Title: On the Ocean Blue
Written By: NikoArtagnan
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Adventure
Rating: T, will eventually go to M
Summary: An outcast from Earth is flung headfirst into a hostile, unforgiving world, and finds themselves tagging along with a very particular crew of misfit pirates, and the boy who wants to be the King of them all. But this isn't the world of One Piece you thought you knew, and there are terrible things lurking in the shadows...
Chapter-Specific Warnings: Mentioned rape/death/assault
Chapter Four:
I Shouldn't Find This So Funny
The moment the Two Capes had come close enough, Kelly leapt out of the ship, Shere tucked into the Sack, Gin stuffed into the pocket pouch in the front of her jacket. She landed easily on the grass and quickly watched the ensuing drama as the Straw Hats saw Laboon and proceeded to freak the hell out.
She cackled as she hid behind a tree at their panic, and proceeded to nearly kill herself laughing as Luffy shot a cannonball into the whale's belly and then punched it in the eye. She kept giggling even the Straw Hat's ship vanished into Laboon's enormous maw and Luffy managed to fling himself on top.
But the humor vanished when she heard Luffy's screams.
"SPIT THEM UP!" There was pain in his voice. "THEY'RE MY NAKAMA AND WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE! GIVE THEM BACK!"
The smile on her lips faded as a memory forced its way to the forefront of her mind.
"GIVE HER BACK!" The rain was cold but her tears were so hot. "PLEASE GOD…"
She could hear Luffy's next words mixed with the words inside her own head, and she fought the urge to choke.
"THEY'RE IMPORTANT TO ME!"
"SHE WAS EVERYTHING TO ME!"
Kelly leaned back against the palm tree she'd been hiding behind, and sighed.
"Well, now I feel like a shitty person."
"It's not like they're dead," Shere Khan said, grooming herself by her Mistress's feet.
"Well, yeah, I know that and you know that, but the Rubberband Man over there doesn't. I was laughing at their panic, at their fear, while he thinks his nakama are dead. That doesn't make me feel like a good person. At all." She rubbed her face and groaned. "God damn it, why can't these people still be just characters to me?"
She yawned and sat down, leaning against the tree.
"We'll have to wait a bit. I'm going to take a nap. I'll need my energy to do the spell that'll let me talk with Laboon and I want to do some work on my mindscape. Shere, take watch. Tell me when Laboon surfaces." She closed her eyes and began to meditate, feeling the magic roll through her body like thunder as she fell deeper into her own subconscious.
She stood on the floor of a vast ocean that swarmed with countless life. Everything from the smallest goldfish to the mightiest Sea Kings swam here, brushing up against her legs and arms with casual intimacy or swimming carefully by so she could run her fingers over their scales, fur, hair, skin.
She walked along the sandy-gravel floor, her hair unbound and flowing free above and behind her, draped in a translucent dress the color of a pearl. Her scales glimmered in the light that filtered down from the sun thousands of miles above the ocean and her smile was as free as she could never afford to be in real life.
Here, she was not scarred. Here, her scales were just another part of her. Here, she was beautiful. And it was here that she was most at home.
In the distance lay a castle crafted from coral in colors like the rainbow on steroids, from which toe-tapping, soul-thumping amalgamation of music from around the world she'd left behind drifted towards her like a siren's song.
On the gravel path she took, she could see the blackness and cracked ground from the day she'd…well…
She'd been working like mad to bring this place back to its original glory. She'd spent days on the cruise ship working on the ruined parts of the castle itself, but what little was left there would have to wait.
She stepped from the path, and headed to a large patch of black, smoky ground several yards away. Once she reached it, she sat down, and let the rolling magic spill from her limbs, sinking into the sad, torn ground.
Laboon's voice was a song, full of grief and pain and heartache beyond measure. Kelly opened her mouth and sang back, with words that were not words and full of just as much anguish as his.
He spoke of a man with strange markings on his face and dark blond hair with a voice that boomed like a drum. He spoke of another man with a black bush of hair and a melodious voice paired with the music that had soothed him as nothing else ever had. He spoke of a family whom he followed on a ship flying a pirate's flag high, lured by love and acceptance and the music that had become a part of him as few things ever could. He spoke of a promise he'd remembered for decades and would remember for decades more.
