A.n I own nothing. Please review.
There are certain rules that should be obeyed when sailing on any ship, the most common one is that a captain is in charge. A captain is the boss, he makes the hard and tough decisions, he must command the respect of his crew and above all else he must keep them safe as the crews lives depends on his guidance and wisdom. However a certain captain was trying to steal an orange.
'Almost, almost there,' Luffy thought as he tried to pick an orange form the trees on his ship. Nami had brought them with her and normally taking one would not be a problem but the bodyguard was.
"I said no," Sanji yelled at Luffy, and kicked him away. If it weren't for the ships railing he would have wound up in the ocean.
"But Sanji, I just want one," Luffy complained.
"These are Nami-swans precious trees, I won't let you have any," Sanji said.
Luffy pouted and complained that there was nothing to do.
Zoro was napping, Usopp was making some ammo using tabasco sauce and explaining to Connor how non-lethal weapons can be just as effective in battle as lethal ones. Nami was complaining to the postal bird that the price of the newspaper had gone up again.
"Alright but if it goes up again I'm not buying it," Nami told the bird.
"Why are you so stingy with money?" Connor asked. "It's not like you have to save up for your village anymore,"
"That's exactly why, I need it for myself," Nami answered. "Sanji can you set up the deck chair please,"
Right away Nami-swan," Sanji replied happily and did as he was told.
"She's using him like a tool," Zoro observed form the other end of the ship.
Nami sat down in a striped deck chair under an umbrella and began to read the paper; while Sanji was gone Luffy took the opportunity to grab one of the oranges but he was caught. Sanji kicked him and Luffy hit Usopp knocking the tabasco sauce ball he was working on into his eyes.
"AAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" Usopp screamed and ran in circles around the deck with fire spewing from his eyes. "Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot,"
Luffy thought that Usopp wanted to play and began chasing him around the deck, Zoro pretended not to know them. Connor let out a small giggle.
After Usopp had stopped running he was given a cool wet towel for his eyes. Nami found an interesting article about Zoros' bounty hunter friends and how they had donated 20 million beris to Coccsayi village. A flyer dropped out of the newspaper and Connor picked it up, on it had a picture of Luffy grinning like an idiot.
"Hey what've you got there?" Luffy asked Connor.
Connor handed the flyer to Luffy "Don't know but it has a picture of you on it,"
Luffy took the flyer and looked at it, his face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.
"Wooo Whooo, Hey guys guess what I've got a bounty," Luffy declared happily and showed the flyer to his crew.
"WHHHHAAATTT?" Nami, Usopp and Sanji yelled at the same time and came running over.
"30 Million? You're worth 30 Million beris," Nami claimed.
"Hey look I'm famous too," Usopp said.
"What where?" Sanji came up and his eyes darted all over the poster looking for Usopp. "I don't see you on here,"
"Right here," Usopp pointed to the bottom corner of the picture where the back of his head could be seen.
"It's just the back of your head, it doesn't count," Sanji said in a huff.
Connor didn't see what the fuss was about; it was just a picture "Why is Luffy on a flyer?" he asked.
The rest of the crew stared at him; couldn't he see what was in front of him? Did he not know the impactions of a high bounty?
"It's a wanted poster kid, bounty hunters are gonna come after us now and with a bounty that high they'll be really tough," Zoro explained, with a hint of excitement.
"Oh, is 30 million a lot?" Connor asked, he remembered seeing a similar poster in Alvidas quarters but it had her picture on it.
"It's a small fortune and now we won't be able to hang around the east blue anymore," Nami sighed dejectedly.
"Great let's go to the Grand Line then," Luffy suggested "But first we need to find a butchers and get some meat,"
Nami opened her map and pointed to an island "Here this is Louge Town, the last trading port before the Grand Line. It's also where the Pirate king was born and executed,"
"Where Rodger was killed," Luffy said in awe.
The Pirate King had everything in the world but was executed by the Marines twenty-two years ago and now he had the opportunity to see where it Rodger had died. Luffy wanted to see it; no it was more like he needed to see it.
