Fair Winds // One Piece

one !

Midori closed her eyes, relaxed her shoulders, and took a deep breath from between her lips. She could feel every tightened muscle untense as she rolled her shoulders back confidently. There were various sounds and voices cheering for her down below, a stream of light glowed through her closed eyelids as the colorful lights danced around the red and white circus tent that encased her and the large crowd that sat amongst the bleachers waiting for the performance to start. She waited until the speakers were blasting out the theatrical circus music before she took a step forward, feeling the thin wire of the tightrope on the sole of her slipper.

She wobbled as she found her balance, her eyes fluttered open and it wasn't long before the adrenaline took over, soon enough she was dancing up and down the wire like it was nothing until it's time for the next part of the performance and she's taking a flying trapeze in her palm that was passed to her. From balancing on the tightrope to flying through the air on trapeze, she could always hear the cheers of happiness from below her, their clapping forever echoed in her head.

Midori tightened her grip on the handle of the trapeze, swinging her sparkly bodysuit clad legs back and forth until she had enough momentum to let go and fly a short distance through the air before landing on the sole of her feet, back up and on top of the pedestal board. She looked up across the tightrope to see her dad waving at her, a proud smile on his face as he held up two thumbs up. Her heart lurched at the sight and she went to raise her hand to wave back at him but the opportunity is stolen from her and an explosion erupts below her, flames quickly engulfed the tent, heating the space around them. The pedestal her dad was on started trembling before it collapsed, she watched in horror as he went to jump and grab onto the dangling trapeze to climb over to her but he missed it by only a couple inches. The net below them that was set up to catch them if something like that ever happened was already burning, and he went right through it, colliding with the dirt floor. She could hear the crack over the screams of terror, even from so far up, she could see the blood start to trickle from under him and out of his skull.

Her own pedestal began to shake and she was bracing herself for a fall that never came because a gloved hand grabbed her shoulder and brought her out of the haunting flash back and back to the horror she was forced to live through now.

She was up high though and on a pedestal, waiting for her cue, except it wasn't her dad that was across from her, it was Dingo, and Eagle was standing beside her, whispering his questions of if she was ready to perform or not.

"Captain won't like it if you miss your mark again, remember what happened last week?" She shuddered at the memory of her night emptying the waste buckets of her captain's forced audience. The stench had been bad enough that she felt like the hairs in her nostrils had been burned off and the smell still plagued her dreams. It was a better punishment than he normally gave out, usually opting for a fight that always ended in his favor. "The box should break in three, two..."

The lid of the wooden box was pulled off before Eagle had even gotten to one. She'd never tell him, but as the music started and the rest of the crew was in motion, she was glad that he had said something to snap her out of zoning out. She hadn't even realized that she was seconds away from missing her cue. The performance that they only had one chance to get right. The Big Show, as her captain had put it.

Another second and she was weightless in the air, swinging to the other side where Dingo was waiting for his turn on the trapeze. As she landed on the other sides pedestal, she could hear the forced applause from the audience below her. If she closed her eyes she could imagine that she was still a child, that the laughs and cheers of the crowds were ones that her family's circus had drawn in. But there was no laughter with this crowd, not an ounce of happiness left in them. That had all been stolen by Buggy, and a sour taste filled her mouth. It became nauseating when she realized that she didn't have to strain her ears anymore to hear the clanking of the chains that held them captive in the stands.