Disclaimer: Do not own One Piece. All plot and OCs belong to Volleys-chan and I.
The Dragon Chronicles
Chapter 5 - Divulge
"I am a storyteller. The type that went from place to place, gathered people in the square and transported them, inspired them, woke them up, shook their insides around so that they could resettle in a new pattern, a new way of being. It is a tradition that believes that the story speaks to the soul, not the ego... to the heart, not the head. In today's world, we yearn so to 'understand', to conquer with our mind, but it is not in the mind that a mythic story dwells."
-Donna Jacobs Sife
The child was out like a light, exhausted by all the horrible twists and turns that seem to be taking place in her life recently. If she could just take this child and wrap her up in her arms and protect her from the harms of this world forever, Silver had no doubt she would. However, she already knew that she was a dead man walking.
It was only a matter of time before her clock ran out and she was executed publicly at Marineford. Or if she tried to escape this ship, she'd be either be killed in or for her attempt. One way or another, Longjohn Silver had to die. So Silver already knew it would be impossible to protect this girl and shield her from the world's terrors, but that didn't mean she couldn't offer solace for as long as she was able.
She had literally spent the last few hours contemplating this very thing. How can she right these wrongs done unto this child? How could she protect her even after she was gone? Silver snorted at the irony of the situation. Not even hours ago, the child hated her merely because she was a pirate and now she was curled up in her arms, clinging to her like her very life depended on it.
Yeah, this whole thing was messed up, but Silver couldn't push away a child in need. Never. Especially one of her own ilk. So now she just needed to figure out a way to help this child heal from all these tragic events that had been happening to her.
She finally decided to do what she always did when taking a new child under her care and try to do it for as long as she was able to.
Silver was quickly pulled from her thoughts when she heard the brig door being unlocked. The worst of the storm was probably over now, if the softer rocking of the sea vessel was any indication, and it was no doubt Aokiji coming in to check on the child. She didn't bother moving, her arm that the girl was using as her pillow was numb from the girl's dead weight and Silver felt like giving the ice admiral a good scare when he came upon the conclusions of the night's horrible events.
He didn't seem to notice anything was wrong before flicking on the lights. Silver smirked into the girl's hair when she heard the tall man choke on nothing, no doubt his heart having stopped for a fraction of a second when viewing the corpse of the pedophile in the cell Rei had been put in last night.
"Silver-" He began in a urgent tone, but cut himself off when Silver shifted and revealed the young girl in her arms.
"She's safe, now anyways." Silver told him in a stern tone, returning to her original position. "But that hadn't been the case a few hours ago."
Aokiji let out a heavy sigh of relief as he leaned against the frame of the door. He ran his hand through his hair as he forced himself to calm down from his earlier scare. When he had first seen the body, he had automatically thought the worst and was even unsure if Rei was unharmed or dead as well.
"What happened?" He finally asked her, coming further into the brig and shutting the door shut with a heavy slam. He didn't want people to hear this conversation.
"What do you think happened?" Silver snapped waspishly. "Some sick bastard came in here with every intent of raping the girl. I told him to leave her alone and when he didn't listen, I managed to wrap my chains around him and suffocate him. If I could have done more, I would have. Hell, if I could have snapped his neck while choking him to death, I would have."
"And after that?" He prompted, gesturing at how the girl who proclaimed to hate pirates came to sleep in the arms of one.
"She's a scared, little girl," Silver snarled in a low, protective tone as not to wake the child. "She's not a big, tough marine. She needs to be held and comforted when shit like this happens to her."
Aokiji nodded with a sigh, running his hand though his hair again. "I understand. Arara, what trouble. Is she unharmed at least?"
"He was choking her, but other than that, he didn't harm her from what I could see." Silver reported. "But I was too busy attending to her mentality that I wasn't really looking. Give me a sec."
Silver sat up, pulling the girl in her arms up along with her, and placed her in her lap. Rei stirred slightly from the movement and her eyes opened drowsily, not at all lucid to what was going on around her. The first thing Silver noticed was the state of the girls tangled locks. It was a complete rat's nest and it seemed to be twisted and tangled into something that would make it impossible to salvage.
"Hey, Bluebird, I need you to make me some hair shears." Silver said, holding out an expecting hand while her other hand played with the tangled locks to see what was salvageable.
"You want scissors?" He asked skeptically, unsure if he should trust her with anything sharp.
"Her hair is a mess. Trust me, it'll be easier to just cut it. Or do you think you can properly cut a little girl's hair into a decent hairdo?"
Aokiji didn't argue any further, merely sighing and muttering 'arara' under his breath as he used his powers to make a pair of hair shears out of ice. He handed them to Silver in semi-reluctance and watched with mild frustration as she observed the ice made scissors.
"Do you get bored some days and just decide to practice making scissors or what?"
"I find imitating objects and making my ice versions just as usable as a good way to refine my abilities and to control my powers. Is there a problem with that?"
