Dr. Heart Stealer
Ch28: Blood-Thirsty Weapons and Boys In Pink Dresses
"A cursed work of art, but a work of art none the less."
I felt the gun warming in my hand like holding hands with a friend on a cold night. It wanted to be there. It… felt good.
Without even looking at the target, I snapped my wrist up and fired from the hip and waited for the recoil… but there wasn't any. The only indication that I had fired was the old pan I'd shot making a pang and flying off its mount.
Without even meaning to, I looked back at the old man and tracked the pan with the muzzle, hitting it three more times before it hit the ground another 50 feet farther away than it had started.
Jake stared.
Shachi and Penguin stared.
Rick stared.
I stared.
"I'll take it."
"Fine, I don't think it will ever allow someone to hold it after you. Give me a moment," he said. Rick rushed off to a small back room. When he came back, he held a black holster and a few boxes of ammo.
"You'll have to pay for these, but I want you to have them. Got to get some money out of this deal. This ammo," he opened one of the boxes, "is made of kairoseki, and these," he opened another box, "I'm too old to remember what these are called, I've had them for a long time you see, but they work like little charms. They can hold the power of a devil fruit." My eyes widened in shock.
"How did you know that I was a user?" I asked in amazement.
"You, my dear, are a pirate. I keep a stack of bounty posters in my room. Got to know who has the big money. 15,000,000 is quite a hefty price for a first bounty, and I wasn't going to believe you deserved it for a moment, too high for a newbie like you if you ask me. But, you have shown me to think differently about you, Miss Fuchowa."
"How much do you want for that?" I asked him. He knew me, and I would definitely recommend him to gunslingers I meet... then again those who do will most likely be trying to kill me, the least I could was buy the bullets.
"Two thousand belli," he said calmly. I took out the money wanted and laid it on the counter, he snatched it and began counting. Why he had to count four 500 belli coins was beyond me.
"You're all good. And take one of these." He handed me a flier. I smiled to him.
"I'll be there."
~X~X~X~
I skipped down the road, new gun in hand; it was far too early to allow it to become accustom to lazing about in a holster all day. The flier that Rick had given me had been for a shooting competition, it was to be in one day's time, and there was no doubt in my annoyingly happy mind, I was going to be there. Jake, Shachi, and Penguin were trailing behind me as I was having trouble not randomly shooting people for looking at me the wrong way.
I've never had to tame a gun before. This will be fun!
"Guys, have you ever had trouble with bloodthirsty weapons?" I asked the boys following behind me. I spun around so I was facing them, they shook their heads, and I sighed loudly.
"But I want to shoot everyone. I can't do that at the competition!" I shouted as we continued to make our way back to the hotel.
"You could practice... or just find someone you don't like and use them for target practice," a voice whispered into my ear. I came to a standstill, and then whipped around. Empty, noisy air and a crowd of people shoving past my still form, a glance to the side provided me with a few men dressed as if they were in the mafia. My eyes widened.
How much longer was I going to be here?
Obviously not very long if I keep seeing supernovas as often as I am.
"Guys, I think the mafias in town," I told the trio trailing behind me; I glanced to them and nodded. I dashed off towards the edge of town, I had to get to the hotel, and I had to get there now!
My feet carried me to the rustic hotel in fast, large strides. I burst in through the door.
"Traffy!" I yelled, my captain came walking down the stairs in a slow calm manner that danced with my uneasy nerves. He glanced in my direction and smiled genuinely. That thought confounded me, Law was all smirks and no smiles. Always
"What is it, Kazue-ya?" he asked me, my stupefaction bolted when his voice broke through the thick layer of confusion.
"It would seem that a supernova is here, I think its Capone Bege," I said in full seriousness. Law snickered at my earnest behavior.
"I am well aware, he took the last key," he told me, I spared a glance to the key holder, and sure enough, there were no more keys. A hotel full of pirates and more pirates, this was not going to end well for any of us. I shook my head like a wet dog trying to get the thought of the mafia pirate in our hotel out of my mind.
"Fine, whatever, as long as I get a room to myself I won't mind his obnoxious presence. Anyway, I'm signing up for a shooting competition tomorrow. I trust that you won't stop me?" my last line came out much too question-like for my fancy. It was meant to sound more like: "And you can't stop me!" It wasn't quite there... Although my word choice might have been a bit off. I waited for his response tensely, it took about a minute before I got any acknowledgment, and it wasn't really what I was expecting.
"I assume that means that you have a new gun and won't complain about your broken one?"
"Yes Law, I have a new gun. No Law, I will still complain about my old one, and for breaking it, you guys won't hear the end of it till I find out who broke it in the first place," I responded with a glower. Law chuckled a bit.
"Well, I guess that means that Jake-ya won't hear the end of it for a while." My eyes widened. That was a hint! Law just told me that Jake broke my gun! Well, I guess I should go pester Jake for a while.
"JAKE!" I roared like an angry lion. I heard a pound of footsteps clambering down the staircase like a herd of uncoordinated elephants.
Our eyes met. He ran. I gave chase.
Well, I gave chase until I ran straight into Hiro.
For some reason, I felt like I should get him to help me with my plan of revenge.
"Hiro, are you any good with revenge?" I asked him, he nodded slowly. "I vote we team up."
