I do not own One Piece, just love to mess with the characters in my own way.
Set shortly before emerging from the Fishman's Island, but before Punk Hazard.
English is not my native language, though I'm trying my best. Many thanks to SadEcho, native english speaker, who is patiently correcting my grammar mistakes, beta reads this story and overall helping me to further improve my writing with her accurate remarks :)
Also, thanks to and with her huge help we started to reword this story. Don't worry though, storyline won't be changed, just the way I tried to express my thoughts and ideas :)
Enjoy the reading :)
Warnings: Minor foul language
She knew, that letting Luffy steer the Sunny wasn't the best idea she could agree with, but who could forebode something like this to happen?
An impossibly blue sky reflected off the waters, gleaming with the bright sunlight that shined from above. White clouds gently floated on a breeze that slowly picked up its pace as the sun made its way across the sky. All was peaceful and the weather was looking promising for now. But Nami knew that such peace couldn't last very long, not when you were on the Grand Line and certainly not when you were a Strawhat pirate.
"Naaaamiiiiii!~"
A childish pout resonated over the deck, irritating the navigator's nerves as she reluctantly relinquished her peace."No Luffy, I said no!" She resolutely declined her captain's idea, which, like always, smelled like trouble - a big one in fact.
"But ...!" The raven-haired boy pouted while sitting down and crossing his legs.
"No buts! We just left Fishman Island! This is the New World and there needs to be an expert at the helm at all times!" Nami had tried to reason with the rubber man before, but it was pointless. For a few seconds they glared at each other before Luffy got up again and jumped right behind Franky, who currently had duty at the helm.
"Frankyyy, say something ... can I steer Sunny? Can I? Can I?"
The cyborg looked down at the enthusiastic little captain, who was looking up at him with sparks of excitement in his wide, dark brown, eyes. Looking aside to where the mikan-head was sun tanning and shooting a warning glare at him, Franky silently shook his head. "If Nami-aneki says no, than I can't say yes," the cyborg answered with an apologetic voice.
"But Frankyyyyy ..."
"What can I do to make him give up this stupid idea?" Nami sighed, looking at her captain overflowing with energy. Luffy was able to go from an absolutely exhausted sleeping state to booming right into one of extreme energy. Her captain's inhuman stamina could not be explained through any normal logic. And his stubbornness ... that was a chapter in of itself. Once he took something into his rubber head, there was no way to get it out.
"Nami-swaaaan!~"
Sanji's lovey-dovey voice reached them from the kitchen. "Can I make you some lemonade to soothe your poor nerves? Or should I kick some sense into our idiotic captain and Marimo as well?" Small pink hearts formed instead of his eyes as he begun wiggling around like a boiled noodle. The cook managed to shoot a fiery glare in the direction of the swordsman in question in-between of his wild noodling.
"'The hell, dartboard brow?" Zoro growled.
"Don't act like you don't know anything, shitty Marimo." Sanji sneered at his eternal rival. "If my beloved Nami-swan or Robin-chwan wants me to kick your ass, I will gladly oblige."
"You would gladly agree to fight even without their encouragement, ero-cook."
"Stop it, both of you!" Nami warned, the twirling of the Clima Tact in her hands was enough for both of the males to stop their argument. They reluctantly resigned themselves to only send death glares towards each other. The danger of electrocution from the enraged navigator was something that kept both of them at bay, at least for now.
Her intimidating gaze flickered over to Usopp and Chopper, both silently sitting at the railing. They were fishing, now with terrified expressions. They wisely chose to redirect their gaze elsewhere, sweating and trying to look as small and as uninterested as possible to avoid the wrath of the navigator.
"Scaryyyyy..." they both whispered towards each other, throwing a cautious glance at Nami, who had return to her deckchair again with closed eyes.
"My heart is delighted to see our dear Nami-san as energetic as ever! Yohohoho!" Brook chimed while holding his violin. "But I don't have heart! Skull joke!" His antics earned him a chuckle from Franky and Robin and smiles from rest of the crew, except Luffy, who grinned like a madman with his trademark ear-to-ear grin.
