A Wish on a Comet (Luffy x OC)

Chapter 50

Deep in the forest in the dark of the night, the boy with the seahorse, that caused all the trouble, is running with deep terror in his heart. The reason he's so terrified, is because he heard Rose's call to him, and can hear her footsteps in the distance. "I can't believe she figured me out so quickly! If I didn't pull that stunt, I would've been done for!"

He can hear the footsteps getting louder, along with his heart rate, and tries to run faster. He could try to make another illusion, but she'd see right through it this time!

He needs something else to get her off his tail, so he looks around for any other way. When he sees a dim light in the distance, he decides to go that way.

Rose isn't too far from him, and she's barely calmed down at all since she left the ship. It doesn't help that she can't see the footprints unless she's running on the ground instead of flying, because of how dark it is, either.

Even so, she can hear footsteps in the distance, so she feels like she's on the right track.

She sees a light in the distance, along with the footprints, and follows the path without a plan.

She gets her hands ready for a punch as soon as she reaches the light, but stops in her tracks when she finds Zoro sitting in front of a campfire instead of her prey.

Zoro doesn't act surprised at all by her arrival, but only shows a raised eyebrow when he sees her. "What's your problem?"

"Did you see a blue haired brat, with a seahorse, around here?" Rose asks as she looks around for any signs of him.

"The only one I've seen all day is you." Zoro answers, which earns a groan of frustration from the brunette.

Rose tries to find more footprints, but she can't find any more traces of them which confuses her. Those prints were way too small to be Zoro's and she knows that they were human, so it had to have been the kid's. Where the fuck did he go?!

"What the hell's your problem?" Zoro asks which snaps her out of her daze.

She quietly sighs as she sits cross-legged across him, with the fire as the only thing between them. "I found out who stole our memories. It's this fucking kid with this creepy ass seahorse horn. From what I saw, it's the seahorse that has the power to do it. I was close to getting it, but the little shit escaped with it. I followed his trail, but I lost it here..."

Zoro widens his eyes at the story, and tries to get more out of her. "Where did you see him?"

"I saw him heading to the pirate ship we woke up on. He tried to steal the others' memories again, but they stopped him, and..."

She trails off when she remembers the blue smoke that had hit Luffy. She knows that it wouldn't kill him, because he's too stubborn to die, but she's worried about what kind of weird effect that smoke could've had. Maybe it was stolen memories?

"And what?" Zoro asks, which takes her out of her train of thought.

"And then the seahorse seeped this blue smoke onto Luffy. I don't know what it was, but that horn's nothing but trouble..." She looks out at the dark forest, and scowls at how dark it is outside of this camp.

There's no way she can find that kid without any leads, but she doesn't want to impose on Zoro's space, so she starts excusing herself. "I'll search for him again in the morning. Sorry I barged into your campsite, but I'm glad I could warn you at least."

She starts getting up, much to Zoro's surprise, and calls out to her. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To find someplace to sleep. I have a long day of hunting tomorrow. When I get the horn, I'll find you, and give you back your memories."