Dr. Heart Stealer
Ch23: Sunny Shot Island!
...the sound of a bucket falling to the ground was heard. As well as water falling and light cursing.
"Hey! I think we hit Mikio!" she exclaimed excitedly. Harmony ran out of the galley and to the cafeteria, wanting to see the look on Mikio's face.
Law was there drenched with water, his face contorted in rage. Mikio was next to him only a little bit of the water had splashed him, so he was fine. But Law, being a devil fruit user, looked angry and tired. Not a good mix when you're the one having to confront him. Mikio was snickering from a distance as he had retreated into the hallway to avoid harm.
"Hm… Sorry about that creepy doctor, that was meant for Mikio. Why did you come in first?" she asked him. He glared at her, and she quivered in fear.
"I was coming to get a cup of coffee to calm my nerves about a child being on my submarine. Why did you have a bucket of water ready to dump on my head?" he barked. She cowered, as Law continued to glare at her.
"I'm sorry, creepy doctor! it was meant for Mikio! I-I'll make you a cup of coffee in return! Just don't dissect me!"
The galley was a mess.
Hiro leaned over to Law
"Don't you remember that Jake said that she couldn't cook?"
Harmony yawned as she got up out of her bed. It had been three days since she had ruined the galley and pranked Law.
There was a knock on her door. She adjusted her loose clothes, she had yet to find something even remotely her size, and waddled sleepily towards the door. The young girl opened the door slowly in a tired manner. Behind the gray door was Jake, he wore a wide smile on his face as well as a pair of dark blue sunglasses atop his long blond hair that was up in a ponytail. He waved to her cheerily, she rubbed her eyes attempting to get a good look at him, but she could only squint. His form was equivalent to a white and yellow blob. She took about five steps back, his figure slowly not looking as blob like. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the sudden clearness. She could now see the blue sunglasses and his ponytail clearly.
"Hey, we'll be surfacing in an hour or so! Are you excited? I'm sure you are, you can get some new clothes at the island," Jake told her excitedly. She just stared at him. Then it hit her, this was her chance of escape! She nodded to him with a happy smile, but not for any of the listed reasons to be happy. "I'm sure you'll have fun! Especially later in the week!" Law walked up and slapped a hand onto his shoulder.
"But unfortunately, Harmony-ya is to stay on the sub. Unless I feel kind enough to bring her with me," Law said.
~X~Flashback~X~
Law walked through the submarine, his destination, the mess hall. An announcement had already been made to the entire crew to meet up there, well the crew minus Harmony, if she could even be counted in her current state. This announcement was about her, not for her. There was to be a debate about allowing her to go onto land or not.
Law burst through the swinging mess hall doors. Immediately the chattering you could here through the thick door was silenced. Law walked through the crowd to the center of the room. He climbed on to a table and motioned for everyone's attention. Eyes of varying colors turned to him in attention.
"I have gathered you all here to discuss groups for the island and what to do with Harmony," Law began, "Shachi, Penguin, Mikio, as last time the sub is in need of repairs, I leave this task to you three. Masanori, Hiro, Logan, and Hatzu, I need you to stock up on food like usual. We should be running into other pirates next time we head out to sea, make sure it can give us enough proteins for that fight. Sadao, you will be coming with me and Bepo. Jake and Itsuki, you two are to find information about when the log pose sets, any extra information about the marines or pirates in the area is important as well. The rest of you are to guard the ship like last time, we are expecting marines to be on this island at some point. I refuse to have my submarine attacked and taken by marine scum."
A few of the crew cheered at the idea of a fight. It had been a while since the crew got to fight anyone or anything, and they were ready to go. If the marines attacked, Law was going to let his crew go crazy.
Jake spoke up, "What about Harmony? We can't just leave her in the sub, can we?" Throughout the crowd murmurers could be heard. Law raised a hand to silence the whispering crowd.
