Hello again! And welcome back to the 'Reviewer's Reply'!
Robin: You got a few good ones here.
Let's see!
Robin: (picks up first one) From mimifoxlove…
Well, the deal with Zoro and his swords is that he only starts out with one and will gain two when he gets involved in Luffy's mission to maintain peace in the city as well as protecting him from the UVH.
Robin: You're doing it again.
Hey! I didn't explain HOW Zoro gets involved.
Robin: (giggles and grabs another) From hanabi857…
Oh, you're having trouble finding the songs on YouTube? Well… I'm not good with links, but I'll post them up in my profile as soon as I get this chapter done.
Robin: That will be interesting. (grabs another) From Kami-san…
(giggles nervously) Wow… I got two reviewer's who scare me, and that's an honorable trait in their books.
Robin: Congratulations. (smiles)
Thanks… I think…
Robin: (grabs another) From XcrazyXookamiX…
… (twitch) Uh… thanks for the first part and… Chinese water torture… What's that?
Robin: You seem interested.
I've heard about the water boarding method that they used on criminals, but I never heard about the Chinese water torture… And I'm kinda scared to know, but curious at the same time.
Robin: Just be careful what you're asking for.
I know…
Robin: (grabs another) From DarkDreamer2009…
(bows) Thank you.
Robin: (grabs another) From Pirateking1…
(blinks) Uh… It's actually the other way around, but thanks!
Robin: (grabs last review) A box from… NeoGene…
Oh, a new reviewer? (opens box and sees a doll holding flowers and it gives her the flowers) … Thank you… (is a little shocked at the moment)
Robin: (giggles) Reminds me of Cook-san. Well then, since Cupid-san is temporally shocked at the moment, we'll get the chapter up and… well enjoy!
Follow the sun
Follow the sun
We're leaving the rain behind
Together we'll be in harmony
Taking the time
We will find our way
Sunshine
I feel the energy
I need sunshine
Pouring down on me now
Sunshine
Don't you hide away
I want sunshine
Each and every day
Sunshine
I feel the energy
I need sunshine
Pouring down on me now
Sunshine
Don't you hide away
I want sunshine
Each and every day
Sunshine
I feel the energy
I need sunshine
Pouring down on me now
Sunshine
Don't you hide away
I want sunshine
Each and every day – by Triple J
Chapter 8: Calm Day at the Cemetery
It has been a month since Luffy started living in the city.
"Yes!" Nami called out as she held up a small box, the size of a shoebox.
"What's up Nami?" Luffy asked as he gulped down his glass of apple juice. He was wearing a plain red tee shirt and down to the knees cargo jeans.
It was their day off from school, and Nami, wearing an orange blouse with a black skirt that reached half way down her thigh, energetically placed the box down on the counter.
"What's that?"
"It's my weapon that I asked to be customized from the Mystic Triangle shop!" She said excitedly as she started to open the box.
He stood by the side as he watched his cousin eagerly open the box, like a kid on Christmas morning, as she held three blue bars with spheres in her hands.
"I'm so trying this out!"
"What's it suppose to do?"
She smiled as if she won the lottery as she explained. "This, Luffy, is called a Climatac. This is a weapon that allows me to hit my enemies like a regular pole, as well as burn, shock, and cause hallucinations."
"Cool! Can I see?!"
"If you know an open space that doesn't have a lot of people peeping around."
"No problem! I know a perfect place!"
Cemetery
"Luffy… this is a cemetery…"
"Uh huh."
"I can't try it out here!"
"Why not?"
"Because if I use it here, I'll hit the grave stones!"
"Nami, there's an open field just beyond the hill."
She looked slightly dumbfounded and sighed. "Whatever, let's go…"
When they reached to the top of the hill, they saw Zoro.
"Zoro!" Luffy said excitedly.
Zoro, who was wearing a plain white shirt with a small v at the neck front and black pants and boots, looked up and waved. "Hey Luffy." He said as the teen went up to him. He noticed the girl, who was only a few feet away. "Who's she?"
"My cousin, Nami!"
"Oh…"
"Actually, we're third cousins twice removed." She corrected.
"Still cousins." The teen said simply, faintly hearing Kurina giggle, who joined in a little a while ago.
