The girl froze, hand raised to finish whatever she was writing. She watched in horror as the three men raced toward her, one surrounded by fire, one cursing some idiot, and another shrieking about meat. Without another hesitation she dropped the pen and scurried for the edge of the ship. But Sanji was gaining fast, his legs fueled by the fire of love. He pumped his arms, nostrils flaring and fire burning even brighter. Mere feet separated them, quickly becoming mere inches. She hauled herself up on the railing of the ship as he reached for her, ready to yank back her hood. With a graceful arch of her back and a powerful spring of her legs, the stranger dove off the ship and into the dark waters below.
Sanji roared as he smacked stomach first into the railing, unable to stop in such a short distance. He leaned over the side, searching for the culprit in the calm waves. All he saw was a small circle of bubbles. Then green scales covered his vision. He watched the scales climb higher and higher into the sky, barely noticing Zoro and Luffy hitting the railing alongside him. His mouth hung open, cigarette dangling from his lips, as the sea king glared at his prey. Peeling back scaly lips, he roared. Spittle splattered across the crew, extinguishing Sanji's cigarette. The wind caused them to rock back on their heels and Luffy had to squeeze his hat on his head to keep it from flying away. The roar went on for a full minute until, finally, the sea king closed his mouth with a snap of teeth, looking rather pleased with himself. Zoro flicked away a string of saliva with a disgusted twist of his wrist.
"What do you think, you stupid chef. You think you can make a meal out of him?"
Sanji lit a new cigarette and took a deep drag.
"A bit small but he'll do for a light snack."
Luffy grinned wickedly, eyes gleaming.
"Breakfast…"
The sea king's eyes widened in what seemed like surprise and worry. Behind him, a blue scaly head bobbed out of the ocean, a small figure sitting, drenched, between his eyes. The green sea king glared at the three men one more time in challenge before turning and joining his brother, who was swimming as quickly as he could toward the western side of the island.
"She's getting away! With my breakfast in her belly!" Luffy squinted his eyes, watching them recede into the distance. "Wake up everybody! We're going after her!"
Sanji took another deep breath. "I couldn't agree with you more. I might not hit women but that doesn't mean she won't pay for harming my loving Robin's property." He looked up as the sun began to break across the eastern horizon, streaking the sky in slightly lighter shades of blue. "But she will most likely still be there when its morning so we can just wait until then."
"My meat!" The captain whimpered, eyes watering and nose running. Sanji patted him on the head before heading toward the kitchen. He might as well make breakfast now. The only way to shut up his childish captain was to get some food into him. Plus, Nami and Robin would be awake soon and he couldn't wait to see their beautiful faces as they sip the morning tea he had prepared especially for them. He left the deck floating on a giant pink heart. Zoro rolled his good eye and left his captain glaring out into the ocean in search for his meat thief. Yawning, he decided to catch a bit more sleep before following his captain on what was sure to be a crazy 'adventure.'
Passing Chopper on the way back down to their room, he hesitated at the trembling doctor's side. The reindeer hadn't moved from his spot clinging to the door in his backwards way of peeking. The swordsman hunkered down and looked, truly looked, at his furry friend. The doctor was frozen, except for massive amounts of random tremors running from the tip of his antlers to the tips of his hooves. His eyes were round and unseeing, staring out into the space where the stranger had once stood. He made no sound, just stood slack-jawed in the doorway.
"Hey, Chopper. Are you ok?" Zorro reached out a callused hand and placed it on Choppers shuddering shoulder.
The doctor shrieked like a little girl. Or a frightened animal. He swung his hooves around in tiny karate moves, trying to fend of attacks while squeezing his eyes shut. Zoro raised his hands in surrender.
"Hey! Chopper! It's me! Zoro!"
It took a few minutes for that to sink in. Chopper stopped with his hooves blocking his face before peeking open one eye.
"Z-Zoro?"
"Yeah. It's me. Haven't seen you that spooked since Luffy tried to eat you a while back."
Chopper fiddled with his hooves, still clearly shaken.
"Sorry, it's just… that girl…" He stuttered nervously. Zoro waited patiently, hands resting casually on his knees. "That girl didn't smell right. She smelt like a human but like an animal too… like a predator. I guess…" More hoof twisting. "I guess my reindeer instincts took over and I just froze."
Zoro smiled slightly before patting the reindeer on the back. "Don't worry. She had two big sea kings with her. You must have smelled those instead. No big deal." Chopper nodded but Zoro was already strolling back to the heart of the ship. He was still nodding when Zoro was completely out of view.
He had agreed with Zoro but he knew better. The sea kings had smelled like every other sea king they had met on their journey. Like salt water and fish, mixed with a little blood and fury. He could have smelt the sea kings from a mile away. But the girl… she had smelled like flowers and spicy food, like some humans do. But she also smelled like sweat and blood and something purely primal, something that had every prey alarm in Chopper's head ringing. It was that added smell that had jolted the tiny doctor awake and that smell that made it hard to move away from the door, in case she was still around and was hunting him.
But he knew his crew was strong so he shrugged it off the best he could. If push came to shove, his friends would protect him so no weird smelling girl should cause him any worry. He nodded his head one more time, with a bit more confidence, before following Zoro back down to their room.
