From The Sea - Dive rgence

by SugarFeather

A young, dreamless girl closes her eyes in the Mediterranean Sea, and opens them in the middle of East Blue. (How do you go on, when everything you have ever known and loved is gone, and everything left to love should be a paper-thin lie?) [cross-posted on AO3]

27. Sacrilege

It looks like it was planned.

It was not.

(This took me less than three months. Holidays are great.)

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. Also, I don't own the picture.

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Part One - Dive|rgence

TWENTY-SIX

If religion rhymes with devotion

then I spend my every breath next to the gods who each own

an altar in my heart

(there's no place for you here)

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

At first, Elynna considers haggling with the beret-wearing guy about those entrance fees.

But then the man spots the broken waver they salvaged from the fallen ship, and adds the Class 10 crime of breaking Sky Island property to the Class 11 crime of failing to pay their entrance fees.

And when Pagaya tries to protest by saying that the waver belonged to the crew, the man ends up adding the Class 9 crime of stealing Sky Island property.

She pretty much gives up at that point.

"Ah, you." The man squints at her. "I don't see you in the picture, so I assume you've paid your entrance fee."

"... Oh yeah. Totally."

"Cut it out!" Usopp barks with a jab of his pointy elbow between her ribs. "Can't you try to help me get us out of this mess instead?!"

She shrugs.

"There's no point. This guy is just looking for excuses to make criminals out of us, and this guy," she goes on while pointing at Luffy, "has already decided to piss off God anyway. We're kind of already screwed."

They're even more screwed when Nami comes back and literally lands her waver on the White Beret Commander's face as soon as she hears how much money they're supposed to pay for their so-called crimes to be forgiven.

So she doesn't bother trying to stop the Monster Trio from having their fun when the White Berets attack, and after that follows Sanji, Luffy and Usopp back to the house while Nami and the others prepare the ship.

Regardless of the glare that the navigator sends her as a way of ordering her to make sure Luffy won't try and run to Upper Yard on his own or something equally stupid, she's pretty sure that this particular trio is almost as likely to end up causing some chaotic disaster as the Monster Trio, with only slightly less collateral damage. Maybe.

And because her eyes have been following Conis as soon as the girl stepped into the room a few minutes later than the rest of them while she nimbled on the leftover food, she misses nothing of their host's reaction when Usopp starts screaming about a giant shrimp having kinapped the Merry -and the rest of their crew.

She sees the fear.

She sees the guilt.

But her Captain has already decided to go to Upper Yard whether or not there are hostages to bait them into going there.

So she says nothing.

Instead, she walks up to Conis' side as she leads them through Lovely Street and asks her a few questions about the Tone Dials, listening as the girl, who apparently works in a Dial shop from time to time to make some pocket money, explains that they were once visited by a crew from the Blue Sea and thus discovered the existence of Den Den Mushi.

The result was that they developed an optional feature for Tone Dials by adding a second button on the Dial that one can press before recording a sound piece in order to give it a title, which can be used to automatically play that particular piece again by pressing a third button and giving the title.

Conis is diving into how Dial scientists are looking into applying similar modifications to other types of Dials, especially in order to modify the degree of heat and thus the flame colour of Flame Dials to perhaps one day create fireworks similar to those they bought from Blue Sea people a few times when Elynna grabs Luffy by instinct, just before he finds himself catapulted into a shop situated on a little cloud above them when he inadvertently activates the contraption used to be brought to that cloud.

The shop turns out to sell Dials, and while Luffy bounces around the shop to pick up and fiddle with everything, Elynna makes a beeline for a specific shelf to pick up a few Dials before following the rubber boy back out.

If they do beat up that God, the people here will either be thankful or too afraid to ask for money in exchange.

If they don't, well they'll be dead, so no need to worry too much about debts.

You can't demand money from a corpse.

Besides, she's a pirate. When she takes something, she's not supposed to pay for it.

"Stop fooling around!" Sanji yells as soon as Luffy is within kicking distance. "Nami-chan and the others have been taken as sacrifices, we've got to go save them!"

"Save them? Nah, don't worry! Zoro is with them, it'll be fine!"

Elynna sighs as she swings the backpack she just put the Dials in onto her shoulder again, and pinches his cheek between her fingers, tugging on it to force him away from a stall and towards where Conis is going.

"Ow! Ann, what's that for?!"

"It's good that you trust Fang this much, Captain, but try to be at least a bit serious about all this. Whoever we're up against probably isn't called God for nothing, and we both know that even if Fang is strong, there are people who are stronger, especially on the Grand Line. Besides, there are some enemies that he won't be able to fight against. Remember that paint girl in Little Garden? You're a lot stronger than her, but no matter how much you tried, you couldn't beat her. If Zoro fights against someone who has powers similar to, say, Ignis' Devil Fruit, what do you think will happen?"

Luffy pouts, but when she lets go of his cheek and ruffles his hair, he starts walking faster and doesn't veer off path again.

By the time they reach the harbour, Conis and the passerbys who have been giving them a wide berth somehow still seem surprised when Luffy and Usopp start asking the former why she's so pale and if things will be alright for her after being seen helping people who are clearly being avoided by the rest of the population.

Conis only makes one shaky attempt at convincing them that she's fine before she looks away, body shifting as if she can't bear to stay like this any longer.

"Don't you… Don't you think it's strange-"

"Stop."

Conis goes silent, wide eyes staring at Elynna.

"... Elynna-chan?"

Elynna sighs.

The girl may have taken part in pushing them into this trap, but she can understand the fear that coloured her decisions.

The people around them seem to disapprove of what Conis is about to say, but maybe if Elynna is the one to inform her crewmates, the fallout won't affect the winged girl as much.

"Conis-san is the one who called for the shrimp to take away the others. And she and her father probably explained everything about the trial and offered to lead us here to force our hand and make sure we'll actually go to Upper Yard. If I had to guess, they probably would have been punished if they had refused to go along with it."

The silence rests heavy on the plaza and their shoulders, the kind of heavy that makes skin sweat and hair raise.

The kind of heavy just before thunder rolls and lightning strikes.

Conis shakes, and sinks to her knees, vainly trying to stifle her sobs into her hands.

"I- I'm sorry-"

"Don't be an idiot!" Luffy screams. "You didn't have a choice, so why were you going to tell us?! You would have been-"

"Everyone get away! The Judgement is coming!"

That's when Elynna realises.

This isn't the silence.

The air crackles, and she turns around, just in time to see Luffy launch himself forward.

She lunges, colliding against him as they roll onto the ground.

The strike of lightning is so loud it feels like the world has been engulged in silence, and the scent of ozone is so strong it takes her a moment to realise that there's no physical thing really blocking her throat and strangling her.

Slowly, sound and sight comes back, but her muscles only start relaxing when she finally spots Usopp and Sanji a few feet away, looking perfectly fine except for the shock carved on their face as they stare at the pit that has been dug into the cloud by God's Judgement.

Elynna breathes out shakily.

She's an idiot.

Isn't 'God' supposed to be omniscient?

She should have considered the possibility that this one might have a way to know what is happening around the island, instead of assuming that the people around them were just avoiding them because they were scared of the punishment they might receive if they were discovered.

Because of her carelessness, Sea King could have-

That's when she realises that Luffy is pushing against her shoulders to try and free himself, because she's still straddling him and clutching him between her and the ground, the muscles of her arms still locked with the terrified drive to keep him safe.

She sits up, and finds herself pinned under her Captain's furious glare.

"What the hell, Ann?! I could have-" He starts to yell, only to be interrupted when she speaks over him, almost loud enough to be a scream.

"You could have what?!"

His mouth clicks shut.

Her hands slap lightly against his cheeks, and she turns his face towards the shadowed hole still steaming with sheer power a few steps ahead of them.

"Look at this!" She heaves out a laugh, mocking and scratchy with leftover fear and slightly hysterical. "What could you have done, Sea King?!"

Luffy stares, grits his teeth, and forcefully turns his head back to glare at her again.

"But now Conis is dead!"

She lets go of him, and straightens up, still keeping him pinned to the ground.

She looks down at him, and when she speaks again her voice is flat, edgeless and yet heavy as it falls there, in the space between them.

"And you're alive."

Luffy's jaw tightens so hard it shows a glimpse of his teeth.

It almost looks like a snarl.

She stares at it with utter disinterest.

"I know I can't keep you safe, and that you don't want me to," she goes on softly. "But if you think you can throw your life away for someone I barely even know and that I'll just stand there and watch, I'll tell you right now: I can't do it."

He stares, and she stares back unflinchingly under Usopp and Sanji's silent attention, until the leftover smoke settles and the Knight of the Sky appears, holding a perfectly safe Conis that he promises to take care of.

Luffy stands up, readjusts his hat, and gives Elynna another long glance.

Then the anger bleeds out of his shoulders, and he reaches out to take her hand and drag her on their boat.

She squeezes back, and jumps in after him.

(It's not sorry, because neither feels sorry about how high or how low they're willing to put Conis' life on their priority list.

But it's acceptance that they don't think the same about this.

Sometimes, it has to be enough.)

She stays silent as the three boys slowly start talking again, staring at the diminishing cloud island and the hole she can still see there.

Electricity, then.

There's something she thinks she has to remember about it, so she closes her eyes, and starts digging around in her memories of the physics classes she had in middle school.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

She notices the way Luffy and Sanji stiffen before she hears the soft, sharp whisper of the double-bladed axe flying towards them.

Usopp clambers on the driver's seat, kicking Luffy out of it in the process even as she and the two members of the Monster Trio work around each other to keep the paddles moving, warn Usopp of incoming death objects or parry the arrival of one in their goddamn face.

By the time they get out of Skypiea's version of a minefield, she can almost feel her hair getting greasy with the sweat that sticks to her hairline.

It doesn't get any better when they find themselves in front of four doors.

She doesn't appreciate the dubious generosity they're being shown of choosing how they're potentially going to die.

"Let's take the orb one! It looks fun!" Luffy beams as he reaches out to jerk the driving wheel into that direction before Sanji and Usopp can even really start a debate over which door to pick.

Sanji's heel slams down on his skull.

She exchanges a glance with Usopp.

We're so dead.

Luffy laughs, and then jokes about how they might just have failed already and they're going to fall off the island and to their death.

He laughs a lot less when they actually fall at the end of the tunnel, especially when they don't fall that low and thus survive, leaving him at the mercy of Sanji's fury and Usopp's post-heart attack slip of morals.

Once she's recovered, Elynna finds the whole situation pretty damn funny, and so remains consistently deaf to any call for help.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

She probably could have died, and she wouldn't have seen it coming.

The only thing that saves her is that the angel dude aims for Luffy and Sanji first.

She watches them get blasted away, notices the Skypiean's open palm, and dives over the edge of their small boat, knocking Usopp out of it in the process.

Since the sharpshooter was screaming for his crewmates before hitting the water, he's too busy choking to swim to the shore, so Elynna brings the both of them there, narrowly escaping the priest's attack thanks to Luffy's stretching arm making him jump away to avoid the rubber boy's fist.

"Don't call this great power that only powerful priests like me have a mere 'punch'! Impact is entirely different, seeing how it causes damage directly inside the body!"

Elynna coughs a little, cutting through the deep breaths she was heaving to try and stabilize her breathing, and concludes that although they're pretty deep in shit, they were at least somewhat lucky in ending up with a guy arrogant enough to reveal how his power works.

Now if he can give her some info about how he read Sanji and Luffy's movements like that, things will be a bit less shitty.

Except instead, the priest who calls himself Satori starts up their boat instead, leaving them stranded in the middle of a forest he knows much better than them and that is stuffed with surprise balls like a minefield.

So things just got a lot more shitty.

Elynna rushes after Usopp to catch their boat with Sanji, leaving Luffy to distract the priest in the meantime.

She needs time to think if she wants to be of any help in fighting this guy.

Satori catches up to them fast, however, and she jumps behind the trunk of a huge tree to observe how Satori kicks an orb towards Sanji -and how it only explodes after softly rebounding against others to change direction and hit the tip of Usopp's nose.

A flower comes out.

She winces as Usopp hits the ground hard.

One, even Satori doesn't know what's in the orb.

Two, the orbs won't let out whatever is inside of them if you hit them at the right angle-

"Did you really think you could hide from me?"

She curses, instinctively throwing herself to the side as an open, gloved palm slaps against the bark of the tree right where her face was.

She rolls to her feet and runs, almost thrown off-course by the shock wave of the explosion.

Eyes flitting around to spot her crewmates, she clicks her tongue in annoyance at the way Luffy is currently imitating Tarzan with the vines hanging from the trees -and ignoring Satori.

Not that she's not on board with dancing on the dude's grave or doing anything else that implies extreme disrespect, but he's not actually dead and buried yet.

Luffy's idiocy seems to prove inspiring for Usopp, though, and if only for that she refrains from making any comment about his new weapon.

Instead, she calls out to him so he knows to adjust the angle of his jump, and runs up to him to jump on his back.

His ensuing Tarzan scream is interrupted as they near the boat and he realises that he can't get down, because the rope is fixed to the belt.

"Elynna, take a kukri and cut it off, or we won't-"

"Thanks for the ride." She deadpans as she drops down on the boat.

"Elynna, you biiiiiiiiiitch-"

His voice fades away as he swings back towards his starting point.

Elynna stops the boat, and crouches down to rummage through her bag.

Satori is clearly playing with them rather than giving this fight his all.

It might be because he's lazy, or because he's confident in his victory.

Or both, which wouldn't surprise her.

But it might also be because he actually doesn't have much to give to this fight beyond that 'Impact' thing he was talking about and whatever allows him to predict people's movements.

Considering how he was so confident he felt comfortable giving his enemies information about it, she wouldn't be surprised about that either.

And she's going to have to bank on that, because countering both of these abilities is going to be hard enough as it is, not to mention that she can't plan something to deal with an ability she doesn't know about.

So she focuses on the foresight problem instead.

She only sees two explanations for those so far: either Satori sees the future, or he's reading the thoughts of his opponents.

If it's the latter, then the solution is technically simple. They just have to stop thinking.

She personnally can't do that, except maybe when it comes to evading hits thanks to Zoro's training and the fighting experience she's accumulated, but Luffy definitely can.

If it's the former… Well, in theory, she believes that the future is not determined but rather is a series of possibilites of which only one is fulfilled, and that even if fate does exist and makes some events unchangeable, it does not really influence small things like what someone eats for breakfast or whether they're going to hit with their fist or their foot in the next few seconds.

That being said, would it be possible to trick Satori if he does look into the future, since he's not seeing a far away event but something really close to the present?

She doesn't have enough information to be sure about anything, which means that she's going to have to test it, along with several other theories.

And she's going to have to test it herself, because Luffy and Sanji are much stronger than her, and Usopp's long-range skills might be needed later on.

Besides, the three of them are already hurt. Whether this fails or works out in their favour, she has to be the one to deal with the potential damage Satori will deal out.

She nods to herself, clenches her trembling fingers into steady fists, and takes hold of her phone and one of the Tone Dials she bought before coming here once she has attached the boat to a nearby tree.

It's a good thing she actually turned off her phone with some leftover energy just in case she miraculously found something to transfer her music into instead of using it all up.

