Chapter 2: Maps and Momoo
I own nothing but my OCs. To clarify Long's speaking style, this is how he speaks normally. The events that happened were 15 years from the cannon at the time, which was after Enis Lobby and before Thriller Bark took place.
Riptide was up before the sun, and anyone else was in Cocoyashi Village, sitting on the bench by the back door of their Aunt Nojiko's home in deep thought. Four and a half years had passed since that sad day Nami had brought them to live with her sister. The white hybrid closed his eyes, fighting back the tears as he remembered the events that had led to the decision that separated them from their mother
-Flashback-
"Riptide, stay here and protect your brother and sister," Nami said before rushing from the library.
He didn't want to remain in the library, but his mother had told him to protect his siblings and never disobeyed her. The sounds of battle echoed from the top deck of the Thousand Sunny, and the trio knew it would be over soon, but suddenly, Riptide felt a strange stirring deep within his soul. His breath became swallower as he slowly stumbled towards the door. Whatever had just awoken within began to swell, filling his brain with his heart's all too loud pounding. Now, he stood before the door, listening to the screams and vile curses that were resonating from the other side. Suddenly, the door was flung open, and Riptide found himself face-to-face with a pair of grim-looking pirates, who, at the moment, looked as shocked at the discovery of the hybrids as much as the trio were at being discovered.
Riptide didn't feel so well. His pulse was pounding loudly, loud in his ears, and it was getting harder to breathe. These pirates before him had no right to be here. He found himself in an inner turmoil as part of him wanted to hide in the darkest corner while another part, suddenly encouraged by the thing that had just awoken within him, craved-blood?
The pirate, an eel Fishman, who opened the door, looked at him and back down the corridor before turning his attention to the trio before him. He grinned as he drew a blood-stained short sword but laughed sinisterly.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY CHILDREN!" Nami was rushing toward the pair, a crazed look on her face.
"Annoying bitch," muttered the fisherman's comrade.
Riptide swayed on the spot, and his vision went in and out, fuzzy spots dancing in front of his eyes. Then, he heard his mother's voice and the voice of the second pirate. Before Riptide knew what was happening, the second pirate pulled out a gun and aimed at his mother. He snapped.
Screams filled the air as Hybrid and Fishman smashed into the far wall. Riptide's teeth locked onto the eel man's throat, and he bit down with incredible biting force. And blood bathed not only the white hybrid but also the other pirates. The man's screams filled the air, catching Riptide's attention, and he slowly stood, turning to face him with eyes that seemed to blaze with frightening madness, bloody teeth bared. Destiny and Long were terrified as they clung to one another, crying with fear as they watched from within the library. The remaining pirate was frozen with fear.
"Please," he whimpered, his gun falling to the floor, "Please, please don't kill me."
Riptide growled before he spoke, low and threatening. "Get out of my sight before I kill you and the rest of your crewmates."
The pirate made a mad dash past Nami, stumbling when he came onto the deck. "RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Luffy, with the rest of the Straw Hats, had seen the blood-covered pirate and feared the worst. They all rushed to the library, stopping when they saw the bloody remains of the eel man. Luffy entered the library and saw Nami holding and rocking a badly shaken up, blood-covered Riptide as she quietly spoke to a still-frightened Destiny and Long.
"What happened?" Luffy's voice took a rare note of authority.
Riptide looked up at the captain but quickly averted his gaze. "Uncle Luffy, I'm sorry, " he said. "I...I didn't mean…"
"Riptide.: The young hybrid flinched. "Look at me. Now." Riptide slowly looked up and was crushed by the look on Luffy's face. Anger and sadness clouded the usually clear black eyes, giving him a terrifying aura of power and something else. He quickly looked away again, drawing a shuddering breath and hugging his arms to protect himself from a sudden cold chill.
What is this? Riptide thought with sudden fear. What is this tremendous pressure I'm feeling? Is this the same Uncle Luffy I know? This incredible will, this fighting spirit, this power? He felt so small and alone.
