Chapter 8

Hey, look! I didn't take months to update this time! Yay me!

Normal disclaimers apply: I just enjoy Oda's characters from afar.

They stared in awe as the archipelago came into view. They stared in awe as they pulled closer, put up the sails, and let down the anchor. Hatchi, Camie, and Pappug took the non-island in stride, preparing to go ashore, donning the necessary disguises. Hatchi had explained to the pirates that this island was a giant mangrove forest and that they needed to go to the mangrove marked with a giant "13" in order to hopefully locate his friend. The pirates, whose astonishment had only slightly diminished, nodded and followed him as they walked to the correct grove. Usopp had to pull Zoro's arm in the direction the others were walking at least twice along the way.

As they walked, Hatchi explained the nature of the bubbles that surrounded the newcomers. He also described the numbering system for the Groves on the archipelago. They made their way past shops and customers, taking turns when indicated by Hatchi. After a short while, Pappug asked how their captain, when he was so notoriously strong, had been captured. This earned him glares from most of the pirate crew and assurances that Luffy being captured was through no fault of his own and that had he not just defeated yet another Warlord, he may have been able to face-off the one who had shown up to claim his head. This response caused shocked gasps from the Fishman Island trio.

"But the paper… it said a Marine captured him," Camie said.

"Since when have the Marines ever admitted defeat? They wanted to save face so they changed the story," Sanji growled, his anger at the situation resurfacing. Franky nodded emphatically in agreement. The other crew members looked equally upset by this reminder and Pappug and his friends wisely stayed away from the topic of the Straw Hat captain for the remainder of the walk. The atmosphere of intrigue among the group had been abruptly dissolved, and they followed stiffly behind Hatchi to their destination.

They arrived at a bar on top of a hill fifteen minutes later. The crew looked at Hatchi, wanting confirmation of their arrival and saw his wariness. He sighed deeply and turned to the crew, saying, "Shakky has known Rayleigh-san for forever. If he isn't here, Shakky will know the most likely place to look for him." Receiving nods from the group, he turned around and opened the front door.

The interior was vacant, save a tall woman behind the bar. It looked clean and tidy, but it was somehow still evident that it had been a good while since there was any decently-sized crowd sitting in the assortment of wooden chairs and stools. The dark-haired woman, presumably Shakky, looked up as the group of eleven walked inside. She paused in her cleaning of a beer glass and set it down when her eyes widened, taking in the disguised fishman at the front.

"Oh, Hatchan! Long time, no see!" Shakky exclaimed.

"It's good to see you again, Shakky," Hatchi responded.

"Yes. How long has it been? 10 years?" She asked, smiling.

Hatchi nodded, and then starting speaking, "Listen, Shakky-"

"Oh! And who are your friends?" Shakky interrupted.

"Well, that's actually why I'm here. These are the Straw Hat Pirates. They-," Hatchi started once more.

"Straw Hat? As in that kid in the paper?" she interrupted again, looking more solemn and staring at each newcomer. She knew she had hit the nail on the head when a few of the crew seemed to deflate and others almost seemed to growl at her. Smiling, she said, "I see." She turned back to Hatchi. "You want to know where Rayleigh is. I'm sorry to tell you, but he isn't here. I haven't seen him in six months."

At this, the whole crew seemed more forlorn. Their best lead on new information had proven to be a dead-end. Usopp and Chopper let out little sobs, while Nami approached the bar.

"Shakky-san. Just because you haven't seen him doesn't mean you don't have an idea of his whereabouts. Do you have any clues? Hatchi seems to think this Rayleigh can really help us out somehow," Nami asked.

