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ᵥᵢ
ℝ𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕕
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𝕃iliana looks around her in panic, only to be punched in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. Falling to the ground coughing and gasping, feeling a dull ache within her gut. Doesn't help that I'm already suffering from a sucker punch to the gut from earlier, she said in her mind with a grimace.
Sensing him behind her, Liliana quickly turns, forming a shield around her, blocking the wand-like bo-staff. Gritting her teeth, she pushes him off her, blasting him with her power. However, he dodges it, a wicked smile forming on his face.
"And time for the next trick! Magician's trick: Flurry of cards!" Moshi calls out, throwing a torrent of razor-sharp playing cards at her.
Covering her face from the onslaught, she squints her eyes, jaw clenched in pain. I really hope this doesn't scar too badly, she thinks sardonically, feeling the stinging pain from all the cuts running up and down her legs and arms. In one sharp movement, Liliana sends out a red shockwave with her hands, swatting the playing cards and Moshi away from her.
Bracing his fall with a smirk, Moshi looks at the girl, all cut up and bloodied, panting from exhaustion. "I never was one to hit a girl, but you, my dear, is an exception."
"Oh, and why is that?" Liliana stares him down with those blood-red eyes of hers.
"Because you're just too cute to not want to tease," Moshi giggles before producing pollen from his sleeves. "Have a banquet of my appreciation!" The pollen immediately clogs up Liliana's nose as she rapidly covers her nose and mouth. What a time to be allergic to pollen, she sneers, squashing the need to sneeze.
Moshi snickers at the teary-eyed girl, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Oh, is the poor dear allergic?" Liliana just narrows her eyes at the taunt as Moshi chuckles. Brandishing a dagger he runs at her, all with a relaxed grin plastered on his face.
Dodging the attack, Liliana wraps the red tendrils around his hands, flinging him over her head. Shaking away the black dots, Liliana turns around, hurling a powerful red blast, knocking him into a wall. "This is starting to become one of my more annoying days," she groans with a deadpan tone as she watches Moshi get up, seemingly unfazed. "Bloody hell just stay down you jerk."
Before she can throw another red blast, Moshi hurls multiple mental rings at her. Rapidly dodging and deflecting the rings, one manages to wrap around her small frame. Immediately the ring starts to tighten around her as Liliana feels her lungs being constricted of oxygen as a couple more are wrapped around her. Wincing as one of the rings tighten around her bruised abdomen, Liliana glares at Moshi.
"It's so unfortunate that I have to kill you. You really do interest me," Moshi sighs, looking at the girl with the strange devil fruit powers. He was mesmerised by the red ribbons of pure energy that seemed to dance around her during her show against his captain. Such a shame for the magician that the girl was fighting on the opposite side. "We would have made such a stellar act."
Liliana sneers back to him, struggles to get out of the ever-increasing rings. Thinking quickly to herself, Liliana gets an idea. Praying that it will work, she starts to gather energy throughout her body. With difficulty and great concentration, she shatters the rings before firing the remains at Moshi in quick succession, a seething rage fueling her.
"QUIT FLIRTING WITH ME AND FIGHT YOU TWAT!" While he's distracted by the flying shards, she runs towards him, blasting him right in the face with the red energy.
Moshi chuckles, wiping a bit of blood from his lips as he stares at the young girl's furious red eyes. "As you wish my dear."
"Magician's Illusion: Hundred Persons!" Moshi disappears into a ball of smoke only to appear behind her and in front of her, next to her, everywhere all at once. Moshi then proceeded to beat Liliana as she tried to block the flurry of hits aiming at her from all angles. However each time she hit one, he would disappear in a puff of smoke. She couldn't even build up enough energy to create a shock wave in the chaos.
She was stuck.
Then she saw it. An opening. There was a pattern. Not noticeable for the regular joe but noticeable to her. Timing it just right, Liliana wrapped the red tendrils around his hand on the right to her. This turned all the other Moshis into a puff of smoke.
Grabbing his face and the other arm with the tendrils, Liliana pulled him close glowering at him with her piercing red eyes as Moshi started to tremble in fear. "You repulse me."
She then propelled him into the air before slamming him hard down into the ground, creating a crater from the force. "Now stay down," She growled, before walking away from the magician's battered form, the red glow disappearing from her hands and eyes.
