Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wild Magic should really be outlawed.

Like, who thinks it's okay to walk around with the embodiment of literal chaos holed up in your soul and you occasionally explode or turn someone into a frog without repercussions? 

Okay, well— to be fair, it’s not like wild magic users chose to be born like that. So maybe not outlawed but like, c’mon man. Her ass does not want to get turned into a toad right now. Not when she was running from the guards like her life depended on it. 

Then of course, because it was just her luck , she ran headfirst into a party, of which had a little unsuspecting gnome leading the pack and bumbling off about this and that. On any other day, she might have cracked a joke about being blinded by the audacious get up the little gnome was wearing and how that sent her tumbling into him thereafter. But that comment was long gone by the time her body tumbled into his and they went collapsing down in a flail of limbs.

The minute he hit the down there was a pop , snap, and something that vaguely resembled the crackling of a firecracker. And in that moment, she knew she was well and truly screwed. 

The subsequent flash of blinding colors that came thereafter made a sort of subdued realization hit her.

Just my luck, is the first thing the Tiefling can really think before the chaotic magic spins and pounces.  

The second thing is, Why is it always Wild Magic? as her vision swarms with the colors and that same pop, snap, whizz(?) sounds right in her ears. And her entire body seems to tear apart molecule by molecule. Her skin sizzling and burning as the magic pours over her. She has half a mind to scream, but it’s gone before she can make a single note.

It isn’t long before her consciousness leaves with it. The last thing she sees is a sunny day in a small dirt road. The third and final thought she has before descending into darkness is Was the ground always dirt?

She’s out like a light. 

Not to brag, but Zoro thought he was doing pretty well for himself 7 days in. A month felt like nothing with the way he was holding up. Honestly he was getting a lot of sleep, more than he’d had in a while, and he appreciated that sentiment. Sure it was boring as shit, but he’s a swordsman, he’s learned patience.

A month would be here in no time at all. Hell he could barely even feel the hunger. 

Still. It was a boring wait. 

Which was why he was a smidgen glad when something happened that afternoon. 

It was a normal day, a day where Zoro would nap away the time or meditate to try and do something to alleviate the boredom, but it was a normal day.

What wasn’t normal was the odd flash of light behind him — pink, green, yellow, and blue in quick succession — followed by a strange pop, snap, shweee sound. This is subsequently chased by a thump, a groan, then silence. The light fades, the odd sound that has accompanied it silences, and just leaves Zoro very confused from where he is held to the pole. 

There is a brief scuffle from near the gates, some shouting and barking of orders before the gates swing open and in marches a slew of marine lackeys. Zoro watches them in a bored sort of way, figuring they were here to investigate the odd noise and rave that occurred behind him. But what he wasn’t banking on were the soldiers faltering and going wide eyed at whatever they saw.

One marine, closer to where Zoro could hear him, whispered, “A demon.”

Zoro rolled his eyes, because really? You would have thought they’d have gotten used to seeing him. Wasn’t the awe and reverie supposed to have faded by now?

Yet, whatever words he could hope to ground out were ignored as the marines didn’t regard him at all. They just hurried past him to the other side of his post and apparently started fretting.

”What is that? What is that?” One marine asked, sounding for all the world like he was having a conniption.

”I thought one demon was enough, but at least his is a title!” Another days, shuffling and making an odd grunting sound. 

There is a noise of something being turned over. Zoro, having been in the business of scuttling around and earning his keep long enough, recognized the sound of a body being turned any day of the week. Zoro frowns from where he is slouched against the mast, head dipping a little to the side as if it will do anything to try and look around him and see what all the fuss was about.

”What should we do with it?” A marine, who has clearly just gotten over a cold if the nasally quality is anything to go by, asks.

There is a muffled curse followed by one marine, likely the leader of the little band, ordering, “Someone get Captain Morgan and-“

”No need!” A voice cut them off, making Zoro and the marines turn to regard the new voice. Zoro just rolled his eyes upon spotting the blond-brat that had him stringed up in the first place. The kid was all crass and pompous poise as he sauntered forward with a lack of grace, “What seems to be— what the hell is that thing?!”

Zoro’s brows raise as he watches the blond — who had stopped his sauntering in favor of going paler than a sheet and stopping right before Zoro could loose sight of him — gawk. The marines behind Zoro shuffled before quietly muttering, “…we are unsure sir.”

”In all my years,” Helmeppo — took a second but Zoro finally remembers the brat’s name — breathes, “I have never seen such a monster as that.”

Quietly, Zoro thinks that it must not have been that many years. 

Yet before anyone can think to do anything, Helmeppo is turning on Zoro with a snarl marring his lips. Zoro just sort of blinks as that anger is turned on him, not really knowing as to what to say. Helmeppo beats him to the punch anyways as he points at Zoro like he’s a disobedient hound and seethes, “ You. You summoned this- this demon didn’t you?”

Zoro just blinks.

”This what?” He asks.

Helmeppo just sort of gives this muffled scream as he rounds back on the marines and points, commandeering the troupe, “String it up with Roronoa!” He cries, then his expression takes this odd sort of tightness as he chokes out, “Tie the- tie the tail too.”

”Of course, sir.” The marines reply, and Zoro is really lost because what was that about a tail?

Then again, because nothing ever came easy to Zoro, Helmeppo turned on him again, pointing and declaring, “Your little witchcraft stunt won’t get you out of this anytime sooner, Roronoa!” And Helmeppo’s face does this weird squirm like he’s thought of something clever but can’t let him know it but has already failed. So Helmeppo puts on a tight smirk and hisses, “We’ll have you burned at the stake by the time a month is up.” He snickers like he’s said something impressive, and Zoro is honestly so lost that he can’t even think to be threatened. 

Then there is shuffling, a body being dragged, and before Zoro can make a comment there is another body being tied to the post. Zoro tried to glance around, but he only spots the marines awkwardly trying to fit whoever was behind him onto the post to share the space. “What the hell is happening?” Zoro can only quietly mutter as he watches the marines struggle a little longer. 

Before he can make another comment and demand answers, he feels something jam into his right arm from where it’s draped on the other side of the pole. He glares at the marine that is fiddling on that side, and when there is another jam, he is half way to snapping something vulgar, when an arm flops onto his side.

Now there are several factors that lead him to the conclusion that this is not his arm.

1. The arm is significantly smaller than his own
2. The hands lack the callouses that come from weilding a sword every day for the last 10+ years of his life
3. There is an odd gold shackle on the wrist that was too big for him to wear without it messing up his sword work

And finally.

     4. The arm was red. 

Okay, well, in the arms defense, it was more of a rust color, but he knew for a fact that he hadn’t been out here that long to sunburn that bad. Plus, with the lack of patchiness, he could rule out the possibility of sunburns.

Which begged the question: 

Why was there a red arm beside him????

As if to jab this point home, a second red arm flops down on his other side, awkwardly jammed and folded over his own in a weird mesh of limbs and rope that the marines struggle to tie. Zoro can’t help but stare gobsmacked as they continue their work, one marine kneeling down to tie a rope near the base of the post, mumbling about how best to tie a tail and Zoro wonders if he’s suffering from heat stroke.

A couple agonizing seconds later, and the marines are staring — likely saluting if Zoro had to hazard a guess — and declaring, “The demon has been tied up, sir!”

“I’m not blind.” The brat says, sneering. Then his sneer is turned on Zoro and that sneer turns cruel, or as cruel as he could get when he was trying to threaten Zoro, “Your days are numbered Roronoa.”

Zoro wants to say something snarky, but all he can think to say is, “What?”

Helmeppo just smiles, all teeth and tight, and declared haughtily, “See you in a months time, swordsman.” He says the name like its an insult, and Zoro just stares at him because that is what he is? 

The marines, giving nervous glances behind them, saunter off after the boy, tails tucked between their legs.

Tails.

Tail. 

Zoro glances down at his post, angling his neck just enough so he can see the bottom and confirms that there is a rope tied at ankle height, and around the bottom of the post was a weird rust-colored tail, hooked near the base, and curled and lying right below his feet.

The words that follow are completely unprompted and without any real meaning.

”What the hell?”

Unfortunately, as it were, his burning need for answers wouldn’t be given anytime soon as it appeared his unwilling post-mate was still unconscious. After an hour of attempts to wake the stranger, Zoro was chagrin to admit defeat, and just decided to doze until they would inevitably wake up. So he waited, people watching the occasional marine that wandered by — bug-eyed because apparently whoever was behind him was a sight to behold — until the sun began to dip below the horizon, coloring the sky pinks and purples.

It was ironic that at the time when the day came to rest, his fellow detainee has apparently elected to wake.

At first, it was a bit unnoticeable, nothing stark that screamed I’m awake! Just a quiet shift. The average man wouldn’t have caught the shift, but Zoro, as close as he was, noted the quiet tension that suddenly tightened in the arms by his sides. The quiet note of waking muscles and pulling nerves. 

The tail beneath him, the tiny sliver able to move beneath where it was tied, slid ever so slightly, pulling the dirt in the ground with it to make a small groove. Zoro’s eyes caught on the movement, and he watched in fascination as it slid a little more before pulling back around the pole to the side where its owner was bound. There was the slightest movement of the pole, the slightest give of the earth that signalled the figure bound was attempting to straighten.

There was a quiet groan then, and Zoro lifted his head just enough as if it would help him hear the person better. Then a stilted breath — like he took the first time he was bound around the waist and realizing he couldn’t breathe as he normally would — and another groan. Not that Zoro blamed them much.

”Ah, what in the Nine Hells…?”

Zoro lifted a brow at that but otherwise said nothing.

There was a brief pause, likely the stranger taking in their surroundings, before a tired groan followed by an exhausted, “Man, wild magic sucks.”

The arms on either side of Zoro attempt to stretch, and of course get caught by both his limbs and the rope binding them still. There is another pause before the stranger is testing the binding again at the elbow. Their fingers stretch achingly for a minute as they dance and stretch where their arms couldn’t.

”I… well that’s dumb, why’d they leave my hands unbound?” The figure asks no one.

Zoro snorts, finally speaking for the first time, “Were the other bindings not enough?”

”Sweet Divine!” Apparently he’d scared her, as their hands arch up in alarm and seem to twitch for a second, and there is an awkward shift from side to side which likely means the stranger is getting a look at their set up. “Who the hells- where the hells am I?”

Again, Zoro snorts, “Welcome to Shell Town, home of the prissy offspring of a marine captain.”

”A marine what now?” The stranger asks, before likely shaking their head and sputtering, “Not important, who are you?” 

Zoro’s face screws up as he can’t help but ask, “What’s your name?” Because he was nothing if not agitating.

”Really? Are we really doing this?” An exhausted sigh followed by a gruff but attempt at civil tone, “My name’s Kari. Now who are you?”

”Kari?” Zoro asks back, both confirming he heard right and just to mess with her. What? He’d gone without entertainment for seven days so far, cut him some slack. “No last name?”

”Answer the question, jackass.”

Well, the stranger was at least proving to be entertaining, Zoro thinks as he attempts to fight a smirk. Instead he lulls his head back to rest against the pole as he greets, “Roronoa Zoro.” 

There is a quiet hum as Kari apparently absorbs that, before muttering, “Listen Roronoa, I’m gonna be blunt with you, I don’t know how I got here, so could you fill in my memory gaps?”

Well, points for politeness, Zoro supposes, but he does admit, “Not sure. I wasn’t able to really look around when you showed up.” Zoro squints at the sky, seeing the slow procession of stars beginning to peak from their heavenly blanket. “It happened a couple hours ago, a little after noon. There were some flashes of light, a weird noise then nothing. Next thing I know marines are charging in and making asses of themselves before they were ordered to tie you to the pole with me.” Zoro pauses to think if that is all, before finishing, “Hope that’s of help.”

”Yes, actually, thank you.” Kari hums, and it sounds genuine, and Zoro figures that hostility they’d first shown must have been a defensive response if nothing else. 

Shuffling his legs a little, Zoro makes a quiet murmur of “no problem” before quieting again. They stay like that for a while, an occasional grunt from Kari who was apparently attempting to do something with their tail if the awkward twisting of the limb was anything to go by. Zoro was at least amused by the efforts before it weathered on a smidgen too long and was starting to grate on his nerves.

Then, Kari apparently decided to forgo whatever tail plan they’d made in favor of trying to stretch their arms. When that was proving nothing and was only serving to further his hackles, Zoro finally hissed, “It’s not gonna work, genius, just wait it out.”

”Oh but c’mon man,” Kari whined, like they were a toddler, serving only to make Zoro more baffled by the turn in character. “It’s uncomfortable!”

Rolling his eyes, Zoro snarks, “You learn to tune out the discomfort by day three.”

”Day th— Day three?!” Kari all but shouts. Zoro winces at the volume. “I— I can’t do more than three days of this! That’s miserable. And I’m hungry. ” As if to punctuate that thought, their stomach gives an attractive gurgle. “See?”

”Well suck it up.” Zoro rolls his eyes, “I only have a couple more weeks then I’m home free.”

”Couple more weeks?!” Kari hisses, sounding for all the world like that was a fate worse than death. “Oh hells nah. I’m getting out of this shithole stat.”

”Good luck.” Zoro shrugs lazily, which only serves to irritate his already abused shoulders. 

Grumbling, Kari snarks, “Thanks for the optimism.” Then it's quiet. Luckily, Kari doesn’t try their shuffling and awkward attempts at movement again, so at least there’s that. Though, after a bit, Kari apparently grows tired of the silence and tries for conversation. “…What got you stuck here?” 

Normally Zoro wasn’t one for small talk, but sue him it’s been days without anything entertaining and he was willing to take whatever he could get in the way of distraction. 

“Killed a wolf that was terrorizing some of the town's people.” Zoro starts, his tone neutral as he recalled the story, “It was about to attack a kid when I stepped in.” A pause, then a haggard sigh, “Unfortunately, turns out the wolf was owned by the captain’s kid.”

”Nepo baby?” Kari cut in.

That at least startles a snort out of Zoro as he nods despite knowing they couldn’t see him. “Nepo baby.” He confirms. “Told me I could be tied to this pole for a month to be granted amnesty for the alleged disgrace I’d caused the marines. And the rest is history.”

”A month?” Kari whispers, sounding vaguely horrified. “That’s—“ She cut themself off quickly before asking, “…what day are you on now?“

”Seven,” Zoro answers blankly, ignoring the spitting that followed. His head nodded from side to side as he added, “Soon to be eight.”

”That— that’s horrible!” Kari sounded offended on his behalf, and Zoro appreciated the sympathy at least. Then, Kari tags on, a little sheepish, “Gee, and I thought I was hungry.”

”It’s fine.” Had he all his faculties, Zoro would have waved them off. “Not like you knew, and you still have a right to feel however you want. It’s a shitty situation.”

”That might be putting it lightly,” Kari says, playing along and taking Zoro’s words into account with a shrug. “Sure is adding to the joke that was my day, at least.”

”Oh?” Zoro prompts.

”Yeah, had quite the morning,” Kari starts, shifting enough to get a better position to regard their tale, “Woke up in an alley glad to find that I wasn’t dragged away by the night watchmen, tried to find food, managed to get an apple from the local priestess’ on their join our service spiel. Ended up wandering for a while till someone cried devil and guards were after my ass. Thought I was about to get away when bam! Some toddling wild magic user just so happened to be in my path. Next thing I know I’m being surrounded with chaos magic and popped out in—did you call it Shell Town?”

”Yea, Shell Town.” Zoro confirms, nodding as if he wasn’t struggling to follow along with the haggard explanation of Kari’s day of events. 

“Then I’m popped out in Shell Town and tied to a post, who, might I add, has another detainee who seems pleasant, if a little snappish.” Kari finishes plainly.

”Oi,” Zoro says, though is at the very least amused.

Kari snorts, “Honestly, I’m just glad they didn’t throw me to the priests. Divine knows I’m tired of the attempts at exorcisms.”

Ah, that does bring to mind a thought.

”Why’re you red?” Zoro blurts.

”Pardon?” Kari asks.

”And why do you have a tail?” Zoro adds on, as if that would help to clarify the situation in which they are in. Then a thought occurs to him that he was embarrassed to say hadn’t occurred to him earlier, “You eat a devil fruit or something?”

There is a quiet that follows that might be best described as awkward. The phrase ‘read the room’ might apply here, but Zoro figures they’re outdoors and subtlety is last season. 

“A what now?”

”A devil fruit.” Zoro says pointedly, “You know those weird fruits that grant people weird abilities?”

”…you’re serious?”

Zoro frowns, “Well, duh, I’ve never met anyone with a tail out in East Blue. Is this normal in the Grand Line or something? Or the other Blues?” Might make sense, at the very least. The East Blue was known for being the calmest of the Blues.

There is another brief pause, though instead of answering his question, Kari asks, “East Blue? Where is that?”

Blinking, and purely wholly baffled, Zoro gapes and says, “Uh, the East ?” Like c’mon man, context clues.

”That doesn’t—“ There is a cut off sigh of frustration before a grumble and silence. It lingers like that for a while before Kari grouches, “No, I didn’t eat a— a devil fruit. I’m a Tiefling. You’ve really never seen a Tiefling?” There is another pause. “We’re kinda hard to miss.”

”I’ve never heard of a Tiefling.” Zoro answers honestly, trying to parse through his memories to see if he’d blocked out some weird history lesson that mentioned such. But alas, nothing comes to mind. Scuffing his feet in the dirt, he asks, “Do all Tieflings have tails and red-skin?”

There is this weird silence that follows. Zoro can almost hear the unsaid “damn you are being serious right now.” Then, there is a quiet muffled laugh as Kari says, “Not all Tieflings have red skin, depends on your lineage. Most have the tails though, yeah. And the horns.”

Zoro’s eyebrows nearly shoot into his hair, “ Horns?” He quiets his voice quickly and tries to get a look over his shoulders, “You have horns?”

”Uh, yeah?” It’s phrased like a question, not necessarily because they are confused by the answer but more so confused by Zoro’s confusion. Then, there is a quiet but quick inhale, “You weren’t kidding about the never meeting a Tiefling thing, were you?”

”No!” Zoro says honestly, “But I can see how the marines earlier were confused and kept mistaking you for a demon.”

That… doesn’t earn quite the response he was hoping for. Kari seems to shuffle, pressing into the pole behind him as a quiet sigh leaves them. The next words sound… tired, not quite defeated but like they were leading to that point. 

“Yeah… that’s normal.” They are quiet with the admittance, like this is a common battle they’ve fought. “The red-skin is normally what does it, but the horns and tail don’t help my case much. It’s pretty annoying.”

Had he the time, Zoro might have dug into that more, but he opted to let it drop with a quiet hum. They stick like that for a while, lingering in the quiet, before Zoro finds his words again. “You should get some rest while you can. It’s likely the brat will try to come by tomorrow to talk.”

”Figured.” Kari murmurs, stifling a yawn, and Zoro was honestly impressed with how she was still tired considering she’d been out for quiet a few hours prior. Then again, he wasn’t really one to talk. “Talk to you tomorrow Roronoa.”

Zoro rolls his eyes.

Zoro doesn’t know when he’d conked out the night prior, but he knows he must have when he is roused awake by the sound of shouting and orders being given. He blinks past the light assaulting him in an attempt to gain his bearings. All of which come rocketing back to him when there is a quiet groan behind him, the arms either side shifting and tensing again in their attempt to wake, before a muffled, “Ah, hells…” finally greets him.

”Morning.” Zoro yawns, smacking his lips a couple times in an attempt to stave off the sleep still wanting to niggle its way back in. He blinks tiredly at the gates opening up and a familiar blond brat strutting in.

”You know,” Kari starts in lieu of proper greeting, “I was really hoping this had been a weird wild magic induced fever dream.”

”You wish,” Zoro snorts, wanting to ask about the concept of wild magic they’d conveniently gleaned over the night prior, but was interrupted by a snobbish voice.

”Greetings Pirate Hunter!” Helmeppo says with all the wherewithal of a boy undeserving of his privilege. “I see you’ve slept well.”

Zoro shrugs. His response is not what Helmeppo was hoping for if the twitching expression was anything to go by. The boy looked seconds away from snapping something, when his eyes darted down and towards the tail that was curiously flickering back and forth in the dirt. 

Eyes boggling, Helmeppo immediately scrambled around the post and peaked around the side. Zoro watched in bafflement as the boy’s face seemed to pale and he muttered a silent prayer. Behind him, Zoro could hear Kari tilt their head, likely looking at their new company.

”Oh,” Kari says, as if something occurs to them. “Nepo baby!”

Zoro snorts, barely able to hide his smirk.

Any horror once painting the spoiled child’s face is brushed aside and replaced with offense. Zoro can hear the smile in Kari’s voice as she greets, “Mind letting me down? I think I’ve learned my lesson.” Whatever lesson that is. Zoro silently thinks.

The scowl on Helmeppo’s face is quickly morphing into something more hostile as he snaps, “We’d be fools to let a demon run amok without supervision!” 

The eye roll could have been heard across the world. “Take another look, sprout. I’m a Tiefling. Not a demon.“

”Sprout?!” Helmeppo sputters.

Zoro stifles a laugh.

Helmeppo turns his scowl onto the bound swordsman, “Not helping!” Then, his expression shutters in an attempt to save face as he mutters, “I don’t know what you did to summon this— this thing, Roronoa, but whatever you did, you can guarantee it won’t get you out of here any faster.”

”Excuse you— thing?” Kari balks, “I just told you what that thing is! And she has a name too!”

She, huh, Zoro silently notes.

Helmeppo holds up— was that a cross?

“Quiet demon!” The brat shouts, his hand shaking as he holds the cross with all the confidence of a sopping wet cat. “Do not speak thy name here, lest you wish to return to the fiery pit from which you came!”

”…Okay, rude.” Kari starts, “And I don’t know if you’d call the mountain town I grew up in a fiery pit, but like— it sure felt like one of the hells. The name’s Kari, by the way.”

The sound that follows sounds like a drowning rat. Zoro snorts again. Kari makes a sound like she swallowed a snicker. 

The brat slouches in defeat, looking put upon as he groans, “I thought that would work.”

“You can try again if it’ll make you feel better.” Kari offers kindly, and at that Zoro outright laughs. Kari’s voice is smiling as she says, “I can even scream a little, writhe and try to make a show.”

”No, no, the moment’s ruined.” Helmeppo murmurs. Though then his entire body twitches and he is rocketing back up with that previous confidence he bore. One hand on hip and the other pointing, Helmeppo gloats, “Nevertheless, you shall burn at the stake with your summoner in three weeks time!”

”Gonna be real, I might die of hunger by then, but you could burn my corpse?” Kari offers, again with Zoro laughing.

Helmeppo looks like any semblance of joy he’d come to suck out of this interaction was now a lost cause. Zoro is grinning brightly, and he silently thanks whatever alleged magic had ended up sending him someone who knew how to put on a show for all it was worth. This was the most entertainment he’d had in days, and watching the brat squirm was the cherry on top of the cake.

”Whatever!” Helmeppo snaps, coming back to himself. “You will soon die anyway! So you’ll be out of our hair by then!”

”Sure, yeah.” Kari shrugs, like she was giving his word as much respect as she would a rogue who claimed to speak the truth. “Whatever makes you happy; by the way, any chance I could get some water?”

”You’re never—“ Helmeppo makes that same odd strangling noise before spinning on heel and marching away, giving one last threatening point to Zoro and crying, “Not a word!”

”Don’t need to, she sure said plenty.” Zoro grinned to which Kari let out a laugh. Zoro was amused to find her tail batting back and forth with her laughter. An odd but frankly kind of adorable quirk.

The brat just made a noise, face going scarlet, as he marched right out the gates with his entourage in tow. As the two came down from their amusement, Zoro couldn’t help but ask, “What brought that on?”

”Little brat tied my tail to the pole and it’s uncomfortable as shit.” Kari answered, and despite the words, her tone sounded amused. “Deserved a good tell-off.”

”I’d say you certainly accomplished it.” Zoro complimented. Then, he recalls something from the night prior. His expression sobers, before he mentions, “Sorry he called you a demon.” This was punctuated by the gates slamming shut, the marines officially gone from the courtyard.

There is this weird pause that follows, Zoro might equate it to surprise, but there was a hint of something else there too he couldn’t put a name to. Though after a few beats there is a shuffle, then a quiet, “It’s alright… thanks though.”

”Of course.” Zoro says. 

They linger in the silence for a while until Kari prompts, “So… a pirate hunter, huh?”

Zoro blinks, trying to recall when she’d heard that but… ah, the brat had greeted him as that, hadn’t he? 

Kicking his feet in the dirt a little, Zoro attempts a shrug, “Not really a title I wanted, just one I was given. Pirate bounties are worth a lot, and a man’s gotta eat somehow.”

”Ah,” Kari says, like she’s following the line of thought. “Fair enough. I can respect a need for cash. But pirate hunter?”

”Pirates are as common as seagulls out here.” Zoro says by way of explanation. Then pauses, seeming coming to some weird realization, “What island could you be from if that isn’t a common thing to hear?”

”Island?” Kari asks. Then there was a pause of confusion as she says, “I’m not from an island.” Another pause, “At least I don’t think.”

”Eh?” Zoro makes a bewildered noise at that, “How would you not know if you were born on an island or not? That’s all there is out here.”

”Shut up, all I know is I was landlocked. Wasn’t a big ass body of water for miles.” Kari snaps, grumbling about useless towns and sheltered upbringings. “Anyways, we’re near the ocean?”

”Was the smell of salt in the air not answer enough?” Zoro asks, honestly boggled as to how there could be a possibility of someone not being raised on an island.

”Shut up.” Kari whines, and it’s honestly baffling how she could go from a sarcastic prick to a bumbling mess with a flip of the right switch. Kari grumbles some more from where she is tied before sighing and saying, “Pirates though… you said they’re common out here?”

”Very.” Zoro answered, figuring he may as well answer her question to pass the time. That and she answered his questions, so go figure. “They’ve always been around, but after Gol Roger died, the amount of pirates out on the grand line increased drastically.”

”Grand line? Gol Roger?” Kari murmured. “Where the hells did that magic spit me out?”

”Where the hell did you come from?” Zoro asked right back.

”…Touche.” Kari mumbled, before sighing and slouching into the pole in defeat. 

Then a burning question is at the back of Zoro’s mind and he’s asking it before he can really think, “You kept mentioning magic?” Kair makes a hum, as if in confirmation, “What’s that about?”

”…Please tell me you’re pulling my tail.”

”Uh, no, now answer the damn question.” 

“What middle of nowhere island did you grow up on if you don’t know what magic is?” Kari sputters, “The Tiefling thing I can excuse because I know that the smaller the town the less likely for different races, but magic? Seriously?” 

Zoro scowls from where he is draped, “I know what magic is, but I don’t know what that has to deal with this whole situation. Magic isn’t real dumbass.”

At first, Zoro thinks that Kari isn’t going to answer based solely on the fact that she’s so baffled she may have gone comatose. But then, she quietly says, “Magic isn’t real.” Zoro grunts, thinking that maybe she’s giving up the bit, but then she repeats herself, “ Magic isn’t real.”

”Yeah, that’s what I said.” Zoro gripes.

The wind blows by and it must catch some of Kari’s hair because Zoro catches sight of some long white strands that billow just barely before dropping. “I’m about to blow your mind.” Kari said, voice barely above a whisper. Then, she orders, “Look to your right.”

Zoro wants to bark something about not ordering him around but pauses when he notes the hand waving for his attention. It’s an awkward angle and certainly not comfortably — Zoro knows from experience — But he watches her fingers waves for his focus. When Kari deems him to be looking she starts waving her hand around in this weird swirly motion. Again, it’s awkward and a little stiff with the angle, but gets the point across. 

Frowning, Zoro starts, “What are you-“

But Kari beats him to the punch with a mutter of a word he does not recognize and the snap of her fingers. There is this weird glowing flash that follows, which then morphs and spirals and Zoro can’t help but gape as he watches these glowing tendrils of light and air shape and spin into magnificent forms, dancing and twirling around each other through Kari’s fingers and up her arm. Then, as if the display wasn’t ethereal enough, Kari gives a brief flick of her wrist, sending the whirling mass of color and shapes right into Zoro’s face. 

Zoro sputters at the gesture, but his expression melts when realizing that nothing had actually hit him, the display only for show as the colorful dancing light fades into glittering dust upon touching his face. The glittering sparks of something disappearing as they twinkle out of existence, as if they had never been there to begin with.

”What…” Zoro starts, still staring at the hand that had caused the display, “…was that?”

” That,” Kari presses, her hands coming up to wave in a poor display of showmanship, “was magic.”

Zoro’s brain ground to a halt. “Nope.” He says, shaking his head tightly and immediately putting up his guard again, “I refuse to believe what you just did was magic. You— you had to have eaten a devil fruit.”

”Oh my— what is with these devil fruits?” Kari grouches. “I’m a warlock you idiot, I think I know when I have magic.”

“The minute we’re out of here I’m throwing your ass into the ocean to prove you wrong.” Zoro griped.

“What the hell does tossing me into the ocean prove?” Kari asked, still utterly baffled. Then, she paused and muttered, “Nevermind, what are you? You a fighter of some kind?”

Shaking off the weird turn in topic, Zoro mutters, “I prefer the term swordsman . But sure.”

“Alright, why not.” Kari shrugs, again the movement signified by the groaning of wood from the pole. “What’s your preferred weapon? Or type of sword I guess?”

“Katanas, though I prefer using the three-sword style.” Zoro answers, and he hears a hum of interest, and the tail beneath him brushes through the dirt again. So he decides to ask back, “Do you use any type of weapon? Besides your devil fruit powers, of course.”

“Magic.” Kari corrects quickly, though answers just as fast, “I occasionally use a quarterstaff, though it’s gifted through the pact I made. I really prefer using my magic at the end of the day.”

“Right, magic.” Zoro says dryly.

“If tossing me into the ocean proves you wrong in whatever weird belief you have, feel free to throw me right in when we’re out of here.” Kari dully. “But that’s it. Not much of a physical brawler over a distant one. Plus I’d rather avoid getting into fights, don’t really have the constitution for it.”

“Hm.” Zoro hums, staring out at the boring scenery before him as he closes his eyes against the harsh sun. He goes quiet after that, and so does Kari, apparently both having the mind to doze and laze away.

And it stayed like that.

Hours passed, the occasional break in conversation, but otherwise quiet. A marine squad might walk by to break the menagerie, resulting in a short burst in energy to converse, but otherwise they stayed silent. They stayed that way until the sun dipped below the horizon and the same quiet that was prominent the day before starts up conversation.

However this time it’s prompted by Zoro, “Where are you headed after you get out of here?”

“Dunno.” Kari yawns, “I’ll figure it out when I get there.”  

“Hm,” Zoro hums, “you’ll need a ship if you wanna get anywhere.” 

“How far is the nearest island?” Kari asks.

“Farther than swimming distance.” Zoro says with a certainty of a man who’s tried it and barely lived to tell the tail. “Not like it’ll matter for you though, you’ll just sink like a rock.”

“Wha- I’m not an invalid.” Kari hisses. “I know how to swim, moron.” 

“Sure ya do.” Zoro says unconvinced. 

“And what?” Kari presses, “You think I’m unable to swim and you were still gonna toss me in the ocean?”

“I’m still planning to.” Zoro corrects, and he openly grins at Kari’s appalled guffaw. “Anyways,” Zoro continues, going back to his original topic, “do you want to catch a ship to the next island with me?”

“Inviting me along so eagerly?” Kari asks, tone surprised despite her tease. “I mean I wouldn’t say no, but are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t sure, tails.” Zoro says.

“Tails?” Kari asks, sounding surprised. “Is that a nickname I hear, Roronoa?” 

“Shut up,” Zoro grouches, though pauses there after before tacking on, “and call me Zoro.”

A brief pause. “Sure thing.” Another bout of silence before a sigh accompanies, “Yea I’ll catch a ship with you.”

Zoro blinks in surprise but leans further back into the pole and asks, “Really?”

“Yeah, not like I know where I am, and it seems like you have a good head on your shoulders.” Zoro hears her scuff her foot into the dirt. “May as well catch a ride with someone who won’t chop my head off, right?” Kari finishes with a short quiet laugh. 

Snorting, Zoro lightly shakes his head, “Unless you’re annoying, your head is still guaranteed to be on your shoulders. That I can promise.”

“How comforting.” Kari snorts. Then after a while where the silence lingers, Kari tacks on, “Thank you though.” 

“Don’t mention it.” Zoro says, though his voice catches with a thought after a moment. “Don’t got anyone looking for you?”

“Unfortunately not.” Kari answers, not quite sounding uncomfortable, but something close to it. “At least no one worth noting.”

Zoro grunts before, in an uncharacteristic attempt at comfort, saying, “In that case, you may as well stick around until you find somewhere that catches your interest.”

“Awe, getting soft on me Zoro?” Kari purrs, teasing as if it were second nature.

Any semblance of softness is gone as Zoro scoffs and mutters, “Get some sleep, horn-head.”

Laughing, Kari teases, “Never heard that one before!”

“Don’t get used to it.” Zoro grouches.

On the 9th day of his imprisonment, Zoro opens his eyes just as usual. The sun was baring down just as always and presenting the usual bout of light that assaulted his vision. Just the usual sort of start to the day. This time, as the contrast the normal he’d been having, there is not a voice that breaks through his usual routine.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty!” Kari purrs when hearing him wake.

”Shut up,” Zoro greets, jaw cracking open on a yawn before shutting with a click of his teeth. “How long have you been awake?”

”Not too long, maybe a half-hour?” Kari guesses, recalling her brief bout of morning. “Dunno, not much has happened. Think I scared some guards that were walking by. Didn’t seem to like my staring.” She snickers to herself at that, like she found the idea of scaring some helpless marines entertaining.

Zoro sort of regrets not waking earlier as he feels he might have also found that entertaining. Instead, he elects to shake his head loosely and say, “What? Your eyes weird too?”

”I don’t think so?” Kari says, though it’s phrased like a question. She says it with the sort of tone that once had confidence but was now being reevaluated upon being given new information. “I think it’s more the whole ensemble thing. I guess no one here has ever seen a Tiefling if the reactions are saying anything.”

Shifting his jaw from side to side to be rid of the ache that threatens to settle in, Zoro responds with a simple, “Could be.” Then he seems to collect his thoughts, “Surprising though, since the marines have easier access to the four blues and grand line. They get moved from base to base often too.”

”Maybe I’m in a different plane?” Kari asks, though it’s more towards herself. And any hope that Zoro could have to give insight on that little tidbit of information would be worthless considering he had no clue what she was talking about. So he just sort of grunts. Kari shakes her head, the sound audible to Zoro, and changes subjects, “So what’s your plans for today, mister swordsman?”

”What is this, comedy hour?” Zoro mutters.

”Well, you gave me a nickname, and I figure I gotta give you one too.” Zoro gets the impression that she shrugs. Though this is interrupted by Kari making a stifled yelping noise in her throat, “Sweet mother of— my shoulders! Ow!”

”Yeah they tend to do that on day three.” 

“And you tell me now, asshole?” 

Zoro rolls his eyes, breathing to speak, but then pausing when his eyes catch on something. Something just barely peeking over the wall before him. He blinks, wondering if the heat stroke was getting to him at long last, but his blinking didn’t erase the hallucinations. So either he was far gone or those were two real people peering over the wall.

”Hey,” He starts slowly, before raising his head more and calling with a bit more confidence, “Hey!”

”Huh?” Kari asks, alarmed at his sudden turn in behavior. “Wha’s happening?” 

“Shut up for a second,” Zoro mutters, before again piping up, “Hey kid!” He puts on a grin that is an attempt at inviting, but likely reads as manic, “Come over here and untie me. I’ve been here for nine days and I can’t take it anymore.”

This does not have the reaction he was hoping for, as Kari lets loose a long snort, snickering, “Weren’t you just talking about how you wanted to power out a month?”

”Shut up, do you want to get out of here sooner than later?” Zoro hisses back at her, to which Kari continues snickering. Rolling his eyes back to the two boys peeking over the wall, he starts, “I’ll make it worth your time-“

”You’re gonna offer to sleep with them?” Kari interrupts, sounding surprised. “Good for you, good for you.”

Zoro twists his head around and barks, “Shut up, that isn’t what I meant!” Twisting back around, Zoro barely catches sight of the strawhat-boy tilting his head to the side, blinking curiously as he mutters something that Zoro thinks translates to ‘there’s two of them?’ Zoro elects to ignore this in favor of trying to continue, “I’ll capture someone with a-“

”Hey!” Kari calls, not at all worried about Zoro’s attempt at luring the two boys in. Her tail twists from side to side in a likely attempt to look around to Zoro’s side. “Let us out and he’ll sleep with you!”

Zoro’s face lights scarlet as he whips around as far as his head will allow him to turn and barks, “No I will not!”

”Yes he will!”

Before the shouting match could devolve into threats, there is a dull thunk of wood meeting stone. Zoro’s words catch on his tongue and his gaze twists around just as fast, and he’s surprised to find another tiny form joining the two boys. A familiar face that lights up recognition. 

“Shit.” Zoro mutters, because as scary a threat as he was, he refused to turn that threat on a little kid. No less a little kid who’d already been traumatized enough by the marines.

”What?” Kari asks, the sound of her attempting to twist around to see what was happening accompanying her words, “What’s happening?”

”Just shut up for a minute okay?” Zoro orders as he watches the tiny girl scale over the wall and into the courtyard. Thankfully, Kari seems to understand the gravity to his words, and elects to go quiet. Raising his chin, he calls, “Get lost kid, this isn’t a place for squirts like you.”

The tiny girl stares at him without any fear, eyes sparkling as she says, “I made these riceballs for you! I thought you might need some food.”

At the word food, Kari apparently forgoes any attempt at being silent. “Food?” She asks. 

Zoro opens his mouth to snap something out, though his tongue catches when he watches the little girl realize that there is someone else tied to the post with Zoro. Her eyes catch onto the tail tied at the base of the pole and she blinks curiously, not really thinking twice about curiously moving around to catch sight of the other detainee. The minute she catches sight, her expression breaks into surprise as she gasps, the little rice balls she made nearly falling out of her hands. 

“You have horns!” Is what the little girl says, looking awed and not as horrified as the marines who’d seen Kari prior. “And you have a tail.”

The swordsman would swear he heard the silent ‘does no one know what a Tiefling is?!’ Being mentally shouted by his fellow prisoner. Instead though, Kari audibly nods, “Yeah, I got horns and a tail.”

”That’s- that’s so cool!” The little girl awes, and if Zoro had to guess, Kari’s heart might have softened at the exclamation. Though after that, a contemplative look comes to the little girl’s face as she looks down at the rice balls she’d made with a concern that only a child could have. “I… I had originally made the rice balls for mister swordsman, but… but maybe he’s okay with sharing?” She looks to Zoro in search of an answer.

And ugh, Zoro may put on the tough guy persona, but he’d rather eat his left foot than tell this kid off when she looks so worried. So he dips his head, gentling his expression to ease, “Yeah, I don’t mind sharing. You can give Kari one too.”

”Kari,” the little girl breathes. She looks at Kari, eyes still sparkling as she holds out on riceball, “I— I don’t know if I can reach you, but I can see about—“

“Kid, I really appreciate it,” Kari cuts off the child quickly, her tone stern and it catches Zoro off guard, “but you need to book it, now.”

Her tone broke for no argument, and the little girl looks alarmed by the fact. Zoro opens his mouth, ready to scold Kari, though his tongue catches when he finally realizes why she’d pressed for the child’s leave. His own eyes widen as he says, “kid you need to leave.”

”But—“

The creaking of the gate swinging open punctuated their reason. And the nasally voice that follows only solidifies the duos press for having the child leave. “Well, well, well,” Helmeppo drawls, all the confidence of a weasel “What have we here?”

”Hey kid,” Kari says gently, catching the little girl’s attention who’d grown wary at the other boy’s entrance, “cover your ears real quick, ‘kay?”

Confused, the child does as asked after awkwardly maneuvering the rice balls into the crooks of her elbows. When Kari was confident in seeing the little girl covering her ears, Kari whipped her head around to Helmeppo, the movement sending some hair flying for Zoro to see, and sucked in a breath.

”Oi shithead! What brings you round to these parts! Did you miss me?” 

The words make Zoro drop his head to his chest in defeat, and there is nearby laughter from one of the boys peeking over the wall. The little girl removes her hands when Kari presumably signals that it's all good now. Zoro supremely doubts that her words were completely muffled, but he could take amusement in the way Helmeppo looked downright miserable now.

”Well I never!” Helmeppo says with an overly dramatic gasp that was in no way ironic. He looks ready to snap something back, though apparently recalls the original reason he’d even made the trek out there. His sneer turns to a conniving grin as he leans over the little girl, snatching one of the rice balls with a wicked glean in his eyes. “Awe, how thoughtful! A treat for yours truly!”

The little girl looks appalled by the display, complaining loudly when the boy took a massive bite, only to immediately choke and throw the riceball to the floor, smashing it down with his heel. The girl looks incredibly stressed as she desperately tries to save her rice balls, only to pull back with every menacing stomp. There are tears budding in her eyes and both Zoro and Kari audibly bristle.

” Quit it.” Kari hissed, body audibly pulling against the pole, making the wood groan. 

“Oh?” Helmeppo asked, eyes darting up as a grin continues to pull at his lips. “Did I strike a nerve, demon?”

”She isn’t a demon, brat.” Zoro hisses. 

Rolling his eyes, Helmeppo leans down to the kid’s level, who was busy trying to muffle her crying at her ruined work. “It’s her own fault, can she not read the sign?” He says pointing to a conveniently placed sign not far from where they were set up. The girl doesn’t look up from where she is pressing her face into the crook of her elbow. “Anyone aiding the prisoners are found guilty of the crime’s he’s— they’ve committed.” 

“I’ve literally committed no crime?” Kari dully puts.

Helmeppo elects to ignore her in favor of leaning closer to the girl, “You’re lucky you aren’t an adult, otherwise you’d be put to death!” The little girl hiccups on a sob, eyes wide with tears and fear.

What follows next startles them all. An audible predatory snarl interrupts the brat’s attempt at fear-mongering. His hand twitches from where it’d been reaching to grab at the girl, stilling as his eyes turn fast to the source. The marines around him have stiffened up as well, hands resting on their rifles out of habit. Even Zoro looks surprised by the sound, twisting his head just enough to barely see the profile of what he assumes to be a horn peaking around the pole.

”That’s enough.” The Tiefling hisses, voice a low warning that borders on a growl. “You’ve made your point.”  

Helmeppo seems to visually hesitate, his eyes lingering on the Tiefling for a long minute before he swallows his fear and twists his head away to glare at one of the nearby marines, “Throw the brat over the fence.”

The marine buckles at the order, “Sir—“

Yet the spoiled brat doesn’t waste a moment as he is then up in the marine’s space, grabbing his collar and shouting about his position as the Captain’s son, how he has more worth than him. There is another audible snarl at that, but Helmeppo only flinches, holding his ground otherwise.

The marine, unfortunately, doesn’t need to be told twice and tosses the girl over the wall, the demolished rice balls all that were left in her wake. Kari is still likely glowering if the marines fidgeting is anything to go by, but Helmeppo brushes his hands, as if he’d been the one who had thrown the girl over the wall.

His eyes dart back to the two detainees and his seems to still himself for a moment when spotting Kari. But then he lifts himself up properly with feigned confidence and says, “I’d watch your tone if I were you.”

”And I’d watch your back if I were you.” Kari hisses back. Zoro takes some satisfaction in watching Helmeppo falter at that, squirming in place before putting the confident mask back on. 

The brat’s eyes slide to Zoro, watching and amused at how quiet he’d been throughout the whole debacle, “At least someone knows how to hold their tongue.”

”I still have three weeks left.” Zoro says dryly, trying to keep his annoyance out of his voice.

”Hm.” Helmeppo hums, staring at the swordsman long and hard, “Then the stake.”

”Sure.” Zoro rolls his eyes.

Helmeppo bristles when seeing his words held no worth to the swordsman, but before he could utter another word, Kari beat him to the punch, “Awe no witty comeback? It’s okay try again, and we’ll react with real gusto.”

Zoro snorts, and Helmeppo seethes. Seeing no way in which he’d further gain something out of the interaction, Helmeppo turns and stalks back out of the courtyard, beckoning the marine accompaniment to follow. By the time the gate was swinging shut, Zoro finally let his hackles fall.

”…Why’d they gotta tie my tail man?” Kari asks rhetorically, “Otherwise I’d be able to reach the rice balls and we’d have something to eat.”

Sighing, Zoro is about to respond, but his voice catches when he sees the strawhat-boy now standing right in front of him. “You’re still here?”

”Huh?” Kari pipes in, attempting to squirm around to catch sight of whatever garnered Zoro’s attention. “Is someone else here?”

”I’m looking for good men to join my pirate crew.” The boy says. 

Zoro stifles a snort, “You think I’d lower myself to that level?”

”Uh, if it gets us out of here, yeah.” Kari cuts him off, earning a squawk of indignation from Zoro. “Who is it though, if it’s a weirdo I gotta admit I may not be as inclined.”

The boy with the strawhat puts on a big smile, teeth and all as he lets out a laugh that twinkles in the air. “I haven’t asked you yet though! I’m still deciding!” It appears he realizes that he hasn’t actually seen Kari though, so he finally wanders around the post to get a proper look.

The way his eyes sparkle is answer enough as to how he feels.

”Whoa!” The boy cries, looking awed as he leans forward, grasping at his hat and lightly tugging on the straw. “You look so cool! Well you gotta join my crew then!”

”…Not even my character? Not the powers? No? Just ‘cause I’m a Tiefling?” Kari asks dryly; then, at Zoro, she asks, “Is this gonna be a thing?”

”Maybe?” Zoro shrugs, though his eyes catch on the sad remains of the rice balls on the ground. “Wait a minute…” The boy’s eyes slide to Zoro, and that twinkle is still there even when the swordsman nods towards the discarded rice balls, “Pick those up for me?”

The boy blinks, eyes darting down before catching sight of the mess that was once rice balls. He leans down to cradle to demolished food, giving them both a look over as he raises his head and asks, “You sure? They’re more dirt that rice now—“

”Just give me the damn rice ball.” Zoro grouches.

”Hells yeah, food! I’ve eaten worse.” Kari reasons, likely doing just as Zoro had and opened her mouth to receive the remnants of the Rice balls.

The boy shrugs, but gives them the rice balls anyway. What follows is an awkward attempt at eating the demolished food, barely even getting it down as they showed past the dirt and rocks and — respectfully — heinous amounts of sugar in the remains of the meal. By the time both were breathing again, Zoro gave a tiny nod. 

“Tell the kid… tell her I said it was delicious.”

The strawhat-boy lit up.

By the time the boy was gone and it was just Zoro and Kari lingering in the courtyard, Kari hesitantly asked, “…Sugar took you out too?”

”Her heart was in the right place.” Zoro rasped.

Kari snorted awake right as Zoro was finished talking to the strawhat boy when he’d returned to visit. Kari made the sound of stifled yawn as she muttered, “What’d I miss?”

”Strawhat kid showed up again,” Zoro answered, before pausing and saying, “said his name’s Luffy. And that he’ll get us out of here if we join his crew. He’s off getting our stuff now.”

”Hells yeah,” Kari said, tail twitching on the ground excitedly from what Zoro could tell.

”Uh, not hells yeah.” Zoro spat back, “We are not joining a pirate crew.”

”Why not?” Kari whines, “Being on a pirate crew sounds fun! We could go on adventures, we could find treasure— wait.“ There is a pause, before Kari makes a contemplative noise, “Does that mean we’re joining an adventuring party?”

“What does partying have to do with this?” Zoro asks, bewildered as ever.

”No. Adventuring party, you blockhead, how did you even—“

”Mister swordsman!” 

Zoro blinked away from the conversation as he looks down at another kid running towards him. Zoro vaguely recalled this brat having been peeking over the wall with Luffy earlier that day. Kid was sure smaller than the other, and more flimsy too boot.

The kid comes tumbling forward, bracing his hands on his knees as he attempted to gain his bearings, “Wh-Where is Luffy? Did he come this way?” 

The swordsman just sort of blinks down at the kid, “He went into the fortress.”

” What?!” The kid cries, alongside, Kari’s muffled ‘really?’ behind them. The kid grabs the hem of his shirt and twists anxiously as he starts to sputter, “Why is he so reckless? ”

”Yeah I’ve noticed, Who is he any- hey!” Zoro looks alarmed when the kid fumbles forward and starts to haphazardly attempt tugging Zoro’s bindings off. The kid only hesitates once when spotting the red arm, but squares his shoulders and powers forward. “Now you’re being reckless! They’ll kill you if they-“

”They imprisoned you unfairly!” The kid barks. “I can’t stand seeing the navy acting so improperly!” He tugs and hurries to unbind the swordsman and Tiefling as he starts rambling out of habit, “I’m going to be a proper marine! Just like Luffy’s going to be King of the Pirates!”

”King of the Pirates?!” Zoro shouts, looking alarmed.

”What’s that?” Kari asks unhelpfully.

They ignore her in favor of the kid putting on a smile and making some more progress with Zoro’s ropes, “I was shocked when he first told me, too. But he’ll succeed or die trying. That’s how he is-“

A crack of a gun went off, and Zoro watched as the kid went down for the count. Zoro could only stare for a beat, before Kari quietly asked, “Zoro, what happened?” Her tone deathly serious. Zoro only barely manages to look over his shoulder to catch sight of the man poised atop the marine building, peering down at them in disdain.

Something ugly reared itself in Zoro’s head—

“I‘m gonna die!”

And the ugly feeling was replaced with relief in an instant. Zoro slouched forward, expression cracking as he mutters, “Good! You’re alive!”

”What the hells is happening?” Kari asks Again, this time a little stronger, and now pulling at the loosened rope.

”Someone took a crack shot at the kid.” Zoro answered Quickly, whipping his head around to strain seeing the marine building. “Now scram! They’re on their way down.”

“B-But— I haven’t— The rope—“

”You loosened it enough!” Kari calls, now pulling at the rope and actually beginning to get some leeway with pulling her arm out of the binding. It wasn’t enough, but Zoro figured if she could get one arm out then she could get the other bindings off. “I can get us out of the rest!”

”Worse comes to worse we’ll wait out the rest of the month.” Zoro says.

”But they’re going to execute you three days from now!” The kid cries, looking frightened.

At that Kari stills and Zoro’s brain goes haywire. “WHAT? I knew he kept throwing out threats of burning us at the stake but I thought he was joking! Plus he said it’d be a month from now!”

”He said after your stunt this morning he moved up the date.” The kid says, hand on his shoulder attempting to stem the blood that pooled from the wound. “But he never intended to keep his promise of letting you go! Luffy ended up punching Helmeppo because he found out your promise was broken!”

Zoro’s expression shutters, and he can’t help sputtering, “What?!” 

“I am not dying in three days, no sirree!” Kari hisses, tugging at her bindings more frantically. “Hells no!” 

Zoro can only stare dumbly at this kid pouring his heart out as he turns over the implications in his head. As he weighs out the meaning behind Luffy’s intentions by him defending his honor. They’d barely talked and the kid threw a punch on his behalf. He only really tunes back in when there is the sound of cocking guns and a cry of marines taking aim,

The kid cries out and Zoro glares daggers at the marines with fury pouring off his person when they took aim and— something slid away at his arm.

” Finally!” Kari cries, and Zoro belatedly realizes that Kari had managed to slip her arm out of the binding. Then, he blinks when there is the strong groan of the poll struggling to hold the weight of the woman behind him, before there is an arm being thrust out beneath her other bound arm.

Sparks swarm around Kari’s hand in a semblance of a weapon firing up. A toxic blood red, much brighter and harsher against her rust-colored skin, glowing brighter and brighter before it seems to be overwhelmingly seething with energy that it makes Zoro’s hair stand on end. Kari shouts right as her fingers stretch further out and up, “Eldritch blast!”