Shakky eyed Nami with a stone face before once more staring down the other crew members. "You know," she started, "I've kept up with the news of many pirate crews. I don't know the details of your travels, or why you have a living skeleton on your crew. But one thing I do know is that the Government likes to make themselves look good. I also noticed that Monkey-chan has the same name as the Marine Hero Garp. I'm willing to bet money that they're grandfather and grandson. I've met Garp, a long time ago. He wouldn't capture his own grandson like that. There's more to this story than any newspaper can tell me. I'll call my husband for you. Rayleigh probably won't answer, but I know he has also been especially interested in Monkey-chan for 10 years now. He'll be willing to help you out, if I can get a hold of him." With that, she turned away and walked into a back room.

The crew stood, watching the door close behind Shakky as she went to call Rayleigh, who was apparently her husband. "Ten years?" Usopp asked to the bar as a whole. "But… Luffy would have been seven. Why was he so interested in Luffy at age seven?"

The crew shook their heads in confusion. "Maybe… perhaps it has something to do with Red Haired Shanks," came Robin's voice. "I don't know how long Luffy has had his hat but he's made it sound like it's been a long while. That hat used to belong to Shanks and he must have been a well-known pirate, even ten years ago, in order to now be a Yonko. I'm just not sure how this Rayleigh-san is involved."

Hatchi swallowed. He knew why Rayleigh would have had contact with a Yonko. He wanted to tell the Straw Hat crew what he knew, but he was aware that it wasn't his place to share that information. He was saved from saying what he knew anyway when Shakky came back, a baby Den Den Mushi in hand.

"Just as I thought, Rayleigh has lost his Den Den Mushi. He left it behind at a bar. Luckily, the bartender says he saw him yesterday. He thinks he knows what bar Rayleigh is at today. I've written down the name here," she said, sliding a piece of paper over to Nami. "It's in Grove 7 so it's a bit of a walk."

The crew thanked her and immediately turned to leave. "Wait!" Shakky called. They turned back to her and she continued, "According to my information network there are 7 other Supernovas on Sabaody right now." At their confused faces, she explained, "There are 8 people, including you, Roronoa-chan, on Sabaody with bounties over 100 million Berries right now." She ignored the gasps of surprise and fear. "Roronoa Zoro, Trafalgar Law, Scratchman Apoo, Basil Hawkins, Jewelry Bonney, X Drake, Capone Bege, and Urouge. Only three other rookies with bounties over 100 million aren't here right now: Monkey D. Luffy, Eustass Kid, and Killer. I'm telling you because if they find out that you are here without your captain, some of them won't hesitate to pick a fight. They'll want to meet you, Roronoa-chan, to see if you're worthy of your bounty."

"We'll keep an eye out," Zoro responded, fingering his sword hilts while exiting through the front doors. The crew took one last glance at Shakky, mumbled a "thanks" and followed their swordsman out the door. Hatchi, after a hasty apology and a promise to return again soon, ran after them, carrying a still-in-shock Camie in his arms.

Jakob was exhausted. He had a terrible headache, which seemed intent on becoming a migraine. The hours he had put in lately were beyond anything he could find an excuse for. He had been assigned to field any calls about Straw Hat Luffy. Normally, any Marine could field calls from citizens concerned about an arrested pirate. They received many calls from Den Den Mushis across the world from parents, siblings and friends of arrested pirates. They also received calls of congratulations from antagonized peoples or nosy people who thought they could do the job better, but were willing to grudgingly admit a job well done when they saw it. Monkey D. Luffy was no different. Well, that wasn't true. His case was almost unprecedented in its massive amounts of backlash the Marines had received. The last time they had received so many complaints for an arrest was when Gold Roger was taken in. It quickly became apparent less than a day after the release of the newspaper that calls about Straw Hat Luffy were blocking lines left and right. They delegated Jakob, who had worked in the department over a year, to handle these calls. That left him with no breaks for ten hours straight, only for him to lean back in his chair and let loose a deep sigh before another call came in. It had been two days. Two full days and maybe 4 hours of disjointed sleep in a very uncomfortable chair before a pause between calls was long enough for him to actually clean himself in the locker room a floor above.

