First of all I have to say that I´m really sorry for the late update, but I was sitting in front of my television, watching football^^
Second: Thanks to Linhae for the SUPER review xD
Third: I wanna thank all of you who put this as a favourite story! Thank you!
And thanks to everyone who put me as a favourite author! I´m so happy, thank you guys ;D
Well, sorry for the stupid title but sadly no better idea came to my mind^^
Okay, and now let´s start with the 14th chap! Please enjoy it :D
Chapter 14 - Trouble ahead
The night sky was beautiful to watch. Many stars could be seen. Now and then a shooting star passed the sky. It almost engended the effect the shooting stars hurried over the dark sky as fast as possible, not wanting to be seen.
Almost everyone of the now six were sleeping. Well, almost everyone...one, who was, besides that, really proud of himself for saving his little brother, was still awake.
´That´s just too strange. I wonder about the Indians who killed the men back at the river... something really strange is going on..´
Zoro sighed. He laid in his warm sleeping back, thinking of the events of the day.
´I guess we have to figure out about that and the pigeon guy´s boss, otherwise we´ll get into big troubles...`
Again he let out a frustrated sigh. Thinking was no use in this case, so he decided to go to sleep and just see what the next day will bring for surprises.
The six quickly ate their breakfast, cold beans, and continued their journey as fast as possible. They all had agreed to get away from this place very quickly. The reason why was because since they had awoken, the six felt being watched.
They all could feel the eyes of stranger on their backs and whenever they turned around, nothing unusual could be seen. It was creepy.
Now they were on their way to their luck.
For Usopp it was to find his family again, for most of the others it was to find some gold.
The Indian often wondered if that would really make someone happy, and the long nose couldn´t be able to relate that. It was just...material! Just stones!
The seventeen-year-old had tried to talk about that to Nami, but always failed. That girl just had an other opinion. Nothing could change that, Usopp thought after he failed.
Then he began to think of his tribe, his family. Are they all healthy after so long time? He was curious to how they all would react if he appeared suddenly from out of nowhere. They sure think he was dead already.
He had a sad expression on his face at the last thought. Usopp thought about his father, Yasopp. He must feel so lonely now, first loosing his wife, Bankina, then his son..
Another thought came to his mind. What if they didn´t want him back? He was friends with white people who try to find some of that golden stones! What if they don´t like his new friends...?
No no no! They sure will like them! Will they? Truth be told: The Indian wasn´t sure.
But then, something else stroke him. He shuddered. It felt like a forebonding. A forebonding of something awful that was going to happen...
"Ne, what´s wrong Usopp?" Nami drove beside him, frowning. The Indian shaked his head and put a small smile on.
"Huh? Uh..nothing, nothing, don´t worry!"
´Everything will be alright...I hope...´ he assured himself silently.
A few days passed and nothing strange had happened, much to the six friends like.
Nami, Luffy and Franky were at the Yukon River trying to find any gold in there, which wasn´t so easy. After all, it was winter, so it was very cold, above all the water.
They had tried so many times the days before, but the three wouldn´t give up.
Usopp was sitting onto his sleeping back, watching Sanji cooking, Zoro was sleeping besides the huskys. In the lap of the swordsman was a curled up a little brown furry thing, Chopper, sleeping peacefully.
Sanji eyed his brother, snorting. "He is with his own kind now, tee hee." he chuckled. The Indian smirked and wanted to respond something.
A shriek from the river let the chuckle of the cook die. Usopp flinched a little and he quickly shut his mouth. Zoro and the dogs, surprisingly, just ignored it and continued with sleeping.
"W-what´s going on?" Usopp gulped. He and Sanji looked at each other for a moment, then they hurried over to the others at the river.
"That sounded like my Nami-darling is in trouble!" he said while he was running. Usopp slowed down a little to hide behind his blond nakama.
"What´s wrong?" Sanji panted out of brath. "Eh?" he blinked. All he saw was a cheering Luffy who laughed like an idiot, an embarrassing Franky (SUPER!) and a eighteen-year-old girl who acted like she was five and her parents told her it was her birhtday and Christmas today.
The other two sweat dropped at that awkward scene before them. "Uh...Nami-swan..? I-It´s cold, ya know...I wouldn´t jump into the river now..." Sanji spoke very irritated.