Silver looked up at him, a smile on her face as her eyes danced with humor. "Hunhunhun, I honestly can't see you practicing. You always seem too busy taking a nap to practice anything."
Aokiji chose to not reply to her comment, instead watching as she nimbly started to use one hand to run her fingers from the scalp of the child's head to as far as the tangled mass of hair would allow before clipping off the rest of the black locks. As soon as the tangled mass was cut off the Rei's head, Silver held out her hand again asking for a ice comb to help her finish fixing the girl's hair. He did so without question and watched as she transformed the uneven hair into a cute layered mass of short, wiry locks. The haircut was boyish and wild, but it greatly improved the girl's appearance.
"There we go~" Silver said proudly as she observed her work from her position. Rei was slowly becoming more cognitive than when she first had woken and blinked owlishly when she realized that Silver had cut her hair. "All better now! Now we can see that pretty little girl under all the mess."
Rei tentatively reached up to touch a few tresses of her hair to gauge what Silver had done to her.
"It's so short." Rei mused aloud, blinking curiously as she ran the fingers of one of her hands through her hair.
Aokiji didn't miss how calm Rei appeared to be in the presence of the pirate woman. Yesterday, she couldn't be in the same room as the pirate without getting really tense and never letting her out of her sight, but now she was sitting comfortably in the woman's lap and speaking uninhibited by that nervous, shy stutter of hers. Secretly, he was glad of the results of last night's affairs, though if he could, he would have tried to reap the same results though much different means.
Silver, who Aokiji knew was about to give the child a teasing retort about why the child's hair was so short now, suddenly lost all humor in her expression as her eyes caught sight of Rei's little hand. Aokiji was about to ask the woman what the matter was, but he had lost his voice as well when Silver snatched both of the little girl's hands and held her wrists while forcing the girl's palms open with her thumb and pointer fingers. Rei was suddenly struggling as she tried to pull her little hands out of the woman's firm grip, letting out frightened cries of 'no' as tears pricked in the corners of her eyes.
Silver flipped Rei's hands over a few times as she studied the cuts that littered the girl's hands ranging from long, shallow cuts to short, deep gashes that were red from irritation and what might have been the beginning of an infection from not being treated properly. Aokiji watched in mild horror as Silver began to pull the girl's sleeves higher to see where the trail of cuts ended, which wasn't far past the girl's wrists; however, deep and horribly large bruises began to take their place.
Silver took both of the girl's wrists in one hand as she began to pull up different parts of Rei's clothes to see where these bruises began and where they ended all while Rei fought against her as violently as the child could. Rei howled in desperation as she tried to stop the woman's probing hands from discovering her pain and her shame. Her pleads for the woman to stop fell on deaf ears as Silver took inventory and Aokiji watched stiffly with disbelief and horror in his eyes. Rei felt tears of frustration run down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her secret shame was now known as she wanted nothing more than to hide under her cot in embarrassment.
Silver finally whipped her around so they were facing each other and as Rei slowly opened her eyes, her face flushed from crying and embarrassment, she was suddenly enraptured by the look in Silver's eyes. They burned. They burned with fury, with understanding, with protectiveness, and, most of all, with life. So much life burned in those previously tired golden orbs that it startled Rei out of wallowing in self-pity. She couldn't help but stare wide-eyed right back at the woman.
"You." Her voice was tight, as if she was trying to restrain back all of the fury Rei could see in her eyes. "You cover your ears and if I ever catch you repeating what I'm about to say, I promise you that you'll wish you hadn't."
Rei instantly slapped her hands over her ears, nodding viciously as she stared at Silver in mild horror, not even wanted to know what would happen if she disobeyed the woman. Silver, on the other hand, whipped her eyes to Aokiji's startled form, eyes still full of that fury as she glared at the man darkly.
Then, she proceeded to cuss him out, violently and loudly.
Though Rei would never tell Silver, covering her ears didn't help at all. She heard every single word because of the older woman's sheer volume of shouting and felt sorry for Admiral Kuzan who all the woman's wrath was pointed at. She also felt slightly bad for lying to him and Admiral Sakazuki about the severity of her injuries, but according to Silver, who was lecturing him between just flat out cussing at him, it was his responsibility to make sure she was alright.
"- not just take her damn word about it! She's eight years old, damn it! She's been abused both mentally and physically for who knows how friggin' long! Of course she's not going to tell you the shitty truth!" She could hear the pirate clearly shout through her covered ears.
Did Rei mention she felt really bad for Admiral Kuzan? Cause she did. She never wanted to be on the other end of her anger ever. If she hadn't already traumatized her by shouting horrible things to her, Silver might have. But she had never brought it to the same level that Silver was currently taking while she swore Admiral Kuzan up and down and was she cussing in a different language now?
Surprisingly, Admiral Kuzan stood there and took it as the female pirate raged at him. He looked embarrassed by his mistake, irritated that a pirate was chastising him over proper protocol, and perhaps disconcerted at what Silver was screaming at him. Rei couldn't tell because Silver had been switching languages every time she ran out of words to scream at him in the language she had been using. Rei vaguely wondered how many languages the woman even knew and how many of the languages Admiral Kuzan could actually understand.
