35. Mock town
"There's a lot of different people!" Luffy started as they walked from the harbor of Mock town.
"Seems like a fun little town!" Zoro agreed. Robin nodded.
"This appears to be a pirate town. I'm sure it'll be interesting." She added. Luffy nodded.
"You bet." He replied as they walked past many different pirates. One had a large halberd in his hand. As they walked down the town, Luffy felt several familiar auras. He tensed up.
"What's wrong, Luffy?" Zoro asked. Luffy sighed.
"I knew it. As soon as I talked to Whitebeard, I knew what would happen." Luffy lied. They both looked at him oddly, one from each side. Luffy sighed again.
"Blackbeard is in this town. And since I promised, I can't fight him." He told them.
"Excuse me, Captain-san, but what exactly did Blackbeard do?" Robin asked. Luffy looked at her.
"To me, nothing." Luffy replied. "But he nearly killed one of my brothers' nakama. 4th division commander Thatch is still fighting for his life."
Robin looked at him and tried to say something, but something else got Luffy's attention. An old man fell off his horse in front of them.
'One of Blackbeard's nakama.' Thought Luffy.
"Who is that?" Robin asked. Luffy shrugged.
"He fell off." Luffy replied. Even though Luffy hated Blackbeard, his hate didn't really extend all that much to his nakama, since they had nothing to do with neither the betrayal nor Ace's defeat (since they didn't even have haki).
"Yep. Fell right off." Zoro repeated with a sweat drop.
The man on the ground, Doc Q grunted as if in pain. He lifted his head and looked straight at Luffy.
"Hey, good folk." He asked. "Could you help me?"
Zoro and Luffy both sweat-dropped.
"You just don't feel like getting up!" Zoro replied in a deadpanned expression. The man grunted again.
"Luffy, get that side." Zoro said. Luffy nodded and they grabbed Doc Q and threw him on the horse.
"Oh, sorry about that." The man apologized. "I'm back up. I was born with a weak body-"
'Yeah right.' Luffy thought.
"Now let's go, Stronger!" Doc Q commanded to his horse. The horse took a step forward and fell forward on the ground.
"THE HORSE TOO?!" Luffy and Zoro yelled. Robin giggled in the background.
Then the horse somehow picked himself up.
"Forgive me for being such a bother." Doc Q replied and offered a basket full of apples. "I'd like to repay you with those. Would you like one?"
Zoro sweat-dropped.
"Hey, that's way too suspicious. We don't want any! Hurry up and get lost!" He said, but Luffy ignored his words and just went ahead and took one of the apples.
"Ooh, an apple!" Luffy said and took a bite. Just as he did that, something exploded in the background.
"Hey what happened?!" a random man asked.
"Some guys took some apples from some weird guy and as soon as they ate them, all five of them exploded." Another replied.
Zoro and Robin looked at Luffy, who was munching on an apple. He swallowed and then started laughing, much to their bewilderment.
"Shishishishi! It seems I'm really lucky then!" he told the man and ate the rest of the apple. The man laughed.
"Exactly. You picked a dud. Otherwise you'd have died on the first bite." He told them.
They walked past him. Zoro sighed.
"Seriously, Luffy!?" Zoro commented.
"Why did you take the apple, Captain-san? Didn't it seem suspicious to you?" Robin asked. Luffy waved his hand in dismissal.
"I'm higly resistant to poison and an explosion wouldn't have killed me." Luffy told her. She shook her head.
"WHAT ABOUT US?!" Zoro yelled at him.
"Ah, right!" Luffy answered and gained a thoughtful expression. Then he punched his right fist on his left hand. "If an explosion did happen, I'd use Gear Second and punch you away as soon as it happened."
"Gear Second?" Robin asked. "What's that?"
Luffy smirked.
"I use my rubber body to speed up the flow of blood in my body. That makes me much faster!" he explained. They looked at him wide-eyed.
"Seriously?" Zoro asked. "But you're already fast!"
Luffy nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fast enough so that I generally don't need it anymore. At least against anyone in Paradise I think." He replied. "Soru is more than enough for those!"
