The sturdy-handed shipwright reached for the tarp and; with a dramatic flair, removed it from the large tombstone. The work of stone-art astounded her, and Jiru gasped. Next to her, she saw Brooke fall dramatically on his boney knees and exhaled loudly in awe. The larger of tombs was – presumably – worked in the likeness of the pirate ship the Mugiwaras had found Brooke on – the ship that the Rumba Pirates sailed on. Jiru, even though she had been soundly asleep during Brooke's monologue history of himself, basically knew the jest of it by reading his Aura. He had lost all but one of his nakama; half-century before; and his sole remaining nakama was the whale they had literally ran into upon entering the Grand Line: Laboon.
Instinctively, the treasure hunter also knew that Luffy had extracted the elder pirate's story and feelings. The Mugiwaras did everything for their crew and now it was Brooke's turn; as the combined intelligence of possibly two or more pirates planned to honor Brooke's fallen crew with a gravestone.
Beside the grand large tombstone sat a much smaller marker; made to honor the youngest pirate to join and die within the Mugiwaras; her genderless child. Being the size of a five-foot flag, the grey stone had the Straw-hat 'Jolly Roger' insignia carved into it.
"You made this, Franky?" she asked; her once happy mood turning sad once again.
"Yea, isn't it SUPAAAAAR!" the cyborg shipwright announced. Usoppu and Chopper looked pleased with themselves as well.
"It's…great." She lied, feeling her eyes become watery once more.
"Oh!" Brooke wailed in awe once again and jumped to his feet. "It's marvelous!"
Luffy, sensing her mood-change through his skin, lowered her gently onto the ground as he turned to her.
"Are you ok, Jiru-chan?" he asked. The doctor, sniper and shipwright all looked at her; causing her to get even more teary-eyed.
"It's…I've never done this before. I never thought I'd lose someone that was growing inside me, Luffy." Her emotional aura swelled into a confused sadness; releasing hormones to instruct her tear ducts to activate. Falling, and catching herself on an air-pad, Jiru began to cry; slowly telling the world – Luffy – what she felt.
"I never lost a baby before, and I'm so confused." She managed the force the words from her watery throat. "When Kaku raped me, I was so scared because it felt so damn good. But it wasn't…it couldn't feel good, because it was rape, right?"
"When Sanji and Franky and Soge-king…" In Jiru's mind, the masked Usoppu would always be Sogeking, the King of the Snipers. Luffy had believed Sogeking to be another person and, in treasure hunter's mind, it would be that way to, even though she knew better. "…rescued me, I felt so terrified that they would hate me because I did it with Kaku. Kaku was really hot, my body wanted it."
Vaguely aware that the gravesite became host to more presences – Nami, Sanji and Robin – Jiru didn't stop crying out her long-time bottled up emotions. She continued on with tears in her eyes.
"But I couldn't stop him, Luffy; Kaku looked like he was going to kill me if I said no. It was all I could do to not go crazy."
"Sanji knew what happened when he saw me; Sogeking did too. But you all were trying to save Robin that I didn't want to get in the way. I'm so sorry Robin; I could have saved you if I was more focused." Jiru finally acknowledged the gathered pirates and used her black, billowing sleeves to rub her dripping nose. "I didn't know what to do, so I just kept quiet and tried to help save you. I was so caught up in the adventure that I completely forget what Kaku did to me. It wasn't until I got lost in Enies Tower that I faced Kaku again, only Zoro-kun was there backing me up. Kaku asked me if I wanted to do it again; and taunted Zoro that he raped me."
"Jiru…" Nami's voice, heavy and somber, interrupted her.
"NO! I couldn't do a damned thing, Nami-chan! I was so pissing torn, I couldn't fight. I only got in Zoro-chan's way and messed up. I was thinking how it might feel to do it again with Kaku; it felt so good the first time. It turned me on just looking at him; he was so smug and strong."
It was here that Jiru finally lifted her aching, tear-stained eyes to look at her friends. "I wonder if it was my Reiki-Reiki power that gave life to my bad thoughts. If somehow, by thinking about those dark, sick fantasies; Kaku caught them and did it to me."
"That's ridiculous, Jiru." Usoppu broke the silence and divided the distance between them. "You know that's impossible; making somebody's thoughts influence reality. That bastard chose his own path, and received his consequences, you were the victim." The Sniper gained points in standing; trying to comfort the girl he managed to connect to from the start. "We all know you helped in the fight against the CP9, using your foresight to assist us in certain events. Even if Kaku was hot and turned you on; you didn't do anything, he did it to you. Thoughts, good or bad, are just thoughts until you act upon them; you know that."
