I have two things to say before we begin this chapter.

1. There's a fanfiction story that has recently caught my attention, but hasn't been getting enough love IMHO. It's called A different take by the author called pervertmonster. It's basically an alternate start fic, where Luffy has been taken by the World government and put through various experiments at an early age. He's later been rescued and became different. He's stronger and has some sort of beastly transformation connected to his DF. Oh and he also eats meat raw. Including people. :D Kinda awesome if you ask me. Anyway, check out this fic if you think it's something you'd like. (it also updates frequently, once every day for now and chapters are quite long)

2. I'd like to thank you once again (yeah, it's kind of a common phrase :D ) for all your support so far and general lenience to my occasional screw-ups. Right now, we're approaching 700 reviews (688 at the time of writing) and the last chapter has had the highest number of them so far. 49. This fic has nearly reached 500 in the number of favorites (494) and follows (478). It has surpassed 150.000 views (157.568 currently). It's also been added to 7 communities. Among One Piece fics it's 29th in the number of reviews, 15th in the number of favorites and 5th in the number of followers. So, thanks again for all your support.

48. Just an ordinary day in piracy

After landing back down on the Blue Sea (with the help of a friendly octopus), the wound in the ships' keel expanded. Luffy knew this. He heard the creaking, but since his crew was in such good spirits, he simply didn't have the heart to tell them yet.

After some emergency repairs by Usopp, they set sail towards the next destination. Luffy knew already what that was. Water 7. He hoped to avoid both of the near disasters the crew suffered there. He was pretty sure that with proper handling of the situation, Usopp wouldn't leave the crew again, but it was another matter with Robin. He didn't know what he should do with her. Would she really do the same thing considering how much stronger he had proven to be this time? Logic told him no, but there was that uneasy feeling.

"You can do it, captain." a familiar childish voice encouraged him. His eyes opened and widened. He sat up on the hammock that he had laid on.

'Merry?' he asked in thought.

"I'm still here, my captain!" the voice chirped out cheerfully.

'Do you think Robin will do it again, Merry?' he asked.

"You don't know, so I don't know, captain!" the voice told him. He grimaced.

'Right.' he thought. He looked at the door for a few moments.

'You know, it's really awkward if you know all my thoughts.' he thought after a while.

"Captain!" the childish voice scolded. "I'd never betray your thoughts."

The was a silence for a while.

" … even the dirty ones." the voice added after a while. Luffy's jaw dropped slightly, while his face gained a tint of red. He huffed and turned his head to the left.

The voice laughed cheekily.

Luffy stood up after a moment and got a shirt on.

'My ship just accused me of being a pervert.' he thought to himself. He half expected another comment from the childish sounding voice, but thankfully he received none. He shook his head. He climbed up the mast and headed towards the kitchen, walking between the large boxes and crates of gold on the deck.

'I wonder what Sanji made for breakfast.' Luffy thought and a few ideas flashed in his mind, making his mouth water. Then as he approached the door, he overheard some things being said.

"-but what if he overhears you?!" a voice called out, presumably Usopp.

"Nami-swan can talk about anything she wants!" Sanji swooned. Luffy could just imagine him swirling around with a heart in his eye.

"Right. Thank you, Sanji-kun!" Nami answered.

"My pleasure, Nami-san!" the blond cook answered. "I exist only to serve a goddess such as yourself."

"Humpf, idiot cook." a gruff sounding voice commented.

"Why you shitty Marimo!" the cook responded.

"ENOUGH!" Nami yelled and presumably bonked their heads. She sighed. "Now what do you think? Is he gay or not?"

Luffy's eyes widened.

'What?' he thought. 'They're talking about that?'

"I don't think you should be talking about this." Zoro answered her. "For one thing, it's none of your business, witch."

"Oh shut up, Zoro." the orange-haired navigator shushed him. Luffy smirked.

'It's so nice to hear Zoro defending my privacy like that.' he thought.

"Yeah, don't talk to Nami-swan like that!" Sanji yelled.

"Arrm, Sanji-kun?" Nami asked. Luffy heard something that sounded like a mini tornado move across the room.

"Yes, Nami-san?" he asked after a moment.

