Setting: One Piece.
* I retconned the name of the cabaret to Velvet Dream because I like it better.
Of Women, Rum and Loads of Fun!
Chapter 5
I think Anastasia is trying to keep Alvida away from me. She acted remarkably quickly to drag her away to, and I quote: "Get a good fucking deal from that pervert of ex-husband of mine". Lil' old abandoned me was left to buy the supplies for the new ship… Something I've never done in my life and had no idea where to start. I mean, who expects to have someday resupply a seventh-century sail ship!? That's not something you prepare for!
Honestly, I don't know how to feel about that, but given the way she's been treating me, I'm leaning towards anger.
Got to admire the way she easily manipulated Alvida though, I mean, I could do it too, but I used my devil fruit bullshit on her, Anastasia just knows how to push her sister's buttons, which is somewhat surprising considering that Alvida had shown a lot more control after she lost weigh in the manga.
Buying supplies, however, was proving to be a challenger on its own.
"What are you trying to say little punk!? That I don't know how to run my own damn business!? That is the current market price for a barrel; no amount of whining will change it!" The clerk screamed at my face. He looked like someone I would never cross back on Earth. But right now, with my devil fruit backing me up, I can deal with someone who looked like a literal serial killer.
"I think not!" I shouted, so much for keeping the volume down. "I'm sorry, but I highly doubt the price of a single barrel would exceed the million mark! My order should reach 10.000 bellies at its most expensive, and I'm already offering 5.000 more just for the sake of negotiation!"
And I was sure of that this time; I learned my lesson after the first store; now I'm asking the market price of everything I wanted to buy from my guide before I stepped inside.
"That price wouldn't even buy me a drink at Skeeter's place you dumb searat! Do you want to bankrupt my business!? I'm asking for a perfectly reasonable amount, just ask anymore here!" Yeah, this is the third store I've been to, and all of them spat something similar. I don't believe the fourth one will be any different.
Fucking pirate town.
"Aaah! Please mister clerk, can't you be more understanding?" My 'guide'; the ghost cosplayer Lena, step between us like she did in the previous stores. "Nicholas-san is a very good person you know, he reunited Madam Anastasia with her long lost sister. You have to help him!"
And, like every other time, the guy gulped, started to sweat and then turned his suddenly nervous eyes to the side. "Y-Yes of course, if you say so, ma'am."
"Thank you kindly, mister clerk!"
… I don't even know why I'm trying anymore; I should just let her handle things for me.
With the bill paid and Lena making sure the guy triple promise he will deliver the order on my future ship, we set off to the next store.
"Alright, water barrels checked!" The girl chirped enthusiastically as she marked something the checklist she was carrying. She has literally written that while we walked, listing everything needed to a proper voyage. "Now we need furniture, clothes, medical supplies, kitchenware, toiletries- Ah, I'm also expecting Alvida-san to get a ship with an electrical systems, so a generator is a must, and maybe a few solar panels for emergencies…" She mumbled, sucking the feather end of the pen she had in hand.
Yeah, I should just let her talk to the fucking clerks; she practically took over the duty by that point.
"Ok, how are you doing this?" I asked, not able to contain the question anymore.
She stared me from the eyeholes of her full-body hood. "Hum? Doing what, Nicholas-san?"
"Actually managing to purchase anything." I buffed, arms spread wide to demonstrate my frustration. "These guys start to whine by the mere mention of the possibility of lowering their astronomical price, how the hell are you getting them to back down so easily?"
"Oh, that's easy, Nicholas-san!" Her golden eyes sparkled. "You just have to get right on their face…. and ask really nicely!"
"… I…I don't think that's how it works." Even though that precisely what she was doing, now that I think about it.
"Of course it is! Never underestimate the power of kindness Nicholas-san! Tell him, Hild-san!" She said.
My brow furrowed in confusion. "Who?" *Clamp* "JESUS CHRIST!"
Brunhild, the muscular woman from the cabaret, was standing right beside us and has just loudly clamped the butt of her poleaxe on the ground. Her dark eyes were looking at me with an almost oppressive indifference.
"Fucking hell woman where the fuck did you come from!?" I gripped my shirt above my chest, trying to get my heart rate under control. "Shouldn't you be back at the Hole!? Isn't you the place's security or something!?"
She made a grunting sound with the back of her throat, and that was my only non-answer.
Lena giggled, "Hild-san has taken to accompany me everywhere I go out. She is my patron, after all."
Still keeping a suspicious look to the dark-skinned, muscular woman with the corner of my eyes, I turned to my shorter companion. "Still doesn't explain much, what do you mean she is your patron? And what does that have to do with her leaving her post?"
"Oh right, you not from here." She turned around to look at the storefronts while she talked. "Patronage is how the Velvet Dream hires its girls. Hild-san is my patron as it: she's the one who recommended me in the first place. She… hum, she overviews for my trial period and… is responsible for every… mistake I make." Lena seems to get more depressed as she went on. The universe even cried a dark cloud into existence about her head by the end, "I gave her so much trouble." She moaned.
Thank you, weird anime universe; I wouldn't have known she was depressed without the cloud. Totally necessary.
I couched, and focus on more important things, like consoling her. "Hey, come on now. It can't be that bad." It honestly feels terrible to see such a cute-sounding girl so down.
She shook her head. "I made the ears of the last person who tried to teach me how to sing bleed, if I dance I end up kicking my partner where it hurts the most, I break every musical instrument I ever hold, if I clean, the plane ends up dirtier and on fire, and… And today in the bar I was breaking every bottle before you came around." Now her watering eyes were tugging at my headsprings. "I'm not good at anything Nicholas-san… The only thing I haven't tried yet is… is…" Her hands subconsciously move to hug herself, and the atmosphere became noticeably heavier.
