LunaticV has been at it again and helped me out with beta-reading a new chapter for me. You don't know how much it makes me happy, but I could jump in joy because of that you want to help me. Thanks!
Disclaimer:
One Piece is owned by Eiichiro Oda-sensei. All the copyrights associated with One Piece belong to him. Only the ideas contained within this story and some of the characters are the property of the author. No profit is being earned by me, the writer, of this story.
Please enjoy! ~^o^~
Taste of bittersweet Disaster
-A One Piece fan fiction
By Pernille T. Boldemann
Alias
Crystal Blue Fox
Time is not what we have anymore
We have been waiting for too long.
Pay time is now
He has to pay back now,
For all what he did to you.
I'll never forgive him.
Hunter!
You're a dead man now!
You should just had kept to manipulating my brain,
And never should you have touched any of my friends…
For that sake not the man that I love!
24. Chapter
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Crucified message
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"OOOOIIII-! SAAAANJIIIII-! BREAKFAAAST! OOOIII!"
"Huuh? He still hasn't found him yet?" The blond cook said thoughtfully as he wiped a pancake over and pushed a drooling Oliver away with his foot, who had come a bit too close to the food he was preparing. Nami sighed and turned a page in the newspaper, as the constant calling for their chef kept on. Luffy was not one to give up.
"No, but he has been like that the last eight days, kept hiding just to be alone. He's so quiet sometimes that he can stand right beside you without you even realising it." She turned another page "I wonder what has gotten into him. It's not an attack that we have seen before." She glanced over the article of a huge bank robbery at the National Bank on Futile Island. Apparently the security had lived up to the island's name. "Ne, Robin, why don't you say anything at all?" she said as she began reading the article next to the one she had glanced over. As she got no answers she looked over the top of the newspaper. "Robin?"
"Hm? Oh, I am sorry navigator-san," the raven apologized and looked over at the orange-haired teen. Behind the teen she could see Nicki having his hands full with keeping the blue-blond away from the food. How he looked liked their own blond cook… but then again he didn't. She had been sitting and watched him ever since she came into the kitchen, and by doing that it was clear to see that they were not the one and same person. But it was still strange how their swordsman kept on disliking this man, and, apparently, begun to hate their own blond chef too. Something was wrong in this picture. She had meant to talk with him about it, but whenever they neared the subject 'blond cooks' he shut off, spat some nonsense and walked away. What had happened the night after their little party?
Nami blinked at her in question as the archaeologist suddenly had stopped talking and just stared at the blond man, who fought to get Oliver off him, who tried to literally climb up at him to reach the pancakes. She lifted her hand slowly and waved it in front of the raven's eyes. "Hello?" Robin blinked a couple of times before she got her full attention again, and then smiled at the red-head. "Robin-chan, you okay?"
"I am utterly sorry, Navigator-san," she said with a stiff chuckle and a forced smile. "I think that I might have been daydreaming, maybe I haven't got enough sleep last night,"
"Yeah," Nami said a bit uncertain "did you hear anything strange last night?"
"Strange?" the raven repeated with a raised brow now having the woman's full attention again.
"Yeah, like someone was screaming or something like that." She could see the woman shutting into herself again, so she snapped her fingers in front of the woman. "Geez Robin, you're almost acting like Luffy; zooming out whenever talking about a subject not including dreams or food."
"Yes," the archaeologist said and chewed on her lip. 'Sounds last night? Screams? And Captain-san hasn't found Cook-san yet, and Swordsman-san is acting pretty… out of character lately. Today more than lately, I must say.' She grabbed tight around her warm cup of coffee and furrowed her brows. 'I don't like this. Something is really wrong here. And I am afraid of that Hunter is having a finger into this 'game' again. Someone else on this ship other than strawhat-kun has connection to him… and I am afraid of that I know who that might will be,'
"Heeellooo! Earth to Robiin-! You there yet?" Nami leaned over the table and waved her hand dramatically in front of the raven's face.
"Oh? I must have daydreamed again?" the archaeologist tried to play off. She had to stop this, or their navigator soon would smell a rat.
"Daydreaming?" the orange-haired teen said suspiciously and raised a brow. "You're doing that a lot lately, and if that's the case," she said as she sat back down in her chair and glanced over at the blond cook who, in his irritation, knocked Oliver down to the ground at the same moment "then I would say that you're having a crush on a certain blond here, but not the one you first met."
"Oh? You think so?"
"But!" Nami hurried to add with a finger in the air "I don't believe that that's the real reason that you're spacing out so often lately," she looked seriously at her now and lowered her voice "you're hiding something, aren't you?"
Robin was silent as she surveyed the young navigator, and finally took a sip from her still warm coffee.
"So… what is it that you're really hiding, Robin?"
"I am sorry to tell you that I can not tell anything about that subject, Nami," Nami looked surprised at her. She only mentioned her name when something serious was going on. "but, I can tell you this much, that I am afraid that the reason to our cook-san's sudden depression and swordsman-san's mysterious and rough behaviour lately, is because of Hunter."
"Hunter?" the young teen repeated in surprise. "Why do you think that? I mean; how could he?"
"I don't know," the archaeologist said thoughtfully and then rose up from her chair "but I ought to find out," with this said, she excused herself and left the kitchen.
"Robin? Robin!" but the raven was already out of the door. Nami sighed and shook her head as she picked up her newspaper again, and opened it up to where she last had been reading. "What is going on here? Everyone is acting so weird lately, even Luffy is acting a bit strange the last three weeks."
"I told you to GET LOST, YOU IDIOT!" Nicki roared up in the same time, spun around and kicked Oliver across the kitchen, which was only few inches from ramming into Nami who sat wrapped in her own thought. Even so, she dodged just in case, so she won't get hit. "If you want anything, cook something yourself or wait!"
"But Niiickiii! I'm hungryyy~!" Oliver said sadly and sniffled. Nicki groaned and rubbed his temple where a headache was about to form.
"God, you're sounding completely like that rubber-captain of this ship," the blond said tiredly and ran his fingers through his hair. "As if Micky wasn't bad enough, I don't need you to steal food too,"
"But Micky never stole any food," Oliver added. It took about a whole five seconds before he realised what he just had said and clasped his hands over his mouth.
