http://sazuki-reda.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
sazuki-reda.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
31_days2010-09-21 06:55 pm
sazuki-reda.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2010-09-21 06:55 pm
[Sept 21] [One Piece] We Can't Pretend
Title: We Can't Pretend; Chapter 4 excerpt of Save Me
Day/Theme: Sept 21 - "human jackals for every human disaster"
Series: One Piece
Characters: Zoro, Sanji, 2 OCs
Rating: PG - cursing
~!~
Save Me
~!~
Chapter 4: Trapped In A Circle
~!~
The night has reached its end
We can’t pretend
~!~
It was hot. Unbearably so. He could feel the sweat trickling everywhere, but it itched underneath his bandages the most. He touched his side where the wound was its greatest and grimaced when the pain shot from his side to his arm, tingling as it went.
Pushing the pain to the side, he tried to focus on something else. Well, he had managed to get above ground to look around just for that reason - and only managed to aggravate the wounds more, no doubt. He had followed Sanji. So his ‘something else’ was Sanji, but the idiot cook seemed to have fallen off the deep end.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Sanji screamed at the air, his hands wrapped around nothing, as if he were holding someone by their shirt collar. Against a wall of air?
Zoro blinked at the sight. He shifted his position, kicking up sand as his feet moved. He crossed his arms, hiding the fact that he was putting pressure on his side, biting the inside of his lip to hide the urge to grumble obscenities to whatever power had decided to drop him off in a hot desert instead of the slightly humid village.
“Oi, shitty cook, what the hell are you doing?”
Sanji turned to face him, and he grimaced at the wide-eyed anger apparent in his crew member. Not just anger either. He could sense desperation, in the way Sanji’s hands were shaking. Hell, even his stance seemed weaker than it should be, like at any moment the cook’s legs would just collapse.
“What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” Sanji shouted, and Zoro mentally answered: Like you’re playing a pretend game with someone from your imagination. In short, like you’ve gone mad. “I’m trying to get information from -”
Ah. Here was the clue he needed, the phrase he needed to check Sanji’s sanity. “From who?”
Sanji stopped his words. Took in a breath. Zoro stared at him, watched him turn to look at the invisible person he was holding up. And then Sanji collapsed, his legs falling, his arms by his side, his head down. He became a crumpled heap on the ground, staring straight ahead at absolutely nothing.
Concern wormed its way into Zoro’s thoughts when he realized the cook was laughing - and holding a hand over his eyes as if hiding tears. The concern itched worse than his bandaged wound, and Zoro found himself moving over to crouch beside the cook, placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking him.
“Oi, cook, snap out of it!” He shouted, trying to reach through to the blond-haired annoying crew mate - but still his nakama.
When Sanji kept laughing, Zoro found his patience running thin, found his own worry and anger starting to get the best of him. “Tch. Oi, what the hell is wrong with you?”
A voice answered him. “He doesn’t want to accept it.”
Zoro froze, his eyes narrowing. Keeping one hand on the crazy-cook’s shoulder, he reached around with his other hand to his waist where his swords would normally be. But he only grabbed at empty air, frowning as he recalled that his swords had been lost during the battle days ago - and the empty sheathes were sitting under the table that had become his bed. He grimaced and lifted his head to meet the owner of this new voice, ready to use his bare hands in a fight if he had to.
When he saw the stranger, Zoro nearly lost his balance and fell forward in shock. Standing before him, leaning against the air - how was that possible? - was a child. A freakin’ child, leaning back against air, arms crossed, wearing black pants much like Zoro’s own, except the kid’s cut off halfway between the knees and the feet. He also wore a white shirt, but it wasn’t tight or tucked in, instead hanging loosely with a V-neck that hung down so low it may have been a size too big.
However, what really started to set Zoro on edge, was something else. And it wasn’t the wolf ears, bushy tail, or golden eyes, either. No, it was the fact that this kid was wearing a strange replica of his own clothes, right down to the black bandana. Except the wolf-child had decided to pull the bandana down to hang around his neck.
“Hi!” The kid grinned.
Zoro blinked. Opened his mouth. Found that words wouldn’t come out. Closed his mouth. Blinked again.