The sparking mass of energy zipped with the snap of her fingers. The sparking red shooting forward faster than a bullet and faster than the marines can pull their triggers. The sparking beam of pure energy went slamming into the closest marine, ricocheting off the soldier’s chest and slamming him with enough force that there is an audible crack suggesting a few ribs are most certainly broken. 

The marine stands there, pushed just barely back to cause grooves in the dirt, before dropping his gun, arms flopping to his side, and collapsing to the ground.

Silence lingers for a few beats in the air as all parties seem to try and figure out what just happened. The kid who’d still been comatose under the weapons’ aims shakily looked over towards the shooter of that wild light. Zoro, gaping, followed his gaze without thinking, his head dipping down to look beneath his own arm.

There, awkwardly folded over in a pose that couldn’t be comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, was Kari. And Zoro finally got a good look at her.

Just as he already knew, her skin was that same rust color that her arms had, not a patch missing the color. Her face wasn’t as alarming as how other marines had been reacting, but he could still see the semblance of terror they’d seen. The horns, just as she mentioned, were on prominent display, though unequal in height, the right taller than the left, a small nub by comparison. Her hair, the same white he’d got brief glances of, had more of an almost pinkish hue when next to her rust-skin. And her eyes—

“I thought you said your eyes were normal?” Zoro blurts.

Those yellow eyes, both sclera and iris a warm gold, dart to Zoro. She stares at him for a beat before her expression morphs into a bewildered expression, “Well you aren’t too normal yourself with hair like that!”

Any semblance of hesitancy and bafflement was promptly kicked out the door. Zoro strained against his restraints leaning down to bark, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

Before they could further devolve into a shouting match, they were interrupted by a shout of “Take aim, men!”

And shit, she’d only taken down one hadn’t she?

Zoro’s head snaps up as he glares at the gathering marines, all gaining their bearings back and taking aim again. He hisses in a breath and hisses, “Any chance you can do that cool trick again?”

”I can only do one at a time!” Kari hisses, though takes aim with her arm sparking again. She grits her teeth as she holds her pose, a clear threat display, “The position isn’t helping anything either!”

”Well either shoot them or get us out of here!” Zoro cries right as the soldiers cock their guns again.

Kari grits her teeth and twists her hand as if twisting a door knob. She is swearing to herself as she continues twisting her wrist, the colors and light in her palms trading for different morphing shapes and lights, each doesn’t seem to be what she wants as she swears loudly.

”FIRE!”

”Shit!” Zoro and Kari cry, bracing themselves for bullets. 

…But nothing comes of it.

Kari peaks open her eyes just as Zoro does, and all she can mutter is an “oh what the hells,” At the sight that greets them.

The straw hat boy was taking the bullets… and his body was stretching with the force behind the pellets. Then, after the stretch proved to be far enough, Luffy sprang up, arms extended and screaming as the bullets shot back at their firers.  

All three behind the boy cry out in bewilderment.

“What are you?!” Zoro cries.

And the boy, because that’s what he was: a boy, twists around with a smile that could put the very sun to shame. “I’m the guy who’s gonna be King of the Pirates!”

In that instant, both parties knew they were won over.

Then, as if he hadn’t just caused hell to break loose, Luffy twists, extending three swords out that hadn’t been seen at first. Kari perks at the sight, eyes darting quickly to Zoro when remembering his preferred fighting style. ”I wasn’t sure which were yours, so I brought all three—“

”They’re all mine,” Zoro says, head dipping, “I practice Santoryu— three-sword style.”

”If you fight with me here and now, you’ll be an enemy in the eyes of the government.” Luffy points out, as if to give them an out. “You could always obey the law and let them kill you though!” He says cheerfully with all the strength of a boy who hadn’t clearly read the room.

”Screw that noise!” Kari shouts from where she is still awkwardly dangling beneath her other arm. “Tried the burning at the stake thing once and I’m not eager to try again!” The she glares at the swordsman with all her might, which is ruined by the fact that Zoro knows she’s a big baby outside of scenarios like this. “If you deny this opportunity to escape I will haunt your ass for the rest of my life.”

”I was gonna agree with him, you idiot!” Zoro barks, then twists his attention back to Luffy, who has the big goofy smile on his face that doesn’t really mech well with the situation they were in, “You must be demon spawn, but I’m not ready to die without a fight! You’ve got yourself a pirate!”

This would have been the time for them to make a great escape, bursting out of their bindings and fighting like all hell to make a nice get away, but apparently their new captain couldn’t read the room for shit , as he threw his arms up in excitement, “Really?! You’ll join my crew?!”

”Just let us out already!” Zoro and Kari shouted in tandem.

Luffy, similar to Kari, deflated and looked annoyed at not being able to celebrate longer. Instead poorly attempting to untie the bindings. “Awe they’re too tight…”

”Hurry up!” Zoro bared right as Kari whipped herself back up to full height and tried tugging on the bindings with Luffy in an effort to get things going faster.

”I’m trying,” Luffy whines with all the instinct of a domesticated housecat. “Just hold on…”

”We’re going to die aren’t we?” Kari mutters miserably.

But then, the rope tugged just right and gave way, and Zoro felt a face splitting wicked grin peel across his face. “Not today we aren’t.” 

In a move that both parties could only call awe-inspiring, Zoro was reaching down for the closest sword, snatching and unsheathing it so quick that both Kari and Luffy barely had time to process it, before swiping at their binds and promptly dragging his other swords out and just barely blocking the attacking marines who’d been charging them.

”The next person who moves dies.” Zoro hisses past the katana clenched between his teeth. The marines shudder, looking terrified by the threat. And a very real threat it was, what with how he was officially off the chain.

”You forgot the tail.” Kari mumbled in annoyance as she has to lean down to awkwardly undo the rob keeping her tail prone. By the time it was loose enough for the limb to slip through, she sighed in relief, the tail flickering back and forth as it experimented with its full mobility. 

“Sorry,” Zoro mumbled because oh right they’d bound her tail. Though that wasn’t the top priority on his mind as he glared daggers into Luffy, who stood blinking at him, “All right, I’m a pirate, I gave you my word, but hear this! I have a dream to fulfill.”

At the word dream, all friendly parties perked up, staring at Zoro curiously. Even Kari draped herself around the pole they’d been stuck on, clinging onto the large log to let her dangle. 

”I’m going to be the world’s greatest swordsman!” Zoro declares. “And though I may now be a pirate, if you force me to abandon my dream for any reason, I will make you suffer a fate worse than death!”

”World’s greatest swordsman…” Luffy trails as if he weren’t just threatened by his new crewmate and then the biggest, widest grin stretches across his face “That’s perfect! The King of the Pirates needs the best of the best! So who better than the world’s greatest swordsman to be at his side!”

Zoro grins, looking like he wants to say more, though is cut off by a furious cry from their captain, “What are you standing around for?! Hack them to pieces—“

”Alright enough out of you.” Kari rolls her eyes, leaning over the post and stretching out her arm, lights swarm and unfurl all up and around her skin as she takes aim at the man who’d been shouting. An alarmed look comes across his face — whether it be due to seeing Kari for the first time or the fact he was being aimed at — and Kari grinned, making both Luffy and Zoro double take when realizing she had the faintest semblance of fangs , “Ray of sickness!”

Then a flashing beam of putrid green shoots out, landing dead center on the captain. The reaction is not what any party is expecting, as instead of being hit by a wave of pure force, the man’s face turns green and he twists around and hurls.

”Get bent, jaws!” Kari grinned leering at the guffawed expressions she received. She cocks her head in warning, “ What?”

Luffy is practically vibrating from where he is standing, shaking and looking like Kari had hung the very stars in the sky, “That was so cool! What devil fruit did you eat?! I’m so happy you’re on my crew—“

”The damn—“ Kari hisses, “I didn’t eat a damn devil fruit! It’s magic! Why is this such a hard concept to understand?!” 

Luffy doesn’t really care that he got chewed out by his new crewmate as he instead elects to grin just as bright and vibrate in his spot. “So cool!” 

Rolling her eyes, Kari lets them slide to Zoro, who is still awkwardly crouched over with the marines hovering around him. She makes a vague gesture towards him and starts, “you need help… or…?”

”Nah, I got this.” Zoro eases, then steals his expression and twists.

The marines shout in alarm as they are sent flying by the man. Though it doesn’t do quite the trick, as a few still linger. Zoro is ready to strike, when his captain shouts, “duck!” Zoro doesn’t need to be told twice and drops down right as an arm goes flying over his head and takes out the remaining marines. Zoro just barely catches Luffy’s finishing shout of “PISTOL!” Before he’s tuning back in and satisfied to see there are no lingering marines hovering around them.

”What the hell was that?!” Zoro asks, still reeling as he watches Luffy’s arm fly back. Kari openly gapes as well, still processing at her own pace.

”I’m a rubber man!” Luffy grins proudly.

The marines explode into sound, declaring themselves unfit to face such a threat. Zoro quietly absorbs that information while Kari slides around the post, walking up on the other side of Zoro and cocking her head to the side as she asks, “Rubber man? Is that your race or something?”

Their captain giggles at that, ignoring the ruckus around them and the subsequent hounding that the captain was giving them. “No stupid, I ate a gum-gum fruit and now I’m made of rubber!” He stretches his cheek as if showing his weird ability would help to drive the point home.

Unfortunately that doesn’t answer literally anything, and Kari makes that audibly known, “That doesn’t answer a damn thing.”

”Uh… guys?” Zoro calls to attention, earning both Kari and Luffy’s focus. Zoro looks alarmed as he stares at the marines that are putting their guns to their heads. “Something’s wrong with those marines!”

”What the hells…” Kari whispers as she crouches a little over, twin spells lighting up in either hand. Zoro braced alongside her, but before either could make a move, their captain was rocketing forward and bringing his arm back for an attack. He swings forward and— “Zoro?”

”Hm?”

”Did he just attack their leader?”

”…yeah, seems so.”

”Dammit.” 

However, at the brief duel in which their captain certainly had the upper hand, Zoro and Kari falter, both sliding into less hostile stances as they watch Luffy beat the shit out of the axe-handed man. 

“Alright, I may have underestimated him.” Kari admits, shaking her wrists out and letting the spells drop. Zoro lets his swords lay low at his sides, his primary katana still clenched tight beneath his teeth as he watches on with passive amusement.

”No kidding,” Zoro musses, sparing a look over at Kari briefly and humming, “at least we know we’ll be joining a crew that can hold their own.”

”No shit.” Kari nods.

They continue watching their captain absolutely pummel the shit at the unbefitting marine. It proves to be mildly entertaining, and the marines even decide to join in on the spectacle, just watching with wide eyes as they watch their abusive officer get his shit rocked. One marine even whoops when Luffy nails the captain in the face.

”Is he wearing something on his face?” Kari asks, raising a hand to put a shadow over her eyes and squinting.

”I think it’s a jaw guard.” Zoro says back.

It was about then that Kari really realized that there was a sword in the guy’s mouth.

”Hot damn, so that’s where the third sword goes!”

Zoro gives her a baffled look, “Where’d you think it went?”

“I was stuck on whether it was between your legs or your ass.” Kari shrugs, ignoring Zoro’s hackles in favor of cupping her mouth and shouting, “Kick his ass, cap!”

Luffy looks over at them with a big smile, but his expression shutters into seriousness when seeing past them. Confused, both turn and promptly tense up when spotting the kid who’d been helping them scared stiff with a pistol aimed to his head, a twitching Helmeppo the one at the trigger.

”S-Stop!” Helmeppo cried, “One false move and he gets it!”

Both Kari and Zoro narrow their eyes at the display, both drawing taught. Kari twists her wrist just so and sparks immediately light up in her palm. Zoro raises his swords just enough with a leering grimace, the duo adding to the others threat display. And it was working if the shivering from the brat was anything to go by.

They share a short look, both widening their stances by a hair. Though they spare a look back at their captain before another word can be said, and their eyes catch on the slow rising lumbering form of the marine Luffy’s just put down. Zoro and Kari quickly meet eyes.

”Dibs on axe-hand.”

”Dibs on Nepo baby.”

And both move. 

Zoro flings himself at the officer with a speed that leaves the watching marines paling. Kari doesn’t pay any attention to this though, as she lets her arm raise, the familiar red light sparking as she takes aim and grins something feral. She catches Helmeppo’s eye for a split second, and by the sheer terror that colors his face, he knows he messed up.

”Eldritch blast!”  

The light brightens for a split moment before shooting forward and landing in the center of the boys chest without further prompt. Helmeppo’s breath is knocked out of him as he makes a choking sound before falling back, a faint waft of smoke billowing from the blast on his chest.

Kari just grins from ear to ear as she stays kneeled for a beat. Right up until she hears a dull thump of a body hitting the ground behind her. She twists her gaze around and finds Zoro frozen over a slumped axe-handed giant. In a smooth motion, Zoro sheathes his swords and spares a wicked grin to both Luffy and Kari. “No sweat.”

That startles a laugh out of Kari as she drops her still extended arm. She dusts off her clothes and jogs closer to join the pair. “No kidding! Had I known it’d be that easy to take the pair down I would have seen about getting out of here soon than later!” Around them the marines mutter and converse about their captain’s defeat.

Zoro gives them a withering book. “Any of you still want to capture us?”

A pause.

Then the marines are shouting and rejoicing. They throw their hats, punch the air, scream and shout and thank anything and everything for their abusive captain finally being knocked down a peg. Zoro and Kari share a look of surprise but end up shrugging. Well, that was where it should have ended, but as it were, Kari watched Zoro’s eyes roll to the back of his head and her own went wide in startlement. 

“Oh shit—“

Zoro went down for the count.

”What happened to Zoro?!” Luffy cried, rushing forward as Kari knelt at the swordsman’s side, hands hovering and unsure whether to touch. 

Swearing, Kari looks at the boy and answers, “He hasn’t eaten in nine days, not to mention he’s probably dehydrated beyond safe parameters. He probably just overexerted himself… Oi, Oi buddy!” Kari starts lightly slapping at Zoro’s face in an effort to rouse him awake.

As it were, luck was on her side, as his eyes fluttered open and he squinted against the sun. “Wha’s happenin’?” He slurred, clearly only barely holding to his sanity.

”Can’t believe you were insistent on doing a month of this shit— we’re getting food and water in you, stat .” Kari says, carefully hauling Zoro up with the aid of Luffy, both quickly slinking under his arms and bracing the man on either side. Kari eyes the discarded swords and is quick to wrap her tail around them and hold as they begin shuffling out of the courtyard.

”Where we goin’?” Zoro asks, still not completely aware yet.

”We’re getting food!” Luffy says, grinning from ear to ear all too happily.

Zoro blinks as awareness wiggles its way into him, “Well damn, why didn’t you say so!”

“Is murder illegal here?” Kari asks blithely.

Luffy just laughs.

About an hour later, they were sitting in the little girl’s house who’d come to give rice balls to Zoro. Everyone was sitting around eating the various meals the little girl’s mother made for them. Kari sat at her own spot, awkwardly perched in her chair as she quietly took up a spoonful of the soup the girl’s mother had given her. Her eyes twisted to Zoro curiously when he leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh of relief. 

Luffy, continuing to chew on his own meal, stared at Kari for a long time. The Tiefling set her eyes head-on and continued drinking spoonfuls of the delicious soup. “What’s up?” Kari asked, tail brushing along the floor with her question.

Luffy subtly tilts his head to the side and stares a beat long. Then, he bluntly asked, “What are you?”

Bristling, Kari leered at Luffy and grouched, “I’m a Tiefling.” 

“Not that.” Luffy said, waving his hand to dismiss the thought, “Like, I’m a rubber man, and Zoro’s a swordsman.” He rolls his wrist in a so-on and so-forth gesture. “So… what’re you?”

Ah, Kari realizes, dropping her spoon into the soup and gently pushing it to the other cleaned off dishes. Zoro curiously watches her as she folds her hands over her knee and rests her chin atop it. Her other leg dangles over the chair, swinging back and forth. “I’m a warlock.”

“Warlock?” Luffy asks, head tilting to the side curiously.

Kari hesitates for a beat before she tilts her head to look at all those present in the tiny kitchen. “...you guys really don’t have magic users here?”

“I’m still convinced you’re a mislead devil fruit user.” Zoro says, leaning his head onto his hand with a bored stare. “But for the sake of playing into your fantasy: no. There aren’t any magic users here.”

Biting back her urge to snap about Zoro eating his words, Kari gives an exhausted sigh before turning and explaining to Luffy, “Where I’m from, there are several different practices and domains in which magic users are based. The primary origins being,” she begins to list them off onto her fingers, “magic through study, magic through gifting, magic through bloodline, magic through nature, and magic through trade.” At the last mention, she waves that finger, “I’d be classified into that area, as warlocks have a patron who gives them magical abilities for some type of trade, whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual. Some trade is made in which the magic user is then able to use spells supplied to them by their patron.”

“So you traded something to use your powers?” The kid -- Koby as both Kari and Zoro had finally come to learn -- asks.

Nodding, Kari leans back into her seat, an arm going back to being wrapped around her leg while her other hands flitted around her head. “Basically.” She flicks her wrist and lets a brief prestidigitation light up her palm with those same swirling colors and light that had awed Zoro the day prior. “It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s how I’m able to use my magic.”

“Wow,” Luffy awes, admiring the swirling display of magic. He laughs when Kari flicks her wrist towards Zoro, and the swordsman jolts back when the lights and magic are sent spiraling for his face. The magic fades after hitting, and no actual hit is made but Zoro scowls at Kari while she snickers into her hand. “So, like how me being a rubber man caused me to be unable to swim in the ocean!”

Blinking, Kari spares an odd look at Luffy, “Huh?”

“Devil fruit users sink like rocks in the ocean.” Zoro says helpfully.

Kari blinks at Zoro.

Then she is gaping, “ That’s why you wanted to toss my ass into the ocean?!” 

“I’m still planning to.” Zoro corrects.

Luffy is laughing, “Well! There will be a lot of ocean for Zoro to throw you into when we’re on the grandline!”

The table rattles when Koby slams his palms and cries, “That’s suicide! There’s only three of you! You’ll be sailing to your deaths if you go there now! The most bloodthirsty pirates in the world are there!” He looks manic, frightened as he listens to their words.

“I mean,” Zoro starts, scratching at the side of his face, “We kind of have to go there if we want to find the One Piece.”

At that, Kari cocked her head to the side, about to ask what they were talking about, but Koby cut her off and started rambling about all the dangers there were on the Grand Line and how they were going to die and how he’d be concerned and… well Kari had tuned them out by then, instead her attention catches on the nearby window and the apparent crowd piling around attempting to peek inside.

“Uh,” Kari starts at one point, interrupting the rambling of Koby and the other boys. “Not to interrupt the touching display,” everyone looked to Kari and said girl just pointed to the window and muttered, “...but were they there earlier?” 

Everyone turned to where she was pointing and immediately were alarmed at the sight of the faces attempting to peek inside. Everyone openly guffawed at the apparent attention they’d garnered. Kari in particular shifted uncomfortably, frowning and lowering her head with an uncomfortable glower. Zoro silently noted the reaction and felt his lips twitch downwards. 

Then, as if it weren’t odd enough, the door to the small house creaked open and in stepped a marine, another tailing behind him with something held in his arms. “Pardon the intrusion,” the man started, eyes darting to the four gathered around the table. “You four are pirates… is that true?”

Both Kari and Zoro tensed up, sharing a look ready to deny for safety, but their captain beat them to it, “That’s right!” Luffy grinned, “I have two crewmates now! I’m officially a captain!” Kari and Zoro dropped their heads into their hands. 

However, contrary to the normal, the marine thumbed at the brim of his hat, muttering, “We are truly grateful for your help in dethroning captain Morgan, but we are still marines, and we cannot allow you to stay here. I apologize, but we ask that you leave promptly. We won’t chase you or report you, but you must leave. We even brought what remained of your belongings in our storage room.” He made a gesture towards the marine who’d been tailing him. 

While the outside crowd guffawed and shouted in anger, Kari ignored them in favor of perking up in recognition. “My hat!” Kari cried in excitement, scrambling out of her seat and immediately pouncing on the little marine. The poor guy flinched when Kari snatched her hat out of his hands and shoved it over her head. She grinned from ear to ear and adjusted the wide brimmed hat. “I can’t believe I almost forgot about her!”

“Well you’re certainly committed to the magic allegations.” Zoro drawls, grinning teasingly when Kari glares at him. 

Stifling her urge to bark an insult, she twists back around to the quaking marine with a forced grin. “Any chance there was a hair tie in there with it?”

The marine blinks, opens and closes his mouth a couple times, before all around giving up and just shaking his head negative. Kari frowned, about to call it a lost cause, but was drawn from her inner machinations by a gentle hand resting on her arm. Her eyes turned to the source quickly, finding the little girl’s mother smiling at her.

“I have one you can use sweetheart.”

The words surprise her, but she perks up with a happy grin, she is about to say her thanks, but pauses when both Luffy and Zoro move to stand. “Ma’am thank you for the meal,” Luffy says, “but we’ll be leaving now.”

Blinking, Kari watches both men trail for the door, and Kari is only broken from her staring by something being pressed into her hands. She twists around and finds the kind woman smiling at her, nodding her head towards the door with a gentle urge for her to follow. 

Kari doesn’t need to be told twice as she quickly falls into step beside her captain, eyes peering down to her what the kind woman had pressed into her hand, finding a small band. Kari’s lips pull into a gentle smile as she is quick to wrap it around her wrist until she’s able to pull up her hair. 

“You with them?” The marine asks a bewildered Koby.

“...I…” Koby trailed, hands opening and closed in his anxiety, he swallows, “I’m not one of them.”

The man stared. “That true pirates?”

Luffy paused at the door, peering over his shoulder at the small boy they’d befriended, the small boy that had called him a friend. “I know about his past.” Luffy says and Koby has a panicked expression on his face. “There was this big woman--”

And Koby pounced.  

“Shut up!” He cried before punching Luffy.

Kari stiffened out of habit, but was stopped from moving by Zoro, the man grasping her elbow to get her to stop. Kari blinks at him in surprise, giving an alarmed look to where Koby was-- getting beat by Luffy?! Kari jolts again, but Zoro just tightens his hold on her.

Kari watched in alarm, until finally, a marine shouted for this to end. And it was only then that Zoro let go of Kari in favor of grabbing Luffy. He said quickly, “That’s enough captain.” And Luffy stopped as asked. 

“Leave now!” The lead marine ordered, glaring at them as if he hadn’t just admitted his gratitude earlier. As if they were a danger. Kari’s tail twitched and her head cocked to the side curiously, perhaps picking up on her captain’s intentions.

And so Kari and Zoro trailed after their captain, trailing through the streets and grinning at thankful townsfolk and smirking at nervous marines. Kari wouldn’t lie, she doesn’t remember the last she’d felt this light on her feet. She had a hop skip and a jump in her step as she trailed with her small party.

A party,

An adventuring party! 

She didn’t honestly think this would happen, but here she was!

“What’s got you grinning?” Zoro asks, peering at Kari curiously when noting her sunny disposition.

Blinking, Kari spares a glance at Zoro, pausing, before answering in earnest, “Never thought I’d be a part of an adventuring party. Sort of fulfilling a lifelong goal here. Can’t really help smiling about it.” She says this all with said smile on her face. She grins kindly at Zoro and admits, “I didn’t think I’d get something like this.” 

Her words didn’t have the expected reaction, as Zoro had an odd curl to his expression. But it only lasted a couple of moments before smoothing out into something gentler. He dips his head in a nod, and says, “Well, you certainly have it now.” His eyes darted to their captain, still steadily marching for where their alleged ship was set up. “And as far as our captain is concerned, I’m pretty sure we’ll be here as long as Luffy will have us.”

“And that’s forever!” Luffy piped up from where he took a turn towards the docks. He threw his hands up to drape behind his head as he turned and started marching backwards to watch his two new crewmates. “Or as long as it takes for us to die, at least.”

“Sorry, die?” Kari asked, smile disappearing in a moment’s notice as she stared at her captain in alarm.

Luffy grinned, spinning around and throwing her arms up in eagerness. “We’re here!” He said, completely disregarding Kari’s prior concern. He gestures eagerly to the tiny dingy that barely qualified as a boat. “And here’s our ship!”

“Can I rescind my acceptance into your crew?” Kari asked, getting nearer to the edge to peer at the tiny little ship. Her eyes then fell to the water and she winced. 

“Nope!” Luffy grinned.

While Kari was busy looking vaguely miserable, she wasn’t privy to spotting Zoro’s devilish expression. He stepped closer to Kari without second thought and placed a hand on her shoulder. Kari, thinking it sympathy, looks back to assure him she’d be fine, but her tongue caught when she spotted the shit-eating grin on Zoro’s face. Unfortunately, it was only when she caught his expression that she remembered a certain insistence Zoro had been pressing since when they’d first chatted.

“Awe shit.” Kari muttered, succumbing to her fate as Zoro shoved.

With all the grace of a newborn fawn, Kari went screaming over the edge, all flailing limbs and shouting swears. The subsequent splash that followed was like music to Zoro’s ears. So he just folded his arms and stared at the bubbles slinking to the surface. Luffy leaned in closer to Zoro with a curious look, “Why’d you push her into the water?”

“Proving a point.” Zoro answered. “I’m giving her ten seconds then I’m-”

He couldn’t finish the thought as soon Kari came gasping to the surface, treading water like a champ and pushing her sopping wet hat to the back of her head. “Screw you, you prick!” Kari pointed at Zoro, who was boggled by the fact she wasn’t sinking like a rock. “I told you I’m not a devil fruit user or whatever!”

“Oh what the hell.” Zoro muttered.

“Whoa!” Luffy cried, pointing at Kari with all the gusto of a toddler, “You have goat ears!”

“That’s what you’re stuck on?!” Zoro cried, balking at his captain. Unfortunately, as it were, he wasn’t focused on Kari’s growing lecherous grin and her treading closer. He was only aware of his fate when a wet hand grabbed at his ankle. Zoro’s expression melted into subdued acceptance as he muttered, “Ah shit.”

The splash that followed was all too satisfying to Kari.

Chapter Text

“Alright new rule,” Kari says as she finishes wringing the last of the sea water from her hair. She glared at Zoro, who’d decided to push her into the ocean a second time when they’d gained some distance from Shell Town. He’d fished her out when seeing her lack of drowning, saying that maybe the first time was a fluke, and she just glowered at him. “No more pushing Kari off the boat.”

“Third time’s the charm.” Zoro grins across from her.

“No!” Kari shouts, flicking her wrist to summon her quarterstaff. She takes aim at Zoro as threateningly as she can muster — which isn’t that successful considering she looked like a drowned rat — and pressed the tip of the staff against his chest to keep them distant. She glowers at him with a hiss of, “Don’t you dare.” 

Any former attempt at pushing her overboard is abandoned in favor of Zoro staring at Kari’s summoned quarterstaff in bafflement. “Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” He pokes the quarterstaff that she’d summoned, as if expecting it to fade from existence with the gentle probe. When it continued to simply exist , Zoro shook his head, “Fine I admit defeat, you’re a wizard or whatever.”

“Warlock, dammit.” Kari sneers, pulling back her quarterstaff and dropping its presence by letting go. The staff promptly vanished in a burst of light, leaving Kari slouched into the side of the dinghy. Her arms folded across her chest as she grumbles to herself about useless muscle heads.

It was about then that Kari was tackled by Luffy. 

The breath leaves her with a grunt as Luffy drapes across her lap like a needy cat. He smiles up at her like he hadn’t just knocked the life out of her and asks happily, “What other cool tricks can you do?” 

Ignoring her likely future bruise, Kari slouches back and sighs, “I know a couple spells, a fair amount of cantrips.” Kari said, “I can also do some basic telepathy.”

“Tele-huh?” Luffy asks, cocking his head to the side in curiosity. 

Figures, Kari thought. She leaned forward over Luffy a little and said, “I can show you, but I need permission.” 

“Show me!” Luffy says with a big grin, excited beyond belief.

Lips twitching in amusement, Kari locks eyes with Luffy, feeling a familiar tingle in the back of her head that prompts her to reach out with her inner eye and hold. The minute the bond was linked, Luffy flinched, wincing at the — she assumes — ice pick headache he’d just felt. Then, when that bond was locked and unmoving, she reached out and spoke.

“How’s this for telepathy?” Kari thinks, smiling brightly when Luffy watches her sharply, eyes wide with surprise when seeing Kari’s unmoving lips. “Surprised yet?” 

“How’re you doing that?” Luffy asks, eyes wide with awe. Zoro watches them both in confusion, eyes darting between the awed Luffy and the silent Kari. “Do it again! Do it again!” Luffy squeals, grabbing Kari’s shoulders and shaking her lightly.

Kari holds back a snort, smile growing wider. “You can communicate back if you’d like. Just think of something and I can hear you.”

Luffy blinks before his expression tightens up in concentration. Kari was honestly surprised it wasn’t an easy task and could only stare in bafflement as the only discernible thought that eventually came through was a muffled “meat.”  

“Meat?” Kari asks, bewildered and amused. 

This results in Luffy laughing in glee, clinging onto Kari all too excitedly. Kari grins down at her captain who looks so utterly enthused by this discovery that he is kicking his feet in enthusiasm. “You heard me!” Luffy says through his laughter, before then pausing and reeling around to face Zoro, “Zoro! You gotta try this!”

“I’m very lost.” Zoro states.

“Magic thing,” Kari explained, “give me permission and I can show you, if you’d like.”

Zoro blinks at both the captain and warlock, sparing a glance around as if there was anything else to hold his attention. So he just shrugs and looks at the pair, “Sure why not. Might as well pass the time, right?”

Kari smirks and reaches up to tap beneath her eye. “Lock eyes with me real quick.” Zoro looks dubious at the order, but does as asked when Luffy insists for him to try. So he locks eyes with Kari and waits. When the ice pick headache hits he winces in alarm, “What the hell— what did you do?!”

“Oh, you can tell the bond’s in place?” 

The swordsman’s jaw nearly drops at the voice of Kari heard clear as day in his head and the lack of mouth moving. Kari just smiles coyly at him while he continues gaping. He points at her and demands, “What the hell did you just do?!”

“I made a telepathic link with you,” Kari’s voice floats through his mind. She smiles, still not visibly talking, and rests her head on her fist. She watches Zoro amusedly. “I’m honestly surprised you felt the link connect. You can respond back if you’d like. Just think of something and I’ll hear it.”

That makes something nervous churn in Zoro, as his fingers run over the grooves of his katanas. His jaw works a silent turn before he attempts, “This is weird.”

“There you go!” Kari grinned brightly at him, her tiny fangs on display, “You got the hang of this quick. Congrats!”

“Can you hear anything I think?” Zoro thinks nervously, his expression growing darker - more anxious - as he stares down Kari. 

At his question, Kari’s expression sobers. She shakes her head. “Although I admit I have a spell that enables me to search through one's mind, this isn’t what that is. I wouldn’t use that spell on you unless asked. As it were, this just enables me to psychically link us for short snippets of conversation. I just glean surface level thoughts, nothing deeper.” 

At the answer, Zoro’s entire body wilts in relief. “Okay, good.”

“Alright I’m tired of the mind talk!” Luffy announces, breaking Kari and Zoro’s attention and instead looking to him. He smacks his hands on the deck and announces, “I’m starving!”

“Really?” Zoro finally voices, a bit perturbed by the remnants of his psychic conversation. “Well why not see about getting us somewhere with food?” 

“I don’t really know how to navigate.” Luffy admits, rolling over to where he flops off of Kari’s lap and onto the dinghy itself. He stares at the sky for a while till noting the silence from his two crewmates. He picks at his nose and meets their staring head on, “What?”

“You’re the captain and you don’t know how to navigate?!” Kari barks, looking ready to strangle the boy. Zoro looks equally close to starting a mutiny.

“No, drifting has worked well for me so far.” Luffy shrugs, before sitting upright and pointing at Zoro, “And what about you? Everyone knows your name out here, doesn’t that mean you know how to get from place to place?” 

“First of all, I only ended up out here because I’m trying to find a pirate I need to defeat,” Zoro answers, folding his arms over his chest with a frown. “And afterwards I couldn’t find my way back to my village. I started hunting pirates to earn money and the rest is history.”

“You’re telling me I agreed to join a crew where none of us can navigate for shit?” Kari whispers, looking horrified with herself. She pulls her hat down over her head, her horns awkwardly wrinkling the fabric. “I’m starting to have some regrets.”

“Oh shut up,” Zoro snaps at her, “I don’t see you doing anything to help.”

“Hey wise guy,” Kari snaps back, “I don’t even know where the hells I am, in case you forgot I got spat out here by some wild magic and the rest is history.” She throws up her hands, letting go of her hat and shooting the swordsman a baffled look, “Your stars aren’t even the same!” 

“Whatcha mean?” Luffy asks, eyes sliding to Kari. 

The anger she’d been spouting quickly vanished as Kari faltered. Dropping her arms, Kari looked away and muttered, “I don’t recognize your sky. Meaning I’m either in another plane, or a different universe altogether.“

”Different universe?” Both Zoro and Luffy intone, their curiosity peaked.

Already knowing where this was heading, Kari folds her arms and dips her head down to explain, “There are several planes of existence, and there are several multiverses to boot. We are — I assume — on your equivalent of the material plane. Reality or whatever you wanna call it.” She rolls her head to the side as she continues, “Stars are a big factor in mapping out planes, and your star systems sure don’t look like mine. So I’m willing to bet whatever chaos magic jumped me ended up popping me out in your reality.” Shrugging, Kari just reclines back further into the dinghy, “The rest is history.”

”So that’s why you aren’t familiar with the Grand Line or the history here?” Zoro hazarded a guess, to which Kari nodded, glad to see he was following.

”If I had to guess.” Luffy is making a face like he’s deep in thought, his lips twitching downwards as whatever is on his mind seems to stump him. Kari raises her chin a little, “What’re you thinking?” 

Half of Kari thinks that he’s just gonna admit to being lost, but she is surprised to find that Luffy instead says, “So you aren’t from here?” It’s a bit basic if naive, but it does get the point across in a rather simple way.

The question makes Kari’s lips twitch, amused if anything. “Basically.”

”But…” Luffy trails, still making that contemplative expression, “what about your home? You’re family? Won’t they miss you?”

While earnest, the question makes Kari’s expression go carefully blank. The reaction is quick, barely there, but Zoro and Luffy catch it. And just as quick as that blankness had settled, it was promptly swept away by a big goofy grin spreading across Kari’s face. 

“Nah,” Letting her head flop to the side she smiles bright and sunny at them, as if that eerie neutrality hadn’t been there seconds prior, “I’m a free soul, honestly couldn’t wait for the first sign of adventure to sweep me up!” It’s impressive with how honest her laugh sounds. 

Zoro is about to point out she hadn’t actually answered the question, but Luffy quickly changes subject before the swordsman could say a word. “Well that’s good!” Luffy perks up smiling, looking for all the world like he was carefree, “Because I’m going to be the King of the Pirates, and that means I’ll be the freest man in the world!”

His words spark something in Kari, as her expression turns a little softer, a little more real. She cracks a crooked grin and asks, “Yeah?” Then she laughs to herself throwing her arms behind her head and leaning back into them, “Then I’m glad I’m on your crew, cap.”

Luffy just grins, making his odd ‘shishishi’ laugh through his teeth. And Kari can’t help but smile at the twinkling sound. Even Zoro cracks a smile, feeling a little freer, a little calmer.

Then, because apparently their captain wasn’t odd enough, Luffy’s expression immediately sobers in realization, a soft gasp coming to him. “Right!” He puts on this haughty posture that makes both swordsman and warlock stare at him in bewilderment, “I hereby announce Zoro as my first mate and Kari as my second!”

A beat.

”Yeah alright,” Zoro shrugs, draping his arms over the lip of the dinghy and leaning back. 

Unfortunately, Kari doesn’t have quite the same reaction. Her whole body spasms as she flounders forward. Her eyes are bugging out of her skull as she grasps at her captain and shouts, “What?! No!” She shakes the rubber boy around, as if it might aid in her getting through to him, “Why would you suggest that?!”

”Why wouldn’t I?” Luffy asks as while being tossed around. He lets himself bounce a while longer before Kari has to stop to catch her breath, “You’re strong? I should have strong people being my first and second mate, shouldn’t I?”

“I mean— yeah, I guess. But I’m a glass canon! I can set someone on their ass pretty well and good, but I’m not a fighter like Zoro or you, I’m just—“

”You can literally fire weird beams from your hands.” Zoro points out bluntly, making Kari stammer.

”Well, yeah sure, but like, that doesn’t make me any stronger? Literally any warlock could do that?” Kari looks bewildered.

”You made a guy throw up!” Luffy says.

”I don’t see how that’s a qualifying factor.”

”Face it tails,” Zoro yawns, closing his eyes and looking ready to doze at a moment's notice, “You’re second mate whether you like it or not. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you’ll stop whining about it.”

”I am not whining—“

”Hey is that a bird?” Luffy cuts through the start of an argument. Both Zoro and Kari pause in their bickering and glance up to where Luffy is pointing. There, just as he’d said, is the silhouette of a bird flapping in slow circles around their dinghy.

”Does… does it think we’re dying?” Kari asks, expression twisting.

”I’m hungry!” Luffy says.

”We’re aware.” Zoro and Kari intone.

”Let’s eat it!” Luffy says, again, as if this added something to their conversation.

”What?” Kari asks dumbly.

”How?” Zoro says, smartly. Kari glares at him, and Zoro grins back.

”I’m gonna catch it!” Luffy announces, sitting up and reeling his arms back.

”How are you going to—“ Kari starts, though stops when watching her captain's arms sling out and grab the sail with a physicality that should be impossible. The rubbery limbs pull taught, and it is by the time that Luffy’s grin is near manic that Kari realizes what he had planned, “Wait—“

And then Luffy was launched right at the bird.

”What the hells?!” Kari cries, looking alarmed at her captain’s lack of forethought. She grasps at her hat and tugs the brim anxiously as she watches her captain’s form grow smaller and smaller as it rapidly neared the bird.

”Not bad…” Zoro hummed, shielding his eyes from the sun to squint up at their idiot of a captain.

Kari’s tail anxiously swayed from side to side as she continued to just watch her captain. She waited for a sign of him to fall but… but he wasn’t…

”Zoro.”

”Mm?”

”He’s not falling.”

”Mm.”

The bird started flying away. And it was about then that first and second mate sprang into action. Kari scrambled around to find a fitting spell to cast, cursing a long line of mixed swears — Common and whatever other language she knew on hand — as she attempted to find oars.

”YOU IDIOT!” Zoro cries, finding the oars first and immediately getting to work on rowing. The abrupt movement makes Kari yelp and fall on her ass, hat awkwardly falling on her face. Zoro continues shouting in anger at their captain as he tries to follow.

” Shit!” Kari screams, hands flickering with varying spells as she tries to figure out if any of them would aid her in that moment. Alas. None would. “SHIT!”

”Hey!” A voice shouts through their chase, making Kari and Zoro look aside hurriedly, seeing that they were apparently approaching three bodies in the water, floundering and struggling to stay afloat. “Hey wait!” 

“You have got to be kidding me.” Kari groans as she stares at the apparent shipwreck survivors. 

“No stopping, just grab on and get on!” Zoro shouts, continuing to row right at the people. Kari braces herself on the boat as Zoro rows like a madman.

And just as expected, Zoro crashes into them, but they are lucky enough to grab and sling themselves into the dinghy. They are panting and gagging up what water they’d accidentally swallowed, but they’re alive. Kari slumps back, ending up slouched between Zoro’s legs as she rests her arms on both of his knees and exhales in relief. 

Zoro just sort of looks down at her with a raised brow, “Cozy down there?”

”Can it, hill-top,” Kari grouches, not moving from her place despite the tease. She pushes her hat up a little and catches sight of the three people they’d just unintentionally saved from a watery grave. “You managed to get in, good for you.”

”What the hell was that?!” The leader of the band cries. The guy has a weird cap with a skull and crossbones on it, though with a poorly stitched red circle in the center. The leader is moving to get up, but stops upon spotting Kari, his eyes widen and he points — with a sword clenched between his fist apparently — and shouts, “ What the hell is that?!”

Kari slumps into Zoro with a frustrated sound. Zoro frowns and spares a glance at Kari, glancing up and saying, “She’s Kari.” 

“That’s not what I meant asshole!” 

Kari gives an appreciative look to Zoro.

”Stop the ship!” The man says, apparently shaking off his former fear. He wields the sword threateningly, as if he was some big shot. “We’re pirates of Buggy the Clown, and we’re commandeering your ship!”

Zoro and Kari share another long look.

”You or me?”

”Me, you keep rowing for now.”

”Huh?! Don’t ignore us—“

Kari’s eyes sparked as she twisted her wrist and a familiar quarterstaff fell into her palm. Zoro eyed it curiously as Kari rose out from his lap and started approaching the three pirates. All of whom were absolutely quaking in their boots.

A short beating later, Zoro and Kari were sitting side by side on the other side of the dinghy glaring down the three bloodied and bruised pirates, rowing in place of the swordsman. Kari leaned into Zoro’s side as she still kept the quarterstaff on hand in case she needed to beat some sense into them again.

”I thought you said you could use a quarterstaff?“

”I didn’t say I was good at using one.” Kari said smartly, leaning onto Zoro’s shoulder and glaring at the middle pirate who’d been the primary source of her beating. “But it sure gets the job done.”

”Is this how piñatas feel?” One of the pirates whispers, a distant look in his eyes.

”When we get an opportunity,” Zoro drawls, “I’m teaching you how to actually use that thing and not just beat the shit out of people with a stick.”

”It gets results, doesn’t it?” Kari points out smugly.

”I think you traumatized them.” Zoro pokes a hole in her point. His eyes darted to the pirates looking miserable and like they had a new healthy dose of PTSD, and he barked, “Oi!” The pirates flinched, looking at Zoro in fear, “How did you three end up out here?”

”Our ship was stolen!” The leader cried, beginning their sad tale of getting double crossed by some random woman out on the seas. It was clear they were looking for some sympathy, but as it were both Zoro and Kari were fresh out of that to give.

”She used the weather to her advantage? she must really know the seas.” Zoro trailed sounding vaguely awed, “Could make a great navigator I bet…”

“Well, hopefully she doesn’t end up robbing us.” Kari mutters, arms crossed with the quarterstaff awkwardly drawn across her lap. Then a thought comes to mind, “Who’s Buggy?”

”Buggy?!” All three cry, sounding aghast. “He’s only the most ferocious pirate in the East Blue! He— he ate a devil fruit. ” He whispers it like it’s a secret.

Kari stares at them dumbly, “Our captain ate a devil fruit too, he isn’t anything special.”

”That means you’re nothing too!” One of the pirates points out.

Kari raises her staff threateningly, waving it around and making the three squeak. “How many times do I need to say it?! I didn’t eat a damn devil fruit!”

”I can throw you into the ocean if that helps clear it up.” Zoro offers.

”I will throw you off this damn material plane if you suggest tossing me into the sea again!” Kari shouts, now raising and waving her staff at Zoro who looks less than threatened by the display. Seeing as this was growing to be a lost cause, Kari grumbles, vanishes the quarterstaff, and curls up on the bottom of the dinghy. “I’m taking a nap! Wake me when we get our captain back!”

“Are you rage napping?” Zoro asks, sounding as if he’s fighting off laughter.

”Shut up, asshole!”

“Hey! Horn-head, wake up, we’re here.”

Kari, dragging herself from the fulfilling nap she’d had where she’d imagined a world in which she wasn’t a second mate, blearily opens her eyes, blinking past the searing sun with a whine. She rolls over and covers her head with her hat with a groan of “too bright…”

”Now is not the time for you to get lazy.” Zoro grouches, grabbing Kari around her waist and slinging her onto the docks. There is a loud screech at the manhandling, and the tumble that follows proves entertaining at the very least. 

Kari, now wide awake, rubs her sore arm that’d slammed into the docks and sat up with a glare. “What the hells man? What was that?”

”We’re here to get Luffy and we don’t have time for your moaning and groaning.” Zoro stands on the docks, looking around with narrowed eyes, “Where is everyone?”

”Captain Buggy may or may not have taken over this town.” One of the pirates admitted — standing there and not mentioning the whole body tossing he’d just witnessed.

Sighing, Zoro rests a hand on his sword, “Alright, take me to your captain, might as well see if he’s seen Luffy.”

”Though I’ve barely been on this crew for a day,” Kari groans, standing up and stretching out her back, tail stretching with the gesture, until slumping and dragging behind her as they start walking, “something tells me this is going to be a common thing.”

”Astute observation second mate.” Zoro quips.

”Shut up! I’m not the second mate!”

”That’s not what our captain seems to think.”

“AUGH!” Kari throws up her arms and looks like she wants to strangle the swordsman. But she doesn’t, because she’s a good second mate like that. 

“Listen,” Zoro starts, “you can moan and groan about this later, but for now how about we focus on finding our captain and making sure he hasn’t killed himself by now or gotten eaten by birds.”

Grumbling, Kari folds her arms like a petulant toddler, “Fine,” Eyeing the pirates who’d been quietly watching the bickering, Kari raises her head and barks, “Where the hells is your captain anyway?”

Startling at the attention suddenly on them, the pirates flounder, “We— you— I mean—“ Clearing his throat and thereafter resetting what he’d been saying, the leader of the band says, “He should be in the center of town. That’s where he was last set up at least.”

”Right, and how long till we get there?” Zoro asks, a bored look on his face.

”Are you bored?” One of the pirates asks, looking baffled. “Are you serious?”

“Man, now I’m hungry.” Kari whines, again, petulantly.

Rolling his eyes, Zoro says, “Well, at least we’re on an island. Means we can find food.”

Perking up, and her previous brooding now gone, Kari smiles, “True!” Then, as if it weren’t odd enough, there is a dull echoing explosion, followed by what sounds like collapsing buildings. Kari’s expression went baffled, “What was that?”

All three of the Buggy Pirates shared a long look. “Buggy ball.” They answered as one, which really didn’t answer the question that Kari had asked.

”…How about we pick up the pace?” Zoro suggests.

A short jog later, and all five of them were scrambling towards the source of ruckus. Upon entering the area, there were a couple things apparent.

1. Their captain was stuck in a cage with a cannon aimed right at him.
2. There was a girl being ganged up on by several other pirates.
3. There was a clown.

Okay, the third could wait to be extrapolated on, but Kari thought it was worth pointing out in the moment, “Is that a clown?!”

” That’s what caught your attention?!” Zoro yelled as he was charging forward towards the pirates still mid-jump towards the woman. Kari followed him quickly, a spell lighting up in her palm .  

“Misty step.”

The feeling of swimming through the fabrics of reality is a familiar one, shadows and clouds of forms that had once been real around her eyes as in a blink it is clearing and she is now atop her captain’s cage. 

“You can teleport?!” Luffy cries beneath her, attempting to peek through the bars and up at Kari, but it just results in her captain folding himself into an uncomfortable pretzel.

”Misty step.” Kari corrects, kneeling down atop the cage while summoning her quarterstaff again. She braced one hand atop the metal cage; her staff twisted in her hand. “And how the hells did you end up in this mess?!”

“Clowns,” Luffy said helpfully, which was in reality very unhelpful.

”He okay?” Zoro calls from where he is surrounded by fallen pirates. Apparently he’d managed to block them all in time, sparing the girl. 

“Yeah, just as dumb as I remember!”

”Hey!” Luffy cries, frustrated at the bullying.

It was about then that the whispering and murmuring picked up, talking about the pirate hunter, who they were, and demons. Kari rolls her eyes at the latter topic, relaxing her posture into a lazy kneel. But while she was starting to put her guard down, it went right back up upon spotting the billowing figure nearing Zoro.

”So… come to capture me, have you pirate hunter?” The looming form asks.

”Those days are behind me.” Zoro answers back, “Just here to get my captain.”

”Well, I’m interested in killing you.” The figure grins from ear to ear, raising his head just enough for his face to meet the sun and—

Laughter explodes into the center yard.

Any hope of threat the figure was looking to gain is immediately faltered as the man looks to the source. There atop the cage, was the keeled over form of Kari who was laughing her ass off. 

“I-I didn’t think—“ Kari gasps, “They meant— meant a literal clown!” She smacks her hands a few times into the metal as she struggles to get her breathing together. 

“Hey!” The captain — presumably Buggy — snaps. “That’s rude!”

”S-Sorry!” Kari wheezes, wiping tears from her eyes, “Sorry! Just— just took me a little off guard!”

”You don’t hear me making fun of you. ” Buggy points out, making a broad gesture to Kari, “What with the… the everything.”

“Right! Right, good point,” Kari sniffles, rubbing at her eyes, “Thanks for that by the way. Breath of fresh air to not have someone cry demon .”

”Can we quit with the small talk and get back to the fighting?” Zoro asks as he rushes Buggy before the captain is ready. His swords slice through the clown, resulting in a comical separation in torso and waist. Zoro looks alarmed by how easy that was as he blinks, “Uh.”

”Nooooo,” Kari whined, draping forward miserably, “Zoro! Why’d you have to go and kill that guy?”

”He was gonna kill our captain, idiot!” Zoro barks back, looking beyond annoyed.

”But he was funny…” Kari continues to whine while Luffy peeks out between the bars, grinning from ear to ear.

“Well that was easy!”

And if there was one law of the universe that Kari knew by the book… it was that nothing ever came easy, and you never voice it when it is. Eyes snapping wide and whole body going rigid, her head whips up and she boggles in alarm when watching Buggy still moving. “Zoro! Look out—“

Too late, as she watches one of the arms that Zoro had swiped off levitate and stab Zoro.

With a cut off yell, Zoro slumps forward, hand moving to stem the blood that now poured out of his stab wound. Kari’s eyes widen in horror as she watches her crewmate kneel and grit his teeth, sparing a glare over his shoulder at the rising Buggy.  

“The chop-chop fruit!” Buggy says by way of explanation. “You can slice and dice me, but you can’t kill me!” His limbs reattach with quiet clicks, as if there were no wounds there to begin with. 

“So he’s immune to piercing and slashing attacks, maybe bludgeoning too.” Kari whispers, eyes wide with realization. Her shoulders hunch forward as she lets her quarterstaff vanish, figuring that it would do little use here. Instead, she lets herself kneel and allows familiar spells to come swarming to her palms. “Let me handle him, cap.” Kari says, eyes narrowed on the clown.

Luffy peeks up at Kari again, eyes searching, careful. But then his face splits into an easy grin. “You got it!” Then he pauses, “Can I yell at him a little though?”

Rolling her eyes, Kari looks down at Luffy with a ‘no shit’ expression, “Well, duh, you’re the captain, you can do whatever you want!”

”Oh! Right…” Clearing his threat, Luffy takes a great big inhale before shouting at the top of his lungs, “Stabbing someone in the back is fighting dirty! You got that Big-Nose?!”

The shocked gasps that follow are comical at best. But it does the job as everyone nervously looks to their boss. Whom of which stands there twitching like a funhouse ghoul. Buggy’s eyes hone in on Luffy, still bound in his cage, and he charges.

”Who do you think you’re calling Big-Nose?!” Buggy screeches as he launches a knife-holding-hand straight at Luffy. 

Though before the knife can make its mark, the hand abruptly drops. And so does the owner. Buggy clutches at his stomach and starts rolling around, howling with laughter, tears streaming down his face. He looks alarmed by his abrupt shift in demeanor, kicking his feet and cackling to the very sky.

“Wh- ha HA haha — i-is this— HAHAHa!” Buggy struggles out, wincing past his cackling, tears still rolling down his face with his laughter. 

Everyone stared in bafflement at the display, unknowing as to what just happened. But Luffy, perhaps sensing the cause, just looks up at the form kneeled atop his cage. Kari’s golden eyes were sharp and unblinking as she stared down Buggy with a carefully neutral expression, the only hint as to what was happening was the faint dust coating her hands now floating away in the breeze. 

Luffy’s eyes sparkled.  

But he knew that whatever this was likely wouldn’t last long, at least not with the way Kari was dead focused on Buggy, expression serious. So, he rolled his head to Zoro and cried, “Time to go!”