She spoke of a home far, far away from everything she now knew as reality, where her own family lived, a father with spices in his scent, a mother with smiles in her eyes, a sister and brother in all but blood who knew her like no one else ever would, and another girl with her heart in her eyes as she looked at the girl who'd saved her. She spoke of a blond haired woman with love in her eyes and eyes as blue as the sea, who vanished under the claws of a multi-limbed beast. She spoke of her new friends, small and sleek but so much more than that, and of the magic that allowed her to sing to him.
She also spoke of the man still waiting for him, and of the man who would give him the strength to wait even longer. Just wait, just wait, she sang to him. Let him challenge you, let him help you live.
Because while Laboon loved his nakama, it was so hard to keep going after so long.
She rested against the tree, snoozing with one eye cracked, as the Merry Go and Crocus emerged from Laboon's mouth. And after she'd offered a convincing enough explanation, charmed Nami into forgetting that Kelly had jumped ship, and heard Crocus tell Laboon's story, she sat back and waited, and smiled as Luffy gave her friend a reason to live.
Tears bubbled from those enormous eyes, and Laboon let out a burbling boom of a sound that made the ears of all the humans on board ache, but to her was something else entirely.
Thank you, Magus…
She had to bite her lip harshly to keep the tears from misting her eyes.
But a voice cut through her sentimentality.
"And who are you, then?" She turned, to see Crocus watching her as the crew got ready to leave and Luffy said his final goodbyes.
She smiled, lazily and without a care on the outside, though inwardly she tensed. To underestimate the doctor who'd kept Gol. D. Roger alive through his terminal illness was not something she would ever, ever do.
"A guest," she offered banally, still smiling. "These lovely folks agreed to drop me off in the Grand Line."
"I meant your name," Crocus said, not fooled in the least. She could see the knowledge in his eyes, and it took years of self-restraint to keep from tensing.
"Ciel," she gave the fake name with nary a twitch of the brow. "Ciel Russo. Why?"
He shrugged. "Just curious. Anyway, have fun."
The Straw Hats called their goodbyes to Laboon and Crocus both, the old man waving, the whale singing.
Kelly smiled, but all the while a voice in her head whispered a warning: He knows.
It had taken them a while, slogging through the rapidly changing weather of the Grand Line – Kelly enjoying every moment of it, despite the backbreaking work involved, the rapidly changing climate stirring some undefinable something in her heart – when they'd entered a clear stretch of ocean. It would probably take them a little while before they reached the next island.
"Whisky Peak," she whispered under her breath.
"Did you say something?" She smiled at Zoro, who'd come up behind her.
"Oh, that's the name of the place I think we're heading," she offered, not even blinking as she lied her ass off. "I read about it in a couple books I found back on an island I was staying on before I met y'all."
"Your home?" he asked and Kelly felt her smile falter before she managed to cement it in place.
"No. Just a place I stayed. Why'd you want to know?" She asked, still smiling pleasantly.
"I just want to know why someone would want to travel with a bunch of pirates to head to the most dangerous sea in the world," Zoro said, resting back against the railing, looking perfectly at ease.
Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. This man just screamed it with every inch of his body, but alongside that was a healthy helping of warmth and loyalty for the straw-hatted boy who was chasing Usopp around in a light-hearted game of tag on the lower deck. She could see the way something in his eyes firmed, even as his whole face seemed to smile and melt at once, without a twitch of his lips.
'Well, well, well…' Kelly thought, fighting a gleeful smirk. 'Wasn't expecting that.'
But it made her feel a great deal more…sympathetic? Was that the word to use...towards the swordsman who she knew would give his life for his crew and his captain without a thought.
Not so comfortable as to confess who she really was, or anything crazy like that, but enough to give him a real smile, not the fake one she'd been careful to maintain around the rest of the pirates at all times.
"I just want to get home, Roronoa-san. Nothing wrong with that, is there?" She told him.
They stood in silence for several moments – not exactly a comfortable one, but rather a silence like the truce declared between two warring parties. Kelly watched Luffy and Usopp play and felt a lump rise up in her throat at the carefree friendship.
A memory flashed through her mind, so quick and sudden that she almost choked.
-…The sun was warm, and she was with friends who wouldn't remark on the flabbiness of her arms, so Kelly stripped to the sting tank-top she wore under her oversized t-shirt, and lay back in the sun, listening to the birds cawing in the trees, the lap of the ocean against the beach, and the good-natured, restrained lust-filled squabbles of her two best friends in the world.
