Ch.15: Into the Castle
Disclaimer- Dammit, I don't own One Piece
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Thursday, November 21
We got Emily back. When we saw her, she was sitting on a rock, talking to herself. When she finally noticed us, she practically ran into Zoro's arms. When she freed herself, she chanted some weird words and a golden glow surrounded the rest of us Straw Hat Pirates and Nicole and disappeared. We tried to take down a few berries in a tree when an invisible force stopped us.
We tried dragging Emily back to the ship so we could leave, but she refused. We tried convincing her about Pam being on the island and getting her far away, but she still refused. Something's wrong with her. I know there is and I'm going to find out what.
-Tony Tony Chopper
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The Going Merry docked into Almania, by Emerald Town and away from Pam's ship. The very second it was anchored, the entire crew and Nicole ran into the forest, searching for Emily. They were surprised when they saw her just standing out into the open, talking to herself, but it didn't take all that long for her to notice that they were standing only a few feet away from her.
"Zoro!" Emily screamed, immediately running over to Zoro, throwing her arms around his waist. Smiling, Zoro hugged her back. "You came." Emily cried.
"Of course we did. You're our musician and we pirates won't tolerate any person from our crew to be kidnapped without a rescuing." Zoro told her.
Emily let out a giggle and stepped back.
With her eyes closed, she whispered the chant, "Stirips tel em ees."
A golden light surrounded the Straw Hat Pirates then disappeared. None of the crew could see Kristina, mostly because they didn't believe she was around, but after a few seconds they shook off the thought.
Nami looked around with a smile, "Wow, this place is beautiful."
Nicole nodded. Emily was going to explain about her promise when she heard a voice yelling, "Gomu Gomu no grab!" and saw big rubber arms heading for the bubbles with the dead Almani souls that were unsprayed for. "Luffy! Stop!" Emily screamed, but it was too late. An angry Kristina rammed her head into Luffy's side.
Luffy jumped back in surprise, "What the hell?"
"Don't touch those bubbles!" Emily yelled.
Luffy let out a sigh, "Okay, okay. We should go now before Pam gets here."
"No! I won't go!" Emily yelled. The rest of the group paused.
"Emily?" Sanji asked.
"I'm not going!" Emily told him.
Zoro grabbed her hand and started dragging her back to the Going Merry, but it did no good. Emily just wouldn't budge. "Emily, come on. Pam is going to come after you. We have to go NOW!" Zoro told her.
Emily shook her head, "I can't. I promised Kristina that I'd help her."
"Who's Kristina?" Robin asked her.
"She's the ghost of an Almani. She rammed her head into Luffy's side just a minute ago. She's even standing next to him right now." Emily explained, pointing at Kristina. The crew couldn't see her…until she pinned Usopp to the ground and jammed her knee into his back.
"Ow! Oh God, it hurts!" Usopp screamed. He looked back and saw a small auburn haired girl with her knee in his back. The entire crew could see her now.
"Kristina, get off of him." Emily commanded.
Kristina smirked, "You can't tell me what to do. I'm a princess."
Emily smirked back, "Yeah, but you're dead and can't use the special Almani powers."
Kristina frowned, "Touché." She hopped off his back with a smile.
"You're a ghost?" Chopper asked.
Kristina nodded. Luffy didn't believe her, "Prove it."
Kristina stared at him, "Okay, hit me."
With his rubber arms, he hurled his fists at her head…and they went right through. He cried out in surprise and pulled back his rubbery arm.
Kristina smirked, "Believe me now?" The Straw Hat Pirates and Nicole nodded.
"What did you make her promise?" Zoro asked angrily.
"I didn't make her promise anything. I ASKED her to help save the souls of my people and she said she would." Kristina answered.
Zoro looked at Emily and she nodded.
"The souls are in those pink bubbles." Emily told him, pointing at the bubbles in the trees, "And the only way to save the souls inside is to kill Pam and her daughters."
Zoro clenched his fists, "Dammit."
Kristina stuck out her hand, "Well, since you'll be here for a while, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Kristina, the older of the two last princesses of Almania. And I am and always will be sixteen-years-old." Zoro stared at her hand. "What's the matter with you?" She asked in annoyance. Zoro still didn't even try to touch her hand.
"Oh, for God's sake. I'm not contagious. I haven't been in fifteen years." Kristina sighed.
Zoro finally reached forward and grabbed her hand and shook it, "How the Hell is this happening? Just a few minutes ago, Luffy's fist went right through your head."
Kristina grinned, "I'm a special ghost. I can make my body transparent or solid whenever I want."
"God, you're a freak." Zoro told her.
