Chapter 96: Seeking a Sister
Warning! Chapters 95-97 were posted back-to-back! Make sure you pick the story up in the right place!
Chapter 96: Seeking a Sister
The group waited impatiently as Kaya and Robin focused on the mine. One reaching out with her Haki to get a feel for those present inside, the other using her Devil Fruit to do the same. It took the pair only minutes, even if it felt like forever. Kaya, not needing to manually check rooms like Robin, was the first to open her eyes and report what she’d discovered.
“Mixed luck. Only one Captain-strength Marine present, but he seems to have at least two of the three shifts of Marines awake as well. Likely due to Mushi network reports of the fighting.”
Robin spoke up a moment later, sounding annoyed.
“They’ve sealed the Mine entirely and aren’t letting anyone enter or exit. Unless our guide knows of a back way in, we’re going to have to force the issue.”
They all looked at Luxial, who immediately shook her head.
“This is the back way in. Sister Neethrax’s actual main entrance is at the top of the mountain and requires her full form to move the doors. This rear entrance was carved for her servants to use.”
Annoyingly, that made entirely too much sense. If this older sister was even larger than Thraaxx, than obviously the mine entrance they were currently looking at wasn’t a truly viable exit for her. Unfortunately, that did mean they were likely to have to, as Kaya put it, ‘force the issue.’ Nojiko looked around, seeing that no one seemed to have a better idea, and sighed.
“The hard way it is. Let’s try to keep the body count to a minimum, given these are just guards and we’re currently not fighting with the Marines on the island. We wouldn’t want our unspoken truce with Strawberry to break because we slaughtered a bunch of his minions.”
Everyone nodded, with Luxial in particular looking relieved. Not too surprising. She was the local, after all, and would be the only one of their group likely to get stuck with the consequences. So long as they went easy on the guards here and her mistress agreed to help, it would likely come out as a positive for the Librarians. If they were rougher, or Neethrax refused, it could get a lot uglier for the locals in the aftermath.
“Alright. We need to do this fast, not get into a protracted fight with kid gloves on. So, Kaya and Vivi, you’re the key to getting this handled. Here’s what we’re going to do…”
… … …
The five women walked through the main entrance of the mine, unlocked and opened by Robin’s Devil Fruit, and shook their heads at the moaning, whimpering Marines scattered all over. Most looked feverish, sweating profusely, and a few unluckier members had voided themselves. The Captain, panting and pale looking, was the only one still standing, bravely facing the door as it opened. He never saw the arm that grew out of his back, or the tiny Air Door that dropped a needle into the hand attached. He did jerk as he felt it prick his neck, but by then it was far too late. He barely managed a weak Rankyaku with his sword, the pressure attack easily blocked by one of Nojiko’s crystal shields, before crumpling to the floor.
Nojiko shook her head as she took it all in.
“Kaya? If I’m ever in danger of seriously pissing you off, warn me so I can beg forgiveness, okay?”
Kaya looked halfway between smug and affronted.
“It was your plan. Besides, all I did was attach many greatly needed vaccinations for any sailor to a small number of…side effects. They will all be much healthier going forward for this little bit of suffering now!”
Nojiko wisely dropped it, knowing Kaya was a little touchy over using the Sick-Sick Fruit to actually make people sick. She’d only gone along with the plan of using Vivi’s Air Doors to spread an airborne ‘sickness’ through the upper mine after Robin had pointed out that she’d regularly given exotic boosters to the crew that had mild side effects. Kaya had folded to the logic and simply combined most of those ‘sicknesses’ to use at all at once.
These Marines really would find themselves healthier in the coming years. Not only protected from a large number of common and uncommon diseases, but also with many minor tweaks such as better food absorption, muscles that took less maintenance and recovered quicker, and improved ability to recover from injuries. All things she’d originally made as general improvements for the crew, though none of the particularly exciting ones she was testing on herself and Usopp. Luxial had actually pulled out a notebook and asked questions, looking frustrated when Nojiko had pointed out they were on a time crunch. Even now, the Librarian was twitching like Robin denied a chance to ask questions about history. Better move this along.
“Luxial? If you would lead on, I believe we have a meeting with your boss to arrange. Keep your guards up, everyone. Any patrols that were deeper in the mine won’t have been affected by this little trick…”
Everyone nodded and they were soon moving again, ignoring the miserable-looking Marines as they headed down deeper into Drakestone Mine.
