Fic post: Absence, chapter 10, part 1
Dec. 3rd, 2011 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesWell. So.
I finished the fic "Absence" and am now ready to post the remaining chapters, not without trepidation.
NOTE: Subsequent parts will be forward-dated to avoid spamming of f-lists. I'll probably go with one fictitious day between each part. However, all the chapters are available on my journal as well as on ffnet (or will be in a few minutes, as I write this), and I shall also post to AO3 (= Archive Of Our Own) soonish.
I doubt this would ever have been concluded if not for the truly invaluable help of my wonderful betatonko. She is much to be praised and credited. Remaining errors are my own responsibility, however! Constructive criticism is as always welcome: while I may not rewrite the fic now except for minor corrections, good criticism can be kept in mind for future stories.
Title: Absence, chapter 10, part 1 (of 2)
Previous chapters: Chapter One here, fic tag here; the whole fic on AO3 here
Rating: PG for language and dark themes
Warning For major angst and sadness
Summary: Usopp has been killed in battle. The crew tries their best to cope with it.
Characters: Strawhats
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations of One Piece were created by Eiichiro Oda - surely one of the most brilliant makers of boys' adventure comics in existence - and are owned by him and Shueisha Inc. They are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fanfic will not be used for profit and may not be reproduced anywhere without the author's approval.
Robin and Sanji picked up their packs, then followed the merman out of the open field. Ananshio was walking back from where he'd come, right into the forest that lay north of the mountaintop. It was at a near-right angle to the start of the path that Luffy and the others had taken, winding downwards towards south and west.
Sanji was tense and hard-faced like before. Robin felt cold, but her hands were clammy with sweat. Her legs trembled briefly as they started to walk – she was relieved Sanji didn't seem to catch it – however, she managed to steady herself within a few steps. She kept her face composed despite the dizziness she felt. Perhaps she ought to be relieved to not be quite so lacking in emotions anymore, but it was easier to default to suppressing them.
They passed from the hot sun into the shade of the trees. Up here, Robin noted that many of them were conifers. There were huge ones, but most were scrawny and they all looked quite dry, with many patches of brown needles. The undergrowth was plentiful, as usual on this island, though it seemed to give Ananshio little trouble as he made his way on a narrow path through it, keeping a fairly brisk pace.
Here they were, then, following this man on his own turf. Again. Yet, thought Robin grimly, even if the merman still wasn't honest, was there anything else to do? They couldn't verify anything simply by staying on the hillside and talk to him. If there was a trap now, too – although she truly doubted he was that good an actor – well, they would just have to deal with it. She wouldn't let her guard down. Likely it was the same with Sanji.
After a couple of minutes, Robin found herself wishing they would go slower. How illogical, considering she'd pressed the merman so much just now to come clear. But now it felt different, when they were actually walking towards the truth. Her hands clenched, nails pressed into her palms briefly. I don't know if I'm ready for this.
Then she sighed at herself, wearily. If she wasn't ready, with her dulled-down emotions, then the others would never be. No. She, and Sanji, would have to be strong and keep their wits, ready to question, observe, bear witness. That was just all there was to it.
She swallowed hard, something sharp and heavy in her chest, then quickly looked around, wanting something she could idly think about, a distraction of some kind. But the pines and thorn-bushes around her offered little of interest.
Stories...
An image of Usopp arose in her mind, one where he was happily leaning towards the railing, smiling and telling a long, convoluted story. The picture changed as he crossed his arms and scowled at her.
It was true, what Sanji had said – Usopp would not have been happy if he'd heard of her refusal to read the poneglyphs. But, she thought now, not just for the one reason Sanji mentioned. Not only because she was turning her back on her own dream, but also because not reading them was like interrupting a great story. Leaving it untold.
"I wonder..." she said slowly, just to make sure she was being listened to. Ananshio and Sanji both glanced over at her. "The bone whistle. Why did you find it so important?"
Ananshio looked quite surprised. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything she added, "Keep it short."
"Yeah, what she said," Sanji agreed.
"A-all right," said Ananshio, stuttering a little before he drew a long breath and slowed down his steps. "That's... easier said than done, but... I'll try." They had been walking downwards for a while now, in a winding path that curved towards the north-east. Now the ground had levelled, and the path was turning back towards the south and the mountaintop. Sprouting a few eyes to see further in the thicket, Robin noted that the ground a bit ahead of them started curving upwards again.
The trees with their long, drooping branches pressed in on them. The hot air was drier here than at any other place they'd been on this island, with a strong scent of resin: the ground was full of needles and pinecones.
"So..." Ananshio began, in a voice held low but audible, "...the whistle. It was made from one of the bones of a man – a human – who lived here on this island a long time ago. An unusual man, he was. They say he could understand and talk to animals, and that he had great powers of persuasion and peacemaking."
They were slowly going uphill again, but the trees were still thick around them, though the ground was getting craggier, filled with stones and clumps of heather and moss.
Ananshio went on, "The way I heard the story from the elders, the merfolk were at peace with the humans who lived here in his time. What was more, the man led the rest of the humans into a pact with the great animals of the island. Each party agreed they wouldn't hunt each other, and the pact would hold for as long as that man lived. It is said that the man assumed that his descendants would make a new pact after his death. But his sons and daughters were too scared that they wouldn't be able to do it, without his special gifts and personality." He frowned darkly, acridness creeping into his voice as he climbed up a steep stretch of the hillside.
"Instead of treating the beasts as equals and making a new pact with them, they carved that man's bone into a whistle and somehow – I'm not sure how, but it might be that one of them had a Devil Fruit power of some kind – somehow his children managed to bind the wills of the animals of this island and of the waters around it to the whistle. Whoever possessed it could summon and command all the great beasts at will."
"As we saw in the battle. I see," said Robin thoughtfully, slipping under a tree branch she held up for herself and for Sanji, who still kept silent as he brought up the rear. "Was it much abused, back then?"
"You'd think so," said Ananshio, "but actually no, it wasn't. Not all that much. The humans mostly kept it for protection, just in case… they rarely hunted with it except during very bad times, for they were proud hunters. But then again, bad times started to come more and more often. And they fought a lot among themselves over who would get to possess and carry it. People died over that, twice. Worse…" He paused again, stopping and looking down. By now they were very high up over the rest of the island. The trees had thinned a lot, though Robin noted this part of the hillside curved inwards, rocks and vines and young trees surrounding them at both sides. This protected them from being in full sight by onlookers below. Up here the breeze was strong, though the sun still bore down on them.
Sanji handed Robin a new canteen of water before bringing one out for himself. They drank in silence.
"Worse," Ananshio went on more quietly, "was that over the years there came a change over this island. What we merfolk believe is that the forced bond of the bone whistle slowly turned into a powerful curse. The animals resented being forced to obey like that, and their resentment, their hatred, seeped into the very soil of the island. The air grew unhealthier, diseases spread, poisonous plants grew more numerous than the useful ones, and so on… The beasts grew more likely to attack humans on sight, whenever the whistle-bearer didn't compel them not to. Many humans died young, and some started to leave this place. Our people suffered too, since it got harder for us to gather herbs here – half the herbs we use in our medicines grow on land – and to barter for it from the humans.
"Huh." Sanji frowned, looking sceptical. "So, why didn't anyone get rid of the whistle before?"
Ananshio shrugged. "I asked the same when I first heard the story as a kid. But our elders told me that back then, our people weren't sure it was all the whistle's fault – and we would have had no more peace with the humans at all, if we'd tried to destroy it. Anyway, about a hundred years ago the whistle vanished, and not long after that the last humans moved away from there.
"But the island remained an unfriendly, unhealthy place. I think that was because the whistle and its bond-curse still existed; and somehow the island could sense this even though no beast was commanded anymore.
"So that's what we thought," he went on as he started to climb the mountain, "but there was no proof it was true. Then the Marine Commander found the whistle by chance far away from here, three years ago. Unfortunately the man who sold it did know which island it had first come from, and the Commander wouldn't stop until he'd found out as much as he could. He was delirious with joy once he finally tested it here and could see it in action." Ananshio's mouth twisted. "Makes me wonder what kind of things he was planning later. I mean, it wouldn't have worked on animals from other places… But he could have made the seakings here follow his ship as far as he wished and kept on commanding them, easily.
