DxC-95

The bar was as busy as ever. Both citizens and visitors of Mock Town were scattered about, laughing and chattering among themselves. The fan spun gently above them, sending out a light breeze throughout the upper level of the Wild Cherry. A few people sat in the booths and at the bars, nursing drinks and munching on pretzels.

But for the most part, the majority of the customers were watching a card game between two pirates: Bellamy the Hyena, and 'Executioner' Roshio. For the most part, the game was calm, with the only sounds being their cards being placed on the table and sliding against each other, and their audience making remarks to each other.

After one play, the patrons began to remark on Roshio's win. From what they were saying, he had been on a winning streak.

“Sorry, bud,” he remarked, not sounding sorry at all. “Now you're all out of money. But if you wanted to, we could make the game more interesting by betting... first, your pants?”

Loud laughs barked up all around them, followed by jovial taunts. They were common sounds, hearing mocking laughter and remarks in the town named after such a descriptor. One either learned to ignore them—especially when they lived among such laughter for a number of years—or let themselves get affected by them. Which usually didn't end up in the favor of either party.

And such a case was proven when, as Roshio stood and attempted to gather his earnings, Bellamy suddenly stabbed a knife through the back of his hand straight into the table. He let out a guttural shout of pain, and the bar went dead silent in shock.

“You cheated, didn't you?!” Bellamy accused. “The whole game, you did!”

“What?!” Roshio somehow exclaimed through the pain. “I would never-”

“Don't lie!” Bellamy snapped again. Instead of glaring angrily at him, he was grinning. It was a maniacal look, befitting his epithet. “I saw it with my own eyes!”

The bar patrons took steps back, eyes trained on Bellamy like he would attack them as well at the slightest inconvenience. “Don't go throwing out that accusation!” one warned him.

“Shut up!” another man exclaimed. “He's got an over 50 million Beri bounty on his head!”

“Sarquiss... Oi, Sarquiss!” Bellamy shouted without glancing over his shoulder.

Sitting at the bar counter, arm wrapped around one of their crewmates, sat the first mate of Bellamy's crew, 'Big Knife' Sarquiss. He looked over his shoulder with a grunt. “What?”

“This guy was cheating! You saw it all, didn't you?!” Bellamy demanded. “You saw him cheat me!”

“Cheat?” Sarquiss spun around in his chair to lean back against the counter. “Yeah... That's right. I saw it all, Captain,” he proclaimed as he laughed. “That dirty rat! Shall we make an example out of him?”

Everyone glanced between the men and themselves. Even they could observe that, being that Sarquiss had his back turned to the entire game, and he had been distracted by his crewmate, he wouldn't have any way of knowing if Roshio had cheated or not. But it was best to not question this claim, so as to not be dragged into a bloody fight.

Gritting his teeth through the pain and humiliation, Roshio shouted, “You damn bastards! Do you know who you're dealing with?!”

There was a sharp bang, throwing Roshio back against his seat; the knife was pulled loose from the table, but not his hand. With his smoking pistol in one hand, Bellamy grabbed up the bottle he had been drinking from and broke it over Roshio's head, dousing him in the alcohol.

Roshio barely had time to react before Sarquiss flicked a lit match at him. The alcohol instantly went up in flames. Before he had time to scream in agony, Bellamy stood and kicked him square in the chest. He was sent hurtling back through the glass window. A loud crash outside indicated that he had landed on the deck outside, possibly on something else. People outside scattered with screams and shouts of shock.

Bellamy stood at the window, laughing triumphantly. Everyone was staring at him in shock, save for his crew, and someone else working behind the counter. “Oi! Tenshi! Did you see that?!” he shouted over his shoulder, puffing out his chest. His tongue hung out of his wide grin. “Did you see how I put that cheater in his place?!”

Tenshi continued to ignore him. She was leaning on the counter on one elbow, resting her cheek in her palm. She had barely flinched during the whole fight, only reflexively during the loud noises. Between mixing and giving out drinks and wiping down glasses, she had only been casually observing.

Rolling her eyes with a curled lip, she sighed heavily. “I need a fucking vacation...”