“R-right.” Zoro sputtered, staring at Kari before shaking his head and muttering, “Move it, tails.”

Kari made a throaty grunt as she shifted off the cage, still staring down Buggy the whole time. There was a brief moment where she spared a glance at Zoro and his still weeping wound, but her sights were back on Buggy the minute his laughter started to wean. When her attention was back on him, the laughter picked up again, and subsequently made the nearby pirates startle back.

“Whatever Kari is doing, it won’t last long.” Luffy points out, his eyes darting to the orange-haired girl still staring at them in pure bafflement. Luffy blinked at her a few times before putting on his usual big grin and saying, “Oh! And this is our new navigator!”

Kari and Zoro spun on a dime, yelling, “Our what?!”

This had the unfortunate side effect of Kari’s concentration being broken. Meaning that Buggy’s laughter finally ended and the clown was left sputtering for air on the ground, gasping and clawing at his chest as he struggled to calm down.

”What the hell was that?!” Buggy gasps.

”Alright bozos, show’s over.” Kari said, face paling. She turns to Zoro and says, “Do you have enough energy to haul yourself and Luffy out of here?”

”Like a little stab wound is going to make me break,” Zoro scoffs, giving a grunt that suggested otherwise as he lifted Luffy and cage over his head and onto his back. 

Grunting back, Kari turns to their new navigator and asks, “Mind following them in case sword-brain here keels over?“

”I’m not gonna keel over, horn-head!” Zoro shouted as he started his awkward shuffling to try and leave.

”Sure you’re not,” Kari says, disbelievingly. She looks imploringly at the other girl and says, “I’m going to cause a distraction that’ll give us some time to make a getaway. You make sure they get out while I make it, got it?”

”I’m not a part of your crew.” The girl grouches.

Kari wants to pull out her hair. “I don’t give a damn, just go with them.” Whirling around on the Buggy Pirates coming back to themselves, Kari hops in place to try and get her blood pumping. Finally, sprinting forward with a swear as she slides down to the massive cannon that had just been facing her captain. “Oi clowns, get a load of this!”

She fits herself under the cannon and pushes.

”She’s trying to aim the cannon at us!” One of the pirates shouts as the group falls into loud shouting and screaming. Buggy among the squealers. 

Unfortunately, that really couldn’t happen until she could flip the cannon around and the thing was heavier than a house. “Lift with your legs, lift with your legs,” Kari kept chanting as she tried to gain some strength. Damn her lack of athletics.

”Oh, screw this noise!” Kari finally shouted, giving in to the easier route and summoning a familiar red mass in her hand. She places her hand onto the metal exterior and feels the glow pulse. " Eldritch blast!”

The force is just what she needs — likely aided by it being point blank — as she bares her teeth in a toothy grin and shakes out her tingling hand when the cannon slammed into place, now facing the enemy. This was, of course, followed by more squawking and screaming.

”It’s aimed right at us!”

“Alright luck, don’t fail me now!” Kari shouts as she looks at the tiny tether of rope sticking out of the end of the cannon. With a snap and a quick prestidigitation, the fuse was lit and going right in.

The blast that followed could best be described as deafening. The screaming from the pirates was drowned out by the explosion the cannon caused, debris and smoke filling the small square and successfully giving a low temporary means for them to sneak by.

Unfortunately, Kari wasn’t as fortunate to go unscathed, as being so close to the blast left a dull ringing in her ears, sound muffled. Wincing and rubbing at her ears, Kari whined, “ Man…”

Though whining could come later, she reasoned, quickly slinking through the cloud of destruction. Eyes darting and honing in on every silhouette in the smoke she caught. She did well in avoiding them and was soon slipping out of the square and down the original path they’d taken to get there.

As she looked at the countless streets and options as to where they could be, Kari slouched forward and resented her life choices.

Chapter Text

Half an hour later which might as well function as a short rest, and Kari was drawn to commotion at long last. She thanked whatever deity had blessed her and turned to sprint, shouting, “I’m coming! I’m coming!” as she ran.

Turning the corner, she gaped at the sight of demolished houses and crumpled buildings, all of which seemed to fold right under each other, resulting in a house of cards situation. Her guffawing was cut short by a muffled groan, and she turned her attention to the source and perked up.

”Zoro!” Kari called trotting closer till she came to kneel by the swordsman’s side.

”That was not the wake up call I was expecting.” Zoro groaned, lifting his head from his hand to blink up at Kari. “Oh, hey Kari.”

”Kari! Zoro!” Another voice called, causing both swordsman and warlock to lift their heads. Not too far was Luffy, a baffled alleged navigator with him, out of his cage and grinning like a fool, “You’re alive!”

”How could anyone possibly live through that?” Their navigator whispered.

”Hey! You got bandaged!” Kari observes, carefully helping Zoro to his feet. “What happened while I was searching for you?”

”Passed out after I got out of the square.” Zoro admits while he carefully slips away from Kari’s support. He stretches and winces at the pain in causes, but otherwise holds his own. “Guess I got patched up.”

”Yeah! The old man fixed you up after you passed out from blood loss.” Luffy grins.

”Who?” Kari asks intelligently, before blinking and sparing a look to the silent presence of their navigator, “Also what’s your name?”

Rolling her eyes, the girl greets, “Nami.”

Laughing, Luffy places his hands on his hips and cries, “This is gonna be so fun!”

Nami promptly whirls on her new captain and shouts, “This is no time for laughing!” 

“We’re headed for the Grand Line! We’ll steal that map back and then head there!” Luffy declares, all confident swagger.

Kari leans close to Zoro, “Map?”

”You’re guess is as good as mine.” Zoro says back. 

Then, as if this whole interaction already wasn’t odd enough, Luffy spins towards Nami with a hand extended in invitation, “Join us!”

Kari guffaws, “I thought you said she was our navigator!”

”I’m not gonna be a pirate!”

”See!” Kari says, gesturing frantically at Nami, “She isn’t even on the same page!”

”But I’ll work with you for now!” 

Kari opens her mouth, likely to tack on more obvious points, but her tongue catches and she looks to Nami with wide eyes, “Pardon?” 

“Enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?” Nami reasons, raising her chin with feigned confidence after she’d slapped Luffy’s hand. “And right now, Buggy is that enemy.”

Kari blinks owlishly, before shrugging, “Fair enough.” Adjusting the hat on her head, she gets a proper look at Nami before greeting, “I’m Kari, and before you ask, I’m a tiefling and a warlock.”

”I was just gonna move past that, but thanks for the answers.” Nami turns to Zoro and boggles at the man untying the bandana from around his arm in favor of putting it on his head. “Wha— you’re coming too?! But— but you’re still hurt.”

”Took a nap.” Zoro said.

Kari nodded, “A short rest really does wonders doesn’t it?”

” Plus I got a score to settle. And that clown has it coming.”

”What did I pull myself into?” Nami groans, head falling into her hands. Kari gives a sympathetic pat on the back, commiserating alongside her. Though Kari would be a liar if she said that it wasn’t fun.

A quick jog after the old man that had apparently ran off without them — and a quick explanation from Nami that the guy was the mayor and looking to attain his honor or something — and soon the four of them were peeling into a fight. 

Buggy was now in the street and apparently strangling the — Kari assumes — mayor with one of his floating arms. The clown was too busy gloating to realize that Luffy was rushing in, snatching the mayor and the hand.

“Guess who’s back?!” Luffy shouted.

”You again?!” Buggy shouted, his eyes dancing frantically over the three others before settling on Kari and paling. He points at her and shouts, “Don’t you dare do what you did to me before!”

Kari crouches low, cocky smirk on her face that makes the tips of her fangs gleam in the light. “Don’t tempt me now…”

“This is my battle!” The mayor cries, because apparently the guy was a sucker for a beating. He reeled back on Buggy, “This is my town and my people to protect! Don’t you forget it—“

Any hope to continue monologuing was promptly put on hold by Luffy slamming the dude straight into the ground. Kari stared in bewilderment and shared a look with Zoro while gesturing frantically towards their captain in a ‘what the hell man’ gesture. Zoro just sort of shrugged.

”What the hell?!” Nami cried, finally getting her bearings back.

”He was in my way!” Luffy said, as if that explained his actions at all.

”Ah, yeah, that’s fair.” Zoro nods, which is when Nami turns on him and shouted at him asking if he was a moron. 

Kari looks vaguely miserable.

”Hey! Big-Nose!” Luffy shouts, as if they weren’t already in deep enough shit.

”We’re gonna die.” Kari whimpers as they turn the cannon on them. “We’re gonna die and we’re gonna die because our captain’s stupid.”

”Oh shut up, wise ass.” Zoro snarks, grabbing Kari and tugging her out of the way of the incoming Buggy Ball TM . “It’s Luffy, he must have something planned.”

”You put too much faith in that walking disaster.” Kari gripes, though her eyes boggle when her captain inflates. “Okay I take it back, I guess he did have something planned.”

”Told you so.” Zoro smirked, watching the Buggy BallTM slam into their captain and promptly ricochet right back to sender. “Well hot damn, that’s quite a move.”

“That’s satisfying.” Kari hums while watching the building the Buggy Pirates had been based on explode. Her hair whips back with the following shockwave, and she has to grab her hat to keep it from billowing away, similar to her captain. “That makes things a little easier at least.”

”What are you?!” Nami cries.

No one bothers answering her, instead admiring the demolition the boy had just caused. Kari crouched down to balance on the balls of her feet while she admired the explosion. Though the reverie is quickly gone when the smoke fades and they see their efforts weren't wholly successful.

”Ah he’s still standing?” Kari whines, slouching forward miserably.

“Gotta give him perks for creativity.” Zoro hums when watching the man throw the men he’d been using as human shields down. Zoro squints at something that was being tossed at them. He grabs onto his swords and mutters, “Heads up.”

“Huh?” Kari blinks and finds that Buggy threw one of his men. The guy made her give a double take — he looked like he was trying and failing to put on the semblance of an animal — but the confusion is quickly brushed aside by Luffy slamming into the man and shoving him away.

”Watch out!” Zoro shouts, throwing himself in front of Luffy at the last minute and drawing his sword to block an attack from another man who’d come sprinting in. Zoro leers at the man, “If it’s a sword duel you want, then face me.”  

His wound, though bandaged, begins to bleed through the stark white.

Luffy gives Kari a pleading look, “Could you…?”

”Yeah, yeah…” Kari sighs, looking put upon. She looks at the man and calls, “Hey, asshole!” The guy looks at her with a sneer, though Kari inhaled before blowing noxious yellow smoke from her mouth, instantly swarming the man’s head and causing his eyes to water. A dry cough starts in his chest. 

“What the hell was that?!” Nami cried, looking horrified as the guy collapsed, spitting up — was that fire? 

Anyways, the guy sat there wheezing and hacking while they all stood around staring at him blankly.

”Hey! Don’t steal my fight!” Zoro turns on Kari with a snarl.

”You’re still hurt and he’d have kicked your ass!” Kari shouts, looking appalled at being scolded for helping him.

”Shut up!” Zoro complained, slamming the end of his hilt on the still wheezing guy, effectively knocking him out. “I would have won and you know it!”

“Gotta do everything myself, don’t I?” Buggy’s voice cut through their bickering, and all attention quickly shifted to the clown sauntering in the street with knives clenched between his fingers. “And you call yourselves pirates?”

”That’s right!” Luffy called confidently. “Now hand over the map of the Grand Line!”

”Oh is that what the map was?” Kari asked blithely, deciding to just forgo standing and kneeling on the ground. She looks at the clown that still appeared uncomfortable with her staring. She sees Zoro beginning to raise his swords and she rolls her eyes, leans forward, and snags the bottom of his pants. “Pop a squat hill-top, you’re bleeding.”

”You’re bleeding.” Zoro says, like it’s some kind of insult. Though he does as asked and settles down next to Kari with a subdued grunt. 

“We’re gonna sit this one out captain!” Kari calls, smiling at the boy.

Luffy looks happy at that, throwing a thumbs up in their direction, “You got it!”

”Don’t ignore me!” Buggy shouts petulantly, stomping his foot and throwing quite the impressive tantrum. 

“Do you want me to put you on your ass again?” Kari snarks.

Buggy points right at Kari with narrowed eyes that radiate hate. “You…” He seethes, finger just barely trembling from the force of his anger. “ You can ignore me.” He then swings his pointing to everyone else, “But everyone else can’t!”

”Got it!” Kari calls, giving a thumbs up at the clown, who just sputters in insult. It was about then that she realized another party member was missing, “Hey, where’s Nami?”

”How should I know?” Zoro grumbles, chin in his hand and slouching forward in annoyance. “I’m sitting this one out.”

“Quit being a baby,” Kari rolled her eyes, though rolls them towards the agitated swordsman. She reaches out for the bandaged wound and prods loosely around the blood seeping through the white. “Lemme see the damage.”

“I’m fine,” Zoro says, eyes catching on Luffy starting to reel up a hit to take out the clown. He hides a smirk as he watches the battle take place. Though, that smirk fades at Kari’s prodding. “ Quit it.”

“Take it off so I can see if you’re about to keel over.” Kari orders, poking again and scowling when Zoro subsequently bats her hand away. She glares at the swordsman and hisses, “Don’t make me put you on your ass.”

“I’m already on my ass, horn-head.” Zoro points out, reveling in the way Kari squirms in her stifled annoyance. Though Kari doesn’t ‘put him on his ass’ she does slap the back of his head. Zoro yelps at the gesture, recovering quickly to glare at her, “What the hell, tails?”

“Sue me for wanting to see the first mate safe.” Kari hisses, smugly peering at the swordsman when Zoro finally grumbled and started to carefully unwrap his bandages. Kari, upon seeing the winces Zoro was trying his damndest to hide, aids in the final stretch of unwrapping, much to the man’s misery. 

By the time the final soiled bandage peeled away (still held onto so Kari could rewrap it once satisfied) Kari was tilting her head at the sight of the stab wound. She gently pulls the fabric back, pausing only once when Zoro grunts in discomfort, and eyes the wound. Her eyes run over the injury, though just as she’d expected, the apparent stitches that Zoro had been given had torn through. As it were, half the wound was still sutured, but the other half had broken.

Frowning, Kari mutters, “You’ll need to be restitched once we’re out of this mess.” She rubs her fingers together thoughtfully, frowning at the wound for a few beats longer before sighing and letting her shoulders slouch forward, “I’m no cleric, but I think you’re out of anything too dangerous unless you decide to push yourself.” 

“Cleric?” Zoro asks, raising his arms to let Kari rewrap his side. 

Kari’s hands pause for a moment in wrapping Zoro’s wound. After a beat, she continues again, quiet as she explains, “Clerics are uh,” Her face squints in thought for a moment before she finally says, “I guess you could call them medics? They’re another type of magic user, the one that— uh, through gifting. Remember that?”

Zoro grunts when Kari finishes wrapping the bandages. Zoro calmly drops his arms, saying, “Yeah, the magic through gifting. What’s that about?”

“Traditionally, you join a church of some kind, and you swear yourself to a deity. Or, I’ve also heard of cases where a deity chooses a person to be their champion or follower outside of the congregation itself.” Kari scratches behind her ear, absently cracking a grin when Luffy continues pummeling Buggy. “After swearing your allegiance, or whatever, the deity gifts you with a modicum of their power and lets you pull magic from their domain.”

“What’s that got to do with me being stabbed?” Zoro asks.

“Although it’s not the complete norm,” Kari drawls, “It’s fairly common for clerics to be healers, being gifted healing magic and spells from their patrons. Again, not all clerics, but enough to where it became something of a running gag.”

“So you’re telling me there are people where you’re from that can just wave their fingers around, spit some hullabuloo, then just… conveniently heal my stab wound? No medicine or medical jargon needed?” Zoro blinks at her like he expects the tiefling to throw her hands up and cry “just kidding!” Yet Kari just nods. “Damn,” Zoro mutters, “...you sure lost the magic lottery.”

“Oh shut up jackass.” Kari slugs his arm, earning a mock cry from the swordsman. She sits there petulantly for a while longer, arms crossed and looking miserable, before admitting, “You aren’t entirely wrong though… what I wouldn't do for a healing spell or two... unfortunately my asshole of a patron has an aesthetic it likes to keep to.”

Zoro looks like he wants to comment on that, but pauses at a scream that makes both tiefling and swordsman go on edge. 

Without further prompt needed, both whip their heads around to their captain. He’s cradling his hat in his hands, which looked as if it had been thrown off in the duel. Luffy is grinding his teeth, looking beyond rage as he cries, “This is my treasure! ” He holds the hat impossibly gently, contrasting the bubbling rage, “I’ll never forgive anyone who touches this hat!” 

Both Kari and Zoro share a look at that, both subtly raising should their captain need them. Yet before they could make a single move, Buggy was throwing daggers faster than either could move. And both could only watch in horror at the poor time in which their captain moved and the hat at the end of three ill-timed daggers.

It was as if time stood still. They watched their captain’s panic take place, eyes wide with a terror unseen, only to be replaced with a rage fit for a devil, his eyes honing in as — as if it weren’t bad enough — the hat was pulled out of their captain’s hands and into the ill-suited hand of the clown. It seemed they hadn’t realized there was a hand attached to the daggers.

“Sad treasure.” Buggy teased, eyeing the hat that was now in his possession. “What possible worth could this hold to a brat like you?”

“Luffy—” Zoro starts, but their captain ignores them in favor of charging forward right at Buggy.

“That’s the hat I swore myself to with Shanks!” 

Buggy cackles, throwing the hat down. “Shanks’ hat?! I thought it looked familiar!” He spat on the hat, making Luffy further rage and both Zoro and Kari seethe on their leader’s behalf. “That red-haired ruffian and I used to be on the same pirate ship— comrades even!”

“Shanks was a great man!” Luffy cried, winding up for a hit, and by the looks of it, he wasn’t going to hold back. “Don’t you dare compare yourself to him!”

Seeing that their tumble was growing closer to the downed hat with every step, Kari whispers, “Misty step.” World warping and reality bending, then Kari’s hand darts out in safe distance of the hat, grabbing and pulling it back into the safety of her arms and out of the subsequent scuffle that followed.

Luffy seemed so in the throes of beating Buggy’s ass that he didn’t even notice Kari’s appearance in rescuing the straw hat. She cradles his treasure close and overlooks the quality, wincing at the holes in the center and the little tears in the side. It was times like that in which she wished she had more useful spells, a simple mending would do wonders then. 

Yet all she could do was prestidigitate the dirt, grime, and spit off; at least leaving it cleaner than last addressed. She was gentle in handling the apparent treasure, overlooking the work to be assured that it was still recoverable. Seeing that it wasn’t in permanent harm's way, her eyes dart up to where she spots Luffy pummeling the clown into the ground, who seems too scared stiff to pop into pieces.

There is a familiar hum when staring that she latches onto, eyes sparking only once, as she carries the gentle message across, “I have your hat and I’ve cleaned it to the best of my abilities. We can see about mending the tears when we are somewhere safer.”

It’s honestly impressive that Luffy doesn’t even flinch at the mental prod. Just pauses with a brief glance over his shoulder to confirm what he’d heard. When his eyes land on Kari, seeing just as he’d been described, he lets some of his hackles fall. Though by the way Luffy turns back on Buggy, anger and derision still at full front and center, it was clear that her reassurances weren’t all that it would take to abate him.

“Oh what the hell.” 

Head whipping around, Kari stares at Nami who’d conveniently shown up again. She was lugging a large sack in her arms, and by the sound of clinking and metal twanging, Kari was willing to bet that it was filled with some manner of loot. Kari gave her a baffled look, to which Nami returned, eyeing the hat in her arms with bewilderment.

“Hey!” Came a cry, making both girls turn their heads back around to see Buggy staring at Nami looked appalled. “Put my treasure down!”

“Ah shit.” Nami muttered, looking like ‘this might as well happen’ was an expression.

“Since when did you think you could fool me, girl?!” Buggy crude, snapping out of Luffy’s hold to be quite literally all torso. He started charging Nami, flying -- Kari was boggling because the dude could fly? -- with intent to kill. “I won’t allow you to take a single coin of my-- oh sweet Maiden!”

The expression he made was… of a particular sort. The sort that came from the greatest pain someone of his type could experience. 

Both Nami and Kari spared a look to where the clown’s legs had remained. There, they both witnessed Luffy giving what could only be defined as a “kick to the nads” right to said waist. This resulted in Buggy being temporarily down as he collapsed wheezing and groaning.

Kari bursts out laughing without really thinking, feet kicking and tail whipping back and forth as she collapses onto her back, still being mindful of Luffy’s treasure while she is busy losing her mind. Nearby, Zoro, still sitting, looks vaguely uncomfortable, wincing in sympathy. Nami just looks relieved that she wasn’t going to get gutted.

“Put that treasure down and stick with my second mate!” Luffy declares suddenly, pointing at Kari who had gone still at the mention of her alleged role in the crew. She sat rimrod straight so she could stare at her captain, “She’ll protect you, but the treasures are just going to get in the way!”

“But it’s my treasure!” Nami whines, stomping her foot and looking for all the world disinterested as if she hadn’t just been threatened for said treasure. “I just got it!”

“Ah, in that case just be careful then.” Luffy nods seriously. 

“I’m not your second mate!” Kari cries petulantly, only to look back at Nami and ease, “Though if you do need help I’m happy to aid.”

“Respectfully I am not taking you up on that offer.” Nami says dryly. 

Kari shrugs.

“Stop ignoring me!” Buggy cries, finally recovering from his embarrassment, popping into several pieces and beginning a weird threatening display of floating around and just being a general nuisance. 

Though unfortunately as it were, he was a threat. 

And apparently Nami was the one his sights were set on as he started charging her full force. Though, as it were, Buggy had conveniently forgotten about the fourth party member that had gone unnoticed till then. In what could only be described as fighter’s intuition, Zoro was sliding between Buggy and Nami, swords drawn and wound weeping further at his forced movement.

Kari just scowled, “Dammit, hill-top, don’t push yourself!”

“Shut up and just focus on keeping Luffy’s treasure safe.” Zoro barked back, kicking at an approaching mass of flesh… which really, what had Kari’s life become to where that was an acceptable thing to say. 

It was going to be a messy battle that was for sure— Buggy was collapsing in a fit of laughter.

Zoro and Nami looked at Kari.

Raising both hands, Kari shook her head, “Don’t look at me, I ran out of mana.”

Their eyes went to Luffy, whom of which was apparently—

“Ah, Luffy, really?” Kari winces, staring at the boy tickling the bottom of Buggy’s foot. Go figure the guy was ticklish. 

Luffy’s response is a big grin, which at least meant he was over his hat being muddled with.

Seeing that it was opportunity enough, Nami opted to punt Buggy’s head, still cackling on the ground, and right towards their captain. “Finish him Luffy!” Nami declared, at least recognizing that the rubber boy would finish the job. 

Tossing the foot aside, Luffy grinned from ear to ear, shouting, “Remember who your real opponent is!” The punch that Luffy gives is the purest form of satisfaction, all three onlookers grinning in pride. Then the three eye the remaining body pieces that had been conveniently left behind and share a long look with each other.

“Your hat,” Kari offers the hat to her captain after watching said captain punt the remaining pint-sized clown into the great beyond. She’d had a good laugh about the sight of Buggy, all feet and hands and nothing more and nothing less, and had almost forgotten the treasure her captain was waiting for. 

Watching Luffy observe his straw hat nervously, reaching out to gently take it, frowning at the trio of holes and tears in the straw, prompts Kari into saying, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more than clean off the grime. I can do my best in mending it, but truth be told, I’m not the best with a needle.”

Luffy continues to stare at his precious hat a little longer until his frown eases into something gentler, something more in line with the Luffy she’d first met, all smiles and kind poise. Without further ado, he pulled the hat over his head, smiling happily at it back in its rightful place. Kari smiles right back.

Then arms are wrapping around her and Kari raises her own in alarm as Luffy hugs her tight. He holds her close, arms wrapping around her twice as he just smiles warmly and says, “Thank you for making sure it didn’t get more hurt.” Luffy squeezes once more, tight and warm and something that makes Kari squirm, before letting go and laughing.

He was pulled away by Nami, saying something that Kari couldn’t quite be bothered to let meet her ears. She just sorta continues to awkwardly stand there, hands still awkwardly hovering as she stares down at where her captain once was. Her fingers twitched absently. There is an odd fuzz in her head, words in her ears that whisper poison —

“Hey, you there, tails?” 

Static recedes in favor of reality. Kari’s head turns without really thinking, meeting Zoro hovering beside her, one hand braced on his wound, the other resting on the hilt of his swords. He is staring at her with something not quite discernible, just a stare like he is trying to pick her apart. The longer she goes without answering, the more Zoro’s lips twitch further downwards. 

Words bubble up quickly once she’d felt herself come back to her senses, “Sorry,” Kari says first, because she always feels that she has to apologize first whenever she enters that sort of odd stupor.  She blinks a few more times when her apology appears to make Zoro frown more. “Were you- were you asking about something?”

Zoro breathes, like he wishes to ask and dig further into whatever had drawn her into that odd sort of being, but his tongue catches. In favor of further prodding is instead a hiss, as Zoro staggers, hand pressing further into his wound. It’s enough to get Kari fully back to herself and moving.

“Idiot! You pulled the rest of your stitches out didn’t you?!” Kari hisses, slipping beneath the swordsman and taking some of the weight off his side. “Think you’re finally taking it easy and you go and pull some shit like this.”

“Shut up, navigator was standing there about to get skewered, I couldn’t leave her there.” Zoro spits, letting himself sag a little with Kari acting as his crutch. She doesn’t even complain as she takes the added weight and helps Zoro stand tall.

Kari does a weird series of expressions that eventually settle on subdued as she grumbles, “I hate that you’re right.” 

This has the effect of making Zoro puff up his chest all proud like, “That’s why I’m first mate.” The jabbing into his wound is not kind. He turns to Kari in offense, groaning, “What the hell was that for?!”

“You’re being an ass.” The tiefling grumbles.

“Well you’re being- oh what the hell.” 

Confused, Kari looks to where Zoro was looking and looks bewildered at the random people coming out of the woodwork. They don’t look like they’re connected with the Buggy Pirates at the very least, but both still go carefully on guard. Kari looks vaguely nervous, but sparks a tentative spell in her palm should they need to fight their way out of this.

“I’m gonna be real with you,” Zoro murmurs, “I don’t know how I’m going to fair at running right now.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t fall behind, don’t worry.” Kari whispers back, bracing herself when the apparent townsfolk started crowding around the— oh damn, she forgot about the mayor. “Okay, we might make an early start at our get away if that’s good with you.”

“I’m not complaining.” Zoro muttered back, watching as their captain admits to knocking out the mayor. “Ok I think we need to make that getaway start now.”

“Agreed.” Kari said, turning on heel with Zoro in tow and beginning their hurried jog towards the docks. Not long later having Luffy and Nami follow with distant shouting. 

“Why are they angry at us?!” Luffy shouted, sounding incredibly confused as to how they ended up in this position. “We’re pirates! I told them the truth!” 

“Murders illegal, murders illegal,” Kari chanted, to which Zoro eyed her pointedly. Her eyes caught on a small alley and she shouted, “Right!” She spun and ran straight in without another word, hearing the scrambling of Nami and Luffy following and… was that a dog barking?

Head reeling around for a quick glance, Kari guffawed at the sight of a tiny dog barking down the chasing townsmen, looking bewildered at the small dog keeping them from following. Zoro looked equally as perplexed. Luffy just laughed with a thanks to a Shushu(?) that left both first and second mate befuddled.

“What did I miss when I passed out?” Zoro asked, still running, though distracted from his pain at the odd situation in which they were in.

“Your guess is as good as mine, man.”

A firm amount of running later and the four of them were at the docks. 

“Let’s…” Kari is panting, still stubbornly acting as a crutch for Zoro but she’s doing a poor job given her wheezing. “Let’s not ever do that again.”

“We’re gonna work on your stamina.” Zoro mutters as he hears Kari continue to heave even as he does his best to not lean all his weight on her. He notes the way her limbs are practically shaking with the effort to keep both of them up, and his brows raise in judgment, “...and your strength while we’re at it.”

“Shut up, I’m a warlock not a barbarian.” Kari inhales, only barely holding herself together. She squints at the ship both Luffy and Nami are investigating and can’t help but ask, “Hey aren’t those the three guys we saved?”

Zoro raises his head in the direction that Kari is staring. He takes in the sight of the three pirates who’ve set up shop atop Nami’s apparent ship, a much larger ship by comparison to their sad dinghy. He squints at the three figures, acting all high and mighty to their two other companions, and Zoro hums, “So that’s where they went.”

Apparently whatever front they were attempting to put on was interrupted by them catching sight of both Kari and Zoro. One of the three nudged the ringleader’s side, resulting in him pointing at the duo with a shaky finger. When all three were staring at Zoro and Kari, both first and second mate put on their best smiles.

The three quickly bolted, screaming.

“Well that was rude!” Luffy said, looking confused at the idea of the three running away. Luffy, hand braced on his hat, turned to look at Zoro and Kari, “What was with that?”

“Kari beat them with a stick.” Zoro said bluntly, to which Kari nodded. 

“Quarterstaff,” kari corrects, “but yeah, I did.”

Luffy laughed while Nami just gave them an odd look as if she were convinced they were all crazy. Kari sympathized with the thought. 

“Alright, hill-top,” Kari said, stealing herself and trudging towards their dinghy, “Let’s sit your ass down and take a power nap for the foreseeable future.” 

“Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind.” Zoro muttered as he followed through, shuffling alongside the tiefling. 

It took a bit of teamwork and with the aid of Luffy helping to transfer Zoro onto the dinghy without aggravating the already irritated wounds they were all settled into their respective boats. 

Collapsing beside the first mate, Kari drug the brim of her hat down to cover her face as much as possible with a groan. Zoro spared her a side glance as he folded his arms behind his head and reclined against the side of their boat. “You know… I thought I was the one who was grievously injured today. But the way you’re acting makes me think otherwise.” 

“Shut up.” Kari whined, slapping at his arm lightly, “I’m tired and hungry. We didn’t even get any food.”

“I have some apples, if you’d like.”

The trio raise their heads towards the other ship, where Nami was leaning against the railing, peering down at them curiously. Head cocked to the side. “The crew had a barrel of them on board.” Putting on a big cocky grin, she rests her head on her fist, “Just fork over 1000 berries.”

“A thousand berries?!” Zoro sputters, beyond alarmed. 

Kari’s face screws up in confusion, “The hells do you want berries for? You already have apples.”

“Yeah, and do you want, like, blue- berries or straw- berries?” Luffy asks, beginning to untie the rope from the pole holding them to port. Kari hummed and pointed at Luffy as if to say ‘yeah what he said.’

The navigator just has the vague impression like she’s starting to regret her life choices that had led her to that point. “No not fruit berries you— are you serious?” She looks at them like they’re idiots.

Zoro groans, running one hand down his face, “No, we-” He gives a muffled sigh and looks to Kari, explaining, “-she means money.”

“Oh…” Kari drawls, looking more understanding now.

“That makes more sense,” Luffy says as he finishes untying the boat, beginning to push out from the dock with an oar. 

“A thousand berries for a couple apples is a scam.” Zoro grumbles with a glare at the coy navigator.

Nami just puts on a cocky smile and shrugs, “No apples for you then.”

“But I’m hungry.” Kari groaned, slouching into the dinghy and looking overall pathetic. She pouted for a moment, growing further from the docks while she continued wallowing. Until eventually she crooked her head up to meet Nami’s attention again. “Does it have to be berries?”

Nami, who’d been eyeing Luffy, let her gaze dart back to Kari, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Frowning, Kari twisted just enough to drag the hat off her head. She looked inside before shoving her arm in, appearing to dig around. All three watched Kari dig for a while — going up to her shoulder as she dug resulting in quite the comical sight — before her expression lifts and she pulls her arm out dragging a small satchel with her. She shoves the hat back on her head and begins parsing through the small bag without really minding the staring.

“I don’t know how this translates to berries…” Kari draws, the clinking of coins sounding as she drags something into her hand. She turns to Nami and smiles at her, holding out her palm and revealing three golden coins. “How’s three gold pieces sound?”

“Three what?!” Zoro and Nami cry. Luffy just looks awed by the sight of real gold in Kari’s hands. Zoro looks beyond floored as he flips his attention between the gold pieces, the small satchel still sat in Kari’s lap, and the hat perched back on her head. Nami has stars in her eyes.

“DEAL!” Nami cries, leaning over to swipe the gold out from Kari’s palm and practically melting when she bites down on the gold pieces only to realize they were real. She giggles, jumping in place in excitement as she pockets the coins.

“You better give us the whole damn barrel for that!” Zoro calls once seeing Nami ducking away to go — hopefully — bring the barrel. Zoro slouches back again, bracing on the rail as he stares at Kari looking happy with herself. He further boggles when he watches her shove the tiny satchel back under her hat. 

Zoro snatches the hat off her head without thinking, resulting in a squawk of indignation.

Peering into the hat, Zoro only notices an empty hat, and when looking at Kari’s head, he sees no comical bag sitting atop her scalp. Instead, he could only stare as his mouth opened and closed a few times, not even thinking to scold when Kari snatches her hat back and tucks it back on her head with a huff. 

“What the hell…” Zoro muttered. 

“Ask before grabbing,” Kari grouches, not really listening to the man’s befuddlement. She rolls her eyes and just leans further back against the railing. “Close your mouth before gnats fly in.”

Zoro doesn’t quite do that, instead he manages to say, “What the hell.” As if Kari hadn’t heard it the first time.

Giving the man a frustrated look, Kari gripes, “What? What is it? It’s literally just a-” Her tongue catches and her hackles fall as her eyes widen in realization. “Right, no magic.” 

Reaching up, Kari pulls her hat off and showcases the inside to Zoro, who was now watching readily. Though before she could begin her explanation, Luffy was tackling Kari’s side. Just as suspected, their captain had seen her unintentional magic trick and was just as interested in knowing the explanation as Zoro. 

Smiling down at her curious captain, Kari adjusted herself between Luffy and Zoro, showcasing the hat better for the pair of them. She pointed to the inner sweatband that was poorly stitched inside. “Notice the weird stitching here on the sweatband?” She pointed towards the odd embroidered runes along the fabric. “These here are Bag of Holding runes. It means my hat doubles as just that. I can stuff whatever I want in this sucker and then it gets sent to a pocket dimension for safe keeping.”

“That’s so cool!” Luffy says, eyes sparkling as he stuff his hand in, only to grow annoyed when he hits the tip of the spiked hat. “Why isn’t it working?”

“You need to picture what you’re grabbing.” Kari explains. “That or tear the sweatband runes. Which don’t do that. Or else everything will come spilling out. And I’m really not in the mood to try a botched job at mending these runes.” Breaking into a small smile, Kari shifts the hat a little more towards Luffy. “Try picturing that satchel you saw earlier and reach in.”

Luffy’s eyes practically glow at the recommendation. He is about to do such, but is broken away by Nami calling, “Not to break up the lesson…” The three peer up to see the navigator looking down at them with a lazy smile, a barrel of apples beside her, “but you ordered some apples.”

Chapter Text

Yawning, Kari stretches from her doze. Smacking her lips a few times, she spares a long look at the cause of her waking, seeing her captain rejoicing over his newly repaired hat. Kari puts on a small smile at seeing the mended straw hat.

Beside her, Zoro opens one eye and asks, “You awake yet?”

“Unfortunately,” Kari admits, though she doesn’t sound frustrated by any means, “though it sounds like Luffy’s happy again, so I’m alright with it.”

“How kind, second mate.” Zoro hums.

Well, any relaxation she was having was promptly gone as Kari threw up her hands and shouted, “I’m not the second mate!”

“Yes you are!” Luffy calls, frowning, hat back on his head where it rightfully belonged. 

Nami also gives Kari an odd look as she points out, “Luffy did introduce you as his second mate.” 

“Augh!” Kari shouts, dropping her arms and just looking generally miserable. 

“I don’t see why this is such a problem.” Zoro mutters, “Is it that you’re not first mate? You jealous?”

“You can be first mate on weekends?” Luffy offers, as if it were a matter of dual custody of the position.

“No— I don’t—” Kari grumbles, head in her hands as she looks generally pathetic. She drags her hands down her face and mutters, “—I’m a warlock! If you want a good second mate then get another fighter! Or a paladin! Hells, even a cleric would be better!”

“But I don’t want any of those.” Luffy says, as if he knows what any of the classes meant. “I want you to be my second mate, so I chose you to be my second mate.” He said it so flippantly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“Shouldn’t you have someone stronger to be your second mate? Like another Zoro?” Kari says, like she realizes it was a fight she would soon be losing. 

“Why would I need two Zoros when I already have one?” 

“Plus, it’s better to diversify the crew.” Zoro points out.

“The more spread out and diverse in abilities a crew is, the more likely you are to cover your bases.” Nami agrees. “I doubt most crews have access to anyone… uh… magic-y?” She says it like it's a question, and Kari nods weakly in acceptance of the description. Nami nods along and continues, “So it makes more sense for you to have a higher role in the ship hierarchy, means you’re more of a threat in the grand scheme.”

“And you can make people throw up.” Luffy says, pointing out her ray of sickness as if that were the piece that sold him on her worth as a second mate.

“I just think you could do better.” Kari says as a last ditch attempt to save face.

Luffy just frowns at her with a look that questions her intelligence. “I wanted you, so you’re second mate.”

Kari just sits there wallowing, “...fine.” She lets it rest for now.

“If it’s any consolation,” Nami says from nearby, making Kari lazily eye her, “you are deserving of the part, I mean… from what I’ve seen, you're a good fighter. You sure gave Buggy a run for his money at least.”

Kari slides her eyes to the side, not opting to say more (and ready to continue fighting otherwise) though her hackles fall when she catches sight of something on the horizon. 

Sitting up, Kari leans forward and squints at the blob in the distance. “Is that an island?”

Luckily, the conversation was dropped in favor of her discovery, the three reeling to see what Kari spotted. “Oh hey, good spot second mate.” Zoro hums, amused when Kari deflates.

“Land-ho!” Luffy shouts, all glee at the prospect of a new island. 

“Yeah, we noticed,” Nami grumbles, rolling her eyes.

“I missed land.” Kari groans as she basks on the sand of the island.

“It’s literally been less than 24 hours since we were on land.” Nami points out, only to be ignored by Kari, who continues sinking into the earth.

“Get up, you’re embarrassing us.” Zoro mutters, kicking some sand at Kari, causing her to scramble up and glare.

“To who, hill-top? No one's here!” Kari pointed out. 

Nearby, Luffy was examining their surroundings with a curious expression. “Is there a village here?” He asks.

Humming, Nami glances at the map they’d apparently been following — much to Zoro and Kari’s surprise — before answering, “Yeah, seems like a small village is based here.”

“Maybe we can get a ship here!” Luffy grins, eyes sparkling at the prospect.

“How about we think about that after we first solve our food situation?” Kari offers, arms folded, taking in the sights alongside her company. “Not that I hate our barrel of apples, but if we continue to eat nothing but apples for the next few weeks, I might commit mutiny.”

“Is now a good time to point out the guys watching us?” Zoro asks, pointing out the four boys at the top of the nearby hill. Three of the four bolted at their pointing them out, but the fourth shakily stood his ground.

Kari tilted her head to the side as she stares at the boy standing there, eyes locking onto the comically long nose. Only to further be bewildered at the boy’s stammered attempt at a speech. She and Zoro share a side-eye.

“I am the great captain Usopp, leader and chief of security at this island!” He puffs up his chest, all pompous poise that Kari thinks might be more than a little fake. “It’s best if you don’t try attacking this village or else I’ll send my-” He fumbles for the barest of moments before his expression smooths out with a cocky grin, “my 8 thousand followers will be after you!”

“You’re lying, aren’t you?” Nami asks, dry as a desert.

“I’ve been had!” Usopp blurts, any inkling of confidence gone. Then, he seemed to realize just what he’d said as he pulls at his coiled hair, “Why did I just say that?!”

Luffy starts laughing, and Kari can’t help but join him, grabbing at Zoro’s shoulder to stay upright. The swordsman just rolls his eyes.

“D-Don’t underestimate me!” Usopp comes back to himself, pointing at them all with what remained of his confidence. When his pointing led to Kari he faltered for only the barest of a moment before he audibly swallowed and threw a thumb at his chest, “I— I’m the honorable Usopp and… and…” He trails off before any fight that remains deflated from him. He slouched in on himself, rubbing the back of his neck with his face tinted red. “...you guys aren’t here to hurt the village, are you?”

“Nah,” Luffy shook his head, “Not really our style.” 

“Oh thank the Maiden.” Usopp exhales, looking like an immense weight was taken off his shoulders. 

“Yeah, we just followed a map here.” Nami explains.

“Please tell me there is a restaurant or something here.” Kari begs, “I don’t know how much longer I can go with just eating apples.”

“You’re begging for anything aside from fruit... and you opt for a salad?”

Kari defensively shields said salad closer to herself, glaring at Zoro, “Shut up and let me enjoy my food.”

Piled at the table, Kari was comfortably sat beside Luffy. Nami and Zoro across from them and Usopp — who’d elected to come along — sitting at the head of the table, having dragged a chair up to sit with them. The fifth member of their table had been quiet, watching them eat and chatter with themselves, watching Luffy with bewilderment as the boy ate more food than anyone his size should be capable of.

“To be fair,” Usopp piped in, apparently braving past his alleged fear, “a salad is an odd choice for a filling meal.”

“I ordered some bread too!” Kari defends, forking another mass of salad into her mouth. 

“Bread and salad,” Nami muses, sipping on her drink, “what a combo.” 

“Is this bully Kari day?” Kari whines. 

Kari is interrupted from her further whining by Luffy slinging an arm around her and pulling her into his side. “You can eat whatever makes you happy!” He takes a massive bite from the turkey leg he was attempting to decimate.

" Thank you, captain,” Kari says pleasantly, only wincing slightly at the turkey leg before going back to her meal.

“So… not to pry,” Usopp drawls, earning attention again. “But… who are you guys?”

“We’re pirates!” Luffy smiles, though his words only earn tired glares from the nearby patrons much to Nami, Zoro, and Kari’s confusion. Luffy puffs up his chest with deserved pride and declares, “I’m captain Monkey D Luffy, and I’m going to be King of the Pirates!” He then points to his other companions, “That’s Nami, she’s our navigator.”

“No I’m not.” Nami says flippantly.

Luffy continues to point out his companions, unperturbed, “That’s Zoro, he’s the first mate and he’s going to be the world’s greatest swordsman!” Zoro looks like he’s trying to come off as nonchalant, but a well-placed kick from Kari results in him looking more like his usual self. 

Kari snickers into her palm as she is soon introduced to Usopp, “And this is my second mate, Kari, she’s a warlock and a tiefling and she’s gonna…” Luffy pauses, face scrunching as if he is only realizing something for the first time. His head whips around to Kari, startling the warlock into dropping her forkful of lettuce. “What’s your dream?”

“...dream?” Kari asks, confused.

“Your dream!” Luffy says insistently, as if Kari   was the odd one.

“...I dunno,” Kari answers earnestly, “I mean like… maybe go on an adventure?” Her face scrunches as she tries to think, “Or just vibe?”

Luffy scrunches up his face, “That’s a weird dream.”

Kari throws up her hands, “Well I don’t know! I’m sorta just shooting whatever comes to mind right now.”

“It is kind of a shit dream.” Zoro mutters.

Kari gasps, " Betrayal.”

“Not to break the conversation topic here,” Usopp starts, earning attention again. “But… why are you here? Aside from food, I mean.”

Luffy answers promptly, “We need a ship.” Luffy picks at some of the meat on his turkey leg. “Plus about…” His face scrunches up thoughtfully, “like eight more crewmates?”

“So more companions and a ship.” Usopp surmises, rubbing at his chin, “Sounds like a big adventure you’re heading out on!”

“Know someone who could help us with our conundrum?” Nami asks, resting her chin on her hand as she bats her eyes at Usopp. Kari has to duck her head to hide her amusement. Subsequently, she doesn’t catch sight of Nami’s glare.

“There is… uh… one person you could ask.” Usopp seems nervous about the admission, twisting his hands anxiously and looking to the side to avoid staring at them. “Though I wouldn’t put all your eggs there if I were you. The owner is sickly, see, very ill. Near bedridden, it wouldn't do her any good if pirates came knocking at her door.”

“She lives in the big mansion on the hill?” Zoro asks without thinking, earning stares. He looks back at his companions in bewilderment. “What? Seems obvious, doesn’t it?”

“Oh would you look at that!” Usopp cres, making all four gathered around the table look to Usopp. The boy is doing a poor job of trying to hide leading their attention elsewhere, as he’s staring at his bare wrist as if there was a watch there. Then he slaps said wrist and looks up at them, sweating enough to make him thoroughly damp. “Seems I forgot my— er, uh— my scheduled meeting! Right now… today. Ha.” His expression only grows more plainly pathetic as he abruptly stands, chair screeching behind him, “Nice to meet you guys, but I gotta go—”

Then he is sprinting out of the little restaurant like his life depends on it. The remaining company can only stare after his exit in bewilderment. Luffy just sort of laughs in amusement. 

“You gonna eat that?” Her captain asks abruptly, making Kari look at the boy in bewilderment. Seeing her confusion, Luffy points to the plate where Kari has been picking out the steak in her salad. Kari stares for all of five seconds before shaking her head, to which Luffy eagerly pounces on her plate, gobbling the meat down.

“You one of them vegetable-arians?” Zoro asks.

“They’re called vegetarians, you heathen. How the hell did you get it that wrong?” Nami stares at the swordsman in sheer disbelief. Zoro just sort of grunts, resulting in both girls staring at him with expressions begging him not to be an idiot.

“Don’t care.” Zoro shrugged, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back into a seat with a nonchalant attitude, “All I know is they eat vegetables. And like… cheese.”

“I do like cheese.” Kari nods seriously, “Though I still eat meat, just not a fan of uh… most.” She picks at her salad absently, she stabs one stubborn bundle, saying, “I like fish. Fish is good.”

“Well, there will be a lot of fish once we’re officially out on the sea!” Luffy is chowing down on the remaining steak on the plate. He spares a look at Kari, “I don’t know how you don’t like all meat though!” He gestures towards the bone that remained from his turkey leg, “It’s so good!”

“Never had good meat experiences, I guess.” Kari shrugs. Though she pauses in her attempt to finish her salad when she notices three small boys sprinting into the building. “Uh, guys-”

Before she can continue, all three boys search around for spotting their possy and immediately congregate around their table. 

“Hey!” They all demanded, “What did you do with our captain?!”

“Who?” Kari asks without thinking.

The three boys look like they’re about to answer, though their tongues catch when spotting just who’d ask. In an instant, all three are stiff as a board before they are screaming and dashing out the building the same way they came. The door swings shut behind them as if the odd little interaction had never happened in the first place.

“Well that was rude.” Kari grumbled, stabbing at her salad in frustration and taking an equally large mouthful in an attempt to stifle her annoyance. While she chews on her mouthful, she spares a look at her companions. “...Do I really look that scary?”

“They’re just being brats.” Zoro waves off her worries. “You look like a pushover.”

“Thanks- pardon?!”

“Well, go figure.” Kari mutters, hand braced on her hat as she looks up at the large gates that block entry to the mansion. “It can never be too easy, can it?”

“It wouldn’t be a real adventure if it came easy!” Luffy points out with a grin.

Pursing her lips, Kari slowly ends up nodding with the logic, “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Well I prefer the easy route!” Nami points out, folding her arms in annoyance when realizing that getting into contact with the mansion’s owner wouldn’t be a walk in the park. “Maybe we can just… ask the guards to let us in.” She gestures to said guards on either side of the gate.

Kari stares at them, and they stare back at her with hands braced on their weapons. Kari winces, “Yeah, I’m going to be real, I don’t think they’re the meet and greet type.”

Zoro scratches at his chin and asks, “Could you teleport inside and like… sneak us in?”

“Misty step.” Kari corrects without thinking, though does give it some actual thought. “I mean… maybe?” She scratches at the back of her neck. “Though I gotta be within thirty feet to use misty step, so chances are they’ll spot me disappearing all of a sudden, and likelihood is they’ll check inside the gates for me first.” 

“You have limits on your magic?” Zoro asks, looking at Kari curiously.

“Unfortunately,” Kari reminds them, “Not to mention that I can only use those sorts of spells a couple times before my mana goes kaput.”

“Mana?” Nami asks.

Kari is close to answering, but is ignored in favor of Luffy calling, “Boring talk later!” He throws his arms out and they all watch as they latch onto the top of the gate, “I’m gonna go meet the owner of the mansion!”

“WAIT!” All three cry, piling on top of the eager captain before he suddenly lets loose to go flying over the fence. Not to mention with his three companions still attached. 

The screaming they use must be comical as they fly over the gate and towards the manor. Though, at the moment, all three unwilling companions on the sudden flight just feel terrified. Luffy is cackling like a mad man unaware of his own mortality and everyone else is vividly aware of their reality.

It isn’t long before they finally crash land right outside the mansion. The three unwilling companions look downright miserable as they attempt to regain their bearings. Luffy looks like he’s done this a thousand times before and recovers easily. Frankly, Kari wants to strangle the boy, but is only prevented from doing so by Zoro declaring that it was unbecoming of a second mate to kill their captain.

“I’m going to kill him.” Nami declares, apparently not having the same hang-ups that Kari and Zoro have.

“No, you’re not.” Zoro and Kari intone, though Kari with a bit more regret. 

Luffy just laughs.

“Um, pardon me?” A voice calls from above. All four of them tilt their heads back to catch sight of a youthful face peaking over a second-story window. She looks concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” Luffy, who had taken a bit to realize where the voice originated from, finally peered up and found the source. He smiles brightly at the young lady, “Yeah! We’re alright!”

“Speak for yourself,” Kari grumbles, standing to her full height and rubbing at her side, “I think I threw out my hip.”

“Hips grow back.” Zoro says flippantly.

“No they don’t?” Kari says back, phrasing it in such a way that suggests she is asking it on behalf of Zoro. The swordsman just rolls his eyes, like he found the gesture annoying. Kari weighs whether or not the same dishonor would fall upon her for strangling the first mate.

“What are you doing here?” A voice calls from above, making their attention slide to the hanging tree where Usopp was perched. The boy looked beyond bewildered at their appearance. 

“We came to ask for a ship!” Luffy said gleefully.

“Wha—” Usopp is floundering from where he is perched on his branch, “Did you not listen to me about not coming here?”

“Luffy tends to tune out anything he’s not interested in.” Nami calls up, to which both Zoro and Kari nod in unfortunate agreement. 

“You met them before, Usopp?” The girl in the window asks, looking at the boy curiously.

The expression that passes over Usopp’s face can best be described as panicked, though it smooths out into a smug confidence a few seconds later. “Of course!” He makes a broad gesture  towards the four still peering up at them, “These are the four new members of the Usopp Pirates.”

Kari raises her arm as if to be called on in class, “I didn’t agree to that!”

Zoro does the same, joining Kari. “I didn’t either.”

While Usopp gets a look of betrayal, Luffy just holds onto his hat and says, “We have a request.” That clearly catches the attention of the girl in the window, who perks up. Luffy puts on a big grin, “We need a—”

“And just who do you think you are?” 

A man saunters up from around the side of the mansion as if appearing out of thin air. He’s all poise and grace, but there is a distinctive… something there that makes Kari’s hair go on end. She shuffles closer to Zoro, glaring at the man in all his cocky glory. Zoro spares her a glance, noting the caution, and elects to settle one hand on the hilt of his swords.

“Coming in here, sending the guards into a panic talking about pirates breaking into the manor grounds…” His tone that of snobbish indifference, like this whole situation was above his position. 

Kari did not like him on principle.

“Clahadore!” Their lady in the window cried, looking just as alarmed as they did at being bombarded by this man. “It’s nothing to worry over, they’re friends of-”

“Ah, Usopp.” The man waves off the girl’s words, further making the troupe bristle. “Crawling in here again, spreading lies?”

