The Plot Thickens!
Title: Sacrifice (Yeah, ain't I creative?)
Theme: Sacrifice
Claim: LuffyxNami
(Words:) 3665
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Nekkid Zoro, but-*trampled by the flood of fangirls* Ow. Nothing said in detail.
Disclaimers:This IS apart of the canon, and follows after Mind Fuck.
“‘…in his vexation he threw himself on the bed, but as his head fell on the pillow, in went the needle, so that he called out with pain and madly rushed out. But when he reached the housedoor the millstone jumped up and struck him dead. What a bad man Mr. Korbes must have been!’” Luffy flipped through the gilded pages of the blue storybook and grumbled, “Isn’t there a story where someone doesn’t die?”
Dr. Hush put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her blank face, then down at Nami’s. Dressed in a new nightgown and propped up with several large pillows, Nami had finally fallen asleep in Stella’s bed. Her hands drooped on the bucket she held close to her chest in case she threw up again. Stella, sitting on a chair opposite of Luffy and Dr. Hush, glowered at both Luffy and Nami.
“So,” Stella said in a low voice, “you went and dug up trouble in the bog, eh?”
“We thought it was treasure,” said Luffy, and he closed the book, “Cerise said there was treasure, and since we’re pirates-”
“Pirates?” Dr. Hush raised her eyebrows, then held her chin, “I see. So you have not heard of the story of Noir Coeur, have you?”
Luffy shook his head.
Stella grunted, “Not much you need to know, except going there means death.”
“It’s more than just that, Ms. Stella-”
“Why else do we call it the ‘Black Heart’? People go there to die, or they bring death back with them.” She shot a nasty look at Luffy.
“I didn’t know it was a bad place,” Luffy said in an even tone, “Neither did Nami. We trusted Cerise when she told us about the treasure. She didn’t say anything about it being cursed or the bog being cursed.”
“Of course she wouldn’t have, but you must have noticed something was wrong when you entered the bog. Things happen there that don’t happen elsewhere.”
“WE CAN’T WALK ON WATER!”
His Gum-Gum powers failing…swimming for the first time in his life…
The memories flashed in his mind.
“I know that face,” said Stella, pointing at him, “I’ve seen that face at least a hundred-thousand times in the fourty-five years I’ve lived. You knew something was wrong, but you brought the treasure chest back with you. Now look what you’ve done!”
“If I throw the chest back into the bog-”
“Perhaps we should continue this outside, Mr. Luffy and Ms. Stella?”
Stella snorted, “Throwing it back in the bog won’t do anything, even if we threw the girl in with it. The curse is already here, it’s made Aimée into a demon and it will spread throughout this town and make us all demons.” She stood up and towered over Luffy. “You said you were pirates, eh? Then what are you, some cowardly chore boy?”
Luffy glared at her, “I’m the captain.”
It started as a titter, then a chuckle, then a full-out roaring laugh.
“Ms. Stella, you’re going to wake the patient-”
“CAPTAIN?” she guffawed, and gestured towards Nami, “Well, what a fine captain you are.”
“You’re always complaining about not having enough money, so let’s get the treasure and get the money.”
“I know but…I can’t help but get the feeling that this is all one big set-up.”
“You should move the chest in a safe place then,” said Dr. Hush, her hand leaving Luffy’s shoulder. “I’m sure the other boarders are waking up by now. We wouldn’t want them to find it and become cursed as well.”
Nostrils flared, Stella smirked and said, “Oh yes, heavens forbid that would happen.”
She gave one last glare at Luffy before leaving the room. Dr. Hush left Luffy’s side and leaned over to feel Nami’s forehead.
“She must be a very deep sleeper,” she murmured.
“Hmm…” he answered, not looking at either of the women. He crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and pulled on the brim of his hat to cover his face.
Dr. Hush pushed a braid behind her shoulder. “I apologize for Ms. Stella. She’s very protective of her girls and of this town. What she said was cold-hearted.”
“It’s true, though. I really screwed things up.”
“Yes, you did.” She sat down next to him and said, “But the bog is more to blame than you. It really is an evil thing.”
His ears perked up.
“About a thousand years ago it swallowed up an entire army and its most precious treasure, and two hundred years later a man found the treasure and brought it home to his family. The treasure was able to grant him a wish, and he wished to live forever. His wish was granted, but he did not realize that when he brought the treasure out of the bog, he brought out the bog’s curse with him. It spread to all the people he met with, and spread further when those people met more people, until the curse spread throughout the entire island.
