"Order for table number 5!" A shout came from the counter, handing two bottles of beer.
"I'm on it!" A dark-haired woman answered, smiling widely at her co-worker as she takes the beer to its designated table. "Here's your order!" She said to the two men sitting on table number 5.
"Luffia! Cheerful as always!" A tall, burly man with brown hair said as he takes the beer that she just put on the table.
"Shishishi! What do you mean? I'm always cheerful." She giggles at them before waving goodbye to tend to the customer's orders. This bar is fairly popular in this area in Grandline, near the borders of Akagami's territory and Dressrosa.
It's not the most popular bar out there, but they have a lot of regulars, so it may not always be full but the business is still doing alright. Luffia works here as a part-time waitress. Her cheerful personality is loved by the regulars, lifting their mood when they feel shitty for that day.
She just has this energy that will make you smile regardless of how bad your day is - one of the reasons why the owner of the bar hired her.
The door of the bar opens, revealing a 6'2 green-haired man wearing a white v-neck shirt paired with black jeans and boots, topped with a green coat. Many heads turned to look at the newcomer, all eyes looked away as soon as they recognized him.
"Zoro!" Luffia's waived her hands at the man before approaching him. "You're here to drink again?" She asked, head tilting to the side that made her look more innocent than she already is.
No one will believe that this woman is almost 23 years old. She looks way too young than her actual age. Some even doubt if she's of legal age.
"Yeah, but not much." He answers before taking a seat on a vacant table in the corner of the bar where no one will interrupt him.
"Ohh. Would you like to order the usual?"
"Just one bottle of beer. You get off in half an hour, right?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay. I'll drop you by in your apartment."
"Okay!" She nods before getting back to her work. No regular customers tried to talk to her as soon as the green-haired man arrived. They know who he is, someone feared by several mafia groups out there - the Mafia Hunter.
Not everyone knows that he's the Mafia Hunter, but there are a few groups out there who have seen him in action. This bar is one of the bars that some of the mafia members frequent, that's no secret at all and this guy visits this bar often.
It's not because he is hunting for someone, but because he's here for Luffia. This is why no one dares to flirt with Luffia right in front of him or else, they will find themselves under the scrutiny of his green eyes.
The tension in the bar is high, many are on guard in case the Mafia Hunter acts, but he didn't, just like the times when he drops by in this bar. He waits at his table until Luffia gets off work before they leave.
"Let's go!" Luffia said, now dressed casually, simple jeans and shirt.
"Okay." Zoro leaves money on the table before walking alongside Luffia as they exited the bar. As soon as they're out, he frowns at her. "Why are you still working at that bar?"
"There's nothing wrong with working at that bar. They're all friendly plus I need that work!" She said.
"Can't you find somewhere else to work at?"
"What's wrong with that bar?" Her question is so innocent that it reminded Zoro how his best friend is naive, very childish, and innocent. He wonders how she was able to survive in Grandline with this kind of personality.
He ponders if he should be telling her what he finds wrong in that bar, but in the end, he decided against it. She's too innocent to be dragged into a world that is filled with nothing but cruelty. Such innocence is better protected than be exposed to the underground world, at least that's what Zoro wants.
"Nothing." He finally said.
"Okay!" She smiles again, like a sun, always so bright. Zoro hands her the helmet so she can ride at his back.
The ride to her small apartment is fairly short, she can walk if she wants to, but Zoro still wanted to drop her by. He doesn't trust the streets even though it's still as early as 8 PM.
"Have you eaten? Do you even have food in your apartment?"
"I think I don't. I will just go to a nearby food stall." That made Zoro sigh I irritation. He should have known that Luffia has not eaten properly.
"Get on. I know a restaurant nearby."
"Are you going to treat me again?!" Her eyes sparkled that almost made Zoro squint. This is something he should have been used to, but years of being with Luffia will not make you immune to her charm and her eyes - especially her eyes.
"Don't I always treat you, anyway?" He grumbles.
"YAY!" She almost jumped back to his motorbike in excitement, hands wrapped around Zoro's muscled torso, and off they go to the restaurant.
They spent about 2 hours because her appetite is monstrous, always asking for more food, making the bill reaches an almost unbelievable amount. This is impossible for anyone, but not for Luffia. She can eat four times than a normal person can which is no surprise to Zoro.
