(POV: Juniper) - 13 years ago
"Not quite. Again!"
I transfer all of the strength in my body to my fist, closing it tightly and thrusting it at the old man's palm.
"Are you using the strength of your entire body?"
"Yes!" I groan. "I don't like this."
He sighs. "You need to learn how to fight."
"But punching is no fun!"
"Huh? Then what do you want to do?"
I fall into a criss-cross seated position and cross my arms. "I want to cut people up with swords."
"Swords? Seriously?"
"Fists are stupid," I murmur. "It is so much easier to hurt people with a sword."
"You would think so, wouldn't you?"
"Huh?"
"Anyway, I'm not much of a master swordsman myself, so I think that's something Akina can help you with," he says, scratching the back of his neck.
My eyes widen. "Mama!"
"She's busy bounty hunting right now. She'll be back by tonight."
"If she uses swords and you don't," I begin. "Then isn't she stronger than you?"
He bonks me lightly on top of my head. "That's not how that works!"
"So mean," I whine. "Mama is so much nicer than you."
He lets out a booming laugh. "Wait 'till she starts training you."
"Can I go upstairs to play with Tal, then?" I ask, summoning my best puppy eyes.
"Yes, yes."
"Hehe," I giggle, skipping up the stairs. "I'm going to be stronger than you one day, Papa! Because I will use swords and you can only use your fists!"
"One of those statements is true," he calls, knowing it will go through one ear and pass out the other.
"Tal~" I hum once I reach his bedroom. "Go outside with me today!"
He turns his head from the window, in which he has been staring out. "Okay! Where should we go?"
"To the fisherman's wharf!"
"How boring," a rough voice cuts from behind.
"Shut up, stupid brunette!" I snap. "I didn't invite you."
A conceited grin creeps into his mouth. "Don't tell me you already gave up on Father's training? I told him you looked too weak to be a bounty hunter."
I ball up my fists. "I'll beat you up right now!"
"Try it, cuckoo head!"
I propel myself at him with maximum speed, tackling him and raining down a series of punches on his face. He grunts, blocking them with his arm. In better form than I have ever achieved, Kal jabs me at my nose with incredible speed, causing blood to spew out. I cup a hand over the trail of blood and hurl it at his eyes.
"Ew!" He cries.
I try to tackle him again, but he dodges just in time, kicking me at my side. I curl like a shrimp as I crumble to the floor.
"See?" He taunts. "Weak."
I slowly help myself up. "This is nothing!"
This time, he charges at me and delivers a blow to my stomach. A suffocating pain shoots up my entire abdomen, but I endure it and latch onto his arm. He tries to struggle out of it. Then, wide as I can, I open my mouth and bite down on his flesh.
He screams. "Argh! Let go!"
"That's enough!" Tal exclaims while tearing the two of us apart. "Stop it!"
"Cuckoo head!"
"Stupid brunette!"
Kal scoffs. "You can't fight like that! You look like an animal!"
"That's why I'm going to get swords and cut you up next time!" I spit back.
He sits down on the ground. He continues sniffing and whining and nursing the bloody teeth marks on his skin.
"Hm..."
I walk over to the old man's room to grab his med kit and bottle of alcohol.
"This is how you properly treat a wound," I say confidently once I return.
Without warning, I drizzle the booze on the bite mark, prompting him to scream even louder. "What the hell are you doing?!"
I shrug. "I don't know, but the old man said that this is how you treat a wound."
Gradually, Kal begins to calm down and stares at me. He observes my hands as they wipe at the injury and wrap a white bandage around his arm. His blood blooms like scarlet primrose on the white fabric.
"Why did you do that?" He asks.
"Uh... the old man said you can get an infection."
He turns away, glaring at the floor. "That's not what I meant."
(POV: Juniper) - Present
Smoke is already choking up my lungs. Instinctively, I bury my nose in my elbow and push past the rubble of our once glorious mansion.
Shit, how could something like this happen?
Don't tell me... did Roronoa Zoro lure me out so that the rest of his crew could go bomb it?