'They should just have at it one night and get it over with,' Kelly thought drowsily, the sun better than any lullaby. 'Hey, maybe I should get Beth a condom for her birthday.'
The thought made her giggle, before she stretched her arms high above her head and yawned, only to blink when two pairs of warm, rough hands clasped around her wrists and ankles.
"What the fuck?" she bellowed, rearing out of sleepiness like a startled horse, and was lifted into the air.
"You're starting to look a little red there, Kel," Beth's voice came from above her head, and Kelly assumed she was the one holding her wrists.
"You should take a little dip to cool off," Alex's teasing voice came from her feet as they moved closer to the ocean.
Kelly's eyes bulged and she twisted to look at them both and the place they were heading.
"Oh, hell no, you had better not even try that, you snot-nosed brats!" Kelly barked, twisting frantically, trying to dislodge their grip, and nearly succeeding. Despite Beth and Alex's toned bodies and considerable musculature, Kelly weighed around 270 and had her own muscles to go along with that.
But they managed to keep a hold of her, and when they got about ankle-deep in the ocean, began to swing her, even as Kelly swore and swore and swore herself blue in the face, while they teased her.
"One," the two assholes sang together. If she hadn't been so pissed, she would have laughed straight out.
"Two…three!" With an almighty heave, the two sent her flying out over the water.
"FUCK YOU BO-!" Was all Kelly managed to get out before she crashed through the surface, choking on salt. Alex and Beth waded out to her, and Kelly got a great deal of satisfaction by pantsing Alex and stealing Beth's bikini top, leading to identical shrieks of rage from her two friends.
They'd chased each other all over the shoreline for hours, before collapsing in a heap.
Later, they'd enjoyed the fireworks display Alex's stepfather had put on for the neighbors in their upscale beach home, piled over each other in the hammock in the backyard.
It was the best 4th of July Kelly had ever had…-
She sighed and fought back the sick roll in her stomach that she could now easily identify as homesickness.
"Are you all right?" Zoro asked, watching her closely.
She bit her tongue until she knew she could trust her voice.
"Ah, yes, Roronoa-san, I'm fine. Just got lost on memory lane, as it were. I think I see an island," she sidestepped, successfully diverting the swordsman's attention, to where a vague shape had appeared in the fog. Zoro went to go join the rest of his crew in the lower deck.
She could see the enormous cacti easily, and as she narrowed her eyes, saw the hundreds of thousands of tombstones that lined each of them. Her mouth twisted bitterly, and she felt two warm bodies twining around her ankles. Automatically she knelt down so Gin could leap onto her shoulders and she could pick up Shere Khan.
"An awful sight, isn't it?" She asked her friends.
Shere Khan shuddered. "Mama, I feel the death hanging over them," she whispered, trembling, and Kelly smoothed her fur, comforting the young tigress.
Gin leaned close to Kelly's ear, using the noise from Mr. 9's and Miss Wednesday's departure to speak.
"She's right, Mistress. Many, many people have met their untimely ends in this place," he said.
Kelly sighed. "Nothing like death to dampen my instinctive fangirl-y joy. Oh well. Not like I expected anything different, but still. Will I ever see the wonder in these places like I used to?"
"Perhaps when we get to Fishman Island you'll have a chance," Gin said. "Now you can't afford to, because it's a luxury those on the run can't afford."
"You're such a spoilsport, Gin," Kelly said with a sigh, as Shere reached up to lick her chin. "Still, it'll be pretty neat to see Igaram and Vivi-hime. Hey…I wonder how beautiful Vivi-hime is in real life."
Gin snorted. "Pervert."
"Don't group me in with Sanji, baka-Aido," she remonstrated gently. "I just appreciate beauty is all."
"Ciel, we'll be disembarking soon," Nami called and Kelly nodded.
She leaned against the wall as they sailed towards the mouth of the river. Her ears picked up the sounds of muttering coming from the land around them.
"Pirates!"
"…warn Igarappoi."
"Get ready, get ready…"
As they emerged out of the fogbank, the crowd erupted, cheering and calling praises and welcomes.
"A little overdone, isn't it?" Gin commented wryly, making Kelly giggle helplessly.
"Can't say it isn't working," she remarked, looking towards the pirates. Usopp was blowing the crowd kisses and Luffy was laughing from his seat on Merry's head. Nami and Sanji looked a little poleaxed, and Zoro didn't have an expression on his face at all.
It occurred to Kelly that Roronoa Zoro was a lot smarter than the anime and manga had shown.
