I am in fact beginning this chapter before I leave for my trip, but as I do so I think it's only fair for everyone to know that I am so hung over that merely typing is giving me motion sickness. It's really horrible. But I am determined to get this chapter out, dammit.
Anyway, I am really happy that this fic is being so well reviewed, and by such cool people. I have a few responses, actually...
About Luffy having sex before – I just made that up, I highly doubt they talk about it in the show/comic. I decided to make an educated guess because he's eighteen and a pirate... I dunno, in my head it makes sense, but I can see how the notion would weird you out anyway.
And to spikemyangel, who pointed out that I was mixing up Alabasta and Arlong – THANK YOU! I always do that, it's the two A's... and yes it was a total mistake every time I did it. But you know what I was trying to say, yes?
And now the story. I don't own One Piece and enjoy!
OOOOOO
Sunset at Port Gold
By Rio Grande
Chapter Three: Jawbreaker
OOOOOO
Luffy had to admit that without Nami around, being a sleuth on a hunt for treasure wasn't easy. His mind just wasn't made for this kind of deductive work, but his worry for Nami outweighed his lack of confidence in his ability to piece together the big picture. He was just going to have to return to the Sandy Merman and hope that Jon Jon or his father would be about.
It took the young man a bit longer than it should have, and he may or may not have had to stop and ask for directions a few times, but he finally made it back to the bar. What he found there made his uncharacteristically grim demeanor disappear in a flash.
"Jon Jon!" he shouted joyously, spotting the short boy loitering around outside the bar, almost as though he was waiting for him. And when Jon Jon's head snapped around unusually fast at the sound of Luffy's voice before he came jogging up to the captain, it certainly seemed as though he might have been.
"Luffy, I have good news!" he said eagerly.
"And I have bad news! Nami's been kidnapped by Hardcandy Sweet - she wants to get rid of my crew!" Luffy replied.
"Oh my God..." Jon Jon said, looking horrified. "I am so sorry Luffy... but I don't know where Hardcandy Sweet's hideout is, so I don't know where she took Nami,"
"I know... but Jon Jon, I think maybe it's time you gave me that antidote," Luffy said seriously. "I'm gonna be no good to you if I keep getting weaker, and it looks like this might take longer than I thought,"
"I would..." Jon Jon said softly, averting his gaze almost guiltily. "But I don't have it right now..."
"What?" Luffy asked, confused.
"You see, the reason I told you I would give it to you at sundown was because I don't have the antidote prepared yet. It's going to take the local apothecary until tonight to finish it,"
"WHAT?" Luffy said again, this time with an added eye twitch.
"I'm sorry!" Jon Jon cried. "I was trying to hit your navigator with that poisno, because I thought you would be able to get the painting faster. And now everything is just messed up." Luffy tried not to blow up at Jon Jon for that last statement, and tell him how that explanation did NOT MAKE THE SITUATION BETTER.
"Jon Jon..." he said slowly, his straw hat dipping lower on his face.
"Yeah...?" Jon Jon asked in a small, scared voice, shrinking away from the pirate jerkily.
"... What good news did you have for me?"
"Oh! Well, I don't know where Hardcandy's hideout is... but I do know where she's keeping my mother's painting," Jon Jon explained proudly. Luffy nodded once at this information and then straightened his posture, his eyebrows knitted together in determination.
"Okay, lead me there."
OOOOOOOO
The carriage ride was a long, bumpy one – but for all Nami knew the horses could have been trotting in place because as soon as the door was closed someone had tied a blindfold around her face. She had spent the last fifteen minutes biting her lip and trying to look as unfazed by the whole situation as possible, while desperately hoping no one would notice or confiscate the staff strapped to her thigh, underneath her skirt.
When the horses finally came to a halt, Nami was thrown out of the carriage roughly by whoever it was who was sitting next to her. Then someone else had grabbed her by the elbow and led her into some sort of building, jerking her roughly upwards whenever there was a stair or an incline. Nami struggled along as best she could, every once in a while letting out misguided curses and threats.
"Let me go! You're gonna be sorry once my crew finds out what you've done with me... asshole!"