Turns out, being an overly cautious hoarder does work in her favour, sometimes.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

A whistling sound reaches Sanji's ears, and he perks up from where he was playing dead, recognising the sound of a bird from Usopp's island that the boy taught them how to imitate one afternoon when they were all bored -apart from the brainless gorilla who is never bored as long as there's a barbell nearby.

His eyes scan the forest until he finds Elynna, standing on a high branch.

He joins her as quickly and quietly as he can, and reaches her just before his bloodied and panting crewmates.

The priest bastard doesn't move, seemingly convinced that he's already won.

But if there's one thing that Sanji admires in his Captain, it's that he never gives up in a fight.

They're going to wipe that confident smile off his dumb face.

"I tied the boat to a tree." Elynna informs them as soon as they're within hearing range. "You three take a break here, I need to try something."

Luffy frowns even as he reaches up to wipe some blood out of his eye.

"He's strong, though."

Elynna hums distractedly as she stares down at their enemy.

"I know. I don't think I'll be able to last much more than two minutes, at most. But when I say that you can take a break, that's a bit of a lie. If I go there alone, I definitely won't last two minutes. So I need you two to help me out from here, okay?" She says while pointing at Luffy and Usopp.

"Okay… But how?" The sharpshooter inquires.

"You'll see." She answers even as she turns to Sanji, as if she can feel the doubt radiating from him. "Hermes, I'm not sure I'll be able to notice everything, and Usopp will be busy helping me, so make sure to note everything we can use against him so you can come up with a plan to exploit it when I'm done, alright?"

Sanji blinks, and then straightens up with a smile.

That's when he realises that there's something beating through the air.

It takes him a moment to recognise it as the beginning of a song, loud enough that Satori can definitely hear it from his spot further down and that Sanji can't tell where it's coming from.

He frowns, and opens his mouth, ready to ask his First Mate why she said that her phone didn't work anymore if it clearly can, but she's already off, running along the branch and throwing herself off it, catching a vine on the way down to get closer to the branch Satori is perched one.

She goes fast, like she's already figured out beforehand how she's going to reach him, and perhaps that's why she doesn't slip once -although her sense of balance probably saves her quite a few times.

She hits the branch Satori is on running, and doesn't slow down as she closes in on him.

Then she slips on a patch of moss, stumbles to right herself up even as Sanji's breath loses itself somewhere between his lungs and his mouth-

and avoids Satori's attack in the process.

Sanji sees surprise twists the round face of the priest, and it clicks.

That shithead can't see the future.

If he could, he would have seen her trip.

So it's more likely that his power is something closer to reading others' thoughts.

And because Elynna didn't slip on the moss intentionally, neither of them could expect that she would be in a different position than the one she was supposed to be in.

Then the moment passes, and Elynna is on him.

Her fist reaches for his throat.

He sidesteps, and lashes out.

She catches his wrist before his palm can hit her stomach, steps on his foot, and pivots to kick a heel towards his face.

And it goes on, hit for hit, feint for feint, block for block, Satori predicting attacks before they reach as Elynna exploits the space awareness she started developing in dance classes rather than battlefields to the fullest, all of it following each other within a handful of seconds.

Then she slips again, and falls off the branch.

Luffy's face lights up with realisation, and the next moment his arm stretches until his hand catches the back of Elynna's shirt to swing her back up on the branch.

Except he miscalculates, and his arm hits the branch instead, bonelessly bending around the thickness of it.

"Oops."

Elynna emerges on the other side of the branch and reaches behind her to pinch Luffy's skin, forcing him to let her go as she falls down right behind Satori.

She spins, arm lashing out.

He turns around too late.

Or, rather, just in time for her fist to crash into his jaw.

They dive back into hand-to-hand combat, and a few seconds later Elynna's tessen clips Satori's ribs as he steps away a tad too late.

And Sanji's mind goes oh.

It's the song.

Elynna is exploiting the natural bias everyone has to some extent of adapting their movement to the speed of a song when they hear one, especially one this catchy.

Between the loudness of the music and the fact that she is moving according to its fast tempo, she's forcing Satori into following her rhythm.

Forcing him to make himself more predictable by confining him into moving in accordance with the beats of the song.

And the fact that she's just hit him, even if only slightly, means that Satori's power isn't natural.

It's a skill.

It's a skill, so it requires focus.

And because it takes him focus to not follow the beats of the music, he loses focus on his power.

So distractions definitely work.

They only exchange a few other blows before Elynna throws herself off the branch again.

Luffy is there to catch her again, and this time he intentionally launches his arm around the trunk of a tree so that even he can't predict where exactly Elynna is gonna end up.

That's when Usopp starts firing at Satori, not looking at the munitions he's grabbing in his bag so that he doesn't even know what he's actually throwing at the priest.

The strategy isn't planned, and it works.

Satori is on the defensive, forced to change locations to stave off as many of Usopp's insanely precise shots as possible even as Elynna runs and zips through the trees to chase him down with Luffy's help, only dropping down next to Satori to take advantage of a few seconds of distraction to land one or two hits before she's off again.

For a moment, Sanji is almost surprised at how seamless his crewmates' teamwork is, because most of the battles their crew has been involved in have been fought in one-on-one duels so far.

But then he realises it makes sense, given how well they know each other after all the time they spent together.

Luffy's battle sense is good, good enough that he can guess when Elynna is going to jump off a branch, and Usopp's sight and hand-eye coordination are sharp enough that even from this distance he can tell when he can shoot and when the risk of hitting Elynna instead is too high.

But when it comes to Elynna, she's too busy focusing on Satori, too full of the music and the adrenaline pumping through her veins to think.

(It shows in the vacant and unblinking way her eyes are tracking him,

refusing to let go of him even when Luffy is taking her away.)

Her share of the teamwork relies solely and entirely on trust.

She trusts that Luffy will pick her up and not swing her into a tree or get tangled in a vine because he got distracted by something else.

She trusts that Usopp's munitions aren't going to hit her because she suddenly did something he didn't expect.

And because Sanji knows how she is, how overly cautious and anxious and pessimistic she is, how relying the success of anything on faith alone would usually sound impossible to her, ridiculous and idiotic and impossible-

Because he knows her, this means the world to him.

(This means everything.)

Satori jumps, bounces on an orb too softly to make it explode, and lands on another branch that is too far for Luffy to reach it, having finally figured out his range.

Elynna jumps down, hands sliding down the curve of another ball to orient the course of her own fall towards him.

"Bring her back, Luffy." Usopp says even as the voice of the song fades away.

The rubber boy doesn't question him, grabbing Elynna even as she's running again and tugging her towards the three of them instead of swinging her towards the priest.

She barely seems surprised by the sudden tug on her clothes while she's not in the air, offering almost no resistance to the pull.

But when she flies close to a mystery ball, her body is already turned so she can put as much strength as she can in the kick she gives to the ball, hitting it with the soles of her feet instead of her toes to send it spinning towards Satori.

Blades stab through the cloud ball somewhere above the priest's head, and then Elynna crashes into Luffy.

"I should have taught you how to aim with your feet as well. You suck at that, too." Usopp says.

"I… know." Elynna coughs, her weak laugh barely heard under her panting breath.

Sanji watches her try to get up and then give up, chest heaving and the muscles of her legs twitching involuntarily.

It's about what he expected, and if Usopp didn't ask for it then she would be here on Sanji's orders.

After all, she forced herself to adapt to the tempo of the song, and it was fast, not to mention that she had to both keep her focus on Satori to make sure that he wouldn't hit her even once -since that's clearly what she was aiming for- and still be aware enough of her surroundings that she wouldn't fight Luffy when he would pick her up or find herself backed up against the trunk of a tree.

Relying so much on trust was probably an additional strain for her as well, so all in all, the last two minutes must have seemed like two hours for her.

"Hermes?"

He meets her eyes, and takes his cigarette out of his mouth.

"Don't worry, Elynna-chan. I'll take care of the rest."

She did get a few hits in, and from what Sanji observed he doubts that this priest bastard is very resilient, but he still has to finish the job.

One hit should do it.

So as Satori starts throwing a tantrum, whipping out a line of attached surprise orbs wearing a dragon mask and launching into a speech that explains how his new weapon works, Sanji tells Usopp to protect their First Mate with his life, and then turns to Luffy.

"Don't bother thinking, shithead. It makes you look even more idiotic than usual."

And then, before Luffy can insult him back, he kicks him off the branch they're on and straight on the orb dragon's warpath.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Once he has picked up Elynna's Tone Dial that was hidden in the leaves of a tree not far from theirs, Usopp takes her on his back to get away from the fight and back to the boat.

"So," he says once he sits down. "Zoro could actually go harder on you during training, right? Because I'm definitely using that as blackmail."

He receives no verbal reply from his crewmate, who flopped down to lie on her side as soon as they arrived and seems too tired to even open her eyes.

So instead she flips him the bird and resumes her nap.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Chopper watches Usopp go, kneading his hat between his hooves anxiously.

He babbled out apologies as soon as he saw the look on the sharpshooter's face upon seeing the state the Merry was in, because he didn't need to have read psychology books or even to have lived with the boy for weeks to know that he was sad.

But Usopp just asked about his wounds, smiled, waved off his apologies, and walked away.

And even though he knows that he was alone against a priest until the Knight of the Sky showed up while Usopp and the others were fighting four against one…

(Being the cause of this look on Usopp's face makes him feel like a monster.)

A hand lands softly on top of his head, rubbing at the fur gently, and he looks up to find Elynna.

Her eyes are still hazy and her balance still wobbly and she looks like she could definitely use a long nap, but-

She looks him in the eyes, and smiles a soft half-smile.

He blinks, and when the hand falls off he places the hat there, tugging it down firmly over his eyes with a jerky nod.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

She finds Usopp sitting on the shore and staring at the altar where the broken Merry still stands, a bit further away from where everyone else is setting up camp.

She watches the ship for a long moment, unsure of what to say.

She doesn't love the Merry, and she doesn't know if she'll ever love an object the way Usopp loves the Merry, not just for its connection to Kaya, but for itself -almost like loving a person.

(Still, she thinks that she understands a little bit.

That if she was washed up on Sea King's tiny boat with one of Lucas' old sweatshirts in her bag, she might have kept wearing it even as it became more hole than fabric.

That if she was washed up there with the plush toy that her grandmother made for her mother and that her mother gave her as a baby, the one that she still curled around on the nights where everything felt cold and empty enough to devour her and there was no one to hang on to, she might have cleaned herself obsessively until her skin was raw and red and painful to be sure that no blood or gunpowder would stain it after a fight.

She thinks that even if she found a way to transfer the music on her phone to another device, it won't be the same.)

The only arc of the story she shouldn't breathe, shouldn't be in that she remembers in detail is also the only one where Luffy loses.

She knows a bit more about what happens in Water Seven because it was one of her sister's favourite moments, but when it comes to the Merry, she only knows that the Straw Hats lose their first ship there, and gain a new one.

She doesn't know anything more precise than that.

She doesn't know how Usopp reacts, when he hears the news.

"It's okay. I'll patch you up, and we'll just find someone to fix you when we come down. It'll be just fine." Usopp says softly, more to the ship than to her.

But she thinks she knows how Hawk will react.

And right at that moment, she doesn't have it in her to be the rational side he doesn't want to listen to.

Doesn't have it in her to be hard like a stone thrown in his face and cold like the ice that can't be melted just because you hope and want it to.

Doesn't have it in her to ruin his hopes.

Doesn't have it in her to ruin that part of his heart that really cares for a ship.

So she stays silent until he sighs, and curls her arm through his to take him back to the camp.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"Yosh! It's decided, let's go get the gold!"

"Oi, oi!" Usopp hollers hastily to be heard over the cheers of the rest of the group. "Did you forget what the priest and that raider said? If we go after the gold, it'll be like declaring war on both God and the raiders! Can't we at least wait until they take each other out?"

Apart from Chopper, though, no one seems particularly inclined to listen to him, especially Nami.

Though he didn't expect her to help out, really.

She tends to lose sight of the important things when gold is involved.

He should downgrade her to Honorary Member of the Smart Quartet for this.

So he turns to Elynna, because she'll definitely like his devious idea, or at least he really hopes so.

"Hey, Elynna, help me he- Uh?"

"She's asleep." Robin confirms, her smile not fixed as firmly in place as usual.

"What?"

"Seriously," Nami frowns, "what did you guys do for her to be this worn out? It's not even midnight yet…"

"It's probably because she spent the whole trip with you two shitheads being loud." Sanji grumbles around his cigarette.

"Nah," Luffy laughs, "we make her play with us all the time, she's used to it!"

That earns him a kick in the face from his cook.

"She shouldn't be!"

Robin watches, curious at the amusement that filters through all the numb and dead things in her, even if only faintly.

But she's even more curious about the weight of Elynna against her that lingers on the edge of her awareness since the younger woman fell against her in her sleep.

She knows that the First Mate doesn't trust her the way the Captain does, so she must be really tired to let her guard down like this.

And it feels strange, how no one is watching her suspiciously, how no one seems to be thinking that she might do anything else than take care of the defenseless almost-child resting against her.

It feels strange, how someone's weight is leaning against her like she can help someone else than herself.

It feels strange, how the body heat seeping into her and the light from the fire they're all sitting and laughing around seems warmer than Alabasta's weather and the luxurious clothes and house Crocodile's lifestyle allowed her to buy.

(It feels-

nice.)

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

The next time Elynna wakes up, she's been carefully laid down between the roots of a tree, and her crewmates are dancing and drinking around a tower of fire with wolves.

She blinks, slow and sluggish, and finds herself face-to-face with a huge wolf sporting a scarred white eye on one side and a mangled ear on the other.

He looks old, fur closer to white or silver than gray.

The wolf huffs, and stares.

She stares back, brain running but thoughts empty.

It occurs to her that maybe the wolf wants to eat her.

Her first thought is that she wishes she had the time to ask Chopper to anaesthetize her before it starts.

The second is that she can't die like this, because none of the people here should see that, because she loves them.

(that she can't die at all if she can help it, because these people love her and-

you don't leave the people who love you.

She has already done it once.

She can't do it twice.)

The third is to wonder why he would want to eat her at all, because she has nothing for him to eat, because she's all empty and heavy and insubstantial.

Ah, she realises.

This is a bad day.

Bad night.

Whatever.

Maybe she shouldn't have taken her medicine today.

It numbs the pain, makes her sleepy, but when she wakes it feels as if it has numbed everything.

Maybe she should tell Chopper.

…

Nah.

It does its job.

No need to bother him with that again.

She blinks.

The wolf is still staring.

She closes her eyes with a long sigh, and shuffles a bit to the right.

Being awake is too hard.

Maybe she'll feel better after sleeping.

Large paws thump against the ground, reverberating through the earth and into her ears.

Then a large, warm body settles heavily along her back, fur soft with time and rough with dirt and tickling against the back of her neck.

"If you eat me, kill me first, okay?" She mumbles through the haze in her mind like those cloudy days where it feels like night is falling all day.

The wolf huffs again somewhere above her head.

She interprets it as shut up and go to sleep, human, and shuts her mouth.

