edited on February 22, 2021
Okay, so the truth was. I was a shitty ninja. Like really shitty. I discovered very quickly that I didn't have the patience for sneaking around. I made it inside of the mansion perimeters, easily jumping over the high fence surrounding the estate. There really wasn't any way of sneaking into the mansion without completely giving myself away. I was inside of the courtyard area now and looked around, scoping the area. Finally, I spotted a window, with a conveniently placed tree planted beside it.
"Ninjas break into houses right?" I asked myself quietly, then nodded in confirmation.
"Ninjas are open to all possibilities," I snickered, and began climbing the tree right next to the window. I made it to the top and jerked in surprise when I realized that the window was not unoccupied. There was a girl sitting on a bed beside the open window, reading. I debated my next move, and realized there was really only one thing I could do; I grimaced. Zoro was not gonna be happy with me. I saw no other choice though.
I reached over and knocked on the window. The girl jerked and dropped her book, quickly looking over at me. I grinned at her sheepishly. I definitely look like a freak right now.
The window was quickly pulled up, the girl poking her head out. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and a super pale complexion. The girl looked like she'd never stepped foot into the sun. "Who are you?' she said, eyebrows high in suspicion. "What do you want?"
I held out my hands complacently, trying to show her I was innocent. "I just wanna talk. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I paused then, and took a chance. "I'm friends with Usopp." "Usopp?" she breathed, and her face smoothed out. I silently breathed a sigh of relief. Don't know what I was gonna do if that didn't work.
"Yep. I'm new in town and was just checking out the area. Usopp told me who lived at this mansion, and I just wanted to introduce myself." What a shit story.
"I'm Aela," I introduced, and she smiled at me. "Hello. My name is Kaya." "That's such a pretty name," I said truthfully and gave her a huge friendly smile. She giggled at me, and so began our conversation.
Fifteen minutes later
"...and then...he shows up and he's all 'Aela, where's my shorts?!" Kaya burst into laughter and I joined her, banging on the tree branch in front of me. Kaya was clutching her stomach, laughing so hard tears streamed down her cheeks. The two of us had become fast friends, and I quickly dove into telling her embarrassing stories about Zoro. "How could you?" she questioned me, but she had a giant smile on her face. "How could I not?!" I shot back, and we laughed loudly with each other again.
"Aela?" I heard then, and quickly looked down. Standing at the base of the tree was Usopp. "Hey buddy!" I shouted down, and seconds later he was climbing the tree. "What are you doing here?" he questioned accusingly, and I smiled at him sheepishly, scooting over to make room for him on the branch. "I was just saying hello to Kaya here. You told me so much about her, and I just had to introduce myself." I looked into his eyes when I spoke. He stared at me for a few seconds longer. "...Right," he nodded, turning towards Kaya. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Usopp," she said, smiling softly at him. At her smile, Usopp's cheeks heated up, and I grinned at him cheekily. Looks like Long Nose has a little crush on my new friend here. We sat there almost awkwardly for a moment, before Usopp spoke. "Should I finish my story of how I, the Great Pirate Captain Usopp, faced off 300 men alone?" "I would love that!" Kaya smiled, and Usopp continued his tale.
I listened in awe as Usopp weaved his story. It was full of action and imagery, and he lowered and raised his voice at the perfect moments. I, along with Kaya, was enraptured in the story, so much so that when a voice yelled at us, I jumped and almost fell off the tree branch. Usopp caught me and pulled me back up, and I smiled at him in thanks.
"Yo!" Luffy shouted and I laughed. "Captain! Brother!" I greeted, "and...kids?" I added, noticing the new additions. "What happened to ninja mode, Aela?" Zoro questioned me, and I sheepishly giggled, an arm going behind me to rub my head. "Ninja mode?" Usopp questioned, and I cleared my throat. "This is Kaya!" I cut in quickly, gesturing towards the surprised girl. "She's the mistress of this mansion."
"Yo!" Luffy repeated, greeting the girl in his Luffy way. "They heard of my reputation from afar," Usopp threw his arm over my shoulder, and I side eyed him. "They came to seek me out. They're the newest members of my crew!"
"Yeah!" Luffy agreed, and I looked down at the teenager, my eyebrows rising in surprise. "Wait..hey that's not right!" the dark haired captain quickly corrected, and I snorted. "I wanted to ask you a question," he continued, directing his question to Kaya, and the girl's eyes grew big.