… … …
They had run into a couple of patrols, but minion-level Marines were no threat to their group, Kaya proving she was an entirely normal doctor by taking them all out personally and applying a contact version of the Sickness she’d used on the others. Refusing to accept only having gotten some of this batch of Marines with her treatment.
Only medical professionals could be so cheerfully vicious in making sure that everyone got their shots to stay healthy. Nojiko, Vivi and Robin all independently decided that they were going to throw Usopp at her and run after this was all done, hoping that she’d get over the idea of making mass ‘upgrades’ like this before she stopped defaulting to lovey-dovey mode with her boyfriend. One of these minor upgrades at a time was fine, they’d all gotten a fair few of them on Sixus and before. All at once was proving horrifying.
Mental scaring that made them promise themselves they would never seriously anger the spiritualist healer aside, it took less than twenty minutes from entering the mine to reach the actual mining area. There, all but Luxial stopped to stare for a moment at the enormous bones that were clearly in a state of partially being strip mined for material. A quick estimate had them all realizing that some of those bones meant Neethrax had to have been at least half again the size of her brother when she’d ‘shed’ the bones to grow into her final body. Which was still a strange concept. Normal reptiles often shed skin, yes. Bones were a different matter entirely.
Anywhere but the Grand Line, they would have all been completely blown away by what they were seeing. Here? Well, they did pause for several long seconds, but they were quick to follow after Luxial when she ignored the bones and headed to the far wall of the massive chamber said bones were arranged in. There, Luxial looked around by seeming reflex, clearly checking for people. She grimaced at their presence, but didn’t ask them to look away as she pulled out a chunky necklace from under her clothes. Kaya stared at in in fasciation, able to feel that the necklace had many of the same properties of the Dragon Masks that the cultists had used, only far more potent.
Luxial took the palm-sized pendant at the end of the necklace and pressed it into a seemingly-random spot on the cavern wall. A moment later, there was a click, and the wall just…vanished. Like it had never been there in the first place. A passageway in which two or three Yamatos could have walked side by side without fear of touching elbows was revealed in its place.
“Quickly now, the wall will return in moments.”
They all hurried after Luxial, with Nojiko bringing the crates of books along on one of her platforms. The immense hallway, with smooth sides that looked cut rather than carved, quickly angled up as they walked it with a brisk pace. It was a good thing they were all in fantastic shape, even Luxial who was undoubtedly also boosted by that necklace, as the passage quickly grew steeper as it spiraled upward.
“Sister Neethrax’s lair is much closer to the summit, though much of her collection is housed deeper in the mountain for protection. Even we Librarians don’t know exactly how much of the mountain she’s carved out for her lair and hoard, but suspect at least a quarter of it may be hollow at this point.”
Yikes. This wasn’t exactly a small island, nor was the mountain itself small at all. Still, if this lady dragon was as old as it sounded like she was, she’d likely had a long time to work on it. Even if it was a bit odd that the passages weren’t larger, given what Luxial had mentioned about her size. How had she carved these passages if she was too large for them? Despite nearly breaking out into a jog to eat up ground quickly, it still took them twenty minutes to reach a set of doors. Ones that only opened when Luxial once again produced her necklace and pressed it against one of five indentions along one wall. This time, instead of vanishing, the 5-meter-tall doors swung open on counterweights. Luxial took a deep breath and led them inside…
The inside of the massive cavern wasn’t, initially, anything like the Straw Hats present had expected.
Instead of bare walls, there were giant murals and enormous bookcases. Artworks in dozens of styles, all positioned to perfectly blend with one another, ancient scrolls held carefully preserved behind glass. More traditional treasures were present as well, with gorgeous weapons and armor on display, artistically arranged jewelry and fine clothes on mannequins, and a scattering of nicely carved furniture that was a bit too big for a regular human. It was probably a good thing Nami wasn’t there, as despite getting better about old impulses, the chances that she wouldn’t try to steal something were somewhere between slim to non-existent.
Which would have been a very bad idea, as when they rounded a corner the odd, slightly-more-than-human sized dimensions of everything so far gave away…and they spotted Neethrax herself, freezing in stunned silence as they did so.
Thraaxx was big. Scaled in a way that you normally only saw with giant-kin. Neethrax was enormous. She was perhaps three times the younger drake’s length, though quite a bit slimmer of build. She also, very notable, had wings that the drake did not. All of them noting to themselves that this was clearly a Dragon, rather than the drake her brother was. A gorgeous, breathtaking Silver Dragon that would inspire awe in anyone…normally.
