Ch.3: Gaining a Friend, Losing an Enemy
Disclaimer- I don't own One Piece, but I wouldn't mind if I did because it's the 2nd anime I've seen that has no characters that I hate (sorry, but I did see "Shadow Skill" first).
A/N: From now on, the chapters of the story are going to be started with a diary entry from Emily. The italics are the entries, so I hope you don't get confused.
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4th sun, 16th day of green lilies
(Wednesday, May 16)
The Hellraiser died today, murdered by Master Zoro…and I couldn't be happier. Just chopped him up and tossed him into the ocean. Mr. Luffy said that if his brother, Ace, was here, he'd have burned it to ashes with his Devil Fruit powers. But, since he's not here, the ocean would just have to make do. I asked Umiryuu to hide the remains deep into the sea, away from all the pirates. Now all the remains lay 5,000 miles under the sea. Never to be found again.
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Soft breathing came from Nami, Robin, and Emily's room. The three of them were peacefully sleeping until the "alarm clock" went off.
The "alarm clock" was Luffy and Usopp walking around the ship and screaming in their sleep before dawn. One of the final stops would be the girl's bedroom. They'd rip the door open and cry out in their sleep. They were, of course, unaware of doing it.
For eight days in a row, at least one of the two had been the alarm clock for the three females. Robin had woken up looking only slightly annoyed by the interruption. Nami woke up practically screaming and throwing something nearby her at the boys and woke them up. Emily woke up in surprise and fell from her hammock onto the floor.
On the 9th day, just before sunset, the ship shook violently. Books, small treasure chests, and various other items fell from the shelves and onto the ground. The hammock sharply rocked and Emily fell to the floor.
"Itai!" Emily cried.
"Are you all right, Emily?" Nami asked, turning on a nearby lantern.
Emily nodded and put a hand onto her left cheek where a bruise stood.
She was given the bruise four days ago after Luffy ran into the room screaming in his sleep. Emily climbed back into her hammock and fell back asleep.
Nami got up from the bed and stomped off to the boy's bedroom to yell at Luffy and Usopp, but to her surprise all the boys, especially Luffy and Usopp, were sleeping like babies. Nami shrugged it off and went back to her bed.
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"Geez, Emily! You got one hell of a bruise." Zoro announced at breakfast.
Emily swallowed what was in her mouth and answered, "I fell out of bed again last night."
All eyes turned towards Luffy and Usopp, who stared back in confusion.
"What?" They asked at the same time.
"It wasn't from them. I checked in on the male's quarters after Emily fell. It must have been from something outside because both Luffy and Usopp were sleeping." Nami spoke up.
"It's…okay. It's only a simple bruise. I'll be fine. I've had much worse injuries than this." Emily convinced the crew.
Nobody seemed to believe her, but she was telling the truth. Eventually, the thought was ignored and breakfast was continued, half of it being with the crew screaming at Luffy for taking the food off their plates.
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During the afternoon, everybody sat on top of the boat relaxing. The only crew members who were actually doing any real work were Sanji, who was making snacks for the girls, and Chopper, who was holding up sheets of music while Emily practiced her flute. It was tiring for the little reindeer, but he wanted to do anything to help his crew and the youngest member didn't have a music stand and needed to practice.
After a while, Emily thanked Chopper for his help and put away her flute and music. Now she had to practice with her boomerang. A sharp little breeze came from within the boomerang as it flew through the sky and returned to Emily's small hand. She threw it again and it whacked Luffy's rubbery hands before they touched Nami's orange trees and returned to its owner.
Sanji laughed as he handed out snacks he made to Nami, Robin, and Emily (after telling Luffy and Chopper that their snacks were in the kitchen). On the plate in his left hand sat 2 large glasses of chilled, mixed fruits for Nami and Robin (he offered this snack to Emily a few days ago, but she politely refused) and one large, chilled green apple.
Nami and Robin thanked Sanji for their mixed fruits.
Sanji knelt down in front of Emily and held the apple in front of her, hoping that she'd take it.
Timidly, Emily grabbed the apple, thanked the cook, and bit into the apple. The sweet juice filled her mouth and made her give a small smile towards him.
She ate the apple slowly to savor the flavor that fell onto her tastebuds. Every few minutes, she'd throw her boomerang at Luffy to stop him from getting to Nami's oranges. Once finished with her apple, Emily walked to the inside of the Going Merry to throw out her apple core and start to clean the ship.
