Three days after their departure with Crocus and Laboon, the Straw Hats had encountered only open sea for days. The weather had shifted terribly and often, as they faced awful storms, dead seas with no wind, waves that seemed to be bred from nowhere, and even a snowstorm on their first day after leaving Twin Capes. It hadn't been too particularly cold or long lasting; in fact, it amazed the Straw Hats, as aside from Zoro, none of them had ever seen snow before.
And while these excitements were enough to waylay Luffy's impatience for that one day, by the second, he was already whining that he wanted to reach a new island and enjoy meeting new people there. The day after, it had grown even worse. "I just want to get there already," Luffy groaned by the helm where Usopp and Nami stood. "Maybe we should check that Pose one more time."
"The Pose isn't lying to us, Luffy. The Grand Line lies around the widest part of the world, that's all. It's going to take some time for us to get to where we're going," Nami explained.
"Well, what if I use Captain's Orders to override that and make you check the Log Pose again?"Luffy asked, genuinely curious how that would work.
"Captain's Orders? You're the captain, they're just your orders," Nami sighed, walking from the helm to head inside the cabin and check on the Log Pose, leaving Usopp at the helm.
"Nami's a great navigator, Luffy! We chose the best there was, right? So why don't ya just trust her?" Usopp asked. "I know you're itching for adventure, but maybe we can just enjoy the voyage for a bit."
Luffy didn't have time to reply before they heard Nami scream from inside, followed by Sanji's clamoring around her to find out what's wrong. Zoro even stopped training at the stern to raise an eyebrow to the cabin door as Nami burst back outside, Sanji trailing behind her as she rushed to the helm. "We're off course! I don't know when it happened!"
"See! See! I told you we needed to check!" Luffy cried out, getting pushed aside by Sanji to give Nami room to man the helm. She held the Log Pose in one hand and spun the helm hard to starboard. Usopp saw the needle was indeed pointed almost directly behind them and to the right.
"We got turned around completely backwards?" Zoro wondered from the front, setting his weights down.
"Yes! I checked the Log Pose just this morning and corrected our course, though! We should have been bound right for it!" Nami whined, staring at the Log Pose. "I hope Crocus didn't tell us wrong information."
Zoro shook his head, walking toward the other Straw Hats. "No, we're not taking his words seriously enough. He warned us about currents even the most skilled navigators in the Navy can't detect. That's why the Log Pose is so essential. Perhaps the currents are so far below the sea that they gain strength as they work their way to the surface."
"You're right. I underestimated this sea," Nami though, worried she might have actually overestimated herself. Can't think like that on this sea, though. She inspected the wrist strap and set it on her wrist begrudgingly. "It's so irritating to wear, but keeping us on course is more important. I'd rather not steer us right into a Sea King den."
The course correction proved to be quite helpful; within the next two hours, they saw an island in the distance. Usopp perched up in the crow's nest, inspecting the island; it had large hills that blocked view from most of the interior of the island, but he could also see some forest peeking up over the top of the hills to the West. He relayed this to everyone, also noting, "They've got a dock on the shore facing us. There's no one there.
"WOAH! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Usopp suddenly screamed, whipping his spyglass to focus on the shape he saw flying high above the island. As they got closer, he could tell already it was breathing fire in mid-air; there were other, smaller creatures flying all about it. This creature was massive, though; it's wings were huge and made the air vibrate as the beasts did silent battle.
Is that a big beetle? Usopp realized as he finally got close enough to make out the creature, scrunching his face up. "You guys might want to see this," he called down to the others, and he let the spyglass fall. Sanji caught it, staring through it first as Nami grabbed another from the helm.
"What? What is it?" Luffy pestered Sanji, itching to just steal the spyglass from him.
"It's some weird flying creatures doing battle in the air," Sanji replied, finding himself rather uninterested in it after all. Too much to hope he'd spotted some skinny dippers, Sanji thought, disappointed as he passed the spyglass to Luffy.
Luffy looked through the spyglass and found the battle going on, but the stakes had greatly changed. The big beetle had the littler creatures, which were just large ravens upon closer look, on the run with his fire breathing abilities. "Woah! Usopp, good find! I want to add that thing to our crew!"
