Ch.6: Reunited with the Circus
Disclaimer: No, I don't own One Piece, but if I did it sure as hell wouldn't be dubbed by 4Kids entertainment(and I swear to God, if they completely ruin the Arlong arc, there'll be Hell to pay)!
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6th sun, 30th day of red larkspurs
(Friday, July 30)
It has been a long time since I saw Kim, Kelly, and Ryan, and even longer since I spoke with Misao. In one of my bags I have a picture of my dear sister, the most recent one I have. She is 9 years old and is sitting on the porch steps of a large mansion next to 9 year old me. Misao's curls are tied tightly into pigtails, her brown eyes are sparkling, and an arm is on my shoulder. I was smiling for the first time since Mama and Papa left me…
- - - - -
Fingers were dancing with the music that they were help making. Two different sets of breath were joining the fingers. One set was blowing into a flute while the other was singing a common tune. The singing came from Luffy while the flute playing obviously came from Emily. She'd been playing song requests from Luffy for three hours straight. All her tunes were just simple songs that every pirate knew in this age…and every time she played them, Luffy sang loudly, as if he wanted the whole sea to hear him.
She also knew the tunes she played when she was in the traveling circus even though it had been three years since she last played them. Emily refused to play any of them around the crew. She didn't want the memories of the circus to show up in her mind.
Eventually, Luffy decided that he wanted to stop singing and Emily was able to stop playing her flute.
Emily looked around at the people sitting on the deck of the ship. Luffy, now done singing, was jumping onto the bow with excitement on his face. Zoro was taking a five hour long nap. Usopp was busy fixing something. Nami was busy checking a map to make sure the ship was not off course. Chopper was sitting half asleep next to the napping Zoro. Robin was yet again reading one of her books for the millionth time. And Sanji was walking with a tray in his hand, side-stepping each of the rubbery hands that Luffy aimed at the tray.
Emily softly giggled. Each member reminded her of the members of the traveling circus. Luffy was acting like Josh the clown, always happy. Zoro was like James the lion tamer, almost always sleeping. Chopper was like Toby the main lion, always trying to do what the tamer was doing. Usopp was like Will the magician, constantly fixing things or getting ready for tricks. Robin was like April the acrobat, reading when not working. Nami was like the Ringmaster's wife, directing the circus when traveling. Sanji was like the Ringmaster, always protecting what he held.
The weather was good and had been good whenever Emily played her flute. It was as if the sea decided to be peaceful when the flute was played. The Straw Hat Pirates had visited two towns since they were at the uninhabited island.
The next town was called Redding. It was a small town, as Nami explained. All the talk of small towns reminded Emily of the traveling circus.
FLASHBACK- - - - - - -
"Where is our next town, Mama?" Emily, now seven years old, asked the Ringmaster's wife from on top of Toby's back.
The woman looked at Emily with a smile, "It's 30 miles away." The Ringmaster and his wife were the closest thing she had to parents since her own died when she was a month old, so she called them Mama and Papa.
Emily was excited about going to the next town. It would be the first time she'd perform on her flute in front of people that weren't part of the circus.
Emily looked down at Toby, "Are you getting tired, Toby?"
The lion shook his head and kept walking. Emily was so small and light that Toby barely felt a thing. Emily was happy to be in the traveling circus even thought she had been separated from Misao for almost a year. But here, the circus ignored the fact that Emily was a slave and treated her like a normal girl. And no matter what, she was extremely grateful for being saved when she was still six.
- - - -FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK- - - - - - -
Six-year-old Emily went back to work the day after forcing down the dirty soup she was forced to eat. Her stomach was aching, her body felt weak, and she had a fever. But she was still well enough to work and Misao was helping her, so it wasn't so hard.
The master of the house was going to have a large party that evening and the entire mansion had to be completely spotless. Both girls were busy working on the upstairs rooms, mopping the floors and dusting the things along the walls. To get things done quicker, Misao decided to take care of the walls since she was bigger than Emily and Emily would mop the floors.
After an hour and a half, Emily's vision began to become blurry and her breathing became labored. She leaned on the wall to get her balance, but it didn't do very much.
Misao looked at her, "Are you okay, Emily?"
