Fishy Encounters! (And Sisterly Faces!?)

chirp-chirp

chirp-chirp chirp!

Singing cicadas. Wind muscled trees. Midday sun shine. Why did it all look the same?

"Where..." the staggering wanderer blinked out the fuzz from his eyes. "Where..."

One thing Akaba knew for most his life: the sun...

...was damn hot.

Another thing Akaba knew, as he nearly tripped over a shrub root, recovered, then fell after barely avoiding crushing a slug: he wasn't much of a navigator.

Especially when your throat was dry, stomach famished, back hassling, and was that a fever coming on? Akaba grabbed his chest again, wishing he could vomit. Five woozy minutes later, and he was balancing himself against a tree trunk. He sighed disgracefully.

Even regurgitated mackerel was above him.

jingle

Figures!

"Maybe," he grumbled, wiping his forehead against a sleeve, "maybe I really wasn't cut out for the adventurers' life..."

The ole young and hapless sea-trotter was about to enter into a nostalgic flashback of some kind. One of reminiscing on the days of his starry-eyed, still naive tot-hood. Where he and his brother plagued the streets of their old hometown, where local rebel Tsujo would often butt heads with Nakaba and they'd bet Sandra's mostly imagined affections on it (before he mysteriously vanished, anyway), where Akaba first realized the sparkly freshness that came with said girls' distinct, ever-stirring presence, scent, smiles. And how jealous, secretly jealous, he was of Nakaba's indomitable freedom to do as he pleased and go up to them, never fearing the repercussions or what they'd think of him in the end, because at the end of the day he would always be Nakaba the Weirdo, and he was Akaba the Goodie-o and that was shmat. It wasn't fair; but in the same time, maybe it was. Was it?

At least, that would have been the sort of question he asked himself, following the sort of thoughts he would've thought and turned into dramatic elegy in the sort of way his mind-rattling headache would not trivially be contributing to, if he was alone and out of danger's way.

But he wasn't.

Instead, a faint rustle tipped his head in its direction, and he asked, "What's that?"

A second's scan reaped nothing of interest.

He was even hallucinating now, despite swearing having seen a gleam of tinted violet flash through the bushes. Wincing, he carried forward.

"Ha-ha, gotchya!"

Out from the nearby shrubs emerged a purple-haired young woman dressed in a cleavage-bearing, prominently collared white blouse with form fitting trousers and boots, apparently going in for the kill, whatever for. But it was a terrifying break from the serenity of the past half hour or so, no matter how pretty a break it was. Jumping, Akaba nearly had a heart attack and bolted away as quickly as his terrible reflexes could take him, spraying dirt from the sole of his shoe.

"Wha--who are you?!"

The triumphant giggle that followed was no less comforting and soon he was tackled to the ground by arms as flexible as a feline.

"Your worst nightmare, that's what!"

It was a futile and brief struggle, and no even breath later, he was swiftly knocked out. A hamfisted "oops" barely slithered past his ears as, the next thing he knew, life cut to black.

And... soft. Something perkily, inexplicably, painfully soft.

Bouncy, too.

---

Meanwhile, had you been trekking the outskirts of Gosa Village just shades away, you would probably have heard clattering teeth between the brush of waves on the shore.

Or, to be more accurate, what remained of the old pier town, anyway. Once a lively little settlement, it now lay in tatters, with roads cleaved into the dirt and all the buildings flipped on their head. No doubt the unassailable wrath of the Arlong Pirates, reckoned after the villagers had missed another payment deadline. Excessive, maybe. But effective.

Effectively a massacre, that was.

Speak of the devil, two at that very moment flopped out, scouring through the debris-laden street. One fishman, tall, rotund, and dressed in an opened shirt with a purple splotch patterns scattered across it, shook their head in aggravation, muttering under the sea breeze's howl. "He's fast for a human," he pounded a fist against a hand. "I'll give him that."

"That he is." His mer-mate, also in torso-bearing attire, grunted and lifted a slab of rock, only to find nothing but more rocks, and a snail. "Oh, again with the snails!" An air of grievance sat awkwardly between them. Then, they looked first at each other, then back down the horizon, seeking the next rock to upturn.

Just behind an overturned building on the other side trembled a frail-looking fellow in the cover of its shadow, the clattering of teeth, of course, having belonged to him only moments earlier. He was a lanky kid with a long, thin nose that jutted out of his face, wearing a green bandana over his circly, half puffed hair. Makeshift goggles were pulled up against it. He wore overalls that lazily covered his dark-beige body, pockets bulging with what only the imagination could presume: bugs? Handkerchiefs? A stress toy? Twigs?

