Growing Heart

Ch 10 - A Fight for Survival

"Eh? You mean Nami?" Aisa asked and she pointed up at the ship, "She's up there with-...Huh???" Her arm dropped and she listened intently for the voices around and above her. "I only hear one voice coming from the sky..."

Just then, a sound of a strong waver jet came from a distance. Soon, Nami appeared around the corner from Giant Jack on her waver and two passengers behind her. At the sight of a familiar face, Aisa broke into a relieved smile.

"NAMI!" she cried.

"Navigator? Long-nose! Cook!" Robin said, identifying Nami's passengers.

Nami grinned back at them and then stopped her waver. "Aisa! Thank goodness. Are you alright?"

Aisa ran to Nami and threw her arms around her legs.

"Aisa, where's Luffy? Where's Sid? Weren't they with you?" Nami asked.

"Luffy and Sid just went up the vine," Aisa said, "They went to fight Enel and rescue you!"

"Crap! We just missed each other," Nami gasped.

"They just left. I tried to stop them but..." Robin said with a shrug.

The long-nose Blue Sea man groaned. "Talk about bad timing. There's no time left. We gotta escape now!"

Nami revved up her waver and looked up at the vine. "You guys go ahead. I'll go grab Luffy with my waver. We'll meet you on the Merry."

"What about Sid?" Aisa asked.

"I'll...I'll go get her..."

The group whirled around towards the gruff voice and both Aisa and the long-nose shrank back in fear.

"Wyper!" Aisa gasped as the Shandian warrior got to his feet, only to lose his battle and fall to his side.

"What the-" he growled and looked down, "Why do I only have one waver?!"

Aisa shrieked and quickly hid behind Robin. "S...Sid...Sid took it..." she said meekly.

"She did what?!"

"Your's is the only pair with Sea Prism Stone in it."

"So swap shoes with me! Don't take just-...Ah, never mind," Wyper sighed and then he looked up at the darkened sky, "So...it has begun..."

"I'll get both of them back," Nami said as she revved up her engine and started to climb up Giant Jack.

Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!

Lightning began to rain down from the sky and struck various points off in the distance. Some lightning bolts were thin but some were big...Really big.

"Hurry, Nami!" the long nose called out and then turned to Robin, "C'mon! We need to take everyone to the ship!"

Aisa mustered up all her courage and she grabbed Wyper by the wrist, who was now facing away from the group and with his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Let's go! Wyper! We need to get out of here!"

Instead of scolding her, instead of barking orders at her, Wyper did the one thing Aisa never expected him to do. He took her hand into his and gave it a hard, but not painful, squeeze.

"Aisa..." he croaked, "Look..."

Aisa followed his gaze and at first, she wasn't sure what she was looking at. Just a thick plume of smoke way out in the horizon but then, God's Voice kicked in and she heard her mother's voice cries along with everybody she knew and loved.

"Our village!" Aisa gasped, "Enel...destroyed our village!"

The devastation and the voices were too much for the little girl and she couldn't move, much less react. Her eyes watered but no tears came out. She was furious and destroyed at the same time yet could not even scream. She stood there frozen in place like a statue. That is until she heard one voice, as if it was being shouted right in her ear, that cut through everything.