Chapter the Second-

"Hanno Island," said the boy, "Was once affectionately called Akroma Island." The sound of his falling footsteps pounded an even rhythm into the shifting sands. "One year ago the Hanno pirates came in their ships and claimed the island for their own. They're weird people- they don't force the men into labour, they just kidnapped all of our females, jailed half of our men and locked up Icarus."
"Like Arlong."
"What?"
"Never mind." Arlong sounded like a kind of meat. "Why the girls? And why Icarus?"
"Who knows, they probably want to start some kind of a new world order and need girls for wives. As for Icarus, they did that because they're stupid bastards."
"That's the only reason?"
The boy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, displacing small beads of sweat. "Yes, because they're stupid bastards." There was a long pause as a cool breeze cleansed the air. "Icarus…fell from the sky fifteen years ago. We thought that God had sent him, that he was a message from heaven. You should see him. He looks like an angel."
"You've seen him?"
"…No, not really. I've seen pictures people have made of him."
The silence perturbed Luffy. "What's your name, anyways?"
"Ju- Daedaru Byou. But you can just call me Byou."
It sounded rough and blunt, not like the name of God's child. "So why'd they take Icarus?"
"Think about it. You have a child from God, right? You lock him up and threaten to kill him if anyone does anything, what happens?"
"No more revolt."
"Exactly."

The came over the crest of a hill and had a clear view of the town below. It was fairly large and quite busy with people selling things and people buying things but there was no trace of women. It bothered him. He noticed then the speed at which the hustle and bustle was accomplished, as if the air was too thick for movement at the correct human pace. Byou and Luffy joined the snaking men with forced grins selling colourless produce. There was no life in the living organism of the city, a fake mask pulled over eyes waiting to burst into tears.

"Anywhere to stay for the night here?."
"You'll have to sign in with a Hanno. They're everywhere, but they're selective in their choices."
"How so?"
"Did you notice anything about the men you saw today?"
"Yeah, they were dead-looking."
"No, anything else?"
He thought hard. "There were no old men, no little children. Everyone here is the same age, about."
"Something else. You must have noticed."
He knew. "Everyone was…"
"Beautiful." Byou's eyes smouldered. "The Hanno Pirates enslaved our women and jailed the 'unfavourables'. They want a new world order; it seems, of beautiful men."

They came to a low table and a painfully beautiful man sitting at it- suddenly, Luffy was hit by a wave of déjà vu. This man looked like Shanks. Well, sort of; he had two arms and the look in his eyes was hungry, but the hair (light brown): slightly tousled, neat yet wild. "Hanno Junket. Nice ta see ya" He grinned hungrily. "Who's this whelp?"
"Daedaru Byou."
"Hanno Junket, or I'll get Captain Hanno back here and you'll be in his quarters for another night for another- junket." A laugh brought fire to his blood.
"Hanno Byou," he grumbled, averting his eyes. "This is Luffy. He needs to stay on the island for a night, and then he'll be moving on tomorrow."
Luffy smiled a tilted grin.
"No can do, Junket. You know the rules-" A man at the next table, equally hungry-looking and equally beautiful, leaned over and whispered something in his ear. "-that only 'ceptable men can stay, and this boy is good enough. He can stay at Crossroads."
"Crossroads?" Luffy tilted his head. "Where's that?"
"Thanks." Byou turned and walked away, barely beckoning for Luffy to follow.

The inn was run down but serviceable. There was a lack of will, of energy, of anything in this town, which made the Hanno Pirates easy to pick out from the regular townspeople- there was one of them at the desk. He was too perky to have lost anything. He was staring at the ceiling, looking at nothing in particular when Byou and Luffy walked in.
"Dae- Hanno Byou," Byou said in something that wasn't quite a whisper and wasn't quite a growl, "I brought a newcomer, Monkey D. Luffy. He's supposed to stay here for the night."
"Monkey D-" The man paused. "Oh, I see. We seem to be- booked up." There was a pause that froze his ravenous smile. "He can stay in your room, Junket."
Luffy grinned apologetically. "Okay, mister." He took Byou's hand. "Let's go to your room. Is it nice? Will I stay there all night?"
Byou's face was a shade that was neither violet nor crimson as he walked slowly down the creaking hallway. "N-no. Listen, Luffy. Things have changed, okay? I don't want you…involved."
"Involved with what?"
They reached the end of the hallway; a large doorway at its end unlike the others that played a staccato on either side the long way down. Byou remained silent as he drove the door open and looked inside quickly before pushing Luffy in and closing the door behind them.

