"How exactly was Andromeda-ya kidnapped off my ship?"
Ikkaku, Iruka and Jean stood before me, heads bowed. The dining room was nearly full, all eyes trained on the trio responsible for watching the Polar Tang this afternoon. The only ones missing were Andromeda, Penguin, Shachi, and Bepo. Two were under observation for the night, while the others were observing. Andromeda was still unconscious when I left, but Penguin was already cracking jokes.
I scowled at the three. "Well?"
Ikkaku cleared her throat. "Jean and I were in the common room. Iruka came up and said Andromeda asked for me and a glass of water. When I got to the infirmary, she was gone."
"And no one heard anything?"
The trio shook their heads. "No, Captain."
"Ikkaku-ya. Did you take care of those responsible?" I couldn't have people thinking they could mess with my crew, could enter my home, without repercussions. Hense turning the last two inside out. I learned a great deal more about the Ope-ope no mi thanks to them. Unfortunately they didn't survive the experiment.
She cringed. "We're pretty sure the fishman died. The other guy was pretty messed up about it. After I incapacitated the human, Penguin tried to negotiate with the Fishman, but he said they were already paid."
A muscle worked in my jaw. A wave of whispers rolled over the crew. Someone had paid to have Andromeda kidnapped. Two names seemed likely. "Did you happen to find out by who?"
"No, he wouldn't say."
"Ikkaku-ya, you're on bathroom duty until further notice." I ignored her cringe and moved on to Jean and Iruka. Punishing those two would be slightly more difficult due to their easy-going temperaments. A wicked grin split my face.
I expanded a room around my trio and hovered a hand in front of the two men's faces. "Since you're clearly not using them... Mes." two small cubes slid out into my hands. Their contents spun, making their owners groan while the crew cringed and gasped.
"That went better than expected." I mused, examining Iruka and Jean's single eyes.
Ikkaku shuddered away from them as they clutched empty sockets. "That's gross. And cruel, even for you."
I turned my scowl on the cook. "No, Ikkaku-ya. What's cruel is allowing our newest, and weakest member to be kidnapped from her bed." Encased in translucent boxes, I tucked the eyes safely in my pockets.
"What are you all still doing here? I know the chores didn't get done before you stepped off." I watched my crew stiffen, then scamper off to finish their neglected duties. It wasn't often we got to visit a true winter, and I knew they missed their homes in the North Blue.
Originally we were scheduled to leave the island today. Now, I determined to stay here until I found the one responsible for endangering my crew.
/-/-/-/
Whispered voices circled the patchy red darkness. Static hummed in echoes. Broken notes began a discordant melody, footsteps fell in and out of time.
Every second that passed felt my heart rate increase
Breaths came in shallow pants
It was bone numbingly cold
All I could see were patches of red on black static
The whispers turned into a warbling lullaby
'... swear on your life... no one will cry... at your funeral...
No one will cry... at your funeral...
I swear on your life...'
Over and over with monotonous certainty
/-/-/-/
I groaned and scrubbed my hand down my face. Tendrils of Haki, tainted with terror, seeped into every corner of my room. Presumably the entire ship. They tried to grip me, to force me to share their pain. A subtle pulse of my own haki chased it away.
Bleary eyes could barely read the clock, but I had a fairly good guess at the time.
2:45
I pulled a sweater over my head and adjusted my sweats before taking a brisk walk. First to the kitchen, then to the infirmary. I barely made it inside the room when Andromeda twitched and whimpered, choking on a sob.
She flinched as I set a glass of water on the side table. "Good morning, Tomato-ya."
"Sorry..." she mumbled, twisting her hands together to hide the trembling.
I pulled up a chair and sat, leaning an elbow on the side table, and tried to keep my eyes open and focused. Her apologies were more random and less necessary than Bepo's. "For?"
"Causing trouble." Apparently her hands were far more interesting to her tonight than normal, since she refused to look away from them.
Light from the lamp on the bedside table cast strange shadows on her face, as well as the rest of the room. It hardly chased away the night, but it was better than having no light at all.
The water was lukewarm. I set my glass aside, purposefully knocking it into the one I brought for Andromeda. She flinched at the sound of glass striking, staring harder at her twined fingers. "Penguin got hurt because of me."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Did you fire the crossbow?"