"You are getting off track somewhat," said Robin evenly.
They were stooping as they passed under and through a mass of hanging vines. Behind it, the ground turned pointier and rockier. They were still surrounded by the mountain on three sides, and now the vines blocked the sun in the direction they'd come from. Above them were more hanging vines and tree branches, spreading their way across the narrow patch of daylight.
"…Uh, right," mumbled Ananshio. Then he cleared his throat and turned his head to look at the two of them; Sanji looked back with a closed expression. "You haven't felt it yourselves? The shift in the air since then, the new taste of the water... ? And the animals are much calmer, too."
"Couldn't that just be a normal shift in the weather?" said Sanji, tugging on his cigarette.
Ananshio shook his head as he brought out several torches and a small, dial-like shell from inside his jacket. "No. It's changed for real. It feels different now to how it's been all my life. Different and better." He handed the shell over to Robin. "Here, press on this spot when we go in."
"Where?" said Sanji, looking up and down the mountainside in front of them; but Ananshio just walked around the corner where he lifted up an even bigger amount of vines and revealed a small and narrow door of wood. Well-hidden, Robin had to admit. Unbidden and without saying anything, Sanji took over the torch and lit it. Robin pressed a spot on the shell that was obviously a light-dial, as the merman opened the door with little fanfare.
And then, with the small but steady light of the dial on one side and the burning torch on the other, with a man who had once betrayed them by their side, the two Strawhats stepped inside the mountain.
*
Perhaps Brook should have been relieved as he, Mr Franky and Mr Chopper left the small clearing behind. Perhaps he should have been wracked with worry. His captain was remembering at last, as they had wanted. And as they had feared, Luffy was in great pain as his walls broke down.
Instead all he felt was a blank dullness lying on top of the same familiar heaviness. He didn't even have a tune in his mind to distract him, now. Only crushing, inexorable sanity. He focused only on moving on down the overgrown path through the thick green forest, letting it take them towards the shore.
The forest wasn't overgrown everywhere, though: many trees were cut down and torn up by the battle, or had deep bulletholes in them. There were even some broken swords lying about. Brook wondered if this might have been where he had retreated, sprinting past enemy ranks at lightning-speed and cutting them with his sword after three of his guitar strings had snapped. It was hard to recollect it well, given how frantic he had been.
Mostly he remembered the ground rumbling and shaking in response to shocks of impact from over the beach. He had soon arrived there, only to see an unconscious Luffy, an ashen-faced Nami surrounded by stricken, incredulous crewmates, and the carcass of the greatest Sea King Brook had ever seen. Too late, too late, all too late...
There was a tone dial hidden in Brook's skull, and far, far away an old friend waiting for him by the Reverse Mountain, one who had kept waiting for far too long already. Those two things alone were all that kept the voice inside that kept insisting it should have been you from getting any louder. And still it persisted, gnawing at him. He knew the right answer was No, it should not have been _anyone_, but... he was over 80 years old and a skeleton. It was hard not to feel that the Fates had made some kind of mistake.
Suddenly, something bounced off his skull. "Ow!" he cried out, in surprise as much as hurt. "Eh?" He looked around in confusion, trying to see who had attacked him. Mr Chopper and Mr Franky immediately went on the alert, drawing closer and also straining to see who did it.
"So there are enemies left after all?" said Chopper tensely.
"Where did it come from?" said Franky, but Brook could only wave in a very general direction.
"How curious," Brook opined, having bent down to pick up the ammunition. "It's only an acorn." Right then, another one sailed through the air, hitting the tree trunk next to Franky.
"Over there!" yelled Franky, pointing. "Something moved!"
They all ran off at high speed in that direction; Brook heard rustling of leaves and a splash. But when they reached a small, fast-running creek, no-one was there, nor did they see any wet footsteps on the other side of it. The party looked in all directions from there, but not even Chopper's nose could find any reliable track; eventually they gave up, walking back towards the path with the mystery unsolved. At least an assailant with acorns probably didn't have murderous intentions, unless it was a very deluded and wishful type of person.
About twenty minutes later, they had reached the shore at last and looked out at sea.
They were at the foot of the rounded, U-like bay. To their left was a low, rocky arm of the island stretching out far into the sea, at the end dissembling into a line of single rocks jutting up from the water.
To their right was the much higher rock face, through which, they knew, a tunnel ran through quite high up. The opening was hidden in sight from here, further up on the island; but it was there that Luffy and Usopp had ran, followed by Nami, all looking for a shortcut to the bay from where they'd come running in order to protect the Sunny, which had been anchored at the far end below the hill. The shore itself had been teeming with soldiers and amphibious sea monsters at the time; it must have seemed easier to avoid them by going through the tunnel. Brook didn't know if the end result would have been any different: they would still have had to fight the King of Seakings, and from an arguably worse vintage point to boot.
The sky had cleared up since this morning, just a few bumbling clouds on a brilliant blue sky. It was hot, but no longer unpleasantly so, even though there was still hardly any wind.
They stopped a few metres from the edge of the forest, looking out at the calm bay, then swerved their heads to scan the area carefully. Brook saw little but the expected view of sand, rocks and pebbles, seaweed, driftwood and clumps of dry grass, a few bushes and solitary trees; and the rest of the treeline, extending far in both directions.
He put down his pack and took out his flask of water. The other two followed his lead, Franky adding a little cola as well. They were silent as they drank, still standing in the trees' shade. Then Franky sighed, stretched and glanced down at the reindeer. "D'ya smell anything from here, Chopper?"
Chopper sniffed deeply with a set expression, then shook his head. "Nothing like that," he mumbled. There was no need to elaborate what he meant by 'that' – they all knew it had been weeks. Brook swallowed, trying to steel his ghostly stomach. "But there's a lot of scents here that might cover it up," the doctor added. "There's spices and flowers and sap from the forest, seaweed and kelp and rotten wood from the beach..." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe we should split up. I'll start on the beach and the forest edge, and you two can check on the right and left side." He pointed at the two arms of the bay.
Brook nodded. "Excellent idea, Mr Chopper," he said. "If we don't find anything, we'll return and help you with the beach, since it's by far the biggest place." And given the way sand tended to bury things quite quickly, maybe they'd need to use Franky's spade as well. Could be in vain, but they weren't here in order to give up easily.
"I'll take the left side," he decided, then saluted the other two with his cane, spun around on his heels and was off, looking closely at the ground for every step he took.
"Don't fall into the water," Franky called out, then set off in the opposite direction towards the steep cliff on the right. Brook wondered how likely it would be that a large wave would wash up a body on the ledges there and not then pull it right down into the depths again, but then again, unlikely things happened all the time. And cliffs often did have plenty of nooks and crevices they shouldn't overlook.
Over on his side, the sand thinned out in favour of pebbles and hardy grass, as he started on the narrow tongue of rock. Only a few hardy trees grew here, and the ground was quite flat and low, close to the water. Brook nevertheless didn't take anything for granted, but looked past every rock, into each small crevice, and wherever the water was shallow enough to see the bottom.
Part of him felt sick at the thought of actually finding what he was looking for, though the blankness helped to mask the feeling. Still, there was no help for it, was there? It wasn't as if he hadn't handled the dead bodies of dear crewmates before... although in his case they'd had a whole year to be little but bones already when he'd returned to them, just like his own. They had still had to wait fifty years before getting buried in homeland soil.
He was crouching down and peering into a water-filled hole several meters deep, dipping his fingers into the water absent-mindedly, when something flew through the air to hit the rock behind him and bounce into the hole with a small splash. It was another acorn. Startled, Brook lost his balance and teetered at the edge before he managed to right himself at the last moment, landing on his bony behind. Then he leaped to his feet and looked around quickly. No-one on land... but in the water?
On his left side, the one facing away from the bay, he saw widening rings on the surface, and a light flash not very deep down, as if from bright scales moving quickly in the water. Someone was swimming towards the end of the cape.
"Hoy! Kindly come out of there, whoever you may be!" called Brook, hurrying forward. He had to leap over a thin band of water as the promontory started to break up into single rocks.
