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Everyone was clamoring to see the fight on the television screen. A single molecule of air could barely pass through the throng of people gathered around the storefront, much less a person, yet you still tried to shove your way between them to see the shaky recording playing out on the tv.
“Kick his ass, Luffy!”
Your face contorted into a scowl, shoulder jamming into a series of bodies before you successfully appeared on the other side, triumphantly smiling as the camera swung around to the man you’d come here to see.
“Shirorororo! You really think you can stop me? How quaint!”
You were embarrassed by the way your heart fluttered when you saw the great Caesar Clown on screen, the pixelated phone video doing nowhere near enough justice to his amazing powers. You heard a groan wash through the crowd before you realized the feed had cut out, the crowd quickly dispersing the second the show was over. You lingered outside the store for a moment, eyes still glued to the screen in front of you. You didn’t register the newscast that played in front of you—you were far too concerned with what you’d write about today’s fight. You hitched your bag up over your shoulder and set off toward your apartment, all your attention focused on holding on to the points you wanted to make about what you’d seen.
You barely had time to notice your path crossing someone else’s until you crashed into them, your neck craning up as a hasty apology spilled out of your mouth.
“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was g—“ You had to do a double take, this couldn’t be real. “You, uh, you look familiar…”
The man scowled down at you. “I can assure you we haven’t met before. Now if you would excuse me, I have very important business to attend to. Immediately.”
The man pushed past you and disappeared into the bustle of the street, leaving you stuck in place with a dumbfounded look. There’s no way that could’ve been him, You thought to yourself, slowly turning and starting back the way you’d been heading. When you reached your apartment you’d convinced yourself it had just been a trick of your imagination, you hadn’t actually run into a poorly disguised Caesar on your way back home. That was that, and you weren’t going to give it any more thought.
Right.
You couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Try as you might every time you focused yourself on your blog post all you could do was analyze the small interaction you’d had, focusing on everything from the way he looked to the panic in his voice, how his eyes lingered on you for a moment before he hurried off, making a note to exit your line of sight as quickly as possible.
You sighed and leaned back in your chair, saving your draft before you closed your laptop for the night. You doubted you’d be so lucky as to see him again, but you were beginning to hold onto the hope that you would, if only to prove yourself right. You gave yourself a satisfied smile and started to get ready for bed, letting sweet thoughts of Caesar carry you into sleep.
*
It had been two weeks since your chance encounter, and things had gotten all the more strange. You still dutifully watched every newsreel of Caesar and reported your findings to the cult following you’d gained on the internet, but it seemed that you’d been seeing him in person more and more often. You swore you’d seen him ducking into a few of your favorite cafes and shops, still wearing that goofy disguise you’d seen the first day you’d met. You didn’t know why you were still so nervous to approach him, it seemed he was more scared of you than you were of him.
After two weeks of your excruciating game of cat and mouse you made up your mind to do the one thing you’d always been too afraid of—you were going to find his laboratory.
~
You’d heard all the myths about the mysterious island the infamous supervillain Caesar Clown called home. You had even perpetuated a few of the rumors yourself, namely the one about the two military-class heroes that had turned the island into a split-climate wasteland. As much research as you did, though, you still had a fair bit of skepticism about whether the island even existed in the first place. Even its location was highly contested, people only agreeing on the fact that it was an island.
You had spent days on end preparing for your search, even going so far as to rent a speedboat to take you out to its oft-suspected location. This was by far the craziest thing you’d ever done, but you couldn’t get the thought out of your head. You weren’t delusional, you knew Caesar wanted to see you. He wouldn’t have gone out of his way to track your whereabouts the way that he had if he didn’t.
So you cornered your resolve and headed for the island of Punk Hazard.
*
You couldn’t believe how many of the stories were actually true. The island had indeed been split between frost and fire, and you had been almost instantly attacked by a troupe of chimeras upon docking. Before long you found yourself being hauled through the main laboratory, tossed in a cell to await “the Master”’s return. You felt a trace of giddy anticipation every time footsteps passed by your cell door, but once the door had shut you were left with an overwhelming sense of dread. What in the hell had you been thinking? You would be lucky to even make it out of this alive, how could you have ever expected someone like Caesar to be in love with you?
You sighed and let your head fall against the wall behind you, tears slipping down your cheeks as the gravity of your situation finally hit you. You hadn’t told anyone where you were going on purpose, but you could take a small amount of comfort in the fact that you’d given your friends and family an adequate goodbye before you’d disappeared to go on “vacation”.
You tried to take a few deep breaths to calm yourself, reasoning that if nothing else you should try to get some sleep while you still could, since there was nothing else to do in the cell but worry.
*
“You?! You’re the one that snuck into my lab?”
Your eyes fluttered open to see Caesar standing in the doorway of your cell, the thick smoke of his powers crawling into the room the longer he stood there.
You groaned and sat up, pinned back to the wall the second each realization fell into place.
“Caesar!” You cried, your hands falling to grasp onto your clothes, the only thing you could think to grab.
Caesar slowly floated forward, a deep scowl on his face. “Yes, me. You snuck in here and for what?” He lowered himself as close to your eye level as he could get, delighting in the look of fear that settled on your face. “Did you come here just to die?”
“Y-You—I saw you—“
“Saw me where, pet? On your little blog, perhaps?”
“H-How do you know about that…?”
Caesar stretched a gloved hand out to you, tipping your chin up to meet his eyes. “I know everything about you, dear.”
Your heart pounded a frantic pace in your ears, drowning out the sound of Caesar’s powers, of your own thoughts, of everything. How long had he been watching you? How much did he know? That meeting hadn’t been a coincidence, it had been calculated. Everything that had led you to this moment was on purpose. Had Caesar even become infatuated with you, or was this all some kind of game to him? The look in his eyes told you that you wouldn’t be leaving any time soon, but did you want to? Or was some twisted part of you desperate for attention from this man whose life you’d followed so closely for so long?
“What are you going to do to me?” You whispered, swallowing hard against Caesar’s hand.
“Whatever I want.” It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise. A guarantee that you were his, and you’d be given no choice to ever be anything else.
“Can I at least see my family again?” You knew it was a dangerous question to ask, but the thought of disappearing on them without a trace made you more upset than anything else that had transpired thus far.
“Oh dear, you’d like to see them again, wouldn’t you?” Caesar’s voice sounded too kind. You braced yourself for what would come next. “If you behave I’ll allow you to say your goodbyes to them, how does that sound?”
“G-Goodbyes?”
“You didn’t think you’d actually be escaping this laboratory of mine, did you?” Caesar tossed his head back. “Shirorororo! How adorable!”
Tears misted in your eyes, a sick feeling settling like a rock in your stomach.
“I’m not leaving.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. A dark near-acceptance of your new reality.
In an out of character show of affection Caesar pressed a kiss into the crown of your head, rising to his full height as the gas thickened around you, the edges of your thoughts growing fuzzier by the second.
“You’re all mine, pet! Here by my side forever, doesn’t that sound lovely?”
The last image you saw was the ghastly smile on Caesar’s face, the last sound you heard the echo of his laugh ricocheting off the walls, a grim welcome to the new life you’d found yourself trapped in.