An:
Alright! Here we go! This was a really fun chapter. It was also one of the more difficult. I don't think I'm the greatest with fight scenes so I'm sure things could be better in some places and the pacing feels a little iffy but still, I'm happy with where it's at. I won't say much more than that!
The next chapter is underway so expect it in the coming weeks. Hopefully, this will hold you over until then. Hope you enjoy it. :)
Here's Chapter 18. Happy reading!
Chapter 18: Imagination
Nami slowly pulled the door open, bracing herself for whatever she found on the other side.
"CARINA! YOU CAME BA-", the bushy brown-haired woman stopped herself, the jovial expression dropping from her face when she saw orange hair walking through the door instead of purple. "Who tha hell're you?", she asked with a slur.
The orangette inched her way further into the room. Who the hell was this woman? And... Was she drunk?
The woman was tall, curvy, and had tan skin a little darker than her own. Nami was a little jealous honestly, she was beautiful. Her bushy hair pushed out of the back of a black cap with a pink bill, a white letter N on it. She had brown eyes and a round face but she really managed to pull it off. The only mars on her skin were the red cheeks and slightly swollen lips from the alcohol she'd obviously been drinking. Other than that, she was a knockout.
Around her shoulders, she wore a long white fur coat that hung just above the ground. Underneath the coat, was a light green shirt with a deep-cut V collar over a pair of pink pants, and black shoes.
As Nami's eyes glanced over the woman's form, she couldn't help but salivate at all the jewelry she was wearing. If she could somehow get her hands on it... She stopped herself from that train of thought, immediately. She didn't need her eyes turning to berries right now. It didn't feel like the right time.
Glancing behind the brown-haired woman, Nami saw she was standing in front of a wooden chair. Beside that chair were more than twenty glass bottles of what she assumed was alcohol. The girl gaped in wonder. This woman might even be able to give Zoro a run for his money in a drinking contest. "How do you know Carina?", the orangette asked, glancing around the room. Was she even going to get a coherent answer?
"Well... Me and Carina.", the woman paused, as if thinking. "We ussed to be", a very un-ladylike burp sounded into the air, "besties.". She suddenly seemed to get a little sad. "But then she up and left me here all alone and now", a hiccup came from her lips. "I'm the only girl left on the whole crew.", the brown-haired woman pouted, turning to walk back to her chair.
Nami watched the woman curiously. Just what did she mean by that? Was Carina...
As she thought about it, the theory made a lot of sense. The orange-haired girl shook her head and got back to the matter at hand. Her priority right now was the woman in front of her. Just what the hell was she doing there? Other than getting drunk? She was obviously a part of Mad Treasure's crew but why would she be here by herself... Drinking?
She turned her back to the orange-haired girl and her brown eyes landed on a pink bow and a quiver of arrows hanging off the woman's white coat. Nami groaned. She was hoping this would be easy. Just distract the drunk enough to sneak out of there and then move on to, hopefully, where the treasure was. The woman would have chased but the girl was confident she could have outrun her in the state she was in. She wasn't even walking straight!
The brown-haired woman removed the quiver from her back and placed it next to the chair before turning and sitting down on the wooden piece of furniture. She bent over and picked up an uncorked glass bottle from the pile, beginning to sip on it. "When are you gonna come back and play with me, Carina?!", she huffed into the air as she thought about the purple-haired girl. The woman licked her lips, sadistically. She'd always been so much fun to play with... Her eyes roamed over the orange-haired girl still standing at the entrance to her little arena. 'Hmm...'. Since Carina wasn't there... Maybe she would be fun to play with.
"How do you actually know Carina?", Nami asked. She didn't like the way the stranger was looking at her. However, if she could keep her talking, maybe she could figure out a plan. Although... The creepy smile on the woman's face was really making the orangette want to squirm.
The bushy-brown-haired pirate seemed to think for a moment before answering. "She used to be my crewmate.", she looked at Nami with a big smile, "She used to be a Treasure Pirate.".
The air around the orangette froze when she heard the woman's words. So she was right... That was how Carina knew. She always knew there was something fishy about the girl. She just knew all of this was too good to be true!
"But she's not here right now, baby.", the woman stood from her chair and threw her empty bottle across the room, the glass shattering against the wall. She reached down to grab her bow, and re-equipped her quiver, "It's just me n' you in here.".
