Hi everyone, what do you think of the story so far? The book has over 300 chapters. If you'd like to download the complete book, it's available on my Ko-fi page. Here's the link: 👉 🤩 ko-fi.com/winterstar01 🤩
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Her heart pounded faster, and fear began to creep deeper into the girl's psyche. Death terrified Nami. Dodge to the right. She wasn't ready for that yet. Dodge to the left. She still had to buy her village from Arlong. Roll to the right. She couldn't leave them. Leap forward. She was afraid for her people. Back away. For her sister. Fall to the ground. And most of all, selfishly, for herself. Roll. Afraid of being enslaved for the rest of her life, forced to hate what she loved most. Get up.
Nami stood up, leaning to the left too late, and one of Kuro's claws tore through her right shoulder. She screamed in the pouring rain and fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding limb.
"Sleep, kitten. It's time for bed," Kuro mocked, raising his claws above her head to finish off the girl he was now standing over, the wide, terrifying smile on his face made even more frightening by the darkness and the rain.
The orange stared at the claws that came to claim its life and was consumed by a thought.
Survive.
The fear of unfinished business and leaving people behind had merged with a blinding need to survive. She rolled to dodge the claws just in time to send watery slashes into the ground instead of her skin. Nami cradled her injured shoulder as she stood up again. She couldn't die. She still had to draw a map of the world. Her mind went blank, and all thoughts except survival dispersed as she dodged another of the expirate's slashes.
Kuro was getting irritated. The girl was insulting him by still being alive! How could she keep dodging? He was faster than her! He attacked her throat with both claws, which bent back and fell to the ground. He drove them into what should have been her stomach, and she rolled over. He lunged at her, claws extended, preparing to impale her, and once again, he was frustrated when she got up and jumped out of the way. The man rose from his position on the wet ground, frowning. "You're annoying me, girl."
The girl didn't answer, completely focused on living life to the fullest. Her eyes were fixed on Kuro, observing his every move.
"The game is over," said the tall man, staring at the ground and swaying from side to side. "You've insulted me enough." Rain splashed over him as he whispered "Stealth Foot," and he vanished before Nami's eyes.
The orange desperately searched the clearing for her enemy. Where had he gone? Suddenly, claw marks began to appear all over the area; one caused a superficial cut on her stomach, making her gasp in pain. Somehow, he was cutting her even though she couldn't see him. Fear intensified, and with it, the need to survive. Her mind sank into a hazy fog as her survival instinct took over, and she closed her eyes. What was the point of keeping them open if she couldn't see her opponent?
She danced across the clearing, receiving cuts along the way, though all were superficial. Some of the other cuts in the area would have snapped her in two if she'd been struck. Trees as thick as her already had been. The orange continued moving across the clearing, new cuts appearing all over her body, but she still managed to keep her mind focused on living.
Nami, without realizing it, began to use her connection to the weather as a means of survival. She felt the wind, the rain, everything. Subconsciously, using those sensations to read the movement of the air around her, her own movements became as fluid as a river as she danced through a labyrinth of a thousand cuts.
However, the wounds were beginning to accumulate, some of them deeper, and it was clear they were taking their toll. The girl was starting to tire, and her body was beginning to give out, which was evident in her movements. In the middle of a dodge, Nami tripped over her own feet and fell, sliding across the ground. She stopped just before a spot where three deep claw marks soon appeared, and she rolled onto her back, lying there, staring at the sky.
The orange could barely breathe, and her vision was blurring. The cuts in the ground were getting closer, and her fear was turning into acceptance. She wasn't going to hold out much longer; running for so long had drained almost all her energy, and honestly, she didn't even know if she'd be able to get back up.
The water, which wasn't rain, began to pool in the corners of Nami's eyes as the blood from the numerous cuts on her body soaked the grass. The rain continued to fall from the sky as if weeping for the girl who lay there dying. It was all becoming too much. With her energy depleted, the fire that fueled her survival instinct had almost completely died out. It was all becoming too much for her psyche. She was tired. Tired of trying to survive. Tired of being a slave. Tired of being alone... She was seventeen years old and hadn't made a single real friend in her entire life.
The orange-haired girl smiled sadly... Maybe dying wouldn't be so bad... A straw hat and green hair flashed in her mind, and she turned to the right, her heart still undecided. Three cuts appeared in the ground to her left, and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw three more to her right. Why on earth had she thought of those two?
The boys vanished from Nami's mind as she sensed something in the air and her eyes widened. Nami, battered and drenched with fluid, mustered her last remaining strength and stood up. The pain was a distant memory compared to all the blood she'd lost. New cuts kept appearing as she walked through the clearing, unconcerned about her own body, the rain washing away the crimson lifeblood that oozed from her multiple wounds. She was losing blood, and fast. If she was truly going to die, the least she could do was take that bastard with her.
It was strange. Just a few hours ago, she'd smiled more than she had in a long time, and now she was about to die. It was curious how the world worked like this. The girl's heart still ached at the thought. She wasn't ready. But she didn't seem to have many options. At least she could protect Kaya from the pirate posing as her butler. A small part of her was glad to be the one to kill him; he reminded her too much of Arlong. She pointed to the sky, where the rain was pouring down. She'd always loved the weather... She'd always felt a connection to it...
The orange-haired girl smiled to herself. She couldn't think of a better way to leave.
—I'm sorry, Nojiko. I didn't mean to leave you alone. "My own ," she thought to the sky, "And I'm sorry for you too, Mom... It seems I've come to see you a little early. I'm sorry I couldn't draw my world map." Her feet found the place she was looking for. "And for Cocoyashi... I wish... I wish I had been stronger for you... I'm sorry," the orange-haired girl finished, looking through the rain and darkness at the black clouds that covered the sky.
The blood loss was beginning to affect Nami's mind. Everything swirled around her as she let the elements batter her skin, standing there, accepting it all. In her delirium, the orange didn't have the mental capacity to understand why, but she felt so close to the rain. As if she could feel every single drop. And not just the ones that brushed against her body... but every single one. Every single one in the sky. Somehow, something inside her just felt... good.
'There.' .
Nami's hand reached out to a seemingly random spot in the air and smiled what would be her last sad smile as lightning struck the clearing with a deafening thunder and a blinding flash of light, her world consumed in white.
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Hi everyone, what do you think of the story so far? The book has over 300 chapters. If you'd like to download the complete book, it's available on my Ko-fi page. Here's the link: 👉 🤩 ko-fi.com/winterstar01 🤩