Chapter 64: The Cursed Island
Summary: A movie detour!
Warning! Chapters 63-66 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Extra Special Note for this Entire Arc: If any of you have actually seen the relevant movie for Asuka Island? Forget most of it. I discovered, to my irritation, that the movie isn't actually available anywhere in the US. Not legally and not currently. I even resorted to some, errr, thematically appropriate measures, only for my dubiously legal acquisitions to...not have English subtitles T-T. Thus, with only the wiki synopsis of the movie to work with (which is very limited) and realizing that most of it was invalid since Zoro would never have met the critical character on account of butterfly effect...there's barely more than a barebones similarity here.
Chapter 64: The Cursed Island
Kaya, Chopper, and Luffy were all three examining a somewhat awkward-looking Brook. The Skeleton-man still hadn't officially joined the crew, claiming he was waiting to see Laboon first for that. But once Luffy and Kaya had explained what they suspected about how his Devil Fruit worked, he had been willing enough to go along with them looking him over. Chopper, always interested in anything medical, and even more so in Kaya and Luffy's unique healing, had invited himself along. Though, as the scientifically-minded reindeer always did, he was struggling with the concepts they were describing.
"Look there, Kaya…you see that warped plane here? I'm nearly certain…hold on, Brook can you feel this?"
The Skeleton-man cocked his head, opened his mouth to say something, then practically leaped out of his bones.
"What! That felt like someone just squeezed everywhere on my skin at once, and I don't have any skin!"
Luffy nodded, pleased.
"Thought so. You might not have skin, but you can still feel things as if you did. That means that your Devil Fruit has to be mimicking the input somehow. Just like it somehow lets you breathe, or regenerate bone despite not having the blood and such that should be needed for that. We've been trying to figure out which of the incredibly complex inputs we can detect match what."
Kaya had been busy closely examining what Luffy had pointed out and how it had shifted, staring almost literally into Brook's soul. Her voice was a bit absent-minded and very clinical as she spoke up to add her two belli.
"I was looking for your equivalent of blood, since I figured it had to be important, and thus hopefully obvious. I didn't consider that the size of the input would be larger with something like your nervous system, since it has to connect to every bit of skin. That's how you found it, isn't it Luffy?"
Luffy nodded.
"Yep. I found it pretty easily, but I was being extra careful since the nervous system is closely linked to the brain. I didn't want to do anything to it without understanding it fully. So I was trying to separate the brain bits from the skin bits, paying attention to what happened every time he shifted, since the input would change when he did."
Kaya made an 'ah' noise, nodding.
"Smart. Then, we could probably map other things by having him exercise. Or heal a cut maybe."
Brook backed away, looking leery at that last bit. Luffy snorted.
"The better we can map how your Devil Fruit works, Brook…the better the chance we might be able to convince it to generate more of your body. Rather than just what was present when you returned to it."
Brook froze.
"Wait…that's possible?"
Kaya, seeming to finally realize they'd been freaking Brook out, nodded and gave him her best smile.
"Possibly possible! There's no real reason it shouldn't be able to do that. We looked up the description of the Fruit and it seemed to imply others with it have been full-on regenerators. You are, too, technically. It's just that the baseline you're regenerating too was set when you found the body again. If, like Luffy and I think, you're actually closer to a Logia than a Paramecia, then we might be able to convince your 'spiritual imprint' that you should look like you did before. Logia's often have subtle differences after they gain their Fruit, as their mental perception of their own body wasn't perfect the first time they fully shifted into elemental form and back."
Brook looked stunned, so Luffy cautiously threw out a bit a warning against setting his hopes too high.
"It's only a possibility, though. Your spirit has had a long time to 'imprint,' and so has your mind. You've been a skeleton longer than a human. Which might mean it would reject modifying attempts. Though, one way or another, I think we've confirmed you can probably learn some of the tricks Kaya and I can do with Spiritual Energy. Yours is regenerating, even if most of your capacity is tied up staying alive."
Kaya nodded.
"The amount you can safely use right now probably isn't much. Enough to power one of the seal tags I've come up with maybe. But you'd only manage two or three of the weaker ones before you had issues. Still, capacity can be trained. Plus, if we manage to restore your body even partially, it would free up some of the existing reserves. Of which you have a lot, overall, by the way."
Luffy hummed.
"I'd bet that Haki training coul—"
He cut himself off as he, Kaya, and surprisingly Brook, all three whipped around to stare at the hull. Or, more accurately, beyond it. Chopper, who had merely been listening in, jolted at their eerie synchronicity.
"What? What is it? Is there something out there?! Marines, pirates, g-ghosts?!"
Luffy, still staring through the Hull intently, hummed and answered.