Nami's fight or flight instincts were starting to kick in, she could feel it. Her heart rate was rising and her palms were beginning to sweat. The door at the girl's back suddenly slammed shut, startling her, and she stood there staring at it dumbly for a moment before turning back toward her soon-to-be opponent. Looked like she didn't have a choice... Fight it was.
The thought was interrupted when searing pain cut across her cheek and something slammed into the wall behind her. The orangette brought her hand up to touch her stinging face and could feel liquid running between her fingers. She pulled the extremity away, her eyes widening when she saw it covered in red.
"You'd better ge-", a loud burp came from the pirate's mouth, "get movin'.". She slowly but deliberately pulled out another arrow. She could use the ones with dyna-crystals embedded in them, but she thought it would be overkill. Plus, she didn't want her fun to end too quickly. The woman licked her lips again, taking aim at her pretty opponent.
Quick footsteps echoed around the arena, Nami ignoring the pain in her face and finally beginning to move. Arrows impacted the ground all around her as she tried to make herself a harder target to hit.
The orange-haired girl stole a glance at the bushy-haired woman after narrowly dodging a few more shots and paled at watching her load several arrows into her bow at once.
The archer let her bowstring go, watching in gleeful and drunken anticipation as her beautiful arrows sailed toward her playmate. She wanted to see the girl bleed... She wanted to see her hurt.
Nami screamed, feeling several arrows cut into her skin. The girl managed to stay on her feet but it was a close thing. She continued to run while trying to assess the damage she'd already taken. Both of her cheeks had been cut, the outsides of her legs, and her arms too. Blood dripped from the wounds but she was surprised that they didn't hurt all that bad. Was her pain tolerance getting higher? Or maybe... Yeah, that was probably it.
None of the arrows shot so far had been fired with the intent to kill. If they had been, Nami was pretty sure she'd be dead. Even though the woman was drunk, the first arrow she'd fired had been scarily accurate. If the unnamed woman could do that, why was the 'fight' still going?... Why was she still alive? The thought sent a panic through her body. If she was right... this woman could kill her at any moment...
The orangette continued to pump her legs, turning in random directions and trying to make herself small. Smaller targets were harder to hit, right? As the thought passed through her mind, the tip of another arrow cut into her other cheek and she hissed in pain. She didn't even have time to think, the woman was still firing arrows and she was starting to get faster. Soon, she was sure to take a more serious hit. If that happened...
"You're more fun than I thought you'd be!", the drunken archer yelled in joy as she continued to fire arrows in the orange-haired girl's general vicinity. She wasn't really trying all that hard to hit her but she had to admit, she was definitely a fan of the way her opponent screamed. Maybe she would start trying a little harder.
"Why not just let me go?!", Nami desperately yelled in the woman's direction, still constantly on the move. Things had just begun and she was already starting to feel how she had that night with Kuro... Helpless.
"Oh come on! Dance for me, pretty girl! Dance for your Naomi!", the woman, now named Naomi, joyfully exclaimed, ignoring the girl's request and relentlessly firing arrows at an inhuman pace. She was having fun. She was able to fire faster than she ever had with Carina and they'd just started... This one could move.
Nami's breath was getting heavier but she couldn't stop. She didn't think this Naomi character would just let her stand there and catch her breath, regardless if she was trying to kill her or not. She'd been looking for a good opportunity to get close but her opponent was firing too fast and too accurately. Her arrows were barely missing. Whether that was because of her or the woman shooting them, she didn't really care. She was just happy to be alive.
A scream ripped through the enclosed space as an arrow pierced straight through Nami's shoulder and pinned her to the rock directly behind.
"Oh yes!", the drunken archer cheered, an expression of ecstasy plastered on her face, "Scream more for me, baby!".
Nami moaned in pain from her place pinned to the wall. She looked over at her shoulder and almost vomited. The pain combined with the image of an arrow running through her body sent a wave of nausea through the girl's stomach. Her hand grasped the end of the arrow and she cried out again when the metal vibrated in her wound. The orange-haired girl tried to hide her hiss from the aftershocks of pain as she looked up at the woman now laughing joyously at her.
"You've been fun, girl.", hiccuped Naomi, her laughs beginning to peter out, "I wish we could play more but I'm runnin' outta arrows.". She looked at her quiver, sighing, 'Only a couple more...'. She could use the dyna-crystal ones but... No. That was overkill, even for her. She drew one of the few remaining normal arrows, shaking her head, and loaded it into her bow. The woman seemed to sober up for a moment, aiming the arrow at the orange-haired girl's head, "You came here to steal from the boss... No one steals from the boss.".
