Chapter 40: The Cursed Town Konoro
Sanji, Nami, and Robin move efficiently through the town.
Every building they pass they poke their heads in, hoping for any sign of Luffy before moving on to the next building. For the most part, they were silent as they searched aside from the occasional call of Luffy's name in hopes that he'd hear them and come running out from wherever it was he was hiding.
"You don't think he's already gone back to the Merry, do you?" Nami asks as she looks inside a building, avoiding a hole in the floor where one of the wooden planks was snapped in half.
"I wouldn't think so. This kind of thing is right up his alley, isn't it?" Sanji asks, his voice coming through an open window as he searches the outside of the house.
"I haven't known Sencho-san long, but he does seem the type to enjoy exploring places such as these." Robin offers genially as she comes down from the upper floor. Nami sighs - something she does a lot now since knowing Luffy - and nods.
"I guess it would be too easy if that had been the case, huh?" She asks, deciding the troublesome teen wasn't in this building and leaving with Robin close behind.
"It's not every day you get to search a cursed town though, is it?" Robin counters with a smile. Nami blinks at the truth in the statement and smiles back.
"No, I guess not. Though I could go without the whole curse thing next time." She answers as Sanji joins back up with them and they move on to the next abandoned home.
"Speaking of; for a supposedly cursed town this place doesn't seem all that scary." The chef points out. Looking around, Nami and Robin agree with him.
"You're right. I bet this place looked nice when people still lived here." Nami said, trying to imagine the abandoned, run-down town being full and lively as they entered the next house. It was as empty and dusty as the last one with holes in the walls and one of the windows broken entirely, the glass sprayed across the floor.
Seeing nothing on the main floor, Nami decides to go check out the upper floor with Robin, leaving Sanji to search the outside. There are a few rooms to look through but nothing worthwhile in them that point to Luffy having been there anytime recently, so they leave and join Sanji outside once more, heading to the next house on the street.
"The log should be set by tomorrow, right Nami-san?" Sanji asks on the way, mentally running through a checklist of their supply. He wanted to be sure that he had everything before they left, and seeing as the town was so off-putting for Luffy he expected they would be leaving as soon as possible. If he needed anything else, he would have to get it after they found their Captain and were on their way back to the Merry.
"According to the townspeople, yes. At least we won't have to fight Luffy on leaving." The navigator says with a glance to her wrist as she checks the log. While she felt bad about Luffy being so negatively influenced by the town, it was nice that they would most likely have a smooth exit from this island and be on to the next in no time.
"Lucky for us. Not so much for Luffy though." Sanji agrees as he begins making his way around to the back of the next house. Nami and Robin head inside and immediately notice that this house seems to be in less disrepair as the rest they'd searched through thus far. While that wasn't to say it was clean, it did seem tidier than the others in the way that there wasn't dust clinging to every surface and any holes had been patched up with old blankets or cloths.
Surprised, the two women share a glance before searching more carefully.
"Luffy?" Nami called out carefully. She didn't think this would be Luffys doing, but then who else would have done this? Maybe there were still people living in the town. Or - and even the thought of this made her shiver - maybe it was something to do with the curse. She wasn't quite sure how it would be related, but she wasn't going to question it.
When the first floor was found to be empty enough, Robin and Nami carefully made their way up the rickety steps. The navigator tried to ignore the ominous creaking and groaning coming from the house - after all, all the other houses had made the same noises - but it was seemingly even more terrifying now when there was the possibility of someone being in this one.
When they reach the top they split up to check the rooms faster. The first room Nami looks into was a bare box with nothing inside of it and the expected dust hanging around. This only further proved that someone must have cleaned the lower floor at some point because it wasn't nearly as dusty as this room.
Closing the door to the dusty room, Nami heads to the next and blinks in surprise at the cluster of items in this one.
"Ne, Robin?" Nami calls out, leaning back out of the room and looking for the woman. The archaeologist comes out of her room, noticing the tone of Nami's voice, and joins her at the door.
"My, it seems someone has taken residence in this town then." She says as they walk further into the room.
There isn't much there, just a bed with an old blanket to match the ones downstairs and a pile of ratty looking clothes on the ground. Moving over to the pile, Robin picks up one of the shirts and they see that it seems to be sized for a child.
"There aren't any adult clothes there?" Nami asks in concern as she looks around the room again in search of more clothing.
"No, its all for a child. A girl to be precise." She adds as she holds up a dress with a hole in its sleeve. Nami frowns deeply as she tries to piece together where this child might be as well as whether they live here alone. Or do they live here at all? Maybe this is just one of the kids from the other town who thought they found a cool hideout and only come here occasionally.
Unsure, she and Robin check the rest of the upper floor, but when they find nothing else they go to meet Sanji outside.
