Chapter 52
Insectophobia : A Chronicler In Trouble

Watching the city of Mock Town slowly disappearing from her sight, a frustrated sigh escaped Eli's lips. Apparently, the pirates were abnormally unlucky to set foot on this part of Jaya first. During the chronicler's search for the sharpshooter, Luffy, Zoro and Nami went into town to gather information on the sky islands and were hostilely received by a crew of pirates who claimed themselves as 'Pirates of the New Age'. A new age where pirates who dreamed were no more... Thus the three Straw Hats didn't manage to get any clues about their dreamlike quest and returned to their ship slightly piqued.

Fortunately, during her shopping, the resourceful Robin obtained a map of Jaya as well as the location of a house inhabited by an interesting man. The man was exiled from Mock Town for his dreams; his name was Montblanc Cricket. Hopefully, he might be able to give them the information they needed. Consequently, right after getting back to the Merry, the adventurous pirates set course to the east coast of Jaya in order to meet with him.

After two hours, the little ship was getting closer to the mark on the map, and soon the pirates found themselves gawking in awe at the sight of an amazing and colorful house, or more accurately, a castle. A small castle, but a castle nevertheless. Immaculate white walls, large windows ornamented with flashy borders, and multiple round and colorful roofs; it looked as if it was just taken from a fairytale. However, as the pirates set foot on the island, they quickly found out that it was only a large board and that the real house was rather small and simple.

It seemed that, once again, the Straw Hats' adventure was dependent on another eccentric individual.

Looking around the house in search for its weird occupant like the rest of the pirates, Eli caught sight of a little book resting on a stump. Curious, the chronicler took it and observed its cover. It was apparently a children's book, slightly worn-out but sill in a good condition.

"King of Liars, Norland," the chronicler read the tile of the book out loud.

"Norland... That brings back old memories," Sanji said. Lighting a cigarette, he took a step toward Eli and looked at the little book. "I used to read it a lot."

Nami took the children's book from Eli's hands to take a look at it as well.

"You know it ?" the navigator asked as she was looking at the inner cover. "It says here that it was published in North Blue."

"Ah, yes." A broad smile on his face, Sanji nodded. "I was born in North Blue, didn't I tell you ?"

"News to me," Usopp said.

"For me too," Eli said quietly.

Eli had no idea that Sanji was born in North Blue, even though she had spent half a year working with him at the Baratie, and then months as a fellow crewmate. Turning her head around, the chronicler looked a each of the pirates. In the end, the whole crew seemed to have secrets, and she no exception. Yet, it wasn't like she wanted to conceal her past, the topic just never came up. Except when...

Watching Ace, Eli bit her bottom lip, feeling remorse raising inside of her. The young man had revealed the secret of his origins, and after that tender night, she had thought she should have done the same. But her memories were too painful and sharing them with her friend would have only brought sadness to his eyes.

"What ?" Ace asked, apparently very aware of the girl's gaze on him.

"Nothing," Eli said. Embarrassed, she shifted her eyes toward the children's book. "Let's read it, shall we ?"

Nami cleared her throat and began the reading.

"This is a very old story, a story that happened over 400 years ago...

In a country somewhere in the northern seas, there was a man named Montblanc Norland. Norland was an explorer and his stories were always grand adventures that sounded like lies. But the people of the village could never tell if they were true or not.

One day, Norland came back from an expedition and reported to the king. "I saw a mountain of gold on an island across the great seas." To see for himself, the brave king took 2, 000 warriors and crossed the great seas in his ship. They braved powerful storms and huge sea monsters.

Finally, after going through many hardships, the king, Norland, and 100 soldiers landed on the island. But what they found there was nothing but jungle.

Norland was sentenced to death for his lies. These were his last words. "I know ! The mountain of gold sunk into the ocean !" But nobody believed Norland anymore, and he never stopped lying until he was dead."

"And the liar was never able to become a great warrior of the sea." Nami said sadly. "The end."

"WHAT !" Usopp yelled bewilderingly. Frowning, he pointed an accusative finger in the direction of the redhead. "You just added that !"

Hearing a loud splashing sound, the pirates heads snapped in the direction of a man emerging from the waters, precisely where Luffy was standing less than a minute ago.

The man was shirtless and extremely muscular, he had short blond hair and a large chestnut on his head that resembled the one on Norland's picture. The pirates identified him as Montblanc Cricket on the spot.

