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Today marked one year into the start of the CP9 infiltration mission and still, Lucci wasn’t used to the pace of Water 7. The people were too friendly, arms open wide to pirates, Marines, World Government, and tourists alike. Everyone was given a chance. Every vessel had the right to be fixed. Every shipwright was accepted as long as they were capable, without their past being scrutinized inch by inch. So careless, such a way of living.
Ah, but Lucci wasn’t complaining. It was an observation and he should thank them. Such hospitable people welcomed him and his team into their midst after all.
Taking a sharp turn from the alleyway to the main street, flashes of bright colors caught his attention. He stopped and took in the change around him.
It seemed the city had been flooded with flowers overnight.
Lucci had kept track of the calendar, and while remembering Valentines served no real purpose, he had made a note of it regardless. In all honesty, he hadn’t expected anything special to happen, but he was wrong.
Everywhere he looked, people were selling flowers. The whole island bloomed . The air – saturated with sweet, nauseating scents – tickled his sensitive nose.
The familiar cobblestone path leading to Dock 1 was speckled with fallen petals like droplets of blood. Out of habit he avoided treading on them as he followed the trail of red all the way to the shipyard. A year of careful curation had cemented his role within the Galley-la company. Kalifa had reported it was only a matter of time until Lucci and Kaku were officially accepted as Dock 1 foremen, another step closer to their ultimate goal. Good. He wanted this mission to be over soon. Their skills were better applied elsewhere than being forced to shave wood and serve drinks.
Before he could take another step, his path forward was blocked, a pastel bouquet shoved in his face. Hattori squawked in alarm, flapping his wings a few times while Lucci stared down at the obstacle, a girl with the flowers held up hopefully.
“…Thank you,” Lucci spoke through Hattori, reminding himself that it would be to his advantage to charm the people of this city. The less reason they had to hate him, the less likely they were to suspect him when loose ends needed to be tied up.
Lucci didn’t bother with a smile, Hattori doing a much better job at expressing his enthusiasm. The girl scurried away, courage vanishing like dandelions in a storm. The bar of chocolate he could see peeking out between large peonies sprinkled in with pink buttercups and baby’s breath would all go into the trash soon.
As a CP9 agent, decoding messages was an essential skill Lucci had long since mastered. Flowers, while cheesy, were accessible, subtle and effective. A single flower might contain a dozen meanings, but grouping many types together made the message clear.
Peony: romance, prosperity, bashfulness.
Buttercup: charm, attraction, radiance. ‘I am dazzled by your charm’.
Baby’s breath: innocence, purity, sincerity.
And the obvious bar of chocolate between the shy blooms. The message ‘I have a crush on you’ was loud and clear.
Lucci hadn’t the slightest interest in reciprocation.
It didn’t matter whether he was interested though, because he continued to be blocked several more times, all for the same reason. Flowers. Love confessions. Chocolate. Losing his temper was not an option and no matter how much he wanted to send these vapid creatures away crying, he couldn’t. Stay charming. You’ve received clear directives, Lucci told himself as he crossed the barrier into Dock 1. Safe ground reached.
He hadn’t even managed half the journey to the nearest pile of timber when a voice called out, “Lucci! Flowers for you!”
Lucci halted mid-step, and took a deep breath. He was the Massacre Weapon, the strongest CP9 agent, elite even among the elites. His feelings couldn’t move him, not unless it was toward a direction he wished to go. Killing civilians and blowing their cover in a fit of annoyance was simply unprofessional.
Lucci turned around.
That oaf Lulu was waving the flowers in the air, a big grin on his face as if it was some sort of victory that he got to hold Lucci’s flowers. He grinned when Lucci approached. “So many secret admirers. Should we be afraid you’ll be stealing all our Valentine’s gifts this year?”
You should be scared, but not about those frivolous ‘admirers’ , Lucci thought. Aloud, Hattori gestured with a humble wave of his wing, “Hardly! You seem to have plenty yourself, coo-coo!”
It was a vibrant bouquet. Whoever had gotten it had gone out of their way to create an eye-catching arrangement, a far cry from the fluffy pastel creations he had received before. No matter, the end result was all the same. Lucci was not about to expend energy on a ‘romance’, not even if it might make his cover more convincing.
Lucci took a good look at the flowers.
Begonia, a warning, danger.
Lavender, distrust.
Foxglove, secrecy.
Datura, deceitful charms.
Tansy, hostility.
Wormwood, bitterness.
And… among the colorful assortment, hidden between the lavenders and foxgloves, a single stem of deadly nightshade, bell-shaped purple blooms deceptively beautiful. Every single part of the plant was poisonous, from its sweet berries, its lush waxy leaves, its earthy roots to its delicate flowers. Ingesting a single leaf was enough to kill a grown man. It was the perfect tool for assassination.
Lucci shifted the bouquet close to himself.
Deadly nightshade. Belladonna. Beautiful death. Devil’s herb. He knew by heart what it symbolized: silence, falsehood, a symbol of death, a meditation on the nature of good and evil… and most importantly, it was the CP9 code to drop off information.
The letter tucked between the flowers suddenly had Lucci’s full attention. Now he remembered why he was bothered to keep track of Valentines at all.
