#in my head she’s not weird about luffy instead he becomes the only man he respects | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xxrat-bastardxx · 4 years

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mind if i slide in the first three parts of my zoro x reader fanfiction in here, its posted on archive of our own and wattpad too but i might just switch over to here so ppl can request one piece oneshots and drabbles n’ stuff anyway here it is:

Stargazer: A Roronoa Zoro x Reader

I've been looking up recently. Not that I don't look up ever, as it is kinda my unspoken job on this ship. However instead of looking up to navigate the stars at night, lately I have been fascinated with looking at the crow's nest in the daytime, wondering what a certain swordsman was doing in there all day. Since I joined the crew the green haired hunk intrigued me. His cold personality strange to me as it was so different than everyone else on the ship. Although I found him interesting we never really had conversations, only short small talk here and there and common courtesy. A part of me wanted to get closer to him and find out all of his little secrets. The sane part telling me to leave him alone and find another person to bother.

"(Y/N)!" Luffy yelled, pulling me out of my daydream, "FOOD!"

"Go get Zoro while you're at it too," Nami followed.

I got up from my spot on the grass and started my ascent. A sudden wave of excitement and nervousness washing over me. Finally I would learn the secrets of the crows nest. I unlatch the door and pull myself up, sitting myself up with my legs dangling out of the door.

"Oh, that's boring," I say accidentally, quickly covering my mouth when I realized I actually said that out loud. Zoro drops his weight and looks at me, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" He questions even though he obviously understood what I said.

"Shit, I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that. I was just expecting...Well I don't know what I was expecting, something different I guess." I answer not wanting to lie to the poor man I just insulted.

Don't get me wrong walking in on a buff man working out is not necessarily boring. Just the obvious thing a buff man would be doing with his time. I guess I was hoping he would turn out to be a mad scientist or delicately painting the ocean from the perfect view the windows give.

"Um...Anyway. It's dinner time, Nami wanted me to come get you," I say trying to change the topic and quickly make my escape. "I'll be going now, sorry I interrupted your workout."

"Wait," Zoro says, stopping me before I leap down to the safety of the deck, "I'll walk with you." Weird. I just insulted him and now he wants to walk with me. It's not even that far of a walk either...

I wait for him to grab a towel and dry off his sweat before heading down to the deck. Waiting for him at the bottom I listen to the commotion ensuing in the kitchen. If we don't hurry our damn captain will eat all the food. I hear a soft thump as the swordsman lands next to me. Looking up at him I shudder slightly just now realizing our hight difference. I quickly take in all of his features, never being this close for so long. Short green hair, did it always look that soft? Tan skin, was it always that smooth? Thick scar running across his chest, do you think he would let me touch it, I wonder how it feels? Damnit (y/n), why are you such a creep! I shake my head and start the short journey to the kitchen. Zoro following silently. I turn open the door to the kitchen with a smile and offer Zoro the chance to go in first. He nods to me in thanks and takes his seat at the table.

"There you are (y/n)-swan! I thought that marimo brute kidnapped you, I was about to go save you myself," Sanji swoons carrying plates of delicious looking food. I laugh making his face light up as I sit down. The mentioned brute becoming visibly annoyed at the cook.

"Don't worry Sanji he couldn't kidnap me even if he tried. Everyone knows I'm too quick to get caught," I reply teasing Zoro as I point my chopsticks at him.

"Tch, how do you know...I wouldn't even want to kidnap you." Zoro grumbles poking at his food.

"Did I make the moss head sad?" I jab, enjoying the thrill of making fun of such a powerful person. If I wasn't able to find his hidden talent, annoying him would be the next best thing. I wanted to know how far I could take it. I swear a slight tinge of red now dusted his cheeks and ears. Cute. He didn't respond but ate the rest of his meal obviously fuming.

"Luffy?" I question making the captain pause for a moment, "Who's on night shift with me tonight?" Since I navigated the ship most nights with the stars so Nami could relax, I usually asked for a helper to be on deck so I wouldn't drop dead the next day because of pulling all nighters every night. After asking it became apparent that Luffy hadn't thought of it one bit during the day. Which was typical of the airhead.

"Ussop!" Luffy smiles. It was obvious this was the first name to come to his head.

"Hey! I've done it 3 times this week already, why not someone else?!" Ussop retaliates. Ouch. I laugh it off understanding that for a normal person that was too much time to be awake.

"I'll do it," Zoro growls "I did it most of the time before she joined so its fine." This shocked me a little, he had never offered before and just after I've insulted him this much he wants to hang out with me? Or maybe he'll through me overboard as revenge. I guess if I survive the night I'll be able to learn more about him so maybe this is my dream come true.

After dinner I go to the back of the ship and watch the sunset, It was my nightly ritual so to say. Something calm to end the hectic days on the Sunny. I take in the salty ocean air and lean my head into my hand. The ocean was so peaceful today, a gentle current pulling the ship along gentle waves. So lost in the moment I didn't realize the person coming up behind me until I felt a strong pair of hands on my shoulders. I yelp in surprise and whip around to face my attacker.

"You say you're too fast to catch, yet you don't even hear me coming," Zoro scoffs.

"Hey, that's not fair, I wasn't paying attention," I pout crossing my arms over my chest. Now this guy was touching me? What the heck did I do to get all this attention, I thought teasing him would do the opposite! I guess I'm in for a long night.

We sat in an awkward silence for the next hour, I still had no idea why this man wanted to give me so much attention all of a sudden. I had been on the ship for almost 2 months now and had never gotten any recognition from him before. Most of my time was spent with Nami talking about maps and directions, or with Ussop and Franky trying to make bigger better telescopes to research the huge sky above us. And if I wasn't with them I was usually sleeping, preparing myself for the night ahead.

I look over to the man sitting a couple feet away, bottle in hand. Aha! Conversation starter, please let this awkward silence end!

"So, you like sake?" Damnit he wouldn't be drinking if he didn't like it. Why did you ask something so obvious.

"Yeah, I guess so." He replied taking another swig. Come on (y/n) think of something better. A few more excruciating minutes passed, nothing came to mind of what I could do to fix the situation.

"I don't really drink, I don't like the taste," I say, another awkward sentence for another awkward situation.

Zoro snickers, "I guess you just haven't had the right alcohol then," He reaches the bottle out towards me, "Try it," He says. Carefully I reach out and take the bottle in my hands. I shrug and take a sip. Nope still awful! I scrunch my face as the swordsman laughs. Wiping my mouth I pass back the bottle.

"Nope, definitely not for me," I mutter, earning another chuckle from Zoro.

"It seems like you don't like anything I do huh," Zoro says.

"Huh! No no no, its not like that I promise!" I quickly jab. I sigh and look up at the stars. Zoro softly punches my shoulder.

"I know I'm joking. You're different, I like that," He reassures me. At least now I know he isn't planning on throwing me overboard.

"Wait what do you mean I'm different?" I say, the phrase finally hitting.

"You aren't in awe of me, I respect that." Zoro says softly. A blush creeps onto my face, I didn't expect something like this from the guy. He seemed so cold and distant most of the time, it was quite intimidating. I look down at my lap, trying to hide the redness of my face. It was reassuring to know that the scariest person on the ship thought of me with respect. With those words the atmosphere seemed to lighten up. Instead of excruciating silence it was calm, like my moments with the sunset. I lie down looking at the stars, the spring constellations jumping out at me. The grand line may have the strangest seasons, but the sky remains the same throughout the years, on a cycle you could count on. Reliable as always, beautiful as always.

I hadn't noticed Zoro lying next to me until he spoke. "What are you looking at?" I turn to him our faces closer now.

"The constellations," I reply, "They help me figure out where we need to go, and what time of the year it is."

"Hmm, I never thought of it that way," Zoro says turning back to the sky, hands behind his head like a pillow. I daringly scoot closer to the man. Leaning closer to him I point to a collection of stars.

"Look over there is the Big Dipper, that one you probably already know. Oh, and over there is Virgo!" I explain excitedly. I continue to gush over the stars pointing out more constellations and going into some of the stories behind them. This goes on for a while, I spit out random star facts while Zoro nods and quietly takes in the information I shove at him. By the time my rant is over we are sitting up again, much closer than last time. When we first sat down it was as ship mates who barely knew each other, now it was like friends, who still, barely knew each other.

"You see, I grew up on a small, but well developed island. There was a lot of light pollution so I could hardly see the stars. Definitely not how we can see them tonight. My parents were just business people, nothing special, but my grandmother was an astrologer. She taught me almost everything I know about the sky now." I slow down, "Before she passed she told me that the only place I could truly see the sky in its glory is the sea. There no one can pollute the sky with bright lights and you'll be the freest you'll ever be. So that's what brought me to the Grand Line I guess. My parents weren't so happy about it but I didn't care what they thought." I hadn't noticed my tears until a calloused hand wiped them away. A small gasp escapes my mouth as I look up at Zoro, our faces much closer than I ever thought they would be. His hand remains on my face as he looks at me, the gears in his head turning. He moves a stray (h/c) strand out of my face.

I don't know what drives me to do it but I wrap my arms around the man's waist and pull him into a hug. My ear against his chest. It takes a few moments but he soon returns the gesture sliding his strong arms around me. My heart skips a beat as he gently caresses my hair, running his fingers through it. I feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breaths, the beating of his heart echoing in my ear. I knew he was just as nervous as me, even if he refused to show it. I slowly pulled away and our eyes met, locked in to each other for what seemed like hours. A delicate smile was painted on his lips and I smile back at him. What were once cold eyes showed a new formed warmth and fondness. New feelings sparked in me as I looked at his expression and got lost into his gaze. Bravery flooded through me and I hoped he felt the same spark I did as slowly leaned towards him again. I closed the distance putting my forehead against his, eyes closed. I hesitate for a moment putting my hands on his warm cheeks, then softly place a kiss onto his lips. I pull back hands still cupping his face. I look at him, a blush dusted onto his face. He places a hand on my waist and closes the distance once more, returning the kiss with more force than the last. My hands move to his hair as he gently leans me back to the floor. I look into his eyes again when we come up for air.

"I don't hate everything you do, I definitely like this," I say bringing him into another kiss.

A few days had passed since the exciting night watch with Zoro. After getting caught with Zoro straddling me by Luffy we were too embarrassed to really talk to each other. Especially when the stupid captain brought it up during breakfast the next morning. Who knew the kid would expose us like that,

"Zoro why were you wrestling with (y/n) last night? I thought you didn't like playing, you never wrestle with me," Luffy pouts reaching for another piece of toast. This alerts Sanji instantly,

"You brute! Why would you lay a finger on my precious princess?! Explain yourself swordsman!"

Me and Zoro both turn red like a tomato and look away from each other quickly. Nami and Robin snicker both knowing what was going on.

"Um..w-well you see, Its not like you think Sanji. We weren't fighting its f-fine," I manage to blurt out before Sanji went completely apeshit on Zoro.

"But why was he on top of you (y/n)?" Luffy asks. At this point Zoro was just about ready to bolt out of the kitchen and I was just about ready to melt into a puddle of embarrassment. With Luffy's new statement it seemed to have clicked with our ero—cook what was really going on...

I shudder as I recall the events of that awful breakfast and rest my forehead on the chart I had been working on in the aquarium bar. Robin pats my head as she reads her book.

"(y/n), you're going to have to talk to Zoro again. You can't just keep ignoring him like this,"

"I'd rather die than have that awkward conversation. Plus he probably is totally over me now, he's avoiding me too you know," I mumble into the paper.

"I'm sure that's not the case (y/n). I bet he feels the same as you do right now," Robin reassures me, flipping the page.

"I think I'm going to go take a nap to clear my head," I say softly closing the lid to my ink and rolling the chart back up.

"Have fun," Robin replies, lost in her book like always.

I start my walk to the girl's room remembering how gentle Zoro was when we kissed. It was a nice surprise, I didn't realize how caring he could be. His smile flashed in my mind, how genuine it was, how deeply he listened to everything I said, truly interested in every story I told about the stars. Everything that night felt right after we took down our guard walls. God I hope that's not the last time I see his smile.

Hmm, tomorrow is my night off, I wonder what I should do. Sleeping that whole time sounds like a waste, maybe I'll pamper myself extra and take a longer bath. Yeah that sounds like it will be perfect.

I turn the corner and suddenly trip over something on the floor.

"Ack! What the hell was that?!" I yell, rudely pulled out of planning my night off. I turn around to see who tripped me to yell at them some more but stopped once I saw who it was. "Zoro?! W-what are you doing napping in the hallway?"

He blushes slightly and turns his head away from me, "I was waiting for you so I could talk to you."

"Oh, umm what did you want to talk about?" I ask sitting up,

"I wanted to apologize. For the other night," He says looking in his lap.

"What would you have to apologize for? You didn't do anything wrong" I reply

"If it wasn't for me taking things too far then Luffy wouldn't have embarrassed you in front of the whole crew like that. I'm sorry that I was the cause of that," Zoro says starting to get up. Before he could walk away I grab his arm and pull him back down. I look him in the eyes making sure he listens to what I have to say.

"Zoro, you have nothing to be sorry about, I don't think you took things to far. I'm glad you did what you did and no amount of embarrassment is going to change that," I start, "Look, I'm just glad you don't hate me. I really like you, you know."

Those seemed to be the magic words as Zoro face lights up, the same beautiful smile he gave me that night resurfacing. He leans closer and kisses my cheek. "Meet me in the crows nest tomorrow night," He says, turning back into his confident self. He kisses me before getting up, "I really like you too," He says before turning and leaving me sitting in the hallway.

It didn't register what I got myself into until a few moments later.

"Holy shit, I just confessed to Zoro. AND HE LIKES ME BACK!" I yell to no one in particular. I jump up and run the rest of the way to the girls room like a 15 year old who just met their celebrity crush. Not my best moment but it was so good to know how Zoro felt about me. It was even better that he felt the same way about me as I felt about him. I was to excited after that to get a nap in but that was fine by me.

\ \ \

Nami came in to get me for dinner a few hours later. I was surprised she didn't ask me about what had happened between me and the swordsman, I'm sure everyone on the ship could hear my squeal of excitement earlier. I'm sure her pestering would come soon enough.

We make our way to the kitchen quickly not wanting Luffy to eat everything before we get there. I was going to sit in my normal spot next to Nami but before I could get there a familiar hand grabbed mine,

"Sit next to me," Zoro says gently tugging at my hand. I smile and sit next to him mouthing a quick sorry to Nami. The new seating arrangement did not go unnoticed by anyone. Everyone was either shocked or weirded out by how physical Zoro had become with you. His embarrassment was obviously gone as he shamelessly had his hand on my knee the entire meal and kissed my cheek every once in a while. Sanji was fuming the entire meal as well, and Zoro shot him his normal icy glares. It was almost as he was making fun of the cook at times or maybe just making sure that Sanji knew his place.

It actually wasn't long before the meal felt like just an average dinner on the Sunny. Brook singing and joking with Franky, Nami being annoyed with Sanji as Robin laughs at his antics, Luffy eating all the food while Chopper and Ussop try and match his impossible pace. Time seemed to slow down every time I ate with the rowdy crew, just having a good time.

After dinner I head to the back of the ship again to watch the sunset like normal. It was the perfect day for a nice sunset, just enough clouds to make the light shine just right, caressing the sky with beautiful pinks and oranges. I smile, stretch, and head to the grass to sit with Franky to start the night shift. We had planned to set up the telescope so I could do some extra research for my chart.

It was getting late and only a few of the crew members were still on the deck. I saw the light in the crows nest go out and Zoro heading down to the deck. I tell Franky I'd be back and went to go say goodnight to the moss head. I get to the bottom of the ladder just as Zoro does.

"You off to bed?" I ask.

"Yeah, I have to be up early for training tomorrow." He says yawning.

"Ok sleepy head, get some good rest. I'll see you in the morning,"

"Goodnight (y/n)," He smiles and leans down to gently kiss my lips. I watch him disappear into the ship before I go back to Franky and the telescope, a grin plastered on my face.

I love the whole "Zoro is actually a cuddle bug" head cannon so i sorta ran with it in this oops. anywhoo lmk how you like it or if u want more, i’ll be taking requests for x reader stuff and writing more so yeah

#zoro #roronoa zoro #zoro x reader #roronoa zoro x reader #strawhat pirates #one piece #fanfiction #fluff #tell me what to write #requests open

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misc-headcanons · 4 years

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C-can I request some angst please? 🥺🙏🏻 Sanji, Law, and Zoro finding a severely injured girl drifting out at sea and they save them and eventually become their s/o scenario or headcanons please? 🤩✨ I love your angst!!!

(These got kind of specific as I tried to come up with something angsty, haha. The content warnings on this one are a really weird combo, just a heads-up)

CW: References to slavery (Sanji and Zoro’s), cannibalism (Zoro), and medical experimentation (Law). Nothing explicit, but I’m adding this just in case!

Sanji

The Thousand Sunny had come across the wreckage of a ship and from the smell of cannon smoke in the air, it had likely only happened a few hours or so at most. The ship that had attacked was nowhere to be found, and there were several bodies floating in the water.

Sanji had noticed that among the corpses floating in the water, there was one that seemed to be alive. A young woman was clinging to a piece of driftwood, and the top of her head was covered with blood; as she bobbed in the ocean, her head barely lifted up to look up at the ship in front of her. Immediately, Sanji dove into the water after her and yelled up to Chopper. “Chopper, one of them is alive! Here, once we’re up on deck, take her to the clinic!”

Sanji carried her to the clinic, not minding the blood and seawater that was staining his clothes. The woman’s eyes were glassy and unfocused, but she was still alive. Chopper examined her and cleaned her head wound. By some miracle, the only injury she had received during her ship’s destruction was a concussion.

Chopper set up a small cot for her in the clinic so he could watch her overnight. Sanji immediately volunteered to watch over her as well, and he and Chopper worked in shifts (Sanji would leave to cook meals for the crew, and Chopper would sleep whenever Sanji got back).

At one point during the night, the woman stirred and realized that she was in a strange place. Sanji reassured her that she was safe, and tried to ask her who she was (Chopper had mentioned that testing her memory and cognitive skills would be a good idea when she woke up). She struggled to recall her memories, saying that she could only see fuzzy bits and pieces. What she did remember made a pit of unease form in Sanji’s chest: Cold chains on her wrists and feet that were too tight, seeing a glowing piece of metal and watching in horror as it burned into her friend’s skin, screaming and pleading not to be branded, the pain of having her head slammed against a pillar, and the deafening sound of splintering wood as some monster in the water bit into the ship before she fell into the icy water.

Strangely enough, she didn’t have a brand on her body; the ship had been attacked just as she was about to be burned. Sanji felt an urge to wrap his arms around her and comfort her, but he worried that it might make her uncomfortable and scared given what she’d been through. He offered to make her something to eat instead, and she nodded. When he started to get up, the young woman grabbed his hand. “Could…Could you stay with me for a little bit longer?” Her voice broke as she squeezed his hand. “I don’t want to be alone.”

Sanji’s eyes temporarily turned into hearts at the sudden physical contact, but he quickly controlled himself. He smiled and sat on the foot of her bed, still holding her hand. “Of course, my lady; as long as I’m able to draw breath, you won’t ever be alone again.”

Sanji took every opportunity to treat ____ like a princess, serving her gourmet meals, escorting her around the ship and on different islands the ship arrived at, buying all sorts of gifts, decorating her bed with all sorts of flowers, etc. Every time he did something, he noticed how taken aback she was by the kind gesture and she would protest. “There’s no need to fuss over me,” she said with wide eyes, “This is just…so much!”

Sanji would always reply that someone like her deserved everything good in this world, and that he was actually disappointed that he could only give her a fraction of that with his meager abilities. She’d always be flustered by his kindness and chivalry, but she started to warm up to being treated so well. He’d always comfort her when she would start to recover another memory of her prior life; some of them were happy, some of them…weren’t. They were always overwhelming, and ____ would find herself feeling a sudden rush of strong emotions that made her heart and head feel like they were about to burst. But no matter what, Sanji was always there to hold her and bring her back to reality.

One night, he had brought her a piece of cake and a cup of her favorite type of tea to her room. The two of them chatted together, and when she finished she gently brushed her fingers on his cheek. “You know,” she remarked quietly, “Whatever my past was, sometimes I think it doesn’t matter.” Sanji raised an eyebrow; ____ had spent so much time contemplating what her life was life before, trying to put together the “missing pieces” as she called it. What changed? She smiled and kissed his cheek. “Because whatever it was, I’m glad that in the here-and-now…I’m with you.”

Zoro

Of all the things for a shipwrecked cargo vessel to be carrying, it had to be meat. Crates and crates of meat, refrigerated in specially-made crates, bobbing up and down in the water. As he watched the wreckage float on the water, Zoro thought that if the ship’s builder had spent more time reinforcing the actual ship instead of making some special meat-preserving crates, then maybe the entire crew wouldn’t have died like idiots. The logos on the crates were hand-painted: Miss Terry’s Butchery. “Our meat is to DIE for!”

His thoughts were interrupted when Luffy cannonballed over the side of the Sunny with stars in his eyes. “FREE MEEEEEEEEAT!” He landed in the water, and Zoro dove after him. “Oi, you can’t swim, idiot!”

Zoro managed to grab Luffy by the collar before he sank like a stone, and he noticed another person in the water with them clinging to one of the crates that was half-flooded and starting to sink. He grabbed them as well and hauled them both up onto the deck of the Sunny.

It was a young woman, and even though she had been submerged there were visible tearstains on her cheeks. As Chopper attended to her and Luffy, Zoro noticed a small brand burned onto her right arm: Prop. of MTB. Chopper gave her mouth-to-mouth, and she coughed up a bit of seawater as her eyes fluttered open. Immediately, she saw Zoro’s swords and screamed in terror as she tried to scramble away from him. “D-Don’t harvest me, please,” she sobbed, burying her face in her knees. “I’ll do anything, I’ll…” She looked up and saw that she wasn’t on the cargo ship anymore. “Where…where am I?”

Zoro cocked his head at what she had first said. “What do you mean, ‘harvest’?” The young woman looked at him suspiciously. “Look, your ship wrecked. Looks like you’re the only one who made it.” He pointed out to the ruins of the cargo ship, and she slowly rose up to look out over the side of the Sunny.

She stared at the boxes of meat, her eyes filling with tears. Her knuckles tightened as she gripped the railing, and she tried to take deep breaths. “So…I’m safe,” she breathed. “I’m not gonna be…” Her eyes drifted to the floating boxes of meat, and she trembled. Zoro stepped forward, worried that she might pass out and fall over the side of the ship.

Luffy pouted and crossed his arms. “Man, all that meat’s gonna go to waste if it sinks,” he whined. “Hmmm, maybe Sanji can get the seawater off the ones that are wet.” He cupped his hands and called out to Sanji. “Oi, Sanji, come out here! Can you cook–”

“NO!” The young woman cut him off sharply. “You…don’t, don’t eat that meat! It’s…” She absentmindedly touched the brand on her arm, and Zoro realized why she was so terrified.

Zoro awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. “We won’t,” he promised. “You’re safe now, alright?” Luffy protested, asking why they couldn’t eat so much meat ripe for the taking, but Zoro cut him off with a glare.

The young woman spent the next few weeks with the crew, getting to know everyone but revealing little about what had happened to her on the ship. Zoro was the only one who didn’t ask questions about her (or, well…any questions really. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist), and so she preferred spending time with him. One night they were sharing a bottle of sake in the dining room, and Zoro asked why she always preferred being around him compared to everyone else in the crew.

“Honestly? I dunno,” she replied, her voice slurring a bit. “I mean, Nami and Usopp and the others are really kind, all of you have been…really kind.” She took another swig. “But you were the one who saved me that day. I’d been born and raised in the pens, and I wasn’t even treated like a person by the butchers.” She stared off. “I only learned to talk because the other livestock–um, people–taught me. Even though it was pointless, haha.” She sniffled a bit. “Even if you say ‘no, please,’ when it’s your time, the butchers ignore every word you say. It’s just easier to pretend you’re a cow mooing, or a chicken clucking. Not a person.” She looked over at Zoro. “You were the first person outside of the pens to treat me like a human being. You talked to me. You listened to me.” She leaned her head against him. “You saved me.”

Zoro stiffened at the sudden contact, and he awkwardly wondered if he should put his arm around her; from how she was leaning, his arm would be touching her brand. Still, he didn’t want her to think he was being intentionally callous by not doing anything to return her gesture of affection. He decided to just rest his hand on top of hers, and she leaned closer onto his shoulder. They both fell asleep together in the dining hall, and it was the first time in years that ____ slept without a single nightmare. Seemed like Zoro was her guardian even in her dreams.

Law

The Heart Pirates were out on open waters, headed towards the island of Punk Hazard when they came across the splintered ruins of another ship floating in the water. Oddly enough, it wasn’t a large ship at all; from how little wood there was in the water, it almost seemed like a one-person raft instead of a proper ship.

From how the wooden planks were charred at specific points, it seemed as though a flurry of lightning strikes had hit the ship during a particularly strong storm. The Heart Pirates had seen a few lightning strikes in the area a few minutes earlier, so they had gone underwater to avoid any potential hits to the ship. A young woman was slumped over on the largest piece of wood, shaking and trembling. The smell of nitrogen was sharp in the air, and it seemed like she could sink under the waves at any moment.

“Bepo, bring her up,” Law ordered. She was a stranger, but as a doctor he felt some obligation to treat her wounds. Besides, she might have information on this area of the New World and Punk Hazard specifically.

Bepo quickly swam out to grab her, and he and Law took her to the medical bay. The rest of the crew was surprised to see Law with a new patient, considering they were in the middle of nowhere. They knew better than to ask questions when someone needed treatment, so they did what they could to assist their captain.