"Oh?" she blinked her dark eyes curiously. "Yep," he confirmed, nodding. "We were wondering if you had a ship you could give us." I squirmed in discomfort at the blunt question. "Don't just ask her like that!" Nami yelled, smacking Luffy. The girl opened her mouth to answer, but all of a sudden, I felt a new presence join us, and seconds later, a stern voice cut into the conversation.
"What is the meaning of this?!" The man that spoke had a very deep voice. He had black, greased back hair that shone in the sunlight. He wore spectacles on his face that rested towards the middle of his nose. He was as tall as Zoro, but with a very rigid posture. He wore a butler's uniform, black suit with golden markings on each side of the blazer.
"This guy stands like he has a stick up his ass," I muttered to Usopp. He glanced over at me but didn't laugh. If anything he tensed up even more.
"We're just visiting Miss Kaya here," I called down to him, and he turned his head up towards the branch Usopp and I were sitting on, studying me. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I've met any of you," he said slowly, and I wanted to point out that he didn't sound very sorry at all. "We're friends of Usopp's," I continued. "Usopp?" the man sniffed in disdain. "That boy is the town liar. It's best not to trust him."
"What?!" Usopp yelled, affronted, but the butler continued, undeterred, "I do not appreciate you breaking in here without permission!" I tilted my head at the man. What a douche.
"Who is this guy?" Luffy asked suddenly. "Klahadore.." Kaya breathed, smiling nervously at the tense man. "You see," she began explaining, "these people are -" The man raised a hand to silence her, and the young girl's voice cut off. "Save your excuses for later." My nose flared at his words. Who the hell does this guy think he is?
"You must all immediately leave the premises. Or do you have some business here?" "We need a ship!" Luffy explained, hopeful. "I can't help you," butler man shot down Luffy's request, making the rubber man slump over in disappointment. Zoro patted his back half-assedly in support.
"You," the older man spat out then, and I directed my attention to him. "The guards have reported seeing you around the estate. Do you have any business being here?"
"Um, yes I do!" Usopp started, "A legendary mole entered this area, and I'm trying to capture him!" I sweat dropped at the dumb lie. That's all he could come up with? Butler man snorted at the lie, lowering his head to glare at Usopp over the rim of his glasses. "You've a gift for lying, I see." He directed his next statement to the rest of us then. "I would advise you and your friends to not associate yourself with that boy. He is nothing but the son of a filthy pirate. Stay away from Mistress Kaya," he ordered, voice dark and cold.
The air became tense at the poisonous words. Usopp was gripping the tree branch tightly, his hand turning white. He had a dark expression on his face. I looked down and noticed that my captain was also not taking this sort of talk lightly. "Filthy?" Usopp whispered, voice raspy.
The butler, Klahadore, adjusted his spectacles. "You and Mistress are from two different worlds. Is it money you're after? How much?"
"You've gone too far, Klahadore!" Kaya screamed suddenly, and I looked at the girl, impressed. For a sickly girl, she could yell. "You owe Usopp an apology!"
Klahadore merely glanced at Kaya dismissively. "Mistress Kaya, why should I apologize to this trash? I only speak the truth." He turned to face Usopp, pushing his glasses up with the hell of his hand. "I will say that I feel sorry for you, however. You must truly hate your great idiot of a father for abandoning his family and village because of his lust for treasure."
I sucked in a breath as the energy surrounding Usopp spiked. He was about to -
"Don't you dare!" Usopp roared, and I gasped again as he leapt off the branch towards Klahadore, tackling him to the ground. He threw back his arm, launching his fist towards the butler. "Don't you dare insult my father!" The butler's head fell back at the force of the punch, Kaya and the three boys screaming in shock. I guess they've never seen Usopp violent before. I didn't blame the boy though. Hell, I wanted to punch the guy and this had nothing to do with me.
"Captain!" the three boys from before cried out in alarm towards Usopp. I jumped down next to my brother, feeling more confident with both feet on the ground. Usopp got to his feet and glared at the dark haired man, who shakily got up and adjusted his spectacles. "You see?" he stuttered out, and I narrowed my eyes at the obvious act. "You immediately resort to violence! Like father, like son!"
