they turned in the projectile's direction.
"Don't move!" A gruff voice yelled.
Someone else shouted, "Don't worry, Greta, we're here!"
A group of men and women armed with bows and arrows appeared from between the forestry, ready to shoot at the pirates anytime.
The situation would have been much direr had Law not been present, but since he was, the crew didn't feel in danger so much as annoyed.
"I'm okay!" The girl, likely Greta, shouted quickly. "I just have to get down!"
"Wait up there until we've got the Marines!" The first one shouted.
"Marines?!" Greta yelped.
"What?" Shachi asked, incredulous. "You think we're Marines?"
The man who had spoken just before, broad shouldered and with a well-kept beard that covered most of his face, replied, "We saw you disembarking."
His bow was still trained on them.
"Do we look like Marines to you?" Saki asked, signaling at her companions and herself, kind of worried by the man's judging abilities.
"Then what about the ship?"
"We stole it," Law intervened, sounding a little weary. Saki thought she had been hearing that tone too much lately. "We're pirates."
"They said they were," Greta chimed in from above.
"But they were chasing you?" The man insisted.
The acidic reply was immediate. "No, that was one of those stupid chimpanzees!"
The man faltered, and so did some of the people around him, but he didn't lower his weapon. "Then why are you people here?"
Law's patience seemed to be waning at this point, and Saki couldn't blame him.
"Can we talk like normal people?" She said, putting her hands up in the air, which, to be fair, she wouldn't be doing if she wasn't confident that any projectiles shot in her direction would be automatically sent back, but it sent a more convincing message. "Without pointing at each other with sharp tools?"
"Yes, please?" Greta agreed. "I'd like come down."
After a moment of hesitation, the man nodded quietly. "You put your weapons down first."
And then, the mini Den Den Mushi in Law's pocket began to ring.
—
The pier's wood planks whined with each of Bepo's footsteps as he studied the town where they had stopped. They'd had to sail a bit around the island until finding a place that wasn't all trees and rocks, and he had spotted an opening among the forestry that led them to a saltwater swamp.
The docks were made entirely of wood and some sections were camouflaged by the trees. A canopy of leaves and branches blocked most of the sunlight, making the atmosphere cool, humid and sticky. Streets and houses had been built on wood platforms above the water and they stretched to the shore, where only a scarce few buildings stood up. It looked like the town's inhabitants weren't fond of firm ground, for whatever reason.
Bepo found a quiet spot near one of the many streetlights that made up for the lack of light the trees let through, and pulled out the Den Den Mushi he had taken from the sub. It was a big one, because the only mini they had was with the Captain, but he'd just wanted to take a quick look around before heading back to the sub and get things ready to set sail as soon as possible.
He rang Law's number as he watched Uni toe the huge leaf of a water lily nearby, and Asuka and Tuttu helping him step on it.
His call wasn't answer immediately, but Law sounded more or less okay when he did. "Bepo, we're having a situation."
"Are you in danger?"
A beat of silence. "Not really. Where are you?"
"We docked in a swamp town. Are you around here?"
"I'm not sure, let me ask."
Bepo heard noises of people talking in the background, but the reception wasn't good enough to figure out what was being said.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, just wait sec—"
Then a voice he didn't recognize spoke. "You're in the swamp?"
Bepo frowned at the receiver.
"Who are you?"
He didn't receive an answer from him, but he recognized Saki's voice right away.
"We're sorting things out with the locals. Do you think you can sail to us? We'd draw too much attention in the Marine ship."
"Of course! Where—?"
"They are not coming any closer," the same voice from before said.
That sparked Bepo's anger, and he was uncharacteristically harsh when he replied. "You don't get to give me orders."
"Maybe we should talk later," Saki suggested to Bepo.
"It's alright!" Another voice, a high pitched one that Bepo didn't recognize, either, intervened. "I can guide them through the jungle!"
"Are you sure?" The voice Bepo didn't like grumbled.
The rest of the conversation was lost to him, but the outcome must have been positive, because soon after, he heard Saki whisper into the receiver, "Always trust a woman if you want to get things sorted out."