Her work was done so quickly, so fast that it seemed as if she had to clean or she'd be killed or punished. Her two sets of clothes were already getting dirty and even more worn.
Nami desperately tried to sew up some of the holes in Emily's clothes, but couldn't. The cloth was just way too worn out and couldn't be repaired.
She led Emily to their room and opened up a treasure chest at the end of her bed. There was no gold or treasure inside, but there were clothes…clothes that would just fit her. Most of the clothes inside were ones that Belmeil made for Nami and Nojiko before she died. She was surprised that Nojiko still kept the clothes after 8 years and was even more surprised when she saw how small Emily was.
She held a few dresses up to Emily's body to see if any of them were too big or small. Most of the clothes were at least four sizes bigger than Emily was. Nami frowned and put a pair of black pants onto the small girl. The pants were a perfect fit as were the other six pairs that Emily tried on. Nami then moved to the shirts. Of the multiple shirts that Emily tried on, only four fit.
By the time the two of them were finished, Emily had eight "new" pairs of clothes, all of which felt comfortable.
Nami packed up all the clothes that didn't fit into the original treasure chest while Emily packed her new clothes into her bag, all except for one pair of pants and a blue shirt. Nami left the room and Emily changed into her new clothes and brushed her hair. After her hair ribbon was put in, she looked again in the mirror and forced herself to smile. She was getting closer to looking cute.
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Two days had passed and the breeze from the sea blew against the sails towards the city of Nanahana. It would take four days to get there…if no bad weather picked up. Everybody was yet again relaxing when a huge creature, like a dragon, came out of the ocean. The creature stood against the Going Merry, staring sadly at the crew upon the ship.
The creature shook violently and a growl came from its stomach. Everyone that stood up was now on the floor.
Luffy stared at the creature and got ready to attack it before Emily stopped him.
She calmly walked up to the creature and stuck out her small hand. In her hand lay a large green apple, one that Sanji had just given her to eat for a snack.
The creature leaned its head towards Emily and got closer and closer to her hand.
"Emily! Watch out!" Zoro yelled.
The small girl didn't move. The creature put its hand over her wrist and after about 30 seconds, removed its mouth. Emily's wrist was fine and her green apple was gone.
The creature smiled and began to speak, "Thank you for the food. It has been a year since I ate anything that isn't seaweed or fish. My name is Umiryuu, the sea dragon."
Emily bowed and introduced herself and the crew.
Umiryuu rubbed his head against the side of Emily's the girl giggled and stroked the side of the dragon's head that she could reach.
"Were you swimming around our boat a few days ago and banged into it?" Emily asked Umiryuu.
Umiryuu blushed and apologized after seeing the bruise on Emily's cheek.
Emily shook her head and explained about the Going Merry's "alarm clocks" and her falling out of her hammock when they went off.
Umiryuu leaned against the ship and followed its direction, talking with Emily the entire time as if he was an old friend of hers. Eventually, Umiryuu decided to leave. "If any of you need my help, just call me and I'll be here to help, my friends." Umiryuu told the crew before disappearing into the sea. Emily kept smiling. She'd made a new friend.
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Two more days had passed. Umiryuu had come to visit Emily the day before. It was the late afternoon of the 2nd day when Luffy finally noticed the black bag by Zoro's bed. "Zoro? What is this?" Luffy asked, pointing at the bag.
Zoro shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. The guard in Yokuna gave it to me. Said it was for Emily." Without thinking, Zoro carried the bag out to the lounge.
Inside the lounge, Sanji was cooking, Nami was reading the paper, Usopp was fixing a weapon, Robin was reading, Chopper was sorting out his medicines, and Emily was cleaning even though she wasn't asked to.
Zoro looked into the black bag and gasped. He started at the inside of the bag with disbelief in his eyes for the longest time. "No…they didn't…they couldn't…this has to be a joke." Zoro gasped.
"What's wrong, Zoro?" Luffy asked.
Zoro ignored him but looked over at Emily, "Emily, come here."
At first she didn't want to, for she knew what was in the back bag and feared it, but it was an order and she had to obey it. The second she got to Zoro, he spun her around so her back faced him.
Zoro apologized and lifted up the back of her shirt. He gasped at what he saw.
