Chapter 10.
The Picnic
"Wow! A whole beach for ourselves!" yelled the sniper when they all had ran out of the forest and now were inspecting their surroundings.
The beach itself wasn't very wide and it seemed to reach about 2 km to the sides. There weren't much space between the forest and the water but yet enough to actually make it worthy of being called a "beach". The white sand on the ground was soft and fine-grained, noticed the archaeologist as she had gladly taken off her shoes as fast as she had reached their destination. The water was dark and deep but anyhow calm, there wasn't a wave in sight on the vast ocean before them. As a matter of fact, the only thing that really disturbed the calm picture of a spotless ocean was a few white rocks occasionally spread out.
"It's totally empty! We can do whatever we want!" yelled Kiwa and together with Usopp, Chopper and Luffy they began to ridiculously cheer and dance around.
"Hmm, I wonder why we are the only ones here," said the navigator and looked around, "The weather's nice and the water looks peaceful."
The archaeologist walked up to her and chuckled only slightly, "Perhaps we're the only ones that are sober enough."
"Haha, yeah, that's probably it."
Everybody laid their packings against a tree that stood out a little more from the forest. The cock and navigator started to prepare the food while Franky laid down a big blanket on the ground. He had found a place that wasn't that grumpy and when he was finished, the captain stepped in on it, his eyes filled with triumph.
"Yosh! This is our main base!"
"We're not going anywhere else, idiot," grunted the swordsman while he scratched the back of his head. Then he went to place his swords leaned against the side of the tree which wasn't already occupied with packings.
As soon as all the food was laid out for the Devil Fruit users to snack on, Sanji took of his T-shirt and yelled, "Now let's swim!" Then he started to run against the water.
"Yeah!" yelled the navigator and also undressed her t-shirt and shorts.
The cook immediately stopped and turned to look at her, "Melloriiiiine!" Nothing new concerning his dear Nami-san could slip past the cook's eyes, today was no exception, so Sanji couldn't help to thoroughly inspect the new blue fabric which functioned as her bikini.
"Oh, Zoro!" cried the little doctor, concern in his voice, concern in his expression. He turned to the swordsman, "Don't swim! It's bad for your wounds!"
"Che! Swimming's practically physiotherapy! It'll be fine. I won't swim for long, okay?"
"But-!"
Nami laid a hand on the doctors shoulder, shook her head and sighed a little, "It's no use, Chopper. He won't listen."
The swordsman, sniper and shipwright also removed their upper clothing and together with Nami and Sanji, they all ran to the water. They rushed out a short bit and then all dived in. It took a while before one after another came to the surface again.
"Ah, the water's nice!" said Zoro and looked at the others who just stood in silence for a while and stared at him.
Then suddenly they all cried out, "IT'S TOO COLD!" and ran into shore again.
"You bunch of wimps!" Zoro yelled after them. Cold? Even if he was used to swim in midwinter, he could feel that the water wasn't that cold. Maybe it wasn't what you would have expected from a vacation resort but the swordsman was pretty sure that his crewmates was just exaggerating. He snorted, at least he would enjoy the water himself for a couple of minutes more and therefore he dived in again.
On safe land, joining the Devil Fruit users on the picnic-blanket, were the others hiding under their own towels. They all seemed to be shivering but the cook suddenly stopped, just as if his mind only now had told him that it wasn't cold anymore and that the lady beside him needed the warmth of his body, so after forming heart-shaped eyes, he happily yelled, "Nami-san, let me rub you warm!"
"I don't need it!" she roared in answer. Chopper's fur flew straight up from the goose bumps on his body as he witnessed the devilish look on the navigators face. He considered to run and hide behind someone strong when he saw that Nami angrily clenched her fist underneath the towel.
"Geez, what is it with this Island! The weather is warm but the water isn't?"
"Perhaps, the weather turned good just as we came here and the sun haven't warmed the water sufficiently yet," suggested the archaeologist while calmly preparing a cup of coffee for herself.
"Maybe, but the weather's been nice before we arrived too, though, this is the Grand Line after all. Sometimes I just wish it could be like normal navigating."
"Bvhu bwhat oudnent bwe ahs bhun!" mumbled Luffy through his mouth stuffed with food once again.
"Can you cut that out!" shouted the cook and looked around for something to throw at his captain since he couldn't reach him from where he was seated.
About 10 minutes later, Chopper stood at the edge of the water and shouted out to the swordsman, "Zoro! Don't swim anymore, your wounds can get infected!"
