Change in perspective…

It's so dark. It's always so dark.

I miss my momma, I miss my family.

Where am I?

The last thing I remember was walking down the street of my neighborhood.

I was returning from buying some fruit at the market in Midtown.

Momma always said that we don't belong there, we lived in the Outer Ring ya see?

But Midtown has such nice food I couldn't resist. Also I had saved up enough money from my part time job and I wanted to surprise momma with something special for her birthday.

Momma has always been so worried for me, saying that I need to stay away from danger at any cost.

I guess it cause of my abilities; I ate a devil fruit when I was young.

She said that my power was dangerous; that if anyone found out what I could do I would be in serious danger.

But I always tell her I'll be alright. I tell her I never use it unless I absolutely have to.

Besides, I tell her I could never give up painting.

But I guess danger finally found me. Because on my way back a Marine soldier grabbed me and pressed me against the wall.

"Ayano Fujikawa, you're under arrest for suspicion of owning weapons of mass destruction."

I've been blind ever since. Where did everyone go?

My head is covered in some skin tight mask and my eyes and ears have been covered as well.

My arms and legs have been bound by some sort of full body jacket.

I've screamed and screamed for as long as I can remember but it does me no use.

I've been grabbed and moved to many places, I don't even know where I've ended up now.

I think I'm in Arabasta: there's sand everywhere, and it's very hot.

I haven't taken off this jacket in forever, even for going to the bathroom.

I haven't seen or heard another person in forever.

I don't even know how long it's been.

I hope momma is ok…..

Shift to Samuel….

So it was me, Hukufu and 20 other prisoners trapped in the middle of a desert prison.

Some of the men were crying in relief.

"It's soooo cool out here!" One of them shouted.

It was hotter than crap out here, but it was a lot better than level 4 that's for sure.

I still had the radio, and I hoped that the other four were smart enough to remember to keep it as well.

"Sam?" I heard Mathew's voice call on the radio.

"Where to now Sammy?" Newman's voice said as well.

"Ok good, now give me a second."

I scanned my surroundings.

Sure enough, to the far off wall there was an enormous doorway with stairs leading upward.

"Can you find the giant set of doors?" I called into the radio.

"Yes." Mathew responded.

"No but give me a few minutes and I'm sure we can find it." Newman said.

"Ok," I said, "and Melissa…"

No response.

"Melissa?"

Still no response.

"That's not a good sign." Newman said.

"Melissa if you can hear me, respond!"

Silence…

"Shit. I have to go find her. The two of you bring your guys there and wait for us. Keep those doors open at all costs. If we get locked up here, we're finished. Understand?"

"Roger." They both said.

I turned to Hukufu. "We need to find Melissa. She could be in danger."

He cracked his giant knuckles. They sounded like thunder claps. "We shall fight for her honor."

I didn't even know where to start.

It couldn't be very far, but still I had no idea which way to head towards.

"Let's head along the side of this wall. Come on everyone."

None of them moved.

"The exit is right there!" One of them shouted. "Screw the bitch and let's get out of here!"

"No chick is worth staying HERE!"

Most of the men were in agreement.

A part of me was agreeing with them.

I've come this far, it could be a huge risk not taking this opportunity now. Why am I trying to risk my life for a person I just met?

But bigger part of me told that part of me to shut up.

She's risked her life to save mine! What kind of a person would I be without returning the favor?

"Go if you want! I'm staying behind understand?!" I shouted at them.

The main bulk of them left, heading toward the exit.

Only me, Hukufu, and the boy with the oversized jacket remained.

"You sure you want to stay Hukufu?" I asked him.

He beat his chest in delight. "I promised to follow you to battle Little Lamb! For glory and battle!"

I smiled at his enthusiasm.

But then there was the black haired boy.

He looked ridiculous in that XXL black uniform, his sleeves were way past his hips and the collar was covering part of his face.

His skin was tanned to the point it was almost red, but given where he came from I wouldn't pass it by him.

"What about you?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "You're going after the girl huh?"

I nodded.

He shrugged again. "Shame if anything would happen to her. I hadn't seen a woman in…..eh I can't remember but it was a long time ago."

He waved his sleeve. "Lead the way Shaggy."

I scoffed at his nickname, but it would have to do.

"No offense but…..are you sure you can handle yourself in….."

-SHINK-

Out of each sleeve sprang three swords, and he held his sleeve's upward so they looked like giant claws.

"Eh…I guess." He said in a mopey fashion.

I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic, or that he had no emotion whatsoever.

"Hehehe!" Hukufu chuckled. "Little man has big tricks up his sleeve yes?!"