~ * < Sakidō Tenshi! The Laughingstock of Mock Town! > * ~

The bar calmed down after the impromptu and one-sided fight. It always did; sudden fights weren't anything new in Mock Town. Tenshi was certainly used to it. She just continued her job, half-listening to the drunken gossip and chatter.

“... called Sapphire Scales...” “... sunlight made it worse...” “... could have picked them off and sold them...” “... not real sapphires...” “... no cure...”

“... about Arabasta...?” “... Warlord Crocodile...” “... the whole time...” “... Marines took him down...” “... Cap. Smoker...” “... will be the new Warlord...?”

“Hey, Tensh!” a regular snapped at her, their drink sloshing messily in their hand. “If-if you smiled more, ma-maybe you wouldn't look so ugly!”

His companions laughed like he had said the funniest thing in the world. They verbally agreed with his statement, pointing out the features they thought were severely unattractive. “Nah, that smile's probably just as hideous!”

“Yeah, I mean, look at those scars! Ain't no smile in the world that can fix those!”

Most people would have been hurt by such statements. But they rolled off of Tenshi's back like she didn't even hear them. She didn't bat an eyelid, or even blink. She just kept working diligently, nudging her round black glasses up her nose with the back of her wrist. She had a blank expression on her face, betraying little emotion.

Until finally her boss, a surly-looking man who was as wide as he was tall, called out to her, “Alright, Tenshi. Your shift's done for the day. You can go for the rest of the day.”

“Aww, you're so generous, boss,” she remarked with a sarcastic grin—ignoring the taunts that claimed they had been right about her smile not being an improvement. “An absolute diamond!”

“And don't you forget it,” her boss answered, no humor to be heard in his straitlaced tone. “Remember, you only have this job because I took pity on you after nobody else wanted you.”

Her smirk stiffened, but she barely faltered otherwise. “I remember, boss. It's stuck in me brain.” She emphasized by poking herself in the temple with a slender finger. “I won't be forgetting that anytime soon.” She grabbed up her fishnet bag, slung it over her shoulder, and strolled out from behind the counter and down the flights of stairs.

As she descended the levels, her smirk gradually faded away to a frown. It was one of both frustration and disgust. She glanced down at herself, taking in her stained work uniform: a cream dress with puffed sleeves and a tiered ankle-length skirt, a black vest-style corset bodice, and old black boots with ropes wrapped and tied around the vamps and soles. Her boots were the only article that she personally owned; thus, they were the only part of her current clothing that she liked. Her long brown hair was tied back with a piece of rope, keeping the messy curls out of her face.

“... I certainly won't forget that I hate this job neither,” she grumbled. She passed by Roshio, who was laying crumpled on a broken wagon. The fire was finally starting to die out, but he didn't look like he would last much longer. A few people had surrounded him, staring and muttering in shock.

Once she passed him, she heard something heavy land on him with a heavy, distinctive 'sproing' sound. She didn't need to glance back to see what had happened. And frankly, she didn't want to. She just kept walking down the wooden sidewalk, eyes trained in front of her.

There were a few loud pops, like that of a rifle. When she vaguely turned her head towards the sounds, she saw a man sitting up on the roof of a building. He was too far away and shadowed to make out his features, but she saw a long, smoking rifle in his hands. She ignored this as well and continued walking. She didn't really have a destination in mind, she just wanted to get far away from the Wild Cherry for the rest of the day.

All around her was chaos. It wasn't just people talking and sitting around drinking. There were small fights, with words, fists, and weapons. Some people were left passed out to be dragged off the street. Men fought men, women fought women, and on occasion, men fought women. It was like a free-for-all in the resort town, where the fancy and sharp buildings severely contrasted the chaotic messes.

Tenshi just stepped over and around the fights and bodies with barely a twitch of the eye. And everyone avoided her in kind.

She paused in midstep when she saw something unfamiliar a few meters ahead. There was a skinny, sickly-looking horse, and an equally skinny, sickly-looking man on the ground, nearly swallowed by his thick brown furred coat. This wasn't the unfamiliar part, however.