"Micky?" Nami asked, and ripped herself away from the article she was reading to look at the idiot-duo "Who's he?" Nicki only growled, not hearing her at all, and she swore that the man soon would catch fire, as he walked dangerously slowly up to the ever shrinking form of Oliver, who stepped away to try to get the hell away from there.
'Oh shit! Busted! Me and my big mouth!' Nicki stopped right before him, he was all cornered up. Double shit!
"You…" he asked slowly, almost sweetly, as he bent a bit down and gave him a sugar-sweet smile that Oliver feared even more than to meet a ten foot tall killer-bear. Nicki patted the hat-less blue-blond hair almost gently, and Oliver swore that his heart soon would either stop or explode inside of his chest. Then he felt the hand clench into a tight fist, and winced a little as the hair was pulled into it. Nicki sighed and closed his visible eye for a moment, when he opened it again, it was like looking into your own dark grave… a grave created by dark fire that is.
And then all hell brought loose.
"YOU WHERE THE FUCKING ONE STEALING FOOD FROM MY KITCHEN THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME?"
Nami choose not to bother to ask more about this Micky, and returned with a sigh back to her newspaper, while Nicki was beating a screaming and begging Oliver into the next year. She felt a bit sorry for the kid… a bit. Franky would get pretty mad when he come and see that hole that the two of them now had created in the wall… with Oliver's almost boneless body.
"Men," she thought out loud, shaking on her head. "Nicki?" she said nonchalantly and looked intensely on the article about half-price clothes sale in Olier's Boutique in Ferial City on Long Moon Island. Even though she didn't get any answers she told on anyway "your pancakes are burning," The blond looked up then, sniffed the air and turned all white in his face as he recognised the too horrible smell of something burned, and dropped the half unconscious teen onto the ground as he with a high-cursed "Oh shit!" jumped towards the pans, before something else was caught on fire. Nami rolled her eyes and sighed again. "As I said before; Men! No good for anything other than to order around, give headache or use as a stress reliever-punching-bag."
-TOBD- TOBD- TOBD—
He looked with a blank expression at the Soldiers Dock System channel changer, and pushed his sunglasses up with his thumb to ensure himself that it wasn't something on the glasses that showed wrong. Nope! It was the same thing. But… why was it standing on number 2? He was sure that it didn't stand like this last time he had checked it, which had been yesterday, since the waters were deep enough close into the island that they didn't need the Mini Merry ferry to sail in to the coast. He didn't put much attention to Luffy's calling in the background, as it had become one with the 'nature-sounds' humming around them, as he walked to the railing to look down. Yup, just as he had thought; the gate was open, but why?
Suddenly he got a horrible feeling and hurried downstairs, taking the ladder down to the heart of the ship, he looked around inside of the soldier dock system and found, as he had seen outside, the gate of dock two to be open and also completely empty. The Mini Merry II was all gone. It was a moment after he had come over his horrible shock that he saw a slumped figure sitting on the bridge, facing away from him.
He hurried over to the person and grabbed the thin shoulder. "Oi, sis, ya alright?" but he got no other answer than an empty stare, as was she still sitting and watching the sea like before. "Oi, ya hear me?" he turned her fully around, holding both of her small shoulders in his big hands.
"What I've done…?" he heard her mumble, and rose a brow at her.
"Huh?" only now he saw her red, puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks; a proof that she once had cried and the tears now had dried all away.
"He's gone," she looked horrified up on him, her brown eyes all big and on the edge to cry again, if there even were any tears left in them.
"Who's gone?" he asked her, but she just shook her head.
"He took the ferry and just disappeared…!" he stared blankly at her for a moment, and as something dawned on him, he stood up and hurried over to the ladder and called up through the hole.
"Oi! Captain! Nose down here!" only three seconds later the head of the captain suddenly came into vision from a long stretched neck, almost scaring the hell shit out of the shipwright. "Shit, straw-bro! Stop doing that! You almost made me shit elephants!" Luffy only blinked blankly, not understanding why it bothered everyone that much that he stretched his neck like a long snake whenever he attacked someone, looked around a corner or, like here, just needed the head down along the ladder to listen to what his crewmate had to say. Franky grumbled in annoyance, and nodded to the slumped figure on the bridge inside of dock two, who just sat and stared down in the waters, like she saw something no one else could see. "Ya found the cook yet?" he asked him, and Luffy thought for a moment to figure out of whom he spoke about before he shook his head in a 'no'-gesture. Franky hummed as he was thinking, but only managed to open his mouth to say something, as someone outside suddenly was calling after the captain. Luffy looked up at the hole his head had come from, then he looked back at Franky and the sad form of Pernilla before he, with a sigh, withdrew his head back with a snap and went to the railing to see who was calling.
Franky soon followed after him with Pernilla in his arms, whose eyes still looked empty and glassy.
"Who's calling?" Luffy asked their first mate, who stood leaning up against the railing, looking pretty pale in the sun. "Zoro, are you all right?" he asked a bit worried, watching a drop of sweat roll down from the elder teen's temple, but Zoro only chose to hear his first question.
"Some guy down there," he said while he thumbed in the direction where a little thick bald man was running up to them, "claims to wanna talk with you." Luffy didn't take his eyes off the swordsman for a long moment, and Zoro still refused to look at him, until the captain caught glimpse of a tear rolling down the teen's cheek. But Zoro still kept a straight and stoic face as much as possible, but it was damn hard when having the raven looking so intense at him. Then the kid finally chose to look away from him and down at the approaching man.
"Straw Hat!" he called breathless again and almost stumbled as he ran. Oliver came up on the side of the captain and looked down as well.
"Who's the man?" he asked, but Luffy only shrugged.
"What do you want?" he called down to the man, who had stopped and now stood leaning forwards, hands resting on his knees as he gasped for air. As he had caught enough air he looked up on the crew that stood on the deck at the giant lion-ship with his burning red face.
"Note!" he called and waved his hand where he held a piece of paper, "a letter to the straw hat!"