Then he shook his head and turned to deal with more important matters, namely the sanity of the cook. And maybe the sanity of himself.
Just ignore it. It’s just a figment of your over-taxed mind. It’ll go away eventually.
A slight dizziness assaulted him and he had a hand on the ground to steady himself, thinking maybe he should either sit or stand instead of crouching. “That’s mean. Don’t ignore me! What if I don’t want to go away?” Maybe he should just pull the cook up and leave, if that thing was going to keep talking to him.
He heard the young boy’s voice again, high and whiny. “I’m not a thing!”
"Then what the hell am I supposed to call you?" Zoro snapped back before he could control his reaction.
He groaned when the kid smiled. He was encouraging the downfall of his own sanity by speaking to this strange creation of his mind. "I'm real, though! My name is Mizumi and I'm your okami."
Zoro blinked, shaking his head, reaching out to grab the cook's shoulders and pull them both to their feet. As he shifted his stance, facing back the way they had come, he glanced over at the wolf kid who hadn't moved from the odd position of leaning against air.
"What do you mean, my okami?"
So be it. If he had to be crazy in order to get information, then so be it. He didn't feel any different. It wasn't like he was going to jump off a cliff or kill his nakama. He just didn't think a creature such as this talking wolf...thing...had any right to exist. The only talking animal he had ever come across was Chopper, and the reindeer had an excuse: he had a devil fruit.
But this kid...
"Okami. Wolf spirit. A gift from the island. Water chose you and sent me. But you're the User so you have to lead me. See, I'm Mizumi - 'of water.' Your friend was chosen by Fire, so my brother Hiomi was trying to help but..."
"What the hell are you staring at marimo?"
Sanji's voice snapped Zoro's attention away from the wolf child to see that the cook was now standing well enough on his own. The singed suit was shifted back into place and the long, thin arms pushed back and away, one hand reaching into the jacket pocket as if by habit. A grimace quickly contorted Sanji's features as he must have realized for the thousandth time that he had no cigarettes.
The cook sighed, lifted a hand to his face, and combed fingers through his blond hair before taking a breath and setting his legs in a determined stance. "Is there a talking wolf creature bothering you, too?"
Swerving his eyes from the wolf-child to Sanji, Zoro felt his mouth gape open. When he realized what he was doing, he growled, an eyebrow twitching. "How - what -"
Looking off into the distance, Sanji muttered, "I guess that's a 'yes.'" He shook his head and then glared at a point beside him, oddly enough almost - almost - looking at the wolf-child that Zoro was beginning to realize was actually there. "So what do we do from here?"
Zoro cocked his head to the side, feeling ignored. He crossed his arms and huffed, glaring at the desert sand swirling in the air in front of them. As far as he cared, they might as well go back and ask Robin if she had any crazy wolf creatures following her, too...
"That's what Hiomi was suggesting!" The wolf-child piped up, his small body suddenly standing in front of Zoro, a wide grin on his face.
Zoro shuffled back a few steps, earning a snide comment from Sanji. "Oi, marimo, just get used to the fact that they're real; there's no reason to jump like a woman scared of a rat."
"B-But! He just suddenly -" With a growl, Zoro pulled his hand back down to his side, wishing for his swords. "Whatever. Can't we just go back?"
Sanji shrugged. "I guess for now. Might as well find out if Robin's been keeping a secret. But -"
"But what?"
"What about the others? What about the barrier? I have yet to see any sign of Nami-san, or Luffy even."
Zoro shrugged, trying to ignore the odd feeling in his stomach, the spark of worry. Worry for his nakama. He shook it off and started walking back through the sand, heading in the direction he had walked from. "I'm sure Luffy is keeping everyone safe and they're the ones looking for us."
Sanji didn't respond right away. But the cook wasn't following him either. After a few more steps in the sand, Zoro turned around, wiping sweat from his face as he narrowed his eyes and glared back at the unmoving blond-haired nakama. "Oi!"
Sanji glared back at him and pointed his arm to the side. "It's that way, idiot."
A/N: 1) Chapter 4 isn't on fanfic.net yet but this is the first part of the 4th chapter; 2)hiomi, mizumi, okami - play on syllables/ japanese words, probably really badly but I think 'hi' means fire 'mizu' means water and 'okami' means wolf spirit/god (though I've been told recently that I spelled it wrong). Ah well. I was making names up and adding that idea helped me keep a theme between my OCs.