"YATTA! YATTA! YATTA! WOHOOO! I FOUND GOLD!" she shrieked in return, ignoring the smoking cook´s warning.
Luckily Franky finally hold the orange-haired-girl back. "Oi, oi, little sis´, calm down."
Sanji smiled. So his beloved cousin was save...he turned to Luffy. "So you did find gold...?" he asked a bit excited.
The seventeen-year-old nodded with a wide smile on his face. "Shishishishi~! Yosh! Nami found a few gold nuggets! Finally! Shishishi~!" he cheered happily.
"Oh. That´s great, I guess.." Usopp tried to smile. He wasn´t so happy about that, but well, if his friends were glad then he would be glad too.
Sanji didn´t notice the mood of the Indian, he was too focused on what he had heard. "Yeah! That´s fantastic! Can I see it?" he asked, also acting like a little child.
"Sure, sure!" Luffy handed four five centimeters big nuggets over to the blong. "Here you are. They are amazing, aren´t they?" He smiled.
"Wow! They are so big! Nami-san did a great job finding them! And now..." the cook looked into Luffy´s eyes.
"...we are rich, rich, rich!" both of them danced like drunken men. Usopp giggled at the two.
Later that evening all of them were sitting around a fire. It was already dark.
"I´m soo damn happy! Now I can buy what I want..! I´m rich!" Nami laughed hysterical. Zoro rose a brow at his crazy cousin.
"WE are rich. Don´t forget we all agreed before that we would share what ever we find, ne?" he grumbled. Nami pouted. "Yeah, yeah."
They went on discussing who would get which of the gold, where they could go on searching tomorrow, what Nami could buy now with that, and things like that.
But one of them didn´t talk too much, he sat there, staring into the fire, hard thinking of something. His friends stopped for a moment with talking as they noticed that.
"What´s wrong Luffy?" Usopp asked his nakama. Said one shrugged.
"I dunno. Something is just...wrong. Like something important is missing..." he didn´t finish his sentence. The other nakama quiet down for a second, then Nami noticed something very important.
"Say, where is your strawhat? A few hours ago you still had it but now.." She pointed towards Luffy´s head, "It´s not there"
The half-Indian gasped. "Oh NO!" He grabbed his head as if he wanted to reassure himself that his treasure really was gone. "MY HAT!"
Hysterical he looked around, searching for it, but he couldn´t see it around.
"That´s right. When Nami found the gold it was still on your head." Usopp meant thoughtfully. Franky and Sanji agreed.
"I HAVE to find it!" Luffy had his eyes wide opened in shock.
"Easy there, Luffy." Sanji tried to calm him a bit.
"Where did you see him the first time without hat?" Zoro asked the others. They thought about it.
"Mh, I think the first time he didn´t have his hat was when we sat down here, showing Zoro our treasure." Franky thought aloud.
"Consequently Luffy-bro lost it on the way back from the Yukon River to our rest place." the eldest of the group pointed behind him, into the direction of the river.
"SHIT!" the seventeen-year-old shot forwards. His friends sighed. "C´mon, we have to help him." Zoro muttered and stood up.
Nami and Sanji lit candles to make it easier for them to search. Luffy was in front of them, desperately trying to find that hat of his.
A few minutes passed, no hat was there.
"Nonononono!" Luffy whined and came back to his waiting friends. The other five also didn´t find the strawhat.
"Hey Luffy, let´s search tomorrow, it´s too dark to see anything." Nami softly spoke. "And it´s too dangerous now. Let´s go to sleep."
Zoro sighed, knowing the other wouldn´t give up so easily. The hat was Luffy´s treasure.
"TOMORROW? No! That´s too late! I have to find it NOW!" he yelled and surprised his nakama who flinched at the sudden outburst.
"Luffy..." Nami tried to explain it was impossible to find it now, but the strawhat boy didn´t let her finish.
"I can search on my own, that doesn´t matter! If you don´t want then I´ll go alone!"
Now Nami was getting mad. "Don´t be so stupid! It is dangerous all alone! What if there are more stupid idiots like Lucci?" She shouted.
"Oi, oi, don´t.." Sanji wanted to stop the escalating situation, but his cousin spoke again.
"URUSAI YO (1)!" the cook at once shut his mouth, watching helplessy the other two arguing.
"I don´t care! I´m old enough to look after myself! Now let me go!" Luffy struggled against the tight grip Nami had on the boy´s wrist.
