Hey everyone!
Sooooooo, I was going to try and release this chapter earlier, since my hubby and I got some stuff going on this weekend, buuuuuut then I realized that I messed up the days again and found out it was Saturday morning (hubby worked OT so got my internal clock all wonky) …my bad!
So I've spent all Friday night and up until 7 am Saturday morning and then on into Sunday early as fudge hours trying to edit and get it done, buuuuut….that didn't work.
Sadly…I haven't been able to stump myself out of whatever funk this is that's giving me writers block, so I'm stuck at the ending party for Skypiea…grrr…
Hope you guys like and enjoy?
Two hours later, after some very touch and go moments for the crew, we managed to give the marines that were chasing us the slip.
After the excitement was over, everyone but Zoro, Will/Neal and I were flopped around on the deck, moaning depressingly.
Will asked them what was wrong, to which all five of them responded, "we're lonely!"
Zoro, annoyed with the crew's antics said harshly, "Don't cry anymore! Jeez, if you still won't accept leaving her, then you should have just dragged her onboard!"
Will and I jerked back from him, horrified-shock clear across our faces, and the five of those who had been moping along the upper rail started glaring at Zoro, saying, "whaa, you're a barbarian…" (chopper) "despicable…" (Nami) "devil" (Sanji) "three swords…" which was just Luffy's idea of what name calling was. Usopp was quick to correct him, as he turned to Luffy, who was beside him, "wait, Luffy, 'three swords' is not an insult…"
Luffy, still using the low bored tone as before, petulantly said, "four swords…"
"You just added one! Hey, you know natto? That could be an insult!" Usopp tried to explain how natto, a type of food that was sort of like fermented (((aka rotten yet safe to eat, I personally view that as 'eww' just like mushrooms since their a fungus…))) soybeans, and therefore if calling Zoro natto, it would imply that Zoro was rotten...
But Luffy was ignoring him now...that or he wasn't able to follow along with Usopp's random way of explaining, and everyone was stunned silent when Will exploded, "NEVER!"
We all looked to him as he glared at Zoro, breathing harshly, he said in a lower volume, "so long as I'm in this crew, I refuse to kidnap anyone!"
Zoro sighed and said, "yeah, I understand," waving his hand at everyone who had been crying earlier, he finished gruffly around a light blush, "just cry for all I care!" and walked off, rubbing his head annoyed at not being able to express what he wanted to.
He stopped, tensing up and reaching for his swords when a voice spoke mildly. As one, we all turned to look and saw a "new" face coming out of the girl's room.
"At last, we're out to sea...good work."
It was Miss All-Sunday.
She was wearing a different outfit than before. Clothes that used to belong to Nami, if my eyes weren't wrong. A pair of purple jeans and a creamy soft pink button up shirt that I knew was Nami's as I'd seen her wear it as a pajama shirt once. Upon her feet were a pair of dark purple flat Mary Janes. The thing that stood out the most to me was her lack of a cowboy-style hat of any color.
I stared at her while she walked down the side stairs to join us on the main deck and I thought as I twisted into a low stance, ready to draw my sword despite feeling like we'd fail if we had to fight again, what the fuck is she doing here?! I know Vivi and I sorta made an alliance with her and all; shit I should have asked Luffy if that was okay, but fuck! He was in Crocodile's trap… shit! Shit! Shit!
Zoro reached for his swords as he asked, "you're here for revenge!? Come on!"
Nami sat up from her place along the railing and placed her hands to her hair in fright as she screeched loudly, "why are you here?!"
Sanji's reaction was something I should have come to expect, even if I'd hoped he was working on it; his lone visible eye turned into a heart and his hands clasped next to his face as he gushed through a scream of perverted joy, "ahhhhhhh! Pretty Lady!"
Usopp ran around franticly shouting into a microphone I didn't even know he had, "Enemy on Board! Enemy on Board!"
Chopper, poor kid, just hid behind the mast, on the opposite side of where Usopp had dived behind, and was leaning the wrong way again to hide, as he screamed, "ahhhhhhh! Who is she!?"
Will crossed his arms and leaned back so that he was leaning his back onto Neal, who'd shifted to his full Griffin form when she emerged from inside the ship.
Luffy just stood there, as he said, "what…? It's you! You're not dead?"
With a wave of her hands, she said, "don't point these dangerous things at me! Didn't I tell you that before?" and an arm bloomed at Zoro's waist and smacked his hand away from his swords. Which freaked Zoro out enough to exclaim, "Argh! Hands!?"
I heard Nami gasp and her Clima Tact went tumbling to the floor, showing she'd also drawn her weapon in readiness.
Nami yelled in retaliated anger, "since when did you board this ship?"
Miss All-Sunday, (I wasn't going to use her name that she'd given me in Rainbase until she proved what side she was on and what the fuck she thought she was doing here on this ship…) picked up one of the lawn chairs and folded it out to sit down, as she said, "I was here the whole time inside the cabin, reading a book and taking a bath. These clothes are yours? Lend them to me."
Nami's face went red as she lost her cool, yelling, "what are you doing B.W.!"
Miss All-Sunday just ignored her, addressing our captain, she said, "Monkey D. Luffy."
Luffy responded ever so eloquently, "eh?"
"You didn't forget what you did, did you?"
Immediately, Sanji lifted Luffy up by the collar of his vest, and yelled, "aaahhhhh! Hey Luffy, what did you do to this beautiful lady!?"
Usopp was still in the background, now laying down along the deck behind the mast, calling out "quietly" on his megaphone for Miss All-Sunday to leave the ship, but no one was listening to him.
Luffy looked over to her from where he was dangling him from his shirt, and said, "hey! Don't lie! I didn't do anything to you!?"
Neither Will or I moved to stop Sanji's antics; hey, if Captain really had done something to warrant this kind of behavior then we'd probably be lining up behind Sanji to help kick some common sense into Captain's head. Personally, I don't think it would help much…
Throwing her hands back behind her head as she leaned back in the lawn chair, she said, "no, I remember clearly...you better take responsibility!"
With words as misleading as that, you could get a lot of people into trouble...I thought grumpily as I stood up straight and waited for Captain to get the woman to get to the heart of the matter.
And with Sanji shaking Luffy back and forth rather harshly, it seemed his mind went down the proverbial rabbit hole, as he muttered out confusedly, "she...who...what's the story?"
"You're really weird, what do you want?" Luffy finally demanded after he got Sanji to stop shaking him like a ragamuffin.
