And we're finally at the end of Alabasta people.
These chapters have been a long time coming, so I hope you enjoy each and everyone of them.
After that... well, expect me to post someone else who hasn't showed up in a while.
Lumen let out a slight sigh of relief as he watched the retreating figure of a Supersonic Duck carrying a person on their back towards Alubarna, while he himself just walked back slowly.
It had been three days after the end of the battles, with all the members of Baroque Works getting arrested by the Marines, and thankfully, Akira stopped the more gung ho ones about trying to arrest the crew as well.
All in all, things were going quite well...even if Luffy was still stuck dead to the world.
During those three days however, Lumen wasn't idle. Oh sure, he rested enough, but once he was well and good, and Chopper had given him the all clear since he only had a few minor bruises and cuts, he went out in the nearby desert to search.
Pell had made a promise after all, and he refused to believe the man would break it.
After three days of searching though, finally he found the man lying unconscious in the sands, and had just now sent back on his way with Carue, the duck having gone with him after the second day to help him search.
He chuckled to himself as he walked "Can't wait to see Vivi's face when I get back." he said, soon reaching the stairs into the city and going up them, waving to the guards as he got back in town and made his way back to the palace. As he walked, he enjoyed the sights of the city...which made it so that he happened to be looking upward a little...and saw what appeared to be someone moving among the roofs. "...really?" he said dryly. Apparently three days was long enough for trouble makers to decide it was safe to cause problems again. Not on his watch. With that he strapped on the OOO Driver and grabbed some of the Medals.
"TAKA! TORA! BATTA! TA-TO-BA! TATOBA, TATOBA!"
And seconds later he was jumping onto the rooftops himself, grasshopper legs still ready to spring him forward as he watched the person jump onto another rooftop a few feet ahead, seemingly heading towards the palace "Not on my watch buddy." he muttered, jumping once again, this time angled ahead, and landed right in front of the person, making them skid to a halt in their run. Now that the person was in front of him, he could actually see them in better detail. Pretty notable too, what with the blonde hair, the black top hat which for some reason had goggles on it, as well as the blue shirt with a black coat...and a rather nice looking cravat on his neck. Oh and the burn scar on his face. Can't forget that one. For the life of him he felt like he'd seen this guy before somewhere but he couldn't quite put his-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
"Ah jesus!" he winced, his hands flying to his ears at what sounded like a loud squeeing sound.
"My ears…" the blonde groaned, his hands covering his ears as well.
"Wait… you heard that too?" OOO asked in surprise.
"You mean what sounded like a girl squeeing? Yes, yes I did." the blonde said, shaking his head "God that was as bad as Koala when she reads her novels."
OOO stared at him for a long moment "I have several questions now… because that sounded like my sister, who is nowhere near Alabasta."
An awkward pause descended on them, seeing as that REALLY killed the mood. "So uh...that a new armor style in Alabasta?" the blonde asked awkwardly.
"Not exactly, no," OOO said. "What about you? Tourist Parkour style?"
"Eh...something like that. Best way to avoid the Marines," the blonde shrugged.
OOO nodded slowly "Alright… and care to explain why?"
"Well…" the blonde coughed a bit into his head "I heard about what had been going on in this country, and I wanted to speak to the king about it, because… well, Crocodile doing what he did shows that the World Government is NOT good at all when it comes to holding the leashes for those dogs of theirs."
OOO hummed at that "Yeah, I guess it does. You heard about it pretty quickly though. The Marines only just finished rounding up every single goon this morning." he said suspiciously.
The blonde man nodded "Yeah… there's a good reason for that… but I have a question first. Are you a Marine?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
OOO scoffed "Do I look like one of the white hats? I'm a pirate, just one that has standards."
The blonde relaxed a bit "Alright… better than what I expected…" he said, looking to be thinking something over "Alright… what do you know about the Revolutionaries?"
OOO tilted his head "Uh… not much really. Just that they are led by one of the most wanted men in the world, Dragon, and that they basically help out countries that are being oppressed in some way, shape or form."
The blonde nodded, relaxing further "That's right. And as you can guess, I'm one of them, so being spotted by the Marines could lead to some awkward question."
OOO nodded in understanding, relaxing as well "Right… ah, I think I get it now. You wanted to talk to Cobra and ask him how he felt about the World Government now."
The blonde nodded "That's right. Dragon wanted to make sure about how things were going, so he sent me here quickly to evaluate the situation."
"Well...so far so good, even if I'm only talking from 3 days experience," OOO shrugged. "Palace is that way, and with everyone trying to get things back to normal there shouldn't be much traffic," he said, pointing towards the palace with his thumb.
"Right. I'll make sure to keep this quick then," the man nodded.
"Just make sure you're actually doing what you say you are or else we'll beat you up then punt you straight off of Alabasta," OOO said cheerfully.
The blonde sweat dropped at that "Um… right… should I be worried?"
OOO paused at that "Ah… actually, maybe I should go with you." he said now that he thought about it.
"...it'll probably come across as less suspicious yeah," the man conceded.
"Yeah, wouldn't want someone to beat the crap out of you for looking suspicious," OOO chuckled. "Well, follow me."
The two of them were soon headed for the Palace, OOO keeping his armor on. Considering he'd just heard his sister squee he HIGHLY doubted this guy was a bad guy, but then...you can never be too careful. For all he knew he was a bad guy now, but became a good guy later or something.
Getting back into the palace was rather easy, and he was heading towards where he thought Cobra would be, remembering hearing Nami asking him about the royal library earlier that morning, so chances were good he showed her there.
The path was pretty easy as well, he just needed to pass by the room where his crew was stay-
"MAAAAAAN, I SLEPT SO GOOOOOOOD!"
OOO paused at that, while the blonde blinked in confusion as he looked at the door, before the rider turned to him "Mind giving me a few minutes?"
"Sure, go ahead." the blonde said with an amused smile, with OOO removing his armor and opening the door, seeing Luffy sitting up and looking around everywhere for his hat.
"Hat! Hat! Where's my hat?! Also breakfast?! Where's my hat?!" Luffy asked as he kept looking around, the others in the room at the moment being Vivi, Chopper, Sanji and Usopp.
"God you are noisy." Sanji said with a shake of his head "And it's not time for breakfast, it's evening."
"Also your hat is right there. One of the soldiers found it." Usopp pointed at a nearby table, and Luffy's hand stretched out in a fraction of a second and his hat was right back on his head.
"I'm glad to see you're fine Luffy." Vivi said with a small laugh.
