Replies to reviews:

xXSanji-kunXx: (grins) I'm glad you like it. Here's the update!

nikki: Meaning that I could have ended the last chapter in a more interesting way? If that's what you mean, then I agree. I was a little pressed for time when I was writing that, which was why it was shorter than intended, and I also was frantically searching for a way to end it, so…

babe300: You're very welcome! But I'm not sure that it will be Luffy, Sanji and Robin who get them in the end. I have a plan forming, and though I'm still not sure, I'm thinking that someone else will be the one to get Buggy and Alvida and everyone else.

Again, thank you very much for reviewing!

Revenge of the Clown

Chapter 3:Pursuit

"Nami, they've stopped!" called the marksman from the observation deck. As he was the one with goggles that worked as binoculars, he was the one who was in charge of keeping a lookout when it was important.

The navigator looked up from where she stood beside the ship's figurehead, on top of which the restless captain sat.

"Then we'll take advantage of that. Sanji-kun, Zoro, Robin, Luffy, Chopper! Get the oars and start rowing!"

"Of course, Nami-san!" The enthusiastic reply, naturally, came from the cook.

They all moved to do as she said. Zoro reluctantly, Chopper obediently, Luffy restlessly, and Sanji enthusiastically. Robin sat calmly on the edge of the ship with a cup of coffee, not making a single movement. Nami turned to glare at the archaeologist.

"Robin! Can't you ever look like you're actually doing something?" Exasperation filled the navigator's voice, though she knew that her words would be of no use. They had been through such conversations many times already, and the raven-haired woman never lost her cool, nor did she change her ways.

"I'm rowing," Robin replied simply, turning her eyes to the fuming red head. Indeed, four arms had sprouted on each side of the ship beside the oars, and were helping the four men row.

"I know you're arms are rowing, but…" Nami gestured helplessly. "Can't you ever give some sort of…well…visual?"

"I'll try my best," came Robin's usual reply as she returned to her coffee. Nami gave up. She had tried this same thing during the Davy Back Fight, and even then, she had only succeeded in having a conversation almost identical to this one, and both conversations had produced identical results.

Turning her eyes to the ocean lying ahead of the ship, she saw that the Clown Pirates' ship had come much closer. Those boys were quite strong, after all… At that moment, a sudden thought struck Nami. She spun around to look at the rowing men.

"Luffy! Do you think that you could extend your arm out to that ship from here? That way you could just hop over onto their ship, get back your hat, and come right back without causing so much trouble."

Luffy looked up at her, but before he could even open his mouth to reply, another call came down from the observation deck.

"Nami, they're starting up again! And this time in a different direction!"

"Which direction?" Nami asked sharply. She had checked her Logue Pose earlier, wondering if that was what they were following, but it had been pointing slightly to the right compared to the direction in which they were heading. This had made her nervous. If they were not following the Logue Pose, they either had collected their last Logue at a different island, or, more likely, they were following an Eternal Pose. If they were following an Eternal Pose, that meant that they had probably planned this whole thing. Which, in turn, meant that she and the rest of the crew on the ship were heading straight into a trap.

"Slightly to the right of the direction where they were heading before," replied the marksman. Nami furrowed her eyebrows, but turned to the rowing group.

"Put the helm to thirty degrees starboard!" Sanji and Chopper instantly rushed off to do as she instructed, and the captain looked at her for instruction.

"You stay there, Luffy," she said sharply. "Keep rowing until Sanji-kun and Chopper get back."

"Nami, how did you know where to go?" inquired the marksman from above.

"They're heading in the same direction now as the Logue Pose is pointing." The long-nosed boy looked down at her quizzically.

"Where are we heading to next?" Nami shot a sharp glare upwards.

"I'm a navigator, not a map," she said, her voice ice cold. "I don't know any more about the next island than you do." The marksman gave a nod, and instantly returned to watching the ship that moved ahead of them.

"Nami, if we keep doing this, we won't have any strength left to spare the enemy once we catch up," called Chopper. Nami looked back and saw that Chopper and Sanji had returned. She considered Chopper's words as the other three muttered their disagreement. Though it was true that the other three had monster-like strength, they also had a ridiculous extent of pride. She remembered a conversation in which Sanji and Zoro had agreed that they preferred to die rather than be disgraced. She was sure that they would never admit it if they tired. In Luffy's case, he never even noticed when he was tired. He would lose too much blood during fights and collapse, and still fail to realize that he was pushing himself too hard. As for Robin, she never complained anyway. Nami had no way of knowing why, whether it was pride or loyalty or something else, but though Robin was strong, she doubted that the woman could keep up the strenuous rowing for long without losing the strength to fight.

