Ashes To Ashes | One Piece

𝟐𝟔|True South

( Skypiea Arc )

Ashe hated bugs.

Granted, not all bugs. She found butterflies, bees, and moths fascinating and quite beautiful and not to mention extremely important for her botanist hobbies but there were certain ones that just sent shivers up her spine and her skin crawling. Centipedes and spiders, for example. The amount of legs that seemed to move individually, the glossy and unnecessary number of eyes, and worst if all the variety of sizes they came and any poison that accompanied them. They freaked her out beyond belief and were near the top of her short list of fears. Which is why she was currently faced with a bit of a dilemma.

She had heard the distinct call of the South Bird but her direct path was blocked by a spider about the size of a big dog. Six long legs, glassy green eyes, and a bulbous hairy body littered in bright purple patterns indicative on a venomous creature. A pair of black fangs glinted in the moonlight that filtered through the trees. Small charcoal coloured claws tipped each leg.

Realistically, could she still crush it? Yes.

Does that require getting closer? Also yes.

Does she want to? She'd rather die.

Her left hand tightened around the net she held while the other drifted towards the revolver strapped to her hip. She could shoot it and be over with but her supply of ammo was limited. She didn't want to waste a bullet. On a single spider no less. No wait, two spiders. Now three actually.

The only reason she was out here in the first place with a growing number of possibly venomous spiders was because Cricket, during their impromptu party in his home, had remembered the vital instrument in locating the Knock Up Stream that would launch them too the sky. A South Bird. A bird that was basically the Grand Lines version of a natural compass that instead of pointing true north, pointed true south. True south being the one place the stream could be located as well as only in the morning or else they would have to wait five months for a second chance. Then finally, after all that trouble, the travel to the sky had about a 50% chance of killing them all.

Great.

"Fuck. Fuck." The white haired woman hissed as she backed away from the arachnids "Out of everything in a forest it just had to be spiders"

The forest around her was almost alive as it creaked and whined in the wind, branches snapping like someone had stepped on it as they snuck around in the distance. Every brush of grass blades against her ankle felt like fingers. Ashe cursed her own head as paranoia began to set in slightly. All she wanted to do was to get into bed right now, not deal with spiders almost as big as herself.

Ashe almost screamed when a body slammed into her back.

The gunslinger let out a grunt as she was slammed to the ground, a heavy body piled up on her back. Not even a second later, two more bodies tripped through the brush and crashed down on top of her. They all screamed in her ears. The gunslinger couldn't help but yell back in confusion, her chest aching from the impact against the ground.

"Ashe?!" Nami screamed as she lay on top of the woman, squeezed between Usopp and Sanji as they both scrambled to get up. The gingers legs were tangled with the other woman with her face pressed against her shoulder blades.

"Ashe, my dear!" Sanji blubbered as he shoved the sniper off of the tall woman, secretly swooning at the feeling of the taut muscles across her back that flexed under her shirt when she pushed herself up slightly, before rolling off to the dirt ground beside her.

"Ashe!" Usopp all but sobbed as he gripped onto the woman's vest tightly, hands quivering, before he began to shake her slightly "You gotta help us! We're being chased by these gigantic centipedes and killer moths and we're all gonna die!"