AU SHL: A Name For Ourselves Ch. 4

Disclaimer: As if I own One Piece…I'm not a creative mastermind like Oda!

"Rowing, rowing, on the ocean blue~! Rowing, rowing, is fun for me and you~!"

"Listerra, I swear I'm gonna push you overboard if you don't stop singing!"

Caout pouted at Tide, whose back was facing her since she too was rowing.

"Well, excuse me for trying to liven things up, Nyshairyn!" Caout said, "You two haven't said anything for ten minutes…It's boring!"

"We haven't said anything because I've been trying to find out where the hell we are!" Hazuki exclaimed as she poured over map after map while sitting on top of the bag of treasure they stole.

"You disappoint me, Haz," Caout said, clicking her tongue, "I thought you would be as skilled as Mom but it looks like that's not the case…"

Hazuki shot her a glare.

"We wouldn't be lost if you hadn't turned the boat into that freak current."

"To be fair," Caout said, "You said to go to port…How was I supposed to know if you meant my port or your port?"

"Port is the same no matter what!" Hazuki cried, "It's based off of the ship, not the person!"

"If you ladies are quite finished!" Tide said impatiently, "…Haz, any idea where we're going?"

Hazuki frowned as she turned another map this way and that. She groaned and folded the paper.

"I can't figure this out…" she sighed, "I'm really not like Mom…"

"Yeah, but you're our navigator," Caout said with a shrug, "You'll figure it out soon enough!"

Caout then proceeded to whistle the song she had been singing earlier right in Tide's ear.

"Haz…" Tide murmured, "How do you feel about being an only child?"

******

The trio had been on the waters for several hours but they were still no closer to locating any land…Tired and hungry, Caout and Tide stopped rowing and pulled out food from Caout's backpack.

Caout devoured sandwich after sandwich but didn't seem too excited, which was a first.

"Something wrong, Listerra?" Tide asked as she passed Hazuki a sandwich.

"It's moments like this that make me miss Sanji's cooking," she said sadly as she swallowed a fifth, rather bland, sandwich.

"I know," Hazuki said, pulling the backpack away before Caout could eat all of the food, "But Sanji isn't here so we have to rely on ourselves for food."

"You know, getting a cook to join us first isn't a bad idea," Tide noted. She held up one of the sandwiches, "After all, the three of us aren't exactly skilled in the culinary department…"

Caout smiled widely at those words and bounced a little.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! A cook! That would be great!"

"Alright, we'll get a cook," Hazuki agreed, chuckling at Caout's happiness, "But first, let's try and find some civilization!"

The older girls nodded in agreement and finished their meal with a few sips from their water canteens when Hazuki spotted something a few feet away.

"Hey…What's that?"

Caout and Tide followed the direction of her gaze and saw something…yellow.

"Hold up," Tide said as she squinted her eyes, "I think……I think that's a person!"

Caout and Tide rowed faster and saw that it truly was a person, a handsome young man with messy golden hair. He was pale and lay motionless on a plank in the water.

"Hey, buddy?" Caout said, reaching out to poke the man's head, "Are you alive?"

The girls received a groan in response.

"He's alive," they said at the same time.

Caout started to pull him into the lifeboat while Hazuki and Tide tried to make as much room as possible for him in their little boat.

The man was still out cold. He wore a camouflage tank top with a black blazer over it, dark blue jeans and sneakers, all of which were soaked from his time in the water. Hazuki noticed he wore a thin silver chain with a charm of the number one with a miniscule ruby in the center hanging off of it.

That…That looks familiar…she thought. But why?

"Stand back, you two," Tide ordered as she rubbed her hands together.

Caout and Hazuki watched her warily as she created a small flame in her hands. Tide noticed their expressions and frowned.

"Calm down, I won't lose control of this," she assured them.

Slowly, Tide waved the flame a few inches above the man's body. She knew that if his body warmed up too quickly, he could die.

"Poor thing," Hazuki said softly, "Maybe he was part of a shipwreck?"

Caout stared at the man with a curious expression on her face. She leaned down and put her mouth near his ear.

"Hey," she whispered, "Why are you pretending to be unconscious?"

Tide raised an eyebrow at that.

"What're you talking about, Listerra?" she asked, thinking Caout was just being an idiot.

Caout held up a hand to silence her, a mischievous expression on her face. She took a deep breath.

"WAKE UP!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"AHHH!!!!!" the young man shouted as he sat up suddenly, nearly causing Tide to burn him, and clapped his hands over his ears, "For the love of…"

"Told you he was faking it!" Caout said with smirk as the man rubbed his still ringing ear.

"Heh, heh," he chuckled, a playful look in his dark green eyes, "Was it that obvious?"

"Wait, you were faking it?" Hazuki asked, "What for?"

The man scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"I was a bit worried that you guys were pirates," he explained, "There were a bunch of them sailing around here earlier and I wasn't in the mood to die at their hands…"

Caout nodded but Hazuki and Tide thought that something was off…

"Man," he sighed, falling back on his elbows, "I've been out here for three days now…I'm starving."

Hazuki reached into Caout's backpack and pulled out a couple of sandwiches while Tide handed the man a canteen of water.

"It's really bland," Caout said as the man took a bite of the sandwich, "But if I was starving, I wouldn't mind!"

The man chewed slowly before reaching into his blazer. Tide got on edge and clenched her fist, ready for action.

"It's not bad," he said, "Just needs a couple little touches."

