~You Are Your Choices~1100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggG7di2pxS
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"Bepo, where is Summer-ya?" Law walked up to his visibly nervous friend, glancing around the clearing in search of the mysterious blonde. It was getting quite late in the afternoon and Casper wanted help cooking dinner for the crew, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"She left with three of the island women, Captain." Narrowing his eyes in frustration, he gripped his nodachi a little tighter. Bepo must have taken this as a sign of anger on his part, and quickly lowered his head. "I'm sorry."
"I told you to keep an eye on her." Law replied sternly, not entirely angry that Bepo hadn't been able to keep her in check. In the short time that she had been onboard, Law had come to realize the girl was a sort of free spirit. Often times, he would find her wandering the submarine at odd hours of the day. Keeping her in one place seemed to be impossible and that played on Law's nerves regularly. So it came as no surprise that she had disappeared once again, though Law had hoped having Bepo be the one to watch her would perhaps make her more willing to stay put. The girl had taken quite a liking to the polar bear.
"I'm sorry, Captain. She said she wouldn't be gone long and she would keep out of trouble." Law stared at the thick forest ahead of them as if he could see Summer from here. Already, the sky was getting darker making the trees grow sinister shadows.
"How long ago was this?" The bear scrunched his face up in thought before giving a confident answer.
"About two hours ago." Sighing, he turned away from the tree line and began walking towards the clearing.
"We shouldn't expect her until morning then. Casper-ya should be making dinner at this point so come back to the ship, Bepo." He stopped and glanced back when he realized the bear wasn't following him. He raised an eyebrow in question.
Bepo looked back to the forest, then back to Law. "Are you sure she'll be alright, Captain?"
It was then that he realized how strong of a bond his first mate had with his mysterious new crewmember. Bepo made connections with people easily (a little surprisingly considering he wasn't a human himself and his extreme sensitivity.) Who he deemed a good person he would bond with quickly, but he hadn't expected the bear to feel this strongly about Summer this quickly.
'There is more to her than we may think, then.' Law nodded in response.
"Summer-ya can take care of herself. Her escape from Impel Down proves that." Law's answer seemed to ease the bear's discomfort somewhat. "We will wait for her in the morning. Come on, then. Casper-ya should be making fish tonight." The bear nodded happily.
"Aye, Captain."
The mention of fish quickly erased his dark mood and Bepo walked beside Law towards the sub with a small smile. Glancing at his friend, he couldn't help but smirk as well.
"Can I please wear my own clothes?" Summer asked, feeling horribly exposed in the bikini-like outfit the native women had given (or rather forced) her to wear upon their arrival at the village.
"We will not have you wearing the last vestiges of your imprisonment. You are free from their power now. Besides, those clothes were quite…foul." The blonde warrior said, who Summer had learned was named Marcia. She wrinkled her nose at the memory of the unwashed uniform.
The women had given her a tour of the village, explaining the dreadfully boring history of each building and its importance to their community. Each person they met felt the need to greet her, or shake her hand which she quickly grew annoyed of. By the time they had made it to the center of the town, she was about ready to murder someone at the mention of another 'important fact about our island's foundation.'
"We will outfit you with your own weapons while we are here." Kikyo, the eldest, said as they approached the weapons and armor shops. Summer's ears perked up at the mention of weapons. She hadn't had a weapon since she was imprisoned. Now, her hands were itching to hold one. They stand had a large variety of weaponry, though mostly bows and arrows adorned the walls.
"Ah, you must be the one who was with the pirates." Said the shopkeeper, a tiny woman who didn't look at all able to craft such weaponry. She spread her arms over the counter. "Please, take your pick."
Summer stood with a finger on her chin, eyes narrowed as she inspected the instruments of steel around her. She dismissed bows as an option, having only minimal experience with using it. Swords weren't her style, being too heavy or slow for her lithe figure and quick fighting style.
"Hmm…" Her eyes scanned back and forth. Unfortunately, she didn't find anything to her liking. She turned to the shopkeeper. "Do you have anything else? Maybe something smaller?" The woman looked around in thought.
"Let's see…Ah! I think I know what you might like." She kneeled down behind the counter and set a cloth-wrapped item in front of Summer. Removing the top layer of cloth, she revealed four well-cared-for daggers. Holding it out to Summer, she gingerly took it in her hand, a smile forming on her face. "What do you think?"
She took the time to inspect every inch of it, turning it this way and that, feeling the weight of it in her hand. She looked up in happiness. "They're perfect." The shopkeeper smiled in return.
"We don't normally use daggers, but I always keep a few just in case." Coming out from around the counter, she gestured to a nearby tree. "Why don't you try them out?"
Summer didn't need to be told twice. Quickly taking one in her hand, she threw it towards the tree, feeling satisfaction at the sound of the knife hitting home.
"Thank you, these are exactly what I want." She said after pulling the dagger from the tree trunk.
"That's what I like to hear." The shopkeeper said, smiling and waving as they left her stand. Kikyo looked at Summer strangely.
"Daggers are an odd choice of weapon. Not many would choose them."
Summer shrugged a half smile on her face as she stared down at the small weapons. "I'm used to them." None of them spoke after that, slowly walking down the main road of the village.
