DISCLAIMER: All rights to 'One Piece' go to Eiichiro Oda, Shueisha, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and FUNimation, as well as any other parties involved with licencing that are not already listed.
Only a short second chapter I'm afraid, but keep an eye out for the final instalment of this first Arc which should be up by Wednesday. There's more content being uploaded onto my Tumblr blog, which you can find the details of on my Profile.
"Pom-Pom Pom!"
Arc One: 'Darkest before the dawn!'
Episode 2. Only joking? Hari wishes! Setting sail for Grand Line!
"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. I think I took a blow to the head earlier- or the smoke has finally gotten to me," Hari laughed half-heartedly. "I could have sworn you just asked me to become a pirate!"
She laughed again, but Li-Anne's face remained serious. "That's because I just did."
"There! You did it again!" Hari chortled, hand snapping down lightly on the table as her shoulder shake; from fear or mirth, she isn't too sure.
"I'm not jokin' here, you brat!" Li-Anne snaps, "I'm deadly serious."
Hari folds over the table, her laughter becoming erratic. The soft heaves of her breathing morph into gentle sobs, her tears coating the wooden table top.
Li-Anne sighs and pinches the bridge of her dainty nose, "Oh Kiddo, don't cry. Please. You've had a tough day- more than tough, so just think it over yeah? I'm leavin' for Grand Line in two days, whether you're on board or not. So just go and think it over."
Li-Anne pats Hari's shoulder awkwardly. She collects their empty dinner plates and cutlery. They chime as she gathers them in one tiny palm.
After another restless night's sleep, Hari finds herself stood outside of the charred remains of the shop. She hugs the box she rescued the night before closer to her thin polka-dot dungarees. The hastily sewn straps are falling from her shoulders. She tiredly pushes them back into place, losing count of how many times she's had to repeat the action over the last few days.
If she closes her eyes, Hari can picture 'Argyle's' from before: from when her father was alive, and the window frames and front door were painted annually. When people would crowd outside every month to be the first ones to see what new fashions Old Argyle had cooked up in her workshop.
She opens her eyes and all that remains of what was once a beautiful establishment, is now a burnt-out shell of memory. Her eyes water and burn; she longs for her home, though she knows that cannot be. Then, she longs for anywhere she deems 'safe'. Hari ended up back at the docks, and spent another night of sleep tossing and turning as her head whirled, in the guest cabin on the Junky. She knew she couldn't encroach on Li-Anne's hospitality forever- unless she made a decision.
The next morning, Hari's back outside of the shop. Assured by an official that the fire-damaged building was safe to enter, Hari steels herself. Li-Anne had changed her plans at last minute; having been to purchase some spare Log Poses, she learnt that the sea would be too rough in order to leave and enter Grand Line smoothly for when she had planned, so Junky and the lone sailor would leave Logue Town a day early in order to miss the brunt of the weather. Hari had only a few ideas to make her decision; stay or go.
Her set of keys are still in the door. Hari removes them cautiously, as if she moved hastily the unlocked door would disintegrate under her touch. The keys are carefully placed inside the box of belongings and money cradled close to her chest.
Hari takes a very deep breath, and steps over the threshold.
Inside of the shop is blackened and charred; remnants of the haberdashery materials, the handmade clothes and mannequins are warped and melted. Ashes litter the wooden floor.
A peak inside the workshop confirms that all of her belongings and the more expensive equipment like the industrial sewing machine have also been reduced to scraps. Her hands run over the damaged work-bench that served as her bed.
Hari has made her decision, no matter how heart-breaking it is to admit defeat. She doesn't bother to lock the burned out remains of Argyle's Haberdashery and Boutique as she leaves, and crosses the street with grim yet determined smile.
Upon entering the Doskoi Panda store, she busies herself with collecting a few changes of clothes and other necessities. The trainee staff member behind the counter- a recent addition to the store, thanks to its popularity and Pat being overwhelmed by customers, gives her a curious glance. When a sufficient bundle is gathered in Hari's arms, she dumps the load onto the counter- making the trainee startle. The commotion has Pat running from the back of the store to find its source.
"What are you doing in here?" He garbles when her spots Hari, pointing one sausage finger at the young woman.
