Chapter seven

Sana couldn't remember much of what happened afterwards. As the crowd broke out into chaos, there wasn't much she could do. No matter how many times she spoke into the tone dial, no one would listen.

Someone dropped a bucket of blood on her, and regardless of the questionable 'prophecy' she gave a few minutes ago, she was still their messenger of God. And someone just did something unspeakable to her on a holy day.

Penguin was the first to act and took Siah in his arms before pulling Sana away from the fight that broke out. Siah was screaming for her blood-covered sister in shock. But Sana was still speechless, having had animal blood dropped on her. As they headed back towards the temple, an injured Shachi joined them. His fight underground concluded, and he reportedly left as the victor.

Shachi was able to come out of the temple early enough to witness Sana's speech to the country, but she noticed something she and Penguin missed and something Law did not anticipate. He witnessed a couple of men dropping a bucket of blood from a tall neighbouring building. And what confused him further was that these men had their ears covered with something.

The knowledge of Sana's devil fruit powers was something barely anyone within Khaso knew. Even Sana, who was the devil fruit user, couldn't comprehend her abilities sometimes. In the eyes of everyone outside her family, it was a power passed to her by a godly being. It was what made them trust her and the women in her lineage.

"I couldn't see their faces well, but they had their ears covered with something." Shachi reported to them.

"Of all the things the captain predicted, this definitely wasn't one."

Law's fight with the eldest Zenndiqque brothers was cut short by the ruckus caused by the crowd outside. Despite being up against two strong sword fighters, Law's main aim was to hold them up and buy time for Sana to end her family's reign over the country. Although her ability doesn't work on anyone significantly stronger than her, he thought it would've been easy for her to pull off in a crowd of brainwashed citizens.

It was the loud "Oh" followed by shouts and screams, that caused them to stop to try and figure out what was going on outside. They could hear Sana's voice from where they were standing, and they heard everything she said clearly.

Kai was the first person to jump out and land on one of the lower floors as he set out to investigate what was going on. Vasu looked at Law first before his eyes followed his brother's figure heading towards the temple's main exit.

"Shit! If it wasn't for you, this wouldn't have happened."

Law just shrugged, putting his sword back into its sheath, as it was now 1 vs. 1. "What did I do? I just stayed back and played with you. Give your sister some more credit; this was practically her idea."

Vasu, irate at Law's taunts, did not end up following Kai outside.

Back outside, a hooded figure blocked Shachi's path. He and the rest of the group came to a stop. They managed to slip away and run far enough without anyone noticing them. Despite the blood dripping from his wounds, Shachi took a defensive stance to protect the others from the stranger. But he and Penguin noticed that there wasn't a threatening aura coming from them. Penguin held Shachi back by the shoulder as the stranger lowered his hood, showing them a familiar face.

"Sana, we need to talk."

It was Kal, one of Sana's brothers. The only brother she shared a mother with.

"Whatever you need to say, you can say it to us all." Shachi retorted back, remembering Law's strict instructions.

"Sana, with the Hewe in such chaos, Kai is bound to come out and try and find you. We don't have much time."

"You heard what Shachi said," Penguin interrupted, parroting what his crewmate stated. "She may trust you more than the others, but we can't leave her side."

Kal sighed, slightly annoyed. "Your captain trained you two quite well."

"It's fine, Kal. Don't mind them; please tell me what you came here to say."

Upon hearing Sana's answer, Kal looked at her with worry. Unlike him and his brothers, who were trained to guard the family and its secrets, Sana grew up sheltered and protected by the men in her family. He took off his cloak and threw it to Shachi to catch.

"Red isn't your colour, sister. I suggest covering up."

Though his tone was rough, Sana saw his concerned expression and covered her blood-stained clothing with the cloak.

"I thought you were going to leave the island, Kal."

"Listen to me closely, Sana. We suspected that rebels may show their faces today and were going to be stationed around Hewe to prevent something like this from happening. But it's still strange that they didn't react to your voice."

It didn't sound like Kal was aware of the rebels having blocked their ears ahead of Sana's entrance, but Shachi and Penguin didn't share that detail with him.

"I was going to leave the island and saw a couple of marine ships approaching from the distance. It looks like the Marines played a hand in today's scheme and are coming to wrap things up."

The Heart Pirates noticed the lack of marine ships surrounding Khaso's coastal area and thus thought they'd be able to completely avoid them during their short errand run on the island. But they also knew of the recent political issue in the neighbouring nation of Alabasta and the marines swarming around there.

"Father used to say that we've been on the world government's and marines radar for some time now. I heard there's been an influx of marines in Alabasta recently, so they're probably using this as a chance to strike in Khaso too. One thing is for sure: we must've had spies for the marines in Khaso."

His deductions made sense. She never could've imagined that there were eyes on their activity all this time.

Either way, you better get out of here now. To the marines and the government, we are no different than criminals."

"We are no different than criminals."

Kal's words rang through Sana's head.

But she did the right thing; she tried to right her family's wrongs. So why did he say "we"? Why was she suddenly the bad guy?

"Sana, snap out of it! If you're not leaving with me, then you better get off this island."

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Shachi exclaimed, suddenly in panic mode after hearing a whole army of marines were headed towards Khaso.

"Where's the captain when we really need to make an escape?" Penguin questioned. He wasn't much calmer than his mate.

