Eventually we arrive inside a lopsided wooden hut in Gray Terminal.
Porchemy throws me at one of the guys to tie Luffy on a post, but I quickly bare my fangs out and bite down on the guy's arm. He let out a pain yell and hit me on the head before trying to pull me off from him, but I just growl at him and bite harder.
"Let go, you bitch!" He shouts as he keeps on pulling on my hair to get me off of him, whom he eventually succeeds and I just hiss at them as I land on the ground.
"Let Luffy go, you fuckers!" I yell angrily, but Porchemy and the other guys barely pay my threat any mind as Porchemy just looks more annoyed.
"What the fuck are you doing? Hurry up and tie her up too." Porchemy growls, side-eyeing the guy I just bit, "Are you letting a little bitch like her make fun of you? Pathetic." He spats before grabbing me by the hair and slams my head against the post.
I grunt out in pain as I can barely acknowledge Luffy's yelling, thanks to the ringing in my ears and the headache I got from before it worsened. Fuck, that hurts. I can't even see properly without seeing dark spots here and there, along with the shrill ringing in my ears making me wince even more.
Heck I barely even realize that I got tied up on the opposite side of Luffy on the post.
I try my best to loosen the ropes to no avail as it's as sturdy as our last restraints, but then I hear a loud slam behind me, followed by Luffy's exclamation that it didn't work because he ate Gomu-Gomu no Mi.
"Luffy, you need to stop babbling out your skills, you dumbass." I groan out at him in annoyance, not having the will to yell at him.
"Give me a pair of gloves." I hear Porchemy say, one of the subordinates comply and run off. Fuck, it's the gloves with spikes. Those gotta hurt us both, alright.
They untie and put us back to back again, only this time we're hanging in the air.
"I want my money and you both know where it is. So I need you to tell us." The bastard says.
"Never!" Luffy yells out.
I wince when Porchemy hits Luffy so hard that we swing around with a loud smack, which results in Luffy wailing out in pain and the bastard hitting him again.
"HEY, YOU FUCKER! STOP IT!" I yell out and the rope is pulled to face the bastard.
"You all go look for Ace and Sabo! We don't have time to stand around!" He yells and his subordinates run off before turning back to me, "Are you going to tell me?" He asks, as if the answer is not obvious.
"Fuck you." I smirk mockingly.
He pulls his fist back and I close my eyes to brace for the impact. It slams on the left side of my face and I try to hold back my tears and scream as he hits the same spot again. I keep quiet as something warm starts to flow down my face. It feels like I cut myself with a pocket knife back in my home world. Not quite enough to kill, but painful enough to wince.
Porchemy alternates between punching Luffy and me, so much that I lost track other than the way the orange sunlight indicates that it's been on for hours that evening is approaching.
"Spit it out already!" He punches me again before Luffy, but we barely have the energy to reply anymore. I can hear one of the subordinates saying something before a familiar slam is heard, but not to us. The pounding on my face stops for a moment, but it returns moments later.
"Answer me!" He roars out, desperation is heard in his voice.
"I won't say it…!" Luffy replies.
"What about you?"
"Over my dead body, ugly."
He growls in anger and frustration as he goes back to punching us.
Eventually, he realizes that nothing will come out from us and he throws off his gloves to grab his sword. I can hear him dragging it and I can only curse silently. Hurry up and come, Ace, Sabo…!
"Die…!"
But before the sword can cut us down, Ace and Sabo barge in through the wall.
"STOOOOP!"
I can only chuckle and cough. Finally, they came. I sigh in relief as I feel myself slowly sagging away. Blood cover my face, arms, legs, and clothes. Heh, he apparently enjoyed hitting me the most, and not just in the face too, probably because of my potty mouth.
Ace comes in and knocks one of the guys with his pipe staff.
"A-Ace!" Luffy wails, crying.
I can't really see what really happened, but I know one thing for sure that the older boys are saving us.
"Ace! Sabo! Go kick his ass!" I yell out as loud as I can, before the pain eventually gets me and my vision starts to blur out from blood loss. I dunno what kind of expressions they're making or what they're doing, but I'm sure they're able to hear it.
And before I know it, I black out.
Eventually, loud shouting woke me up from my temporary death. I groan and slowly push myself to sit up. I see Luffy and Ace are arguing over something, while Sabo is trying to separate them. I look down at my body, which is covered with bandages from head to toe.