"Still nothing?" He asks as he comes around the side of the house. Nami and Robin share a glance before looking back to the chef.
"Actually, it looks like a kid has been here recently. There's clothes in one of the rooms upstairs and blankets over holes in the walls and floors." Nami explains, poking a thumb over her shoulder towards the inside of the home as she speaks.
"Really? Strange place for a kid to be." Sanji murmurs as his eyebrows furrow.
"Especially since the town is so concerned about the curse here." Nami agrees.
Putting the strange findings behind them, the three continue down the street in the hopes that Luffy might show up soon.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
On the other side of town, Zoro, Chopper and Usopp were attempting to do the same as Sanji, Nami and Robin. Together they were going house by house and searching for any signs of Luffy. However, they were having a much harder time of it due to the fact that after every few seconds Usopp would hear or see something that would send him into a panic all over again and at the same time Zoro would nearly wander off. It was only thanks to Chopper pulling Zoro back and calming Usopp down that they managed to get anything done.
"Did you hear that?" Usopp asks as they walk up to their next house. He's clinging fearfully to Zoro who immediately shakes the sniper off of himself while Choppers moving to search around the outside.
"Hear what? All I hear is you yelling every two seconds." Zoro grumbles in frustration as he steps into the next house. A rustling in the bushes nearby makes Usopp squeak and shake as he points.
"That! You didn't hear that?! There's something there! It's gotta be the curse!" Usopp wails. The swordsman looks over his shoulder to stare at the bush, but when nothing happens he glares at the sniper.
"It's probably just some animal. Can a curse even shake bushes?" He asks as he leaves the sniper on the main floor to go upstairs.
"A curse can do whatever it wants! It's a curse! And- hey, wait, are you leaving me?! Zoro!" Hearing the sniper scrambling up the stairs behind him, Zoro sighs in exasperation and turns to look at Usopp.
"Why don't you go look around outside with Chopper?" He asks impatiently, annoyed that he was being slowed down so much.
"O-outside? No way. The curse is out there." Usopp says firmly, looking out a nearby window in apprehension.
"Who's to say its not in here?" Zoro asks with a raised eyebrow just as the house creaks ominously and terrifies Usopp all over again.
"O-on second thought, Chopper needs my help! You've got in here, right Zoro?" He asks in his best impression of bravado - which is to say it was painfully obvious he was terrified.
"Yeah yeah, get going." Not wasting another second, Usopp turns tail and books it outside, sending the swordsman a thumbs up as he goes. On his way past a window though, the shutters slam shut from the wind and freak Usopp out even more, making him move ten times faster.
Shaking his head, Zoro turns back around to look through the rooms of the dark abandoned house. He didn't see why Usopp was so terrified of this place - or why anybody would be. It was just an old, abandoned town that only looked scary because no one was there to clean it up. If the buildings were repaired and people were living here, there would be nothing terrifying about it.
Deciding no one was in the house, Zoro turns to leave, ignoring the sound of the door behind him slamming shut. After all, all of the windows in this place were broken and it was fairly windy outside. It was inevitable that something like that would happen.
When he was back outside it was to Usopp yelling about how there was definitely something in the bushes and trying to convince Chopper to go take a look. The reindeer wasn't having it though and was clinging to Usopp just as much as Usopp was to him. When they noticed Zoro arriving though they both turned to cling to him.
"Zoro!" The two cried in unison, tears in their eyes and legs shaking beneath them.
"Zoro, there's something there!" Chopper says, pointing a hoof to the bush that had rustled earlier.
"Yeah, Zoro! Go check it out!" Usopp demands though it's weak due to his fear.
"Why? Whatever it is, it's not bothering us." Zoro says with a shrug as he tries to walk toward the next building. The two clinging to his arms slow him down, but only marginally.
"But it could! It could be the curse!" Usopp tries to reason.
"Then why would I go check it out?" Zoro asks, annoyance only growing more by the second with this nonsense.
"Because you're strong! You can fight a curse, right Chopper?" Usopp asks, to which the reindeer nods vigorously.
"Yeah! Please, Zoro?!" Chopper pleads, and then Usopp's joining in, the two of them begging over and over that he go look with big eyes and wobbly lips.
"Fine! I'll go check it out if you two will help me look for Luffy so we can leave this stupid town!" Zoro barks out angrily once his patience has worn out completely.
"Yes! Alright Zoro, you've got this!" Usopp cheers, he and Chopper immediately letting go of the man's arms and scuttling backward a safe distance from the bush. Shaking his head and grumbling some more under his breath, Zoro puts a hand to his sword on the off chance that whatever animal is messing around in the bushes tries to attack him.
Once, on his way towards the bush, it rustles again but Zoro is undeterred despite Chopper and Usopp's shriek of terror behind him. When he's close enough, Zoro looks around the bush and sees nothing. Pulling apart the thick brush, he doesn't see anything in it either and a quick scan of the surrounding area turns up nothing.
