Eh... I'm not too sure about this chapter. I like it, but I think the ending could've been a bit more... I don't know. Also, the transition from fight to not fighting was a bit iffy to me. Oh well. I don't own One Piece (Much to my chagrin). Read and enjoy!
I did not move, did not speak, and I certainly did not notice the hairy dude strutting towards me. Of course, only when his shadow eclipsed my form did I turn away from the... the spiky ball. I was still in my ducking position, so I had to crane my neck to see the guys face. I could see, behind the monstrosity of a beard, his triumphant and decidedly arrogant smirk. I would have rolled my eyes but the situation really was just bizarre in its entirety.
"Impressed?" he more stated than asked.
"Curios and confused, actually" I replied, and he seemed to find this funny. Laughing loudly, he brandished his arm in front of his torso, holding it as though he was holding an invisible shield. The thick dark hairs on his arm grew in size and length. Their tips became sharp and pointy. I stared with a profound sense of interest, disturbed but I couldn't look away. When they were a sufficient size for him, he plucked one from his skin and another one emerged to take its place.
"I ate a Devil Fruit, the Quill-Quill Fruit. Now I can create these deadly spikes at will!" he said proudly, as though he had won a great prize. I suppose getting a Devil Fruit around here would seem pretty important, though I couldn't say the pros outweighed the cons. Unless he was already like that before he ate the fruit, then I'd say the effect weren't as dire. Still, the power did offer some serious advantages.
I stood slowly, and looked around. Everyone was watching, even the Marines –who were supposed to be taking care of the pirates- were frozen in their places. Sighing I took a step back and rolled my shoulders. Okay, so this guy was a Devil Fruit user, which meant that he was an anchor as well, and that this one seems to be a Paramecia type. Well, that was both good and bad, since I don't think I'm strong enough to handle a Logia class just yet.
"Thanks for the info. Now, I believe you were going to 'take care of me'" I said sardonically, to which his smirk grew. At least, I think it was a smirk, but I couldn't under that layer of hair on his face. He threw the spike he was holding, and I dodged it easily. I raised a brow at him but he didn't seem perturbed by my dodging skills and continued to throw his sharp quills at me, never once lightening his barrage. I was beginning to get bored, because seriously, weren't Devil Fruit users supposed to become stronger? Unless he only just gained his skill, but he seemed pretty adept at making them at will. Suddenly, another ball of sharp quills came flying my way. I jerked my head to the side, and one sharp spike grazed my cheek. Cutting skin but not flesh, leaving only a red line from under my left eye to my ear, the ball crashed into the stump of the mast and instead of just sticking there, it exploded.
I managed to manoeuvre my body to avoid most of the deadly spikes, but my left side still stabbed by at least a dozen of the little dark brown needles. I took a sharp inhale of breath at the pain. That had been unexpected. Dropping to one knee, I immediately set about the task of pulling them out of my legs and arm, but another barrage of the needle-like weapons hailed towards my form. I jumped out of the way, and performed a one-handed backflip to avoid being skewed by a third rain of spikes. I looked at where I had been, dozens of spikes stuck out of the wooden floors. More than he had been throwing before, I looked to the man and him preparing another bunch.
His entire body was covered, from head to toe, by the quills. They glinted sharply in the midday light, and I realised just how difficult it would be to beat this man. I was a close combat type of fighter, and if I wanted to land I hit I would potentially have to allow myself to become a pincushion. Despite my less than favourable odds, I found myself grinning excitedly. This was the kind of fight I was looking for!
As I dodged another attack of needles, I pulled out the sharp quills from my body. Blood seeped out of the tiny wounds at a steady pace, but not fast enough to be concerning. As the attacks continued, I edged closer and closer, avoiding the sharp projectiles with flexibility that only a woman can procure. Finally, I entered my range for attack.
Moving at a speed the untrained eye couldn't follow I appeared behind the captain and gave a powerful punch to his back. I missed his spine by centimetres, but I was sure he felt it. He crashed into the wall of his quarters and went through it, pushing up dust and debris. I landed softly on the ground, and spun around playfully with my arms out.
"Miss me, miss me, you can't hit me" I sung playfully, laughing at my own creativity. I jumped into the air quickly, the place I had been now littered with the deadly quills. The captain stumbled out of the hole he created, which was crudely shaped like him I realised with a giggle, and growled at me. He was covered in minor scratches and grazes, but I'm pretty sure I hurt his pride more than his body.
"You bitch" he spat, and I leant back on my heels again, one foot behind the other, and vainly tried to hide my giggles behind my fingers.
"I think you hit your head there" I quipped through my giggles "Because my species is definitely not of the canine variety, contrary to common belief. But whatever floats your boat" I shrugged, finally getting over my giggles and now looking completely relaxed. Some of the men around me looked a little irked by that, or by what I said, but I ignored them. They were no fun.
"I'll kill you" he said, and I rolled my eyes and smirked at him.
