Abducted! The Formation of CP6
By Mr_Khan
The inspiration for this story came from the filler arc in the anime that came after the Davy Back Fight Arc, where all of the Straw Hats except for Robin lose their memories to a predatory, memory-sucking seahorse. Their memories were restored to the point immediately before they joined the Straw Hats, and the clash of their undeveloped personalities was intriguing. Equally enjoyable was Robin's momentary run as leader of the crew. So I developed this tangent. In the more contemporary jargon, it's somewhat AU. It's also my first foray into One Piece fanfiction, with my previous efforts engaged over in SWAT Kats.
All of a sudden, the ship lurched, and Nami awoke. She felt stiff, as though she had been asleep for a long, long time, but that couldn't have been. She had gone to sleep, knowing that Arlong needed her up bright and early for some purpose best known to him. She rolled out of bed, landing on the floor, and felt around for the lantern. It definitely wasn't where she had left it. She staggered forward past the end of the bed, to where the door was supposed to be, and ran headlong into solid wall. The ship rolled again on a swell, and the full realization that she was not where she was supposed to be hit her. It was fully dark in her room, and she scrabbled around in panic until her hand clasped a doorknob. Her momentary hopes were dashed when she could not turn the knob. "Hey!" she yelled. "Let me out, pirate scum! You don't know who you're dealing with!" She banged her fists on the door in her impotent rage. "Let me out!"
In the next cabin over, Sanji slept undisturbed. His cabin was furnished with a hammock, so he had slept right through the waves that had begun to jolt the ship. He heard Nami's rage, muffled through the wall. He grinned in his sleep, thinking that he was still dreaming. "I'll let you out, mes amour!" He reached out with his arms and legs, and overbalanced, falling out of the hammock. "Gah!"
Nami heard the noise. "Hey! I know you're out there! Let me out!"
Sanji, now fully awake, looked around and immediately knew something was wrong. His cabin, unlike Nami's, had a porthole, and was lit by the dawn streaming in from outside. "Whoa," he wondered, "where am I?" He looked around, and found he had been provided with cigarettes. Cheap cigarettes, to be sure, but they were no worse than he was used to. He had picked one out, and was just about to light it, when Nami yelled again.
"Come on! Let me out!"
"Whoever brought me here really knows me," thought Sanji. "A pack of smokes and a damsel in distress. If they have a restaurant, I'll be set." He walked over to the door and discovered that his, like Nami's, was locked. This did not discourage him, as one swift kick shot the door out into the hall. He poked his head out the door, and seeing nobody around, stepped out into the hall and toward the next door.
Nami heard the doorknob rattle, and her nerve momentarily failed her. She gasped, then lunged behind the bed, hoping to avoid the wrath of her captors. The knob rattled again, then the door flew in. The sudden influx of light momentarily dazzled her, but she saw that whoever it was, there was only one of them. She regained her nerve, and she lunged at the shadowy figure she saw in the door.
The red-headed angel's tackle took Sanji completely by surprise, though his quick wit soon came up with something appropriate for the situation. "Hey, I know you're grateful, but slow down, Cherie, we haven't even been introduced yet." His advances were met with a fist.
"Pervert!" Nami yelled. "Don't think you just get to have your way with me, filthy pirate! Now take me off this ship!"
"She's so beautiful when she's angry," Sanji thought. The girl raised her fist again for another strike. In a split-second, he had a leg braced against her poised arm. "Slow down, baby. I'm not the one who brought you here. I don't know where I am, either." The effect of those words on this girl was instantaneous and highly effective.
Nami had an instinct for manipulation, and as soon as the strange, straw-haired man had identified himself as a friend, she gave him what she called the "doe eyes," large, watery, and infinitely endearing. "Then can you help a poor girl find her way out?"
"Yessss!" said Sanji, a long, protracted exclamation of joy. Apparently from out of nowhere, he pulled out a rose and clutched it in his mouth, then knelt down before her. "Sanji, your knight in shining armor, at your service, milady."
She shook the hand he offered and smiled awkwardly. "Nami," she said. "What a dork", she thought. She then noticed something behind Sanji, and pointed. "What's that?" She indicated a place where a door had once been, but now there was only a hole in the wall, badly slashed and damaged.
"I don't know," Sanji mused. "Probably somebody with an anger problem." He shrugged. "Now come, Nami-swan! We run to freedom!" He took Nami by the arm, and the two of them started running down the hall. Sanji led, turning a corner. He tripped and fell headlong over something, and Nami stopped short.
