Beast Within
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.
What were those two strangers doing there? It's bad enough I have to deal with those three intruders, I have to deal with two more strangers snooping around the house...!
The boy with the wicked scar and shaggy brown hair darted through the forest, jumping over wood and small creeks, which he had memorized years before.
I wish they'd just leave me alone!
Hearing voices approach the area, the boy ducked into a giant knothole in a large, thick tree nearby. He knew this place well, he had hidden himself in it many times in the past. It served him well, and it was going to serve him again. Poking his head just above the rim of the knothole, the boy watched as the two strangers from the house stop a short distance away.
Them again? I thought they'd be at the village by now...who are these two, and what do they want? Are they working with the ones shooting up my forest?!
"C'mon, Captain, what are you thinking, I know you're hiding something from me?" the black-haired female demanded, putting her hands on her hips, "Spill,"
The male turned to her and crossed his arms, "That innkeeper back in the village...,"
"What about her?"
"She was right, there is something about these guys," Axe said, referring to the mercs from before, "Don't tell me you didn't get a bad vibe from them earlier?"
"Well...,"
"Exactly!" Axe nodded, "Listen, she's right. I got a gut feeling those guys are up to something...,"
"What are you talking about?"
Axe rubbed his chin, "Don't you find it even a little odd, that while this village has been terrorized by a wolf-creature for so long, three outsiders just happen to show up and take care of the problem overnight?"
"Maybe they're just good at their job? You saw Indora's hide on his back!" Kairi's face turned into confusion, "I thought you wanted to warn them about something...?"
He shook his head, "No...no, something's not right here, I can feel it in my gut-,"
"Are you sure that's not hunger, because I've seen how often you eat...?"
Axe shot Kairi a glare, "I'm serious, Kairi. There is something really wrong here, and we have to find out what it is before something worse happens,"
"What's worse then a wolf tearing people to shreds?"
"Hell, I dunno, I was just saying...," Axe rubbed the bridge of his nose, "...look. The village is in trouble, and before we leave we have to find out what is going on with the mercenaries. Doesn't your God say something about helping out your fellow man or something?"
"You been reading my Bible?"
"Oh, don't get mad, I had nothing else to do on the boat ride to the East Blue...,"
The two strangers left the area, still talking about the mercenaries and the hidden threat on the horizon, while the boy climbed out of the knothole in the tree and watched them walk off.
You shouldn't get involved with this island... he reached up and felt the scar on his neck, You'll get hurt.
"This is not what we agreed on, mercenary!"
Indora chuckled as he sat in front of the village chief, his feet planted on the table between them. Outside, his two companions were going through the village, taking whatever they wanted as payment for their services.
"You said you'd pay us for the trouble-,"
"This isn't payment, this is robbery!"
"Maybe to you," Indora pointed at him with a thick finger, "But the deal was we get rid of the wolves around here and we get paid for our troubles-,"
"You've only killed one wolf!"
"If you can't pay, then we'll just help ourselves to what we want! If you got a problem with that," Indora slowly rose from the seat, gripping his axe, "We can always settle this like men?"
The village chief just glared daggers at him.
"Good ossan, very good," Indora chuckled, planting his axe over his shoulder, "If you can't pay with money, we'll pay with food, clothes, anything we like and if you have a problem with that, we can go a few rounds and see who wins and who loses?"
Silence filled the meeting hall.
"So glad you see it our way," Indora turned and headed towards the door, "We'll be finished by tonight. Flint will give you a list of what we'd like when we return, so have that ready or else you're in a lot of trouble, you old bastard,"
With that, Indora left the meeting hall and the chief was left alone to regret his decision to bring in these warriors-for-hire.
"Why are we here again?"
"Kairi, don't you read stories?"
"Not very often, what being a Holy Knight and a priestess...,"
Axe helped his First Mate onto the deck of the mercenaries small ship, "Listen, whenever there's something bad going on, or when there are suspicious people around, they're always hiding stuff at their hideout! In this case, if there's anything to prove my gut feeling, it'll be here on the ship,"
"And if it's not?"
"I just hope we can get out of here before they come back to kill us for trespassing,"
Kairi stared at him.
"What?"
She shook her head and looked around the boat, "Okay, so where do we start looking?"
Axe planted a hand on her shoulder, "How's about you check their cabins, and I'll check below deck?" he suggested.
"I dunno...," Kairi bit her lip.
"Okay, how about I check below deck and you check the cabins?"
She nodded, "That will work," she started to make her way to the rooms when she stopped, realizing she had just been duped, "Hey!" she turned around to scold her captain, but he was already out of sight, having made his way below deck as she thought things over.
