One Piece - Island of the Gum Gums - Chapter 2
Written by Steven Kunz the Fan Author
Disclaimer: I do not own nor invent One Piece. This excellent manga was written and drawn by Eiichiro Oda.
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As Rousse walked through the thick foilage of this seemingly huge forest, his minds focus back before the ship crash, before the storm, and before he went to the Naval Base Town.
What his mind was focusing on the few moments before he went out to sea and while he was out at sea in the beginning, he managed to get a glimpse of Straw Hat Luffy at work with his powers.
His mind drifts back to the moment where Rousse was about to leave at sea. He sees in his mind himself running away carrying a wooden box, and next to him was a young woman running besides him, telling him to stop.
Soon, Rousse got to the boat and tossed the box in there. It landed on the edge of the ship, causing it to open and inside were his samurai sword and his two favorite pistols. He smiled and thought to himself, "Good."
Soon, the young woman catches up to him, but then trips and lands right into his chest and was caught by Rousse's arms around her.
She blinked for a moment, then stood herself up and looked into his eyes as he looked right back into hers. He quickly took a quick glance up and down her. She had dark brown hair with red highlets, and she wore a cotton black vest with a white blouse underneath, a dark blue skirts, and black shoes that were meant to be worn for women. She blushed for a second as she noticed him looking up and down and said, "What are you looking at? Besides, you have to go before they catch you! This is no real time to say Goodbye!"
Rousse smiled and whispered in her ear, "Hey, don't worry, Jen. Whatever happens, I'll come back for sure, I promise."
She smiled and leaned forward, wanting him to kiss her when all of a sudden, he pushed her off the dock and into the ocean. He quickly got onto the dinghy, adjusted the sails so that the wind would push him forward, and he began to row forward out of the dock.
Soon, the young woman poked her head out of the water and yelled, "Hey! What was that for?!"
Before Rousse went totally out of sight, he smiled widely and said, "Like I said, there's no time for goodbyes, and if anyone asked, you tried to stop the bad guy, but didn't succeed."
She blinked, then chuckled and smiled right back at him. "Okay.....I hope you come back someday! Don't ever forget me!!"
"I won't. Goodbye, Jennifer!" He yelled and waved back before his ship was just a tiny dot on what appeared to be the other side of the ocean for Jennifer.
Rousse continued to move through the foilage like it was a huge net. As he kept moving across, a small tear ran across his cheek, remember Jennifer and how he left her behind.
He went across a huge leaf and he accidently brushed his cheek against the tip of it. He stopped and looked at his tear, which had moved into the tiny bits of dew at the tip of the leaf. Soon, the tear was at the very end, and it went away from the tip of the leaf to a small white flower that hasn't bloomed yet. When the tear landed on the flower, it caused it to spread it's petals apart, showing a white ring on the outer edges of the flower and a slightly darker tint of white in the inner part of the flower.
Rousse smiled and picked up the flower. He sniffed it real quick and muttered to herself, "A perfect gift for her...." He hooked the flower to his shirt with a pin and smiled. "That will keep it safe until I see her again."
With that in mind, he kept walking forward towards the center of the island.
~
"Luffy!!" Nami yelled at Luffy again. She was yelling at him because Luffy wanted something sweet to eat, and decided to use his stretching powers to take a look at some of the trees nearby. However, instead of looking at some of the trees, he looked at all the trees, which really was making Nami mad. She wasn't interested in searching every tree. Instead, she wanted to explore more of the center of the island because it seemed more appropriate to find some food since it was more likely to appear there.
Soon, Luffy finished looking through his latest tree and got himself back to normal. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "There's nothing here, Nami. Let's go."
They were going to go when Nami looked at Luffy and noticed he was missing something. She pointed behind him to the same tree he looked.
He blinked and turned around, gasping at what he saw. It was his favorite hat and it was caught between a few branches. When he saw his hat, he felt a little lighter as he placed his hand on his head, feeling his hair. Immediately, he stretched his arms upward so that he can grab his hat carefully and put it back on his head.
As Luffy was doing that, Nami stared at him. She was still a bit in awe over his powers, but what she was in awe was Luffy himself. Staring at his face, she smiled since Luffy was very inexperienced and an amateur at being a pirate, yet he was very determined on being the King of Pirates, and his determination often overlapped his inexperience which made him a great leader.
When he got his hat back, he placed it on his head and turned to Nami, who had a pink blush on his face. He blinked and asked, "Nami, what's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"
She shook off her blush and replied. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just....well...you told me a friend of yours gave you that hat, which gave you the motivation to be a pirate, right?"
"Uh huh. That's right." He said, taking off his hat and giving it to Nami for a moment.
She looked all around it and asked, handing the hat back to Luffy. "Well....who did this belong to, Luffy?"
"Well...." He said, putting the hat back on his head. "This belonged to a great man, at least a great man to me. He was a pirate too, and everyone called him 'Red-Haired' Shanks."
She nodded as she sat herself down on whatever she could find, which was a huge rock that was on the ground. She patted the ground, telling Luffy to come sit next to her. When he walked over to her and sat down right next to her, she bent her head and sifted her hair with her fingers, hiding the blush on her face.
Luffy didn't notice her blush as he took off his hat, handed it to Nami, and continued on with his story. "You see, when I was a child, Shanks and his own crew were using my hometown as a base of operations for one year. I suppose I was impressed with what he was doing, and I wanted to go on an adventure like he was doing everytime he went on another voyage. However, he had always said I was simply too young to go with him and his crew on an adventure. I got so frustrated that I stabbed myself in the face with a knife to prove how tough I thought I was." He stopped for a moment and pointed to the left side of his face, where there was a small scar right below his left eye.
Nami nodded her and lifted her arm, gently brushing her fingers across his scar. Her face turned slightly redder as he touched him. She lowered her arm and bent her head again slightly lower, hoping Luffy didn't see the blush. She said very quietly, "Go on. Is there anything else, Luffy?"
He did notice the blush on her face and looked at her in confusion. However, he didn't want to pry and ask what was wrong with Nami, so he continued on. "Anyway, on that same day, a bad group of mountain bandits came to our town and started to make fun of Shanks and make a mess of the bar. Since he didn't fight back, I was going to search for a new role model, but then he grabbed my arm and it stretched. That's when I realized that the fruit I ate earlier while I was sitting with Shanks had made my body like rubber. However, as you already know, I ended up not being able to swim again for the rest of my life."