She appeared to be in cardiac arrest from the lightning strike, and thankfully the crew had arrived when they did. After a few minutes of resuscitation, her heartbeat returned (though it was strangely erratic– quickening, slowing down, and occasionally appearing to stop again despite her ability to breathe) She wasn’t able to talk coherently, occasionally mumbling and moaning out random phrases: “Had to leave,” “Kodō-Kodō no Mi,” “No more experiments, please,” “I’ll kill you, Caesar Clown…”

The crew examined her while she was sleeping, and they got a clearer picture as to where this woman came from. She was wearing a jumpsuit with three logos on the back: A Marine logo on the left, the World Government insignia on the right, and the personal symbol of Caesar Clown in the middle below the other two. There were various syringe marks and scars from surgical cuts and other signs that she’d been experimented on for a while. Most of the surgeries seemed to be near her heart, and when Law removed it with his Devil Fruit to examine it, it glowed with bright, swirling colors inside its cube. It seemed like this woman was a test subject of Caesar Clown’s, and that somehow she’d managed to escape.

Over the next few days, Law would record some of her mumbled phrases. When she came to, she recoiled in fear at the sight of so much medical equipment and a stranger looking down at her. She flinched and she formed a heart symbol with her hands; her chest began to glow a deep red. “St-Stenosis Beam–”

Law quickly stopped her from attacking him, and he explained that he had rescued her from the wreckage of the ship. He knew she was from Punk Hazard, and he assured her that he wasn’t allied with Caesar. She relaxed a little bit, and asked why he had saved her. Surely he wanted to use her and her ability, just like Caesar…

Law simply replied that as a doctor, he had an obligation to treat her injuries. If he had ignored her, it would be violating his own moral principle. ____ was shocked; the only doctor she’d ever known since birth was Caesar Clown, and the idea of one with a moral code seemed unbelievable.

She spent the next few weeks recovering in bed, and Law spent every day with her. They started to grow close, and she explained that her Devil Fruit could manipulate her heartbeat and the heartbeats of others. She’d been fed the fruit at a very young age, and that Caesar had been experimenting on her since she had eaten it. It had been a long period of torture, but she finally found the courage to escape during Akainu and Aokiji’s fight on the island. A lightning storm had left her stranded… ”Until you came along,” she said with a small smile.

She was exhausted, but she managed to find the strength to reach out and touch Law’s hand as she sank into the pillows propping her up. She gently squeezed him and stared up at him, tears brimming her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely. Her eyes fluttered, and she fell asleep with her fingers still intertwined with his. Law felt his heart flutter a bit, and he was confused at the sensation. ____ was just a patient, after all–Surely, ____was using her Devil Fruit to tamper with his heartbeat…right?

#one piece #trafalgar law #roronoa zoro #sanji #one piece headcanon #one piece headcanons #one piece scenario #one piece scenarios #mine #Anonymous #female s/o

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laws-yellow-submarine · 4 years

Text

The Rubber Band

So uhhh…that Rock Band AU thing that I kept coming up with headcanons for? Yeah…I ran with it lmao though I’m establishing now that this in no way is meant to be GOOD and is instead meant to be SILLY and ENJOYABLE and FUN! I had fun writing it, even if it only took me like 2 hours haha

Credit goes to @ohpineapples for the initial idea (also 2 OCs make a very brief cameo in this, though I only own one, but for the sake of this AU they exist in the same universe and are best friends, if for no other reason than because Skylar definitely would take one look at Sophie and say “We’re best friends now”. She’s the extrovert I wish I was lmao)

Also featured: slight Frobin, because I can’t leave well enough alone lol

Word Count: 1674, will include a read more but they hardly ever work on mobile so RIP sorry in advance lol

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the silliness! (all lyrics are taken straight from the One Piece wiki so if anything’s incorrect I apologize!)

Battle of the Bands: Sabaody Park City! Prizes awarded to the Top 3 bands! 1st Place awarded title of “Best Band Ever”.

…

Zoro was by far the easiest to recruit.

When Luffy had strolled into the music shop, old-as-shit hand-me-down guitar strung across his shoulders, the green-haired percussionist hadn’t had much thought beyond “drumsticks”. This is, of course, because he hadn’t even noticed the other boy come in, an amazing feat considering the volume he exuded; but when Zoro was focused on something, it took a lot to break that focus. In this case, that focus lay on a set of 5B, dark oak, drumsticks. Zoro fumbled with the almost-matching stick in his pocket, older now but no less powerful, similar build though lighter in color. These would go perfectly with it.

And so it didn’t take much to convince Zoro to join; especially after Luffy helped him “borrow” the set.

…

They tried to recruit a band manager next, eager to get the show on the road, but the orange-haired prospect they’d met at the local carnival practically laughed in their faces.

“You call this a band? There’s two of you! That guitar’s strings are tied in place! I’m not throwing my weight behind a couple of idiots who don’t even know how to maintain their instruments! Do you even know how to write songs?” “Why write them? It’ll come to us when we play!” Nami threw her hand over her face. “See, this is why we need you!” The boy smiled at her, brighter than the sun, and she sighed.

“What do you even call this ‘band’?”

“The Rubber Band!”

She walked away.

…

They’d returned to her days later, a long-nosed, bass-playing, songwriter and a curly-browed keyboardist in tow, guitar strings neatly replaced. She sized them up, weighing the pros and cons, and crunching the numbers, in her head. Finally, she spoke up, dollar signs in her eyes.

“My rate is 70% of everything you make, plus a fee of $500 for every event I land you.”

“Hey isn’t that-”

“Of course, Nami-swan!~ Whatever you want dear! Nothing is too unreasonable for you, my love!~” The blond, Sanji, twirled around her, hearts in his eyes as he continued asking if he could make her anything to eat. She could get used to that.

Luffy agreed as well, not seeing a problem with it, as of course they’d make plenty of money as they journeyed to become the Best Band Ever. Usopp was the only one to voice any concerns, saying that “clearly as the true leader of this band”, they should negotiate for a lower price. Nami’s glare quickly silenced any further complaint.

…

They played a few local venues, and along the way picked up a curious reindeer with an affinity for the tambourine. Growth was, unfortunately, scarce though, as Nami brought up one day after receiving a call for a gig in the big city.

“Well we’re not getting anywhere without transportation.” She was right. Usopp’s beaten up car had finally quit on them only the week before, and they’d yet to find something up to the task. They sat around a table at the bar they’d just performed at, munching on snacks that Sanji had snuck in. Usopp was working on some new material, as well as their logo (a pirate’s jolly roger with a straw hat, for personality, and to dissuade those who thought Chopper was their mascot), and Zoro placed his freshly polished drumsticks pristinely in their case. Their attention was diverted when a woman approached them, smiling in a way that set them both at ease and on edge at the same time.

“Hello, I just wanted to congratulate you on your set. You played very well, especially you young man,” She said, particularly speaking to Chopper, the inexplicable reindeer.

“I don’t need your compliments, you dummy,” The boy gushed, blushing at the woman’s words. For her part she didn’t appear offended, and even chuckled slightly at his antics.

“My name is Robin. I overheard you need a way to get around?” Nami eyed her warily.

“Yes…we do, but there’s not enough in the budget to purchase a whole new vehicle.”

“Oh, my husband owns a tour bus. He used to travel with his own group before we met. If it’s no trouble for you, we’d be happy to help.” As she spoke, a large, bright blue headed man walked up, startling the group with his rather eccentric look.

“It would be SUPER no big deal! We’ve been wanting to travel for a while ourselves!”

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the band quickly said yes, and so finally began their trip to Sabaody Park City for the Battle of the Bands tournament.

…

They’d made only one stop for fuel on the way to the city, inadvertently picking up a probably homeless man named Brook, who was hoping to meet a friend in the city. Though most of the group had warned Luffy against it, there was no convincing the boy otherwise, and so far it had actually proved a fruitful venture. The man, thin as a skeleton, was proficient in music as well, and assisted Usopp with writing songs for the next show.

When they’d finally made it, their first real stop was the venue Nami had booked, in hopes of making some quick cash to prepare for the tournament. Robin had assisted with setting up the stage, helping to fight off Franky from installing pyrotechnics (“We can’t afford to pay for fire damages!” Nami had screamed), and despite Luffy’s insistence she stayed well away from the stage while they played. Along the way, they’d discovered she had a rather lovely voice, and seeing as how Luffy’s voice tended to sound like two whales fighting during a car wreck in the middle of a bagpipe festival, they’d tried to convince her to become the official lead singer. So far she’d shrugged them off, saying she wasn’t one for the spotlight.

For the next week, Nami continued booking gigs, somehow extorting extra money out of each new venue owner, until finally the day of the tournament had arrived. They’d walked in as a group, filing past dozens of other bands. They shuffled up to the signin, Luffy writing in big, bold letters “THE RUBBER BAND” across the paper, taking up at least five slots. They ignored the event coordinators’ griping in favor of finding a seat, as they waited for the event to start.

One by one, bands began to play; the audience determining who would move on and who was knocked out. The Rubber Band managed to make it through the first few rounds, fumbling slightly in the round before the finals. Until this point, they’d mostly gotten by through Luffy shredding on his beat-up guitar. His energy was infectious, and if he missed a note or played a weird chord, most didn’t notice; but now it was the big leagues, and the competition was fierce.

It was down to three bands, and they watched as a man with red hair screamed into the mic while a masked blond man played the drums. When they finished, the apparent leader taunted the next performer: a tattooed guitarist with a curly blond drummer and a silver-haired singer (and was that a polar bear playing the triangle?). Overall, the semi-finals passed in a blur, as it became apparent just what they were up against.

Luffy wasn’t discouraged at all, however, and merely used this as fuel to further insist Robin join them on stage. In his mind, if she sang for them they were sure to win! His pleas remained unanswered, until it was once again their turn to take the stage, and the dark haired woman followed them up to the mic. She smiled at Luffy’s excitement, and they all ignored the cries from an earlier band about the “new member”, instead settling into a quick, upbeat rhythm. As the crowd started to get into it, Robin launched into the lyrics.

“Arittake no yume o kaki atsume, Sagashi-mono o sagashi ni yuku no sa, ONE PIECE!”

It was a song she’d memorized after helping the others work so hard to write it, and learn it, specifically for the Battle of the Bands. Robin was nervous, having never purposely put herself in the spotlight like this, especially so literally. But as the crowd grew more enthused, dancing along with their music, she found herself feeling more and more confident, even beginning to sway with the music in her own sort of dance, smile growing wide on her face.

“Arittake no yume o kaki atsume, Sagashi-mono o sagashi ni yuku no sa, poketto no koin, soreto you wanna be my friend? We are, we are on the cruise! WE ARE!”

Before the group knew it they were finished, sweating and panting beneath the stage lights, the crowd roaring in their ears as they yelled “encore! encore!” Luffy raised his arms above his head, the biggest smile stretched across his face as he started cheering along with them. The tournament coordinator’s voice came over the loudspeaker, straining to be heard over the loud cheers.

“Well, I think we have a pretty clear winner, folks! Give it up for The Rubber Band!” The crowd’s screams grew deafening, and in the confusion Luffy had somehow snaked his way through the crowd to drag Nami, Franky, and Brook onto the stage with the others.

“Come on, guys! We did it!”

“Luffy, why did you drag me up here…”

“Shishishi, come on! They want an encore!” He said, ignoring the groans of his exasperated manager. The song started up again, spurred forth by Sanji and Zoro (who seemed to be competing over who could play louder), and those without instruments joined Robin at the front, singing along with the lyrics that, at this point, they all knew by heart.

And with the crowd screaming along, it was pretty clear…

They truly were the Best Band Ever.

#the end lmao #one piece #one piece scenario #one shot #AU #One Piece AU #of course I had to use that song like...I gotta lmao #AUs are fun lol #probably won't post this on ff.net or ao3? but we'll see how I feel in the morning lol #also I learned about different kinds of drumsticks today so that's neat!#also posted this on the correct blog this time cause what's the point of having a writing blog if I post my writing to my main blog?#Again: I don't expect this to be perceived as good but tbh fanfic doesn't have to be good and I had fun lmfao so I hope you did too!#alright Leyna's out goodnight folks

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anubislover · 5 years

Text

Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Nami-ya Chapter 4: Citrus in the Sun

“So, tell me about your old captain.”

Nami looked up from the shirt she was altering to pay attention to her roommate. In just a month, she and Ikkaku had bonded splendidly, the engineer offering up her limited wardrobe to the navigator, even if the curly-haired beauty was much taller and not as well-endowed. Luckily, she gave Nami full permission to tailor a few of her old shirts to fit on the promise that they go shopping together after the next job. Law said he had something big planned, and everyone was eager to gain a little extra spending money.

“Old captain?”

Chin resting on her fist, the brunette grinned at her. “Yeah. I didn’t exactly get to talk to him, what with the life-threatening injuries and him grieving for his brother, but we’re all curious about Straw Hat. I mean, I can’t even imagine a guy crazy enough to punch a Celestial Dragon over a Fishman.”

It annoyed her slightly that, despite her repeated insistence that her position as their shipmate was temporary, the Heart Pirates treated her like she was fully part of their crew. They meant well, but it raised her hackles when they acted as if she was no longer a Straw Hat. “Luffy’s an odd one, that’s for sure. I guess the best way to describe him is pure and straightforward.”

Ikkaku wrinkled her nose. “‘Pure?’ Weird description for a pirate.”

“Yeah, it is, but I don’t mean in the sense that he’s all goodness and rainbows. He’s just…his wants and needs are uncomplicated. He loves his nakama, his dream is to be King of the Pirates, and he doesn’t care about your past—just how you act in the present. It’s the reason I choose to sail with him; normally, I hate pirates.”

“Why?”

Pursing her lips, Nami considered just how much to tell her new friend. The tattoo artist was fun and friendly and kind, but she wasn’t nakama. So, she settled on the essential details that hopefully wouldn’t invite more questions. “My mother was murdered by pirates, and they held my town hostage for years.”

Sympathy lined her face, mouth turning down at the corners. “I’m guessing the Marines didn’t do shit to help you.”

“A few tried but got killed for their efforts. Mostly, they were bribed to look the other way.”

“That sucks. I’m really sorry.” The words were simple but sincere, and it brought a small, appreciative smile to the navigator’s face.

“It’s in the past. Thanks to Luffy, everyone on the island is free and happy, and I’m out on the sea fulfilling my dream. He’s reckless and stupid and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get wrinkles before my time because of him, but I couldn’t ask for a better captain. I just have to make the most of these next two years so I’ll be strong enough to guide him through the New World.”

Ikkaku’s mouth twisted like she wanted to argue but held herself back. “Well, I’m glad he helped you out—otherwise, you’d still be stuck in that village, and we never would have met!” she said with a grin.

You have no idea, Nami thought to herself, standing up to slip on the now cropped button-down T-shirt. It was a bit tight at the top, necessitating the top three buttons remain open, but the pink and white plaid was super cute, and with her modifications it nicely accentuated her trim waist and ample bust. “How’d you end up on this ship, anyway?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

Grabbing her bandana, Ikkaku playfully bumped her hip as they left the room. “Captain found me in a shit port town when the Polar Tang needed repairs. My boss at the time insisted the whole engine was about to fall apart and would need to be completely replaced. It was actually only a few parts, and I told him so. Boss was furious and sacked my ass, but Captain Law told me if I could fix it as easily as I said, he’d hire me on the spot. By the next day, I was officially a pirate.”

“What, so he didn’t just decide ‘she’s my engineer. I found her, so she’s mine’?” Nami asked, head tilted to the side in confusion.

“No, why would he?”

“Eh, Luffy just always seems to recruit people that way. No matter how you try to argue, once he decides you’re part of his crew, you’re done.”

“Not gonna lie, that actually sounds like a pretty pirate-like recruitment system.”

“Right? I think Brooke’s the only one who actually asked to join up—the rest of us were basically shanghaied.”

The two shared a hearty laugh as they parted ways, Ikkaku making her way to the engine room to oversee some maintenance, while Nami headed topside, determined to enjoy some fresh air. Shachi and Penguin had initially been reluctant to surface—they’d switched out the sub’s air earlier in the week and had no real need to do it again so soon—but she’d gone over their heads and appealed to Law, arguing that the last few times they’d done so, the weather had either been miserable, or they had to submerge again prematurely due to sighting a Navy ship. It was driving her bonkers, and Bepo was especially suffering. Luckily, the doctor had easily agreed, apparently considering the navigators’ comfort important enough to excuse the minor inconvenience.

Pushing open the steel door, she breathed in deeply, relishing the familiar scent of the sea and wind. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the crew was taking it as the perfect opportunity to decompress, both literally and figuratively. Bepo was particularly appreciative of the reprieve from the stuffy hull, having taken all the charts and maps onto the deck to work on. Sprawled on his belly, he carefully sketched out an island’s details like Nami had instructed, though it was clear from the way his eyelids kept drifting shut he was close to falling asleep. Meanwhile, Law lounged against him, head tilted back to absorb as much vitamin D as he could, fuzzy hat nowhere to be found. There was just enough of a breeze to keep Bepo’s fur from becoming uncomfortably hot, allowing the captain to fully enjoy this rare moment of relaxation.

The click of her heels against the metal deck woke him from a light doze, and he spared the Cat Thief a grin, nodding to the spot next to him against the bear. “Care to join us, Nami-ya?”

It never failed to surprise her whenever she caught Law using his navigator as a pillow. Though she’d finally accepted that, around his crew at least, there was more to the man than the sadistic monster the World Government made him out to be, it was still weird to see him do something so (dare she say it?) cute.

White teeth sank into her plump bottom lip as she considered his offer. On one hand, she enjoyed Bepo’s company; he was friendly, always grateful for her help, and so incredibly comfy she found herself wishing she could lay on him instead of her bed some nights. On the other hand, she’d have to sit next to Law. When there was work to be done, like plotting courses or planning supply runs, he maintained a respectful distance, treating her in a similar manner to his professionalism in the infirmary. But during downtown like this, she’d feel his sharp eyes lingering on her, his expression calculating before morphing into a lazy smirk once he realized she’d caught him. It put her on edge, not just because he was a dangerous man, but because his gaze never failed to ignite a small fire in her lower belly. She did her best to brush it off, reminding herself that, attractive though he may be, he was Luffy’s rival, his intentions towards her were still unknown, she didn’t mix business with pleasure, and no man was worth risking the safety of her nakama for.

Too bad none of that stopped the warm tingles of lust that sparked at his come-hither smirk or ostensibly innocent touches.

Sensing her reluctance, the surgeon pulled out his trump card; a small basket of ripe mikans. “Care for one? The cook got these on the last island, but said if they’re not eaten soon, they’ll go bad. I’d hate to see them go to waste.”

A sudden burst of homesickness washed over her; not just for Cocoyashi, but for her mikan grove aboard the Sunny. Unconsciously, her feet moved forward, and she soon found herself snuggled up against Bepo, the rough denim of Law’s jeans brushing against her bare leg; he’d moved little more than an inch to grant her room, not even bothering to hide the way his eyes trailed along the pale skin of her thighs exposed by her white shorts. Her own eyes narrowed in annoyance, but it quickly dissipated as he handed her the bright orange fruit.

“Eat up, Nami-ya; an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” Law chuckled before going back to sunning himself, a victorious smirk lifting the corner of his lip.

As much as she wanted to be aggravated at his teasing, the citrus scent tickled her nose enticingly as she instinctively began peeling the mikan. Mouth watering at the deliciously familiar smell, she licked her lips in anticipation before biting into a succulent slice.

She was in heaven the second the juices hit her tongue; the mikan was perfectly ripe, with a fresh tang that balanced out the sweetness beautifully. The cook was absolutely correct when he said they needed to be eaten now. Even a day later and they’d begin going over-ripe and soft, becoming saccharine and not as pleasant to eat. A little moan escaped her as the bits of flesh burst between her teeth, crewing carefully to savor every last moment.

A low laugh in her ear broke her from her mikan nirvana. “Sounds like you’re enjoying that, Nami-ya,” Law whispered suggestively, reaching over to boldly steal a slice.

Hot red spread across her cheeks as she tried to smack his hand away, but he was too quick. Not that it would have really stopped him; another thing she’d learned was that he wasn’t above using his powers for petty, inconsequential reasons, especially when he was in a playful mood. She’d seen him move his crew’s tools around, switch sugar for salt, and a few other things that were surprisingly juvenile. Part of her wanted to roll her eyes, but another part was mildly comforted by it; it was similar to how Luffy would use his Gomu Gomu abilities to steal food from the other side of the table or swing around the ship. Such frivolity painted a slightly lighter picture of the infamous Surgeon of Death.

“Hey Nami!” Shachi called as he practically skipped over, Penguin in tow. Despite the initial reluctance to surface, both seemed more chipper now that they were above water, the beautiful day doing its job. “Enjoying yourself?”

She shrugged, managing to force down her blush and replacing it with a carefree grin. “I’ve got sunshine, mikans, and Bepo as a pillow, so the day’s off to a good start.”

“Hey, I was wondering if you could clear up a rumor for me,” Penguin began, eyeing the fruit. “Do you really have mikan trees on your ship?”

Popping another slice in her mouth, she chirped, “Yup! They’re from my family’s mikan grove. I know it sounds odd, but it’s extremely beneficial; I get to carry a little piece of home with me wherever I go, and the crew has a ready supply of fruit so we’re safe from scurvy, vitamin deficiencies, and colds. It’s a struggle keeping Luffy from eating them all, but Sanji-kun’s developed at least sixteen different mikan dishes for me.” A frown tugged at her lips, both at the memory and a sudden thought. “I wonder if anyone’s caring for them now. They might all be dead by the time I get back.”

Though the sun shone brightly, the men could tell her mood had darkened. Clearing his throat, Shachi said, “I’m sure someone’s looking after them! What about that mermaid and octopus guy? Considering Straw Hat saved them from slavery, it’s the least they can do, right?”

Bepo was quick to chime in behind her, “Sabaody’s weather is consistently tropical, so I’m sure they’ll at least get watered. You’ll probably just have some pruning and stuff to do when you get back.”

The possibility that her trees might survive lifted her spirits a bit, and Penguin added, “Honestly, I’m kind of jealous. Wish we could have an orchard on the sub!”

Even though it was obviously just a ploy to distract her from melancholy thoughts, Nami was grateful. Rubbing her chin, she said, “Well, I doubt you could fit any trees, but maybe you could set up a greenhouse and garden? With how hot and steamy it gets in some of the rooms, you could potentially make a biodome and grow tropical plants.”

“That’s a good idea.” Scratching his muzzle, Bepo continued, “The engineering team has been developing some lights that simulate sunlight. Captain ordered it because when we’re underwater too long, the lack of sun causes some of the crew to get depressed, kind of like Seasonal Affective Disorder.”

Nami hummed thoughtfully. No wonder convincing him to surface had been so easy. “I can imagine. My body’s still adjusting to the lack of discernable day and night down there.”

Penguin nodded in agreement. “It’s easier when you’re from more wintery islands; we’re already used to days with less sunlight. Still, I’m liking the garden idea. Plants would supply more oxygen. We wouldn’t have to come up to switch out the air as often.”

“What?” the Mink said, panicking. “I take it back; it’s a bad idea! I don’t want to be stuck in the stuffy sub for longer!”

“Quit being such a baby!” Shachi scolded as Penguin rolled his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he replied, a dark cloud of gloom surrounding him.

“I’m with Bepo,” Nami defended, reaching behind her to scratch behind his ear comfortingly. “Even with the plants recycling the CO2, your ship gets hot and claustrophobic. You may be used to it, but I sure as hell get stir-crazy after only a few days. You’re lucky I didn’t hijack the helm and bring us topside earlier.”

The two men shuffled their feet, contrite. “Sorry, Nami.”

Pleased to see the duo had been brought to heel, the beautiful navigator bit down on another piece of fruit, sucking at the juices gently. Movement out of the corner of her eye captured her attention; she’d nearly forgotten Law was there, as he’d stayed quiet throughout the conversation, but gold eyes now bore into her. The heat of his stare trailed down to where the sliver of mikan dangled past her lips, and Nami swallowed harshly. He looked…hungry, and not for the tangy fruit.

“I think a garden could be extremely beneficial,” he finally drawled. “I certainly wouldn’t complain about having fresh medicinal herbs at my disposal. We can clear out one of the storage rooms, maybe install some extra windows and sprinklers. It’s a clever idea.” Taking another mikan slice from her unresisting hand, he bit into it, tongue running along his lips to catch the juices. Hearing her breath catch slightly at the action, he smirked, honey eyes hooded and pleased. “I knew I was right to recruit you.”

Scoffing to hide her discomfort, she looked away. “Well, you’ve only got eleven months left to take advantage of my brilliance. After that, you’ll have to figure things out for yourself again.”

“Oh, don’t worry; I’ve got plenty of ideas on how to make the most of our time together.” He turned back to his oldest friends. “Why don’t you two run down and tell the engineering team about Nami-ya’s suggestion? I’m want them to start planning as soon as possible.”

“Yes sir!”

As the pair scurried off, Bepo let out a mighty yawn, and a few minutes later began softly snoring. It was no surprise; the sun had grown much warmer as they’d talked, and napping was the bear’s default method of dealing with the heat. Law chuckled before pulling off his hoodie, revealing a tight, black tank top.

