While Ciara was on her own, the Straw Hats won the battle. Usopp was able to free the prisoners of the wax pillar with a little help from Karoo. He put a rope around the whole thing and it burned quickly. They were unscathed, except for Nami, who lost her shirt and was now only wearing a bra and shorts. Luffy beat Mr. 3 in his fight. He correctly guessed the right one out of a sea of imposters and beat him easily. They got together in the clearing to celebrate the victory. Ciara was still missing, they sent out Karoo to find her because he had seen her last. They were waiting for him to return.
"I hope Diamond Tiara is ok. She risked her life to protect us," said Vivi. "It's my fault she had to fight in the first place." They were talking about the bounties on the giant's heads. They've forgotten they've had them after fighting for a hundred years and had a big laugh. Nobody else was laughing, though.
Nami pinched her cheek. "No more of that," said the navigator. "She'll be fine. We've seen her survive far worse than what that guy could dish out. Besides, she's too much of a jerk to die now. She'll want to get one more comment on my appearance. 'Put on a shirt you perv' She'll probably say 'There's a child right there.'" Nami pointed at Luffy.
"Yeah, come on Vivi," said Luffy. He was lounging with Usopp, eating rice crackers. "Worrying won't make her feel any better. Come have a rice cracker."
"Oh, they were rice crackers," said Nami. "They looked a lot like cookies from where I was."
"How can all of you relax? She could be dead or dying!" Vivi was beginning to look agitated. "Wouldn't you want everyone to do the same for you?"
"I wouldn't want my friends to worry so much. She already beat the guy once, it's not like she was in real danger." They heard about the full incident from Luffy and Usopp. Ciara was fine before the fight, she should've won easily.
"But why isn't she back yet?"
"She probably just got lost. It's a big jungle out there." Nami winced and scratched a bug bite on her stomach. It shouldn't be too much of an issue. "I'm sure Karoo will come back and we'll have a big laugh about it."
"What if he doesn't bring back all of her?"
That made Nami's confidence wobble. "Don't think like that. She's strong. You have to trust in her abilities."
"Quack!" A duck ran into the clearing.
"It's Karoo!" Vivi ran to him, followed by the rest. The giants didn't move because they could see it from where they sat. They didn't like what they saw.
Dymon D. Ciara, known to the current group as Diamond Tiara, was unconscious. Except for her bandages, she was covered in blood and mucus. Dirt covered her head to toe. She had a horrible stench that even the giants could smell. The worst of it was that her right hand was gone. On further inspection, bleeding from her left eye socket revealed that it was gone as well.
Chapter 12: Aftermath Of Battle!
Dymon D. Ciara
I felt the sun beating on me. It was so annoying. I was trying to sleep. I tried to cover it with my hand. I remembered that I lost it and opened my eye. I was far less tired. I only really needed a nap.
"She's awake!" I couldn't make out who screamed. Multiple heads blocked the sun. I felt it was good to close my eye again. "We're losing her!"
Someone slapped me. That woke me up quickly. I sat up and punched the jerk. I didn't make contact, my hand was still gone.
"Hey, you're finally awake," said Luffy. He was the one who slapped me.
"Why did you do that?" It didn't hurt, but I felt pain on the inside.
"Slapping helps me stay awake. My gramps did it all the time." Child abuse, I relate heavily to that.
"I wouldn't want to meet him." I looked around. Everyone was sitting around me. Sanii wasn't there, though. "What are you looking at? Do I have something on my face?" I touched it to see what was up with it.
I had a bandage over my missing left eye, covering a quarter of my face and most of my scalp. I wondered if they had cut my hair. It didn't matter; my hair was terrible anyway. I never mentioned it because of that. If you must know, I'm a natural blonde.
"It's more what's not on your face," said Vivi. "You lost an eye."
"Yeah, so what?" It wasn't like I lost a limb. Oh, wait. There was a bandage on a stump where my hand was. It was added over the one that was already there. They seemed to blend into one another. "Eh, I've had worse." I stood. "Is Sanji here? I'm starving to death."