"Letter?" Nami repeated with a lifted brow. Luffy threw a quick glance around at his crew and at last his gaze landed on his first mate. They didn't speak, but with a nod Zoro understood what he wanted, and followed after him, walking down the plank while the captain jumped over the railing to land only five feet away from the stunned man. As the man came over his surprise of the method the captain used to come down to him, with a shaking hand, he handed the letter, which was covered in blood. Luffy cringed his nose as he took it and felt the presence of his first mate behind him as he read the letter.
To young Mr. Straw Hat
Thanks for the fun with him, it was thrilling.
Here you have your friend again, just as promised.
We got him.
HUNTER
"Where did you find this?" the young captain asked, anger pressing clearly on his words. The man pointed towards the village and spoke after a couple of huff-huff.
"…the middle of the market… it's horrible Mr. Straw Hat… none of us is fault in this… didn't know before I dared to walk forward and took the letter."
"From where? What are you talking on?" the raven pressed on as he grabbed the little man's shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Straw Hat, but none of us dared to touch him. Horrible sight. I'm sorry to say, but I'm afraid of that your friend is no longer alive, not from all those wounds he got."
Zoro grabbed the hilt of his white sword tighter in his hand as it rested upon them as always. He felt his blood drain out of his body as he heard the man's words, stabbing through his chest like a burning spear.
'Sanji!' he thought, horror grapping him in a tight grasp. With a grunt he sat off and ran in the direction the man had pointed out. The market. It wasn't that hard to find, not even for him, since it was just to fallow this road to get straight to it. The reason to that he didn't get lost this time, might have been because he had got lost on the road four times already. Not something he was proud to brag about to anyone else.
"Zoro!" he heard his captain call, and knew that the kid soon would follow after him, after swallowing the cruel realisation and point two others out to follow after him.
'Sanji, no!' he thought as he ran, and the episode from last night ran through his mind like a horror-movie. What had he done? What the fucking hell had he done? 'It's all my fault! Why did I beat him so much? Fuck! I even felt satisfied when I beat the shit out of him. Fucking felt thrilled to know that I was about to kill him too!'
"Sanji," he panted and ground his teeth hard together. "It's my fault that you ran off," 'don't tell me that he found you and…' he shook his head 'No, don't let it be like that.' He came to a halt when he saw the crowd of people circling around something that he just barely could see the top of. Wood, hair dancing in the wind, coloured in a crimson red and brown colour of… he didn't even want to think about it and pressed his way through the crowd which, when they realised who came, moved to the side. Zoro felt his heart beat even faster. His fingers turned ice-cold and numb. He felt sick, like he was about to faint soon, as he saw hands to the left and right of the people who still stood in his way before him, nailed to the wood behind them. Crucified. As the last people stepped to the side, revealing the person before them, he felt his heart stop.
'No! Sanji!'
He panted as he looked up at the man before him, who had been crucified on a large cross, hanging several feet from the ground. Hands were nailed to the wood with big nails, and the feet was nailed together, the one over the other, like the Christians god's son was once upon a time. Even as he looked upon the horror before him, the beaten up body hanging lifeless on that cross, he felt relieved on a sick way.
Thank god… It wasn't Sanji.
But… who the hell was this man then? The letter was written to Luffy… right?
"Who is it?" he heard Luffy pant to his left, but Zoro could do nothing but shake his head, afraid that his voice would crack. He was too relieved to know that it wasn't Sanji who was hanging like a dead man before them, and terrified by the sight of the man, who surely had been one of Hunter's 'preys' or 'toys'.
They heard a dreadful gasp behind them, but barely made to turn around to look before a blue-blond teen pushed his way through the two of them and halted before the crucified man. Oliver's legs were threatening to collapse, as he took a silent step forward. Even from where they stood, they could see the teen's face all drained from any healthy colours.
"No… no…!" they heard him mumble, and they saw how he trembled. If it was of fear, anger or shook, none of them would ever know. "WILLIAM!" he called and ran off up to the crucified man. "William! Will! You hear me?" Oliver grabbed his pant leg and shook him lightly, but got no response. He tried again harder "Oi! Will! William! Answer me!"
"Oh shit," Zoro heard the blond copycat say behind him, as he stared blankly up at the man before them, while he slowly approached his little friend. "Tell me that it's not true what I'm seeing,"
"William?" The swordsman asked, getting who the man was. Nicki nodded.
"Yes. It's him," he looked into the grey eyes of Zoro "It's him who they'd kidnapped."
They where interrupted by a horrible-sounding cough, several of them, and Nicki snapped his neck back to look at the source of the sounds. William gasped and coughed as he slowly came to consciousness again, and bleed out of his mouth as he did so.
"O…Oli-ver," he said with a raw and dried voice and coughed again. Oliver breathed in relief and tightened his grip as he looked up into his friend's dark-green eyes, who looked sadly back down at him. "M'sorry," he gasped and lolled his head back. He tried to move his limbs, but wheezed as he felt that he couldn't free them and that they hurt like hell. "Damn, I feel like shit right now," he mumbled, but they all heard him though.
Nicki ground his teeth and looked back at the captain and the first mate of the Straw Hat gang. Behind them Chopper and Franky approached them, and further behind them came the thick little bald man limping. "Can't we get him down somehow?" he asked the two of them. Two pair of eyes turned to him, and looked at him as if they had only seen him now. "He's fucking gonna die if he keeps on hanging up there!"
"Wow, now I get why I should take my tool box with me," Franky said surprised, and looked disgusted up at the bleeding, beaten up body of the man hanging on the cross, and grimaced. Chopper gasped and hurried over to Oliver who kept standing and talking to his friend. Chopper was glad that Oliver had to do that, to keep him staying awake; sleep could be deadly by now.
As if something had snapped in them all, and without any other words, they all hurried over to the cross and held it steady while Franky was working on to saw the wood over right under the man's feet.
