Gin walks out of the ship to a faceful bodysmash of very frantic bird.
He, of course, grabs it right out of the air and chucks it against the ground with a loud roar and very heated vigor.
"What the hell was that for?!" he raises his voice, "stop doing that!"
Kinoko caws back with equal annoyance, because well, how about you STOP throwing me every time, then?!
Gin then realizes the problem.
"Wait, what are you doing back here?"
"That is all. Godspeed, Mister Three."
And, Kachack.
Sanji sighs, setting down the receiver and taking a drag of his cigarette. There's an oversized chicken under his feet, but he doesn't quite care about that. The otter collapsed a little further away, but Sanji doesn't really care about that one either.
"Oh, there it is," he spots the Eternal Pose to Alabasta.
There's two of them in the bag, presumably one to be delivered here, and one for their own return trip back. Since Zoro stole one too, perhaps the Mister Five team were meant to have a separate one?
Well, whatever. It's always great to have a spare, so Sanji takes one, and smashes the other underfoot.
Anything else he can steal?
"Sweet, a gun," Usopp will find this useful… wait. Why does he never use a gun anyways? Sanji finds a whetstone, some medical supplies, and something that looked like a mobile explosive.
After pillaging the bodies like Thieving Tuesdays in Baratie, he once again ignores the entire open wall and heads for the door to leave.
"Ah. I guess I'll take the tea set," he doubles back, picking it up and wrapping it securely in the tablecloth. Can't pass up on some good china, after all.
Humming a tune, he makes his way back to the ship.
Luffy emerges from under the tree, howling loudly.
Apparently, after being squished flat, he fervently dug until he got enough space to squeeze himself out. He's muddy and incredibly moody now, but that's probably a good thing when it comes to this.
"Oh yikes, he's back," Mister Three says. "C'mon, Miss Goldenweek! Time for my Candle Champion!"
When Mister Three brings out the huge golem-looking candle sculpture, Luffy's eyes sparkles with sheer excitement.
"SO COOL!"
"Stop gawking and fight it already!" Zoro snaps. They're about ninety-percent wax now. "Can't you see we can't move anymore?!"
"Luffy, this spinning thing can be burned, so when Vivi comes, try and set this thing on a lot of fire, okay?" Usopp says, like he's already resigned to becoming a wax statue, "you should be able to melt us out if you're quick enough."
"What, really?" Luffy asks. That's when he noticed the half-solid crewmates standing awkwardly on the platform. "Ooh, that's a cool pose, Zoro and Usopp!"
"Thanks."
"This joke doesn't work because we're not a manga, Luffy. Let's just move on."
Miss Goldenweek turns the Candle Champion into a colourful monstrosity (in comparison to a colourless monstrosity) and sits right back down.
Luffy faces Mister Three, fists raised.
Mister Three scoffs. "You think you can win against the Candle Champion, kid?"
Luffy huffs. "Champion? You ruined the giant-ossan's duel, and now you're turning my nakama into wax statues! There's nothing Champion about that!"
"He's right, you know."
"Don't agree with him, Miss Goldenweek!"
Luffy winds up an arm. "We'll see about that!" he throws it forward, "Gomu-Gomu no Pistol!"
"Bullfight Red," Miss Goldenweek declares, spinning out a mark on the ground.
Luffy immediately whirls, striking the target instead. "Huh?"
"Having fun there?" she asks, as Luffy tries again to no avail.
"Hear that, Carue?" Vivi whispers, looking out of the forest.
With Miss Valentine and Mister Five out for the count, she can hide safely now. Can't let her guard down though-- this is exactly how Miss Goldenweek found her the first time and tore a gash in her arm.
She can't go out there right now, even if it's urgent. Not without a plan.
(She needs to cause a big enough fire to burn the whole Candle Service Set down. A simply flare isn't enough.)
(She'll need something flammable. Usopp should have something like that in his pouch, but it's sealed tightly in wax and impossible to retrieve.)
"If only we didn't spill that barrel of explosive rum…"
"You mean this?"