Sitting up and placing her chin in her hand, she smiled as the wind whipped her hair back, and said simply, "let me join your crew."
Everyone's reactions were varied…
Luffy just looked shocked, Will hadn't moved from leaning against Neal's back, except to raise his eyebrows in surprise. Neal had frozen, staring at Miss All-Sunday without blinking…I wonder if he's using some Mythical Zoan ability that's unique to his fruit? Is he able to tell if someone's lying? Some old stories claimed that people couldn't lie in front of a mythical creature…or was that species specific?
Zoro was just standing there calmly, and I was distantly irritated that I couldn't tell what his thoughts about this woman were from the expression on his face, or lack thereof. His arms were crossed as he stood next to me and Chopper, who was on the verge of passing out in shock.
Sanji looked ecstatic, with hearts in his eye, and his hands clasped before his mouth like praying in reverent ecstasy over the possibility of another beautiful woman joining the crew for him to fawn over day and night. As Usopp pointed out later that day, Sanji was a lost cause from the beginning. Not that I was against her joining if she proved to be loyal…she'd switched sides rather fast for me to immediately be completely comfortable with in Alabastra.
Usopp had crawled out from behind the mast in outraged shock, staring at the equally dark-skinned woman with his mouth agape; although, I think her skin tone is that lovely shade of mocha due to sun exposure and less so from genetics…but it's hard to tell…if it is from the sun, then she's gotta be into nude sunbathing to not have any pesky tan lines…
Nami's shark-teeth was back as she loudly screamed along with almost everyone else in perfect synchrony the only word to describe in totality their shock and surprise, "eh!?"
Miss All-Sunday went on to explain to us all how Luffy had forced her to continue living, when all she'd wanted to do was die, and how she had nowhere left to go; now that Crocodile was no longer a Warlord, he couldn't offer her protection from the world government. Therefore, Luffy had to take responsibility for her safety and the only way to do that, would be to allow her to join the crew.
This thus brought us back around full circle, and she leaned her head to the side with a self-satisfied smile of pre-congratulated victory.
Luffy, in a rare show of logic, said with a nod and smile as he slapped a closed fist into the other hand before himself, "oh if it's like that, then there is nothing I can do. It's okay."
The others, (minus Sanji of course) weren't quite so happy with this decision.
Will and Neal still hadn't said anything one way or the other about how they felt about this situation, but they also hadn't removed their watchful gaze from Miss All-Sunday.
I was perturbed to note that Neal still hadn't fucking blinked even once since she sat down on the lawn chair.
Luffy just laughed as he told his crew, "don't worry! She's not as bad as you all think!"
I smiled and nodded, forcing my muscles to relax fully and completely, as I recalled what she and I had spoken with Vivi in that underwater tunnel.
Usopp decided that we should hold some kind of questionnaire-investigation about our new "member" of the crew. He sat with her at the fold out patio set she was sitting at with a paper pad and a pen, as he asked about her skills.
She must be some kind of super genius to have been acknowledged as a full-fledged archeologist at the age of eight years old...ahhh it was a family tradition, that's nice... what the fuck did she learn about from those old dusty texts and ruins to garner a fucking bounty that damn high at eight bloody years old?! Damn! She's been on the run for twenty years straight?! I thought in amazement as I listened in on Usopp's little "interview".
She went on to explain how being on the run since she was a child and being involved with various villainous organizations had made her very skilled in all manner of stealthy things, and that she was especially good with mass assassinations.
At her proud claim for that, Usopp erupted into tears and fled behind the "safety" of Luffy, wailing about how his "investigation" in the new crew member was concluded as her being too dangerous for us all, and that she needed to leave right this moment.
Luffy just laughed as Robin sprouted hands from the deck and along Luffy's hat to play with them, thus making Luffy's "impersonation" of Chopper that much easier and more believable. The duo were in near stitches from laughing so hard.
I was glad to be rid of having to think of her code name instead of the name she'd given Vivi and I down in the underwater tunnel-hallway.
Seeing them playing, Nami seethed and exclaimed from her perch along the upper railing that she'd retreated to when Usopp was doing his round of questions with Robin, "their useless, but I still remember you used to be the vice president of an evil organization. You were Crocodile's partner! You can fool Luffy, but you won't fool me. If I see anything suspicious, I'll get rid of you!"
Robin just laughed, saying unconcernedly, "hehe...Okay, I'll remember that."
She pulled out a bag of gemstones and managed to say almost convincingly as a side thought, except for the delayed pause between her sentences, "oh, by the way, I managed to swipe some of Crocodiles valuables before I left."
Nami practically flew down the stairs to hug Robin, clutching the bag of gems tightly to her bosom as she said, "waaaaaa...I really like you, Big Sis!"
Zoro and Usopp both muttered out, "Hey! Hey!" but both went ignored by the greedy bright orange-head, who continued to snuggle up and around the money bag.
Usopp was near tears as he said to Zoro, "Nami got bribed by her!"
Zoro just grumbled with a small headshake of disappointment, "so underhanded…"
No one was really surprised that Sanji was already smitten with her at this point.
I was of the opinion that he either needed extreme culture shock where the island's society was made up entirely of men or be overloaded with an island of only women who had to be entirely self-reliant to get over his near obsessive behavior towards anyone with tits and a vagina. I would have felt that his actions had left 'annoyingly-pitiful' to 'down right degradingly-insulting', if it weren't for his sincere and genuine feelings of kindness, joy in servitude and overall goodness.
He twirled his way over from the kitchen, balancing a tray filled with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and in the other he held aloft a plate with a slice of cake to complement the drink, as he said dramatically, "Ah! It's LOVE! Flowing love, I am nothing but a blackened log, drifting on the current of the river. Struck by lightning commanded by you, which sent me into a river, ever flowing down a waterfall. Here is a snack..." he finished with an elaborately flourish bow as he set down the coffee and cake before Robin.
She smiled, amused by his overly flirtatious nature, as she said, "oh? Thank you."
Zoro was making a disgusted face as he asked Usopp, "did he really just do that?"
Usopp nodded but I could see the sweat drop falling down the side of his face as he answered in a deadpan, "yeah but he's that kind of guy...he was a lost cause from the start."
Will finally left the deck, deciding to go to the crow's nest with Neal, to keep watch.
I sat down next to Robin and smiled.
She asked me, "so, it would appear that you were correct in saying that your group would win. Tell me, what's your name?"
