08. Tell Him Or Drown. . .
❛ BUT (Y/N) CHANGED THAT. ❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : THE SIBLINGS
IN THE STRAW HATS ❫ ˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 8┊🏴☠️🌊👒
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Cold water dripping down slowly from a pipe had (Y/N) waking up, to find herself in an unexpected predicament. She blinked groggily to open her eyelids, trying to make sense of her surroundings now.
A massive glass box that was slowly filling up with sea water was what she came to see, her hair already damp from the water sipping in from the pipe, and the bottom of the tank was also filled up with water also, causing instant panic to settle in now.
She pants out a heavy breaths of air, already feeling weak from the water around her, as she groans trying to push her body to kneel against the bottom, and placed her palms against the misty glass tank.
Bringing her fists back down she slams them into the glass, teeth gritting as she tried to break the material with her airbending, but nothing was happening nor none of her powers were responding to her.
Each drop carried a chill of the ocean from the watertank through the pipe, causing her to shiver as it splashed against her cheeks, and skin. Pushing herself more to lean her side onto the glass, her lidded gaze lands on Buggy's back turned to her in the tank.
"You bastard..." She weakly grunted out to him lowly, glaring hatefully at him as she pressed her forehead into the glass now, and tried to ignore the growing water around her for the time being.
"Don't bother. It's seawater." He simple answered back to her rude comment, taking his time to stroll over to her trapped, and bent down with her straw hat in his hands smirking, "Which wouldn't normally work on your kind, but sadly your powers aren't on your side. Hardly seems fair, am I right?"
She just narrowed her glower on him more in response, reaching up to push back her wet locks sluggishly out of her face, as her clothes clanged to her skin feeling the dampness beneath her.
"Of course, you could always give me my map. If you don't want to die alone in this tank." Bugger suggested with his face resting on his knuckles, and raised his eyebrows at her while the crowd watched fearfully.
"My brother and crew..." She pants out sending a scowl to him, trying her best to keep herself up against the glass as she felt her lower half slipping a bit now.
"Those three?" He cackles like it was the funniest thing ever in her face, and tilted his head to the side one he stopped, "You mean the ones that abandoned you? Just like Shanks did."
Her face fell a bit hearing this low jab, gripping her shirt where her heart would be as her bottom lip quivered the slightest, and looked down away from the clown, as the water inside was now up above her waist.
"Oh, did that make you sad?" He mockingly pouted tapping a finger onto the glass where her head was, and smirked sadistically seeing her raged glint in her eyes on him.
(Y/N) knew Buggy was just trying to provoke her, and wanted to gain a reaction out of her, but even so his words did somewhat make her second guess everything up till now. Though she knew Luffy would never leave her, but not so sure about the other two yet, "They will come back for me.." She whispered hesitantly glaring.
"No one's coming back for you." He clicks his tongue throwing her hat to the side which her eyes followed where it landed, "Your only chance is to turn over the map, and if you do, I have have a very special place on my crew just for you." He smirked knowingly now, and tilted his head to the side again, "If you do so kid, I can help you learn about your powers, and who you really are."
She snapped her head off the glass hearing this with a confused look, pursuing her lips in thoughts as she glanced down to her wet bracelets on her wrists. There were many different ones being worn, consisting of the one Shanks gave her, green, yellow, blue, and orange. And still to this day, she had no idea why she specifically picked those colours for them, and never questioned why.
If she could wait for when Shanks would return to them, and why she got given a book about the unforeseen Nine Tail, she definitely could wait even longer to find out what her powers, and what she could really do.
And so with her decision clearly made within her inner thoughts, her fingers grip the sides of the glass hinges panting, and gritted her teeth painfully as she pulled herself up inside the tank to stand up, "Nah, I think I'm good."
This irked Buggy who's eye twitched annoyed standing up with her, "Why not?!" He exclaimed slamming his fist into the glass, which made him howl in pain holding his sore hand now, "Ah! God! You're an outcast, just like the rest of us. A freak, scorned and abandoned!"