Emily nodded, took a step forward, then collapsed.
Misao screamed and shook her sister, hoping to wake her up, but it didn't work.
The mansion's master ran up stairs, "What's wrong?"
"Emily…she collapsed." Misao cried.
"Stop crying and bring her to her room. I'll send Alan to help you." The master said before heading downstairs.
A minute later, a male slave came up and carried Emily to her bed. He then walked back to the kitchen to cook the entrees for the party. Misao continued her work.
Emily slept while everyone cleaned and woke up halfway in the party. Using all of her strength, she grabbed her small bag and lifted it onto her bed and under her arm. A few coughs came out of the small girl, really heavy ones. She felt the room get blazing hot, but ignored it because she felt that it was just her fever. But she was wrong, very wrong.
The Ringmaster and his wife were at the party as were tons of others. All the slaves except for Emily were busy following orders given by the guests. The master and group of his friends were busy smoking cigars around the alcohol, definitely a stupid thing to do.
Sparks fell into the nearby alcohol and lit it all on fire. The men screamed and tossed the alcohol onto the walls, hoping that the fire might go out, but instead the mansion lit on fire quickly.
Screams and pushing came and soon everybody except Emily was out of the burning mansion.
Misao tried running inside, but was held back by the master. "My sister! She's in her room!" Misao screamed.
The master looked at her, "Leave her, Misao. She was sick and now her pain will end." The Ringmaster and his wife didn't want to hear anymore. They ran into the mansion, looking for Emily.
Emily opened her eyes at the flames around her, but she didn't move. She was too weak. She held her bag close to her body and waited for the flames to get her, but they never came.
Instead, a man and woman grabbed both her and her bag and carried them outside. They didn't even bother to bring Emily to her master so they brought her to the traveling circus, where they took care of her fever. She'd been with them ever since.
- -END FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK- - - - - -
"Mama? How long will it be before we get there?" Emily asked Mama.
Mama laughed, "In about three days, Little Emerald." Little Emerald was Mama and Papa's nickname for her because her hair was emerald green and she was so small. Mama and Papa knew how excited she was to play for the first time. The forest was getting darker and darker as the circus got deeper and deeper into it and the evening came.
"Okay. Let's stop here for tonight." Papa announced from next to Mama. All the carts stopped instantly and the circus animals, all tamed by James, were free to walk around.
James walked up to Toby and Emily with a smile and lifted the seven-year-old off the lion and onto the ground. "I'm going to get some firewood." James and Will announced to the circus.
"Can I come, too?" Emily asked.
James and Will didn't say anything. James lifted his head to Papa, as if to ask if it was all right for Emily to come along. Papa nodded his head.
"Sure, let's go." James said to Emily, grabbing her hand. Will grabbed Emily's free hand and walked into the woods.
Once deep enough in the woods, Will motioned for James and Emily to stand back.
James put the little seven-year-old on his shoulders and stood away from where Will was.
Will reached into his coat and pulled out a large saw at least two feet taller than he was and stuck it into a nearby tree. Will grabbed one side of the saw and started sawing, pushing the saw back and forth as if there was another him on the other side.
The tree started to wobble and Will looked up at Emily, "And now, the special word…"
Emily smiled, opened her mouth, and called out, "Timber!" The tree collapsed to the ground with a loud bang. Emily was lifted off of James' shoulders and onto the ground.
Will reached into his coat again and pulled out two large axes and handed one to James. The two men started chopping at the tree, making a huge pile of firewood by the item they were done.
Will put the saw and axes back in his coat and put some of the wood in his arms.
James and Emily followed him and put as much firewood as they possibly could hold in their arms. The three of them smiled at each other and walked back to the traveling circus carefully. By the time they got back, a circle of rocks was made in front of the carts and food was being taken out.
A fire was lit inside the circle and the firewood was placed in the fire to keep it going. The food was cooked and split amongst the humans and animals and the wine was split amongst the adults(since Emily was only seven, she was given water to drink). As she ate, Emily practiced her writing by using a stick and a patch of dirt.
Dinner was filled with lively conversations and when the sky got pitch black, the animals were put in their cages and Emily was brought to the cart she shared with April and a few other female performers to sleep. All the adults sat around the fire, talking and laughing like the members of the Straw Hat Pirates on the Going Merry.
