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Perhaps nothing drove home exactly how closed off and bound within propriety Wano was than the Uta Concert. It was loud, chaotic, and absolutely filled to the brim with pirates unlike anything O-Kiku had ever seen.
A former entertainer herself, O-Kiku of the Lingering Snow had been enjoying the music very much in the beginning. It was nothing like the gentle plucked strings of her youth - full of open fury and passion that captured her attention and kindled her spirit anew.
She'd changed her clothes, wearing something other than her kimono for once and enjoying the feeling of how it fell over her body. She'd eaten foods she'd never seen, and saw glimpses of pirates she'd never met among the civilians.
It all seemed to be going so well, as a tenuous bright spot set against the absolute tragedy that had occurred shortly after Wano - the loss of Captain Kid's crew, of which she and those who could no longer stand Wano's tight grip had become a part of.
But despite the good times Uta seemed to share with her friend Luffy on stage - it wasn't long before monsters flooded the streets of the concert town, demons made of musical energy that danced throughout the civilian crowd with one goal - 'eliminate all pirates'. They'd been driven into hiding underground, fighting a losing battle against an insurmountable enemy, learning more and more about the trap they'd all fallen into.
At some point in the depths, Kiku had eaten a 'Devil Fruit', mastering an ability to become the living snow itself - and together with the comrades they'd launched a counterattack against the beasts and drove them back enough for Straw Hat Luffy to embrace his lost friend and drive the darkness from her heart.
O-Kiku still remembered the thrill of her blade slicing through spiritual flesh, and the blissful cold of her new power running rampant - the feeling of Kid's magnetism and the sight Killer's speed and tusks tearing foes down left and right, as Otama and Speed rode through the crowd with deadly ninjitsu felling those who remained.
It was a beautiful dance, capped by Uta's voice fighting off the creature inside her heart and the embrace of two, long since parted.
A poetic end to what turned out to be a grand and poetic dream.
After that, the one Kid called 'Crocodile' ordered a large meeting that put the Mink Samurai Pirate Alliance to shame, and gave a rather grand speech about pirate unity against the power of the World Government.
His words must have been rather pretty because even griping and complaining about it, her new captain signed the remainder of their crew on as members of Cross Guild. With her eye on the swordsmen and swordswomen scattered through the tent, she'd headed out with Killer to return to the dank tunnels below the town in the hunt for the Devil Fruit of her dreams, as Kid and the rest lingered behind to finally collect on the lawman's decaying skull they'd long since collected in retribution.
"So many storied blades under one roof," she mused with her hand on Yuki Onna's pommel, glancing at Killer as she paced down the street.
"Yeah," Killer agreed, jerking a nod. "Big fucking party, huh? How's it compare to your home town?"
They traced their steps from the dream, finding each street and corner exactly the same as it had been in the theater of their minds, though perhaps duller and greyer.
That girl's power had truly been something grand. As grand as it was terrible, drawing them all into some fevered daydream of a world the devout called ''better' but more empty than their reality.
She chuckled under her breath.
"My home town? You'd never see anything like this on Wano. Perhaps—perhaps in the early days when I was still young, Oden would throw a party half as lively as all this. And, speaking as one who was once a musician, this was nothing like the concerts I'd performed as a child."
She ducked under an unassuming shack's door, and oriented towards the 'hidden entrance' in the kitchen. Killer followed alongside her, sharp and alert.
"So much more chaotic though. Cross Guild's far bigger and stranger than the Nine Red Scabbards or our alliances ever were."
"It's big, that's for sure. We'll fucking see if it's strong though. Stronger with us around, eh? Especially if this fruit from the dream really exists."
O-Kiku listened to the sound of their footsteps starting to echo as the hatch was found and they descended into the musty, frigid depths of the island. It was almost meditative, really. She turned towards Killer and bared her teeth in a wide smile.