A few minutes later, a slight keening sound is the only warning she gets before a baby wolf nudges his way into the much smaller space between her front and the roots.

He settles there curled up in a ball, yawns wide enough for tiny, sharp teeth to glint in the light of the fire and the rays of the moon, and promptly falls asleep.

She blinks.

Stares.

Trapped between the weight of the two wolves, the knowledge of the lines and substance of her own body seeps in.

Huh.

That's right.

There is something to be eaten.

Voices reach her ears, speaking of Vearth and life and miracles.

It's a bad day, so it's only too easy to empathise with a chunk of ground taken away from its roots by a freak phenomenon.

It's a bad day, so she blinks down at the baby wolf nuzzled against her and remembers napping with her grandparents' dog on the terrace of their home during summer holidays.

(But it's night instead of day

warm because of the fire instead of the sun.

She has more friends, too, more strength.

More cracks, more loss, more bruises.

More laughter and more touch, she thinks. More love for herself, perhaps.

And because she used to have such a good life, more guilt for all those, towards the people who gave her that life.)

She's… tired.

She closes her eyes, and sleeps.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

At best, it should take Ace four days to reach Jaya.

He arrives there in two.

He's barely eaten or slept, the flames at his feet driven on less by energy and more by the fury and the anxiety of imagining his former subordinate anywhere near Luffy or Elynna and their crewmates.

He stalks through the town with eyes red from exhaustion and twitching fingers flickering with heat, and people step away from his path, eyes shifty and feet skitterish.

He pushes the door of the restaurant whose name Marco gave him and plops himself down at a table.

When the waitress comes, he orders enough food for an army, and adds that 'Riza' knew the owner and already paid for his meal.

Then he leans back, hat tilted over his eyes to protect them from the glare of the sun.

"She definitely didn't pay for this much food." A voice interrupts his almost-sleep some time later, accompanied by the strong smell of spicy food.

Ace shifts his legs off the table, chair falling back forward so all four of its legs are touching the floor, and looks up at the woman standing next to him with a plate in one hand and a thick enveloppe in the other.

She puts both on the table, and then places both fists against her hips, the burgundy heat of her glare not quite diminished by the sweat that makes her blond hair stick to her face or the freckles that dot her skin.

"And I already told her I don't take sex as payment, so don't you dare think about leaving this place without paying."

Ace blinks down blearily at the enveloppe, and then at the woman again, before his brain catches up to the words, and he rolls his eyes.

Somehow, he's not surprised.

He notices that the enveloppe is already open when the first forkful of food is nearing his mouth, and his eyes swivel back to the woman, who huffs.

"Don't look at me like that, I didn't read it. I have no interest in getting tangled into something that involves someone like you. So fucking troublesome…" She mutters to herself even as she turns sharply on her heel and stalks back to her kitchen.

Ace blinks at her retreating back, shoves food into his mouth, and shrugs.

He doubts Elynna would entrust that kind of task to just anyone, so he'll give the woman the benefit of the doubt.

He's almost done with his meal when he touches the enveloppe for the first time, and realises exactly how heavy it is.

It's the weight of the time Elynna has used up for him, and he wonders if the love and devotion she has for his brother is the only thing that made this weight real.

(Was that time and love and devotion spent on Luffy's brother, or on him?)

Either way, his hands close convulsively around air, and he wishes she's here, sitting in the chair opposite to him, within the reach of his arms.

(wishes Luffy is here so he can ruffle his hair and they can fight over food

wishes his crew is here to drown the silence and warm up the air around him

Hearing only voices hits too close to the time before he got used to the sound of Sabo's feet echoing his own and the warmth of his life seeping through the air between them.)

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

She's listening to Gan Fall explain how Dials are used for sky combat with the rest of the not-going-on-a-dangerous-quest-to-get-the-gold team when a man crackles into existence on the figurehead of the newly patched-up Merry.

There's no warning, no telling sign, no nothing.

He just… appears there.

Even Sanji is startled.

His next reaction is, of course, to attack.

Only her knowledge of that allows her to step between him and the man fast enough.

"Elynna-cha-"

"Stop it, Hermes. That's no way to treat a guest." She tells him, although she's staring at the chin of the man and how the skin over it shifts to accommodate a smile. "I'm sorry, I'm unsure how one addresses God."

It's mostly a guess based on what she saw on Gan Fall's face when the man appeared, so her shoulders relax when the smile widens, followed by a careless shrug.

"God will do. I'm not picky."

She sighs internally.

Here we go again.

And then she crouches down to bow forward on her knees, palms and forehead flat against the warm wood of the deck.

"It's an honour to meet you, God."

A pleasure, probably not.

But she guesses it's always an honour to meet someone strong enough to be called 'God'.

Behind her, she hears Usopp and Sanji breathe in sharp, but she doesn't move.

From what they have seen of what Enel is capable of, not even Sanji can deal with him.

Somehow, she has to keep 'God' mollified enough that he won't feel like killing her crewmates.

Enel hums, sounding rather pleased.

"At least one of you hasn't forgotten their manners."

"Enel! Just what are you up to?!"

"What an aggressive greeting, former God Gan Fall. And after we haven't seen each other for six years, too. I only came here to say that what led me to take your seat and your country six years ago will soon be accomplished. I will leave this island soon. That's all."

Despite Gan Fall's attempt, Enel doesn't say much more, except to mock him for being unaware of the existence and value of gold and reveal that he considers the three-way war currently happening on the island as a 'survival game'.

Then he turns his attention back to Elynna.

For a long, silent moment, she only feels the weight of his gaze on her before he speaks.

"Now, you… I'm curious. Just what are you?"

She blinks down at the floorboards, still and silent.

Huh.

So she really isn't human, after all.

She sighs, and straightens up to sit on her heels with a shrug.

"I apologise, but I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that."

And beyond the fact that this means that whoever brought her here changed something within her rather than just on the surface and that she still doesn't know why they did either of those things, she really doesn't care about being human or not.

She's still close enough to being human that she can love and be loved.

She's still close enough to being human that she can offer a human being to fuck without being looked at weirdly.

It's enough.

Enel hums again, smirk widening with something like curiosity.

"Well, whatever you are, it's really quite repulsive."

She blinks, opens her mouth to apologise for that, but then Sanji is between the two of them, clearly having reached his limit with that last comment.

The next moment, he falls down, flesh charred and smoking and everything else slack with unconsciousness.

Usopp screams, catching the cook before he can hit the ground and babbling senselessly in an attempt to wake him up.

Then Enel is next to him, and he falls down too.

The sound is still stuck in Elynna's mouth even as her legs move to reach her last standing crewmate, her hand slapping against Nami's open mouth barely a second before the other girl's two hands slap against the back of her own to stop the scream about to come up.

One finger still crackling with electricity, Enel glares down at them.

"Keep your mouth shut, and I won't harm either of you. Got that?"

Nami nods frantically, and Elynna follows, slower and tighter, fear raging louder in her blood and her ears than adrenaline.

(Keeping her still rather than moving,

choking rather than panting.)

"And you," God goes on as he turns to her with a sudden, mild smile. "I'm interested in discovering more about your kind, so if you want to survive, just say that you want to join me before the next three hours have gone by."

And then he zaps away before she can even muster up a response.

There's a moment where the only sound is the air shuddering out of their mouth, and then the both of them scramble to their feet even as two half-goat half-Satori looking dudes appear on the railing.

Nami and Elynna exchange a glance, and then the former clicks the parts of her staff together while the latter grabs Usopp and Sanji to go lock herself within the girls' room where the first aid kit is.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Nami is barely done clearing away the stench left by the two brothers with her staff, still grumbling about how the weird old man left her to do the dirty work alone while he went to play hero, when Conis and Pagaya arrive in some weird cow-boat thing.

Or more like their really loud music arrives, and they follow an entire minute later.

"Heso, Miss Nami!" Conis yells loudly to be heard over the music.

"Turn the volume down, damn it!"

It's only when they get closer that she notices the wingless little girl who is in the boat with them, and who wastes no time in jumping onto the Merry to challenge her to a fight as a 'warrior of Shandora'.

"You sure about that? 'Cause I've got an Impact Dial right there."

"Excuse me, I made a new cloud road on our way here, we should escape quickly before we are spotted!" Pagaya interrupts them sheepishly.

"Then come quietly!" Nami snaps.

"Also, I have something for you!" Connis' father goes on as he waves towards the old waver they found with the wrecked ship that fell on their head the day before.

Except it looks pretty much new now.

Nami jumps to her feet with a beaming grin.

"You're forgiven, mister!"

Elynna comes out a few minutes later while Nami is still mulling over Aisa telling her that the rest of their crewmates got separated according to what her Mantra is telling her, stopping in her tracks to cross her arms over her chest when she registers the identity of the newcomers.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

"Lynna! Why didn't you tell me that the two weirdos were the brothers of the priest you beat up?! I had no idea what was going on!"

"Oh, they were his brothers? They looked younger, so I thought they were his sons. But since they also look a lot more goat-like, asking them how that happened would have been awkward."

Pagaya trips over his own feet and coughs, looking scandalised and as red as his daughter.

Conis gapes, momentarily forgetting to cover the way her mouth is hanging open like she usually would.

Aisa's gaze bounces between the adults with annoyed confusion.

Nami punches Elynna in the shoulder.

"Why would you even want to ask that?!"

Her First Mate shrugs.

"Diversion tactic."

Sure.

Innuendos as a diversion tactic.

Of course.

…

Since when does she have such weird taste in girlfriends?

She sighs.

And then looks up to find Aisa staring at Elynna.

(She's pale,

even paler than before, when she was worrying about everyone's 'voices' disappearing.

She's sitting there with weak fists trembling behind her back, stock still like a prey desperately trying not to be noticed by the thing it knows will eat her whole.

She looks terrified.)

Nami remembers Enel's curiosity with a scowl, and finds herself wondering what Elynna's presence looks like, in the eyes of a Mantra user.

(She doesn't really want to know if it will make her look like this.

If it will make her forget that to her Lynna's existence is like stone.

Constant and solid and reliable no matter the weather

-even as it is worn down by rain and sun rays and thunder, bit by bit, little by little

but still looking the same

until you turn around and it's falling apart, battered into something unrecognisable by the world around it-

Heavy, comfortably so, in how she can't be ignored with how often she's close enough to share the heat of her skin with Nami's own.

She doesn't want to know if it means only remembering the Elynna who breaks bones and carves out blood and not the Elynna who can't transfer an omelette from pan to plate properly to save her life.)

So when she and Aisa finally manage to escape from the giant snake and stop the waver long enough to realise that they're on Upper Yard and probably quite far from the Merry, she opens her mouth, and asks the question that doesn't have anything to do with her immediate survival.

"Why did you look so scared of Lynna? Even Enel didn't seem to scare you like that."

The little girl doesn't answer, the hold of her arms around Nami's waist growing too tight.

"God's voice is scary… But at least it sounds human." She eventually whispers against Nami's naked back.

The Straw Hats' navigator huffs.

"Do you realise how little sense that makes? And whether Lynna belongs to the same species as us or not, I guarantee you that she's a lot more human than Enel will ever be."

Aisa presses her lips together, and gives up on trying to explain to the Blue Sea girl what the voice of her friend sounds like.

(How the sounds coming from her presence are nowhere close to human speech.

How it's a whisper, lower than she has ever heard, so low that she couldn't tell the girl

-the thing-

was here at first.

Couldn't tell until she noticed that there was a whisper rumbling through her, rumbling through her bones and her blood and her skin until everything in her was shaking with it

until she couldn't hear anything else, even if it was still just a whisper,

like an oncoming storm stronger than any punishment dealt out by God in the last six years.

The girl sounds cold, hard and yet slipping between her fingers, and most terrifyingly she sounds both like she might as well not be there at all and as if she's here too much,

as if she's much, much more than she looks to be.

She's faded to a whisper again, now, but still the wind drifting around Aisa as the waver starts again makes the cold sweat that clings to her skin icy.)

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

The only remaining pirate to be awake on their ship has gone to check on her two crewmates when Pagaya sees what he is sure is one of the men who haven't been seen in the last six years collapse at the very edge of the island.

Shaken into action by his daughter's loud gasp of worry, he jumps over the railing, frowning worriedly when he hears the water splash behind him as his daughter follows.

No one has ever escaped God Enel's will.

Not for long, at least.

Still, he swims to the rocks and Vearth of the Upper Yard, and props the man up in his arms to make it easier for him to breathe.

"Are you… from the Holy Guard? Were you held prisoners by God Enel?!"

The man gasps in a lungful of air, face made unrecognisable by dirt and dried blood and his unkempt beard.

(The desperation that pulls his features tight, however, is definitely something that Pagaya recognises.)

"Yes! For six… six years, we've… been held captive by him, and-"

He doesn't finish his sentence.

Because someone's heel slams into his ribs right at that moment, sending him rolling further into the forest.

Pagaya whips around, and finds himself gaping up at the dark-haired girl.

"Miss-"

"If either one of you could gag him, it would be nice. I don't fancy dying here because some dimwit hasn't figured out the extent of God's power after living next to him for six years."

"But, Miss Elynna-" Conis whispers, words barely heard from behind the hands that still cover her mouth but shock clear.

The girl turns her eyes to them, and Pagaya shudders, shifting to put himself between her and his daughter.

She looks just like she did when she was messing around with her friends in his home, face blank and mouth straight and features relaxed and eyes dark and-

"It's that, or I cut off his tongue."

He can't tell whether she's serious or not.

And for the first time, he understands what it means for these young people to have a white skull painted over their black flag.

So he obeys, keeping Conis close in case things take a turn for the worst.

But when he's done and the girl joins them again, she's carrying a small bucket and a notebook instead of a knife.

A splash of water thrown in his face is enough to wake up the guard, whose fierce protests are immediately muffled by the gag in his mouth.

(Pagaya barely stops himself from apologising for the betrayal he just committed, for the wife and son who almost surely are waiting for this man at home, if he is who Pagaya thinks he is.

But his daughter will always come first, and too much attention from God Enel is never a good thing.)

And then the girl crouches in front of the man.

"Now that you're up, let's go over a few things. God would have already killed you if he wanted to, so I don't mind keeping you alive if you prefer to die with your family, but I'm not getting out of here as a corpse, so you're going to keep quiet, whether you want to or not."

Even as the words come out of her mouth, though, she holds up the notebook in front of his face, and from the side Pagaya's jaw falls slack as he deciphers the words.

Write down everything you know about Enel's plan and how the place he lives in looks like.

The man blinks, stares, and blinks again, before reaching trembling hands for the pen and blank sheets held towards him.

Pagaya watches the girl pace through the grass and the dirt for almost two minutes before he realises that the noise of her footsteps is designed to cover the scratching of the pen as much as possible.

He thinks of this girl and her friends, and allows himself to dream that his country will not be reduced to ruins.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"I'm pleased with your choice, girl. Finding another one of your kind would probably take much more time than I have interest in you."

Elynna dips into a curtsey.

"The pleasure is all mine, my Lord."

She follows him without asking any question, and makes sure to stay at least a few steps behind him.

When they reach their destination, she stops, and looks up, trying not to squint too much.

What is it with people and gold?

She should ask Rain.

