Ch. 7- The Truth About Elie

The ride in the back of Kurt's truck was just as rough and wild as it was on the way to the marina. Kyler, Maura, Johnny, and Victoria hadn't said anything on the ride back and neither had Shanks. Kurt and Elie, who were once again in the covered part of the truck, were having a conversation between themselves.

Although there was a window in the back of the covered area that Shanks could see through, it was closed and not a sound was heard. He saw the mouths of the two moving. Elie pointed at her school bag and earned a high-five from Kurt. Something told Shanks that she had something in there, but he didn't know what.

Not one of the six students needed to be ordered to go back to class when the truck was parked in its original spot back in the school's parking lot. They all just hopped out of their seats and made their own way back to the classroom without being ordered. Despite the fact that they didn't say why they went without being ordered, Shanks was pleased. Perhaps the trip to the ship was a good idea. It seemed to get the others quieter without immediately attempting to hurt him.

He was not far behind the students and before he made it to the door, he heard a little thump and something, a bag, fall to the ground. He heard Kyler say, "Whoa, you okay, Elie?" and Elie respond, "Leave me alone. Don't touch me." By the time Shanks got up there, he saw Elie lifting herself up off the ground and pick up her school bag. Kyler was withdrawing his hand from her shoulder. Before he could say anything, a loud bell rang.

"Woo-hoo! School's over!" Kyler shouted. He and the rest of the students picked up their bags and headed out the door.

"Elie, come here." Shanks ordered Elie.

Elie stared at him, but still obeyed him. She walked over to him and asked in an emotionless voice, "What do you want?"

"Did you take something from the ship?" Shanks asked.

Elie shook her head, "No, I didn't."

Somehow, Shanks wasn't convinced. "Open your bag." He ordered.

"I…can't. I have to get home." Elie said quickly before running out the door. Shanks attempted to run after her, but she was gone. In fact, everyone in his class was. He sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. It was the end of the day and he wanted to get back home. He grabbed his money from the office and headed back to the ship.

TEN MINUTES LATER

"What do you mean the Kaze Kaze no Mi has been stolen!" Shanks roared at the rest of his crew.

"I mean one of your kids stole the Kaze Kaze no Mi from us." Lucky answered. In his large hands was the empty chest that once held the Devil Fruit that was just recently stolen.

Okay, now Shanks was pissed. He knew which student stole from his crew and since this was a valuable item, he would make sure that the thief would not get away with it. "I'm going to kill her!" Shanks shouted. Without saying anything else, he stomped off the ship and away from the marina.

Shanks was seeing red as he stomped towards the suspected thief's house. He put up with so much crap that Elie threw at him, but this was the last straw. Stealing from a pirate often led to injury or even death and this was going to be no exception even if she was a fifteen-year-old girl. His fists clenched as he pounded upon the door of Elie's apartment. No answer came. "ELIE! OPEN THIS DOOR!" Shanks shouted through the door.

The door opened and Elie stood in the doorway. Her bag was nowhere in sight. "What do you want?" Elie asked boredly.

"I want our fruit back." Shanks said angrily.

"I don't have your fruit." Elie said.

"Elie, I'm not kidding. Give me back the fruit." Shanks ordered.

"I told you before, I don't have your fruit. Now go away." Elie said from the inside of her apartment. She began to close the door.

Shanks caught the door with his hand before it closed. "Give me back the fruit, Elin!" he screamed at the girl.

"Go away. I don't' have anything of yours!" Elie shouted, "Now let go of the door!"

Shanks refused to let this girl win. He let her win too many times already and would not let her win this time. He shoved open the door and shoved Elie back a few feet as he stepped into the apartment.

"Get out of my apartment!" Elie screamed.

"Not until I get my fruit. I know you stole it." Shanks growled.

Elie smirked, "And what if I did? What are you going to do? Hit me? Beat me? Kill me?" She began to laugh.

Shanks slammed the door behind him and did something that caught Elie by surprise. His one hand wrapped around her small neck and he lifted her up off of the ground several inches. "WHERE IS THE FRUIT!" Shanks shouted.