"Nami´s right! Don´t be so fucking stubborn!" Usopp grumbled at the other black-haired one. Sanji, Zoro and Franky agreed.
"Let´s go back to sleep, we´ll go searching the next day." the green haired swordsman told Luffy who was still struggling.
"Don´t you understand? I must find it!" tears came to the teen´s eyes, but it was so dark the others didn´t noticed that. Now the eighteen-year-old had enough.
Without thinking of it, she slapped Luffy right across the face, hard. Said person immediately quiet down at that.
"Nami-sis´!" Franky said. The girl lifted her hand to signal him to be quiet. Now all eyes were on Luffy who held his hurt cheek. No one knew what to say after that, then Nami slowly began to speak.
"It. is. too. dangerous." although she murmured these words, her five nakama could hear them very good. "Do you want to give your life for that strawhat?" she shouted.
Silence.
"Huh..?Luffy..?" Nami blinked, all anger forgotten as a few sobs were heard. And when she wanted to comfort the boy, he suddenly backed away, lifting his head. Now they all saw the tears in his eyes even though it was dark.
"Don´t touch me!" to say Nami, Franky, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp were shocked was an understatement. Never before Luffy had talked in this strange, almost fearful kind of voice. And never before he had said something like this.
"Look, m´sorry for slapping you, but.." Nami apologiezed carefully.
"No! I don´t want to hear it!" Luffy trembled. "I would do everything to get this hat back! It is, besides Chopper, a very precious object I never wanna loose!" he yelled and took a step back. Chopper, standing near Usopp, whined.
And before his nakama could say anything, Luffy turned around and run away. "I´ll find it, and no one of you can stop me!" he shouted. With that he was gone, disappearing into the dark forest near them.
"LUFFY! DON`T!" his friends shouted.
"Sh-shit! What did I do?" Nami sobbed.
"No, Nami-san, it´s not your fault. We all held him back." Sanji comforted his Nami.
"Crap-cook´s right. Luffy is just too stubborn." Zoro grumbled, litting another candle.
"W-what are you doing..?" Nami wiped her tears away. "I´ll go and find him. He directly run into the forest, that´s not good at a time like this."
"Zoro-bro is right! I´ll go with him, finding Luffy bro!" Franky smiled.
"We are all going. That´s the best thing to do, I guess." Sanji lit a new cigarette, tieing all of the huskys except Chopper onto a tree. When he finished, he started walking into the forest with a candle in his hand. "Let´s hurry"
Meanwhile
´Why can´t they understand...? It is my hat from Shanks..!´
He stepped through the snow. His sadness were long gone, replaced by anger. He didn´t think much of what danger could be around him, his mind was focused on his missing hat. After a while he stopped, looking around.
`Why the hell do I feel so watched..? No one´s here!´ he cursed something under his breath and continued walking.
Luffy came to a clearing. He sighed. That was stupid. He was stupid. He shouldn´t have run away, his nakama were just worrying ´bout him, right? Maybe he should turn around and walk back, apologizing.
But then, what about his hat..? Luffy honestly didn´t know what to do now. Suddenly he shuddered as he could clearly feel eyes on him. The teenager scanned the area as good as he could in the dark, but he saw no one there. Did he hallucinate? he scratched his head.
A loud crack under his feet let him flinch and back two steps away. Wh-what..? he gulped. It couldn´t be! Shit shit shit!
"Minna (2)! I think he went this way! There are footprints in the snow!" Nami informed the others. They followed them til they came to a clearing as well.
"There! There´s Luffy!" Usopp suddenly shouted, pointing to a silhouette meters ahead from the five. Chopper barked loudly, sensing something was wrong.
At once the five nakama widened his eyes, knowing Luffy was in trouble. Big trouble.
"Luffy! Come back to-" but Usopp was cut off by another loud crack that hallowed through the air. The next moment, Luffy had managed to turn around and look his friends into the eyes, the ice underneath the said boy´s feet gave in and Luffy fell into the dark lake. A loud splash was heard. The seventeen-year old even didn´t have time to shout before he dived into the freezing water.
´Sorry, minna...!´ he thought before sank deeper and deeper. The boy wasn´t able to swim, he´d never learned it.
"LUFFY!"
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(1) = Urusai yo = Shut up
(2) = Minna= everyone
Sorry to leave it with that ;)
Please review ;D
Until next time!