"Are we gonna make taking animals a regular thing?" Sanji asked as he joined Nami and Zoro at the helm as Nami passed Zoro the spyglass.
"Maybe, if the Grand Line is full of cool animals like that!" Luffy exclaimed. He stared through the spyglass more as the beetle finally turned away from the ravens, letting them retreat in peace, burnt up though they were. From this angle, Luffy was able to see the side of the big beetle, and saw that there was the insignia of the Navy on his side. "Wait a minute, this beetle's a Marine!"
Sanji and Nami looked at Zoro as he pulled the spyglass from his eye to think that one over while they wanted an explanation for such a crazy statement. "It's . . . not out of the question, technically."
The Going Merry plodded along to the dock, where the five Straw Hats tied up quickly to the island. "I wonder what this place is called," Nami wondered as she saw a great archway with the words "SOUTH DOCKYARD" emblazoned upon it.
Luffy hurried on at a jogging pace as he left the dock and followed a dirt road that swirled away up and over the hills. "Come on, you all!" Luffy called back to the Straw Hats, wanting them to run too.
Instead they walked, and Luffy beat them to the top of the hill before waiting for them, as he discovered something from this vantage point that was exciting indeed. As they climbed the hill, Luffy jumped up and down, pointing down the other side. "I found a town! Look!" As the other four crested the hill, they looked down into the valley and found indeed a town. At the base of the hills, the terrain got slightly more arid and brown, but the grass was still plentiful and soft.
They saw three identical dirt roads swirling from the East, West, and North right for the town, so they followed the dirt road down together now. As they got closer and closer, they found that this town was called Banaro. Luffy hummed as they strolled through town, while Zoro felt this place was eerily reminiscent of Cozia. I wonder how even commoners are trained on this sea, Zoro wondered, loosening his swords in their scabbards.
"Well, howdy!" said a man in a wide-brimmed leather hat. "Welcome to Banaro, youngsters."
"Hello!" Luffy said, waving to him as he sat in the shade of his porch on the edge of town. "We're pirates! Is that okay here?"
The man chuckled as he saw Usopp and Nami balk at his bluntness, and he waved his hands. "Don't worry, don't worry. We're friendly to all types here. You's from the East Blue, I know. Welcome to Banaro," he reiterated waving his arms wide.
"Thanks, old man!" Luffy said, approaching him to talk more. "What's going on here? What kinda food do you all have?"
"Not much! We got our pub crawl - first beer is free from ever establishment with the punch card. Get the best punch card, and you might win something," the old timer said, rocking back and forth in his chair. "I don't much fool with that stuff. But y'all'n's enjoy yourselves now. Check out Nokimup's for some grub if you's are feelin' hungry."
"A pub crawl, huh?" Zoro said with a grin. "Thanks, Grandpa. We appreciate the directions."
"Nokimup's one of the pubs, too," the old timer said to Zoro, shooting a finger gun at him and winking as they grinned at each other before the Straw Hats waved to him and walked farther into town. They found Nokimup's on the main drag and entered, finding it to be a frenzy of laughter and ragtime music playing out on dueling pianos atop a grand platform in the center of the room with highly vaulted ceilings. The Straw Hats were lucky; a group had left not two minutes before, and they'd just cleaned the table.
They were seated and ordered. Zoro only got drinks and asked for a punch card, and Nami looked at him as he did. That sounds fun! she thought, and said, "I'd like a punch card and a beer, too. Something lighter than what he got, please."
"You're gonna do the pub crawl?" Sanji asked Nami, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah! I wanna let loose after the constant running we've had to do. They're friendly with us here - we might not get a lot of places like this," Nami said with a shrug.
Sanji looked up at their server. "Make it three punch cards. I'll have whatever you like, sir." He smiled. "It does sound fun. I'll join you guys." He crossed his arm, unsure how he felt about Nami and Zoro being alone together with drinks involved.
