Chapter Text
Uta was having some serious regrets right now. Regret over the fact that she was standing here, in the freezing cold instead of inside, with a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows! Regret over the fact that she had opened her big mouth when Robin (one of Luffy’s friends that had come with him to visit), asked about the big, abandoned castle on the outskirts of town. At the time Uta had a devious look in her eyes, knowing that several of her little brother’s friends were terrified of spooky things and that Robin herself loved them. She’d returned from the kitchen with everyone’s drinks and took a seat between Nami and Usopp, who helped her hand them out. With a cool facade she’d then recounted the tale of that castle; as told to her by her dad Shanks.
“That castle really isn’t as old as you would think. Dad told me it was only built around, hmmmm. 500 or so years ago.”
Zoro peaked up at her from where he and Sanji were currently wrestling on the floor, “Only 500 years old? That’s still old as shit”
Sanji gave him a swift kick, “Don’t interrupt Uta swan!”
Uta herself jumped slightly at that; that kick had seemed to hold some real violent intent behind it! And Luffy had said these two were really, really close friends?
Robin waved her attention over, “Don’t mind those two, keep going with your story Uta.”
Uta gave Robin a nod, “Oh- ok then.” She cleared her throat, “Well, like I said it’s only around 500 years old. Built by some foreign diplomats or something as a ‘country retreat’. Totally out of style with everything else that was around here, it’s always stuck out like a sore thumb.” Uta waved her hand around adding emphasis to the fact that it really was an ugly eye sore. ““Apparently it was only inhabited for maybe 100 of those 500 years too…Well.” She paused, taking a sip from her own cup. “I did do a history paper back in school about it, so yeah, it had 2 generations of the same family live there until the incident in 1XXX.”
Uta paused again, sipping her hot chocolate again. She had a serene smile on her face as though happily recalling school-hood days.
Usopp leaned closer to her, “Sooooo, what was the ‘incident’?”
Uta turned to him with the same smile plastered on her face. A smile that turned her eyes to half moons. “I’m so glad you asked Usopp!”
Uta put her cup down and cleared her throat with a gruff ‘Ahem!’
“There really isn’t much official information for what happened.” Uta looked down into her lap, swapping her smile for a frown. “Most of what we know about what happened, is from the personal testimony of those who survived.” There was an audible gulp form the audience. “Even worse is that we don’t really know how it started. Some say that it was the son of the Lord that lived there. That this son lured an innocent young girl to her doom, that he killed her in a most gruesome way.” Uta lowered her voice, “Others point to the Lord himself, that the girl found that night wasn’t the first.” She let a small smile return to her face, “My favourite theory though, is that it was the daughter. It’s the most shocking but the one that explains how so many girls were killed. And also explains why she was the one the village targeted.” Uta let her smile fall and placed the back of her hand to her forhead, shacking her head in woe, “Oh, it was horrid what they did to her, even if what she herself did was true!”
Uta looked over her captive audience and was elated to see Nami’s horrified expression, “U-Uta, what did this girl do?!”
Uta composed herself, “It was said the daughter of the Lord was found with the last dead girl they found. That the dead girl had been killed in the same ways as the other.”
Chopper, who was sitting on Robin’s lap spoke out, “But how! How did they die?!” He seemed equal parts scared and curious.
Uta locked eyes with him, “Lifeless. Carnage. Like a beast had ripped through them!”
Several people in the group went pale. “At first people did thank it was a beast. But after they found the Lord’s daughter, no one blamed it on an animal.” Leaning forward, Uta gripped the sides of the couch. “They found the Daughter buried in the corpse of one of the girls!” Uta’s voice rose in volume, “They found her feasting on the girl like she was the rarest of steaks!”
“She was a cannibal!?” Nami and Usopp exclaimed this in sync.
Uta focused her attention on them, “Worse!”
“KYYA!” Suddenly their light’s turned off, Nami squealing in fright as she clung to Usopp, who clung right back to her.