"There's nothing there. Satisfied?" Zoro asks, turning back toward Usopp and Chopper with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Nothing?" Chopper asks in surprised confusion.
"It couldn't have been nothing!" Usopp cries out, just as surprised and confused as Chopper.
"Whatever it was probably heard me coming and ran off. Just a rabbit or something. Now can we get back to the reason why we were here in the first place?" Zoro asks, not waiting for an answer as he starts to head to the next building.
"That couldn't have been a rabbit. That bush was shaking too much for it to be a rabbit." Usopp says thoughtfully, eyebrows furrowed as he stares at the bush.
"I don't know. Maybe it was something else. Like a deer." Chopper says, though equally skeptical.
"Maybe. Or-" Usopp cuts himself off, paling as his eyes widen in terror once more.
"Or?!" Chopper asks, his own fear rising in response to Usopp's.
"Or it was the curse!" Usopp whispers fearfully, looking at Chopper and seeing his own fear reflected back at him.
"T-the curse?!" Chopper squeaks. When the bush rustles, their heads snap back over to it only to see nothing there and they both scream out in terror.
"Z-Z-Zoro! T-the c-c-curse!" They stumble out in unison, both turning to run for the house that Zoro had been heading for. As they barrel into the crumbling building though they see that it's empty and they start spinning around looking for where the swordsman might be hiding.
"Z-Zoro?!" Usopp shouts, tripping over a beam that had fallen from the ceiling. There's no upper floor to this house which means even less space for Zoro to hide, but he doesn't see the man anywhere.
"Zoro?!" Chopper calls next, sticking close by Usopp as they search. There's a room that they both start toward hesitantly, but seeing as the door was shut they couldn't see if anything or anyone was inside.
A loud creaking noise from inside the room makes them both jump and look at each other.
"Z-Z-Zoro?" Usopp asks, voice only coming out as a breathy squeak as his entire body trembles. When he gets no reply from Zoro or otherwise he gulps and looks to Chopper again.
"D-Do you think he's in there?" The reindeer asks in a whisper, but Usopp doesn't have an answer for him. Together, the two shuffle ever so slowly closer to the door, and with a swallow, Usopp reaches out a hand to push the door open.
Apparently, the piece of wood had barely been holding on as is and with Usopp's push, it falls off its hinges entirely and to the floor with a loud slam. Despite having seen exactly what happened, the noise is still enough to startle the two into another scream.
Once they manage to calm down again, they poke their heads into the room and glance around. Its dark, but thankfully there's a window that illuminates just enough of the room to see that Zoro isn't in there. In fact, the only thing that's in the room is a rocking chair that is slowly rocking back and forth before their eyes.
At first, the two are frozen with fear at the sight, unable to take their eyes off the slow methodical rocking of the chair, but when they see something in the shadows of the corner of the room, the chair is immediately forgotten as they trained their gazes on the darkness.
Seconds pass that feel like hours, and just when they were about to call the whole ordeal off as their imagination, something leaps out from the shadows at them and causes them both to stumble backward, tripping over the door from earlier and falling onto their backs.
Dazed and terrified, the two only just catch a glimpse of a cat running out the open front door, leaving them alone in the abandoned house. Thinking that the cat was the cause of everything, the two are quick to calm back down, but before they have the chance they're spooked once more when they hear a loud growling noise.
Terrified, the two jump up and run out of the house with one final screech of fear.
When they're back in the sunlight, the two stop to catch their breath, hands on their knees, and nearly hyperventilating. Sweat covers Usopp's forehead and Chopper's legs are still shaking, but they recover relatively quickly.
"Wait, if Zoro wasn't in there, then where is he?" Chopper asks suddenly, realizing they hadn't found the swordsman in the house at all.
"The curse!" Usopp whispers hastily in realization.
"The curse?" Chopper repeats in confusion, not understanding what that had to do with anything at the moment.
"The vendor! Earlier, they were saying that the curse made people go missing! The curse got Zoro!" Usopp yells, voice getting louder and louder with every word.
"The curse got Zoro?!" Chopper repeats again, though much more fearful now than before.
"And if it got Zoro, who's to say it didn't get Luffy too?!" Usopp asks which only amplifies the fear and panic in the both of them.
There's a moment of silence as the two stare at each other in horrified realization. And then, within a blink, they're both screaming and running down the street.
"The curse got Zoro and Luffy!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
As Luffy ducks and weaves between houses and overgrown brush he does his best to keep up with whoever it is hes chasing. It was clear that they had a lot of knowledge of this town seeing as they were quick to take blind turns and even backtrack entirely in places.