"What do you think about it?" she asked him. He was quiet for a moment.

"The rubber bastard is probably gay." he spoke after a moment. "He never did appreciate the beauty of our lovely ladies."

"Thanks, Sanji-kun." Nami told him. Luffy could hear someone snort.

"Yeah right." Zoro replied. "You're only agreeing with her because you want to get into her pants."

"Why you shitty-"

"Honestly, if your advances were anymore obvious, you'd be asking for her panties." Zoro continued. A fight presumably broke out between them, while Luffy had to hold his mouth with both of his hands so as not to erupt in laughter.

Then something crashed in the kitchen. Luffy assumed it was Sanji and Zoro getting pounded into the ground.

"Anyway." Nami announced in a dangerous tone. "Usopp?"

"I'm not going to say anything." he answered.

"Oh, come on Usopp." Nami pleaded. Usopp sighed.

"No." he told her. "I don't care if he's gay or not."

"I'll lower your debt if you answer." she offered.

"You haven't asked Robin yet." he told her. She sighed.

"Robin?" Nami pleaded.

"Fufufufu … if you want to know, just ask him yourself." she replied. "After all, he's standing in front of the door."

Luffy looked around and saw an eye on the nearby wall. He glared at it and pouted. After a while he opened the door and entered into the kitchen. He grinned upon seeing the stares.

"Shishishi, you guys are all so funny!" he told them. They blinked a few times.

"Is breakfast ready yet?" he asked after a moment.

"Soon." Sanji replied. He nodded and grinned and then sat on one of the empty seats, which was between Robin and Zoro. Usopp was on the other side of the table, Sanji was standing and Chopper wasn't there, because he was on watch duty.

Next to Zoro sat Nami who shot him an annoyed look.

"So?" she asked. Luffy turned to her with faked confusion.

"Shishishi, so … what, Nami?" he asked. She raised her clenched fist. Luffy flinched slightly.

"Are you gay or not?" she nearly yelled. Robin, who sat next to him at the table, trying to read a book, shook her head with a small chuckle.

Luffy gained a thoughtful expression.

"How should I put this?" he said in a quiet tone, but then he raised his finger. "Ah!"

He pointed with his right index finger at Nami's chest and with his left at Robin's.

"I like those." he said and grinned. Everyone looked surprised by the blunt proclamation. Nami gained a tick above her eye.

"THAT'S WAY TOO BLUNT!" she yelled and punched him. His neck stretched and his head fell into Robin's bosom.

He quickly stretched it back and glared at Nami.

"Nami!" he whined. "Why'd you do that for? Now Robin's going to be mad at me!"

He turned around and looked at Robin who indeed put her book down on the table. She turned to her right where the rest of them sat. She crossed her arms.

"No, Robin, don't strangle me!" Luffy yelled. But nothing happened.

He blinked in confusion and turned to his right. He saw Nami getting pushed into Zoro's lap by a multitude of hands. The hands then soon disappeared.

"Humpf. Witches and their fun." Zoro grunted in annoyance. He did not appreciate being part of Robin's "revenge".

"MARIMO!" Sanji yelled angrily. "STOP PUSHING NAMI-SAN'S HEAD INTO YOUR LAP!"

Luffy snorted. Others sweat-dropped.

'Well, done Sanji.' he thought. 'Way to COMPLETELY misinterpret the situation.'

"Sanji ..." Usopp told him and shook his head repeatedly.

"Fufufufu! My, my, Nami-san seems to like Swordsman-san!" Robin commented. Nami, who just raised her head glared at her. Luffy burst into laughter as did Usopp.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji yelled as he swirled back to her from the stove, crying anime tears. "Tell me it's not true."

"It's not!" she yelled and barely refrained from smacking his head.

After a few moments, breakfast was finally ready and the crew started eating. Luffy started practically devouring the food and the rest of the crew quickly followed. Luffy was no more merciful at the table than in his previous lifetime and he was much faster too, so it sometimes took all their effort to keep anything on their plates.

"Would you stop taking everything?!" Sanji yelled at him and smacked him over the head from the other side of the table.

"But Sanji!" Luffy whined. "It's training! Speed training!"

