][Malice][ =One Piece=

:: Chapter Nineteen ::

Sweat clung to her porcelain skin as she trekked desperately through the never ending jungle filled with a slew of beasts and monsters. The twelve year old Malice had recently stowed away aboard a pirate ship of a noteworthy crew, or so she had thought. Disguising herself as a cabin boy, she’d hoped she could stay aboard the ship for a decent amount of time. Everything had gone well for a few weeks and she thought she’d be able to find her father soon because they were sailing in more dangerous waters. The crew discovered her secret a few weeks in and decided to maroon her on a monster infested island. Apparently she’d had a nasty run in with the vice captain once, leaving him scarred for life and missing an eye. Because of her Haki, she was able to tame most of the beasts and keep the rest at bay.

“Damn… good for nothing… bastards…” Malice hissed venomously as she swatted at low hanging palm fronds and strangulating vines. She’d been on the island for a few days now, fighting off the beasts and monsters without any rest. There wasn’t time to rest she had to be constantly vigilant the beasts seemed to wait until they thought she was vulnerable and would attack. It had been nearly a week since she’d slept and it was playing tricks on her mind.

She paused as she heard someone shouting in the distance. There were other people on the island, perhaps people with a ship. Malice smirked to herself, if they were pirates she could just steal their ship, if they were merchants she could come up with some silly sob story, she already looked awful enough she may not even need to make anything up. Blood dribbled from a small wound to her temple and oozed from various cuts and scrapes lining her legs and arms from stumbling through the overgrown forest. Dirt and other jungle grime stained her clothing and there was a little bit of sand clinging to a few of the scrapes on the lower portion of her legs causing them to sting.

“Oyaji!” Someone cried followed by a loud thunderous roar that shook the very earth beneath her feet.

‘Damn it!’ Malice thought darkly, ‘Their side of the beach is probably infested too.’ Begrudgingly she pressed onward and broke through the jungle’s edge. The entire beach was filled with men and a slew of vessels littered the shoreline, it wasn’t just a pirate crew, it was a pirate fleet! A colossal scaled monster with razor sharp teeth and talons bigger than half the men littering the beach roared and thrashed at the pirates. It was easily the size of two of their massive ships and looked like a dragon from old lore.

Her dark garnet eyes swept the beach trying to gauge the skills of the pirates littering the beach and looking for any she recognized. She took a double take as her gaze swept over a giant of a man with rippling muscles carrying a large bisento. He had a white mustache that protruded like tusks and a few old battle scars littering his chest. It was Whitebeard!

“Shit.” Malice hissed, he was one of the four emperors, on par with her father. There were no other ways out; this was her only chance at escape. As tired as she was, she knew she didn’t stand a chance taking all of them on at once. Perhaps they’d be fooled by a sob story.

“Stop playing with it.” Whitebeard called to his crew as they struggled to fend off the dragon like beast.

Malice watched in awe as Whitebeard took down the creature with one mighty swing of his bisento. Perhaps she’d struggle in a fight against him even if she were at her best. Quickly she looked down at herself to see if her wounds looked severe enough for a shipwreck and trekking through the monster infested jungle. Aside from the few scrapes she didn’t have any wounds, and all of the wounds she did have could easily be distinguished as wounds from nature: trees, branches and other overgrowth. Casting out her senses in search of a nearby monster, Malice quietly slunk back into the jungle completely undetected.