"Papa," I croak, but it goes unheard in the roaring of flames.
I look behind me - I've been leaving a trail of blood. That's right. The damn swordsman cut me up. If it wasn't for the fact that I was moving at such an exhilarating speed without wavering, my entire back would've been sliced.
Biting my bottom lip, I press the back of my shoulders into the fire, letting it cook my flesh and close the wound.
It hurts like hell, but not so much worse than dumping alcohol on a deep cut.
"Kal! Tal! Papa!" I scream. "You old man! Don't tell me you bit the dust already?!"
I then catch a figure in the corner of my eye. Past the dancing fire stands a tall and white silhouette. The man staring at me seems to be wearing a mask and fedora.
"Oi! Who are you?!"
He turns his back to me, and the flames erupt between us. By the time they settle, he's long gone.
I prepare to chase after him, but a weak groan from close by grabs my attention. I scan the debris to find an arm sticking out from a pile of broken bricks.
Immediately, I kneel down and claw through the rubble. "Stay with me; I'll get you out of there!"
Finally, I've cleared enough to see him. Blood is leaking from somewhere in his body and his stomach looks caved in with no hope of recovery.
"Kalegon!" I cry. "Your wounds reopened!"
He squints at me. "Sis? What are you doing here?"
"Trying to save you," I growl, pushing a heavy concrete slab off his leg. "Is Papa alive? Where is he?"
Kal exhales. "I miss Tal."
I slap him - hard. "Stay with me! Oi! This isn't the time to think about stuff like that. I need to get you out of here now!"
"I'm done, sis. Look at my leg."
I suppose I've been denying it. Of course, he's in no condition to get up. "W-we need to stop the bleeding."
The most obvious wound I can find is the long gash across his chest. The one the Pirate Hunter made. I search for a cloth to put pressure on the oozing gap, eventually settling for the severely torn sheets of his broken bed. I watch the scarlet of his blood ink the white fabric, blooming like spider lilies.
"I'll stop it," I mumble. "I'll stop it."
Despite my hands being pressed hard on his chest, I feel no rising and falling... just stillness.
My voice begins to break. "I'll stop it."
I'm too afraid to look up at his face. I just continue to press on the wound. An aching pain begins to form in my throat. My chest tightens.
"I'll stop it."
I muster the courage to look at his face. His eyes are glassy and blank, staring off into a non-existent pocket of space. My hands ease off on the pressure, leaving space for them to shake uncontrollably.
"Kal?"
I flinch when a large hand grabs my arm.
"Papa!"
"It's dangerous here, girl," he says. "You have to leave."
I blink rapidly, still attempting to process what has happened in this last hour. "W-what..."
His lips part slowly. "CP0 is after you. And soon, the Navy will be here too."
He coughs, this time with such intensity that he has to bend over. Blood spills from his mouth.
"Kal..."
"Snap out of it," he manages, shaking me so hard I have no choice but to think.
"We... we have to get everyone out of here," I declare.
The old man slings a heavy bag - bigger than me - over my shoulders. He readies himself into a firm stance, lifting me behind his shoulder.
"What the hell are you doing, you old man?!" I tug at his hand, but somehow his monstrous grip doesn't falter. "Let me go!"
"I don't think I will."
In one swift motion, he launches me forward, sending me flying high into the sky. As I get farther and farther away, I watch his figure fade in the growing sea of fire. My eyelids squeeze shut to stop the flow of tears but to no avail. For a moment, I stop in time. Midair.
I drown in the fresh wind as it soothes me. The raging hotness from the fire is no more, replaced by feverish chills pricking at my skin. A cool burning licks through my nerves, and my lungs are now free from ash once hanging heavy in the air. My arms, soaked with blood, seem to shimmer under the yellow glow of a judgemental eye marking the otherwise dark night.
For a moment, my mind is devoid of thoughts - of emotions.
For a moment, it's just me, alone with the moon.
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(POV: Zoro)
I feel my eye twitch. "I could have sworn I followed the fire."