"What the hell?" Sanji roared. He turned around, lying prone on the ground, and he saw that he had tripped over a man in a deep stupor, snoring uproariously. A man with a well-toned body, scar-carved face, and mossy green hair. Next to him lay a katana and a pair of cutlasses, as well as an empty tankard that stank of ale.
"Oi, Marimo, wake up!" Sanji shouted, kicking at the man's face. The man's eyes opened.
Roronoa Zoro did not know where he was, but he did not particularly care. He had woken up, trapped in a dark room. He broke out of the room, found a single katana outside the door, and a pair of cutlasses on a rack nearby. He tried the swords on the door-hole, and satisfied with them, he walked down the hall. He was, however, quickly distracted by a barrel of ale he found. He drank deeply, and then fell asleep on the floor, thinking that he would figure out where he was later. Again, he wasn't particularly disturbed by the fact that he had woken up in a strange place. This sort of thing seemed to happen to him fairly often. He was, however, very much bothered by this straw-haired bastard who was kicking him.
"Oi!" he growled. "Quit kicking me! What did I do to you?"
"What are you doing sleeping on the ground like that, huh?" Sanji asked, continuing to kick him. "Who do you work with?"
"Quit kicking me!" Zoro replied. He leapt to his feet, grabbing his three swords. He grasped the katana in his mouth, then held the two cutlasses in each hand. Zoro was pleased with the result of this. The straw-haired punk gasped, and took a step back, and his red-headed companion did likewise.
Once again, Nami's nerve had failed her. She had gotten out of her prison, and she had been on her way out of the hold. But now… "It's the pirate hunter; Roronoa Zoro! What am I going to do?" Just for a moment, she stood paralyzed. She was at a complete loss, and so grasped at the first, desperate solution she could think of. She screamed, a loud, piercing sound which threw both Zoro and Sanji off balance. She then bolted right past the Pirate Hunter and back towards the opening to the deck.
"Nami-swan is so cute when she's scared!" the straw-haired punk yelled with joy.
"Guess it's just you and me, then," Zoro said with a grim satisfaction. He slashed out with one of the cutlasses, but Sanji leapt out of the way and started running after Nami. Zoro chased him down the hall. He wasn't going to kill this bastard, just scare him a bit. Something about him just rubbed Zoro the wrong way. They finally reached the stairs leading up to the light, and Sanji leapt out. Zoro jumped to pursue him, but suddenly was caught. Four slender, brown-skinned arms had appeared from the doorway and caught a firm hold of him. These arms were stronger than such slender arms should be. Two caught his neck while two clasped at his chest.
"Please don't kill him, Swordsman-san," said a voice. Zoro looked around, and saw a wide deck-space. In the midst of the deck, the red-headed girl stood on the far side, a mark of fear on her face. The straw-haired punk now stood calmly, and stuck his tongue out impudently. Zoro raged, but he was firmly held in place. He cast about, and saw a few others. There was a black-haired boy with a sleeveless shirt and a straw hat. There were also two others, hiding in different corners: a strange-looking young-man with a long nose, and an even stranger creature that looked like a pygmy reindeer or a tanooki, but there was definitely humanity in its eyes. "I need all of you healthy and strong," the woman said.
"And just who the hell are you?" Zoro asked.
"Oi!" the straw hat kid yelled. "You be nice to Robin-Oneechan!"
Nico Robin smiled at Monkey D. Luffy in gratitude.
"My name is Nico Robin," the woman said. "Now that you're all present, I can explain why you're here." She looked over at the long-nosed boy and the reindeer. "Come on out, you two." Robin crossed her arms and focused, then two arms popped up behind both of the people in hiding, grabbing them and forcibly shunting them out into the open. The arms holding Zoro also tossed him forward, but grabbed his swords away as they did. "First, I suppose some introductions are in order," she turned and looked at the boy with the straw hat. "Captain-san?"
"Wait," Sanji said, "This guy's a captain?"
Robin gave him a dismissive smile, "please don't interrupt."
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy!" Straw-hat said eagerly. "Robin Oneechan rescued me from a huuuuge whirlpool," (he used his arms to emphasize the vast size of the whirlpool). "Then she said I was going to be a Captain!"
Robin crossed her arms again, proclaiming "Quatre Fleur!" suddenly four arms sprouted out of Luffy's torso. Everyone in attendance gasped at the marvel.
"Coooool!" Luffy said, "I'm a spider!"
"Grab!" Robin said, and the four arms clutched Luffy's body and neck firmly. Everyone's shock deepened. "Twist!" she shouted, and suddenly she twisted Luffy's body around, a number of times. Sanji and Zoro gasped, Nami and the tanuki screamed. The long-nosed boy bolted for the other side of the deck, and returned to his hiding spot. The tan arms retracted, and Luffy's body spun around quickly, returning to its original state.