"I'd keep my mouth shut if I was you, missy," a man who might have been Licorice, but also might have been Twizzler, hissed in her general direction. "You're about to meet the boss, and she doesn't like upstarts," Nami wanted to reply snidely to that comment as well, but thought better of it at the last minute. She was really going to meet Hardcandy?
However, it seemed as though she might be spared this particular honor once the group had made it up the last flight of stairs. Everyone came to a halt and Nami heard someone approach them from the right.
"Change of plans," another male voice said in an authoritative tone. "Take the prisoner to the dungeon, Hardcandy's not ready,"
"Not ready?" Twizzler or Licorice growled.
"The dungeon?" Nami squeaked in trepidation.
"Yeah, she's out. We'll bring her back up when the time is right," the man continued, turning around and walking back down the hallway.
"Fine..." Twizzler or Licorice conceded, hauling Nami away.
After being shoved back down many flights of stairs, Nami finally reached what she could only assume was the lowest level of the building; the dungeons. The wooden floor turned into stone, and the temperature dropped at least ten degrees. Not to mention the smell worsened, a lot.
'If there's one thing I'm going to remember about Port Gold...' Nami thought despairingly. '...It's all of the horrible smells I've been forced to endure,'
Finally the blindfold was ripped from her face as she was pushed into a cell, and she was left blinking groggily into the darkness just as she heard the gates slam shut behind her. Spinning around she faced Twizzler and Licorice, both who were sporting matching evil grins.
"I bet you two feel pretty good about yourselves," she sneered contemptuously.
"Maybe," Twizzler agreed, twirling the keys to her cell around his fingers tauntingly.
"You're lucky the boss isn't ready to see you yet – it gives you a few more hours to live," Licorice said, folding his arms across his chest.
"Gee, be sure to give her my thanks," Nami spat sarcastically.
"Oh, you'll have your chance soon enough," Twizzler assured her before turning and walking away with Licorice right behind him. They slammed shut the door to the dungeons as they left, and Nami couldn't help but admit that she shuddered a bit when they did so, not liking the finality of the sound.
"Great..." she mumbled into her hands as she knelt on the ground and tried to regain her bearings. She hated being helpless.
Taking in a shaky breath she combed her fingers through her hair and looked up, getting the layout of the dungeons as best she could. She was in a small cell that couldn't be more than five feet across and six feet long, and basically the entire structure was made of dank stone in traditional dungeon style. She looked out of her cell and across the walkway, spotting another cell opposite hers. Crawling forward, she tried to see into the small room with the dim lighting the dungeons provided, her brown eyes widening when she spotted another human form lying on the floor.
"Jon Jon's dad?..." she whispered, shocked. "Hey... hey whatsurname! Mr. Bartender!" she called, admittedly excited to have another person with her in this terrible situation, no matter that he was a sickly old man whose name she had never bothered to get.
But the owner of the Sandy Merman didn't move in response to Nami's frantic calls, and immediately the girl turned pale at the thought that perhaps the he was actually dead. He certainly was sprawled out in an odd position, his head bent at an uncomfortable angle. Clutching the bars to her cell so that her knuckles turned white, Nami stared at the bartender until she was sure she noticed his chest moving up and down in a relatively steady beat.
Letting out a breath of relief she rocked back on her heals and smiled to herself. That had been close. Then, a confused look slipped onto her features and she glanced back at the man with curiosity. Just what was he doing there, anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be at the doctors? Did that mean that Hardcandy knew about Jon Jon's involvement with the Straw Hat Crew? Nami freely admitted to not caring overly much about Jon Jon's well being, but she had a feeling Luffy was going to go back to the little boy once she was gone, and if this situation put her captain in danger she would not be pleased.
'Be all right, Luffy...' Nami thought, leaning her back against the wall and staring up at the dark stone ceiling despondently. 'And try and save me while you're at it...'
OOOOOO
Jon Jon led Luffy through a multitude of streets and deep into Port Gold before they arrived at their destination. A rickety old house that actually appeared to have once been a fine old Victorian mansion before it was left to fend for itself against the elements. It was three stories and covered in vines so that most of the windows were sealed shut. The large, wooden front door was firmly chained closed with a mean looking padlock. Luffy regarded the house skeptically.
