Helloooo! I hope everyone has been doing well. Here's the weekly chapter (although I'm getting closer to the end of my stock...), which is admittedly a filler with bonding moments but not much action (on the One Piece scale). The tip of Usopp's nose comes in at the end though!
As usual, thank you to everyone who dropped by to read or review!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.
Part One - Dive|rgence
FIVE
My mouth feels dry as laughter dribbles out of it
and my cheeks hurt
I thought this stream was forever
drained-
There's so little that reaches it through the swamp around me
and for one drop that falls in there are
ten, a hundred that want to kiss my eyes goodbye
and leave me exhausted
(life is not black, just
a mist of grey through which
I can hear the colourful screams of other lives
-I wonder what a rainbow looks like, sounds like)
For you and for me, I wonder if it's a good thing
that you're so special
(I wonder if happiness is better than the grey, silent void
when it walks hand in hand with tragedy)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Once she finally calms down, Elynna finds herself wondering how long it has been since she last laughed like this.
When the answer doesn't come to her immediately, she decides that it's best to conclude that no one she knows has the sort of humour -or stupidity- to make her laugh that loud.
Her father… doesn't make many jokes, but regularly comes home with a story about a clumsy colleague of his and the incidents they get involved in at least once a week.
Her mother has the same dark humour as she does, which is more likely to make people snicker than really laugh.
Her uncle is more on the drama queen side, exaggerating purposefully what he does and says. But she doesn't see him often, as he works long hours and doesn't take much time off.
Her sister tells boisterous stories of the reckless stunts she pulls -and isn't that a frightening thought for the rest of them considering that she's barely started to drink alcohol.
(The thought comes to her once again that she really has nothing to do here, that it would be much better for everyone involved if her sister was the one brought here,
that she wishes her sister was the one stuck alone and wondering whether she's dead, dreaming, or in someone else's body,
wondering if anything she says or does or thinks comes from her or the god of this world-)
She stops.
Having selfish thoughts is okay, but her sister has nothing to do with Elynna somehow finding herself into a fictional world, and while it's true that she would make a much better Straw Hat than her, this is just bitter and uncalled for.
(She's not surprised her mind came to this conclusion, though.
She's always been jealous of her little sibling.
Jealous of her, and anyone else who doesn't hesitate to show what they're feeling even if it might make them rude, of the way she sometimes talks back to their parents and teachers, whether she's in the wrong or not, while she herself sits there and takes it, dissecting every word in her mind to judge for herself whether she agrees with the other person or not, without ever managing to wrench her voice past the fear and the internalised rules that filter everything. While she is stuck knowing that she has a good family, parents that are more than willing to listen to her, but somehow she can't talk, can't show anything, because it just feels like she will be an unnecessary burden, and she doesn't know how close she can, how close she's supposed to be with her own family.
Jealous of her, and anyone else who has a passion that makes their mood better, that makes them want to give everything they have, that gives them something to do with their life, when she herself is always struggling to decide what to do and which path to take, because she has no idea where she's going, no idea of where she wants to go, because even the one activity that she keeps practicing since childhood cannot motivate her enough for her to enter competitions or the professional level. It feels stupidly reckless and irrational, to bet her life on such small probabilities. And then there are the days where she wonders what is the fucking point of all this, of liv-)
Yup, time to stop thinking.
She blinks the thoughts away and stands up, deciding to take a look at what is available in the cabin of Nami's boat. Since she can't see the other girl anywhere, she knocks on the door to be sure that she can come in. She honestly can't believe the number of times something awkward happens in books and movies when all you have to do is knock, damnit.
"Yeah?"
"Nami-san, it's Elynna. Can I come in?"
"Oh, yes, of course!"
The cabin, it turns out, includes a cupboard with dry food and some more perishable stuff, a bathtub, and two beds.
"There are water supplies there, but since the guys I stole this from were already at sea when I met them, they're not full, so we should probably prioritise drinking it over using it for showers." Nami informs her, pointing at several barrels in a corner.
"Agreed. Also, I'm telling you right now, but we have to make sure that the Captain doesn't have access to the pantry alone, or he probably won't be able to help himself."
"Somehow, I'm not very surprised."
"He is pretty easy to read -most of the time. Do you know where the closest island is? So we can restock."
The pretty thief waves her over to the table set against a wall, where she already spread out a map.
"I think we should be able to reach the Gecko Islands in a few days, three to five depending on the weather conditions, but as of now they are pretty good." She sums up, elegant fingers pointing at their position and that of their destination on the map.
Elynna nods, eyes flickering to the slightly longer strand of tangerine red hair that is brushing against Nami's cheek and then to her slender, creamy neck that is left uncovered by her short hair and the low neckline of her top.
Nami is really pretty.
… Why does everyone on this crew so far have to look nice on top of their already pretty great personalities?
(It makes it even harder to not get too close.)
While Nami starts looking closely at how much water they have so as to estimate roughly how much each of them can use per day, Elynna makes an inventory of all the food they have, before writing down a planner for a similar purpose, letting a part of her mind wander.
In the end, she stayed with the Straw Hats. Well, they were being hunted down by a mob of angry villagers so there wasn't really a choice, but the final showdown against Buggy's crew gave her some time to think. Considering how she came into this world, she thinks that the… sea dreams she had -twice already- can probably give her some clues as to the reason why she was brought here, especially since they are from someone else's point of view. Staying on the sea, with a crew that plans to navigate all over the world would thus logically be her best bet.
As for the emotional side of it… Well, her best hope is to keep a more professional than friendly relationship so that at least they would be less hurt if she ends up leaving. Frankly, though, she has her doubts regarding her ability to keep her guard up, especially with Monkey D. Luffy as her Captain and the physical closeness that comes with a life spent mostly on a boat.