“They aren’t-” The boy’s expression goes through a slew of emotions before settling on annoyance. Without breaking a sweat, he slings himself off his branch, landing on the ground in a crouch. He straightens up to give Klahadore a neutral expression, “-I was just giving Miss Kaya stories and company. Something to pass the time.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Klahadore says, just as someone who is very much doubting would. “Which story was it this time then? The island on the back of a turtle? Or perhaps another regarding your army of 8000 men?” 

Usopp’s fists clench imperceptibly. He folds his arms to hide the tick.

“Nevertheless, I cannot allow you to stay here, not someone with a father such as yours, that’s for certain.” Klahadore goes to inspect his nails, like he’s bored.

Kari’s fingers stretch, itching for a spell. Zoro thumbs at his katana. Nami’s hands are twitching, like she wants to deck the guy. Luffy… Luffy looks curious.  

“That’s enough, Klahadore.” Kaya declares, glaring at the man. 

The man goes to ignore Kaya again ,  but Kari can’t really help herself, “She said that’s enough.”  

So what if she used a little thaumaturgy to make the word echo a little louder? It certainly got the man twitching and turning on her. Usopp even looks alarmed, though his own surprise smooths out into something more grateful when realizing that they were backing him. 

Klahadore’s alarm smooths out quickly, he hides his slip-up by adjusting his glasses. “I will not ask again,” he says, tone eerily smooth, “Leave the premises, now.” At least he was backing down on the verbal abuse front.

Usopp looks like he wants to lay into the guy, and frankly all of them are more than looking for an excuse to pummel the snob, but as it were they needed to play it safe. Luffy shares a look with his crew, still until they were given a reason to move. Though Usopp finally deflates, looking away with grinding teeth. He makes a clicking sound in the back of his throat before declaring, “Yeah, well… you’re not worth my time anyways.”

It’s a pathetic excuse, but no one can really blame him considering the happenstance. So he turns and just starts walking away, though pausing when Kaya yelled, “See you later, captain!” It’s a sweet thing, and it melts something visually in Usopp.

Usopp turns, call something back, but—

“No,” Klahadore interrupts, earning glares from those still present, “no. you won’t.”

Usopp just grinds his teeth and marches away.

“...Well that could have gone better.” Zoro mutters.

“No shit.” Kari mutters, earning a glare from the sharp-dressed asshat. Kari glares right back, and she grins at his subtle flinch. 

Brushing off his coat, Klahadore attempts to gain his bearings, “That request was not limited to the liar.” He spares a look at all four of them, “That goes for all pirate filth.” 

“But we just wanted to talk with Kaya.” Luffy bemoans.

“Well that was before you illegally trespassed.” Klahadore says, “Now I will not say it again, leave.”

Luffy looks like he wants to start a fight, still try his best to get his way, though is prevented from doing so by Zoro’s sharp eye.

“It’s not worth it.” Zoro says, quickly earning attention. Kari at his side looks like she is more than happy to ignore that recommendation. Though Zoro continues, “We can see about getting a boat somewhere else.”

The look their captain gives him can only be described as imploring. He just stares his first mate down, gaze heavy. Then he turns his attention to Kari. Eyes just as searching.

The spell that had been crackling to life in Kari’s hand is quickly put out with a clench of her fist. Kari just closes her eyes and sighs quietly. Then, she lifts her head and says, “Not worth it.”

And that makes Luffy’s decision sound. Nodding at his first and second, he turns to Kaya and gives a big smile. As if that seriousness had never been there to begin with. “Well, we’ll see you later Kaya!” Then he turns and starts marching.

Zoro, Nami, and Kari followed without thinking.

Once they were safely outside the gates, Kari groans, “That guy was an asshole.”  

“Yeah, I wanted to punch him.” Luffy admits.

“We can always go back and get the jump on him.” Nami suggests.

All four of them picture their preferred means of getting the jump on the butler of the house, when Luffy snapped out of his dream beatdown to gasp, “Usopp!” He looks at his companions, all three staring at him in bewilderment, “His dad’s a pirate!”

“Oh yeah…” Kari drawled, squinting as she recalled the mention, “What do you think that was about? Seemed like it was something big by the way he was talking about it too.”

“Who knows?” Zoro shrugged.

This was, apparently, not enough for Luffy, who started vibrating in place. “I’m gonna go find him and ask!” And before anyone could jump on him again, Luffy was bounding off at a speed that would make teleporters gawk.

“Why couldn’t we get a normal captain?” Nami groans.

Kari is on her like a hawk. “I thought you said you weren’t a part of our crew?”

It seemed Nami didn’t notice her own slip-up, as she starts sputtering as she fumbles to say a defense, “I— wha— no!” She crosses her arms across her chest petulantly, “I’m not part of your crew! I’m here on contract!”

“Contract...” Zoro says, slow growing grin coming to his face as he realizes just what Kari was seeing too, “is someone getting attached?”

“Shut up!” Nami barks, going red in the face. Kari and Zoro just laugh while Nami flounders to change the conversation, “And you,” She points at Kari as if pointing at a criminal, “don’t act like you’re any different with your weird hang-up on being second mate!”

At the mention of her role, Kari’s laughter diminishes, though forces herself to hold a smile. “Yeah, well, I’m trying now, right?” Her smile diminishes a little, “Still not sold on it, but I’m trying.”

“Yeah... about that,” Zoro says, leaning against a nearby fence post, “what is with that?”

“Huh?” Kari asks, pausing when seeing they were coming to a stop. She turns to Zoro while Nami goes to sit on the fence itself.

“Your weird aversion to being a second mate.” Zoro says, “Like the first time I get, it can be a bit of a surprise. But it’s gone on for a while, and even if you’re trying now, you still seem reluctant.”

Kari thins her lips, crossing her arms and looking away from them. “It’s…” She glares at the ground and kicks a rock in the path, “The first and second mate should be strong, they’re the captain’s right and left hands and they protect the crew. That’s… that’s a lot of responsibility I don’t think I’ll be great at. I get protecting the crew, I mean, duh, but what happens when I'm out of heavy-hitting spells after two turns of combat? I'll be a liability.” The tiefling frowns as she wallows in her self-pity. "Doesn't sound like good second mate material to me."

With Kari still not looking at either of them, Zoro and Nami spare a look at each other. Before Zoro finally says, “Then work on it.” Kari gives him a baffled look, and he raises his hands to get her to further listen, "If you're worried about protecting our crew, about not being— I don't know— enough... then strive to get better. I've seen you use your quarterstaff, and I know you're shit at it, but you could work on honing that first. Who gives a shit if you run out of your spells if you're still able to beat someone's ass the old-fashioned way."

Kari thins her lips and looks away again, continuing to glare at the ground. 

“Plus at least you’re not alone.” Zoro points out, "If you need someone to train with, I'd be happy to toss you around." 

"Okay, well, that solves the fighting angle, but what about my magic?" Kari looks at Zoro, a bit more lax in her posture.

"Well, I don't know shit about magic," Zoro admits, "so that's on you for the most part. But it can't be that much different than training with a weapon." 

Kari is again quiet, fingers running over her arms. Then, she takes a deep breath, and finally mutters, "...you're being serious about this?"

"Dead." Zoro nods.

The tension lasts just a smidge longer before Kari lets out the breath she'd been holding and caves in. "Okay," she starts, "okay... fine, alright, you've sold me." Then, because she had to break the tension, Kari teases, "You're a lot wiser than I gave you credit for."

“Well, duh, that's why I’m first mate.” He says it with a grin, teasing back, and it earns a playful glare. “Now are you done with your little pity party and ready to quit whining about being second mate?”

Kari holds her glare for a bit longer for that comment, but her shoulders slump as the tautness they’d been unknowingly holding is cut. Kari dips her head and sighs quietly, “Yeah, yeah, I'm done,” she looks back up again to share an intense look with Zoro, “but I want first mate title on weekends.”

Zoro snorts, and Nami’s own tension bleeds out into a pleased smile from where she'd been watching. Kari puts on a crooked smile of her own as Zoro grins at her, “You wish, horn-head.” He doesn’t even blink when sliding down to sit on the ground, propping his arms up without much care. “We’ll both work to get stronger, so that we can always be the protectors of our crew.”

Rolling her head, Kari slowly nods, “Agreed.” 

Any further conversation was interrupted by screaming. 

Heads turning in confusion, they watch a screeching Usopp run straight by them, not even breaking as he full tilt sprints right towards the town. He doesn’t even pause to wave as they just catch the tail end of his screaming.

“-irates are coming! Everyone evacua-” And then he is too far for them to listen.

The three stare at the faint dust cloud that remains from his presence.

“Did anyone else see that… or?”

“Yep.”

“...Probably something we should—”

“Yeah, probably something we should be worried about.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, are those the kids that screamed at me earlier?” Kari asks, squinting against the sun.

Nami squints too, “Huh,” she raises a hand to block out the sun, “...yeah, pretty sure those are them.”

The three kids came running up to them, a distant scream crescendo-ing into something very close and very loud. They looked like they were about to stop and beg them for something, but caught sight of a smiling Kari — who unfortunately had a damn near villainous resting smile — and sprinted past them. Zoro, Nami, and Kari just watched as the kids sprint by while sputtering and screeching their heads off.

It wasn’t until their screaming was dwindling that they properly realized what had happened.

Slouching forward, Kari looks miserable, “It was me wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“No— idiot!” Nami slugs Zoro in the shoulder, earning a yelp. While Zoro rubs at his new bruise, Nami drapes a comforting arm around Kari, easing, “They’re just kids, they don’t know any better.”

“Rika didn’t point and scream at me.” Kari mumbled, still looking miserable.

“Who’s Rika?” Nami asks, losing any sense of comfort.

Zoro rolls his eyes, “Rika was a little girl. And those three are little brats who follow a liar around like little ducklings.” Folding his arms, Zoro nods, seemingly to himself, “Take it from me, kids are dumb.”

Brushing aside the fact that Zoro was clearly trying to offer comfort, Kari gives him a long look. “You’d know from personal experience?” 

“Yes— hey!” Zoro glares at Nami and Kari’s snickering. 

Yet before the swordsman could further bark out something, they are all interrupted by the sound of jogging. They all look and see a teary-eyed Usopp walking down the path, seemingly coming back from the mansion. Which… hadn’t he ran past them for the village?

“Since when did you go back to the mansion?” Nami asks.

Seems that startled Usopp out of whatever trance he’d been in, as he notices just who was in front of him. He is quick to rub a wrist over his eyes, ridding the watery sight. With one big sniffle, he begins bravely, “I-” then immediately stops, blinks rapidly, and his whole expression crests over into horror as he points past the three of them and shouts, “You’re alive?!”

Zoro, Nami, and Kari all turn to see where he’s pointing and—

“Sweet Divine!” Kari jolts away from the sudden appearance of her captain. Luffy just stands there and frog blinks at them. “Shit man, what the hells?” Kari rests a hand over her heart and hopes she doesn’t suffer from a heart attack at the captain’s sudden appearance.

Zoro and Nami look equally off put by the boy appearing out of nowhere.

“I’ve been here the whole time.” Luffy says.

“No the hell you haven’t!” Nami barks.

“Nevermind that!” Usopp dismisses them, still thrusting his finger at Luffy as if it will help to answer his questions, “How the hell are you alive?! I saw you die!”

“I just woke up.” Luffy says, picking at his nose. 

Usopp looks like his whole life is imploding in on itself and Nami at least takes pity on him then, “How about,” She draws slowly, “we head back down to the boats and take a breather and talk through everything that’s happened?” She steps up to Usopp and rests a comforting hand on his arm. “Sounds like you have something important to say.”

Usopp’s expression went through a plethora of emotions, before just settling on resignation. With a tired exhale, he nodded along, “Yeah… yeah let’s… let’s head back to the beach.” 

The sun had just started to dip beneath the horizon before they set out and by the time they reached the sandy shore, the moon was just starting to rise and the stars came out from their blanket of blue. 

Gathering around a sat Usopp, they waited for the story. 

It takes a moment, but soon Usopp begins. “Because I lie all the time… no one believes a word I say.” Usopp rubs at his wrist, where a bit of dried blood can be spotted. “Even so, the fact that those pirates are going to attack tomorrow—”

“Sorry,” Nami interrupted, looking startled, “pirates?”

Usopp blinks at them in confusion, then turns to Luffy, “You didn’t tell them?”

“Tell us what?” Nami asks slowly, turning to Luffy with what can only be assumed is a look of murder.

For what it was worth, Luffy appears confused by the question. It was as if they could physically see the gears turning in his head as he thought over what they could be talking about. Though soon he seemed to come to his conclusion as his eyes widened and he said, “Oh!” 

…

“Don’t just say oh when you realize something and not tell us, you idiot!” Zoro yells.

Luffy blinks. Then it takes him a few more seconds before he finally says, “Klahadore is actually a pirate.”

“He’s what?!” They all shout in alarm, Usopp with his head in hands and Luffy just looking sort of empty-headed.

With an overdrawn sigh, Usopp explains, “They called him captain Kuro, his real name. Apparently he’s been playing the long con and has been trying to hook his claws into Kaya’s family to get the fortune before he…” There is an audible lump in his throat that stops him from speaking. It takes a few seconds for Usopp to swallow past the lump and say, “Anyways, I tried to warn Kaya but he beat me there and… and he convinced her I was lying if it weren’t—” He stops again, this time looking frustrated.

“Everyone thinks I’m a liar.” It’s said quietly at first, slow and deliberate, before he raises his head to look more determined, “I tried to warn them, but no one will believe me. They think it’ll just be another normal day, another… another one of my lies.” His expression hardens and he looks frighteningly determined, “And I’ll fight the pirates off by myself if it means those villagers can live with my lie. I’ll do everything in my power to make it to where it stays just like that. A lie.
“They… they may not like me,” He rubs at the dried blood on his arm. It catches Kari’s attention and she narrows her eyes at the sight. “But I was born here, I love it here. I… I want everyone to be safe. I can’t just sit back and watch everyone be killed because of my lies.” There is a hitch in his voice and he looks away sharply, tears threatening to spill.

The crew stares at Usopp for an indeterminate amount of time.

Then, finally, Zoro cracks a grin, “Well damn, the liar isn’t the coward he came off as.”

“Huh?” Usopp sniffles, looking up in surprise.

“That guy’s been asking for someone to rock his shit,” Nami points out, then her expression smooths out into something more greedy, “not to mention the treasure they’re probably packing on their ship.”

“I’m gonna kick his ass.” Ah, Luffy, straight to the point as always.

“R-Really?” Usopp asks, growing more and more surprised.

Kari rolls her eyes and puts on an amused smile, “Yeah man, we have your back.”

Zoro nods towards Kari, as if to say ‘ditto’.

“That settles it then,” Luffy grins, “We’re gonna beat that guy's ass!”

Usopp’s whole expression wobbles and it looks like he is seconds away from bawling his eyes out. So Kari saves him the effort by strutting forward and announcing, “We can’t do anything until we make a game plan, plus you look roughed up from your day.” She points at his bloody wrist, “How about we take ten then reconvene to make a plan of action? And I can address your wrist while we’re at it too.”

It takes a minute for Usopp to realize that ah yeah, his wrist is sort of banged up and it wouldn’t hurt to get it looked at. So he opts for just nodding.

Kari sits down right beside Usopp while the others linger elsewhere… aka Luffy screaming about food and bolting for the barrel of apples while Nami and Zoro chase after him to be sure he doesn’t eat all of their stockpile. Kari glances at the wrist and the nervous boy before pointing and asking, “May I?”

“Wha- oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, here.” Usopp holds out his wrist for Kari to take, and she takes it with all the gentle tenderness a wound deserves. She overlooks the injury before sparking a prestidigitation in her palm and giving a quick run over the dry blood to clean off the mess. 

The golden light dances over Usopp’s wrist and wipes away the dried blood and grime, warming the skin with gentle caresses. Usopp’s breath catches as he watches the sparkling lights glitter and wrap around his wrist in ethereal beauty. Never once does it threaten to hurt, only brushing and cleaning until Kari twists her hand and the golden light fades.

“Whoa— how did— how did you do that?”

Kari is drawn away from her careful look over to stare at Usopp blankly. It is only after a couple seconds of silent contemplation that she realizes he hadn’t seen her cast any spells yet. 

“Ah,” Kari voices, “I can do magic.” She twirls her hand around to summon a few brief sparks at the tips of her fingers. Usopp watches with an almost childlike wonder. 

“Wow.” Usopp breathes, in no way scared as per what his personality suggested. He blinks away his awe slowly, though there is still a lingering interest there, “That’s incredible. I didn’t even know magic like that existed!” 

Snorting, Kari shook her head, “It doesn’t really exist here from what I understand. I’m sort of a… weird exception. It’s super common where I’m from. Just… not out here.”

“Really?” Usopp asks curiously, earning a nod from Kari. “Is that… also why you uh… Luffy said you’re a, um, tiefling, which, I-I mean… I assume that’s why you have horns and a tail and um… uh,” He draws off nervously, but seeing that Kari is still patiently staring, he just asks, “Is that… why I’ve never heard of tieflings before? They’re common on your island?”

Her instinct was to correct the island comment, but she figures that was just a losing battle. So she instead offers a smile, “Sort of, it’s a bit of a long story. The basic gist is I can't go back there anytime soon.” She glances back to the arm and runs a tentative thumb beneath one of the wounds, noting the way Usopp flinched and murmuring an apology before turning her head and shouting, “Nami! Have any more of those spare bandages?”

“One of your gold coins and you get the roll!” Nami shouted back.

“Deal!” A couple seconds later and Kari was fumbling to catch the roll of gauze chucked at her head. Saving face like she hadn’t almost been suckerpunched by bandages, she turns to Usopp and dips her head towards his arm, “You alright with me treating this?”

“Uh— yeah!” Usopp says, surprised, “Of course, I mean you’re already— yeah. Yeah.” 

Smiling, Kari begins wrapping the arm, occasionally offering an apology when Usopp visibly winces. It goes on like that for a bit, with Kari gently humming a tune with no clear harmony, and Usopp quietly watching. But then…

“...So what other magic can you do?”

Kari looks up in surprise, seeing Usopp shyly looking away from Kari as if to hide his honest interest. There is a tentativeness there too, like he’s anxious that he’s going to be yelled at for asking. But Kari just puts on a big grin and says, “ Finally someone’s interested!”

 “Not that I’m one to judge…” Kari drawled, staring at the grease slicked slope, “but shouldn’t they be here by now?” 

“Maybe they overslept?” Zoro guessed, scratching at the back of his head.

“Over— overslept?” Kari asks, looking at the swordsman in disbelief, “They must be shit pirates if they overslept their own invasion.”

“Hey! You asked and I gave an answer. Don't act like an ass.” Zoro glared at Kari.

“Shut up for a minute!” Nami barked, appearing to listen in on something in the distance. Her brows furrow the more she listens, “I swear I can hear someone shouting ‘go’ from the north.”

“T-The north?” Usopp whispered, looking horrified. “Th-there’s no way. I swear they said they’d meet here, er, well… I think they said— uh—”

“Oh sweet Divine, did we just prepare at the wrong shore?” Kari asks, looking exasperated as she dismisses her quarterstaff. Usopp just gave a pained laugh as answer.

“Which way are they attacking the village from?!” Luffy yells, looking like he’s preparing to charge in the first direction he’s pointed to. 

Usopp flounders for all of five seconds before he’s pointing north and saying, “It’ll take three minutes if you head that way. The landscape is essentially the same and—”

“It’ll take me only 20 seconds to get there!” Luffy yells as he begins sprinting in the direction Usopp pointed.

While Usopp swears and begins panicking over their failed preparations, Kari grinds her teeth and starts after Luffy, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do something stupid on the way there! Meet you soon!”

“I cannot believe *huff* your ass ran *huff* all the way to the vill— augh my lungs—  the village.”

Zoro glances over his shoulder on his run as he watches his captain and struggling Kari sprint into view. “Oh hey you made it!” he calls, slowing to a jog to meet their pace. His eyes slide to the painfully out of shape Kari. “You good there, tails?”

“Shut the — shut the hells up!” Kari is wheezing and is more than a little afraid she is gonna collapse by the time she gets there.

It was pretty obvious how Zoro was fighting off a laugh. Kari just sort of glares at him, strangling her urge to shoot the bastard with a ray of sickness. The swordsman just looks back forward, maybe in an attempt to spare Kari the embarrassment. “We really need to work on your stamina.”

“I’m gonna— sweet Divine above—   kick your—”

“Hey is that Usopp?” Luffy shouts, interrupting their bickering. Both Kari and Zoro quickly look forward, finding the boy laid prone and being approached by cat-themed pirates. 

“Is that Usopp getting his ass kicked?” Zoro corrects.

Kari just makes a vague noise of misery that isn’t too dissimilar from a dying goat.

“Dibs on those guys!” Luffy says, launching himself towards one of the groups. 

Zoro, about to run in and join him, is interrupted by Kari slapping his back and immediately feels his adrenaline double. He turns to see Kari curled over, bracing herself on her knee, and gasping for breath. Her hand that had been braced on his back slides off to go help support herself. She gives him one thumbs up and continues to catch her breath.

The swordsman just rolls his eyes and jumps into his own group of enemies with renewed vigor. A kind of renewed vigor that raised flags. So by the time he finished beating pirates within an edge of their life, he turns to Kari, who has summoned her quarterstaff to use as a crutch. 

“The hell did you do to me?”

“Resistance.” Kari says, flapping a hand at him weakly, “It, uh, it helps to uh…” She takes a long gasping breath.

“...resist?” Zoro fills in.

“...Sure. Sure yeah.” Kari forces herself upright and shuffles up to stand with the captain — when the hells did he show back up… eh whatever — and first mate, both of whom cut a threatening figure, and herself on Zoro’s far side looking more like a ragdoll on its final string. She squints at the downed pirates and asks, “Damn, no one left for me?”

“You were too busy sitting on your ass. Don’t slack next time.” Zoro grouches.

Kari just looks bullied.

“You’re late!” Nami called from where she was standing over a downed pirate, foot on the back of the guy’s head. 

“You tripped me!” Zoro barked, looking pissed.

While the duo started up their spat, Luffy and Usopp started going at it too, screaming about which way north was. Kari just wallowed while leaning on her weapon-crutch. Though, her pause was drawn away when she caught sight of the remaining pirates at the bottom of the hill starting to reconvene.

Without really thinking, she lifts her hand at the most audaciously dressed out of the crew — she was assuming they ran on the gaudier the outfit the higher in the hierarchy mindset — and allowed sparks to dance across her fingertips. “Sit your ass down!” She cried, followed by a focused, “Eldritch blast.”

The crackling red light sparks and zips downward until landing with an explosion of light. The man who’d been pulling out a… well she wasn’t really sure… nevertheless, the man who was pulling out something was very quickly sprawled out in the sand with his fellow crewmates gathering around him in concern.

It was only when she dropped her arm that Kari realized her four other companions were staring at her. So she spared them looks and asked, “Can we get on with it and beat their asses now?”

Luffy put on a big smile, “Yes!” He spun on heel to face the remaining pirates, swinging his arm around in the semblance of a windmill as he rears himself up to attack. 

Zoro shared a look with Nami and Usopp, noting how roughened up they were — namely Usopp — and threw a thumb over his shoulder, saying, “You two go up the cliff, we’ll handle it from here.” Then he turns to Kari and asks, “Can you do to him what you did to me?”

Kari stares at Zoro dumbly until she realizes what he was asking. “Oh, yeah sure.” Her hand warps with white smoke, and she quickly slaps Luffy on the back with a mumble of “resistance” before dragging her hand away and watching her captain go rim rod straight. “Beat their asses, captain.”

Versus answering her like any sane individual, Luffy just starts screaming as if he were a man who has nothing left to live for, and charges at the pirates below. The few brave enough to try approaching look like they’ve made more than a few poor life choices that landed them in this situation. 

Zoro and Kari just quietly watch as their captain goes to town on the remaining pirates not already sat on their asses.

The duo watch their captain charge forward, splitting the charging enemies. Luffy reaches their ship which has a big cat on its bow — a comical sight that makes both observers double take — and hugs it. 

“...Is he…” Zoro squints as he swears he sees the bow begin to bend and break under Luffy’s strength.

“Note to self,” Kari says as her captain successfully tears off the bow and swings around to apparently use it as a giant mallet on the remaining pirates, “don’t use that spell on Luffy again.”

“Correction,” Zoro tags on, brows rising as he watches the guy that Kari had nailed with an eldritch blast earlier scramble up, “do use that spell on Luffy again. Often.”

Kari purses her lips, “Fair enough.” Though, any semblance of amusement she was getting left her as her brows raise when watching the bow begin to tip in an uncontrolled manner. “Ah shit, should have done constitution.”

“Huh?”

Both Zoro and Kari watch as the bow bends and slams into the remaining enemies, resulting in screaming and crying while their captain is snoring beneath the bow.

All parties stare.

“I think they’re done now!” Nami calls from behind them, apparently having too watched the whole slew of events go down.

“Yeah we noticed.” Zoro murmurs.

“Alright, so we can just wrap this up and— ah dammit, what are they rabbits?” Kari glares at the two new cat-themed fighters that spawned out of seemingly nowhere. Kari just whines in annoyance, leaning on her staff and just looking overall bored with the scenario. 

“They’re clearly cats.” Zoro points out.

Kari glares at him. “Shut up.” She glares at the duo, rambling about being some of the best fighters, their moves are unmatched, whatever Kari tuned them out before they even started talking. She shared a long look with Zoro, “Do you mind if I just…?”

Zoro stares at her for a few beats, then gestures for her to do as she must, “Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

“Cool,” Kari dismisses her staff at last, looking haggard, though at least now able to stand without keeling over. “Throw me.”

“Huh?!”

Kari snaps her head to Zoro. “THROW ME!”

“Alright, damn!” Quickly sheathing his swords, he makes fast work of figuring out the best way to toss the tiefling. Unfortunately, as it were, he had very little experience throwing people, so it was an awkward tangle of limbs where Kari pulled herself into a ball to the best of her abilities and Zoro clutched her like an overly large basketball. Then without further ado, and realizing there was no good way to go about this, he decides to bowl her.

“Augh! Why?!” Kari cries as she goes tumbling down the hill towards the two fighters who look very confused by the turn of events. “I asked you to throw me!” 

“We’ll work on it later!” Zoro shouts, doing a very poor job of pretending he was confident in this odd plan. 

“Screw you, hill-top!” Kari cries as she finally slows to a stop right between the two men that looked down at her in confusion. Kari, on her back, eyes the pair of cat-themed men with a gigantic grin, teeth glinting, before both arms cross over her chest and dance with boiling black smoke. “Surprise,” She slams her arms into the ground, the black smog around her hands spreading in a quick dart to create a ten foot radius of pure smoky darkness. Her smile turns feral as she whispers, “Arms of Hadar.”

Tendrils of inky black abyss erupt from the void beneath them. Both men looked beyond alarmed at the massive tendrils, in no way prepared or ready for such an attack. The dark imposing forms large enough to grab some lingering watchers near the edge of the radius. Though the two clawed men were the primary targets and they were certainly regretting not treating her as a serious threat.

Then, with a final writhe from the tendrils, they chucked those closest to them onto the ground, giving one last echoing crack before vanishing into the inky void where they originated from. The whirling mass of darkness disappearing right back into Kari’s awaiting palms. 

The tiefling puts on a cocky smirk before lifting her hands from the ground, hearing the satisfying sound of bodies collapsing.

“What the hell was that?!” The remaining enemies cried, looking beyond alarmed at the display of power. A tentative few even backed away. 

“N-Now, now…” Their alleged leader said, the man staring at her through his tinted glasses, “Let’s not start a fight we can’t finish…”

“You started it.” Kari points out, smirk growing to reveal the glint of fangs.

“Jango!” A voice cries, cutting through the post-beat down. All heads turn to find Klahadore— ah wait no… Kuro standing at the top of the hill. He stares down at them, loosely holding onto a duffel bag. He stares with contempt fit for royalty, “What is the meaning of this?”

“C-Captain Kuro!” The leader, er, former leader cries. He looks more afraid of his own captain than the little group of fighters. He swallows, as if fighting past a rock in his throat, and strings together his thoughts, “It— it seems our plan isn’t as easy to accomplish as we had hoped…”

Kuro’s face twists in annoyance, “I can see that.” He pushes his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, giving a long drawn out and put upon sigh. “Seems I underestimated you then.” He begins to unzip the duffle bag. 

His first mate looks alarmed at being brushed off so quickly. “Wha— captain! Weren’t— you aren’t—”

“Enough, Jango.” The man interrupts, reaching into his bag and digging around. His eyes slide to Kari, who watches him with sharp attention. “You have five minutes to wrap this up or—”

Kari, seeing it as the best opportunity she was going to get, raises her arm without thinking, takes aim, and grins, “Get got idiot!” Red hot light crackles in her palm, “Eldritch blast.”  

The shot that goes off rings in the pirates’ ears, stumbling back, shielding their eyes. It’s monstrous. Kari just grins and bares the weight behind the blast, adjusting her stance to more firmly hold her weight as she finally swings her arm back down, gripping it to sooth the taut muscles. Her brows raise. Crit, she thinks, go figure.

The spot where Kuro had once been standing now features him still standing in the same spot — go figure — but now with a freshly burnt hole where the front of his suit had once been. 

He is hunched over, looking alarmed and trying to save face, and Kari honestly has to give him props for still standing after a blast like that.

Unfortunately her initiative was up, and who would have guessed it? Kuro’s was just starting.

The man looks up, eyes glistening behind his glasses as he stares down Kari with a look that can only be described as vengeful. 

“My turn.” He hisses.

Kari blinks, and in that moment Kuro has moved to be directly in front of her. 

Startling, Kari jolts back without thinking, and she would later thank her instincts because if she hadn’t moved back she was certain the damage she took would be significantly worse than what she got. Those long claw-like blades strapped to his hands slash, tearing down, and getting a quick stab in at Kari.

The scythes slice through her side as if cutting through butter. Kari barks in alarm as the power behind the attack sends her flying back. Eventually leaving a sizable dent in the bow of the ship still serving her captain as a blanket.

Sliding down the bow and collapsing in the sand, Kari curls over her side with a hiss of pain. Hands slide to the long claw marks, pressing against the ripped flesh. She looks up with a grimace and wheezes, “I just get here and I get stabbed? Really? You’d think I’m no better than Zoro.” 

“I heard that!” Zoro calls down, waving his swords around in annoyance. Though, she heard him call after her when she got hit, so she knew he was worried. She’d hold it over his head later.

“I don’t appreciate being interrupted.” Kuro says, pushing his glasses up with the heel of his hand again. 

Kari just glares at him, “Hypocrite much? You interrupted the party! We were having fun till you showed up!” She gives a wicked grin and quickly turns her attention on the nearby pirates still eyeing her warily. They jolt at her attention.

Kuro bristles, “Do I need to stab you again to make you shut up—”

With a snort, Luffy wakes up at long last, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he slurs, “What’d I miss?” He takes a long look around before he double takes at the sight of Kari slouched against the bow, hands stemming the pooling blood on her side. “Wha— what happened?! Why are you bleeding?!”

“Sir tall dark and spooky over there doesn’t know how to have fun.” Kari answered, nudging her head towards Kuro, who looked two steps away from combusting if he was ignored and/or interrupted again. Slowly though, a mischievous grin curls onto Kari’s face, “Beat his ass captain.” She leans close, takes one less bloody hand away from her side, and slaps her captain’s shoulder, “Resistance.”

Immediately, Luffy’s pupils are blown. His whole body starts vibrating from the adrenaline rush as he jumps to his feet and starts screaming. A few poor suckers who’d been under threat of his last adrenaline burst look like they’re about to cry. 

Luffy goes charging in without another word, screeching like a banshee as he sprints straight for Kuro.

“Give him a good kick in the balls for me!” Kari shouts after him, though winces when her wound flares. Shrinking back, she places her palms back on her injury and blinks back stars. “Imma… imma just take a quick rest…”

Kari blacks out.

“Hey, hey, you dead or what?”

Kari’s face squishes as she slowly opens her eyes. She blinks past the apparent smoke and debris in the air as she eventually recognizes Nami as the one who’d woken her up. Takes her a few more seconds to properly realize what had been asked as she winces, “Gah, I wish.” She presses a hand into her sticky side, pulling away and wincing at the tacky red on her palm. “Well that’s gonna leave a mark.”

“Glad you’re alive,” Nami drawls, she gives a clear look over of Kari, apparently searching for something. Her shoulders slouch forward in relief, “And also glad to see Kuro didn’t knick you.”

“Uh, yes he did? Was the stab wound not obvious?” Kari asks smartly, looking around Nami briefly and immediately gaping when seeing an empty beach. Likewise, looking bewildered when spotting her captain passed out on the ground. “What the hells— what did I miss?”

“The battle.” Nami shrugs nonchalantly, slipping one of Kari’s arms over her shoulders and bringing them to a stand.

Kari can only gape. “I slept through the whole battle?!” Her whole expression shudders in horror before going slack in misery, “I’m the worst…”

Nami just openly stares at Kari as if she were an idiot. “Are you serious right now? I’m pretty sure the only reason that Luffy even managed to give Kuro the smackdown of his life is because of that weird spell you used on him. Plus you literally got stabbed and passed out from blood loss. That hardly qualifies as being called sleeping.”

The tiefling just grumbles.

Shuffling up to the downed captain, Nami carefully settles Kari beside Luffy, being mindful of both of their injuries and doing well to avoid putting any excess strain on them. Kari hides her pain as well as she can, just sort of grinding her teeth and slouching in on herself by the time she is sat down on the ground. Her eyes rake over Luffy in concern, running a hand over his back to prestidigitate some of the grime away.

Apparently her little cantrip stirred Luffy, as his eyes open and immediately lock onto Kari. A bright grin spreads across his face as he cheers, “Kari!” 

Cracking a smile, Kari greets, “Hey, Luffy.”

Said boy sits up and gives her that sunny grin of his. “We won!”

“Yeah, I heard,” Kari grins back, though the reality makes her grin lose a bit of its shine, “Sorry I slept through most of it.”

A voice from behind them scoffs, “If you made me sit my ass down when I was stabbed, I doubt we’ll judge you for sitting out of it when your ass got stabbed.” Zoro trekked down the cliff side, his own plentiful scrapes and cuts on display. 

Kari rolls her eyes, “Well yeah, but that was—”

“If you say it’s different I will and can beat your ass, stab wound or not.” Zoro grouches. Once close enough, he swipes Kari’s hat off her head, earning a yell of offense. Zoro elects to ignore Kari’s indignity in favor of sticking his hand into the hat with furrowed brows, clearly focused. Then, his face smooths out in surprise as he pulls his arm out and comes back with a small roll of gauze. “It’s cold in there.” He plants the hat back on Kari’s head while he starts patching some of his smaller wounds. 

Kari folds her arms as best she can and grumbles. 

“I— gimme that!” Nami shouts, snatching the roll of gauze out of Zoro’s hands. The swordsman cries out in annoyance while Nami ignores him and kneels at Kari’s side. “Raise your arms.”

While Kari is getting her wounds addressed, there is a call from up the cliff, “Thank you!” They all look up and find Usopp standing at the top, grinning down at them in earnest thanks, “If it weren't for you guys the village couldn't have been protected!” 

“C’mon,” Zoro drawled, settling down beside Kari, “You did your fair share of protecting too.”

“Same here.” Luffy shouts from where he is spread like a starfish.

“I got treasure out of this, so all in a day's work!” Nami calls, grinning as she hugs a sack of treasure that Kari just squints at, wondering who she robbed.

Sensing it was her time to say something, Kari pats at her bandaged wound with a smile before looking to Usopp and calling, “Another asshole got his ass handed to him so all's right with the world!” 

Usopp snorts at that and it pulls a big smile onto his lips, “Because of that… there’s a decision I’ve made.”

All four of them share similar states of confusion.

When they’d been told they were getting a ship, it seemed a little too good to be true to Kari. Though now? Standing in front of the small ship with a sheep on its bow? Well she was starting to believe it. Luffy was circling the ship eagerly, examining every nook and cranny on the outside before hopping to the deck and examining all he could there too. Nami was hauling her sack of treasure on the ship eagerly, likely going to find a hiding place for it. And Zoro was settled beside Kari, just standing and staring with wide eyes. 

“Are you sure we can take her?!” Luffy yells down, staring in awe at Kaya, the one who’d donated the ship to their cause. 

The new head butler stands nearby, little horns on his head that — after a pointed question from Kari — were in no way tiefling related. The man smiles up at them, amused by their awe. “Just take care of her!”

Luffy continues grinning like an idiot, rushing back to the center deck and out of sight.

Shaking her head, Kari rolls her head towards Kaya, “Can’t even begin to tell you how thankful we are for… the Going-Merry was it?”

Kaya dips her head in a nod, “No need, you’ve done enough for us in protecting our island.”

Kari offers a big smile of thanks before turning and smacking Zoro’s chest, “Help me up first mate?”

Rolling his eyes, Zoro starts for the ship, breathing like he was about to start talking but pausing when hearing something tumble down the cliff behind them. Kari and Zoro turn curiously, only to boggle when seeing a round pack rolling down towards the beach. 

“Heads up,” Zoro called, lifting a foot to brace. Kari summoned her quarterstaff and aimed it in a similar manner. By the time the pack reached them, Usopp’s face was the unfortunate recipient of both foot and pole alike. Zoro blinked, “About time you showed up.”

“Usopp!” Kari grins in greeting, vanishing her staff and helping the boy right himself alongside his pack. “You’re here!”

“I—” Usopp pauses. Then he notes Kaya on the beach and he can’t help but put on a confident air, puffing up and throwing a thumb to his chest, “I’ve decided to officially set out!” He wilts a little, “B-Before I change my mind.”

“I figured you’d do as much,” Kaya says with a gentle smile, fond in all the right ways.

Seeing that Usopp and Kaya were saying their goodbyes, Kari slaps Zoro’s chest to cue him in continuing to help her onto the ship. Which results in a lot of awkward clinging as Kari holds onto his back like a koala as Zoro scales the ladder. 

“Y’know,” The swordsman grunts as he flips over the railing and lands on deck in a crouch. Kari slides off his back while Zoro glares at her, “you could have climbed that yourself.”

“Nuh-uh,” Kari says belligerently, pointing to her still bandaged side, “Could have ripped my stitches.” Kari turns, electing to ignore Zoro’s annoyance, taking a good look at the deck. She lets out an awed sound, “Nice! She looks better up close!”

Kari takes her time investigating the ship, peeking into the storeroom, galley, sleeping quarters, and all other nooks and crannies that caught her attention. Overall, the space felt small but homey. A good ship for an adventure like they’d be undertaking. 

By the time she crawled back onto deck, seeing Usopp standing with them, teary-eyed and excited, Kari perks up, “Oh hells yeah, new crew member!” 

“New captain!” Usopp weakly attempts to correct. 

“Crew member.” Luffy corrects right back.

Chapter Text

Luffy showcases his jolly roger with a bright grin, “Alright! Done!”

“Do you take criticism?” Kari blurts from where she is sitting on the second level deck railings, peering down at her captain in genuine concern. She was willing to be a member of this crew but like all hells was she gonna sail under a flag with that for their brand.

“There’s a lot to be desired.” Usopp mumbled, staring at the design in horror. Perhaps he too was having his realization of just what captain he’s agreed to sail under.

“It’s… abstract.” Nami commented, like she was struggling to outright say it sucked.

“A flag is a symbol of death, it’s meant to invoke fear in your enemies.” Zoro cocks his head to the side, “...I’m certainly terrified thinking of our future with this flag.”

“Leave the painting to me!” Usopp declares, marching forward and knocking Luffy out of the way, brandishing a brush with what might be an actual deserved confidence. “I’m quite the master artist you know.”

Later, after watching a botched job at Usopp attempting to paint his own jolly roger, their flag was safely and impressively finished. All five of them crowded around the masterpiece, impressed. 

“Damn,” Kari stares down at their new fear-worthy emblem, “That’s good.”

“Thank you,” Usopp preens under the praise, “I painted on a lot of villagers' homes over the years, so I am quite the talented painter.”

“No shit.” Zoro hums, also looking decently impressed. 

Luffy, vibrating in his spot where he is staring down at the jolly roger, looks at Usopp with stars in his eyes, “It’s amazing!” He points at the mainsail without even turning around, “Draw one on the sail too!”

“Sure thing!” Usopp grinned, sparing a look at Nami, “Mind lending a hand?”

“For a small fee of course.” There was a twinkle in her eye that meant trouble.

Kari sighs and when Usopp spares her a concerned glance she just offers a pitying smile, “You’ll get used to it eventually.” 

Another short burst of time later and the crew was staring at their new logo branded onto the sails, loud and proud and large enough that enemies would spot it miles away. Kari peered up from the upper deck, balanced precariously against the railing as she was, honestly awed at the sight of the sail and the realization that she was a member of this crew. She couldn’t say she saw this in her future.

“Whatcha thinking about?”

Kari cranes her head back and sees her captain’s head stretched over her. His straw hat acting as if it were a halo. The sun perfectly behind his head painting him as if he was an aasimar or someone of holier blood. 

A smile twists onto her lips and she says, “Just thinking about how lucky I am to be on a crew like this.” She lets her head fall and goes back to staring at the sails. “Can’t say I ever imagined being a part of something like this.”

“A nakama?” Luffy asks.

Well that’s a word she’s never heard before.

Luffy’s head goes back to its normal perch on his shoulders and he opts to slide up to balance on the rail beside her, and it gives Kari an easier time to look at him. Her tail slithers as she asks, “Nakama?”

The boy’s eyes widen in disbelief as he blathers, “Wha— you— you don’t know what a nakama is?!”

Jolting back, alarmed at the yell, Kari sputters, “Is it important?” 

“It’s only the most important thing to being a pirate!” Then Luffy’s face twists like he’s thinking too hard again. “Well, aside from a dream I guess.” A pause. “And treasure.” Then he goes back to focus, “It’s a crew but more.”

“A crew but more?” Kari chuckles, staring at Luffy with growing fondness.

The boy just rapidly nods. “Yeah! A captain without a nakama can’t be a captain! And a crewmate without a nakama can’t be a crewmate too!” He gestures down below where Zoro, Usopp, and Nami are spread out, “We’re building it, and it’ll take a while before it’s finished, but it’s here.”

It’s a sweet thing, and even if Kari doesn’t fully understand the concept, she can say she’s touched to be considered a part of it. She recognized that at the very least. 

Lightly pushing Luffy’s straw hat over his eyes, Kari grins at him. “Well, I’m honored to be a part of your nakama.” With that said Luffy makes his funny laugh again that pulls at Kari’s heart in all the right ways. She shoves him lightly, nodding her head to a cannon sitting untouched on the deck, “You should try out some of the weaponry.” She suggests.

And suddenly Luffy’s eyes are lighting up as his head whips around - in a way that would originally make Kari concerned but now she just correlates the unnatural with her captain - and scrambles for said cannon. Kari chuckles as he leaves, turning back to peer at the sail with a light smile.

Though one thing lingers.

A pirate needs a dream. Kari thinks, recalling what Luffy had eluded to. She reflects back on the other instances of Luffy mentioning the importance of dreams. She recalls her own half-assed one that she’d made on the fly. Adventuring was nice, but all the others’ dreams seem so much more large and awe inspiring. Hers was just… just.

Absently, Kari twists the golden shackles on her wrists, thinking of dreams and aspiring things that seem impossible. Goals she thought were childish nonsense. She is so deep in thought she doesn’t listen to the firing of the cannon or her crewmates’ chattering. She just sits and thinks, twisting the golden shackles as she does so.

“-othering you?”

The words startle Kari out of her ponderings. She glances around to see Nami kneeled beside her, her eyes oddly cloudy. Kari blinks past her stupor and can only get out an intelligent “huh?”

Rolling her eyes, Nami points at the shackles that Kari had been fidgeting with, “Those bothering you?” She says it like she’s repeating herself

Kari takes a few more seconds to process the question before glancing down to where Nami is pointing. Finally realizing just what was being asked, Kari quickly removes her hand, giving a grin to Nami, “Nah, just thinking.”

“Well… if they are, I’m sure we could convince one of the guys to get them off you.” Nami suggests, smiling gently. “I can even take a crack at lock picking them if you’d like.”

Despite the kindness offered, Kari just snorts, dropping her hands altogether and looking much more like the laid back tiefling that Nami had grown to know. Kari offers a toothy grin and says, “No need, plus there’s no lock to pick.” She waves off Nami’s confusion, “Best not to waste the energy.”

Nami frowns, but slowly nods, “Alright, but let me know if you change your mind. You never know when— is that a man?” 

At the abrupt turn in topic, Kari’s head whips around. Lo and behold there was a full ass man standing on deck wielding a sword and causing a general commotion. He’s shouting and demanding for the pirates to come out and it’s very clear he hadn’t noticed the pair of them on the second level. Both girls share a long ‘you’re seeing this too?’ look.

Sighing, Kari rolls her shoulders back and begins to stand. Before jumping, she tugs off her hat, digs inside, and pulls out a small tart and a feather. “Alright, I got it.” Kari murmurs, ignoring Nami’s bewildered staring. Kari’s hands flex and the components vanish. Then, climbing over the railing, Kari jumps straight at the man, her shadow the only warning he gets before he’s looking up in alarm as Kari thrusts her hands forward with a spell, “Tasha’s hideous laughter.”  

Her eyes lock with his and a brief battle of wills takes place before the man’s whole body goes tense and bubbling laughter abruptly escapes him. He drops his sword and collapses to the ground, clutching his stomach and cackling. Kari lands a few feet away from him, eyes wary.

There is a brief commotion behind her followed by Luffy yelling, “What happened? Wha— who is that guy?!”

Still holding eye contact, Kari carefully answers, “Snuck on board.” 

“W-Why is he laughing?” Usopp asked nervously, approaching with the others to circle around the prone swordsman. 

“One of Kari’s spells.” Zoro replied flippantly. He squints at the writhing figure for a long moment while the others converse, Kari still making heavy eye contact. Then, Zoro came to an abrupt realization, “Hold on a second! I know this guy!”

“Really?” They all ask, Kari barely catches herself from looking away from the still writhing body.

“Yeah. He’s Johnny!” Everyone just sort of stares at him. Zoro gives them an equally dry look. Then he turns to Kari and says, “Drop the spell, horn-head.”

With the roll of Kari’s eyes the spell ends. And at the cease in forced cackles, the guy, Johnny, gasps for air ending up with a ragged cough as he looks incredibly haggard. He blinks at them all, looking incredibly alarmed right up until he spots Zoro. 

“Zoro?!” He starts coughing again, but catches himself, “Is— is that really you, bro?”

“Yeah it’s me.” Zoro grins, offering the man an arm to help him up. He grins at the other swordsman before pausing, “Wait, where’s Yosaku? He’s normally with you, isn’t he?”

At the mention of another man, Johnny’s expression turns panicked. “He’s here! He’s— He’s sick.” He scrambles to the side of the boat, in no way as offensive as he’d been previously and not even grabbing the sword he’d dropped. He looks back at them frantically, “He’s in our dinghy, can… can you help—”

“Yeah,” Zoro eases, walking to join Johnny at the side. “We’ll help.”

While Zoro goes to help Johnny haul his friend onto the deck so they can better assess what was wrong, Nami jabs at Kari’s ribs, earning a yelp. Kari rubs at her side while Nami leans in and whispers sharply, “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” Kari asks in bewilderment, unknowing as to what Nami could possibly be poking at her about. 

“The—“ Nami looks offended that Kari hadn’t automatically known what she was talking about. “The feather! And the pastry!”

Kari stared at Nami dumbly, before it occurred to her again that oh yeah, no magic.

“Tasha’s hideous laughter requires material components to cast.” Kari explains, pushing a hand under her hat and coming back out with a feather. “Unfortunately that was my last tart, but I have a whole feather pillow in here that I’ve been pulling feathers from for months.” Kari grins like she’s smart for doing that, but Nami just stares at her with a look that begs otherwise.

Usopp, who’d been listening in and barely hiding his interest in the topic, leans forward to insert himself into the convo, “Do all spells need feathers and pastries?”

That earns him a snort from the resident warlock, “Nah, Tasha’s hideous laughter is just weird like that. Most of what I have just rely on one material or none at all. Though, I do have another spell that needs a feather. I have a bit of fleece and copper coins for similar reasons.”

“And they’re just… like, in pockets in your hat?” Usopp asked, tugging the hat curiously. 

 Laughing, Kari shakes her head and braces her hat properly. “I’ll show you later. Also, that was my last tart, we’ll need to buy more at our next stop.”

“Well hopefully we’ll be getting a cook soon and you won’t have to worry about buying pastries.”

“Tarts.” Kari corrects absentmindedly, right up until she catches sight of Zoro and Johnny returning to deck with a haggard looking body in tow. Kari winces sympathetically at the sight, pulling a roll of gauze from beneath her hat without question to toss to Zoro.

After carefully rebandaging the battered Yosaku, Johnny started explaining his story. Talking about how they were on a bounty but Yosaku kept getting worse and worse. They’d settled onto a small rock to rest before the thing had exploded — Luffy and Usopp bowed in apology much to Kari’s confusion — before Yosaku finished with weeping cries for his fallen comrade.

Kari stares at the grey skin and mutters, “I think he’s already dead.”

Nami slaps the back of Kari’s head, “Idiot, he’s got scurvy, he's not dead.” She gestures to the galley, “Luffy, Usopp, there are some limes in the kitchen. Squeeze the juice out and come back.”

A hop, skip, and a jump later had a now very alive looking Yosaku rejoicing alongside his partner. They properly introduced themselves to the crew and unfortunately it seemed that Yosaku’s energy had officially depleted as he collapsed in a heap. 

“Let this be a lesson in humility.” Nami drawls.

“Is that why you’re a vegetable-arian, Kari?” Luffy asks, picking his nose.

“I mean, it certainly helps. And I’m really not a vegetarian.” Kari points out, not even bothering to correct his butchered word. Nami slaps him on the back of the head so she figures it’s some sort of reprimand at the very least.

“Guess these are the common dangers we’ll have to deal with on our voyages.” Zoro hums.

“He would’ve died for sure if he hadn’t come across us.” Usopp mutters, looking up at the sky as he continues, “We definitely need someone to think about our diet to make sure we’re healthy. A good ‘chef of the sea’ so to say.”

“It’d be nice to just be supplied with constant spell components for use.” Kari hums.

“Then we’re in agreement!” Luffy announces, “our next crewmate should be a sea cook!”

“Not that I was eavesdropping or anything.” Johnny interrupts, clearly having eavesdropped. The man puts down his hand he’d elected to raise as if to be called in class. “But if you’re looking for a cook, I know just the place you should head to find one.” He offers a prideful grin, “You should head to the Baratie, the restaurant of the seas.”

Luffy’s eyes practically sparkle.

Well guess they were gonna dine out today. 

A little later into their adjusted sailing, Kari calls, “Ship spotted!”

Running up, Luffy practically collapses over the railing as he stares at the ship sighting. A grin grows onto his face as he declares, “That’s it! That’s the Baratie! Good eye, Kari!”

Kari just squints at the ship, wondering how Luffy could tell before spotting the odd scrawl that signified text on one of the tiers of the ship. Yeah that’d do it. 

By the time that their shouting registered with the rest of the crew, they were bombarded with other bodies pushing them in as they all ogled the fish shaped restaurant. Luffy is practically vibrating from where he is pushing against the railing, Usopp looks equally as excited, treating this as his first big adventure, and Nami looks equally amazed (likely plotting the best means of robbing the restaurant blind). 

Any further awe was brushed aside as the Going-Merry was overshadowed by a larger ship on their right. All turned and peered at said larger ship.

“Gah!” Usopp spouted, looking panicked, “It’s the Marines!”

“Really?” Kari asks, head tilting curiously, “How do you figure?”

