A/N: Long time, no update?
Hi all! I hope that you've all been doing great! I'm in my final year of my Masters, and this year I only have a single class and assignment; my dissertation. It's going to be a long year of research and writing, but I'm hoping that means I'll be able to take a few more breaks from research to write some fiction here and there. I've got plans and I can only hope that they come to fruition.
I don't want to guarantee any consistent updates, but at the same time I definitely don't want to leave you all hanging for over a year again.
I hope that you enjoy this chapter regardless!
"You need to get in touch with Ebony, right?"
Word must have gotten out, since Bartolomeo had showed up at the bar on Bailey's break.
"I do, but I haven't had much luck. She hasn't picked up at all today."
Barto laughed, "Little chick, you do know that she's probably off finding treasure, or fighting with a rival crew with the rest of the Straw Hats, right? She's probably busy, or asleep."
The asleep was added as an afterthought, he too was worried since they hadn't heard anything from her since she had left, and there had only been whispers since a familiar looking face had shown up on a wanted poster.
The little chick pouted, not entirely hating the nickname that a majority of those that lived around Loguetown had come up with; marines, pirates, criminals and regular everyday folk all called her that, sometimes even to her face. It had connected her with Ebony after all, and the criminal underground all knew that if they went after Bailey or her grandfather, or any of the others who worked at the bar, that they would have a very unhappy Crow Queen on their tails.
And now that she'd joined a fairly formidable and growing rookie pirate crew whose captain was worth 100,000,000 berri. Whose first mate was worth 60,000,000. And who herself was now worth 32,000,000; an amount that staggered all who heard it. They all knew how dangerous the woman could be, how dangerous her knowledge and information was, but it never occurred to them that putting a bounty on her head would increase that danger. They couldn't help but wonder, what exactly had it been that got her the price upon her head that was far more than a regular information broker.
They wouldn't do anything to the bar, or its residents.
It wouldn't do to get her angry with them and have that crew come after them. Even with the Straw Hats being rookies, the fact that they had already taken out several crews that had the highest bounties in the East Blue meant that few this side of the Grand Line wanted to catch their negative attention.
(Whispers that Barto had heard from many of the older generation, those that had shared the seas with the Pirate King, said that it felt like a coming again of greatness. A more than slightly familiar rise in infamy and hope in equal measure.)
Barto was brought back into the conversation by Bailey tugging at his sleeve. If it were anyone else, they'd be in trouble, but he had a soft spot for the Crow Queen and the little family she'd built up around herself since coming into this world.
"Do you think that she's having fun?"
He burst out laughing, "Fun? Of course she's having fun!"
But he couldn't help but be worried. She may have been having fun, but being a wanted woman wouldn't be easy and it would be even harder once those in charge of the bounties realised that she knew too much for them to feel safe keeping her alive.
Nami saw that as soon as Robin let go of Ebony's hand that Robin was going to do something incredibly stupid, even as Ebony attempted to grab the other woman's hand.
It happened so quickly, with Robin attempting to murder the Admiral with her devil fruit, him escaping and trying to stab her with an icicle before being stopped by Zoro. Sanji and Luffy tried to come to the defence, but they were also thrown backwards
Nami looked frantically at Ebony, knowing that she was their last hope, but she was too busy trying to pull Robin away from the situation. Unsuccessfully, as the Admiral lunged for Robin just as Ebony got her hand around one of Robin's wrists. Robin knowing what was to come, ripped her arm away just in time. Else they would have both been frozen, but that didn't stop Ebony from getting her hand encased in ice. It hadn't stopped Ebony from picking Robin's frozen body up, and booking it towards the ship. Nami followed soon after, alongside Chopper and Usopp. The four (five if you were to count the fully encased Robin) were trying to put as much distance between themselves and Aokiji.
She could vaguely hear Luffy shouting at Sanji and Zoro to follow, saying that he could handle it.
Nami knew, deep down, that despite how strong her captain was, he wasn't ready to handle an Admiral.
None of them were.
The bar was quiet, none of the customers were really talking, too many of them taking quick glances in the general direction of the new wanted posters plastered up beside the faded menu.
Most of them knew Ebony, they had all known her to be waiting for someone and when she had run off they weren't really expecting to hear anything about her or from her again, or at least not quite as soon having her bounty on the Wall of Fame as soon as a month and a half after she had left Lougetown.
Everyone was keeping an eye on Bailey, who had been getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of communication from the women she considered an older sister if the glare she was giving the den den was any indication. Especially with the Cannibal standing in the corner, hand over his mouth in a way that suggested he too was worried, but more than that, he was amused at the fact that the young woman was so frustrated.
