I have bad news. We've reached the end of my reserve of chapters. Well the next one is just missing a few scenes, but I'm currently busy lamenting on how I have between six and eight successive hours of zoom uni on most days of the week. So yeah. If anyone wants to complain about that with me, I'm all for it. Bring it on (and your tissues too).
But.
Good news. Elynna kicks ass in this chapter. Literally.
(You're welcome.)
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
SIX
Lying to you is so
Hard
When you give me your trust
and your truth
But I wish on no one the destruction
of questioning reality
and free will
(You're worth lying to.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Around an hour later, Usopp comes running, without Luffy, from the same direction the hypnotist took earlier, and doesn't even stop when passing them.
Elynna sighs, pretty sure that this break is over.
"Is he still mad that the butler looked down on him?" Nami ponders curiously, but her eyes are narrowed, and she's already getting down from her seat on the fence next to Zoro.
The three of them exchange a glance again and, coming to a wordless agreement, ask the three kids to take them to the shore where their Captain comes from.
When they reach it, the sight of the Straw Hats' Captain, who apparently fell from the cliff and landed with his butt in the air, kind of ruins the anxious mood that was looming over the group. Elynna has to make a great effort to hold back her snickers, earning a light punch to her arm from Nami, while Zoro goes to wake him up. Probably not as respectfully as he should.
Luffy yawns, one hand straightening his hat while the other is stretching above his head.
His First Mate wonders blankly if he even knows that he would already be dead if he didn't eat the Gomu Gomu no Mi, but eventually shrugs the question off. It's not worth worrying about when he won't ever die in a fall anyway.
(She already has enough things to worry about as it is.)
And then he looks around, spotting the three kids, and opens his mouth.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Wha… The butler?"
"They're going to kill Kaya-sama?!"
"The village is gonna be attacked?! Is that true?!"
Elynna rolls her eyes.
'Course not, he just said it to freak you out.
"Yep, no doubt about it. That's what they said." Luffy nods, something like determination nestled between his furrowed eyebrows and layered around his eyes, and at that moment Elynna knows that this definitely has something to do with them now.
Called it.
Zoro throws a glance at her, taking note of the fact that even if she didn't uncover the whole plot -which would be more suspicious than anything else, she did sense that something was amiss. He looks at her face, and scowls at the way it is painted in quiet shades of resignation.
She doesn't seem happy at all to know that she's right.
In fact, she seems downright defeated.
(He hates the way the lines of her face seem so used to assuming that expression, and feels a vague desire to punch it right off her face.
Defeat is something that has always clashed against the convictions of his mind and the stainless steel of his will.)
"Well, then it's all good! Your Captain was running to the village to warn everyone, so by the time they get here it'll be too late!"
The three kids are quick to run off at Nami's comment, screaming about all the things they have to pack.
The dark-haired girl barely hears them, mind running through her thoughts again, teeth unconsciouly tearing at her upper and lower lips in turn.
Something-
Something is off.
If they made her Captain fall down the cliff when he heard about their plan, then why weren't they running after-
"I heard that you liked to come up with convoluted stories."
"I thought you would come up with another one of your little lies."
She tugs at a patch of skin until it is torn away from her lip with a burning sting, and then clamps her teeth down when the taste of blood floods her mouth.
She remembers a book. Not the exact words. Not if she read it with her parents or at school.
But she remembers the little running rabbit whose voice rang through his village-
(-until there were no written words anymore, and the pages became horrifyingly, tragically red.)
"Aaaaaah! We haven't bought meat yet, and the butcher is gonna run away too!"
"You idiot! That's what you're thinking about?! We should be running away too, before we get caught up in th-"
"It won't work."
Nami stops talking as Elynna's voice rings through the air despite its quietness -a whisper really, and both she and Luffy turn to her, confused. Zoro is still watching her, having noticed the fixed, blind stare that he is coming to associate with their First Mate thinking hard about something -or overthinking it.
"Elynna. What won't work?"
She blinks, and frowns slightly up at him, not seeming to realise that they heard her until she notices the way they're all staring at her.
"They won't listen to Usopp."
Nami's stomach twists at that, the screams of another village and the cruel laughter of another group of pirates echoing in her ears.
(Except they're coming from inside, from that little box that she never, ever opens in front of anyone.)
"Why wouldn't they?" She pushes once she's sure that her voice sounds relatively normal.
"He already has the reputation of spouting extravagant lies like he breathes. Everyone in this village has been listening to them for years now. What do you think will happen if he comes running to tell them that the butler, the guy who looks all nice and has been looking after and taking care of the sickly young miss, is a pirate who intends to raid their little village in the middle of the weakest sea of the world?"
"But it's the truth!" Luffy jumps to his feet with a shout.
"I know. But sometimes, lying to others or yourself is easier than telling or believing the truth."
She's not looking at him, not really, and there's something salty clinging to the corner of her eyes, like bitterness and tears. She feels tired, a heavy kind of tiredness that settles in every line and crevice of her body, like the weight of long years that she hasn't lived yet.
(Lying to them is easier than facing their disbelief and their backs as they turn on her -as they leave her to survive alone.