She has already slipped up more than once. Minor slip-ups, but still.
And the worst is that they don't seem to mind what they have already seen.
Although, granted, her largely inexistent social life is less due to her awful personality than her inability to approach people in the first place.
The sound of metallic objects clinking against each other makes her turn to see that her… coworker has gone on to inspect the amount of treasure she has left.
She pauses in her own work, remembering Nami's reaction to discovering that half of her loot is gone. The expression on her face… it was beyond simple anger or greed. There was urgency in her eyes, and something strained and hoarse in her screams that sounded a bit too much like old despair as far as Elynna is concerned.
The thief might love money, but something is not quite right here, especially considering her apparent hatred for all things pirate and the fact that she did not technically accept to join the crew (and she's sure that Nami is supposed to, because there probably aren't many other drop-dead gorgeous, red-haired navigators in the anime).
"... Sorry for what the Captain did. I hope it's not too unconvenient for what you wanted to do with the money." She eventually speaks up carefully, watching Nami's back for her reaction since her face is hidden from her view.
"Oh. Well… It's not like I'm on a time limit or anything." The redhead shrugs, but Elynna is pretty sure that the line of her shoulders is more tense now, and she's too familiar with the use of irony to not notice the lilt of bitterness that the flow of her voice is stumbling around.
Her eyes narrow.
"How long are you going to stick with us? If you have a specific destination, you should tell us so that we know how long we can benefit from your knowledge." She makes sure to keep her tone light so as to not sound too intrusive, but now Nami's shoulders are definitely tense.
"... I don't really have one for the moment." She eventually answers, but Elynna doesn't need to see her face to understand that she's clearly uncomfortable with the direction this conversation is taking, maybe even suspicious.
"Oh, well I guess it's all the better for us, then."
And she drops it -if only because she wishes that some people who came to talk to her on many occasions would just leave her alone instead. It's not in her nature to pry when people don't want to confide in her, and she doesn't think herself sly enough to wrangle more information from someone so guarded and so smart -since she has obviously been stealing from pirates and navigating on her own for a long time. Besides...
Rule Number One: most shonen main characters have a tragic backstory.
(She doesn't believe she is strong enough to support someone else through their problems when she can barely keep herself afloat.)
She hangs her planner on the doorknob of the food cupboard, and walks out to find her Captain about to splash his swordsman with seawater to wake him up from his nap. She stops him just in time with the 'badly wounded person there' card, and drags him on the other end of the smaller boat to take care of the few cuts on his face from his fight against Buggy. When Nami comes out with their dinner, she makes sure to watch her words and not stare at her too much -no matter how pretty she is- so as to not make her more uncomfortable or distrustful.
Considering Zoro's condition, he is automatically granted one of the two beds for the night. Eventually, it's decided that Nami will get the second one, that she pushes against the pantry to be sure that there won't be any Luffy-induced incident. She explains to Elynna that they shouldn't need to change directions for the night, and that years of navigating have made her sleep rather light anyway, so she'll come out to check on things from time to time.
Sleeping next to Luffy is both entertaining and a nightmare, because as monotone as her answers are, he still keeps on babbling about this and that, about how strong Zoro is, how great she is, how cool Nami is, how he wishes he can eat meat… At some point, she just gives up and invests herself in the conversation, because otherwise she just feels awfully dismissive. She finds herself asking questions about the village he comes from, how he came to eat the Gomu Gomu no Mi (she's only half… actually she's not surprised at all) and telling him that yeah, okay, Zoro-san is strong, but he's as stupidly reckless as you are.
She doesn't know how long they've been talking when he turns to lie on his stomach, legs kicking through the air as he props his chin on his arms.
"Hey, Ann."
"Yeah?"
"What does it look like?" He asks with a jab of his chin towards the dark mirror beneath the boat, glowing silver under the moon and the stars that shine brightly in the cloud-free sky.
She hums pensively at that, thinking that she would probably hate to find herself unable to swim, especially now, when she has been enjoying it for years. So she tells him about swimming and how she thinks it's a bit like flying, about getting lost in a forest of seaweed, about the days where she can't see anything because the sand is swirling lazily everywhere, about the fishes whose scales shine and gleam and change colours, and that one who has a light bulb coming out of his forehead because he lives so deep in the sea that everything is tainted black, forever and always.
("Ohhhhh! I wanna see that! When did you see one?!
She tilts her head, amused but puzzled by the notion.
"I didn't. The human body can't handle the level of pressure, or take enough air to swim that deep. I just saw it in a book."
Now it's his turn to look puzzled -and a bit disappointed- as he mimics her position.
"I thought you came from there."
She's not so amused anymore.
Still, she smiles.
It's painful.
"Well, I do think that I was already pretty far from home when I met you."
Eventually, he falls asleep, leaving her to stare at the stars and play some song or another over and over in her mind like a broken record until she doesn't feel like bursting apart at the seams anymore.)
Nami comes out twice to check that they are not veering off their path before Elynna actually falls asleep.
When she wakes up, her Captain is not lying on top of her. Which is good. But he's nowhere on the deck either, nor on the other boat. Which is bad.
It doesn't take long for her to realise that he apparently thought that trying to ride a dolphin with their mooring rope when he can't swim is a great idea. Already running to dive into the sea, she barely hears Nami's scream as the other girl comes out yawning and sees the boy jump around on the back of the animal.
She ends up having to race the dolphin because it glides away swiftly just after she emerges, keeping herself just behind him to catch the Devil Fruit user when his grip on the rope loosens enough for him to be sent tumbling backwards.