"I'm going to try again!"
"That's what? The tenth time?"
"Eleven, but whose counting?"
It was hard to see the Luffy, someone so strong be so incredibly lifeless on a hospital bed. Robin was equally as lifeless in the bed opposite, as Chopper treated them both.
Despite her iced over hand, Ebony was insistent that Chopper work on the two fully frozen members of the crew, but Chopper wouldn't hear a word of it. He managed to treat her, before moving on to the others.
Nami knew that Ebony was worried, as she stared down at her hands (the icy feeling still present if the shaking in them was any indication) sitting in the small makeshift medical room that Chopper and Merry had set up. (That still baffled her, that their ship was walking about and talking to them like she was a part of the crew! Nami knew that she was, but it still felt really weird to know that someone on the ship knew everything about everyone, and someone who wasn't Ebony at that.)
Speaking of Merry, she was looking increasingly more tired. For someone who held the body of a child, she was looking far older than her appearance.
"Merry, are you okay?"
The klabautermann looked at her navigator, her eyes sad, "No, no I'm not Nami."
This didn't shock Nami, but the blunt admission did.
"I'm not like the men of the crew, or these two. I can admit when something's wrong." She looked down at her feet, "If you can't salvage my figurehead, then this is my final adventure with you all."
Usopp, who had just walked into the room collapsed onto the floor, the boards creaking under his sudden weight.
"No! No! It can't be!"
Ebony looked up, her face downcast. "Usopp… she's right. And I don't want to see you and Luffy fight over this. I've seen it once, twice… I don't want to see you leave the crew over this again."
That startled Nami. For Luffy to fight with someone on the crew, someone that wasn't Zoro or Sanji, and for the fight to be bad enough that the person would leave the crew? And for that person to be Usopp? It didn't sit well with her at all.
"I wouldn't do that!"
"Usopp," Merry's voice was serious and her tone made Usopp look her directly in the eye. "You would have."
It could have been because he had fallen heavily to the floor, but Usopp's heart was pounding in his chest, his own ears in utter disbelief at what he had just heard.
He would leave the crew? Over Merry? Fighting with Luffy?
"You would have come back, but the split hurt. It hurt everyone, but Luffy especially."
Usopp didn't want to hurt the crew, and he especially didn't want to hurt Luffy.
"But why?"
"Why did you come back, or why did you leave?"
Ebony had a confused look on her face as she asked.
"Either. Both."
It was Merry who answered, "Friendship was a large part in it, but also you knew that Luffy was right. You knew deep down that you had to let me go, and that you did everything you possibly could to help save me."
Ebony interjected "Kaya wouldn't want you to blame yourself, either."
And that's what it really came down to. Usopp didn't want to loose what he had left of Kaya, of his home and especially of his mother. Sure, he had his stories and he had the others, but the Going Merry was his last small piece of home that he didn't want to loose. He didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but he could see it very well happening. He could see himself leaving the crew just because of that, even if the leaving wasn't permanent, he would never be able to forgive himself. And even if Luffy could, he knew Zoro wouldn't be able to.
And that thought hurt almost as much as him not being able to trust himself again.
"What do we do?"
He wasn't even sure that the words left his mouth, almost silent as they were.
"So instead of just needing the money for repairs, we're going to have to build a new ship from scratch?"
I nodded, waiting for Nami to blow up. She wasn't enjoying the fact that it was going to cost an absolute fortune, but we needed the ship.
"Instead of 200,000,000.."
It was unwise to interrupt her when it came down to money, but I needed to cut off her train of thought. When it came to money, her obsession with it would be an absolute hindrance towards what we needed it for at that point in time.
"Nami, I don't know how much it'll cost. But Merry can't take much more, and even trying to repair her… it'll be too much. We won't be able to make it in the New World in the Going Merry."
Merry nodded, "Sunny has to be the one to take you there."
"Nami, we'll get the money back and more, but we can't do that if the crew can't sail."
She pouted, but nodded.
She knew better than most what it would be like if we didn't have a ship.
The mood was almost somber, everyone having heard the story of how Usopp may have left in a future that wasn't there. Usopp looked melancholy, but Merry and Luffy were sticking around him, making sure that he knew that nothing had actually happened, he hadn't left the crew, it was only a possibility. Nothing had changed.
It only may have happened.
Sanji, who despite his outward demeanour towards anyone who wasn't Nami, Robin or myself, had done his best to cheer everyone up by making dishes that he knew everyone would absolutely love and appreciate.
