One Piece Re-Read Volume 2 Drabbles
Oct. 24th, 2017 04:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsTitle: Just This Once
Rating: G
Pairing: None/Gen
Word Count: 794
Pirates were the worst. It was one of the few eternal truths in Nami’s life, felt in her heart where she knew how much she had been loved, how the taste of mikans was the most delicious thing in the world, and where money was the avenue the weak took to power. Buggy’s crew embodied that lived reality; they were ridiculous idiots with a shitty, gimmicky theme and they were wrecking a thriving port town for the sheer hell of it, gleefully disregarding of the lives and livelihoods they were destroying. The kid who’d fallen from the sky had seemed like a possible ally at first but then he’d betrayed her hopes as he casually confessed he was a pirate himself.
It was nothing to trick him, to turn him into Buggy as part of her new scheme to get what she wanted. That cretinous clown had what she needed, a map of the Grand Line and with it access to unparalleled pirate wealth and resources. It would be hers for the taking. She would plunder the pillagers and finish her collection of 100 million berries and buy back Kokoyashi’s freedom. All she needed to do was trick the idiots into letting her get close enough to swipe back the map and then she’d disappear, leaving the pirate chumps with nothing to show for all of their misdeeds.
The cannon wasn’t part of her plan and she had never stooped to their level before. Her thievery was an art and a noble deed and just desserts all in one. But killing that guy…that would have put her on equal footing with him and she knew then that her nightmares would no longer be his blood-crazed eyes and the echo of a gun. The appearance of the Demon of East Blue was unexpected to say the least, though the hope she’d allowed to grow again was brutally stomped when he announced his new allegiance to the kid and his status as a pirate. But then he took a dagger to his guts, turned the tables on Buggy and his men, hoisted up the cage with its captive, and got all three of them out of there.
Insanity was the theme of the day as the dog ate the damn key she’d grudgingly stolen, her conscience reminding her that Zoro was stabbed and the kid was in the cage all because of her. And then the lion appeared and it had nearly been the last straw. Only the promise of the map kept her from throwing up her hands and seeking better targets. That and there was something about that boy, about his stubborn insistence that she become his navigator even after all she’d done to him. Fire devoured the pet store as she came out of hiding to watch and she’d felt the flames of her bitter, undying anger rise up from her heart and smolder in her brain. Pirates would always take away what was precious to people and laugh. No good could ever come from any who called themselves by that title. And then Chou Chou had limped back to sit and watch the burning wreckage.
The kid in the straw hat followed after, a single box of rescued pet food in his hands. He gave it to the faithful dog and then he grinned at the crazy mayor and didn’t try to stop the old man’s talk about facing down the Buggy pirates and driving them out of town. Nami looked at the pair of them – the old man in his rusty, half-complete armor and sandals and the gangly kid with eyes that were both guileless and unreadable – and felt the first surge of panic as a pinwheel momentarily spun in her vision. The cannon ball flattened a row of houses, left Roronoa Zoro groggily rubbing his head in the wreckage like he’d been rudely awakened rather than nearly killed. The mayor charged off and the kid, Luffy as the former pirate hunter named him, watched him go and cracked his neck.
A fall from the sky, a dagger to the guts, a lion, a cannonball…those two had defied and survived impossible odds more times in an hour than she had in weeks. Nami looked at Chou Chou, at the salvaged box of dog food and the embers of the pet store. She thought of the Grand Line, of mikan trees and tense faces that turned away from her own. Luffy’s hand was outstretched, a vow to save the mayor and get the map already made. She hated pirates with every fiber of her being and wouldn’t become one. But for once, just then, she could work with some. “I’ll join forces with you for now. Just until we achieve our goals.”
Title: Dauntless
Rating: G/PG - there's blood but it's canon-levels of violence
Pairing: Gen or the beginnings of Zoro->Luffy
Word Count: 494
It had been a split-second decision, one made with the specter of death hanging in the air and the taste of his promise and his vow slowly fading to ashes in his mouth, and yet in the moment it was the open smile he remembered most of all. No coercion, Roronoa Zoro had ended his days as a bounty hunter and consigned himself to piracy as the entirety of a marine base bore down upon them. Captain, he’d called him, that grinning young man with his easy laugh, his battered straw hat, and his dream as outrageous – more so – than his own.