I nodded. "I guess….."

-KABOOM-

And explosion rumbled the ground to the east wall.

At least I was calling it east; given my current position I was considering the direction towards the door north.

"That could be her! Let's move!"

I lead the party, one being a ten foot tall furry mountain man and a 5 foot nothing kid in an oversized jacket.

Well I'm glad I have Hukufu…

-WHOOSH-

A blur of white and black whizzed past me.

It was a prisoner flying through the air.

Hukufu caught him with a grunt.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. "Can you still fight?!"

The man's eye was swollen shut and his teeth were shattered. His arm was twisted at a horrible angle. I couldn't tell about the rest of him.

"Rh…..rhino…." he muttered.

"Rhino?" I said in confusion.

"Mino…Minorhino….." he said. "Demon….guaaaaaaaaaa……"

He stopped speaking.

It all just caught up to me….

I grabbed my mouth, feeling like I was about to throw up.

I guess I never thought about it before. People are dying…..

I've killed people…..

I snapped a wolf's neck for crying out loud!

Hukufu laid him on the ground. "We must move forward."

I shot him a look. "We need to….we just leave him here?!"

Hukufu shook his head at me. "In my land the strong must survive. If you die, then you were weak. Simple as that. We do not cry for the weak, we must only think on them in order to avoid their fate."

I began to glare at him for being so heartless.

The black haired boy shrugged. "Eh…we gotta move on. There are other people we can save ya know….."

I swallowed back my emotions.

Thinking about it logically, it wouldn't bode well for me to start challenging the ideals of a ten foot tribal.

I'll deal with it later.

I nodded. "Right, let's go find this rhino….."

-BOOM-

Didn't take long.

A wall of blue was rushing towards us.

I barely had time to side step before Hukufu charged past me in full bear form.

-BOOM-

The two collided.

The rhino was…an abomination.

It was a lump of pale blue hide, all wrinkled and lumpy with pink lips and long eyelashes.

But its eyes were pure black, as if nothing was going on inside its lumpy head.

It wore green overalls and a strange frilled collar that hung around its shoulder.

It had its large white horn pressed against Hukufu's mighty bear claws.

"I think I fought this one's brother!" Hukufu cheered happily.

He flung the creature into the cages, slightly denting the walls as snot dripped from its snout.

Hukufu brushed his grizzly paws and laughed heartily. "Another victory to my name!"

The animal shook its head and snorted its snout.

It took out two very large, very spikey clubs that were being hung from his overalls.

Hukufu's bear snout recoiled. "Reminds me of my war club…"

-WHOOSH-

The creature smashed its club into Hukufu, knocking him off his feet.

I pulled out my pistol and fired at the beast's face.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

-RTRTRTRTRTRT-

I emptied the clip into the beast, but what bullets didn't get stuck into its hide bounced off in different directions.

The beast was now looking right at me, scratching his hide and brushing the bullets away.

Oh no.

It leaned towards me, ready to pounce.

I anticipated this and began to duck.

-WHOOSH-

I could see in slow motion.

The monster sprung forward, both clubs in hand.

Oh no…..

I could see it was beginning to jump in a clockwise spiral.

I couldn't see it until he began to jump.

But I had already moved my body into a ducking position.

There was nothing I could do, I couldn't move fast enough to dodge.

I could see my future, getting my face bludgeoned into the wall ending my jailbreak once and for all.

I'm done. It's moving too fast. And my body's too slow to do anything about it…

The clubs rotated, spiraling towards my head.

See you in heaven grandpa…..

-SWOOSH- -SWOOSH-

Several things whooshed past my ears.

-CLINK-

Several swords clanked into the creatures arm, most of them struck its hand and bounced off, but two of them sliced it.

The monster must have been surprised because the instant that happened, it let go of its club.

The club whizzed past me as the monster sailed over my head.

That woke me up.

I darted forward as the monster landed on its feet behind me.

I turned around to quickly that I tripped over my blue cape, falling to my feet and backing up hastily.

The monster looked at its hand in confusion, and began to lick the blood that poured from it.

"That was close I guess."

The boy was standing across from the monster, on the opposite side where I was.

He was now holding the spiked club the monster once used over his head like it weighed nothing.

Now by my estimate, that cub had to weight over a ton.

But he was using one hand like it was made of plastic!

"I guess I'll do something…or whatever."

"It's still got another club!" I shouted in a panic.

He scoffed. "Yeah I knoooow. I'm not stupid. Well…yeah I'm sure I'm not."

He held the club up high and…

-SHLOOP-

His sleeve seemed to slurp the club like it was ice cream.

