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: Foul language, gore, Artistic License, PTSD
Author's Notes: I don't know doctor or animal stuff, okay? So if Chopper's section seems a little bit…off to anyone that would be why. I am invoking Artistic License all over this.
Man, Chopper's and Zoro's parts were the hardest section of this entire chapter. Frigging fight scenes. I spent like five days just going "duhhhhhh" at Zoro's section, I shit you not. And it's still...ehhhhhh...
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
NAMI
The singing was back in her veins. It was so easy, so unbelievably easy to dance around the man's strikes, to dodge the blows that would have shattered her bones had they landed.
Flow like the ocean. Forward and ebb.
"Stay still!" The man grunted, and she dropped, rolling, and-
"Fulgur!" she sang – and really, it was like singing, as simple and easy as navigating the seas – and her staff burst into glorious light as it connected with his shin. He buckled, swiping at her, but she was already past him, spinning on a heel as he crashed to the ground.
But he wasn't down for long, staggering upright, blades gleaming on his skin, still deadly for all the rust.
The lightning was starting to hurt, her fingers and arms trembling from the sheer force and heat of it. She would have to end this soon.
"Spar Break!" And he was there, right in front of her, and she couldn't move quickly enough-
Shit!
Pain exploded across her chest, and Nami staggered, the lightning fading from her mind. With the hand not holding onto her staff, she placed a hand on her chest, feeling blood pouring from the deep wound. She heard – distantly – the pillars behind her shatter.
"F-fuck," she hissed.
The man growled, then brought up his arms once again.
Take the pain. The voice was back, like an order in her bones, one she could no more ignore than the call of the sea. Take the pain, and pull it in. Fight through the pain, or you will die.
Nami staggered back upright. Something cracked deep in her chest, and blood poured out of her mouth.
"How are you still standing, you little bitch?" the panting man asked, the blades growing and growing.
They still looked fragile, but the rust had receded. She stood upright, her staff clenched in her hands.
"Just stay down," the officer snarled, and Nami could hear the whistling the wind made as it rushed past his blades. She looked in his eyes and saw her death there. She looked into his eyes and saw the pain that he would give her.
She hurt. She had never felt pain like this, not even when Arlong's men had tattooed that symbol on her arm. Her entire body trembled with it. She was no powerhouse like Luffy or Zoro or even Sanji. He could kill her and he would do it without thought.
But…
Vivi, she thought. The princess who had lost everything and given everything to protect her kingdom and her people. She remembered the way the princess shook in the light of the explosion that had killed Igaram. She remembered Vivi's insistence on finding a doctor for her, even though the civil war still raged and took lives. She remembered Vivi's tears when faced with the fact that she could not save everyone.
"I will not fall," she whispered, almost to herself.
She thought of her friends. She thought of her captain. She thought of Vivi.
(And a tiny part of her thought Bell-mère, and the word did not hurt as it had done for years)
There was lightning in her bones. There were waves in her blood.
"Die!"
She would not fall.
She would not fall.
She would not fall.
"Oceanus est an mihi," she whispered, and there was a roaring glory in her eyes, her lungs. "Tempestas est an mihi."
The voice sang with joy like the birth of a thousand and one stars in her mind as she darted forward, her pain forgotten, her friends' faces in her head, the glory of the storm in her hands.
She danced around a slash of air, and brought the staff around, slamming it into the man's chest before he had a chance to react.
"ET EGO IN IPSIS!" she screamed, and the world exploded with light. She heard the man scream as she was thrown back, crashing into the remains of a pillar.
When the light and the spots in her eyes faded, he stood there still, and it was as though a weight had dropped into her heart.
Had she failed? Had she lost? She-
But with a sound like an immense tree being felled, the man – smoke pouring from his mouth – toppled. The ground shook when he hit it, the shockwave reverberating through her bones.
Nami stared for several minutes at the defeated Baroque Works' officer, then collapsed herself, resting back against the blood stained debris of the pillar.
