the hands-on approach!

chapter four

"Why didn't you just let me fight it?" Luffy pouted to Nami once all of the club members were safe and out of that damned basement. The redhead facepalmed and let Usopp explain to their dumbass club president why fighting a ghost wasn't going to work out. "I'm not afraid of any ghost! So what if it's transgender or whatever you said. I can still beat it up!"

"LUFFY!" Nami shouted, hitting him on the head over and over again while Usopp's jaw dropped and his eyes nearly popped out. The long-nosed male swore to the on-lookers that he didn't say the ghost was transgender or anything like that. It seemed as though he was in tears as well. "YOU CAN'T PUNCH A GHOST BECAUSE YOUR STUPID DUMB FIST WILL GO STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM!"

"Oh! That makes no sense to me!" The boy was unfazed by Nami's abuse, it being something he had gotten used to throughout the time of knowing her. "Why can't the ghost just stop being a scaredy-cat so I can beat it up?"

"Uh, last time I checked...you nearly shoved me down the stairs so you could make it up faster." Sanji cut in, popping a piece of gum into his mouth before stuffing the pack into his pocket. "Are you sure you're not the one who's scared?"

"Weren't you saying ghosts didn't exist?" Zoro questioned, glaring at the blond. Sanji snapped right back, telling him that he was the one who said that. "No, you said it! I never said anything about ghosts not existing! Why the hell would I say that?"

"You want me to beat your ass? Maybe it'll knock a few things back into place!" Zoro definitely wasn't one to back down from anything so he immediately fired back at him. The insults between the two were rather creative but would soon become repetitive to the group.

"If you two don't knock it off…" Nami warned, her threat trailing off and being exactly enough to scare the pair into behaving semi-decently. "I swear, it's like I'm babysitting or something. I might as well start charging them for me having to take care of them," she grumbled to herself. Robin chuckled at her statement, finding it amusing.

"Now, Nami, you're not going to overcharge us again, are you? I swear I don't think my bank account will allow me to suffer like that again." Usopp deflated, thinking back to when he accidentally scuffed one of Nami's favorite shoes. It left him just barely scraping by for weeks and he still hasn't paid her off fully. "You're like a loan shark...without the loaning part. You're just a shark, Nami."

"Do you want to say that again, Usopp?" She spoke, glaring at him with a look on her face that made the boy not repeat what he said. He apologized to her and quickly slinked away from her so that he wasn't subjected to anything else. "Okay, now, as the vice president of this club, I declare that this meeting has been completed."

"Wait! When did you get made vice president? We've never had that vote," Usopp cut in only for Nami to tell him to shut his mouth. "If we're just choosing our own positions then I want to be treasurer from here on out. I feel like Nami overprices things sometimes-I mean, I love the way Nami handles the money! You're such a great treasurer, o' powerful one!"

"We didn't even find out if the basement was actually haunted or if it was just an animal," Chopper pointed out, feeling as though he didn't have enough spoken lines in this scene. His words earned him a glare from Usopp and Nami, who both scolded him for getting them into this mess in the first place.

"Come on, Chopper. Do you really need to question if it was a ghost or not? Of course, it was one! Maybe we didn't see anything but that's what makes it a ghost! You can't always see ghosts!" The curly-haired boy overreacted. Zoro crossed his arms over his chest, realizing that though he was supposed to be the main character of this book, Usopp and Nami were taking over. He's just a really good background character sometimes. "Plus, I need to get to the hospital. It took us far too long to get here because apparently the kendo prodigy over there doesn't know how to listen to directions. Didn't he get lost like four times or something?"

"Oh, I think it was actually five times but I wasn't really keeping track," Chopper chirped, looking up at his upperclassmen. They were all taller than him, though Nami was only slightly taller than him. "He does get lost quite a bit. I think he follows the crowd when it comes to getting to classes on time."

"What the hell? What are you talking about! I don't get lost that much!" Zoro shouted, leaning down a bit as if to prepare for a battle. Chopper was frightened, quickly hiding behind Robin. He wasn't really hiding that well but it was all that he needed to do for Robin to place a comforting hand atop his fluffy brown hair. "You're not even hiding right!"

"Stop being mean! Maybe we should have left you down there to get eaten by the ghost!" The young boy retorted, cutting himself off when Robin patted his head gently. "Now Robin's gonna beat you up!"

"What? At least fight your own battles. Be a man!" Zoro snapped at the kid before standing up straight and looking at Robin's face. The tips of his ears went red when he realized that she was smiling at him. Was this amusing for her? "What are you laughing about?"

Robin hummed, not bothering to correct his mistake. She wasn't laughing, just smiling and observing. Robin did that a lot, especially since she was still relatively new to this group of high school kids. She met Luffy first, when he was walking through the halls of the college that she worked in. It was pretty obvious that the kid had never been there before and he was looking for something or someone. When Robin approached him and asked if he was a college freshman, the strange boy immediately asked her to sponsor his club. The explanation of it was simple and Robin figured it wouldn't hurt to support the small group. From that, she was welcomed as if she were a member. Being around them reminded her that she wasn't a little kid anymore, but it also allowed her to feel young and adventurous...even if their adventures never really went anywhere. "Were you seriously about to fight with a fifteen-year-old?" She asked, her voice smooth and sexy as always. "He's younger than you, smaller than you, and very obviously not as strong as you. It wouldn't be a fair fight, you'd win before he even lifted a finger. How boring."