But it isn't easy.
Lying to herself would be easier than constantly telling herself look, these nails into this skin is painful -this is your body, and remember the cold steel of that gun on your skin and the water gliding along your body and the sound of their laughter -this world is as true as any other.
But it wouldn't last long.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Once again, she's right.
(It doesn't make her feel any better.)
As the members of the Usopp pirate crew walk away from their Captain, figuratively and literally, she reaches for the arm that is clumsily hidden behind his back. Without listening to his protests, she makes him sit down and crouches in front of him while taking out what she needs from her backpack.
"It's true, right? That those pirates will attack tomorrow."
"It's the truth." Usopp nods at Zoro's question, wincing at the sting of the disinfectant. "But since I've been lying all this time, no one believes me."
Elynna finds that it's a bit like the way he threatened them with his slingshot upon their arrival. The more one uses threats and lies, the less impact they have. Pretend can only take one so far, and at some point they have to back it up with actions.
She thinks that there's a lesson for her to remember there.
(She also thinks about how everything she says about herself is at least a partial truth. She did get lost while swimming. She did have a goldfish who did not live long enough to break records. Bandaging Nami's hand was the first time that she was playing nurse.
But lying by omission has always been more her type. Keeping everything locked within herself is something she is good at, after all.
Every time she reacts to the name Elynna is a lie.
Every time someone assumes that she is from this world and she doesn't bother to correct them is a lie.
Every time someone does something to include her existence as part of the Straw Hat Pirates, and she doesn't bother to correct them, is a lie.
She. Is. A. Lie.)
"Everyone thinks that it will be just another normal day… And I'm going to make sure it is! I'll protect the village from the pirates, and it will become just another one of my lies!" He looks down at the forearm that she is bandaging, and she sees a tear create a wet spot on the cloth (she hides it with another layer of gauze and stays silent). "They might have fired their guns at me, but this is the village that I grew up in, and I love everyone here! I want- I want to protect them! How can I just watch everyone get killed?!"
His hand is trembling in hers, and she thinks that Usopp might be more relatable than the two monsters standing behind her, but that calling him a coward is an exaggeration.
(She thinks that, if it was her, she would certainly not go face a group of experimented pirates alone head on.
She wonders if she would run away, and finds that she cannot answer with full certainty either way.)
"Yosh! We'll help you on this one!"
"Fine! But let's be clear, all their treasure is mine!"
She's not surprised by the three others' decision. Usopp wouldn't just enter the crew with no reason, and she did say that they would need to call in a big favour to get a ship.
A major part of her is intent on following them. She decided to stick with this crew, after all, which means following the Captain's decision, and in that moment she can empathise with Usopp's pain.
(she forces herself to think everyday about the moment where her own lies will be uncovered and she will lose their trust, even if they allow her to stay with them,
forces herself to prepare for the way her heart will ache and her breath will burn, for the way their face will twist and their words will hurt-)
Besides, while she admires the careful way this plan was constructed, the brilliance of the butler's -whatever his name is- mass manipulation, she sees no point in the bloodshed that is part of it, and has no desire to let it happen when Luffy, Zoro and Nami's strength on top of Usopp's can stop it.
Still, another part of her whispers frightfully that this has nothing to do with her, that this goes beyond simple kindness and straight into self-sacrifice territory, that she doesn't want to put her life on the line for people she doesn't know -even though this absence of emotional connection on her part does not lessen the objective value of their life in any way.
(And then there is this tiny, tiny part of her that is hissing -deceptively soft like untraceable poison- that well, if these people refuse to believe the boy's warnings and try to shoot him down instead, why shouldn't they be left to reap what they sowed?)
"You guys… will help me? Why?"
"You have the words 'I'm scared' written all over your face." Zoro explains bluntly.
"Me? Scared?! So what if they outnumber me?! They can't win against a brave warrior like Captain Usopp!"
His voice is loud, like rushing out the words will ensure that his voice doesn't have the time to tremble, like he's trying to cover the sound of his heart running like mad in his chest - running like it can get away and let the rest of his body deal with this mess.
Everyone looks down at his shaking legs.
"What are you looking at?! They're Captain Kuro's fleet! Of course I'm scared! Go away, I don't need your sympathy!"
… Why do so many people everyone in books and movies seem to have something against sympathy?
In her opinion, a complete inability to sympathise with others' emotions is much more problematic.
"Why are you ashamed? If you still plan to go out there when you're scared, it makes you even braver. Besides, if you don't have much experience in fighting and the reflexes that go with it, being scared might just help keeping you alive."
Zoro nods in assent at her words.
"We're helping you because we think you're a good guy, that's all. Don't make this about sympathy."
"Yeah! Why would we risk our lives for that?"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"They're going to attack from this shore, and with all the cliffs around, they will have to go up this slope. So if we can defend it, we win."
"I don't know if this was intended or not, but this place is a pretty strategic spot." Elynna comments, drawing a proud nod from Usopp at her assessment.
"Should be easy!" Luffy claims, looking more excited than concerned about the whole thing.