"I thought you were going to take care of me?" I said in mock-innocence. This only pissed him off and he ran forward, his body hair sticking up as they turned into those sharp spikes. It dived out of the way as he barrelled into what was left of the mast and smashed it to pieces. I winced at the prospect of that being me. I jumped out of the way again as he came towards me again, I couldn't get close to him like this. Every inch of his body was protected by the quills, even his face was covered! It was crazy. As I dodged another close call, I reluctantly accepted what I had to do.
This was gonna hurt.
I stood where the ground was flat and clear of spikes, and turned to my angry assailant. My knees bent, one leg behind the other, my body was side-on with my left facing my opponent. My right fist was rightly closed and raised to the waist. My left palm was facing my rushing opponent in a 'halt' position, the elbow slightly bent and my back straight with my shoulder squared. Body tense and ready, with my hard eyes trained on my target with firm expression set on my features.
He was upon me!
I pushed my legs, and shot my fist with all my power while retracting my left hand quickly. The effect was instantaneous. Pain shot through my right hand, spikes piercing the flesh and bone, and my shoulder and side was pierced by the longer needle-like quills. Luckily my legs weren't affected, since the angle and position of both of us kept the spikes from reaching that low. Time seemed to slow from there, from the impact of my fist the man's warped and moved back before his spiked body followed. Then time resumed its usual speed and the man vaulted from me, a burst of displaced air acted like a mini shockwave as he broke the sound-barrier, and became nothing more than a big brown blur as he zoomed from the ship, through the buildings of the town, and finally came to a stop a hundred or so metres into the tree-line.
A huge cloud of dust and debris followed his path, and some of the less sturdy buildings began to crumble and fall. I was panting from my position, fist still extended and body tense. That power really had the potential to be devastating, and I had to admit it wasn't as lame as it first appeared to be. I relaxed my body and retracted my arm, and began pulling out the pikes that had lodged themselves in my body. I didn't want to even look at my right hand, already knowing it would be a bloody mess. I couldn't just do a simple patch up job with this, I would have to get a professional to take a look at it, and hopefully fix it.
Everyone was frozen, amazed that this slip of a girl had beaten such a dangerous man. He wasn't really dangerous, I realised with a scoff, not to someone who was truly powerful. Sure, to them he was dangerous, but not truly dangerous that he could make it in the Grand Line. And I had managed to beat him with relative ease.
'But at a price. I'm bleeding pretty badly now, and I could irreparably damage my hand. I beat him easily, but at a price. I could have finished that fight before it came to this. If I had just hit his spine, he would've been out of the fight instantly' I thought angrily to myself.
'And he would've been dead' my mind shot back. I took a sharp breath at that paralysing epiphany. Now that I thought back on the fight, I had clearly been able to do it. To hit his spine with my bone-breaking punch, and end him right then and there.
But I hadn't. At the time, during the fight, I hadn't thought anything of it, just absently categorised it as bad aim and continued on, but now that I did think on it… my eyes had been on his spine, but my fist had veered off course. Even though I had come to terms with the fact I would be killing, I still couldn't do it. My subconscious, maybe my conscience, wouldn't allow me to outright kill someone. But I hadn't been thinking of killing him, just beating him, only being victorious. Maybe if I had consciously known what my attack would've done to him, I would have hit my mark.
I barked out a breathless, silent, laugh at the thought. It was like I was programmed with an inability to accidently kill, unless I was making the conscious decision to end another's life, I wouldn't be able to end their lives.
'At least' I thought as I looked to the mess I caused 'not on purpose' I let my shoulders sag as the adrenalin begun to wear off. But I was still giddy from my win. But my mind was still thinking on the implications of my train of thought, and my memory returned to the pit. How I hadn't felt anything, my body moved and my mind thought of just one thing: Winning, beating, surviving. I hadn't consciously killed him, but I had known what it would do… if that makes sense.
Shaking my head from those memories, I limped to the railing –or what was left of it- and jumped off the ship and onto the docks. I turned to the nearest navy personnel, who looked to be the captain, and I nodded my head towards the town.
"Is there a hospital or something here?" I asked, and he snapped out of his shocked trance. He nodded vigorously and yelled for some of his men to take me to the hospital. I sweat-dropped at this, I didn't need an entire escort, just directions. Sighing in resignation, I began to walk with the Marines into the town. I tried to hide my limping as best as I could, my left leg was hurting real bad. You know that muscles deep pain you get after having needle injections? Yeah, it was like that, only worse. It felt like someone had stuck a dozen needles in my leg, jostled them about a bit, before pulling them out, which wasn't too far from the truth, if I thought about it.
One of the Marines had offered to carry me, but I had refused. I had suffered worse, far worse. I had suffered the inability to breathe, the weight of the earth pressing down on my form, the pain of bones breaking from that weight and my insides folding in on themselves. All that pain and I couldn't even scream, I didn't have the air nor the space for it.
