Odd Eye (One Piece Fanfic)

-20- I'm Different; I'm a Shikke.

A thread wove, seam after seam passing through skin into cells, overlapping and running from the left to the right so rapidly it was hard to see. Tissue and tissue were pulled together to seal a wound, bound so neatly together it was hard to believe it was torn open to begin with.

Luz pulled the bandanna from his head, letting his white bangs fall back over his face.

"I fixed the wound and stopped the bleeding, but it'll take a while before he wakes up," Luz spoke up, turning to the sleeping blond man, face wrapped in bandages. His palm, which had been holed through by a knife, was healed-- white threads pulled in to seal it shut.

Cross scrutinized him from behind, considering him dreadfully, eyes locked in a cold, seething glower. His wired blades were firmly wrapped in his hands, ready to strike at any moment's notice.

"One of you two are a spy," Luz muttered, almost accusingly, "if not, it's that guy you said you lost in the seas. You wouldn't have reached this island any otherwise."

Cross' hands clenched over the hilt of the blade.

The next moment, his blade flew to Luz-- missing his neck narrowly, embedding into the bed.

"Don't push your luck," Cross growled, "none of my friends are bastards like you."

A kunai was cast in retaliation, slicing off bits of Cross' hair. Luz chucked a shuriken, the revolving blade swinging in from the corners.

Shifting the position of his wires, Cross deflected it without batting an eyelash. He lobbed his other blade into the bed frame-- retracting his wires, crossing one arm over the other, he leaped forward.

The cross section of the wires closed in on Luz-- sharp strings of metal encroaching him, surging in with the threat of slicing his neck right off then and there.

Cross flew forward, his foot stomped the bed frame at his stop.

The wires half an inch before Luz's neck, with no signs of escape, Cross placed his foot down beside the white-haired boy-- gazing deep into him.

His blue left eye gleamed with a flame that bore through his skull, a deep, sinister sclera that flared with the calls of a demon. Wide, straight, open-- staring into Luz as if it was peering right into his very soul.

It horrified him.

Luz thought Cross was a naive, unnecessarily cheerful boy-- 

"Thanks for treating Titus' wounds," Cross grumbled almost sarcastically, "but if you think I'm gonna let you leave and tell the villagers where we are again, you're dead wrong."

Luz trembled, shivered, feared, feared, feared.

"Ah, what you did was cool," Cross' smile now seemed nothing but absolutely psychotic, "the strings glowed. What was that?"

Luz clenched his fist.

"It's a traditional art passed down in my clan," Luz muttered softly, "the Healing of the Shikke. Only those of my blood can perform it."

"Healing?" Cross asked, his tone raised in anger, "this island, full of those psychopathic ninjas, strive in healing arts?"

"They are not!" Luz's voice raised sharper-- harder.

Cross flinched, surprised.

"They're not.. the Shikke... the Yun Clan-- they don't belong here," Luz's voice was shattered, broken-- seething with such grievous rage tears threatened to spill, "they stole our country-- they eradicated what was once our pride, even though they were the intruders! Don't you dare mistake them for us!"

Cross paused.

Something in that speech hit him inside-- but he bit his lip, holding back. Retracting one blade, he leaned in closer.

"Hehh... so you were invaded too?" Cross mumbled, sounding terribly unamused. "So? Is this art something only you have?"

Luz gritted his teeth, "fuck."

Cross snorted, "yeah, you wouldn't tell me."

Pulling his blades away, he parted from the boy.

"Which reminds me-- what was that about?" Cross spoke up, slightly less hostile now, "the ghost thing? Mansion up on the mountain, a light?"

He remembered everyone just going crazy over seeing a light, calling it a ghost or something. 

Luz's face paled, horrified.

"Vis," he breathed, "they-- no, she couldn't have been so careless-- why would..."

His head lifted.

His eyes met Cross'-- expressions quickly fell from horror to despair.

"Your friend... if he made it on the island and hasn't been found yet, that could only mean he's up the mountain," he mumbled, "no... of all things..."

At the mention of Takara, Cross' attention was caught.

The villagers bore a burning spite in them-- one that was about to commit a flaring massacre. This was caused by a presence on the mountain, that was what Cross could gather.

Luz was probably right on the suggestion that Takara was on the mountain.

...would that imply Takara was in danger of being caught up in the fray?

Cross saw red.

His grip curled, lifting Luz by the collar.

"Explain," he demanded.

Luz clicked his tongue.

"This is all your fault," Luz seethed, "if you guys didn't come here-- if only you guys just stayed away from here--Vis, Visul is--"

Luz sobbed. Tears spilled from him, overflowing as thickly as his emotions of desperation-- a despair so great, from the knowing of imminent death--

Cross faltered.

Luz saw the chance. He kicked away-- and broke off into a dash out of the house.

Cross failed to find the will in him to stand up and chase after the boy. The desperate figure of a boy running to save, running to brave his own tragedy-- it hit home.

"This is all my fault," he whimpered, tears streaming down his face as he cried, cried, cried for the lives he could not save, "if only I didn't come here-- if only I just stayed away from here-- none of this would've happened... I'm sorry-- I'm sorry, Leer..."  

The rain had soothed into a drizzle, but Cross felt cold.