The monster grunted in surprise.

I did too!

"Wha….what is this?!"

He held his arms up high, his sleeves rolling down to reveal his arms.

His tanned arms revealed dozens of scale-like patches all over, like he had some sort of strange disease.

"Who was I again? Hmm…oh yes. I'm Hisako Fuji. I ate the Pocket-Pocket fruit."

He lowered his arms, and his sleeve's rumbled.

"I am master of hidden weaponry. Before coming here I had enough weapons to supply 5 armories."

-SHING-

From each sleeve sprout about a dozen blades and rifle barrels. Out of his collar pointed a ring of blade tips that honestly looked like they would slice his face off if he were to move.

"I'm the pocket man."

The monster whirled its remained club and charged.

Hisako slung about a dozen sharp blades at the creature, and at the same time fired off at least ten rifle shots.

I ripped the dumb cape off my neck and got up to find Hukufu….

"RAAAAAAAWR!"

The bear man rushed past me to engage the monster along side Hisako.

"I'm going for Melissa!"

I looked through the fallen prisoners, each one beaten worse than the last, trying to find any sign of her.

"HEY! IS ANYONE AWAKE? PLEASE! MELISSA!"

-groan-

I whirled around to the raspy sound, but I came face to face with a prisoner's cell.

Inside was one incredibly strange sight.

Inside was a prisoner in a full body suit with leather belts binding their arms and legs.

From head to toe they were covered, no eye or ear holes either. And there was a zipper for where the mouth should be.

-grooooan-

Whoever it was they were incredibly skinny and frail, sprawled out on the floor barely with the strength to move.

I pulled out my prisoner keys and tried the locks.

Thankfully whoever decided to give a set of keys to one of the rookie guards was dumb enough to make them work with every lock in the prison.

I looked down at the prisoner, not exactly sure what to do.

Whoever this is must be a really horrible person to warrant this kind of punishment. Maybe it's best I leave them…

"M….momma…" It said it its raspy voice.

That was enough for me.

"Ok, hang on. I'll see you free ok?"

I knelt down and reached for the restraints.

The instant I touched it, it jolted in fear.

It let out a terrified shriek, so painful and sad that it made me want to free it even more.

"Stop stop stop! I'm trying to free you!"

But it just weakly kicked at me and wailed some more. It began to wriggle away like some sort of giant caterpillar.

The mask blocks its sight, maybe it has ear plugs as well to block sound.

Whoever this was probably hadn't seen or heard another person in God knows how long.

Who could put someone through this kind of torture?! That's total sensory deprivation! That can make someone insane in less than a week!

I quickly grabbed the person. They continued to struggle and knocked me back.

Not the smartest idea I've ever had.

I thought for another moment, then I sat on the ground beside them.

At this point the person had stopped moving, and was panting from all the struggling they just did.

I put my hand on their shoulder.

Again they jolted in fear, but I began rubbing their shoulder and patting them smoothly.

"I don't know if you can hear me, but it's going to be ok. Let me get these restraints off you ok?"

The person stopped as I continued stroking their arm.

"-mhmm-" The person said.

Come to think of it, despite being raspy beyond comprehension, the voice almost sounded female…..

Oh GOD!

I looked over the body and…well it was rather slender. And all the people I'd seen locker in this prison were big meaty criminals.

How about I just free this person and deal with it later….

I grabbed the first strap and yanked on it until it was loose. Then the next one, and the next until they were all loosened.

The sleeves were made like a straitjacket, so they extended way longer than what was really needed.

Finally I worked on the legs…..

Oh please don't get any ideas if it's a chick.

After loosening all the straps I grabbed around the neck area to find a crease in the neck.

I slowly peeled away the mask.

-GASP-

The person gasped and pulled their head away as the mask came off.

"The light…..the liiiight…"

"Sorry!" I quickly said. "Don't know how long it's been since….."

I stopped midsentence.

It was a girl alright.

Her face was all creased and wrinkled after having that mask on for so long, and her sand colored hair was all matted and misshapen from being pressed as well.

She squinted at me, trying to adjust to the bright desert-like light that illuminated this desert prison.

Her eyes shot wide open in terror.

She had the most round, most sparkly brown eyes I'd ever seen.

She shriek in terror at me.

"Get away! GET AWAY! ALL OF YOU!"

She continued to back up from me, shielding her face in fear.

I held my arms up in surrender and back away to.

"Hey look ok! Sorry, I didn't know you were a chick! Look I'm backing away. Wait…..all of who?"

She backed up against the wall and looked around the cage.

"Wha….where am I?! Who…..what are you?! Where's my momma?!"

