Hi guys, as far as I'm can tell no one did read Chapter 19 through (since no one wrote a single coment or anything) is that about right? That's sad because I really think it is pretty good. however here's the next one (hope some people appreciate the hard work I put in).
Chapter 21: Dreams live eternally
After some time past the Straw-hat crew went in there tents and crawled into their sleeping bags, but Luffy couldn't sleep he just couldn't let Kids' statement stay like that. So he stood up and exited his tent. He saw Kid sitting by the fireplace her guitar next to her. Luffy plug up his courage and walked towards Kid and sat vis-à-vis of her. "What's up?" Kid asked as if it was nothing, to get Luffy to come out with what he wanted.
"I'm really disappointed in you!" Luffy said huffily.
"You really believe I care about what you think about me." Kid said disbelievingly.
"I don't think you don't have a dream!" Luffy retorted, "You're just scared to go after it!"
Suddenly Kid stood up and jumped over the fire, landed in front of Luffy and collared him. "I'm not scared about anything; I merely accepted the fact as it is." Kid hissed brusquely.
"So you've basically given up." Luffy said without thinking.
Kid suddenly looked more perplexed than belligerently before she let go of Luffy and walked around the fire.
"No I haven't given up… there's just no way my dream's coming true." Kid said almost subliminally when she picked up her guitar and walked away.
"Luffy haven't we told you not to make a fuss about that!" Usopp and Chopper said as they opened their tents and walked to their capitan as Nami, Sanji, Zoro and Robin came out of their tents as well.
"Kitty-Kid has a sore past, no wonder she believes her dream won't come true." Sanji said maturely but then he became suddenly silent and listened to a melody which Kid played on her guitar sitting at the top of the hill from where Eqrado was in sight.
The beautifully melody sounded almost optimistically but became a sad touch when Kid started to sing:
"We wanted the day
But the night did stay.
At a single blow
Our plans shattered so long ago.
We were the world but now you're lost
I'd give anything to see you again, no matter what's the cost."
Kid paused the melody for a bit before she played it a little faster when she sang the refrain:
"Dreams live eternally I used to say
But it's not that way
Our time won't be over I always said
But it's not like that
I know to well you're no longer here
But I hold on to you my dear
Dreams live eternally I always said
But it only seemed like that
Not seeing you still makes me sad"
After the melody slowed down and another short pause took place Kid played the melody as in the beginning, before she sang the second verse:
"How could end a team like we used to be
I try so hard and hope you are proud of me
We were the light that kept the shadows away
But now that you're gone they hunt me everyday
Dreams live eternally I used to say
But it's not that way
Our time won't be over I always said
But it's not like that
I know to well you're no longer here
But I hold on to you my dear
Dreams live eternally I always said
But it only seemed like that."
Kid added to the anew fast melody two slaps on the guitar before she sang the bridge passage:
"Picked you up when you fell to the floor
Still you taught me much more
Encouraged me to change myself for the better
So the wrongs wouldn't matter"
Again the melody slowed down before Kid played it at first speed and sang the refrain:
"Dreams live eternally I used to say
But it's not that way
Our time won't be over I always said
But it's not like that
I know for sure you're no longer here
But I hold on to you my dear
Dreams live eternally I always said
But it only seemed like that
…
Not seeing you still makes me sad"
The melody slowed down until it finally stopped. The straw-hat crew did ascend the hill in the mean time while listening to the song. Nami and Robin looked at each other before they went to Kid and sat down next to her.
"Are you okay?" Nami asked a bit worriedly.
"A Dream causes nothing but troubles…" Kid mumbled in a flat voice.
"I thought the same way at some point, but then Luffy and the others helped me." Nami tried to cheer Kid up.
"C'mon tell me about your dream. Together as a team we can reach all our dreams!" Luffy stated but was slapped at the back of the head by Sanji.
"What was that for?" Luffy asked.
"If you'd listen to Kids past you'd know about her dream already, bubblehead!" Sanji said a bit irritated.
"But I don't care about her past I just want to know what her dream is!" Luffy explained.
"My goal was to life a happy and peaceful life with my brother." Kid undeceived Luffy.
"Then let's pick up your brother, he can be part of our crew too!" Luffy stated enthusiastically and earned a clout from Zoro who said: "Luffy, her brother was killed by pirates!"
"So that's why you hate pirates!" Luffy said surprisingly earnest after he seemed quite shocked.
