* Five days later - Marine Headquarters - Paradise. *
A groan was the first thing she released upon regaining consciousness. Slowly opening her eyes, the harsh glare of the sun instantly made itself known to her, giving her a clue towards what time of day it was. Around dinnertime (5-6 PM)
Upon opening her eyes, she noticed she was in a white room. four white walls, one with a window, a white ceiling, a white carpet, she was covered by a white blancket and even the doctor was wearing a white... lab coat?
Was she in a lab?
She didn't notice any tools that would suggest so, just the constant beating of a monitor which, upon closer inspection, is attached to her arm.
"Oh good, you're awake" Upon noticing her consciousness, the doctor addressed her. He looked to be a middle aged man with a around yet triangular shaped head. He had a thin piece of brown hair running from his eyebrows to the back of his head. He also appeared to chewing... a fishbone?
"It's good that you're awake. I was starting to get a little worried." He did not appear to be lying. He seemed relieved of her awakening, though she couldn't figure out why.
Chizuku continued to stare at him for a few moments. She wanted to see if you recognised him but unfortunately, she couldn't put a name to his face.
"Who are yo- *cough* cough*" She wanted to ask him who he was but after managing to croak out barely three words she realised her mouth and throat were exceptionally dry. Like she had swallowed sand.
The doctor, upon noticing her conundrum, handed her a bottle of water whilst letting out a low laugh.
"Easy now. You've been out of it for 5 days. To be honest with ya, I'm surprised you woke up this quick... and healed so fast." He took a break from speaking as he watched her devouring the glass of water she just handed and then observed the condition she was in. "Given the extent of your injuries, I was expecting you to be out for at least two to three weeks."
Upon hearing his words, she looked down at her body and began to move her arms and legs around. After a few seconds of observation, she noticed... that she seemed completely fine. She couldn't notice any injuries, nor did she feel any.
"I feel fine. I can't feel anything that hurts." Her voice was still a little rough but at least she didn't cough up her organs when trying to form simple sentences.
The doctor simply chuckled at her revelation. "I know. Like I said, It's surprising non the less. You're simply a walking, talking miracle. Well... one of the few walking around this planet. It's not exactly unheard of but considering you don't have a devil fruit, its something alright."
Every one of his sentences was accompanied by a giggle. He seemed like truly jolly fellow and Chizuki was almost infected by his jolliness, well, that was until she discovered something about herself that sent a cold chill down her spine.
Who was she?
She couldn't remember anything about herself. Where did she come from? Why was she injured? How was she injured? Who injured her? What about her family? Her friends? Are they worried? Are they hurt?... Are they even alive?
The more questions she asked herself, the more her head hurt and the more she felt herself drowning in anxiety. Her chest began to hurt, and she felt that it was getting harder to breathe.
The doctor quickly noticed her predicament and got to work right away. He held her by the shoulder and began to reassure her confidently.
"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down, ok? Deep breaths. You're alright. Your safe. There is no need to panic, ok? What ever problems you have I can help but you need to calm down. Breath in. *inhale* Breath out. *exhale*.
His words did manage to calm her down. She took slow and steady breaths and eventually she returned to normal.
It was good timing too because as soon as she calmed down. Two people entered the room.
One of them was a very tall man. Standing at around 9'1", he looked to be around middle aged (57) and had a black afro and a black mustache, though he had a few grey hairs. He wore a black suit with a white coat draped over his shoulders. He also had a pair of round glasses.
His presence was imposing.
The other man was even taller than the former. He stood at 9'5". With black hair and a goatee that also had a few grey hairs, he wore a suit matching the other man. He had an imposing scar over his left eye but his presence, however, screamed "not my problem". He had a silly grin on his face as he munched on what appeared to be a box of crackers.
Both immediately looked towards her the moment they entered the room, like they knew she was awake. Chizuki was immediately put on guard for reasons unknown to herself, like a defense mechanism.
The doctor who was making sure Chizuki was ok, nodded to them both, and then exited the room before Chizuki could say anything.
"Who are you" she stammered.
"Bwahahahaha. Look at that Sengoku, seems you're not as famous as you thought. "
She was quite surprised at the sudden outburst of the taller man. The man named Sengoku, however, was not impressed.
"SHUT UP GARP" He shouted. "She's a damn child. Of course she doesn't know my name." He immediately began massaging his temples after reprimanding the man named Garp. "I'm still famous." Though he did whisper the last part.
After managing to calm his hourly Garp caused Aneurism, he looked back towards the young girl on the bed. Long platinum silver flowed all over the bed, piercing yet beautiful red eyes and a doll like face. Anyone could tell that she was going to grow up to be beautiful. Not that our resident Buddha cared.
