Third Person POV

The young teen groans - low and overdue - as she rolls over, her arms spread on either side, legs tucked up beneath her. A staccato drumbeat threads through every vulnerable inch of her mind, muddling thoughts and adding insult to injury.

She feels like crap, put simply.

The hell happened...? She turns her head to spit out a mouthful of gritty, damp sand. Sand. A clue. O-k. She's on a beach. Good start. Gritting her teeth, she pries open unwilling eyes, only to furiously blink them against the harsh glare of the sun above. She'd enjoy the whimsical golden light if she weren't so used to the tranquil darkness of her subconscious at this point.

The girl tosses an arm over her eyes and further draws her legs up. Using the familiar stength in her lithe legs, she flips to her feet, arms spread for balance, head cocked to listen for approaching footsteps. Hearing nothing - and regaining her footing - she grins triumphantly to herself, thinking there's no one else to bear her fangs for.

A soft, muffled moan distracts her as she's dusting the sand from her clothing. What a day she chose to wear all black.

Her head whips around, pinpointing the source within seconds. Another Cheshire smile tugs at her grain-speckled lips.

"Kay! You made it!"

The raven-haired girl lying some feet away in the sun-washed sand answers only in another groan - this one clearly more to express her annoyance at the red-head's voice than her situation. "I must be cursed, to always end up in unbearable events with you, Demon."

This, of course, results in a tongue of crackling flames being hurled at her unprotected body. The ravenette reacts quickly, pushing an arm beneath her and managing to vault into a vertical position, her legs poised as though to run, the muscles in her fair arms bulging with the strain of holding her entire weight. The fireball sails harmlessly past, doing no more damage than singing a few strands of her pitch-black hair.

"Even when stranded on a desert island, you manage to throw childish temper tantrums," Kay chides as she twists herself upright, planting both boot-clad feet on the unstable sand. The girl across from her pouts, her nose in the air, both eyes closed to the Kay's impressive display.

"Don't give me that crap," she spits. "I'm childish? Hell, I'm not the one who's always picking at people's weak points! Kami! You know why I hate that freaking epithet. Ya don't have to tease me about it all the time."

"No," Kay agrees, curling her lips in a wry smile, "I suppose I don't. I just see you as a long-lived source of entertainment."

Slapping a hand over her twitching eye, the red-head twists on her heel, facing away from Kay. "Whatever. Just... gah! Whatever!" Clenching her hands into fists does little to staunch her growing anger. "You said something about a deserted island?"

Kay - otherwise known as Black-Heart Kay, simply Black-Heart, or Katana - rolls her eyes at the brutally obvious change in subject. "That's correct." She nods her head at the rolling ocean bordering their stretch of beach. "You don't recall being thrown overboard by the turbulent waters?"

The red-head laughs awkwardly. Her memory is more than a little foggy, at best.

Sighing, Kay folds her arms over her chest, dislodging the sand gathered there with minimal effort. "Expected, I suppose, of your character. In any case, I doubt the Straw Hats have any idea of our current location, unless that navigator of yours works miracles. However, you, right now, are very, very lucky I was the one cast into the water with you instead of your moronic captain. Had the situation been different at the time, the both of you would be dead right now."

Finding herself unable to defend neither herself nor her captain, the red-head's lip twitch into a scowl and she throws her arms wide, expressing her exasperation adequately. "Look!" she hisses. "I'm not liking this situation any more than you are, Kay. So let's just try to be civil, ok? Just a little? Our dads fight less than us!"

Katana opens her mouth with a clever comeback aimed at the other girl's seemingly inept father, but clamps her jaw shut a moment later as her ears prick. A rustling in the bushes. Footsteps too heavy to be that of a simple predator's. She takes her gilded sword hilt in her hand. "Raya," she addresses the red-head, who blinks in response, "ready those asinine flames of yours. We're expecting company."

"Company...?" Raya cocks her head to the side, positioning her better ear towards the vibrant jungle bordering their calm beach. At first, nothing. Then... "Ah. Gotcha." A wicked grin spreads across Raya's thin lips. Deciding to mix it up a bit, she allows flames to curl around the soles of her boots, inching up the leather and faded black jeans alike. Raya draws back one foot in the sand, leaving a patch of smooth, reflective glass in its wake.

Katana studies the glassy surface with one half-impressed golden eye. "Hm. Perhaps you should give up your life of piracy in favor of the glass-making business?"

"Che" is Raya's only coherent response admist the slew of profanity she spits out.

