- Ussop’s Point of View Still
It was a nice day, and not a breeze in sight. Well, you can’t see it but there was definitely nothing to feel. I licked my finger and held it out to make sure. “Nope, not a thing. Guess I’ll have to investigate.”
Yet what caught my attention was this apparently dancing patch of flowers nearby. I squatted down to get a closer look at this patch. That was when I realized that the flowers weren’t dancing it all. That was then it hit me. They were getting sucked under, as were the cuffs to my overalls. Well, trying too, by this lined square and a small hole.
“Man, this is really weird.” I touched the flowers that were inside the lines. They looked a little off from the other ones. “Hey, these are fake.”
I wondered what was under this hole. While bending down to attempt to look through the hole, it sucks my nose in! “Whoa!”
I had to bob my head three times until I rolled back. I held my nose in pain. “Well, that got rid of several unwanted nose hairs (and a couple of eyelashes) anyways.” I shrugged but I knew I had to go back. Cautiously I went around it. Inspecting it, I realized that there were only three lines and the hole was in the middle of one, sort of like an opening. I went to the side that wasn’t lined and pulled the hole and like I thought, it was like a trap door. And now I know why it was shut. It was like a tunnel or a tube with a black hole inside of it sucking up all the flowers around it.
Walking around to study it, a big rock started rolling towards the tube and because I tripped on it, I got sucked in too. “Why me?!” I cried out as I disappeared into the tube of doom.
- Nami’s point of view
Once we learned from the mysterious woman about who we’re dealing with, Luffy was even more determined than ever to save Azmaria. I know that look. It’s the same look he gets when he’s enrages and will stop at nothing to help a matter that’s not even his own just for the sake of a friend. Although I’m hoping it’s not just friends with them. Luffy may look the same, but his aura was a little different. He was angrier than usual. He’s not one to be angry quickly. But of course his boisterous personality doesn’t make him seem that way for long because of his usual rash impulse.
Luffy and Zorro opened the window and were already running out the wrong way. “Hey you dopes! It’s that way!” I stuck my head out of the window but I knew that there was no stopping them. As always, I have to navigate them because they’re hopeless on their own.
I hopped out the window and ran to catch up with them at full speed, smacking them both in the head to get them to stop. “I said stop, you morons!” I yelled at them. “Do you even think before you leap? It’s this way, come on!” I started running only to see that they stopped. I skidded my feet not even understanding a bit of this. “I start and you stop, what the hell?!” I asked.
Luffy grinned almost devilishly. “If it’s that way, let’s not waste any time.” And with that his arms stretched out, pulling past me and latched around two trees further away as he started walking backwards. His grin grew wider. “Gum…Gum…”
Mine and Zorro’s eyes widened as our face paled. Knowing Luffy, we need to run. “We got to get out of here!” Zorro called out, already catching up to me and throwing me over his shoulder.
“What, Zorro put me down!” I demanded, pounding at his back.
But it was useless as Luffy jumped and started towards us. “Transport!” he yelled, colliding with us much too gleefully and sent us shooting through the map! Needless to say the only thing that came out of this was that we were actually going in the right direction.
Tears were flying off the side my face as I wailed. “Why me!?”
- Luffy’s point of View
After flying through the air, we ended up into the forest, rolling into a ball and landing all on top of each other. I landed on top of everyone, it was fun! I jumped up, stretching my arms and laughing. “That was fun! Let’s do it again!” I stated, but Nami got up from under Zorro and whacked me in the head. “Ow, hey! What’s your problem?”
“You idiot! We have more important things to worry about! We have to save Azmaria!” Nami yelled.
Didn’t she think I know that? A piece of my treasure was missing. That goes for all of my crewmates. But my attention currently laid on Zorro who was staring at one of his swords that slipped when we fell. I titled my head to the side and crossed my arms. “What’re you looking at?”
He squatted down and pointed to the end of his sheath. “It’s under something.”
Nami blinked and sat down next to him. “Hey, yeah you’re right! It looks like the piece of ground is divided up. And where your sword got stuck, it seems like air’s blowing out of it. Let’s pull it up and see why it’s like that.” she ordered.
Zorro rolled his eyes and pulled his sword out and set it with his other two before he lifted the cut up ground from the gap and the next thing I knew since I squatted down too and had my head above it, I was pushed back and fell on my back by air!
“Whoa, what the?!” I jumped back up and marveled at the rushing air that was heading up.
“It’s-It’s air!” Nami gasped, looking down at the tube it was coming out of. “But why is there a tunnel like this? Do the people in the town use it?”