How the hell am I back to the Sunny?
I look back and up - the black smoke is farther away this time. Cursing under my breath, I scan the rest of the dock. The Thousand Sunny, it appears, is the only parked ship in this entire port.
In one motion, I effortlessly leap onto the ship, prompting a chorus of surprised noises from the crew.
"Zoro!" Luffy calls loudly. "There you are!"
Nami's eyebrows knit together. "You were the last person to return. Did you get lost again?"
I clear my throat. "No, I just got caught up in some business."
"Shut up, Marimo," Sanji retorts. "You definitely got lost."
"What did you say?"
"Not the time to fight!" Usopp shouts from the crow's nest. "A fleet of Navy ships are headed this way!"
"Seriously?!" Nami groans. "We haven't even been on this island for a day."
Chopper walks to me with a smile plastered on his face, but it fades. "You're bleeding Zoro!"
"Oh, my," Robin comments in the distance. "Did you get into a fight?"
I grit my teeth as another cut flashes by my wound. Ever since the bounty hunter cut me, the gash has only been getting wider without stopping.
"Yeah, something like that," I respond.
"That looks painful," Brook admits. "I would die from a wound like that. But I suppose I can't because I'm dead already! Yohohoho!"
"Quit it," Nami snaps. "Listen, everyone! Because of the whirlpools surrounding this island, we can only leave through one way... and that's through the fleet of Navy warships!"
Luffy cracks his knuckles. "I've been itching for a fight!"
"No way," she denies. "There are too many ships. As soon as we get close within their firing range, we'll get away with a Coup de Burst."
"Eh?! Why can't we fight them?" Luffy complains.
Nami pulls him by his cheek and stretches it. "There are too many of them! The ship will sustain permanent damage under their cannons!"
"But Jinbei can steer around all of it," Luffy argues. "Right, Jinbei?"
"Yes," he confirms. "But it will save us a lot of trouble if we just go with Nami's plan."
Luffy deflates from disappointment but says no more.
Chopper tugs on my leg. "Come to my office, Zoro. I need to get you treated immediately."
I frown. "Do you need me with anything, Nami?"
She shakes her head."Nope. You should go get some rest."
As I follow Chopper to his office, I hear Nami throwing around commands while the other crew members scurry around to meet them.
"Who cut you?" Chopper asks.
"Some bounty hunter," I answer. "I don't know who she is."
"That's rare. Usually, we don't have to deal with many bounty hunters."
"Yeah."
He gestures for me to take a seat on the bed across from his desk. I lift my left arm so he can inspect the cut.
"Whoa..." he watches in amazement. "This is a unique injury."
"Yeah."
"The wound can't close up because something is constantly cutting at it," he observes. "Was this bounty hunter a swordsman?"
"Yeah."
He presses a thick cloth to the wound. "Amazing..."
"Do you think you can treat this?"
"I'll have to make a special ointment," Chopper says. "But because you usually heal very fast, you will be able to fully recover in a few weeks or so."
"A few weeks?!"
Chopper nods grimly. "Most people would die from a wound like this."
That technique that she was using is... interesting to say the least. She can't strike her opponents in one fatal blow but creates an injury that progressively worsens. Not only that but her Observation Haki is more advanced than mine.
"For now..." Chopper trails off, setting up a small fire. "You will have to close your wound with this fire."
I take a block of wood he offers me. I bite down on it. I clench my left fist as he runs the fire through my flesh. A scathing sizzle accompanies the motion. My teeth put a crack in the wood.
"Thanks, Chopper."
"Of course."
He applies a cooling cream to the burn and helps bandage me up. I feel the ship rock as we set sail. Abruptly, the smooth motion is interrupted by a crash nearby. I stand up instinctively.
"A Navy cannonball?! Already?"
Chopper and I rush outside to find a woman on deck who seemingly crashed into one of the wooden walls.
Everyone stills, watching the bounty hunter sit up while rubbing an ache in the back of her head.
She curses loudly. "Damn that old man!"