William was slipping in and out of consciousness but was surprised to see that the people that his friend should cheat and go behind their backs on, now was actually helping him to get him down. They spoke to him, said something, but William couldn't figure out by now what they all where saying and what it meant. Fuck he was so tired. But Oliver's clear voice, which was the only sound that broke through his 'invincible deaf-wall' told him not to fall asleep and stay awake. So he did that… or at least he tried. "Ah!" he gasped as he felt the cross move as the nails cut further into his hands and feet. Any movement hurt like shit, even so that they did all in their might and power not to hurt him, as they laid the cross down on the ground.
William, or Zoreo –which he more liked to be named, as his first name sounded too feeble in his ears-looked around himself, and even so that his vision was blurry he still could see the faces of the people around him. Damn, how they reminded himself of his own crew, and that black-haired kid there reminded him so much of their own care-free captain.
"Hey buddy," he heard someone say, and then someone shook him. He growled in answer, and then looked up on the face of a weird dude with bright blue hair and… was that a metal-nose? "It's gonna hurt like hell now, don't move, okay?" Zoreo shook his head.
"Just rip 'em free," he said and was about to pull, but his arms were grabbed and held down,
"Fuck-head! Don't be more stupid than normal!" he heard a deep baritone voice growl at him. He chuckled as he recognized the voice.
"Piss-head, iz tha you?"
"No, it's Mother Teresa who came to bless you, who the hell you think it is?" Zoreo chuckled even more this time, and then coughed as the demonstration hurt his raw and dry throat.
"Ma be a good boy, ma," he teased, but cursed in his mind at his slurry words.
"You sound like a drunkard," Now, the idiot was not one to fuss over him, not now and not even on the brink of death, and he appreciated it. He heard Oliver mumble something to someone else about that he was slipping out of consciousness again, a green-haired freak -or was it a talking spinach-ball? He didn't know if he'd said it out loud, apparently he had, because the dude began to freak all out all of a sudden, and the raven-haired kid had to stop him from choking him.
"Bad move, dude!" Nicki chuckled, though Zoreo could clearly hear the deep worry in his voice. He was about to say something, but in the same moment he felt something cold and hard dug into his left hand, grabbing the iron that had been hammered into his hands and feet, and pulled it. He screamed, he couldn't stop himself, it hurt so freaking much, almost as much as when the shit-heads had hammered them into him, but sighed in relief when he felt the metal was out of his hand, even so that his hand trembled and prickled like ad. Immediately something brown came into his vision and began treating his open bleeding wound, and in the same time yelled something at the large blue-haired man. The brown thing sounded pissed. Fuck, his vision was more blurry than looking at the world through the bottom of a bottle. Then before the blue-haired man was on his next hand, he felt a long needle prick through his right hand, just above the wound, the same happened to both of his feet. It didn't take long before his hand felt numb. He tried to work with his fingers. Nothing happened. He raised a brow as he slowly understood.
'Ah, a local anaesthetic?' he thought and growled a little. 'Hell, they think I'm too week to take the hard pull? M'not!' He wanted to tell them, but it was like his tongue didn't want to work the same way he wanted to, and before he knew of it, the blue-haired man was on him again,doing the exact same thing as he did to his left hand. He stepped his foot on his arm, he could feel the weight a little, but he barely felt the small fingers that held his fingers spread out, but anyway he recognized that blond-blue-head all too well to know who it was.
"Ya ready, bro?" asked the blue-haired man, and as he gave him a nod in answer, he grabbed the nail with a some kind of a tool that he couldn't see what was or rather didn't remember what the name of it was, and then pulled it out as if it was just a weed from the ground he pulled up.
Zoreo gritted his teeth and tried to choke his screams that forced to be sounded, almost bit his tongue over in the process as his numb sense of sanity told him it would feel more pleasant. Even so that he had got that local-thingy, it still hurt like a bitch, apparently because the nail bore through one of his nerves.
"Wasn't the medicine suppose to work?" bellowed Oliver, who both heard and saw his friend be in complete pain.
"I-I'm sorry," Zoreo heard a child's voice stutter "but I can't anaesthetic his whole nerve system," he told the anxious blue-blond kid. Zoreo never heard any answers back, and just nodded as he heard the giant blue-haired man asking him if he were ready for the last one; the nail going through both of his feet.
He gritted his teeth, choking his scream, but lucky for him the nail was out in no time. He panted as they all finally were out, and his tongue was still in one piece.
Oliver leaned back as he sat on his legs, and sighed in relief.
"We need him back to the ship so I can treat him right," Chopper said as he washed the wounds from any bacteria and dirt that might have ended up in them. "It's not only the hands and feet there's in bad condition," he told them as he lifted the ripped black shirt that was sticking to the man's chest. He grimaced as he saw all the untreated wounds underneath it, and hissed as the black clothes ripped some more wounds open it had been dried into. "Oh my god, it's worse than I first thought. How can he even still be alive?"
"Just… superficial…" answered Zoreo between breathings.
"Superficial?" the young doctor repeated angrily. "Most of those wounds are so deep that I even can see the bones inside of you!"
"Holy fuck!" Nicki cursed while he felt like he was about to get sick, while Oliver already looked like someone who would throw up any moment by now. There was no room for any other discussions as Chopper transformed into his heavy-point and lifted their half unconscious friend up into his arms and stomped towards the ship, no need to push through the crowd as they immediately moved to the side for the giant to pass.
Nicki was about to say something as the rest of the 'gang' followed after Chopper , throwing one last glance at the bloodied cross before they turned their backs on it, as a hand grabbed his shoulder to turn him around.
"Sanji! I finally found you!" it was a petite woman, who stood with her hand still on his shoulder and panted, like she had been running a long distance. Luffy and Zoro stopped up as they heard Sanji's name and turned around to look at the blond woman, who was gasping for air. "I've been looking all over for you, visited your ship, but they said that you were gone. Glad I found you in time."
"Uhm, miss, I-I am utterly sorry, but I think that you're mistaking me for-"
"I wasn't that drunk last night –actually I wasn't drunk at all! So don't give me tha-"
"I mean it, my lady. I'm not the one that you think I am."