"We will take a vote. But first I will tell you the details we gathered from the last island," Law said. "While we were at the resort island we learned that the name of this island is called Sunny Shot Island. The island is full of gunslingers, and it's a summer island." A few people from the crew groaned. With the majority of the crew hailing from North Blue, the crew usually preferred winter islands as apposed to summer islands. "All in favor of letting Harmony go to Sunny Shot while she's still young, say 'I'." The majority stayed silent. Law took this as a sign that Harmony was to stay on the sub, while she was young.
"Captain, what will your group be doing?" asked Itsuki. Law looked to him.
"My group will be looking for a hotel to stay at, I expect that the log pose will take some time to set. As well as making sure the marines aren't going to attack us in our sleep," he responded. Itsuki nodded, showing that he understood. Law hopped off of the table and exited the mess hall to go to the captain's cabin.
~X~X~X~
It was now night, Law and Jake had left to the sunny island. She groaned as she rolled over on her bed. Hiro had been kind enough to have previously brought her a bowl of soup before he left for the island, and he had told her that Masanori would bring her some food later when he got back. So here she was waiting for the old man to come back with some food.
The wait had left her to her thoughts about the 'pirate crew' -she had yet to believe that- and her home.
Her captor had taken her away by using some kind of brainwash, that much was obvious. How else were they going to make her think that she was playing poker with an unknown currency? Or better yet, the girl with bright pink hair. She looked like an anime character, and wore cosplay. What was her name? Brittney? No. Bonney? Yeah, that name sounded familiar.
And Trafalgar Law. She had begun to call him creepy doctor, she couldn't call him by his name. His name was fake. And if it wasn't, it was needed to be changed. He was a really annoying character with a cool epithet, and in no way real. It annoyed her that someone could like an anime character so much as to change their name. What person is named Law? As a last name it made sense. But as a first name, it made no sense whatsoever. And as far as she could tell, this man really was a doctor. Just like Trafalgar Law from the anime. And he had to be loaded to be able to possess his own submarine.
So in all her captor was a rich, submarine captain, doctor, who's obsessed with Trafalgar Law.
What a weirdo...
She continued to roll about her bed in thought. This time tapping into something she had forgotten recently.
The man named Jake. And the fact that he was so much like her younger brother.
He was almost her little brother in an older form. He had his looks, and most of his personality. But there was something besides the age that was different. He acted more mature, and like there were no boundaries. The Jake she knew would always follow the rules and hide from everything. This man would act like he could take anything on, and he seemed confident enough to go through with his words. That was something that her brother could almost never do.
Oh, and she couldn't forget the fact that he had said that he was her brother. But he also said that this place was her home.
Harmony realized that everyone here were her captors, but did they really have to resort to such horrible lies? They may have brainwashed her, but she could remember some things.
And the most important one, she was no longer home. No longer where it was safe.
But despite not being home, nor safe, she had a small list of people here who she decided she could trust. Even if just a little. The head chef, Hiro, the older cook, Masanori, and the white haired man with twin katana, Sadao. Those were the only people who she trusted on the submarine where she was held captive.
She began to cry. Why? Why did it have to be her in this situation? Why couldn't she just go back to her normal girl life?
She heard a knock at her door. It had to be Masanori. She turned to get into a sitting position, and wiped her tears, although her cherry-red stained face remained.
"Come in, Masanori," she said through the steel door. The old man burst in like a firework. He wore a bright smile like he always does, and placed a bowl of ice cream on her bedside table. He put a finger to his lips.
"Don't tell captain. He might get mad at me for giving you ice cream," he said. Harmony smiled slightly at him.
"Thanks, Masanori," she told him. His smile began to fade as he noticed the red tear stains on her face. He got really close to her face just as she was reaching for her ice cream. She scooted back towards the headboard a bit when he got to close for her liking. He motioned to the red stains with his eyes, asking what they were with out saying anything. She mumbled something and shrugged. "Just... tear stains... what does it matter?" she asked a bit louder after no response and more intense staring. The old man sighed.
