Just a warning, the contents of the chapter may be disturbing to some
A man opened his eyes and as he looked around he noticed he was no longer stranded in the ocean. His clothes were heavy from the water and almost all parts of his body was covered in sand.
It was a miracle he survived.
He looked around but couldn't recognize his surroundings.
He then saw a man running towards him in a distance. He wore a large hat and had a fishing rod in his hand.
That person reached out to him and quickly started helping him out. They talked and the fisherman asked him questions which the man responded, no lies attached.
The fisherman then took him to the village which was quite near to the shores of the ocean. The culture there was unique and had rich tradition still imbedded.
Maybe it was because the man had a cheerful personality and was quite a helpful person, he was welcomed rather quickly.
The man was happy as he found a new home.
He lived happily there for 6 years.
However one day there was an attack. A person had entered the village. The person were more stronger than anyone else in the village.
The man watched as the village he loved burn into flames associated with the cries of people he smiled and shared meals with.
He knew he had to do something.
He brought one of his hand near his chest and out stretch his other.
He wanted to keep this a secret.
He sucked in a deep breath.
Air started to swirl around his hands and when he released his hand, air swiftly flew and pierced into the heart of the person who was wreaking havoc into the place. The air upon entering the body, twirled making the pieces of the body fly apart.
The man was a devil fruit user- Kyudo-Kyudo no Mi-.
The man smiled. He saved his village. He saved his family.
However his eyes were responded with fear from the people of the village.
"A monster!"
"Go away-!"
"We should chase him out before he does the same to us"
The man was then chased into the mountains away from the village. Once a week a person would come there to provide him with food and water.
He thought it was the village representative at first.
Maybe his village did care for him. He thought.
But as weeks went by, he kept seeing the same person again and again and again.
One day he looked at the person properly.
The person was a woman, from the village, who he never really interacted with before. She was just a woman he recognized but was never really friends with.
That day he looked her into her eyes and thanked her.
Her eyes glimmered and her cheeks turn bright with the softest smile adoring her face.
"You're welcome" She said before rushing away.
"Ah...What a beautiful smile..."
Each time the woman visited him, he fell for her deeper and deeper. The same could be said for the woman as well.
The woman was impregnated.
The village chased her out telling she had the spawn of a devil inside of her.
Her now husband apologize again and again. The woman was hold her husband close and would smile. "I am happy as long as I am with you." She would reply.
Her father would secretly come to the pair and drop them some food.
They even had their small garden outside from which they would grow their food.
The woman's father continued to bring some food at times secretly.
Maybe secretly wasn't the right description after all as one person noticed this and placed poison inside their food.
The husband died a violent death upon ingesting the poison. Luckily the mother lived as she could not eat her food due to morning sickness.
Soon their baby was born. A young baby boy, despite the situation, was healthy.
The mother was once again happy.
After that incident the mother no longer accepted any food from her father. She could not risk one more of her loved ones dying again.
The boy grew without the knowledge from the outside world, his world simply revolved around his mother.
Every time he would ask what was at the edge of the forest his mother would often show displeasure, his normally calm mother would get angry. And to a child who loved his mother did not dare bring the topic up again.
However when the child was 9 years old, he held onto his mother and vomited. His body was shaking even though he clearly had a fever. His mother did everything she could to cure her child but then 3 days had already passed and the child's situation continued to worsen.
His mother had no other choice but to leave for the village. When she went to the village banging on doors to get medicine, people started to shout and threw rocks at her, begging her to leave.
But then one of the rocks was thrown rather hard making her stumble and fall. She touched her head and noticed it was bleeding , rather heavily. She did not stop, she was a mother, she had to save her son some medicine so she continued to beg.
Her father was in deep pain. His child was suffering so much but he could not do anything since if he were to touch her, he would then be ostracized. So he went and threw a bottle of medicine instead.
She noticed the medicine and picked it up and limped back home.
People sent look of displeasure to her face. Her father just said. " She would leave faster that way.."
The young boy felt his mother's cool hands lifting his head as he felt liquid in his mouth. With his mother words of comfort, he started drinking the medicine and then he closed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, he no longer felt any pain. His mother was beside him with her eyes closed her body bloodied and a huge wound on her head.
Also her body was cold.
He shook his mother asking what was wrong. His mother did not reply.
He shook his mother again after a while complaining he was hungry. His mother did not reply.
Time passed with no response. He then felt tired so he went back to sleep.