Bepo wasn't sure what to say and didn't need to rack his brains much, since right after that he heard the noise of the receiver changing hands, and Law was on the other end again.
"We'll go to you by foot tomorrow. Wait for us in town."
"Understood!"
The phone call was over at the same time Uni dropped into the dark water with a splash.
—
Saki couldn't help the sound of awe that escaped her mouth when the hunters and Greta brought them to their town.
In a patch of forest that wasn't as dense, the locals had built their homes on the trees, and hanging bridges connected the trees to one another and made a grid of streets in the air.
There was a clearing somewhere in the middle of the town, but with the tree trunks and bridges in the way, she couldn't tell what was down there.
The Heart Pirates were led from bridge to bridge to an unused, unfurnished house, and pointed in the general direction of a couple of places where they could eat and sell the stuff they didn't need. It was clear that these people didn't get many visitors, and no wonder, if they welcomed everybody the same way.
They separated for a moment to take a look around, though they didn't stray very far away from the house, and with no small amount of reticence, the group of hunters also went back into the forest.
Saki saw Mack on a thick branch that doubled as a bench and sat next to him. He was cracking open the pomelo Shachi had taken to the solar plexus.
The contents were a vibrant turquoise color.
"That looks appetizing," she remarked.
Mack smelled it before taking out a section and putting it in his mouth. Saki observed him with curiosity, and when he didn't turn into any shade of purple she took it as a good sign.
He swallowed and offered the fruit to her. "It's good. It tastes like a buttery peach."
"Buttery," Saki repeated, pulling out a segment and noticing her fingers sink a little into the flesh. She tasted it with caution. "You're right, it's pretty good."
"You like it?" Said someone behind them. "I was gathering some when that stupid monkey came after me and I had to drop them."
Greta, now that she wasn't hiding at the top of a tree, looked like a regular young human with black hair and twinkly brown eyes. She had an air that reminded Saki of her sister Tsubaki, and thought stung bad enough that she had to hold back a grimace. The combo of physical resemblance and bursting energy made Saki feel torn between giving her a teary hug or running into hiding until she could pretend again that everything was alright.
Although, to be fair, she could do that without the running.
Saki put on a big smile, and the town seemed to lose some of its shine. "I thought you'd gone back with the others."
"I've had enough forest for today," she said with a pout, then smiled again and clasped her hands behind her back. She was wearing blue capris and a long-sleeved tie-dye t-shirt. "And I thought I could get to know you a little, since we'll have to stick together tomorrow anyway. Sorry about my uncle, by the way, he gets tense with strangers." Her eyes sparkled with interest. "Did you really destroy three warships, level an entire Marine base and fled between raging fires and explosions, leaving a trail of dismembered corpses in your wake?"
Saki looked at her in silence for a second, turned to face Mack and spoke with her mouth stuffed full of fruit. "Did that happen while I was out cold?"
"No."
Saki shrugged at Greta. "There you go."
She laughed awkwardly, and it didn't escape Saki that she looked a little disappointed. "I guess news can get exaggerated a little."
Saki swallowed and passed the fruit back to Mack. "Is that what's in the press? We haven't been able to get a paper in weeks."
"Oh, well, you aren't missing much," was her vague answer. "Hey, do you want me to show you around town? Since you aren't going to stay for long anyway."
"Yeah, I'd…" Saki glanced at Mack. "You think it's a bad idea?"
"I'll reassure the others that you haven't slipped and fallen to your death when they ask."
"Good!" Saki replied, getting up and dusting off her butt, and then told Greta, "I'd like to, if doesn't take too long."
Truth be told, she wasn't dying to spend time with her, but anything that kept her entertained was welcome after sailing for so long, and she was helping the crew. If she was interested in pirates, there was no harm in indulging her for a while.
Socializing with strangers was her thing. She had this under control.
"Great, then let's go! There isn't much terrain to cover any—"
A yell split the regular noises of the town, and turning to look at the source, they saw Sturgeon hanging onto a long vine and Penguin and Shachi pushing him when he came close to the bridge they were standing at.
"Let's go, I don't want to be here when someone has to pick him from the ground," Saki said.