"What?" she looked into his face to inspect it. She released his shoulder and ran a hand under his golden hair there covered his left eye, and felt the deep scar running over it. Nicki gasped and stepped back, as if her hand had burned him, and stared at her in horror. Oliver, who still was sitting on the ground and watching the scene before him, dropped his jaw. Never had anyone before been allowed –or even dared- to touch what was hiding underneath the golden bangs. It usually freaked him out just like now.
The blonde woman pulled her hand back immediately and bowed. "I'm sorry. I thought that you were-"
"Sanji, he's our cook," Luffy mouthed and stepped forth. "You know him? We haven't been able to find him the whole morning -did ya see him around here?"
The blonde woman blinked, and then bit her lip as she dropped her gaze.
"Then it's already too late," she mumbled and sighed, before she looked up into two black orbs of the straw hat wearing kid, who suddenly stood right before her and stared hopefully at her. "I met your friend last night at a bar, he was pretty drunk and-"
Zoro's features changed immediately as he heard this, both Nicki and Oliver saw it and literally shivered by the dark menacing look in the teen's grey eyes.
"You're the whore he slept with last night!" It wasn't a question, but a statement, and he wished that he could take the words back there just had slipped out of him, but he couldn't. The blonde woman looked up at the green-haired man, as if she had just seen him. Then, as something clicked in her mind, her own beautiful face turned all dark and cold.
"And you must be Zoro!" she more spat than said, as she turned to face him fully.
Zoro felt a shiver run down along his back at the mention of his name; she said it like she knew something that no one else should know about. She lifted her head just a little, and glared at him.
"And for your information, I am no whore, Mr. Roronoa Zoro!" she wheezed as she stepped up to him –not even the case that he was almost a head higher than her scared her, nor that he was freaking covered with muscles all over the body and was glaring at her like he wished her to catch on fire right on the spot, didn't scare her a bit, and Zoro knew this. Then, in a blink of an eye, he had a gun pressed to his head, while his own sword was only an inch from her throat.
"You're a gunner?" he questioned, even so that the answer was clear. She pulled a wicked smile, just like one of those that their own blond could pull.
"Click, bang! You're dead~. All too slow," she said, her voice darkened dramatically as she pulled the gun away and back into its holster. "If I had my other one, you would have been without a stomach too," she pointed out, but didn't move from the spot. She glanced down at the blade close to her throat and pushed it away with her two fingers. "Put your sword down, samurai, you wont be needing it when you're dead,"
"I'm not dead,"
"You would have if I had pulled the trigger,"
"Lucky move," he said stubbornly, and she almost rolled her eyes at him as he levelled his sword and finally sheeted it back into its saya.
"Hey lady, you know where Sanji is?" Luffy interrupted at once, not wanting any fight now when their cook was gone. She looked at him for a moment, and then looked away.
"Yes, I know where he is," there was a long pause of silence –the crowd around them had disappeared long ago to go back to their normal daily duties- and then with a fierce look on the swordsman, as if she was speaking to him alone, she said with a low voice "he's gone to find Hunter… because of you…!"
"What do you mean?" asked Zoro with a raised brow. She stepped even closer up to him, so they almost stood nose to nose and spoke in a whisper.
"You broke his heart, you said that it didn't matter if Hunter came and took him now."
"I-"
"He said that it didn't matter any longer then," there was a long pause, and Zoro swore that the woman before him almost could hear his heart beating. He didn't like what she was saying, what she was about to say. Was this… was all this really his fault? Why did he ever start sputtering nonsense to him?
"Zoro!" gasped Luffy as realisation hit hard on him. Zoro was about to open his mouth but was cut off.
"Zoro! The man loves you even now, even so that you broke his heart. He took my gun, I told him to go back home and get some rest and think about it, he promised me to go back home… something must have happened since…"
"I told him the truth!" another one suddenly interrupted. Three heads turned to the source of the voice.
"Pernilla," Luffy voiced as he saw the woman, who looked more angry and determined than ever.
"Captain!" she said, Luffy looked at her but didn't say anything. She took a deep breath. "It is me who's in fault of all this, but we don't have any time to waste!"
"What?"
"He went off last night. He stole my eternal pose and took that mini ferry of yours. He said 'I've put you all through too many dangers, because of my own weakness'," she looked at the swordsman who had a mixed expression on his face. Just a little bit more and the 'barrier' would break even more. " …'Take care of the moss-head!' he said" She paused. "Because I damn hell love that fucking idiot!"
Shock painted the swordsman's face, and then horror. His hands were shaking. Pernilla couldn't stop smiling at that.
"Zoro?" The man looked slowly up at her. "Do you still love him?"
Zoro opened his mouth, but no words came out. Nothing came… other than tears falling from his eyes. Pernilla smiled even more at this.
'Broken!'
-TOBD- TOBD- TOBD—
Clack-! Clack-! Clauck-! Clack-! Clack-! Clauck-! Clack-!
Slow determined steps echoed in the empty hall as they followed the stairs leading upstairs. The black shoes were red and dirty from all the bodies it had broken, faces it had cracked, and people it had killed. Those feet normally didn't kill anyone; they kick the hell shit out of people, but never killed them… only those he had recognised to be the ones who'd taken turns on him back then, who had helped to torture him, pissed on him, laughed at him and fucked him raw till he was bleeding.
Long slender fingers slid over the wooden surface of the fine polished banister, as the bloodied feet kept moving up the stairs.
They had told him that he would be in room 135… typical him to take over a whole hotel, just like he had done to that old apartment block back then… he just hoped that people had got away in time to not get killed and being left to rot. He grimaced just by the thought of it. Hunter was trulysick in his head.
"Hey you! What do you think you're doing here?" Sanji sighed as he saw a man jumped forth with a gun pointed at him. Damn, it had been so nice and quiet for so long, and he didn't have time for these small fries. It wasn't those he wanted to waste his time on.
"Oi!" he called icily, and lit himself a cigarette. He blew out a cloud of smoke up in the air, before he looked down at the shaking man with his gun pointed at him. He chuckled darkly. Looks like the pansy had seen the bloodied bodies at the foot of the stairs by now. "Just move it already and find yourself a toilet, before you piss in your pants. I don't have time for you."