"... Did you build that alone?" She eventually asks, because she doesn't trust her ability to say it's a beautiful ship without looking entirely insincere.

"Alone? Why bother when there were already so many men whose existence was dedicated to serving God?"

The corners of her lips twitch.

She considers telling him that he'd make a very good capitalist, but he wouldn't get the joke.

"Impressive." She says instead.

Ugly, but admittedly impressive.

Whether the ship or the way it came to be built.

The smugness radiating from him intensifies.

He leads her to the upper deck, and goes to lay himself across his throne.

She stays still for only a moment, standing there and facing him, before she speaks up again.

"Can I take a seat?"

"Sure," Enel shrugs with a careless wave of his hand. "Sit wherever."

She stares.

He stares back with the same condescending amusement he regarded her with when he appeared in front of her after she called for him.

The same amusement you look at a vaguely cute and somewhat funny animal with.

A test, then.

Whether he's actually a god or a human who ate a Devil Fruit and either doesn't know that's what gave him his powers or was granted megalomania along with said powers, it's obvious that this man considers everything and everyone to be beneath him.

She contemplates what she's about to do.

Then she walks to him, sits on the floor, and rests crossed arms on his knee and thigh.

Just like a pet.

She looks up at him.

He looks down at her, still with that indulgent smile.

"Won't you regret leaving that boy you saved?"

So he did hear what happened after he attacked Conis.

She shrugs.

"That's how life goes, I guess. Inferior beings don't get to keep what they like for themselves."

He cocks his head, humming with a small, sick smile.

Then he lays a hand on the back of her neck, the weight of it heavy like he's already squeezing to break it.

"So you did get attached."

She lets her chin fall on her arm, the hand following the movement.

"Seems like it's natural for my kind, too."

His eyes go a bit cold, as if every time she turns out to be closer to human than not he loses interest, and lets his cheek rest against his fist.

"You could be here to fight for him instead, then."

"I could, but…"

She reaches for his staff as fast as she can.

He smiles down at her with raised eyebrows.

She backs up a bit, just enough so she can place the tip of his staff against where her heart beats in her throat.

"See? Even if I did try to fight you, it wouldn't make a difference. I might as well give you the opportunity myself, for how easy it would be for you to kill me. I don't like wasting resources. And I do want to learn more about my kind. How do you plan to do that, by the way?"

Enel laughs, and casually swings his staff away from her face.

"If you have anything special, it shouldn't be so hard to make it come out."

She looks at him, at the spark in his dilated eyes and the way the edges of his smile distort his face with the white of his teeth.

"Well. It can be hard to find the right amount of damage that differentiates being scared to death from being actually dead, though."

But she guesses it's the most efficient way to force her powers into action.

Fear and pain make people do things that they wouldn't or couldn't do otherwise, after all.

Although doing this without having gone through the initiation Doctorine talked to her about, it's hard to say what the consequences might be for her.

"Nothing is difficult for God."

"Of course. It seems the way I look at things is still limited, after all."

"Learn fast, then. I don't want to waste time teaching you."

He pauses as if to listen to something and then stands up, announcing that he has to go meet the survivors left after the game.

"I'll wait here for you, my Lord. Any place that I can't enter?"

"None. Feel free to visit."

Annnnd that's another test.

Since he looks about as sane as Bluebeard, she probably shouldn't fuck it up.

He disappears in a flash, and she sits still for a bit before getting to her feet and swinging her backpack onto her shoulder, humming tonelessly as she heads for the stairs that will lead her down inside the ship.

It's really a good thing he was confident enough in himself to not check the contents of her bag.

She would definitely be dead if he did.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"For humans, death is the ultimate fear." Enel comments lightly as he smashes Zoro's skull into the stone with his foot. "This, is why people bow their heads to the ground and beg for God's mercy!"

Nami's hands are trembling against her mouth again, cradling her hitching, terrified breath there.

"It's a shame you survived up to this moment to end up like that, Blue Sea man. You even had a crewmate to guide you on the right path."

"What… the fuck… are you on about?" Zoro grits out, voice half-hidden by the ground his face has been shoved against.

"That girl who was with her on your ship." Enel explains smugly with a jab of his finger in Nami's direction. "She's waiting for me right now so I can bring her to the endless Vearth."

"Hah!" Zoro scoffs after a moment of silence. "Didn't know God could spout bullshit-"

And Nami knows that this isn't denial like Enel probably thinks in the hollow of his mocking smile.

This is trust.

Not trust that Enel is lying just to see their face twist with the pain from the wound stabbed in one's back by a trusted hand.

Rather, this is trust that their First Mate is doing this for an entirely different reason than what Enel is convinced he knows.

But the line between trust and denial blurs easily, and since Alabasta, perhaps even before, Nami has found herself wondering, sometimes.

Elynna isn't entirely amoral.

She has her limits.

Regardless, her limits are much more flexible than those of the rest of the crew.

And Nami thinks that even Robin is driven by dreams and convictions, when she sees the glint in the other woman's eyes whenever her attention is set on a new history book.

Elynna isn't.

She's driven solely by people.

Klahadore? She fought against him and his men because Luffy decided to stay instead of leaving Usopp's island.

Arlong and the other Fish-Men? She considered them her enemies because they wanted to hurt Nami.

Baroque Works? She considered them her enemies because they were in the way of what the crew wanted to do.

Her training? She only pushes herself this far because she thinks it necessary to be able to stay with them.

And Nami knows that Elynna didn't agree with what these people and others were doing, that she didn't understand or like the pain they inflicted and the power they sought.

But she also knows that if people she loved didn't get involved, she would have watched this pain be inflicted, known how it would end-

And she would have done nothing.

Not simply because of fear and survival.

Because she wouldn't have cared enough.

Because idealism, for her, will never be anything more than the dream of an ideal.

(nothing more than something that will never happen)

Most of the things she thinks are wrong, she will never care to prevent.

(She might want them to be, but she won't do it herself.)

Most of the people who do these things, she will never care to stop.

(She might want them to be, but she won't do it herself.)

Because in her eyes, these things will never disappear, and there will always be someone to commit them.

So she has already given up on stopping even one of them.

Unless it involves someone she cares about.

Someone close.

Someone that she can't ignore, because they're part of her world.

(But then, how far will she go, for those people, if she can already force herself to do so many other things she wouldn't do otherwise for them?

-when she has already praised some of their enemies for their strategies, no matter how cruel the results?-

What if, one day, she finds someone to love who is cruel as easy as they breathe, whose cruelty she can ignore because she doesn't care enough about the people it hurts?

-finds someone she speaks with as easily as she did with Crocodile despite the bars between them, and who is willing to put more effort into tempting her?-

What if, one day, the love she has for them isn't enough to keep her fighting things she wouldn't bother to otherwise?)

So when the guerilla warrior and Zoro's last attempts are crushed seamlessly, when she's the only one left whose skin lightning hasn't sunk its teeth into, she asks to join the man who isn't God but who feels too close to being exactly that for her to be anything else than afraid.

(And she tries to convince herself that she fears only the wounds of her nakama and the situation they're in.

Only that, and not what she might find wherever Enel will take her.)

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"Y' know, my Lord," Elynna begins without looking up as soon as they step on the deck of the Maxim. "I hope there's more stuff to do where we're going than on this ship. Maybe I should've brought more stuff from the Merry, like a sex toy or something-"

She looks up, or maybe looks down, because she's currently settled on the throne that is definitely for Enel and not for her, legs leaning against the backrest and head hanging off the seat.

Her eyes land on Nami, and she blinks.

"Oh, wait. You're forgiven. This is much better."

If she was a tiny bit less scared out of her mind, Nami would facepalm.

As it is, she flinches when she sees one of Enel's eyebrows creep upwards.

"You? Forgive God? You should remember your place before you open your mouth."

Dark eyes stare at Nami a moment longer, and then drift back towards him.

"I already know my place. But my words can't be worth more than the rest of me, and I'm not worth much to God, so I didn't think you would care."

Silence.

She sighs, flips herself off the throne, and bows, low and graceful.

"Please forgive my insolence, my Lord."

"Oh? And what should I do with the insolence that led you to sit on my throne?"

"I was warming it up for your arrival." She deadpans.

Enel hums.

Elynna straightens up, drifting close to them.

"A bit more fear would suit you well."

Elynna cocks a brow and holds up a hand.

It's shaking.

"Don't be modest, my Lord. I'm sure you can hear my heartbeat… Unless this is an excuse to touch my-"

Nami steps on her foot.

Hard.

Elynna sends her a mild glare.

Nami glares right back, and not mildly at all.

But somehow, that strange mix of irreverence tempered into something amusing rather than provoking by her submission presented as a natural response of weakness in the face of strength elicits in Enel the same type of condescending amusement Crocodile showed, and he settles on his throne without electrocuting her to death.

Nami exhales shakily.

And freezes.

Fingers cradle her jaw, thumb pressing against the bone on one side as the other fingers splay themselves along the skin of her cheek and jaw on the other, the heel of Elynna's palm barely touching her throat as her head is slightly tilted down so their eyes can meet.

Elynna stares at her for a long, silent moment, the weight of her attention heavy like the silence of an army waiting for war to begin.

Her other hand slips behind Nami's neck, fingers tangling with the strands of hair brushing the skin there.

"So. You followed God, too?"

It takes a moment for Nami to answer, brow furrowing lightly as she tries to decipher the message Elynna is tracing down the top of her spine with the pads of her fingers.

"Yep." She shrugs, playing along. "You know I always side with the strongest. I'm not gonna lose my life over something stupid like pride."

Be off this ship in an hour.

Her eyes widen, and then focus back on Elynna's.

Her First Mate raises a brow in question.

She gulps, and gives the tiniest nod.

The corner of Elynna's mouth quirks up, unseen by the God her back is turned towards.

"Good."

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Sanji wakes up first.

Consequently, he's also the first to read the note Elynna left behind for him and Usopp.

Or rather, he's the only one to read it.

"Oi, Usopp! Wake up, we've got to go save Nami-chan!"

"Silence, peasant…" Usopp mumbles into the pillow he's drooling against. "Carrots are the best weapon…"

Sanji kicks the blankets off him.

He's struggling to thread his arms through the sleeves of his shirt and explain to a still half-asleep Usopp why they have to go on a ship that is already flying and where their seemingly invincible opponent is when his eyes fall on the thick book that is resting on Nami's desk.

He frowns.

It's a world atlas, and he has seen Nami work with one for reference, when she comes to sketch her maps on the kitchen table because the light isn't good in her room, but…

The one she did use was a lot older than this one.

He glances at Usopp, who is still struggling to put on his shoes while yawning so hard he might as well be trying to dislocate his jaw, and steps closer to the desk to open the book at random.

He finds himself looking at the map of an area he's pretty sure they haven't visited yet, and blinks.

Because they haven't visited it, but the map is already covered in neat annotations.

There are several stars of various sizes littered across the double page, a symbol that has been added to the key of the map with the words 'known Marine bases' written next to it.

Sticky notes written in black ink detail the political situation of some islands, while others written in red ink make mention of incidents caused by various kinds of criminals.

Sanji swallows, and turns a few pages.

Some are still blank, but the ones that are not are pretty much the same except for a few variations such as notes in another colour about unsafe food and other details concerning the cultural context of some islands.

"Ah."

Startled out of his thoughts, Sanji whips around, almost knocking into Usopp who's now leaning over his shoulder to look down at the book.

He doesn't seem surprised at all.

Which isn't strange, given that Sanji recognised his wide, loopy script here and there.

"What's this?" He eventually asks after a moment of silence in which the sniper doesn't talk.

Usopp glances at him, and then turns around to gather some gadgets and munitions to put into his satchel.

"Remember that island we visited a bit before Loguetown where we almost got sentenced to execution?" He eventually starts.

Sanji hums in confirmation.

With their usual luck, their crew stopped at that particular island on the very same day a crew from the Grand Line was visiting -since it was the home of several crewmembers.

And because the Marines weren't going to miss an opportunity like this, the island was swarming with soldiers ready to arrest the whole crew in one fell swoop.

Sanji didn't have any problem, as he was with Nami, who was usually the one he went with to restock on anything they might need, but the rest of his crewmates went with Luffy, and ended up thrown into prison when their Captain somehow alerted all the undercover soldiers in the surrounding streets about how he was a pirate.

They managed to break out and join Sanji and Nami to escape because the Marines were paying more attention to the members of the Grand Line crew they were sending away for execution than to an East Blue newbie, but they were almost captured again several times because of the sheer number of soldiers present.

"Well- Elynna freaked out." Usopp says with a shrug.

Sanji pauses, and then digs around in his pocket for a cigarette as the pieces start to fall into place.

When Nami freaks out, she either gets angry, or cries. Sometimes both.

When Usopp freaks out, he runs.

(If he can breathe enough for that.)

When Elynna freaks out, she blames herself, and obsesses over her perceived mistakes to make sure that she won't do them again.

"I don't quite get it," Usopp goes on, "but she thought she should have known there would be so many Marines there. Nami found out she was collecting information about the islands we might visit in the future from newspapers and a few books, and we decided to help her, because, well… It wasn't a super great surprise to end up in that situation without knowing about it, and someone has got to stop Elynna when she gets up during the night to work on this or starts looking for tourist books and the likes every time we stop at an island just in case wearing a given type of clothes on this or that island will be taken the wrong way. So we do that during our Smart Quartet sessions. Elynna's the one who does most of the work, though."

"... Why haven't we heard about it, then?"

Usopp shoots him a dry look.

"Look, we like arriving on an island and already knowing somewhat what kind of problem to look out for -cause there's no way we're actually going to avoid them unless we don't go to that island at all- when we do have some info about it. There's a reason why I didn't even get off the Merry while we were in Mock Town, you know. But if we tried to warn you guys every time we stop somewhere about this gang or that Marine Captain we should look out for, you're probably going to take it as an insult."

Then he shrugs again.

"That's what Elynna said, anyway."

Sanji stares at the book for a few more seconds, and then closes it gently before dragging the sniper out of the room.

Usopp sighs, having hoped Sanji actually forgot about his crazy plan to sneak on the ship God lives on.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"Hey! Are you Enel?!"

Enel doesn't answer, looking down the height of his ship of gold like a King looking down at a servant from their throne.

"Ah." Elynna says.

Nami hurries to the railing even as her lips stretch into a smile and her shoulders slump in relief.

"What…" Luffy's voice reaches them, resounding through the cave, "did you do to my crew?"

Enel raises a brow.

"Which pieces of garbage are you referring to?"

Elynna shifts a bit closer.

This… is gonna be good.

She only allows herself to stay and enjoy Enel's absolute confusion in the face of Luffy's reaction to his power (or lack thereof) before she jumps off the ship.

She's done everything she needed to do here, anyway. No use staying on this frankly gaudy ship anymore.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

It's a good thing the former member of the Holy Guard made a map of Upper Yard for her, because otherwise she would still be looking for the ruins Enel mentioned when he came to take her to his ship.

She finds an absurdly big hole in the middle of those ruins, and still more ruins beneath, where the rest of her crew is.

Looking slightly barbecued, but she'll take it as long as they still breathe.

"Miss First Mate." Robin greets through her laboured breathing.

"Robin-san."