"SHUT UP!" Usopp roared. "I'm proud that my father is a pirate! I'm proud that he's a brave warrior of the sea! You're right. I am an exaggerator but I'll never lie about my pride to be related by blood to a pirate. I'm the son of a pirate!" The dark haired teenager's voice rang out loud and proud, and it shook with strong emotion.
"That's quite a twisted way of putting things," the butler sniffed haughtily. He dusted off his suit and pants. "You're the undeniable proof of his savage blood. You run around spouting lies and act violent whenever you're angry. And to top it off, you cozy up to the lady of the house so you can get her fortune."
"Hey!" I shouted, stepping forward. That was a low accusation. "What?" Usopp cried. "I only-" "The fact that your father is a pirate is proof in and of itself that you'd hatch such a scheme!" Klahadore shouted, and I grit my teeth. This guy was really starting to piss me off.
Usopp lunged forward and grabbed Klahadore by the collar, pulling his fist back. "Damn it! You still won't let up?" "Please stop, Usopp-san!" Kaya suddenly cried out. Usopp glanced at Kaya, fist stopping in mid-air. If I didn't know that she was sick before, I did now. Her complexion was even paler than before; she was sweating and holding her head up with her hand like it had suddenly become too heavy. "Klahadore isn't a bad person! He's just trying too hard to do what's best for me!"
Bullshit, I thought to myself, but one sharp look from my brother kept me from saying my thoughts aloud. Usopp's jaw tensed but his grip slowly loosened from the butler's shirt. Klahadore noticed this and slapped Usopp's hand away. "Leave this place," he said sternly. "Never come to this mansion again." Kaya let out a shaky breath at this, sounding as though she were close to tears.
"Yeah," Usopp agreed, letting his hand drop to his side. "No need to tell me. I''ll never come back here again." He sent one last look up to Kaya, his face dark and closed off. He then stormed off past the butler towards the perimeter of the mansion, hands stuffed deep within his pockets. His three followers ran up behind him. "Our captain is not that kind of guy!" they shouted. "Yeah! Stupid head!"
"STUPID HEAD!" Captain shouted, veins bulging from his neck, and Zoro quickly grabbed Luffy from behind so that the rubber man couldn't charge at the butler. Klahadore glared at all of us, then. "All of you, leave at once!" I raised my eyebrow at the man, immediately looking at my Captain. I don't follow orders from anyone else. Well, except Zoro. Sometimes.
"We're leaving," Luffy said, stilling in Zoro's grasp. I nodded and looked towards Kaya. "Goodbye, Kaya! It was nice talking with you. Feel better okay?" She just blinked at me sadly, giving me a small smile. I started walking behind my brother, and then stopped, looking back at the girl one final time.
"Usopp is your friend right?" I questioned and she started, mouth open in surprise, before nodding firmly. "Of course." "Hmm," I nodded back, continuing, "He's a good friend to you. You have the final say on who you can be friends with. No one can control you."
"Let's go Aela," Zoro said softly, and I smiled at her one final time before following my crew towards the exit. We passed by the butler, and my arm gently grazed his suit. I tensed. This guy. He had a bad aura. I resisted the urge to grab on to the back of my brother's shirt like I used to as a child. I wasn't a little kid anymore.
We walked until we were at the outskirts of the village. The three boys sat down along a fence that lined the dirt road. As soon as we all got settled, I sighed, looking at my crew. "I'm sorry guys," I said, head bowed. "I didn't do a great job." "Nah, you did fine," Zoro said, plopping his hand on top of my head. "That guy was just an ass."
"I wonder where Usopp is," Luffy said, putting his hands behind his head. "Captain usually goes to the south shore when he's upset," one of the boys spoke up then.
"Ah," Luffy spoke up. "I'll go find him then," he said with a grin. He looked over at the swordsman. "Zoro?"
"I'll stay here with them," the green eyed man stated with a single nod. I huffed in dislike and Nami looked back and forth between Captain and Zoro curiously. "Captain I…." I began, voicing my displeasure at his command for me to be watched over.
Suddenly, Luffy's hand was on my head. I looked up to see what is now referred to as 'Luffy's grin.' "I know you can look after yourself," he simply said. "Help Zoro take care of everyone okay?" My eyebrows drew together a little bit, searching his eyes for any discrepancies in his words, but I found none. A smile stretched across my face and I nodded, determined to watch over the others.
