the silence of despair. ONE PIECE

12. Laboon, the burning promise.

"Memory is punishment."

Seated on the beach shore, a few feet away from Odasaku's home, she observes the starry night sky. The stars above her were bright and shining, but all she saw was darkness and souls crying. The cold sand beneath her pickled her body, and Dazai was so uneasy in his rotting body that she despised it, the wounds hurting her, the scars shredding her flesh, and the curses that drew her own fresque of misery.

"Dazai," she hears her name spoken out softly.

She doesn't even quiver at the mention of her cursed name because it's him calling her. Odasaku, clad in a light white shirt and dark jeans, walks up to her and sits next to her. His dark brown reddish hair is illuminated by the rays of the moonlight, and his brown eyes are almost golden.

"The sea is hurting," she whispers, gazing at the calm sea, but something deep within it is screaming and crying, echoing inside Dazai in an echo of help (but something of her monstrosity can't save, it can't; her entire purpose was created to destroy and bring devastation to this world, not to help and save).

"It's surely him again," Odasaku says, staring sadly at the sea. (In his eyes, there is warmth and gentleness that she admires).

She swiftly turns her head to face him, feeling her neck shatter from the forceful move.

"Him?" she asked, her throat aching from the screams and blood that stained her mouth every day.

"Hum," he nods and glances at her, "Laboon."

"Laboon?" she asks slowly. "Who is he?"

"A whale"

Dazai's brown frowns, and the solitary eye protruding from her half-bandaged face peer at Odasaku with perplexity, before she could speak again, he glances down at her and spoke up.

"You like to read stories and hear them, right?"

Dazai nods, admitting that it is true.

All of the books in this dark place were read by her, and those stories and tales are the strings that keep her from going insane (and Chuuya is the only person in this hell who makes things less horrific besides books, and sometimes she can only scream at her weaknesses to protect him from those disgusting men. Chuuya, who will sit by her side for hours while she reads her books loudly for him to hear).

"Then I'll tell you the story about Laboon, the whale. He was a joyful little Island Whale who built a great friendship with the Rumbar Pirates. However, his happiness was destroyed, and he went into profound sorrow after learning that they had departed the Grand Line, leaving him behind. His strong will and resolve were driven by a blind desire to see his pals again, clinging to what little hope he had for their safety, but after years, his companion never returned. As a result, he attempted to break through the Red Line and rammed his head into the reverse mountains without pausing, hoping to reach the West Blue and rejoin his comrades. But the mountain could never break beneath Laboon's strength, so all he has left is his loneliness and misery, which causes him to wail and scream, leaving the sea as the only bearer of his pain," he says.

Odasaku shed a single tear, and Dazai could only reach out her bandaged hand to touch his gorgeous face, allowing the tears to flood her bandages. (She was always captivated by human tears, the blood of their souls that flowed like ichor from their eyes; it was something so sacred).

"It must be painful to wait for his friends who are surely dead," she remarks.

Odasaku looks at the sea with a lost expression on his face, his heart gorged on memories, before blinking and nodding in response to her words.