Wealth, Fame, Power…

Chapter 49: Setbacks

"Hoohah! Another round for these two legends!"

This sudden outcry was from a Baroque Works bounty hunter who was now more than likely bordering on being a bit too drunk. And while he was slowing down and tagging out, the two pirates he'd just ordered more drinks for were no where close to their limits.

"Hmph, you ready to give up yet Zoro?" Nami challenged playfully, her cheeks a light hue of red from the alcohol consumed.

"Not a chance in hell witch. I've still got plenty of gas in the tank."

"Hey, don't forget about me now!" A third party whined from across the table. The woman had quite a sizable figure, as well as a nun's gown draped across it.

"Oh, you're still here?" Nami mocked sarcastically. "I thought I had already won all of your money."

"Grr, damn brat, I oughta teach you some manners!"

Normally, such an altercation would be the center of attention for the rest of the straw hats, but since a loud party was going on in the background, they had plenty to distract them.

"And then, I raised my mighty slingshot, and shot down the evil cyborg pirate!" Usopp explained flamboyantly.

The small gathering around the young sniper didn't hesitate to cheer loudly at the obviously fake tale. Whether they truly believed it or were simply too drunk to care was unknown.

Not far from that same group though, a normally unlucky straw hat was living it up with his head laying in the lap of a gorgeous woman.

"Does that feel good Sanji?" The platinum haired mistress asked soothingly, stroking the man's hair gently as she listened to the ridiculous story in the background.

"Don't stop my love! I could die right here with no regrets!"

The only crewmate that was unaccounted for was the infamous and fun-loving captain, who was demolishing three full sized men in eating speed.

"This stuff is so good!" Luffy cried out joyfully, swallowing an entire plateful of juicy meat.

The three men sitting around the table couldn't help but look dumbfounded at how the boy could expand his body and continue to shovel so much food. It was uncanny.

"Alright, I give up, you win, kid. I'm gonna go join the party," one of the men conceded, standing up and scanning the room.

"Yay! More for me!" The rubber man exclaimed, stretching his arms out across the table and grabbing the man's leftovers.

"Yeah, I'm with you on that one," another of the men agreed. "I wouldn't mind getting a piece of that braud over there though. She's a part of your crew, right kid?"

"Hmm?" Luffy 's head popped up at the mention of his name, his mind quickly attempting to catch up with the conversation. "Who's on my crew?"

"That orange haired chick slamming down alcohol like it's nothing. Now that's a real woman!" The first man practically drooled, now very on board with his colleague's idea.

"Oh, you mean Nami? Yeah, she's my navigator, pretty great huh?"

"Yeah she does look great," the two men said together, though Luffy got the feeling they were thinking about a different type of great than he was.

"I'd be careful if I were you guys, Nami gets really aggressive when she's angry. And she doesn't look like she's in the best mood right now."

"Are you kidding kid!? She's drunk out of her mind! Now is the perfect time to make a move! And I love feisty women!"

The straw hat teen only shrugged his shoulders and dug back into his food with the same amount of energy as before. And he wasn't the least bit surprised when he heard the familiar screeching of his navigator's vocal cords a few seconds later.

"Hands off, creep!" Nami yelled as she delivered a powerful punch to her admirer's face.

"I tried to tell ya," Luffy mumbled to himself in annoyance.


While the straw hats and the lower ranked agents partied their brains out at the town's tavern, two individuals right outside of the village were not feeling nearly as relaxed at the moment.

"I… I screwed up… The unluckies know everything now… And it's all my fault…" Vivi began to sob, her legs failing her as she sunk to the floor in front of her royal guard.

"No princess, this is my fault… I should have been more careful when you called the other day. I wasn't the only one in the room, so I had to ignore your orders to not draw suspicion. I'm sorry, I failed you…" Igaram said steadily and grimly, his head bowing at the young girl's feet in shame.

"No… Don't blame yourself Igaram. I won't let you. We're in this together."