"That's what you say now! What are you four good at, by the way?"
"Cutting."
"Stretching."
"Stealing."
"Nothing."
"Hiding."
As Nami and Zoro yell at Usopp, Luffy bonks her on the head and she staggers, black spots dancing in her vision with the force of the blow, which feels a lot like something heavy bashing her upside the head.
She catches herself on his shoulder, allowing herself to wince while her hair is still hiding most of her face before she straightens up, promptly deciding to bump up 'learn to dodge' in her list of priorities by at least a few ranks, because if she gets this particular shōnen treatment too often, she will lose the only thing that makes her useful -a.k.a. her brain cells- and wind up with a case of PTSD.
Not. Cool.
"What was that for? It was a good rhyme." She mutters half-heartedly.
Nami sighs, shaking her head in exasperation.
"She can heal as long as it's not too complex. And she can think."
She throws a pointed glance at Luffy, who remains completely oblivious.
Instead, he makes a noise in the back of his throat, half-confusion and half-annoyance.
"You don't think when you fight, Nami!"
"How would you know, you never tried it." Elynna mumbles, pushing herself away from his shoulder to avoid the second fist.
Zoro grabs Luffy by the back of his shirt with a reminder that they are supposed to fight another crew, not their own, and they get to work on pouring the oil barrels they brought back from the village down the slope.
"You're pretty good at strategic thinking, Usopp-san."
"When it comes to slingshots and strategy, I am fully confident in myself!" He exclaims, rubbing at his nose proudly.
"Look, look! The sun is up! They should be here soon!" Luffy draws their atttention to the golden glow that looks like liquid fire on the horizon.
Sun is up, Time is up-
…
Damn, she needs a nap.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
By the time the sun has fully risen in the sky, Elynna's adrenaline levels have gone down and she's almost sleeping on her feet.
"What are they doinnnnnnnng…" Her Captain whines, clearly less worried for the villagers than his prospects of having fun.
"Maybe they overslept."
Elynna frowns at Zoro's theory. Perhaps she's just projecting her own obsession with not being late on their potential enemies, but somehow she doubts it.
"Nami-san…"
"Yeah?"
"Unless you moved our boats since coming here, we didn't arrive at this shore, did we?"
"Well, no." Usopp is the one who answers. "You moored at the north- The north shore!"
Suddenly, all the confidence he seemed to have built up during the night is gone, and his face looks almost as pale as Elynna's.
"Are you telling me you got the wrong one?!"
"They were talking about their plan here! Of course I assumed-"
"Enough!" She raises her voice to cover the argument, pushing the sense of urgency that is fidgeting inside her veins in that one word.
Her voice cracks like a whip through the air, startling everyone.
"We don't have time for this."
Luffy barely takes the time to listen to Usopp's directions, exploding into speed and gone from their view in a few seconds.
She's about to follow after Usopp when her leg is snatched, and then she's falling.
She only has the time to throw her arms forward in an attempt to catch something before she finds herself sliding down the slope, a horribly strong stench of oil permeating her every sense, Zoro being dragged down with her under her grip.
"Wha-"
"Sorry guys, I slipped!" Nami apologises hurriedly.
Elynna looks up just in time to see her use Zoro to get out of the oil-covered zone before running off, shouting something about her treasure.
Well at least one of them has their head screwed on right.
She can't help but be relieved that the other girl didn't walk on her instead given the strange condition of her body.
She lets herself slide down the slope until her body stops on its own.
"My hair…" She groans in despair at the idea of getting oil out of this.
The stuff of nightmares.
She makes to sit up, but then sees the state of her top and falls back with another groan.
"My shirt…"
"We've got other priorities here!" Zoro admonishes her from somewhere above her. "We have to get out somehow!"
Lazily, she archs her neck until she's looking at him upside down.
She doesn't know if she's amused at the somewhat ridiculous picture he makes trying to run up the slope without actually moving because of the oil, or if she's impressed that he manages to get that far up like this in the first place.
Well she's both, but she doesn't know which one wins.
Zoro slides back down to her side, and throws an exasperated glare at her unmoving form.
"What are you doing?" He pants. "Get up and try."
"I don't have endless amounts of energy, you know."
And if he can't make it like this, then she can't either.
(She doesn't have enough energy to invest it in something hopeless.)
"Sorry I dragged you down with me, by the way."
He rolls his eyes, somehow feeling like the apology isn't only directed at him -or at the situation at hand.
"Whatever. You just tried to find something to hang onto, it's a natural reflex. But I'm gonna kill Nami for using me as a way out."
And so saying, he goes back to trying to outrun the slickness of the oil, leaving her to try and figure out a way to get up that damn slope.
If he can't do it by simply running, then they need to use something.
Come on, think! She's never seen a slope covered in oil, but what other kind of land is hard to walk on in her world? Swamps, mountains-
She thinks back to her trek-loving grandparents and the trekking poles they are using more and more as the years pass-
She sits up suddenly.
"Zoro-san!"
Her call almost makes him fall face first into the oil again before he regains his balance and focuses on controlling his body as he slides back down towards her.