This girl had to be in her late teens, and yet she calls someone, I'm assuming her mother, "momma?"

"Look, calm down alright? I'm not the one who put you here. I'm here to….."

She began to throw sand at me. "Stop! Get away! I…..I…."

She curled to the ground with her mouth gasping for air to sob.

"Why…..-cough- so hot….so dark –sob- I can't…..-cough- -cough- breathe…."

I moved toward her with my arms up, looking as sympathetic as I could.

"Look, I'm sorry. What's your name?"

She paused and looked up at me. "My…..my name?" She squeaked.

I nodded. "My name is Sam."

She just stared at me, her eyes were bloodshot and had the look of fear in them.

I smiled a little. "I was here, like you."

She swallowed, then coughed a bit.

"Fu…..Fujikawa. Ayano…..Fuji…..kawa." She strained.

I nodded. "Ayano. Ok Ayano, please, do you know where you are?"

She looked around the cage, then at the sand beneath her, and shook her head in confusion.

I sighed. "Ok, now please, don't be upset but…..you are in Impel….Down. The Marine prison."

That did it.

Her eyes grew wider in disbelief and sadness. "Wha…what?! WHAT?!"

She began dry heaving, trying to vomit up food she probably didn't have.

From what that kid had said from before, this place is called Starvation Hell. Don't think she would have food to vomit, nor tears to cry.

I tried to calm her.

"L-l-l-l-look-ook at me ok?" I stuttered. "I know, it sounds bad ok? But I'm…."

-CLANK-

Something clanked on the bars besides us, it scared the ever-loving crap out of Ayano.

"S…..Sam…"

Melissa was grasping on the metal bars for support.

Her temple was bleeding and there was also blood on her shirt.

She breathed heavily, looking like it was hard for her to stay awake.

"Melissa!"

I rushed outside to grab her before she fell over.

"What…..the rhino huh?"

She spat blood on the sand. "Yep."

I laid her next to the cage entrance.

"Who's…..who's the little girl?" She asked.

"Just met her. Her name is Ayano Kuji….something and she doesn't know she's in Impel Down. Hukufu and another guy are fighting the rhino monster."

"Minorhicertops." She corrected me. "Another demon guard."

I grunted in anger. "How many are there?"

"Five." She said. "Each one with a Zoan Devil fruit. Each one can take…..a lot of damage and they recover….fifty times faster than normal humans."

"Fuck." I said in anger. "So the last guy….."

"If he jumped out, he'll be ready to fight." She said, rubbing her arm.

"How bad are you beaten?"

"Enough so I can't fly." She said. "I don't recover as quickly as demon guards, but….."

She looked at me and smirked.

"Think, you can help me?"

"With what…"

She looked deep into my eyes.

They seemed to glitter with violet light.

She really is…beautiful.

"."

Her voice echoed in my mind.

"Yes….kiss…"

She yanked my shirt collar and pulled my lips to hers.

This….is….wrong…

My body was getting colder, by brain felt like it was vibrating.

I couldn't think. It felt like I was beginning to disappear…

-SMOOCH-

She pushed me away and I fell over.

I couldn't move my body.

The woman wiped her face and tried to stand up.

"S….Sorry. Didn't want to wait for an answer."

"Wha…..what did you….do to me?" I struggled to say.

Her temple stopped bleeding.

"I told you. I'm a Succubus. I feed off of men's life energy. Granted a kiss doesn't do nearly as much as…well…other things but I think it'll help for the time being."

It felt like my limbs had been coated in iron. Trust me, I've almost had that happen to me.

"You…fricken…..what's…."

She yanked me upward and smacked my back hard.

I immediately loosened up.

"All better. See?"

I shoved her away in anger.

"DEMON! WITCH! EVIL! What the fuck was that?!"

She sighed. "I just told you. I'm a…"

"I know what you said!" I shouted. "If you're gonna steal my energy or whatever why didn't fucking ask me?! Or, you know, NOT SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ME!"

"BECAUSE I WAS GONNA PASS OUT!" She yelled back. "I had to or I'd be out for a good long while!"

I glared at her.

I pointed at her. "Don't you EVER do that again!"

My limbs were still stiff. "So what? Am I gonna die young or what?"

"No! Of course not! It's not like we had sex!" She said casually. "I just borrowed a bit of your energy. You'll be fine in an hour or…maybe after a good night's rest?"

I grumbled and walked back into the cage, where a terrified and confused Ayano was still laying there.

I offered a hand. "Can you walk?"

She looked at her hand in confusion. "I….I don't know."

I offered a second hand. "Won't know until you try."