Nami, sensing her son's anguish, held him closer to her, speaking in motherly tones.
"Nami." She froze. "Tell me what happened."
"They were going to kill Mother," Destiny said quickly, looking at her uncle.
"Bad pirates," Long agreed as he moved closer to his sister. "Riptide protected Mother, not bad."
What Luffy said next was a crushing blow to his navigator. He chose his words carefully, but this did not ease the authority and finality in his voice. "Nami…" he said slowly. "I promised to help you raise and protect them." He paused. "But I can't let them stay anymore."
Nami suddenly couldn't breathe. She feared what Luffy might do, but this? She started to gasp for air.
"Mother!" Riptide heard his mother gasping, and he turned to Nami, gripping her shoulders and searching her face. "Mother, are you alright?"
Nami was looking at her captain, tears flowing freely down her face. "Luffy...please…"
Luffy didn't blink, didn't move a muscle. "I'm sorry, Nami."
"LUFFY!" Nami screamed. "Please! Don't do this!" It wasn't his fault. Riptide isn't like Arlong! He was protecting Destiny, Long, and me. Something anyone in this crew would do!" Riptide struggled to hold his mother back as she tried to claw her way desperately to Luffy; her anguish at the thought of leaving her children was driving her to delirium. "LUFFY! PLEASE!" She screamed again, the suffering in her voice causing it to crack.
"I'm sorry, Nami," Luffy said quietly.
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she realized how difficult this was for him. His hands shook as he tried to keep his voice steady and his face unmoving, but as he gazed at her, Nami recognized the pain in his eyes as if it was reciprocating her own. She collapsed into her older son's arms, weeping. Destiny and Long were at her side, all three hugging their mother.
The rest of the Straw Hats were silent.
"Nami, please look at me," Luffy said quietly. "I know Riptide didn't mean to do it, but it's no longer safe for them to stay with us. I only want to do what is best for them. Can you understand this?"
Silence hung in the air.
"Where would we go?" Destiny asked.
Nami knew where. She took a breath, attempting to collect her thoughts. "I will take you to Cocoyashi Village, my hometown."
And so, Nami took them to live in her hometown, a place where everyone had endured so much for a chance for freedom.
-End of Flashback-
It was not easy for those who had suffered Arlong's cruelty to accept the trio. They were the ones who couldn't let go of their hatred, which they passed on to their children, who in turn influenced their friends. Everyone in Cocoyashi Village slowly overcame the fear and welcomed the hybrids to their new home.
Riptide was ostracized more than his siblings because of his appearance and was called "Shiro Arlong." It took all of his willpower not to lash out in anger, anger at those who hated them though they did not deserve it, anger that warranted only that pitiful excuse of a being which was their father. So, he began training his mind and body, making himself stronger so that one day, he would find that cold-hearted bastard who fathered them and make him pay for everything he had done.
During those four and a half years of self-training, Riptide was an impressive sight. Standing 6' 10" tall, he was a pure muscle mass. He had taken to defending his island home from pirates and sometimes bandits, who slowly earned the trust of the other towns. This morning, he donned his usual dark blue jeans and a button-red shirt before pulling his hair back into a low ponytail. Sitting on the bench was a black of hiking outdoor sandals with three adjustable straps that had a hook-and-loop closure, which he put on before getting to his feet, grabbing two of the baskets his aunt used for picking tangerines, and heading into the orchard, deciding to start picking the tangerines early. Riptide did not rush as he carefully examined each try, choosing the ones he knew would sell best. Aunt Nojiko had taught him and his siblings about farming the crop as Belle-mere had taught Nojiko and his mother when they were little girls. Once the baskets were filled off in town, he delivered them to the local market and sold them to the local fruit seller. Taking the beli he earned, Riptide stopped at the flower shop, where he purchased flowers and headed to visit his grandmother's grave.