"How did you do that?" Sanji asked, shocked.
Luffy grabbed his own cheek, and stretched it out until it was over two feet in length. "I ate the gum-gum fruit," he said.
"A devil fruit user?" Nami thought. "This Nico Robin has to have that kind of power, too. What am I caught up in?"
"Luffy is going to be the Captain of our little venture," Robin said.
"Wait," Nami interjected. "What venture?"
Robin again smiled dismissively, "I'll get to that soon." She turned to Zoro, "Samurai-san?"
"Roronoa Zoro," he grunted.
"I think we know that much," Sanji scoffed.
"Bastard!" Zoro growled.
"Please, continue," Robin said.
Zoro seemed temporarily at a loss. "Uh. I'm a swordsman. I'm going to be the best in the world. Whatever it takes, I'll do it to get there."
Robin nodded pleasantly. "Navigator-san?"
Nami, still scared, looked about meekly upon the summons. "Me?" she asked cautiously.
"Yes, please," Robin replied.
"My name is Nami, I'm a thief and a navigator" she said, then her voice took on a stern tone. "And I'm not working for a bunch of damn pirates!"
"We're not pirates, Navigator-san," Robin replied?
"Huh?" Luffy cut in. "But Oneechan, I wanna be a pirate!"
"I'll explain," Robin assured them. "Long nose-kun?" The man with the long nose snuck out of his hiding place, and struck a regal pose.
"I, I am the great Usopp! I am the tyrant of the East Blue! You all are going to suffer! I have an army of 8,000 followers, and we are known for our terrifying tactics! I am the greatest inventor the East Blue has ever seen, and my ability as an inventor is surpassed only by my ability as a marksman!" He said this all very fast, and very loud.
"The first sentence was true, the second and third were lies, the fourth and fifth were mostly true," Robin amended. Usopp's jaw dropped, then his knees shook, and he stalked back into hiding. Robin turned to Sanji, who, for the first time, really took a good look at her.
"Gwah!" his jaw dropped, and his eyes watered. Once again, a rose came from wherever he had it stowed. "Hello, Madame. I am Sanji, and never before have I seen a beauty like yours,"
Nami snorted.
"I am a chef extraordinaire. Say but a word, and I shall delight you with the best of fare." He put the rose away, and stood there, entranced. "May I call you Robin-chan? Robin-chwan? Robin-chwan!" he yelled, as if testing out his newly devised pet name.
Again, Robin smiled patiently, "Just Robin, please." Robin walked across the deck and leaned down, staring down the strange pygmy reindeer at eye level. "Come on out, Doctor-san."
"Eh? Doctor?" queried Sanji, who walked around to get a closer look. Nami also wandered over to take a look.
"Ohh! A little doctor! Kawaii!" she squealed in joy. Then the little reindeer did something quite strange indeed. He slowly capered out of his hiding-spot, a joyous activity, but what spilled forth from his mouth…
"Human! Asshole! Don't try to impress me! Asshole, asshole!" It was an intense contrast, between the joy in his movements and the loathsome words coming out of his mouth. "Yeah I'm a doctor, alright? Yeah, I'm a reindeer! My name is Tony Tony Chopper, and you humans better step off! I won't have anything to do with you!"
"Look at his little hat!" Nami said, apparently oblivious to Chopper's hate-speech. "So cute!"
"Yes," Robin agreed, "very cute. Also a very able physician." Chopper's expression softened, and he blushed in spite of himself.
"So," Robin said. "Now you've been introduced to the other members of Cipher Pol 6."
"Cipher Pol 6?" Nami asked, "What's that?"
"You've been observed for a long time by government agents. Our agents have determined that, together, the 6 of you, along with me, will form a team capable of performing special missions that others could not comprehend."
"And what exactly is that?" asked Zoro.
"I am the last living descendant of the Ohara colony," Robin said, "a colony which could decipher the poneglyphs, the ancient scripts which tell the true history. The true history is a danger to our modern way of life, but only I can read it. I know the scope of the threat that the true history can pose to the world, and I have volunteered to go around the world and destroy the last remaining poneglyphs. But the poneglyphs are hidden in strange places all over the world, and I need a top team to help me."
"Wait wait wait," Sanji interrupted. "Does that mean I have to work with this marimo?"
"Oi!" Zoro countered, "You wanna go right now?"
"Yeah!" Sanji retaliated, and in an instant the two were squared off against each other, and rage was in their eyes, but then Robin's arms appeared again, restraining the two of them.
