"All right," Nami said placing her hands on her hips, "we'll draw straws to decide the groups and whoever has the shortest straws has to stay with the ship."
The Straw Hat Pirates were currently on the island they had set a course for before having to go on a detour to replenish supplies, enough for the trip to the town anyway. Sadly, the only thing the island before had was fruits, fish, and vegetables. Of course Sanji had made due because of his amazing cooking skills, but Luffy didn't last. He had went nuts after the third day without meat…and it was terrible.
Nami pulled out nine straws and held them out in front of her.
"Sounds fair enough," Zoro said, drawing a straw from Nami's hand. He looked at the straw he had just pulled and saw it was one that was as long as his forefinger, making him feel rather confident that he wouldn't have to watch the ship.
"Chas?" Nami said, holding out her hands towards the retired captain.
"As long as I don't get paired with this dumbass, then fine," Chas said, sighing. She drew a straw and smiled. "Well, well, looks like I win." Chas held up her straw to Zoro, laughing confidently. The straw was long, much longer then Zoro's.
Zoro narrowed his eyes at Chas and gave a small snarl. After that he didn't say anything else.
It was obvious to everyone that sparks flied whenever the two were together. Most of the others, especially Chopper, Nami, and Franky, believe it to be much worse than Zoro's rivalry with Sanji. No matter what the two wouldn't get along and when they did, it didn't last long. They were too much alike.
"My turn!" Brook cheered, taking a straw from Nami's hands. His jaw dropped when it turned out shorter than the ones Zoro and Chas got.
"Better luck next time, Skulls," Chas said, nudging Brook in his ribcage.
"Chopper, Sanji, you guys are next," Nami said.
Chopper closed his eyes and picked a straw after Sanji had already gotten his. When Chopper pulled out the straw, he opened his eyes and smiled. It wasn't a small one, nor was Sanji's. Instead, Chopper got the match to Chas's straw, which he was content about. But, there was the slight problem with Sanji's.
"I demand a redraw…" Zoro and Sanji said, holding up their straws. Matching.
"Sorry, no redoes!" Nami chimed, holding out her hand to Franky and Robin now. Robin and Franky drew their straws. Neither was matching with each other. Instead Franky was paired with Brook and Robin, well, didn't know who her partner was, but she knew she was the one stuck watching the ship.
"SUPER!" Franky said, doing his special move and a small spin added to it.
Nami looked around and grumbled. "Where's Luffy and Usopp?"
"Ran off towards town a few minutes ago," Chas answered, not even looking up from her inspection of her nails.
"AND YOU DIDN'T STOP THEM?!" everyone shouted at her.
"Not my job," Chas said.
Nami sighed and threw out the two straws that were meant for them, and it just happened that the last straw, the one that was for herself, was the one matching Robin's.
"Redraw," Robin and Nami said.
"No redraws," everyone said.
After many apologies, and after Nami had finished her crying about not being able to shop, everyone was ready to head to town to get supplies. They were also ready for the long hunt to find their idiot Captain and the other idiot that was a part of their crew, not knowing what kind of trouble was awaiting them.
"Excuse me."
The old woman looked up from her shopping to see a young man standing there, looking at her with a kind smile. He seemed tall to her, but she figured he must have at least been half that if she wasn't hunched because of her poor back. He had orange hair that was tide back into a short ponytail and narrow green eyes. He wore a purple bandanna around his left wrist with a ring on his right middle finger. His clothes, other the other hand, stood out a bit more than the rest of him. He had purple shorts which sagged quite a bit and a short sleeved purple and orange flannel that was unbuttoned to show off the tattoo of, what looked like, a pirate skull with shotguns crossing the back, on the right portion of his chest.
"Yes?" the woman said, raising an eyebrow at the boy. She knew he was a pirate, but she couldn't believe that such a young boy, probably no older then seventeen, had already joined a pirate crew.
"Sorry to bother you, Ma'am, but I was hoping you could help me," the boy said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of torn and beaten up paper, showing it to the woman. "Have you seen this person?"
The woman looked to the paper, narrowing her eyes to see it better. It was a wanted poster of a woman with a hat who had a 250,000,000 Beri bounty on her head.
"No, sorry, Kid, I haven't seen her before," the old lady said, shrugging.
The boy sighed and thanked the woman for her help before walking off back down the street, mumbling to himself, "Where could you be, Cap…?" He then turned a street and continued to ask the people he met. Still no one had seen the woman around, but he wasn't going to give up anytime soon.
"Oh, sorry!" the boy said after he bumped into someone. He looked to see who he bumped into only to cower when he meet two dangerous pairs of eyes, a pair from a green haired swordsman and another from a blonde man. He recognized the two, but he couldn't pinpoint where exactly he had seen them, so he had no idea that they were Zoro and Sanji from Straw Hat Luffy's crew.
"Sorry about that, Kid," Sanji said, a small smile coming to his face.
"Its fine," the boy said, smiling. The two men he ran into were about to walk off, until the boy called out to them again. "Wait a minute!" The two turned around and the boy showed them the poster. "Have you seen this woman around here?"
Sanji and Zoro looked at the picture for a moment before shaking their heads.
The boy sighed and stuffed the picture back in his pocket. "Another dead end, huh…?" He then looked up with a bright smile. "Thank you anyway!" He then ran off without another word, leaving Sanji and Zoro wondering what the boy wanted with Chas.