"Why is Hardcandy keeping your mother's painting here?" he asked, frankly.
"I don't know, I think this is where she hordes a lot of her treasure," Jon Jon said, shrugging his shoulders noncommittally. "A man who used to work for her told me about it this morning."
"Do you think she comes by here often?"
"I don't know... why, are you hoping to run into her?" Jon Jon asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah. I want to get Nami back," Luffy said honestly. "Her henchman told me to go to Hardcandy's hideout by sundown, but I'm hoping to run into them before that...plus, I don't know where her hideout is." At this point Luffy flexed his arm, frowning as he found that his muscles were starting to ache. Jon Jon noticed Luffy's frustrated expression and looked at the ground guiltily.
"Listen... how about while you do this I go to the doctor's and see if they can't speed up my order for your antidote,"
"That's sounds like a really good idea," Luffy said in all seriousness. "Where can I meet you?"
"Meet me on 7th and 15th Ave," Jon Jon said, turning and jogging off. He waved goodbye to Luffy before he sped around the corner. "Good luck!"
"Thaaaanks!" Luffy called after him, feeling his bad spirits lift just a little. He knew Jon Jon was a good person at heart, he was just a little misguided.
Turning back around Luffy started towards the house, his expression carefully neutral. The mansion looked innocent and dilapidated enough, but if this was indeed where Hardcandy Sweet was hoarding her treasure, Luffy knew it had to be pretty heavily booby trapped. Luckily, the pirate captain had experience with such things.
Stretching his neck out a bit, Luffy peered into a first floor window, brushing away some foliage with his nose. From what he could see through the cracked glass, the house appeared pretty normal on the inside as well. He was now staring at a parlor of some sort, with a piano and a few couches. Shrugging, Luffy returned his head to its proper position and took in a deep breath.
Silently, he stretched back his leg and let it shoot forward with a resounding snap. He crashed noisily through the door, showering splinters that could not pierce his rubber skin everywhere. When the dust settled he crept in through the new gaping hole in the door, peering all around the foyer of the house.
"Hellllooo?" he called into the darkness, walking forward and heading towards the stairs. There was no response to his call, and for this Luffy was partially thankful.
The house was pushed into shadow, and cobwebs hung like drapery from the ceiling and the banister of the grand staircase that spiraled up to the second floor.
"Here?" Luffy asked aloud as he popped his head into the kitchens of the first floor. No painting.
"Here?" he asked as he swung his wiry neck around and into the the dining room. No painting.
"Here?" he asked, his neck stretched to the maximum limit as he curved it around two corners and finally into the main living room. In this room there was indeed a rather large painting, but Luffy had a feeling it was not Port Gold in Spring. It was a rather large portrait of a husband and wife, smiling down at the young man as he let the rest of his body catch up with his face. He stood in front of the painting, observing the man in the picture for an extended period of time.
"Hey, he's familiar..." Luffy mumbled to himself, realizing there was something he was missing, and thinking that perhaps it would be easier for him to put the pieces of the puzzle together if only Nami was with him.
But thinking of Nami reminded Luffy that he had work to do, and so far he had not found any trace of the painting or even any other treasure that Hardcandy Sweet was hiding. "She must have it hidden somewhere," Luffy deduced, sighing and realizing that this was going to be a bit harder than he had first assumed. This was, after all, a rather large house, and there were plenty of places Hardcandy could have stowed a little painting.
Luffy was about to head upstairs when he ran into the first booby trap.
"AHHHH!" the brave captain commented as he placed his foot on the first step, only to two rather large axes burst through the walls on either side of him and came swinging down towards his thin midsection. Stretching himself so that his stomach arched forward and missed being sawed in half, Luffy leapt up the next few stairs, staring behind him as the axes continued to swing violently in place. A small, triumphant smirk appeared on his scarred face.
"So, it's upstairs, hu?" he said softly. Giggling maniacally to himself Luffy skipped up the rest of the stairs, narrowly dodging the old metal spears that were spat at him from the banister, and latching onto a chandelier ten feet above him with his elongated arms when the staircase itself flattened out and threatened to slide him back down to the first floor.