Between the oil and the sweat, his shirt is sticking to the hard planes of his body, and it takes her a second before she realises that if she keeps looking it will be called full-on ogling.
Focus now, fantasise later.
(If she's not dead.)
"What is it?"
"Your katanas. You could stab them into the ground to get up the hill."
"What?! You don't use katanas like this!"
"Look, I know that it's not very orthodox, but if you don't get there soon, these blades of yours won't get to soak in the blood of your enemies and all that nice stuff. So unless you have a better idea..."
His sigh echoes with all the annoyance he feels, towards himself for not having a better idea within the next five seconds, and towards her for suggesting this in the first place.
Then he crouches in front of her.
"Come on, get on. Otherwise you will never get out of here."
Well, when he puts it like that…
She's always had a thing for broad backs and chests. How can she resist?
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
It's barely ten seconds after they've left the top of the slope that the red of Luffy's shirt -who somehow doubled back to his departure point- catches Elynna's eye.
She clamps her thighs around Zoro's waist for balance, making him curse as he trips in surprise, and waves boths arms in the air, careful to not upset his rhythm too much.
"Captain!"
"Guys! Usopp told me to head straight north, so I ran in a cold-ish direction, but it didn't work! Which way is north?" Luffy pouts at them in childish confusion as he reaches their level.
His pout morphes into a beaming smile at the chuckles startled out of his First Mate -although he's not quite sure why she's laughing.
"How should I know? Elynna, stop laughing. Which way is north?"
She stifles the sounds coming out of her mouth, trying to focus again on the problem at hand. She knows where the sun rises, so she has a general idea of where the north is, but since there doesn't seem to be a direct path to it from where they are, she would probably stray from her initial direction at some point.
"No idea. But I don't need to."
That catches both their attention.
"I remember the path we took when we arrived, and the one we took to get to the other shore. It'll be longer, but at least we're sure to get there."
"Perfect! Where do we go?!"
"Turn left there- The other left, Zoro-san!"
"What? There are two left?!"
Is he for real?
She lets her forehead hit his shoulder for a single second of despair before straightening up while Luffy stretches his arm to steer Zoro in the good direction.
He doesn't let him go until they see the Black Cat pirates in front of them, running past Nami and Usopp who are both lying on the ground and towards them.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
As soon as the boys speed up to charge at the group of pirates, she slides down Zoro's back, staggering a few steps before running to Usopp.
Taking advantage of the attention being hogged by her crewmates, she places his arm around her shoulder, her own arm around his waist, carefully picking him up as he bickers with Luffy about their respective knowledge of the northern direction.
"Since our opponent is strong, we will simply have to be stronger!" The hypnotist's voice draws her attention.
She turns, narrowing her eyes at the ring of metal he starts to swing in front of his crew's eyes.
Wait, this ring-
Her eyes flicker to Luffy, who is also staring at Jango's pendulum.
"He's trying to make them believe that they're stronger. That's absurd."
"You'd be surprised at what the human mind can do."
Usopp glances up at her tense but blank face, startled.
"Wait! Are you saying that-"
He's interrupted by the howling, inhuman screams of the pirates.
Elynna's already tense body seems to freeze, each muscle and bone locked in position while blood and thoughts speed through her like a train veering off-track, as she sees them jumping around without any rhyme or reason, gaze white and mindless and frenzied-
(She feels dizzy, body coated in heavy and sluggish terror, mind strangely lucid and distantly musing that really, this much fear isn't helping at all.)
Grimly, Zoro tells her and Nami to take Usopp with them and get back, a small line between his brows the only sign of his worry in the face of the sudden, electric change of attitude among their enemies.
"Don't sweat it too much. You've got him." She points at her Captain, who lets out a loud, aggressive shout of his own.
"... You let him get hypnotised too?!"
"Don't yell at me like that. He was talking aloud about making his crew stronger. Why would I pass up the opportunity to take that advantage for our side?"
"Ugh, fine. Just go!"
She turns, still supporting Usopp, and carries him as fast as she can without jolting him to the side of the slope, where Nami is already waiting.
"Nice one."
"Thanks." She breathes as they both settle beside her. "Riding Zoro's back with the both of us covered in oil was not so nice."
"... But riding his back in itself was nice?" Nami snorts, smile cheeky and gaze mischievous.
"Well personally I'd rather just ride him when he's on his back, but I'm not too picky."
She's not sure whether Usopp's cheeks are red because he's embarassed or because he's choking on nothing.
"Oh my god, Elynna, you are not supposed to make me laugh like that in this kind of situation!"
Nami completely fails at sounding even a little bit admonishing as she tries to muffle her giggles in her hand, shoulders shaking and brown eyes sparkling loud enough to make up for her silenced laughter.
She's only half-aware of the rampage her Captain goes on after that, too busy trying to patch up Usopp and hoping that she's not making anything worse, because it's a head injury, and she's pretty sure that in her home world it would result in the victim's brain being splattered on the ground.
"Zoro! Your katanas!"
