Chapter 10
It has been a week since Zoro called and Luffy was practically bouncing off the walls.
Nami, figuring that maybe now was a good time to get the teen exposed to the city environment.
Sanji was at work the whole week, so she was on her own.
She could ask Robin, but she left for a business trip a couple days ago.
"Luffy!" She called, gaining the boy's attention.
"What's up Nami?" He asked, the plush animal was holding up well to the boy's constant grips and being thrown in the air.
"We're now going to learn about the city today!"
Luffy's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "Really!?"
She just simply nodded as the teen cheered and quickly changed to one of many of his new outfits.
He wore a plain white t-shirt, dark blue jeans that slightly touch the ground and sandals.
"Why won't you wear the shoes I got you?"
"Because they feel weird and make my feet stink when I take it off!"
She sighed, noting to not give the boy tennis or running shoes ever. Seems Luffy was the open to the elements guy, then remembered that he did grew up in the jungle his whole life since three.
In the city
Both were walking down the crowded streets, which proved to be a bit difficult for the girl, since the teen wanted to dart ahead.
When they get close to passing a street pole, the teen would climb it up like a monkey, causing the girl to tell him to get down.
"But Nami! I could see how far this sea of people goes!"
"Just get your ass back down here!"
"Okay!"
Nami was red in the face when she sensed a small crowd of curious onlookers were witnessing this.
They finally headed to the mall, where Luffy took a moment to let the sight of the inside of the building sink in.
They went to every store, upon Luffy's curiosity, and each store he would proclaim the most interesting place he's ever been in. This caused some people to back away, thus tiring Nami out.
When they went into a toy store, Luffy saw a plush green shark and immediately thought of Zoro.
He grabbed it while Nami looked at the other plush animals, and rubbed his face of the soft fuzz that would never be on a normal shark, but he decided that it didn't matter. He asked, almost begged Nami to get the shark for him.
She understood the gorilla one some weeks ago, but she didn't understand the shark, which didn't look menacing, in fact it looked too cute with its big black eyes and curvy, almost baby like structure.
"Because it looks like Zoro! Even feels like him!"
"Feel?"
The teen nodded. "His hair is just as soft as this fuzzy stuff."
She had to bite her lower lip to keep herself from laughing. She could just imagine the man looking at the plush thing and wondered, 'How the hell does this kid think this thing looks like me?'. So, she agreed to buy it for him.
'He may need a job…' She thought as she saw Luffy holding the bag with his new plush shark. 'I'll let Zoro handle that, he's good with him to begin with.' She thought when someone ran passed her, almost ramming her. "Hey! Watch it!"
"Gomen!" The guy said as he joined in the growing crowd.
"What's going on Nami?"
"I don't know…" She said as she saw the stairs and both went up it.
When they did, they saw on one of the mall's hanging decorations, a small kid, no more than three, with a man, who had seen better days, holding him while holding onto the wire with the other hand along with a knife.
The police were there, but they were helpless since they couldn't jump onto the decorations and manage to get to the man, especially since the man can easily drop the kid.
Nami looked at the nearest officer and asked what was going on.
"Some mad man took a woman's child and managed to jump onto one of the decorations." The officer said. "Only a person with good jumping skills can get onto one of those things. Then there's the balancing thing."
She was worried for the child in danger before hearing some of the officers saying stop. She saw the person running to the rail, jump on it, and landed perfectly onto one of the decorations next to the mad man's. She blinked when she recognized the second person as she looked over to see only a bag with the cute green plush shark. She quickly looked back, now in panic of the other's safety.
"Miss?" The officer said to her. "Is that man with you."
She nodded.
"Where did he learn to jump like that?"
She looked at him like he was nuts. "My friend is going to face off a psycho, and you're asking me how he learned to jump like a damn jaguar!?"
The officer backed up at the angry girl.
With Luffy, he heard the gasps of the people, but his sights were on one desperate man and an innocent child, who was quiet from crying too much.
"Oi! What's your problem?" He asked as he locked eyes with the man.
"What's it got to do with you!?" Called out the man.
"I know that whatever problem I have, I certainly wouldn't bring a kid in it."
"Shut it! This kids the reason why I'm like this!?"
"Huh? Why? He couldn't have done anything to hurt you."
"You shut up!!"
Nami looked back at the officer. "You! Where's the kid's parents?"
The officer stumbled a bit and called some of the other officers about the parents. When he did get something back, he asked to bring her up.
While that was happening, Luffy was trying to make sense of the man.
"Why do you want to hurt him anyway? He's completely helpless as it is."
"You don't know the hell I went through after this child of Satan was born!"
"I don't know this Satan guy, but I don't think that was very nice."
"Are you a moron!?"
"No, I'm Luffy! And you're being rude."
Nami sighed. 'Luffy… You dummy!' She thought as she was told that the mother of the child was here.
"Hello, ma'am." Said the officer. "Would you like to shed some light of what is going on here?"
The woman nodded slowly. "Well…" She started softly. "He used to be my husband, but he has an awful habit of drinking and drug use, making him go crazy. When Kaito was born, I decided to divorce him and take the money that's used for Kaito's health and education. Now he's blaming Kaito for his own selfish problems that he could fix himself, if only he could change." She started to well up as Nami went up to the rail.
'That man has no intention of letting the kid live!' She thought, knowing a bit about how mad men on drugs can be. She was going to warn Luffy when he jumped from the decoration he was on to get to the other, when the man dropped the kid.
Luffy, being raised in the jungle, grabbed onto the streamers of the decorations, used it like a vine, and caught the kid. "I got you!" He said with a wide grin, making the kid laugh.
