Chapter 96: Sand Trapped Thieves and The Franky Family
"Stop thieves! Those guys stole our money!" Usopp yelled, frantically pointing at the retreating forms of four people, on two yagara bulls swimming away down the canal cheering their successful loot. Vivi spun around and raised her left hand, "sable" she whispered, creating a twister of sand that chased after the thieves, eventually pulling them into the air and spinning them around and around. "Hahah! Serves em right!" Suki cried out, "no one steals from the Straw hat pirates!" The navigator, and the princess both grinned at the young girl, essentially agreeing with her sentiments, let's go see who these bastards are" Usopp uttered hurrying off in the direction of the sand twister hovering above. "Those jerks!" Luffy growled, "just because we no longer need to pay for repairs doesn't mean that you can steal our money!" Using his devil fruit, the captain created a huge black hole in the sky that suddenly opened in the centre, revealing an eye that peered down looking more specifically for their money. Not wanting to be left behind; Vivi, Usopp and Suki raced after their fellow shipmates "Hey! Wait up, don't leave us behind".
From outside Galley-La's main entrance; Iceberg stood watching the pirates running. A smile on his face, "Well, it looks like Paulie's going to be at it again," he sighed. Next to him was Khalifa, his private secretary, "indeed but Paulie can smooth over whatever commotion those pirates inevitably cause when they reach those thieves. And if they are who I think they are, then good riddance". Iceberg flinched at Khalifa's words. He knew that his old friend Cutty Flam, was now a notorious bandit within the city but he still couldn't quite separate the now from the then, about him. Cutty Flam, or Franky, as he called himself now would always be his friend, and the secrets that they both possessed had to be guarded. And right now those pirates had a legitimate reason for wanting to beat up Cutty Flam for sending out thieves targeting them, and straw hat had been strangely anomalous in describing his devil fruit; '"I am darkness..." what did that even mean? For the first time in his life Iceberg was scared for his friend. Another loss as big as that of Tom, would destroy him, sure he would have Granny Kokoro to help him grieve and Galley La to help distract himself they only went so far. If, he lost Franky, Cutty Flam, he would never be the same again. It all came down to the mercy of the straw hat captain. If.
Upon reaching the open square, where the sand twister had assaulted their money stealers, Usopp moved forwards and picked up the two discarded sacks of jewel slinging them over his shoulders. "Okay, we have our money back but we should still head back to the Merry. That Kaku guy said he would go and check out the ship before they started repair work". Luffy, slung an arm over Usopp's shoulders and grinned, "your worried about the ship..." "yes I am." Usopp snapped, "and you should be too. After all it was govern to you by Helmeppo, so you should take better care of it for our well being and as it as a gift!" The captain saddened a bit and looked out to sea; "I wonder what Helmeppo is up to. He better remember our promise". Usopp returned the shoulder embrace from his captain, "I'm sure he's fine. After all, he promised to help Coby reform the marines an Admiral and Fleet Admiral respectively". Both Luffy and Usopp grinned, as they led the girls back through the streets towards the private 'pirates only' docks.
"Whose Helmeppo?" Vivi whispered, to Nami, catching Suki as she was affectively brushed aside by a street vendor using a cart of freshly caught fish on ice. "Me, Luffy and Zoro met Helmeppo back in the east blue well before we were ever close to Alabaster; back then the crew was just luffy. I was just a thief stealing from pirates to free my home island from other pirates and Zoro was a prisoner at a marine base. Helmeppo was the corrupt base commanders son". Nami's breath hitched as she too remembered her own friend she'd left behind; Coby. "Luffy saved Helmeppo from the abuse that his marine base father inflicted on him. And both promised each other that they swore the next time they met they'd be the pirate king and an admiral". "So you met as enemies, and because of luffy you became friends..." Vivi asked smiling. The navigator grinned adoringly, "with luffy, is there any other way?" Making Suki groan with nauseas embarrassment at having to listen to the older girls mutual feelings for Luffy.
"Who sent you! Where were you going?" Usopp glowered, shoving the barrel of his rifle into the awake thieves face. "Speak now, and I may be merciful". The thief whimpered at the snipers anger, and seeing that the unspoken threat of being 'target practice' wasn't just words, he relented to his self preservation strategy. "The Franky Family. That's whom I work for, they have gatherings in the old mansion opposite the main canal lock house. They are smugglers, and ship dismantlers by night and pickpockets by day...please don't hurt me!"