"He said he would send everything back to earth."

"Yeah, I guessed he didn't mean the nice version of 'I'm done with this island, you can have it back'."

The left corner of Robin's mouth quirks up only for a second.

"We should get out of here. At least get to the top level."

Elynna nods, and crouches down to heave Zoro onto her back.

"Take care of Chopper for now."

"And these two?" The historian inquires with a nod towards the guerilla and the former God even as hands sprout from the thick vines spearing through the sky so she can more easily climb up.

Elynna gives them a passive glance, and shrugs.

"We'll see about them once these two are safe."

Robin stares at her pensively, humming quietly to herself, and then picks Chopper up.

Once on the upper cloud platform, Elynna takes care of Zoro and Chopper's open wounds, and then goes back down for the two other men.

That's where Nami joins them with Usopp and a newly-electrocuted Sanji, just a few minutes after Luffy passed them by on his way up the intertwined vines towards where he's clearly planning to find Enel and whack him in the face with the huge sphere of gold that somehow got attached to his arm.

The little Shandian girl who was with him immediately glomps the navigator, still looking pale after spending time alone with Elynna and a woman who can grow multiple limbs, even if only for a few minutes.

"So." Elynna starts. "Enel was a bit roughed up when he came back."

"Yeah. that guy used a Reject Dial on him." Nami says with a nod towards the guerilla man.

"Huh. So did he bleed red?"

Robin smiles.

"Yes, although we would have to cut him open to further ascertain that he's actually human-"

"Stop it, you creeps!" Usopp screams.

"Wait. If Aisa is here, does that mean Luffy is too?"

"No, you just missed him." Robin informs them. "He was going back up to save you, Miss Navigator."

"That idiot has the worst timing." Usopp grumbles.

Feeling Nami's eyes on her, Elynna looks up from where she's delicately taking off Sanji's damaged bandages.

She shakes her head.

"I didn't have time to tell him."

Nami curses under her breath, and takes hold of her waver again.

"I'll chase him down, you guys go to the Merry!"

Elynna has switched to taking care of Usopp's new wounds as Robin checks on the state of the others when Sanji opens his eyes with a groan.

"How many fingers do you see?" Elynna asks.

"... Four?" He eventually coughs out.

"Uh. Seems okay, but you should probably sleep a bit more."

"Yeah, Sanji! You deserve it, after you saved us like that! What did you even do to cause that explosion?"

The cook coughs again, groaning as Elynna snatches the cigarette he was attempting to insert between his teeth with trembling fingers.

"I… moved a few cogs to damage the mechanisms of the ship. That's what he gets for… thinking he can man a ship… on his own. Damn bastard." He mutters even as he gives the nurse a pitiful glance.

She rolls her eyes, steals his lighter as well, and lights the cigarette herself, placing the non-burning end between his lips with her own steady hand and then taking it away once he takes a breath of nicotine.

I have a plan about God that I'll implement under the deck on the bow side of the ship, so if either or both of you wakes up before it comes into effect (somewhere in the next two to four hours), it would be great if you could find a way to distract him away from that part of the ship.

I'll owe you a favour.

P.S.: I wrote this at 3:27 PM.

She smiles, and brings the cigarette closer again.

"Nice one, Hermes."

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"There." Nami pants as she watches the giant vine leaf float down the cloud they're standing on. "Enel said he could hear some voices below us, so hopefully the others haven't left. They'll be able to help us."

"Huh? You're not leaving, Nami?"

"Leave? If you take my waver, you're just going to crash it again! Since you want to ring that bell so bad, I'll give you a lift. You're the Captain, after all. But you better keep me alive, got it?!"

Luffy blinks, and then beams.

"Promise!"

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

They've barely started driving up the falling vine when lightning bolts begin to rain down around them.

"Shit!" Nami curses, speaking louder to be heard amidst the pandemonium, since she can't afford to look away from the path in front of them. "He's trying to break the vine at the roots! We won't reach him like this!"

"Then go faster! You're not at full speed, right?!"

"I can't for now! Lynna said not to be on the ship at-"

She yelps, almost falling off the vine as a wall of sheer heat and sound so loud it feels like an invisible, physical thing hits them in the face.

The sweat on their skin dries up almost instantly with how hot the flames are, and they're left staring with wide eyes at where black smoke is hiding the golden ship from view.

Then Luffy laughs.

"Faster, Nami! We can definitely reach him, now!"

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

A few seconds before

"Hey, Hawk?"

"Yeah?" Usopp mutters anxiously without looking away from the apocalypse happening around them and the only hope they have left and that they can't even see, small as it is on that falling branch.

"What time is it?"

"Uh… 6:09 PM, why?"

"Huh. Pretty good timing."

This time Usopp does look down, turning suspiciously squinted eyes towards his First Mate.

"What do you mean 'pretty good timin-"

His scream is drowned out by the explosion that causes it and that seems to rock the lightning clouds gathered above them.

They all look up to see smoke merge with the clouds created by the Maxim and bright flames lick up the golden shine of the ship as the bow of it suddenly tilts down, clanging sounds reveberating through the sky as the machinery of the ship strains to keep it afloat in that position.

Under the brewing clouds of toxic smoke and the roaring flames of the explosion that throw lights and shadows over her features, Elynna's savage smirk is positively dripping with smug satisfaction and has 'fuck Enel' written all over it.

Zoro's mouth slowly slips into a smirk of his own as he realises just what happened, and he lets himself fall back against the cloud he's lying on, ready to sleep off the last lightning attack he suffered while trying to cut the damn vine.

Sanji sighs dreamily.

Usopp gapes.

"I can't believe thi- Did you steal the explosives I was working on?!"

Robin blinks, and stifles a laugh behind her hand.

Elynna looks at him, and clicks her tongue.

"Such harsh words. As your First Mate, I requisitioned them for the good of the crew."

"Bullshit! You totally stole them!"

"Yep."

"... So did the timers work out well?"

"Well, given the result, I'd say they worked pretty damn well, yeah."

"I'm starting to see a pattern." Robin muses, looking more amused than concerned.

"What?"

"She's saying that between this and the base on Zephrim, you're becoming a goddman pyromaniac." Usopp explains, looking definitely concerned.

"It's just your imagination."

"I can see why you get along so well with Fire Fist." Robin adds as she remembers stumbling upon Elynna while she was calling Luffy's brother not long after they left Alabasta, careless of how Usopp's face goes green at the prospect of Elynna becoming as much of a problem magnet as either of the brothers.

"Nah, his face was enough of a reason."

"... With or without the rest of his body?"

Usopp's green face turns white.

Elynna snorts, and then bursts out laughing, hard enough that it's a good thing she's sitting down and has already given the cigarette back to Sanji.

"Blue Sea people are completely insane…" Aisa mutters, staring at them with wide eyes.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

As usual, things end with everyone partying well after night has fallen.

Elynna follows the people who set up the food, helps herself as soon as they move on towards another spot, and then sits down at a table far enough from the fire that she won't get too hot (or dragged into something definitely weird, since the campfire is the centre of the festivities) but close enough that she can still keep an eye on her crewmates.

She's trying to savour a Shandian dish when some guy from the angel people comes up to her, clearly already a little more than just tipsy.

He's not particularly aggressive or even clingy, but he can't seem to take the hint that she's not interested in his company despite her less-than-enthusiastic participation in the conversation.

Or the fact that when he sat down -uninvited- and gave his name -unprompted- she told him to his face that she did not care.

"Hey, um, wanna- wanna dance with me to celebrate?" The boy fumbles over his words and the red blush circling his neck and diving under his shirt.

It's the third time he asks.

But third time isn't the charm.

Instead she sighs, and points a finger.

The boy follows the direction it points towards.

"This," she says, "is my boyfriend."

As if he has a built-in radar for when Elynna is talking bullshit and involves him into it, Zoro turns around, and glares.

Interpreting it to be for him, the boy squeaks, falls off the bench, and scrambles to his feet to run away.

Elynna throws a thumbs up in Zoro's direction.

He glares harder, scoffs, and turns back around.

She looks up ten minutes after that to find Nami marching towards her, and sits still as the navigator reaches her, placing a knee on the bench to lean forward and throw her arms around Elynna's neck.

Elynna looks down at her plate, wiping some leftover sauce with her finger and licking it clean.

"Some poor guy was dared to flirt with me and it was so awkward and it looked like he was screaming for help with his eyes so I said I had to find my girlfriend to save him the embarassment-"

"How generous of you."

"-and to make sure they wouldn't send someone else." Nami finishes, lips fluttering into a grin against Elynna's cheek.

"I figured. Just so you know, I told someone else that Fang is my boyfriend."

"... I already know where to throw the body. Since Chopper is drunk, we can probably get some poison from his roon on the Merry, right?"

Elynna's lips twitch upwards.

"It's a date. Who are you going to use as a meat shield the next time you need one, though?"

"Shit, you're right. Break up with him, then."

"... With him, I might. With his back muscles? No can do." She states flatly. "And don't get me started on those abs-"

Nami groans dramatically, pressing a kiss against her cheek and then sitting down more properly, slumping forward on the table to hide her laughter against the wood of it.

"Fine," she sighs as she shifts until her entire left side is pressed against Elynna's right one. "I'll just be your mistress, then."

"Hell no. So much unneeded drama. Also it's just fucked up. I'll just tell Fang I found a girlfriend and that if he finds someone else, I can totally share his back mu- I mean, share his boyfriend time with that person."

Nami kicks her in the ankle, and laughs.

"Babe." She says once she's calmed down.

"Yeah?"

"Let's just skip straight to marriage." She offers as seriously as she can.

"Let's skip straight to the consummation of the marriage." Elynna counters, looking absolutely serious.

Nami rolls her eyes, struggling not to laugh again.

"Why are you so against a wedding ceremony?"

"It's a pain to organise, costs way too much money, and involves way too many people."

"You really think the others will pass up the opportunity to party if any of us ever gets married?"

"... I'll just marry them too."

"... To avoid a wedding ceremony?"

"Yep."

"They'll want to party even more."

"I can be convincing."

Nami slaps her in the arm for the innuendo, and then smirks.

"... Even Chopper?"

"I will hit you."

The tangerine-haired girl giggles into the hollow of her elbow.

"So do you really have a sex toy on the ship?" She asks in an attempt to relieve the disgust still painted all over Elynna's face.

"Nah. I don't like getting off alone. And if I did have one, you'd definitely know. I have better things to do than hide stuff every time you're the one cleaning the room. Why? Do you need one? Because I can-"

"I'm not asking because of that, sheesh!"

Elynna chuckles, and Nami huffs.

"Where did you find those explosives, by the way?"

"Oh, I stole them from Hawk."

"... What?"

"Yeah, he was experimenting on some to create a delayed activation mode."

"Is that so."

"Hm."

"I… see."

Nami stands up, eyebrow twitching and fingers fisted and eyes stormy.

Then those eyes settle on where Usopp is telling stories to a bunch of kids.

Elynna leans back to watch Nami run up to him and kick him in the back, sending him flying into an empty table.

"Ow! What's the big idea, Nami?!"

"I should be the one asking that!" The navigator yells back as she reaches him and promptly puts him into a headlock. "What were you thinking, experimenting on explosives while on the ship?!"

"Ow! But it was for the progress of science!"

"The progress of science my ass! Do that elsewhere than on the Merry! Scientists already know what happens to people on a ship that blows up!"

"Where am I supposed to do it, then?!"

"Where I'm not!"

"But we're in the same crew-"

"Exactly, just don't do it at all!"

"-and it ended up helping, anyway!"

"Yeah? I guess I'll just throw you off this island, then! It will end up helping, since we won't die stupidly!"

"What? Hey, hey, hey, where are we going?! Wai- Wait a minute!"

"Huh. Savage. I like it."

The Shandians who were watching the scene glance at Elynna, and shuffle away quietly.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

"So." Nami starts, fists resting on the curves of her hips as she stares down at Luffy, Zoro, Robin and Chopper.

Usopp is lying next to them, having been dragged around the party as Nami gathered up the four of them to talk about something that seemed serious enough for them to follow her without a word.

"Get on with it." Zoro grunts as he raises the bottle he brought with him to his lips.

Nami snatches it out of his hand, and pins him down with a glare.

"I would have already if you didn't interrupt me."

"You goddamn-"

"Lynna isn't human."

Zoro settles back down, and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"Enel and Aisa both said more or less explicitly that her presence doesn't feel human to them."

There's a pause, and then Zoro takes out another bottle, uncorking it and taking a long swig of the liquid inside.

"So what?" He grunts once he's done. "I hope you didn't call us just for that. Chopper isn't human either."

"Nah, he's a racoon." Usopp snickers.

"I'm a reindeer!" Chopper barks as he whacks him upside the head.

"And I'm wounded!"

"Then stop doing stupid things that will get you even more hurt!"

"You're supposed to be a doctor, you traitor!"

"That's exactly why I said that!"

"This… is so cool!" Luffy exclaims, loud enough that he cuts through the brewing fight between the doctor and the sniper. "What is she, then?! Does she have weird powers? A laser?!"

"I said she's not human, not that she's a robot. And how should I know? Even Lynna told us in Alabasta that she doesn't know herself. I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page, otherwise I'm eloping with her right now."

It doesn't entirely sound like a joke, and garners a blank stare from Luffy that morphs into stubborn refusal as soon as he understands that eloping would mean leaving.

"No! I forbid it, Captain's orders!"

"Shut up. You're too loud." Zoro grumbles.

"A hangover already?" Nami grins innocently.

The swordsman snorts, and takes another swig.

"Don't lump me in with the likes of you."

"You're right. You'll never reach my level. We are in no way comparable."

"Hah?!"

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Sanji finds Elynna asleep, almost hidden away against the trunk of a tree.

For a moment, he stays standing there, looking down at the sight of her.

Being a good deal taller than her, he's almost always looking down at her, but rarely does she look so… small.

He exhales a cloud of cigarettes.

She's gotten better at hiding it.

The stress.

There's almost no blue-purple shadows under her eyes, and he's been paying more attention to her face since they left Drum, so he was relieved to see that the anxious frown that dug between her eyes eventually smoothed out.

He should have kept an eye on the rest of her body, too.

Her shoulders are still tight, her spine is still tense.

He sighs again, and crouches in front of her.

Carefully, he winds his arms around her body, before straightening up.

Then he takes one step, and stops.

The realisation is sudden.

This is the first time he's ever carried Elynna.

It feels very different from when he carries Nami in his arms.

Nami likes to be pampered. She likes to be treated like a princess.

(Perhaps because she was abused and treated like less than dirt for so long.)

Sometimes, usually when she's lounging in one of their sun chairs, she decides that she's too lazy to go take something in her room or join the others in the kitchen on her own feet, and so she turns to him and holds out her arms with that pretty, demanding smile that one would have to be blind, deaf and idiotic to ignore.

Elynna has never done that.

The most she ever did is let him curl their arms together to support her weight when she's wounded or tired.

If anything, Sanji would guess that for her-

"... I can walk, you know. You just had to wake me up." Elynna mumbles through eyes somehow both bleary and clear even as her muscles contract, as if she's trying to reduce the weight resting in his hold and take it for herself.