"Geez, I'm not just gonna drop dead or something," he answered and rolled his eyes. Then he unwillingly started to swim back to the shore.
Suddenly, the swordsman could feel that something big was approaching him from behind. He heard screams from the beach but didn't have time to turn around before his sight turned dark as a pair of jaws enclosed around him.
There were even more screams and gasps coming from the shore as the others watched their green-haired nakama get devoured by the giant creature.
"ZOROOOO!" cried the little reindeer.
Only the creature's head, neck and a little of it's back was visible above the surface. It's head looked like that of a lizard's, having evil looking black and blank eyes. The creature itself was coloured in a more grayish kind of black and it's skin looked hard. One row of red, slightly bended spikes was set from between the nostrils continuing back over it's head, neck, back and probably also it's tail while being biggest on it's upper back.
"Zoro! No way!" yelled the navigator, "It just came from nowhere!"
"What are we gonna do!?" cried the doctor and sniper in sync, both having their hands on the sides of their head, "What if that thing swallowed him!?"
"He'll probably be digested and die," said the archaeologist casually.
"Stop saying such scary things, Robin!" yelled Nami.
"Oi, can he get out of there? Isn't he pretty messed up already?" wondered Franky and lifted his sunglasses.
The giant lizard moved towards the shore and it's body became more and more visible. It also appeared to be higher and higher as it walked closer.
"That idiot!" growled the cook and ran towards the water, "We need to save his sorry ass!"
"Yo-ho-ho, I'll help you, Sanji-kun!" said Brook and ran after him.
Suddenly they stopped as there seemed to be some disturbance in the mouth of the lizard. It let out a heavy hissing and turned around it's head in confusion. Apparently tired of the ruckus, the lizard took a stance and then spitted out the figure causing it.
Zoro was sent flying all the way to the beach and landed with with a big crash, scattering sand everywhere.
"ZOROOOO!" Chopper ran over to his green-haired nakama.
"Is he alright?" yelled Nami as she ran over there as well.
She didn't need an answer. The swordsman was already on his way up.
"That... bastard..." he snarled between heavy coughs.
"Are you alright, Zoro!?" cried the little reindeer as he panicky climbed up and down on the swordsman while inspecting him thoroughly. Then he climbed down and sighed by relief, "Good, you don't seem to be suffering from any more injuries than before..."
"I'm fine," grunted Zoro and coughed for a last time, "What the hell is that thing?"
The lizard moved faster and faster against the shore. As it came closer it started to hiss furiously.
The sniper's legs started to shake and his expression was terrified, "Wh-what do-does it want? It's coming here!"
"Was it attracted by the scent of the food?" wondered Franky and scratched the side of his head with a finger.
"Holy shit, how can that thing move so fast!?" yelled Kiwa and ran a few steps forward so that she could get a better view of the lizard. She stood with her hands clasped together and her eyes showed nothing else than amusement, "It's so cool!"
"What! It's after the food!? I'll beat it up!" yelled Luffy and ran past Kiwa and stretched one of his arms backwards, "Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!"
"What!?"
The lizard had stopped the impact by swinging Luffy's arm down with it's own frontal paw and continued to rush forward. It passed the stunned captain but then suddenly it stopped before Kiwa and bared a row of orange fangs.
It snarled and hissed before her but the green-haired woman just stood there, no longer amazed by it. Instead she tilted her head at one side and gazed at it recalcitranty, "What are you doing? Are you stupid?"
The lizard roared and raised a paw before throwing it at her. Kiwa jumped back and then unsheathed her short swords, "Bastard, I'll cut you up!"
"It's after Kiwa-san!" cried the musician but before even he or the green-haired woman could do anything there was a blur as the cock ran to stand before the beast.
"How dare you try to hurt a woman!?" Sanji jumped up to kick the lizard over the head. It roared furiously as it rose from the ground again but it never had the chance to fully recover it's stance as the black-haired captain were already rushing against it.
"Gomu Gomu no... Bazooka!" he yelled before the impact sent the lizard flying back into the ocean again.
"D-d-did it go away!?" cried the sniper from where he now was standing behind a tree in the forest.
"What the hell was up with that thing?" growled Sanji and brushed some sand of his shorts, "Kiwa-san, are you alright?"
"Me? Of course I'm alright! Shouldn't you rather be asking him that?" answered Kiwa and pointed a thumb at the swordsman.
"Huh? The shitty marimo? I don't care about him."
"Well, anyway, let's just eat!" said the grinning captain and held his arms up in the air while walking back to the blanket.
