Argh. Finally. I finished this chapter like five days ago, but then I opened my student space to revise my midterm and realised that I had several hundred slides to work through.
Cue the hysterical tears.
(On a positive note, I took a few minutes here and there to get started on the next chapter. Yay me.)
Anyway.
This chapter is probably the shortest after the prologue, but it's HEAVY and I had the perfect ending so yeah. Hope you enjoy (?)
As usual, huge thanks to everyone who so much as came to read this!
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
EIGHT
My grip is still
limp
But please keep holding on
to me
And one day I'll believe that
I'm not alone
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna is floating not far from the Going Merry when Luffy and Usopp's voices reach her ears, getting louder and louder.
She sighs.
Deeply.
She feels like a babysitter, and she is not happy about it.
But if they end up breaking something, it'll be even more of a hassle to deal with, so she swims back to the ship.
As soon as her injury was healed and she could swim again, she went straight to Usopp, who seemed to be the most creative and DIY-oriented crewmember, because if she wanted to swim again without any risk of getting left behind, she needed a bit of help. He didn't disappoint, and came up with a rope system, with one rope tied to the rail that she can use to climb back on the ship when she's done, as well as another looped around her hips and tied to several others -the last of which is also tied to the rail- to give her some length.
"I'm telling you, the Dark Knight is the best hero!"
Raising an eyebrow, she leans her chin on her crossed arms resting on the rail of the ship, legs dangling in the air against the sun-heated wood of the ship's hull.
Since when does Batman exist in One Piece?
"No! Shanks is the best!"
Usopp looks very, very close to strangling Luffy.
"The Dark Knight is a guy from a story! I'm talking about characters, not people! Cha-rac-ters!"
There's a moment of silence, and then Luffy frowns stubbornly.
"Shanks tells the best stories!"
Usopp stares at him for a moment, before flopping on his back.
"I give up."
Zoro snores.
Elynna rolls her eyes.
The door slams open, Nami's heels clacking confidently against the deck.
"Who is strong in this crew?" She calls out with the smile of a cat backing a canary in a corner -or a banker about to swindle his clients for little risks and big profits.
The three boys react so fast that it might as well be instinct at that point.
"Great! You three can accompany me in town! We have to stock up on some things, and I need help to carry everything."
Zoro glares.
Luffy slouches with a disappointed whine, his entire body deflating as his enthusiasm mysteriously disappears.
Usopp throws a panicked glance to the clearly amused girl observing the navigator's prey flailing around in her trap.
She considers his silent plea for a moment, before raising her hand.
"I'm stealing Hawk."
"Nuh uh. I need a valid reason to part ways with one of my sla- coworkers."
That earns Nami a muttered slur from Zoro, who yelps when she grinds her heel on his foot.
"I'm gonna buy some books and I don't feel like carrying them."
"That's a valid reason. I'll leave him to you."
"You're too kind."
They exchange winning smiles (maybe a bit too twisted, but that's beside the point).
Usopp groans from his spot on the floor.
"You two are evil. Evil."
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"What's that Dark Knight you were talking about?" Elynna eventually inquires when the surrounding noise of Giuren's relatively busy streets doesn't seem to make the silence comfortable anymore.
"It's a hero story from my village about how the founder killed a dragon with several heads so that he and his friends could build the first houses." Usopp explains with a dreamy smile, clearly proud of his founding ancestor's alleged feat.
"A hydra? I know a story like that too…" She muses.
"Really?"
"Yeah. About a guy who is born from the adultery of a god, so the god's wife completely fucks up his life in retribution, since, you know, it's easier to fuck him up than fuck up a god -among other reasons. So he ends up slaughtering his family and having to do that bunch of impossible tasks."
She supplements her summary with a smile of sadistic glee, and is greeted by the repulsed, morbidly fascinated stare of her crewmate.
"I should have known you'd be into that kind of stuff."
"Sorry."
"You're not."
"Nope."
They stare at each other, before snickering as they start moving again.
"We should totally compile our stories, though."
"Something tells me you're not just saying that for the pleasure of being in the Great Usopp's presence."
"I'm a firm believer in mixing business and pleasure."
"Define business."
"Having something to shut Sea King up when he's being too annoying."
Usopp hums, thinking of the rubber boy's credulity and enthusiastic reactions everytime he starts telling a story.
Then he remembers his words of Shanks tells the best stories!