It made the people go insane, and they killed each other as well as themselves. Well, all the people were insane. And this curse lasted in Sàmoure for a century, until only a handful of people were left on the island. The man finally decided to lock his treasure up in an old wooden chest, and took it back to the bog in hopes of reversing the curse. Neither the treasure nor the man was seen again, but the remaining citizens were free of the curse. And it’s been like this for centuries now, but since you have taken the treasure out of the bog again…”
“I don’t get it,” said Luffy, “why is the bog so evil? Why does it want to kill everyone?”
The doctor shrugged. “It’s very, very old, it has a lot of magic, and it’s been known as an evil and cursed thing ever since the first people of Sàmoure docked here. Which is why I am suspicious of the woman who took you two into the bog in the first place. What was her name again?”
“Cerise.”
“No last name?”
“Nope.”
Dr. Hush crumpled her bottom lip. “I have not heard of her before. Maybe she is also a traveler who only heard of the treasure? However...something does not sit right.”
The creak of the bedroom door stopped their conversation. Mimi poked her red head out and said, “Um…Luffy, sir, a man by the name of Sanji is waiting for you-”
“NAMI-SWAAAAAAAAN!”
BAM BOOM BAFF! Sanji hurdled up the stairs and ran on the walls towards Mimi. She shrieked and ducked as he bolted passed her and crashed at the end of the hallway.
“Wha…?” Nami yawned, her eyes barely opening. They flew open when Sanji coolly sauntered in the bedroom, dusting his striped shirt off. “Sanji-kun!”
“Nami-swan! It’s good to see you’re all right. I was afraid you weren’t, by the sound of that lady downstairs…” he shivered, then he leaned closer to her, “What happened, Nami-swan? Did that frightening lady downstairs do this to you?”
Nami flushed and shook her head.
“It’s good to see you, Sanji!” Luffy piped up and got his face kicked in by Sanji. “Owwww, whad ‘as dat for?”
“For making us worry like hell all night looking for you! Where in the world did you go-oh, hello!” Sanji’s angry face disappeared and was replaced by one with more finesse as he approached the doctor and took her hand, “My name is Sanji, cook for the Straw Hat pirates. And yours…?”
“Dr. Hush,” she responded in her usual droll, “Ah. Now I recognize you three. So sorry, my head was somewhere else.” She pointed at Sanji. “You look remarkably like your wanted poster.”
Sanji sulked in a corner of woe.
“I must use the restroom,” announced the doctor. “I will be back shortly.”
“Is everyone on the ship, then?” Nami asked Sanji.
He stood up and lit a new cigarette. “Not everyone. Zoro’s missing too.”
“What? Since when?” Nami said.
“Well, about late afternoon yesterday, he was walking with…” Sanji let out a romantic sigh. “…a beautiful girl with long red hair and dressed in a modest robe and carrying a staff to protect herself from that idiot.”
“Cerise!” the other two said.
“You know her?”
“She was the one that took us to the bog!” Nami explained, “That’s why we’ve been gone so long, Sanji. She took us to find a treasure chest in the bog and…” Her words stuck in her throat and her stomach growled.
“So the treasure chest downstairs…?”
Luffy said, “It’s from the bog, and it’s a really bad place. ”
“What happened?”
Nami carried on with the rest of the story and explained what had happened in the bog. Sanji’s cigarette hung dangerously on the tip of his bottom lip.
“Luffy swam?” Sanji stammered, completely dumbfounded, “I thought he couldn’t swim because of the Devil Fruit!”
“But the bog did something weird with my powers,” Luffy reminded him.
“Still, no one ever taught you to swim! How were you able to save Nami from that bog-monster-thing if you can’t swim and you couldn’t use your Gum Gum powers?”
Luffy frowned. “Nami was in trouble and I had to do something.”
“I know but-” Sanji stopped when he saw Luffy’s face. It was so simple and readable that even a child could understand what went through his head.
I have to keep her safe.
Sanji looked at Nami, with cuts and scratches all over her face and neck. She was less readable; though she was careworn, her eyes would not betray her. She locked up all the feelings and pain she felt from the last twenty-four hours and hid them away somewhere in her mind. No just anyone was allowed to see those things. The only person that she would allow to peak at these thoughts was the man that went through most of the hell with her.
“Sanji?” Luffy asked.
Sanji’s trembling fingers held his cigarette securely in his mouth as he took in a drag, his eyes closed. He wanted to kick something, kick Luffy, kick Zoro, and keep kicking until he sorted everything out in his own reeling mind. But now was not the time for it.
“Sorry,” he said, “Spaced out for a moment. So now the treasure’s out and you’re here, but why are you so hurt, Nami-san?”
