As morning came for the Sky Island, everyone is up and about with the natives either trading dials for Usopp's blue sea objects or off to search for the golden bell.
Meanwhile, the rest of the pirates, except for Robin, followed Luffy through the city where he told them where he saw a pile of gold. That gold however, is inside the giant, sleeping, python that Eneru attacked, so Zoro stays outside to make sure the snake stays asleep while the others go into the serpent's stomach.
"What has this snake been eating?" Sanji asks as he grabs some treasure.
When he sees Nami struggling to pull a crown out from between the rocks, he puts his findings in his pockets and goes to the beautiful girl. "Let me help."
Nami looks to the chef, and happily smiles at him as she steps back. "Thanks, Sanji."
"Anything for you Nami-san." He struggles with the golden crown, that's fit for a queen, for a moment before he manages to pull it out.
When he sees that it's not covered with stomach acid, he lightly dusts it off before he gently places it on her head. "Lovely."
Nami grins at the compliment and mutters a thank you to him, as she goes off with the crown still on her head. Little did she know, Rose slyly took a picture of Sanji crowning her.
The brunette softly grins at how Sanji is staring at Nami with a sweet smile before he goes off to his own scavenging work. What surprised her though, is that Nami snuck a glance at the chef just after he looked away and then grabbed some loot. *Now this is interesting.*
She chuckles at the possible pairing before she grabs her loot, goes to her blanket that's laid out on the flat ruin, and piles as much as she can on there. As she treasure hunts in the serpent, she also searches around for any other two-colored gems. However, the only thing she could find were golden trinkets. *Looks like I'll only have the samples from last night to work with. This is still pretty awesome! I gotta get started!*
She grins in excitement of what she can do in her experiments as she puts the last pieces of her findings on her pile, that's almost as big as Chopper. She wraps her blanket around them for a makeshift sack, and ties up the ends before she hauls it over her shoulder. "I'm gonna look for that weapon I stole from Eneru. I'll meet you guys at the ship."
The others wave her off as she gets out through the snake's mouth. Once outside, she sees Zoro doing pushups, regardless of his injuries. "Hey Zoro, do you know what happened to the two-pronged spear that fell with the leaf yesterday?"
He stops for a moment before he points to his right. "I think I saw it over there."
Rose nods as she looks to the opposite direction, where she can see a part of the fallen beanstalk. "That way then, thanks."
He groans at her comment as he watches her starting to create wind for both herself and the gold. "You're not seriously keeping that weird spear, are you?"
"Of course not, I'm gonna pawn it off for a new sword." When she starts floating, she turns to him with a small grin. "In the meantime, is there a chance that I can borrow one of your swords for training?"
He smirks at the question as he goes back to his pushups. "Hell no, you gotta use your own weapons to train."
She blinks at the challenge before she returns the smirk. "I see how it is. Alright then smartass, I'm gonna use that spear to fight you!"
He chuckles at her confidence as he goes back to his own training, while she flies off.
As Rose heads to the beanstalk, she can't stop thinking about what she can do with her two samples. There are so many things that she can try with only two gems, that it's hard to know where to begin. *I don't know enough to try a round trip. Besides, if Luffy found out he would want the whole crew to come even with no sure way to get back.*
She chuckles at imagining everyone's mixed reactions of shocked, scared and excited for if Luffy announced that they're going on an other-worldly adventure. "Maybe someday..."
She shakes her head at the hopeful possibility of the crew travelling the worlds together, as she reaches the base of the beanstalk, and finds the two-pronged spear lying on the ground.
As she lands on the ground and grabs the golden weapon, she can't help but think of how even if she's confident enough to pull off a round trip, she wouldn't try going back to New York. With that in mind, she comes to a decision on what her first official experiment will be. *I wonder how everyone in that city is doing...*
She quietly sighs to herself as she flies to the ship with her loot, and mentally prepares for the experiment with thoughts of the friends that she left behind.
*****************************************************************
Just after the Timore comet flew past New York City, news reports and eye witnesses of the beautiful comet was all that everyone's been talking about. However, it only took a week for the news reports and gossip to die down, and start to be forgotten by most. All except for the owners of a small pizza restaurant that a missing girl used to work at.
A poster with Rose's picture on it, that has a message below it that says, 'Have you seen me?', is taped on the glass window in hopes for anyone to give the owners some news, but with no luck.
Timothy sadly sighs to himself as he wipes the counter in the empty restaurant and adjusts his glasses as he looks at the window, where another picture is taped on the window to the inside the restaurant. "Did you really do it? You said you didn't figure out how to leave yet..."
He's only met with silence as his mother walks out of the kitchen with a small bin of grated cheese in her hands. When the middle-aged woman sees what her son is staring at, she softly glances at the photo before she puts on a brave face and puts the cheese in the toppings section of the counter. "If you're going to just stare at the picture, then I'll take it down."
The slightly chubby boy snaps out of it from the comment and narrows his brown eyes at her. "How can you say that?! Aren't you worried at all?! She could be getting chased down by titans for all we know!"
