A/n: I am soooooooo extremely sorry for the super late update! College is a major bitch and I haven't had time to even breathe Luckily though, CHRISTMAS IS HERE! Which means, more time for me and more chapters for you! Yay! :D
So in this chapter, I haven't really brought out much of the story, just continued it a bit since there's been a long gap.
Actually no, I've just revealed a huge piece of information ahahaha~
More importance given to the beautiful relationship the crew has and an adorable ZoSan moment~
Plus a little recap to bring you guyses on track!
Thank you for bearing with my selfish semi-hiatus ness ==
Review, Favorite and Follow!
Love~
Recap:
"Eh? What-" Nami was cut off by the sudden gasp and aghast expression on Robin's face. The redhead watched as the older woman brought a trembling hand to her mouth and held it there, like she was a second away from breaking down.
"R-Robin?"
"Oi Robin. Come here for a sec."
Nami and Robin looked at Franky for a second, before Robin nodded and followed the cyborg below deck. The carrot haired navigator frowned after them and turned to look at the symbol again. Considering her shrewd and cunning mind, it wasn't hard for her to reach several possible conclusions.
One, considering how the men had reacted, the island definitely was associated with the underworld.
Two, slavery and prostitution might be two of the innumerable activities taking place there.
Three, Robin who had such a horrific past, surely knew about the organization enough to believe it was a major threat.
Four, Franky who was associated with the underworld himself, clearly knew about them too, meaning they were some big ass organization even in the underworld.
Five, slaves and prostitutes were definitely not the only things/people sold in the black market.
Six, if this organization was as big as Franky and Robin were making it out to be, there might be direct links to extremely dangerous people like Joker or Kaido.
Seven, if they were to get caught in the folds and layers of the underworld, the World Government and the marines were going to be the least of their problems.
Eight, Robin's mention of 'If you don't include Luffy, and maybe even Usopp, the rest of are still in danger.' Suggested that Cyborg, a skeleton musician, a reindeer who ate a devil's fruit and is as good as a human and two extremely gorgeous women would do fairly well in the slave trade.
Nine, not to mention they were all but defenseless and two of their crew might already be in the grasps of the evils of the underworld.
Ten, the fact that they were the infamous Strawhats didn't improve their chances one bit. In fact it made matter all the worse.
'Shit... Why the hell is it always us who get into complicated and excessively dangerous nonsense all the time?!'
Chapter 11
"Luffy please! You have to stop being stubborn or this plan will never work!" Nami begged a red-faced Luffy as the crew prepared to follow the convoy towards and through the force field.
"Nami..if something happens here, it's not just about Zoro and Sanji anymore.." Luffy's voice had taken on an overly familiar low tone of voice, one that the crew remembered to precede several near-death battles. Nami wanted to scream in frustration at her captain's sudden lack of initiative. He'd all but driven her crazy in the past few weeks in order to find Zoro and Sanji and now that they were finally here, he was stubbornly refusing to do anything!
"Luffy!"
"Nami, I think you should listen to Luffy and think about this a little bit. Things are no longer as simple as we presumed they would be."
"Things were never simple since the day Luffy decided to become the Pirate King! That didn't stop us did it?!"
"Robin..tell her.."
"Tell me what? Robin? Tell me what!"
Nami could hear how deranged and frantic she sounded, but her nerves were a moment away from fraying and the fact that Robin had divulged valuable information to Luffy before confiding in her – which never happened – was driving her insane.
Robin put a hand on her trembling shoulder and slowly led her outside. Nami watched the raven-haired woman position herself in front of the rail and eye the ships looming above them wearily. "Nami," The sudden icy tone to her voice caused Nami to shiver and wrap her arms around herself almost protectively. "you see that symbol?"
Nami raised her eyes to the black dot with splattered blood on it.
"I had a vague fear that it might be the symbol of an organization I knew of and had infiltrated a long time ago, but Franky confirmed my suspicions."
Nami waited impatiently as Robin paused and rubbed her arms, as though she was trying to dispel a sudden wave of cold. The archeologist turned around slowly and looked Nami square in the eye, almost as though she wanted to tell the carrot-haired woman that she was speaking the truth as a complete whole, with nothing left out or modified.
"That symbol is that of an organization which is at the deepest and darkest parts of the world. They are the ones who created the 'Hoof of The Flying Dragons'."
"The Tenryuubito's mark..?"
"Yes..the one that is branded on slaves and any and all possessions that belong to the Tenryuubito."
"But why?! Why would the Tenryuubito have something to do with an organization that is so dark and dangerous?!"
Robin's face became overshadowed, as she walked slowly towards Nami. "That..we do not know. We cannot tell..that organization itself was supposed to be nothing but a myth. When I unearthed and infiltrated it so many years ago, it had come up from the depths only for so long. It disappeared soon after and I lost all traces concerning it. It was almost as though the very existence of that organization was nothing but a long lost nightmare, a hallucination, a made-up story to scare children from talking to strangers.. I never thought..that after all this time, it would re-surface.. it's almost unfathomable."