"Much stronger with us around, especially if that fruit exists. It felt so…perfect…to wield. They always called me the samurai of the lingering snow, and I've gotten this frigid blade blessed by its original owner's spirit, so it felt right for me to become a snow demon…even just in my dreams."
"Maybe it'll be in reality too. Sounds like it's a fuckin match made in hell. Devil fruits… are really something."
Killer, her new companion on the Kid pirates, had become a devil fruit user too, in the short time that she'd known him. After being poisoned by one of the SMILE fruits on Wano, he'd been cured by Trafalgar, and claimed one of Kaidou's own treasure-hoard fruits for his own.
That SMILE fruit was a true curse. The rictus grin and all consuming euphoria it bestowed upon its victims was a nightmare to behold…and Killer had been tormented by it terribly. She was pleased that it could be fixed, for him, and for the poor children and folks of Ebisu town.
And she had to admit his new devil fruit suited him much better. A ferocious boar, strong bodied and powerful and, perhaps, if looked at ascance - rather cute.
She chuckled quietly as her fingers traced the delicate cording on her sword's handle.
"Devil Fruits certainly seem to be. My brother had no need of them…" she flexed the arm that still felt like someone else's - her brother's arm grafted seamlessly onto her body by Trafalgar as well. "But I've seen the power they can hold. And well…they become a part of you don't they?"
"They do." He nodded as they descended the long, winding staircase adorned with vines and carvings. "I thought I didn't need one either. Wanted to be able to play back up for my partner. But we're out in the deep end now. Feels like I need every edge I can get."
There was a tightness in his voice. Nerves, though he likely wouldn't admit it.
O-Kiku wasn't sure still of the sort of propriety the people outside Wano practiced, or how certain gestures were received, but she went with her gut instinct. She reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze as they headed down.
"Me too, my friend. When I lost my sword arm, I knew I had to take every edge I could get too, or the world would simply consume me too." She closed her eyes over her thin little smile. "I know your partner is glad to have you backing him up here in the deep end of the Grand Line. Things will only get harder but we harden to meet them, don't we? Like tempered steel."
"Like tempered steel," he agreed. He looked up with a fond cock of his head. "I'll admit to you, Kiku, I think about what happens if he falls in the drink and I can't pull him out. But then I think about all the other bad shit that could go wrong that maybe I couldn't save him from without being stronger. Guess it evens out."
She met his gaze with an eye opened, careful as she walked down the moss-covered old steps and into darkness; at least for the moment she could see the landing not far below.
"It evens out. Exactly right, Killer."
With a fondness of her own, and there was a fondness. The Kid Pirates, and especially Killer, were thoroughly unique and far from what Wano stood for, but it was a strangeness that O-Kiku found she quite liked.
The sort of fondness perhaps that kept her brother out on the open sea instead of wandering back home until it was time to pass.
"Nothing is perfect. The ocean is the enemy for you both now, but…well, you have the strength to protect him against even things like this," she gestured to a mural as they passed, "a rampaging god."
"Not what I expected when we came to a pansy ass concert like this." There was a wry twist to his voice. "Certainly livened things up."
He bumped his shoulder against her. The friendly gesture told her that he was grateful for her listening, even if it was pretty clear he didn't want to dwell on it.
That, at least, was familiar. She flashed him a smile and bumped his shoulder back. A helpful ear was nice - but dwelling could hurt a swordsman's pride. She laughed.
"Was it that weak of a concert, Killer? The girl seemed to be giving it her all rather admirably….at least until she tried to 'bring the house down' around everyone's ears on a mythological scale."
"She wasn't bad," Killer admitted. "Just not Kid Pirates level."
It was a shame, when she thought about it. She only got to hear their band play together once, in practice on the ship, before they'd been decimated.
It'd utterly shattered her idea of what music could sound like in perhaps the best way.
"Not Kid Pirates level in the least," she shook her head with a rueful smile. It was tragic she'd never get to hear it again, but perhaps. "Though…the Kid Pirates performance, and even young Uta's, it stirred a part of this one's soul I thought I'd never feel stir again."