While Luffy thought about what to say next, Nami's heart pouned faster with each silent moment as she to thought about what to do next. "When I brushed my fingers against her scar, I almost wanted to grab his cheek and kiss him. Even though Luffy ain't the smartest guy in the world, he really is very loyal to his friends and very kind to his crew and to strangers. I...I don't know whether I really would love it if I can just hold him right now......"
Nami's thoughts suddenly drifted back to a long time ago, when she was a little girl. She remembered everything that has happened, and her sorrowful face suddenly grimaced as she yelled to herself, "He's a pirate though, and I hate pirates! I just hate them so much! All pirates, deep down, are eventually the same despite how nice they try to act!"
"Are you alright, Nami?" Luffy suddenly said, breaking Nami's concentration. He placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned at her.
"I think....I can just one exception for Luffy. He is unlike anyone I've met before." Nami thought to herself. She then looked at Luffy and she blushed slightly red without knowing it. "Yeah, Luffy, I'm fine."
He blinked and saw the blush on her face. "Are you sure, Nami? Your face is red. Are you sick?"
He placed a hand on her cheek and her face turned bright red as she felt her heart beat eveen faster and her face warming up due to her blushing. Luffy said. "Yeah....you are starting to warm up a little. Maybe we should get you back to where everyone is?"
She lifted her head and sputtered out. "N...no, no! I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm just a littie tired, that's all. We did leave the ship kinda early, you know?"
He nodded his head and grinned. "Yeah, I guess we did. You want to get back to searching for food?"
"In a minute." She smiled back at him with her face back to normal. She then scooted close to Luffy so that they'd be sitting right next to each other. "Can I hear the rest of your story first?"
"Sure!" He said quite loudly and went on. "When Shanks went on another voyage, those mountain bandits came back and were making fun of him. Because I had stood up for Shanks, I was being beaten up by those bandits when Shanks and his crew came and knocked them all out. I was about to be saved when the leader ran off with me onto a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. He kicked me off before I can punch him even once. After that, the local sea monster came up from behind and ate his ship. He was about to go for me when Shanks suddenly appeared and pulled me back. Unfortunately, he lost his arm in the process. At that moment, I did understand what Shanks meant I was too little to go on a voyage with him. I was just not strong and well-prepared enough to face monsters like that out in the middle of the sea. When he said back at my hometown that I would never become a pirate, that was when I said I'd be the King of Pirates. After that, he gave me his hat for safekeeping and left forever. 10 years after that, I finally left home to search for a crew. The rest of what happened after that is stuff everyone knows about already."
Nami was taken back by his story as she tries to find the right words to express what she is feeling right now. "Wow...Luffy...that was amazing. I never knew you were so determined to become a pirate.."
"Yeah...well, I'm far more determined than you think!" He said very loudly, not caring about who heard it.
Nami didn't really pay attention to that. She bent her again to attempt to hide the blush. All she wanted to do now was to hold Luffy and whisper how she feels. "Please....let me have courage.........."
However, that moment was interrupted when they both heard rustling from one side of where they were sitting. They both leapt off the rock and peered toward where the rustling came from. A sound like someone tripping and crashing over many layers of branches and leaves was heard from the other side.
"Aw, Damn!!!" A voice was heard as someone came crashing down from where the sounds came from and landed flat on his face. When he landed onto the ground, a single flintock pistol was shuffled from him and settled a few feet away from him. Engraved on the gun was the name, "Rousse Le-Onne."
He slowly got up on his knees, struggling a little to get up. He lifted his head a little and saw his gun on the ground. He reached for it and picked it up. When he did pick it up, he saw two pairs of feet. One pair was wearing sandals while the other was wearing boots.
"Oh, thank God! People are here!" He lifted his slowly and looked up at the faces of Luffy and Nami. "I'm really glad you're here, you see, I got shipwre......."
He stopped what he was going to say when he saw Luffy's face. He was so surprised that he leapt to his feet and placed his hands on his samurai sword, thinking. "Oh no! Not Luffy! I can't fight him now, and yet, this may be the only time I can fight him!"
Luffy blinked as Rousse unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Luffy. "Straw-Hat Luffy! I challenge you to a one and one duel right now! Come on, let's go!"
He looked at Rousse in confusion and said back. "What?! Hold on a minute! I just met you! We shouldn't fight at all!!"
Rousse raised an eyebrow at him and thought to himself, "Hmm....this can't be THE Luffy. The Luffy I've heard about from the leftover crew at Alvida's base and from those guys at the Naval Base is an extremely strong fighter, yet this guy won't even throw a punch."
He smirked as he got an idea. He raised his sword a little higher and pointed at his hat. "Why don't we make this fight interesting? If you win, I'll leave you alone forever, but if I win, you'll give me that straw hat!"
Luffy suddenly was in shock. He placed a firm hand on the top of his hat and spat out, "My hat?! No way! Besides, even if I put it up in a fight, what would you do with it?!"
"Use it as kindling. That hat seems totally worthless to me." Rousse replied with an evil grin on his face.
"WHAT?!" Luffy yelled at Rousse. He grabbed his hat and handed it to Nami. "Here. Keep it safe for me, please!"
Before even Nami could say a word, Luffy pulled his arm back and thrusted his arm at Rousse as hard and as fast as he can, stretching it as far as he can towards Rousse. He simply lifted his Samurai Sword and blocked it. He did under-estimate Luffy's strength as he felt himself being pushed back a few feet. When Luffy finished his first punch, he pulled his other arm back and pulled it forward, streching his arm and fist toward Rousse's face. He countered again by raising his arm and grabbing Luffy's fist. However, when he grabbed it, the palm of his hand became immediately sore.
"Wow! He's stronger than I thought!" Rousse thought to himself. He was going to push Luffy's arms back by stepping forward, but then Luffy used his fingers to grab the flat of his sword and he shifted his wrist of his other hand so that he'd be grabbing his thumb and part of his wrist. He then leapt forward and moved his body forward so that it could go back to normal. Rousse gasped as he quickly figured out what to do. He simply dropped his weapons and fell backwards so that he can lie on his back.