Vivi and Carue whirl back around in alarm, only to come to face Gin.
The Man-Demon is still wrapped in his bandages, and he's carrying a huge barrel over his shoulder, carefully binded with ropes so he could carry it like a rucksack. On his other shoulder is Kinoko, cawing out a greeting.
"M- Mister Man-Demon!" she says, her voice slightly above a startled hiss.
"Usopp was apparently dead, so I came," he explains, gesturing at Kinoko as if that explained Usopp's supposed murder case. Then, "what's the situation?"
Vivi doesn't know why he carried a barrel of a bomb out with him, but she doesn't ask. She's actually relieved that another sane person has come to cooperate in the efforts.
"Oh. My bad," is all the apology he spares when Vivi tells him about the spiked rum Dory almost drank. "Anyways, I found another in the storage."
Which is a great thing, since now they can use it against them.
Vivi quickly catches him up to the situation, keeping her words prompt. She didn't get along with the Man-Demon, but with the circumstances as they are, she's relieved that cooperation comes so naturally to both of them.
"Miss Goldenweek is that child over there with the pink hat and paintbrushes?"
Gin's question is softly phrased, and his eyes were fixed on the girl in the distance, calmly chewing on her rice crackers.
His gaze was stern-- and Vivi didn't know if that was a good sign or not.
Miss Goldenweek may be dangerous and quick-- but alone, she would not stand a chance in a frontal fight. The Man Demon could take her out easily-- hell, even Vivi might have a chance, since she already knows Miss Goldenweek's powers and how to counter them. She still has some bottles of perfume to use, after all.
"Yes," Vivi confirms. "Her Colours Trap can hypnotize people, according to Miss Nami."
(Gin doesn't seem too interested, or surprised, by that new information.)
"If possible, don't fight her," his request was surprising. But he looked Vivi straight in the eye, and he was honest-- sincere-- and spoke with words of a resolved man, "try knocking her out. Find a chance and ambush her when she's distracted."
Well… that makes sense.
She's sure that Gin does not fully trust her. They're only setting aside affiliates and working together for the moment, because they had to.
So when he looks into her eyes, like he's asking a genuine favour and providing honest advice-- Vivi found herself needing to trust him, if only for the part of her nature that willed her kindness to the surface.
"I don't really get it, but…" Vivi bites her lip, "I can do that. It's what I excel at."
Gin actually seems surprised at her response. "Thanks," he says, looking awkwardly away. "I appreciate it. I'll deal with everything else after that, promise."
('Promise' was not a word Vivi expected to hear the Man-Demon use.)
He takes in the situation with relative ease, and they begin their strategy meeting. Vivi, for once, is incredibly relieved to have someone that can take charge here.
Untying the barrel and setting it on the ground, Gin stabs a hole near the top before tossing it over, spilling it sparsely.
"Chachamaru, right?" he turns to Carue, who is too confused to retort about the name. "Know how to play roll the bottle?"
Vivi reaches around Kinoko's various sacks, finding a bottle of what smells like gear oil. It's not much, but it's something. She pops it open immediately and Gin holds out the rope, soaking it through.
They can't just blow everything up, after all. They have to make sure the statues themselves are burning , not bursting apart.
She puts the end in Kinoko's beak, refastening the other pouches in a haste. "Okay, Kinoko-san. Spread this over the statues without being noticed. Can you do that?"
Kinoko nods, and her eyes meet Carue's, a competitive glint crossing their gazes.
Carue starts running, rolling the barrel of explosive rum fervently forward. He's beginning to catch attention, and there's no time to lose.
Gin and Vivi run into the fight.
Luffy winds up both arms far behind him just as Gin emerges from the foliage, steel tonfa pounding against the oncoming punch, a buffer against the impact.
"Ah-- Gin!" he realizes.
"What the-- the Man-Demon!" Mister Three exclaims, "I'd wondered where you were-- but no matter! Your weapon is no match against my Candle Champion!"
Sure enough, the iron ball didn't seem to counter well against the equally tough wax fist. He needed both hands to even remain standing, and he was on the defensive end.