"Coward," Mack replied, taking another piece of fruit in his mouth and munching nonchalantly while his crewmates flirted with death.
—
The quick trip around the town took them closer to the clearing Saki had seen before, and when Greta caught her staring down, she clarified before she could ask.
"We cook down there. Doing it on the trees isn't safe." She knocked on the bark of the nearest one. "This wood is special. Durable, doesn't decay, but it's very flammable. An unlucky spark could set everything on fire." She looked at the tree thoughtfully. "People pay a lot for it, though."
"That sounds like disaster waiting to happen."
"We're careful." Then she pointed to a building across the clearing. "You can sell stuff over there. I'll introduce you to the owner."
Saki's eyes followed her finger in time to see another pink bird flying towards them and landing on a branch above.
"Good evening!" It squawked. "Good evening!"
"It's afternoon, though?" Saki commented.
The bird replied. "Why?!"
Saki frowned at the bird and looked at Greta. "Does it understand me?"
Greta laughed loudly. "No, pink toucans just repeat things they've heard. There's a lot of them. You get used to it."
The prospect of hearing them long enough to verify that was ghastly.
"Now that you mention it, there was one screaming for help when the monkey was chasing you." She said. "Was it copying you then?"
Greta thought before replying, trying to remember something. See, taking time to think things through wasn't something Tsubaki did often. The difference was becoming crystal clear. She was absolutely grasping at straws, wasn't she?
"Yeah, probably," she decided. "They live many years too, so they latch onto nonsense and spout it all the time. Don't pay them any mind."
The bird thought it was a fine moment to add his two cents. "Underpants sale, only today!"
"That's advice I can follow," Saki told Greta, ignoring the bird.
"I'm sure you don't take advice very often," the girl replied with amusement.
"What clued you in?" Saki feigned confusion. "Was it the tattoos? The piercings? The scars?"
"The being a pirate part, but sure, those too."
"Ah, well." Her left hand unconsciously went to readjust with one of the piercings in her ear. "That's been a pretty god decision, all things considered."
"Really?" Greta's smile went away, swallowed by deep curiosity as he observed Saki. "Don't you miss having a normal life?"
Saki was never sure what in her life experiences should be considered normal. "Nah, I'm better off now. I have fun and the company's good."
"Are you the only woman on board?"
"At least so far."
"And you don't get tired of them?"
If Saki was completely honest, it was true that she missed having female company every now and then. She remembered a time when she'd tried to explain to the guys that she'd kept the appalling blue dress she fell into the sewer in and no one understood why, even when she explained it had pockets.
Men could be so dense at times.
"It'd be nice to have other girls around," she admitted, "but I don't have any complaints about them. I can spend time alone if I'm not feeling social."
"I do that too," Greta said with a tiny smile. "I go into the forest for a while and come back when I'm ready for civilization. I know this jungle like the back of my hand," she declared, hands on hips and chest puffed out.
Cute. Saki laughed quietly. "Good to know that we won't get lost."
"Was that ever in question?" She said with fake indignation. "Let's get moving, I don't want to keep you away for long."
Saki followed after the girl, and the toucan kept crying out strident 'whys' until they were far away from it.
—
After shopping around and scaring a whole lot of people every time he spoke, Bepo was pretty exhausted. He wasn't used to choosing groceries, or to distributing tasks to the crew, and he didn't really know how much they needed to stock up until the next island, since Mack was in charge of that, as Saki had before him, and he didn't want to look farther back in time because it was unanimously acknowledged that that had been a disastrous period, and really, neither he nor Law needed to bring it up and give ammunition so the others could take cheap shots at them. They were busy people whose strengths lay elsewhere.
Besides, Bepo knew he was still the better cook.
All in all, he couldn't wait to join back with the others. It was great to have subordinates, but it was not so great to actually have to order them around to do important things. Bepo had realized those weeks to which extent he relied on Law and the people who took care of his basic necessities while he was at the helm, drawing maps, or napping.
At least the guys could come up with edible food, but he wasn't sure they'd been very good at cleaning the ship. Saki was going to chase them around with a wet mop when she came back, and with good reason.