"Sanji-san?" Robin asked politely, looking at how the blonde literally jumped off the deck to rush to her side.
"Anything Robin-chwan! Do you need a massage, something sweet for a snack, or would you prefer something else?" the cook began, showering the archaeologist with offers as his nostrils flared at the thought of serving the beautiful woman.
"Coffee would be great, please," she smiled, gesturing towards her empty cup.
"In just a moment my dearest!" Sanji sang, much to Zoro's distaste, as he disappeared in the kitchen like a flash.
"He must really have lost some gear during those last two years," the swordsman said as he shook his head. It looked like Sanji had become even more obsessed with women, though the transfusion at Fishman's Island had definitely helped. At least he didn't try to nosebleed to death every time his eyes were set on Nami's chest covered only in a swimsuit top anymore…Or at least not as much.
A thundering boom suddenly resonated above the water's surface. All of the strawhats stopped what they were doing, staring out into the open sea as they searched for the mysterious noise. Were they being attacked so early on in the New World?
"Marines are right behind us!" Usopp yelled from the railing, pointing in the direction of the ships. "Why are there so many of them?!"
He was right. A fleet of four marine's vessels had appeared on the horizon behind the Sunny. They were far away enough that they couldn't shoot Sunny from that distance.
This obviously counted on the fact that Monkey D. Garp wasn't on any of the decks of the ships. Admiral Garp the Fist was far better than any existing marine cannon. Just because a pirate ship wasn't in the ship's range, didn't mean that it wasn't in his range.
"It doesn't look like they are after us," Robin stated calmly after observing quietly for a few seconds. "But what are they doing?"
It was a bit weird, but it seemed that three of the four marine ships were chasing after the one in the front. The way water geysers formed around the chased one clearly said that the marines were not against shooting down what appeared to be one of their own vessels.
"Hey, are they playing some screwed up version of tag, or what?" Sanji frowned, tearing his glare from the swordsman, who also had turned to look in that direction.
"Dodge or die maybe?" Zoro asked as his eyebrow cocked up.
"That's so cooool!" Luffy's eyes began to emit stars of awe. "Hey, how about we play that game too? It looks really fun!" he said, turning with his usual grin towards his crew.
"FORGET IT!" The yell of unison immediately filling the poor captain's eardrums.
"It sounds interesting but ..." Brook rubbed at his boney chin with a skeletal finger. "Yohohohoooo ... I'm already dead!" He announced with something that could be translated as a wide grin considering his skull face. "Skull joke!"
"STOP ENCOURAGING HIM!" Most of the crew roared out at the unfortunate skeleton.
"It's bad enough that Luffy's still enforcing his stupid idea about steering!" Nami added in irritation. The navigator checked the Log Pose for about the hundredth time in the last half hour. She had learned the hard way that this particular kind of navigation instrument had to be checked on regularly. "Still on course," she exhaled with relief as she mentally wiped her forehead.
"I hope those guys are okay ..." Chopper sighed. His compassion towards his enemies, those that did not immediately endanger his life, or the life of his nakama, had not changed at all. "I mean, why would marines be shooting at their own people?"
"Maybe someone kidnapped it?" Robin offered.
"Who would be stupid enough to steal a marine battleship?" Nami shook her head, and her look fell on Luffy, who was jumping on the railing and loudly encouraging the escaping ship. "Oh yeah ... I know one idiot stupid enough..." She face-palmed herself mentally, "... but he's currently with us."
"The Grand Line is big and wide," the dark haired archeologist said with a knowing smile. "From time to time, newspapers spread articles about 'mysterious kidnapping and returning of marine battleships'. But because they never clearly stated who was responsible for such acts, most people chose to believe that it was meant as a joke for the readers. Something to lighten them up from the chaos the world had fallen into after the Marineford war."
"I don't think the world has the ability to contain any more crazy idiots like him," Nami uttered as she looked at her captain with disbelief.