There aren't many things Gin's tonfa cannot break. He's the strongest in Krieg's ship, save for the Don himself-- he even shattered Pearl's dumb armor. And yet, here he is, losing to a wax structure?
(So easily, he's losing in strength. Is this how far he is from the Grand Line?)
(Well, that would be more of a concern if he was still on Krieg's ship.)
"What are you waiting for, Captain?" Gin turns around briefly, stifling a chuckle. "That Bazooka's taking a long time."
Luffy grins.
"BAZOOKA!"
He launches his arms forward, narrowly missing Gin with the space between his hands-- and blows, the force shoving the Candle Champion right off its feet, knocking the air right out of Mister Three along with it.
"Hey, nice timing!" he cheers, retracting his arm.
"Not nice enough," he gestures at the Candle Service Set, where Usopp and Zoro, as well as Brogy, are all solidified. "The Princess told me what's happening, and you need to stop fooling around."
"Oh no!" Luffy yelps. "Zoro! Usopp! Crap. What do we do, Gin?"
Gin hums, "did Usopp say anything about how to get out?" he asks, even though he already knows the answer.
"Oh! He did," Luffy says, like he just remembered, "he said to burn it!"
"Then let's hurry and find a way to burn it."
"Alright!" Luffy says, looking suspiciously in Mister Three's direction.
Gin stares at him, slowly coming to realize why Usopp and Nami always treat their captain like a child. It's not intentional, nor is it out of condescension-- it's just how the conversation tends to steer with him.
And maybe because their Captain's the youngest and is perfectly fine acting like the youngest, so the course of events will always naturally roam in that direction.
Geez, Luffy has too much little brother energy.
Carue is still running, kicking the barrel high into the air and rolling it up onto the cake like a dog with a new ball toy. He abruptly skids mid-step, petrified by an unknown force.
"Tranquil Green," Miss Goldenweek says, and all eyes turn to spot the symbol on the Carue's fur. "Second print, Bullfight Red."
The colours mix, producing a brown symbol.
"The Red-Green of Inner Conflict," she declares.
Carue can't move, but the barrel is still on the candle cake, leaking as time goes by. The spot-billed duck is definitely trying, sweat creasing down its brows as it quacks in frustration, unable to even take a step further.
"Chachamaru!" Luffy runs up to her, but he's stopped when Goldenweek rushes forward, a spin of black imprinted on his back.
"Betrayal Black, huh," Gin mutters.
Gin swerves aside from his hit, tonfa slamming down hard against the brush, deflecting it far from the girl's hand.
Unhesitant, Goldenweek reaches back for her extra-large brush, and swings, fighting as if it was a spear. Gin parries the attacks effortlessly, unfazed even as Goldenweek picks up her brush with her left hand and spins out the symbols in mid-air.
"Hold on, hey!" Gin clicks his tongue when a splash of ink makes it to his temple, dripping toward his eyes. He spares a moment to smudge it aside, only to be slashed in the side. "I want to talk!"
Miss Goldenweek pauses for a moment.
Vivi finally emerges, her Peacock Slasher in hand. Miss Goldenweek doesn't turn-- she only swirls her spear back, deflecting the hit off.
She doesn't expect the wave of liquid that spills over her, drenching her completely in the sick, sweet-smelling substance. Her eyes widen-- and then she flinches in realization, holding her breath immediately.
Vivi doesn't stop there, regaining her balance in a moment to smash away her palette, her spear, and slicing apart her outer clothing to the other hidden brushes beneath. Finally, Gin grabs her by the throat and shoves her down, tonfa held to pin her down by the neck.
"Luffy, get Carue out of there!" he yells. No time, no time.
"Huh? Don't wanna."
Vivi swirls, flabbergasted. Then she notices the symbol, goes oh , and runs over to hastily rub out the black paint with her sleeve.
Luffy immediately snaps out of it, and his gaze immediately narrows.
"Dammit, she did something again!" he snaps, setting his straw hat on the ground as he looks around, ascertaining the situation once more. "But nevermind, no time for that. Vivi, can you get Chachamaru?"