"They really don't want me to make it to the second floor," Luffy noticed, still grinning. "Well it's too bad because that's where I want to go!" That said, he swung onto the landing of the second floor, bracing himself for any sort of attack for a minute before slowly straightening out. Nothing had happened.
"Hmm..." Luffy mumbled disapprovingly. He liked surprises, but the ones this house were offering him were starting to get old. Cautiously, he opened the first large set of doors the second floor presented, nearly coughing as he was assaulted with a wave of grime and dust. No one had entered this room in years.
Rubbing his eyes, Luffy blinked into the new room. It seemed like some sort of master bedroom, with a canopy bed and even a fireplace in the corner. Luffy took in a sharp breath as he noticed that there was a painting above the fireplace with a gold label nailed into its frame. He scurried up to it and nearly shouted for joy when he read the title of the finely made landscape.
'Port Gold in Spring.'
And in small script in the corner of the painting Luffy noticed that there was a signature as well. 'Lillian Willith.'
"Must be Jon Jon's mom," Luffy observed, reaching up to pluck the painting from the wall. He had to admit, it was a very beautiful painting, and it certainly made it look as though Port Gold had maybe used to be a bit more of a nice tourist spot then it was now – but the pirate in him couldn't see why everyone was making such a big fuss about something that wasn't gold.
'I guess you could trade it in for gold...' he decided as his fingers grazed the frame carefully. However, the moment he did so, the floor gave out from beneath him and he felt himself falling far into the pits of the house, caught by the last trap. Before he had time to scream, he hit the bottom and was impaled upon the gleaming spikes that had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.
OOOOOOOO
Robin turned another page of the book she was reading, a novel entitled 'A People's History of Port Gold.' It was always good to familiarize yourself with your surroundings, as she'd found it. She took a sip of the lemonade she had prepared for herself. Then she looked up and spotted yet another colorfully dressed man she had correctly labeled as some sort of gangster attempt to scurry by the ship undetected. She turned another page of her book, and sighed.
This had been going on all day. Scary looking men dressed in suits all different colors of the rainbow had been trying to stake out the Going Merry in secret, although the woman had no idea how they intended to do that wearing the outfits they were. They were certainly not very discrete.
'Has some odd, local crime group decided to challenge the Straw Hat Pirates?' she wondered to herself as she rolled her shoulders and flicked a lock of raven hair over her shoulder nonchalantly. It didn't really matter either way to her, if they had. These men were obviously no match for her, much less her comrades. Still... if her friends were out in the city with no knowledge that these people had their eyes on them, it could be troublesome.
'Maybe I should try and warn everyone,' she thought to herself, becoming mildly disconcerted when she realized she had no way to do so. The crew was not very organized in that sense.
"How long have they been at this?" a deep, scratchy voice reached Robin's ears. She glanced upwards to see Sanji standing above her while cooly smoking a cigarette and gazing at the fruity men outside in annoyance. Robin blinked and then looked back down at her book.
"Roughly all day," she replied.
"I'm not really worried about us, but Luffy, Nami and Zoro have been missing for a day. You don't think...?" Sanji trailed off suggestively. Robin frowned ever so slightly.
"I don't know. I certainly hope not, and I have enough confidence in our crew to believe that they would be able to defend themselves against these jokers, but... their disappearance is odd." she admitted. Sanji nodded grimly and took another drag.
"My thoughts exactly," Robin glanced at him, cocking an eyebrow.
"What are you planning?" she asked bluntly.
"Nothing yet..." he admitted. "Do you have any ideas, lovely Robin?"
Robin smiled, and looked back down at her book coyly.
OOOOOOOO
At the bottom of the deadly pit, Luffy stayed perfectly still. Then he began to grit his teeth, and tensed his hands and feet that had been used to brace his fall on the walls of the pit. Ever so slowly, he wrenched himself off of the spikes that had been meant to finish him off.
