Cursed Blade

Constable Ricky made a run for it. He knew deep down inside that it was hopeless, after all Cherry was not the only one he had to worry about. He couldn't just sit still and give up though.

The moment he had escaped line of sight from the marines, someone dropped down onto him and clamped a powerful grip over his mouth and nose. He was then lifted up into the air, swiftly brought over the tops of the giant mushrooms and flying towards the village.

The sound of large wings beating clued him into who had captured him and it was then he knew it was over.

Once they had gained a fair amount of distance from the marines, the winged woman shifted her grasp on him, dangling him upside by the leg. It was from there that he saw the forest suddenly leveled by sword light, making him wonder if perhaps he'd gotten off lucky.

"So what's the punishment for murder in Fungwood? You ought to know, right? Being the constable and all." Cabernet asked curiously, her light hearted tone contrasting with the dark subject matter of the question.

Constable Ricky realized then that he wasn't lucky at all. His father had literally beaten the village's laws into him as a child, in preparation for him to succeed his position as constable.

"B- Boiled in oil… alive…" Constable Ricky choked out.

"That doesn't sound very fun. Do people smell good when you cook them, I wonder? All the other meat I've smelled while it cooks smelled delicious, so human meat shouldn't be any different right?" Cabernet pondered aloud.

Constable Ricky remembered the woman's epithet "Blood Wine" and questioned if it was because she drank human blood.

'It's not over yet. Not until I say it's over.' Constable Ricky resolved, grasping something in his coat.

The two of them reached the village before the battle between Cherry and the marines ended. Waiting for them was a slew of villagers, including the mayor.

"I had an inkling about him from the start, Mayor Brack. He was too un-suspicious, it had to be him." The town gossip Maggie said knowingly.

Mayor Brack wore a practiced solemn expression as he watched Cabernet approach, trying to ignore the insufferable woman who revealed his affair and brought suspicion upon him.

Doc Gidall approached the village folk as well at this time.

"Well, doctor?" Mayor Brack asked.

"The stab wounds inflicted on Mr. Mittens are identical to the victims, in addition to the bloodless state of the cat's body." Doc Gidall spoke professionally.

"All we need now is the murder weapon. You said you couldn't find it in Ricky's home?" Mayor Brack turned towards Robin with a question.

"I didn't, but it may be on the constable's person, which would be more incriminating I think you'll agree." Robin said.

Ricky managed to overhear that and knew it was now or never.

"I never liked any of you anyways!" Ricky shouted, drawing an ominous black dagger from his coat.

Cabernet and Robin both had a bad feeling about it and moved to stop him.

They were too slow however. Ricky's arm was dragged along for the ride as the dagger seemed to swing itself through the air. A bloody red sword light sliced towards the crowd, threatening to bisect them all without resistance.

"Mil Fleur!" Robin shouted.

Countless arms sprouted from the ground and blocked the path of the bloody sword light from reaching the crowd. The sword light ruthlessly cut into the wall of limbs.

"AHHH!" Robin screamed.

The arms disappeared into a cloud of flower petals and Robin collapsed to her knees.

Constable Ricky was already on the ground in a mangled heap, the black dagger still grasped in his hand several meters away, the blade sucking up the blood dripping out from where it had been unceremoniously ripped off of Ricky's arm.

Doc Gidall moved quickly, being quite used to acting as a combat medic from his time as a pirate doctor.

"Let me see quickly!" Doc Gidall said to Robin.

Robin shakily held out her arms to him, tears streaming from her face from the pain.

The village folk, who had their lives flash before their eyes from nearly being cut down by the man they'd known most if not all their lives, snapped out of their stupor when they saw the state of Robin's arms.

Countless deep lacerations littered her once beautiful arms. The biggest weakness of her devil fruit was that any damage suffered to her bloomed limbs would be suffered by her true body as well.

They only now realized what this stranger had done in order to save their meager lives, and it moved them to the core of their beings. Except for Mayor Brack who only thought 'As it should be.'

Doc Gidall got to work very quickly. He was fortunate to have brought his medical supplies along just in case. As for Ricky, he didn't give two hoots about that bastard right now.

Robin could no longer feel any pain from the wounds. Shock had taken care of that. She tried to focus on circulating her vital energy, as Cherry had taught her to do when she was seriously injured. Even then, she was starting to feel dizzy from the blood loss.

Her thoughts wandered to the past. Back then, she'd been so sure that she would be left for dead in a ditch or dumped into the ocean to drown when she eventually died, which she believed at the time would come sooner rather than later.

She was happy to have found such good friends instead of dying alone as she expected.

'I can go dying now though. If I'm going to die, I'd rather die in Cherry's arms. Plus Luffy still needs my help for his dream. Oh, and I guess Cherry would be pissed and might murder the whole island if I died here, then I would have died for nothing, huh?' Robin thought deliriously.

"Phew! You're one lucky lady that I was standing right here next to ya. I managed to stop the bleeding and you're still at least a little bit conscious so you should be okay until we get you a blood transfusion." Doc Gidall stated in his usual chipper tone.

He elected not to mention that there was no way he could save her arms. Many of the cuts were down to the bone and he wasn't a miracle worker. He was worried she might just drop dead from despair if he told her.

"Urgh…" The pile of meat and broken bones named Ricky gurgled.

"Goodness, you're still alive?!" Doc Gidall flinched in fright. "Well, I guess I'll see what I can do about… this…"

Doc Gidall went over to the mangled Ricky and tried to make sense of what he was looking at and how he was even still breathing for that matter.

Cabernet sat down next to Robin with tears streaming down her face in a rather comical fashion.

"I'm sorry, Robin… It's all my fault that you're hurt…" Cabernet spoke in a small voice.

Robin could only give her a reassuring smile, even though she wanted to give her a hug. It wasn't her fault and she knew that. They had both neglected to restrain him properly just because he was weak.

"It's okay, don't blame yourself." Robin whispered to her. "Keep the dagger safe, it's dangerous."

"Mm, okay!" Cabernet wiped her tears and went to collect the dagger before some other fool could pick it up.