Much as Nami wanted to ignore the sudden excess of skin, her eyes lingered on the scrolling tattoos across his arms and chest. She knew he had more than the ones normally exposed on his hands and forearms, but she hadn’t expected them to take up most of his chest and biceps. Nor had she expected the design; when Ikkaku had said she’d tattooed hearts on him, she’d expected something more anatomically correct, possibly with the individual parts labeled like in a medical textbook. Instead, they were bold, intricate, had an almost primal beauty, and were vaguely familiar.

“See something you like, Nami-ya?” he asked, preening at her rapt attention.

“Your tattoos just…my sister has a similar design.” Remembering the day Nojiko had come home with the swirling, indigo pattern made her smile. She’d been horrified at the time, but it was a touching act of solidarity on her older sister’s part, making her feel slightly better about the horrid Jolly Roger branded on her shoulder.

Law blinked, surprised at the answer. “Is she a pirate, too?”

“No, she’s back home taking care of Bellmere’s mikan grove.”

“And that’s in Cocoyashi, right? In the East Blue?”

“Yeah, so?”

One shoulder lifted in a nonchalant shrug, though his grin had an edge of cruelty. “You should be more careful what you reveal about yourself; you never know what could be used against you. For example, since I know you have a sister and where she is, I could potentially threaten her to ensure your compliance.”

A month ago, she would have completely flipped at the thinly veiled threat, but she’d gotten better at calling his bluffs. “You could, but you won’t—it wouldn’t be beneficial to our working relationship. After all, I’m as protective of my loved ones as you are of your crew. If I really thought you were a threat to my sister, I wouldn’t hesitate to end you.”

“That’s assuming you have the guts to kill me. I doubt you’ve ever taken a life.”

Thoughts of her numerous failed attempts to murder Arlong danced across her mind. “Not for lack of trying. And I don’t have get my hands dirty to take you out; Devil Fruit users risk death just by being at sea. I could potentially shove you overboard or lead the ship into a storm, and you’d be at the bottom of the ocean before anyone even realized.”

His smirk relaxed as he propped his arms on his knees. “That you could. It’s amazing the lengths we’ll go to for the ones we love. Mugiwara-ya was willing to storm Impel Down and take on the Marines for his brother, even if they weren’t blood.”

Secure in the knowledge that Nojiko would not be targeted by the Surgeon of Death, Nami tucked her legs underneath her, leaning against Bepo to get more comfortable. “Someone doesn’t have to be blood to be family,” she stated, idly playing with her bracelet.

“No, they don’t,” he agreed. “Whitebeard was a perfect example. When I heard he called his crew his sons, I spent years believing it was just a tactic to manipulate them into blind loyalty. But the deeper I dug, the more I realized it was legitimate. The man truly gave that much of a shit for the men that followed him.” His expression darkened. “On the other hand, I’ve known plenty of sick bastards that would shoot their own brother without a moment’s hesitation.”

Sensing his train of thought would likely lead them down an unpleasant path, Nami diverted, “I wish I could have met Whitebeard. And spent more time with Ace. Luffy clearly adored his big brother, and he was so incredibly polite. Should have been my first hint they weren’t related.” A sad smile touched her lips. Their brief time with the Fire Fist in Alabasta had been illuminating, and she doubted her captain’s goofy grin could have been any bigger with him around. “You, know, he actually asked Luffy to join the Whitebeard Pirates,” she laughed. “As if Luffy’d ever let someone else be captain!”

The smirk returned to the Dark Doctor’s face, chin resting in his palm. “It’s for the best he didn’t. For all the man’s virtues, Whitebeard had a problem with taking on female crewmembers. You probably wouldn’t be invited to join him.”

“Then Luffy definitely would have refused. After all the trouble he went through to make me his navigator, he wouldn’t just toss me aside.”

A midnight blue eyebrow raised, intrigued. “Now that sounds like a story.”

“Yeah, but it’s one you haven’t earned the right to hear yet,” she huffed, reaching across him to snag another mikan. “At least, not from me. If Luffy was as loose-lipped as you claim, he probably babbled the whole thing.”

“Hmmm, mostly he just talked about how great his crew was, nothing about how he roped you into service. Even if he did, I’d much rather hear it from you—fewer interruptions by agonized screams.”

Delicate fingers paused halfway through peeling the fruit, chest tightening as she remembered that Luffy hadn’t been casually trading stories with Law over a drink—he’d been on death’s door, suffering physically and mentally, and Nami hadn’t been there for him. None of them had. She’d been off with the weather wizards, and yeah, going there hadn’t been her choice, but she should have tried harder to leave Weatheria the second she heard about Ace’s impending execution. She knew how far Luffy’d go for his loved ones, knew where the inevitable battle would be, and instead she’d stayed on the floating island, fooling herself into thinking he would be fine without her.

She’d never been ashamed of her instinct to run away from a fight, but she doubted there’d be a single day in the next two years that she didn’t curse her cowardice.

The mood once more threatened to darken, so Law summoned his Room and switched the discarded mikan peel for a bottle of sunscreen. Breaking her from her guilty thoughts, he nudged her with the tube. “Someone as pale as you is susceptible to sunburn, Nami-ya. Put this on.”

Logical as it was, she bristled at the order. “I doubt I’ll be out here long enough to even tan.”

He shifted away from the still-sleeping Bepo to sit across from her, the heat of the day finally making his favorite spot uncomfortable. “Surfacing was your idea, and we’ll be submerging before dinner, so you’d best enjoy the sunshine while you can.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Scoffing, Law proceeded to squeeze some of the white liquid into his palm before rubbing it onto the back of his neck. His smirk turned mischievous, however, and he reached over to flick a few sticky globs onto her face.

“Yeek! What are you—!”

He laughed at her outrage. “You were being stubborn. I’m sure the last thing you want is to be horribly disfigured by skin cancer, so do as I say and put on the sunblock.” His piercing eyes grew hooded as he studied the white droplets splattered across her chin and cheeks. Leaning closer, he whispered, “At the very least, you should rub that in before someone sees you and gets the wrong idea.”

Heat blossomed across her face that had nothing to do with sunburn. She didn’t need a mirror to know what he was implying. Frantically, she rubbed at her face, fuming at his dirty trick. The orders were bad enough, but the innuendos, combined with that golden gaze, made her uncomfortably aware of how easily he managed to get the best of her. She was a lot more used to blatant perversion, like Brooke’s requests to see her panties, than Law’s more subtle double-entendres. In fact, she was surprised to find them harder to ignore, as they made her pick apart his every word and action, trying to figure out if he was hitting on her or not.

Enough is enough! she thought, a devilish gleam twinkling in her eye. It’s time to teach him that nobody teases like Cat Thief Nami! When her service began, she’d been too scared of the potential consequences to give as good as she got, but after a month of his flirting and touches and teasing, she was at her breaking point. She might not mix business with pleasure, but revenge with pleasure was fair game.

Studying her target, her clever mind began forming a devious plan. Scooting forward so she was directly across from him, she traced the tips of her fingers over the heart on his right arm. “Did Ikkaku do these?” she asked, eyes widened slightly to give the illusion of innocent wonder.

The way his eyebrow raised indicated he didn’t believe her act for a second, but the curve of his lips made it clear he wasn’t worried about a trap and was going to milk the sudden attention for all it was worth. “Yeah. Hiring her was one of my best decisions—I got an engineer and a tattoo artist all in one.”

Light as a butterfly’s wing, she trailed over his shoulder to the swirls across his collarbone. The tip of her index finger slipped beneath the neck of his tank top, tugging gently. “I’d love to see them all. Would you mind taking off your shirt?”

He closed his eyes briefly, amusement painted plainly on his face. “If you want to see them so much, how about you do it for me?” he suggested lowly, sitting up straight and smirking down at her in challenge.

Poking the pink tip of her tongue out playfully, she shifted onto her knees before running her hands down his chest, tugging the bottom of the shirt out of his jeans before slowly pulling upward. Inch by inch smooth skin and hard planes of muscle were revealed, the elaborate heart tattoo trailing elegantly across his pecs and abs. The whistle she let out was genuine—the shirtless man before her really was quite striking.

She sat back on her heels, taking a moment to admire him. He wasn’t quite as ripped as Zoro, but he definitely had a swordsman’s physique. She could easily imagine him doing one-armed pushups, sweat dripping down his sides, muscles rippling like an unsettled pond. Picking up a slice of fruit, she bit into it a little too hard, the citrus juices spilling all over her fingers.

Sharp gold irises honed in on the way the pale orange drops trailed down her palm to her wrist, and his Adam’s apple visibly bobbed. “Are you usually this messy an eater, Nami-ya?”

She gave him an embarrassed smile. “Not usually. I guess the heat’s getting to me.” Looking away, she stroked the tip of her tongue up her forearm, cleaning up the sticky streak. She could feel the intense way his eyes followed the movement, and when she met his gaze, the hunger had returned full force.

“Mind if I have another mikan slice?” he rasped.

Despite knowing he could easily get it himself, she nodded coyly, holding out a particularly fat and ripe piece mere inches from his mouth. When he leaned in to take it between his teeth, she pulled back, instead teasingly biting into it, more juices flowing over her lips and onto her fingertips.

She didn’t expect his arms to shoot out like vipers, hands grasping her hips to pull her onto his lap. She was forced to straddle his thigh to keep her balance, and she still nearly fell over in shock as he leaned down, lips less than a centimeter from touching her own as he stole half the dangling fruit straight from her mouth.

Never before had she imagined someone could chew smugly, but as he pulled away, that was exactly what he was doing. “Don’t play games you’re not prepared to do anything to win, Nami-ya,” he purred.

Idly, she draped her arms over his shoulders, tracing the tips of her wet fingers along his upper back in light, delicate patterns. “Are we playing a game, Law-kun?” she asked breathily.

The gleam in his eyes was answer enough, as was the way his palms trailed across the soft skin of her exposed waist.

Leaning back, she studied his naked torso through half lidded brown eyes, sucking the remaining mikan juices off her fingers. “I really do like your tattoos. Do you want me to put some sunscreen on them? I’d hate for you to get burned and risk the ink getting distorted.”

“That’d be much appreciated, Nami-ya.”

The pink tip of her tongue peeked out to wet her lips as she grabbed the nearby bottle, squeezing the coconut-scented cream onto her hands. Just as her palms made contact with his pectorals, his scorching hands encircled her wrists, pinning them there.

She looked up at him in surprise, to which he easily chuckled. “Just making sure your hands don’t stray anywhere inappropriate. I know how hard it is for you to resist the temptation of getting your hands on a man’s wallet.”

“Don’t you trust me, Law-kun?”

“I trust you to be a scheming little minx,” he replied, tone deceptively affectionate.

Her lower lip stuck out in a pout, though she quickly smoothed out her expression when his molten stare fixated on it, looking for all the world like he wanted to lean down and capture it between his teeth. Pushing away the thought that she wouldn’t exactly mind it, she focused on her task.

Up, down, and across her hands traveled, massaging the sunscreen into Law’s skin as his hands shamelessly guided her. His flesh was tantalizingly hot and deliciously smooth, a few faint scars visible now that she was so close. His muscles rippled as he flexed casually, and Nami was pleased when she felt his heart speed up when her fingers “accidentally” flicked a dusky nipple. Curious, she lightly scraped her nails over the ridges of his abdominal muscles, smirking when they jumped under her ministrations, a low rumble, almost like a purr, echoing through his chest.

“You’re looking a little flushed, Nami-ya,” he whispered in her sensitive ear, steamy breath smelling faintly of mikans. “Is the sun what’s getting you hot and bothered, or me?”

Looking up at him through long, dark lashes, she replied, “Definitely the sun. It takes a lot more than rubbing a guy’s chest to make me weak in the knees.”

“Ah, there’s the Cat Thief I know. You were acting so demure, I was beginning to wonder if your brain got fried.” His devilish grin turned smug. “Or were you hoping to get a little payback with the sunscreen?”

“Maybe I just wanted an excuse to feel you up,” she quipped, giving a cat-like smile.

“If you wanted that, you should have just asked. I’m happy to oblige.”

“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?”

“Good point.” At last, not a speck of white remained on her palms, so Law reluctantly released his hold on her. “Want me to return the favor?” he murmured, letting the tips of his fingers suggestively caress her bare midriff.

Though red still stained her cheeks, Nami managed to maintain her composure as she carefully stood up. One of her legs had started to fall asleep, and she didn’t need the Heart captain thinking he really had made her weak in the knees. “Nah, I think I’m going to go back inside for a bit. I’m feeling a little thirsty.”

With the woman out of his arms, Law rolled his shoulders, working out the stiffness that had started to form. “Fair enough. If you change your mind, the offer still stands.”

Before she could respond, one of the men called out from the lower deck, “Hey Captain! We need your opinion on something!”

Getting up with all the grace of a tiger, he lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Duty calls. Don’t stay inside all day, though; I can’t promise we’ll be surfacing again soon, and I don’t need you suffering from a vitamin D deficiency.” With that, he activated his Room, teleporting himself down onto the lower deck.

As she turned to go inside, motion caught her eye, and she found Bepo watching her, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Giving a catty wink, she pressed her finger to her lips in a shushing motion before gathering up Law’s hoodie, tank top, and the rest of the mikans, leaving one behind for the sleepy Mink to enjoy.

“I’ll just toss these in the laundry for him. I’d hate for them to blow overboard.”

“I guess it’s too hot for him to put them back on,” Bepo agreed hesitantly.

Her smile was sunny and painfully obvious. “Exactly! And fewer clothes means he’ll get exposed to more vitamin D, so I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.”

Shrugging as he watched Nami skip away, the polar bear settled back down to resume his nap. Law was his best friend and his captain but considering how shamelessly he’d been teasing the Cat Thief, he was pretty sure the Dark Doctor deserved whatever Nami had in store. Besides, she was the reason the crew even agreed to surface in the first place—Bepo owed her his silence, just this once.

XXX

As the crew sat down to breakfast the next morning, Nami was startled by a large, firm hand gripping her shoulder as a voice whispered harshly in her ear, “That was very clever, Nami-ya.”

Forcing her heart to slow, she glanced up at Law with a smirk. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Somehow, the scowl on his face deepened. “Then the sunburn on my back, despite me clearly remembering putting sunscreen there, wasn’t your fault?”

“Oh dear,” she gasped, “maybe the fruit juices on my fingers washed it away.”

“And maybe someone who grew up in a mikan grove would know that the juice from citrus fruits, when exposed to sunlight and bare skin, can cause sunburn?”

“You know, you’re right!” she said, planting a fist in her palm. Batting her eyelashes innocently, she smiled. “But surely you don’t think I’d do such a thing on purpose?”

“You’re the one who so generously brought my hoodie inside to be laundered. Without asking for payment, I might add. Quite suspicious.”

“I considered the mikans you gave me payment enough. And it’s not like I stole them away—Bepo told you what I did with them, and you easily could have gone inside for another shirt. Instead, you spent the rest of the day outside with insufficient protection. Rather silly of a doctor, wouldn’t you say?”

Law’s glare told her he knew he’d been played and was already planning his revenge. “Just remember payback is a bitch.”

The whole crew had a hard time containing their sniggers as Law stormed out of the galley. Now everyone could see why he was so mad—across his shoulders, just above the neckline of his tank top was the word BREAD in shiny, red, sunburned letters.

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g-on-ef · 5 years

Text

Please don't let this nightmare become reality

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

@lawlu-week day 2: dreams

A/N: this was supposed to be updated yesterday but I forgot about it -_- welp anywhore I hope you like it ^^ this was inspired by a comic and I unfortunately can't link it due to the fact I'm on mobile but once I am back on my computer I'll link the comic but anyways hope you like it it's a little Canon diverse so yeah ^^

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He knew this would happen, he knew it the minute he challenged Doflamingo he knew he was going to die.

He knew it was inedible and he was actually okay with it, he finally avenge the death of his beloved adoptive father and killed the man responsible for his death.

Yes it cost him his life, but in the end it was worth it, his life and Doflamingo's end was worth it...after all if it was his life he had to pay for killing that disgusting man than it was a price worth paying.

The battle was a tough one hell he was certain it would be his last one but it didn't matter Doflamingo is dead and the world is free of one less dangerous criminal.

He can rest in peace knowing his long life dream was complete.

"Law..."

That voice...it sounded like Luffy...was that Luffy?

A giggled filled his ears. It sound familiar...Law opened his eyes and was surprised to see nothing but darkness, huh weird he always pictured a white tunnel leading him to Hell not some dark room.

Realistically hell was the only place for someone like Law so...is that were he was? Was he in hell? He had to be a soul as tainted as his did not belong in Heaven.

"Law,"

There was that voice again so familiar...it couldn't be...could it?

He turned his head, his eyes widen as he took the sight of Lami...his little sister.

Her big chocolate eyes stared at him and gifted him with a beautiful smile.

"Lam-Lam..."

"Big Brother Law,"

He stood up, looking ahead he saw his father, mother, and... and...Corazon! All his loved ones were there smiling at him.

"Mom...Dad...Cora-san..."

For a second or two Law felt like a little kid again only this time he didn't feel like his life was in danger, he didn't feel like any second his life could end, no instead he felt happy...safe...at peace...a feeling he hasn't felt in a long time...he was finally reunited with his loved ones.

Law smiled and felt the tears falling down his eyes he didn't even bother to stop them or wipe them.

For the first time in a long while he was happy...the only time he ever felt this happy was when...

"it's time to come home Law,"

He looked at Lami, her sweet smile was still as he remembered, her eyes were no longer filled with fear, but with happiness and content, she extended her hand, silently asking him to take it so they could go home and be together again.

Law chuckled a little, looking up he saw his parents, Cora-san, and behind them all his friends and every person from his home town everyone was waiting for him.

He lifted his hand and reached to grab Lami's. He was close, he could feel the tip of her fingers all he had to do was grasp her hand and he could join them.

Just before he could hold her hand he felt someone grabbing his shirt.

He turned around and saw...Luffy? Luffy's eyes that were usually filled with love, happiness, and mischief were now filled with fear and concerned. That's not right.

Luffy's eyes should never be filled with such worried they should always be happy.

"where are you going Traffy? You're not...you're not leaving me are you? You promised me you wouldn't leave..."

Law's eyes widen a bit as he stared at the image of Luffy.

"please Law...please stay with me...just for a little while longer..."

Luffy...the beautiful soul that saw all his flaws and still stood by his side, the one he held him when the world became to much to handle. The one who listen to him cry and offered a shoulder to cry on.

The one who he loved more than anything was begging him not to go...could he leave him all alone and broken again?

He promised Luffy he would never leave him that he'll stay by his side for as long as he wants him...but could he leave his family again? Could he leave them alone and live a life without them?

On the other hand could he enjoy a life without Luffy?

No...he couldn't. He couldnt see himself without Luffy didn't even want to think about it...

He looked at his family, silently asking them for something, what he wasn't sure he just hoped one of them would be able to understand what he was asking.

Lami was getting worried, was something wrong with her brother? his parents concerned wondering what was stopping their son from coming with them, but Corazon... Corazon was shocked for a moment before his face became relaxed he understood what his adoptive son was asking for and knew what he needed to do for Law to be happy.

he walked over to the siblings.

Law watched as Corazon picked up Lami and placed her on his shoulder.

"It's not your time yet Law...go back home be with your family, we'll be waiting for the two of you when you're ready to leave,"

Law's eyes filled with tears, he wanted to say something, anything to let Corazon and his family know he was ready to go but the look on Corazons face told him he wouldn't believe him.

"we love you Law never forget that."

With those final words Corazon placed his hand on his chest before he pushed him back.

The last thing Law remembers was an image of Ace? Luffy's brother?

He remembers seeing his smiling face, remembers him whispering something to him...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Law's eyes opened as his body launched forward, looking around he saw he was in the Sunny's infamary..

"What the..."

A small grunt pulled him out of his thoughts looking down he saw Luffy, curled on his side and holding on to Law.

law's eyes soften as he took the image before him.

"Luffy,"

Luffy stir awake before his eyes opened. Warm Chocolate met Steel Gray.

"Traffy..."

"Luffy,"

Luffy's eyes water a little before he wrapped his arms around him, holding him as tight as he could.

"you're okay, you're okay, you're okay"

Law held him tight as Luffy rested his head above his heart taking in at the sound of Law's heart beat making sure he was okay and not some figment of his imagination.

"I'm okay beloved, I'm okay..."

Luffy pulled back.

"I thought...that you...Law!"

Law just held onto his little ball of sunshine and kissed his forehead.

He may have accomplished one of his dreams but now...now it was time to look for a new one...and he knew Luffy would be a part of.

Corazon was right it wasn't his time, not yet he'll go back to his family when both he and Luffy are ready but for now...for now he'll stay by Luffy's side and together they'll help each other achieve their dreams.

After all The Pirate King is going to need a lot of help in the near future and Law would have no problem being the one to help out.

Ace's last words rang in his head and he closed his eyes as he held onto Luffy.

"Make sure he's always smiling. And take care of him..."

Always...

#one piece #10 days of lawlu 2019 #10 days of lawlu #lawlu week #lawlu #trafalgar d. water law #monkey d. luffy #my writing #day 2: dreams #minor character death #fluff and angst

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neverwatchedonepiece · 5 years

Text

648-649: "Making a Sortie! The Legendary Hero Usoland!" and "The Fierce Battle Coming to the End! Lucy vs Chinjao!"

*looks into the camera like in The Office*

The fight between Luffy and Don Chinjao is finally over! I think after what happened, Luffy might have found a new friend. Law also made a stressful phone call to The Krusty Krab Sunny and ordered delivery of one ship to Green Bit.

Zoro and Franky have teamed up with Sol at Resistance HQ in Flower Field, and if Usopp keeps perpetuating his fantastic bullshit, the entire Strawhat crew will be elevated to God status in the Tontatta tribe.

Slightly worried about Law and the Strawhats stuck on Sunny but I’m seventy percent certain they will pull through and won’t be captured by any Donquixote family affiliates. (The thirty percent left over remains a huge, nagging doubt.)

Luffy’s Tough Love Fight Therapy

The Colosseum showdown between Luffy and Don Chinjao picked up at the start of episode 649.

The action was fast and furious. Luffy pulled out all his quick moves: jet pistol, jet gatling, jet stamp gatling. All defended against by Chinjao. The crowd went wild. It was one of the greatest matches the Colosseum had ever seen! Some cheered for Lucy. Others cheered for Chinjao. The atmosphere was electric.

“You’re quite a fighter,” Don Chinjao said.

“Yeah, you’re strong too, as I thought,” Luffy answered. You know. Being honest as he is.

Don Chinjao totally overreacted. “WHAT U SAY? STRONG? U TRYIN TO INSULT MEH??”

Luffy was, quite rightly, bewildered. “Wtf, all I said was that you’re strong?”

Apparently, this was a grave insult to Don Chinjao. A huge kick in the ego. Chinjao had been much stronger before.

“I’m no better than a wolf without its fangs now. A skin-headed man without his drill. A brat like you can’t understand how miserable I feel living my life like this. I’m frustrated, disappointed and sad. But you can never understand.”

I laughed when Luffy yelled, “How can I understand? You keep messing with me without explaining anything!” (He’s just saying what we were all thinking, right?)

“You really want to know why I’ve become like this?”

“No, I’m not that interested.” (Lmao! We meet again, harsh Luffy.)

“Well, I’ll tell you before you die, since you insist.”

Don Chinjao is one of those old dudes that is TELLING you that long and rambling story even though you have showed zero interest and have been glancing at your watch for the past half hour.

Suddenly, Luffy the Fight Therapist was unwilling and open for business.

According to Chinjao, Garp punched his head in thirty years ago. Literally. As in Don Chinjao once looked like Dan Akroyd from 90s sci-fi comedy, Coneheads.

That was until his resplendent, pointy napper met Garp’s fist.

The whole flashback was hilariously weird. Turns out Chinjao’s drill-like bonce was the only means to access his remote family treasure vault under an ice sheet. Once Garp took away the key, Chinjao fell into a deep depression. Heartbroken, he retired from piracy, a lifeless shell, just idling away time.

That was kind of sad. I felt for Chinjao then. He’s like the model of the old, proud working man who suffers a physical injury, can no longer work and slips into anger and depression. Since Chinjao knows and values nothing but strength, wealth and power, he cannot and will not see another way forward. Unlike Luffy, Don Chinjao got his ass beat and never found the strength to crawl out of the gutter and retrain.

Instead, he decided to lay the blame for his misfortune squarely at Luffy’s feet.

Luffy, naturally, was outraged. “Wtf are you talking about? Grandpa and I are different people. Look, mate. I’m busy. I’m gonna win Ace’s fruit at any cost and become the Pirate King. I have no time to be your therapist.”

Then Chinjao made two Big Mistakes.

Wow, Chinjao has Really Specific Taste

Mistake #1?

Chinjao laughed off Luffy’s chances at becoming Pirate King. The reason was typical crotchety old man talk: “the media lionised you worst generation squirts and it emboldened you. But none of you are strong enough to sail across the sea *we* fought on. After Whitebeard’s death, I ain’t expecting much. The only guy who looks good is Blackbeard Teach.”

At the mere mention of Teach, Luffy’s eyes became two circles.

“If I had to pick one, it’s him. But anyway, if you’re only good enough to compete against me, just give up!”

Oh, Chinjao, I thought. Ohhhhhhhh, you just goofed. You goofed big time. You do not mention Teach in a positive light within Luffy’s earshot. You just do not. Teach was the asshole who captured Ace and handed him to the Marines. He shares Public Enemy Number One status with Akainu. Tell Luffy you believe Teach will become Pirate King and your fate is sealed.

Mistake #2?

Chinjao’s fighting style is kinda lame. People who spin during fights in shounen anime are always fodder (the one that sticks out is that spinning top guy in the HxH Heaven’s Arena arc.) This was not his mistake. It’s just a side thought.