After about forty-five minutes or so, Silver finally calmed down enough to reign in the rest of her fury and ended her rant filled with chastisements, threats, different languages, and oh so many swear words- more than enough to make a sailor blush from the indecency of some of them.
"Now," Silver huffed in a raspy tone, her voice tired from her shouting, "Go take her to the doctor, get her checked out, and get her cleaned up. And whatever the hell you do before, during, and afterwards, don't you dare speak a word of what has happened to this girl to that bastard Akainu."
"Arara," Admiral Kuzan finally said with a heavy sigh. "You do not need to tell me that twice."
Kuzan knew that if Sakazuki got wind of the girl's abuse, he'd try to use that to strengthen the girl's hatred of pirates and unknowingly damaging the child's delicate psyche even worse than what the Foxy Pirates had. Though he couldn't withhold the information of what happened in the brig, he could at least withhold the origin of her wounds and allow people to come to the conclusions that her wounds came from her struggle against the dead marine before Silver managed to step in.
"Arara, it looks like I have more work to do. And I was hoping to take a nap now that the storm finally settled." Admiral Kuzan sighed as he rubbed the back of his head lazily.
"Poor baby," Silver snapped, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She shifted Rei in her hold and standing up with Rei resting on her hip. Kuzan had to admit, it was an impressive feat with all the injuries Silver had for her to be standing while carrying the extra weight of a child without looking remotely in pain. "Now quit your whining. You have no right to complain. Now start leading the way to the infirmary."
"You're coming?"
"No, I'm just holding the kid because its fun." He could tell she was in a lot of pain, but the child was unaware and that was how the pirate wanted her to remain. "Stop being stupid and unchain me from the wall and let me out for my daily walk. I've been a very good girl and deserve a treat. Just don't forget to hold the leash tight. If you let go, I might be gone forever."
Apparently she had issues about how Sakazuki handled her transportation. Then again, Sakazuki probably played it up as a way to get back at Silver for all the dog jokes and analogies she made at him all day. For Sakazuki, it must have been poetic justice to lead Silver around by the chain attached to the collar around her neck like she was a 'real bitch'.
"Huh, same thing happened with my dog when I was a kid." Kuzan teased as he entered the cell and, using his skeleton key, unlocked the chain that kept her confide to the room.
He held the end very loosely, knowing full well she wouldn't run. She didn't have a reason to run and she wouldn't get far if she did run due to her injuries and how much she was already pushing it by carrying the child. Plus, she seemed to have decided to protect the child and would do nothing to harm her. Even Rei seemed oddly attached to the woman despite what her feelings had been the day before.
He would run damage control later, after taking Rei to the on staff doctor and making sure she was tended to and cleaned up. It was still ridiculously early for this sort of thing- way too early in his opinion since he hadn't gotten any sleep since there had been such a bad storm that had required both Sakazuki's and his attention. Hopefully, he'd be able to get a nap in sometime soon or else he would not be responsible for his actions later on today. Silver had already eaten up all his patience with her rather foul, but understandable, outburst. If Sakazuki pissed him off, there was no telling what he might do being this tired.
With one last sigh, Kuzan lead the duo to the infirmary and prayed that Sakazuki wouldn't cross their path till much, much, much later in the day. He also hoped that the doctor wouldn't be too irked with him waking him up a such an awful hour of the morning to look at the little girl he probably should have take to two days ago.
He had a feeling he was going to get chewed out again. He just knew it.
Rei silently ate her lunch next to Admiral Kuzan. She wrapped her white bandaged fingers around her utensils and carefully ate her food as to not get any on the new clothes she wore. Well, they were new for her, but according to Silver, who had spent a hour or so adjusting them to fit her, the outfit had belong to her more tomboy of a lass. Admiral Kuzan asked her why she would even have such a outfit still in her bags, which he had allowed her access to under his direct supervision, but Silver merely shrugged and told them she had a feeling she might need it again one day.
Rei was glad she did, secretly. If she hadn't held onto the hand-me-downs, she would have had to try to deal with Admiral Kuzan trying to find something small enough for her to wear in place of her old, ratty clothes. And in all honesty, these clothes were even nicer than the ones she had been wearing even before her abduction. Silver had even managed to adjust the size of a old worn leather jacket she had and by pulling the sleeves inside the jacket and sewing the armholes shut and the sleeves to the inside of the jacket, had made her a nice little cloak to wear around outside while shadowing Admiral Kuzan. She even had a headband that wrapped around her head and kept her wild locks of hair at bay instead of flying whichever way they wanted to go.
Rei nearly beamed when Admiral Kuzan had allowed Silver to give it to her because upon the middle of the band was a beautiful round and smooth red jewel that gleamed prettily in the sun. It wasn't the fact that it might have been a costly gift that made Rei so happy to receive it, it was the idea of receiving something from someone who showed her such gentleness and kindness when the rest of the world had shown her no mercy in recent days.