Day/Theme: Sept 21 - "human jackals for every human disaster"
Series: One Piece
Characters: Zoro, Sanji, 2 OCs
Rating: PG - cursing
~!~
Save Me
~!~
Chapter 4: Trapped In A Circle
~!~
The night has reached its end
We can’t pretend
~!~
It was hot. Unbearably so. He could feel the sweat trickling everywhere, but it itched underneath his bandages the most. He touched his side where the wound was its greatest and grimaced when the pain shot from his side to his arm, tingling as it went.
Pushing the pain to the side, he tried to focus on something else. Well, he had managed to get above ground to look around just for that reason - and only managed to aggravate the wounds more, no doubt. He had followed Sanji. So his ‘something else’ was Sanji, but the idiot cook seemed to have fallen off the deep end.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Sanji screamed at the air, his hands wrapped around nothing, as if he were holding someone by their shirt collar. Against a wall of air?
Zoro blinked at the sight. He shifted his position, kicking up sand as his feet moved. He crossed his arms, hiding the fact that he was putting pressure on his side, biting the inside of his lip to hide the urge to grumble obscenities to whatever power had decided to drop him off in a hot desert instead of the slightly humid village.
“Oi, shitty cook, what the hell are you doing?”
Sanji turned to face him, and he grimaced at the wide-eyed anger apparent in his crew member. Not just anger either. He could sense desperation, in the way Sanji’s hands were shaking. Hell, even his stance seemed weaker than it should be, like at any moment the cook’s legs would just collapse.
“What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” Sanji shouted, and Zoro mentally answered: Like you’re playing a pretend game with someone from your imagination. In short, like you’ve gone mad. “I’m trying to get information from -”
Ah. Here was the clue he needed, the phrase he needed to check Sanji’s sanity. “From who?”
Sanji stopped his words. Took in a breath. Zoro stared at him, watched him turn to look at the invisible person he was holding up. And then Sanji collapsed, his legs falling, his arms by his side, his head down. He became a crumpled heap on the ground, staring straight ahead at absolutely nothing.
Concern wormed its way into Zoro’s thoughts when he realized the cook was laughing - and holding a hand over his eyes as if hiding tears. The concern itched worse than his bandaged wound, and Zoro found himself moving over to crouch beside the cook, placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking him.
“Oi, cook, snap out of it!” He shouted, trying to reach through to the blond-haired annoying crew mate - but still his nakama.
When Sanji kept laughing, Zoro found his patience running thin, found his own worry and anger starting to get the best of him. “Tch. Oi, what the hell is wrong with you?”
A voice answered him. “He doesn’t want to accept it.”
Zoro froze, his eyes narrowing. Keeping one hand on the crazy-cook’s shoulder, he reached around with his other hand to his waist where his swords would normally be. But he only grabbed at empty air, frowning as he recalled that his swords had been lost during the battle days ago - and the empty sheathes were sitting under the table that had become his bed. He grimaced and lifted his head to meet the owner of this new voice, ready to use his bare hands in a fight if he had to.
When he saw the stranger, Zoro nearly lost his balance and fell forward in shock. Standing before him, leaning against the air - how was that possible? - was a child. A freakin’ child, leaning back against air, arms crossed, wearing black pants much like Zoro’s own, except the kid’s cut off halfway between the knees and the feet. He also wore a white shirt, but it wasn’t tight or tucked in, instead hanging loosely with a V-neck that hung down so low it may have been a size too big.
However, what really started to set Zoro on edge, was something else. And it wasn’t the wolf ears, bushy tail, or golden eyes, either. No, it was the fact that this kid was wearing a strange replica of his own clothes, right down to the black bandana. Except the wolf-child had decided to pull the bandana down to hang around his neck.
“Hi!” The kid grinned.
Zoro blinked. Opened his mouth. Found that words wouldn’t come out. Closed his mouth. Blinked again.
Then he shook his head and turned to deal with more important matters, namely the sanity of the cook. And maybe the sanity of himself.
Just ignore it. It’s just a figment of your over-taxed mind. It’ll go away eventually.
A slight dizziness assaulted him and he had a hand on the ground to steady himself, thinking maybe he should either sit or stand instead of crouching. “That’s mean. Don’t ignore me! What if I don’t want to go away?” Maybe he should just pull the cook up and leave, if that thing was going to keep talking to him.
He heard the young boy’s voice again, high and whiny. “I’m not a thing!”
"Then what the hell am I supposed to call you?" Zoro snapped back before he could control his reaction.
He groaned when the kid smiled. He was encouraging the downfall of his own sanity by speaking to this strange creation of his mind. "I'm real, though! My name is Mizumi and I'm your okami."
Zoro blinked, shaking his head, reaching out to grab the cook's shoulders and pull them both to their feet. As he shifted his stance, facing back the way they had come, he glanced over at the wolf kid who hadn't moved from the odd position of leaning against air.
"What do you mean, my okami?"
So be it. If he had to be crazy in order to get information, then so be it. He didn't feel any different. It wasn't like he was going to jump off a cliff or kill his nakama. He just didn't think a creature such as this talking wolf...thing...had any right to exist. The only talking animal he had ever come across was Chopper, and the reindeer had an excuse: he had a devil fruit.
But this kid...
"Okami. Wolf spirit. A gift from the island. Water chose you and sent me. But you're the User so you have to lead me. See, I'm Mizumi - 'of water.' Your friend was chosen by Fire, so my brother Hiomi was trying to help but..."
"What the hell are you staring at marimo?"
Sanji's voice snapped Zoro's attention away from the wolf child to see that the cook was now standing well enough on his own. The singed suit was shifted back into place and the long, thin arms pushed back and away, one hand reaching into the jacket pocket as if by habit. A grimace quickly contorted Sanji's features as he must have realized for the thousandth time that he had no cigarettes.
The cook sighed, lifted a hand to his face, and combed fingers through his blond hair before taking a breath and setting his legs in a determined stance. "Is there a talking wolf creature bothering you, too?"
Swerving his eyes from the wolf-child to Sanji, Zoro felt his mouth gape open. When he realized what he was doing, he growled, an eyebrow twitching. "How - what -"
Looking off into the distance, Sanji muttered, "I guess that's a 'yes.'" He shook his head and then glared at a point beside him, oddly enough almost - almost - looking at the wolf-child that Zoro was beginning to realize was actually there. "So what do we do from here?"
Zoro cocked his head to the side, feeling ignored. He crossed his arms and huffed, glaring at the desert sand swirling in the air in front of them. As far as he cared, they might as well go back and ask Robin if she had any crazy wolf creatures following her, too...
"That's what Hiomi was suggesting!" The wolf-child piped up, his small body suddenly standing in front of Zoro, a wide grin on his face.
Zoro shuffled back a few steps, earning a snide comment from Sanji. "Oi, marimo, just get used to the fact that they're real; there's no reason to jump like a woman scared of a rat."
"B-But! He just suddenly -" With a growl, Zoro pulled his hand back down to his side, wishing for his swords. "Whatever. Can't we just go back?"
Sanji shrugged. "I guess for now. Might as well find out if Robin's been keeping a secret. But -"
"But what?"
"What about the others? What about the barrier? I have yet to see any sign of Nami-san, or Luffy even."
Zoro shrugged, trying to ignore the odd feeling in his stomach, the spark of worry. Worry for his nakama. He shook it off and started walking back through the sand, heading in the direction he had walked from. "I'm sure Luffy is keeping everyone safe and they're the ones looking for us."
Sanji didn't respond right away. But the cook wasn't following him either. After a few more steps in the sand, Zoro turned around, wiping sweat from his face as he narrowed his eyes and glared back at the unmoving blond-haired nakama. "Oi!"
Sanji glared back at him and pointed his arm to the side. "It's that way, idiot."
A/N: 1) Chapter 4 isn't on fanfic.net yet but this is the first part of the 4th chapter; 2)hiomi, mizumi, okami - play on syllables/ japanese words, probably really badly but I think 'hi' means fire 'mizu' means water and 'okami' means wolf spirit/god (though I've been told recently that I spelled it wrong). Ah well. I was making names up and adding that idea helped me keep a theme between my OCs.