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Blue skies stretched as far as the eye could see, cloudless with the sun at it's apex. A warm spring breeze tickled the skin of any it passed, and waves gently lapped against Lady Luck as endless blue surrounded them. For the Stardusk pirates in this moment, the entire sea seemed to be theirs, and the world was merely waiting for their next adventure with bated breath.
A moment of reprieve from chaos, or perhaps a extended vacation of serenity for some.
On the edge of the ship Luro sat, cleaning his rifle with the same meticulousness he always did, a bright grin on his face as he stared at his reflection within the shiny wood. The redhead humming a small tune to himself as he did so, a song he heard Cedric sing or one he had picked up somewhere.
Zilia sat on a nearby crate with a book in hand and a small smile on her face, while part of it was born from the interesting tale in her hands, it was mostly due to the peace they were afforded.
No navy coming after them, no other pirates trying to attack them, no random enemies coming out of nowhere. The last few days had been peace personified, for the first time in a long time the doctor would actually be able to buy a normal amount of medical supplies when they reached town. The thought actually made her a little giddy, though she did her best to hide it.
"I wanna kill something."
She had in her joy forgotten the walking manifestation of Chaos a few feet away however.
"Luro…it's peaceful we don't need to kill anything."
"Agreed Makachi, why do you want to massacre now of all times?"
The other voice was Emil's, the youngest Prophet who had joined them on their present journey, mainly due to needing to do his job. She and Luro knew it involved Hanako, and why he was actually here but chose not to comment on it. He had promised not to cause trouble on the ship so that was enough, Nikos had also given him very explicit orders.
Runali's orders were basically his, so if she told him to jump, he was required to ask what direction, how high and when his feet were allowed to touch the ground. He had informed the Stardusk Captain of this upon climbing aboard the ship.
He was now fiddling with some square object and had been doing so for some time.
There was also another guest but they were below deck at the moment and not part of the present conversation.
"Remi was with us…so I had to hold back…she's with Mia now so I can go all out now. I wanna fight something."
"...while I'm glad you're holding back your murderous impulses in front of Remi…well mostly this is hardly the time, besides who are you going to kill?"
Luro brought a hand to his chin at this before looking over at the blonde haired youth.
"Emil can I kill you?"
"Let me think about that….No."
"Boo."
Luro sighed a little bit before looking up at the others.
"Does anyone know where a navy base is, Kadi? Jack? Oh wait Cedric you must know a few too."
"If you know, don't answer that," Zilia said turning the page of her book. "Luro you're here with your other half and the rest of your family, can't you just…enjoy this. Also don't ask Alicia or Hanako to spar."
"Come on Z I wasn't going to ask either…I was gonna ask both."
"Luro."
"Fine…you're right Z. I am with you guys, I don't need to kill anything. I mean it'd be nice but I am happy right now so guess it doesn't matter."
"See? How easy was that," Zilia said glancing up from her book. "I know your antsy, just wait till we reach the next town, I'll have a guardian spar with you."
"Really?!"
"Only if you're good."
"Yay! Thanks Z."
"...you handled that surprisingly well," Emil mumbled.
"Years of experience," Zilia said turning the page. "Putting that matter aside…it feels weird returning to Utsukushi for the festival. We're definitely going to draw attention…so this peace will probably only last a few more days."
The doctor sighed a bit at the thought.
"You get a guardian to spar him, you're gonna have to wait for the next empty island. They'll tear the place down in seconds and we'll have angry townspeople on our tails." Runali yawned. Sure she could've told Luro to restrain himself, but there was no fun in that. She had gotten comfortable sitting against the side of the ship not too far from where Luro sat on the edge, with a straw sunhat shadowing her face. Zilia had been right about it being peaceful. It gave the captain ample opportunity to stave off her own restlessness by napping with the cats and Coral. However when she stretched, she jostled them all awake and they scattered. Coral landed near Zilia and the cats disappeared probably to beg for food or find their owner.
Eventually, the haze of sleep blew away with the wind and Runali was on her feet with a curious look. "Mm, why's that place sound familiar…" She leaned against the edge of the ship near Luro, with a furrowed brow as she thought. And then the word 'festival' rang and she snapped her fingers. "Oh right, that's where we got our dragon princess! To think, we didn't even have to lure her onboard. Though, I s'pose all of you were pretty easy to recruit."
