Repost ficlet: One Hour Left To Breathe
Jan. 1st, 2011 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesReposting this ficlet originally done for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
onepiece_300 to the prompt "Final Hour". The 300 word limit meant I could only use six characters instead of seven, so here's an expanded version with all the parts originally intended. Naturally, I took the opportunity to insert more words here and there as well. ;)
(As for the remaining two, Sanji's past didn't really fit, and for Brook I should probably have gone with his own final hour before his first death, but it seemed to break the theme and be a bit tough, so I left that out.)
Title: One Hour Left To Breathe
Rating: PG-13 for implied violence and death
Flavour: Canon angst/sadness
Characters: various characters connected to the Strawhats' pasts
Word Count: 554
Setting/spoilers: Set all over the place, mostly in flashbacks. Spoilers up to and including chapter 574.
*
It's an ordinary morning, the sunlight streaking in on the lawn outside the dojo, blackbirds singing in the trees. Kuina wipes the sweat away and starts on another kata. The bamboo practice sword is light in her hands.
Soon, it will be time to go up in her house for breakfast. But she can fit in one more form before that.
*
Hiruluk stuffs the bombs and the explosive liquid inside his coat, then buttons it carefully. He can feel the mushroom's poison spread through his decaying body. But he feels calm, at ease. One hour or two weeks, what does it matter? The miracle powder exists now. And Kureha will take care of the boy.
"To the castle," he mumbles, setting off in the deep snow.
*
Bellemere starts chopping up meat for dinner, her calm returning after the blow-up with Nami. It will be all right. Nojiko will bring her sister back, and Bellemere can apologise for losing her temper. Next time, she'll try to be more patient, like a proper parent.
The dinner will be frugal, but still tasty and nourishing enough, she thinks, humming a little as she starts peeling tangerines to make a sauce from. She figures the girls will like it.
*
Tom walks on his own two feet through Justice Island, not letting them drag him by the chains. There's a big hall and a fool of a three-headed judge who insists he's brought up to him, even though the sentence is already decided. But Tom just laughs him away.
Why bother? As if they could truly hurt him. His treasures are safe, back home.
*
It can't be long, now.
Outside, her son is shouting as he runs up to the house. Banchina struggles for air, fights with what little strength she still has to find the right words, the good words; the ones that most need saying.
May he never grow bitter. Warm sunlight through the window. No time for regret.
*
There's no time to rest on the native soil, no time to stop and greet people properly. And she'd be doing Robin no favours by seeking her out. The child will be safe as a civilian with her brother's family.
But death and destruction is following on Nico Olvia's heel for all the other scholars as for herself, so very close behind. It's her own fault. She hurries towards the Tree of Knowledge, praying there'll be enough time to make everyone listen and escape this beloved place. There may be an hour or so left. Perhaps that will be enough.
*
He always knew it might end like this, with the wood of the execution platform under him, the two crossed blades in front of him, waiting for the order to rise and strike. When you went out on sea seeking fame and freedom, you had to be ready for it. And his life had been his own to risk.
But to drag everyone down with him, to be forced to see them all like that – Pops, Luffy, everyone, fighting, bleeding, even dying just trying to rescue him – no, that he had never counted on.
And yet, they wouldn't listen to him. And to keep railing, keep despairing would be to disrespect them.
He tries to hold himself upright, waiting for whatever will come.
onepiece_300 to the prompt "Final Hour". The 300 word limit meant I could only use six characters instead of seven, so here's an expanded version with all the parts originally intended. Naturally, I took the opportunity to insert more words here and there as well. ;)(As for the remaining two, Sanji's past didn't really fit, and for Brook I should probably have gone with his own final hour before his first death, but it seemed to break the theme and be a bit tough, so I left that out.)
Title: One Hour Left To Breathe
Rating: PG-13 for implied violence and death
Flavour: Canon angst/sadness
Characters: various characters connected to the Strawhats' pasts
Word Count: 554
Setting/spoilers: Set all over the place, mostly in flashbacks. Spoilers up to and including chapter 574.
*
It's an ordinary morning, the sunlight streaking in on the lawn outside the dojo, blackbirds singing in the trees. Kuina wipes the sweat away and starts on another kata. The bamboo practice sword is light in her hands.
Soon, it will be time to go up in her house for breakfast. But she can fit in one more form before that.
*
Hiruluk stuffs the bombs and the explosive liquid inside his coat, then buttons it carefully. He can feel the mushroom's poison spread through his decaying body. But he feels calm, at ease. One hour or two weeks, what does it matter? The miracle powder exists now. And Kureha will take care of the boy.
"To the castle," he mumbles, setting off in the deep snow.
*
Bellemere starts chopping up meat for dinner, her calm returning after the blow-up with Nami. It will be all right. Nojiko will bring her sister back, and Bellemere can apologise for losing her temper. Next time, she'll try to be more patient, like a proper parent.
The dinner will be frugal, but still tasty and nourishing enough, she thinks, humming a little as she starts peeling tangerines to make a sauce from. She figures the girls will like it.
*
Tom walks on his own two feet through Justice Island, not letting them drag him by the chains. There's a big hall and a fool of a three-headed judge who insists he's brought up to him, even though the sentence is already decided. But Tom just laughs him away.
Why bother? As if they could truly hurt him. His treasures are safe, back home.
*
It can't be long, now.
Outside, her son is shouting as he runs up to the house. Banchina struggles for air, fights with what little strength she still has to find the right words, the good words; the ones that most need saying.
May he never grow bitter. Warm sunlight through the window. No time for regret.
*
There's no time to rest on the native soil, no time to stop and greet people properly. And she'd be doing Robin no favours by seeking her out. The child will be safe as a civilian with her brother's family.
But death and destruction is following on Nico Olvia's heel for all the other scholars as for herself, so very close behind. It's her own fault. She hurries towards the Tree of Knowledge, praying there'll be enough time to make everyone listen and escape this beloved place. There may be an hour or so left. Perhaps that will be enough.
*
He always knew it might end like this, with the wood of the execution platform under him, the two crossed blades in front of him, waiting for the order to rise and strike. When you went out on sea seeking fame and freedom, you had to be ready for it. And his life had been his own to risk.
But to drag everyone down with him, to be forced to see them all like that – Pops, Luffy, everyone, fighting, bleeding, even dying just trying to rescue him – no, that he had never counted on.
And yet, they wouldn't listen to him. And to keep railing, keep despairing would be to disrespect them.
He tries to hold himself upright, waiting for whatever will come.