The Puppet Master [One Piece]

Part of the Crew

~Shanks POV~

                I'd never seen a person in such a state of disrepair as Echo. She was hurting a lot more than she let on. Her murky stormy sea green eyes were filled with so much agony, despair and hatred it was heartbreaking. I didn't know too much about what had happened at Funesto, the World Government claimed there was some sort of civil war on the island and in order to restore peace the government tried to intervene. It was a bloodbath, but as for why it happened and why none made it out alive, there were no answers.

                I couldn't even begin to imagine what horrors she'd witnessed during the massacre nor what gruesome things she'd endured since then. It had been five years since the Funesto massacre and it seemed that Echo's life only got harder to bear since then.

                The mail bird dropped onto the deck of the ship with an obnoxious 'caw'. The majority of the crew were nursing bad hangovers from the party the night before and at the bird's obnoxious squawk began to groan in protest.

                "Anyone have any qualms with me blowing this bird away?" Yassop grumbled as he withdrew one of his pistols and aimed it at the mail bird.

                The bird squawked again in fear and hopped around frantically to avoid the line of fire just as Echo emerged from below deck. Yassop's finger slipped on the trigger. The bullet whizzed past the frantic mail bird and hit Echo in the shoulder causing my heart to drop.

                Everyone began to panic as the realization of what just happened dawned on them.

                Echo didn't seem the least bit phased and proceeded to sigh in annoyance and pick the dented bullet away from her shoulder and toss it to the deck in a bored manner. There wasn't even a speck of blood on it.

                "Are you alright?!" Yassop panicked.

                "I'm fine." Echo shrugged and looked down at the mail bird as it fainted. "What the hell did you do to the poor bird?"

                "He brought it upon himself." Yassop shrugged upon seeing Echo's perfectly healthy condition.

                "By delivering the paper?" Echo asked skeptically.

                "Shouldn't have been flapping his beak." Yassop grumbled and resumed sleeping off his hangover.

                I watched the broken girl curiously as she knelt beside the mail bird and gently shook it awake. How had she prevented the bullet from piercing her skin? Or was she merely hiding her wound and pretending everything was fine? I cleared the space between us in a few long strides and tugged at the collar of her simple black button up shirt to reveal her shoulder where the bullet had hit.

                "Hey!" Echo protested and attempted to swat me away as I inspected her for damage. There wasn't a single scratch, the only indication that she'd even been shot was a small coin sized bruise where the bullet had hit. "What are you doing?!" Her voice became unsteady as I leaned in closer to inspect the area.

                A single frayed wire at the exact location where the bullet had hit caught my eye, was her body completely covered by wires? "Did these wires protect you from the bullet?" I asked curiously as I looked away from her bruised shoulder and into her flushed face.

                "Yes, now can you please respect my personal space?" She huffed and pulled away from me before adjusting her black button up shirt.

                The mail bird came to before I could question Echo further and dropped our paper to the deck and took off without payment. Echo's murky stormy sea green eyes widened as she stared down at the edge of a wanted poster poking out of the paper. I threw her a questioning look before turning my gaze to the paper at my feet.

                Echo darted forward and swiped up the wanted poster as I reached for the paper and quickly tucked it into her shirt.

                "What was that?" One of the rookies asked her curiously.

                "Nothing." She glared.

                "Whose wanted poster is it?" I asked while trying to keep from laughing at how flustered she was getting.

                "Nobody's!"

                "Someone you've got a crush on?" One of the rookies teased her.

                "I SAID IT WAS NOTHING SO DROP IT!" Echo snapped before stringing the poor fellow up like a marionette in her wires.

                "So, you've earned yourself a bounty?" I chuckled.

                Her eyes widened in terror for the briefest of moments before narrowing into a glare, "It doesn't concern you."

                "Sure it does." I smiled, "You're part of the crew now."

                "I am not!" She was furious and I could see her fingers twitch, she was just itching to turn her wires against me, but there was uncertainty and doubt lingering in her stormy gaze.

                "You're not?" I mused.

                "NO!" She was adorable when she was all flustered.

                "You're an outlaw aren't you?" I goaded her.

                She bit her lip and refused to respond.

                "And you're sailing on this ship with us."

                She clenched her fists.

                "Seems like you're part of the crew to m-."

                "Shut up." She dug her nails into the palms of her hands, "I'm not a part of any crew. I don't belong anywhere anymore." Swirls of grey began to take over her stormy green irises.

                "That's part of being a pirate, kid." Benn smiled softly as he climbed down from the crow's nest. "Finding a band of outcasts to call your kin."

                For a moment I thought I saw a tear slip from her cold mask of indifference but she quickly wiped it away and regained her cool composure.

                "So what's the damage?" I asked her with a laugh and extended my hand for the wanted poster.

                She hesitated.

                "There's not many people on this ship without a hefty price on their head." Benn attempted to reassure her.

                She hesitantly reached into her shirt and retrieved the wanted poster and reluctantly handed it over to me. I unfolded the poster and paused to stare at the image of the fearsome girl scrawled across it. There were warped wicked flames dancing in the background behind her giving her eyes a surreal glow, blood dripped from the tips of her fingers and even the ends of her snow white hair. The wording was different than most of the posters I'd seen, 'Wanted Dead: The Demon of Funesto. 600,000,000 beri reward.'

                600,000,000 as a first bounty? Wanted dead? They didn't even want to give her a chance at redemption. Just what could she have done to deserve such a cruel fate?

                "Still want me to be part of the crew when the rest of the world wants me dead?" She asked me angrily.

                I tossed the poster into the air and unsheathed my sword. As the paper fell I sliced it to ribbons and sheathed my sword once more. "I don't care what the rest of the world thinks." I shrugged, "Whether you accept it or not you're a part of this crew, which means we'll look after you."