The Teach comment pushed Luffy’s buttons. But what Chinjao said next was even worse.

“You’re not too bad but if a guy like Rayleigh chose a brat at this level as the flag bearer for this generation, he’s not as smart as he used to be. The Marines were smart when they squelched the most evil one of the lot: Ace. That man had demon’s blood in his veins. Do you think you can beat the Marine admirals, the Yonkou and surpass Roger? That’s impossible!”

Demon’s blood? Most evil one of the lot?

*cue Kill Bill red-mist music*

“Stop whining over one punch!” Luffy yelled, as he wound up a Thor Elephant Gun attack. “I can’t count how many times I got punched by Grandpa!”

When the attack connected and that spike popped back out of Chinjao’s head, I laughed like a drain. Luffy hit Chinjao so hard, he turned the clock back thirty years.

I’m sure Chinjao will be ecstatic. Take the L with good grace, mate. Your conehead is back! Go and wreak havoc on the high seas again. Recoup that treasure. The world is your oyster!

Up on the balcony, Bartolomeo still has not revealed his connection with Luffy. Cavendish is still throwing a strop. Bellamy is lurking in the shadows, clearly in two minds about his new assassination mission. And Burgess, thanks to Cavendish and his big mouth, knows that Luffy is Lucy.

Thanks, Cavendish.

(And Burgess really does walk around chortling and flexing all the time. He’s like an evil All Might.)

Thus the Legendary Heroes of Green Bit were Born

This cast reunion based on Usopp’s total bullshit was so much fun.

I loved Usopp and Robin’s expressions when the Tontatta took them to their airport. They were starry-eyed. And so they should’ve been. It was a miniature version of a proper, fully-equipped modern airport. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place had Duty Free, passport control and Starbucks concessions.

But it was not a holiday destination Usopp and Robin were flying out to. The entire airport had been overtaken by a military operation. Cub, the yellow bee squad leader, and Bian, the pink bee squad leader, reported for duty. Usopp picked up the bee planes and kept saying, “I wanna show this to Luffy.” (They are such good pals, it warms my heart.)

Unfortunately, Usopp and Robin were too big to travel by bee plane, so they had to take the local number 20 bus to Dressrosa. The buses were cute, vulpix-like foxes with huge, fluffy tails you can sink right into for a comfortable ride.

While they made their way through the tunnel, Master Roshi - the pervy little Tontatta chief - emerged from Robin’s cleavage. He bore dire warnings. “I should tell you because you will risk your lives for our cause.”

Usopp was thinking, “I ain’t gonna die for you but go on...”

“Doflamingo has been causing our tribe a lot of pain recently, but our connection with him goes way back before the last decade. Nine hundred years ago!”

Then the narrator interrupted and I was like, “So you’re just going to leave it there when I was about to get Doflamingo family history? I am not at all mad about this. No, sir. Not one bit.”

The action cut to Flower Field, where Franky and Sol descended a secret stairwell. Said stairwell led to the Resistance Army HQ! Some soldiers ran up to Sol and addressed him as “Captain”, so Sol is a Big Deal in the Resistance.

Franky was like, “Why are all these small people swarming me?”

Sol explained. The Tontatta people were called fairies in town, how they moved faster than the human eye could detect and how they were immensely strong. Franky put two and two together and realised one of them stole Zoro’s sword!

And guess who reached Flower Field before Franky? Before any of the other Strawhats!

That’s right. It’s our boy Zoro. (So proud he learned to follow directions.)

Zoro, hilariously, had made himself at home and was watching Luffy vs Chinjao on the big screen TV. He was absolutely fuming. Why hadn’t Luffy told him there was a fighting competition? THE BETRAYAL. Will he get over it? Probably.

He must’ve been distracted by the fight, as he completely forgot

Then some intelligence scouts ran up. They had a report for Sol. “We already know what our enemies and Sugar are doing!” (Sugar? Who dat?) “And with the battle close at hand, some legendary heroes have appeared at Tontatta: Usoland and Robiland. They have brought with them Luffyland, Zoroland, Namiland, Sanland, Chopperland, Fraland and Boneland.”

Franky and Zoro exchanged a Look. They knew instantly Usopp was on the bullshit wagon again.

“Um, I think I’m Zoroland,” Zoro said. (Lmao, better get into character quick.)

“And I’m Fraland. Nice to meet you!” Franky added.

It was round about then that Zoro remembered that Nami, Chopper and Brook were in serious trouble back on Sunny. He now wants to skip the battle (he doesn’t yet know about) and rescue the other Strawhats.

I wonder how this will go? Wicka did say she would let Zoro go back to Sunny once he’d taken her back to Resistance HQ. But Leo and the others back on Green Bit were suspicious of Robin and Usopp escaping. Will they let Zoro go or will he have to fight the battle first? Hmmm... I’m fifty/fifty about this.

God damn it, Caesar

*curb your enthusiasm music kicks in*

Meanwhile, back on Green Bit, Law was under heavy bombardment. Fujitora took a step back in this episode and Doflamingo stole the limelight. The cool music from Enies Lobby (as I call it in my head. I have no idea what the real title is) played as Doflamingo pursued Law.

As Doflamingo was about to land a finishing blow, Caesar shrieked, “OI, JOKER! Before you kill Law, I need you to take something back for me. Law took my heart and I don’t know what he’s gonna do with it!”

Doflamingo looked round like, “Wtf... are you talking about?” And while he was distracted, Law shambled his way out of trouble.

Doflamingo was furious. FFS, CAESAR. I bet he wanted to say that but couldn’t. Gotta keep your cash cow scientist happy..

Please send help. Our art teacher has locked us in class.

Unfortunately, Law didn’t have time for a breather. He had an urgent phone call to make.

While Nami, Chopper and Brook were brought up to speed on the Humans Turning Into Toys situation by Giolla, the ship’s DDM rang. Chopper hilariously ignored Giolla and answered the call (she was maaaaad).

It was Law. He said, “Is that Nami-san?”

To my disappointment, Chopper did not answer, “No, this is Patrick.”

“I don’t care what’s going on over there,” Law said. “Listen carefully. I need you to sail Sunny to Green Bit right now. I wanna leave Caesar with you guys. No time to explain. Bye!”

Okay, so I added in the “bye” part. Law abruptly hung up.

I like how he has faith that Nami, Chopper and Brook will be able to handle the situation, but their weapons have been rendered usless by Giolla’s Art Art Fruit power. I have no idea how they’re going to get out of this one (and I’m keen to see Oda’s creative solution).

The shitshow that is Law’s current existence continued once he hung up. Doflamingo is Doflamingo. He caught up with Law again near the end of episode 648. With that slasher smile, he shot Law with a string bullet and demanded to know who Law had called for help.

Doflamingo must be confident he has Law where he wants him because he spilled the beans on his diabolical plan to snare Luffy. “Give me back Caesar’s heart already. It’s so meaningless for you to keep hanging on here. Strawhat has already walked into the trap I set. He’s fighting in the gladiatorial contest at the Colosseum. Tough contenders from all over the world come to fight in it. Outlaws only. It’s a deadly competition. When someone loses, it’s a one way ticket to hell! He will never come out of the Colosseum alive! It’s the end of your alliance, Law. Just give up!”

I wonder if Law will use the heart as leverage. Maybe he’ll give up Caesar’s heart to escape, regroup and stop Doflamingo the old-fashioned way: with Tontatta military might. (Doflamingo better not kill him off...)

Don’t worry, Chinjao. Luffy will beat you until you feel better! :D

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makeste · 5 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 177: Construction Site Clash

Previously on BnHA: Deku confronted Gentle outside of a tea shop. Gentle sprang into action and revealed his quirk: elasticity. Basically he’s Monkey D. Luffy but instead of making himself stretchy and bouncy, he can do it to anything he touches, including the ground and even the damn air. Deku charged at him and promptly got flung waaaay back, but Gentle and La Brava realized how strong he is (and La Brava recognized him from his batshit insane fight against Todoroki in the sports festival where he broke all off his fingers just to prove a fucking point) and tried to run, not wanting to go toe to toe with him. Probably a good call, because after getting bounced into the air, Deku -- thinking about Eri and Jirou and everyone else who’s been looking forward to the cultural festival -- unleashed his new long-range Delaware Smash: Air Force attack. Then he grabbed Gentle by the collar and flung him into a fucking building. Damn, Deku.

Today on BnHA: Deku has a weird conversation with Gentle while the latter dangles from a construction beam. Gentle tries to reason with Deku and explain how his plan is somehow going to be a win-win situation for everyone. Deku calls bullshit and then lies and says the authorities are on their way, so Gentle cheerfully leaps back into action and starts using his quirk to springboard all over the place Gran Torino style so that Deku can’t get in a clean shot. He then tries to drop a giant steel beam onto a hapless old man, forcing Deku to jump in and save him. While he’s occupied, Gentle and La Brava take the opportunity to flee. We get an update on the time -- it’s now 8:45 a.m., t-minus 15 minutes to the start of the festival -- and then we cut back to Deku, who gets real mad and lifts the beam with only one fucking hand while aiming another air gun attack at Gentle with the other. La Brava is all “oh shit this kid doesn’t give up” and says that she’ll have to use her quirk.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 202 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

you guys. it’s February 3rd 2019 and I’ve just watched the worst, most mind-numbingly boring Superbowl in history. wtf was that. BnHA please help me wash the bad taste out of my mouth please and thank you

lmao oh my god

do you guys remember that scene from Avengers where Bruce Banner wakes up in an abandoned building and Harry Dean Stanton thoughtfully gives him some pants. for some reason this reminded me of that. “well then, son, you’ve got a condition”

now La Brava’s running over from a nearby roof and she’s all “DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT POPS”

she says they’re just shooting a film, and she’s asking him to let the neighbors know as well

well this is the most transparent lie of all time

(ETA: or is it just transparent enough to work!)

and even she’s thinking that it’s probably not going to buy them much time and that their plans have basically been foiled and they have to retreat

and now we’re cutting to inside of the building

on the one hand, it’s a cool setting and conveniently empty so that no one will get hurt! but on the other hand, this looks like the perfect place for someone to land the wrong way on a rebar and get accidentally impaled. please no one get impaled. we had enough impalings in the last arc

Deku’s thinking grateful thoughts about Mei and flashing back to when she gave him the details about his new gloves

yeah I’m just going to post this, not even gonna try and sum it up

(ETA: might wanna think about using a different font in the future if you want to avoid any confusion when typing out the word “flick”, Jaimini)

she sure knows a lot about his OFA capabilities, huh? thankfully she’s the type who gets so caught up in whatever she’s currently focused on that she would never in a million years note the many, many similarities between Deku’s quirk and All Might’s

also, interestingly, Deku is thinking a “thank you” to Mina as well!

because he apparently incorporated her “special dance training” into his attack?? omg what. “dance-off, bro. you and me”

Gentle is such a wacky fellow he might actually do it too

oh my lord

see what I mean

also hush, Deku. it’s called “flair” okay?

now Gentle is grinning like a loon and saying that he’ll execute his plan no matter what. “this is my resolve”

your resolve is stupid, Gentle. there, I said it. I love you but you lost this one pal. stop trying to attack a bunch of teenagers who are just trying to have a fun and wholesome time at school

Deku’s yelling at him. “you’re no gentleman!”

wow, harsh Deku

now he’s asking what Gentle is planning

meanwhile La Brava is hopping the fence and entering the construction site, and this overly trusting man from earlier has been completely fooled

lol she should just make something up. “uh...” [okay, just be cool, La Brava. just pick something reasonable] “...Animal Planet.” [nailed it]

now she’s sprinting over to where Deku and Gentle are and getting ready to film again

lol

so Deku is telling him that the school is on high security alert and the alarms will sound even before he can get in and he’ll definitely be caught, and on top of that the festival will be called off

this motherfucker is genuinely trying to negotiate with him lmao

Deku’s all “THAT’S EVEN WORSE” and Gentle is all “lol yeah I guess” omg

and now he (Gentle) is all “well, so that’s my plan, now if you don’t mind I’d like to get back at it”

oh snap

well at least he’s a better liar than La Brava

uh oh, Gentle is activating his quirk again it looks like

he’s springboarding off the floor and shouting “BEGONE, STUDENT OF U.A.”

outstanding use of the word “begone”, Gentle my good man

anyway, so he’s bouncing around and Deku is watching and trying to predict his movements

and Gentle is getting ready to springboard again

that probably isn’t good for the building

-- oh for fuck’s...

so all that time training with Gran Torino was for nothing?

wtf, now what??

did he just get hit? what’s going on

Gentle is saying “if you can use an air bullet, allow me to counter with an air barrier”

wait, what? so is the idea to reflect Deku’s attack back on him?

oh wait. or did Deku just walk into an elastic patch of air and get bounced back? is that what it is?

La Brave is telling Gentle that they need to retreat, and yeah they really should

but instead, Gentle is removing a bolt from one of the beams

did he do that with his bare (well, gloved, but you know what I mean) hands?? just like that? either this construction is shoddy as hell, or else this is the single most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen in this manga about kids with superpowers and bird heads and astronomical high school entrance exam budgets

anyway, now he’s bouncing on the beam and it’s vibrating

he says he can’t consciously deactivate his quirk

interesting. also potentially pretty dangerous and certainly inconvenient

but objects turn back to normal given a little time

and that’s what’s happening with this beam oh snap

well but I mean, as soon as you manhandled that screw loose -- did he use his quirk for that? is that why it was so easy? -- it was pretty clear what you intended to do

and by the way, dropping a steel beam onto a 16-year-old is pretty damn metal for someone who’s supposedly a gentleman villain

oh shit wait

damn, dropping it onto an unsuspecting old man who’s not even a fighter is even more metal

but thankfully Deku is Deku

nice, Deku

now he’s getting all outraged and “DID YOU JUST TRY TO DROP IT ON THAT INNOCENT OLD MAN”

oh, Gentle

c’mon, Gentle. c’mon. you tried to kill a dude. just admit it. that was not nice

(ETA: is La Brava still filming all this?? did the cops eventually get this footage? Gentle’s gonna be put away for attempted fucking murder. sorry dude)

now the old dude is finally running away, and meanwhile Gentle seemingly intends to just leave Deku here...?

ffff now he’s making the crane bendy??

and he’s telling Deku he’s sure someone will find him. lol what the hell is he going to do

Deku’s thinking to himself that they’re going to infiltrate the festival at this rate, and he has to act

omg yay we’re cutting back to 1-A!

lmaooooo Kaminari really didn’t end up sleeping a wink, huh. he was so hyped up

BAKUGOU, PUT ON YOUR T-SHIRT!! WE MADE IT JUST FOR THE OCCASION!!

I wish I could read what they say underneath the A? Toko’s shirt seems to start with “BN” (if they say bnha I s2g), but Momo’s shirt looks different. maybe an error though

(ETA: so as we eventually learn, they say “A Band”, and the delightful story behind this exceptionally creative name is the topic of today’s omake!)

the dancing team is also getting dressed, and they’ve got their own special costumes which are cute but I’m not gonna post the panel because Mineta is ruining it. how come no one ever drops a steel beam on him

Shouto is wearing one of the class A t-shirts, so I guess the staging team is rocking those too

anyway he’s asking where Deku went, and Aoyama says he went to buy rope

and now Shouto’s “is my boyfriend in danger” senses are tingling

this is a reasonable concern because as we all know, if you leave Deku alone for more than five minutes he will inevitably run into a villain. in hindsight they never should have let him leave

meanwhile Aoyama is already thinking about backup plans, oh damn

fully serious, if you combined Aoyama’s ingenuity with Mina’s they’d make a pretty unstoppable team. these kids are creative as fuck

ohhh, Gentle was just using the crane to launch himself and La Brava into the air towards U.A.

damn, dude doesn’t even care that Deku supposedly put out the alert. he says that if they make it in even with U.A. on the lookout for them, his name will become even more recognized

what are you trying to accomplish though, dude, in all seriousness? do you know what’s going to happen if U.A. suffers another break-in after all of the security measures they supposedly put in place, and after they insisted on holding the cultural festival despite police objections? they’ll be fucking shut down is what. this will be the third villain incident in less than six months. people are not going to be happy about that. best case, they’ll be allowed to stay open but with a ton of restrictions in place. basically you’ll make it harder than ever for them to do their job, when right now the world needs them more than ever. they’re raising the next generation of heroes here, and this is a post-All Might world. so maybe just cut them some slack, jesus christ

and now we’re cutting back to Deku, straining under the beam

come on Deku, you got this. powerlift this bitch

LOL OHHHHH SHIT

WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST PUT IT DOWN YOU NIMROD LMAO. “LOOK AT ME, I’M DEKU, ALL MIGHT’S SUCCESSOR! I CAN LIFT STEEL BEAMS WITH ONE HAND AND FIRE AIR CANNONS AT VILLAINS WITH THE OTHER”

oh damn. and it seems we’re finally going to get to see La Brava’s quirk! about fucking time. bring it

BONUS: what should we name the band?

“Electric Spark Kids”, Kaminari? really?? you really do just blurt out whatever the fuck pops into your head huh. (actually tbh this is my favorite name out of all of them)

Tokoyami has a fucking obsession with banquets. I really want to know how he ended up latching onto this out of all the “___ of darkness” things he could have possibly chosen. fwiw I did find out there is a song called Banquet in the Darkness which I haven’t actually listened to because the album art alone is frankly terrifying to me and I somewhat regret having looked this up

there is also a band called Ore, though I assume it’s intended to be the English definition of the word rather than Bakugou’s intended meaning. but it just goes to show you that it’s impossible to be original anymore no matter what you do

and then Momo is just... it’s a band... representing class A... band... A... band... A Band? and Jirou is just like OMG THAT’S THE GREATEST IDEA EVER despite the fact that it clearly is the most half-assed idea anyone has ever come up with. she just loves Momo that much. and is also desperate to stop the boys from coming up with any more suggestions lmao

by the way I just want to say that all of the kids are absolutely adorable in this sketch and it’s easily one of my favorite omakes for that reason alone. so stinking cute omg

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #gentle (bnha)#la brava #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #I honestly don't know why todoroki is the only one going 'but guys where's midoriya'#it's like they haven't learned a damn thing #something important is about to happen and deku's missing?#what are you all waiting for #sound the alarm #spoiler alert: it's villains #some villains are up to no good yet again and deku is involved because of course he is #maybe one of these days they'll figure this out #in the meantime you keep honing those instincts shouto

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pingo1387 · 6 years

Text

Swallow Your Soul

One-shot. After an unknown event caused devil fruits and their users to become corrupted, Luffy and his friends are among the few who are determined to search for a cure without harming those afflicted.

AO3 / FFN / Commissions

“Usopp!” Luffy said, standing over a bloodied Law, who struggled to stand. “Do you have the Seastone?”

“Right here!” Usopp rushed forward, taking aim with his slingshot, and fired a pellet. The bullet hit Law square in the nape of his neck, exploding into Seastone-laced ropes which wrapped around Law’s neck. He scrabbled at the ropes with incoherent cries before his body morphed and shrank until there was nothing left but a splotchy, spiral-covered, heart-shaped fruit, the ropes collapsing around it.

Luffy picked up the fruit. “I gotcha,” he said, staring at it. “Come on.”

“Yeah,” Usopp said. They hurried down the empty street, pulling their hoods back over their heads, and reached their dilapidated house.

“You’re back!” Chopper exclaimed, looking around the corner. He moved aside so he wouldn’t bump his antlers into the frame and trotted out. “Where’s Law?”

Luffy held up the fruit.

“What?” Chopper said, staring. “But . . . were you attacked?”

“No,” Usopp said. “I mean, yes, but it wasn’t the police or anything. We need a Seastone box, quick.”

“A—” Chopper’s eyes widened and his voice wobbled. “You mean—”

“Hurry!” Luffy snapped. Chopper nodded and hurried away, returning with Franky and the small box. Luffy set the fruit inside and Franky snapped the lid shut.

“I’ll give this to Robin,” he said, turning away. “Explain when we’re all here.”

“Well?” Nami said when Luffy remained silent. The gang had gathered in the living room, if one could even consider it fit for living. “What happened?”

Luffy slammed a fist into the floor, making everyone jump. “He was corrupted.”

“Excuse me?” Jinbei said, leaning forward. “How did it happen?”

“I don’t know!” Luffy exclaimed. “We were walking, and he just, out of nowhere—”

“He was losing his balance,” Usopp said. “And he was really quiet and weird, and when we asked if he was okay, he—he came after us, and we had to—”

“I thought the lad was acting off these past few days,” Jinbei murmured, folding his arms. “It must have taken hold just this week.”

“This is alarming,” Robin said, placing a hand on her cheek. “If Law could become corrupted after all this time out of nowhere, what does that mean for us?”

Brook shivered, though he had no skin. “I don’t want to think about that, Robin-san!”

“But we have to,” Luffy said, looking up again. “If it could happen to Law, it might happen to us. We thought we were immune, but if we’re not . . . it’ll be up to the rest of you to find a cure.”

“Luffy, I don’t know if we can do it without you,” Nami admitted, pale. “You devil fruit users are some of the strongest people here, and Chopper and Robin are a big part of the team to find the cure in the first place.”

“Nami-san, don’t worry, this guy and me can take care of things,” Sanji said, trying to pat her shoulder. She moved away and he patted her chair instead. He gestured to Zoro. “The two of us together more than make up for just Luffy, and I’m sure we can all pitch in for Robin-chan and Chopper.”

“Yeah, don’t you underestimate us,” Usopp said bravely. “And don’t underestimate yourself.”

Nami smiled weakly. “Right.”

“Any news?” Usopp added, glancing at the newspaper.

“The government passed a law to increase their weaponry,” Zoro said. “You know, to . . .”

“To take down the devil fruit users,” Franky finished.

Chopper whimpered. Robin picked him up and put him in her lap. “But—but if they’d only understand how much research could be done—!”

“And they didn’t need an increase in weaponry to publicly execute Ace,” Luffy said, the temperature in the room dropping by ten degrees. “Are they desperate?”

“Probably,” Robin agreed. “As for research . . . I suppose the military scientists think that studying a devil fruit that won’t reform into its user is easier than studying one that will. I hate to say they’re right, but . . .”

“There wasn’t much other news today,” Sanji said when she didn’t continue. “Some protests saying the corrupted users should be kept safe instead of shot on sight. Some college-degree talk show host making jokes about the whole thing. The kingdom of Alabasta said they want to find a cure, but Seastone is rare in their country, so they have trouble subduing the users.”

Robin sighed and stood, still holding Chopper. “Let’s go back to the lab and run some tests on Law.”

“Right,” Chopper and Jinbei said. Jinbei stood and followed them out the door.

“This is so bad,” Usopp said, falling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. “We thought he was immune like you guys, but now he’s corrupted, and we don’t know if it was in him from the start or if it just happened, and—”

Nami kicked his shin. “Go help out in the lab. Those three need those questions the most, and you need something to do.”

“Right, right.” Usopp scrambled to his feet and stumbled out the door.

“Luffy-san, do you want to do anything?” Brook asked Luffy, who was staring into space. “I could teach you to play chess.”

“Chess is boring,” Luffy said, his stupor broken as he blinked and frowned at Brook. “The pieces should be able to move wherever they want.”

“Well, we could play something else,” Brook said lightly. “I found a Pictionary game under the stairs yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Luffy said, smiling. “That sounds great!”

“I’m in,” Nami said, stretching and standing.

“Me too,” Sanji and Zoro said together.

“Me four,” Franky said, raising a hand.

“So, what’s Pictionary?” Luffy asked as Brook went off to get the game.

With Zoro, Sanji, and Franky on patrol for news of attacks from corrupted users and to search for non-corrupted users, Luffy was bored once again staying in the house.

“You don’t wanna be out there anyway,” Nami said, making tea over the old gas stove. “It’s going to rain later.”

“But it’s not raining now,” Luffy said, draping himself upside-down over a chair. He crashed to the ground and picked himself up, shaking his head.

“Do you want any tea?” Nami asked absently.

“What kind is it?”

“Orange pekoe. Black tea,” Nami clarified when Luffy frowned. “Found it under the sink. I’ll add sugar if you want.”

“Okay then,” Luffy said, smiling.

“Why don’t you go check on our scientists while it’s boiling?” Nami said, turning the kettle this way and that.

“Yeah! Be right back!”

Luffy left the kitchen and ran down the hall, opening the door to the laboratory to find Jinbei leafing through a book and Chopper waving his hands, trying to find his words while sitting on Robin's lap, Usopp kneeling next to them. Law—rather, Law’s fruit—sat on the Seastone platform to prevent reforming.

“Nothing so far,” Jinbei muttered. He looked up. “Ah, Luffy-kun, is something wrong?”

“Nope. Just bored. What’re you doing?”

“I thought I’d double-check solar maps from one year ago,” Jinbei explained, holding up the colorful patterns in the book. “The corruption happened unusually quickly all around the world, so it would make sense if the trigger was something that would reach every part of the world within a day.”

“Uh-huh,” Luffy said, already losing interest. “So it’s a mystery?”

Jinbei sighed. “Yes.”

Luffy glanced at the tank full of water with the corrupted devil fruits sitting at the bottom in so many shapes: One like a bunch of bananas, one like a pineapple, one like a cantaloupe. He wandered over to Law’s fruit and stared, frowning.

“What’s up, Chopper?” he asked, noticing Chopper’s verbal struggle at last. He leaned on the Seastone platform. “Is something—”

His body morphed and shrank as it transformed into his spherical violet fruit. Usopp looked back and groaned in frustration while Robin smiled, shaking her head. After a few seconds, the fruit itself morphed and grew until Luffy was back.