"Let's go there, to the place the Pirate King died," Luffy said.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Zoro came over and put his hand on Connors shoulder, Connor stiffened slightly and looked at Zoro,
"Let's train, you need more practice," Zoro said.
With Luffys new bounty and them heading to the Grand Line Connor needed to be stronger, he was good but not that good. Zoro decided that he would no longer hold back in their training sessions and he would make them longer and harder; Connor needed to be pushed beyond his limits if the boy was to survive the Grand Line.
Within the first minute Connor was knocked down.
After three hours Zoro called it quits, "That's enough; we'll pick it up again in the afternoon," he said, and went to go have a nap.
Connor was lying on the deck sweating and breathing heavily from the workout, his body ached and he was pretty sure that Zoro hadn't broken a sweat the entire time. He wasn't physically hurt just exhausted and slightly tiered of Zoro beating him in sparring. Usopp gave him some water and sat with him, Connor drank it very quickly.
"That looked tough," Usopp commented.
"Yeah it was," Connor replied.
"Are your training sessions normally like that,"
"No, normally Zoro shows me a stance and how to apply it in combat. When we spar he normally defends and regally stops to correct my stance or gives advice on how I should be standing,"
"So he's never attacked you then?"
Connor shook his head "Today was the first time he's gone on the offensive,"
"At least it was only one sword I'd hate to see what he'd be like with three," Usopp commented trying to cheer him up.
Connor groaned at the thought of sparing with Zoro using three swords and he had a suspicion that when Zoro found replacement ones that it would happen.
"Well at last it wasn't as bad as the time I took on a four ninjas and an evil samurai emperor," Usopp boasted.
Connor rolled his eyes 'here we go,' he thought sarcastically as Usopp began another one of his tales.
Just a normal morning out at sea with a less than normal crew.
Unnamed Island in the Grand Line
Mihawk sailed towards an island, it wasn't a populated island apparently some massive fire had happened on it a good sixty years ago and now even though the plant life had regrown it was normally deserted.
"Camping out here, he's too reckless," Mihawke commented as his boat approached the island.
When Mihawke disembarked he found himself surrounded by pirates, he ignored them completely and walked further into the island searching for the man he'd come to see. He found him in a clearing sitting under a tree with a sickly expression.
The man was tall he had red hair, three scars across his left eye and only one arm. He wore a long black cape over his shoulders slightly loose, a white shirt, brown trousers cut below the knee and collected halfway up the shin, with golden buttons down the outer leg.
"Hawke-eyes, let's not do this now I'm seriously hung over," Shanks moaned.
"I'm not here to fight a cripple, I came across a wanted poster and thought you should see it," Miwake held out the poster for shanks so he could see. "It reminded me of a certain story you told me. About an energetic little monkey,"
Shanks glanced at the poster and immediately his energy came back, he snatched the poster out of Mihawks hand and grinned.
"Thank you for showing this to me, but you know I can't let you leave, right?" Shanks said evilly.
Mihawke glared at Shanks 'No not again,' he thought as Shanks shoved a mug into his hand and filled it with liquor.
"Come on men let's have a party," Shanks declared.
"Weren't you just complaining about being hungover?" Mihawke stated.
"Ah, don't be like that. How could I not drink to an occasion such as this, now drink, drink, drink," Shanks encouraged.
"Captain is it wise to say that to Hawke-eyes?"
"Its fine, besides this guy is hilarious when he's drunk," Shanks reassured.
Mihawke sighed; he knew shanks would not stop until he drank with him; so he drank his drink only to have it refilled by Shanks. 'This is going to be a long day' he thought.
East blue, The Going Merry,
Luffy and Usopp were celebrating Luffys new bounty by discussing what they would encounter in the Grand Line. It wasn't much of a discussion because Usopp was telling lies about having gone there before. Nami could not believe that no one was taking it seriously 'It's like I'm the only sane one on this ship' she thought, 'me and Connor…hey where is he,'
Nami knew Zoro had a training session him but that ended over an hour ago and she hadn't seen the boy since.