For her, he would bet that being pampered is only a nice way to say 'being a burden'.

That for her, only children get to be pampered.

"It's fine, Elynna-chan." He smiles as he starts walking again. "I want to do this."

He feels her stare at his face before she settles back into his arms.

(And he knows that this does not mean that she'll let him do it again, let alone ask for it.

Knows that this is about him -about not displeasing him- more than it is about herself.)

"Have you eaten?"

She hums with a shrug, straightening slightly against his chest.

"At the beginning of the party, yeah."

He raises a curious eyebrow, knowing that she usually likes to eat a lot more than this.

Another shrug as her eyes sweep over the crowd around them.

"You can never tell what people put in the food in places like this."

Sanji looks back forward with a frown.

He didn't even consider that possibility.

But given the context of this party and the fact that she didn't warn the rest of them to be careful, he guesses that she doesn't put much faith in her doubts this time around either.

(And he wonders how often it happens, that she finds herself doubting what she does or what others do, and keeps the anxiety of it to herself because she doesn't want to bother or annoy others with fears she already labels as stupid even when she can't dismiss them.)

His grip tightens around her to hold her more firmly, and he turns his head just enough to smile straight at her.

"How about we try some things together? I'd like to get some new recipes for when we leave."

Elynna stares at him for a long moment, and then gives him a quirk of her lips.

"Sure."

So he lets her down, and leads her by the arm towards various tables where the dishes are laid out.

They take a sample of whatever seems good or unusual, and then walk back to a quieter area to sit on a fallen tree and taste the food as Sanji rambles on about this spice or that flavour combination while Elynna nods along and takes notes, offering her opinion and ideas here and there.

It's only one hour later that Sanji reaches for his pack of cigarettes and his lighter again, quietly observing as Elynna slowly finishes the desserts samples -which he made sure to push towards her so she can satisfy that sweet tooth of hers.

He smiles as he watches her stare down at the empty plates in front of her and contemplate whether or not she's going to use her finger to catch the cream and crumbs that her spoon couldn't clean off the plates.

She catches sight of his face, and raises an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

He smiles wider.

"Thank you for all the work you do for us, Elynna-chan."

Her face smooths out, and she stares at him silently, before averting her eyes back to one of the plates as she runs her finger over it and shrugs, stilted and restrained.

(Uneasy.)

"It's my job."

Sanji looks away and at the stars, blowing thick, gray-white smoke towards their faint glimmer.

He finds it curious, how she can look at something or someone and always find things she likes and dislikes within them.

Things that she finds beautiful or ugly, even as she recognises that her judgement is her truth, but not everyone else's.

Even people she hates, she does not think of as entirely repulsive.

Even people she loves, she does not think of as entirely perfect.

And yet, somehow, when it comes to herself, her judgement always seems to stilt towards the wrong.

Unconsciously.

Irreversably, he fears.

(Or maybe, rather, it stilts wrong in the point of contact between her and the world.

Because Elynna-chan does know herself.

It's not particularly uncommon for her to say that she cannot do one thing, or that she's good at another.

But in the face of insults or criticism, agreement comes out of her mouth much more often than counter-arguments.

Especially when it comes to those she loves.

And if the knowledge of everything good about her was really settled into her, would she really look this conflicted over heartfelt praise and gratefulness?)

"No. It's the way you are. We couldn't have asked for a better First Mate, and I think we don't say it often enough."

He waits, until he sees her shoulders unwind and her mouth slips into a small, pleased smile.

"Is that so…"

"Yes." He says forcefully.

She closes her eyes.

"I'm glad, then."

He smiles up at the stars, and they stay like this for a few minutes, her shoulder brushing against his every time she breathes.

"Hey, did you see the girls behind us?" She eventually speaks up without bothering to open her eyes, voice barely above a whisper.

He hums out a positive response.

Face offered up to the night sky, she opens her eyes just slightly, dark pupils moving to rest on him as she gives him a half-smile.

"Perfect. Let's go flirt, then."

"Wha-"

She slips off the fallen tree trunk and takes hold of his arm, tugging onto it.

He lets her.

"Don't think I didn't notice you've barely flirted with anyone since we talked. I asked you to be more careful, not to stop flirting at all. I'll come with you this time to tell you if you go too far, but just so you know, this isn't my style, so don't expect me to follow you every time you go up to a stranger."

And then she proceeds to drag him and his fried brain towards the group of women standing just at the edge of flickering light thrown on the ground by the campfire.

"Hi, so we've been debating this over the last minutes and can't agree: which one of us were you looking at?"

Sanji gapes down at her, and Elynna shrugs in return.

One of the older women of the group -probably a Shandian based on the way she's dressed- chuckles, seemingly amused by his First Mate's way of saying hello.

"I was admiring your friend's clothes. We don't have those here. I must admit they look good."

Elynna turns to look Sanji up and down, and then nods at the other woman.

"On him, yeah. And he's got the face for it."

The corners of the woman's mouth twitch, and a few of the others giggle.

"He does."

The laughter spreads around the group as Sanji's blush spreads across his cheeks.

"Well she," a younger woman from the angel people giggles while pointing at the Shandian girl next to her, their cheeks red from the heat of the fire and the alcohol they've both already ingested, "was totally staring at your breasts!"

The Shandian girl goes even redder than Sanji, and elbows her friend in the ribs hard, muttering apologies under her breath.

Elynna blinks.

"Understandable. I definitely beat him on that point."

The laughter stilts to a halt, and then starts up again even louder on the part of some of the women.

The poor girl crouches down to hide her burning face in her knees.

And Sanji realises that his First Mate flirts like she jokes.

That is to say, she's not subtle.

At all.

He strains to smile instead of laugh, and tries to redirect the conversation;

"I think I saw some of you ladies near the cooking space earlier. I was wondering if you could tell me more about some dishes? I'm really curious about a few of them."

"Awww, and he's so polite, too!" Another woman squeals as she latches onto his arm to drag him off towards one of the tables. "Come on, let's go, pretty boy!"

"I know you want a husband who can cook, but don't propose to him, Julie!" The last member of the group laughs loudly.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

The party is still in full swing when Robin leaves to go back to the Merry.

She's still not used to it.

All this noise and all these people.

Even when she worked for Crocodile, she spent little time in Alabasta's cities.

Still now, her throat sometimes hurts when she talks with the Straw Hats' First Mate or their doctor for too long.

She doesn't think she has talked that much with anyone since-

(Since people she sometimes thinks she didn't really belong with, because if she did-

shouldn't they have let her die with them?)

When the Straw Hats threw a party after she joined them, they mostly let her sit on the sidelines and watch them and just… do whatever she wanted to do.

(Probably at least partly because the Captain and the sniper already identified their First Mate as the prime target most likely to cave in and indulge their idea of fun.)

But these people keep demanding her attention and her energy and-

Well.

She's not used to keeping some energy aside for something else than just… running.

Surviving.

(So she was surprised, the few times when the Straw Hats' antics made a chuckle fall out of her mouth.

And it was really like it fell.

It was easy.

Easier than any of the smiles she's mustered up in the last twenty years.

She's scooped out a lot of those out of herself.

She didn't think she had the energy -the strength- for that.

Now she thinks that it might just be because those pirates give off a kind of energy -of strength- of their own when they have fun, and that taking that energy for yourself means that you can only use it for fun.)

The knots in her shoulders and back loosen as she steps onto the deck, even as the clouds shift to reveal another presence on the Merry.

After all, it's not the first time that the First Mate of the Straw Hats leaves the noise of a party to join Robin in the girls' room where she has taken refuge in a hammock and between the pages of a book, greeting her lazily before grabbing a book of her own of burrowing herself in blankets.

Although things are slightly different this time around, as they are both still on the deck, and the only contact Elynna has with the floor is not through her feet but her forearms.

Her legs slowly shift between various positions even as her torso remains as still as humanly possible above her elbows, and Robin can almost see the muscles of her thighs and stomach shift beneath her flesh.

Apart from the slight trembling of her arms under her own weight, there is no indication that what the girl is doing is physically demanding in any way. She breathes slow and deep, the strain of focus on her vague features so slight it barely puts any kind of furrow between her eyes.

Somehow, it almost looks like she's relaxing.

Then again, maybe this is that easy for her, considering the absurd exercises the swordsman of the crew orders her to do to work on her balance.

Robin watches for a few more minutes, wondering absently how awed her yournger self would have been to see things like this, if she was not kicked out of Ohara's circus before the show could even begin the one time she tried to sneak in.

(It doesn't really matter.

Only vague appreciation is left.)

"Oh, Robin-san."

The smile comes back.

"Miss First Mate."

She wonders about this, too.

She only risks calling people by their names when she is sure that she will never like them.

(When she is sure that it will not hurt once they betray her, or when she betrays them.)

So she wonders what names and nicknames mean to the girl called Elynna.

She wonders, sometimes, what her nickname might be, in a life where trust is something she can grasp.

(But curiosity has cost her too many things already.

She does not ask.)

Robin smiles a bit wider, and turns around to go back to her room.

Elynna's low-pitched voice rises again, barely breaking through the quiet noises of the night and the humming sounds of the party.

"I have something for you."

Robin turns back, blinking as she watches the younger woman shift her weight onto only one forearm so her newly freed hand can slip into the pocket of her shorts and take out a piece of paper that she holds out towards Robin.

"Wasn't sure if it would interest you." She says as Robin steps close to take it.

She unfolds it to find the texts engraved in the Poneglyph language in some gold tablets that Enel apparently took with him on his ship copied down neatly, albeit with the slight clumsiness of someone who writes in a language they do not understand.

The first thought that comes to her is almost frantic, because how did the girl know about Robin's ability to read those letters?

She calms down almost as quickly as she panicked, however, because one, Elynna also knows another language. She's the least likely to put her at risk with the Marines, whether because she empathises or for her own safety.

Two, because they both know that Robin can and will kill her in a heartbeat.

Three, because it would be more surprising for Elynna not to know, or at least suspect this.

Robin might not exactly know what those nicknames mean, but given that everyone else on the crew has one, it's rather obvious that the girl doesn't consider her like she does her other crewmates, even though she treats her pretty much the same otherwise.

(An acknowledgement, perhaps, of the fact that Robin herself does not consider herself to be part of this crew, and did not join with the intention to be.

It's easier like that.

She can't allow herself to be swayed anymore, no matter how easy it seems to let herself fall into step with those around her, instead of walking behind them to make sure that no one will stab her in the back, and that she has a clear view of theirs.

She has tried so many times.

It has failed again and again and again.

-too many times-

And still the Straw Hats make it look so warm, so easy-

And it sounds so painful, the idea of betraying them first, of killing another chance at happiness that she might have but that she can't afford to risk anymore, no matter how much easier it seems to let herself be betrayed first again so that at least her conscience will feel less fractured, in the dead of the night and every other waking moment of solitude-)

It stands to reason, given how prudent Elynna is, that she would ask her Captain about what happened in Alabasta to find out more about her, and for her to suspect that the strange alphabet she saw on those tablets might be the same as the one hidden on that stone under Alabasta's ruins.

So she relaxes, and smiles again with the realisation that the gesture is most probably not intended as a threat.

This isn't the text that she wanted most to read on this island, once she figured out where the bell was, but it is still appreciated.

That someone thought of her enough to do this despite everything else that was going on, and the fact that this same someone has nothing to gain from doing this.

So she slips the piece of paper in her own pocket and smiles a bit wider, a bit warmer.

(a bit easier-)

"Thank you, Miss First Mate."

Legs frozen into a split position, the girl looks up at her from under her eyelashes, eyes half-lidded and much more focused than the light smile on her face would suggest.

"So." She starts, one leg joining the other as she launches her weight past the line of her arms, spine folding into an entirely unnatural curve until her feet touch the deck near her face and she uncurls, smooth and sinuous like a snake.

She rearranges her legs and sits down cross-legged, reaching into another pocket for one of the lollipops she eats often these days, popping it into her mouth before she goes back to staring at Robin.

"What does it say?"

Her tone is casual enough that Robin might almost think that she does not know what she's asking.

And maybe it's just that.

Maybe Elynna is asking because she thinks that this is just another foreign language whose speakers are disregarded across the world, because she doesn't know Ohara's story.

(doesn't know its end-)

"Miss First Mate," she begins even as all her muscles grow taut, fighting her every step of the way as she struggles to push out the words that she never wants to hear out loud no matter how much she knows them to be the truth (even when it was still fresh and the shock still kept her numb, the horror was too big and too painful for her to really convince herself that it might just be an illusion -no one can come up with that kind of nightmare without it being a memory). "The language of the Poneglyphs is… very different from the other languages that are not the universal one. Those who speak it are not derided. They are hunted, because…" She swallows, and hates that she can't help the way her voice becomes hushed. "Those stones speak of things that some people do not want the world to know."

And the girl looks up at her from where she's sitting on the deck, and it feels like she's standing instead, like she's tall enough to look Robin in the eyes.

The candy twirling in her mouth as she twists her tongue around it pensively doesn't do anything to make the look on her face any less intense.

There is not even a trace of surprise on her face.

Robin's body grows cold.

"I know." The girl says eventually. "That's exactly why I'm asking you what it says."

Robin's fingers twitch, and the next moment tan, delicate arms bloom from the girl's shoulders as hands close around her throat.

But they keep their hold loose.

For now.

"How do you know?"

The Straw Hat's First Mate looks down with vague interest, and slowly reaches up to take the lollipop out of her mouth.

There is no fear or anger when she looks back at Robin, her features neutral but steely.

"You are an assassin, a highly wanted criminal, and a former enemy who defected from Baroque Works to join us instead, Robin." She cocks her head on the side, and gives Robin a dry look. "Did you really think I would let you get close to my crewmates without trying to learn more about you?"

The hands tighten a bit more.

Elynna goes on, seeming utterly unfazed by the wordless threat.

"Sea King said that you could come, which means that he trusts and likes you enough for that, and I trust my Captain's instinct. But even Vivi-san seemed to consider herself more a part of this crew than you do. I don't think that you considered your stay with us as anything other than temporary when you asked to join us. I do not deny that you are the good person Sea King thinks you are. But you also very clearly have a lot of enemies, and very little of your trust to grant us. In those conditions, even good people can hurt and betray others."

She stands up, pensively sucks on her candy for a few seconds, and then goes to lean back against the railing with her arms crossed.

Knowing that the younger girl specialises in close-range combat, Robin lets the hands around her throat fade into pink petals, but keeps her guard up.

"So I dug around. Your wanted poster claimed that you were the sole person to have escaped from Ohara, whose inhabitants were trying to gather weapons that would destroy the world. Anyone with half a brain and some knowledge of how human governments work can tell that it's either not the whole story or a straight-up lie, especially when talking about an eight-year-old kid. I looked up Ohara in the newspaper archive of a library during our first stop after Alabasta. Used to be very famous for its Tree of Knowledge and its acclaimed group of historians. Scholars and intellectuals being a favourite target of any repressive regime, I figured that they found something about the past that the World Government doesn't want to be known, or they were close enough to it. And considering that you claimed to be an archaeologist yourself, you evidently somehow became aware of this something, whether accidentally or intentionally -although the latter seems more likely given your level of intelligence," she hums with a wave of the hand that still holds her lollipop. "And since Vivi's father was with you and Sea King when he beat Crocodile and Rain is still in contact with Vivi, I asked to talk to her father."