Zoro groaned under his breath, hanging his head as he realized some time alone was out of the question. He didn't want Nami or Sanji to tag along, but he also wasn't about to say no. I should try to get to get to know them. We'll be together a while, it seems, Zoro thought, realizing he hadn't fully considered the consequences of joining a pirate crew like this, but also realizing he didn't regret it whatsoever, despite his reservations about Usopp and Sanji.
Luffy and Usopp were content to just sit here a while and eat. "I'm a bit tuckered out on drinking. I don't know how you all do it," Usopp said as he looked around at everyone.
"You get used to it," Zoro said in a monotone.
Their orders came out and they enjoyed their food and drinks. Sanji, Nami, and Zoro ended up getting another of what they'd ordered, as they liked it so much, and gained themselves their bonus punch. "Maybe they have a beri prize! Not that we need it, but more never hurts," Nami said, reading the part of the card that teased about a potential prize.
They rose after their second round of beers were finished and said goodbye to Luffy and Usopp. "We'll meet back up at the Merry if we can't find each other by the end of the day," Nami figured and they left the two to order a second round of food.
"I gotta get fueled up!" Luffy said after their order was put in, holding his knife and fork in the air gleefully.
"Why?" Usopp wondered, looking around for an enemy that was mean mugging them.
"That beetle's a Marine! I gotta find him and fight him," Luffy said. "He retreated to this island, I think. He's gotta be around here somewhere."
"Luffy, maybe it isn't such a good idea to pick a fight with a fire breathing animal," Usopp tried to say in persuasion as a figure walked over to them, pulling out a seat by them and sitting at the table with them. He set his beer down to further alert them of his presence, and they both turned their heads to greet this newcomer.
"Forgive me, my name is Galdino," said the strange man from behind his glasses. His air was greasy and struck along in a thin whirl into the air, and his smile wasn't particularly reassuring. Usopp wondered if this was trouble come to greet them. "I recognized you from across the room and wanted to introduce myself." He extended his hand to Luffy.
"I'm Luffy! Nice to meetcha, Gal-Guy!" Luffy said, shaking Galdino's hand and confusing him as to why he's forgotten his name already.
Galdino extended the same palm up into the air, and like magic, goop appeared from his palm, forming an exact likeness to the bounty poster sketch of Luffy in the air just above his palm. Luffy and Usopp both oohed in excitement at the precision of it. "Wow! That's really good! You have a Devil Fruit?!" Usopp asked.
"Indeed," Galdino said, extending his hand to shake Usopp's as he absorbed the goop back into his palm. "I ate the Wax Wax Fruit."
Usopp shook his hand. "Nice. I'm Usopp, by the way."
"I'm a rubberman! I ate the Gum Gum Fruit!" Luffy said, grabbing his cheek and stretching it far from his face.
Galdino's eyes went wide, and he chuckled. "That's an interesting power! Ohohoho! But not very artistic - it's good we didn't get our powers switched when we ate our Fruits. From the sound of things, you have a near mastery of your Devil Fruit."
"Mmmm, I don't know about that, but I'd like to," Luffy said, not wanting to give himself too much credit. "I got a question for you, Gal-Guy." Usopp figured he was going to ask about the fire breathing beetle, but instead he leaned forward on an elbow and smiled at Galdino. "I like your powers! Care to join my crew?" Is he just gonna ask everybody we meet?! Usopp thought.
Galdino laughed all the louder at that proclamation. "And what would be the drive for me to join a pirate crew?" he asked earnestly but not quite kindly. Usopp didn't like that. Why is Luffy so quick to let this guy join when he's been at odds with two of his crewmates before?
"I'm going after the One Piece - the greatest treasure in the world! I'm gonna be King of the Pirates," Luffy told Galdino proudly.
And Galdino guffawed even louder, clapping his hands to his knees and drawing undue attention from the rest of the restaurant as he laughed in Luffy and Usopp's faces. At this, even Luffy detected the negativity emanating from Galdino. "The One Piece?! Surely you can't be serious. You're the biggest threat in the East Blue - aren't you after more realistic goals?"
"No! I want to find the One Piece," Luffy said as their server brought out his and Usopp's second dishes. "Consider the invitation revoked. I don't want anyone in my crew who laughs at that dream."