“Honestly, between you, Chopper, and Brook, we can’t let any of you out of our sight,” Usopp scolded. “What if that happened in a fight?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Luffy said with a laugh. “Anyway, Chopper, what’s wrong?”

Chopper clutched the brim of his hat. “You can experiment on me!”

“What?” Usopp said after a moment.

“If—if I ever become corrupted,” Chopper said. Jinbei looked up from the book. “If that happens, you—you have my permission to do whatever you want with me, if you think it’ll help find a cure.”

“Oh, Chopper,” Robin said, hugging him.

“Because—because Law didn’t ever say if we could or not, because we didn’t know it was gonna happen,” Chopper continued, starting to cry. “So if it happens, you can do what you need to.”

“You’re a good man,” Jinbei said, closing the book. “That’s very brave of you.”

“The same goes for me,” Robin said, holding Chopper through his emotional distress. “If I ever became corrupted, you can do what you need to. Dissect my fruit, inject it with things—”

“Robin, you’re making it worse,” Usopp snapped as Chopper cried harder. “Chopper, it’s okay, we won’t do those things unless we run out of options.”

“It’s fine,” Chopper said, hiccuping.

“Well, you can do the same to me if you want, but be careful,” Luffy said. He almost touched the Seastone platform again, but aimed for the table at the last second. “I bet Law would’ve said the same, you know.”

“I know,” Robin said. “But we never talked about it beforehand, so we shouldn’t.”

The kettle whistle sounded from the kitchen.

“Is that coffee?” Robin asked.

“Tea,” Luffy said.

“I want some,” Usopp exclaimed. Jinbei, Robin, and Chopper decided to pass, so Luffy and Usopp abandoned the laboratory to find Nami.

“Both of you?” Nami said in exasperation. Brook was already at the kitchen table, enjoying his own cup. “Next time I want to know beforehand how many people in this house are going to have some.”

“You didn’t tell us you were making tea,” Usopp pointed out, sitting at the table with Luffy.

Nami pretended not to hear him. “It’s fifty dollars a cup,” she said, pouring Usopp one and holding out Luffy’s. He stretched out his arm and grabbed it from the table while she set down Usopp’s in front of him.

“Thank you,” they said together, sipping it. On cue, rain sounded from outside.

“Such a lovely sound,” Brook sighed. “I do wish I could swim sometimes.”

“Me too,” Luffy sighed.

“Me three,” Usopp said. “I mean, I wish you two could swim. Then we wouldn’t have to dive to the bottom of a pool to get your fruits every time you fall in.”

Luffy laughed. “It happens a lot, doesn’t it?”

“More than it should! I swear, eating a devil fruit just makes you more prone to falling in the sea. Maybe we should be researching that first!”

“Could the corruption have something to do with the ocean?” Nami wondered aloud, sitting next to Usopp after adding powdered cream to her tea. “I’ll ask Robin later.”

“I want credit,” Usopp said, folding his arms. “I—”

A phone ringing interrupted him and the room went dead silent. When it rang again, Luffy jumped to his feet and ran to the living room, seizing the red phone from off the wall. Only one group of people had their phone number.

“Hi,” he said into the speaker. Someone answered. “Koala?” he said in surprise. Nami, Usopp, and Brook came out of the kitchen to eavesdrop. “Hi! Is Sabo busy? He usually calls first.” He listened intently, his face going slack. “What?”

The front door opened; Zoro, Sanji, and Franky entered and were about to speak when Nami shushed them, pointing to Luffy.

“Are—no way—no way. Are you sure?” His hands balled into fists. “Yeah. Yeah, of course we’ll keep an eye out. You too. Thank you.”

He turned around, pale. “Sabo got arrested,” he announced with no prompting.

“What?!” Usopp and Nami shrieked.

“By whom?” Brook exclaimed.

“How?” Franky exclaimed.

“Who do you think?” Luffy said, falling down into a sit. “The police caught him trying to take in a corrupted user, and they turned him over to the military for breaking threader law.”

“Federal,” Nami said, staggering to a chair and sitting before she could faint. “The most they can do is throw him in jail, right?”

“Who knows?” Sanji said bleakly, going over to her. As she ducked away from every comforting pat he tried to give, he continued, “If his arrest isn’t broadcasted, they can do what they want.”

Franky cursed under his breath and leaned against the wall. “Did Koala—was it Koala?—did she say anything about their research?”

“Nothing,” Luffy said, staring at the wall.

“So, they haven’t made any progress, either,” Brook concluded.

“Speaking of which, I’ll tell them about Law,” Usopp said, going to the phone. He dialed the number and waited. While he spoke to Koala about the situation, Nami sat up.

“We probably don’t need to worry,” she said, slapping Sanji’s hand away for good. “They might know where he’s being held. And Luffy, your dad’s a user himself and a master criminal, so I’d bet they could break in and bust him out.”

“You think so?” Luffy said, brightening.

“I’m sure of it,” Nami said, though the quaver in her voice told everyone but Luffy that she was also trying to convince herself.

“I’ll go tell Robin-chan and the others what happened,” Sanji said, leaving the room as Usopp hung up the phone.

“Koala says hi to everyone,” he said. “And she says that something similar happened to one of their teammates.”

“Who?” everyone said together.

“Emporio Ivankov. She said no one thought about it at the time, but their corruption happened about a week or two after the global catastrophe. They’re gonna run some extra tests on their fruit to compare it to others.”

Franky folded his arms, scowling. “Guess that’s just more proof any of you could get corrupted down the line.”

“You guys have to tell us as soon as you can if you start feeling weird,” Nami said, standing. “Even just a little bit. That way we can revert you to your fruits to study you as soon as possible.”

“Right,” Luffy said. Brook nodded.

“No news from patrol,” Zoro said, rubbing his temple. “I’m gonna go nap. Wake me up for dinner.”

He hung up his hoodie, shaking off extra water, and kicked off his shoes, trudging away.

“Nothing?” Chopper said, seeing Luffy staring at the phone again.

Luffy shook his head.

“A week is a long time to go with no news,” Robin remarked, moving a chess piece. Chopper looked at the board and cried out in dismay. “Of course, they could be busying themselves trying to break him out.”

“Maybe,” Luffy said, spinning around and falling into a chair. He looked out the window. The rain hadn’t let up all week, and had turned into a storm that morning. “I just want something.”

None of the news channels nor the newspaper had said a word about Sabo’s capture, not even in vague terms, leading to only more worry in the small house.

“Checkmate,” Robin said with a smile, knocking over one of Chopper’s pieces. Chopper sighed and put his head on the table. “That was a good game. Want to play again?”

“Later,” Chopper said, looking up. “I’ll beat you for sure one d—”

A yell outside interrupted him. He, Robin, and Luffy looked out the window, alert, but when nothing else happened they looked back at each other.

“How about checkers, then?” Robin suggested. “Or we could draw s—”

Another yell interrupted her. The three of them stood and hurried to the window, looking outside. A figure was staggering down the street, wearing a very familiar cloak and top hat.

“Sabo?” Luffy whispered. He grinned. “Sabo! That’s him!”

“Why would he come here instead of back to his team?” Robin wondered.

“Guys!” Chopper yelled. Zoro came downstairs, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and Nami and Jinbei emerged from the laboratory. Usopp and Franky came out, covered in dust from searching for work tools throughout the house, and Sanji and Brook came out of the kitchen.

“Sabo’s out there,” Luffy said, pointing to the figure stumbling down the street. “I dunno why he came here. Maybe it wasn’t safe to go back to his team?”

Without waiting for an answer, he ran for the door and flew outside in the rain.

“Sabo!” he yelled while his friends watched from the window. “Hey! Sabo!”

Sabo looked up, eyes darting this way and that. His arms hung limply by his side and his footsteps were awkward and uncoordinated.

“Sabo?” Luffy said, slowing to a halt in front of him. “You escaped on your own? Why’re you here?”

“Where’s here?” Sabo said, his words a string of mumbles. “Where am I? Who am I? What did you do?” He clenched his fists. “What did they do, Koala?”

“Koala?” Luffy repeated, taking a step back. “Sabo, it’s okay, it’s me—”

Sabo lunged for him. Luffy jumped out of the way, and Sabo spun around, staggering.

“Ivankov, get Dragon,” he slurred. “Old man, you love Luffy more than me, don’t you?”

“Sabo,” Luffy whispered. “Sabo! What happened to you?!”

“Sabo? Sabo,” Sabo said. “Sabo’s not here.”

“You . . .” Luffy covered his mouth. “You ate a . . . Sabo, did they do this to you? Did they? Which one? Which one did you eat?”

“I ate up your soul,” Sabo said, his words still barely comprehensible as he dragged his fingers down his face. His shoulders began to smoke, and to Luffy’s horror, his hands went up in flames. “They stole my soul!”

He rushed forward, flames blazing on his body like a wildfire, and he tackled a stunned Luffy to the ground.

“They killed me!” he screamed, unseeing eyes darting every which way as if he was asleep. Rain fell upon Luffy’s face and surrounded Sabo, the flames burning bright regardless. “They killed me before I could kill them! But I’m back!” He slammed a fiery fist into Luffy’s chest, and Luffy’s head tilted back with a strangled cry of pain. “Your big brother’s back from the dead, Luffy!”

“Sabo,” Luffy croaked, looking up at him. Sabo’s face went up in flames, obscuring his features, and hands sprouted from Luffy out of nowhere, pushing Sabo away. Robin hissed in pain as the flames reached her arms, and the phantom limbs vanished. Luffy’s friends had finally run outside to help.

“Luffy-kun,” Jinbei said, holding out a hand. “Can you stand?”

Luffy moved nothing but his head, turning it to stare at Sabo, who rolled around on the ground as if trying to put himself out.

“Hack!” he shrieked. “Go get Koala! Pops, you were the best father a guy could ask for, you know?! Where’s Kuma?! Dragon!”

He leapt to his feet, but Zoro, rushing forward, cut him down with a fierce slashing attack. The cut went right through Sabo’s fiery body, as did Sanji’s kick, leaving Sanji trying to blow the flames out on his leg.

“Damn Logias,” Nami hissed. She waved a hand around to check the temperature of the storm and used her Clima Tact to create a small storm above Sabo, helping to keep his flames to a minimum. “Jinbei, get Luffy inside!”

“Of course!” Jinbei scooped up Luffy, who struggled to escape. “Let’s go, lad.”

“No,” Luffy said hoarsely, staring in horror. “Sabo. I need to . . . Sabo . . .”

“You don’t have to watch,” Jinbei said, turning Luffy away from the fight. “Please.”

“But—Jinbei, lemme go!”

“We’re going inside,” Jinbei repeated, holding Luffy to him like a kitten. “Luffy-kun, for once, please listen to us.”

Luffy clutched at Jinbei’s robes so tightly they might have ripped as Jinbei ran him indoors. Once inside, Jinbei had to keep a strong hold on Luffy to prevent him from running back outside.

“Usopp!” Zoro exclaimed, brushing rain-coated hair out of his eyes as he attacked Sabo one last time. “Now!”

Usopp fired his slingshot—missed—adjusted for the wind and rain—and hit Sabo.

Sabo laughed deliriously as the Seastone-laced ropes wrapped around his face. “Kill me,” he slurred, his words ever more muffled with the ropes crossing around his mouth. “Kill me again, Luffy, kill me—”

His body morphed and shrank until nothing remained but a round orange fruit, tainted with blue and violet splotches among the flame-like scales. Zoro picked it up, keeping the ropes tied around it.

“Come on,” he said. He glanced up and saw Luffy’s struggles against Jinbei weakening, his body going limp. “We’d better get him into the tank.”

The rain had stopped at last, leaving soggy streets and the usual puddle in the bedroom upstairs. The gang was crowded in the living room. Chopper sat in Robin’s lap, tears dripping down his face while she stared at the floor, rocking him in her lap. Nami was curled up on her side in the chair, finally allowing Sanji to rest a comforting arm around her shoulders while he crouched on the armrest. Zoro sat on the floor next to Robin and Chopper, arms folded, and Brook was perched on the mantle above the blocked-up fireplace, his thin frame allowing for such a seat. Luffy’s legs were drawn up to his chest as he stared into space blankly, and Jinbei sat next to him, cross-legged. Usopp sat on Jinbei’s other side, leaning against his massive body.

The click of the phone being hung up made everyone but Luffy look over at Franky.

“So . . . she’s upset, obviously,” he said. “But she’s glad he’s somewhat safe. She said we could keep him here if we wanted, but it’s up to us.”

“They can have him,” Luffy said, voice still hoarse. He didn’t bother to clear it and didn’t look at anyone. “They’re his team.”

“We should run at least a few tests before giving him back,” Robin suggested. “This is a completely unique situation. A person consuming a corrupted devil fruit after its original owner was . . .”

“How did that happen?” Usopp asked, blinking hard and shifting his legs.

“Maybe he was trying to escape,” Zoro said. “And he saw Ace’s fruit—”

“He didn’t,” Luffy said, face hardening. “He wouldn’t have. The military must’ve force-fed it to him. Sabo would never do that on his own.”

“You don’t know that,” Nami said, leaning back against the chair, not caring that she was squashing Sanji’s arm between her back and the cushion. “Sabo missed Ace as much as you do, Luffy. For all we know, the temptation was—”

“He didn’t!” Luffy yelled, glaring at her. She flinched and Sanji scowled at him. “He couldn’t’ve,” Luffy said, sagging back against Jinbei, going limp. “He’d never . . .”

“Never mind how it happened,” Franky said, sitting next to Zoro and lifting his hands. Chopper climbed into them and Franky set him in his lap. Robin shifted her position. “It’s over and done with. We’ll ask him how it happened when we find a cure.”

“If we find a cure,” Zoro said.

“It’s bad luck to talk like that, Zoro-san,” Brook said delicately. “Please be optimistic here. It may turn out to be nigh impossible, but every event that occurs has an inverse. A deflated balloon can be reinflated, a cup of tea can be reheated, and though it would take a team of a thousand, even a mixture of differently-colored sands can be reorganized into like colors.”

Zoro shrugged, unable or unwilling to argue.

“Luffy?” Sanji said, looking at him. “Do you need anything?”

Luffy shook his head.

“I’m starting dinner soon. What do you want?”

“Not hungry.”

Sanji sighed, lips pressed together. “I can’t accept that. I’ll bring you something later.”

Luffy didn’t answer. Jinbei stood, scooping up Luffy and making Usopp fall onto the couch.

“I’m taking you to the bedroom,” he said. “You get some rest and come down when you’re feeling better.”

Luffy hid his face, curling up into a ball. Jinbei left to take him upstairs. The sunset, made pale and greyish from the rain, shone through the windows.

“Okay, well,” Usopp said, picking himself up from the couch. “Robin, Chopper, Brook, do you mind if we check your fruits?”

“That’s a good idea,” Robin said. Chopper hopped off of Franky’s lap. “A weekly checkup for all of us might be best. Better safe than sorry.”

“Great idea, guys,” Nami said, sitting forward and releasing Sanji’s arm. He rubbed it, circulation returning. “I’ll come.”

“I’ll get started on dinner,” Sanji reiterated, going to the kitchen. “Hey, mossy, come help.”

Zoro grumbled something and stood, following him. Usopp, Nami, Robin, Chopper, and Brook made a single-file line heading to the laboratory, and Franky disappeared again to continue hunting for tools.

“There’s no shame, Luffy-kun.”

Luffy didn’t turn around. He had gone from being curled into a ball in Jinbei’s arms to being curled into a ball on his bed. The sunset glinted off the puddle in the room, casting light on the walls.

“He’s your brother,” Jinbei continued. “And the fruit he ate . . . no one would blame you for being so upset.”

Luffy curled in tighter on himself.

“I know it’s been a hard week,” Jinbei said. “Take as long as you need. We’ll cover your shifts until then.”

Luffy nodded.

“Do you want me to stay here?”

Luffy shook his head.

“Tell us if you need anything,” Jinbei said, standing, “or even if you want to retreat to your fruit. We’ll understand.”

He turned away, heading out the door. Luffy trembled in bed, silent tears running across his nose and dripping onto the musty sheets. A gleam of sunset bounced off the puddle into his eyes, and he squeezed them shut, his world going dark.

#one piece #opfanfic #luffy #zoro #nami #usopp #sanji #chopper #robin #franky #brook #jinbe #linebreaks haven't been showing up on mobile so i'd recommend reading this on desktop or another site #kitchen/tea scene inspired by subbyp's fic ''take a foot pull up a chair''#alternate universe modern setting #writing adventures

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genogenocrazycatman · 5 years

Text

Stillwater - Chapter 4

Stillwater [Archive of Our Own, FanFiction.Net, Mibba]

Characters: Original Female Character, Monkey D. Luffy, Rorona Zoro, Vinsmoke Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, Nefeltari Vivi

***

"We build as only children know to build

We made a way where there's a will

No slowing down or standing still

Innocent and reckless

"How did we get so old and never notice

How did we gain the world and lose the moment

Rise and fall, the tide surrounds us

And drowns us all"

-Hands Like Houses

***

If it seems like it’s too good to be true, it probably is, which is why despite the jovial atmosphere of the tavern we were in, I was still wary.

It seemed that Whisky Peak had a certain fondness for pirates, greeting us with cheers of celebration when we first arrived. We had barely set foot on solid ground, when we were met by the town’s mayor, who immediately offered up booze, food and smiles. I admittedly hadn’t spent much time in Paradise, immediately, starting my way back home after I had been beaten by my father, but none of the islands I had landed on before had ever been this happy to see pirates, not unless the crew in question was their protectors.

Something was up. I mean they were even fawning over Usopp, going along with his blatantly obvious lies. However, none of the possibilities that I had come up with were too much for the crew to handle, so I kept my mouth shut and plastered a smile on my face, opting to just go to the flow. As far as I could tell, nothing that we had been given had been poisonous yet, so I figured we might as well get our fill, while we could.

“You’ve been nursing that mug for a very long time. Go ahead drink up,” one of the guys sitting at the bar urged.

“Not everyone can drink like you Boyd, especially not a little girl.”

I looked further down the bar at the man, who had spoken. His tone was mocking, patronizing.

I glared at the man. I had little patience for men like him. Over grown gorillas, who liked to pick on those that they perceived to be weaker than them.

“I’m not some little girl,” I snipped.

I was so far from it.

“Uh-oh. You’ve pissed her off,” the original guy, Boyd, said chuckling.

“How old are you?” the second guy asked. “Fifteen? Sixteen? Are you even allowed to drink?”

I cursed my appearance. Usually it worked in my favor. I was plain, which allowed me to blend in, and unassuming, which kept people from seeing me as a threat, but it was a double edged sword. It made people think I was weak and naive.

“I’m nine-h-“ I stopped.

‘Fuck.’

Years at home had spoiled me. I was free to be myself in the safety of my friends and family. I didn’t have to worry about keeping up appearances and false pretenses. For short periods of time, it was fine, but extended periods like this were proving to be exhausting.

“-teen,” I grumbled the latter half of the number.

The pair laughed.

“I can handle my liquor better than anybody else in this bar,” I declared.

“Oh really?” Boyd smirked.

“Really.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing that the mayor is about to annoyance toast competition.”

I followed his eyes to the mayor. “We had an excellent grape harvest this year. To celebrate that harvest, our traditional toast competition!”

Everyone cheered.

“Make a toast take a drink. This continues as long as you can hold your liquor. Last one standing is the winner.”

“I’m gonna feel real bad embarrassing you boys like this. After all, you’re about to be drunk under the table by a little girl.”

“Mira, you’re competing too?” Nami asked when I walked over.

“Gotta show these two how it’s done. I thought you weren’t drinking.”

“Weren’t you paying attention? There’s money involved,” Zoro explained.

“Ah.”

“Then let’s begin!” the mayor announced, raising his mug. “To our new friends!”

We went around, people making a toast after toast downing drink after drink. We didn’t start losing people until four.

My two challengers were both in the running still. I could tell that they were feeling it. Guy number two more so than Boyd. I was perfectly fine, but had to keep appearances, so I swayed and stumbled and slurred my words.

Nami and Zoro were both holding their own pretty well too. From the looks of it, they were just getting started.

Nami toasted to money, not surprisingly, and Zoro to becoming the world’s greatest swordsman. That took out guy number two and brought the toasting to Boyd.

“To my victory,” he slurred.

I snorted, finishing off my drink and being handed another, my turn. “To the future king of the pirates,” I said, looking at Luffy, who was downing food faster than the cook could prepare it.

Twelve took out Boyd. He collapsed to the ground.

I looked down and smiled. “I’ve made my point,” I said, setting down my thirteenth, before I had to drink it. “I quit.”

“I can’t believe you’re quitting,” Nami said. “Pansy.”

“Last thing I want, is to have to listen to you bitch, cause I won the prize money.”

“You wouldn’t win,” she called, as I turned.

“That’s what you think,” I shot back.

It was down to her, Zoro and a nun. After the thirteenth mug, it was just Nami and the nun. I didn’t watch, instead, stumbling through the crowd and out the door, but I would hear, Nami’s shouts of victory, once the nun went down.

Luffy was down as well, stomach blown up the largest that I had seen. Sanji I was pretty sure was love drunk surrounded by a crowd of pretty women. If the color on Usopp’s face was anything to go by, he was pretty far gone as well.

I stumbled outside and around the side of the building until I was out of sight of the townspeople. Once I was in the clear, I dropped the drunken act, and climbed up the building until I was on the roof, where I laid and basked in the moonlight.

Eventually the party died out, and the air became still and quiet, the only sounds being that of the ocean lapping on the shore in the distance and the snores coming from the people passed out inside.

A short while after everyone passed out, the quiet was broken by the mayor. I crawled over to the edge of the building to get eyes on him.

Now I could figure up what was with him and this weird town.

Our two strays were there as well, sitting directly underneath me.

“They’ve worn themselves out partying and are fast asleep. Sweet dreams, brave adventurers. My how the cactus rocks gleam under the pale moonlight. Beautiful as ever.”

“If I may say, your poetic skills are beyond compare, Igarappoi- I mean Mr. 8.”

‘Of course,’ I thought dryly. ‘More of the dumb numbers.’

“So where are they?” Wednesday asked.

“They’re falling... Straight to hell.”

I almost wanted to laugh at how dramatic this guy was being. I mean really? Take us to hell? Between that and the gleaming rocks, this guy was starting to sound like my cousin after he had a little too much wine.

The trio was joined by the nun, who removed her habit, revealing a short pink and white checkered dress underneath.

“Damn. My head is killing me. Our guest didn’t have the good taste to pass out gracefully, so I doctored they’re drinks a little, or else they’d be up all night drinking us into oblivion.”

If that was spiked with something, then I hated to think of what they’d been drinking before. Grape juice.

“So tell me was it really necessary to put on this elaborate show for those idiots?” the nun asked. “I get that no one wants to hear me whine, but it’s my duty to point out the amount of food we’ve wasted, when we could’ve just ambushed them at the harbor.”

This was a trap. No surprise there. I was under the assumption that they were after our supplies and treasures. It wasn’t like we were rolling in gold or anything. Nami probably was, but as far as pirate crews go, we were pretty broke.

I wasn’t really sure what the bounty situation was on board. After all the fuss that had been made over Luffy in Logue Town, I figured he had one. Maybe Zoro, but I doubted the others were worth anything. If it was worth the effort that they’d put into this party farce, then Luffy had to have one hell of a bounty.

“We’re already short on supplies. It’s not like anyone had high hopes for that whale meat or anything.”

Mr.9 puffed up defensively. “Why don’t you go try to kill that damn whale? We tried our best.”

“Both of you calm down. Before you question the validity of my plan, why don’t you take a look at this?”

The mayor, Mr.8, whatever, pulled out a wanted poster. Luffy’s smiling face was printed on the page. I checked the number below it. ‘Thirty-million, before he even made it to the Grand Line.’ That was a pretty respectable number, well worth the effort they’d put in so far.

Too bad it was all going to be for nothing.

The nun and the strays balked at the number. “THIRTY-MILLION BERRIES?!”

“For those morons?’

“Don’t be foolish. Appearances can be deceiving. That goes for-“ the mayor cleared his throat and performed a vocal exercise. “That goes for all of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s no matter. Our prey has been trapped, and that’s news the boss will enjoy.”

“That’s what you think,” I mumbled.

I hadn’t been with the crew for long, and I had only seen them in action once, but that was enough for me to know that these guys didn’t have a chance.

I wasn’t the only one, who had been playing drunk earlier. I could feel Zoro approach that cursed blade of his giving him away.

I glanced back at Zoro. “What? Can’t sleep now, because you were out all day?”

“Ha ha,” he deadpanned. “This place gave me a bad vibe.”

I nodded. “As it should. They’re going to raid the Merry and cash in on Luffy’s Bounty.”

“So what do we do with them now?” Ms. Monday asked.

I was wondering the same thing about the people below.

“I thought it was something like that. I guess I’ll take care of this, since you guys dealt with all that weather crap earlier.”

“Oh how chivalrous.”

He rolled his eyes at me.

“Kill them?” Mr.9 asked.

This time it was Zoro, who scoffed.

“If they die, the bounty drops thirty percent. The government prefers to hold public executions. Now go. I want them alive.”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt. You mind letting my friends sleep? They had a long day and the journey was exhausting, so I’ve been told.”

“Hey Mr.8, Ms. Monday, one of them escaped from the room, when we weren’t looking.”

‘Well well well, if it isn’t Boyd and that other guy.’

“Ugh. He’s right over there.”

“Sneaky wretch, you should’ve stayed asleep with your friends.”

