"ARRRR I'm so HUNGRYY," she wailed into his knee. "I haven't eaten ANYTHING wahahaaaa and it's been SO LONG and I was SO SCARED—"
Light looked down at her. Then at the four bodies. Then at her again.
"How long since you ate?" he said.
"HOURSSS can't you seee I'm so thinnn wuhuhuuuu"
"How many hours?"
"MANY hours." She looked up at him with huge wet eyes. "Are you going to feed me, big brother??!"
He stood there — child on his leg, dead Cipher Pol agents on the ground, Observation Haki finally within reach — and thought that this world had a way of producing situations that didn't fit into any neat category.
"Yes," he said. "Fine. Let go of my leg."
She moved her grip to his hand instead and immediately started walking toward the harbour. "There's a food stall," she said. "They have meat!"
"You were checking food stalls while being chased."
"I was hungry u know" she said. Like this explained everything. Which, Light supposed, it did.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
He brought her back to the ship because the food stalls ran out. That was not an exaggeration.
Haas came up from below deck, saw the Captain at the gangplank with a pink-haired girl hanging off his hand, and stopped walking.
"Captain," he said carefully. "Who is—"
"She was hungry," Light said.
The girl looked at Haas with large, interested eyes. "Is there food on this ship? Big brother said there was food??"
"The mess has—"
"AYE LETS GO!"
Haas looked at the Captain. The Captain was looking at the sky. Haas took her to the mess.
Her name was Bonney. She mentioned this somewhere between her third and fourth plate, without ceremony, while also requesting more bread. The crew learned it the way you learned most things about Bonney — as a footnote to something she wanted.
Tarro crouched next to her chair with his best enthusiastic face. "Hey, I know a joke. Want to hear it?"
"No," Bonney said, not looking up.
"It's a really good one—"
"I said no. Are you deaf? More rice, quick!"
Tarro got her the rice. "Okay but what do you call a fish without eyes?"
Bonney stopped eating. She turned and looked at him with an expression of pure exhausted contempt. "A fsh. Everyone knows that one. It's the oldest joke in the world. You're boring."
Half the crew burst out laughing. Tarro went red. Bonney went back to her plate, completely unbothered.
Corro, the big deck hand, grinned at her from across the table. "You're pretty funny, kid."
"Heh! Wait until I learn the pirate cussing words. I haven't had the chance yet but then I'll tell you! " Bonney grinned.
"Haha, then I wish you don't! Can you do any tricks? My niece does cartwheels—"
"Oh shut upp alreadyy!" Bonney said. " Big brotherrrrr." She turned to Light in the doorway. "Tell them to stoppp."
"They're not doing anything," Light said.
"They're being annoying!"
"You're eating their food."
She thought about this. "Fine!" she said. "But I want dessert~"
"We don't have—" Tarro started.
"Then someone go get some." She didn't look up. "HUH? You defying my big brother?!"
Light looked at the ceiling briefly. Then he took out some Beli and handed it to Tarro without a word. Tarro went to find dessert. Corro was already laughing again.
Haas appeared at Light's shoulder. "Sir she called you big brother hahaha" he said quietly.
"Yes."
"Is she staying?"
Light watched Bonney tell Corro that his funny face was genuinely the worst thing she had seen in her entire life and he should think hard about that. Corro looked delighted. Three other crew members were already trying their own faces, competing for her verdict.
"Yeah" Light said.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
That evening he sat on deck alone. Below, things had wound down. Bonney had fallen asleep at the mess table somewhere between her ninth plate and what would have been her tenth. Corro and Tarro had argued about who carried her to the spare bunk. Corro won.
Light looked at the panel.
[ KARMA SYSTEM ]
[ KP: 500,250 ]
[ LIFE FORCE Lv.3 — Next: 120,000 KP ]
[ WEAPON ARTS Lv.3 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ OBSERVATION Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ ARMAMENT Lv.0 — Next: 500,000 KP ]
[ CONQUEROR'S Lv.0 — Next: 1,000,000 KP ]
[ SORU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ TEKKAI Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ GEPPO Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ KAMI-E Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ RANKYAKU Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ SHIGAN Lv.2 — Next: 150,000 KP ]
[ LIFE RETURN Lv.1 — Next: 80,000 KP ]
[ FORCE AUTHORITY Max Output ]
500,250. Three months of work, four dead Cipher Pol agents with very high red values, and a pink-haired kid who had eaten roughly his monthly food budget in one afternoon and was now asleep in his spare bunk.
He thought about 22,000 green. He thought about the way she'd watched four people die and immediately started thinking about food. He thought about how she'd said big brother like she'd already decided and the decision wasn't up for discussion.
He sighed once.
Observation.