"You lost a hand! All your bones were broken!" How did she know that? My bandages should hide any bones breaking. "And Luffy said a dinosaur ate you! How are you so calm?!"
"One, crying about it won't bring my hand back. Two, my bones are always broken. And three, that dinosaur had very spacious insides." I fished the tooth from the confusing mess I called my bandages and gave it to her. "Here, a souvenir. By the way, don't make me list anything that way again. I hate it when people do that."
She dropped it. "How did you get so hurt? You were so strong before." She looked so concerned for my health. It gave me a nice feeling. What was it called? Someone close to me felt concerned for my well-being. I hadn't felt that in a long time. Except for one person, but she was gone.
"I woke up early this morning. Being tired is my biggest weakness. I lose strength in my limbs and become completely numb. I can barely walk it gets so bad. I'm also weak to explosions, but that's everyone."
"Tell us everything."
What? They wanted to know how my fight went down. "Do you really want to know? You won't like it."
"Come on, tell us," said Zoro. He was the only one still sitting. He was hunched over on a log. "With how bad you're screwed up, I bet the other guy is much worse off."
"Yeah," Luffy chimed in. "It must've been a cool fight!"
"I bet you would like it. I was talking about Vivi. She doesn't even want revolutionaries in her own country to get hurt. It is obvious that she opposes violence of any kind." I didn't want to tell her because she could be traumatized, or even worse, get all mopy about causing someone's death. "Anyway, I don't need to tell you about how I got Mr. 5's head bit off by a bird." Crap, I said that out loud.
"You what," yelled Vivi. The others had a variety of reactions. Mostly negative.
"Uh." I had to deflect quickly. I pointed at Nami, who wasn't wearing a shirt. "Look at her. She's not wearing a shirt. Come on, nobody wants to see that."
"Don't try to distract us by insulting Nami's appearance. You killed someone."
"Ok, I know it sounds bad. But I was gonna die. A lot of things came together and I had to think quickly."
"Explain. Now!" She was serious. It was like I killed someone. Which, to be fair, I did.
I told the full story of my time on the island. From the part where I was kidnapped by birds to tricking the bird dad into killing Mr. 5, inadvertently killing himself.
When I was done. Vivi wasn't talking. She had her hand on her mouth. She was shivering slightly. This made me uncomfortable. I had to do something.
"Look, Vivi." She looked at me. I didn't know what to say. "It's not my fault. I did what I had to do." She said nothing. "You have to understand. It was kill or be killed." Still nothing. "What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry? I won't apologize for being alive."
Vivi shook her head. "You don't get it." She walked away.
"People die! Don't be in a war if you can't handle it!" She ignored me. She walked into the jungle. I was tired of explaining myself. I sat on the nearby log. "Dumb princess," I mumbled to myself. "Doesn't understand anything."
My thoughts were interrupted by a slap. I immediately knew it was Nami. "How dare you talk to her like that," she said aggressively. "You don't know anything about what she's been through!"
"How do you know!?" I screamed without thought. "Do you know who I am, or where I'm from!? You must know a lot of my history to make these claims!" I was standing, and Nami was on the ground in front of me. I stopped yelling. I took a deep breath and sat down. "If you know who my parents are, kindly tell them that they're assholes." Abandon their child in the ocean level of asshole. "At least she has someone to lose."
Nami got up, she still looked angry, but it wasn't a strong look. "You're right, we don't know what your life has been like. But you have to tell us first. We can't help if you keep walls up. You're meant to be a captain but act like a visitor, not interacting with any of us except for demands and vague threats. We want to be your friends. Please, don't make it harder than it already is."
I looked her in the eye. She kept her angry face, but the eyes were genuine. They were reaching out. I smiled, I couldn't help it. "I guess I could tell you a little bit of my life. I do have 15 years of pirate experience."
"What? 15 years," yelled Luffy. He was fully serious until I brought that up. Then he turned into his usual goofball self. "Tell us a story!"
"Shouldn't we go after Vivi," asked Usopp. "She went off on her own."
