DECODE. // Dracule Mihawk

09. Hard Times

A noxious fume whirled up her nose and through her brain, burning as it imprinted itself to her very core. Bile stuck in her throat as she stared at the far wall, wanting to ignore what was taking place in the corner. Rigor mortis had barely kicked in when she heard the news from an out of breath Cardinal Joseph who raced to the hotel to inform her. And by the time Mihawk convinced her it would help to look over the body- the woman had been dead for four hours.

She'd been entranced staring at it, transported back to the sights of each from the past. Victims of her incompetence, she felt.

The sight of a dead body made Sabine's stomach churn, yet something about it cleaned and in the morgue struck her more. The woman looked as if she were only sleeping. Yet the gouges and a black goo that seemed to engrave itself into her skin told otherwise. No matter which chemicals or the amount of scrubbing would have cleaned it from the deceased's skin.

"What are you looking for again?" Sabine was impatient, moreso disgusted and needed out of the room that reeked of chemicals and death. Heaviness weighing down her chest as her eyes burned, water lined her lashes as she continued to look away. Anywhere other than the body. A woman who looked around Sabine's age, dark hair and full lips much like her own.

"Traces of... aura. You continue to dream of black morphable darkness, like these burn marks on her. Peculiar." Mihawk answered.

"Aura?"

"Someone who can use haki, spiritual energy, will leave traces if inexperienced or sloppy."

"Is that limited to devil fruit users?"

"No."

Mihawk steered Sabine out, a clicking of his tongue to garner her attention from the room. He saw how her eyes glossed over the second they entered, distraught as she looked over the victim. Getting her out and somewhere lighter was of top priority to him, her discomfort made him uncomfortable. A tugging within him. A clawing against his chest at the thought of Sabine laying on the table in the morgue. He saw the similarity. And oh did Mihawk feel how his body went taut as he saw how the woman mirrored Sabine, from the hair to the porcelain skin and build. Too many connections that led back to the woman he'd claimed, that she may have not yet seen, that he didn't want her to see.

Mihawk, in that moment, swore to himself that nothing would ever happen to her. He'd keep her by his side, cared for and protected, almost unaware of a threat. Even if it wasn't viable. It wasn't. He realized he couldn't do so, she'd never be able to step away from this. The intensity in her eyes he knew all too well, Sabine would get answers one way or another, this had plagued her for too long.

They walked side by side out the funeral home, onto the half empty street under a dim light that flickered against the pink sky, a litany of darkening clouds taking over the horizon. Sabine was nervous, nervous about the fact she looked like the woman who laid on the slab. Nervous because this was never something she would have been able to handle.

"Can you use haki?" Sabine inquired, remembering he'd mentioned the unknown word. The term was new to her, but she barely knew about devil fruits prior to meeting Luffy. Or that a pirate could be good. So she wanted to know as much as she could about Mihawk.

"Yes."

With her curiosity glaringly obvious, he tried to explain the concept to her. Pieces of Mihawk wanted to hide from her the reality of who he was or what he was capable of. That his own experiences with such power within him were all he could properly tell her. Or that of past opponents.

But Sabine had seen the lowest of society through the years. Had felt terror from a man beside her that such heavy dark clouds followed and relief only came once she was out of his peripheries. So she could not judge as he sailed the seas of his own accord waiting for someone to best him, not torturing and killing innocents who had nothing to do with his life goals.