Directed to him, the crew's unofficial storyteller, of all people.
If that's not a challenge, then he doesn't know what is.
"You're a genius." He approves with a smile that drips with fiery ambition and sunny eagerness, lacing his arm with hers.
"I have to compensate for the lack of brain cells on this ship." She jokes. "By the way, we're adding a notebook to your load."
"... I hate you."
"That's awfully inconsistent of you, Haw- Ow! Don't hit your superior, damnit!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Despite its rather cool climate, Giuren is one of the most frequented islands of the area. Because of its size, that allowed the development of diverse economic sectors, of sizable infrastructure aimed at commercial purposes, and of the region's Marine Headquarters that laid an additional veneer of appealing security. But also because of the reputation of its craftsmen and craftswomen that shows as soon as one steps foot in the island, where the architecture is certainly colourful and even verges on the bizarre, as if hesitating between architectural styles of different geographical and temporal origins, even within one single building.
Both Usopp and Elynna being at least appreciative of the sight -event if not particularly interested in the technicalities behind it, they end up dropping their purchases at the ship before going for a walk in the porttown of Eyrtel, aimlessly wandering in the streets as they exchange occasional comment on a style or colour scheme that they particularly like or dislike.
At some point, they stop as they start debating on the merits of adding colours on the ship in a manner similar to the house they're standing in front of.
"The Merry is going to be the King of Pirates' ship! It has to look the part!"
"No freaking way. The sea is like a giant mirror on sunny days. I am not giving my consent to adding something as conjunctivis-inducing as earthenware and metal on the ship. I'm pretty sure we would drown before even having the time to get blind."
"... You could just say flashy."
"Are you questioning my right to free speech right now?"
"What does that even have to do with-"
"Ann! Usopp!"
Luffy's voice makes them look up just in time to watch him slide to a stop before them.
"Hey hey hey! Guess what?" He asks, smile filled to the brim with all the stars that can't fit in his eyes and hopping on the spot like a bunny on steroids.
"What." They answer simultaneously.
"There's an amusement park here!"
Usopp's eyes go round in surprise, the corners of his mouth flung upwards with his sudden excitement.
"Really?! I've never been to one before!"
"Right?!"
Zoro and Nami, left behind by Luffy earlier, join them while the two boys are still psyching each other up about the wonders of amusement parks.
"I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go-"
"Fine, fine, stop screaming already," Nami conceded, interrupting his loud chanting. "I'll give you some money for a few attractions, but don't expect me to give you more."
She throws a glance at Elynna for approval, and the other girl nods with a sigh.
Better pick the lesser evil and let him have his fill, otherwise he'll be unbearable.
"The haunted house! I wanna go to the haunted house! Skeletons are sooooooo cool!" Luffy whoops, his body almost vibrating with the enthusiasm bouncing through him.
And then he turns to them, forcefully conveying that going alone is about as exciting as not going at all.
"No way," Zoro huffs. "That stuff is boring. I'm going back to the ship anyway."
"Indeed, indeed. For an experienced ghost hunter such as myself, only the real deal can arise any reaction out of me. I would just spoil your experience." Usopp nods along, a relieved sigh shadowing his words knowing that Luffy is the only person of this group who would believe all the words that come out of his mouth.
Luffy's expression turns pitiful as he faces Nami.
"Nope, sorry. I'm going to see the magicians. They might have some tricks I could use."
"Seriously? To steal?"
She sticks out her tongue at the swordsman.
"So what? They're also stealing money, no? Plus, I only steal from pirates, so it's okay."
"We're pirates too, you know." He reminds her dryly while his Captain rounds on his last possible companion, looking downright desperate.
"... Fine."
The word is a long, drawn-out sigh in Elynna's mouth, like a balloon losing all air -or a girl without will.
(Most of the time, sturbborness seems to her to be as much of a quality as a fault.
There are moments though, when she wishes she can be stubborn for something else than forcing herself to finish her schoolwork.
But she's already bad enough at being a functional part of society on good days. She doesn't want to deal with conflicts on top of it, so going along with what people want seems like the best way to avoid causing problems to others -and herself.)
In a flash (so fast that she wonders if she imagined -dreamed- it), her Captain glomps her in thanks before dragging her off.
"I've never been to an amusement park before! Have you, Ann?"