"Ghosts would be the most likely on that list, but I don't think that's it. A dark power of a Spiritual nature just awoke, though." Considering for a moment, he shook his head. "No, not awoke. The air has changed too. We just crossed into an island's weather zone, I think. Whatever the power is, it stops right at the edge of the zone. Like day suddenly becoming night with no warning. How utterly bizarre…"
Kaya nodded at that, having been staring even more intently than Luffy.
"You've always said, Luffy, that there was something distinctly unnatural about the weather zones. That they are too abrupt, too artificial. I think we just witnessed definitive proof that you are onto something with that thought. Though the scale of the working that implies is…difficult to grasp. As for what we are sensing, it feels distinctively like Grumpy Baby Knife-kun, only far more powerful."
Luffy blinked, turning to look incredulously at Kaya even as Chopper and Brook looked on in confusion.
"You still have that thing? I figured you would have gotten tired of tormenting it and purged the curse by now. You did say you could do that, when I asked."
Kaya's eyes glistened with enough malice that Chopper whimpered and shied away from the usually kind woman.
"Oh, I can. But Grumpy Baby Knife-kun tried to hurt Usopp. It doesn't get to simply be purified after it did that. I am still too interested in discovering if enough humiliation can break the spirit of a sword to let it simply die so easily."
Luffy was speechless for long seconds, even as Chopper shivered behind Brook's leg. Brook himself looked quite frozen in petrification. Finally deciding that no, this wasn't something he wanted to know more about, Luffy shook his head and started moving.
"Well, anyway, if that's what it feels like than it's probably some sort of curse. We'll need to be careful landing on the island. Get everyone some of those protection talismans you were making, please? I'll warn everyone. Though I suspect Kuina and Zoro already know."
Abruptly returning to her normal cheerful self, Kaya acknowledged the order with a happy chirp and glided out of the room. Luffy followed a moment later, leaving Chopper and Brook still petrified behind them. The duo would most likely never look the same way at Kaya again…
... ... ...
The entire crew had gathered together on the deck, save Nami who was in the pilot house. The windows for said pilot house were open so she could listen in and contribute, with the rest of the crew all staring with worried expressions at the island that was now fully in sight. Justified worried expressions, to be fair. It wasn't every day you saw a dark cloud of…something…completely blocking out the light over a Summer Isle. Even for the Grand Line that was rather ominous. All the more so for those on the crew that could feel the oily anger and raw, hateful bloodlust that was radiating from the place.
"There. There's some sort of refuge among the darkness, deeper into the island. Looks like an artificial landing of some sort, past those rocks on the coast, is the closest bit of shore to the refuge. There's a village passed the landing, too, though I don't see any people."
Luffy, who had been working with Vivi to get a direct view of the island through a line-of-sight air door, matched what he was seeing through the air door up to their course. Nami nodded where he was pointing, not speaking and tense looking, even as Kaya finished setting up the last of several dozen Ofuda around the deck of the Discovery. The talismans were the result of her combining the principles she'd picked up from Miss Goldenweek what felt like a lifetime ago, with her own study of her ancestor's spiritual powers. Luffy had helped by providing some vague concepts from what little he remembered of such things from his first life, but the sealing/blessing tags were almost entirely Kaya's creation in the end.
Now, she added one more element by standing in the center of the pattern she'd made and holding up a Sigil carved into the JotunFrost she'd gotten in the Crystal City. So far, it was the only sigil which she'd managed to make work. A sort of focus for concepts of protection. Luffy stepped up behind her, silently linking his own spiritual reserves to hers via a hand on her shoulder. She nodded her acknowledgement and thanks, even as she began channeling their combined energy into the Sigil. From there, her control, well beyond Luffy's own at this point, spread threads of Spiritual energy to each of the tags and the ship itself. The crew shifted uneasily, gasping as a thin mist of glowing silver, like moonlight on mist, swirled up from the tags.
The mist formed into a dome, covering the ship, penetrating into the tags she'd placed on each crewman as well. Save for herself, Luffy, and Brook, none of them possessed any real spiritual protections. Or, they hadn't thought so, at least. When the one touching Yamato flared to life, Kaya almost staggered as a far more potent burst of energy flowed back out of the woman and added itself to her efforts. The silvery mist turned almost white for long moments, before most of it settled into the tags on the crew and burned a glowing twin symbol of moon and sun into the skin where said tags had been touching. The paper tags themselves burned away, leaving only the marks behind.
Similar markings appeared on the ship just as they passed through the wall of black…something that hung in the air. Neither smoke nor mist, but akin to both in appearance. Whatever it was, it tried to press in on them like a striking serpent, only to be burned away by the silver-white glow of Kaya's protection. It recoiled, seeming somehow to hiss before retreating fully. A moment later Kaya slumped, panting from the effort as the mist faded. There were long moments of silence, Luffy supporting Kaya as she recovered, before Zoro of all people spoke.