Oh.

Of course.

"Protecting those under your responsibility is something he understands well. He was very helpful. Told me what happened with Alabasta's Poneglyph. So whatever you found out, I guess that it's tied to the Poneglyphs."

They stare at each other for what feels like the entire night.

And then a cool breeze sweeps between them, brushing against the back of Robin's neck.

She exhales, and lowers her arms with a slight smile.

She cannot tell whether the younger girl is lying, but the answer she just gave is, at the very least, a realistic one considering what Robin knows of her abilities and personality.

"You are very… thorough, Miss First Mate."

The girl looks at her, and suddenly flashes her a grin that digs dimples into her cheeks.

"Isn't that why you like me?"

And Robin feels her own lips quirk up without her consent, because it's true that this carefulness with details and willingness to study things in depth is something that she has appreciated in her conversations with the Straw Hats' First Mate, who strangely seems to have only superficial knowledge of world history despite her apparent interest and obvious love of books as well as intelligence.

It is her thoroughness that has prevented their conversation from being one-sided, because every time Robin explains something to her that has to do with history, it is taken as a mainstream narrative that is based on solid evidence and the work of multiple scholars, but that still does not cover the entire reality and can thus be prodded at.

More than that, she has seen Elynna's thoroughness when she followed that journalist, even if she could not be sure that the situation on Zephrim would end up being a problem for the crew.

(But that's not the only reason why Robin… likes her.

Otherwise, she wouldn't necessarily like the rest of her crew as well.

It's a problem.

It's even more of a problem that Robin has a hard time convincing herself to actually deal with said problem.)

Still, as much as Robin can appreciate thoroughness from her coworkers, insofar as it gives her less to worry about and she has always liked intelligent people no matter their kind of intelligence, she appreciates it much less when said coworkers apply that thoroughness to the topic of her past.

The thought sobers her up quickly.

The girl might not know everything, but-

"If you have guessed this much, why do you still want to know?"

She almost expects something like pure, simple curiosity to be the answer.

It was her answer -or at least part of it- when she started spying on the other scholars, after all.

It would be better, because then she would know exactly what to say to deter her from digging any further.

But instead the girl sucks on her lollipop and stares at her pensively, before giving a short hum and pointing the piece of candy at her.

"You know, I don't think we're looking at this from the same perspective."

Robin's back goes ramrod straight, and she pinches her lips together and narrows her eyes at her, crossing her arms as well.

"I don't think that this is about perspective, Miss First Mate. If you become aware of this information-"

"As far as you're concerned," Elynna interrupts her casually, "you know something, so the World Government is hunting you down. Is that right?"

"... Yes." Robin answers tightly after a moment.

"For me… Well, first of all, I don't intend to broadcast the extent of my knowledge, so unless you or I alert the authorities about this, there won't be any problem. Beyond that, what interests me the most is not the fact that you are being hunted down, but the why. And you are being hunted down not just because you know something, but because you know something that the World Government does not want anyone to know."

She uncrosses her arms to place her hands on the railing on both sides of her body so she can better hoist herself onto it, and crosses one leg over the other.

Using the white stick of her candy, she slowly scratches a line down the inside of her arm that follows the faint, blue-green outline of a vein, staring down at it for a moment before she looks back at Robin.

"In other words… It's a weakness."

Under the night sky, the usual dark blue of her eyes has turned black like a negative of the moon during a starless night.

It takes all the air out of Robin's lungs and drowns her.

"Knowledge is power, am I right? And regardless of whether or not you stick with us, my crewmates are likely to clash with the World Government at some point. So you see, this isn't a risk. This is a calculated risk, which has been weighed against the benefits it offers me in exchange. And I've decided that the advantages outweigh the risk."

That's when it fully dawns on Robin's brain, which was slipping and spinning over the smooth glass of her shock to reach some kind of conclusion that makes sense.

This is a contigency plan.

Should the Straw Hats find themselves threatened by the full force of those who control this world, should her crewmates' combat ability become insufficient to deal with this particular threat…

Their First Mate plans to blackmail the World Government.

With the information that it was so eager to maintain secret it purged an entire island and its population out of existence for it.

It's-

It's insane.

The girl in front of her is completely insane.

(It's brilliant, the part of her that has given up on survival whispers.

It's preparing to attack in order to defend

-instead of runningrunningrunning-

because where can you run in a world that belongs entirely to the very people you are running from?

Death is the only possible end.)

This is not about curiosity and the love of knowledge and the righteousness that drove those from Ohara, Robin included.

(that drove them all to their end and that of everything they ever held dear, one way or another)

Oh, Elynna probably feels some level of intellectual curiosity for this forbidden knowledge, because she likes to learn.

But in that moment Robin knows that this isn't what drives her to ask the question.

No.

This is about love.

In another reality, if they only met by chance during Robin's work as Miss All-Sunday, talked about history, and Elynna was somehow made aware of the Poneglyphs and all the blood and death they carry with them, she would never have asked.

Her interest in her own safety would have won over her interest in knowledge.

But in this reality, Elynna is friends with (loves) the Straw Hats.

A bunch of outlaws who are confident (hopeful) in their own strength, follow their own set of morals with little to no compromise, and rarely pause to think about the possible consequences, and especially the long-term consequences, of their actions and ambitions.

And that, is what drives her to ask.

The girl blinks, seeming to sense the shift within Robin's thoughts, and asks again what was written on the Poneglyph.

And before Robin's brain can catch up with her brain, she finds herself answering.

Find herself giving not only the translation of the texts Elynna copied down, but any text in this language she has ever found and read.

(Perhaps because she wants to see what it's like, to be mad enough to attack instead of madly running without end.

Perhaps because this is done for love, and regardless of how many years she has yearned for it and received nothing in return, she still finds it beautiful.

Perhaps because this girl is the second person in the last twenty years, after her Captain, to offer her protection despite knowing the chains and the woes she brings everywhere, even if in a roundabout way.)

This feels like working with Crocodile all over again.

But she has always been sure that she could call Crocodile by his name without any risk.

This time around, she's rather sure of the opposite.

It's only when Elynna has thanked her and is about to disappear back into their room that Robin voices her doubt.

"You have no guarantee that this will be enough information to keep the others safe, or that you will find more Poneglyphs before you might have to put this plan into action."

Elynna looks back at her over her shoulder, and at this angle the light of the moon cascades over her, revealing the blue of her eyes.

She clenches her jaw thoughtfully, and what is left of her lollipop creaks and cracks under the pressure, loud in the quiet that envelops them.

There is almost a smile hiding in the shadows of her face.

It's a near thing.

(It's a violent thing.

Like a hand hiding a knife behind your back as you smile on.)

"That's true. Dealing with big organisations is a pain in the ass. But if you look at it from another perspective, the bigger they are, the more weaknesses they usually have."

The door shuts softly.

Robin sighs out a smile.

Of course she's working on several plans.

She wonders if this is how people who called Crocodile or herself terrifying felt when facing either of them.

She thinks that she might have to take into account another factor when she will have to decide how to betray the Straw Hats: what it might be like to face this girl, should she live long enough to potentially reach a higher level of combat ability.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

The flames melting up from the skin of Ace's tight fist flicker and die out as he struggles to rein in his emotions.

Again.

But even under the faint light of the stars, he has no problem making out the words written on the sheets of paper in his hands.

After all, he's been reading them over and over again for the better part of the day.

(By now they've sunk below his skin to etch themselves into his bones and the thin, fragile, bloody walls of his heart.)

The package Elynna left for him is divided into two parts.

It took him a moment to understand that the nonsense written in the first part was coded.

Using the system Sabo came up with when the both of them and Luffy went on expeditions in Gray Terminal.

He's still impressed that Luffy remembered it enough to teach it to his First Mate.

Not like Luffy followed many of the plans Sabo came up with, but the code wasn't just used for plans.

The words used were designed to keep Luffy entertained so he would remember where to go if they got separated and who to avoid.

It has been adapted to the situation, obviously, but the changes are easy to follow.

Chasing down a man through the Grand Line turns out to not be so different from planning to steal the treasure of a gang while keeping away from the police.

The main gang territories symbolised by a doodle of Garp's fist have become the islands where Blackbeard and his crew stopped, the strengths and weaknesses of the main threats they could face that Sabo estimated and represented using a given number of the wild animals they fought in the forest have turned into estimations of the strength stats of Blackbeard's crewmates, the piles of meat that used to represent their target have become the location of the people who sell Eternal Poses on Jaya, one of whom Ace managed to threaten the next destination of his prey out of...

There's even a hastily sketched map of the Grand Line courtesy of Luffy's navigator on which Elynna drew all of Blackbeard's known and supposed travelling paths and stopovers so as to better visualise where he might go later on.

Newspaper articles are summarised, theories regarding Teach's current powers and plans as well as a rough assessment of his actual personality now that he's not playing a role anymore are included.

There are colours to highlight what is important or uncertain, the whole thing neat and clear and easy to follow.

He can't use this information to make a plan like Sabo or Elynna would.

But at the very least, he won't go into this completely blind.

Considering that Teach thinks that he's doing this alone, he might even have an advantage.

He pauses.

He's not alone.

The thought makes his fingers twitch around the second stack of papers.

What is written there isn't coded.

Those are messages.

Quite a few written in Luffy's messy, absolutely-not-straight writing, telling anecdotes (now I have penguin disciples too!), issuing dumb challenges (I bet you haven't been sent flying by a Sea King's sneeze before!) and all around being, well... Luffy (you know, that Smokey guy from the Marines is actually pretty cool!).

The others are all written in Elynna's clean, delicate handwriting.

They're signed with the names of his crewmates.

Jozu.

We tasted one of Thatch's recipes today. It didn't taste as good as usual, but I think it'll be better once you're there.

Masked Deuce.

We celebrated the anniversary of the Spade Pirates a few days ago. Banshee drank your share of sake, Kotatsu ate your share of meat, and I had to give a speech. If you make me go through this again, I will make you eat your hat.

Marco.

Stop skipping your meals if you don't want me to give Elynna enough blackmail material to make you blush to death.

Everyone is in good health.

We will all feel better when we won't be missing you.

Take care of yourself.

Haruta.

So Izou wanted to train your division, but since it's yours they obviously have no discipline, so I took action and saved Izou's sanity by taking over. You're welcome.

P.S.: As a thank you I'll have them be the punching bags of my division.

Pops.

You coming back home is more important than getting someone's head at my feet, son. We will get him, but you are not forbidden from coming home for as long as he lives.

Izou.

Vista.

Namur.

Skull.

Mihar.

They're not all here, but written down on paper like this, there's so many.

All eager to see him again.

Every message is like a weight falling on his shoulders to ground him into this life, to make him feel all the love these people have for him and that he's left behind in his race towards the man they all loathe.

Every weight is a chain that holds him back, that tells him that once he finds that man, he can't fight thinking I'll kill him no matter what, that tells him that his life matters.

(And he finds himself wondering-

Is it so bad to be chained down like this?

Is absolute freedom -the total absence of these bonds- really so great?)

And then there's Elynna's note.

If you actually make yourself more idiotic than you are and dodge the point, I'll be impressed. I will also hunt you down and hit you in the face with it, metaphorically and literally.

P.S.: The point is that we love you.

His eyes burn, and he forcefully blinks back the tears, because he swore he wouldn't cry again, that he would never-

(But would it be the same thing?

Would it be the same tears as the ones he cried after Sabo-)

Then he reads it all again, more from memory than because he really sees it.

For the first time, he doesn't have to stop to make sure that he's not about to cry.

So he breathes in, and dials a number he knows even better than the words he was just reading.

"Hello?" Elynna answers after barely a round of ringing.

(He wishes she was sitting next to him.

He's not good with words, would rather show-

Would rather show her the way flames are dancing across his skin like his body can't hold everything inside

-how he's spent all day trying to keep it all inside, to keep it all to himself-

Or maybe he just wants someone to be sitting next to him.

Incorporeal voices are…

He hasn't been alone like this in a long time.)

Ace swallows.

"Hey."

"Oh, Ignis. How's it going?" She asks casually, as if she's not the one who left what he's holding in his hands for him.

"… I got your package."

She hums.

"Are you crying?"

He glares down at the snail.

"No. Shut up."

"Shame." She tsks with a click of her tongue. "I had my camera ready and all."

He doesn't know if she's making this harder or easier, but he definitely doesn't feel like thanking her anymore.

"Whatever." He grouches. "How was the Sky Island?"

"Too close to the sun."

"… Are you kidding me."

"Also we met God."

"How was he?"

"Definitely not as hot as you."

His lips twitch.

"Not what I asked and you know it."

"Hey, let me trash talk him a bit, the dude told me I was repulsive-"

"What."

Now he's not laughing anymore.

The flames that surge from his feet to feed the Striker turn so pale (so hot-) they're almost white, and the suddenly heated motor tells him that the machinery is really not built to deal with fire like this, especially after already working overtime to bring him to Jaya.

He clenches his jaw, and compresses the anger inside of him out of the way, until the intensity and sheer heat of his flames fades down.

Then he hisses out a breath between clenched teeth and uncurls his fists, knuckles cracking.

"You're not." He eventually growls.

Silence answers him, so he breathes out again.

"Repulsive. You're not. Really… Really not. You'll never be."

The snail cocks its head on the side and regards him quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She hums.

The Den Den Mushi gives a little smile.

"Thanks."

(He wishes he could see it on her face instead.

Hers, and his crewmates'.

And Pops'.

Luffy's would be nice, too.)

"Well, anyway, I blew him up, so it's all good."

He snorts.

"How is Luffy?"

"A bit banged up, but mostly fine. Much better than he was after fighting Crocodile. God had the powers of the Goro Goro no Mi, but that doesn't work against Sea King since rubber isn't conductive. I definitely have pictures of God's face when he realised that. I'm gonna frame them and put them above the bed, I don't care what Rain has to say about it."

He smiles more frankly this time, and listens distractedly as she proceeds to recount a few anecdotes, until-

"I'm the son of Gold Roger." He says.

Elynna falls silent mid-sentence, and he pauses, too.

He didn't expect the words to come out of his mouth.

He has been thinking about telling her, of course, but-

His stomach twists sickeningly with the anxiety that feels as old as he is, an old, wounded monster that has been living there for as long as he has been alive and aware enough to realise that the world didn't want him, trapped there and thrashing.

(He still can't tell who the monster would destroy, if it broke free.

The world, or himself?)

The silence stretches on, and he can only sit there and wait, because he can't take back the words, has never been able to ask this question (What if the worst criminal in the world had a son?) anything less than utterly seriously-

(So he sits and waits and sinks,

because silence has only ever meant-)

"For the love of God, don't ever try to imitate his mustache, that is such a turn off. Like holy fuck, Ignis, I saw his wanted poster and let me tell you, you're definitely sexier-"

He stares down dumbly at the snail.

"He was a criminal-" He begins in an attempt to turn the conversation into something that resembles at least vaguely the one he's used to having on this topic.