"And why I'll never reach my goal…" Kid added in a flat voice.
"You just have to adjust your goal to your current situation!" Robin advised suddenly.
"Yeah Robin's right you can still live a happy life, if you want too!" Usopp said.
"Yeah and you definitely won't find anyone else who is so much fun as we are!" Chopper said eagerly.
Kid looked almost disbelievingly to the crew, before she finally said: "All right, let me reconsider your offer then, Luffy."
"Yahoo, Great!" Luffy yelled happily, because in his mind that meant she would join their crew, definitely.
"Now that that's more or less clarified, let's go to bed." Zoro stated yawing and walked in the direction of Eqrado.
"Zoro, you're walking in the wrong direction!" Chopper said, what caused Zoro to let his head hang and followed the rest of the Straw-hats and Kid down to the tents.
After a small quarrel between Zoro and Sanji, who teased Zoro because of his lack of sense of direction the Straw-hats went to there tents while Kid sat again down in front of the fire place.
When Ace awoke the next day he stretched his arms out and yawned, before he fought himself a way out of his sleeping bag when he smelled fried sausages. Ace quickly opened his tent and was surprised to see not Sanji but Kid cocking at the fireplace. Still grumpy because of the other day he went back to his sleeping bag to pack it into his kit bag, it sure wouldn't take long till at least Luffy would get up to go eat. While he rolled his sleeping bag together Ace thought about what he had witnessed last night:
Ace awoke from the noise of an impact and at first he was about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard Kid say from afar, that she hadn't given up, but there was no way that her dream would come true. Ace got up after he untangled himself from his sleeping bag and walked towards the entrance of his tent and looked through a gap and spotted Kid walking away from Luffy while holding her guitar in her hand. Just when Ace wanted to step outside he heard Usopp and Chopper speak, that they had told Luffy not to make a big deal of it. After Ace heard Sanji say that he understood why Kid didn't believe in her dream he heard Kid start playing on the guitar. When Ace saw the crew of Luffy climb up one hill he stepped out side and listened to the song Kid sang. At first he wanted to join the rest of Luffys' crew but then he remembered Kids bitchy behaviour and he just listened to the conversation the rest of the group had. Ace was surprised when he heard that Kid would think about it to join Luffys' crew, he hadn't expected that. When Ace went back into his tent he thought `Maybe she 's changing already… anyway I won't change my mind again!` Ace added in thoughts a bit annoyed when he crawled back in his sleeping bag.
"BREAKFAST! I'm first. Give me some sausages Sanji!" Ace could hear Luffy yell and he stood up to leave his tent.
"Kid?! You made breakfast for me! Thank you so much" Luffy said thankful while drooling on his plate he had grasped, when he recognized that it wasn't Sanji who had prepared breakfast.
"Kitty~Kid you're such a lovely person you made breakfast for all of us, but you could've asked me for help!" Sanji said as he approached Kid and Luffy.
"I just thought you guys were exhausted from the other day and if I'd waited for you to wake up, it would have been afternoon till we'd leave to go to Eqrado." Kid explained indifferently, even though a vain was shown on her forehead when Sanji whacked Luffy over the head.
"Stop drooling over our breakfast Kitty-Kid prepared specially for us!" Sanji scolded Luffy, while Ace aligned to the line before the rest of the Straw-hats came out of their tents too.
It didn't take long for the rest of the Straw-hats to get up and got in line for the breakfast.
"Hey that's pretty good!" Nami said after she tried the pancackes Kid made.
"…Could use some salt in it." Ace grumbled.
"Don't you dare to Insult the breakfast Kitty-Kid prepared!" Sanji yelled madly.
"He's right, a bit more salt wouldn't hurt!", Zoro admitted, " but it still tastes better than your slop!" he added to tease Sanji.
"I like it though…" Luffy said between two bites, while a severe quarrel between Sanji and Zoro flared up.
"That's not a compliment Luffy… you like pretty much everything that's food related!" Usopp commented his captain remark while Kid stood up and approached Sanji and Zoro.
"…Enough now!" Kid said a bit vexedly as she stepped in to end the fight between Sanji and Zoro by whacking them both over their heads and added in her chilly voice to the others, "Eat up quickly so we can go to Eqrado!" before she went to the fireplace to start cleaning up the frying-pans.
After some time Sanji recovered from Kids attack only to take over the cleaning of the dishes and Kid helped Zoro, who had a bump on his back head, pack his tent together.
