𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 42 ✨✨

"You think the captain is going to be fine?" A crewmember asked Deuce who was observing the situation from afar.

"Probably?" Deuce watched the dark gathering of papers above the boat as he repressed a shiver, he could vividly remember the days spent with Konan and Ace on that Island, the daily training and torture. "He'll probably survive?" Konan wouldn't kill him if she was feeling generous.

Meanwhile, Law was heavily considering his options. He had just signed his demise by revealing her secret, however, he also knew no one else understood what he said about her.

He didn't wish to die, he still had much to do—like take revenge on a certain ruthless string-user. He couldn't forgive himself for not avenging Rosinante, not when he caused his death, not when he lived at the price of another's death. His life wasn't his alone, he also bore the weight of Rosinante's.

He turned to look at his crew, they all nodded at him—they would follow him till the end. Perhaps years ago, he would have given up in the face of absolute strength, but now he couldn't, he had a crew, a family to protect, he wasn't alone anymore.

Konan was watching the scene from above with cold eyes, and for once she hesitated. She could see Ace below, staring at her with absolute trust, besides the crew of innocent people wanting to survive. She wasn't as emotionless as she once was, she couldn't bring herself to brutally slaughter innocent people because they accidently discovered a secret of hers. She wasn't in her old world where murder and war reigned, where suspicion allowed one to survive longer and where secrets were guarded with one's life.

But habits died hard. She could vividly remember the consequences of a secret badly kept, it would cause the whole network to collapse, endanger the people behind her and often lead to death. A lapse of judgment, not enough ruthlessness, an indecision, and corpses would be found flowing down the rivers.

When she was but a child, people she looked up to did such a mistake... and she became an orphan.

There was no room for mercy and kindness in her life, not anymore, and she lived like that for more than 30 years. It was enough for secrecy to become carved in her skin, and for leniency to become foreign to her. She lived in constant war with the world, acting in the shadows, forever avoiding the light. Till Naruto came along and changed everything, he was a bright light that burnt the shadows of her world.

However, in her current world, there was nothing to stop her, no lights to guide her, she had receded back into her awfully familiar and safe world, the shadows where killing was as natural as breathing. And no one noticed. She was good at acting, perhaps too good, that even she didn't know where the line of truth and fake laid.

Was she the kind Konan she portrayed in front of the gullible Luffy, or the sadistic Konan she played in front of Ace, or the thoughtful friend she pretended to be in front of Hina, or the merciless killer she really was in the shadows? Had she ever regretted killing those in her path, ever looked back on the corpses laying in her own shadows? Or was she just playing God in a world not her own.

She had never gone to visit Fish-Man Island after, it happened. She kept herself busy, kept her head busier. It was easier that way, to not think about the guilt eating away at her stomach, threatening to invade her brain. Easier to not think of the disappointment she caused, the dread she felt at the idea of seeing a mourning King Neptune, and motherless children.

The lively chatter of the banquet they held in her honor still rang deafly in her head, like a toneless reminder. When the world was silent, it was all she could hear, all she could see. A lonely bubble at the bottom of the ocean, unable to see the sun.

When she looked at Law, his determined eyes and the people dear to him standing together with him in unison, she found herself paralyzed. Her breath hitched and a bill rose in her throat. She stared at the papers floating threateningly in front of her, what was she doing? She didn't have the right to threaten his life.

The papers turned back to normal and came flying back to her, hiding her whole body in a flurry of white—tainted with the blood of how many, the white stinged her eyes. No one could see her face, she made sure of it, she didn't know what it looked like, and she didn't want to find out. She didn't dare look at Ace in the eyes, she didn't want to see his pure gaze as he looked at her, he who didn't know of the blood on her hands.

A falling apart paper hand appeared on the deck and threw Ace's head to his body, leaving behind a forsaken note for the pirate whose name she didn't even know. 'Don't say anything if you value your life.'

Ace was bewildered, he had never seen Konan like that, she was deadly silent and her powers were going awry around her, preventing anyone from approaching her.

Slowly the papers crumbled and turned red, scarlet red, and still no signs of Konan.

And then she disappeared, leaving behind a sea of red papers that slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean.

He didn't know then, but he wouldn't see his sister before a long while. He wouldn't understand either.

Law was left in the midst of the chaos wondering about what transpired.

In another place, Nanko decided to take a vacation to his 'home land' alone and also disappeared from all radars. While Ko went on a secret mission to gather pieces of information.

Without anyone, but perhaps Law, noticing, all three personas vanished from the face of the Earth. And at that moment, the last ones to see them realized, they had no means of reaching them. Ace and Hina could feel a stark change in their behavior, an unusual coldness and hidden distress. However, they—Konan, Nanko—were always the ones to find them first and help them in their times of need, but when the opposite came around, Ace and Hina were unable to do anything.

Ace tore his paper, again and again, but in a taunting manner, it assembled back in a matter of second and no one appeared.

She was gone. 

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I made a meme (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) :