An angry expression on his face, he took a martial fighting stance and Ace stood instantly in front of him as his opponent while Sanji dove into the sea to rescue Luffy.

Straightaway, Montblanc shot his leg toward Ace's face who barely evaded it, side-stepping at the last moment. The man whipped his leg to the side swiftly, and the flame user evaded once more crouching on the spot before launching a powerful hook, sending the chestnut-man flying a few meters away. Focused, Montblanc regained his balance in the air and executed several backward somersaults before taking his fighting stance again.

All the while, Eli watched the fight eagerly. Montblanc's movements were swift and graceful yet powerful enough to knock the flame user away as he managed to place a perfect kick in his ribs, and that was quite an achievement. It seemed that their strength were equal, making the girl wonder if the flame user would have to use his devil abilities to take down his opponent.

However, the fascinating duel was soon interrupted as Montblanc lost consciousness with a loud pained cry although Ace did not lay a hit on him.

As Chopper was examining Montblanc, Eli followed Ace and Zoro outside to give the little doctor some space. Without a word, the two young men walked away from the house, and sat down, apparently discussing the man's fighting style.

Narrowing her eyes, Eli watched Ace's back intensely, a deadly stare apparently extremely inefficient, making the girl grunt at her obvious lack of psychic powers. Once more, he was ignoring her, preferring the company of another crewmate to hers, and once more, she found herself rather annoyed by his mysterious attitude. Yet, this little game of his she could play too, and so Eli took her book in her hands, pretended to read, and started to walk casually in his direction. Without giving him a look, ignoring him the way he did, just to make him feel the way she did.

However, as she got closer to him, her heartbeats increased significantly, thus making her 'casual' walk lose its casualness. Focusing hardly on her every step, trying her best to act as naturally as possible, the girl didn't see a root standing in her path. As her foot got caught in the treacherous obstacle, Eli's mind went blank for a second while she fell flat on the floor oh so ungracefully, right next to the young man.

Stretched out at full length on the ground, Eli felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment against the pages of her log book.

"Are you okay ?" Ace asked from behind her, making Eli wish she could just disappear from the surface of the planet, forever.

Briskly she stood up, mumbling words that even she could not understand, and marched over to the edge of the forest under the two young men's puzzled stares.

Idiot, idiot, idiot ! Clenching her eyelids closed, Eli pressed her forehead on a tree's trunk.

How stupid she must have looked. How stupid she was. The girl now knew that she had absolutely no talent in those little mind games. Yet, it was too late, she had make a fool of herself, right before his very eyes and nothing will ever erase the shame she had felt.

"Idiot..." Eli whined, clutching her precious book against her chest where her heart throbbed painfully.

It was all his fault. This stupid young man and his stupid, stupid, game. Why couldn't things return to the way they were before ? And why could he talk to her like he did before ?

Hearing leaves rustling behind her, Eli spun on her heels and as the rustle became louder, she felt expectation shooting inside of her. He was here, coming to her, at last, and Eli had no idea how to react.

Playing hundreds of scenario at the speed of light in her mind, the girl opted for a casual introduction, 'Hey'. It should work just fine. Then, he would ask her once more if she was alright and at that moment she would have to be extremely focused to prevent any blush from appearing on her face. She would reassure him, maybe with a note of humor, and then move onto a more comfortable subject; Montblanc's fight just seemed like the perfect topic.

Seeing a bush fluttering in front of her, Eli swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and focused on the muscles of her face, forcing a surprised, yet welcoming expression.

In the end, Eli did not have to force the surprise at all. Zoro popping out of the bush instead of Ace was such a shock that the girl found her jaw falling down as she watched the swordsman dusting the leaves off his clothes.

"Zo... Zoro...?" she stammered, gaping stupidly at the young man. "What... what are you doing here ?"

The swordsman cocked an eyebrow, watching Eli questioningly. After a few seconds of an intense staring contest, he sighed deeply. His arms folded, the young man looked rather annoyed.

"Ace sent me," he said, turning his head over his shoulder in the direction of the clearing.

"ACE !" Eli's eyes widened in shock, and soon a frown darkened her face. "What the hell ?"

"He said that you were pretty skilled at getting yourself into trouble..." Zoro shrugged, and the girl's eyes filled with anger.