Flippantly, Hari replies; "Buying clothes?"
She raises her eyebrow when he begins to sputter. "But you can't do that- I won't allo-"
"Don't flatter yourself," she says lowly, making the trainee whom is still racking up the total of her items flinch, "I couldn't be bothered to walk anywhere better, and if I still had the shop I'd tailor my own- not like this mass-market tripe you're selling."
Pat turns a deathly shade or red: "Why you little-"
"In fact, if I still had the shop, I probably wouldn't be leaving for the Grand Line."
This elicits a dark chuckle from the greasy rotund man, who most likely had some involvement with the mysterious combustion of a well-established store; "You, on Grand Line? Ha! Going to be a pirate are we- don't make me laugh. You wouldn't last a day!"
Hari's return smile is thin and saccharine. "Watch me. I'll be wearing the clothes of my enemies for a while until I can get my hands on something much better. That'll be a long period of nurturing a grudge." Pat's face drains entirely of colour. "Oh! Before I go-" the trainee worker has finally bagged the clothes with trembling hands. Hari shifts her box of memories to her hip and takes the ostentatious Doskoi Panda bag's handles, ignoring the exclamation of 'You still have to pay for those, madam!', "-what's the time?"
Bemused, Pat checks the wrist watch lashed to his meaty wrist; "Well its-"
"Oh! Would you look at that- I've got to run!" With that, Hari is out of the door and sprinting for the docks, a brilliant smile on her face as she makes her first felony as a Pirate. She'd racked up quite the expensive bill from the items the trainee had totalled up on the cash register.
Seeing the shock and then instantaneous anger on Pat's face had lifted a heavy weight from her shoulders. Life felt good again.
Li-Anne had paced the perimeter of Junky's deck approximately forty-seven times in the last hour.
She worried one of her spiralling blonde pigtails, fluffing the hair as she deliberated. The sea breeze had ruined the styling she'd painstakingly sculpted that morning, but Li-Anne no longer minded. Her mind was all of a flutter; would Hari come? What happened if the younger woman decided sailing the fickle waters of Grand Line wasn't for her? How long was it appropriated to wait until hoisting anchor- Hari on board or not?
Li-Anne sighed. She'd finished the forty-eighth lap, and noted for the forty-eight time that everything on board was functional. She wondered whether she should go and take stock of the supplies she'd stowed away for the journey. If Hari did come along, they would have enough food, filtered drinking water and other liquids on the ship to last them a fair few islands, so long as nothing truly went awry and they kept stocking up as they went.
As it went, Li-Anne did not make another anxious check on the stores; too nervous to head below in case Hari showed up, she began to fiddle with the crisply ironed pleats of the pink sundress she was wearing. Smoothing them with her tiny palms, she sighed again.
Hari had been going through a rough time, Li-Anne had gathered that from what little the younger woman spoke of her life and what Li-Anne herself had gleamed from the local gossips of Logue Town. Loose lips were more likely to fly if they thought they were by a child too young to comprehend something of significance. It was one of the few qualities Li-Anne admired about her appearance. The drawbacks of being nearly middle-aged with the body of a pre-teen were horrendous.
"… -Anne!"
Li-Anne blearily lifted her head, shaking it slightly. Had someone just called her name?
"Li-Anne!"
Yes, that was definitely someone calling her name.
"Li-Anne!" The familiar voice was much closer now, "Throw down a rope, or a ladder or something! Quickly please!"
"Hari!? Is that you?" The woman cried, scrabbling to send a rope ladder tumbling down the starboard side of Junky. A flurry of fancy paper bags and a large box (which surprisingly didn't empty its contents on the deck) landed by Li-Anne, followed by a panting Hari.
"I've just legged it from Doskoi Panda to here- and I think I've got some Marine's on my tail because of Pat," Hari wheezed.
"Mariejois no, what did you do?"
"Eh?" Hari puffed, "The clothing equivalent of a dine n' dash."