"Fine? Aren't I always fine though?" Luffy asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Lumen chuckled at that "Never change captain."
"Oh! Lumen! Long time no see!" Luffy grinned, before tilting his head in confusion "Long time no see?"
"You've been asleep for three days after you beat Crocodile." Chopper informed him.
"3 days?" Luffy blinked, trailing off… before he snapped up straight "I missed 15 meals!"
"Why are you fast at calculating that?!" Usopp slapped him upside the head "Also you counted 5 meals a day, really?" he added dryly.
Luffy laughed loudly at that.
"Huh… well this is interesting." the blonde said in amusement.
Lumen chuckled "Yeah, this is normal for the captain." he said, before noticing Luffy was looking right at them, specifically at the blonde with a focused look.
"Hey, Lumen, who's that guy?" he asked, confused.
"Ah, right, this is… I just realised I forgot to ask your name." Lumen admitted sheepishly as he turned to the blonde.
"Ah, my apologies on that, I forgot to give it to you myself." the blonde admitted as he took off his hat and bowed "My name is Sabo."
One second he was bowing while presenting himself.
The next he was straightening up.
And the third a rubber missile had slammed into him while shouting "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The whole room blinked in confusion at that, before slowly turning to see that Luffy and Sabo had crashed into the wall in front of the door, Sabo hitting his head on the wall.
"What did I just see?" Nami asked from behind Lumen, making him turn around to see her with a pile of books in her arms, no doubt just back from the library.
"Honestly? No idea. I'm as confused as you." Lumen admitted as they looked back to Luffy, who was now bawling like a baby.
"You're alive! You're really alive!" he kept repeating as he was actually hugging Sabo.
Sabo groaned, reaching up to rub where his head hit the wall "Dammit Lu, why do you always… always… what?" he blinked "Why did I just call you Lu?
"Because that's what you and Ace called me? Remember?! Also where were you? We thought you were dead for 10 years!" Luffy fired off quickly.
"H-hold on." Sabo said, putting his hands on Luffy's shoulder to push him out of his face "I'm gonna guess you know me then? Because I actually have amnesia. I was found off the coast of Dawn Island about 10 years ago just floating in the middle of a burning wreck. I couldn't remember anything. The only reason I know my name is because it was sown into my clothes."
Luffy nodded along as he listened, even as he looked sad, before grinning "Me, you and Ace are brothers."
Sabo blinked at that "I… I have brothers?"
Luffy nodded with a grin "Yeah! We drank sake cups together! Remember?"
"I…" Sabo frowned, rubbing his head "I… huh… I think I have a vague image of that."
"Maybe when you hit your head that triggered some of your memories to rise up closer to the surface?" Sanji suggested, while Chopper grimaced at that.
"Shock therapy… it's not something I'd recommend to regain a person's lost memories, hypnosis might be a better solution though." he said.
"Too late on that front doc." Lumen said dryly, as Luffy had pulled Usopp close and whispered something to him… and the long nosed sniper brought out his hammer.
"Uh… what's that for?" Sabo asked in apprehension.
"Shock therapy!" Luffy and Usopp said together with bright smiles… before they started to repeatedly hit Sabo over the head.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop that! Ow dammit!"
Everyone else just stared in morbid curiosity as Sabo slowly gained more and more lumps on top of his head, until eventually…
"Dammit Lu stop hitting me or I'm telling Ace you ate all the food again!" Sabo suddenly shouted.
"You're back!" Luffy cheered before hugging his brother again.
Sabo sighed "Yeah yeah… I'm back… your stupid idea worked… I remember everything." he admitted, before gaining a glint in his eye "Let me show you how… grateful I am, to you AND your friend."
"Uuuuuuh…" Usopp trailed off, but before he could run away.
CL-CLONK!
Him and Luffy were both down on the ground sporting even bigger lumps on their heads.
"That was for hitting me over the head more than 20 times you jackasses!" Sabo huffed.
"Ah… maybe I should look you over." Chopper suggested "Just to make sure there's no lasting damage."
"I'd appreciate it." Sabo sighed as he walked into the room and sat down on a chair.
"...well...that just happened," Lumen sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"The sad part is that really sums up how all of us are feeling," Nami sighed.
"Well I'm happy for Luffy that his brother is alive. Though...I wonder what happened to make him think he was dead," Vivi mused.
"Probably a story for some other time," Sanji said with a shrug.
"Oh, a World Noble tried to shoot me when I was a kid, used a cannon to hit the small ship I had built for myself to set out to sea as a pirate, probably because I dared to move in his presence or something like that." Sabo snorted "Good thing they can't aim for shit."
"Of course it's one of those inbred retards." Vivi sighed.
"Wow… never heard THAT kind of language from you." Nami said with wide eyes.
"When it comes to the World Nobles, I am VERY justified." Vivi said "Calling them inbred retards is completely accurate."
Everyone was silent at that, until Sanji summed up what they were all feeling "... Gross."
"Don't… don't they know about the dangers of inbreeding? It's been studied in dogs for many years after all, the purebred species they use in those dog shows are physically weaker than the mixed breeds." Chopper gaped in horrified amazement.
"Let me guess, they don't believe that applies to them because they are 'higher beings'?" Lumen asked dryly.
"Got it in one." Sabo sighed "The name they use for themselves after all is Celestial Dragons."
"B-I-G, E-G-O," Lumen deadpanned at that one.
"That and more," Vivi shook her head. "And the scary part is they basically rule the world so you can imagine how unpleasant dealing with one is."
"Let me guess...they could get away with murder and more and there's literally nothing that anyone can do about it unless they want to have a BIG fight on their hands?" Lumen said.
"Yes," Vivi said simply.
"Marine HQ WILL send an Admiral down on your heads if you hurt them, much less so much as LOOK at them wrong." Sabo said, grimacing "I don't want to know what will happen if you kill one."
Before anyone could actually go down that train of thought…
"I'm up!" Luffy gasped...acting more like someone who had a dream that made them jump rather than just having his head beaten up.
"Rubber powers are bullshit…" Usopp groaned from the ground.
"Yeah, me and Ace kept thinking the same thing." Sabo chuckled, before he suddenly had Luffy latched around him again.
"You're really here! This is so awesome!" the rubber boy cheered before he started jumping around the room "Ace is gonna be super happy!" he then suddenly stopped, before grinning "Ha! I found you before Ace did! He's gonna be super jealous!"
Sabo chuckled at that "Yeah, he probably will be. How's he been anyway?"