"I…I did it," she said with a shaky laugh, and coughed, blood splattering.
She leaned back, taking shallow breaths, and looked to the brilliant blue sky, a smile that could rival one of Luffy's stretching her lips painfully wide.
"I WON!"
ZORO
She was still fast, but not nearly as much as she had been. About the cook's speed.
He could work with that.
Blood dripped down his arms. He was weakening, slowly. This needed to end, and it needed to end soon. He didn't have the strength for another Hyakuhachi.
A fist crashed into the side of his face, spikes peppering his flesh. He chocked, staggered back. One spike had just barely missed his eye.
I can't lose focus, he growled at himself. Not when I'm so-
"Stinger Hedgehog!"
Shit!
Zoro brought his swords up just in time to parry the rapidly spinning ball of spikes that shot at him. He dug his feet into the ground, tightened his grip, lifted, heaved – the ball embedded in the ground several feet away. The dirt crumbled as the woman staggered back up again.
"Is that all?" He asked, just as mockingly as she had before.
Her face twisted in rage. "I'm going to kill you," she snarled.
The woman jammed her fingers into her shoulders, which bulged, veins popping up along the pale skin. Muscles began to grow along her arms, legs, body. Her face contorted, bulging, dark red veins popping along the now thick muscles of her neck.
Zoro groaned.
"Stinger Flail!"
He darted to the side as the woman rushed at him, her fist full of spikes. The blow crashed into the wall behind him, and Zoro's eyes widened as the stone disintegrated.
She was definitely a lot stronger and a lot faster than that woman at Whisky Peak.
Zoro planted his feet on the ground and breathed in deep. One strike. One blow, and he would end this.
"Santoryu: Gyuki," he whispered, as the woman lunged at him again.
"Die!" she screamed, but her fists were not fast enough, and she was in his way.
Spikes shattered, the woman was yelling in pain – "Yuzume," he whispered, the word heavy and cold in his mouth, and he shot forward, his swords connecting with her body.
He skidded to a halt as the woman's body flew up into the air, streaming blood, before crashing to the ground, and laying prone. Unconscious, if not close to death.
Zoro sheathed his swords, and smiled as he walked past the downed bounty hunter. He remembered Kuina, a long, long time ago, and one of the sayings she'd always been so fond of spouting.
Talk shit, get hit.
He smirked as he looked back at the woman who had insulted Luffy.
"S'what you get," he said, and wiped the blood away from his chin.
USOPP & CHOPPER
"DIE YOU LITTLE SHITS!"
The leader of the Thralls was frantic now, her strikes haphazard and clumsy. And so were the Thralls, driven to a state of bestial, sloppy fury by their Master's own rage. It was child's play to dart around the sloppy blows.
But one thing the Thralls had not slacked on was the tight ring of protection they had wrapped around their master.
It confirmed what Usopp had told him, and what Chopper had seen with his own two eyes.
The Thralls were connected to their master.
Could it be like a hive-mind? Chopper had read of several different types of bugs who were connected with their "Queen", and performed all necessary tasks so she would have the freedom to give birth to her children.
Though that didn't explain why she could heal the Thralls when they were hurt. Or why she did.
Bugs (and most animals, really) rarely did such a thing, preferring to leave the weak or injured to die. There usually were hundreds more "protectors" after all, and a single drone would hardly be worth the effort…
But he was thinking about these things like he would about actual creatures.
These were monsters, in every term of the word, and he couldn't think of them as he did with other animals.
A Thrall swiped at Usopp, slicing through the flesh in his arm, and making him drop to his knees. Chopper slammed his antlers into the thing, knocking it back. It lay on the ground for several minutes before the woman noticed, and gestured frantically at it.
When it stood, its body was twisted, still broken by Chopper's attack. The tarantula-woman shrieked in helpless fury, and Chopper understood.
She was getting weaker.
He felt Usopp's leg press against his side, and Chopper looked up into his friend's eyes.