They've been best friends for a long time now, 6 years to be exact. They met when Luffia was still a high school student with Zoro, two years her senior. The difference in their age and their school levels did not hinder for a friendship to form.
She is bratty, always insisting that she wants to be friends with Zoro. Persistence, annoyance, and an endless persuasion, he reluctantly agreed to be her friend. Or maybe he is just a simp for her puppy dog eyes that no one ever managed to say no to, yeah, that could be it.
"Why do you want to become my friend?" he asks during their lunch period, the two of them sitting on the rooftop, eating their lunch boxes.
"Because I want to." She answers, making Zoro roll his eyes at her. While his attention was onto other things, he failed to notice how Luffia's eyes turn melancholic, as if remembering memories from years ago. Yes, she is, but only she knows.
Her eyes darted to the familiar bandana tied on Zoro's biceps. Often he receives scrutiny from their discipline committee for tying the bandana on his biceps, intentionally covering the school's logo. Those scrutinies and warning fell to deaf ears, he won't budge, not at all and it made Luffia happy, smiling at herself.
"I'll go ahead now. Try to look for a high paying job rather than in that bar." That was Zoro's words before he waves goodbye at Luffia, leaving her in a shabby apartment far from the main streets.
She walks inside. It's a one-bedroom apartment that barely has furniture. It just looks like a house for someone to sleep in, a cheap hostel. The paint on the walls is grimy, signaling it needs to be repainted. The couch is very old that looks like it will break at any given moment. The kitchen is barely filled with anything, just a proof that whoever lives here does not know how to cook.
Luffia opens the door to her room, a room that has almost nothing except for the double bed, a bedside table, a dresser that barely has anything except for a few clothes.
Creak... The sound came from the bedside table when she pushed it to the right, revealing a hidden compartment. She opened it to get her gloves as well and keys. One look and anyone can tell that those keys are not for this apartment.
Ring... Ring...
She picks up the cellphone in the compartment, greeting the caller with a cheerful voice: "Hi!"
"Someone's in a good mood." A familiar voice greeted her, it's Nami.
"Hmm, not really. Shishishi."
"Anyway, what time will they pick you up?"
"In an hour. Same spot."
"Okay, got it. Make sure you wear your clothes properly!"
"I know! You don't have to tell me." She pouted, frowning a little from the usual reprimanding voice of Nami.
"I am telling you because you often forget! Anyway, we will see you later."
The call ended. She placed the cellphone on top of the barely used bed so she can get her stuff underneath it. It's kept inside of a box sealed by a fingerprint system that Sab and Ann came up with.
Inside reveals her clothes, the Mafia Clothes as what her sisters call it. It is designed to keep their identities a secret. Although women in the Mafia World is fairly common, it doesn't mean that there are a lot of them. By hiding that they're women, they can easily do their activities during the day.
Luffia dropped out of college as after one semester with the excuse of no financial support. Zoro offered several times to send her to the college by lending her money but she refuses all the time. She doesn't need money at all, not when her parents left them a huge sum of money. She refuses it because she will have no time to spend when she's busy with her group.
After getting dressed, she walked out of the house through the backdoor, leading her to an alleyway where she usually meets her members. It didn't take long before a sleek black car stopped in front of her, window glass sliding down, revealing a familiar face of Usopp and Sanji who's in front of the steering wheel.
With no hesitation, she got inside, greeting the two of them.
"I really hate wearing this mask." She said, hands fumbling on the fabric covering half of her face.
"You don't have a choice. Besides, you already established that trademark of yours." Usopp shrugged, fairly used to the usual whining from Luffia. She is a fantastic leader when it comes to anything related to the Mafia group, but outside of it, she's just like an innocent puppy that whines at every little thing she dislikes. She still is, but there's a level of maturity in her when it comes to the group that often surprises them.
When they arrived at their current hideout, all of the members are already present. At the moment, they took over a villa east of Dressrosa. It's a fairly quiet place, perfect for their meetings such as this.
At a glance, it looks like a normal vacation house, but unbeknownst to them, it's a lair for one of the most notorious Mafia Groups in Grandline.
"Hello!" She greets, hands immediately taking off her coat and mask so she can breathe freely. Everyone lets her be, after all, it's just them in this house.
"Now that we're all here, we need to talk about what we're going to do with the assets we've taken from Doflamingo's groups." Nami said. All of them are sitting on the couch in the living room with boxes of pizza laid in front of them. This doesn't look like a Mafia Group's meeting, it looks like a hangout session with friends.