Both girls' attention returns to the jungle when a high-pitched call splits the air. A signal. Raya's muscles itch to throw her into the fray but she holds herself in check. Katana's yet to make a move, yet to even take a cautious, flighty step towards the trembling foliage. Though she trusts her instincs, she trusts Katana's keen observational skills more so.

The air buzzes with tension, begging to be broken by movement. Still, each side remains unmoving, still as death and all his friends.

Then, a flash of sunlight off glimmering obsidian steel, a whisper of unnatural wind, a resounding crack that tickles Raya's sensitive eardrums.

Two perfect halves of a wooden arrow shaft fall to the shifting sand on either side of Katana.

"Damn," Raya whistles appreciatively. "Those are some relfexes."

"Naturally."

"...You make me want to burn down cities, you know that?"

"And you, Miss Raya, cause me to yearn for the life of a Marine."

"Sorry...?"

"It's nothing." Katana dismisses the matter with a short wave of her pallid hand. She then flicks up two fingers - in the manner of someone gesturing to "watch me" - pointing them at the quivering leaves. "Do not, under any circumstances, let your guard down--"

Raya suddenly stiffens, a hand clawing for her neck in panic, before her muscles uncoil and numb. Her knees go first, buckling beneath her. She manages a sheepish, sloppy grin in Katana's general direction before her face buries itself in the sand.

Just before fluttering closed, her eyes flash: My bad.

Katana's carefully compose face slackens a moment in surprise, but it quickly pulled together again as she darts forward, relying on her newly-honed Haki to warn her of incoming porjectiles. Working in conjuncture with her practiced Observation Haki, she weaves around arrows and what she perceives to be blow-darts - the kind she suspects to be full of a potent narcotic - moving towards Raya as fast as the somewhat dire situation allows. She cuts down unavoidable arrows with Kuro Kishi, never pausing, until she's able to throw Raya over her shoulder and keep running down the length of the beach, unsure where to escape to.

Katana can't help but grunt under Raya's weight. It isn't much, certainly nothing her father would complain about - but Katana and Raya are of a similar build, with almost identical weights. She finds it difficult to weave a straight path across the sand, her steps unsteady and ungraceful, lacking their feline-esque grace. "You rotten excuse for a pirate," she growls between quickened intakes of breath. "There was no helping it, was there? You are the purest magnet for trouble I have ever come across. How the Straw Hats have survived as long as they have with you baffles me."

Struggling under Raya's added weight as she is, Katana fails to completely scale a fallen log in one jump; her boot snags on a protruding branch, pitching her towards the ground. Her Haki flares to life, warning her of a fast-approaching blow-dart; but she's unable to counter, too caught up in scrabbling to drag her lagging boot along with her. She curses quietly. How foolish of her.

There's an abrupt rush of scalding air that washes over her back, accompanied by the bitter scent of charred hair. Eyes widened ever-so-slightly, Katana chances a look over her shoulder to see a still-unconscious Raya, her arm parallel to the ground, palm open and facing the trees. Soft flames still writh around her fingertips.

A fallen dart lies blackened in the sand.

"Your Haki..." Kay breathes, finally regaining her footing enough to continue her awkward dash forward. She gives a miniscule shake of her head, raven locks falling back into place, returning her eyes to the scenery ahead of her. "You really do need a proper teacher, Raya. Such wasted talent, that you even react instinctually when your consciousness is overrun with darkness..."

A single dart proves to be as much Katana's undoing as Raya's, slipping past her numerous defenses and pricking the soft skin of her neck within seconds of leaving a hidden wooden tube. Another curse, another muttered threat, then a near-silent thud as she hits the ground, Raya cast to the side as ungracefully as was possible.

Dammit... Raya is going to die of laughter after this...

___________________________________

"...ey....Hey....Kay! You awake...?"

Her first sensation is the gentle brush of skin against her own. Raya, no doubt, tapping her palm against her cheek in an attempt to wake her.

Her second sensation is panic, however slight it may be. There is no presence at her hip, no weight, no kiss of black steel as she stretches reluctant fingers for a hilt she knows isn't there. Kuro Kishi.

"Oh. Ya looking for him? Sorry, they weren't very gentle. I woke up and he was on the ground next to me. Think they tossed him in after us."

