Chapter 2

(Please point out my mistakes if there are)

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The morning comes but the mournful cry can still be heard, as time pass by it became hoarser and hoarser, even though the sound is unpleasant to hear no one stopped it.

The body of all people who died yesterday was buried near the destroyed village and the body of the man who recently just died yesterday was buried near his and his sister's destroyed home, the people who have a close relationship with the woman tried to comfort her but she didn't seem to stop her cry. Raul asked the woman's name to the elder who told him their story and her name is Mary.

Days went by, Raul sometimes stops to look at the lamenting woman, she became thin, her eyes are as red as an apple, she already lost the water on her eyes as blood seems to become her tears, her eyes shed blood as it slowly fell to her face as it touches the dried-up tears, her lips are full of cracks and her skin became whitely pale. Raul sometimes sits near her and comfort her but was met with a cold glare and harsh words, he often offers food to her but were left untouched. In the afternoon, the clouds began to darken, and when the night came, rain began to fall.

Drip, Drip

The sound of water falling in the air begun to wake Mary, she opens her cloudy eyes as she looks up to see the dark cloudy night, drips of rain begun to shower upon her face, the rain continues to fall, the wind gently blew the rain, Mary's hair also follows.

There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away the things she won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because that's when the pain from the deepest of her begun to scream and in her mind, it's always empty, as Mary begun to contemplate the misery of her yesterday's smile the raining also slowly and endlessly drizzle.

Her dry lips begun to kiss the rain as she opens her mouth and hardly mutters through the air "And when it rains... look up rather than down... without the rain, there would be no rainbow"

She begun to remember a person smiling at her and telling her the same words, the warm smile of her brother begun to be depicted in the air as if the rain becomes the canvas of it, her brother slowly walks farther and farther as he becomes fainter. Mary tried to chase him away but she stumbled down.

"Brother don't leave...me...away"

She reached up to him, her vision begun to slowly fade as her eyes fall 'P-Please...brother...stay' is what she's supposed to say before fainting.

Early in the morning, Raul wakes up, he looked up through the window of his cottage noticing that the rain is now gone, he went to the kitchen and grabbed two eggs on the side, he grabbed the saucepan and reheated it, Raul puts some oil in it and cracked up the eggs, he seasoned it with some salt and pepper.

After he's done eating, he puts the other fried egg on a plate and puts some rice on it, he will offer this again to Mary maybe she will eat it, she didn't even eat after the tragedy that happened to her, it's been five days and she still refuses to eat, wondering if she is still okay, he hurried up and wrapped the food up.

He walks to the door and looks to where Mary is, as he is nearing his destination he saw a woman collapsed near the grave, that's exactly Mary, he hurriedly ran to where she is and checked her pulse, her heart is faintly beating, she's super weak and may die if she was left for another day.

Raul carried her up and ran to his cottage, he puts her on his bed, he called the medic to examine her up and give her first aid. After an hour, the medic told Raul that she's in weak condition and she will need a month to recover. Raul sighed relief and called someone to change her up as he walks outside of his bed.

He went to the near seashore and lights up a cigarette, he sat on a sturdy rock while gazing on the vast sea.

Hooo~~

He blew the last smoke on his mouth as he muttered "It is time for me to stand and cheer for myself as there is no use bitching around, if I don't recognize the challenges then I'm not fit to be a Commander, I should do something about it, in four months maybe Betch will arrive in the Reverse Mountain, I have to catch him so he'll never do this kind of acts again"

Raul started to walk to where his Vice Captain is staying, some Marines started to salute as he just nodded, "Irka, tell the Headquarter to shorten the time, make them arrive in three months, we're going to corner Betch and his crew, tell them to ready the personnel who are in standby, we're catching them if we can't then we will kill them on the spot!"

"Yes sir!" Irka saluted as he dialed the Den Den Mushi and prepared to call the Headquarter of South Blue. As Raul walks away and headed to his cottage, he saw a vague image of a man standing at his door, it's waving his hand at him, the image suddenly bowed its head at a 90° angle as it slowly fades away becoming one with the air.

Raul was surprised but didn't seem to mind it, he'll just take it as one of his imagination and maybe he is pretty tired, as he arrived at his door there was a sudden blow of wind and a whisper of a man can be heard from it "Thank you for rescuing her"

Raul immediately looked back and realized that maybe this is the ghost of Mary's brother, he's still on a defensive state but he slightly bowed and said "Your gratitude isn't something for me to receive, I was incompetent and didn't manage to save you all, I-I am sorry, I will repay you by protecting your sister from harm"

Even though there's nothing in there, he can feel that someone is watching him, there is that vague feeling that he can't seem to pinpoint and describe so he just did what he could say, maybe for someone to see him they'll say that he's an idiot but he doesn't care, nothing is more believable than experiencing it yourself.

When he is done, he turned to open his door and went to his bed where Mary is, he saw her sleeping in a relaxed way, her pale skin has a little improvement to it but she's still thin.

Raul grabbed a chair and puts it near the bed, he gently looked at the woman lying next to him. A tear suddenly fall off from Mary's closed eyes as she muttered a single word "Bro..ther"

Even in her sleep, anyone who is near her can feel the agony of losing someone important. Raul who's beside her can feel his heart being heavy, he gently lifts his hands and gently wiped the tear off her eyes.

He may be a Commander but his heart isn't resolute enough to witness such tragedy, that's why the higher-ups gave him a mission to do to honed himself and accept everything and try to learn something from it.

He clenched his hands as he promised himself to capture and secure all of the pirates on his territory. He may not realize it but something changes from deep within him, it's a slight change but it will help him as time goes by.

♦ ♦ ♦

At the same time, a man can be seen floating in the space, being carried away by the darkness, no direct way to where he is going, he just floats, his bruises are still not dry, blood still drips from his open wound, his body is very pale from too much blood loss and his clothes are all messed up.

The man continues to drift as if something is guiding him. Time passes and some kind of energy torrent slowly assembles, swirling in a clockwise direction, it slowly opens a small path.

The man was slowly sucked in by the torrent and disappeared from the space.

(A/N: The time flows differently in One Piece and space so don't be confused about it )