Just before she released the arrow from her bow, Nami screamed and pushed her body off the wall as hard as she could, a squelch coming from her shoulder sliding along the metal of the arrow trapping her against the rock. The orangette kept her eyes wide open through the pain while she watched her bushy-haired opponent release her projectile from her bow. Just in time, her shoulder came off the end of the arrow and she dropped to the ground, immediately curling her body into a tight ball.
Nami heard an arrow crash into the wall where her head previously was but didn't turn to look. She pushed a hand against her shoulder to slow the bleeding and put her head down to continue running. Her shoulder was killing her and it was bleeding like crazy. The blood flowing through her fingers was giving her flashbacks of her night with Kuro. She felt just as helpless now as she did then... She didn't even have the rain to help her this time. Her whole body was burning up and she was sweating like a bull. She needed to do something quickly, otherwise, she was going to die.
"You really are fun! I never got to go this far with Carina!", Naomi said, lining up her next shot. 'Only one more after this...', she thought to herself, shrugging. She'd use them if she had to.
The orange-haired girl's scream ripped through the air again, her momentum halting as she fell to the ground. Nami howled as she rolled in the dirt, an arrow piercing the center of her foot and pinning her to the earth below. She crouched over her speared appendage and looked in the direction of the shooter, paling at seeing her approaching form.
"Alright, I've had enough fun.", the drunken archer said, stopping in front of the girl's small whimpering form and pulling out her last arrow. "Thieves die around here.", the woman paused in thought for a moment, slowly pulling back the bowstring of her pink bow, "The only thief to ever leave this island was Carina, actually.".
The orangette stared at the tip of the arrow poised to kill her and closed her eyes, a familiar feeling creeping into her bones. One Nami remembered vividly even though the rest of the memory was so faint.
Acceptance.
The world around her seemed to slow down, Naomi posed with her bowstring taut. Even as she gazed up at the woman and felt the acceptance of her fate, it made her angry. She'd always felt helpless, ever since her mother's death. Her run-in with Kuro cemented the fact for her...
The thought of that night brought Luffy and Zoro to her mind. In this frozen state in time, she wondered what they were doing... Probably something stupid if she had to guess. If she could have laughed in the little world she was in, she would have. Blond hair appeared next to green and black and she wondered what Sanji might be doing on the other side of the tunnel.
The orangette watched Naomi slowly begin to release the bowstring held between her fingers and she wished she could have seen them again. A part of her wondered if they'd be sad about her death...
What was she even thinking?... Of course they would.
They were her friends.
'What would they do?...', the thought crossed Nami's mind and her eyes widened. She knew exactly what they would do... They would get up and fight... No matter what. A small fire was lit in the orange-haired girl's heart. She just needed to be like them and fight... Until the very end. A vivid image of her three idiots flashed in her head.
'Trust your instincts!', the boys yelled in tandem. Their figures vanished into thin air and she was left in a dark void with only her thoughts. Her instincts... It was a gamble but... For some reason, she couldn't help but trust her friends. Plus, what did she have to lose? She was about to die anyway.
Time seemed to resume as Naomi's fingers parted enough to release the bowstring and let her arrow fly, a giant pit suddenly finding its way into Nami's stomach. What was she supposed to do?!
'TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!', the orange-haired girl screamed to herself, wrenching her head to the left. The arrow flew by the right side of her face opening a large bleeding gash but she ignored it as the woman scrambled to get another one loaded into her bow.
Nami tore her pinned foot from the ground with a scream of pain and jumped toward the woman just as she pulled an arrow from her quiver.
'You want me to teach you how to kick?", Sanji asked. He was honestly so surprised that he didn't immediately say yes. He recovered quickly though, "I mean, of course I'll teach you, Nami-Swan!".
The orangette smiled at the blond boy, "Thanks, Sanji.".
"May I ask, why?", the chef asked, bending over to stretch out his legs. If Nami wanted a lesson he was gonna make sure it was the best damn lesson she ever had.
