Author's Note: Chapter seven here! Just a little heads up, a little graphic violence in here during about the first third of this chapter or so…
Disclaimer: No no no no no! I do NOT own One Piece! Oda does, NOT MEE!!
Chapter Seven: A New Lead
Nami looked on with horror as her nakama were ruthlessly beat up.
"Whoo! Wipe the floor with those useless rookies!"
Zoro was thrown into a table so hard, he broke it in half. The people at that table jeered and kicked him with all their strength. Bleeding cuts and purple bruises decorated his body.
"Show those worthless dreamers reality!"
Three people ganged up on Hoshi and continuously broke wine bottles on her head. She coughed, and fell to her knees, unable to breathe through the continuous flow of wine, clinging to consciousness. Shards of broken glass rained around her, cutting her body to ribbons.
"Luffy! Zoro! Hoshi! What the hell are you doing!? You can take these guys!" Nami screamed in desperation.
Bellamy punched Luffy into the wall again… and again… and again… and Luffy did not resist. Laughing like a maniac, he threw Luffy into the air, and Luffy was bounced around the room like a rag doll. Blood streamed from his numerous cuts and bruises.
Sarquiss chuckled. "Give it up babe. These people know when they're up against someone they can't beat. They won't fight anyone stronger then themselves. It's so pathetic… I can't even bear to watch!" he yelled, saving Hoshi from suffocating by kicking her in the head and grinding her side into the broken glass. She wearily stood, blood streaming from her side, and went to stand next to Luffy and Zoro.
Someone laughed. "Guess your captain doesn't have even a scrap of dignity," he boomed.
Nami clutched Luffy's hat to her chest as she saw the three of them standing there, covered in cuts and bruises. She trembled. "Why… why aren't you guys fighting back?" she whispered helplessly.
Bellamy grabbed a full cup of beer and started chugging it. "On top of being weaklings, you all have no pride," he told the three lined up in front of him. "You all are just like worms!"
The bar erupted with laughter. Bellamy chugged some more wine. He saved the last mouthful of it, and spat it into Luffy's face. Not expecting this, Luffy choked and coughed on it.
"Oi, get these guys out of here. They're eyescores," Bellamy told a couple of his subordinates. They cracked their knuckles in glee. One of them slammed his knee into Zoro's head. He broke two tables and several plates before crashing into the wall underneath the window. The second went into some sort of strange combo. He kicked Hoshi in the stomach and sent her airborne. Before she could come back down, he started punching her, sending her into the air again and again before giving her a kick that sent her into the wall next to Zoro. The last one took Luffy's head and smashed it into the window. The jagged pieces of glass on the window were stained with Luffy's blood.
The crowd laughed. "Look at those wimps!"
Nami ran to the wall. "You guys! Luffy! Zoro! Hoshi!" She kneeled down by their crumpled forms, trying desperately to think of some way to help them…
"Oi, woman. You're not going to survive the coming era with those idiots. Just forget them and come with us. How much do they buy you for?" Sarquiss asked.
Nami's eyes went wide with fury. She forced herself to calm down and face her insulter. "Now you've said it. Buy me?"
"Yeah. How much do you go for? C'mon over here, it's going to be fun."
The men chuckled nastily.
"Unfortunately… I'm much too good for a team of pansies like you all," Nami said with a shadow over her smile. The women on Bellamy's crew hissed with fury upon hearing this.
Instead of making Sarquiss mad or upset, as Nami had expected, this statement sent him into hysterics. "She's expensive!" he gasped between guffaws.
The whole bar laughed with him.
"They've got a whole crew of idiots here!"
"There's no hope for any of them!"
"You four, just get out of my sight while you still have your lives!" Bellamy told them over the noise. Luffy and Zoro got to their feet, their hair hiding their eyes. Hoshi tried to get up, but a shard of glass had embedded itself into her left calf, cutting her muscle. She tried to stand up, but fell back down with a cry of pain. The crowd's laughter intensified at hearing her cry.
"Listen to that weakling!" they hooted.
Wordlessly, Zoro picked her up under her shoulders and carried her out of the bar, following Nami and Luffy. Wine bottles followed their progress out, smashing into pieces, and soaking the both of them with rum.