On the plus side, it gives her an occasion to test the limits of this body, and so once she brings him back to the boats and checks that he's doing okay, she takes advantage of the fact that she's already drenched to go swim some laps and test how much faster and endurant she can be.
When she comes back, she finds herself face to face with one very angry Nami who is trying to drown the smaller boy -again, while Zoro, who moved out to nap under the sun, steadfastly refuses to open his eyes and ackowledge his Captain's situation.
She sees the way Nami is making sure that only his longer strands of hair are touching the surface of the sea at most, the way he is just flailing his limbs around rather than actively trying to knock his attacker away, and allows herself to feel amusement.
"Please don't drown our Captain, Nami-san. He's pretty funny to be around."
"Ann, save meeeeee!"
"He tried to steal some food!"
"Ah, don't mind me. Please keep going."
"Nooooooooo!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
They're eating lunch when her Captain blurts out his question, staring at her.
"Why don't you laugh?"
Everyone stops eating, and she frowns in confusion. Unless she missed a part of the conversation, no one said anything funny.
"... I'm sorry?"
She doesn't know if she's asking for his explanation or his forgiveness.
"It was nice hearing you laugh yesterday." He simply says as he munches on the last of his food, staring at her with an unreadable expression, and she can't grasp what he's thinking.
She looks at the two others, but their gaze is similarly curious and expectant.
"I just… don't laugh often?" She answers, still unsure of what she's supposed to say.
She doesn't understand.
Does he want her to laugh more, even if there's nothing funny? She never meant to almost stop laughing at some point of her life.
Has he noticed that she's trying to distance herself and wants her to stop? When it comes to emotional intelligence, she's pretty sure that he's smart enough for that.
"That sucks." He decides with an annoyed pout.
She wonders if he's saying that for her or for him, wonders if she should feel hurt, because her throat is closing up and her eyes are burning.
(But nothing hurts.)
She blinks the tears away, presses down on the slimy ball of negative things stuck in her throat until she can breath normally, and shrugs.
"You're the one who told me you didn't like it when I fake things. Why are you getting annoyed at me with this?"
He stares at her some more, before shrugging.
"Ah, that's true."
Zoro sticks another forkful of food in his mouth now that he's sure that his First Mate won't burst into tears or scream every time his Captain is being insensitive.
"Well, I could certainly do with less sex jokes." He grumbles, since they're on the subject.
Nami looks up, startled, and meets Elynna's eyes.
Does he…? She mouths.
Get embarassed? Hell yeah. She mouths back, watching gleefully as the navigator's curiosity transforms into something downright wicked.
Can that girl get any more perfect?
"With less what?"
The three of them stop eating again, this time to stare at Luffy's nonplussed expression.
Zoro topples backwards, clearly deciding that he's done with this entire conversation.
"I fucking knew it." Elynna groans, head thumping against her kneecap as she remembers the future King of Pirates' confusion when she previously made jokes having anything to do with sex. "And here I thought I could avoid this by not having kids."
And on that note, she takes hold of her food in one hand, her Captain's wrist in the other, and marches straight towards the largest boat's cabin.
"Come on, Captain. Let's have a Talk."
Luffy blinks, watching as Nami cheerily waves at him, and feeling like his First Mate's voice has gotten somewhat ominous.
The door slams behind them.
"So," Nami purrs as she turns back to the green-haired man, "who gave you the Talk?"
Zoro slouches further in his seat, seriously considering knocking himself out because shit, now there's another one.
Nami sniggers at his reaction, taking advantage of his closed eyes to steal the last of his bread.
This is gonna be fun.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
When Elynna eventually comes out, Nami and Zoro are loudly bickering about the way Zoro turned the helm of one of the boats (according to Nami it wasn't the direction she gave him at all), she's alone, and it has been a Long Time since she first entered with the rubber man -more than an hour for sure.
"Zoro-san, whether or not you're 'useless with directions', as Nami-san says, is irrelevant. She's the navigator, so she's probably right anyway." She smoothly cuts across their insults, which have strayed entirely off-topic.
Nami smirks at him in satisfaction, before directing her teasing gaze to the First Mate.
"What, did you illustrate your explanation to Luffy too?"
Zoro groans aloud, already foreseeing the hell they will both put him through.
Elynna clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, looking very serious about the whole thing.
"I talked about reproduction, respect and consent, safety, respect and consent, sexual and gender identity, respect and consent, kinks, respect and consent... Fried his brain for about the next few hours, so at least we have some peace, and the food is safe until the power comes back in his brain."
The other girl's gaze turns appreciative at that.
The rest of the afternoon passes by quietly, conversation rising and falling here and there like lazy waves (not too much that they can't each focus on their own task, but not too little that she finds herself wondering if she should speak about something -anything). Zoro cleans up his katana, and Elynna reads the newspaper before passing it over to Nami -who is studying the map of the Grand Line- and taking the rubber man's hat to finish patching it up, adding a string to it so it doesn't fly off again. Luffy comes out just in time for dinner, still looking mind-boggled with all the information crammed into his head but his stomach having won over his mind.
He's much more cheerful and loud by the time they finish eating, and manages to wrangle a bed for himself while Zoro is assigned the other one, his wound being almost -but not yet- healed.
(She still can't quite make herself believe it, and will probably keep avoiding to touch his left side for much longer than everyone else.)
Aware of the importance of the skill, she gathers the courage to ask Nami, who is the best person for this, to teach her to estimate the time depending on the position of the sun or the moon. In the process, she discovers that the constellations of this world are entirely different from the ones back home, although there are a few that are similar.
