A/N: Obviously I have no sense of priorities. I had an extra day off school today, and instead of working on the homework I've been procrastinating all weekend, I write and read manga :) So now that this chapter is done, there's no more putting it off :/

I definitely think that we're coming up on the climax. Three, maybe four more chapters left? Maybe? I don't know. We'll see.

Enjoy~!


Chapter 8

The king looked down upon the peasant, who stood there claiming to be the rightful king. What nonsense! He must be mad! This man who was nothing more than a crazy commoner barging into his grand party to celebrate the beginning of his reign… a good punishment was in order. Oh, but what should that punishment –

"Do you want me to read or not?" I asked him, stopping in the middle of the sentence when he started groping my chest gently. We were up in the crow's nest, sitting on the floor, and I had an eye on Hideki and Hikime who were out on deck as well as their grandfather who was in the library once again.

"Or not," He mumbled, pulling the book from my hand and closing it, setting it down on the bench above me. As he reached behind me, his face came down to mine, finding my lips with ease. I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck and sitting up straighter and pushing him to the ground. I came down on top of him, resting my chin on his chest and watching his face.

"I love you," I told him.

His ears went red. "Mm. I love you too."

I leaned in to kiss him again, my hand slipping down to his waistband. Just as my fingers touched him, I froze.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I can't see Hikime on deck," I got to my feet and went to the window, looking down. Hideki looked panicked, beside the railing. He looked around, looking for something, then he opened his mouth and shouted, "Sofu!"

"Let's go," I said, quickly going to the ladder and climbing down. I used extra hands to lower me to the ground gently. Zoro leapt down after me. Hideki took off his shirt and shoes, standing up on the railing, barely glancing at me as I asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Hikime fell in," He said, preparing himself to dive in. Tanaka-ojiisan rushed over to us.

"I got it," Zoro told him, not bothering to take anything off as he leapt overboard. I only glanced at Hideki and the old man before I ran to the helm, turning off the paddles and then dropping the anchor. Then I rushed down the stairs so that I could get to the back of the stern, waiting for Zoro to resurface.

"Hikime!" Tanaka-ojiisan and Hideki shouted when they surfaced. They looked over at me, hoping that I had something to pull them up with.

I produced a chain of hands, grabbing Hikime and pulling him up. I laid him down on the ground as his grandfather and brother rushed to his side. I turned back to help Zoro, but he was already gone, swimming towards the anchor so that he could climb up himself.

"He's not breathing," Hideki said.

"Move," I told them, kneeling down and beginning to perform CPR on him. Zoro rushed back to us, dripping with water and adding to the puddle that surrounded Hikime.

"Is he alright?" He asked.

"Hikime," Hideki was holding his brother's hand, his grandfather's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly. Hideki didn't even wince with the pressure of the fingers that dug in.

I didn't reply as I kept pushing down on his abdomen. I plugged his nose, ready to force air into his lungs, but he coughed up water. I sat back, Zoro's hand going to my upper back, rubbing it gently.

"Thank goodness," Tanaka-ojiisan sighed with relief. He had been so tense, though I had only noticed it when his entire body relaxed.

"Hikime," Hideki squeezed his brother's hand.

But instead of hugging his grandfather or his brother, Hikime wrapped his arms around my waist, crying loudly. I was startled, as was everyone else. Slowly I moved my hand to the back of the boy's head.

"It's okay," I told him, glancing up at Zoro, who shrugged, before looking back down at Hikime. "That must have been scary, right? Shhh… it's alright. You're safe now."

He didn't stop crying in my arms

"Thank you," Tanaka-ojiisan said.

"He's a good kid," I said, continuing to comfort his grandchild, "Hideki, too."

With that, Hideki got to his feet and walked away. I frowned as I stared after him, finding that an uncommon reaction to praise.

"I suppose I owe you one," The old man said.

"How about not handing us over to the Marines?" Zoro suggested, wringing out his shirt over the railing.

"Let's go talk in the kitchen," I told them. "I'll prepare dinner."


"This town seems peaceful," Chopper sighed with relief.

"Yohoho!" Brooke laughed. "What a pleasant tone to my ears! But –"

"You don't have ears," Usopp rolled his eyes as they walked through town. "Brooke, some comedian you are. I know all your material."

"Firstly, I am a musician, not a comedian," Brooke said, lifting his head with dignity. "And second, at least I don't have a nose like yours! Because I don't have a nose at all! Yohoho!"