"Today marks the twenty-fifth year since he took your life," Riptide said as he placed the flowers in the small vase that was by the grave marker and then sat back. "Mother spent eight years making maps for him, only to be forced by him to become pregnant with us." He gave a rough chuckle. "But you know what the worst of it is? Do you know what hurts the most? It is being that bastard's son, having his damn dirty blood running through my veins, having to wake every morning, looking into the mirror, and see him staring right back at me. And though I accepted all these things long ago, it still hurts no matter what I do."
Suddenly, he caught a faint whiff of cigarette smoke and looked at the woman with magenta-colored hair standing by him before she sat by him. "You know," she said. "It's getting rather old when you start repeating yourself."
"How am I supposed to feel, Grandma?"
"Well, one," Belle-mere said, holding up a finger as she leaned back on her hand, straightening her legs before her and taking a long draw of her cigarette. "It's your birthday, so you have no reason to be downer on your and your siblings' birthdays."
Riptide raised his eyebrows. He had forgotten. He and his siblings had been born on the 9th anniversary of the woman's death. She smiled and looked at him.
"Damn, you sure look like a much younger version of him," she said. Riptide stiffened and looked down. "But," she continued, "You have something he never had." He looked at her again, eyes questioning. "Compassion." She turned and faced him, her eyes intense and fiery despite their owner's less-than-physical state. "Riptide, never be ashamed of who you are. It's what makes you, you."
"Tell that to those who still despise me," Riptide said. "I've done a lot of good, and I'm still cursed."
"Some wounds can never truly be healed, and those people will probably never change no matter what you've done."
All Riptide could do was nod in agreement. He had done much for his home island and the surrounding towns that made up the Conomi Islands, from rescuing Fishermen caught in a violent storm at sea to facing down a giant vicious bear called Oni who had attacked the hunters after him. Deeds that impressed his Uncle Luffy would have been begging to hear them repeatedly with his Uncle Usopp, commenting on how he had trained Riptide. Knowing his Uncle Chopper and Luffy would have reacted to that, a chuckle escaped him. Uncle Franky said he was not only super brave but super strong. He was so absorbed with those thoughts that he didn't know that Belle-mere's spirit had faded away, smiling.
~~later that day~~
Riptide snuck off when he knew he could, but no one had seen him, or so he thought. His brother and sister had seen him slipping out the back door of their home and decided to follow him.
"Where Rip going?" Long asked.
"Long, keep your voice down, or he'll hear us," Destiny hissed at her younger brother.
The silver hybrid stood 6'4" tall with long, silky black hair that reached past her shoulders and eyes as blue as Arlong's. Destiny was very much like her mother when it came to dress style. She wore knee-length snug to hip brown shorts, a white tank with a blue swirl pattern, and comfortable leather marmalade-colored sandals that featured upper and dual hook-&-loop closure straps.
Long was five inches shorter than Riptide with a lean, muscular build. He wore a black sleeves shirt tucked into the dark green shorts that were past his knees, a maroon headband covering his silver-black hair, and like his brother, Long wore style of sandals in a blue color.
They followed their older sibling to the ruins of what had once been Arlong Park. Nature had, over time, claimed the ruins, but that didn't deter Riptide as he ducked down and went inside the ruined structure. It had taken time, but the white hybrid had made a path within the building that allowed him to venture up what once been his mother's room, the map room. Once there, he lit the lantern he had left before carefully salvaging the maps his mother had slaved away for eight years. He knew he shouldn't be saving the maps his mother had been forced to create, but the cartographer within couldn't stand the sight of maps lying in ruin.
"You shouldn't be in here!"
Riptide gave a frightened yelp, nearly dropping the lantern. "WHAT THE HELL?!" he turned to see his siblings climbing into this ruined room, which made it more crowded. "What are you doing here?!"
"Us? What about you?" Destiny snapped. "Are those—Rip, they are! What are you doing with those?"