She can barely recognise the shapes that Nami points out to her, though. That doesn't change from her home world.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Their second day at sea begins much more calmly than the first one. Which, granted, isn't too hard, but since Luffy is still with them, it was kind of a bet.
Zoro is declared to be fully healed, so of course he immediately decides to take up his training by lifting the barrels of water and other crates of food.
She gives up on trying to stop him, but makes sure to tell him to stop if he feels any amount of pain in his side, and to not be stupid and keep going because that's the best way to make the damage even longer, if not impossible to heal.
His answer is to order her to shut up and sit on his back while he does his push-ups.
She sighs, and obeys, sitting cross-legged on his naked back with the newspaper of the day in her hands. On the smaller, less stable boat, Nami seems to be busy drawing a map, while Luffy is busy… drawing whatever the hell he's supposed to be drawing.
Not that she blames him. She's pretty good at putting together colours in a way that is nice to look at, but completely hopeless at drawing anything better than the most schematic patterns.
She doesn't read much of the newspaper, a part of her mind focusing attentively for any sign of pain in Zoro's movements or breathing, and the other appreciating the way his muscles shift beneath her with each push-up, the cloth covering her legs the only thing separating his skin from hers.
Luckily, her tendency to unconsciouly wear a constant poker face also works in this kind of situation, otherwise Nami would definitely notice -and blackmail her.
In the end, though, she's probably the one for whom the experience ends up being the most painful, because when he's done Zoro pushes on his hand to come straight into a standing position… Meaning that she crashes down from his back and into the deck.
There's a stretch of silence.
Luffy, who was chatting with Zoro about their respective -insane- training techniques, bursts out laughing, so much so that he ends up flopping onto his back because he can't sit straight anymore.
Nami, who raised her head at the noise, curious to see what caused it, tries to hold in her chortles, but it doesn't last long.
"Shit! Uh, sorry, Elynna. You were so still that I kind of... forgot you were there."
She doesn't answer, face hidden by the newspaper that fell on it.
The other two calm down a bit at the absolute lack of noise from her.
"Elynna?"
Still no answer.
Now frowning worriedly, Zoro tears the cover off her face, only to meet the very unimpressed stare of the pale-skinned girl.
"It's the first time someone calls me light, but somehow it feels a bit insulting." She mutters dryly.
Zoro sighs in relief, and promptly shoves the newspaper back onto her face before she can embarass him any further.
"Argh, what the hell!" Her muffled scream can still be heard.
"I wanna fight too!" Luffy hollers back excitedly.
"We're not fighting, you id-"
The rest dissolves into incomprehensible noise as Luffy screams again while jumping on his two crewmates, who also scream when he knocks into them since they didn't see him coming at them.
Nami starts laughing again.
"Guys… the boat… will capsize!" She shouts between gasps of laughter.
Neither boy hears her, but Elynna does, so she makes to join her on the smaller boat when she manages to wrangle herself out of the wrestling game going on.
Except Luffy doesn't agree at all, and stretches his arm to catch her, not paying attention to the strength he puts into it as his arm snaps back to normal.
The boat doesn't capsize, but it rocks enough to send the three of them into the ocean.
Since her treasure isn't at risk, Nami just laughs even louder.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna saves Luffy from drowning again, but since both times were his fault, she mercilessly guilt-trips him into giving up a bed to her that night.
"You've already taken a bed for two nights, and we'll probably reach the next island the day after tomorrow! You're not even injured anymore!"
"Yeah, but I've been napping on the deck for the whole afternoon-"
"You could have just taken the bed at that moment, then! Besides, girls deal with their period every month, so you should be able to get over a bit of back pain, since you're so strong!" Nami cuts him off, perfectly aware of what she's doing by bringing up 'girl stuff' in front of someone like Zoro, who fares much better when he doesn't have to hear about it.
He scowls at her, knowing what she's doing and furious that it's working (the tip of his ears just might be burning, and he really, really wants to back out of this, except this is also a fight, and- pride).
"It has nothing to-"
"You're coming, Nami-san?" Elynna steps up beside the redhead.
"Why should it be her?" Zoro's scowl deepens.
"Because we want to fuck, obviously."
Her point-blank reply has the effect of shutting him up long enough for her to drag a gaping Nami into the cabin with her.
She closes the door behind them, and suddenly realises something.
She turns around with a wince, but she can't see much of Nami's face with what little moonlight comes in through the round windows.
"... I should have asked before making a joke like this, right? That's a potentially sensitive topic. Fuck. Sorry about that."
(She knows that she's babbling, but she's more used to avoiding people she's pissed off until they calm down or snap at her enough that she feels she's been forgiven than to actually apologising.
And if even one member of the Straw Hats becomes a bit too uncomfortable with her presence, who's to say that they'll keep her, the girl who is supposed to be second only to the Captain but has no useful skill to speak of?
-because as soon as they find the animal whom she remembers to be their doctor, the poor job that she's doing in his place will be worth even less, and she's never been good at selling herself.)
"Not to me, so it's fine. Though I was surprised at first. I thought you had somehow guessed I'm into women." Nami tells her instead.
Elynna blinks at that, caught off-guard.
Romance really isn't a focus of One Piece though, so it isn't like this is a piece of information that goes against Nami's canon character.
"Nah. It was more wishful thinking than guessing."
By now her eyes have adapted enough to the darkness for her to tell that Nami is definitely amused.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It was one."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
The thief sends her an exasperated look, and Elynna blinks back innocently.
Nami rolls her eyes, and plops down on the bed to take off her shoes.
"Are you sure you prefer women too? I'd bet that Zoro doesn't get the same impression."
"I never said I was only into women."
"... True."
"Besides, even if I didn't find Zoro attractive, I would probably still act the same way just to mess with him."
