Hiding the Truth (One Piece)

Chapter 20 - Unwanted Reminders

"Does anyone even know why she's here?" A quiet voice whom I recognized as a new transfer asked. He had only been around for a week, but I could already tell he wasn't going to last long. Not with his naïve outlook on the world.

"Who cares?! We get to vent out our anger in a 'positive' way" The first one answered. The lashes continued, with the whip coming down harder with each strike. Blood splattered the walls of the cell, and the floor stained with the dark substance. 

I had resolved myself to the pain. No-one was coming for me and there was no escaping. I was going to die in this hole with no way out.

~End Flashback~

Something had snapped at his statement. I wasn't too sure what it was, whether it was my patience or my sanity, but all I could recall was pulling all the water and blood in the room into a giant wave and hurling it straight at Akio. The wall behind him smashed apart at the force of the wave, with the man partially drowning within it. The sunlight that poured through the rubble lit the scene and I briefly noted all the marines and the crew fighting on a nearby bridge.

My focus remained on the struggling man before me. Without giving him a chance to breath, I grasped control of all the blood within Akio's body before bending his body to snap. His scream filled the air, as he collapsed to the ground. He continued to twitch on the ground as I stood above him, regarding him with little to no interest as a grabbed as the surrounding sea, raising the mass of water above my shoulders to hover above us.

The violent winds forced my hair to whip across my face, though that did little to deter me from my task. With a clapping motion, all the water came crashing down onto the two of us, a small gap made to avoid the brunt of it drowning me. As the water settled and washed away, an unconscious, presumed dead, Akio remained on the ground. I was vaguely aware of the screaming and shouted of the nearby crowd, but the adrenaline that seemed to keep me going was slowly ebbing away, the weight of what happened forcing me into darkness.

Zoro's POV

The incoming marines never seemed to end, with each wipe or slash of my swords, a new wave of soldiers would take their fallen comrades place. With a momentary pause, I turned to notice most of our crew along with those that had come to aid us present. My attention however was drawn away when I noticed the absence of our honey-brown haired strategist.

"Has anyone seen Lana?" I shouted to the others that were fighting beside me, hoping they would hear me over the chaos. They all were too busy to turn their attention away from their opponent, though Nami looked over with a small smile. Probably from her managing to successfully knock down a group of marines with her weather staff. 

"She helped me out a while ago, and I saw her run into Chopper" Chopper piped in, hearing his name mentioned.

"She helped me before running off, I think she was trying to get a head start to Robin" With a nod, we each turned to our respective fights, too busy to try and figure out where she was. Our curiosity was quickly answered when an explosion rang through the air, everyone freezing in place at the loud sound.

We all, both us and the marines, tried to locate the source of the noise. What caught our attention was a collapsed tower, where Lana and a blonde male could be spotted. The feeling of relief was short-lived when I got a better look at the brunette. 

Despite her ruffled and slightly injured appearance, she stood straight and mostly unharmed. Which should have made me sigh with relief, but something was off about her. That's when my attention was brought to her eyes. Instead of her usual hypnotizing sea green eyes, they were a light blue almost white. 

With a sudden movement of Lana's hands, the blonde man before her bent backwards in a sharp motion, his scream echoing across the area. With all my years of experience, never had a scream sent chills down my spine. 

"Oh my god" Nami whispered, her hand covering her mouth as she stood in shock, "She did that to him" We all turned back to see her stand over the man, her eyes glazed over as if she wasn't really seeing. 

Her hands raised and just as quickly as the nearby sea was held above them, it came crashing down over the two, seemingly drowning the both of them. I quickly turned and began pushing my way through the surrounding crowd, not wanting to stand there watching this go on any further. That stupid women was asking for death, overexerting herself like that.

My running staggered to a stop when I noticed her drop to the ground. 

"LANA!" The straw hats screamed, their worry overcoming their shock at the sight of her collapsed body.

"WHAT?! " All the marines yelled, their surprise and uproar voiced out load for everyone to hear.

"That girl just took down Akio of CP-9!" A lone marine shouted, turning to his comrades in disbelief. 

"His power was equivalent to Lucci, the best fighter that we have! How did she defeat him?!" Another questioned, but before I could hear anymore, I took off running in Lana's direction.

All I could think off was if she was alive. I needed to know that she was alive. I couldn't help but admire her for what she had done though. According to the marines, she had done something they considered impossible which brought a smile to my face.

She was going to get hell from the crew for this making my smile turn into a full out laugh.