Nami's shout is what finally draws her eyes to the fight going on, but the three of them can only watch as the situation goes from bad to worse when the other cat weirdo joins in and turns out to have a strength that matches his partner's speed. Usopp's attempt to help Zoro ends up doing the opposite as the latter steps in the way of his bullet to keep the attention of his attackers on him.
"If this goes on…" Nami trails off, eyes unable to stray from the blood tainting Zoro's white shirt red. "I have to get his katanas back. If he has them, he'll definitely win!"
"Let me do it!"
"Stay here, Usopp! I barely have a scratch compared to you!"
And then she jumps down on the slope, running towards Zoro's treasure, unaware that Elynna has jumped right after her, eyes not on the two katanas but on the man standing dangerously close to them, the man who isn't on their side and who is already stepping forward, metal glinting in his hand-
She lunges, colliding with Nami's back, arms reaching out to protect the thief's head as she tucks her own between their bodies.
Thin and sharp, steel grazes her forearm with a cold kiss that leaves behind a thin, burning memory as the both of them roll down on the ground.
When they stop, she feels bruised everywhere all over again, but as she raises her arm to place her hand on Nami's mouth and keep her silent, she can't help but notice that there's dust and a red line on her skin, but no dark stains blooming under the layer of white covering her bones and muscles.
Her eyes meet brown ones, and the navigator nods in understanding, turning just enough to look over her shoulder as they wait for the good moment while an internal conflict among the Black Cat pirates unfolds upon their former Captain's arrival.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"If you can't settle this in five minutes… I will kill all of you!"
Both girls exchange another glance.
"I'll take care of the katanas." Nami breathes, whisper so low that Elynna almost thinks she's imagining her voice as the other girl mouths the words.
She nods, understanding that this leaves her in charge of making sure that the Jango guy doesn't get in the way. She would rather not draw attention to herself by taking part in this fight, but her aim is pretty bad, so it's probably for the best that she leaves the katanas to Nami.
She stands up, feet as silent as she can, and steps over the other girl to come to a stop just behind the hypnotist.
Then she taps him on the shoulder.
"Hey!" She says with a cheery wave, and she can't help but grin because sue her, she always wanted to do something like this.
Before he can react in any way, her foot slams against his face with all the strength she can muster, sending him crashing into the rocky wall lining the side of the slope.
Uh. Having a body of this world is pretty cool.
Behind her, Nami gapes before she reminds herself to take care of Zoro's katanas, because she's not even sure that she can raise her leg that high and where does someone so usually inexpressive even hide a smile so cute, dimples and not-completely-straight teeth included?
In the time that it takes Zoro to snatch his two katanas out of the air, he makes sure to note the First Mate's very good balance as she quickly raises her leg in a vertical split even though she's standing on a rather steep slope, and how she stays completely straight while doing it, in a rather impressive show of back and abdominal strength. Although it also proves that she's not used to fighting, because an experienced fighter would twist their body to add to the strength of their hit.
As she walks towards the unconscious man, Elynna wonders if she should worry. Her hands are trembling a bit with adrenaline, and everything feels too sharp and colourful, somehow simultaneously slow and fast.
But hitting this man doesn't make her feel anything.
She's aware that she just hurt another living being, but the only thing she can think is that they both came here knowing what the stakes of the game were (knowing that losing means death, that the rules of society embedded within every one of her cells don't apply), and that she's a human being anyway, not a fucking saint.
She shrugs the distant thoughts away, and kneels down by the hypnotist to retrieve the thin circles of steel hidden in his coat.
As she thought, she did see them somewhere.
Chakrams.
She stands back up, and winds her arm back.
Whether she can aim or not, she can still throw things far away. Her grandparents own a dog, after all.
The weapons glint like another victory for them as they sail through the air, and their owner groans as he comes to, propping himself onto one knee.
She remedies to that by kneeling him in the face.
If her opponent is not going to follow any rule in this fight, she's not going to force herself to remain honourable like her crewmates would.
(She may have been a normal citizen up till coming to this world, but her morals have been wobbly for years.)
She turns as Luffy's voice echoes through the air, yelling at Nami for waking him up by stepping on him. Two bodies roll on the floor, stopping not far below her, and she recognises the two cat weirdos from earlier.
Honestly, she likes cats, but these guys are just plain creepy.
The bigger one lifts himself on his elbows.
"I'm… Gonna kill that guy! Cap- Captain Jango! Hypnotise me!"
… She feels kinda offended that he thinks she's his Captain.
He looks up.
She raises a nonchalant hand.
"Yo."
That's clearly not what he wants to hear, or who he wants to see, because he staggers to his feet, and his gaze on her is like a physical thing that slams into her and closes around her in a vice-like grip.
She stops breathing, and thinks if I don't do something, I'm going to die here.
Voices boom in her ears, the name they're screaming echoing inside her like a dissonance.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"How much time do we have left?"
"The next group will come in half an hour, but since I want to work a bit on the rest, let's say we focus on this move for, like, twenty minutes?"
She shrugged.
"Works for me."
She walked back to the position from where she would start the sequence, and turned around to face her partner. Closing her eyes, she reviewed in her mind every movement she had to make, although her muscle memory had already soaked in most of them.