"Agh!!!!" Luffy yelled out as his plan backfired as he felt himself flying over Rousse and landing hard against a tree. When he got off the ground and rubbed his head, he gasped as Rousse had one of his pistols raised at Nami.
"All right, Straw-Hat Luffy! You're not the great fighter I had hoped, but maybe you'll turn into one when I do this to your loved one!" Rousse yelled out.
"Loved one?!" The two words rang out in both Luffy and Nami's mind as both of them blushed for a moment. However, Nami's face turned to fear as Rousse gripped tighter on the handle of his gun while Luffy's face was of extreme anger. Without hesitation, he pulled his arm back thrusted it forward at the gun. It landed right on his knuckles, causing Rousse to drop his gun and his hand to be extremely sore. He then grabbed his hand and leapt forward, ready to punch Rousse in the face. He soon landed right in front of him and swung at his face. Rousse, however, shifted his head to the right and swung his head downward at Luffy's forehead as hard as he can.
When his forehead landed agaisnt his forehead, Luffy let go of his hand and stepped back. He rubbed his head real quick, then took another quick swing at Rousse. This time, Rousse was hit and he was sent flying towards that same tree that Luffy landed against earlier.
"I've had enough of you! You've threatened to destroy my most prized possession and kill my friend! Don't you ever go near my sight again!!" Luffy yelled out at Rousse as he struggled to get up.
He soon began to chuckle a little as he got up on his knees and slowly got up.
"What's so funny?!" Luffy shouted at him.
Rousse lifted his head and showed a gentle smile on his face despite one cheek starting to turn swollen. "You really are strong, Luffy. Moreso than I expected."
He walked forward and stood in front of Luffy who was ready to punch him in the face again. Rousse suddenly said which surprised Luffy and Nami. "I'm sorry for offending and making you mad. I only wanted to see you fight with all your power so that I can find out why you're so strong."
Luffy blinked then looked at him very suspeciously. "Oooookay....."
"Tell me, Luffy. How are you able to fight like that? I've only seen you use that one punch while you were at sea alone." Rousse asked, remembering the time when he had just started to sail on his own too. He was drifting as well since he had little to no navigational skills. He remembered seeing Luffy on his rowboat standing up to a huge sea monster that had frequented that area for a while. He used his Gum Gum Pistol attack to knock out the poor monster in one shot.
"Oh....that! Well, I ate this weird fruit called the Gum Gum Fruit! It's supposed to make your body like rubber, but you won't be able to swim ever again." He said back a bit enthusiastically.
"Gum Gum Fruit, you say? Well, seems like a small price to pay for power like that." Rousse replied, taking a quick glance at Nami, who was still a little frightened of him.
"Hey Mister! Why are you out at sea anyway? Are you a pirate or part of the Navy?" Luffy asked.
Rousse shook his head and said right back, his eyes focusing on Nami's frightened look then Luffy's curiousity. "You can call me a wandering mercenary. I do rather dangerous jobs for other people, but I only take jobs that are for naturally good people. Also, I guess you can say I'm running away from my home and I'm preparing to come back sometime in the future."
Nami suddenly blinked and looked at Rousse, now a little bit more intrigued by who Rousse is. "Running away from home, yet you're coming back in the future?"
"That's right, Miss." Rousse said to her.
Nami remained silent as both Luffy looked back and forth between Rousse and Nami. He finally interrupted by saying. "Well, I'm sorry to stop talking, but I'm starting to get hungry! Nami, shall we go look around some more?"
She nodded her head, but then turned back to Rousse for a moment. Rousse noticed her looking at him and turned to Luffy. "Actually, would it be too much if I can talk with....Nami here for a moment?"
Luffy blinked and hesitatntly said to him. "Okay...I guess. Nami, don't be too long! It's kinda hard to search alone."
"Okay, I won't be too long." She replied.
While Luffy went off into the woods again, Rousse and Nami walked over to that same rock she and Luffy were sitting at a moment ago.
Both of them were figuring out what to say when Nami finally broke the silence and said. "So......if you do not mind, what are you running away from at home?"
"Um...." Rousse thought about it for a moment and said. "Since I don't really know you that well, I'll just say this. I'm running away from my family. You see, my entire family was involved in crime, and they all enjoyed it. However, I was the only one who hated it. When my father committed a rather horrible crime, I had to tell the Navy. They came over and arrested nearly my entire family. However, only my father and my brother and their crew were the only ones left. I had to pack up my stuff and leave to make sure they never know I was the one who turned them in. Unfortunately, when I was packing my weapons, they found out and their crew was chasing to kill me. I had barely snuck away from them and went out to sea."
"Oh....." Nami said, feeling herself equally stunned by both Luffy's and Rousse's history. "I see why you're running away, but why do you want to come back?"
"Because, Miss Nami, my family that was in prison told the Navy that I was part of their crime circle and wanted a way out. Because of that, I'm guilty by association, and I can't really go back and prove myself innocent. However, since my father and my brother are out at sea, if I can catch them and bring them back to the Navy there, I should be free of my accused crime forever." He said.
Nami remained silent as he finished what he had to say very quickly. "There's something else too. I heard that the Navy had a recent fallout with one of it's smaller battalions. From what I've researched, this batallion went renegade and AWOL so that they can do what they felt was necessary to end piracy. Basically, they're dangerous vigilantes without any motive or cause to acheive. I think that the Navy that had arrived to arrested nearly my entire family were the same vigilantes who left the Navy."
"Hmm...that's awful, Mister. I'm sorry." She said while patting him on the back.
"Thanks, Nami." He said with a faint smile on his face, the swollen cheek slowly receding. "But how about you?" You seem so interested in what I've had to say. Did something similar happen to you?"
Nami crept away from him as she sputtered out, "I...I see. Well, since you're not a pirate, I'll tell you this. I'm trying to pay off a huge debt that I owe a really bad pirate. I have to pay the debt and buy back the island where I was born. My mother was going to pay it, but when she said she had no children, me and my sister foolishly rushed in and hugged her, not knowing what she had just said. She died, but she got to hold us at least one last time." Soon, her eyes grew very water as she continued on. "That same pirate placed the debt on me back then, and since then, I've had to save up all my money so that I can buy back my home....."
