Title: On the Ocean Blue
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, animal injuries
Author's Notes: There are only two chapters left in the Arabasta arc, including this one. And then it's onto Skypiea! *cackles* Also…more reviews will make it a lot easier for me to get chapters out. Jsyk.
Ace won off screen. I can't be arsed to write that fight scene, especially after I just finished writing two chapters full of the cursed things.
Don't worry! You'll get to see Ace kicking Daemon ass later on. :D
Chapter Twenty-Three:
finis deserti bellum (the end of the desert war)
KELLY
The earth shook, splintering as claws struck the ground wildly, gouging deep tears in the packed dirt, sending clouds of dust into the air. Kelly's eyes and nose streamed.
Shadows danced at the corners of her eyes, seeking to wrap around her leg, to trip her up so the screeching monster could grab her, but Kelly wove around them, making sure to stay in the light.
Fucking Nara-esque abominations, she thought. The shadows didn't seem to be completely under the maddened Daemon's control, so berserk was the creature, but they seemed to respond well to its fury.
An immense clawed hand cut through the clouds of dust, arrowing right for her. Kelly cursed, called her magic, and it came like a thundering roar, like an unstoppable wave-
Shere screamed, and Kelly faltered, staggering.
Though she couldn't see her Familiar through the clouds of dust, she could feel the shadows piercing the tiger's body as surely as if they pierced her own.
She smelled the blood, and heard the delighted shrieks of the maddened monster that crouched over Shere's twitching body.
:ma…ma…hurts…help…me:
Everything bled white at the edges.
She felt wind roaring, thunder cracking across the sky. The dust was blown clear, and the Daemon stumbled back. On the thing's face there might have been an emotion like fear.
But then Kelly saw her Familiar, her beloved Shere, curled up in a ball below the thing. There was blood pooling around her tiny, tiny body.
-…"Look, Arashi, this really isn't a good idea," Kelly says, putting a hand on her hip as she stares down at the mewling tiger cub. "Where I'm going isn't the best place for a kid…a cub, I mean."
The great tiger huffs in amusement.
"Safer with you than as a runt on this island. I would have my daughter live, Magus. If she remains here, it is likely she will either die or be killed by one of the others, for being weak."
Kelly sighs, but finds herself taking the cub in her arms. Her fur is so warm, so soft. And as the little tiger's eyes open, Kelly sees they are very bright. Her heart turns over in her chest, and she snuggles the cub to her like she would have done to one of her cats at home.
Arashi makes a sound that might have been a laugh in a human.
"So?"
"Oh, hush."…-
Everything was very cold, very distant from her conscious mind. She could feel the earth below her, the air around her, the very distant storms rumbling over countries far, far away, desperate to return.
The Daemon shrieked and lunged forward, distended mouth drooling hundreds of blood-red tongues.
Seals spilled out into the air, glowing sigils writ upon the fabric of the air itself. Kelly stood still, and held out her hands. She could feel the sea inside her. The foam for her veins, the currents for her bones.
The Daemon screeched something in its foul language, and closed the distance in a breath's time, claws outstretched, shadows curling like knives-
"anima autem Oceanus," Kelly said very simply, as if she were wishing a stranger on the street a good afternoon.
There was the feeling of something clean and cold rushing through her body, spilling out into the air, and the seals flared brighter than the sun.
A scream, an explosion, the wind blowing her hair and clothes back. The smell of ash, of burning flesh, the shriek of shadows.
Then nothing but the quiet whistling of the wind.
When Kelly opened her eyes, she spared only the slightest glance at the pile of ash that remained of the Daemon, before hurrying to her Familiar's side.
She scooped the shivering tiger into her arms, heedless of the blood that splattered her clothes.
"Ma…ma…"
"Don't speak, my darling one. I'll make it all better," Kelly soothed, and reached deep.
It seemed there was an ocean's worth of magic to draw on now, bright and gleaming, just waiting for her to reach to it. Power flowed out and into her limbs, into the tiny body she held in her arms. Shere went limp as her injuries healed.
(Mistress.)
Gin, she said to her other Familiar, her shoulders relaxing.
(Is Shere all right? I couldn't reach you before now.)
Kelly looked down at the sleeping tiger in her arms, and felt her eyes water.
She…She's fine. Just fine. How's Ace?
(Resting, for now. He fought a hard battle, but managed to kill the Daemon with surprising ease for a human. Though I do suspect this one was the weaker of the two)
Kelly snorted, rolling her aching shoulders. No kidding.