"And Sana, I do need to have a word with you. Privately." Kal said, looking pointedly at the Heart Pirate crew.

Penguin and Shachi put up a fight, refusing to let her speak to him alone. They couldn't even imagine going against their captain's word. Eventually, they relented and stepped aside, leaving the two alone after Sana prompted them to. For some reason, he didn't want Siah, their youngest sister, to listen to their conversation.

Kal took out a piece of paper and handed it to his sister. She opened up the folded piece of scrap paper and read off of it.

"What's this? Coordinates?'

"That's a safe place for you to go to. Don't trust anyone, and go to this place. You can find Kai, Yaz, and Siah's mother there."

Sana's eyes widened upon hearing his words. Their mother and Siah's mother, as well as their other stepmothers, should all be dead. She only learned of this news recently, but their father killed them as soon as they weren't useful to him anymore.

"Father ordered Kai to dispose of her soon after Siah was old enough. I don't know why Kai sent her off the island instead and told father that he killed her and disposed of her body in the ocean. Due to Kai's loyalty, father never questioned him, but I saw it. He felt indebted to her and let her live as a sick way to repay his debt, but he didn't hesitate to murder our mother when asked to. I know he kept tabs on her without any of us knowing."

Up until now, Kal was the only other person who knew this. He had initially looked into all this to threaten Kai if he ever needed to. But things never ended up going in that direction, and Kal never had to use this trump card against their eldest brother.

"She may not be our mother, but she has always had a soft spot for you and Siah, so you'll be safe there. But this secret needs to stay between us; no one can get their hands on these coordinates."

Kal felt a heavy sense of responsibility for his sister's life.

"Live a good life, Sana."

Meanwhile, back inside the temple, Law managed to win the fight against Vasu. Unlike Kai, Vasu was impulsive. With the level-headed Kai gone, it was easy for Law to focus on one opponent and wind him up until he completely lost his temper. Law was now roaming through the underground tunnels of the temple in search of the Poneglyph Sana mentioned before. She was definitely right about the tunnel layout being similar to the other temples they were in before. Even without Sana to guide him, with that piece of information, he found it easy to navigate through the tunnels, finally ending up in a large room.

There it was—the large slab of stone for which he had been searching. He already knew that there were barely any individuals left, if any, who could read this ancient text, and until he finds someone who can read it, they're practically useless to him. The answers to the world's greatest mysteries were inscribed in them. It was his first time seeing one in person, and at this point he did not realise how important it would be to him in the future.

He took out his transponder snail and called Penguin.

"There's one more stop I need to make before we leave."

Two days have passed since Sana ended up on the Heart Pirate's ship. She hadn't seen Law, Shachi, or Penguin ever since she stepped on the ship and holed herself up in the room given to her by Law. Bepo left some food in front of her door during the past couple of days, but he also chose to leave them alone.

Sana looked over at her sister, sleeping peacefully next to her. It had been over a week since Siah got proper sleep at night, and the stress of the past few days' events took a toll on her small body. With a newfound resolve, she stood up and quietly made her way out of the room.

"Are you feeling better?"

Despite Shachi's initial wariness towards her, he and the rest of the crew warmed up to her following the events in Hewe.

"Yes, thank you."

"I should be the one thanking you. My wounds healed pretty quickly, thanks to you. I don't even think the captain can do this."

There was a small silence between them as they ran out of things to talk about.

"Where is your captain?"

"He's been glued to a book since last night; he should be in his quarters."

"Please take me to him."

Everyone expected this to happen eventually. Since Sana entered the ship, she hadn't uttered a single word. She wanted to get away from Khaso, and so they did.

He took her up to Law's quarter and knocked on the door, letting himself in after hearing his captain's voice. As Shachi said, Law was sitting at a table with an old book in his hand. He gave them a mischievous grin as he welcomed her into his room.

"Please, take a seat."

He stood up from his wooden chair and offered it to her. He then leaned back against the table as he waited for her to sit down. Wanting to give them some privacy, Shachi closed the door and left.

"I didn't think you'd come to see me this soon. It's only been two days."

"It's already been two days."

There was a stark contrast in their tones. Sana didn't like how carefree Law seemed after everything. Shachi, Bepo, and Penguin at least had some tact to walk around on eggshells with her, but with Law, it was as if the struggle of a helpless country meant nothing to him.

"It was great making a deal with you. I saw a poneglyph for the first time and borrowed some books from one of the world's oldest libraries."

The one last stop Law had to make was the ancient library of Taewe, the place Sana promised to take him. Her eyes naturally fell on the pile of books on his desk that he had obtained from the library. Surprisingly, they were all ancient medical texts.

"So, have you decided what you want to do now?"

Law took out a folded-up newspaper from one of the side drawers and opened it up to the middle page. There was a small batch of new wanted posters. He gestured for her to look through the pile, and for a moment, she hesitated before doing so.

There were quite a few posters in them; Monkey D. Luffy's and Roronoa Zoro's posters were at the top. There were some other pirate bounty posters, all of whom she had never heard of. However, then she came across some she knew. Kai Zenndiqque, Vasu Zenndiqque, Kal Zenndiqque, Yaz Zenndiqque.

Wanted Dead or Alive: Siren of the Desert Sana Zenndiqque - 20,000,000 Berry

"You're a wanted woman now, Siren of the Desert."