Naomi rolls her eyes at his claim as she looks to see what other toppings they need out front. "For the last time, she didn't disappear to another world. She just ran away."
He grows irritated at her denial as he points to the picture. "You know the timing's too perfect for it to be anything but disappearing! And she has no reason to run away from her family!"
*If only you knew...* She bites back her desire to tell him about Rose's abuse from her foster family, to make sure he doesn't kill them, and heads back to the kitchen. "Think what you want, but we've had employees run away before, and this isn't different. I'm giving those pictures one more week before they go down, are we clear?"
"Crystal..." He pouts to his mother's coldness as he gets back to work while Naomi goes back to the kitchen.
The skinny woman only looks ahead as she zips through the kitchen and goes into the back office. Once she shuts the door behind her, she goes to the computer on her desk. She grits her teeth as she searches through her desktop files until she finds one that's titled 'Rose's conversations'.
Ever since she learned of Rose's foster family, she's made sure to speak to the teenage girl about the abuse where the security cameras can record them. That way, when she was no longer in the foster care system, she could get her justice. But now that she's gone, no matter what the reason, Naomi has no reason to keep this a secret.
She goes into her drawer for a flash drive and digs through the clutter, but instead of finding a drive, she found a plastic bag with six memory chips from cameras.
She blinks at the bag as she takes a closer look at the dusty old memory cards and remembers that Rose was the one who gave them to her. Just after she finally gave them her application.
****************************************
"The Timore comet?" Naomi asks, unsure if she heard her employee right, as Rose stands in front of her and her son in the kitchen.
Rose nods as she shows them pictures of a blue comet that she got from the internet. "Yea, it's what I'm researching. It has the ability to travel to other worlds."
Both Timothy and Naomi just stare at her like she has two heads, so she frowns at them. "Alright, I'll get the questions out of the way right now. I'm not part of some cult, I haven't seen it yet, and-!"
She stops continuing the list of assumptions about her, that her peers taunted her with, when she was about to say that her parents actually died, instead of abandoning her to go to another world.
She shakes her head of the memory of the insults, and looks away from them. "Look, I'm researching it to get out of this world, so if I stop coming back then I succeeded. I just wanted to give you that fair warning before I give you my application."
Timothy adjusts his glasses to get a better view of the picture as he remembers the soda incident, that happened a month ago. "So that's why those bitches called you a comet- Ow!"
Naomi cuts him off by slapping him upside the head. "Language!"
Rose chuckles at the family spat as she grabs her application from her backpack. "Yea, those assholes don't believe that I can actually do it, but- Hey!"
She's cut off when Naomi smacks her too. "What is with you kids and cursing?!"
The teenage girl rubs the sore spot on her head but keeps on a small smile from being scolded. "I blame social media!"
"I blame MTV!" Timothy calls out with Naomi smacking both of their heads.
"I blame your stupidity..." Naomi groans out with the two kids chuckling at her irritation.
Timothy quiets down as he looks at Rose in confusion. "So, this comet can really travel to other worlds? How did you get into this?"
Rose blinks at the question, for this is the first time that someone has been genuinely curious about her research, instead of just playing it off as her lying. Nonetheless, she tries not to expect too much in case he insults it. "My parents are astronomy professors, they're the ones who started it. We're all working to figure out its secrets so that we can explore the universes."
She studies his movements carefully, but instead of seeing disbelief or ridicule, she sees him starting to grin in excitement. "That's awesome! You gotta go to the One Piece world first! That's where I'd go if I could choose!"
She slightly widens her eyes at how he easily believes her, but she hides her shock behind a happy grin. "You know, with what I've looked into so far, I think I would choose that one too."
He grins at her, but before he could say anything, he looks at the wall clock to see that it's almost 11:30. "Oh shit, it's time to open!"
He runs out of the room while he ignores Naomi's scolding for his cursing.
The redheaded woman groans at the kids' antics as she turns to Rose. "Your parents are really studying this thing?"
Rose freezes when she sees the same look of doubt on her boss' face that she receives from everyone else, so she softly sighs as she gives her the form. "Yea, but I'm not asking you to believe us. I just don't want to feel guilty for disappearing on you guys."
The taller woman blinks at the dismissal as she reads the form, that holds only her information from when her birth parents were alive. "I honestly don't believe you, but it's not like I can stop you. I'll keep this in mind when you stop coming back."
The freckled teen accepts the indifference, for it's better than ridicule, and goes into her bag. "There's also one more thing."
Naomi hums in confusion as she takes out a plastic bag with camera memory chips in them. "If I give these to you, can you promise not to look in them?"
She blinks her brown eyes at the bag before she looks at her suspiciously. "What's in the chips?"
"Videos, I'm not sure how long I'll be staying in this world, so I made a few..." She eyes the cards for the right description for them before she looks up at Naomi. "Tribute videos for everyone who's been in my life, including you guys. I want to surprise you all after I turn eighteen, but I don't want them to get discovered by the others."
The older woman raises an eyebrow at the idea, but she doesn't see why not as she takes them from her. "Fine but promise not to go too deep in talking about this comet. I don't want Timothy trying to go with you."