The houses stood close to each other, lined down the main road with other roads branching off of it. It was very organized and neat, easy to navigate.
The sky was dark at this point, surprising Summer by how much time had passed. Her stomach grumbled audibly, making her face go red from embarrassment. She almost fell over as a hand smacked her back.
"Haha! You have an appetite I see!" Marcia laughed loudly. "The great hall should be serving food now, so we will eat there."
Summer nodded and followed the women to the noisiest building in the village.
Casper kept looking out the window in the kitchen towards the menacing forest. Chopping the onions took longer than usual because of his worried glances. Not even the noisy banter of the men just outside that usually bothered him made him pause in irritation.
His eyes wandered yet again to the window, shifting his attention from cutting the vegetables to the space outside. Forcing himself to focus, he returned his thoughts to his work and threw the ingredients into the pot and stirred the bottom.
Serving food without the girl was slower, but the hall was considerably less noisy than it normally was. The men spoke lowly, as if not to disturb some unseen force. Even as he distributed food, Casper only received quiet 'thank you's.'
The captain didn't have any medical books to read tonight, so he sat among his crew, leaning down into his seat with his hat over his eyes. Bepo sat next to him happily munching on the fish he had received earlier.
Casper came over and placed the food in front of the captain, though he did not return to the kitchen immediately after. Law seemed to sense his continued presence and looked up with a questioning gaze.
"Yes, Casper-ya?"
"Are you entirely sure the lass will come back? After all, she didn't want to be here in the first place. Who's to say she won't just stay here?" Law lowered his hat again to cover his eyes but Casper could see the wide smirk just under the brim. He answered without hesitation.
"She'll come back."
He said nothing more and the cook took that as his cue to leave. Casper had never had any reason to doubt Law's judgment before, but he hoped to whatever god there was above that the young man was right.
Penguin and Shachi sat nearby, overhearing the captain's conversation with the cook. They glanced at each other.
"You think Captain's right?" Penguin asked his friend quietly. Shachi sighed, shaking his head.
"I don't know. She didn't seem to want to stay when we asked." Penguin looked away sadly.
"Yeah..." The conversation ended there, though both of them silently hoped to themselves that she would come back.
Summer's breathing was labored as she ran/limped through the forest. The darkness made progress difficult, as the crescent moon didn't give much illumination. Hidden brush and sharp leaves left nasty red scratches all over her body.
'Damn skimpy clothing.' She thought. At least they had allowed her to keep her boots, otherwise her feet would have been ripped to shreds by the various rocks and sticks hiding in the brush. Her ankle would have given out long ago as well.
She tried keeping the noise to a minimum, but the small sounds of rustling branches and her heavy breathing seemed incredibly loud to Summer. She didn't want to alert the warrior women of her escape, but at this point there was nothing she could do about the noise.
She had to get back to the sub. Now.
Sure, the village had been nice enough. True, the people and food were great. But never leaving again?
Oh, god no.
'Like hell I'm gonna hide here till the day I die.'
She had no idea which direction the submarine actually was, but with no reference points to go by, all she could do was pray and hope for the best.
"Dammit…" She muttered as her ankle gave another sharp pain. She really shouldn't be running, but the sub was the only place she wanted to be at that moment, much as she didn't want to admit it.
She continued to run blindly, oblivious to her surroundings at this point. She wasn't sure how much time had passed before she collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. Her face was now covered with dirt and the bugs and wildlife would probably eat her alive before morning, but she was too tired to care.
She could have sworn that she heard a voice somewhere, but she was asleep before she could think about it anymore.
Law leaned against the hull of the sub, his nodachi resting on his shoulder. His eyes were directed up at the stars, lazily reflecting on their beauty. The night was peaceful, and Law found his mind wandering to other things.
The looming threat of Summer's past piqued his interest and made him wary at the same time.
"It would be wiser to stay the hell out of my past. You may not like what you find."
She had warned him plenty of times that digging up information on her was dangerous, and he began to wonder if such an action would even be worth facing these unknown risks. Law had never been as interested in something as he was with her, and he thought he knew why.
She was a complicated puzzle, one with many faces and hidden sides. Law could pick apart the secrets of any other human he met with relative ease, but he couldn't figure her out. She was constantly changing, it seemed. Indifferent and cold one moment, then shy and kind the next. Solving her would bring a great sense of satisfaction to the pirate doctor. After all, he was never one to back out of a challenge.
A noise in the woods brought him out of his thoughts and gripped the hilt of his weapon, ready for whatever it was that was charging through the trees. It was certainly getting closer, and quickly. He couldn't see anything as the shadows made visibility impossible at this point.
A figure burst out of the trees on his right. It was human, and the woman was breathing with difficulty. He watched her stumble and fall, and Law slowly made his way over to her.
He spotted the showy clothing that all Kuja women wore and narrowed his eyes. He couldn't understand why a Kuja woman would be running around the forest in the middle of the night, but the taking of his object of interest left him with ill feelings towards the island's tribe. Something about her was familiar though and he quickly smirked, instantly relaxing his grip on his nodachi. She faced away from him, but her long blonde hair gave her away.
He stopped beside her and crouched down. Tilting his head in amusement, he chuckled lowly.
"Welcome back."
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