Motherly Love

Kilnorc: Don't own One Piece.

As the day went on, Axe and Kairi stayed as close to Haruko as possible. They watched her rehearsal from a large set of windows that served as a skylight in the roof, making sure that nothing funny happened and if it did, they'd be there to help her out in a matter of seconds. They took turns patrolling around the building's perimeter and staying up top to keep watch on the inside, but for pretty much the entire time, nothing really happened. Well, not really, if you counted some light arguments that the blue-haired bassist got into with either her band mates or her manager. With the late afternoon rolling around, Kairi let out a yawn just as her stomach began to rumble. Muttering to herself, she pulled away from the skylight window and held her stomach, "Man, I'm so hungry...,"

"Have no fear, Axe is here!"

Kairi turned her head to see Axe standing a short distance from her, holding up a couple of paper bags in his arms. She frowned a little, "I thought you were watching the perimeter?"

"Oh, I was, I was," Axe walked towards her, his studded clothing glinting in the sunlight, "But I was getting hungry and I figured you were too, so I went out and acquired some necessities," he plopped down and dumped the contents of the bags onto the roof, revealing a large amount of food and bottled drink, "Chow down, pirate lass!"

Kairi looked at the amount of food, then cast a wary look at him, "You said you acquired this. When you say 'acquired', you mean-?"

"I mean that I got food for our hungry bellies," Axe cut her off, ripping open a bag of potato chips and tipping the bag over so the contents would pour into his mouth.

"You know that it's a sin to steal," Kairi reminded him as numerous chips fell into his mouth and onto the ground, missing his mouth, "I mean, it's one of the greatest sins out there,"

Axe munched and munched for about a few minutes to get all the food soft enough to swallow without choking him, then he looked at her, "Kairi, you know that it's a sin to steal. I mean, haven't we talked about this before? Yes, it's bad to steal in most cases, but to those who need to survive, what's better: the afterlife or their actual life? Personally, I'd steal to stay alive and let whatever god sort me out the way that I need to be sorted out,"

"So, you'd prefer to go to Hell and not starve?"

Axe rolled his eyes, "I'm not a religious guy, Kairi, I'm just saying, alright? We're supposed to be watching out for Haruko, not having a debate on what god and what kind of place waits for us after death...," he crumpled the bag up into a ball and threw it to the side before reaching into the pile of food, "Anything yet?"

Kairi sighed, "No, nothing yet," she craned her neck around and looked down the window, "Still practicing. You know, I can't understand what's so great about this rock music," she picked her ear, "I think all it does is just hurt the eardrums,"

"Ha!" Axe laughed, "That's one of the best things about music, anyone of them can be great and anyone of them can hurt your ears. Not every one music can be the same, otherwise it wouldn't be music, it'd just be...sound," he rummaged through the pile again, "Next thing you're gonna tell me is that this music is the Devil's music. Dammit, where are those...?"

Kairi looked back, "What are you looking for?"

"I picked up some books while I was out food scavenging," Axe stuck out his tongue, "One of them is a guidebook like Ripley has on her and one of them has got some interesting stuff on the island...I figured since we're here, might as well learn about it, right?"

"What is there to learn?" Kairi propped her head on a hand, watching him scour through the pile of food, "It's an island with very loud music?"

"Every place has something to teach, Kairi, believe me on that," Axe's face lit up, "Aha! Got the annoying, elusive bastards!" he brought his arm out and help up two books: one of them being a copy of the same book Ripley had and another being a larger, thicker book. The second book seemed to be leather bound and even had a large, gleaming symbol in the shape of a guitar pressed into the front cover.

Kairi was quite for a few moments, "I'm gonna go on out a limb here and say that that's the book with interesting stuff on the island?"

"Oh, you're good, Kairi, you're real good,"

"Watch the sarcasm, bud,"

"Nah. You watch Haruko a bit longer, I'm gonna let the information from this book drown my brain with information and any possible stories it may hold," he cracked the book open and sure enough, moments later, his eyes were glued to the book, going back and forth, scanning each word on the pages.

Kairi shook her head, "Well, I've lost him...," she looked down at the food and a second later, her stomach growled loudly again. Moaning quietly, she gave into hunger and temptation and grabbed a box of cookies that were nearby. She ripped the box open and was about to chew a handful of cookies when she stopped and looked up at the sky. Quickly, she dropped the cookies and clasped her hands together, eyes closed.

"Forgive me, O Lord, I know this was taken through a sin, but I am very hungry. Please, Almighty Father, forgive this servant for she is starving!" she prayed under her breath.

Finishing her prayer/plead for forgiveness, Kairi grabbed the cookies again and crammed them into her mouth.

Axe couldn't help but grin, catching the act out of the corner of his eye.

When people come to this island of rock music, they expect blaring sounds of awesomeness, they expect constant headbanging, and they even expect brawls over tickets or brand new equipment. What they usually don't expect is to see a young boy crawl around the streets, keeping his nose close to the ground. He was trying to catch any scents that were in the air that could've been on the letters and photos that were given to Haruko, but right now? All he could find in the air was scent of blood, sweat and food (rotting or fresh).

