Buggy Balls and a Boy with a Hat

Even sailing 'The fastest ship in East Blue', the trip to wherever Nami was taking them was taking forever. It didn't help that Nami insisted stopping on some uninhabited island that was nothing more than a giant rock. Apparently she kept a stash of supplies there and was almost out of map-making material onboard the ship. For the most part, Zoro just slept, but he had to spend part of his time manning the sails. At first he found them rather annoying, but it turned out that it was a fairly simple process, even if he resented the fact that Nami could somehow get the boat going faster than he could.

Nami's grin never seemed to leave her face. Not until he asked what they what her plans were. She told him a bit about her history, how her home was held captive by a group of fishmen. "I know, between the two of us, Arlong doesn't stand a chance. I've been training to take him down since the first time I went off on my own to steal from pirates, and I could probably even take him down on my own, but I doubt I could truly get a one on one fight with him. I'm best at fighting a weak group or a strong single opponent, but I don't have much experience fighting several strong fighters at once. I could try to avoid that by paying him off like he wants me to, but I doubt that will work. I think the only thing that will get through his head is a fist." Tears started to come to her eyes, "He may have killed my mother, but her sacrifice will not be in vain. Soon that nightmare will be over for everyone, and my home will finally be free."

Zoro was usually uncomfortable around crying girls, but from his perspective Nami didn't really count as a girl, though he couldn't quite decide what she did count as. He was able to narrow her down to one of two categories. She was either a crazed genius, or the most convincing liar he'd ever met. Either way, he had to say something, "Arlong is already dead, he just doesn't know it yet."

Nami's disturbing smile returned, "That's the spirit! But first we need to make a stop to steal a certain map."

Zoro stared at Nami in disbelief, "You need a map? What kind of map could you possibly need?"

Nami's smile did not falter for a second, "A map to the Grand Line, of course."

Zoro's snorted, "You actually expect me to believe that you don't already know how to get to the Grand Line?"

Nami shrugged, "Well, it was worth a try."

"So what's the real reason?"

"A test, of course! We need to test our skills before we go. I know I'll do fine, but I can't just drag you to the Grand Line if you aren't ready."

Zoro sighed, "So now we're going to the Grand Line?"

Nami nodded, "Of course! You don't think I'd stop at defeating Arlong, do you? I'm going to rid the world of people like him."

"So what's this test about then?"

"The man with this map should be a bit of a challenge. He was an apprentice pirate on Gold Roger's crew at the same time as Shanks of the Yonkou. Oh, and he has a Devil Fruit power!"

Zoro sighed, "So we're just going to find this guy, beat him up, and take a map we don't need?"

Nami giggled, which didn't bother Zoro as much as he thought it it should. He wondered if he was losing grip on his sanity. "Capture him too, his bounty would be nice to get. It's fifteen million beri, pretty high for east blue."

Zoro fealt a bit uneasy as the two walked the empty streets, "Where the hell is everyone?"

Nami rolled her eyes, "Buggy probably scared them off. It's not very common to see a devil fruit user in east blue."

Zoro grunted, "What is a devil fruit anyways?"

Nami sighed, walking through the abandoned city was rather boring, and apparently her new companion wasn't as well versed in the seas as she'd hoped. "A devil's fruit gives someone a special ability but also gives them a deadly weakness. The weakness being water, and the ability usually being something crazy, so don't let it catch you off guard."

Zoro nodded, it's not like anything ever caught him off guard. "So Nami, what's with the getup? You look like a boy." She did. Her figure wasn't too impressive to look at when he first met her, but with this outfit it wasn't even there. She was currently wearing a tight red shirt, black pants, and denim jacket. Her face also seemed a bit different, some sort of makeup, probably. Zoro was a bit confused as to why her breasts seemed to have disappeared, but deciphering what she had done on his own would be much too troublesome.

Nami grinned her disturbing grin, "Disguises are one of my specialties, I need to keep in practice. I figure if I change my looks enough, it will take longer before the marines give me a bounty."

Nami's grin faltered when a loud explosion rang out, followed by a figure falling from the sky crashing into the ground right in front of them.

Before the smoke cleared, a voice mumbled, "Why'd they shoot me with a cannon? Damn it… At least I'm on the ground."

Nami and Zoro were both struck speechless for a moment. It's not every day that someone falls from the sky, unharmed no less.

The boy, wearing a distinctive straw hat, turned to them tilted his head, "Who are you guys?"

Zoro growls, "The better question here is who are you?"

The boy blinks and grins, "Are you deaf? That's what I just asked!"

Nami smiled at the boy, "I'm Nami and this is Zoro. We're here to take down Captain Buggy and steal his map to the Grand Line. Want to help?"

The boy nodded, "Nice to meetcha, I'm Luffy. I could use that map. I'll be headed to the Grand Line after I get a crew." He blinked, suddenly remembering something, he turned toward Zoro with excitement in his eyes, "You're Zoro! I was looking for you. Want to join my crew?"

Zoro chuckles, "Too late kid, I just joined hers."

Luffy turned back to Nami, "You're a girl? Wow! You've got to be the least girly girl I've ever seen! Unless maybe that Alvida person was a girl. She looked more like a gorilla though." He shruged, "Hmm, I guess you'll have to join my crew too. That way Zoro will have to join! Sound like a plan?"

Nami blinked at him for a few seconds, her mouth hanging open, clearly unsure of how to respond, eventually she decided to just flat out say what she meant, "No. If you want to join my crew I might just let you, but we're not going to join yours."

"Aw, come on! It will be fun! We'll have a big ship and lots of meat! Oh, and a musician!" He had a grin on his face that Zoro could only compare to the grin Nami usually wore, and however impossible it may have been, this guy's seemed to be even more annoying.