Silver wasn't as bad as she had thought at all. In fact, she really did like the old pirate woman who showed her such gentleness and care. Rei honestly felt abash by her behavior beforehand towards the witty woman and was glad that Silver didn't hold it against her, merely teased her about it in a friendly way. She even thought the woman's snarky comments and way of addressing the admirals were funny, though she would not be admitting it to either aloud.
"Is your food good, Rei-chan?" Admiral Kuzan's voice broke her out of her musings and the girl looked up to him to look him in the eyes. Silver was no longer with them because Admiral Sakazuki finally came to retrieve his responsibility and deal with the whole fiasco that took place in the brig while Admiral Kuzan was left to watch her and gauge how badly the traumatic event had affected her.
If that thing aboard that ship couldn't break her, then some random psychopath wouldn't be able to with one harsh action like choking her. Perhaps if the events hadn't turned like they had, she might have been far worse, but right now, she felt remarkable happy now that her injuries had been tended, she had been washed, and now was wearing something clean.
"Un! I-it's v-very good!" She told him, inwardly wincing at the stutter she couldn't seem to shake around the tall, lazy looking man.
It wasn't as bad as it was with anyone else, especially Admiral Sakazuki, but Rei couldn't seem to shake her stuttering completely around any of the marines. She could speak full, clear sentences to her parents, her siblings, and even to Captain Mizushima, but everyone else made her nervous. Well... Silver made her feel safe. She wondered if she would actually stutter if she attempted to speak to the woman alone.
"That's good." Admiral Kuzan nodded, pointing at her hands with his utensil. "And your injuries?"
"T-they don't h-hurt too m-much... Not l-like be...before." Rei answered quietly, her gaze falling away from the ice admiral's.
She was still touchy about that and both of them knew it. Rei had still been dazed by that look in Silver's eyes when they had taken her to the infirmary, but the moment the doctor tried to take her out of Silver's arms to examine her, she broke out of her stupor and began to struggle once more. Silver had been the only one in the room who seemed to know what to do with an outburst like this and sat down on a cot, with her still in her arms, and held her still until the doctor was finished with his examination of her.
"That's good." Admiral Kuzan said again, nodding once more. "Now, I know it is not for a long while yet, but, would you be alright if I took you back to the brig for Silver-san to watch you at night? Or would that be too scary?"
Rei looked at him in slight horror. She wasn't scared of being in the same room as where the man had died, she was terrified at the idea of not being in the protective care of Silver.
"P-p-please... I-I-I-I wa-want to st-st-stay there!" Her stutter came back with a vengeance due to her terror. "S-S-Silver... Sh-she s-saved m-m-m-me. I-I-I-I-I wa-wa-want t-t-to st-stay wi-with her!"
"Arara, very well. I can't argue with that. She does seem to have a knack when it comes to saving your life." Admiral Kuzan nodded as he took a bite of his food and ate for a moment before continuing. "I mean, this is the second time she's saved your life after all."
Rei blinked in confusion, unsure at what the admiral had meant and thought back to when Silver had saved her before last night. She was drawing up a blank and it was obvious by her expression. Admiral Kuzan seemed to realize what he had said and sighed in frustration at his slip, tossing his utensil onto his plate, now finished with his food. He might have liked Silver well enough to respect her, but that didn't mean he wanted to paint her as the hero to an impressionable young girl. Perhaps he hoped that she wouldn't pursue the subject any further, but Rei couldn't keep her curiosity at bay.
"W-w-w-what do yo-yo-you mean?" Rei asked him, also setting her utensil down and focusing entirely on him.
He let out another sigh, looking around the room quickly to take inventory of how many people were there before he said anything about this incident. Admiral Sakazuki was still on deck making Silver stand for the rest of her day in the harsh sun and most of the other marines had cleared out by the time they had gotten to the cafeteria for lunch. They were pretty much the only people in the area and Rei knew he couldn't weasel his way out of answering this question.
"Ararara, such trouble." He bemoaned one last time before rubbing the back of his head like he did when he was irritated or felt put out. "Silver-san has saved you twice now, last night being the second time."
"A-a-and th-th-the f-f-f-first?" Rei prompted nervously, not sure if she really wanted to know.
"The first time being when you first got here. Silver-san had begged Sakazuki to spare your life from the Sea King. He thought you were just some pirate cabin boy playing decoy and wasn't about to be distracted by the bait." Admiral Kuzan explained to the child. "Silver-san argued that you were probably a prisoner. In a very strange play of events, he allowed Silver-san a chance to save your life by offering her a gun with a single bullet to shoot the Sea King before it got you. And I think you can assume the outcome of that action."