“A good swordsman never makes the mistake of letting his guard down. Plus, I took a nap earlier. Judging by the scowls and cheap disguises, you’re all bounty hunters, whose specialty is robbing drunk pirates, who fall for your hospitality. It’s original. I’ll give you that at least.

“I count a hundred of you scum bags give or take, and I’ll fight all of you. You hear me, Baroque Works?”

It was helpful having a name for the organization. We had a concrete enemy now, someone specific to fight.

Well Zoro had someone to fight.

Everyone down below freaked out.

“How do you know our name?”

“I was in a similar line of work once upon a time. Your company tried to entice me with a job offer. Naturally, I said no. Do the same rules still apply? Employee identities kept secret, cheesy code names, the boss’s identity and whereabouts also a mystery? Baroque Works, the criminal group that faithfully carries out their orders like herded sheep. That’s some secret.”

“This is a surprise. If you know all of our secrets, then we are left with no other choice than to kill you, and another gravestone will be added to the cactus rocks tonight.” The mayor guy chuckled darkly, before issuing the order to kill Zoro.

Before any of them could move, he’d moved, appearing in the midst of their ranks.

I sat up right, so I could watch the show.

“It’s her!” Boyd yelled.

“You have a lot more to worry about than a little girl,” I informed them, pointing out Zoro.

He grinned. The bounty hunters drew their weapons and fired at him, but he was too fast. Instead of hitting him, the bullets flew into their fellow Baroque Works agents.

The mayor was getting frustrated, but even more evident, he was worried. He was beginning to sweat. The muscles in his neck were tense. His eyes were wide and flicking back and forth wildly.

“Incompetent morons, they just shot each other.”

“Yeah and the pirate got away.”

‘Way to state the obvious.’

The mayor turned around to bark out another order to his minions. “Just kill him! He’s only one man.”

Zoro’s blade slid through the idiot’s hair, glinting in the man’s peripheral.

“Ask yourself. Will one grave stone really be enough?”

“There he is!” The bounty hunters aimed their weapons at Zoro and by extension Mr.8.

All semblance of calm and control was out of the widow at this point. He screamed at the men to hold their fire, to keep him from being shot. He pulled out a saxophone of all things and blew into the instrument, causing it to shoot bullets.

Zoro ducked, avoiding them, before vanishing once more.

A few flew up towards me, but I dodged them with ease.

“Your friend isn’t going to make it through this, and once we get him, we’re coming after you,” the mayor said.

“Cause that’s going real well for you right now. You don’t even know where he is.”

He shot at me once more, but I jumped out of the way to another rooftop, down through a window inside. No one as home, seeing as the whole town was hunting Zoro. They ran into the first floor, while I hopped out of a side window on the second and into the adjacent house. I exited out of the back door of that one, putting some distance between myself and the bounty hunters, before taking to the roof tops once again.

Zoro said he had this, so I was gonna leave it to him. Now if Boyd and his friend ended up in my path, well then maybe I would join in on the fun.

I caught site of the swordsman from my newest perch. He was having himself a grand old time, slicing through the bounty hunters, knocking them off of ladders, cutting holes into the ground for them to fall into.

Ms. Monday swung a ladder at Zoro, which he barely dodged. She slid her brass knuckles onto to her fingers.

“It was a good effort, swordsman, but there is no man, who can best my strength.”

‘Why should he get to have all the fun?’

“What about a woman?” I asked, jumping from my perch. My foot nailed her elbow, the impact, causing her to release Zoro. I wrapped both legs around her neck, and threw myself back, flipping her over, so that I landed on top of her, my legs pinning down her arms. She tried to fight out from underneath me, to push me off, but despite her advantage in terms of actual size, I had more strength. I raised my fist and drove it into her face, knocking her out.

“You still a little groggy from that nap earlier or something? Letting her get the jump on you.”

Boyd and the other guy charged at me from behind. I ducked the wire that they held between them and grabbed them both by the back of the shirt. I grabbed the wire, pulling it from their grasps, slicing my hand in the process, before slamming Boyd into the other, the impact strong enough to toss them both off of the roof.

“I could’ve handled that,” he said.

“’Thank you, Mira.’ ‘Oh you’re welcome, Zoro.’”

There was something about teasing Zoro that was just so much fun. I mean he made it so easy. He left himself wide open. It was even better because he didn’t have an argument for anything that I had said so far.

“Yeah yeah, I told you I got this.”

“Alright then,” I backed off. “Go ahead. You got this.”

Zoro strode over to the edge of the building, gazing down at the Baroque Works members below.

“Is that all you can offer Baroque Works?” he asked. “Cause you’re gonna need to do a lot better than that.”

I sat on the edge of the building.

Zoro carried a cursed blade. Initially, I had thought that that was the source of the dark aura that seemed to radiate from him, and it was, to an extent, but there was something else. There was something coming from within him. It was dark and violent. It was demonic almost.

It wasn’t noticeable earlier, but now it was. That sword of his, despite having sliced through over ninety people, hadn’t been satiated yet. It was still thirsty, begging for blood, and so it seemed was Zoro.

Mr.9 explained Baroque Works’ ranking to us. I think it was supposed to intimidate us, but neither Zoro nor I were impressed.

“I’ve found that fancy titles mean nothing, when it comes to fighting. The strongest wins and that’s that.”

The mayor fired at us with that stupid saxophone of his once more. I shuffled out of the way to the side, while Zoro, jumped up a level.

Mr.9 pursued him, while Wednesday whistled, calling her duck.

I raised a brow. “That’s your trump card? A duck?”

“Are you kidding me? A duck?”

“You get distracted so easily,” Mr.9 said, standing atop a belfry. “How can you hope to follow my acrobatics?” He began back flipping down towards Zoro. “You better prepare for my bloody bats!”

Zoro easily blocked his attack with one of his swords.

“You better be careful not to chip your precious blades.”

Zoro sheathed one of his swords.

At this point, Zoro was just toying with Mr.9, forcing him to go on the defensive and backing him up to the end of the building, which he wasn’t aware of. He attempted another one of his acrobatic moves, but ended up jumping off of the building.

“Is this really the best they can do?”

“There’s better. I’m still here. Are you ready, Mr.Bushido? Now, enjoy my perfume dance.”

Wednesday lifted her arms over her head and swayed back and forth. The fragrance of her perfumes choked Zoro out and brought him to his knees.

“Good boy,” he cooed. “And now, peacock slasher! Now Carue!” she hopped on the duck, and charged at Zoro.

Her weapon was a unique one, wires with a small jewel at the end of it. I had no doubt that they were effective cutting weapons, especially at the speed she was swinging them around.

Too bad the duck wasn’t as effective. He blew right past Zoro, and straight towards me. I quickly got up and pushed off the roof, jumping onto the building across the street. They fell of the building into a pile of junk on the side of the building.

They mayor’s saxophone sounded off, a barrage of bullets aimed at Zoro. Zoro cut a hole in the roof of the building, disappearing into the building below.

Mr.9 jumped out of the pile of debris he had created upon landing. He produced a chain from his bat, using it to tie up Zoro’s arm.

“Watcha gonna do now, tough guy?”

“Kick your ass,” Zoro replied easily.

I snorted.

“Excellent work,” the mayor commended.

“Come on, Mr.8, kill him now. You won’t get away!”

“That’s right, don’t move,” Miss Wednesday said. She had a machete in hand aimed at a still engorged, still sleeping Luffy. “If you even think about doing anything foolish, Mr. Bushido. Your friend here will be paying the price.”

“You idiot. Can’t he at least wake up, when he’s being held hostage?”

Mr.9 cackled with glee.

It had been fun and games up until this point, mostly, because these guys were kind of like gnats, annoying, but essentially harmless. This was different, because Luffy was asleep, oblivious to the danger he was in.

“Foolish is taking a crew’s captain hostage,” I said, standing up.

“Ah ah ah.” She wagged her finger. “Take one step off of that building and your precious captain meets his maker.”

I stayed still. I just had to bide my time

“Well done Ms. Wednesday. It looks like there will be no escape for the swordsman this time, unless he wants his friend to die.”

Mr.8 pulled at the strings of his neck tie, exposing the gun barrels hidden in his curls. “Firing squad ready!”

“What?!” Zoro yelled, caught off guard.

He yanked the strings further, the barrels firing. “Igarappappa!”

Zoro yanked on the chain, pulling Mr.9 with it, putting him between Zoro and the bullets.

Ms.Wednesday was shocked by this, which gave me my opening. I hopped off of the building and knocked the machete from her hand, before hitting her with a kick to the mid section, that sent her flying backwards.

“Duck!” Zoro yelled. I did as he said, hitting the ground. He threw Mr.9, using him to take out Carue, sending them both into the same crater that I had hurled, Ms. Wednesday.

Mr.8 fired again, but Zoro managed to evade it. He used Luffy as a trampoline, jumping up and slashing at Mr.8, taking him out of commission.

Luffy lifted his head, opening his eyes. “Where am I?” he asked.

I shook my head and chuckled. “Just go back to sleep.”“

“How’d I get outside?”

I didn’t have time to respond, before he was out again.

I looked up Zoro, who was sitting on the roof of the building.

“I got say I’m impressed. Your skill with your blades is amazing, especially wielding a cursed sword. That’s even more impressive.”

“You can feel it too.” It wasn’t a question, just an observation.

I nodded anyways. “Have you had it long?” I asked.

“Only since Logue Town.”

“It must’ve been there a long time. Its thirst for blood is strong.”

“Must be why it was being so disobedient.”

I looked at the carnage around us. “It’s only a matter of time, before they send some more. We should probably get out of here.”

“Meh, let ‘em. Everyone needs the rest. If they come, then I’ll just have to cut them down.”

Zoro seemed pleased at the prospect.

I shrugged. Based on what I could tell, he was first mate. No one really used titles on the crew save for when it came to Nami and Sanji.

He took a large swig from his bottle.

“Well then, since you have everything under control here, I’m going to head back to the Merry, make sure they didn’t steal or break anything.”

“You should get some rest. You worked just as hard as the other earlier. If you push yourself too much, you’re gonna burn out.”

I nodded at him. He was right. Plus, I was more than ready to go to bed. I had gotten my fill of crappy booze, entertainment and food. Sleep sounded great.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” I said, heading towards the Merry. “Good night, Zoro.”

“Night.”

***

Notes:

***

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***

Master List | Mobile Version

#teroin writes #stillwater #one piece #fanfiction

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onepiecefeatstuff · 7 years

Text

The Wedding |Sanami June Bride 2017|

Planning a wedding is never an easy task. Much less if it’s a wedding between well-known pirates. And if those pirates are Nami and Sanji, the perfectionist couple, well… It’s a challenge.

The first few months were just perfect. They agreed on everything, and they seemed to want the same thing. Sanji agreed to hold the ceremony in Nami’s village, Cocoyashi; and Nami insisted that Zeff should be in charge of the catering. They would have the best of their both worlds. They arranged the menu, the venue, the seating… Everything went beyond perfection.

However, as time passed by, the tension started growing. They wouldn’t have the blue and orange bouquet they wanted, and Nami had to give up and choose an orange-themed one: orange Asiatic lilies, yellow roses and hypericum berries. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t as perfect as she dreamed it to be. Of course, the disappointed face from her beloved fiancée was easy to detect to Sanji, and that painful expression stuck with him for months, even though Nami assured him she was fine.

“I know it’s fine” Sanji told her, placing his hand on her cheek for comfort “But it’s not perfect. And you deserve perfection.”

Nami let out a sad smile. “It’s just a bouquet. Everything else will be perfect, I guarantee.”

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. There were lots of tiny details that went wrong, but just big enough for them to worry. Whether it was the dress, the tuxedo, the decoration or the ice sculpture that Franky intended to build them (although nobody asked for it); they were in constant tension. That tension intensified during the last weeks, and for the last days, they couldn’t even look at each other without arguing. The love bubble they rebuilt for the first months of wedding planning was falling apart.

“I’m telling you, Navy will be a much better color” Sanji said, extending a color palette of blue tones and pointing at the one he had mentioned.

“We won’t have Navy when we can have Admiral instead” Nami insisted, pointing at her color of choice.

“Navy? Admiral? Where?” Zoro asked, still confused by the whole situation.

“They’re arguing about freaking colors. They have been like this the whole morning” Franky informed him. “If you ask me, I would choose Cerulean.”

“No one asked for your opinion!” the couple yelled at the same time, and for the first time in the week, they laughed.

“Well, at least we know they’re meant to be” Usopp comented “But I still think those two colors look the same.”

“I like the one that Sanji doesn’t.” Zoro said, crossing his arms. “Just because.”

In the end, they chose Azure. With help from their respective mediators (Luffy and Robin), they survived without killing anyone. They wouldn’t kill each other, but the others weren’t as safe. When they finally got to Cocoyashi, Nojiko and Genzo were waiting in the port.

“Nami’s sister!” Luffy greeted her, with a big hug “And Nami’s weird man!”

Fortunately, Genzo didn’t hear that comment. He was too busy examining Sanji from head to toes.

“So you’re the man who’s marrying my d… My Nami.” He finally said, extending his hand. Sanji took it, and they shook hands.

“It’s an honor to meet you officially” Sanji said, with a truthful smile “I’m afraid the last time we saw each other we didn’t have much time for formalities.”

Genzo gave him a pat in the shoulder, and he declared himself satisfied. Sanji seemed like a good guy and he clearly had manners. He was almost good enough for his… Nami. The bride-to-be hugged both her sister and Genzo before running to the house, with Chopper carrying endless bags and boxes.

“Is that considered animal torture?” Usopp wondered, but no one dared to answer. Only Robin and Nojiko followed Nami and Chopper, because the navigator had specifically ordered that no one could go and disturb the peaceful rest she needed. Of course, she was so scary that not even Zoro argued.

“Okay folks, now it’s time to build a SUPER wedding venue!” Franky exclaimed, and gave a hand-five to Luffy. That enthusiasm soon passed on the rest, and they spent the day organizing tables and seats and leaving everything immaculate; and went to bed early. They had to rest before the big day.

At sunrise, Nami was already awake. She had never been the kind of person who sleeps a lot, that special power belonged to Zoro; but she knew better than to wake up that early. She was cursing herself for knowing better and still couldn’t help it but to stress. That tension was what woke her up, it was like a sudden shot of adrenaline took over her body. She couldn’t think straight, and she didn’t want to move because she didn’t want her friends to wake up too, but she suddenly felt the urge to pee.

She cursed herself over and over as she silently moved on her way to the bathroom. Why did she have to be so insecure? This wasn’t her. She wasn’t the nervous type, she was the furious one. Then why did her knees get so weak every time she thought about the wedding? It was her wedding, after all. There were no marines, no other pirates. Just people that loved and supported her. There was nothing to fear, right?

When she made her way to the bedroom again, she felt a strange presence. A whisper made her jump in surprise, as a shadow that she recognized perfectly came towards her.

“Robin” she whispered, feeling her muscles relaxing “You scared me to death!”

The archeologist just smiled in the dark “That would have been fun, wouldn’t it?” Nami supposed she was trying to make some joke, but her humor was usually too dark for her. Still, she let out a tiny smile.

“Did you forget to drink your midnight tea or what is it?” she asked her friend, pointing at the clock in the wall. It was five am.

“It’s my job as a bridesmaid to keep an eye on the bride” she just responded. “Are you doubting about the wedding? I’ve always thought that dress of yours is good for a runaway bride.”

“What? No!” Nami rushed to say, an octave higher than she wanted to sound. She lowered her tone again, afraid that it would wake up anyone else “I love Sanji, you know I do. And I want to marry him. It’s just…”

“Well if it’s not you or him, I don’t see any problem. It’s just irrational fear, don’t let it stop you.”

“It’s not that easy!” Nami complained “You don’t react to fear the way that I do. You are always so confident and fearless… I wish I could be like that.”

“If you were exactly like me, you wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone like Sanji. You complement each other, and like you said, you love him. And he loves you. The wedding is just another way to announce your love to everyone who cares about you.”

Nami took a deep breath. She knew Robin was right, and her words were such a good comfort. The knot in her stomach was putting less and less pressure, and she felt way more calm than just a few minutes ago. Everything had to be alright.

“Now since we have lots of time… Do you want to start preparing yourself? The others aren’t going to wake up for at least one more hour, but maybe you could use a shower to clear your thoughts.”

Nami smiled at Robin and gave her a big hug. “You really are an amazing maid of honor.”

“I take my job seriously. Now get in that shower and let me handle everything.”

For the first time in forever, Nami was the one following orders instead of being the one who made them. It was a silly, foolish command, but it kept her busy for a while; and she stopped stressing over things she couldn’t control. She could never change the fact that her mother wouldn’t be in her wedding, but she had Nojiko and amazing friends by her side. She couldn’t change Sanji’s family either, but she realized she didn’t need to. The Sunny was their home, and their nakamas were their true family. Although that didn’t stop her to invite Reiju, knowing that Sanji would be glad to see her.

Chaos came back to her mind a few minutes before the wedding. She was already dressed up, and looking at her reflection in the mirror, she knew she couldn’t have asked for more. It wasn’t the first wedding dress she wore, of that she was certain, but it was the best so far. It was, for the first time, her dress: the one she picked up, and not chosen by some imbecile who tried to take advantage of her. It made her feel like a princess. Her heart didn’t have any doubts… But the noise around was driving her crazy.

“You look so beautiful” her sister whispered in her ear, and the voice felt foreign to her. It was as if she wasn’t even there. Nojiko kept talking “Mom would have been really proud of who you’ve become, and she would be the first to cheer up today. She would have been the drunkest of them all, but that’s who she was, right?”

Suddenly, her voice cracked, and the two sisters found themselves wiping each other’s tears.

“Don’t you dare cry or you’ll ruin your makeup” Nojiko told Nami with a laugh. Nami wiped the rest of her tears and smiled.

“Okay” she said, looking at her reflection. “But I’m not doing it because you told me so.”

“I know, I know” Nojiko went along, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Now get out there and be the best bride of them all, or else!”

“I’ve met scarier people than you, you know that right?” Nami teased her sister, and unwrinkled her dress.

“She’s talking about me” Reiju walked in, surprising the women in the room. She took the bouquet and handed it to Nami “Go and make my brother the happiest man on earth. He deserves it.”

Nami smiled and gave her a little hug “I know he does” she mouthed “But why is everyone pushing me to the entrance? I mean the music has not even started pla…” There wasn’t any time for her to finish that sentence since she had to eat her words, because the wedding march started to sound right after.

Now the girls were staring at her, and they looked like they were about to physically push her if she didn’t move soon. Nami put her hands up in a gesture of surrender and started to make her way to the aisle. Genzo was waiting for her, and she joined her on her march.

“Thanks for doing this” she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. “It really means a lot.”

“It’s my pleasure, my dear” Genzo told her, and let her go. They had already reached the aisle without her even noticing, and suddenly, she was facing Sanji. His soon-to-be-husband. It still didn’t feel real.

“You look gorgeous” Sanji mouthed, but he didn’t say it in his usual tone. He didn’t have heart eyes, he wasn’t trying to be flirty… He had the biggest smile on his mouth, and his eyes were shining like the blue sky.

“We are gathered here today to unite Sanji and Nami in a fusion…” Luffy started, trembling with the words. Maybe he wasn’t the best choice to officiate a wedding, but he was the captain after all. “In a fusion called marriage. It’s not like a real fusion for what Robin told me, so it’s not as amazing as everyone expects it to be. I’m sorry for that.”

“Cut the crap and hurry up” Nami pressured him, by giving him a discreet elbow.

“Okay” he grinned “As the captain of the best crew in the world, I now pronounce you…”

“We’ve got to say ‘I do’ first, Luffy” Sanji mumbled.

“Oh! I forgot about that!” Luffy exclaimed, making everyone laugh. “So Nami do you want to marry Sanji?”

“I do.” Nami pronounced, putting the ring in Sanji’s finger. She was smiling like a little girl, and Sanji had to correct himself: she wasn’t just gorgeous, she was radiant.

“And Sanji do you want to marry Nami?” Luffy asked him, bringing him back to earth. “That’s a silly question though, we all know he wants to.”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Sanji agreed with him, but Luffy wasn’t convinced with that answer. He couldn’t proceed until the exact words were said, so Sanji rushed to answer “I do.”

“I pronounce you husband and wife!” he said with his big characteristic smile “Now you can kiss, but don’t make it too gross please. It’s already bad enough when you’re making out in the kitchen.”

If that was a normal situation, Nami would have smack him down. But with a ring in her finger and her whole life ahead of her, she couldn’t think of any response. She didn’t care, actually. The only thing she wanted to do was to kiss her husband, and that would make her life to make sense again.

“I’m the luckiest man that’s ever existed” Sanji said, getting closer to her “I’m sorry it wasn’t your dream wedding.

“Shut up and lift me over the ground” she told him with a laugh “It’s perfect. Now let’s make it gross.”

“Your wish is my command, my beloved wife” he said with a little reverie, and took her bridal style.

Luffy had to close his eyes when they kissed, but Usopp told him later that it was a very long and deep kiss, although he wouldn’t know when it ended since he had to close his eyes too when they started making out. Either way, it was a wedding to remember.

#sanami #snjunebride #sanji #nami #op fanfiction #inspiration: new girl

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whirlybirdwhat · 4 years

Text

crown the king (with bloody flowers) - 7

Hanahaki au drabble series, in which Luffy is in love with the sea. Ao3 Links in reblog

Chapter 7 - globe amaranths - chopper

Chopper is a reindeer, and reindeer never really belonged to the sea anyway. It doesn’t bother him, being hated by the sea, because he never really loved it in the first place.

It was always an escape, a distant destination, a flag over his head.

Not a love - not like he loved the doctor, or doctrine, or his new crew. No, not a love at all.

In fact, as he takes his captain into the cabin for his first checkup, it’s becoming more like a hate instead.

(Chopper never took an oath never to hurt anybody. Doctrine liked using his antlers as anesthesia too much for that, and Chopper wanted to be a pirate someday.

Pirates fought. Pirates hurt people, maliciously or otherwise.

But never, never did Chopper think he might be drawn to hatred for someone other than Wapol.)

Luffy’s chest flutters weakly beneath his hooves, heart beat skipping in a way that’s only possible, only able to keep him alive, because Chopper’s captain is made of rubber. There’s blood on his lips constantly and a persistent cough echoing after his laughter. He stumbles, sometimes, and gets fatigued at odd times, a shadow of death following in every footstep.

Chopper hates that he’s gotten used to it already.

His new captain is younger than he is, small and tiny, and it’s so weird to see someone with so much authority be so young. Still - none of the crew questions his leadership.

(What could Luffy – the man who saved Chopper, the man who saved Drum, the man who waved a flag not his own but with the same fierceness in his eyes, the man who will be King of the Pirates - be but captain?)

Luffy smiles at him, then, again, when Chopper hesitates far too long on his chest and that stifling, growing feeling hiding within it.

(He’s only dealt with Hanahaki once before, a persistent case that is. Usually the love fades with the flowers and the realization that their love does not love them back. This case was different, an old woman who refused to stop loving her child that scorned her and burned her house down in the depths of winter.

She died, the night Doctrine and Chopper found her, her deathbed covered in beautiful hibiscuses.

Chopper will burn the world before he lets that happen to his captain.)

“Chopper?” Luffy prompts, bright eyed and curious.

“Ah, sorry Luffy!” Chopper says and tries to move on to the rest of his examination when Luffy grabs his hands.

(They’re warm. His captain isn’t dead yet.)

“Chopper,” He says, like a king to his most loyal knight. “It’s okay.”

The tears well up in Chopper’s eyes anyway. “But -“

You’ll die - maybe in the next three years, if we’re not careful, the next five if we’re lucky. You’ll die and I just met you, and that too short a time to love you as my captain, my friend, my savior -

“It’s okay.” Luffy says again, forcefully, that smile never leaving his face. “That’s why I set out, y’know. So I could be Pirate King! I had to set out now, I couldn’t later. If I die trying on the path to my dream, then everything’s okay. That’s what being a pirate is - chasing your dream! Shishishi!”

King or dead, echoes in Chopper’s brain. King or dead.

Still.

Chopper doesn’t say any more about it, only finishes his examination, giving Luffy a set of drinks to ask from Sanji - juices and a smoothie with every meal, stuff Luffy’s metabolism will devour in an instant - and strict directions to get Chopper if he falls in the ocean, then sends him on his way.

When Luffy bounces out the door, Chopper’s dream has shifted, becoming laser focused and direct.

Chopper is going to cure every illness in the world.

Hanahaki will be the first, and he will do it soon.

(The Pirate King can’t die before his coronation, after all, no matter how much the ocean hates him.)

Globe Amaranths - immortality, unfading love. A man will only die when he is forgotten, after all.

#op #one piece #whirlywhat #whirlywrites #this ones gonna hurt #and now u find out why luffy is 14 in this!!! :DDD #monkey d. luffy #hanahaki au #crown the king #luffy #chopper

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petite-neko · 7 years

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Stability - 2

Fanfiction: Stability Story Summary: It wasn’t because he was self-conscious or ashamed. No, it was because he was afraid. His greatest fear was being alone after all. Characters: Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, Nami, Ace, Sabo, Law Pairing: Eventual LawLu Rating: T Warnings: Swearing, AU/UA, canon-typical violence, angst A/N: Here’s part 2. When I’m coherent I’ll work on part 3

.xxx. = Time/scene skip

.+++. = PoV change

Read on Ao3

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

“These are for you Luffy.”

Vivi was smiling at him, her outstretched arms holding a few wrapped items.

Luffy blinked, tilting his head. “For me?”

That smile widened and Nami came up behind Vivi as well. She had that somewhat scary smile on her face – that one that knew everything. But, in this case it wasn’t that scary. They both nodded.