Vivi blurts, "yes?" then, "what about you?"
"I'll light the fire!" he declares, rushing off in some direction. Is that Mister Three getting up? "Uh-- Ennosuke! Take care of my hat!"
The bird comes, right on cue, to land on the hat with a complying caw.
On the candle cake, the soaking oil rope trails around the statues' feet, leading toward a trail of explosive liquid to the side.
Vivi panics as Luffy scrambles off, and yeah, they're kinda on a very narrow deadline here. Miss Goldenweek is struggling, but Gin can subdue her on his own, right?
So Vivi's role here is to--
"There's a trail of bomb liquid! Just light that one fire and it'll lead to the tower!" Vivi yells out before Luffy gets too far. Then, she breaks out in a dash, rushing forward to retrieve her duck.
"Gotcha!" Luffy yells back.
Swearing under her breath, Vivi braces her arms against the candle cake.
Her injured arm bleeds a little more, tender wounds throbbing as she brings herself up to the platform, brazenly rubbing out the green markings on Carue's fur before quickly climbing on.
"Okay, good boy," she whispers, "do what you do best."
Vivi clings onto Carue for dear life as they run, scrambling to safety.
Mister Three lifts his head woozily as Luffy grabs him by the wick, "huh?"
Then, realization.
"HUH?!"
Luffy scoffs at him, looking visibly annoyed at everything that wasn't going well today. How did island exploration turn into this anyways? "I'll punch you later," he declares, for too many reasons to list now, "for now, we need fire!"
Mister Three pales.
And then the dragging-screaming-apologizing began as the captain, with ease that shouldn't be, swung the Candle Champion and Mister Three along with it into the air, sprinting for the Candle Service Set.
The fire touches the oil-- and flames roared to life.
Gin and Miss Goldenweek watch from a safe distance away, the girl heaving a sigh as she doesn't bother resisting any longer.
It was a waste of energy, and the sleep-inducing perfume was getting harder to combat.
It's not as if they were actively trying to take each other down, anyways. It's not like they could, even if they tried.
"Man-Demon," Miss Goldenweek hisses, "let me go."
Gin doesn't tighten his grip on his tonfa-- instead, he sighs. He looks down on the girl, and he can't bear to look her in the eyes. Seemingly in understanding, Miss Goldenweek turns her gaze away as well, biting her lip in the only show of emotion she could muster.
"...You're not going to say you can't kill me, are you, Egin?"
The name is foreign to his ears, even though it's almost the same as his current name.
Gin doesn't answer.
"Take a breath, Marianne," Gin says. And the name flows from him, more familiar than anything has in the past decade. "Call it a favour. From me to you or vice versa, you decide."
Their eyes meet.
"I'm going to die if I fail this mission," she says, her voice soft, her eyelids falling. "I hope you take responsibility for that."
Gin snorts. "When have I never?"
As if she had no further questions or suspicions, her eyes flutter close, and her breaths evened out.
Gin releases his grip on the tonfa, and stands up, taking a breath of fresher air. He looks over to see Kinoko staring at him skeptically.He scowls at it, because no way was he explaining himself to a bird.
"What was that about?"
He turns around to Vivi. She seems to have heard most of the conversation, if her horrified expression is anything to go off on.
"You guys have history?" Vivi says.
And she takes a moment, as if just realizing that yes , just like her-- the rest of the Baroque Works agents had a story as well, outside of the organisation. And they were antagonists now, not for some personal vendetta-- but it was just something she would have done (and has done) before, for the organisation.
Gin turns around, picking up a paintbrush.
"It's none of your business," and it will never be.
Vivi turns away with a nod. "I understand. I will not ask," she says, because that wasn't even a case of trust-- that was probably common sense.
And now, she realizes that her target here was Crocodile, and Crocodile only.
(There was no reason for her to fight the other Officer Agents.)
Mister Three escapes from the flames, rushing off into the woods for his escape. Luffy pursues him, a frustrated yell leaving him.