Ignoring her clumping lashes, Katana blinks open her eyes, taking in the blurry scene before her. Raya, seated a few feet away, is patting the long, thin sword beside her, a complacent grin sitting comfortably on her lips. Fitting her slender fingers around his hilt, she lifts the katana into her lap, running her fingertips down the length of his gilded sheath. She whistles again, a lower pitch than before. "Little guy was really worried about you, Kay." Her voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper as she puts a hand up in front of her mouth. "Don't tell him I told ya, though. Swords like him get grouchy when they think you see them as softies."

Katana accepts Kishi in a daze, trying to shake the confusion from her mind. "What... what's the present situation?"

"Take a look for yourself." Raya waves a hand around them, Katana's narrowed eyes following the flapping movement.

All around them are thick bars, much taller than they are wide - at least twice the height of Aokiji of the World Government. The outside world, however, is shrouded in black.

"You now know every single thing I do about what the hell is going on here."

"That's reassuring," Katana murmurs sourly.

"Why... why do I feel like that's some sort of jab at me...?"

"Think of it what you will," Katana interjects, mercilessly slitting the current conversation's supple throat. "In any case" - she inclines her head at the surrounding bars - "why haven't you simply melted these things?"

Raya sighs. She coats her tan hand in flames, staring into the crackling depths a bit too forlornly for Katana's liking. "You think I haven't tried?" She tosses her head back, looking to lean it against the closest bar, only to jerk it forward an instant later, a hiss seeping through her gritted teeth. Katana's face lights up with recognition a moment before Raya explains. "I don't know where the hell these natives got the stuff, but it's pure, 100% Seastone. I don't think they know I'm a Devil Fruit user, but that's not really the point. I can't touch the bars without losing all my strength, so that idea is a complete and utter bust."

"Charming," Katana mutters dryly.

The two most likely would continue their bickering, regardless of who or what might be listening, but fortunately - or unfortunately - the arrival of torch-bearing man causes the conversation to fade away into nothingness.

He's not much taller than the girls (though of course that isn't saying much), slim enough to indicate malnutrition, and dark-skinned. Far surpassing Raya's modest tan. The only thing resembling clothing on him is a black loincloth that Raya immediately averts her eyes from.

Sanji's motto may be "less is more" when it comes to clothing but Raya is not a firm believer in the practice. Hence her rather convservative style of dress (when in comparison to the other woman on her crew).

Dark smudges are rubbed underneath his coal-black eyes - tribal paint, Raya realizes. And upon closer inspection, she notices his skin isn't quite as dark as she'd thought - the coloring comes from the closely-packed tattoos littering his limbs. Under the flickering light of the torch, she's only able to make out a handful of the inkings. One in particular stands out to her.

A raven caught in mid-flight.

Weird, she thinks, raising a brow at the seemingly random image.

The man opens his mouth to speak, but it takes a moment for Raya and Katana to make sense of the guttural noises scratching past his lips. What a toll these sounds must take on his throat, Katana notes, somewhat intrigued by the pattern of speech.

"You... be... sacrifice. Choose one. Only one. Other die."

Something is tossed through the bars of the cage, landing with an almost imperceptible plop between them in the sand. Raya looks back at the man, bemused - but he's already retreating back into the darkness.

"Sacrifice?"

"I'd like to think his halting words are the least of our worries."

Raya crawls forward on hands and knees, peering at the object Katana now cradles in her hands. Fairly large, round but most certainly not smooth - ridges are raised all around the foreign object in some indiscernable pattern.

Indiscernible, that is, until Katana prompts Raya to bring forth of small tongue of flame and warm, red-orange light spills over them.

Her breath hitches in her throat. "You... can't be serious..."

A pitch-black Devil Fruit sits in Katana's lap.

"One of is, supposesly, going to eat this." Katana taps the fruit with tentative fingers, as though worried some ghastly being will spring forth from its flesh at the slightest provocation. She isn't that far off, Raya thinks. "I assume it has something to do with that sarcrifice he mentioned. Perhaps whenever they have straggling seamen wash up on their shores, they use them as offerings to a god of theirs?"

"But it's not like they have an unlimited supply of fruits," Raya says, glaring reproachfully at the indicated fruit. "And, I mean, it's just weird, forcing someone to eat a Devil Fruit just to kill them? What's up with that?"

"I'm not quite sure about the second point," the ravenette replies, "but I believe I've at least grasped the first. They wouldn't need an unlimited supply of fruits; just this one would due, probably."

Raya's brow furrows in confusion.

"What I mean to say is, you're aware that when a Devil Fruit user dies, their respective Devil Fruit reappears somewhere else, no?"