"Listen." It was dark, and Luffy could barely see. The one window at the other end of the room had its curtains drawn; all he could tell was that the room was very large and Byou was very close. "Luffy, you've got to get out of here before the night."
"Why? Do they-" he thought for a while, "Do they get rid of the food when night falls? Should we go get right now?"
He felt a pinstrip of saline regret fall on his hand. Byou's eyes were shining in the lack of light, drawing the luminous darkness to his face. "Hanno. Captain Hanno- he likes to do things with me at night. That's why they call me Junket, because they all come and have their way. And now they saw you with me." His voice was low, low and angry. "They saw you with me, and they're going to have their way with you, too."
He got up, leaving Luffy to the end of the room and threw the black curtains open. Sunlight flooded the room. There were things, things everywhere; pats of blood staining the wall, signs of violent struggle. His eyes refused to grant the room audience.

Byou had thrown his own heavy robe off as well. His clothing underneath was strange for the hot weather; why would one wear long black things under a heavy cotton robe in the middle of summer?

Carefully, slowly, like a mother's first time, he peeled these off. Underneath, white underclothes. He took his undershirt off- oh, the horrible, the horrible- the horrible-

His back, a broken map in one too many dimensions. Whip-lashes ached across his virgin skin, screaming and yawning down the backs of his legs. Down his front, ribs threatened to tear through rough skin, the skin of a man who has been there and done that too many times for his years. And all the red, blinding pink flesh moulded to red scar all over and over and over again.

A nightmare of a man- how could he still fly?

Eternity ended as Byou slowly drew the black cloth over his head, then the white cotton and tied it off with the golden-brown cord. Suddenly, his face was hard and full of angles and his eyes dark as hell without flame. "They'll do that to you, Luffy, only this is my two years of hell. You're leaving tomorrow morning. They'll do it to you tonight."
He drew in a breath. "…They?"
His smile was so grim, Luffy wanted nothing else for that one moment than to make him smile for real just once. "Captain Hanno's a nice guy. He likes to share the spoils with his crew."
Luffy, who was playing with his pendant, looked up. "So why don't you fight back?"
There was a long silence.
"You can fight, right? Under your robe. You took them off when you pulled it off, but you can use them, right?"
Byou blanched. "You saw?"
A nod.
He put his face in his hand, mussing up the chestnut locks. "I never fight. If I did, they wouldn't bother with me- they'd go straight for Icarus."
Luffy stood up, and walked over to Byou. "If Icarus is that important to you, why don't you let him free?"
There was a tiny bubble of crimson gathering at the corner of Byou's lip as he bit them. "You wouldn't understand. I'm surprised, Luffy. I thought you were smart, but you don't understand anything." He grabbed Luffy roughly by the shirt, his voice rising. "Have you seen the Tower? There's no stairs up it, all they have is a piece of wire that they use to ferry Icarus food and water through this little window. Sometimes at night, you can hear him screaming to be let out. He's God's Child, and they go and lock him up and threaten to cut that wire every time we act up in the slightest. Have you ever had pirates take over your village? Pirates, Luffy, are evil. They're evil, they're horrible, they're bastards who lock people up in cages. And you ask me why I haven't set Icarus free?" He let Luffy down, voice lowering to a growl. "If my death could mean Icarus being set free, by all means I would slice my throat open. This existence of mine is pitiful."

slap

Byou grabbed at his cheek, staring into the inflamed face of the shorter man. "You talk a lot about Icarus, and the Hanno Pirates, and the beautiful men, and then you talk some shit about wanting to die? What would Icarus say if someone went and died for nothing because they wanted to set him free? At least when you're alive you can do something. Don't say anything to me about dying for someone else. Give up your legs or your arms for Icarus, but don't talk about dying."

The silence between them opened something huge and bright, as the door creaked open and Captain Hanno walked in.

They turned in unison to the door and the most hideous face Luffy had ever seen. It might have been gorgeous, it might have been beautiful with a smile or a grin or a frown. The hunger Luffy had seen on the pirates lurking around town had multiplied to achieve this sort of thing; eyes wide, mouth open revealing predator's teeth, saliva and foam gathering like a monster runs to prey. He was tall, seven feet perhaps, with an enormous hairball of a chest and no shirt, with pants hugging his waist and huge, meaty hands that grasped and groped the air for effect. His skin, tanned deeply, his face, perfectly unmarred. His hair fell in blonde by blonde just below his ears, sporting rings of gold. His voice, perfectly horrible.
"Junket, Junket, Junket." He stepped towards them, hitting floorboards with powerful weight. "Daddy Hanno's been overhearing some traitorous things from his little Junket." Hands reaching to grasp, to choke, to rape, to kill. "Little Junkie knows better, right?"

