![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Spam Round Two: Part Four - A New Hope....XD
And we hit Water 7 at last...
19. The Unforgiving Blade
It’s unusual for anyone not his nakama to set foot on the deck without him waking. Napping is a good trick, lulling and deceptive, and he’s used it quite effectively before. At first glance he thinks it’s just Usopp who’s returned. But their Long Nose’s nose isn’t square and he wouldn’t handle Merry quite so impartially. He sheathes his sword at the man’s words and runs a hand across sun-warmed wood. What are they up to in town and what will Luffy say to this carpenter’s words? An unfamiliar feeling settles in his stomach and he wishes it were hunger.
20. Take the Black
The Franky Family has made its first and only mistake regarding the Straw Hat pirates. Their house lies in ruins, as broken and battered as poor Usopp’s body, and Zoro frowns at how pitiful the fight had been. His adrenaline is racing, a warrior’s high, and he wants to lose the words of another long nosed man in the heat of battle. Luffy is perched over the mess and for a brief instant he strikes Zoro as ominous in his hooded eyed solemnety. The swordsman knows then that Usopp hasn’t heard. The knot in his gut tightens like a noose.
21. The Fallen One
When the dust finally settles, the outcome is what they’d been expecting all along. Usopp is down and he isn’t getting up again. Zoro sets his mouth into a hard bitter line and quashes the inner voice that’s marveling over how well the sharpshooter had actually done. It’s another betrayal and they can’t afford any more. Not when they’re this close to breaking. His voice is rough, harsh even in his own ears, and he leads them all, even Luffy, in a strung out line of tears and possessions and broken dreams away from the brightest home they’ve ever known.
22. Remember Yesterday
He isn’t hungry for the first time in forever. His stomach hurts, aches with emptiness and weighed down with all the things he should’ve said, have done. This isn’t right. This isn’t the way things are supposed to be. How did everything go wrong in the span of a single night and day? Shanks would be so disappointed. He’s so disappointed. He’s let everyone down. Luffy shrugs out from under the arm Zoro tries to lay across his shoulders and seeks a lonely high point to surround with his pain but he doesn’t keep the swordsman from his own vigil.
23. Keep the Flame Burning
Truth is a funny thing. And another betrayal follows on the heels of the first and greater one. The pigeon guy speaks for himself at last and the words dripping from his poisoned tongue only make his blood boil. Robin is innocent and he’d lay a week’s worth of meat that they’d been wrong about the Going Merry too. Everything that’s happened in this stupid city has been a lie and all he wants is to tear it to the ground. Nearby he can hear the familiar snick of Zoro freeing his blades and Luffy grins and cracks his knuckles.
24. Hero’s Return
Nami’s words finally urge him free, the reality of Robin’s sacrifice making him strong enough to break down buildings and fly across the rooftops with the Aqua Laguna spitting deadly salt water at his heels. His nakama are mostly gathered and he knows where the rest of them are. He’s ready to fight whatever and whoever it takes to bring them all together again. He lands next to Zoro and Chopper, listens to the reindeer’s breathless tale of chimneys. Laughing at where his swordsman has been seems to shake free some of the tension that’d been tightening his gut.
19. The Unforgiving Blade
It’s unusual for anyone not his nakama to set foot on the deck without him waking. Napping is a good trick, lulling and deceptive, and he’s used it quite effectively before. At first glance he thinks it’s just Usopp who’s returned. But their Long Nose’s nose isn’t square and he wouldn’t handle Merry quite so impartially. He sheathes his sword at the man’s words and runs a hand across sun-warmed wood. What are they up to in town and what will Luffy say to this carpenter’s words? An unfamiliar feeling settles in his stomach and he wishes it were hunger.
20. Take the Black
The Franky Family has made its first and only mistake regarding the Straw Hat pirates. Their house lies in ruins, as broken and battered as poor Usopp’s body, and Zoro frowns at how pitiful the fight had been. His adrenaline is racing, a warrior’s high, and he wants to lose the words of another long nosed man in the heat of battle. Luffy is perched over the mess and for a brief instant he strikes Zoro as ominous in his hooded eyed solemnety. The swordsman knows then that Usopp hasn’t heard. The knot in his gut tightens like a noose.
21. The Fallen One
When the dust finally settles, the outcome is what they’d been expecting all along. Usopp is down and he isn’t getting up again. Zoro sets his mouth into a hard bitter line and quashes the inner voice that’s marveling over how well the sharpshooter had actually done. It’s another betrayal and they can’t afford any more. Not when they’re this close to breaking. His voice is rough, harsh even in his own ears, and he leads them all, even Luffy, in a strung out line of tears and possessions and broken dreams away from the brightest home they’ve ever known.
22. Remember Yesterday
He isn’t hungry for the first time in forever. His stomach hurts, aches with emptiness and weighed down with all the things he should’ve said, have done. This isn’t right. This isn’t the way things are supposed to be. How did everything go wrong in the span of a single night and day? Shanks would be so disappointed. He’s so disappointed. He’s let everyone down. Luffy shrugs out from under the arm Zoro tries to lay across his shoulders and seeks a lonely high point to surround with his pain but he doesn’t keep the swordsman from his own vigil.
23. Keep the Flame Burning
Truth is a funny thing. And another betrayal follows on the heels of the first and greater one. The pigeon guy speaks for himself at last and the words dripping from his poisoned tongue only make his blood boil. Robin is innocent and he’d lay a week’s worth of meat that they’d been wrong about the Going Merry too. Everything that’s happened in this stupid city has been a lie and all he wants is to tear it to the ground. Nearby he can hear the familiar snick of Zoro freeing his blades and Luffy grins and cracks his knuckles.
24. Hero’s Return
Nami’s words finally urge him free, the reality of Robin’s sacrifice making him strong enough to break down buildings and fly across the rooftops with the Aqua Laguna spitting deadly salt water at his heels. His nakama are mostly gathered and he knows where the rest of them are. He’s ready to fight whatever and whoever it takes to bring them all together again. He lands next to Zoro and Chopper, listens to the reindeer’s breathless tale of chimneys. Laughing at where his swordsman has been seems to shake free some of the tension that’d been tightening his gut.