Meanwhile, Zoro, Nami and Chopper also came back and everybody started taking their seats once again.
"And you see, Chopper, if I only wanted to, I could've just released my hidden powers and knocked that thing unconscious by just pointing at it!"
"Really, Usopp?!" The amused little reindeer seated a few seats from him looked up at the prideful Sniper, "Why didn't you?"
"Ehm.. that's because I.. Because I thought these guys needed more training!" He crossed his arms, closed his eyes and nodded determinately, "As their personal coach, it would be unfair to interrupt this perfect opportunity."
The cook started to deal out the food and drinks to everyone who didn't already had some.
"Cho bher ba ou chrom?" asked Luffy, while looking at the green-haired woman, seemingly interested. He didn't look at the food he now was constantly shoving into his mouth.
"Bam chromp Bouwt Bou! Bher ba ou bais chromp?" she answered while doing exactly the same thing as Luffy.
"Cho bka! Be, Chowo, Bjami, Uboppue band Chandi ba walb chrom Beast Bou! Bwhe phounb bje douhejb bere ab bje Bjandu Rine!"
"Stop talking like that! We don't understand!" yelled the others.
Luffy and Kiwa swallowed their food and let out a relieved sigh.
"Luffy asked where I'm from and I told him 'South Blue' and then I asked him where you guys were from whereupon he answered that he himself, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji were from East Blue and that you had found the remaining others here at the Grand Line."
"We don't care!"
"By the way, Marimo-head, it seems that the lizard swallowed your bandages," said the cook while walking around serving food.
"Hmm, oh, it did," Zoro answered, looked down on his upper body and took a swig at the beer, "So?"
"So, put some damn clothes on! It's not very nice to look at. You're totally messed up!"
"So don't look. It's not-" Nami had thrown his top over his face. Zoro sighed but put the white clothing on.
The captain stretched his arms to the other side of the blanket to get some more meat. This caused the green-haired woman to blurt out the beer she was drinking.
"Hey, your arm stretched!"
The others all turned to look at her with hopeless faces.
"How can you possibly have not noticed that when he fought the lizard?!" yelled the sniper.
"Huh? My arm? Yeah," Luffy stretched his face out on both sides, then let it go and grinned, "I'm a rubber man!"
"That's so cooooool!" said Kiwa and put her hands together while stars replaced her eyes, "Another Devil Fruit! Do you have even more?"
Her question was answered as a row of blooming arms appeared like a wave in front of her, "Yes, two more," the archaeologist said and smiled.
Kiwa's head was now surrounded with even more blinking stars as she eagerly looked around for the last one.
"Isn't it pretty obvious?" muttered the swordsman and everybody pointed at the skeleton.
"Yeah, sure is..." The woman tried to look smug for a second but the stars in her eyes disappeared and then she exaggeratedly shook her head and said, "No, I don't have a clue of what you're talking about here."
The skeleton started to tell his story to the woman.
The sky started to turn pink by the horizon and the navigator noted that it was already evening. The time had passed by fast while everybody was talking, laughing, eating, drinking and what not. It was simply great having the whole crew gathered like this, especially after the incidents at Thriller Bark. Sure, they had partied there too but at then there was a certain someone who'd slept through the whole thing. They would all return to the ship later this day and then they would also be together. Nobody was leaving now, their whereabouts could almost ensure that, and that made Nami feel safe.
There was this simpleminded red-eyed woman as well. Well, the navigator didn't really know, but she was pretty sure it was a woman. The way she talked and her body language didn't really lean towards any of the sexes. Her chest was so small that she actually started to wonder but on the other hand, her body was pretty small and fragile looking... She repelled these thoughts almost right away; It didn't really matter for the time being, or even at all.
Before the more energetic ones in the group could start with some other ridiculous games, Nami simply suggested, "Let's play cards!"
"But nee-chan, the cards aren't enough for every one of us!" stated the shipwright.
"It's okay, we'll just split up in pairs!"
The navigator sat with her back against the forest and gazed over the others. Sanji was sitting by her right side and Chopper on her left. Since the little doctor probably didn't had the total grasp of it, she decided it to be better if he was with her rather than their idiotic captain sitting to Chopper's right.
"Okay, I'll be with Chopper!"
"But- But Nami-swaan!" complained the cook beside her.
The doctor looked up to Nami and smiled. She replied the same, ensuring him guidance.
"So, now it's simple. Luffy, you're sitting beside Brook, so you're also a team."