What was unfamiliar were the two young men helping the sick man onto his horse. Giving out help in Mock Town was very rare, though newcomers did naïvely give out help. And these two looked green behind the ears. The youngest was a young man with a red buttoned up vest, blue denim cargo shorts, sandals, and a straw hat on his head. He had thick shaggy black hair that ended around his ears. The older man, though no more than a few years, was taller and broader. He wore a white shirt, a black handkerchief around his left bicep, a green haramaki around his waist, three katanas on his hip, and black pants and boots. His skin was a darker tan than his friend's, and his hair was short, fluffy, and moss-green.

Watching from nearby, arms crossed, was a young woman with short orange hair, a white and blue-striped tank top, a light-orange mini skirt with two white rings on each side, and short brown gladiator high-heeled sandals. She also had a gold bracelet and Log Pose on her left wrist, and some kind of blue tattoo on the same shoulder over a few stab scars.

With how the two young men stood with her, it was clear they were a small group.

Tenshi watched curiously as the two young men also helped the horse up when it collapsed after trying to leave. Seeing them helping a stranger in a town like Mock Town reminded her of herself, how her first instincts were to help people when they were in trouble. Of course, that had been largely beaten out of her during the last several years of living here. People either rejected your help with extreme prejudice, or demanded more from you. It was better to just keep to yourself unless absolutely necessary.

That didn't mean her instincts didn't scream at her every time she passed by somebody in need of assistance. But though she admitted she was a slow learner, she learned regardless.

Suddenly, a nearby store exploded. This caught everyone's attention, stalling squabbles and arguments. Even Tenshi was startled by the sudden fireball. For a moment, she had no clue what had happened. Until she overheard someone exclaiming that someone had been giving away apples, and a few had exploded once the people took a bite. Once she heard that, she relaxed; this wasn't anything new.

She only flinched when she saw the young man in the straw hat had a bitten apple in his hand, and his cheeks full of the fruit. He was still slowly chewing as he and his friends stared in horror at the blazing building.

Once he swallowed, the young woman grabbed him by the throat with both hands. “Luffy! Spit it out!” she cried out, shaking him until he turned blue in the face. “Spit out that apple, now!”

“I already swallowed!” he gasped out.

The swordsman grabbed one of his katanas. “Bastard!” he snapped. “What's this all about?”

The man on the horse simple chuckled, even as he wheezed and hiccuped. “Ehh, he'll be alright.”

When the trio stared blankly at him, with the young woman letting Luffy go, he continued, “If it had been a bad one, you would have died at the first bite. So...” He had to take a minute to catch his breath, as if he had been running a marathon before speaking. “... So, you're lucky.”

Tenshi couldn't help laughing at the bewildered trio. “Welcome to Mock Town,” she said sarcastically. “Where you're more likely to get a shooting than a handshake; whether it's of the verbal or physical kind is up for debate.”

The three young people turned to look at her. They all exclaimed in surprise at the sight of her.

She was tall, much taller than all three of them—a good foot and some change taller than the green-haired one. And as opposed to the young woman, having a slender hourglass figure, she was practically shaped like a pear with a head, arms, and legs. Her shoulders were narrow with a generous bust, her waist was slightly-tapered, leading to a pudgy stomach, wide round hips, and thick thighs that, in turn, lead to long strong legs.

But the most significant part of her was her face. More accurately, her scars. She had lightning scars branching across her rich brown eyes, round cheeks, and full lips, as well as up over her forehead and down along her throat. They were sharp and jagged white lines contrasting with her softer curves, forever marring what was no doubt once a beautiful face.

~ * <|> * ~

For several moments, the trio stared at Tenshi, all with varying levels of shock in their dark-orange, gray-green, and green eyes. The woman even took a step back, letting out a startled squeak. Tenshi said nothing, only lightly smirking at them.

That changed when Luffy's eyes widened more, and his mouth curled into a big smile. “Ooh! Your scars are so cool!”

Tenshi's smirk fell away, and she blinked in surprise. “... Wh-”

The other man's grin was more impressed. “You look like quite the fighter,” he remarked, thumbing his chin.