As he trudged back downstairs, he stopped for a plate of food from the cafeteria and the largest cup of coffee he could find. He had left Silva to answer the calls in his stead. She was newer than him, but the person he felt was most able to deal professionally with the people he knew would be calling in his absence. He had talked to at least 50 people alone from one Foosha Village, supposedly where Straw Hat had grown up in. Another 100 at least besides that had called from places throughout the East Blue and the Grand Line. Not a single phone call had been of a congratulatory nature. Every single one of them started and ended with shouting. The Marines have made a mistake; He saved my life, how dare you; I don't care if he is a pirate, he's a better man than anyone at that base; He's just seventeen, cut him some slack; and his personal favorite: Garp is a bastard if he thinks for one second that I'll let him get away with arresting his own grandson. He leaves me with two children, no warning at all, and expects me to sit by as he arrests both of them. That particular woman had demanded that she be patched through to Garp, not taking no for an answer. It was clear that she had met Garp and after an hour of refusals and excuses that grew weaker and weaker, Jakob was forced to put her on hold and call Garp himself. Garp had laughed and laughed when he heard about the trouble Jakob was having and, once he calmed down, told Jakob to patch her through directly to him. He never knew what Garp had said to the woman, or who she was, but she never called back.

Jakob felt more alive than he had in two days as he walked back into his office. What he saw made him immediately tense up once more: Silva was holding two Den Den Mushi receivers, one in each hand, tears streaming down her face as she tried to calm herself down from the audible shouting Jakob could hear from the entrance. There were papers scattered all over his desk where she sat, as if she had been looking for the callers' names in the notes he had left for her and thrown them in the air when she was unsuccessful. She locked eyes with him and just deflated, her body language and face screaming for help. He quickly strode over and grabbed one receiver, listening to the voice for a moment. It was that cursed mayor again, Woop Slap. By far one of his more frequent callers, he knew this meant the start of another round through the citizens of Foosha Village. No doubt they were all lined up behind this man, waiting to use the Den Den Mushi after he was through saying his piece for the hour. Jakob calmly waited until he paused for breath, then swooped in with a calm demeanor explaining that nothing had changed and that Garp would not talk to anyone else. This set the mayor off again, and Jakob took that time to turn his attention to the other screaming receiver held by Silva.

It was a man whose voice he did not recognize. He once more told Woop Slap that he would call back later, and was relieved when the man finally huffed and slammed his receiver down on the other line. Jakob waited for the next call that he knew would be coming in any second before he calmly told the caller to please wait while he dealt with another call. He grabbed the still-loud receiver from Silva, gestured for her to go clean herself up, and sat back down in his uncomfortable chair.

He listened to this man speak and learned quickly he must have been from Alabasta. Not one of the places he'd heard from most, but he'd heard enough from a man who called himself Igarappoi to know this man was describing Straw Hat's harrowing efforts and heroics in Alabasta.

Luffy-san saved m- this country. And my daughter's life. He defeated Crocodile, who even you all admit was a crook! How can that possibly be a bad guy! The paper says he was trying to defeat another Warlord – did you even stop to think that maybe this one was a crook, too?!

Jakob interceded at this point, "Sir. I understand what you're saying and I will make note of your concerns. May I please have your name, in order to properly present your information to the judges in Monkey D. Luffy's case?"

There was hesitation on the other side. Jakob's eyes widened. Why didn't this man want to identify himself? He heard a sigh, then could somehow feel a shift in the air, as if a person of great power just walked into the room. "My name," came the man's voice, "is Nefertari Cobra, king of Alabasta. I do not endorse the arrest of Monkey D. Luffy and I request to speak in front of the judges of Straw Hat's case."

Not gonna lie, you guys: I did not see that ending coming. I knew I was going to have Cobra call, but he made a decision even I didn't expect. The minute I decided he would use his actual name, my hands just typed this out of their own accord. I'm very pleased with this chapter.

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