Her fingers traced over a relief on the wall as she followed the twisting vines deeper down paths she remembered from her dreams.
"That so?" He glanced over at her, flicking his lighter and grabbing a torch from the wall as they finally passed the last of the light from the higher level.
"Did I tell you I used to be a musician?" She looked over her shoulder at him with a slight smile. "And my brother was a dancer. We were theater children until…factors conspired to make us urchins.We escaped that life for one in Oden's name."
Her fingers traced one of the vines.
"Don't think you did tell me. But it sounds like you might be hearing the call of music again, huh?"
Kiku smiled widely at him. "I think I might be. Of course, I'd need to learn the sorts of music you and the rest of the Grand Line play."
She'd always loved playing as a child, even the time on the streets playing for the drunks and the cruel hadn't taken away that love. But the life of a samurai always came first.
But the Kid Pirates loved music, didn't they? Hard, driving, intense music that thrilled her to the core.
"Nobody plays like we do. But I think with a little practice you could more than keep up."
Killer paused, waving the torch around as they found themselves in the earthen chamber, and its stone library. Just like it had been in the dream.
Kiku followed the vines. It was around here that they'd found the fruit tucked away in a quiet corner of the library they'd been trapped in for hours.
"So the library does exist, " she mused softly before glancing back at Killer. "You think so? Can I count on you to get me up to speed, Killer? I'll be relying on you…I don't even have my instrument."
"Sure, I'll catch you up. And hey, we're in the right place to loot some instruments, aren't we? Better fucking stock up before we ship out."
"The people here certainly won't be missing them now that they've all chosen oblivion, will they?" She mused with a sharp edge to her smile, almost like her favorite demonic mask. "Let's talk to the Captain when we get back and get rummaging about."
She paused, seeing a glint of something pale and shiny in the darkness. "...hold on…"
"Eh? You find it?" He peeked out from behind her.
There, glimmering in the torchlight, exactly where she'd first seen it in the dream, was a devil fruit, growing off the strange vines of the old library.
"It looks like the memory of the dream was correct!" O-Kiku excitedly jogged forward and plucked it from the vine. The same cool, strangely smooth texture played against her palms as she held it up to her face with a grin. "...It's the same one, isn't it? Same pattern…same color…"
"I didn't see it before you bit the fucker," he admitted, leaning in close. "But if you say it's looks the same I'd be willing to fucking bet. Seems terrible fucking odds that there's a devil fruit down here but its a different one."
She leaned her shoulder against him with an amused chuckle. "....here's to rolling the dice and taking a gamble, eh Killer?"
She winked, and took a bite of the vile thing. Even fully prepared, it shocked her system like nothing else.
A thrill went through her, and Killer whistled.
"Well, I'd say it's the same one alright."
Kiku noticed that ice had bloomed around her feet.
She gasped, and took a slight step backwards as it fractured below her heels…and her hand dissipated into heavy snow that trailed in glittering flakes down towards the ground before reversing direction and trying to reform into fingers.
"....so it seems to be!"
After a moment she realized she was laughing, small piles of snow and fractals of ice blooming around her as she turned to Killer with an ear to ear smile that wasn't exactly becoming of a samurai. "I've become the Yuki-Onna again!"
In one corner of the tent where Crocodile and the Kid Pirates were negotiating the bounty for the Admiral's head they'd collected from his wretched corpse, a number of small straw men danced around like puppets hanging from the arm of Basil Hawkins.
They moved about, turning pages of an old logbook from one of the houses on Elegia and holding up a glass of wine for him to take another sip as he waited for the sordid business to be done.
Deep in his distraction, he heard a soft sound that played just on the edge of his hearing. A low growl.
The little straw dolls startled in lieu of him,turning to scurry around as they dropped the book at his feet. He glanced over his shoulder with a pensive frown. "It's not polite to growl."