“Maybe it’s a secret, like for smuggling something or delivery?” Zorro suggested. “It might be painful if any old human jumped in it seeing how fast the air is blowing.”
“I want to try it!” I declared. That’d be so cool, like a roller coaster without any seats! Maybe it could take me to Azmaria faster! I’m itching to get my hands on that guy and tear him apart! No one takes my nakama away from me! But then my stomach growled. Placing my hands on my stomach and looking at it I asked, “Hey, do you think you can get food delivered over here then?” he asked.
Nami whacked me in the head again. “Get serious about this, will you!” she then paused for a moment. “Hey, did you guys hear something?”
“The blood singing from Luffy’s ears?” Zorro asked.
“Hey!” I huffed back. But it didn’t matter because then we heard it. A long and familiar male scream was coming at high speed, getting closer and closer until the next thing we knew, Ussop came flying out of the air tube hitting the long branch from high above and then fell beside me. it was the only branch you could see in this one spot if you looked up. I laughed and crouched next to him and poked his shoulder. “Hey! You came to join the party! How was the ride?” I asked. Man, I’m jealous now, he got to ride the thing!
“Ussop! You’re injured, what are you doing riding in that thing?!” Nami exclaimed.
Zorro was laughing too. “I told you no normal person would ride this thing! Clearly, us being under Luffy’s command doesn’t make us normal anyhow.”
- Ussop’s Point of View
Shooting out of that accursed thing, I was in excruciating pain again…! But thanks to that remedy Sawyer gave me, I still feel better than I would have in a normal case, riding in a super-fast air tunnel while injured and escaping from being bedridden in a hospital by a cop who likes pirates. Yup…If I wasn’t a brave warrior of the seas, I would be dead.
“A little help here?! Or some sympathy?” I asked for, trying to get up.
Nami pulled me up rather harshly. “Ussop, what are you doing here!? You’re injured!”
I dusted off my overalls and shook off the aching pains of the windswept ride. “No, actually I’m fine. I think that bottle Sawyer gave me is kicking in now. We have two and a half hours before I’m going to feel all my injuries again.”
“Sawyer? You mean that lady? Who is she?” Nami asked.
Luffy patted Nami’s shoulder with almost a serious face. “It doesn’t matter now. She helped us and Ussop’s back to help. Now let’s go save Azmaria!” he ordered, running ahead.
“Wait, hold on!” I stopped. Everyone paused and looked at me. I held my chin in a thinking pose, looking at the tunnel.
“We can’t stop, Ussop!” Luffy shouted.
Nami stopped him from doing anything rash. “Hold on, he’s right. We don’t know what we’re up against! Not completely. We do need a plan. Maybe we can use these tunnels to figure out something?” she suggested, explaining exactly like what I was thinking.
“Remember what Sawyer said about the mirrors?” I proposed. “Now we have a transport for all of them and these tunnels are pretty big. We might not be able to get the huge ones in, but we can still import a lot to our location.”
“So you’re saying you’re going to go all the way back there and drop mirrors down a hole?” Zorro asked. “We don’t even know how far we are from where we need to be.”
I smirked. “Never fear, for I have another plan.” I took out my slingshot and took out my latest invention I made when we were back on the ship. “You guys need to follow this and fast. It’s my new extra-loud noise shot. I made it for a distraction but if I shoot it in the tunnels, you should be able to follow it and see how far it can go. Luffy and Nami get ready because this thing moves fast and don’t lose track of it! Ussop’s ultra-loud distraction ball!” I shot it right into the tunnel and off the sound went as it clinked and soon the bells inside made a racket but the sound was already fading off. “Go before you lose it! Meet us back here once you found out where it leads and we’ll see that the mirrors get over there!”
Luffy already had taken off. “Right, I’ll make sure he doesn’t run into battle head on!” Nami stated. “Good luck!” and with that she ran off to catch up to our captain.
I turned to Zorro who was looking at me with crossed arms. “When did you get so demanding and brave?” he asked.
I looked down to the ground, holding my balled fists in shame. “It’s my fault she got captured. And if there’s a weakness, we need to use it to our advantage!” I admitted. Of course I left out the other two facts—if Zorro and Luffy both tried to follow the noise, there’s no telling if they’ll lose it or not with their sense of direction. And plus…suppose we run into a foe, I really don’t want to be alone in battle. “Come on, let’s go!”
- Zorro’s Point of View
“You just don’t want to be alone, don’t you?” I deadpanned, following him as he stopped in his tracks.