Nami looked away from Sanji and into the bottom of the bucket. “I…I got locked into the chest. And it made me…it made me…”
“It made you go insane,” said Dr. Hush as she re-entered the room, “That is one of the known powers of the bog. But seeing as you have consumed the hook, that may have assured that the insanity was only temporary.”
“Well…that’s good news,” said Nami, trying to smile.
Sanji furrowed his brow. “Consumed? What does she mean by that, Nami-san?”
Nami glanced at Luffy, who scratched the back of his head. Her stomach rumbled again at the thought of having to say it again-out loud-to Sanji.
“Early this morning, I went down to check on the treasure chest…” she stammered. Sanji looked at her with kind eyes, but worried at how pale her skin had gotten. “I looked inside, and I found a hook. Then I was pushed inside the chest and locked inside.”
She stopped and closed her eyes. Her legs quivered as if those invisible rough hands were touching her again.
“I thought Arlong was trying to rape me.”
“Arlong?” asked an utterly perplexed Sanji.
Nami opened her eyes and smiled, “Yeah, I thought it was Arlong. So, I tried to protect myself by taking a hook and-” She made the motion, her words failing her again.
The cigarette fell out of Sanji’s mouth. “You didn’t-”
“I did. And it’s no ordinary hook either. It doesn’t look like I’ve put a hook up there at all now. But it’s inside me and we don’t know how to get it out.”
Sanji’s eye grew wider. “But…what’s going to happen to you?”
Her eyes looked like brittle glass. She took in a breath and said, “I don’t know.”
XXXXXXXXXX
The Evening Before
It was so cold, oh so cold. So cold it felt wet to the touch. Zoro stirred from his deep slumber and felt the black rock he laid on. He shivered and mindlessly tried to pull his arms into his shirt, but he was wearing no shirt. Alarmed, Zoro felt around and realized that he was completely nude. Not only nude, but shaved. Well, he still had the hair on his head, but all other hair on his body had been completely shaved off.
Zoro looked up to see where he was, but everything was black. Completely, totally black. His fingers grasped for anything that could tell him where he was. But all he could feel was the slab of stone under him and the cool, moist air around him.
“Where…where am I?” he whispered, “Who brought me here?”
The girl.
He cupped his hand around his forehead. Could she have brought him here? But she looked so weak, so flimsy when he pulled her out of the ocean who knows how long ago. Then she opened her eyes and-
Nothing. He couldn’t remember anything after that. And now here he was, nude in this damp black hole. Pushing himself up, his eyes darted around the dark cave to find a way out. He spread his arms out to feel the wall as he stumbled forward. He walked and walked until he bumped into something soft and warm.
“Hello,” said a young woman’s voice.
Zoro fell backwards from surprised and yowled when he landed on his tailbone. He rolled to his side, hands firmly gripped on his bump.
“Are you all right?” she cooed and ran her fingertips along his leg. She pulled her hand away when he flinched and kicked out of reflex. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
He sat up and grunted, “It’s fine. Who are you?”
“Cerise. And yours?”
“Zoro. I take it you’re a prisoner too?”
She giggled, “Oh no, this is no prison. This is my home.”
“You’re home? What kind of home is this?”
“It is buried deep in the rock cliffs along the shore. It’s lovely, is it not? No one can find you here, and it is so delightfully cool and dark.” She purred and rubbed up next to him, “Wouldn’t you want to stay here?”
Zoro felt his face go red as he felt her rub up her warm, naked breasts against his arm. He tried to scoot away from her, “I’m sorry, but I’m a pirate and my crew is waiting for me.”
She pulled herself closer to him, “But if you stay here long enough, they’ll forget about you and you’ll forget about them.”
He got up so quickly that she fell over. As he staggered forward, she sniggered, “Where are you going?”
“I’m getting out of here.”
“But you can’t see.”
“Ow!” he had tripped and fell on his knee. Slowly, he got back up again. “Doesn’t matter. I need to find my friends.”
“You can’t leave. Not as you are.”
“Pah.”
Suddenly he bumped into her.
“How the hell did you get in front of me?!” he demanded.
“I am a druid. A sacrificial druid, but a druid nonetheless.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I was born for the sole purpose of being sacrificed to the Sea Toad. But…I had lost my virginity to a person I had once loved. The Sea Toad rejected me because I was not a virgin, and my family left me for disgracing them. Eventually, even the person I considered my lover abandoned me.
But the Sea Toad, ever merciful, saw my grief and gave me a second chance. He said that if I found a virgin that was willing to save me from death, than he would accept the sacrifice, even if that sacrifice was not a druid. So, when I saw you walking along the beach that morning-”
For a moment, Zoro could see the pale girl’s face with flaming red hair in his mind’s eye.
