Chapter Text
Chapter One
[{Third}]
It'd only been two weeks since he woke up in this new world. Two weeks since he'd gone from being in his thirties to fifteen again. So many things were different, and yet many things were the same. Like he still held his Devil Fruit powers but now he could swim. He no longer sank like an anchor due to the Devil Fruit side effects. Er… weakness. However he also had a new power too, one that he knew damn well belonged to Donquixote Doflamingo.
Kael kept many things when he fell into this world, like Corazon’s precious coat. Which was good but he also still had his … his curse. The slave branding from the Celestial Dragons from when he was younger. He'd hoped that whatever entity that brought him here got rid of it. He'd fallen into this world when the last of his crew went to help the Strawhats in defeating Kaido, so he still had many injuries from that battle as well.
Kael wanted to scream but he constantly kept himself silent with his Devil Fruit, the Nagi Nagi no mi. The Calm fruit. The Devil Fruit that used to belong to his precious friend, Corazon or Donquixote Rosinante. He was able to keep this up but with his left arm still out of commission he'd been unable to properly fight the thugs that had kidnapped him. The idiots didn't take any of his stuff but he was crammed into a small cage, his only padding coming in the form of his coat he gained from Corazon. Unfortunately he wasn't the only kid, because he was a kid now, in a cage. There were several of them lining the wall, many filled with either a teen slash child or an animal. It wasn't thugs that kidnapped him but traffickers, fuckin great.
Kael patiently baited his time as he had a thin string from his Ito Ito no mi carefully wrapped in a key shape. It had taken two hours to make the key to be the exact copy to unlock his cage. His purple eyes pierced hatefully at the traffickers as they went to investigate a suspicious sound. It was then that he pounced, string key unlocking his cage and immediately started to morph as it was jammed into the cage next to his that ‘housed’ a young boy with dirty blond hair and gray eyes. The kid couldn't have been older than seven or eight years old. The young boy was crying when the cage door opened and Kael raced to the next cage as the sound of fighting reached them. It seemed there were rescuers here, most likely the costumed folks that ran around at night.
Kael had almost over half of the cages open when a bunch of the traffickers raced in while shooting their guns at something else behind them. Kael gave a silent growl and grabbed a nearby pipe to swing at the men. The man that Kael hit slumped to the ground when the Armament Haki covered pipe hit him in the stomach, bits of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Making sure not to overestimate his reach he proceeded to down twelve of the traffickers before a figure swooped in and downed the remaining traffickers. The man that swooped in wore an armored long sleeve with a large red bat across the chest, a leather jacket, cargo pants, and an obnoxious red helmet that covered the man's entire head. Kael snarled at the man when he tried to approach him from where he kneeled on the ground, his uninjured arm clutched close as his palm pressed into a bullet wound on his side. The last Kael saw was a blurry image of another figure helping the red helmet man uncage the remaining children and animals.
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When Kael woke up, there was an annoying beeping sound. He was dressed in a hospital gown, his left arm wound tightly up in a cast, and he could feel his side wrapped up in bandages as well as his right calf. His eyes were darting rapidly around the darkening room and his panic was building as he found no sight of his precious coat. The black feathers of it were nowhere to be seen until the door suddenly opened to reveal an older woman. In her hands was the large mass of black feathers that formed Corazon's coat. The gray haired woman smiled as she noticed Kael was awake.
“I'd say good morning but it's now nearly nighttime again. You've been unconscious for a week now young man. Red Hood brought you to me, my name is Doctor Leslie Thompson." The woman said kindly. Kael jolted at being called a young man but remembered that he was no longer thirty five but fifteen. Kael went to speak to her but no sound came out and it reminded him to release his calm effect on himself. With a silent snap of his fingers, sound could now be produced or made from him.
“Kael. My name's Kael. Who is Red Hood?" Kael asked, voice croaky and raw from disuse. Dr. Thompson winced at the sound and received a glass of water for the teen as she pondered how the boy didn't know. Everyone knew who Red Hood was so why didn't he?
“Red Hood was one of the vigilantes that saved you. He should actually be here in a bit. Are you hungry? I can get some food for you.” Dr. Thompson inquired softly.
"Please. My coat as well too. Just set it in my lap, it's precious to me.” Kael croaked.
Dr. Thompson smiled softly and set his coat on his lap, Kael’s hand immediately reaching to lay on top of the now soft washed feathers.
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It was just as Kael finished his chicken broth that the red helmet guy, Red Hood apparently, came into the room. Accompanying him was another man in a one piece long sleeve, long legged leotard. He wore a domino mask over his face and his black hair was gently tousled like he'd been running through harsh winds. His obnoxious grin unsettled Kael as it was oddly similar to Marco’s.
“Hello!" The grinning man chirped cheerfully. He and Red Hood came to stand at Kael’s bedside with Hood setting down a bag.
“We brought new clothes for you since you practically swam in your old one. Gotta say brat, you fight really well." Hood grunted. Kael’s fingers twitched, practically itching with the need to wrap these men in string. Their presence made him feel alarmingly safe, he didn't like it at all. He didn't like the similarities he was seeing in them to his crew, the way they stood ready to fight but had fun doing it.
“Can you tell us your name? We'd like to try to find your family to get you home." Blue boy asked. Kael’s lips pulled back in a snarl at the man and his deceitful question. Kael knew damn well that Dr. Thompson had seen the Celestial Dragons brand on his back so she had to have told them. The man was clearly fishing for information, unfortunately for him it was something he couldn't do anything about.
“Kael.” He only gave his first name, nothing else. There was no way they'd get anything from him or even ‘find his family’ but Kael wasn't going to risk it. Red Hood snickered as his friend’s shoulders dropped in disappointment, his friend didn't stay disappointed for long as he popped up almost immediately.
“Well Kael, I'm Nightwing but you knew that. How's your arm doing?” The man, now known as Nightwing, questions.
“I didn't actually know that and my arm’s fine. It happened before I was kidnapped by those morons.” Assured Kael. The two vigilantes continued to ask questions in which Kael either answered, lied about, slipped around, or just plain ignored. It lasted for another hour before they left.
Kael played it safe and waited another hour before getting out of the bed to slip into the bathroom with his feathery black coat and the bag of clothes Hood brought. Inside the bag was a plain dark gray button dress shirt that was similar to the one Kael usually wore, undergarments, black slacks, and black dress shoes. There was also one of those strange thin boxes that the people of this world seemed to use for communication in the bag, an orange colored note stuck to it.
(✿☉｡☉) Have a feeling you'll run off the first chance you get. The only number in it right now is mine. Passcode is set to 1854, feel free to change it.
~ Red Hood (｡☬０☬｡)
He didn't quite understand how to work the little box, but Kael shoved it and the cord piece things in his coat once he was dressed. Note safely hidden, sorta. He flushed it down the toilet. Nonetheless he activated his calm around himself and slipped out the bathroom window.
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