His body snapped back into its normal shape once he lifted himself up far enough, and he quickly got to scrambling up the sides of the pit. Panting and wincing in mild pain, he finally made it back out to the second floor again. No longer grinning, Luffy growled and swiftly plucked the painting from the wall. He tucked it under his arm and stalked out of the room in silence.
That had been annoying. And confusing. That house... didn't seem to hold any traces of Hardcandy. No pretty colors, no candy decorations. There wasn't even any other treasure. It just seemed as though this had used to be someone's house, only it had been firmly locked down long ago.
Exiting the mansion with one long sigh of 'good riddance!' Luffy went to the main gates and prepared to find Jon Jon. He looked at the position of the sun and frowned when he realized that it was around 4:30... not that long until sunset.
Wincing as another seizure came upon him, Luffy knelt on the ground while taking in deep breaths. This was no good... Jon Jon had better have that antidote for him, or he didn't know what might happen. Struggling to his feet Luffy hobbled off in the direction of what he hoped was 7th and 15th Ave, wishing not for the last time that Nami was around. Or even any other member of his crew, because they would undoubtedly have a better sense of direction than he.
By the time Luffy made it to his destination, with no small amount of help from unfriendly locals who acted as though they were doing the young man a great service by pointing him in the right direction, it was almost five. There was about an hour left until sundown, if that. That antidote... he needed that antidote... he looked up and was mildly surprised to find that the directions he had received had led him back to the Cursed Pearl. He checked the street signs to make sure he was where he was supposed to be, and then hesitantly entered the bar. He needed a glass of water, and maybe some meat, anyway.
There was something that was supposed to happen at the Cursed Pearl Pub at five... if only he could remember...
The pub was empty when Luffy entered it, the lights were dimmed and not even the bartender was around. The lanky boy stood firmly in place and peered all around him... something was not right. He gripped the painting now covered in a sheet and firmly tucked away under his arm even tighter, as though waiting for something.
Abruptly the lights in the back of the pub were turned on, and Luffy's eyes widened in surprise when he spotted the odd group of people waiting for him at a large circular table.
Twizzler and Licorice were in attendance, of course, as well as a cacophony of similar gangsters all sporting candy related accessories. They seemed to be surrounding a thin woman sitting at the head of the table with her arms neatly folded in front of her, her reddish hair pinned back with childish clips. She was wearing a bright pink tube top and had large sparkling chandelier earrings that dangled down to her shoulders, and a bone chilling smirk that could freeze fire. Strapped to her hip was a long blade. But Luffy hardly paid her any attention, because he was too focused on the girl Licorice and Twizzler had suspended between them.
"Nami!" Luffy cried with joy, despite the terrible surroundings.
"Luffy! Luffy be careful! Hardcandy is -!" Nami attempted to screech before Licorice muffled her voice with his hand and Twizzler elbowed her roughly in the gut. Luffy let out a low growl and saw red.
"Don't you touch her!" he ordered threateningly.
"What are you going to do about it, Captain Luffy?" a high pitch voice purred. Luffy focused on the woman he could only assume was Hardcandy Sweet, clenching his fists and frowning deeply.
"I'm going to take you down. Let my navigator go!"
"I'd like to see you try..." Hardcandy chortled, resting her cheek in her hand. "You look strong but I bet you can hardly stand – how is that poison treating you, Luffy?"
"Poison – how do you know about the poison?" Luffy asked, honestly at a loss. Another gurgled cry from a stifled Nami brought Luffy's attention back to the red head, and he noticed her eyes desperately flicking back to Hardcandy, her expression imploring, as though begging him to understand.
Then Luffy looked back at the crime boss again, squinting at her as she batted her big blue eyes cutely at him... and something clicked. Luffy felt his jaw drop, and the painting slipped from his fingers.
"Jon Jon..." he breathed, his face contorted with disbelief.
Hardcandy giggled obnoxiously, throwing her head back and letting her shoulders shake with amusement. "Took you long enough, fool," she gasped. She got to her feet, and Luffy noticed that she was really quite short and shapeless... she had the perfect body type that, if covered in the right sort of clothing, could pass for a young boy's. Her hair, although styled, was very short, and her features were quite young. As a woman she could maybe be in her twenties, but when dressed like Jon Jon she took on the appearance of twelve year old male.