The brunette frowns at the command before she turns away from her. "Trust me, I don't want to drag anyone else into this..."
She walks off to get to work at the front of the restaurant without another word.
Naomi quietly sighs at the girl's retreat as she looks down at the application and memory cards in her hands. "Who did I let into our lives?"
***************************************
Naomi sadly stares at the bag before she abandons her search for a flash drive and instead grabs a memory card reader. Once everything's set up, she takes out one of the memory cards and puts it in the reader.
The only thing she sees in the file is one video. As soon as she opens it, she raises an eyebrow at the screen showing a dimly lit supply closet.
"Is this freaking working?"
Naomi widens her eyes at the familiar voice, but it sounds younger than she remembers it. The focus shifts all around until it finally shows a child version of Rose.
The red headed woman can barely figure out if the overly skinny child's eleven or twelve from the view, but what's shocking to her is the fresh bruises and scratches on her face, arms, and legs. She can only remain silent as the kid curiously stares down at it. "Man, I hope I figured out the recording feature. Who the hell throws away a perfectly good camera anyway?"
She chuckles at the previous owner's wastefulness as she places the device on a shelf, so that she's facing the camera. "Well, their loss is my gain. I honestly don't know if what I'm about to do will work, but I want to do something to make sure that no one else will be trapped here after I'm gone."
Naomi widens her eyes at the explanation as she listens to the child, who's staring back at her with a determined look on her face. "My name is Rose Catone, and I'm Rick Murphy's foster child. Under sound mind and body, I'm testifying that I'm physically and verbally abused in this foster home."
"Oh my god..." Naomi can't believe what she's hearing as Rose continues her testimony.
"This closet for example, I consider it my second bedroom." Rose picks up the camera to capture the apartment building's supply closet. "You see, half the time after Rick beats me up, I get thrown out of the apartment to fend for myself. I know how dangerous it is for a kid to sleep outside in this city, so I normally go to the roof, but when the weather's bad I sleep in the building's supply closet."
The restaurant owner's rage begins to rise at the new fact as she forces herself to stay seated and see what else her employee left behind in these videos.
Meanwhile, Timothy is tiredly sweeping the floor just when the door slams open. "You know this girl?!"
The nineteen year old freezes at the masculine voice, when he sees a blond, muscular police officer holding the picture of Rose that was outside.
The pale boy squeaks at the cop, that he's heard so much about from Rose, before he happily responds to him. "Oh my god, you really do look like Smoker!"
A tick mark begins to form on the older man's forehead as he sarcastically answers him. "Great, you're another one..."
Timothy giggles at his irritation as he holds a hand to him. "If you mean another anime lover then yes. My name's Timothy, Rose told me all about you."
He scowls at the kid, but nonetheless he shakes his hand. "My name is Robert, not Smoker. Got it?"
The kid nods as he looks to Rose's picture. "So, you started your search huh?"
Robert raises an eyebrow at the question. "What search?"
"For Rose."
This is the first time the cop is hearing this as he puts the picture on the counter. "You're telling me that she's missing?!"
Timothy looks at him in shock before he hastily answers him. "Yea, she disappeared since last week! You didn't notice?!"
Robert widens his eyes at the news, and thinks back on how for the past week he hasn't caught her street performing once. "Do you have her address on file? I can look into this for you."
The brown haired boy nods as he goes to the kitchen. "Yea, it's on her application. Wait here."
The cop complies as he waits in the front while Timothy heads to the office. As the teenage boy opens the door, he pauses when he sees Naomi on the computer.
He knits his eyebrows in confusion as he quietly goes up behind his mother to see what she's watching. The second that he saw what was on the screen though, he had to make sure that he was still wearing his glasses.
Sadly, his eyes weren't fooling him as he watches a video, angled from a high shelf, of a sixteen year old version of his friend being attacked by two teenage, blond, girls, and a big man, with the same tan skin as them, in an apartment living room.
As he watches Rose fighting her abusers, and taking their insults, rage begins to bubble inside of him. He becomes furious not just because of her not telling him about this, but also because it brings back bad memories for him. Memories of how his own father acted towards him when he trained him to fight, until he learned of his sexuality and walked out on him and Naomi, not long before Rose showed up in their lives.
Before he could say anything, the video goes black for a moment before it changes to Rose chuckling to the camera in the supply closet. "To whoever's watching, sorry if last night's fight made you uncomfortable. I knew that one was coming because they found out that I hid a job from them, so I managed to time the recording to capture the proof."
She grins at the memory of the soda incident before she eyes the camera. "I will admit though; the fight was worth it for how they found out. You see these bullies, who are my foster sisters' cronies, found out I worked at a restaurant and tried to blackmail me into a free lunch. When they spilt soda on me on purpose though, my friend Timothy sprayed soda on both of them for revenge."
She laughs at the memory as before she continues with a soft smile. "The owner, Naomi, even stood up to them by showing that she recorded the whole blackmailing. I was sure that I was gonna get fired, but those good people didn't give up on me."
Timothy and Naomi both feel a mix of happy and sad for their friend's kind words as she freezes.
