Hey y'all! I made a bit of a blunder last time and had implied that Rayleigh has a completed memory of the canon One Piece world. He absolutely doesn't, and I've fixed that typo. ~ Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.
Changing the course of history through a series of well-orchestrated, meticulously designed events had always been the plan.
Changing it through an unfortunate saga of horrible mistakes? Not so much.
At the current moment, Nao sits anxiously pressed against a corner near the door she had walked through only moments before. Her breathing is ragged, her entire body hurts, and her mind is whirling with various outcomes she could cause due to her meddling. She's nearly quivering with fear—the two men merely a few yards away from her were truly beings to be feared.
A manic grin spreads across her face.
This is glorious.
The panic that had rendered her nauseous a few moments before had evaporated as soon as she had escaped the immediate vicinity. It had sprung from the overwhelming pressures of the men's presences, not her fear of being too intrusive with how things were going to turn out. Sure, she's certain that some of her plans would have to be scrapped after the survival of Saul, but, for the most part, she could proceed as planned.
With Rayleigh as her traveling companion, she'd become strong, and, with that strength, she could manipulate the future as she so pleases to do.
She chides herself now, disbelieving how perturbed she had gotten after leaving the whore house. For three years she had painstakingly prepared for the possible kinks in her plans, and yet somehow a little marine invasion and a surprise early start to her scheme had sent her reeling away in tears. She had been foolish to care for the sisters—even if it was only a love born for their role as a substitute for her original family. She couldn't allow herself to waver now.
What she needed to do was manipulate the unnervingly sharp man that she had attached herself to.
She knows she can't get away with on-the-spot lies for long—he was much too intelligent for that; she'd have to think of a more intricate cover story. She takes a second to thank the gods for giving her a breather from the roller coaster of a shitshow that her life has been since the marines invaded her hometown—this was not a chance she could waste.
Inching her head towards the entrance, she carefully attempts to peak. The two men stand closer now, allowing only snippets of their conversation to be loud enough for Nao to overhear.
"... marine took responsibility… no bounty… seems safe."
"... who… not Garp?"
"... former Celestial Dragon… poor family… Donquixote."
Nao barely halts the gasp that accidentally tumbles out of her mouth. The world sure is unpredictable, that she knows well. What she didn't expect, however, was for the clumsy ditz of a marine—one she had cruelly dragged into her mess of a life—to accept the blame for a blunder on her part. Though the refreshingly kind marine is the one who'd have to consequently pay the price for a blunder on her part, she can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
There was no price for her head—she could still make her moves in silence.
And so, now more than ever, obtaining information on how changed the world has become is essential to her survival.
She stays like that for an hour, legs cramped and trying so hard to comprehend their hushed words that she's positive her head will burst from how much she's straining herself.
"If you stay like that, you're gonna blow a blood vessel, and, unlike you, I have no medical knowledge to fix that, Nao," Rayleigh's voice carries to her position near the doorway, somehow sounding both threatening and benign at the same time. "You're free to join us. We never told you you had to leave."
The noise that she releases can be describe as nothing short of a squawk—an amusing sound that causes both the monstrously powerful men to chuckle.
"What a nosy brat," Dragon says, though his words hold no malicious undertone. He is—though Nao can hardly comprehend it, simply because of how odd it is—teasing her. "But such a thing is what keeps you alive in this kind of world."
This, she suspects, is what probably earned him the leader position of the Revolutionaries. He was surprisingly approachable, despite how frightening his description was to those who only knew of him. The way he spoke did little to help his reputation, though. His voice was gruff and demanding—the epitome of strong—yet the words he spoke hinted towards a begrudgingly shown kindness.
But Nao doesn't particularly care about the lilt to his voice, or any of that bullcrap—she's just glad at least one of the two men seemed to not have startling her to death as one of their personal goals.