"How long have you been planning this?" Luffy asked flatly.
"Ever since you docked," Hardcandy admitted easily. She strolled around the table, her men making way for her as she slowly sauntered closer to Luffy in large boots that were laced up to her knees. "You see, although my mother never painted the famous piece, Port Gold in Spring, I did have a mother who died young. She was murdered... by pirates. I've been taking out any such vagabonds who dock in my port ever since," she sneered evilly. Luffy frowned and scratched his head.
"Vagabond...?" he echoed blankly. Hardcandy looked vaguely annoyed.
"Oh, it's you, you idiot!" she sighed.
"Okay..." Luffy said, shrugging. "But I don't understand, why do everything in such secrecy? Why not just attack me outright?"
"Because I wanted to make you do a few chores for me, and I wanted you sick," Hardcandy explained while Nami glared daggers at her back, barely repressing the urge to growl. "That painting has been something I've wanted for a long time, but the house was made impenetrable by the late Lillian Willith's husband..." Two more of Hardcandy's men entered the room from the back door, dragging a figure along with them. They roughly threw him to the ground, where the old man struggled to regain his bearings.
"The owner of the Sandy Merman..." Luffy observed with a wince.
"Yes, that was his old mansion you broke into for me. I thought your particular talents would help you get through the traps that no one else was able to, and I was right. I was hoping to make things less suspicious by letting you find the house yourself... but you were too slow," Hardcandy sighed in mock despair. "I didn't want you dying before you had a chance to get that painting for me..."
At this point Mr. Willith looked up from the ground and immediately spotted the painting Luffy had dropped in his shock, the cloth that had covered it slipping off and revealing the piece. His face became pained and he lowered his head in defeat.
"No..." he murmured forlornly. "Not Lillith's best work..."
"Yes, you did a very good job of keeping that painting from me for a long time, old man," Hardcandy sighed contemptuously. "He was the first person I ever attempted to fool with the persona of Jon Jon... but it was useless. The intelligent Mr. Willith might have known the location of the painting, worth at least 20 million bellis, but he had made it impossible to get to even for himself."
"I was willing to take the risk of never seeing the painting again – if it meant you would never have it for yourself!" Mr. Willith cried passionately. "When you killed Lillian I swore I would never let you have it, if it was the last thing I did!"
"And now a tragically dumb rubber boy has gone and messed that whole plan up for you, hasn't he?" Hardcandy laughed, stepping over Mr. Willith and reaching for the painting herself. Her hand, complete with poison red painted nails, was stopped by Luffy's foot. She frowned up at him cooly.
"Get off of my hand," she said simply.
"No," Luffy replied flatly.
"Get off of my hand or I'll kill your little girlfriend," she added.
"I challenge you to a duel," Luffy said loudly, shaking with rage. Hardcandy blinked at him for a minute, before smirking and shrugging her shoulders.
"Sure," she responded.
"But boss!" Licorice cried from across the room.
"It's all right boys, you know I can handle myself," Hardcandy assured them, reaching for her sword. She faced off with Luffy, her stance casual as the pirate glared at her from under his straw hat. "You were so predictable Luffy," she stated, her eyes flashing cruelly. "I made you feel bad for poor Jon Jon, because I knew you wouldn't do anything sensible or normal like go back to your crew's medic and get a cure if you trusted him enough..."
"Shut up," Luffy said lowly.
"But it looks like you've been easily fooled a few times. Why, little Nami here had you running in circles, didn't she?" Still restrained by Licorice and Twizzler, Nami sucked in a painful breath and averted her gaze, frowning intensely. Why did she have to bring that up?
"I said SHUT UP!" Luffy ordered again, his eyes snapping open wide as he raced forward with his arm retracted, ready to dole out a harsh blow to Hardcandy's smirking face. But Hardcandy easily sidestepped him, her small form was much faster than Luffy had predicted.
Flying by her, propelled forward by the force of his punch, Luffy just had a chance to glance at Hardcandy while something slipped into her hand. He watched her chuck the foreign object at him, coming to a halt finally to regard the little objects now rolling around his feet.