Rousse showed a face of sadness as he sympathized with Nami over what has happened to her when she was young. He too patted her on the back and said to her, "Listen, Nami, I'm real sorry over what's happened. If it were me, I'd go beat up that evil pirate, and since you have Luffy, you should be able to whoop him quite easily!"
"It's not as simple as that......" She muttered. She then looked at him with a tear begnning to generate on the edge of her eyes. "But still, thank you for listening. I just wish I can tell Luffy that."
Rousse smiled gently at Nami and stood up. "Well, I'm sorry, but I must be going. I too, have to search for food, or else I'll starve." He turned to Nami and winked at her with a thumbs-up. "Remember what I said, okay? There's still a chance to do something about it than save up money!"
"I will." She said, wiping away the tiny tears that had appeared on the edge of her eyes. Rousse walked off as Nami held herself close and bent her head. She soon began to tear up again as she wondered what to do.
From behind her, Luffy sat there crouching and overhearing the conversation. He had in his hands a collection of fruit he had found, even one small fruit with tiny swirls on the outside of the fruit. He was going to walk in, but then he heard both of Nami's and Rousse's stories. Not wanting to interrupt the moment, he sat back and listened. However, he didn't want to walk in now and have Nami assume he was spying on her.
Soon, he felt his heart beating a little bit faster as he stared at Nami from the sad, seeing her cry. "Nami...."
That name repeated in his mind for a few moments as his face turned slightly red too. After a few moments of thinking, Luffy got an idea. He gathered all the fruit he had and held it all together with his one arm. He then grabbed a branch and stepped back, letting it stretch a few meters. "I hope this works...."
Luffy leapt off his feet and he soon propelled through the branches and screamed right over Nami's head, colliding right into another tree.
She sweatdropped and walked over to Luffy. When he opened his eyes, she yelled out, "You moron! What caused you to do that?!"
"Well....I was a little far off than I had expected, so I used my Gum Gum Rocket to get me here faster. I must have misjudged how far I went." Luffy said very weakly, his head now hurting quite a bit.
Nami groaned and sighed. She picked up all the fruit he had dropped and placed it on his lap. She then grabbed him by the back of his vest and dragged him back to the ship.
"Boy....some guy I've taken a liking to..." She thought to herself, not realizing the words she had just thought out.
Meanwhile, Luffy grinned under the shadow of his hat and thought to himself. "Nami, I do understand your situation, and when you tell me about it one day, I'll surely help you, but for now, I'll remain quiet. It'll best for both you and me....."
When they got back to the ship, the bottom part of the ship's front hull was fixed completely while the top half was starting to be rebuilt. Zoro and Usopp wiped the sweat off their foreheads as they put down their tools and went to pick their selection of fruit that was now spread out in front of them.
Soon, everyone had a fruit of their own. Zoro had his hands on an apple while Nami was eating a tangerine rather enthusiastically. Usopp had gotten a pear of his own while Luffy ended up with that strange fruit he really didn't feel like eating.
When Zoro had finished eating his apple, he saw Luffy trying to decide what to do with the weird fruit he had. He looked over and asked, "Uh....Luffy, aren't you going to eat that?"
He looked back at Zoro and said. "Oh, I am, it's just that I've thinking about where else I've seen this fruit from. It's kinda familiar...."
"Ah, okay." Zora said, pitching his apple core into the forest in front of them. Suddenly, Luffy gasped and stood up. Everyone asked what it was when Luffy said rather nervously, "This.......this is the Gum Gum Fruit!"
They gasped right back at him as he wondered what to do with it. He was really hungry, yet he didn't want to eat it out of fear at what would happen if he ate more of it. He decided to go with his fear and he tossed it back into the woods.
Everyone took a deep breath, happy Luffy made the right choice. Usopp finally stepped up and said,"Wow....I've seen that fruit too when I was....out exploring with my crew a long time ago....yeah...."
Luffy ignored him and said back to him. "Yeah.....but what was weird was that I saw lots of trees near the middle of the island with fruit like that!"
"WHAT?!!!" Everyone yelled out as they were stunned by this new discovery.
~
Rousse sat against a tall tropic tree, thinking about what to do now. He had found no edible food, and now that he had realized what the Gum Gum Fruit can do if consumed, he wasn't so confident if he should eat it. He was rather tempted tho since he was sittind right next to a collection of trees that bear the Gum Gum Fruit upon it's branches!
As Rousse struggled with his hunger and his fear, he felt something hit the top of his head. He reached behind him and found what had hit him. It was the Gum Gum Fruit that Luffy had tossed in the middle of the woods that same moment from the shore. Rousse really wanted to eat the fruit and be satisfied of his hunger, but he didn't want to inherit the powers after all. In the end, hunger was stronger than pride as he greedily consumed the fruit in a few big bites.
Soon, Rousse relaxed as he was quite full with the fruit. After a few minutes, he felt his energy returning as he stood up, eager to test his streching powers.
He stepped back and pulled his arm back, eager to imitate Luffy's attack. He knows that the fruit would work immediately on him, so he pulled it even further back and thrusted forward. However, it didn't stretch like it was supposed to. He got angry and tried it again, but that didn't work either.
Rousse then got an idea. He grabbed onto one of the trees and walked as far as he can. However, his arm didn't stretch. He figured that maybe the fruit would take a long while to take effect, so he waited an hour. He was suspecious since it worked immediately on Luffy although he wasn't able to control it at first.
After waiting an hour, he held onto the base of the tree and walked again. However, his arm didn't stretch. In fact, nothing worked at all.
As Rousse stood by the tree and looked at the palm of his hands, he thought to himself, "This....this isn't the real Gum Gum Fruit at all..........."
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Ch.2 done! Now working on Ch.3
Preview of Ch.3 - Rousse tells all about his family's crime connections and tells of a secret project funded by other pirates simply dubbed "Project: Gum-Gum Power"; Luffy tries to explain his new-found feelings for Nami as she finds herself becoming more happier by the moment; Rousse is knocked out and is kidnapped aboard his father's ship! Will a family reunion take place, or will his father and brother punish Rousse for turning his entire family in?