Galdino tried to compose himself, but he struggled, at least able to sit back up straight. "I'm sorry, I am, kid. I just . . . I didn't expect that! Not many pirates pass through here with dreams of the One Piece in mind these days."
"Why is that?" Usopp asked.
"Because it's been twenty years since Roger proclaimed it was waiting at the end of the Grand Line. People have made it to the end - there's nothing there," Galdino said surely. He leaned back, crossing his legs. "I'm not trying to crush your dreams here . . . just trying to reframe them."
"Well, whatever, I still don't want you on my crew if you can't put that silly maturity aside," Luffy threw back as he dug into his food. "Invitation revoked!"
Galdino chuckled as he sipped his beer. "All the same, I've just accepted a job overseas. I'll be shipping out soon. So I can't commit myself to another cause anyway. I'm just enjoying the last of my home town. I'm not quite sure if I'll return." He looked around the pub nostalgically, a small smile on his lips.
"Good for you. What are you gonna do, make wax figures?" Luffy asked with a mouth full of food.
"Okay, don't get condescending now," Galdino said. "And I can't talk about it. It's classified."
"You were condescending first," Luffy said almost under his breath but still audible for Galdino to hear. Usopp sighed and decided to just enjoy his food as he thought, It's better than a full on fight with him. I wonder what else the Wax Wax fruit can make a man do?
Sanji, Nami, and Zoro reached the third bar on their pub crawl. As they meandered further into town, they found that things were getting more and more packed; apparently, there were travelers who came from the other docks for this pub crawl, as well as all the locals from all over town coming in to participate.
They found a table in the corner and Nami grabbed a few beris from their purse. "I'll go get our rounds. I'm gonna go ahead and get us doubles. Is that good with you guys?"
"Make it a triple for me," Zoro said, stifling a burp as he said so. Nami walked off to place the order as Sanji just nodded in response.
Zoro inspected his nails, leaning in his chair so he was ever so slightly angled away from Sanji as they were left alone together. Sanji leaned on the table, clasping his hands together and said, "So. You like Nami?"
Zoro looked over his shoulder, utterly confused and furrowing his brow. "What?"
Sanji shrugged. "Just . . . curious how you're getting on with the crew."
Zoro rolled his eyes. "You need to focus on the bigger picture, man, not get lost in the small stuff along the way."
"What are you trying to say about Nami?" Sanji asked, insulted personally by the "small stuff" comment.
"I'm getting on fine with Nami. In fact, I find her to be the most capable of all of you, even our captain," Zoro said. "I'm not so sure about you or our First Mate, though. Like I said, you get lost in the small stuff along the way, and Longnose? He -."
"Hey, now," Sanji said, slapping his palm firm enough against the table to startle Zoro but not to alert the rest of the pub. "Watch what you say about Usopp. There's no one on the ship more fitting to be Luffy's right hand, y'hear? He's your superior, too."
Zoro sneered at Sanji for a moment, scoffed, and shook his head, going back to inspecting his nails. "Understood, soldier."
This scarred Sanji worse than he figured Zoro even knew, and he backed down, licking his lips and wondering if he'd gone too far. No one insults Usopp but me, Sanji thought, recognizing just how close he felt to Usopp after so much time together. He was glad to see Nami return with seven drinks in hand, gripping the mug handles deftly as they splayed out. She set them down, spilling some as they were filled to the brim, and unhanded them. "Go wild, guys!"
Luffy and Usopp finished their second meals and even though they both wanted one more round of Nokimup's delicious food, they were warded off by Galdino's company. He didn't leave them alone at any point and seemed to quickly forget the tension between the parties as he went on to talk about Banaro, named after the island Banaro they were on as well, as well as some of the news going on in the world. He was so drab and pompous about it that both Luffy and Usopp tuned him out.
Once they had paid their tab, they stood and nodded curtly to Galdino. "It's been fun, Gal-Guy." He was unsure what else to say. "Bye."
"See ya later," Usopp said, hoping it wouldn't prove to be true.
