Chapter Text
The thing is-
The thing is-
They didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.
Or, well- maybe they did. But when the two options are ‘climb up a rope ladder tossed over the side of the haunted ship’ or ‘drown’, that isn’t really a choice.
Especially not with a shared dream on the line. Especially-especially not when her best friend is only in this mess with Kuina because she refused to give up on said dream, and left their home out of pure frustration, despite having next to no experience sailing on the open ocean.
So when the small skiff she and Zoro stole from the pier is half full of water already, and the waves are only surging higher the longer the storm goes on, and a huge ship with no lights or crew to be seen suddenly cuts through the darkness and throws them a line... well. It isn’t a choice.
Kuina double checks that Wado Ichimonji is still secured to her belt, grabs the soaked knapsack she packed the night before, and shoves Zoro towards the ladder flapping in the wind. The chill stiffens their fingers, and the lashing rain makes it hard to see and judge their progress, but eventually both ten year olds reach a gap in the ship’s railing and throw themselves onto the deck. Another huge wave crashes into the hull, tipping the entire vessel. Kuina slips a little; Zoro’s hand clamps down onto her wrist.
Once the steep angle settles back, the two of them scramble upright, and look around the haunted ship as best they can. And it truly does seem haunted - the helm’s wheel above does not spin wildly with the wind, while lines in the rigging adjust as if moved by invisible crew.
Kuina and Zoro cling to each other, wary, but unwilling to return to their skiff.
Abruptly, a nearby door bangs open; warm golden light spills out, a clear invitation. Hands clasped together, the children approach.
Inside the room is dry, and warm, but again deserted. Two long tables occupy the main space; past a countertop, Kuina sees cabinets, two ovens, cold storage and other items that mark the area as a kitchen. Curtains are drawn over the windows; in-between, covering much of the walls, are framed Wanted posters, featuring at least two dozen different individuals.
No- two dozen pirates.
Clusters of frames look to be snapshots in time of singular men, their faces aging, their bounties increasing. Kuina studies the nearest ones, but doesn’t recognize any of the names - perhaps unsurprising, if this is really a haunted ship, and the crew members are long dead.
Zoro tugs on their joined hands. “There’s another door.”
Sure enough, when Kuina follows his nod, she sees a second invitingly-open doorway tucked on the opposite side of the kitchen. As she and Zoro stare, a light flickers to life beyond it, brightening the dark hallway.
“...let’s dry off,” Kuina decides. “And then come back for food.”
Nodding, Zoro lets her lead the way.
Immediately past the galley, they find a door that opens into a large infirmary, ten beds lining the walls with more cabinets and a work desk at the far end. Next is a room clearly dedicated to storage, if the multiple stacked crates are anything to go by, labelled with the materials they hold.
Third try is the charm. Lights turn on in a spacious bathroom, stalls for rinsing off along one side, a deep pool in the center of the room, even a sauna entrance tucked in the corner. Kuina heads straight for the storage racks she sees, and grins when opening the first one reveals multiple stacks of soft, fluffy towels.
It only takes a few minutes for both her and Zoro to peel out of their soaked clothing, towel themselves dry, and pull on fresh garments that are only slightly damp, but by the time she’s done Kuina can feel exhaustion creeping over her. Zoro yawns as he bundles up their dripping clothes, clearly approaching the same wall.
“Food?”
“Food.”
Habit has Kuina catch her best friend’s shirt before he can make the wrong turn when they exit the bathroom, and she tows him along back in the direction of the galley. The space somehow feels even warmer when they return, as if a furnace has been turned on nearby. If nothing else, she doesn’t mind leaving her boots off, and simply padding around in socks. Under their feet, the wooden planks are dark and shiny, but don’t feel at all slippery.
Poking through a few of the cabinets turns up more cooking utensils than Kuina can name, but no food. Zoro proves victorious in that regard, when he discovers a latch that lets him slide a portion of the wall aside, revealing the pantry beyond it. Sacks of rice and flour and other staples sit on lower shelves; dried herbs hang from the ceiling, and everywhere Kuina looks inside are boxes and bins carefully labelled with all sorts of foodstuffs. Mostly empty, of course, because who needs to eat on a haunted ship, but she and Zoro manage to turn up some jars of pickled vegetables and preserved fruit. Between that, a case of smoked jerky, and the pot of rice Kuina quickly boils, they eat a small feast in short order.
And if afterwards she makes a point of putting away the food they don’t cook while Zoro washes the pot, well, it’s only polite.
Afterwards, Kuina decides they don’t need to do any further exploring just yet, but should sleep in a bed rather than on the floor. She again leads the way into the hall, to the infirmary; three swords and two knapsacks are carefully set against the wall in-between two beds closest to the door, and then Kuina and Zoro crawl under the clean sheets to sleep.
(Oro Jackson hums. She redirects the heat in her pipes from one room to another; can’t let the new children catch a cold after their ordeal is over and done with, after all.)
Kuina jerks awake at Zoro’s shout.
In the split second between when her eyes snap open and she flings herself upright, the girl sees a figure crouched over her best friend. In her haste to move, however, Kuina doesn’t see the one kneeling on her own bed, and promptly smashes her skull against another.
“Ow!”
At least, at the very least, their collision seems to hurt the intruder as much as Kuina herself. She falls back with a hiss, one hand pressed to her forehead, the other grasping blindly for Wado’s hilt.
It isn’t there. Her sword isn’t there. “Ah-ah,” a voice warns, and when Kuina peels her watering eyes back open, she gets a glimpse of a blurry blue shape. “No weapons for stowaways.”