Every time Luffy was close enough to catch a glimpse of the person though, they would disappear behind a house or bush and once even inside what looked to be an abandoned bar. The rubber teen was undeterred though, committed to seeing this chase through until he either lost the person entirely or caught up to them.
And it seems that it would be the latter of the options. Jumping out of a broken window in the house he'd chased the person into he sees that they appeared to be in the town center. There was a destroyed fountain in the middle of the cobbled circle and old abandoned wooden market stalls lining the path. It looked as if whoever he'd been chasing had run out of steam now and was trying to catch their breath by the overgrown fountain, hands on their knees as they panted heavily.
"Hey! Hey you! I finally got you!" Luffy yells as he runs over quick as lightning. It seems the person - a child, Luffy could see now - hadn't expected Luffy to be so close behind them because they turn around with wide, surprised eyes. There was no time for them to run away though as Luffy all but runs them over and tackles them to the ground. There's a shout of fear and surprise from the child as they fall, but Luffy is quick to cushion their fall with his own body. He didn't want to hurt them after all.
"Shishishi~! That was fun!" Luffy laughs, not nearly as breathless as the child despite doing just as much running as them. Standing up, Luffy sees that the child he'd been chasing was a girl who didn't quite look old enough to be a teenager yet. She still had a roundness to her features that belayed her youth and her long black hair contrasted her pale skin. She had big bright blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks that reminded Luffy of Ace's.
Taking in the dirty and tattered clothing that the girl wore - a simple shirt and pants, but shes also got matching bracelets on each wrist and a white cloth headband in her hair that stands out sharply from her dark hair - Luffy is reminded of his previous question regarding what the girl was even doing in this place when there didn't seem to be anyone else around.
"Ne, where's everyone else? Are you here alone?" He decides on asking once it was clear the girl wasn't going to say anything herself. She still looks - and feels - terrified, but there was still an underlying thread of bravery as the girl tries to fight away her fear. Smiling at that, Luffy waits patiently for an answer. After a few moments, the girl draws herself up straight, clearing her face of any fear and addressing Luffy with a confidence she doesn't feel.
"I live here alone. No one comes to this town." She says in a strong voice, though her shaking hands give away just how nervous and scared she is.
"Why not?" Luffy asks in confusion. It didn't seem to be all that bad a town, even if it was a little wrecked. Luffy was sure that, if people came and fixed the place up it would be a really nice place.
"'Cause of the curse. You shouldn't be here or else you'll end up cursed if you aren't already." She tells him in a matter-of-fact tone.
"But you're here too. Doesn't that mean you'll be cursed too?" He asks, still not understanding entirely but remembering now that the vendor had said something similar right before he'd wandered off. His question seems to surprise the girl, as if she hadn't expected him to have thought of that and she shifts her feet nervously.
"Y-yeah, well... I'm already cursed." She decides on saying after a momentary pause. Blinking slowly at that, Luffy frowns. He's so caught up in the mystery of it all that, like with Usopp's many stories, he misses the tell-tale signals of a lie entirely.
"Oh. That doesn't sound good. Ne, I've got a doctor on my ship, maybe he can figure out how to stop your curse!" Luffy suggests, because surely Chopper would be able to fix something like that right? He was a doctor after all and was supposed to be able to fix people up.
His words, however, seem to do the opposite of reassuring the girl as she flinches backward, the fear returning tenfold and nearly overwhelming Luffy in its intensity. Surprised, Luffy takes deep breaths as he tries fighting it off, determined not to be overwhelmed by the annoying feeling again today.
"No. I'm fine." She all but spits out, eyes darting around the surrounding area as if she were about to bolt.
"I thought you were cursed?" Luffy asks once he's calmed himself down enough to not have to worry about panicking anymore.
"I-I am, but it's alright. I'm fine with being cursed. A-anyway, you should go now. Before you're cursed too." She repeats with a child's bravado, reaching out and pushing Luffy in the direction of the entrance to town. Still confused, Luffy digs in his heels, making it difficult for the child to push him anywhere. He'd felt the lie that time, but there was suddenly something else to distract him.
"Oh, my crews here," Luffy announces happily, feeling them reaching the entrance of town now. His words surprise the child once more and she stops pushing him, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"Crew?" She asks, voice timid as she glances in the direction of the entrance.
"Mm. We're pirates." He tells her with his D grin despite knowing the reaction that those words usually get him. It's what he was after all, and he was proud of it. In fact, he was over the moon that he was a pirate and he'd never want to be anything but.
"P-pirates?! W-who are you?" She asks, stepping away from Luffy and leaving an arms-length of distance between them.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates." Luffy introduces, holding onto his hat with one hand and putting his other on his hip as he laughs cheerily. The girl's eyes manage to widen even further at this and she looks him up and down, though Luffy notes she's no longer scared which is interesting. That's the one time he can usually count on someone being scared is when they find out who he is, but this child was actually calmed by the news of who he was.