"That reminds me of when I was younger ..." Usopp said, taking his chance, and pointed to himself with a thumb "I used to capture marine vessels pretty often since they had gone and sank my own ship down." Nodding with his head and pointing his long nose towards the sky, Usopp added, "It was really dangerous, I say to you, but they were never able to catch me!"
"Reallyyyyy?!" Chopper and Luffy asked as they stared at sniper with awe. "That's fantastic, Usopp! What happened after?"
"They didn't stand a chance against Captain Usopp, the brave warrior of the sea!"
"They really have not changed at all." Robin stated, looking at the lawn deck where Zoro and Sanji fluently continued their never ending match. Chopper and Usopp ran around them replaying the recent event, followed by matching music played by Brook.
"Not that I expected them to change at all." Nami sighed, but smiled afterwards. "I guess it wouldn't be as much fun anymore if they did."
"But certainly it would be less stressful."
"Eh ... can't disagree with that."
It didn't even look like they had ever been separated for two long years. Sure, their exterior had changed, most of them had physically matured, but the same couldn't exactly be said when it came to their attitudes or personalities. It was like any other day back then; loud, joyous, pleasant ... mostly loud. Nami certainly couldn't believe that back then Luffy could be even louder (and eat even more) than two years ago. After Ace's death she had noticed a subtle change in her captain. But her thoughts were stopped as she smiled at Luffy's misfortune when he stumbled over Zoro and ruined his and Sanji's fight which immediately lead to a game of "Run or Die". Run before an enraged Zoro or Sanji caught you, or you would become dead meat served for tonight's dinner.
"Looks like they are flying a white flag," Franky noted. "It doesn't look like that fourth did any damage to them."
"The whole situation over there is just ridiculous. Marines fighting marines? Pff…" Nami shook her head, trying to grasp the fact.
"Ridiculous or not, maybe it's some kind of habit in the New World?" Franky mused, ducking as Luffy's rubber body flew over his head to bounce against wall like balloon; followed by his stretched out arm, still holding his straw hat, which didn't had a proper speed to match the flying captain. "But its super funny to watch!" the cyborg grinned, striking his usual pose.
"Cut it out you IDIOTS!" Three sure hits grounded the monster trio into the lawn as Nami's nerves finally snapped. "If you want to play football with Luffy, wait until we arrive at some island, unless you want to destroy the Sunny before we even get anywhere!?"
"Hai Nami-swaaaaan!" Sanji exclaimed, earning him another jab to the ribs from Zoro before he disappeared to the kitchen. It was high time to begin preparing lunch.
"Scaryyyy..." Usopp, Brook and Chopper voiced as they immediately hid behind Franky. Nami's death-promising glare slid past them. Robin's laughing chimed through the air as she watched the whole scenery. Even Franky's defensive expression and stance was simply priceless.
Nami's fury didn't last long as she looked at the huge, dangerous looking, cyborg that apologetically held up his massive arms while trying to be as small as possible. When the corners of her mouth began to twitch it was a certain sign of safe ground for the Strawhat's men. After the situation finally calmed down, all of the crews familiar antics lead up to a load of laughter from everyone, so loud that even the Sunny began to tremble as if it too were smiling.
Everyone felt it the same way. Even after two years, none of them had really changed.
"Dammit, Luffy!" Sanji pushed with his foot again in a desperate attempt to restrain the captain from entering the kitchen and eating the whole lunch alone, which turned out to be much harder than he had anticipated. "Let go or I'll really let you starve to death this time!"
"But I'm huuungryyyy..." Luffy's pleading voice, muffled by the shoe in his face, managed to soften Sanji's heart a little. Who had the heart to resist those two big, dark, puppy-like eyes?
Maybe someone who didn't know the scale of the captain's appetite, but definitely not Sanji… Especially not this Sanji, who had a whole year's worth of experience from a certain bottomless stomach.
"Like hell!" A prompt kick sent the boy flying across the desk.