It was obvious what she was implying, considering what the place she works for was.
"Hey," I said, trying to take her mind out of the subject. "You good with this." I pointed at the list she had in hand. "I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't there, you've been a huge help."
She looked that the supply list she had written and blinked. "Oh, this?… This is nothing… I'm sure I'll mess up eventually-Ouch!"
I flinched as her head was as hit by something that has come out of nowhere… No wait, Brunhild - the muscular companion who I just remembered was with us - has knocked her fist on Lena's head. The woman's neutral expression didn't change in the slightest.
"That hurts Hild-san!?" Lena whined, rubbing the new goose egg on top of her hood. Why and how it appeared through the fabric, I would never know.
She looked better though, out of her funk.
Brunhild grunted and pointed forward, we both turned to see a wagon being pulled by a pair of almost dead horses, and with a few armed people guarding it.
"Ah! Doctor Johnson! Quick, Nicholas-san, he is the only one who can get you medical supplies!" Lena dashed forward, her depression forgotten due to the rush.
I walked behind in a more sedated pace, determinate to let her deal with the guy first to avoid any more unnecessary delay… Then, I finally saw a demonstration of her kindness with my own eyes.
Lena was a nice girl, and she proved that by talking to the obviously back-alley doctor with kindness and politeness. The doctor, in turn, immediately closed his face off and was about to tell the kind and understanding person in front of him to fuck off… when he looked over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of the towering height of Brunhild, who now stood there somehow and had her enormous weapon rested on her shoulder. Whatever expression the woman was making made the doctor sweat bullets.
Ok, that type of kindness makes much more sense.
-0-0-0-
No, it can't be, the universe can't be this dumb…
Wait-wait, no it isn't, I can see Lena's look. Even she finds this dubious, thank god.
"What…What did you say this was again?" I asked the clerk. The only friendly clerk I met in this town, but maybe that was because he was bat-shit crazy.
"A talking gun, I said!" He spoke enthusiastically, doing his best smile with the few teeth he still had. "Made it myself, for my mum ye see, but the ol' lady didn't want to 'on accord of being dead, so it's on sale!"
The story doesn't make it better.
"It's a parrot…" I enunciated carefully. "Tied to a gun…"
"A talking gun!" The man happily nodded. "' Try out and see."
I looked at him dumbly, and he pointed at the wall at the far side that looked like Swiss cheese from the number of bullet holes it had on it.
You know what? Fuck it.
I pointed and shot it. Filling the air with a band and a stream of smoke for a second.
Amazingly, the bird, which was lying so still I thought it was dead, sprung out to life and parroted.
"ARR, DIE YER SLIMY GITS!"
"Ah! It really talked!" Lena gasped in amazement.
"No, Lena, no, its..." I tried to talk to those unbelievable innocent golden eyes, before giving up and turning to the clerk. "Yeah, no, we won't take it." I placed the gun parrot in the counter before it grew attached and this silly universe conspired to make me take it. "Actually, we are looking for ammunition, cannons especially, we are looking for everything you have for a standard ship." As Alvida and I arrived on a pirate ship, one thing it wasn't missing was armament, we are going to transfer what we can to the new ship, but I did notice we were somewhat lacking in cannon ammunition if fact we only had the cannons.
I have no idea why the Red Shirt Pirates were traveling without armed cannons, but I refuse to follow their example.
The clerk looked genuinely hurt at my words. "Ammunitions?" He whined. "Are you sure you don't want a weapon sir, not even a tiny one?" He practically begged.
"No…" Wait a minute. "… Wouldn't you happen to have some kind of legendary weapon at the back would you, or maybe a cursed one you want to get rid off."
I mean, Zoro found two legendary swords at the first shop he went for crying out loud. With the world working under anime trope, I believe I actually have a chance-
"LEGENDARY WEAPONS!" The clerk hoisted himself on the counter and almost crashed his forehead against mine. "Boy do I! I have legendary weapons for days!" There was… a dangerous short of glint in those mismatched eyes.
"… I'd like to cancel that request please."
After much insistence, a heartbreak, and several explosions, the short man grumped his way to the back to prepare my order.
I sighed heavily, cleaning the layer of charcoal and egg yolk from my face with a towel. "That was unnecessarily hard."
Lena clapped enthusiastically. "Congratulations on your first proper purchase, Nicholas-san!"
"I don't know if that counts as an achievement." I threw the dirty towel over the counter because fuck that guy. "Who the hell let someone like him run a gun shop!?" I wondered out long.
Oh, wait, pirates.
I'm starting to get really frustrated with them.
"So, what now?" I asked the ghost girl.
"We're almost done." Lena took a brief look at the list while we walked, "We just need to pass Mrs. Manoela's-Ah!"
And just as we walked out the door we bumped into someone, or rather, our way was blocked.
The guy loomed over us like a literal wall, his body was similar to that captain what-his-face me and Alvida met early, but he had the height to match his enormous width. He was garbed almost entirely in a very weird-looking, tan-collared leather, with so much steel chains and belts that it looked like he mugged a Final Fantasy Protagonist on his way here.
I squared off my shoulder for any possible confrontations, but besides that thought nothing of it.
That's it until Lena bumped into me as she retraced her steps.
She was trembling.
"Hummmmm." The guy drawn outs, he looked at us with unreadable beady eyes, then, his mouth slowly rotates into a smile. "Hellooo thereee."
