A/N: Hey guys! I have to head off to my sister's wedding this weekend so I won't be posting any more additional chapters until I get back on Monday.
But I definitely will keep writing this story so please excuse this brief hiatus! :) Here's two chapters for you while you guys wait ever so patiently!
Chapter 11 - Samurai Found
"I must've bumped my head when I fell," Zoro said as he felt the giant lump on his forehead.
Sanji-Nami looked over at Rei and put his fingers to his lips. Rei smiled behind her mask and kept running forward with the rest of the group.
"Maybe I did too," Brook said sporting an equal sized lump, "I have a huge headache."
"Me too," Rei said, even though for a very different reason, "Sanji says I'm having a hangover."
"I told you, you should start drinking sake with me," Zoro said as he noticed Rei's pace was definitely slower than before.
"Shut up, you shitty swordsman!" Sanji-Nami yelled, "Don't corrupt innocent Rei-chan like that!"
"It's not like I'm going to try to do anything to her. Unlike you, you creepy perv!" Zoro argued back.
Rei stumbled a bit as her head was still groggy and without a word, Zoro swiftly picked her up and continued running with her in his arms.
"Zo-" Rei started to protest but the swordsman cut her off.
"Don't slow us down, idiot," he growled softly while his eyes focused straight ahead, "We need to find the samurai."
"We have wasted a lot of time," Rei agreed as she rested her aching head against his shoulder, "I wonder if the samurai is okay."
"It's a shame we didn't get to find the Yeti," Brook sighed, "But I'll never forget the shadows that we saw!"
"I don't believe it exists, " Zoro said.
"I believe it exists," Sanji-Nami countered.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Rei murmured as she shut her eyes for a moment.
"I just want to talk about whether or not it exists or not forever," Brook said.
"Whatever the case, hunting for the mysterious Yeti is over," Sanji-Nami said, "Should the samurai be around here, Rei-chan?"
"Yes," Rei said, "We're getting closer to the lake."
"Hey! Samurai-san!" Brooke called out.
"Samurai! Come on out!" Sanji-Nami yelled.
They started to walk around and call out to the samurai. Zoro set Rei down on a snowy mound while the rest of them explored the area where Rei and Brook last saw the torso. Rei watched as the men walked back and forth until finally she looked closer at a small mound of snow under Zoro's feet.
"Zoro! You're stepping on him!" she shouted, wincing a bit as it caused her head to throb.
Zoro quickly jumped off the mound and looked down. Indeed, below his footprint was lying on top of a very frozen samurai head and legs.
"I can't believe it! He's frozen!" Zoro said in surprise.
Sanji-Nami raised a high heeled foot over the samurai. "1, 2, 3!"
On three, he sunk Nami's heel into the mound, breaking the ice surrounding the samurai and the samurai jumped up gasping for air.
"Hey, hey," Sanji-Nami shouted down at the frozen mound, "Are you alright?"
"Did someone kick your ass?" Zoro asked.
"I was mysteriously paralyzed and thought I was going to die," the samurai gasped.
"You just got caught in the snowstorm and got frozen solid, didn't you?!" Sanji-Nami argued.
"He's such a pain," Zoro said.
"Give yourself some clothes! You have the ability to do that, don't you?" Sanji-Nami shouted.
"Is that how you and the others got winter coats?" Rei asked.
"Yes, Rei-chan," Sanji-Nami said, "This idiot ate a devil fruit that gave him powers to create disguises and clothes."
"T-To tell you the truth," the samurai stuttered, "I can't right now because -"
"Your torso is in the water!" Rei gasped as she put the pieces together, "That's why you couldn't move and was frozen solid! The lake is filled with seawater, and that's why Usopp and Zoro had to carry Luffy and Robin earlier today."
Zoro raised an eyebrow in Rei's direction. He was still not quite used to how fast her mind works, even when hungover.
"He's still alive so I don't think it has become food for the sharks yet," Zoro said, "But we don't know what else is in that lake. We better pull it out as soon as possible."
Sanji-Nami grabbed the samurai by the collar and started to drag him as they made their way towards the water.
Up ahead, a big group was starting to come towards them.
"What is that?" Sanji-Nami asked.
Rei squinted her eyes to have a better look but she couldn't tell. The group stopped and waited to get a better look. Suddenly, the dust and snow around the group cleared and they were able to see who was coming.
"It's Brownbeard's centaurs!" Brook said, "The ones we stole the clothes from!"
"Stay with me!" they shouted to each other, "Keep running! Stay away from the lake! A monster's on the other side!"
"A monster?" Zoro repeated, "You guys are the monsters."
The group skidded to a halt when they saw the Straw Hats.
"They're the pirates that robbed us earlier!" one of them cried.
"Damn it! That's my coat!" someone else called out.
"And those are my ear muffs!" another voice shouted.
Rei realized the last voice was talking about the ones she was wearing. She quickly took them off and offered it to the group. "Do you want them back?"
