Chapter 6

(Previously)

"Levy was almost taken?!" Marco asked horrified that the young siren was almost caught.

"If Sabo hadn't beaten them up, she wouldn't even be here." Luffy regretfully said as he gritted his teeth in remembrance "I was almost seen as well."

"What!?" Ace spat out with venom in his tone. Marco placed a hand on Ace's bare shoulder.

"Tell us what happened."

"Well…"

(FLASHBACK)

Luffy had been hiding amongst the thick green bushes with Chopper by his side as they watched a treasure hunter stray from his group.

The hunters had arrived half an hour ago and were warned by the harpies to go into hiding as they recognized the humans on the ship. While running back to the cottage to grab his sister, Luffy and Chopper had almost been seen by the wandering hunter. In their attempt to hide, Luffy had sprained his ankle and was unable to walk properly.

"L-Luffy, wha-t-t are w-w-we we going to d-do?" Chopper stammered frightfully. They had been shocked when a ship had just randomly docked at their island with many humans carrying nets, guns, and swords.

"Don't worry Chopper it'll be fine" Luffy reassured, despite the stinging in his ankle.

"As long as we keep out of sight, they shouldn't be able to catch us."

Chopper nodded shakily as he watched the stray hunter travel deeper into the luscious forest. As he kept walking ahead Chopper soon came to realise where he was headed.

"Luffy he's headed towards the cottage!" He gasped in fear

Luffy's eyes widened at the other's. 'Shit Levy is still in the river.' He thought as he imagined the dark possibilities of what would happen if the despicable man caught the youngest.

Sabo had gone to help the other water creatures find a hiding spot; both of them had not thought the hunters would find their tiny home.

"Ok Chopper we're going to slowly follow him, but we have to maintain our distance."

"B-But your F-F-F-Foot."

"It'll be alright, let's just move." Luffy waved of the reindeer's concern as he stretched out his arm towards another tree while holding Choppers hand with his other.

"Let's go." Carefully they walked ahead using Luffy's arm as a guide.

As they continued to walk discretely they came to a familiar clearing, Luffy pulled Chopper into a nearby bush and hid in it.

"He's getting to close to the river." Chopper said worriedly.

Luffy knew that as well as watched the hunter bend down to get a better view of the river. A disgusting smile grew on the hunters face as he went through his bag and took out a net and a gun.

Chopper watched fearfully as he realized what was happening. "Luffy!"

"I know. I know. I know!" Luffy grew his nails and bared out his teeth. "Chopper wait here." He commanded as he tried to stand up but instantly staggered, his ankle protesting against the actions. Chopper went to his side and inspected the ankle

"Luffy it's too swollen, you ca-" he was cut out by a yell of distress

"Stop it! Leave me alone!"

Luffy and chopper looked towards the cry, and dread washed over them as they saw what was happening.

The hunter had the siren wrapped tightly in a net; with one arm he held onto her hair and with the other, he held a gun pointing towards her.

"You'll make us a lot of money, I can't wait." The hunter smugly said as he pulled on her hair.

levy whined in pain as he kept tugging her hair tauntingly, she was sure that most of her strands were ripped from her scalp. after a few more tugs she couldn't keep in her cries of pain and finally let out her protests. "Stop it!" she screamed and struggled against the bindings.

The hunter merely smirked and released his grasp on her hair which caused her to collapse on the ground. The siren groaned as she tried to lift her now heavy head, blood trickled down the side of her head, she opened her listless eyes and everything looked like a blur. 'It hurts...my head feels like it's gonna crack.' She thought as her head throbbed.

The hunter squatted to her height and prodded her alluring tail with the but of the gun.

"Let me pull out a few of those scales, I bet I'll get a few thousand berri." He said as he reached into his bag and pulled out a knife.

Levy, who was incoherent because of the pain, did not react to the unknown pressure placed on her tail, but as soon as she felt a sharp object slice her tail she panicked and wiggled her tail in fast motions to get rid of the pain afflicting her lower half.

The hunter did not falter, instead, he held on to her tail with a bone-crushing grasp, the sudden pain caused the ravenette to gasp out in pain.

"Don't make my job difficult or else I'll accidentally cut your entire tail off."

The poor creature began to hyperventilate as she watched the knife inch closer to her tail; her breathes became laboured and tears streamed down her face like a waterfall. "Don't, it's hurting me" she whispered, unable to use her voice. But the man continued to ignore her protests as he dug the knife under the scale and attempted to pry it out. Her cries and protests grew, but he didn't care and continued to loosen the scale from her tail.

Unable to handle the pain in her tail and head she let out an ear-piercing screech.

"STOP IT!"

Her cry echoed throughout the forest, and despite the ringing in his ear, the hunter continued to pry out the scale, determined to get money even at the cost of one of his senses.

"Chopper let go of me! I need to save her from that bastard!" Luffy yelled as he struggled against choppers hold on his legs

"Luffy you can't fight him in your condition, he'll just catch you as well!" Chopper warned as tears rolled down his eyes.

"HE IS HURTING HER!"

"I KNOW! But you'll get hurt and possibly killed in your condition."

The hunters' scream cut their fight.

"Who the hell are you!" The hunter screamed as he saw an approaching silhouette. "Can't you see I'm busy?!" He said as he shook Levy's body to make his point clear.

The siren continued to sob as the pain in her head grew at the shake, she opened an eye to take a look at the figure approaching them. She thought she recognised the figure and let out a soft word. "Sabo?"

