21. The Demon, the Witch and the Princess
"So, you infiltrated this, … Baroque works group to learn about what their goal was?" Nami asked. Vivi nodded.
"To be fair, we already had the idea that they were planning to overthrow the kingdom, but we just didn't know for sure." she told them. Zoro smirked.
"That was pretty courageous of you." he complimented her. "And not every princess loves her country enough to do something like that."
Luffy nodded.
Flashback:
" … I'm sorry, I want to come with you, but I love my country and the country needs its princess … "
"Thank you." Vivi replied. "But we haven't actually accomplished anything yet. I hate to ask, but would you be willing to get me to Arabasta, to at least tell them what we know?"
Luffy tried to say something.
"We could get you to Arabasta," Nami begun in a smug tone. "But It'll cost you. Let's say … a billion Berry!"
Vivi's face fell. Luffy sweat-dropped.
'She's acting like Vivi asked us to kill Whitebeard or something.' he thought.
"Nami-san, the kingdom could pay that if we were doing good!" Vivi replied to the offer in a somewhat desperate tone. "But we've been in crisis for a few years now, not to mention we're in a state of war."
"But you know who is responsible?" Luffy said, but it wasn't a question. It was a statement. She nodded anyway.
"So, who's the mastermind?" Zoro asked after a while. Vivi paled and shook her hands in front of her in denial to answer that.
"I-I can't possibly tell you that. You'll be targeted." Vivi cried out. Luffy pouted.
"But we c-" Zoro began.
"NO! I can't tell you! You saved me and he's a horrible enemy. There's no way you'd be able to even touch him!" Vivi yelled. "He's the Royal Shichibukai, Sir Crocodile!"
There was silence.
Luffy and Zoro sweat-dropped, while both Vivi and Nami stared at each other in horror. Then something landed on the roof of the nearby building. Nami slowly turned her head in horror. She saw an otter and a vulture, both on the roof, both wearing shades, looking intimidating.
Then she turned around and grabbed Vivi by her clothes and started shaking her wildly while crying comically and shouting at her with shark teeth. A sight that would normally be funny. Well, to Luffy it was, so he did what he always did when things were funny. He started laughing. Nami then took off, trying to escape.
"Well guys, it was nice being in the crew, but now I'm leaving before I'm killed." she said, but couldn't do that, because the otter stopped her in her tracks with freshly made pictures of her as well as Zoro and Luffy.
"Wow, very nice!" she said while clapping and the otter bowed dramatically in gratitude. Then she turned back and regained her crying-shark expression, which she must have picked up from Arlong somewhere in the past (or something).
"NOW I CAN'T EVEN ESCAPE!" she yelled at Vivi, who tried to comfort her by offering her meager (compared to the price demanded) savings. Then she turned to Luffy and Zoro.
"Why aren't you guys worried?" she asked in a disbelieving tone as the two of them remained seated and were talking excitedly about the Shichibukai. Zoro snorted.
"This guy," he said and pointed at Luffy. "Dueled Dracule Mihawk at Baratie and they were pretty evenly matched."
"HE WHAT?!" both of the girls shouted. Luffy scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Hawky held back and was only defending against me." he said. The girls gaped at them in disbelief. 'Hawky?!' all three of his friends thought.
"Don't say that. I totally lost to him only using the knife. Even if he did hold back and never attack, you still forced him to take you very seriously!" Zoro told him. Then he looked at Nami's gawking expression.
"Princess girl, I get why you're surprised, but why you Nami? Didn't anyone tell you?" Zoro asked. She shook her head.
"Yosh!" Luffy announced and stood up, raising both hand in the air. "Let's go kick the crap out of Crocodile."
A few minutes, an explosion, a little crying and nakama-dragging later …
"It's very good that you've managed to get away from your pursuers … " a soft melodic voice commented. Luffy smirked but kept quiet.
"It sure is." Nami answered.
"Watch out for the shallows so you don't damage the hull." the voice said again.
"You can count on me for that." the same person replied. "Ummm, was that you, Luffy?"
Luffy sweat-dropped.
'True, I don't have an incredibly manly voice, but I don't sound like THAT.' Luffy thought, but didn't voice it.
He looked at her.
"Nice ship." the voice commented again. Everyone turned around. Sitting on the railing of the ship was none other than Nico Robin, wearing a cowboy hat, purple boots and an overall very revealing outfit complete with a very short purple skirt as well as also very short purple vest.