"What does my nose have to do with anything?" Usopp called after him as Brooke ran away.

"Brooke makes a good point," Franky nodded.

"Mm," Chopper agreed.

"What does my nose have to do with anything!" Usopp asked. Franky and Chopper exchanged a brief look before walking away. "Chopper? Franky? SOMEBODY!"


"Aniki and I were arguing about mother, and he pushed me. He didn't mean to push me over the edge though," Hikime said, sitting at the table beside his grandfather and across the table from Zoro.

"That makes sense," I murmured, putting out the dishes on the table. I held a plate in front of me, frowning as I ran my finger over the circumference. "That's why he walked away when I called him a good kid, huh?"

"Aniki is a good kid!" Hikime said.

"He loves his brother," Tanaka-ojiisan said, ruffling his grandson's hair. "But he definitely resents his mother."

"Well, she was gone for how many years, only to return with another child," Zoro snorted. He looked at me, and gave me a look that said if I ever left him for a long period of time and showed up with a child, he wouldn't be very happy either. But this and that were two totally different situations. I didn't have to go anywhere that Zoro couldn't come with me.

"Four years," The old man said. "She had been gone for four years, leaving when Hideki was two, returning when he was six. Since then she's been in the Marine jail for the past eight."

"So he's fourteen," I looked towards the door.

"And he's been without his mother for twelve years," He said.

"I suppose it's only natural that he bears some resentment," I pressed my lips together. I couldn't expect all situations to be like mine –always wanting to see my mother instead of resenting her and her absence.

"I'm sure he'll be fine once he sees his mother again," He said, looking down at his hands. "But, it'll be worse if the only memory he has of her is her being executed. This is why we need a bounty that is equal to or over two hundred million beli. This is why we needed to use you two."

"Which would put you at forty million more than needed," I brought my hand to my face as I sat down at the table. I peeked out at Zoro. "What do you think?"

"Fight or flight?" He asked.

"Mm."

"Fight."

"Of course you'd say that."

"Then why'd you ask?"

I chuckled, turning back to the old man. "We'll help you break her out of there. Then we'll get the four of you off that island."

"Break her out of there?" The old man was surprised. "I mean, yes, it's a Marine base that trains a large majority of Marines, but they have some pretty strong men in there."

"We have a pretty strong man right here," I said, placing my hand on Zoro's shoulder. He reached up and took my hand in his, letting them fall and hang in the space between us. "You can rely on us. We're not bad pirates."

"Like dad!" Hikime said.

Tanaka-ojiisan smiled down at his grandson.

"So what do you say?" I asked. "Either way, we have our nakama to return to –we don't have time to waste in prison."

"Let's save her," Hikime begged his grandfather. He turned to us. "Please, don't let her die."

Tanaka-ojiisan looked like he was at a loss for a moment, before getting onto the floor and bowing. "Please. Save my daughter."

"Raise your head, old man," Zoro said. "We would have broken her out of there no matter what you all said."

"It's true," I smiled. "It's the least we could do after you saved us."

"We didn't save you," Hikime said, frowning.

I took out and waved the eternal pose. "Who knows where we could have been without this thing. You saved us."


"You play very well," The store clerk said. "Are you looking to buy a new instrument?"

Brooke put down the violin in the store, treating it as gently as if it were his own. But it wasn't his. While he could produce an amazing sound with this one, it didn't match the whole sounding notes that came from his violin back on the ship.

"No," Brooke said. "I was just dying to play a little tune." He turned to Chopper who had tagged along. "But I'm already dead! Skeleton joke! Yohoho!"

And the store clerk backed away slowly.


"I see it," Zoro said out over the speaker. "Island up ahead."

"We'll wait for night to fall before we follow through with our plan," I called up to him.

"Thank you," Hikime said, looking up at me.

"For?"

He paused before saying, "For being a good pirate and going out of your way and saving my mom. Thank you."

"Your welcome."


"You're getting more and more worried, aren't you?" Luffy asked Nami as they sat on the roof of a small church

"Well, yeah," Nami murmured. "Now we're not even on the side of the island that they'll return to."

"They're doing fine. They're just on an adventure."

He was quiet for a moment.

"I want to go on an adventure~!" He pouted.

Nami chuckled. Only Luffy would get jealous over something like this.