"Please tell me you're jokin'!" Li-Anne shrieked as Hari stowed her bags into Junky's cabin. The elder woman was currently dashing around the deck in a hurry to leave. The last thing they needed was Marines on the hunt for them when their journey hadn't even truly begun- though Li-Anne hoped to keep interactions with the upholders of 'justice' to a minimum; perhaps even going so far as to conceal the fact that both Hari's and her jaunt on the Grand Line wasn't totally sanctioned.
"I'm afraid not- got some free clothes out of it though, so I won't be cutting up any more of your linens." Hari seemed so proud of her first Pirate-deed that Li-Anne couldn't bring herself to chastise the nineteen-year-old. So much for the smooth exit; a few blurry white dots wearing caps and toting rifles had appeared in the distance, running full pelt towards Junky.
"Listen to me, we've got to move. Now." Li-Anne manoeuvred herself to stand behind the ships wheel, but her hands rested on a small metal lever; at the moment, the long lever rested neutrally in the middle of a strange 'H' shape descending through the deck. A long sturdy cord emerged from a hole drilled through the deck; it had a large metal handle at the end, covered in a red rubbery grip. "On the count of three, I want you to pull that cord with all you can- got it?"
Hari nodded, and bent down to take up the handle. It felt weighty, but she'd had more trouble moving large rolls of fabric to the workshop when Argyle's was still in full swing.
"One-"
'Stop!' one of the Marines from the large group approaching yelled.
"Two-"
They were getting too close-
"Three! NOW!"
Hari pulled the ripcord with all her might, and a large rumbling noise sounded from the bowels of Junky. Li-Anne quickly slid the lever into place on the strange 'H' shape- moving her hands swiftly then to the wheel as Junky started to shoot backwards. The Marines were left to stare dumbly at the speedy ship; their faces perplexed.
"This thing's motorised?" Hari asked with a yelp as Junky turned and Li-Anne shifted the lever once more. The purring noise from below the deck sounded more intensely, and now Junky sped away from the dock.
"Six speed gearbox- made for cruisin'! We've had some good times, have Junky and I, travellin' through the Blues this way!" Li-Anne, while focusing intently on travelling up Junky's faster gears, laughed; the sound swung between fond and wild and honestly made Hari a little nervous.
Soon, Logue Town was just a blurred blip of a place in the distance; swallowed by the drawing clouds as the two women and the motorised ship drew closer to what Li-Anne informed Hari to be known as 'Reverse Mountain'.
"Why do they call it that?" Hari enquired, thoroughly confused and curious. For all her years, she hadn't heard of the place; though technically she's never had much need to travel. Argyle haggled with traders to get the best fabrics from all of the Blues and even Paradise, but rarely did he and his daughter leave town. There was one disastrous holiday involving a floating restaurant in the Eastern Blue that neither of the father-daughter pair would ever speak of again.
"The clue's in the title, Kiddo," Li-Anne replied, allowing the motorised ship to get pulled along by the current.
"But we're going to go up the mountain, not down it, right?"
Li-Anne snorted, "Yeah, we're goin' up; and so is the water."
"Eh?" Hair blinked.
"You heard me correctly the first time, Kiddo."
Hari chose not to comment, and instead busied herself with moving the hastily dumped Doskoi Panda bags she'd left in the cabin into an orderly pile. Hari dug through each one until she found what she'd been looking for: she'd guessed at Li-Anne's shoe size and had picked up a pair of thick soled leather boots with ornately tooled swirls carved into the panelling of the toe and ankles. The older woman's own hobnailed boots had been worn in places; Hari had noted during the time she'd spent on Junky thanks to Li-Anne's kindness. Hari had found a way to repay her for her hospitality; even if it had set Marines on them during their departure.
"These are for you," she said, extending the boots out to Li-Anne. "I never thanked you for taking care of me after…"
"You didn't have to, y'know?" Li-Anne replied in her gravelly voice, so unfitted for the appearance of a preteen. She took the boots though, and surveyed them with a critical eye. "Say, we've got a bit of time before we reach Reverse Mountain. I never had chance to welcome you aboard, did I?"
Hari shook her head. "We didn't really have the time. Things got a bit dramatic."
"What's life without a bit of drama though?" Li-Anne replied instantly, though regretted the slip of her tongue as Hari hunched in on herself.
"My life seems to be full of it at the moment," she whispered. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, and Hari sniffed, feeling her nose begin to drip.