"You will, of course, be paid well. Very well," Robin continued. At this, Nami perked up. "You will also have claim of any treasures you find as we search out the poneglyphs." Nami abandoned all restraint, and shouted for joy. She ran over and hugged the older woman.
"I'll follow you, Robin Oneechan!"
Upon seeing them hugging, Sanji melted to his knees. "This must be a gift from heaven," he thought. He stood to his feet "Yesssss!" He yelled again, "I will follow Nami-swan and Robin-chwan!"
"We'll face a lot of powerful foes in our travels, too. An intense challenge of people determined to allow this heresy to exist. Great warriors determined to fight for the poneglyph."
Zoro yawned. "I guess. If it means food in my stomach and a challenge for my swords, I might as well go for it," he walked over and joined Robin, Nami, and Sanji.
"And of course, we'll have to go all over the world. A global adventure, filled with danger and glory, and that could eventually lead us as far away as Raftel, the place of One Piece." This last statement secured the affections of Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy.
"One Piece?" Luffy asked, "So I can be king of the pirates if I do this?"
"Sure," Robin said, "If you think you're up to it."
"Yosh!" Luffy said confidently, "then we'll do it!"
The other five said as one, "you don't speak for us!"
"Does that mean you won't come?" Luffy asked, making a sad face. The other five hung their heads, knowing that their reason had been overcome by their sensibilities. Despite the fact that they all had good reasons, great reasons, for turning this down, the romance, the adventure, the rich rewards, were far too compelling. They were all going to do it, but that didn't mean that they were going to be pleasant about it.
"So," asked Sanji, "am I going to have to deal with this guy every day, or what?"
"That's it!" Zoro bellowed, "I'm going to enjoy this!"
"Oi!" Usopp yelled. "There's a ship coming! Pirates!" he yelled. Again, he leapt back into the hiding space he had claimed on the corner of the deck.
"Pirates!" Chopper yelled, and suddenly morphed into a full-scale reindeer, charging around in a panic. Approaching them was a huge pirate ship which dwarfed the smaller, unmarked ship they were currently sailing on. The ship's head was a gargantuan, stylized fox, and a similar design marked the mainsail, with the word "FOXY" adorning the mainsail in appropriately huge letters. The ship pulled up next to them, and the newly-christened CP6 readied for battle.
"Ahoy there, unmarked ship!" a voice came from the pirate ship. "Prepare to be boarded!" A truly flamboyant figure leapt off the higher deck of the other ship and landed squarely on their deck. He had an unbuttoned pink long-coat which showed his chest, a none-too-flattering sight given his pear-shaped figure. He had a long nose that put Usopp's to shame, a veritable pink beak. On top of it all was the most ridiculous hairdo, split right down the middle. "I am the legendary Silver Fox, Foxy! Commander of the undefeated Foxy Pirates and Captain of the Sexy Foxy! Now, unmarked ship, meet the crew that'll defeat you!"
The crew was appropriately as strange as their Captain. First, some sort of Ape-man leapt off the craft, and declared himself. "Hamburg." He was followed by a blue-haired young woman with an impudent look on her face. "Porche." Then another ape-man, larger than the first, but with less pronounced features. "Pickles," and finally a truly alarming figure leapt off the larger ship and straight into the sea, so massive that he was able to plant both feet on the sea floor (since they were near to an island), and still stand tall, looking down at the two crews now assembled on deck. "Big Pan."
Foxy sized up his potential opponents on deck. It seemed as though the black-haired woman had some sort of air of command about her, so he approached her, jabbing a gun in her face. "I am going to challenge you and your pirate crew to the ancient and vaunted tradition of the Davy Back Fight!"
"We're not pirates," Robin said, clearly somewhat annoyed by this strange figure.
"What?" Foxy yelled in shock.
"We're not pirates," Robin affirmed. "We're with the world government."
"What?!?" Foxy's shock deepened. For a second, he pondered what to do, then he made a strange sign with his free hand (the one not holding the gun). He pointed his hand squarely at Robin, and shouted "Noro Noro Beam!" Robin reacted, but not quick enough. Her arms had begun to cross, but she was struck by a strange pink light, and suddenly froze solid. "We can't let you go running around, then," Foxy concluded. He motioned his companions, "Oi, get 'em!"
Luffy was shocked at this sudden attack. It contradicted his notions of noble pirates that he had cultivated as a youth from observing Shanks. This unprovoked attack on Robin Oneechan certainly didn't sit well with him. Not at all. Thus he reacted quickly and punitively. "Gum Gum Pistol!" he shouted, and lashed a fist out that reached around the paralyzed Robin and smacked Foxy neatly in the face. Foxy flew right off the deck and landed back on the deck of his ship.
