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C H A P T E R F I V E
Fools rush in
Episode 001 (Romance Dawn)
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SHE TASTED SALTWATER and smelt gunpowder, with echoing shipwreck songs and every sorrow of the nation present in the sky. The ocean gleamed silver back, the broken liquid hourglass looking back at what she had birthed with that precarious grin only she could wear. What Tyche was — before bones, skin and dirt, the memory of the original sin and the condemnation of humanity in the name of temporal pleasure — stared back with mocking peace, the slate mirror as clear as it could be (if she saw war, it was because that was what she was). The calm before the storm rose from the parting in the ocean, cruel and ghastly, and then laughed as the city breathed, unaware of the impending doom.
Kin of the stars, death-bed of power and churning proof that everyone desires to remember but forget, the sea left a path for the rulers of the oceans and criminals of the land to reach the start of the end.
In other words, it watched as three criminals plummeted down and Marines sprinted down the base's corridors to reach them. It shouldn't have been such a difficult task for them — falling on your back is painful, but falling on your back after a 20 meter drop with two other people and a safe is much worse, and a fact that Tyche could unfortunately corroborate, albeit not being precisely proud of it — but they never ceased to surprise Tyche. It was a miracle in itself that they were even remotely conscious after the fall.
Nami swallowed back a curse, head dropping back as she braced her body and cursed the day she had decided to infiltrate the base. Luffy was on very thin ice, and had it not been for the ache on her shoulder she would've toyed with the idea of slapping him into sanity (or death, whatever came first). She grunted a complaint, trying and failing to swallow the pain and regain her composure. "Why the hell did you grab us and jump?"
Luffy gasped, which was a terrible decision seeing how he consequently whined in pain and clutched his torso. Still spluttering, he managed to force out a nearly unintelligible sentence while scrambling to wear his straw hat again. "Tyche said we needed to leave the room!"
"Not by jumping through the window, you fool!"
While the pair bickered again, which was apparently something that they simply couldn't stop on divine compulsion and had to prioritise over lesser matters such as escaping, and Luffy writhed on the floor when he accidentally hit his head against the safe, Tyche rushed to wear the handles of her bag properly and clutch it to her chest. Grimacing at the splotch of mud on the otherwise clean leather, she let her eyes wander around the barren field and the unbudging doors: dust clung to her heels and every surface she could see was mottled either dirty and corroded or muddy and splintered, bathed by the burning sun (her skin bubbled and burst under the gentle light, too pious and benevolent on her when broken hallelujahs weren't meant for a requiem).