The freckled girl loses her smile, and knits her eyebrows in thought for a moment, as she thinks of telling her audience one of her secrets. "Sorry, I digress, I bet you're all wondering: 'If I made such good friends then why didn't I say anything about my foster family's abuse to them, or even told Bobby or some other cop?' Well first, Timothy and Naomi don't deserve to get dragged into my problems. They've done enough for me. And while I want to have enough evidence for you all to believe me, there is another reason why I didn't say anything..."
She looks to the door to make sure that it's shut before she nervously looks to the camera. "See, after the first few beatings, I was ready to report him to the police. But Rick found out and showed me things online. Terrible things that can happen to foster kids, and makes getting hit look merciful. I don't know who's gonna see this, so I won't say what they were, but I consider myself one of the lucky ones compared to kids on the street."
She stops herself when she feels like she's defending his actions, so she raises her hands defensively. "Now I'm not saying that what he's doing to me is ok. The bastard can't be allowed to take in anymore kids, but he showed me that I'm stuck in a broken system. This government brings orphans to homes that look safe in the public eye, but they could do god knows what to them behind closed doors. I don't want to be one of those kids that get dragged from place to place, where assholes can do whatever they want to me, so I stayed and took the lesser of two evils. Once I turn eighteen and I'm finally free though, I'm gonna make sure that Rick the dick gets his justice!"
She quietly chuckles at the nickname for her foster dad before a yawn accidentally comes out. "Right now though, I need to go to sleep, and trudge through. Good night, whoever you are."
Timothy neither notices, nor cares, about his eyes tearing up from his friend's speech, as he watches her bruised arm reach for the camera and finish the video. "Why the hell didn't she say anything?!"
Naomi jumps off the chair from her son's squeaky complaint and finally notices that he's with her. She sees the tears falling from his eyes and immediately knows that he saw the video, so there's no point in denying it. She sadly goes up to him and pulls the taller boy in her embrace. "She didn't want to risk being sent somewhere worse, I'm sorry you had to learn the truth like this."
He finds her calmness about the situation to be disturbing, for he knows she would be just as mad as he is, so he pulls away from her and weakly glares at her. "Wait, did you know?!"
Naomi looks at him with guilt in her eyes before she sighs. "I knew since last fall when I caught her performing in front of her parents' graves. I wanted to report this too, but she refused and said she'll deny it. I've been making recordings of her talking about it in the restaurant, to get him arrested when she's out of the system, but it looks like she already had this planned."
The pale boy doesn't say anything as he wipes his tears, and goes into the drawer for Rose's application to study the address.
"What are you doing?" Naomi asks, as he hands her the application with a dark scowl on his face.
"Finding where my target lives..."
The restaurant owner shivers at the dark, low tone in his voice, but before he can leave she runs to the door to block him off. "Don't be stupid!"
He glares at her, but refuses to use force on her. "Get out of my way!"
She doesn't back down as she glares back at her son. "No, that doesn't have her real address!"
He freezes at the answer while Naomi explains it to him. "When she gave us that application, she used the information from when her parents were alive! I didn't make her update it because I didn't want you to try going after him!"
The boy's fury grows even higher at the explanation. "Are you serious?! Didn't you care about her at all?!"
The redhead clicks her tongue at his anger as she stands her ground. "Of course I did, but life isn't a manga! If you went after him, it wouldn't have helped her! And even if I reported her abuse, we don't know where she would've end up! There's no point in fighting about who was right or wrong! We need to report this to the police and see if they can find her!"
He stops when he remembers the Smoker lookalike in the front room and begins to evilly smirk at her. "You know, I think you're right. I know just the cop for the job too..."
Naomi raises an eyebrow at his ominous answer as he grabs the application and the bag of memory chips. "Were these her videos?"
Naomi nods, but she keeps her ground in front of the door. "Hold on, what are you planning?"
"Do you remember the cop that kept chasing Rose? We can get his help."
The restaurant owner knits her eyebrows in thought of the cop and freezes. "Wait, we don't even know how to get in touch with this Bobby guy!"
"Don't need to, he's in the front room."
She looks at him in shock before she runs to the front room and finally meets the cop that chased Rose into their lives. "You're Bobby?"
He twitches an eyebrow in irritation before he answers her. "My name is Robert, not Bobby."
She quietly sighs at her employee's antics as she walks up to him. "Sorry, I've only heard of you as Bobby. My name's Naomi, I own this restaurant."
Robert nods in acknowledgment and shows her Rose's photo. "The last time you saw her was a week ago?"
She nods as doesn't notice Timothy walking out of the kitchen. "That's right, she missed three shifts and hasn't called us. We tried calling her, but she gave us a false number..."
Robert widens his eyes at this when Timothy steps up to him and gives him her application and video cards. "We don't know where she is, but we know she's a foster kid. You should find out where she was living in your system. You might want to look in these before you go there."
He raises an eyebrow at the remark as he looks at the offerings in his hands. "What are they?"
"Videos she left behind in case this happened. Just promise that you'll come back here to tell us what you find."