"Shishishi," he laughed, and his hand retreated. "We'll meet back up later, k guys?" We watched him walk off, and then he was gone. "There's something off with that butler guy," Zoro-nii spoke and I rolled my eyes. "Yeah I think we all got that, brother. Dude is bat-shit crazy."
I walked over towards the three boys. They were sitting in a semi-circle with their backs to the fence. They had pulled out a deck of cards and one of them was starting to shuffle the deck. "Yo!" I spoke in a friendly voice. They looked up at me, smiling hesitantly. I kneeled down to be eye level with them. "My name is Roronoa Aela. You guys were at the cliffs with Usopp before, right? That was a pretty cool trick you pulled off with the flags."
"Thanks," the one in the middle said shyly. "It was Usopp's idea."
"He's our Captain," another jumped in.
"We're the Usopp Pirates!"
"Yeah?" I replied with a grin. "So what happened after I left the restaurant?" I directed this question more to Nami and Zoro.
"Well," Nami began, huffing with annoyance. She hoisted herself up to sit on top of the fence. "These three came running into the restaurant after you left. They thought we had eaten Usopp."
Silence.
"...what?" I asked, more than a little confused. I looked over at the kids then for an explanation. One of them spoke up, blushing. "It was an honest mistake, okay? Luffy's belly was huge and Captain Usopp was gone! What were we supposed to think?"
"That we were eating at a restaurant!" Nami shouted, shark teeth. "Ohhhh, yeah I can see why you guys got confused…" I nodded to the kids as though Nami hadn't spoken. Zoro snorted. "Idiot!" she directed at me, shaking her fist in my direction.
"So you guys must be really close to Usopp then, huh?"
"Yeah!" all three of them shouted, and I laughed. How sweet. I could see that they were worried about their Captain. "Hey how bout I tell you guys about the time that I sold Zoro-nii's shorts for dessert money?" I wiggled my eyebrows.
"You'll do no such thing, brat!" Zoro shouted, and smacked me over the head. "I'm gonna get a concussion from you two doing that so much!" I grunted, tears coming to my eyes as I held my head. "Well stop being stupid!" Brother and Nami shouted, and I whimpered.
"They're so mean to me boys!" I cried, launching myself at the closest one. I grabbed him up and hugged him in front of me like he was my human shield. He appeared startled for a moment, but then began giggling, making me smile in triumph.
I began telling a different story to the three boys, one that wouldn't cause me to receive bodily harm. At some point, one of the kids got up and wandered off, making Zoro look at the two remaining in question. They reassured him that he would be back. Apparently, it was quite common for him to go off by himself, then come back screaming when he spotted something that freaked him out.
Ten minutes later, that piece of information was confirmed. "Onion's back," I reported absentmindedly, concentrating on the card game. My tongue stuck out and my eyes were narrowed in concentration.
"What?" one of the kids asked. Seconds later..."AAAAAHHHHH! BAD NEWS!" Onion screamed, racing back towards us. I looked up in surprise at the volume of his voice. What the hell..
"A weird guy is walking backwards this way!"
"Liar," his two friends remarked in unison, looking at me instead of their friend, faces full of awe. I grinned at them with a close eyed smile. It was always fun to see people's reactions to my devil fruit. Onion stopped in front of us, stomping his foot and pointing in the direction that he'd run from. "It's the truth! Just look."
I concentrated for a bit, expanding my senses. I couldn't see anything but that didn't mean much.
There. My eyes widened and I stood up from my seated position on the ground, going to stand beside Zoro. He'd been taking a nap, and was seated on the ground propped up under a tree. "He's right," I confirmed, Zoro and Nami glancing at me. Sure enough, a man came into our view, and he was indeed walking backwards. The soles of his feet slid back and forth while never leaving the ground.
He came to a stop right in front of the kids. He turned to us, revealing wide, thin lips and heart shaped sunglasses. He had a long, cylindrical goatee which was wrapped in red and black striped fabric. "Oy!" he spoke. "Who's calling me a weird guy? I am not weird."
"You're definitely a weirdo," I responded back, and for once, Zoro must've agreed with me, because he didn't even scold me for my bluntness. "Don't be stupid," he responded back, "I'm just an ordinary hypnotist passing through." The man had one hand on his hat, tilting it down, while the other rested on his stomach. It looked as though he was constantly stuck in a dance pose.
"Hypnotist?" me and the three kids responded at the same time. The three kids had stars in their eyes, but I spat the word out in disgust. Hypnotists created fake emotions in people. They made them feel things they didn't want to. They went into the same category as clowns in my book.
