A/N. Sorry readers that I took such a long time to finish this chapter but it wasn't easy to write in my defense. Without further ado though, enjoy and comment if you wish.
Several weeks had passed since the meeting at Foxy's in which Zoro had won a Ferrari. Zoro didn't like all of the attention that the car brought whenever he drove it, so now Zoro pretty much hated the car altogether. Luffy found this particularly funny because everyone else had taken to calling Zoro a plethora or various insulting names for refusing to use it. Strangely, Sanji had taken to buying him dresses and sparkly bras instead, Luffy didn't grasp why but it would always create comical explosions of anger from Zoro. Luffy could understand Zoro's feelings though, he liked to keep to himself.
Brook had discovered what Enel's project was, which disappointedly turned out to be nothing more than an expansion in his "exclusive" club to include dancing girls. Luffy didn't really understand the appeal of watching woman strip for a price but 'to each their own' as some say. As to why Enel was trying to get the funding from dodgy underground brokers rather than a bank however, no one really understood. Brook was still kind of on surveillance there just in case.
Several other ONE PIECE stories had been published including; Fullbody, a police chief pretending to be from the food standards agency and attempting to close down Sanji's restaurant with false claims that the food served was rancid. He was mad because Sanji flirted with his wife one evening when they had dined there but Fullbody stupidly decided to abuse the power of his badge and attempt to ruin someone's livelihood because of jealously. It's understood that Fullbody may be about to lose his job over the incident since ONE PIECE's publication because the police are so embarrassed by his actions.
Franky wrote an interesting article on scrap merchants who buy metal that has clearly been stolen from train lines or other public places and doing so because of gaps in the law, which could prevent this from happening. Current laws allow thieves and even some crews to get increasingly wealthier by simply stealing then selling public property. Since the publication it has been noted that the majority of scrap merchants have voluntarily applied stricter rules on what they will buy. The law however, will take time to change but at least the public have more awareness of the problem.
Robin and Chopper by far had the biggest breakthrough in discovering that the government were spending millions of people's tax money on a group of individuals called Black Cats. It was BC's job to tip the balance, or rig, any elections, even local government investment decisions in the favour of what current Minister President Edward Teach saw appropriate.
This was something Robin had been investigating for years, following the movements of Kuro, a man who had tried to silence one of her own historical discoveries before she joined the Straw Hats. Chopper managed to finally hack a number of revealing communications regarding what Kuro was asked to achieve directly for Teach himself. The heavy accusations published have since exploded across world media. Headlines of Teach's alleged corruption has aroused mass anger from the public and has left him in some seriously hot water. Shank's was doing his best in hiding ONE PIECE's location; they had angered a lot of powerful people.
Despite all of what was happening though Luffy felt detached from it all. His mind was struggling to engage in anything other than the new discoveries surrounding Ace's death. He had sent both Nami and Usopp on surveillance around the West Docks in Orange Town for the last two weeks. So far they had gained nothing significantly more revealing then what Lucci had told them at Foxy's.
Buggy's crew or possible simple lackeys; were regarded as nothing more than a nuisance to the dock workers and wandering passerby. More noise than anything threatening, most people just seemed to ignore them. Indeed the worst thing reported about them in the last two weeks was when some kids wanted to touch a chopper style motorbike they owned; when the crew refused, they chased the kids off by doing nothing but revving their engines. Buggy himself, however, had not been seen at all.
Nami had the surprise ability of being able to steal items completely unnoticed, even by Usopp, who had been stood next to her while she did it. Nami had successfully mapped every detail of the dock area, the details you don't get from google maps. She also managed to bring back one of the crews phone, a passport belonging to someone named Seymour Cabaji and a laptop that contained several messages between Buggy and someone called Alvida.
Robin and Nami were both going through all the messages and devices in more detail while Chopper had taken over stripping the gadgets whole in case anything was hidden somewhere on them that Luffy didn't understand. So far nothing seemed particularly significant though.
Although Luffy appreciated everyone doing their bit to help him out, there was a part of him that didn't want it. This investigation was very personal to him; Ace was his brother, not theirs and in some ways it was like his friends were opening old wounds and emotions with each new discovery made. Luffy would admit to crying for several hours with Makino when he presented the found hat to her but he knew deep down that he had to continue moving forward to help him find some closure.