"Has anyone seen Connor?" Nami asked.
"Hmm. Oh he's at the front of the ship. He fell asleep while I was telling him about my battle with four ninjas and the evil samurai emperor," Usopp answered.
Nami nodded and made her way to the front of the ship stepping over a snoring Zoro. She found him leaning against the railing fast asleep.
"Guess Zoro wore him out," Nami said. She looked out to the horizon and noticed a ship coming in the opposite direction.
The ship was old and looked like it could fall apart any second, what was odd was it was a marine ship.
"Is that the Marines?" Nami asked as they passed by the old ship.
"Nah, probably pirates that stole a scraped vessel," Usopp commented.
Once the two ships had passed each other the marine ship turned around and began to chase the Merry. When it caught up the Marine captain was on deck, it was Fullbody.
"How dare you compare me to you Pirate scum," Fullbody said.
"Who's this whacko?" Usopp asked.
"Hey it's the guy who paid for our meal at the bartee," Luffy said happily. "Hey thanks for the meal it was really good,"
Fullbody was furious it was because of that incident he had lost his ship and his reputation as a standing officer.
Fullbody held out Luffy wanted poster "Monkey. , you're under arrest,"
"Oh you got my poster too, want me to sign it?"
"It says dead or alive, personally I prefer the first option." Fullbody claimed. "Load the cannon,"
A marine loaded and amid the cannon at the Merry. Zoro had been watching the entire exchange with one eye open decided to intervene.
"Their attacking us? Alright I'll just bounce it back," Luffy said and got ready to fight but he was stopped by Zoro.
"Luffy I'll handle this," Zoro told him.
"Okay,"
"Fire!" Fullbody ordered.
The cannon fired and the ball went straight towards Zoro, but Zoro cut the ball in half impressing Luffy and scaring Usopp and the Marines.
"You shouldn't bother people trying to nap," Zoro commented.
At that moment Connor emerged "Hey what's going? On are we under attack?" he asked groggily.
"Fire second round," Fullbody ordered.
Unfortunately the cannon had a crack in it and exploded, the explosion caused the boat to catch on fire as well as Fullbodys pants. He comically ran around the ship while his men jumped into the ocean, Fullbody followed and the Straw hats continued on their way.
"So is that a no then?"
"Yup, don't worry about it," Luffy answered.
"Nami-swan lunch is ready," Sanji called out, from the kitchen.
The crew made their way into the kitchen and enjoyed a nice lunch. Afterwards Zoro wanted to have another training session with Connor but Sanji wanted the boy to wash the dishes.
"You had him train this morning so now he has to help me," Sanji pointed out.
"Yeah well he needs more training," Zoro argued back.
"He looks half-dead; he hasn't recovered from this morning yet,"
"So, he's eaten he'll be fine,"
"You're being too rough, and I need these dishes done,"
"No your being too soft and besides that's your job,"
Connor watched them ague back and forth and eventually they started a fight. Nami had instead decided that Connor should help her and dragged the boy on deck, where she just sat back on her deck chair.
Connor was very confused "Did you need me to do something?" he asked.
"No, I just didn't want you to be in the middle of the fight," Nami explained.
"Oh, can I go then?"
Nami nodded and returned to reading the paper.
Connor went into the men's sleeping quarters; grabbing the backpack with all the maps and letters in it he sat on the floor and pulled one of the letters out. He stared at the words on the paper intensely, willing them to make some sense but they didn't. After five minutes Connor gave up, it was so frustrating not being able to understand the things in front of him. He wondered if Nami would tell him what was on the maps, she was the Navigator after all.
He carried the bag back onto the deck and walked back to Nami.
"Nami, do you think you could look at some maps I found?" Connor asked nervously.
That peaked Namis interest "Sure, I'll take a look,"
Connor handed the bag to her and Nami pulled one out looking over it; she pulled another out and then another; they were all for the east blue and she even recognised a few islands. Each map had a strange decorative horizontal cross on them, some of them were scribbled out and one of them was circled.