Basil had just enough time to see the enormous black shadow grow in his vision before it hit him like a ton of bricks. Almost literally. An enormous creature of black fur pounced directly on top of him.
"Captain!"
Basil Hawkins was actually shocked enough to voice it, falling back into the dirt with the big pile of dark fur atop him as he cried out.
He lay there, framed by his skittering straw dolls as they tried to rejoin his arm, his hair splayed out below him, and he looked up into a pair of eyes he thought he'd never see again.
"...Faust?? I am still dreaming, aren't I?"
On top of him the huge mass of fur was purring like a rumbling engine. A pair of big golden eyes swam into his vision. "That's my line, captain. I thought you were dead!"
The conversation between Kid and Crocodile had stopped for the moment, and they both looked over.
"You alright, Hawkins?" Kid grunted.
"I'm…I'm quite fine, Captain." Basil reached his straw hand up and rustled the space between Faust's ears as he tried to judge if this was all some hallucination ."Faust…that's…that's perhaps MY line, I'd thought Kaido had killed you for certain. After Wano, I was rescued by Eustass Kid and his crew. Alone."
Kid waved his hand and turned away from the scene, satisfied there wasn't a problem. Faust, meanwhile, kept him pinned to the floor. He'd started rubbing his head against Basil's chest, purring.
"Not killed no," he shook his head, nuzzling him. "Locked up on the Beast Pirates' ship, because of my Mink heritage, I suppose. I missed the whole final confrontation."
Basil scratched his ears carefully with the metallic nails of his false hand before he shifted to exchange it with the flesh and blood one. "...because you were a mink the Beast Pirates…."
He was quiet for a moment before a quiet laughter bubbled out of him. "...ahah. So Kaido really was that enamoured with his 'Beast Pirate aesthetic. Now that's amusing…and a stroke of good luck. The cards said nothing of finding you, Faust. For once I'm glad they're all wrong."
"So am I, Captain." Faust nuzzled Basil again, reassuring himself that the man was there. Of course, it made sense that his captain had thought he was dead. But it still seemed like a reversal, when all these past weeks he'd been the one terribly afraid for Basil. No one had been able to confirm that he had escaped the island.
Still, he realized belatedly in such a crowded pirate meeting, such a physical greeting might be embarrassing for Basil, given the way non-Minks responded to such things.
"Should I get off of you, sir?" he murmured low.
"If you'd like," Basil chuckled quietly as he sat somewhat up below him. "You know I care little for the stares of others. But, well. Captain Kid may start to stare."
Faust rolled a little self-consciously off his captain and stood, helping him to his feet. "Would it be prudent for us to step outside for a few moments while we catch up? It seems like there's business happening here."
"There is, certainly" Hawkins smiled wryly as he stood up with a stretch. "...but we should take a moment."
He looked over his shoulder. "Captain Kid. I'm going to step out with my first mate for a little while."
Kid waved dismissively. "Yeah, yeah."
Faust glanced at the other pirate curiously, but didn't voice his thoughts until after they were out in the fresh air. But now that they had a little more breathing room, he took the opportunity to wrap his arms around his captain again, before anything else.
"You and Kid are getting along?"
Hawkins looped his straw arm around Faust to draw him in, glancing briefly back at the tent as he led him away .
"Quite well, honestly…he actually saved my life, you know. Him and Killer were the ones who dredged me out of that fire."
Faust couldn't hide his astonishment, his ears standing straight up. "You're joking, surely? According to every report I heard, a fight with them was the last time anyone saw you. I was certain that–"
That they had killed him. He was certain that Kid or his first mate had killed his captain.
"Oh, Killer did cut my arm off," Basil laughed dryly, and patted his shoulder, which made a rustling noise of straw. "And I thought for certain they'd leave me for dead. But for some impossible reason they dragged me out with them."
