Double-Dealing | Kuzan x reader

021

Drip.

Drip.

"Officer? Come in!"

The scratchy and faintly-connected den den mushi shouted out to the open air as it lay on its side.
Only blue sea stretched far across the horizon and the empty battleship creaked as it went.

Drip.

Drip.

"Officer, can you hear me!" The voice coming from the poor creature sounded panicked, the noise not reaching anything.

Crack.

Suddenly the creature shut off. It's expression turning into one of stillness as it had become encased along the side of its shell in a hard and orange substance.

Drip.

Drip.

And there she stood. Her back facing the stained and empty deck as she looked along the line of the horizon as she was alone.

The New World - the place where her once full ship was now void of life, apart from herself.

"Gacha."

"(Y/n)." It was Perospero, his voice slid from the transponder snail in the woman's hand as she pulled the receiver up to her mouth; the snail's smirk accompanying a raised eyebrow.

"I'm on the way. Don't sent any tartes my way for the next," (y/n) looked up to the sky, judging the time by the way the sun was just setting and gathering stars, "day or so."

Perospero chuckled, hearing her stone cold voice. (Y/n) had never particularly been so cold, so he wondered why she sounded so - plain. The candyman sighed.

"It seems you're troubled." (Y/n) shook her head, her brother getting the message from the snail.

"See you, Peros-nii."

"Gacha."

Drip.

Drip.

As the gulls called and the blue waters washed against the side of what was once one of the most great ships built only for the marines which was now carrying the pirate to her crew, the sun kissed the horizon - the eerie silence engulfing the vessel. A strong metallic smell hanging in the air as the deck stained crimson red.

"Sengoku-san, I'm telling you. You shouldn't have let her go without me-"

"Kuzan are you trying to tell me she isn't capable? She's a grown woman, not a child. And a vice admiral at that." Kuzan gripped his nose as he sat talking to the old fleet admiral.

Unexpectedly, a young marine burst through the doors, a sleeping den den mushi in his hand to which Sengoku raised an eyebrow at as he saluted.

"Sengoku, sir! They say the ship carrying thirty men and Vice Admiral (y/n) has gone missing! No one can call them!"

Sengoku looked surprised and a little shaken when Aokiji only clenched his teeth, closing his eyes with tight fists.

'Damn it, (y/n)!'

The fleet admiral shot to his feet, commanding the man to leave and check the communications office to see if anyone onboard could be contacted. Sengoku harshly sighed, holding his forehead in his hands as he drummed his fingers on the table in frustration.

"Why now of all times? And we thought Whitebeard was almost too much to deal with..."

"Seems you've lost her, Kuzan."

Suddenly, both men quickly snapped their gaze up to the door where the mocking voice had come from. And where the doorway began, a man stood, smirking from under his cap.

"This is not the time for jokes, Sakazuki!" Sengoku slightly yelled at him as the admiral walked further into the room, Aokiji still eyeing him with a blank face.

"But it is no joke, clearly," Sakazuki turned to the other admiral who glared at him, "Kuzan knows something we don't."

The fleet admiral turned his expression to one of suspicion as he looked over at Aokiji, sitting down in his desk chair at last. But the lazy admiral only looked dead in the magma man's eyes, standing up slowly with his hands in his pockets.

"About what?"

"About her. You two are always together, there has to be something going on." In that moment, Aokiji wanted to rip the smug expression from Sakazuki's face.

"Sakazuki, Kuzan's personal life has nothing to do-"

"(Y/n) always seemed distant, from the day she started as a recruit right up until the time she met you," the cap on his head was pulled down as Sakazuki sat at a chair nearby, "it makes me wonder, what is it that you know and we don't."

"The only thing I know about (y/n) is that she came from the New World. Nothing more, nothing less. Our relationship is nothing more than a Superior to a Subordinate, and I only oversee her constantly due to her disorganised self."

Sengoku raised an eyebrow as a chain of dark chuckled came from Sakazuki, Kuzan only trailing his eyes over to see his co-worker with a smirk on his face.

"You don't know about her past?" Kuzan shook his head, trying to make it so no one realised his lies.

'(Y/n)...'

Sengoku seemed way more interested now as he had intertwined his fingers on the surface of his desk, his eyes on Sakazuki.

"It was a trip to hell and back to find out who she was," the admiral looked deeply at the man who loved the woman he laughed about, "as expected of a daughter of Big Mom."

"Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho,"

Helm of the battleship steering around with a creak as (y/n) gripped it,

"Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho,"

Her hair was tossed and jostled by the warm and salty wind.

"Binkusu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo
Umikaze kimakase namimakase,"

The New World with its unpredictable weather had chosen kindness just this once,

"Shio no mukou de, yuuhi mo sawagu
Sora nya wa wo kaku, tori no uta."

Letting the woman have the evening breeze be like that of a summer's night.

"Sayonara minato, Tsumugi no sato yo,"

And as her sweet voice, not once wavering whispered the song of sailors and joy,

"DON to icchou utao, funade no uta
Kinpa-ginpa mo shibuki ni kaete,"

Nothing but the glossy shield of tears stood in her sight.

"Oretacha yuku zo, umi no kagiri."

~~~

07.01.2021

Author's Notes

I feel like I'm torturing everyone now 😭

Do not worry!

This is the run up...

To something great!

- TransponderSnail