She chews the inside of her cheek, abashedly looking away from Rayleigh's gaze as she rejoins their company. As much of a spitfire as she is, even Nao has a sense of shame when she's been caught red-handed. She juts her lip out, giving a half-assed lie to defend herself—if only to keep up her childlike image in the eyes of the two men. "I wasn't trying to be nosy."
Rayleigh laughs wholeheartedly, sending shivers down Nao's spine as he clamps his hand on her shoulder. It's the same falsified show of amusement a mother gives in public when she's conspiring to beat her child to hell and back once they're alone.
Nao swallows nervously. "I mean—sorry," she squeaks.
She might've reaffirmed her resolve to meddle with events, but that didn't change the fact that Rayleigh rightfully intimidated the shit out of her.
Dragon eyes their interaction curiously, opening his mouth to make a comment on something he'd observed. At the same time, however, an oddly dull shout is heard from below the ship, drawing the attention of all three of the people on it.
"Dragon-sama," the voice booms, yet there is no urgency in its tone.
The two men simply have to turn, while Nao runs to the edge of the ship, getting on her tippy toes to catch a glimpse of the source of the voice. What she sees, though, is so shocking that it nearly sends her overboard. Rayleigh snorts incredulously, getting behind her at record speed to grab hold of her before she could tumble off their ship.
"Now isn't the best time to go for a swim," he remarks sarcastically.
She ignores the quip—too preoccupied with gaping at the monstrous man that stood on a makeshift raft below their boat.
Bartholomew Kuma, the soonish-to-be government's personal science experiment.
"Kuma," Dragon addresses back, nodding to confirm that the man can continue speaking.
How many more ridiculously overpowered men is she gonna run into over a course of a few days?
"Vice Admiral Saul has been partially thawed, but appears to be gravely injured by Kuzan's freezing technique. He seems unresponsive, and we have no medical staff on site at the moment. How should we proceed?"
Nao's heartbeat quickens at the mention of the man's injuries. She knows exactly what it is that needs to be done to ensure his survival, but her toddler-like appearance made it impossible to convey the instructions. Rayleigh, she realizes, comes to the same conclusion as she does, and nudges her ever so slightly—a movement so small not even Dragon takes notice.
"Nao here can fix that." Rayleigh volunteers Nao before she can pipe up herself.
A blush spreads across her cheeks, and she looks away timidly, avoiding the inquisitive gazes of Dragon and Kuma. "I can't make any promises," she says, and she's not exactly lying. She may have knowledge of how to aid victims of frostbite, but she still has no idea how severe Saul's condition is.
"A medicinal prodigy?" Dragon asks.
"Hmm…" Rayleigh hums thoughtfully, pretending to think about what Nao really is. "Something of the sort."
Nao's ears warm even more, and she's sure her face is flushed a fiery red, but she clears her throat and attempts to regain a professional air. (she is was WaS a doctor dOctOr DOCTOR after all) "If someone can help me get to wherever Saul is, I can probably help him survive."
She knows damn well the way she's speaking is eons beyond what a three year old should be capable of, but there's no time to waste putting on a front of ignorance when she has to be the opposite of that to be allowed access to the injured giant.
Dragon and Kuma exchange looks, engaging in a comrade-powered telepathy to debate how qualified a three year old could possibly be in medical knowledge. Eventually, they seem to come to a mutual conclusion, nodding as Dragon gestures towards Nao. "Kuma, can you take her to the site?"
He nods, and Nao expects herself to be gently brought off the boat.
It doesn't exactly go that way.
Instead, Kuma appears behind her, placing a pawed hand on her back. Before she can even fully comprehend what he intends to do, she is ripped through the air and not even given the chance to scream prior to their instantaneous landing. Kuma looks unbothered by their terrifyingly speedy trip, while Nao's eyes are practically rolling to the back of her head. She shakes it off, though, determined to apply her knowledge to the best of her ability.
Preventing Saul's assured death may have been an accident, but letting it go to waste now would be a damn shame.