He knew something was wrong only when his mother had flies flying around her with a horrible smell accompanying it.
Ah... the same thing happened when a bird died near their house. He thought.
However he did not know what to do. How could a 9 year old drag a dead body outside? How did he deal with the death of his mother? What did he have to do to survive?
With all these unanswered questions, he boy wept as he continued to stay in the room of his decomposing mother.
Emilia rushed immediately into the forest worried about Zack. She turned her head around not knowing where to go.
She let out a deep breath. Calm down...Calm down... Emilia was panicking, worried about her friend more than the pirate or the said boy who lived in the forest.
Emilia let out an exhale and closed her eyes as she focused on her surrounding, the tiniest rustle of leaves, the warmth of sunlight and the breeze hitting her softly, then activated her observation haki.
Near the area she stayed she left many lifeforms however only three of them were humans and all three were at close distance.
Letting out a curse Emilia tightened her hold on her sword and rushed towards their presences.
When she neared the presence she saw two figures.
A large man with a rather rough appearance held Zack by his head.
Zack who was wincing in pain and his hand held onto the the large man's arm in vain, noticed Emilia. He then stopped struggling and looked at Emilia from the corner of his eyes. "Run..." Zack managed to let out.
"Huh?" The large man who kept holding Zack looked at Emilia's direction.
Emilia's eyes widened recognizing the large man in front of her. She could recognize the slash on his chest. It was the man who managed to escape from her mission with Akainu. The man infront of her was Cross who boasted a dangerously high amount of bounty which could even rival some of the Seven Warlords.
With her arms starting to get covered in haki, she glared at the man. "Let him go!"
The man only smiled. "Ah! Aren't you the marine girl who the newspaper can't stop talking about?! Well aren't you a fine looking girl?"
"Well..." His smile grew. "Since you're the one requesting, I guess I will let him go~"
Cross swung his arm and threw Zack away.
Emilia rushed towards Zack to catch the injured man. However what she didn't expect was the amount of force Cross used to throw him.
In order for Zack to reach a soft hold, Emilia removed all haki from her upper body so when she caught Zack, the force pushed her towards the boulder behind her. And to add on she landed on her right side accompanied with the cracking sound, undoubtedly she broke her dominant arm.
"Emilia..." Zack groaned as he looked at Emilia. "That boy...Take that boy and run away. That boy has no strength to run... judging by his appearance he was starved."
Emilia scoffed and she stood up. "Don't joke around. Cross will probably chase immediately after me if I run away, you have no value as a bait. Plus I doubt I can even go near that boy let alone save him with Cross near him."
She then started wrapping her sword around with haki as Emilia then bolted towards Cross swiftly. "As if I can leave you alone here..."
Emilia was immediately in front of Cross making the pirate's eye widened. She then slashed directly towards his arms hoping to end it in one swing and make him handicapped.
Unfortunately Cross lifted his hands and blocked it, and due to him using haki as well the cut in his arms wasn't deep.
The fight between thee two began and to others it may look as if both of them were of equal strength but as the battle dragged on one could expect the outcome.
Emilia has larger and more injures as compared to Cross who was also not unscathed.
Cross rushed towards Emilia and swung his arm towards her which Emilia was able to dodge. She then jumped and climbed on the man's neck and swung the neck in hoped to cut his arms off.
However Cross sudden looked towards her and smiled, dragging her by her leg and throwing her towards the ground like a doll.
Blood spurted from Emilia and a huge dent was found on the ground.
Cross cracked his head relieving the tension on his neck as he stood near the girl who had trouble standing up.
Emilia struggled to even keeping her eyes open, she looked around and even her sword was far away from her. But then she couldn't lose hope, if she gave up it would mean Zack would die.
"I guess this fight finally ends." Cross smirked. "But don't worry, you were strong." As if to mock her, he laughed holding his stomach.
"Emilia, stop it already and go!" Zack shouted. But then Zack had suffered serious injuries caused by the pirate which left many bleeding wounds. If he were to move around too much, he would undoubtedly die.
"Man..This fly has been such a pain." The pirate sighed. " As soon as I kill her, you're next."
Cross the rubbed his chin before smiling. "I'll just squash you to death."
He then raised his legs but before he could do his deed-
*Stab*
"OI OI OI OI!" The pirate glared as he turned around. "That hurts!"
Zack had run towards the man and stabbed Cross from the back using Emilia's sword.
"Zack..." Emilia stood up.
However the stab wasn't deep enough and all Cross had to do was remove the sword from his back.