“You tricked me? You weren’t really drowning?”
“Oh no, I was really drowning. I had to be, or else the Sea Toad wouldn’t accept you as a sacrifice. So you saved me and I put you under a spell that made you sleep. But you are very strong to have stirred even once from that spell-”
“Am I dead?”
“Good guess, but no. Go to sleep now, you’ll need your strength for later-”
Zoro stepped back from her, his mind and heart racing to figure a way out of this.
“So now you’re going to sacrifice me? I thought you wanted me to stay.”
“I do! I do! I…” her voice cracked, “I love you, Zoro!”
Her voice echoed throughout the cave, followed by the sounds of a pebble falling down a wall.
“You…you what?”
“I love you!” she cried out and threw her arms around him and nearly knocked them both down, “As I was shaving your pectorals and your calves to get you ready for the sacrifice, something new blossomed within me. I was in love again! And the man I had fallen for is you!”
“You don’t even know me!” he gagged, trying to push the persistent girl off.
“Studying your body was all I needed to know. You do nothing but train, and I can see it in your muscles. The grooves in your teeth show that you eat mostly on your right side. And those scars…ohhhh, those scars!”
Her nose bled at the thought of it. As she wiped her nose, Zoro took the opportunity to finally push her off. But even this didn’t seem to deter her. Instead she wriggled on the floor (as if Zoro could even see her) and moaned, “That’s it, Zoro! I like it rough. C’mon, do whatever you want to me.”
He walked right by her and hoped to never see her again. She popped up in front of him and he bumped into her again.
“I know you don’t love me back, but you could learn to. Sleep with me and stay awhile, and you’ll see.”
“I am not sleeping with a girl I don’t even know, much less see,” grunted Zoro and he tried to push past her.
She grumbled something and they both teleported to the mouth of the cave, where they could see the sun setting and paint the sky orange, red, and purple. He looked over the edge of the mouth of the cave, only to see hundreds of feet of rock and moss below. White, foamy waves combed over the dense kelp forest below and smashed into the cliff.
“You’ll be hung over the face of the cliff upside-down as I call for the Sea Toad,” Cerise said from behind him, “He will come, and swallow you whole. You’ll either die from drowning or having your back broken when you sucked into his stomach. Or…” she ran her fingertips down his arms, “You can sleep with me, and I’ll find someone else he can eat.”
A wind tugged on her hair and enveloped them both in fiery red strands. She stood on her toes and whispered in his ear, “You don’t love me as I love you, I understand. But if you stay with me for one night, I will take you back to your friends. They’ll never have to know what happens.”
She twirled in front of him, but he continued to stare at the last beams of light of the sunset. Cerise huffed and grabbed his arms and shook him until he finally looked at her.
“You can’t leave here alive without my help, Zoro,” she said and grinned, “There are no footholds to help you climb out, and the waves below will crush you or the kelp forest will drag you down to your grave. A druid made this cave. Only another druid can leave this cave alive.” She let go of him and strutted inside the cave, “I’ll be waiting for you, Zoro.”
XXXXXXXXX
Back to the Current Day
“GET NAMI OUT OF HERE!” shouted Sanji to Luffy as he, Luffy, and Dr. Hush tried to keep the bedroom door barricaded. Stella’s butcher knife punctured the door above them.
“Die, you all need to die. You brought the bloody curse here, you all deserve to die,” Stella’s muffled voice said, then a thump was heard. “Get out of the way, Durette!”
“But I want to feed on their flesh, Madame! Make them pay for bringing the chest here. Make them pay!”
The door cracked as the women outside the door rammed their stout bodies into it. Nami took the bed covers and bit into them to keep herself quiet. But it was hard, for her stomach rumbled terrible and it felt as if acid was slowly eating her bones away.
Sanji grabbed Luffy’s shoulder and said, “Take Nami out of here and take her to the ship. We’ll get Stella and Durette under control.”
“But Sanji, I can-”
CRACK A hinge flew off of the door and another knife pierced through. Sanji pushed Luffy off the door.
“Go!” he said and rammed harder against the door, “I’ll be out in a second!”
Luffy scrambled to the bed, grabbed Nami, and kicked the window right out of his socket. Nami looked back at Sanji, confused. He could never hit a woman, no matter how ugly, so why-
“Hold on, Nami!” Luffy said and jumped out the window.
AN: You probably all can guess what happened to Stella and Durette, but it will be confirmed in the next fic. This one was interesting to write, especially now that we know more about Cerise. :D Ah yes, lovely Cerise. Just wait until she pops up in the next couple of fics!
