One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Forty Eight [Rewritten]

"This is your future and you know it—you wouldn't be such a disappointment if you'd only just accept it."

They were all lies—lies that wormed their way into my skull and made me want to rip out my hair. Lies that made me want to scream and cry in frustration and deny it all...they were lies that made me want to claw and bite and bring nothing but absolute harm to myself. It was a familiar urge, one that terrified me and made me want to draw back and hide in shame. It was an urge that always seemed to linger just in the corner of my mind, a sickening desire that was born out of desperation and only seemed to grow whenever things would get too much...

Pain has always made for a good distraction.

It always has been and right now, I wanted to just inflict it upon myself with the hopes that it would distract me from the reality that those cruel whispers were right. I did look just like him...only a smaller more pathetic version of him. Where he stood tall and proud in his old photos during his rookie days, I could only slump and curl into myself with the desire to do nothing more than hide.

"Aye, aye! Boss!" Nami saluted while I weakly raised my own hand, watching as the double doors were thrown open and the curtains drawn back to help brighten the room and highlight just how filthy it truly was. "Clean all this...?" the ginger weakly questioned, dumbfounded by just how spacious and filthy the room was. "And we got to do it by ourselves...?" she asked as if she couldn't believe he was expecting only two people to clean this entire room by themselves.

"I want to see it sparkle! Boy, would I hate to be in your shoes right about now!" the man laughed as he turned and left.

"This disguise was clearly a mistake" Nami whined, shoulders drooping the minute the man left.

"Clearly.." I grumbled, rolling my eyes at her overdramatic reaction. Mother's punishments were far crueler than this, so having to clean such a filthy room was no issue—it was far better than being forced to join in on any training. Heaving a sigh, I motioned for her to follow as I turned around, already knowing that if we were going to get this place cleaned up then we were going to need plenty of buckets of water. "Come on now, a bit of spring cleaning isn't going to kill you" I softly huffed when she started to whine and complain before lowering her head and grumbling when she saw I was sympathizing with her as we got our buckets of mop water. Walking back to the gymnasium, I soon stopped and lulled my head to the side, boredly watching as she angrily dropped her buckets and began to pout.

"If I keep that up, I'll be dead before they catch me..." she pitifully muttered.

"Nami..." I muttered, watching as she only ignored me and continued to childishly pout. "Nami, please..." I sighed, trying my best to see things from her point of view and understand what was so bothersome about doing such menial labor outside of the time it would waste in finding the others...but it wasn't like we could simply abandon this task without it raising some suspicion.

"Hold it!" the angry shout up ahead was enough to startle the ginger into grabbing my wrist as she dragged the both of us into a nearby closet—slamming the door shut behind her as fast as she could before anyone could see. She stared at me with wide, frightened eyes as we now stood there in utter silence saved for her labored breathing.

"Help me! Help!" I heard Chopper cry which was then followed by the sound of hoofs clomping against the floor and a shadow dancing past underneath the door.

"I said hold it!" the voice from before shouted as more shadows ran past.

"I guess those guys weren't looking for us..." Nami sighed in relief once the footsteps faded and got further away before perking up when she realized we had taken refuge inside a closet. "Cleaning sucks...got to find a new disguise..." she muttered to herself, looking around in hopes of finding a new disguise before suddenly her face lit up the second she spotted something tucked away in the far corner of the room on a rack. "Well, look at that" she grinned.