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𝐒𝐄𝐀 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄; arc one

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 ¡!

next: ࿔*:･ﾟi. | table of contents

warning: graphic depiction of choking/violence

YOU'LL HAVE written this in one of many journals, hatching away at the paper, ripping out pages, rewriting them, tongue to ink, all in some attempt to immortalize the Straw Hats properly— and it will always start with the day you met them. It was some objectionably plain day in January, back when you had still blindly followed under Captain Tempest as his Lieutenant Commander, with millions of doubts resting upon your shoulders. The weight was so great, of course, that the only way for you to wear that damn white "Justice" embroidered coat was to wear it the way every coat was supposed to be worn.

You'd been sitting in your little secret spot on the northwesternmost part of Shellstone Island, a reasonable distance from the overbearing watch of Murex Base, somewhere in the blind spot that was Wentletrap forest. Auger Village wasn't too far either, but it was too small even to be considered an issue. You sat nestled in the branches of some big, ancient oak tree whose trunk had bent to the right halfway up. Your view was partially obscured, just enough that all you could see was the sea to the north. If you squinted just enough, you could see a hint of the Conomi Islands on the horizon.

That's all to say that you had not seen the Straw Hats until they were directly beneath you, standing under your tree.

You had heard them first, all screams and screeches, their words undiscernible to your livid ear as your wrapped fingers dug into the bark of your beloved oak. You had tried to ignore it at first, chalking it up to some cadets that you would have to straighten out later so they wouldn't ever come near your tree again. But as the voices grew closer and yelled much less, you started coming to terms with the fact that the voices had to belong to pirates.

"God, I can't believe you don't know your east from west!"

"This wouldn't have happened if you gave better directions."

Oh, so they were lost.

"We are so screwed! Of course, we'd land on an island full of marines!"

"Just our luck... Hey, what should we do, Luffy? Merry won't get unstuck until sometime tomorrow."

And they were stuck.

And were with... Straw Hat Luffy.

You'd nearly fallen out of your spot in the branches just as their voices grew closer to your tree. You grit your teeth— the Straw Hats had landed in an effective dead zone, too far out of range for the old transponder snails that Headquarters refused to retire. The poor snails were just a few years away from dying, and you had chosen this spot because you knew it. You had taken a snail the first time Tempest had laid his hands on you and walked out as far as you could until he could no longer yell through it.

Now, here you were, facing the consequences you had never expected to face.

You slowly steadied yourself on the branches, trying to blend the sounds of your movement with the crunching footsteps of the Straw Hat crew. You slowly reached for the branch above you, up on your tiptoes, ready to pull yourself up, until you saw that telltale straw hat below you, some good ten feet down. You held your breath, taking note of the boleadoras that weighed down your hips, watching as his crew stopped behind him. Below and behind you.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty hungry. Sanji, do you have any meat?" Straw Hat asked with a snicker as his crew physically recoiled.

"Luffy! This is not the time to be thinking about meat, you idiot!" yelled a girl with pretty, tangerine-colored hair, livid as you could only expect her to be. It was nearly comical.

"Don't you get it, Luffy?! The Marines will kill us if they find us here!" screeched a long-nosed guy, his arms flailing around before he paced in small circles. As he began to mess with the goggles he wore, you held back a snicker.

"Sanjiii! I'm tired! I need meat! As your captain, I demand meat! Meat!"

"No can do, Luffy. I left it all on the Merry. We'll need it to make it to the Grand Line anyway," said a blond, flicking a lighter with his hand cupped around the cigarette poking from his lips. Your eyes lingered a moment but quickly moved on. Sanji, huh?

"Great going, Cook. Now Luffy will eat us alive," grumbled a green-haired man, his hand resting on the sword at his waist and two sword sheaths. You watched the ragged rise and fall of his chest and the slight limp he seemed to carry. It didn't take much for you to realize that this was Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro.

You weren't a stranger to him or Straw Hat, considering one of the cadets had come stumbling into your office with two wanted posters. Tempest had called you over that baby transponder snail he had gone out of his way to buy for you, to yell in your ear about what had happened with Nezumi, some insult in each sentence— as if you had been the one to make Arlong Park crumble to the ground. The baby transponder snail still sat flush in your ear, even further out of range than the old ones.

The branches and leaves of your oak rustled in the sea breeze, and you took the chance to pull yourself up higher, watching the Straw Hats grow more obstructed from view. You threw a leg over the branch and sat back against the trunk, its bark digging into your coat. Their voices grew slightly fainter with the height, but you continued listening.

"Well... Auger Village is nearby. We could hide out there for a bit, considering Merry is in Murex's blind spot," Tangerine stated as your brow furrowed— how did she know that? You leaned down, chest to the branch, struggling to see her with the leaves in the way.

"Woah, how'd you know that, Nami?" Long Nose marveled; the clicking his goggles had been making stopped, as did his pacing. Sanji pulled his cigarette from his mouth and put his hands on his hip, the cigarette sending smoke up to where you were from between his fingers.

"That's our Nami! So gorgeous, and smart, and pretty, and gorgeous~!"

"...Thanks, Sanji... But while that's all true, people from Cocoyashi used to come trade here at Auger. Bellemere took me a few times to sell our tangerines before... well, she passed. So, I know my way around."

Bellemere, Nami— the names sounded familiar, but yet not quite. Still, you felt better knowing she hadn't somehow scoped out your island, hoping to destroy Murex with the Straw Hats. You let out a shaky breath that melted into the wind, sagging against the branch. But if Tempest found them in Auger later... your breath caught in your throat, not noticing the creaking of the branch as your mind ran a million miles a second. God, he'd destroy it.

"So... did they have meat in that village?"

"Of course, dumbass!"

Tempest would wreck everything if the Straw Hats were there. His Devil Fruit was senselessly strong, destructive beyond belief, and utterly disastrous. The 'Nado-'Nado Fruit would have done better in the hands of anyone but him. God, Smoker should have gotten it instead of the damn Smoke-Smoke Fruit. It would have been fine in his care, far away, somewhere in Loguetown and nowhere near little Auger Village. You could feel guilt claw up your spine, digging into every vertebra— and then, he laughed.

In a haze of green, Straw Hat Luffy laughed. He laughed without a care in the world, eyes shut tight, hand on his stomach, with a big, white smile. His hat made a halo around his wispy black hair, nose scrunched, eyes crinkling until his signature scar warped on his cheek (you'll describe this scene in detail in your future writing, carefully capturing the smile that had drawn you away from your misery-filled marine life). Then, the branch cracked, and you chucked the sea-prism stone boleadoras at him, wrapping around his body and sending him rolling down the steep shore.

"Luffy!"

"Shit!"

"We're gonna die!"

"Shut up, Usopp!"

You swung off the cracked branch onto the one below it, watching "Usopp" and Nami scamper away, screaming. You pulled off the other boleadora and spun it a bit before whipping it at them, wrapping them together as they fell into a heap on the ground. Sanji locked eyes with you and wiped at his nose before stumbling over to them, shouting for Nami.

"Cook! Get Nami and Usopp!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Mosshead!"

You frowned and jumped off the branch, trying not to let your emotion show, when one of the other branches fell to the ground with a gust of wind and a crack behind you. That damn Pirate Hunter had defiled your tree. You ran after Sanji, watching him slide along the dirt to Nami and Usopp, deft fingers struggling to untie them while Zoro shouted after you.

"Sorry, Blondie, I can't let you do that," you snapped, kicking Sanji away from Nami and Usopp, who screamed when he hit a nearby tree, "Nothing personal." Sanji slumped against the tree, breathing hard, wiping at his nose again. His face was flushed a cute shade of red, but you had no time to be distracted by pretty boys.

"Well, I'm going to make it personal," growled Roronoa from behind you while Usopp cheered him on. You rolled your eyes, spun around, and swung your forearm to block the flat of his sword. The rope wound around your arm barely softened the blow; still, your arm slid up the flat and struck his cheek. Roronoa reeled back, teeth grit as he dug his heels into the dirt.

"If you insist..."

You rushed forward, and Roronoa steadied himself— you avoided his darkening gaze while his two empty sheathes rattled, reminding him that all he had left was Wado Ichimonji. He swung his sword at you, hard and fast, so you jumped to the side, reaching him with a series of two kicks, the second of which he blocked. As you fell, you kicked down, bringing him down to one knee.

"Shit! Mosshead!"

"Oh my god! Zoro!"

You held back a laugh as you stepped over Roronoa's shoulder with one leg and swung the other one back with it, pulling your thighs against his throat tight in a leg lock. You felt him stiffen, breath choking up as you locked eyes with Blondie. A dribble of blood dripped over his lip, and you squeezed a little tighter before flipping Roronoa over onto the ground. He landed hard, knocking the breath out of him as he fisted at his shirt.

"Sorry, this is just protocol, you know," you muttered as you got to your feet, dusting yourself off as you came to stand over Roronoa. He growled in response, shooting back up to his feet, making you jump a few steps back. He was surprisingly resilient, you would give him that much— you planted your feet into an L-shape, bringing your rope-wound arms in front of your face as he positioned his sword.

"Don't hurt her, Moss!"

"Shut it, Curly!"

You dropped your guard, eyes flickering over to Sanji, who had stumbled back to his feet, another cigarette tucked between his teeth. He was still leaning against the tree, looking distractingly handsome. You sucked a breath through your teeth, knowing you'd have to take him down again if he tried to make his way over to his friends.

"I appreciate your concern, Blondie, but Roronoa will be taken down regardless of whether or not he tries to fight back."

"I've heard enough of your bullshit!" Roronoa ran forward, swinging his sword at your head, and managed to evade until he made a last-minute change, allowing the blade to slash your shoulder. You bit back a scream and bounded back, holding onto your bleeding flesh. Roronoa smirked and followed forward, slicing at you again, hitting your thigh. You choked out a garbled noise as you brought your other leg up to swing at his head, which he blocked with the hilt of his sword.

"Dammit!"

"Wrong move," Roronoa grinned, grabbing your leg with his other hand before you could react. You flinched, and the next thing you knew, you were hitting branch over branch somewhere in the continuous woods, eventually rolling to a stop. You wiped at the blood that had found its way into your mouth, dripping from some nondescript wound on your head. Your chest heaved in retaliation as you got to your feet, temporarily collapsing against a nearby tree. But as if the situation couldn't get any worse, Tempest's voice crackled into your ear.

"Major! You better fucking answer me, or I swear-"

"Captain Tempest, sir... Sorry, there's just been a situation, is all."

"What kind of situation has you ignoring me for hours?! If it's about earlier-"

"No, no, no, Captain... I- er-" you paused to try and steady your breath, shutting your eyes tight as you forced yourself to speak, "the... the Straw Hat Pirates are on the island." The silence on the other end formed a knot in your stomach, tightening as your captain's tormenting breathing blew dread into your ear. Your knees ached as you put your entire body weight against the tree— god, your tree, the tree with everything you saved in the little spot he had hollowed out for you when you were younger.

"Where are you, Major?"

"No, there's no need for that, Captain. I'll take care of them-"

"I asked you a question."

You swallowed hard, the nauseating anxiety tugging at your vocal cords until they were taut, barely allowing you to whisper a word. You had to get the Straw Hats away from Auger Village but far from your tree, too; far away from the people you were made to protect and far away from the crumbs of salvation the boy with freckles had left for you to take. You pushed the thought of him aside and let your mind slip into a haze while your fingers dug into your thigh.

"I'm in Wentletrap, near the northeasternmost part closest to Auger," you tried not to let your voice waver, "it's south of this big crooked old tree. You'll see it. They're all nearby." You could feel your thoughts crumble in on another as you heard the baby transponder snail click in your ear. But you wouldn't let the tears fall— no, you had a job to do, and that was to take down the Straw Hats.

You pushed off the tree and stumbled into a run, sidestepping overgrown shrubbery, poignant rocks, and protruding roots. You ran and ran and ran, ignoring the sirens that started to whine, spinning your introspection around until there was nothing left for you to think about. You stumbled into the clearing where Sanji leaned over his friends, still struggling to make work of the boleadoras. Roronoa was nowhere to be found.

"Sanji, look out!"

The wind whistled up above as you wound back your arm, stepping forward to slam into Sanji's face, sending him rolling back a good few feet. You heaved as he sat up, resting back on his arms, looking up at you with one blue eye that shimmered before you threw yourself on top of him. Your heart raced, thundering in your ears while you brought two hands to his shoulders, eyes frantic as you pushed him into the dirt. The wind was getting louder.

"Where's your captain?! Where's Roronoa?!"

"They're gone! We won't ever tell you!" Nami shrieked, kicking at the dirt while the wind grew incessantly, breaking smaller branches around you. Your breath grew heavy as you looked over your shoulder, making her and Usopp squeal.

"Answer me, Sanji—" Sanji's face went red, his jaw slack, and his face swollen as you shook him for some response, "Please tell me! Please, I need to know, I- I-" The wind was howling now, and the leaves were falling much earlier than they were supposed to, and you knew why. The whimper dripped from your lips before you could stop it, your salty tears dropping onto Sanji's pink face. You made yourself ignore the screeching of the wind to focus on his curly brow, swallowing back bile.

"Dammit!"

You got off of him and scrambled to your feet, running past your tree, running toward the shore, running to where Straw Hat had to be. The wind was deafening as you stood at the boundary between sand and grass, staring down at the shore, where all that was left was your boleadoras and your Captain, standing where Straw Hat should have been. You could feel yourself turn numb as he squatted down to pick them up, weighing them in his rough palms. His steel-gray eyes met yours, and as soon as you blinked, he was in front of you, dropping your weapon in your limp hands that you didn't realize you had extended.