Another idea popped in her head and she grinned, being not so secretive as she posited the idea to Luro. "If you really wanna spar, you should join the tournament again if they have it. It'd be a clean sweep!" Waggling a finger at him, she added, "But you gotta take the prize money this time."
Zilia gave a small sigh understanding how true that statement was and made a mental note to check with Kadi later. She gently pet Coral before the door to the lower deck's opened, Seliria walking out of it, wiping what looked like oil off her hands, a bit of it still on her face.
"I think that's a fantastic idea," Seliria said looking at Luro's excited face. "Hanako, you enter the tournament too just as the 'Dragon Princess' did years ago."
The swordswoman closed her eyes.
"Friendly competition is good for you, and it'll let me better gauge where Hanako's at as well. Emil you should enter too."
"If Hanako's entering then I suppose I have no choice in the matter. It's been a while since we sparred anyway."
Seliria looked over at Runali at this.
"What an interesting opportunity you've created Runali. With three involved that prize money is basically mine."
"Um…what do you mean by 'mine' Seliria," Zilia said standing up.
"Of course I'm going to enter as well, I need to stay in shape after all. Don't hold back you three. I'm expecting decent matches from you."
Zilia squeezed the bridge of her nose pushing her glasses up in the process, there wasn't going to be an arena left if she and Luro got matched together. She chose to ignore the color that had drained from Emil's face at this sudden reveal.
"Oooh I've gotten better Seliria. I may win this time," Luro said slamming his hand into his fist.
"Is that so? I'll look forward to it a bit more then."
Zilia's eyes went to the blue sky above, peace was always a temporary thing, there one moment and on the horizon the next. Because of that she had learned to enjoy these small moments, these respites. She hoped with all her heart that this moment would last just a bit longer.
Then ruin found them.
It happened in what could only be a blink, one moment the skies were blue, the next they were pitch black, storm clouds hovering over them as torrents of rain slammed into the ship.
Harsh waves pummeled the side of the ship causing it to lean, almost capsizing from the first 'push', Luro almost fell over the edge but caught himself, putting his arm out for Runali since she was near him.
Violent winds crashed into the sails and threatened to remove anything off the ship that wasn't attempting to stay on, a few barrels had already flown past Emil's head and rested in the sea.
"What's going on! It was cloudless a moment ago!" Emil exclaimed standing up.
"It was also not storming!" Seliria exclaimed, holding her arm up at the sudden downpour.
Luro tried to use his gloves to try and mitigate the wind or at least redirect it, but it ignored him. The wind almost seemed to have a mind of its own, guided by an unseen hand.
Thunder roared and lightning slammed into the ship, hitting the main mast as if the tempest was intentionally aiming for it.
"Watch out!" Seliria yelled as the mast fell towards the ship.
Zilia went to move out of the way but something caused her body to freeze, as if she had been wrapped up in something, before she could confirm what it was her feet were already off the ground.
"...huh?"
In the next moment she was going over the side of the ship and was pulled into the sea.
"Z! She went overboard!"
Luro was already moving, remembering she couldn't swim only to see Seliria dive into the water."
"I got her!" The woman exclaimed before her form vanished into the sea.
In the next moment the boat rocked as the mast crashed into it, breaking off a chunk of it in the process.
"Be care-" Emil's words were cut off as the same invisible force grabbed hold of him, he fell forward his head slamming against the deck, the act disoriented him for a second. By the time he came back he noticed his foot was in the air.
"Wha-"
Emil screamed as he was also pulled into the raging waters, his voice vanished as he sunk below the waves.
For each person on the ship something unseen grabbed hold of them, and with no care for their intentions pulled them into the sea one by one, Luro reached for Runali narrowly missing her hand before the force pulled him in as well.
As those on Lady Luck went over the edge, those who looked towards the deck would see the visage of a person, standing in the center of the ship, unperturbed by the raging storm, but the ocean waters would fill their vision before the eyes of the person could meet their own.
In the sea.