"God, if you're ever in a smiting mood...," she rubbed her temple, "Oy vey,"
As Kairi checked the mercenaries room above, Axe snooped around below deck. He didn't know if she had found anything, since they had just begun their search, but he sure found something interesting.
Carcasses.
Plenty of animal carcasses stashed in about half of the ship's cargo area, and most of them appeared to be large wolves.
Seems like this isn't the only place where they've been hunting animals for a living... he looked at a nearby carcass, whose head was missing most of it's form, probably due to a gunshot from one of the two gun-toting mercs, Flint and Jim, Nasty!
"Captain!"
Axe turned his head to see Kairi running down the stairs, "What is it, something wrong?"
Kairi shook her head and held up a bunch of papers, "No, but I found something you may wanna see!"
"What is that?" Axe asked, glancing at the papers.
She thrust them towards him, "They keep records about their jobs, as well as personal notes about each one,".
"Is that so?" Axe grabbed the papers and leafed through them, nodding as he skimmed through the documents, "Why am I not surprised?"
"We have to tell them, we have to show this to the villagers!"
"Got that right," Axe stuffed the papers into his pocket and grabbed the nearly headless wolf carcass nearby, "Might come in handy...c'mon, let's get out of here,"
"We are so lost,"
"We're not lost,"
"Yes, we are,"
"No, we're not,"
"Yes, we are!"
"No, we're not!"
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Are not!" Axe came to a halt, dropped the wolf carcass and turned to Kairi, "We are not lost, Kairi!"
The swords woman waved her arms around the thick forest they were in, "We've been wandering around these woods for twenty minutes at least, and you won't stop-,"
"Why should I stop?" Axe demanded, "Should I stop and ask for directions to the village? Brilliant idea!" he looked around and stomped over to a large mushroom patch, "Excuse me, Fungi Family, would you happen to know where the village is from here?"
Kairi frowned as he turned around to face her.
"Looks like they won't help us, Kairi, you want me to ask the chipmunks and squirrels next?"
The First Mate just rolled her eyes at him, "What is with you today, Captain?"
"What do you mean?"
"Before, you wanna go off and warn the mercs to be careful, then all of a sudden you get a bad feeling about them and after going through their stuff, you wanna head back to the village to warn them!" she shook her head, "You keep going into different moods and missions, I don't know what to make of it,"
Axe shrugged, grinning, "What can I say, I'm complex?"
"Or an idiot," Kairi muttered under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing,"
"For two people, you certainly make a lot of noise...,"
The two treasure hunters turned their heads to see the boy from before sitting on a large boulder nearby, looking straight at them.
"Oh, it's you," Kairi waved at him, "Maybe you can help us, we're lost and we need-,"
"You shouldn't be lost in these woods," the boy cut her off, "It's dangerous,"
"Yes, we know," Kairi nodded, "We're aware of the situation with monsters living in these woods, but-,"
"There's only one monster on this island," the boy cut her off again, shifting on the rock. Axe noticed him touching the scar on his neck.
The leader cleared his throat, "Yes, we know there's only one monster here, and his name is Indora,"
The boy looked at him, "He's a monster...?"
"Well, sure! He's a bad guy, and he's about to screw around with the village!" Kairi looked around, "But we need to find our way back from here, or else we won't be able to help!"
"Help?" the boy tilted his head, "Why help the village?"
Kairi blinked, surprised by that question, "What do you mean?"
The boy slid off the rock and dusted himself off as he landed near them, "I asked 'Why help the village?', I don't see why you would,"
Axe and Kairi exchanged glances.
"Well, for one thing, it's the right thing to do, helping villages when one can," Kairi said slowly.
"But you're not part of the village, so why?"
"Why?" the former Knight crossed her arms, "Why? The only 'why' question I wanna know the answer to is why you're sounding like you don't want to help the village you belong to?"
The boy shook his head, "I'm not part of the village,"
"...what? Wait a minute, who are you, anyway?"
"A kid,"
Axe groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Okay, you know what, we're kinda low on time here, so if you're not gonna cut us some slack and help us get back to the village, I'm gonna pound on you, then head back to the village,"
The boy looked at him for a moment, then looked back at Kairi, "My name is Toby. Toby Dicey. You happy now?"
"Well, actually-,"
"Yes, we're happy we know something at least," Kairi cut her captain off, "But I'd also like to know what you not being part of the village? I mean, you'd have to be to live on this island, but you're-,"
"Kairi,"
She turned to Axe, "I'm talking, don't interrupt, it's rude!"