Kristina ignored him and turned to Luffy, "Don't even think about touching those bubbles."
Luffy sweat dropped, "Okay, okay. I won't."
Kristina smiled, "Good. We, or I should say you, aren't safe out here. That psycho woman and her servants come by often. I'll take you somewhere safer." She led the group to her garden and opened the door. When she closed it, she turned to the group, "Now, I wanna know who you all are."
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"Are we almost to Almania?" Ryan asked impatiently.
Tashigi let out a sigh. He'd been asking that same question repeatedly ever since the Marines left Wenatchee. "We'll be there tomorrow, Ryan. Now go practice your swordsmanship or something." Tashigi told him.
"Yes ma'am." Ryan told her. He left the room for his own, picked up his sword, and met up with Kim and Kelly on the deck of the Marine ship. Both girls were whispering and giggling, but stopped when Ryan came up.
"Hey, Ryan! What did she say?" Kim asked, smiling.
Ryan sighed, "We'll be there tomorrow."
"That's great! But how are we going to get inside?" Kelly asked her friend.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.
Kelly stared at him, "Ryan, the place has been blocked for fifteen years. How are we going to get in?"
Ryan laughed, "Oh come on, Kelly. Pam had to have taken off the barrier if she brought Emily inside Almania."
Kim nodded, "He's got a point, Kelly. The barrier has to be taken off if you want to enter Almania."
Kelly shrugged, "Yeah, you guys are right."
Ryan held up his sword, "Alright you two! Come on! I challenge you two to a duel! Come on! I'll take both of you at the same time!"
"You're on!" Kim and Kelly shouted. They went to their room, grabbed their swords, and ran to Ryan to start their duel.
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"Hey, are any of these plants edible?" Luffy asked, pointing at all the flowers in Kristina's garden.
Kristina shook her head, "No, but I wouldn't let you eat them if they were. I've kept these babies alive for fifteen years and I'm not going to let them die by a pirate." By now, all the Straw Hat Pirates and Nicole had introduced themselves. Kristina explained any question they asked her the best she could to all of them.
"That's nice. Hey, do you know where Pam may be hiding?" Sanji asked the spirit.
Kristina shook her head, "Nope. She usually moves to different parts of Almania whenever she comes here."
Zoro grunted, "Well, what good are you if you can't tell us where she's hiding?"
Kristina glared at him. She was really starting to get pissed with him. "Hey, I brought you here so you will be hidden from Pam. If it wasn't for me, Pam probably would have caught you AND Emily would have been dead." She exploded.
Zoro didn't answer her.
"Is there any way to find out where she is?" Robin asked.
Kristina shrugged, "You could ask the fairies or the nymphs. They'd probably know, but they only come out at sunset or during the night."
"Why's that?" Nami asked.
"Pam comes around during the day to capture the creatures and make magic items out of them, so they hide." Emily told her, shuddering at the thought of Pam doing that.
Nobody said anything. They didn't know WHAT to say.
Nicole finally decided to break the silence, "Can you take us to the castle?"
Kristina looked surprised, "Why?"
"Well…umm…I just wanna look around it." Nicole slowly told her.
Kristina nodded, "Okay. The forest seems pretty quiet, so I doubt Pam is out and will catch you. Follow me." She opened the door to the garden and led all the pirates and Nicole towards the castle.
Most of them stared in awe at the large castle standing in front of them. It was huge, about the size of Vivi's castle in Alabasta. Vines were growing down the sides of the castle.
"Wow, this castle really hasn't been touched in fifteen years." Usopp said out loud, pointing at the vines.
"Oh, the castle has always looked like this. For about 500 years." Kristina answered. She finally stopped in front of the door leading to the inside of the castle.
"So, is there a code to open the door?" Emily asked.
Kristina shook her head, put her hand on the doorknobs, turned them, and opened the doors. Inside was dusty just like Emily's house had been before it was burned to the ground. Doors were on the walls leading to different rooms, tables with items and chairs were neatly placed everywhere, and staircases lead to both upper and lower floors.
"Whoa…" Luffy gasped. The room they stood in was bigger than the whole Going Merry.
"Is there any specific room you guys wanna see?" Kristina asked, turning to the group. Everybody put their hands under their chins and thought deeply. After a minute, Nami requested to see the royal chambers.
"Okay." Kristina told her, "We can go there the quick way or the slow way. Which do you want to do?"
"The quick way." Nami answered.
Kristina led the group to a room down a hallway. She quietly opened a door and stepped through the empty space. The group followed her into the small room she now stood in.
"This is the royal chambers?" Luffy asked cluelessly.