There was just that one move, and she had to have good timing, good momentum, good synchronisation with him-
She breathed in.
It wasn't like her brain could calculate all of this anyway, and they still had time -and a plan B in case it wasn't possible.
She breathed out, shoulders and neck rolling.
Her eyes met his.
"Ready?" He called out, voice gliding teasingly on the last sounds of her name.
That bastard always liked to laugh at her anxious overthinking.
She nodded.
The music started, and her mind cleared, entering the single-minded focus that sometimes brought her problems but also filtering out all other thoughts that normally whirled around in her brain everyday, like its very own torturous trap.
Her body slipped into the beginning of the sequence like it would an old, comfortable sweatshirt.
His body mirrored her as they got closer and closer, movements more and more erratic, purposefully lashing out to strengthen the impression of conflict.
He put one foot on the sofa as she rushed towards the back of it.
Her heart slammed.
The timing was good.
He pushed until the sofa rested on its back legs and the top of it was low enough for her to jump on it.
She did, body toppling forward in a controlled fall as she gripped his shoulders.
The tightening of her fingers on them was the only thing betraying her excitement as she kept her focus on getting further -and getting this damn move right.
Her legs traced an arc through the air, and as she began to fall behind him again, he used the sofa to push himself in the air too.
His scream conveyed his feelings as much as hers.
"Hell yes!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Air storms into her lungs.
He's rushing at her, claws ready to tear red gouges into her.
Adrenaline drums quick beneath her skin, and she wraps her mind around this rhythm.
He won't be helping her like he did, and the movement isn't exactly the same and the speed and the strength aren't the same and he's so much more heavier-
But if this body holds true, and if all the swimming she did was enough to get used to this body and prevents her from overcompensating-
She lunges forward.
Zoro, who is running toward her, curses because why is she rushing towards him when she doesn't know how to fight and she's supposed to be the smart one so why is she doing this, even if he's weakened, this idiot-
The cat weirdo brings his arm back, ready to slash at her.
She jumps.
His claws sing through the air.
Her bare feet alight on his forearm.
The fur of his cape bunches inside her fisted grip.
Her legs come to align themselves with her bust and his body, perfectly straight as she stands upside down on his shoulders.
And the next moment they're falling, her feet smashing in the face of the guy's partner, who woke up and followed after him.
She slams him skull-first into the ground, and with a great heave, flips her bigger attacker over her.
"Captain!"
"I got him!"
Big cat weirdo sails through the air and straight into Luffy's stretching fist.
She pants, arms trembling under the strain.
Well, it certainly won't be her who will carry the Captain's meat to-
Heat spears though her calf, followed by something wet.
Shit, she's really a fucking-
The second cat weirdo, although half-unconscious between her and Zoro's blows, closes his clawed hand around her calf (a sound echoes from her throat, remnant of the gasp of pain that her convulsing throat strangles on the spot), and flings her over his head.
She curls herself into a ball and tucks her head under her arm, closing her eyes as much by reflex as to stop the tears that are rushing to them.
She hits something too supple to be ground, and arms curl around her shoulders and across her thighs.
Her nose smacks against someone's pectoral muscle.
She breathes in sea spray, sweat, and sunshine.
(It's warm, and like every time someone touches her when she's struggling to clamp down on the tears, she feels her eyes burn even more.
Still, for that moment, she forgets that she's on a battlefield, and just wishes that hugging him back doesn't feel like making him happy to better hurt him if she ever leaves -because she's not dense enough to think that he doesn't want to get closer to her if he asked her to join him.
She wishes that she doesn't like hugs this much, and that he doesn't sharpen that need into pain, even though she's been able to dismiss this shortage from her mind all her life and she can still do it, damnit, it's not like she needs hugs to live-)
She feels the person land, and opens her eyes to the sight of red cloth and slightly tanned skin.
(But she already knew.)
When he lets her body down, he does so uncharacteristically carefully, holding her close to him as she makes sure to keep her right leg in the same position and not to bump it against anything.
As it is, the pain is like waves, spiking up her leg and receding as its intensity declines.
She uses her good foot to hop away from her Captain, and as it touches the ground again her injured leg knocks into the other.
The answering wave of pain crashes through her like the sea against a cliff, tearing through her stomach that seems to flip around a few times and up to her lungs, making her breathing shallow and the world nauseatingly unstable.
The hand that she left on Luffy's shoulder tightens minutely, but she doesn't allow herself to dig her fingers into his skin. She scrunches her eyes shut, free hand lifting to pinch at the bridge of her nose.
"Fuck. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Okay." She whispers to herself. "Okay."
You got careless and you got hurt. That's the rule.
You're still alive, so stop whining and don't make that mistake next time.
She opens her eyes again. In front of her, the rubber man is staring at something over her shoulder.