Darkness.
That was the simplest explanation for what followed, there was no blue, no light, just infinite darkness to those who held onto consciousness, and in the next moment the darkness gave way to white. Every member of the crew temporarily or permanent fell towards an infinite bottom. If not for the bubbles escaping from an attempt to breathe, it'd be hard to believe one was still in the sea, they floated within an endless zone of white where not even shadow was cast.
Luro tried to move but found his body wouldn't listen, as if it wasn't his own. With effort he could glance sideways and noticed the others around him, he couldn't see past his left or right but he could 'feel' they were there. Perhaps due to being underwater his voice wouldn't work as usual.
From the strained look on Emil's face it was clear he couldn't move either, he also seemed able to look to his sides but little else. He couldn't see Zilia so he hoped she was outside of his view.
The same force that had dragged them down, now stopped them from even attempting to swim towards the surface, there was nothing to do but sink further into the abyss.
A sudden flash of light drew Luro's attention and directly above the crew, towards what should be the surface of the ocean a pair of golden eyes stared down at them, there was a hint of sympathy within them.
"...I am sorry. I am…so so sorry outsiders. This was not my intent."
The voice that reached them was kind and gentle, the voice sounded young and it was easy to tell from the shaking in their tone that there was true hurt behind their words.
"I did not realize you were there. When I looked there wasn't a ship and I…"
The eyes shut perhaps realizing excuses were meaningless at this point, the owner of this voice clearly had something to do with their present situation, at least that was Luro's assumption.
"...it is too late for me to retrieve you. However this is my fault. I will fix this. I promise I will find a way to help you, to bring you back to the real world."
"...the real world?" Luro's thoughts were filled with questions after that proclamation, but it was getting harder to concentrate, he couldn't feel the water flowing into his lungs, he wasn't drowning for some reason but a sudden exhaustion was enveloping him.
"...I feel the presence of others within some of you. I am sorry but you will lose them. You will lose everything. All you had from the world you come from…will be stripped from you. Stolen."
Luro noticed the eyes glance at him during this, before focusing forward again.
"Survive. Please just survive. I will find you. I will help you. Give me time. We will speak again…just survive. Al….so…..d…t….fi…."
The stranger's words started to dissipate and the darkness overtook the light again, all illumination was soon extinguished, and the unknown force took away what consciousness remained of those within its domain.
Somewhere
Hard floor was the first thing Luro felt, then it was a strange warmth.
Opening his eyes he found himself staring at his reflection, before realizing he was staring at extremely polished brown linoleum floors. Raising his body his eyes rose and immediately started looking for his friends. He noticed the crew not too far away and a sudden wave of relief filled him, he wasn't sure who was awake from where he was but a loud cough drew his attention elsewhere and he noticed Zilia nearby.
The doctor slowly climbed to her knees, and coughing up a bit of water took a few careful breaths before climbing to her feet.
Her gaze moved around until she found the others and she relaxed a little, though she immediately tensed again as her memories came back to her and she realized they were not at the bottom of the ocean, probably.
The crew found themselves in a circular grand hall, an ornamental chandelier hanging high above them and the ceiling itself seemed to spiral upwards into itself, it spun to a point that Zilia got dizzy and focused her attention elsewhere.
All around them were black marble archways in front of oak doors leading to one place or another, but the doors were shut tight, preventing wandering eyes.
Twin pillars lined each archway, a strange final resting on the top of the pillars and were they not in some strange space Zilia would take more time to look into it.
The floor also had a spiral in the center of it, but tree branches seem to burst out of it leading towards each door, stopping just short of the archway.
There was one entrance without an archway that easily towered over the rest of them, the red doors which golden spirals running along the sides of them, rose high to a point they seemed to touch the ceiling.
Emil at this point was up and moving over to Hanako to try and help her up, Zilia turned to see Luro near Runali trying to make sure she was okay, his gaze was clearly on the others as well, something she noticed as she was also keeping an eye on them. However before she could say anything she noticed Luro's whole body flinch.
"...where's my rifle?"
Luro spoke the words and reaching over grabbed at the air, normally he'd grab his gun from who knows where when that happened but now nothing happened.