"Kaito!" The mother called out, both relieved and scared of her child.
"Is that guy even human?" Said one officer.
"What is he? Tarzan?" Said another.
"Just a hyperactive kid who can't stand still." Nami said, she too felt relieved. 'Oh yeah, when Zoro gets his ass home he has to take care of him.'
One of the officers shot down the mad man, the sounds of gun fire echoed throughout the mall.
"What the hell are you doing idiot!" Nami said, remembering the last time Luffy heard gunfire sounds. She looked down to see that Luffy was already on the ground, the kid completely safe, shaking and covering his ears. 'Luffy!' She thought as she ran down the stairs and fought her way through the crowd.
"Get out of the way! He needs air!" She called out, punching a man as she did so.
When she did make it to the teen, the kid, Kaito, hugged the teen, which reduced the shaking. "Luffy…" She said as she bent down and draped an arm across his shoulders. "It's okay Luffy… It's over."
Luffy stopped shaking and looked at Nami, then Kaito who looked at him with a huge smile and reddened eyes.
"Tank ou! 'Uffy!" Kaito said.
"Kaito!" The mother called, the crowd making way for her.
"Mommy!!" Kaito called as both embraced.
The mother looked up at Luffy with a teary smile. "Thank you so much! Thank you!"
Luffy, seeing the mother hold the kid reminded him of his own 'mother', and smiled. "You're welcome…" He said with a smile that was tender and understanding.
Nami was a bit surprised to see the look, but was really proud of her at the same time.
"How am I ever going to repay you?" The mother said.
Luffy shook his head. "Kaito is safe and back where he belongs. That's all I need." He said, shocking Nami to hear such grown up words escape that mouth.
The mother had nothing else to say as she held her son close.
"We better get going Nami." Luffy said as he started to get up.
"Yeah…" She said as she got up as well, only for some of the people in the crowd wanting to congratulate Luffy on a fine example of heroism. 'Please, he was doing what his instincts told him.' She thought.
A few hours later at the apartment
"What happened?!" Sanji said as Luffy was explaining the day's events, looking up at Nami for confirmation.
"It's hard to believe, but I was there to see it all happen." Nami said as she took another bite of her fish.
"Damn… And the one day I'm not there to see it as well." Sanji said. "But, Luffy, how did you know he was going to kill the kid anyway?"
Luffy swallowed his food. "Well, for one thing he was really rude, he said things that didn't make sense, and I sensed a really bad vibe that if anyone were to get close to him, he'll just do it."
"And that's why you jumped?" Nami asked.
"Yeah, if I made him think I was after him, he would drop Kaito, allowing me to grab those ribbon things and catch him, then it's smooth landing from there."
Sanji laughed. "You're one amazing kid Luffy!"
Luffy giggled with a wide toothy grin, which has some food in, but that made the other two laugh harder.
Then the phone rang and Nami got a hold of it before Luffy did.
"Yes?"
"Nami?"
"Yes? Robin?"
"Did Luffy-chan do anything today that could be on the news?"
Nami looked a bit concerned. "Yes… he saved a kid from a mad man. Is there something wrong?"
"Yes! Remember what I told you about his family gone missing?"
"Y-Yes…"
"Then whoever kidnapped him and his family are going to realize that he's still alive! You have to get him away from the city as possible!"
"B-But how!? I don't know anywhere far enough from the city!"
"I do… Zoro's inheritance from his father."
"Huh? Zoro has an inheritance?!"
"Yes. On the isolated part of the Big Island, there's a summer home that hasn't been in use in years. It's being currently rented out by one of the locals, but it's the best bet we have in this situation."
"O-Okay."
"I've already got you tickets to one of the company airplanes. Leave right now! And I'll let you know more later once you're safe."
"Okay!" She said as she hung up the phone. "Sanji, I know you hate to see food untouched or not finished, but we have to go, now!"
"Nani?"
"Luffy is in danger!"
Sanji, hearing about Luffy's family mysteriously disappearance, swallowed up this chef pride and got up. "Let's go Luffy!"
"Hold on a sec!" Luffy said as he ran to the room he was barrowing and grabbed both the shark and gorilla plush animals and just as quickly caught up with the two. "Where are we going?"
"Zoro's summer home on an island."
"That Marimo has a summer home!?"
"Turns out it was an inheritance from his dad and doesn't use it a lot."
"That sounds like the Green Bastard."
Luffy didn't hear the rest of the conversation as they quickly got into the car and Nami was in the driver seat.
"Hold on for dear life kid!" Sanji said as he buckled in.
Luffy wasn't sure what the other meant until the car went faster and crazier than usual.
Nami, knowing the streets and what's not being patrolled at the moment, can go fast and crazy as she likes.
Small airport
When they made a hard halting stop, they quickly got out of the car and saw one small aircraft, ready for them to get on.
"Hey Franky!" Sanji called.
"Hey you three!" Franky, a man what was muscular in the upper body and lean, muscular legs, cyan blue hair, and wearing overalls, said to them.
"I'm glad you're our pilot!" Nami said as she and the other two quickly got in and buckled in.
"Robin gave he a heads up and I'm ready to fly this baby!" Franky said as he got into the cockpit and immediately headed to the runway. Since it was a small airport, he didn't need an okay to take off.
"Welcome to SupaAir! I'm your pilot Franky and just relax for a bit, cause it's going to be a long flight."
Both Nami and Sanji sighed in relief, while Luffy was confused, but thought about going to see what Zoro's home looks like.
Sorry it took awhile. I was hitting at the wall and need to work on my processing crossover fic to help keep me in balance with the creativity flow.