Dr. Heart Stealer
Ch14: Clues For the Island Cure
I could hear Law's shouts and Bepo's cries but I couldn't go back. If they wanted to they could wait for me. They might and they might not. I didn't know, but I did know that I was going to help Byoki Island. Even with my nakamaship at stake, with my brother's sibling love at stake... with Law's opinion of me at stake... I was going to risk it all for this one, little island on the vast Grand Line.
I ran to the village, only stopping when I was able to put my hand on Jake's shoulder. He looked at me his eyebrows knitted together, but he looked back to the people in front of him. When I looked over the top of him I could see the villagers, some were cowering in fear, and others had weapons drawn. When I looked at the scene better I noticed that Jake also had his scythe drawn. Wait, did Jake really choose a scythe as his weapon?
"What's going on?" I asked concerned, hopefully he didn't do anything bad to the villagers. He shook his head.
"Nothing, they told me to get out, just because I had my scythe with me and didn't want to give it to them." He said. I nodded, I could understand that. Keith shook his head this time.
"No, we asked you to put it outside of the village, because we felt threatened. We don't like when people come here with weapons." Keith said seriously. I nodded once again, I could understand that too. Then I remembered something. I reached into my bra, and got confused looks or I saw people blushing. Not that I could blame them. I tugged out my pistol.
"I've had this with me since I came here earlier today." I said, twirling it around my finger. Jake nodded.
"You guys trusted her with a weapon, but not me?" He asked the fearful villagers. They all nodded and I broke out laughing, and set my pistol down. I have no reason to carry it right now so what the heck.
"SEE?! Now that she knows our traditions she puts her weapon away so we won't get hurt! The savior-to-be is so understanding!" Aaron said.
"Yeah! The savior-to-be is trustworthy! She wouldn't do something so barbaric, as to even think of hurting us! She's amazing! Unlike you pirate scum." Keith shouted from his spot in the front of the crowd, just like a leader. I laughed again, and scratched the back of my head. Jake shook his head and put his scythe away. He looked to me.
"I thought Law would come back to get me. Knowing him, he would have had you stay on the sub." he said, confusion evident in his voice. That's when I remembered what I was going to do. I took my hand off of his shoulder and looked at him. He looked me in the eyes with a puzzled look. I store right back.
"You little bastard..." I said shaking my head, I raised my right hand and made a fist. I punched him in the kisser. That's going to hurt in the morning. He wobbled to the side. "I may travel with you morons, but that doesn't mean I can't do, what I want to do!" I shouted, I was staying here and helping and that was that. "I don't want to be Traffy's slave girl, and I sure don't want to be with people who take over my life, to the extent that I can't make my own decisions!" Jake looked up at me with shocked eyes, I couldn't give two shits about his shock right now if I tried. "Jake get lost. If you guys decided to wait for me, then wait. But I am my own fucking person and it sure as hell is staying that way. I help people. I don't give a shit about being a pirate, there fore not helping people. Luffy's a pirate, Luffy helps people, I like Luffy. I never knew Law hurt people... you know what, who am I kidding, I knew Law was a sadistic bastard from the start. But that's beside the point. The point is I am my own person, pirate or not a pirate. I am my own person. Did you get that, let me say it again. I. AM. MY. OWN. PERSON!" I yelled at him. He cowered away. He turned and walked away, after about a minuet or two of cowering.
"I'll try and get Law to wait for you, but don't count on it." He said, never stopping or looking back, he just kept on walking.
~X~Third Person: Jake~X~
Jake walked to the submarine in silence. It was a bit to quite for him but he could cope. He just wanted Kazue to come back with him, and travel with Law and himself. He knew it was slightly selfish, but could one blame him? He hadn't seen her in years, and she more or less joined the crew by his standards... just not by her own. Jake continued the hour's journey back to the sub. When he got there he saw Law and Bepo talking to each other. Law seemed to notice him, and stopped talking. Jake waved to the two people on deck... well person and polar bear. As he got closer he heard Law sniffling. If Jake had to guess it wasn't from crying.
"Jake hurry up, I want to leave so the rest of the crew doesn't get sick." Law said. Jake laughed at that comment, has Law been to the infirmary as of late?