"Who are these people Robin?!"
Again, a shadow passed across her face and she looked like she'd aged several years, like the very act of trying to recall any information regarding the organization was fatal to her.
"I.. I do not know.. I can't seem to recall..it's like a heavy fog muddling my memories.. Franky seemed to have the same problem.. Nami please, you must think about this! If we somehow get involved with this organization, life itself will be a fleeting fantasy to us!"
Nami frowned at her companion and tried to pull away from Robin's iron grasp. "Robin I-" She took a deep breath and faced Robin. "I understand what you're trying to say. If Luffy is so concerned about it, it's not something that we can simply oversee. But Robin, Zoro and Sanji are already involved with these people, or atleast they might be if we don't find them as soon as possible. If either of the two of them fall prey to this organization, I don't think any of us are safe. Think about it Robin! Our lives have always been on the line! No matter what we did, we were putting ourselves in jeopardy. But this time it's different. This time, we're taking a huge risk only to escape from an even huger one. If we somehow succeed in escaping from this island with Zoro and Sanji, we might still live. I'm not saying we're any safer than we already are, in fact we might be in even more danger, but they're our Nakama! We can't just leave them! Robin, it's my fault they even ended up in this shit in the first place! If I weren't for my disgustingly pathetic skills, we would be far away from here! Robin, please!"
Nami was all but sobbing and begging by the end of her little speech, their roles now reversed, with Nami clinging on to Robin for dear life. The raven-haired woman felt a wave of guilt and compassion overcome her at the sight of the younger woman in front of her. She'd been burdened with the decision of choosing the majority of her crew's safety over the two who had fallen over board. And she had done a brilliant job with handling the pressure and weight of her decision.
Robin knew that Luffy was thinking the exact same thing as Nami, except in a more extreme way. She was sure Luffy meant to go off alone without any of them and rescue Zoro and Sanji without any of them. That was just how much Luffy put their lives over his.
He had understood right away how dangerous a risk this would be, especially to them, considering all the odds they were up against, so she wasn't surprised he had reacted so strongly to Nami's insistence. But, like many of them did most of the time, Luffy forgot that they were a team and that thick strings that would never brea,k connected all their lives to his. Wherever he went, they would follow, even to the depths of hell itself. And it didn't matter one single bit if he ordered them otherwise.
"He is our captain after all, right?" Robin smiled down at Nami, as she wiped away a tear with her finger. Nami returned the smile almost begrudgingly, "He is though, and none of us had a choice in the matter to begin with."
The two women shared a quiet laugh before they rejoined their Nakama inside.
Usopp and Luffy were arguing back and forth and Franky kept pitching in random bits of information and arguments every now and then. Nami almost thought Usopp was siding Robin and Luffy had changed his mind, but soon she saw that it was the opposite.
"We are not letting you waltz away and stick your head into the lion's mouth alone, goddamnit!"
"And I'm not letting you fools die for nothing so there's nothing to argue about!"
"Luffy, how do you expect a pirate crew to go on without their Captain and two of their strongest members!? Hell we might as well knock on Impel Down's huge gates and tell them to lock us up!"
"Who said I'm going to die?! I'm going to be the Pirate King you hear! No one's dying on my watch!"
"Luffy stop being so stubborn and-oomf!" Usopp glowered past the hands that has grown out of his nose and were effectively covering his mouth shut. Luffy seemed to agree with him on that, as he too glared daggers at Robin.
Nami walked past Usopp and came to stand in front of her Captain. "Luffy, we know exactly what you're saying and we understand exactly why you're saying it. But, why don't you put yourself in our shoes for just one moment and think if you'd still go along with your suicidal plan, if it was any of us instead of you?"
The fire in Luffy's eyes seemed to burn out in an instance, as Nami's words hit home. He let his arms fall slack beside him, as he frowned down at the floor. The hands covering his mouth disappeared and he took a deep breath. "..No.. I… No.."
Nami nodded and squeezed his shoulder as she smiled down at him. "Yeah, we know."
And all the unspoken fears and doubts, all the unshared emotions and feelings, all the bottled up frustrations and agitations reverberated in the space around the crew, settling gently at their feet like freshly fallen snow.
"Psst!"
Zoro's eyebrow twitched at the familiar voice that hissed at him from behind a pillar. Zoro half turned to spot a hand waving frantically at him. Rolling his eyes, he threw the towel he was holding around his neck and slowly made his way to where curlybrow was making exaggerated gestures. The second he was within arm's reach, Sanji had him up against the square pillar, their bodies pressed against each other from the lack of space. Zoro angled his face away from Sanji's and towards where he had been a second ago, to avoid letting the cook occupy all of his personal space.
"So? Whadya want shitty cook?"
"You will not believe what I found out."