"Look, Ebony's warned us. It won't happen." Sanji had spoken, putting plate upon plate down onto the table. "And besides, you came back. That says a lot more than you think it does."
"Though, now we might miss out on Sogeking."
Usopp, curious and frightened, looked up. "Sogeking?"
I nodded. "Your alter ego. Even when you 'disappeared', you stuck around and helped out a lot. Also, somehow your first bounty wouldn't have been you, but Sogeking."
He looked thoughtful, contemplating the idea of becoming this character of Sogeking. "Would it be helpful if I were to fight as Sogeking, I mean, in the long run?"
"Why would you want to fight as anyone but yourself?"
Luffy didn't understand, it was obvious, but I understood.
"I know that for you Captain, being anyone other than yourself sounds ridiculous, but people like Usopp and I like a bit of anonymity."
"Why?"
Being able to explain this to Luffy was going to be almost impossible, but I was going to attempt to it anyway.
"I know that you don't care about what people think about you, and that's a completely fair thing. But sometimes some people feel far braver wearing a mask, or even a hood to hide things away."
Luffy seemed to contemplate that, but I knew that he needed to hear more, and I had just the comment to add.
"For me, at least, the marines and the like that know my face back home," That was probably the first time that I had actually acknowledged Loguetown as my home, but before I could think myself into circles I needed to continue. "They know where I lived, who I lived with, those I consider to be my friends, and those that I consider to be my family. That right there puts a massive target, not only on my back, but on theirs as well just for being in someway associated with me, and by extension the rest of this crew."
Luffy understood what I was getting at immediately at that point, knowing better than anyone what the world was capable of doing just because of association. (The other onboard the ship was Robin, but she was still thawing out.)
"And I really don't want Bailey, or pa, to get in trouble when it inevitably comes out that they sheltered and housed an Outlier, regardless of if they knew what I was or not."
Usopp winced, clearly remembering the Outlier from Syrup who had been murdered. "Yeah, that won't go over well."
Chopper, for all that he was an excellent doctor, was still only fifteen, didn't quite understand the implications.
"What do you mean by inevitability?"
The question posed was just an innocent question, but it made me want to hysterical laugh.
Turning to face the little deer, and in the most gentle voice I could attempt I spoke.
"If someone gets a good look at my eyes for any length of time longer than just a glance, if I talk about something that I forget isn't common knowledge in front of the wrong person, or you know, if I bleed in front of anyone who isn't to be trusted."
Luffy piped up, "And we get into a lot of fights!" His voice was almost cheerful, particularly in the face of such a downer of a conversation.
Chopper, seeming to understand finally looked downcast, either he hadn't realised before or had even thought about the implications of having an Outlier as a friend or fellow crew member.
"Is that why you wear so much black?"
His voice was small, quiet, almost a whisper.
I nodded, "One of the major reasons, yes. Blood stains really easily, but on black its far easier to clean and hide."
It was quieter after that, no one really wanting to talk, each of them more than willing to wait in silence for those that had been encased in ice to properly thaw out.
Having left the bar several hours previously, Barto and Bailey were holed up in the often left shut office that was once the Pa Burgundy's.
"The moment we get a hold of Ebony, we party. Sound good?"
If had you asked the infamous Bartolomeo two years previously that he would a. be trying to calm down a very worried teenager who was close to setting off in a stolen ship to find her adopted older sister and b. that he himself was a fingernail width apart from joining her, he would have thought that you were crazy and in need of some help. But there he was, doing those exact same things.
Bailey turned to him, rolling her eyes. "You've been saying that for the past four hours and Ebony still hasn't picked up."
Even when saying those words, that still hadn't stopped Bailey from attempting once more. Only this time it succeeded, ringing through to someone answering.
Only it wasn't Ebony who picked up.
"Mr Prince here, whose speaking?"
The man on the other side of the den den was blonde, with a strangely familiar swirling eyebrow. The snail looked rather comical, but Barto kept that thought to himself, lest he accidentally blurt out the first words that come to mind and offend someone accidentally.
"Rooster and the little chick, is Crow available?"
The aforementioned Mr Prince hummed on the other end, "Give me a moment. I'll see if she's finished thawing."
Thawing? Had she been turned into a chicken on her way to the grand line? In what possible scenario would Ebony need to be thawed?
"Ebony~! There's a Rooster and a little chick on the den den for you~!"
So that was who had been calling.