The intercom from Sanji suddenly announced that dinner was ready, which sharply withdrew Luffy from his thoughts. Shooting away from the jobs board he continually pressed the elevator button, which was always ridiculously slow in his opinion. Luffy would admit to not really caring that he was jabbing his elbow constantly into Brook's gut in the process.
When the door finally opened; Brook, Chopper and himself lurched forward suddenly from the pressure that Franky's body mass had been pressing against all their backs with, in the usual great rush to get food. Although it caused poor Chopper to fall over and Brook to crush against the back wall, Luffy felt it was more important to jab his finger continually on the button for the third floor so he could hurry to where he could eat.
The short journey to the upper floor was always tedious for Luffy but he took this time to prepare for his game with Sanji of 'what he could grab to eat before he had to sit down and wait for everyone to be seated to continue his fill'. Pushing Franky out of the way when the doors dinged open creating a shriek of "Whoa Bro!" from said man; Luffy sped as fast as he could round the kitchen to the table already filled with delicious meats.
Spotting Sanji's angry face and a ready spatula by the centre of the table on the right side, Luffy spontaneously decided to leap from the end of the table and handspring to the left. Sanji had cleverly placed all of the food right at the head of the table furthest away from him, no doubt to try and foil his attempts for as long as possible. After a second long standoff where they both eyed the other down, Luffy began his assault.
His initial snatch attempt was thwarted by an equally quick strike by Sanji's spatula slapping his hand back but his other hand dodged underneath and managed to grab a chicken drumstick, a victory if only a small one. Sanji's face darkened some more as Luffy downed his prize immediately and spat out the bone. Sanji would be using his legs next, Luffy could tell by his posture, meaning Luffy only had a tiny window to grab something else before he would be kicked clear out of the room.
If there was one thing Luffy was unmatched at, it was his speed. Even though Sanji was good competition, he just didn't quite match up. Luffy smirked as he eyed his opponent down once again. It was Sanji who started this time, Luffy had to spin right to avoid Sanji's powerful left heel in his face. Taking advantage of the brief break it took Sanji to gear his leg up to jab at him again, Luffy dived for the plate of bacon. His fingers brushed the edge of the plate at the same time he could feel the rush of air ruffling his hair from the decent of Sanji's leg into the back of his skull.
Somewhere in the background a wail could be heard but Luffy concentrated on the quickest dodge he was capable of to escape with his life and the bacon. Projecting himself to the head of the table by the mere tips of his fingers, he locked the plate protectively to his stomach and relied on the momentum of his speed to land back on his feet.
Hearing Sanji's repressed anger, a soft thud, Franky's extra loud "Oww!", noticing that he had won the plate of bacon and landed on his feet as hoped, Luffy turned with his victory grin and tipped the entire stacked pile of meaty goodness into his mouth before anyone else could swipe it.
Upon closer observation while he was chewing he noticed that Sanji's left heel was imbedded into one of Franky's huge fists that was turning an alarming shade of scarlet on the table top. "Don't destroy this table dude with your freaky legs" Franky was admonishing a stunned Sanji "This is a 'one of a kind' piece". Luffy swallowed just as they both turned on him with varying degrees of annoyance etched on their faces.
"Luffy bro!" Franky said sounding exasperated "don't go eating all of the food, that's for everyone to share. You guzzling everything in sight just isn't cool". Luffy might have felt a slither of guilt as Franky sighed and then moved to a seat further down the table shaking his hand, which was certainly going to bruise.
Chopper and Brook had sat quietly and were chatting amicably at the opposite side from Franky as they started moving food away from him and closer to their end of the table. Luffy moved to take his usual seat at the head of the table accepting his fate of the now empty plate of bacon being violently swung into his face by an irritated Sanji; it beat being kicked out after all.
After his usual funny stomping and cursing, Sanji brought out more amazing looking dishes, which Luffy knew he couldn't touch until Sanji said so if he wanted to eat at all. In walked Zoro and Robin who took their usual seats in a calm manner that Luffy could never understand. Could they not smell the meat at all? Some of his friends were just plain weird. "Luffy, you have a bit of blood here" Zoro informed him pointing just below his own nose, Zoro looked quite tired for some reason but Luffy wiped at his face to remove the bit of blood with his sleeve as instructed.