"Hah? Did you finally accept your feminine instinct-ugh! You bastard!"
"Shut the fuck up for one fucking moment without commenting on my feminine instincts and I'll get the fuck out of your face."
"Kind, aren't we?"
Sanji ground his fore-arm into Zoro's throat like he had done a moment ago and the swordsman snarled back at him. "All right fine! Get it over with already!"
And Sanji explained to Zoro everything he'd found out from Amelia, including his suspicions and doubts. By the end of it, Zoro's eyebrows were drawn in a ferocious frown and the tips of his mouth were so down-turned, it looked like a perfect arch. "Shit..this place is getting more messed up by the fucking second! What's wrong with this shithole anyway?!"
Sanji half shrugged against Zoro and turned to face the same direction the other was, "Well, we're about to find out."
"You think Luffy and the others are looking for us?"
"Obviously dipshit! They aren't shitheads like you!"
And the two men turned towards each other, making to spit at the other's face, but considering the tightly packed space and the position they were in, it turned into an accidental lip lock.
And then both men reacted the same way, yelping and shoving their heads back, effectively cracking their skulls against the wall/pillar behind them. A string of their favorite swear words and colourful cusses promptly followed and the two turned towards each other to insult and yell, only to end up in another lip lock.
This time though, both men smartly chose to stay still and instead, glare into each other's eyes. Finally, almost tentatively, Sanji stuck out the tip of his tongue and experimentally licked Zoro's lower lip.
The swordsman's eyebrow twitched and a moment of conflicting emotions passed through his eyes, but it disappeared just as soon as it appeared and Zoro had one hand snaking through Sanji's hair and the other winding itself around his slim waist. The blonde followed suit, both his hands reaching up to carress Zoro's face, thumbs rubbing circles against Zoro's strong jaw.
Both men melted into the kiss that was so similar yet so different than all those previous times. There was no fierce battling of tongues for dominance, instead a mild quarrell just for the fun of it, there was no biting and cursing and glaring, but just a calm acceptance and relief in the shared gaze, there was no pushing and vying for force and control, instead a gentle grasp and almost timid touches and caresses. It was like the world they had known but a few moments ago no longer existed in their little bubble of passion.
This time was definitely different, both men could feel it like something tangible yet out of reach. Both men were reaching for it, yet were hesitant and deliberate. But there was still hope, a faint glimmer of something that neither could claim to know or understand. The only thing that stood in their way was the fear of the unknown and the fear of the change that could take place in them and everything familiar to them.
Yet, as they kissed, such trivial thoughts meant nothing to them. Their minds and bodies wholly relishing the other's presence, grateful for it. They knew nothing that came to pass in the near future was predictable and it was very likely they would go through many more death-defying circumstances. They were in the shadows for the most part, but things were unraveling swiftly and one answered question led to many more unanswered ones.
Even though they knew all this, in that moment, nothing mattered but the person they were holding in each other's arms.
The scene rippled and shimmered, as the man cast his fingers over the glass bowl of clear liquid. It wasn't the fact that there were two men snogging without a care in the world on his turf that bothered him, but rather the fact that he might know who they were that irked him.
"Hmm.. how interesting.."
"My Lord?"
"Tell me, these two, who are they?"
"The blonde is Zeher-sama's new favorite My Lord, he goes by the name Prince."
"That i already know. And the other?"
"He is one of the new recruits that was brought in due to lack of labourers My Lord. If I'm not wrong, his name is Roroan."
"Hmm.. don't they look familiar to you Diara?"
"I-I wouldn't know My Lord."
"Quite useless aren't you?"
"Forgive me My Lord.."
"So was the blonde co-operative?"
"Not very, My Lord. He refused to speak, even after going through quite a high level of punishments."
"So your pathetic skills couldn't break him? Quite strong is he not?"
"Y-Yes My Lord."
"And what about the other one?"
"We haven't gotten to him yet, My Lord. I thought it best to start with Prince, but he wouldn't answer anything.."
"And his memories?"
"Have been erased My Lord.. Sh-Shall we go after the other one?"
"And will you be more successful with him?"
"I.. I will try My Lord."
"Enough! Go do something useful before I decide you aren't worth allowing to breathe the same I air I do!"
"E-Excuse me My Lord!"
The man watched as the young girl scampered away like a hurt dog with its tail between its legs. He then turned to the figures glittering on the surface of the liquid.
"Hmm.. let's watch things play out shall we?" He raised a meaty arm and pressed a single black button in a hidden panel on his arm rest. Immediately signals blared and people started scattering everywhere. He could hear the single shout echo through the screaming warning horn,
"The force field has been opened!"
A/n: In order to understand what the two in the last bit of the chapter are talking about, please re-read the first bit of the previous chapter. The identities of the two and their role in the story won't be revealed till much much later so~
Sorry for the short chapter, But I'll have more for y'all soon!
Review, favorite and follow!
Lots and lots of love~