"Oh! Okay," Galdino said, surprised at their quickness with which they left, as well as insulted they got up in the middle of his story. "So long, Straw Hat. Best of luck." They didn't look back over their shoulders at him, and Galdino finished his now warm beer. Talked too much. The One Piece . . . heh. What a joke.
Luffy and Usopp walked out of Nokimup's and walked down the street to their left. "Well, should we meet up with the others and join this pub crawl?" Usopp asked Luffy. He saw some shops, but they were closed. "We also gotta find out how long it takes a Log Pose to set here."
"We gotta find that beetle!" Luffy said, stopping a pair of ladies walking down the road the opposite way. "Hey, do you know where a fire breathing beetle lives on this island? Is he a local?"
They shook their heads, confused at Luffy's question and they scurried off quicker to get away from him. Someone nearby overheard the question and stared daggers at Luffy and Usopp, taking a few firm steps toward them, her fists bound up tight. "What do you want with a fire breathing beetle?" the little girl screamed up at them, sneering.
"Who are you?" Usopp said, confused where this little girl had even come from. Most curious was that she wore a Marine's standard cap, and had the hard stare of a seasoned officer.
"I'm the one asking the questions!" she barked back, and then said to Luffy specifically, "There's no fire breathing beetle on this island. Stop snooping!" She ran off the other way through a dim alley that was abandoned aside from her. Luffy and Usopp stared down the alley after her, both of them raising their eyebrows.
"Well, I don't know what that was about, but something tells me she knows about this beetle," Luffy said, grinning at Usopp as he took off down the alley after the girl. Usopp looked around, worried someone would see this and think something nefarious was going on. He ran off after Luffy after a moment, not wanting to be questioned alone in the middle of town, panicking despite the fact that none of the people of Banaro were paying the foray any mind.
Usopp caught up to Luffy and Luffy had to stop him, placing a hand over Usopp's mouth to quiet his breathing. "We can't let her know we're following her! Shh!" he whispered, and they continued on after the Marine girl, keeping a large distance. As he composed himself in the empty parts of town, he realized this girl could be no older than six or seven. Really young, he thought, wondering where she'd adopted this sense of order about her personality.
Eventually, the girl led them out of town and toward the forest that Usopp suspected he saw from the Merry's crow's nest from before. There were rolling hills between Banaro and the forest, quite open aside from some curves of the hill. It was here that Talisa, the daughter of a Navy Vice Admiral, felt someone following her and looked over her shoulder. It's those pirates! she thought, startled that she was being pursued by who was supposedly the new best pirate from the East.
"Stop following me! Boss is gonna kill you two!" Talisa cried over her shoulder at them, pumping her legs harder and harder. Just have to reach the forest and Boss! Just have to reach the forest!
"She's spotted us now," Usopp huffed at Luffy's side.
But Talisa wouldn't have to wait to reach the forest, as Boss the Beetle heard her cries from afar and pounded through the undergrowth to her aid, pummeling through the side of the treeline in a great explosion of branches. His legs shook the earth as he trampled the ground, sending out a great roar of fire into the air as he leapt over Talisa. She hit the deck, covering her head, but watched under her armpit as Boss' wings flapped open and he cleared the rest of the distance toward Luffy and Usopp in half the time.
"Woah!" Luffy yelled in shock as Usopp screamed in his ear. He pushed his First Mate to the ground safely and sent his fist stretching back. "Gum Gum Bullet!" His fist bounced off Boss' thick, hard exoskeleton shell harmlessly, though, and Boss clobbered into Luffy and Usopp both all the same, sending them tumbling down the hill.
They came rolling to a stop, slightly dazed and in Usopp's case, somewhat hurt, but they roused themselves, shaking off the blow. Luffy watched as Boss flew to Talisa's side, gathering her up on his back as he took off high into the air. Yet instead of flying far, he made a short arc over the trees to descend somewhere farther into the forest. Luffy picked himself up with a grunt and began running up the hill as if nothing had just happened. "Come on, Usopp! We're not gonna lose 'em now!"