Robert looks to see that he's completely serious about this and turns away from them. "I'll keep you both updated on this case."
The two restaurant workers hum in confusion as he takes a pad from his belt and writes down his contact information. "If either of you find out anything, you can call me."
Naomi hums in agreement as she takes the paper from him and gives him a pamphlet. "We will, our number is on this, so you can call us anytime."
He silently agrees as he takes the pamphlet and walks out to open a new case.
**************************************
In the New York Police Station, it's as busy as ever with officers hearing complaints from civilians, or taking in criminals.
Robert however, is holed up in an interrogation room with a laptop and setting up the memory card reader for Rose's videos. Before he could play any of the cards, a bald guy with dark skin, who looks to be the same age as Robert walks into the room.
Robert doesn't notice his scrawny partner's arrival as he walks closer to the computer with papers in his hand. "I got the information on her; do you have it set up?"
The blond officer snaps out of it to the deep-pitched voice and motions him to sit in the chair next to him. "Almost Andrew. What do you have on her?"
Andrew sighs at the question as he plops down next to him and puts Rose's file on the table. "Looks like your street performer friend has been in the system since she was ten. Both her parents were murdered during a break in that wound up with the apartment going up in flames. Luckily, she left on the fire escape before she could get hurt. Ever since then, she's been Rick and Maria Murphy's foster child."
"Shit..." Robert runs a hand through his hair as he processes the information, and remembers the times when he's seen bruises on the kid. Even though he has an inkling about what was going on, he needs to see it with his own eyes before he could get into action. "We'll go visit them after we look at one of these. Her friend was really serious about us looking at them."
Andrew blinks at his partner's priorities, but he agrees as he watches him turn on one of the videos.
The two officers keep their full attention to the video as they find it showing a high-up angle of a video showing Rick attacking a twelve year old girl.
"You stupid brat!" The officers widen their eyes at Rick's anger as they watch him punch Rose in the face.
"What do you think you were doing looking in my files?!"
The little girl narrows her purple eyes at the man as she shows him, and the camera, the paper in her hands. "Seeing how a single man with twins can take on a foster kid! You made it look like your wife's still married to you didn't-?"
She stops talking to jump back, and dodge a slap from him. Rick narrows his eyes on the scrawny brat as he grabs her by the collar of her shirt, and knees her in the gut. "And so what if I did? It's not like she would care for you."
Rose dry hacks from the hard hit, as her foster dad takes the application for his foster license from her, and drags her to the door by her shirt. "You should be grateful you didn't meet that whore. She'd probably sell you on the street instead of just throwing you out. If I catch you snooping through my things again though, then I'll consider doing that too!"
He throws her out the door without another thought and locks her out.
"What the fuck?" Andrew cannot believe what he's hearing, but Robert can barely keep his cool as he gets ready to leave. However, before he could get up, the video goes black for a moment and changes to the kid chuckling to the camera in a supply closet.
The kid doesn't act like she's been hurt at all as she speaks to her audience. "Sorry for the scare in yesterday's fight, but I wanted to see if I can make timed recordings with this camera. When I found out that he forged his ex-wife, Maria's, signature on his foster parent application, I thought it was a perfect opportunity."
She loses her smile as she remembers the application and looks to the door. "Honestly though, I'm disappointed that the cops or even the social workers didn't figure it out. I'm sure they could access divorce papers, can't they?"
Robert twitches an eyebrow at how the people who sent her there could overlook this as Rose continues. "Well, from what I've seen Maria never visits Rick or even her real daughters, so I guess she didn't care."
She shakes her head at the woman's abandonment for her kids as she glares at the camera. "Honestly, people like her shouldn't have kids! At least Rick cares for the twins, but she has no excuse!"
She takes a deep breath through her nose to calm down before she looks to the camera. "Sorry for the rant, speaking of cops though, I think I made friends with one a couple of months ago."
Robert and Andrew freeze at the comment as she grins at her thoughts on the chain smoking cop. "His name's Robert, but I like to call him Bobby. We met when he caught me street performing without a permit. Now this guy's really on the book. He immediately noticed my bruises and literally dragged me to the station, until I stopped him by hitting his leg with my guitar case."
She chuckles at the memory of her first meeting with the policeman. "This guy wouldn't give up though, when I made a run for it, he actually gave chase for I think ten blocks."
She smirks at the screen as she snickers at the fun chase. "Of course, I dodged the man at every turn. Ever since that day, he would chase me around the city whenever we meet. I honestly think it's become a part of his job description."
Andrew chuckles at the child's antics, but Robert's not amused as he narrows his dark eyes on the screen.
Rose quietly sighs at the fun memories as she softly grins at them. "You know though, it's good to see that not every cop is corrupted. He still chases me around, even when I'm a total shithead to him. He could easily let me go and not bother, but I think he really cares for us little guys. If I'm still in this world when I'm eighteen, I'm gonna come clean to him when I persecute Rick. With Bobby taking the case, I'm sure it'll be a fair trial."