"Law-kun, the only people who aren't sick are me, Kazue, and Bepo. When was the last time you checked the infirmary?" He asked, his voice slowly turning serious. Law looked down at him from the deck in surprise. Seems as if he hadn't been there lately. "Law-kun, the crew needs a cure. Kazue has gone off to find one. And I got lectured at, so I think maybe we should stay. Even if it's just for a few days. I sure the log pose hasn't set yet. Right, Bepo?" Jake asked the polar bear. The fluffy white mass nodded.
"Yeah, it won't set for a few more days captain. Sorry..." He mumbled. Law sighed and walked to the infirmary.
"Fine, but my crew won't get better just by standing here. Let's go see if I can't help them." Law said turning and walking to his favorite spot, the infirmary. Jake hopped up on deck and grabbed his shoulder. He shook his head.
"No, Law-kun. You're just as bad as them. You need to rest too. Let Kazue deal with the cure finding. If she doesn't come back within one or two days, we'll go look for her, okay?" He asked his captain. His captain once again sighed.
"Fine, but only because my crew needs a cure." He said walking into the yellow vessel.
~X~Kazue~X~
I sat in the 'town meeting place', which by my observations was just one of the nicer houses. There were no big differences between the 'town meeting place' and the rest of the town. A small group of four had gathered before me. The only two I knew were Aaron and Keith. We were discussing what I was going to do to help, and where I might want to go to get clues.
"Well, there is the cave outside of town, Keith. That might be a good place to start." one of the ones I didn't know said.
"Well, that would be a good place to start... but what if the mist doesn't accept her? It has killed numerous times before, I'm sure it wouldn't hesitate to kill again." the other I didn't know said. I decided to label them so I could address them in my mind. The first speaker had hazel eyes and tanned skin, and his brown hair had a hint of green to it, so by default he was Forest. The second speaker had a long cloak on that shielded his eyes from the world, and it reminded me of the Grimm Reaper, so he was Mr. Grimm. I tilted my head to the side, my mind getting back on track. A cave? What cave? I'm not sure I want to know if it kills me...
"Um... I would prefer to know what kills me before it does..." I said shyly raising a hand. Everyone looked over to me and I sunk back slightly into the chair I was given. Forest nodded in general direction.
"Well... there is this little cave that is deep with in the black forest. Around the cave is a green mist, the mist grants us about a week of health. Although it only does that about once a month. The rest of the month... well to be honest it murders people. And it will also murder you, if it doesn't accept you." Forest said, his eyes shadowed by his greenish brown hair. I shivered, that sounded rather alarming. Sure I wanted to help, but at the same time I became conflicted about the whole 'evil murder cave' situation.
"Well... I don't really like evil caves..." The four in front of me had their mouths slightly agape. "Shut your mouths, I didn't finish." I said, and all of them slapped their lips closed. "Despite not liking evil caves, I will try to help. But if I get murdered by this weird mist stuff you guys are talking about, you people have to explain to Law, why he's short a slave." I said with a small chuckle. Jake would be pissed off if I died... Law though, I wasn't so sure about. The others began to laugh with me once they realized that it was a joke. The laughter gradually died down into the back of our throats. I looked around, waiting for anyone to speak. I coughed, and was immediately surrounded. Strangely I was surrounded by more than four people, seems as if everyone was listening in on our conversation. Questions of 'Are you okay?' and 'Why did the savior-to-be get sick?' or 'Will she make it?' jumped around. I laughed at them again.
"You guys are funny. I'm fine, not sick. My throat was just a little itchy." I said, everyone moved away from me slowly.
"She said her throat is itchy..." Someone said.
"It's okay, she'll be fine." Another stated. Now I was purely confused, and apparently it shone on my pale face.
"The cave... it want's to meet you... when ever someone gets a itchy throat, the cave doesn't kill for a whole week... it's a rare event, but it does happen... When the cave stops killing it makes a new judgment on everybody on the island." Aaron said, his face struck with sorrow and seriousness. I needed to do something to make them feel happy again. I was lost for what to do, so I grinned. I was aiming for the famous D grin. But my face was not made of rubber, nor did it belong to any D member. So instead it was a big smile showing all of my teeth.
"Okay, well I better make a good impression!" I said gleefully. "When does the non-death mist stop by?" I asked, my grin never faltering. Everyone looked to each other wearily.