Twigs.

If he was next to a twig during sports team recruitments, he'd probably still be picked last.

No, wait. The man corrected his posture self-consciously, eyes giving to dramatic introspection. He couldn't think that way.

He was the mighty pirate adventurer, Usopp; a titan among men, warrior among warriors, brave seafaring soul among brave seafaring souls! He had the hot blood of a **** crazed minotaur in him! What could simple glorified fishes do to a herculean manslayer such as he?!

"Y-yeahh, haha!" he fistbumped the air. "What can they do!?"

"Wait a second, you hear that?"

The long-nosed young man gulped, shrinking away into as nothing as best as nothingness could nothing-ify.

Just past the stretch of rubble, the two mermen drew an eyebrow at a nearby corner. They kept their gaze locked there for several seconds before one of them finally turned back, waving a hand.

"Ah, it was..." he swiveled his neck one last time before turning forward once and for all, "...nothing."

As their hobbling footsteps receded, Usopp breathed a sigh of relief, speaking quietly to himself. "Well, that's a relief... dammit Jonny! Where'd you run off to anyway?"

"You're telling me."

"That guy, nearly leaving me in their cold, wet clutches," Usopp frowned as he stuck out his elbow and leaned against the hardy blue-colored chunk of flesh that had appeared beside him, a pair of folded arms only inches above his rolling hair. "Well, at least I'm in the clear now. I guess I'll start with looking fo-ooooooorrrrraaahahagh!"

"Gotchya, you pesky human!"

Usopp reacted with a last-minute leap backward as the bellowing, droopy fishman swiped at him. The momentum caused the merman to run into the building and dip over a half-wall, however, giving Usopp time to laugh at his plight.

"Ha-ha! Almost had me there, didn't you?" He furled his brow with a cockneyed smirk. "What is it they say about hubris?"

"Damn you..."

The sound of scraping rock interrupted Usopp's heroic monologue, and he looked to see the merman with a rock in his arms the size of probably a third his body, being geared for a throw. It looked heavy. It looked real heavy. Usopp looked to some imaginary camera and squeaked out a nervous chuckle.

"AAHHH-HA-HAAGH DON'T KILL ME, GODS ABOVE SAVE MEE-HEE-HEEE!!"

Speeding by the two other mermen from earlier, they instantly dropped their own slabs of debris and, after recovering from their own surprised, jittery jumps, took to chasing. The merman that had found Usopp trailed shortly behind.

The pursuit snaked through the town, but, being pesky and human, Usopp remained firmly out of reach, able to keep a handy gap insistently between him and the devouring fish people on his tail. He turned his head their way with a confident grin.

"Hee-hee, these mermen may be twice whatever a human can be," a finger brushed the tip of his nose as he continued gloating, "but it's not like they can keep up with me on land! I'm used to this kind of stuff!" With another shout he started, "Oi, catch me if you can--UWWAHH!"

His taunt was cut short and with a swirl of dust. Landing on the ground after tripping over an outstretched leg, he flipped around to see a small kid dressed in an orange jacket and a green beanie raising a generic sword over his head. Talk about fodder. What was a pipsqueak like him doing around here, waving around something like that?

"Got you, merman!" Fierceness colored the boy's face, and with a spring he jumped into the air. "I'll kill you now, to avenge my father's ****!"

Usopp squawked, simultaneously preparing for the worst, crestfallen at his crazy turn of events, and hating the fact that he was about to be slain by some kid.

But of course, it wasn't the time.

A bonk! came to the rescue. Quickly following was a pained cry.

Still-alive and apparently barking up the wrong trees of everyone around here, Usopp opened the eyes he had been quick to shut. Correction, via a pleasant sight: a slender, blue-haired young woman had come to his rescue, dressed in typically casual attire for a warm, quasi-tropical island town. Her blue hair was wavy and effervescent, cropped above her shoulders and framing her face with a determined, assured attractiveness.

She held the boy with her arms while the kid rubbed his head in pain. Usopp didn't want to know.

"Don't fight the mermen," she spoke with a steady tone. A slight gloss shone across her lips, while part of a tattoo that went down her right arm spread out just under her collar bone, above her bosom. The casual yellow top she had on fit her body tautly, straps circling around her exposed shoulders as her soft skin glistened under the sun. "Have you forgotten? This village, Gosa Village, was devastated because somebody went against them."