She then slumped to the ground with a groan feeling all the stinging, aches and pains from her two fights. Drained from the lack of food, water and energy and the onset of a migraine forming in her head, all Liliana wanted at that moment was sleep. Laying her forehead down on the ground, she closed her eyes briefly before shakily standing up once more. "Can't fall asleep. Need to get to Luffy and Zoro."
Staggering towards Luffy and Nami with most of Buggy's parts all tied up and Buggy nowhere to be found. "Who won?" Liliana gasps out, scaring Nami upon seeing the bloodied and bruised girl next to her.
"Are you ok?" Nami screeches out, quickly supporting the girl by her shoulders who smiles gratefully at Nami for the support. I knew I shouldn't have left. She looks like death, Nami grimaces as she sees all the cuts and bruises the young girl has. Gently setting her down on the floor, Nami continues to fuss over Liliana who merely waves off the concern with a gentle smile.
Turning towards Luffy as he approaches his hat solemnly, Liliana tilts her head slightly in confusion before a sad look forms on her face upon seeing the battered hat. "Oh no."
Nami turns as well and with thoughtful eyes watches Luffy pat the dirt away from his hat. "I'm sorry your hat is all torn up."
"Don't worry. I can still put it on and I got Buggy out of here so I'm satisfied for now," Luffy forcefully grins, stifling the sadness from his tone.
Remembering how Luffy reacted when his hat was stabbed by Buggy, Nami looks away. "When I have time, I'll fix it for you, if you like?"
Liliana smirks, looking at the Nami with a knowing look as Nami purposely avoids her gaze. Aw, she does care, Liliana grins as Nami huffs, gently pushing her away.
Luffy looks at Nami with an excited grin plastered on his face, a sense of happiness enveloping him. "What's that?"
"Oh forget it," Nami demands, gesturing towards the treasure, "I split this into two bags, so give me a hand to carry half of it. It's too heavy for me and Liliana over here looks about ready to pass out."
"It sure is a lot," Luffy says, looking at the sacks full of treasure then glancing at Liliana in concern who wearily waves in response.
"If anything that clown Buggy knew about quality treasure when he saw it and now it's all mine," Nami picks up one of the sacks and affectionately rubs it against her cheeks, glee in her tone, "I bet I can sell this for 10,000,000 beli."
Halting her movements when sighting Luffy then remembering how Liliana stayed back to give her time to run away. Nami sighs before getting the chart of the Grand line and handing it out to Luffy. "Here you go."
Luffy only looks at Nami with confusion who only looks at him pointedly. "It's the chart of the Grand Line. You do want it, don't you?"
Bouncing up and down in excitement, Luffy looks at the chart and Nami excitedly, a huge grin spreading on his face. "You're giving it to me?"
"Because you and your friends saved my life."
"Thanks, Nami," Luffy cheers gratefully, taking the map and looking at it with glee, "Hooray!"
"You can still join us, you know," Liliana mumbles tiredly with a faint smile on her lips at Nami, "We have plenty of spots on our crew."
"Yeah, you can still join," Luffy adds, turning towards Nami with his megawatt smile.
"I told you that no matter what I will never join a pirate crew," Nami says indignantly at Luffy and Liliana but then smirks adding, "But ok. Hanging with you seems profitable enough. Just remember this, I'm only joining you cause it's in my interest."
"Sure," Luffy grins, walking away to wake up Zoro.
Liliana looks up at Nami with a gentle–albeit tired–smile, happy that Nami will be joining for a while. Liliana however knows that there is an inner turmoil inside of Nami, her reasoning to do what she does. "Seeing as this kinda makes us friends," Liliana starts, grabbing Nami's attention, "I want you to know that if there is anything that you need, don't be afraid to ask. We will be more than willing to answer."
Nami's eyes widen in shock, about to ask what she means by that but is stopped when it's obvious the girl doesn't have the energy to talk. Nami looks down at the girl with a furrow in her brow, mind on her problems as she whispers quietly to herself. "We'll see."
Supporting Liliana by the shoulders, Nami approaches Luffy and a still sleeping Zoro. Roughly slapping Zoro on the head, he shakily sits up, clutching his head in pain. "Did we take care of everything?"
"Yeah and we got a navigator and a map of the Grand Line," Luffy cheerily says to Zoro who glares at Nami only to groan in pain.