She shook her head.
"Then why do you think it's your fault?"
"Because..." Her expression was pained and defensive. "If I weren't so weak and stupid-"
"No one thinks that." I interjected. My tone was harsher than I meant it, causing Andromeda to stiffen.
She tried to sneak a glance at my face, judging my mood. Upon seeing me watching her closely, she snapped back to her hands. "Sorry."
I rested my head in my hand. "For?"
Andromeda took a deep breath, opened her mouth, and sighed. "Everything, I guess?"
"If you don't know why you're apologizing, why are you doing it?"
She hung her head. "Sorry."
This time I gave in to the urge and rolled my eyes. "For what?"
"Apologizing." Her lips twitched into a nervous grin.
I sighed. Of course.
"Sorry."
I blinked. Had she apologized because I sighed? "You're worse than Bepo." I muttered, rubbing my eyes. The statement and gesture only elicited another apology. Tactics that would work on the rest of the crew, minus Bepo of course, would not work on Andromeda. She wouldn't be convinced by simple logic, and threatening to sew her mouth shut if she offered one more apology would only be met with yet another apology and complete loss of trust.
Her haki was practically shaking. Her chest rose and fell in short, rapid breaths.
"Andromeda-ya, try to take slower, deeper breaths." I didn't like the idea of her having a panic attack with stitches in her neck. It was much too early to be cleaning up blood.
She managed one slow, shuddering breath. Then another. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than before. "I'm fine." Her voice was calm and smooth, no doubt practiced a thousand times before in order to send away unwanted, or untrusted, help.
"I don't. Believe you." I spoke slowly, watching her shrink with every syllable. "So tell me. What's wrong."
"There's nothing. Everything. Is fine."
"It doesn't seem that way to me."
For a moment I thought she would relent. It wasn't to be. "I just overreacted. It happens sometimes. I'm over it. So it's fine."
I leaned forward, just outside her personal space. "Andromeda-ya, I'm tired. I don't want to play this game. I want to go back to bed."
"Вернуться в постель." she snapped. "Go back to bed, then."
I realized too late that she took my gesture as a threat. Her shoulders squared. All traces of worry and fear in her Haki were replaced by a hard wall of anger. Her eyes darkened to almost black, flashing dangerously. Her face was empty, chin up.
I retreated fully into the chair, cursing my carelessness. I would get nowhere with her now. "There's no reason to get nasty."
"No one's been nasty yet." She spat.
The ensuing silence drug on.
And on
And on
She was not inclined to break it.
I had grown accustomed to her hating the quiet. The tense moments that sometimes punctuated our conversations. I realized suddenly that there was a very real possibility that she had let me win in the past. Had let me think I would always win.
I settled into it.
She owned it. Her haki crept into the corners, peeking out from the closet and under the bed. Unsettling energy barely restrained.
How long could she keep that up?
My guess was ten minutes at maximum.
She was used to pitting herself against a person who would always fight back. Who gave her something to set her strength against and temper it. Now she had no frame of reference.
After three minutes, her haki grew restless.
Five minutes, it crawled up the ceiling.
Eight minutes. It was everywhere but in my space. A cajoling force trying to coerce me into responding. I'd never felt any haki like it.
Ten minutes.
Her eye contact held.
Twelve minutes.
She popped her jaw.
Fifteen minutes.
Twenty.
If she didn't give up, her haki would run out completely. On one hand, I had yet to see anything like that happen. It could be interesting to document. On the other, allowing that to happen wasn't going to inspire confidence.
Twenty two.
I sighed. "Androm-"
"Go away." she murmured. Her energy was spent. Face slackened, shoulders slumped. Even her hands went limp. The dark energy rolling around the room didn't retreat: it vanished. "I can't deal with you right now. Just... Go away..."
"What kind of captain takes orders from his subordinates?" I smirked, attempting to lighten the mood.
Andromeda gave me a blank look. Then she fell back onto the pillow, out cold.
"That could have gone better..."
I checked her pulse. Slow and steady. As if she had been asleep for a time. I snapped my fingers by her ear, in front of her face. No reaction. After five minutes of testing reflexes, she finally responded.
I sat back, leaning against the table again. There was no use having her riled up immediately. She groaned as she came to.
