One Piece Goda belongs to. Author's notes bottom at.
Chapter Two
Act Naturally
Regardless, Nami set out to the streets with the rubber boy later that evening with a Yagara bull provided by the Galley-La company. The streets of Water 7 remained loud and merry as they remembered from last time. A fair number of citizens they have passed by greeted them with loud 'hello's from either second-floor windows of the buildings, food stalls even from a distant, and the ossans and baasans sitting by the banks of romantic outdoor cafe that Nami had strike as very European.
"Mugiwara, come have some of me mizu-mizu meat, ya ain't need to pay!"
"Mugiwara! Great to see you again! You want some of these mizu-mizu satays?"
Apparently, their fame haven't quite ceased yet although it had been nearly four years, and Nami was quite grateful for that, as they were now showered with free food offers from all across the street. She remembered that Sanji was shopping for rations, though, so she reminded herself not to receive so much.
"Luffy, that's enough! Sanji's already out buying food," Nami gave him a good light punch on his head as the stall keeper resembling Julie Andrews behind a honey barbecue chicken wing stand handed them two sets of barbecued wing in two very tidy paper bags. "Thank you so much, we already have too much though," she told her with a polite smile and gestured to the pile of free food at the back seat of their Yagara bull.
"Oh no, thank you, darling," the stall keeper replied, insisting them to take the free wings. "If it weren't for you guys, we would lose our beloved Mayor. I couldn't imagine how this city would be like without him around."
"He is a great man," Nami said, with Luffy mumbling along the lines of 'ossan' and 'great man' while chewing a mouthful bite of free mizu-mizu meat they have obtained from earlier.
"Are you here to visit him?"
"Ah, yes. You know, to catch up." Nami passed the barbecued wings to Luffy in order to keep him quiet. She wasn't quite sure yet if the citizens knew of the wedding, and so far, she had not spotted anyone among the civilians giving off the Revolutionary Army vibe yet. Maybe they are just incredibly good at blending in or disguising, though.
"If you'd like to go sightseeing, there's a lovely new park by the chapel uptown. You can see the whole island from there, and plus, it's the season of cherry blossom. Thought it'd be wonderful for a couple like you two."
Nami choked nervously. "Ne, we're not a couple! I mean," Nami pulled Luffy's rubber cheeks, which stretched before she snapped it back, but the boy was too occupied with munching and munching, that he made no reaction at all. "He's already in a committed relationship with food. Meat, especially."
The stall keeper giggled as a friendly response. "Oh, dear. I really do thought you two look sweet together. Well, if you'd ask me, relationships with meat don't last long. They'll cheat on you by willingly jumping onto someone else's plate."
Nami only gave an awkward laugh in response. "Well, we better get going... Oh, the chapel that you mentioned earlier, how do we get there?"
"Do we really have to?" Luffy whined from beside her on the Yagara bull, still enjoying his mizu-mizu satay nonetheless. They were navigating their way through the higher level canals now, where the fancier places were located.
Nami held the invitation card with her free hand, the other driving the Yagara bull. Chapel of Holy Saviour, that was the name of the chapel written on the invitation card where the exchange of vows ceremony will be held at. "Yeah, we really do have to. We don't want to get lost and turn up late for the wedding later, yeah?"
"When are we gonna meet Sabo?" He continued whining.
"Maybe he's there at the chapel."
Impatient, Luffy snatched the invitation card from Nami.
"Luffy, you'll get it dirty!"
He licked his hands clean, and picked up the card again.
"Great, now it has your saliva on it."
"So what? Everything has my saliva on it."
"Euw."
"Nami, left," Luffy said quickly upon arriving at a junction, but Nami ignored him. "Nami, I said left!"
"Straight." She corrected him. "I thought I'm supposed to be the navigator here."
"Yeah, but I'm the captain!"
She sighed. It was clearly a bad idea taking Luffy out with her. She made a mental note, never take Luffy out again unless it's a party of three and above. She gave him an annoyed glare.
"You don't look so good... Do you want some food too?"
"No, Luffy. Now be quiet, will you?"
He sank lower into his seat, with a few sticks of mizu mizu satay on his lap, in which he only toyed with. Luffy remained quiet for the next ten minutes, and it did scare the hell out of Nami a bit, especially that he didn't even take another bite of anything despite the pile of mouth-watering freebies at the back seat.
"Oi." She nudged him with her elbow, but he didn't respond. "Oi, Luffy."
