𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 85 🌞🌞

Just as Hongo had predicted, Konan woke up the next day, though she was prohibited from leaving her bed.

Konan gauged her injuries with a sigh, though she could still move as Nanko, moving him around slowed down her recovery.

Hongo seemed to have noticed a similar problem as he asked her if she was using her Devil Fruit constantly. Konan simply replied that it was something similar, these days she was forced to use a lot of energy—too much.

Hongo's final conclusion was a week's worth of rest.

To which Konan smiled, "No." She couldn't afford to do that, she still had some things to settle—she constantly did though. She liked being busy, it kept her mind from wandering to places she didn't want it to be.

So when Hongo turned his back and momentarily let his guard down, thinking she was sleeping, she walked out of the infirmary. Only to stop when she saw Shanks leaning against the wall looking at her. He seemed to be apologetic as he rubbed his neck, "Sorry, Hongo predicted you'd try to escape."

Konan smiled—a little too brightly to be sincere—before she tried to teleport past him. But he grabbed her arm the moment she reappeared. "Sorry but orders are orders, and you really should be resting."

"You really won't let me go...?" She stared at him, considering her options, she was too tired to attempt long-distance teleportation or flight.

The next second, thin needles were caught between his fingers as he narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm going to cry if you really attack me."

Konan chuckled before wincing in pain. Even laughing was off limits it seemed. She waved her hand as the needles disappeared from his hands. After recovering from the pain and waving off his concern, she reconsidered her options. "I apologize."

"It's alright, I'm sorry too," he apologized too once again before gently nudging her in the direction of the infirmary. With a sigh she obliged, wincing when one of her wounds acted up. Turns out teleporting when you had internal injuries wasn't good for your body, who would have guessed...

Once she had settled back into her bed with Shanks watching from a distance, she prepared to go back to sleep. She could feel he had a question hanging at the tip of his tongue, but she could more or less guess from his troubled gaze on the bandages covering her whole body.

Just as she had guessed, a few seconds later, he finally asked. "Who did you fight to end up in this state?" There was no hearable anger in his tone, merely controlled calmness.

Konan hesitated, she didn't know if there was a point in telling him, it wasn't even a fight but a one sided attack that she miserably failed to avoid. Still, she felt no desire for any form of revenge. She had survived, and no one apart from her had been injured. Though she doubted he would be happy to hear that.

"I fell down some stairs?"

Shanks raised an eyebrow, staring at her in a disbelieving manner. "Did those stairs have blades? Spikes?"

"Yeah, these were pretty nasty stairs."

Shanks groaned, his thumb rubbing the handle of his blade in frustration. There was nothing he could do if she didn't want to tell him. Though he had an inkling as to the culprit—there weren't that many pirates strong enough to inflict such injuries on her and that used a spiked weapon. But he struggled to understand why they would fight, that man had become somewhat of a recluse these last few years.

Konan stared at the way his fingers clenched till their tip turned white. She averted her gaze, nothing good could come out of pointing it out.

"By the way, I'm sorry for appearing so suddenly and getting blood everywhere." She would have preferred to avoid such a situation, but they were the nearest to where she was and she knew her body couldn't hold on for long enough to get to a safe place.

"It's alright, it happens," Shanks carelessly dismissed her worries. They were pirates, injuries and accidents happened.

"You're awake?" Hongo came in, "How weird, I was sure you were sleeping." He glanced meaningfully at her, raising an eyebrow.

Konan chuckled nervously, "I just woke up." Though she didn't fool anyone.

"You've been busy," Hongo added, waving a newspaper in his hand. When Shanks motioned for him to give it, he threw it to him.

Konan rubbed her temples as a butterfly gently hovered over his shoulder. She saw a picture of Ko 'fighting' against Kaido with Katakuri in the frame. "Who the fuck-" She groaned as she leaned back into her bed. That wasn't her journal but someone had somehow managed to take ahold of this news. Problems seemed to pile up these days.

She didn't like the attention she was starting to get. Attention could be dangerous, it meant more eyes watching her every move. That could be deadly for someone like her who moved in the shadows.

"Kaido..." Shanks' intuition was right after all, she had fought against one of the four emperors. The rest of the article was filled with theories: that it was a conflict between Kaido and Big Mom with Ko having joined Big Mom, and some other wild guesses—Ko had gotten married to Katakuri and was protecting her husband.

Konan covered her eyes as she started thinking. She knew Morgans held a grudge against Ko for stealing his monopoly on newspapers. Thus he jumped on every occasion to drag her through the mud, throwing all sorts of rumors on her back.

Hongo nonchalantly spoke, "Congrats on your marriage." By now every member of the Red Hair Pirates knew about the fact that she was Ko—they were more or less surprised. After all, some of them already knew about her second identity, Nanko.

That could be dangerous but Konan wasn't too worried about that, she knew they were all loyal to a fault to Shanks.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Konan let free a dozen butterflies from her body, letting them fly away through the window.

Hongo whistled as he admired the beautiful butterflies harmlessly flying away. "What mischief are they going to cause now...?" He could more or less guess and that made him laugh.

Konan innocently smiled, tilting her head, "Just sending out a gentle warning."

Hongo glanced at his captain, whose ears had slightly reddened, before he shook his head. "I pity the poor man," he said, staring meaningfully at his own captain before quickly disappearing when Shanks glared at him.

A few days later, pictures of Morgans were released—his white feathers were turned a bright fuschia pink.