"Damn right that moustache was criminal… I mean, no offense to your actual dad but- Actually, you know what, yes offense, I don't care that he's Edward fucking Newgate, his barber also sucks, although I guess it might not be entirely his fault if all barbers of his generation have been taught like that-"

"Elynna- Fuck, can't you try to be serious for a second?" He eventually interrupts her.

By this point, though, the anxiety is all but gone, and the old habit of curling his shoulders inwards to wait for the words to hit has been forgotten in favour of trying to maintain his own seriousness -and the straight line of his mouth.

"Fuck you, this is my coping mechanism, okay?"

He snorts, and at the same time wonders if this is really a joke.

(And if it isn't, what does it mean when she's almost always cracking jokes?)

"By the way, did your mother have freckles?"

"… Yes?" He answers, more out of confusion than anything else.

"No, because that's definitely a plus over your father-"

"I shouldn't have talked to you about it." He groans as he rubs a hand down his face exasperatedly.

"Too late. And not that I'm unhappy with all the new information I can use to annoy you, but what brought that on?"

He eyes his Den Den Mushi for a long moment, trying to guess if she's playing dumb or not, but eventually gives up with a long sigh.

Might as well say it all, he figures even as he gives an uneasy shrug that she probably doesn't see.

"Thought you should know."

"Why?"

"… He wasn't a good man." He says slowly.

"So? I'm not friends with him, I don't give a damn. Especially since he's dead, and was probably dead before you were even born, so unless personality is actually passed down solely through genetics, which I don't think it is, the fact that he was a bad man doesn't mean you are one- Hang on," she suddenly interrupts herself mid-rant, "who even said he was a bad man? Because if it was a random citizen who only knew him from what the Marines were willing to say, they have no place to speak, and in that case all the other people I love are bad people anyway, not to mention most if not all your friends."

She sighs, then, even as Ace struggles to process everything she just dumped on him.

(Even as like every time someone's answer to his question is something else than if Gold Roger has a son, he better die before I meet him, he finds himself wondering-

Can it really be that simple?

wondering if it really is that easy for others to see themselves in the mirror-)

"I should have known I had a thing for bad boys and bad girls."

He rolls his eyes, but his lips are twitching again, and the heavy weight of the questions slips away from his mind.

"You're impossible, El." He grins, because he figures he should probably return the favour by now.

(If the nickname slips out a bit too easily, he's the only one who will ever know about it.

Just like he's the only one who will ever know that he wishes he was more patient in that moment, because if he was he would have seen the sudden dimpled grin that lights up the snail's face on her own instead.)

"I know. I'm a dream, and you love me."

A pause.

He sags into his seat, and fondness fades the grin hiding behind his hand into a smile.

"Yeah. I guess I do."

He can almost hear her half-smile rise and fall with her breath.

"… So do I get a kiss?"

"Not like that, oh my god-"

Click.

"… Did you just take a picture of your Den Den Mushi?"

"You don't get to judge me as long as you haven't seen a snail looking scandalised. Fucking hell, this is too good, I'll send this to Haruta-san. I've been taking pictures since the beginning by the way-"

"Don't you fucking dare- What do you mean 'since the beginning'-"

"-and I will definitely get a kiss out of you-"

He scoffs, but even he can tell that the glare he sends her won't have much effect with the wide smile he feels stretching towards his cheeks.

"Keep dreaming."

The snail blinks slowly at him, and he promptly decides to buy a camera the next time he finds one.

"… How did you know I have that kind of dream? Well, mind you, there's a lot more than kissing going on in those-"

He slams the receiver into its holder, blood boiling under his cheeks as the back of his neck literally erupts into flames.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

Elynna stares down at the sleeping Den Den Mushi, and clicks her tongue.

Don't start things you can't finish, Ignis.

Stretching over her bed, she hums to herself, considers going back out to see how Robin is doing, and eventually chooses not to.

They did have a pretty intense conversation, and she wasn't particularly considerate towards what the older woman went through in the last two decades.

But if she wanted Robin to get on board with her plan, she had to address the subject.

She figured that the Robin who doesn't consider herself part of the Straw Hats would prefer it if she went with the quick and brutal approach rather than if she played nice about it.

She's glad she actually called Vivi's father, though, because Robin is definitely the type to check whether the excuse she gave is true or not.

Besides, her memory needed the reminder before the Enies Lobby fuckery hits them in the face, which she guesses is going to happen soon considering how much more damaged the Merry has gotten since they came to Skypiea.

Speaking of plans…

She looks down at the sleeping snail on her bed, considers the puppy eyes it might give her for interrupting its nap, and shrugs.

A treat and extra nap time sounds like a fair trade.

"Might as well work on that one too." She mutters as she dials a new number.

"Yes?" A voice eventually answers, sounding distinctly suspicious.

She raises an eyebrow.

"Are you struggling with paparazzi or something, Demetri-san?"

There's a cough, and someone chokes on the other end of the call.

Then the sound of something hitting something else, followed by a curse.

Elynna looks up at the ceiling as she strains to not let out any sound, shoulders shaking.

"… Elynna-san?"

"Yup. You still alive?"

The journalist coughs again, now sounding more embarrassed than shocked.

"Um, yes. Sorry. I was just, uh, surprised. To hear from you."

"Uh-huh."

"How… um, how did you get my number, if I… may ask?"

"Oh, I asked Reo-san before we left his place."

There's a moment of silence.

Rest in peace, Reo-san. It was nice meeting you, Elynna thinks even as she smiles on.

"I… see. Do you… need me for something, then?"

"Reo-san led me to believe that you think yourself to still be in debt with me for helping you solve the situation on Zephrim."

Another moment of silence.

Looks like your death won't be quick, Reo-san.

"As the First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates, I'd like to cash in on that debt."

You'll be repaying the debt you entire island owes the eight of us.

This is official business.

"What is it you would like me to do, then?" Demetri asks eventually.

The awkwardness of his stutter is gone, and she can almost hear him straighten up in his seat.

An agreement to hear her out, but not to blindly follow her wishes.

Her smile turns a tad more genuine.

Working with pushovers and naive people on this kind of plan only turns out well if they're this way with her but not with everyone else. If he couldn't make himself be professional about this, she would have hung up on him.

"Do you have a personal coding system for the sensitive information you handle?"

The silence feels both heavier and sharper, this time.

"… I do."

She nods, although she expected this answer, given that he literally lived on the same island as some of the people he investigated for years.

"If you accept, I will send you two different files of information. I will use your coding system for one of them. More information to be added to that file will be forwarded to you in the future in the same way. You are free to decipher it as soon as you receive it, of course, but you are not to use any of it until I give you the signal we will agree on to tell you that you can do so."

"… Even if it would save people?"

"Even then. I need to accumulate as much material as I can before using it if I want to make the most impact."

Demetri sighs quietly, but she knows before he even gives his agreement that he will side with her on this.

This is a man who watched his family and his friends suffer for years because he had no proof to take down both the Marines and the criminals they were in cahoots with.

Because he knew that the power imbalance would keep those people safe -and most probably endanger his loved ones along with his own life- should he denounce them without solid proof to back his claim in front of the authorities that would judge his case.

It's not like everyone she potentially intends to shred to pieces keeps incriminating information regarding their own actions in their office, or has an office she can access just like that.

She needs time.

"One year." She says as a way of compromise. "If I haven't given you my final decision on when you can use this information by then, you can do whatever you want with it."

"And if I make use of this information before then? It's not like you can stop me."

She snorts.

"Wipe that look off your face. I'm not going to send assassins after you or anything. If you do that, the timing won't be as advantageous for me, but it won't necessarily be a bad thing in itself. Just less of a good thing. Potentially, I will have to take more time to gather new information, and if the setback in time is too much, you might have my death and that of all my crewmates on your conscience, but I won't really have to care about that, since I'll be dead. As for you, I will cut off the information channel between us, and you'll miss your chance to solve some mysteries of this world you don't even know about, as well as an opportunity to change the world. See? Technically speaking, this won't have much of a negative impact on your life as it is now. You might just miss out on some good stuff is all."

She cocks her head on the side, listens to him squirm in his seat as the snail's lips purse in thought, and hides the twitch of her lips into a smirk against the palm of her hand.

Demetri is one of those journalists who think of their job as obeying strict guidelines, after all, which includes privileging the pursuit of 'Truth' regardless of just about any attempt to pressure or lure them into looking away, and doing their part for the 'good of society' or of the 'people'.

Just like the journalists from Cocoyashi, Alabasta, and Drum whom she contacted through the people she already met there and that she was able to contact.

By now, she knows exactly what to say to ensure with a good degree of certainty that people like them will wait for her signal, although she had to try her luck with several people on Alabasta and Drum.

Though it's still a struggle to not sound anything other than perfectly insincere when talking about changing the world.

"… And the second package?" Demetri asks after a minute, although she can't quite tell if he has come to a decision or not.

"That one will be coded using another system. You will only get the key if I actually decide to use it."

"Why? If you already trust me with the information first package-"

"This isn't about trust. What is in the first package is sensitive, but fundamentally anyone can get it. It's dangerous, but you have at least a chance of saving your ass if you're found out. The second package contains information that is very, very hard to come by, for a reason. It's not usable for now, anyway. There's no need to put you in danger needlessly."

"And what if I get caught for having the first package and I can't get out safely? What if I give your name?"

Her smirk widens enough to show her teeth, and this time she lets him see.

"I'm a pirate, Demetri-san. I don't care if my face lands on a wanted poster and people start trying to sever my head from my body to get money out of it. They already do without the monetary incentive. Although I'm not even sure that would happen, since the Marines wouldn't even be able to accuse me of anything given what that package is about. Then again, they're pretty good at coming up with false charges."

Another long silence.

She waits patiently.

He's useful, but not particularly needed at this point.

Even if he refuses, it won't really matter to her. And if he does refuse, she doubts he would go so far as to denounce her given his personality and history, although it's not like he would have much to say even if he did, since she didn't give any specifics.

"I have a last question."

She hums out an encouraging sound.

"… What is your real name?"

She blinks down at her Den Den Mushi, and stifles a snicker behind her hand.

"That's your question?"

The little snail blushes beet red in response to Demetri's embarrassment.

She definitely takes a picture of that.

"Did the Marines tell you something when they came to question everyone, Demetri-san?" She asks, trying to sound out how much he knows.

"I… may have listened in on a conversation between Allan-san and another Marine?"

She snickers again.

"Is that so? Well… I have at least five different identities, and they are all used by some people to talk about me, so you could say they are all my real names. You can call me whatever you want and give whichever one you want to the Marines. Whether they investigate Elynna, Ryan Alice, Kaji Ryūko or the others, the result will be the same for me. Your answer?"

Demetri agrees.

She tells him that she will call him back again once she sends the packages and will do so for every package sent, just like he will have to give her a call whenever he receives one.

She hangs up breathing a little easier when she thinks of all the people and organisations who can crush her crew like a fly should they anger the wrong person.

She would feel even better if she had another contingency plan in place, though.

None of this will really work against the pirate crews, although this kind of enemies are more likely to be dealt with in a frontal fight.

Still, it's unlikely the Straw Hats will ever have as many members as the strongest crews out there, so…

She should probably get more information before anything else.

That being said…

Gotta love incorruptible journalists.

Especially when they've got a crush on you.

---

〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭

---

#FTSFact9: That Harry Potter-themed omake-slash-summary of the present chapter that no one asked for but here you go anyway:

Prompt: So WhAt Is YoUr ViEw On HiStOrY?

Robin: *hums pensively* I think I would pick Ravenclaw. This sounds quite nice.

Elynna: Fucking Slytherin.

Robin: *full-on ara ara vibes* You mean Salazar?

Elynna: *gives her a flat look, and then pauses* You know what? Show me a painting, and I might just add that as a bonus.

---

#FTSFact10: Opening Four 〜 A beach, gleaming refuge for a bit of rest between two adventures.

Luffy's hat and Zoro's swords have been left behind to not be damaged. What is left bare of Elynna' white skin is protected from the sun by shadows and the newspaper that covers her face.

Nami and Usopp are walking on the shore to swap ideas for the Logbook and watch out for the Marines while Chopper observes the plants available on the island.

Robin has taken off her hat to take in the sun, and Sanji is already working hard for lunch.

They take pictures to pin to the walls of the Merry. Zoro drinking, Nami drinking, Robin laughing, Usopp and Luffy doing stupid things… And a picture of the whole crew, or almost the whole crew and Chopper's hooves: Usopp is screaming at Chopper to hurry up before the timer ends (it already has), Luffy is yawning, Zoro is smirking, Elynna is leaning back against one of his legs and has stolen Luffy's hat to cover her face, Nami and Robin are smiling, and Sanji is paying more attention to the girls' bikinis and pareos than to the camera.

Alone, a boy walks.

He's not alone for long. A girl appears on his side to catch one of the hands that swing at his sides as a taller boy appears on his other side. Another girl follows next to the first one, curling their arms together. Two other boys come after that, and the one with dark hair starts to tell a story as others come into the picture. They all jump into the future together.

They wait for dawn under the lightening blue of the sky, and even as they run forward they drag things behind them.

An arm lost for a life.

The fire of an ambition that died out too young.

Memories of hollowness and a sacrifice that feels like it can never be repaid no matter how many stomachs are filled in exchange.

A man who left behind only his teachings when his warmth was needed as well.

A mother who believed in both men of her life until the end.

A childhood filled with the sunshine smell of tangerine and the warmth of a solid body, which ended in tears and blood painstakingly dragged out of a tiny, shivering body over years.

Years of cold, hunger and utter loneliness.

And a girl who is still drowning instead of dragging, because the water is dragging her instead, dragging her down down down and rushing into the mouth that falls open to scream-

And yet they still look forward, or at least to the side where the others are looking forward.

Bonus: the Straw Hats looking badass in black.

Sanji beams, cigarette stuck between his teeth and the collar of his black shirt opened wide around his neck.

Usopp strikes a pose, bandana almost as black as his hair.

Nami looks up at the camera, grin biting onto a banknote, the angle plunging into her cleavage that is framed by the black edge of a skin-tight dress.

Chopper fails to hide and thus still appears in his picture, the black hood of his sleeveless sweatshirt too small to cover his hat.

Robin looks over her shoulder and smiles a smile shadowed by her black hat and underlined by the collar of her black leather vest, black hair gliding between her fingers.

One of Zoro's katana slides out of his sheath, and he looks pretty much ready to use it on the cameraman, the black fabric of his shirt lining his broad shoulder and circling the strength of his neck.

Elynna's half-lidded eyes stare the camera down, ocean blue hair in a low, loose bun almost as dark as the black tuxedo vest she wears haphazardly over the black shirt tied at her midriff. One of her hands is hidden in the pocket of her black suit pants, while the other is resting the back of a kukri against the curve where her shoulder and neck meet.

Luffy grins, proud and confident as he thumbs at his trusted hat which he absolutely refused to replace by anything black. The black band around his wrist underlines the strength of the arm and the hand he's held out to and supported all these people with, and the black sleeveless shirt he wears shows that the line of his shoulders is still straight and unburdened.

---

The song used during the fight against Satori is Doja Cat's Boss Bitch. Do you visualise that?

By the way, Birds of Prey is a must and I am now a simp for Harley Quinn.