(-eyes shadowed in violence and
jaws clenched around the unfulfilled need to hurt ten times, a hundred times more than his crewmate was hurt, to make that guy feel the pain, feel sorry-)
She throws a glance over her shoulder, and finds that the hypnotist already recovered (she's not surprised really, he's an experienced pirate and a Captain, after all, but at least being deprived of his weapons will make things more difficult for him) and is going after Kaya and the three kids that she vaguely remembers hearing. Apparently Zoro also has taken care of the second cat weirdo.
"Don't look at him." Her Captain's voice is as calm and toneless as hers usually is.
Somehow, she finds herself more understanding of how often her mother tells her to 'show a little enthusiasm, for once'.
(Even then, she can't quite find the will to do that.
As usual.)
On someone like him, though, it's jarring. The 'are you okay?' is on the tip of her tongue, even though it's a dumb question considering his current expression (and people always answer that they're fine anyway).
She doesn't voice it out, because members of the other crew suddenly start laughing at Usopp's vow to protect the villagers -made in an admittedly rather ridiculous position, causing the rubber man to redirect his ire at them instead.
(She wonders where they all find the strength to make that kind of declaration.
The tearful display of emotions makes her recoil internally in embarassment, stomach tying itself into painful, sickening knots -like a noose around her throat and a muzzle around her mouth- at the idea of burdening people with her thoughts and feelings like that, at the idea of laying herself bare -of making such an easy prey of herself.
The sharpshooter's words sound too much like a promise bound to be broken, like false hope -something that will only hurt everyone involved.
She doesn't have enough hope in her to find this anything other than stupid.)
"Where is Nami-san?"
Her Captain looks back at her, his face not set in stone anymore and clearly itching to go pound the butler into next week.
"Stealing their treasure."
Why is she even asking?
The injured leg that she's keeping off the ground is so heavy it's turning numb, and unconsciously she lowers it, toes knocking against the ground.
Her mouth tightens to hold back a wince as a fresh wave of pain shoots up her leg.
"Right. Well, if you don't need me here, I'll just go take care of…" She gestures vaguely towards the drops of blood on the ground. "That. Unless you have an order for me?"
"Nah."
She turns, trying to find a spot where she will not be too much of a liability but that is not too far.
She doesn't think she can hop very far, between the slope of the land and the pain in her leg.
"Ann?"
"Yeah?"
Her voice fades into an undignified yelp as he suddenly grabs her around the waist, pulls her against him, and rockets the both of them to a tree not far from the spot where she watched the beginning of the battle with Usopp and Nami.
Her mind whirls, trapped between thoughts like where did her stomach go and oh my god, she's not getting paid nearly enough for this or maybe capitalism has corrupted her too much but what is this job-
Luffy beams at her, and reaches up to ruffle her hair the way she did for him before he fought Buggy.
"You did good!"
Her brain probably short-circuits, because when she blinks he's not there anymore and Zoro is disappearing in the forest with Usopp thrown over his shoulder.
Damn, she didn't know she had this big of a praise kink.
She snorts at the thought, and then winces as her injury decides that it's been ignored for too long and reminds her of its existence through the uncomfortable feeling of blood dripping down her calf and a nice round of spiking pain.
She forces herself to lay eyes on it.
The guy's claws closed around the back of her calf and cut it open when he tightened his hold to throw her, slicing through nerves and muscles in the process.
Her eyes zero in on a spot of white that she wishes she can unsee, or never have to see in the first place.
(She will have to flex her foot to treat the wound as best as she can, and it's gonna hurt, and she will have to ensure that it can't be infected and it's going to-)
She gags.
And slams her head against the tree trunk behind her.
Focus now. Freak out later.
(Maybe.)
No one will come to take care of your pathetic self.
Now open your bag and get. To. Work.
She does, half-listening to the battle going on between Luffy and the butler to try and distract herself enough to dull the pain.
"The real purpose of this plan is to get rid of the name 'Captain Kuro' forever!"
She can't help but blink and stop at this one because what the fuck, she thought that guy was smart.
He's smart and patient enough to come up with a three-year plan that took into account enough factors to almost succeed if not for her Captain's decision to butt in. He's skilled enough in manipulation that he wins everyone's trust in a few years over someone who's been living here all his life, without falling in his own trap and gaining affection for the villagers and the girl he took care of.
But somehow it doesn't cross his mind that if he becomes a pirate to gain money through illegal and probably violent means, he'll be labelled a criminal or a threat to public order or whatever, and be hunted down by a large number of people?!
Seriously?
As soon as she hears the screams and looks down to see marks of claws in the walls of the slope, though, she slides down until she's lying on the ground. If the guy is going so fast that he can't even tell whether he's slashing at people or rocks, then playing dead and praying is the best thing she can do.
By the time her Captain headbutts the butler into unconsciousness, her opinion of the latter's intelligence has the time to be brought down again by the guy's 'my plan says you'll die so you'll die even if I can't think of a way to not get my ass kicked right now' attitude.
(She likes to organise and plan every little thing in her daily life, to try and get the reassuring feeling of having at least a vague idea of what to do and where to go. She would know a thing or two about events that are unplanned for and factors that she can't control.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
As Nami's voice reaches her ears, she carefully crawls her way to the edge of the cliff that towers over the slope where the thief and Luffy are lounging, and sits there, legs dangling in the air to avoid jolting the rudimentary dressing she did on herself.