Bepo and Law often talked about their impressions of an island when they arrived, and he was missing this routine too. Doing it over the phone didn't feel right, partly because he wasn't sure who could be listening, and mostly because he was having trouble putting in words what was bothering him, but something was out of place.
He didn't know if it was the obnoxious pink birds screaming nonsense all the time or the murky weather and location that made the local's mood sort of somber, but Bepo noticed he was feeling tense without good reason. Like he was waiting for something to happen at any second.
Law would probably tell him not to worry, and that would make Bepo feel better, and then Law would start worrying himself in his stead, because that was the kind of person he was.
Bepo had to put on his big bear pants for the time being and deal with it.
He was carrying a crate full of produce – perhaps he didn't know how much was needed and he wasn't fond of it, but he knew Mack always insisted on having lemons and broccoli and all that nasty greenery on hand, and Bepo knew better than to disobey the commands of the man who prepared his food – towards the sub when he saw two sailors tying a boat to a bollard.
"Excuse me," he said, approaching them. "Can you tell me how long it takes for the Log Pose to set?"
One of them turned around right away, became slack-jawed and stared at Bepo in silence. The one finishing the knot replied, "It's thirty hours. But you should wait until—" He was interrupted by his companion tapping on his shoulder. "What do you want now— Holy sea cow!"
"Why should I wait?" Bepo prompted him to continue.
"Ah… Right…" The man regained his bearings. "We've heard reports of a storm to the west. It'll be on us in a few hours."
"Are storms here so bad that you can't sail?"
The man made a face. "I wouldn't risk it."
Bepo nodded dutifully. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
As he walked away, Bepo thought he heard the man say, 'That's one realistic fursuit.'
—
Saki understood what Greta meant by being careful when most of the restaurant's menu consisted of a variety of salads and dried fish and meat. Not that she minded, because she was in the mood for greens after weeks stuck in a ship without any fresh vegetables, and the sticky heat of the island made sure that nobody in their right mind wanted a warm plate. She wished with all her heart not having to step onto another summer island for the remainder of the year.
There was a fair amount of people in the restaurant, and nobody seemed to pay them any mind. In fact, they paid them so little attention that it looked like they were purposefully ignoring them.
No outright rudeness, though. The waiter took their order and served the food with the utmost correctness and just made sure not to linger.
By the time they were done, it was night outside, and a new sight greeted them.
Hanging along the bridges and platforms around the buildings, many tiny lights hidden among the foliage illuminated the way.
"Nice," Shachi said. "We'll miss out on knowing how it feels to fall from this height."
"Really," Sturgeon replied sarcastically, touching the violently purple bruise on his cheek.
Saki had heard him yell bloody murder and drop from the vine on the way back with Greta, but a branch had broken the fall, so he was healthy enough to complain.
She lingered behind the group for a moment to look at the closest light source, and realized it was a small lightbulb. Cables covered in very thick rubber ran along the tree branches to connect the entire network of lights.
"Kind of odd to see electricity in here," Law commented.
"The wood of these trees is very flammable, so I guess it's safer than candles." And then she added, "Greta told me."
He hummed. "Mack said she took you on a tour."
"I have a feeling she's the only person that doesn't mind having us here."
"She's a kid," Law replied, as if the reason was obvious, and if Saki thought about it, she couldn't think of another reason. "The sensible thing is not wanting us around."
"That's true," she conceded, and then remembered something. "Hey, have you been able to read the newspaper? She said we were all over the news not long ago."
"Not yet. I'll look for one tomorrow."
She had expected more urgency from him to get updated on what was going on in the world. "Do you think our bounties have gone up?"
"They have."
She did a double take. "Waaait," her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you hiding?"
He smirked. "Bepo told me. The Polar Tang has a subscription."
"Since when do they read the papers?" She asked before shaking her head in dismissal. "Why didn't you tell us?!"
"It was meant to be a surprise," he bullshitted.
"How dare you," she complained. "So do we celebrate when we're back together?"
"I don't think that's ever been in question."
Saki glanced thoughtfully at the lights again before asking, "How much is mine?"
Law had been expecting the question no doubt, because a smug smile escaped him as he snorted. "That's a secret."