"You… you bastard!" Two shots were fired, but the slender cook dodged them easily and was before the man in no time, his one foot just an inch from his stupid face. The man trembled like hell, and Sanji pulled a wicked smile as he saw his pants wet in an instant and soon collect a little lake at his own feet.
"I told ya to go find a toilet, piss-head! I don't have any business with you… unless you wish to." The man held his breath as the blond leaned in to his face and took a deep breath. "Bhooh!"
"Aaargh!" The piss-head scrambled away at once, dropped his gun on the way out and hurried down the stairs to get the hell out of the place. Sanji pulled a triumphant smile and leveled his leg back down.
But someone else was already pressing another gun to his head from behind, and the blond dropped his smile at once. Couldn't be piss-head, he was already on his way away from this island.
"Nice performance, cook. I'm shivering in my pants like a chicken," a mocking voice whispered into his ear, "Now, just fallow with me nice and easy, and I won't hurt you so much," Sanji turned his neck a little and gave the man a bored look over the shoulder.
"Fuck you,"
"What? You damn-!" Sanji hissed as the man behind him grabbed his hair and yanked so hard at it that he almost lost his balance. "Don't try to be so fishy, kid!" the blond glared at the man and grabbed the hand that was holding his hair, and dug his nails down at the main artery. The man cursed but none the less released him for a second, and in that second the cook's grasp tightened dramatically, grabbing the man's head, he bend down forward and threw the gunner over his shoulder and down the corridor. A bit shaken the man grabbed out for his gun he had dropped, but the blond was fast and kicked it further away, and the next kick hit the man square in the face.
But before this man ever lost consciousness, three others had already joined the 'game' and five others were on their way up the stairs and from other rooms along the corridor. Sanji didn't have time to think as bullets flew in the air, one scratched his cheek and almost bore through his right ear. Blood trickled down from the new wound, and he cursed himself for not reacting fast enough. With a jump he was in the air, too fast for the gunners to hit he landed nicely on one of the men's head, and made a perfect round-house before the other men could orientate themselves about what had just happened, and swallowed the nice sounds of cracking skulls and broken bones. He jumped off the man, landing on his feet and served him a circle-kick, sending him smashing into the wall.
But these men weren't that easy to break, and they were no fair player either.
A shot rang in his left ear as it almost hit him, and he dodged fast before the second one was allowed to hit him. He targeted straight at the man who had been shooting at him, and broke his back in a swift kick. Another one made to punch him in the face, but it wasn't enough to break any skin, the second hit only met air as the chef fell back to land on his hands, and with a powerful straight kick to his jaw the man was knocked out at once.
More bullets flew in the air and Sanji hurried to seek cover inside of one of the many empty hotel rooms and smacked the door closed. He locked it, glanced around the room. Most of the once-beautiful furniture were turned upside down, ripped, destroyed and broken. He took a step and suddenly felt dizzy. He miss stepped a step and fell back against the door, where a bullet bore through the wood just an inch from his left shoulder.
He wanted to move, but his head wouldn't allow him. Fuck it hurt! He was tempted to throw up, but if he did he knew that the after effects of cold sweat and dizziness would be stronger and would give the other men time to kill him, or in worst case catch him and bring him back to him!
Curse Zoro and his strength!
Curse Hunter and his poison to make Zoro do what he did and said.
He growled in irritation and pushed himself away from the door, but he only made it to stand straight up as a bullet bore through the door, and tore through his left arm. Sanji gasped, wobbled and grabbed his wounded arm in pain. Blood soon coloured his hand as he stood gasping for air and pulling himself together to move …to get the hell out of there before he was hit by any other bullets again.
But somehow luck just wasn't with him today, as the door flew open and revealed four gunners, weapons pointed at him, and then shot. "ARGHH!" Sanji was hit twice in his left arm again, one through his shoulder and one through his chest. He almost fell, but bit his teeth hard together and hurried to the window. But another bullet bore through his thigh, and he screamed as he fell against the window, colouring the glass in his crimson colour. 'Shit!' he panted hard, and as a hand touched his shoulder, he spin around and kicked the man away. 'Can be that they shoot not to kill but,' another one came too close to him and was kicked out through the window, the heavy sound of a body hitting stones told him soon when the man was dead.
The two other men kept a distance to him, was smart enough to know that coming too close to him, would be deadly. Never touch a wounded animal, or in this case, a wounded maniac. Sanji chuckled darkly when he thought himself as being such one. Well shit, had to be one to just jump into the lions cave full of hungry creatures, and then all alone.
Then one of the men decided to make him even more immobile or to kill him, but Sanji never got to know what it was as he pulled his own gun and shot him through his head. He had to use a weapon since the idiot was too far away to kick.
'I won't let them take me to him! Not like this!' he shot a second time, but the last man didn't want to die as easily as his other comrades and stepped to the side. Sanji's vision was all blurry, he could barely see where the man was, and his head still kept on hurting like hell. For a split-second he wondered if he should have just stayed back on the ship and waited till they all stormed this place. But that was stupid, these freaks were stronger than normal idiots, many of them were, and then of course there were those who couldn't do a shit without having a gun in their hands, those were small fries. No matter what, he didn't want to put his friends through any more troubles.
He groaned as he forced himself to move, gun still in his hand. His thigh hurt, his left arm and shoulder hurt like a mother fucker –he just needed to rest a little, to collect some more strength. Fuck that damn headache! It almost had cost him his life, because of that shit. He wondered for a moment if he was left all alone and looked over his shoulder, his vision clearing a little bit. The gunner just stood there, as if waiting for him. Heh! A fair player! The man sat down in the middle of the room, legs pulled a bit up to his chest and arms resting upon them, the gun still held lazily in the man's hand, dangling as he didn't need it just yet.
"Why are you so stupid to be here now?" the man asked in his low baritone voice. Sanji only stared, panted as he pulled himself to sit up against a wall so he was facing the man fully. "You know its pure suicide like this. Why doing it?"
"Wanna kill, your fucking, leader!" he answered through gritted teeth. He wasn't done yet, just needed some rest. Fuck! Who wouldn't after facing at least fifty people all alone?