"Oy!" Zoro shouted, making her jump, "You can't just take something from them and then give it back when they ask you to. Are you a pirate or not?"
"Sorry," Rei mumbled, "I don't know what the social protocol is for this kind of situation."
"There is no social protocol for this kind of situation, you idiot!" Zoro snapped.
"Forget about them! Just run to the lab!" Brownbeard's men cried as they ran around the Straw Hats.
Rei hesitantly put her ear muffs back onto her head. They were really comfortable and it did help her headache a bit.
"Hey," Zoro said out of the blue, "They were running in the direction away from the lake, right?"
"Yes! That is right, Zoro-san," Brook said, impressed that Zoro got his directions right, "Why do you ask?"
"Well, if in fact that is the lake," Zoro said, looking ahead, "I don't think there was a mountain there before, was there?"
"Mountain?" the group repeated as they gazed at the direction Zoro was referring to.
Their jaws dropped and their eyes widened as they saw a silhouette in the distance. It was definitely in the shape of a mountain but Zoro was right. It wasn't there before.
The mountain was between a purple and pinkish hue. It was nothing Rei had ever seen before. Judging by the faces of the people around her, she knew she was not alone. It had two yellow lights near the top, which made it look like it had eyes and a big gaping hole that made it look like a mouth.
Suddenly, a tube sprouted from the top and little mini balls, the same color and texture as the mountain, started to pop out of the tube and into the sky.
"Is it some kind of living thing?" Zoro asked, stepping forward to get a closer look.
"I don't know. I've never seen such a thing," Sanji-Nami answered.
"I'm so stunned - my eyes popped out of my head," Brook said, "But I don't have eyes in the first place. Yohohoho!"
"Quite a strange thing," Sanji-Nami said, ignoring the skeleton's joke.
"Doing a strange thing," Zoro added.
They looked up at the balls that were being shot into the air.
"Wow! It's really flying up high!" Brook commented.
They watched as it slowly started to fall. Rei was the first one to react.
"Guys, it's coming towards us," she said as she calmly took two steps to the side.
Zoro followed suit while Sanji-Nami and Brook were not so attentive to Rei's words.
"What?" they cried before jumping at the last second to avoid the incoming projectile.
"What is this?!" the samurai asked as they stared at the pink, gooey blob that had landed at their feet.
"Whatever it is, we shouldn't touch it," Rei said.
"Is that a Slime?" Brook asked.
"Slime?" Rei repeated.
"Yes. I was once reading a book that had a monster," Brook said, "That looks exactly like this one called a 'Slime'. I couldn't stop reading it."
"Oh?" Rei asked, her interest piqued.
"Yes, it attacked only women," Brook said, "And its body fluids would only melt what the women were wearing! It was such a dirty monster."
"What?! That's too convenient!" Sanji-Nami shouted in excitement, "C-Can I borrow that book sometime?"
"What kind of story is that?" Rei asked, confused.
"Idiot! Watch what you're saying in front of Rei!" Zoro yelled at Brook.
"I want to borrow the book too!" the samurai said.
"Fools! Look carefully," Zoro interrupted as something had caught his attention, "I don't know if it will melt your clothes but Rei's right. We shouldn't touch it."
He pointed at the lake ahead where fish bones were starting to float up to the surface. "The fish are dying from the fluid that dropped into the lake. It's like it's made of toxins."
"If nothing is done, the poison will spread all over the lake," Rei said.
"Then the samurai-san's torso…" Brook said, catching onto what Zoro and Rei were implying.
Suddenly, the glove that Sanji-Nami was wearing fell the floor, turning into a pebble. They looked over at Sanji-Nami, who was taking off his clothes.
"D-don't tell me! You're going in, Sanji?!" Rei gasped.
"Do I have a choice? It's my personal mission!" Sanji-Nami shouted back, "I'm Sanji, I'm a man!"
He flung his coat off his shoulder, revealing Nami's bikini top, "I've got to do it!"
He turned to look at Brook, "Do something about the Slime behind you."
"Behind me?" Brook asked and he turned around.
He was so focused on Sanji's noble effort to save the samurai, he didn't realize that many more blobs of Slime had landed near them. Zoro and Rei were already facing them solemnly as the blobs started inching towards them.
"Hey Zoro," Rei asked.
"Yeah?" Zoro replied not taking his eyes off of the toxic blobs.
"Do you think I'd like the book Brook was talking about?" Rei asked.
"No! And you should never read any book that Brook or that Ero-Cook likes, you got that?!" Zoro suddenly shouted as broke his gaze and glared down at Rei.
Rei was confused, "Okay but why?"
"Just trust me!" Zoro said, feeling a slight blush coming on so he faced forward again to avoid eye contact with Rei.
Damn it, he thought, I don't want to be the one who has to explain this stuff to her.
"The Slimes are coming closer," Brook observed and he was correct.
"So what do we do?" Rei asked out loud.
No one had an answer.