As the rocks grew smaller and the water between them wider he stopped, turning here and there in indecision, trying to see or hear a sign of the acorn-shooter. Nothing.
"Oh well," he said as if to himself. "I guess I'll just go back and look all over again." As he turned, yet one more acorn hit him in the back. He swerved around to see a small person in the water on the bayside less than ten meters away, hurriedly putting away something inside a box or case worn over their shoulder, before diving back into the water. Brook blinked as a big, green tail with yellow spots propelled the figure further away.
"A mermaid...?" he said uncertainly. "Or... a merboy?"
The figure emerged again a little further away, glaring at him. "I'm a girl!"
Brook tilted his head. "My apologies," he said automatically.
Right then Mr Franky and Mr Chopper came running over the rocky outcrop to catch up to him, asking what was going on.
"I believe I have found our mysterious sniper from before," Brook told them, nodding towards the girl in the water.
It was a round-cheeked child of perhaps eight, nine, or ten years. Far from skinny though not really chubby either, she had long, brown hair divided into two ponytails with yellow ribbons. She wore a green-gray top and a small yellow scarf criss-crossed with black lines that Brook thought looked oddly familiar. Across her chest and over her shoulder was a leather strap, to which there was a thin oblong metallic box attached.
Brook noted these details in a quite distant manner. Normally, he rather liked children, and might well have spent some time prattling about various things with a young merchild. But all that felt far away right now. His initial curiosity had receded back into blankness, and he couldn't even seem to muster genuine concern that such a young one might be present to a grisly scene, if their search here bore fruit.
He took a few steps away, already looking closely at the rocky ground again. "Well," he said to his crewmates, "I suppose that solves our mystery, then – eh?" A few metres away, Franky was looking intently at the mermaid girl, scratching his chin pensively. Chopper, in Walk Point, had already jumped over to Brook's rock and hurried past him towards the spot closest to the mermaid. His eyes was burning.
"You! Where did you get that bandanna?" he shouted, pointing right at her furiously, hoof trembling.
Startled, the girl shied away from him, then quickly ducked under the water, tail splashing.
"Eh? What bandanna – oh, do you mean her scarf?" Brook looked at Chopper, raising an eyebrow ridge. "What do you mean–"
"Don't tell me you don't remember it!!" snapped Chopper angrily, voice shaking.
"Hey hey, take it easy, bro," said Franky. He jumped over to where they were and gave Brook a serious look, lowering his voice. "See, Usopp used to wear one just like that around his head. All the time, way back when... but come to think of it, I guess he pretty much stopped right around the time when we first ran into you."
Ah. Oh. Brook opened his mouth, then snapped it again seconds later. Well. That changed things.
Chopper blinked furiously as tears threatened to fill up in his eyes."Y-yeah, but it's not like he just threw it away! He kept it with him, sometimes he'd polish glass and stuff with it! I bet – I bet he took it along in his bag to this place!"
So that's why it had looked a little familiar to Brook. That made sense, he thought, twirling his cane absent-mindedly. "Are you really sure it's the same one?" he said, but the others didn't seem to hear him.
Franky held up one large hand placatingly. "All right, doc-bro, but I think you just scared her away with your yelling. After all, she's just a kid. And a mermaid, too – she's probably scared of humans trying to capture her, y'know?"
"So what?" snapped Chopper, morphing back into Brain Point. "I don't care! She must have s-stolen it!!"
Franky lowered his tone. "Maybe. But if she did, we need to find out from where, don't we? Can't do that if she thinks we'll hurt her."
"Oh." Chopper looked a little taken aback. "Oh... right. I didn't think of that..." he admitted. "I'll be calmer."
"Plus..." Franky continued, "I guess maybe we three ain't the most... sure, I'm a super-fine cyborg, but tiny I'm not, y'know? You've got those big antlers and Brook's a living skeleton and a freaking tall one, too. No wonder she swum away..."
At that point, the young girl surfaced again, holding onto a small black rock a little further out in the water. "I– I'm not scared!" she insisted.
Chopper looked relieved. "You didn't disappear!"
"I'm not scared of you!" the girl continued. "I know you're not bad people! And I saw you before." She pointed at Franky, who looked nonplussed.
"Huh? Me?"
The girl nodded, then pointed towards land. "When you were all fighting, with the Marines and the Commander and all... There's machines inside you, like you're made of them, I saw that! I was a bit away but I don't think you saw me."
Franky shook his head, then sat down on the rocky ground, legs crossed. "Nope. Pretty sure I'da remembered a li'l mermaid being around back there."
She nodded matter-of-factly at this. "Th-that's because you're big and I'm small. Then it's like that. Uhh..." Her voice dropped and she looked away as she muttered, "Anyway, I'm not scared. Dad says you're all heroes. I'm just being careful. It's good to be careful."
Brook was looking down on his shoes, then started to walk a little further on the rock, scanning the ground again while listening to the others.
"Yeah, it is good to be careful," Franky said now. An unusual statement, coming from him; but it did seem wise to agree with the girl. "Your dad said that, huh? So, does he know us?"
The girl didn't reply; when Brook glanced behind him, he saw she was drawing away from them, on the other side of the small rock. She looked quite apprehensive.
"Um..." said Chopper, "...maybe we should say our names, just to be polite." He looked at the young mermaid, more steadily but very serious. "I'm Tonytony Chopper. You can just say Chopper."
"Franky's the name," said the cyborg. Still seated, he made a quick mini-pose that seemed quite perfunctory.
"'Soul King' Brook, also known as 'Bare Bones' Brook, at your service," said Brook, now from the next rock over. He took off his hat-crown and bowed.
Then he turned around to look at the next rock - the very last one in the row, but so small he could see at once there was nothing there, not even a puddle. "Ah, I suppose we really are done with this side, then," he mumbled to himself. Instead of going back to the others right away, he too sat down and crossed his legs, following the conversations from where he was. He tried to think up good questions to ask, even though everything still felt too blank and numb and heavy inside him.
The child looked warily at the three of them, then slowly pushed herself up to sit on the rock, her green tail showing. But she held herself stiffly, arms close to the body, and seemed ready to go back into the water at the smallest provocation. "I– I'm Nisi," she said. "I live here. Um." She looked back at Franky again. "How come you have machines inside?" she asked curiously. "Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"
Franky cracked a smile. "Nah, I'm just a cyborg. Damn good one too. My old human body got smashed up so I made myself a new," he said easily. "Now these two" – he pointed with his thumb at Brook and Chopper – "they're Devil Fruit users, though. Livin' skeleton 'n' talking reindeer, even if he looks more like a raccoon dog with antlers right now."
Miss Nisi nodded slowly with wide eyes, turning her head as she looked from one to the other. There was a pause. Mr Chopper looked like he might be pondering what next question to put. Brook scratched an itchy spot on his skull, then looked over at the shore, still all quiet and empty. It was hot in the sun.
"So you were the one shooting acorns at us up in the forest?" Chopper said at last.
Miss Nisi nodded quickly, sitting even more tensely.
"That was pretty good shooting," said Franky, which made Nisi brighten at the praise.
Franky paused, then went on, sounding like he was trying not to sound cautious, "Uh. Didja use a slingshot?"
*
"Wait." After just a few steps, Sanji stopped, making the other two halt as well. He lit a new cigarette on the torch he was holding, then looked up at Ananshio, his face showing little. "Where are we going, here?" he said evenly. "How far is this hideout you've got?"
"Down," said Ananshio. "All the way down." He pointed downwards and waved his fingers around as if to indicate a winding spiral path. "It's a cave just a little above sea level. The only other entrance is underwater."
Sanji blew out smoke and nodded. "Figured it would be something like that." He exchanged looks with Robin; she gave him the tiniest of nods and they both started to walk again. "I'm guessing this entry is so distant for secrecy reasons," Sanji continued.
Ananshio hurried to catch up with them and took the lead again, despite not carrying a light. Perhaps he had good night-sight. At one point, he knocked the wall where he passed it, listening to the sound it made. "Yes, you're right," he said, a little breathlessly. "There used to be a second entrance on land, much further down, but we blocked it up once the slave raids became more frequent. It was too risky."