Robert widens his eyes at the praise, and couldn't believe that this sentimental kid is really the sassy brat that he's been chasing for the past five years. Even though he knew something was up with her, he honestly didn't want to believe that such a happy looking girl was suffering. If he had caught her just once, maybe he could've changed things.
He tries not to feel too guilty about the situation, as he watches Rose shake her head from her little speech and give them the peace sign. "If I was being mushy, I'm sorry. I just didn't want to end the feed on a bad note. I'll see ya later, whoever you are."
The video ends at that with both policemen being shell shocked at what they just watched.
Andrew swallows a lump in his throat when he voices one of the biggest things that's bothering him. "When she said, 'if I'm still in this world', she didn't mean..."
He starts worrying that she expected to die before she turns eighteen, when Robert bangs the table to snap his partner out of it and gets up. "We're going there right now and cuffing this son of a bitch! We'll drop this off to the DA for a warrant, come on!"
Andrew can barely keep up, as he grabs the file and video chip that they watched, and runs out of the room with his partner.
***************************************
It didn't take long for the officers to find the rundown apartment building that's been used as Rose's foster home. As soon as the officers parked the car, they reached the door and rang the doorbell with a small sticker that said 'landlord' under it.
It only took a few minutes before a fat, old, Caucasian man in jeans and a polo shirt opened the door. The mean looking man raises an eyebrow at the policemen as he speaks in a thick Russian accent. "What are you here for?"
The two officers glance at each other for a second before Andrew speaks to him. "We're looking for Rick Murphy, can you tell us which apartment he lives in?"
The old man blinks at the request before he moves out of the doorway to let them in. "So, you're finally here for Zolushka."
Robert raises an eyebrow at the name as he walks in with his partner. "Zolushka?"
The landlord nods as he leads them up the stairs. "Yea, the little orphan who's like that girl. You know with the glass shoe."
They look at him in confusion for a moment before Andrew figures out what the immigrant is saying. "Oh, 'Cinderella'."
The old man nods as he continues his trek up the stairs. "Yea, you're here about her, aren't you?"
Robert nods, but nonetheless he's becoming irritated at how nonchalant he is about it. "Yea, when was the last time you saw her?"
He thinks back with a grin at the times he's enjoyed her performances on the roof, and sometimes tutored her in the guitar. "A few weeks ago, when I watched her play her guitar on the roof, she always goes there after she gets kicked out. Since it's been pretty quiet, she must've ran away. Good for her!"
Andrew widens his eyes at his reminiscing. "Did you know about Rose's abuse?!"
He scoffs in acknowledgement as he looks to the stairs ahead of them. "There's nothing in my building, that I don't know about."
"Then why didn't you say anything?!" Robert asks, with the white-haired man narrowing his blue eyes at him.
"And what would you do if I did, send her somewhere else to get tortured?!" He grunts at them as he stops to take a break from the long trek. "You know nothing of how dangerous it is in your precious country! When you lose your parents, you get thrown in a dog eat dog world! Zolushka knew how badly a child like her could suffer, and stuck it out where she only gets hit!"
The cops couldn't come up with a proper comeback when they reach the door to Rick's apartment.
The landlord roughly knocks on the door until he hears footsteps approaching. "Have fun taking down this piece of shit."
The cops blink at the happiness in the Russian's voice as they watch him walk back downstairs, just when the door opens.
As soon as Rick opens the door, he widens his eyes at the two cops in front of him, before he nervously grins at them. "Hello there, what can I do for you?"
"Are you Rick Murphy?" Robert asks with the man nodding.
The blond cop holds himself back from pouncing on him, to not blow a chance on finding where Rose could be, as Andrew calmly speaks to him. "We're looking for your foster child, Rose Catone, is she home?"
He blinks at the question before he shakes his head. "Sorry, but she's not here. What kind of nonsense did she get into this time?"
Robert narrows his eyes at the man before him. "You tell us, her job hasn't seen her for the past week."
Rick raises an eyebrow at how her employers could be worried about someone like her, but he shrugs it off. "She must've quit without telling anyone. She's always careless about others."
"And when was the last time you saw her?" Andrew asks as he goes into his pocket for the warrant.
Rick thinks hard on the last time that he saw the freckled girl, but his mind is at a blank. He, Marie, and Laura haven't seen her all week, but they haven't given it a second thought. However, the cops don't need to know that. "I just saw her this morning, she's probably off street performing."
Robert grows completely irritated at the lie. "If that's the case, you should have no problem with us taking you in for questioning."
The foster father widens his blue eyes at them before he steps back. "Hold on, I'm not leaving without a-"
Andrew cuts him off by showing him the legal documents. "We already have a warrant for your arrest, don't make this harder for yourself."
Rick gets taken aback by this as he grabs the door. "Arrested for what?!"
"Negligence, child abuse, forging your ex-wife's signature on your foster parent application, take a pick!" Robert says when the door is about to get slammed in their faces, but Andrew stops the door.
Rick barely cares as he runs to the fire escape. Just when he's about escape from the window though, Robert grabs him by the shoulders, pulls him back inside, and slams his face to the wall.
