Hiding the Truth (One Piece)

Chapter 35 - And So The War Begins

Staring up at the clouds was the only thing that I could do at that moment, my body paralysed with whatever Kuma had done to mysteriously transport me to this unknown island. The snow I lay on numbed both my thoughts and aching limbs, which didn't help with my paralysis. At the moment though, nothing felt better. My body and mind were still trying to process everything that had happened at Sabaody Archipelago.

After spending a whole year with the people I'd learned to cherish, and who seemed to cherish me back, I'd been so abruptly separated from them, and in such a brutal way. Being around a group of people consistently for such a long time took a while to recover from, which was where I found myself, needing a way to ground myself once again. As the snowflakes began to build over my still figure, I allowed myself a moment to wallow in self-hatred, believing that it was the only thing I deserved in that moment. 

How could I have been so weak to have let that all happen? Why wasn't I strong enough?

Shakily getting to my feet, my knees buckled beneath my weight, sending me crashing into the ground. Again and again, I willed myself to get stand, only for myself to land on my ass each time. Slamming my clenched fist into the snow covered ground in frustration, I gritted my teeth in anger. What the hell was wrong with me?!

The sound of snow crunching beneath someone's feet forced me to throw up my hands in defence, pulling the nearby snow to form ice blades to hover of the intruder. Before I could send them rushing into the person, my eyes where met with bright blue hues belonging to a frightened child. She clenched on the wooden fishing pole, probably scared out of her mind as she stood motionless. I lowered my hands and sighed, shaking my head at my own stupidity. Was I so out of it that I couldn't even recognize the light treading of a child? 

Trying to redeem myself, I offered the young girl who couldn't be older than 8, a smile, yet she kept her guard up, trying to appear threatening with her fishpole aimed at my head. 

Clever kid.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I thought you were a bad person. I'm sorry for scaring you" I apologized softly, hoping she could see my sincere apology for what it was. A panicked shout could be heard in the distance, assuming it belonged to whoever was accompanying the girl, I turned to wave her off. She turned in a hurry about to run off, but paused as she glanced between myself and the direction the voice came from, no doubt wondering if she should leave me in the snow.

"It's okay. Go back to whoever's calling for you, they must be worried that you ran off" I shooed her away and attempted to get up; yet again only falling back to the ground with the effort. She threw me a worried glance before hesitantly treading over, wrapping her arm around my waist as she tried to pull my arm over her shoulder. She tried to help me stand, but her small body was too weak to carry a grown person, her frame crumbling at the force of my weight pushing her down. The panicked yells were getting louder, and I could distinguish it to belong to a female, probably the girl's mother or sister. A tall woman came into our line of sight after a moment, visibly relaxing after seeing the girl unharmed, but quickly tensing up again at the sight of me.

"Kanna," The women breathed, running over and hooking her arm around my waist, holding me up, "What happened?" She asked in a rush, hurrying us along into what was quickly developing into a full snow storm. The girl, Kanna, shook her head at the question, trotting ahead in front of us.

"I don't know Mama. I was following the penguin, when I found her collapsed in the snow." I tried to ease the burden off the child's mother by trying to support myself on my own two feet, but feeling me move, she glanced at me and spoke in a foreign language to Kanna. The young girl helped her mother to get me onto her back, and for the rest of the journey, I was carried by the surprisingly strong women, who showed no struggle when lifting my body.