Chapter 7 - Shanks' Wish for Rei
"I wonder which store Nami and Robin are in?" Chopper asked from Zoro's shoulders.
They had arrived in the shopping district where streets and streets of stores spread out all the way back to the Wall. Merchants and pirates alike came in and out of the shops with bags of merchandise, while pairs of red hooded cloaks patrolled and kept watch. Some of them waved or nodded at Ben and John when they passed by.
"There's so many stores. Where do we start?" Usopp asked, looking around.
"What do you mean that's too high of a discount? That's a great deal! You should take it!" came a shout in the distance.
"I think we found her," Zoro said, making a sharp turn right.
Chopper immediately started tugging on Zoro's hair as if it were reins. "No, Zoro! The voice came from in front of us! Turn back! Turn back!"
"Ouch! Stop pulling my hair!" Zoro said grimacing in pain to hide the blush rising to his cheeks. He begrudgingly turned back to his original direction.
They followed the sound of the shouts until they arrive at a bookstore with Nami and Robin inside. Robin holding up a small pile of books, while some of her hands sprouted on the ground were carrying more.
"Nami, are you sure Chopper said he wanted that many books? I'm sure we can just pick out some of them," Robin said hesitantly to Nami.
"No, we need to pick a hundred so that we can get a bigger discount!" Nami replied and then turned her attention back to the male cashier, "Right? One hundred books for one hundred bellis! That's a great deal!"
"Oy, Nami! What are you doing?" Zoro snapped, interrupting the owner from arguing back.
"Nami, I don't need that many books," Chopper exclaimed looking at all the medical books Robin held in her hands.
Usopp looked at the stacks and stacks of books that surrounded the two women both on the counter and by their feet. "How did you plan on carrying this all back with you?"
"I was going to ask Zoro or Sanji-kun," Nami said matter-of-factly.
"Don't just assume I'm going to carry all that!" Zoro shouted back.
"We can help carry some, if you'd like," Ben offered.
Nami eyes widened as she realized that Ben and John were there. "Oh no, Red Cloaks. Did you guys get into trouble? Are we under arrest?!"
She grabbed her Clima-Tact and held it closer to her body.
"It's a long story, but they're helping us! They brought us here to find you, Nami-san," Brook said quickly and assuredly.
Nami lowered her weapon and gave them a big smile, "Okay. Thanks for the offer! I'll want two-hundred books then."
Chopper jumped down from Zoro's shoulders. He quickly looked through all the stacks and picked out three books. He placed his selection on the counter. "Nami, I just want these three. Honest. I don't need all the rest."
"And I'll just take these two please," Robin said placing two history books on top of Chopper's stack.
"Fine," Nami grumbled, "Five books for 5 Bellis!"
"How is that fair?" the cashier cried, "Look, since you're friends with the Red Cloaks, I can give you a discount. These five books for 30 Bellis! That's as low as I can go, I swear."
"Deal," Nami said handing over the cash, while everyone else breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh by the way, I heard the Haki users are pretty strong on this island." She leaned across the counter and winked at the cashier, who started to blush a little.
"Y-y-y-yes, there are," he stammered, "What do you want to know, miss?"
"I heard you guys can see far into the future using Observation Haki," Nami said with a twinkle in her eye and leaning a bit further over the counter, putting a bit more pressure on her breasts, "And can even make accurate prophecies."
The cashier's face turned even redder as he nodded his head, "Yes, there are some who can do that."
"Is there anyone in the area? For free? For me?" Nami asked coyly, putting a finger to her lips.
Zoro rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest. He was always incredulous at how easy men fall into that debt witch's trap. Women , he huffed to himself.
The cashier's nose started to bleed. "You can try Madame Cecilia," he said weakly.
"Madame Cecilia?" Nami repeated, standing back up and turning her attention to the Ben and John. "Do you know who that is?"
Cecilia , Robin thought to herself, why does that name sound so familiar?
"Yes, we can take you to her, if you want," Ben answered looking worriedly at the cashier, who had sank to the floor when his knees gave out.
"Why are we going there?" Usopp asked.
"Nami wants to see if there's treasure in her future," Robin explained.
"We need to find Luffy and tell him about the Day of the Dead!" Chopper exclaimed.
"The day of the dead?" Nami asked.
"It's a day long festival and it's tomorrow! We should stay!" Chopper said excitedly.
"That does sound like fun," Nami mused before picking up Chopper and putting him back on Zoro's shoulders, "We can tell him after we find Madame Cecilia."
"What?" Chopper complained.
"What if she sees something scary in our future?" Usopp said shuddering as his imagination goes wild with the dangerous possibilities.
"What if she sees something good?" Nami countered, "Like you becoming a warrior god with hundreds of men at your feet, waiting to do your bidding."
"I don't want to be a warrior god," Usopp complained, "I just want to be a brave warrior!"
"Don't you want to know if there's even a chance of that happening?" Nami said.
Usopp thought about it and shook his head, "I'd rather not know."
"Fine, I can just have my fortune told then. You guys can just come with me and then we'll go find Luffy together," Nami said stubbornly, "Lead the way, Red Cloaks!"
"My name is Ben, and this is John," Ben said quickly, "Madame Cecilia's house is actually right outside the food market, so it's on the way."
"Great! Let's go!" Nami said pumping her fist in the air.
Meanwhile, Luffy, Sanji, and Franky were still browsing through the food market, the bottom of the cart slightly bent under the weight of the supplies they've already gotten.
"Who knew people were so generous?" Luffy mused, sitting at the top of the pile.
"Get off the food! The cart is heavy enough as it is with the barrels of cola," Sanji shouted. beads of sweat poured down his face as he pulled the cart.
Franky, who was rolling a barrel of cola in front of him as they walked, called out to Luffy too, "He's right. What if you squash all the food and ruin it with your dirty shoes? We won't be able to eat anything."
With that, Luffy jumped off the cart and patted his rounded belly. "Okay, okay. Where are we off to next?"
"We should probably go back to Sunny-go," Franky said.
Sanji stopped for a moment to wipe the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Agree. We can't really explore more without unloading all of this."
"But we haven't even tried all the food carts yet," Luffy whined.
"Here, I'll go back and unload the cart. Franky, you can stay with Luffy," Sanji said, giving up and turning his cart around.
"What about this barrel?" Franky said gesturing to the one in front of him.
With a swift kick from Sanji, the barrel landed onto the cart with a heavy bang. Nothing was damaged, although the cart was even more curved at the bottom than before.
"I'll take it," Sanji said, his voice slightly strained, "I'll meet up with you guys."
"Okay!" Luffy said waving happily as the cook headed back to the ship. As he turned back, he saw a flash of red hair from the corner of his eyes and froze. Shanks?!, he thought, Shanks is here!
"Luffy?" Franky said, noticing that his captain had stopped dead in his tracks, "Luffy? What's wrong?"
Luffy blinked and stared at the direction of the red hair but there was nothing there. It was just a vacant alley way that led to a dead end. "Nothing, I thought I saw something."
At the top of a building, right above the alley way, Shanks breathed a sigh of relief. Whew , he thought, Rei would kill me if Luffy spotted me after all that trouble I made her go through.
He couldn't resist and took another peak off the side of the building at his protege, who was walking further and further away from him. He sure has grown, Shanks thought proudly before looking around and heading off towards the docks. Luffy, I leave my niece in your hands. You better take good care of her!