"Kairi!" Axe glanced at her, "You haven't figured it out yet?"
"Huh? Figured out what?"
The young treasure hunter pointed to the boy, "You're that kid, aren't you? The kid who disappeared seven years ago!"
Toby only stared at him while Kairi's face became shocked.
"What?" she looked at the boy, then back at her leader, "Wait, when did you-?"
"Back when we first met him," he shrugged, "It was kinda easy to figure out, I'm surprised you didn't figure it out like I did,"
Kairi's eye twitched, "Well, you mind explaining to me what's going on?"
"Of course, I'd be happy to do so," Axe cleared his throat and turned to Toby, "Seven years ago, you were bitten by a wild animal while looking for your father, who was the best hunter in the village, and because of that, you got sick as well as that scar on your neck,"
Toby touched the scar gently, his eyes having a distant look in them.
"After that night seven years ago, you were dragged away by a wild animal again, but instead of bleeding to death, you managed to survive somehow and you've been living in the forest ever since!" Axe scracted his head, "Though, I'm not sure how this explains why you're asking why one should help the village, or why you haven't been living with the villagers after all this time...,"
Toby closed his eyes and chuckled a little, "You're a smart one, aren't you?"
"Well, I'm no genius, but I do manage to piece the simple things together...,"
Kairi raised her hand, "I'm sorry to intrude on this, and I'm glad to know who this boy is and I'm also glad to know he's still alive after all this time and all, but the village...? Remember, the village that we need to get to and warn?"
"I don't know what you wanted to warn them against, but," Toby pointed to something in the sky, behind them, "I think you're too late,"
Kairi and Axe turned to see smoke rising into the air above the treelines.
"They're torching the village?!" Axe stared, "But...that doesn't make any sense!" he pulled the papers from his pocket and looked at them, "It just doesn't!"
"This isn't good, we gotta help them!" Kairi urged, turning to the other two, "We have to!"
Toby sat down, "I don't have to do anything. If you two strangers want to go and save the village from whatever's befallen it, then go ahead, it's got nothing to do with me,"
Kairi glared at him, "That's your village, Toby, how could you-?"
"It's not my village anymore!" Toby snapped, "It stopped being my village years ago, so it can burn to the ground and all of them can just die for all I care!"
"I...I can't believe you just said that!" Kairi turned to Axe, "Captain, you hear that?"
Axe glanced at Toby, then nodded, "Aye, I heard him, Kairi,"
"Well?! What are you gonna do about it?!"
"...nothing,"
"WHAT?!"
Axe turned and started to head for the village, "We can't force someone to do what they don't wish to do, Kairi. C'mon, if he doesn't want to help, then he doesn't have to help. You and I, however, are the ones who want to help, so we have to,"
"But, Captain!"
"But nothing, Kairi, now c'mon!"
The First Mate stood there, stammering, not believing what she had just witnessed. After a few moments, she turned and slapped Toby hard across the face.
"Coward! You won't even fight for your home...," she shook her head, anger showing as clear as day.
The young boy just sat there, his cheek burning as Kairi ran off after her Captain.
The former Holy Knight quickly caught up with him, her anger still showing.
"Guess it's just you and me, Captain," she muttered, "Looks like we're alone on this one,"
"Seems like it," Axe adjusted the large weapon on his back, "Still, two is better than none,"
"I suppose...,"
Toby watched the two strangers disappear from sight, then raised his hand and felt his burning cheek where he got slapped just a short time before.
You think you know everything, don't you? You think that it could be so easy to go back to the place I called home, the place where my family lived until that night? This is why I don't care for strangers, or even the familiar villagers of Kohaku, you have no idea what I have gone through, what I have endured, what I have suffered since that night!
He lowered his arm and looked at it as it began to change. Wincing, Toby watched as the arm grew larger and thick, dark, coarse hair quickly grew from beneath his flesh. Moments later, he winced again as his limb returned to it's normal, less hairy state of form.
You don't know what it's like...having to go through that, year after year!
Kilnorc: Okay, that chapter's FINALLY done with. -rubs eyes- I had some troubles with this chapter more than once, so I'm sorry if it's not what you expected, but I did what I could to make it work. A bit confusing, perhaps, but it'll be revealed fully in the next few chapters or so.
On the next chapter of Secret Origin...
Indora: Dammit, it didn't have to be like this! Oh well, can't be helped.
Axe: Kairi, get everyone you can find to safety, I'm gonna go after that big guy!
Kairi: All this for money...it just sickens me!
Flint: Way of the world. You learn fast or die.
Save Kohaku Village!
Toby: This isn't even their village, why are they fighting for it?