“Now’s not the time for your sarcasm!” Nami shouts, turning away and unable to catch Kari muttering ‘I wasn’t being sarcastic?’ Nami ducks behind the railing alongside the others. Kari and Zoro just stand there staring at the ship boredly.

While the boys sputtered over whether or not they were going to attack, the apparent head of the ship stared down at them boredly. His pink hair catching in the breeze and painting him in an ironically heroic light. “Haven’t seen your flag before, you new or something?”

“I’m Captain Luffy!” Said boy announces, any need for hiding disappearing in a blink. “And I just finished making my pirate flag the day before yesterday!”

Kari’s face falls into her hands.

“Should we do something about this?” Zoro asks lazily.

“No, no,” Kari drags her head out of her hands, watching as their two bounty hunters bumming a ride fling themselves at the Marine ship, only to promptly get their asses handed to them. “Let them get it out of their systems first. Marines decide to act then we get involved.”

Zoro grunts in agreement. 

With the two bounty hunters falling, a block of paper comes flying out of Johnny’s coat, falling to the ground all around them and revealing several printed faces. “What’s all this Johnny?” Nami asks quietly, kneeling by the fallen swordsman to start gathering the sheets. 

“Huh?” Johnny says weakly, somewhat muffled by his bruised complexion. “Oh, just bounty posters.”

Nami fist tightens around one individual bounty poster and Kari gives her an odd look.
“Nami, are you—“

A cannon goes off.

Kari’s head turns on instinct, and immediately a spell is in her hand at the ready. Zoro likewise immediately draws his swords, kneeling into a striking posture. Luckily, their captain is ten steps ahead as they watch Luffy inflate like a balloon and ricochet the cannonball back—

Oh, oh nope. 

Yeah, that cannonball hits the restaurant.

Kari collapses alongside everyone else. Her fist weakly hits the deck as she sobs, “We were so close to food.”

“Do we trust Luffy to go and apologize and get us out of this scot free?” Nami asks worriedly.

“Who the hells is Scott Free?”

They all sat around the deck in varying spots, their captain having insisted on going in and making amends to the best of his abilities. The others had offered to come with, but as it were he had spouted some nonsense about needing to fulfill a captain’s duties or whatever. Unfortunately that meant he was taking his sweet time.

“You cannot be that stupid.” Nami whispers, staring at Kari like she questioned how the girl had made it this far in life successfully. 

“I’m getting bored.” Zoro moans, electing to ignore Kari sputtering in an attempt to defend her honor. 

“Ditto,” Usopp chimed in. Then, an idea comes to mind, “hey… what do you say about getting food here while we wait?”

“I’m not spending my berries on you guys.” Nami gripes, eyeing the others, “And I know you guys are dirt poor.”

“Excuse you!” Usopp gasps, looking overly offended. “I am financially adequate.”

Nami drawls, “I thought you were good at lying.”

“Hey!”

“Nami,” Kari interrupts after getting over her wounded ego she reaches under her hat to pull out a familiar coin pouch. Nami’s eyes practically turn to stars at the sight. “Three gold coins and you pay for our meal.”

“Deal.” Nami says, thrusting her hand out expectantly. Kari puts the three requested coins in her palm and rolls her eyes when Nami ogles the coins. 

Shoving her pouch back under her hat, Kari stands up, stretching out her back and tail. Usopp looks very confused by the exchange. “Wait, so we are getting food?”

“How many of those do you got anyways?” Zoro asks, completely ignoring Usopp’s question.

Kari taps her chin before smiling at the first mate, “Enough!”

Zoro rolls his eyes, but starts leading the group towards the restaurant.

Rolling inside, the group admires the impressively ornate interior. All nervously pull at their clothes and wonder if they are underdressed. Kari looks down at her poorly wrapped feet that served as a substitute for a lack of shoes. She hopes this wasn’t a no shoes no service kind of place. Ran into way too many of those back in the city.

“Hello,” A man at the front says, the guy looks burly for a waiter. He gives them a curious but cautious look as he asks, “Will you be dining with us today?”

“Yep!” Nami declares, the remaining reverie she’d experienced from the gold coins still lingering. 

The man hums, eyeing the small crew, “Just the four of you?”

“Maybe our captain too, so make it five.” Damn those coins must have rocked Nami’s mindset to be so inclusive. 

“Booth or table?” The man asks as he starts leading them into the restaurant.

Usopp looks seconds away from calling booth, but is promptly interrupted by Zoro’s answer of “table.” All three ogle Zoro because what sort of sick freak chooses table when booths are available?

A few seconds of walking and soon they’re sitting at a table and being given menus. Kari gives her own menu a scant look before putting it aside and taking up her water that was immediately poured for her. She did her best by ignoring the staring of the restaurant patrons.

Unfortunately, Usopp wasn’t as honed in on why they were staring as he gave anxious looks over his shoulders at the other patrons. “Gee, were these people never taught that it’s rude to stare?” Then his expression spasms as he looks back at the others and whispers, “Don’t tell us we already have a bounty on our heads.”

“Nah,” Zoro waved him off, “They’re just being annoying.”

“That doesn’t answer anything.” Usopp says dryly.

Running an anxious hand down her face, Kari puts on a forced smile and says, “I’m gonna go to the restroom.” She forces herself up from her seat, a notable scrape sounding. She gives a strained smile towards her crewmates and requests, “Order me whatever looks good.”

Before they can say a word, she is trouncing for the restrooms. 

Unfortunately, her goal of wandering off is not as successful as she’d been hoping as she fights the urge to bang her head against the wall with her inability to locate the damn lavatory. So, sucking up her pride, she approached the nearest non quaking waiter, a big beefy guy who was dressed in chef-wear and looked like he was not paid enough to be dealing with this, and asks pointedly, “Where’s the bathroom?”

The big guy stares at her, eyes the large sign right behind her with the huge screw off text: ‘BATHROOM’ and on top of that there is a massive arrow pointing to said restroom. 

He looks back down to the haggard tiefling, grunts, and points in the direction without another word.

Kari gives a tight but relieved smile. “Thank you.” Then spins on heel and marches for her destination.

A short amount of time later that wasn’t really short but was in fact long enough to draw concern, had Kari stepping out of the bathroom with a new confident grin. She marches back for the main room, scouring for her crew, and smiling when spotting them and their food already delivered. 

Marching confidently towards the table, Kari slid into her seat as if she had never even left and smiled at her crewmates, who swallowed their mouthfuls to greet her promptly.

“Bout time you showed back up,” Zoro says by way of greeting, drinking from a glass of some indeterminate alcohol he’s ordered. “We were about to sic Nami on you.”

“Everything good?” Nami asks, looking at Kari in earnest.

Kari waves off her concern, “I’m good, now then!” She rubs her hands together comically as she eyes the salad they’d ordered for her. “What’d you get me?”

“Well…” Usopp drawls, rubbing the back of his neck. “We weren’t really sure what to get you for a main entree. So we got you the salad to start and then the waiter will be back around to take your main dish order.”

Kari momentarily looks panicked, but hides it with a forkful of salad. Her expression melts as she stares at the salad in awe, “That has no right to be that good. It’s a salad.”

Her companions snort and roll their eyes, finishing their own dishes while Kari starts hers. 

Though it wasn’t long later when their very own captain came stepping out from the back with an apron over his waist. All four of them perked up and were quick to wave him over.

“Hey errand-boy!” Nami greets with a grin.

“Heard you have to work here for a year.” Usopp teased.

“Yeah! We— wait, when did we hear that?” Kari leaned over to Usopp in confusion.

Usopp leaned back, “We asked the waiter about it while you were in the bathroom.”

Kari nods along and sticks another bundle of salad in her mouth. Luffy starts going off about the unfairness of the world and how they could eat while he slaves away in the kitchen — a comment that earns snorts from all of them. This results in Zoro’s teasing and eventually forcing Luffy to drink the water he’d laced with a booger. The table is howling by that point. Kari curled up and pressing her hands to her face to muffle her obnoxious laughter.

Then, a sweet sing-song voice swoons, “Oh blessed is the Maiden for bringing me as kind a gift as you this fine day!” 

All heads twist to find a finely dressed man, swooning with near hearts in his eyes — well at least one eye as the other was covered by his blond hair. He is gesturing towards Nami frantically, practically falling over himself as he continues to wax poetic, “Oh love! Laugh if you will at my poor self who cannot endure his torturous passion.”

He goes to one knee at Nami’s side, who frankly looks the least bit interested, and clutches his heart as if he were suffering a cardiac arrest, “As long as I can be with you, I’m prepared to walk across any path, be it the paths of a pirate or a devil! But alas!” He drapes a hand over his forehead most dramatically, “‘Tis a tragedy that an obstacle stands between us two!”

A very brief silence follows.

“What the hells just happened?” Kari whispers to Usopp.

“I think he’s flirting with Nami.” Usopp whispers back.

Kari hums. Good for her, good for her.

“By obstacle… do you mean me, Sanji?”

All heads swiveled around to see a man who could only be the head chef. And, well, damn if he didn’t cut an imposing figure with his chef’s hat scraping the ceiling. 

The waiter, Sanji, swears and glares at the unexpected addition. 

Without missing a beat, the old chef pushes away from the wall he’d been watching the whole show from, he looks genuinely encouraging, but his words suggest otherwise, “It’s a good chance. Just go and be a pirate. I don’t need a guy like you in my restaurant.”

“I’m the sous chef, you damn geezer.” The blond hisses, the cigarette hanging from his lips clenched tight between his teeth, “The hell do you mean you don’t need a guy like me?”

Well there goes any semblance of chivalry Sanji had been cultivating

“You’re too much trouble with the guests.” The head chef starts listing the poor boy’s flaws out on his fingers, “You flirt with every woman who dines here, I still haven’t had a single meal that hasn’t tasted like shit that you’ve made, and the cooks don’t even want you here?” He folds his arms across his chest, lips twisting in delight when watching Sanji squirm. “Just unnecessary baggage.”

Kari’s eyes dart back and forth between the bantering pair. She lifts a forkful of salad to her mouth, pretends she definitely didn’t miss said mouth twice, and quietly chews as she can’t help but soak up the second hand drama. 

“So that’s what you had to say to me all along, you old geezer?!” Sanji spits, charging for the man with quick measured steps. “All that other shit doesn’t matter, but never insult my cooking! And no matter what you say, I’m staying here, got it?”

He’s reaching out to grab the man’s coat, but the older man is faster. He twists around and grabs Sanji’s lapels, throws the boy over his shoulder, and body slams him into their table. It’s only due to quick instinct that they lift their food and save their meals. Kari is openly gaping by then and goes to make a comment but ends up briefly choking on her half chewed mouthful. Her pathetic choking is only saved by Zoro slapping her back hard enough that it unclogs the chunk of lettuce.

By the time Kari is thankfully breathing again, Sanji rights himself, and yells, “You can try to chase me out all you want! But I’ll continue to be a cook here, got it?!” He slouches back and mutters, “Until you die, at the very least.”

“I ain’t dying anytime soon.” The head chef grumbles from where he’s shuffling away, a tap, stomp, tap, stomp accompanying him. And it’s about then that Kari realizes the man had a peg leg where his right should be. “I’ll live for another 100 years at this rate.”

“Eat shit old man!” Sanji spits, but the man is already gone.

Luffy, in an art that they all can only describe as knowing the worst moment to try and break the tension, grins down at Sanji, “Awesome he gave you permission. Now you can be part of my-”

“Shut up!” Sanji barks at Luffy, only then realizing that the group's table was effectively wrecked.

Standing, Sanji dusts himself off quickly, spinning around to pick up the table as if it weren’t just in the middle of a restaurant spat. After righting the table, the others gather back around and take their respective places, setting down their food and drinks. Kari quietly starts eating her salad again — also being mindful to swallow before speaking now. 

Sanji briefly makes himself scarce before reappearing, bearing a glass filled with different fruits and a bottle of alcohol. “Forgive me for that ruckus just now. As an apology, please enjoy this fruit macedonia, and this glass of grand marnier.” He sets the gift in front of Nami and starts filling her wine glass. 

Nami’s eyes sparkle, “Oh thank you so much!” She gives a cheeky smile at the man that tells her companions that she was bleeding the interaction for all it was worth, “You’re so nice.”  

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sanji waves off, acting as if he weren’t swooning before.

“Hey!” Usopp interrupts, looking insulted, “What about us? This is gender discrimination!!!” Through his tirade, Usopp appears to recognize a flaw in Sanji’s focus, “And what is this blatant favoritism? What about Kari?” He thrusts a hand to Kari who looks alarmed at being dragged into the spotlight.

Sanji turns on Usopp quickly, grinding, “I told you already that your tea is on the way as an apology. And for—” Sanji’s words stop on his tongue as he turns to properly see Kari. His eyes go wide and the cigarette nearly falls out of his mouth the longer he stares.

Kari just sort of shrinks in on herself, still quietly stabbing at her salad. It seemed at the silence, the others were growing tense too, staring at Sanji with defensive looks. Ready to jump to the second mate’s aid. Even Luffy, who’d been attempting to sneak a bite from Nami’s treat, pauses to stare at the cook.

Though, the imagined reaction was in no way what any of them expected. 

A hand slapped over Sanji’s chest as his expression wilts in horror, apologizing, “My dear I am so terribly sorry I hadn’t seen you sooner!” He rounds the table quickly to kneel at Kari’s side, hand held at his chest in earnest plead, “I beg for your forgiveness!”

The oddest part was the fact he was being honest. Kari, alarmed at the turn, sputters, “Uh, I mean, yeah? You’re forgiven. I didn’t really hold it against you to begin with.”

Again, Sanji swoons, “Oh darling you bless me with such kindness that I am so undeserving of!” Kari’s expression goes awkward at the comment, Nami being the first to note the reaction, but the others lower their guards, now just amused at the blond’s reaction. Sanji takes up one of her hands, making Kari blink in alarm, and he leans closer, “What can I give you to make up for this misdemeanor of mine?”

“Uh…” Kari drawls very slowly, like her mind is processing the question. She doesn’t yet draw her hand away, seeming to be too stuck in her head to do so. Eventually though, she gives a stilted smile and answers, “I haven’t ordered anything for my entree yet? Maybe you can give me a recommendation?”

Her words entrance him as he spins into a stand, finally dropping her hand. He flourishes both a pad of paper and pen from seemingly nowhere, leaning forward to eagerly grin at her, “I’d be honored, darling. Any allergies? Preferences?”

“No red meat. Or chicken. Please.” Kari says on instinct. Sanji doesn’t even question it, writing down the note and again looking at her expectantly, “And uh… I mean,” She scratches the back of her neck as she squints at the ceiling, like she is searching for a thought that’s just barely out of reach, “Could you… uh…”

The table stares at her, expectant.

It seems the thought finally clicks as Kari perks up and smiles at the cook, “Can you cook it yourself?” The man blinks at the request in surprise, that swooning nature brushed to the side momentarily to stare at Kari. The silence lingers a couple beats too long though, as the idea now seems to process to Kari. She nervously slouches in on herself, smile turning a little more awkward as she starts to backtrack, “I, uh, you said you’re a chef right? Sous chef? Figured um…”

“I’d love to cook a dish for you.” 

Kari smiles in relief, immediately coming back to her usual self. “Okay.”

Sanji taps the pad of paper a few times in thought, before asking, “Fish alright?” Kari nods. Sanji finishes tapping and jots something down quickly. “I have something in mind then. It’ll be out before you know it, darling.”

Finally, Kari’s expression goes a little funny at the last word and her crew is on that like a hawk. Though she brushes aside her reaction in favor of smoothing out her expression into a gentle and friendly (as friendly as Kari could get it at least) smile, “Thank you.”

“Anything for someone as lovely as yourself.” Sanji sings.

Kari’s smile turns a bit awkward again and she quickly looks back to her salad.

As Sanji leaves, dragging a defeated Luffy with him, Usopp calls, “Hey! You haven’t even cleared my plates!”

“Finish it first!” Sanji calls over his shoulder, sauntering into the kitchen. 

Usopp throws up his arms in defeat.

“I’ll eat your mushrooms, Usopp.” Kari offers, already leaning over her salad to stab at Usopp’s remaining mushrooms. 

The poor boy slouches into his seat, miserably murmuring, “Thank you, Kari.”

Kari just hums past her mouthful of mushrooms.

It’s a total of 7 seconds before Zoro is leaning across the table and grinning menacingly at Kari. The poor warlock just narrows her eyes at him, slowing her chewing. Zoro points at her with that wicked grin and asks, “What was that?”

Well that certainly wasn’t what she was expecting. 

Kari intelligently asks, “Huh?”

Rolling his eyes, Zoro rolls his wrist in a vague gesture, “You with the flirt, what was that?”

Kari stares at him dumbly. “I’m not following.”

“You were acting weird with the guy near the end there.” Nami points out, seemingly following Zoro’s line of thought. Whatever thought that was exactly, “And you requested that he make your dish.” She braces one hand on the table to lean closer, “So what’s with that?”

Spluttering, Kari stares at her crewmates in bewilderment, “Me asking him to cook my dish?”

“It was pretty odd.” Usopp rubs at his chin thoughtfully, his own growing mischievous grin gradually getting larger and larger, “Matter of fact, it almost seemed like you were flirting back.”

Any and all semblance of sanity Kari had ground to an immediate halt. She chokes on her mouthful of salad again, but is saved from Zoro rescuing her once more by instead pounding her chest to unclog her windpipe in a most attractive manner. She wheezes and braces her hands on the table, staring at the others in horror, “He was flirting?!”

Usopp’s confident smile immediately vanishes and is replaced with sheer bafflement, “Wha— how did you not pick up on that?!”

“When was he flirting with me?!” Kari whispers in horror.

All occupants stare at her like she’s an idiot. Heck, even a couple of nearby patrons were giving her pitying looks. Which was doing nothing for her confidence right now.

“Are you being serious right now?” Nami asks bluntly.

“When?” Kari whispers, looking beyond embarrassed.

All three of her friends stare at her like she’s an idiot, Zoro seems to be fighting the urge to break into manic cackles. 

Usopp lays a gentle hand on her shoulder, almost in an effort to brace her. 

“The whole damn time.”

Kari groans and hides her face in her hands, muffling her humiliation.

“Girl,” Nami starts, leaning forward and bracing her arms on the table, “how did you not notice?”

“I thought he was being nice!” Kari answers, throwing her arms out and gesturing frantically. “He seemed genuine! How was I supposed to know he had ulterior motives?!”

“Oh I don’t know… context clues?” Zoro drawls, his expression spasming for a minute. “How the hell are you unable to wrap your head around this— no wait, better yet: Why were you flirting back if you didn’t realize it?”

Kari slouches into her seat looking horrified at the prospect of flirting. She tangles her hands into her hair and stares down at the table, reevaluating their whole conversation, “Divine, did it really come off as flirting?”

“I mean,” Nami starts, “asking for his own cooking kinda felt on the nose with that.”

“And you were smiling weirdly at him near the end after he kept saying nice things to you.” Usopp points out.

Kari slams her head onto the table, narrowly missing her remaining salad, and just wallows. 

“What were you trying to make it come off as? Zoro, quit it.” Nami punches Zoro’s shoulder when the man starts cackling at Kari’s misery.

Ignoring the first mate taking joy in her embarrassment, Kari rolls her head to the side to stare at Nami with horrified eyes. She gestured in an effort to support her thoughts, “I just wanted to be polite! The old guy insulted his cooking and it was clear that it irked him so I thought that if I offered to eat something he made he might feel better!”

Zoro laughter hitched up a notch at that as he clutched at his stomach and struggled to not fall to the floor.

Nami’s expression went through a dance that balanced between the temptation to lose it like Zoro or pity Kari. She elected on a weird inbetween where her expression said joy but her tone expressed sympathy, “Your heart was in the right place but that guy is not gonna interpret it that way.”

“What about you getting weird at the end? Also with you being weird with his darlings and dears.” Usopp asks.

At the mention, Kari’s face screws up awkwardly again. And now that the look is aimed at them, all three note that the expression is distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m not the biggest fan of being called darling and dear. Feels… I don’t know. Just not good. And well…” Kari slouches further into the table she is draped across and it is by then that the three others note her red-tinged skin was ever so slightly redder than normal. “I was sort of confused?”

“Confused at being called lovely?” Usopp asks very… very slowly.

Kari shrugs helplessly.

Usopp joins in on Zoro’s laughter, taking joy in the poor tiefling’s misery.

“Food’s up!” 

Kari goes rim rod straight and that makes both Zoro and Usopp devolve into a new round of laughter. Nami is doing a bang up job of keeping it in, bracing herself with a fist over her mouth. Though any semblance of poise was promptly lost when Kari swings her head around to Sanji — holding a plate of fresh tuna — and shouts, “I DIDN’T MEAN IT THAT WAY!”

Any chance of Nami saving face is lost as she starts cackling in earnest.

Sanji looks very lost in the scene before him as he slowly places the plate of tuna in front of Kari. “Uh… sorry?”

“I didn’t— I mean— augh!” Throwing propriety out the window, Kari stabs at one of the slices of tuna and plops it into her mouth to silence herself. Any semblance of embarrassment vanishes at the flavor that immediately greets her palette. Stars come to her eyes as she eventually swallows and turns to Sanji in amazement, “What the hells was that chef talking about, this is amazing!” 

A quick grimace comes to Sanji’s face at the mention of the prior spat, though smooths out into something more touched when realizing the compliment was very genuine. “Thank you, I’m glad you like it.” He starts pointing towards the plate’s contents, and Kari follows his gestures readily, “I opted for a tuna sashimi with a yuzu kosho garnish, I find the sauce helps to elevate the taste.”

“No kidding!” Kari grins, stabbing another slab to chew on. She notes the others staring at her in interest, and she quickly shields her plate with an arm, “absolutely not! I ain’t sharing, you were bullying me barely a minute ago!”

“Sharing is caring~” Nami sings, making grabby hands for the plate, yelping when Kari slaps her hands away with a withering glare. She rubs at the back of her hand with a frown.

“Ah, I can make you your own plate if you’d like, love.” Sanji swoons towards Nami.

Unfortunately the mood was ruined as she flaps her hand at him dismissively, “Nah, don’t bother… but,” her eyes spark with an idea as he turns on Sanji and flutters her eyes. “I wouldn’t say no if a certain handsome chef were to help cover our meal for today.”

Sanji practically collapses onto the table, “It’ll be free of charge for you, ma’am!” 

Nami grins like a cat that’s got the cream, “Thank you so much!”

“And I thought you were a witch.” Zoro hums at Kari.

“I’m a warlock, dammit!”

Chapter Text

As it turned out, they visited the Baratie every chance they got for a free meal — a magic trick that Kari couldn’t even hope to replicate — with the aid of Nami. Given their captain’s affinity with them, he escaped his chores as often as he could, and Sanji would always come marching after him only to get roped into their nonsense. 

Speaking of the young chef, his apparent flirtations never ceased to come; and worse yet, Kari could not seem to pick up on them for the life of her.

Her ribs were beginning to bruise from the amount of times her crewmates had elbowed her to clue her in that the chef’s intentions were attempting to be a little more than friendly. One particular time had Usopp pulling her tail to signal that hey, the conversation was not in fact without infatuation.

Yet there were small moments.

Moments where Kari could see beneath the flirtatious exterior and see something soft, something inherently kind. The way he would saunter up to tables where there was an obviously uncomfortable woman and make her partner look like a fool, earning laughter and thankful looks. The time he saved a stowaway rat from one of the chef’s wrath and gave it a small plate of cheese because no one ought to go hungry. His careful craft of meals, seeing it almost as an artform to be respected.

The small moments that made the flirtations, the infatuations, a little more tolerable.

But tolerability did not come with comfortability. 

Every time that a darling or dear snuck out made something in her squirm. Her crewmates thought it cute. And they weren’t entirely wrong. Kari supposed in a sort of cosmic sense her embarrassment might be seen as something sweet. But there was always an inherent wrongness to the feeling.

Something akin to worshipful that made every hair on her skin rise.

On the second day of the tolerated swooning, Kari discovered something.  

Something that made the swooning and flirtations pause.

They sat around tonight, quietly conversing beneath the stars. They’d elected to have dinner on the deck of the Merry, seeing as how the heavens above them gave a pretty overhang to the mood. Luffy had insisted on the change of scenery and his crew suspected this was due to him being desperate to get out of the kitchen. Sanji, their resident tagalong, had been roped into coming with. Go figure.

This was also due to Luffy wanting food and knowing that Sanji had grown more fond of their little entourage than he’d ever admit. 

So here they sat tonight beneath the heavenly blanket, a few small oil lamps around them, and laughing to their hearts’ fullest content. 

Kari, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Usopp on the stairs, quietly snorts at Sanji and Zoro’s most recent bout of shouting. Something regarding morals and “everyone is free game” mindsets. 

Her cheese platter that Sanji had handed her with a wink is halfway finished and is steadily getting closer to being gone by Usopp’s occasional snatch.

Then comes mention of the map.

The map to the entrance of the Grand Line is mentioned via Luffy, who eagerly waves it around — who knows where he pulled the thing from — until Nami snatches it out of his grubby hands to be sure that he wouldn’t rip the damn thing.

Carefully flattening out the new wrinkles, Nami explains that yes, they were headed to the Grand Line. Sanji looks bewildered by their apparent plan.

“So… what’re you going to do after you enter the Grand Line?” Sanji carefully asks.

This spawns an immediate explanation from Luffy that he was going to be King of the Pirates — they believe this is the third time he’s mentioned this to Sanji — and that they would adventure to their heart’s content.

This goes on for a little while with the occasional mention of dreams that Sanji seems fascinated by, if a little guarded. Everyone gets through some butchered mention or explanation of their life goals — Kari’s shrugged mention of adventuring earns her a boo from Zoro that Sanji kicks him for (that earns him some more positivity on Kari’s end) — until it gets to Nami quietly mentioning wanting to make a map of the world that seemed to be news to everyone. 

Everyone nods along, respecting the dream, and Kari can’t help but comment, “That’s gonna be tough near the edges.”

At first, it seemed like the comment was going to be brushed off as funny commentary from their resident warlock, but apparently Usopp had caught the actual caution behind it.

“Sorry, edges?” Usopp asks, brows furrowing as he looks at Kari in confusion. The others by then looked over to give full attention to whatever was being discussed.

Kari blinks because, well, wasn’t it obvious?

“You know,” Kari makes a lame gesture to the air as if to showcase her thoughts, “the edges.”

“Kari, what are you talking about?” Nami asks incredibly slowly.

By this point, Kari was becoming just as confused as they were. “Where the material plane stops.”

“Material plane?” Sanji asks, apparently just as baffled as the others felt.

Right right, no magic-y terms.

“Our, uh, reality.” Kari says, pausing when they continued to just stare at her. She stared back just as baffled. “Like the edge of our plane of existence. Where that stops and meets void.”

They continue to stare at the warlock like they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

Then, very very slowly, Nami asks, “Kari do you think the world just… stops at an edge and you could fall over it?”

Ah, so she did know. 

Kari grins and points at Nami as if to say ding ding ding! You got it in one! “Yeah that!”

It seemed her enthusiasm was not shared by the crew.

“You think the world is flat?” Zoro asks.

Well, her confidence was sure fading back into confusion seeing that they weren’t sharing her enthusiasm. “Uh, yeah? Why wouldn’t it be?”

They stared at her and now Kari was staring back equally as baffled as to why they weren’t wrapping their heads around this. 

“Flat.” Usopp says, his tone that of a man coming to terms with something incredibly off-putting. “You think the world is flat.”

“Correction,” Kari says smartly, “I know the world is flat.”

“And you think it just, what? Ends and you’d fall off the edge?” Nami asks.

“Well, yeah.” Kari says, scratching behind her ear with a pinched expression, “I don’t understand why this is a difficult concept to wrap your heads around. It’s basic geography.”

“Geogr-” Nami has to stop herself and take a deep breath from her apparent outburst she was fixing to have which made no sense because why would she be upset?

Luffy, silent through this whole conversation till now, picks his nose and states, “I didn’t know the world was flat!”

“Because it’s not.” Zoro says quickly, banishing the idea from his captain’s head.

Well, now Kari was just offended. “Don’t lie to him, Zoro.” While Zoro wears a look that can be discerned as stupified at Kari’s audacity, Kari opts to turn to Luffy and explain, “He’s pulling your leg cap, it’s definitely flat.”

“No it’s not!” Nami shouts, interrupting Kari’s attempts at persuading Luffy of otherwise. She leans forward and says, “Kari, you cannot tell me you think the world’s flat.”

“Well I am.” Kari says petulantly, suddenly feeling very ganged up on by her fellow crewmates. 

Though she notes one voice is distinctly lacking. 

Her eyes turn to Sanji, finding the man staring her with, for lack of a better word, dubiousness. She throws a hand towards the chef insistently, “You know I’m right, don’t you Sanji?”

Did she know that Sanji would fold to a majority of any woman who so much as gave him the time of day? Yeah.

Did she acknowledge she was doing this for the simple reason of wanting someone to take her side? Oh definitely.

Did she care that she played dirty? 

Absolutely not.

Yet in what could only be described as Divine Intervention, Sanji did not in fact immediately cave to Kari. Instead, his eyes lingered on her in this silent battle of morals and knowledge. His eyes stare at her with this mixture of fascination and horror that does not often get aimed her way by the chef. In fact, it was the first time where his eyes lacked a certain swoon to them. 

And Kari found the look incredibly human, and felt it was the first time his true self was aimed her way.

Then he turns his head slowly, eyes still lingering on Kari as he speaks to Luffy.

“That’s your second mate?”

Even a deaf man could hear the judgment.

“Hey!” Kari barks, ignoring Usopp’s cackling beside her at the resident women-enjoyer questioning his enjoyment.

“What Kari lacks in brains she makes up for with brains, but in italics.” Luffy states.

“What the hells does that even mean?” Kari whispers, pulling at her hat to cover her eyes to not see her cackling crewmates.

“It means you leave the book smart thinking to us,” Nami said blandly, “And we’ll leave the magic stuff to you.”

“But the world is flat.” Kari mutters miserably, to which Usopp snorts and rubs at her back sympathetically.

“No it isn’t.” He says none too kindly.

“Kari,” Sanji starts, and it’s the first time he’s said her name without a darling or dear attached. It gets her to raise her head and give him proper attention. The look he gives her is positively pitiful, “you’re wrong.”

It’s so incredibly dry that it makes a whole new batch of cackling take place, much to Kari’s embarrassment.

But now after, Sanji stared at her with a little more incredulity in place of awe. The rest of the night filled with chatter that occasionally results in someone poking  fun at Kari’s bruised ego. It’s when Sanji did so once that Kari knew that she liked this version of Sanji a lot more than the one prior. The one that treated her as a person rather than an idol in need of worship.

He slipped back into his previous person by the end of the night, departing with fluttering swoons, but now Kari knew. 

It made it just that much more tolerable.

The third day of their stay rolled around with surprising gusto. Kari had elected for a nap after a filling lunch and was quite happy to snooze away till told otherwise. Unfortunately that came a little too soon.

“Oi,” A light kick to her side, resulting in a snort and her blearily pulling her hat off her face. 

“Wassit?” Kari mumbles, covering a yawn as she gradually comes to her senses. Zoro wasn’t as kind to her gradual waking as he gave her another firmer kick. “Ow! Gah, this is mean even for you. What?”

“Trouble.” Is Zoro’s answer. 

Peering up to stare at the swordsman in bewilderment, Kari is momentarily pulled away by acknowledging the massive ship currently docked beside them. Kari scrambles upright in alarm.

“Oh sweet Divine, who the hells are they?” Kari grabs at her hat and stares at the ship with disbelief. She spots a few of the lurking crew on their deck, peeking over the edge and looking down at the surrounding ships. 

Usopp, who’d been cowering under the sheer size of the ship, sputters, “Nobody good!”

“Don Krieg Pirates.” Zoro answers, ignoring Usopp’s terrified scrambling. He even elects to ignore his two companions begging them to turn tail and sail away.

Kari’s lips twist down as she glares at the ship, “Seems like she’s seen better days.” 

Quickly, Kari spares a glance around the boat, taking stock of their crew. She paused when one crucial figure wasn’t present. “Where’s Luffy?”

“On shift.” Zoro grouched. He came to lightly lay his hand on his swords, cautious.

Lips pulling into a deeper frown, Kari lets go of her hat, taking a more confident stance beside the first mate. “Well…” Kari sighed, rolling her head to Zoro with a crooked grin, “About time something happened.”

“You’re telling me.” Zoro agreed. He quickly turned back to Usopp. “C’mon, we’re gonna go find Luffy.”

Usopp flounders. “Why me?! Aren’t the first and second mate enough?!” He tugs at his overalls but slowly follows after them sliding down to the dock.

“You wanna be a brave warrior of the sea don’t you?” Zoro quips, and Usopp immediately puffs up his chest before deflating in quick succession. 

“Maybe that can start later?” Usopp suggested weakly as he dropped down to the deck on shaky legs. 

Likely sensing that Usopp was going to bolt, Kari slides up beside him and hooks her arm around his, pulling him into her side. The poor boy looks like he’s internally dying inside as Kari grins at him, “No time like the present! It’ll be fun!” She starts dragging Usopp as she keeps up with Zoro.

“Something tells me we have two very different definitions of fun.” Usopp squeaks as a last ditch effort of retreat.

Yet it was too late, as Zoro pushes into the restaurant, Kari trailing behind him with a miserable Usopp. They catch the tail end of conversation and slip in right before they can garner too much attention. 

The restaurant was, little to say, in a state of disarray. Tables were overturned, patrons had long since retreated, and a large group of chefs were crowding near the back of the dining space, the apparent threat standing near the doors they’d slipped through.

“Uh,” Kari leaned over to Zoro as they all stared at the shouting match taking place. “Did we come in at a bad time?”

Zoro winced, “Maybe.”

“Which would mean now would be a great time to turn around and go back to the ship. These guys seem like they have it covered-”

“No.” Kari and Zoro speak in tandem. Usopp looks like he is internally dying.

The trio awkwardly shuffle to a table, and it’s an honest miracle that no one notices their entrance. It’s also a testament to this massive asshole’s ability to hold a room’s attention. Which Kari has to admit is pretty impressive.

Usopp slaps her hand when she’d been reaching forward to snatch some of the left out bread. “Kari no.”

“Kari yes.” Kari insists as she reaches forward to stuff a loaf of bread into her mouth before either man could stop her. So what? She was hungry and if they were fixing to fight she needed all the energy she could get. 

(She also stuffed a few extra loaves into her hat for later but that was between her and the Divine now)

But of course, right as she is stuffing her face full of bread, attention is immediately drawn to them.

“Oh, hey Zoro, Usopp, Kari.” Luffy greets, because their captain had gotten involved at some point while Kari was busy enjoying the existence of bread. A few chefs spare hazardous looks at Kari, who fights to swallow down her mouthful of loaf.

“Need a hand?” Zoro asks, lifting the sword laid at the ready on his shoulder.

Luffy’s expression scrunches in contemplation before smoothing out, “Nah, I’m good.” He points at Kari, “Save some of those for me, though.”

Kari takes off her hat and just pours the remaining loaves into it. She ignores the boggling chefs and just slaps her hat back onto her head with a thumbs up. Usopp has his head in his hands and sounds like he’s murmuring a plea for someone to end his nightmare.

Their captain, now assured that he’d have a few loaves with his name on them in the future, grins brightly. Though his renewed vigor is unfortunately brushed aside when the intruding asshole starts cackling. Their attention is immediately drawn to the guy as he starts spouting off insults. 

“ Those are your crewmates?” The guy cackles, “A rather small bunch, don’t you think?!”

That irks something in Luffy as he puffs up his chest and shouts, “Hey!” He raises two fingers, “I got two others too!”

“He just counted me in, didn’t he?”

Kari turns her head and perks up at the sight of the blond chef they’d apparently missed upon grabbing a table. “Oh hey!”

Sanji’s smile turns a little loose at the edges as he swoons, “Apologies I couldn’t greet you sooner, dear! Was a little side tracked with this all.” He tapers off near the end as he makes a broad gesture towards the asshole.

Kari nods sympathetically, also a little disappointed that the night prior seemed to have vanished and Sanji was back to his usual swoons. “You’re good, not your fault you happened to have an asshole walk in today.”

“Happens more often than you’d think.” Sanji grouches.

“Hey!” Said asshole shouts, earning both Sanji and Kari’s attention. “Don’t ignore me! Did you even hear what I said?!”

“Don’t give a shit.”

“Nah.” Kari pauses, face scrunching up as she leans over to Zoro and whispers loud enough to where it is in fact not a whisper at all, “Who’s this guy again?”

“Captain Dog Krieg.” Zoro answers, ignoring the way the guy is throwing a tantrum.

“It’s Don Krieg you— augh! Enough!” Don Krieg shouts, startling the chefs and making first and second mate roll their attention boredly towards him. The man is twitching, like all the anger boiling inside him with this limited interaction is about to spill over. “If any of you still feel like dying even after I warned you, then so be it!” He grabs one of the large sacks that had been piled near him. “I’ll bury you at the bottom of the sea for eternity!”

Then with a flourish of his cape — a sight that drew a snort from Kari — he was leaving.

Silence reigns as they hear the retreating footsteps of the large foreboding pirate. Then, when the silence had reigned long enough, Kari spoke up for all of them.

“Man, that guy was an asshole.”

“ Kari!” Usopp shouts, latching onto her arm and shaking it frantically, “He could still hear you!”

“Doubt.”

Zoro nods in agreement. “Doubt.”

Usopp slumps against the table in defeat.

Sanji saunters off to converse with the other chefs — likely making a plan of attack — when Luffy immediately bounds up to them, eyes sparkling. He jumps onto the table and starts frantically throwing his arms around, “So what do you think about him, pretty good right?”

It takes a second for them to realize he’s talking about Sanji.

“Sorry, cap,” Kari smiles sympathetically, “If he gave a beatdown I think we came in right after.”

Luffy slumps in on himself with a whine, “Man…”

“We believe you though.” Kari soothes.

“If I see it then I’ll believe it.” Zoro says, folding his arms across his chest.

“Who cares!” Usopp shouts, almost falling out of his seat in fighting his instinct to bolt. “If we don’t get out soon—”

“Calm down.” Zoro waves him off, “Our enemies are wounded pirates.”

“Oh, yeah…” Luffy turns his head to a small figure crouches on the floor that they’d overlooked on their entrance. “Gin!”

The figure lifted his head.

“You said you didn’t know anything about the Grand Line. But didn’t you guys go there?” Luffy tilts his head curiously.

The man visually hesitates, but it isn’t due to keeping information. He looks frightened. “What I don’t know is the truth… I just can’t believe it…”

“I just don’t know if those 7 days we spent in the Grand Line were real or just a nightmare. I’m still wrestling with it in my mind… H-He just… appeared.” The man reaches up and pulls at his hair. “To think a single man destroyed 50 ships…”

The restaurant burst into outrage, screaming and demanding him to take it back. But the man kept shaking his head, looking haggard at his admission. He kept going on and on about the destruction caused to his fleet, the lives lost in an onslaught they were so unprepared for that they may as well have been children by comparison to their attacker. 

Zoro sharply sits up as the man mentions their hawk-eyed attacker.

Kari spares a quick sharp look at Zoro, tail twisting behind her at the quick move he’d made. “You good?”

The swordsman doesn’t answer, just leaning over to brace himself on the table.

Unfortunately, Kari doesn’t back down, leaning closer and letting her voice dip to something softer, “Zoro?”

“He’s the man I’m searching for.” Zoro says, dismissing Kari’s prodding. His eyes hardened. “According to what Johnny said at least.”

Kari’s brows furrow, trying to recall when they’d had that discussion. Kari goes to speak but is interrupted by Gin shouting, “That’s bullshit!” He’s staring at both Sanji and the head chef — Zeff, as Sanji had explained to them at one meal — as if they are a couple screws loose. “You mean to tell me he destroyed our entire fleet for that?”

“I wasn’t listening, what’d he attack them for?” Kari asks, leaning over to Usopp.

“Interupting his nap.”

“Ah, his na— his nap?”

Zeff snorts and strokes at his braided mustache, “No need to get so irritated, it was just an example. That’s just the kind of place the Grand Line is.”

Now that got attention.

“Old guy’s been to the Grand Line?” Zoro asks.

Luffy lights up and twists to nod at them, pulling his legs up onto the table. “Yeah! He used to be one of the pirates there! He stayed there for a year.” Then he looked absolutely enthused, rocking back and forth while holding his ankles, “I can’t wait till we get there!”

“Could you at least try and think of the danger?” Usopp hisses.

“Seems like my goal is tied with the Grand Line.” Zoro muses, leaning back in his chair and kicking up his feet. “Considering that ‘that man’ is there as well.”

“Go figure, huh?” Kari muses, wondering what other psychopaths they might be encountering down the road. 

“...you’re a bunch of idiots if you’re so eager to run to your deaths.” Sanji takes a  drag on his smoke before his body stutters and he quickly backtracks, “Except dear Kari and Nami of course! I’m sure you have good reasons to go!”

Kari snorts, “Nah it’s pretty dumb.” Kari kicks up her own feet on the table, hands behind her head with a smug grin. “I pride myself on my audacity.”

“Get yer damn feet off my table.” Zeff grouches.

Kari’s smugness slides away as she rolls her eyes but does as asked.

Zoro decidedly doesn’t remove his feet. “Don’t call me an idiot.” Sanji gives him a scathing look, but Zoro plows on. “Ever since I decided to become the world’s greatest swordsman, I threw away my attachment to life.” Kari gives him an alarmed look. “The only one who has the right to call me an idiot is me alone.”

“Uh, and me too!” Kari blurts, “I’ll say it right now, you’re an idiot.”

Zoro glares at her, “You saying I can’t achieve my dream?”

“Uh, no, smartass. I’m saying you’re an idiot for not giving more value to your life because how can you achieve your dream if you’re dead?” Kari grouches. Zoro opens his mouth like he wants to argue, but pauses.

“No risk no reward.”

“Oh heard.” Kari said, expression schooling. “Then yeah go ahead.”

“Oh! Me too!” Luffy shouted, raising his hand in excitement.

Zoro and Kari give him an odd look before realizing he meant more in regard to the risk reward comment. Usopp nods along spouting a lie about being a real man and he always believed with that mindset. Zoro rolled his eyes.

“Do you have a death wish?” Sanji asks, baffled. 

“Nah,” Kari scratched at the side of her face, “just got nothing better to do.”

Everyone else nods along seriously.

Sanji has an expression like he was regretting getting attached to these freaks.

Then, Kari’s head tilts to the side, expression pinching. Zoro catches the gesture and stares at her, slowly laying a hand on his swords. 

One of the chefs started screaming about the danger they were in and Kari’s face screwed up, “Hey.”

The guy kept yelling, and a few more chefs started joining in on the commotion. 

Kari started frowning. “Hey!”

The noise kept growing.

A familiar haze came to her tongue as she whispered a muttered spell, and then shouted, her voice three-times the volume it normally was as it echoed and boomed across the dining room. “LISTEN!”

Her shout does the trick as all the chefs falter in alarm at the otherworldly voice. The fuzz of thaumaturgy fades after her shout, and she rolls her shoulders back once knowing she had their attention. Her eyes dart to the head chef, “Are all the customers gone?”

“Besides you idiots, yes.” The man grunts, his expression furrowing in wonder as he watches Kari’s lips twitch further down into a frown. “...Why?”

Kari points at the porthole window she’d been peering through. All heads turned to look at the porthole. “...Why the hells is there a dinghy out there?”

Before a word could be said, the Baratie is rocked by a tremendous force. 

Everyone yells and struggles to right themselves as they try to find the source of such tremendous power. Chefs with overly large utensils — Kari would process that later — charged outside, going to try and get a view at what caused them such tremors. Only to falter and gape at the sight they see outside the doors.

“D-Don Krieg’s ship!” One chef cries. “It’s been sliced clean in two!”

The restaurant erupts into pandemonium. Kari is standing and struggling to gain her bearings, going to grab onto Usopp so the two of them can stay upright. Though with the growing commotion, Zoro’s eyes widen in realization as he turns to Luffy and yells, “Our ship was out there too! With Nami, Yosaku, and Johnny still inside!”

“It might be too late already!” Usopp cried, pushing out of Kari’s grip to start charging out the door alongside the others. 

All four of them start for the Going-Merry, expression panicking when seeing the lack of their ship’s presence.

“Where the hells is the Merry?!” Kari cries, slamming into the railing and gripping onto it for dear life as she looks around desperately.

“Bro!” A voice cries, and all four of their attention drop down, spotting both Yosaku and Johnny swimming through the hurling waves towards the Baratie. “Brother Zoro!”

“Yosaku! Johnny! You alright?!” Zoro cries, “The ship! Where’s our ship?! What happened to Nami?!”

Usopp and Luffy help to haul up the two soaked men. Kari is still frantically looking over the horizon in some hopes of finding a sign of the Going-Merry.

“W-We’re sorry!” Johnny cries.

“S-Sister Nami, she- she took all of the treasure and sailed away!”

Four heads swivelled around.

“SHE WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

Let it be known, Kari supported women’s rights and wrongs.

But this… she couldn’t get behind this one.

“Guys, I’m gonna turn chaotic evil.” Kari was crouched over, pulling at her hair and wanting to scream.

“Damn that woman!” Zoro shouts, punching the wall. “Just because she was acting all nice recently, I let my guard down for a moment and this happens?!”

“How dare she pull a fast one on us, especially during a crisis!” Usopp shakes his fist at the sky.

“Wait!” Luffy cries, dangerously leaning over the rails. He’s squinting at the horizon, then his expression turns to shock as he points, “I can still see our ship! I can see the Going-Merry!” 

Kari goes to lean up beside Luffy, squinting at the area that Luffy had been gesturing towards. Lo and behold, the tiny blot of color on the cusp of the sea was their ship. “Well damn.” 

“Zoro! Usopp! Kari!” 

All three turn their attention to their captain. Though Zoro looks less than eager to play along, “Just let her go. No good will come of chasing after that thief.”

Usopp sputters, “B-But she took our ship! That ship’s important!”

“I want her to be our navigator, no matter what!” Luffy declares, expression melting into something more serious.

It seemed that his seriousness made Zoro falter as he slouched in on himself and mumbled a belligerent “Fine.” He grabbed Kari’s arm and began dragging her towards the small dinghy that Johnny and Yosaku had mentioned still having. “Why did we agree on taking up such an idiotic captain?”

“It was that or the stake.” Kari points out.

Zoro looks miserable. “Damn.” 

They’re about two steps from getting into the small dinghy that the two bounty hunters were hurriedly throwing themselves into the dinghy to join the trio, when Kari grounds to a halt. “Wait.” The group stares at her. For a small beat she looks afraid to give her opinion, but smooths it out and says with attempted confidence, “One of us should stay with Luffy.”

“I’ll be fine.” Luffy said quickly, “You need to go and get the Merry and see what’s wrong with Nami.”

“I understand, but,” Kari swallows, and quickly steps out of Zoro’s hold, noting how he let her go without worry. She turns to face Luffy head on, “we shouldn’t separate.” Then, knowing that it was the edge that would push him into being convinced, Kari offers a toothy grin, “Think you’ll settle for having your second mate stay with you?”

It’s just the push that Kari had been aiming for. Her final admittance of being second mate pulls a confident and gleeful smile onto Luffy’s face. He nods once, sharp, “Of course.”

“Be careful,” Zoro says, facing them both with a sober expression. “The situation is getting a little crazy.”

“We’ll be fine—”

“IT’S HIM!” The voice cuts through their conversation like a dart to a dartboard. Zoro goes stiffer than said board, head snapping to the screaming pirate. “The one who destroyed our fleet! He followed us all the way out here! He’s come to kill all of us!”

Their eyes lock onto the small mystery dinghy that had first been spotted by Kari. A man sat there, nonchalant. He looked bored.

“That’s…” Zoro chokes, the words coming to him unbidden. The others give him a sharp look.

“Hawk-Eyes Mihawk.”

The man lifts his head, shadow over his-

“Oh hey, fellow yellow eye guy!” Kari perks up.

Zoro turns on Kari, barking, “Don’t get attached! I gotta kill him!”

Kari deflates, “Oh yeah…”

And then Zoro is charging forward.

They all panic, Kari close to misty stepping her way in front of him in an effort to get him to think clearly. But a hand latches itself onto her arm, and Kari looks to her captain in alarm. 

Luffy’s expression is carefully neutral. 

He shakes his head.

Kari falters, looking close to wanting to fight her captain on this front, but Luffy says, “No risk, no reward.”

The fight dwindles before finally vanishing. Her tail still twists anxiously behind her, and she can’t help but pick at the chips in her shackles, but she stands down. Her eyes anxiously tracing Zoro as he leaps from debris to debris.

Then, she schools her anxiety away, cups her mouth, and yells with thaumaturgy, “IF YOU GET YOUR ASS KILLED I’LL NECROMANCY YOU BACK SO I CAN KILL YOU AGAIN MYSELF!”

“Shut up horn-head!” Zoro yelled, lacking a thaumaturgy’s boom but still heard all the same. “I ain’t getting killed today!”

Kari hesitates before dropping her hands and whispering to herself, “Good.”

“Hey,” Usopp says, gently laying a hand on Kari’s arm comfortingly, “He’ll be fine. He’s Zoro, afterall.”

“It’s not that I’m worried about.” Kari says quietly. 

That certainly stumps Usopp. “Huh?”

Kari gives Usopp a miserable look fit for a spoiled child. “If he dies then that means I’m first mate. And I just came to terms with being second.”

“THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT?!”

Luffy didn’t pay their chattering any mind, eyes set on Zoro and Mihawk. And slowly, the attention was drawn to the pair. Chefs, enemies, and straw hats all staring at the battle fixing to take place.

The tall imposing swordsman is standing apart from Zoro, drawing a—

Kari starts chewing on her thumbnail, “Oh, I don’t think Zoro’s gonna take that well.” She stares at the tiny knife which looked more like a letter opener than anything of actual threat.

“He’s going to die, isn’t he?” Usopp whimpers.

Kari narrows her eyes, “Not on my watch he isn’t.” She twitches when Zoro charges forward at Mihawk, all three blades slashing forward. “I’ll resurrect his ass if I need to— oh sweet Divine, really?” 

Mihawk had blocked the attack. He’d blocked the attack with the world’s tiniest dagger. Mihawk pushes him away. 

Gritting her teeth, Kari’s tail continued to twist in anxiety. 

“Come one bro!” Johnny shouts, gripping the railing so tight the wood groaned. “Show him what you’ve really got!”

With Zoro having been pushed back, Mihawk approaches. And with his approach, those watching could now hear the apparent conversation they’d been having. “Such ferocity…”

Mihawk’s head tilts up and he’s leering down his nose at Zoro, though there is something there that isn’t contemptful as much as interested. “What burdens you so? What do you desire at the extent of your strength, weakling?”

The comment gets Yosaku and Johnny desperately climbing over the railing, yelling about defending honor and teaching Mihawk a lesson themselves. They’re only stopped by Luffy grabbing them and holding tight, warning them off from interfering. Kari can’t stop staring.

They’re distracted, they don’t see the moment Zoro’s eyes spark, the way he is launching himself forward just sloppy enough that Mihawk’s eyes glisten. They only catch the warlord ducking down and thrusting between blades, puncturing their swordsman’s chest and making Zoro stop in his tracks. It’s only the fact he’s still standing that keeps Kari from jolting forward to interfere. Even as red-hot light flickers in and out of her palm.

“Do you wish for me to pierce your heart thus?” Mihawk asks, head tilting when Zoro, still obviously alive, refuses to move. “Why do you refuse to step back?”

“Hell if I know,” Zoro says, a bit of blood dribbling down his chin. “But… but I get the feeling that if I were to take even one step back right now, I’d lose something very important to me, a promise or oath… whatever it is would be irreversibly broken.” Zoro’s jaw tightens around his sword. “And that I’d never be able to return back to where I’m standing right now.”

There’s an odd look on the warlord’s face, something akin to reverent. “Yes, such is defeat.”

