A Pirate's Life For Me! We Need A Musician!

Part 2 of a 4 Part Saga

by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Five – Harmony Speaks

The following morning, Zoro woke on the deck and shivered. A little cold didn't bother him. He stood, stretched and grumbled, aggravated that he woke before breakfast. He yawned loudly and noticed he wasn't alone. At the bow of the ship Harmony sat hunkered over her unfolded music box, sleeping soundly. "Eh?" he wondered and approached her. "Hey, you shouldn't sleep on the deck, you'll catch cold." He stood beside her and raised a brow. "What the…?" He stuck his hand out towards the box. "It's warm?"

"Mm…" Harmony moaned in her sleep. "The swordsman…?" she muttered softly and opened her eyes.

"You sleep out here all night?" he asked, taking a step back.

Smiled, nodded and stretched. Her forearms had been holding down skeins of sheet music. The morning breeze picked a few of these pages up and blew them away. She made a startled sound and grasped at the papers.

"Got 'em!" Zoro shouted and snagged them out of the air before they went over the side. He examined them as he returned. "Songs?" he asked, not recognizing any of the annotations on the paper, but gathering that they must be musical.

Harmony nodded and organized the sheets again.

Zoro raised a brow. "Did you write those?" She nodded emphatically and hugged the papers tightly. "I thought you didn't write." Harmony tucked them under one arm and scribbled on some blank sheet music. "Not until last night thanks to us?"

"Oi," Sanji called from the galley door. "Don't you bastards know when to quit? Leave her alone."

The swordsman squinted up at him. "Moron, I don't want anything from her, unlike you."

"Wh… what!" Sanji choked. "I am a gentleman, unlike you!"

Harmony tried to wave her hands to say she was alright, but the men weren't listening.

"Listen loverboy, you're the scumbag, not me!"

"I don't care what your intentions are. Leave the poor girl alone, piece of shit swordsman!"

Harmony's wild gesticulations were doing no good to ease their harsh words. Finally, she took a deep breath and shouted. "Please, don't fight!" she urged, surprising them with the power of her voice. It was much deeper and clearer than Sanji had imagined it would be for such a young and slight person.

"Ah! Ojou-sama! You spoke!" he cheered. Zoro opened his mouth to continue to shout at Sanji. His lips moved, but nothing came out. "Hm? What's the matter, Marimo? Cat got your tongue?"

"I'm so sorry!" the girl cried and ran into the cabin. The door slammed behind her.

Sanji turned his attention to Zoro who was flailing his arms. His face was bright red and his mouth was wide as if he was screaming, but not a sound came out. "…the hell is wrong with my voice? Oh. It's back," he said, relieved. He approached the galley. "What was that all about? First she can write songs, now she can talk?"

"I'm not sure what just happened." Sanji narrowed his eyes. His anger towards Zoro was neutralized.

"What's going on? Does someone need a doctor!" Chopper asked as he emerged from boys' bunks. "I heard Zoro shouting."

"I'm ok, I guess. I just lost my voice for a minute."

"Chopper, could you examine Harmony-chan?" Sanji asked as Nami and Usopp came out to join them.

"Mou Sanji-kun," Nami groaned. "That's just gross. She's only thirteen."

His teeth clamped down on his cigarette. "That… that's not what I mean! Nami-san, even you doubt me!" he wailed.

Zoro ignored him. "Why do you think she needs an exam? It was my problem."

"Just a hunch. I think there's something weird happening to her."

Usopp rubbed his chin. "Saa, now that I think about it, when we were escaping, there was this other weird thing that happened. Miss Sairen asked me to cover my ears and then the bouncers who were after us just turned around and walked right through the big glass doors of the casino!"

Chopper looked around at his friends' concerned faces and nodded. "I'll make sure she's in good health. Leave it to me."

"She's in good health," Robin said coolly as she came out of the cabin. Harmony slowly followed. "May I tell the others?" The girl shadowed Robin and shook her head. "It's alright. Are you afraid they'll think less of you?" Harmony nodded. "That's silly. There are three of us like you already on board."