"I'm not too sure about this. I feel lightheaded."
"You and me both," Liliana mumbles out as her vision starts to mesh together, a faint ringing in her ear. She is then set down on the ground next to Zoro who proceeds to lean on him, to his irritation.
"Of course the both of you do," Nami says, "There is always something with the three of you. Honestly."
"Hey wait a minute. What did I do?" Luffy calls out in indignation.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! YOU'RE THE WORST OF THEM ALL!" Nami bellows out to Luffy.
Liliana raises her hand. "I second that."
"Like you're one to talk," Nami huffs before sighing, glancing at the unconscious Mayor. "Anyways, let's go help the mayor."
Turning to the man in question, Luffy stands up, remembering how he knocked out the Mayor to keep him away from the fight. "Oh yeah. I guess we should wake the old man up, now that's it all over."
"You there!" They turn towards the sound and see another group of people all wielding spears and weapons in their hands. "You're not residents of this village."
"Nope," Luffy states, "Who are you?"
"What was all that cannon fire we heard? It sounded like a battle may have been there earlier," he asked, "If you know anything please tell us."
"Oh good, they're just citizens. I thought that they were more pirates," Nami smiled, relieved.
Then one of the villagers noticed the unconscious Mayor on the ground. "Oh! Mayor!" They immediately rushed to the mayor's aid, all calling out towards the Mayor in worry before resounding shouts of fury was heard. "The pirates definitely did this."
"No," Luffy said, "I'm the one who kicked that old man's ass." Nami stiffened looking at Luffy with wide eyes as the pirates shot up and glared at the four with wide eyes.
"WHAT!"
"Hold on!" Nami hissed towards Luffy, "You didn't have to tell him that."
"It's true—"
"Maybe you should explain to them so that they don't get the wrong idea," Nami interrupted, only to stop when she saw all the villagers ganging up on the four.
"Tell me, why exactly did you knock out our mayor and leave him in the street to die?"
"You better explain yourselves."
"Who are you?"
Zoro looked up at the villagers with measured eyes at the turn of events. Liliana turned towards Luffy hoping that he wouldn't say anything stupid but of course, she just had to get her hopes up.
"We're pirates."
"Just as we thought!" The villagers yelled out. Zoro laughed in amusement at the new predicament with Liliana covering her amused smile.
Nami nearly fell in shock before glowering at Luffy. "You idiot!"
Luffy just looked at her with a hesitant brow. "But it's the truth."
"We won't show you any mercy for what you have done," One of the villages called out angrily as Luffy walked towards Zoro and Liliana.
"What now? Doesn't look like they're up for any discussion," Zoro asked, with Liliana looking at her cousin with a quizzical brow.
Luffy just gave the two a big grin in response. "RUN!" Luffy took the two into his arms and bolted with Nami who grabbed the treasure. Running through the streets to try and get to the harbour while all the townspeople yelled at them to get back.
Sprinting next to Luffy, Nami heaved from having to carry the heavy sacks of treasure, irritation marring her expression. "How do you always make things worse?"
"This is a good town," Luffy responded with a wide grin, only receiving a confused sound from Nami. "Everyone's so mad, all because of the old Mayor guy. Something tells me that they're not gonna listen to our side of the story." They ran down the length of the street when Luffy suddenly turned into a small street as Nami nearly missed the turn. "We're turning here."
"Huh, wait!" Nami responded, turning into the side street as well, "Hold on, you gotta let me know sooner!"
They leapt over Chouchou who only stared back with his tongue out, to the confusion of Luffy and Nami. "Chouchou?" Nami wondered.
"Doggy?" Luffy called. Chouchou then started barking, giving the group time to get away with the townspeople halted in their steps, demanding Chouchou to let them through.
"Those people are pirates! You're barking at the wrong people!"
"Why isn't he letting us through?"
Luffy laughed as they ran off towards the harbour. "LATER DOGGY!"
⊱•⊰
Breathing in silent relief, Nami looked towards the town as a bead of sweat ran down her, dropping the bags on the ground with an annoyed huff. "That was close. We only made it because of Chouchou," Nami wheezed out, "Why do we have to put up with it?"
"Does it matter now?" Luffy says to Nami looking towards Nami's boat with awe, "We're done here anyway."