A haggard laugh escapes Zoro, “Guess that’s why I can’t take a step back.”

“Even if it means your death?”

No risk, no reward.

“I’d much rather die.”

There is this brief moment, this silence that lingers. It’s just these two swordsmen, the Maiden as their witness, standing and sizing each other up, recognizing the worth they have. 

“Tell me your name,” Mihawk says, pulling his blade from Zoro’s chest. 

Despite being stabbed, Zoro doesn’t falter, lifting his swords and wielding them as if he weren’t bleeding out. “Roronoa Zoro.” 

There are more words that follow, more conversation, but it falls deaf on Kari’s ears. Her eyes locked onto the two braced to launch, the pair readying to draw their final breaths. There is a sharpness in their eyes, this moment of pride only swordsmen of their caliber can have. Kari has to hold onto her arm to keep herself still, to keep herself from moving.

Then they are charging, so fast that it feels almost blink and you miss it. Zoro swung forward as fast as he could, but not fast enough for the elder swordsman, retiring his tiny dagger in favor of his gargantuan black blade. He swings in an arc that comes from instinct ingrained from years of experience that Zoro lacks. 

And blood rushes forward.

Kari’s ears go to static.

What makes a good dream? Kari wonders, watching as Zoro is met by cruelty, falling, falling, falling. Something worth dying over?

“ZORO!”

Luffy’s cry startles Kari out of the static, the darkness at the corners of her vision retreating quickly. She watches the swordsman being sliced across his chest, the force of the blow sending Zoro flying into the sea behind him, crashing into the salty waters and painting the ocean red.

Any semblance of stifling her involvement is immediately gone.

It seemed that Luffy’s reservations had also vanished as he was rushing forward and flinging himself over the railing. Kari follows promptly, eyeing a bit of driftwood close enough for her to hop onto and putting her just close enough to this other man’s deck that she dashes the final stretch.

She has to give credit where credit is due, the imposing swordsman doesn’t even react to their abrupt appearance before him. He just slides his attention to her with eerie focus. And Kari rushes that final stretch without thinking, blocking his path from Zoro, assuring he couldn’t get closer. Noxious green sparks into her palms as she hunches over and glares with every ounce of protective instinct she can muster.

Mihawk cocks his head to the side, eyes observing the tiefling in frightening curiosity. Though after a few beats his attention narrows, hand tightening over his still drawn blade, “Another fool rushes in?”

Kari’s body went tense as he bared her teeth in a silent snarl. She would not be another death today, no sir.

But, any semblance of fight is gone as Mihawk sheathes his blade, turning just enough that a flying Luffy goes crashing into the deck. His eyes track Luffy and do a quick dart to Kari again. His lips thin and he seems this odd mix of disappointed and amused. “The comrades, I assume?”

“You assume right.” Kari hisses, eyes still narrowed in warning. The man doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated, just giving her a cursory look. His eyed trail down to her palm for a moment, observing the bright nauseous colors swirling in eager anticipation. 

His lips thin.

The man’s interest quickly abates, arms twisting to fold over his chest as he turns away, as if deeming his job done. “Fear not.” He twists his head towards where Zoro had been dropped into the water. “That man is still alive.”

Both Kari and Luffy immediately turn their attentions to Zoro, finding him being lifted onto the little dinghy by Yosaku and Johnny. Some of the lingering tension in Kari is swept away as she looks at the gasping Zoro, still bleeding, but looking alive.
“Usopp!” Luffy yells when seeing said sniper scramble onto the ship. “Is Zoro alright?!”

“He’s alive!” Usopp confirms.

That lingering anxiety diminishes. Kari slouches in on herself in relief.

Despite the odds, Zoro’s arm raises, his katana clenched tight and aimed at the sky. “L-Luffy, can you hear me?” 

Luffy’s body tenses up. “Yeah!”

“Sorry for worrying you.” His hand is shaking, like the effort to hold up the sword is taking all his strength. “I know if— if I don’t become the world’s strongest swordsman, it will only embarrass you.” He lets out this horrific wet cough that suggests that he’s taken a little more than just external damage. 

“I swear!” Zoro declares, holding tighter to his sword, “That I’m never gonna lose again! Until the day I fight him and- and win. I swear to never lose again!” His voice is wet, hoarse. “Any problems with that, pirate king?”

The grin on Luffy’s face is brighter than the sun. “Nope!”

“You make a good team.” Mihawk gains attention again, and though Kari is on the defense, Luffy is distinctly looser. “I’d like to see you three again, sometime in the future.” He starts walking for his tiny dinghy… uh.

Kari doesn’t really know what she did to garner the interest of this walking bloodhunter wannabe, but— 

“Is your boat a coffin?” Kari blurts. Mihawk spares her a sharp look over his shoulder. Kari quickly raises her hands, spell dismissed, “Sorry, sorry, ignore me.”

Mihawk rolls his eyes away, grumbling about a red-haired bastard and annoying wild cards.

“Oi! Hawk-eyes!” Heads turn to spot Don Krieg, smiling all cocky like he could stand half a chance up against the warlord. “Did you come all the way out here for my head? The head of the infamous—” He is cut off by a sparking beam of red hot energy to the face. He is very quickly knocked down a peg.

Kari glares, dropping her arm, and subsequently the remnants of her eldritch blast, and shouts, “Shut up, you didn’t do shit!”

Mihawk, who’d seen the odd display of magic, doesn’t even blink, he just rolls his eyes and continues his trek to his boat. 

And finally they all just sort of stand there while he just… floats away.

During that time, Kari and Luffy slowly wander back to the Baratie docks, heading for their crewmates.

“What a weird guy,” Kari muses, before seemingly realizing the main aspect they’re missing. Spinning around, she sees their fellow crewmates in the tiny ship beginning to finally head off after the Going-Merry. 

“Usopp, go on ahead!” Luffy calls right as Kari jogs to slide up beside him. Yosaku and Johnny are hurriedly trying to patch up a now officially conked out Zoro, and Usopp is stirring the ship out to catch the incoming breeze.

“Zoro and I’ll bring back Nami! So you two make sure to get us a cook!” Usopp yells back, “Once we have 6 people on our crew, let’s head to the Grand Line!”

“Yeah!” Luffy cheers, grin growing at the realization that his dream was growing closer to attain with each and every day that passes.

“I’ll kick some ass in your honor, Zoro!” Kari calls despite knowing that the swordsman is passed out.

Yosaku and Johnny pause before giving her a big thumbs up, “We’ll let him know you said that, Kari sis!”

“Not to break up the touching moment,” both Luffy and Kari turn their heads and find Sanji taking a drag on his cigarette, “but the damn pests are finally coming.”

Despite himself, a big excited smile curled onto Luffy’s lips, “Hey old man…” he starts, “If I chase them away from you… will you let me off the hook?”

Zeff rolls his eyes. “Yeah sure, whatever.”

“I did not appreciate that.” Don Krieg shouts across the wreckage of his ship, rubbing at the burn mark on his face. Kari has a big grin on and shares a low high-five with her captain. “You’re dying first!”

“I’d love to see him try.” Kari snorts, watching the enemy captain conversing with his crew. While he does that, she spares a look at her own captain. “How do you want to go about this, cap?”

“I call the big guy.” Luffy grinned, pointing at the shouting Don Krieg.

“Yeah that tracks.” Kari muses, vaguely noting the chefs scrambling behind them, calling about getting battle preparations and hauling up the fins… whatever that could possibly mean. It is only when one chef calls about tying down the pantry stock that Kari has an abrupt and horrific realization. “SHIT!”

Both Sanji and Luffy look at her in alarm. “What?!”

Kari gives them a panicked expression. “I’m…” She swallows, “I’m out of tarts.”

Luffy treats this as if it were a major crisis worth all the panic in the world. Sanji stares at her like he was mentally asking himself if his all women are queens mindset was applicable to this specific woman. Some of the other chefs nearby look just as, if not more, bewildered. 

“That’s your second mate?” Zeff asked, looking like all of his expectations were falling through the floor. Funny considering his kid had asked the exact same thing last night.

Luffy, who’d ranted off anyone’s ear about his crew any chance he got, nodded cheerily. Then he turned to Kari and said, “There’s probably some spare food inside?” Then his eyes sparkled, “Oh! Save me some for later!”

Kari is already scrambling inside, a shout of confirmation to her captain the only thing Luffy gets by way of reassurance that he’d get food later.

“What the hell?” One chef, carrying an oversized fork mutters as he watches Kari shove random food into her hat, primarily focused on any dessert deserving of confinement.

“You shut up!” Kari says right back while pushing a plate full of bolognese right into the hat of holding. 

The chefs just question their life choices.

“Kari!” A voice shouts from outside, distinctly her captain. “You done yet?!”

Arms full of the best kind of tarts money could buy, Kari charged outside, hat on her head and looking feral beyond measure as she stuffs a spare slice of cheesecake into her mouth.

“I’m here captain!” Kari cries, which really sound like “mfere ptin” past all the cheesecake. 

Kari spared one wide-eyed look to the Baratie fish head now laid prone in the sea. Damn she missed a lot, huh?

Swallowing her mouthful, which was an awful feeling as she’d stuffed way too big a slice of cheesecake in her mouth and she was not Luffy who could stretch his body with ease, she grimaces with a glare as she roams around the apparent battlefield. Her gaze lands on her captain, apparently dangling on a broken mast near the asshole of the hour.

“Hey captain!” Kari greets cheerily, waving her one free arm not holding a criminal amount of tarts.

Luffy gives a big grin, “Hey Kari!”

“Now is not the time to play around!” A couple of pissed off chefs shouted — Patty and Carne as Sanji had begrudgingly introduced them on day two of their stay — shout.

Luffy blinks, “Right.” He then points at a weird guy on the docks closest to Kari who had apparently originally gone unnoticed. Which she has no clue on how she hadn’t noticed him sooner considering the guy has a massive pearl on his head and is covered in the, frankly, most audacious armor that Kari’s ever seen. “I want that guy obliterated!”

“Hey!” Sanji cried, apparently the one who’d been planning to go toe to toe with the walking accessory originally. The cigarette is clenched tight between his teeth as he points at Luffy, “I was gonna kick his ass!” He spares a fluttering look to Kari, “No offense, dear.”

Kari waves him off nonchalantly, to in the moment to properly cringe at the dear. “Nah, that’s fair.”

“Why the hell do you keep ignoring me?!” Don Krieg screams, pulling at his hair and looking all around absolutely infuriated. 

Continuing to ignore his ass, Kari spins to face the pearl-headed armored numbnut. She gives a sharp grin before locking eyes with the man. She hums a quick short tune before clicking her tongue.

The result is immediate.

The man had been staring her down in obvious confusion, whether it be the pastries, her whole person, or her apparent nonchalance was unclear, but it was obvious that something about her had caught him off guard. So it helped that when she hummed that dissonant whisper he wasn’t wise enough to better prepare.

Sanji is rightfully alarmed by the man’s sudden screaming, tensing out of habit as he watches Pearl cling to his head as if something awful is ringing that only he can hear. He spares a short look back at Kari, who is looking at him expectantly. When he continues to stare she gives an exacerbated sigh and does an overly dramatic gesture towards the screaming man, “Kick his ass!”

Immediately, Sanji goes rimrod straight and spins around to the man, moving as if he hadn’t just paused to stare at the resident warlock. He twists his leg up and kicks Pearl dead in the nose, resulting in a sickening crack that pierces through the screaming of both sides. Though at the crack, the noise from the Don Krieg pirates vanished.

Pearl is dazed and tilting from side to side, his prior screaming migraine now balanced with a broken nose to become a concoction of pure head pain. Then, the cherry on top of their very odd cake, Luffy — who’d apparently been flung by none other than Don Krieg — comes sailing in and rams into the back of Pearl’s head, sending the man flying forward and slamming his face directly into the deck. There is an accompanying groan from both sides as they watch the giant collapse to the ground, knocked down for the count.

“...Well that was underwhelming.” Sanji hums, a bit of smoke escaping from his lips after inhaling on his cigarette. He cranes his head around to face Kari who was on her… well he wasn’t sure number, but he was betting past at least third tart. “What did you do to him?”

“I gave him a psychic migraine.” Kari shrugs, jumping down to the level they were on and wobbling as she slowly gets her sea legs back. She stuffs her cherry filled pastry into her mouth while continuing, “You kicking his nose in and Luffy giving him a concussion were the cherries on top of the cake.”

“Oh hey cake!” Luffy reached out without care, snatching up one of the tarts that Kari was carrying. He ignored her indignant yell and was quick to stuff his face. 

“Oi!” Sanji barked, nowhere near paying attention to the Don Krieg pirates conundrum, and subsequently dropping the revelation that Kari can cause people psychic migraines. “Don’t go around stealing Kari’s desserts!” He spins to Kari, giving her an apologetic look, “I’m sorry dear, I’ll see about whipping up something nice for you after all of this.”

Kari waves him off, “Eh, you’re good, I stuffed my hat full of stuff for Luffy later and if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t steal anymore unless he doesn’t want it.” She is glaring at Luffy while she says it all.

Luffy, suitably cowed, looked apologetic, “Right, sorry Kari.”

The glare immediately vanishes as she shrugs and takes another tart to munch on. 

The incoming shadow over them gives them all pause. They all look up and are gobsmacked at the morningstar that is coming down on them fast. Kari grows tense out of habit, eyes blowing wide, and nearly all of her pastries fall out of her arms. 

Though her impending death is subsequently saved by a pair of quick arms that swing her around, duck her to a chest, and is quickly being rolled out of the way of the massive morningstar. 

Getting an eyeful of black fabric, Kari cranes her head back awkwardly to get a glance of surprise at her apparent savior. Her expression goes flat at the lovestruck smirk on the blond’s face and frankly she should have figured as much. 

“No worries darling!” Sanji preens, “No harm shall come to you while I have anything to— mmph!” 

Sanji is silenced by the pastry being shoved into his mouth. 

Giving an apologetic but in reality no way near apologetic smile, Kari pats the romantic’s cheek, “Appreciate it bud, but now's really not the time for putting on the romantics.” Or so she assumes.

And by the poor cook’s devastated but accepting looks, she assumed right. 

“Uh, are you guys done?”

Both Sanji and Kari snap their heads to the side where they see a bored Luffy picking his nose and scratching his stomach. The morningstar is nowhere in sight and in fact on the other side of where it had been thrown from, right by an enraged Don Krieg who was so red in the face he may as well be one of the tomatoes in the Baratie’s kitchen.

“Quit ignoring me!” Don Krieg shouts like a petulant toddler.

“Ugh!” Kari groans, “I have had enough of this guy!” She ducks one hand beneath her hat and tugs out a feather, she frowns when noting her distinct lack of tarts, and eyes the half eaten one still in Sanji’s mouth. She snatches the remainder, resulting in Sanji’s half-swallowed alarm, though he quiets when the tart and feather fade into dust and Kari locks sight with Don Krieg and whispers, “Tasha’s hideous laughter.”

Don Krieg, too busy with the tantrum, isn’t in any way prepared and immediately falls on his ass, howling with laughter. 

“What the hell…” Sanji whispers, staring at Don Krieg’s breakdown in disbelief.

“Tada.” Kari says dryly, before finally shoving the man off. Sanji appears vaguely displeased, but truth be told Kari is too busy staring down Krieg and making sure the man doesn’t break the spell. “Now get off me, I’m focusing.”

“You’re doing that?” Sanji is staring at Krieg then looking at Kari, and it goes back and forth for a while till Luffy bounds over the join in the watch party.

“Isn’t my second mate the coolest!” Luffy is grinning so brightly that Kari almost breaks concentration with how blinding it is. ”She’s a wizard!”

”Warlock.”

“A warlock-wizard,” Sanji awes and Kari doesn’t bother correcting because she’d do it later when it wasn’t crucial that they were fighting for their lives. “Quite the talent, that’s for sure.” Sanji amends, and Kari can hear the grin in his voice. She reaches over and lightly slugs the cook’s arm, resulting in a yelp. Okay so maybe she could correct a little.

“I’m concentrating, quit trying to distract me.” She glares at the still howling Krieg.

“Please stop fighting, Sanji,” A voice calls from behind them, and Kari doesn’t turn to look but the others do, “I don’t want to end up killing you.”

By the looks on Luffy and Sanji’s faces, Kari surmises that it must be serious, so she sighs and weakly bats Sanji, saying, “Take care of that, I’ll keep Krieg busy.”

Sanji grits his teeth but nods, giving a firm appreciative pat to Kari’s shoulder as he stands to shuffle forward with Luffy. Kari, while she was at it stood to her full height, sparking an eldritch blast in her palm, as she sets her aim on the howling Krieg, it’d definitely knock him out of his spunk, but at the very least she might be able to get the jump on him. Though it was never that simple was it?

Pearl, the big bastard, was shuffling to his feet, rubbing at his skull as his (likely) concussion was going to war with his head. Kari spared a single glance towards the hulking behemoth before setting her sights back on Krieg when the laughter began to dwindle. Wincing, she grit her teeth, “Shit.”

With a sigh, she turns her attention to Pearl and resets her blast, doing her damndest to keep concentration on the still cackling Don Krieg. She was never good at multitasking. 

“Oi bastard!” Kari shouts, firing a shot at Pearl, and resulting in the man stumbling from the hit. A scorched patch the only sign of a hit left on his armor. 

The hit did just as intended as the man’s eyes honed in on her, narrowing dangerously as he hissed, “You.”

Kari grinned, “Me.”

And soon Kari was charging, readying another eldritch blast in her palm as she circled forward, tail whipping behind her with every step she took. Her feet dig into the dock as she aims another blast and fires, watching in satisfaction at the hit sends the man stumbling back.

Kari cackles as she slings around the man’s side, now close enough that if she weren’t focused the man might get a lucky strike. And focused she was as she barely ducks a swing from one of the man’s arms, a shield embedded into the armor digging into the docks where she had only just been.

But he is too slow, and Kari is summoning a familiar staff into her hand and swinging upwards, slamming the end of her quarterstaff into the bottom of the man’s chin, causing the man’s head to snap back and crack against the backplate of his armor with a loud reverberating clang. 

Grinning like an idiot, Kari is distracted and doesn’t dodge in time when the man’s other arm swings around and lands a lucky blow to her side. Though rather than collapsing, Kari goes with the swing, holding onto the arm so when he arcs upwards she goes with, flinging into the air with a weak grimace, though aiming one last eldritch blast downwards with a fierce look as she bears her teeth in a snarling grin.

“Stay down, asswipe!” 

The blast lights up the space they’re in, flashing red hot light as crackling energy slams into the armored titan with enough force to make a normal man crumble. But as this is anything but a normal man, Pearl’s eyes just slide to the back of his head and he collapses in a heap.

Kari lands deftly atop the behemoth, poised in a crouch as she knocks the man’s head one last time with her still summoned bo staff.

“And stay down idiot!”

A couple nearby chefs cheered at Kari’s victory, and the tiefling looked up with a grin, about to brag, though tongue catches as she notes the large shadow steadily growing larger around her. Her grin vanishes in an instant as she looks up. 

Ah.

Seemed she broke concentration.

Kari yells as she is flung towards the Baratie, thrown from the giant morningstar slamming into where she once stood. She calls at the chefs hurriedly and they scatter from where she is soon crashing into the wall of the Baratie. 

Now embedded into said exterior wall, Kari weakly raises her head, a bit of blood dribbling from the corner of her temple as she winces. “Ow.”

She glares at the source of her ire, the enemy captain grinning with a cock-suredness undeserved. 

“Prick.” Kari spits, a bit more blood dribbling from her head. 

“Damn,” A chef says, leaning into her periferie, it’s Carne, “You alright little lady?” 

Kari bites back a grimace as she pulls her arm out from the wall, a bit of splintered wood collapsing with the tug, “Been better.”

“No shit, really gave that pearl headed thug a run for his money though— whoa, easy,” Carne is holding his arms out as if ready to brace the girl as she tugs herself free from the wall, scratched up and bruised but most certainly not down for the count. She holds herself carefully against the wall as a few chefs nearby swarm her nervously. “You can take it easy now, if you wish.”

“Absolutely not.” Kari hisses, lifting her head and spotting her lovely idiot of a captain apparently in an argument with Sanji. Kari narrows her eyes at the pair, sighs, and slouches against the wall, “On second thought I’ll wait for a minute.”

“Gin, take the shot already!” Don Krieg shouts, and Kari glares at the man sharply.

Gin, who’s hand is trembling from where it's pointed at the owner’s head, swallows. He looks down at the elder chef, who watches this all impassively, like he already knows how it will end. And Gin… Gin lifts his gun. 

“GIN!” Don Krieg shouts, utterly enraged, “You dare betray me?!”

“My apologies Don Krieg.” The man says, stepping away from the chefs and finally letting the man stand. “But please allow me to put an end to our saviors with my own two hands.” He sets his aim on Luffy and Sanji now, eyes narrowed, though his hand not nearly trembling as much.

“Man, I’m lost.” Kari moans, looking frustrated at this soap opera taking place before her eyes.

“Sanji fed that guy a couple days ago. He was starving.” A chef explained to her.

“Ah that’s sweet.” Kari smiles, though quickly scowls when realizing where feeding someone out of good will led them, “Ah shit, wait.”

“Yeah,” Another chef says, nodding along as if they all had followed the same line of thought.

“Eggplant has too big a heart on his sleeve.” Zeff says, and Kari blinks in surprise when seeing that the man had sidled up to their group at some point, hanging off of another chef to make up for his lack of peg leg. And… when did that happen? Eh whatever, anyways, he gives a cursory glance over Kari, lips pursing, before politely asking, “Are you alright ma’am? Nothing broken?”

“First of all, never call me ma’am, it feels weird.” Kari gives the man a cursory look before deflating, “Secondly, nothing physically.”

“Otherwise?”

“My pride has definitely taken a beating.”

That apparently earns a snort as he shakes his head and gives an amused smirk, “You’ll get over it.” He gives a cursory glance over his shoulder as he spots Luffy, Sanji, Gin, and the remaining Don Krieg pirates yelling and shaking their fists at one another like it’ll do any good. Don Krieg is yelling some nonsense about ‘The true meaning of strength’ or some horseshit and to be honest both parties are completely bored of it by this point.

Zeff rolls his attention back to Kari, lifting one brow and asking, “You gonna join them?”

“Give me a minute man, I just got chucked into a wall, let me catch my breath.” Kari groans as she still keeps herself braced on the wall of the restaurant. After a few moments she spares a pointed look at Zeff and says, “By the way, we are 100% going to steal your son after this is all said and done.”

A couple of the chefs stiffen up and spare tight looks to Zeff. The owner just thins his lips and stares at Kari long and hard with this look that suggests that Kari misspoke. When getting that look, the tiefling rerolls through her statement and winces.

“Is uh… he not your son?” 

Zeff’s lips continue to thin. Though, after a few beats, much to the surprise of the chefs, he gives a low chuckle. “Nah, he’s mine. I’m not thick enough to ignore a gift of the sea when it's given to me.”

“Gift of the sea?” Kari asks, head tilting.

Instead of answering, Zeff rolls his eyes and snaps, “What is this? Twenty questions? Get your ass out there and set someone on fire.”

Kari scowls, but does start marching toward the fight, before immediately pausing and sputtering, “Ah not again!” She immediately bolts back into the restaurant much to the chefs dismay.

A couple minutes later and the entrance of the Baratie is kicked open as Kari rushes outside with an armful of tarts.

“Alright I’m back! What did I miss— oh hells—” Kari slaps a hand to her nose, wincing against the putrid odor in the air. A couple tarts drop to the ground at the move. “Dude what the hells.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” A couple of chefs from inside the Baratie shouts, reaching out quick to tug her back inside. Kari takes a deep breath of the fresh air and only vaguely smells the remaining putrid scent in the air. 

Clinging onto what limited tarts she had — an actual grand total of none, go figure — Kari looks at the chefs in confusion, asking wildly, “Going to help my captain, was that not obvious?”

“Did you seriously not—” The chef runs a hand down his face, “Don Krieg used a poison gas bomb! If you go out there you might as well be dead!” 

Ah that would explain the odor. But, uh…

“Poison gas?” Kari repeats.

The chefs sag, “Yes.”

“Poison.”

“Yes, you— did you not hear us the first time?!”

Kari put on a big grin, spun on heel, and immediately charged back out of the Baratie. The chefs cried out as they watched Kari disappear out the doors and right back into the thick of it.

This time, Kari was better prepared for the scent and the accompanying burn she’d first ignored prior. She took a deep breath, wincing at the odor, before shaking her head and squinting through the gas. Her eyes widened upon spotting her captain sporting a gas mask. Well that was one thing that relieved her at least.

“Hey captain, I’m back!” 

Luffy’s head immediately snapped towards her, alarmed. His voice is muffled through the mask, but Kari can still hear him yelling, “Don’t breathe! There’s poison gas!” 

Unlike how any normal person might react, Kari just put on a big grin and said, “It’s alright!” She points to her horns as if that explained anything. “I’m resistant to poison!”

It takes a moment before it registers to Luffy.

“Whoa really?!”

“Ah what the hell!” Another voice shouts, earning Kari’s attention as the gas starts to clear up, revealing a pissed off Don Krieg. His entire person is shaking with rage as he points at Kari and demands, “What the hell kind of monster are you?!”

“Tiefling, stupidhead!” Kari shouts back, grinning way too proudly for a woman who couldn’t come up with a better insult off the cusp.

There was a gasp that pierced through the fog of silence, “Gin!” Luffy shouted, earning Kari’s attention quickly. Her captain looked alarmed. “Where’s your mask?!”

Gin, the idiot, had opted to put his gas mask on Sanji over himself. There was blood spewing down his mouth and nose and he is making this awful wheezing choking noise that makes it seem like his lungs are about to collapse. By the time the breeze has picked up. Carrying the toxic fumes with it, the man chokes on air, blood pouring from his lips as he tilts over and collapses to the deck.

Sanji only barely reaches up in time to catch Gin from knocking his head in, cradling the man as if he hadn’t been attacking them minutes prior. Kari is stumbling forward without thinking, still carefully cradling what limited pastries she’d snatched up. She kneels at Sanji’s side, giving a cursory looks over Gin while she absently dumps her armful of tarts into her hat. 

Her knowledge on medicine was limited at best, but even she knew that Gin wouldn’t survive to the next day without an antidote.

“Patty!” Sanji calls, head craning around to glare at the pair of familiar chefs who’d stepped out from the restaurant. “Don’t you have some antidote?!”

“That’s just for food poisoning!”

“Doesn’t matter! Bring it over now!” Sanji is gritting his teeth, looking beyond frustrated at this point.

“Put the mask on him!” Zeff shouts, stumbling out of the Baratie alongside the other chefs brave enough to peek out. “It must contain at least a bit of an antidote of some sort!”

That is not how gas masks work, but both Sanji and Kari hurried to do just that while both Carne and Patty started running for them, likely to take Gin off their hands and get him somewhere safe. 

“Don’t you dare die Gin.” Luffy murmured, still glaring daggers into Don Krieg. “Don’t you dare let yourself be killed by a guy like him.” Then, he spares a sharp look back, locking eyes with Kari, he says, “Kari.”

It’s an order of one word that speaks so many more. 

Kari is standing without thinking, quickly sliding up to her captain’s side, arms crossed and eyes shadowed. Sanji grabs weakly at Luffy’s hand with a plea to wait, but Luffy shakes him off quickly. Kari spares the chef a confident smile, and Sanji seems to falter at that carefree gesture.

“We aren’t gonna die.” Luffy says to Sanji, not even looking at the chef. Then he breaks into a full tilt sprint, charging forward over the collapsed mast without a second of hesitation.

Kari, likewise, moves without thinking, quickly taking aim while Don Krieg was distracted by her captain. Her fingers stretch as familiar red fill the empty space, locking onto her target with deliberate ease and slamming into Krieg in the next instant. The shock of the hit is so hard that it actually makes him stumble. 

And as expected, her captain takes the open opportunity with quick deftness. He ducks and slides and charges with all of the power he can, sliding forward, arm flinging back to build momentum. Before he is rocketing forward and knocking the enemy captain so hard in the jaw that Don Krieg nearly backflips as he is slammed into the deck with an echoing clang of his armor.

Kari grins, pumping her fist in the air as she cheerily calls, “Hells yeah captain!”

Those watching cheered as they watched the straw hatted boy standing tall across from the downed form of Krieg. 

“Is he always this reckless?” Sanji asks weakly, still sitting on the dock, but looking genuinely impressed by the display of power. 

Kari scratches her cheek, contemplative, “I’ve known him for a little less than a week and I don’t think I’ve once seen him think before acting.” She folds her arms with a shrug, “Hasn’t failed him yet though, so I guess there is some method to the madness.”

“You’ve known him for less than a week?” Sanji is gaping at Kari now.

“Yep.” Kari smiles.  She moves as if she is going to say more but her tongue catches when she notes Don Krieg moving. He’s moving to get a quick blow at Luffy. And Kari moves without thinking, her hand raising without a beat of hesitation as she stares down Don Krieg and snaps.

The result is immediate, Don Krieg. Who’s arm had been up to slam into the captain twitches to a stop as his whole body tenses up. He grabs at his hair as a mind spike is driven into his skull, and spares enough of a break for Luffy to spin back around and go for the attack. 

While the gesture might be seen as noble, there is… a certain factor that Kari failed to acknowledge. 

A bit of blood dribbles down her nose as a painful migraine takes its place right behind her eyes, present and pressing into her skull in all the wrong ways. She collapses to the deck, grabbing loosely at her horns and just holding on as her eyes slam shut. 

“Shit— Kari!” A voice beside her yells, and Kari only barely recognizes it as belonging to Sanji. There is a gentle hand that runs up her spine in an effort to comfort, though it has the unfortunate result of making the pounding and oversensativity in Kari’s skull double. She ducks her head to her chest in an effort to stave off the impending nausea. 

“The hell happened?” Another voice shouts and it make the migraine all the more worse. 

“She just dropped!” Sanji says, the hand on her back gently trying to pull her out of her curled up position. It’s more successful than she cares the admit as she is pulled to sit up a bit more properly, eyes blurry as she squints past the light that seemed to be cranked up to 100. “Kari, what happened?”

There is the vague sound of crashing and fighting nearby which might as well be a punch to her head. She can’t stop the grimace as she slurs, “Overdid it.” 

It’s not an explanation that anyone would immediately recognize without an understanding of magic and mana. But she has to give credit to Sanji for the way he doesn’t bother questioning her and immediately stands, gently grabbing her by the elbow and lifting her up. He starts guiding her away. Where? She couldn’t tell as her eyes were shut tight, but soon the noise around her diminishes to just background static. Still not perfect, but manageable.

She’s guided to sit in a chair, and it’s only then that she wrenches her eyes open just enough to recognize she’s in the dining room of the Baratie, a couple chefs watching nearby. Though, the acknowledgement that she isn’t in the fight makes some semblance of discontent stir inside her. She tries to stand, but there are warm hands that keep her where she is.

“Take a breather.” Sanji assures her, “I’ll help your captain wrap this up.”

There is a bit of static that is dancing at the corner of her vision, and her eyes shut tight out of habit, fighting off the instinctive urge to pass out.

Sanji gives her one firm pat to the shoulder, something draping over her shoulders. She moves with the weight and rests against the table. “Just… takin’ a short rest.”

Sanji snorts. “Sure, Kari.”

Kari’s only response is a snore.

Chapter Text

Kari goes rimrod straight, eyes blowing wide, as she shouts, “I’m awake!”

A nearby chef who’d apparently been cleaning the demolished dining room, nearly jumps out of his skin with Kari’s abrupt awakening. The tiefling just blinks off her sleep and rubs her eyes, a vague headache the only sign of her previous migraine. Stifling a yawn, Kari blearily looks around the dining room, “What did I mi— the battle!”

Before any chef has a chance to stop her, Kari is stumbling out of the Baratie, eldritch blast in hand as she kicks open the entrance with a shout. 

“Alright shit-stick! Time for round two— where’d they go?” She blinks around at the distinct lack of enemies and demolished ships alike. Her cantrip drops without ample target and she scratches the side of her head in confusion, pulling away briefly with a wince when it flared up with pain. No blood though, likely just bruised beyond the nine hells. 

However, in doing so, she notes the added weight on her shoulders that had previously gone ignored. Sanji’s jacket sits daintily there, the only sign of previous battle being the faint stains and dust coating the fabric. 

Kari tugs at the coat with a hum of confusion, wracking her brain for when he had handed it off to her only to draw a blank. 

Further pondering is interrupted by a voice calling from behind her, “If you’d slowed down before rushing off…” Kari cranes her head around and spots Patty with a large frown staring at her as if she’s an idiot, “we could have told you that the battle has been over for a while now.”

Expression creasing into exasperation, Kari slumps over and mutters, “You’re telling me I slept through another battle?”

“I don't think that getting your ass handed to you on a silver platter counts as sleeping.” Patty says blandly.

Kari throws her arms up with a groan, “You sound just like Nam— NAMI!” Her thrown hands drop to her face as she holds on for dear life, entire face turning a touch paler, “We gotta go now!”

“Okay, slow your horses, little lady, let’s at least address your wounds—”

Kari tunes the burly chef out as she twists around and starts frantically looking over the Baratie, her eyes catching on the sight of two familiar figures leaned up against the railing on the second level. 

With a grin, Kari clicks her heels together once, a familiar red gleam carrying over her skin, before she crouches low. She notes that Luffy and Sanji still hadn’t noticed her yet. Patty’s expression is dancing between furious, panicked, and resentful as he can only watch the position Kari is taking. He is reaching forward, not quite sure what to be braced for, but certainly ready to grab.

But Kari is quicker, pushing upwards and jumping.

She jumps far too high for any regular Joe Shmoe, reaching the second floor with surprising ease. She goes to kneel against the railing in a flourishing finish, but unfortunately she overestimates her dexterity as she misses the railing and instead face plants into the second floor deck. The cigarette that had been hanging off of Sanji’s lip fell to the ground in his guffaw.

Luffy, none the wiser to his second mate eating shit, throws his arms up in excitement, “Kari!”

Said tiefling saves face in the only way she knows how. She rolls over onto her back and just lets herself stay starfished as she looks at her captain, “Hey Luffy.” She looks incredibly nonchalant for someone who slammed her face into wood not seconds prior.

“What the hell.” Sanji says.

“I was wondering where you went, Sanji said you were sleeping.” Luffy picks his nose.

“Idiot!” Sanji shouts, the previous enthusiasm he’d held in speaking to the rubber boy now gone. “I told you she passed out which—” He spins on Kari as she raises herself up to dust off her pants. Sanji puts on an attempt at patience and asks, “—what was with that?”

“What was with huh?” 

Sanji thins his lips and looks as if he is physically fighting himself from yelling. So instead he breathes slowly. “You did one of your, uh, spells. I think.“ He spares a look to Luffy for correction but is only given a big thumbs up in approval, “Then you dropped like a fly. What’s with that?”

“Oh.” Kari nods seriously, “Yeah, I ran out of mana and forced myself to keep going.”

“Sorry— mana?” Sanji asks, squinting at Kari in confusion. But the frustration is gone at least.

“It’s—” Kari is close to actually divulging into the topic before her mind scrambles back and she remembers just why she’d flung herself up here in the first place. “It’s not important!” She spins to Luffy, grabbing her captain by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth, “We gotta go to meet up with the others and get Nami back!”

“Right!” Luffy shouts back, though he lifts one hand up in a gesture to pause, “After we eat!”

“What do you— huh?!”

“And after someone patches you up.” Sanji says pointedly, grabbing Kari’s shoulder and spinning her around. He winces at some of the little cuts and nicks she'd gained throughout the fight. “Did none of those morons treat your wounds? Idiots…”

Kari blinks dumbly.

While Luffy rushed down to try and see what the food situation looks like, Kari was held up with Sanji who was overly insistent about seeing to her wounds. She held out her arm while he wrapped a few bandages around one of the larger cuts she’d received when being slammed into the wall of the Baratie. She lazily watches Sanji address the wound as she sighs.

Sanji decides to try and break the reverie with some light conversation.

“You mentioned mana?” Sanji starts, earning Kari’s focus. He is careful as he moves onto the next wound, “Is that a magic thing?”

“They definitely go hand in hand.” Kari nods, bracing her arm on a nearby table to rest her head on as she watches Sanji continue to work. “It’s like… I guess you can call it a power source. It’s what fuels magic. Any spell or ability I have has to use mana in order to work.”

“So when you mentioned you ran out…?”

Kari sighs, “Yeah, it happens.” She rolls her free hand in a so on and so forth gesture. “I can really only do two heavy hitting spells before I’m sat on my ass.”

“But you did way more than two.” Sanji points out, slowing his wrapping to give her a curious look.

She waves her hand dismissively, “The Eldritch blasts you kept seeing were cantrips. They’re like… uh, freebies. Second nature while the other stuff requires more.”

”Like the feather and the pastry?” Sanji asks.

Kari looks close to asking what he meant by that before recalling that ah yeah, Sanji had been in the front row seats for her use of Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. So she gives him an a-okay sign as approval.

”Yeah like that. Takes more energy to pull off that sort of stuff. Also it was a tart.”

Sanji looks to want to ask something else but pauses to give her a weird look. “A tart is a pastry.”

Kari laughs, “Sure it is.”

Sanji has fully stopped wrapping her arm to give her a look that can best be surmised as wondering how Kari could wield magic beyond normal mortal means (in their plane at least) and not know that a tart does in fact classify as a pastry.

”I’m literally a chef, I think I know what classifies as a pastry.”

“Ah but you’re not a baker, now are you?”

Huh.

Funny.

Sanji’s wearing the same look on his face that Nami got when Kari told her about the world being flat.

Which, to be fair, were a lot of looks, but somehow Sanji is managing to combine them all at the moment.

“You ran out of mana.” Sanji says by way of changing the topic. Apparently having abandoned the attempt to try and make it seem more natural a transition. Opting to just not acknowledge their conversation all together.

”Yes.” Kari rhetorically confirms.

”So what was up with that last spell?” Sanji asks. “I know you said you can give people psychic migraines, but I’m assuming you avoid doing that to yourself.”

”Oh yeah.” Kari confirms, “I’d never use mind spike on myself. I may be dumb but I’m not stupid.” Again Sanji’s face spasms like he wants to make a comment but barely refrains. She continues despite his judgement, “I tend to just tap out after I use my two spells. But with everything that was happening I sort of forgot and just… used another.”

”And it made you have a migraine?” Sanji asks in confusion.

”For lack of better explanation, yeah.” Kari watches as Sanji finally begins to wrap her arm again. “Use any more than what I got in the tank and it’ll start taking from another source.”

Sanji slows his wrapping but doesn’t outright stop. His eyes, having gone back to the task at hand, roll right back up to Kari. “…Like what?”

Kari shrugs while scratching her nose. “Like life force.”

Now, to any mage and or average magic user, this was all but common knowledge. Magic without a pool of fuel can still exist, though it will drain you for all that it is worth. It’s never fun and it’s certainly never pleasant. But it was a possibility. Magic drawn in such circumstances tended to be used as last ditch efforts in battle of dire circumstances or accidents akin to Kari’s scenario. There were a fair share of stories of mages drawing their last breaths in an effort to protect at all costs, even at the cost of themselves.

To Kari this was a normal fact. It was known to avoid, and if an accident happens, then an accident happens. Overuse of the ability would certainly lead to problems. But one accidental overuse was nothing by comparison to war mages’ stories. Right?

Right…?

”YOUR SPELL STARTED KILLING YOU?!”

Ah.

Kari is quick to draw her arms away from Sanji’s horror, waving them back and forth in a pleading attempt of calm. “NO! No! I didn’t do it nearly enough to cause any lasting damage!”

”But you can?!” Sanji sounds hysterical at the prospect of Kari dying from her own magic, and really, it is touching in a sweet way to know that he was genuinely concerned at the prospect of her overdosing on too much magic. 

Kari, again, is quick to try and calm him down, “Yes but those are in rare and specific cases of which I’m not in.” 

Seeing that he was still panicking and very much not alright, Kari opts to just throw nuances to the wind and reaches out to take Sanji by his hands and squeezes. It’s enough to ground him back in reality as she gives him a cautious and reassuring smile.

”I swear to you, I’m safe. That was just a fluke that occasionally happens and honestly I can’t even remember the last time I did something like that. I try to avoid overuse as much as I can.”

Sanji is still skeptical, but it appears the touch does what Kari had been hoping for and grounds him as he lightly squeezes her hands back. “So… you aren’t dying?”

”Far from it.” Kari is quick to reassure, smile lighter when seeing Sanji fully calm down. She opts to go further to say, “And a good nap or two essentially resets my mana so I can promise you that I’m good to go now.”

Again, Sanji doesn’t immediately respond, but he does slowly pull away. He takes the bandages back in his hands again and restarts his tending.

“Well don’t do that again then.” Sanji says simply, finishing wrapping up the last wound. Though his tentative expression is immediately smoothing out into something lovestruck as he holds up his held hands to his face and sighs, “Though I must admit that it was so noble of you to risk your own health and safety for the sake of your captain!”

Rolling her eyes at the lovestruck tone, Kari is quick to throw the jacket he’d draped over her right at his face. Snickering when the fabric smacked him in the head and he scrambled to pull the fabric off with a wounded expression. Kari pulls back to stand and stretches her arms with a grin. “Food time!”

Baffled at the absurdity that was… Kari, Sanji sighs and goes to stand offering a hand to help the tiefling up which is promptly ignored. Sanji lets his hand fall as if he hadn’t been extending it, just letting it duck back into his pocket and trailing after Kari when she started out the door.

The employee dining hall isn’t far, and they can hear a ruckus inside. 

“—charge of making this morning’s soup?!”

They catch the tail end of Patty’s demand, the towering cook glaring around at the other occupants in scrutiny. 

Sanji, holding the door open for Kari to wander in who is quick to join her captain who’s apparently eating away on the floor, raises his head. A bright smile comes to his lips as he trails in after Kari, the door swinging shut behind him. “Oh that’d be me! Pretty good right? I made it—”

A dish shatters.

All occupants shoot to the source in alarm, seeing the remains of a bowl and soup splayed on the floor. 

“How the hell am I supposed to eat this crap? What is this, pig feed?!”

Sanji’s expression goes tight with rage. 

Luffy and Kari spare each other an alarmed look, unsure at what to do. They were the outsiders here.

“Does proper human food not suit you, you damn ingrate?” Sanji seethes, opening and closing his fist to stave off his urge to throttle the elder cook.

“This is shit of the highest quality!” Patty laughs cruelly, “Makes me want to puke! Did you put actual shit in this or what?”

Again, Sanji opens and closes his hand, looking ten steps away from murder, “I’m perfectly confident in my soup. Maybe it’s your damn tongue that—”

Whatever insult he could hope to say is cut off by every chef in the room howling in disgust, dropping their plates and meals with moans and groans. Kari and Luffy both jolt in alarm, moving back when a few crashing plates get a little too close for comfort. Sanji has this look of panic and horror in his eyes that is quickly being masked with unadulterated fury.

“What the hell do you think you’re all doing?!” Sanji cries.

“You being the sous chef was always just a sham! It’s only because you’ve been here the longest!”

“I’m sick of your violent ways!” 

“If something tastes bad, then it’s my right to say it’s bad!”

Kari and Luffy can’t tell if Sanji looks close to killing the chefs or breaking down into tears. Maybe a mix of both?

Then a final crash of a dish sounds out. Heads turn, and there stands Zeff, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand like he was trying to rid himself of a poison on his lips. Sanji is staring at him, quivering in his anger.

“What’s this disgusting soup? Is it supposed to taste like sludge?! We’d go out of business if we served this to the customers!”

It seems that any semblance of patience Sanji had left is gone as he charges forward, grabbing the old man and shaking so hard it's a miracle he’s standing. He’s shouting and screaming and demanding answers in a way that only he can do. Zeff puts up with it, but in due time his own will is shattered as he slams a fist into Sanji, causing the boy to collapse to the ground and nurse a bleeding nose. 

Kari instinctively jolts to stand, but is stopped short.

The only thing preventing her from hopping up and pummeling her own slew of chefs is her captain’s hand landing firmly but gently on her arm. A look back finds Luffy with an oddly mature patience. His expression is neutral as he holds her back. He can see that strange protective fury there in Kari, he can appreciate it, but he knows that this isn’t the time for it.

It’s with a haggard allowance that Kari folds back on herself and lets her captain win the battle. Not that she had much of a chance anyhow. 

A door slams, Kari and Luffy are looking back to the ruckus, finding their ideal chef absent.

While Luffy doesn’t think twice about getting more food, Kari can’t help but stare at the chefs. She watches them almost collapse in on themselves, falling into their seats and some even holding their heads. A few grabbed the bowls of soup they’d sat down, spat venom towards, and continued eating it as if their words hadn’t just been filled with vitriol. 

The tiefling watches it all in ragged attention. 

“This soup’s amazing!” Luffy cries from where he’d gotten his own bowl of the delicacy. He’s rushing back to Kari with another bowl as he has this big grin on his face, “You’ve gotta try some Kari!”

When the bowl is thrust into her surprised hands, a chef nearby finds the silence suffocating enough and decides to break it. “Yeah… we know.”

It’s enough to make a few other voices pitch in with their praise, some admitting their guilt at the act they just put on. Kari’s tail slithers behind her, ducking close to her legs as she thinks over the admittance. Her head is struggling to puzzle piece together a problem she doesn’t have all the knowledge for. 

“If we didn’t do that… the idiot would never listen to us.” Zeff admits slowly, head bowed and this odd not quite ashamed look on his face, but certainly something near it. “Kid… would you mind taking the eggplant with you, to the Grand Line? It’s… it’s his dream.”

Something unfurls in Kari, a soft smile coming to her face. She breathes and speaks, “Of course we—”

“Don’t wanna.”

The room explodes into swearing. Chefs are screaming and crying out in their anger and confusion. Kari has taken on a similar stance as she reaches over to her captain with a look of insult. “Luffy what the hells.”

As if sensing that Kari could and would rock his shit without an explanation, Luffy is quick to wave his hands and explain, “No! No, I do want him to come along!” He spares a cautious look to the chefs, explaining to them as Kari slowly lets her arms fall from where they’d grappled him, “But he said he wants to stay here and be a cook. So even if you tell me to take him with me, I’m not gonna.”

In the short less-than-a-week time that Kari had known Luffy, she had to say she was impressed by his occasional nuggets of wisdom. 

“So… you won’t accept unless he says so himself?” Zeff asks slowly.

“Yup.” Luffy nods seriously, before then looking at Kari’s yet to be eaten soup bowl and saying pointedly, “Kari you gotta have some of Sanji’s soup before it goes cold!”

Rolling her eyes, Kari picks up the bowl and is quick to let it warm her palms. When she starts to go in for a sip, she pauses and gives a glance at Zeff, speaking seriously, “You know… as much as I know your heart is in the right place with all this, have you tried, I don’t know… actually telling him how you feel?”

“Men don’t—”

Kari didn’t even let the chef finish. “Dragonshit, you’re family aren’t you? That’s gotta count for something at least.” Again her words make the room tense, but Zeff holds her gaze with narrowed focus. Kari’s attention quickly slides away as she finally lets the soup—

The wall explodes.

Because life is cruel and Kari can’t have anything good, her bowl goes tumbling out of her hands and shattering to the floor. Her whole body follows alongside it as she is soon landing in the sad remains of soup. She must make quite the comical sight, splayed out on the floor in the remains of her meal, fresh bandages now tinged with the scent of broth. 

One of the chefs kneels by her side. “You good?”

Kari lifts her head from where it lay on the floor, a bit of broth rolling down her chin. “Peachy.” She looks to the source of her collision only to gape as she finds the world’s weirdest looking shark and Yosaku collapsing on the ground. Luffy, apparently deeming her fine, ignores helping her collect her shame and instead goes to interrogate Yosaku.

“Wha— you idiots!” Soon a hand is on her and helping to gently haul her up and on her feet. A quick glance reveals Sanji who also looks worse for wear. He is doing his damndest to wipe off some of the grime from her person, but seems to realize what a losing battle he has on his hands. “I am so sorry.”

Surprisingly, Kari isn’t that bothered with the gentlemanly care. Instead, she offers a small smile and brushes her hands over the stains and remaining filth that covered her with a quick flick of the wrist and sparkling prestidigitation. By the time she deems her bases covered she spares a look to Sanji and starts a similar pattern, brushing over the darker patches of stains in his suit and vanishing the muck with gentle flicks.

When she has deemed them suitably presentable she gives a grin up to the blond, only for it to lessen in annoyance when seeing the lovestruck expression. She lightly pushes his head away with a roll of her eyes, “Alright loverboy, shows over.” 

It was at that exact moment when her stomach decided to sound its hunger. She has a brief look of annoyance before Sanji’s expression smooths out into something more serious. “You still haven’t eaten?”

“I was before someone decided to come crashing in.” She gives a glare at Yosaku and the shark, the latter of which was who knows where. But the bounty hunter is now bundled in a blanket and being shuffled into a chair by her captain. Kari gave an exhausted sigh.

Sanji doesn’t let it lie, expression tightening as he grabs her shoulders, twists her around, and is quick to push her to the nearest table. Kari only fights it half-heartedly as she eventually collapses into the seat Sanji pulls out for her. “Let me grab you something.”

Kari blinks, and before she can even thank him, he is marching off to whip something up for her from the remains. 

In that brief meantime, Kari takes to watching Luffy and Yosaku chatter away, the latter informing Luffy about the situation with Nami. Kari was sure tuned into that, making note of the important bits and pieces for when they headed out. It’s in the midst of this update that Sanji returns with a small plate of food, setting it in front of Kari with a contemplative look.

She meets that look with a tilted head, wondering what was going on in his head. 

“Kari!” Luffy declares, and any moment of reprieve is pulled from her as Kari looks to her captain. “Time to go!”

Again, Kari mourns her plate of food in front of her as she pushes it away with heartbreak and moves to stand. Though she is prevented from doing such when a hand lands on her shoulder and gently urges her back down. A quick glance reveals Sanji, expression still carefully blank.

“Wait.” Sanji says slowly, he takes a deep breath, like it is a physical chose to reveal his next thought. “I’ll go too. Take me with you.”

The silence that accompanies the admittance is deafening. Kari glances at the cook in surprise, her hunger momentarily brushed aside. The man doesn’t meet any one person’s attention for a time. Instead he seems to gather himself before he finally brings himself to meet Luffy’s gaze head on. 

“I’ll accompany you on your way to becoming the Pirate King. After all, we both have crazy dreams. So I’ll tag along to fulfill mine.” He pushes his head up a little more, holding his head high in confidence. “I’ll be the cook for your ship. What do you say?”

Luffy throws his hands into the sky with a cheer, “Sounds great!”

“About damn time.” Kari mutters.

About a half-hour later, Kari is busy aiding Luffy in hauling their food onboard Sanji’s ship. Their new chef offers the little boat up to meet up with the others in the meantime. Very noble on his part.

 They make a few trips with a chef occasionally filling them in on this and that about their new cook that only care could explain. Though it’s when Kari is busy assuring the fifteenth chef that yes she knows to force the numbskull to take breaks that she is abruptly pulled aside by a rough hand.

She blinks up at the gruff but meaningful owner. Zeff baring down at her with a narrowed conflicted look. They stand in the silence for a little longer than what might be deemed as acceptable and it makes Kari squirm.

“...Yes?”

Rolling his eyes, the old chef folds his arms and finally starts with what he wants to say, “If the brat is bothering you let him know.”

Well, she had not expected for anyone to pick up on her squirming — aside from her crewmates of course — Kari is quick to dart her gaze away with thin lips. “Noted.”

“I’m serious.” Zeff presses. “If his Romeo act is getting to you let him know and he’ll cut the shit quick. He may be a romantic at heart but I raised him well enough to know not to make a lady uncomfortable.” 