"Shere Khan, Gin, I want you to stay on the ship," Kelly whispered. "I'd rather not have you get involved in this, and I don't want those bounty hunters to get a hold of my things. I'll be back soon."
"Awww, but Mamaaaaa…" Shere Khan whined, and Kelly raised an eyebrow at her.
"Little miss, you'll spend this time with Gin learning how to strengthen your mindscape. I don't want anyone getting into your mind and turning you against me, or something horrible like that. Gin, you'll help her, right?"
He stood on her shoulders. "Of course, my Mistress. Come, Shere Khan." He brushed his whiskered cheek against hers before leaping down, the tiger cub grumbling, but obediently following nonetheless.
Nami called to her, and she willingly clambered down and off the ship behind the orange-haired navigator as Igaram welcomed them all.
Kelly looked to the sky and felt herself smile.
Over a hundred bounty hunters.
It should be quite fun.
DATE: May, I think
MY LOCATION: Dew Drop Inn (It's actually called that! I thought I'd break something laughing)
PLACE: Whisky Peak, Grand Line
I found a quiet room to write in while I wait for the Baroque Works to make their move. I told Igaram (bro has some weird-ass hair) that I needed a room to lay down in, get some sleep in. He agreed rather easily, and had a tray sent up with some food and alcohol. Both the food and alcohol were spiked with sleep-drugs, of course.
Silly human.
I could tell immediately. I didn't even need the spells I use on my food all the time, the smell was so damned strong. One of the good things about being a Sea Snake, I suppose.
I negated the effects and ate my fill. I pretended to be asleep when Igaram or someone checked on me, trying to be quiet and subtle about it, but failing horribly. To my ears they were as loud as a stampede of horses.
Something tells me those bounty hunters are going to give me few problems at all.
Heh. Should be fun to teach these uppity humans their place.
…It's gone all quiet. I think it's time for the real party to begin.
Hehehehehehehehe…
~KL
She used Geppo to reach the rooftop, her feet lightly striking the air and propelling her up. Even above her much prized Soru, it was Kelly's favorite technique of Rokushiki.
That wasn't to say she didn't like Kami-e, Rankyaku, Shigan, and Rokuogan (though she hadn't mastered the last three yet), because she honestly really, really did, but there was a great deal to be said for being able to fly.
She landed lightly on the roof and watched Zoro watch the Baroque Works people below.
"Come to join the party?" Zoro asked, not looking at her.
She snorted. "Do you mind? I was getting awfully bored waiting for them to try and attack."
He turned to her then and an evil smirk Kelly knew matched the one growing on her face curved his lips. He nodded and gestured to a spot next to him, and she primly took a seat.
He looked back and called out, almost teasingly, to the agents. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but do you think you could let them sleep a little while longer? They're still pretty tired from the voyage."
The agents whirled, shock on all of their faces, and Kelly threw her head back, cackling.
"Why, I do believe we startled them, Roronoa-san!" she said.
"You should have been completely unconscious," Igaram yelled, and Zoro stood.
"No swordsman worth their salt allows himself to be overwhelmed with drink, no matter the circumstance," he said.
Kelly casually poked his leg. "This is a nest of bounty hunters, Roronoa-san, didja know?" She offered cheerfully, almost like a little girl would. "They must lure pirates in and rob 'em blind. There's a lot of 'em here."
"About a hundred," Zoro confirmed, still smiling almost unpleasantly, but not before giving her an amused quirk of the lips. "It's no matter. I'll still take you on, Baroque Works."
The renewed shock on all of their faces set Kelly off again. She nearly fell off the roof, she was laughing so hard.
"WILL YOU STOP LAUGHING AT US?!" Igaram bellowed.
Kelly just pointed at him and roared. "Hair-curlers," she wheezed. "Hair-curlers!" It was all she could get out in between the bouts of convulsive giggling.
She heard a snort from Zoro as Igaram turned red with rage.
"ANYWAY," Vivi-hime said loudly, spots of color high in her cheeks. "How do you know that name?" she asked Zoro.
Kelly was summarily ignored. She thought about pretending to pout, but was still too giggly to even try it.
The green-haired man shrugged. "A while ago, you people tried to recruit me. I refused, of course. None of your members know anything about each other and only use codenames. Your Boss's location and identity are all top secret. A criminal organization that carries out its order to the letter, the bounty hunters feared by pirates across the seas, Baroque Works…Was it supposed to be a secret? I'm so sorry," Zoro said, his face practically evil in the light of the shining moon.