He’d told Luffy he’d never done anything he’d regretted and Zoro didn’t intend to start just because he was now a pirate. Too, there was his pride to contend with. The dagger wound wasn’t as bad as it looked, burned less than the humiliation of being caught off guard and seemingly over confident. The cage Luffy was trapped in made his biceps burn, sent a fresh pulse of blood out to soak into his haramaki and splatter on the street. None of that mattered and he hauled his burden as far as he could before he collapsed, the reality of 9 earlier days of deprivation and beatings and now a gut wound bringing him down faster than he wanted. But sleep could not be denied and Luffy was confident so he’d gone off to rest.
Being literally blasted out of bed had sucked but not as much as that asshole Cabaji kicking his wounds and sending him to the cobblestones. There was weakness and then there was humiliation and this day he wasn’t doing so great at living up to his reputation, not that he’d ever meant to have one as a bounty hunter. The bite of his steel was sharp but the pain from it blunted from the cleanness of the cut. His blood poured out and Zoro stood up straighter. He had a promise to fulfill and a dream to reach and nothing a bunch of two-bit circus pirates could throw at him would be enough to bring him down. He would prove it. The bright hot intensity of Luffy’s eyes were on him, the expectant weight of that gaze as his captain’s foot ground Buggy’s hand into the road, and Zoro took his stance, the one that had earned him his nickname. Three blades flashed, three separate spurts of blood, and Cabaji was down.
He could feel the blackness closing in but not the cold trickle as yet more of his blood spilled onto the streets of the town. Zoro sheathed his swords and smirked in triumph before he crumpled. Sleep was calling but he’d proven his mettle and the power of his steel. The clown, with his ridiculous powers, was waiting but Luffy was ready and eager. And Zoro had no doubt, as his vision shuttered on the image of Luffy’s determined smile, that his captain would win.
Rating: G
Pairing: None/Gen
Word Count: 794
Pirates were the worst. It was one of the few eternal truths in Nami’s life, felt in her heart where she knew how much she had been loved, how the taste of mikans was the most delicious thing in the world, and where money was the avenue the weak took to power. Buggy’s crew embodied that lived reality; they were ridiculous idiots with a shitty, gimmicky theme and they were wrecking a thriving port town for the sheer hell of it, gleefully disregarding of the lives and livelihoods they were destroying. The kid who’d fallen from the sky had seemed like a possible ally at first but then he’d betrayed her hopes as he casually confessed he was a pirate himself.
It was nothing to trick him, to turn him into Buggy as part of her new scheme to get what she wanted. That cretinous clown had what she needed, a map of the Grand Line and with it access to unparalleled pirate wealth and resources. It would be hers for the taking. She would plunder the pillagers and finish her collection of 100 million berries and buy back Kokoyashi’s freedom. All she needed to do was trick the idiots into letting her get close enough to swipe back the map and then she’d disappear, leaving the pirate chumps with nothing to show for all of their misdeeds.
The cannon wasn’t part of her plan and she had never stooped to their level before. Her thievery was an art and a noble deed and just desserts all in one. But killing that guy…that would have put her on equal footing with him and she knew then that her nightmares would no longer be his blood-crazed eyes and the echo of a gun. The appearance of the Demon of East Blue was unexpected to say the least, though the hope she’d allowed to grow again was brutally stomped when he announced his new allegiance to the kid and his status as a pirate. But then he took a dagger to his guts, turned the tables on Buggy and his men, hoisted up the cage with its captive, and got all three of them out of there.