"Where did you get these?" Nami asked.
"A hidden armoury under Gosa village" Connor answered.
"I see," Nami continued to study the maps.
Connor waited patiently for Nami to finish, she put the maps down and began to study the letters. Suddenly Sanjis' voice was heard.
"Oi, are you bothering Nami-swan?" Sanji asked as he walked over. Connor turned around and watched him approach, Sanji stopped when he stood in front of them.
"No he's not. Connor was showing me some maps he found," Nami answered; she did not look up from what she was reading.
"Do you need him? Because there are some dishes that need doing,"
"No you can have him; I need time to go over all these charts,"
"Great let's go kid," Sanji said and walked back to the kitchen.
Connor frowned but followed Sanji quietly, he had wanted to stay with Nami 'well It's only washing up, it could be worse,' he thought.
Once in the kitchen he went over to the sink and began washing up while Sanji lit a cigarette and watched him from the table. Connor felt a little unnerved about being watched but he focused on his task, when he was done with the plates and cutlery Sanji told him that he would do the bigger stuff and that the boy could go.
Connor left the kitchen and as soon as he did Sanji inspected the dishes, they were spotless. He was expecting a half-assed job with a bit of grease or some missed food stains not looking brand new. When Sanji finished cleaning the kitchen he went out on deck, Luffy and Usopp were fishing and Nami was still looking at the maps Connor gave her; he heard the clanging of swords.
'Guess that s***y swordsmen is training again,' Sanji thought. He followed the noise to the back of the ship and found Zoro in another training session with Connor; he lit another cigarette and watched them for a bit before going to see if Luffy and Usopp had caught anything yet.
It had been a couple of days since the Merry had left Cocosyai village and over that time Sanji had come to the conclusion that he had got on the wrong ship. The Captain had the attention span of a child, the first mate was lazy, the Sniper was a pathological liar and the actual child was too quiet. While Luffys' eating habits and his constant attempts to steal food annoyed him, Sanji had found a little helper.
After the first time Connor had cleaned the dishes for him, Sanji had started to give the boy more jobs. They weren't difficult just mundane cleaning jobs that needed to be done regularly. Like washing and putting the dishes away, sweeping/ mopping the floor, clearing the table after meals and swabbing the deck.
Connor did every job thoroughly and without complaints, while Sanji was grateful for the help Usopp had expressed his concerns about the amount of work Connor was doing.
"I don't see the problem," Sanj said.
"He's doing too much, between Zoros training and your cleaning he barely has enough time to relax," Usopp pointed out.
"He gets an hour each day,"
"That's not enough time,"
"It might be if you and Luffy didn't waste it by involving him in childish antics,"
"Those antics are the only reason he hasn't become withdrawn again,"
"In case you haven't noticed we're on a ship and these jobs need to be done,"
"So why not divide them up between the rest of us?"
"Because none of you idiots can be trusted to do them correctly. Can you honestly tell me that anyone else here will do them properly?"
Usopp had nothing to say to that because he knew Sanji was right. Luffy would break stuff, Zoro would just sleep through his turn and Sanji would never ask Nami to do anything. Usopp doubted that he'd get all of the work done as well.
"That's what I thought. Besides we're giving him a lift home the least he can do is help out with some simple cleaning,"
"Normally I would agree but he still needs more time to relax,"
"He's not that over worked,"
"Oh really?" Usopp began counting off his fingers. "Connors day now consists of getting up, breakfast, cleaning up after breakfast, training till lunch, cleaning up lunch, other cleaning jobs, more training, and then he has an hour before dinner which he cleans up afterwards before going to bed. And you don't think that's too much,"
"You're overreacting. If it was too much he would say something but he hasn't," Sanji finished and walked away, ending the conversation. Usopp hoped he was wrong.
Sanji kept an eye on Connor for the rest of the day but the boy showed no signs of being overworked or fatigue, sure he was always exhausted after training with Zoro but that was to be expected.
'Usopp should be talking to Zoro not me,' Sanji thought.