"Jawbreakers?" he said aloud, confused.
And then all he knew was pain as the 'jawbreakers' began to blow up all around him, creating a mini explosion in the bar that had Luffy sprawled out on the floor, charred and burnt.
"LUFFY!" Nami screamed in fear, pulling at her captors to no avail.
Luffy groaned and got to his feet, his whole body aching now from the blast, as well as from the poison that was making his vision fade ever so slowly. Bearing his teeth the young man faced Hardcandy again, determined to show no weakness.
"You weren't expecting that, were you?" Hardcandy asked innocently, having slipped back into an offensive stance with her blade pointed at Luffy's chest. Luffy grinned down at the sword, it couldn't harm him. "Those are my special jawbreakers – they've made me into something of a legend around here."
"Stop talking!" Luffy yelled, stretching his leg back as far as he could in the small pub. "Gum gum WHIP!" His leg shot forward speedily, but even Luffy could tell he was moving slower than usual with the dulling effects of the poison, and after Hardcandy leapt over his limb he barely had time to stop it before it rammed into Mr. Willith and Nami on the other side of the room.
He spun around to see where Hardcandy had gone and was taken by surprise yet again by her jawbreakers as she threw three more at his torso. He furiously tried to backpedal before he realized he had no where to go but into everyone else in the pub, and he refused to hurt Nami or Mr. Willith, to whom he had already caused so much pain.
This time when Luffy was overtaken by the explosions, he didn't stand up again, his body twitching lightly on the wooden floor by Hardcandy's feet. She looked down at him with a victorious smile.
"The captain of the Going Merry felled by me... my but this really is a momentous occasion," Hardcandy hissed.
"No! Luffy! Wake up!" Nami cried, tears streaming down her face in rivers as she stared in horror at Luffy's still figure. How could this be happening?
"Oh shut up, you stupid girl. Even if he's alive he won't last long with that poison in his system,"Hardcandypointed out. Nami shook her head in denial.
"Luffy's strong, he'll be all right. You don't know anything!" Nami insisted, realizing that she was starting to ramble.
"Oh, but I do know a few things. I know where all of your crew members are in the city right now, for instance. And I know that if I call on them all and use you as bait I can get the infamous Straw Hat crew together and blow them up at my own leisure. Right now my men are scouting them all over Port Gold, and have been keeping tabs on your ship as well."
'Oh God...' thought Nami, her eyes wide and terrified. 'I have to warn them... I have to...'
BAAAAAM
"What the HELL?" Hardcandy cried, her head whipping to the side as a wall of the pub fell away and everyone was covered in rubble from the explosion.
Nami coughed into her hand, noticing that in the excitement Licorice and Twizzler had let her go. She braced herself on an overturned chair and immediately ran to Luffy, hardly paying attention to the blast. She cradled her captain's dark head in her lap, picking up his straw hat that had fallen off and rolled under a table at some point during the battle.
"Come on Luffy... wake up... don't be dead..." she cried softly.
"HARDCANDY SWEET?" a wonderfully familiar voice now boomed from the wreckage of what used to be the bar.
"Who are you?" Hardcandy demanded, her men coming to stand behind her as a single form entered the pub confidently.
"I am Roronoa Zoro, and I'm here to challenge you to prove that I am the most skilled swordsman in all the lands!" Zoro roared, finally appearing in all of his splendor, two swords gripped in his hands, and another clenched between his teeth. With his bandana shading his eyes he looked vaguely sinister.
Hardcandy looked at Zoro, and then glanced down at the sword in her hands, her expression confounded.
"Well," she said. "That's unexpected,"
OOOOOOO
Author's Notes:
If anyone tells me that they guessed that Jon Jon was actually Hardcandy Sweet I will kill myself. I was really proud of how much I concealed that little secret – in fact, I concealed it so well I didn't even know I was gonna do it until I started writing chapter two! I have to go on vacation now, and when I come back I'll have chapter four out. That's going to be the final chapter, by the way. Unless I get really crazy and write a sequel.
Peace
Rio Grande