Rei stared at him wide eyed. She owned her life, not once, but twice, to a pirate. If her fate had been originally left in the hands of the marines on board this ship, she might not have made it. Perhaps Admiral Kuzan might have saved her, either acting too late or having been taking a nap at that time, but if Admiral Sakazuki had gotten his way originally, she would have been dead over a foolish mistake. Her respect for Silver suddenly went up radically while her respect for the two admirals dropped significantly, Admiral Sakazuki's more than Admiral Kuzan's. She knew he would have at least tried eventually.
"O-oh." Was all she managed to say, not sure how to respond to that.
Admiral Kuzan let out another sigh and muttered his favorite saying of 'arara' as he picked up both his plate and hers and got up from the table to take them to cart where the dirty dishes were placed after every meal. Rei followed him, regardless of her sudden decrease of respect for the man.
He was still her guardian during her stay with the marines and that would not be changed by one or two bad acts of judgment. However, she now wanted a chance to talk to the older female and perhaps get to know her instead of just ignoring her. If she was willing to save her twice, especially the second time after she treated her so badly, perhaps she wasn't as bad as Rei originally thought she would be.
Maybe the world really wasn't as black and white as Admiral Sakazuki had been telling her it was and it was more like how Admiral Kuzan described the world, a place filled with different shades of grey. Rei decided that she would indeed keep an open mind to the idea of not everyone who is labeled bad actually being bad and not everyone who is labeled good actually being good. It was their actions, intentions, and honor that defined them, not what society labels them as.
Those seen as heroes could lie and deceive others into believing that they are good, but only time would reveal their true character. And perhaps those who get labeled bad are sometimes merely misunderstood or put in bad situations that paint them as the villain in the eyes of society when all they were trying to do was the right thing.
Who was good? Who was bad? Who could be trusted? Who could not? These were questions that Rei now found herself trying to answer. She knew people like those pirates were bad, but also that people like that marine were not good. The two admirals had completely different outlooks on good and evil, but did that make Admiral Kuzan good because his involved mercy and kindness when the lines between the two opposites blurred or did that make Admiral Sakazuki bad because he had none for anyone, even the innocent, when that blurry line was crossed in his eyes.
Rei realized that this was something she would have to decide for herself: who was good, who was bad, who to trust, and who to not. She would have to keep an open mind, however, in order to make the right decision and trust her own judgement of people instead of second guessing herself or listening entirely to other's opinions.
She could only hope that she would choose wisely from this point on.
Daytime could only last so long and soon Rei found herself being led to the familiar door of the brig. This time, however, she wasn't filled with dread. She knew what had happened in there, and though she wasn't over the whole event, she was looking forward to seeing, and perhaps talking to, Silver again.
Admiral Kuzan opened the door, keeping his eyes on her all the while to gauge her reaction, and was slightly surprised at her willingness to go in. Though he was happy she wasn't about to hyperventilate like before, he was not necessarily thrilled that Rei was making friends with the pirate woman.
Gold eyes immediately landed on the pair as Admiral Kuzan led Rei to the cell on the opposite side of Silver's, farther away from the previous cell where it had happened. Rei was glad for that. It would have made it a lot worse if she had to be in the same room where she had been attacked.
"You sure she'll be safe in here after last night?" Silver spoke to Admiral Kuzan, her eyes following Rei as the girl entered her new cell and hopped up onto the cot.
"I'm pretty sure that no one is going to try anything now that Sakazuki has made it very clear what the punishment would be if they survived you. If anyone other than me does come in here, I doubt they will want to live through what you'll do to them afterwards." The ice admiral replied with a yawn, turning around and heading back out the brig room door. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I missed out on a lot of sleep and wish to make up for what I can. Arara, I dislike storms."
"Good night Aokiji~. Hope you'll catch up on that sleep, cause you're cranky when you're tired!" Silver called out to him teasingly before the lights were flicked off and the door was slammed shut.
Though both of them were suddenly left in the dark, it was nothing like the previous two nights were Rei was frightened out of her mind by the only other being in the room. She didn't mind the dark and it seemed neither did Silver. Her eyes instantly seemed to glow the moment the lights were turned off, like every time before, but this time Rei wasn't afraid of looking the pirate woman in the eyes and was enraptured slightly by how the color seemed to dance like a lightning bolts within her pupils. Perhaps her eyes weren't golden, but instead living pools of contained electricity fighting to escape their prison. It wasn't enough light to chase away the darkness, but enough to make her eyes stand out in the dark no matter how far away she got.
"So are we having a staring contest or something or are we still not on speaking terms?" Silver finally broke the silence.
Rei blinked, finally pulling herself away from staring mindlessly into Silver's gaze. She blushed slightly as she looked away for a second and took a deep, calming breath, trying not to let her stutter choke her words to death.
"I... I... I wa-wanted to... to... to th-tha-thank yo-yo-you fo-for..." Rei closed her eyes in frustration as she pretty much had to choke out ever stuttered word in order to even speak to this woman.
"Hunhunhunhun," Silver's gentle laugh washed over her and soothed her fraying nerves. Though the older woman was laughing, it didn't seem to pointedly at her or her inability to speak, but by the fact that she, the little pirate hater, was trying so hard to thank her, a pirate.