He approached the bed she was seated in and sat down at the very end of it. Meanwhile our laughing man had calmed down and began wolfing down crackers.
"Let's start then" Sengoku said. "As you heard from the idiot over there -" "Bwahahaha" - "urggh. I'm sengoku and he's Garp. I'm the fleet admiral of the marines and he's a vice admiral. What's your name?"
"Fl..Fleet admiral? Marines?" She still had zero idea who they were or what they were. She also struggled to answer the last question. She thought about it and as soon as she did her headache came back causing her to grunt and grab her head in pain.
Sengoku noticed her predicament and was about to reach for her to try and calm her, even Garp's eating slowed for a second or two until they heard her mutter a name under her breath.
"Ch-Chizu..ki. Chizuki... Chizuki." She repeated the name several times trying to ingrain it in her head.. It was, Afterall, the only clue she had towards her past.
Both Garp and Sengoku looked towards one another for a second before they looked back at her.
"I see. Chizuki huh. It suits you" He paused for a few seconds, taking his time. "Are you... Are you having trouble with your memory?"
She didn't answer for a few seconds before looking towards the window and nodding.
"Whats the last thing you remember?" He asked.
"Nothing. My name is the first thing I have remembered. Everything else is a blank slate."
"...I see"
Silence descended upon them for a few seconds... apart from the occasional crunches of crackers that everyone seemed to actively ignore.
"Well, let me try and catch you up to speed. Well, to start with, it's the year 1502, and your currently at the marine headquarters in a place named Paradise. Marines are soldiers who protect people from pirates who try to kill, steal... enslave. They do whatever they want and don't care about consequences.
Marines are the ones who put a stop to this. We capture pirates and place them in a prison named Impell Down. Now, about what happened to you..."
He paused for a few seconds, most likely figuring out what to say but Chizuki was listening attentively. She was quite fascinated with the idea of marines, of course, every side has two coins though, she wasn't going to blindly believe everything he was saying.
Though she wasn't getting any bad vibes from him, he seemed like a good person, and she couldn't think of a reason why he would lie to her. There is no need for a high ranked man to lie to a child afterall... right?
"Around two weeks ago, the marines captured a group of pirates. The leader of said pirates was a woman named Nico Olivia, she was an archaeologist from an island named Ohara."
The name Ohara was vaguely familiar to Chizuki. She didn't remember anything, but it was a start at least.
"The woman attacked us with her crew upon her capture and unfortunately, we lost several of our men. She was also the only survivor on her side. Whilst interrogating her, we discovered that she was researching into highly dangerous things... things capable of causing mass destruction that would affect the world."
He paused after revealing that information, letting it settle in just how dangerous it was. And it worked. Chizuki was quite aghast at the seriousness surrounding the topic. She even unconsciously straightened her posture whilst her eyes gained a certain seriousness rarely seen in a child. Sengoku noticed that she understood the seriousness of the situation and continued.
"We immediately placed her behind bars and tried to look further into the matter but unfortunately.. there was a traitor among the marines. A man who helped her escape.. *sigh*
She fled back to her hometown and began gathering more members but thankfully we knew where she was heading and followed her. When we got there, we were immediately fired upon. *loud sigh*
During this skirmish, we sent some of our best men onto the island to help any young or old who may need it. One of our vice admirals found you trying to escape the island and aided you in doing so. He led you to a small boat and quickly tried to help you leave but after sailing a few hundred meters out... you were caught in the cross fire and unfortunately were seriously injured. *Even louder sigh*
Thankfully we got to you in time and our doctors were able to heal you, well your physique played a part in that. It seems you have some impressive healing abilities but you're still lucky to be alive."
...
Silence descended again after he finished his heart touching story. Chizuki was trying to digest everything she had just heard.
"Bwahahahahaha, you're a strong brat eh."
Well, until her thoughts were interrupted by a laughing Garp.
"DAMN IT GARP"
"WAHAHAHAHAHA"
"Pffftt"
Even Chizuki was infected with the joyous energy Garp seemed to radiate. Both of them looked towards her as she was trying to hold back a giggle. Garp looked at Sengoku with a victory smirk and Sengoku began trying to calm his new headache by rubbing his temples.
After a few minutes, Sengoku heard Chizuki's voice again.
"Did... I have anyone with me? On the island? Like.... a family.. or maybe even just a friend?"
Both looked at her with pity upon hearing her question.
"We don't know, sorry. I can ask vice-admiral Kuzan for you the next time I see him."