Everyone stared at the girl.

"Ohayo!" Luffy shouted in greeting, finally emerging from the cabin.

Robin grinned. "Observe." She crossed her arms over her chest. Three arms grew on the wall behind Luffy, reached out and held his left arm as he walked towards his friends. It stretched out. Before he could ask what she was doing, the arms let go and he snapped, flying forward towards Chopper who cried out in alarm and turned into the defensive Guard Point puff-ball. They rolled across the deck, colliding with the mast.

"The three of us have all eaten an Akuma no Mi," she explained to the awestruck Harmony. "The captain has eaten the GomuGomu fruit so his body has taken on the aspect of rubber. The doctor was a reindeer who ate the HitoHito fruit at took on the traits of a human and I have had the HanaHana fruit which allows me to grow my limbs on any surface. It seems that you have partaken of the YobuYobu fruit."

Nami raised a brow. "YobuYobu? So she can call things…?"

Usopp cocked his head to the side. "Aha! You can command things with your voice! That's why those goons walked away. You told them to, didn't you?"

Zoro nodded. "And she told me to stop fighting, so I couldn't talk anymore. That makes sense."

"So this means you can sing!" Luffy cheered. Harmony vigorously shook her head. "No?"

"I…" she whispered as quietly as she could, worrying her hands with her eyes glued to the deck. "My voice hurts people."

"It didn't hurt me, it just shut me up," Zoro noted coolly.

"It didn't hurt me when you apologized," Sanji agreed.

"It didn't hurt me when you told me your story," Robin reassured her. Harmony looked up at the older woman with large, amazed eyes.

Sanji approached them. "Maybe it's how you phrase it. Try it on me." Harmony shook her head. "Come on. Tell me to jump."

Chopper's eyes lit up. "Oh, I can't wait to see this!"

Everyone stared at the pink-haired girl.

Harmony hesitated then finally whispered. "J… jump."

Nothing happened.

"See?" Sanji said with a grin. "If you don't mean it, if you don't really want me to do something, it won't happen. Just like how Luffy doesn't always stretch when he reaches for something," he explained. Her shoulders relaxed a little. Sanji grinned wider. "Now come on, really make me jump!"

Harmony looked around to the others who nodded and encouraged her. "J…" she stuttered. "I can't. I don't want to make you do anything against your will."

Sanji smiled. "That's fine, just hearing your voice is amazing enough." The girl blushed.

"So you can sing!" Luffy cried again. "Let's sing, sing!" Usopp, Nami and Chopper agreed vociferously.

Robin put her hand reassuringly on Harmony's shoulder and smiled down on her. "Saa, Harmony-chan. Will you favor us with a song?"

She brushed grateful tears from her eyes and nodded. "I'll do my best. It's been a year…" she said quietly.

.x.

In the cabin only minutes before, Harmony collided with Robin as she ran away from Zoro and Sanji.

"Harmony-chan, are you alright?" The girl shook her head and tried to get around her, but Robin held her by the shoulders. "You're crying." She crouched down and looked up in to her eyes. "Come, now. What's the matter?"

"I don't want to hurt anyone again," she whispered.

"You spoke!" Robin gasped. She stared at the girl who shook slightly as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"My voice… It hurts people."

"How so? It's not hurting me right now."

"A year ago… I told someone to do… something. I was just joking. But they did it. They couldn't stop. And they… This person died," she whispered and sobbed. Robin put her arms around the girl and drew her into a hug.

"I understand that pain," she soothed her. "You never wanted to hurt them. It just happened. It's not something you'll ever feel good about, but you should get it out, else you won't want to go on at all." Harmony relaxed and cried into Robin's shoulder. "Besides, you have a lovely voice. You shouldn't hide it away from people." When she had composed herself, Robin stood and smiled. "Those boys must be worried about you. Let's go out and reassure them, shall we?"

Harmony hesitated. "Thank you, Robin Nee-chan."

Robin simply tilted her head to the side and smiled.

More to come...