The girl thought about the question for a moment before replying. She probably would have asked sooner but she'd still been recovering from her run-in with Kuro... That was actually the main reason why she was asking at all. She'd thought about asking Luffy to teach her how to defend herself but he only really punched and she didn't think that was a good way for her to fight. Plus, she didn't think he would've been that good of a teacher anyway. Zoro was also an option, but she wasn't going to be using a sword any time soon so he was out.
That left her with Sanji. "I just want to be able to protect myself if I'm in trouble and my strong guys aren't around.", Nami provided, winking at the boy.
Most of Sanji preened at the compliment the orange-haired goddess gave him but a small part was a little irritated that he wasn't her ONLY strong guy... "Then your wish is my command, my lady.", he said rising from his stretching. He was ready. It'd probably take more than one lesson but he would make sure his Nami-Swan was more than capable of protecting herself.
A voice came from the figurehead of the Merry and the two looked up just in time to see Luffy jumping down toward them, "Hey! I wanna kick stuff too! Teach me! Teach me!".
Time to put her lessons to good use.
Nami flung her bloody foot at the woman's face and crimson splattered over her eyes as the extremity connected with her cheek. The orangette cried out in discomfort but did not stop, her screams of pain growing even louder as she lept off the ground.
Naomi staggered and almost fell straight to the ground, desperately trying to wipe the blood from her eyes. The woman held the place she'd been kicked and almost vomited at the feeling of shattered bone underneath her palm. Where the hell had the girl learned to do that?! That wasn't something you could just do! Someone had to teach you that!
Just as the drunken archer recovered her vision, she saw Nami's form flip over her head and land on her back. She'd had enough. She was angry now. She hated feeling pain... Time for this girl to die. Her hand curled into a fist curled shot over her shoulder, directly into the orange-haired girl's face. She reached into her quiver and pulled out an arrow with a glowing purple tip. She was making sure the girl was dead this time.
Nami's world spun as she hit the ground and rolled. 'Ignore it! Ignore it!', she screamed internally. The pain was becoming harder and harder to deal with. It was starting to feel like her whole body was pulsing... But the end was close. She stood from her crouched position and quickly turned, eyes widening. Naomi stood there, bow drawn with a purple-tipped arrow pointed in her direction...
The same kind of arrow the orangette now held in her hands.
Three boys appeared in her head once again, their voices almost too late to yell their encouragement. Nami's arm was already in motion, the vision of Luffy destroying an entire ship with a cannonball tickling her brain, 'TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!'.
Naomi paused for a split second, watching the orangette uncertainly before she scrambled to let her bowstring go.
When had the little thief stolen one of her arrows?! She flashed back and remembered the orange-haired girl hanging off her back with wide eyes. The woman's eyes widened even further when she realized that she'd fired too late... How strange... Not once in the time she had been with the orangette had she thought it possible she might lose. It hadn't even been a fight, she'd really just been having fun... And because of that... She was probably going to die... She'd never even gotten the other girl's name...
The two arrows met in the air and an explosion ripped through the small space, sending the two women careening toward opposite walls. A second, much larger, explosion ripped through the arena not three seconds after the first. Cracks shot through the floor and ceiling of the room, the whole area starting to quake and crumble. The side the explosion had come from was deteriorating much faster than the other and it wouldn't be long before it was completely sealed by stone debris.
Nami's back slammed into the wall just after the second explosion, her vision dancing with stars when she hit the ground. Her scream didn't even reach her own ears while she lay there, the sound being lost to the ringing in her ears as she bled onto the dirt below. She remembered this feeling. It was like right after she thought she was going to die from that lightning strike. The pain was starting to feel like it was really far away... She was definitely about to pass out.
The ringing in her ears began to quiet and she opened her eyes, slowly, she still needed to see if Naomi was down. Her eyes landed on the opposite side of the room and widened. No way... She had to be dreaming... She'd... She'd actually won?... All by herself? Nami couldn't help the satisfaction that settled into her heart. She'd figured out how to win all on her own. Well... Maybe not all on her own. She smiled inwardly... Those boys were always finding ways to help her.
The orangette tried to sit up but soon realized that it was impossible. Her body simply wouldn't listen to her. She felt like she was probably in much worse shape after her run-in with Kuro but she hadn't really been lucid enough to remember it. This time, she could feel the pain. Big Time. She could feel her energy leaving her as she lay there, blood pooling onto the ground, but she couldn't get up. With the adrenaline gone, there was nothing to push her past the pain and exhaustion. Which meant... She was stuck... 'Guess I still need saving after all.', she scoffed internally. Typical.