'Wow, evil Robin is very easy on the eyes.' Luffy thought. The woman seemed to look at everyone individually, but her gaze rested on Luffy for the longest time, first at his scar and then at his face. She was studying his expression.
'He seems completely unsurprised by my intrusion. Like he's been expecting me.' she thought. Her gaze then left Luffy and reached the princess of Arabasta.
"I saw Mr. 8 not too long ago, Mrs. Wednesday." Robin told her. This of course caused Vivi to become enraged.
"You killed Igaram!" she shouted in anger. Luffy then took a step forward. He didn't want to do that, but he was forced to act at least somewhat angry at her to not arouse any suspicion.
"Even if you did, why are you on the ship?" he shouted. He hoped it was convincing enough. He knew Robin would be by far the hardest to keep things from. "Why are you here?"
"What are you doing here, Miss AllSunday?" Vivi asked in a panicked tone.
"Miss AllSunday? Whose partner is that?" Nami asked.
"Crocodile's." Luffy answered for Vivi.
"Aren't you?" he asked, looking up to her. She looked a bit surprised, but then she smirked. Everyone else also looked at him, confused at how he would know.
"And just how did you know that, Captain?" she asked, putting emphasis on the last word. It was very weird for him to hear her refer to him like that, at least without adding '-san' at the end.
"Your aura told me that. Your aura fits only a person in a position of power. Like to the partner of the boss." Luffy said and smirked. She looked at him with a somewhat surprised expression.
"Also, " he continued. "Your bounty is very high."
He could see her façade of indifference and amusement falter for just a moment, replaced by a look of shock, but then she quickly regained it and smirked back.
"I see." she replied.
"Now, what are you doing here?" he asked in a bit more hostile tone. "And how do you know of her, Vivi?"
"We shadowed her in order to determine the name of the boss." Vivi replied. Robin giggled softly.
"Correction, Miss Wednesday – I let you shadow me." she told her.
"So you're a good guy?" Luffy asked. Nami punched him in the head, which didn't do anything, but whatever.
"She's a girl, Luffy." she told him. "I know that." He pouted, but inwardly, he sweat-dropped. 'Calling her a good girl sounds even worse … but fine! Have it your way, Nami!'
"I knew that. So you were also the one who told him his identity was exposed!"
"Correct!"
"So, she's a bad girl." Luffy announced. Nami seemed to have realized at how this sounded judging by her expression. Robin looked at Luffy with a somewhat wide-eyed expression.
"You shouldn't call me that. It sounds … wrong." she told him without changing her tone. Vivi seemed irritated by her shift of attention.
"I know." Luffy replied and pointed to his female crew member. "But Nami told me to."
Robin looked at her with an unamused expression.
"You sure have weird thoughts." she told her and Nami flinched under her gaze, but then Robin's attention shifted back on the now glaring Vivi.
"What exactly are your intentions here?" she asked her.
"Who knows … " Robin answered and closed her eyes. "But you're all so serious about it. I just had to cooperate. A princess, who actually thinks she can make an enemy of Baroque works and not only expects to survive, but also save her country. It's just so ridiculous."
Those words were the last straw for Vivi. She roared in anger and in response everyone who had a weapon pointed it at Robin. Zoro unsheathed two of his swords, Nami took her staff into her hands. Usopp and Sanji pointed at her head, with a slingshot and a pistol respectively. Luffy made no move.
"Would you mind not pointing such dangerous things at me?" she told them and Luffy saw a hand appear out of everyone that was armed and slap their weapons out of their hands. The hands disappeared almost immediately afterward. The others were confused and shocked. They correctly assumed that it was a devil fruit though.
Sanji commented on Robin's beauty.
'He's right.' Luffy thought and then looked at each of the girls. 'I'm so lucky. All three of my female nakama are beautiful.'
Then he gained a thoughtful expression. 'Come to think of it, we don't really have any bad-looking nakama. Well, Brook is a skeleton, but he makes it look great!'
"Really, don't be in such a rush."Robin said and startled him from his thoughts. "I'm not under any orders at the moment. I have no reason to fight you at the moment."
Then she used her devil fruit powers to snatch his hat. Luffy gritted his teeth in irritation. She may be his future nakama, but right now she was an enemy, so he didn't like her just taking the hat. She looked at his hat and then back at him.
"So you're the famous Straw Hat captain, huh?" she asked.
"Monkey D Luffy." she continued, putting emphasis on the middle name.
