(Modern AU)
Chopper sighed as he straightened his tie. His uniform was the smallest size they offered but it was still really baggy. He had only recently started working at his neighborhoods supermarket, but already he had seemed to fall into a routine. Go to school, come home, eat, and go to work. He was slightly dreading getting out of his borrowed VW bug. Though he needed the money to save for med school, this place was seriously weird. Knowing he couldn't afford being late he dragged himself out of the car and trigged up to the employee entrance.
"Hey it's the new bro!" The security manager, Franky's, voice buzzed through the com next to the door, "Come on in! Have a SUPER shift!"
"Thanks Franky!" He called as he heard the doors lock click open. He pulled the heavy door open and made his way up to the time clock. "36982.." He whispered to himself as he punched in. He soaked up the silence of the back room one last time before making his way out into the store. The low rumble of voices and the beeping of the cash registers assaulted his ears. It was Friday night so the store was packed. college students were getting booze for their parties and adults too lazy to make their own dinner bought up the deli stock as fast as Sanji could pump it out.
He went up to his assigned register and took his place at the end near the bags. That little square space was his domain. His cashier, an elderly man named Brook, was late yet again so he stared off into space for a little bit. "Toni, dear, since Brook is going to be a bit, could you help Zoro with carts? I do believe he got lost again." His manager Robin mused from her place at the aisle next to him.
"Uh, Sure." He nodded, slightly embarrassed to be caught slacking off so early into his shift. He went over to the employee rack next to the carts and grabbed one of the hooks before heading out into the parking lot. He almost smacked his face into the second automatic door, it was always so slow. The parking lot for Mugiwara Mart was fairly small with only ten cart return stations. For a normal person it would only take about 20 minutes to clear lot, but Zoro was anything but. He spotted his green haired coworker at the edge of the lot, trying to free a locked cart.
Chopper sighed and made his way over to him, pulling out the electric key in his apron pocket. Zoro saw him and waved him over. "Oi, Chopper!"
"I'm coming!" He shouted back. Finally reaching the moss for brains he pointed the electric key at the carts front wheels until he heard the slight whirring of the wheels coming unlocked.
Zoro pushed the cart forward with ease. "How'd you do that?" He questioned scratching his spikey hair.
"I keep telling you the parking lot has an electric fence all around it and if a cart crosses that fence the wheels lock up. Then you have to use the electronic key that Robin gave you to unlock the wheels." He explained for the umpteenth time.
The older man stared at him blankly before stating, "So it's a mystery."
Chopper shook his head, knowing there was no way he was going to get through to the thick headed man he went and got a load of cart. He lined up six together and hooked the leach on the handle of the last one. Wrapping what was left of the leash around his hand he heaved the massive load out of the return center and bean to push it toward the door. Zoro followed with a train of at least twelve carts in front of him. Even if he was an idiot there was a reason Robin kept him on cart duty.
Returning the carts to their place inside he noticed Brook has finally opened his register. Leaving the rest of the lot to Zoro he hung up the cart leash and returned to his place at the end of the register. "Yohohohohoho! How are you today, Chopper!" Brook greeted him, flipping the switch that illuminated the number eight above him.
"Good, thanks Brook." He replied pulling out a pad of bagger tags. He began to scribble him name on them while they waited for a customer, placing one in the bag already for good measure.
"How are you today?" Brook chuckled, alerting Chopper to the fact that someone had arrived at their aisle. Chopper looked up to see the familiar face of Trafalgar Law, a med student at the university across the way.
"Just fine." He drawled, turning his cold gaze to Chopper.
"Did you find everything you were looking for today?" Chopper blurted out his required line out of sheer panic. Med student or not he thought this guy was creepy as Hell.
Law froze, his check book still held in his tattooed fingers. "Actually, I wasn't able to find the beef steaks advertised this week." He admitted, returning to writing out the check, "I'm sure that's only because they were on sale."
Chopper looked up from the freezer meals he was bagging and offered, "I can always check the back for you if you like."
The man shook his head. "I don't need them, they were just for a roommate of mine. I'm sure he'll understand." He explained, turning his focus back to Brook who was rattling off his orders total. Chopper stared at the letters DEATH printed on the man's fingers as he handed Brook the check. "For the exact amount please."
Chopper finished filling Law's cart and turned it around so he could take it. "Enjoy your evening." He told him as he left.
"I always do." Law sneered over his shoulder, smirking at the personal joke he'd made. Chopper shivered slightly before turning to the next order.
Time went by fast, Brook would greet them and Chopper would ask them if they found everything, it was the usual routine but something was off. It seems that the beef steaks weren't the only thing missing from the shelves. Lunch meats, cheeses, booze, it seemed that they must have had a late shipment or something because they had none of it in stock. "This is very odd." Robin muttered to herself as the day wound down toward closing time.
"Oi! Robin, there's no coffee or pastries in the back room!" Nami called, coming around from her coffee counter. "I have nothing left to sell!"
"Same goes for me Miss. Robin!" Sanji called from behind the deli counter, "I can't find anything left to cook!"
Robin looked around the store, it was completely void of customers. "I want all closing staff to meet in the security office for an emergency meeting. We're closing early tonight."
"I'll go get that dumbass from the parking lot then.." Nami grumbled, making her way to the parking lot but Sanji stopped her.
"Let me deal with the moss head my dear Nami!" He cooed placing a hand of the feisty baristas shoulder, "You go head up to the meeting."
Nami shrugged his hand off and winked teasingly, "Thanks Sanji."
"My pleasure, Nami dear!" The love sick cook swooned as he exited the store. He was so caught up in staring back at Nami that he ran into the slow second door. Even through the glass, Chopper could hear him cursing fluently as he flushed bright red and headed into the lot.