Chizuki nodded her thanks upon hearing this and was surprised when Garp approached her.
"Cheer up brat. The marines can be your new family. Considering how fast your body heals, you're clearly a hidden talent. Don't worry, I'll knock you right into shape Bwahahaha."
Halfway through his sentence, he placed his huge hands on her tiny head and began rubbing her hair all of the place. Her vision was clouded so she could only hear his annoyingly funny laugh...
A smile still managed to worm its way onto her face though.
Well, that was before he continued to shake her repeatedly. Eventually she got both dizzy and fed up.
"Ahhhh stop shaking me stupid old man" Her half shout was accompanied by her pushing his hand away....
The shaking stopped for mere moments, and just as she had managed to organise her hair and regain her vision:
*Bonk*
She felt like a planet had impacted her head. Both of her hands immediately went to the place where she felt something hit her and span her head in Garps direction.
The old man stood there shaking his fist in her direction.
"Learn to respect your elders brat"
"What do you mean respect my elders old man? I'm a patient, you can't hit a patient." She She didn't know if to shout at him or not. She was quite confused.
Garp, however, seemingly scoffed at her words.
"Pft, I can hit whoever I want"
"Even children? Baah, I knew you were evil the moment I saw you, only villains eat crackers."
*Bonk*
"My fist of love doesn't discriminate brat. I'm a generous person Bwahahaha"
"STOP HITTING ME STUPID OLD MAN"
*BONK*
"RESPECT YOUR ELDERS DAMN BRAT"
"GAAAAHH"
Eventually, she gave up trying to reason with him. She accepted her fate and mealy held her head with both hands. She was quite sure there was a bump growing.
Sengoku, meanwhile, just sat off to the side watching with what seemed like exasperation if his twitching eye were to mean anything. Eventually he put an end to it.
"BOTH OF YOU STOP! Garp stop hitting her and Chizuki respect your elders."
Upon hearing this Garp finally relented and went back to eating his crackers but from the corner of his eye he saw Chizuki pull her eye down whilst sticking her tongue out at him.
His fist felt itchy for some reason.
"*Sigh* finally some quiet." He took a few seconds to collect himself before turning towards Chizuki once more. "Tomorrow, I'll register you. You're obviously too young to join the marines since you typically need to be a teenager. We do, however, have a training program that trains your talent so tomorrow, depending on your condition, we'll test you and then go from there.
Sound good?"
Chizuki nodded to this. She feels ok so she should be fine, and she doesn't really have anywhere else to go, so she may as well enlist.
Maybe she could even prevent the destruction of someone else's home...
"Good. Garp you're in charge of her"
"Huh, what. Why me?"
"You offered remember? You said you would, and I quote, "Don't worry brat, I'll knock you into shape Bwahahaha" He even ended it by imitating his laugh gaining another laugh from Chizuki. Garp meanwhile was not impressed and grumbled under his breath.
"I was just joking"
After a few more words from Sengoku, he left to do his admiral duties', leaving Garp and Chizuki alone.
"Come on brat, Let's go. Can you stand?" Garp wasted no time in expressing his desire to leave and just as Chizuki was going to answer-
*Grrrrrr*
Her stomach rumbled heavily causing her cheeks to match the color of her eyes and Garp to burst out laughing again.
"Let's get some food on the way home shall we" His words were accompanied by a grin and the munching of more crackers.
Chizuki just nodded to his words and jumped to her feet. She nearly stumbled due to her lying in bed for nearly a week, but Garp caught her by the arm and helped her stand.
She muttered a thanks before she managed to stand on her own and both of them began making their way through the corridors of the headquarters.
"So where are we going?" she asked after crossing the 3rd corridor and dozenth person.
"We'll grab something to eat from the kitchen and then we'll head home for the day."
He didn't even look at her as he replied, he was seemingly too busy trying to reach the last cracker out of the bag.
However, she was also quite distracted.
"Home huh.... it sounds foreign."
She wasn't sure if it was because of the memory loss or just the word itself, but it seemed like a concept she wasn't familiar with.
"Huh, you say something?"
"Nope... Nothing at all"
Well... she could give it a try huh.
Hopefully her memories return soon, but she didn't really want to dwell on something completely out of her control... and she also has a voice telling her that only pain and misery awaits her should she unlock them so, for now, she'll see how things go.
"AH. I forgot to get the doctors name.. maybe next time on dragon ba-
~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading.
Stones would be appreciated, hopefully we reach the rankings.
Chapter three will be out within a day or two.
If you have any suggestions, whether it's about my writing or the story, please let me know.