As it was, their collective awe was ruined just a bit by the fact that the Dragon’s massive head was resting on a giant pillow, a snot bubble was building out of one nostril, and she had a very pink sleep mask on her face. One that contrasted horribly with her silver scales. Their initial moment of awe faltered a bit as they properly took that all in, even as Luxial blushed in secondhand embarrassment for her mistress and awkwardly looked away.
Clearing her throat, Luxial pulled out the necklace again, and held it up to her lips. Was she going to attack her Mistress to wake the dragon up?
“SISTER NEETHRAX, IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP!”
The rest of them flinched, hard, at the massively amplified voice of the Librarian. The dragon…snorted and rolled over. Luxial sighed and tried again.
“SISTER NEETHRAX, YOU HAVE GUESTS!”
Nope. This time the pillow was moved over the dragon’s head, trying to block out the noise. Luxial slumped and braced herself to try a third time.
“SISTER NEETHRAX, YOUR BROTHER IS DISTURBING THE LIBRARY!”
That seemed to finally do the trick, as the pillow went flying into a wall with enough force to shake the cave, and the dragon bolted upright.
“WHAT?! THAT LITTLE SHIT!”
The voice was something you felt down in your bones, all of them save Luxial flinching and trying to cover their ears by useless instinct. The Dragon pawed at the sleep cover over her eyes…uselessly, as her hands were poorly formed for that task. Hissing in annoyance, abruptly the massive dragon seemed to twist and shrink. A moment later, all of the Straw Hats stared again as they got a look at why the dragon’s collection area was only a bit above human size.
“Fuck, they are bigger than Yamato’s.”
Nojiko said it, but all three of the other Strawhat girls instinctively nodded. Where there had once been a giant dragon was now a 3-meter tall dragonwoman. She still very clearly wasn’t human, with horns, wings, and a tail now seeming to be made of ice. But she was certainly human enough for the feature Nojiko had commented on to be present. The breasts on display were, in fact, probably even larger than Yamato’s. Though, that might well be the result of her being a good bit taller still than the oni-girl was. The silver-skinned dragonwoman was, in fact, exactly the right size to use all of the oversized furniture they’d seen among the collection. Something which put a neat cross through the question of why the collection had been arranged for someone a big larger than a typical human.
The now vaguely-humanoid Neethrax ripped her sleep mask off, looking ready to spit fire rather than ice…then froze as she saw more than just Luxial present. She made a surprisingly cute squeaking noise, then vanished in a blur of speed. Moments later, she was back, this time wearing clothes also looking like they were made of ice and with a pair of half-rim glasses resting on her snout. Her silver cheeks were blushing a pale blue as she half-glared at Luxial.
“Why didn’t you tell me we had guests, Luxi! And what is this about my brother?! Shouldn’t that little idiot still be frozen for another decade?! Also, did you bring me books?”
Luxial sighed, even as the rest of them stared incredulously at the almost tail-waging pose brought on by that last question. She gestured to the two crates, which Nojiko instinctively pushed forward with their platform. Neethrax stared at the crates…then paid more attention to the platform they were on.
“Ohhh, the Crystal-Crystal Fruit. It’s been a long time since I saw that one! Why, one of my best human friends had that fruit once. It works enough like my Ice that we were able to come up with some interesting things together!”
Nojiko blinked, filing that detail away despite still trying to get over the gap between this nerdy, librarian-looking dragonwoman and the giant dragon that they’d first seen sleeping. Who was, apparently, powerful enough for the World Government to make a deal with instead of just trying to kill her. Luxial was, thankfully and for obvious reasons, less shocked by the transition than Nojiko and the other Strawhat girls.
“I did try to warn you of the guests, Sister Neethrax. But you didn’t wake up until I mentioned your brother.”
The dragonwoman looked at her servant, then looked away with a slightly deeper blush than before.
“Err…you know I’m a heavy sleeper. Wait, actually, isn’t it a bit past when you should have woken me up for the annual book review?”
Luxial nodded.
“Yes, Eldest Sister. I’m also afraid the books I brought are only a poorly sorted selection for now. The Marines have interfered and blocked us from coming to the mine. We didn’t know how you would want to handle them, considering your deal with their masters, so we only came when your brother’s cultists thawed him early and he destroyed a chunk of the Frozen Library.”
Luxial’s head snapped around, an oppressively angry wave of Conqueror’s Haki nearly flattening the group. Only frequent exposure to Luffy and Yamato kept the Straw Hats on their feet, though Luxial barely twitched. Either that necklace protected her somehow, or she was used to her mistress’ Haki.