The man chuckled darkly. "And you thought that you could just waltz in here all alone, finish off seventy men and then kill Hunter as well?" he shook his head and pointed his gun at the blond, as the blond pointed his on him. "Now, don't do anything stupid, kid. I wont hurt you," Sanji panted, surveyed the man for a moment and then dropped his gun to clutch around his wounded arm which prickled like thousand needles and throbbed like hell. He leaned his head back against the wall, why he suddenly trusted this man to not just shoot him or at least keep an eye on him, he didn't know, he just did.
"Why…?"
"…why what?"
"Why, don't you kill me?" and why did he say this? He growled at his own stupidity. The man chuckled again, darkly.
"I got my orders not to." This time it was Sanji's turn to chuckle.
"Just sitting here, and waiting for him to, come and –gasp- get me then?" The man looked intensely at him, and didn't say anything for a very long time. "Che!" He patted his pockets and found his pack of cigarettes. His hand was shaking as he tried to get one out, tapping it a little and then pulled one out with his teeth. His left arm was completely useless by now, completely numb and didn't want to move a millimetre without hurting like shit. He lit his cigarette, took a deep breath, humming at the feel of the pure nicotine drawing deep into his lungs, and then after a few seconds he blew it out. White smoke circled up in the air, and he watched it float slowly up with his head leaned back to the wall.
"Can I have one too?" the man asked. Sanji looked at him with a stern look. Well shit, why not, it wasn't like he was going to kill him just now. He threw him the packet and the man grabbed it at once, he pulled one out, grabbing the lighter that came flying his way too, he lit it, and threw both the lighter and the pack back. Sanji grabbed them easily with one hand. They were silent as they smoked each their own cigarettes, watched their own skies of smoke drifting around the room, calming them, making them almost familiar to each other. Weird enough it didn't feel unpleasant to be in the room with your own murder, but then again the man could have killed him anytime when he sat there all defenceless. He still had his gun in his hand, while Sanji's laid beside him. There was no doubt about who would have been able to pull the trigger first.
But the man had promised not to kill him, and somehow he just believed him.
"So," Sanji began after almost ending his smoke, feeling much better than he had for just five minutes ago "how is it to work for a maniac like Hunter?"
The man chuckled, almost as if he had been telling him a joke. A curled brow moved up at the fun he didn't understand himself.
"Fuck, kid," he finished his smoke and crushed the butt into the floor. "That maniac is a freak, psychotic freak. But hell, I got my orders,"
"What orders?" Sanji felt curious now. The man didn't sound to be one wanting to work for him. A cloud outside the window finally passed by and allowed the sun to shine in through the glass, bathing the room in its light and making the man's fire-red hair look like it was burning. A long scar ran down from his cheek and down to his throat, he saw now when there were no shadows on his face, but still, he didn't look ugly at all. The man smiled at him, a knowing smile, an all too familiar smile… a smile like that asshole of a marimo could achieve. "Who are you?"
"The walls has ears, kid, and if you're faster than me you might make it to escape,"
"I wont escape, I-"
"Free hands and legs are better than bonds around them," he said, and Sanji got what he said. He was giving him a chance to take Hunter down, if he could escape him. He pulled a smile, testing his leg a little, finding that it could take the pressure, he prepared himself.
"Well, fuck, of course I can," the man smiled, a knowing smile, he stood up, but Sanji was faster, and on one hand he served him a round-house, sending him slamming into the wall on the other side of the room. He grabbed his gun, threw one last glance at the man who just kept on smiling –he hadn't been kicking him too hard- and then ran off.
The corridors were awfully quiet, too quiet to his liking. He didn't like not meeting any hindrances, not seeing any shadows of hidden men, not hearing any sound of life. Then he found out that he couldn't even hear his own running steps. He stopped, his heart hammering like mad inside of him and deafening his hearing, his hands were shaking like a leaf in the wind, and he couldn't hear anything else other than his pained brain pounding inside of his head, and his hammering heart that soon was to explode. Then he realised what was wrong.
He was scared!
And he was slowly starting to panic!
'Fuck! Not what I need now! I c-can't stop now, not when being this close!' Hunter's cruelty woke back up in his memories, scared him like a little kid who just had seen the boogieman under his bed looking straight up into his eyes. He almost lost balance as he stumbled. He leaned up against a wall to catch his breath, while patting his pockets to find his medicine. But he was shaking too much to ever get just one pill out, as he finally found the little brown glass. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck! Stop shaking so much, Sanji!" he cursed at himself, and grabbed tighter around the glass as to keep his hand still. He took a deep breath, telling himself to fucking take it easy and to breathe slowly and finally got one pill out.
A shot rang in his ear, scaring the hell shit out of him as he hadn't heard anyone closing up on him, and dropped the glass of pills to the ground. Thank god that it didn't break. He hurried to swallow the pill in his hand, bowed down in time to not get shot in the head and picked up the glass and a handful of pills that had fallen out and scattered all over the floor.
He ran further down the corridor, away from the shootings, hoping not to get hit. He knew that he could just turn around and shoot them all down. But to begin with he never really liked weapons such as guns and other stuff like that; it was an unfair fight, unless when you were surrounded by freaking two hundred people with all their guns pointed at you. And secondly, he wanted to save the remaining bullets for a certain striped 'kitty'.
Bullets flew past his head as he ran and turned around a corner. Those fuckers and their bloody guns! Why did they never dare to come close in on him? Because they knew that they would get their ass kicked if they did? Those bastards learned fast.
He panted as he looked around and tried to figure out where the hell he was right now. His arm hurt even more than before and he began to feel dizzy again. This time not of fear, this time not of the damn headache which had been following him constantly since he almost got his head crushed into the mast at the Thousand Sunny. No, this time it was because of he was losing too much blood! Damn it all!
He caught sight of a sign hanging on the door before him. 206. Shit! He had run too far!
Suddenly it was all silent again. He held his breath and listened to confirm that it was not just his fear that was messing with his senses again. Ten seconds… no sounds… twenty seconds… forty-five seconds, not even a movement out there on the other corridor was to be heard, he listened harder. If he tried to look around the corner to see what was going on, would he then get a bullet shot in his face? Were they waiting just around the corner, waiting for him to take a peek? Did they know that he was a bit wounded? Why the hell did he think so much all of a sudden? Damn his nervousness, his blood loss and his overworking pounding brain.