"It's more my sister's thing, to be honest." She mumbles, sticking closer to him to make sure that she won't lose him in the thickening crowd.
Ugh.
She hates the noise and the walls of heat that come with crowds.
Luffy is loud and has way too much energy for someone like her (she feels like simply watching him jump around takes more out of her than she can ever hope to give), but at least she can move around on the ship and away from him whenever she feels the fog rise in her head and her nerves start to fray, scrubbing her skin from beneath, uncomfortably close to the surface.
And it's not like she minds his clinginess and his warmth.
(Here there's nowhere to run, though.
But on the plus side, she doesn't have to wear that grotesque mockery of a smile and pretend to enjoy herself, because he can do enough of that for ten people.)
"You have a sister! What's her name? I have a big brother, you know, he's super great!"
He babbles on, and she pretends that each word doesn't feel like a punch in her gut.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna used to think that she did not want to enter a haunted house, because she probably wouldn't like them.
She was right.
How did this even become a romantic trope, she probably will never understand.
As soon as the door closes behind her and Luffy, the hallway they entered becomes so dark that she can barely see him.
"Don't go too far, Sea King. We're both barely better than Fang with directions, so we're probably going to get lost anyway, but we should at least try to not get lost separately."
Also, ending up alone when he's the only reason why she accepted to come here in the first place would suck.
(And despite the darkness her Captain's presence feels like a warm summer day, which just might prevent her impending heart attack. Hopefully.)
"Okay!" He chirps, grabbing her hand to drag her along. "There! We won't be separated."
Somehow, it doesn't feel like he's just talking about the haunted house.
(It makes her chest warm with the heat of his skin and hot with tears.)
She doesn't shake him off.
Luffy ends up spending as much time laughing as he does screaming, the latter of which is half delight and half startled surprise anyway.
The employees look very confused as to what they should do.
He makes more than enough noise for two, which is good because Elynna is too tense to make any, and spends the entire trip following after him (it's his fault she ended up here in the first place, like hell she won't use him as a shield), body stiff with an anticipating tension, a fear-before-the-fear that only makes her jump higher everytime she feels something brush against her skin in the darkness or a sudden noise that doesn't come from Luffy reaches her ears.
It's a good thing he's immune to blunt force, because he would probably be angry with how tight she's holding his hand otherwise.
(Or maybe not.
It's him, after all.)
She's so tense that her jaws seem to have fused together, to the point that she can't quite recall how to open her mouth.
Maybe that's why, when she finally manages to shake off a mummy and their bindings and turns around to find only darkness and silence, she lets the darkness devour her without calling any of their names.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
At first she manages to stay somewhat calm, straining her ears and taking a few steps forward, arms extended to try and feel the soft fabric of his shirt or the warmth of his skin-
But then she reaches what seems to be a crossroad, and the uncertainty slams into her from all three pathways, like the darkness has become solid.
Suddenly she doesn't know how to walk, how to stand on her own feet, how to think, how to stop trembling, damnit-
She stumbles until her shaking, shaking hands touch coldcoldcoldcold stone, and she slides down to the ground, at least until she loses her balance and falls, knees hitting the floor.
(It vibrates through her like a bell ringing defeat after a long, long war.)
Her mind is spinning spinning spinning-
(they've disappeared, everything has disappeared-
she just knew this world was a nightmare, but at least before it was a tempting one-
or maybe it's worse?
or is she dead?
she doesn't want to be dead, thinks that she has a lot of things to do, even if she can't remember what-
-can't remember the faces that should hold her back-)
She forces herself to breath through the nausea clogging her throat (or maybe it's the tears or maybe the screams-), slightly long nails criss-crossing frantically over the skin of her arms (or is it her neck? her legs? she doesn't know doesn't rememberdoesn'tfeel-).
It doesn't really help, because it makes the sound of her breathing louder, but she can't feel anything going in or out of her and whereisherBoDy-
Her heart is so bloated by distant panic and empty emotions that she wants to rip it out of her chest so that she can finally breathe (so that she can finally think-).
Her mind is tainted with the shadows of another world that she can't reach (that she will never-), feasting on the filth of her weaknesses and failures to drown her further inside herself.
Her throat is being torn apart by burning tears and repressed sobs that she doesn't know how to let out.
Blindly, she brings her hand to her mouth, and bites down.
It's sharp and bright like a bolt of thunder beneath her skin, a spear of clarity burning away the mud of her panic.
