Date started: 24/08/14

Date finished: 26/08/14

Mood: Empty

Today's fave word: Vessel

Notes: okay so, I came home early from my holiday with my family because I was missing the unlimited amount of internet I have at home and after watching an Ace AMV I was inspired to start the latest chapter of 'stuck like glue', so here it is.

The two teens were rudely interrupted by the irritatingly loud voice of Buggy who decided to suddenly proclaim:

"This is such a flashy party. Now men, it is time to unleash the buggy ball!" which was immediately followed with the cries of approval from the other, less significant members of Buggy's crew. The abruptness of the statement was enough to shock them out of their own little world and back into the harsh reality that they were tied up and at the mercy of their enemies.

They watched wordlessly (Luffy not so much), as a huge cannon ball was rolled in by multiple underlings so that it was pointed of the side of the building and towards multiple houses. A shorter pirate began waddling towards the cannon, a huge red ball with a hideous scull and crossbones painted on it, that was about three quarters his size, causing him to take large, slow steps to reach his destination without dropping the ball. Once he eventually made it to the cannon, he carefully disposed of the sphere into the back of the weapon, all the while the rest of the crew watched him silently.

"All set, Captain"

Jumi watched the clown carefully as he gazed at the weapon with large amounts of pride, and with the size of it she wondered briefly if he was trying to compensate for something, before she was pulled out of her internal giggles by Nami's confused voice.

"Wha-what are you doing with that thing?"

"Just observe the awesome power of my buggy ball." Buggy replied before turning to the pirate that loaded the cannon. "Light it", the pirate obeyed.

Luffy and Jumi both observed as the pirates all covered their ears and squeezed their eyes shut, waiting for the flame to reach the end of the rope, and when it did Jumi wished her own hands were free so that she could have done the same. The sound was horrendous, leaving high pitched buzzing in her ears, but the state of the buildings in front of the cannon was even more so. A whole row of complete buildings from the roof top to the ocean, was reduced to rubble from the ferocious impact the large cannon ball had met them with. Jumi just hoped that once the people of the town returned, that there was enough housed left for them to take shelter in, because if many more of these buggy balls were set off, then more than half the town will be homeless in no time.

She watched, a little flabbergasted that such a low level pirate had such fire power, as Nami's mouth dropped in an apparent show of astonishment and horror that Jumi was sure was also reflected in Luffy's face, although she was unable to see it herself.

The other pirates cheered in amusement, as Buggy let out a chuckle of his own.

"That was flashy. With these Buggy balls and my devil fruit powers, I should have no problem conquering the Grand Line" he declared. "Right, Nami?"

"Yes, of course" Nami said, spreading her arms wide with a forced smile plastered upon her face.

"Huh?" Jumi's eyes widened at the sound of Luffy's voice behind her. Please, Luffy, oh please just let it go. Don't say anything stupid and we'll be able to weasel ourselves out of this mess like always. "But it's my destiny to conquer the Grand Line" Too late, I should have known.

By the way that Buggy and his crew all quietened down and turned towards them, Jumi could tell they had all heard what Luffy had said, and they were quite obviously angered by the statement.

"And then I'm going to become King of the Pirates"Oh well, guess we'll just have to make it up as we go along like usual. Stupid boys always getting me into these sorts of situations.

"Shut up, you idiot" Nami snapped from somewhere in the crowd, though she was mostly drowned out by Buggy's sinister laughing.

"I can see why your sick of him Nami"

"Yes, I know. He never takes anything seriously, thinks that life is a big game. He acts like a little kid."

"Oh, don't I know it" Jumi muttered, gaining an incredulous "hey" from her partner.

"I see." Buggy stared at the cage as Nami give an obviously fake laugh. "Then how about I give you a Buggy ball to blow away your old bosses?" Nami gave an unintelligent grunt in surprise. "It will be a show of loyally to me your new boss. Men!"

Jumi heard Luffy take an audible gulp as they watched helpless as the cannon was rolled to aim directly at their cage, and more specifically, at them.

"That's alright, Captain! We don't have to finish them off just yet. Why don't we just carry on with the welcoming party and have more fun?" Nami pleaded, her smile starting to crack under the pressure of the situation.

Buggy turned to her, showing how distorted his face had become with his blood thirsty grin.

"This is my idea of 'fun" he threw her a match box, never once taking his eyes off of her.

From Nami's expression, Jumi could immediately tell that the girl had never killed another person before, which only made the circumstances worse for both her and them.

By her hesitating, Buggy may take it as her never intending to give him loyalty, or that she was too weak to be apart of his crew. If he comes to that conclusion he may decide to kill her and then turn to us because he believes that we are her superiors meaning that we gave her orders to act this way and there'll be no telling how he will react, Jumi thought.

"Now, light the fuse Nami!" Buggy called over the chanting members of his crew, seeing that she had not moved from her spot. "Your not wimping out on me now are you?"

Jumi could feel Luffy's grin as he lent forward towards Nami. He could also tell that she wouldn't be able to kill them, but was much more optimistic about what will come after Nami's refusal.

"What's the matter? Your hands are shaking" Luffy said.

"No their not!" Nami reputed, flinching slightly at the accusation.

"That's what happens when you take on pirates with half-assed resolve" Luffy carried on.

"Resolve to do what?" Nami shouted "To kill someone like it's nothing? Is that a pirates resolve?"

"No" Both Jumi and Luffy chorused. Jumi then added, "You have to be willing to give up your own life for your dreams, and for what you believe is right. That is a pirates resolve"

Finally growing tired of the wait, one of the crew snatched the matches from Nami's grasp and began to light one up.