Kristina stared at him, "No, this is an elevator. My grandfather had this installed when my father and uncles were little boys. To go up, you turn this little handle counter-clockwise and to go down, you turn it clockwise." Kristina pointed at a little handle on a wall.
She put a hand on the handle and turned it twice counter-clockwise. Nothing happened. Kristina sweat dropped, "Of course, it did break down a lot. But don't worry. I can fix it."
"How?" Chopper asked her. Kristina smiled and kicked the wall just under the handle. The elevator doors closed and raised everyone up two floors.
"What the Hell?" Sanji asked her.
"It used to break down a lot when me and my sister were inside, so we would kick the wall and it'd start up again." Kristina answered.
The elevator doors opened and everyone inside stepped out.
"Go into any room you want. The rooms that are my father's, my sister's, and mine are at the end of the hallway. The other rooms belong to my uncles, aunts, cousins, and the advisors. Be respectful." Kristina warned them. Everybody nodded and entered different rooms in the hallway.
Luffy and Chopper went to a room with a medium-sized, comfortable looking bed covered with red sheets and stuffed animals. The shelves in the room were covered with toys and books.
Chopper looked at the books and read some of the titles out loud, "Hmmm…Crebbin's Book on Royalty…Strohschein's Encyclopedia on Almani History: Volume 1…Controlling Your Powers…"
The rest of the room was filled with piles of dust on account of the room being abandoned for fifteen years, but it was pretty obvious that they room they were standing in was a girl's room…they just weren't sure whose room it was.
"You're standing in my little sister's room." Kristina told them from the doorway. She slowly stepped into the room, "She was only ten-years-old when Pam attacked the forest and killed her."
Luffy and Chopper took deep breaths and closed their eyes. When they reopened them, Kristina was gone.
The King's bedroom was being invaded by Robin, who was hoping to find something that could help her. Nicole was with her, too. She picked up book after book, scanned them, and placed them back carefully on the shelves.
Nicole didn't even spend much time IN the room. After seven minutes of scanning the books, she left to go searching the other rooms on the second floor.
Robin spent more time in the room, looking for things of at least a little bit of importance. The vases, bed, and pictures were useless. All they were were just simple items that showed nothing of the history of the Almani…or about Kristina. She was about to leave the room when she noticed a folded piece of paper on the ground.
Robin knelt down and picked up the paper and stared at it with a confused look on her face, "This must have fallen out of one of the books Nicole was looking through." She opened the paper and silently read the faded, but readable words written on it:
To His Majesty, King Glen
May 8
Your Majesty,
I am thrilled to know that you have accepted my request for the arranged marriage of my youngest son, Van and your oldest daughter, Kristina. I am already readying the marriage on the night the stars shine a bright pink color. I trust you approve of my date and I am excited to be able to see my son become a part of the royal family.
Your friend and future brother-in-law,
Goau
Robin stared in surprise at the letter. Surely this letter had at least a tiny bit of importance. She re-folded the letter and placed it into a pocket, seeing no other item of importance, she left the King's room and closed the door behind her. As soon as she did, a scream came from the next room, "Oh my God! There's a body in here!"
Robin and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates ran into the room and looked at a pale Nicole. She had a hand over her mouth and used the other hand to point at a body laying on a luxuries looking bed with green sheets. The body wasn't moving.
Chopper put one of his hooves on the wrist of the body, but felt no pulse. Before he could announce it dead, a voice from the doorway announced, "It's too late. She's dead."
"How do you know that?" Nami asked Kristina.
Kristina took a deep breath, "Look more closely at the body."
The pirates obeyed her and took a closer look at the body on the bed. It was Kristina's body.
"The body has been dead for fifteen years. Don't even think about trying to bring the body to life. After being dead for fifteen years, there is no hope for bringing it back." Kristina told the group in the room.
"Whose room is this?" Zoro asked her.
She smiled, "Mine." Everyone looked around her room. It looked almost like her little sister's room except this room didn't have very many toys, the bed was bigger, the sheets and blankets were emerald green, and there were a lot more books on the shelves than in her sister's room.
Chopper grew bigger and read a few of the book titles on the shelf, "Hmmm…Advanced Almani Spells…Strohschein's Encyclopedia on Science Fiction…Strohschein's Encyclopedia on Almani History Volume 58…Learning to Be a Ruler by Strohschein…Will There Ever Be a Rainbow?..." Chopper looked at Kristina, "You seem to have a bunch of books by Strohschein."
"Yeah, I know." Kristina told him, "Mr. Strohschein was one of my teachers when I was alive and he was a huge Science Fiction freak. He was constantly giving me books."
"What's Will There Ever Be a Rainbow?" Emily asked her.