Okay maybe not really, but fucking hell, I can't believe I survived that shit.
"Ah Eris! You woke up!" Luffy exclaims as he runs and sits right next to me, "Are you okay?" He asks in pure concern. He's so cute.
"Well, I survived that, so I'm pretty okay enough." I reply as I ruffle Luffy's hair, "Are you okay? It must've been scary for you."
"Y-yeah, it was scary, but at least you're still alive, so at least I won't be alone!" Luffy answers and I just chuckle before turning to the older boys.
"Thank you for saving us," I bow in gratitude, "If you hadn't come, we'd probably be dead."
I look back up at them and cough a bit. For some reason, my throat feels raspy. Probably from all of the screaming I did today. Sabo just smiles and nods, while Ace just huffs and looks away. Sheesh, attitude much? Then again, he was raised by mountain bandits while Sabo was raised a noble, so that's a pretty big gap between the two.
But still, Ace is such a jerk this time around.
"Why didn't you cough it up in the first place? Those were the kind of people who would kill without hesitation." Ace asks, eyes narrowing.
"Luffy didn't tell, so why should I?" I reply, tilting my head in a curious manner.
"It's better than being dead."
I just shrug in return.
"Because we don't have anyone else but each other," I answer, "We can't go back to Foosha village because it's far, and we hate mountain bandits. Hell, I don't even know why gramps threw Luffy here. If we didn't follow you, we'd be alone. And being alone is way worse than getting hurt."
"What about your parents?" Ace asks.
"Dunno. Can't say I ever met 'em." At least, not in this world, I add silently.
"What about gramps?"
"We just met literally five minutes before he took Luffy away. I followed and apparently that's the ticket for me to get adopted."
"…I see, but I still don't like brats like you." He concludes and I just scoff mockingly.
"Says the guy who got his ass kicked by me." I snicker and he immediately turns around with fury in his eyes.
"What did you say?!"
"You hear me, Freckles!"
"What'd you call me, Weirdo?!"
"I thought you lack common sense, not hearing sense!"
"I'm gonna kill you!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
We both literally just growling and ready to pounce at each other, but Sabo quickly stands between us.
"Okay, that's enough. Sorry to bother both of your fighting sessions, but we still have a problem." Sabo informs us, crossing his arms with a serious expression. "Bluejam will try to kill the four of us for sure, right? And I live being close to where they are. What if they come at me when I'm resting?"
"Yeah, you'd die." Luffy, Ace, and me collectively say.
"Then stay with us! I'm sure old lady Dadan won't mind." I say, while giving a devious smile inside for the disaster for Dadan Family to come. "You can stay with us to hide, and then sometimes we go check on them once in a while, while also making traps all over the place so those stupid pirates could fell for it! That way, we can beat them up while they're stuck in the traps." I explain further and all of their eyes lighten up and grin.
"That's a good idea! You're so smart, Eris!" Luffy says as Sabo ruffles my hair and Ace nods.
Then we're off on our way back to the shack, but I was more injured than everyone thought (mine included) that I got exhausted faster and actually slowed the others down, but Sabo kindly offers to give me a piggyback until we arrive at our destination, which I immediately accept. Seeing that, Ace huffs and comments that he's too soft, and Sabo just shrugs.
When we finally arrive at the shack, we just plop down on the floor to take a rest, covering ourselves with a cloth that serves as our blanket. I'd love to lay on a bed instead of hard flooring, but I guess using Luffy as a pillow is good enough.
And not even five minutes later, I drift off to dreamland while hugging onto Luffy.
XXX
I woke up from Dadan's loud scream. I sit up and look up with sleepy eyes to see Dadan, just staring at us with pure shock and disbelief, but also filled with questions and she wants answers immediately.
"So noisy… it's still early in the morning." I say and yawn before falling back to sleep.
I wake up again to hear Dadan yelling at Sabo and he keeps on answering her along with farts. I just chuckle and sit back up, rubbing my eyes and yawning out. It keeps on going for a while until Dadan eventually gives up and sighs in defeat.
"Ace, Luffy, Eris, and Sabo! From now on you brats are under my care, so you better work hard from now on!" She exclaims out and I just grin. I knew Dadan is as soft as jelly inside under that scary face and behavior.