Lena was trembling. Lena, who until that point, never showed any fear toward any of the pirates we met, no matter who cut-throat they looked, was trembling.
"Hey," I said briskly, putting a hand on Lena's shoulder and maneuvering her until she was behind me.
The guy continued to smile.
"I neveeer seeeeen you beforeee." Every single one of his words was said with a weird lisp that dawn out the end syllables, it was annoying. "Are you newwww?"
"Yeah," I answered, my tone unchanged.
His smile grew to an almost uncanny broadness now. "Welcomeeee." Then, his too-spread-apart eyes focused on Lena. "I seee youuu gott a ladyyy hereee."
Lena flinched noticeably; she tightened the grip on the back of my cloak.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Yeah, so what?" I dashed my narrowed eyes around; the street was desert. Sure, it didn't exactly inspire safety before, but at least there were people around.
Who the fuck is this guy to make pirates clear the site?
"My captainnn'ss lookinggg forr aa Ladyyy, you seeee." He lisped happily like it was a jolly coincidence. From his belt, he produced a yellowish piece of paper. "Wouldddd youu minddd if I checkkk?"
… I let out a loud breath; this is it, the calm before the storm, as I come to associate it, the last moment of respite before a fight to the death. This time, I didn't have a concrete motive to fight, only bad, bad signs from Lena. Would I have fought for something like that back of Earth?…
No, I would've run and called the police…
Would I fight for it now?
"Heyyy ladyyy." The giant's tiny eyes were focused, fixated on Lena's trembling form with a scary intensity. "Takeee outtt the hooddd."
I felt my fat becoming muscle.
"B-Bobby-san!" Another voice called from a distance.
Another guy came running down the street, he was also wearing leather, normal-looking leather this time, and was clicking with the sound of a dozen chains and belts as he ran.
He stopped close to us and tried to catch his breath. When he raised his eyes, he looked happy, excited even. "Bobby-san, seagulls! Three red seagulls from the north! That means…Ah!" He finally noticed the tensed atmosphere. "I-Is this a bad time?"
"… Nooo… I wasss justtt grettinggg the new arrivallls." He squished his eyes at me. "Haveee a gooddd stayyy." With another grotesque smile of happiness, he turned and started following is companion down the streets, saying something like 'Reddd seagulls youuu sayyy?'. I wasn't even surprised when his mountainous mass moved out of the way and revealed that Brunhild was standing right behind him with her weapon raised. I figured she would appear somewhere as soon as we stopped thinking about her.
It wasn't until that Bobby guy and his smaller associate disappeared on the corner of the street that Lena moved again.
"S-Sorry." She mumbled, still holding on my cloak.
"Don't apologize," I said.
Yes, I may not know the full details of what happened right now, but I didn't need to. Lena's reaction alone was enough to put any leather-wearing, belt-enthusiastic motherfucker on my shit list.
-0-0-0-
If this were anywhere else, I would have considered taking Lena to a crowded place to use the people there as protection, but considering that this is a pirate haven and most of the crown consisted of cut-throating, grandma-killing pirates, a desert alley next to the main plaza would do.
"So," I was leaning against the wall, keeping my eyes on the entrance. Lena was sitting on a crate close by. She looked up to me. "Not a skin condition."
Those big golden eyes blinked for a second. "Oh!" She realized with a blush, don't ask me how did I know she was blushing, I just did. "No, Not a skin condition…" And she lowered her eyes down.
In some ways, her vision was almost comical; the full-body cloak she wore really did look like a bad Hallowing costume; it really says something that I all but accept it after the crazy bullshit I had to deal with over the last few days, but seeing her like that, with her back hunched, her fingers nervously interlaced on her lap and her boots kicking just barely above ground, it was a reminder that Lena, as she is now, looked weird by any sense of the world, for her to go to that extent to hide… what, really?
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said.
"Eh?" She blinked again, fairly distracted, this girl was. "After you almost…No, you deserve to know." She pulls a breath, bracing for the revelation. "I'm being pursued…by the Tamer Pirates." She dropped the bomb.
… It missed by several states over.
"Who?" I asked.
"Gah!" Lena stumbled comically; soon she was up her feet and shouting in cute indignation. "T-This is no time for jokes Nicholas-san!"
"Lena, I genuinely have no idea who these guys are."
She puffed her cheeks cutely; again, I don't know how I knew that was happening; it just seemed obvious to me for some reason.
"You're telling me you don't know who one of the oldest, most infamous pirate crew the East Blue is!? One led by a man worth 20 million bellies no less!?"
"20 mil? What, you mean Arlong?"
"Who?" She mouthed and then shook her head. "I mean the Beastmaster, the Beastmaster and the Tamer pirates; they're one of the oldest crews around you know? Been terrorizing the marines for a really long time? The bosses of this island?"
"Ohhh, them," I said, my mouth pushing a smile. "I know they're one of the oldest pirate crew around, that they fought against the marines for all that time, and that they apparently rule this island."
"Yes! I knew you'd heard about them!" She buffed. It took five full seconds before she realized. "N-Nicholas-san!"
Now, anyone would be able to tell she's blushing.
This little antic did wonders to lighten the mood.
"So that's why you're walking around in this," I stated, pinching the loose fabric of her hood. "Didn't you have something more efficient to hide your identity?"
"Of course, but Madam Anastasia told me to go overboard, she said people rarely question when you go overboard."
That's… rather genre-savvy of her, and it worked too, now that I think about it.
"So why they're after you-." I could feel the jolt of spreading tension the question caused before Lena herself was conscious of it. Not wanting to ruin her ease, I quickly added. "So do you have a wanted poster?" Before she could process the initial question.