"Nami-swaaaan, Robin-cwhaaaan!" the cook cried out, dancing across the lawn deck over to the two ladies. "Lunch is ready for you! ~"
"Thanks Sanji." Nami replied, flicking his shoulder in thanks with a scheming smile before she headed together with a subtly smiling Robin into the kitchen. The cook looked after them for just a few seconds as they disappeared inside the ship. Then turning his glare towards the rest of the crew, he proceeded to light his cigarette.
"Hey! Get your asses down there, lunch is ready!"
It had an instant effect on the crew. Looking like flashes, they literally dropped whatever had been in their hands and what they were doing. They sprinted towards the kitchen at the highest speed possible, almost leaving burning trails behind them. A little brawl in the door was nothing new, since they had been designed to contain only one person at once and not almost the entire Straw Hat crew's hungry pack of necks. Maybe Franky should consider redesigning them a wider version. Sanji's gaze wandered to a hunched body on the deck.
"Oi, Marimo." He poked the sleeping swordsman with the tip of his foot. "Did you expect an extra invitation or are you just doing charity on behalf of our shitty bottomless captain's stomach?"
"Aye aye..." Zoro yawned, cracking his good eye open as he was disturbed from his nap that he usually took before lunch. "Slightly early today, love cook."
"If you're gonna' complain, I can kick your shitty ass instead of feeding you."
"Like you even stand a chance."
"Okay, whatever." Sanji turned on his heel, slowly walking towards the kitchen. "Luffy will surely find a good use for your food."
"Don't even think about it, curly brow!"
The chilling air at Sanji's back warned him before his body was slashed in two by a pissed off swordsman. Stopping his blade with a well-aimed counter kick, Sanji just smirked at Zoro. "Then get your ass to the kitchen. I'm afraid I'm not responsible for guarding your food."
That was Sanji's win when Zoro sheathed his sword while sprinting inside the ship. But they both knew that Sanji would rather die than let anyone starve, but it was just the game they liked to play together. After all, it was like ritual that had developed between them. And to be honest, they didn't really felt comfortable without their consistent sneering and fighting, although both of them would never admit that out loud. Maybe a little change, some fresh wind, would be nice to spice it up.
"Can I? Can I? Can I?"
Here we go again. It was bad enough that Luffy sounded like broken gramophone record, but his stamina was beyond imaginable. She should have known better than to believe that their captain would have let that idea go so easily.
"Okay, okay!"
Nami finally gave up, not wanting to spend the rest of the day with a pounding migraine and the rubber man behind her back every time she moved. "But only as long as nothing changes! And someone will be at the helm with you at all times!"
"Yayyyyy!"
That overly loud exclamation of joy, bursting from her captain, made Nami grimace. Although everyone was a bit sleepy after such a good lunch, there was still one being who just couldn't sit calmly and rest like everyone else.
"Franky, can I ask you to keep an eye on him?" Nami inquired as she turned towards the cyborg that shot her a thumb up in response.
"Don't worry, I'll make SUPER sure, he won't do anything stupid!" The robotic man grinned, striking his usual pose as Luffy bounced behind the helm to firmly grab the steering wheel.
"Why doesn't that make me feel any more at ease?" Nami muttered to herself as she watched both men discussing about how to steer the ship in the best way.
"A fruity drink just for you my ladies ..." Sanji chimed, as he appeared out of nowhere with a perfectly chilled, appealing drink, just behind Robin and Nami "Great as the dot behind lunch and cooked with pure love!"
"You are so considerate, Sanji!" Nami smiled, not forgetting to throw a bit of sugar in her words as she took the refreshing glass from the platter. "Thanks a lot!"
"Thank you, Sanji-san." Robin sipped from her glass, enjoying the rich taste of different fruits on her tongue, before returning to her book.
"Anything my lovely ladies! For you, I would go to the end of the world!" The cook noodled around the deck chairs, ignoring the annoyed glare from Zoro.
As the swordsman climbed up to his gym, the flapping of wings from some kind of bird, which had landed on the upper yard of the rear mast, caught Zoro's attention. But it wasn't too unusual. Sometimes, seagulls followed their ship, given the fact they were smart enough to realize, that with Luffy, Usopp and Chopper on board, they didn't even need to move an inch to get food. But this particular bird was alone and didn't look like seagull at all.