"Soru?" Robin repeated. Luffy nodded.
"So, you've heard about it? It's a technique high-ranking marines use." He told her.
"WIIIHAHAHAHA!" someone laughed. They looked up and saw a very muscular man with a golden belt on a rooftop.
'Another one.' Luffy thought.
"He's at it again?" a random citizen asked.
"This is a fun town!" Luffy chirped out and laughed.
"By the way, where are we heading, Captain-san?" Robin asked. Luffy shrugged.
"Who knows?" Luffy answered. "Any fun looking bar."
They walked for a few more moments. Luffy noticed the sniper of the Blackbeard pirates on another rooftop. Then he finally saw the bar he was looking for.
"There!" he said and pointed towards a bar, which a blond-haired pirate with a blue captain's coat had just entered.
'Ah Bellamy. You're going to be a jerk today, aren't you?!' Luffy thought in irritation.
But then another man gained his attention. It was him. Blackbeard.
At the same time as Bellamy entered the bar, Blackbeard exited it. They did not share a glance.
Luffy struggled to restrain himself as he walked towards the bar, Blackbeard coming in his direction. Zoro and Robin both noticed this and kept looking at him.
Blackbeard and Luffy passed each other. Luffy kept looking into the ground, while Blackbeard looked at him in interest.
Then, as soon as they were a few feet away from each-other, Luffy lost control. For just a second, his right hand blackened. It was like a flick, but the other man noticed it.
Blackbeard stopped walking. Luffy stopped too.
Luffy looked over his shoulder and saw Blackbeard doing the same, however his expression seemed drastically different to Luffy's.
Luffy glared at him, but Blackbeard's eyes were wide. He was sweating. He actually looked frightened.
'What's going on?!' thought both Robin and Zoro, but didn't dare say anything.
'Damn, I lost control.' Thought Luffy, as he looked straight into Blackbeard's disbelieving eyes.
'What overwhelming haki!' thought Blackbeard. 'For a moment I thought I felt Red-Haired's aura.'
He finally composed himself and turned around fully. Luffy and his two crew members followed his example.
"W-What's your name?" Blackbeard asked. Luffy relaxed his posture somewhat.
"I'm Monkey D Luffy." He answered. Blackbeard's eyes widened.
'That's the guy that defeated the Shichibukai, Crocodile.' He thought. 'But I had no idea he was this powerful.'
"Your bounty?" Blackbeard asked after a few moments.
"70.000.000 Berry." Luffy answered.
'I'm sure the new wanted posters will arrive soon.' Blackbeard thought. 'Then his bounty will be at least double that.'
"Your name?" Luffy asked, altrough he already knew the answer.
"Marshall D Teach." Blackbeard answered. Luffy nodded.
"Nice to meet you." He answered.
"Likewise." Blackbeard replied. They then turned around and headed each into his own direction.
'Damn. If I knew he had refused the Shichibukai position, I'd fight him right now.' Blackbeard thought. 'But if I attack him while he's considering or he has accepted, the Government won't like me too much.'
He turned his head around and glanced at Luffy, who had just entered the bar, followed by his two crewmates.
'And if my observation haki is correct, he's way too strong to fight without knowing for sure.'
He then walked away.
When Luffy entered the bar, followed by Robin and Zoro, the entire place went quiet. Whether it was because of Luffy's commanding aura or because they recognized his face, every person inside ceased their conversation and looked at the new arrival.
The three walked towards the counter and sat down, Luffy intentionally sitting near Bellamy. Zoro and Robin sat down to his left.
Most of the attention was still on them, but a few of the patrons started talking again.
"Hey old man, get me a glass of wine!" Luffy ordered.
"Coming right up!" the bartender replied.
Zoro quirked an eyebrow at this.
"Luffy, you drink wine?" he asked.
"I drink whatever I feel like!" Luffy answered and grinned. "Now you guys say what you want!"
"I'll have wine like Captain-san!" Robin ordered.
"I'll have sake." Zoro told him.
"You're the captain?" Bellamy asked mockingly as Luffy got his drink. Luffy took a sip and turned to him.