"You wouldn't understand if I told you," Riptide said.
"Try us," Destiny said.
Riptide stared at the aged, ruined map in his hands. "I want to travel one day, and if I can redo half of these maps, I will have a route to travel and knowledge of the place."
"Using those—maps?" Destiny said, looking disgusted.
"I'm going to redraw them," Riptide said. "I know it will take time, but I will do it."
Long had been looking among the ruined, broken bookcases and maps before he spotted the blood-stained curved piece of metal; then, the copper noticed the stains of blood on the tiled floor.
"Blood!" he exclaimed, pointing. "There blood here!"
"What?" Riptide and Destiny rushed to his side.
"Whose blood, though?" Destiny said.
The triplets knew of the fight that had happened here, of the blood that both their uncle and their father had spilled. Riptide picked up the piece of metal, studying it, remembering what the tale Uncle Usopp had told. Still, he did not speak of what had happened here; he just said that the battle had been so fierce and great that Arlong Park had been destroyed, and then he spied the broken remains of the kiribachi. His father's weapon, a massive black pole with six shark tooth-shaped black blades resembling half of a saw shark's snout with a katana handle, was broken in half with two blades destroyed. Without thinking, Riptide gripped the handle and lifted the ruined weapon, studying it. He said nothing as he looked for the upper half of the kiribachi, finding it half buried by part of the ceiling beam, and he worked to get it free.
"What are you doing?" Destiny said.
"I know of an old weaponsmith," Riptide said as he fished out the backpack he had stashed away and brought out some rope. "I'm sure he can repair this."
"Have you lost your mind?!" Destiny screamed. "That was HIS WEAPON, and you want it fixed."
"Des, if I follow my dream, there's no way I'm doing it without a way to defend myself," Riptide said.
"We no go?"
Riptide looked at Long. "What?"
Long had a sad look. "No, go? Leave us here?"
"Long, I would never leave you or Destiny behind," Riptide said. "We're family, and I would never leave you here, little brother."
"What makes you think I might want to go?" Destiny said.
Riptide and Long looked at her. "What? Des, you can't be serious?" Riptide said.
Destiny said nothing as she descended to the ground. Riptide cursed as he tied the broken pieces of the kiribachi together before he looked at his brother.
"Long, can you gather the maps you see and put them in this backpack for me?" Long nodded. "Good, then meet us outside."
"I will."
Riptide descended slowly right when he heard Destiny scream, followed by a deep bellow. "Destiny!" he shouted, rushing outside.
Destiny was sitting, shaking in fear at the massive ancient sea cow that had a seal-like structure that had surfaced using the old sea entrance to the park. The beast was 118'1" tall with cow-esque face, horns, and even a gold nose ring. Riptide studied the beast, which had fish-like scales from his neck to his stomach. He recalled his mother telling them about a particular white sea cow with green spots throughout his body if he could remember the name of the sea cow. The beast planted his fins onto the concrete, letting his retractable bones that were hard enough to be used claws, and started to pull himself from the pool, eyes glued to Destiny, who was frozen with fear when the name came to the snow-colored hybrid.
"MOMOO, STOP!" he yelled in a commanding tone.
At the sound of his name, Momoo turned his head, his eyes locking on Riptide. The sea cow cowered as haunting memories came flooding, and he let out a terrified cry, twisting around to escape—only to have the remains of the leather harness placed on him by the Caribou Pirate get caught on one of the posts. Momoo panicked, trying to free himself, but due to his age, he tired out fast.
Riptide went to his sister, ensuring she was okay as Long came out. The copper hybrid dropped his brother's backpack, seeing Momoo as he lay half out of the water, looking so tired and helpless. He went to the old sea cow's side, touching Momoo's head.
"Long, watch out!" Riptide called out to his brother.
"No hurt," Long said, stroking the hardened skin. "Friends, our friend."