Theme: Sacrifice
Claim: LuffyxNami
(Words:) 3665
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Nekkid Zoro, but-*trampled by the flood of fangirls* Ow. Nothing said in detail.
Disclaimers:This IS apart of the canon, and follows after Mind Fuck.
“‘…in his vexation he threw himself on the bed, but as his head fell on the pillow, in went the needle, so that he called out with pain and madly rushed out. But when he reached the housedoor the millstone jumped up and struck him dead. What a bad man Mr. Korbes must have been!’” Luffy flipped through the gilded pages of the blue storybook and grumbled, “Isn’t there a story where someone doesn’t die?”
Dr. Hush put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her blank face, then down at Nami’s. Dressed in a new nightgown and propped up with several large pillows, Nami had finally fallen asleep in Stella’s bed. Her hands drooped on the bucket she held close to her chest in case she threw up again. Stella, sitting on a chair opposite of Luffy and Dr. Hush, glowered at both Luffy and Nami.
“So,” Stella said in a low voice, “you went and dug up trouble in the bog, eh?”
“We thought it was treasure,” said Luffy, and he closed the book, “Cerise said there was treasure, and since we’re pirates-”
“Pirates?” Dr. Hush raised her eyebrows, then held her chin, “I see. So you have not heard of the story of Noir Coeur, have you?”
Luffy shook his head.
Stella grunted, “Not much you need to know, except going there means death.”
“It’s more than just that, Ms. Stella-”
“Why else do we call it the ‘Black Heart’? People go there to die, or they bring death back with them.” She shot a nasty look at Luffy.
“I didn’t know it was a bad place,” Luffy said in an even tone, “Neither did Nami. We trusted Cerise when she told us about the treasure. She didn’t say anything about it being cursed or the bog being cursed.”
“Of course she wouldn’t have, but you must have noticed something was wrong when you entered the bog. Things happen there that don’t happen elsewhere.”
“WE CAN’T WALK ON WATER!”
His Gum-Gum powers failing…swimming for the first time in his life…
The memories flashed in his mind.
“I know that face,” said Stella, pointing at him, “I’ve seen that face at least a hundred-thousand times in the fourty-five years I’ve lived. You knew something was wrong, but you brought the treasure chest back with you. Now look what you’ve done!”
“If I throw the chest back into the bog-”
“Perhaps we should continue this outside, Mr. Luffy and Ms. Stella?”
Stella snorted, “Throwing it back in the bog won’t do anything, even if we threw the girl in with it. The curse is already here, it’s made Aimée into a demon and it will spread throughout this town and make us all demons.” She stood up and towered over Luffy. “You said you were pirates, eh? Then what are you, some cowardly chore boy?”
Luffy glared at her, “I’m the captain.”
It started as a titter, then a chuckle, then a full-out roaring laugh.
“Ms. Stella, you’re going to wake the patient-”
“CAPTAIN?” she guffawed, and gestured towards Nami, “Well, what a fine captain you are.”
“You’re always complaining about not having enough money, so let’s get the treasure and get the money.”
“I know but…I can’t help but get the feeling that this is all one big set-up.”
“You should move the chest in a safe place then,” said Dr. Hush, her hand leaving Luffy’s shoulder. “I’m sure the other boarders are waking up by now. We wouldn’t want them to find it and become cursed as well.”
Nostrils flared, Stella smirked and said, “Oh yes, heavens forbid that would happen.”
She gave one last glare at Luffy before leaving the room. Dr. Hush left Luffy’s side and leaned over to feel Nami’s forehead.
“She must be a very deep sleeper,” she murmured.
“Hmm…” he answered, not looking at either of the women. He crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and pulled on the brim of his hat to cover his face.
Dr. Hush pushed a braid behind her shoulder. “I apologize for Ms. Stella. She’s very protective of her girls and of this town. What she said was cold-hearted.”
“It’s true, though. I really screwed things up.”
“Yes, you did.” She sat down next to him and said, “But the bog is more to blame than you. It really is an evil thing.”
His ears perked up.
“About a thousand years ago it swallowed up an entire army and its most precious treasure, and two hundred years later a man found the treasure and brought it home to his family. The treasure was able to grant him a wish, and he wished to live forever. His wish was granted, but he did not realize that when he brought the treasure out of the bog, he brought out the bog’s curse with him. It spread to all the people he met with, and spread further when those people met more people, until the curse spread throughout the entire island.
