Talking Blues
By Chou

Chapter 3 – The Three Players Are Ready

"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! New casino opens in Rainbase, Alabasta! Biggest casino in the world!" a diminutive newsboy shouted at the corner of a busy intersection. He had gathered up breath for another attention grabbing shouting session when a voice cut him off.

"Hey, I'll take one." The newsboy turned to see a smiling young man with his hands shoved in his pockets. A straw hat sat easily on top of the young man's wild black hair. The kid's eyes widened in recognition. Monkey D. Luffy was something of a celebrity in the city.

"Sure, Mister Luffy. That'll be 1 Berry, if ya please." He stuck out one tiny hand palm up, and handed the newspaper to Luffy with the other. Luffy flipped him a Berry coin and tucked the newspaper under his arm as he walked off.

"Thanks, kiddo." He called over his shoulder and the newsboy beamed. Then he gathered all the air in his tiny lungs and shouted the headlines to passerby.


Monkey D. Luffy strolled easily to the steps of Party's Bar and sat down. He read the front page of the newspaper, taking in the article and picture about the biggest casino in the world. His already wide grin grew even bigger.

After Shanks left, Luffy had taken it upon himself to learn all he could about grifting, thievery, and big cons. He had traveled a bit, but like Shanks before him, had made this city, and specifically, Party's Bar, his home base. He'd done some small jobs, with some nice payoffs, but mostly he had just wanted to get his name out there a bit before he went in for a big score. Now, the chance he had been waiting for was staring him in the face in grainy black and white. After finishing the article, he read the funnies as usual, and went inside Party's, his grin ear to ear.


Makino looked up as Luffy entered. The years had been kind to Makino, and other than somewhat longer hair, she hadn't changed much from Luffy's childhood. She had gotten a few letters from Shanks, but not many. After the fracas with Higuma's gang, Shanks' gang was on the run most of the time, which made letters a rare luxury. But they came, without expecting a return letter, and she didn't ask for much more, really.

Luffy broke her out of her reverie by tossing the newspaper front page up in front of her on the bar.

"That" Luffy said, pointing at the picture of the casino and grinning from ear to ear "is going to be my big score.

Makino glanced over the article. "Clark Dell's new Raindinners casino in Alabasta?"

Luffy laughed "Yep. I'm gonna head out tomorrow to get a crew. Yasopp's son, he's on my list. And old man Zeff, you remember him, he'll supply the heist, I think. I kinda wrecked a bit of his restaurant last time I was up there, but I worked it off, so I think he forgives me…"

It was almost night by the time Luffy had finished laying out his plan. It called for a crew of seven to ten. Luffy knew a few places to look, had a few people he could call. But it was still going to need a hell of a lot of luck to be pulled off.

Not that this was anything new when it came to Luffy's plans, truth be told.
 

At the Headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sergeant Tashigi took a deep breath as she walked down the hall to her chief's office. She had gotten a memo to come at 10 A.M. sharp, and quote "not be late or it's your ass." end quote. She might've been offended, but that was how the chief talked to everyone. From beat cops to governors, he didn't care who he offended, he said what he wanted, when he wanted, and didn't beat around the bush with what he called "jackass chatter."

To be honest, Tashigi was proud to work under him. She was proud to work in the Corps, if truth be told. It was a rare, rare thing for a woman to even be accepted to training, let alone make sergeant. To her knowledge, she was only the third woman to even be accepted. One of the other women had been killed off duty, and the other had made captain, through some marvel of hard work and determination. She was sure that rumor she heard about Captain Hina punching out a captain for calling a premature withdrawal during a bust was grossly exaggerated.

Besides, her chief was something of a legend. As a rookie, he had helped capture Gold Roger, actually encountering the famous thief and being the one to cuff him after Roger surrendered.

Tashigi came to the door of the office. She could smell her chief's cigars from here. Tashigi noted a clock on the wall that read 9:59 and smiled briefly before knocking on the door three times as the clock ticked away to 10 o' clock.

"Come in." barked a gravelly voice from behind the oak door. Tashigi opened the door to her chief's office, took a deep breath, and went in.

"Close the door, Tashigi." Came the voice from behind a cloud of cigar smoke. She closed it and stood with her arms behind her back.