All over her back were lashes, deep lashes. Possibly the deepest he had ever seen before. Heavy scars plagued the back and left pictures in his mind even after his eyes had closed. Some of the lashes looked fresh, at least from three weeks ago. He put his hand on some of them and winced from the rough skin on the extremely small girl. Zoro wouldn't stop starting at Emily's beaten back.
"What's the matter, Zoro?" Nami asked, but stopped after seeing the back. These injuries looked even worse than the injuries that Arlong and his fish people had given the people in Cocoyashi. The look of the lashes made Nami feel sick to her stomach.
Zoro let go of Emily's shirt and spun her until she faced him. "Please tell me that they didn't touch you with that thing in the bag." Zoro pleaded.
Emily looked at the floor and let out a muttered, "They did."
Luffy reached into the bag and pulled out the thing that Emily claimed to be her worst enemy. Her worst enemy was a whip with five extra thick leather straps with pieces of thick thorns stuck to it for more pain.
Emily gasped and hid behind the closest person to her and shook in fear.
Zoro ran up to Emily and lifted her chin so she'd look into his eyes, "Oh God! Did your masters really beat you with that thing?"
Small streams of tears ran down Emily's cheeks. This time she didn't try to stop them even if it meant being beaten by him. Emily let out a soft nod.
Zoro stared for a while, praying that she was just joking with him, that this was a simple joke that Luffy talked her into doing. But after seeing her cry for a certain amount of time, he decided that it wasn't a joke. The anger inside of him was released, the anger for her masters beating her with this…thing.
Zoro grabbed the whip and stomped off to the top of the deck.
Emily followed him quietly and everyone else followed her. Zoro took a deep breath and called out for Umiryuu. Conveniently, the dragon came out and stood by the ship. Zoro looked back at Emily and took a deep breath after staring into her sad eyes.
He tossed the whip in the air and chopped it up into multiple small pieces with his three swords. Once he put the swords away, he handed Umiryuu the broken up whip, "Take these and hid it deep within the sea so nobody can find it. I don't want anyone to hurt another person with that like they did with Emily. EVER!"
Umiryuu nodded, took the whip, and disappeared deep within the sea.
Zoro looked back at Emily. Tears were gushing out of her eyes and she didn't move from her spot. Zoro was about to regret destroying the whip…until Emily flung herself to him and squeezed tightly. She was smiling and laughing. "Thank you, Master Zoro. You…destroyed the Hellraiser." Emily cried, not letting go of Zoro.
"The Hellraiser? You had a name for that thing?" Zoro asked Emily.
"I'm not the only person who called it that. Misao called it the Hellraiser too, because it hurts like Hell when we got beaten with it and we were scared as Hell of it." Emily answered.
"How long were you terrorized with it?"
"About 9 years. Since I was 3."
"Since you were 3? That long?"
"Well, I got a 3 year break from it when I joined the circus when I was 6."
"How did the whip find its way back to you when you quit the circus?"
"I don't know."
"Well…the Hellraiser is dead. Your 9 years of terror are over."
"Thank God."
Emily's arms were still around Zoro's waist and the tears were still flowing, but not quite as badly as before. Her smile was the largest she had given in years and it made him feel good, like how he felt years ago when he was able to cheer up Kuina after they made their promise to battle one day and be the best swordsperson in the world.
She clung to him like that and thanked him deeply for killing her worst enemy for at least an hour.
Zoro never moved or tried to shove her off himself and that pleased her.
After she let go, Emily half walked and half skipped into the ship.
Zoro calmly walked behind her. The smile on her face made the crew inside feel good and happy.
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Later that night, in the girl's bedroom, Robin sat on her bed holding a book in her lap and tried to bring on a conversation with Emily. Both her and Nami stared at Emily's back as she changed into a pair of old pajamas from Nami. They noticed a small green and blue tattoo on her side, but that didn't worry them. What worried them were large bruises around her waist and ribs.
"Emily? Did you get those bruises from falling out of your bed?" Nami asked, pointing at the bruises.
Emily blushed, shook her head, and slipped into a shirt to hid the bruises.
"How on earth did you get such deep bruises?" Robin asked the youngest girl.
Emily stared for a moment before whispering, "I…really don't wanna talk about it."