Thinned lips turn a little more downwards, Kari narrows her eyes at nothing in particular, just glaring. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

While appearing closed off, Zeff opts to study the girl. He takes in her fidgeting, her glare at the floor like it had done something personal to her. And Zeff slowly starts to understand, and his expression dances through a plethora of emotions, each subtle but strong enough in his eyes that Kari can register it. 

Finally, his expression settles on subdued as he stares down at the tiefling a while longer. 

“You’ve had very little kindness in your life, haven’t you?”

His words make Kari tense up, her tail lashes and beats at the wall in her agitation. Her eyes lock onto Zeff’s and she holds that stare, her expression schooling to one of guarded focus. No panic, no fear, just a blank slate.

For Zeff, it was a bit funny. He remembered his boy having a look not too dissimilar in their early years together. 

With a drawn sigh, Zeff drops it with a simple, “I won’t bore you with apologies you’re probably sick of hearing. I’m not here to chase ghosts best left in their graves,” he knows better than most not to press, “I’ll just say that whatever shit you’ve gone through, whatever bull it is, eggplant won’t be that way. The boy wears his heart on his sleeve, for better or for worse. And if for any reason he does border on that shit, you tell him and he’ll quit real quick.”

Kari stares at the man for a long time, contemplative. Then, her expression turns a touch gentler as Kari finds no ill will, nothing two-faced, just gruff kindness. “It’s uh….” She starts a bit nervously, looking away again to rub at her neck, “It’s not really his whole uh… schtik, I can’t really even tell when he’s doing that. It’s more the uh…” She thins her lips, face still that bit more flushed than usual, “it’s the darlings and dears.”

Ah, Zeff thinks, watching the girl kick at the ground in her discomfort. 

Then, he says, “Then tell him.” 

Simple as that. 

Which, of course, Kari couldn’t really wrap her head around, “But I—”

“Eggplant’ll listen.” Zeff interrupts, making Kari snap her mouth shut. “You have my word on that.”

And it seemed that must have given Kari just enough reprieve to slouch and lose the tension she’d been holding. She takes a deep breath before nodding. Then saying more firmly, “Okay.”

Zeff nods back, that gruff attitude going back in place, and then, he's turning her around and giving her a light push. “Go on and get now. Or else your captain might leave without you.”

“I doubt he’d leave anyone behind,” Kari laughs lightly, but still does as recommended, “Too kind for that.”

Snorting, Zeff rolls his eyes, or so Kari assumes from where she is walking. Though, his voice hums and he catches her attention one last time, “Oh, and miss?”

Shaking her head at the polite address, Kari glances over her shoulder at the man now leaning against the threshold of the little hall he’d tugged her into. Kari hums.

Zeff doesn’t quite smile, though what he does give her is warm. There is a quick approving nod before finally saying, “Nice job setting that bastard on his ass.”

Kari burst into laughter. 

A few minutes later and the crew was comfortably tucked into their small ship they’ll be taking. Kari flopped over the railing lazily, staring at the restaurant with a bored sort of patience. Luffy, in a similar state, braces his hands on her shoulder and stretches his neck just far enough so he can catch her eye.

“What did the old guy talk to you about?”

Putting on a gentle smile, Kari tilted her head to more properly regard her captain, “You saw that?”

Luffy nods with a confirmation hum.

Continuing to smile gently, Kari just looks back at Baratie and hums an answer, “Eh, nothing important.” 

Then Yosaku is pushing into their periferie and grinning excitedly, “Guy’s here he comes!” 

Attention immediately was set on the Baratie, watching the gathered cooks also turn to attention. There in the threshold of the entrance was one Sanji, dressed to perfection and with the only sign of a pack being a slung bag over his shoulder. Kari briefly caught the sight of a figure on the third floor deck stepping out to lean against the railing, staring down in quiet observance. 

There wasn’t much hassle in Sanji stepping out to join them in his small ship. The only real commotion being both Patty and Carne coming out to try and claim it was their time to finally beat the young cook’s ass, only resulting in their own asses getting got. Kari couldn’t help but snort in amusement at that.

By the time that Sanji is close enough to greet them, he extends his hands and makes a show of coming close to get in the boat. “Alright, let’s go.”

“What about saying good-bye?” Luffy asks seriously, and Kari too gives Sanji a look that suggests he should do such.

Sanji waves them off, looks like he wants to assure them, but then Zeff, overlooking from his place above them all, calls out, “Hey Sanji!” Sanji briefly freezes, a look like he was found out clear on his face. But Zeff just smiles kindly, amused almost. “Don’t catch a cold.”

That suave front Sanji had been putting on was gone in an instant. His entire expression cracking as budding tears sprang forth. Both Luffy and Kari smiled softly as they watched their new cook spin around and cry out for his friends, his family. He falls to his knees and thanks them over and over again, crying out his care in the only way he knows how, tears still streaming down his face.

All the chefs lose themselves, sobbing and crying out as they watch their youngest grow into himself, setting forth to start his great journey. From where he stands, Zeff looks close to breaking as well, nearly succumbing but at the last minute covering his face and looking away with damning tears. 

And Sanji is smiling with his own, saying that he will meet them again one day, that his care is more than he’ll ever admit. That his heart is too big for his person.

“Alright!” Luffy cries, overly joyous, “Let’s set sail!”

A couple hours into their sailing, weather clear and nice, and they were really starting to grow sick of the sobbing.

“Dude,” Kari starts, looking at a still teary-eyed Yosaku, “I know it was a touching display and everything, but even Sanji wrapped it up an hour ago.”

“I was just so moved.” Yosaku cries, fresh tears still pouring down his face, “It was truly a beautiful goodbye, brother cook!”

Kari and Sanji share a pointed look.

Luffy groaned, “I wanna bring back Nami so we can go to the Grand Line already!”

“Even with Nami, the saint that she is, don’t you still only have 6 people?” Sanji pauses as he appears to let his own words sink in. He gives both Kari and Luffy disbelieving looks. “Are you seriously planning to go to the Grand Line with only 6 people?”

“If it’s a matter of crewmembers, I can get more on the Grand Line!” Luffy waves off. “Afterall, it’s supposed to be a Paradise!”

“Paradise?” Kari asked, looking confused. 

Luffy puts on this bright cheery grin that he tends to have whenever he gets the opportunity to explain something new to someone. Kari just so happened to be at the receiving end of a lot of those smiles. “Before we left the restaurant, Zeff told me that some people call the Grand Line a paradise!”

“The geezer really said that?” Sanji murmured, then his expression peeled into something more lecherous, “Well, as long as Nami will be there, I won’t mind even if it’s—” Sanji pauses before his eyes blow wide and he looks at Kari hurriedly, “I apologize! I don’t mean to brush off our coupling as well—”

Kari is quick to stop that train of thought as she thrusts a hand to his face and successfully silences the blond. She doesn’t spare a look at him and instead focuses on Yosaku, “Before we can do any of that though, we need to see about getting Nami back. So how about you fill us in on where exactly we’re headed and what lies ahead of us?”

Yosaku’s expression thins into something more serious. He promptly delves into Arlong Park and the notorious pirates who’d set up shop on the island. It was going relatively smoothly with the information, but one thing bothered Kari.

She raised her hand.

“In terms of individual strength, Arlong is far— Kari sis, you don’t gotta raise your hand.”

Kari drops said hand.

“Not to interrupt and not to be that guy, but I’m definitely gonna be that guy. What’s a fishman?”

Both Sanji and Yosaku stare at her like she’d lost her marbles. 

Luckily, Luffy takes this more in stride. 

“They’re like us but they can breathe underwater and stuff!”

Kari's expression melts into something more understanding, “Gotcha, like a water genasi or aquatic elves situation.”

“You seriously don’t know what a fishman is?” Sanji asks, cigarette hanging from his lips and holding on by sheer faith alone. He stares in bewilderment, “Fishman Island is one of the most talked about islands on the Grand Line. You’ve really never heard of them?”

Kari shrugs, not all that bothered by the little information she actually knew. “Nope.”

“Were you raised under a rock?” Sanji asks, looking further bewildered.

“Might as well have.” Kari admits seriously, though her attention is grabbed by Luffy seriously tapping a drawing pad he might as well have pulled out of thin air. He taps the paper pointedly and more importantly draws attention to the quick drawing of a fish with legs and arms he drew. Kari can’t take the sight seriously and bends over alongside Sanji, howling with laughter.

“Treat this seriously!” Yosaku cried. He bows his head, pulling at the fabric of his pants anxiously. “Sister Nami was definitely staring intently at Arlong’s wanted poster. And right after we said Arlong’s crew was wreaking havoc again recently… she took off with the treasure.”

Kari blinked rapidly as some dots started connecting. A startled gasp escapes her as she leans forward, braced against the wooden deck. “Wait! That’s who she was freaking out over?!”

Everyone blinked at her. “You knew?” 

“Well I didn’t know his name! But I figured there was something weird going on there.” Kari said petulantly, folding her arms and looking away.

Yosaku is opening and closing his mouth rapidly. “His name on the poster might be a dead giveaway!” 

Kari grumbled to herself, ducking her head and glaring at the horizon. Sanji and Luffy both give her strange looks, but Luffy is quicker to move on, “Well it doesn’t matter!” He pounds his fists together, “We’ll beat him up if it means we get Nami back!”

“Well said.” Sanji nodded, and Yosaku looked like he wanted to melt into the floor with how they were ignoring him. Right after Yosaku is being miserable, Sanji stands up and dusts off his pants. “Now,” He braces his hands on his hips and peers at them all, “how’s food sound?”

“Meat on the bone!” Luffy cries. 

“Stir-fried bean sprouts!” Yosaku quickly gets out of his funk.

“Ladies first!” Sanji cries, glaring at the over eager men before twisting to Kari with a flourish and lovestruck smile. He kneels down onto one knee and grabs up Kari’s hand before the poor tiefling can react. “What would you care to have, darling?”

Kari gives an awkward laugh and is quick to pull her hand away. She puts on a twitchy smile and says, “I don’t really care.” She pauses, head tilting as she remembered some of the sacks of goods the chefs had lent them. “...I wouldn’t say no to some fruit though.”

“One fruit salad coming up.” Sanji grins, sweeping into the small kitchen to whip something up. Thank goodness they were taking a cook’s ship. 

Though, there is something that lingers in Kari as she watches Sanji disappear into the hull. It takes a minute to bring herself to chase it, but soon she skitters after the cook and finds herself in the small space alongside the blond already rustling away to gather ingredients. 

Upon hearing the door swing open, Sanji grouches, “Luffy, if you try to steal meat before it’s done cooking, I will— OH!” He swings around and hurriedly puts himself together in a more formal posture as he smiles, “Apologies for the assumption, darling, what can I—”

“I need to talk to you!” Kari blurts, and both parties are left blinking. Kari breathes in sharply and represses the urge to bury her face in her hands. “I need to talk to you.” She repeats, this time more calmly.

It’s obvious that Sanji is fighting the urge to go all lovestruck, but the serious tone she takes keeps him rooted. So he leans back against the counter and gives her his full unbridled attention. 

Let him know and he’ll cut that shit out. Zeff’s words echo in her head. You have my word on that.

Breathing, Kari can’t meet his eyes as she is quick to look down and fiddled with her hands nervously. “I don’t— I don’t mind the, um, the everything, you know,” She waves her hand in a so on and so forth gesture. “I just— can you… not with the darlings or dears with me please? Can you just— can you tone it down a little?” Kari nervously raises her head, and any inch of playfulness in Sanji is set aside in favor of treating this with all the seriousness it deserves. “...please?”

“...Was I making you uncomfortable?” Sanji asks quietly.

Kari’s expression pinches, “...It’s… no.” Kari says tentatively, then she boldens her tone a little more. “Yes? No. No. It’s…” She rubs her face, “It’s going to sound a little stupid.”

“Nothing is stupid when it comes to your comfort.” Sanji says, and it sounds like he’s repeating something that had been told to him a thousand times. Like he was quoting the man who told him it in the first place. And with that assurance, that sound that tells her enough about his character, she feels safer in admitting her mind.

“You look at me a little… odd. And it uh, it doesn’t help with the— the… you know.” Kari rubs her arm, looking distinctly bothered. “It’s… it reminds me of the looks I used to get… back home.” She winces partially.

Now that gets Sanji to pause, as he gives her a long pondering look. “How so?”

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

“Worshipful.”

The word startled Sanji with how dead it sounded on Kari’s tongue. How her eyes seemed a little devoid, like she was separating herself from it. “I—”

Before Sanji can continue, Kari is quick to wave her arms wildly, eyes wide and filled with emotion again. “It’s not— it’s not as intense! It’s just…” Her hands fall with a wince.

Sanji stands and lets the silence linger. Then, when the quiet borders a little too long, Sanji elects to finish the statement for her. “Enough.”

Kari winces but doesn’t refute.

So they stand there for a minute, Kari brooding in her concern and worry and figuring how to best tell her captain that she has ruined her relationship with their new cook and how it was going to be awkward now and miserable and she’d leave and go and—

“Okay.”

Kari’s head snaps up in surprise. 

The blond cook’s hands are braced on the counter, contemplatively pulling at the worn surface as he seems to collect his thoughts. His head is bowed while he thinks, the smoke from his cigarette filling the small space with a dim smog. When enough time passes, he raises his head to meet Kari’s attention head on, careful and serious.

“No worship shit, no darling and dears, and look at you…” He trails, brows furrowing briefly before schooling into something more settled, “look at you as a crewmate.”

The relief that floods through Kari is immense. She nearly collapses on herself in her reprieve. She braces her hand on her chest with a shaky laugh as she mutters, “You wouldn’t believe how hard that was to ask.”

Sanji nods back sympathetically, as if understanding the plight. Kari was sure that with him being raised in a place like the Baratie that the concept of boundaries was something hard to address. But again, thank the divine for Zeff’s gentlemanly teaching. But speaking of… “You’re… still okay with… with everything else though?”

Kari blinks, and immediately straightens, “Oh! Yeah! Yeah, of course. I don’t mind the other stuff, can’t really tell when you’re doing said stuff unless someone else tells me, but like... I’m not going to ask you to change your whole worldview just for me!”

It’s Sanji’s turn to look relieved. He nearly deflates in on himself as he sighs in relief, “Oh thank goodness.” He takes an anxious inhale on his cigarette and immediately feels his own nerves vanish. When he pulls the cancer-stick away from his lips, he smiles at Kari and says, “Well, thank you for informing me of that, now feel free to wait outside while I whip up your meal.”

Blinking, Kari blurts before she can stop herself, “Need help?”

Sanji seems to pause, giving her a curious look, before his expression lights up into something light. “...With?”

This results in a bland look from Kari as she gestures at the kitchen, “Cooking?” She puts on this cocky smirk and thrusts a thumb to her chest, grinning like an undeserved idiot. “Not to brag, but I can use a kitchen knife.”

The blond’s face spasms, like he's fighting off the urge to coo but instead puts it behind a mask of amusement. Kari feels something lift in her that feels distinctly like fondness. 

So Sanji just snorts and backs up to gesture her over, “Oh yeah? Wanna show me those kitchen knife skills of yours?”

Kari rolls up her metaphorical sleeves and marches forward with all the grace of someone who has no idea what she’s doing. Sanji just shakes his head in fond exasperation. 

“I’ll have you chop the fruit for your fruit salad.” Sanji says, taking the fruit of mention and laying them out on the cutting board. “I’ll handle the majority of everything else.” He gives her a playful look. “Can’t have you stealing my new job, I just got it.”

Snorting, Kari rolls up to the cutting board, taking the knife that Sanji hands her. It weighs differently than the usual knives that she wielded. It felt gentler. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Chapter Text

“Well,” Kari says, peering up at a massive cow-fish-monster thing that was hovering over their tiny ship. “Can’t say this was on my bingo card.”

“That’s a Grand Line sea monster!” Yosaku cries, tugging at the band around his head in dismay. “It must want the food!” He points at their barely touched meals. “Hurry up and give it the food before he overturns our ship!”

Luffy sucker punches the massive sea monster before it can so much as breathe on their meals. “Don’t you dare touch my food!” 

“Yeah, that’s about what I expected.” Kari muses as she watches the monster reel before roaring in fury. 

Sanji slammed the two morons’ heads with a shout of anger, “You dumbasses! Don’t just beat up something for being hungry!” 

Kari nods in agreement, glancing at their small table.

“I’m sure it’s injured somewhere so it can’t find—”

“ELDRITCH BLAST!”

Searing red energy rockets out from around them and slams into the massive sea cow, knocking it away before it sinks back into the water. Heads turn to find a seething Kari quivering in her spot, nostrils flaring with every ragged breath. They all give her bewildering looks before she points at the table and her decimated fruit salad.

“It ruined my fruit salad.”

Immediately, any hint of forgiveness in Sanji is gone. “Oh I’m gonna beat that hippo’s ass.” He gives a pointed look to Luffy, “Let me handle this captain. To avenge Kari’s honor.” 

Kari mourns her fallen food, giving a lame thumbs up to Sanji. 

One marvelous ass beating later — fin beating? — and they were still setting a course for Arlong Park. Now maintained by their new monstrous pal now serving the duty of a horse as it hauled their tiny boat through the waves and currents.

After eating her recovered meal — it was a little messy but Sanji really knew how to recover shit and the taste was spectacular as always — Kari had elected to meditate, back against the mast, and breathing in time with the waves. Luffy had apparently deemed her a suitable spot to nap on and was flung across her lap as if he were a cat. 

Their momentary reprieve is interrupted by Yosaku cupping his mouth and yelling, “I can see Arlong Park!”

Immediately, everyone was at attention. 

The large building in the distance was obvious, an imposing monument in the small town that served as the focal point. The town where the rest of their crew lay and their navigator was home to. Closer.

And closer.

And… and closer.

“Uh,” Kari sputtered, standing nervously, “Hey guys?!” They looked up at her briefly, and Kari grabbed onto the mast. “We aren’t slowing down!”

“Huh.” Sanji said intelligently, watching the shore approach at a record breaking pace.

“We’re all gonna die!” Yosaku screamed, and everyone on board promptly lost their shit as suddenly their big ass sea monster came to an abrupt and startling stop. And they didn’t.

Kari understands that theoretically there are spells that make you fly. She has seen her fair share of wizards, sorcerers, and other magic users flying or levitating over crowds or city streets. She often wondered if she might get something like that down the road, an opportunity to soar and be as free as a bird up where the earth cannot meet her.

But this… this was not as freeing as she imagined.

“Yahoo!” Luffy cackles, “It’s like we’re really flying!”

“That’s because we are flying you idiot!”

“We’re gonna die!” 

Kari does not have anything near as good to say, only screaming at the top of her lungs.

As Kari clings onto the mast with all the strength she has, which in reality is barely any to begin with, she cannot help but swear she would murder any wild magic user she ever met. They got her into this hellhole and everything that happens after is thus dubbed their fault. Because she’s petty like that.

“We’re gonna crash into the trees!”

Who knew her screaming could double in dynamic?

The landing is burly and it’s an honest miracle that the ship doesn’t fall to pieces the minute they crash. Kari is still clinging to the mast like her life depends on it, one hand holding onto her hat and wondering how it hadn’t flown off in all the events leading to this point. 

Kari finally has the wherewithal to cry something, “Someone get me off of this death trap!” 

Luckily, she is sent off the death trap a few seconds later. It just turns out that it is in the most earth shatteringly miserable way possible. They crash into something and they're all wailing as they are flung off of their respective posts. Kari is tossed like a fish to the fishmonger and lands into the awaiting arms of said monger. Unfortunately the fishmonger in this metaphor is a tree.

Sliding down the trunk of the palm tree, Kari sits dazed on the ground as she flops over not too dissimilarly to a sack of flour. Kari lies there for all of ten seconds before a blond head of hair is thrust into her vision and conveniently blocking out the sun. 

“You dead?”

“I wish.” Kari groans, wincing when something in her back pops. She hesitates for all of two second before extending her hand, “Help a gal up?”

Again, there’s that brief shine, that urge to swoon, but Sanji stomps on it promptly and is quick to take the offered hand and lift her up. “Always, bug.”

Kari blinks when she’s back to having both feet on the ground, both in an effort to clear her swaying vision and wrap her head around what she just heard. “Bug?” Sanji wraps his arm around hers and there is no longer that awkwardness there. 

Sanji spares her a look, “That alright? It’s not a darling or a dear so…”

“No yeah,” Kari smiles kindly, “I don’t mind it. It’s nice. But uh… why bug?”

Red paints Sanji’s face as he has to look away from Kari, “You, uh, you eat like a bug.”

“I’m sorry, come again?”

“You eat like a caterpillar!” Sanji sputters, face growing redder by the second. 

Before Kari has the audacity to be offended by the nickname, a voice shouts, “The hell do you think you’re doing?!” and the pair are knocked out of their conversation. Kari glances around out of habit and her eyes promptly go wide in realization, her hand shooting up and out of Sanji’s hold as glee comes to her.

“Hill-top!”

Zoro spares her a brief glance, “Horn-head.” He nods in greeting and although his tone is more neutral, it’s clear that he’d missed her somewhat too.

“Where’s Usopp?” Luffy asks, breaking the reunion.

Immediately, Zoro’s expression turns panicked as he’s scrambling up despite having just taken the full brunt of a ship. “Shit! Now’s not the time to talk!”

“What’s wrong?” Luffy asks, tilting his head to the side and looking in no way rushed to go alongside Zoro’s franticness.

“That idiot got caught by Arlong and if we don’t hurry he’ll—”

“He was already killed!” The voice cuts through their little gathering like an arrow to the gut. Their eyes quickly dart to a haggard Johnny, panting and trembling and looking like he was about to keel over from grief. “It’s too late…” There are tears that leak beneath his sunglasses, trailing down his face and mixing with the sweat. “Brother Usopp was murdered by sister Nami!”

They stand there gobsmacked as they soak in the words. Each crewmate looks at another and assesses reactions. Then, before any can so much as hope to get a word out, Luffy is rocketing forward and wailing on Johnny.

Both Kari and Zoro panic, scrambling to their captain without thinking, Zoro latching onto the back of Luffy’s shirt and trying to tug him off while Kari is quick to try and get between the pair. Unfortunately her strength only goes so far and she can only lay hands on both Luffy and Johnny’s chests and try and push them apart.

“Let’s not lose our heads, captain!”

“Johnny isn’t the one at fault here!” Zoro shouts alongside Kari, trying to get the rubber man to budge but failing to do so.

“Well he’s spouting bullshit!” Luffy barks, still shaking Johnny meaningfully “There’s no way that Nami would kill Usopp! We’re nakama!” And he says it so implicitly, so deliberately, that Kari wonders how deep that word goes. 

“It’s fine! If you don’t want to believe it! But I saw it with my own eyes—”

“Just who did you call crewmates, Luffy?”

Well wasn’t this an unexpected addition?

Their navigator was standing before them as if she had been with them all along.

Nami’s head was raised, chin jutted in feigned confidence. She held a quarterstaff loosely, ready to raise her defenses should the need arise. But as it were everything about her posture, her tone, her confidence felt fake.

“What did you come to this island for?” Nami asks.

Luffy stares at her dumbly, finally dropping Johnny and adjusting his hat which had fallen in his tirade. “What’re you talking about? We’re crewmates. We’ve come for you, of course!”

“Well…” Nami trails, crossing her arms in loose care. “You’re nothing but a nuisance.” Her eyes dart around the crew, eyes lingering on each for a fraction of a second, though her eyes land on Kari and they stay there. It’s odd and it makes something in Kari’s expression pinch. “And ‘crewmates?’ Don’t make me laugh, it was nothing but a stupid little cooperation.”

And still, Nami doesn’t dare look away from Kari. Her eyes almost pleading.

There is a gentle brush at the edge of her mind, a whisper of something and Kari latches on without thinking.

“Nami?” Kari thinks quietly, the familiar thrum of a psychic link pulling taut.

“You need to take them and leave Kari.” Nami’s echoing voice is desperate and pained. She continues to speak to the others as if she weren’t having a psychic conversation with their resident warlock. “It’s not safe here, you can and will be killed if you stay.”

“That isn’t a decision you can make.” Kari reasons back silently, and it’s by this point that Zoro notes the warlock’s silence and deems it as odd. His eyes dart back and forth between Kari and Nam, lips thinning and perhaps recognizing the link. “If Luffy says you’re a crewmate then you’re a crewmate, numbnut.”

“It’s a matter of life and death Kari, that has to amount to something.” Johnny is making some bold claim now, pointing and calling Nami a witch, but Kari couldn’t be any wiser to it. 

“Again not my decision. And you really think a matter of danger will stop Luffy? I fought tooth and nail to get out of being the second mate and guess what? Luffy sure as tall hells didn’t take no for an answer.” By this point Sanji also noticed her odd behavior, observing Kari strangely, not quite as clued in as to what was happening as Zoro was.

There is a twitch on Nami’s face that gives way just barely to her actual feelings. She continues spouting nonsense that Kari doesn’t care to listen to, much more in favor of the conversation in their heads. “Kari please.”

“It’s not my decision, Nami. Let us help you.”

“Please.”

The thought is loud in a way that makes Kari twitch back. There is emotion behind that thought that is so strong it floats over the bond too. Sickening grief and misery that sinks into the word with such horrible weight that it makes Kari almost curl into herself out of cruel empathy. She must not hide the feelings well enough, as Zoro is now narrowing his eyes and looking to Nami in demand of answers, flinging himself forward with a shout to which Sanji easily combats, eyes now off Kari.

It takes a moment for Kari to recover from the feeling, the memory laced plead. There are tears threatening to spill from frustration. They aren’t hers.

“Nami,” Kari starts again when recovered enough to converse, “whatever happened, you can’t assume it’ll happen to us too.” But her words only meet a wall, the time limit up and a hurting navigator left in its wake.

But then this look comes to her eyes, her confident front falling as she puts on this disturbingly empty expression. The cocky smile she’d been boasting now disturbing when it couldn’t meet her eyes. Every sign of fight in her falling away in a rush as if it were never there to begin with. She might as well be dead with an expression like that.

“Farewell.”

And it’s only then that Luffy falls flat on his back.

“Brother Luffy!” Johnny and Yosaku cry in alarm.

“I’m gonna sleep.”

They stare at the boy in utter bewilderment.

“In this emergency?! In the middle of the road?!” Sanji demands looking close to kicking the boy.

Kari, who’d been at the psychic onslaught of all of Nami’s feelings and is still riding the high, feels an uncanny urge to fight her captain. 

“I’m gonna throttle his ass!” Kari shouts, scrambling up and nearly bowling into her lax captain when a pair of arms wrap around her waist and swing her around, successfully captured.

“No you’re not.” Zoro contends. Kari only slouches in his hold, dangling there like a wet cat. 

“I don’t feel like leaving this island yet,” Luffy says simply, arms behind his head to act as faux pillows, “and I don’t really care what’s going on here either…” He yawns, “and I’m sleepy.”

“...Please?” Kari asks pleadingly, looking at Zoro with big doleful eyes.

“Nope.” Zoro ignores.

Nami, apparently put up with their nonsense, breaks, shouting in fury and completely abandoning her prior cool front, “Fine, do whatever the hell you want! You can die for all I care!” She sounds much more akin to the feelings that had washed through Kari.

But before anyone could think over the outburst she marches away, as if she’d never been there to begin with.

“You’re all insane!” The bounty hunters yell, glaring at the Straw Hat pirates in pure befuddlement. “It’s as that insane witch just said! Brother Usopp’s been killed! And Arlong’s out to get us!”

Kari points at the pair in warning, tail whipping back and forth in her agitation, “Can it morons! Or I’m going to beat your motherf—”

Apparently deeming the conversation worthless, Zoro takes the opportunity to manhandle Kari around and force her to stare at him, bracing his hands on either shoulder to keep her still. He gives her a very very pointed look, as he demands, “What did she do to you?”

Rolling her eyes, and all too easily letting her qualms go with the bounty hunting pair, Kari lightly shoves Zoro to give her some distance, “Nothing, she just let too much emotion slip through and I got bombarded with some feelings that weren’t mine.” 

Johnny and Yosaku make a very brief comment about leaving and Zoro rolls his eyes and waves them off without much due diligence. Then he is putting his full attention back on Kari. “Fess up, what’d she say?”

“What’re you talking about?” Sanji asks, brows furrowed as he looks between the swordsman and warlock. “And don’t manhandle Kari like that, dumbass.”

“I can do whatever the hell I like.” Zoro grouches.

“Kari can read minds!” Luffy says from where he’s napping in the sand, a big grin on his face. Because of course he’d figured out why Kari wa so silent during the whole debacle.

Rolling her eyes, Kari gives Sanji a pointed look, “I’m a telepath.” A brief pause before Kari’s expression squirms and she raises her hand in a so-so gesture, “Ish. It’s hard to explain.”

“Really?” Sanji’s eyes sparkle.

Snorting, Kari nods, “Yeah, I’ll get you set up on the whole thing later after we finish beating Arlong’s ass.”

Luffy groans like a toddler, “But I don’t wanna fight him!”

Zoro sits on the ground when Kari does, Sanji following alongside them and going to lean against a tree. The swordsman lets his weapon — singular because who knows where the other two went — fall against his shoulder, head leaning against the sheath. “What did you hear? Other than… emotion.” He says the word like it’s a discomforting thing.

Brushing aside that amusing fact that Zoro was uncomfortable with concept of emotion, Kari elects to say what she knew, “She was asking me to take you guys and get out of here. Pleading. It wasn’t like that front she’d been making when speaking with you guys out loud.” She pauses, than says, “Sometimes when emotions are heightened enough they float through alongside surface level thoughts. It isn’t often, I won’t normally hear it, but…” Kari trails momentarily, a lost look on her face. “It felt so anxious. So overwhelmingly scared.”

“Kari,” Luffy says, earning his crew’s attention. “What did she say?”

“Just….” Kari trails for a moment, she seems lost in thought, “please.” The silence is suffocating as they sit and stare. Kari rubs at her arm absently, not thinking any better. “That was… I don’t think she meant for me to hear all the emotions with it. But the emotions with it pushed it through anyways and… well.”

“What else?” Sanji asks, his voice carefully neutral as he rolled his cigarette between his fingers. 

“Just that she was begging us to leave.” Kari admitted, pulling up a leg to wrap her arms around. She let her chin rest atop her knee with a weak smile. “Told her that wasn’t my decision to make.”

“Well…” Zoro drones, leaning to rest his back against Kari’s. The tiefling shuffled to adjust to the weight but doesn’t outright move away. She just sits with it and rests. “That gives us a little more to work with then.”

“Hey…” Sanji trails slowly.

They roll their head to their new cook. “Yeah?”

“You think Nami really killed long-nose?”

Kari snorts at the name, stifling a snicker, about to answer with her doubt but pausing when a whisper curls at the edge of her mind. Her head snaps around so quick that it’s a miracle she doesn’t get whiplash. She pushes away form Zoro in a roll, and the poor swordsman was not ready for the move and collapses on the sand.

“Usopp!”

Sanji looks at Kari dumbly, “Yeah, what other long-nose could I be referring to?”

“No you—” Kari points with all her might at the approaching form sprinting as fast as he could through the sand banks. “Usopp!”

Immediately, heads turned, shocked beyond belief. 

“Usopp, you’re alive!” Luffy cries, scrambling up and meeting the sniper halfway to throw himself at his crewmate. The rest follow quickly, scrambling up to greet Usopp with equal gusto. Luffy is crying as he clings onto the man, “I thought Nami killed you!”

“W-Well she didn’t and—” Usopp’s eyes bugged when he spotted Sanji standing amongst their collective. “Wait, when did you get here?”

“I’ve decided to join you.” Sanji smiles, though stumbles when Kari slings an arm around his shoulders to pull him closer. He’s vaguely startled before he recognizes just who slinged an arm around him and suddenly he’s all wibble-wobbly, a goofy smile on his face.

“He couldn’t resist our whimsy!” Kari explains. 

Luffy nods seriously from where he is still wrapped around Usopp. “We have a lot of whimsy.”

“Well welcome to the Straw Hats!” Usopp smiles before he seems to realize that doing a meet and greet right now really wasn’t in their best interest with more pressing matters at hand. His expression schools into something more serious as he leans forward and quickly says, “Not the time! Nami she…” His expression turns haggard, “...she saved my life. There has to be a reason why she ended up joining the Arlong Pirates.”

“She joined the Arlong Pirates?” Kari asked in bewilderment, looking at everyone in disbelief. 

“You were chatting with her when she told us.” Zoro said by way of explanation.

“Ah.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Luffy starts, “She saved your life?”

“Yeah! She—”

“It’s useless, you know.”

Everyone is quick to seek out the new voice, finding a blue haired woman who’d apparently managed to sneak up on them while they were distracted. She didn’t appear harmful, but they still acted cautious. Enemy territory and all that. 

Her eyes scan over the crew, scrutinizing and sizing everyone up. Her eyes finally settle on Usopp, “No matter what you do, you won’t be able to change Arlong’s rule.”

Usopp’s expression turns shocked, “Nojiko!”

“Who?” Kari asked blandly from where she was still leaning against Sanji. Though she is knocked for a loop when Sanji spins out from her hold and puts on this utterly adoring expression, babbling nonsense about how beautiful Nojiko was.

“What do you mean useless?” Zoro asked after hearing Usopp explain that Nojiko was Nami’s sister.

“Please don’t involve yourselves with this village any further.” She takes a defensive stance, hands on her hips and continuing her scrutiny. “I’ll tell you all about how things got this way, but in return, I want you to just leave quietly.”

They all shared a long look. Then Luffy has this serious expression come to his face and they nod to their captain to take the lead. Luffy starts walk— walking away?

“Nah.” 

All of them stared at their captain in sheer bafflement. He waved away their concern. 

“Not interested in her past! I’m taking a walk.”

“Take a— take a walk?!” Usopp shouted, pulling at his hair in bewilderment. “You’re not going to stay and listen?!”

“Nah, I’m good.” Luffy waves them off, continuing to wander away.

As Nojiko watches the captain off her cool poise melts into something more disbelieving. She turns to whoever was nearest and asks “What’s with him?”

Zoro snorts from where he opts to sit against a tree. “Don’t mind him. That’s just the kind of guy he is.” He tilts his head back, arms braced behind his head, “But we’ll listen to what you have to say. Though… I doubt hearing your story will change anything— oi.”

Kari had shuffled over and flopped down in front of the swordsman, using Zoro as a backrest. She folds her arms neatly over her chest and huffs. Zoro just sputters and pushes her overly large hat aside so he can glare down at the second mate. 

“Don’t act like your ass wasn’t gonna just take a nap.” Kari says petulantly, still set on using Zoro as her own personal chair. She turns her attention back to Nojiko and cocks her head to the side, “Who died?” because honestly something of that caliber must have happened to garner such fear.

“Kari you can’t just ask people something like that.” Usopp mutters, head in his hands. 

“Maybe a little more tact, horn-head.” Zoro mutters, apparently still set on getting a nap as he leans back, arms pillowing his head. 

Nojiko looked alarmed, staring at Kari with wide eyes as she sputters, “Sorry?”

“He had to have killed someone to get such a scared reaction out of Nami.” Kari answered, eyes narrowing, “So what’s that about?”

Nojiko’s expression spasmed in alarm, her entire posture curling for a moment as she crosses her arms in an effort to just hold herself. “She… she was really that scared?”

“Yes.” Kari nods, leaning forward to rest her chin on her palm. “So what’s with that?”

Nojiko thins her lips, takes a deep breath, and speaks.

History ran with good intentions and was rewarded only by pain. A misery of the worst sort. Their wonderful navigator serving as a slave to a man who only caused her this terror. A town that sees her suffering and can only weep and hope she leaves it all behind her.

At its center: Arlong.

“Ever since that day 8 years ago, that girl decided to not show her tears to anyone, and never ask for help!” Nojiko’s gaze is set on the ground, fingers digging into her arm, the only sign of how painful this reality was. “All because she doesn’t want to see anyone killed by Arlong. Just like our mother was. Do you have any idea how painful it was for her, to make that decision to fight alone and continue to live on, when she was barely 10 years old?”

“So in order to save her village…” Usopp started slowly, expression haggard after the heart wrenching story. “She forced herself to join the very pirates who killed her mother.”

“How dare they cause pain to my beloved Nami! I’ll kill those pirates!” Sanji screams, looking close to exploding in his fury.

Zoro snoozed, but his long snore was cut off by a slap of Kari’s tail angrily thrashing. The swordsman opened his eyes with an alarmed expression, only to grunt when Kari’s tail again batted into his face. “Horn-head, control your tail!”

“I’m pissed off Zoro let me seethe!” Kari grumbled, leaning forward and bracing herself on her knees with grinding teeth. Her fingers rhythmically ran against her leg in an attempt to stave off her growing ire. “I want to tear apart that wretched barbed nose, no good, heinous—”

She was cut off by a sandal being thrown at her.

Kari barked in alarm as she was assaulted by the footwear, arm spasming back and smacking Zoro in the face. The swordsman cried out just as Kari does, and both glare at their respective attackers with a demanding, “OI!”

“The hells was that for?!” Kari cries after she successfully grabs and shakes the offending sandal.

“That was for not listening to me!” Nojiko yelled, a withering look on her face. “Because of you going around and calling Nami your friend, causing trouble, and wanting to avenge her, those pirates are starting to doubt her, putting her 8 years of hard work in jeopardy!” Nojiko looks away with a narrowed look. “So please… don’t make her suffer anymore.”

“DRAGONSHIT!” Kari snarled, a hint of an unintentional thaumaturgy floating through and giving an otherworldly echo to her vulgar words. She throws the sandal back (missing by a good margin of which she was electing to ignore), stands up and starts pacing back and forth, everyone watching as she works off her fury. Her tail continues to thrash in her stomping.

They watched her plow around for a time before Zoro sighs and stand up, carefully holding his sword with all the care it was due. “Well,” he starts, eyeing the rest of their band and sizing up the general consensus. “Let’s get to it then.”

Nojiko blinked wildly while the others seemed to reach the same conclusion, standing and looking ready to march out. 

“Wha-” Nojiko blinked rapidly, watching as the band of Straw Hat pirates start to congregate and begin their march towards the village. “What are you doing?! Did you not listen to a word I just said.”

“Oh, we heard you alright,” Usopp responded, rolling his wrists as if to warm up the joints. 

“We just, pardon the language Nojiko-dear, don’t give a shit.” Sanji responded.

“I’m going to shove my foot up his ass!” Kari hisses, twisting her wrist and letting a familiar quarterstaff appear in hand. 

“Pretty sure our captain’s already called dibs on that one, tails.” Zoro says lightly, an amused lilt to his voice. 

“Stop ignoring me!” Nojiko calls hurriedly, but is finally acknowledged by Kari, who spares a look with narrowed eyes. 

“They hurt our crewmate.” Kari says slowly, deliberately, “And that’s something we can’t let go unpunished.” 

“You can’t.” Nojiko whispered, eyes wide.

The entire crew grinned manicly.

“Watch us.”

Chapter Text

“How the hell did you manage to take us to the other end of the island, moss-head!?” 

“I followed the sun duh.”

“What the hells kind of logic is that?!”

Usopp didn’t deign to give them a word, instead muttering about idiot swordsmen and a lack of directions.

In their action to meet back up with their captain and give a certain pirate crew the ass beating of a lifetime, Nojiko had run off, likely in the actual direction of the destination they needed to head to, but they opted to follow after their first mate. Which subsequently led them to the completely opposite direction from where they needed to head.

Now here they were, sprinting full tilt back in the direction they needed to head with Kari at the lead when she caught sight of a village in the distance.

“After we beat fish-ass I’m going to beat yours, shithead.” Sanji snarled, biting down on his cigarette as he continued to sprint.

Zoro snapped his head over and barked, “Shut the hell up!”

“Oh sweet divine, finally!” Kari panted as they finally sprinted into line of sight of the village. They peeled down the main path and started slowing when they spotted their captain apparently speaking with a haggard Nami, blood on her arm and quivering with rage.

Each of them took a moment to catch their breath while they watched their captain pull his straw hat off and set it on Nami’s head with a focus fit for a warmonger. He shouted something, but they couldn’t hope to figure out what was being said. Then he started marching towards them, and while the others were decently back to themselves, Kari hadn’t had nearly enough time to catch her breath.

Luffy started past them, head low in focus as his eyes were set on Arlong Park. “Let’s go.”

“Roger.” Usopp said, sliding his goggles into place.

“Roger.” Sanji said, a burst of smoke trailing from his lips.

“Roger.” Zoro said, wado beginning to slide out of her sheath.

“Ro- guh- roger.” Kari wheezed, shakily getting to her feet and using her staff as a crutch.

Usopp spares her a concerned glance, “You sure you don’t wanna take a second longer to catch your breath?”

Kari glares.

Usopp quickly took back his suggestion.

“Alright,” Zoro starts as they begin their march, “So what’s the plan Luf— and he’s gone.”

All four of them watch Luffy charge in screaming, swinging his arm around in an exaggerated display of winding up a punch, and subsequently punch the gate so hard that the front entrance shattered. 

Usopp threw up his hands with a laugh that bordered on hysterical. “Sure! Let’s just charge in without a plan! Why not?!”

“At least he gets straight to the point.” Sanji grumbles as they start to run after their captain, who was apparently already set on making a commotion inside. 

The others gave varying grunts of agreement.

Sprinting inside the courtyard, they were getting straight to work. Sanji was kicking, Zoro was slashing, Usopp was slinging, and Kari was bashing some guys brains in with her quarterstaff. Who could blame her?

Zoro spares a passing glance to a huffing and puffing Kari who was hovering over a downed fishman she’d just beat the light of day into, and he shakes his head, sheathing Wado. “We really need to get you trained with that thing.”

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix— oh.” Her quarterstaff groans and snaps in twine, the end hanging by a thicker splintering branch.

“...so note to self—”

“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence, asshole.” Kari hisses as she feels the bond connecting the quarterstaff to herself fade away. She lets go of the wooden weapon and watches it clatter uselessly to the ground.

“That was pretty sad, Kari.” Usopp, who’d been the other person to see the frankly pathetic display, comments. Apparently he’s so drawn by the sheer tragedy of Kari embarrassing herself that he doesn’t even think to be nervous about the Fishman Pirates glaring daggers their way.

“Oh like you’re one to judge— what the hells?!” Kari’s eyes boggle as she points past her crew to the observant fishmen, “I thought you said they’d be like aquatic elves or something?!”

Instead of acknowledging her bewildered exclamation, the fishmen are apparently more set upon gossiping and pointing at them which… okay yeah, Kari can’t really blame them, they did just charge in here with reckless abandon. She’d sure be a little thrown for a loop if she watched some randos charge onto the Merry and start wrecking the shit out of the place.

“So your goal from the very beginning was only to get Nami, is that it?” Luffy asks slowly, eyes narrowing with a dangerous glint. Clearly they’d come partway into an important discussion.

Arlong — because the barbed nose, piece of shit, hawaiian shirt wearing bastard could only be Arlong — lets out a vicious laugh, practically howling, “Just what could 5 measly humans do?!”

Despite the threat, Kari slowly leans over to Usopp, one hand at the side of her mouth, as she loudly whispers, “Did… did he just assume I’m a human?”

Usopp leans back, “Maybe he has cataracts?” 

But before either could ponder fishman vision they were interrupted by a yell from another fishman. It was a deafening cry, a summoner's call. Accompanying it was the loud rumble of waves right beside the tower. A rising mass of water that grew and grew and grew until the currents split and a—

“Uh,” Kari stared at the massive sea cow that looked close to tears.

“Oh him?” Luffy blinking up at their former boat-puller.

“So he’s one of them, huh?” Sanji muses, a bit of a smoke lingering with every word. 

It seemed that their staring alone was enough to shake the poor beast as it began slinking back into the water, only to be stopped by Arlong himself. It was clear enough that the man’s words had an effect on the creature that went beyond simple master and pet. Something darker. Something more cruel.

So it wasn’t any real surprise when the large sea monster spun around and started charging.

Any chance at beginning their assault is put on pause by Luffy stepping forward, cracking his knuckles, and putting on a determined grimace. “Leave it to me! They’re just a bunch of timewasters!”

And so Luffy charges forward, swinging his arm for the ready as he launched himself at the incoming wave of fishman and sea cow. 

“The hell’s he doing?” Sanji asks as they watch Luffy stretch out to grab the sea cow’s horns.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Zoro mutters.

Kari’s eyes widen in alarm as she seemed to read just what Luffy’s plan entailed. “Time to move.” She grabs Usopp’s arm and tugs him to follow her as she starts back quickly.

“You heard Kari!” Sanji shouted, quick to dart after the tiefling, gaining some distance.

“What the hell is he doing?!” Zoro shouts but starts running after the others out of habit.

“Hell if I know!”

Kari groaned in annoyance, glancing over her shoulder and shouting, “You idiots he’s gonna—”

Turned out that Luffy finished his move before Kari could finish her explanation. Resulting in the example of Luffy slingshotting the sea cow over his head and into the crowd of awaiting fishmen, causing a ripple of debris from the crux of where the sea monster landed. A small crater in its wake, passed out at the show of their captain’s stubborn streak.

“I didn’t come here to fight these small fries! The one I want to beat up,” Luffy reels around to point at Arlong with vengeance, “Is you!”

Arlong gives a predatory grin.

“Looks like the main force is out to meet us.” Zoro muses as they gradually come back to Luffy’s side.

Sanji and Usopp are busy wringing Luffy out for his outlandish move, so Kari slides up next to Zoro, arms folded with her own challenging grin. Her fingers twitch on her arm, small dancing crackles of colored magic skittering over her skin. “About damn time.”

“If this was how things were going to turn out, we should have fought from the beginning.” One of Arlong’s head honchos muses, his own attention loose but interested. He spares a glance behind him, “Arlong, please just sit right there.”

“If we let you fight while so enraged, all of Arlong Park will end up destroyed!” Another honcho mused.

Zoro narrowed his eyes, “Octopus is doing something.”

Sanji starts listing off the starting means to make an octopus related dish.

And then Octo-guy is reeling back and spitting ink at them. Because of course he is.

“Ah shit.” Kari groans when watching the ink shoot towards them.

Before she can succumb to her future covered in ink, she is conveniently grabbed around the waist and hauled out of the way by one chivalrous cook.

“Don’t worry, Kari! I gotcha!” Sanji yells, unable to keep the singsong from his voice. He further aids when rolling to assure that Kari isn’t scraped up as they tumble across the ground. “You alright?” He asks as he helps prop them up once they’ve come to a stop.

“Better than ever.” Kari grumbles, wincing when she spots some ink that had splattered onto her arm. She pokes at the substance with a disappointed grimace, “Ah man…”

“You dumbass!” Zoro yells, “Why didn’t you dodge that?!” 

Meanwhile Luffy is screaming about being blind and Kari can safely context clue her way into knowing how that happened. By Sanji’s look, she can see he’s going through the stage of ‘what did I sign myself up for’ which was a right of passage for the Straw Hats at this rate. But then his expression turns more panicked as he looks down at Kari apologetically.

“Excuse me for a moment, please.”

“No yeah sure,” Kari waved him off, watching boredly as their resident cook charges forward and blocks a massive chunk of debris octo-guy apparently saw fit to slam atop their captain. Kari threw her arms up with a whoop that Sanji swooned to.

“Kari!” Usopp yells, gaining her attention. The sniper was busy attempting to tug Luffy out of his — when the hells did he get his feet stuck in the ground?! “A little help?!” The poor boy wheezes as he struggles to gain even a fraction of an inch of give from where Luffy is stuck.

“Ah shit yeah.” Kari mutters, hurrying to her feet and running closer to wrap her arms around Luffy alongside Usopp and pulling. “Hey cap.”

“Hey Kari.” Luffy greets, apparently having cleaned enough ink away from his eyes to spot the warlock. He is quick to sling his attention back around and point angrily at the octopus-guy that got them into this situation. “Kick his ass.”

Kari blinks a couple times, spares a look at Usopp, then goes back to her captain. “Yeah sure.” 

“Wha— bu—” Usopp starts sputtering and wheezing when Kari lets go of their captain and is nearly eating the concrete with the sudden pull from Luffy.

Kari swings around to point threateningly at octopus-guy. “Hey sucker-arms!” She shouts, gaining the attention of said fishman. Her hand twists and sparking red magic flies to her fingers. Her lips pull back into a sharp grin, bordering manic, as her fingers turn and flick outwards. “Eldritch Blast.”

The red energy zaps forward, slamming into its intended target with a satisfying zing. The octo-guy stumbles back, apparently so taken by surprise that he drops the rubble he’d been intending to slam into Luffy a second time. He hunches in on himself, hand braced on his chest as he tries to assess just what had hit him. 

And as if it weren’t the cherry on top, Zoro had gotten the drop on the guy too, grinning with his own manic air as he greets, “My turn.”

His abrupt appearance alarms the octopus into swinging around wildly, sloppily. He slams into the ground where Zoro had once stood, though fails to follow through as the swordsman quickly dodges. And as it just so happens, Zoro lands closer to Kari. 

“How dare you!” Their enemy shouts, clearly enraged and rambling about vengeance and cutting Zoro down a few pegs and Kari is frankly insulted by how he doesn’t see her as an equal threat on par with Zoro. 

“Dibs.” Kari and Zoro speak at once.

This immediately results in Zoro snapping his head to Kari and crying, “What?! No! I said dibs first! I met him first!”

“Yeah, but he isn’t taking me seriously and deserves to get his ass handed to him!” Kari says indignantly, stomping a foot into the ground as if in emphasis. “Plus Luffy ordered me to kick his ass!”

“That’s true.” Luffy says when he is ricocheted back to his spot in the ground. Usopp is busy sprinting away and being chased down by another one of the Arlong pirate cronies. He lifts a single hand in the air with a sense of poise undeserving of the rubber idiot. “Sharing is caring.”

Both Zoro and Kari groan as one, unable to deny their captain. 

Very quickly the four remaining Straw Hats line up, all at attention and ready to move at a single order. Kari and Zoro stand almost shoulder to shoulder. The swordsman still yet to draw his blade, but Kari is on standby with familiar magical energy swirling around her wrists. 

Then Arlong is standing to attention, approaching with a thick sense of threat in the air. 

“Arlong,” One of the remaining cronies croaks, sparing a quick look at his captain, “I’ve already asked you not to fight.” 

Arlong just continues to grin. 

“I’m gonna kick your ass!” Luffy shouts, stretching a punch, but narrowly missing the man as Arlong just barely leans to the side and manages to escape the hit. 

Kari’s eyes widen without thinking, “Shit.”

Arlong reaches up and grabs Luffy’s wrist before he can pull it back in time. 

“Do you seriously think you can win against us?”

“And what if we do?” Sanji smirks. 

“You bet I think so, you idiot! Now let go of my hand!”

“Uh… Luffy—”

“Seems like he has something to say.” Zoro muses, eyes narrowing on Arlong with his own confident smirk. Though, unfortunately, it vanishes when Kari punches his shoulder. Barely any real force behind it, but it alarms him enough that he winces and looks at the tiefling in annoyance. “The hell?!”

“You idiot Arlong’s gonna— I hate it here.” Kari can only miserably watch as Arlong hauls Luffy out of the ground, cement and all, and chucks him into the small inlet of sea allowed into the courtyard. 

No manner of punching or screaming could save Luffy from the weight of his cement boots pulling him down into the murky depths. 

Kari tugs at the rim of her hat helplessly as she desperately shouts, “Someone get his ass!”

Sanji doesn’t think twice, starting to sprint for the water, but only stopped by Zoro grabbing him. The green-headed swordsman sparing quick looks at the cook and second mate. “Don’t act rashly! Going into the sea is exactly what these guys want! There’s only one way to save Luffy right now!”

“He’s gonna drown!” Kari shouts back, questioning whether or not it was an appropriate time to strangle the first mate. 

“You mean we have to beat these guys first and then jump into the sea?!” Sanji asks, before pausing and taking a long drag on his cigarette, “Fine by me.”

“Are you two insane?!” Kari screeches, close to trading her hat for her hair and ripping out the strands. “He’s a devil fruit user! He’s gonna die before we defeat them!”