"Still stronger than me." Luffy admitted with a frown, before going back to grinning "He's also got a Devil Fruit now, he can turn into fire, and he's on the crew of… uh… what was his name again?" he asked, turning to his crew.
"Whitebeard. Specifically, Ace has become the commander of the 2nd Division." Sanji clarified.
"Oh yeah…" Sabo hummed "I never really bothered with bounty posters before since we never really dealt with Pirates unless it was the Warlords."
"Oh! I have a bounty now!" Luffy said with a grin "30 Million!"
"And that's just your first bounty I'm guessing? Not bad for an East Blue rookie." Sabo chuckled.
"Hey! You're an East Blue guy too!" Luffy pouted.
"That I may be, but I've been trained by Revolutionaries since I was a little kid, so I have a LOT more experience than you do." Sabo countered with a smirk.
They would have continued to talk at that point, but the door the room opened again, and this time Zoro walked in "Oh, hey Luffy, you're awake huh?" he asked, before noticing Sabo "Who's that?"
"That's Sabo, he's my other brother." Luffy answered simply.
"Oh, okay." Zoro nodded, and didn't question it further.
"Of course you aren't fazed." Lumen sighed.
"Ah! You went out to train again didn't you?!" Chopper suddenly asked as he realised where Zoro went.
"What, it's MY body." Zoro shot back.
After that it devolved into an argument that ended when Chopper pounced on Zoro with a roll of bandages… which then devolved into a dust cloud that picked up Usopp just as he was picking himself off the floor.
Luffy laughed at the scene, and the others had to admit it was a bit comical, before he suddenly groaned and fell back "Oh, right, food… Sanji, I'm HUUUUUNGRYYYYY!" he whined.
"Actually Luffy, I told the palace cooks to be ready to make food for you as soon as you wanted." Vivi informed him with an amused smile.
"Really? Thanks Vivi!" Luffy grinned. "Let's eat now!" he said and looked ready to run out the doors if not for someone stopping him.
"Really now? Can't you wait 30 more minutes before dinner?" came an amused voice. "After all, food tastes better when shared with others than when eaten alone." The owner of the voice revealed to be...what could only be summed up as a female Igaram.
"...I'm not the only one seeing this, right?" Lumen asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Is this some kind of fetish of yours or something?!" Zoro gasped.
"Actually this is Terracotta, she's Igaram's wife as well as the head of servants in the Palace," Vivi quickly explained.
"Thank you so much for helping the Princess and my husband," Terracotta said cheerfully.
"There should be a limit to how much couples can look like one another." Zoro deadpanned.
"Amen." Lumen and Nami said with a sage nod.
"I heard that you eat a lot, so why don't you have some fruit while you wait for dinner?" Terracotta offered as a tray of fruit was brought to Luffy.
Sabo grinned knowingly and started counting down on his fingers, and right as he closed them all…
"Okay." Luffy said, before his hand and mouth moved so fast they could only blink and the food was all gone, with Luffy burping in satisfaction.
"What're you, a magician?!" Zoro, Sanji and Lumen shouted incredulously.
"No, he's just got a near bottomless pit for a stomach," Sabo snorted in amusement. "Glad to see some things haven't changed."
"Its murder on our finances though," Nami sighed in annoyance.
"Hey, lady! I need to eat 3 days worth of food!" Luffy said with a grin.
"Fine by me. I have 30 years of experience under my belt, I'll leave you stuffed." Terracotta said with pride.
"Alright!" Luffy grinned as he was basically out of the room and headed for the dining hall.
"...we'd better follow him before he gets lost...or he stuffs every last scrap of food down his throat," Lumen sighed, everyone awkwardly nodding in agreement as they soon went to leave the room. However, before he himself could go, Vivi pulled him to the side.
"Huh? What is it?" he asked as he looked down at her.
"I just wanted to thank you, for finding Pell." Vivi said with a smile, before she hugged him.
Lumen blinked, before chuckling as he returned the hug "I was more than happy to help Vivi. I made him promise to come back after all."
"He told me about that." she said with a laugh "Anyway, we should go and eat before Luffy empties the kitchen."
"Oh yeah, that would NOT be fun." Lumen groaned before the two walked in a hurry to catch up.
"Ya know, just once I'd like a normal meal. But I guess I should know by now that when Luffy is at the table, don't count on it," Lumen said in wry amusement as currently they were seated at a dining hall with a massive banquet spread out before them...one that was quickly disappearing and being restocked in no small part thanks to Luffy who was eating like crazy...and not just from his own plate at that. Aside from trying to eat, everyone else had to try to defend their own food from Luffy's lack of even basic table manners.
"Eat before he can grab your food!" Zoro said and quickly bit down on the food on his fork… only for him to bite directly into the fork because Luffy had grabbed the food seconds before he bit down.
"Hey! You took that from my plate you rubber jackass!" Usopp shouted as one of his chicken legs suddenly disappeared.
"Stop stretching you idiot." Nami said in aggravation as she punched Luffy in the end, giving them all a lull of a few seconds before the chaos resumed.
"Hey, you'll get sick if you eat that fast." Sanji said worriedly to Chopper, who was slurping up some spaghetti as fast as he could.
"Don't worry, there's still plenty of food." Vivi said in amusement as she slid a plate to Chopper.
"Yeah, it was like this even back on Mount Corvo." Sabo said fondly, his hands moving almost automatically and slapping Luffy's away when they came for his plate.
"I can imagine it al- GRAB THAT AND DIE." Lumen growled suddenly, grabbing Luffy's hand when it was about to go for the bacon in his plate, and it thankfully retracted and didn't make a grab for that anymore.
"Yeah, that was pretty much Ace whenever Luffy went for the boar meat." Sabo nodded as he could remember Ace reacting the same way.
Usopp snickered to himself as he popped one of his Tabasco Stars onto a pile of rice, and as expected, Luffy's hand grabbed it… and then the rubber boy was spewing fire for a bit, making Usopp laugh… and then jump in shock when he noticed Eyelashes sitting on the ground next to him and laughing with him "When did you get there?!"
"Finally, we can catch a break." Zoro muttered as Luffy was busy with dousing the flames in his mouth, giving everyone a chance to properly eat, with Sanji taking the chance to ask for the recipes of the dishes he found interesting.
"Oh wow this is delicious." Nami smiled as she finished swallowing a piece of… something, Lumen didn't notice what thanks to all the chaos.
Finally, Luffy managed to get the fire under control, and returned to shovelling food into his mouth… while also trying to talk to Cobra, but the only thing heard was gibberish as he talked with his mouth full.
