{author's note; thank you endlessly for your support, patience, encouragement and kindness! this last month has been very tough for me, i've been battling with my health every day. thank you for being so loving and patient♡}
Airi, Luffy, Robin and Sanji sneaked out the restaurant, thankfully using the blonde girl's abilities to go unseen. They had ended up finding a way out, escaping the crowd of furious fishmen that were still looking after them around the restaurant. The four pirates stopped for a moment, trying to catch their breath, Airi turning all of them into their visible self again.
"We need to find the others and get out of here." Airi muttered under her breath, earning agreeing looks from her friends.
They were now all hiding behind one of the structure's walls, trying to get a look at the chaos outside. They heard loud shoutings and the sound of smashing blades, Luffy's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Zoro!!"
Sanji immediately pushed the captain back behind the wall, sending a warning glare in his direction, "Shut up, you idiot! We'll get caught!"
"Who cares?" Luffy pouted, "Zoro is fighting, we'll fight too!"
"Three of us here have eaten a Devil Fruit, captain, fighting with fishmen is like walking straight into a trap." Robin stated.
"It's not like we're in the water or something!" Luffy kept pouting.
Airi had stopped listening to her friends arguing over what to do as her eyes had caught a bunch of fishmen running in their direction, Luffy's voice had betrayed their hiding spot. Airi stepped in front of her three friends protectively, "Guys-"
"It's her!!! Catch this bitch!! She's with the straw hats!!"
"Uh-?! If you wanna catch me go ahead, but at least be a little more polite when you're talking about me!" Airi replied dramatically.
Airi reached for her silk bandanna and tied up her blonde hair in a ponytail, getting ready to fight. She felt confident about fighting, the adrenaline rushing through her veins made her feel more than ready to do so. But before she could even move, a stretched arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her away. Her back was almost immediately met with a familiar body. Airi quickly turned to face her captain, a frown covering half her face, "Luffy, wha-"
Luffy cut her off by pulling her closer to his chest, tightening his grip around her waist before stretching up his free arm, grabbing the roof of the restaurant with a firm grip, gaining momentum, only to jump on top of it the very next second, holding Airi tightly in his arms. The boy effortlessly landed on both of his feet as Airi had her eyes shut, holding onto his neck for dear life. She slightly opened her eyes once she could feel her feet reach a surface, and as she did, her eyes traveled down the building to where Sanji and Robin were now successfully beating the fishmen.
"Go, Luffy!! I'll make sure to protect Robin-chan and kick each one of them!!" Sanji shouted out at his captain from the bottom of the building.
Airi looked back up at Luffy who had now a very stern look upon his face, she couldn't help but feel shiver running down her spine from feeling his arms tightly wrapped around her waist. Luffy's eyes trailed their way down over the girl's face, as he began silently admiring her features.
Feeling his gaze on her made Airi's heart jolt, "What?" she asked nervously.
Luffy's lips curled into a radiant smile, "Nothing."
Airi rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the heat covering her cheeks. She tried thinking of an attempt to ease the tension between them, but her lips had moved before her mind could even stop her from doing so, "Like what you see?" she smirked, trying her best to hide how nervous she felt inside.
Luffy's smile grew bigger as he nodded eagerly in response, his eyes not averting from her face once, earning wide eyes from the girl, "I'm kiddin-"
"I'm not." Luffy simply chuckled, leaving Airi fully taken aback from his oblivious reaction.
"W-whatever." Airi rolled her eyes again, averting her eyes from his while she could feel her heart beating at such a concerning pace.
The rain was pouring loudly, soaking down their hair and clothes. The sound of thunder and the lightening caused by the red clouds brought such an apocalyptic mood to the moment. For some reason, standing on a rooftop with such a view was pretty enjoyable, regardless of how uncomfortable having soaking wet clothes felt.
Airi was snapped out of her thoughts as soon as she felt Luffy's fingertips softly pushing back a strand of her wet hair behind her ear. Her heart was pounding so violently she thought it was about to explode. Her eyes instantly traveled their way back to the boy's that were still staring down at her with adoration. Airi wondered if Luffy actually had any idea of how romantic he was acting for someone who seemed to have not a single notion of romance. His arm was still holding her waist firmly, only a few inches separating their faces from each other. The girl ignored that Luffy had just felt his heart jolt as soon as her eyes had locked into his.
All of a sudden, Airi felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, "Found ya'!"