- - -END FLASHBACK- - - - - - - -
Emily smiled and laughed as the good memories of her three years in the traveling circus played in her head.
A loud voice from Sanji yelling, "Land Ho!" caused Emily's memories to stop.
Nami looked at the city in front of her and at her map and gave a thumbs up sign, "Pull into port!" In an instant, everyone turned the Going Merry into the port.
Not many people noticed that pirates were coming into their small town, or if they did notice, they didn't really care. The Straw Hat Pirates played a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who would stay and guard the ship(Emily was yet again counted out of this game) and Usopp was yet again the unlucky one to be chosen, but Emily decided to stay with him.
The remaining crew members went their own separate ways, leaving Usopp, Emily, and the Going Merry behind.
Emily walked off of the ship and stood on the road to regain of her land legs. People walked by and ignored her until finally a young girl taller than her walked up.
The girl pushed some of her blonde hair behind her ear and stuck out her hand, "Hi, I'm Takenaka Mimi."
Emily took her hand and shook it, "I'm Emerald Emily."
"Did you come here to see the show?" Mimi asked.
Emily shrugged her shoulders.
Mimi smiled, "Well, it's okay if you didn't. You wanna be my friend?"
"Um, okay. Sure." Emily answered.
"Really? That's great! My mother says that I need more friends and that I'd have more if I wasn't so hyper, but I just ignore her. By the way, how old are you? Ten?"
"Twelve."
"Cool! Only two years younger than me! Why did you stop in Redding? There's nothing to do here except for the occasional shows we get, which I think is completely unfair."
"My ship stopped here for supplies."
"Oh, you're so lucky to travel on a ship. I would love to travel to different towns and leave Redding behind, although I would miss Mother and my brothers."
"You like to talk, don't you?"
"Of course! What's the point of being able to talk if you haveta keep quiet?"
Emily laughed out loud. Mimi acted so much like Misao when their masters weren't around to beat them for laughing. She and Mimi talked for two hours, even after Zoro came back, before Emily asked about the show.
"Mimi, what is the show that is going to be performed today?"
"You don't know? The Sky Gypsies are going to perform today."
"The…traveling circus?"
"Uh-huh! My father said that the show was better three years ago when they had the flute player in it, but she's not there anymore."
"Really? Do you know where the circus is now?"
"Yup! I saw them yesterday! Everyone there is really nice."
Before Emily could ask Mimi anything else, a lion running throughout Redding was heading towards the Going Merry. Once there, the lion tackled Emily to the ground and stared at her with its golden eyes.
Emily giggled, "Hello Toby."
The lion rubbed his head against hers before getting off of her.
Zoro, who was on the deck of the ship, stared in shock at what happened next.
Emily lifted herself onto her feet and brought out her left arm to stroke the lion's head, ignoring her sweater sleeve.
Toby's mouth opened and closed right where her left hand was. Emily gasped in shock.
Mimi and Zoro at the same time screamed, "Emily!"
Zoro jumped from the deck next to Emily, hoping to rescue her hand from Toby.
Toby moved his head and swallowed. It looked like there would be no way to save her hand. "Oh God…" Zoro gasped. Mimi just stared.
Emily frowned and pulled up her left sleeve. Her hand was perfectly fine, just hidden by the sleeve. "Dang. I should have known that the sleeves on the sweater Miss Nami gave me were too long." Emily said softly. She looked up at Zoro, "Is something wrong, Master Zoro?"
Zoro shook his head. Emily looked at Toby, "Do you know where the circus is and Mama and Papa?"
Toby ran up under Emily and got her on his back.
Emily looked at Zoro, "Master Zoro? May I go see the traveling circus?"
Zoro nodded, "I'd like to go with you. I wanna talk to some of the circus people."
"Okay," Emily said, "Let's go, Toby!"
Toby started walking through the town with the light emerald haired girl on his back and the green haired man and blonde girl walking along his side.
The circus and its people didn't look any different than they did three years ago except for they weren't starved.
Emily leapt off of Toby's back and walked to a dark haired man and woman. "Mama? Papa?" Emily asked, putting her hands on theirs.