"Why don't we save the talk for later?" Cobra said with a sweatdrop, which only grew when Luffy nodded and started sucking up food like a vacuum.
"Hey, can I get some more booze!" Zoro shouted as he waved his mug.
"We need water over here!" Sanji shouted as he tried to help Chopper swallow the food he had eaten too quickly and was now choking on.
And the meal continued on from that, getting more and more crazy, but through it all, everyone couldn't help but laugh, the guards even joining in at some point, and it turned into a more proper party.
After the meal was over the next order of business was a bath.
"WOW these are big." Lumen blinked at the sight of the huge bath.
Sabo snorted "My old family would pay a fortune to have a bathroom THIS amazing."
"Your old family were a bunch of materialistic idiots I take it?" Sanji asked as they watched Luffy and Usopp run in like a bunch of idiots before slipping on the floor.
"They were nobles from the Goa Kingdom. They thought they were better than regular people, when in actuality, they were just scum." Sabo summed up with a frown "I'm glad I don't have to see them again."
"Amen to that." Lumen said before they all went in and started cleaning up.
Cobra suddenly chuckled a bit "I must admit, the feast was most enjoyable. Originally, I simply intended to have a quiet evening, but it would seem anything becomes a party when your crew is involved."
"Yeah, we tend to go crazy." Zoro admitted with a smirk.
"Hey, Zoro, look! You can do training here!" Luffy shouted as he and Usopp were standing underneath one of the lion mouths that was letting water run out into the actual bath.
"Training for what?" Zoro asked in deadpan.
"Waterfall training, or Misogi, is a form of spiritual cleansing, it's also practiced with some forms of martial arts, like aikido, where it helps prepare the mind for training and learning new techniques… of course, the water needs to be cold for this to work." Lumen said, finishing in deadpan "Since this is a bath, that water is warm, so it's just useless."
"Huh… might try that out when we find a waterfall then." Zoro mused before returning to cleaning Chopper's back.
"Anyway, onto other matters…" Sanji trailed off… before grinning in a stupid way "So, where's the women's bath? Huh? Huh?"
"As if I would tell you!" Igaram shouted at him.
Lumen blinked, almost having forgotten about the man, considering he had been so focused on finding Pell.
"It's right on the other side of this wall!" Cobra shouted as he pointed up at a rather tall wall.
"Your rotten highness!" Igaram shouted, appalled.
"Ooh, I like your style old man." Usopp grinned as several of the guys rushed to the wall.
"Are they being serious right now?" Zoro deadpanned.
"I think Chopper's just mimicking everyone." Lumen said, pointing at the reindeer who still managed to look confused.
Sabo suddenly struck his hand out, catching Luffy by the arm and tugging him back "No. We both know you have no idea what's going on, so save us the headache of you figuring it out."
Luffy blinked "Uh… ok." he shrugged before sitting down, and then whining when Sabo started washing his hair.
Over on the women's side, Vivi and Nami were enjoying themselves as well. "This feels great!" Nami said. "I wonder if there's a ship with a bath this big."
"I'm sure there is," Vivi chuckled. "After everything we've seen that's hardly the strangest thing."
"Yeah, we've REALLY seen a lot of things out on sea, and we're not even half way through the Grand Line," Nami agreed.
"Indeed. I'm sure there are still many more strange and wonderful things we haven't seen," Vivi smiled, before blinking when she noticed Nami looking at her with an amused expression. "Did I say something strange?"
"Oh nothing. Let's switch," Nami said as she started cleaning Vivi's back. The girls had an enjoyable time...until Vivi noticed their bath wasn't as private as they'd have liked, namely in the form of the men looking over the edge.
"W-WHAT'RE YOU ALL DOING?!" she shouted while covering herself with her towel.
Nami sighed "Honestly, those idiots…" she said as she stood up, her towel around herself "That'll be 10 000 Berries from each person." she said, confusing everyone… until she opened her towel "Happiness Punch~"
"NAMI!" Vivi shouted in surprise at the redhead just flashing them all like that.
And every man holding themselves up fell back with nosebleeds… except for Chopper who just looked back at everyone and let himself drop, copying them still.
"I hope your new mountains of debt was worth it," Lumen said dryly when he saw the peeping toms fall over from nosebleeds, but they were still out cold, so he just shook his head and went to have a soak.
"I'm surprised you didn't peek too Lumen!" Nami shouted teasingly over the wall.
"I respect you too much for that Nami!" he shouted back "That and I don't like to let my lower brain guide my actions."
Nami smiled at that, shaking her head in fond amusement, before she and Vivi went to have a soak as well.
The two enjoyed the water for a bit before Nami spoke up. "You're hesitating, aren't you?" she said.
"Huh?" Vivi blinked in surprise.
"We're thinking of leaving," Nami said. "If possible, tonight even."
"What?! Really?!" Vivi gasped in surprise.
"Sorry to spring it on you so suddenly," Nami apologized. "But as things are we've got no reason to stay now that Luffy's awake. On top of that the Marines are probably staking around the harbors so our ship could be in trouble...unless the Dugongs beat the crap out of every Marine that came their way anyway," she said, chuckling a bit at the last one.
"I see…" Vivi said, looking down uncertainly.
Meanwhile, back on the men's side…
Cobra looked up at the ceiling for a long moment, before he sat up and looked at everyone "Thank you." he said… while his nose was still bleeding.
"Pervert." everyone said to him.
"Not for THAT!" Cobra shot back, before calming himself down and clearing his throat "I meant for this country." he said, before bowing his head.
"Hey, is it alright for a king to be doing something like that?" Zoro asked.
"Your highness! A king should not lower his head to others!" Igaram said.
"Igaram." Cobra said seriously, making everyone pause "Rank is worn above one's clothing, but this here is the bath. There is no such thing as a naked king. Here, I am but a man, and a father, and it is as those, that I wish to say, thank you." he said, smiling at the crew.
Luffy just grinned in response, laughing a little bit.
"So, we're leaving tonight then?" Lumen asked as everyone was back in the room.
"And while you all leave, I still need to talk with his highness." Sabo added.
"Aww, can't you come with us?" Luffy pouted.
"Sorry Luffy, no can do, I'm a revolutionary, not a pirate." Sabo said apologetically.
Luffy sighed at that, before perking up "Oh! I have an idea." he said and retrieved… Ace's vivre card from his hat "Here! Ace gave me this when we met him the other day! It's a… vire card?"
"Vivre card." Sabo corrected him, smiling "Yeah, I know what those are." he chuckled, before grabbing a piece of the paper and tearing it off "He's gonna be pretty surprised when he sees me. Hopefully I can convince him that I really am myself though."