"Is this it?" Luffy asked, pointing to a mark in the map, the shop owner gave them, "cos if it is, it's near where Zoro said he'd be getting thoroughly wasted". The captive thief nodded his head, not trusting his words to render truth in the face of bond panic. "It's also near to the shopping district that Sanji, Chopper and Robin were going to frequent", Vivi exclaimed. The air went strangely tense as luffy heard Robin's name, and his mind took him back to the pleasures of the night in Skypia, and apart from becoming straight of back no one noticed his worry. "Nami, Suki and Usopp; I want you three to return to the Merry. Me and Vivi will go confront this Franky Family".
Zoro tapped Wado Ichimonji against his shoulder impatiently, as he downed, bottle twenty four, of sake. He was loath to leave it unguarded; it was Kuina's; a pivotal relic from an honour bound oath, and he would never loose it. His other swords were also important, and powerful, but they didn't have the childhood memories attached as Wado Ichimonji did. The dark blade Kitetsu-Yubishira, there were many swords like it and while it would be an ordeal to find another if it were stolen or lost he'd manage, and then there was the legend sword Elucidator. Just possessing one of these swords now marked him as a huge target; warlords, government officials, wizards of the Republic and emperors were bound to take note of him, especially as another of the three legend swords was owned by an emperor of the sea; effectively making him a potential equal and a rival to all swordsman and women.
It was then that Zoro became aware of shouting from a large building adjacent to him, it looked like a brothel had moved into a tax office, the people were so obviously bad that it was almost an insult to the building to house them. "What do you mean you lost the money!" A large muscular man dressed in a red open chested shirt and back Speedo's irately yelled into the faces of two out of breath and ragged men; whilst two women in bikinis and square shaped hair glowered behind him. "My report stated that the Straw hats were carrying neatly four hundred million berries onboard. And you couldn't steal it! I wanted that money to buy wood from the Adam Tree!"
From his seat in the outside bier garden, Zoro gripped his swords tighter as anger began emerging. 'The audacity' of these 'scummy thieves' to try and rob us. Rinsing to his feet and tying his back bandana around his head, the swordsman walked forwards slowly withdrawing Wado Ichimonji and Yubishira, Elucidator would be too damaging here. "What do you want?" The half naked man in a shirt growled, "urgh boss..." one of the lackeys began uttering. "Revenge", Zoro deadpanned, before striking out with a sideways slash. The Speedo guy jumped out of the way; raised his right arm, and gripped it with his left, "Strong Right!" The mans right hand sprung from his wrist and shot forth to Zoro by a chain on the other side of it. "You're a cyborg, I've always wanted to see if the rumours were true" Zoro replied, grinning and sending another sword slash, this time scraping the dodging cyborg across the shoulder. The two women hurried out of the way as the cyborg crashed to the ground but before Zoro could end the fight, a sudden explosion of gas erupted from the cyborgs behind, "Coup de Burst!" Caught by surprise and revulsion, Zoro was thrown backwards into several oncoming shipwrights; a tall blonde man smoking a cigar, a white bearded man, a black moustached man and a black haired goateed man with a bird in his shoulder.
"Get off me!" Zoro felt himself being shoved away as one of the men he had been blown into all glared at him but then the annoyance they had towards him was suddenly shifted onto the cyborg. "You! Cutty Flam, you worthless bastard!" Three of the four shipwrights launches themselves at the cyborg and began assaulting him, viciously. "That's enough Paulie. You as well; Peepley Lulu and Tilestone". The sole shipwright not fighting spoke, "he's learnt his lesson to not throw pirates at respectable workers. Besides if you kill him Iceberg will be upset". "Ahh your probably right, Lucci. We should head back to Galley-La, I heard we have a new repair job". The man named Paulie replied Lucci. The other man turned towards Zoro, who was still standing eyes narrowed at the four men, "well aren't you going to thank us for saving you. That Franky is a real bastard..." Zoro growled in response, "I could have defeated him easily. You just interfered". Then sheathing his swords, he turned and walked away from the shipwrights and the unconscious Cutty Flam or Franky, as he was being called. 'There the bastards, interfering in my fight. I guess the age of honour is dead then'.