The ping of the elevator and a rush of feet soon had everyone's attention turning to some slightly out of breath new comers. "We saw him!" Nami burst out excitedly, "we saw Buggy" Usopp clarified between heavy breathing."You will not believe how freaky looking he is!" Nami continued staring earnestly into Luffy's face. "He has some kind of warehouse a few streets away from the dock" Usopp cut in with his bit of information. "He has blue hair!" Nami pointed out in clear disgust; screwing her pretty face up all in quick succession.
"Whoa sister" a voice cut through, which sounded like the biggest stereotype of a surfers voice Nami had ever heard. "I'll have you know that blue hair is very sexy". She turned to the source of the voice to see a ridiculously tanned, bulky guy in an open Hawaiian shirt stroking a huge red hued hand through a quiff of sky blue hair. He had strange down pointy eyelashes but by far the oddest thing was the fact that his nose was made out of metal.
"Ah Miss Nami" Robin piped in "you have not yet met Franky and Brook have you?" she said as calmly as ever. "The blue haired man pouting before you is Franky, he is the carpenter I told you about although in reality he is also somewhat of an inventor". Franky took the opportunity to pose, flexing his arm muscles and shouting "super" while everyone's attention was on him.
"And this is Brook" Robin swiftly moved on, ever able to ignore the absurd, gesturing to a thin pale man with the biggest afro Nami had ever seen. "He's a musician and assassin" Robin finished with a subtle but definitely creepy smile. Brook stood and bowed to Nami who was both stunned by his immense height and the fact that she was being introduced so casually to an assassin.
"Yo ho ho ho ho ho" a musical laugh emanated from the man "now that is not quite true, I am more of a spy I would say". Brook had a somewhat distinguished dandyish voice and appeared to have gentlemanly manors, gesturing for one of Nami's hands then giving the back a light kiss. Sanji raved in protest, ignored, in the background from the motion. "I am a musician though, yo ho ho" Brook moved to take his seat once again, that's when Nami noticed that he was blatantly freely staring at her chest with a disturbing happy look on his face.
Crossing her arms purposefully over her cleavage Nami turned back to Franky "ehh sorry, I meant no offence" she said a little sheepishly. "Oww, that's okay sis, it's good to finally meet you anyway" Franky blared loudly, presenting one of his massive palms for her to shake. "I guess me and Zoro bro are a little freaky looking" he contemplated while they exchanged greetings earning a glare from the swordsman and a laugh from Sanji.
"Oi Usopp sit your arse down we're about to eat" Sanji spat startling the easily spooked sharpshooter who was hovering at the end of the table. "Nami my dear, please do take a seat for dinner" Sanji quickly swooned and spun around eventually pulling a chair out next to Franky for her. "Yeah guys we need to eat!" Luffy threw in his protestation, he hated his meals being delayed or interrupted. The fact that Nami and Usopp had found Buggy still wasn't an excuse for denying him food, it could be discussed later.
Sanji thankfully quickly relented and everyone was allowed to enjoy the meal, which seemed to be doubly more violent than usual with the full house of diners. Luffy gave a satisfied burp once he'd cleared the majority of the meat off the table and observed that most of his friends and crew were showing signs of a satisfied food coma as well. "Right everyone, we'll discuss Nami's and Usopp's information in the lounge" Luffy confirmed, earning a number of lazy nods.
"I have a number of photos to show so I'll set them up on the TV; it'll take a few minutes" Usopp spoke over the drags of chair legs on the wood beam floor. "Marimo! You're helping me with the washing up" Sanji called to the retreating swordsman who physically slumped upon hearing his fate. Luffy laughed and patted him on the back as he passed by to get to the lounge, he did feel sorry for Zoro at times.
Sanji never allowed him to help do the washing up any more; in fact Luffy was banned from the main kitchen, which he did think was a bit unfair. He'd only broken a few plates and he could control his appetite at times, if forced. Because Sanji also refused to let the woman help out, although he had to relent occasionally when Robin sometimes got really angry about it, the only people who helped were Zoro, Usopp and Chopper on a regular basis. Franky and Brook would sometimes assist in the clean up but they hardly ever stayed over to eat. Sometimes it was cool to eat downstairs at Makino's bar if Sanji was busy, then they could all eat as many hot wings as they wanted without getting told off.