But her commitment as a medical professional sure as hell doesn't change how disgruntled she is at the heart-stopping trip. As Kuma begins to move the raft, she glares at both the oversized teddy bear and his leader with pure spite, but her vicious look only earns an amused chortle from both Rayleigh and Dragon.
Within ten minutes, Nao finds herself at a completely different part of the island with the boat far out of site. It doesn't take long for her to spot the frozen giant—it's a huge fuckin' ice cube floating in the sea—but she internally rejoices at what she sees.
From a superficial standpoint, he seems, for the most part, uninjured if the obvious start of frostbite is ignored. The a dozen or so men around him are half-assedly throwing buckets of seawater on him, waiting for Kuma's return. She suspects that had expected Dragon to return with the monotonous man, as confusion clouds their faces for a fraction of a second. Their bulging eyes when the do finally acknowledge Nao's appearance is, Nao decides, her new favorite thing to see.
She suppresses a giggle by clearing her throat. "Five of you, go find warm cloths—lots of it—and start rewarming the thawed skin. The rest of you guys can keep using the seawater to melt the ice. Once you're done, carry him onto your ship and get him to the cleanest area you have."
The men look at her in disbelief—incredulous that a child was issuing orders to them. They turn to Kuma for his say, and are equally shocked to see him nodding in agreement with the little girl's instructions. Thankfully, the motion springs them into action, and Nao is left to watch them obey her every command. Power, she decides rather mischievously, is a damn fun thing to have.
Nao obscures a satisfied smirk. "Kuma-san, find me a sharp edge," she pauses, eyeing the giant's size with wariness. "A big one, and then help get him onto the ship. Try to sterilize the edge if you can find a flame," she adds, and now he, too, carries out her commands.
An hour passes with Nao dawdling on the raft, waiting for Saul to be completely free of his icy encasing, and begins to paddle her own way towards the boat. It's a long and tedious process, considering her size, but she eventually arrives at the same time as the men finish.
"Can someone help me up?" she reluctantly asks for help, eyeing the height between her and the ship's deck cautiously.
The men look at each other, then at Nao, before eagerly volunteering to help the small child. She, they had assumed, was an important guest of their leader, and someone that a monstrously robust man like Kuma willingly followed. They would do anything their superiors would ask, and Nao, regardless of how small she is, certainly fell into the category of a superior if Kuma did her bidding. (In reality, all these events came out of sheer luck, but she had no qualms against letting them believe otherwise.)
She smiles graciously as the men pull her on board—her first non-heartstopping entrance onto a ship—and internalizes an impish laugh at how platonically smitten they are with what she appears to be.
"Kuma-san, the scalpel," she instinctively refers to the sharp object he holds by a medical term, and pales as she realizes her blunder.
She hurries to grab the thing out of his hand and tries to obscure her panicked expression. Rayleigh and Dragon might have given her an opportunity to act as she pleased without worrying about keeping up a childlike appearance, but that doesn't necessarily mean she wanted to reveal her hand to everyone she met.
She approaches Saul with a pretense of professionalism, the sharp object grasped loosely in her hand with a finger rested on the end opposite to the blade for precision. Cutting away at unhealthy tissue, she remembers, is the second step to curing frostbite.
It doesn't take long for her to get lost in her work. (Was she still on the boat, or in that hospital that she interned at for two years prior to her deaTH. Metal waLls around her? Or whitE? SteRiLe whITe? ShrapNel in her HanDS? oR is she holding a sCalpeL after all?)
She never notices the discreet whispers exchanged among Kuma and the recently arrived Rayleigh and Dragon.
Ooooh what do you think they're discussing? Will Nao be able to save Saul with her knowledge from her past life? The world may never know… until my next update, that is.
Did y'all enjoy the chapter?
If you did (or even if you didn't), please leave a review! It helps a ton with how I decide to proceed with the storyline. Who knows, maybe your reviews will persuade me to take a different course of action. (:
Have a great day!