She swallows the forming lump in her throat, finding it hard to breath now instead of the filling up tank as her pants grew heavy trying to listen to him, and the water was reaching near her chest now.
"Join me..." He let go of his cradled fist to his side, taking a big step forward to the tank, "and you can serve the man who will become the King of the Pirates." He grins wickedly pacing around her inside of the glass, "When I have that map, I will find the One Piece, and then everyone will know my name. And they'll love me."
A small snorting noise escaped her mouth hearing his words, chuckling bitterly as she looks at him through her wet locks, "You can't make people love you." She remarked smirking smugly next, and grunted out, "Just like you can't make them smile. You'll never get that map, Blinky."
"We'll then...." He turned around with a eerily calm expression over his face, before his red tainted lips raised up into a menacing smile, "I guess it's curtains for you."
Buggy's gloved hand goes to reach out turning the wheel on the side of the tank, which resulted in the water coming out of the pipe to spill out even faster now into the space she was trapped in.
A startled gasp escaped (Y/N)'s lips when the water came belting down on top of her, raising her arms above her head to try and protect herself, as all she could see, feel, and taste was the ocean's water.
The movement caused her boot to slip against the bottom and sent her stumbling into the pool of cold water with a splash, body now sinking underneath it.
.......
Out in the vast ocean of the East Blue far off from the Windmill village, the bandit pirate had taken a smal row boat with sail out into the sea, with (Y/N) being held captive inside that very boat.
"Shanks is gonna grind you up and make bandit cookies!" She exclaimed in her small voice the best she could, glaring at him as she sent a kick to his shine in front of her, "You're gonna wish you were never born!"
He growled at her hit his body even though it didn't do much, and held the two oars in his hands as he paused the paddling scowling, "Believe me, I wish that already."
She frowned a bit hearing that from him, trying to stay calm by fiddling with the bracelet her father figure gave her, "That's not good." She innocently commented, before going back to glaring at him, "He's gonna kick your ass, and so will my brother!"
"Enough, brat! You really think anyone is coming for you?" He sneered grabbing one of her piggy tails to roughly tug on it, making her yelp out in pain and tried to push him off with her hands, "They don't care."
He pulls out a knife from his belt to hold it up to her hair with an evil smirk, that caused her to panic seeing the weapon and flail her arms around to shove him away, as he grip tugged on her hair more in result, "Get off-!"
"Shut up! No one," He began to growl in a threathing voice, knife held up to the side of her face pulled close to his, and it had her scrunching her eyes closed scared, "is gonna miss you when you're dead."
The boat suddenly was hit on the side with a great force, creating a loud banging noise, and the small boat to rock unbalanced on the surface. The pirate bandit's grip on (Y/N) was released at this, as he stands up straight alerted looking around the water for the source.
A rumbling sound was heard next from in the depths that traveled through their ears, making her shrink into herself whimpering not liking that unknown noise, as she remembered the stories of sea monsters Shanks would always tell her and Luffy before bed sometimes.
Before any of them could even peek over the edge of the boat, the same mysterious force rammed straight into the boat, to flip it upwards. It sent them both flying out of it, as she screamed tumbling overboard into the unforgiving embrace of the sea.
The shock of the cold water enveloping her was disorienting, as she slammed into it with a splash. Panic set in as she struggled to resurface, her little limbs flailing in the water. Saltwater filled her mouth, and her vision blurred as she fought to stay afloat.
The pirate bandit near her in the water was above it unlike her, not even sparing one glance at her figure drowning, as he frantically glanced around spotting a shadowy figure passing under the water. His body was soon taken under by something, making his scream be muffled by the water as he was yanked down fast.
Something big was swimming below her figure frantically kicking under the ocean, seeing large scales of a sea monster that swam around its next prey, as it killed the first one already for a mid afternoon snake.
Time seemed to slow as (Y/N)'s strength wanted, her eyes fluttering open and closed as air bubbles escaped her mouth alerting the person who as up top.