It made the people go insane, and they killed each other as well as themselves. Well, all the people were insane. And this curse lasted in Sàmoure for a century, until only a handful of people were left on the island. The man finally decided to lock his treasure up in an old wooden chest, and took it back to the bog in hopes of reversing the curse. Neither the treasure nor the man was seen again, but the remaining citizens were free of the curse. And it’s been like this for centuries now, but since you have taken the treasure out of the bog again…”
“I don’t get it,” said Luffy, “why is the bog so evil? Why does it want to kill everyone?”
The doctor shrugged. “It’s very, very old, it has a lot of magic, and it’s been known as an evil and cursed thing ever since the first people of Sàmoure docked here. Which is why I am suspicious of the woman who took you two into the bog in the first place. What was her name again?”
“Cerise.”
“No last name?”
“Nope.”
Dr. Hush crumpled her bottom lip. “I have not heard of her before. Maybe she is also a traveler who only heard of the treasure? However...something does not sit right.”
The creak of the bedroom door stopped their conversation. Mimi poked her red head out and said, “Um…Luffy, sir, a man by the name of Sanji is waiting for you-”
“NAMI-SWAAAAAAAAN!”
BAM BOOM BAFF! Sanji hurdled up the stairs and ran on the walls towards Mimi. She shrieked and ducked as he bolted passed her and crashed at the end of the hallway.
“Wha…?” Nami yawned, her eyes barely opening. They flew open when Sanji coolly sauntered in the bedroom, dusting his striped shirt off. “Sanji-kun!”
“Nami-swan! It’s good to see you’re all right. I was afraid you weren’t, by the sound of that lady downstairs…” he shivered, then he leaned closer to her, “What happened, Nami-swan? Did that frightening lady downstairs do this to you?”
Nami flushed and shook her head.
“It’s good to see you, Sanji!” Luffy piped up and got his face kicked in by Sanji. “Owwww, whad ‘as dat for?”
“For making us worry like hell all night looking for you! Where in the world did you go-oh, hello!” Sanji’s angry face disappeared and was replaced by one with more finesse as he approached the doctor and took her hand, “My name is Sanji, cook for the Straw Hat pirates. And yours…?”
“Dr. Hush,” she responded in her usual droll, “Ah. Now I recognize you three. So sorry, my head was somewhere else.” She pointed at Sanji. “You look remarkably like your wanted poster.”
Sanji sulked in a corner of woe.
“I must use the restroom,” announced the doctor. “I will be back shortly.”
“Is everyone on the ship, then?” Nami asked Sanji.
He stood up and lit a new cigarette. “Not everyone. Zoro’s missing too.”
“What? Since when?” Nami said.
“Well, about late afternoon yesterday, he was walking with…” Sanji let out a romantic sigh. “…a beautiful girl with long red hair and dressed in a modest robe and carrying a staff to protect herself from that idiot.”
“Cerise!” the other two said.
“You know her?”
“She was the one that took us to the bog!” Nami explained, “That’s why we’ve been gone so long, Sanji. She took us to find a treasure chest in the bog and…” Her words stuck in her throat and her stomach growled.
“So the treasure chest downstairs…?”
Luffy said, “It’s from the bog, and it’s a really bad place. ”
“What happened?”
Nami carried on with the rest of the story and explained what had happened in the bog. Sanji’s cigarette hung dangerously on the tip of his bottom lip.
“Luffy swam?” Sanji stammered, completely dumbfounded, “I thought he couldn’t swim because of the Devil Fruit!”
“But the bog did something weird with my powers,” Luffy reminded him.
“Still, no one ever taught you to swim! How were you able to save Nami from that bog-monster-thing if you can’t swim and you couldn’t use your Gum Gum powers?”
Luffy frowned. “Nami was in trouble and I had to do something.”
“I know but-” Sanji stopped when he saw Luffy’s face. It was so simple and readable that even a child could understand what went through his head.
I have to keep her safe.
Sanji looked at Nami, with cuts and scratches all over her face and neck. She was less readable; though she was careworn, her eyes would not betray her. She locked up all the feelings and pain she felt from the last twenty-four hours and hid them away somewhere in her mind. No just anyone was allowed to see those things. The only person that she would allow to peak at these thoughts was the man that went through most of the hell with her.
“Sanji?” Luffy asked.
Sanji’s trembling fingers held his cigarette securely in his mouth as he took in a drag, his eyes closed. He wanted to kick something, kick Luffy, kick Zoro, and keep kicking until he sorted everything out in his own reeling mind. But now was not the time for it.
“Sorry,” he said, “Spaced out for a moment. So now the treasure’s out and you’re here, but why are you so hurt, Nami-san?”