I pulled the paper pad that Usopp had left on the table and flip to a new page, and wrote,
My name is Wisteria Duncan. The guy with the Griffin-Parrot is my brother Will. sorry, I temporarily lost my voice after my fight with Miss Doublefinger...you said before that you were looking for some special Poneglyph, was the one in Vivi's kingdom the one you've been looking for all this time?
Handing her the paper, she quickly scanned it and shook her head, saying with a sad sigh, "no, it was not the Rio Poneglyph. The princesses held only words of history and information about one of the three ultimate ancient weapons, Pluton."
I ignored Usopp and Zoro's antics about being the last one's out to not trust her, I couldn't exactly speak to tell Zoro that neither Will nor I trusted her either. At least, not fully on my part. Only time would tell.
I knew since Will went to the highest point of the ship, where he'd be able to keep watch on our mysterious new member from above that he didn't trust her at all. He'd always been like that. If something happened that he was distrustful of, he always tried to climb to the highest point in the area, stating that people hardly ever looked up, so no one would see him watching them prove his point on why he was distrustful of them.
Whether that was a tree in the forest, the roof of the house, or even just on top of the cupboards in mom's kitchen. Mom used to claim he must be part sky fish to be acting like that. Back then, we'd all laughed, thinking it was something she made up for our amusement.
I wished I was able to say I still believed that she was making it all up…
I hand signed "thank-you" the only bit of sign language I knew, and left to unpack my bag I'd brought out to the desert. I smiled as I finished, hearing Luffy call out to Sanji loud enough to be heard throughout the entirety of the ship, "Sanji! Where's my snack!?" and Sanji's rough response of, "wait a sec!"
I came back out on deck right as Robin asked Nami if the log pose was okay, and sighed in relief as Nami said, "straight forward to the," she glanced up at Neal, who was back in his parrot form, "northwest, don't worry Miss Robin!" She finished with a smile as she twirled around happily. I heard Usopp whimper to himself, "you...must have kept those jewels...huh Nami?" and I smirked in response. As if our greedy navigator would pass up on free money!
Luffy pulled himself up from the main deck to hang from the upper railing as he asked, "Nami, will the next island we're going to have snow?"
Nami was examining the log pose on her wrist, as she asked him, without stopping what she was doing or turning to look at him, "you want snow again?!"
Robin helpfully informed us, "the records in Alubarna said it was an autumn island."
"Autumn! I like autumn too!" Luffy cheered, bouncing back down to the main deck so that he could make his way over to his, "special seat".
With that said, we eventually got into the flow of things of having Robin being on the ship and thus on the crew and sailed on.
The next morning, I snuck out on deck where it was Nami's turn for night watch just as the sun started to rise over the sea.
Coming up behind her, I smiled and pointed to the sun's direction, where she and I could just make out the sight of an island along the horizon.
Nami called for everyone else to wake up, that she had spotted an Island.
Neal was the first to arrive at our sides, as he and Will had taken to sleeping up in the crow's nest together. Will had slept using Neal as both a pillow and a makeshift blanket by having Neal sleep in his griffin form. Will cuddled up into the space at Neal's tummy, between his front and back legs, and used his belly as a pillow and his giant wings as a natural blanket. Neal using his front legs as a makeshift pillow.
It'd worked for them for the last seven years, who was I to insist on them changing it up now?
We heard screaming from Sanji and Zoro, which led me to believe that they'd woken up and seen how close together their faces had been when I'd sneaked out of the room. I had a silent laugh at their green faces when they came out on deck.
Zoro and Luffy had decided to continue to wear their day robes from our stay at Vivi's palace. Luffy's was still the same sky blue with a maroon-colored sash and he still kept his straw sandals on his feet. His never absent straw hat sat on his head.
Zoro's charcoal black robe went very well with his green haramaki and natural green hair. His swords hung from his waist of course.
Another hour brought us ashore the island that Nami and I had spotted as the sun rose.
I could see a large round shaped lump in the center of the island with lots of waterfalls and lush tropical trees from the shore.
Nami was the first off the ship, followed by Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, Usopp and I. Neal and Will had flown off to find a spot to paint the island and had agreed to Nami's request for gathering the island's measurements so that she could make a map of it later.
Robin hadn't joined us yet up on deck, let alone the island. No one said anything about it though, so it was fine, she'd join us when she got up if she wanted to.
Luffy was looking all around, pumped for action as he rhetorically asked, "Doesn't this island have monsters? I prefer big and strong ones."
For some strange reason, Usopp was rubbing at his nose, which looked a little bent to be honest, maybe he's trying to straighten it? While muttering to himself, "Don't step on it, don't step on it...Don't step on my life!" I raised an eyebrow but decided to ignore it for now.
"It doesn't seem to be anything suspicious and it's such a small island too." Nami mused as she looked around the shore.
Sanji, who had rushed to climb up a nearby tree, was holding a strange looking pineapple type fruit for us all to see as he yelled down below, "Look Nami-san! This is perfect for making nonperishable food. Looks like this island has tons of these!"
I never did get around to learning if those were actual pineapples or something else that Sanji knew more about, but since it didn't kill, infect or trigger any allergic reactions, I honestly forgot to ask about it later on.
He tossed her the fruit to inspect for herself, as she said, "I see...Seems like it would be a good idea to collect them and load them on the ship while we're here."
He slid down the tree as he said, "Looks like there're other plants that can be used for food too," he flips off the tree about four feet from the ground to land in front of us to finish saying with a smile, "This island seems quite enjoyable for a cook."
Nami nodded and said, "okay. Then please go look for things that can be used for food, Sanji-kun."
She turned around to look at the rest of us, and ordered us, making my muscles tense up, "the remaining five of you will do this," she held out her hand with five sticks, and I rolled my eyes, why is she giving us orders when we're on land? That's the Captain's job, not the Navigator's duties...
The boys looked closer and all expressed their confusion.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
"Drawing lots?"
"Why do we have to do that?"
Nami smiled and said, "the four who draw the shortest lots will spend all day collecting these fruit," she held up the one Sanji had thrown her, "while the one who draws the longest one will stay here and watch the ship."
Zoro got into her face as he loudly expressed his anger, nearly taking the words right out of my head, damn is he physic or something? Oh god, please tell me I haven't been payng Nami hush money all this time when he could hear my every erotic thought about him!?
"Why are you the one giving us orders?!"