Nami snickers.
"Men and women, then?"
Elynna moves to one of the beds, letting her hair down and placing her hairband on the table on the way there.
"Yep." She pauses, and then shrugs. "Well, so far. Y' know, twice as much choice and all that."
"As if you could choose." Nami's voice taunts, and Elynna can almost see her eyes rolling upwards in exasperated amusement.
"Aw, Nami-san, don't tell me that you didn't choose not to be attracted to males." She jokes.
"Nope, it's just that men are only good for me to manipulate them into giving me their treasure, so I have no reason to be attracted to them." The redhead huffs, playfully haughty.
"Now you're just taking advantage of the fact that the two men we have here are total blockheads and easily manipulated."
Their eyes meet.
"Zoro's face, though…" Nami whispers, and Elynna isn't sure if it's mischievousness or moonlight that make her eyes sparkle, but it sure looks good on her.
Her words are enough to send them both into peals of laughter.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
The both of them take gleeful delight in messing up their hair when they step out the morning after. It's absolutely worth the time they -and especially Elynna- will have to spend taming it back to normal, considering that they get to see Zoro's cheeks become red enough to be visible through his heavy tan.
He glares at them through the whole breakfast, so Elynna refuses to sit on his back again, because she's not that stupid, thank you. She's not in a hurry to fall a second time -especially if it's planned.
Instead, she starts writing down what has happened so far in her notebook -including her strange daydreams- in case she ever needs precise information.
It's not until Luffy flops on her back to peek over her shoulder and makes a confused noise that she realises she wrote everything in her own language, probably because she wasn't intending for anyone else than her to read it (she's not sure she understandss how this clusterfuck is supposed to work).
This catches Nami's attention, and the both of them start throwing random words and sentences at her to translate, Zoro adding his own here and there between two sit-ups.
She stops them when Nami reaches the point where she's asking her how to call some kind of meteorological phenomenon, because first of all she has no freaking idea how she's supposed to call that, and because what the hell, there's no island in her home world where the rain starts floating at random and how does that even work?
The afternoon is even hotter than the morning despite the slight breeze that keeps the boats moving, so all of them end up sprawled over either deck, soaking up the heat after a nice dive in the sea.
Drowsy as they are, Luffy's absence is only noticed when he comes back wrapped in some of the jewellery of Nami's loot, his megawatt smile honestly almost outdone by the way all this gold and these gems are hit and reflected by the rays of light. Almost.
"Shishishi! Look guys! I found my crown for when I'll be the King of Pirates!"
"My eyes…" Elynna moans dramatically in answer, throwing an arm over her face.
"King of Idiots is more like it." Zoro grumbles from his position a foot away.
Nami shrieks in horror, and from the yelp they hear afterwards, she probably jumped on Luffy.
Elynna snorts, and finds herself agreeing with the swordsman's assessment, because clearly their Captain did not learn his lesson the first time around.
Somehow, most of the jewels -but not Luffy- end up thrown into the sea. This leads to a competition between Zoro, who decided that fetching them was a good training exercise, and Nami (because duh, treasure) to see who brought back the most, supported by Luffy's loud encouragement and comments. As for Elynna, she goes back to her nap, since she hates competition, and she took her first shower in two days when she last came back from the sea.
That night, both her Zoro end up sleeping outside, his calm breathing and her awareness of the fact that he isn't that much of a talker either giving her enough quiet to focus, as she works on memorising the names and faces of the important figures quoted in the newspapers she read so far, as well as a few places (although she probably won't remember where the islands are precisely, as it is one thing that she somehow never really managed to print into her mind).
"If we really want to go to the Grand Line, we need to plan things better!" Nami tells them the next morning.
Zoro and Luffy agree, but somehow understand it as having to do with meat and sake of all things.
"That's not what I mean! We can always restock on that when stopping at an island. I'm telling you that there's no way we can survive there without a real ship. And we're probably too short on crewmembers on top of it. The first thing we should do is find a bigger, better equipped ship!"
"I second that." Elynna raises her hand as she comes out of the cabin. "And we can probably start looking soon, because I think I see the island you were talking about, Nami-san."
"Meat!" Luffy clamors, almost throwing himself from the boat if not for Zoro's grip on the back of his shirt.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Hidden behind a fallen tree trunk, Usopp observes the four Buggy pirates who are in the process of stretching their muscles. Despite the distance, his acute vision makes it easy to pick out most details.
The boy with the straw hat looks pretty dumb, but Usopp notices the lean muscles that flex when he waves his arms around excitedly. Combined with the fact that the other, green-haired one has three katanas, is much taller and probably twice as large as him -all in muscles, Usopp decides that he should definitely keep some distance between them and him (he has excellent hand-eye coordination, but he sucks at hand-to-hand fighting -not that the has many occasions to practice it).
As for the two girls… Well, he thinks that they don't look too dangerous -apart from the red-haired one who looks dangerously pretty, but he's a liar, so he wouldn't judge someone simply based on their appearance. It would be stupid of him.
(He might be ridiculous, but being stupid is another thing entirely.)
He sends a signal to the three members of his crew who start moving, and gulps when he sees the swordsman tense despite them being as silent as they can.
For a moment, he wonders if this is a bad idea, if he should send Tamanegi to the village instead (with the two others, because they're his crew, his responsibility, his to protect-).
Then he steels himself, because these are just four enemies, and maybe there won't even be a real fight.
… Not to mention, they are still far enough to run if it doesn't work, and him and his crew are the ones standing on the cliff, so they have a strategic advantage -beyond the fact that they know this place like the back of their hands.
He gets to his feet, and fires several shots at the feet of the boy wearing a red shirt (not at the most intimidating one, but not at the weakest-looking one either).