Luffy laughed "Yeah, Ace is scary when he's angry, it's probably worse now that he can turn into fire."
"Well if you do meet him, my advice is pull all the 'only he would know that' cards you can," Lumen said. "That's gotta trigger something, right?"
"Sure hope so," Sabo sweat dropped. "Anyway, if you're all planning on getting out of here soon, you'll probably want to get as much rest as you can before that."
"Good idea," Lumen nodded. "Oh, but before we go, here," he said, giving Sabo a Batta Candroid. "You can use this to communicate with us anytime. That way we can stay in touch."
"Thanks," Sabo grinned. "At least now we got plenty of time to catch up, even if we're not in the same room," he said to Luffy who nodded eagerly.
However, before any of them could start to get some rest, they got a surprise visitor.
The door was just about thrown open as Akira came running in, clearly out of breath.
"A marine?" Sabo asked with a frown.
"Akira? What are you doing here?" Nami asked, wondering why he was here.
"And why didn't the guards stop you like they did every other Marine that tried to come in?" Sanji added.
Akira took a moment to catch his breath "Because… they're rousing everyone important after I showed them something." he said, before drawing a stack of papers from his coat "Here, you'll want to see this." he said, placing down three different papers, revealing them to be…
"Oh hey! Bounties!" Luffy grinned "Hey! This one's mine! And it's gone up!" he cheered when he saw his bounty now read that he was worth 100 Million.
"Pirate Hunter huh? Not a bad title." Zoro smirked as he saw that he had gotten a bounty of his own, and that his head was worth 60 Million.
"And the third one is…" Usopp trailed off, before he grinned "Hey Lumen! It's you!"
"Really?!" Lumen asked in shock, grabbing the poster, before realising the image on it was of his armor, specifically with the Taka helmet, and that it lacked a name, instead just giving a title, that of 'Kamen Rider OOO' "Huh… I'm worth 75 Million apparently."
"Well, at least it's not your actual face on the poster. You can still be anonymous like the rest of us." Nami sighed, glad for that small bit.
"What's on the last one?" Chopper asked, pointing at one final sheet Akira was gripping tightly, obviously another bounty poster from the color of the paper.
Akira hesitated, a look that was dripping with guilt on his face, before he slowly, almost regretfully, showed them the image.
Almost instantly, gasps of horror echoed around the room.
"What in the…?!" Sanji started, his cigarette burning away almost instantly.
"How could they…?" Nami gasped, horrified.
"Bastards…" Zoro growled.
"This is just… way too cruel…" Usopp said, gritting his teeth.
"Damn them…" Sabo frowned, his hat shadowing his eyes.
"But… why did…?" Chopper looked lost.
"Why did this have to happen?" Lumen said sadly, shaking his head with a grimace.
Luffy just frowned, before turning to the person most affected by this in the room, seeing VIvi look at the poster in horror, a hand over her mouth as she actually started to cry in sadness, before falling to her knees, Carue rushing to her side.
The reason?
The poster was of Vivi, standing in the empty city streets, and read 'Pirate Princess' Nefertari Vivi, wanted for 50 Million, Only Alive.
Needless to say the new development called for an emergency meeting.
"To think they would go this far, just to spite us?" Cobra said, obvious anger on his face at the fact his own daughter had been branded with a bounty.
"How did this even happen?" Nami asked...and everyone looked at Akira who...okay they honestly couldn't find it in them to be upset what with how guilty the Marine looked.
"It's my fault," Akira sighed. "Headquarters were dead set on giving me and Smoker the credit for this even though we barely did anything. Considering how much all of you and Princess Vivi went through I couldn't just take the credit, something Smoker felt the same and during that, I sorta...blurted out that this was only possible because Princess Vivi was willing to go above and beyond to save her Kingdom, even if it meant getting help from Pirates to do it. Apparently the only part of that sentence that mattered to anyone was the 'get help from Pirates' part…"
"So that's why one of the charges on her is treason? Treason of what dammit?" Lumen growled, reading off the charges for Vivi's bounty, and couldn't help but think it was all so petty.
"And on top of denying the truth, they thought giving you and Smoker promotions would shut you up?" Zoro asked Akira.
Akira sighed at that "Yeah, obviously it didn't work. Smoker is literally working off his steam on Crocodile and Tashigi is doing some heavy training to work off her own annoyance with them because she got promoted too. Smoker and I have both been made Commodores, while Tashigi has been promoted to Ensign."
"Clearly bumping her up from the infantry only ticked her off." Nami said, shaking her head with a sigh. "Especially if she's anything like this muscle brain." she added, nodding at Zoro, who clearly took some offense to that if the way he growled in annoyance was any indication.
"I can't believe they'd do something like this. Vivi didn't do anything wrong!" Usopp said, sounding more than a little outraged.
"To the Government, apparently getting help from Pirates even to save your own people is considered treason. Its official, the government is rotten," Lumen growled.
"A fact I've been made painfully aware of…" Akira said, gritting his teeth. "I'm really sorry again, especially after everything you've worked for, but you can't stay here, Princess. No doubt they're already giving Hina the order to capture you. She's looking for your ship already." he warned them, looking at Luffy.
"Why not give the order to you?" Chopper asked in slight confusion.
"Because they think I'm with Smoker right now, he's already left Alabasta and is heading on to deliver Crocodile, but I used a Ride Vendor to come back here." he informed them. "I couldn't just let this stand. I had to try and do SOMETHING." he explained, clearly frustrated and still angry with himself.
"This is already enough," Cobra spoke up. "The fact you did this is proof that you are a better man than those who stand above you and for that you have my thanks."
"But your Majesty…" Akira gasped.
"Even if you say this is your fault, I assure you it isn't," Cobra sighed. "The World Government...or rather the Celestial Dragons have always hated us for our choice to remain here rather than join them. They would have found something to pin on us eventually. That is how petty their grudge against the Royal Family of Alabasta is," he shook his head before looking at the Strawhat Pirates. "Even after everything you've done for us, I'm afraid I must make one more request…"
"Take Vivi with us and keep her safe until we find a solution to this issue?" Lumen said, to which Luffy grinned.
"Sure, we'll do it," he said.
"W-wait." Vivi said "Everyone, I can't force you to do this for me."
"You're not forcing us Vivi." Nami said with a smile.
"We want to help you." Zoro added, smirking.
"Yeah! Plus, no way we'd leave a friend behind like this." Usopp added.
"Yeah! Friends help each other!" Chopper shouted his approval.