Robin and Nami didn't bother to ask her why. They knew it must have been from something bad.
FLASHBACK
"You little bitch! How dare you try escaping me!" A large and muscular man screamed at a small figure that he threw to the ground.
The small figure, Emily, cried out in pain as he jammed his feet into her side and stomach.
Two men from the house followed his example and punched and kicked her, ignoring her screams of pain.
"Please stop. I'm sorry, Master." Emily cried, unsuccessfully trying to block the blows to her body. She really prayed that she'd brought her boomerang with her even though she couldn't use it.
It wasn't that she wouldn't have any time to use it to knock the men out because she was quick enough, but if she attacked, her poor sister would have been punished for it.
Misao had been beaten severely with the Hellraiser two days before and the Master claimed that if one of the girls attacked him or his men, the other would be punished severely. And Misao was already in enough pain.
In fact, Misao was the reason that Emily was escaping her "home" in the first place.
Emily had taken a few berries and was planning on escaping into town for medicines for Misao since she was denied medicines for her beating. That, and she was deeply in pain. Emily got caught by the master as she climbed over the fence. Her leg was scraped as she was pulled to the ground.
Her only reward from escaping was a heavy beating from the Hellraiser and multiple kicks and punches. The men finally left and she stood up, ignoring the pain in her sides. She never noticed the master's four sons ganging up on her with metal rods until it was too late.
END FLASHBACK
Her injuries came from only six months ago and haven't gone away, no matter how much she tried to rest and treat the bruises. The only good thing about them was that none of Emily's ribs were broken or cracked and that after two days, she was able to walk again. She felt very little pain from her injuries along her ribs and waist, only if she lay on them for too long was when she felt the pain.
Not wanting to talk anymore, Emily climbed into her hammock and lay staring at the wall until her eyelids grew heavy.
Nami and Robin stared in shock as the girl climbed into her bed, ignoring the bruises as if they were never there.
In her sleep, they saw her twitch in pain, but not wake up. They eventually gave up and decided to fall asleep like she did. This was not a problem they wanted to talk about.
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5th sun, 17th day of green lilies
(Thursday, May 17)
Miss Nami and Miss Robin saw my bruises last night. I didn't wanna talk about them though. I didn't want them to see my injuries and think I'm weak and leave me behind like Mama and Papa did. Miss Nami saws that tomorrow we'll be in Nanahana. Hopefully I won't be left behind there.
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The Straw Hat Pirates didn't get to Nanahana until two days after they expected to be due to an unexpected and unwanted visit from the Marines.
These Marines weren't with Colonel Smoker and Tashigi. These Marines only had eight come out of the ship, one for each of the pirates to attack, except there was one small problem…
"Hot Juice Bullets!" Usopp called, flinging one of his Mad Dog Peach Juice bullets into a nearby Marine's eyes.
The Marine went down and a Marine from inside the ship came out and took his place. That happened every time a Marine went down. Soon, the deck was full of Marines, attacking at the same exact time.
Everybody was attacking the Marines with everything they had, all but one person.
"Where's Emily? We really could use her attacks right now!" Luffy asked, hitting marine after marine with his rubber arms.
"She was exhausted after scrubbing the floor of the lounge, so I told her to go take a nap!" Zoro shouted, getting two nearby marines.
"Should I wake her up?" Nami asked, whacking a marine over the head with her rod.
Luffy didn't answer her.
Quickly, she ran to the girl's bedroom and looked at Emily's sleeping form. She felt guilty about having to wake up the sleeping girl, but this was an emergency. "Emily…Emily…wake up." Nami said, shaking Emily's shoulder, trying to avoid the bruises that she and Robin saw the night before.
Emily slowly opened her blue-green eyes and let out a yawn, "Miss…Nami?"
"Emily, we're being attacked by Marines and need your help in fighting them." Nami answered.
Emily hopped out of her hammock immediately, put her boomerang together, and followed Nami up to the deck. She looked from her boomerang and the marines and pushed a green button.
Closing her eyes, Emily randomly threw her boomerang into the air seven times, each time missing the marines.
"What are you doing, Emily? You're missing them!" Luffy shouted.
The buttons on her boomerang began to glow.
"Everyone! Get behind me! Hurry!" Emily shouted. The crew obeyed her. Emily hurled her boomerang at the clueless Marines and screamed, "Wind!"