"Well, why were you crying? I see no need for you to cry, Harmony," he said. More petite beads of salty tears broke free from her eyes, and began to slide down her young face, but Masanori wiped them away before they could make it all the way down her cheek. Her salty tears ran down her face like they were in a marathon, and despite her attempts to stop the racing water works, they just kept coming.
"I-I just... All I want to do is go back home! I hate this place! I want to see my family, not you annoying kidnappers! Just let me go home!" she cried in anguish. Her flowing tears never ceased to stop. Masanori, with no experience of comforting, put an arm around her and hugged her hesitantly. She pushed away from him, and shook her head furiously, her tears jumping out of her eyes and splashing onto his jumpsuit. "Stay away from me!" she shouted. Masanori took his arm away and got up, he walked to her door and stood there, his back to her weeping face.
"This place is your home, and you could say that the crew is your family. So never say that around the captain or Jake, they might get mad," with that he left. She looked up and glared at the door in anger. Just who did Masanori think he was, telling her that this wretched submarine, smelling of body odor and hospital disinfectant, was her home? And saying something as stupid as thinking of the people on board as her family. She had a family back in Dallas, not here on a submarine.
~X~With Law, Bepo, and Sadao~X~
Law, Bepo, and Sadao walked through the dense crowd of Sunny Shot's only city. According to a map that Sadao had found at a booth, the island only had room one city.
And that there was going to be a festival in a week, as well the following three weeks after that. The Festival of the Sharpshooters. The moment Law had found out about it, he had a hard time deciding what to do. The crew hadn't been to a festival of any kind recently, and that might just be what the group of pirates needed.
And he, by no means, was thinking of Kazue's recovery when he had found out about The Festival of the Sharpshooters.
Although after some careful consideration on his part, he thought it might be a nice treat for getting a bounty back on Byoki Island. The crew never really did anything for her, and she was simply not in the mood for a party back on the sickly island.
The trio continued to weave through the crowd, looking for a hotel. In about five minutes, they had stumbled upon an old looking hotel on the outskirts of town. It wasn't in bad shape just very rustic. The pirates walked into the old hotel, to be greeted by a woman, most likely the same age as the building she was in. Her light red, graying hair was tied up in a messy bun atop her head, she wore a dress that was made of satin and velvet and brushed the floor as she took small, tentative steps, her eyes were a dark teal like the ocean's murky depths, and her skin was that of a ghost's.
"Welcome. Would you like to rent some rooms?" she asked Sadao, he looked to Law before nodding. The frail woman lead the two to a receptionist's desk.
"We need nineteen rooms of three," Law told her. The old woman laughed.
"I'm sorry boy, but that is more than I have. How about fourteen rooms of four? Each of this hotel's rooms hold four anyways, so it would make more sense for you boy," she informed him. Doing a bit of math in his head, he nodded to her. She took the majority of the keys from the shelf behind her, leaving only one other key. Law and his two subordinates walked to an area with a fireplace and a few couches. They sat down.
"Sadao-ya, I need you to go tell the crew on the island to meet here. Me and Bepo will stay here to wait for them," Law ordered. Sadao gave a curt nod and stood to leave. Law turned to Bepo. "Now, Bepo, we wait."
~X~X~X~
~X~X~X~
A/N: So... school is making me late... as well as writers block (which I am slowly over coming). My editor has also been gone so I had to edit this myself... It's probably riddled with mistakes... I know that this chapter is a bit short, but I think it's good, and so should you! Unless you didn't like this chapter, in which case you shouldn't... Well, I'm just going to say this and stop with my madness, I wont be updating as much. I will attempt to stick to schedule (look where that's gotten me...), but with school, homework, studying, other various things that end up having to be done, I am having a bit of trouble updating. I won't give up on this story, and I won't take months on end to update, it simply wont be as often. Also I have a very serious question and realization. I completely forgot about Jean Bart while writing this story... Do you think I should make an effort to have him in the story, or should I just leave him out? Until next time, keep being awesome.