Luffy consciously tried not to think about hot wings anymore so he wouldn't become hungry quickly again, Sanji really hated that. He turned into the lounge, a spacious room with high ceilings and a huge patterned grass green rug on the floor that Franky lay down before they moved in. Luffy made his way to his favourite chair, a white fluffy sheepskin armchair that he'd had since he was a kid with Makino. Everyone else thought it was pretty ugly but it was the most comfortable chair Luffy had ever sat in; he loved it so much that he had named it "Merry" after a ram he saw on a school trip once, which had really cool horns.
Luffy smiled at the memory as the rest of the team came in and lounged on the numerous other black and brown leather sofas. They were all looking uncomfortably full, Franky was even yawning as he prodded at his bruising hand. Usopp, however, was full of energy and connecting a load of 'things' to the big TV in the corner.
Luffy wasn't massively interested in the latest technology gadgets, he liked seeing what they could do, just wasn't interested in the science behind it but it seemed to really excite Usopp, and Chopper too. Luffy admittedly would be lost without their help on getting ONE PIECE's message out to the public. His greatest concern was that everyone stayed safe and they couldn't get tracked, he trusted them to a great extent.
"Right, ladies and gentleman" Usopp proudly announced once he'd finished fiddling with the TV. The screen was now filled with a picture of the dock area in Orange Town. Usopp and Nami must have had to get up somewhere high to take the shot because it was looking down on a number of shipping crates. Everyone sleepily focused their attention towards Usopp as he positioned himself beside the TV, back straight, chest out.
"As you all should know, Nami and myself were sent on the mission to find out more about Buggy and Buggy's Clowns" Usopp cleared his throat before continuing. "This was not an easy mission and at times it was very dangerous". "Really?" Chopper spoke out with a look of awe on his face, Luffy got excited too, Usopp could always tell good stories.
"Oh yes!" Usopp enthused "there were several moments when Nami and I had to use our best escape tactics to avoid detection from Buggy's crew" Usopp began to act out his tactics. "One group in particular were a very nasty bunch, they used the shipping containers for punching and kicking practice. One guy, who must have been at least 8 feet tall and was built as a wall of muscle, could punch right through the thick steel without getting a single scratch on his fist. I'm sure he knew we were following him because he would always turn and scan the direction we were hidden in".
Nami rolled her eyes as Usopp continued to exaggerate the few crew members they actually came across, they certainly didn't creep around or hide either. Most Buggy crew members they encountered were either asleep or just sitting round looking bored. You could always tell who they were as they all had paint on some part of their face. "Usopp, why don't you just show the photos" Nami suggested, which was met with a general murmur of agreement, with the exception of Chopper, Luffy and Usopp himself who all visually deflated slightly.
"Ri-right well" Usopp cleared his throat once again and stood up a little straighter "I have got a few photos of the area where we saw Buggy today, including some photos of Buggy himself, he is certainly, erm, unusual looking and that's coming from me!" This earned a loud chuckle from Robin followed by Luffy who got the "unusual looking" reference a few seconds afterwards. Everyone else just stared at the TV, which made Usopp look a bit embarrassed that his joke didn't go down as well as he hoped.
"Okay, so this picture shows where the more residential area of Orange Town begins, east from the main docks. You can see there are still a few factories and warehouses scattered around" Usopp picked them out using a laser pointer "here is where a group of fairly new build flats begins" Usopp pointed towards the edge of the screen before clicking the next image along on the remote control, which showed the flats a bit more clearly.
Clicking the next image along "Nami has this whole area mapped out now" Usopp gestured to the screen "There are actually a number of access points to the river, south from these three warehouses here that you wouldn't find on a normal map". Usopp clicked through a series of photos showing the mentioned access points to the river/estuary, The Orange Channel, through a number of courtyards and driveways.
"When we were looking round the last of the three warehouses on the river front" Usopp clicked back to the first wider image "this appears to be warehouse for plumbing materials" Usopp circled the building in question with the pointer."We noticed that there was quite a large group of Buggy's crew lounging about when we closer" Usopp then clicked forward to a set of photos with slim snippets of crew members in them, obviously taken from a poor perspective, probably so they weren't discovered.