The man and woman looked at her in shock. "Emily?" The woman asked. Emily nodded. Tears poured out of their eyes.
The man and woman embraced her and called the rest of the circus over. Soon, every member of the circus was embracing the twelve year old. After a while, the people let go of Emily and took a good look at her.
"Well, Emily…I can't say that you've grown, because you haven't." James said to Emily.
Emily giggled, "I may be little, but I'm now twelve."
Mama looked at Zoro and asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Roronoa Zoro." Zoro answered.
"He's my new master." Emily included.
Papa looked at her, "You…were turned back into a slave?"
Emily nodded, "About seven months after you left me, after your friend died, her brother turned both me and Misao into slaves."
Papa clenched his fists and muttered, "That bastard!"
April looked at him, "Look on the bright side. She isn't pale or starved, so this new master must be treating her right."
Papa let out a sigh, "You're right."
Emily asked Papa, "Papa? Is the circus going to perform tonight?"
Papa smiled, "Yes. Tonight is the last night."
"Oh." Emily mumbled.
Mama thought about the schedule and put her hands on Emily's shoulders, "We have an empty space in tonight's schedule. Would you like to perform with us?"
Emily's eyes brightened as she turned her head towards Zoro.
Zoro yet again fell victim to Emily's eyes, "Sure."
"That's great! We perform in three hours." Mama announced.
April grabbed Emily's hand, "We have to pick out an outfit for you, too." As she was drug to a nearby cart, Emily grabbed Mimi's hand and drug her to the cart also.
Papa looked at Zoro, "I want to talk to you for a little bit."
- - - - - - -
"The circus is in town!" Luffy cried out happily, waving around a piece of paper. Nami looked at the paper, "The Sky Gypsies? Isn't that the circus Emily was in?"
"Emily was in a circus?" Luffy asked.
Nami nodded. "Then we should take her to see the circus tonight." Luffy announced.
"Luffy, you may be the captain, but it's up to Zoro for Emily to go places like that." Sanji told his captain.
Luffy smiled, "Then we'll just wait for Zoro to come back."
- - - - -
"Hmmm…try on this outfit first." Mimi said to Emily, holding up a set of clothes.
"Um, okay. I didn't know that you liked helping people with clothes." Emily answered.
Mimi laughed, "Of course. My mother says that I have an excellent fashion sense. And it's my dream to make fashions for different people around the world." Emily giggled and put on the outfit.
"I didn't know you used to be the flutist in this circus." Mimi said.
"I was dropped off when I was nine." Emily answered, "How does this look?"
Mimi looked over the dress Emily wore, "Hmmm…too plain and blue doesn't go well with a happy event." Mimi looked through a nearby chest and took out a beautiful green skirt that shimmered, "Put this on."
"But I hate skirts." Emily told Mimi.
Mimi let out a sigh, "Emily, this is a special night. Make an acception."
"Okay." Emily told her. Emily took off the dress and put the skirt on.
"Now, we need a great top." Mimi told Emily. She dug through a different chest, picking up a top, looking it over, and then putting it back. She finally handed a beautiful green top to Emily, "Put this on."
Emily obeyed her new friend and put the top on. The beautiful, silky green top felt and looked good on Emily. "How do I look?" Emily asked Mimi.
Mimi smiled, "Like a large emerald."
"You act so much like my sister, Misao, in Yokuna." Emily told her.
Mimi giggled, "I'm happy to hear that. Now, you need to get some shoes…"
- - - - -
Mama and Papa looked at Zoro suspiciously. "So, you're her new master?" Mama asked Zoro.
Zoro nodded, "I bought her for 100,000 berries in Yokuna. Doesn't seem to talk much, though."
"You know why that is, right?" Papa asked him.
"Yeah, because she was treated badly as a slave."
"That's part of it, but there's another reason."
"Why's that?"
"She's been left behind so many times. When she was in an orphanage, she was taught things by a boy six years older than she was."
"What types of things?"
"Well, by the time she was seven months old, she could walk. By the time she was ten months old, she could speak. And by the time she was a year and a half old, she could read and write."
"All that?"