A groan and the shifting of rubble sounded from the middle of the arena as Nami began to fade out of consciousness and she couldn't help but search for the source of the noise. As her barely lucid eyes landed on a groaning figure standing to its feet amongst the debris, she determined that she must already be unconscious and dreaming. She couldn't be there... It would be too much of a coincidence. With her mind at ease, the orangette let her eyes close and sleep take her.
Unbeknownst to the now unconscious girl, if she'd fought the pull of sleep for a few moments longer, she would have seen a panicked purple-haired girl quickly headed in her direction.
"Yo! Yo! Yo! It's me! Ya boi Psycho P!", came a man's voice as soon as the black-suited teen walked through the door.
Sanji looked around the space as the iron door behind him slammed closed. It was large and open. It kind of looked like an arena... The chef's eyes landed on the man who'd just introduced himself, Psycho P... So, not a friend or a woman... It wasn't even stupid Mosshead.
The man was tan... Well, his face was tan. Sanji thought it was safe to assume the rest of his body was the same color.
The man's face was round and plain, a pair of tiny black sunglasses covering his eyes. How someone could see through those things, the chef didn't have a clue. His eyes looked up toward the man's hairline and he instead found a white cap with a long yellow bill taking residence there, the word 'PSY' was printed across the front in black. The teen was actually shocked at the length the hat stuck out from underneath his hood. The only other thing of note on his face was the small triangular goatee covering some of his chin.
He wore a pink puffy buttoned winter coat, with the hood up, over a pair of yellow mustard-colored boots. The coat had the same word as his hat stamped on the bottom left corner, also in black, and it hung well past his shins. Diagonally across the man's chest, was the strap of a sword sheath, its hilt peaking over his right shoulder. The chef couldn't see any pants but he had to be wearing them, right?
Sanji finished sizing the man up and pointed an accusatory finger in his direction. "Do you even know what you've done? What you've cost me, today?", he growled. Was this the person responsible?...
"Yo! Yo! Yo! I gave you my name. It's rude if you don't give yours. After that...", the man shot a peace sign in Sanji's direction, "Let's talk about settling this score.".
The blond teen glared at Psycho P, who only continued to smirk back, "Why the hell are you talking like that? You sound like a damn idiot.".
"Yo! Yo! Yo! It's not nice to insult the way people talk.", he sent Sanji another peace sign and his sunglasses flashed in the light of the room making it look as if he'd winked, "Why don't you go ahead and give me your name so I can show you how to walk this walk.".
"Are you hitting on me?", the chef asked seriously, "Cause I'm not into dudes.".
"Yo! Yo! Yo! My blond friend, you've got the wrong i-d-ya.", Psycho P shot another peace sign at the chef, "I'm just tryna gettcho name... before I slay y-".
"Collier!", yelled Sanji, his foot striking out like a cobra poised to bite its prey. There was no point in wasting time. He needed to get back to his Nami-Swan. Just as his black boot was millimeters from the tan man's skin, his target's form bent just enough to turn what would have been a debilitating blow into a glancing one.
Psycho P managed to stay on his feet, recovering quickly. The kid was fast. "Yo! Yo! Yo! I sure wish you'd just give me your name.", he shot another peace sign at the blond, using the same hand to deflect a kick coming from the left side, "That way I can have some fun... And really play this game.". The man crossed his arms in front of his body and leaned back just as Sanji's right leg passed in front of his face.
The chef growled to himself, halting his onslaught. Maybe if he gave this idiot his name, he would shut up. "Sanji.", he hissed out to his opponent. As the words left his mouth, his opponent smiled and suddenly jumped backward. Sanji was starting to get pissed off. This stupid little man was keeping him away from his main priorities. Not only his Nami-Swan, but also the treasure... And he wanted his kiss. If this guy had to die for him to get it... That was just how it had to be.
"Yo! Yo! Yo! Thank you, Sanji, my good man. Now, it's time for you to see why I got so many fans.", Psycho P pulled out two cans from inside his jacket and continued to smile at the chef. "Don't blink or you just might faint.", the man began spraying his body with the cans he held, "When you open your eyes, I'll have disappeared... That's Camo Paint.".
Before Sanji's very eyes, the smirking man's form began to fade until he could no longer see him.
Heat. It was all he could feel as the realization dawned on him.