Rick however, refuses to let himself get arrested as he back kicks his assailant to get him off of him. Andrew goes to grab him, but has to duck to dodge a punch.
Robert avoids the raging man's next kick and punches him square in the face to let him fall to the floor with a nosebleed.
While he's down, Robert pins him on his stomach while Andrew mirandizes him.
Rick barely listens to the man though as he tries to wrestle him off. However, Robert overpowers him as he punches him in the head again, and slams him down before he puts a cuff on him.
With the sound of the metal clicking on his wrist, Rick can feel that it's over for him, but he refuses to stop as he futilely struggles in Robert's grasp. "Stop, you can't do this!"
Robert scoffs at the plea as he finally gets the other cuff on from behind his back. "Shut up, you-"
"Dad?"
The three men stop when they see Marie and Laura looking scared at what's happening to their dad.
Robert takes this chance to pull himself and Rick up from the floor. "Who are you two?"
The twins look at each other nervously before Laura answers them. "I'm Laura and this is my sister Marie, what's going on?"
Andrew approaches the pampered looking girls and tries to calmly explain the situation to them. "We're taking your dad into custody to discuss the case on your missing foster sister."
Marie can't believe what she's hearing. "What are you talking about? That stupid bitch isn't missing!"
Robert twitches an eyebrow at the girl's insult as he answers them. "Then where is she?!"
The twins freeze at the question, for they can't give him an answer that can defend their case.
"She's just hiding to get attention!" Laura says but neither cop will hear of it as they take Rick to the door.
"Then he'll be released soon. You girls need to come with us as well." Robert says as he drags the struggling Rick out of the door.
Both eighteen year old girls barely know what to do, except to follow as Andrew ushers them out of the apartment for questioning.
****************************************************
A month has passed since that day, with Timothy and Naomi living peacefully. They received occasional updates from Robert about the police's search for Rose, but they've found nothing to go by.
What really surprised the restaurant owners though, was the news reports. A few reporters from local news channels have caught wind of how Rose's disappearance happened around the same time as the comet's arrival. Not only that, when they found out that Rose's parents were studying the Timore comet, they've spread the story that she could've completed her family's research, and left this universe through the comet's power.
However, with no proof on this being true, many people have treated this claim as a rumor. Only a few truly believe in the story, such as Timothy has.
The boy right now is currently cleaning up shop when a familiar pair of policemen walk in. He brightens up at the men as he waves at them. "Well if it isn't Andy and Smokey. What can I get you guys?"
Andrew chuckles at the nickname for his partner while Robert twitches an eyebrow.
Nonetheless, the blond officer gave up on correcting him as he approaches the counter. "Just get us the usual. We're taking it to go."
Timothy nods as he gets a slice of sausage and a slice of pepperoni pizza from the display cases and into the oven. Once they're in, he looks to the policemen with eagerness in his brown eyes. "So, what's the news?"
Robert can barely hold back a smirk from the result of Rick's trial, that finished yesterday. "The asshole's guilty, he got a ten-year sentence."
The nineteen year old happily grins at the news as he gets out some paper cups for their sodas. "That's awesome! Did he say anything else about the last time he saw her?"
Andrew sighs in disappointment as he shakes his head. "Sorry kid, all he said was that she left that night to see the comet and never came back."
Timothy's face fell at the update as he fills both cups with Sprite, gives the drinks to them, and then gets some paper plates for the pizzas. "I see, I wish she told me that she was leaving this world..."
"You really believe that the comet brought her out of this universe?" Andrew asks with the brunette nodding.
"I know it, it's too much of a coincidence for her to just run away without saying anything."
Robert softly stares at the boy before he nods to him. "You're right. Wherever she is, she's probably causing a mountain of trouble for the natives."
Andrew snickers at his passiveness, for he knows that his partner is secretly missing his chases with her. "I bet you she's being chased by the real Smoker right now."
Timothy giggles at the thought of her pissing off the real White Chaser as he goes to the oven. "She's probably messing with him by saying he has a long lost twin and is calling him 'Bobby the Second'."
The two teasers laugh at the assumption while Robert tiredly sighs at their joke. "I pity him if that's the case..."
Timothy grins at them as he pulls out the slices from the oven, puts them on paper plates, and gives them to his customers. "How long will the search last?"
"We can't tell you that, but we'll let you know what we find." Robert says as he pays for the meal and heads out with his partner.
"I'll hold you to it!" Timothy says as he waves them off until they leave. Once he's alone, he tiredly sighs as he looks to the window, that no longer holds Rose's photos, but now holds help wanted posters.
As he thinks that life is finally becoming stable again, something outside destroys that belief. That being a pair of twin girls with too much makeup on, tank tops, shorts that barely cover their butts, and their curly blond hair in ponytails, walking inside.
"Oh, hell no!" He immediately recognizes the sisters from Rose's video, and goes to his soda gun before he glares at the girls from behind his glasses. "What do you two want?!"
Marie and Laura both grow nervous under the evil glare, that reminds them of Rose's glare of death, but that's the least of their problems. For even though they weren't charged for helping Rick in the abuse, they now have to provide for themselves as legal adults.
