I don't own One Piece

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Katsu's POV
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Numb. There was nothing. No pain. No tingling. No heat. Just... Nothing. It's been a while since my whole body has lost feeling.

I'm assuming my body is lying down, though it wasn't confirmed until I opened my eyes. Above me were familiar wooden boards. A soft rocking of movement could be sensed, allowing me to come to my senses. Moving my head to the side, I looked towards the only source of bright light flooding into my room. Then I heard the noises.

From the footsteps above me, I assumed my crew was up and running. Faintly I heard their voices, and laughter. Then the faint sound of an instrument, a violin. It had a smooth sound, a bow no doubt gliding over the strings delicately enough to make the strings purr. The notes were fast paced and perfect for my excited crew.

"He joined then," I muttered with a smile, my voice hoarse and throat dry. Looking over once more, my eyes landed on a glass of water placed beside my bed. Condensation covered the sides of the glass as the ice had began to melt.

Slowly, I forced my limbs to move. While I knew I was physically moving, I couldn't feel myself do so. It's frustrating. I reached both hands for the glass. Not wanting to use too much strength to lift the glass, otherwise I would shatter it in my hands like last time. Eyeing my hands, I wrapped them around the glass and brought it to my lips.

Thankfully the liquid stayed in my mouth, and relief filled my dry throat as the cool liquid slid down. A sigh left me and I slowly placed the glass back beside my bed.

It was then that I noticed my bandaged body. Blinking I saw my chest completely wrapped up, almost enough to act as a cast. My arm, which I remember being the one that was shot, also bandaged.

However, it wasn't the bandages that freaked me out, but rather the absent of bandages. My left shoulder was left completely bare. Allowing the scared over brand to show to the world. Quickly, as instincts kicked in, my right hand threw itself over the mark that scared me.

Pressing my lips together into a frown I couldn't bring myself to move. They had seen it. They had seen the scar that pains me the most.

They probably didn't trust me anymore.

They probably hated me now.

My chest hurt. No, my body was numb. My heart hurt. Breathing felt harder to do, and I swore I could hear the painful thumping of my heart.  Did they still even want me?

The clicking of the door made my ears twitch, but I didn't look. Instead I moved my head further down, allowing my face to be covered by my hair.

A gasp was heard, then a high pitched squeak. "Katsu!"

All movement stopped then I heard running. I didn't have time to look us as two bodies tackled me down for a hug.

"You're awake!" My eyes landed on the Straw Hat. Luffy was one of the bodies who tackled me.

"You're okay!" Long nose. Usopp was the other body.

"Idiots!" Nami, Sanji, and Chopper yelled. "She just woke up and you're going to hurt her again!"

Nami and Sanji pulled the two off of me as the last of our crew entered the room.

Franky sniffed, his lip trembling. "Katsu's finally awake. That's SUPER good!"

"It's good that you're up, artist-san." Robin smiled, walking over to the bed.

Zoro, not much for words, gave a small smile towards me.

"Katsu-chwan!" Sanji spun, hearts in his eyes. "I'll make you some delicious food to help speed your recovery!"

"Yohohoho!" Brook grinned towards me. "It's good to see Katsu finally awake! Ah, but I don't have any eyes!" He let out another laugh. "Skull joke!"

I stared at the crew. My crew. They were all smiling and appeared happy. They... didn't hate me? My grip on my arm tightened, making my nails dig into my skin. It wasn't until my arm became slippery did I realize how tight my grip had become.

"You're bleeding!" Chopper cried, jumping on the bed. "Let me see!"

The crew had grown quiet again, their attention on me. Quietly I shook my head.

"I'm fine." I whispered.

"No, you're bleeding." Luffy puffed out his cheeks. "Chopper is the doctor, he has to look at you."

"But..." I muttered, my hand being removed easily by the Captain. Feeling everyone's eyes I looked away, my head down as Chopper quickly cleaned my arm and bandaged it.

"There, it's good now." Chopper smiled, sitting down on the bed.

"Ne, Katsu? What's wrong?" Luffy asked, "Do you want meat? Are you hungry?"

Nami sighed, shaking her head at Luffy. "Obviously, it's the brand on her arm!" Usopp shouted, quickly followed by multiple slaps.

"Idiot!" Franky, Nami, and Sanji growled.

"Why would that make Katsu sad?" Luffy tilted his head.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, breaking my crew's bickering.

"Why?" Luffy whined, not liking how lost he was.

"The mark." I uttered.

"Huh?" Luffy tilted his head again, looking at my bandaged arm. "That? Why would you be sorry for it?"

A stiff nod came from me. "I'm sorry I haven't shown it to you all."

"Can you explain it?" Nami asked, taking a step closer.

I didn't raise my head to look at them. "I don't remember much. But what little I got from the memory..." I winced, remembering searing pain that had entered my body. It was my first memory to receive. Just looking at the mirror the first time had triggered it.

"What I got... when the marines had me it was decided I was 'government property', because of what they were planning to do." I swallowed, my voice low as I tried to force the words out. "So, they did what anyone does with property. They marked me. In this case, I got branded with the marine logo."

I couldn't bring myself to look at my crew. "This was actually how I, myself, figured out that I was being experimented on. It was one of the two memories that I had before I met you guys."

Nami blinked, "Didn't you tell us before that you only had one memory before meeting us?"

I pushed my lips together, then nodded. "Mamoru didn't know of this memory. I let him come up with his own idea.  This memory..." I cleared my throat. "I'd rather forget." I didn't move as my crew greeted me in silence. Each second ticked by with a loud thump of my heart.

"Then we'll forget."

I froze, my eyes widening before they snapped up to look at the owner of the voice. His normally childish grinning face showed no laughter or anger. Rather, for once, my captain looked completely serious.

"Luffy..." I whispered.

"How can we forget something like that?!" Usopp shouted.

"Captain's orders." Luffy stated, glancing at Usopp.

"That's not how memory works!"Usopp yelled.

Robin smiled, "Ah, it appears I forgot what we were talking about."

"Ow!" Franky grinned, "Super me too!"

"I wasn't listening, what happened?" Zoro glanced over at me.

"What?!" Usopp clenched his head looking over the crew.

"Yohohoho! I don't appear to remember anything that just happened!" Brook shrugged, "Though I don't have a brain to remember!"

"Katsu-chwannn!" Sanji fake cried, "I completely missed your whole conversation! Your beauty had my breathlessly distracted! Forgive me!"

"Guys!-" Usopp was knocked to the ground by Nami.

"Calm down, Usopp!" Nami demanded.  "Clearly you were dreaming something weird. Katsu just got up, you should be happy!"

By now my arm was completely wrapped up again, thanks to Chopper. Though I found myself completely stunned by my crew.

They didn't hate me.

They're pretending not to know, for the sake of me.

I believe I'm fortunate to have this crew.

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End of Chapter 23! Really short chapter... so Technically this chapter was originally longer, but I think with the flow it works much better to stop this chapter here. Since this is so short I'm going to try to upload the next chapter as quickly as I can!

I hope I'm not writing these characters OOC... Hope you guys enjoyed it!

I don't own One piece