Only 15 minutes later the group was ready to sally towards Eqrado. When the group descent the hill on the other side, the group was already awaited by the citizens of Eqrado and heard them yell: "here they come!"
A few of the citizens walked towards the group with the cart which was pulled by Luffy (under Kids watch) and started to unload it but Sanji only let the women take a few fruits so that they wouldn't get to exhausted by carrying them to the town while he defend the cart from the man by saying: "Never heard of the term lady's first? If you have the strength to walk toward us you can also show some manners!"
When the group arrived at the border of town all citizens clustered around the cart while Zoro, Robin, Ace and Kid looked intently around, the four hadn't forgotten about the marine but there was no sight of them at the border. Nami, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper distributed the food while Luffy tried to hoard a pill of meat for himself; Nami also was looking out for the daughter of the mayor. As Robin helped the citizens unload the planks with her Devil fruit abilities Zoro and Kid distributed the hoarded meat pill while Ace looked concerned down to Luffy who had been knocked down by Kid. "Zoro give me that rum." Kid demanded when she saw how Zoro drank from a bottle.
"I dunno what you're talking about" Zoro retorted as he tried to hide the bottle from Kid.
"Just as much as Luffy's not allowed to hoard meat you're not allowed to drink booze!" Kid said and approached Zoro.
"I know that…" Zoro said to Kid but then he whispered to Robin, who sat next to him "Yo help me…"
"I'm not up to get tangled up into this kind of problems." Robin explained with an offish smile as she was busy to distribute the planks anyway.
"You're too cruel…" Zoro muttered before he ran away from Kid, even though there was no use in trying.
Kid managed to overtake Zoro within seconds took the bottle of rum away and send him flying four to five meters against a wall.
"Good job Kitty-Cat! How dare he drink all the booze!" Luffy yelled, who had recovered from Kids attack, while he still was sitting quite dizzily on the ground.
Kid looked around and found a stone lying two meters away from her. When Kid jumped towards the stone Ace yelled: "Get down!" and ducked down to the ground.
"Ah Ace what's that all about?" Luffy asked.
Ace raised his head and looked around Luffy looked at him with a questioning expression on his face and Kid stood at the cart again with her back turned towards them while the stone still laid where it was. Ace growled annoyed as he stood up.
"Hey guys, Alisha's here to pick us up to go to the town hall to get our reward!" Nami yelled from the other end of the cart where also the daughter of the mayor stood, she seemed relieved that everything went so smoothly.
While Ace helped Luffy up to his feet Kid went to Zoro, who was still unconscious, and called Chopper so that he could transform into his reindeer form and Kid load Zoro onto Choppers back. As Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, with Zoro on his back Robin, Ace and Kid approached Nami and Alisha the two turned around to walk ahead.
Kid walked up to Nami and Alisha and asked: "We heard that the marine has come to this town haven't they arrived yet?"
"Yes they have arrived today, but don't worry we figured that the pirate ship belongs to you guys and since we knew you had to return eventually we hid it." the Alisha explained.
"I don't belong... ah forget it!" Kid retorted a bit annoyed when Usopp approached them.
"So did I hear correct you people hid our ship from the Marines?" Usopp asked.
"Well that and because we wanted to have a guarantee that you wouldn't get away without helping us!" Alisha answered honestly.
"So you didn't trust us to come back?" Chopper, who had closed the lines, asked.
"Of course not we have a history with pirates" explained the girl a bit more earnest but added then cheerfully, "but I'm very happy that you came back and helped us out!"
"Wait, where is our ship now!" Usopp wanted to know, he was very concerned about their ship.
"We hid it in a warehouse at the coast three kilometers southwards away from the town." Alisha answered with a smile.
When they came to a crossroad Robin and Kid noticed that two roads were blocked of by barricades. "Why are those two roads blocked?" asked Robin to her it was odd that two roads which cross each other would be blocked off.
"We needed to be sure that the Marines wouldn't get to the border of the town." Explained Alisha but with a shady smile she added, "And we had to arrange everything for leading you into a trap but since everything worked out nicely it wasn't necessary!"
"Oh boy you folks really don't trust pirates at all." Sanji stated.
"As I mentioned we have a history." Reminded Alisha but added before the group arrived at a square, "Please wait her for a second I have to check if my father's done talking to that marine Capitan."