"Relax, kiddo," She said to her in a kind tone. "You're trying too hard here and getting yourself all nervous for nothing. Now, I want you to take a deep breath and hold it." Rei did as the woman asked, inhaling the deep breath loudly so the woman could hear it. "Good. Now, feel all that pressure building in your tummy? Feels sort of like those butterflies that overtake your stomach when you're nervous?" Rei nodded yes. Her stomach always felt similar to this when she got super nervous. "Good. Now let out all that air in one slow breath and feel all that pressure vanish from your tummy as you do." Rei followed her instructions and indeed find herself calmer than before and no longer had jitters in her stomach. "Feel better, right? Now, whenever you get scared or nervous, just stop, do what you just did, and try again."
Rei nodded before swallowing, taking one last deep breath, and started again. "Thank you. For saving me."
"See? Not hard at all, neh?" Silver beamed at the child who was shaking her head no. "And, you're welcome."
Before Rei could stop herself, she blurted out: "Both times."
Silver stared at her with a surprised look, but eventually it smoothed out to a knowing look, her eyes simmering with the knowledge of where Rei had received such information. "Bluebird squawked about a few things he shouldn't have, hmmm? Doggy and I were probably on deck at that point or Akainu would have been having kittens over it. Hunhunhunhun, that would have been funny to watch though. I wonder who'd win in a fight? Magma or ice? Probably Akainu, he's too ruthless of a dog and Aokiji is too gentle of a bird. Too bad. Aokiji is a much better man than Akainu..."
"W-why do you call them that?" Rei asked.
She had been curious about it the first time the woman referred to the two as such, but had never bothered asking before because Silver was a pirate.
"Hmm? You mean Akainu and Aokiji or Doggy and Bluebird?"
"Both names. Why do you call them those names?"
"Eh," Silver shrugged her shoulders, "A lot of people call them that, mainly pirates or revolutionaries though. You see, there are three Admirals, actually, that are known as colored animals. Sakazuki is known as Akainu, red dog; Kuzan is known as Aokiji, blue pheasant; and the last one, the only one of these three admirals not on this ship, is Borsalino, who is known as Kizaru, yellow monkey. I just like taking those aliases and making my own pet names out of them. Doggy, because it pisses Akainu off; Bluebird, because Aokiji reminds me of one; and Crazy Monkey, because I highly question Kizaru's sanity."
Rei stared at Silver in confusion. "W-why-" Rei cut herself off, scowling down at the cot in frustration at how her stutter was inhibiting her ability to speak again. She didn't have a problem with her parents or her siblings or even Captain Mizushima! Why did she get so nervous or jittery or shy around others that caused it to surface? Silver was probably getting annoyed with her because of it.
"Deep breath when you catch yourself stuttering. It is important to speak clearly, kiddo." Silver told her patiently, not at all put out by the problem.
Rei blinked, realizing that Silver was looking at her with kind, patient eyes, eager to hear what she was trying to ask. Rei nodded, taking a deep breath once more before letting it out slowly. Her stomach felt better again and she felt she could continue talking without a problem.
"Why do people call them that?"
Silver smiled at her through the dark, showing Rei how proud she was that she didn't stumble over her words that time. It was greatly encouraging to Rei as well, who hated her constant stutter with a passion.
"There is an old legend of a boy named Momotarō, who, with the help of a talking dog, pheasant, and monkey, overtook a demon fort."
"And he was found by a childless woman washing her clothes down by the river, floating down the river in a giant peach! But they didn't know there was a boy inside until both the woman and her husband opened the peach to each it!" Rei beamed excitedly over the familiar story of Momotarō. She use to read this story out loud to her sisters from a book full of folklore when her mother had been too busy to read to them. She couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Admiral Sakazuki and Admiral Kuzan being referred back to the characters of the old folklore.
"Very good! Yes. That would be the story." Silver nodded with a pleased gleam in her eye. "I don't know who started it, but ever since, people, even some marines, have called those three admirals by those nick names."
"But why not just call them Inu, Kiji, and Zaru? Why add the colors?"
"Because of their abilities as devil fruit users. Each ate a different logia devil fruit that gave them very powerful abilities. Sakazuki consumed the Magu Magu no Mi, allowing him to change his body into magma- if you haven't already noticed. Kuzan consumed the Hie Hie no Mi, giving him the power over ice. And Borsalino consumed the Pika Pika no Mi, allowing him to control the powers of light energy, including allowing him to change himself into a light being to move at the speed of light. So because of their abilities, they were named accordingly."
"Aka for the magma, Ao for the ice, and Ki for the light, making their names Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru." Rei finished for her, proud at herself for understanding.
Silver nodded, smirking as she shifted slightly in her cot. "Yep. You're a pretty smart kid, ain't cha?"