Thanks for reading! Read and Review Please! ^___^ Special Thanks for Sylphiel for giving me help on detail on the One Piece storyline. ^^
Written by Steven Kunz the Fan Author
Disclaimer: I do not own nor invent One Piece. This excellent manga was written and drawn by Eiichiro Oda.
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As Rousse walked through the thick foilage of this seemingly huge forest, his minds focus back before the ship crash, before the storm, and before he went to the Naval Base Town.
What his mind was focusing on the few moments before he went out to sea and while he was out at sea in the beginning, he managed to get a glimpse of Straw Hat Luffy at work with his powers.
His mind drifts back to the moment where Rousse was about to leave at sea. He sees in his mind himself running away carrying a wooden box, and next to him was a young woman running besides him, telling him to stop.
Soon, Rousse got to the boat and tossed the box in there. It landed on the edge of the ship, causing it to open and inside were his samurai sword and his two favorite pistols. He smiled and thought to himself, "Good."
Soon, the young woman catches up to him, but then trips and lands right into his chest and was caught by Rousse's arms around her.
She blinked for a moment, then stood herself up and looked into his eyes as he looked right back into hers. He quickly took a quick glance up and down her. She had dark brown hair with red highlets, and she wore a cotton black vest with a white blouse underneath, a dark blue skirts, and black shoes that were meant to be worn for women. She blushed for a second as she noticed him looking up and down and said, "What are you looking at? Besides, you have to go before they catch you! This is no real time to say Goodbye!"
Rousse smiled and whispered in her ear, "Hey, don't worry, Jen. Whatever happens, I'll come back for sure, I promise."
She smiled and leaned forward, wanting him to kiss her when all of a sudden, he pushed her off the dock and into the ocean. He quickly got onto the dinghy, adjusted the sails so that the wind would push him forward, and he began to row forward out of the dock.
Soon, the young woman poked her head out of the water and yelled, "Hey! What was that for?!"
Before Rousse went totally out of sight, he smiled widely and said, "Like I said, there's no time for goodbyes, and if anyone asked, you tried to stop the bad guy, but didn't succeed."
She blinked, then chuckled and smiled right back at him. "Okay.....I hope you come back someday! Don't ever forget me!!"
"I won't. Goodbye, Jennifer!" He yelled and waved back before his ship was just a tiny dot on what appeared to be the other side of the ocean for Jennifer.
Rousse continued to move through the foilage like it was a huge net. As he kept moving across, a small tear ran across his cheek, remember Jennifer and how he left her behind.
He went across a huge leaf and he accidently brushed his cheek against the tip of it. He stopped and looked at his tear, which had moved into the tiny bits of dew at the tip of the leaf. Soon, the tear was at the very end, and it went away from the tip of the leaf to a small white flower that hasn't bloomed yet. When the tear landed on the flower, it caused it to spread it's petals apart, showing a white ring on the outer edges of the flower and a slightly darker tint of white in the inner part of the flower.
Rousse smiled and picked up the flower. He sniffed it real quick and muttered to herself, "A perfect gift for her...." He hooked the flower to his shirt with a pin and smiled. "That will keep it safe until I see her again."
With that in mind, he kept walking forward towards the center of the island.
~
"Luffy!!" Nami yelled at Luffy again. She was yelling at him because Luffy wanted something sweet to eat, and decided to use his stretching powers to take a look at some of the trees nearby. However, instead of looking at some of the trees, he looked at all the trees, which really was making Nami mad. She wasn't interested in searching every tree. Instead, she wanted to explore more of the center of the island because it seemed more appropriate to find some food since it was more likely to appear there.
Soon, Luffy finished looking through his latest tree and got himself back to normal. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "There's nothing here, Nami. Let's go."
They were going to go when Nami looked at Luffy and noticed he was missing something. She pointed behind him to the same tree he looked.
He blinked and turned around, gasping at what he saw. It was his favorite hat and it was caught between a few branches. When he saw his hat, he felt a little lighter as he placed his hand on his head, feeling his hair. Immediately, he stretched his arms upward so that he can grab his hat carefully and put it back on his head.
As Luffy was doing that, Nami stared at him. She was still a bit in awe over his powers, but what she was in awe was Luffy himself. Staring at his face, she smiled since Luffy was very inexperienced and an amateur at being a pirate, yet he was very determined on being the King of Pirates, and his determination often overlapped his inexperience which made him a great leader.
When he got his hat back, he placed it on his head and turned to Nami, who had a pink blush on his face. He blinked and asked, "Nami, what's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"
She shook off her blush and replied. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just....well...you told me a friend of yours gave you that hat, which gave you the motivation to be a pirate, right?"
"Uh huh. That's right." He said, taking off his hat and giving it to Nami for a moment.
She looked all around it and asked, handing the hat back to Luffy. "Well....who did this belong to, Luffy?"
"Well...." He said, putting the hat back on his head. "This belonged to a great man, at least a great man to me. He was a pirate too, and everyone called him 'Red-Haired' Shanks."
She nodded as she sat herself down on whatever she could find, which was a huge rock that was on the ground. She patted the ground, telling Luffy to come sit next to her. When he walked over to her and sat down right next to her, she bent her head and sifted her hair with her fingers, hiding the blush on her face.
Luffy didn't notice her blush as he took off his hat, handed it to Nami, and continued on with his story. "You see, when I was a child, Shanks and his own crew were using my hometown as a base of operations for one year. I suppose I was impressed with what he was doing, and I wanted to go on an adventure like he was doing everytime he went on another voyage. However, he had always said I was simply too young to go with him and his crew on an adventure. I got so frustrated that I stabbed myself in the face with a knife to prove how tough I thought I was." He stopped for a moment and pointed to the left side of his face, where there was a small scar right below his left eye.
Nami nodded her and lifted her arm, gently brushing her fingers across his scar. Her face turned slightly redder as he touched him. She lowered her arm and bent her head again slightly lower, hoping Luffy didn't see the blush. She said very quietly, "Go on. Is there anything else, Luffy?"
He did notice the blush on her face and looked at her in confusion. However, he didn't want to pry and ask what was wrong with Nami, so he continued on. "Anyway, on that same day, a bad group of mountain bandits came to our town and started to make fun of Shanks and make a mess of the bar. Since he didn't fight back, I was going to search for a new role model, but then he grabbed my arm and it stretched. That's when I realized that the fruit I ate earlier while I was sitting with Shanks had made my body like rubber. However, as you already know, I ended up not being able to swim again for the rest of my life."