So he didn’t wait any longer, taking the gifts and tore off the wrapping. Clothes. They were clothes of some sort – like sleeveless shirts but… short.

Nami came up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You can use these instead of the bandages. We asked Chopper, and he said they’re fine and to use them like you use your bandages.” She was smiling at him. “So don’t wear them all the time. And you can put them on yourself, instead of coming to one of us to do it.”

And Luffy just stared at the gift.

Vivi was still smiling down at him. “And if you break all of them, just send me a message, as I know you fight all the time.” She said with a soft laugh. “I can always get you some more somehow.”

“Thank you!” He laughed, feeling tears in his eyes and wrapped the two of them in his arms.

.+++.

They always ensured to just let each of their new crew members know eventually about everything. Mostly it was because they kept getting into more and more dangerous situations, and they couldn’t afford to risk a shocking discovery in the middle of a battle. Of course, everybody took it with ease. Nobody had a problem with it.

The general populace never knew. There were a select few people that knew, such as those who knew Luffy before he set out to become a pirate (Ace, the Redhair Pirates, Luffy’s hometown), and then there was the doctor from Nami’s hometown. Vivi and Carue knew as well, being there when Luffy had admitted it to the crew. (Not to mention Vivi was unofficially a Strawhat, even if she couldn’t be with them.) Bon Kurei, too, knew. But mostly that was because of his devil fruit, and he made no comments or judgements on Luffy either. Nor, did it seem, did he reveal Luffy’s secret, even when they were enemies or captured by the Marines.

And, in Water 7, they found out that Luffy’s grandfather also knew. And supportive to boot. Just not in the case of his piracy.

If they found anybody who had been opposed to their captain – well, the Strawhats would ensure that they paid.

.+++.

He woke up, finding himself surrounded by women. He could hear them mumbling things, but he didn’t quite understand it. His head hurt…

…Where was he?

“…doing here?”

“…mushrooms.”

“…she doing alright?”

“Oh, she’s waking up.”

Luffy sat himself up. What had happened? …Wait a minute

He was naked!

“Where are my clothes!”

He quickly brought up his knees to cover himself. Shit. Shit. Shit. A bunch of strangers just…

(He could hear them, all talking about him. No. Not him. Her. they said. She they whispered. That girl.)

“Shut up! Shut up!” He demanded, covering his ears.

Finally, somebody brought him a blanket and covered him up. He was trembling, and all he could hear was those words. Those words that described somebody that he wasn’t.

“G-Give me my shirts back. Please.”

“What’s wrong, young one?”

Luffy looked up at the only one that hadn’t referred to him incorrectly. Her voice was thick with an accent, and she made some sounds that resembled a cat.

“Give me my shirts back!” He demanded. And his pants too. But his shirts first.

The old woman gestured with her staff and a single shirt was brought over. It wasn’t the outer layer, but the inner one. Well, that one was the most important one at least.

“Your other one was destroyed and in tatters.”

Luffy quickly snatched it before putting it on, letting the blanket cover his lower half.

(There. That was better. Much better.)

“You seem calmer now.” The old woman noted.

Yes, yes of course he was. His top was dealt with. Not to mention these women around him had stopped their chatter and whisperings. And so he nodded.

“Hmm….” And then the old woman leaned in, closely looking at his face. Her head tilted, hand going up to her chin. “So, tell me what brought you here.” There was a pause and she continued to look at him. “Girl.”

Luffy flinched and narrowed his eyes. “I’m not a girl!”

(All the women around him were talking again. Saying stuff like how and why and what and just asking questions all to themselves.)

The old woman held her hand up, clearing her throat.

“Boy, then, is it?”

(There were gasps all around, but a stern gaze from the old lady stopped them from talking even more.)

“That’s right! I’m Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will become the Pirate King!”

And after that, all of the women in the room just… jumped him.

.xxx.

The next thing he knew, he was in a prison cell, a blanket still covering his lower half – but, hey, at least they kept his undershirt on.

His head was starting to hurt less. And he was starting to remember now.

Kuma. His nakama…

He wrapped the blanket around his waist awkwardly and walked up to the bars.

The women were outside of the cell, staring at him.

His clothes were mostly missing. Apparently his shirt was ripped. But what about his pants? And Rayleigh’s vivre card! And his hat! And Ace’s vivre card!

“Where’s my hat?”

When Luffy looked through the crowd of women, he found one that was wearing it. “Ah! There it is! Give it back!” The bars were going both ways, but he could still stick his hand through it. With a grin, he stretched out his arm, snatching his hat back. Ah, yes. Much better. Undershirt, check. Hat, check. Some more clothes would be nice too…

(This time these women were whispering better things about him. Him. His. That boy.)

Yes, this was much better.

“Oi, do you know where my pants are?”

They said his shirt was tattered, right?

“Ah, your pants were ruined too. Here, we made you new ones.”

(Okay, scratch that, this wasn’t better at all.)

Frills. Flowers. Girly things.

“I’m a guy, dammit!”

And, just like that, the women became aggressive again.

“As I thought. Typical.”

That woman looked like a guard.

“We save your life, and you show no gratitude?”

Wait – wait… “You saved my life?”

But they didn’t want to listen. Even though he apologised.

“Men are forbidden from stepping foot on this island.”

…An island forbidden to men? What kind of place was this?

“Elder Nyon says that, even though your body is that of a woman, your spirit is that of a man. And that makes you a man. And, by being a man and setting foot on this island is a crime.”

He tried to apologise some more. Tried to insist that he didn’t mean to be here. That Kuma had sent him flying here. He didn’t know.

But they just held their arrows at him, not giving in.

“Just let me go! I made a promise to my nakama!”

Damn it all. Looks like he just had to run.

.xxx.

Impel Down had been chaos.

But now they were on their way to Marineford, on their way to the war.

Luffy was disheartened to learn that Bon had stayed behind to get them free, but he understood it. It wasn’t fair though.

But the thought of Ace kept him going. He needed to save Ace.

(He remembered, too, something that Bon had said to him: Iva. The miracle worker. “Hey! Maybe she can help you out Mugi!”)

Luffy placed his hand on his chest. His undershirt had melted away from Magellan’s poison. The only thing keeping it in place was bandages…

He glanced back to Iva, and he remembered when Iva had…

"Iva?"

"Yes Mugiwara-boy?"

"Do you think you can fix me? I wanna be myself, and Bon told me that you could help me with that.” Luffy looked over to the sea and hugged himself. He remembered his friends and their smiling faces. Vivi’s laughter and her present. How many did he have left on the Sunny?

“Bon-boy did mention someving like vat.” Iva had nodded thoughtfully.

Luffy blinked. “What do you mean?” Bon had…?

“He said to make sure vour upper body was covered and vrapped. Tightly. Combined with the fact vat vour clothes had all been burned away, and how he referred to you, it vasn’t too hard to figure it out Mugiwara-boy.” Iva flashed a smile at him. “Very vell, it may be uncomfortable given your circumstances but Vi’m certain you are more than villing. Hormone Injection!”

The stab in his side was a pain he had been becoming familiar to, unfortunately. There was more pain. Here and there. As his body changed. It wasn’t just pain either but… strange sensations as well. Shrinking and growing. “A-Ahh! Weird. I feel…”

His voice was changing, getting deeper… coarser.

His face felt funny. As did his neck. No. Everything felt funny. A weight was lifted from his chest, but something else happened lower.

“I-I…” He was dizzy after all of it. His voice – it was similar but different. It wasn’t quite that of a stranger, but he wasn’t used to it.

“M-My voice.”

He lifted his hands up to this throat – feeling a pronounced bump there. He felt his face – wider, it wasn’t like before. And then his chest.

“Gone! They’re gone!” The weight that was lifted from there wasn’t just literal either. No, it was symbolic too. A weight that no longer held him back or pushed him down. Gone! They were gone!

He laughed, wrapping his arms around himself.

(He could hear Iva laughing softly in the background.)

And then he pulled open his pants to look down.

“Shishsihi!” He laughed.

Complete. Whole.

This was who he was.

“Thank you Iva!” He said, and just jumped onto the Queen, wrapping his arms around them.

.+++.

“Luffy!”

Why? Why was that bastard here?! Such a reckless idiot! “Don’t come here! This is my mistake! Don’t go butting into my business!”

That damn fool! Why couldn’t he have minded his own business?

“I don’t give a damn about any of that! You’re my brother!”

…There just was something about Luffy’s voice right now. It was different. Maybe it was just the war. Maybe it was just the fact that it was Luffy’s voice that was the only one he could truly hear right now. That it was his voice that stood out in all of this chaos…

Whatever it was though, it sounded different.

(He could still hear other voices and understand their words however. But it was like a muffled buzz. Confusion. Astonishment. What? Ace’s brother? No way? Roger had another son?)

And now it was Sengoku’s voice that boomed out for all to hear. “Don’t be fooled! These two are foster siblings! Luffy’s father is not Roger, but Dragon the Revolutionary! Both of these siblings carry cursed blood in their veins! Don’t let this rookie take control of the war!”

Well, at the very least Sengoku wasn’t that heartless to reveal Luffy’s biology to the world…

(If he had, everything be damned, Ace would have tried attacking the bastard.)

“You idiot!” Ace screamed out to Luffy. Damn it all. If Luffy hadn’t….

“Ace! Stay there! I’m coming!”

And came he did.

.xxx.

“Hey, hey, that’s my little brother you are attacking there.”

After the two of them dealt with the swarm that came at them, Luffy had just… pounced at him, wrapping his arms around him tightly.

“Ace!”

…Wait a minute… Something was missing! And Ace pulled Luffy away and took a long, good look at him. No way! No way!!

“Luffy!” He was beaming down at his little brother. “You’re—”

“I know, right?” And Luffy was grinning up at him with sparkling eyes. “Iva fixed me up! I even have–”

“Luffy! Watch out!” Ace grabbed the arm that tried to slice his brother in two before blasting the offender away. “Let’s get out of here. Tell me all about it later.”

And Luffy continued to grin up at him before nodding and laughing.

To think, Luffy finally was in the right body…

God… he was so happy right now…

.xxx.

…Where was he?

(Explosions. Screams. Agony. Loss. Pain! Oh God! The pain!)

There was frantic beeping. People yelling. Hands on his shoulders.

“Calm down. Calm down. It’s alright. You’re alright…”

The beeping was settling down now. And his head… it was foggy... It wasn’t enough for him to lose consciousness yet.

“Wh-Where am I?” He croaked out. (Why was his throat so dry?)

“I’m Trafalgar law. A surgeon. You sustained major injuries, but I was able to resuscitate you. You’re currently on my ship…”

That voice drifted off and he couldn’t decipher the words anymore. Injuries? Was that why he remembered those sounds? Memories began to flood in now.

(”Leave! Get away from here my children!”)

(”Ace!”)

(”Die!”)

Ah… shit…

Luffy… Luffy… Luffy was…. (For some reason he couldn’t even muster the energy to panic about his brother.) “Luffy…” Even his voice was weak. Tired. Exhausted. “Luffy… where’s Luffy?” The world was spinning. He could barely think… “…And the Old Man? Where is he…?”

Those hands were on his shoulders again.

“Mugiwara-ya is recovering in the next room.” The same voice spoke calmly to him.

Oh, Luffy was safe. Ace felt his lips curling into a smile as relief flooded over him. Good… Good….

.+++.

Law sighed as he sat at his desk. Dealing with these two brothers was exhausting. He needed to keep both of them heavily sedated, and they were each concerned about the other’s wellbeing.

Luffy had been the first to recover, and he would constantly look into the window to Ace’s room. And, since Ace would regain consciousness from time to time, Law had to keep the man under constant sedation. Well, at least until Law was certain that sudden movements wouldn’t tear or rupture anything.

Thankfully he didn’t have to really worry about that with Luffy. Sure, he had to tell the idiot to not overexert himself, but moving around was fine.

(Although there was that time when Luffy had finally begun to move around on his own that made him question himself. Did he mess up on the dosage he had last given Luffy? Certainly, it was plausible considering how tired he was and that he was treating multiple patients. For one of the first things out of Luffy’s mouth – aside from inquiring about Ace’s condition – was: how do I pee? And, as Law thought about it more, it only made him believe more and more that he had probably accidentally given Luffy Ace’s dosage of sedative and painkillers. Which produced a rather unfortunate scenario for him, as his crew had left to check up on Ace and he was the only one there to answer Luffy’s awkward question. So, woe he went, since his obviously high patient was rather insistent on lacking the knowledge of just how to empty his bladder.)

Eventually, Ace had become fit enough for Law to take him off of the sedatives.

When he had come to, it was apparent that Ace remembered the few moments that he had been conscious and when Law had to calm the man down until the sedatives kicked in.

Tears were flowing down his cheeks.

“The Old Man… he’s dead, isn’t he?”

Law could only nod solemnly.

Thankfully, it was Luffy who came in to support his brother, so Law didn’t have to attempt to do anything else.

.+++.

“Luffy – you’re… you’re…”

Luffy was beaming at Nami who was staring at him, her eyes wide in awe.

“I know right!”

Nami hugged him. And Usopp, and Brook, and Franky… Robin used giant arms while Chopped was hugging Luffy’s head. In fact, the only two had hadn’t joined in on the massive groups hug was Zoro and Sanji. But, when Nami spared a glance behind her as they began to walk, she could see the two men placing their elbows on Luffy’s shoulders, smiles on all three faces.

It made her smile as well.

#lawlu #monkey d. luffy #one piece #transgender #trafalgar law #petiteneko:story #tlaw #onepiece #luffy #fanfic:stability #sanji #zoro #nami #usopp #chopper #brook #franky #robin #ace #sabo #asl

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kingofthewhatpod · 6 years

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Fanfic Friday #3

Oh god, oh dear, oh no. This was supposed to come out last Friday, and yet it was delayed for a week without any news. I mean, I did technically tweet it last Friday but maybe anyone who follows me can forgive me because this week you get both? And.... er... I’ll try to do better? Maybe I’ll do another post on my real thoughts about Fanfic Friday, but if you’re reading this, and you just want to get to the good stuff, let me delay no more!

I return to Fanfic Friday’s roots (after only a single week off, ha) of seeing how I would teak a non-canon arc. Heck, maybe I'll have constructive creativity for a canon arc one day. But not this day. Because I was originally sending these out as tweets, my thoughts in places are brief. Adventure in the Ocean's Naval was fine. It was palatable. But I don't want a slightly overcooked hamburger and some fries. I want steak with garlic mashed potatoes.

Things I liked:

The mystery of the island, however short lived

The guardian monsters

Captain Joke didn't have friends like Luffy, and that was his downfall

Things that could be improved:

Usopp/Nami didn't do much of anything

Magic not explained

who cares about Joke?

As before, I'll keep the premise. Mysterious island, land of adventure? check. But this time, there's no octopus, no immediate fight. Luffy and Zoro andd the ship still fall down below because hijinks. (maybe Zoro is napping and doesn't keep a careful eye on Luffy, who gets bored and starts messing around on the ship, or he sees a cool bug. And him running around somehow dislodges the anchor long enough that they fall). So they all end up down below, and they meet a rather shady old man (think Jafar disguised as the beggar) who tells them about this wicked cool treasure of the gods. It's on the other side of the island if they're brave enough to get it. It is said to grant any wish.

Usopp and Nami are probably freaked out, Sanji would very calmly be like "who would fall for that?" but Luffy has decided to go check it out, and Zoro is just like "he's the captain." So they end up going, some more willingly than others Now, you'll notice this call to adventure is some kind of bad guy (you know what? Make it a poorly disguised oni. Everyone notices except Luffy), instead of some kid. Firstly, I'm usually not a fan of the kid characters- even if they're related to the deeper themes. But also, maybe there *is* a village down here, and they meet a crying Hamu who is like "don't try to go get the treasure! Even Captain Joke, the hero pirate of the village couldn't do it!" But why would that deter Luffy? Answer: it wouldn't.

Luffy could be all "Yeah, but I bet he wasn't as strong as I am. I'm going to be King of the Pirates." (King of the What Now?) Maybe Hamu comes with to watch this idiot in action, maybe he just stays behind. The crew will come back through for the ship anyways and they can tell him about their adventure. Now, they get halfway across a suspiciously empty field, when all of a sudden these stone walls come up from the ground, creating a labyrinth and separating the crew. Luffy might try to rocket up but there's some magical barrier. Also you can't go back the way you came, inwards!

Now, Luffy will basically get lost and increasingly frustrated. I cannot stress how funny this mental image is, as he yells and rampages but to no avail. I don't think the Straw Hats can hear each other. As I mentioned in episode 25 of the podcast, it'd be interesting if the Straw Hats faced off against the former Joke pirates. You get just enough characterization through dialogue and actions that you feel like you actually know this character. Also, I want to touch on the nature of the Joke pirates. Joke was betrayed, just like in the original. But instead of faceless shapes, there are 4 you can clearly see. Also the hint of *something* off-camera giving off a dark red light.

Spoilers: But because Joke's commanders were evil-hearted, they became tainted, causing their forms to morph and become... well, weird and monstrous. We can imply the other no-name members of the Joke pirates were killed in the labyrinth or by these commanders

Anyways. Zombie commander guys facing Luffy's crew one on one. Zoro first. He faces a man clad in weird armor (because One Piece), who constantly bangs on his breastplate, simply saying "Strong! Strong!" He's very bulky and has tusks. Maybe make him look walrus-ish. Anyways, he's very strong, and he hits hard. Zoro can't pierce his armor, and there's no obvious weakpoints. This guy's deal is that he just wants to be strong, as a dark reflection of Zoro's own ambition. He wants it so bad he'd sell out his captain to make a deal with a monster. Eventually Zoro wins, I think by using the butt of his sword to BANG right on the dude's helmet, and then breaking the monster commander's weapon, maybe burying him beneath the rubble created by slashing the walls surrounding them. And of course Zoro gets a badass line. "What good is strength if you won't use it for your captain?" Because he is a GOOD, LOYAL BOY. Or maybe a comment on his enemy's internal weakness. "If you're too weak to stand and you get knocked down, stand up again even stronger"

Sanji's opponent: A rockstar with a wicked cool guitar and cool shades and a flashy jacket. Yes, I said a rockstar. This is One Piece which has all sorts of crazy character designs. Does it make sense that he has an electric guitar? Do I care? The ideological reason they're suited for each other is because this guy (maybe he's like a creature of the lagoon. Yeah that's it. He's more frog-ish) likes ladies but he's vain about it and only cares about himself (betrayed Joke because being a priate wasn't cool anymore). Anyways he fires actual music note shaped projectiles by strumming his guitar, and Sanji can't really get close at first. That is, until... maybe Froggy says he'll hunt down Nami? Yeah, and then Sanji kicks tthrough these weird music notes, runs forward and kicks him in the face!

"Coolness can't be forced," Sanji remarks, adjusting his tie. "And no woman would ever want to kiss you." (Also, side note, I'm not a huge fan of the shonen trope of suddenly becoming stronger when someone is threatened. But I couldn't think of a way for Sanji to win otherwise. I need to get better at this. That’s what having a weekly schedule is meant to help with!)

Usopp's opponent: A squid looking guy who hides behind cover and always runs from battle. He betrayed his captain because he was afraid of what would happen if they continued their journey. Usopp tries to snipe him when he comes up from behind cover but Squid boy is very fast. Usopp wins by purposefully acting all angry and firing a bunch of his explosion stars, secretly taking out the cover further down the battle field until the next time squiddy tries to run he gets blasted in the back. "How can a man run from danger for his whole life?" He asks with a smirk. Bonus points if his knees are still shaking while he says it

Nami: She faces a fairy. Yes, a lady who got all shrunk by the monster's power. Maybe a flying sea horse-ish type design, to keep it aquatic. She, like Nami, is money obsessed, and didn't want to share her treasure with Joke. She's another agile one and shoots giant bubbles. Can Nami polevault with that pole of hers? Yeah, let's say she can. So she leaps over one of the bubbles and maybe throws a coin past the lady, causing her lady to quickly look away- unable to resist the allure of gold- just in time for a nice solid smack of the pole. "Try thinking about others once in a while" is Nami's line before she continues through the maze.

Now, it seems the maze is magic in nature (no duh), and the Straw Hats (minus their captain) have come out of the maze. And before them is the treasure. But before they can approach, the red light from earlier. oh no! It's the old man from earlier! (who could have guessed???????) He gets huge and reveals his true form, growing in size, saying he'll never give up his treasure. But before the battle can start, you hear it. CRACK! WHUMP! CRACK! Cracks are appearing on some part of the maze wall behind them. It explodes and in comes an enraged Luffy! Angry that he was lost for so long. Bonus points, Sanji kicks a piece of rubble that was going to hit him, Zoro cuts a piece that was flying at him, and the eternal butt monkey Usopp gets hit in the head.

Luffy: Who's this? Zoro: Dunno Sanji: That's the old guy from earlier. Luffy: Whaaaat?? Grandpa wasn't a good person?? Nami: Honestly, captain... Usopp: *recovered from the rubble* Hey, Luffy, what was that, you jerk!!!

Now, the point is that this monster likes to sow chaos. Just like in the original special, Joke was betrayed because he had crappy friends. And The Straw Hats seem incredibly disorganized. So the monster king grins. "How would you like to join me and I'll grant you your wish?" Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, each of them get all quiet and start walking over to accept the deal. Luffy is watching them, a look of mild confusion on his face. They stand right in front of the thing and the monster grins. "Good," he says. All four of them at once give him a solid whack, kick, shot, and slide. "As if!!!" They cry in union. Luffy grins and punches the big creature in the gosh darn mouth. Well, probably the nose but I like to say "punch in the mouth"

He's not defeated *that* easily, and maybe if I spent more time rewriting and drafting this I could come up with an exciting narrative. The point is that the monster is too strong for even Luffy on their own, but they fight as a team.

You might think Luffy tends to prefer to fight alone, and maybe he does for a while. But the monster *could* wish himself stronger, and it could look like Luffy is about to lose when his crew mates save him, allowing him to prepare for an even stronger punch that will finish it. And of course the wish granting gem breaks. Of COURSE Luffy sends the monster flying and he smashes into the thing and it gets launched with him over the horizon or something. Of course everyone's mad but Luffy shrugs it off, since it's more about the journey than the destination So... yeah, that's basically it. Luffy comes back to the village, Hamu is like "How did you do it?" and Luffy just grins and is like "with help from my crew." And it's a sweet moment. Hopefully you liked it! I feel like this was the longest one yet.

Happy Friday everyone!

#KotWN #Fanfic Friday #chapter 3 #feedback appreciated #Sorry for being late

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neverwatchedonepiece · 5 years

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640-642: "Explore! Fairies' Island - Green Bit!", "The Unknown World! The Tontatta Kingdom!" and "The Stratagem of the Century! Doflamingo Makes His Move!"

Doflamingo using Fake News before it was cool.

Watched three episodes to make up for not posting on Saturday. Damn, am I glad I watched up to 642. The reveal of the Tontatta people and what Violet was up to *did* move the plot along. But Doflamingo is the centre of trouble and strife. When he shows up, you know it’s about to get real.

And boy, Doflamingo really is a proper joker, isn’t he? Just loves to play little tricks on people. Little tricks like taking control of the press and releasing fake news just so you can murder another pirate.

Such a prankster!

Zoro Ages 40 Years Through Confusion and Stress

Before I get to the Main Event, gotta update on Franky and Sol, plus Zoro and his new pal Wicka!

In Zoro’s storyline, the action kicked in with him dashing about Acacia Port Town, seemingly yelling and muttering to himself. A small child was scared. His mother advised him to not look Zoro in the eye.

Meanwhile, somewhere about Zoro’s person, a small voice ordered, “Get to Flower Field already!”

Ah, thought I. Zoro has teamed up with the thieving little fairy from earlier.

Sure enough, a flashback confirmed it, along with another tasty nugget of news that tied Zoro’s story neatly into the main plot.

After the sack of stolen stuff whacked Zoro on the head, Zoro spotted the little thief. The game was up. Tiny thief introduced himself as Wicka. He belonged to the Tontatta Tribe’s scouting unit and he was freaking out about Zoro - a Big Human - having seen him. Of course, Wicka couldn’t share any information - apart the fact he was supposed to report to his chief that the Donquixote Family were about to destroy the Strawhat Pirates’ ship.

Obviously, Zoro was interested in this development. He was about to haul ass back to Sunny but, alas, his faulty GPS kicked in. (He is the only one who hasn’t left Acacia Port yet, lmao). As Wicka had broken his ankle in the fall, he offered to guide Zoro back to shore in exchange for a ride to a place called Flower Field.

Turns out the Tontatta People have a conflict with the Donquixote Family too, though Wicka wouldn’t spill the details. (I’m still thinking a lot of them are being forced to work in the Smile factory.)

As for Franky and Sol, they are heading the same way, funnily enough. (Maybe Flower Field is the headquarters for the Resistance.) On the way, Rebecca spotted them from a Colosseum window. She shouted after Sol, who acted pretty weird about the whole thing. Pretty much was like, “Oh, so you entered the competition even though I told you not to. Okay.”

There is obviously a crap ton of history between these two because Rebecca cried and shouted back, “I’ll win so we can live together!”

Sol was all surly about it. “A warrior who cries will not easily win,” and rode away on Franky. Then, when he was safely out of earshot, he told Franky how he had something he wanted to protect and that he could not shed tears from his tin eyes.

Gotta say, I’m getting weird vibes from this relationship.

Ceci N’Est Pas Une Punch

As for Luffy Lucy, the Block C battle is officially underway! I was super hyped to see this fight but the action kept cutting away from it. Now the Feathered One has flapped onto the stage, he’s hogged the spotlight and some of the hype has worn off.

