Kaya felt like a child, but she couldn't help but keep up a slightly sulky exterior as Krow continued to calmly spread blueberry jam on his toast across her own dining table. She was honestly getting very annoyed at how often Krow was coming by lately. Truth be told, although greatly indebted and grateful to the man, she did not like what his visits were insinuating. The tabloids were being absolutely ridiculous.
"Kaya, dear, why the depressed face? Have you taken your tablets?"
The actress lifted her chin at the worried tone, surprised at how familiar it sounded, when she was met with the sight of him running a thumb along the blunt edge of his butter-knife. A chilling smile flitted across his lips before curling down. Suddenly, his eyes met hers in a penetrating gaze, and Kaya froze.
Her vision swam into a haze of grey and black; she tried to blink but her eyes were transfixed on the cold gaze locking her in place. And something distant and faded -- someone's voice -- began to play in her mind like a broken record.
"Everything..."
No! This... really... isn't....
"...wanted 'peace'..."
...this isn't...
"Get out of the village!!"
...isn't... Kla..hadol...
"...your death....!!"
"Miss Kaya?"
Merii's nervous voice broke into her vision and the distorted voices stopped abruptly, Kaya's eyes meeting Merii's concerned look.
"Are you... alright?"
"Yes, of course,"
She said faintly. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end; she brushed the back of her hand roughly against her hair. She felt dizzy and sick.
"I said, did you take your medicine, Kaya?"
She avoided his glance and gave a sharp shake of the head.
'What was that...?'
Kaya thought with a slight frown as she looked down at her now unappetizing toast,
'Am I growing delusional? Or is this what Usopp-san...?'
"There was a young man waiting outside the mansion yesterday morning,"
Kaya looked up from her plate, startled at Krow's mention of the subject of her thoughts. Krow's cruel and calculating look was gone, and he looked mildly concerned as he spoke.
"He acted highly suspicious. You don't suppose he's a stalker?"
"Oh, no, not Usopp-san,"
Kaya said with a small laugh as she remembered what he'd told her about his meeting with Krow,
"He's just a good friend of mine."
Krow and Merii were looking at Kaya as though she had just run around in circles on the ceiling. She didn't ask, but she knew why. She hadn't laughed in ages. They failed to comment, and instead, Krow continued,
"All the same, Kaya. I feel you should take more... precaution in the people you choose to associate with. He seemed a little..."
He waved a hand about as he tried to come up with an appropriate word, and settled on,
"...absurd. Perhaps you should spend more time with a psychiatrist for your depression, rather than--"
"No, I'm fine,"
Kaya said with a firm tone Krow was not accustomed to at all,
"Please don't tell me who to associate with and who to not, Klahadol. I don't like it."
Krow's eyes narrowed almost angrily as Kaya poured iced tea into her glass.
'That's not right, Kaya,'
He thought enragedly,
'You're not acting right at all. Did you forget? You're--'
"Sir, more tea?"
Merii asked hastily in effort to break the tension, and also stopping Krow's train of thought.
"Yes, please."
He said, his voice cool but pleasant. Kaya saw him open his mouth, and knowing he was going to spout something about Usopp, quickly said:
"So have you acquired the Storm land of Theodore Flint yet?"
Krow looked surprised but quickly hid it as he took a sip of his glass.
"Not until some... matters are cleared up,"
He said vaguely, immediately sparking suspicion in Kaya.
"What matters?"
"Some strange rumour about another will existing. Could change everything, I'm not sure..."
"Another will?"
Kaya said in surprise,
"Where?"
"Er, rumours go as far to say that it is with Augustus Flint. Theodore's son. But of course it's a highly unlikely story--"
"I never heard of that before. His son's still alive?"
"Supposedly,"
He said in the same vague tone,
"But it's probably nonsense, my dear... nonsense..."
There was something that was obviously very disturbing overlying the situation, but before Kaya could probe further she was interrupted.
"You are probably right, sir."
Merii piped up cheerfully. Krow smiled at Merii, and unless Kaya was mistaken there was something grateful edging his lips.
For the rest of breakfast Kaya failed to bring up the subject of Flint's Will again, and suppressed a scowl until Krow left.
Tashigi hung up the phone with a deep and troubled frown. She hadn't heard his voice in ages, and she certainly hadn't been prepared for it when she'd picked up.
Why on Earth had he called?
She shook her head quickly, not wanting to think about the possibilties. All the same, her heart pounded as she hastily ran a brush through her hair and polished her lenses. She'd find out soon enough...
As she walked along the corridor her eyes passed over the grounds outside through the open windows. Her eyes widened as she saw Zoro meandering his way through a group of female students playing basketball. A small black-haired boy was tagging along behind him as they headed out of the university. Her eyes lingered on his bandanna and the glint of the hoops in his ears from the sun when she mentally kicked herself, looking away from the window.
If she thought about it, the fact that Zoro had seemed to not mind her and genuinely respect her had truly affected her in a way no one else could. Not even Smoker had made her feel that way... and Tashigi knew that was why it hurt her more. The idea that Zoro had only been interested in her because she was 'familiar'. There was a horrible disappointment that ached in her. It was more of a disappointment of herself than Zoro.
When would anyone ever accept her as herself? Maybe I'm being selfish here, Tashigi reasoned, Zoro has a right to be friendly to anyone familiar to him... But she felt bad all the same...
