An Intruder!
Enma paused as he opened the door. He was right somebody else was in the doctor's office. Someone he didn't recognize. It was a young woman. She looked similar to Rosa, except taller. She was wearing some tiger print clothing. Enma was very unsure of what she was doing or what she was doing here. Nobody told him that they were going to have any visitors especially no one who would enter his infirmary. Enma opened his hand. Out slid his ever faithful bone spear. Enma charged knocking the girl down onto the ground. Enma moved over and jumped on top of her, he brought his spear down holding it sideways against her neck.
"Who are you?" asked Enma as he began to apply pressure little by little to her neck. The girl looked frightened for a brief second. She managed to get her hands around the spear, but not much else then that. "Who are you?" reiterated Enma as he applied a little bit more pressure onto her neck.
"I'm Lily," she gasped, "Rosa's tiger." Enma paused for a second as he looked down at her. He thought for a few seconds then shook his head clear of those thoughts. Rosa didn't mention anything about her tiger being human and he never heard her talk. He heard growl and roar, but never talk. He wasn't falling for this. "Don't believe me, fine!" Rosa's body began to grow larger and larger. Enma's spear was thrown off of her as he throat expanded as well. Lily was back on the ground staring over at Enma. She definitely looked like she could be. She was a large lion and she was leering over at Enma.
"I still don't believe," said Enma as he brought the spear around and aimed it at her throat. He stopped search, "I say we should just go back up and ask Rosa about this. She'll tell me the truth." Enma began to back up to the door, but couldn't. Lily leapt forward and grabbed a hold of his spear and held him still. Enma tried to shake the spear free, when he finally did he brought is around and slammed it into Lily's head knocking her down. Enma moved forward and spun the spear around. Once more he positioned the spear pointed at her neck. "What's the matter don't want your little lie to come undone?"
"No, that's not it, I swear," pouted Lily. "You see, I am Rosa's little sister. She left the island and insisted on traveling by herself, but...but Rosa wasn't that strong when she left. I thought she would be in trouble so I followed her. I didn't want her to know because Rosa is kind of headstrong...I thought that if she found out that I was following she would feel insulted and never talk to me again...so I did it in secret using the Neko-Neko no mi: Tiger model. After awhile, Rosa noticed a tiger following her, so she let me tag along with her as a partner. I never came clean with her because of that."
"So, what's your real name?" asked Enma as he lightened up on the spear. What she said made sense, but that didn't mean it was the truth. She could still be lying to him. He wouldn't put it past anyone he met on this journey so far. He didn't meet that many trustworthy people.
"Its...uh, Lily," muttered Lily. She looked away. "Rosa liked me so much...that she named me after myself." She paused as she considered how that sentence made very little sense. "She named the tiger she found, which is me, after her little sister, which is also me."
"Yeah," said Enma as he got up and was about to leave. "Why are you here again?" asked Enma as he put his foot out the door.
Lily lifted up her foot and revealed a pretty huge cut in it. "While I was carrying Sage to Zesiro and you for Rosa's fight, I slipped and accidentally cut myself on some of the swords lying about." Enma came back into the room. He pulled off of the shelves some disinfectants and bandages and laid them out in front of Lily. "Just read the instructions and treat yourself while I check with Rosa about your story."
Enma headed up stairs and onto the deck. The crew had decide to accept Simon's offer. Enma looked around. He noticed that Maria and Hiro-Shu both left. They had fights tomorrow, they probably wasted enough time talking to the crew and listening to Simon. They needed to get focused and train for the upcoming fights. They didn't even know a thing about their opponents, so they had to be prepared for anything. Especially Maria. This was a homecoming for her, she wasn't about to lose her first professional fight in a long while. She was aiming to win.
Enma walked over to Rosa. He didn't quite know how to ask it as if he just came straight out and asked, 'Rosa do you have a sister named Lily?' he could potentially screw over Lily and he didn't want to do that, but what else could he ask? He decided to just ask about her past. "Rosa, you've been traveling with us for awhile, but why did you start traveling in the first place? Got any family back home?"
Rosa looked over at Enma. She was lost. Enma was one of the crew mates, who she didn't really think got along with her. She didn't understand why he would ask her about it. "Um...yeah, yeah, I do." It was the first time in quite some time since Rosa thought about them. "I got two sisters. One older and one younger...and also a little brother."
"What are their names?" asked Enma.
"Um...Lily and Sakura are my sisters. Ren is my little brother...actually Sakura set out on the sea before I did...she's out there somewhere," said Rosa. "Lily and Ren are still on the island at home. I remember leaving them like it was yesterday..."
(-under a year ago-)
Rosa paused as she stared out over the seas. Today was the day, she could feel it. Today was the day she was leaving this island. The sea was nice and calm today. A year ago from this day her older sister left. Now she was going to leave. She going to set sail and accomplish her dreams. Her family supported her decision. She knew she was going to be leaving them all alone. Their parents had died earlier...but she had to set sail.
The island wasn't big and exciting enough to contain her dreams. She needed to set sail and find everything. The island was small and didn't have very much exciting at all. When she set sail she would find a crew, another family almost and get along great with them. With them at her side she'd write one of the best adventure books the world has ever seen. Who knows what else would happen on the way.
