After straying off her trail and into the forest, it took Naru almost three hours of walking to get to the closest road. By now, the snow had soaked her pants all the way through to the skin, and she had to use the fur of her ability to keep herself warm. The brisk northern wind did little to help as it only served to make the fabric of her trousers freeze.
There was much less snow on the small trail, and Naru sighed in content when she stepped out of the knee-deep layer of frozen water. She bent forward and quickly brushed off all the snow from her legs, humming as her libs instantly got a tiny bit warmer. "Okay," she huffed and straightened up again. "Now where do I go?"
She looked around and spotted a wooden, arrow-shaped sign that was barely visible in the snow not far from where she was standing. She hoisted her backpack higher up on her shoulder and walked over to it, brushed it clean from snow and read the neatly carved letters. "Lolon Village," she mumbled. "The harbor town of Fubuki Island." She glanced in the sign's direction and inhaled deeply. If she really focused, the faint scent of smoke reached her nostrils. A few miles down the road.
Feeling slightly exhilarated, Naru set off, picking up a good speed as she moved down the road and towards her new target. Finally I can get out of here, she thought and grinned. Closer to Grand Line!
After twenty minutes of jogging, Lolon Village appeared in her line of sight. The town was small and simple with a church, an inn and around fifteen houses. The docks stretched out quite far over the open sea, and a slight crease appeared on Naru's forehead when she couldn't spot any boats from where she was standing.
The crease deepened when she reached the edge of the town and found it completely empty. It was the middle of the day, so even despite the snowfall, there should've been at least a few people outside, but the snow on the ground lay untouched. No tracks, no signs of anyone walking on these streets since the snow started falling this morning.
Naru tracked the earlier scent of smoke to the only inn in the village. The curtains were pulled in front of the windows and there was no light shining through the fabric. An ominous feeling settled into Naru's gut, and she braced herself, her nerves on full alert as she pushed the doors open and stepped inside.
She found herself standing in a spacious room with a neat reception desk in the corner. Several crinkled papers were spread out over the desk, and in the corner stood a vase with one single wilted flower. There was no sign of any guests in the house, and Naru scrunched her nose when she took a few steps inside and her feet whipped up a layer of dust from the floor.
"Is anybody here?" she asked loudly, but her only response was silence. "There's got to be someone..." Her eyes landed on a door to her right, and when she pushed it open, she quirked an eyebrow in suspicion when she moved into what appeared to be the kitchen. The room was empty, but there was a faint smell of food hanging in the air, meaning someone had been in here not too long ago. "I'm not here to hurt anybody," she said when she stepped back into the lobby.
When she still didn't get a reply, she inhaled deeply, sighing when she caught the scent of another human coming from behind the reception desk. "I'm just a by-passer," she said and took a few steps closer. "I'm really not gonna do anything bad."
A few seconds of silence followed her words, and then an old man slowly emerged from the other side of the desk. His hair was grey and his skin set in creases, but his eyes still looked sharp as a hawk's, with the long rifle he clutched in his hands, he looked more like a hunter than anything else.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, his voice rough, like something being scraped against sandpaper. "Who are you?"
Naru tilted her head to the side and slowly raised her hands as a gesture of forfeit. "My name is Naru," she said. "I've come here from Shimo Village up north."
"And what do you want?"
"I'm looking for a boat," Naru said, her eyes slowly traveling from the elder's face to his rifle and back. "I'm heading for West Blue, and I need a small ship for that, so here I am. At the harbor town of Fubuki Island."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
She arched an eyebrow and scratched the back of her head, taking her time to come up with a proper answer. "Well, I can't provide proof for something that's inside my head, so... you just have to trust me." When the old man still didn't budge, Naru lowered her hands and sighed in irritation. "Do I really look like someone who'd storm in here and attack you?" she demanded, mock offense in her voice. "If I wanted to do that, I would've done it already, don't you think?"
The elder stared at her for a few more seconds before sighing and lowering his gun, without letting it go completely. He sat down behind his desk and gestured towards a lone chair in the corner. "Sit," he said curtly.
Naru raised an eyebrow at the given order, but she decided to not start arguing with the old man about hospitality, so she dragged the chair to the middle of the room and sat down, crossing her legs. "I'm afraid we can't provide you with a ship," the elder said and rubbed his forehead.
"Why not?"
"I don't know if you noticed it or not, but we have no boats left."
A crease appeared on Naru's forehead. "Why not?" she asked again.