They walked down in silence for several long minutes. The air was dry, but not overly stuffy, and it wasn't quite as pitch-dark around them as Robin had seen in other places like this. The rocky ground was surprisingly even, sometimes with patches of sand and earth smoothing it.
"There's light coming in from above," she observed.
"Just small cracks of it, up here," said Ananshio. "The cave itself gets light from an opening at the very top of the mountain. We had to put up a grill there to stop vultures and eagles from swooping down. That would have raised suspicions."
"Was this path made by those same builders who made the tunnel through the great rock face by the western bay?" Robin asked. She hadn't seen that one herself, only heard Nami's brief description. Not that Nami had noted much about it, in the panic of rush; she hadn't even been sure of how it had been lit up.
"We believe so," the merman replied, "maybe by those who made the poneglyphs, whoever they were. But the tunnel by the bay was discovered by humans a long time ago, so we never use it anymore. I told the Marines about it – I had to tell them something – but the entrance wasn't hidden at all. They'd soon have found it anyway."
"Huh." Sanji inhaled deeply and blew out a long trail of meandering smoke; Robin said nothing.
Another long silence. They kept walking down the winding path, slowly and cautiously. Sanji's torch burned down, and Ananshio handed him a new one. The light dial still shone.
Robin found herself shivering, again; her head was warm and heavy. This time, she felt Sanji's attentive gaze on her. A moment later, he stopped again.
"Oi. Time for some more water," he said, shuffling off his pack to dig out canteens.
"I don't need to," said Robin softly, but accepted the offer anyway and drank sparingly. After a brief pause, Sanji handed the merman another canteen before drinking from his own. Ananshio mumbled "thank you" and also just drank a little bit before returning it quickly.
Sanji looked into the darkness in front of them. "So humans can't get through the other shitty entrance, right?" he said.
Ananshio wiped his mouth and answered, "They could, maybe, if they're really strong swimmers. If they could find the right way, underwater. It's not that easy when no-one shows you the way." He paused, twirling his thumbs, then went on without looking at them, "When it comes to patients, we have some coated bubbles we can put around their heads. Then we carry them through if they're too weak to swim on their own. Th-though..." His voice grew thinner; he cleared his throat before going on. "...If they're unconscious, it's not always needed."
"Ah." Sanji left no further comment. Again, they walked on, down, down, down, into the darkness.
For a while now, they'd heard the sound of running water from beyond one of the walls. As they turned a corner, Ananshio swerved to the side and waved for the others to do the same. A tiny creek poured out from a narrow side passage, not filling the path but running in a lower rut beside it. Robin bent down to dip her fingers in the water, welcoming its cool touch. They walked on.
When Sanji finally spoke up again, his voice was even harsher and rougher than before.
"You've got to understand, about all that shit you just told us about that shitty whistle...?" He dumped ash, his other hand buried deep in his pocket. "I get why you'd feel you'd have a debt, but that doesn't mean it means anything to us. We didn't know a thing about all that. We fought that Commander and his men because they attacked us, that's all. He smashed the whistle to make it easier to beat that guy. It's all just a," his voice hitched a little, "a coincidence."
"True," murmured Robin. A thought struck here, and she observed quietly, "He also once knocked out a World Noble by sheer coincidence."
Sanji stared at her, then shook himself as if casting something off and went back to looking at the stone walls around him, and the ground, between glancing at Ananshio. "Uh... Anyway, what do you expect?" he said to the latter. "It's not like we'd made any friends here."
Ananshio hunched his shoulders and seemed to shrink a little. "I– I know. I just. I still thought you should know."
"Mr. Ananshio," Robin said, though not quite wishing to proceed. But she couldn't leave Sanji all on his own. "On that day... Neither you nor your daughter would have had an air bubble sphere handy in the bay. Correct?"
"No," Ananshio confirmed in a low voice. "We did not."
Sanji broke in roughly, "If he was still alive then, he wouldn't have been conscious." It wasn't easy to see in the flickering torch light and dim dial light, but Robin thought he seemed to be trembling, just a little.
"Look." Ananshio stopped. His voice was firmer again, and he set his jaw and turned to look at them squarely. "There's something I should have mentioned, before this." Sanji gave him a wary look that seemed to say, Haven't we had enough of this by now?, but he kept quiet. "One reason – one reason our tribe is so good at healing, is because we are quite good at... I think you people would call it 'spiritual awareness'. The best healers among us all know how to sense the state of a person's soul as well as their body. Often, they can convince and encourage the soul to stay with the body, helping it get better."
"Now, me... I'm no good with the body part of all that; I don't have the right kind of eyes and hands for it. Maybe because I'm a half-blood. But the soul part... that I can do. For instance... when I was spying on you guys before, over by the poneglyph and before the others left, I didn't have to look at you to know all eight of you were there, with no-one left at the ship. I just sensed eight souls, so I knew.
"But also... it's not just living souls, for me. Not always. Departed ones as well, those that are not at peace but still hang around in the living world. Ghosts." He paused, taking a long breath before going on, unsteadily, "That's why I'm so sure about the bone whistle's curse. There used to be a lot more old ghosts here. They started to go away, after the bone whistle was smashed, and the next day I couldn't sense them anymore. The breaking of the curse set them free, I'm sure of it."
His voice sank down. "There has always, always been a very clear difference between souls with living bodies and the ghosts. It's like seeing a photograph in the newspaper or on a bounty poster, all flat and colourless, compared to meeting a person face to face. The ghosts, they're always a lot... less."
Robin looked over at Sanji. There were questions in her head she didn't want to ask, didn't truly want to find the answer to. Sanji opened his mouth but then stopped. His gaze looked hollow as he lowered his head and stared at the ground in front of him.
"It seems to me the Marines who were killed might not be at peace, either," Robin mumbled. She said it more to distract Ananshio and to stave away the oppressive silence than from genuine interest.
Ananshio nodded, clearing his throat. "Yes, that's true, there are new ghosts around. Though not as many as there could have been. I think it helped that their surviving comrades burned the bodies in a funeral of sorts, before leaving. I wonder if there's something I could do for them... In any case, it's still not half as bad as there used to be. It's only their own sense of betrayal, hatred and resentment that keep them around, not anything else binding them."
He went on, "I want to get better at reaching out and listening to souls, to find out what they need to move on. Maybe even talk to living souls who are in a bad way, even when their bodies are healthy. If I could find someone to teach me, and the time for it."
"You want to become a shaman?" asked Sanji without looking up.
Ananshio looked surprised. "That's a neat word for it. I was just thinking 'soul-doctor'."
New silence. Robin had nothing to add, and this time, Sanji didn't follow up with any more questions. Perhaps he had used up all his tough-mindedness, his sharp-edged anger, leaving only bleakness and dread.
He was walking in front of her now, his expression hidden from her view. His back looked thin and lonely, hunched over. He hugged himself, as if feeling cold. Well, he wasn't the only one. Robin couldn't stop shivering. She felt strangely vertiginous, more like she was walking thousands of metres up in the air than deep within a mountain.
Or on the Bridge of Destiny. But that should not feel like an apt comparison, since she was walking calmly and freely of her own accord. She was not bound in seastone handcuffs, refusing to move, being kicked and dragged every step across the bridge by that Spandam idiot.
Although, she realised, I would have walked the bridge about this calmly if they hadn't come for me at the Tower of Justice. If Luffy hadn't been so stubborn, if Usopp hadn't set the World Government's flag on fire.
Strange comparison or not, either way there would be no impossibly accurate shots from atop the same tower arriving in the nick of time, now. No last-minute interruption would stop her from reaching the end of this walk.
The second torch burned down. But Sanji just let it drop to the ground and stood there, arms hanging, breathing heavily.
"Don't need to..." he gasped. "Getting lighter..."
It was true: it was getting lighter in the tunnel ahead of them, a faint gray hint of daylight.
"We're nearly there," said Ananshio quietly. He looked at the light dial that Robin still carried and nodded. "Yes, that's enough," he whispered.
Sanji didn't move, except for raising one arm to support himself against the cave wall. The only things Robin could hear were the sound of his breathing, the small mountain creek, and the loud sound of her own heartbeat.
And then also, somewhere further down in the mountain, the faint sound of somebody's footsteps.