"The crew members that hang around the docks are usually only in groups of four or five at the most but here there was quite a number of them. It wasn't obvious why though because as I said the warehouse here was full of plumbing pipes, fixtures and fittings" Usopp then gestured to Nami "Nami suggested we use the fire exit steps on the building to get a better view point and because we couldn't get very near without being spotted."
Everyone's attention was momentarily diverted as Zoro strolled into the room looking triply more tired than he did after dinner. He slouched into an armchair and raised a large bottle of whiskey to his lips just as Sanji walked in sighing loudly in a huffy way before taking a seat next to Brook and folding his arms across his chest looking angry. The deathly silence and purposeful attention on Usopp from the pair led everyone else to understand that they had probably had another fight.
Usopp forced himself not to roll his eyes "So anyway" he tried to get back to where he was before the room was plunged into an awkward silence "Nami and I went up the fire escape". Usopp clicked forward to the next image and finally got a reaction. The photo showed a crowd of Buggy crew members lounging around beside the Orange Channel. The surprising thing being the sheer number of them, there were at least a hundred men and woman there.
"Who the hell is this Buggy guy? Franky questioned out loud "I mean, I'd never heard of him before three weeks ago and yet he has this many followers? seems weird guys". "I agree" Brook added "in all of the infiltration jobs I've done in my time, I've never heard any mention of him". Luffy frowned at this new information; he didn't really care if no one had heard of Buggy he still planned on kicking the guys arse.
"It doesn't matter guys" Luffy spoke out "from the reports I've heard both from Usopp and Nami then previously from Lucci and Kaku; despite the numbers in his crew, although surprising, they don't seem to be all that skilled at, well, anything. Usopp, what else did you find out?"
"Right, well" Usopp clicked onto the next image "So Nami and me were just as shocked to see so many people but we then managed to get on the roof of the plumbing warehouse and that's when we discovered this". Usopp gestured to a long, flat, cream coloured warehouse/storage building on the TV screen.
The small warehouse was low built, probably no taller than a garden shed, which is probably why it couldn't be seen from the main road or beyond the plumbing warehouse. It was situated between the Channel and a high wall that stretched out of the picture. The wall appeared to be a separation between the commercial buildings and the beginning of a public footpath; however it hid the cream building behind it perfectly.
"While we were on surveillance we noticed that this small motor boat was approaching" Usopp continued, clicking though a number of photos showing a smallish red and white boat approaching, manned by four crew. "When it came to dock outside the cream warehouse this funny looking man stepped out flanked by three men to greet the newcomers, I think we both knew at once that this was Buggy the Clown".
Everyone stared confused momentarily at the screen. The guy who was flanked was actually wearing an old bicorn hat; the type of hat normally associated with pirates in old films, only it was orange and had blue tassels on it. He did have blue hair, very long blue hair that was tied back into a ponytail.
Those in comparison to the rest of him, however, seemed normal. He had a large bulbous nose that was painted red, a tattoo over his forehead and eyes of some crossed bones and he had purposely painted a huge smiling mouth surrounded by red lips on the lower part of his face. Lower down he appeared to be wearing a nautical stripped onesie and some green clown shoes. "Told you he was freaky looking" Nami stated matter of factly to the silenced room.
"Well, his, erm, 'lifestyle' choices aside, what was he actually up to here?" Sanji asked which seemed to stir everyone again, away from the TV screen. "Nothing much" Nami answered first "all he did was greet the men on the boat and then they unloaded some crates and took them into his warehouse thing. We don't know what they contained, they were just plain wooden crates. They couldn't have been anything very heavy or precious or expensive because the men on the boat were just tossing them onto shore".
"Hmm, yeah, Usopp picked up "Buggy didn't stick around long either. All he did was scan the grounds looking peeved, we assumed at some of his crew, and then went back inside flanked by the same men as before. We're guessing that the men guarding him are probably his 'real' or most trusted crew members". Nami agreed by nodding her head "one of them was the owner of that passport I nabbed earlier, Seymour Cabaji".