Momoo shifted his head some to get a look at the one who was petting him. This wasn't Arlong, though he could smell his scent, but the other one, the orange-haired girl who used to come here. What did this mean? How did they know his name?
Long focused his attention on the harness that had, over the years, rubbed against Momoo's skin and slowly caused him pain as it cut through his hide. He saw the horrific injury it had caused, and poor Momoo was in torment from it and the infection from it.
"He hurt!" Long said, looking back at his siblings.
Riptide stood, guiding his sister to her feet, and walked to the sea cow. Destiny was still scared, and no one could blame her, but Long placed her hand on Momoo's cheek.
"He scared," the copper hybrid said. "You scared. Both scared."
"He was going to eat me," Destiny said.
"You can't be angry with him," Riptide said, studying the harness. "This isn't helping him; in his condition, he's trying to find easy prey."
"We help?" Long said as he looked at his brother.
"Yes, but I'm unsure what we should do for medicine," Riptide admitted. "This will need to be tended to right away, or he's going to get worse from the infection." He walked to the other side of the sea cow, looking for a buckle or even a clasp so they could undo the collar. "Seriously? Whoever was the bastard that did this made it a whole piece."
"Wait," Destiny said. "Are you saying Momoo was chained to whatever he was hooked up to?"
"Yeah," Ritptide said. "Heartless bastards to do this/"
Momoo gave a sad moo as if he was saying yes to Riptide's words.
"What are we going to do?" Destiny asked.
Riptide went over to where he dropped his father's broken kiribachi and untied the rope, picking the lower half of the kiribachi. "Keep Momoo's attention away from me," he said as he returned. "I need him to remain still."
"Brother gets old collar off," Long said as he moved in front of Momoo. "Stay still."
Destiny looked at her older sibling as he carefully aimed at the collar, then looked away as Riptide swung. Momoo cried what sounded like relief, and she looked to see that her brother had sliced through the collar. The old sea cow lifted his head, allowing the triplets to remove it slowly.
"I'm gonna be sick," Destiny moaned as she turned away from seeing what that leather collar had done.
"That is so gross," Riptide said, fighting to keep his stomach quiet.
"Get glow slugs," Long said as he stood at the pool's edge.
"What are you talking about?" Riptide said, joining him.
His brother pointed to the water. "Glow slugs," Long said. "Heal Momoo."
"Uncle Chopper told you about this?" Destiny said.
Long shook his head. "Learn, watch glow slug," he pointed to an unknown cut on the back of his left hand. "Heal wound."
"Wait, you're telling us there are glowing sea slugs with a healing property?" Destiny said.
"Yes," Long said.
"Long, get them since you know where to find them," Riptide said.
Long jumped in and swam to where he had seen many blue glowing slugs. He returned a few moments later with his headband full of the helpful slugs. Destiny took the closed-up headband while Riptide helped Long from the water. Eagerly, the copper hybrid took the headband rushing to Momoo.
"They make you better," he said, opening the headband and placing the slugs on Momoo's neck.
Destiny and Riptide watched the slugs spread out, emitting a bright glow as they went to work. When the sunset came, Momoo's wound was nearly healed, and he looked a little better.
"We better get back to Aunt Nojiko before she sends Genzo out looking for us," Riptide said after placing his treasures safely away.
"Can't we stay?" Long said, not wanting to leave the old sea cow's side.
"Long, he'll be okay now; besides, it's our birthday," Destiny said. "Aunt Nojiko will be waiting for us to come home so we can celebrate."
Long eagerly hurried out of the ruins of Arlong Park, followed by his sister. Riptide hung back, watching Momoo as he slipped into the water, then glanced at the ruined building. He didn't want to tell his siblings earlier, but he couldn't shake the feeling that their father was alive. Was it his imagination, or did he have a slight connection to the former tyrant?
Riptide has revealed his dream, and Momoo returns. Remember to Read and Review.