Tenshi didn't answer. She couldn't. She was too caught off guard; and, in all honesty, too confused. The young woman's reaction was far more familiar than the two young men's compliments. At least, they sounded like compliments. She had to run through both sentences over and over in her head, trying to sniff out any hidden meanings. She was usually good at this, having grown to expect nothing but ridicule and cruelty for how she looked.

But this time, she couldn't find anything. So she just stood there, mouth hung open like a fish that had been taken out of the water.

Finally, the green-haired man asked something she was able to respond to, “You live here?”

Shaking her head with a grunt, she answered, “Y-yes, I do! Six years and counting.”

“Maybe she could help us!” Luffy exclaimed excitedly, pumping his fists in front of him. “Say, do you-”

“Nope!” the young woman exclaimed, pushing both Luffy and their friend away. “Thanks, but no thanks!” She grinned a little too widely at Tenshi.

“Nami, what gives?” Luffy complained.

Even though they were already a good distance away, Tenshi still heard Nami, “She's way too creepy-looking! And too nonchalant about this crazy town!”

Tenshi stood there on the street, watching them disappear into the distant crowds. She heard the barely-restrained laughter around her, as well as unfamiliar tourists asking about her.

“That's Tenshi, the freak of the town!” “She's always had those scars! Ever since she came here!” “They say she was thrown off of a ship because she was just too damn ugly to look at!” “She's crazy too, always shouting out threats and insults; she's way too creative with it!” “If she wore makeup and lost twenty, forty pounds, she might actually look good!” “I'm surprised she doesn't get stuck in the doorway, with those bulbous hips!” “Those scars, though. Did she get hit by lightning?” “People say she stood in a thunderstorm for too long. Idiot!”

With a shrug of her shoulders at the trio's attitude and departure, she continued down the sidewalk. Even as the quips and insults bounced around in the air all around her, she ignored it all. It was like white noise to her, just an annoying buzzing in her ear that she had grown used to. She didn't even looked affected by any of it, keeping a neutral expression on her scarred face.

Overhead, a large man was laughing and shouting out to 'challengers' from the rooftops. “Wii-hahaha!”

Down on the ground, people watched him and muttered about how he had been picking and winning fights with people. They called him a Fighting Champion, and remarked that they should stay away from him.

Still unbothered by everything, and still alone, Tenshi continued walking.

After several minutes of wandering, she found herself in the Pub and Pies. Several customers shot disgusted glances her way, but didn't say anything to or about her. The bartender, Terry, casually greeted her as she sat at the counter. “What'll it be, Tenshi?”

“A virgin gin and mint,” she requested.

“'Virgin'? You?! Since when?” someone exclaimed, slapping their knee as they laughed. “Now that's an inaccurate description about you!”

She rolled her eyes. “Very clever,” she muttered. “And original.”

“Hey, sweetheart!” a large rotund man with long woolly black hair and an open white shirt called out to her from several seats away. “You should try the cherry pies here! I hear they're great!”

“I'm decidingly not in the mood for anything related to cherries,” she retorted, leaning on the counter against her crossed arms.

The man simply shrugged with a grunt and continued with his food.

After a few minutes, her drink was placed in front of her: a tonic water on crushed ice, tinted pale-green with mint extract. There was even a couple of mint leaves floating on the small chunks of ice.

With a muttered thanks, she took a sip. It wasn't as sharp or smooth as a proper gin, but she wasn't completely in the mood to get drunk yet. Not that she easily could; working as a bartender had given her a high tolerance over the last six years. It would take a good while of drinking to get her even buzzed, much less properly drunk.

She barely lifted her head when a few people came in, sat at the counter, and ordered drinks. She only turned her head when a familiar voice remarked, “Fancy seeing you here.”

It was the green-haired man. And sitting next to him were Nami and Luffy respectively, with their respective glasses and mugs. He himself had a mug as well. Luffy was casually drinking, and Nami was gripping her glass, grumbling under her breath.

“Small town,” Tenshi remarked.