"Then what should we do princess? Can these new friends of yours really be trusted?"

"Yes, I have no doubt in my mind that Luffy and his crew are good people. We need to regroup with them. Hopefully they didn't get fooled by all the crazy partying enough to drop their guards."

"Well then, we must hurry. The unluckies are sure to spread the word about our betrayal soon. We have to-"

"Oh don't worry, we got the memo alright."

In a rush, Vivi and Igaram both turned around to confront the new voice that had entered the conversation.

"What!? Millions? What are y-"

"Shut it sweet cheeks, We have our orders. Get em boys!"

Before Vivi could even think about what was going on, she heard the horrible sound of blunt force by her side. And the sight that met her eyes when she turned her head almost brought more tears to her eyes.

The last expression she saw on her royal guard's face before he fell unconscious was one of pure sadness. Like the world was ending and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Igaram! No!"

The blunette hadn't expected any of this to happen. First the unluckies overheard her and her new plan, and now an army of millions were ambushing her and her royal guard! She had at least expected to put a better fight than this! She knew that Igaram was strong, but they had snuck up on him and bested him through a sneak attack. And now she was alone, completely outnumbered and hopeless.

"Stop this! Let him go!" She cried out in desperation, not even bothering to reach for her peacock slicer as the men restrained Igaram and tied him up.

"Heh, sorry about this princess. I'd love to do anything that pretty little face tells me, believe me. But these are orders straight from the top, and I'll be damned if I piss off a bigshot like Mister Zero."

With that, Vivi was approached on all sides in a hopeless looking standoff for her. The last thing she remembered after getting struck in the back of the head was a snippet of a conversation as she drifted off into darkness.

"Alright you mooks, you know that plan, take the big guy back to the rendezvous that the boss talked about. Me and a couple others will me ya there after we leave Miss Wednesday here outside the bar for her new friends to find."

"I still don't understand that part. Why would the boss just let her go? Wouldn't it be better to take her and the servant?"

"You wanna ask Mister Zero that? Be my guest, but for now, just do your damn job."

"Uhh, yes sir!"

And so, with that confrontation wrapped up neatly for Baroque Works, the two squads of agents carried the princess and the royal guard away from each other in separate directions. Officially sealing the deal of the total failure that was their original plan.

But while this was a victory for Baroque works, one curious agent watching the encounter from a nearby roof had other thoughts on the situation. Thoughts that were already planning several moves ahead of the organization she was a part of.

"Well, things are getting quite heated aren't they?" She said with an amused smile coating her gorgeous face. She had seen enough, and now it was time to depart before people got suspicious of her whereabouts. So with one last glance, the tall woman placed a purple cowboy hat back on her head and leapt off into the shadows, back to cold unknown darkness surrounding Whiskey Peak.


And while the entire situation went to hell with Vivi and Igaram, the straw hats continued to party it up back inside the saloon.

"Give up already witch. I'm not even close to my limit."

Nami wavered slightly in her seat, trying to shake clarity into her eyes so she could see straight. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't hold out much longer. Pretty much everyone in the bar was knocked out already. Barring a few Baroque Works agents and Zoro and Luffy, who by the way was still stuffing his face somehow!

What the hell was this!? Was Zoro seriously not affected right now!? That had to be a bluff, he looked just as messed up as she did!

Well either way, she could hardly even imagine taking another sip without vomiting everywhere, so she was done. "Bleh, fine, you win Zoro, I don't even care anymore. I'm already starting to get a splitting headache."

The next thing Nami knew, she heard a loud bang on the table in front of her and turned to look at her crewmate.

And there he was, laying face down on the wooden surface with the biggest smile known to man gracing his lips.

Part of her wanted to be mad that she had given in to his obvious bluff, but at the same time, she also couldn't bring herself to care.

"Heh, enjoy your victory you moron, It's the last one I'll ever let you get."

Having had her two cents of satisfaction, Nami stood up shakily and made her way to her only conscious crewmate remaining.

