Repeat

Characters: Shachi. Rating: T. Warnings: Injury, minor character death

There was something not quite right about their current island. Law seemed slightly uneasy, and Shachi himself could feel something in the air that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. If asked (as Law did), he couldn't explain what, exactly was wrong, but there was something off, and none of them liked it.

Still, they needed supplies, and an off feeling wasn't enough to justify potentially running on empty until they reached the next island. Someone had to go, and Shachi was already on his way to get ready for yet another incognito run (he had done far more incognito than in uniform, and while he liked being in uniform better, the idea of secrecy had long since ingrained itself in his mind) when Law had stopped him.

"Not this time, Shachi," he said. "I want you here today."

Shachi was well versed in reading what Law wasn't saying. There was a flash in there of the early days, when Law was trying to get him, Penguin and Bepo to understand something. This time, it was back but not aimed at him. Instead, Law seemed to have another target in mind, and he trailed behind his captain as Uni and Clione were selected.

It wasn't Uni's first incognito supply run. Shachi had done one with him before, and knew the taller man got easily stressed under the pressure. Adding in the newer recruit to the mix would be interesting, that was for sure. Shachi privately thought that Uni was going to get more stressed, but if Law wanted to try that experiment, then he'd stay quiet.

If only the bad feeling would go away. Uni and Clione both knew to get in, stock up what they needed, and then leave again, but Shachi wasn't going to be happy until they were back in the safety of the Tang. From the way Law and Penguin were fidgeting, he wasn't the only one, and wished that he'd been sent out. He knew how to handle those situations, where the world felt like it was conspiring against them, although he understood why Law had sent a different pair for once. They needed more people that could cope under pressure, and while the island had them tense, it wasn't openly dangerous.

Realistically, it was a good balance of urgency without danger, which made it perfect for learning. As he watched them go, he tossed the den den mushi he'd pick pocketed from Uni up and down in the palm of his hand. Law's idea – and not necessarily one he agreed with, having been sent out to shore many times without one himself and acutely aware of how much of a crutch it could be.

"You can't baby them," Penguin pointed out, and Shachi looked up at him with a sigh. Behind the older man, Law was watching him too, and he suddenly felt as though he, too, was being tested.

"I'm not," he protested, but his denial appeared to fall on deaf ears as his nakama dispersed to their stations. Moving the Polar Tang further away was another decision Shachi did not agree with, although there were enough pirate ships in the docks that he could see the logic. He just wished they'd done it before setting Uni and Clione on shore.

The feeling of wrong didn't go away, and he stayed on the deck, looking out towards the direction of the town. Despite his paranoia, he didn't leave the ship. No orders from Law, and no physical reason to do so left him trapped on the deck. It could just have been because he was used to being the one out there, doing the dangerous tasks. Maybe he was starting to panic because of the unknown, because it wasn't him facing danger, but rather his relatively inexperienced nakama. Still, for as long as there was no proof, he had to deal with it.

The screams were faint when they started, and it was only by straining his ears that Shachi made out the unmistakable sound of gunfire, at which point he couldn't stay still any longer.

"I'm going," he said, already halfway down the gangplank by the time Law caught up with him, face twisted in concern. Penguin was below deck, in the engine room, and Shachi hoped he stayed there. His blood was freezing in his veins at the sound, and the idea that two of his nakama were out there, in the carnage…

"Go," Law said, tossing a den den mushi his way. It was the one he'd picked from Uni's pocket earlier. Shachi didn't need to be told twice, barrelling towards the unfolding nightmare and blinking tears back. This wasn't the same as Swallow Island. His nakama were armed, could defend themselves. No-one was dying today.

It grew harder to remember as he battled through the stream of fleeing civilians, ducking for cover as bullets rained down in bursts and searching desperately for Uni and Clione in the chaos. Every woman's scream sounded like his mother shrieking his name, every man's cry sounded like his father's defiant roar, and he tightened his grip on the hilt of his knife, willing the memories to go away.

It wasn't the same. It wasn't the same.

A familiar presence finally prickled at the edge of his consciousness, a panicked flare he knew was Uni, and he changed course abruptly, making a beeline for him. He couldn't feel Clione, and combined with Uni's panic…

No, they must have just been separated, he tried to convince himself. Uni was panicking because they'd been split up in the chaos, and Clione was just out of range. It was fine. They were fine.

The Marines were there. Someone had called them, or they'd noticed of their free will. It didn't matter how. They were there. Shachi crushed the resentment as it attempted to well up. Of course this small trading town would have Marines at its beck and call whenever something happened. Of course this place was more important than a small backwater island almost always covered in snow and minimal trade to speak of.

Clione's presence finally registered, faint but in the same place as Uni, and the panic welled up anew. Shachi knew the feeling of life slowly yet steadily trickling out of a person, and that was unmistakably the sensation he felt from Clione.

Shachi had lost enough to pirate raids. He wasn't losing another.

There was a Marine with his nakama, he saw as he rounded the final corner to see what his haki had been telling him all along. Another Marine was bleeding sluggishly from his throat, not far from Clione's unmoving body, and Uni was tugging his knife back, turning to face the still alive Marine.

He wouldn't be fast enough. Uni was determined, but the Marine already had a den den mushi out. If he was allowed to make that call…

Uni wasn't fast enough, but Shachi was. His muscles would be feeling the strain later, always hating it when he accelerated beyond the normal limits of the body, but Clione wasn't moving, Uni was panicking, and maybe Shachi was panicking too (there was no maybe about it), but he couldn't lose his nakama. Not like this.

The Marine made a sickening gurgle as he dropped, but Shachi had no time for him, stepping over the body and catching his first good look at Clione. Hurried stitches held together a wound in the right of his chest – not the left, and he wanted to cry at the luck, because they'd come so close to losing a nakama and they wouldn't have known until too late – and Shachi entered autopilot mode. He knew he called Law, Penguin in the background, but he didn't know what he was saying. Uni was looking at him with something an awful lot like respect, but Shachi didn't deserve that.

Not now, when he was falling apart as the past threatened to overlap the present. Not when he was spewing nonsense that was supposed to sound confident, just to comfort Uni. It rang hollow to his own ears, some nonsense about the Marines saving Clione because Uni hadn't driven them away.

He didn't remember getting back to the Tang, either. One minute there was land, and then there was the wooden decking beneath his feet. Law must have taken Clione, and there was Penguin with an arm around a shaking Uni. If anyone said anything to him, he didn't hear them. Everything was just white noise, broken up only by the echoing sounds of gunshots and screams.

It was different this time, he told himself as he ended up face-down in Penguin's bunk, his shades pressing uncomfortably into this face. They're alive. They'll be okay.

He was still shaking when Penguin found him.

Last chapter from Shachi's PoV, because I couldn't resist. Saving people while facing your own demons isn't easy.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari