{No POV}
Little Garden
Giants Dorry and Broggy!
Mia Shares A Memory with her Friends!
& Nami and Mia Are Sick!
{No POV}
It was a slightly better journey when they headed to Little Garden but Mia herself was sick.
She didn't dare tell her nakama or show it because they needed her to read the currents as they sail so that they can avoid being carried away from their destination. She had a fever but had already medicated herself as soon as she did so and has set up shop in the kitchen to vaccinate her friends.
"Guys! When I call your name, come get your shot!"
"Okay!" Said the others happily.
Mia smiled and got inside and seated before her sudden rush of dizziness could claim her consciousness.
"Luffy!" She called.
Luffy immediately jumped inside sitting readily.
Mia then took the shot she prepared shot for him and cleaned his shoulder with an wet alchhol pad. Then she looked him in the eyes.
"You'll feel a slight pinch and it'll vanish in a second. Once the shot is in your system you'll feel a slight rush of adrenaline but it'll fade almost instantly just sit here until it fades. If you act on it you'll get dizzy and pass out." Mia said.
Luffy nodded with a bright smile and she gave him the shot.
Immediately Luffy learned to never doubt Mia's words. He felt a slight pinch as the needle went in and it immediately vanished a second later. Then when the shot was in his system he immediately felt the rush of adrenaline as everything became more vivid, he could smell even the open sea more strongly, and he could almost fully taste the air. It felt too weird to enjoy so he kept still as Mia had ordered and let it fade before he headed out to the deck to get Zoro who Mia told him to call in for her.
When Zoro walked in, he rolled his sleeve up and took a seat.
Mia told him the same thing she had told Luffy as she cleaned the spot for the shot and gave him the shot when he nodded.
Then, he felt it. First was the pinch it was barely noticed by him but he did feel it. Then it was the rush. It was a shot of adrenaline that he had never felt before. Vision became stronger and brighter, he could taste the air and could smell things he never could before. He became hyper aware of everything and was shocked incredibly when Mia seeing his reaction rushed to the spot where she had put some glasses of water and some kind of medication.
"Damnit Zoro, I asked you if you had exercised heavily before I called you in! Your kind of training regime is definitely heavy exercise! You're dosage became too muc to handle!" She muttered at him angrily knowing he could hear her perfectly.
"S-sorry!" He muttered at her regretfully.
She came back to him with the medication and a glass of water.
"Drink this medicine." Mia muttered.
Zoro did so and the rush became a lot less intense in the matter of a single minute. He looked at Mia questioning what exactly had just happened.
"You're body already had a lot of adrenaline from your training before coming in, the adrenaline rush of the shot only further increased the intensity of the adrenaline already in your system dangerously. You could have died had I not had medication to counteract the adrenaline on hand." Mia explained.
Then after another minute the rush faded and Mia allowed him to go with instructions to avoid heavy exercise for the next hour and to call in Sanji.
After a while all her nakama had their shots and she could finally relax.
She wasn't contagious anymore since her devil fruit targets any sickness of her and immediately works to prevent it from doing any real damage to her health. But it was always better safe than sorry in her book when it came to things like this.
As she put the last of her supplies away she heard a commotion up on deck so she went up only to see a man eating the ship.
She immediately kicked the man into next week away from the ship. His chronies turning to her in fear.
"Scram." She said dangerously low.
When she said that one word the shipwright in the ranks fixed the Going Merry and ran off with the rest of his crew yelling yes ma'am and we're sorry.
Once they were out of sight, Mia turned to Luffy confused.
"You could have handled that very easily before they damaged the ship Captain...so why didn't you?" She asked curiously.
He then turned serious.
"I needed to test a theory's all... So you tell me, why have you been trying to hide the fact your sick?" Luffy asked seriously.
Mia then became shocked but smiled assuredly.
"Because I already treated it Captain, that and i'll be back in full strength in a day's time. As far as I can tell we have about three more days of traveling before we get to Little Garden. I figured it best to not worry anyone over a slight cold... I apologize if I've worried you Captain..." Said Mia guiltily.
Luffy smiled and patted her hair.
"It's okay! But you need to rest. You're not at 100% just yet. I could tell by the kick. It was sluggish compared to your usual. Considerably weak as well. Go sleep a while. Sanji can cook you some food to help you recover faster and Rena can help Nami navigate." Luffy said going into his serious captain mode.
Everyone smiled and Mia thanked them before excusing herself and obeying her captain's orders, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
-Time Skippp-
They docked the ship and gathered together on deck.
"Alright! Mia! Search for any herbs or such that could be used in medicine! Zoro! Sanji! You two and me will go get some food! Rena! Stay on the ship with Caroo! Princess Vivi you come with me! Nami go map out the Island and take Usopp with you for back up. There are other people on the island. So we need to be safe. Everyone got that?" Luffy ordered as he bounced on his feet excitedly.
They all laughed and nodded as they broke off into teams.
Mia searched carefully and eventually filled her enourmous basket up with herbs and plants that could serve a medicinal purpose deciding to drop off the herbs and go explore for a bit she went back to the ship.
She dropped off her basket in the infirmary and after a quick chat with Mia about the enormous ammount of books she was originally going to take with her along with her research journals, she took four books and four journals and left.
As she walked and observed the environment closely she was reminded of the last time she saw the boy from when she was 10 years old.
It had been only three years ago he last saw him and it was from behind and afar. He could tell she was there and didn't bother hiding it, he just spoke to her with his back facing her.
A young 17 year old Mia sat in a tree hidden from view watching the guy her age curiously as he began to walk further and further away before stopping only a bit aways from the tree.
"You should stop hiding in the shadows Aladdin... It's not nice to skulk around and even less to spy on people..." He said to her.
"And cause people to act different than they would naturally without any people watching them closely? No thank you, my methods aren't exactly polite but they must be impolite for my results to be viable and valid. But it's pretty rude to not look someone in the eyes while talking to them isn't it? As far as i'm aware, at least." Young Mia said mischeviously.
"I won't do that. Because if I do look at you, I'll just fall victim to your beauty just like I did a year ago and the year before that, and find myself waking up next to you in your bed in the nude. We keep playing the same game every single time and I can't keep playing it right now. I have to go out to sea. If you'd like, we can meet again out at sea. I know you plan on leaving this Island once you've learned all that you can learn from this place." The boy said.
Mia smiled softly.
"I see...Then I wish you the best of luck...I have no doubts we'll meet again so how about I see you off with a song just for you and I to know?" She asked.
"A song?" He asked raising an eyebrow as a smile formed on his face.
"Yes. A song. I'm not a bad singer you know. It's actually how I make money to pay for meals at the tavern these days." Mia said calmly and softly.
"Sure. I've still got a good ten minutes before I have to go." He answered seating himself on the grass.
"Be sure to add your own bits if you'd like." Mia said softly feeling him nod gently in response.
She got down and sat back to back with him on the ground making both of them smile at the contact as she began to sing.
It's been a long time and more
Have we changed? Have we grown?
It's hard to say hello when we've already said goodbye
Hard to believe all this time has passed us by
Do you remember me?
Or am I just a distant memory?
Then he placed his hand over hers.
I don't think I'll ever forget you
Much less leaving you
But I wonder if you still remember me?
Or am I just a far off memory?
Time has raged on and you still live on in my mind
Does this mean you'll one day be mine?
I don't know for sure
So I can only hope for more
She smiled and squeezed his hand gently.
"I could never forget you." She said softly standing up and begining to walk back towards the mountains. "You were my first everything after all..." She finished as her voiced faded and she vanished far into the woods climbing a tree and watching him leave with a soft smile on her face at the sight of him smiling in her direction.
Then he was gone and she headed back to her cave to prepare to go hunting.
Mia smiled at the memory and hummed as she explored the very tune they had made for each other.
It was her favorite thing from her past aside from the nights they spent together in her cave. After the day they met, he would take one day each week to visit her bringing her food and water as well as soap. He'd also clean her cave for her because she was a messy person by nature.
Eventually the time came when they were fifteen that he came during a storm and got sick. She immediately began taking care of him to thank him with her actions since she couldn't really do so with her words. She was more for actions than for words. So she cared for him diligently and when he awoke they had a deep conversation talking to each other about their issues, and when she went to go cook some dinner for them he pulled her back to his side and she landed on top of him having not expected such a move from him much less such strength and their lips met in a kiss when she landed on top of him. After seconds at a stand still of awkwardness staring at each other in shock, they moved their lips and the kiss began to steadily become heated, their hands soon coming into play, they quickly lost themselves in each other guiding themselves on instincts.
Just as they tended to do when it came to new experiences.
When they awoke the next morning, they laid awkwardly before deciding it was just a fluke and it'd never happen again quickly dressing and him shortly there after leaving with some medicine she had made to help his ailment vanish.
Mia giggled lightly at the memory before stopping as she felt a tear go down her face.
She smiled and wiped it away gently.
It wouldn't do her any good to get so lost in her memories. She looked at the sky to see if she had gotten too lost in thought in her exploration and saw that it had barely been close to three hours since she began exploring.
Then she heard it. An explosion and the screams of her friends. So she ran to the sound swords drawn.
When she reached the clearing they were in she saw three of her friends on a candle set, Usopp off to the side fighting Mr 5 and Miss Valentine with the aid of Caroo and Rena. Then she saw Luffy with black paint on his shirt doing nothing and a little red headed girl right in front of her with a paint pallet and a brush. A candle man near her as well unaware of her presence just like her friends. So she did what came natural to her.
She delivered a powerful punch to the back of the girl's head knocking her out cold into Mia's arm, who then placed her gently to the ground so as to not call attention to herself while the man went on his spiel.
Then she turned her arm to sea water and punched the guy with the three for hair out cold for a little bit sighing and finally drawing attention to herself.
"Captain, don't take your shirt off." She said understanding only the opposite of what she desired would be done by her comrade.
Luffy then took his shirt off and promptly returned to normal.
"Captain, go free the giant and our friends from the candle set. I'll keep this guy busy while you do so." Mia said calmly.
"Be careful and kick his ass around for a bit!" Luffy said rushing to the aid of the ones trapped just as Mr 3 woke up.
Mia smirked coldly down at the man.
"So you're Mr 3, the candle man?" Mia questioned coldly making Dorry shudder.
"You must be the missing pirate that we've been sent to eradicate?" Mr 3 asked just as coldly.
Mia then took off her shirt, jacket, and jeans effortlessly.
At the sight of her indecent behavior Dorry was blushing but Mr 3 was unaffected.
"Let's see what you've got candle man!" Said Mia standing there with her arms crossed.
Mr 3 tried to trap her using his wax but she was unfazed by it and quickly fazed out of it.
"Let's see how you do against one of my moves." Mia said coldly getting into a fighting stance.
She then turned into her water form surprising him too much to be able to instantly process anything giving her and opening to kick him right in the center of his chest, knocking the wind out of him.
"Not...Bad..." Said Mr 3 struggling to breathe.
Then he tried to use a candle sword on her but it just fazed through her with every attack. She was bored and was honestly contemplating killing this man, but she decided against it. It'd ruin her clothes which were currently in the hands of a now free Nami.
Mia sighed boredly and turned to look at the captain as Mr 3 kept trying to hit her with one of his attacks.
"Hey Captain? You done yet? This is boring!" Mia said.
Luffy smirked as he finished freeing Zoro who had almost cut his feet off but thankfully for him failed and placed him on the ground quickly switching places with her.
So Mia then rushed to gather the victorious Usopp and Rena and brought them to the others of their crew and the giant to care for them. Unaware of a bug landing on her back and biting her before biting Nami in the stomach who barely noticed but shrugged it off as a mosquito bite.
Mia then got to work on Zoro who was quickly bleeding out. She stitched his feet up properly and punched him in the face.
"Never do something that stupid ever again! You hear me?!" She shouted turning into the Demon Doctor.
He frantically stuttered out a yes ma'am fearing for his life before she then went up to Dorry and patched him and Broggy up. The giant that was conscious thanked her kindly to which she smiled and told him it was no problem, but that they better be careful and tend to their injuries as time progresses once they leave or she'll come back and beat them up for being insolent patients. To which he laughed lightly and promised they would do as she ordered since she did doctor them back to good health. When he answered her she smiled and nodded before getting to work on patching up Usopp and Rena. When she turned to Nami she examined her but found nothing off about her so she then began to examin the now victorious Luffy while Sanji who had just appeared began preparing food for everyone.
After eating everyone went a rested.
The Next Morning.
The crew announced they'd depart and Sanji revealed that he'd stolen an eternal pose to Alabasta the unluckies had been ordered to send to Mister 3 before killing them.
Soon they were sailing straight ahead heeding the giants words and went right through an enormous gold fish and with set sail towards Alabasta.
As they had dinner that night Mia became nostalgic at the sight of the food she'd asked Sanji to make for her.
"What's got you so lost in thought Mia?" Asked Rena.
Withe everyone looked at Mia who was smiling fondly at her meal before taking a bite.
"Just a fond memory is all." She said taking a second bite.
"Can you tell us about it?" Asked Luffy excitedly.
"Why bother you with such a silly thing during meal time?" Mia said sweetly taking another bite.
"Please! Please! Please!" Pleaded Nami, Usopp, Rena, Vivi and Luffy.
"I'm actually pretty curious now." Sanji said with a smile.
"Me too." Zoro agreed.
"Alright, i'll tell you... But only after we all eat." Mia said amused.
And so...they ate peacefully and afterwards gathered on the deck to listen to a story from Mia's past.
When everyone seated calmly and peacefully Mia smiled fondly as she in her mind went through the memory talking about it out loud for her friends to hear.
"Back on Dawn Island, when I was young I met two boys around my age. Both of them very lively and one was living with the mountain bandits. I began to observe them from afar but eventually they caught me spying on them and they talked with me briefly before I left. A few days after meeting them, I fell sick with a fever and stayed home in my cave to avoid spreading it to the villegers or to the boys or bandits. When I was laying in bed that night, one of the boys came to my cave and found me there with a very high fever. The boy immediately started taking care of me and when I told him the location of my medicine for the sickness, he immediately got it for me. He stayed with me for the following two days until I was finally all better and each night for dinner he hunted some boars and cooked the meat for us to eat and gathered water from the nearby stream." She said fondly as she began to absentmindedly play with a few strands of her hair.
Everyone listened intently and watched her as her beauty and happiness resonated.
"I grew up always taking care of myself so it was as if I had absentmindedly entered a whole new world when he started taking care of me. He left after he took care of me because otherwise his new little brother and his older brother figures would worry about him and his mother figure would freak out... But since that time, he began stopping by my cave one day every week bringing that specific meal I ate tonight to my cave along with water and other necessities..." Mia said before closing her eyes with a warm smiled lighting her face and then opening them and standing up.
"After some time the visits decreased and eventually we parted ways and never saw each other again. The End." She said closing the story up and heading to the Women's Quarters to grab pajamas and go take a shower.
"Wow... She seemed so happy as she told that..." Rena and Vivi said in unison causing Caroo to nod his agreement.
"I'm actually kind of jealous... It's obvious the boy loved her..." Nami admitted.
"If he loved her then why leave?" Zoro said confused and curious.
"That was so cool!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Wow she sure has an interesting past! I wonder what the guy's name was..." Usopp said curious about the guy and Mia's past.
"Whoever that guy was I hope he knows how lucky he is! Mia-san is a great woman! But i'm kind of angry he just left her one day!" Sanji said with mixed feelings.
And so everyone then got ready for the night and anchored the ship to get some well needed rest unaware of Mia smiling at their notions having heard all of them.
'Ace...' She tought as she got up from her bed and went to the Crow's Nest to look at the stars and keep watch.
- Elsewhere on the GrandLine -
A man of about 20 years of age looked at the stars from a window in the abandoned house he was staying in for the night.
'Mia...' He thought to himself.
'I'll see you again soon...' He finished before turning away from the stars and going to sleep.
-Back On The Going Merry, Sunrise-
Mia smiled as she saw the sun begin to rise. She then went down and snuck carefully into her bed to rest.
'Hopefully, I'll you again soon...' She thought before sleep claimed her.
~ 1 Day Later ~
Mia and Nami worked hard to guide the others on what to do to get the ship back on course when it became blatant to everyone something was wrong with them.
They noticed their flushed faces as they gave Vivi the log pose claiming to want to go take a rest for a while. Then they noticed they were walking kind of wobbly and weakly.
But the final clue was that when they were out of sight, two thuds were heard and they rushed over to see Mia out cold on the ground and Nami struggling to stay awake.
Vivi felt their foreheads and gasped.
"You two have dangerously high fevers! Mia's is slightly lower but its still pretty high!" Said Vivi.
Luffy and Zoro without a word immediately grabbed the girls and took them to their respective beds in the woman's quarters only for Mia to wake up half way there.
"Zoro?..." She questioned.
She was begining to get delirious but new what she had to do.
"Take me to the upper deck...I..I have to... move the ship closer to the nearest Island...we'll die if we don't get there as soon as possible...Kestia...Deadly..." She mustered out.
Zoro was confused but knowing better than to doubt her he raced out to the upper deck and helped her onto her feet by the waist.
"Water Water..." She began as she begun to raise her arms all the way up in the air.
"Hold on... to something... once i'm done.." She muttered looking out im in her hazy peripheral.
"GIANT WAVE!" She shouted pushing her arms out harshly in front of her.
As soon as she spoke she fainted with a smile.
When he turned to look at the back of the ship as it suddenly got darker he saw what she had done and hooked one arm strongly around her waist cradling her close to his body so she doesn't get washed away and stabbed one his swords onto the floor of the deck hanging on with all his strength.
As soon as he did so the wave crashed against the ship pushing it forwards at very high speeds.
After a while ithe ship settled and he picked her up as if she was a small child and carried her into the woman's quarters where everyone was still recovering from the ships harsh movements.
"What happened?! What did you two do?!" Questioned Vivi frantically as she recovered and began to examine Mia for any harm.
"She said something about having to get us closer to the nearest island. She also said they'd die if we didnt get there in time. I think she also muttered something along the lines of 'Kestia' a few times. She had me take her to the upper deck and used her devil fruit powers to create a gigantic wave that pushed the ship forward giving it enough motion to move a lot faster forwards. It seemed to set us a little towards the west of our original location. So i'm guessing she sensed an Island in that direction and sent us hurdling towards it." Zoro explained after regaining his breath.
"Kestia? I've never heard of something like that..." Vivi said.
Rena then had an idea.
"I'll go check her books! There's bound to be something about it in there!" Rena said rushing off Usopp and Sanji close behind to help her search move faster.
"I'll take care of the girls and try and lower their fevers as much as possible in the meantime, you guys should head to the deck and get this ship moving as fast as you can..."
Suddenly Nami sprung up awake.
"Luffy! Zoro! Keep the ship moving west! Move it as far west from here as you can! There's a... storm... nasty one...on the way... must...hurry..." Nami said before promptly passing out again.
"Alright! Zoro!" Luffy said begining to leave the room.
Zoro right on his.
"Right with you!"
"Ace... Ace... Ace... Please Ace..." Kept muttering Mia in her delirious state.
"Luffy... Luffy... Luffy please..." Kept muttering Nami.
"Ace... I'll never... forget... I'll see you... Please... remember me... please... don't... please..." Mia muttered before a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Luffy... Luffy..I... I love you... Please don't... ever leave..." Nami muttered a tear streaming down her own face.
Vivi couldnt help but feel shocked as she worked on them.
"Luffy-san and whoever Ace-san is... they sure are lucky to have won the hearts of these girls..." Vivi said to Caroo who nodded.
After a while, they reached land and Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Rena, Vivi and Caroo went out on deck when the islanders got defensive. Eventually, Vivi got them to let them dock here.
But they were quickly running out of time...
TBC