"Whatever the fuck that weird juju you just did was, it worked I think. I was feeling bloodlust I knew wasn't mine rising as we started to move close to whatever that black stuff was. Now it's…not gone so much as it can't touch me."
Kuina nodded, eyes stern as she glared at the black aura, one hand grasping the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. The normally sleepy and cold spirit of the Meito blade had stirred awake, seeming to almost merge with Kuina's own spirit where she grasped it. Curious that. Luffy made a careful note of it. He'd never thought to test Kuina for spiritual abilities before. The way she and that sword were acting, he abruptly felt a bit foolish for not having done so in the past. Putting the thought aside for now, he pushed a bit more energy into Kaya to help her recover, handing her off to a worried-but-proud looking Usopp a moment later.
"Keep an eye on the marks the Talismans left. So long as they are glowing, you should be protected from the…let's call it a miasma for simplicity's sake. The marks will protect you from the miasma, but the power in them isn't unlimited. The weaker the glow, the weaker the protection is getting. Don't let your mark fade entirely without retreating to the Discovery. The marks on the ship are much more powerful and your own will recharge if you're within their protection."
That had only been a theory, when Kaya had set this up, but he could sense it was true now. She'd requested quite a lot of Jotunfrost from Lady Isabule as 'payment' for her and Chopper's work reversing what had been done to the people of the Crystal City. They would have done it for free, of course. But when Lady Isabule practically demanded they take a personal reward for their work, the Jotunfrost had been Kaya's compromise. She'd fed the majority of it to the Discovery, and been pleased to see the ship gain a sort of reservoir of ambient spiritual energy, unconnected to the slowly awakening spirit of the ship itself.
The Ofuda array and piece of symbolic Jototunfrost she'd used just now had tied the greater part of the protection she'd crafted to that 'battery.' A spiritual reservoir that had been filling for the week since they left Wind's Home, aided by Luffy and Kaya donating a bit of their own reserves daily. It hadn't been anywhere near full, of course. But there was enough energy in the ship's spiritual reserves to recharge their protections half a dozen times each, as well as keep the protection on the ship itself up for a day or two. So long as they either solved this mystery or left the island behind quickly, the protection should last long enough.
The Discovery slowed, moving entirely under engine power as Nami deftly navigated it through the rocks. As they neared the shore, the rest of the crew saw what he and Vivi had spotted through the air door, a stone ramp that had to be designed to pull ships out of the water on. Not that Luffy had any intention of doing that to the Discovery. Instead, they anchored near the ramp, far enough out not to scrape the bottom even at low tide. Thankfully, the shallow draft of the ship's design meant they'd been able to get quite close to shore.
"Alright! Some people need to stay with the ship. So who's up for exploring the Cursed Island of Potential Doom and Death?"
Usopp looked like he really wanted to say he wasn't, but Kaya was already moving to join Luffy, clearly intrigued. Reluctantly, he followed. Kuina, Zoro, Yamato and Robin all joining them swiftly. Hina, Nojiko, Nami, Chopper, Brook, Pagaya and Perona did not. Perona actually looked torn, clearly intrigued by the general theme but ultimately shaking her head.
"I think I'll just stay here and scout with my hollows, thanks…"
Hina spoke up next, smoke curling from a cigarette.
"Hina knows better than to get mixed up with magic. She will leave that to her crazy Captain."
Nojiko, Nami and Vivi nodded in firm agreement. Meanwhile, Luffy could see the calculation going on in Sanji's head. Two unattached women going with Luffy, three staying with the ship. At least one of which he currently hadn't been shot down by yet. With a theatrical twirl, he spun to present a dish of sweets to a surprised-looking Perona, who hadn't interacted much with him yet.
"Ah! I shall have to stay and protect the beautiful flowers aboard ship, Captain! Though, if there is a chance for resupply, do return to inform me!"
Perona seemed amused, as did Hina when he quickly spun to present her with the tray a moment later. As he went around to the other women, Luffy shook his head. Sanji was, thankfully, somewhat more subdued about his flirting than he could have been. But it was still a part of his life priorities and basic nature. His eyes shifted to the last member of the crew who hadn't yet spoken up, seeing Pagaya shake his head.
"I'm out of my depth in these matters, Captain. I shall spend my time checking over the parts of the Dial system I couldn't get to while we were moving."
Luffy nodded. It made sense. Pagaya wasn't really a fighter anyway, and the ship had gone through far more strain than they'd expected getting back down to the Blue Sea. Let alone in the storm they'd summoned up afterward. While most of it had been checked over in the last few days, some of the Dials rested under the waterline and were almost impossible to check while the ship was moving.