"I do, actually!" She chirped. Though I don't know this was something to be excited about, pirate influence, maybe? "Here." She took out a piece of paper from beneath her costume and handled to me.
It was not one of the iconic ones from the anime. It looked crude, handmade, not a sign of printing anywhere. In the center, there was a decent, black and white sketch of a cute girl with long hair and very big and round eyes… with a big fat 10 million written beneath.
Weirdly enough, she wasn't named as Lena in the poster; she was named 'Doe' instead.
"So that's you, eh?"
"Err… Yes," Lena confirmed. "There are a bunch all over the city. Everyone is looking for me, hum…" She fidgeted. "S-So?"
I turned my eyes always from the poster and looked at her. "So what?"
"The reward… it's a pretty big amount." She tried to gesticulate.
"Yeah… What? Are you flexing?" I laughed. "Anyway, that's not a groundbreaking secret, you could have told me before we set out. Now, where do we go next?"
A big *Clamp* followed, and I almost jumped as I noticed Brunhild lying her weapon down and walk away. Lena looked relieved.
"What?" I tried, gears turning. "Wait-Wait-Wait did you think I would turn on you?"
"Ah! Nonono!" Lena waved her arms in denial and then dropped. "… Yes… B-But you got to understand this is 10 million bellies Nicholas-san! I-I don't know where do you come from, but this is crazy around here… Even some girls at the Velvet have…" She shook her head. "A-anyway, w-we don't tell people about that, lightly, I only told you because…" Then she fidgets from a bit, fingertips bumping together. "Hum, you faced down Bobby the Skinner for me." She finished in a flushed toned.
I tried very hard to tone down the horror as my head associated the name Bobby the Skinner with that weird leather he was wearing.
"I'm not going to shrew someone who treated me so nicely just became someone is dangling money over my face," I said, moving on. "Plus it wouldn't be smart to walk around with that amount around here." And there is no guarantee a pirate crew will fulfill their promise. "So don't worry, I not going to start treating you differently just because of a small thing like that." I waved the poster.
The golden eyes shone watery for a second before she bowed, "Yes, thank you Nicholas-san!"
"Eh." Not really something to be thank over, methinks. I looked at the poster again. "Why do you walk around carrying this thing anyway?"
"Ah… It's the only one that gets my nose right." She says sheepishly.
I laughed.
"Well, I can see you have a cute nose then!"
"S-Shut up, Nicholas-san!"
Honestly, this wasn't even worth all the tension, sure, Lena has a reason to wear that body conceiving costume, and that reason was a fairly simple: someone was looking for her. Honestly, I could have arrived at that conclusion if I took a moment to think.
It was not… My business. I didn't have the time to help her, I mean, if everything goes well Alvida and I will have our new ship tomorrow, and then we will have no reason to stay in this island anymore. There is no use getting involved with local trouble, especially now when I didn't have time to learn how to use my powers properly.
Right, I can't do anything about that, even if Lena has been nothing but sweet to me since I met her, and is technically the nicest person I met since I arrived on this world.
It's regrettable, but I can't help her, right.
Right.
The ghost girl and me, now in a much better mood, made our way out of the alley to continue our-
Something snaked around my neck and pulled me back to the alley, easily dragging all my bulk without even a grunt of effort. I heard a little scream on my side the inadequate that Lena had a similar treatment.
That made me see red.
Years of violent schoolyards fight made my elbow shot backward to bury itself in the gut of my captor, only to met air as they step out of the way. However, the dodge was not possible without the release of my hold, so as soon as the arm slip away from my neck, I turned with a backhand-
My hand was grabbed and shoved forward with enough strength to overtake my momentum and make me stumble forward in an awkward twirl as I tried to find my footing. My back hit the wall of the alley but I was ready for a follow-up.
Brunhild was standing in the place of my attacker, her eyes not neutral like usually but staring forward to the alley entrance with a scary intensity.
"What the hell-" I snarled with a deep scorn, but the woman's hand shot upward and grabbled my jaw in a painful grip, a clear message for me to be quiet.
"Um, H-Hild-san, what's going-" Lena was also shushed, albeit a lot more gently.
Then, the sounds Lena and I had been ignoring during our talk finally reach us.
Sounds like, a party… No, a celebration: laughter, vulgar jeers, shots being fired to the sky, all combining into a malicious short of glee only pirates were able to produce. From the entrance of the alley, we could see pirates and other civilians gathering into a crowd around the plaza. It kinda reminded me of… is that a parade?
"What the hell is going on?" I mumbled getting closer to the light. Brunhild didn't stop me this time, maybe because I wasn't taking Lena.
"Oh… oh no…" I heard Lena's quiet voice behind me.
I was about to turn when I saw it.
"What. The. Fuck."
…
… They were moribund. Limping their way down the street while struggling to not fall due to the heavy ropes that tightly bound their limbs together and connected their necks to each other.
Their match as a bloody one, not at all kind to the numerous wounds that littered all over their bodies, a long queue of broken men that walked in the center of the pirates, enduring their ridicule with brave faces, barely contained fear, or just solemn acceptance. On the ragged uniforms hanging on their form, I recognized a symbol; one of the iconic ones of the series.
"Red seagulls…" I heard Lena behind me. She sounded so distant. "Captured marines…"
Marines, marines prisoners on a pirate haven.
"What?" I turned to look at Lena; she looked very distressed. I could see it even through the cloak.
"A sign of the Tamer pirates, I didn't even… Every so often a marine vessel tries to find this island. They usually don't get anywhere… but if a ship sails too close, or sails alone, then…"
"Pirates have their fun." I completed, looking once again to the horrifying display.
