The Elementalist Lucia [One Piece x OC fanfiction]

VII - I will not bow my head

"So if I'm right, Lucia is your best friend Ace?"

Ace exhaled before nodding:

"Yes, we knew each other when we were kids, she also knows my little brother. She left one day without us understanding why, and I found her a few years later on the archipelago where she grew up all this time."

Lucia listened to Ace's explanation without adding anything. He had chosen to lie. Not that he didn't trust Jinbei, she was sure they could have told him the truth without worry. He was suspicious of the other prisoners who resided in the cells next to theirs. Who knows which criminals had good enough hearing to hear everything they said. A secret of this magnitude could not be delivered in this way. The two children of the Pirate's King, locked in the same cell, scheduled to be executed on the same day. Who would even believe it? But it was better to keep a low profile. So Ace had lied.

Jinbei wasn't fooled, the explanation was too easy. There was something deeper that bound the two young people together. He had noticed the way they understood each other, knew each other, knew what the other was thinking. Above all, they had the same look. The colour of their eyes was different, but there was the same flame shining in their pupils.

"Here it is," Lucia continued. "So I think that yes, the Navy must know that we know each other and that we're friends... I've met too few people in my miserable life for this to be a pure coincidence. They could have executed me anytime with anyone, but no, some Warlord decided to mess with the admirals while you were here and as a result, my head is going to fall off along with yours. Tsk, what a bummer."

She spat in disgust in the corner of the cell, there was no denying that she was angry. Angry at herself. How could she have come to this? More importantly, how could she get out of this situation? No matter how many times she turned the problem over, there was no way to find a viable solution. Her seastone handcuffs prevented her from using her devil fruit and weakened her enough that she couldn't use the Haki that would allow her to perhaps get out. And there was no need to mention the many guards, the six floors to climb, and the prison warden. Honestly.

"Come on, say it princess, I can hear your brain working at full speed. Be careful, frowning like that will give you wrinkles, it would be a shame to disfigure that pretty face."

Ace's voice snapped her out of it and she turned to him with a disillusioned look:

"I was just thinking that the designer of this damn prison had done a masterful job and that I should think about congratulating him for his efficiency."

His tone of deep irony drew a smile from Jinbei. Despite the desperate situation, she had a response. He squinted, trying to get a better look at the young woman. Despite the bruises and contusions, despite her haggard complexion and the dark circles under her eyes, she exuded a presence that immediately commanded respect. He couldn't say whether this feeling came from the sharp glint in her blue eyes, from her head that never wavered, or simply from her fierceness when she spoke. Certainly a bit of all of that.

He had no idea of the storm that was raging under the girl's skull. Since the pirate empress had passed, a hurricane of thoughts and feelings had been raging in Lucia's mind. She forced herself not to look every five minutes at the little mark that was anchored on her forearm. Staring at it intensely would neither tell her where Luffy was, nor tell her exactly what he was going through, nor even allow her to communicate with him and tell him the truth and tell him to leave immediately. At the mere thought of her friend, she clenched her jaw. She felt a cold sweat run down her spine. She would have given anything to know what was going on in the floors above her head. The hours dragged on inexorably, without her being able to get any indication of day or night. She didn't know if it had been just a few hours or more than a day since she had been sitting in this corner of the cell, bound hand and foot by seastone. She felt very tired. At one point she realised that she had momentarily fallen asleep with her head against the wall. Ace, Jinbei and her no longer spoke a word to each other, nor did they exchange a glance. Her body trapped in chains, Lucia's mind was mostly trapped in her head. It was impossible for her to verbalise what she was feeling or thinking. Her fears, her pain, everything was spinning in a loop, like a huge cyclone. Without really realising it, a tear rolled down her cheek, then a second. Finally, both her cheeks were criss-crossed with tears that she couldn't hold back. She bit her lip to keep from letting out an unfortunate sob. Ace noticed her sniffles, however, and waved his fingers weakly despite the handcuffs on the wall.