"...wait I can't smell anyone either."
Zilia's eyes narrowed at this and she realized she couldn't sense anyone, running her hand along her sleeve her rope-dart was also gone.
"My weapon is also-"
Zilia cut herself off and eyes shooting wide open she stumbled back a bit and covered her mouth, the act caused Luro to look fully at Zilia.
"Z?"
"I…I can't see words. My Devil Fruit…isn't working."
Zilia spoke again, tried to summon a guardian, even tried to manifest something but nothing followed, she couldn't even feel the flow of energy anymore. She didn't feel 'off' so she was sure seastone wasn't involved, but she also didn't know where they were at. Another issue was she couldn't summon her Haki either. Seastone couldn't stop that from happening.
Runali gasped when she could finally breathe and think and feel. Everything in her told her to panic, that she shouldn't have been so careless to let the same mistake happen again - but she felt Coral shaking out her feathers next to her. And then Luro next to her. Her senses started to flood back to her and she pushed her eyepatch up to rub her face. "M'fine Luro… I think…" Something felt… off. But before she could figure out what, both Luro and Zilia confirmed it for themselves. She reached at her side, not finding her chakram there. And then she flexed her hand, feeling just how strenuous it was to even conjure it around her hand. "Coral?" The bird stretched out her wings, preening feathers with none of the familiar magma dripping off her. "...That's not a good sign."
Zilia turned to ask someone who she knew was an expert on the matter, when she realized something else concerning.
"Where's Seliria?"
"Lady Seliria has gone ahead."
The sudden voice drew Luro, Emil and Zilia's attention as someone stood nearby, Zilia was about to comment on not sensing them when she remembered that she couldn't. She noticed Luro already had his fists up, she wished she had his nose some days.
"I didn't smell you," Luro said his eyes resting on the figure.
She changed her thoughts to instincts instead of nose.
The speaker appeared to be a child, but on closer observation they were just a tad elfin, perhaps a few inches taller than Zilia.
The person wore strange flowy garments, a mix of blue and white among other colors with flowers adorning the sleeves. They peered at the crew through long bright green hair, their delicate fingers moving up to remove a long bang out of their face.
A pair of yellow eyes peered at them, but not like the ones before, while the eyes were gentle, they were different from the ones before, the voice was also different.
"I…would hope you didn't smell me. I bathe regularly after all Sir Luro."
The person's eyes moved to the remainder of the crew.
"I regret to inform you my master has taken your weapons and if I may use this term 'powers' from you, and everything tied to them. Temporarily of course. Part of my duty is to inform you of that."
The figure with a practiced motion gestured to the large door.
"If you will follow me-"
"Stop. Wait a moment-" Zilia said holding up a hand. "I…I need a minute. A lot happened. Can your master wait while we collect ourselves here?"
"I…suppose you are confused…very well I can wait. If you require answers I will respond to what I can. What I cannot answer I will pose to my master."
The figure motioned to themselves.
"I am not a threat to you so worry not. My master has asked I be absolutely courteous to you…unless you attack me. Take what time you need."
With a motion of their hand, the 'servant' calmly waited, folding their hands in front of them.
"Most important question," Runai pushed herself to a stand and then to the front of the group after she went around helping the others. "Are we dead? Because if we are…" She decided not to share the details of deals to a certain dead but powerful pirate she had. Jones would cause a storm if it was broken, she was sure - but the storm they dealt with didn't feel the same. "Also hard to believe you saying you're not a threat when you haven't introduced yourself and you just mentioned you took our stuff. Better question, how long is temporary? I'd rather have my stuff back now." Her haki felt like a dying candle flame and she felt a little too reliant on sight she didn't have. Runali uncomfortably flipped her eyepatch back over her blind eye as Coral landed on her shoulder.
The servant's body seemed to hunch slightly, a small sigh escaping from them. It was clear they expected such a response, it made logical sense considering the circumstances.
"I…again apologize for the inconvenience. I will answer what I can for you."
Zilia knew that body language, it was the 'forced to take responsibility' hunch, she knew it all too well, almost intimately with how often she and a few others had to do it for their resident redhead.