While Luffy thought about what to say next, Nami's heart pouned faster with each silent moment as she to thought about what to do next. "When I brushed my fingers against her scar, I almost wanted to grab his cheek and kiss him. Even though Luffy ain't the smartest guy in the world, he really is very loyal to his friends and very kind to his crew and to strangers. I...I don't know whether I really would love it if I can just hold him right now......"
Nami's thoughts suddenly drifted back to a long time ago, when she was a little girl. She remembered everything that has happened, and her sorrowful face suddenly grimaced as she yelled to herself, "He's a pirate though, and I hate pirates! I just hate them so much! All pirates, deep down, are eventually the same despite how nice they try to act!"
"Are you alright, Nami?" Luffy suddenly said, breaking Nami's concentration. He placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned at her.
"I think....I can just one exception for Luffy. He is unlike anyone I've met before." Nami thought to herself. She then looked at Luffy and she blushed slightly red without knowing it. "Yeah, Luffy, I'm fine."
He blinked and saw the blush on her face. "Are you sure, Nami? Your face is red. Are you sick?"
He placed a hand on her cheek and her face turned bright red as she felt her heart beat eveen faster and her face warming up due to her blushing. Luffy said. "Yeah....you are starting to warm up a little. Maybe we should get you back to where everyone is?"
She lifted her head and sputtered out. "N...no, no! I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm just a littie tired, that's all. We did leave the ship kinda early, you know?"
He nodded his head and grinned. "Yeah, I guess we did. You want to get back to searching for food?"
"In a minute." She smiled back at him with her face back to normal. She then scooted close to Luffy so that they'd be sitting right next to each other. "Can I hear the rest of your story first?"
"Sure!" He said quite loudly and went on. "When Shanks went on another voyage, those mountain bandits came back and were making fun of him. Because I had stood up for Shanks, I was being beaten up by those bandits when Shanks and his crew came and knocked them all out. I was about to be saved when the leader ran off with me onto a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. He kicked me off before I can punch him even once. After that, the local sea monster came up from behind and ate his ship. He was about to go for me when Shanks suddenly appeared and pulled me back. Unfortunately, he lost his arm in the process. At that moment, I did understand what Shanks meant I was too little to go on a voyage with him. I was just not strong and well-prepared enough to face monsters like that out in the middle of the sea. When he said back at my hometown that I would never become a pirate, that was when I said I'd be the King of Pirates. After that, he gave me his hat for safekeeping and left forever. 10 years after that, I finally left home to search for a crew. The rest of what happened after that is stuff everyone knows about already."
Nami was taken back by his story as she tries to find the right words to express what she is feeling right now. "Wow...Luffy...that was amazing. I never knew you were so determined to become a pirate.."
"Yeah...well, I'm far more determined than you think!" He said very loudly, not caring about who heard it.
Nami didn't really pay attention to that. She bent her again to attempt to hide the blush. All she wanted to do now was to hold Luffy and whisper how she feels. "Please....let me have courage.........."
However, that moment was interrupted when they both heard rustling from one side of where they were sitting. They both leapt off the rock and peered toward where the rustling came from. A sound like someone tripping and crashing over many layers of branches and leaves was heard from the other side.
"Aw, Damn!!!" A voice was heard as someone came crashing down from where the sounds came from and landed flat on his face. When he landed onto the ground, a single flintock pistol was shuffled from him and settled a few feet away from him. Engraved on the gun was the name, "Rousse Le-Onne."
He slowly got up on his knees, struggling a little to get up. He lifted his head a little and saw his gun on the ground. He reached for it and picked it up. When he did pick it up, he saw two pairs of feet. One pair was wearing sandals while the other was wearing boots.
"Oh, thank God! People are here!" He lifted his slowly and looked up at the faces of Luffy and Nami. "I'm really glad you're here, you see, I got shipwre......."
He stopped what he was going to say when he saw Luffy's face. He was so surprised that he leapt to his feet and placed his hands on his samurai sword, thinking. "Oh no! Not Luffy! I can't fight him now, and yet, this may be the only time I can fight him!"
Luffy blinked as Rousse unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Luffy. "Straw-Hat Luffy! I challenge you to a one and one duel right now! Come on, let's go!"
He looked at Rousse in confusion and said back. "What?! Hold on a minute! I just met you! We shouldn't fight at all!!"
Rousse raised an eyebrow at him and thought to himself, "Hmm....this can't be THE Luffy. The Luffy I've heard about from the leftover crew at Alvida's base and from those guys at the Naval Base is an extremely strong fighter, yet this guy won't even throw a punch."
He smirked as he got an idea. He raised his sword a little higher and pointed at his hat. "Why don't we make this fight interesting? If you win, I'll leave you alone forever, but if I win, you'll give me that straw hat!"
Luffy suddenly was in shock. He placed a firm hand on the top of his hat and spat out, "My hat?! No way! Besides, even if I put it up in a fight, what would you do with it?!"
"Use it as kindling. That hat seems totally worthless to me." Rousse replied with an evil grin on his face.
"WHAT?!" Luffy yelled at Rousse. He grabbed his hat and handed it to Nami. "Here. Keep it safe for me, please!"
Before even Nami could say a word, Luffy pulled his arm back and thrusted his arm at Rousse as hard and as fast as he can, stretching it as far as he can towards Rousse. He simply lifted his Samurai Sword and blocked it. He did under-estimate Luffy's strength as he felt himself being pushed back a few feet. When Luffy finished his first punch, he pulled his other arm back and pulled it forward, streching his arm and fist toward Rousse's face. He countered again by raising his arm and grabbing Luffy's fist. However, when he grabbed it, the palm of his hand became immediately sore.
"Wow! He's stronger than I thought!" Rousse thought to himself. He was going to push Luffy's arms back by stepping forward, but then Luffy used his fingers to grab the flat of his sword and he shifted his wrist of his other hand so that he'd be grabbing his thumb and part of his wrist. He then leapt forward and moved his body forward so that it could go back to normal. Rousse gasped as he quickly figured out what to do. He simply dropped his weapons and fell backwards so that he can lie on his back.