And it set Kelly off yet again.
Because the look on Zoro's face was a goddamn replica of the U MAD BRO icon.
Oh holy God, Roronoa Zoro was a master troll. It was the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to her ever.
"This is surprising…" Igaram said, ignoring Kelly with heroic effort. "But since you know our identity, we'll have to eliminate you. There will be two more gravestones for the Cactus Rocks tonight."
"Ohoho, really now?" Kelly said, still giggling, and she felt Zoro tense, just a little, and got ready to move.
"KILL THEM!" Igaram roared, and Kelly promptly leapt from the roof, stepping straight into Soru.
Kelly launched herself forward, smashing into the man who had a gun pointed down at Zoro. A quick spearhand to the throat, and he dropped to the ground next to the swordsman, giving him a start.
"You should pay more attention to your surroundings, boy-o, and stop mooning over your swords," Kelly chastised.
"Feh," Zoro sniffed at her before a group of gunmen came out of nowhere and he drew Yubashiri.
Kelly watched as he shot forward, the blade moving like a dream across the backs, bellies, legs, and arms of the bounty hunters. Zoro was a damn good swordsman.
Not great, no. Not yet.
But the potential was there, hiding deep under his skin, in the iron-strength of his spine, in the large, capable hands that wielded his swords like an extension of his own body. He had a soul-deep connection to the blades in his hands, one that would be forged even deeper and stronger as the years passed.
This was a swordsman that could forge a connection with whatever blade entered his hands.
It would be his mastering of that ability that would eventually lead to him becoming the strongest swordsman in the world.
Kelly knew, with utter and striking clarity, that it would be that ability that would lead to him to finally defeating Dracule Mihawk.
Three men armed with butcher knives charged at her. Without much thought, she disarmed one, stole his cleaver, and used it to slit the throats of the others. They dropped, gagging and choking, drowning in their own blood, and she trotted after Zoro, eyes alight with glee.
She didn't know if she'd be able to down someone like Miss Monday, who was built like a freaking tank, but much to Kelly's surprise, when her foot connected with the side of the big woman's head, she went flying into the wall.
Kelly landed in a crouch beside Zoro, who nodded.
"Not bad," he said, eyeing the crater the agent had made in the wall when she crashed into it.
"You think?" she asked, rubbing her chin and looking at the dazed agent critically. "I think I misjudged it. Should have nailed her closer to the crux of the neck and shoulder, knocked her out."
"There's always a time for second chances," Zoro said, rather philosophically, and Kelly gave him a strange look.
"Problem?" he asked, seeing her stare, and she shook her head.
"…It's nothing," she said with a slightly strained smile. He was different than the manga. It was odd. Really odd.
It was so awesome to see him in action, but Kelly had to remember that this Roronoa Zoro standing beside her was not a character, he was a person, with the resultant depths and varying shades of gray that it was nearly impossible for a cartoon character to have, no matter how much of a genius Oda was.
She shook herself as Miss Monday staggered out of the crater, bleeding from the mouth.
The dark-skinned woman pulled some brass knuckles onto her hands, and something in Kelly's head roared, snarling and eager for blood. She had to remind herself that she didn't want to kill Miss Monday, because she and Mr. 9 were going to have the cutest child ever, but it was hard.
Kelly tried really hard not to remember that she hadn't stayed herself from killing humans in a very, very long time. It was easier than knocking them out, after all. And it made damn sure they wouldn't be back on their feet in an hour and trying again to kill her, rape her, or bleed her.
It was still a sting.
She stepped into Miss Monday's guard, and nailed the woman directly under the chin. It was a knockout blow, and Kelly couldn't help but think that it would be so easy to slam my claws into her neck, rip and tear and be splattered with blood before she managed to back away.
As Zoro quickly knocked out a bunch of bounty hunters that had tried to sneak up behind her, and the two of them walked to the edge of the roof to look down at the only three agents of Baroque Works still on their feet, Kelly felt a coldness enter her blood.
There was something very wrong with her, and it wasn't just the magic, scales, and venom.
She had looked at Miss Monday like the woman was prey.
A man called out from below, holding his bleeding arm, "That guy defeated Miss Monday in a test of strength!"
They looked at her with fear and no little shock, and despite everything, it made a part of Kelly feel sickly, darkly pleased.
That…
That was very not good.