Nami looked away from Sanji and into the bottom of the bucket. “I…I got locked into the chest. And it made me…it made me…”
“It made you go insane,” said Dr. Hush as she re-entered the room, “That is one of the known powers of the bog. But seeing as you have consumed the hook, that may have assured that the insanity was only temporary.”
“Well…that’s good news,” said Nami, trying to smile.
Sanji furrowed his brow. “Consumed? What does she mean by that, Nami-san?”
Nami glanced at Luffy, who scratched the back of his head. Her stomach rumbled again at the thought of having to say it again-out loud-to Sanji.
“Early this morning, I went down to check on the treasure chest…” she stammered. Sanji looked at her with kind eyes, but worried at how pale her skin had gotten. “I looked inside, and I found a hook. Then I was pushed inside the chest and locked inside.”
She stopped and closed her eyes. Her legs quivered as if those invisible rough hands were touching her again.
“I thought Arlong was trying to rape me.”
“Arlong?” asked an utterly perplexed Sanji.
Nami opened her eyes and smiled, “Yeah, I thought it was Arlong. So, I tried to protect myself by taking a hook and-” She made the motion, her words failing her again.
The cigarette fell out of Sanji’s mouth. “You didn’t-”
“I did. And it’s no ordinary hook either. It doesn’t look like I’ve put a hook up there at all now. But it’s inside me and we don’t know how to get it out.”
Sanji’s eye grew wider. “But…what’s going to happen to you?”
Her eyes looked like brittle glass. She took in a breath and said, “I don’t know.”
XXXXXXXXXX
The Evening Before
It was so cold, oh so cold. So cold it felt wet to the touch. Zoro stirred from his deep slumber and felt the black rock he laid on. He shivered and mindlessly tried to pull his arms into his shirt, but he was wearing no shirt. Alarmed, Zoro felt around and realized that he was completely nude. Not only nude, but shaved. Well, he still had the hair on his head, but all other hair on his body had been completely shaved off.
Zoro looked up to see where he was, but everything was black. Completely, totally black. His fingers grasped for anything that could tell him where he was. But all he could feel was the slab of stone under him and the cool, moist air around him.
“Where…where am I?” he whispered, “Who brought me here?”
The girl.
He cupped his hand around his forehead. Could she have brought him here? But she looked so weak, so flimsy when he pulled her out of the ocean who knows how long ago. Then she opened her eyes and-
Nothing. He couldn’t remember anything after that. And now here he was, nude in this damp black hole. Pushing himself up, his eyes darted around the dark cave to find a way out. He spread his arms out to feel the wall as he stumbled forward. He walked and walked until he bumped into something soft and warm.
“Hello,” said a young woman’s voice.
Zoro fell backwards from surprised and yowled when he landed on his tailbone. He rolled to his side, hands firmly gripped on his bump.
“Are you all right?” she cooed and ran her fingertips along his leg. She pulled her hand away when he flinched and kicked out of reflex. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
He sat up and grunted, “It’s fine. Who are you?”
“Cerise. And yours?”
“Zoro. I take it you’re a prisoner too?”
She giggled, “Oh no, this is no prison. This is my home.”
“You’re home? What kind of home is this?”
“It is buried deep in the rock cliffs along the shore. It’s lovely, is it not? No one can find you here, and it is so delightfully cool and dark.” She purred and rubbed up next to him, “Wouldn’t you want to stay here?”
Zoro felt his face go red as he felt her rub up her warm, naked breasts against his arm. He tried to scoot away from her, “I’m sorry, but I’m a pirate and my crew is waiting for me.”
She pulled herself closer to him, “But if you stay here long enough, they’ll forget about you and you’ll forget about them.”
He got up so quickly that she fell over. As he staggered forward, she sniggered, “Where are you going?”
“I’m getting out of here.”
“But you can’t see.”
“Ow!” he had tripped and fell on his knee. Slowly, he got back up again. “Doesn’t matter. I need to find my friends.”
“You can’t leave. Not as you are.”
“Pah.”
Suddenly he bumped into her.
“How the hell did you get in front of me?!” he demanded.
“I am a druid. A sacrificial druid, but a druid nonetheless.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I was born for the sole purpose of being sacrificed to the Sea Toad. But…I had lost my virginity to a person I had once loved. The Sea Toad rejected me because I was not a virgin, and my family left me for disgracing them. Eventually, even the person I considered my lover abandoned me.
But the Sea Toad, ever merciful, saw my grief and gave me a second chance. He said that if I found a virgin that was willing to save me from death, than he would accept the sacrifice, even if that sacrifice was not a druid. So, when I saw you walking along the beach that morning-”
For a moment, Zoro could see the pale girl’s face with flaming red hair in his mind’s eye.
