Making a Mess Of Life, Kind Of

I was clapping for Rosalina's short speech on the other side of the doors. 'Yeah, you have to go through pain to become stronger, although I'm a bit weird and have Zen Mode to numb it, my body still experiences it. I mean, even Luffy, who was made of rubber, or at least has the properties of it, had to go through pain. It's like, impossible to not go through any.'

And then I realized my mistake and started to Geppo and Soru backwards, running as far as I could, until I noticed the doors open to reveal a rock flying towards me at a high speed.

I was not thinking much, but I turned around, and as soon as the rock was closer to me, I watched as it slowly got nearer to my head.

'Do they want to kill me?'

I shifted my body, moving my head out of the way, and just to make sure the rock didn't hit me, I pulled Surya quickly, just enough to redirect the rock away from me, like how Dracule Mihawk deflected bullets. The rock hit Surya and slid away, missing my left arm that partially drew Surya, and knocking against the wall.

I wasn't out of it yet. As soon as I landed, Rianna, the teacher looking woman, and the one that I had thought to be older, with a side of his head shaved, who I still didn't have a name of, both came at me running. Rianna was weilding a fan, with each piece being a blade, and the other one had a staff with blades on both ends.

In the hallway we were in, I could only think of two options at that moment: Continue to run and leave the island, or fight in the hallway we were in.

While I was thinking of options, the two that came running at me started to swing their weapons at me, and I jumped backwards.

In a smooth motion, both of them slowed their swings, and then kept running after me while I watched them. But then, they got a boost of speed, and they caught up to me, immediately repeating what they had done. I then held Surya up to block both of their weapons, as they were aiming to behead me.

With a quick realization, I remembered my devil fruit, but also realized that I still didn't know who was behind them or even if anyone was watching somehow, so after faltering because of my own power and then steeling myself to block them, I was ready to face both of them head on. The blades got extremely close to my neck, and I raised Surya up to throw the blades away from me.

"STOP! I KNOW HIM!"

Both of them stopped moving their weapons, having them a couple millimeters away from my neck. Some wind came from them stopping, as they had apparently used a lot of force behind the swings, as if they had no mercy.

A couple seconds passed, and the guy asked "Are you sure? Or do you just not wanting us to kill someone?"

'WAIT. THEY SERIOUSLY WANTED TO KILL ME? I DIDNT SENSE ANY MALICE, SO WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?'

Rosalina arrived behind the both of them, and said "Yes, Roy. I do know Buggy." She was surprisingly calm now, even after her angry speech from before.

"Hi." Is all I could say, waving my free hand to all of them, even with their blades against my neck and Surya.

"Um.. Rosa, can you maybe.. I dunno.. ask them to possibly take their blades away? From my neck?"

They all looked at each other, to which Rosalina nodded her head to the two, and they withdrew their blades.

I immediately sheathed Surya, and took a deep breath before Rosalina said "We should all get to the meeting room. And I mean ALL." She looked directly at me when saying that last part. I started to sweat a little when that happened, as everyone started to walk back down the hallway.

While walking, Rem was staring at me, as if questioning who I am while not actually saying anything. Although, it wasn't just Rem that did that, but the rest stopped staring at me while she was still watching me from a little in front of me.

It was awkward.

"Can you... maybe stop staring, Rem?"

She immediately jumped a little, as if she was a very young child who was caught doing something they weren't supposed to. She then slowed down, and glanced at me a couple times while still walking, then ending up right next to me with a slightly confused expression.

"How do you know my name?"

'How do I go about this? I could lie, but I don't know all of these people's abilities, especially if some have physical enhancements.'

"Oh, I um.. know your name because Rosa said it."

"Is that it? Ro-Ro said my name, huh?"

'Well, it wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the full truth.' I could only smile a little.

We walked silently the rest of the way to the meeting room, where I was greeted by the stares of the older three, who were sitting down, alongside the rest of the soul-people, including Rosalina, who was standing behind the seat that was empty before.

"Rem, Buggy, Follow me." Rosalina spoke seriously to the both of us. My body stiffened, and Rem's did as well, then we robotically followed her, questioning what was happening. It felt like I was in trouble, and Rem was dragged along, but from how she was basically doing what I was doing, I could only hypothesize that she also had a feeling like that.

We walked through the maze of hallways and rooms that were all interconnected, which all had a castle feel to them, and the stones that made up these rooms and halls all had a look of being brand new. We continued walking and I saw the futuristic lighting in this castle theme, which continued from the long entrance hallway. Using this opportunity, I mapped out the rooms and used observation to make a mental map of the place, until we ended up at a room.

"You two will stay in this room until I finish talking with the rest, do you understand?" Rosalina said, not turning to face us, and then opening the door, waving me and Rem in.

Rosalina pulled Rem to the side, and I could hear what they were saying.

Rosalina whispered in Rems ear "Keep an eye on Buggy and make sure he doesn't leave this room."

Continuing to whisper, Rem said quietly "Why me? Couldn't anyone else have been a better choice?"

"I only trust YOU with this job. I would like you to not leave this room and keep him here as well. He is my friend, but I stopped trusting him when he appeared here and ran away."

That last part really hurt me, as I fell onto a bed, which was in the room. Alongside the bed was almost nothing else except for a wardrobe and a desk with a chair. The lights in the room were the same, and we're controlled with a switch, which Rosa had turned on before pulling Rem to speak to her.

"Fine, you don't have to be mean about it." Rem then marched a little into the room, and had her cheeks puffed, and her arms crossed. She then closed the door and looked at me, who was laying on the bed at this point.

"Rem, I won't move from this bed, if that makes it any easier." I was slightly depressed at this moment, especially since Rosalina had lost her trust in me.

She pulled the chair over to the side of the bed, and sat down with a leg crossed over, arms crossed, and cheeks still puffed. "Whatcha do to make Ro-Ro so mad? Did you hurt her feelings before? Were you never supposed to speak to her again? Whatcha do?"

I turned my head to look at her, and said "I'll entertain your questioning. I have nothing better to do."

I turned my head to look at the dark ceiling, and spoke "The thing that Rosa was mad at me about, apparently enough to lose trust in me, was leaving the ship."

'I don't need to tell Rem here everything, since Rosa will probably learn everything anyway. I hope I can learn what the silver thing is before she gets here to question me.'

I just layed there, and Rem didn't ask anything else, which I figured meant that she was thinking about what I had said, trying to piece together what she knew.

"I've been sailing with Rosa for a couple months now, and using her ship, we came here. And so, she trusted me to stay on the ship, which she caught me NOT doing. If that explaination helped, good for you."

I started to slip into a more sarcastic mood while still being a bit depressed near the end of that.

"I do have a couple quick questions, if I can interrupt your thoughts."

Rem stopped puffing her cheeks while thinking, and stared at me, and she started to sway a little, like a child.

She smiled before saying "You may." as if she was a queen allowing a peasant, or anyone, to speak.

'Okay, this is a perfect time to get some answers. Rem is trusted by Rosa, and she kinda lets things slip, so the perfect person to get information out of.'

"Didn't exactly need that, but... What's up with your silver internal organs? Or the.. non-existent.. organs you have replaced with silver? Does it have to do with your soul?"