“No, no! That’s not true!” he laughed off in a higher squeak than his usual voice. I knew he was lying.
I rolled my eyes and sighed as we stopped before the pathway near where we were supposed to get the mirrors. “Ussop, wait.” I paused him. “Did you hear something?”
He shifted his head both ways, pushing his hands behind his ears to try and hear. “I don’t hear anything, Zorro. What’s wrong?”
I hear very quiet footsteps again and look to the corner of my eye. I couldn’t see them yet but I knew we were being followed. “It’s nothing, let’s go then.”
Ussop, not feeling too convinced because of his paranoia (though he was right to be suspicious) tried to back out. “Zorro, suddenly I’m overcome with don’t-think-the-mirrors-will-help-anymore disease and think we should go back and find the others, so let’s go—” he started turning around but I pushed him on ahead.
“Come on, let’s go get those mirrors.” I told him.
We stood in front of the doorway. I looked to see a bit of blood on the ground. It must’ve been Ussop’s from earlier. It’s dry now. The door was busted and was wide open. We peered inside the room of mirrors to see that some of the mirrors has shattered. I walked to the end and found her gun there. Looks like she really did use it.
Ussop was looking around in a pained mood. This was where he last saw her. “Hey Zorro, do you think there might be another tunnel around? When I was inside I learned that they’re all over the place but if you stay on one angle, you’ll move in a straight line. We’re in a straight line technically from the one I fell into. It’d make easy transport, so long as we angle it right.”
I nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.” I walked outside to see that I wasn’t alone. In front of me was a buff man expecting to see me. The door shut behind me. I turned. “What the?!”
“I’ve been expecting you, swordsman. I knew I had a swordsman to face, but never had I imagined it would be the famous pirate hunter?! How on Earth did you become one yourself? Oh the times have changed, where discipline gets so easily ignored.” He sighed.
I got a good look at him. At 6’4, his skin was dark but had even darker hair spiked up in the front. He has some scars on his face and crazy hazel eyes that showed that he was itching to fight. He wore a headband around his head just like the guy in Azmaria’s picture but it wasn’t him. Just the way the headband was worn, sort of like how I put it on my arm only around his head. He has a barcode on his face too, under his eye. He dressed like a boxer, wearing a wife beater and shorts. Instead of boxing gloves on his hands were metal gauntlets wrapped in spikes. He had on shin and elbow pads that also had spikes.
“And what are you supposed to be?” I asked, getting ready to unsheathe my swords.
He smirked. “The last thing you’ll ever see.” He answered.
- Back to Ussop’s Point of View
Zorro did obey to search for another tunnel to help us transport these mirrors as planned. I on the other handed wondered about the mirrors stuck on the walls and how to get them off. I walked to one and peered behind.
“Okay, so it looks like it’s just on nails. I can just pull it off, no sweat. Once we get Azmaria back on board and I tell her about how it was all me that planned everything out, she’ll definitely forgive me for sure!” I laughed. Imagining her with a shocked look and her sketchpad. “’Oh Ussop! How could I stay mad at a brilliant genius! I’m so lucky someone so smart is on board!’ she’ll say! Although I’ll have to wonder about what she’s going to do—it’s plain and obvious that at some point there’s going to be something going on between her and Luffy. Though he’s an idiot and wouldn’t realize it and she’s too shy. It’s like they’re best friends and Nami’s way too scary to be his type…I’d ask Kaya about this but I don’t live at home any more…”
The door shut behind me as I got lost in my own thoughts. I turned around to see a weird guy in front of me. He was similar to me in height, slender. He wore an armless black turtleneck and pants. He was pale with a headband around his head and a barcode on his cheek. He had a deranged look in his blue eyes and he looked pale and…
“Wh-who are you and why can I see through you?!” I pointed out him.
He disappeared and soon appeared behind me, holding onto my neck with a small blade. “Wrong thing to ask. Question is, how long will I let you live?” he asked.
This is bad! Somebody help me!
- Luffy’s Point of View
Nami and I have been running to the end of this forest. I think it leads way out of town now. I don’t think anyone comes out this way but we could still hear Ussop’s ball in that tunnel. So we must be getting somewhere. Way up ahead was a building made of stone and seemed to have a wall around it.
Nami groaned. “I’m beginning to really hate this loud sound! As much as it helps now, what was Ussop thinking when he made this thing!?” she exclaimed.
That’s when we saw the ball go up. There was another wind tunnel before us. “Looks like it ends right here. I thought they were supposed to be hidden, why is this one out in the open?” I asked, scratching my head through my hat.