"How much did we get?" Luffia asks.
"We didn't get the firearms in his safehouse. From what Viola, most of the firearms exploded when the bombs went off in the factory, so there's almost nothing we can salvage."
"Makes sense because we placed several bombs right beside the foundations of the factory." Franky answered, making Nami frown a little, although she did not refute it.
"We managed to get the pieces of jewelry and some of their vehicles that were no registered that the World Government did not manage to get." Robin added.
"How much is the estimate, then?" Luffia inquires again.
"About 350 Million including the properties that we managed to get." Robin took the documents from Doflamingo's office including several papers for real estate, vehicles, and a file that details how to access a vault in Silca Bank.
"Hmm..." Luffia hums while chewing on the pizza. "Give the 150 million to Rebecca's family."
"Huh?" Most of them looked at Luffia, wondering if they heard everything right.
"Yeah! Give it to them. We don't need that much money. They do. With Doflamingo taking over their assets previously, there's almost nothing left, and if there are, the World Government will take over them because they have the jurisdiction with the prisoner." After the bombing incident, a certain someone tipped off the information to the World Government, making it easier for them to arrest Doflamingo together with his men. It was thanks to Sab who works in a Law firm office.
Rebecca is the granddaughter of one of the well-known businessman in Dressrosa. Because of Doflamingo's power and influence, he managed to take over the businesses that used to belong to Riku Doldo III - Rebecca's grandfather. Luffia met her at a bar, one time, being harassed by several men.
Doflamingo framed her grandfather that inevitably sent him to prison for the crimes he never committed. Now, they're working on freeing the man after it's been proven that Doflamingo was behind the slanders.
"150 million?" Nami asks again. Yes, with their group's fundings, they don't need that much money, but money is still money in her eyes. 150 million is not a joke.
"Yes. Besides, we've taken over Dressrosa as our territory now. We can open new businesses inside." The businesses she's referring to is not about firearms deals or underground betting in a fighting arena, she's talking about legal businesses they can open in Dressrosa.
With their protection of the city comes with a price, although Luffia forbids her members to force anyone to pay them a hefty amount of money. She wants to protect this city, not because of money but because she wants to. This is one of the biggest differences she has compared to other Mafia leaders.
"Alright. We will send them the money needed. With the damage in the city, I am sure that's also needed." Nami said.
"We still have to take a look at their secret warehouses outside of the city." Sanji reminded them. Of course, Doflamingo has a safe house outside of Dressrosa, just like anyone out there.
"It might not be a good idea to check on them right away. The World Government may be aware of it, we'd be walking in their traps if we check on it immediately." Brook suggested.
"Hmm, then let's check on it in a few days!" Luffia easily arranged a schedule for them.
"What do we do with these documents?" Robin pointed at the files they gathered. They may need the World Government information that Doflamingo used to have but they're not exactly needed at the moment, not when they already have Dressrosa under their wraps.
"Sab may need them, so I'll give it to her." Everyone nods. They know who Luffia is referring to, one of her sisters. The Straw Hats did not immediately know about the existence of Luffia's sisters until 2 years ago when her mouth slipped.
To say that they are shocked is an understatement. Who could have thought that her sisters are none other than Firefist and Blue? No one expected that two of the craziest figures in the Mafia World are women. Well, crazy runs in the family but it made all of them curious about their past.
They do not know anything aside from the fact that they came from an orphanage, or was that just a front? No one knows and they never bothered to ask either. Luffia will tell them when she wants to or she feels like it.
They are the only ones who knew about the identities of the three sisters, but who really are they?
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
"I can't believe someone managed to get into the blind spots of the CCTV cameras." Thatch mumbled, eyes looking at several monitors, shaking his head in disbelief. They cannot find anything for the last 3 hours since the bombing incident in their warehouse.
What's odd is the coincidence that right after their warehouse blew up, Doflamingo's case broke out, another bombing incident too.
"I just find it odd that a day after our incident, Doflamingo finds himself under attack too." Namur said.
"We knew that Doflamingo's group is against several groups, but Straw Hats managed to get his neck. It doesn't make sense that they are behind the bombing incident in our warehouse. We never had any conflict with that group." Vista pointed out.
Yes, Straw Hats' group is one of the craziest groups out there, if not, the craziest and oddly enough, their group only consists of 8 members but their influence is massive. Quality over quantity, that's what this group is.
"If not them, who? The Emperors are not fools to start a war with us, not when the World Government is making movements against the Mafia right now, yoi." Marco's been frowning for who knows how long. This is nothing new to them, but the fact that they can't get a hold of any information about who planted the bomb in their warehouse does not sit well with him including with Whitebeard or Pops as what they prefer to call him.
"Firefist?" Haruta suddenly suggested.
"What does he have against us to do something like this?" Thatch wonders.
"That's what we don't know. But let's keep our eyes open just in case, yoi."
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Sab's cell phone lits up, signaling a text message just arrived. When she opened it, she's quite surprised to see her youngest sister's message.
'Got some docs for u' That's what she said and this only made Sab curious as to what it was.
'Where are you going to send it?'
'2morrow when we meet'
'Ok!'
And that ends their conversation. She can't help but smile while thinking that she will see her sisters again. They don't meet often after all.
Sab lives in the Main city of Grandline, near the Headquarters of the World Government Office. This is the safest part of the city as no Mafia Groups wanted to stay here. This may be the safest part of the city for civilians, but not for Sab but she has no choice.
Ann, on the other hand, lives in the borders between Akagami and Whitebeard's territories, chasing after enemies of their father.
Luffia lives just anywhere because of her territories. Sometimes, she's in Alabasta, sometimes she's in rural areas, it depends on where their operations are.
It's rare for them to meet, usually once every two weeks. It was hard to continue with their living arrangement after years of sharing a room together, but they persevered, for the sake of their goals.
None of them can rest easy until they find the people who conspired with the World Government to target their father. There are still some mysteries surrounding the main reason why the World Government was chasing after their father, hell-bent on killing him.
The sisters tried to contact Rayleigh about this, but he refused to tell them anything.
"I promised your father that I will not tell you anything about this."
"Even if it will help us get to the bottom of everything?" Ann questioned.
"It will but as you are now, there's nothing you all can do to change anything. This knowledge will only kill you, will make you reckless. If you ever get powerful enough to make a change, then I will tell you."
"At least tell us about his enemies." Sab insisted.
"I know that the three of you wanted to avenge your parents, but what can you even do?"
At that time, they just arrived in Grandline. They are nothing and compared to the enemies of their father, they can easily be killed.
It also made them think that whatever the information their father knew, it's so important that it can change Grandline. They did not press for more information from Uncle Rayleigh who is still outside of Grandline. He's a wanted man. One step inside, he will find himself cornered in no time at all, same with Roger's infamous members.
Maybe it was for the best that they knew nothing about it. Knowing about it doesn't mean they can do something. Rayleigh discouraged them from continuing their plans, but they made up their mind. Had it not been for those mafia groups conspiring with the World Government, their father's group wouldn't have been disbanded.
They all ganged up on them, attacking from different sides. Even if they are known as the strongest Mafia Group in Grandline, it doesn't mean they can win several wars at a time.
With a sigh, Sab just continued doing her work while feeling excited to meet her sisters again.
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Ann smiled after receiving a text message from Luffia. She said that she's excited to meet them again after more than a week of not seeing each other. That smile was soon replaced by a frown when she heard Bay talking to someone on a phone when Ann was passing by.
"Marco. It's been a while." The name is familiar to Ann. She knows there are several people named 'Marco' but she knows that Bay is talking to one of the big shots in Whitebeard's Mafia Group.
"Are you going to drop by here, then? I see. Alright, see you!"
Ann immediately walked away, heartbeat racing as she steps inside the locker room for female employees.
She can't help but feel nervous at that conversation. If one of the big shots of the group visits here, it may pose as a problem for her. Even if she's confident that they don't know anything about her, she'd like to avoid any contact with them.
She just used this work to gain a little bit of understanding and information about the group. If they find her suspicious and start investigating about her, that's going to hinder her plans in killing Whitebeard.
'On the brighter side, if I get close to one of them...' She trailed off, shaking those thoughts away. There's no way that Whitebeard's Commanders will easily warm up to her. It will only look suspicious if she suddenly wants to get to know them.
She just hopes that they will drop by when she's not around. That will make things easier.
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
AN: I added more about ZoLu. I felt like I did not give them much attention as I did with MarAce and KiddSab pairing in ASL Sisters fic. So here, I'll try to write more ZoLu scenes. Let me know what you think!