"Major. Lead me to the crew."

"Yes, Captain."

Your captain's hand sat sober on the back of your neck, his fingers stroking the baby hairs on the back of them with a plump finger. You took the lead, but not really, walking past your tree to where Sanji sat with his eyes narrowed beside his crew, cheek purpling from where you had hit him. You stopped when your captain stopped, fingers twitching against your spine.

"I don't see Straw Hat or Pirate Hunter anywhere, Major," Tempest tightened his grip, and you flinched, "surely, you didn't let them get away, did you?" You could feel your chest rise and fall quicker as you felt your captain's gaze fall on you, humming as he dug his nails into your flesh.

"No- No, Captain, I would never-"

"You think I believe that?!"

Your words were cut short when a crushing pressure engulfed your throat, your back hitting the bark of your beloved tree, your feet struggling to reach the ground as you hung from Tempest's hand. Where was your boleadora? Your vision swam with tears, and your snot began to clog your airway further than the fingers pressed against your neck. There was screaming, but the voices all joined the one at the forefront of your mind, telling you to escape.

"Let her go!"

"St... op..."

You didn't need to see anything to know Sanji had been thrown off somewhere; his guttural scream was doing all the work for you. Nami and Usopp's voices were frantic, but you could hardly distinguish the words. The pressure in your brain was growing greater and you couldn't help but scratch at your captain's arms, feet kicking in some futile attempt to break from his grasp.

"Look at what you've done! You let Straw Hat and Pirate Hunter escape, and now his crew is trying to save you! You think I don't know what that means?!"

"N-No... I- I nev...er-"

"Why the hell would we ever ally ourselves with a marine?!"

Suddenly, the pressure was gone, and you were on the ground, clawing at dirt, heaving for air. You hacked out mucus and snot and tears and bile onto the roots of your beloved tree, watching as Tempest walked over to Nami and Usopp, the latter of which looked petrified. Nami stared straight up at Tempest, not daring to look away. Sanji laid against a nearby tree, curled in on himself, shaking as he tried to call for her.

"The fuck you say to me, girl?"

"I said we'd never ally ourselves with the Marines. Especially you and your lackey over there!"

Tempest stared, silent, shoulders slowly shaking until he laughed that horrid laugh that took the wind from your lungs as you clawed at the ground. Your eyes flickered over to her, not missing the glance she had given you, the one only another woman could decipher. Tempest hadn't put the pieces together and squatted down, patting Nami's cheek, and you didn't have to be the one in front of him to know that he was smiling.

"Feisty, huh... I like you," Tempest began, reaching around to grab the back of Nami's neck as Usopp wailed, flailing within the restraints of the boleadora. You could see the color drain from her face; you could hear Sanji mustering out her name and Usopp's screams ("He's gonna kill us!"). So you coughed, coughed hard, hard enough to get his attention, to make him scoff and stomp over to you and pull you onto your feet fast enough for you to stumble forward.

"Oh, get up. Stop being dramatic."

"Y...es... Captain..."

Tempest's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand when you failed to stand up straight, teeth grinding against one another— then, like your saving grace, came the reinforcements. You had hardly heard them over your ragged breathing, but then they appeared like little white angels popping out in the green. Some rushed Nami, Usopp, and Sanji, throwing them into cuffs and untangling them from your boleadora as they had always done, already used to how your weapon wrapped around your enemies.

"Captain Tempest! M-Major (L/n)! What happened?!"

You struggled to respond to whoever had asked, and Tempest shook you around before pushing you to the unknown person dressed in white and navy blue. As your vision darkened, you thought of Straw Hat and his smile and ignored the calls of more cadets that stormed through the trees. The last thing you saw was the struggling Straw Hats while your captain grumbled under his breath.

"TAKE THEM AWAY."

hiii! welcome to get lost and then get found (or swallowed in the sea) or as you guys on tumblr will know it, just swallowed in the sea! as I stated in the preface, this will be a sort of collection of stories throughout the arcs of one piece! it's my sort of dedication to oda because I love him for making one piece and I think I would die without it :3

also, just as a warning there will be some mild spoilers as we go and I do ask that you ignore any future continuation errors bc I am only on marineford I fear... anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, even though this is a little rough at 3500 words, and I hope you guys will stick with me on this little journey, haha!

#swallowedintheseaop #one piece #op #one piece x reader #roronoa zoro x reader #vinsmoke sanji x reader #zoro x reader x sanji #zosan #frobin #namivivi

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