"Dadan, you're so soft to children aren't you?" I comment in amusement and she gives me a sharp look.
"Shut your trap, brat!"
I just laugh and I hop on my feet. Oh? The pain all over my body isn't as bad as yesterday. That's a little weird, but a welcomed one.
"Ace, Luffy, Eris! You got chores to do!" Dadan shouts and I just grimace at the impending chores to do. Sharing the same brainwave as me, Ace, Sabo, Luffy and I immediately bolt off outside, ignoring Dadan's shouting.
I just snicker at that, running after the older boys before Sabo suddenly stops, Luffy bounces off from that, and I join the crash.
"Hey Dadan! While we're gone, the Bluejam pirate crew might come, so be careful!" Sabo warns, "We kinda beat up some of his crew, so be careful!"
We continue our running through the forest. Ace and Sabo are pretty fast, and both Luffy and me are trying our best to keep up with them despite my injuries aren't that painful anymore.
"Dadan sure is an understanding old hag." Sabo comments.
"She's still a worthless old hag." Ace replies.
"She's a mountain bandit and her face is scary!" Luffy adds.
I just laugh in amusement. Man, poor Dadan. She kept on being made fun of by the boys.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Sabo asks.
"Let's eat!" Luffy and I exclaim in sync. Sabo laughs and agrees.
When we reached the lake near the shack, both Ace and Sabo somehow managed to catch themselves a huge ass fish while Luffy was busy drowning with me saving his ass, and they didn't even share it with us! They just casually eat it in front of us while Luffy is literally drooling and I just stare at the scene in disbelief. The hell, how can they eat it without sharing some to us?! Jerks!
"So Luffy, so you're a devil fruit user, right?" Sabo asks and Luffy nods.
"Yeah!"
"Well, no wonder you can't swim," he comments before throwing us the tail part of the fish for us to eat. Luffy catches it in glee and thanks him before offering it to me as he bites on it, but I just shake my head.
"You eat it. The tail part is not my favorite. I'm not that hungry anyway." I lie with a smile and Luffy frowns at that. Actually, that part has barely any meat on it, and I don't like it.
"But you haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning." Luffy points out.
"Nah, I'll be fine. Go eat it." I reassure him as I busy myself by balancing up rocks on top of each other. I can still feel Luffy's unhappy look on me, but he didn't say anything as he gulped the tail down in one go.
"So, what fruit did you eat?" Sabo asks.
"Gomu Gomu!"
"Gomu? So rubber?"
"Yep!"
I keep my concentration on my rock balancing as the boys are focused on Luffy's rubbery skill. It is almost finished, until Luffy accidentally slaps it because of his nonsense argument with Ace. I just stare at the destroyed rocks with a blank look before letting out a deep sigh, bangs covering my eyes.
I can hear Luffy yelps a bit when I stand up before turning around to look at them both with a sweet smile. I calmly approach them and put my hands on their shoulders, as a dark aura starts to spread behind me while I still smile sweetly at them.
"Luffy, I know you know better than to upset me, right?" Luffy nods vigorously, colors are drained from his face while Ace starts to notice what is happening.
Then I let my smile wear off to my blank yet furious face as I look down on them, my bangs shadowing my eyes.
Gathering my will to my fists, I give them both an upside down punch on the head.
"Then why did you make me upset?!"
I'm just fuming at both of them as Luffy actually screams that it hurts while holding the bump, and Ace looks ready to murder me while he's also holding his. I just snarl menacingly at him and on my pouncing stance, and Ace readies himself to fight me, but Sabo quickly stops us.
"Alright that's enough, you ferals." So we did. We look away from each other, I just hmph-ed while Ace just tch-ed in return.
Seeing both of us calming down, Sabo turns back to Luffy to talk about his power being able to bounce off cannonballs and shits like that, before showing off one of his skills: Gomu Gomu no Fuusen. He sucks in the air to make himself like a balloon and Sabo seems amazed by it, and then Ace suddenly kicks Luffy up into the air while mocking Luffy along.
"Stop it, you bastard!" I yell as I push him down, but he easily just pushes me back and off to kick Luffy into the air along with Sabo again, until Luffy falls into the lake and a huge crocodile just easily gulps him down. I just yell Luffy's name as my eyes bulge out.