She bites deeper and deeper and deeper, until it bleeds and her screams are washed away by the blood trickling into her raw throat.
(think think think-
she sketches a little girl curled in on herself in her mind with the mad, black strokes of her forgotten nightmares,
as if she were another person,
as if it was someone else sitting there like a pathetic little child,
thinkthinkthink-
What. Would she. Think?
She would feel her body tense at the idea of breaking down like that in a public space where anyone might walk in, like a puppet without strings or master
-but doesn't that mean that she can choose?-
She would think that you can never really get lost in the fabricated darkness of an amusement park's haunted house, because there are doors and employees and it's all fake, an illusion that isn't that hard to dispel-
She would muse over how easily humans get scared by the dark and the loneliness, even when the light isn't that far, even when it's simple to get out-
It's simple.
Simple.)
She stills, the thought washing over her like the warm water of a shower casting away the last remnants of empty, heavy sleep clinging to her.
Her head falls against the wall, and she closes her eyes, eyelids heavy with the weight of what feels like two worlds and two lives combined.
Slowly, she breathes in and out as her muscles unlock one by one.
Eventually, her jaws part, leaving behind red crescents still wet with tears and saliva and blood.
She listens.
It's faint, but she hears the screams of other customers.
A sigh rushes out of her mouth, taking away the blind terror and the dizziness and the nausea that made her shake.
(Leaving her with a wide, gaping gulf inside of her, a shapeless weight draging her downdowndown inside her own blank, empty mind-
like a black hole sucking in what little she has to give, until she's a clean slate wiped of all emotion or thought or desire.
Until she's nothing but a threadbare body that isn't hers,
an empty existence without any tie to anything or anyone in this world.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Time passes.
She doesn't know how much.
Does not (cannot) care.
"I think it's the first time I see a customer taking a nap in a haunted house. Or anyone, really. You have rather strange habits, miss."
Only the old, ingrained instinct telling her that keeping her eyes closed in the presence of another makes her vulnerable stirs her enough to open her eyes, just enough that her gaze can fall on the newcomer.
The woman's hair is a strange colour between red and pink like raspberries, and her skin, dark like ebony, is painted in all kinds of shades, flowers with large petals and explosive colours, flowers with graceful, swirling vines and soft pastels, curling around and celebrating the white of the bones that seem to be jumping out from inside her skin.
Her features are blurry in Elynna's barely-opened eyes, but they don't seem particularly beautiful or particularly ugly.
All the same, there's something haunting about her.
Haunting.
The word bounces around in her mind, leaving garbled echoes that make no sense, find no resonance.
Eventually, it sinks into the void, and dies silently, heard by no one, remembered by no one.
"Our boss won't be happy if you stay here too long." The woman holds out her hand, but the dark eyes remain fixedly pinned onto the flowers blooming on her skin with each movement of her mouth. She wriggles her fingers. "Come on, I'll take you to the exit."
No word.
No movement.
Nothing.
The dark-haired girl's breath is silent and invisible.
The painted woman frowns, and leans down to take hold of a white, cold, limp hand, and then proceeds to haul its owner along the corridor.
The girl stumbles after her, struggling slugishly to not fall as her mind attempts to settle into these heavy, heavy limbs that seem so distant and deaf to what little is left of her will.
Slowly, repeatedly, she moves the jaws of this body around, straining to inhabit this mouth and these bones, sensing somehow that she must talk, lest the silence creeps further into her throat (into her mind) and devours (obliterates) what little remains of the wretched, parasitic ghost that she is.
Haunting.
Yes.
She's in a haunted house…
Maybe?
(Why?
Everything is blurry, as if diluted by tears that she doesn't remember shedding.)
"What kind… of monster… are you supposed to… represent?"
The words feel heavy and awkward, wandering around foolishly in her mouth with no idea of where to go. Her voice sounds distant and only vaguely familiar, like that one, old friend that gradually disappears from one's memory after drifting apart from them.
(Alien.)
The woman laughs, low and rich like honey, sticking the girl's half-awake mind into its web until it's a crumpled mess.