Still, that whole sequence of Luffy winding up Gomu Gomu stretchy punches and declaring, “That was a normal punch. Oh, that one? That was a normal kick. A completely normal kick.” Even after several fellow competitors observed, “Hey, that guy’s arm stretched. Isn’t that exactly like that Strawhat Luffy guy’s power?”

No.

No it wasn’t.

It was just a normal, run of the mill stretchy punch.

Do not listen to Cavendish who is being manhandled from the area shrieking “I’LL KILL YOU, STRAWHAT!” at the top of his lungs. Do not listen to Don Chinjao, who is stomping about, growling about murdering Garp’s grandson every five seconds.

All trickery and lies.

And speaking of...

You Just Lost the Circle Game

Ah, I am so glad Sanji’s little subplot has merged into the main plot. It had begun to border on unwatchable. I breathed a sigh of relief when Violet turned the tables last episode. I thought she might even be a CP0 member in disguise, seeking to shackle Sanji and trade him for Luffy.

Nope.

It’s less complicated than that.

It turned out Violet was an assassin hired by Doflamingo to prey on Sanji’s weakness for women. The chuckling thugs surrounding her laughed it up. This guy is worth 70 million and he was fooled by Violet’s act? What a dumbass.

She shit-talked Sanji for about five seconds. “Did you really think a guy like you could win my heart? How funny!”

This was before she unveiled her Glare Glare fruit power which allows her to see into people’s minds (legit amazingly useful power, to be fair). She asked Sanji some Important Questions. Why had Strawhat and Trafalgar Law become allies? What brought them to Dressrosa besides the business at Green Bit? What was their ultimate plan? What were they up to?

But inside Sanji’s mind, all she saw was PINK PINK PINK. Which, I am guessing, means Sanji’s head was filled with nothing else but thoughts of LADIEZ. (Bit of a disservice to Sanji, but okay.)

Understandably, Violet was freaked out. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking of you,” Sanji answered. “The way you looked at me in that moment, I knew you were telling me the truth when you asked me to kill someone for you. I believe in women’s tears!”

I blinked and reached for my sick bucket.

Amazingly, Sanji’s charm worked on Violet. Not only did she turn on the hired thugs, she also ran away with Sanji and let him peer into her mind to discover the trap Doflamingo had laid for Trafalgar Law.

Very generous. Sanji, I take it all back. You are a smooth operator, after all.

Little People: The Only Thing That Has Legit Scared Robin Since Enies Lobby

Back at Green Bit, Usopp was having flashbacks to Bowin Island and Caesar was shrieking for Doflamingo. Law basically told him to hold his horses because they had a bit of walking to do first. Caesar would be handed over at 3pm at a further distant point of beach.

Then Usopp’s keen sharpshooter’s eye spotted an ominous object. A Marine ship grounded on the bay, snarled in a plant’s grip. Robin concluded the cuts that freed the ship from the plant were fresh and that the ship hadn’t sustained much damage.

Ruh roh. That meant the Marines were on Green Bit.

Caesar freaked out. He was a wanted man with a sky-high bounty and a list of crimes that would make Magellan’s hair curl. Now Doflamingo had resigned from the Shichibukai, there was no law protecting Caesar anymore. If he was left on Green Bit, cuffed and defenceless, they’d arrest him! “THIS IS HELL!” he wailed. “I’M DOOMED!”

While Usopp hissed at Caesar to stfu, Robin side-eyed Law. “Why are the Marines here? You look like you’re hiding something, Law?”

Law claimed it was a coincidence. How could he control the Marines? (Though the flashback to his chat with Smoker when he admitted he was headed for Green Bit says otherwise. Not control. More a subtle manipulation.) Still not sure how much of the Marine presence here is Law’s or Doflamingo’s doing. I’m thinking Doflamingo’s to be honest. Maybe Law expected Smoker and found Fujitora instead? More on that later, though.

At any rate, Law set up a recon plan. Robin and Usopp would scout the area, searching for Marines. He would walk to the handover point with Caesar.

Robin and Usopp saw some shit in that forest, let me tell you.

A gang of fodder Marines fell victim to some of Wicka’s fellow tribespeople. A spokesperson called Leo demanded to know if the Marines were good or bad people.

“We are Marine soldiers! We protect people!”

But when they would not hand over their weapons, the Tontatta fighters stripped the Marines almost butt-naked (they left the underpants for their cousins, the Underpants Gnomes).

A similar thing happened to Robin. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small, shadowy figure retreating with stolen clobber in hand. She set a mille fleurs and caught a very angry little dude. She did try to ask him if they had robbed the Marines, but the Angry Little Dude’s friends returned with anaesthetic slingshot ammo.

The next thing, there are a few shots of shadowy stitches and Robin stirs awake to find lots of Tontatta people slithering about under her clothes (kinda creepy) and going through her stuff. Notebook, candy, den den mushi. Oh yeah, and her body was stitched to the ground by Leo.

Luckily, Robin is the kind of person who can stay calm in trying situations. She kept her cool and asked questions. Where was she? Was Usopp okay? Had they grown all the massive plants on the island?

The answers were that she was in the Tontatta Kingdom, they had captured Usopp and he was fine and, yes, the plants were their doing and there is no plant they cannot grow.

Robin figured she could easily escape with her DF power but that she had to be careful not to cause a stir. When they asked her why she had kidnapped one of their own people, Robin answered she had caught him out curiosity. That was it. She hadn’t meant any harm and she would never tell anyone she had seen them.

“LOL, OKAY,” Leo said. “YOU CAN GO. HERE ARE ALL YOUR BELONGINGS EXCEPT THE DDM WHICH WE RELEASED INTO THE WILD.”

That was funny.

It was all going well, until Robin discovered she only had two minutes to meet with Law at the handover point. She made to leave but the Tontatta people were like, “NO. NO ONE LEAVES. GIVE US YOUR WEAPON.” (What is it with them and weapons? Are they planning to go to war with the Donquixote family? They’ll get their tiny asses handed to them.)

They were about to strip Robin, but another Tontatta random ran up, saying not to harm Robin. That she was the partner of the Legendary Hero! The Big Human who had come to save them all!

Yes, I thought! The Legendary Hero? There’s only one person that could be. Usopp’s bullshitting skills have come through!

Law Falls for Doflamingo’s Fake News

For that reason, Robin and Usopp didn’t make the the handover on time.

Well, Robin did.

Sort of. The usefulness of her Devil Fruit power has climbed a few notches. Remember she showed she could clone herself in Fishman Island? Turns out she can do this long-distance too. Even though she is underground with the Tontatta people, she was still able to send a message to Law.

Unfortunately, Robin’s clone arrived just as Sanji’s Bad News did.

While Law and Caesar were standing on shore like they were waiting for Godot, Law’s DDM rang. It was Sanji with the best damned plot twist.

“You’ve gotta get out of there! Doflamingo didn’t resign from the Shichibukai. Even if you hand over Caesar to him, there is no trade!”

Law was shook. “Wait, that doesn’t make sense--”

“We’ve been doublecrossed!” Sanji shouted. And told Law everything Violet had shown him. The flashbacks revealed something very interesting. The crowd below Doflamingo’s rooms, begging him not to abdicate, were assuaged when CP0 turned up and told them the newspaper reports were “a mistake. Just a false report. We will let the world know through an extra edition of the Coo News at 3pm. You mustn’t tell anyone until then.”

3pm, eh? Convenient timing on Doflamingo’s part. Now the residents of Dressrosa being awfully calm for a nation whose king has just abdicated makes a ton of sense.

But the news came too late for Law. Out of the trees, Admiral Fujitora marched with his men. Fujitora did not seem pleased to have been fooled by the false report. The jury is out on how much Akainu really knows, but he is going to talk with the Gorosei at Mariejois (that’ll be an interesting conversation). Right now, Fujitora is still following orders to be there at the handover point.

Law realised he was screwed.

“You’re the new Admiral, aren’t you?” he said.

Then Doflamingo flapped down.

In his shrieking enthusiasm, Caesar almost ruptured something internal. “JOKERRRRRRRRRRR!”

But Doflamingo only had eyes for Law. (Murder eyes. I cannot stress the murder part enough.)

“Hey, Law. Well done! I didn’t expect to see a Marine Admiral here. Since I’m no longer Warlord, I’m scared as hell.”

Now I think about it... maybe Law had deliberately led the Marines to Green Bit under the mistaken assumption Doflamingo really had resigned. If everything had gone as Law had planned, the Marines would have rocked up, arrested Doflamingo and Caesar and Kaidou’s supply of Smiles would have dried up.

But it didn’t work out like that.

“Liar!” Law growled. “Answer me, Doflamingo! You used the authority of the World Government to fool the whole world only to deceive ten people? How?”

“Often the more spectacular the magic, the simpler the trick,” Doflamingo replied, giving nothing away damn it. “People usually have a stereotypical idea or assumption like, ‘that’s ridiculous!’ and that’s what causes a blind spot.”

He was clearly referring to Law here. Law had assumed there was no way Doflamingo had the power to pull such a massive, world-scale trick. I mean, CP0 have been drafted in here. They report directly to the World Government. Doflamingo has some hefty connections. There is no denying it at this point.

“Nobody can really do such a thing, even if he hatched some scheme. You’re a pirate!” Law seethed. “Even if you’re a Shichibukai and a king you don’t have the power to spread a lie over the world! The only people who have the power to do such a ridiculous thing are the Celestial Dragons--”

Law’s words caught in this throat. He remembered what Vergo had said to him at Punk Hazard: “You don’t know Joker’s past and that will cost you your life.”

My jaw dropped. SURELY NOT??? Was Doflamingo a Celestial Dragon?

Even Law thought the same as me. “Don’t tell me you’re--”

Doflamingo, cagey as always, said only, “It’s a bit more complicated that that. But I have only one purpose here, Law. I just want to kill you.”

Dem veins, man.

Vein’s a-poppin’

I hope Law has some tricks up his sleeve because he is caught between an Admiral and Doflamingo. It ain’t looking good for him right now.

Should’ve checked Snopes, Law. Verifying fake news is super important, man.

Pan’s Labyrinth? Is that you?

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neverwatchedonepiece · 6 years

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499-504: “The Battle Against the Big Tiger! Who Is Going to Be Captain?!”, “Freedom Taken Away! the Nobles' Plot Closing in On the Brothers!”, “The Fire Has Been Set! the Gray Terminal in Crisis!”, “Where Can Freedom be Found? A Sad Departure of a Boy!”, “Take Good Care of Him! A Letter from the Brother!” and “To Live Up To The Promise! Departures Of Their Own!”

R.I.P. Sabo.....?

I watched six episodes in a row and it was totally worth it.

Mobile users better limber up those scrollin fingers because this post is about to get long.

Quick 499 Filler Summary (so I can move on to the good stuff...)

I hate watching filler when I don’t know it’s filler. It messes up my sense of canon. I end up analyzing it, then get annoyed when I realise it was a waste of time. Still, I’m glad I picked up on Sabo telling Ace’s family secret in front of the old Filler Pirate from 498. Even though his character had only just been introduced, I knew he wasn’t the type to blab. Glad you guys pointed that out.

To sum up 499:

1. The boys have no luck with Big Tiger, so they train with Filler Pirate.

2. Ace is shocked to learn Filler Pirate does not loathe Roger.

3. Filler Pirate is returning to the sea to find his old crew. The boys end up helping him build a ship.

4. They train under Filler Pirate. With the power of friendship, they defeat Big Tiger together (without needing catnip, thanks Sabo!)

5. Filler Pirate teaches Ace Pirate Life Lessons such as: there is more to being a pirate captain than strength. Only your crew’s approval makes you a good captain.

6. Filler Pirate heads out to see. Bye, bye Naguri the Filler Pirate!

Now for the good stuff...

Poor People Blood Is Icky

Episode 500 opened on an ominous note. Not only was the title sinister but a literal storm ripped apart the boys’ refuge in the forest. Nice foreshadowing there.

To repair their hideout, Ace, Sabo and Luffy searched Grey Terminal for scraps. They were ambushed by Bluejam and Sweaty Chins. (Never found out his name, so Sweaty Chins he shall remain.)

Instead of thinking, “Hey, maybe my terrible parenting caused Sabo to run away?” Sweaty Chins pinned the blame on Ace and Luffy, the nasty common children. They had tempted Sabo to run away. They were after his money. Ace did not like that latter comment one bit and tried to fight back. Bluejam smacked him and, horror of horrors, got some of Ace’s blood on Sweaty Chins’ face.

Because everyone knows if you get poor blood on you, you might catch poor, right?

Poor Sabo begged them not to harm Ace and Luffy. “They’re important to me! They’re my brothers!” Of course, Sweaty Chins pulled the old, “If you come with me, they won’t be harmed.” Dying inside, Sabo agreed.

Sabo returned to his gilded prison. Ace and Luffy were dragged to Bluejam’s hideout. He tried to convince Ace and Luffy to stay away from Luffy. He told them Sabo only escaped to Grey Terminal as a mockery of the people who live there, that Sabo really looked down on them as an amusement to make himself feel superior. Of course Ace and Luffy did not buy his bullshit, so he said straight up that if they cared about Sabo, they’d have to let him go.

Weirdly, Bluejam gave them a job as couriers. I’m still not sure if this was because he genuinely wanted to recruit Ace and Luffy into his crew or if he wanted them to be part of the bomb plot and laugh as they realised they’d helped destroy Grey Terminal.

I Fell Into The Burning Ring Of Fire

Back in High Town, Sweaty Chins was hard at work trying to erase Sabo’s criminal record. He can do this because he has cash and social clout. Sweaty Chins tried hard not to part with cash, urging Sabo to lie. He had been tempted into those criminal acts by feral bandit children, after all.

Because Sabo isn’t awful, he refused to drop his brothers in it. Sweaty Chins kicked his chair away (excellent parenting there) and bribed the guard to erase Sabo’s record. Problem solved! Now he could become a good, obedient noble again. Hurrah!

Then things got weird...

Back at Sabo’s home, Mr and Mrs Sweaty Chins had adopted a sinister noble child called Stelly. The name might resemble Stelio Kontos, but this kid is nowhere near as cool. Stelly was replacement, in case Sabo didn’t work out, apparently. Lovely.

Turned out Stelly had a big mouth. He blabbed to Sabo that the Nobles of High Town had planned a spate of Social Cleansing By Fire because a Celestial Dragon was due to visit. The sight of all the icky poor people and the garbage heap might be too much for the Celestial Dragon’s delicate eyes.

This news freaks out Sabo because he is not evil. “But.. people live there!”

“YES. THEY WILL BURN!” Stelly crowed with glee.

Sabo had a “screw this,” moment and jumped out the window. Seeking clarification, still unsure that anyone could be that heartless, he roamed High Town. For some reason, everyone was making fire jokes. “OHOHO, IT SURE IS WINDY TODAY. FIRES MIGHT SPREAD!” Unable to take it any longer, Sabo straight up asked an old gent if it was true.

It’s as if High Town had a residents’ meeting and thought, “Screw it, let’s just burn Grey Terminal. Cheaper than hiring a skim, am i rite?”

Of course, Sabo went nuts. He was surrounded by freaks. Utter psychos. His brothers would burn because the poor people of Grey Terminal were inconvenient. But before he got the chance to escape, he was caught. Sweaty Chins kicked him into a cellar and locked the door. What a guy! Watching Sabo beating on that door screaming for Ace and Luffy was sad.

I would love to see Sweaty Chins have karma hit him like a brick one day, I swear...

Someone Set Him Up The Bomb

Back at Bluejam’s Courier Business, Bluejam finally let Ace and Luffy in on the big secret. The boxes they had been carrying contained oil and explosives which would be used to Blow Grey Terminal to Kingdom Come. But hey, he wasn’t the mastermind behind it, so that was alright, right? He was just getting paid. And speaking of money, did Ace and Luffy happen to have any lying around?

Because what Bluejam care about more than anything? Money. Turns out the mastermind of the fire was the King of Goa. Apparently, he promised Bluejam and his crew titles and status. As soon as Bluejam said this, I thought, “There is no way in hell, mate. You are being played.” Nobles barely help their own. As if they’d help you, one who was born a commoner.

I didn’t have long to wait. Bluejam hammered on the gate to Edge Town, gave the signal to be let in. But they were ignored by the guards inside, just like the desperate residents of Grey Terminal were ignored by the guards when they begged to be given refuge. When they retreated to the ship, they found that burning too. The king had double-crossed them.

The whole fire story was actually pretty brutal because something similar happened in real life that was all over the news where I live. A tower block of apartments where poorer people lived went on fire. Seventy-two people died. Some of the bodies will never be identified because they were living there illegally or were sub-letting while waiting for naturalisation papers. Why did the tower block burst into flames? Cheap, shoddy, flammable cladding. Why was the tower block clad in that material? To approve its appearance for the rich people who lived opposite. It looked grimy and run down. The sight of it might hurt their delicate eyes.

This entire plot just reminded me of that and I’ve got say, if Dragon asked me to join his army right now, I’d probably say yes.

And speaking of Dragon...

We Need Febreeze, Stat.

Desperate to save Ace and Luffy, Sabo escaped through a vent. He reached the city gate, tried to open it and had the crap kicked out of him by a guard. When a mysterious man in a green cloak approached, I thought, “YES! DRAGON IS HERE. HE WILL TAKE SABO AWAY AND LET HIM JOIN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY. ANOTHER FINE RECRUIT.”

Wherever there is injustice and class-cleansing, there is Dragon.

Dragon asked Sabo what happened. Sabo spilled his soul and I felt wretched watching him. The self-hatred Sabo has and his powerlessness to effect any change because of the firm grip the defective system has on the OPverse.

“This town smells worse than Grey Terminal. It smells like rotten people. If I stay here, I’ll never be free. I’m ashamed of being born a noble.”

“I know how you feel. I was born in this country too. But I still don’t have enough power to change a country.”

“You’re really listening to me...” Sabo whispered. (That got to me. For the first time, an adult actually listened to him and acknowledged his feelings on the matter.)

“Yes,” Dragon said. “And I will never forget.”

Breaking News: The Poor Can Avoid Being Poor By Not Being Born Poor!

While Bluejam swore vengeance against the King (optimism!), the king himself had planked his arse on his throne and was complaining the sky was too bright because of the fire. Never has the urge to reach through reality to slap a fictional character been stronger.

“Daddy?” little noble daughter asked. “Why aren’t the people in Grey Terminal humans? Why do they have to burn?”

A great question! A potential ray of light! Might this innocent child stir the king’s conscience?

Did she hell.

Honestly, this scene was too real. People actually talk like this. They genuinely believe it. This may be filler, but damn, it is near-the-knuckle good filler.

Mama Bear To The Rescue

In the meantime, Bluejam had gone off the deep end because he realised the futility of vengeance and hit rock bottom. Out for blood, he cornered Luffy and Ace and insisted they died together... but first, that treasure they had stolen!

About to put a bullet through Luffy, a strange, blue haki-like moment felled every single member of Bluejam’s crew. Only Bluejam himself remained standing. I’m still not sure what happened here and who was responsible for it (Dragon? Was he the one who cut the path through the fire to help the Grey Terminal people escape?)

At any rate, it gave Dadan the opening she needed to storm in and rescue her boys. (I was so happy when she called them that. JUST ADMIT IT, DADAN!) “I won’t stand by and watch someone try to take my boys’ lives... even if I’m not their real parent.”

I was a bit annoyed by Ace standing his ground when Dadan wanted to scarper. He endangered everyone else and Dadan was horribly injured fighting Bluejam (mostly burns from fleeing the fire after). It was explained later that Ace is like Roger, who would never run from a right because he would rather let the ones he loves escape. The noble sacrifice only works if you can guarantee their safety. If you’re wiped out then the enemy turns on your loved ones, how can you protect them them?

It distressed Luffy too, who was carted off and didn’t hear from them for days.

At least that convenient path through the fire was created, eh? And where did that path lead?

A Revolutionary Army ship with Dragon, Ivan-san and BARTHOLOMEW BLOODY KUMA!

LOOK WHO’S IN THE BACKGROUND!

(I really hope this is canon because this is something I have wanted confirmation of for AGES. Please let it be true that Kuma was once part of the Revolutionary Army.)

I loved this entire scene. When Ivan asked Dragon how he knew what was going on in this East Blue Backwater and Dragon answered, “This country is an example of how the world will be in the future. There can be no happiness where the undesirables are thrown away. I will change the world.” For all Dragon’s deadbeat dad status, you can see where Luffy gets his ambition and stubborn determination.

Then Dragon addressed the tired, frightened, shivering crowd of poor, Grey Terminal outcasts and shouted: “Those of you who are willing to fight for freedom, come aboard!”

But there was one person missing. I must admit I looked for Sabo on the boat. I thought Dragon might have taken him along. Maybe Dragon didn’t because Sabo was only a kid and he might have had family.

I wish he had. :(

Destination? Anywhere But Here

The next morning, the sun came out and the clear up began. Any survivors were to be shot on sight. The guards remarked how few charred bodies they found. Hopefully, most of them were Bluejam’s crew and the rest found their way to Dragon’s ship.

Sabo woke up in an alleyway. I was disappointed because Dragon hadn’t taken him. The disappointment was compounded when he was immediately caught and dragged home to High Town. Sweaty Chins enlisted two of the king’s goons as personal guards and calmly threatened to have Sabo killed unless he educated himself to be a noble.

“Be more like Stelly”, Sweaty Chins said, “who is so dependable and who will be getting new clothes to see the Celestial Dragon.”

Of course, Sabo would not be going. He could not be trusted. Sabo was imprisoned in his room. Everything was greyscale except Sabo. All colour had drained from his life. He had no idea whether Luffy and Ace were alive or dead. Was sure they were alive but realised trying to see them would place them in danger. Living like that would be awful. I felt sorry for Sabo, despite his privileged upbringing. The kid was straight up depressed.

“What is freedom?” he wondered. “Where can I find it?” Then he overheard a convenient conversation between his guards. The Celestial Dragon would visit tomorrow. Only one guard and Sabo would be in the house.

This was his chance. He wrote a note with a huge smile on his face.

The next day, a huge, flag-waving crowd gathered at the port to welcome the Celestial Parasite Dragon. I hate stuff like that, so I was already in rage mode.

My mood was NOT IMPROVED when Saint Jalmack SHOT SABO’S WITH A BLOODY BAZOOKA BECAUSE HE WAS A RUDE COMMONER.

At that point, I was convinced Sabo was dead because his top hat (Sabo’s symbol) was seen drifting to earth). I’m still 70% certain he’s dead. Mainly because he hasn’t been seen since (unless there’s something I’ve missed). Sabo’s death also puts Luffy’s reaction to Saint Charloss in perspective. Luffy punched him because no one punched the guy who killed Sabo.

But... there was no body. That is my number one rule. And there was that moment when Dragon’s ship pulled in at tiny Zoro’s island (TINY ZORO!) with someone who was badly injured and needing Ivan’s treatment. Dragon had also been in the audience watching the ceremony for the Celestial Dragon. I have my fingers crossed but won’t get my hopes up.

Take Care of Luffy

Of course, that wasn’t enough heart-string tugging. This is One Piece. My feelings had to be put through the wringer.

Dadan and Ace finally made it home. That was the single good thing that happened in 503. They saved each others’ lives. Dadan punched Bluejam to death (metal) and ran through fire with Ace. Ace stole medicine, treated her burns and carried her back to the shack.

But Dogra (a bandit) also made it back with news of Sabo. Ace immediately flew off the handle, seeking vengeance. Dadan talked sense into him. This was a Celestial Dragon. They would only have him killed. “Your father’s death changed the world. When you become a man as important as that, you can do whatever you like!”

Oh, Dadan. Where were you at Marineford? Weirdly, her words were prophetic because Ace’s death really will usher in a new pirate era.

Then the letter from Sabo arrived.

“Ace, Luffy, I hope you guys weren’t hurt in the fire. I’m worried about you but I believe you’re okay. I’m sorry to say it but when you get this letter, I’ll already be out to sea. Things led to things and I decided to set out before you. My destination will be anywhere but here! I’m gonna become stronger and be a pirate! The three of us have to become the freest pirates ever. One day, let’s meet up somewhere. Somewhere on the wide open sea, definitely. By the way, Ace, which of us do you think is the bigger brother? It’s odd but our brotherhood is my treasure. Luffy is still a weak crybaby but he is our little brother so take good care of him.”

At that point, I hadn’t seen the scene when Dragon’s ship pulled into Little Zoro’s island, so that brought a tear to my eye. I was so mad at the waste of Sabo’s life, mad that Ace and Luffy had already lost something so precious to them while they were still so young and mad that Sabo’s worthless parents hadn’t taken action against the slug who murdered their son. I was also mad at Dragon for not taking Sabo (but I still have hope that actually did happen).

After that, Ace swore to take care of Luffy. The boys worked hard to improve themselves. They even asked for help with their manners (that dine and dash thank you was hilarious). Now Ace’s well-mannered persona makes sense. Imaginary Sabo guided Luffy in his training, encouraging him just like he always used to.

Then, when they each turned seventeen, they broke Dadan’s heart by heading out to sea.

Why did they chose seventeen? Because that was Sabo’s deadline. At eighteen, he would become a full-fledged noble, so he intended to escape when before then.

Damn... this series. ;_;

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #portgas d. ace #sabo #dadan #monkey d. garp #monkey d. dragon #emporio ivankov #bartholomew kuma #sweaty chins #mrs sweaty chins #stelly #bluejam #saint jalmack #celestial dragons

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