“You tricked me? You weren’t really drowning?”
“Oh no, I was really drowning. I had to be, or else the Sea Toad wouldn’t accept you as a sacrifice. So you saved me and I put you under a spell that made you sleep. But you are very strong to have stirred even once from that spell-”
“Am I dead?”
“Good guess, but no. Go to sleep now, you’ll need your strength for later-”
Zoro stepped back from her, his mind and heart racing to figure a way out of this.
“So now you’re going to sacrifice me? I thought you wanted me to stay.”
“I do! I do! I…” her voice cracked, “I love you, Zoro!”
Her voice echoed throughout the cave, followed by the sounds of a pebble falling down a wall.
“You…you what?”
“I love you!” she cried out and threw her arms around him and nearly knocked them both down, “As I was shaving your pectorals and your calves to get you ready for the sacrifice, something new blossomed within me. I was in love again! And the man I had fallen for is you!”
“You don’t even know me!” he gagged, trying to push the persistent girl off.
“Studying your body was all I needed to know. You do nothing but train, and I can see it in your muscles. The grooves in your teeth show that you eat mostly on your right side. And those scars…ohhhh, those scars!”
Her nose bled at the thought of it. As she wiped her nose, Zoro took the opportunity to finally push her off. But even this didn’t seem to deter her. Instead she wriggled on the floor (as if Zoro could even see her) and moaned, “That’s it, Zoro! I like it rough. C’mon, do whatever you want to me.”
He walked right by her and hoped to never see her again. She popped up in front of him and he bumped into her again.
“I know you don’t love me back, but you could learn to. Sleep with me and stay awhile, and you’ll see.”
“I am not sleeping with a girl I don’t even know, much less see,” grunted Zoro and he tried to push past her.
She grumbled something and they both teleported to the mouth of the cave, where they could see the sun setting and paint the sky orange, red, and purple. He looked over the edge of the mouth of the cave, only to see hundreds of feet of rock and moss below. White, foamy waves combed over the dense kelp forest below and smashed into the cliff.
“You’ll be hung over the face of the cliff upside-down as I call for the Sea Toad,” Cerise said from behind him, “He will come, and swallow you whole. You’ll either die from drowning or having your back broken when you sucked into his stomach. Or…” she ran her fingertips down his arms, “You can sleep with me, and I’ll find someone else he can eat.”
A wind tugged on her hair and enveloped them both in fiery red strands. She stood on her toes and whispered in his ear, “You don’t love me as I love you, I understand. But if you stay with me for one night, I will take you back to your friends. They’ll never have to know what happens.”
She twirled in front of him, but he continued to stare at the last beams of light of the sunset. Cerise huffed and grabbed his arms and shook him until he finally looked at her.
“You can’t leave here alive without my help, Zoro,” she said and grinned, “There are no footholds to help you climb out, and the waves below will crush you or the kelp forest will drag you down to your grave. A druid made this cave. Only another druid can leave this cave alive.” She let go of him and strutted inside the cave, “I’ll be waiting for you, Zoro.”
XXXXXXXXX
Back to the Current Day
“GET NAMI OUT OF HERE!” shouted Sanji to Luffy as he, Luffy, and Dr. Hush tried to keep the bedroom door barricaded. Stella’s butcher knife punctured the door above them.
“Die, you all need to die. You brought the bloody curse here, you all deserve to die,” Stella’s muffled voice said, then a thump was heard. “Get out of the way, Durette!”
“But I want to feed on their flesh, Madame! Make them pay for bringing the chest here. Make them pay!”
The door cracked as the women outside the door rammed their stout bodies into it. Nami took the bed covers and bit into them to keep herself quiet. But it was hard, for her stomach rumbled terrible and it felt as if acid was slowly eating her bones away.
Sanji grabbed Luffy’s shoulder and said, “Take Nami out of here and take her to the ship. We’ll get Stella and Durette under control.”
“But Sanji, I can-”
CRACK A hinge flew off of the door and another knife pierced through. Sanji pushed Luffy off the door.
“Go!” he said and rammed harder against the door, “I’ll be out in a second!”
Luffy scrambled to the bed, grabbed Nami, and kicked the window right out of his socket. Nami looked back at Sanji, confused. He could never hit a woman, no matter how ugly, so why-
“Hold on, Nami!” Luffy said and jumped out the window.
AN: You probably all can guess what happened to Stella and Durette, but it will be confirmed in the next fic. This one was interesting to write, especially now that we know more about Cerise. :D Ah yes, lovely Cerise. Just wait until she pops up in the next couple of fics!