"Besides, you were already a member of the crew by our standards." Sanji said.
"This just means it's going to be official." Lumen shrugged.
Vivi looked at them all stunned for a long moment, before looking to Luffy, who simply grinned and nodded.
And it was all she could take, as she started to cry again, but this time it was tears of happiness.
Sabo smiled a bit as he saw the scene. Despite the situation, it still warmed his heart to see the kind of friends his little brother had gathered together. However, there was more to consider than JUST Princess Vivi's future. With that in mind he looked towards King Cobra. "Your Majesty, if I may?"
"What is it?" Cobra blinked.
"While I am sure Luffy and his friends will be able to keep the Princess safe, what do you plan to do with regards to Alabasta?" Sabo asked.
Cobra frowned as he massaged his temple. "I'll be perfectly honest, after the fact they decided to let this happen, I'm not inclined to remain an ally of the World Government any longer, especially after they just let Crocodile do whatever he wanted without coming to inspect him even once. They could have done it easily had they used CP-0. They may be the personal attack dogs of the Celestial Dragons, but they must still answer to the Five Elder Stars."
"In that case, if you intend to break away from the Government, I can promise that you will have the support of the Revolutionaries," Sabo said with a smile.
Akira blinked as he heard that "I… really should be more surprised at this." he muttered.
Cobra hummed, considering Sabo's offer "I think… I'll take you up on that young man. The help of your troops would be greatly appreciated."
Sabo nodded "Perfect. I'll let Dragon know right away." he said, before stepping away from the group for a moment, taking out a transponder snail… along with a small white transponder snail, whose shell was hooked up to the first.
Akira sighed after a moment "I don't know how to feel about the fact I just helped a country go Revolutionary." he admitted, before feeling a hand on his shoulder, looking to see Lumen grinning a bit.
"You gotta admit, it's better than just leaving them to the wolves. They'd have probably sent one of the Cipher Pols after Vivi if she'd just stayed here." he said.
"That will help me sleep at night yes," Akira conceded. However, before any further conversation could be held…
"Puru puru puru puru puru"
The sound of a Transponder Snail was heard, specifically one that Igaram had on him. "Who could be calling now of all times?" Igaram frowned as he picked up the call...to which the transponder snail took on the features of...Nico Robin?
"What's she calling for?" Lumen couldn't help but say, a question that was quickly answered.
"Well, it's good that I managed to reach you all. I have some information you'd all like to hear." she started, her face serious this time "The Marines almost found your ship and captured it, but it was saved by someone… not me though." she said with a slight smile "I was quite surprised when I found Mr. 2 here and defending your ship with the help of some Kung Fu Dugongs."
"Mr. 2? That annoying Okama is actually helping us?" Sanji asked in surprise.
Robin made to respond, before the snail's features changed "STOOOOOOOP JOOOOOOOOKING AROOOOOOOUND! Of course I helped you silly! We may have been enemies during this battle, but before all that, we became friends! I could never live with myself if I hadn't helped my friends when they needed it!"
"...huh...he's eccentric, but I guess he's the okay type of eccentric," Lumen blinked, while Luffy, Usopp and Chopper were immediately swept in the mood, and basically confirming that they'd struck up a real...and weird...friendship with Mr 2...or rather Bentham now that Baroque Works was history. Whatever the case, thanks to them, they still had a ship to return to...but it also meant that they had to get going ASAP.
That was also why they were soon running through the streets in the dead of night (Akira turned around and pretended he didn't see anything while they were going out a window) and heading straight for the Merry. Good thing they had transportation in the form of the Supersonic Ducks or this would be a LOT harder than it already is. Eventually they reached the Merry which had the Dugongs guarding it...as well as several KO'd Marines lying on the ground with various signs of being well...beaten up.
"Glad to see you took this seriously," came Robin's amused voice to which they saw her leaning over the railing of the Merry...and she was dressed in some of Nami's spare clothes, of a simple shirt and pants.
Nami blinked at that, before gaining a deadpan look "Alright, first island we stop on, clothes shopping. I am DONE sharing outfits with people." she said as she climbed up the ramp and pointed at Robin's face "Especially when they're straining the outfit."
Robin blinked at that, before looking down a bit "I… suppose I AM bigger than you." she admitted "My apologies. I just wanted a bit of a change of wardrobe after my previous outfits were rather…"
"Stripperific?" Bentham shot at her with a grin.
"That's one way of putting it." Robin said with a sigh, a hand on her forehead while a few of the crew snorted or chuckled at her exasperation.
"Either way thanks again for keeping the ship safe. We'd literally be sunk if anything happened to Merry," Sanji said after the myrth died down.
"I was more than happy to help silly! After all, like I said, we're friends!" Bentham said with a huge grin, and before long he, Luffy Usopp and Chopper were doing the can can.
"Right, ignoring those idiots." Lumen said with a sweat drop before turning to Robin "Thanks again for helping us."
"Think nothing of it." Robin said with a smile "Though I WILL be asking you all for a favor once we've cleared Alabasta." she said, before turning to Vivi "And you have my sympathy Princess. What you're going through isn't something I would wish on even those I hate the most." she said, sounding somewhat sad and looking far off a bit.
Vivi was surprised at the sincerity in her words, before bowing her head "Thank you…" she said, even as she still looked sad, she appreciated the words.
"We'd better get going soon," Zoro said. "What do both of you plan to do?"
"The Marines have created quite a blockade already," Robin frowned.
"Which is why I'll be the distraction so you can escape," Bentham spoke up.
"Wait what?!" Luffy and Usopp gasped.
"Why so surprised? Isn't it natural seeing as we're friends?" Bentham said with a thumbs up. "You fought so hard to save this country for the Princess. The least I can do is help with that."
"Damn…" Lumen blinked in surprise at how far Bentham was willing to go...and the tone made it clear the odd man wasn't lying. "Thanks man, we...REALLY appreciate this," he said sincerely, before turning to Robin. "And you?"
Robin smiled a bit "Like I said, I'll explain a bit later." she said, not saying anything more on the subject.
"Sure, that's ok." Luffy said before anybody could object… and he did it in the 'Captain' tone, meaning no objections would be accepted.
"Anyway, thanks to the blockade, the real reason the Okama's helping us…" Zoro started, before looking at Bentham "He was hoping working together we could all escape."
"Well… yes, admittedly." Bentham shrugged "But I AM willing to put myself in the line of fire for you, especially after everything. Who knows? Maybe in the end we WILL all escape."