Flowers, as it turned out, had more uses than to communicate a confession of love.
As soon as work ended, Lucci ducked out of sight, dodging Paulie’s attempt to pull him and Kaku to the bar for an afterwork ‘bonding exercise’. Normally, such attempts, while grating, were accepted as necessary evil. The idiot’s need to make the two ‘a part of the team’ worked out exactly how they had hoped it would. However, it was not welcomed today.
Today, Lucci had elsewhere to be.
Belladonna in one hand, presence toned down to near-inconspicuous, Lucci weaved through the crowd. Everywhere he looked, people were gifting each other beautiful bouquets. Lucci’s mind read out the hopeful messages and his killer instinct deciphered ways he could assassinate someone with them.
Lily of the valley, a return of happiness, purity and sweetness. In small doses, the toxin within would cause cardiac irregularities. If one ingested enough, the end result could be fatal.
Oleander, desire, destiny, charm. It was highly poisonous, even drinking from a glass of water containing the flower could cause a severe reaction. However, due to its vile taste, death was a rare occurrence.
Azalea, good will, appreciation, temperance, confession of love. It might not be fatal if one ate it directly but honey from azalea flowers, in a large enough dose, might be deadly.
It was fascinating how dangerous common flowers could be.
During CP9 training, it was preferred that they didn’t develop favorites. After all, favorites indicated a certain amount of personal partiality. As weapons to be wielded by the power of the world, liking or disliking something had no real bearing to them. They didn’t need those. They weren’t allowed to. They could only do what they were told. Every deed was impersonal. Every mission was for something bigger than themselves.
However, Lucci couldn’t help but have favorites anyway.
And his favorite flower was belladonna.
Its historic use in assassination aside, Lucci found himself captivated by the odorless specimen in his hand. While the streets and channels of Water 7 made him feel like he was drowning in a bottle of perfume, for all of its poisonous potency, belladonna blissfully smelled like nothingness. They could blend in perfectly with their surroundings and be as easy to grow as common weeds. And wasn’t that quite the apt description for CP9?
A group of elite agents like themselves might be harder to cultivate than weeds but Lucci was not under any illusion about them being more than mere expendables. They could also assimilate into their environment, becoming the capable shipwrights, the trustworthy secretary or the approachable bartender if a job needed them to be so. And as for how deadly they could be…
The brim of Lucci’s top hat hid a cruel glint in his eyes…
A beautiful death’s leaf could only kill one adult, but Lucci bet any single one of them could kill more than a single person…
All of that was just the plant itself, not the meanings that it carried. Alas, he could only catch sight of them during missions like this one. And what a refreshing sight it was. It reminded him that everything here was all but a facade.
Lucci ducked into an empty alleyway – a dead end. Above him, the abandoned building cast a long shadow over everything. The flower stem in his hand appeared almost black. Lucci rolled his shoulders, shaking the last of Rob Lucci the shipwright away.
Finally, comfort in darkness.
From a corner, the person waiting for him spoke up, “How unfair. Fukuro, Kumadori and I have been working our asses off making up for lost numbers and what are you four doing here in this cushy city? Playing shipwright and getting a tan? You look stupid in those suspenders by the way, pussy cat. Hope life here hasn’t made you soft.”
Jabra’s presence was almost welcoming. Someone who knew the real killer behind the mask, unlike that fool Paulie. Lucci didn’t laugh, but he did manage a wicked smile.
“On the contrary, mutt, I want this mission to be over with. Entertaining these shipwrights’ notion of friendship tires me,” Lucci pulled out the chair and sat down, placing the nightshade stem between them, “Ready to take the report to the Director and see how many ways the World Government can blackmail Iceburg into giving up that blueprint? With luck, they’ll be capable enough to do this without us dirtying our hands.”
The belladonna sat proudly in a glass of water at Blueno’s bar, a display only four people on the entire island understood. Like the true professionals they were, neither Blueno nor Kaku spared a second glance at it, treating it as if it was any common flower.
After leaving Jabra alone with the information, Lucci had anticipated a quiet evening to unwind, but it was not meant to be. Being a secret agent was unfortunately a 24/7 occupation. As soon as he reached his apartment, Lucci had been bombarded by a waiting Paulie insisting that everyone come to Blueno’s bar. Lucci had wanted to brush Paulie off, but with the first milestone of becoming shipwright foreman within reach, it seemed foolish to create bad blood now. Reluctantly, he had agreed, and was immediately dragged off.
Thus, his current predicament, forced to pretend he was only mildly annoyed instead of his true murderous thoughts. Kaku was ever the friendly young man, enduring the teasing about how many Valentine's gifts he had received good naturedly.
“What do we have here?” Paulie said somewhere off to Lucci’s right as he leaned over to look at the nightshade. “What flower is it?” his hand reached out, curious enough to touch. Lucci’s eyes sharpened and he smacked Paulie’s fingers away. “Hey! What gives?!”