"Un!" Rei beamed, scooting closer to the bars that separated their cells. She was no longer nervous as she spoke to the gold eyed pirate, feeling completely at ease with her. "My papa says I read better than most of the adults on our island and that I'm much better with my numbers than most of the others too!"
"I see." Silver nodded. "I should have figured that when you knew of Momotarō. I bet you love reading all sort of books if you're willing to read that old folklore."
"Un! I read all sorts of books at the library, but Papa won't let me read a couple of them because he says I'm not old enough." Rei pouted at that thought. "I really wanted to read 'Illiad' and 'Odyssey' too..."
"You wanted to read those? Geez kid, I couldn't even get my captain to even listen to me read those books to him. He would start whining about all the big words and say something stupid like 'a man shouldn't read about adventure, he must go discover adventure' or something stupid like that.
"Then he'd seize up my boys, one in each arm, and, if we were currently at port, take off with both of them underarm, shouting how they must go on an adventure with him if they were ever to become men." Silver let out an irritated, but reminiscent, sigh as she thought fondly back to those days.
"My little Shanks would be all rearing to go, shouting words of anticipating and excitement, but my little Buggy would be howling with fear and wouldn't stop crying until I came to rescue him from Roger, though he denies ever crying after I had rescued him. Hunhunhun, he wanted to look tough for his dear Gin."
Rei blinked, realizing that she had heard Silver say that name before, but the details were a little foggy because of what had been happening at the time. "Silver-san, you've said that name before. Who is Gin?"
"Hunhunhunhunhun," Silver chuckled lowly. Her eyes glowed mysteriously for a moment before she decided to answer her question. "My pirate name, given to me by Marines, is Longjohn Silver, kiddo, but that doesn't mean it is my real name, just like Akainu and Aokiji are not Sakazuki and Kuzan's real names. My name, my real name that was given to me by my mother seven days after my birth, is Kaneko Gin. So, dear one, I am Gin and I'd prefer it if you called me by that name."
"Oh..." Rei blinked, understanding filling her eyes. She couldn't help it when the small giggles escaped her throat. "But your name is Gin! That means Silver, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, yeah," Gin snorted irritatedly. "My mother wasn't much more creative than the marines."
"Nope." Rei giggled a bit more. "She named you Goldchild Silver."
"Again, not the most creative woman. Then again, I think she did it on purpose. My father could never figure it out for the rest of his life. He had a pretty decent name though, I almost wish he had named me instead of my mother, or at least wish my mother had given me his surname, but then again, that might have been dangerous."
"Why? What was it?"
"My father was a well known pirate called Captain Flint. While my mother was more of a nomad at the time, she decided that she would join my father for a season or two on his ship the Walrus and see where the relationship went. She ended up staying with him and his crew until my father died when I was roughly seventeen.
"It was a pretty sad day when we had finally parted ways with the men of the crew because it was all I had known for the better part of my life. My father had told me many times as I grew up that I was born as wild and as free as the ocean itself and would, with no doubt in his mind, never allow myself to be tamed by any man that was not just as wild and free. He had even made me his quartermaster by the time I was fifteen and I did a bang up job at it, if I say so myself. I was my father's right hand man up till the day he died."
Rei stared at her confused at the mention of the position. "But quartermasters are basically navigators that are hired on by the merchant ships and government ships. Even aboard a ship like this, they have no power outside of steering the helm and navigating..."
"That's true for most quartermasters that sail the seas, but on a pirate ship, the quartermaster is pretty much in charge of everything so that the captain can focus on properly leading his crew. I took care of the discipline, the stock, and even finances at times. If the captain was not aboard the ship, I had command of it. I would have even taken over command if he was no longer fit to be captain of the ship."
"Really?" Rei was shocked to hear such a different role for the same position that Mr. Jackson had on Captain Mizushima's vessel.
"Really truly," Gin confirmed. "Pirates run by different rules than Marines or civilians. We rule ourselves. Each ship sails under its own rules. With pirates, those who rule are the toughest of the tough, while with Marines, people can climb ranks through petty things like bribery. You gotta be real tough shit out there in the pirate world to make it anywhere, and that's what makes pirates all the more dangerous."
Rei listened to every word the woman spoke, bewitched by her ability to weave everything into a story. She had never expected a pirate to be so well spoken, especially one that didn't mind using words that weren't really proper words like 'ain't' in their sentences for no other reason than she could.
"You're really good at talking." Rei finally told her.
Gin blinked, taking a moment to absorb what the young girl had told her, before letting out a bark of laughter. "Huh huh huh huh! Yes! I am quite good at talking, aren't I? I'm glad that you think so though. I wouldn't have been much good to my crew if I wasn't. Upon Roger's crew, I was not only their quartermaster but I was their dancer, singer, and storyteller."
"You were their storyteller?"
"Yes. My mother taught me the skill when she and I began to travel alone after my father's death. She taught me songs, dances, stories, and tricks to use when beguiling a man out of his goods. And when I became apart of a crew once more, I used my talents to boost the moral of my crew. If a story didn't work, I'd sing them a song and dance for them. It was my job, on top of being their quartermaster, to make sure their spirits were high and to keep them entertained.