But that had only lasted for a moment, before Death had mercifully taken me away into the abyss. He gave me a mission and then sent me back to the land of the living, but in a different world. I had been buried again, but it hadn't been as bad. I remember how the pressure had been lighter, more bearable, and how my bones hadn't suffered as badly and my organs hadn't suffered any major damage. The rules of the world were different here, and that allowed me to live. It gave me strength, more than I would've ever gotten back at my old world.
One a happier note, and one far less brooding, we reached the hospital! The doctors only had to take one look at me before everyone went into a panicked frenzy. A nurse actually fainted! That had been funny, seriously funny, I had laughed despite everything when she collapsed. I think everyone thinks I'm crazy, and I probably am. Right now at least. My mind and emotions have been through a rollercoaster and it's really beginning to take its toll. I had been ushered into a white room, into a white bed, and then stuck with an actual needle filled with some sort of painkiller. It was relieving, to say the least, and a serious sleeping drug. I was knocked out cold within minutes.
Morning had been eventful. I had woken up, groggy and slow from the drugs affects, and had almost completely forgotten about my fight. That was until I tried to move my body. Fortunately, the drugs were still mostly in effect, and I only felt a tingling sensation around where I knew I should be feeling pain. It was like a misty veil, obscuring the vivid details from my senses and keeping my nerves clouded in a hazy sensation.
The nurse, not the one who fainted, that had been present had jumped when she heard me wake. I'm not sure what sound I made, I had been so out of it, and by the time I registered that someone had even been in the room I was alone. I tried to move, but the motions were slow and mostly unresponsive. I was beginning to hate sedatives; they made it so hard for the body to obey my brains commands.
When the doctor and two nurses, the one that had been here when I woke up, came into my room I had mostly gained my bearings and remembered how I ended up here. I blearily registered one of the nurses were checking my vitals, clipboard in hand, while the other two occupants were in a heated and fast-paced discussion. When it finally ended, the doctor turned to me. He was a handsome man, all dark hair and dark eyes with olive skin that was a stark contrast to the bland white room.
"Do you remember how you got here?" he asked, I forced my head to nod. I didn't trust my voice to actually make noise just yet. The man mimicked my motion, it being faster and smoother than my bobbing movement, but I blame the drugs on that.
"Do you remember anything before that?" he asked, and I wondered why he was asking me these questions. My head hadn't been hit, as far as I knew, during the fight. I tried to move, but the nurses were at my sides in an instant and pushing me back down. With them and the drugs still going through me, I couldn't put up much of a fight. I went back down, but one of the nurses had been nice enough to adjust the angle of my bed so I was sitting up. It was then I saw the nurses' clipboard, and more importantly, some very familiar paperwork.
It was a copy of my medical records.
So they knew about my 'mild case of amnesia', my mind slowly concluded. God, I hated how slow I was. It was kind of standard procedure, to have the medical records of the patient. Duh, aren't I a clever drugged-up fighter?
"Yeah…" I said slowly, answering his earlier question. He nodded and the nurse with my info wrote something down. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the fog that was in my mind, it was hard to think clearly and I hated it. Half the reason I was alive was because of my quick mind, and not having that made me uncomfortable. I shifted in my bed, though it was more a very long chair, and all personnel in the room were looking at me again.
"Okay now… miss" he said carefully, and warning bells went off in the back of my mind, but they were so far away they were practically drowned out by the hazy static of my brain "Can you tell us your name?"
And suddenly that cloud went 'toodle-oo' and my mind was abuzz with questions. Why did he need to know my name? Why does this make me uncomfortable? What was wrong with this situation? Something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong…
But my mind was still slow, and even as these thoughts were going through my mind I could barely consciously register them. I opened my mouth, intent on answering the man, when my medical file came up in my mind's eye and my mouth snapped shut with an audible click. Something isn't right here. What was it? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks God had just so kindly decided to drop on my unsuspecting person.
Metaphorically of course, I don't think God would mess with someone so directly.
My eyes shot to the medical records that the nurse still held, and my eyes went straight to where my name should be. I stared at it for several seconds, trying to process it and figure out how it happened. The doctor and nurses took notice of my apparent riveted interest in the clipboard and the kind nurse moved away from me, so I couldn't see my medical file. My eyes didn't follow, but my mind finally seemed to catch up.
'Maria you sly she-devil' I thought fondly, fighting a knowing smile. Maria did have a habit of interfering, but right now I couldn't be more grateful for the woman. Except for when she taught me how to make herbal teas, there was no way anyone could top that.
What was on the paper you ask? Oh, that was simple, childishly simple really. And a slightly childish, because it is what I had been calling myself since I set out.
"Traveller" I said with an all too innocent smile.
So what do you think? R&R or just enjoy, whichever really. Hope you enjoyed this one, and tell me what you think! Anything I could improve on? See ya on the next episode!