"What brings you here?" Zoro asked.
Nami was afraid of this question. 'Oh no! If I answer it in a strange way, he'll be suspicious and would go around peeking and find out my secret! What should I do!?'
"Nami wanted to try out her invention on the empty field in this area."
"A what?"
"Her invention!" Luffy cheered.
'Why can't that kid think like that all the time?' Nami thought as she was amazed by her idiot cousin's quick and easily believable lie.
Zoro looked at the three rods in the young woman's hand. "Is that it?" He pointed to the said blue rods.
"Uh… yeah." She said.
"Mind if I watch?"
"Uh…"
"Why not!?" The teen said happily.
"Luffy!"
"What? If it backs fire and you get hurt, Zoro will look for help while I stay with you."
She was dumbfounded. 'Damn it! Now I have to owe him for this!' She thought with a sigh. "Oh! Fine!"
They went to a flat field that was yards away from the cemetery, and Nami stood at the center of the field. 'Okay!' She thought. 'Here goes!'
She put the three rods together, making a pole, and swung it across in a swift motion, only to produce a bubble. 'Huh?'
"Was that suppose to happen?" Zoro asked Luffy, who were sitting on a rock some few feet away.
The teen shrugged. "Beats me."
Nami went up to the bubble and poked it with her stick, which popped and she suddenly felt cold.
"What she doing now? Trying to be funny?" Luffy said.
She pulled herself together as she moved the rod the other way, only to have another bubble.
"Is it some kind of bubble machine?" Zoro said, looking extremely bored.
"Nami said something about being able to make lightening out of it."
Zoro looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything more and watched the fruitless attempts the girl was doing.
She popped that bubble and felt a warm gust of wind from it. She sighed as she spinned the pole above her head before swinging it down diagonally, creating a bubble that seems to have a spark in it.
"Well that different." Zoro said as the bubble popped on its own, shocking the girl.
"Nami!" Luffy called. "Oi! You okay!?"
"I'm fine!" She said as she took out her purse mirror and saw her hair sticking up and out. "DAMN IT!!"
"Oh boy…" Luffy said. "She's mad, best to stay here a bit."
"Sounds fine by me." Zoro said as he and the teen watched the girl throw a tantrum.
"It usually takes her an hour before she's back to being calm."
"Seriously?"
The teen nodded, making the other sigh and the ghost girl loose interest.
"I'm gonna see what the other ghosts are doing, this is kinda stupid." Kurina said as she was heading back towards the cemetery when she saw something. "Hey, Luffy, there's someone watching behind the bushes."
Luffy only responded by looking like he might've heard something and looked back to see Usopp, hiding in the bushes. "Hey Usopp!"
Zoro looked behind him as well and waved. "Yo."
"Uh… hey guys… What's uh… going on?" Usopp said as he went out of the bushes and joined the two.
Luffy saw another ghost with the long nose teen. The ghost was a woman with black, slightly wavy hair and a long, pointed nose. 'I wonder if that's his mom? It would explain the long nose a lot.' He thought as he smiled. "Just watching Nami try out her invention." He said.
"Nami?" Usopp said as he watched the girl, who has yet realized that she had an audience.
"Luffy's third cousin, twice removed." Zoro said.
"Mind if I watch with you guys?"
"Not at all!" Luffy said as they watched her try it again, only to have the same results.
"That's cool." Usopp said. "I've never seen a bubble hold static before."
"Obviously that's not her aim." Zoro said as he yawned.
"Damn it!" She said as she stomped over to the three guys. "We're leaving Luffy! And no 'buts'!"
"Aw!"
"Uh… Excuse me…"
"WHAT!?"
"N-Nevermind…"
"Be nice Nami!" Luffy said with a straight face that was rarely there.
She sighed and looked at Usopp. "Sorry… what?"
"W-Well… Mind if I take a look at your… uh… what is it called?"
"Climatac?"
"Yeah…"
"I don't know…"
"Usopp's really good at inventing and fixing Nami! Give him a chance!"
She sighed as she saw the cute eager puppy look. "Fine!" She held out the rod for the long nosed teen to look at. 'I hope he doesn't get suspicious…' She thought as she warned. "Brake it and you owe me five thousand beli!"