She was on the brink of succumbing to the relentless pull of the ocean's depth, to weak to swim against it when strong arms reached in to wrap around her, pulling her to the surface from the coldness.
Gasping for breath, and coughing up seawater, she clung to Shanks the one who saved her, shaking like a leaf against his chest. He heaved her up with him inside of his boat, both dripping wet as he quickly pulled her back to look over her figure.
"(Y/N)! Can you hear me-" He frantically questioned her with a panicked expression, his spare hand that wasn't holding her back pushing the wet hair out of her face seeing her half awake figure in his lap, "Anything hurt?"
She wheezed out a few more pants to catch her breath, knuckles scrunching up his white shirt in between them as she shivered against him, and nodded her head weakly in answer, not able to speak in the moment.
He breathed out a sigh of relief seeing she was still in one piece at least, running his finger through her wet hair for a second before he carefully placed her onto the seat in front of him, despite her wanting to stay in his arms.
Shanks knew what was swimming underneath them in the water, and didn't want her to be in his hold when he had to deal with the Sea King, as his only focus right now was making sure his daughter was safe and alright.
The Sea King resurface behind them with a big splash, sending the wave towards their boat which had it tipping up to make the two stumble over inside. (Y/N) yelped panicked when she was sent backwards, but Shanks quickly grabbed onto her small figure to sit her up right on the seat again behind him.
Shanks stood protectively in front of her with an arm outstretched sideways, feeling her gripping onto his pants material trembling fearfully seeing the Sea King's red eyes now on them, growling with its sharp teeth bared in a threat.
The sea creature then dived forward for them with a snap of his jaw, causing (Y/N) to scream out Shanks' name as he shielded her body with his, and turned his back to the monster. Her face was hidden in his chest away from the scary view, by his hand keeping it there.
When the monster snapped its teeth into the end of the boat he brought, the animal pulled back to hiss and growl at Shanks once more, ready to go again.
Shanks released his daughter from the protective hold he had her in, pushing her back down into the seat as he turned to face the Sea King. The growls it was making sent his red hair blowing around, but didn't stop the intense stare down the two were having.
He glared darkly at the Sea King with a furious look, pissed off that it almost killed the girl, "Get lost." He lowly demanded, using his conqueror haki to dominate over the beasts inner will.
The Sea King's black pupils go back to normal now at this, screeching in fear it backed up, knowing that glare was just not a bluff threat. It disappeared back underneath the water, leaving a massive wave pool in its wake as it swam away from them.
Once the thing fully went away into the vast waters, Shanks fell back onto his knees out of breath, as (Y/N) lifted her head out from in her arms and saw that the monster was now gone. Her wide (E/C) eyes land on him, as a wobbly smile makes it across her face, and stumbles out straight into his open arms.
"Come here." Shanks gently coaxed wrapping an arm around her back, chin resting on the top of her had, as her face was against his chest and her arms went around his waist tightly, both relieved to be alive right now.
However when he pulled back from the hug shared between them with a weak squeeze to her shoulder, she immediately spotted the blood on her palm as he watched her closely leaning on the side of the boat.
Looking between the blood on her skin and to the blood on his ripped shirt, she knew then that Shanks had sacrificed his arm to save her life from that sea monster, and it made her big eyes well up in tears fast, bottom lip quivering.
"No....Shanks, your arm!" She cried out through her tears falling free down her cheeks, as he tried to grab her arm to calm her down, but she ignored him to busy feeling an intense amount of guilt blabbering out, "I'm so sorry! It's all my fault-"
He cupped the side of her neck to direct her blurred gaze up to him, and wiped her tears away with his thumb, "It's only an arm, sweetheart." He reassured strongly smiling warmly at her, which caused her face to scrunch up with more tears falling, "Come here, (Y/N)."
She leapt into his open arms once more sobbing, her face digging into the crook of his neck as her arms gripped the back of his white shirt, and whimpered out more apologies to him in a fit of cries.
"Shhh, I'm just glad you're okay." He hushed her soothingly, slipping his hand into her wet locks behind her head as he pressed a strong kiss onto her forehead, and contained to cradle her closely all the way back to their home village.