"No way I'm letting you get away!" he yells, "I haven't punched you yet! For a lot of things!"
Gin and Vivi watch that play out, and decide to just let it happen.
"I can't believe this," a sharp growl sounded behind them, and they turned in unison to a very irate Mister Five. "Melted the wax, have you? You think you've won just with this?"
(When did he get out from under the tree?!)
He held his gun before him, and Vivi, one hand on Carue's leash and the other injured-- couldn't respond in time. Gin scrambles to get up, but the tonfas slip from his hands.
The trigger doesn't go off.
"Hissatsu, Lead Star!"
A pachinko ball nails him in the shoulder with all the force of a rifle, and he howls, losing his grip on the gun.
"What the-- why didn't my explosion go off?" he hisses, holding his injured shoulder and quickly reaching for the gun again.
This time, Gin spins, kicking the gun clear out of the way.
"Yaki--" a flaming figure emerges, three swords ablaze, "--Onigiri!"
Mister Five was made quick work of, and Zoro huffs, dusting the fires out of his swords before returning them to their sheathes.
"Huh," he says, checking Kogatana for any fire damage. "Flaming swords are kinda nice."
"Mister Bushido!" Vivi addresses, surprised. She hurries down from her duck, looking out as Usopp emerges from the flames as well, a little charred but nothing too serious.
"Anyone see my bag anywhere? It's probably sealed in a wax cube, and I wanna melt it out while the fires are still going," Usopp says, miming 'looking around' actions.
"It's uh, somewhere in the forest," Gin points behind him, "passed by it on the way here."
Usopp deadpans, "very helpful."
Kinoko immediately greets him with a tearful, overexcited hug.
Brogy wakes up with a resigned huff. "Looks like we all made it out alive, at least."
There's only one enemy left, and Luffy had run off after him. It shouldn't take long to deal with it anymore, so the fight was over.
Vivi collapses to her knees beside Carue, muttering some distant prayer to the gods of Alabasta to protect her mental stability in the journey herein.
"Usopp, found your bag," Nami says, emerging from the woods. "We shouldn't burn it when there are explosives inside, so I cracked it open with the blunt end of my axe."
Cue Usopp's horrified noises as he lunges for the bag and checks for damages.
"Consider it karma for being an idiot. You should have just stayed on the ship," Nami says, "same to you, Gin!"
Gin groans. "That's what I said."
Usopp grumbles something under his breath.
"Where's the Cook?" Zoro asks. "Did he get lost?"
No one answers him.
And then Dory wakes up.
"HOLY SHIT he's alive!" Zoro freaks out.
"Didn't he get his face sliced off or something?" Gin gawks, "you're telling me that only hit too shallow on the chest?"
Vivi's flabbergasted, "you're kidding!"
"Ah, now I remember why there are medical supplies in my bag," Usopp says. "Great news, Nami. You didn't break anything important, since I brought the whole box."
"Oh, great," Nami says, casually taking the first-aid kit and retrieving the clearly marked bottle of disinfectant.
Kinoko stays on the hat, uninterested in anything else.
"Yeah, of course you two aren't surprised," Vivi holds back tears, "what did I expect?"
Luffy emerges from the forest, declaring that he's 'kicked the shit' out of Three-diot and left him there. Everyone pats him on the head for a job well done, and Kinoko returns his hat.
Sanji then finally finds them (and gets chewed up for being much too late to the damn party) and presents a spare Alabasta Eternal Pose and all his other pillage goods, citing his conversation on the Den Den Mushi with Crocodile to bargain some mercy.
After an intense cry and hug from the giants, a heartfelt word of gratitude, and more hunting, the crew and the giants gathered for a shared-- teatime? Food session.
There's not much time to eat, but they tie up Mister Three, Mister Five and Miss Valentine in a corner, set a fire, and started barbecuing.
"Uhm, Luffy," Gin approaches the captain, his entire posture nervous. Luffy looks over from his attempt to steal meat off the stove, and Gin swallows. "I might… have something to request of you."