Briefly the green haired swordsman yawned and blinked, only to open his eyes and see that the bird was nowhere to seen.
"I must be seeing things ..." he thought as he scratched his head before disappearing through the trapdoor.
Such a good lunch took its toll on everyone. After the commotion at Fishman's island it was almost a physical need to lie down for a while and get some rest. While Zoro "took watch" at the crow's nest, Usopp decided to lock himself in his factory to make more of his special ammo. Chopper fell asleep in his beloved spinning chair in his office and Robin went and dug herself into the library under the Sunny's deck, trying to find a particular book she has been interested in, which appeared to be task that was harder than it looked. Sanji began to scrub off dirty plates and pots, which takes him some time, and Nami had decided to take a bath. From the time Franky had built the Sunny and to when she had discovered the luxurious bathroom, she divided her time equally between drawing the maps, sun tanning on the deck and bathing in thick foam. Through all those activities, she never forgot to regularly check the Log Pose for whether the ship was staying on the course or not.
The slow and sweet melody of Brook's violin playing from speakers lulled even Franky, who had been resting with his back against the railing near helm, to a comfortable sleep. Though Franky didn't really wanted to violate Nami's orders, he decided that a bit of sleep (and bit more freedom for Luffy), wouldn't hurt anyone. Franky had already taught him how to check a Log Pose near the helm and some basic facts about steering. And in case something did happened, Luffy could immediately wake the cyborg up.
For now, Luffy decided to enjoy his new important role in the routine aboard the ship that he deliberately took upon himself. What the rubber man didn't count on was a sudden gust of wind from behind that knocked his precious straw hat from his head and gradually brought it to the sky as it was caught in rising wind current. While perfectly aware of the sleeping Franky, who he didn't wanted to wake up yet, Luffy stifled a yell in his throat and instead, immediately shooting out his rubber hand to catch disobedient headpiece. Before his fingers grasped the brim, something dropped from the sky like stone directly onto his hat, grabbing it firmly in black claws. With a fast, graceful, spiral it avoided his hand and rose to the sky again. Now the captain was looking up at his treasure, which suddenly had two gray wings, as it flew away.
"Give that back you damned bird!" he hissed angrily at such a mean action. Warily, in afterthought, he turned his head towards the still sleeping cyborg; who was lightly snoring in his nap. Eyeing the escaping hat and its thief, he locked the helm. He had seen Franky do this many times before.
Firmly he grabbed the railing and shot himself out to the sky with Gomu-Gomu no Rocket to pursue his prized possession. All while the Sunny was slowly gaining speed thanks to amplifying wind to the back.
It was like the bird was taunting Luffy, who tried to catch him in midair, successfully dodging every attempt of rubber captain. Though Luffy had gotten decent speed at first, gravity was merciless, and slowly but surely, he began to drop down according to the ballistic curve. Too late Luffy realized his mistake. He was about to successfully land in the open sea when he spotted a rather little boat on the high waves. If he could manage to land on it he would be lucky.
Just enough to irritate the pissed off rubber man, the falcon decided to fly before him for a few mocking seconds, wiggling the hat just out of Luffy's reach, before it swiftly headed back into the sky again.
"Aaaaargh!" The frustrated yell ripped the comfortable silence of sea apart abruptly. Luffy flew through the air, aiming right for the small boat.
The redhead inhabitant of the vessel yelped in shock, managing to duck just in time not to be knocked over the side by the flying torso, which overflew the boat and ungracefully landed into the waves in geyser, splashing the redhead from head to toe. "The hell was just that? " The redheaded pirate scratched at his head, looking up to the plain sky. Still rather confused, the redhead frowned when the small bubbles stopped appearing on water's surface. No one had appeared above the water.
"Stupid devil fruit's users," the pirate assumed grumpily. "I can't just let him drown dammit ... Well, I'm drenched anyway so it won't make that much of a difference in the end." The redhead sighed self consolingly before jumping straight into the rising waves. The wind had been picking up for some time now.