Though her heart bled for the girl, (and truly it did), Li-Anne had had quite enough of tears and snotty noses for one week. Her stock of tissue boxes couldn't take much more abuse! The fragile hold of her temper snapped: "I get it, you've got it rough- but you need to buck up, Kiddo. I swear on the Pirate Kings grave- god rest his soul, if you don't you'll wish you'd have stayed in Logue Town!"
"I'm sorry- I really, really am, but this is new and I've-" Hari sobbed a little, making Li-Anne's nose scrunch up in horror, "I'm going to try, but it hurts to smile."
"It'll get better," Li-Anne stated, voice uncharacteristically soft, "You'll see. It'll get better with time."
She hoped that Hari believed that too.
Li-Anne ran a hand over Junky's steering wheel, feeling the gnarls in the wood's grain hum under her touch. When no answer sounded from Hari, she turned, finding the young woman's attention fixated on something in the distance.
Li-Anne felt- rather than saw, the exact moment the current ensnared Junky. When she glanced into the distance, the foot of Reverse Mountain and the passage they would be taking upwards emerged from a thick cloud of water spray.
Li-Anne looked over her shoulder back to Hari.
The girl had gone bone white.
"We're going… up… there?" The squeaky question was posed so softly that Li-Anne nearly missed it.
"Of course," she crowed, "There's no goin' back now. We've caught the current; Junky's fast an' strong, but I've heard not even the most powerful ships can pull out of the direct stream into Grand Line."
"Oh ducking hell," Hari moaned, knees knocking a fraction. "I take it back- I was joking about the Piracy thing."
Li-Anne snorted and shook her head; "Now you choose your time to be cowardly? I thought you were better than that!" She barked.
Hari straightened, her mind replaying the earlier confrontation with Pat. She felt a small fire start inside of her; not the torrent of flames that destroyed her home and business, but a candle's flicker of determination. Unknown to her, her own pale blue eyes flashed and Li-Anne smirked; recognising it as a sign of a gauntlet thrown and a challenge taken up.
"I'm going to be better," Hari replied. "Whatever this is- piracy, sailing, whatever- I need it."
"Damn straight you do! You can start by stoppin' being so buggerin' cliché," Li-Anne called.
Junky began to shudder as the current drew them closer to the foot of the mountain, so Li-Anne dropped the ship down into a lower gear which would help control their speed and also the power needed to pull them upwards with the current; the choppy waters couldn't be expected to do all of the donkey work, after all. The sails (all three now open and resembling fish fins) filled with a strong breeze and Junky rocketed forward again.
"Hold on tight!" Li-Anne shouted as the ship lurched upwards. Unfortunately, Hari was nowhere near close enough to anything she could get a grip on, and slid backwards as the ship ascended into the cabin. She landed with a thump as she hit the wall of the perpendicular corridor.
A groan of pain slipped from her mouth as she pried herself from the wooden cabin's wall. On wobbly legs, Hari managed to pull herself towards the cabin's doorway; clinging at the tongue and groove panelling as though they were finger holds on a rock formation.
"More warning would have been nice, Li-Anne," Hari grumbled, a fine mist of spray showering her exposed arms and face. She pulled the loose dungaree strap further up her shoulder and pouted as the spray tickled her skin.
"Look up there!" Li-Anne crowed over the roar of the current, her hands gently adjusting Junky's wheel as the ship drifted closer to the gorge-like sides of the mountain. The four pathways of reverse mountain were meeting at the summit, each colossal flow of water crashing into one another and creating a fountain-like wall.
"Are we going to be able to get through that?" Hair asked, crawling unsteadily to her companion and clinging to the older woman's legs.
"Sure we can," Li-Anne reassured her, "Junky's not let me down yet."
Looking at the collecting wall of water, Hari had second thoughts on whether the ship would survive. She chanced a look behind her and instantly swallowed her opinions with a little tremor, for it was a bit late to stop and turn back. The water took them higher, gaining an almost staircase quality.
Li-Anne whooped: "We're nearly there!"
The ship dipped beneath them as the water level lowered, then suddenly-
"Holy shi- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
-they were air-born.