"You should have seen some of Roger's parties. They were something and he use to tell all the other men that it was because of his dear Gin that his parties were the best in all the seas. I could sing, I could dance, I could spin one hell of a tale, I was not too bad with a fiddle either, and I could drink all of them right under the table! And in the morning I'd bust all their hides for oversleeping and neglecting their morning chores.
"Hunhunhunhun, they didn't like my singing too much the morning after, but that was their own damn fault for thinking they could out drink me. Hangovers are a bitch, kid. And someone singing when you have one is not fun at all. Ah, good times, good times~..."
Rei couldn't help but giggle. Sure, Gin used some words her mother would never, ever approve of being spoken around her, but Rei could easily ignore the words after her long stay with them. Gin, who had closed her eyes as she reminisced some more, peeked one open to look at the giggling girl, a pleasant smirk spreading across her lips.
"You like my idle chit-chat, hmm? Well, perhaps you would prefer a full fledge story? I use to tell stories to my kids before bed. Then they'd all beg me for at least one song, which never really was just one song, as they lay in their beds and were lulled to sleep by the sound of my singing. I bet my boys and my lassie can still remember every song, every tune, and every verse and recite them by heart. Probably the stories too." Gin told her.
Rei perked at the idea of a story. She loved stories and though she had rejected one the night before, she had only done so in order to preserve her animosity towards the woman. Any of that hatred had long disappeared and Rei desperately wanted to be treated once more like a little child who was loved tenderly by a motherly woman. Her mother was far away and Rei didn't know when she would see her again, but Gin was here and she was more than willing to fill the role in her mother's absence.
"Could I..." Rei trailed off shyly as she nibbled on her bottom lip and looked away from Gin's face.
"Could you... what?" Gin encouraged her, her voice gentle and kind, like it always was when Rei needed it to be.
Rei took a deep breath as she met Gin's gaze once more. "Could I sleep with you while you tell me a story? And sing me a song that isn't really going to end up being just one song?"
Gin let out another laugh at the girl's last comment. She apparently thought that Rei was clever and witty for using her own words against her. If anything, it proved the girl was paying attention to what was being said to her.
"Yes," Gin nodded, rolling to her side so that Rei could snuggle up to her when she entered her cell. "You very well can do that."
Rei nearly sprinted to her cell door in her excitement and quickly found herself hopping into the familiar embrace of the retired pirate woman, who welcomed her with open arms. Rei snuggled into her, ducking under the chains of the manacles and made herself comfortable as Gin settled her chin over Rei's head.
"Now... let's me think. What would be a good first story, hmm? Hunhunhunhun, I know. You have heard of the Pirate King, no?" Gin asked, looking down at the top of the child's head as she waited for a reply.
"Pirate King? Who's that?" Rei asked curiously. She and her sister use to pretend to be the queens of the seas or pirates, but they never knew that there was a real king of the pirates.
"Who's that..." Gin repeated her words with disbelief. "You mean to tell me you've never heard of the Pirate King or his great commission?"
"No... Is that bad?"
"No. It just means you're really not in tune with the rest of the world. Where do you come from, kid? Everyone's heard of the Pirate King!"
"My family and I live on Fireworks Island." Rei told her. "We were going to Water 7 because that's where my papa was born and grew up."
"And Fireworks Island isn't much into what's going on around the world as long as they can survive off of the tourists their fireworks bring." Gin told her, understanding in her tone. "Alright then little one, allow me to tell you the tale of a man. A man by the name of Gol D. Roger, who became King of the Pirates, and conquered the Grand Line. It all began on an island known as Loguetown in East Blue. Now the story doesn't start like most, no, it starts when Gol D. Rogers met the man who would be his first mate and loyalist of friends, Silvers Rayleigh..."
Inu-Dog
Kiji-Pheasant
Zaru-Monkey
A/N: Again, thank you for your patience to all whom have been waiting for this chapter. The chapter was delayed due to Volleys-chan taking a vacation in the state I live in, which she needed some relaxation as well fun hang outs with good friends. :) So about this chapter, I'm hoping you're enjoying Silver as much as I am. How Silver came to be was Volleys-chan wanting a famous pirate that would directly fit into One Piece in both name and reputation. And that's how 'Longjohn Silver' was born. Volleys-chan and I have thought of such a character should be gender bended, since there isn't a lot of famous female pirates and the name seems to be fitting for a woman anyway. No intentions of being feminist! A little female charm doesn't hurt in the world of pirates that is mostly populated by the male gender.
Thank you Shiningheart of ThunderClan, Tamamo no Mae, and btran6 for taking the time to guess the boys' and girl's names. The boys were Buggy and Shanks. :D Plates of cookies of your favorite kind! And for the girl's name, I'll wait a little later to reveal the name. ;)
Till next time, see you in the next chapter everyone.