It's not as easy as it was, or as difficult as it could be.

[chibi_trillian]

Title: Backup
Series: One Piece.
One Piece: Not mine.
Rating: PG.
Summary: Kaku-centric (I blame YOU, maldoror_gw, you and your CP9 fics). Set before Enies Lobby. Here's hoping I didn't screw Kaku up.


Inhale. Step. Turn. Swing. Exhale.

Slow katas in the dark of the wine “cellar” under Blueno’s bar, a room that had once been on the top floor of a building but was now kept cool and humid by the ocean waves that lapped at the stones of its outer walls and nibbled away at the mortar of its bricked-up windows.

Inhale. Swing. Spin. Lunge. Exhale.

His muscles worked against themselves now, against the new set of muscles he’d gotten on this assignment, the kind of muscles that came from honest work, not fighting and training.

Inhale. Draw. Slash. Sheathe. Exhale.

He wondered if he was going dull, losing his edge against the relentless slow wear of life in this place, his strength and resolve crumbling like worm-eaten wood under the congenial mask he’d been wearing for so long that it was starting to feel dangerously like his own skin.

Inhale. Shift. Slide. Strike. Exhale.

One could not stay sharp without losing something of oneself. Kaku had accepted that long ago, polishing away the softer parts of himself so that the adamantine core of his zeal for justice and order would shine though. The very air here, though, seemed to bring rust and corrosion, and he found himself caring about Iceburg, about Paulie, about the shipwrights and the stupid customers and his job. Unimportant things, compared to making sure that the Great Weapons were never resurrected.

Inhale. Block. Parry. Disarm. Exhale.

Lucci was still sharp, seastone to his steel. If Lucci thought Kaku was going soft, he’d kill him. There would be no questions, no warning, no apologies, just a low growl and his own blood dripping from jet-black claws as the darkness closed in.

Inhale. Turn. Lunge. Thrust. Exhale.

His corpse would never be found—Lucci would make sure of that. Kalifa’s slim fingers would magic up a note in his handwriting explaining about a sudden family emergency, and Blueno would slip his name onto a passenger manifest for Puffing Tom’s last run of the night, going in and out of a locked room without ever touching a key. Smooth and easy, like any one of a thousand missions before.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

It was comforting to know that someone had his back.

Comments

[bumpgrrl.livejournal.com]

creepy, yet cool. really neat contrast/explanation of the two "personalities" he exhibits.

[maldoror-gw.livejournal.com]

Oh, so CP9 got you too? I did not give them your name, I swear!

Awesome. Especially the ending, where the whole team would pitch in to...make his body disappear. Let's hear it for teamwork! And the 'has his back' remark is simply...stunning. That's the kind of cold-blooded twisted logic that make me love these characters ^__^ *memories*

Kaku sure feels IC to me in this. Especially the way he weighs the feelings he's developing towards the targets against his Mission, and accepting the fact that Lucci will kill him if he starts losing focus on which is more important. Kaku has got layers in the series, and it's hard to tell which ones are real and which ones are masks all the way, that's part of the fun of it. He's open to interpretation; I've written him in one story as a 'basicallly good guy who's dedicated himself to a dubious cause', while in a longer fic I'm working on right now, he's rather bad-assier (yes, that's a word if I say it is).

Of course, once you pick an interpretation, he's a pleasure to write, unlike Lucci, who scares me deeply when I write his POV -_-;

(Oddly enough, I started writing a fic - not going anywhere at this juncture, because of being scared of Lucci's POV as mentioned above - where Kaku and Lucci sneak off to a space which used to be above water in Water 7 and was now separated from seawater by walls. Since they both improved in 5 years, it'd struck me that they had to have practiced at some point, probably extensively, and so would have to find a discreet place to do so - and the fic trickled down from there. Blueno's bar is a stroke of genius, because of discretion, but on the downside, it would be hard to practice Soru and Geppou there because you'd need space- *is shot for endless rambling*)

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Oh YAY. So glad I didn't mangle him (though he'd probably have stabbed me in the foot if I had). >>;

That's the thing I like about Kaku--he's quite sane, and a genuinely nice, honorable guy. He's got very well-defined motivations for doing what he does, though it does make me wonder what happened to him when he was younger to make him decide that order and the World Government were more important than individual lives, that the end will always justify the means. But unlike Lucci, Kaku appears to actually think about said means and feel kind of shitty when they're really henious. It doesn't stop him from doing his job, but it makes him more human. I need a Kaku icon.

I still blame YOU.

[dethorats]

There's a really great rhythm to this thanks to the training format. I can almost picture him thinking these thoughts as he moves, each section changing as he breathes. I like Kaku here. He's a scarier monster than Lucci in his own way because he IS a more or less rational being and because I want to like him as a character even though he's not exactly a nice guy.

[sakurazuka-jae.livejournal.com]

Oh nice. I liked the way you built this, because at first it looked like Kaku was actually worried about going soft but and getting offed, but the ending with that fantastic last line and you realise that in fact he finds it reassuring that he can't get soft and it was just... perfect!

[tucuxi.livejournal.com]

Oooh, more CP9 fic! Hooray! I think you've written Kaku very well: I can absolutely see this fitting somewhere off-screen in the manga.

I really like the details you add in: seawater lapping at mortared up windows, balancing being in shape for his job and being up to his work and what each team member would do if he got too soft. The last line made me shiver.

Mind if I friend you?

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Go right ahead. :D