][Malice][ =One Piece=

:: Chapter Thirty Four ::

The town had been reduced to cinders after the bandit raid. Due to the chaos, the six year old girl was able to drag away the body of her fallen matron. Her eyes were dry; she no longer had tears left to shed for the mother who raised her. She scraped the earth with her bare hands pulling up a small trail of dirt. Silently the girl pressed onward digging deep into the earth till her hands were bloody and raw. Some of her fingernails had scraped off from the effort and she was sure from the amount of pain she was feeling that some of her wounds were to the bone.

                It was nothing. The physical pain could not compare to the pain in her heart. She was truly alone in the world. Her mother discarded her and her father could care less about her existence. Things had finally changed. They were going to be happy; they were finally going to be a real family. Her heart began to harden as she relived the previous night. She had to memorize all their faces.

                She balled one of her bloody dirt and grime covered hands into a fist and clapped it over her heart. “I’ll avenge you.” Her voice was ragged and wheezy her small lungs struggling due to the smoke inhalation. “I’ll make them pay.”

                “Eh? What’s this?” Someone stepped into the small clearing the child had managed to escape to in a last effort to give Izra some semblance of peace. “Bloody hell.” The man swore as he took a closer look at the child kneeling next to the bloody corpse.

                Her small hands were raw, gory and he could see patches of white at her fingertips, some of her nails were bent completely backward from the resistance of the dirt and gravel she clawed her way through. His stomach turned as he spotted the child’s disfigured shoulder, it was bubbled up and smelled of burning flesh and melted tar. The skin was black and necrotic and oozing blood and filth. It’d need immediate surgery; they’d have to cut away all the necrotic flesh.

                “Boss! You should take a look at this.” The man called back to his crewmen.

                It didn’t take long for his captain to join him. They watched in silence as the child rolled the corpse into the grave she’d dug with her bare hands and began kicking dirt to fill the hole. Once she finished her task she turned to the unfamiliar men. Her eyes widened slightly as if only now realizing she hadn’t been alone. Those hellish eyes darted first to the captain and then to the sword at his waist.

                “I need one of those.” The child pointed eerily to the sword.

                The captain smirked, “How old are you?”

                “I’ll be seven tomorrow.” The girl replied emotionlessly.

                “Then tomorrow you shall have one.”

A few weeks had passed by since their encounter with the cowardly pirates trying to flee to ‘paradise’. Malice was uneasy. She’d inspected some of the bodies of the men she’d slaughtered and found several sporting tattoos with Kaido’s symbol. The beast Kaido was ruthless and would surely unleash hell upon them for killing some of his subordinates.

                Over the course of a few weeks she introduced the crew to Haki, not that any of them had managed to pick up on it at all. She had a bad feeling that she’d be separated from them soon and they needed to know how to work on honing their skills.

                “Are you alright, Malice?” Killer asked her one night while the others drank themselves stupid. “You’ve been distant lately.”

                “You’ll always remain by his side, won’t you?”Malice’s voice was whisper soft.

                Killer was taken aback by her question, “Will you?”

                “I wish more than anything that I could.” She smiled softly as Kid flipped over their poker crate in a drunken bout of rage causing the others to stumble away.

                “Malice?” Killer looked to the cryptic girl in concern, “What’s wrong?”

                She offered the first mate a small smile, “If something happens to me, don’t let that idiot try and save me.”

                Killer felt the blood drain from his face as he tried to imagine how the captain would react if something were to happen to the girl. No one would be safe from his rage. There was no way anyone could stand in the way of his goal. He’d do anything to get her back no matter whom or what he had to sacrifice in the process.

                “I mean it Killer.” Malice’s voice turned dark. “As he is now there’s nothing he can do.”

                “He won’t care.” Killer said softly.

                “He’ll die!” Malice snarled. “If you truly care for him as a friend and as your captain you’ll promise me this.”

                Killer smiled softly and reached out to pat the seething girl on the head, “You know, if anything happens to you hell itself won’t be able to stop any of us from risking our lives to get you back.”

                “Then you’re all fools!” Malice raged and shoved him away from her roughly. “Rush to your deaths then! See if I care!” Tears welled in her eyes.

                “Malice?” Killer reached out to the girl in awe, he’d never seen her so vulnerable and meek. She was Malice, the crimson ghost, a truly malevolent spirit with an insatiable bloodlust. The girl before him was nothing more than a girl.

                “I’m scared.” She admitted in defeat.