Then Uta’s face was illuminated from below, the light casting menacing shadows on her face. “THE DAUGHTER KILLED FOR ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ONLY! SHE CRAVED THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT, THE BLOOD OF VIRGENS!” Uta made sure to put on the dramatics, “SHE WAS-” No one at this point had noticed that Luffy was missing, “- A VAMPIRE!”
“BWA HA HA HA!” Amongst the startled gasps and shuffling away from the more scared screams that followed Luffy jumping up from behind the couch, several pillows flew towards Luffy. Skilfully the missed Uta completely, honing in on their intended target, who made no move to deflect them and just kept laughing as he went down. “You guys are too easy to scare! Uta’s told that story for years!”
Uta laughed along with him, whipping a tear from the corner of her eye as she was shot glances that could kill. Courtesy of Nami and Usopp. “Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist. It’s practly a tradition to try and scare newbies in town with that story.” Uta’s laughing finally died down, although Luffy’s had only increased as Sanji and Zoro continued to pelt him with pillows.
“So they weren't vampires?” Chopper looked up from where he had been hiding in Robin’s skirts, wide eyes forgoing his previous fright for curiosity.
Uta tilted her head at the boy, “No, they weren't a family of vampires.” She tilted her head to the other side. “The killings did happen though.”
“REALLY!? THAT’S HORRABLE!” Tears started to well up in Chopper’s eyes, “Those poor girls…”
Robin pet at Chopper’s back to comfort him. Unfazed by Uta’s story, she was far more interested in the historical facts. “So then, if in 1XXX several girls died in horrific ways and it wasn’t the vampiric family living in the old creepy castle, then what killed them?”
“It had to have been wolves, or maybe bears?” Franky was reclined on the floor near where Robin and Chopper were seated. He’d finished off his hot chocolate before Uta had even started her story and he was no drinking his… 5th bottle of cola for the night? The very undressed man strange but more friendly than the “He’s a 10ft scary robot man!” Luffy had given her.
“Uta said it wasn’t animals, unless that was just apart of the story.” Brook was seated on the chair just beside the other 3 slowly sipping at his drink; another eccentric friend of Luffy’s. Uta found his out of pocket jokes a bit more palatable than Sanji’s. She was looking forward to talking to him about his own singing carear.
Still, now that Uta thought about it, the fantasy of the ‘Massacre of 1XXX’ was very much mixed in with the facts and; she didn’t even really know what was ture. “Well… To be honest, I’m not sure it’s ever mentioned if they figured out what had killed those girls.” Uta was honestly trying her best to think back to school, back when they covered the event in history but, “Yeah I think everything really does just focus on the whole, ‘The town turning against the vampiric family’ thing.”
Zoro leaned over the back of the couch, “So the town’s people killed the family in revenge?”
“Uhhh.” Uta could still see Sanji belting Luffy with a pillow out the corner of her eye, as she regarded Zoro’s question. “I guess so. That's what the stories say. Supposedly someone found the son, daughter or the lord sucking on some poor dead girl’s neck. So the town rounded them up and killed them in their own home.”
Zoro rose one brow, “Brutal.”
Nami’s nails clinked against her ceramic cup, “So they killed them without even knowing who or what killed the girls?” She sounded forlorn, sad. Angry. “That makes them just as bad as whoever killed the girls!”
A resounding agreement filled the room and for a moment, Uta understood what drew all these people together. She hummed her own agreement, a warm feeling in her chest.
Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind, “Uta!” Luffy’s voice resounded right in her ear.
She rocked forward with the movement, a small amount of hot chocolate spilling from her cup, “Luffy!” She righted her cup and sent a glare his way.
Not that he saw it, his smile reached so far to his eyes that they were closed. “We should take everyone to the castle!”
“NO!” Uta denied Luffy right away, “Luffy it’s a decrepit castle, it’s dangerous to go in there.”
Luffy pouted at the popstar, “But it’s cool! And it’s not that bad in there.”
Uta glared at him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, “And how would you know that? You haven’t been there since we were kids!”
Luffy only laughed and turned to his friends (still hanging off Uta, mind you). “So who’s in to going to the castle!?”