"Stop being such a ease, chick. Here, let me show you how it's done"
Jumi, seeing the flame draw closer and closer to the fuse, pushed her hand against the floor of the cage, searching desperately until Luffy's own fingers threaded through hers tightly, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of her palm comfortingly.

So fast, only Jumi, Luffy and a few other pirates could catch the movement, Nami whipped out three parts of a metal pipe, combined them to make a boa staff, and brought it down hard on the pirates head, sending him plummeting to the floor in a heap.

Both gum-gum-devil fruit users let out a gasp of both relief and shock once they realized what the ginger had done and that they were now safe, but she was most probably now in the line of fire, figuratively speaking.

"Sorry!" the girl yelped.

"Nami!What's the meaning of this outrage? What's wrong? Just shoot them already!" Buggy screamed in annoyance.

"Huh, so now, after framing us, tying us up and aiming a cannon at us, your gonna save us?" Jumi asked "Cause if your trying to make it up to us then you gotta at least say sorry first."

"Of course not, I'm not doing it for you idiots. I just don't wanna lower myself to the level of these inhumane pirates!" Nami explained as she crouched down into a defensive stance.

Luffy shrugged.

"Okay, thanks anyway" He said, just glad he and Jumi were still alive.

"Pirates took the life of someone very dear to me, I'll never be one of them"

"Oh, that makes sense. Though, you do realize we didn't ask, right?" Jumi piped up, confused as to how that made it's way into the conversation.

"Wah! Nami the fuse" Luffy cried, drawing both girl's attention to the lit fuse quickly descending towards the loaded cannon.

"So you think pirates are just inhumane filth, it that right?" Buggy demanded rhetorically "Get her men!"

On cue four different members of the crew, all wearing the terrible outfits all Buggy pirates wore, charged towards the ginger brandishing daggers and swords. Nami knocked them away easily, using all of her concentration to hold them off with her staff.

"Water, water, water." Luffy chanted behind Jumi, his head thrashing back and forth searching for some water to put out the flame. "Not good." He summarized after realizing there was none of the much needed liquid in sight.

Nami lurched forward past the pirates, her eyes fixated on the fuse. Reaching out she gripped the burning rope between both hands, hoping that she could smother and stop the flame by cutting off the oxygen supply. She cried out in pain, her teeth grinding against each other as she continued to hold on.

"Watch out!" Luffy warned, seeing the pirates from before getting ready to attack her from behind. Jumi remained silent, having seen a flash of green out of the corner of her eye a second before. She grinned.

Zorro stood, holding of the attackers with only two of his swords, both of them still sheathed.

"Hey now, it's not nice to gang up on the poor girl." He lectured teasingly.

"Zoro!" Luffy exclaimed in joy.

"You took your time, getting slow already, old man?" Jumi joked, happy that the man had finally caught up. Zoro merely shot her a glare, turning his attention to Nami.

"You hurt?" Nami just stared. "I said 'are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine I think" Nami stuttered out making Jumi scoff. What's the girl afraid of? Zoro just saved her all bad-ass like and she's scared of him, weird child that she is.

"Okay, okay. You've had your time to shine, now stop posing and get us outta here!" Jumi snapped, Luffy leaned forward from excitement causing Jumi to be bent backwards at an uncomfortable angle.

"Wow, what a relief. I'm glad you found us, Zoro" Luffy chirped.

"How do you keep getting yourselves into these situations? First a bird flies off with you, and now I find you trapped in a cage?"

"It's an interesting story actually" Luffy answered, followed by Jumi's retort of:

"Hey, don't look at me. It was all Luffy's fault, as per usual"

"Oi! I thought we were over this already" Luffy snapped, gaining a stuck out tongue from his friend which he couldn't see.

"But it's the truth"

"Is not"

"Is too"

"Is NOT-"

"Stop fighting! Seriously it's like I'm more of a baby sitter than a pirate being under the service of you two"

"Hey, I resent that" The two snapped in unison at the swordsman.

"So your Roanoro Zoro, if your here for my head you've got quite the struggle before you" Buggy bragged, his arms crossed in a proud gesture. Why would Zoro go after this circus freak? His bounty isn't even that high.

"No, not interested." Zoro said, not even bothering to turn around towards the flamboyant Captain. "I gave up pirate hunting, I'm here for my friends over in the cage there"

"But I'm interested though" Buggy insisted "Killing you would boost my reputation"

"If you try," Zoro tilted his head in an intimidating manner to look at Buggy "you'll die."

Buggy pulled out a few throwing knives from his coat, twisting and spinning them in his hands.

"Oh, is that so?" Buggy didn't seem convinced. Zoro let out a tired sigh.

"I tried to warn you, but oh well."

The crew went up in uproar, their cheers drowning out Jumi's own encouragement towards the ex-pirate hunter, which consisted of such things as ' kill that evil clown' and 'you'll be fine... you don't have coulrophobia do you?'. Both Luffy and Nami just watched silently as the two competitors took their stances, each confident in their victory.

Buggy suddenly charged forward, arms wide as he laughed insanely.

"Die flashily!"

He was then swiftly and cleanly diced into much smaller pieces, and Jumi had to admit she had never seen Buggy look better. And still Buggy's crew cheered.

This doesn't seem right, either there's something we're missing or all of Buggy's crew secretly had coulrophobia.

And thus signals that yet another chapter, presented my moi, XAcessX, has come to an end. Unfortunately, now that I have finished secondary school and my exams, I will be receiving even more work to do since I am now heading into sixth form to study my A-levels. This does not mean that I will abandoning my stories, just that the chapters might have even bigger gaps in between so please be patient with me, and I will work as hard as I can to write more for you. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please feel free to leave a review.