…I… wasn't used to this… I was not a policeman, or a firefighter, or a soldier… violence for me was a nebulous thing on the other side of the tv or the computer… Sure there were the fights… but this isn't the same as turning into a giant demon and breaking a weirdly sturdy guy's face on the railing of a ship. This is different. This is very different, there is no fight here, just... hatred, hatred and malice, and joy for causing pain.
It's too… too real…
Shrills whistles started filling the air as the bloody procession got closer and the pirates on my general area got a look at who was leading it. My eyes widened in horror.
A woman was leading the match, a girl really, and not only she had to deal with the pain of her bruises, but she also had to deal with the humiliation of what they decided to do to her. While her companion's ragged marine uniforms were left unbothered, hers has been intentionally ripped into an obscene outfit; her white shirt was torn into two thin stretches of fabrics so they could be tie over her full breasts, her blue pants had received a very similar treatment and now hang over her hips like an obscene short that barely hid anything. The pirates, predictably, went crazy over the display of supple female flesh, even more so because that female is a marine female.
Oh god. A female marine in the hands of pirates in a pirate haven no less. This world already has proven to be a lot more real than the series; it's easy to imagine what would happen to her… I can't even tell if her virginal smell is a good thing or a bad thing right now.
My stomach curled, this, all of this, was making me sick, the more I think about it, the more I see… Yet, I can't take my eyes away from it.
"Nicholas-san," Lena said quietly, pulling my sleeve. "Everybody is too agitated right now to do any business, we should… um, we should go back to the Velvet Dream…"
Her voice was like a buzz in my ears, but I could hear her. It made sense really, the pirates are agitated, they are having fun, and I suppose, in true One Piece faction, they would throw a party.
I drew a deep, deep breath. It was hard to exhale back. "Right." I puffed. "You're right, we should… we should get going…"
My eyes refused to bulge from the female marine; I could see her trying to stand tall despite off her injuries and the state of dress. I could see cold fury boiling in her blue eyes, and how she roomed the crowd with them, marking every face. I could see her biting her inner lips in the struggle to keep the brave façade up.
I could smell her fear under the heavenly aroma of her virginity… A virginity that was under threat.
"Nicholas-san?" More pulls on my sleeve. "We have to go, Nicholas-san?"
"... Yes" Her hair was white, pure, like the clean color of her eyes, this purity was about to be defiladed by the hands of unworthy men… "We have to… go…"
"N-Nicholas-san what…"
Silence.
The whole crowd suddenly fell into silence.
It didn't happen at once, or it seemed deliberate; some of the people had stopped just because the ones beside them had, they were now looking at them confusingly. Everybody was suddenly silence and looking in one direction.
I blinked; far too much focus went back to my head.
"What?" I mumbled. "What's happening?"
"Aah." A tiny, frightful gasp was my only response. I turned to see Lena slowly backing away, her short form starting to tremble profoundly.
"Lena, what-"
There was a growl, a deep, hoarse one; it sounded weird, like an unholy union between human and beast displayed in the form of sound. It made me snap my head to my left side, where I found Brunhild standing, utterly still. Many of her powerful muscles bulking up in the struggle for that stillness.
And the lumbering steps got closer.
Before I could fully process and tried to make sense of what was happening, something so utterly One Piece appeared, and I swear I would have burst off laughing if it wasn't from the presence of two extremely tensed women at my side.
A Giant. Freaking. Crocodile. Similar to the ones from the Alabasta arc appear on top of the hills and lumbered its way forward. It stopped just by the petrified sight of the crowd and now halted procession, which was now starting to freak out due to the appearance of the giant man-eaten reptilian.
Now that the crocodile was close, I could see that there was an honest-to-god palanquin on his back, a bone-made palanquin with dark, furred curtains and a flaming crown composed of several torches above. Not gonna lie, it looked pretty metal.
…The boss of the island is there, isn't it? Of course, he is, I'm too genre-savvy to be wrong about this.
The dramatic way the curtains were pulled also added to my hypotheses. But the appearance of the guy inside confirmed it.
The Beastmaster, (supposedly, almost confirmed) was a scrawny man. He looked very, very toned for his build, but it didn't change the fact he was very tall and very thin at the same time. His clothes consisted of a fur-trimmed long cloak that left his ebony-skinned chest bare, leather pants that were almost hidden under an unreasonable amount of belts he had coiled on his waist, and chains… now the chains offended me because they were only connected to his person by one end, with the other tied to several collars on the necks of the scantily-clad women around him.
I watched those women, each one with mouth-watering bodies and beautiful faces twisted into smug superiority only found in queen bees of American high school movies, each one wearing accessories in the likeness of several different animals, each one smelling miserable.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" His voice seems to boom over the silence of the street. There was a little scream behind me. I turned to see a trembling Lena sliding to the floor, her hands over her ears as she tried to choke him out.
That vision messed me up.
The chains clanked as the man descended from the crocodile and crossed the distance between him and the wounded marines, allowing me to get an even better sight of him. He really looked like an end-of-career rapper, one that fell from grace in the most disgraceful way possible. "New blood I see, good hunt!" His men escorting the procession, who were all wearing something similar, smiled at that, they were the only ones unaffected by the silence.
"And look at this treasure." His spidery hand shot out and grabbed the Marine Girl's face. "Young, ripple, flesh of training is my guess," His man laughed. "I didn't think the marine's standards would fall so much."
The girl found a breach in his grip and spat on him. It fell on his cheek, just beneath the rim of his sunglasses, and drew a collective breath from the crowd. The crocodile behind him stirred.