"None, really. The island where I come from attaches a lot of importance to flowers... For example, anyone who is born there is given a specific combination of flowers depending on several factors, and we're also the ones who came up with flower language, or at least the basics of it." She glances back at the girl, and gestures to her own dark, painted face. "This kind of make-up is used during some festivals to represent the Flower Spirits who we believe protect the souls of our lost ones as long as we keep growing the right combination of flowers on their graves. I put it on on specific dates even though I've left my hometown, and the boss of this place happened to see me one day, so he hired me. I modified it a bit from the original version, though. It wouldn't feel right to use it just any day. It's nice of you to ask, though. No one has done so in quite some time."
Still dragging the girl by the hand, the employee leads her through the dark maze of the house, eventually reaching a door from which a buzzing sound is coming, unrecognisable to the girl's frazzled mind, which can barely muster up any curiosity as to the source of the noise.
"-et me in!"
"Sir, we really-"
"I'm telling you to let me in! I have to go look for Ann!"
"Stop making so much noise already! It's just a haunted house, she's not going to disappear! And I'm not paying for you to go back in there! For once in your life, just wait!"
"No!"
"Dear customer-"
"I said no! She's under my protection, so I'm going to help her!"
"Oh my."
The Flower Woman looks half-surprised and half-amused at the noisy group of people standing a few feet away, and who visibly do not care about how much attention they're drawing. Well, for those who aren't employees, at least.
Behind her, the girl takes in the sight of the group, the noise reaching her in garbled splotches, her vision enough to monopolise all the attention and focus she feels capable of giving to the outside world at the moment.
(keeping her self together is exhausting-
She's numb,
the hold of the woman on this -her?- hand merely the ghost of a weight,
the ground under these -her?- feet a faltering, diffused impression that leaves her nauseous and unbalanced.)
The smallest member of the group seems to be the one who makes the most noise, and his eyes shine too bright for her who has just stepped out of the darkness.
The tangerine strands of the girl beside him are no better, and as dark eyes follow her waving hands like delicate birds painted with the same fiery shades of violence, she wonders if burning herself to her fire would help her remember what warmth means.
She wonders if the blades in the hands of the taller male (in his eyes) would cut her deep enough to remind her of the difference between existence and not-existence.
She wonders how the last boy can put so much life in his voice (so much more than there is in her entire body-).
She falters.
Her heart trembles, rattling its cage of bones.
(She can't tell if it's fear,
if she wants to runrunrun,
or it's something else, if it's longing,
for the strength and the warmth and the life that they are exsuding even from this far,
for the strength and the warmth and the life that she can't muster up on her own-)
The flower woman chooses for her, dragging her further under the sun and towards the group.
"Excuse me, dear customers-"
"I told you I'm goi- Ann!"
The girl blinks, and then the boy with dark, mad curls is shaking her heavy, limp body energetically.
"Elynna, comrade! I had absolute confidence that you would vainquish this haunted, unknown darkness!" And then he leans in to whisper, voice low but more clear than all the sounds she's ever heard. "But seriously, next time you get lost, don't do it in a haunted house. I really didn't want to go in there."
It takes her some time to connect the dots, to understand what he is saying and the context in which he is saying what he is saying.
(Her mind is like an endless sea of colourless sludge, and she is helplessly trying to swim against the current, the current that is trying to take her somewhere and that she is fighting without knowing why, with less and less will as the seconds or maybe the years pass,
as blurry and messy, faded memories and thoughts float by without her being able to quite grasp them -cursed waters without goal-
she is struggling to keep her head up, to prevent the sludge from entering her mouth and slumping inside of her to feast on the emptiness within her in an orgy of oblivion that she knows would erase her out of existence-
she is struggling to decide whether she should really keep fighting, because any reason or instinct to do so is but a faint, incomprehensible echo in the furthest corners of her sould, and she is so tired-)
"So… rry?"
"You better be!" The redhead bursts out shrilly as she pushes the boy aside without a care for the way she sends him sprawling.
Her eyebrows are furrowed, and her eyes are crackling with thunder as she stares the girl down.
Thunder.
Tempest.
… Rain?
She straightens up unconsciouly.
(Her own voice sounds like a lost child even in her head as this one word spirals down down down
down to the bottom of the pit of grey mud inside her, memories that were blown away by the silent explosion now slowly regrouping against its warmth.)
"Oi, Nami-"
"Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one, but then you had to go and get lost in an amusement park of all things! These idiots have been making a fuss, and-"
"Nam-"
"You've been making as much of a fuss as Luffy, you know." The swordsman huffs as he stops beside her, before turning his gaze to the girl. "And you. Are you an idiot? I can't believe you managed to get lost in a tourist trap."