“And a horrible one!” Nami added.

“That's a shame you think that,” Terry said. “Mock Town depends on pirates spending money, after all. Lots of tough people, both locals and pirates. Which means a lot of trouble. If you're bothered by every inconvenience, you'll never make it.”

“You don't seem too bothered,” the green-haired man said to Tenshi. It made her wonder if he had heard the locals and visitors talking about her behind her back and in front of her.

“Six years means a lot of time to thicken my skin,” she replied, swirling her drink in her hand. “I had it especially rough, with this ugly mug,” she casually added, gesturing at her face with her free hand. “But I learned to tune out everything people say about me. Besides, I've seen myself in the mirror.” With a shrug of her shoulders, she tilted her head back to take a drink.

She didn't catch the surprised look the young man gave her at how nonchalant she was about insulting herself.

Nami was still complaining about the town, with Terry remarking that a right-minded person like her was rare in Mock Town. Tenshi found herself nodding in agreement. She felt like she could count herself as one such, even with how snappy she could be with her own insults and threats. It was a surprise that she hadn't been snuffed out a long time ago. But if there was something about her, it was that she was stubborn.

“In any case, the log will be stored within four days or so,” Terry continued. “If you want to leave before you get into trouble, you have that time-frame.”

Nami sounded like she was going to ask him something before Luffy and the larger man from earlier simultaneously interrupted her, “Hey, old guy!” “Hey, buddy!”

“Hm? What's wrong?” “This cherry pie tastes so bad, I could die!” “This cherry pie tastes so good, I could die!” Both men grunted in surprise at their contrasting statements and turned to glare at each other.

Now that Tenshi got a look at the larger man, she noticed he was almost as ugly as she was. He had a broad chin, thick lips, was missing several teeth, a pronounced crooked nose, and round dark eyes. He had a scraggly beard along his jaws, and his open shirt displayed his hairy chest and stomach.

The two men glared at each other before taking a gulp of their drinks. “That drink was really good!” “That drink was really bad!” Once again, they glowered at each other.

“Something wrong with your tastebuds?” the larger man snarled.

“Is something wrong with your brain?” Luffy challenged. Suddenly, he turned to Terry and exclaimed, “Old man! I want fifty steaks to go, please!”

“Hey, bub! I'll take fifty-one cherry pies to go!” the larger man stated, to Luffy's irritation.

Tenshi could only watch in growing amusement as they attempted to one-up each other, even as Nami protested that they couldn't pay for so many steaks. It eventually ended with Luffy standing on the stool, planting his other foot on the counter, and pulling back his fist; the larger man pulled back his fist as well. “You bastard! You wanna fight?!” “You bastard! You wanna fight?!”

Tenshi laughed, slapping her hand on the counter. “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

“What the hell are you fighting about?!” the green-haired man snapped.

With a grin, the larger man asked, “So, you three are pirates? What's your bounty?”

“Yeah.” Luffy nodded. “30 million.”

Tenshi's eyebrows rose to her hairline. It was in the middle-range of pirates that usually frequented the town, but it was still impressive in her eyes.

But before she could ask about the rest of Luffy's crewmembers, the larger man grunted in surprise. “Only 30 million? You? That can't be true, you liar!”

“Who're you calling a liar?!” Luffy shouted. “It's the damn truth!”

“Knock it off!” the green-haired man yelled, pulling Luffy back down by his vest.

Terry placed a wrapped package on the counter—cherry pies, Tenshi guessed, since he placed it in front of the larger man. “No fighting inside,” he scolded. “Here's your fifty cherry pies, now scram.”

With a huff, the larger man took his package and promptly exited the bar.

Unfortunately, the man who replaced him was someone Tenshi didn't want to see: Bellamy. “Ugh, just my luck,” she groaned, turning back around to slump against the bar counter.

“You know him?” the green-haired man asked as Bellamy shouted for 'a pirate in a straw hat'.

“Unfortunately.”