The den den had been ringing off the hook so to speak for a few hours at that point, but none of us wanted to chance answering it in the inevitability that it could be used to track us considering how we had only really just escaped from Aokiji.
"You'll have to hold it for me, still can't really feel my fingers Sanji."
He nodded, before holding the snail up closer towards my face.
"What's up?"
The cheerful voice of Barto greeted me, "Congrats on the first bounty! Its got to be one of the highest first bounties in the East Blue!"
Another voice piped up, younger and female.
"What he said! Ebony, I'e been trying to reach you for hours! Are you okay? What happened?"
I couldn't help but laugh at the pair, relief that I hadn't known I was missing filled the laughter.
"Family?"
I nodded at Sanji, "I reckon? Never said it out loud."
Luffy, who had every right to eavesdrop considering he was the Captain of the ship, made a strange noise in his throat as he leaned against the door frame. "You should tell them that!"
"Maybe?"
"Ebony!"
"Ma, ma Captain. I can't tell them if I'm holding that to my chest, now can I?"
I shushed the protests that both Sanji and Luffy had before going back to speak with Barto and Bailey.
"Thanks for the congrats? I'm still trying to work out if it's actually an achievement or not?"
Luffy interrupted with a loud voice, "It is! Be proud!"
Rubbery arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders, as Luffy flung himself against me, snapping exactly like a rubber band would up against bare skin.
The 'thwack' could be heard echoing throughout the room as Sanji, who was still holding the snail winced in sympathy.
"Fucking hell, Captain! That hurt!"
Luffy laughed, completely unapologetic.
"Shishishishi! Sorry Ebony!"
I rolled my eyes at him, "Luffy, Captain, you're never sorry when you do that."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the snail with its likeness to Barto suddenly gain stars in its eyes, before they were quickly shut and reopened without stars. (It was nice to see that Barto was at least attempting to contain his inner fanboy, even if it was only slightly.)
Luffy couldn't help himself, bursting into laughter again whilst Sanji attempted to give the Captain a solid 'thwack' on the head, with the seventeen year old dodging out of the way each and every time.
How Sanji hadn't dropped the den den sushi during that time, I could not have told you. Steady hands from all the cooking, I suppose.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to the the snail.
"I'm alright, if you count being electrocuted twice and frozen as being alright? I'm defrosting currently, as are some of the others."
A screech could be heard from the other side of the den den as Bailey's face replaced Barto's.
"How? What?"
Holding up the hand that was still cramping from the cold, I listed off the reasons. "Made a deal with a mage, and had to put on a good show. Pissed of a self proclaimed god and paid the price. And Admiral Aokiji, respectively."
The snail went bone white as Sanji, Luffy and I heard the sharp intakes of breath from the other side.
Oh crap.
Bailey was crying.
I'd made my kid sister cry.
Now I was going to start crying; I hated making people cry, but particularly I hated making Bailey cry. Bailey, and Pa Burgundy, who had both been nothing but kind to the weird stranger who knew too much, and was generally a pretty suspicious being. Bailey, who had once very sleepily admitted that she wished I was her older sister, before it had never been brought up again.
I quickly sought to calm her down, "Hey now parvula soror! I'm fine, my crew is fine. I know its not much of a comfort, but we're all as safe as we can be doing what we're doing considering the profession we picked."
I could see Sanji and Luffy look at each other in confusion towards the unfamiliar words that I'd used, but the sniffles on the other side seemed to by dying down.
Continuing, trying to make my voice as soft and as soothing as I could. "I'm happy here, and we all try our best to keep each other safe."
Almost uncharacteristically for the Captain, Luffy gestured for Sanji to pass him the den den sushi, which he did so without questioning, even if his face clearly said he wanted to.
"Bailey, right? Monkey D. Luffy here! I'm Ebony's Captain, and I get it. It's hard watching your older sibling sail away and leave you behind. I've had it happen to me twice!"
I took a deep breath, knowing damn well that Luffy was putting his own privacy on the line (so to speak) to comfort another younger sibling by bond. I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to push through the cramps to squeeze it tightly, knowing more than anyone on this ship about him and his past, apart from Merry herself.
Luffy continued, "You just have to keep in contact, and remember that Ebony can protect herself. She had us, too. We all have each other!"
An echo went through my mind, a flashback if you will, of Luffy's greatest fear of being alone. How I wished I had my hood on so that I could cover my eyes, the feeling of tears beginning.
The sniffling of Bailey on the other end subsided, and Luffy handed the den den back to Sanji.
A/N: I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it! And as always, stay safe and hydrate!
Latin Translation
parvula soror little sister