Well now the childhood arc is the longest in the story at six chapters long. It started at the six chapters with the jungle adventure. Knowing me it's going to last until probably October in terms of story updates. This chapter is shorter because of a perfect storm that has eaten all my time up. As I was writing this I just decided to turn it into an Interlude, but it works as a storm breaker.
H3illion: The system misread your review as for chapter one. She is going to get good at wood carving yes, but that's not the path she will walk. I needed a profession to give her a chance to work on her devil fruit control. Considering she's in a jungle I think wood carving might work.
Writing is in italics
Techniques and devil fruits in underline
Daily fun fact: For fun, a British couple invited the Queen to their wedding. The Queen actually attended their wedding.
Chapter 13 start:
It was surprising how anger was one of the best motivational pushes one could gain. Throughout history there have been countless cases of people achieving incredible things due to the raw will of determination anger gave, from toppling empires, to building amazing works of art out of spite. That was due to one factor, when one is angry all fear is swept away. Anger at being hurt, at your creation not being good enough. It is a state where one just acts now and worries about the consequences later. The things that to a person would seem impossible suddenly become doable. A world of possibility's opens up, and amazing progress to whatever goal a person wants to achieve happens.
Anger possesses its own problems, many in fact. But Lucy didn't really care about anger, or its downsides.
Right now she was slowly marching through the dense underbelly of the rain forest, it had been an hour since she left the hide out and she hadn't looked back. In fact no one stopped her, she didn't care if anyone tried but no one turned up. Once again the bandits had proven just how much they ignored her existence, as she slaved away in the back ground everyday with no benefit except a meal at the end of the day that barley satisfied the hole in her stomach.
Two hours ago she was terrified of the jungle, she had vivid memories of the struggle she endured for those three days…now, it didn't matter. As she kept walking down the small path leading south east from the bandit hut something surprised her as the burning anger morphed as it got cooler. The forest that she had spent the last three months terrified of entering again…it was so…mundane. The noises that she remembered were less scary; there was no feeling of death around each corner. In fact as she kept walking it made her feel like an idiot for fearing it so much.
The trees rustled peacefully in the wind, the small river that the path snaked with bubbled calmly. Even the calls of the animals faded into an enjoyable uncoherent fog of sound that made her relax just slightly. And she found the more she kept walking the less anger she felt, in its place was a mix of relaxation and something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Eventually as time went on the jungle got thinner and thinner and more and more light passed through the canopy. Unlike her previous attempt through the forest, this one went faster for two reasons: 1 she wasn't worrying about her own survival and 2 there was an actual path, with bridges fording any obstacle in the way. Lucy couldn't help feeling the slight annoyance at not having this path when she tried to get back to Foosha village the first time.
The light got brighter and brighter until in an almost blinding manner, she exited the tree line onto the vast coastal planes of the south east part of the island. Geographically, this part of Dawn Island was separated from the northern extents of the island by the jungle in the north, and from Goa capital due to the Colombo mountain range in the west. The area was a small plain of grassland with small bumps and contours in the terrain.
Out here there was nothing, not enough water to sustain agriculture on a level that was viable and isolated from all major population centers on the island. Though considering the level of infrastructure, or lack there off, in the kingdom that wasn't surprising. There was nothing to be gained here so no one bothered to do anything with it.
The only true settlement was Foosha village which, unsurprisingly, didn't want anyone to be bothered enough to ransack the village. As such, it made the perfect place to hide people one did not want others to find, an isolated backwater in an isolated backwater. Still it was home, and just the cool coastal wind blowing in from the south made her lose all her left over anger. It reminded her of her time sat on her old bench by the sea, reading her weight in books as the waves rumbled quietly beneath her. In the jungle there was no wind, not that far in, and it was something she never know would miss.
It pushed her on, down the small path towards the coast. In no time at all she had hit the point where land and sea meet as she stared down the cliff towards the bubbling waves as they splashed quietly against the rocks. In and out they came; she would stare as the water pulled back from the rocks below in great streams only to meet the force of the next wave. Lucy must have stared at the waves for a few minutes when she fully noticed her surroundings. Considering Shanks had dragged her along this coastline constantly in his adventures she could recognize the stretch of coastline she was on.
Foosha village was an hours journey, west, away from her spot. So she turned from her spot gazing at the sea to walk westwards. And for the first time in a while she felt a lightness through her body like all the tension had dissipated at the thought.
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In the end it took an hour and a bit to walk the rocky coastal path towards Foosha village, but Lucy didn't care. An hour a day they all were worth it to get back home. The only reason it took her so long was because she deliberately took it slow.