"Your arm!?" In Faust's joy at seeing him again, he hadn't even noticed. He reached out and put his hand on that shoulder. "Captain!"
Under the shirt was more rustling—and the telltale give of straw "I'm afraid so. I was aiming to kill, myself. So turnabout is fair play. The cards were never in my favor on Wano."
He flexed straw fingers with a shake of his head. "I don't blame them, and I've made it work as best I can."
"Captain!" Faust repeated, nuzzling his head against Basil's chest. "I wasn't there to help you. I don't know what to say. I'm ashamed."
Basil looped his arm around him again, and brushed his fingers through Faust's fur - his real fingers.
"It's not your fault. You were suffering trials of your own, Faust. Please, don't be ashamed." He was quiet a moment more before he said "I'm just pleased you weren't as dead as Kaidou liked to insinuate you were. Thinking I was all alone, I signed on with the Kid Pirates as thanks for saving my life."
"You signed on–" Faust felt dizzy. As thrilled as he was to see his captain alive, it seemed that there was a lot that had happened that he didn't understand. "You're going to have to fill me in, sir…"
It was true that Faust had 'buddied up' to the Beast pirates too, on their flight from Wano, as much as necessary. But…
Basil scratched behind his ears with a thin smile.
"I didn't have a ship, and I'd lost my crew, I thought you were dead. And Captain Kid was surprisingly kind, as is his first mate. I didn't want to limp off with the Beast Pirates - Kaidou would have simply had me killed for my failure anyway, so I offered to join his crew along with a handful of runaway girls from Wano."
Faust's ears twitched and he nuzzled against Basil's fingers. "That makes sense, sir. How… has that been working out, then?"
It was true, the rest of their crew were surely dead. Basil had done the sensible thing, especially if Kid had saved his life. There was a sting of wounded pride and humiliation, but it was the same shame that Basil had waved off a moment ago. Faust only wished he could have been there. Done more.
"It's been working well. They don't treat me as any lesser for losing my position as Captain, even if it's a blow to the ego." Basil mused. "Sadly…their crew was massacred not long after Wano. They lost everyone save for me, Kid and Killer, and the girls of Wano—"
"Their crew?" Faust's teeth set. That was a blow. "So many of us have gone down recently. I– if you're planning to continue to sail with them, can I continue to stand by your side?"
"At the hands of the marines. The heads of which they're currently bargaining for payment on with Crocodile as we speak," Basil's arm tightened around him, and he drew him closer as he nodded once. "I am of the utmost certainty Captain Kid wouldn't object to one more capable member on the crew. I insist that I not lose you again, Faust."
Faust leaned into him, nuzzling him desperately. They had wounds to lick, but at least they could limp off and lick them. At least they had another chance.
"Captain or not, you know I wouldn't leave you by choice."
"I'm pleased to hear it," Basil squeezed him tighter. "I knew you never would—but thank you for not leaving me over my loss of the ship, and of my captainhood. It's a shame…but one we'll rise from. And the Kid Pirates are a rough bunch—but you'll find them rather charming."
"Hopefully they'll find me charming as well." He chuckled softly. "Not our usual types, are they?"
"Not by half," Basil laughed as he rested his chin atop Faust's head "...but they do have a demoness from Wano, and enough in common that we may be able to salvage some occult energies among them."
"A demoness you say! Now, her, I would like to meet! Well, captain, this is certainly a change in our fortunes, isn't it?"
"I'm certain O-Kiku will be delighted to meet you, Faust." Basil looped his arm around him with a subtle, but quite warm smile. "Shall I introduce you around? But prepare yourself—most of them are quite loud."
"Consider me warned, cap– sir." He chuckled, and shook his head. This was going to take some getting used to. But it would very much be worth it. "I'm glad I managed to catch up to you, finally."
"As am I, Faust. As am I," Basil leaned over, and planted a gentle kiss between his ears. "Seems fate had some sympathy in the cards for us after all."