"Okay! Okay! Don't be so uptight." Usopp said as he took apart the rods and looked at the structure from inside out. "There's the problem!" He put his bag down, took out some tools, and went to work.
A quarter of an hour later went by before the long nosed teen professionally put the rods together and handed it back to the girl. "Now try it."
She went back out onto the middle of the field and took a deep breath. She did a few spins of the rod over her head before swinging the pole down across from her and pointed towards the sky. From this point, she saw a dark cloud coming up from her rod.
"What the!?" Usopp said as he pointed to the black cloud. "Was that suppose to ha-" Before he could finish, a bolt of lightening came out and nearly striked Zoro, who quickly dodged from where he was sitting.
"What the hell!?" He yelled as the black cloud disappeared.
"Yay!" She said as she jumped up and down in one place holding her pole close.
"She's happy." Luffy said.
She ran up to Usopp and hugged him. "Oh! Thank you for fixing my Climatac!"
"Well… What did you expect from the Great Usopp, the man who could fix anything!"
"Wow! Really?!" The black haired teen said as stars seemed to appear.
Zoro rolled his eyes as Usopp made up some tale about being able to fix some famous tower.
Nami quickly got over her gratitude and went up to Zoro to get away from the other two. "So you're the famous Roronoa Zoro." She said. "Luffy wouldn't shut up about you."
"I bet." He said and would've sworn he saw money in her eyes, but it was quickly gone.
"Yeah. It got to the point I had to start charging him fifty beli for every time he mentions you."
Zoro didn't say anything.
"Oh, and sorry about the lightening bolt, I can't really control it." She said with a thought. 'Yet…'
"No one got hurt." He said as he way of accepting the apology.
"Oh, and Zoro…" She said, looking like a concerned older sister as she looked at Luffy. "If you ever hurt him, you're going to pay dearly…" She said with a solemn tone, but the way she looked at Zoro would make kids piss themselves.
"Why the hell would I want to hurt him?" He responded with a glare of his own.
For a moment, they stared at each other before she moved and patted the black-haired teen's head. "I'm going back home, you can stay with your friends, but I expect you home at a decent time."
"Okay!"
She smiled as she headed back up the hill and left the three guys and two ghosts.
'Bitch.' Zoro thought as Kurina said it verbally when the ginger haired girl left.
"So Usopp, why are you here?" Luffy asked.
"Visiting my mom."
"She's buried here?" He took a quick glance at the woman, who smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, she died when I was a kid, and my dad was hardly around but he sent letters to me almost everyday while I was in a special childcare system."
"What does your dad do?" Zoro asked.
"All I know that he travels with some other guy and his group."
"Wait a sec! Usopp! Is your dad's name Yasopp?"
"Yeah… That's his name."
"I know him!"
"Seriously!?"
"Yeah! I thought your names sounded the same, but I kept forgetting to ask!"
"How is my dad before you came here?"
"He was really happy and talked a lot about you, of course I kinda forgot about that because I was too excited about coming here and going to a new school!"
"I wouldn't be surprised." Zoro said.
"What about your folks, Zoro?" Usopp asked.
"Never knew 'em."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"And it doesn't bother you?"
"Why should it bother me? I grew up just fine with Sensei. Besides, it's my life… I make who I am today and tomorrow. Knowing your parents isn't always a major thing in your life, it just lets you know what they used to be."
Luffy nodded. "I don't know my parents either. My big brother, Ace, he could barely remember Mom, but other then that, ma and Ace did okay with Shanks taking care of us."
"Shanks? As in the Red Shanks?!"
"Who else would he be?"
"Who?" Zoro asked.
"He's a famous traveler and researcher for the supernatural."
"Supernatural?"
"Yeah! Like ghosts, werewolves, vampires, all sorts of monsters!"
Luffy smiled big to let the 'monster' thing not bother him.
"Ghosts I can understand, but those others? Give me a break!"
"Why? Don't you think monsters exist?"
"If you're five and don't know any better. Monsters don't exist unless you make them exist in your mind."
"And ghosts aren't monsters?"