Kristina sweat dropped, "It's a book that my Uncle Greg made about his life. He published a few copies, but before he could get it out to the public, my father and grandfather, who was the King at the time, banned the book. So Uncle Greg gave me his own personal copy."
"Do you have a room in this castle that shows the history of the Almani?" Nicole asked her.
Kristina nodded, "Yeah, on BF1. You guys are welcome to go anywhere else in the castle. It's been empty for fifteen years."
In an instant, almost everybody left the room. The only one that stayed in the room was Chopper, and the only reason he stayed was to examine the body and perform an autopsy.
Before he had the chance to touch the body, he noticed a book under a nice pile of fifteen-year-old dust. It was bookmarked by a pen. He blew most of the dust off of the book and looked at the cover. The book cover was a beautiful sky blue color and written in very delicate, emerald green letters was the word "Kristina". Carefully, Chopper opened the book up to the bookmarked page and began reading:
4th sun, 10th day of bloody carnations
(Wednesday, January 10)
Dad got another letter from Pam this morning. He's really been stressed out about the letters lately. Ever since he banned her from Almania years ago, Dad said she was growing more powerful by using magic items made from magic creatures. He knows. Some of the animal spies he hired saw her.
Every day, Dad tries his hardest to calm down every living thing in Almania and I try too, but it doesn't seem to do any good. Melissa isn't scared, though and I don't blame her. She's only ten, just a child. In fact, she doesn't even know about it. Dad and I originally kept it a secret from everything in Almania, but stupid cousin Joshua found out and spread the secret. How annoying.
I went to the Royal Graveyard and prayed down in front of Grandpa. I silently asked him what to do about Pam and he came to me…or at least his spirit came. He tol-
The entry ended there. The last two sentences were shaky and the entry was not signed. Chopper was going to ask Kristina about it, but she wasn't in the room. He didn't know where she was, actually. She kept disappearing and reappearing from room to room that it was hard to tell where she was or would end up next. But he shook off the thought, put down the book, and left the room.
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Bryce walked into Pam's office, a smirk on his face and a jar in his hands. The jar was lit with little multi-colored balls, like little rainbow fireflies…if there was any such thing. On his back was a large bag full of the bones of a dragon he had slain. The sword was dripping the dragon's blood through its sleath, but Bryce didn't seem to mind.
"Did you get what I asked for?" Pam asked.
Bryce nodded and handed her the jars, "Here it is: eight of the elemental fairies trained under Holly herself."
Pam smiled, "Excellent. Holly is the strongest of the elemental fairies. These surely have a lot of power in them. But what's in the bag?"
Bryce removed the bag and opened it up, "Dragon's bones. Fresh from Ruby Town."
Pam's smile grew larger, "Perfect." She walked over to a weird machine and opened up a small door to it. Quickly, she opened the jar and placed it into the machine. She shook all the fairies out of the jar and closed the machine door before any of the fairies could escape. She then walked to Mark's ball and called out in a sing-song voice, "Oh, Mark."
Mark appeared, "Yes, Lady Pam?"
"Now, where is that little Almani girl?" Pam asked. She was in too much of a good mood to call Emily a brat. Slowly, a picture of the castle was shown. "The Castle! Of course! I knew she'd get there eventually." Pam shouted. She walked to the machine and placed her power-sucking pendant on it. The fairies were already trying to get out, but couldn't. With an evil laugh, Pam turned on the machine. The fairies inside screamed in pain, but Pam ignored them.
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"Man, the Royal Family really had a lot of weapons." Zoro announced, looking from weapon case to weapon case in the outside training center of the castle.
"Well, I can imagine. I mean, knights, kings, princes, and Kristina used them, too. She told me that." Emily piped up from behind him.
Zoro turned to her, "You really made friends with that ghost. Are you planning on staying here after we get rid of Pam?" He was worried that Emily would say that she'd stay in Almania.
Emily roughly shook her head, "Hell no! I'm a WANTED pirate. I'm sticking with you forever!" Both of them laughed. Their laughter was cut off when a large shadow shone over them.
"What the Hell?" Zoro asked. Both looked up at the sky and Emily let out an ear-piercing scream.
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A/N: Well, that's another chapter. Okay, I don't own the characters Van and Goau. They were 2 people from Escaflowne that I borrowed(Van is my favorite character and Goau is his father). Crebbin is actually my Pre-Calculus teacher and Mr. Strohschein is my Science Fiction teacher (he peeked over my shoulder when I was writing this story during Science Fiction, so I decided to add him in my story). Ummm…if you have any questions about my story, don't hesitate to e-mail me. Oh, and R/R, but please don't flame me.