Before she even realized, another pair of arms was wrapped around her firmly, pushing her away from her captain. Airi screamed in agony as sharpened teeth were bitting deep onto her shoulder, stretching her skin open on the spot.
"AIRI!!" Luffy shouted on top of his lungs before throwing an heavy fist onto the fishman that had just clenched his entire jaw onto the girl's shoulder, causing him to fall backwards, his arms loosing their hold on her.
Regardless of how hard Luffy had just punched away the guy, his jaw had separated from the rest of his body and was still clenched onto Airi's shoulder, fangs stabbed into her bleeding skin. Luffy hurried his way to Airi, kneeling in front of her with wide worried eyes quickly trailing their way up and down over the girl, "Airi."
The pair of them quickly turned as they heard a loud laugh coming from the now proudly smirking fishman. He stood back up, only a few feet away from the two pirates on the wet surface of the rooftop. The rainwater under their feet was now colored by a bright shade of red, coming from Airi's bleeding shoulder. Luffy and Airi watched in a loud silence as the fishman's teeth began to grow back inside his mouth.
Airi's hand reached for her shoulder, she closed her eyes shut, biting hard on her tongue, quietly preparing herself for the pain as she grabbed the fisherman's jaw and started pulling it out of her own skin. She cried out from the awful amount of pain as she successfully pulled the sharpened teeth out of her skin, leaving a freshly opened and bleeding wound covering her shoulder.
Luffy began breathlessly stuttering her name over and over again, his lungs getting filled up with panic. Airi quickly looked over at Luffy, concern written all over her face. The loss of blood was making her mind feel completely blank, she could barely think. She could feel the rain pouring harshly onto her opened wound and Luffy's hands holding onto her forearms, "Airi."
The raven haired boy pulled the girl closer to him, holding her close to his chest, as if she was about disappear out of nowhere. All he could see was the blood she was covered in, which made his stomach twist in anger. He could feel this very anger slowly boiling into his veins and beginning to guide his actions. He softly let go of the girl before balancing himself back up, his eyes immediately found the fishman standing a few feet apart. Luffy grabbed his straw hat and placed it over his wet hair, its shadow covering the death glare he was sending to the man in front of him. The boy tightened both of his hands into fists before loudly cracking his knuckles, not averting his eyes from the fishman.
Luffy's expression darkened, "Airi." he spoke out in a lower voice, "Hide."
Airi frowned in confusion, "What?"
"Captain's order." he muttered through gritting teeth.
The girl's heart dropped to her stomach. As far as she was willing to go to refuse leaving him here, a captain's order couldn't be disobeyed. She took a last concerned look at her beloved captain before getting up, letting out a quiet cry of pain as she did so. She quickly looked around only to find a stairway and immediately began to run her way towards it as she allowed her body to turn invisible again.
Airi escalated down the stairs as fast as she could, silently hoping that Luffy was going to be alright. She easily figured out the reason why he wanted her to hide. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to protect her. He knew he couldn't be fighting and protecting her at the same time. Airi was slightly annoyed from the idea, she strongly disagreed with the fact that she would need someone to protect her. But she just couldn't blame Luffy. He was probably traumatized from the moment she had got stabbed in front of him.
Airi reached the last step of the stairs which leaded directly to the inside of the restaurant she had found Luffy in earlier. The second she attempted to move, a bunch of fishmen appeared in front of her, running in her direction, "Hurry up! The boss is confronting the straw hat up there!!"
The blonde girl did not get the chance to do anything as the fishmen got closer to where she was standing in her invisible state. One of them suddenly stopped, causing the others to stop as well, exchanging confused looks, "Hold on. Whose blood is that?" the fishman that had just stopped asked warningly, pointing out the blood on the floor. They all went quiet, furrowing their brows as they looked closely at the spot. Blood drops splashing onto the floor... out of nowhere.
Airi held her breath in as she could feel the blood from her wound dropping down, well aware that the fishmen were seeing it. They were slowly walking closer to where she was, warningly holding their weapons in front of them.
Airi watched each of their weapons getting dangerously closer to her. She let out a sight before snapping a sword from a fishman's hands, successfully disarming every single fishman one by one, using her invisibility to her advantage. She tightened her grip on the sword and used it to push two fishmen away. The blonde was about to get rid of the other ones but the sharp pain in her shoulder kept her from moving, even the slightest bit. The aching was so intense that her vision was getting blurry and she could barely hear anything anymore. She groaned through gritting teeth as she felt herself slowly fainting, her mind going more blank with each passing second. The very last thing she felt was her head hitting onto the floor loudly.