He was burning.
The chef's leg felt hot... He wanted to kick the man... He wanted to kick the man more than anything in the world... Even more than finding the treasure.
Sanji's eyes were shadowed as he reached into his pocket, grabbing his lighter. His other hand grasped his last cigarette still sitting behind his ear and he placed it between his lips, flicking his lighter open. He held the flame underneath the white stick, lighting it and taking a deep pull. The black-suited teen slowly blew the smoke from his mouth, eyes still shadowed.
Psycho P actually had it... The power that he so craved... For completely pure reasons, obviously. "Women's bath!", the words escaped from the blond's lips before he could even think to stop them.
"Yo! Yo! Yo! You shouldn't be talkin' bout stuff like that.", a disembodied voice came from a place in the room Sanji couldn't quite pinpoint, "You don't look cool. You just look des-par-at.".
"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU SHITTY THIEVING RAT! THAT WAS A TERRIBLE RHYME!", the black-suited boy yelled, finally looking up into the empty space in front of him. So... devil fruit powers were real... The thought sent shivers down his spine. Maybe it was still out there...
A cut appeared on Sanji's arm, interrupting his train of thought, and he hissed in annoyance, eyes darting all around the arena. This was surely going to be a pain. How was he supposed to fight something he couldn't see? When he was young, he only ever thought about what he would do if he was the one with the power of invisibility. He never really thought about how to fight someone who had the power... An oversight?... Maybe.
"Yo! Yo! Yo! This'll be the last time you'll hear my voice, Sanji my friend.", the disembodied voice came again. A pause hung in the air for a moment and for the first time since Sanji had entered the room, the man didn't finish speaking with a rhyme. "Cause you'll be dead.", he hissed, his voice taking a much darker tone, "NO ONE CALLS ME A DAMN RAT!".
The chef decided that now would probably be a good time to start moving. He wanted to pummel this guy so badly he could barely stand it, but until he figured out how to fight him he was better off just trying not to get hit. Sanji flashed from his position and began to dart his way around the outskirts of the arena.
A thin cut appeared in his suit and he immediately slowed, shifting his momentum in the opposite direction he could feel the blade coming from. The slice deepened, drawing blood, but, at feeling the pressure of the sword's edge getting further from his body, he turned the rest of his momentum into a spin, springing into the air. He could only guess at where his opponent was, but he liked to think he had good instincts. The blond teen's body was almost parallel to the ground as he brought his blurring right foot around to where he thought the invisible man was, "Collier!".
The teen's foot hit something solid and he felt a weight push against him, a grunt of exertion leaving his mouth as the battle of strength kept him hanging in the air. For a little rat, the man was strong. The pushback against his leg suddenly gave and Sanji finished his spin as the stone to his left cracked from the impact of Psycho P's invisible body. The chef wasted no time in celebrating, flipping into the air immediately after his feet touched the ground.
"Épaule!", he screamed, fully rotating and bringing his heel down on where he thought the pirate's shoulder should be. The chef's eyes widened when his foot passed through empty space and cracked into the already destroyed stone. As quickly as he could, he pulled his leg free and turned, growling to himself while looking for any sign of his escaped foe. The invisibility thing was really pissing him off.
Psycho P watched Sanji search for him with a frown. The kid was way strong. Even stronger than some Grandline pirates... That being said... He was still going to die by his hand. No one called him a rat! The man saw his opportunity when the black-suited teen unknowingly turned his back to him, nimbly rushing forward with the tip of his sword pointed at his opponent's back. The kid wouldn't even know what hit him.
Sanji's breath left him as the hairs all over his body stood on end. His instincts were screaming at him to move, but move where? He didn't know where he was about to get hit from. The chef cleared his mind and just reacted, turning and pushing off the ground to move left. He felt a blade cut into his right side, hissing in pain, and curled away from where he thought the sword was while quickly bounding in the opposite direction. That one had been deep. He didn't really even have time to see how bad it was, Psycho P could attack again at any moment.
Cuts started appearing more rapidly around Sanji and it was taking everything he had to keep himself from getting sliced to bits. He hadn't realized it until now, but the first attack he'd landed on his opponent had been really lucky. Psycho P had probably thought he'd be an easy kill... It looked like he was taking the chef a little more seriously now.