Ripley was on the rooftops, jumping from building to building (sometimes with help from her grappling gear), keeping an eye out for anything strange. Luckily for her, she did find strangeness...unlucky for her, however, it was the whole damn city and it's inhabitants. She knew that the people of the world had their own style of living, had their own practices and had their own style of dressing, but this was definitely one of the weirder parts that she knew of.

Jumping onto the roof of a smaller building, she saw Toby still working the ground, "C'mon, poochy, give mama something to work with...,"

Toby rose to his feet and shook his head quickly, trying to get the mixture of scents out of his nasal passages.

Ripley let out a sigh and shouldered Titan's Fist, "Ah well...can't say that we didn't do anything," she sat down on the edge of the roof and gave a sharp whistle. Now, normally, with all the noise, most people in the area wouldn't have heard that, but then again, Toby wasn't most people. Sure enough, shortly after she gave the whistle, he managed to climb/jump to the roof, joining her on the edge.

"You know, for a kid who can turn into a monster and rip people apart on certain nights, you got some good skills out of your situation,"

Toby snorted a little and looked down at the crowd below them, "I can't get jack from these," he held up the wad of documents, "Too many smells and odors in the air. Looks like I've outlived my usefulness in this particular thing as soon as I got the job,"

"Aw," Ripley took the papers and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before pulling him into a hug, "Don't sell yourself short, hon, we just hit a snag. Maybe there's something else we can do with these," she waved the evidence a little bit, "More than one way to skin a cat...,"

Toby gave her a look, "That's an odd thing to say in a situation like this...,"

"These are odd times,"

"Or maybe you're the one who's odd?"

WHAM

"GWAH!" Toby soon found himself back on the street, laying facedown with a massive lump on the back of his skull from where Titan's Fist connected with his head.

"Be careful what you say next time, poochy,"

"Well, that was hours and hours well-spent," Kairi collapsed on the couch in Haruko's home, staring up at the ceiling as a storm came rolling in outside, "We kept eagle eye tabs on her the entire time and not one thing happened,"

Toby placed his head on the arm-rest behind her head, "How do you think I feel? I got assaulted with all kinds of smells that I could go through a lifetime without ever smelling them again, I got conked on the head by Ripley, and we didn't get any progress with our thing...yet,"

Kairi moved her head upward, "Yet?"

"Oh, Ripley says there's probably something she can figure out from the stuff Haruko's stalker sent her, so she's hunched over them right now," the lycan rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn, "I dunno what she can do with them, but it means I'm off the hook for now, so I'm gonna try and relax...but GEEZ, I sure could go for something to eat,"

"Head's up, boys and girls, dinnertime!"

The two treasure hunters turned their attention to the otherside of the room to see Haruko walking in, wearing an apron and carrying in two plates of steaming hot food in her hands. She walked over and placed them on the table in front of the couch, "Eat as much as you want, just be careful, it's pretty hot,"

Needless to say, Toby darted for the food while Kairi sat up, surprised. She looked at Haruko, "You didn't need to do this, we could've just gotten some food ourselves-,"

"Aw, don't worry about it," Haruko waved her off, backing away as Toby began to shovel food into his mouth, "Damn, he must be starving...,"

"You really, really didn't need to-,"

"I wanted to," Haruko interrupted the Holy Knight, giving her a look, "You guys may not be making much headway, but you not only saved me, but you're helping me out with my problem. Naturally, I'd be cautious around such generous and kind people such as yourselves, but...," she clicked her tongue, "I dunno, I got a feeling about you guys. Besides, I'm used to cooking. Back home, I was a sister, a daughter, and a mother,"

Kairi raised an eyebrow, "Please...please tell me what you mean by that, because I have a disturbing picture in my head,"

Haruko snickered and took a seat on the other end of the couch, "Back home, on Mirrorball Island, my mother died while I was growing up, and as the oldest of all the kids, I had to be a mother. So, I cooked food for them, I took care of them whenever they were sick, and I also took care of my father. Poor guy was such a wreck, he tried to pour himself into working to support us all, or he couldn't take care of all of us, so I had to help out,"

"Oh dear, I am so sorry!"

The bassist shook her head, a somewhat sad look in her eyes, "It's okay, kid, I'm fine. I just miss them when I think about them back home. You know, it's because of them that I'm here,"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, they knew that I loved playing music and that I had thought about being a famous musician, but I couldn't just leave them there like that. They convinced me to leave and they promised me that they'd be alright, but they'd be really guilty if they kept me from my life's goal," Haruko rubbed her arms, "I'll always love them for what they did for me, I really will. I tell you, when I make it big, when I become the greatest rock star in the world, I'm gonna have so much money, that I'm gonna give them the best life they can have!"

Kairi smiled, Most people who are wanting riches are often corrupted and turn incredibly selfish, but she's just wanting to be great to achieve her dream and to provide a better life for her family, after what they had gone through...she's got a really big heart...

A loud belching sound made Kairi snap out of her thoughts and turn to see Toby licking his now empty plate like crazy, "Ew...,"

The young lycan held out his licked clean plate, "More please!"