Nami gave an annoyed face as she deadpanned, "Right. Normally the Captain would give the orders, but…" she turned to Luffy, who'd grabbed three of the straws out of Nami's hand when Zoro had gotten into her face and distracted her.
He was smiling wide as he said, "oh, hey...they're all short!"
Usopp looked over to him in alarm and I was mildly surprised to see that he too had the East-Blue Shark Teeth gene appear again, as his teeth changed when he asked Luffy, "Hey, why'd you draw three of them?!"
Luffy answered innocently, "isn't the one who grabs the most the winner?"
I slapped my hand to my face and shook my head.
Nami just asked Zoro, almost rhetorically, "Do you think this ship has a captain who can give orders?"
I tensed and looked up at that and glared at Nami, even if he is a little bit on the goofy-fun-loving side and doesn't like to display heavy-serious-contemplation all the time, that doesn't mean that Nami should disrespect his skills as our Captain. How can he learn if no one MAKES him realize that these kinds of things are a part of what it MEANS to BE a Captain?
I walked over, causing Zoro (and everyone else) to pause and pay attention to me for a moment, who'd been saying, "No, it doesn't."
Nami raised her eyebrow and asked me in a snappish tone, "what? You got a better idea?"
I rolled my eyes and pulled out the pen & notepad I'd taken to carrying around.
No matter how childish Luffy is, Nami, I don't agree with everyone disrespecting our CAPTAIN the way you just did. You didn't even bother giving him the chance to make that kind of decision. How is Luffy to learn to be a proper Ship Captain if you just plow over all of his authority and decide this kind of shit for him?
After she read the note aloud for everyone else to hear what I had to say, her eyes widened, and she shook her head, "that's not...I wasn't trying to-"
I shook my head and pointed to the 'you didn't" and then turned away from her to face Luffy who was looking at me with a straight face, no smile present.
Seeing him looking at me, I wrote below the other note with enough space to show it was a new note for Luffy to read,
Captain, what is YOUR orders for me, Sir?
Giving him the notepad to read, he said to me after locking gazes, eyes serious, "Wisp...I'm not smart, I know that. And I can't do a lot of the things that everyone else is good at. Sanji is good with food, he's the Chef. Chopper is our Doctor and takes care of our health. I don't know how to do either of those things, so I leave it to them. Nami likes having and making plans when we get to islands. What's really wrong?"
I sighed, and took my notepad back to write,
Okay, so then what your saying is that Sanji is in charge of the food, Chopper is in charge of our medical supplies and what? Usopp covers the ship's ammunition, since he's the sniper?
That's great and all, Captain. I get that we all have our strengths and areas of interests, but how can you just accept the blatant disrespect for so long? I've seen and heard everyone on the crew practically belittle you Captain Luffy and it just...it hasn't sat well with me all this time. Friend's tease each other and goof around, but we're pirates, not children. I'm not okay with my Captain being treated so badly by his own crew, even if it was unintentional. Which several times now, it has been done on purpose.
I didn't say anything about it before now, because I've been new for a while...but…and it's not like you haven't done things to deserve it several times… (several such incidents of his idiocy rose to my brain as I wrote that with a internal shudder…)
But I joined up under YOU, Luffy...You are the Captain, I've seen you be serious when it's important, please recognize that these kinds of things, giving us orders and making the decisions, are important parts of holding that "captain" title...how else can we, as your crew, respect you then? As Nami and Zoro clearly just showed such lack thereof.
Luffy didn't read this out loud.
He frowned as he read it, and when he looked up to me, he seemed to be studying my face for a moment before he nodded and turned to address the rest of the crew after he tore out that part of the page and stuck it into the brim of his hat...right next to his piece of paper that Ace had given him.
A large part of me felt very touched to know that he valued my opinion on this so deeply as to place it with his two treasures.
"Yosh! Alright guys! Sanji is in charge of food when we go to islands! Chopper! You're on your medical stuff! Nami! You get to gather whatever stuff you need for your maps! Uhhh…"
He started off strong, and while I and everyone else could see that he was trying, looking from person to person, a frown growing deeper and deeper on his face and getting redder and redder as he tried to puzzle out what he needed to say next, before he pulled out my note to him again and said aloud, "Usopp is in charge of the ship's ammu-amnu-ammon-amma-" his face started to sweat and he leaned in towards me to whisper, "Wisp! What's this word!"
Knowing what word he was struggling with I drew a quick cannon to the side of the paper and wrote in small letters, "ammo" so he could say the abbreviated term for that word.
"Ammo. Usopp as our sniper gets the ship's ammo. Yeah! That! Thanks Wisp!"
I smiled, seeing everyone's shocked faces and I placed my hands on my hips, rolling my eyes overly exaggeratedly to get my point across that I thought they were being ridiculous about this. Luffy may not be "smart" in the traditional sense like Nami sure, but that doesn't mean he's STUPID...geez...
Usopp rose a hand, shaking a little, as he stammered, nervous about this new 'serious' Luffy, "uhhh L…L...Luffy? There's nuh..nothing here for me to stock up on for the cannons?"
Luffy's smile fell as he looked at the forest, and said, "oh...uhhh, then help Sanji?" he glanced from Nami to me and then to Sanji then back to Nami.
Her mouth was hanging open in shock as she saw Luffy trying to act as a proper captain should and I gave a smug smirk at her. She scowled at me when she saw the look on my face and gave a huff and asked, "so then what are you doing Luffy?"
Luffy looked at all of us and saw the baskets and how there were another three left, as he said with a wide smile, "Oh! Zoro, Wisp and I can help Sanji! We're strong so we can carry more! More means more food to eat! Shishishishi"
He then looked over at Chopper, and asked, "hey! Chopper! Robin seemed like she was super smart, so why don't you ask her to help you?!"
Chopper grew afraid for a second, but nodded as he said, "okay Luffy, I'll wait for her to wake up first and watch over the ship in the meantime."
He glanced shyly between Nami and I who were glowering at each other at this point, and said with a small smile, "I drew the long straw anyways."
He was trying to lighten the slight tension he was picking up that was brewing, which was sweet of him. Everyone needs to stop disrespecting our Captain. This kind of crap would have never been okay with literally any other crew that I've ever come across. The older members of our group don't do it too badly, well...for this crew that is, I thought as I looked at everyone's reactions.
Zoro was standing there with his hands folded across his chest, watching with a serious yet satisfied nod and a serenely pleased expression, showing he agreed to this change.