"Yeah, Dad told me..." The confusion clouding Raya's face suddenly smooths over, replaced by a look of astounded understanding. "You're saying... that whenever someone bites the dust from this ritual, the fruit just regrows on this island, all ready to kill another poor guy?"

Katana nods gravely, unconsciously tracing the spiral designs decorating the Devil Fruit.

"Great..." The red-head leans back in the sand, her hands digging shallow holes among the grains. She tilts her head back, eyes-closed, face turned towards the blank sky. No stars dot the darkness, nor the moon swallow the shadows. A wry grin twists her lips. "This is just our luck, ain't it? We get stranded on some deserted island, with no way to contact the Straw Hats, and then we've got some crazy tribe aiming to kill us both, whether we're in the ritual or not." A soft sigh lifts her bangs from her forehead. "I deserve a goddamn medal, I really, really do."

"I'll eat it."

Raya's head snaps up. She can't believe the calm, tranquil pools of sunlight Kay's eyes have become. She's completely serious. "...What?"

"I'll eat it," Katana repeats, in the tone of one speaking to a toddler. "You can't, obviously, or you'll most likely die. And we'll die anyway if the both of us refuse."

"That's no reason to make such a stupid decision!"

Katana quirks a brow. "Isn't it, though?"

As Raya turns her gaze downwards, going over the validity of her statement, Katana takes the opportunity to take a shallow bite from the fruit. To her credit, she only faintly winces from the god-awful taste and gently sets the fruit back down.

"What the hell?!" Raya demands, grabbing Kay by the collar and dragging her face close to hers. "You don't even know what the hell that thing'll give you! Didn't your dad ever teach you not to eat weird food?! And you're just gonna let yourself get sacrificed?! It's not like it'll accomplish anything! I"m dying too, remember?!"

Ever the calm one, the ravenette gently pries Raya's trembling hands from her neckline. "It's done now, isn't it?" Yellow orbs meet frantic morganite eyes. "Calm down, Raya. Whoever said I'd given up?"

She sits back on her heels, awaiting some surge of power to coarse through her veins. Raya had mentioned she didn't feel a thing after consuming the Flame-Flame Fruit, but Katana wondered if that was a special case. Though, now, with a similar unchanged feeling inside her, she conclused the girl was right. If one didn't know what a Devul Fruit was - as in Raya's case - it wasn't hard to imagine they wouldn't find out they'd eaten one until much later.

"You've... got a plan, eh?"

A white crescent appears in the gloom, the only indication of Katana's smile. "I'm quite adaptable, I assure you. Whatever powers I've obtained, I'll work something out. Simply be ready to comply with my directions."

A long stretch of silence ensues, making Katana wonder if she'd have to beat the idea into Raya by force. Then:

"Yeah. Whatever. Do whatever the hell you'd like."

_________________________________

"Come."

An order, not a statement nor an invitation.

"Eh, good luck," Raya whispers as Katana stands, dusting the grit from her dark clothing. "You're still.... er, a little unstable, ya know?"

"I'm well aware." Katana's voice is barely audible, but perfectly clear to Raya's keen ears. She allows herself a small, satisfied smile as the cage door is pried open and Katana is led away. Unstable? Perhaps. But with Katana's incredible adaptability and natural intelligence, she feels more pity for their captors than her rival.

Katana is barely aware of the crushing grip nearly breaking her wrist. Her thoughts are wandering, swimming through earlier conversation with Raya. She relaxes her shoulders as she walks, not urged to stiffen them at all even when a serrated spear tip is pressed lightly to her throat. A warning. Nothing more.

"Just don't think about it," Raya had told her, smiling her rather charming crooked smile. "Let it come naturally. I mean, hell, I found out about my powers by accident! I wasn't trying for anything at all. I think you'll get it pretty quickly, so try not to worry."

Worry? Worry is an emotion far from Katana's mind at the moment. Rather, she feels slightly exhilerated at the prospect of testing out her newfound powers.

The next few minutes pass by in a blur. Katana, only half paying attention, feels herself being led into a open space, one that seems to suit her need perfectly. Ironic, but welcome. She feels herself being positioned in the middle of the clearing, feels a tight, coarse rope binding her wrists together. A rough, halting voice tells her not to move and does she want to be killed before it's necessary?

It takes a considerable amount of her willpower to keep from smirking outright.

Hooding her eyes, the ravenette scans the clearing, picking out about a dozen archers, all in similar garb as her first native. Except one. A short, withered man sits propped up on a beautifully decorated rock structure, a black-feathered headress perched on his long, braided hair, no darker than fesh-fallen snow. A spear is clenched in his wrinkled hand, pointed skywards.