Without warning she missed a step on the staircase due to too much thinking and with an embarrassing yelp tumbled down the staircase. She rubbed her grazed arms with a sweatdrop and bent over to collect the contents of her bag that had spilled out on the way down. Behind her, she heard someone else pick something up.
Her heart nearly stopped.
"You stop whacking me first, Miss. Charming."
He always seemed to appear when she was having problems...! She turned around, her eyes wide with anticipation, to see Yuina standing behind her and holding Tashigi's cell-phone. Tashigi felt herself deflate abruptly.
"I... I think you dropped this,"
Yuina said softly. Tashigi took it uncertainly, wondering briefly if the girl had implanted a cherry bomb in it while she hadn't been looking.
"Uh, thanks,"
Tashigi said, then regretted sounding so insincere as Yuina's dark-green eyes looked down-castedly at the floor. She felt like an idiot. She'd just seen Zoro leave the university. And why had she been so happy? Tashigi refrained from bashing her head against the wall, not wanting to alarm Yuina, but she felt like doing so.
"Yuina?"
Tashigi looked upwards as Yuina did to see Karen holding a small girl's hand at the top of the stairs. Karen's eyes were darting suspiciously from Tashigi to Yuina as the girl untangled her fingers from Karen's grip and ran towards Yuina, tugging her hand.
"Come on, Yuinaaa! You promised me you'd buy lunch,"
Tashigi noticed that although the small girl didn't have the same green eyes as Yuina, their skin and their hair shared the same quality. Tashigi easily assumed the girl was Yuina's younger sister. The girl looked no older than ten.
"Okay, Yuko. Karen, you wanna come?"
Karen narrowed her eyes.
"No, I don't want to go near Raven. That's just sick."
She said coldly, and without another word turned on her heel and left. Yuina gave a small glance at Tashigi that looked almost apologetic before smiling at Yuko and leading her down the stairs.
"What did Karen mean by Raven?"
The young girl's voice floated curiously up the stairs, and Yuina's voice replied curtly,
"She didn't mean a thing."
Tashigi slid her phone into her bag pocket, a thoughtful look gracing her face. There was definitely something about Yuina, but Tashigi wasn't set on figuring Yuina out when she hadn't even solved her own problems. She waited until Yuina's and Yuko's footsteps had stopped echoing up the staircase before setting down herself.
"Did you buy out Eighty-Twelve?"
Sanji asked with a sweatdrop as Luffy and Zoro, having returned from the convenience store, dumping five bags onto the table stuffed with food.
"Only half of it,"
Zoro said with a roll of his eyes as Luffy immediately started on the sandwiches with gusto. Sanji shook his head.
"You don't have to buy all the instant stuff, you know. If you get some ingredients I'll actually make something edible for you guys. The canteen food isn't the best thing in the world."
Luffy nodded enthusiastically as he finished the package of sandwiches and started on a bag of buttered cuttlefish. Sanji was selecting a tie when he noticed Zoro munching on a muffin and looking distinctly uncomfortable.
"What's wrong, cabbage-head? Yesterday's defeat gnawing at you?"
Zoro scowled.
"Wrong, pansy."
"Well, something's wrong."
"Nothing's 'wrong',"
Zoro said shortly, and silence resumed with only the noisy crunching of Luffy consuming his third bag of crisps breaking it occasionally. Then Zoro said suddenly,
"Oi, dumbass prince. If... someone keeps running from you. What do you do?"
Sanji's eyebrows shot up.
"Zoro, are you talking about a girl?"
Zoro's face plunged into scarlet as he stuttered,
"I never said that!"
"Is it that girl? The girl you were sleeping on in assembly?"
Sanji asked, a cheesy grin spreading across his face. Zoro rolled his eyes, though his face was still burning, and started on a sandwich as he growled,
"Forget I even asked."
"Well, if a girl is running from you, what you should do is obvious."
Zoro raised an eyebrow.
"You would know."
He said, and Sanji winced at the indirect mention of Nami. Zoro looked very interestedly at his sandwich as he swallowed with difficulty and asked,
"What do you do?"
"I go after her."
Sanji said with a roll of his eyes. Zoro blinked as the model pulled on his jacket and announced,
"I've got to get going to Horlock Street. I'll see you guys later."
He waved as he started towards the door, but stopped in alarm as Luffy flapped his arms about wildly, choking on his current packet of jelly-beans as he tried to speak. He swallowed what was in his mouth painfully before saying frantically,
"How can you go now?!! You're supposed to stay so we can figure out what to do about your dimension?"
"Well, we will try to save the other life we've got, but we have another life we're in charge of now,"
Sanji said irritatedly before leaving and shutting the door with a snap.
"So you guys think saving your entire planet can wait?"
Kale said, his jaw dropped open. Zoro shrugged, not really listening - then his eyes narrowed.
"You ate half of what we bought already?!"
Kale tried to smile innocently as he bit into his fifteenth chocolate bar.
Zoro glowered at the empty packages strewn on the table-top, but let it rest with a sigh. It looked like another trip to Eighty-Twelve was in store for tonight. He bit into a cheese cracker as he thought,
'I go after her...?'
A/N: Eighty-Twelve. =_=;; Oh well. I'm sorry I keep ditching my update schedule... It's sort of difficult for me to keep up with, I guess. Gomen nasai. T_T This was a relatively stupid chapter, and I hope to get things rolling again soon... thanks for reading uptil now, and I sincerely thank anyone who reviewed. ;_;*