"Sorry Zoro," she whispered as they came out into the sunlight, her raven-black hair dripping with alcohol. She looked up at him with a cut and bruised smile.
"Don't worry about it."
Nami raged in silence for once, leading the way back to the ship.
"Sky Island does exist," boomed a voice over the street.
They all turned around to look at the speaker… it was the guy from earlier, the one who had shared the argument over the cherry pies with Luffy.
He had opened his sack of cherry pies, and was eating one while sitting in the middle of the street. He bit into one with a pleased growl. "These cherry pies are really the best!" he said through a mouthful of the stuff.
"You're the man from before," Nami said tonelessly.
"What're you lookin' so down about lady?" he asked her. "Those three won their fight."
"Eh?"
"And the tongue-lashing you gave them was pretty impressive too. You've got some guts lady!"
Luffy took his hat from Nami and put it back onto his head without a word.
"That new era those guys were talking about is shit." The big man guffawed. "The age where pirates dream is over, eh?" He paused to chug from his rum bottle before shouting at the top of his lungs, "PEOPLE'S DREAMS… NEVER END!!"
Luffy looked at the man with an expressionless face. Hoshi met the man's gaze with steady eyes.
"AM I RIGHT?" he bellowed at them.
People started to gather around and laugh. "Oi oi, what're you talking about nutcase?" one of the brasher ones asked. "People's dreams?"
"It ain't easy to surpass a person!" the big guy bellowed to the sky.
"This guy's lost it!" one of the onlookers laughed.
"Let them laugh," the big guy told the four kids in front of him. "If you seek the Pirate's Summit, you'll find fights that fists alone could never take you to!
FOLLOW IT!" he roared.
The man continued to laugh… and laugh… and laugh.
"Let's go," Zoro said. He supported Hoshi as she limped along on her good leg.
"Okay…" Nami said, a little confused. "Luffy?"
Luffy locked his gaze with the big man's. The big guy got to his feet. "Oh, sorry, looks like I've held you up," he told Luffy. He picked up his pies and started to walk away. "I hope you make it there… to Sky Island!" he roared, waving his hand behind him.
Luffy turned and followed Zoro and Hoshi. Nami ran a few steps to catch up. "Hey, who was that guy? Do you think he might have known something about Sky Island?"
"Dunno," Luffy replied. "But it wasn't 'that guy'."
"It was 'those guys'," Zoro explained… which didn't really explain too much.
Hoshi lifted her head a bit as her ears caught the big guy's voice again… "The rum tastes particularly good today!" he roared. She chuckled, feeling her crystal gently tap her throat which each limping step she took.
Zoro noticed as Hoshi tried to ease her weight on him, by using her bad leg, and he winced. "Oi, just lean on me. Don't use your bad leg until we get Chopper to take a look at it, okay?" Zoro told her.
"But you're hurt too!" Hoshi weakly protested.
"I don't have a damn piece of broken glass in my leg though," Zoro replied.
Hoshi tiredly complied. She was too exhausted to argue.
They heard the sound of Usopp patching up the Going Merry long before they actually got to the docks. Chopper was helping him, so Sanji spotted them coming first.
"Nami-saaaan! Welcome back!" he yelled. "Hoshi-chan! Welco- Hoshi-chan! What happened to you!?"
"L-l-l-luffy! Z-zoro! Hoshi! How did you all get like that?!" Usopp yelled
"Doc-doctor… doctor… d-d-"
"That's YOU Chopper!" Sanji yelled down from the deck.
"Oh, right."
They all climbed onto the deck. Chopper tended to Hoshi first. He carefully removed the glass from her leg before rubbing some disinfectant medicine into it and wrapping it up. Then he tended to all of their cuts and bruises, cleaning them all up and applying bandages.
"So how many monsters did you end up fighting?" Usopp asked as Chopper tended to them.
"Just another pirate. It's okay… it's all finished now," Luffy told Usopp cheerfully.
Hoshi and Zoro nodded in agreement.
"YOU guys may think it's finished, but I don't," Nami growled. "What the hell!" she raged. "You guys are supposed to beat up anyone who wants to fight you! No, not just them, the whole damn TOWN should be razed to the ground for pissing me off!"
Hoshi laughed hard, clutching her belly. "It's really not that bad Nami!"
Zoro sweatdropped. "And what was it you said at the beginning?" he asked.
"THAT DOESN'T MATTER NOW!!" Nami screamed at him, causing him to fall overboard. Hoshi laughed even harder.
"Umm… why is Nami so pissed off?" Usopp asked. "She didn't even get hurt."
"Well, dunno," Luffy replied.
"Oh! Did you all find out anything about Sky Island?" Chopper asked.
"Sk-y I-s-la-nd?" Nami asked, a dangerous shadow on her face. Chopper yelled and hid behind Hoshi.
"I don't want to hear ANYTHING more about Sky Island. Just saying those words made the whole bar laugh at me! IS THAT FUNNY?" Nami raged.
Hoshi was laughing so hard, she was crying. "Shaddup!" Nami roared, grabbing the cuff of Hoshi's T-shirt.
"B-but," Hoshi choked between her laughs. She tried to say that Nami's angry face was REALLY funny, but she couldn't get the words out for laughing so hard.
"AH! JUST STOP LAUGHING ALREADY!" Nami yelled, taking Hoshi for a lost cause and throwing her into the mast.
"OI! BE NICE TO MERRY!" Usopp yelled.
Even before the smoke cleared though, the sound of Hoshi's laughter covered the ship. She sat in a wreckage of splinters, laughing. Hearing it, Nami couldn't help but to calm down just a little, though when she turned her gaze back onto Usopp and Chopper…. Usopp had made a Hisatsu Ketchup-Boshi explode onto his chest, making it look like he was dead, and Chopper had eaten a Rumble Ball and had gone into Guard Point. A stress mark appeared on Nami's forehead.
"Things are certainty lively here! What's all the excitement about?" Robin asked, coming up the gangplank.
"Ohh! Robin-chan! Welcome back!" Sanji sang.
"Robin? Where'd you go?" Luffy asked.
"To get some clothes, provisions, and some information on Sky Island," Robin replied with a smile… but she had said the two words which set Nami off again.
"THAT'S RIGHT! IT WAS YOU ROBIN! YOU TOLD US THAT SKY ISLAND EXISTED!" Nami roared. "IF IT DOESN'T EXIST, I'M GOING TO THROW YOU OVERBOARD!"
As Nami went back into rampaging mode, Chopper freaked and went into Jump Point, jumping overboard into the sea. The last thing a grumpy Zoro expected was for the reindeer to come down crashing on his head and start sinking like a stone. Hoshi went into a new bout of laughter, and jumped overboard herself to save them both.
Usopp waved his hands back and forth in apology. "Sorry Robin! Nami's had a rough day! Actually, it would be best to stay away from her for a while…"
Robin smiled in understanding. She sprouted a hand that handed (pun not intended) a map to Luffy.
"Huh? What's this?"
Sanji leaned in to take a closer look. "It looks like a treasure map."
"A treasure map!?" Usopp pushed his head between Luffy's and Sanji's. "Where is it?"
"It's a map of this island," Robin replied. "See that town on the left? That's Mock Town. The X on the right is where an outcast of Jaya lives. His name is Montblanc Cricket. He was chased out of town for speaking about his dream. Fitting, isn't it?" Robin explained. She paused to watch a soaking wet Hoshi drag an equally soaking wet Chopper and Zoro over the banister before smiling and going into the cabin.
"Yosh, let's go check it out!" Luffy said.
"Oi oi, wait a minute Luffy," Usopp said. "We can't go yet! There are these guys- Chopper, you saw them too, righ-"
Turning for Chopper's support, Usopp saw Chopper lying on the deck gasping. Zoro had peeled off his shirt and was wringing it out, and Hoshi crossed her arms across her chest and shook herself out, spraying water everywhere. "Umm… what are you guys doing?"
"I… I thought I was a goner!" Chopper gasped.
Zoro sported a huge bump on his head. He rubbed it gingerly. "Man, that hurt Chopper!"
"Geez, the both of you made me jump in after you!" Hoshi teasingly scolded them. "Now I'm wet all over again."
"B-but," Chopper stuttered. "Nami wa-"
"WHAT? I was WHAT exactly? You going to call me a moron too?!"
Chopper screamed in terror.
YES! The crew has a new lead on Sky Island! Does Sky Island exist? Who is this Montblanc Cricket, and will he help the crew get to their destination?