Tide relaxed, just barely, when the man pulled out two small vials from an inside pocket. The girls watched as he sprinkled a bit of the contents of the red vial onto the sandwich. He then shook out a tiny bit of the contents of the green vial as well.

"That should do the trick," he said as he put the vials back. He noticed Caout looking at the sandwich with a puzzled expression and ripped it in half, "Try it!"

"Listerra, wait-" Tide said, only for Caout to pay no attention and bite into the sandwich.

Caout froze and her eyes widened. Hazuki, noticing the action, reached for her staff, about to beat the man senseless for poisoning Caout.

"SO GOOD!" Caout suddenly shouted through a full mouth.

Tide and Hazuki watched with jaws dropped as Caout happily devoured the sandwich, making the man laugh.

"I'm glad you like it!" he said with a grin.

"What was that stuff you used?" Hazuki asked, still wary.

"Some crushed red pepper and basil," he explained, "They complement what was already in the sandwich and brought out some hidden flavors."

"Man, that was like something San-I mean, our old cook would make," Caout said, changing her words just in time.

The man was surprised when Caout clasped his hands in hers. She beamed at him.

"You!" she said, "You've gotta join my crew!"

"Y-your crew?" he questioned.

"Yeah! My pirate crew!"

The man blinked.

"Caout, you don't just ask random people to join the crew!" Hazuki scolded, "Especially people we know nothing about, who could murder us!"

"No offense," Tide added in passing to the man.

"None taken," the man said with a laugh, pulling his hands out of Caout's grasp and rolling back a sleeve to reveal his watch.

"That must've been damaged in the water," Tide said sympathetically.

"Nah, it'll take a lot more than water to break down this old thing," the man said as he pressed the face and it glowed red.

"That's a weird watch," Hazuki stated as the clock face turned green.

"One of a kind, for sure," the man said, "Well, unfortunately, becoming a pirate isn't in my immediate plans so I'll have to turn down your offer, Miss."

"What?!" Caout exclaimed, highly let down.

"But I do want to repay you all for your kindness…Hmm…You guys seem like you could use a laugh. Shall I give you a little show?"

"Wait, what?" Tide asked, bewildered as the man stood up and reached into his blazer again.

The girls frowned and stared as he pulled out……a yo-yo…

"What the…?" they all said.

"Just watch," the man said with a crooked smile.

The girls observed as the man took the yo-yo and swung it around his index finger. The yo-yo landed on the string and he swung it back and forth.

"This is known as the Man on the Flying Trapeze," he explained, "A rather simple trick."

The girls politely clapped. It was a nice trick.

The man then threw the yo-yo to the floor of the lifeboat and the girls giggled as it rolled towards them and back to his hand.

"That one is called Walking the Dog."

The girls then watched, unable to say a single word, as the man then performed a series of trapeze-like tricks combined with throws and other complex movements.

"That," he said, smiling at the girls' stunned faces, "That is known as the Kwijibo…"

Caout and Hazuki laughed and clapped excitedly. Tide smiled too at the cool tricks. The man reached into his blazer once more and pulled out two more yo-yos. The girls waited patiently for what he would do next.

"And this…" he said casually, "Well, I like to call it Ensnaring the Princesses."

"Ensnaring the…What?" Hazuki said.

The man let out a short laugh and threw the yo-yos at the girls. They were caught off guard and didn't react as yo-yos spun around and around, tying all three of them up.

"Why you lousy-" Tide began to say, only for the yo-yo she was tied up with to blow a purple gas in her face.

Her eyes grew heavy and she fell back, completely out cold.

"Sleeping gas," the blonde man said.

"What the hell is this?!" Hazuki asked furiously, trying to pull free of her bindings.

"The string is woven with iron," the man explained, "Meaning it is very hard to break."

"I feel sick," Caout said, very pale and looking like she's about to hurl.

"Ah, unlucky you…" the man said, shaking his head slowly, "The string of that one is made of seastone. Not very nice for those with Devil Fruit powers, wouldn't you say?"

As the girls lay on the floor of the boat, unable to move, the man looked over the side and grinned at whatever he saw there. He walked over and grabbed the large bag of treasure.

"There's three million Berries in here, right?" he asked in a rascally tone, "Well, you wouldn't mind if I borrowed it, would you?"

The man then tossed the sack overboard but, to Hazuki's immense confusion, there wasn't a splash.

"Thanks so much for your kindness, ladies!" he said with a laugh, "Maybe we can play again someday? You can keep those yo-yos!"

The man then jumped out of the boat but, once again, there was no splash…

…What the hell had just happened…?

******

A few minutes later, Tide came to and was aware of a familiar voice yelling in her ear.

"Hazuki…" she groaned, "You're making me deaf…"

"Tide, get us loose!" Hazuki yelled.

Tide shook her head so that she could be properly awake. She concentrated and formed a fire on her fingertips. Tide brushed the fire against her bindings, burning off the string. She rubbed her arms briefly before doing undoing the strings tying up Caout and Hazuki.

"I can't believe that bastard!" Caout shouted as her nausea went away, "We 'save' him and look what he does!"

"Where did he go?" Tide asked in a dark tone.

"That's what I don't get!" Hazuki said, "He jumped off the boat with our treasure but I didn't hear a splash! I don't know how he escaped."

As Caout cracked her back and Hazuki pondered the man's escape, Tide had a blank look on her face.

"So we were tied up…" she stated.

"Uh-huh," Caout replied.

"And robbed…"

"We were," Hazuki growled.

"………By a man with yo-yos……"

"……Yeah…" Caout and Hazuki answered.

"…………That's just sad."