The sun was slowly descending in the sky, when she entered the village. And everything came back to her at once. The sights, the sounds and the smells. It was weird how it took only three months for her to become nostalgic over a place. For a place that she remembered for ignoring her, it brought back fond memories. Times when she would sit on the small dock and watch the clouds dance across the sky all day and then go home to find a large meal waiting for her. No it was not nostalgic, because this was going to be her life again. Screw the story! Despite her being lost in thought her feet traveled the paths of the village until she stopped suddenly before a door she remembered in her dreams. After Higuma had smashed the saloon doors off, Shanks had agreed to buy proper doors along with repairing the gash she had made in the wall. He grumbled a storm for it, but he still did it.
The door to Party's bar remained ajar and through it she can hear the soft humming from a voice she remembered well. For a moment Lucy paused, now that she was capable of thinking again a hundred thoughts passed through her mind. Would she be welcome? What would Makino think of her now? Would she be rejected? She almost got lost in that thought, in her negativity. But she caught herself before it dominated her, and from a place she had only recently found pulled a well of bravery up to force her limbs to open the door and walk in.
The room was still as she remembered, at the front of the bar were circular tables with sturdy old chairs circling them. To one side of the bar was a fire pit, considering it was in the middle of the day no flames danced in it. To the other side were the decorative paintings that she had bought when Shanks had dragged her to Goa capital. One was a painting off the main plaza in the capital full of life, one was a picture of a rose mid bloom and her favorite was the picture of the windmill on top of the fields of poppies. The bar area was much the same; it still had the same green stools, the same barrels and a large noticeable area where the wood had to be replaced. In the large scar her power had created a thin strip of a lighter wood had been cut down to size and obviously glued in with some type of resin. Makino was behind the counter sorting through the spirits on the back wall, but still despite only seeing her back she knew the woman was smiling.
Lucy stopped her gazing when the humming stopped, Makino had obviously heard her walk in, with a large smile on her face the woman turned around and said ''Hello and welcome to Party's Bar! How can I help you?'' The question was met with silence, not because she didn't want to, but a million things sprung to mind and she feared that if she opened her mouth it would all come pouring out in an uncoherent mess. So for a moment they both stared at each other, then Makino seemed to realize that it was her because she almost jumped the counter screaming ''Lucy!''
Then she did jump the counter and with almost inhuman speed ran towards her. Lucy didn't have time to even panic before the woman had grabbed her under the arms and sung her into the air in an explosion of joyous movement. Then to add to her shocked brain Makino squished her against her breast while squeezing her back. Nearly all her ribs creaked from the pressure, and for around ten seconds Lucy was sure that the woman was planning on suffocating her into unconsciousness. Then as fast as it came, the pressure was gone and the floor came to meet her limp legs.
Makino, however, wasn't done with her assault. This time instead of a killer hug it was words ''Lucy your back! Where did you come from? Did you enjoy your new home? Why are you back?'' On and on Makino asked questions, around ten in quick succession. Lucy just stared at the woman, the small glint in her eyes, the way her arms moved around in the air when she was excited, the little dimples in her face when she smiled. Makino paused as she seemed to notice her staring at her, a frown crossed her face, eyes ablaze in worried confusion ''Luc-''
The green haired woman never got to finish her sentence as Lucy suddenly crashed into her legs, hugging her head into the woman's pelvis as hard as she could. Makino paused taken aback by the overt display of affection from the usually withdrawn girl. Then she smiled, not a large one, but it had a shine that out did all the stars in the universe. She took one hand to stroke it through the raven haired girls ebony locks.
''It's good to see you to Lu''
They must have stayed like that forever, well it felt that way to Lucy, but all things must end. As both of them pulled back, she noticed that Makino was staring at her face and smiling in joy. That's when she realized that her mouth had turned into a smile. To that statement she could only respond with one thing ''I missed you''.
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Makino filled her in about her disappearance, or supposed disappearance to the villagers. When Garp had returned from the jungle alone some of the village had made wild conspiracy theories, these had died down when the marine vice admiral had made a public announcement that 'Don't worry citizens of Foosha! Monkey D Lucy is not dead! I have taken it upon myself to relocate my Granddaughter to a new location that better serves her interests until further notice!' Still the idea of what her grandfather had done to her still rubbed a raw nerve Lucy didn't know she had.
Makino didn't ask her about what she had been doing for the last three months, or where she had been. She gave up after she asked about if Lucy had any new friends only to receive a blank stare in return and silence. In a way it made her feel good the Makino understood that somethings were just not up for discussion…at least not yet.
Still they enjoyed the rest of their little picnic by doing the most immature thing they could imagine… rolling down the hill. Correction, Makino coerced Lucy into rolling down the hill by offering a plate of her best lasagna to which the raven haired girl begrudgingly accepted. By the end of it they were giggling between themselves as they lay down at the bottom of the reasonable large hill. They were laughing still when they walked back through the village to the bar, ignoring all the staring villagers.