"Shut the hell up you pirate scum." The white-haired girl drew herself up as much as she could, scorning darkly at the pirate captain. "You are speaking with Ekaterina Burbon, 3rd daughter of the Burbon family and Chief Pretty Officer of the proud marine vessel Hand of Justice! I am not a mere recruit or someone to look down upon! If you cowardly men hadn't resorted to underhanded tactics we would be having a very different conversation right now! Namely, with you in chains and my boot over your face!" The girl ranted proudly.
I was left astonished by the girl's giant brass bollocks… And her utter inability to read the mood.
As expected, her rant produced the expected response. It was so effective in fact that it broke the spell of silence over the crowd.
"HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!"
It seemed the whole city was laughing at her. To the girl's credit, though, she didn't seems to be letting let this shake her resolve. Only I could smell her real reaction because nothing bubbled to the surface.
The Beastmaster – again: presumably, but almost certain - howled the last of this healthy laughter, and wiped a tear that had escaped. "Oh, this is too great. A noble! Of all things a freaking noble!"
His features split into a smile; it was not a nice one. "I like it."
He made to touch her face again, but her early speech seems to have stirred some courage within herself, and she snapped her teeth at the approaching fingers. That didn't end well for her or her comrades as it resulted in a brutally fast backhand slap that sent her and the tied men close into a painful tumble to the ground.
"A Noble, a marine, and a really, really full of herself." The Beastmaster went on as if nothing had happened, his not-nice smile only grew. "I like it. I like it really much."
He crouched down, grabbed a handful of her short white her and pulled her up, demonstrating a higher level of strength that his build would indicate. The girl screamed in agony as the root of her hair took in most of her body weight.
"I went out today to personally search for my missing Doe but to think I came to something almost as good. What a blessed day!" The girl struggled to put her legs under her while she glares daggers at the pirate. "You're going to be my new Kitty!" He declares.
There was a pull of air, and the crowd exploded in cheers by the news, almost as if he had announced free drinks at the bar or something, or an awesome party where everyone was invited. All reacted positively… except for the collared girl on his right, the one with a cat-eared tiara, she went pale as a ghost.
"And… about my old kitty." He showing turned left.
My breath got caught in my throat, and before I even realize; her smell has turned into a stench of intense terror. Her feelings were just starting to being echoed outside in a despair-filled scream when the Beastmaster's arm burred, appearing fully outstretched and holding a thin, high decorated blade on the side a second later. The girl choked two times in what appeared to be nothing. Then her hands went to her neck as her collar fell to the ground and blood started to pour from between the fingers.
The girl went down in a wet thud, and the crowd exploded in cheers once again. Her last moments in this world were spent hearing the happy reactions her death has caused.
I flinched back as my mind replayed the scene; my heart beating fast in my chest, the rate of my breathing slowly increasing, and a cold chill creaking in. I took another step back as my mind searched for the why.
A girl was murdered right in front of me and for seemly no reason… there weren't… there weren't words to describe… there wasn't a "man up! You seem blood before!" or a "you're in One Piece, goddamnit it, you've beaten guys bloody early today! Snap out of it!". I just saw a man murdering someone like he was taking out the trash. You can't simply see something like this for the first time and not be affected.
"Well then, you are coming with me!" The Beastmaster declared to the marine girl, so was struggling harder to hide her fear. "You need to be tamed, and boy, do I love taming headstrong girls like you." He smiled and addressed the rest of the crowd, and the frightened line of bloody men. "And about the rest of the trash, of course, there will be a party tomorrow morning, you will be able to enough yourself with them there."
The crowd roared again; by that point, it was background music. I was too focused on the psychopath climbing on the crocodile.
It didn't take long for him to be gone, and now, with his order, the procession seems to hush to wherever they were going. The crowd didn't exactly disperse, but there were a lot less excited pirates around.
"So, that was the Beastmaster," I commented dryly.
"Yes, yes it was."
The voice was very, very rough, and had a particularly ragged quality to it, sand scraping on a whiteboard, it wasn't exactly nice to the ear, and most certainly not melodic, but it was, at the very least, interesting.
I turned to see Brunhild walking to a crouching, trembling Lena, who was softly crying over her knees. She got down beside her, and the smaller girl threw herself on the Muscular beauty's abs, sobbing even harder.
…No… I shouldn't be thinking… I shouldn't… I mean I… I… I only here for a ship…
Right?
-0-0-0-
Booming laughter, lively conversations, and fast pace music filled the air inside the Velvet Dream that night, beautifully complementing the constant stream of food and drinks, and accentuating the raunchiness of the show on the stage. What I've seen this morning didn't come close to this.
Anastasia is commemorating Alvida's arrival, and for a place of constant partying like the Dream, it meant parting even more intensely than usual, for the delight of pretty much everybody inside.
Even the pricing was cut in half for the night.
I really, really wasn't in the mood for any kind of party, but I highly underestimated the enchantment of a genuine One Piece party, this kind of atmosphere just pull you and do not let go. At first, I wanted nothing more than get to bed. Then, before I knew it, I was pulled in by Alvida, then I got a drink in hand and tasted some of the best steak I ever had, then I was pulled again and started to dance, then someone started a standup comedy routine with a stripping twist, and before I knew it I was hooked.
Good food and alcohol, the best way to temporarily deal with all the bad experiences and confusing feelings of the day.
Plus…
"My, my, I never thought Madam's headstrong little sister would be so thoroughly tamed." Said a matronly woman with purple hair and smoldering blue eyes, every word that came out of her full lips were like a sensual love song. "You must be quite the man to achieve that, Nicholas-san." She practically moaned out my name, leaning forward against to mash more of her vast cleavage upon the table.