The owner of said tourist trap stiffens, smile twitching in growing annoyance.
"Now, Sir-"
"Guys, listen to me!"
"If she's an idiot, then your brain cell count reaches the negative!" Nami cuts in, adding a punch to Zoro's shoulder for good measure, though he barely grunts. "Seventeen times! In the time it took us to buy everything we needed, I had to turn back seventeen times because you somehow managed to take the wrong direction while following us! The trip was at least twice as long as it should have been! You should give me money for putting up with that thing you call your brain!"
"I fucking won't, you witch-"
"Listen to me, damnit!" Usopp eventually explodes. "Geez, Nami, you can't just push people like that, especially the Great Us-"
"Shut up, Usopp." The two others mutter without stopping their glaring contest.
Said boy puts his hands up like he's dealing with two dogs running on an empty stomach, which they might as well be considering the way they're baring their teeth at each other.
Something bubbles through the girl like sparkling water, and her lips tremble with the need to form something that she thinks is a smile.
"Got ya!"
She stiffens at the loud, sunshine voice that lights up right next to her ear as the smaller boy with the hat jumps onto her back and, like a koala, loops his limbs around her.
(It feels like a promise to not let go rather than a cage.)
His warmth seeps into her like energy, and the sight of the trio in front of her makes her world explode in colours and sounds that make her dizzy.
Elynna blinks repeatedly, as if waking up from a long, empty, fuzzy dream that recedes back into the confines of her soul.
"-ext time, I should buy you a collar to make sure that we don't lose you. Or better yet, make you buy your own collar!"
"The hell I will!"
… Wow, that's kinky.
The world is a bit too full for now, and so the thought loses itself between her mind and her mouth and dissolves silently before Elynna can voice it out.
But it's a full thought, fluid and clear enough that she doesn't struggle to understand the meaning of her own musings.
(It's good enough.)
The crowd around them disperses now that the problem seems to be solved, and the owner of the haunted house begins to lead them back to the entrance.
Elynna turns to the dark-skinned woman, deeply ingrained manners tortuously leading a whisper of thanks to her lips.
The woman smiles, and steps closer to take one of her hands in hers.
Elynna blinks when she feels her fingers being closed around what feels like a piece of paper.
She looks back to the woman.
"My contact information. Feel free to call me if you ever want to know more about my island."
Another 'thank you' slips out, clearer but more confused, as she takes a glance at the information written on it, Luffy's ridiculously fluffy hair tickling her cheek as he leans his chin on her shoulder to peek at it.
She starts walking away, steps hesitant as she struggles to keep her balance with all the information this too bright, too loud world is still dumping into her brain, burning through her nose and mouth and rubbing her skin raw.
"Please come back to Zarildor Circus!"
She stops, and turns around.
"... See you, Akane-san." She calls out, voice a bit too hoarse still to really scream, waving her hand hesitantly.
The woman beams.
"Oh, and kids!"
Elynna's crewmates turn around when they understand that they're the ones she's talking to.
"Don't bring Elynna-chan to a haunted house again until she learns how to have fun! She looked like a lost little kid!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
They blink collectively.
Elynna, a kid?
… Somehow, the two terms together seem completely out of place.
(Nami glances back at the other girl,
at her vague, ageless features,
at the way the shadows under her eyes seem to be eternally engraved there,
at the way every line and movement of her body slumps slowly, steeped in the kind of fatigue that is ingrained in the very marrow of one's being and that
drags people down by their bones, until their face meets the ground and they don't have the force or the will to get back up-)
"How old are you by the way?" Usopp asks suddenly as they finally pass the park's gates.
"... Eighteen."
Her tone is strange, rising in the end as if she isn't entirely sure herself.
"Eh?! I thought you were in your mid-twenties or something!"
Nami waits for the dry reply, for the joke about being an old woman stuck in a young body, for anything-
But nothing comes.
Instead, her roommate stares at something, or maybe at nothing.
They all exchange a glance.
(Luffy slumps further over his First Mate
-just to make sure that she wouldn't run away or forget about them or-
His fists clench, and he thinks once again that he should have been there, that he has failed, because someone who is his to protect needed him and he wasn't there-)
Something-
Something is very, very wrong.
