Hey guys! Again, I apologize for taking so long.

Enjoy~

PREVIOUSLY:

"For now, you can sleep here," Nami smiled as she pointed to a bed.

"…Th-thank… y-" Ruri immediately fell asleep when she lay on the bed.

"It looks like, she hasn't had sleep in a while," Nami put a blanket over Ruri.

"I wouldn't be able to either if I was her," Robin muttered.

"Huh? What was that?" Nami turned to face Robin who was exiting the room.

"Nothing, just talking to myself," Robin left the room and searched around in the library. She took some newspapers from 5 years ago and started reading it.

"Hmm, so I was right… Ah, oh well, you can't hide something like this forever, Ruri," Robin placed the newspaper back.

"I guess I should tell everyone else first…" Robin thought to herself. "Or maybe it's not that serious…"

The next day, Ruri woke up, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, good morning Ruri-chan," Nami greeted her with a smile.

A feeling of guilt struck Ruri.

"N-Nami! I'm… sorry…" Ruri bowed.

"Sorry? Ruri-chan… For what?" Nami's heart started pounding.

Ruri looked as if she was going to cry.

"Ruri-chan? What's wrong?" Nami tried to put a hand to see if she had a fever.

But Ruri slapped it away.

"Don't touch me!" Ruri yelled. "You'll hate me after I tell you, I'm sorry Nami, I really am. You're not the bad person I thought you were…"

"Huh? W-what are you going on about?" Nami's heart was pounding, faster and faster.

"…I…I…" Ruri panicked. But she needed to let it out.

CHAPTER 7: PLEASE WAKE UP

Zoro barged in and whispered "There's trouble. Get down and hide, now."

"Eh? Why? What happened?" Nami whispered back.

"Pirates… The captain has a high bounty too and is fairly strong…They want Ruri." Zoro exited the room again.

"Tch," Ruri looked frustrated. She started stomping her way towards the door.

"What do you think you're doing?" Nami grabbed her wrist just before she could.

"…They're after me, so there's no reason for you guys to get involved." Ruri, again, continued to avoid eye contact.

"Ruri-chan, this is no time to play games. If Zoro says they're 'fairly strong' then that's our cue to listen to him when he tells us to hide. Leave it to Zoro and the others, they'll protect us." Nami guided Ruri to the beds and got her to sit down.

For a while they sat quietly on the beds listening to arguing amongst the hostile pirates and Luffy laughing.

"…Nami… It's my fault…" Ruri looked down to the floor.

"What is?" Nami was scared. She felt like her heart would explode.

Ruri finally made eye contact.

"I injected you with a disease…"

Everything went silent for a while.

"Hehe, sorry, I think I heard you wrong, could you repeat tha-"

"I injected you with a rare disease called H-03… I doubt you've heard of it, or even a great doctor like Chopper, actually probably no one on this planet except my father and I know of it." Ruri stared at the floor boards half-expecting to be slapped.

"Ahaha, good one Ruri-chan. You almost got me there. Don't joke around like that; you scared me, haha…" Nami didn't want to believe it.

Without turning her head, Ruri extended her hand towards Nami and placed a finger on Nami's chest.

(Just to let you know but by chest I mean her heart area not her tatas).

"It hurts a lot, right? It feels like it's going to explode right?" Ruri placed her hands on her lap.

Again, it was quite silent for a while.

"What exactly is H-03?" Nami asked.

"…H-03 is a failed experiment my father accidentally created. When I was younger, my father was experimenting a lot… I found out that he's a prodigy in accidentally making deadly artificial diseases… Hehe, he was such a klutz…" Ruri smiled. But the smile soon turned to an emotionless face. "H-03 was the 3rd artificial disease he accidentally created. What H-03 does is that it slowly destroys your heart and decreases blood flow. Eventually, your heart will explode. But the pain itself could kill you before exploding…"

"B-But why me?" Nami panicked. "Why would you inject me with that thing?"

"…Because you're a navigator…"

"Why does that matter?!"

"… Because when I turned 10, my father would store them somewhere but not throw them away. As a 10 year old, I was curious and started playing around with them all. When I told my friend about it, it was supposed to be a secret… But, she told her father who was a pirate and then word got out that my father was making deadly diseases. Since he was always really busy in his hidden lab, everybody was interrogating me asking me where his lab is, wanting to buy them off him. But my father being my father, I knew he would refuse to give it to them anyway so I didn't answer. Eventually, the news got to pirates…" Ruri crossed her arms and started shivering.

"…Ruri…" Nami empathized.

"…And then I got kidnapped. Crew after crew after crew, I just kept getting kidnapped. They kept threatening my dad to give them what they wanted in exchange of getting his own daughter back. But, if he gave it to them, lots more people would die. So, he ignored the fact I was kidnapped. Compared to his own daughter dying against thousands of people dying, really, anyone would've made the same choice."

Nami couldn't keep up; she was sweating, pain stretching not just at her chest but all over her body.

"… Then I-… Nami!" Ruri yelled as Nami breathed faster and fell to the floor as she gripped her chest.

When Ruri bent down to help, she turned in surprise as pirates slammed the door open and swarmed inside the room. But they weren't part of the Strawhats; they were part of a different crew.

"Hah, Ruri. We finally found you." The pirate in front of everyone else smiled showing his ugly teeth. "Tie her up. Tie the other chick up too."

The last thing Nami saw was Ruri jumping in front of Nami to protect her and the pirates attempting to attack her. Then she passed out.

"Wake up. Please. Wake up." Nami told herself.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Hi there. If you have any questions or whatever, feel free to ask on /sarubachan :)