"How are you feeling?"
Her eyes snapped open, head falling to the side. "Why are you still here?"
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm studying you, of course. I haven't seen Haki depletion first hand before."
"Study someone else." She scowled.
So much for not riling her up. "Relax. I waited for you to wake up before the blood draw. You don't mind, do you?"
Her breathing stutterd. "Don't fucking touch me."
I would have expected some real movement. Sitting up with arms crossed. Defensive posturing. There was nothing. "You're paralyzed."
She set her mouth in a thin line.
"Interesting." I filed the observation away for later use. "Has this happened to you before?"
Silence.
"We've already played this game, Andromeda-ya." I tried to reason with her. "I think we both lost. So just relax and answer my questions. In english, please." I clarified, seeing her looking for the words she wanted from her language.
I hadn't expected to hear her sound so defeated. Her voice was thick and pleading. "Please, just go away."
"Are you... Afraid of me?" The idea was somewhat ludacris. She had been with the crew for nearly two months. Besides Bepo, she was the one member who explicitly sought time with me. Just the other day she forcibly drug me into the showers with her.
All under different circumstances.
"Andromeda-ya, are you afraid of me?"
"Go. Away." She strained to get her body to respond. Nothing.
I sighed and sank into the chair. "I'm not leaving. You're clearly not in a state that I could leave you alone."
"I would be fine if you would just leave." Her voice cracked, desperation seeping through.
"I'm going to guess that this has happened before." I kept my voice low, forcing her to focus and listen. "With someone you trusted. And it didn't go well for you. I would guess they took advantage of you."
She turned her face away.
I didn't usually want to be wrong. In this instance, being right was infuriating. Someone had forced my tomato to deplete her Haki and hurt her while she was defenseless. My tomato. "Andromeda-ya, I am not going to touch you. I am going to sit here at least until your paralysis wears off. Time would pass more quickly for both of us if you would talk to me."
After a moment, she turned the table. She was still keeping her guard up. "Okay, so, I have a question. Why do you always ask questions about me, but never offer any information about yourself?"
"Because it's not relevant."
"Why not?" She pressed, staring at me with more than slight curiosity. "I mean, you sent Ikkaku after me the first time I refused to play twenty questions with you. That wasn't really necessary, or relevant. So it's your turn."
I scratched my cheek. "I don't think-"
"I'm uncomfortable, so you should be too."
"Is that so?" I smirked. She sounded like a child. Tit for tat. But there wasn't any harm in giving her something in this situation. "Okay. You have one question. I'll answer whatever it is."
Andromeda frowned, eyebrows knitting together. "You ask me all kinds of weird questions though... Rude." She lapsed into silence again, but the tension seemed to ease as she focused on the question she wanted to ask.
I wouldn't admit it to her, but the look of concentration on her face made me a bit nervous. What kind of question was she going to come up with?
Finally she grinned. "What's your favorite animal?"
"... What?" What kind of innocuous question was that?
"Your favorite animal. I figure it's a bear, but I could be wrong." She sounded thoughtful. "I don't think I am, though."
I chuckled, feeling more relieved than I should have, but also a bit confused. "I don't think I ever thought about it before."
"That's dumb."
"Well excuse me." I shook my head. "That wasn't nearly the type of question I expected."
She heaved a dramatic sigh, complete with heavy eye roll. "You can't even answer a simple question. I couldn't imagine asking you anything more complicated. I think if I asked your favorite color, you might have exploded. My money is on yellow, by the way."
"Is that another question?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Are you going to answer the first one?"
"Alright, alright," I relented. "Frogs."
"Frogs?" She asked incredulously. "Frogs?"
I grinned at her shock. "That sounds like another question. And I'm not obligated to answer that one."
Andromeda opened and closed her mouth, then scowled. "Rude. I'm telling Bepo."
The quiet that came next was much more comfortable than those that came before. Andromeda closed her eyes, looking for all intents and purposes as though she had fallen back asleep.
I started dozing off, drifting in and out of consciousness, until she spoke again. "Potoo."
"What?" I left my eyes closed. There was no reason to waste energy trying to keep them open.
"It's a stupid looking demon bird that sound like a depressed flute."
"And?"
"It's my favorite animal."
