The Silver Haired Pirate

Chapter 12

I am alive! That is false I am not alive, but I am here. Schools been super stressful and I've been superrr busy this week, but that's also a generic excuse so here have a chapter instead.

The six of them continued on their journey through the desert. Luffy being dragged behind them. Aki had offered to carry him but the rest said that that wasn't necessary.

"They must be miles away by now." Usopp sighed,

"Yes and their footprints are beginning to disappear. Come nightfall we might just be stuck here to die." Aki said with a straight face,

"Don't say things like that!"

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ace in a while either" Zoro said,

"Oh great where did he disappear to?"

"I bet he got separated from us." came a familiar voice. Everyone stopped and looked down at the now conscious captain, "sorry my big brother can be kind of a flake" he was instantly stomped on by the three of them, Aki having stepped back to not get caught in the crossfire. Aki suddenly heard something and decided to investigate. He stopped at the top of a large sand dune and was quickly accompanied by the others who had also heard the strange sound. It was a ship and it had a massive umbrella in the front that they were using to propel themselves forward, though it stopped quickly. Usopp zoomed his goggles in and his face contorted into one of fear,

"Guys bad news! Vivi and Nami have been captured! Oh, and the camel too." Luffy was instantly to his feet as he launched himself down the sand dune, the others hot on his tail. Aki landed gracefully and decided to ignored the others when they fell over and instead walked closer to the ship,

"Gum Gum give me water!" Luffy crashed into the mast of the ship, the wood splintering under the force. The mast fell over banging into the ground, kicking up a big dust cloud effectively blinding everyone. Aki slithered, having transformed into a desert snake, up the mast and transformed back. He was now sitting on the white railing watching as Luffy and the captain of the ship, a big man with a matching big beard, conversed.

"I even ate stuff off of the ground!" Luffy exclaimed proudly. Aki internally grimaced at that but kept his calm front. At some point Aki spaced out and began to think of.... well he had forgotten when he was brought back to reality, as odd as that was for him, he simply brushed it off. The sand pirates were now lowering a sand sled into the pale yellow sand. Aki looked curiously over the railing and listened in to their conversation.

"You can use these sleds to bring back the lumber" the bearded captain said,

"Looks more like a canoe then a sled to me" sassed Nami, who by the way was freed a long with the camel and the princess,

"Zaba and Rasa will show you to the Oasis. They'll do you good; Rasa is the best sledder on the ship." Said a thin man as he stood beside a sled. Aki suddenly perked up and hopped down beside Vivi, successfully starling her, before he pulled her to the side. He quickly caught whatever was thrown at the princess who was standing shakily beside him. He examined it, it had a curved blade and was small. He looked in the direction of the 'attacker' and saw a figure standing on the broken mast. They flipped off of it, landing on the sand beside the pair that still stood close to each other despite several jealous stares and/or glares being thrown.

"Very impressive Rasa!" Rasa's captain cheered for her. Rasa's attention was fixated on Akimitsu who stared back at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He flipped the blade around so the handle was pointing toward the user who hesitantly took it back,

"You're fast. I'm impressed, not many people can stop my knife." she spoke. Aki flashed her a small smile and nodded, giving her a small 'thank you'. The brown eyed woman turned to Vivi, "these ones seem like outsiders, but you're from here." she said simply,

"How can you tell?" asked Luffy shocked and amazed.

>----Time Skip----<

In the end Vivi had tagged along with Luffy to go and get the wood. The rest of the crew stayed behind though. Aki, when he looked up at the sound of shouting and rumbling, sweat dropped when he saw massive dung beetles and desert bandits but quickly looked away when one winked at him. The sun had set when the group had come back with the lumber. When everyone was settled back the Strawhats decided to stay the night with the sand pirates. The ship dropped anchor a little while away from a city called Ito and sent the Strawhats off quickly and cheerfully, Vivi began to tear up as she waved goodbye too. The group began to walk again, minus Vivi and Nami who were selfishly sitting on Eyelash who was being pulled by his reins, by Aki just in case the animal went nuts again and took off. Whenever Aki noticed something cool or saw something that was not sand, he would point it out to Chopper and Luffy to keep them entertained and to keep Luffy from complaining constantly,

"Look, cladoes." he said pointing to a bunch of flat, paddle-shaped plants at the top of one of the dunes. They were sprouting some of that red fruit, some looked ripe even.

"Ah what now?" Luffy asked. Aki chuckled,

"Some people call them cladoes but they're most commonly known as prickly pear cacti. They're edible and the fruit on top of it has lots of vitamins. Or... so I've heard." Aki clarified blushing in embarrassment as he got caught up and excited while explaining.

"You sure know a lot about desert plants." Zoro pointed out realizing that the crew actually didn't know much about the seamster,

"I love studying them. It's useful just in case you get lost and you can identify non-edible plants... from... edible... ones..." Aki slowly stopped talking as he watched Luffy destroy the fruit and eat it.