"Tomorrow." Keith said, his voice oozing with seriousness. My grin lowered to a small heartfelt smile. I was only hoping to make everyone stop being so afraid right now. I was becoming frightened.
"Okay, well I guess that I should stay here for the night, right?" I asked the village. They nodded slowly, and I stood up.
"Does it judge on how I'm dressed? If it does can I borrow some cloth and a needle?" I asked the frightful people. Mr. Grimm nodded and led me away from the hoard of people, and to a house with crocked stairs and peeling paint.
"I have some old cloth that you might find useful, and I think that my wife has a sewing needle or two." He said, his voice was lower than I originally thought. Well when we were at the town meeting place he didn't talk to much and even when others were speaking I was mostly spacing... I followed him into the rickety old house and was handed some tattered cloth. It would be hard to work with, but it was my job to make things like this old browned fabric, turn into something beautiful and sometimes even unimaginable to people of the common norm. people from this town would be impressed by my skills, I could tell by their own clothing. I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a boney finger press against my right cheek.
"This is the little thing that's gonna save us? It's so tiny and frail..." a person said. I looked over to see an old woman in what seemed to be her fifties. She was holding four needles.
"Um... can you please not touch my face... please..." I mumbled meekly. Old women scared me, if you go them mad they could be as scary as hell itself. She nodded stiffly and handed me the four needles, I thanked her and left the broken house. I walked until I was at the village border, I had no idea why, but it was like it was beckoning me it go inside of it. Mr. Grimm called out to me.
"Where are you going?" He asked. I had no immediate response, I simply stared at the forest before me.
"I don't know." I said. He walked to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Let's go. I'm sure you wanted to get some rest, right? And you can do whatever you were planning with that old curtain." He said. Wait... this piece of cloth was a curtain? Well... it would be harder to fashion into the dress I was imagining. But I never came to a challenge when it came to my specialty.
I had spent about an hour sewing together the dress. I was almost done, but I wanted to add some green to the murky brown I had been given to work with. An illusion might work. I put my hand down on the dress and began to think of different possibilities for the dress. I had racked my brain twice, before I found the idea. I let the illusion flow into the dress. With a yawn I sat back in the chair I was borrowing. My eyes closed, I didn't want them to though. It would mean the illusion would be lost. I had this feeling that it would be. But despite my attempts to stay awake, sleep and darkness clouded my already sleep fogged mind.
~X~X~X~
When I awoke it was sunrise. I stretched and looked down at the fabric I had fallen asleep on. I could remake the illusion now. Only when that thought had crossed my mind, had I noticed that the illusion seemed to be trapped in the fabric. This was interesting. I would be picking up some more of this before I left... if I ever did. Who knew if Law was even still on the island right now. I picked up the dress that had now fit my needs. It was stunning and elegant. The fabric was a light maple brown, the upper portion of the dress clung tight to the upper body, then it fell to the floor in one elegant wave. The dress had long sleeves that, at the end, cut into a triangle like figure, each sleeve had a emerald ring on the end, making it have a loop to put around each middle finger. The dress had a V-shaped waistline, made up of topaz and emeralds, and a straight across neckline. The bottom of the dress reminded me of a murky river, that hid away priceless jewels from prying eyes. The topaz and emeralds that created the waistline looked to be falling onto the skirt like rain.
I stood up from my chair and went to change into my new dress, it was surprisingly lighter than I had expected it to be. The dress was only light because of my illusions. Illusions that were in my control. This fabric was special, it trapped my devils fruit ability with out robbing me of them completely.
When I had finished dressing, I walked outside and into the chilly morning air. As I stepped into the town I heard a voice echoing off of the rooftops and rattling through the trees.
'I can't wait to meet you... Miss Zepheron' it said, the voice was dark and frighting. It was very low and a hidden evil could be heard seemed to dance in it. I brushed it off as a trick of the wind and shivered, as I walked into the dark and foggy forest. Evil seemed to jump at you each time you moved. Then the voice spoke up for a second time.
'But can you make it through my forest?'
~X~X~X~
~X~X~X~
A/N: So... did you like my cliffhanger? Also... review slackers. I got like two reviews instead of my usual five-ish. I felt the need to call all of you out on that. So I thank 10th Squad 3rd Seat and luckyknight13 for not being review slackers. Until next time, keep being awesome!