"Listen Luffy, she said no. When the captain says no, she means no. Now either help us out or leave us alone."

Luffy blinked at him, "But I've decided. You two are joining my crew."

Nami frowned and leaned toward him, "You know what I've decided?"

"No. What?" Asked Luffy, apparently he was very curious.

Nami poked him on the forehead "You." She poked him again. "Are." She poked him one more time, this time the poke caused him to go flying down the street far enough away that he landed out of sight. "An idiot."

"Well, now that we've dealt with the idiot, let's say we get on with this?"

Zoro's answer was slightly delayed, as he was trying to comprehend the fact that a simple poke was able to send the guy flying.

"Uh… yeah, whatever you say captain."

"So, the guy we're stealing the map from is a clown living in a circus tent?"

She grinned her annoying grin, "Yup!"

"And he's supposed to be one of the most dangerous pirates in East Blue?"

She nodded, "Remember, East Blue is supposed to be the weakest of the four. Okay, so lets sneak aboard his ship and grab the map."

Zoro snorted, "You don't need that map, lets just challenge him to a fight and get this over with."

Nami pouted, "Aww, that's not half as fun!"

"Too bad." Zoro stepped out from their hiding place and approached the group of pirates, "Yo big nose!"

Suddenly the loud joyous noises of celebrating pirates disappeared, replaced by dead silence. "What did you call me?"

"Big Nose." Zoro just smirked at him.

"Zoro, don't underestimate him." Nami's voice was uncharacteristically serious.

Buggy adopted a smirk, "Listen to the little boy, Zoro. You may have come for my bounty, but instead I will be known as the one who defeats the feared pirate hunter!"

Nami giggled, "You want to become more well known? At this point you'd just attract the Marines."

"Shut up, boy. Maybe I'll go easy on you once I take care of Zoro here."

Nami just rolled her eyes, "Yeah yeah, whatever."

Buggy suddenly pulled eight knives out from under his coat and charged at Zoro, who responded in kind. A second later, all that was left of Buggy was several chopped up pieces.

"There, that enough proof I'm ready for you?" Zoro lazily asked Nami, while Buggy's crew started laughing hysterically.

Nami suddenly tossed a knife of her own right next to Zoro, which hit something and pinned it against a wall. It was Buggy's disembodied hand.

"Use your brain you idiot, that's the only help I'm giving you in this fight. I already told you he ate a devil's fruit, you can't just dismiss him that easily. His crew was even laughing at your stupidity."

Zoro was immediately back on guard, eyeing the various floating body parts. He considered objecting to Nami's insult, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort.

"So, cutting you doesn't work. It takes seeing something like that to believe it. I won't let you catch me off guard again."

"Like you even stand a chance, Zoro. Even if you chop me up into tiny pieces, I won't be hurt a bit."

Zoro sheathed his swords, smirking, "I may be a swordsman, but I don't need my swords to take on the likes of you."

Buggy cackled, "Oh, how sad. The little swordsman has lost his mind." His hands, full of knives, shot towards Zoro. Zoro easily dodged them, ending up next to a sack full of food.

He grinned, "This will work perfectly."

He dumped the food out of the sack while constantly doging Buggy's attacks. He nearly missed a swift kick aimed at his knee, but twisted out of the way just in time while snatching up Buggy's lower body inside the bag. He turned again just as Buggy's left hand was about to stab through his back. With a swift chop he knocked the knives out of the hand before adding it to his growing bag of body parts.

"You fool! Do you really think you can stop me like that? I can just fly the bag over here… uh…" Buggy began to sweat, something was obviously going wrong.

Zoro chuckled, "Your feet can't fly, can they? If you could fly with your feet in tow, your legs wouldn't have stayed on the ground."

Buggy's face turned bright red and he began to shout incomprehensibly, charging at Zoro with all his remaining parts. This made it quite easy to catch the rest of him and tie him up inside the bag before smashing the whole thing repeatedly onto the ground until he stopped struggling.

"So, did I pass your test?" He turned to Nami, before freezing completely still, noticing that Buggy's entire entourage was laying bruised and battered on the ground.

Nami smiled her goofy grin, "I guess so. I had hoped he would put up more of a fight, but people with powers like that often do let their skills slip. Anyways, you used your brain and that will give you a big enough advantage over most people on the sea. Remember that."

Just then, an explosion came from the coast.

"Did your boat just explode?" asked Zoro.

Nami rolled her eyes, then pointed in the opposite direction "We docked over there. It's the opposite side of town. Maybe I was wrong, you are quite an idiot."

Zoro started to say something, but suddenly, that strawhat kid came crashing down from the sky again. This time he was on top of a giant Lion.

"Oi! Zoro! Nami! Look what I found. He was on a ship with all sorts of treasure. I was gonna eat him at first, but then I had so much fun fighting with him that I decided he was gonna join my crew."

"Your shanghaiing a lion?" asked Nami.

"Shang-what-ing?"

"Never mind." Nami rubbed her forehead, hoping this kid wouldn't cause them too much trouble.

"Oh yeah! I had to fight a guy with a fuzzy head and a sword juggler riding a unicycle to keep him. It was so much fun!"

"Sounds like a great time. Well, Zoro and I really do have to get going now. I guess we'll see you around."

"Okay, bye!" Luffy waved as the two ran off with the bag. A few minutes after they were out of sight a thought suddenly came to his mind, "Hey! Wait a minute! They're supposed to be on my crew, I can't just let them run away." Just as he was about to run after them, he was distracted again as a piece of paper floated down in front of him. It took him several minutes to figure out what it was, but he eventually managed to determine it was the map to the Grand Line he had heard about.