"I am a humble servant Lady Lev. I am not allowed to introduce myself before my Master. That would be putting myself above my station. I hope you understand. You may call me whatever you wish until it's deemed I can introduce myself…if I'm permitted."
They gave a small bow at this before continuing.
"I…tried to dissuade my Master from taking your belongings, I cannot refuse their will or question their actions. I only follow. If it's any condolence they were not taken because you were a believed threat. They just thought it'd be…'interesting' for you to wake up without them. Your weapons and 'powers' that is."
"That makes no sense. Your master sounds like a pain," Emil said. "Also why are you saying 'powers' like that?"
The servant remained silent, for obvious reasons it was clear they couldn't agree but their twitching closed eyes showed it was hard for them to disagree as well.
"My master is eccentric. Please forgive their antics as much as possible. I also say it that way as an umbrella term, some of your abilities may not be 'powers' but they have been taken all the same, such as Sir Luro's haki gloves for example," The servant finally said opening their eyes. "For your first most important question my master has permitted me to answer that."
"Greenie."
The servant stopped as Luro spoke up.
"I'm sorry?"
"Until we know your name. We'll call you Greenie, cause of your hair," Luro said.
The servant more than likely from their 'eccentric' master was very good at hiding their facial expressions, but the slight twitch of their eyebrows seemed to be enough to convey their feelings on that name.
"I…I see. If…that is the name you have chosen Sir Luro then I will…comply."
Zilia removed her glasses and squeezed the bridge of her nose, disliking allowing Luro naming privileges in this case.
"What about Ash? That's simple and easy to remember."
"How about Flameblaster?" Emil added raising his hand. "May as well give them a cool name."
"You…may call me whatever you wish…but I will say I am more partial to three to four-worded names. To answer your question. Lady Rev, Lady Tashigi's, Sir Kunal, Lady Summers, Lady Vilimar, Sir Luro, Sir Emil…you are not dead…yet."
There was an ominous shift added to the servant's tone as they answered the question, it sounded almost foreign by their almost baby faced expression but they spoke again quickly afterward in their normal polite tone.
"My master told me to say that…but you are quote alive end quote. Also I do not know when you will get your weapons and 'powers' back."
"...that's not a straight answer," Zilia added.
"...I'm sorry my master has requested I not give you one, only to inform you that you are not dead yet. With 'ominous undertones' and all. I was also asked to wave my hands spookily…but I do not know how to do that properly so I've refrained from doing so. It would be faster to speak with them. I'm truly sorry."
"I'm calling you Moss. You're green and you're small." Runali started to physically push the crew forward, with varying degrees of gentleness. "Though based on some of the books Zil's read, you're a little more useless than moss since you can't answer anything - no offense - so let's get moving and find this captain of yours. We're burning undead daylight and I want all of our stuff back." She gestured towards Coral. "Very rude of them to take a poor bird's cool power." As if on cue, Coral bowed her head dramatically, leaning on Runali as if in despair until she fell into the captain's arms. "See? Heartbroken. Cruel to treat animals like this." She glanced over at Luro and Emil giving them both nods and quickly adding, "Both good names though."
"That…is a fair assessment, Lady Lev. Perhaps that would be quicker."
Moss as they were now called relaxed a little bit at this, their shoulders dropping slightly they were clearly content with leaving things to the 'master' it seemed.
"I wouldn't call you unde-" Moss cut themselves off realizing without being able to answer questions it wouldn't help anyway.
"I am sure my master will return your 'powers' and belongings. They were taken on a whim, they will be returned on such knowing them."
Moss raised their hand and with a snap of their fingers, the large doors nearby let out a low groan before they slowly started to open, revealing the way forward. The whole area seemed to vibrate as the doors fully opened until they showed the other room, or that would have been the case had pitch black darkness not been staring back at them.
While it seemed like the other room was coated in shadows lacking any light, closer observation revealed that obsidian water was obstructing the view of the other room, it shimmered slightly the light reflecting like little stars as the crew moved closer and rippled at the slightest touch. It didn't deny entry from the arm Luro shoved through it to Zilia's dismay.
Lowering their head Moss and closing their eyes they motioned towards the 'water'.
"After you…our esteemed guests."