"Yes. And when she was three, the boy who taught her all those things was adopted and moved to a city far away. She was adopted not too long afterwards by a man in rich clothing, claiming to bring her to his mansion and put her in a school to improve her gift…but he lied. He turned her to a slave and tried to get rid of the gift."
"Who'd want to do that to a kid?"
"Some evil bastards. Anyway, she was living a terrible life until my wife and I saved her from a burning building six years ago. We had to get rid of her when she was nine."
"Why?"
"She was starving. Anyway, we dropped her off with a friend of mine, hoping that she'd be free, but as we learned, my friend passed away and she became a slave again."
"Why wouldn't she tell me any of this?"
"Slaves aren't supposed to their masters about their lives."
Zoro didn't say anything after that.
Emily told him that there was little that slaves could do without being punished, but he never knew that there was a limit to what a slave could say about their past. That was probably the reason why she never spoke of her past, other than her bruises and her sister in Yokuna.
- - -
Luffy looked at the clock inside the Going Merry and frowned, "Man, only one more hour before the circus starts. Where are Zoro and Emily?" Everyone else shrugged.
"I'm sure they're both fine. Besides, if you're so anxious about the circus, just go by yourself." Chopper told his captain. Luffy frowned, but nodded.
- -- -
Emily looked into a nearby mirror. In her clothes, she looked like an emerald fairy without wings and shoes.
April gave Mimi permission to pick out an outfit from the chests to wear to the performance. The lavender dress and matching hair piece looked cute and felt great on Mimi's body. She dug through another chest and pulled out a pair of lavender sandals, "I'll take this one!"
Mimi looked over at herself in the mirror, admiring the way she looked before turning her attention over at Emily, "Now, for you." Mimi dug through the chest, putting shoe after shoe on Emily and deciding which was right. Finally, Mimi found an emerald green pair of silky sandals that seemed to look perfect on her new friend. "Put these on," Mimi said, "You'll look extremely cute and your own age."
Emily nodded and slipped on the pair. Turning to Mimi, Emily asked, "Why is tonight the last night they're going to perform?"
Mimi shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe they're leaving for a new town tomorrow."
"Yes, you're right. It is a traveling circus after all." Emily sighed.
"Hey, you know what?" Mimi asked.
"What?"
"The circus seems to be doing pretty good right now, so maybe they'll buy you from your master and take you along."
"I'd like that."
"I know."
"I'd be with the nicest people again and maybe I can be freed. But…"
"But, what?"
"I've wanted to be a pirate for as long as I could remember and now I have the chance to be one. And the whole crew has been so nice to me and I don't think I could bear to leave them behind."
"I guess you are stuck there…but if you could, what would you choose?"
"Well…stay with the circus, I guess."
- - - - -
Mama and Papa were still talking with Zoro about Emily even after she picked out her outfit.
"So, you aren't her real parents?" Zoro asked them.
Mama shook her head, "Emily only called us that because we seemed like parents to her."
Zoro looked at her, knowing that she was hiding a big secret from both him and Emily.
"What kind of chores do you make her do?" Papa asked Zoro.
"Nothing really, just play her flute and help us out on the ship." Zoro answered.
Mama and Papa let out a sigh of partial relief. "You know the rules of slave trading, right?" Papa asked Zoro.
Zoro paused. He honestly had no idea of the rules. He didn't even know them when he bought Emily back in Yokuna, but of course, he didn't care as long as Emily was okay, so he nodded.
"That's good to know. But promise me this…if you decide to get rid of Emily, only do it to save her life or help make her happy. There's something really special about her, I can feel it." Papa demanded.
Zoro nodded, "She seems pretty happy here. I was considering on leaving her here with the traveling circus."
"No!" Mama screamed, "Not here!"
Zoro looked confused, "What's wrong? She's happy with you."
Papa looked at him, "There's another reason why we left her three years ago."
"Which is?" Zoro asked.
Papa took a deep breath, "We're dying."
- - - -
A/N: That's my newest chapter. Mimi is not my character, nor is she a real person. My little sister made up this character. I'm sorry if this chapter was boring, I'll try to make the next one more interesting. And you saw in the disclaimer how pissed I was about the dubbing of One Piece. Well, I saw a showing of the theme song and it was completely screwed up and I'll be even more pissed if they ruin the Arlong arc(my favorite arc).