A few hours later the rest of the crew had begun to make themselves known to the day. Chopper was currently hiding out in his office, trying to get his nose off that strange smell. Robin and Nami sat sipping tea in their lounge chairs on deck, Robin staring out into the ocean, Nami reading the morning paper. Sanji danced across the deck, singing to the women about how beautiful and lovely they both were. Uosopp and Franky were hard at work making some other kind of metal contraption that would eventually do untold damage to whoever their enemy was. Brooks was leaning at 45 degrees against the mainmast, trying to cheer up his captain. A captain that was still glaring at the island in the distance as if it had been the thing that had taken part of his breakfast. And far off in the corner, Zoro snoozed a bit longer even after his nap.
"We're going." Said Luffy decisively.
"Going?" Asked Nami over her paper. "Going where?"
Luffy pointed angrily at the island. Nami just rolled her eyes.
"Luffy, of course we're going there. But to restock on supplies. Not to chase after some sea king riding stranger who happened to eat some of your food."' A moment passed filled with Luffy's disgruntled vibes. "But, I guess we should be on our way. No time like the present."
Franky stood, screamed 'SUPER', struck a pose, and began to steer the ship in the direction of the island. After a while, two ports began to take shape; a small wooden port on the western side of the island and a massive stone port on the eastern side of the island. Franky turned the ship toward the stone port.
"No!" Cried Luffy. "Not that way! The meat thief went that way!" He pointed at the smaller wooden port. "So that's where we're going!"
"Luffy, again. We are here to stock up on supplies. And doing so, the bigger port most likely has the best selection. So that's where we should go. So what if she took some of your food? It was just a little bit." Luffy huffed angrily, cheeks filling up until the point of bursting. And, being a rubber man, that was pretty dang far. But Nami didn't back down and Franky didn't change course.
"You know," floated Zoro's voice from the corner, "if that stranger was able to steal some of Luffy's lunch out of Sanji's locked kitchen, I wonder what else she was able to take." He opened his eye and looked at Nami, who was slowly turning white. "Have you checked the budget this morning?"
Nami yanked the wheel from Franky's grasp and whipped the ship toward the western side of the island. "To the wooden port!"
Ten minutes later, the Thousand Sunny bumped lightly against the wooden beams of the small village port. Chopper, still trembling at the thought of that smell, had opted to stay on board with Franky, Uosopp, and Robin while the other crew members began to explore the village, searching for that hooded stranger.
After only taking a few short steps, Luffy's nose began to twitch and his mouth began to water. He had had breakfast not long before but his belly could still feel the empty space where the meat the girl had eaten should have been. It growled grumpily and Luffy took off toward the juicy smell, his crew members struggling to keep up behind him.
He crashed through the double doors of the local tavern, sat down with a fork and a knife, and let his belly do the talking.
"MEAT!" It cried.
A waitress laughed while the others filled the chairs around the circular table. Nami began to place their orders over the sound of eating, talking, and music. The waitress laughed again as Luffy attempted to chomp on Zoro's arm.
"This is a lively bunch!" She smiled warmly. Nami just sighed.
"That's one way to put it." There was a moment of pen scratching paper and Zoro yelling at Luffy to get. OFF. Nami glanced up at the bright-eyed waitress and decided now was as good a time as any to start looking for the stranger who might, but most likely not have, taken some of her money.
"Excuse me?" Nami leaned in and the waitress inched closer, eyebrows raised in question.
"Would you, perhaps, let me see your panties?" Asked Brooks, popping his bony head between the two women. He slunk back seconds later with a large bump on his head from Nami's fist. The waitress blushed but Nami just waved a hand.
"What I wanted to ask was have you seen a girl around here? Small, dressed in black, with a black hood and green eyes? She might be seen with a pair of green and blue sea kings."
The music halted and the room fell into a heavy, deadly silence. Everyone froze. Even Luffy stopped halfway through a chomp on Sanji's leg. The waitress looked from side to side nervously.
"Why… why do you want to know?"
The silence was quickly dispersed with sounds much more frightening: the popping of pistol hammers being pulled back, the sounds of chairs scrapping the floors as their users stood, and even the slight hiss of swords sliding out of scabbards. The Straw-hats watched the other customers and the customers watched them. Nami shrugged casually, though her heart was racing.
"No reason. I was just wondering where I might find her."
The other customers began to inch closer and pistols began to come into view. Nami's palms started sweating but her face remained calm.
"She ain't here," grumbled a gruff voice from behind the counter. The bartender wiped down the counter. "Ain't here and ain't sure where she be. But it ain't here." He glared at the Straw-hats. "But maybe y'all shouldn't be here neither." As if strengthening his point, the other customers advanced closer to the pirates, some pistols and swords in plain sight. Nami raised her hands in surrender but she could feel her crewmates glaring down the enemy, never ones to run from a fight. Tension rose in the air like the tide.
The double doors swung open and a short, thin girl with black hair and bright green eyes stepped into the tavern. Immediately she stopped, shocked at the sight before her.
"Is this a bad time?" Her voice rang out in the silence.
"You!" Cried Luffy, dropping Sanji's leg and jumping on the table, pointing angrily at the girl. Her eyes went even wider, recognizing Luffy in an instant. Wasting no time, she turned on her heel and raced out the door.
"My MEAT!" Luffy roared and plowed through the people towards the door, charging after her.