"Well, that's a fair enough division then. Keep your guards up and eyes open, even those of you who are staying. We have no idea what's going on here and the protected refuge is a bit inland. Don't hesitate to contact us via the portable Den Den Mushi if anything concerning happens."
He got a staggered series of 'aye captains' back from the crew, then grinned and lept over the side of the ship. He could easily clear the distance to shore and was quite eager to get on with another adventure. Even if this one did feel a bit…concerning.
... ... ...
The first thing they found, not too far past the stone ramp, was an empty village. One that looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry, but then stripped in bits and pieces over time. Not looted or pillaged like pirates or bandits had hit it, but like small groups had been coming and going to strip single houses as fast as they could before retreating.
"Survivors, foraging out of the refuge we can sense out there in the miasma, you think?"
It was Kaya that asked the question, and Luffy nodded along with the thought.
"It would match what we're seeing. It also implies the miasma is dangerous. Expected, of course, but useful to have more-or-less confirmed. Particularly if they're moving in and out quickly means it's not immediately dangerous."
Kuina, even more focused than usual, cut in.
"The bloodlust. If it builds over time, you could ignore it just by knowing about it, at least at first. But stay out in it too long and you might fall prey to no longer recognizing it as foreign to yourself. You might even start fighting among yourselves, as members of a group started falling prey to it."
Luffy nodded, following her logic.
"In which case, the place Kaya and I detected is likely their base camp. Somewhere protected. A shrine, perhaps."
Robin had, entirely predictably, gravitated to a number of ruins with carvings on them. She'd been studying them as everyone batted the theory of what was going on with the village about, but spoke up at the mention of a shrine.
"A shrine, or perhaps a palace. There is a story here, though an incomplete one. Three princes of Asuka Island beholding a beautiful priestess on the 'day of the red moon' and falling in love with her. To make her notice them, they brought forth the Seven Star Sword. The most beautiful sword in the world and a symbol of their royal family. They fought over it, but the battle spread. The entire kingdom was ravaged, the blood of victims staining the sea red. The once-holy sword, the focus of all the violence, absorbed the blood and hatred of many, became cursed, and spread more bloodlust with its power. The Kingdom was destroyed."
Robin stood, not noticing how utterly still Kaya had grown as she continued.
"There's more, but it's broken and missing too much for me to piece together everything. Something about the original priestess sealing the sword, but something happening when it builds too much power every hundred years? I suppose what is happening now must be the result."
Robin blinked as she turned to find Kaya right in her personal space, staring at her intently.
"This is Asuka Island?"
Confused and taking an unconscious step back from the other woman's unexpected intensity, Robin still answered.
"Yes. Or at least that's what the ruins say, and I don't think they've been transplanted."
Kaya stepped back, taking a deep breath and clearly trying to center herself. Luffy, realizing that Robin and Yamato were the only ones present that didn't know why that was important, spoke up to give Kaya a moment to collect herself.
"Asuka Island is where Kaya's ancestor, the one she inherited her spiritual affinity from, originally came from. Her family fled from the island during the war you just described. We knew it was somewhere on the Grand Line, but not where that 'somewhere' was. The Grand Line isn't exactly well mapped, after all."
Robin's expression had shifted into one of understanding. While Kaya rarely mentioned specifics, she was free with the general story about her powers and where they came from. At least among the crew. Yamato looked mostly clueless but interested enough despite that. Kaya, thankfully, had gotten over her brief turmoil quickly.
"Well. I hadn't expected to find my family's original homeland anytime soon. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in seeing what's here…and possibly trying to help since it seems to be in trouble. From the same power that made my ancestor flee, no less."
Luffy nodded at that, motioning them all onward.
"No point in lingering here, then. All it's doing is using up some of our protection fighting back the miasma. Let's move on toward where the people are. Hopefully, we can get some answers without anyone trying to stab us more than once or twice…"
He noticed Yamato pouted a bit at that. Somehow, he wasn't surprised he'd picked up another battle junkie. Well, somehow or other, he suspected she'd get plenty of chances to fight…
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
AN 1: Yes, Kaya is still calling Sandai Kitetsu humiliating nicknames. She's been using it to make sandwiches with cute heart cutouts for Usopp and cutting paper for her sealing tags. Why? Because those are the most humiliating things she can make the high-grade sword with a bloodlust curse do. She's certainly not going to let 'Grumpy Baby Knife-kun' fight ;-).
AN 2: So, the one things I'm not Entirely happy with for the Asuka Island arc is leaning quite so hard into the 'Spiritual Energy' everything. That said, it makes too much sense not to, particularly as it lets me develop AT LEAST three separate characters towards their upgrades. Bear with me if I start using the phrase 'Spiritual Energy' as much as Xiania novels use the word Cultivation T-T. I'm trying not to make it TOO irritating...