And when they all calm down enough to look up to him, he sends another signal to his crewmates to raise the pirate flags they prepared in advance, and blurts out the lie that is most likely to get them to leave: that this island is already taken, and strongly guarded.
The smaller guy's reaction is encouraging… Probably? (He seems to believe it, but Usopp clearly did not mean for his lie to make him excited. More like scared.)
The swordsman and the pretty girl both raise an eyebrow simultaneously. He wonders if he should interpret it as a sign that they work often together, before realising that he should probably worry more about the disbelief etched onto their faces.
The other girl is probably the weirdest of the four. She's certainly not as pretty as the other one, but there's something strinking about her all the same, perhaps in the contrast between the darkness of her hair and eyes and the unnatural paleness of her skin. But the most disquieting for Usopp, at that moment, is the way she looks at him.
(Not cruel or cold.
Not nice or amused or excited.
She's just… watching him.
But there's a weight to it, something intent
-like she knows something about him that he doesn't.)
"He's lying." The redhead claims.
His blood freezes in his veins, then makes a full circle in his body in less than a second.
He feels dizzy. Which is probably why he opens his mouth and betrays his own words without thinking.
Ninjin and the two others promptly run away, and despite how bad he wants to follow them (despite how his eyes can't seem to focus on any of them, trying to pinpoint where the first attack will come from, despite the way his knees are shaking and he thinks his heart might burst-), he finds himself lifting his weapon in a last attempt to convince them to leave.
"Bet your life on it. This isn't just something you can use to scare people." The dark-haired guy says, and suddenly, looking up at him from under the brim of his hat which casts planes of shadow across his face and along the curve of his smirk, he doesn't look dumb at all anymore -and absolutely terrifying.
Beside him, the swordsman unsheathes an inch of one of his katanas, and the small, clicking noise makes Usopp's heart constrict in his chest. He has to readjust his grip since his hands are now covered in sweat at the sight of this little portion of metal that can cut his slingshot, his body, his friends, Miss Kaya-.
"Ahhhhhh, real pirates are so cool. I give up." He breathes out, collapsing on the ground.
Suddenly, the smirk that says I'm dying to cut somebody up is gone, and the other guy laughs (it sounds dumb, but a nice rather than a cruel kind of dumb in Usopp's opinion).
"I just borrowed that from Shanks! By the way, aren't you Yasopp's son?"
Now Usopp's heart is constricting for an entirely different -and preferable- reason, and he finds himself walking with the four pirates along the path leading to the only restaurant of Syrup Village as Luffy, the Captain (who seems somewhat obsessed with meat), tells him about how he met the Shanks' crew, and how his father is part of it -and a damn good sharpshooter.
The other guy -Zoro- and one of the girls -Nami- throw in a comment here and there, but it's only when there's a lull in the conversation that Usopp notices that the woman who is apparently Luffy's First Mate has yet to say a word.
She's hanging at the back of the group, looking at them without any sign that she wants to participate.
He can't tell if she's shy or if she's just not a talker, because her face is just- blank.
Bland.
To Usopp, it somehow feels like the muscles of her face maybe just can't move or express anything -it feels wrong.
She almost seems to be more of a spectator than an active member of the group, and among the vivid colours of the three people she's with and of the beautiful landscape of his beloved homeplace, she looks… colourless.
Like a ghost.
(He's always been terrified whenever someone tells ghost stories.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Discovering that Usopp is on this island leads Elynna to the conclusion that her first theory concerning the strange sea dreams she's having, according to which they may be somehow related to the fact that this is a world of fiction with a specific timeline, is probably wrong, as she did not have any vision preceding the appearance of such an important character.
She somewhat expected it, though, given that her presence itself is messing with the original flow of events.
(-she's not supposed to be here-)
Her mind bounces between the two or three other possibilities she came up with, but there's nothing on this island that can support one of them more than the others, so she turns to appreciating being on land again. She notices for the first time that the air tastes noticeably different compared to her home world's (not knowing anyone living in the countryside means that she never really experienced the difference between that and the urban area's air), and finds herself speculating on who could be 'the children of that one'.
It doesn't feel to her like the way one would speak of a regular family, feels more like-
A flick on her forehead makes her blink and realise that they have reached what seems to be a restaurant, and her Captain is standing in front of her. He seems to have taken to doing that when he thinks that she's being silent or thoughtful for too long (they probably don't have the same definition of 'too long').
He drags her in by her wrist, sits her beside him and tucks himself into her side for the whole meal even as he tells stories of Usopp's father while she eats quietly, pushing his hand away when he tries to steal some of her food because excuse her, not having an extandable stomach doesn't mean that she's not hungry too.
Hearing stories about Usopp's father, she finds herself wondering where his mother is. But considering that the subject did not come up even once in the conversation, though it would be natural, she decides that she's better off keeping that question to herself.
She listens to the conversation this time, and it flows pretty easily until Nami asks they be led to the mansion Zoro noticed earlier, and immediately Usopp's whole demeanour changes as flips out on them, gives them a flimsy excuse when he realises his slip-up, and runs out of the building before they can ask him more about it.
"What's the matter with him?" Nami blinks in surprise as she leans out of her chair to stare at the fading figure with furrowed brows.
"I don't know, but I doubt we'll get a ship from whoever lives in this mansion as things are." Elynna shrugs, tearing off a piece of bread to wipe the sauce off her plate with.
"Huh? Why?" Luffy looks confused as he leans his head back against her arm to stare up at her.
"We're a bunch of strangers who came on a boat with a pirate flag. Unless they're looking for a way to do away with a fully-equipped ship, they have no reason to grant our request, unless we threaten them into it, or make it so that they owe us a favour. A big one."