"You dumbass! Look what you did!" I yell at the older boys.
"Shut up!" Ace yells back before both of them jump in and kill the croc. They manage to get Luffy out from the croc's stomach by using the gross method and I just grimace in disgust seeing Luffy is covered by bile and shits like that.
"Go wash up first, you gross!" I quickly told him when he was about to walk up to me, before noticing that his hat was nowhere on him and actually still on the water.
I quickly jump into and swim up to grab it before swimming back to the shore. Lucky me, there's no more croc around so my journey back and forth is a safe one. Pulling myself out from the water, I walk up to Luffy, who is washing himself up by the shore and give it to him.
"Thanks!"
"No problem, Luffy." I reply as I squeeze my hair and shirt to dry, and then notice Ace approaching me.
"Why the hell did you do that?" Ace asks, probably talking about me pushing him down before and I roll my eyes.
"Because! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why did you do that to him?!" I reply with my hands on my hips and leaning a bit in annoyance. I've always been overprotective toward my friends and siblings, except for distant relatives I never close with in the first place.
"Because! We saved him in the end!" He returns with arms crossed on his chest as he leans down at me and we glare at each other.
"You shouldn't have kicked him in the first place!"
"So what?! Then he shouldn't have been a lame-ass in the first place!"
"He just fucking turned into rubber boy not even half a year ago! Of course he's going to be lame! You don't just up and be perfect on things you just learned! Use the brain you don't seem to use, idiot!"
"What did you say, Weirdo?!"
"You hear me, Freckles!"
We both growl at each other as our foreheads touch each other and I can feel sparks before we both jump at each other with a loud snarl. He throws punches while I dodge most of them before biting on his arm, making him screech out in pain and punching me on my head. I let my grip go to throw him an uppercut, which got him straight on his chin and made him even angrier.
We literally just fight each other for five minutes until Sabo and Luffy manage to pull us apart and we're off back to the shack with the croc in tow.
Despite everything, Luffy is still mad at them for making him get eaten, while I'm scowling like mad and has a disturbing aura behind me as I glare at Ace from behind. I can feel that Ace's neck hairs start to stand, but he just says that he will give Luffy meat and just like that, Luffy easily forgives him while I just scowl deeper.
But before we can go back with our hunt in tow, Sabo says that he wants to check on something, so we take a different turn to where we first met, aka the huge tree. There are Bluejam's men around, and so we move to check on Gray Terminal. And just like before, people are searching for us and we eventually are found that we immediately bolt off.
We hide in the woods somewhere and just wheezing, especially me. Fucking hell, this is not good for my health. Or maybe it is good? Because I barely moved my body before that it's not normal anymore, but now I'm getting enough exercise almost every day it slowly returns back to its normal state?
Maybe.
"I can't believe that even the guys in Gray Terminal are looking for us too. We should lay low for a while." Sabo suggests.
"Just fight the people who get in our way." Ace huffs.
"That would end up with unnecessary fights, dumbass." I retorted. Both Luffy and Sabo agree while Ace just scowls in silence. What a nice character development right there. I'm pretty proud, I must say.
Eventually we go back with the croc in tow to cook and eat for dinner. Of course, I fight my way to eat in peace against the adults, per culture of this shack. As I take a bite, I'd say that croc meat isn't that bad. It's kinda like chicken, but also kinda like fish? It's pretty okay, but maybe that's because I haven't eaten for almost a day and I was starving.
I lay around with Luffy when I'm done, stomach bulging, while some of the bandits are sulking because there are no more.
I was about to doze off when a foot landed on my stomach. My eyes snap open in a glare when I see Ace is smirking at me.
"Sorry, didn't see you there." Ace sneers.
I growl and jump to my feet before shouting out his name as I jump at him. He just smirks wider and gives me a punch in the head. I let out a snarl as I tackle him down and strangle him by the neck. He yelps and tries to pull my arms off his neck while slapping the floor.
"Someone younger than you is beating you down! Hahahaha!" Sabo laughs in amusement and Ace is not amused. I just grin and snicker deviously before I let him go and he hit me in the head in return. He stomps off while I just stick my tongue at him, although I also notice his ears are pretty red.
It kinda hurts when he hits my head, but at least I get to see him getting embarrassed.
It's kinda cute, actually.
(Posted on February 25th, 2022)