"How's it fair that you know but I don't?"
"Life isn't fair."
"You're the worst."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment," she protested just because she felt she had to, not because she thought it would accomplish anything.
She assumed right.
"I can't hear you over the sound of the birds," he said as he began to walk.
Saki tried to locate the nearest one, who was just screaming very loudly. "I was hoping they'd shut up at night."
"The lights must be keeping them awake. Come on, start walking. I don't want to lose sight of that bunch for more than a minute."
"It's hard being a single parent," Saki replied very seriously as she followed after the guys, leaving a momentarily confused Law behind until he realized she was making fun of him and went after her.
—
The next morning saw Saki and Shachi dragging their sorry asses to the nearest coffee shop they could find. It was so early that the streetlights were still on, the sky was a risky sort of cloudy, and their clothes were soaked by a persistent drizzle. Worse still, they were sweating despite the bad weather.
"I'm going to catch one and pluck all of its feathers," Shachi said. "That'll give it reason to scream."
"I'm usually against violence towards animals, but just this once I'll help."
The birds hadn't shut up all night, and without the backgrounds sounds of daily life, they sounded even louder than during the day.
When she and Shachi had foraged into the town for caffeine, they had left a half-comatose Penguin drooling on the floor, a cranky Sturgeon because not only he couldn't sleep, he also couldn't smoke, and a captain whose soul looked like it was about to detach from his body.
At the same time, through the nebulous haze of sleepiness, they noticed that Mack was sharpening his knives, and decided that the wisest course of action was to vacate the premises, though even that couldn't ensure their safety, because they Mack would be able to throw a blade across the entire town. It wasn't that big.
The owner of the coffee shop laughed at them when they came in, dragging water onto the newspaper pages he had laid on the entrance. Their appearance seemed to put the other customers in a better mood, too, and some even smiled sympathetically at them.
Misery loved company, and it seemed that proving they were miserable themselves, instead of helping to make others so, was enough to get the townspeople to warm up to them a little. How nice.
Law had been right about them, of course. No one really wanted to have pirates around if they could help it, and though Saki didn't want to flatter herself too much, they were surprisingly decent compared to some of the guys sailing out there. It was normal, even healthy, that they would be wary of them.
They were waiting for their coffees at the counter when something that had been bothering her since the day before clicked in her mind, something she hadn't been able to put her finger on at the time.
The hunters had almost attacked them when they thought they were Marines. It was them saying they were pirates that got them civil enough to talk, and Bepo's opportune call had helped to that end.
She was curious now, but didn't think it was wise to ask the first person she came across. Maybe Greta? No, she didn't want to say something wrong and lose their free ticket to Bepo and the others.
She'd talk to Law later, if she could catch him alone some time. If something odd was going on, she was sure he'd have noticed it.
Shachi mistook Saki's glassy look for mere lack of sleep. "You sure you aren't going to drop the coffees on the way back?"
"No," she said sincerely. "Are you?"
"Good point."
Saki's gaze lazily drifted to her right, and her eyes widened when she noticed a rack in a corner of the shop holding several magazines and a newspaper, and made for it without hesitation like a magpie goes after shiny.
The first page was Straw Hat Luffy's face and a picture of a destroyed building. The Tower of Justice at Enies Lobby, to be precise.
"The absolute madman," she said to herself, though she'd admit that in between the admiration she also felt a blow to the Heart Pirates' collective pride, because the kid had the gall to one-up them, and so soon after they had wrecked a Marine base themselves.
Inside the newspaper, there was also news of that Eustass Kid guy razing another village, and of X-Drake sinking a warship. Just a regular Friday.
A small column mentioned that, at the rate they were advancing, several newbie crews would pass through the Sabaody Archipelago at the same time, including theirs. The paper talked about eleven Supernova at once in the same place. That sounded like a wonderful time waiting for them, but maybe also an opportunity for Saki...
She leafed through the pages quickly, and the wanted posters inside fell out and landed at her feet. With a barely restrained groan, she knelt down to pick them up. The Straw Hats faces were the primary attraction of that issue, and she stopped at Nico Robin's new poster. She seriously looked like a recolor of the woman in Saki's picture of her mother.