While Sanji had his hands in his pockets and a cigarette already lit in his mouth, his eyes closed as he stood there calmly. It was hard to read how he felt about Luffy's attempts to take charge as his face was carefully blank.
Chopper and Usopp though, were acting a little scared of the changes Luffy was trying to pull off all of a sudden, but tried to look like they weren't actually nervous by it all.
The copious amounts of sweat trickling down their brows gave it away though...
Nami just looked shocked, and a little worried, as she stood there biting her lip with her arms crossed, sending me side eyed glares whenever she thought I wasn't looking at her.
Maybe she realizes that she owes her Captain an apology? I thought as I looked at Nami.
Luffy turned to her and asked softly, "Nami, did you want to go with us?"
She shook her head with a small smile and said, "no thanks, I think I'll just ask Will and Neal if I can go with them instead."
We all tilted our heads and looked up to where we could just vaguely see Neal flying over top of a waterfall towards the center of the island.
Usopp asked, "How are you going to catch up with them?"
She smirked and said, "I'm not. I already told them that I'd meet up with them here on the beach, after we'd settled on our plan for who did what. They said they'd come pick me up when Neal saw me alone on the beach."
Everyone else all went "ohhh" in understanding, and I nodded, that makes sense, although maybe we should look into a whistle or something to call them in an emergency? Or baby Den-Den Snails for everyone to carry at all times?
She raised one of her arms and pumped her arm up and down as if she was lifting weights and her small smile stretched in her excitement as she said, "I'd like to put it on the sea chart. I can't wait to put my skills into practice!"
She had shaken off her stress and anger pretty quickly, I noted, hopefully it's not just being suppressed to be used as fuel for a later date and time between the two of us.
Luffy smiled wide and said, "Yosh! Then let's all meet back here at the beach for a bonfire party when the sun sets!"
I picked up one of the free baskets and put it on my back and held out another to Zoro and Usopp. I then grabbed Zoro's hand, while holding a note up to everyone in front of Zoro's chest,
I volunteer to buddy up with Zoro, so he doesn't get lost! Have fun!
Zoro glanced down to my note and his face set into an irritated scowl as he said irately, "I do NOT get lost!"
He didn't remove my hand as I tugged him over to the forest line though and I heard everyone laughing from reading my note as we passed the treeline.
I smiled as I thought, I'm gonna count that as a win...
Zoro tried to go many different ways than the grove I'd pointed to him to.
If we had gone the way Zoro wanted to go, we'd have seen Usopp goofing off, making up stories about why he was unable to gather fruit and Luffy was trying to talk to the local primates. Neither one actually gathering any fuckin' fruit.
I almost lost Zoro again as I looked back to see them for a moment and had to silently laugh as I ran forwards to keep up with him.
Eventually we found the grove that I'd been trying to lead him to from the beginning.
Zoro, still massively annoyed at my not-so-subtle silent teasing, decided to just get this done and over with by pulling out all three swords and showed me an attack he had named the "Dragon Twister".
It combined the idea of a flying slash, with a controlled upward circular motion, creating a tornado effect full of flying slashes into the air pocket. The wind of the mini tornado kept the blade slashed trapped inside the funnel until they both dissipated and allowed the victim to fall to earth, covered in wounds.
Or in this case, allowed the dozens of fruit to fall from their trees to the ground below.
I stared in awe…
Zoro quickly got to work catching all the fruit that began falling into his basket and I hurried to bring my own basket under the falling fruit, but he'd gone overboard with that "dragon Twister" because now Zoro and I were buried under a veritable mountain of delicious fruit.
It took an hour for us to dig our way out, and by then we had to dig out our baskets too while keeping them fit to burst.
Making it back to the beach, we were not surprised to see that Sanji's basket was full, while Luffy and Usopp both had zero fruit in their baskets. Good thing Sanji, Zoro and I were diligent in getting all these fruits.
Nami was looking a lot more relaxed than when I'd last seen her, and I could only hope that she'd apologized to Luffy.
As the impromptu party started to whine down, Will and I were sitting on a log watching Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper taking turns flying with Neal. Only once during one of the loops that was flown while Luffy was on Neal ended up in Luffy taking a tumble into the sand face first.
As his friends, we of coursed all laughed our asses off before going over to help him free his head from the sand.
Chuckling, Will said softly, "I'm glad Neal and I decided to stay."
I nodded with a smile and glanced over at Will's painting that was resting against the log beside him. He'd said that it was the first painting he'd done since joining the crew, and I was so proud to see how much he'd improved in our time apart.
When Sanji had seen the picture, he'd gone on a ten-minute tangent comparing Robin's beauty to that of an angel, a goddess, and mythical garden fairies before Zoro had interrupted him and caused the two of them to have another fight turned spar.
Robin thanked Sanji for his compliments, which pulled Sanji out of the fight, and Zoro was too honorable to attack Sanji after he'd turned away, so he ended up sitting on the only log that was around the firepit that didn't have anyone else seated.
Sanji, being last to eat, as usual, found himself having to sit next to Zoro, something I found myself suddenly grateful for not being able to make any sound. As I'd surely be laughing at the pair's facial expressions when they realized those were the only log seats left and no one was going to trade seats with either man.
The next morning, after Nami declared that the log was set for the next island, Luffy was pleased to cheer from his "special seat" a top of Merry's sheep head, "Set Sail!"
Hopping to it, we soon left the island and made our way onto our next adventure.
Wherever that might take us...hopefully nothing tooooo crazy happens this time...
During the next couple of days, things were just a little crazy.
For starters?
Just this morning Luffy, Usopp and Chopper fished out a large shellfish that looked like one of the ammonites that Sanji and I had seen in the streams back at Little Garden.
Only this one was a dusty purple for its shell, and a similar dusty blue, almost like the color of jeans in color for the actual fleshy tentacles and had some kind of metal submarine hatch on the side of his shell.
Luffy kept trying to tell everyone that we should eat the aquatic squid-snail-hybrid.
Sanji pitched some ideas for escargot, to which no one looked thrilled and then offered some classic squid based recipes he could try, but at the sight of my complexion going green he amended his recommendations to just using the snail as bait for some other type of fish.
Luffy cheered at that idea, but as he was tying up the ammonite's tentacles to the fishing wire, the strange metal hatch opened, showing there was a person living inside the shell alongside the ammonite. That's a weird symbiosis...