It seemed as if the attack she did blew the marines away…literally. A huge gust of wind came from the boomerang and blew the marines and their ship far away. The boomerang found its way back into Emily's hands. The buttons were no longer glowing. The entire crew was staring in disbelief at her.
"You can control elements with that thing?" Nami asked nervously.
Emily shook her head, "All I can do is a big gust of wind. The other buttons let me do different attacks."
"What are the other attacks?" Chopper asked.
Emily took a deep breath, "The red button gives me the blade attack, the purple gives me the poison attack, but I don't use that one very often…"
"Why not?" Luffy asked.
"Because it requires me to use some blood to make the poison. The pink button is for giving illusions to the person it hits, the black button is for using energy from myself to the enemy, and the white button is for grabbing things from enemies that are too far away."
"Wow…"
Nami looked at her map, compass, and the sea then cried out. "What's wrong, Nami-san?" Sanji worriedly asked.
"We're…two days off course. It's going to take longer to get to Nanahana especially because of these rough waves!" Nami cried out.
Nobody else complained about being late…mostly because Luffy, Zoro, Robin, Chopper, and Usopp didn't care, Sanji didn't mind being on the waves with Nami and Robin, and Emily was too scared to complain.
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The ship that night was extremely rough and dangerous. Items fell off of shelves constantly, the crew members were falling down when they walked, and the Going Merry was jerking in every direction possible. When it was time for bed, Nami was actually considering on tying Emily to her bed to avoid having Emily fall onto her bruises and break a bone, but stopped herself.
To make it even safer for Emily, the crew fixed up a bed in the lounge so that if she fell, it'd only be a few inches and wouldn't be hurt. They even made sure that there were no items on any shelves around her.
At about 2am, the hardest jerk came and practically bounced the sleeping slave into the air about three feet and was going to have her land on the ground with a thud.
Luckily, Zoro was going to go up to the deck to take his shift. He saw her bounce up in the air and grabbed her before she hit the ground. To his surprise, Emily was still sleeping, as if nothing happened and didn't stir when he moved her back to her bed and re-covered her. He silently left for the top of the deck.
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The next morning, Emily awoke to Zoro's voice telling the crew about the jerk that brought Emily three feet in the air and being caught by him before hitting the ground. The crew laughed and she blushed deeply.
She couldn't believe that she slept through the entire thing. She knew she was a heavy sleeper, but she didn't know she would be able to sleep through something like that.
The crew ate breakfast mostly laughing and in silence. The silence was coming from Chopper and Emily. Once breakfast was done, the entire crew yet again spent their free time relaxing on the deck and trying to find a way to get to Nanahana quicker. For two chilled green apples, Umiryuu pulled the ship towards Nanahana…at least up to five miles away from town. And for a cheerful tune from Emily's flute, Umiryuu would protect the ship from Marines for three hours.
Once the three hours were up, Umiryuu said his good-bye and left the Going Merry. For the next few hours, the only thing that could be seen or smelt was the large, salty sea until that changed.
A new scent filled the air. The smell was strong and smoky and got even stronger as the ship got closer. Soon sounds joined the smell.
The sounds of fishermen with sailor mouths joined the smoky smell. Each fisherman was yelling at the other for some stupid reason like if one of the men used the wrong bait or ate and drank the wrong thing. The sailor talk just went back and forth constantly like bad mouthed parrots. The fishermen were so busy yelling at each other that they failed to notice the Going Merry passing them.
Once rid of the fishermen, the sea was the only thing to be seen although the smoky smell was still strong in the air.
Chopper was sitting in the crow's nest with a pair of binoculars on, staring straight forward for land. Eventually, the cry, "Land Ho!" was heard from Chopper's mouth. Immediately, the crew ran to the front of the ship to get a better look ahead of them.
Right in front of the Going Merry was the town of Nanahana, just like Chopper and Nami had said.
"Pull into port!" Luffy called out to his crew.
Everyone obeyed him and brought the sails into the direction in which they'd have needed to head into the town, into Nanahana.
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A/N: That's it so far. The name Nanahana means "seven flowers" in Japanese (Nana means 7, Hana means flower).Thank you everyone that reviewed my last chapter. Sorry if this chapter was a little boring, but I'm going to make the next one very entertaining. R/R if ya want, but don't flame me…please.