I snorted. "Of course it is."
"Frogs?"
"The first thing I dissected."
"Of course. You're a weirdo. Color?"
I sighed, half opening one eye. Andromeda waited patiently, still looking like she was sleeping. "Yellow. Why are you asking these questions?"
"Because these are the things you're supposed to know about a person when you're trying to be friends with them." She stated. She curled her fingers, tentatively testing her state. "Mine is red. But like, dark red. Like... Garnet."
I had no idea what she wanted me to do with any of this information. Or what she was going to do with it, for that matter. It just wasn't practical. "Since we're asking questions, would you mind answering some of mine?"
She heaved another dramatic sigh. "Fine. But mine are way more interesting."
"Sure they are." I muttered. I did feel somewhat remorseful that we couldn't keep the conversation light hearted, but it was time to tackle more important matters. "Andromeda-ya, what happened with you and Channing-ya?"
She made a grumbling noise. "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't ask."
"Megan already told me that there was an... Incident."
"He was drunk." Andromeda defended. "He wasn't thinking."
My eyes narrowed. "That's not what I'm asking you. What happened?"
"I overstayed my welcome, that's all."
"What. Happened." My frustration was rising again.
Andromeda winced. "He shoved me into the wall. Then I left. It wasn't his-"
"And which bruises came from him?" I cut her off, more annoyed with her trying to make his abuse her fault than I should have been. I shouldn't have let her go alone.
"Eheh... They're pretty much covered by the ones from Hank and his friends." She gingerly felt the swelling around her eye and lip. "I probably just had a black eye... Uh, you said Megan told you? Is Channing...?"
I smirked at her concern. "He is a very lucky man. I didn't have a chance to teach him a lesson. Penguin interrupted me."
"Good..."
"That brings me to my next question. What happened?"
She gave me an apologetic look. "A guy and a fishman walked in, picked me up, and walked out..."
I stared at her. She didn't elaborate. "That's it? They picked you up and walked away?"
"To be fair, breathing made my head feel like exploding. Even the sound of my heartbeat hurt." Andromeda's sheepish grin faded. "I did try to call for help. I just couldn't make any noise."
I blinked, a wave of familiarity coming over me. "Explain."
"Uh, I don't know what there is to explain... I tried to call for Iruka or Ikkaku, but the human shushed me, and then I couldn't make any noise." She frowned. "It was weird. I kept expecting to hear their feet in the snow, but I never did. And when I sensed Penguin nearby, I wasn't able to call him."
There was only one thing that could make that possible.
Someone had found the Nagi-nagi no mi.
"... Law?" Andromeda squeaked. "Did I do something wrong?"
I made a questioning sound.
"You just... Feel angry."
"No." I stood, taking my water with me. "It has nothing to do with you. Get some rest now." My back was to the bed, hand on the door.
The bed creaked. Faltering footsteps came up behind me. Andromeda wrapped her arms around my waist, face buried in my back.
I stiffened, intensely uncomfortable with the gesture. "Yes?"
"Hug me back."
"I don't-"
"Please?"
I groused unintelligibly, but gave in to her request. My arms rested loosely around her shoulders, chin on the top of her head. It wasn't as nice as hugging Bepo, but I found some comfort in it. And some humor. "Tomato-ya, I'm telling Ikkaku."
"Что вы?" She pulled back with a pout. True to her name, her cheeks had turned bright red. "There's nothing to tell. You're like... A weird brother thing. How old are you?" She squinted at me as if she were trying to read my mind. "Are you older than me?"
Something in my chest tightened. Me, an older brother? I cringed away from the thought. I wasn't fit for that responsibility. "It doesn't matter." I tried to push her away, but she locked her arms and wouldn't let go.
"Yeah huh. Anyway, you're probably the more mature one." She grinned despite my obvious unease. "So I guess you can be the older sibling. I've always wanted a big brother."
I reached behind and forced her to release me. I grabbed the wrong wrist: the one she sprained due to improper firing technique. The slight tightening of her eyes was the only thing telling me that I hurt her, and it was proof enough that I couldn't ever be 'big brother' again.
Clearly I couldn't protect her.
I turned on my heel and stalked out, leaving Andromeda
alone
in the half lit room.
Staring after me;
Waiting.