He pouted, and turned to the other way, pretending to enjoy the scenery anyhow.
"Fine, give me some of those satays."
Upon hearing so, he immediately turned back to her and shoved a piece of satay into her mouth. "So? Good, right? Did that make you feel better? Meat is suppose to make everyone feel better."
"Gosh, Luffy, you almost made me choke!"
"It's good, right? Right?"
Luffy was right. The mizu mizu satays are actually very heavenly. "I thought you don't share your food with other people."
"Hey, I share my food with my nakama. Nakamas only."
"Okay, whatever you say."
They finally arrived by the earlier mentioned new park, and it was true. It was a grassy park with well kept turfing and plenty of cherry blossom trees, and it was apparently the season where the pretty petals of pink and white cherry blossoms scattered around the park like pink and white snow. There were plenty of lovebirds walking around the park, much to Nami's disgust, but the view is astounding, from that height.
Nami saw the chapel at the end of the road by the park, the moderately sized majestic building which took architectural features of the eighteenth century Europe, but there was no water canal access to the place. "We'll drop off here," Nami suggested, and as soon as they jumped off the ride, Nami tied their Yagara bull to one of the steel poles provided.
"Here you go, Gomorrah Junior-chan!" Luffy gave the Yagara bull a piece of mizu mizu meat, in which it neighed happily before receiving it.
"Gomorrah Junior-chan? Really, Luffy?"
"It's like Gomorrah, but smaller!"
Nami nodded, to avoid prolonging the discussion even further. "Wow, this park is beautiful, really. There are even retail shops over there."
And though it was really inarguable that Luffy would cause a commotion, Nami couldn't really blame him when she saw a black shadow pushed the rubber captain out of a sudden, which made him fall over her in surprise.
"Ow!" Luffy yelled in pain, but thanks to his reflexes, he was able to support his own weight on his two hands, to avoid crushing her. Not that he's heavy, though.
Nami coughed under Luffy, feeling a curse coming out of her not-so-goody mouth either. "Crap! What was that?"
"Damn," Luffy lifted himself up on his feet quickly, abandoning his straw hat which fell beside her face on the ground. "You won't get away, you damn stranger!" He said, and as always, sprinted carelessly to chase after the black figure.
"Luffy!" Nami picked herself up, and the straw hat too, let's not forget that. "Luffy, come back here!" She called after him, but to no avail. He was already out of sight. "Great, now let's just sit and wait for miracles to happen."
She plopped the straw hat on her head, and decided to walk to the chapel anyway. But the minute she turned around, she accidentally bumped into someone with probably three times her body size, who nearly knocked her over. "Oh, sorry!"
Nami raised her head. The woman in front of her was definitely three times her size, with curly orange hair and a lit cigarette in between her teeth. She was dressed rather masculinely, a navy green shirt with sleeves rolled up to her elbow and tucked into her knee length shorts. "S-sorry," Nami said, in hope that she hadn't angered the woman at all because damn, she looked pretty damn intimidating.
"You, you're that Cat Burglar Nami, aren't you?" The woman said instead, with a rather hoarse voice.
"U-um, yes?" Oh, please have mercy, curly-haired big woman-san!
"This stupid straw hat, is with ya." The woman readjusted the straw hat on Nami's head in order to see her face better. To Nami's surprise, the woman lifted Nami's chin, and cupped her cheeks too, staring into her soul like a vampire probably would. But for a second, she felt as if the woman was looking at her with a genuine wonder, despite the brutality of her look and the coarseness of her hands, she looked at Nami as if she wanted to protect Nami.
She couldn't help but feeling awkward after a while. "U-um..."
"Dadan-san!" They heard a voice calling from a distance, a feminine one, which made the woman released her immediately. They both turned their heads to the direction of the voice. A green-haired woman, with a scarf in her hair, came over to them. "Dadan-san, let's not keep the others waiting."
The woman called Dadan only nodded in response.
Nami felt the need to withdraw herself from the two strangers, but the green-haired woman's attention was on her, and the straw hat on her head, too. Ah, how lovely.
"The straw hat... You're Cat Burglar Nami, right?"
Well, she couldn't deny the fame. Deal with it, guess I gotta roll with it, you ain't got no autograph, you ain't gonna get enough-
The green-haired woman pulled Nami in a quick hug, patting her back while at it. "Oh my, thank you so much..."
