𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕠𝕤 𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕤 • One Piece

Connections to Those We Love

╔══════☩═══ ♛ ═══☩══════╗

ᵥ
𝕋𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕒 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕖

╚══════☩═══ ♚ ═══☩══════╝

𝕃iliana, supported by the red-head stranger emerges from the rubble, with a bleeding Zoro and a caged Luffy on his back. Looking up at Zoro through half-lidded eyes as he strains against the weight of the stone cage, concern in her eyes. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"

Grabbing onto the bars from inside the cage Luffy looks at Zoro with concern as he grunts and groans from his injuries and the weight of the stone cage on his back. "Yeah, are you ok? How bad are you injured?"

"You two just shut up and don't worry about how I'm doing. I need to concentrate if I'm gonna get us out of here."

Liliana blearily looks up at Zoro with unfocused eyes. "I could still help you know."

"You're on the verge of passing out. Just shut up," Zoro orders through gritted teeth as the sweat drips from his face.

The woman stares at the swordsman with wide eyes. The sheer tenacity and loyalty displayed right in front of her. Even with the blood loss he was still determined to take the stone cage and the boy inside away from danger. It amazed her that this man–a pirate–would go to such great lengths. "Who is this guy?"

A drowsy feeling starts to take over Liliana's body as her hands start to tremble slightly. Leaning heavily against the woman as she grips onto her protesting stomach. "Roronoa Zoro, one really stubborn idiot."

This catches Zoro's attention, glancing at the ginger-haired woman walking next to them briefly before looking forward once more. "Hey, Luffy, who's this? Who's the girl?"

"Oh right, she's our new navigator."

"Yeah thanks for putting him into our current predicament," Liliana retorts sarcastically, earning an eye roll from the woman, opting to ignore the girl's snide comment.

"I'm not too sure about that. Who are you guys anyway?"

"We should be asking you that as well. Been seeing you everywhere." Blinking away the black dots, Liliana focuses on the ginger-haired girl with furrowed brows.

"Move, you're in the way," Zoro groans, pushing himself to his limits, ignoring the pain in his gut and the strain on his knees as the need to get his captain out of danger takes over his mind.

All for his captain.

"I guess even a lowly pirate can rescue his friend," The ginger-haired girl notes, stunned at the swordsman's perseverance as the two staggers away from the girls.

"I take slight offence at that," Liliana murmured. The Redhead can only scoff at her before following them, supporting Liliana as they go. A tired smile appears on Liliana's face, her eyes slowly closing before blinking them rapidly again. "I'm Liliana, most call me Lily. Figured I should tell you that, seeing as you're currently helping me out and that I've been seeing you everywhere we go."

"Nami," she replies, a thought appearing in her mind. "You're quite young to be a pirate."

"You gotta do, what you gotta do," Liliana says with a gentle voice, her voice barely above a whisper, thinking about her own ambitions and goals, "I'm guessing you're the same."

"I have my own goal which is to save 100,000,000 beli," Nami admits, not revealing any further than that. Setting Liliana on the ground, Nami quickly mumbled out that she would be back. Nodding in compliance, Liliana laid down, too tired to argue.

Arriving at the town square, Zoro finally sets down the huge stone cage with a heavy thud, before collapsing on the ground in exhaustion. "Huh?" Looking up in confusion, Zoro notices the white Maltese dog standing still like a statue in front of the building. "What's with this dog?"

"Doggy!" Luffy grins, rocking his stone cage over towards the dog to get a look. "Lily will love it. She loves animals." The dog doesn't move a muscle, seemingly not noticing or not caring about the weird boy in the cage. Luffy stares back before proceeding to stretch his face around to try and get some reaction from the dog only to get nothing. "Zoro! It looks like this dog is frozen!"

Zoro goes to lean against a wooden beam of a shop, too tired to care. He can swear that he's seeing black dots in his vision but he refused to acknowledge it. "I don't give a damn. It can sit there forever for all I care."

"I wonder if it's dead." Luffy pokes the dog's head in curiosity when immediately the dog bites onto Luffy's hand. The dog then attacks his head with Zoro watching in horror.

"Luffy! Quit goofing around and get serious!" Zoro orders before quickly feeling light-headed, collapsing again on the ground as the dog stops attacking Luffy.

"Damn dog."

"I don't feel so good," Zoro murmurs.

Nami finally approaches the two while supporting Liliana by her shoulders. Setting the nauseous girl down gently on the floor near her crewmates, she promptly lies down, finally closing her eyes for some much-needed rest.

"Oh hey navigator," Luffy greets with a slight grimace from all the dog bites as Nami throws down a key near Luffy.

"I guess you could have this. You did get me out of a sticky situation."

Looking at what Nami threw towards him, Luffy grins, ecstatic at the prospect of finally being free from the cage. "Great! The key to the cage! Did you go stealing it for me? Thanks, Nami!"

"I only did it so we could be even and now I don't owe you anything, so we're square. Ok?" Nami responds with a scoff as Zoro slowly gets up, chuckling at the girl's gall.

"Yeah, sure!" Luffy reaches for the key with a huge grin which is quickly replaced by horror. The key to his freedom was snatched away by the dog who promptly swallows it at everyone's shock and frustration. Mostly Luffy, who proceeds to strangle the dog straining himself against the bars of the cage. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid dog!"

At this point, Liliana wakes up, drowsy and still really weak to witness her cousin beating up the dog for no apparent reason in her view. Struggling to get the words out, she reaches out to grab the dog from Luffy's grasp as he continues to strangle the dog with fury. "Luffy! No! Don't hurt the poor puppy!"