To which the rest of a crew share an ear.
(Gin's asking for something? That must be important, then.)
"It's about Mari-- Miss Goldenweek, you see," he says. He's obviously reluctant to ask this-- as if he's expecting a rejection to some degree, but he's asking anyways in some vain sort of hope.
They didn't tie the girl up, on Gin's request. Carue and Kinoko are watching over her at the moment, but she was still an enemy, as far as the crew was concerned.
"I uh," he rubs the back of his head, "she's…"
Zoro and Nami seem to be getting impatient about the roundabout sentence, but Luffy lights up with recognition almost immediately.
"Ooh! Are you friends?" he asks, and a few surprised gazes turn to him, then back at Gin.
There's disbelief and shock in everyone's faces-- and Gin can understand. Of course they're going to react like that when you suddenly tell them you know the mysterious girl in the enemy team.
"...Oh thank god, Usopp and Nami are actually surprised," Vivi says.
Usopp and Nami have their jaws dropped straight, and the rest of the crew are savouring the sight. Looks like it's still possible to catch their veteran duo unaware with new revelations, that's a relief.
Wait, not the point.
Gin flusters, "no, we aren't!" even though that's untrue, "we're uh… not friends! Just--"
Luffy laughs at that. "Why didn't you say that earlier?" He sees right through the denial so easily, as if Tsundere speech is something he's had to deal with all his life. "If we knew, we wouldn't have fought her, right?"
"Eh?"
(There would usually be a 'but you're enemies now. Steel your heart,' talk at this point.)
(But it's the exact opposite here, and Gin is more surprised that he was actually hoping for acceptance instead. He knew that Luffy wouldn't deny him a little selfishness, and somehow-- somehow that was really, really nice.)
"Yeah, you should've said so earlier," Vivi agrees, "or did you not know until you saw her? 'Miss Goldenweek' is a codename, after all. Makes sense."
Hold on, even the targeted princess is okay with sparing her?
Gin must be dreaming right now.
This is too good to be true.
"Wait, you guys knew each other?" Nami is still in disbelief. " How? " She turns between them a couple times, "Since when?"
"Yeah, since when did you know such a cute girl, Gin?" Sanji says, scowling, "you must've been a bad crowd in her development years. You're ugly, after all."
"My appearance has nothing to do with this!"
Gin didn't intend on telling the story, but somehow-- when he's being goaded by the rest of the crew like this, the story comes to him almost naturally.
"How do I say this… we uh, got stuck in the same place. Had to depend on each other for a couple of years," he explains. "I haven't met her since we parted ways back then."
(They also agreed to never associate to prevent being identified by the Society and recaptured, but look how the situation has changed.)
"What, so you guys go way back? What a small world," Sanji says, amused. "You want her to join the crew or something?"
Gin panics, "no! I mean, uh, yes. Not join the crew, not necessarily, just..." he did not prepare for the direct words, "...but I mean. Failure is death in this organisation. So I just want to get her away from Baroque Works until it all calms down, that's all--"
He looks away.
Why is he asking such a selfish favour from the captain, anyways? He's just the quartermaster, he doesn't have that authority. Gin has been pushing his luck a lot lately on this ship, and he's not sure if he's at the edge of the crew's patience yet.
(Don Krieg would've said no and told him to fuck off a long time ago.)
(But this is Luffy, he reminds himself, Luffy is different, right? )
(...right?)
Gin looks up to see Luffy stare at him, expressions blank and disapproving. His stomach drops in dread, fearing the worst.
Then Luffy stands up and smacks him over the head.
"OW!" Gin holds his head.
Luffy huffs, annoyed, "of course you can!" he says, like he's furious, "what, did you think I was going to say no? It's obviously important to you, so why would I?"
Wait, what?
Sanji snickers behind him. "You don't need to be so awkward about everything, Gin," he says, "with the book and with this, too. We're pirates, not a dictatorship."
And that actually hurts to hear.
(Because pirates aren't a dictatorship, and that's supposed to be true. So why doesn't it feel right?)