Continues in Chapter 10, part 2
I finished the fic "Absence" and am now ready to post the remaining chapters, not without trepidation.
NOTE: Subsequent parts will be forward-dated to avoid spamming of f-lists. I'll probably go with one fictitious day between each part. However, all the chapters are available on my journal as well as on ffnet (or will be in a few minutes, as I write this), and I shall also post to AO3 (= Archive Of Our Own) soonish.
I doubt this would ever have been concluded if not for the truly invaluable help of my wonderful beta
tonko. She is much to be praised and credited. Remaining errors are my own responsibility, however! Constructive criticism is as always welcome: while I may not rewrite the fic now except for minor corrections, good criticism can be kept in mind for future stories. Title: Absence, chapter 10, part 1 (of 2)
Previous chapters: Chapter One here, fic tag here; the whole fic on AO3 here
Rating: PG for language and dark themes
Warning For major angst and sadness
Summary: Usopp has been killed in battle. The crew tries their best to cope with it.
Characters: Strawhats
DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations of One Piece were created by Eiichiro Oda - surely one of the most brilliant makers of boys' adventure comics in existence - and are owned by him and Shueisha Inc. They are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fanfic will not be used for profit and may not be reproduced anywhere without the author's approval.
Robin and Sanji picked up their packs, then followed the merman out of the open field. Ananshio was walking back from where he'd come, right into the forest that lay north of the mountaintop. It was at a near-right angle to the start of the path that Luffy and the others had taken, winding downwards towards south and west.
Sanji was tense and hard-faced like before. Robin felt cold, but her hands were clammy with sweat. Her legs trembled briefly as they started to walk – she was relieved Sanji didn't seem to catch it – however, she managed to steady herself within a few steps. She kept her face composed despite the dizziness she felt. Perhaps she ought to be relieved to not be quite so lacking in emotions anymore, but it was easier to default to suppressing them.
They passed from the hot sun into the shade of the trees. Up here, Robin noted that many of them were conifers. There were huge ones, but most were scrawny and they all looked quite dry, with many patches of brown needles. The undergrowth was plentiful, as usual on this island, though it seemed to give Ananshio little trouble as he made his way on a narrow path through it, keeping a fairly brisk pace.
Here they were, then, following this man on his own turf. Again. Yet, thought Robin grimly, even if the merman still wasn't honest, was there anything else to do? They couldn't verify anything simply by staying on the hillside and talk to him. If there was a trap now, too – although she truly doubted he was that good an actor – well, they would just have to deal with it. She wouldn't let her guard down. Likely it was the same with Sanji.
After a couple of minutes, Robin found herself wishing they would go slower. How illogical, considering she'd pressed the merman so much just now to come clear. But now it felt different, when they were actually walking towards the truth. Her hands clenched, nails pressed into her palms briefly. I don't know if I'm ready for this.
Then she sighed at herself, wearily. If she wasn't ready, with her dulled-down emotions, then the others would never be. No. She, and Sanji, would have to be strong and keep their wits, ready to question, observe, bear witness. That was just all there was to it.
She swallowed hard, something sharp and heavy in her chest, then quickly looked around, wanting something she could idly think about, a distraction of some kind. But the pines and thorn-bushes around her offered little of interest.
Stories...
An image of Usopp arose in her mind, one where he was happily leaning towards the railing, smiling and telling a long, convoluted story. The picture changed as he crossed his arms and scowled at her.
It was true, what Sanji had said – Usopp would not have been happy if he'd heard of her refusal to read the poneglyphs. But, she thought now, not just for the one reason Sanji mentioned. Not only because she was turning her back on her own dream, but also because not reading them was like interrupting a great story. Leaving it untold.
"I wonder..." she said slowly, just to make sure she was being listened to. Ananshio and Sanji both glanced over at her. "The bone whistle. Why did you find it so important?"
Ananshio looked quite surprised. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything she added, "Keep it short."
"Yeah, what she said," Sanji agreed.
"A-all right," said Ananshio, stuttering a little before he drew a long breath and slowed down his steps. "That's... easier said than done, but... I'll try." They had been walking downwards for a while now, in a winding path that curved towards the north-east. Now the ground had levelled, and the path was turning back towards the south and the mountaintop. Sprouting a few eyes to see further in the thicket, Robin noted that the ground a bit ahead of them started curving upwards again.
The trees with their long, drooping branches pressed in on them. The hot air was drier here than at any other place they'd been on this island, with a strong scent of resin: the ground was full of needles and pinecones.
"So..." Ananshio began, in a voice held low but audible, "...the whistle. It was made from one of the bones of a man – a human – who lived here on this island a long time ago. An unusual man, he was. They say he could understand and talk to animals, and that he had great powers of persuasion and peacemaking."
They were slowly going uphill again, but the trees were still thick around them, though the ground was getting craggier, filled with stones and clumps of heather and moss.
Ananshio went on, "The way I heard the story from the elders, the merfolk were at peace with the humans who lived here in his time. What was more, the man led the rest of the humans into a pact with the great animals of the island. Each party agreed they wouldn't hunt each other, and the pact would hold for as long as that man lived. It is said that the man assumed that his descendants would make a new pact after his death. But his sons and daughters were too scared that they wouldn't be able to do it, without his special gifts and personality." He frowned darkly, acridness creeping into his voice as he climbed up a steep stretch of the hillside.
"Instead of treating the beasts as equals and making a new pact with them, they carved that man's bone into a whistle and somehow – I'm not sure how, but it might be that one of them had a Devil Fruit power of some kind – somehow his children managed to bind the wills of the animals of this island and of the waters around it to the whistle. Whoever possessed it could summon and command all the great beasts at will."
"As we saw in the battle. I see," said Robin thoughtfully, slipping under a tree branch she held up for herself and for Sanji, who still kept silent as he brought up the rear. "Was it much abused, back then?"
"You'd think so," said Ananshio, "but actually no, it wasn't. Not all that much. The humans mostly kept it for protection, just in case… they rarely hunted with it except during very bad times, for they were proud hunters. But then again, bad times started to come more and more often. And they fought a lot among themselves over who would get to possess and carry it. People died over that, twice. Worse…" He paused again, stopping and looking down. By now they were very high up over the rest of the island. The trees had thinned a lot, though Robin noted this part of the hillside curved inwards, rocks and vines and young trees surrounding them at both sides. This protected them from being in full sight by onlookers below. Up here the breeze was strong, though the sun still bore down on them.
Sanji handed Robin a new canteen of water before bringing one out for himself. They drank in silence.
"Worse," Ananshio went on more quietly, "was that over the years there came a change over this island. What we merfolk believe is that the forced bond of the bone whistle slowly turned into a powerful curse. The animals resented being forced to obey like that, and their resentment, their hatred, seeped into the very soil of the island. The air grew unhealthier, diseases spread, poisonous plants grew more numerous than the useful ones, and so on… The beasts grew more likely to attack humans on sight, whenever the whistle-bearer didn't compel them not to. Many humans died young, and some started to leave this place. Our people suffered too, since it got harder for us to gather herbs here – half the herbs we use in our medicines grow on land – and to barter for it from the humans.
"Huh." Sanji frowned, looking sceptical. "So, why didn't anyone get rid of the whistle before?"
Ananshio shrugged. "I asked the same when I first heard the story as a kid. But our elders told me that back then, our people weren't sure it was all the whistle's fault – and we would have had no more peace with the humans at all, if we'd tried to destroy it. Anyway, about a hundred years ago the whistle vanished, and not long after that the last humans moved away from there.
"But the island remained an unfriendly, unhealthy place. I think that was because the whistle and its bond-curse still existed; and somehow the island could sense this even though no beast was commanded anymore.
"So that's what we thought," he went on as he started to climb the mountain, "but there was no proof it was true. Then the Marine Commander found the whistle by chance far away from here, three years ago. Unfortunately the man who sold it did know which island it had first come from, and the Commander wouldn't stop until he'd found out as much as he could. He was delirious with joy once he finally tested it here and could see it in action." Ananshio's mouth twisted. "Makes me wonder what kind of things he was planning later. I mean, it wouldn't have worked on animals from other places… But he could have made the seakings here follow his ship as far as he wished and kept on commanding them, easily.