She kept picking up posters, and was gauging how much of a bad idea was to seek her out when and if they reached Sabaody at the same time when she saw a few familiar faces looking up from the floor.
Then she saw the numbers under the pictures and blurted out, "What the hell?!"
—
"Seventy million?! I'm at seventy million and you didn't tell me?!"
Saki was waving her bounty poster in front of Law's smug face in order to direct her nervous energy to something that wasn't shaking him by the shoulders, which was what she wanted to do in her heart of hearts.
"And it was all worth it," he replied.
She didn't get it. She liked the number, but she didn't understand the logic behind it. "Why is it so high? It more than doubled. This doesn't make any sense."
"Are you complaining?" Shachi complained in turn as well. "Can you pass me a couple ten million?"
"I think Bepo needs those more," Penguin commented, looking at the poster of their favorite furry friend. "Poor guy."
Though tempted to do the pirate thing and escape with the coffees and the paper free of charge, Saki had done the wise thing, which basically consisted on not angering the locals and not running while carrying hot beverages, and picked up a newspaper from a newsstand.
It arrived soaked at the house, but she was way past caring, and dared anyone to complain about the state of the outer pages under the threat of coffee launching.
"Mack's has made a good jump too," Shachi said, reading the description. "They even mention you are related to an officer."
"Let me see," Sturgeon said, scooting up closer to Shachi as he handed him the poster. "What the fuck? Your name's Maccarello?"
"And he has a surname," Penguin swiftly remarked.
"Here we go again," Mack muttered.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and not a minute later, a downpour so strong that they couldn't see out the window came crashing down.
Law didn't bother to hide his disappointment. "I don't think we're going anywhere today."
Perhaps they'd be lucky and could wait out the rain, but after a few minutes, that hope was shattered by a person covered head to toe with a yellow raincoat knocking on the door and cracking it open.
"Sorry, but I don't think we can go into the forest today," Greta said, peeking into the house. "Can I come in?"
—
Bepo was holed up in the bridge, trying to make out through the rain what was happening in the docks. Several men were loading logs onto a ship, and he didn't need to hear them to assume they were cursing up a bigger storm than the one upon them.
He didn't think they were getting the rest of the crew back in that weather, and that was enough to make this a bad day. When the rain let up a little, he opened a window, one of the few in the whole Polar tang that weren't welded shut, to let the wind through. He didn't mind if some rain fell inside as long as he could stop sweating for a moment.
He noticed, to his surprise, that the birds were silent. The only sounds were those of the rain and the men working down.
He leaned against the window's frame, unzipped the top of his jumpsuit and closed his eyes to enjoy the breeze.
Unfortunately, with it also came the yelling of the sailors below.
"Shit, be careful!"
"Sorry, it's slipping!"
"You two shut up and work faster!"
"Yeah, and let's drop a few logs in the water while we're at it!" The first one commented sarcastically.
"Don't even joke about that," someone else said. "They'll hang us if we mess up this shipment."
"What's so special about it?"
"It's the only one this week."
One of the men said something that Bepo didn't hear clearly, and the discussion that ensued was too quiet to hear.
He was on the verge of sleep when a man raised his volume all of a sudden. "I'm saying that if those savages from Kalawa weren't hogging all the good wood we wouldn't be this screwed!"
He opened his eyes.
"Who cares, complaining isn't gonna get us anywhere."
The conversation was cut with that, and Bepo was left awake, sweaty and curious. He filed the memory of this exchange for later to tell Law about it.
He was just thinking about this and if it had anything to do with the weird mood in town when the Den Den Mushi on the desk rang, and he lunged for it so fast that the snail looked at him in panic before he took the receiver in his paw.
"Captain?"
"Hi, Bepo," Law replied. He sounded a bit down, which Bepo didn't like, but it was good to hear him anyway. "We won't be able to come today. It looks like it'll clear up tomorrow, so we'll be on the way then."
"I thought as much," he said, hopes crushed but happy nonetheless to be talking to him. "Are you all okay? I think I called at a bad moment last time."