"And again, you have our thanks for that." Lumen said with a grateful nod "We'll pray for your safety."
"Ah, guys?" Chopper said, getting their attention as he stood next to a Dugong "They said they'll try and help keep the Marines off our backs by attacking from the water, to help… well, Lumen and Luffy specifically, since you two beat a ton of them up a week ago."
"Thanks for the help," Luffy grinned at the Dugongs who saluted before they all jumped into the water to get ready to assist.
"Now then, let's get moving. The longer we wait, the more time the Marines have to strengthen their barricade," Nami said, earning nods as they all boarded their ships and were ready to go, the ships soon sailing out towards the ocean.
The next morning…
"Oh of COURSE we are right in the thick of it." OOO, currently in his basic Tatoba combo, groaned as true enough they were faced with a barricade of ships all ready to fire, and with the numbers present...they were basically surrounded. "So, Bentham distracting them aside, any ideas how to break through or do we just go for the usual tactic?"
"Think you got something we can use to break through this?" Zoro asked, even if he was already fingering his katanas.
OOO thought about what he had on hand...and realized a problem. "I got a lot of options...but nothing that's really going to help us when we're fighting on the open seas," he groaned.
"About that. Think THESE might help?" Robin spoke up, before an arm popped up next to him and opened up, revealing…
"...how long have you had these?" OOO asked dryly, as in the hand was a trio of Core Medals, specifically a Blue, Black, and Red Medal each. Shachi, Kani, and Condor respectively.
"About as long as I had the orange one I gave you a month ago." Robin shrugged, while the hand next to him made the medals jingle a bit in its palm.
OOO shook his head with a sigh as he took the medals "Well, this IS good actually, Shachi lets me breathe underwater, though without Tako I can't move as efficiently as I could… though… maybe I can do something good enough." he said after a moment, putting away Condor for now and taking out Cheetah instead, putting it and Shachi in his belt, before stopping as he was about to put Kani in "This one better work." he muttered, before slotting it in and scanning the medals.
"SHACHI! KANI! CHEETAH!"
As his legs were replaced with the light yellow cheetah legs, his helmet was replaced with the dark blue orca helmet, the yellow lens lighting up for a moment, and actually letting him look clearly at what was going on beneath the water even from up on the ship. As for his arms, they were replaced with a greyish black armor that was more bulky at his forearms, looking like a pair of black gauntlets, before he willed them to activate, and the gauntlets shifted forwards, covering his hands and turning into a pair of pincers, while his chest depicted the orca, crab and cheetah on the O Lung.
Looking his new armor over, OOO nodded after a few moments "Alright, I think I can make this work. Gonna go give the Dugongs a hand before they decide to start firing." he said before he jumped into the water, able to see around himself clearly, before he started kicking behind himself with the Cheetah legs, and after a few moments his legs were moving fast enough for him to move at a decent speed.
"Credit where credit is due, this Hina woman brought a LOT of guns to this fight." OOO spoke, seeing as she had them LITERALLY surrounded with over a dozen ships.
But this is why he took to the water.
"Alright… let's see if this works." he said as he got next to one of the Marine ships and brought up one of the Kani Pincers, before grabbing onto the ship's keel with it… and snapped it closed.
The section of the keel in his hold splintered in response.
He nodded to himself, before repeating the process along the rest of the length of it, along with punching holes into the hull itself, the ship slowly sinking as he damaged it's underside. OOO didn't stop as he moved on to the next ship and started repeating the process. "This is still taking too long," he frowned but kept up the momentum. Fortunately the Dugongs were soon gathering, and with some quick directions they were quickly starting to take apart the bottoms of several ships, causing the blockade to...lose cohesion.
Over on the Merry, the rest of the crew saw the Marines start to lose cohesion as ships swayed and started to sink from the water they were taking in. "Looks like the Marines sure weren't expecting this," Sanji whistled.
"Unless they're fighting Fishmen, they had no reason to expect someone could attack from the water," Vivi said.
"The legends were certainly not lying about the power of that armor," Robin mused. "However, there are still quite a lot of them," she said as they were still working to avoid several cannon balls as well as a few metal rods from the lead ship. Fortunately with all the ships thrown off balance, whoever was throwing them had their aim off allowing them to evade.
Right after evading another round, the water near them burst upward allowing OOO to land on the deck. "Get ready, we're gonna be breaking through soon," he said.
"What do you mean? The barricade is still pretty-" Usopp started...only for chaos to ensue as several ships started sinking much faster than before, and with the sudden confusion, the formation was completely broken up.
"I had the Dugongs REALLY do a number on the hulls to make sure they sank a bit faster," OOO explained, and they could tell he was grinning behind his mask.
"In that case, it's time we execute the plan." Bentham said from the rail of his ship, and everyone nodded.
Moments later, his ship broke away from the Merry, heading towards the breach in the Marine formation.
Over on the Marine ships that were still standing, one salmon haired and red suited woman looked at the ship with narrowed eyes "Do they think we'll fall for such an obvious distraction? Hina disappointed." she said while shaking her head with a sigh.
"Ah! Miss Hina! The strawhat crew has been spotted on the duck ship's deck!" one of her men shouted, and Hina quickly grabbed a pair of binoculars, looking through them… to see the face of Monkey D. Luffy on the smaller ship.
She frowned harshly at that "After them at once! We'll set up the formation with the ships we have left!"
Moments later, the marine ships were all chasing after the white ship, leaving the Merry alone… at which point the crew exited from their various hiding spots.
"His sacrifice won't be forgotten." Lumen said as they watched the ships begin a skirmish, and they could barely make out the form of Bentham jumping onto one of the Marine ships to attack.
Obviously, the three idiots were crying like there was no tomorrow at the fact their friend just gave himself up for them.
"Come on, let's not waste the chance he's given us." Nami said, before directing the crew so they could sail away as quietly as possible, and with the Dugongs still present underwater, they were able to get far enough away that the Marines would never catch up.
As the last of Alabasta slowly disappeared from sight, Vivi stood at the back of the Merry with Carue, staring longingly at her home "I hope… that I can come back one day." she whispered, slowly running her fingers through Carue's feathers.
"I'm sure you will." she heard, making her turn her head to see Lumen come up to stand next to her "Sabo promised that the revolutionaries would help keep the country safe from now on, and one day we'll be strong enough that nothing the World Government can throw at us will be able to stop us. Plus we plan on going around the line again some day to come and see Laboon again, so I'm sure we'll be able to make a stop in Alabasta at the same time." he finished with a grin.