Elie struggled to free herself from his grasp. The hand that was wrapped around her neck was beginning to cut off her windpipe. She was having problems breathing and no matter how hard and fast her arms and legs moved, hit, and kicked, the man would not let go of her. "c-c-can't…" she managed to get out with everything else coming out in gasps.

"WHERE IS IT!" Shanks shouted. Although he was looking right at her face, he was so angry that he failed to notice that Elie's face was starting to turn red due to the lack of air. All he wanted was to hear Elie say where she had the fruit. He didn't even notice that he was preventing her from actually admitting where.

Elie's struggling got weaker and weaker before she finally stopped all together. She grabbed Shanks' arm and cried weakly, "Please…"

Drops of water fell onto Shanks' wrist from the girl in his grasp. It was then that Shanks began to notice what he was doing to her. The drops of water came from Elie. She was crying and here he was choking her while her face starting to turn a pale blue color. He released his grasp and she fell to the ground, onto her knees, coughing and trying to get her air back. Without looking at him, Elie pointed down the hallway and kept on coughing on her knees.

Shanks ran down the hallway. There were three doors that were open: one was a bathroom and the other two were bedrooms. One bedroom was full of beer cans and a king-sized bed. The other was only filled with a dresser, a cot with a pillow and blanket on it, and a purple school bag on the floor…Elie's bag. She kept the bag in her room.

Without thinking, Shanks opened the bag and tipped it upside down. All the items inside fell to the ground. A notebook, pens, pencils, a book with the title Rurouni Kenshin, and a wallet. The fruit was not in there. In fact, this didn't even seem like what Elie had. He expected Elie to have a gun and a weapon in there along with medicines. Shanks opened up the wallet and found money and a card that belonged to Victoria. It was either Elie accidentally grabbed Victoria's bag when she fell or she purposely took Victoria's bag. He chose to ignore the latter as he knew that Elie wanted the fruit and she wouldn't steal it then switch it again to lose the fruit.

Shanks dropped the wallet and headed out of the room. Elie was now on her feet, but was still coughing and catching her breath. "Elie, I…" Shanks started.

Elie pointed at the exit of the apartment. "Get out." She commanded. Shanks didn't argue with her. He already got her to surrender earlier when he began choking her. He walked out the door and headed to the ship.

"Did you get the Kaze Kaze no Mi?" Ben asked as soon as Shanks came up to the ship.

Shanks shook his head, "No, but I almost killed the thief. Elie took it and I almost killed her." He explained everything to the crew: how Elie refused to let him in, how he began to choke her without even knowing it, and how he found Victoria's bag inside Elie's empty bedroom. As he explained the situation, a deep feeling of guilt filled his body. She was a fifteen-year-old kid and he never expected to do something like what he had done…especially since she was defenseless at the time. He thought of her crying face as he told the story and even after he was done. She looked so weak and helpless, so much different than she had been before.

"So, you're saying that Victoria has the Kaze Kaze no Mi?" Wataru asked. Shanks nodded. "Well, aren't you going to go get it from her?"

Shanks shook his head, "I may not know Victoria as well as I know you guys, but I have a feeling that nothing will happen to it in her possession. She seems like the careful type that wouldn't let anything happen to something that wasn't hers. She'll probably return it to school tomorrow."

"You're sure about that?" Yasopp asked.

Shanks nodded, "Yeah. Now, if it were one of the guys or Maura then I would feel concerned. Don't worry about it." He decided that he wanted to change the subject for a while, "So, you guys think Saiyoru's going to be coming back late?"

In the three days since Saiyoru started working, he came home later than before. Apparently it happened on his first day of work when, during the lunch break, a few of the other cooks took him to a what was called a "karaoke bar". He liked going there so much that after work he went back and met up with this young waitress given the name "Angel Face" who danced and sang at work…and she was really good. He didn't know her real name, but for the past three days, he went back to that bar to see her and always came back two hours after he left his work. The crew often made fun of him for his little crush on a girl he didn't even know and couldn't talk to. In a way it was funny, but in another way it really wasn't, but it was still fun to make fun of him and guess if he was going to come back late.