"We're not threatening them."
Nami's voice is clipped, like simply hearing the idea pisses her off.
Elynna doesn't have the time to tell her that she wasn't trying to imply they should, interrupted by the arrival of three kids, claiming to be 'the Usopp pirate crew' and loudly demanding to know what her and the others have done with their Captain.
She sighs at the noise, and no matter how much she tells herself that they're kids, she can't help but think that if her Captain and thus their crew really intended to hurt someone on this island, this would be a highly stupid move on their part.
"The meat was so delicious, right?" Luffy comments sunnily -and perfectly on time.
"A bit too bony, I think." She answers off-handedly, not at all sorry for what she's doing.
(Her dislike for kids is as irrational as it is strong. She doesn't bother to do much about it, since she doesn't deal with young children often enough to burn through her quota of patience, no matter how low it is.)
Zoro, clearly willing to follow her on this, smirks down at them darkly.
"If it's your Captain you want… We ate him."
"Cave witches!" They scream at both her and Nami.
"Thanks." Her smirk is utterly self-satisfied, and she can hear Zoro snort from across the table.
"Why are you looking at me?!" Nami snaps, clearly not as pleased as Elynna is with the comparison. "And you! Why would you even be happy to be called a witch?!"
"Witches are badass."
"Really?" Luffy perks up beside her.
"You bet. They make potions that can heal or kill super easily, throw thunder at you or transform you into a mouse. Among other things."
"So cool! I wanna meet one!"
He's bouncing in his seat now, ready to run out and search the whole island for a witch.
Frankly, she wouldn't mind meeting a witch either.
Especially if the witch in question is pretty and likes girls.
Being sent to a world where people have weird powers has got to have its perks after all.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Hellooooo? A pirate ship, please."
"So he's been coming here for a year to tell stories to that girl to cheer her up?" Nami thoroughly ignores Luffy, looking up at the lavish mansion behind the closed gates.
"First love…" Elynna sighs from her spot next to her, tone faux-wistful.
"Right?! It's so cute! Do you think he saw her from afar when he was a child?" The pirate thief asks excitedly.
"Oh yeah, totally, let's add love at first sight and childhood sweethearts on top of it."
Finally catching on the other girl's thinly-veiled irony, Nami sends her elbow into Elynna's ribs, making her choke on the laughter that was emerging like a wave of butterflies.
"Seriously…" The redhead crosses her arms and turns away, noise pointed high in the air with disdain and cheeks flushed in embarassment.
Her eyes catch on something red, and suddenly she gapes.
Apparently, Luffy doesn't want to wait anymore, and doesn't much care about the very obvious meaning of the gates being closed, because his hands are gripping the bars, and he's stretching himself away from it.
The kids scream again at the sight.
The other members of his group barely have the time to realise what's happening and jump to try and stop him -at least in Elynna's case- before he lets go, the momentum taking them with him instead.
They land, or more precisely crash, right under the window of the girl they came to see.
But Elynna doesn't really realise it, too busy making sure that no noise is coming out her mouth as she rolls on what she thinks is her stomach. She managed to cradle her head before the impact, but now her whole left side is exploding into painful fire, liquid thunder seeping into the crack of her bones, painting stars across her eyelids, but it's not pretty it's terrifying and she can't breathecan'tmOvE-
"Elynna, what are you doing still lying down?" Nami's exasperated voice reaches her ears.
She swallows, and then does it again, trying to make her mouth less dry and to bring down the tears and the sobs and the pleas (it hurts, it hurts, please stay with me, I want to go home-), to bring them down somewhere where no one will see them or hear them, where they won't bother anyone-
(It's a tight fit in her throat.)
"Feel like taking another nap." She mumbles.
(And wake up home, where nothing will be hurting like this.
Or never wake up again.)
"You and your naps… You're impossible! Almost as bad as Zoro." Nami huffs.
"Rude."
"Now who's the rude one?" Zoro chips in aggressively.
She doesn't bother to answer, letting everything going on around her become white noise that she's barely aware of as she focuses on staying absolutely still and taking short, superficial breaths. The pain subsides to a steady drumming just beneath her skin, like a ticking bomb in her body. It's enough for a part of her mind to turn outwards and hear a new voice speak.
"I heard that you liked to come up with convoluted stories… I see that it is true. I've heard about your father, too. I won't put anything past the son of a filthy pirate like you. Do not come near the mistress anymore!"
She opens her eyes, relieved to see that her vision is clear again, and takes in the sight of the newcomer, trying desperately not to laugh because the only thought her hazy mind can gather after her once over is that the pattern on his suit jacket looks like poop.
Shit, is Luff- her Captain rubbing off on her already?
…
She did not mean to make that pun.
At all.
"... Filthy?" Usopp's voice repeats slowly, tight with something like an incoming storm.
Her fingers twitch.
She listens as voices get louder, as the young mistress' words fail to calm things down.
"-I thought you would come up with another one of your little lies, like… 'He's a travelling salesman', or 'we're not really related'."
Usopp lunges.
Elynna jumps to her feet.
The fact that she was lying in his path is a good thing, because as soon as she moves she knows that she will be unable to stagger more than a few steps.
It's also a bad thing, because he doesn't have the time to stop in his anger, and crashes right into her.
His scream covers the almost-silent gasp that escapes from her mouth (not because she's strong enough to keep it in, but because the pain lunges through her lungs and throat and chokes her voice into almost-silence).
He flails to keep them both upright, because right now he's the only thing keeping her from collapsing, although it just looks like she's doing her best to keep him away. In reality, his surprise seems to have mostly stopped him in his endeavour. Still, just to be sure, she closes her arms around him.