Insanity was the theme of the day as the dog ate the damn key she’d grudgingly stolen, her conscience reminding her that Zoro was stabbed and the kid was in the cage all because of her. And then the lion appeared and it had nearly been the last straw. Only the promise of the map kept her from throwing up her hands and seeking better targets. That and there was something about that boy, about his stubborn insistence that she become his navigator even after all she’d done to him. Fire devoured the pet store as she came out of hiding to watch and she’d felt the flames of her bitter, undying anger rise up from her heart and smolder in her brain. Pirates would always take away what was precious to people and laugh. No good could ever come from any who called themselves by that title. And then Chou Chou had limped back to sit and watch the burning wreckage.
The kid in the straw hat followed after, a single box of rescued pet food in his hands. He gave it to the faithful dog and then he grinned at the crazy mayor and didn’t try to stop the old man’s talk about facing down the Buggy pirates and driving them out of town. Nami looked at the pair of them – the old man in his rusty, half-complete armor and sandals and the gangly kid with eyes that were both guileless and unreadable – and felt the first surge of panic as a pinwheel momentarily spun in her vision. The cannon ball flattened a row of houses, left Roronoa Zoro groggily rubbing his head in the wreckage like he’d been rudely awakened rather than nearly killed. The mayor charged off and the kid, Luffy as the former pirate hunter named him, watched him go and cracked his neck.
A fall from the sky, a dagger to the guts, a lion, a cannonball…those two had defied and survived impossible odds more times in an hour than she had in weeks. Nami looked at Chou Chou, at the salvaged box of dog food and the embers of the pet store. She thought of the Grand Line, of mikan trees and tense faces that turned away from her own. Luffy’s hand was outstretched, a vow to save the mayor and get the map already made. She hated pirates with every fiber of her being and wouldn’t become one. But for once, just then, she could work with some. “I’ll join forces with you for now. Just until we achieve our goals.”
Title: Dauntless
Rating: G/PG - there's blood but it's canon-levels of violence
Pairing: Gen or the beginnings of Zoro->Luffy
Word Count: 494
It had been a split-second decision, one made with the specter of death hanging in the air and the taste of his promise and his vow slowly fading to ashes in his mouth, and yet in the moment it was the open smile he remembered most of all. No coercion, Roronoa Zoro had ended his days as a bounty hunter and consigned himself to piracy as the entirety of a marine base bore down upon them. Captain, he’d called him, that grinning young man with his easy laugh, his battered straw hat, and his dream as outrageous – more so – than his own.
He’d told Luffy he’d never done anything he’d regretted and Zoro didn’t intend to start just because he was now a pirate. Too, there was his pride to contend with. The dagger wound wasn’t as bad as it looked, burned less than the humiliation of being caught off guard and seemingly over confident. The cage Luffy was trapped in made his biceps burn, sent a fresh pulse of blood out to soak into his haramaki and splatter on the street. None of that mattered and he hauled his burden as far as he could before he collapsed, the reality of 9 earlier days of deprivation and beatings and now a gut wound bringing him down faster than he wanted. But sleep could not be denied and Luffy was confident so he’d gone off to rest.
Being literally blasted out of bed had sucked but not as much as that asshole Cabaji kicking his wounds and sending him to the cobblestones. There was weakness and then there was humiliation and this day he wasn’t doing so great at living up to his reputation, not that he’d ever meant to have one as a bounty hunter. The bite of his steel was sharp but the pain from it blunted from the cleanness of the cut. His blood poured out and Zoro stood up straighter. He had a promise to fulfill and a dream to reach and nothing a bunch of two-bit circus pirates could throw at him would be enough to bring him down. He would prove it. The bright hot intensity of Luffy’s eyes were on him, the expectant weight of that gaze as his captain’s foot ground Buggy’s hand into the road, and Zoro took his stance, the one that had earned him his nickname. Three blades flashed, three separate spurts of blood, and Cabaji was down.
He could feel the blackness closing in but not the cold trickle as yet more of his blood spilled onto the streets of the town. Zoro sheathed his swords and smirked in triumph before he crumpled. Sleep was calling but he’d proven his mettle and the power of his steel. The clown, with his ridiculous powers, was waiting but Luffy was ready and eager. And Zoro had no doubt, as his vision shuttered on the image of Luffy’s determined smile, that his captain would win.