"You are getting off track somewhat," said Robin evenly.
They were stooping as they passed under and through a mass of hanging vines. Behind it, the ground turned pointier and rockier. They were still surrounded by the mountain on three sides, and now the vines blocked the sun in the direction they'd come from. Above them were more hanging vines and tree branches, spreading their way across the narrow patch of daylight.
"…Uh, right," mumbled Ananshio. Then he cleared his throat and turned his head to look at the two of them; Sanji looked back with a closed expression. "You haven't felt it yourselves? The shift in the air since then, the new taste of the water... ? And the animals are much calmer, too."
"Couldn't that just be a normal shift in the weather?" said Sanji, tugging on his cigarette.
Ananshio shook his head as he brought out several torches and a small, dial-like shell from inside his jacket. "No. It's changed for real. It feels different now to how it's been all my life. Different and better." He handed the shell over to Robin. "Here, press on this spot when we go in."
"Where?" said Sanji, looking up and down the mountainside in front of them; but Ananshio just walked around the corner where he lifted up an even bigger amount of vines and revealed a small and narrow door of wood. Well-hidden, Robin had to admit. Unbidden and without saying anything, Sanji took over the torch and lit it. Robin pressed a spot on the shell that was obviously a light-dial, as the merman opened the door with little fanfare.
And then, with the small but steady light of the dial on one side and the burning torch on the other, with a man who had once betrayed them by their side, the two Strawhats stepped inside the mountain.
*
Perhaps Brook should have been relieved as he, Mr Franky and Mr Chopper left the small clearing behind. Perhaps he should have been wracked with worry. His captain was remembering at last, as they had wanted. And as they had feared, Luffy was in great pain as his walls broke down.
Instead all he felt was a blank dullness lying on top of the same familiar heaviness. He didn't even have a tune in his mind to distract him, now. Only crushing, inexorable sanity. He focused only on moving on down the overgrown path through the thick green forest, letting it take them towards the shore.
The forest wasn't overgrown everywhere, though: many trees were cut down and torn up by the battle, or had deep bulletholes in them. There were even some broken swords lying about. Brook wondered if this might have been where he had retreated, sprinting past enemy ranks at lightning-speed and cutting them with his sword after three of his guitar strings had snapped. It was hard to recollect it well, given how frantic he had been.
Mostly he remembered the ground rumbling and shaking in response to shocks of impact from over the beach. He had soon arrived there, only to see an unconscious Luffy, an ashen-faced Nami surrounded by stricken, incredulous crewmates, and the carcass of the greatest Sea King Brook had ever seen. Too late, too late, all too late...
There was a tone dial hidden in Brook's skull, and far, far away an old friend waiting for him by the Reverse Mountain, one who had kept waiting for far too long already. Those two things alone were all that kept the voice inside that kept insisting it should have been you from getting any louder. And still it persisted, gnawing at him. He knew the right answer was No, it should not have been _anyone_, but... he was over 80 years old and a skeleton. It was hard not to feel that the Fates had made some kind of mistake.
Suddenly, something bounced off his skull. "Ow!" he cried out, in surprise as much as hurt. "Eh?" He looked around in confusion, trying to see who had attacked him. Mr Chopper and Mr Franky immediately went on the alert, drawing closer and also straining to see who did it.
"So there are enemies left after all?" said Chopper tensely.
"Where did it come from?" said Franky, but Brook could only wave in a very general direction.
"How curious," Brook opined, having bent down to pick up the ammunition. "It's only an acorn." Right then, another one sailed through the air, hitting the tree trunk next to Franky.
"Over there!" yelled Franky, pointing. "Something moved!"
They all ran off at high speed in that direction; Brook heard rustling of leaves and a splash. But when they reached a small, fast-running creek, no-one was there, nor did they see any wet footsteps on the other side of it. The party looked in all directions from there, but not even Chopper's nose could find any reliable track; eventually they gave up, walking back towards the path with the mystery unsolved. At least an assailant with acorns probably didn't have murderous intentions, unless it was a very deluded and wishful type of person.
About twenty minutes later, they had reached the shore at last and looked out at sea.
They were at the foot of the rounded, U-like bay. To their left was a low, rocky arm of the island stretching out far into the sea, at the end dissembling into a line of single rocks jutting up from the water.
To their right was the much higher rock face, through which, they knew, a tunnel ran through quite high up. The opening was hidden in sight from here, further up on the island; but it was there that Luffy and Usopp had ran, followed by Nami, all looking for a shortcut to the bay from where they'd come running in order to protect the Sunny, which had been anchored at the far end below the hill. The shore itself had been teeming with soldiers and amphibious sea monsters at the time; it must have seemed easier to avoid them by going through the tunnel. Brook didn't know if the end result would have been any different: they would still have had to fight the King of Seakings, and from an arguably worse vintage point to boot.
The sky had cleared up since this morning, just a few bumbling clouds on a brilliant blue sky. It was hot, but no longer unpleasantly so, even though there was still hardly any wind.
They stopped a few metres from the edge of the forest, looking out at the calm bay, then swerved their heads to scan the area carefully. Brook saw little but the expected view of sand, rocks and pebbles, seaweed, driftwood and clumps of dry grass, a few bushes and solitary trees; and the rest of the treeline, extending far in both directions.
He put down his pack and took out his flask of water. The other two followed his lead, Franky adding a little cola as well. They were silent as they drank, still standing in the trees' shade. Then Franky sighed, stretched and glanced down at the reindeer. "D'ya smell anything from here, Chopper?"
Chopper sniffed deeply with a set expression, then shook his head. "Nothing like that," he mumbled. There was no need to elaborate what he meant by 'that' – they all knew it had been weeks. Brook swallowed, trying to steel his ghostly stomach. "But there's a lot of scents here that might cover it up," the doctor added. "There's spices and flowers and sap from the forest, seaweed and kelp and rotten wood from the beach..." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe we should split up. I'll start on the beach and the forest edge, and you two can check on the right and left side." He pointed at the two arms of the bay.
Brook nodded. "Excellent idea, Mr Chopper," he said. "If we don't find anything, we'll return and help you with the beach, since it's by far the biggest place." And given the way sand tended to bury things quite quickly, maybe they'd need to use Franky's spade as well. Could be in vain, but they weren't here in order to give up easily.
"I'll take the left side," he decided, then saluted the other two with his cane, spun around on his heels and was off, looking closely at the ground for every step he took.
"Don't fall into the water," Franky called out, then set off in the opposite direction towards the steep cliff on the right. Brook wondered how likely it would be that a large wave would wash up a body on the ledges there and not then pull it right down into the depths again, but then again, unlikely things happened all the time. And cliffs often did have plenty of nooks and crevices they shouldn't overlook.
Over on his side, the sand thinned out in favour of pebbles and hardy grass, as he started on the narrow tongue of rock. Only a few hardy trees grew here, and the ground was quite flat and low, close to the water. Brook nevertheless didn't take anything for granted, but looked past every rock, into each small crevice, and wherever the water was shallow enough to see the bottom.
Part of him felt sick at the thought of actually finding what he was looking for, though the blankness helped to mask the feeling. Still, there was no help for it, was there? It wasn't as if he hadn't handled the dead bodies of dear crewmates before... although in his case they'd had a whole year to be little but bones already when he'd returned to them, just like his own. They had still had to wait fifty years before getting buried in homeland soil.
He was crouching down and peering into a water-filled hole several meters deep, dipping his fingers into the water absent-mindedly, when something flew through the air to hit the rock behind him and bounce into the hole with a small splash. It was another acorn. Startled, Brook lost his balance and teetered at the edge before he managed to right himself at the last moment, landing on his bony behind. Then he leaped to his feet and looked around quickly. No-one on land... but in the water?
On his left side, the one facing away from the bay, he saw widening rings on the surface, and a light flash not very deep down, as if from bright scales moving quickly in the water. Someone was swimming towards the end of the cape.
"Hoy! Kindly come out of there, whoever you may be!" called Brook, hurrying forward. He had to leap over a thin band of water as the promontory started to break up into single rocks.