"She needs time to be alone," said Nami. I agreed, not even Karoo followed her.
"What do you want to hear about first? The wedding I crashed, or the king I scammed with invisible clothes."
"We can't focus on that right now," Zoro said something for the first time in a while. He held the same stoic look the entire talk. "I for one don't want to wait a full year to get off this rock." A year on this island? That's horrible.
"Why do we have to stay here a year," I asked.
"That's how long it takes for the log pose to reset." That only raised further questions.
"What's a log pose?" Everyone except for Luffy slowly looked at me. "So what if I'm not an expert? Get off my back."
"Yeah, it's confusing. I barely understand it myself," said Luffy as he picked his nose. "It's like a mystery compass."
"Oh yeah. I understand everything now."
"I don't believe you," said Usopp. It was so mean. I expected something like that from Nami, but not Usopp.
"Whatever, I'm not the navigator anyway."
"Hey," said the short giant. Wait, there were giants? So cool. "You save us from those other guys. If we can, we'd love to return the favor."
"Maybe you can do something about our log pose so we're not stuck here," said Luffy.
"I'm afraid that's the one thing we can't help you with," said the taller giant.
"Oh, Nami, Ciara, and all the rest! It's so great to finally see you," Sanji said as he entered the clearing. He saw the giant and turned angry. "Whoa, what's going on here?! Are one of you Mr. 3?!" He had Vivi with him, she looked much better after her walk. She glanced at me before walking to Karoo.
"How do you know about Mr. 3," asked Nami.
Sanji saw her body. "Wow! You look amazing, Nami!" He took off his coat and put it around her. "But you could get a cold if you don't wear something." He walked in front of everyone. "I was just in the jungle talking to Mr. 0. He thought I was Mr. 3 so I told him we were all dead."
"Great! Now nobody would be looking for us anymore," I said.
Sanji looked at me. He was suddenly on the floor in tears. "No! The enchantress captain was injured while I was away. I couldn't even get her the food she wanted!" He got up and picked up Zoro by the collar. "What did you do?!"
"Me?! I didn't do a thing," Zoro argued back.
"Exactly! You should've protected her!"
"She can handle herself!" They started fighting.
"Geez, you two should just make out already," I said. They immediately stopped fighting and backed far away from each other. Nami thanked me for stopping the fight. That made me think. Would two men fight to prove they're not gay, or would they fight less?
"It's good that we're not being followed. But we still can't go anywhere," Usopp yelled with tears.
"Oh, we can't go anywhere. That's an awful shame after I found this." Sanji took out a weird-looking snow globe that said 'Alabasta' on the top. Everyone else gasped as they saw it.
"What is it? Should I know what that is?"
"Don't worry about it," said Nami.
"An Eternal Pose to Alabasta," cheered Luffy. "Now we can set sail." We all started celebrating. I was still a little confused.
We started on our back to the ship. I hung back a bit to avoid the chaos in the front. Usopp yelling about being a brave warrior. Luffy's, everything. Sanji and Zoro's pissing contest. Nami. Sometimes I enjoyed a bit of quiet after a near-death experience, and I already had two that day.
Vivi walked by me. I finally knew what to say. "Listen, I'm sorry for my outburst. I could've been less aggressive. It's a good thing to want less bloodshed. But still, that guy was out for blood, and I can't prioritize keeping people alive when I'm given so few options."
"No," said Vivi. "I didn't want to think of what would happen during a war. I was so overwhelmed by what you said, that I had to walk away so I wouldn't say something I'd regret. It's my fault for putting you in that position, and I'm sorry." I thought that was the end of it, but she had other plans. "I just want you to know what you did. You ended another human's life. Do you understand the implications of that?"
I had to think for a while. I rubbed my chin with the nub where my hand was. "Nope, I got nothing."
"Do you have any sympathy?"
"Is that some kind of sauce?"
"I can't believe you. Are you some kind of psychopath?"
"I'll have you know I'm a sociopath and I don't have an official diagnosis." Several people called me that. Mostly before they never saw me again for multiple reasons. One of them was the prince before one of his suitors stabbed him in the eye.