It took just seconds for the experienced swimmer to find the drowning, limp body, slowly sinking towards the deep sea bed. Then, without wasting any more time, two strong arms dug through the watery mass and propelled its owner deeper down into the churning waves. After a few moments the redhead had reached down far enough to stop Luffy from submerging further. With a firm grasp at the unbuttoned red shirt, the redhead kicked at the water, propelling the both of them back to the surface.
With a gasp, both of them emerged back to the world full of air. The dark redhead began to look out for the ship. Even with furled sails, it had managed to move on the water surface thanks to the power of the waves.
Folding Luffy's arms around the redhead's neck, the latter adjusted the powerless body till it rested against their back. Maintaining a steady speed, they began to make their way towards the rocking boat.
Finally, they reached the vessel. The redhead unceremoniously threw Luffy on board, tightly gripping the side when a wave splashed over them again. But as soon as the wave subsided, all of that red hair literally stood up in shock when the huge hull of another ship suddenly appeared right behind the side of the boat; which inconveniently stood just in the larger vessel's way.
"What a great bath ..." Nami hummed in satisfaction as she walked out from bathroom. Checking the Log Pose on her wrist, she slightly frowned, realizing they had gotten a bit off course ... but luckily not too much. Nothing that couldn't be fixed. Although the wind was still picking up speed, causing the Sunny to sway on the surface even more, she didn't hear anything that could have been described as commotion, brawl, or disaster. While she could, Nami let her ears savor the comfortable, rare, silence. But her instincts were telling her that the weather will change to be rougher, though she still had some time before that happened.
"Silence... wait." Nami's train of thought abruptly stopped when she realized the situation. Every time there was silence on board of Sunny it meant that a storm was nearby and it was not just a whim of the weather. Silence and Luffy just went along as well as Luffy and sea.
As if to confirm her sense of foreboding, the Sunny suddenly shook and disgusting cracking sounds alarmed the whole crew. It was better to not think about what kind of horrors could have happened to their ship. Nami darted towards the deck.
"What happened?" Chopper asked her. He was seriously worried and maybe still a bit scared when she had almost tackled him. "Is everyone all right?"
"I don't know!" From the deck she could already hear alarmed voices of the other Straw Hats. "Franky! What happened?!" She hurriedly barked at the cyborg, who had been holding the helm. "Where is Luffy?"
"What's happening?" Usopp's surprisingly scratchy voice hollered from the underbelly as he sprinted to the deck. He was burned to a smoldering, blackened crisp. The impact had probably set off an explosion or something that he was mixing in his factory.
"I don't know! When I woke up he was nowhere to be seen," Franky apologized, securing the Sunny.
"You fell asleep? Didn't I tell you that you need to keep an eye on him?" Nami was freaking out, jumping slightly backwards to move out of the way of the little doctor who had been running around asking everyone separately if they were all right and assuring himself that no one needed medical attention.
"But that lunch was so SUPER tasty and Brook's melody was so SUPER calming ..." Franky began to explain, but was been interrupted by a cheerful, almost too characteristic, giggle.
"Yohohoho! I'm glad that you liked it! It's my new piece called the Lulling Sea!" Brook proudly stated.
Upon realizing that their ship was not currently under attack, the emotions slowly calmed down.
"He must have gotten bored and went to find other fun." Nami smacked her forehead for foolishly thinking that Luffy would have a longer attention span. How long were they sailing without any actual guidance?
"By the way, what was that cracking sound?"Sanji pointed out, lighting the cigarette as he hurried from the kitchen. "It was like we hit something ..."
"I took a look at the underbelly, but it doesn't look like the hull was damaged," Robin said as she appeared while holding her forehead.
"Robin! Are you all right?!" Chopper freaked out, smelling a bit of blood from archaeologist.
"It's okay, Chopper-kun, I was hit by a falling book. Half of the library fell out of its shelves upon the impact."