The now recognized figure picked up its's pace as he saw the sirens tearful face, he lifted his head which had been overcast by the tall navy blue hat. Enraged at the sight of his sister balling Sabo bared his teeth aggressively at the other man. He took long stiff strides towards the other two.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists until they turned white. "Get. The. Hell. Away. From. My. Little. Sister." Sabo growled as each word dripped with deadly venom.

The hunter shivered at his words. With unsteady hands he picked up the siren from her hair once again only this time he aimed the gun right at her temple. Levys hearts rate picked up as she felt the cool metal pressed against her aching head, her whimpering grew as she predicted his next moves.

"C-Come any closer a-and I'll blow her b-b-brains out." He stammered.

WHOOSH

In that second Sabo was already behind the hunter. "I told you to get away from her, didn't I." He whispered in the hunter's ear.

The hunter gasped in fear and instantly shoved the siren towards the grassy ground and attempted to escape unscathed, however, Sabo's reaction time was greater than the hunter's speed and he managed to drag his claws across the others back. The hunter screamed in agony but continued to run for his life.

Sabo wasted no time to check on whether or not the hunter had left, he immediately went on his knees and carefully removed the net from his wailing sister.

Once she was out of her bindings Levy tackled her big brother into a hug and hid her face in his chest, hiccupping as she rubbed her face back and forth. Sabo ran his hand through his sister's hair to calm her down.

"It's alright Levy, I'm here now. Nothing is going to happen to you." Sabo reassured as pecked the girl's temple. Levy looked at Sabo's face with crocodile tears streaming down her face, she kept sniffling and whimpering.

"Sabooooooo." She sobbed "I-I-I wa-a-s so so so scaredddd. I thought h-h-h he was going to k-k-kill meeeeeeee!" She cried out and hugged her brother as if he was her lifeline.

It broke Sabo's heart to hear his usually mischievous sister break down like this, 'I should have killed the guy.' He thought regretfully

"I know, I know. You must've been so scared"

"I-I was" the siren wept, a miserable pout now on her face

Sabo smiled softly and continued to pat her head "You were so brave." Levy just continued to cry and mumble out her fears.

"My head hurts a lot." The siren complained while Sabo gave a quick massage to ease her discomfort.

He checked her all over for any injuries, he found a few scrapes and bruises but as he came to check her tail he saw it had been slightly cut and was bleeding. Sabo sighed in relief as she wasn't too banged up.

"We'll go to Dr Kureha, just hold until then." Levy continued to shed tears despite the comforting Sabo gave.

"Come on now, don't cry. I'm here now." Sabo reassured and wiped her remaining tears away, after a few moments the sirens tears slowly reduced to just snivels. Sabo smiled encouragingly and picked up Levy, mindful of her current headache he softly pushed her head on his chest to make her more comfortable.

"Go to sleep, you must be tired." Sabo said soothingly as he watched the younger one's eyes close. Her body became limp in his arms, all the energy drained out of her. Sabo sighed once again and started walking back into the forest to visit the doctor.

"Sabooo!" Two voices yelled out from the bushes

Sabo looked towards the origin of the voice and spotted Luffy and Chopper waving at him, he jogged over to them while carrying Levy. As soon as he came next to them Luffy jumped and continuously questioned Sabo

"Is Levy ok? Did she get hurt? What did the hunter do? Where did the bastard go?" he asked all at once in one breathe.

Sabo was used to Luffy's way of not breathing while he talked at answered his questions slowly. "Yeah, she's ok. She got a few bruises here and there and a cut on her tail, nothing too bad. I scratched the asshole before he got away."

Luffy and Chopper both let out sighs of relief.

"I thought something horrible would happen to her, Luffy and I couldn't even help because..." Chopper trailed of as turned his gaze towards Luffy's ankle. Sabo's eyes followed and stared at the bruising ankle. "What happened"

" While trying to get us both to safety, he tripped and twisted his ankle." The reindeer explained.

Sabo glared at Luffy as the younger looked away and started whistling innocently as if nothing had happened. Sabo's glare bore into Luffy's soul, he started to sweat nervously in slight panic for being caught.

"Luffy, you should have gone to Dr Kureha. What if the hunter had seen you both and caught you guys as well? What would you have done." the blonde reprimanded.

"We saw him heading towards the cottage, so I got scared something would happen to Levy. And something did happen!" he shot back at his brother.

Sabo sighed. "You would have been hurt too." he said trying to get his point across, unfortunately, the younger didn't care anymore as he started to slowly get up on his two legs

"Well no point in scolding me for the past, what's done is done."

Sabo looked at him exasperatedly before sighing again and walking back into the forest, motioning with his head for the other two to follow. 'Today was a bad day.'

xXx

RIAEVENS: Hi! thanks for reading and reviewing my story, that makes me happy. I'm glad you liked this fanfic, it was a random idea from when I first started watching one piece.

Yeah so that was a long chapter, I honestly wasn't going to do a flashback but well it happened. *Laughs at myself* The next Chapter will go back to the storyline and the siblings will meet the whitebeard pirates, I think. The next update may come late since I have a lot of editing to do, sorry about that. I kinda edited a few of the other chapters cuz there were a lot of mistakes, I still need to edit two more, so feel free to read back.

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and just leave a review and tell me what you think about the story, see ya.

-Jinxz