"Don't. You'll just be supporting his claim that pirates are all dangerous lowlives." She whispers.
His whole body clenches and trembles against hers as he's reminded of what he was trying to do, but he relents, and resolves to use his words instead.
She forces herself to stand upright on her own because she has no reason to keep her weight on him anymore, praying that no one can see or hear the way she's panting with the effort it takes her, the way her shoulders and thighs are trembling under the weight of both her body and the pain that still sparks and claps through her.
(She keeps her eyes on the ground to not meet anyone's gaze, unsure whether she would be able to lie to their face in her condition.)
She's pretty sure that the pain has already decreased compared to the first impression that has yet to fade from her mind, but still the steps she takes to follow everyone out of the mansion are excruciating, and she finds herself taking them without breathing to lessen the movement as she struggles not to fall behind too much.
She wonders if the sore muscles excuse would work in case anyone asks.
Somehow, walking makes her feel better rather than worse, and by the time Nami and Zoro stop to lean on a simple wooden fence while the rubber boy runs after Usopp, it just feels like a giant bruise that someone is poking at everytime she moves, which is much more manageable.
Hoping that her observation might be consistent, she forces herself to keep pacing, especially since it makes it harder for anyone to see the sheen of sweat on her face or the residual trembling of her hands. She crosses her arms to hide them more just in case, stirring her mind away from the throbbing inside her.
(She might as well put to use her experience in disregarding her own feelings.)
When her breathing becomes ragged again because, well -it fucking stings, she goes to lean on the fence besides Zoro. He isn't necessarily less observant than Nami, especially since he was there when she freaked out over Buggy's cannon ball, but at least he's more likely to keep it to himself if he does notice that something is going on.
"What is it?" He asks all of a sudden, voice low and curious, staring straight ahead instead of at her face.
She does the same, praying that his timely question is just a coincidence rather than him reading her mind, because that would just be impossible to deal with. She treads carefully, keeping her voice equally low.
"You'll have to give me a bit of context, Zoro-san."
"What were you thinking about? It looks like it's a problem, and if that's the case it'd be better for us to know."
Her frown deepens, and she chews harder on her lips as Nami joins them while two of the kids keep talking to each other.
"It might not end up having anything to do with us, and I might be reading too much into this, but…" She clicks her tongue, contemplating whether it's a good idea for her to tell them of her suspicions when it might make them all close-minded in the case she's wrong, before she decides to keep going, because neither of them looks like they'll let her stop anyway. "Something about the butler doesn't seem right."
"What do you mean?" Nami prompts, frowning as she tries to remember what could catch Elynna's attention -beyond the fact that he behaved like a douchebag with Usopp.
"Who's the master and who's the servant?"
"Hey, it's not because she's his employer that she has to treat him badly! What, did you want that girl to punish him for insulting her friend or something?!" The redhead hisses, mind folding hastily around the memories of her own employer to keep them from spilling out like water -or blood- from a vase too full.
(Memories of his blade-like teeth and how each time he says 'my navigator' feels like a white-hot knife twisting in her heart -shredding further the memories of her that she keeps there,
of how each possessive, branding touch of his hand on her face or her arms is like acid, ghosts still eating away at her ability to love herself after all this time.)
"Not what I meant. But usually, when one of the two parties ignores the other's words or disrespects them, it's the master. Just saying."
"Disrespect? He kept saying that he was protecting her by sending Usopp away." Zoro raises a brow.
"That's just it. On the surface, he looks and sounds like a caring servant. But when she asked him, ordered him to shut his mouth? He kept talking all over her like her opinion didn't even matter. And not just once. I'm not very familiar with that kind of life, but I'm pretty sure that a servant is supposed to obey orders, whether they agree with them or not -unless they're being asked to break important social or moral rules. In a good relationship, they might be able to give their opinion on what their master is doing, but certainly not like this, and they're still supposed to go along with it if the order isn't changed. We weren't guests, but he patronised her and disrespected her in front of strangers all the same, and made her look like a fragile child who can't think for herself. As I see it, he might not care for her as much as he appears to. But like I said, it doesn't really have anything to do with us at the moment, even if it turns out to be true."
The other two are silent as she finishes her rant.
"Okay, I see your point." Nami eventually says, face softening. "And I'm sorry for getting angry at you before letting you explain."
"No problem. My words weren't exactly self-explanatory either."
The swordsman opens his mouth, but whatever he's about to say is interrupted by the screams of the third kid that comes running towards their little group.
"There's a weird guy who's walking backwards!"
All three of them exchange a vaguely confused glance (scratch that, they're completely confused).
"D' you reckon that the Usopp disease is contagious?" Elynna blurts out.
Zoro throws a deadpan glare at her as an incredulous chuckle falls out of Nami's mouth.
A guy does come to them walking backwards, though, which is very clearly weird in itself, even with the standards of weirdness of this world.
"Who said I'm weird? I'm not weird at all."
"Yes, you are! No matter how I look at it, you're definitely a weirdo." Nami denies, bluntly telling what is on everyone's mind.
"Shut up! I'm just a hypnotist passing by."
The Straw Hats' First Mate raises a brow at that. If she had any doubts, the fact that the kids look so surprised is proof that he's not from here.
So what is a hypnotist doing in a small village like this?
And from what she sees, he's the real deal too -although somewhat idiotic.
Somehow, she fails to see how him being there just when the main characters of the show drop by will not result in some dramatic showdown.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
I'm mean with Zoro, I know. (It's very enjoyable.)
Anyway, I hope you stay safe and happy, and see you next week for a more action-packed chapter!