An Eternal Bond

My Treasure

I walked down the stairs, the guards sending me uncomfortable glances in my direction.

I came to the room of ice's door and put my hand on the door. Geez, I can feel the cold from the other side of the door. I knelt down and looked into the keyhole, lifting my finger and turning it to wax as I slipped it in.

I turned my hand and the door unlocked.

The cold overwhelmed my senses and I let Ace's Devil Fruit warm me up from inside. "Cheese Louise, they keep people in here without a jacket?"

I stepped through the snow, hearing prisoners questioning who I was and what I was doing outside of my cell, although I was never in one in the first place.

I found the clearing where wolves attacked the last time I was here and stood there.

"Well isn't that a familiar face?"

With a small smile, I turned. "Good to see you, Bon-chan."

•••

"How's Straw Boy been doing?"

"Ah, him and his crew are training separately. I only know where Luffy and Robin are though. How's Level 5.5 been?"

"It's been as lively as ever."

I smiled and looked at the drink in my hand. Apple cider, like always. Slowly turning it so it swished in my glass, I wondered what alcohol really tasted like. Everyone always seemed to enjoy it.

"I don't know, it just kind of messes up your brain sometime. Numbs the stress, sadness, everything really."

Which crew member said that again?

"Hey, Y/N!" I looked up at one of the people in the bar. "You sure you don't want any sake?"

I stared at the glass in their hand. Numbs pain, huh? "...No thanks." I stood up.

I have no need to numb the pain. Pain is a part of life, and if I can't deal with it, then there's no point in trying to live on.

With a small smile, I began walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

I looked back at one of the girls (I believe) that was in the bar. "Just... looking around, I guess."

"Oh... bye then."

"Bye."

Sauntering down the hallway, it definitely felt a lot shorter now that I wasn't in a hurry for anything. Just a long hallway beneath the floors of Impel Down.

Once I came to the room where Luffy was recovering, I remembered something.

"Bon-chan." I began, walking back into the bar. He turned his head and spun over to me. "I'd there anything you need? Come my way!"

"How do you get to Level 6 from in here?"

•••

I took a deep breath and walked to the back of Level 6, my heart pounding as I approached the cell, although it felt like it was creeping up on me, about to choke me until I simply die of suffocation.

Once I got in front of the bars, I saw the empty cell with the chains still hanging from the wall, open as if no one had been there in years. Yet it had only been a few months.

My breathing got shaky and my heart got heavy, the world suddenly spinning without me.

I stepped back and the cell suddenly burst into flames. A pure orange. I felt the heat from ten feet away, and the muffled panics of the other prisoners rang through my ears.