Several yes’s sounded out but to be fairly honest, they were drowned out by the resounding no. Nami, Usopp and Chopper all had looks ranging from fear to anger as they turned to their insnae friend. Uta was simply exhausted.
She put her cup down and started to (try) and pry Luffy off of herself, “Well, seeing as we’re at a disagreement, how about anyone stupid enough to go check out an old, run down piece of stone at 7 at night, goes to do that that.” She did manage to get one arm from around her, “and all the sane people-”
“YEAH!” The peanut gallery went along with Uta’s reasoning.
“-will stay inside the warm house and enjoy the classic horror movie marathon about to start.”
“YEAH! Wait..”
Uta turned around when hearing the hesitation and regarded them with a questioning look.
Usopp piped up from behind Nami, “We’re watching a horror movie marathon?”
Uta nodded “Yeah, did Luffy not tell you?” Laughter sounded out from behind Uta.
Nami and Usopp squinted at each other, before meeting eyes with chopper; who looked between the two, visibly stressed. Unspoken, it was decided Nami would ask the next question, “What movies exactly?”
A bunch of shuffling came from behind Uta, “It’s all 4 classics by Thriller Bark productions, you know that company that shut down after…” Perona slowly became quieter in her explanation as she saw the looks on the faces before her. They looked as pale as the zombies that would apear in the movies. “I take it you don’t like them..?”
“T-THAT’S AN UNDESTATEMENT! THEY’RE HORRIBLE MOVIES!” Nami was obviously trying her best to not looked scared and raising her voice would’ve helped her case but she was still as pale as a ghost.
“YEAH! I mean, did you know several of the actors actually DIED during the fight scene in the 2nd movie! And that they kept shooting the scene anyway and used the bodies as props!” Uta was sure that Usopp was lying, he was just repeating some old internet rumor that went around like, 5 or 6 years ago.
Chopper didn’t know that through, “THEY DID!? BUT HOW?! WOULDN’T THEY BE CAUGHT?!” He clung onto Usopp, “I DON’T WANNA WATCH A MOVIE WITH REAL DEAD PEOPLE!”
“Hey, Chopper. There really isn’t any-” A door closed behind Uta.
Looking around Uta noticed that everyone else had left. Empty cups were left on solid surfaces, pillows placed quickly back onto seats. Hat’s coats and gloves gone.
Uta jumped up and gripping the front door’s handle in a white knuckled grip, she threw it open. “OI LUFFY, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?!”
Luffy was walking at the front of the group, obscured by the bodies of his friends. His hand shot up above their heads, “Going to the castle! You guys enjoy the movies!”
Uta stomped her foot, “LUFFY! I told you it was too dangerous..” Uta held her hands close to her chest, as she watched how she couldn’t really stop Luffy and his friends from going to the castle. Honestly it wasn’t even the quality of the building’s stone and mortar that was really the issue. It was the fact that some-
“Wait for meee! Guuys!” Uta was slightly knocked aside by a smaller body running by her. Chopper soon appearing, hugging himself closer to Zoro’s legs.
“I’m coming too!” Usopp was at her side in a flash, “Uh, sorry Uta but I really don’t like that movie.” He gives her a thumbs up, “you should really come with us though!” He stepped over to the group continuing to pull away, gloved hands in his pockets.
Uta didn’t know what to do, they’d be fine she was sure but. Did she go with them? It was already dark, not to mention she could see her breath flow from her mouth, it was that cold. The lure of warm heaters inside was tempting.
The coat being placed on her shoulders was helping to fight against that temptation though. Nami took her hands and placed the house keys in them. “Come on Uta.” Nami flashed her a bright smile, “We need to make sure those bozos don’t get hurt.”
Nami’s smile, the sound of laughter in front of her; Uta was easily swayed. “Mhm. Ok, let’s go then.” Uta shrugged on her coat properly and turned to lock the front door, (Nami had already gone through and turned off the houses’ lights) ready to brave the castle along with the rag-tag group her brother called his closest friends.