Chapter 13 - Decisions
Vivi walked the streets, lost in the fog of her thoughts.
She had no right to yell at her friends that way, but the thought of someone wanting to do that to her father had brought up all the hate she had buried. Her friends had just been faces to throw her fury at.
Crocodile…
She felt her nails dig into her palms, her teeth into her lip, and she forced herself to take a breath, willed her fists to unclench. She wondered when she would ever stop hating him. It wasn't that he deserved forgiveness, he didn't. But her hate gave him power over her and she refused to be his puppet ever again.
This part of Nanohana was quieter. Vivi found herself at a half wall; partly ruined. She realized where she was. It was the same place where they had waited for Luffy – who had come back Marines in tow and then his brother had come out of nowhere and they'd run to the ship as fast as they could wondering what crazy thing Luffy was going to do next.
Her tears dampened the sand around her toes.
They were good at running. How many times had they left an island on the run from something or another? High speed through a goldfish, chased by bounty hunters, Marines, crazy old women with scalpels…
But while they'd run away screaming at the top of their lungs, Luffy had always been laughing. And eventually she had learned to laugh too.
Right now, in Vivi's eyes, the greatest crime a person could commit was to not be one of them.
What had Tahi meant? 'Or the new tart…'
New?
Other things said reverberated in her head.
They'll all be killed
Baroque Works.
Is there anything else you know that will help us stop them?
What was she doing feeling sorry for herself? She had an important decision to make.
====================
No one went after Vivi. Perhaps, like him, they were too riddled with guilt to move. If they were lucky, Kohza thought, Vivi would find the nearest army post and ask to go home. It wasn't that he didn't want her here. He did, but he had known that this would happen and had dreaded it ever since she had begun writing him in Yuba. He'd ignored those happy, hopeful letters and waited for the one that was filled with angry words. He knew that Vivi would learn the gory details of what the rebellion had done and been during the past two years – and she would hate him for it.
Kohza had been given justifications and excuses, had them handed to him by his father, the king, the people of Alabasta. Crocodile had set up the rebellion from the beginning; first by infiltrating it with his spies, and then by coercing the rebellion into action at Nanohana – handing them both the reason and the means to fight.
The fact was no one had put the sword in his hand and told him to gather his friends about him and begin planning the end of the kingdom.
Sometimes he wondered if he would have done the same thing had Vivi not disappeared. He remembered one of his last conversations with the king.
[Where is she?
I don't know, Kohza.
Just like you don't know about the Dance Powder? Or how your country is dying?
I know that.
Your people are dying!
I know that very well. But I do not know where Vivi is.
What kind of a father doesn't know where his own daughter is? I'll tell you! The same kind of man who watches his people suffer and does nothing when he has the means to do everything!]
In the end, the solution had become as clear as the empty skies. He could do nothing about Vivi, but he could do something about the drought…
"Kohza?"
He looked up into the faces of his friends and asked wearily, "Honestly, would you have even thought of taking up arms if I hadn't suggested it?"
Eric answered. "Someone else would have done it if you hadn't it; someone like Bracken, who had would have spent lives carelessly and would have put his own glory above anything else."
Kebi grinned. "Plus you were the only one willing to put up with us."
"There are reasons we call you 'Leader,' you know," Okame reminded him.
That roused him out of his self-pity. There were other lives at stake now and if he couldn't fix the past, he could do something now. He pushed his concern for Vivi out of his mind, deciding that she needed time to herself. He was probably the last person on earth she wanted to see right now anyway.
"I'm going north to stop Bracken," he said to the others. "Eric?"
"I'm with you."
"Me too," Kebi said.
"You and Okame are staying here." Kohza shook his head when they began to protest. "Who knows how long we'll be gone. I won't have your dad chasing me down, Okame, and he won't be too pleased with you, Kebi, if you disappear."
The couple grumped but didn't disagree with their leader. The plans took no time at all; they'd had so much practice at it. Once everyone was assigned their activities and clear on the details, Kohza adjourned the session. He stood up, grabbing his coat from the hook near the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm going to - "
"Find me?" Vivi was standing in the doorway. They blurted out startled apologies.
"Listen!" she ordered and they fell silent. She didn't have time to explain that they had nothing to be sorry for or she might lose her nerve and not say what had to be said.
Vivi took a deep breath. "The Water of Life is real and Bracken is headed straight for it."