Zoro snarls. Kuina thinks he tries to jump off his bed, only to be tripped up by the first intruder catching his legs with a laugh. “Shishishishi! Silly Sabo, they didn’t stow away! Miss Oro let them in!”
“Lu,” a third voice groans - the intruder collapsed at the foot of her bed, Kuina realizes, rubbing at his own forehead.
“She did!”
“No one let us in,” Zoro complains. He’s still on the floor, wrapped up in- something, Kuina can’t quite tell with her vision only slowly coming back into focus. “There was a ladder hanging off the side that we climbed up, and the doors opened on their own!”
“...huh,” the first voice says. Blinking rapidly, Kuina can make out a top hat, and blue coat, and both her and Zoro’s swords tucked under one arm. Annoyed by that, she kicks free of her sheets and slides off the bed, opposite where Zoro is still struggling with his giggling assailant.
“We didn’t mean to intrude,” the girl announces, borrowing every ounce of stiff patience she’s ever seen her father wield. “If the storm is over, we’ll get back in our boat and leave.”
That top hat tips to one side as its owner regards her. “What boat?”
A few minutes later, Kuina finds herself staring dumbly over the ship’s railing at empty water. The same rope ladder she and Zoro used to come aboard is neatly rolled up and lashed in place; the skiff they’d stolen to run away is nowhere in sight.
Of the three brothers who apparently live on the huge vessel, only the youngest seems happy about this development.
Ace is still scowling, occasionally prodding at the swollen bump on his forehead, a mirror to the one Kuina can feel tugging at her own skin. Sabo smiles, but it’s a sharp thing, and his eyes watch them warily after returning Wado and Zoro’s two blades. Luffy, though- Luffy is delighted by company, and insists on sharing an extra large breakfast to celebrate. Apparently, the cold storage locker that Kuina hadn’t bothered to check the night before is stuffed full of fresh fish and other kinds of meat - the brothers did a lot of hunting to stock up before leaving their home island, and the ship, which apparently is haunted in a friendly sort of way, is capable of deploying fishing nets to keep them well-supplied.
“Why did you leave?” Zoro asks, tearing into his crocodile steak with only half as much feral fervor as the brothers.
“Adventure!” Luffy crows.
“Yeah, that,” Ace huffs, though the look he exchanges with Sabo makes Kuina think there’s more to it. “Out here, we’re free, and Oro doesn’t try to tell us what to do like anyone else.”
That’s the second time they’ve mentioned- “Oro?”
“The Oro Jackson,” Sabo answers her. “The ship.”
“Miss Oro’s alive,” Luffy says, trying to grab a hunk of meat off Ace’s plate and getting smacked away. “She knew Ace’s dad, and came looking for him, and she’s way nicer than Dadan! Maybe even as much as Makino!”
Ace rolls his eyes. “No one’s as nice as Makino.” He quickly swallows the last of his breakfast to keep Luffy from stealing it, and then levels a pointed glare at Kuina and Zoro. “But Oro is nice, and she’s ours, and we’re staying away from anyone who might try to hurt her or separate us.”
...hm. Chewing slowly, Kuina considers. Zoro stays quiet, watching her, aware of which of them is better with words as well as blades. “We want to stay away from people too. At least until we’re older, and no one can try to take my sword away from me again.”
The other side of the table falls still, as all three brothers Look at her for a long moment.
Finally, Ace is the one to speak. “I guess you can stay, then-” and Luffy whoops, promptly launching himself over the empty plates to wrap up both Kuina and Zoro in a hug with his weird stretchy arms.
Adjusting to life aboard the Oro Jackson is... downright odd. Not just because of the ship herself, and the brothers already present, but simply because of how easy it is.
There’s a large room full of box-like hammocks that hang from the ceiling, most sized for normal individuals, some much larger. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy have claimed one of the biggest to share, but the rest remain up for grabs. Lockers and cubbies line the walls, blank nameplates upon them, which don’t stay blank once Kuina and Zoro each pick one to stow their spare clothes.
The decks outside are plenty large enough to stretch, and exercise, and spar; being taken on a tour by the brothers also turns up a room full of training equipment, and after that an armory. Swords of half a dozen different styles are hung upon a rack in there, either left behind by the crew or else trophies taken from defeated foes. Kuina notices Zoro eyeing a particularly elegant katana at one point, with the sort of speculative gleam in his eyes that spells trouble, but she’s too enamored with items that catch her own gaze to worry about it until later.
They’re free to set their own schedule, only really influenced by Luffy wanting the five of them to share meals together. At first, that and bed are the only times the children really occupy the same spaces, Ace and Sabo too cautious to linger while Kuina and Zoro figure out how to structure their days.
Then Luffy sits on top of the enormous egg that occupies the main deck one afternoon, cheering as the two of them spar, and it turns out his brothers have their own training regime of fifty fights a day to get stronger. That has Kuina’s respect for them creeping higher, and despite the differences in how they fight, there starts to be some bleed between the two groups: extra spectators for matches, more weights being lifted, the exhilarating experimentation of swords versus pipes...
It’s easy. It’s fun. It is at times ridiculous, when training somehow turns into playing, and Kuina finds herself caught up in glee and laughter as she chases Luffy and Zoro across the upper deck and is chased in turn by Ace and Sabo up into the rigging. It’s after one such game, when she tries to catch her breath in one of the three crow’s nests, that Kuina notices something.
The first day she and Zoro were shown around, the girl saw only one flag flying above the ship, a match to their largest sail: no pirate skull, but still a pair of crossbones, the letters ‘ASL’ painted across them. After nearly a month aboard the Oro, though, that flag is no longer alone.
Kuina stares for a long time at the flapping cloth above her, the depiction of one white sword framed by two others.