"Usoppu-kun…" Jiru sniffled.
"Sniper-kun is absolutely right." Robin had finally managed to hear the complete story from the last remaining Mugiwara that had rushed to her rescue months ago when they had their battle against Enies Lobby and CP9. A twinge of guilt flashed through her, only to be squashed by rational thinking: it was not her fault at all. There were too many events in the scenario to blame herself for – even though they weren't her fault at all. "Thinking things alone won't make them happen, Collector-san."
The raven-haired archeologist stepped up next to Usoppu and then extended her real hand to lie on the treasure hunter's shoulder. "I know my own thoughts about wanting to die then never, thankfully, came true."
"Oh, Robin-san, I'm so glad you didn't die." Jiru's eyes became watery again as she instinctively wanted to comfort her friend. Her hands curled into fists on the edge of the compressed air-pad. "I know I wasn't born on this world, but living with you guys was an adventure until Kaku did that to me. It was like the thrill of the adventure stopped, I felt like curling up and dying."
"WWWHAAAAAA! Jiru-chan!" Chopper ran up, jumped on the air-pad and into her arms. "Don't die, Jiru!" The reindeer cried freely as he wrapped his small arms around hers.
"Chopper…I'm not going to die…it was a figure of speech." Jiru sat back on her air pad, which was molded by her willpower, to allow her left foot to hang freely in the air beneath it.
"That story is so sad!" The loud, crying voice of Franky broke into the group circle. The others looked over and saw, lo and behold, a crying Franky – who always wept openly at such heart-rending dialogues.
"Franky, stop crying like a wuss." Jiru giggled out between sniffles.
"IDIOT! I'm not crying; you triple-short idiot." The blue-haired cyborg turned his wet face away from them and took a few seconds to compose himself. He always poked fun at her short stature, she was the shortest one of the crew, second shortest, if a small Chopper was counted. "You're the one that's crying like a baby."
"Bastard, don't call Jiru-chwan an idiot!" Sanji leapt to her defense, and growled at the simpering cyborg.
"Sanji-kun, shut up." Nami sounded amused and exasperated at the same time.
"Anything for my Nami-swaaaan!" Sanji bounced back to his navigator's side and cooed over her.
The floating girl laughed a few times and looked at comic bunch, once again using her sleeve to dry her dripping nose on. Chopper coughed twice and looked up at the treasure hunter. "I'm sorr-"
"NO!" Luffy's stern voice cut her off. The black-haired pirate had listened intently to Jiru's sorrowful confessions without a peep. Now he stepped up to cut her self-thrown pity party off. "Don't be sorry for being you!"
"L-Luffy…" Her face looked slightly surprised. Indeed, the first six of the Mugiwaras (minus Robin, Franky and Brooke) had gotten to know her personality and quirks, and knew how to handle her socially. "You're right; I told you why I was sad and upset. I don't want to make it worse by making you worry more. I won't feel sorry for myself now."
"Oh, Jiru-san, you are too silly." Nami – having loath-hated her treasure-hunting nakama for reasons that Arlong had been ultimately responsible for – stepped up next to the shorter female and wrapped her bare, gorgeous arms around the girl's shoulders. "You and Luffy both don't worry enough about yourselves."
The orange-haired navigator laughed and looked at the rest of them. "Seriously, you were worried about how Luffy would react, and asked us to wait until later to tell him you were raped." The word sat bitterly on the gold-talking tongue. "Now it doesn't really matter, does it? I am so sorry you lost your child, but life goes on."
"She's right, you know." Usoppu stepped back from the group and gave a thumbs-up pose.
"Yea!" Chopper smiled.
"Nami-swan is soooo beauty when she cares." Sanji was acting like a love-sick puppy again.
"Just leave it to Captain Usoppu the Great to fix things!" the grinning sniper nodded, half-grinning, to Luffy and Jiru. "The Great and Wonderful Usoppu has the perfect plan." –A mischievous glint appeared in his sharp-shooting eyes.– "Jiru can have sex with Zoro again, or Luffy or even the handsome Captain Usoppu, and then have another baby!"
The awkward silence that followed was as thick as the once-present Thriller Bark fog.