Pretty skilled at getting myself into trouble... Eli's rage burnt up tremendously each time she replayed the words in her mind. How dare he...?

Huffing, the furious girl swirled and marched deeper into the forest, ignoring Zoro's presence as well as his warnings. The forest was getting darker and she stubbornly kept on with her walk. Zoro was calling out her name, but she just grunted back scornfully. She ignored the multiple human skeletons lying on her path and marched forward while picturing herself hitting Ace with all of her might and speed. In the end, the only thing that managed to slow her frantic walk down was the sight of hundreds of giant mantises' surrounding her and the swordsman.

"Damn it, Eli !" Zoro yelled when the entomophobe jumped on his back, feeling goosebumps popping all over her skin.

"Kill them !" she screamed frantically.

However, the frenzied fear that struck her as she was witnessing all of her worst nightmares coming true caused the girl to hold onto the swordsman so tightly that he could hardly make any movements.

The mantises got closer and Zoro grunted. The young man unsheathed his swords and took an approximate fighting stance. As the giant predators got close enough to the pair, Eli's terrified shrieks became very unbearable and while he was yelling back at her, the swordsman unleashed his attacks on the belligerent insects.

"Left, left !" Eli yelled. "ABOVE !" Her eyes moving in all the direction, she gave the swordsman the position of the assailants. "They're all around ! Do a swirling thiiiing !"

The swordsman was efficient and very powerful despite Eli's tight grip on his back. He managed to take at least two dozens of mantises down in a few minutes. But the flow of insects seemed endless and Eli digging her nails deep into his skin was apparently not very helpful. Extremely outnumbered, the two pirates ended up separated, a group of the dreadful army tearing the girl off her bodyguard.

"ZOROOOOOO !" she yelled as the group took her into a cave swarming with mantises.

The cave was deep and dark, and the sounds of the legions of insect reverberating from all over was torturous to her ears. Eli looked with disgust at some paths giving out to rooms filled with hundreds of squishing cocoons. She had to do something, anything in spite of the phobia incapacitating her mind. Struggling and yelling, the entomophobe managed to knock some of her kidnappers down, but before she could unleash her fury against the rest, the shrewd insects tied her up with vines and silently resumed with their walk through the frightening cave filled with her shrilling wails.

It was only when they arrived in a large, open, and thankfully, empty space, that the disgusting insects threw the hysterical girl roughly on the ground before walking out of the room backward, closing the entrance behind them with a large boulder.

Sitting up, Eli rapidly observed her surroundings. It seemed like she was in the end of the cave. Faint rays of light were piercing through an opening in the high ceiling. A route of escape apparently, yet it was twenty meters above the ground at least, and it seemed that there was no path to reach it.

At any rate, she was alone and so managed to calm her frantic mind.

"You are not alone, my dear," said a deep a feminine voice.

Surprised, Eli stood up and looked around in search for the woman, but saw nothing.

"Where are-"

"Look higher small one..."

Eli narrowed her eyes, trailing up the back of the cave. A glimmer, and then a large shadow slowly detaching from the muddy wall. The girl felt blood rushing out of her face seeing a gigantic mantis towering a dozen of meters above her.

"There", the huge mantis said playfully, and at this instant, Eli noticed that is was speaking directly into her mind. "You are a cute one, aren't you ?"

Hearing the colossus' mandible munching closer, Eli took a few trembling steps back and gasped as her back came in contact with the wall.

"It is natural to be afraid, my dear." The giant mantis got close enough for Eli to see her own, dread-stricken reflexion in her big, globulous eyes. "It is your wedding day after all."

Oh god... As the mantis reached out to caress Eli's cheek with the tip of her spiked and sharp foreleg, the girl's mind went blank, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

Eli hit the ground with a muffled thud, the cruel laughs of the monstrous mantis resonating through her blurry mind.

to be continued

Betaed by Fox MC.

I'm so tired that I can't seem to find the words to write this note...
What to say, what to say...?

Well, I loooove writting nervous Eli.
She's a bit like me: impetuous, headless, intense, etc...

Oh and yeah, I gave Zoro and our favorite chronicler a little adventure.
Even if I don't particularly like the grumpy swordsman, I like seeing him and Eli together :)

And mantises... Aren't they just creepy ? *shivers*

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please tell me what you thought of it, and see you soon~