How can Sanji say that to Gin, who's been living under a dictator of a captain half his life? He's never been able to comfortably ask for anything, he's still trying his hardest.
"We'll be fine with it," Usopp says. "We may have reason to not trust her yet, but we trust you."
Gin looks at him, a sort of embarrassed joy filling his chest. He's been told he was trusted many times before now-- but hearing it from this crew just sounds… so great.
"I can't say I'm comfortable with the idea," Vivi says, "but I am intruding as well. It is only right that I respect the crew, if only to earn the right to be respected in return."
"But you gotta make sure Miss Goldenweek behaves on the ship, alright?" Nami tells him.
Zoro doesn't have a verbal opinion, just a stern look, a dismissive nod, and a silent indication that he'll go along with everything. His hand is on his sword-- perhaps a warning that if anything goes wrong-- Zoro will make a move.
It's an approval, though. More approval than GIn has ever gotten in his life.
Luffy is still fuming.
Of course you can, he had said. Because it's an of course thing. And for some reason-- it hurts, but it's still so liberating to hear.
(Because of course the crew is going to respect your wishes. Of course, and it should have never been otherwise.)
"Did you hit me over the head because it's a stupid question?" he asks, nursing the new bump on his head.
Luffy clarifies, "I hit you because you were taking too long to ask it."
When the rest of the crew smile, Gin can't help but smile back.
"I promised someone a long time ago that I'd take care of her when she gets into trouble," he admits. "So can we bring her onto the ship, Captain?"
Luffy huffs, grinning out a very confident, very easy, "of course!"
And Gin's heart blooms.
Usopp takes a large bite of meat.
"Did you know that was going to happen?" he asks, his face a mix of horrified and serious.
Nami throws back a whole mug of booze. "What, are we talking about the absolute fucking bombshell that just dropped? Of course not. What the fuck. What the everloving fuck."
Usopp buries his face into his hands. "Okay, thank god. I thought I was going crazy," he says. Then, "why did we not know this before?"
Nami didn't know how to answer that.
They crouch down and speak in hushed whispers, like two evil goons chatting up their evil plans in broad daylight.They were just two people, confused and tired, having an identity crisis and questioning everything. Zoro gives them a curious look and promptly walks the other way.
"No seriously, did these two never meet in our knowledge last time around?" Nami asks, "heck, I don't think we saw Gin in the Grand Line."
"Sanji did, I think."
"And I don't think we know what happened after we left Goldenweek here."
"According to Bentham, they opened a cafe somewhere. I think some of the CP9 guys that didn't go zero worked there, last I heard."
"What the fuck?"
"I don't know, Nami, stop swearing."
They made equally despaired noises into the fallen tree trunk that was their makeshift bar table.
"I know we saw this coming, Usopp. Like, we knew our future memories aren't going to be useful in the long term," Nami says, "but this isn't even part of that. This is just mindfuckery that came out of nowhere."
"Looks like we're going to have to get used to it," Usopp groans, defeated. "Hey, we can still be mortified by new information. That's nice."
His celebration is sarcastic and weak.
Nami took another swig. "I forgot how it felt to be horrified by new revelations."
They've spent so long knowing everything, after all. The last time their minds had this much of a shock applied to them, Sanji was getting married.
"You know, if the future's too derailed at this point, I don't think I care anymore."
Usopp agrees. "After we confirm the Blackbeard situation, we're going with plan 'go with the flow and try not to die', right?"
Nami stifles a laugh at that.
"Look on the bright side," she says, though they both are smiling anyways. "Maybe this adventure will finally feel like our unpredictable home again."
The first thing Miss Goldenweek says upon waking up is, "I stink."
Vivi almost bites her head off for that, because no my perfume doesn't stink, it's just like that because I threw the whole bottle on you, but Nami holds her back and brings her to the rest of the barbecue, where the giants were going off on some stone-age flavouring options they've found over the years.
"It'll go away," Gin assures her.
She groans.