The rest of the bar stared at Bellamy, fear in their sober, half-drunken, and drunken eyes. He stood tall and proud in the doorway, grinning that hyena-like grin. He had a round face, shaggy blond hair, a scar over his right eye, and was usually wearing a blue captain's coat over his shoulders.

“What's this about?” Luffy asked as he leaned back against the counter.

“Sounds like he's got business with you,” his friend remarked as Bellamy strolled to the counter.

“Is that the Bellamy that's taken over the hotel?” Nami asked.

“Ah, you heard?” Tenshi asked, taking a sip of her drink. “Yeah, they claimed it as their base of operations. Top dogs always get the fancy and comfortable shit, I suppose.”

“Boy, there's a lot of tall people here,” Luffy said as Bellamy approached him. Bellamy was a few inches taller than even Tenshi.

Briefly ignoring Luffy, Bellamy called out to Terry as he sat down, “Give me your most expensive drink! And get this guy whatever he wants!”

Tenshi was already hunkered down to avoid Bellamy's gaze. She scrunched up even more when she heard familiar voices entering the bar, complaining about how full, filthy, and cheap it looked. She didn't need to look over her shoulder to see the rest of Bellamy's crew had followed him inside.

She could also hear several people vacating the bar as Bellamy's crewmates threw their weight around, taking seats for themselves. Nobody noticed her so far, to her relief. In this town, she either stuck out like a sore thumb or was completely ignored.

But her ears also picked up the faint dripping of liquid. She chanced a peek over her shoulder, and saw fresh blood dripping from Sarquiss's giant kukri, creating a small puddle of red on the floor. He caught Tenshi's eye, but simply held his knife in front of his face to dart his tongue against the smeared blood.

Curling her lip in disgust, she turned away.

Terry finally placed the prepared drinks in front of Luffy and Bellamy. “Have a drink,” Bellamy urged Luffy, causing Tenshi to narrow her eyes in suspicion. The only time he freely offered a drink was to flirt with someone, or to cause trouble. The former, she had experienced before. And she had a feeling this wasn't going to be a similar case this time.

“Aw, thanks!” Luffy said happily, lifting his glass mug. “You're not such a bad guy after all!”

Just as he was taking a drink, before Tenshi or his friends could react, Bellamy suddenly grabbed the back of Luffy's head and slammed him face-down onto the counter. It shattered into pieces and splinters of wood as Luffy was practically shoved down to the floor.

Everyone gasped and exclaimed in shock. Tenshi, a little startled herself, managed to grab up her drink before it was sent tumbling to the ground. The only sound in the bar was Sarquiss laughing loudly.

“... What's your problem, low life?” Bellamy growled with a grin.

It was only then that Tenshi realized the green-haired man, having moved so fast she didn't realize he had, was sitting on one of the remaining halves of the counter with one of his swords drawn against Bellamy's throat. He was glaring intensely at him over the guard.

“You're the one with the problem,” he retorted, his voice low and calm. It sent a shiver down Tenshi's back, even though she wasn't the target of his anger.

“Zoro! Wait a minute!” Nami cried out, holding out her hands. “We haven't gotten the information we need from this town yet!”

“I don't care!” Zoro snapped, not taking his eyes off of Bellamy. “I'm just taking him up on his offer! He wants a fight? He'll get one!”

Luffy pushed himself to his feet, wiping the bits of sawdust and splinters from his face and adjusting his hat. “You got up, huh?!” Bellamy laughed, still not caring about the sharpened steel against his neck.

Luffy scowled at him. “Alright, that's it. You want a fight?”

As Bellamy continued to laugh, and the remaining patrons and his crewmembers began to chatter about the inevitable fight, Zoro withdrew his sword and stepped down to the floor. They all began to cheer, pumping their fists and calling out bets. Tenshi herself leaned on one elbow against the counter, sipping her drink. Luffy didn't seem like much of a fighter, being probably a little over half her age. But he had Zoro to back him up with swordsmanship, so this should prove to be interesting.

“Luffy! Wait!” Nami turned to Terry and quickly shouted, “Mister! We want to go to the sky island! Do you have any information?!”

