𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐞 | 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑷𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆 ✔️

than

She didn't cry. Father said crying was a sign of weakness, and she never wanted to be weak to her father, not even with large flames surrounding her offering no chance to escape. 

The feeling of dread piling up in her stomach only continued to increase as she sat uselessly on the wooden floor of the mansion and cradled the broken and bruised limb on her little dog. 

He was whimpering, the blood from his wounds clear as day on his white fur and it only made her mimic the sounds of fear the small dog released. He was panting heavily, tongue laid out against his teeth and Masayoshi could only watch.

But then a voice called out and the sound of wood breaking caught her attention. Wood fell down from the roof on top of her but she didn't scream, because she wasn't scared, she was strong and would be strong for her father. 

The little dog in her arms suddenly stood up despite its condition and began to limp towards the flames, and when she tried to move in an attempt to stop the dog, Masayoshi found that her legs were frozen.

However, she did manage to open her mouth, though that was a bad idea as the smoke that filled her lungs prompted a large coughing fit that brought tears to her eyes, tears that she couldn't control as it was her body's natural response but at the time, the young ravenette hadn't known that. 

Suddenly, loud yet weak barking sounded and even though she was young, Masayoshi could tell that Snow was attempting to attract attention, and by the steps that seemed to be nearing, he was doing a good job at it.

But then the barks stopped and a small thud drew her attention to the flames in front of her and her eyes slowly widened as they raked over the small figure in flames, she had previously thought it was a piece of wood until it rolled backwards and dull black eyes stared into her own silver ones. 

Her hands crawled to her head and a scream of horror released from the back of her throat, finally allowing the man to burst through and rush to her, the flames failing to damage him at all.

"Masayoshi!" Akainu yelled before finally finding her, rushing to pick her up, a hand firmly placed on her head and pressing the little girl to his chest while the other used his coat plastered with the kanji for 'justice' on the back, to shield her from flames. 

As a wielder of the magu-magu no mi, they had no affect on him whatsoever but the same could not be said for his daughter. She hadn't eaten any kind of devil fruit, after all. 

When they finally managed to get out of the mansion- or rather, what was left of it -- Akainu didn't force her to stop crying. Instead, he barked orders at his soldiers while holding her in an embrace while taking in the slurred words she could manage to say. 

He knows it isn't because she's a child, all the tutors and vocabulary lessons he's made sure she takes are proof of that, so she must be quite shaken up. Its pathetic to be so scared of a fire, but he cant say he isn't biased as a man made out of fire himself. 

Akainu has to be reminded by Garp that she's only a child, and that her tears are okay for him to keep silent and he does his best to comfort her. Unfortunately, his best is next to nothing.

"S-Snow!" Masayoshi sobbed against his coat, snot and tears running down her face as she witnessed the death of her best-friend. It wasn't her first experience with death, she often watched pirates or people fall to their deaths while out with her father but that was normal, humans were meant to die at some point.