"Agh!!!!" Luffy yelled out as his plan backfired as he felt himself flying over Rousse and landing hard against a tree. When he got off the ground and rubbed his head, he gasped as Rousse had one of his pistols raised at Nami.
"All right, Straw-Hat Luffy! You're not the great fighter I had hoped, but maybe you'll turn into one when I do this to your loved one!" Rousse yelled out.
"Loved one?!" The two words rang out in both Luffy and Nami's mind as both of them blushed for a moment. However, Nami's face turned to fear as Rousse gripped tighter on the handle of his gun while Luffy's face was of extreme anger. Without hesitation, he pulled his arm back thrusted it forward at the gun. It landed right on his knuckles, causing Rousse to drop his gun and his hand to be extremely sore. He then grabbed his hand and leapt forward, ready to punch Rousse in the face. He soon landed right in front of him and swung at his face. Rousse, however, shifted his head to the right and swung his head downward at Luffy's forehead as hard as he can.
When his forehead landed agaisnt his forehead, Luffy let go of his hand and stepped back. He rubbed his head real quick, then took another quick swing at Rousse. This time, Rousse was hit and he was sent flying towards that same tree that Luffy landed against earlier.
"I've had enough of you! You've threatened to destroy my most prized possession and kill my friend! Don't you ever go near my sight again!!" Luffy yelled out at Rousse as he struggled to get up.
He soon began to chuckle a little as he got up on his knees and slowly got up.
"What's so funny?!" Luffy shouted at him.
Rousse lifted his head and showed a gentle smile on his face despite one cheek starting to turn swollen. "You really are strong, Luffy. Moreso than I expected."
He walked forward and stood in front of Luffy who was ready to punch him in the face again. Rousse suddenly said which surprised Luffy and Nami. "I'm sorry for offending and making you mad. I only wanted to see you fight with all your power so that I can find out why you're so strong."
Luffy blinked then looked at him very suspeciously. "Oooookay....."
"Tell me, Luffy. How are you able to fight like that? I've only seen you use that one punch while you were at sea alone." Rousse asked, remembering the time when he had just started to sail on his own too. He was drifting as well since he had little to no navigational skills. He remembered seeing Luffy on his rowboat standing up to a huge sea monster that had frequented that area for a while. He used his Gum Gum Pistol attack to knock out the poor monster in one shot.
"Oh....that! Well, I ate this weird fruit called the Gum Gum Fruit! It's supposed to make your body like rubber, but you won't be able to swim ever again." He said back a bit enthusiastically.
"Gum Gum Fruit, you say? Well, seems like a small price to pay for power like that." Rousse replied, taking a quick glance at Nami, who was still a little frightened of him.
"Hey Mister! Why are you out at sea anyway? Are you a pirate or part of the Navy?" Luffy asked.
Rousse shook his head and said right back, his eyes focusing on Nami's frightened look then Luffy's curiousity. "You can call me a wandering mercenary. I do rather dangerous jobs for other people, but I only take jobs that are for naturally good people. Also, I guess you can say I'm running away from my home and I'm preparing to come back sometime in the future."
Nami suddenly blinked and looked at Rousse, now a little bit more intrigued by who Rousse is. "Running away from home, yet you're coming back in the future?"
"That's right, Miss." Rousse said to her.
Nami remained silent as both Luffy looked back and forth between Rousse and Nami. He finally interrupted by saying. "Well, I'm sorry to stop talking, but I'm starting to get hungry! Nami, shall we go look around some more?"
She nodded her head, but then turned back to Rousse for a moment. Rousse noticed her looking at him and turned to Luffy. "Actually, would it be too much if I can talk with....Nami here for a moment?"
Luffy blinked and hesitatntly said to him. "Okay...I guess. Nami, don't be too long! It's kinda hard to search alone."
"Okay, I won't be too long." She replied.
While Luffy went off into the woods again, Rousse and Nami walked over to that same rock she and Luffy were sitting at a moment ago.
Both of them were figuring out what to say when Nami finally broke the silence and said. "So......if you do not mind, what are you running away from at home?"
"Um...." Rousse thought about it for a moment and said. "Since I don't really know you that well, I'll just say this. I'm running away from my family. You see, my entire family was involved in crime, and they all enjoyed it. However, I was the only one who hated it. When my father committed a rather horrible crime, I had to tell the Navy. They came over and arrested nearly my entire family. However, only my father and my brother and their crew were the only ones left. I had to pack up my stuff and leave to make sure they never know I was the one who turned them in. Unfortunately, when I was packing my weapons, they found out and their crew was chasing to kill me. I had barely snuck away from them and went out to sea."
"Oh....." Nami said, feeling herself equally stunned by both Luffy's and Rousse's history. "I see why you're running away, but why do you want to come back?"
"Because, Miss Nami, my family that was in prison told the Navy that I was part of their crime circle and wanted a way out. Because of that, I'm guilty by association, and I can't really go back and prove myself innocent. However, since my father and my brother are out at sea, if I can catch them and bring them back to the Navy there, I should be free of my accused crime forever." He said.
Nami remained silent as he finished what he had to say very quickly. "There's something else too. I heard that the Navy had a recent fallout with one of it's smaller battalions. From what I've researched, this batallion went renegade and AWOL so that they can do what they felt was necessary to end piracy. Basically, they're dangerous vigilantes without any motive or cause to acheive. I think that the Navy that had arrived to arrested nearly my entire family were the same vigilantes who left the Navy."
"Hmm...that's awful, Mister. I'm sorry." She said while patting him on the back.
"Thanks, Nami." He said with a faint smile on his face, the swollen cheek slowly receding. "But how about you?" You seem so interested in what I've had to say. Did something similar happen to you?"
Nami crept away from him as she sputtered out, "I...I see. Well, since you're not a pirate, I'll tell you this. I'm trying to pay off a huge debt that I owe a really bad pirate. I have to pay the debt and buy back the island where I was born. My mother was going to pay it, but when she said she had no children, me and my sister foolishly rushed in and hugged her, not knowing what she had just said. She died, but she got to hold us at least one last time." Soon, her eyes grew very water as she continued on. "That same pirate placed the debt on me back then, and since then, I've had to save up all my money so that I can buy back my home....."