The elder seemed to try to decide whether to tell her or not. After almost a full minute of silence, he raised his voice to ask, "Does the News Coo bring the paper to your village?".
"I don't know," Naru said. "I think it does, but I'm not really the kind of person who'd be interested in reading the paper. Why?"
"I'm surprised you haven't heard," the elder stated in disbelief. "Even from anybody else in your village..."
Naru cleared her throat to get him to move on. "Ah, right," he said and shook his head. "The boats. The problem is, we don't have any."
"So you said, but how's that possible? Isn't this a harbor town—"
"They've been destroyed."
Naru's eyes widened. "Destroyed," she repeated. "As in they've sunk out in the ocean?"
"No, destroyed as in destroyed," the elder said gravely. "Smashed to pieces while they were tied to the docks."
Naru groaned and leaned back in her chair. This would surely make getting out to the open sea much more difficult. "Got any idea who did it?" she asked after a few seconds' silence.
"Yes, it... I mean, I'm really surprised you don't... Have you never heard anyone talk about..?"
"Like I said, I'm not the news kind of person," Naru said and rolled her shoulders, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Why, who did it?"
The elder was silent, seemingly chewing on his own words. He turned his head to look around as if fearing someone might be eavesdropping, and after making absolutely sure they were alone, he leaned in closer and whispered, "It was the demon."
He quickly shut his eyes as if he expected to die there and then. Naru stared at him with wide eyes, struck speechless by the odd statement. Finally, when she regained her composure, she had to clear her throat and really focus on her words to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. "A... what kind of... demon?" she asked.
"How would I know what kind of demons it was?" the elder hissed, still looking like he feared he would be attacked any moment. "But recently, there have been news from all over North Blue that a demon travels from island to island, destroying one town after the other. No one knows what it looks like, and there are never any survivors to witness. And it always attacks during the night," he added and winced. "One morning, we woke up and our boats were all destroyed."
"A demon, huh?" Naru absentmindedly scratched her neck. "But if it always attacks during the night, why're you so scared now? It's daytime, old man." The elder parted his lips to retort, but when nothing came out, Naru released a bright chuckle and shook her head. "See, that's what I thought," she snickered. "I don't think..." Her voice trailed off when she noticed the elder stared at her with narrowed eyes. "Something you wanna ask me?"
"You... your eyes are not normal," the elder said and averted his gaze as if suddenly afraid to keep eye-contact. "That's why... that's why I hid from you, probably why no one came out to greet you. I thought you were the demon."
"My eyes?" Naru absentmindedly raised a hand and rubbed the soft skin under her right eye. "Oh, right. Rest assured, I'm not a demon, old man," she said and smirked. "I'm a human like you, I've just eaten a Devil's Fruit, and it turned my eyes yellow."
The elder almost fell out of his chair in pure shock. "A-a Devil's Fruit!?" he stuttered. "But then you really are—"
Naru tilted her head back and released a barking laughter at the man's reaction. "You know, I forget people who haven't set foot outside their hometowns see us Devil's Fruit users as monsters," she said between chuckles. "Sure, if having an ability makes me a demon, then I am a demon. But I'm not your demon. I've never destroyed any of your ships."
With that, she rose from her chair and walked towards the doors, stopping momentarily to turn around in the doorway. "I'm going hunting," she said gleefully. "Can you rent me a room when I get back?"
The elder hesitated, seemingly driving an inner battle with himself whether to agree or drive her away. Finally, he sighed deeply and nodded. "Fine," he said. "Bring me your kill and I'll let you stay."
Naru smirked, offering the elder a thumbs-up before trotting outside. "Well, then," she hummed and rocked back and forth on her feet a few times. Then, as if shot out of a cannon, she broke away from the ground and sprinted towards the edge of the village, the wind making her eyes sting. The very second she passed the last house, she crouched down on all four and let her ability take over her body.
Thick, orangish fur sprouted out of her skin, a sleek tail sneaked out from over the hem of her leather pants, her hands turned to claws, and her canines started growing down over her lower lip. Now disguised as a tiger, Naru practically flew over the snow, her mind set on the same forest she'd visited earlier.
Hunting was one of her favorite ways to pass time. Not only did she get to practice stealth and subtlety, but she could also enjoy the rush of adrenaline, and the satisfaction of bringing something down with nothing but your bare hands. Or, in her case, bare claws.
Well inside the forest, Naru pressed her sleek body flat to the frozen ground. She had already caught the scent of a pole hare, and without making more sound than a snowflake hitting the ground, she followed her nose and prowled deeper into the icy woods, excitement filling her senses.