Katana senses not an ounce of malice from him at all.

The archers, however, are another story entirely.

"You." The old man - presumably the leader of this tribe - speaks in a harsher voice than the man from before. Creaking with age but brimming with experience. His english (A/N: Japanese, whatever) is also notably smoother. "You will be sacrficied to our god, Karasu."

Katana's slow smile glints with sudden understanding. The old man ignores her and continues.

"As an apology for the day he was mistakenly shot by our ancestors' arrows, you will be shot by those same arrows. To further show the depth of our apology, you have eaten from Karasu' sacred fruit, given to us by the god himself so that we may repent for our past sins."

Kay is nodding now. She'd suspected something so ludicrous.

"Now" - he raises his weathered hand, a signal for the archers to pull their bows taut - "prepare to die for the honor of Karasu!"

The bows snap in unison - evidence of just how many lives have been taken in this barbarous ritual - and a dozen arrows slice through the air, heartbeats from puncturing Kay's pale flesh.

Her smirk is finally released, more menacing than even Raya would have imagined.

A chill frosts the air as she uncoils the tightly wound muscles in her lithe legs and leaps upwards, tucking her legs under her, tight enough that the arrows sail cleanly beneath her without incident. Her arms spread on instinct and - after a moment's molten panic that she would never admit to - she feels soft, downy feathers brush against her frigid skin.

From her back, two magnificent wings grace the night air. They are easily fifteen feet across - more than enough to lift her thin frame off the ground. Contricting the muscles of her back, she forces the wings downwards, and the resulting force sends her spiraling upwards at speed, the soft, tantalizing breeze kissing her cheeks and tugging a genuine smile from her lips.

A chorus of loud, unabashed gasps sound from below, and Kay angles herself towards them to better see their shocked faces.

"I suppose it's safe to assume you've never had anyone adept enough to master these wings in the short amount of time given to them, hm?" she asks innocently.

No one closes their gaping mouths long enough to answer her.

"Well..." Katana winces as one wing refuses to repond to her commands, curling in on itself at an awkward angle so that she's sent barrelling towards the ground. She only just manages to straighten it out and glide upwards again before connecting with the springy grass. Regaining her composure, she once again smiles mockingly at those watching her semi-graceful form from the ground. "Farewell, then!"

The ravenette easily maneuvers out of range of the tribe's arrows and coats in the direction Raya's cage is meant to be. Catching sight of said red-head, she dives downwards, calling out, "Raya! Toss Kuro Kishi!"

To her credit, Raya doesn't do much more than bat an eyelash at Katana's transformation. Instead, she heeds the girl's words and throws Kuro Kishi straight up and through the bars of her suffocating cage.

The contraption falls with one swing of the black blade, and Raya crawls out from the wreckage, the wickedest smile on her face.

Katana hadn't been able to cut down the bars from inside, as there hadn't been enough room for her to do much more than stretch her arm out fully. But out here, in the open air, it's a simple task with no need of praise.

"That has to be the coolest thing I've seen--" Raya's rant on Katana's Devil Fruit abilities is cut short as the black-haired girl tightens arms just under her chest and pulls her from the ground in one swift motion, bringing them back up above the treeline with a few powerful flaps of her wings.

"Heh. Damn, Kay. You're really a raven now, ain't ya?"

Bird-Bird Fruit: Model: Raven.

A very appropriate fruit for Dracule Katana, if Raya's ever seen one.

"I suggest you don't crack jokes about this particular subject. I imagine it'll be bad for your health."

"Eh... fine. Whatever." Raya cocks her head to the side, unafraid as she glances down at the rapidly changing scenery below. Green trees, pale sand, then dark, rolling waves. "What d'ya think the Straw Hats are gonna say about this?"

"....I'm not sure."

"Eh, they'll love ya anyway. Luffy especially. He thinks all this Devul Fruit stuff is cool. So no worries, 'k?"

"Mmm," Katana merely hums her agreement, concentrating more on using the rising air currents from the water to her advantage. Without having them partially take away the strain of her flight, she figures she'd drop Raya after only a few minutes, and they would surely need more than that meager amount to locate the Straw Hats' ship.

"So... you gonna try morphing into a full bird anytime soon? Cause I was thinking, it'd be really cool if I had a raven on my shoulder instead of a parrot! I mean, how awesome would that be?"

Almost. Katana may have almost let Raya fall to her death at the hands of the Sea Devil.

Almost.