Tilting his head in confusion he watches as the girl seems to work up the courage to ask something, her mouth opening and closing multiple times. Shrugging at the strange child, Luffys attention turns elsewhere and he starts to meander around the area, looking into the broken fountain and around the abandoned market stalls in hopes of finding something cool. Minutes tick by but he doesn't mind, he's enjoying looking around, but when the girl finally speaks up again he stops to listen.
"Y-you wouldn't happen to a-also be 11097... right?" She asks cautiously, shuffling towards him hesitantly and wringing her hands. Her gaze isn't on him anymore, but on her hands as she continues fidgeting them, awaiting his answer in a tense silence.
Frowning again, Luffy looks up and wonders what the girl knows about his numbers. He's not surprised that even children know him by the numbers - after all, for a while it was all the world had known him and his brothers by - but usually when they recognized what his name was, they didn't need the confirmation of his numbers.
Regardless, Luffy nods, standing up from the crouch he'd been in when looking at a beetle he'd found on the ground. The girl shuffles ever closer, still fidgeting nervously as she does, and Luffy can feel the growing anxiety as she works up to another question.
"C-can I-... Can I see them? T-the numbers?" She asks haltingly, barely managing to get the words out. Luffys frown deepens at that and he tries to figure out just what reason the girl would have in asking something like that, but when he doesn't find any reason not to, he nods silently. Even then, he hesitates a second before holding out his arm and flipping his wrist up so she can see the numbers etched permanently into his skin with black ink.
Looking at them, the girl's eyes widen again and her mouth drops open in shock. She looks up at Luffy, lips moving and forming words, but before they can be vocalized a familiar green-haired swordsman wanders into the open area with them, looking around in confusion.
Attention drawn away from the girl and her strange questions, Luffys face lights up into a large smile as he runs over to Zoro.
"Zoro!" He calls out happily, shocking the man.
"Luffy? This is where you've been hiding?" Zoro asks as he narrowly dodges Luffys hug, the rubber teen falling to the floor instead. Unfazed, Luffy stands back up, still grinning, and nods.
"What are you doing here?" He asks, wondering how his crew had known to look for him here. It wasn't as if this place was nearby and as far as he knew, none of his crew had haki to search for him with.
"Chopper smelled you this way. Anyway, who's the kid? I thought this place was supposed to be abandoned." Zoro says, nodding in the girl's direction and getting a meek 'eep' out of her at his attention.
"Oh, that's-... Actually, I don't know her name. I found her here though and chased her!" Luffy relays, unperturbed over his lack of information on the kid, though he was still wary over the fact that she had seemed too interested in his numbers.
"I-I'm Mia." She offers, holding her hands to her chest to stop from fidgeting with them anymore.
"Her names Mia. Hey, Zoro, did you know this place is cursed?! Mia says she's cursed too, and she was saying I might get cursed 'cause I'm here, but then does that mean you'll be cursed too? And Sanji and Nami and Robin and Usopp and Chopper? We'll all be cursed together! Do you think Chopper can cure curses? He's a doctor, so he should be able to, but I don't think I've ever heard of someone being cursed before and-" Zoro stops Luffy's rambling by placing his hand over the hyperactive teen's mouth. There's a few seconds of muffled speaking as Luffy finishes whatever sentence he'd been about to say, but then he's pouting and doing his best to look at the swordsman's hand on his mouth which makes him look a bit cross-eyed as a result.
"Why don't we go find out? You know where everyone's at, yeah?" He asks, lowering his hand and allowing Luffy to speak again.
"Mm. Sanji and Nami and Robin are that way and Usopp and Chopper are-" He cut off again, this time by the twin sounds of Chopper and Usopp shouting something incoherently in the distance followed by a loud growl from some kind of animal. Blinking in surprise, Luffy finishes pointing in the duo's direction.
"-that way." He finishes, beaming as he feels his excitement building once more.
"Oh no! Kotaru!" Zoro and Luffy look at each other in confusion at Mia's words, watching as Mia runs from the town center and towards the screaming and growling.
"Kotaru?" The two pirates ask each other before following after the girl. Luffy can feel that Sanji, Nami, and Robin are heading that way as well which means that they'll all meet back up wherever Usopp and Chopper are at which is good. He really hadn't meant to worry his crew by wandering off earlier, but everything had gotten too overwhelming for him and before he knew it he'd already wandered off from his crew.
As the three of them run through the streets the growling and screaming grow louder and louder the closer they get until they're turning the corner and can finally see Usopp and Chopper. The two are hugging each other tightly as they continue screaming and there are tears of fear falling down their faces as they stare up at the animal growling menacingly at them.