"Ready, Chopper?" Usopp asked.
"Yep," Chopper said, and got ready to move.
"Go! Akushū Boshi! Kemuri Boshi!"
A wave of sheer stench exploded right on the heels of a wave of smoke. The Thralls screeched and staggered, trying to cover their streaming noses.
Chopper darted in, his own nose streaming, and smashed his horns into the Thralls. He tossed one aside, then another, a third, a fourth, a dozen.
He was at the inner circle, and ran with his horns pointed at the ground. The Thralls were scooped up, and flung away, sending the circle into absolute disarray.
Claws raked at his back as the Thralls tried to get back to their Mistress, but with a mighty toss, Chopper sent them flying.
"Chopper! Go!"
The Thralls were shrieking, trying to locate Usopp, but the smoke and stink bombs had done their jobs at hiding the sniper.
Chopper shrank back into his Brain Point, and popped a Rumble Ball into his mouth. He swallowed it quickly, and felt his muscles bulge and warp as he transformed into Arm Point.
The tarantula-woman staggered out of the smoke in front of him, and he ducked down low, before lunging forward.
"Kokutei Roseo!" He yelled, and smashed his hooves into the monster's stomach. It shrieked as the force propelled it up, out of the smoke, and into the air.
He shrank back into Brain Point, dodging around a Thrall's mindless swipes.
"Usopp!" He called, darting clear of the smoke.
"Hissatsu Kayaku Boshi!"
Several pellets flew from the smoke and cracked into the tarantula-woman's toppling body, bursting into flame on impact.
The woman let out the most awful sound Chopper had ever heard in his life, a sound like hundreds of nails running down chalkboards, blended with the screaming of the dead and dying. The Thralls began wailing as the flames consumed the monster's body.
But it was too late, as an immense cracking noise rent the air.
As the smoke cleared, Chopper watched the woman hit the ground and shatter into nothing. The Thralls turned to ash and blood in her wake, collapsing where they had once stood.
Chopper breathed heavily as Usopp stumbled over to stand by him.
"Let's get away from here, Chopper."
"Y-Yeah."
They managed to make it about 30 meters before they both crashed into the ground, exhaustion finally overwhelming them.
"…actually, let's just stay here for a while," Usopp said in a muffled voice, his face smashed into the sand.
Chopper giggled, and slumped back, as exhausted as his friend.
SANJI
Every part of him hurt.
He had done it, he had won against that shitty okama, but fucking hell, he hurt.
At least, a nasty part of him said, at least it wasn't as bad as the pain that thing would have given you.
Sanji shuddered, and with shaking fingers lit his cigarette, taking a moment to rest against a boarded up shop. That thing wouldn't bother him again.
But what if it did?
"Shut the FUCK UP!" His foot lashed out, and decimated the wall he had been leaning on.
As it crumbled, he tried to get his breathing back under control. He was fine, that thing would be dead soon, it would.
What if Ace isn't strong enough?
He crushed the cigarette beneath his foot, gouging a hole in the packed dirt.
"Be quiet. Be qui-"
What if it comes back? What if it finishes the job?
Sanji's mouth twisted, and he shook his head.
He…had to find the others.
Ace was strong. Unbelievably strong. He would win.
He had to.
Sanji straightened, and kept walking. He refused to let the voice speak again.
KELLY
She slammed into the ground, feeling ribs crack. Wind roared, raged, and sliced a talon off. A scream, piercing, keening, inhuman.
Shere leapt, clawed.
The world was sheer madness. She'd never fought like this, or fought anything like this. She'd never faced a true Highborn.
Kelly knew that now.
But the power to face this monster came easily. She dodged around its blows. It was fast, but not Soru-fast. It healed quickly, but it was hobbled by Shere's earlier attack.
Her mind was cold. She wanted blood. She wanted this thing dead.
Wind whipped into a scythe that she brought up to deflect a blow that would have severed her head from her neck if it had landed.