“He did what?!”
Luxial gestured in their direction, explaining.
“This group and the Marines attempted to stop his cultists, as they were sacrificing townsfolk to speed the thaw. When they were too late, he burst out of the Library, destroying much of the roof. He is still busy fighting the group, who thankfully led him away from the Library to the west side of the island. We haven’t been able to assess the damage yet, but it is nearly certain at least our latest tribute was damaged. With the roof coming down, it is likely some of the drakestone books will have been lost, as well. Given the poorly organized state of the collection at the time it happened, it will likely be years before we have a full accounting.”
That was…an accurate description of what had happened. Though perhaps not the best way it could have been put. It made it sound like it might at least partially be their fault about the Library, after all. Thankfully, though the woman’s tail lashed like an angry cat, she seemed to calm slightly.
“The building is easily fixed. But the organization was already a disaster since he pulled his little ‘prank.’ Now your efforts to recatalog everything will likely have been completely wiped away. Unacceptable, and he will need dealing with more harshly. But what is this about the Marines impeding your access? Has the World Government broken their deal with me? No…no, I can still feel the binding of that deal.”
Luxial was visibly relieved at that, even as Neethrax looked into the far distance at something only she could see.
“We thought as much, Eldest Sister. It is likely that the Marines do not know about the deal and are trying to secure all the drakestone for themselves. They recently suffered a great defeat, with many of their upper ranks that might have known about you killed. They overreached, but likely without permission of their superiors. We didn’t know what to do, with that being the case.”
Neethrax scowled, one taloned hand coming up to tap at her snout.
“They will need reminding, of course. But my brother comes first. Are our guests here about him?”
Before Luxial could answer, Robin stepped forward and did so.
“In part, yes. Any solution to deal with him ourselves would cause unacceptable collateral damage. I admit, however, that as an archeologist of Ohara, I would also love a chance to speak with you. I was most disappointed that the Frozen Library was missing a certain section when I first visited.”
Neethrax’s face took on a surprised cast, then she leaned in to study Robin more closely. Eyes narrowed, she drew in a deep breath, the nodded absently.
“Ohara. A name I know, and know to have been destroyed. I would not believe you, but you smell too much like Olvia for it to be a coincidence. I admit, I feel some guilt for pointing her to works that would help her learn to read the Poneglyphs. I knew it would lead to trouble, and warned her as much, but I admit I didn’t try too hard to dissuade her. Anyone poking into that part of the past tweaks the nose of those I despise, after all. Had I not helped her, however, Ohara might not have been lost. Its collection of knowledge being destroyed was quite tragic.”
The dragonwoman sounded more mournful about the loss of knowledge than the loss of Ohara as a whole, but there was legitimate sorrow for both in her voice, her shoulders slumping a bit as she spoke. Robin seemed struck dumb for a moment, but only for a moment.
“I-I wish my home had not been lost, but I have spent my life seeking the true history, just as my mother did. I cannot regret you helping her. Knowledge is not meant to be lost, but shared, whatever the World Government thinks.”
Neethrax looked first surprised, then pleased, at Robin’s response.
“Then perhaps I will give you what hints I can, when this is done with. For now, however, I must deal with my erstwhile brother and chastise the Marines for their meddling.”
Nodding mostly to herself, the dragonwoman quickly swept up the crates of books, curiously looking at the platform once more and murmuring a ‘decently made,’ that caused Nojiko to blink. Then she was moving, placing the crates near a working table in her size, before moving off into the area where she’d transformed. There was a reversal of what she’d done before, with her glowing as she transformed into her much larger form. Moving forward from there, Neethrax raise her hands and pushed at one wall…which proved not to be a wall at all, but a truly massive stone door. One that opened out onto the side of the mountain. With a massive beat of wings that sent all of them save Luxial sprawling, the Dragon was gone.
Nojiko scrambled to her feet a moment later, pulling Vivi up to hers.
“Quick! I don’t think we want to miss this!”
Given how fast Vivi summoned an Air Door to the ruins of the Library and they all darted through, it was safe to say that her opinion was shared by the others…
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Kaya is scary...
A/N 2: This is where part of the 'I don't normally cover this part of One Piece' kicks in a bit. A lot of the time, One Piece is very absurdist. I don't want to go full slapstick, as it doesn't match the tone of the fic very well. But making the older sister a little bit of a lazy librarian, with some of the typical ridiculousness that One Piece leans into when its not on a major island? That I could do, and I think it fit reasonably well. Hopefully, at least a few of you get a chuckle out of...