It looks to be a wolf, though it's much bigger than any normal wolf and it towers over Usopp and Chopper, dwarfing them. It's not quite as big as the nearby houses, but it's still an impressive size, and it's threatening enough that it's doing a good job of terrorizing the sniper and doctor.
"Usopp! Chopper!" Luffy calls out cheerfully despite the danger that the two seem to be in. His shout makes the two jump in surprise, but then there's a flood of relief as they turn and see him.
"Luffy! And Zoro too!" Chopper squeaks happily, he and Usopp scuttling over to them and hiding behind them.
"Kotaru!" Mia draws their attention back to her as she runs in front of them and toward the wolf, which immediately stops its growling. From behind the crew, Sanji, Nami, and Robin appear and run over as well, trying to take everything in as fast as possible.
"W-whos that?" Chopper asks as he looks at the girl with wide eyes.
"I-is it a good idea for her to get so close?" Usopp asks after, still eyeing the monstrous wolf cautiously.
"Kotaru, sit!" The command is firm and strong and the wolf doesn't hesitate a second to do as told, thumping down to the ground and tongue lolling out with a grin, a dramatic and quick change from the growling, threatening monster it had seemed to be seconds earlier.
"Good boy!" Mia praises cheerfully, running up to the wolf and petting the fur of the wolf's paw and leg. The crew are watching with varied expressions of confusion, fear, and interest but the girl doesn't notice any of them as she leans comfortably into the wolf's leg, smiling up at him as if it were only the two of them there in the street. The wolf still seems happy enough, but Luffy can see - and feel - that if the wolf thought they were a threat he wouldn't hesitate to protect the child.
"Mia, is this your dog?!" Luffy asks with wide sparkling eyes, awed by the size of the creature.
"Dog? That's not exactly what I would have called it." Sanji says, an eyebrow raised appraisingly as he looks between the small girl and the giant wolf. Luffy can feel that he's uneasy at the two's close proximity, worried that the wolf might turn and harm the girl, but Luffy knows it's a nonissue.
"This is Kotaru, my friend. He stays in this town with me so we're not lonely." She says with renewed confidence. She's standing tall and proud now, completely unlike her hunched and timid posture from earlier when she'd been talking to Luffy.
"Right... and what are you doing here? I thought this town was supposed to be abandoned." Nami says, wary as she finally draws her eyes away from Kotaru to look at Mia. The question makes some of Mia's confidence evaporate as she looks away from them, fumbling with her hands behind her back again.
"It is, but I stay here now. Kotaru too." She says, not elaborating in the slightest on why she was here alone.
"Why don't you go live in the town though? It can't be easy living here by yourselves." Chopper says in concern, though like most everyone else in the crew, he was still weary of the wolf, eyeing him cautiously every few seconds.
"Can't. 'M cursed." She says in lieu of explanation, still not looking at any of them. Usopp and Chopper both shriek at that, clinging to each other once more as they stare at her with wide eyes.
"S-s-so it's true! There i-is a c-c-curse!" Usopp stutters fearfully. Their fear seems to surprise Mia briefly and her confidence returns swiftly as she removes her hands from her back and looks them in the eye, posture straightening out once more.
"That's right, this whole place is cursed. You'll all be cursed too if you stay much longer. You should leave." She tells them firmly, repeating her words to Luffy from earlier. However, before where she'd been confident in her attempt at removing them, now she glances almost longingly in Luffys direction, a brief hesitation filling her before disappearing under her bravado. Next to her, the wolf stands up again to make for a more intimidating posture, ready to back up the firm demands of the child if met with resistance.
"ACK! Luffy, we've found you, it's time to go now!" Usopp yells, already beginning to run off towards the front of town, but is stopped by Zoro as the swordsman grabs onto his collar and prevents him from getting far.
"You're lying," Luffy says just as confidently as Mia. His head tilts slightly as he gazes at her, trying to parse out the different mixture of emotions brewing inside the girl. Picking them all apart isn't easy, but the spark of a lie is always easy to pick out amongst the others.
"W-what? No, I'm not!" She replies indignantly, though she's gone back to fidgeting with her hands behind her back, shuffling her feet back and forth. Picking up on the girl's discomfort, Kotaru lowers his front half and bares his teeth, moving a leg in front of Mia to shield her from the crew. Luffy only glances briefly at the animal before turning his attention back to Mia.
The crew doesn't dismiss the threat though as they all tense and prepare for a fight. Well, all except Nami, Usopp, and Chopper who quickly retreat behind the stronger members and cower together.
"W-well... How do you know that?" She asks when Luffy only continues to stare at her. Doubt is laced in her tone as she moves subtly closer to the wolf's leg. For comfort or protection is up for debate. Kotaru still hasn't moved, eyes darting to every member of the Straw Hat crew and waiting for one of them to make a wrong move. Similarly, the crew does the same as they look between Mia and the wolf, though they don't think of Mia as a threat.