As the rocks grew smaller and the water between them wider he stopped, turning here and there in indecision, trying to see or hear a sign of the acorn-shooter. Nothing.
"Oh well," he said as if to himself. "I guess I'll just go back and look all over again." As he turned, yet one more acorn hit him in the back. He swerved around to see a small person in the water on the bayside less than ten meters away, hurriedly putting away something inside a box or case worn over their shoulder, before diving back into the water. Brook blinked as a big, green tail with yellow spots propelled the figure further away.
"A mermaid...?" he said uncertainly. "Or... a merboy?"
The figure emerged again a little further away, glaring at him. "I'm a girl!"
Brook tilted his head. "My apologies," he said automatically.
Right then Mr Franky and Mr Chopper came running over the rocky outcrop to catch up to him, asking what was going on.
"I believe I have found our mysterious sniper from before," Brook told them, nodding towards the girl in the water.
It was a round-cheeked child of perhaps eight, nine, or ten years. Far from skinny though not really chubby either, she had long, brown hair divided into two ponytails with yellow ribbons. She wore a green-gray top and a small yellow scarf criss-crossed with black lines that Brook thought looked oddly familiar. Across her chest and over her shoulder was a leather strap, to which there was a thin oblong metallic box attached.
Brook noted these details in a quite distant manner. Normally, he rather liked children, and might well have spent some time prattling about various things with a young merchild. But all that felt far away right now. His initial curiosity had receded back into blankness, and he couldn't even seem to muster genuine concern that such a young one might be present to a grisly scene, if their search here bore fruit.
He took a few steps away, already looking closely at the rocky ground again. "Well," he said to his crewmates, "I suppose that solves our mystery, then – eh?" A few metres away, Franky was looking intently at the mermaid girl, scratching his chin pensively. Chopper, in Walk Point, had already jumped over to Brook's rock and hurried past him towards the spot closest to the mermaid. His eyes was burning.
"You! Where did you get that bandanna?" he shouted, pointing right at her furiously, hoof trembling.
Startled, the girl shied away from him, then quickly ducked under the water, tail splashing.
"Eh? What bandanna – oh, do you mean her scarf?" Brook looked at Chopper, raising an eyebrow ridge. "What do you mean–"
"Don't tell me you don't remember it!!" snapped Chopper angrily, voice shaking.
"Hey hey, take it easy, bro," said Franky. He jumped over to where they were and gave Brook a serious look, lowering his voice. "See, Usopp used to wear one just like that around his head. All the time, way back when... but come to think of it, I guess he pretty much stopped right around the time when we first ran into you."
Ah. Oh. Brook opened his mouth, then snapped it again seconds later. Well. That changed things.
Chopper blinked furiously as tears threatened to fill up in his eyes."Y-yeah, but it's not like he just threw it away! He kept it with him, sometimes he'd polish glass and stuff with it! I bet – I bet he took it along in his bag to this place!"
So that's why it had looked a little familiar to Brook. That made sense, he thought, twirling his cane absent-mindedly. "Are you really sure it's the same one?" he said, but the others didn't seem to hear him.
Franky held up one large hand placatingly. "All right, doc-bro, but I think you just scared her away with your yelling. After all, she's just a kid. And a mermaid, too – she's probably scared of humans trying to capture her, y'know?"
"So what?" snapped Chopper, morphing back into Brain Point. "I don't care! She must have s-stolen it!!"
Franky lowered his tone. "Maybe. But if she did, we need to find out from where, don't we? Can't do that if she thinks we'll hurt her."
"Oh." Chopper looked a little taken aback. "Oh... right. I didn't think of that..." he admitted. "I'll be calmer."
"Plus..." Franky continued, "I guess maybe we three ain't the most... sure, I'm a super-fine cyborg, but tiny I'm not, y'know? You've got those big antlers and Brook's a living skeleton and a freaking tall one, too. No wonder she swum away..."
At that point, the young girl surfaced again, holding onto a small black rock a little further out in the water. "I– I'm not scared!" she insisted.
Chopper looked relieved. "You didn't disappear!"
"I'm not scared of you!" the girl continued. "I know you're not bad people! And I saw you before." She pointed at Franky, who looked nonplussed.
"Huh? Me?"
The girl nodded, then pointed towards land. "When you were all fighting, with the Marines and the Commander and all... There's machines inside you, like you're made of them, I saw that! I was a bit away but I don't think you saw me."
Franky shook his head, then sat down on the rocky ground, legs crossed. "Nope. Pretty sure I'da remembered a li'l mermaid being around back there."
She nodded matter-of-factly at this. "Th-that's because you're big and I'm small. Then it's like that. Uhh..." Her voice dropped and she looked away as she muttered, "Anyway, I'm not scared. Dad says you're all heroes. I'm just being careful. It's good to be careful."
Brook was looking down on his shoes, then started to walk a little further on the rock, scanning the ground again while listening to the others.
"Yeah, it is good to be careful," Franky said now. An unusual statement, coming from him; but it did seem wise to agree with the girl. "Your dad said that, huh? So, does he know us?"
The girl didn't reply; when Brook glanced behind him, he saw she was drawing away from them, on the other side of the small rock. She looked quite apprehensive.
"Um..." said Chopper, "...maybe we should say our names, just to be polite." He looked at the young mermaid, more steadily but very serious. "I'm Tonytony Chopper. You can just say Chopper."
"Franky's the name," said the cyborg. Still seated, he made a quick mini-pose that seemed quite perfunctory.
"'Soul King' Brook, also known as 'Bare Bones' Brook, at your service," said Brook, now from the next rock over. He took off his hat-crown and bowed.
Then he turned around to look at the next rock - the very last one in the row, but so small he could see at once there was nothing there, not even a puddle. "Ah, I suppose we really are done with this side, then," he mumbled to himself. Instead of going back to the others right away, he too sat down and crossed his legs, following the conversations from where he was. He tried to think up good questions to ask, even though everything still felt too blank and numb and heavy inside him.
The child looked warily at the three of them, then slowly pushed herself up to sit on the rock, her green tail showing. But she held herself stiffly, arms close to the body, and seemed ready to go back into the water at the smallest provocation. "I– I'm Nisi," she said. "I live here. Um." She looked back at Franky again. "How come you have machines inside?" she asked curiously. "Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"
Franky cracked a smile. "Nah, I'm just a cyborg. Damn good one too. My old human body got smashed up so I made myself a new," he said easily. "Now these two" – he pointed with his thumb at Brook and Chopper – "they're Devil Fruit users, though. Livin' skeleton 'n' talking reindeer, even if he looks more like a raccoon dog with antlers right now."
Miss Nisi nodded slowly with wide eyes, turning her head as she looked from one to the other. There was a pause. Mr Chopper looked like he might be pondering what next question to put. Brook scratched an itchy spot on his skull, then looked over at the shore, still all quiet and empty. It was hot in the sun.
"So you were the one shooting acorns at us up in the forest?" Chopper said at last.
Miss Nisi nodded quickly, sitting even more tensely.
"That was pretty good shooting," said Franky, which made Nisi brighten at the praise.
Franky paused, then went on, sounding like he was trying not to sound cautious, "Uh. Didja use a slingshot?"
*
"Wait." After just a few steps, Sanji stopped, making the other two halt as well. He lit a new cigarette on the torch he was holding, then looked up at Ananshio, his face showing little. "Where are we going, here?" he said evenly. "How far is this hideout you've got?"
"Down," said Ananshio. "All the way down." He pointed downwards and waved his fingers around as if to indicate a winding spiral path. "It's a cave just a little above sea level. The only other entrance is underwater."
Sanji blew out smoke and nodded. "Figured it would be something like that." He exchanged looks with Robin; she gave him the tiniest of nods and they both started to walk again. "I'm guessing this entry is so distant for secrecy reasons," Sanji continued.
Ananshio hurried to catch up with them and took the lead again, despite not carrying a light. Perhaps he had good night-sight. At one point, he knocked the wall where he passed it, listening to the sound it made. "Yes, you're right," he said, a little breathlessly. "There used to be a second entrance on land, much further down, but we blocked it up once the slave raids became more frequent. It was too risky."