Nami paused to think. “You…actually made a point. But look over there! I’ll bet you that’s the place we need to go. It doesn’t look too far either. Thank god that ball finally shut up, what a racket this thing makes.” She scowled, picking up the ball and glaring at it.
“I thought it was kind of neat! I wonder what other cool stuff Ussop has!” I grinned.
A dark chuckle emerge from behind us. We turned around to see a guy covered in amplifiers. They were on his chest, his knees and arms and one was on his helmet! He had on a headband and a barcode on his cheek. He looked to be 6 feet tall with tanned skin and a cocky smirk.
Stars were in my eyes, looking at that hat. “That helmet is so cool!”
Nami whacked me. “Will you get some common sense?!”
“It’s too bad you won’t be able to see it then. You see, your friend ‘Ussop,’ was it? Is done for.” He stated, with a laugh.
I balled my fists. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I was getting angry now. First Azmaria, then Ussop now Ussop again?! This guy and all the rest of these pirates are going down…!
- Azmaria’s Point of View
I don’t know how long it’s been. A day? Two? It didn’t matter now, this is my fate. They say in my family that the women were supposed to have long lives but die due to an accident. Looks like if I stay here long enough, I’ll die of starvation. I normally can go a while without food but being a pirate now…Luffy likes to eat a lot.
The others always bring me something to eat and now I’m hungry. Someone brought—threw in bread and water earlier but I can’t reach it because I’m still chained up. My arms are numb and my legs are bruised up from attempting to thrash my way out.
I can’t go back, not any more I won’t! I have my watch, the people of Cyral won’t bother with my uncle, they don’t have to take care of me anymore. There’s no more burden for them. That’s why I can’t burden my crewmates and friends! I have to get out again!
“Okay, let’s try this again. One, two…Hya!” I tried to pull the chains again. I placed my feet on the wall, trying to give myself a jumping start. I’ve been doing this for a long time, I lost count of the tries but I figure if I can keep at it the chains might break from their ancient hold. I hit my head and back on the wall from my foot slipping, causing me to crash backwards.
And after more and more attempts and back pain, all but one change stayed intact. One had gotten loose! My left hand was free! I gasped, laughing as I held it out in front of me balling a fist in and out. “I…I did it! I did it!”
I looked towards the bread that was either getting stale or was already stale—it didn’t matter about that but I tried to get that bread. I thought about my new friends.
“Azmaria!” Luffy called out, running towards me as I was sketching the Going Merry. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Come on, let’s eat now!”
I shook my head. “I’m fine for now.” besides, Luffy looked really hungry, I don’t want to cut portions.
He huffed as everyone grabbed an apple from the barrel. “You hadn’t eaten anything since last night! Food tastes better with your friends!” he encouraged pulling me over to Nami and Zorro.
I smiled as Nami gave me an apple as I took a bite. “Thanks you guys.”
I slipped again, my nails breaking but I managed to get the bread. I dusted it off on my leg and blew on it before I took a bite. Tears flowed down. “He was right…Food tastes terrible when you’re alone.”
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Ashy-chan's Corner: *Rises up from smoke like Mushu did in Mulan* I liiiiiiiiiiiive!
I OWE YOU GUYS A HUGE APOLOGY. One for NOT BEING ABLE TO WRITE AND CONTINUE THIS FOR MONTHS and two that this was all I had to offer T_T I'm so sorry you guys.
Stuff got complicated for real and writer's block. The only way to deal with it (besides mindlessly scrolling through tumblr) was to create new stories. I know, I'm horrible T_T
But at least this time I've watched a ton more One Piece this time and have studied and now have a much better understanding of their personalities. I also learned some very important things. I thought I loved everyone before BUT I CHERISH EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER THAT'S SO IMPORTANT! I just--One Piece is so amazing and I really hope that continuing this story I can live up to how precious everyone is.
I also am a big fan of Ussop (though I have a bad habit of misspelling his name and I apologize for that too but I goofed up and Microsoft Word thinks this is the way to spell it so I'm going to leave it like that) and I actually really like putting things in his point of view so you will tend to see that but I want to try and put things in everyone's perspective. I actually find Luffy's to be the hardest.
I don't know if this will continue as a love story but I know that I want him to treasure her a lot. Though he treasure's all his friends I think she would be okay just being by his side. I'm not sure yet, what do you think?
Anyways, if you waited for this, thanks. You guys are awesome. And look! to prove it, a cover was even made for me! I can't thank you guys enough for your support.