"I felt it," Luffy answers easily. It doesn't take Luffys empathy to see that the girl doesn't believe the rubber teen, but she doesn't question it any more than that. It's clear to her that she's been caught - regardless of the fact that she doesn't know how she'd been caught - and she falls back to the timid slouched posture from earlier.
Silence falls over them and Kotaru seems to realize they're not going to attack at this very moment. He doesn't move out of his guarded crouch, but he does close his mouth, no longer showing them his sharp teeth. Finally, Mia looks up from the ground, fear, and anxiety, and uncertainty all mingling alongside a flare of determination as she looks Luffy in the eye. She steps out from behind Kotaru's leg, shuffling closer to Luffy and glancing at his crew nervously before focusing back on him.
"You're 11097, so you're safe." She assures though it seems as if she's saying it for her own assurance rather than anyone else's. Her words confuse everyone, because usually, people don't associate Luffy with safety. His crew does, his friends do, those who know him personally do, but not people - children no less - that he's only just met. Normally they fear him as a big bad pirate and a menace to the government since the young ripe age of fourteen.
Pushing his confusion aside, Luffy becomes aware of the fact that Mia is now right in front of him. The two of them are slightly to the side of the rest of the crew, so when she raises her wrist up to Luffy and pushes her bracelet out of the way he's the only one that sees the bold 11070 tattooed into her skin.
Luffy's eyes widen in both surprise and shock as she quickly covers her wrist back up, looking nervously at the crew, suspicious over whether they'd seen the numbers or not. Luffy knows they haven't though or else they'd be just as shocked as he is.
He has plenty of questions now, questions he doesn't even know if Mia has answers for, but his crew's curiosity is growing and the sun is starting to reach its highest point and Luffys already missed breakfast. He'd rather not miss lunch too if he could help it.
Looking at his crew carefully he sees them watching him carefully, waiting for him to make things clearer for them, but if Mia doesn't want them to know about the numbers he wasn't going to tell them.
"They're safe too." He says instead to Mia, his tone genuine and careful. He can see the girl's disbelief just as clearly as he can feel it but he doesn't comment on it.
"You said there was a doctor." She says instead, but Luffy only shakes his head.
"Not that kind. A nice one. Chopper." He says, gesturing to the reindeer who was watching with wide eyes, surprised to have been singled out all of a sudden.
"Him? But he's a tanuki..." The surprise in her tone makes Luffy smile reminding him that he'd had much the same thought as her when he first met him.
"I'm not a tanuki, I'm a reindeer!" Chopper yells in annoyance before squeaking in fear and looking at Kotaru as if his yelling would trigger him to attack. The wolf doesn't seem to mind though, his attention focused solely on Mia and Luffy and how close the two of them are.
"And a doctor. A good one. Like the Whitebeards. I wouldn't let a bad doctor on my ship." Luffy assures, surprising the crew with that. After all, his words imply that Mia knows, or has at least come across, the Whitebeards before, but in what capacity they have no clue.
Mia doesn't say anything, and for a second Luffy thinks she's going to keep the numbers to herself. He understands why she would, after all, he and his brothers had hidden their numbers from everyone that didn't know about them for as long as they could before they'd been caught. Letting strangers know about them was a dangerous game because there was a strong possibility that those strangers would sooner turn you into the Marines than keep your secret. After all, for all they knew children with the numbers were just as dangerous as the Marines had made them out to be.
Which means that Luffy was fairly surprised when Mia nods to herself and takes her bracelet off. She doesn't show her wrist to the crew right away, instead hugging it to herself protectively as she works up the courage to do so. When she finally does show it, it was with slow, shaky movements.
Theres understanding and concern and shock and disbelief all hanging heavy in the air as his crew all work through the realization that Mia was one of the children to have been in a facility. Seeing that the crew has gotten a good look, Mia quickly slips her bracelet back on over the numbers, moving it until it rests securely over the numbers, hiding them from the world.
"Y-you're from a facility too?" Usopp asks, not quite sure how to feel about the information. Some of the crew were starting to school their expressions - Zoro, Sanji, Robin, though she hadn't looked as surprised as she'd felt in the first place - while others - Nami, Usopp, Chopper - still looked shell-shocked.
"Y-yes." Mia hesitates to confirm, holding her tattooed wrist in her hand and placing it to her chest as if in an attempt to hide the numbers further despite them already being hidden beneath her bracelet.
"Why don't we go to the Merry and talk there?" Nami suggests once shes able to move passed her surprise enough to speak.
"Merry?" Mia asks in confusion, not recognizing the name at all.