Rousse showed a face of sadness as he sympathized with Nami over what has happened to her when she was young. He too patted her on the back and said to her, "Listen, Nami, I'm real sorry over what's happened. If it were me, I'd go beat up that evil pirate, and since you have Luffy, you should be able to whoop him quite easily!"
"It's not as simple as that......" She muttered. She then looked at him with a tear begnning to generate on the edge of her eyes. "But still, thank you for listening. I just wish I can tell Luffy that."
Rousse smiled gently at Nami and stood up. "Well, I'm sorry, but I must be going. I too, have to search for food, or else I'll starve." He turned to Nami and winked at her with a thumbs-up. "Remember what I said, okay? There's still a chance to do something about it than save up money!"
"I will." She said, wiping away the tiny tears that had appeared on the edge of her eyes. Rousse walked off as Nami held herself close and bent her head. She soon began to tear up again as she wondered what to do.
From behind her, Luffy sat there crouching and overhearing the conversation. He had in his hands a collection of fruit he had found, even one small fruit with tiny swirls on the outside of the fruit. He was going to walk in, but then he heard both of Nami's and Rousse's stories. Not wanting to interrupt the moment, he sat back and listened. However, he didn't want to walk in now and have Nami assume he was spying on her.
Soon, he felt his heart beating a little bit faster as he stared at Nami from the sad, seeing her cry. "Nami...."
That name repeated in his mind for a few moments as his face turned slightly red too. After a few moments of thinking, Luffy got an idea. He gathered all the fruit he had and held it all together with his one arm. He then grabbed a branch and stepped back, letting it stretch a few meters. "I hope this works...."
Luffy leapt off his feet and he soon propelled through the branches and screamed right over Nami's head, colliding right into another tree.
She sweatdropped and walked over to Luffy. When he opened his eyes, she yelled out, "You moron! What caused you to do that?!"
"Well....I was a little far off than I had expected, so I used my Gum Gum Rocket to get me here faster. I must have misjudged how far I went." Luffy said very weakly, his head now hurting quite a bit.
Nami groaned and sighed. She picked up all the fruit he had dropped and placed it on his lap. She then grabbed him by the back of his vest and dragged him back to the ship.
"Boy....some guy I've taken a liking to..." She thought to herself, not realizing the words she had just thought out.
Meanwhile, Luffy grinned under the shadow of his hat and thought to himself. "Nami, I do understand your situation, and when you tell me about it one day, I'll surely help you, but for now, I'll remain quiet. It'll best for both you and me....."
When they got back to the ship, the bottom part of the ship's front hull was fixed completely while the top half was starting to be rebuilt. Zoro and Usopp wiped the sweat off their foreheads as they put down their tools and went to pick their selection of fruit that was now spread out in front of them.
Soon, everyone had a fruit of their own. Zoro had his hands on an apple while Nami was eating a tangerine rather enthusiastically. Usopp had gotten a pear of his own while Luffy ended up with that strange fruit he really didn't feel like eating.
When Zoro had finished eating his apple, he saw Luffy trying to decide what to do with the weird fruit he had. He looked over and asked, "Uh....Luffy, aren't you going to eat that?"
He looked back at Zoro and said. "Oh, I am, it's just that I've thinking about where else I've seen this fruit from. It's kinda familiar...."
"Ah, okay." Zora said, pitching his apple core into the forest in front of them. Suddenly, Luffy gasped and stood up. Everyone asked what it was when Luffy said rather nervously, "This.......this is the Gum Gum Fruit!"
They gasped right back at him as he wondered what to do with it. He was really hungry, yet he didn't want to eat it out of fear at what would happen if he ate more of it. He decided to go with his fear and he tossed it back into the woods.
Everyone took a deep breath, happy Luffy made the right choice. Usopp finally stepped up and said,"Wow....I've seen that fruit too when I was....out exploring with my crew a long time ago....yeah...."
Luffy ignored him and said back to him. "Yeah.....but what was weird was that I saw lots of trees near the middle of the island with fruit like that!"
"WHAT?!!!" Everyone yelled out as they were stunned by this new discovery.
~
Rousse sat against a tall tropic tree, thinking about what to do now. He had found no edible food, and now that he had realized what the Gum Gum Fruit can do if consumed, he wasn't so confident if he should eat it. He was rather tempted tho since he was sittind right next to a collection of trees that bear the Gum Gum Fruit upon it's branches!
As Rousse struggled with his hunger and his fear, he felt something hit the top of his head. He reached behind him and found what had hit him. It was the Gum Gum Fruit that Luffy had tossed in the middle of the woods that same moment from the shore. Rousse really wanted to eat the fruit and be satisfied of his hunger, but he didn't want to inherit the powers after all. In the end, hunger was stronger than pride as he greedily consumed the fruit in a few big bites.
Soon, Rousse relaxed as he was quite full with the fruit. After a few minutes, he felt his energy returning as he stood up, eager to test his streching powers.
He stepped back and pulled his arm back, eager to imitate Luffy's attack. He knows that the fruit would work immediately on him, so he pulled it even further back and thrusted forward. However, it didn't stretch like it was supposed to. He got angry and tried it again, but that didn't work either.
Rousse then got an idea. He grabbed onto one of the trees and walked as far as he can. However, his arm didn't stretch. He figured that maybe the fruit would take a long while to take effect, so he waited an hour. He was suspecious since it worked immediately on Luffy although he wasn't able to control it at first.
After waiting an hour, he held onto the base of the tree and walked again. However, his arm didn't stretch. In fact, nothing worked at all.
As Rousse stood by the tree and looked at the palm of his hands, he thought to himself, "This....this isn't the real Gum Gum Fruit at all..........."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Ch.2 done! Now working on Ch.3
Preview of Ch.3 - Rousse tells all about his family's crime connections and tells of a secret project funded by other pirates simply dubbed "Project: Gum-Gum Power"; Luffy tries to explain his new-found feelings for Nami as she finds herself becoming more happier by the moment; Rousse is knocked out and is kidnapped aboard his father's ship! Will a family reunion take place, or will his father and brother punish Rousse for turning his entire family in?
Thanks for reading! Read and Review Please! ^___^ Special Thanks for Sylphiel for giving me help on detail on the One Piece storyline. ^^