"If I ever discover what kind of shitty asshole is responsible for this ..." Sanji chewed the cigarette, snarling his threats around it. Damaging the ladies of strawhats in any way was just clearly asking for a long and painful death.
"Oi, where is Luffy?" Zoro asked, frowning. He had just ended his brief search through the usual favorite hiding spots of Luffy, but despite the lack of the rubbery captain, he still could sense his presence.
"It looks like we ran over some kind of boat," Franky announced, looking at the wreck, now encased in something that looked like a rubber bag with a mast proudly sticking out. Most of all, it reminded him some kind of weird lollipop floating on the water upside down.
"What do you mean, we ran over a boat? We are in the open sea of the Grand Line! There's no way there would be a simple small boat out here!" Nami tried to reason with Franky, who stood on his ground. "It would have sunk during the first small storm out here!"
"But it doesn't look like boat at all!" Usopp added while pointing at the weird item.
Sure, in its present state it did not even look like a boat or ship at all.
"That doesn't necessarily have to be true," Zoro grunted in a dark tone. "Remember what happened at the Baratie." Apparently, memories associated with the event didn't belong to the merriest ones the swordsman had.
"My dear shitty Marimo, let me tell you that Hawkeye is a bit of an extreme case, or on a completely different scale so to speak," Sanji answered with a smug tone and matching smirk.
"And what's makes you so sure that he's the only one capable of such a thing?"
"We are on the Grand Line, after all," Robin repeated with her same words from not so long ago along with her usual cryptic smile. She sat calmly as Chopper ran around her, nursing her bump.
"Yohohoho! But I don't see anyone around or inside! ...Although I don't have any eyes!" Brook never failed to disappoint, even in a situation like this. "Maybe it was just an old wreck?"
"This all sounds a bit crazy." Nami looked worried. She didn't really like how the situation was beginning to develop.
"Whew, that was close." An unfamiliar, slightly raspy voice came from behind. The disturbed strawhats, musing about the identity of mysterious boat, turned all eight of their heads to immediately snap towards the source of sound, which was squatting on top of the railing and dripping wet with salt water, looking like some parody of a sea nix. The redhead was staring down the same direction as them.
"I hope you have a good reason for this, otherwise I'll have to add it into my list of one of the most original ways of asking for a game round," the redhead said with a hint of negligence, but also with a bit of an irritated undertone.
Violently the redhead shook its red locks, sending tiny droplets of water everywhere in the near vicinity until the shorter hairs on the top were wildly sticking out at all sides, creating first-class frizz. The thick braid of hair hanging over the right shoulder was still dripping wet as well as the fringe, clinging onto and covering half of the face. Both sections of hair were heavily soaked with salt water. But it wasn't the tattered and shredded edges of faded, black loose trousers, reaching almost down to the bare ankles and feet and secured with a green sash around the hips. Nor was it the halfway unbuttoned shirt of the same color with graying bandages, tied around the chest underneath it. Neither was it the green scarf that was tied tightly around the neck under the collar, nor a large red faded piece of cloth casually hanging from the right forearm. Not even both of the swords the intruder held in their right hand with their sageos draped around the wrist.
Only the limp body, resting over the back of the slightly irritated and uninvited guest, which just let out loud groan acquired the attention of strawhats.
Illustration: Uninvited Guest ( jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/I-hope-you-had-a-good-reason-for-this-36531667 1?q=gallery%3Ajittuse&qo=0 )
(Because one picture will say more than a thousand words ... ;) Sorry for the inconvenience with link, don't know yet how to paste it there in smarter manner)
Uff. When I began to write, I thought about 2k words per chapter will be standard count, but after barely writing the first chapter, it looks like I need to reconsider that. :D
I hope you will enjoy this story, though I prefer to call it "author's verbal diarrhea" given the fact how it's rising out of pen, and will be gentle with me, since it's my first attempt to write something in English which is not my native language.
Also it's my first attempt ever to write something from the One Piece universe.
Constructive critique and advices are welcomed anytime :)
Thanks a lot
Jitt