It turned out that the man was a traveling DenDenSnail-magazine salesman, and the ammonite was a special type of sea snail bred to travel the seas by their "DenDen Company" for traveling and delivering their products worldwide. They called the breed the Escar.
I rolled my eyes at Will's snickering over the name of the snail...
Ha ha ha…Escar…Escargot, very funny Will…
I wanted to groan sooooo badly out of exasperation when I saw that the joke had made Zoro's lips twitch up in amusement. Why?! Why do men like puns so damn much?! Sure, every now and then is cute or funny…maybe even both, but all the time?!
I couldn't hear the salesmans name exactly, given that I was standing behind Zoro and Sanji at the time, but when the man said that he had all sorts of things and as a "thank you" for rescuing him out of the ocean, he gave us free catalogs to his company's products. I snorted, catching my crew's attention and passed Zoro a note to read aloud for me,
Would be more of a "thank you" gift if we actually got some of the shit, not just a catalog that we'd still have to pay money for the shit…
He laughed as he read the note quietly first, before saying to everyone, "Wisp says…" and then repeated aloud my written message. The salesman laughed and said, "well, you see, I'm not anyone all that important to the company, so the best I can offer is perhaps being your personal salesman to deliver your goods from our company with maybe a small discount."
I moved closer so that I could get a better look at the magazine he'd placed on the deck.
He went on to explain to us, as the others were looking over the magazine, more like a giant book, jeez what is that, ten-thousand pages? That he had originally been heading to some island, I couldn't hope to pronounce it's name, so I stopped paying attention when he went on to explain what a traveling salesman did and wandered over to Usopp and Nami, who'd just picked up the catalog.
I was intrigued in what he had for sale in his catalog, maybe he's got something I'd be interested in? I thought as I stood beside Usopp to look at the catalog. We had to look over Nami's shoulder as she leafed through the catalog. She'd commandeered the "magazine" when I'd looked away to see what everyone else was still doing, but at one of her appreciative hums to herself, I turned back to peruse the catalog too.
She stopped at page 47, looking at the page in thought, but before she could ask the salesman about whatever item on the page that had caught her eye, Luffy, who'd started poking around inside the salesman's Escar's opened hatch, stole everyone's attention.
He'd just fallen inside the shell and made a loud crashing sound, we'd all paused in what we were doing to look over at Luffy, who'd then fallen out of the Escar with a small pile of random items. Usopp grew tired of trying to look at the catalog while it was in Nami's hands, as she wasn't finished with it and wouldn't turn the page until she was done looking at the page.
He went over to Luffy and Chopper, who'd joined Luffy in looking at the items that fell out with Luffy and the trio began to play with the items.
The salesmen apologized for the mess and explained that because he'd been on his way to a delivery, the Escar was full of products that had been intended to be sold, but unfortunately a lot of the items had broken due to the storm tossing his Escar all over the sea. The storm had made him late and now most of these items were to be returned to their factory. Those that could be repaired or were not broken could then be resold. The truly broken things would either be recycled or thrown away.
Taking the item that Luffy was currently playing around with, a type of kitchen knife, he explained that the funny looking thing was called a "Buru-Buru Blade" used for the kitchens. It was a knife that when bent sideways, it didn't break and was "guaranteed to remain sharp for a full five years without the need to use a whetstone on it."
Sanji looked like he really wanted to test that chef's knife along with the whole set the man had then proceeded to pull out and set up on display, saying it was created from someplace called "High Mountain". Oh great, he's no longer just explaining their type of products they sell, he's actually trying to offer a sales pitch to us!
He then went on to talk about the strange device that Chopper was playing with being called the "Ab-Ab Slider" and that it, plus the Buru-Buru Blade" was their companies Number 1 product. The Ab-Ab Slider was a type of workout machine that did low cardio impact exercise to help the body develop and tone the muscles in a person's abdomen. I couldn't help but think that it was all well and good for a normal persons level of exercise, but we'd out grow it swiftly out here on the Grand Line.
Will had managed to share the catalog with Nami, because he found an item on the same page as the one she'd stopped at that he wanted.
It was an oil that when added to acrylic paints, it turned the semi-permanent paint into fully permanent paint that couldn't be destroyed by normal means. "The oil was fireproof and waterproof, so any artist worth their salt had at least one bottle of the stuff" or so the Salesman claimed. The only way to "wash" away this paint would be to use another cleaning product that he had available in the catalog. I pointed to the fine print written besides the product information at the bottom of the item's picture where it said, "excluding Devil Fruit manipulations."
Seeing Will's interest in the painting oil and cleaning product, the salesman drew them out of his Escar. He only had three bottles of the cleaning product that hadn't smashed during the storm and two "cleaning microfiber cloths".
These, along with a full ten gallons of the oil for the paints that he then paired with twenty, already stretched and framed, canvases; along with a full art sketch pad with five-hundred pages of paper made from using their patented Millennium Year paper! Which was a special paper that would last for a thousand years. It was at the mention of this paper that Nami stepped forwards and asked if he had any more of this special paper.
He smiled and pulled out four 6-inch-thick reams of this paper, stacking them on top of each other and began to barter price with Nami, going from 47 million berries to 4.8 million. Damn, girl's got some SKILLS when it comes to haggling! Thought as I looked on impressively.
Seeing Will's longing gaze at the paint oil, I stepped forward and, using my notepad, asked the sales guy,
"how much for the oil, paint and cleanser bundle?"
Sweating, he answered that he could throw Will's bundle in for an additional 10 million, and glancing at Nami she smirked, and their haggling session renewed.
Thanks to Nami's powers of persuasion, she managed to reduce the total price to 5.3 million for the whole set and managed to weasle in Sanji's kitchen knives into the deal.
It was safe to say that everyone who'd been listening was impressed with her skills.
Only to have our bubbles burst when Luffy asked how much money we had.
Nami's depressed sigh was answer enough...the crew alone didn't have the amount needed.
Quickly I wrote a note to Nami,
I have about 3 million in my bags below deck...would that bump us up to having the right amount, Nami?
She seemed to have an internal debate before sighing again, saying, "it's close. We'd be off by another 2 million berries. But we're going to need that money for the food expense when we reach the next island, given how some of us eat." she glared over at Luffy's direction, and I silently chuckled at Luffy's confused face.
Will clapped his hands and said, "oh is that all? Hold on just a second."
Nami and I exchanged looks of confusion as Will went inside the ship's interior.