"Definitely. He's probably waiting for his singing and dancing waitress. He'll probably be back around sunset." Olivier said, laughing. The rest of the crew joined him in a cheap laugh.

His prediction was correct. The sun was just starting to set when Saiyoru came home. Dinner was cooked late for an annoyed crew by an equally annoyed Saiyoru, who did not like the fact that most of the bread, beef, and vegetables were gone due to lunch cooked by someone he didn't know. The crew was finished eating by the time it was 10pm, when it was dark outside.

After he was finished eating, Shanks noticed that he was missing something of his that was very important to him. His gun was not at his side and what was worse was that for a few moments, he couldn't remember where he last put it. Finally, he could remember. It was left on top of his desk back at the school. "Fuck. I left my gun at the school." He half shouted.

"So? Get it tomorrow when you have to head off to work." Ben told him.

Shanks shook his head, "The kids are always there before I am. I know that if I don't get it now, then Kurt and Elie will take it. I'm especially sure that Elie will take it first as revenge for what I did to her earlier." He said nothing else but walked off the ship and back to Morning Glory High.

The lights to the school were off and it seemed like the school would have been locked for the night to avoid thieves. It wasn't. In fact, when he placed his hand on the front door, it opened. Somebody was in there and he didn't really care who was there. All he wanted to do was go to the top floor, find his gun, and get out.

The inside of the school, changed his world to black. He could see nothing and he could hear nothing but he knew that something or someone was in the school. His one hand was put in front of him so he could feel what was around him, so he could find a light switch, a door, or even the staircases.

No light switches were found, but the staircase was and with careful steps, he made it up the top floor. With his arm as a guide, Shanks was able to make it to a door that was partially open. The door made a creaking sound as he opened it. His hand found the light switch next to the door and with one quick movement, flipped the switch up and turned on the lights in the room.

The gun was still safely on top of the desk where Shanks last left it. A feeling of relief filled his body as he picked up the gun. A suspicious feeling quickly replaced the relief. The door was open and unlocked. Someone had to be in there, but who? A shuffling sound from the side of the room answered his question.

Shanks quickly turned towards the sound and found himself staring at the body of a person laying on the large table leaning against the wall. He could not see the face of the person because of the angle the head was pointed at and the brown hair covering the rest, but he knew the person was a kid. He also knew that the person was a girl, but that was only because he managed to take a look at the chest and saw that the development of the chest was coming in nicely for some one the size of the kid. The kid was silent and the extremely thin body was moving with each and every breath taken. She was asleep.

While wanting to see if the kid was okay, Shanks moved to the girl and softly shook her shoulder. The girl let out a soft moan and turned over. Her blue-green eyes opened and she asked in a tired yawn, "What do you want?"

"What are you doing here at school, Elie? It's dark outside." Shanks asked the girl.

"Look, just leave me alone and let me sleep. You already got close to killing me in my house, so the least you could do is leave me alone." A tired Elie asked.

"Okay, you know what? I'm sorry about what I did in your apartment, but you've been treating me like crap ever since I first set foot in this school. I want to know what's going on. You're hiding something from me and I want to know what it is." Shanks shouted.

Elie moaned and sat up. Shanks wasn't going to leave her alone and she could see that. She had to tell him something. "I knew that someday I was going to end up being choked until I was close to dying. I just didn't think that you were going to be the one to do it. I thought it would have been him." She said softly.

"Who?" Shanks asked. Although he didn't show it, he was happy that Elie was finally telling him something about herself.

"Nobody. Don't worry about it." Elie said quickly.

"This him, as you said. He's the one that hits you and gives you bruises, right? The one that turned you into an emotionless bully." Shanks asked. Elie didn't say anything. Time for Shanks to make an accusation at who this him was. "And it's Kurt that's doing it."