Usopp huffed as he got up, groaning through the pain from the charge he had taken from that beetle. "Wish I had eaten some of that Gum Gum Fruit right about now," he said, holding onto a sore rib he felt might be broken, but he ran after Luffy without a moment's hesitation. Things are getting interesting here with this girl and this beetle, Usopp thought, struggling up the hill.
The forest was overgrown through much of it, but they could find paths that they imagined might have been trekked by the girl and the beetle. More of it was densely vegetated, though, and it took some time to force their way through the interweaving vines and branches. They stayed mostly quiet, even though their grunting and loud footfalls were warning enough of their approach, and eventually, they heard the little girl shouting something to someone.
They followed the voice, trying their hardest to be a bit quieter so they wouldn't have the jump brought on them. "Luffy, what are we doing? You expect me to fight a little girl while you fight a beetle?"
"No! You can have a round with the beetle if you want," Luffy suggested as they crept closer to the voices, completely misreading what Usopp meant.
"My dad is gonna be so impressed when he finally returns and gets a chance to meet you!" shouted the little girl, who had just spent the last twenty minutes recounting Boss' great victory over the two pirates. Boss had been particularly impressed with himself to learn the kid in the straw hat had the new highest bounty in the East Blue. Watching Talisa mimic the way the fight had looked from her point of view was even better, though. "You're the Boss!"
Talisa wrapped her arms around Boss' neck, hugging him tight, but Boss could see Luffy and Usopp approaching over her shoulder; the moment was ruined. He snuffed and Talisa jerked, hiding behind Boss' big form mostly but peeking out around it at the pirates. Here in the forest, suddenly they seemed far more intimidating, sneaking up on them, snooping. "What do you want?! Leave us alone, weaklings!"
"I'm not a weakling! That was just the warm up to our fight. Come on, beetle! Take me on!" Luffy entered a fighter's stance, smiling at his foe. "You're a Marine, right? Well, I'm a pirate. Isn't it your job to stop guys like me?" Usopp shook his head at Luffy's taunts, wondering what the game was here. One blast of fire breath from this beetle and Luffy could be burnt to a crisp. Rubber isn't fireproof, Usopp thought sagely.
"Just kill him, Boss, and be done with it!" Talisa said with a pumped fist, punching the air in the direction of the Straw Hats. Boss side-eyed her a moment, naturally wondering if she understood such sentiments; surely part of her did, given what had become of her mother, but she was still a child who saw the world in black and white.
Boss roared and his wings snapped up, flying toward Luffy with a great bellow as his legs spread wide to catch Luffy. Usopp yelped and skipped over to Talisa's side while she was focused on Boss. Luffy stretched both his arms out as Boss reared up to grab Luffy from all sides, and sent a Bazooka slamming into Boss' softer undecided. He grunted as he was sent flying to his back.
"Boss!" Talisa cried, and finally noticed Usopp. "Get away from me, pirate! Sneaky pirate!"
"What! I just don't want to get attacked by that thing!" Usopp cried out, waving his arms frantically toward the beetle.
"Good to know one of you is smart," Talisa said with sass. "And if Boss can't defeat Skraw Hat, then I'll call my daddy and he'll come home and deal with him and all the pirates that come here, even if the town likes you pirates!"
Boss sprang back up with the strength of his broad wings and was back to his feet, barreling on foot toward Luffy. He slammed into Luffy, who gripped the side of Boss' prongs protruding from his face. He roared in Luffy's face, but Straw Hat didn't balk at anything Boss threw at him. Luffy roared and began to lift Boss into the air, slowly pulling one leg after another off the ground.
Boss' eyes went wide and he roared, flapping his wings back out. The force of those great wings caused Luffy to strain even more against Boss' already great strength, but he didn't let go of Boss or let his feet skitter off the ground more than a split second. They both roared at one another at the strain it took to spar against the other's strength. Usopp and Talisa went silent at this, staring in awe at the fight.
But Boss' had the natural advantage, spitting fire out of his mouth right down at Luffy. Luffy's eyes went wide and he shook his head around, whipping it out of the loop on the straw hat so it wouldn't burn up. Usopp ran ahead and snatched it out of the air before it could hit the ground as Luffy was engulfed in flames before him.