From Blood to Ashes

Chapter 4: Old Friends, New Beginnings

Warning: Heavy spoilers for Sabaody! Fighting, swearing, smoking, and a sad chopper. 

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Tessa looks up to see what her Observation picked up, and sitting on a branch above them were bounty hunters. She stretched out her left arm, "Attract!" At the command the bounty hunters came flying towards them, and she stopped them a few feet in front of them, letting them hover in the air. She sees the others jump down to the ground so she drops them, letting her crew fight them. She sees one of them walk towards Camie and try to pick her up, "Oh no, not today, bitch!" Tessa jumps down and lands on his shoulders before kicking him up into the air and activating her blood sword and stabs him once he gets to a certain height.

"Hey, Camie, Pappagg, are y'all ok?" She asks them as they stand up, "We're ok, thanks to you, Tessa!" Camie cheered as the starfish laughed with her. Tessa then scans the area with her observation haki to make sure that none of them were alive. Once she was satisfied, she left with the group as they went off to explore the archipelago. Once again she split off and did her own thing, looking for trouble. She wound up going to Grove #13, to go see Shakky. Aunty Shakky! I can't wait to see you again! Tessa thought as she bounced up the staircase, going to the door and knocking, before walking in. "Good afternoon, miss!" Tessa stays silent as she walks up to the counter and sits down, not wanting to reveal herself just yet. "Good afternoon, ma'am, have you seen Ray anywhere? I'm looking for him." She says as she takes her mask off, smiling widely at the older woman.

Shakky's jaw drops, her lit cigarette falling to the counter as she walks out from behind the counter. "Tessa?! Is that really you?! I haven't seen you in ages!" She laughs as she pulls the woman close, hugging her tightly. "Hi Auntie! I missed you so much!" Tessa hugs her back, squeezing the older woman tightly. While they were hugging and laughing, Hachi walked into her bar with the rest of the gang. Tessa pulls away and quickly pulls her mask back up, changing her behavior from warm and welcoming to cold and silent, not wanting to let them see her like that. "Come on in. What'll it be?" Shakky asked the fishman, smiling from the reunion. "Wait, is that you Hatchan? Long time no see!" She smiled again as they walked into the bar. "Hey guys." Tessa waved at the group as they walked in, her cold and emotionless facade returning.

As Hachi and Shakky talk, Luffy and the others walk up to Tessa. "Do you know her? How did you know we were coming here?" He suddenly gasps, "Can you read our minds now? That's so cool!" He starts to jump around before walking over to the fridge. "Luffy, I can't read minds. Hachi said that we needed to see someone that can coat our ship, so I came here. And don't eat everything, ok?" She replies as Shakky continues to talk with the merfolk. When the woman looks over at them, she sees Camie's face turn a dark red and Shakky looks over, "Oh yeah, let me get you some dri–" She stops mid-sentence when she notices Luffy and Brook already consuming food. "It's ok, Shakky, these two naturally act like this." Tessa shook her head as she spoke to the older woman.

Shakky giggled as Chopper started freaking out, "It's alright, go ahead!" She gets up from her seat, "Here, I'll have something you'll like." She says as she grabs some cotton candy for Chopper. The reindeer's eyes start to sparkle with excitement as he clutches the candy happily as she pats his head. "It's alright, I don't charge friends of Hatchan or Tessa." She smiles at him as the strawhat boy starts to ask, "How do you know he likes cotton candy?" He looks between her and Tessa, "And how do you know Tessa?" She looks at him as he continues to stuff his mouth, "You're Monkey-chan's group, right?" The boy freezes, "You know about me?!"

"Of course! Everyone's talking about you, plus I stay well-informed" She says as she gets behind the counter. "Wow... Your famous Luffy!" Camie squealed excitedly as the boy chuckled, still looking like a chipmunk with the amount of food in his mouth. Tessa chuckles internally at the sight. "Shakky, Brook just joined our crew. He surprised most of us too, but he was a big help when we were in Thriller Bark." Brook laughed, "Yohohohoho! Pardon my late introduction, Miss Shakky, it is a pleasure to make an acquaintance." He bows his his skull politely. "Nice to meet you," She smiles as she picks off a bean from his face and eats it. The afro clad skeleton magically turned red as he started to spin on his chair, before suddenly stopping.