THEY KNOW FEAR AGAIN.
There's the smell of something burning and setting her lungs ablaze, the taste of sea salt, and the cold water splashing against her skin. Drowning into the blue sea. It overwhelmed and swallowed her whole and for a moment, dea...
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CHAPTER SIX, how your hand felt
A DREAM. What would that be for someone like her? She never thought much about it, nothing that deeply. In the small fishing town near the coast, she would follow the footsteps of her father. It was a given. Everything was being handed to her, placed right in her hands. Jie never thought she could just throw that away. She never had the choice to. Her father worked so hard for that, yet...
She found herself doubting everything.
After trying to console Nami, Jie wandered back to the room where Zoro sat on the couch mediating. Deeply focused on sparing all of energy, concentrating on the fight for next morning. It almost seemed like he was in a trance, closing his eyes. Folded his arms. In the other room, Usopp was finally feeling the aftermath of his heavy drinking and throwing up everything.
Luffy paced around the room, but once he'd spotted Jie, he perked up. Like an idea popped into his head. Grinning, he waved to her and motioned her to get closer. As if not wanting to interrupt Zoro...or to make sure their conversation was much quieter.
"Hey. Since you're here, why don't you join my crew, Jie?"
"What?"
The idea of joining a pirate crew never came into mind.
Back in the kitchen, she said it to Sanji. She wouldn't join his crew. Looking for the One Piece sounded like a foolish dream, especially to a girl who had nothing but the Berries she earned. People with strong ideals and a goal in mind were pirates. No matter if they were for good or bad things. Not her.
"I-I can't. You need strong crew mates. I'm not strong enough." Jie shook her head.
"So what?" Luffy said, shrugging his shoulders. "You don't have to be strong. You can be smart, agile and everything else. Just be you."
"I..." She trailed off, not able to finish her sentence.
I have something planned for tomorrow, too.
"There's something stopping you, isn't there?" Luffy said with a smile, snapping his fingers as he seemed to guess exactly what was going on inside her head. Despite all of the times he could've used his brain, he caught on scarily quick in certain moments. As if he could see right through her.
Blushing, she looked away. "Forget that. I wanted to ask you about the whole thing about not paying for the meal you guys had. If I give you some Berries, it might cover some of the cost. Uh, you'll just be washing dishes for six months instead. Or do you want me to try convincing Zeff?"
"Aww, you would do that for us?" Luffy said happily, smiling at her words. A part of him must have been thinking that he was earning Jie's favor. Slowly convincing her to join his crew, as a crew of four wouldn't be enough out on the sea. Hearing their conversation, Zoro seemed to twitch in the middle of his meditation.