They stayed in each other's company, Lucy on her special set and Makino fluttering like a butterfly to achieve all the little jobs that had to be done. It was only when the sunlight faded and the local entered the bar looking for a cheap drink and a night of entertainment that they had to break off their company. Makino was first and foremost an owner of a pub, who probably survived solely off of it. Lucy at this point was starting to feel the exhaustion set in, she normally went to bed around this time at the bandit hut.
The very thought of that place soured her mood considerably. It was all behind her now, her life could once again be as peaceful as she wanted it. She would be whatever she wanted, and a slave was not that.
On and on the night went, the crowds getting louder as they drank more and more. Lucy in comparison just got quitter and quitter as she struggled more and more with her own tiredness. It was only when Makino gave her a quite look that translated quite clearly as 'go to bed' that she decided to just give into her body's demand and leave the bar.
Her bedroom was still as she remembered it, a small desk sat before the window packed with her books, to one side was her wardrobe with four draws on the bottom part, her wallpaper was still the boring old cream she remembered painting it as. In the center was a single bed, it had neither decorations nor stuffed animals on it. In fact most people who entered her room commented on how it was the blandest room they had ever seen for a young girl. Considering mentally she was neither of those, it was probably for the best.
Looking around her room, when she remembered it clearly, was wasting her already leaving energy. So instead she quickly got undressed, put on her pajamas, brushed her teeth, before getting into a bed and letting the darkness of her sleep consume her.
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The first thing she questioned as her brain slowly turned back on was how soft the bed was underneath her. Her bed was not that soft, in fact her bed was a thin mattress on the floor, covered by a raggedy cotton sheet. These were neither off those. To make things even more confusing Lucy couldn't even hear the sound of Ace's routine snoring in the back ground. Despite her initial confusion, the next feeling was panic and so with a bang she shot out of her bed and quickly looked around…Only to find her old bedroom from Party's bar.
The panic died when Makino rushed into the room, green hair all frizzled in an obvious bed hair. Both Lucy and Makino stared at each other for a couple seconds as the woman breathed in deep lung fulls of air. Then as Makino seemed to be catching her breath she said ''Lucy…what's going on?''
Lucy didn't know how to respond, so it was actually real. All this time it seemed to be a dream, that she had managed to get through the jungle and go home. That she was able to see Makino again. To know it was real made it the best dream she ever had. Despite her internal satisfaction, the lack of outward response seemed to have gotten to Makino as the woman in an almost panicked state said ''Are you all right?''
When she heard the fear in Makino's voice Lucy decided to respond ''It is alright Makino, it was just a bad dream''
At her response the woman calmed down, all perceived danger gone. As Makino did an almost routine once over look to check everything was all right from her place by the door she noticed the clock ''It's four o'clock in the morning Lucy, you should go back to bed'' Despite receiving only a head nod from Lucy, the woman was content and with a final look back closed the door.
Now left alone in the dark Lucy, just stood not sure what to do. In the end she tried going back to sleep, only to find that her brain was always active no matter what she did. With that option out the window she lit the small candle by her desk and started re-reading her pile of books…even her yellow stained dairy that she'd much rather forget she'd created.
Book after book was devoured as time marched on; it was only until the light made her candle obsolete that she finally took notice. It felt weird not having tasks, like she was wasting her time. By now she would have polished everyone's boots, probably cleaned a quarter of the hideout with a day's work left to do. No matter how good it felt not to do it, something itched between her skin wanting to work, that annoyed the ever loving hell out of her. She was no longer going to work for the bandits ever again.
Makino broke her out of her annoyance at one red haired bandit leader by shouting ''Lucy, I've prepared breakfast! Get down here!''
One did not say no to Makino without receiving a consequence.
So without much say in the matter she walked down the stairs to her favorite seat. Makino didn't say anything, she just put a full English or full 'Foosha' as it was now called in front of her. Weird how by transferring over an acquired taste, altered the world in weird and wonderful ways. Considering it had been three months since she had one of these it naturally got devoured in a very short time.
And so her second day in Foosha started with a much needed dose of normality after her experience with the jungle and bandits. It carried on being normal too, into the afternoon as Lucy sat at the bar and just passed the time reading books she forgot she had.
The normality stopped when Wood slap entered the bar saying ''Makino! Lucy! This young gentleman has come to Foosha with the purpose of retrieving Lucy. He ensures me that she will know who he is'' And from his shadow out walked Ace.
Sorry about not being over 6,000 words long. I keep intending to minimize chapters to prevent myself from having overly bloated arcs that only put off potential readers. Perhaps at a later date I will reconfigure the chapters and add ones that are similar together. Anyway, until next time. Bye Bye.