(Mistress, ah…he is a fine man.)
Kelly looked to the sky, feeling heat in her cheeks. He is, truly, she said back, her eyes going a little dreamy. I wonder if he-
Her thoughts were cut off as she saw a tiny speck in the distance, rising steadily. Her eyesight wasn't as good as her sense of smell, but she knew. She knew who that speck was, and felt her heart turn over in quiet sadness.
She turned around and sat back on the ground, cradling Shere's limp body in her hands, body braced.
Then the explosion hit. The air screamed under the assault, windows shattering, roofs wrenched from the moorings by the immense shockwave that smashed into them.
A tiny spark guttered and vanished in the middle of the maelstrom, and Kelly let the tears trickle down her face.
She had never known Pell, not really. She hadn't known the man, beyond the façade she had seen on the screen. But even if she didn't know him, she could feel sorrow for the loss of his life.
A human, though? a part of her wondered. But for a human, we feel sorrow? Why?
"Why not?" Kelly asked herself, and the voice quieted.
Just a little.
"Ma…ma?" Shere stirred after a while, looking quizzically around. "Mama?"
Kelly gathered the tiger into her arms, and nuzzled her. The tears flowed even harder. Shere squirmed around until she was facing the Magus, and looked up at her.
"Mama, why are you crying?"
Kelly laughed wetly, and buried her face in the soft fur, her shoulders hitching.
"Oh Mama…" Shere began purring like a motor.
"Mistress!"
Kelly looked up as Gin and Ace appeared around the corner. She knew her face was red and raw, her eyes aching with tears, but she didn't care. Gin dove into her arms, curling around Shere, who amped the purring up by eleven.
Ace sat beside her, and Kelly let her head drop to his shoulder.
"You all right?" he asked after a while, not seeming to care that the two of them were sitting in the middle of a street in a city torn by civil war, or that the soldiers and rebels who battled could come upon them at any moment.
But then again, what sane person would try them?
"I could ask you the same question," Kelly said, feeling no interest in raising her head.
Ace laughed and groaned, rubbing his arm. "It was fun. Got thrown through a couple walls, but I've had worse."
"Only you would think battling a Daemon is fun, you absolute maniac," Kelly teased.
"What, are you telling me you didn't have a blast?" Ace asked and Kelly smiled wryly.
"I lost my temper, so no, not really," she said, and brushed her fingers through her Familiars' fur. Ace wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"But you kicked some major ass," he said, looking at the destroyed buildings around them.
Kelly glanced as he did, and blinked. Part of the destruction could be attributed to the explosion, but not all of it. There were great scorch marks, and several walls (and buildings) had been reduced to a fine powder.
"Huh. Would you look at that," she mused. She'd been focused on other things at the time, and not had a care in the world for what her magicks had wrought in the world around her – beyond the death of the Daemon. And even after she'd had that, her mind had been only for Shere and bringing her Familiar back from the grasp of death.
Ace laughed again, but pulled her close. "Are you sure you're all right?" he asked.
Kelly shut her eyes, and looked deep inside herself, into the wellspring of Magic that flowed through her like a river. No, not like a river…Like an ocean.
And for one moment they were the sky, the water in the air, the rumble of the earth, the deep pulsing fire of the heart of the world. They were all that was, and all that would ever be, and there was a great song, one that welcomed them with open arms, whispering "you've come back, you've come back!"
Kelly opened their eyes again, and smiled, still hearing that song in their-her head. In her head.
"I'm just fine," she said.
And she was, really. Like walls had fallen away somewhere deep inside her. Ace reached down, and curled his fingers around hers.
"You do realize you're glowing, right?"
Kelly blinked, and looked down at their intertwined hands. Sure enough, her scales glowed with a faint light, like the color of the ocean under the midday sun.
"Shit, would you look at that," Kelly said in faint, amused wonder.
Ace sniggered and lay his cheek on top of her head.
"You're something else."
But Kelly didn't hear his words, as her eyes had been drawn elsewhere, to a speck rising in the sky, trailing a pillar of dust and wind behind it. If she concentrated, she could just barely make out the glint of a gold hook.
She grinned, and snuggled into Ace's side, and felt no shame for that.
"What did you see?" The man asked, curious.
"Your brother is amazing, you know that?" she said with a quiet laugh.
Ace shuddered out a breathy, almost disbelieving laugh. "He did it?"
"He did."