Only as she spoke, and they crouched a couple breaths away from the long-nosed, alleged 'merman', were they able to get a closer look and realize that he wasn't in fact a merman at all. "What?" the blue-haired lady raised a brow suspiciously. "He looks like a merman, but he's actually human." The two glanced at the center of his face then back up. "Just a tad different."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'just a tad'?!" Usopp shouted.

The voices of the mermen came from beyond like raindrops on a parade. "Where'd he go? Over here?"

Usopp jumped up. "Here they come..."

"Merman!"

The young lady looked back as the kid stared on anxiously. "This time, it's the real thing." Two of the mermen split up, leaving one stomping in their direction. Though three to one still weren't good odds, considering that one fishman rivaled ten of their own kind -- and that wasn't even counting pipsqueaks!

With these two villagers helplessly gathered by his side, partially because of him, no less, Usopp found himself summoning his innate courage. This time, it was also the real thing.

"Stand back!" He prepared a combat stance, pulling out a green slingshot and aiming for the enlarging silhouette. "I, Captain Usopp, will protect you! If it's just one foe, I can do something about it! Take this..." With a fiery gleam in his eyes, Usopp drew the sling back, equipping it with a fatal projectile. Or close enough, anyway. "Satsu... NamariboshaaAAHHGHAARHG!"

Usopp's heroics were short-lived, and he fell cheek-first into the dirt. The blue-haired woman shook her head, handing the hammer she had in her grip to the boy next to him. "They're all the same," with one heave, the knocked out man's boots were wrapped in her hands as she dragged him into the nearby alley, the kid stodgily joining her. "I already told him not to pick a fight with the mermen, or we'll all get killed!"

Once they were secure, she peeked past the wall into the main road. Then she inhaled, hands around her mouth, and screamed. Two mermen punctually emerged. When they spotted the woman, they zipped towards her, not content just to hear what she had to say from afar.

"What's wrong!?" They stopped barely a foot away. While the fishman spoke, the other raised his arm to point at the woman.

As mentally rehearsed, the blue-haired broad began explaining...

"There's a man with, er, a l-l-long n--"

Her words, however, briskly caught in her throat as, unflinchingly, the merman to her right brought his arm forward then brushed his knuckles against her underboob and proceeded to squash her right breast in his hands, slide his fingers up to her nipple and with a jerk tugged her towards him. A part-groan, part-grunt escaped her lips as she allowed her breasts to be latched onto the burly mermen hands that handled her, hair trickling her cheeks while her face pointed earthward.

"Soto," cued bassy voice #1.

"Right," obliged #2.

With the woman slightly bent forward, he glanced at his partner and he took the hint. As he held on to the woman's boobs, making revolving circles with his hands that caused her torso to bounce up and down as if a feather, his crewmate stepped around to pinch her tight derriere. Then he pinched it again, on the other cheek, giving it a good hard wiggle between his fingers. Moving down to a stroke, his webbed hand proceeded to rub her behind, gingerly sloping up and down over and past the crack of her ass. His wavelike motions mirrored the sea-borne locomotions in their nature before he finally ended it with a light smack on her protruding junk.

That taken care of, the first fishman thrust his hands upward, propelling the woman back upright as her boobs tumbled into place. Her feet shuffled underneath her. She was still slightly off-balance before she realigned and straightened herself seconds of expert self-arrangement later. Then, looking down, she adjusted her wantonly slanted neckline, and with a brushe of a shoulder continued, "Oi, that was a bit rough. But anyways, as I was saying," her voice took a faint notch into shrillness once more, "there's a man! A man with a long nose!"

The other merman nodded, then feeling a bit lewd, squeezed her left breast, which she only dropped an eye to look at before looking back at him. "Where'd he go?" At that, she darted her eyes wayward.

"That way!" she returned voraciously, pointing towards the forestry.

"Let's go, Soto, we've wasted enough time!"

"Right!"

And like that, they darted off.

The woman breathed out, wiping her hands. "Well, that couldn't have gone any better," she grinned, then turned to the ****, if noble minded fool down the alley, back up against the building. The boy from earlier stood by his side, looking at her expectantly. Her eyes spoke of gratitude for not being caught. The fact that there were two mermen nearly dropped the shoe on them, since that meant, of course, a groping session was due. That merman tugging at her breasts and nipples like some horned bull was rough as any, though. "Probably a pervert," she mumbled before dropping down to the kid. She placed a hand on their conspicuous visitor's shoulder. "Hurry." Their eyes met in quiet urgency. "Bring him to my place."

