Hello again.
Disclaimer from Chapter 1 still remains.
xxOchibixx : I changed it so that it is just ZoroxOCxAce, as Law won't really show up since she won't have much of an impact on him. As you can tell, Ace will show up much MUCH later.
Please do enjoy this chapter.
- Ran
The seabreeze caressed the bluenette's pale skin, her eyes closing as she took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. After Sanji's tearful departure, they were sailing to where Nami was. She didn't care much on what happens to her, but if she was Luffy's navigator then surely she's important to him.
Right? Right.
She looked over at Yosaku, who was.. Bawling his eyes out?
Her hair swayed in the wind as Luffy sat criss-crossed on the bowsprit, her umbrella open and over her head. Sanji's usual cigarette was lit and in his mouth as he and Luffy stared blankly at the bounty hunter.
"How long will you be crying?" Luffy spoke up through Yosaku's loud snivelling. "You should be happy."
"But I'm very touched from departing from those chefs!" He cried out, wiping at his tears streaming down his face. Rei turned away, her nose scrunched slightly as she had saw snot coming out of Yosaku's nose. Disgusting. She thought, not wanting to be rude as to say it out loud. There were times when she would voice out her opinions; this obviously shouldn't be one of those times.
"I thought you should have been through these kinds of situations many times." The cook was simply ignored as Luffy leaned back, stretching his arms out towards the sky.
"I want Nami to get back to us soon, so we can go to the Grand Line." He declared, finishing his stretching as he adjusted his straw hat. Rei stood in between Sanji and Luffy as she quietly listened to the waves breaking. The ship was tiny, she noted. But it is getting them to where they need to go. Hopefully Luffy has a much larger ship, yes?
"Why do you look so happy? Even if Nami came back to join us, are you sure that you want to go to the Grand Line with only 5 people?" Sanji pointed out, taking a drag of his cigarette. The female glanced between the two, her eyes finally landing on Luffy as her silky voice was heard by all three men.
"You'll be in doom because of your underestimation." The blonde sat up a bit as he stared up at Rei, multiple questions running through his head. Luffy had already introduced her to him as 'Sea-Hime'. If that was her title, would that mean that she had actually traveled the seas?
Does she know where All Blue is?
"I'll gather more people in Grand Line because it's a paradise." Luffy finalized, a large grin on his face. Sanji turned his attention back to the captain, raising an eyebrow.
"Isn't it also a pirate graveyard?" As if the grin on Luffy's face couldn't get any wider, it surprisingly did.
"Before departure, Honor told me that some people called the Grand Line a paradise."
"Old man said that? For me, everything's okay as long as Nami and Sea-Hime are with me." Sanji glanced away as he had a lecherous look on his face, the smoke from his cigarette puffing out into little heart shapes. Rei simply gave him a small smile. She didn't mind Sanji's antics as nothing really bothered her. Besides, it could be entertaining to watch him get rejected. Yosaku turned around, his tears long dried out as he glared at Luffy.
"I think you are dreaming, Luffy!" He yelled out. "You know too little about the Grand Line, and this time, if Zoro knew about that place, maybe he'll come back with me." He slammed a hand down on his knee, as if empathizing his opinion. "The place where Nami is heading to is a very dangerous place. You should understand this!"
Sanji stood up in the middle of his banter, dusting himself off as he asked Luffy and Rei if they wanted to eat. Luffy replied with a very loud "YES!" while Rei opted with a nod, requesting tea. Yosaku comically teared up, turning his head away from them as he exclaimed "DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME AT ALL?!". The bounty hunter's head snapped back towards the three, one finger held up in front of him.
"You should know something about the place that we are heading to from now on." Sanji sat back down, sighting as he stared at Yosaku with no interest whatsoever. Yosaku was even lucky for him and Luffy to be listening at a time like this. As for Rei, he assumed that she knew most of the information he's telling them.