"Oi," said Luffy, "Who's the old man? He smells weird."

A strangled sound came from deep within the Captain, like an old fat bird learning new things from a little pink. It was replaced quickly by a slanted grin. "My, I don't think we've been introduced to your smooth-talking little friend, Junket. He may find that mouth will cost him dearly later on in life- open it too wide, and you never know what might float in. Catch my- drift?" Sickly yellow gas hissed in through the cracks in the walls. "Junket, Mouth-boy, for your own safety, I'm keeping you in my quarters until I'm ready for games at night. You may find it useful to rest until then. Tonight is going to get quite rowdy…"

He left with his laugh ringing in their ears, shut the door, and didn't return until the boys were gassed asleep and silent.

He glanced the edge of her cheek, white as something forgotten and red as the end of all things. "Your nights are of glory," he said, returning to before. "Your days have less to know. You are of no use to your Choices and Possibilities."
"You are a monster," she said, plainly.
"What is a monster? To any choice, a monster is one who is not oneself. I am no monster- to myself, I am perfection."
"You know nothing," she said, "I spin for all, spin all I know; wonderful, terrible, I am Wisdom with her tapestry of clouds and sunlight and death and knowledge. You are the spider that challenges Wisdom's loom and fails. A spider may bite to darkness, but so can it be crushed underfoot."
"Oi, Luffy."

He opened his eyes, slowly. His eyes registered nothing- he was too disoriented to tell if it was the lack of light or a blindfold. He was sitting propped up against something that could have been a wall with his feet tied at his ankles and his hands tied behind his back. There was an old, sick smell drifting around."Luffy, are you all right?"
He tried to open his mouth, but couldn't. His mouth was sealed.
"Damnit. I think they taped your mouth shut, Luffy." There was a long groan from the other boy. "We should've gotten away while we had the chance."
He mumbled something in agreement.
"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this, Luffy. This is all my fault, and soon it'll be night and they'll all come. Damnit. Damnit, they're going to go hurt Icarus-"
Luffy felt his wrists, felt his hands, felt the fingers attached to them. Carefully, he stretched his fingers and untied the hastily conceived knots to limp rope, the kind soaked in oil and lit on fire to save people stuck in spinning wax statues. He was hungry. He was remembering things, and his head hurt from dreams and nightmares. Something was wrong, something was missing, something was very very right.

shitshitshit

A hand fled from the frayed rope to his head. No hat. He reached for his neck. It was gone. They took it. They took his hat, his greatest treasure-
But his hat! They took it! And now they were going to come hurt Byou again, and he was freaking hungry!
Someone was telling his head that his pendant was important, too, but he was too busy ripping off the tape over his mouth and the rope around his ankles. He stood up into the darkness, took a step and felt his hat under his foot.
He picked it up slowly, brushing the dust off it.
"Luffy? What's- what's going on?"
"I thought they touched my hat."
"Your hat? No, how did you get your bonds off?"
"My hat," he said, putting it on his head and completely ignoring the question, "Is my greatest treasure. A great pirate gave it to me."
Byou was silent. "And you took it?"
"Pirates aren't bad people."
"Yes they are! They come, and take whatever is precious to you, and then they leave. You don't understand, Luffy!"
"I don't understand because I'm a pirate." He felt the edge of a poorly crafted dagger beneath his foot, and gently kicked it towards the source of Byou's voice. "Let's go kick Hanno's ass already!" The wall was beneath his fingertips. He pushed his fingers into the cracks, held on and pulled himself back too far for reason.

"GOMU GOMU NO…

ROCKET!"

His intention; break the wall. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, as he exploded into the sky, an immense tower of blue sitting smack in the middle of the town happened to include itself in his trajectory. Byou, looking up into the sea blue sky of just past twilight, watched in aghast fear and amazement as Luffy flew into the Tower of Icarus.

and thus, kanthia ends three months of 'writer's block', otherwise known as 'apathy'. that one damn sentence took three months to write...
byou is gary-stu love.

there are many things that byou remembers, and many things that he wishes he could forget. as luffy flies, there are many things that come back to the surface after being lost forever in memory and time. flight, and freedom, and the moon on useless futility. his hands have learned a small something. his daggers are worn, but not broken.

/kanthia