The kid nodded and clasped a pant leg.

---

...the raging waters swept through the deck. Everyone was being swallowed up, as if through the mouth of leviathan.

"Akaba, catch!"

There, in the air.

It was flying...

It was...

"Nakaba!"

Sweat. Akaba placed a hand on his forehead.

He felt sweaty. His eyes dropped down to the flimsy sheet covering his legs, then rotated his gaze to his surroundings.

"Where am I?"

"Home, darling!"

The floor creaked under the pair of nimble legs that slid into view. Something seemed to be bubbling in the kitchen, too. Akaba turned his eyes up to the open doorway, and gasped.

"You!"

"What's wrong, hun?" His graceful attacker smiled devilishly, twirling an earring between the tips of her fingers. "Is it the amnesia again?"

Akaba just stared, unsure what to say. "What?" He felt a funny sensation as the scenario continued playing out. Talk about deja vu.

The purple-haired woman just giggled again, the movement causing some eye-pleasing effects to her gifted chest. "Shishishi! Just kidding! We're actually not husband and wife, and you don't have amnesia," she lifted up the little item in her hands up to her face then winked. "I'm a thief."

Akaba's eyes widened once he noticed the earring in her position. The very ones he and Nakaba had been holding onto! He brought his hand to his ear, and felt the handcrafted outline tickle his fingertips. He exhaled. So she only had one half of the pair.

"That's the one you had on you. This one fell before I even had a chance to snatch it." Tearing her eyes away from the shimmering item, she grinned mockingly at Akaba's stiff discomfort. "Don't worry, I don't plan to do anything to ya! I just wanted to talk, actually. Besides." Two hands were pointed upward, towards the ceiling. "Wouldn't want to mess up my own sis's house."

"Sis?"

"Yeah! You might know her. She goes by the name, Nami?"

"No, I don't..." Akaba stopped and gave her a closer look. "Wait."

The image of the orange-haired young lass, and her flat look as he squeezed her breast, flashed through his mind.

"That Nami?" he returned his attention to the real woman before him. "You..?"

The girl's grin deepened. Unbeknownst to him, she had heard him utter her name while ****. She was planning to just leave him there in the forest, but with that utterance crossing paths with her in such a way, she felt this was her lucky day, and dragged him to that cat burglar's house up the trail.

It had been a long time since she last was here. But she remembered the look on Nami's face as clearly as ever. And her two words: 'Get out!' She sighed theatrically. The rudeness of it. And all she was trying to do was pay her back after that little abandonment fiasco...

Nevertheless, a year later, they had stumbled across one another again. Except, this time, Nami was the one doing the backstabbing -- yes, that little island hopping thief had stolen from her, another thief, sure, but stolen nevertheless and ran with it when her guard was down. She was getting good at this, that Nami. But as they say; honor among thieves, or something like that.

And I, Carina, am not one to go down without a little resistance, my fellow thief-lady. Carina chuckled to herself, only to be suddenly interrupted by a swinging hand.

"Gimme that back!"

Carina jumped to the side. The wobbly footed kid pushed himself up against the ledge, panting. One eyebrow arched against Carina's forehead as he tried to stead himself.

"That's my brother's!" he breathed, pointing at her. "And... I need it... for things."

"Oh?" Carina curled a lip. "'Things', 'ey? Well, how about we strike a deal. I give you back this valuable heirloom of yours, and you take me to where Nami is."

"I thought you said you were sisters," Akaba replied. "You should know this place better than I do."

"We are, but, well, I left when I was suuper little! I forgot most of the layout here and so much has changed!" she lied, batting her eyelashes at him. "Pleease, you understand, right? Pleease? Besides, I saved your life! You owe me!"

"Wait a minute..." Akaba eyed her carefully, trying not to ogle while he did. No ogles. Ogles, bad! Though, it didn't help that she was slightly leaned forward, clearly giving him an intentional view of her perky, bulging chest. This woman -- she was clever. She was to be kept an eye on. Or... (sigh) Never mind. "Wait a minute, you were the one who knocked me out in the first place! I can't trust you!"

Carina straightened, laughing nervously. "Right. The truth was, I was hoping to interrogate -- I mean, ask for the information I just explained I'm looking for, of Nami, that is. But, well, after what you did, I had to knock you out."

"What?! Why?" Akaba was growing more and more skeptical of this person with each growing second. And increasingly enamored with her and her hypnotic body and photogenic face and, and boy, was he conflicted.

