"You could always kill her" Tia said, "If she dies a new fruit with her ability will show up somewhere"
"Who knows how long it'll take us to find it though" Kou said as he shifted his eyes from Tia over to the sleeping girl, "Plus, as it is now she can be useful"
Tia sighed
"It might be better this way though" Kou said after a few minutes of silence, "Who would ever expect a kid"
"You want to use the kid?" Tia asked
Kou shrugged, "She's a naive kid, she'll be easy to manipulate"
"Just what are you planning?"
"She'll be able to sneak around other pirate ships and military bases without drawing too much attention" Kou explained, "I suppose she'll wind up being like the ships pet"
"Pets need training, we can't train a kid"
"Disciplining a kid is the same as training a dog" Kou said, "They just need to know you're the boss"
...
...
Avara sat out in the crow's nest reading the news paper article over intently, trying her best to figure out what he was planning. Unlike when they first left for the new world, Doflamingo rarely ever showed up in news papers anymore, even when there were articles about shichibukai members he was never really mentioned.
"Why do you need to rule over an island?" She muttered as she looked down at the picture of Doflamingo. She shook her head and headed down from the crow's nest.
"Oi, Avara!" Tia shouted, "Anything interesting happening in the world?"
Avara dusted herself off and shrugged, "Nothing that should concern us if we keep heading east"
"What about if we go south?" Tia questioned
"South? Why would we change course, we're almost to our final destination"
"Captain's orders" A man shouted, "We're changing our whole course on a whim"
Avara bit her lip, "Is that a good idea?"
"Is what a good idea?" Kou asked
"She's questioning us changing our course" Tia explained
"It doesn't seem to just be me" Avara muttered as she looked around at the rest of the crew members, most of whom had annoyed looks on their faces, "Kou, these guys are all a part of your crew because they want to get back home, that's why they risked becoming pirates in the first place, and I'm just here to help you get there, you can't-"
Avara went silent when she felt the impact on the side of her head. She stared down at the ship's deck in silence and shock.
"O-oi..Captain..that was a little much..don't you think?"
"Blood, hey..she's bleeding"
"Avara, are you alright?"
Avara stayed silent and focused on the red liquid that was dripping from her head into the ship's deck.
How had he managed to hit her? More importantly how had he drawn blood from her? She was always on the defensive, not a single person on this crew should have been able to touch her. She finally tore her eyes away from the deck and looked up at Kou, who hadn't moved an inch. Her eyes didn't stay on his face for long, instead they traveled down to his hand to explain how he could have actually hurt her.
'Seastone rings...'
"The next island we'll be landing on is called Dressers" Kou said, disregarding the thick tension in the air, "This ships objectives have changed from getting home, to becoming real pirates. If you've got a problem with that, we'll throw you overboard"
"Dressrosa?" Avara muttered
"Tia, stitch up Avara's head" Kou said, "Make sure she doesn't lose consciousness"
Avara sat silently while Tia finished stitching up the cut on her head and wrapping it in bandages.
"I thought he got rid of those" Avara said once Tia finished up
"He wasn't sure how much he'd be able to trust you when you got back" Tia said, "It was just a precaution"
Avara nodded but didn't bother saying anything else, not like there was much else she could say.
"Have you ever heard of that island? Dressrosa?"
"Today was my first day hearing about it" Avara answered truthfully
"So then you have no information on it?"
Avara reached her hand up and touched her head gently, wincing when she finally found the spot.
"Nothing"
...
...
"I think you went too far" A crew member said as he threw Avara a look of pity.
The girl was lying in the middle of the ship's deck losing consciousness in a pool of her own blood. Their captain had gone overboard with the girl again and the whole crew knew it. He'd nearly beaten her to death again, all because she wanted to survive.
Kou shrugged, "She's been with us for a year and a half now, she should know better than to bring military officers back to the ship"
"She was shot with seastone bullets" Another member said
"They would have killed her if they caught her" Another one chimed in, "She does have a bounty"
"She didn't have any choice but to lead them back here"
"Unlike the military officers I didn't kill her" Kou said
"No, you just beat her with spiked seastone rings" Another muttered
Kou sighed and finished off his drink, "I'll go make sure the brat's alright then"
The men frowned as their captain got up and slugged over to the kid. They knew he was only doing this because he didn't want to risk disobedience, not like any of them would be stupid enough to risk going against him. They were all weaker than him, and they knew it.
...
...
Puripuripuripuriprui
Puripuripuripuripuiri
Puripu-
Clank
Avara stared down at the den den mushi and watch as its mouth curled up slolwy into a grin. She sighed and opened her mouth, but the snail interrupted her before she had a chance to speak.
"It's been a while..Avara" The snail said, "Are you finally coming back to me?"
...
...
Everybody~ Thank you so much for favoriting this story and leaving reviews and fallowing! Sorry that this chapter was kind of slow to come out, I just wanted to make sure it was good(I hope it was, if it wasn't i'm so sorry)
Anyways, the next chapter will be longer, and probably more intense.
AND Doffy and Avara are finally going to meet up again! Probably! They're for sure going to interact.
Anyways, I'm going to try to finish the next chapter early so I can upload it early.