"Yep." He replied simply.
"How could a squirt like you be the captain?" Bellamy asked and laughed. His crew laughed alongside him. Zoro and Robin didn't react, but they looked at Luffy, wondering what he'll do. He calmly kept drinking from his glass.
After the laughter quieted down, Luffy put down the glass on the counter rather loudly. Bellamy and a few of his men, most notably perhaps, Sarquiss, tensed up.
"I haven't heard a complaint yet." Luffy answered in a low tone. "Actually, I think my crew was quite happy with me when I defeated Sir Crocodile of the Shichibukai."
The bar quieted down immediately. Zoro smirked.
"You, defeat Crocodile?!" Bellamy asked mockingly and stood up. "I've never heard a worse joke!"
"Let me give you one piece of advice, whoever you are." Luffy continued. "Underestimating people on the Grand Line will get you killed."
"Hey, are you threatening me?!" Bellamy yelled. Luffy picked up his glass again and looked at him.
"Like I said, it's advice." Luffy replied. This seemed to piss off Bellamy even more.
"How dare you speak to our captain this way!" someone yelled. "The 55.000.000 Berry super rookie, Bellamy the Hyena!?"
Luffy smirked.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" he asked.
'He enjoys this way too much.' Zoro thought and smirked. Robin started chuckling.
"Captain-san, you're being a bad boy!" she said. Luffy's eyes widened and he looked at her in shock. Zoro also stopped smirking and turned in her direction, also shocked by her words.
"What?" she asked, still smiling.
"Robin." Luffy began. "That sounds even worse than bad girl. Way worse."
Robin chuckled.
"That's your punishment for calling me that." She replied.
Luffy pouted.
"STOP IGNORING ME!" Bellamy yelled and tried to punch Luffy, but he caught his fist with his palm. Luffy didn't even bother to face him.
"Fine." Luffy replied to her and smirked. "Have it your way, bad girl."
Being ignored again of course completely enraged Bellamy. He stepped back and activated his ability, which caused most of the patrons to run out of the bar.
"Spring Snipe!" Bellamy yelled and launched himself at Luffy.
"Armament." Luffy murmured.
Luffy stayed as he was, not moving an inch. As soon as Bellamy's punch hit Luffy, the force of the punch was returned to him several times over and he was blown away, crashing through the wall of the bar and flying through several houses.
Zoro sweat-dropped.
"Was that really necessary, Luffy?" he asked. Luffy laughed sheepishly and scratched his head.
"I might have overdone it." He replied.
"MIGHT HAVE?!" Zoro yelled at him with razor-sharp teeth. Robin just stared wide-eyed at the mad-shaped hole in the wall.
Somewhere else on the island, Blackbeard stared shocked at an unconscious Bellamy, who was imbedded into the wall of a house.
Back at the bar, Luffy paid for the drinks and the three crew members turned to leave.
"By the way, Luffy." Zoro asked. "Who was guy we met in front of the bar earlier?"
"I think that's quite obvious, Swordsman-san." Robin replied. Zoro's eyes widened.
"Blackbeard?" he asked. Luffy nodded.
"That's him." He replied. "But let's forget about him and think about Sky Island now!"
He raised both of his hands in the sky.
"ADVENTURE!"
So that's Mock Town done. And again I'm tired and annoyed because of the stupid crap I had to put up with during the day. But at least I finished this chapter before midnight.
How did you like the Blackbeard-Luffy and Bellamy-Luffy interactions? Notice how I've changed it up a bit and made the crew arrive later than in canon. The reason for that is because I couldn't really picture the interaction between a seated Luffy and Blackbeard. Just couldn't.
I'm not going to torture myself with writing this much longer, since I'm tired once again. So please, if you have anything to ask, just do that and I'll answer. Also, its been suggested to me to ask my readers for any ideas regarding the story. I'm not running out, so don't worry too much :D, but I'm always on the look for new ideas.
Several things have already been suggested to me in the past and have helped me a lot. :) A big thanks to everyone who has already made a suggestion or is going to. :D I appreciate it!
Thanks for reading and please review if you've got the time.