Luffy never fully understood the significance of D. He knew the people, who carried the initial often became very important in an era. Monkey D Garp, Monkey D Dragon, Portgas D Ace, Gol D Roger, Marshall D Teach as well as himself were all highly important, worldwide renowned figures, whose actions and words influenced and changed everything in the world, the kind of change that even other (non-D) renowned people could only dream of doing. Roger, Garp, Ace and Teach all changed the world in their own way and Dragon and Luffy were about to, although Luffy personally thought, maybe out of his pride or maybe out of a better reason, that the changes they caused would be nothing compared to what him and his father would do (especially together).
He glared at her as she put his hat on top of her own hat.
"What bad luck … " she commented. "You pirates picking up a princess that Baroque works wants dead. And even though the princess is protected by a very powerful pirate, your chances with Mr. 0 aren't exactly high. But the worst is your next destination."
Nami looked at her in surprise and then looked at her Log-pose.
"The next island is Little garden." Robin continued with a smirk. "My dears ..." Sanji's eye turned into a heart upon hearing this, "Even if we do absolutely nothing, you won't make it to your little kingdom, Princess."
Said princess gritted her teeth.
"Isn't all that really foolish?" the Baroque works second in command asked, but then threw them two objects. Hat to Luffy and an eternal pose to Arabasta to Vivi.
"I'm curious though, " she said and looked at Luffy. "Why didn't you point anything at me?"
Luffy then smirked and to her horror and the surprise of everyone on board, Robin noticed in his hands both her hat as well as the eternal pose. Nobody had seen him even move. Luffy looked at her hat for a moment and then put it on top of his.
"It's simple. You were a good girl and kept your … hands … mostly to yourself. If you were a bad girl you wouldn't be leaving this ship in a very good state." Luffy told her in a casual tone. It was the simple admission that scared her. It wasn't a threat, it was a statement.
He threw her back the hat and she caught her and regained her composure somewhat.
"As for this." he said, looking at the Eternal pose resting on his palm. "I don't need it. I want to see both Little Garden and Drum."
Then the eternal pose seemed to spontaneously shatter into pieces.
I've named this chapter like this because this is, apart from when they were trapped by Crocodile, the only time when Nami, Robin and Vivi were together in the same place.
There is not much else that needs commenting, apart from maybe the Luffy-Robin interaction. I still haven't decided whether romance is yes or no, but at the very least I've now crossed out Nami (Since if I wanted LuNa I really should have made it start earlier on I think and I never was that crazy about LuNa to begin with. I mean it's not that I don't like it, it's just ... it's so common. Practically every One Piece fanfiction with romance has LuNa. Aside from that, I don't like bitchy women. :D). Anyway, Robin is most highly probable, while Hancock is still possible, but improbable.
If you want to ask about the 'she's easy on the eyes' comment - for now it merely means that she didn't have very many clothes on when she was "evil", but it could get another meaning if I decide to pursue romance. But, like I said before, if there is romance it won't ever become a main focus. Not even nearly. Also, if it happens, it will probably progress slowly (in terms of storyline time at least).
Even if there's no romance at all, today's the day RobinxLuffy special friendship begins. As you could see, even when they first meet, Luffy and Robin already gang up together on the poor Navigator. :D
Also, the D thing. I didn't want to write that in the story as it'd get too long and Luffy couldn't possibly think about so much in such a short amount of time. Here's the thing. Luffy knows that Dragon wants to completely change the world and given his impressive power and reach, Luffy expects him to someday do it. Also, about himself. He already knows that by kicking the crap out of Croco-boy, he'll free up a Shichibukai position. This will enable the ugly fat bastard that we know as Teach to get a seat by kicking the crap out of Ace. Then the war will begin. Half because of him and half because of Mr. Fat and Mr. I'm-too-hot-for-a-shirt. At that point he'll already have had the same effect on the world as Mr. Fat and Mr. Too-hot-for-a-shirt. Then, he'll pulverize Enies Lobby and get global attention and outrage, making new pirates form in admiration as well as make pirates and marines alike to fear him. Then he'll rearrange Mr. I'm-an-ugly-rich-bastard's face into something a bit some pleasant, again getting outrage. Then he'll pay a visit to Impel Down and Marineford and kick the crap of the Navy and Nazy-wannabees and by then he'll be known as the craziest pirate who ever lived (Sorry Doflamingo) as well as the one who did what Whitebeard himself could not. By then he'll already be a legend. So that's why Luffy thinks he'll dwarf everyone else in overall impact, since he also expects to become the pirate king someday.
Phew, now I'm done. Thanks for reading (if you did) and please review.
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