"Yo-ho-ho-ho! Marvellous!"
"So that means that you Usopp, is with Kiwa."
The sniper didn't show any emotion except perhaps one of a little worry. He looked at the red-eyed woman beside her. She only laughed loudly as usual, then she gave the sniper a harsh thump on the back, "Now! Let's beat the crap out of them Longnose! See, I just came up with this really good strategy, and we should try it out!" In response, the sniper only looked strangely at the woman but gave after and then they both turned their back against the others and started to whisper.
"Zoro and Robin, you're a team."
"I'm not even with Robin-chan?! And she's gonna be with that bastard!?" the cook protested again.
The swordsman didn't response to what Nami had said since he wasn't surprised. He had already calculated so much that he would be with either the archaeologist or the shipwright and it just turned out to be the first. The woman moved a bit closer to him, nothing strange about that. Then she smiled at him, which he felt would be a bit too cold to just ignore, so he returned the gaze but was surprised that he didn't need to force the smile.
"Do you think we should do this the honest way?" asked the woman lowly, chuckled lightly and nodded her head in the direction of the allied sniper and green-haired visitor who seemed to be up to no good.
"Hmm, well, we can give it one shot, at least." The swordsman smirked, knowing what his partner was capable of, "One."
"And at least, Franky and Sanji," declared Nami whereupon she ordered the cook to stop whining.
"Don't worry, curly cook. I've been feeling extra super this weak so we should easily win this!"
"I don't care about that!"
"That just sounds as chickening out to me, love cook," goaded the swordsman, knowing that he'd catch the bait.
"Oh, yeah? How about we make a bet?"
"Yeah?"
He pleaded to the archaeologist, "Sorry, Robin-chwan, but this is for my pride." Then he turned more to the swordsman with a harsher voice, "If our team wins, you'll have to do the dishes yourself for a weak!"
"Okay," Zoro laughed. Even if Robin didn't help him, he would still beat the shitty cook in a round of card-playing. Though, he could sense that the raven-haired woman beside him didn't want to loose either way, "Besides, are you dumb? Maybe neither of us wins. We have to count from which of our teams scores the highest. If we do, you'll have to let me take as much sake as I want for one year."
"For one week!"
The archaeologist helped the navigator to clear the blanket a little. Then Nami went to get the pack of cards.
"Okay, you two, shut up." She glanced at the cook and swordsman who still were arguing, "We're playing 5-cards poker, first to 21 wins." Then she took her seat again and started to deal out the cards.
"Brook! Just grab as much of them as you can, okay? That's the plan," said the captain and eagerly waited for their first card.
"You idiot! You're only getting 5!"
"But Nami! How can I win with only 5 cards!"
"Quiet! Only do as Brook tells you to!"
Everybody took their cards to look at and then quietly discussed the matter with their teammate.
"So, what do you think?" whispered the raven-haired archaeologist.
"Haha, I don't know! Toss these ones maybe?" answered the swordsman and pointed out a few.
"Hmm, yes, let's try it."
"Oi, Nami! What does it mean when you have two kings?" asked the captain.
"It means you're ruining the game and that you should just shut up, idiot!"
"Oh, no good then? Let's toss 'em."
"Wait, Luffy-kun!"
"Oi, cook! You're so going down this round."
"Shut up! We'll show you, stupid marimo!" Sanji and Franky did not seem to come to an understanding, however, and so they hassled and argued with each other, frustrated as they were.
Zoro leaned more to the archaeologist, chuckled and whispered, "See? We don't even need your ability to know that the cook has a bad hand."
Robin let out a rather loud laugh, one of those that rarely escapes her mouth, "I guess we don't."
This is my longest chapter thus far xD
I know Sanji is actually from North Blue but I thought that maybe Luffy had forgotten it xD And it was general, not really from where they were born. Robin's from West Blue but I don't think Luffy knows that. Hell with it, it's just a simple explanation xD
Tare_Chan and collataro confirmed my thoughts I had in the previous chapter. The reason I haven't noticed that Robin stopped calling the crew by their jobs is probably because what you said, that she haven't called Zoro and Sanji by their names yet.
I will however do like you said, Nothing But The Truth, and take this as consideration for future stories ^^
The fact that Zoro and Robin already trust each other in my story makes it kind of hard writing about them, especially during conversations between them. If it wasn't for that Zoro is hurt because of Kuma, they wouldn't have anything to talk about at all except for maybe future events. Not anything else that I would know about anyway. I lack so much fantasy, it's painful! D: