One Piece: The Musician

Chapter 12: Going Down In Flames

The little town of Rhea watched the gargantuan ship disappear into the night. Everyone was silent except Luffy, who unfortunately had the least idea of all of what was going on.

"COME BACK WITH MY MUSICIAN, YOU BASTARD!" he screamed and then proceeded to go to the Merry Go. Zoro grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going after her, what else?"

Robin, perhaps the most rational of all, shook her head.

"Luffy, if you go after her, we'll be sucked into this huge mess. Maybe it'd be better if we just left it alone…"

Luffy pouted, "But she's our friend! And one of our crew! We have to help her!"

By now, Zoro was extremely curious about what exactly was taped to the bottom of Arina's bed. So curious in fact, that he wasn't going to wait until dawn to look for it.

"You guys," Zoro whispered, "I gotta tell you something."

xxx

Arina had been sailing with Sanjiro and his crew for the past hour. Dawn was fast approaching and she was scared out of her wits. Not necessarily about being killed, but about what Sanjiro wanted to show her. The last time Sanjiro decided to surprise her ended in tragedy. And then the ship halted.

The atmosphere had gotten awfully warm and for a moment, Arina thought that the sun had risen. There was a blinding light that filled her vision. As she desperately tried to see clearer, the landscape before her suddenly became horrifically lucid. The sea had turned blood red. Hundreds of dead bodies floated quietly on the water. It was small in the distance but there was a giant galleon on fire. Even smaller was a man tied to the mast and shot to death, but the figure was unmistakable. Someone had macerated the entire Waterloo crew in one brilliant flash of light.

"You're sick… You demented bastard… You killed your father…"

Not a trace of remorse was in Sanjiro's expression. He too looked out to the galleon.

"What? Him? The old man was senile anyways. I was just putting him out of his misery."

Without warning, Sanjiro pulled Arina into his arms. He gently pushed back some of her hair.

"The hate in your eyes only makes me want to kiss you, Arina."

"I dare you to," she hissed.

"Well, I'm not one to back down from a dare…"

He leaned in and just as their lips brushed, she slapped him. Hard. So hard, in fact that he bled. Tears welled up in Arina's eyes.

"Hiro was my husband. He was my life. My soul. I looked at him and I praised his parents everyday for raising such a beautiful child. And then I look at you…" There was a silence. Sanjiro was smirking when Arina's scream shattered the ironic stillness of the night.

"AND I WONDER WHAT WENT WRONG!"

The glee faded from Sanjiro's face as he watched Arina mindlessly charge towards him with his brother's sword. He grabbed the sword with his bare hands and flung it away. Then he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into a crushing embrace. Arina felt a sharp metal to her throat as she glanced up at Sanjiro. The sight was frightening. Blood was gushing out of his hand and the fury in his eyes was burning.

"Who the hell gave you that sword?" he whispered. Arina refused to answer. "ANSWER ME!" he yelled.

"HIRO DID!"

Sanjiro pushed her to the ground and pulled a gun out. He shot her, over and over again. Arina took each bullet, fearlessly. Hiro died without fear. She refused to be intimidated by bullets that couldn't hurt her. But her heart skipped a beat when Sanjiro pressedh the barrel of the gun against her heart. The one place that was vulnerable.

"Now get me the map. If you do, I'll let you die in one swift shot."

Arina watched the sun rise out of the corner of her eye. She sneered at him.

"Too late, bastard. The map's already gone."

xxxxxxxxxx

The Straw-Hat pirates had prayed that the dawn would never come. Only Luffy seemed excited. All the others were just hoping that Arina would come back so that they could leave knowing everything would be all right. But when the sun peeked over the horizon and there was no sign of any disturbances on the water, they knew that they had swum out too far to go back. Luffy bolted for Arina's apartment with the rest trailing behind him, reluctantly.

As one by one, they filed into Arina's room, none of them were surprised. The room was fairly bare. A bed, a violin, a music stand, and a small shrine to Hiro over the bed. Eagerly feeling the underside of the bed, Luffy extracted a small, yellowing piece of paper, folded very tiny as if to make it difficult to locate. When Luffy unfolded it, his jow dropped to the floor.

"No way…"

Everyone crowded around him and began to talk at once when they saw the minute piece of paper.

"It's impossible…."

"How could she get this?"

"What on Earth?"

"I thought this never existed…"

"We have to follow Arina's directions and leave with this!" said Chopper.

"But we still have to save her!" Nami cried.

"But she specifically told us not to… It could make everything worse." Robin mused.

"But we must!" Sanji interjected.

"But we can't!" Usopp yelled.

They turned to Zoro and Luffy for a tiebreaker. Zoro shook his head and Luffy nodded in agreement with Zoro.

"We leave for Rahudell. Now. That's an order from your captain."

Silence. No one was happy, but no one fought. In a somber line, they left the tiny room. Zoro was last. He saw the tiny picture of Hiro on the bed stand. The frame was cracked, the paint was coming off and it was dusty. It was clear that Arina held this picture close to her heart. Carefully, Zoro took the picture and laid it at the edge of the neatly made bed. Hopefully, Arina would come back to it soon. Come back to her loving husband. He gently closed the door behind him.

xxx

Nami screamed, "ANCHOR UP!" from the deck. Everybody was rushing around, preparing to leave port. Luffy sat in the crow's nest and stared at the parchment. His amazement still hadn't faded…

Arina…How the hell did you get your hands on a treasure map of One Piece…?

End.