Elynna's emotions rarely paint her face in loud shades, but it still seeps into her voice and swims in her eyes most of the time.
Right now though, she just looks like a blank page, and she usually is so focused on her surroundings -even when she doesn't interact with them- that she's often the first to notice the small but important things. But it barely looks like she registers anything happening around her currently.
It's like the world is a wave slapping against the rock of her body, chipping away at her soul, just a little bit more everytime without any reaction from the rock, and her eyes are so horrifically vacant, she's vacant-
Nami grabs the First Mate's hand and tugs her to her side, half to prevent her from colliding with a group of tourists and half to be sure that the other girl isn't going to dissolve in the sunlight and disappear.
(Because in that moment, she looks as fragile and fleeting as a mirage.)
There's no reaction.
Whether to the sudden contact or the abrupt change of direction, she offers no reaction whatsoever, and suddenly the sun doesn't seem as warm on the Straw Hat Pirates' skin.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
As soon as the ship sets off, Zoro goes to lie down on a sunny spot of the Merry, as if trying to shake off the darkness of that haunted house -because it might just leave him in the same state as his First Mate.
It only takes a few minutes before the light of the sun dims behind his eyelids.
But when he opens them, it's not to the sight of Luffy's face, but of Elynna's, as she crouches beside him, and stares.
Not through him, but at him.
(He will never, ever speak of the way his body melted into the warm wood of the deck as it sighed in relief.)
"Can I nap with you? I promise I won't do anything."
Maybe she's trying to make this sound like one of her usual jokes, but her voice sounds so… almost-gone (like she's dangling above a bottomless pit in her own mind, and she's losing grip-) that he can only hear it as a call for help that she only half-allows herself to voice, and-
(and he doesn't know her much, and she annoys him sometimes,
but she's a crewmate, and he wouldn't join this crew or offer to train her if he really couldn't stand her, so
like hell he would turn his back on her)
He grabs the hand that she doesn't dare to hold out, and tugs.
He really did not envision it like that, and so he stiffens up when she carefully lies down half-over him and then slowly slides a hand beneath his shirt to rest it on his ribs.
But then she sags against him, and this time he can see her body move when she breathes.
(Alive)
She doesn't move further, just like she promised, and eventually he relaxes and closes his eyes again.
Somehow, he feels like she will find a way to trap him into doing this again even when she'll be back to normal.
(He's right.
But if that means that she will be back to normal, it's not so bad.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Eyes closed and forehead pressed against Zoro's chest, Elynna lets the sound of his heartbeat and the solid heat of his skin against her fingertips become her whole world.
He's alive.
They're alive.
This is real.
They all looked worried. Because of her.
Somehow, a tiny bit of the importance she gives to fulfilling others' expectations survives, and she curls her tattered self around it, progressively gathering the remnants of her will to crawl her way out of the heavy, blank sludge filling her.
If she had any energy to spare, she would hope that they really want her to do this, because she's only doing it for their sake.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Akane smiles as she watches the strange figurehead of the equally strange crew drift away from afar.
"You're spending too much time in that haunted house. You become more and more creepy everytime you walk out of it."
"Is that a convoluted way of asking for divorce, darling?"
"Like you would ever find another man who wouldn't freak out over your weird self."
"Says the one who could faint over the title of a horror story before even listening to it."
"... Whatever. Why are you stalking one-time customers?"
The dark-skinned woman's smile becomes distinctly nostalgic, eyes lost in whatever images her mind is painting for her in the breezy air of this early evening.
"There was that girl… She reminded me a lot of a dream I had long ago…"
She chuckles then, hand coming to shade her eyes so that she can keep looking at the disappearing ship despite the sunlight.
It barely hides the glimmer in her eyes.
"Or maybe it wasn't a dream, after all…"
The man beside her sighs.
"No matter how much time I spend with you, I still don't understand a thing of what you're talking about. Though it might for the be- Ow! Don't be so violent, woman!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Does Luffy saying that he likes skeletons qualifies as foreshadowing? Absolutely.
Is this last scene also foreshadowing something? Yes.
... Vaguely. And you might not even remember it by the time the plot it's related to actually appears. But it was fun for me.
I hope the angst wasn't too much that you're going to leave this story, but well, it is one of the main genres.
That aside, I'll see you in the next chapter (and good luck to anyone who is also drowning in their midterms)! I hope you stay safe and happy!