~X~X~X~
It was a simple plan really, and everyone got a kick out of it... well not including my little brother, but one must make sacrifices to have any type of gain. For the past three hours Jake had been wearing a dress. A pink frilly ballroom dress… the bright red bows and black butterflies really made it all the better. Oh and of course the fact he had no idea why anyone was laughing at him was great to.
I don't think there is a limit for how much I love my devil fruit power.
But sadly, the plan had been Hiro's. Not mine. Well, I do take credit for the color scheme and butterflies.
"Brat, you might want to change into something more fitting for a boy your age… more… fitting…" Masanori mumbled the last part, obviously trying to help and not break into a fit of laughter. It didn't seem to be going well.
"What do you mean 'more fitting'? You saying the uniform isn't proper anymore? I could have sworn it was you who told me I looked great in the jumpsuit!" Jake yelled in rage, becoming more and more confused as to why everyone was laughing at him, telling him to put more manly clothes on, or giving him funny looks. He couldn't figure it out for the life of him.
I walked up behind Masanori.
"Oh, I'm just getting my revenge. My little brother doesn't seem to know how to keep his dirty paws off my stuff. Although, I can say with a smile that he looks great in that shade of pink and the red really makes his eyes pop!" with a pop on the P, I hopped away to behind a corner where I broke down into a vicious bout of laughing.
Three…
Two…
One …
"Why the hell am I wearing a dress!?" came the enraged yell from my little brother, oh yes devil fruits are simply divine. Then an ear-piercing scream came from the area I had just left.
"Butterflies! Get them off of me!" he howled. Ah yes, I knew telling him butterflies were horrid creatures (with a few horrifying stories about them) would pay off one day.
"Was that a scream I just heard? And better yet did it come out of Jake?" he asked with a smirk, I nodded. "Who would've ever thought, the great Jake Zepheron is scared of butterflies?"
"Jake stop screaming, you could hurt your vocal cords," Itsuki said calmly, flipping the page of a book his emerald eyes were scanning. The spine of the book read: The Art of War Weaponry, A Marine's Guide to Weapons, on the bottom of the spine was a simple and rather horribly drawn picture of a gun and a sword over crossing.
"So, what are you reading?" I ask, peeking my head over his shoulder to scan the page.
The katana is a Japanese sword. It consists of 12 parts of the sword itself, and 5 parts of the sheath. The blade consists of the kissaki, shinogi-ji, hi, mune, ha, yakiba, and habaki. The hilt is made up of-
My reading was cut off mid-way, by the not-so-subtle turn of a page.
"Hey, I was reading that!" I complained to him.
"Well, perhaps you should have read faster," he responded with no emotion. I stared at the back of his head like it was a cat… a horrid, horrid cat. Such epically foul creatures they were, little demons in disguise, trying to wriggle their way into your heart. Just so they can recruit you for their army of fuzzy demons.
"Hey, Traffy, can I destroy him? I feel like Itsuki needs to be destroyed," I asked Law desperately. A throaty chuckle came from the other side of the room.
"I'm afraid that he would only end up destroying you," he told me with a smirk.
"Harmony, fix this! There are butterflies all over me! EEK! IT MOVED!" Jake screamed in terror. Snickering, I looked back to him.
"Oh, I know, I think it likes you. In fact…" he paled at the thought of a butterfly liking him. I willed my devil fruit to move the butterflies up the dress and closer to his face. Screams of shuddersome alarm bounced off the walls, as Jake cantered around the room.
A few of the butterflies flew off the dress and simply hovered in place for quite some time before disappearing altogether. Jake had become frozen in pure dread when an especially terrifying monarch landed on his nose. One of the other butterflies delicately fluttered closer to the paralyzed blonde. Yet another shriek resonated from his throat.
"Why does he sound so…. Feminine?" Hiro asked me, his eyes never leaving the trembling scythe wielder.
"Don't know, maybe you should ask him yourself."
"What is going on? Tell that kid to shut up," an annoying voice came from behind the group. I turned my head, only to get a look at Capone Bege. The man was short and fat, just like in the anime. He was wearing a black and white pinstripe suit with a revolting lime green neck-scarf that did little to compliment his outfit, a captain's jacket with teal epaulets rested upon his shoulders like a cape that should have been left behind with childhood.
I couldn't help but glare at the man. He was beneath me; he just didn't know it yet.
"Just causing some havoc sir, no need to worry yourself. Please, be on your way." Another wail of fright passed through the room. "I'm sure he won't be screaming all night."
"Just make sure of that, brat," he muttered in anger before walking away bitterly.
I smiled at him. I only did this because my new blood-thirsty, artistic gun wanted to simply jump out of its holster and exchange his brain for piles of lead.
… This new gun was going to take some getting used to.
~X~X~X~
~X~X~X~
HEY! Did you guys miss me? I missed you guys! So yeah it's been like what... about six months? God, I feel horrible. I'm not even expecting anyone to be reading at this point. I had told myself "Never be that writer that never updates!" But look what I have become! But in my defense... I had... school? Also, I sprained my foot, so that happened. So now that my apology of sob is done... Who likes her new gun? Or that fact that Jake is scared of butterflies? Sorry cat lovers, Kazue doesn't like cats. That shall be later explained. Oh! I wrote a parody of Favorite Things from The Sound of Music for this fic! I'll post it separately if anyone wants to read it. (I did end up recording it... but I can't sing for the life of me.) Until next time, keep being awesome!