They walked down in silence for several long minutes. The air was dry, but not overly stuffy, and it wasn't quite as pitch-dark around them as Robin had seen in other places like this. The rocky ground was surprisingly even, sometimes with patches of sand and earth smoothing it.
"There's light coming in from above," she observed.
"Just small cracks of it, up here," said Ananshio. "The cave itself gets light from an opening at the very top of the mountain. We had to put up a grill there to stop vultures and eagles from swooping down. That would have raised suspicions."
"Was this path made by those same builders who made the tunnel through the great rock face by the western bay?" Robin asked. She hadn't seen that one herself, only heard Nami's brief description. Not that Nami had noted much about it, in the panic of rush; she hadn't even been sure of how it had been lit up.
"We believe so," the merman replied, "maybe by those who made the poneglyphs, whoever they were. But the tunnel by the bay was discovered by humans a long time ago, so we never use it anymore. I told the Marines about it – I had to tell them something – but the entrance wasn't hidden at all. They'd soon have found it anyway."
"Huh." Sanji inhaled deeply and blew out a long trail of meandering smoke; Robin said nothing.
Another long silence. They kept walking down the winding path, slowly and cautiously. Sanji's torch burned down, and Ananshio handed him a new one. The light dial still shone.
Robin found herself shivering, again; her head was warm and heavy. This time, she felt Sanji's attentive gaze on her. A moment later, he stopped again.
"Oi. Time for some more water," he said, shuffling off his pack to dig out canteens.
"I don't need to," said Robin softly, but accepted the offer anyway and drank sparingly. After a brief pause, Sanji handed the merman another canteen before drinking from his own. Ananshio mumbled "thank you" and also just drank a little bit before returning it quickly.
Sanji looked into the darkness in front of them. "So humans can't get through the other shitty entrance, right?" he said.
Ananshio wiped his mouth and answered, "They could, maybe, if they're really strong swimmers. If they could find the right way, underwater. It's not that easy when no-one shows you the way." He paused, twirling his thumbs, then went on without looking at them, "When it comes to patients, we have some coated bubbles we can put around their heads. Then we carry them through if they're too weak to swim on their own. Th-though..." His voice grew thinner; he cleared his throat before going on. "...If they're unconscious, it's not always needed."
"Ah." Sanji left no further comment. Again, they walked on, down, down, down, into the darkness.
For a while now, they'd heard the sound of running water from beyond one of the walls. As they turned a corner, Ananshio swerved to the side and waved for the others to do the same. A tiny creek poured out from a narrow side passage, not filling the path but running in a lower rut beside it. Robin bent down to dip her fingers in the water, welcoming its cool touch. They walked on.
When Sanji finally spoke up again, his voice was even harsher and rougher than before.
"You've got to understand, about all that shit you just told us about that shitty whistle...?" He dumped ash, his other hand buried deep in his pocket. "I get why you'd feel you'd have a debt, but that doesn't mean it means anything to us. We didn't know a thing about all that. We fought that Commander and his men because they attacked us, that's all. He smashed the whistle to make it easier to beat that guy. It's all just a," his voice hitched a little, "a coincidence."
"True," murmured Robin. A thought struck here, and she observed quietly, "He also once knocked out a World Noble by sheer coincidence."
Sanji stared at her, then shook himself as if casting something off and went back to looking at the stone walls around him, and the ground, between glancing at Ananshio. "Uh... Anyway, what do you expect?" he said to the latter. "It's not like we'd made any friends here."
Ananshio hunched his shoulders and seemed to shrink a little. "I– I know. I just. I still thought you should know."
"Mr. Ananshio," Robin said, though not quite wishing to proceed. But she couldn't leave Sanji all on his own. "On that day... Neither you nor your daughter would have had an air bubble sphere handy in the bay. Correct?"
"No," Ananshio confirmed in a low voice. "We did not."
Sanji broke in roughly, "If he was still alive then, he wouldn't have been conscious." It wasn't easy to see in the flickering torch light and dim dial light, but Robin thought he seemed to be trembling, just a little.
"Look." Ananshio stopped. His voice was firmer again, and he set his jaw and turned to look at them squarely. "There's something I should have mentioned, before this." Sanji gave him a wary look that seemed to say, Haven't we had enough of this by now?, but he kept quiet. "One reason – one reason our tribe is so good at healing, is because we are quite good at... I think you people would call it 'spiritual awareness'. The best healers among us all know how to sense the state of a person's soul as well as their body. Often, they can convince and encourage the soul to stay with the body, helping it get better."
"Now, me... I'm no good with the body part of all that; I don't have the right kind of eyes and hands for it. Maybe because I'm a half-blood. But the soul part... that I can do. For instance... when I was spying on you guys before, over by the poneglyph and before the others left, I didn't have to look at you to know all eight of you were there, with no-one left at the ship. I just sensed eight souls, so I knew.
"But also... it's not just living souls, for me. Not always. Departed ones as well, those that are not at peace but still hang around in the living world. Ghosts." He paused, taking a long breath before going on, unsteadily, "That's why I'm so sure about the bone whistle's curse. There used to be a lot more old ghosts here. They started to go away, after the bone whistle was smashed, and the next day I couldn't sense them anymore. The breaking of the curse set them free, I'm sure of it."
His voice sank down. "There has always, always been a very clear difference between souls with living bodies and the ghosts. It's like seeing a photograph in the newspaper or on a bounty poster, all flat and colourless, compared to meeting a person face to face. The ghosts, they're always a lot... less."
Robin looked over at Sanji. There were questions in her head she didn't want to ask, didn't truly want to find the answer to. Sanji opened his mouth but then stopped. His gaze looked hollow as he lowered his head and stared at the ground in front of him.
"It seems to me the Marines who were killed might not be at peace, either," Robin mumbled. She said it more to distract Ananshio and to stave away the oppressive silence than from genuine interest.
Ananshio nodded, clearing his throat. "Yes, that's true, there are new ghosts around. Though not as many as there could have been. I think it helped that their surviving comrades burned the bodies in a funeral of sorts, before leaving. I wonder if there's something I could do for them... In any case, it's still not half as bad as there used to be. It's only their own sense of betrayal, hatred and resentment that keep them around, not anything else binding them."
He went on, "I want to get better at reaching out and listening to souls, to find out what they need to move on. Maybe even talk to living souls who are in a bad way, even when their bodies are healthy. If I could find someone to teach me, and the time for it."
"You want to become a shaman?" asked Sanji without looking up.
Ananshio looked surprised. "That's a neat word for it. I was just thinking 'soul-doctor'."
New silence. Robin had nothing to add, and this time, Sanji didn't follow up with any more questions. Perhaps he had used up all his tough-mindedness, his sharp-edged anger, leaving only bleakness and dread.
He was walking in front of her now, his expression hidden from her view. His back looked thin and lonely, hunched over. He hugged himself, as if feeling cold. Well, he wasn't the only one. Robin couldn't stop shivering. She felt strangely vertiginous, more like she was walking thousands of metres up in the air than deep within a mountain.
Or on the Bridge of Destiny. But that should not feel like an apt comparison, since she was walking calmly and freely of her own accord. She was not bound in seastone handcuffs, refusing to move, being kicked and dragged every step across the bridge by that Spandam idiot.
Although, she realised, I would have walked the bridge about this calmly if they hadn't come for me at the Tower of Justice. If Luffy hadn't been so stubborn, if Usopp hadn't set the World Government's flag on fire.
Strange comparison or not, either way there would be no impossibly accurate shots from atop the same tower arriving in the nick of time, now. No last-minute interruption would stop her from reaching the end of this walk.
The second torch burned down. But Sanji just let it drop to the ground and stood there, arms hanging, breathing heavily.
"Don't need to..." he gasped. "Getting lighter..."
It was true: it was getting lighter in the tunnel ahead of them, a faint gray hint of daylight.
"We're nearly there," said Ananshio quietly. He looked at the light dial that Robin still carried and nodded. "Yes, that's enough," he whispered.
Sanji didn't move, except for raising one arm to support himself against the cave wall. The only things Robin could hear were the sound of his breathing, the small mountain creek, and the loud sound of her own heartbeat.
And then also, somewhere further down in the mountain, the faint sound of somebody's footsteps.
Continues in Chapter 10, part 2