Because if there was one thing that was pounded into her head these past few days it was the basics of devil fruits and their users.

“Then let’s make it quick!” Zoro yells, turning and finally drawing his sword. “Don’t think your head and 8 limbs will still be in one piece after I’m through with you, octopus!” 

“Oh sweet Divine— fine! Handle them!” Kari threw off her hat and dove into the pool her captain was being dragged down in. She only barely caught the warning shouts of Sanji and Zoro before she was plunging beneath the waves and her hearing went muffled.

The funny thing about being beneath the water is how everything just lessens. Everything. Sight, sound, feelings. It’s like the concept of living is muffled inside the murky depths of water, washing away worries and the overwhelming everything the world has to offer.

Too bad Kari feels like this is the most intense moment of her life and her very future depends on whether or not she saves her captain from drowning.

C’mon, Kari thinks as she weaves her arms through the ocean, Don’t die on me so early man, that’s basically begging for a future TPK.

Her vision, blurred and stinging from the salty brine, barely manages to make out the sight of a red vest on the shadowed sea floor. Her eyes widen and a couple bubbles escape her as she gives a water-warped, “Misty Step.”

Kari’s appearance in front of Luffy startles the boy into losing a few precious air bubbles, and she slams her hands over the boy's face as fast as she could in an attempt to keep him from instantly drowning. Poor Luffy at least gets the gist as he weakly nods. And it was about then that it really clicked for the tiefling.

Luffy was a Devil Fruit user.

Devil Fruit users in the sea might as well be marked for death.

And by Luffy’s slow growing daze, it was clear that reality was coming true a lot faster than Kari was hoping for.

With as much speed as she could muster, Kari began assessing Luffy’s whole situation.

Swimming closer to the boy’s legs, Kari overlooks the sight of her captain’s feet stuck in a chunk of stone. She elects to ignore the matter of how he got into this situation to instead figure out how to best get him out of it. Unfortunately, as it were, Kari did not have a high intelligence — so to speak. She was much more charismatic over book smart, and unfortunately she doubts she could seduce the chunk of rock into letting Luffy out.

Which left option two.

With a mental swear, Kari reaches around Luffy, doing her damndest to wrap her arms beneath his own and began kicking. Of course, again, she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and she failed to really account for just how heavy the block stuck to her captain’s feet was. And by the fact that her captain was looking less and less cognitive, she needed to find a solution fast.

Unfortunately, in her franticness to figure out what the hells she needs to do she failed to account for the two forms who were swimming down to her. She lets go of Luffy with a panicked twitch, looking over her captain in deep concern, only to spin around when feeling something tap her shoulder. Her hands sparked with warping red light as she took aim only to falter at the sight of Nojiko and an unfamiliar man.

The man, scarred and older than both women combined, swims to the side, revealing he had brought down a hammer, and when he notices Kari having caught sight of the tool, he frantically points to Luffy’s bound legs. 

Kari’s eyes widen and she nods frantically, swimming out of the way, her tail cutting through the water and helping her turn faster as she watches Nojiko swim closer to her captain’s head and the man begins attempting to break the stone.

It was about that point where the burn in Kari’s lungs became a little too prominent to ignore.

Deeming Luffy to be in safe hands, Kari begins kicking to the surface in an attempt to give her lungs a break.

Right as she is about to break the surface, she’s startled to find something thrown in near her. Only to immediately realize it was Sanji.

Her eyes blink rapidly as she catches sight of the blond and, of course, he immediately catches sight of her and appears equally surprised. He spares a quick look downwards and spots who Kari had left Luffy with. His expression turns to confusion as he looks at Kari in bewilderment. 

Well, he only spots one of the people Kari had left Luffy with. As Nojiko was who knows where, but Sanji and Kari had to assume she’d taken their captain’s head with her because Luffy’s neck was stretched like a rubber band towards a spot above water. It takes a minute of squinting through the water to realize that the man is pumping Luffy’s chest and the pair belatedly realize that they must be trying to get Luffy breathing again.

The tension both had been carrying doubles majorly.

And unfortunately it sure as hells wasn’t over yet.

Kari watches in alarm as a shadow overcasts Sanji, and the poor chef isn’t ready for the incoming attack that comes piercing through the current’s surface. There is a shout from the attacker that is clear as day and makes Kari yell in alarm, what limited air she has left bubbling to the surface. 

“Fishman Karate! Arm blade slash!”

The warlock can only watch as their newest recruit is pushed further into the depths, the massive fishman pushing him lower and lower at an alarming rate.

Kari assesses the twinge in her lungs, her companion being dragged lower and lower, and the massive fishman that would pose a threat to her captain.

Ah screw it. 

Hand aiming low, Kari narrows her eyes and grits her teeth as she aims and fires.

“Starry wisp.”

A bright light shoots forward, slicing through the water and barely missing Sanji, instead nailing the fishman dead in the back. The fishman is pushed forward with the force of the hit, a dull glow spreading across his body until his whole person is dimly lit. Sanji glances back in that limited time and meets Kari’s eyes dead on. The fishman spins around, mouth split into a snarl as he glares daggers at who’d struck him. He catches sight of the floating Kari and makes her his new focal point.

“Ah, I almost forgot about the other one.” The massive manta ray fishman mused. He stopped in his descent to Luffy, instead choosing to give his full attention to Kari, the latter of whom was dead set on glaring. He puts on this challenging grin as he begins swimming at her. “Might as well snip a couple crewmates in the bud.”

Well… shit.

With as much gusto as she could muster, Kari began to frantically swim for the surface. It’s only just barely that she manages to thrust her head to the surface, get a short lungful of air, before something wraps around her tail and tugs her back down below the waves. 

Lungs sufficiently adequate for now, Kari glares down to the grinning menace pulling her back down. There is a twitch to his eye that suggests he’s upset she’s managed to get any air at all. Kari attempts to kick the foe in the face, but the man bats aside her attacks with ease, all her movements slow in the water. And it is only then that she realizes that the guy’s hair is wrapped around her tail. 

Kari looks alarmed at the realization, and she catches sight of Sanji below trying to swim up to them.

Honestly had she the air, Kari would have pointed out how idiotic the guy was for deciding to attack her over going for her prone captain.

Unfortunately, she had to assume the guy must have read her mind — and she thought she was the telepath — as the guy's expression turns furious and he snarls, “No calling for help now—” He reaches out properly and grips Kari’s ankle in a crushing hold, his snarl turns up at the corners to become a threatening grin, “Fatal Pressure—”

Sanji wraps around the guy’s legs and it stops the incoming attack. The manta-ray fishman looks down at Sanji with a glare, kicking in an attempt to get his new leech off, but it's enough time for Kari to get an idea as to what to do.

With a toothy grin, Kari ducks down to get closer to the fishman, latching onto the guy, attempting to dig her nails into the flesh with as much malice as she can garner. She quickly eyes Sanji, who’s floating just far enough away now after the strike from the fishman. And with building mania she leans close enough into the fishman’s face that it makes him reel his head back in alarm. He’s still gripping her ankle which means Kari’s in a weird tuck to get close enough to the guy’s face, but it’s enough.

Bubbles escape her lips and join the growing dark spots around her in the murky waters as she says, “Arms of Hadar.”

Inky black tendrils erupt all around her, wrapping around the fishman and holding. The necrotic energy sizzles at the man’s flesh and, even in the water, Kari can see the skin burning. The mass of tendrils alarm her attacker into letting go, looking around in horror and yelling as the warped energy keeps attempting to latch. The minute she feels the hair unwrap from around her tail, Kari is kicking back and moving through the tendrils with ease.

And by the time the tendrils fade, Kari is now ten feet out of reach and safely unharmed.

Though it seems her display had alarmed the man enough into staring at her with fright, muttering, “What the hell are you?”

Kari answers with a big toothy grin.

And while all the attention is on her, Sanji uses the moment to swim upwards and strike.

Unfortunately it's not enough to really keep him down, but they’re chipping away at the guy, and soon enough they’d be asking “how do you want to do this?” And better yet as long as his attention was on them rather than their captain they’d play this game as long as it would take.

“Who do you think you are?!” The fishman cries in his rage, teeth gnashing and looking overall pissed. His hands flex in and out of fists, head coming down in a low bow of indignation. 

Kari looks at Sanji, as if to say can you get a load of this guy only to panic at the sight of Sanji’s purpling face. The cook was holding a hand to his mouth in an attempt to keep what limited air he had, and looked close to passing out if he didn’t get a breath in soon. 

And the fishman notices.

The fishman’s rage turns into focus. His snarl turns into that of a wicked grin as a low laugh begins to grow in his chest as he watches Sanji like he’s bait. “You challenged a fishman in his home territory.” He flexes his hands into claws, looking ready to dive forward and drive them into Sanji. “Should have stayed on the surface, human.”

He charges.

Sanji moves. 

And so does Kari.

Her initiative is just barely faster than the fishman by some miracle. 

In an impressive display of strength, Kari manages to just barely shove Sanji out of the way, resulting in her being on the receiving end of one of those Fishman Karate fueled punches. What little air she’d managed to get above water is quickly knocked out of her. She watches the pitiful amount of oxygen she’d managed to suck down now quickly drifting for the surface. 

Her eyes meet Sanji’s, and in a quick act that she’d apologize for later, she reaches for the familiar tug of thought and grabs it.

Sanji’s face grimaces with the sudden mental spike to his head.

“Get a lungful now.” Kari sends, knowing her thoughts are heard when Sanji flinches in alarm, staring down at her as she’s pulled deeper and deeper into the inlet. 

“What the hell— what is this—”

“Panic later, breathe now Sanji!”

Sanji has this beat of hesitation as he looks like he wants to fight against it. To let his chivalrous nature win and dive deeper after her. But something clicks in his eyes. He still hesitates, Kari can see it even through her warped vision as she sinks lower and lower, but then he looks up and swims.

The relief inside Kari is palpable, but her own cramping lungs are her next problem she’s needing to address. She got Sanji to take care of himself, so her job as second mate was done.

Unfortunately the first mate was busy so that meant she couldn’t rely on him to get her ass to safety.

“Are you trying to die?!” The fishman snarled as he swung his leg around and slams his heel into Kari’s gut, causing more precious air to escape. “FIRE FLOWER HEEL DROP KICK!”

Kari was starting to get a little annoyed and a little desperate to breathe.

Deciding that enough was enough, Kari thrusts one arm out, red light threading between her fingers as she aims. “Eldritch Blast!” 

Unfortunately for her, the water warps her vision just enough to not get a proper read on the bastard as her shot veers and misses. Her eyes widen comically as the guy’s lips twist up in amusement at her failed attack and then he’s charging her again, and Kari’s luck must have all drained out as she’s then on the bad end of the guys foot as he slams his heel into her nose with a painful crunch.

Her nose… might be broken. (It was definitely broken.)

The hit knocks her loose as she floats away in the water, struggling to come back to her senses. And she certainly isn’t fast enough as a hand is wrapping around her neck and choking what little air she has left out.

Instinct pulls her hands up to grapple at the hand around her throat. Her nails dig weakly into the flesh, barely piercing the skin. Her entire body is screaming at the abuse and there’s a gradual pain blooming behind her temples that makes it all the more harder to focus. The lack of oxygen is making her muscles go lax in a final bid to save strength. The fight is gradually leaving her. Little by little her will to live fades.

It’s just what the fishman is hoping for, putting on a predatory grin as he leans forward. Kari’s horns nearly knock into the guy’s head. She weakly winces at the proximity, struggling to pull back so she can give the guy a weak glare.

“Never pick a fight you won’t win.” The fishman says, and faintly, Kari recognizes the form of Sanji behind him getting closer and closer, frantically swimming down down down.

And, because Kari could never let some bozo like this schmuck get the last word, she takes what little air she’d been saving and pushes it out. She watches the poison spray laced bubbles billow into the guy’s face and they must have some effect as he is quick to let go of her while hacking on the nauseous fumes.

Bad news: that was the last of the air supply she had.

Running on pure adrenaline and survival instinct, Kari began to frantically swim upwards, the pounding in her temples growing to that of her whole body. Her vision is blurring at the edges, darkening with little spots of black. Her muscles get laxer and laxer but she keeps pushing despite that. Because the reality was in this scenario there was no stopping to wait. 

But then that infuriating wire hair wraps around her ankle and she is once more forced down.

If Kari could scream let it be known she would be howling.

Yet as it were, Kari just weakly reaches upwards, watching the surface grow farther and farther. She is forced to spin around, taken by both arms by the massive fishman, holding her with a snarl as there are still lingering quakes in his chest from her poison. “How dare you—”

Whatever witty words could be said are silenced by Sanji’s heel coming down in a smooth arc and slamming in the man’s head so hard the guy is knocked unconscious.

Kari couldn’t stop the sheer relief flowing through her when the grip around her ankle recedes, free to her own devices again. However, she was weak as it were and she could only manage a few strained pushes before the pain in her chest grew too great and she instinctively took a breath.

Underwater.

Drowning? Don’t recommend it. The feeling swarms your whole person and it feels like every vein, every cell, every molecule is suffocating. The instinct to live, live, live, pounds in your head while your body actively does otherwise. It’s a horrible feeling. Then your person writhes because it feels a need to escape, but it can’t because you’re drowning, and you’re fighting, and you’re dying.

And Kari is drowning.

A set of arms wrap around her and she has the faint recollection of something dragging her upwards, and Kari can’t really focus on that past the drowning—

Her head is breaking the surface and her body tells her to breathe.

She retches the water out and it's ugly and it's horrible but it lets air in.

Arms are still holding her up as she realizes it is Sanji who has hauled her out of the ocean’s — Maiden’s — embrace. He’s charging for the nearest lip of land, mindful to keep Kari’s head above the lapping waves as Kari continues to hack out the punishing sea. His arms can only tighten around her as Kari weakly reaches up to hold onto his wrists, holding strong and fast as if to reassure herself that she wouldn’t sink down once again.

“You’re alright.” Sanji assures gently as he is now close enough to the lip of the land that he can pull them both out. He helps Kari sit properly, firmly rubbing into her back as she continues hacking out salt water. “Deep breaths, bug.”

The little name makes Kari snort past her hacking, weakly pushing sopping hair off her face as she spares a look to Sanji She speaks and her voice sounds like gravel, “I can’t believe the first thing you thought of besides darling and dear was bug.”

“At least it’s cute.” Sanji insists, being mindful as he pulls Kari’s hair back to remake her ponytail. Now drenched, but still reliable.

Kari rolls her eyes, but she wouldn’t deny the fond smile. She lets Sanji finish pulling her hair back as she finishes hacking enough to give Sanji’s future cigarette-laced lung disease retching a run for its money. (She really hopes this won’t result in her first case of pneumonia and ow her nose still hurts dammit). 

When her coughing had finally calmed to only two hacks per every five breaths, she rolled her head to Sanji.

“Thanks for saving my ass.” 

Sanji gives her his calmest smile as he attempts to squeeze some of the water from his clothes, “Well duh, I’d be a pretty shit new crewmate if I didn’t rescue our lovely second mate.”

Kari rolls her eyes, lightly shoving Sanji as he goes to stand and offers a hand to pull her up. She doesn’t think twice and takes the offer, holding on and now up on her two feet, still a little shaky with the hacking still threatening to take over, but standing. 

Sanji is about two seconds away from spinning around and flaunting his general demeanor when they are luckily saved by an unwelcome voice.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” 

Both Sanji and Kari turn to regard the Fishman now poking his head out of the water, apparently having been less out of it than they’d expected. Kari was getting really tired of this guy’s shit.

“I’m many times stronger than you are, it doesn’t matter if we’re in water or out of it. And now you’ve made me mad.” The guy hauls himself out in a manner similar to a fish out of water flopping on the shore. The guy rolls to his feet with all the lame grace of said fish as he strikes a ready position, “I’ll destroy you with the ultimate move of fishman karate! I sent you flying before with the hundred brick fist, but my greatest move-”

“COLLIER COUP!”

Any hope the guy could have at posing a threat is promptly extinguished by Sanji kicking the shit out of him.

Kari raises a hand to cup her mouth as she cheers, “Beat his ass, Sanji!”

“Why’s swirly-brows beating the shit out of that guy?”

Turning her head, Kari blinks at the sight of an absolute beaten to shit Zoro, the guy might as well be bleeding out of every hole in his body as he trudges over to join Kari in watching Sanji make a fool out of Arlong’s men.

“Oh, hey Zoro,” Kari greets, opting to not ask why Zoro looks like he was put in a blender. She turns her attention back to Sanji who seems intent on cracking the bozo’s skull open. “Guy was an asshole, almost made me drown.”

“Ah.” Because yeah that was all the motivation the cook would need to absolutely decimate an opponent. Though Zoro can’t help but wince when he watches Sanji fling the guy into Arlong Park itself. There is a large resounding crack as a wall caves in at the impact that all three of them grin at. “And the guy opted to come out and fight on land and not on his home turf?”

“I’m very skilled at making people pissed off.” Kari says by way of explanation, grinning at Sanji when he spun around and waved his arms to get their attention.

“Kari! Kari did you see that?! I’ve defended your honor, dar— bug!” Good save Sanji, good save.

“Did he just call you bug?” Zoro asked, because of course that’s what he latched onto.

Any opportunity to explain was quickly brushed aside as all three spot Arlong sitting on some debris and looking over his fallen allies in stifled fury. He rises up and all three take on defensive postures. 

Zoro, apparently more battered than Kari had been led to believe, leans against Kari, to which Kari grunts and adjusts her posture to support both of them. Sanji takes his own wide stance, the least messed up out of the three of them, and says, “Small fries will be small fries! Looks like this game is ours for the taking.”

Arlong… Arlong did not like that.

“How dare you do this to my brethren…” The man’s face twists into pure hate as he glares into the three, his sharp teeth gnashing. “But you’re getting too cocky if you think you’ve already won!”

“Sanji, why’d you have to go and piss off that guy?” Kari whines, shouldering Zoro so he lays better against her side. “We couldn’t even… catch…” Kari’s eyes widen as a shadow slowly rises over the three.

The massive slew of water fell onto the three and knocked them down before they could so much as breathe.

…

Kari comes back to the present with a heavy ass weight on her chest. 

It takes her a moment to recognize the weight atop her is in fact Zoro’s limp body.

“Move your ass, hill-top.” Kari wheezes, batting at Zoro’s back in a poor attempt to try and get the guy moving. Zoro just grunts, which is not helpful. “I can’t breathe, you dick.”

“Sure talkin’ enough to make me think otherwise.” Zoro grouches as he slowly manages to roll off her, flopping on the ground beside her. 

“Don’t,” Both swing their heads over just enough to catch sight of a drenched Sanji that is struggling to catch his breath. “Don’t be rude t’Kari.” Oh he might have a concussion too by the way his speech slurred.

“I’m growing tired of your babbling.”

Ah right, big-dick Arlong was still being a dick. Fork found in kitchen havin’ ass.

Kari’s eyes slide to Arlong and he’s poised over all three of them, peering down his barbed nose with contempt. There is a bit of water dripping from his hand as he sneers, “I don’t even need to touch you pathetic humans. Just a little water’s more than enough to kill the likes of you… this is the difference in power between our races.”

“Are you blind?” Kari asks blithely as she wonders how the guy mistook her for being human. Maybe Usopp’s theory of cataracts was more on point than they thought.

Arlong can’t even bite out some threatening comment because Sanji is swinging up from where he’d been keeled over, kicking with all his might as he yells, “Shut the hell up!”

But his attack doesn’t even land, as Arlong moves quicker and slams Sanji to the ground, the poor cook’s head cracking against the ground. Well, if he didn’t have a concussion before he certainly has a concussion now.

“Hurry up and die already.” Arlong hissses as he watches Sanji shakily push himself up, holding his head as blood pooled between his fingers. “It’s not as if your lives are actually worth anything…”

Kari’s hands claw at the ground.

“ARLONG!”

The voice pierces the tension and all heads turn to find Nami.

She stands with Luffy’s hat draped on her head like a halo. Her hand gripping her staff in a vice. There is a slight tremor in her posture. But Kari knows better than to assume its fear. The sheer determination on Nami’s face says enough as to her demeanor, as to her mindset.

It’s freeing in a way.

“Great timing, I was just about to kill these pirates.” Arlong muses. “What brings you here?”

“I came here to kill you.” Nami says simply. Straight to the point.

Arlong howls with laughter, “To kill me?! In the 8 years you’ve been with me, how many times have you tried to kill me? Whether by assassination, poisoning, or surprise attacks… but did you ever succeed?! Shouldn’t you know well by now that it’s impossible for inferior humans to kill me?!”

Guys gotta be blind, Kari muses.

“Listen well… I’m not going to kill you. And I won’t let you escape either! I’ll have to be my cartographer forever.” 

Arlong’s words make Nami shift back, her confidence melting into trepidation for that barest of a moment.

And Arlong just grins. 

“But as you know, I’m an understanding guy! I don’t want to chain down a young woman if possible. That’s why I’d rather have you be my cartographer  out of your own will.” Arlong raises his hand as if he were a town crier delivering his message to the people. “Other than you, I’m planning on killing everyone here right now but… if you agree to join the Arlong Pirates again, and continue drawing maps for me as one of my crew officers… I’ll specially allow for the lives of those Cocoyashi villagers to be spared!”

“You’re full of shit!” Kari spits, rolling over to try and push herself up. 

Unfortunately, Arlong did not take kindly to her words, and it takes at least half your movement to stand up as we all very well know.

Kari’s breath is pushed out of her in one sweep as Arlong’s foot drives into her stomach, shoving her back onto her side and giving Arlong a decent perch to lay his foot atop. He pushes down into Kari, making the tiefling wheeze as Arlong uses all his weight to keep her prone.

“And even when shown their place they still fight!” Arlong muses as he presses down into Kari’s side, her bones almost groaning under the weight. “Your little friends have pissed me off too much for that same mercy. So, dear Nami—” He looks to Nami with that shark-sharp grin, “—will you choose to side with me and save your fellow villagers, or will you side with these weaklings and attempt to fight me?

“But of course… seeing as how your most dependable fighters have been reduced to this sad state… your inevitable tragedy is only too easy to see! So tell me Nami… are you with me… or with them?”

Now, for all intents and purposes, Kari was sure this was a very moving moment. Something that would really hammer home a found family trope or two, but unfortunately, Arlong’s foot was digging into her side and giving her enough discomfort that she decided that it really wasn’t worth it in the long term. So she twisted her neck around just enough to where she could spot Arlong, sucked in a breath, and pushed out a plume of poison.

The poison spray sure delivered as intended. As Arlong makes a noise in his throat not too dissimilar to a yelp as he stumbles back and coughs at the intruding fog of noxious gas. Kari seizes the opportunity and begins to push herself up, sucking in what lungfuls of air she could get as she looks up to the rallying villagers. Well, at least it seems they agreed to go down with a fight.

“Do you wish for death?!” Arlong snarls down at Kari as she finally manages to pull herself upright.

“Nah.” Kari waves him off with a slow growing grin, “Just wishing to piss you off.”

It was about then that her captain came back and announced his waking up to the public.

“I was wondering when he’d wake up…” Sanji mused, blood running down his face. 

“Oh, Luffy fell asleep?” Zoro muses, and both Sanji and Kari share a long look that silently agrees that they would not tell Zoro just how  ‘asleep’ Luffy was.

“I really hope that old guy figured out how to get Luffy’s legs unstuck.” Kari groaned.

“Think you got thirty seconds left in the tank till Luffy shows, horn-head?” Zoro asks as he pushes himself up to a kneel, going to bite down on his sword and wielding two others that Kari assumed he got from whatever previous fight that had him looking like a corn on the cob. “Can’t say I’ll last longer than that.”

“You and I both.” Kari groaned, also sliding up, “Ran out of mana, down to cantrips.”

“Well that’s more than enough time for me.” Sanji announces as he dives back into the inlet without a hint of hesitation.

It seems like Arlong wants to follow, but is only held back by Zoro doing a quick swipe with his swords, just barely managing to nab him on the cheek. Kari sparks varying cantrips to her palms to choose from as she bares her teeth in a feral mimic of a grin. Both Kari and Zoro crouch into their respective stances, low and ready at a moment’s notice.

“Attention on us, big guy.” Kari warns, the red light of a prepared eldritch blast sparking and settling in her palm as she makes her choice of cantrip. 

Arlong’s expression turns annoyed, though he didn’t let his grin falter as he hisses, “I’m growing tired of your petty insistence of pissing me off, demon-spawn.”

Well if he wasn’t on their shitlist before, he sure was now.

Yet before either could make a move, an egg is cracking against Arlong’s arm and making him stumble back in alarm. Raising his hand up to the yolk-y mess, Arlong sneers. 

Both Zoro and Kari glance behind them to find Usopp peeking through a hole in the wall. He’s pointing through it and yelling, “Don’t be a dick!”

“Thanks Usopp! Appreciate it!” Kari yells to the boy peaking into the courtyard.

“Are all humans this insufferable?” Arlong snarls, wiping the egg off from his arm.

“Not all of them,” Kari grins, kneeling and bracing herself, “But tieflings sure are. Eldritch blast!” 

Arlong's eyes just barely have time to widen before a red hot beam of energy is laying into him full force.

Zoro opts to use the moment to move, sprinting forward while Kari chooses to step back, not in a position in which she could comfortably attack without repercussion. She was really starting to miss her quarterstaff. Rest in peace king.

But Zoro is making up for that by swinging his blade at Arlong’s head and really in any other case scenario it should have been game over from there. But because this place runs on fantasy logic, the guy’s barbed nose catches the attack from finishing.

Kari has to look back at Usopp and wildly gesture to Arlong as if to say ‘what the hells is happening?’ Unfortunately, Usopp looks equally as floored which means this was very much not a hallucination.

“You fool! It’s because my nose won’t break that I’m so proud of it!” 

What the hells kind of feywild bullshittery did this place run on?

Unfortunately, any hope of aiding Zoro was put on pause as Kari noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun quickly, only to find the octopus — Hachi? Something like that — trying to sneak away.

Hachi points at Zoro as if he were casting hunter’s mark and shouts, “I won’t let you bastards have your way, Roronoa Zoro! I’ll kill your friend—”

“Sit your ass down now.”

Hachi sat his ass down real fast after hearing Kari’s thaumaturgy laced command. 

It took a couple of seconds before the big lug realized that he’d been cowed by a booming voice alone, and apparently he shook off the intimidation to get back up and glare at the tiefling. “Don’t think you can tell me what to do!”

“I’ll tell you whatever the hell I want!” Kari shouts back, twisting her hands through her cantrips before settling back on ol’ reliable. She takes aim and shouts, “Eldritch blast!”

Understandably, the blast of eldritch energy startles Hachi into jumping back, only to still be hit by her locked on aim. Bleeding and battered she may be, but she was still in the game. 

“I said sit down.” Once again, Kari’s voice echoed with her order, her yellow eyes narrowed in disdain. 

And well, Hachi had landed on his back after the hit and it seemed he sure as all hells wasn’t planning on getting up again after that last blast. 

“Well, at least I finally got his ass.” Kari mused.

“Kari!” Usopp’s voice cut through the static gradually growing in Kari’s ears (the pain from her very likely broken nose was really fogging up her thoughts, sue her). Her head snaps to the sniper who was attempting to climb over the wall, his entire expression one of panic as he is braced with one leg and an arm, the other is pointing frantically behind Kari. 

“Zoro! Zoro!” Usopp shouts once he knew he had Kari’s attention.

No need to tell her twice. Kari turns, spell sparking out of habit, only to fade in her alarm when she spots Zoro being held by the neck by a seething Arlong. He was tearing into the swordsman’s bandaged chest, a sight that Kari had previously overlooked but was now hyper vigilant of. And as he tore the gauze the scent of iron filled the air.

The attack he’d taken head on from Mihawk weeped bloody tears in slow but steady streams. 

The sight and scent made something in Kari’s gut churn.

What followed was a static filled instinct, as one moment Kari is standing a distance away, and the next Kari is braced against Arlong’s raised arm, only being held back from striking by Kari’s sheer force of will. Arlong glares at Kari with contempt, his teeth bared in a shark-toothed snarl. Zoro, still dangling in the fishman’s webbed hand, cracks one eye open enough to catch Kari’s eye. 

Arlong pulls against Kari’s grip, and it is a testament to Kari’s determination that he barely budges. It rubs Arlong the wrong way. “Let go of me you filthy mongrel.”

“Can’t.” Kari grunts as she is basically wrapped around the guy’s arm. “Gotta be a good second mate.”

Any word Arlong could hope to get out is promptly ignored as the inlet explodes. 

A massive stream of water shooting towards the sky and with it a silhouette of a boy.

Their captain’s wonderful person, backdropped by the sun high in the sky, his shadow cast on Arlong Park like a beautiful painting of a god looking down at the mortals who worship him.

“About damn time!” Kari’s grin was all bloody but it couldn’t wipe away the pure elation in her words.

“So damn late, you moron!” Zoro shouts, his own bloody smile on full display.

It was the first time in this fight that Kari truly believed that they would be safe.

Then her captain’s fists are grabbing herself and Zoro alike.

And both first and second mate realize that they were going to die by their captain’s foolish hands.

Kari and Zoro go flying as Luffy rockets past them with a shout of “Switch with me!”

Their screaming is his only acknowledgement that he was taking over their battle.

As their lives flash before their eyes, they crash into the ground, a small crater surrounding them both. 

“I swear,” Zoro rasps, “I’m going to kill him.”

“Get in line, hill-top.” Kari groans.

Chapter Text

“Oh what the— what the hell is going on?” Zoro glares around after he pushes the large chunk of debris off his stomach, rubbing at his head like he had an incoming headache, “So freakin— wha— oi. Oi.” 

Zoro reaches over and smacks Kari’s shoulder, resulting in the tiefling snorting herself awake.

“M’not sleepin’,” Kari says less than convincingly. She pushes herself up, rubbing at her head with a wince as she stifles a yawn, “What’d I miss?”

Zoro stares at the remains of what used to be Arlong Park. “A lot, apparently.”

“Huh— oh. Oh damn.” Little to say, Kari was sure back to her senses now. She blinked at the rubble that was once a reminder of the tower, slowly getting to her feet alongside Zoro, both worse for wear and would be needing a long nap after this. “Does this mean we won?”

The swordsman frowned thoughtfully as he stared at the fallen building, “I think so— Oh hey there’s Luffy.” 

Both watch as their captain smashes his way out of the rubble, looking just about as beat up as Zoro and Kari feel. He stands there for a moment, the sun a spotlight to his victory. The crowd of townsfolk gather around, peering up at Luffy as if he were a god who’d come down to smite their foe. In a manner of speaking, he might as well be.

Then, he raises his head just barely, his bloody face carved with determination. “Nami!” He cries, staring down at the crowd where Zoro and Kari assume Nami is watching. “You’re my crewmate! Got it?!” 

Something clicks into Kari’s head at those words. At the realization that her captain has, for a manner of speaking, made a crewmate well and truly free. It’s… it’s inspiring in a way that makes Kari dream of something she thought impossible. A thought swelling to the forefront of her mind that she had thought she abandoned long ago.

The crowd of people cheer, everyone crying out in their glee as they realize they have finally attained freedom. Their lives were safe from the dictatorship of Arlong and they could live in joy.

And Kari realizes her dream.

“Hey,” Zoro says when he realizes that Kari had been staring at Luffy in silent awe. But he’d spotted something else there, something beneath the surface that made tears bead in her eyes, yet to fall, but still present. “You alright?”

His words snaps Kari out of her daze, turning to Zoro with surprise at being caught in her trance. She stares at the green-haired man for a few seconds, as if rolling his question around in her head. And when it finally settles, she puts on a gentle smile, so full of ease that it almost disarms Zoro’s concern. “Better than ever.”

And Zoro moves as if he wants to say more, though a voice pierces the air, “That’s enough celebrating!” 

A quick glance shows a Marine with a rat-hat standing and with a group of followers. The townspeople have gone quiet at his exclamation, standing wary as the man attempts to control the situation, crying out vitriol that make the joy that had been so prominent shrink back, going back to that quiet sense of submission.

And that makes something ugly churn in Kari.

Raising a single hand to aim, Kari sets her sight on the back of the marine officer’s head and whispers, “Eldritch blast.”

Watching the man go down for the count fills Kari with an overwhelming sense of relief. 

“Hey,” Zoro scolds, glaring at Kari as the pair start wandering closer, knocking the occasional overly brave Marine down while they were out it. “I was gonna handle that.”

“Well he was talking shit and ruining the vibe.” Kari points out, tripping one clumsy Marine with her tail. “Someone had to handle it, and I had a higher initiative.”

“The hell does that mean?” Zoro asks.

“G-Go ahead!” The Rat — as Kari had decided to dub the head honcho — sputters. “D-Do your worst! You won’t get away with it!” This was, of course, a translated version, as the guy’s words were significantly slurred by the fact his face was puffier that a fresh loaf of bread.

The other crewmates came close enough so that they could also assess the situation. And all five of them stood and leered the downed marines. Both Kari and Zoro opted to lean on one another in a dual effort to stay upright.

“Good job, cap.” Kari compliments when Luffy had come down from his perch.

Luffy just gave a sunny smile, though any comment he could make was abandoned as his straw hat was quickly thrust onto his head. He blinked in surprise, glancing to the side and watching as Nami stepped by then instead opting to kneel at the Rat’s level.

“This is for shooting Nojiko and defiling Bellemere’s Orange Fields…”

The Marine officer can’t even get a single word in before Nami is slamming into the guy with her quarterstaff so hard that the guy goes flying.

All the Straw Hat crew watch in eager satisfaction as Nami trails after the man to continue her beatdown.

Kari finds the strength to raise her arm in a cheer of encouragement. Though unfortunately the gesture has Kari swearing and quickly lowering said arm to cradle her side. The others give her a glance which she is quick to wave off with a mumble of “broken rib.”

They just nod in understanding.

One very satisfying thrashing later, a confirmation that they’d won the battle, and the eager cheering of villagers declaring and spreading the word of their freedom; Luffy, Zoro, and Kari were sat in the local clinic being treated. Usopp and Sanji had already been looked over and their injuries were the least concerning of the group. Which was really something considering that Kari would have been lopped in with them had it not been for her rubber-idiot of a captain tossing her ass into a building alongside Zoro.

It also appeared that the general claim of “I’ll just sleep it off” wasn’t accepted here and was in fact judged severely for. This meant that her broken nose had to be put back in place and that was not a fun experience and she would much rather have slept that one off.

Now she was sat having her other injuries perused by varying clinicians.

“I’m sorryyyyy…” Luffy whined as he draped himself over the end of Kari’s bed, looking up at her with wet eyes. 

Snorting, Kari waves off the boy’s concern, “Eh, you meant well. Wasn’t like you planned for me to get a broken rib.”

“I’ll be more careful next time.” Luffy says quickly, his wet eyes being traded for determined ones.

Kari gives her captain a wary expression, “How about… we don’t have a next time?”

Luffy’s lips thin thoughtfully, “...I’ll be more careful next time.” He repeats.

Welp.

A nurse walks up to Kari at that moment and breaks captain and second out of their conversation. “Alright, you’re all good to go. Keep it easy on the ribs and if you notice any symptoms of pneumonia come back and we’ll put you on some antibiotics.”

“Sure thing, ma’am.” Kari smiles, quickly making her exit. 

Sanji and Usopp greet her eagerly. Usopp is holding her hat — ah she’d wondered where that had gone — and starts to speak.

“We found your hat in the—”

“Guys,” Kari cuts him off, looking manic in her posture, “What the hells are antibiotics?” 

“So let me get this straight,” Usopp starts again. It’s late at this point and the party is just barely starting. “You didn’t know what antibiotics or vaccines are?”

Kari, who was rubbing at her face for the hundredth time, gives the sniper a long exhausted look. “I was raised in a world where magic was our means of solving diseases and sicknesses, Usopp. Those must have been substituted for cleric spells half the time.”

Usopp throws his arms up in bewilderment, the drink he’d been holding sloshing over the rim as he yells, “But even before magic!” His hands fall and whispers (which was really much louder than that because of the volume of the party around them), “There’s never been vaccines?!” 

“There was never a time before magic, so there would never be a time for vaccines.” Kari took a bite of kebab that had been thrust into her hand earlier by Sanji. “Hells, a good lesser restoration would be able to heal the basics, plus a skilled cleric or paladin could probably pray away a plague if they were on good enough terms with their deity!”

“But there’s no magic here, which means no lesser— whatever if you get sick!” Usopp reasons, absently shifting away from one partying townsperson.

Kari shrugs nonchalantly, “Eh,” Usopp stares at her in bewilderment, “I’ve got abyssal blood in me, which means I’m basically immune to sickness.”

Usopp did not believe her for a single second.

“You don’t have your vaccines?!” 

“Oh my Divine,” Kari shouted, throwing up her arms in defeat, only to immediately drop them when realizing the pain it put her in. She glared at Sanji in annoyance, “I’m abyssal, I rarely if ever— wha— who got the doctor here? Why is he— why does he have a syringe?!”

Luffy blinked at a sulking Kari that had hidden away in an alley, the warlock covered in a plethora of little bandages. He stares at her for all of ten seconds, quietly chewing on his mouthful of meat. He silently offers a bell pepper. Kari took it without a second of thought.

Luffy swallowed.

“You sorta need your vaccines, Kari.”

“Not you too.”

“Kari! What a delight it is for you to join—”

“I’m still mad at you and I’m not speaking to you.”

Zoro snorts into his drink.

Sanji looks heartbroken.

Sitting beside Zoro, Kari drapes her legs over the swordsman’s, eating her plate of greens. Zoro rolls his eyes, slinging an arm around Kari’s shoulder in a lazy gesture of solidarity. It makes Sanji squirm and Kari can’t help but get some modicum of satisfaction out of it.

In an attempt to reason, Sanji argues, “You need your vaccines, Kari.”

“Zoro, can you be a peach and tell he-who-shall-not-be-named that even if I agree with him, I’d rather have gotten them when not under duress.” Kari requests, “Like being hounded on for my lack of medical knowledge was not the way I planned to get said vaccines.”

Sanji looks stricken by Kari’s lack of address. 

Kari just shoves a ranch covered broccoli into her mouth. 

Zoro gives Kari a very odd look, “What about vaccines?” Then he turns to Sanji and starts, “Also Kari said—”

“I heard what she said, marimo.” Sanji grinds out, glaring into Zoro with a  vengeance. Then he pauses and leans back, arms folded, and explains, “And for your explanation… less than five hours ago, bug didn’t know what vaccines or antibiotics were.”

“You didn’t know what vaccines were?” Zoro asks in bewilderment, looking over at Kari in confusion. Then he pauses as asks, “Is this a your home thing again?”

“Yes! Thank you!” Kari, sticking a broccoli into Zoro’s mouth as a reward of which he promptly chokes on. 

Sanji looks very confused, “What’s this about home?”

“I didn’t have vac—” Kari stops herself short when she had been directly answering Sanji, turning back to Zoro and starting again, “Zoro, would you mind telling Sanji that—”

“Tell him yourself, damn!”

“But you were just speaking to me!” 

“—back home we didn’t have vaccines or antibiotics and used magic to solve our ailments?” Kari finishes as if she weren’t just interrupted.

And Zoro, because he’d admit the bit was funny, turns to Sanji, “She said—”

“I heard dammit!” Sanji yells.

However, instead of entering a butting head match as they were prone to do, Zoro turns his attention to Kari, “Okay, but would you have gone willingly?”

“Huh?”

“Like would you have gotten your vaccines willingly?” Zoro clarifies, glancing at a suddenly very quiet Kari. The swordsman rolls his eyes at the telling silence. “Yeah that’s what I thought.”

“Well how was I supposed to know needles were involved!” Kari yells, throwing up her arms and jostling the swordsman without a care in the world. 

“You’re afraid of needles?” Sanji asks suddenly, making Kari glare at him. Though he must translate it as embarrassment as he goes all coddling and says, “Why didn’t you say so! I could have held your hand while you—”

“I’m not afraid of needles!” Kari immediately refutes, only to realize she’d directly addressed Sanji as she swore not to do. She turns her head up to the side and starts, “Zoro, would you tell Sanji—”

“Try it shit head and I’m kicking you to the curb.”

Zoro grins as he lifts his drink to his lips, “You wish, corn-on-the-cob.”

“Corn-on-the—”

Satisfied that the attention was back off her and her apparent lack of medical knowledge, Kari happily chewed on her greens. 

That was right up until a certain nagging thought came to the forefront.

Her chewing slowed and her satisfaction melted away, not even amused by the duo lashing at each other. Just stuck in her head. The words tumble out of her mouth before she can really stop them, “I’m sorry.”

The abrupt apology has both pausing. Sanji and Zoro look to Kari who is deliberately looking at Sanji, clear on who the apology was intended for. Though the reason behind why wasn’t quite as clear.

Slowly, Sanji asks, “...Because of the fear of needles…?”

“Not because of the—” A bit more of Kari comes back to the forefront with the question, though she pauses, takes a deep breath, and goes back to a more subdued expression. “I apologize for not asking permission before setting the psychic link.” She didn’t go through Zoro to deliver the message because… because this was serious and deserved seriousness.

“Psychic… do you mean the thing in the water?” Sanji asks.

Zoro looked equally as confused, “When did you do that?”

“When we were both in the inlet trying to get to Luffy,” Sanji explains, “I was wondering what that all was before I remembered that Kari mentioned being a telepath.”

“Yes, and I apologize, I shouldn’t have done that without permission.” Kari, again, apologizes.

Which is… confusing to the pair. While Kari somberly stares at her plate of sad vegetables, Sanji spares a querying look to Zoro, to which he gives a one-armed shrug. Seemed both were out of their depth for this one.

“Bug, it’s fine. Water under the bridge.” Sanji assures. “It was going to happen sooner than later anyways.” 

“Well, yeah, but I still shouldn’t have— not when you couldn’t—”

Neither really understood why this was such a big deal to Kari.

Slowly, very slowly, Zoro opts to take the reins, “Was shit-cook in danger?”

“Shit-coo—”

“Yes.” Kari responds, ignoring Sanji’s offended squawking.

“Did you do what you did to try and help him?” Zoro continues, also ignoring the squawking.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t—”

“Did you do any of what you did out of ill-intent?”

“Wha— No, I—”

“Then you’re good, numbnut.” Zoro says, lightly pushing Kari’s hat down over her eyes. Kari makes an offended noise and goes to try and pull the hat off, and Zoro takes the opportunity to continue while Kari is distracted, “Swirly-brow said it’s fine and he’d let you know otherwise if that were the case. Right?”

Despite the teasing name, Sanji gives his full attention to Kari, nodding in agreeance, “Full consent, bug.” 

At the word consent, something in Kari seemed to resign itself, sinking back beneath the surface and with it went Kari’s tension. She slouches back into Zoro, arms crossed and petulantly pouting. “...Fine.” Then she points at Sanji dubiously, a small glare in her eyes, “But if I could tell you some boundaries you know you can tell me some boundaries too, right?”

Zoro’s face screws up from where he’d been mid-sip, “Boundaries?”

“Bug doesn’t want to be called darling or dear and some other stuff.” Sanji answers, figuring that it’d be good to spread the information, not that Zoro looked like the kind of guy to call anyone darling or dear.

Zoro seems to recall Kari making mention of that the first night at the Baratie and now knowing that it was apparently a little bit more than a discomfort, he processes it accordingly and nods, “Noted.” But then another realization hits him front and center, “Wait is that why you started calling her bug?”

“Well I had to call her something.” Sanji sputters.

“And your first idea was insect?” Zoro guffaws, barely holding back a laugh.

Sanji throws his arms to Kari by way of example, “She eats like a caterpillar!”

Kari, who had been mid-nibble on her greens, glares at Sanji, “Oi!”

Zoro bursts out laughing at the comparison. Kari elbows Zoro in the ribs roughly but it does nothing to stop his cackling.

And while Sanji was enjoying the light atmosphere, he does turn back to Kari and address the original question. “I promise I know I can set my own boundaries with you if I need to, Kari. Thank you for the assurance.” He pauses, contemplates, and offers a simple first admittance, “For instance I don’t like helmets, so if we ever get one, don’t put it on my head.”

The admittance makes her blink, “Helmets?”

Sanji’s face turns in a way that suggests there’s something far deeper there than he’d like to admit, but he opts to shrug it off, “They make me feel claustrophobic.” Is what he decides to settle one. Which, from Sanji’s perspective, wasn’t completely false.

And that’s all the explanation that Kari needs as she gives him a thumbs up, now more content seeing that everything was well and good. “You got it, no helmet, and if anyone ever tries, kick ‘em in the dick.”

Sanji gives his own thumbs up.

Kari turns to Zoro who is coming down from his laughing fest, “Your turn, hill-top.”

“My turn what?” Zoro asks, wiping a tear from his eyes, still riding out the last of his giggles from imagining Kari as a horned-caterpillar.

“What’s an off the table thing for you?” Sanji asks, resting his chin on one fist and giving a lazy look at the swordsman. He looks more at ease and far more chill in general now that Kari is also speaking with him face-to-face again.

Zoro gives it thought before shrugging, “Dunno. Never really gave it thought.”

“Oh tough guy over here.” Kari teases, to which Zoro again shoves her hat over her head. 

Though while Kari again struggles to pull it off, Zoro looks contemplative. And it’s only after Kari tugs the hat off that Zoro answers before she can complain, “Not the biggest fan of stairs.”

Well that was certainly not what they were expecting.

“Sorry, stairs?” Sanji asks in confusion.

Zoro glares at Sanji, as if daring him to tease.

Kari realizes that this was Zoro being genuine, and immediately hops in before an ensuing fight could take place. “Not judging, just, could you expand on that?” Kari’s brows furrow as she seems to give it her own level of thought, “Is it like a thought of falling? Is it a phobia thing? I know I’ve seen you use them before so…”

“Had a friend break her neck on the stairs when we were younger.” Zoro says suddenly.

It’s raw and coming from somewhere deep. It startles both Sanji and Kari for a moment, blinking in earnest surprise. 

Zoro, for the better part, is doing all he can to not meet their eyes. His hands anxiously tighten and loosen over the bottle he holds, “She uh, she died. So uh, yeah. Not too eager around stairs. At least not— not people falling on them.”

Well both Kari and Sanji were assured they’d be using railings when going down stairs from now on.

“Got it.” Kari nods, not teasing at all, but giving it all the seriousness it deserved. Sanji nodded in agreeance, equally as serious.

It put something in Zoro a little more at ease.

“...Bad news though, we can’t really put needles on your boundary list—”

“I am not afraid of needles!”

“Whoa!” Kari yells in surprise upon getting a glance at Nami’s arm. She stumbles forward past the partygoers and immediately grabs onto the girl. Nami startles for only the barest of a moment before realizing just who had grabbed her arm. 

Kari pokes at the ink in the protective film, giggling to herself before properly noticing just what the plastic wrap was covering. “When did you get this?” Kari asks, poking at the design beneath still settling into the skin.

Nami snorts and lightly bats the tiefing’s hands away, “Figured I needed something to commemorate the occasion.”

“Good,” Kari nods seriously. “The other one didn’t suit you anyway.” In reality Kari had only gotten the barest of a glance at the Arlong brand, but it had been long enough to determine that Nami shouldn’t be wearing it. “It’s good work.”

“Are you a secret tattoo nut or something?” Nami teased, grinning at the tiefling and handing Kari a slice of pie as a peace offering.

Shrugging, Kari bites down on a forkful of the buttercream pie and hums, “I’ve always been fond of them. Never really had the gold to pay for one though.”

“The needle phobia probably didn’t help either, did it?”

Kari chokes on her pie.

“I’m not afraid of needles!”

A slice of cantaloupe is pushed into her view. Kari blinks at the sight and looks to the offerer, only to find a familiar straw hat sitting on a nonchalant head. Kari leers at the boy for all of ten seconds before deflating in on herself.

Kari snatches the melon out of his offered hand. 

Luffy smiles and plops right down beside Kari, munching on his meat on the bone he’d brought over from the party.

They’re nearer to the coast, and the sound of partying is distant. Kari had opted to wander here in the hopes of gaining some semblance of reprieve from the noise and commotion. Not that she could deny her excitement, the air of freedom was a near intoxicating thing, but even she needed a break from that high of liberation. 

And now the lulling waves of the beach and distant cheerful celebration is their accompaniment in place of traditional nightly melodies. The second mate and captain admiring the moon draped like a celestial spotlight over the sea.

“I’s pret’y.” Luffy admits past his chewing, eyes sparkling has he soaks in the sight before them. “Good spot.”

“Thank you.” Kari says primly, nibbling on her melon before remembering that she apparently looks like a bug when nibbling and instead opts to take larger bites. It’s not the same feeling of contentment, but she would not be seen as an insect today, no sir.

The two sit in silence for a while, Kari leaning back and admiring the moon. She wonders if there is a god of the lunar body here too. She wonders if there was any sort of divine ruling here.

She still had her magic so that must mean there is some level of Arcane influence.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Luffy asks as he seems to trade staring at the night for instead staring at Kari.

Kari peers out at the sea, the quiet lull of waves offering reprieve from the rejoicing behind them. “Nothing and everything,” Kari answers, wrapping her arms around one leg, resting her head on her knee. “Magic, gods, and all in between.”

“Sounds complicated,” Luffy mumbles, tearing off another piece of meat. He munches thoughtfully for a moment, swallows, and follows this up with a question, “Why’re you all the way out here?” 

Kari gives a half-hearted shrug, “Needed a minute to breathe.”

The answer seems to stump Luffy, “How come?”

“It’s just a lot, you know?” Kari answers, dragging her hat off her head to run a hand through her hair. Her finished melon is now discarded to the side. “Partying.”

Luffy purses his lips. He stares at Kari thoughtfully in a way that suggests there’s much more going on behind those eyes than many would be led to believe. Something about the staring make Kari feel oddly vulnerable, twisting a bit under the soft scrutiny. But then her captain shrugs and turns away to again take a too-large bite out of the meat-stick. “I think you’re lying.”

Understandably, Kari bristles, looking at her captain in offense. “Wha— what do you mean I’m lying, it’s—”

“I think you’re lying and you don’t know you’re lying.” Luffy clarifies. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t really clear up anything on Kari’s end. Kari blinks past her captain’s weird vibes and chooses to instead go back to staring at the moon and sea. It’s quiet again. Distant ruckus of a crowd cheering to some nonsense that would no doubt make this small island’s history books. 

Kari’s hackles fall with the lull of the current.

It’s quiet and it’s just them and it’s…

It’s nice. 

It makes Kari feel a little more alive.

“Luffy, what makes a good dream?”

It’s sudden and abrupt and it actually makes her captain freeze up midbite. Midnight eyes dancing to her. There’s something there behind them again. Like another whisper of thought that isn’t Luffy’s own. 

“A good dream?” He asks

“A good dream.” Kari confirms.

Luffy stares at Kari for a time. It’s not quite thoughtful. More so observant. Then he lowers the meat-on-the-bone to his lap and seems to give his second mate his full fledged attention.

“Well dreams are dreams.”

That… answer was not helpful.

Kari’s brows furrow and she can’t help but ask, “Could you clarify that?”

And Luffy being Luffy does so in the most extravagantly gestural ways. His arms stretch and he has a smile fit for a god. He looks kind in a way that should not be possible by mortal means, and it makes something in Kari turn hopeful.

“Your dream is what gives you purpose.” He explains, “It’s what makes you feel alive! It—” He actually pauses for a moment, face screwing up like something occurred to him. He then shifts and says, “Zoro is going to become the world’s greatest swordsman.”

Simply put, but alright.

Kari nods along, not quite seeing how this was related, “Uh, yeah.”

“Would Zoro be the same Zoro if he didn’t want to be the world’s greatest swordsman?”

Well… huh.

“And I’m going to be the King of the Pirates.”

Kari nods again, “As you rightly deserve. And you wouldn’t…” The realization slowly starts to hit her, “you wouldn’t be the same you if you didn’t pursue that dream.”