Elie no longer looked emotionless like she had before. Now she looked mad. Her fists clenched and her eyebrows twitched. "Don't you ever say that about Kurt again. My cousin would never do something like that to me. If you ever say that again, I will make sure that you will go through more Hell than I ever put you through!" Elie shouted.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, Elie." Shanks apologized to the angry girl. "Now, since you won't tell me who has been doing this to you, I want you to tell me what you planned on doing with my fruit. Don't lie to me, Elie. If you lie to me, I'll bring you right back to my ship and make you face the torture again."

Elie snorted, "Fine. I was going to sell it."

"And that involved Kurt because…?"

"God, you want to know everything don't you. Well, fine. Kurt is turning eighteen in a month and after he turns eighteen, he's going to take me and leave this island so I could be away from Nick. We just needed a little bit of money to help us out." Elie burst.

"Okay, now I think I get what's going on now." Shanks told her. It wasn't a lie. Because of the last thing that Elie told him, it was clear that she was being beaten, abused at her home and by her own father. He was surprised he didn't see it earlier when he went to her house for the first time after seeing all the beer cans, meeting the man that had to look at a birth certificate just to know his own daughter's name, and hearing the dull thump from Elie's room after Nick went in to get Shanks' gun. He couldn't believe that he never even thought about it when he saw Elie and Kurt come back to school with bruises all over their bodies but the realization came to him. Elie was definitely being abused and it was a large possibility that Kurt was, too.

"I'm going back to bed." Elie yawned. She lay back down upon the table and curled up into a little ball. She shivered a little because of the temperature in her room.

Shanks felt sorry for the girl. The first time he met her, she slammed him into a door just because he placed a hand on her shoulder. Then another time she almost got him with a dagger and then she caused him pain by punching him in the stomach and pouring iodine in his wounds. He hated her in the beginning, thinking that she was just a bad kid right from the beginning, a little rebel but now he knew better. She was afraid…afraid of her own father and to show her fear, she was hiding out in the school just to sleep while the heat was shut off. He felt like he had to do something for her at this little moment, seeing her in such a state, and he had an idea.

The captain walked to the closet and opened up the door. Inside was the white lab coat he had taken after his clothes got stolen. He grabbed it in his hands and called, "How many times do you come here?" Elie gave him an answer from the table but due to the distance between the closet and the table, Shanks was unable to decipher what she was saying to him. As he walked closer to the girl he asked, "Say that again."

"Whenever I have to." Elie mumbled.

Shanks nodded and covered her curled up body with the white lab coat in order to give some warmth to the freezing girl. "Next time you sleep here, grab the lab coat in the closet. At least it will help you from being cold." Shanks told her. Whether Elie said something back to him or not, Shanks could not tell, but he had a feeling she was grateful for the new warmth bestowed upon her. He walked back to the door with his gun in his hands.

Before switching off the light switch, Shanks turned back to Elie. She was no longer shivering and she had a pleasant look on her face, one that showed that she would most likely be having good dreams that night. "Oh, and thanks for not taking my gun." He told her before shutting off the light switch. He did not wait for her to give a response back. All he did was shut the door and, with the help of his one hand, guided himself out the entrance of the school and back to the Marina.

"You got your gun back?" Yasopp asked his captain as soon as he stepped foot back on the ship.

Shanks nodded, "Yeah. And I also found Elie sleeping on one of the tables in the room. I also found out something else about her."

"You found out that she gets beaten a lot?" Kaito asked.

Shanks looked at him in surprise, "She told you that?" It was surprising. Elie never even gotten close to telling Shanks about what really happened until just that night even though they'd known each other for three days already. She hadn't even known Kaito for a whole day and it seemed like he already knew about what was going on with her.

Kaito shook his head, "No, she didn't tell me. I'm a doctor and I've seen beatings before. Some of those bruises are at least a few months old."

"Didn't you ask her about them?" Shanks asked Kaito, "I mean, you knew that she was getting hit because of her bruises, so didn't you ask her?"