Wounds were beginning to stack up around Sanji's body. His suit was still in one piece but it looked worse for wear. Slices littered the black fabric and blood was soaking into the blue of the shirt underneath turning it to a deep purple. However, he did not stop, his legs continued to move. His fire was still burning hot. He was losing a lot of blood though... So, he'd probably need to figure something out soon. He couldn't die to this rat bastard. Psycho P still needed to pay the price that his power came with... And Sanji was there to collect.
'The kitchen is the chef's domain. You should always know everything going on in your kitchen without even having to look.'.
The words flashed in his mind out of nowhere. Why the hell was he hearing the old geezer?... Just how much blood had he lost?...
'Master your domain, Sanji... It'll help you with more than just cooking.'.
The blond chef didn't even have the time to wonder why those memories were coming to mind. It was taking all of his focus just to keep running in a way that wasn't going to get him killed. It was hard to know if it was even working.
Zeff popping into his memory wasn't a good sign. It meant he'd probably lost a good amount of blood. Distracted by his thoughts, Sanji's feet tangled and he tripped, his forehead slamming forcefully into the dirt. The chef's momentum dragged his face forward a couple of feet before his body stopped, lying there for but a moment.
Sanji quickly stood up, his head spinning. Psycho P wasn't going to let him rest.
The blond's eyes were closed and his feet danced their way around the kitchen. He'd just been promoted to sous chef and he was cooking himself a celebratory meal. Everything about cooking in a kitchen felt so much different than when he'd first started... Zeff had taught him a lot... For an old geezer that is... Now though, he was finally a sous chef. A real one.
Sanji blinked while continuing to run for his life. What the hell was going on?... Why was half of his vision... A memory? It was extremely odd. Like he was living in both moments at the same time... He must have really hit his head. The chef's hand rubbed over the eye he kept covered by his hair, feeling blood and dirt sealing it shut underneath his palm. That... kind of explained things?... shook his head as he walked through memory in half his vision and ran for his life in the other.
Sanji danced around the kitchen of the Baratie, preparing multiple dishes at once as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
He rang a bell and placed five finished meals on the counter to be served, "Order u-". The blond's form flashed from its place at the front counter to the back stoves, his hand snaking out and plucking a falling salt shaker from the air. He was so quick that not even a single grain of the mineral came out of the glass container.
"Not bad, brat.", Zeff grumbled, watching Sanji place the salt shaker back next to the pepper. "You've really made this place yours.", he said, glancing at his new sous chef while the boy unconsciously removed a popping pan from the hot stove.
Sanji turned away from the older man, ignoring him, and got back to work, "Order up!". The geezer had told him to make the kitchen his domain and he'd done exactly that.
Nothing went on in his kitchen that he didn't know about.
His kitchen... As the chef's split vision continued to show him memories of the past, one thing was becoming clearer. His kitchen. The more he let himself be engrossed in the memories, the more their feelings bled into his current reality. His kitchen...
Sanji still hadn't stopped running and he wouldn't until he physically couldn't anymore but he was paying less attention than he should because of his foggy brain. He was starting to be influenced by the memories his psyche was forcing upon him. A curious thought ran through the blond's head and it became even more curious when it brought his double vision closer to being single again. Not the vision he wanted... But single nonetheless.
What if he was always in his kitchen?... What if he imagined it in his mind? It was helping that, at the current moment, said kitchen was superimposed over reality. It'd been a while since he actually thought about how well he knew his chosen workspace... It wasn't something he really thought much about anymore. It was just the way things were.
The chef looked around the room, his legs feeling like lead. The cuts just wouldn't stop... If nothing else, Psycho P had endurance. It was starting to get harder to keep himself in the moment he was actually in. His mind was having trouble differentiating between what was real and what wasn't. Sanji's eyes scanned his blood-stained form and they widened at the newly accrued damage. Had he been getting hit this whole time and hadn't even realized it?
He was covered in cuts, some deep and some shallow. Blood soaked his suit and it looked like it was getting redder at a staggering pace. The teen looked up from his bloody body and his hazy vision flashed, the scene changing before his very eyes.
Reality was starting to get pushed to the darkest corners of his mind and instead of trying to stay there, in the arena, he let the kitchen pull him away.
Sanji danced in between the bodies of other chefs without even looking, always knowing where everyone in the kitchen was at all times. It was like he could see it in his mind. The blond's eyes closed as he walked the tile floor, a serene smile on his face. Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and he dove forward then rolled left on the kitchen floor. He got up from the ground and began to quickly weave his way back through the kitchen.