"Don't blame me!" she jumped back, folding her arms. Bounce. Akaba tore himself away. "You were the one who tried to grab my chest!"

Upon the out-of-the-blue accusation, Akaba's jaw opened, and he felt his face flush red. "N-no, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"I..." Did he? He didn't even remember anything -- it all happened so fast! If he did, he didn't mean to; he was just flailing his arms in search of anything to hold on to! Feeling self-conscious, he asked, "Well, what kind of person introduces themselves as 'your worst nightmare'?" At the last minute, Akaba drudged up the memory of her pounce and reactive declaration and he shook his head. "Were you trying to give me a heart attack? It would be more normal if all women like you introduced yourself by describing the hottest parts of themselves like they were just sex objects on sale, or something!" Spluttering on, he flabbed, "And if they flashed any man they knock out so aggressively, for being a perv or otherwise, afterward just to balance things out!"

It took a second, or maybe half a second. But as soon as his sentence left his mouth he felt like flying forward, swallowing it, and every other word he'd spoken in his life, whole, and letting it die in the annals of his intestines as he crawled away.

But as he stood there, sweat beads dripping down his temples, he realized it was too late. With light streaming through the bedroom window, he dropped open his mouth to begin his incompetent apology.

The slender, crafty woman in front of him, however, slapped her forehead, speaking up before he could make his case. "I knew I was forgetting something. Sorry." Then with a tap of her chin, she looked down, straight at the treasure of a chest below her. After coming to some internal decision, her fingers danced down to her buttons, loosening the shirt's top coverage, then pushed down hard.

boing!

"Theere we are," Carina donned another playful smile, watching her two globes sit partially exposed below her over the curl of her collar, in front of the stranger she was lucky to stumble upon in her search for miss thief-of-thieves. She glanced up at him. Speaking of which, she hoped he was getting a decent eyeful of her tits -- which she knew were pretty great, by the way. After all, she hit him pretty hard. He was lucky a gal like her had come along in his wake! "Want the bra off, too, or is this little show fine enough?"

Akaba was too busy staring, a string of drool hanging down his mouth. Seriously? Carina rolled her eyes. Kid really was a perv, through and through. Staring at her boobs like they were hypnotic crystals.

"Helloo-oo?" She sneered. Well, might as well oblige. With a mirthful eye, she drooped down slightly and jiggled her breasts from side to side. They were firm and perky, so mimicked less of a pendulum and more of a sturdy plate of jello. And was sure to be a welcome sight to any virginal guy in the perimeter, hint hint. She looked up with a twinkle. "Oooh yeah, you having a good time there, earring-boy?"

Her reply was only a gulp, and she giggled, taking that as a yes. Then she lined her back against the wall.

"Well!" Cozily, she pulled her shirt back over her wonderful tits and buttoned it up. "Now that that's taken care of, I guess I should introduce myself, now that ya mention it." She tossed another wink and flipped a strand of hair from her eyes. "I'm Carina, and I have great tits to squeeze and stick your face into, with a body and ass that's just as mm-mmm exquisite!" She paused for effect before continuing. "Nice to meet you, mister...?"

Akaba stammered out his name, and Carina gripped his hand in what could've passed for a handshake if you were far away enough.

"...Akaba! Nice name! So, Akaba," she leaned towards him and held a finger hairs away from his face, once again showing off her cleavage -- as if she hadn't just pulled her whole tits out for him to see. "As my totally willing servant and indebted, eternally grateful partner, it's time to commence Operation Find Nami!"

"I..."

"Off we go!" Carina cheered, and like a nomad with his spear, grabbed Akaba and threw him straight out the open window. While his croons faded out, she hopped onto the window ledge, looking at the earring in her own hands, thinking it might look nice on her.

Nah, she pocketed it, and jumped outside, letting the window fall shut, though not before nabbing her trusty bag of goods and at-hand materials. Too tacky for moi. Who knows, though... maybe they'll have a mirror through one of the towns for me to check it out with!

And in a flash, the house was quickly abandoned.

Meanwhile, down the trail leading to the front porch, a blue-haired young woman was helping a boy carry a merman -- er, long-nosed man, up to the reclusive home.

Singing cicadas. Wind muscled trees. Mid day sunshine. It all seemed to blur together.

"How much further, Nojiko?" came a boyish voice.

Turning down to look at the straining young trooper, she smiled assuringly then faced forward. "Almost there, Chabo. A little further."

The boy grumbled, mustering the little strength he had left.

One thing he knew for most of his life: the sun...

...was damn hot.