One minute and sixteen seconds… still no sounds other than his own heavy, shaky breathing and the old clock tick-tock-ing in the room he stood right outside of, telling him how long time there had actually went… two minutes!
He didn't like this.
'But I can't stand here all day and doing nothing. I didn't come here to think or to hide like a little shitty kid who's scared to get beaten by the big bad kids across the street.' He looked up and stared angrily at the wall before him 'I didn't come this far for just to run away again. What would the others think? The moss-head would have seen me as coward! A weakling!'
"Fuck this, I can't wait anymore," with a deep breath he pushed away from the wall and walked with determined steps towards the corner. "I'm gonna come and kill you now, Hunter!" he said through gritted teeth, but suddenly stopped as he felt a cold chill running down his back, as hot breath brushed at his neck. His hair stood on end and he felt his body shiver slightly.
He knew this feeling all too well. He knew that breath and that smell too fucking well. As he heard the voice speak, he felt his heart stopping and his face drain out from all blood.
"You really think you can kill me?"
No… no way in hell!
No one was behind him just a second ago.
It was impossible!
Why he ever chose to turn his neck, he never knew, but suddenly he stood face to face with yellow eyes staring hungrily right back at him, mirroring his own shaking form in those big glassy eyes. He swallowed and grabbed tighter at his wounded arm, hoping that the pain would wake him up from this nightmare.
But nothing happened; he was still staring into the face of a half man, half tiger. White teeth came to vision as the mouth smiled… that fucking stupid smile of his.
Sanji swallowed.
"Why, hello there…Sssanjii~!"
And he fucking hell screamed his lungs out, while the mocking laughter echoed in his head and rung through the whole corridor.
'Hunter!'
To be continued
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
AN: Four more chapters to go~! I can't believe it that the ending of this story is so near! It's all… surrealistic and such. One year, and then I are almost done with this one… wow… a whole year. Time flies fast away, huh?
Anyway, a big thanks to all you readers, hadn't it been for you and all your reviews, this story would never have been ended. I would just have given up on it and leaved it all alone… perhaps never written again. But thanks to you, I'm even started writing on my own book named 'HERO –The Dark Knight of the Streets' and even more stories are to come. But but! I still will keep on writing here on , I will never abandon you, no matter how tight my time-schedule will look like, I will always return back to you, and I hope that you'll keep hanging around too.
Please Review & Review; your words keep me happy and keep me want to maintain on writing.
Thanks everyone!
See you in the next chapter!
-hugs-
Answers on reviews from chapter twenty-three:
XXCraziChickxX: Well, he just want to kill Hunter on his own hand… and then getting ****** ****** himself. What I just said? Well, hang on and wait till the next chapter and you'll find out. Shishi, yes, I'm an evil writer~!
Pervy Otaku: Hahaha! You're totally living up to your name here –chuckles- you, are, one, big, pervert! …just like me! Shishishi! But ah, shit, your Wee is broken? I TOLD you never to let Zoro play on it, or for that sake Sanji! They'll just break it for you! LOL
So… what are your new hair colour? Wanna know~! .,,
Hehe. Don't worry, I love long reviews, and I'll give you longer chapter, reaching to at least twenty pages! That's a promise!
And don't worry, you're not the only one loving to annoy people –evil grin-
Lucky you for being able to buy yaoi-magazines/comics/doujinshi's .,,
And a present for you in the future; A Enel raping Zoro-story… a really evil story –grinning- what ya think, hm? ^o^
Yes, Sanji's going to kick his ass… I hope XD
Revenge is sweet like a cake XDD
LunaticV: hehe, well, you know that every story has to have an ending, ne? ^^ and then there'll be more stories to come too –smiles-
Yes, self-blaming-Sanji is fun indeed! XD
Well, luckily Sanji didn't do anything with her, he just couldn't get himself to do it, and even so that she came pretty far with him. Don't worry, I wont stop writing stories for you guys/girls to read and review on LOL
tazx x x : Yes, Sanji's just as stupid as his own captain and their first mate, and he know that… even so that he never in his LIFE would admit that out loud to anyone XD
alguien22792: Haha! You're just as 'nice' as I am –evil chuckle- Ah! I'm the complete opposite of you, when it's about spoilers; I HATE to get to know long before what there's going to happen in the ending or such, and then when my grandpa asks about when watching a movie "watch going to happen next?" "Will he survive?" "how will it end?" And I just want to scream out "Shut up and just WATCH! Then you'll know!" ^o^; Glad that you liked this chapter too ^o^ thanks for your review!
pervy girl: Thanks! Glad that you like it. Even so that I am a big hater of waiting for too long for good stories to update, I'm just as cruel as those writers are. –chuckles-
Artist2009: Thanks! Hope you liked this chapter as well *^o^*
Pisaj-Elf: oh~! You'll see~! –evil chuckle- thanks for your words! Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter too!^o^
DontTryMe : LOL! Ah~! An impatient readerrr~! Well, don't worry, I do know how perform first aid! Shishishi! But I do no mouth to mouth though XDD
shiro-chan26 : Jeje! Soy el diablo disfrazado! LOL It's Spanish and means; I'm the devil in disguise! Yes I know… wait… I promised you? AAHHH! SORRYYY! I'm SO sorry promising that and then not coming up with this chapter! But but, my beta-reader only was done for a couple of days ago… and I haven't used time to 'read through my mistakes' before now –that'll mean that it'll be out in this weekend (week 19) hope you enjoyed this story too ^o^
zoroVsanji: Well… Zoro?
Zoro: -smirks- that's the best I've heard the whole day. A woman after my taste.
Sanji: …you do realise how 'wrong' that sounded like, right ma~ri~mo~?
Zoro: *blush* shut the fuck up cook!
Sanji: aww~! Marimo~ are blushing~!
Zoro: -glares daggers at the laughing cook- I'm gonna kill that man someday. –grumbles-