"Are you sure they haven't told the Marines about us? What if she tells them about us right now?" Usoppe asked haggardly and looked worriedly around.
"Don't worry; we can handle a bunch of Marians." Luffy proclaimed confidently, "Right Kid?"
"Actually it would harm my reputation if I'm seen with you guys and I would be forced to leave the island." Kid explained soberly while she saw the Marine Capitan and two other Lieutenants leave the town hall.
"HEY YOU GUYS!" Luffy, who had suddenly a brilliant idea (or at least he thought it was a brilliant idea), yelled suddenly but Kid grabbed his head and smashed it against the next wall while the rest of the group was hidden from the sight of the marines.
The Marines' Capitan looked in the direction from where the yelling had come from and saw Kid with one hand waving at the Alisha and the mayor who also had left the town hall. He looked at Alisha and saw that she was waving back and turned around to continue his way eventually.
"What the heck… Are you bad shit insane?" snarled Kid after some time at Luffy while she still pushed him against the wall.
"Get over it! He just wants you to join his crew, what I definitely can't understand." Ace explained and gripped at her arm to twist it around, but ended up eventually to be the one whose arm was twisted around.
"Try that again, filthy pirate…" Kid snarled and added to Luffy, who was rubbing his face, "By the way I haven't said I would join your crew if I had to leave this island!" as she let go of Ace.
Ace turned around and kicked Kid away from him. Kid lost her balance and fell to the ground but jumped back to her feet quickly before she run towards Ace and punched him in his face. When Ace tackled Kid and dragged her to the ground Sanji yelled angrily: "Hey stop it Ace!"
But before Sanji could react Kid kicked Ace over herself while gripping at his wrists so that he hit the ground backside. Kid jumped up to her feet just when Ace turned around to lay on his belly side and breathed heavily while he struggled to get up. "Are you done with your tantrum?" Kid asked stiffly, she knew that he also struggled to hold back his devil fruit powers.
"Shut up stupid bitch!" Ace nagged spitefully.
"Hey stop insulting my Kitty-Kid!" Sanji and run towards Ace to kick him but he just blocked the hit with ease.
"What's going on here?" asked Alisha who had arrived at the scene.
"She's getting on my nerves all the time!" Ace yelled to give vent to his anger while Sanji stepped back from him.
"I'm not letting a pirate ruin my life again!" Kid explained sinisterly.
"As if your life's so fucking perfect, but not that I care!" Ace said angrily.
"It's not your business anyway." Kid retorted testily.
"Trouble in paradise?" asked the mayor who had followed his daughter and had made his assumption just when he saw Ace and Kid glare at each other.
"What?!" Kid and Ace asked simultaneously and looked at each other in disgust.
"He's definitely not my boyfriend." Kid insisted in her calm, frightening manner (what startled the mayor) while she felt how her stomach was rotating and she added as she placed her hand at her stomach while looking cranky at Ace, "And now I'm felling sick only by being around you."
"Then just leave." Ace snarled spitefully.
Kid walked away but just when Luffy wanted to follow her Kid said across her shoulder: "don't worry; I just go to the next pharmacy… See you guys later!"
"Should I give you something?" Chopper asked.
"I need to get away from him or I puke" explained Kid as she continued her way.
"Oh I am sorry for that… it was not my intention to upset her." Apologized the mayor and added, "I just got the feeling that you two would complement each other pretty well at first sight."
"Here we go, now I'm feeling sick as well." Ace said as he felt his stomach started turning upside down and the mayor slapped his palm against his mouth.
"Sorry… I better shut my mouth…" the mayor mumbled.
"Ah that's okay the two of them just hate each other!" Luffy explained while Zoro, who had woken up got back on his feet.
"Should I give you something for your stomach?" asked Chopper Ace when he turned back to his usual form and rummaged in his doctor bag.
"No I'll be okay; just leave me be for a while…" Ace insured a bit sickly and wandered off.
"However how about we come to business." Nami tried to get back on track, she still wanted her reward and that was all she could think of at the moment.
"Sure, please follow me to the town hall." The mayor said thankfully that Nami changed the subject and led the group to the town hall.
The song is originally called Träume leben ewig (Dreams live eternally) and is sung by Christina Stürmer.
In this chapter I tried to give the canon characters more of their usual depths because up to this point I pretty much just portrayed them one dimensional. Please let me know in your comment if you liked my take on giving them more personality.