"Oyabin!" his crewmates yelled in unison.
"You're gonna pay for that, Straw-hat!" yelled Hamburg in particular. Hamburg, however, set his sights on Usopp, who panicked and fled. Pickles set his sight on Chopper, who equally panicked. Porche pulled out a number of Shuriken that were tipped with roses, and winged a few at Luffy, who dodged out of the way. Big Pan, in a rage, started slapping the deck of the ship with his huge hands, causing everyone to bounce about as the ship rocked.
Usopp ran up the mainmast, and Hamburg stopped short. "Come on down!" he yelled, and then began shaking the mainmast.
"Oi!" Usopp yelled. "You better stop! When I'm being chased, I become a terrifying monster!"
Hamburg giggled.
"I'm serious!" Usopp yelled, "I can make you bleed just by staring at you!"
Hamburg fell into full-on laughter, clutching his sides and lying on the deck, closing his eyes in mirth. Usopp acted quickly to take advantage of this, whipping out a slingshot and firing a few packets of ketchup at Hamburg's prostrate form.
"Usopp Death Stare!" Usopp proclaimed. Hamburg briefly stopped laughing to look at himself. Then he screamed, and started running the other way. He ran past Sanji, who gave him a square kick in the rear, sending him flying back onto the deck of the Sexy Foxy. Then Sanji leapt deftly out of the way to avoid a karate chop from Big Pan which put a dent in the deck.
"Oi, Marimo," he said calmly. Zoro shot him a look as he ran around trying to retrieve his swords. "Let's take this brute down."
"Alright, Love Cook," Zoro responded. "Truce for now." Now fully equipped, Zoro stepped into position next to Sanji. They jumped out of the way of another sweeping chop from Big Pan, then leapt up towards his face. Sanji delivered a crushing kick to Big Pan's jaw, while Zoro slashed right below his eyes, and Big Pan then fell backwards, hitting the side of the Sexy Foxy as willing hands descended to try and lug his immense bulk back on board.
"Iyahh! Big Pan!" Porche shouted in dismay. "I'll get those brutes!" She reached down to her hip for more of her Shuriken, but found them all missing. Standing next to her, she found Nami, waving her pouch full of shuriken around. She stuck her tongue out impudently. "Don't think you can get away with this, bitch!" Porche growled, all pretense dropped. Then all of a sudden she was bowled over by Pickles' flying bulk. On the other side of the deck, you could see Chopper, now in full reindeer form, but with abnormally huge horns. Horn Point.
Thirty seconds now having elapsed since Foxy had used his Noro Noro Beam, Robin finally came to. She looked and saw that, true to her expectations, her new charges had performed admirably, sweeping away the bulk of their foes. She looked and saw the unconscious Porche and Pickles, then looked at Luffy, and motioned towards their forms.
"Yosh!" Luffy said, and lashed out with his arms, grabbing the two and drawing them in. He then heaved them backwards over his head, shouting "Gum Gum Catapult!" and launched them away off the ship and onto the Sexy Foxy.
"Let's get out of here!" the crew of the Sexy Foxy was heard shouting. "Get away from them! They're monsters!" The Sexy Foxy then went underway, speeding off far quicker than a ship of its size should.
"See?" Robin said happily. "You make a great team, don't you."
Sanji was standing eye-to-eye with Zoro, glaring at him. "I suppose so."
"Like I needed you to take down that giant anyway," Zoro responded.
"What's that?" Sanji said combatively.
"Yosh!" Luffy said again, and stepped between the two of them. "We'll all go with Robin Oneechan to adventure!"
"To adventure!" Usopp and Chopper shouted in unison.
"To adventure!" Nami said, with her head filled with visions of 10,000 Beli notes.
"To adventure!" Sanji then shouted, his head filled with visions of Nami's beauty.
"To adventure…" Zoro said somewhat reluctantly.
Robin looked at them all as they began to mingle, the bonds of camaraderie already beginning to form among her new nakama. She felt glad that she would have comrades, and that she would be able to observe them grow in their capabilities. It was an almost maternal feeling, and made her feel better than she had in a long time, long since she had sold her soul and the Ohara lineage out to the government. "Yes," she thought with a smile on her face, "to adventure!"
Read it? Review it please! I might have laid it on a bit thick in parts, overplaying Luffy's childishness and maybe overplaying the mother-children kind of relationship that Robin has with the other Straw Hats. Might make this a series, if there's any interest when I get around to it. Too little time in my life, and I already have an idea for a more Zoro-centric fic. Cheers.