"The Going Merry. It's the name of our ship." Nami says with a soothing smile, trying to put the child at ease once she realizes how fearful she still is. She's starting to realize that staring bug-eyed at her might not have been the best course of action in making her believe they were safe people to be with.
And well, safe was a relative term seeing as they got into their fair share of danger. Just an island previous their Captain had taken down a warlord and ended a civil war.
"I-... I don't know..." Mia hesitates as she glances behind her to Kotaru who's waiting patiently.
"Kotaru can come to. Besides, it's time for lunch and Sanji makes the best food. You won't wanna miss it." Luffy assures with a beaming smile that puts her more at ease than Nami's had had any luck in doing. Releasing some of the tension in her body, Mia hesitates only a second more before nodding her agreement to the plan.
"Yosh! Let's go then!" Luffy cheers happily, grabbing Mia's hand and starting to pull her toward the front of town. She goes along with him a few steps - mostly because she's too stunned to protest - when suddenly she digs her heels in and pulls on her arm. To her dismay though, Luffy's got too good a grip on her to slip free.
"W-wait! Wait, I can't go to the town down there!" She says once her mind has caught up with what was happening. Her words were enough to halt Luffys actions as he stops and lets her go, blinking at her in confusion.
"Huh? Why not?" He asks.
"Well, there's a few reasons, but mostly they're scared of me." She answers hesitantly, looking at the sky with a mildly guilty look. This only confuses Luffy further, but he's also disappointed that he can't bring Mia to the Merry as easily. He's already trying to think up ways to get her to the ship without the town noticing when Mia's guilt fades and she becomes anxious again.
"T-theres- I-if you really want-..." Starting and stopping, Mia takes a deep breath, looking to Kotaru for a second, and then the crew, before facing Luffy once more.
"That is, there's an old dock down the mountain over there." She suggests, pointing toward the back of town, opposite of where their ship was docked at the seaside town. At this new information, Luffys smile returns ten fold as he turns to look at Nami.
"Nami! Did you hear? We gotta move the Merry!" Luffy tells her excitedly. It seems the emotion was infectious as he found his crew starting to smile at his enthusiasm as well.
"I got it. Come on Zoro. You too Usopp. I'll need help getting her around the island." She orders. Zoro grumbles in annoyance, but it's short-lived and there isn't much heat behind it. For Usopp's part, the sniper seems relieved to finally have a reason to leave as he was already scrambling to get out of the town, leaving them all behind.
"I'll come along too, Nami-san. I'll need to get started on lunch, especially now that we have a guest." Sanji says, smiling and winking playfully to Mia who blushes at the attention.
"Right. It shouldn't take us too long. See you soon, Captain." Nami says with a smile as she starts to leave with Zoro and Sanji close behind her.
"See you soon!" Luffy calls after them before turning to Mia and Kotaru again. Robin and Chopper are the only two of his crew left with them and while Robin hadn't been all that scared of Kotaru, Chopper had been. It seems the reindeer was more relaxed now though, seeing that the wolf was no longer a threat.
"Ne, does Kotaru know any tricks?" Luffy asks Mia eagerly, still smiling and practically buzzing with pent-up energy. His question surprises Mia, but before long she's relaxing as well and smiling a small smile his way, looking shyly at Kotaru.
"Um, not many. He knows sit and stay, and we tried shake but he's too big and I'm too small so that didn't work out. We're trying roll over though." She tells him. This excites Luffy further as he bounds over to the wolf much to Chopper's fright and demands to know more and to see demonstrations.
Mia complies, speaking the commands to Kotaru who tries his best to follow through, but when he rolls over into the house and knocks a hole into the wall with his foot the session stops abruptly.
Luffy finds the accident to be hilarious and ends up laughing loud enough to make Mia jump. The laughter is soothing though and it's been a while since she'd been in the company of anyone other than Kotaru.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
So it seems that when life wants you to slow down, it'll force you to one way or another.
Despite that, here I am again! Another year later and just as guilty as I was last time to have left you all waiting for so long! With that in mind, I won't be making any promises about an update schedule, because clearly it never works out the way I want it to, but I do have more chapters done and ready to post. I only need to finish editing them and make sure they're good enough to post.
As usual, I'm hoping for weekly updates until the end of the Konoro Town arc, but as I mentioned before, I can't make any promises on the off chance that life is just waiting to stop me again.
I'm serious, I love this story just as much as you all do and I'm forever sorry that updates are as slow to come as they are! But as always, I can promise that I'll never abandon this story. It's one of my most favorite things in the world and I enjoy every minute I spend writing and editing and posting! Seeing all of the comments and follows and favorites never gets old and they keep my motivation going even when I feel like I'm failing you all for not posting more often!
Thank you to all my loyal readers who have stuck with me through these many, MANY years as this story slowly makes progress. This chapter is dedicated to all of you and your kindness.