.......
Back in one of the many rooms inside of the circus tent away from where (Y/N) was currently close to drowning, the other three were being held captive, with Nami in a cage, Luffy knocked out tied to a limbo pole, while Zoro was tied onto a target wheel. And right now, Nami was trying to break them out as the green haired male kept Cabaji busy, one of Buggy's crew members.
The wheel Zoro was tied onto by his wrists and legs was spinning in a circle, as more knifes were stuck into the wood he was trapped on. It finally came to a stop with his eyes closed, as Cabaji glared at the pirate in front of him.
"You really don't fear death, do you?" He questioned the swordsman quietly, seeing how he didn't react to the sharp knives coming close to stabbing any part of his body.
"No. I just don't fear you." Zoro corrected in his deep voice shaking his head, eyes still closed knowing it would tick the other pirate off more which he wanted.
Cabaji tossed a knife up in his hand, catching it by the metal handle and throws it at the man on the wheel. It sticks into the wood, snipping a part of the rope that was looped around his wrist.
"You know, I'm gonna enjoy this." He strolled up to the unbothered swordsman smirking cruelly up at him, "As soon as captain Buggy's finished with you, you're mine."
Zoro cocks his head in disagreement, while making a low noise as his stoic gaze was now opening, and staring at Gabaji, "Uh, tempting as that sounds, I'm not sticking around."
"Really? Got somewhere else to be?"
He blinks a little glancing away from Gabaji this time, as his once harsh expressions softens into something different, "Didn't used to think so." He admitted in a gentle rasp, pausing for a few seconds seeing a flash of a certain (H/C) haired girl's bright smile in his mind, "But (Y/N) changed that."
Gabaji scoffs in a humour, raising his eyebrows up at the newly dedicated swordsman's to the girl, "That airhead in a straw hat. Don't tell me you actually believe in her and her brother?"
Zoro tugged against the ropes loudly a bit hearing the rude comment about her, causing Gabaji to gulp spotting the dangerous glint in his eyes, "I don't need to. She believes in herself, and them both. It rubs off."
Gabaji laughed breathlessly in disbelief, and shakes his head while Zoro was beginning to move his wrists, making the rope rub against the blade, "And one more thing. Don't turn around."
Still cackling like a mad men he didn't listen to the warning, gaining him a kick to the chest by Nami behind him, sending him crashing back into the wooden wheel with a harsh thump.
Zoro's free arm now had him trapped underneath the amount of muscles, as Gabaji began to choke because of it and clawed at the swordsmans arm around his neck. Taking one of the loose knifes off the floor, Nami cut the rest of the rope trapping him, and went to go help Luffy out of his next, who was still knocked out.
With the loss of air to for him to breath in Cabaji blacked out, making Zoro toss his body onto the floor with an unbothered look up again, and walked over him carelessly towards Nami, "What's the plan?"
He picked up his swords from against the pole near the room entrance, but didn't hear an answer from the girl who was slapping Luffy's cheeks to wake him up, "You do have a plan, right? That's your thing, plans."
Nami looked up from kneeling beside Luffy who was muttering about rescuing (Y/N), and eating meat, "I say, we beat the hell out of every clown we see." She let out a snarky chuckle with a grin, and extended her staff out.
Zoro scoffs with a grin of his own liking that idea, following out the two out of the backroom. Luffy had shot up awake running out yelling straightaway, making them sigh tiredly and Zoro pulled out his two black swords ready to get back his other captain.
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
ah yes this isn't as long as i wanted it to be
but its late where i am and i almost deleted this entire chap 🥲 so im very glad i still have this work
omg but it also just makes you guys wait for more MWHWHAAHAH
also pay close attention to everything that
happens in here with y/n on every chapter, cause everything and I MEAN EVERYTHING has a much deeper impact and significance later one in this book (hint the bracelets she had on and the colours)
i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and
pleaseeee don't be ghost readers guys
lmk whatcha think 🫶
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