"Ugh, hey Luffy, what's up with you?" She said softly, plumping right down into the seat next to him.

"Hmm? Oh hey Nami, I'm just eating. I don't know what these sweet thingies are, but they're amazing!"

The girl watched in amusement as he got back to work. Not wasting a second in gobbling up another plateful. He was really starting to get round now. And you know what? Now was a perfect opportunity for her to question Luffy a bit about himself. She had told herself that she would do all she could to find out more about him, and seemed like a pretty good chance.

"Say, Luffy, mind if I ask you some questions?" She said slowly, a hiccup or two interrupting her.

Before he brought another roll up to his mouth, Luffy responded nonchalantly. "Sure Nami, what's up?"

Taking a moment to think while her head pounded in her skull, Nami decided it best to just go for the jugular and ask her most thought about question. Whether or not this was a good idea, she didn't know, but the alcohol in her system was pushing her at full speed, and she wasn't about to hit the brakes now.

"Who's Shanks? You always seem to bring him up, is he the person who gave you the hat?"

Luffy froze in his chair for a moment and put his food down. Talk about unexpected questions, he thought she was gonna talk about the party or something, but this was way bigger.

The boy was only broken out of his stupor when he heard his friend begin to giggle, and before long, a familiar pressure was released off of his head.

"Hehe, I gotta admit it," she began lightly, her words slurring considerably now as she placed the boy's treasure onto her head. "I've never seen someone pull off such a simple looking hat like you do Luffy. It's weird, it almost looks natural. So c'mon, don't be shy. I wanna know why it's so special to you?"

The now hatless teen looked at the girl with a half open mouth. Why was she so bold all of the sudden? And why did his hat look like it belonged on her head instead of his?

Luffy quickly shook away his lingering thoughts and paid attention to the question at hand again. A question that was not appropriate to answer right now. But that didn't mean he had to let her down either.

"Shishishi, I don't think I can tell you that right now Nami."

In her current state, the navigator instantly resorted to pushing out her lower lip and pouting to the best of her ability. "What? Whyyyyy?"

But this only made Luffy laugh even more. "Shishishi! Cause you'd probably forget it by tomorrow. You're pretty wasted Nami. Shishishi."

Now hearing it out loud for the first time, a bit of realization struck the girl like a punch to the gut. And it seriously almost made her puke.

Reaching out his hand to touch her shoulder gently, the rubber man gave her some reassurance. "You better call it a night Nami, I need you to be well rested for when we leave tomorrow. I promise I'll tell you the story of my hat some other time, ok?"

The orange haired teen could do nothing but continue to nod as she stared into his mysterious onyx eyes. She knew there was something different about him, and she was gonna find out more, whatever it took.

But for now, he was right she needed sleep.

"Ugh, fine, you win. But I'm not gonna forget, so you better keep your promise Luffy!"

"Shishishishi! Don't worry Nami, you're that last person in the world I wanna piss off. Shishishi."

At that, the girl smiled, content with the answer she got from her rubber captain. "Alright then, glad we have an understanding."

Luffy nodded and then turned back down to his beloved food, ready to munch down some more rolls…

Until he felt a head hit his shoulder…

"Hope you don't mind me using this, you know, since you're already as big and soft as a marshmallow."

Luffy didn't even get a chance to get a word in before she spoke again.

"Oh and by the way, if one of those creeps tries to touch me again, could you go ahead and take care of them, I'm way too tired."

By the time Luffy finished chewing and swallowing his food to respond to both of her statements, the girl was already fast asleep. Snoring softly and leaning against the rubber man's swollen form.

Luffy didn't take his eyes off of her for several seconds. Debating himself on whether or not he should take his precious straw hat off of her.

In the end though, he decided to leave it there and let her sleep. She would kick his ass into next week if he woke her up on accident.

Yeah, that was the reason…

Yessir, were getting there! Little by little! ;)