Chapter 13 - What did Luffy Eat?
Back in room 102, Rei was having a hard time getting any answers out of Luffy, who was fully deflated with the previous contents in his body resting in pungent buckets around the room. The nurses were all hurriedly trying to remove as much of the buckets into biohazard bins resting outside of the room. The closest Luffy could come to speaking was severe dry heaving spells.
Dr. Clayton watched her with concerned eyes, hidden from the reflections of his thick glasses. He was confident that she wouldn't find any leads. Thankfully the Straw Hat had eaten at every single food stall so there was no way they could trace it back to the Web Gang, and more importantly, to Tarantula. Even so, he'd taken a few precautions.
"Straw Hat Luffy," Rei pressed, trying one more time, "Did you taste anything funny at all?"
"Luffy!" Chopper shouted concerned at the state of his friend, "Are you okay?!"
"Ch-ch-ch-chopper," Luffy gasped out.
"LUFFY!" Chopper cried, rushing over to his side.
"I...I ate too much," Luffy said weakly before falling asleep.
"Looks like the sedatives kicked in," Dr. Clayton said.
Rei kept her tone even to hide her surprise. "Why would you give him sedatives if you knew we needed to question him?"
"He has been vomiting non-stop for the past couple hours," Dr. Clayton said, "He needed some rest."
Chopper hurried over to the middle of the bed and pushed Luffy onto his side to prevent him from choking while sleeping. "He is looking exhausted."
"See? Even his ship's doctor agrees with me," Dr. Clayton pointed out.
"Fine," Rei said focusing her attention away for Dr. Clayton, who mentally breathed a sigh of relief, and towards Franky. "As for you...Would you prefer I call you Cyborg Franky or Cutty Flam?"
Franky raised his sunglasses so he can get a better look at Rei. "Ow! How'd you know my real name, Mask-Bro?"
"I'm a genius who happens to be privy to select Naval Reports," Rei explained.
"Ow! Call me Franky. Ask me your super questions," Franky said, "I have nothing to hide."
"Clearly," Rei said gesturing to his mankini.
"This is who I am, mask bro!" Franky said giving Rei a thumbs up with his mini hand.
"Don't call him mask bro! Franky!" Chopper said tugging at Franky's leg, "He's a commander! We don't want to get into any trouble while we're here."
"It's fine," Rei said, "Do I seem like someone who would arrest someone just for being disrespectful?"
"To be fair, we super don't know enough about you to be sure," Franky replied.
"True," Rei said. She turned her attention back to Dr. Clayton, "Is it okay for their ship's doctor to look over Straw Hat Luffy's charts?"
Dr. Clayton was startled by Rei's request. Is she suspicious of me?
"O-o-of course. But may I ask why?"
"He's the Straw Hat's doctor and his crew member. I would think he would want to know what is going on with his captain," Rei answered without missing a beat. She tilted her head to the side and put on an innocent tone. "Is there a reason why you don't want him to see the charts?"
"Of course not!" Dr. Clayton said indignantly as he handed Chopper Luffy's files.
Chopper gave both Rei and Dr. Clayton a grateful smile as he looked though Luffy's records, Rei resumed her questioning with Franky. "So what did your captain eat today?"
"Everything," Franky answered, "We went on a super food tour of your food market."
"You ate at every stall?"
"Not me. Luffy. I stopped about halfway."
"Okay, so that leaves out about 50 or so vendors," Rei said making a notes in a notepad she took from the front desk.
"Why is that?" Chopper asked.
"Because your captain is sick but Cyborg Franky isn't," Rei pointed out.
"Ow! I said to just call me Franky, Rei-boy!" Franky said.
"Okay, Franky," Rei said hesitantly. She was a little uncomfortable to be on a first name basis with a stranger, "So did he mention if anything tasted odd?"
"No, he said everything was super yummy!" Franky answered.
"Do you know when he started to feel sick?" She asked.
"I'm not too sure. Any time he said he was a little uncomfortable, we just thought it was because he was overeating," Franky said, "I rushed to the hospital when Luffy first started vomiting on the streets."
Rei remembered trailing them earlier in the day and that there were three of them. "Was there anyone else with you at the food market?" Rei asked.
"Yes. Our cook with the fancy eyebrows. He was with us in the food markets earlier," Franky said.
"How come he didn't come with you guys to the hospital?" Rei asked.
"He had to drop off all the stuff we bought back on the Sunny," Franky said.
"Since he doesn't show signs of symptoms either, your captain definitely got sick after you two stopped eating," Rei observed.
She took a minute to think. She already narrowed down half the vendors, but that was still too much for them to investigate and question in one night. She was missing something but what?
Just then she noticed Chopper, checking Luffy's the IV drip. "Doctor reindeer. Can I ask you some questions?"
Chopper leapt up in surprise. He didn't expect to be part of her interrogation. "Sure," he said nervously.
"How'd you know your captain would be here?"
"What do you mean?" Chopper asked.
"Well, Franky was here with him the whole time. Your cook, Sanji, left before he got sick so he couldn't have told you about the hospital. So how did you know?"
"Madame Cecilia told Nami," Chopper said.
"Who is Madame Cecilia?" Frank asked.
"Madame Cecilia?" Rei repeated, slightly alarmed by the mention of the name, "You met with Madame Cecilia?"
"Yes, Nami wanted to ask her if she knew where she could find any treasure," Chopper answered honestly before turning to Franky, "She's a fortune teller!'
"OW! You guys went to a fortune teller without me?" Franky said, "There's tons of things I'd want to ask."
"And did she tell Nami?" Rei asked, making a note in the notepad and stopping Franky from listing out his questions.
"Yes, she said once we were all reunited, Nami would get treasures from the castle," Chopper said before he could stop himself.
He clamped his hooves to his mouth. Oh no! he thought, If Nami finds out that I told Commander Rei she's after the royal treasury, she's going to kill me!
"Don't worry, doctor reindeer," Rei said, not looking up from her notepad, "I won't tell Nami you told me about the treasure hunt."
"Really?" Chopper cried overjoyed and relieved he was off the hook.
Rei gave a solemn nod. "I will need to tell the King to up the number of guards around the Royal Treasury, though."
"Oh no," Chopper said slumping a little. He knew that it wouldn't stop Nami and it probably meant her involving him and Usopp somehow.
"Did Madame Cecilia tell you guys anything else?" Rei asked.
"Well, she did tell Zoro that his time was coming," Chopper recalled.
"OW! Zoro's going to die?" Franky cried.
"No, I don't think what she meant. Although, Usopp thinks that," Chopper said.
"Anything else?," Rei asked, not wanting to talk about anything involving that man.
Chopper hit his fist into the palm of his other hoof, "Oh, she had a message for Luffy!"
"Which was?"
"It was the meatball!"