While Will was doing whatever that was, the Salesman was putting all the things in our "package" to the side and setting up everything else to the other side, explaining as he did so what each item was to Luffy and Chopper when asked. They were easily impressed with the different do dads and whats-its he had.
Will came out as the man was holding up this exercise-ball-stick-thing that helped build arm strength simply by wiggling the stick side to side. Personally, I thought it was a hoax, but Luffy seemed to think it was awesome if the stars in his eyes were anything to go by. I was reminded that Luffy, Chopper and Usopp were extremely gullible and naïve people.
Will came back outside holding a large black briefcase and he was walking with a confident smile as he approached us.
Nami's eyes were pinned to the briefcase in hopeful excitement as she asked, "Will?! Is that?!"
His smile grew into a smirk and she squealed, "Yes!"
Sanji exhaled his breath of smoke-filled lungs and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and used it to point at Luffy saying, "that beats my idea of using this idiot's bounty for Nami-swan's paper."
The salesman let out a soft, "eh?" in confusion, before looking upwards at our sail and he paled as he saw our pirate mark, I smirked, the idiot didn't even check what kind of folks we were and just assumed we were some sailing merchant vessel since we were so nice as to rescue him...ha! Betcha he won't make that mistake again!
He got really sweaty as his fear and paranoia over the fact that we were pirates started growing, causing him to wring his hands and in a flash he had himself and his Escar locked up and over the railing with hastily made excuses, "I'm sorry! I just realized I'm late for my delivery, have a great day! I'm sorry!"
It took the Escar only three seconds to clear the horizon line, and out of sight completely.
We all blinked, and looked around the deck to see that because the man was so scared he'd rushed so fast that he'd left EVERY thing that hadn't been in his Escar out on the deck, including the stuff we hadn't been thinking of buying. I internally felt a sweat drop slide down my temple as I thought, if he's that afraid of pirates, why'd the guy get into this kind of business?
Will and Nami were too happy to care, as they quickly gathered all of their "purchases" and secluded themselves into the interior of the ship to work on their atlas.
Yeah, after seeing how amazing Will's landscape paintings are, Nami agreed with my statement back in Alabastra of them working together. It was going to make the book larger than Nami originally dreamed of when she was a child, but in the end, the atlas would have paintings done of what the place actually looked like that everyone could enjoy looking at, not just navigators.
Neal left the duo to their work, and if it had been anyone else in this situation, I'd be worried about what the two of them could be getting up to, but this was to pursue their dreams.
Sanji decided that now would probably be as good a time as any for all of us to work together to clean the Merry. I raised my eyebrow, and glanced at Luffy, who caught my gaze.
Squaring his shoulders, he said, "Alright! Then Let's do this! uh...Sanji! You get the back, Usopp, you get the foredeck, Wisp, you get the crow's nest! Chopper and I can do the main deck!"
He looked over to Robin and asked her, "oi! Robin? Can you cover the two masts?" She smiled and said, "yes, Captain."
Her hands sprouted along the masts and I passed her three rags all soaking wet with the soapy water that Usopp had been quick to fetch. She smiled at me and murmured, "thank you Whisper-san."
I smirked at her nickname for me, as I thought, I like it...it suits me.
Neal offered to ferry up and down a small sudsy mop bucket for Robin to rinse her rags, making her part of the job easier, to which she smiled and said, "that would be most helpful, griffin-san."
Behind me, I heard Sanji as he pointed to Zoro and asked lazily, "oi, what about the shitty swordsman?"
I turned to the duo, wondering the same thing, now that it had been brought up.
Luffy tried to say that Zoro was on watch, but the two were too deeply involved in their taunts to acknowledge much of anything at the moment besides each other.
"What'd ya call me, dart-brow?!" Zoro growled at the cook, one hand already gripping his sword.
"What? You can't hear with all that moss on your head covering your ears?" Sanji responded as he got up into Zoro's face.
"That's it!"
Zoro drew his sword and swung at Sanji, who blocked with his steel lined shoe.
The next five seconds that followed was a series of kicks and slashes from the two men, but the moment I tried to join in and fight against Sanji, he froze and Zoro's sword sent him flying into the mast. Back of the blade of course, we're all Nakama, despite our aggravation with each other from time to time. Or in their case, every five seconds within each other's presence, but same thing really…
I pouted over at Sanji and huffed at Zoro's questioning look, as if he were asking me, "did you really think that would work?" I shrugged and then had stuck out my tongue in retaliation.
Sanji groaned, rubbing the back of his head and shoulders where he'd impacted the strongest against the mast, before he gasped, and then was up and at my side, fussing without touching as he asked, "Wisp-san! Are you hurt? Why did you jump in like that!? What if I'd kicked you!?" he finished off horrified by the mere notion of him possibly striking me by accident.
I glared and slowly raised my eyebrow as I tapped my sword's pommel in irritation.
Damn it! I wished the medication from the surgery would kick in a little faster! Chopper said it should only be a couple days or so more of this silence crap before I can start talking again, but it feels like it's taking forever!
Sanji blushed a little sheepishly, incorrectly assuming my annoyance was at him fighting at all with a crewmate, "that was a personal issue with the mosshead, wisp-san, why did you decide to, uhhh, cut in?"
I rolled my eyes and pulled out the notepad and pen from my back pocket to write,
I can never get you to spar with me, Sanji. My fight in Alabastra was against an UN-armed assailant, and due to my lack of experience with combating someone like that, I nearly DIED...if Nami hadn't been there and the idiot (not Nami) hadn't underestimated Nami, then the both of us would be dead. Not to mention if Mr.2 had decided to kill Usopp and I before leaving to trick Vivi. He too was an UN-ARMED assailant that I lost to! Clearly, I NEED to practice fighting those kinds opponents.
I was TRYING to see if I could join in, since you and Zoro were already fighting/sparring with one another.
I need that experience if I'm to get stronger Sanji, and while Zoro is a tough guy to fight in an unarmed spar, it's not his normal method of combat. He's not a specialist in that style.
Yours IS though.
I know your personal code of conduct won't let you HIT a woman, but can't you at least train with one? You know, teach? Or something? You're skilled enough that you can stop your attacks from actually landing and just tap me or something!
Sanji if you promise to spar with me, I'd even be willing to give you a kiss on the cheek.
Please?