"No way!" Luffy called out! "Ghosts are just another way of saying a spirit! Shanks said before I left that there are different kinds of spirits. The ones in cemeteries are the literally free spirits; they can go where ever they please and act like guardians to the people they care for. And then there's the spirits that become rotten and become possessful spirits."
"Is my dad a part of it?"
"He makes sure that nothing bad happens to Shanks and some of the men. Don't worry Usopp, your dad is a master pro when it comes to getting a bulls eye!"
"Sounds so cool!"
"Yeah!" Luffy said with a laugh.
"Well, I better get going." Zoro said as he got up.
"Where?" Usopp asked.
"I'm going to visit Sensei, I promised to help him teach some of his new students."
"That's so awesome!" Luffy said.
Zoro just chuckled as he ruffled Luffy's hair. "Thanks." He said as he walked passed them and went his way up the hill. "See you at school!"
"See ya Zoro!" Both teens said as Kurina followed.
"Thanks Luffy!" She said as she followed the man.
"Oh shoot!" Usopp said.
"What?"
"I forgot to mention the joint school party coming up soon."
"A party?" The black haired teen said with some excitement in his voice.
"Yeah, the school just called to let us know about that. Well, anyway, would you mind helping me out with some shopping? I really don't want to make two trips today."
"Sure!"
Later: Luffy's Room
Luffy plopped down onto his bed and grabbed his journal and pen.
'Dear Journal,
Today was a really cool day! First, Nami gets a package from the Mystic Triangle shop, which is this secret shop for our kind to get some stuff that normal shops wouldn't have and they do custom jobs too. Well, anyway it's called a Climatac and she decided to try it out. I lead her to the cemetery and we met Zoro! He watched Nami with me as she tried to figure out how to work with her Climatac. She was really pissed when the thing kept making bubbles, but then Usopp came out of the blue, well, more like the bushes, and fixed the problem. Then it worked, which almost hit Zoro with a lightening bolt, and Nami left a bit after that. But me, Zoro, and Usopp sticked around a bit. Oh! Kurina and Usopp's mom was there too! And talked about our folks, which led to finding out that Usopp is Yasopp's son. Yasopp is a really good friend of Shanks and the best sharpshooter I know! But if I told Usopp what his dad has to go through, it would blow my cover and Yasopp would kill me! Well, any way, Zoro left to see his sensei, and Usopp and me went shopping for some things for Usopp, since he lives alone with three kids for neighbors. Oh! And Usopp told me that there's going to be a party in a couple weeks! He said that the party was a dance and it allows my school and Nami's school to come together to have a night of fun! I can't wait for the party to come! I'm gonna ask Zoro if he's coming, that would be so much fun! That's it for today, I'll write in you later, bye!'
He stopped writing, placed his journal and pen down, and was going to take a nap when he heard the phone ring. He quickly ran into the kitchen and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Luffy?" Said a soft, female voice on the other line.
"Kaya? Is that you?"
"Hey Luffy! How's the city?"
"It's so awesome! Very different with the tall buildings and with so many people!"
"Do you have to fight very often?"
"Nah! Most of the hot spots are being covered by the UVH."
"Oh…"
"But that's good! After all, I'm a student and I have to keep up with my school work if I don't want people getting suspicious or involved."
"That's true."
"So Kaya! What brings you to call?"
The young girl giggled on the other line as she answered. "Well… I was thinking about moving into the city where you're at."
"Huh?!"
Don't ever stop, don't ever quit
Don't ever
Don't ever
Don't ever
Don't
Don't
Don't ever, ever, ever, ever
Yes, if I win
Then you are my friend
You are the best thing that ever happened to me
Don't ever
Don't ever
Don't
Don't
Don't ever, ever, ever
Yes, if I win
Win, win
Win, win
Win, win
Don't ever stop, don't ever quit
Don't ever quit your love for me
Yes, if I win
Then you are my friend
You are the best thing that ever happened to me
No one could ever come between you and me, baby
Because we know what friends should be
Don't ever stop, don't ever quit
Don't ever quit your love on me
Yes, if I win
Then you are my friend
You are the best thing that ever happened to me – Dr. Vibe feat. JP Miles
Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! Until next time, see ya!
Robin: See you in the next chapter!