"That may be so—"
"Hey, is this your boat?" Luffy interrupts, "It's great."
"It's nothing special. I guess it will do," Nami admits with a flippant tone, "I stole it from dumb pirates a few days back."
"That's a big mouth you got it." A pirate appeared from inside Nami's boat to her shock and horror as another two appeared on either side of the first.
"We've been waiting for ya, you little thief."
"You never thought you would run into us now did you, girly."
Luffy looked between the pirates and Nami in confusion before looking towards Nami. "You know these guys?"
"Uh yeah," Nami started with a wry grin, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly, "Sort of."
One of the pirates then walked towards Luffy with Liliana and Zoro on his back, who passed out when they were running away. "Hey, it's not just sort of. We're bound together by fate," the pirates sneered at Nami who took a step back in fear.
He then looked down at Luffy, Liliana and Zoro with a sinister smirk on his face. "So these are your friends," the pirate said, "I guess we will have to punish the three of them as well. It's time you learn what happens when you steal other people's stuff."
Looking towards the unconscious pair on Luffy's shoulders, he started to slap Zoro's head harshly, waking him slightly as he snickered. "Hey, you! You hear me! Time for your medicine."
Zoro woke up, irritated at being so rudely woken up, looking up at the offender. At his angry face, the Idiot Pirates cried out in horror, waking an also highly annoyed girl who looked up to glare at the Idiot Pirates. At her glare, they all screamed, terrified and bolting away.
After getting the boats ready, with Zoro awake and Liliana just about functioning after Nami's crude first aid work, they sail towards the open seas. Nibbling on a bit of bread that Nami had on her, Liliana felt a lot better than she felt all day. With the wind blowing through her long black tresses and the setting sun ahead, it was a nice way to end the day after the trouble they went through.
"Alright, let's get going," Luffy declared with a grin.
"Can I ask you something?" Zoro asked Nami who was standing on her slightly bigger boat, "Isn't that Buggy's mark on your sail?"
"Well, this used to be Buggy's boat. You think I should change it?" Nami wandered to the group.
"Up to you. I don't really see the issue."
"Hey wait!" A voice called out to them from the harbour. Looking towards the harbour they all saw the Mayor finally up and about calling their attention, "Young ones!"
"It's the old man mayor guy," Luffy noted. They all stared at the Mayor in confusion, wondering what the Mayor could want as Nami started to look through her things, making sure everything was there.
"Thanks!" The mayor yelled out to them with tears streaming down his face, "Thank you!"
The group smiled in appreciation with Luffy laughing as their boats rode out into the distance. "Don't worry about it! Take it easy!"
Nami suddenly screamed, finding that one of the bags was missing, frantically looking around her boat before setting her seething rage on Luffy. "What did you do, Luffy? HUH! Don't tell me you left that bag of treasure back there!"
"Yeah!" Luffy grinned in response like it was obvious to the growing amusement of Zoro and Liliana.
Nami paled in horror at Luffy's admission. "That bag was worth around 5,000,000 beli you idiot!"
"That's right and they're gonna need that money to repair their destroyed town," Luffy stated, not seeing what the issue was.
"But that was my treasure jerk!" Nami seethed, fuming at the thought of her lost treasure, "Do you know how hard I fought to steal that!"
"Technically I was the one who fought," Liliana mumbled out as Nami dunked Luffy's head into the sea.
"Why did you do that!" Nami screamed out as Luffy struggled to get out of the water
Struggling to get out of Nami's grip as Luffy frantically tried to get his head out of the water all while sputtering from the water. "I can't swim!"
"That's the whole idea!"
"If you want it, just go back and get it!"
Zoro could only laugh as they watched their friends argue back and forth. "Well for better or worse we finally have a navigator in our crew."
Liliana nodded in agreement, as she looked at the two in amusement, resting her head against the palm of her head. I'll break up the fight later, she thought, for now, she's gonna rest after the day she just had.
▭ Author's Note ▭
As an early Christmas present for everyone, I am giving you an early update!
Also, Merry Christmas to everyone and please do be safe during this pandemic especially if your visiting family and those that are are more vulnerable to the virus.
So what do you all think of Moshi and he is definitely gonna make a comeback later and Liliana will not be pleased.
See you all later on Friday with the Syrup Village Arc and the appearance of everyone's favourite liar!
HeyaDemons
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