"Yes, yes and strong too!" Gushed the happy girl with an extremely bushy red-hair that was trying to mold her body against my arm. There were charming freckles all over her pretty face that went down to her bare shoulders and huge cleavage. Her chocolate-colored eyes shone with a dreamy light. "I heard what happened with the Red Shirt pirates! Everyone is talking about it!"
"Teehee you're so cool, mister!" The twin-tailed blonde on my other arm was the same one I've seen early, the one that caused such… memorable scene. She was dressed now at least; if you could consider wearing a tight corset and tiny skirt that did little to conceive her lack of underwear to be 'dressed'. She looked up to me with a look of smoky mischief. "I wish every guy here was as cool as you!"
"Well, I mean, I try…" I babbled with a smile, feeling lightheadenly happy.
"OI BITCHES WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MY DARLING?!"
And that has repeated throughout the night, the girls from the Velvet Dream can't seem to have enough of me, at every chance I was pulled by one or a butch to strike out a flirty conversation while they flaunted their unbelievable curves to my eyes. Alvida always managed to escape her sister grasps to intervene of course, but it did leave me time to get acquainted with practically every girl in this establishment, and almost always getting a good show for it too.
Needless to say, I was the envy of every guy in the room.
I was receiving so much attention that for a moment I thought I had transformed into my incubus form, but no, I was in my base, fat and unimpressive form and when I realize that I became really happy. I'd never been the most popular guy in a party before. It feels good having women flaunt at me for once.
Somehow among the bright lights, fun music, hot woman and delicious smells, I managed to stumble outside the cabaret into the chilly night, leaving the thumping party behind me. I don't know for what exactly I came here for, but I was somewhat relieved to have time to catch a breath.
"Ops! Hehehe" I laughed as my boots slid on the mud. " 'lmost fell."
With wobbly steps, I walked forward to a half-fallen building nearby, then I stop, feeling a hush, and start fighting my belt.
"Now only… open you little… Hah!"
Steam rose into the cold air as I relieved myself in a different matter. My whole body slumped nicely with the feeling.
"Ahhh." I moaned, raising my head and catching the sight of the moon.
Beautiful, big, shiny, and silvery, just like I…
… My brain worked to catch the details that went unseen.
In the end, I couldn't quite place the uncanny feeling. It's the moon, right? I've seen it so much it has become part of the background, I never been interested in astronomy enough to get familiar with it, nor was romantic enough to actually stop and have a look outside of eclipses or other events.
So I didn't know why I'm feeling sad right now, hell, I don't know why I'm feeling a lot of things lately.
Shaking my head to erase these annoying thoughts… and zipping my pants before I forget, I wobbled back to the drinks and women.
"JESUS CHRIST!" I shouted, fighting my disobeying legs to keep my balance. "Since when have you been here, woman!?"
Brunhild pierced me with an utterly unimpressed glare. The Amazonian beauty showed no reaction to my appearance, my actions or my surprise, she just kept leaning on one of the front pillars on the porch of the cabaret, with her burly arms crossed and her giant-ass poleaxe one her side.
"Fucking… You can't fool me, you know? I can see through that disappearing act of yours!" She raised an eyebrow. "It's a devil fruit, isn't it!?"
Silence… more silence… unimpressed indifference.
"Ah, hell." I groaned as I wobbled to her side and sat on the porch. Did I mention I really like that porch, very authentic, feels like a Wild West town, like Red Dead Redemption. My boots scraped the mud below. "Don't you get tired of that silent and cool façade?" I wheezed out my breaths.
Brunhild looked annoyed. Well, she didn't look anything but indifferent, but she was annoyed, I'm pretty sure of that somehow.
"No words, hah? Why don't you speak? I'm pretty sure I heard you speak before."
She looked at me with an analytical blankness, and then she uncrossed her arms and dragged a finger to the collar-like fabric on her neck, pulling it down for me to see.
"… That's pretty gruesome." I commented, staring at the deep, jagged scar draped across her neck, it was of a much lighter tone than her skin, which only accentuated the contrast. "So, I guess you can't speak without pain hm?"
Another blank look.
"That's fucked up- it's tragic too, I'm sorry about that," I said, and she grunted and looked forward, back into guarding the party. "Been seeing a lot of tragic stuff lately, like more than I've ever seen in my life… or at least not one of after the other like that-Ah, speaking of tragic- where is Lena anyway?"
Again, Brunhild didn't answer immediately, like she was judging whether or not she should. Then she pointed upwards.
My mind worked on that enigma for a full minute.
"Oh, I get it, she was tired and went to sleep upstairs isn't it?" I smiled, "Man, you not that hard to understand after some getting used to." I laughed.
She didn't laugh back.
I leaned forward a bit to try and reach an agreement with my sudden urge to burp; there's a lady present, my father raised me well!
"That girl, she must have suffered a lot on the hands of those Tamer guys," I commented out of nowhere, I wonder where I am going with this. "And I mean really suffer… Did you know that where I come from there were women trying to tell they 'suffered' in the hands of guy because they were insulted, or got catcalled? No, that girl, the way she reacted, that's real suffering there…"
I passed a hand over my neck, wiping out some sweat.
"I'd never seen something like that you know, the thing at the alley, the way Lena cried. Hell, the state of those marine guys… God those marine guys… I… I never had to deal with any of that where I came from, I mean, there were bad times, sure, but… but suffering like that, it all seemed… distant… Guess, I was pretty spoiled, wasn't I…?"