"First, about the Grand Line. The reason that Grand Line was called a pirate graveyard is because that Grand Line consists of three main factors. One of those factors is-"
"The Shichibukai." Rei cut him off, her hair swaying in the breeze. Sanji glanced at Rei's visible back, his eyes widening slightly. On her back was a large tattoo of a Jolly Roger. It looked like an ordinary skull and crossbones, but there was more to it. It looked as if there was.. Before Sanji could finish looking at it, the breeze had died down, Rei's hair covering it once more. Yosaku stared at Rei, his eyes widening slightly.
"Y-you know about the Shichibukai?!" The bluenette nodded slowly, diving right into explanations.
"Seven people who have become 'legal', that is to say, the right to become a pirate. They only invade barbarian civilizations and give some of the commission to the Government. You told me about someone named Mihawk, yes?" Luffy gave her a quick nod in response. "He would be one of them." Rei smiled just a bit as Luffy began yelling out about how cool the Shichibukai were, for them to have great power and such.
"The real problem is one of those seven pirates." Yosaku's head was hung down low, his fingers interlacing with one another as he leaned forward, propping his elbows on his legs. "Jinbe, the captain of the Mermaid Pirates."
The rubber man crossed his arms as he blatantly said that he's never seen a mermaid. Sanji closed his eyes, his thumb and pointer finger under his chin in a thoughtful expression. Heart shaped puffs of smoke began floating from his cigarette once again.
"Speaking of mermaid, the Mermaid Island in Grand Line must be very famous, right? I think there'll be many beautiful mermaids living in that place."
"Jinbe left some monsters in the East Blue Sea in exchange for becomeing one of the Shichibukai." Yosaku continued in a serious manner. Rei glanced over at Luffy to see him furiously scribbling in a notepad with his tongue sticking out a bit from the corner of his mouth. He set down the marker, flipping it over to present his work; a fish with what seemed to be..
..Are those four legs?
Sanji ended up pointing and laughing and the scribbling as Rei covered her mouth with her hand, giggling into it.
"Didn't it look like this?"
"That's a fish, not a mermaid!"
"WON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION?" Yosaku barked out, immediately grabbing attention as Luffy put down the pad and marker.
For now.
The bounty hunter sighed, crossing his legs. "Okay. I won't talk about the history anymore. The place where we are heading is called "Arlong Park". Arlong is a Mermaid Pirate who is as strong as Jinbe, one of the Shichibukai." Rei's eyes narrowed, the name 'Arlong' ringing in her head as if it was someone that she knew before all of this transpired.
"That place is under the control of Arlong. Talking about his strength, Don Creek will just be history!"
"That's why you're coming back, right?" Sanji asked, lifting an open hand. "But how do you know that Nami's going to go there?"
"Our idea is based on the direction she headed to and the things that we've observed." Yosaku replied, having a short flashback of when him and Jonny were asking Nami what she was thinking about. "Nami always looked at that wanted list with the picture of Arlong after I told her that Arlong began his invasion again. Then she took the ship and the treasures." He grumbled out at the end. "There must be something to do with Arlong.."
"How about this picture?" Luffy asked Sanji, holding up the pad again to show that this time, he drew an upright fish with arms and legs. The cook raised an eyebrow to this.
"Isn't that the same fish with legs?" Rei mumbled, perplexed by Luffy's personality. Sanji's cheeks took on a tint of pink as the heart shaped smoke puffs began their encore appearance.
"Maybe Nami has some business to do with those mermaids. Or maybe she is a mermaid."
"What did you say?" Luffy asked another question, still holding up the notepad. The only difference from the current one and the one he drew a few seconds ago was that it now had long hair and crudely drawn eyelashes. Was that supposed to be Nami?
"STOP MAKING ME MAD!" The blonde bellowed out, Rei simply sighing while shaking her head. It was very hard to hide plenty of smiles around them. She could see why Shanks gave the kid his hat.
"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT WHAT I'VE JUST SAID?"
"You wanted to tell us those mermaids are very strong, right?"
"NO! IT SEEMS THAT YOU DON'T GET THE POINT! THOSE MERMAIDS ARE VERY VERY STRONG!"
"We will see about that after we arrive there."
"Yes, don't you worry, Yosaku. Plus, we have Sea-Hime with us!"