The bar instantly became so silent, a pin could be heard dropping. Tenshi nearly dropped her glass from her fingers. She forgot to breathe until her lungs reflexively took in a breath. She stared at Nami, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. 'Sky island' echoed in her head, over and over. A hint of hope began to flare up in her scarred heart...

… Until the entire bar burst into uproarious laughter, save for herself, Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Terry.

“She said 'sky island'!” “Give me a break!”

Nami stammered for a moment before protesting, “But our Log Pose is definitely pointing to the sky!” She held up her wrist.

Tenshi glanced at the small instrument, and saw that the red end of the needle was indeed pointing straight up. Though it wavered from Nami's movement, the direction never changed. It was definitely something to consider, but even Tenshi knew that Log Poses were finicky at best, and easily broken at worst.

The mocking laughter only paused for a moment before starting up again, this time taunting her about the Log Pose. Tenshi started to feel bad when she saw the deep red appearing on Nami's face, all the way to her ears.

Bellamy sat back down, still snickering. “You got me there!” he remarked. “You guys actually believe in those ancient legends about islands in the sky? Which era and sea are you slack-jaws even from? Listen, all the unusual currents of the Grand Line are being explained one after the other, year after year. Including the Knock-Up Stream.”

He eyed the trio with a smirk. “You three probably don't even know what that is, huh? Ships that fall victim to this current are launched up into the clouds, and eventually come crashing down into the sea. Without knowing any better, sailors from long ago swore that the falling ships come from sky islands, lands floating unimaginably high up in the sky. 'There must be another world up there!', they said.”

Bellamy scoffed, spitting out of the corner of his mouth. “There's always a scientific explanation! In time, every myth becomes properly explained!”

He shook his head with an amused sigh. “And here I was, testing you and thinking about inviting you to join my crew for the new era. But you're just a delusional, gullible dumbass! You listen, and you listen good: the era of pirates' dreams is over! 'City of Gold'? 'City of Emeralds'? The fucking One Piece?! Idiots who can't see the real treasure at their feet for the fantasies they dream of are blind and stupid! In these days, in this era, some of the most capable pirates who keep dreaming just wind up getting themselves killed, all for a child's fancy! And to make matters worse, other people can only say 'They were lucky enough to die chasing their dreams'!”

Tenshi pulled up one leg to hug against her chest, bracing the heel of her boot on the stool. She stared down at her drink, now a mix of melted ice and tonic water, with the soggy mint leaves floating on top. She thought about her own desires, her own wants and dreams. Especially the one she kept close to her, that she didn't share with anyone who didn't know her entire situation.

Even though Bellamy's taunts weren't directed at her, they still sent little pangs to her heart. Her hand tightened around the glass tumbler. She took a slow deep breath in, let it out, plucked out the mint leaves, and knocked the remainder of her drink back like she was taking a shot.

“When I see idiots wasting their lives chasing pointless dreams...” Bellamy continued, wrapping his fingers around the neck of a nearby bottle. “... It makes me sick!” He swung the bottle over Luffy's head, shattering it across his skull and splattering alcohol everywhere.

“Luffy!” Nami cried out as he collapsed to the ground. Tenshi exclaimed in shock; Zoro simply watched, like he was waiting for Luffy to say or do something.

“It's weaklings like you that make stronger, better pirates like us look so bad!” Bellamy declared, standing over Luffy's supine form.

Someone threw a full mug of beer. It shattered by Luffy's ear, sending out a shower of liquid and glass. “Get outta here, you maggots!” someone shouted. “You're spoiling the atmosphere!”

Other objects started to get thrown. Bottles, glass mugs, wooden mugs, plates; anything at the tables. They called for Luffy and the others to leave town or get up and fight. While Luffy and Zoro stood still, despite the projectiles, Nami hunkered down and covered her head with her arms. Tenshi stood up from her stool, placed her empty glass on the counter, and stood with her back to Nami, holding one arm out to further shield her.

“Luffy! Zoro! Forget the promise!” Nami exclaimed. “Beat them up already!”

“Yeah!” Tenshi agreed, grunting when a glass practically bounced off of her shoulder. “He started it!”