Puppet Play

Chapter 6: The consequences of silence

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Nanashi let her gaze linger on the closed door a little longer before climbing down from the windowsill to lay down on the bed. A single pillow and a blanket covered it, the latter was so large that one could not see the mattress under it. The sun had been swallowed by darkness behind the walls of Dressrosa. The moonlight now cast the shadows of the bars in the window on her face.

Even the shadows imprisoned her in this land.

She pulled the blanket up to her chin gripping it tightly at first, then loosened her grip. She found something familiar in the feel of the blanket around her body. It wasn't foreign to her, like food or giant people. She remembered that she had also slept in a bed in her previous life. She closed her eyes and curled up. The dress Baby 5 had given her fit snugly to her body so she could feel the soft fabric of the blanket through it. The full body suit she had worn her whole life no longer pinched her. It was as if the garment had given her a whole new kind of freedom. A kind of freedom that the bars and its shadows could not take away from her. And despite the day being soaked in fear and panic, the familiar warmth of the blanket and the newfound lightness made her forget her worries and let her fall into a deep sleep.

ooo

Nanashi's eyes snapped open. A throbbing in her head alerted her. She looked to the door of the room. In the next moment it was unlocked with a loud click and Doflamingo entered.

"Oh? You're already awake? Or don't you need to sleep?"

"I sensed you coming here", Nanashi said softly, tapping her right temple carefully to indicate her Devil Fruit power. Doflamingo's mouth formed into a grin. He strode up to her and sat down energetically on the bed, throwing Nanashi's whole body off balance. She scrambled to get away from Doflamingo, but he unceremoniously grabbed her shoulder and held her back.

"No, no. You stay here. Let me feel what you felt," Doflamingo said, stroking first her shoulder, then her neck, and finally her temple. He stopped his fingers at the exact spot she had pointed to.

"It... it doesn't work when you're already here...", Nanashi tried to explain quietly, which made him laugh.

"I'm not so slow on the uptake that I thought I'd catch my own presence because of the Stalker Fruit. Show me Baby 5. I told her to come here. "

Nanashi swallowed hard. He wanted to try out her power like a new toy today, too. Maybe it was better that way, she thought. The more he used her power this way, the more she would get used to it. And as long as she had to keep watching only Baby 5 or other members of this estate, maybe she could avoid this horrible headache that came with it.

With a heavy heart, she realized how far-fetched that thought was. Doflamingo wouldn't leave it at that. That she could get used to the pain, or that it would just disappear out of the blue was just wishful thinking. Maybe she should tell Doflamingo about her worries. That every new person she located gave her an unbearable headache and that she wasn't sure she could really control the power...

Pain spread across her forehead. She blinked, startled, and looked up into Doflamingo's face. His grin had vanished and was looking at her with a bored expression, his fingers still raised from snapping against her forehead.

"Although I'm dying to know what kind of thoughts you're lost in, I don't have time for that today, Dimension Girl."

His voice was so cold that she felt like it made her whole body freeze.

"I'm a businessperson. Don't waste my time and do what I told you to do."

"O-okay..."

She had missed her chance to tell Doflamingo about her headache. She was sure that talking about her worries would also be considered a waste of time. She had to do what he asked of her. She closed her eyes and felt his index finger against her forehead. The same spot he had flicked against earlier.