I turned to the muscular woman; she's still staring ahead with minimal reaction.
"About a week ago, that changed, I got dropped at a desert island, in One Piece." She snapped her head at me. "Since then, I did… things I never thought I would, I never thought was possible, I was… excided, happy, fucking thrilled to be at the Adventure of my life." I chuckled a bit from her confused look; she got handsome eyes you know, very reliable-looking. "And it barely started, hell nothing really bad happened to me. But… but the things I saw today, the smalls things I've been seeing."
I looked up to the moon, the moon with the crates in the wrong position.
"I'm terrified…" I admitted.
"This is not my world… the things there aren't like I was imagining … it's… too real."
I dropped my gaze to my hands; they were trembling.
"…Pathetic I know, I didn't even suffer anything yet… just watched… and yet it made me feel like this." I placed my hand over my hand, choking a sob. "I… I lost my life coming here and I… I… I don't even know what I'm here for! I don't know what to do…"
"W-what the hell should I do!?"
"Stop… Whining…"
"Eh." I looked up to see Brunhild rolling her eyes with a scowl.
"I'm not… good with… thinking stuff…" Brunhild's gurgling voice filled the air, it was not very loud, and it resonated weirdly, but it was enough to overtake the sounds of the party behind us. "The world is… a bad place… and a good place… some people suffer… Others don't'… that's all there is to it… obsessing about it will do shit…" She bites back a wet cough. Turning to me while she rubbed her neck. "Just do whatever the fuck you want to do… and stop thinking too much about it…"
…Eh?
Do what I want to do.
…
…What a shitty advice.
What a One Piece answer.
I mean, is that a more appropriate set of words to be said in this universe?
Do what you want to do and stop thinking too about it.
… Ah.
That's right.
I am in One Piece.
"Brunhild," I said, rising to my feet and looking at her. She was gone quiet again and was restarting her guard duties. "Thank you."
She let out a gurgling sound as I hugged her; I don't think she was expecting that.
My hand travels up the arch of her back, by fingers subconsciously digging between tensed muscles. "Thank you," I repeated through my breath, brushing my lips four centimeters below the left corner of her jawline, and leaving a nibbling kiss on the skin here.
Another gurgling, but more high-pitched, sound was produced, and she went utterly rigid in my arms, and I let her there at the entrance, walking back into the party with a singular purpose on my mind, and the rest in auto-pilot.
Purple blocked my path. "Ah, Nicholas-san there you are, my I entertain you with some-OUWF!" Francesca, the purple-haired, acting bartender glided across the floor by the strength of my pull, I step sideways and let her experienced dancer instincts take hold, and we met in a perfect form as we tango'ed three steps forward before I lowered her upper body almost to the floor, one of her leg unconsciously shooting high up to the side of my hip in response.
"Sorry dear, but I'm busy right now, I'll be delighted to talk with you later," I whispered, inches away from her amazingly flushed face, and pulled her up into a twirly release.
Another step and a flash of red appeared. "Hey, Nick~ Wanna see something cool-"
"Ah, Sophia." I step into her personal space, my hands jabbing the undersides of her breasts in a way that launched the large paddings out of her dress. "You do not need this. They are perfect the way they are, and you shouldn't feel any less of a woman for their sizes." I rolled my eyes at her now extremely red face and took the opportunity to neatly tie the loose collar of her dress in a way that accentuated her perky, apple-sized, wonderfully flecked breasts. "Seriously, I could wax poetic about how good they look, but unfortunately I'm somewhat busy now, so if you excuse me." I left just as she started to gawk.
"Helllo mister~" A blonde form appeared from the crowd. "Say, I was thinking-"
I roughly pulled her close, my hand snaking around to firmly grab a handful of her sizable ass, she moaned loudly, immediately making her body available for any possible assault, but instead of what she was probably imagining, I pushed past her smug face, under one of her twin-tails, and nibbled the upside of her ears, cause a powerful jolt of lighting to traverse across her entire form. "Found a weak point, Cynthia~" I teased into her now bright red ear, and she drops down with a cute meep.
The whole cabaret seems to converse itself around me as I walked forward, later I would wonder why there was, but now I simply reacted to their approached and continued on my way. Not minding the long line of flushed, moaning women I left on my wake.
When I got to the last stretch of my journey, an obese form wearing a scandalous dress presented itself.
"What do you want scrub!? My sister and I are busy right now!?" Anastasia shouted harshly at my face. She glared into my eyes.
… And then blinked confusedly.
"I have to speak with Alvida." I declared, easily stepping past her.
Alvida as just lowering her enormous barrel of sake when I got closer to her table. I smiled at her flushed, drunken appearance; even like that she looked stunning, the most fun kind of stunning.
Her dark green eyes exploded into fireworks of joys when she saw me.
"Oh, Darling!" She shouted, throwing herself from her chair to me. I caught her in a hug. "What is it!? Are those harpies bothering you again!? Did you come to see me!? Do you want a drink!? A Snack!? My body!?" She rattled off.
"Alvida." Something on my voice immediately stopped her rambling.
She gently pushed herself off, not to unroll the hug completely, but enough to look into my eyes with dutiful attention, the effect of the alcohol seems to wash off completely.
"Yes, my darling, how can your wife assist you?" Two bright hearts flashed on her iris for a moment.
I smiled, broadly, proudly, this felt good, this felt right.
Doing what I want.
"I'm going to kick that Beastmaster guy's ass, probably along with his entire crew. Care to join me?"
My girl opened a radiant smile. "Oh darling, it would be my pleasure!"