"MY STORY DIDN'T TEACH YOU ANYTHING?!"
Sanji stood up, placing his hands on his hips as he asked Luffy's favorite question, "What do you want to eat?"
"ROAST BEEF!"
"I WANT FRIED BEANS!"
"I'll be fine with some tea."
As soon as Rei finished her tea, she told the three of them that she needed to use the restroom. Complying with her wishes, they moved out of the way of her path; the boat just seemed too small. In actuality, she just really wanted off of this boat. As she left the room, she took a small peek behind her; Luffy and Yosaku were in an argument about how Luffy stole his fried beans, while Sanji was nonchalantly eating his food far away from Luffy. She quietly shut the door, walking towards the very edge of the stern. She stood up on the wood railing, her eyes closed as the breeze moved her hair ever so slightly, enough to fully show the Jolly Roger tattooed on her back.
Skull and crossbones with a mustache.
Rei closed her umbrella, turning around so her back faced the water.
With that, she simply fell backwards, diving right into the deep blue sea.
Over at Arlong Park, Zoro was resting on a recliner chair, legs crossed with his hands behind his head.
"She told me to escape, but my goal is here." He grumbled out, ignoring the fact that there were a couple of knocked out merman near him with plenty of bruises that'll last for days. "I promised Luffy that I would bring her back. What the hell, this is so complicated.."
The pool in front of him that he bravely dived into began bubbling, as if something was breathing underwater. He quickly sat up, hands ready to slice up whatever enemy showed up. He faltered slightly, seeing a girl rising up from the water. The girl had long blue hair that ended at her waist, and a white dress on with an open umbrella in her hands that was perched on her shoulder, effectively shading her from the sun. Her outfit was clearly soaking wet, as he tried not to let his stare linger for too long. She had a mysterious smile on her face as she began walking towards him, the clicking sound of her high heeled boots against concrete echoing slightly.
"Who are you?" Zoro questioned, to which the female tilted her head to the side a bit.
"I'm an acquaintance of Luffy. Pleasure to meet you, Roronoa Zoro." His eyes narrowed, clearly not believing her at all. "Believe me or not, I'm only here to observe."
"Observe?" She merely nodded, turning her head to his left as she raised her eyebrows. The sound of a trumpet blared as Zoro looked towards the same direction, glancing downwards. He noticed an octopus man holding up a large skewer with a very round and fat roasted boar on the end of it. "Are you the one that blew the trumpet?" The octopus jumped slightly, startled as he looked up to see Zoro.
"Ah! Who are you? Me? I am Ha-chan. You can call me Hachi." Zoro rested his arms on the edge.
"You're a merman, too?"
"As you can see, I am a merman octopus." He wiggled his extra arms around as to make sure the green-haired man fully understood what he was talking about. "You are both human, right? Are you Marines or guests?" The swordsman squinted his eyes slightly, having to pick the right answer. Hopefully the right one.
"We're guests." The female spoke, a soft smile on her features. Well, one little white lie won't hurt them.
"But Arlong-san is not here." Hachi spoke, his arms moving about.
"No, he's not. Do you know where he is?" Zoro asked, mildly interested. Hachi had three of his arms in front of him, each of them holding up one finger.
"I heard that there is one stranger with a long nose who went to the village. We've already captured one guy, and now Arlong-san is trying to find the other one in Kokoyashi Village."
"How do you get to that village?" A giant clay pot came out from the sea, Hachi nonchalantly pointing to it.
"Jump in! You are guests. I will take you there." Zoro looked over at the female, only to see her smile at him and jump down towards Hachi. He mentally shrugged, following right behind her as they both hopped in. The swordsman grunted slightly, the woman's back pressing up against his chest. It didn't help that she smelled of seawater.
"Tight, is it not?" The female questioned, chuckling slightly. Zoro merely glared at her.
"You still haven't told me who you are." She hummed before turning slightly, her eyes glancing up towards him.
"Sea-Hime."
After the introduction, the smell of seawater was gone and replaced with the faint scent of vanilla and coconut.