"Sure I asked her. All she told me was that it was none of my business what happened to her and refused to tell me anything." Kaito admitted, "She's a pretty good chemist, though. She seemed to have fun making medicines. The weirdest thing is that she took a few of them back with her: some sleeping medicines, some minor wound healing medicines, and some vigor medicine."

"And you let her take those from our ship?" Wataru asked.

Kaito shrugged, "She made them out of left-over herbs so I just figured, 'what the hell. She already replaced the other medicines she wasted.'"

It was official. Kaito knew about the beatings before Shanks had and had not Shanks forced Elie to tell him the truth, he would not have known at all. She wouldn't tell anybody if she wasn't forced or even if she had not been hit or nearly killed by somebody else who was angry with her.

"I'm going to bed. I got work tomorrow and I guess I have to go and teach my kids something." Shanks told his crew. After getting an "Aye captain", he headed off to his quarters and fell asleep in the messy bed that belonged to him. As he slipped away into dreamland, he thought about what he was going to be doing tomorrow with his class in hopes that the next day would be better.

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The morning sun that reflected from the sun onto the red-haired captain's face was the wake up call that was given the next day. It was an unwanted wake up call…mostly because the sunlight came in and blinded him momentarily. Even loud church bells, stomps from the next room, or the loud sirens of "police cars" would have been a better wake up call. The worst thing he would end up with would be a tiny headache that one of Kaito's medicines could easily cure.

Saiyoru cooked breakfast like the crew as he normally had, this time with eggs, sausage, coffee, and orange juice but Shanks wasn't talking much. He had a train of thoughts going in his head and he didn't want to lose it by talking to the rest of the crew. He didn't even eat very much of the breakfast, much to Saiyoru's anger. All he ate was a few bites of the scrambled eggs on his plate and he only drank about two sips of black coffee before heading towards the door to go back to work.

"Captain! Don't forget to bring back the Kaze Kaze no Mi!" Lucky called from inside the kitchen, back in his seat while wolfing down the sausage on his plate.

"It's no problem. I'll bring it back." Shanks promised before leaving. Before he left, he made sure that he was being careful with what he brought. He did not bring any more of Kaito's medicines to avoid Elie wasting them again for pain. He also did not bring anything else but his gun to avoid the others stealing everything but his clothes from him. His gun was still with him, but it was only to be used to scare off the other students, namely Kurt and Elie and probably Kyler and Maura and he was going to make sure this time that it would not get stolen or left behind.

Morning Glory High was louder than ever today and Shanks did not know why. He didn't see any of his students, not even Lynn, standing with the others. He also didn't hear the announcer with Johnny pretending to be Manson going off. It was weird to him. He wasn't told of any special things planned for today, so why was everyone being so loud and acting extremely happy? He wouldn't find out until later.

Before heading off to his class, he remembered that he had to be teaching them something, reading preferably and so far the class did not like the book they were reading so far. Perhaps there was an easier, more interesting book for them to read. His next stop: the library.

The head librarian was gone at the moment and in her place, behind a desk was a young girl of about sixteen or seventeen with long, braided black hair, tanned skin, and black eyes. "Can I help you?" the girl behind the counter asked.

Shanks looked at the little nametag located just above the girl's left breast, "Hey Wendy, can you tell me the easiest books you have in this library that aren't for the special ed kids?"

The girl, Wendy, walked to a nearby cart covered with books and took four off. "Pick whichever one you want." she told him.

Shanks picked up the first book, one that had about a hundred or so pages in it with the head of a boy in the desert. At the top was the title Holes. He turned the back over and took a look at the description that was given. Okay, so this is a book about some kid that has to dig holes. He put that book down and looked at the next book over.

On the second cover was a picture of a girl standing by a tree with a cat sitting in it with a creepy smile on its face. At the top were the words Alice in Wonderland. Like he had done with the previous book, he read the description on the back. Okay, so some girl goes to this one place and has to get back. He put the second book down and headed to the third.