"Show us something!" the children pleaded. "Do something!" "What?" the man growled. "Don't be dumb! Why would I want to show my powers to a bunch of strangers?!" Seconds after he spoke though, he had his hand out with a chakram dangling from a string.
"Alright. Watch this closely," he said to the boys. "Wait...so you are going to do it?" Zoro asked, as he and Nami sweat dropped. I was super uneasy around this guy, and slowly walked over to stand beside the boys. If this guy tried anything funny…
"You'll feel sleepy at the count of 'one, two, Jango!" the hypnotist instructed as the chakram began to swing back and forth. "Alright, here we go..One..two...Jango!"
Instantly, the boys fell onto their backs and began to snore loudly. The hypnotist himself did the same thing. "Ummm…" I said with a weak chuckle. A vein began throbbing in the back of Zoro's head. "Oy! What's with this guy?" he ground out. "I don't like him, Brother," I spoke my feelings then, and Zoro looked up at me, studying me for a second. "It'll be fine," he said simply, and I wiggled my nose, but tried to relax. He hadn't done anything...yet.
"So what do we do now?" I said, looking at my crew members. "I'll wake him.." Nami sighed and walked up to the man, kicking him. "Oi! Wake up! You're not supposed to hypnotize yourself!"
The man stirred and then stopped. With his sunglasses over his eyes, I couldn't tell if he had his eyes open or was still asleep. He then jerked into a sitting position, making me jump a little. "I'm up!" he announced, angling his head to place a hand over his hat. "I'm awake! Ah! And I'm late!"
He began moonwalking down the road again, posing with his chin down. The three of us silently watched him walk towards the south side of the road until he disappeared from sight. We then pivoted our eyesight to the sleeping children. Without saying anything, I headed towards the boys. I nudged my brother with my foot,, making him grunt, but he got up from his napping position. We each took a kid and woke them up...delicately of course.
Bonk!
Smack!
Zoro-nii and Nami smacked their kid hard on the forehead, Nami using a closed fist and Zoro with the hilt of his katana. I took a different approach of course, and began tickling the shit out of Onion. He began twitching uncontrollably, until finally, he set up with a gasp, tears running down his face. "AHAHAHAHAHAA! STOP THAT!" he yelled, jumping away from me, and I giggled, throwing my hands up in a sign of peace.
"Luffy and Usopp have been gone for a long time," Zoro murmured. After that very strange interruption, we'd gone back to waiting. I furrowed my eyebrows in agreement. I was trying to ignore how much time had passed, but it was hard to look past it now. "Captain got quite the shock today," one of the boys spoke up. "He must've needed a longer time than usual to get over it."
"AHHHHH!" the boy named Pepper screamed, and I jumped again. I was getting sick of the random yelling. He leapt to his feet and pointed towards the horizon. "Captain is coming!"
"What?" Zoro, Nami, and myself turned to look down the road and saw that Usopp was in fact running towards us, very quickly. He was kicking up a giant dust cloud in the air. "Captain!" the boys cheered. "Why isn't Luffy with him?" Zoro questioned, and my shoulders tensed.
"Hey, Usopp! Where's Luffy?" Nami called out to the dark haired boy. "Wasn't he at the shore with-Eh?!" Usopp ran straight through us without even pausing in his steps as though we weren't even here. Just as quickly as he came, he was gone again.
"You think he's still angry about his dad being insulted?" Nami asked, and I tilted my head. "I don't think so…" I trailed off. "It looked like he was panicking about something…" I turned towards my crewmembers then. "Do you.." I started, "Do you think something happened to Captain?"
"Oy!" Zoro spoke then, voice commanding. "Where is the place your captain likes to go? Show us now!" He sounded normal, but I knew brother. He was trying to remain calm. The kids huddled together in excitement. "Doesn't this smell like an incident?" Onion asked. The other two boys nodded. "It sounds like a job for the Usopp pirates!" they cheered in unison.
"Hey!" I snapped, feeling irritated. "I get that you're excited, but our Captain could be in danger, so get your little asses in gear!" I growled out, and they jumped, sweat rolling down their faces. "Yes ma'am!" they saluted.
Nami looked towards me in surprise, but I ignored her. I might be a playful person, but I don't joke around when my nakama are in trouble. Time to go find Captain.