"That's a shitty excuse!" he yelled at him, losing another piece of meat from his plate.

"Honestly, who raised you, Luffy?!" Nami yelled as barely prevented Luffy from taking everything from her plate. Luffy snatched a piece of meat from Usopp and devoured it. He stretched his left hand to Robin's plate, but it was slapped away by a disembodied arm.

"Gramps. Also, mountain bandits!" he muttered while munching on a steak he stole from Zoro.

"Mountain bandits?" Nami repeated, but then she glared at him when she lost half of the fries from her plate.

"Yeah." Luffy confirmed, ignoring her glare. "When with mountain bandits, I had to be really aggressive at the table if I wanted to eat."

He devoured her fries and he smirked at her. She clenched her fist in anger. His right hand traveled to Zoro, who quickly stabbed his piece of meat with a fork.

"But thankfully, I was the best, so I had little trouble!" he bragged and puffed out his chest.

"Yeah, I bet." Usopp said dryly.

"Well, Sabo and Ace usually gave me trouble and they sometimes managed to get something from my plate, but no-one else could compete with me." Luffy continued. Most of the straw-hats looked at him in surprise.

"Ace stole from your plate?" Nami asked. "B-But he has such good manners!"

Luffy grinned.

"Oh, don't let that fool you!" he told them. "He only got his manners like a year before they left and only because Sabo told him that he's bad with people."

He paused for a while.

"Which was true, by the way." he continued. "He didn't bother with me though."

"You were that hopeless?" Usopp asked. The straw-hats snickered. Luffy grinned.

"Nah, he always said that most people naturally seem to like me even if I'm rude, so there's no point." he explained to them. Usopp gained a thoughtful expression while he was munching on his food.

"It is kinda true." he admitted. "Everywhere we've been, people mostly liked you. While they were usually scared of Zoro."

"OI!" Zoro yelled and violently stabbed his fork into a bunch of fries.

"See?" Usopp muttered. Everyone laughed.

"Yeah, Zoro's face is pretty scary." Nami added. He glared at her. She laughed.

"You know, you're not going to disprove that by looking at me like that!" she told him. He grumbled something and turned to his food, which was now gone.

Usopp stood from the table after a while, having eaten his meal.

"I'm going to replace Chopper so he can come and eat." he told them. Luffy grinned.

"Okay. Keep an eye for any islands." he replied.

Usopp nodded and left. Soon afterward Chopper entered the kitchen with a drooling mouth and sat down. Robin smiled upon seeing him. He was the first member that she formed a serious bond with. After all, they were the most alike. (Also, he was cute and fluffy.)

Chopper started munching down on his food that was handed to him on a platter. Luffy left his plate more or less alone, knowing that he was up for most of the night.

"Chopper, before you go to sleep I need to talk to you about something." he told him. Chopper looked at him and nodded, food still in his mouth. He continued to eat. After a while Nami left the kitchen.

"Ahem, Luffy?" Zoro asked. Luffy looked at him.

"Hmmm, what's up, Zoro?" he asked.

"I've been thinking … " Zoro started. Sanji snorted.

"That's new … " he smirked.

"Oh, shut up." Zoro muttered, but didn't add the usual insult. "Anyway, I think the gap between us in fighting power is way too big."

Luffy raised an eyebrow.

"I think we should increase our training." he said. Luffy gulped down the food he was munching on.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"Sparring." Zoro answered with a smirk. "And not like that time before Arabasta. I don't want you to hold back."

Luffy narrowed his eyes.

"You know, I don't want to cripple you." he replied. Zoro sighed.

"You don't have to go all-out either." he told him. "Just make an effort. Use that Soru thing that you use for speed."

Luffy gained a thoughtful expression.

"Okay." he replied after a while. "But I won't use my sword."

Zoro grinned.

"Hey, I'm in too!" Sanji said after a moment. Zoro snorted.

"Like you could survive the training." he replied mockingly.

"Why you stupid Marimo!" Sanji seethed.

After a while longer and a fight which Luffy thoroughly enjoyed watching, Zoro left the kitchen to lift some weights. Chopper left to the men's quarters and Luffy followed him. After they arrived, Chopper turn around.