“It’s mine,” Lucci said through Hattori, whose ruffled feathers were doing an excellent job at conveying Lucci’s annoyance, “they’re exotic bluebells. Don’t touch them. If you get a rash, don’t come running, coo-coo.” It wasn’t time for Paulie to die and if the fool accidentally touched it and ate something with his bare hand, Lucci would have to explain why Iceburg’s personal student died due to poisoning.
The prospect of getting a rash wasn’t appealing so Paulie’s hand returned to its previous position. Although now that Lucci had revealed the flower belonged to him, the other seemed to have found a better thing to occupy his attention. A grin split his face in half. “Exotic bluebells? Eh? Does Rob Lucci have a crush?” he teased, “You did get an awful lot of flowers earlier. Anyone caught your fancy?”
Lucci turned his face away haughtily, deigning Paulie not worthy of a response.
The other foremen apparently took his silence the wrong way. Tilestone smiled, holding up his beer. “No reason to get embarrassed! We’ve all been there! Paulie got the biggest crush on that girl—”
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone about it, you jerk!” Paulie yelled, red-faced. “Who cares?! We’re talking about Lucci right now!” He turned back to Lucci, trying to divert attention away from himself, “Well, who was it from?”
Kaku, eyes twinkling with mischief, chimed in, “Perhaps it was from a guy.” The long-nosed liar’s face was perfectly serious as if he wasn’t laughing at Lucci with his eyes. The next time Lucci sparred against him, he was kicking Kaku’s ass.
Paulie shifted closer to Lucci like a gossiping schoolgirl, “Who cares about the gender! I just wanna know whom it came from! Tell us, Lucci!” Kaku and Blueno were laughing silently at Lucci behind Paulie’s back. Change of plan, the next time he had the chance, Lucci was shoving the nightshade down that Machiavellian twit’s throat. Maybe both of their throats.
“I just like the flowers! There’s no one, coo-coo!” Patience thinning, Lucci reached for his mallet and smacked Paulie clean off his stool and to the ground. Even shipwright Lucci wouldn’t tolerate this teasing for long.
“Ouch! Goddamnit!” Paulie whined as he sat up, rubbing the side of his head. “You pack a punch.” Lulu, Tilestone and Paulie exchanged an unreadable glance at each other before Paulie stood up. “Okay, okay enough fooling around. So… I lied, it’s not really a tradition to be drinking at Blueno’s bar with the guys on Valentine's Day,” he admitted, a smile growing bigger and bigger on his face as if he had a secret he couldn’t wait to share.
Lucci had gathered this must be another clumsy attempt at a ‘bonding exercise’ that Paulie was so fond of, but beyond that, he hadn’t a clue. What else could it have been—
“Happy anniversary, Lucci, Kaku! It’s been a year since you two became a part of Galley-la!” Paulie pulled out a hidden bouquet, presenting it to them, “And congratulations! Iceburg was going to announce it tomorrow but we really wanted to celebrate it today! You two were picked to fill in the last two spots as Dock 1’s foremen!” Paulie announced, first looking at Lucci – “treenail, sawing and bolts” – and then at Kaku – “mechanics, diagnostics and house calls!”
There was a moment of silence as everyone waited for Lucci and Kaku to react. The latter was the first to recover. He smiled, boyish and bright, pumping a fist in the air. “I can’t believe it! Thank you so much for trusting me!” he said, sounding like the 19 year old he was.
Paulie and the others shifted their attention to Lucci, for once his silence served to call people’s attention to him more. Lucci barely had time to determine how he should act to suit the situation. Luckily, he was prepared. He knew how to spin this to his advantage.
Lowering his head until his top hat shaded his eyes lest the others saw how underwhelmed he was, Lucci allowed his lips to curl up in a quiet but pleased smile as he turned away from the group. With his hair framing either side of his face, he looked like the withdrawn, shy shipwright he had decided to portray himself as – the one who couldn’t even talk to people.
“Haha, he’s shy!” Paulie laughed, but it wasn’t cruel. “Just you wait until tomorrow! Everyone’s going to be so happy! They were all gunning for you two!” he smacked a hand on the table, “Blueno! Today’s rounds on me! I’m feeling great!”
“Idiot! Didn’t you just spend it all at the casino yesterday, coo-coo?!” Lucci protested to keep up with his character but Paulie wouldn’t hear any of it. In the end, there was no point in arguing. Paulie had already turned to Kaku, chatting excitedly about his new duty.
For his part, Lucci’s smile had vanished but he was pleased with this turn of events. After a year of hard work, they were where they wanted to be – within the inner circle of the Galley-la Company.
Time to start taking a closer look at those confidential documents only foremen could get access to. He wondered what kind of financial information he could glean from it. If Iceburg had any skeletons in the figurative closet, they would dig them out. It was bound to be interesting.
Lucci took a moment to study the flowers: zinnia, crocus, hawthorn, clover, all tied together by an orange and blue ribbon. What a cheerful bouquet – one full of hope for the future. He idly played with a red zinnia, plucking petals out of it. Everlasting friendship. How adorable.
Just as the Galley-la shipwrights didn't realize how poisonous those purple belladonna flowers were, they would not realize the danger slipping right under their nose, either.
Perhaps, Lucci thought, it was only fitting that in many places of the world, 'belladonna' was also used to describe a beautiful but deadly woman.