Why was he moving like this?... As blond's eyes roamed over his kingdom, he couldn't see anything changing but... For some reason...
Sanji spun and moved his back toward the wall. When it came to the kitchen a chef always trusted his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that there was an intruder. The black-suited teen kept his eyes peeled as he continued to quickly move through the kitchen, looking for any signs of invasion. His body moved strangely, almost as if it was out of his control sometimes. Throwing him to the ground. Shifting his weight in a certain direction at a certain time. Things like that.
Something raced across the chef's vision but it quickly disappeared and his body shifted to the left, a small displacement of air tingling his cheek. A sinking feeling settled in his gut... It had been a while but... He felt like something that wasn't supposed to be in his kitchen... Was in his kitchen... His eyes roamed over the floors, hoping he was wrong, but his suspicions were confirmed when a small brown form raced from under the center island toward his feet.
Sanji's body jumped straight into the air and it felt like something knicked the back of his heels. It almost made him fall forward, but he quickly regained his balance and continued to weave throughout the kitchen trying to form a plan of action. It was almost definitely a rat. They didn't get them very often, almost never, actually... They were in the middle of the ocean after all... But, somehow, one had found its way into his kitchen.
For some reason, it made him really angry. It felt strange, like somehow the rat had done something to him... Or maybe taken something... The teen shook the thought away as he dove forward, winding tousling the hair on top of his head, and his eyes glanced another peek of brown before it disappeared again. Damn... The rat was fast. He rolled forward and flipped up to his feet, once again carefully searching for the brown creature defiling his kitchen... He wanted it dead. Now.
The heat was increasing, beginning to coalesce around Sanji's right foot, small wisps of smoke rising from the black boot. His eyes rapidly pinged around the kitchen, looking for the brown menace, but he couldn't spot it anywhere. The thing was too damn fast!
Brown flashed in front of his eyes and the blond's body instinctively folded backward, his back slamming into the floor.
Sanji groaned and he got up as quickly as he could, his eyes wildly searching the area for his adversary. He was slowing down. He looked fine but for some reason... He didn't feel very fine. Actually... He felt like shit. The teen huffed in annoyance at the creature's speed. He didn't think he had time to look for the intruder. He'd been ignoring it but it was getting harder and harder to move. Plus, his foot was starting to get itchy for some reason.
The chef sniffed the air... Was that smoke? He looked down and saw wispy white strings rising from his right foot... That was new...
'In the back. Straight through the heart.'.
It was nothing as concrete as words... It was a feeling, more than anything, that made Sanji move.
His form launched off the ground and he turned in the air, his feet finding the ceiling. The chef seemed to hang upside down for a split second, his blue-grey eyes meeting the beady black of the rat frozen in his crosshairs. Smoke began to pour off his right foot in waves. The heat was rising dramatically and he wouldn't be wasting it. He sent the creature one last malicious grin before pushing off the roof will all the strength left in his legs.
Time for this thing to die.
"YOU DAMN RAT!", Sanji flipped through the air to give his smoking right foot more momentum, "THIS IS MY KITCHEN!". The chef came out of his flip in the blink of an eye, smoke blanketing his form, and rocketed toward the ugly brown creature with his right leg pointed directly at its neck, "COLLIER: SMOKE SHOT!".
As Psycho P stared up at the boot poised to kill him, he had no thoughts. It was all happening too fast. He just suddenly couldn't hit the kid and somehow he'd managed to turn the tables in the blink of an eye! His eyes glanced past the shoe approaching him, to its owner, and he couldn't help the release of his bladder.
Time slowed down for the man but his life didn't flash before his eyes like expected... No, instead, his last moments were filled with the image of a blond-haired demon with whited-out eyes and a shadowed face, blood covering his figure from head to toe.
A crack filled the air as the two fighters cratered into the ground of the arena, the entire area rumbling violently.
As the rumbling of the surrounding rock quieted, Sanji stood stock still in the middle of the newly created hole, his foot on the throat of a now-deceased and visible Psycho P. The chef's blood-soaked form remained unmoving, his eyes completely white. As soon as his foot had made contact with the invisible man's neck it was like his strings were cut. Poof. Sleep time. The fact that he was still upright was either proof of his unyielding determination when it came to things he cared about...
Or it was just sheer dumb luck.