"Captain Smoker, you wanted to see me?" Tashigi stared straight ahead and kept her back straight. There were no chairs in Smoker's office besides his. He thought chairs made his men soft.

"Yeah, I did. The higher ups have given us a new assignment. They think that Clark Dell's new cash cow might be a big target for any two-bit mug with a plan and a gang. So, we're shipping out to go play watchdog over it." The curtain of smoke cleared a bit, and Tashigi noticed that her chief did not look pleased by this assignment. Granted, Smoker wore a perpetual scowl, but if one looked carefully, one could tell when he was actually pissed as opposed to naturally grumpy.

"Doesn't Dell have his own security, captain?" Tashigi asked him carefully.

"Sure does. But, he's a crook, is men are crooks, and as you can imagine, ain't too reliable. Besides, and this doesn't leave this office, Dell's one of those crooks the government's making deals with, him and six others. So the higher ups wanna guard their interests." Smoker ground out his cigar in disgust as he spoke.

Tashigi nodded "I understand, captain."

Smoker lit another cigar. "Good. Now get outta here. We're too busy to be standing around."

Tashigi nodded and walked out. "Yes, captain."


In Rainbase, Alabasta Clark Dell lit a cigar that cost more than most people's houses and looked out the window of his spacious office over the casino. His personal assistant, Nico Robin, stood behind him in a smart looking strapless purple dress under a snow-white fur coat.

"So, the Feds want to watch this casino, Nico, is that right? Presumably for thieves trying to get in." He said, without turning.

"Yes, Mr. Dell." Said the woman in the purple dress.

"Hm. Our security is in place, of course?"

"Yes."

"Good. The Feds will come, see a mostly legit and very secure gambling facility, and be gone. Understood?"

"Yes. Our men will be ready for anything. After all, its what we pay them for."

He turned then, and smiled, with teeth as white as bones on the desert floor clamped around his cigar.

"A grand opening, isn't it, Nico?" he said with a voice as smooth as eroded rocks.

"Yes it is, Mr. Dell." Nico said with a quiet little smile.


Author's Notes:

Hahaha, I sure get a lot of questions in the reviews for this fic. Maybe that means I'm a bad writer? o_O

Q. How is a one armed thief better off than a one armed pirate?

A. TB Shanks is a conman. He needs to be forgettable so he can pull off con after con. A one armed man sticks out like the sore thumb he doesn't have any more. Secondly, for the daring thief who needs to carry money bags with one hand, and shoot, open windows for escape, swing from ropes, with the other, one arm is bad. Meanwhile, Shanks the pirate has a whole crew who can work the ship for him. All he needs to do is fight, and say "Hey, let's go there." Shanks can fight, we know this from Mihawk. And he can tell people where to go. Yes, I realize a captain's duties are more than that…in real life. But this is One Piece. Reality stretches like Luffy's cheek when he wants to freak people out.  Shanks crew isn't going to get rid of him if he doesn't work around the ship. They're nakama, and nakama don't do that.

Q. Shouldn't it be Lucky Lou?

A. Well, I always heard Roo or Roux. I like Roo because it looks jollier to me. Weird I know, but there you are. Shiru-san had this nice review backing up my choice…but she posted it on the wrong fic :) Here it is:

"According to RED, it's Lucky Roo. Before Red came out though, people had spelled it Lucky Roux (red in french) which is probably what Oda was going for anyway, so that's also generally considered "fanon"."

Q. Will there be Devil Fruit powers?

A. Devil Fruit powers will not be used here, because I don't think they make much sense in the context of the story.

Q. Ah! This is an AU Alabasta Arc, isn't it?

A. Yes! Way to go, clever reader!

I thought that Crocodile looked like the sort of sleazy casino owner our intrepid thieves would steal from in this type of flick, so I used him. Besides, some members of BW lend themselves so well to the gangster style, in a Dick Tracy sort of way. Oh, and Clark Dell comes from my HK One Piece discs. I thought it would be a neat and clever little alias. Yes, I am a cheeky fic writer.

Oh, and much obliged to Shiru-san for helping me out with the names of various spots in the OP world. You rule.
 
Next chapter: Now that the three sides are set, its time for Luffy to start gathering his crew…