The third book was the thickest of them all, but it was the most interesting. On the cover was an old woman standing next to a weird moving thing and a scarecrow. The words at the top read Howl's Moving Castle. He turned the book over and looked at the description. Okay, so some hot girl gets turned into this old lady and has to travel in this moving castle-thing to get free from her curse. Shanks put that book down and went to the fourth and final book.

On the cover of the last book was a picture of a blonde boy and two dogs. At the top were the words Where the Red Fern Grows. Shanks turned the book and read the description. A book about a boy and two dogs. Shanks put that book back.

So far only Howl's Moving Castle and Where the Red Fern Grows looked the most interesting out of the four. He decided to take both books and let the rest of the class choose which one they wanted to read. He held up both books and said, "I want these two."

"And you're the teacher for the class at the top of the school?" Wendy asked. Shanks nodded. "Okay, then." She typed something on this machine in front of her called a "computer" and said, "You got both of them for as long as you need them." Shanks thanked her and walked up the flights of stairs to his classroom.

All eight of his students were in the class plus the boy in black with the big book Shanks saw on the first he began to work. The boy was standing by the chalkboard, writing something on it while not paying attention to the rest of the class. Lynn was in her seat, speaking onto her little communicator. Larry was also in his own seat, but this time he was filling out a piece of paper that had questions on it. Johnny was sitting at his desk with a little mini-computer called a "lap top". The rest of the students were crowded around him.

"I Googled in 'Devil Fruit', but all I'm getting are descriptions on some horror movies and some voodoo site." Johnny said as he typed in something on the little keys.

"Well, keep looking!" Victoria commanded.

"Yeah. I want to know how much that thing is really worth." Kurt said.

"And I want to know what it does." Maura added.

Shanks stood in front of the classroom and cleared his throat. "Okay, I want to talk to you guys about something, but first…" he turned to the boy behind him, "You! I have no clue who you are but you aren't my student so get out."

The boy walked away with his big book and said, "One day God will thank me for this." The boy left behind a message on the blackboard: Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.

Shanks looked at the message and then back at his class, "Anybody know what that means?" Nobody answered him. All he got was a bunch of shrugs. Nobody knew what it meant. "Okay, now I want all of you to listen to me…especially the six of you that went with me to the ship."

Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to the red-haired man standing in front of the classroom. Now it was time for Shanks to continue. "Yesterday, you were shown a Devil Fruit yesterday and now it's time you knew what the Devil Fruits were. Devil Fruits give powers depending on the type they are. You could change into an animal, make fire, use wind to fight, or anything else if you eat the fruit. That might seem like a good thing, but there is a downside. Whoever eats the fruit loses the ability to swim forever. Elie stole the Kaze Kaze no Mi, the Wind Wind Fruit, which is used to manipulate wind to fight. Her bag got switched with Victoria's yesterday when I'm guessing she tripped." Shanks turned to Victoria and asked, "Victoria, where is the Devil Fruit?"

Victoria blushed, "I…don't exactly have it anymore."

"Does somebody in this class have it?" Shanks asked.

"Yes…in a way."

"Oh no…oh god, no…please tell me that somebody didn't eat it. I want the truth here, whoever ate the Devil Fruit, if you did, raise your hand." Shanks was getting nervous. He should have told the group the downside to eating a Devil Fruit if they ate it and now it was too late. At first, nobody raised their hand and Shanks was relieved. His relief, however, was taken away only thirty seconds later when one of the six that went with him yesterday raised their hand.

"YOU ATE THE KAZE KAZE NO MI?"

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A/N: Yes, you guys were right, somebody did eat the Kaze Kaze no Mi, but who was it?

Thank you everyone for all your reviews and if you guys have any suggestions on what I should do later on in my story, send it to me in either an e-mail or a review and I just might use it. I know that some of you might be a little annoyed that I made Shanks seem a little dense about not knowing what happened to Elie, but that kinda happens a lot in real life: somebody, most a bad girl/fighter, comes to school every day with bruises and people don't think anything about them because she fights all the time. Also, I think it's the windpipe that's the part of the throat that gives out air, but I might be incorrect. If I am, let me know and I'll fix it.