Rosa turned around and headed down the steps to the bottom of the pier. It was still early in the morning. She was planning on sneaking off in the middle of the night. She hated the idea of having to say good-bye to everyone. They had grown up together and all that, but now they had to leave and depart. Rosa wasn't planning on seeing them again for a very long time. It was a sad thing to admit...but she had to. The last time they saw each other would be the last time they saw each other.
Rosa took a step forward and onto her ship. The water moved forward beneath the ship. She stumbled a bit. She still didn't have her sailor legs. She had to take a moment to breathe in the last breath of her home town. Finally the ship lurched forward as she cut the rope holding it to the dock. With that she was officially a sailor!
She sighed as she set sail. The wind at her back. The ship continued to sail across the sea. She was relaxing so easily. She was enjoying this brief respite before all the action would hit her. The she was rocking her, it was so peaceful. She was kind of sleepy due to how early it was. She laid her head down on the ship, slowly slipping away.
Just as she was about to fall asleep. The sound of a siren cut into the air. It was incredibly loud. Rosa jumped up. She couldn't believe the timing. It was just as she was leaving the island. She couldn't just leave the island now. If the island was in trouble she had to defend it. It was her job as a sailor to defend the island that raised her. She turned the ship around, ignoring the cutting siren. She jumped off and landed on the island. She raced off to the siren.
Whatever was happening she was going to stop it. She needed to stop the carnage, this was her home and she wasn't about to let anything happened. The town council would point her in the correct direction. She burst into the door, her faithful sword on her side. She looked them in their eyes. "What's going on?"
The town council stood up and were strangely calm during this situation. It even looked like they were smiling as they pointed her down the island and towards her own house, "its your family. They were preparing a big banquet for you to see you off today, but something terrible happened. I...I'm so sorry." Rosa's eyes went wide as she turned around and left. She lost her parents to some bandits, she wasn't about to lose her little siblings. She raced home.
As soon as Rosa got home, she didn't bother knocking. She struck out with her foot, knocking the door open and rushed in. The scene inside was nothing she could ever have expected. Her little brother and sister were both together and had huge smiles on their faces. In their hands was a cake, on the wall were numerous banners. "I thought you were going to leave without saying good-bye!" shouted Lily as she wrapped her arms around Rosa, "Ren said that you were going to leave early in the morning, so we cooked up this plan!" Rosa was stunned and speechless. She just stood there looking over at her brother and sister, lost in thought.
She had rushed all the way back here, thinking the absolute worst had happened and she came here just to find her brother and sister were plotting a party that she was trying to skip. Rosa smiled as she walked over to them and hugged her brother and sister.
(-Back to real time-)
Enma shrugged off the story. He was glad to know that she at least seemed well-adjusted and the girl he left downstairs in his infirmary was in fact a friend. He sighed and relaxed. He was thinking about his past as well. He also had a little sister...chances are though she had already set sail. The sea just drew people into it guessed Enma. "Well, thanks for..." Enma was beginning to say, but he was interrupted by Maria bursting onto the ship, panting and trying to talk.
"The arena..." she huffed out in between breaths, "we all need...to go to the...arena..." Ridley and Zesiro wasted no time, both of them already jumping over the railing of the ship and onto the docks. They rushed down towards the door to the arena.
"Why?" asked Enma. He didn't see how any of the current fights could possibly affect him. His only concern was with his crew, whose fights weren't till at least tomorrow.
"Mikoto!" gasped Maria as she finally caught her own breath. "Mikoto is fighting in the arena right now!"
Those words caught Enma's and Rosa's attention like no other words could. They were both up and out of their seats rushing down the flight of stairs. They charged down the steps and towards the URA. "Why is Mikoto doing this? Why is Trevor allowing him to do this?"
"According to the program of the URA," explained Maria as she raced down to catch up with Enma and Rosa, "this is a special fight. The staff at the URA put it on just to show off their strength and their dominance over the spectators. A staff member of the URA steps into the ring and fights anybody who is brave enough to step into the ring to fight them. There is a huge cash prize if you manage to win so there is always a bunch of takers. I guess they are using Mikoto to drum up more interest."
"Yeah, and I got a sinking feeling that Mikoto didn't have any say in the matter," muttered Enma as the group finally got at the doors to the URA and pushed them open. They charged into the room.
Just like the previous fights the stage was a large circle hanging over a dangerous pit. In the arena was currently just Mikoto and the Longarm announcer. Mikoto was relaxing in the corner of the ring. He was standing up and even jumping back and forth getting in the mood for the fight. The Longarm was explaining the current rules of the fight. The crew was stuck outside of the ring just waiting and watching the fight and hoping that Mikoto could come out of it in one piece.
Mikoto Fights Again!
Trying to keep up with my promised every other day update. Next one will be in three days though, just because it fits into my schedule a little bit better. Also! I want to thank all of my reviewers! Thanks to you guys Saga of the Infinity Pirates has the eleventh most Reviews of all One Piece stories! Not good enough for you? How about the fifth most Reviews of all One Piece stories that have updates during this year and the third most amongst the OC crew stories! I would like it to be higher, but THANK YOU ALL NONETHELESS!
None too happy with Rosa's back story, but I didn't have too much to work on. I just had to mention that Lily was actually human before this story got too much further. Its kind of a huge turning point later on! Get ready cause the next few chapters is when the fun happens!