What did I do? Did I save you? Oh, wait, are you both Water 7 citizens? Taking that as a possibility, Nami tried to squeeze a 'you're welcome' out of her mouth, but the green-haired woman was getting a little teary eyed, that Nami couldn't even interrupt.
"Makino," the woman named Dadan called.
"Right, right." The green-haired woman - Makino, her name - released Nami immediately. "Well, anyway, thank you. Thank you for keeping him safe, and for taking care of him. We'll... We'll see you soon!" And they hurried off.
Thank you for keeping Iceburg safe, maybe? And taking care of Iceburg? That was one emotional woman there, she thought, but who knows? Maybe she's just a very sensitive person. Nami brushed her knees, making sure her clothes weren't dirty from the fall, and decided to make her way to the chapel, the direction where that troublesome, hyperactive captain of hers were headed off earlier.
"Okay, you win! You win!"
Nami hurried up to an apple tree by the chapel's grounds, where she noticed Luffy in his easily-spotted signature red shirt and blue shorts from afar. The rubber captain was apparently holding someone against the apple tree by the throat. Oh, Luffy, please don't cause punch the hell out of anyone!
Seconds later, Luffy found himself screaming in pain, jumping off the figure and waving his arm out in the air. "Hot! Hot!"
"Luffy! Are you okay?" Nami hurried off to Luffy, giving him a quick check. She then turned to the figure, who was, well, dressed in a dark navy coat and black pants, black boots, black gloves - the only one thing about him that gives him off, was his blonde, permed hair. "Sabo?"
"Good to see you too, Nami," he smiled, arms open towards them both.
"That wasn't fair, you used your fruit powers!" Luffy continued, unsatisfied.
"Pfftt, as if you wouldn't use your rubber attacks on me."
"I wasn't ready to go all Haki on you!"
"Luffy, you don't even need one," Sabo said with a laugh. "Remember Grandpa's fist of love?"
"Don't remind me, Sabo. That hurts like hell. Just as much as Nami's punch, all the time!"
Luffy and Sabo both turned to Nami, whom they had been ignoring since a few seconds ago. She placed one hand on her hip, gesturing to disagree with Luffy. "Well excuse me for trying to keep you in control, Luffy. You know you're going to get a lot of this fist of love if you don't behave - and if you spend our loot without my permission too."
Sabo laughed, as they all walked into the chapel, Nami being the last one behind them both. "Alright, sounds like Nami's gonna give you more love than just fist of love, Luffy. She's good for a wife, I guess."
Nami nearly stumbled her feet on the chapel's steps leading to the entrance, but carelessness was not really the main reason. "Well, I'd appreciate if you kept that thought to yourself, Sabo!"
"Chill, Nami. I was just messing around." Sabo gave another comforting laugh, and pushed the chapel door open.
"Chill, Nami. He was just messing around," Luffy repeated, still with a playful grin.
"Funny." Nami clenched her teeth, and removed the straw hat from her head to return it back to Luffy. "Here, idiot," she placed the straw hat on his head, and proceeded to enter the chapel after Sabo.
The interior of the chapel was truly amazing. The isle was carpeted blue all the way to the altar, and the pews were white painted wooden pew benches. The upper walls were just windows with designed stain glasses, and the ceilings were painted to resemble the sky and the clouds that nested in the sky as well. There were musical instruments on the right side after the altar - the organ being the most obvious, and another set of shorter pew benches for perhaps, the choir group.
Luffy's "awesome" and "sugoi" echoed throughout the insides of the chapel, but Nami would agree with him too, this place looks amazingly beautiful. She loved how the ceilings were painted as the sky, they brought back memories of Haredas and all the Dumbledores back on Weatheria.
"Amazing, right?" Sabo said, with a heavy, satisfied exhale.
"It really is, amazing. Koala must be one happy bride!"
The blonde smiled widely, staring at the altar as if imagining, daydreaming. In four days, he's going to stand right there, at the altar, and he's going to look into Koala's eyes, her in a beautiful white dress with laced sleeves and cape-like dress tails, and white flowers in her hair, and yeah, he is going to say, I do, I fucking do.
Remember when I said I'm going to update this once a week? I'm just going to break it just this once. Oh and also do forgive my writing style onegai shimasu, I is no John Green. I is maybe David Nicholls junior.
Who here are fans of The Beatles? What's your favourite song? I'll go first, 'A Little Help From My Friends', 'Come Together' and 'All You Need Is Love'!
Thanks for the reads, something fairly sweet is coming up the next chapter.