Vivi smiled at his words, nodding after a moment "You're right." she said, before they returned to the main deck of the Merry, though Lumen trailed a bit, patting the railing.
"Don't worry, now that I can go underwater, I can help patch you up better." he said with a small grin "I don't remember much from what my sister said… but I know she said you're an amazing little ship, and I want to see just what she means."
As he started walking again, he could almost swear he heard… something, he wasn't sure what, but it sounded happy. Eventually though he just shook it off and returned to the current matter.
Namely…
"So, what was that favor you wanted from us?" Zoro asked Robin now that everything had calmed down.
"Ah, of course, that matter." Robin said with a smile "I'll be perfectly blunt with you. The Poneglyph in Alabasta, it was the last one I knew about. Originally, I told myself that if I didn't find what I was finally searching for... I would just end everything there. But… then you all showed up, you completely derailed Crocodile's plan, in a most glorious manner might I add. It's what led to me to make a few… sudden snap decisions." she explained.
"Like when you released me instead of handing me to Crocodile." Vivi said.
"Like that, for starters… and also when I went to see your Captain after he stumbled out of the ruins and gave him the antidote to Crocodile's poison, and got him to the palace so he could be treated." Robin added.
"Oh, I thought that was weird." Luffy said suddenly "I fell asleep after getting out of the ruins, so I was wondering how I got to the palace. I'm pretty sure I don't sleep walk THAT much." he said with a tilt of his head.
"Lord have mercy on us if he did." Sanji muttered.
Robin smiled a bit "Either way, I decided to… make a bet on you all, I suppose. It's why I decided to see what would happen if I decided to NOT help Crocodile anymore. And I must say… you all impressed me." she said, much to the bashful reactions of most of the crew "And this is why… I'd like to join your crew."
"WHAT?!" "YES!"
Three guesses who was happy and the first two don't count.
"Huh? Why do you want to join?" Luffy asked in confusion.
"Because, you made me decide to give this one more chance. I don't know if it'll bear fruit, but I intend to find out." she explained simply.
Luffy tilted his head "Well… what can you do then?"
"I'm an archeologist. And I'm trying to discover the secret of the Void Century, a mystery which I am more and more certain is linked to the Multi-King, especially after that little part we found in Alabasta." Robin explained.
"Oh, sure then, you can join." Luffy said with a nod.
"Just like that?!" most of the crew shouted in surprise.
"Well then, I hope you'll take care of me, Captain." Robin said with an amused smile.
Marie chuckled a bit as she read the line. It seemed Lumen was really helping to change things in the One Piece world for better or worse. Still this was one adventure she wanted to see every moment of.
Her musing was cut short when she heard her mom calling her as dinner was ready. "Just a minute, mom. Let me bookmark the page!" she called back and did just that before shutting off her computer and going downstairs.
"How's your brother doing?" her father asked as they were soon seated at the dinner table.
"Oh you know, just stopped a rebellion in a desert country, and after that they recruited a princess and an archeologist into their crew," Marie said with a chuckle.
Her parents blinked a few times at that "And he's been there for only a week?" her mother asked.
Marie shook her head "Naw, it looks like there's some kind of time dilation, because he's apparently been there for roughly 2 months already. In that time he's already helped liberate an island… though they kind of destroyed it by accident at the end. He stole some government property, he's fought ancient evils that can apparently hijack the bodies of people, though he isn't aware of one of them being back yet. They've gone on an island full of dinosaurs, an island of eternal winter where they recruited a talking reindeer and saw giant cherry blossoms, and the most recent thing looks to be that they freed a desert kingdom from an orchestrated rebellion that was all engineered by one of the government's dogs."
Her father looked at her with wide eyes "He's done all of that in just 2 months? What else does that world have in store for him?"
"Assuming the plot doesn't get hijacked by anything else… he should be flying up into the sky soon." Marie said with a shrug.
"Didn't you get a folder that had an animated version of your brother's adventure?" her mother asked her.
"Yeah… oh, do you guys want to watch it together?" Marie asked in surprise.
"It would be nice to see for ourselves how your brother is doing." her father admitted with a smile.
"Then let's all watch it next time we have time," her mother smiled.
However, before they could talk any further, they heard something that must have been pretty loud...if not for the fact it sounded like it came from far away, and not long after, they heard the sound of firetrucks driving by in a hurry. "Oh my, what happened?" her mother gasped in surprise, before turning on the tv. What came up was apparently some breaking news of a fire that broke out a few blocks away from their house and was spreading to the nearby houses (thankfully theirs was far away from any immediate danger).
"Holy… which house blew up?" Marie wondered, before the screen provided the address… and her gaze became cold "Oh, HER house… well if she got caught in that, good riddance."
"Marie!" her mother gasped, scandalized.
"Oh come on mom, she was a psycho, LITERALLY! She tried to break into our house MORE than once. If anybody deserves to die, it's-" Marie stopped herself when she heard what the news was saying at the moment, her face going pale as her blood ran cold.
"-while the eldest residents of the house were out, reports said that their daughter was home at the moment, yet, even as the firefighters are clearing things out as much as they could, it seems the fire originated from her room, with what appears to be arcane designs on the floor, yet there doesn't seem to be any sort of body to be found-"
She suddenly had a sinking feeling in her gut at that, before running back upstairs and turning her computer back on, quickly reopening the chapter she had been reading and jumping to the end.
Right on the last panel, what appeared to be a simple shot of Merry sailing away, with Alabasta in the background… she saw it.
A figure, standing on the rocky shores of the island, and as if by magic, a new panel appeared RIGHT at the very bottom of the page...showing an unsettling grin spreading on a shadowed face.
"Oh… oh fuck… oh he is NOT gonna be happy about this…"
NONE OF YOU SAW THIS STUFF COMING!
Well, ok, maybe you expected Vivi somewhat actually.
But the Sabo part? And the new person apparently landing in the story? Those are things I'm positive nobody saw coming.
I actually got the Sabo idea while reading Twelve Red Lines. (a pretty good SI that actually did a crossover chapter with This Bites, last time I checked it was still in the Skypeia Arc)
And the extra person (whom from context clues I'm sure you've all guessed is a woman) is an idea we had near the end of the chapter actually.
She's going to be... interesting.
Also, yeah, the Black Medals work properly here, and we're using the original order, not the one from the CSM release, so no BiKaSo combo.
Speaking of medals though...
Count The Medals:
Red: Taka, Condor
Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta
Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah
Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou
Blue: Shachi, Unagi
Orange: Cobra, Kame, Wani
Black: Kani
Purple: Tyranno