Haruko stared at him like he was growing a second head, slowly reaching for the plate, "Okay...sure...," she rose from the couch, "Before I go and grab more food, where's your friend? The kid with the giant thing on his back?"

"Oh, Axe?" Kairi shrugged, "I dunno, he said that he was gonna go check some stuff out,"

"Any idea where he'd go?"

"Knowing him, any place with a buffet...,"

"ACHOO!"

Axe sneezed loudly, causing a few people in the tavern to turn and look at him in disgust. He sniffed loudly and wiped his nose with his arm, "Oh man...," he noticed the others looking at him, "Sorry folks, just came in from the rain, probably catching something! Don't mind me," he waved them off, grinning stupidly, "Don't worry, I'll try my best not to make you sick, although if I do start sneezing like crazy, or I start making odd noises, then please! Keep the hell away from me so nothing lands on you,"

The nearest people around him cursed under their breaths and moved away from him.

"Huh, sensitive crowd, or something," the treasure hunter murmured under his breath just as he felt a large hand fall on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw the owner of the hand glaring down at him. Axe shrugged him off and spun idly around to face him, "Hi there, how may I help you?"

"This is a bar, runt, get out,"

"Aw, but I just got here. How come?" Axe said with a fake pouting look, "You wouldn't send a kid to catch his death in a rainstorm, would you?"

"If they're underage, I would," the apparent bouncer snapped, grabbing his shoulder again, "Get the hell out,"

Axe sighed and held up a hand, "Look, I'm not even gonna order anything. I just came to get some information, I promise. I don't even have any money to spend and-,"

"No money and you're underage?" the bouncer grinned widely, "Oh boyo, you're making this too easy for me," he tightened his grip, "Would you like to walk out or would you like to be thrown out?"

Axe clicked his tongue and looked at the large hand, "How about...?" he reached over and placed his hand on the bouncer's, "None of the above?"

A loud crunching sound echoed through the noisy bar, followed by a loud scream of pain, causing everyone else to stop whatever they were doing and turn to see the larger, older man on his knees, holding his hand, tears and whimpers escaping him while a fourteen-year old looked down at him, a calm look on his face.

"I said, I just came for information," Axe repeated nudged him with his foot, "Now, you've gone and made me do that. I didn't want to hurt you, but the next time someone tells you they won't cause any trouble, then you may want to listen to them,". Noticing everyone else was staring at him, Axe scowled, "The hell you all lookin' at? Never seen a kid beat up a grown man before?"

As the late hours of the night rolled around, Haruko entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her so she could change and get ready for bed. She slipped out of her clothes and grabbed her favorite pair of Doskoi Panda pajamas, carefully pulling them onto her body, so she wouldn't tear a hole in them. Kicking her dirty clothes to the side, amongst a growing pile of dirty clothes, Haruko made her way for her bed, wanting to pass out and let whatever dreams take her.

Now, the term "fan" had many different meanings in the world. It could mean someone who likes a few songs belonging to the same band, or it could mean they liked a certain author's work, or it could even mean that they enjoyed products of a certain company. With Haruko Benata, the latter was the situation with her, but the term "fan" didn't quite live up to her level of love for Doskoi Panda. In fact, most people would think the proper term for her fandom of Doskoi would be...

Doskoi Otaku.

Seriously, she had an entire wardrobe from Doskoi, she had bed sets, she had drinking glasses, eating plates and utensils, and she even had a collection of Doskoi Panda toys. She had a couple of footballs (though she never played much of that), she had more than enough caps, a couple of bathing suits, and a number of Doskoi Panda plushies (one of which was about as big as her!). Needless to say, this rock and roll girl was a "fan" of Doskoi.

Normally, she would've come to bed sooner, but the maternal instincts of hers kicked in earlier that night and despite their protests, she forced both Toby and Kairi to head on to bed since they were too young to stay up into the wee hours of the morning. Ripley, however, was still at work, going over the collection of stalker stuff, hoping to find something helpful. She knew that their friend Axe was out there and that he should've come back and headed in as well, but the others assured her that he would be alright. She didn't like it, but she surrendered to their words and headed in for bed herself.

Plopping onto her bed, the bassist rolled over onto her back and stretched out on the mattress, staring at the ceiling as she listened to the storm outside. It was strange that she could find herself at such comfort right now. Days before, she had been nervous to fall asleep, knowing there was a sick freak out there watching her, but for some strange reason, she felt much calmer now than she had in a long time. Maybe it was the rain? It didn't rain a whole lot on the island, maybe that was it? Or maybe it was...maybe it was them?

Yawning, Haruko reached over and grabbed her giant Doskoi plushie and pulled it close to her, her eyelids heavy.

"G'nite, Pan-Pan," she mumbled into the giant plushie's side. She looked to the side and to Canti, the guitar laying on her dresser across the room, "G'nite Canti...,"

Soon enough, Haruko was fast asleep.

A bolt of lightning flashed a short time later, casting shadows everywhere. One shadow in particular was the form of someone standing right outside her bedroom window.

Kilnorc: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!