Robin chuckled, "That man is utterly hopeless."
"Tell me about it. That's all I hear all day." Nami groaned, "You looks beautiful today Nami dear! Nami dear you make the best coffee ever! Can't we move the coffee stand, Robin?"
"I'm afraid not." The manager laughed, "Chopper wait here for the boys then meet us in the office."
"Oh, ok." Chopper answered, jumping slightly. He didn't really know why Robin wanted to include him in the meeting since he was so new but I guess that didn't really matter.
"You damn moss head, how many times do we have to tell you the wheels lock if you takes the carts off the lot!" Sanji's voice could be heard as he reentered the store.
"Shut it dart board brow!" Zoro snapped back, his voice echoing through the empty store, "When are you finally gonna get fired for harassing every woman who walks in this store!?"
"Hey guys…" Chopper butted in hesitantly.
"WHAT!?" They both shouted at him in unison.
Chopper froze, wide eyed. "The meeting.." Was all he could choke out.
Both men relaxed as they remembered why they had been called inside. "You follow Toni, shithead." Sanji instructed Zoro, "That way you won't get lost. I gotta go out for a smoke."
"Because that's all you're good for." Zoro muttered.
"What was that!?" Sanji whipped his head around.
"Let's go." Chopper instructed his coworker before the two of them could get in a fight again.
Zoro huffed but let the younger boy lead the way up to the security office. The managers husband, Franky, sat in his armchair at the head of the table with his monitors glowing behind him. Robin stood off to the side while Nami sat across from Brook. Zoro took the neat next to the old man and Chopper next to Nami. "What's up everyone!" The produce manager, Usopp, shouted in greeting, "Oi Robin, what's the deal with this emergency meeting?" He questioned, confused.
"Yeah, it does seem rather odd." The floral clerk, Kaya, agreed from behind Usopp. She was so quiet compared to her boyfriend, Chopper sometimes forgot she was even there.
"That's because, for some reason, produce and floral are the only two sections that still have sock." Sanji explained coming into the office, bringing the strong sent of tobacco with him. "Please allow me to get you a chair." He offered Kaya.
"Oi, watch yourself, love cook." Usopp warned, beating him to the punch, "Here Kaya, you can sit next to me."
Kaya was slightly embarrassed by the two men's affections but nodded to Usopp and took her seat. Sanji glared at the long nosed manager before taking his own seat next to Chopper. Chopper tried his best not to gag on the smell of cigarette coming from Sanji's clothes, he didn't want to be rude. "Now that everyone is here.." Robin began scanning the faces in the room, "We can begin."
"Sorry to interrupt dear," Franky interjected, "But where's that new stock manager?"
Realization settled like a fog in the small room. "New stock manager?" Sanji questioned.
"That's right. I only hired him last week…" Robin trailed off, "But I haven't seen him since. I do hope he wasn't crushed by a falling crate."
Robin's morbid humor sent a chill through the room as Zoro stood and stated, "Well it looks like we have a place to start."
He led the way out of the room, everyone filing behind. It wasn't until they found themselves headed for the front door that Sanji took the lead, "It's this way dumbass."
Chopper kept the grumbling cart catcher next to him, making sure he stuck with the group as Sanji led them through the maze of aisles toward the stock room. The back of the store was a wide open warehouse with crates of merchandise stacked every which way. Except now it would seem most of those crates had disappeared. Robins joke from earlier echoed eerily in Choppers mind as he found himself hiding behind Zoro as they continued. "Oi! Is anyone back here!?" Usopp shouted, his call bouncing off the few crates left.
"Uggh…" Came the weak reply.
"Ah! Someone actually was smashed by a crate!" Chopper shouted burying his head in Zoro's back.
"Don't be silly Toni." Usopp reassured him, knees knocking.
"Exactly if he'd been smashed by a crate, he'd be dead." Robin pointed out.
"Come on guys." Sanji ordered, ignoring Robins disturbing comment, "It came from over here."
They walked over to the far side of the store room where the freezer door stood eerily ajar. Sanji led the way, Zoro followed with chopper still clinging to the back of his shirt. "My god!" Sanji exclaimed.
Chopper slowly peaked out from behind Zoro to see what they had found. A single man, about his age, lay sprawled across a mountain of half eaten stock. Raw beef steaks, chip bags, packages of lunch meat, bottles of booze, everything the customers couldn't find today and more. "He ate everything!?" Zoro gaped.
"Luffy…" Robin sighed as she stared down at the man, "What on earth where you doing?"
The man sat up, rubbing his bloated stomach and burped. "I was hungry." He stated simply, reaching to grab and unfinished bag of chips.
"How do you not have food poisoning?" Nami wondered aloud looking at all the raw meat the man had consumed.
Luffy shrugged and laughed, "Shishishishishi.. I don't know." He had barely finished his sentence when his face turned visibly green and his cheeks began to fill with bile.
"Shit, run!" Sanji ordered, picking up Nami and running out to safety. Franky did the same with Robin, leaving the rest of the staff to scrabble as fast as they could out of harm's way.
"I hope you don't expect me to clean that up." Zoro mentioned to Robin.
"I'll call a doctor.." Nami sighed.
"Call Law." Usopp told her, slightly hesitant, "I don't think this guy could afford a real doctor."
"Not with all the money he owes now." Sanji piped in.
"That's totally not super, man." Franky commented to the struggling man in the freezer.
"Yohohohohoho! Youngsters these days…" Brook chuckled to himself.
Chopper sighed, just another day at Mugiwara Mart…