"W-what?" No one really knew what was going on, not used to Robin speaking so much at once. Her laugh made a few of them feel uneasy as they murmured amongst themselves about how dark she could get. This wasn't as bad as the dark-haired woman could be, in fact, she felt like she was being rather tame compared to what she was capable of. "Robin, you're not helping!" Chopper's hushed words made her fold her arms over her chest, replicating Zoro's stance.

"You don't have to fight everyone who challenges you, you know." It was as if they were suddenly enemies for some reason. Zoro didn't know whether to like her or see her as the bad guy. He was never really good at gauging that when it came to women, especially since he's just a high school boy.

"What are you talking about?" He refused to act as a child with this woman. Subconsciously, he didn't want her to see him as childlike or childish. "Who's saying I was going to fight him? There's no point." The green-haired male huffed out, glaring at Robin. "Like you said, he's weaker than me. It wouldn't be any fun. What he needs to learn though is that he can't go around picking fights with people just to rely on his mommy to protect him." Zoro was unaware of the fact that he would soon be one of those people that would protect Chopper from being harmed. He'd also teach him how to stand up for himself, becoming one of Chopper's many role models.

"As his 'mommy', I'll gladly protect him." Robin shrugged, holding Zoro's scrutinizing gaze as the two fell quiet. This gave Sanji the perfect moment to intervene.

"Can you be my mommy too, Robin? I'd be the perfect stay-at-home husband!" The blond swooned, dragged back to reality by Nami slapping him upside the head. Usopp even butted in, telling Sanji that he was a total creep when it came to women.

"No wonder why the girls at school hate you," Usopp grumbled, pulling all of the attention back to him. He couldn't help it, he's kind of made for the spotlight. Thinking it was far too quiet despite being inside of a library, the long-nosed boy began analyzing the scenes before him; Zoro and Robin were having their staring contest, Chopper taking on the form of referee. Nami was bickering at Sanji, scolding him for being such a creep while Sanji just gushed about how beautiful she was. That left Usopp all by himself...even though he should have had someone else with him. "Who...are we missing? We have Zoro, Robin, Chopper, Nami, Sanji, and myself...who's...?" His voice trailed off before he gasped loudly. "Guys! Where did Luffy go?!"

"Hey! Look what I found, guys!" Luffy's loud voice filled the library. Most of the people in it had cleared out a bit ago, tired and annoyed but unable to put a stop to it. "Check it out! This little guy's all furry and round! Nami! Usopp! Look!" The group turned to look at the boy, finding him standing before them with his arms outstretched towards them. In his large hands he held a rat-like creature that was wriggling in his grasp and attempting to fight its way free. "Stop moving, little buddy! I'm trying to show you to my friends! What should we name him, guys? You think we could make him our club pet?!"

"LUFFY, PUT THAT DOWN!" Nami shouted, shoving Sanji towards the younger boy before running to hide behind Robin. "It's a possum! Please, someone, make him take it away!" She shrieked, terrified of the fattened creature.

"Hey, he's not that ugly, Nami. Now you're just hurting his feelings!" Luffy pouted, patting the possum on the head. "I think you're kinda cute, buddy. I don't know what I'm gonna name ya but I think I'll keep you. Obviously, I'll have to keep you at my place because the big mean Nami is scared of you." And the fiery redhead did not let him get away with that.

"You moron, you can't keep that thing. It's probably got rabies or something." Zoro spoke, watching Robin start to walk towards her desk. He was curious as to what she was getting but he didn't question it. Chopper and Nami went with her, cowering behind the desk and shouting about how Luffy needed to toss the possum outside. Usopp was scared about getting bit but he wasn't shaking in his boots.

"It's actually is kinda cute, guys. I think you should name it Gerald or something. It looks like a Gerald," Luffy agreed with his friend's input, nodding and cooing to the possum that his name was Gerald now. "Where'd you find him?"

"Oh, he was hanging around in the basement when I went searching for the ghost. He was tearing up some books and building a nest or something. I don't know where he came from, he was just there. So, I grabbed him and brought him up here, figuring that the ghost might not like having to struggle for territory." Luffy explained. "What do possums eat? Usopp, can you look that up for me? I wanna keep him."

"You can't keep him, he's a wild animal," Zoro tried to reason, already knowing that it was a pointless argument. Luffy was the type of person who typically got what he wanted and didn't like people taking it, that much was obvious to the kendo prodigy. "If he bites you then you'll get sick."

"Yeah, Zoro's right. You don't wanna get rabies, you know. That stuff can kill ya," Usopp hummed, typing away on his phone. "Plus, it's super expensive to keep a possum. He'll eat you out of house and home before you could do it yourself."

"Really?" Luffy questioned, honestly so shocked that this fat little animal could eat more food than him. "Gerald! That's insane! You're perfect! I just can't keep you though," he pouted, remembering that he was cleaning houses and waiting tables just to make enough money for his eating habits. "It sucks but I can't afford to feed two of me. I'll just have to let you go. I'm sorry, Gerald."

Zoro came to the conclusion that this club was a joke. It didn't matter much to him what he had to do in the club as long as he got the credit for it. That reminded him of his volunteer hours and how Dean Silvers had helped him set up a good time to volunteer at the library so it fit with his schedule. Come to think of it, he was currently standing in a library. Is this the library he'll be volunteering at? With Robin?

"Hey, woman! What's the name of this place?" Zoro asked, turning around to face Robin. She was taller than him, forcing him to tilt his head just the slightest bit upwards. She placed her phone on the desk, having just ended a call to pest control. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, jutting her hip out as she folded her arms.

"Sabaody Community Library." Huh...what a coincidence.