"I don't like these guys. They're wrong. That's not how you're supposed to treat nakama."
"What are you talking about? They're a typical example of what pirates are." Nami spins his hat on her finger as she counters dispassionately (too distant, Elynna thinks, but by now she has gathered that the other girl's hatred of just about anything pirate can only come from something big, something that hurt and still does -it's in the raw screams that she doesn't let out but that make her voice hoarse and the weight tainting the skin under her eyes the colour of nightmares). "Right, Elynna?"
She blinks, not expecting to find herself thrown into the conversation, and scrunches her nose in thought.
"Well… Pirates are usually defined as criminals, yes, and it's generally for a reason -they don't care about the rules everyone else mostly follows and it includes not resorting to violence against what we call innocent people. The Captain's vision is much more romanticised than that. But," she goes on before he can say anything back, "I don't see why he and those who think like him should fit that mould, or be put in the same box as those who do. Pirates don't follow the rules, after all."
"I want meat."
That effectively ruins Nami's seemingly contemplative mood and she slams his hat on his face before rubbing furiously.
"Why you-!"
Elynna is in the process of wondering if that hat is really only made of straw (or like does the straw of this world have upgraded abilities too?) when Zoro, Usopp, his girlf- uh, friend, and his pirate crew join them. Apparently, the hypnotist got lost in the woods trying to find the girl and ended up face-to-face with the two others instead. Without his weapon of choice, the slingshot user took care of him easily enough even with his injuries.
"Um, Elynna-san?" The heiress eventually calls out to her timidly.
"Yes, Kaya-sama?"
"Oh, there's no need for such honorifics! Rather, I've been told that you are the one with the most experience in taking care of wounds, and… I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look at my servant Merry, Usopp-san and his… crewmates? Since Usopp-san decided to not tell the villagers about what happened, we cannot really go to the town's doctor with these injuries..."
Out of politeness, she stops herself from snorting because the most experience isn't saying much.
Does she even have enough to take care of everyone here?
And how is she even supposed to do this when she can't even stand, let alone walk?
Will her wound even be considered painful by them when they crashed headfirst into the ground and got back up like they just fell on a big, fluffy bed?
"Damnit, I want a raise on my salary if I'm going to do this."
Immediately Usopp's… friend flushes and bows deeply, promising her that the equipment she needs will be provided to her, and that she will be compensated appropriately.
"I will help too, since Elynna is injured!" Nami adds brightly, voice unnaturally cheery and nice and, you know… selfless.
Behind Luffy's back, she gives Elynna a thumbs up.
Great plan! She mouths.
Between Nami's sense of humour and her sense of priorities clearly leaning towards money, the First Mate finds herself debating whether the redhead noticed that she was originally being sarcastic.
But well, if they offer to pay her so nicely, she's not going to refuse.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
They stay at Syrup Village for two days before Luffy decides that it's time to leave. After all, they got what they came here for. Namely, a ship.
Elynna hops out of the bathroom, satisfied that the dark, blue-green mass she now calls her hair is finally free of any hint of oil, but also morbidly fascinated by the fact that her injury is already half-healed because what the fuck, in her home world this would take months to heal, if it ever did (it makes her insides sickeningly cold like the realisation and the dread threw a bucket of icy water down inside her from her head).
Though she would never get in this mess back home in the first place.
Or in this kind of body -shedoesn'twanttofightdoesn'twantthisbodyitcan'tbehers-
(She ended up punching the wall to prove -to remind- to herself that this body is as much hers as the other one,
at least enough that she can feel the pain she inflicts on it, can feel the effects of her fear on it, that it can laugh when she's amused-
It was not the best idea she ever had, but probably better than pressing down on her wound or something.)
When she joins Nami on the deck, she gets to witness Usopp's very… Usopp-ish arrival as he and his bag -or more like his bag and him considering the relative sizes- hurtle down the slope they fought on just two days before like a big, green snowball.
Luffy and Zoro are most helpful on this one and stop him, although it's more out of concern for their brand new boat than for the other guy, which shows in the way they end up stepping on his face in doing so (intentional or not, who can say).
She leans on the rail not too far from Nami, and both boys soon join them as they wait for the new pirate to say his goodbyes -which do not include any tearful confession to the blonde girl who came to see them off.
(The tangerine-haired navigator is disappointed.
The somewhat official nurse is relieved. She doesn't think she can handle this amount of cringe-worthy material live.)
"Hope to meet you again on the sea somewhere, guys!"
"Uh? Why?"
"I can't tell if you're being cold or slow. I'm a pirate too now, so we might see each other again!"
"What are you talking about? Get on board already!"
"What?"
"We're nakama already, aren't we?"
"Boys…" Nami huffs fondly with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, and Elynna snorts.
"I'm the Captain!"
"No way, I am!"
Elynna lets her forehead hit the railing with a thump, and groans as both boys begin to bicker loudly.
She can feel a headache coming -and it's not just because she hit her head.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Thanks for reading, and I hope you stay safe and happy!