"So what did you want to talk about, Luffy?" Chopper asked. Luffy sighed.

"Do you have anything that would help me sleep?" he asked. Chopper blinked.

"Well, I could make you something for that, but I'll need some things from the next island we dock at." he replied. Luffy sighed.

"You don't have the stuff you need?" he asked. Chopper shook his head.

"We're running low." he replied. "Before Sky Island, we were kinda poor and Nami said that we can only buy what we absolutely need."

"Okay." Luffy said and smiled. "I should be able to wait until then. It shouldn't be that until the next island."

Chopper looked at him for a few seconds. It seemed he had something to say, but was afraid of saying it.

"What?" Luffy asked. Chopper looked up at him.

"Luffy, … who are Brook and Jimbei?" he asked.

Luffy froze.

'They know … ' he thought.

"I … they were my friends … " Luffy answered after a while. He looked on the ground. "But … but they died a long time ago."

Chopper nodded solemnly.

"Zoro said not to ask you." he told him. Luffy flinched. "But we all want to know what happened to you."

Luffy nodded.

"I'll tell you, but not yet." he answered. "I'm not ready. It's hard to talk about it."

Chopper looked on the ground and nodded again in understanding. Luffy was thankful that Chopper didn't push the issue.

"Oh, I need to ask you about something else!" he suddenly shouted. Chopper was startled and quickly looked up.

"You're our super doctor-" Luffy started.

"Shut up, praising me doesn't make me happy at all, asshole!" Chopper shouted as he danced his little happy dance. Luffy smiled.

"Chopper, what do you know about … "


Before I start, I'll let you know that I'm expecting nasty comments for Luffy not being oh so very innocent anymore. It's kind of turning into a running gag, isn't it? Me talking about expecting flames, I mean ... :D But whatever, I don't care. So, yeah, Luffy has dirty thoughts. Probably involving threesomes, foursomes or anything. :D By the way, I've got some pretty funny ideas for ... well, you'll see. :) Eventually. But yeah, I think everyone has dirty thoughts. I've got them too. At the most awkward of times too. Or so that its just weird. Such as I'm eating in the freaking restaurant and something so nastily dirty pops into my mind ... Nevermind, off topic. Anyway, Luffy is sort of more grown up, so yeah. Though I've actually deleted some of the planned interactions, because I didn't want Merry to turn into Momosuke or something. Merry should stay cute! :D

Also, I'm sorry for making Luffy crash his head for a second in Robin's boobs. I know I'm horrible! I hope you're happy with it, Nitishu. I did this for you, since you've helped me a lot! :) By the way, I considered crashing his head into Robin's lap, but to do that, Nami would have to smack his head down and she punched him while she was seated, so ... physics. I think. She'd have to punch him under a different angle I think. But I may be just imagining it wrongly or something. By the way, there is no NamixZoro. None. If Usopp sat where Zoro did, she'd push her head into his lap/crotch instead. I'm only saying this because sometimes some people see romantic developments ... everywhere.

Hmmm, also, when I asked what you thought Luffy would spend his money on, I was maybe expecting something out of the box. I mean, to me at least, the Sunny is an extremely obvious investment. So is seastone I think. By the way, I used a wrong choice of words. When I said 'bigger ship' I really meant 'bigger Sunny'. My evil horrible plan of evil horribleness continues. Can you figure any of it out? Though I won't tell you if you do. *chuckles evilly* Because that would spoil you.

I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you review. Oh, by the way, exams are done for the moment. The ones I failed or didn't even go to yet, I'll have to do at the end of August/beginning of September, so as long as I have the motivation, a chapter should come out every day. Note that nasty comments reduce motivation.

P.S.: Should I do a chapter on Foxy or just outright skip it and head to Aokiji? Note that I plan probably one or two chapters until Long or whatever island, so Aokiji won't be there next chapter either way.

P.S.S: Should Sabo eat a Devil Fruit and if so, which one? (I'd generally say to limit yourself to Zoans, since Ace is Logia and Luffy is Paramecia. Probably a mystical Zoan too.) He can also stay without one, or his staff could eat a Zoan DF. Please note that this isn't voting and I won't decide based on how many people support a certain side.