"Okay" Luffy interrupted the few murmurs that were starting to build as his friends started to ask questions amongst themselves. "I wouldn't normally suggest this as there are far too many things we still don't know but I can't wait any longer. We need to go to this warehouse of Buggy's and question him, with force if necessary, what he knows directly about Ace".
That seemed to silence the room but Luffy saw a couple of his friends nod their heads in agreement. "I want this to be a team effort; you've all got involved in Ace's case so I want you all there with me". Luffy elaborated "You've seen the numbers in his crew, Robin, get Law involved in this too. We need his help".
"Yes Sir" Robin replied but this was slightly overshadowed by Sanji's protestation of "not that son of a bitch!" while he flared with anger. "Sanji bro, I know the dude did a number on your car but he is quite handy to have around in a fight" Franky pointed out, trying to be reasonable. "He's more trouble then he's worth, we don't need him, I can easily beat up all of those shitty lackeys on my own" Sanji both boasted and fumed.
"This isn't open for debate Sanji" Luffy replied in all seriousness. "Whatever issues you have with him, put them behind you now! This mission or any ONE PIECE business for that matter comes before personal grudges". Again the room was silenced, Luffy easily commanding so when he got resolute. The majority of the occupants were always slightly taken aback by his serious attitude when it happened because Luffy's character was usually so flippant.
Sanji growled to himself and got out of his seat to pace out his frustrations. Brook, who never much understood the chef's emotions asked "Well Luffy, what exactly is the plan then?" everyone shifted to sit forwards as if somehow they would be able to hear better by moving forwards a few inches. Really it was to anticipate their involvement in what Luffy loosely had planned for them.
Luffy sat back; placing his straw hat over his eyes he silently planned out what he believed to be the best course of action. The room around him was silenced, the only noise coming from Sanji's angry pacing and the occasional glug of liquid escaping a bottle and into Zoro's mouth.
"Well to control the sheer amount of Buggy's crew we need our defence team" Luffy smirked. "Franky, Usopp, Chopper, I'll need you to keep the bulk of the crew away from Buggy". This was met with determined nods and the odd flex of arm muscle. "Usopp you know how they behave best so strategise with Franky and Chopper on the best approach". "Yes sir!" Usopp saluted and walked across the room to sit next to the bulky carpenter.
"Sanji, Zoro, Robin, you will accompany me on targeting Buggy directly" Luffy explained with purpose as they all focused their attention on him. "Robin, I'll need your questioning skills" the woman smiled subtly making the rest of the room with the exception of Nami squirm with unpleasant thoughts. "Zoro, Sanji, I want you to keep Buggy's closest, those guys who were flanking him, out of the way". Sanji humphed but nodded, the swordsman just lazily carried on drinking without reaction. Luffy knew this meant that Zoro would follow so was satisfied enough to move on.
"Brook, Nami, I want you on the outskirts looking out for anything else arriving or leaving. You're going to be our eyes from above, get to high location and guide us to where we need to be" Nami looked across to the tall perverted man and made a note to cover up that night "I know just the place" she spoke up thinking of one Usopp's and hers observation spots.
"Good" Luffy nodded satisfied "finally we'll get Law to help us with some of his potions; I've heard he has a truth serum and some other stuff". Both Sanji and Zoro reacted to this news, Sanji stopped pacing as a mild look of what seemed to be horror flitted across his face. Zoro meanwhile shifted in his seat suddenly looking more awake then he had done for past hour.
"Luffy, I wouldn't rely too much on Dr. Death's experiments" Zoro's low baritone filled the room "they're effective but don't always have the desired results" he subtly warned. Luffy nodded, he knew Zoro and Sanji had both been sent as guinea pigs for Law's experiments but they mostly seemed fine. "Okay, but if he's with the four of us he wouldn't do anything stupid" Luffy decided but didn't miss the hard look that passed between Zoro and Sanji when he said this.
"If there are no objections I suggest that we don't delay and get moving tomorrow night" Luffy asked. After looks were exchanged around the room no objections were heard. "Great, Robin get on the phone to Law and tell him to be ready at 22:30. Everyone else, do what you do best" Luffy smiled.
The room started to fill with chatter once again as his crew began to discuss what it is they needed to do. Luffy could feel the stirrings of excitement build in his gut; he was going to finally find out what happened to Ace. He had a loose plan but his friends always came through. Buggy the Clown was going down.