Somewhere further off, the rest of the crew discuss if they have any spare clothing on the ship. Usopp, Zoro, and Luffy's clothing are completely burnt to crisp, and Vivi's was ruined by blood. Nami only had so many clothes to go around, and they weren't sure if they had anything for Miss Goldenweek's size.
Sanji makes a comment, something about 'maybe don't get burned, you shitheads', and there's some sort of wrestle as Luffy and Carue try to chuck his face into the grill.
She stares at Gin's plate of skewers, watching the man grab one of his own and take a large bite.
"What?" Gin questions. "It's not poisoned. If we were going to kill you, we would've gone for something more efficient."
"Yeah," Miss Goldenweek turns back to her own plate. Miserably, she observes that, "it's just that your skewers look a lot bigger than mine."
Gin snorts out in laughter, nearly choking on his food as he doubles over laughing.
Miss Goldenweek takes that chance to steal two off of Gin's plate, taking huge bites out of it before the Man-Demon could realize.
"Hey!" he snaps.
She finishes half of one immediately, eyes twinkling at the great, juicy meat before wolfing down more. She points the stick at Gin like a weapon, daring him to steal it back.
"It is survival of the fittest," she declares, in a complete monotone.
Gin groans, stealing skewers off Miss Goldenweek's plate instead. She doesn't seem to mind as much, quickly finishing her food but keeping the sticks in her hands.
Gin meets her in the eye.
"Are we not pretending anymore?" Miss Goldenweek asks. "It was you and Chaser that insisted we not talk to each other ever again."
(It was you guys who decided that, and left me to fend for myself and end up in this corrupt organisation.)
(But no, she no longer holds a grudge for that. She's over it now.)
"I know what I said," Gin says. "Well, I changed my mind. Come with us."
The girl doesn't seem surprised.
"You're selfish," she says, as a jab. "You want me to betray my organization?"
'My' organization, huh.
"They important to you?" Gin questions. Miss Goldenweek doesn't answer. "Do you want to stay with them, then? On this island." She doesn't answer this question, either.Gin leans back against the tree with a deep sigh.
And he thought he was bad at being honest about things he wants.
"Well then, I'm not asking," he says, "come with me."
It's a good sign that Miss Goldenweek only continues chewing, a simple nod in response and without a word of protest. She was always like this-- she just did as told, and it was all Gin's responsibility to try and figure out whether she really liked something or not.
It was hard to tell, but Gin's used to it.
"It'll cause trouble," she warns instead. It's still not a protest. "For this crew."
(They were safe as long as they were alone-- that's why they separated, changed their names, their identities, and began to live freely out of the way.)
(As long as they stick together, the past will resurface someday.)
"We're literally fighting a Warlord for a Princess we barely know," Gin shrugs, gesturing at the crew, where Usopp and Vivi are trying to stop Sanji from eviscerating meat-cheeks Luffy. "Isn't it nice to think that we won't be alone when it happens?"
It'll be hell, all over again.
"Just stick around. We're strong enough to deal with things if it all goes to shit again," he promises. It will probably be safer that way, anyways. "What's Chaser gonna do, hunt us down and say no?"
Miss Goldenweek scoffs at that, a faint smile rising at the corner of her lips. But she takes his hand, and nods. "Gonna ask him to come with us when we find him?"
Gin hesitates, "no," then, "unlike us, he's on the right side of the law. He's got no reason to leave."
"You've seen him around?"
"No."
"You have. How is he?"
"I haven't."
"You know you can't lie, Egin."
"...I didn't talk to him, alright? I literally went around, bashed him in the head, and ran without a greeting."
"You couldn't do that with me?"
"Shut up."
When they sit down and continue eating in silence-- somehow, it was comfortable. It's something as simple as a meal together-- and yet, it's an important form of companionship that they were painfully deprived of for a long time.
(They've missed this.)
"Just Gin now," the man tells her.
An obedient nod. "Just Anne for me, then."
When they stand up with their empty plates to ask for seconds, their hands are joined. They make their way toward the rest of the crew, and they're welcomed with cheerful laughter, peaceful banter-- and lots of warm, warm food.