𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 53 ✨✨

"You got another child?" Ace asked as he saw Konan fly over with a child on her shoulders.

She landed gently and put Sky down. "Kind of, we'll see how it goes," she smiled down at the child who looked around in wonder, a hand still grabbing her coat. "Don't worry, this boat is safe Sky, you can wander around."

Ace stared at the child who walked away slowly, glancing ever so often at Konan's reassuring smile. "How old is she even?"

"15, though her growth was a bit halted from a lack of nourishment," Konan replied. If she wanted to train her, she would first have to make sure she regained basic strength.

"Well good luck," he replied, "anyways, I want to show you something," he grinned, manifesting a fire sword. Except instead of being like the previous one, it extended further than the boat's height, towering over it instead. It was ginormous but he handled it easily.

"Wow, that's not bad," she complimented, looking up to the tip of the blade. If he swung it down, there was no doubt it would do tremendous damages.

Thatch appeared behind Ace, bumping his head, "You idiot, do you want to burn our boat down??"

The sword swiftly retracted into Ace's body as he turned around with a sheepish face, "My bad, I just wanted to show it to Konan..."

"Right, of course, you'd want to boast in front of your sister..." Thatch trailed off, with a little side-smirk.

He barely avoided a side-kick from Ace, "wow slow down there."

Konan walked away from their fighting to find Sky who was in the kitchen, observing the cooks with an enticed face.

"Say, Konan, do you think I could learn how to cook?" Sky asked timidly, staring at Konan with hesitant eyes. "It's fine if I can't, i-"

Konan interrupted her, sensing she was about to demean herself, "Of course you can, I'm a bad cook so you can learn for the both of us!"

Thatch appeared out of nowhere, with a black eye, and Ace trailing innocently behind him. "I'm always happy to welcome eager newcomers!"

"Alright then, we'll have to bother you," Konan concluded.

The next few weeks, Konan taught Sky the basics of Chakra and began training her stamina, while during the evening, she dropped Sky with Thatch and went off to complete work as Ko and Nanko till late at night. When she came back, Sky was usually asleep, so she chatted with the crew before sleeping for a few hours and the day started again.

Sky was surprisingly good at cooking, to Konan's delight. Once Sky had put on some weight and had regained basic strength, she planned on traveling with her to further her training. Only in real fights could one really improve. In addition, she knew how eager Sky was to travel and discover the world, she couldn't keep her stuck in the same place too long, as though the Whitebeard crew traveled, it was slower and often restricted to Whitebeard's wishes.

"I did it!" Sky shouted, pumping her fist up in the air in joy. She held the mirror up to her face before looking at Konan, "I can't see them anymore!"

"I'm proud of you," Konan praised, bringing Sky in a hug. She knew how much the visions of death strained her, to the point Sky didn't dare approach Whitebeard and the older crew member.

"My eyes are black again," Sky exclaimed, with unbridled joy. The black mists of ghosts had disappeared from her sight. They weren't plaguing the people around her anymore, and though she knew they hadn't really disappeared, at least they weren't visible to her as a constant reminder of the darkest parts of people. 

Because no matter how much she wanted to look past it, and not judge people based on how many people they killed, her unconscious judgment wasn't something she could control. 

Despite how much people smiled at her, a glance at the grudge-filled faces around them made her raise her guard up. It was inevitable for pirates to kill; she knew that but it didn't make it any easier to see blood-drenched ghosts remind her of it constantly.

"That concludes today's lesson, I'll free you earlier," Konan announced with a smile, she had received news of Doflamingo's subordinates snooping around her base, so she had to deal with that.

"Thanks again, Konan." Sky hugged Konan tightly before letting go and heading toward the kitchen, not before turning back and waving at her. "I'm making a cake tonight with uncle Thatch, don't come back too late!"

Konan flew away, catching a glimpse of a returning Thatch along with his group, they seemed to be celebrating something, but she didn't pay it any heed and left.

Beneath, only Teach stared at her leaving figure with a twisted smile, a greedy look on his face as his hand caressed his dagger. He looked back at the chained chest in Thatch's hands, barely managing to contain his excitement. Soon.

Ko arrived at one of the countless bases to see people searching around, turning everything over. "I hope I'm not bothering you?" she asked politely, sat at the large window overlooking them.

They were momentarily shocked to see the masked teenager before they took their guns out and started shooting. She parried against them with kunais, frowning when she saw them whiz past her face, these were sea marine bullets. It seems like they were amply prepared.

"I don't have the time to play with you," she commented, receiving information from her butterfly that the same thing was happening in a lot of her bases.

She sped past them, their blood gushing out as she weaved in between them, swiftly cutting their throats. When the last one fell, she looked down at the mess of corpses and blood tainting her previously pristine office. "This is going to be a long night," she sighed, before moving again, not forgetting to get someone to clean up the mess.

The moon was well up in the sky when she finished her pest control. "And I was looking forward to that cake..." Ko whined, looking at her bloodied coat in despair. She couldn't go back like that. She didn't want to scare Sky.

So, Konan went to take a quick bath, and changed her clothes, before beginning to fly back, as she was too far to directly teleport with the little chakra she had left.

When she was close enough, she teleported to the deck of the boat. 

Strangely enough, there was no one in sight, she frowned. The light was still on in the kitchen, so she began walking toward the familiar room.

There was a faint scent of blood drifting by, hidden beneath the salty smell of the sea, the iron blood was unmistakably blood. Kunais appeared in her hands as she raised her guard up.

When suddenly Sky ran out of the kitchen, tears running down her bloodied face. She was panicking, looking around frantically, "Anyone? Please help!" When she spotted Konan, relief washed over her as she ran over. "Konan! I-"

Konan frowned, observing the little girl, before her eyes narrowed unto her bloodied hands where deep wounds could be seen, exposing the white of her bones. Knife wounds.

"What happened?" Konan bent down calmly to the girl's height, putting away her kunais while she willed her papers to wrap around Sky's hands, as a make-shift bandage to stop the bleeding.

"I couldn't stop him," Sky cried out in frustration, fear, and anger, running back to the kitchen with Konan in tow.

The kitchen was a bloody mess, and in the middle of it laid Thatch in a pool of blood.