I handed him the note, and his eyes practically flew across the pages, mumbling my words aloud, and I knew the exact moment he'd read my offer, as blood spurted from his nose and his eye changed into a large heart as he fainted at my feet.
Turning around I smiled at Zoro, hoping this meant that Sanji would help me out in this area of weakness and saw him giving me an unimpressed look as he sheathed his blades.
I picked up my notepad out of Sanji's comatose hands, ripped the paper I'd been writing on off, and wrote to Zoro,
A peck-kiss on the cheek means nothing more than a "thank you" or "hello" gesture, Sanji's just a harmless perv. What, do you want a better and more personalized 'thank you kiss' Zoro?
I smirked as he blushed beet red as I climbed up to the crow's nest to do my part in the cleaning assignment, purposely not giving him a chance to reply back to me one way or the other.
Besides, I thought wickedly, Zoro's real 'thank you' gift is going to be much better once I'm finished with it.
As usual, nothing peaceful that happens on the Going Merry lasts for very long, and in under twenty minutes, Luffy had managed to pour too much soap into his newly refilled mop bucket. This caused an insane amount of bubbles to be all over the ship in a matter of seconds. I sighed and came down from the now clean crow's nest as Nami came out in a rage because the resulting commotion caused her to accidently spill her ink all over her map she'd been working on.
From inside the cabin, I could hear Will cursing about shading and his lines not being as symmetrical as he wanted them to be. I snorted, and Nami looked to me with a irritated raised eyebrow.
Taking out my notepad again, I wrote to her,
Maybe it would be a good idea to save the delicate map drawing for when we anchor at peaceful islands, like the one we were at yesterday, from now on? That way THIS kind of thing doesn't happen? Just saying…
Why don't you and Will work on the layout for the Atlas? You know, like if the painting comes first and then the map or vice versa, with words describing the island and any details you guys learn from the locals about the island, name, climate, that kind of stuff? Just spit balling ideas for you that can be progress on your dream that doesn't require the impossible, you know?
She scanned it quickly, silently mouthing the words as she read it, and smiled as her shoulders relaxed in thought. Will had followed her out on deck after the screaming stopped, and when she finished reading the note she passed it to him and to talk to me as he read it.
"Thanks Wisp, I hadn't thought of that. We were just so excited to actually get working on it now that we both had proper materials that match what we want to create, that I guess it just slipped my mind."
I nodded and walked over to where Zoro was leaning up against the rail, holding a rope to keep his balance as he suddenly leaned farther out to look at something out at sea.
Following his line of sight, I saw a large cloud building up, and using my hands to point at it and then shrug to ask, "should we be concerned?"
He took a long time to answer before he said, "I don't think so...the wind is blowing the other way, and with how the sea-witch reacted last time, I don't feel like bothering her to check."
I nodded with a frown and took a look myself.
He was right that the wind seemed to be blowing the opposite way, since we had a nice tail wind ever since we left the last island, but I contributed that to Nami's excellent navigation skills. Not just anyone could navigate the ship to having a perfect tail wind on the Grand Fucking Line, in a steady couple of hours no less. Only the best of the best, and in my opinion, Nami was just about there.
Sure, she was a little naive, and a little too arrogant to ask for advice from her elders, for my tastes, but there was no denying her skills in all things weather related. I'd never be able to forget how she was able to predict a cyclone that is supposed to be 'unpredictable' while slowly dying of the bacteria from the Kestia tic's bite…just thinking back on that always gives me the shivers. I hate the sensation of goosebumps.
Soon everyone but Zoro and I had fallen asleep in a group pile, under the warm rays of the sunshine. Chopper were curled up with Neal overtop of Usopp and Sanji's entwined legs, with Chopper hugging Neal to him like a oversized "teddy" bear. In his parrot form, Neal was roughly the same size as Chopper's entire torso, if one didn't count in his tail feathers.
Even Robin had fallen into a light doze sitting in her lawn chair. Although it was hard to tell if she was actually asleep, or if she was merely relaxing and basking in the sun and the, rarely found on this ship, silence.
Zoro and I moved away to sit on the other side of the mast, away from the main cuddle pile as we watched, amused, as Sanji curled up to Usopp, clutching him in his sleep as he sleep-talked about some kind of lovey-dovey date with Nami, Robin and me.
I know we have no control over what we dream most of the time, but that really just pisses me off...
At first, we merely sat and watched the sky, but eventually Zoro started drifting off, and was snoring lightly against the top of my head, where I'd rested it on his arm and shoulder.
I stayed awake for another thirty minutes, but everything was just so calm.
So peaceful,
So warm,
So quiet,
So…
Perfect…
The next thing I knew, I was woken by Chopper and Nami's screams. Will was working on waking up those in the cuddle pile.
Apparently, Chopper woke up before all of us and saw those clouds that Zoro and I had watched earlier change into one of the Grand Lines' more dangerous storms, creating a giant waterspout.
In other words?
A giant tornado that had touched down onto the sea, was heading straight towards us.
I'd never say this out loud but, thank god we had Nami. Under Nami's directions, we were able to steer the Going Merry away from the oncoming storm; just in time to avoid it entirely.
Once we were in the all clear, Nami and Will excitedly talked about the first page they'd managed to create for their World's Atlas, along with their planned layout for the pages to follow.
Seeing their enthusiasm and excitement soon sparked the rest of the crew into throwing a party as we all celebrated the beginning of the duo's dream coming into reality.
Robin was told alllllllll about everyone's dreams/life's ambitions by this point, so even she was happy for the duo.
By the end of the night, we'd all partied so hard that we again collapsed into a cuddle pile on deck to sleep off the alcohol. Thankfully this time, we remembered to lower the anchor for the night before Zoro and I drifted off.
Robin volunteered herself as night watch, and thus didn't partake in any heavy drinking, but from her secret smiles whenever she thought no one was looking, we could all tell that she had had a blast too.
Again, I am soooooooo sorry for being late again!
I know that there's no actual deadline and or schedule besides the one I make for myself, but I can't help but feel secretly guilty yet happy when I realize that people are still reading this or checking for updates by seeing the view/vistor count going up on it…
Is that weird? I don't think so…
Like I said at the top, it's been a crazy weekend and I meant to post this chapter earlier but real life stuff has been going on…I'll strive to be better about making my own personal deadlines better…
I was really surprised to see that this was so long! I was only intending for my usual 2-6K words, but somehow it's over 11K?! do ya'll prefer long chapters or the shorter ones? lol...