"That explains a lot," said Vivi. She paused. "Can you at least try to think of what the other person's life is like before killing them?"
"That sounds hard. I'd rather not."
"How about this? If another person dies during our time together, you're not a getting a single berry from me." So unfair. Didn't she know of my debt?
"Fine. No more murder, within reason."
"None!" She got so angry I felt a shiver.
"Twist my arm why don't you? Fine, I'll do everything in my power to keep people from dying." This was gonna suck. I guessed trying to have sympathy could make it a little easier. I just had to find out how. "So, what is sympathy?"
"Feeling someone else's emotions of loss or sorrow." That made no sense. Who cares about other people?
"Cool, how do I do that?"
"I don't know. You should know how to already." There must've been something wrong with me. Oh well, I'll wing it.
We reached the ship and walked onto the deck. We had to wait for a couple of guys to finish their contest before we left.
"I told you! Mine is bigger," yelled Zoro.
"No, mine is," yelled Sanji.
The two of them were comparing sizes. I would say it was about the animals they hunted, but it didn't matter. I didn't care about the size of their stuff either way. "Who could fight over something so petty?"
"You mean like who should be captain," asked Vivi with a smirk.
"Hey, that's important. I would've won that fight if I ate a bit more."
"What are you talking about," said Luffy. He poked my chest. "I totally would've won if you didn't steal my food."
"Liar," we both yelled. We got into a short scuffle before Nami stopped it with a punch. I almost forgot how strong she was.
"Shut up and get on before these idiots kill each other," Nami yelled at Zoro and Sanji. Sanji stuffed the ship with meat. Phrasing, boom. And we set sail. "The giants said going straight would take us to the Western end of the island."
"Aren't we trying to go East? You know, circumnavigate the Earth. And didn't we come from the West?" I tried to remember the maps of the world I'd seen. The end of the Grandline was always to the East of Reverse Mountain. "Also, how do they know which way is West? Compasses don't work here."
"Don't overthink it." That was the end of that conversation.
We kept sailing. There was an argument about how much meat we brought. I didn't know why Sanji thought any would go to waste. We had me and Luffy on board. I didn't eat as much as Luffy, but I could eat quite a bit of food if I was hungry enough. One time I won a hot dog eating contest. It was easy, half of them were poisoned. I didn't do it, I promise.
The end of the canal came. The giants were standing on either side of it. They said a few words about how we fought for them. It was pretty boring until the end. "Have faith in what we say. No matter what happens, go straight forward!" Usopp asked what he said and Luffy repeated it.
We passed the giants. I gave them a thumbs up. "Don't worry! I'm sure you've done this before!"
"Nope," said the tall one. "Never once!" That made me a little nervous.
"Look over there," said Nami, pointing in front of us.
A giant fish slowly rose out of the water. It was bigger than the giants, possibly bigger than the island. We were going straight into its mouth. It turned out to be a goldfish. Everyone was yelling in fear.
"Start working the rudder, Usopp," yelled Nami. He refused.
"Yeah, we have to go straight ahead," said Luffy.
"Don't be a moron! This won't be anything like Laboon!" He still refused. Nami turned to me. "Come on. You're the co-captain. You have an equal say in what we do. So listen to me and get us away from the fish!"
I ignored her. "Nope. We die like men."
"Yeah, calm down Nami. Here, have the last rice cracker." He through it to her. She bit into it despite not wanting it. Hypocrite, I wanted a rice cracker.
We entered the fish's mouth. It became dark fast. Everyone questioned Luffy, but he still completely trusted the giants. The mouth closed, and we were engulfed in darkness.
"Keep going straight," yelled me, Usopp, and Luffy. Nami tried to make me stop, but I shut her up quickly. She tried to remove my hand from her mouth. She failed.
A burst of air shot through us. It created a giant hole in the fish that we flew through.
"Yeah! We're flying," yelled me and Luffy. Nothing could stop us. We kept going straight ahead.
TO BE CONTINUED...