"Yeah, we're hanging out in a house until it stops raining. We also got the new…" He trailed away for a moment. "The newspaper," he corrected himself.
Bepo wasn't sure what had happened there. "Oh, that's good to hear. By the way, Captain. Do you know if the place you're at is called Kalawa?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Just curious. I've heard the name in town."
The was a small pause before Law asked, "Are you okay?"
Bepo hesitated. He still didn't want to discuss this by phone and worry him unnecessarily. "Yeah, just tired. We've been making preparations to set sail as soon as you get here."
Law chuckled on the other side. "We'll be there soon."
"I'm waiting," Bepo replied with a smile.
—
Greta, who had shown up to bring them raincoats and sandwiches, aside from telling them that they had to postpone the expedition, stuck around for a while talking with the crew, mostly with Saki, and went back home with the promise to pick them up the next day.
She was so nice that it made Saki feel uncomfortable for feeling awkward around her, and after she was gone, and after way too much time confined within four walls with everybody else, she put on a raincoat, pulled the hood over her frizzy hair with great difficulty, thanks to the reigning humidity, and walked outside to sit on the branch-bench from the day before.
The rain wasn't so harsh anymore, but it didn't want to go away. The colors of dusk painted the tree houses in curious shades, and the people coming in and out of them didn't seem to be too bothered by the rain. It was nothing, compared to before.
She almost wished they were back at the Marine ship. In that town, there was no sea to be seen, the trees revealed a lone circle of sky, and looking past the limits of the town, there was solely a maze of trees and branches and leaves. She guessed she wasn't a forest kind of person, because it made her feel horribly claustrophobic. Combined with the unease of the townspeople, and Greta reminding her of Tsubaki every time she showed up, her thoughts were starting to go down a road she didn't like.
Saki wasn't sure what was worse, knowing that someone was gone for sure, or having to carry the uncertainty and, consequently, the hope that they'd be fine. She just wanted not to think. She wanted to be home. Her room, her bed, her shower, her sketchbook, her books, her inks.
She leaned her head against the tree trunk and tried to leave her mind blank, concentrating on the raindrops sliding from the trees' leaves.
It did work, because after a while she was unsure how much time had passed, and only noticed it was dark and the rain had gone back to drizzle when someone came out of the house.
"Have you been here this whole time?"
She looked up. It was Law. "How long has it been?"
"About two hours."
"Wow." She blinked several times, still not quite back to reality. "I don't remember the last time I spaced out for so long."
"Spit it out," Law said, and the words he chose were much harsher than they actually sounded to her. "What's wrong with you?"
She thought about being open, but it was too much work. She was sincere, though. "I'm not going to whine to you."
"It isn't whining if I'm asking you."
"I'm saying I'd like to hold onto the last shreds of self-respect that I can still find in me."
He stared at her for a moment, and Saki wasn't sure if he was thinking or trying to apply silent pressure.
It was the former. "I want to get out of here too, you know."
She smiled at him, and it felt like the only genuine one she'd shown that day. "Yeah, I know."
He seemed to accept that answer, and was about to head back when Saki remembered her realization from the morning.
"Hey, Law," she called, and he looked at her with interest. "These people are weird." She motioned with her head towards the locals on the bridges.
He regarded them for a moment and nodded very lightly at Saki. That sign that it wasn't just her imagination already put her more at ease.
What he said next just made it even better. "We're out of here tomorrow even if we have to take the ship again to go to Bepo."
Saki grinned at him. "Have I told you later that you're the bestest captain in the whole wide world?"
He turned around from her so quickly that she didn't catch his expression, but she did hear a huff.
"Get ready, we're going out soon," he said with his back towards her as he quickly fled into the house.
It was hard to stay sad with someone so attentive to detail around, Saki thought, taking off the hood of the raincoat and trying to no avail to flatten her ballooning hair. She needed a haircut before Sabaody if she was going to be presentable in front of important people. Colleagues. Whatever the other crews were in relation to her.
Then she recalled her captain's tattoos which she hadn't been allowed to fix yet and, while it remained true that it was very difficult to be sad in his presence, she realized that despair wasn't out of the question.