They sat together, both of them grinning fit to burst, until the rain came.
And when it came, the world felt cleaner again.
TASHIGI
Shame and guilt were a potent mix. Add helplessness to that mix, and, well…It wasn't pleasant. To say the least. Her leg burned with agony, but that was nothing compared to the roiling mix of emotions inside her.
We failed, she thought. We failed to protect the people of Arabasta, and it was pirates who had to do our job for us.
And oh, didn't that sting her.
She saw them lying there, unconscious, bleeding, horribly injured. It would be so easy to arrest them now, when they couldn't put up a fight.
They're pirates, a part of her yelled. They're pirates, they're outlaws, they're criminals, arresting them is justice-
They fought some of the greatest assassins and bounty hunters in the seas, and throughout this portion of the Grand Line, another part of her said quietly. They protected Arabasta when we did not, when we could not. They fought until they could stand no longer.
How, pray tell, is arresting them justice?
She didn't want to listen to that voice. It sounded far too much like her mother.
Her attention caught on their captain. Monkey D. Luffy. He looked so small, covered in bruises and gashes, gaping wounds etched into his flesh by what she assumed was a golden hook. A boy had defeated the Shichibukai Crocodile.
A boy.
Hard to imagine.
-…"Where is he?" the pirate's voice snaps like a whip, and she sees fury on his face. There is determination writ into every straining movement, the curve of his frown, the blood and bruises.
She looks at him, strong and capable, and still standing, and she thinks of herself, bleeding and broken on the ground. She thinks of the careless annoyance in Miss All-Sunday's tone as she dismissed the Marines, and of the cruel laughter of Crocodile.
And she tells him the way, because she…
Because she is weak, and it burns her to know that she is so weak that she cannot do her duty to the people who need her…-
"We'll arrest the pirates," one of her men said, bringing her sharply out of her memories. "If we-"
Tashigi flung out an arm, halting her men in their tracks.
"No," she said, and the word burned her like embers in her throat. "No, we will not."
"Wait, what? Officer-"
"I said no," she snapped. "You will not touch them, do you understand me-"
"That is a very good choice, Marine-chan," came a voice from behind her, and Tashigi whirled.
Two men stood there, flanked by a prowling tiger and a panther with silver eyes. They were alone in the path left by her shivering men, who had backed a considerable distance away from the two.
Her breath stuttered in her lungs. The man to the right – dressed in dark, torn clothing, with jade-green eyes, dark hair, and the nastiest smirk she'd ever seen – was an unknown, though he carried an air of absolute danger about his shoulders. But the other…
Tall, muscled, dark-haired and eyed, with his hat perched jauntily on his head, and fire twisting around his body as though it were a part of him. And the tattoo on his arm. She knew that tattoo.
Portgas D. Ace.
She couldn't stop herself from swallowing painfully. The second commander of Whitebeard's fleet, the man who had consumed the Mera Mera no Mi Logia fruit, and one of the most elite pirates on the entirety of the Grand Line stood in front of her.
"It would be a very good idea if you moved along now, Marine-chan," the man beside him said, his voice as warm and smooth as fine whisky. He cocked his head to the side and smirked.
"I won't be nearly so nice as Miss All-Sunday was, if you get in my way."
That smirk seemed full of mockery, and Tashigi knew that he knew how easily Crocodile's partner had disarmed her. There was heat in her cheeks now, and that cruel smile deepened.
Portgas tapped his knuckles against the other man's shoulder, and jerked his head towards the unconscious pirates. She wondered if the man was also a member of the Whitebeard pirates, as a thousand words passed between the look the two men shared.
And they began to walk forward, towards her, and Tashigi was backing away before she was even conscious of the movement, stepping aside as they passed by, and her humiliation was complete.
She had stepped aside for pirates.
As Portgas knelt by the boy who had defeated Crocodile, his companion stepped in front of him, shielding them both, shielding all the pirates from Tashigi's line of sight, with the cats flanking him on either side.
Just try it, they seemed to suggest, with dangerous smiles and folded arms and toothy grins. Just try to get past us to them.
But Tashigi turned and walked away, her face burning with embarrassment and shame.
And she wondered if she had done the right thing.
TRANSLATIONS AND FOOTNOTES
anima autem Oceanus- Sermo; "soul of the Ocean"
*Tashigi's character development is going to be a lot different in this story than it was in the canon proper. Needless to say, that horrendous fuckery concerning everything that happened to her in Punk Hazard will not be happening.