Misfortune

Characters: Shachi. Rating: K+. Warnings: None.

When Shachi had realised that all eleven Supernovas were going to be converging on Sabaody Archipelago at the same time, he had to admit he was a little uneasy. Law, a firm believer in 'know thine enemy', had religiously kept and filed away any and all mentions of the rival crews, which was all very well and good, except Shachi wasn't too fond of the reminder. Especially as several of them had higher bounties than Law, and reputations to match (Eustass "Captain" Kid and his crew's brutality struck a little too close to home if he thought about it for too long, and anyone insane enough to openly declare war on the World Government was someone to steer well clear of - and that was just four of the other ten).

Of course, he mentally groused to himself as he not-so-casually reclined in a chair at a human auction house beside his captain, it had to be those two particular crews they'd end up in an enclosed space with. Drake and Urouge earlier, while definite challenges in their own right, had at least been more interested in each other, and in an open space like that escape wasn't unfeasible.

Watching Mugiwara prove his insanity by punching a tenryubito in the face, while entertaining, was something Shachi would have much rather done from the safety of outside. Human stampedes were a headache to deal with, an opinion Bepo clearly shared, but while Shachi wanted out before the inevitable Admiral appeared, getting caught inside said stampede seemed like a bad idea. Never mind the fact that Law's reputation rode on him not fleeing at the first sign on trouble in front of the two highest-bounty supernovas of their generation. Mugiwara might be more interested in causing trouble for those on the side of the law, but Eustass Kid had no such beliefs.

Having never been a fan of pirates (aside from his own crew, he still wasn't), the sudden appearance of the Dark King himself did nothing to ignite an inner fanboy the same way he saw in some of the other pirates present, but that haki. Shachi had always considered himself to be at least competent in haki, and he had been fairly sure he was stubborn enough that the famed conqueror's haki wouldn't be too much of an issue, so the encroaching darkness was both terrifying and confidence-shattering. Worse was the fact that none of the other pirates seemed even remotely affected – and then the Straw Hats had to go and rub salt in the wound by showing total ignorance as to what haki even was.

Busy licking his bruised pride, Shachi almost missed Kid taunting the other captains, which was only ever going to end one way. Trust Law to get riled up when his own pride was threatened. Mugiwara was almost surprisingly predictable for a change, and Shachi watched the three retreating backs numbly.

Being the lowest-bounty captain, Law was going to do something stupidly over the top to prove he was worthy of sharing the supernova title with the other two, wasn't he?

Yes, yes he was, Shachi discovered five minutes later, as the three crews came to some sort of mutual agreement to go see what their errant captains were up to – as if the noise outside wasn't indication enough. By the time the three crews reunited with said captains, the marines were little more than a groaning heap, far more than necessary reassembled. Law had indeed gone over the top, as he heard Penguin half-heartedly complain.

Still, Law's over-use of his fruit (and oh Shachi hoped he hadn't used too much of his stamina, because he was certain there were more monsters they hadn't even encountered yet between them and the Polar Tang) aside, they did at least get away before the Admiral showed up, complete with a new crew member in two, and left the other two crews.

Then the Shichibukai turned up and Shachi, for the second time in less than an hour, got an unpleasant reminder that there were far bigger fish around than him as Bartholomew Kuma, or some cyborg clone of him, swatted him aside as if he were merely an irritating fly. He was certain that broke a few ribs.

The consolation prize was that at least he was still alive, which was more than he could say for some of Kid's crew. There had been five of them, excluding the captain, but when they finally won and tried to escape again, there were only three.

Then another Kuma-cyborg-clone turned up and Shachi wanted to scream in frustration. He didn't, but it was a close thing. Miraculously, the Law-Kid tag team managed some semblance of teamwork that time (or rather, Law predicted what Kid was going to do and reacted accordingly to take advantage of it, but Shachi figured that was as close to 'teamwork' as Law was ever going to get with a member of a rival crew), for which he was incredibly thankful.

Battered, bruised, and with no clear recollection of how he got from fighting the second cyborg to the safety of the Polar Tang, Shachi was certain of one thing.

Sabaody sucked.

As of this moment in the story, Shachi's the only character we know of from Sabaody who struggled to deal with Rayleigh's haki (we've hardly met the Kid Pirates aside from Kid/Killer and there's no way they had trouble). While we don't know if the Heart Pirates do know about haki at that point, I don't think it's too far fetched (the Straw Hats get by on a lot of luck in Paradise, and they're the main protags, so I don't consider their power development to be at all typical), and why would I pass up on a chance to make Shachi feel he might just be a little out of his depth?

Thanks for reading!
Tsari