Enraged he picked up Zack by his head and started squeezing it. "HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME!"
"STOP!" Emilia shouted but as she took a step forward, she started coughing out blood.
Zack looked at her from the corner of his eyes and despite the pain he was feeling, he smiled. "Emilia.." He started in a low voice. "Take care of my family for me."
With that his body turned lifeless making Cross lose interest throwing his body away.
Within a flash Emilia rushed in and grabbed her sword and swung it. Before Cross could even react, his left arm fell off.
Don't worry... Emilia thought He is fine! Zack fine! He won't leave me and Claire just yet. He still needs to see his child too.
"That's great!" Cross shouted. Emilia pushed her self away and stood in front of the boy. "You're really strong aren't you?!"
That psycho didn't even care about his arm being cut.
"Listen here, boy." Emilia started talking in a low voice. "I need you to go towards the village and ask for help. Go right now!"
The boy looked at her with widened eyes. "I-I am not allowed to enter the village... People said I am a monster, and anyone who stares into my eyes will die..."
Emilia then turned around and pulled the boy by is wrist, forcefully making him stand up.
She stared directly into his eyes. "There! I looked into you eyes and nothing happened to me. You're a human just like me! I don't know what bullshit you have been fed but I need you to run towards the village and tell the officers to ask for help."
Emilia then smiled however the boy noticed her eyes were sad, as she let go of his hands. "The man who tried to save you is someone very precious to me so please...Please help me save him..."
The boy nodded and then started running away as fast as he could.
Emilia then turned around and then the battle resumed.
The area was chaos since it was being affected by the haki users, with each slash and hits there were more trees cut and ground full of cracks and dents.
Emilia swung her sword, however Cross bend his head avoiding it, using it as a opportunity Emilia kicked his chest.
Cross full away and Emilia regained her breath, no doubt that some bones were broken.
There was a swift wind as Cross was in front of her again, his hands already near her.
If the punch reached her face, it would definitely knock her out and in a sense of panic rather than simply avoiding it, her left hand reached up to protect her face.
The impact made her stumble back as she gasped in pain. Emilia looked at her finger as she could no longer move it well. Shit... Now both her arms were not functional.
"Where are you looking at?!"
Emilia screamed in pain as her back hit the rocks behind her. Emilia's body was in so much pain and most parts of her body was covered in blood.
"I guess you can't move anymore." Cross walked towards her. "Don't worry I'll end this quick."
Emilia noticed Zack's body laid in front of her and when Cross walked towards her, the large man stopped on him.
As if stepping on an ant, Cross did not even glance at Zack's body when he stepped on it.
"Get away from him..."
"Huh?" Cross questioned.
"Get your filthy leg away from Zack!" Emilia cried.
"Zack? Ahh...This dude-"
Before he could complete his sentence, a blade passed through Cross's chest making both Emilia and Cross's eyes widened.
Cross turned around and noticed the boy who had previously ran away to the village.
"What the hell?" Cross started, his eyes burning with anger with blood dripping from both his mouth and chest. "I'll fucking kill you!"
"You idiot!" Emilia shouted as she tried to stand up. "Why did you return?"
"I-" The boy started to speak. "I-I wanted to save you!"
Cross walked towards the boy and the boy upon seeing Cross, he stumbled and fell down. His body was shaking with fear.
The pirate stood still and bend down a bit and then the pirate's hand neared the boy, targeting his neck when-
*slash*
The boys eyes widened as Cross who was just in front of him got sliced in half and behind Cross was Emilia.
When Cross was distracted by the boy with the sword still stuck on his chest, Emilia wanted to slash his body however Emilia's hands were both broken.
So instead she stealthy ran towards the pirate and then covering her legs with haki, she instead kicked the sword down, slicing the pirate in half.
Emilia exhaled and inhaled heavily. And her vision was blurry from the blood loss.
Even though every single part of her body was aching whereby even breathing was painful to her right now, she turned around.
"Zack..." She said, her voice was weak. "I'm sorry. I promised to not kill anyone but now..."
When she took one step towards him, her legs gave out making her hit the rough surface. Emilia reached out her left arm, where only her fingers were broken, and touched Zack's hands.
Huh? Emilia wondered as her vision kept getting more and more blur and from a distance she felt as if people were shouting her name. Why is Zack cold?
Every time Zack held her or patted her, he was always warm so his touch was always comforting. So why...Why is he cold right now?
With that thought Emilia's vision went blank.