From what Timothy can see though, that isn't going well for them as Marie nervously steps up. "We're not here to cause trouble."
The employee however, keeps his guard up as he sets the soda gun to orange soda. "Then what are you doing here?"
"We need jobs..." Laura begrudgingly says as she looks around the small restaurant. "We're desperate, no one will take us."
Marie nods as she stands her ground. "You guys didn't replace the comet freak yet, did you? Then-"
She stops when she and Laura loudly squeal in fear as they jump to dodge the shots of orange soda that are flying at them.
Naomi leaves the kitchen when she hears the loud noise, and widens her brown eyes at the sight of Rose's foster sisters running around the room to avoid her son's soda shots.
Timothy doesn't notice his mom's arrival as he stops shooting and glares at the spoiled women. "If you bitches are still calling her that then you haven't learned anything! Give me one good reason to hire you!"
Laura steps up to him with a seductive smirk as she leans over the counter and bats her eyelashes at him. "With a pair of beauties like us, we can bring you in way more customers."
Timothy blankly stares at the flirting girl before he points his soda gun at her face with a dark scowl, and speaks in a low, scary tone. "Listen to me very closely, even if I wasn't gay, I wouldn't be interested. Also, all that makeup doesn't make you look beautiful, it makes you look pathetic."
The poor girl didn't know whether to be more frightened or embarrassed by his reaction, as she takes a step back with tears in her blue eyes.
Marie rushes to give her a comforting hug before she glares at him. "We don't see a lot of people lining up for this place! What other choice do you have?!"
He's heard enough as he gets ready to fire, but Naomi puts her hand in front of the device to stop him. "Hold on Timothy, we should hire them."
Timothy can't believe what he's hearing, but before he could protest, his mom starts whispering her plan into his ear.
The twins have no idea what she's saying, but they begin to get scared when they see a demonic smirk growing on the boy's chubby face with each passing second. Even though they want to run, they don't feel like they have a lot of options for this is the tenth place that they tried to get a job in.
They nervously see where this goes as Naomi finishes whispering her plan to her son.
Timothy snickers to what she has in mind, as he puts down the gun, and extends his hands out to the girls with a friendly grin. "Welcome to La Bella Pizzeria ladies. My name's Timothy."
Both girls find his newfound friendliness unsettling, but they timidly shake hands with the devil of a supervisor as Marie introduces herself. "I-I'm Marie and this is my sister Laura."
Naomi nods in satisfaction as she steps up to the curvy girls. "My name's Naomi, I should have some t-shirts that can fit you in the back. Come with me."
She goes to the kitchen, but stops at the door to turn to her son. "As for you, clean up the soda stains."
"Okie dokie!" Timothy salutes her as he watches her go into the kitchen with the new employees. Once he's alone, he evilly giggles at the development, for his mother just planned for the girls to take on the worst clean up jobs in the restaurant, including the men's restrooms.
He can't help but enjoy their form of revenge against Rose's foster family as he goes to clean up the orange soda stains on the floor and walls. *Too bad you couldn't see how things turned out here Rose. Hope you're happy wherever you are.*
He keeps his thoughts to his lost friend, as he cleans up the restaurant, and supervises the new employees.
**************************************************************
"ACHOO!" Rose accidentally sneezes, just when she makes it back to the Merry and sends herself flying.
She manages to catch herself with her wind, before she can hit the sails, and wipes her nose with the back of her gloved hand as she lands onto the deck. "Damn, someone must be talking about me again."
She shrugs to herself as she drops her sack of gold on the deck and goes inside with her spear and backpack. Once she reaches the girls' room, she leans her new weapon against the wall and grabs her journal from under her cot.
The wind girl can't help but put a smile on her freckled face from what she has planned as she neatly tears a blank sheet of paper from the book. She wastes no time in putting the journal back in her bag before she rushes to Nami's desk for a pen, and writes a letter for her New York friends, to tell them that she's alright. *I'm not sure if it can actually reach them, but I'll at least see how the crystal does it.*
As soon as she finishes her letter, she folds it, and puts it in the outer pocket of her bag just before she hears shouting outside!
"ROSE, HURRY UP AND GET THE SAILS READY!"
The astronomer widens her purple eyes at Luffy's order as she runs outside with her bag strapped on and sees that the crew is running towards the ship, like they're being chased by an angry mob. However, the only thing chasing them is a group of natives that are carrying a golden pillar, that's half the size of the ship, that they want to give away as a thank you gift.
Rose chuckles at the misunderstanding, but she doesn't bother to correct them because the gold's weight would be too much for Merry, so she flies up to the sails. "HANG ON GUYS!"
She uses her wind to create a strong enough gust to carry the crew to the ship and drops them onto the deck, so that she can focus on releasing the sails.
While Zoro brings the anchor up, the others settle the gold on the deck just as the sails are unfolded.
The crew ignores the natives' calls to come back as they rush to move the ship along.
Rose can't help but grin at the excitement as she blasts her wind against the sails, to bring them to their next adventure, and leave the Sky Island behind.
TO BE CONTINUED