Chapter 17: Smoking Overseer

Note to self: Stop procrastinating, dammit! Yes, I haven't updated in a long, long, while. I have eternally shamed myself. For some reason, my gift of talented writing left me, so I made various other stories, waiting for my motivation on this story to come back. On the other hand, this chapter is kind of neat, so that may halfway compensate it.
Disclaimer: I may be in high school now, but I still don't own One Piece.

Walking down the dirt road, Nami was thinking about the people she had seen at the camp. She spoke to the woman who worked next to her in the cartography room, but it was for only a few words, so maybe she doesn't count. There were also Sooze and Bunge, from the lunch crew, but all she knows about them is that they argue a lot. The only person she really talked to is Jana. In fact, Nami just realized that Jana was the only person who took the slave camp for what it really was: a place with no freedom. A place where each person's life would be limited, and they have no chance of pursuing their dreams, and no exploring the outside world, full of treasures. That's what this camp is, yet all the people Nami met here behaved as if it was just a summer camp. Except Jana.

"Peaceful morning, isn't it?"

Nami immediately turned to see who was talking to her.

An overseer was sitting in a chair, under the shade of a sunroof, lighting a cigar in his mouth. As he put the lighter away, he said, "Peace like this, it would be better if there was more of it in this world.

Nami thought about what he said, and she clenched her fists. What peace? she thought. You mean the peace that you guards and other officials get while the slaves do all this work so that Kraken's company grows, letting him capture more innocent people like Jana? You villains are unforgivable -

"What? You disagree?"

The overseer's words broke Nami's thoughts, and her fists unclenched.

"Well, I don't care much what people think of me, anyway." said the overseer, then he rose from the chair and walked past Nami, who was looking at the ground when she heard a "POW!" sound.

She immediately turned and saw the overseer laying facedown on the ground, his cigar knocked out of his mouth. Standing upon him was a young man in a uniform that she had seen before.

The overseer turned to face the man. "What's the big idea-" he started, before he was stung by the man's sharp eyes.

"You're not supposed to smoke in the camp, Leith."

"Dendes, you're back early."

Sanji was drowsy, but he was close enough to being awake. Grim Kraken was in front of him. He had a penlight placed next to his ear, the brightest thing Sanji had seen for hours.

"Pick one," said Kraken, as he held out a large lunchbag in one hand, and a box of cigars in the other.

Sanji thought through this situation in his head. "I assume that the lunchbag is for all three of us. So if I chose the cigars, then I would be the only one happy."

Kraken nodded, momentarily aiming the penlight at Sanji's eyes and nearly blinding him. "So, which one do you choose?"

Sanji glared at him. "To choose between my own wants and my nakama's needs, I would pick the second choice so I don't become a piece of shit."

Kraken replied, "Well, that's your choice." He tossed the lunchbag onto the floor. Then he turned around and walked toward the door. As he did, he spoke, "And here's the box of cigars, no lighter included." and tossed the box onto the floor as well.

As he left the room, Sanji kept glaring and spoke under his breath, "No lighter? That's what I thought."

It was silent for a few moments, but in the darkness and silence, Sanji thought back. He couldn't see Kraken's eyes, but by listening, he felt something about the tone of his voice. It was strange, as if he was pleased that he had picked the lunchbag. But why would Kraken be glad about that? Wasn't he trying to torture them? And so the situation had become more puzzling since the time Kraken shouted at them and insulted their dreams the other day. Wait, was it their dreams that he insulted?

"Hm? Is it still night? Why is it dark?"

"Luffy,"

"Hm? Sanji?"

"Luffy, get us out of here. Do whatever it takes. Oh, and breakfast is right over here."

Usopp ran into the room and to his worktable, with Sore sitting at the desk next to it.

"What took you so long?" asked Sore, "You barely made it in time."

"Sore, I have to talk to you about something," said Usopp. "Do you know who Sooze is?"

"Sooze?" spoke Sore. "Oh, him. Yeah I know him. Areh told me that he used to be a technician until he was moved to the farm, and he works in the kitchen for all three meals, also he has this secret room that he accesses from the kitchen under one of the cabinets where he plays around with this junk that Areh gives him from his lab, and he makes all this stuff out of them, including weapons that could hypothetically be used to lead a slave revolt."

"Yeah!" responded Usopp. "So here's the deal: Sooze has this, um, place, it's a secret, and anyway--"

"Oh, you mean the secret room under one of the kitchen cabinets where he makes all this stuff out of junk that Areh gives him from his lab, including weapons that could hypothetically used to lead a slave revolt?"

"Y-" Usopp's face suddenly switched from an excited look to a "What the fuck?" look. "Does everybody know that?" he asked.

"Why no," replied Sore. "It's just Areh, Kore, me, Sooze - and now, you." His face reflected the shock he felt from just realizing what he did.

Usopp waited silently.

"What were you going to say?" asked Sore.

"First," answered Usopp, "you need to think before you speak or act."

Well, I hope you liked that. More suspense, right? I hope. So anyway, please review, and if you had waiting for this chapter too stubbornly to read my other fics, you may go read them now: Things You'll Never Hear/See on One Piece and Once Peace: A Dub Rap Parody.