Disengage, leap back, pause, suck in air. She felt Shere's fur brush along her legs, steadying her. For a moment she felt something in the earth move, and she reached for it. But it was gone, leaving a curious ache in the place where her heart was.
The thing heaved, its fat, squat belly rippling in unpleasant ways, any notion of amusement or fun long gone. It had obviously expected her to die a lot quicker.
But it was hard to kill her. It had always been hard, even when she believed she had no reason to live.
She had reason now. She wanted to live, if only so Gin and Shere wouldn't cry.
But she also wanted to see Ace's smile again, to tease Sanji, to see Nami's eyes as they looked at the sea, to share a beer with Zoro, to listen to Usopp's stories, to kiss Vivi.
She wanted to hear Luffy's laugh again.
Power. She felt it now, rumbling in the earth.
Kelly kicked off her boots, and dug her feet into the dry dirt. It wasn't as wonderful a feeling as moving through the ocean in only her bare skin, but it was something, and something was more than the sheer nothing she'd had since arriving in this kingdom.
She breathed, and opened her eyes. The monster bristled, hissing, shrinking away from whatever it saw in her eyes, or felt in the air.
"Time to die," she told it.
Words were flowing through her mind, as the wind blew around her and the earth rumbled below her feet.
"En contumaciae propiores tenebris," she whispered, Shere's snarling mingling with the screech of the Daemon as it staggered to its feet. The earth rumbled beneath her feet, like a great giant turning over in its sleep.
The monster leapt, but she lunged up to meet it head on, the power smashing through her limbs, the scream leaving her mouth like a prayer, "PUGNO ÆTERNUM IN LUCEM!"
Power left her hands, not of the elements, but pure light, almost holy light. The light picked the monster up, and it screamed as the light rent deep, bloody burns in the fabric of its unnatural flesh.
The light faded, and the monster dropped, lying prone on the ground.
Kelly wheezed, and braced herself on Shere's back.
"Mama, we have to finish it off," the tiger said, and Kelly nodded.
"Right. Shit, I really wish I knew how to use fire, that'd be so handy," she mused, and laughed. Her limbs felt loose, her muscles like water.
Then the thing stood back up.
Kelly groaned. "You have got to be fucking kidding m-"
A mouth opened on its body, and shadows began to pool around it. It said something in the language of its kind. Although Kelly couldn't understand the words, she understood the tone well enough, and it made something inside her shiver in animal fear.
"Sis…ter?" It asked plaintively. "Sis…ter? Sister? SISTER?!"
And then a mouth split its body in two, a gaping maw of teeth, a lolling tongue, and a wail exploded into the air. Kelly staggered, blood pouring from her ears as the sheer intensity of the shriek ruptured her eardrums.
Shere was screaming, and the Magus managed to find enough of her magic to wrap around her Familiar, to protect the tiger's sensitive ears from the assault, before doing the same to her own.
Hearing returned slowly, as the thing clambered upright, limbs sprouting, eyes splitting, joints cracking wetly. Even more so than its previous form, it was becoming a true abomination, losing control of the power that allowed it to maintain some semblance of reason and sanity.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, MY SISTER!" It wailed. "MY SISTER! NAIIII, NAIIIIIIIIII!"
Kelly knew then, as the thing turned on her with another blood-curdling screech that was the very essence of demented grief and rage, that Ace had won.
But her job had just gotten a lot harder.
TRANSLATIONS AND FOOTNOTES
Oceanus est an mihi… - Sermo; "The ocean is in me, the storm is in me, and I, in them."
Akushū Boshi - "Stink Star" Basically a stink bomb.
En contumaciae propiores tenebris…- Sermo; "In the defiance of the dark, I fight forever in the Light." A prayer that can be used to turn a lower ranking Daemon to ash in the hands of a Magus. The higher-ranking the Daemon, the less effective it is.
Nai, Nai – Tējavī; A lament, one usually used when a mate/very close family member dies at the hands of someone else. Also a promise of vengeance upon the one who caused the death