She had to agree with Chopper.

"Okay, no more rowing! Sanji-kun, Chopper, get back to the helm. Zoro, Robin, keep an eye out for anything out of the normal and help where you can find work to do. Luffy come here and see if you can reach their ship."

Luffy instantly did as she said, rushing up to the prow and stretching out his arm. For a moment, it looked like it would work. Luffy's hand caught the edge of the ship, and with a grin, he prepared to rock himself over. However, apparently someone on the other ship noticed what he was attempting. A sudden stabbing pain ran through his hand, and he let go with a yelp of pain.

"Luffy!" Nami and Usopp cried out in horror. He had already begun to rocket himself to the other ship when he had let go, and now was falling through the air midway between the ships, too surprised to think to extend an arm to either ship.

But Zoro was at the prow in an instant, holding out his hand.

"Luffy! Hold this!"

At the swordsman's call, Luffy's arm shot out, his hand taking that of the green haired man. With a strong swing of his arm, Zoro had Luffy back on the ship, though there was a shallow hole in the wood of the deck where the captain had crash-landed. Nami and Usopp let out identical sighs of relief as Sanji and Chopper came bolting out of the kitchen, where the helm was located.

"What's wrong, Nami-san?" called Sanji.

"Luffy just tried to rocket from this ship to that one," Nami said, her voice regaining its usual tone. "A really idiotic idea. His hand appears to have gotten stabbed on the other side, and he let go, ended up midway between both ships, and nearly fell into the ocean."

"'Idiotic idea'?" came the long-nosed boy's voice from above, as his head appeared to peer downwards. "It was your idea, Nami."

The navigator's head snapped up with a vicious expression.

"Of course it wasn't! Do you think that I would come up with such a silly idea?"

"Yes, seeing as you did," came the instant reply. However, the marksman ducked right back into the safety of the observation deck after saying his words. He knew the navigator's wrath too well to remain where she could see him after contradicting or defying her.

"Nami-san, you are always so admirable when correcting these ignorant idiots!"

The marksman snorted. He didn't have to look down or guess to figure out whom that was. That cook would never admit that Nami or Robin could do anything wrong. Peeking over the edge, he mentally rolled his eyes. Just looking down at everyone from up here, it looked as though nothing was out of place. No one would think that they were pursuing an enemy who had just stolen their captain's dearest treasure and once come dangerously close to beheading their captain as well. Sanji was swooning over Nami, Nami was snapping at him, Zoro sat against the edge of the ship beside the prow, his three swords leaning against his shoulder as he slept, Luffy sat on the figure head, laughing at the antics of his crew, Chopper was trying to convince Luffy to come down so he could treat his hand, and Robin sat on the edge of the ship with a cup of coffee, reading a book by the first sunrays of the morning. Only one thing let on that anything was wrong, and that was the lack of the straw hat on the captain's head.

Turning his eyes back to the front, he adjusted his goggles to look at the ocean that lay ahead. Looking through the goggles, he faintly could see a slight elevation in the distance. The island, thought the marksman, shuddering to think what they would encounter there.

"Nami! I can see an island in the distance!" Usopp called down, shouting at the top of his voice to be heard over the squabbling—Chopper and Luffy were arguing over the treatment of Luffy's hand, Nami was shouting at everyone at their lack of concentration on the issue at hand, and Sanji and Zoro were arguing over something trivial.

At the marksman's words, Luffy stopped arguing and looked up, Chopper took advantage of his distraction to treat his hand, Nami stopped yelling and kicked Zoro and Sanji to silence them, and Robin looked up curiously from her book.

"Now that we're close enough that long-nose-kun can see the island, may I ask exactly what sort of enemy we're facing?"

Robin's question came before anyone had the chance to answer Usopp. Nami was the one to reply to Robin.

"Well, Buggy seems to have a grudge against Luffy for defeating him the first time they met. Buggy ate a Devil's Fruit that allows him to detach parts of his body from the rest. They also both appeared to know the person who gave Luffy that hat… I can't remember what the man's name was, but it sounded familiar. Then they met again in Logue Town, and that time Buggy's crew managed to trap Luffy on top of the death penalty platform, but Zoro and Sanji saved him."

Sanji and Zoro both froze at Nami's words. Zoro felt a chill run through his body, and Sanji suppressed a shudder. Now that they thought about it, they had never really told Nami and Usopp what had actually happened. The people they had met after that—Smoker and Tashigi—had become more important to think about, and the death penalty incident had been shoved to the back of their minds. But now both of them recalled it—the terror at having nearly lost their captain, the desperation to reach and platform and knock it down… And then their captain's words.

"Zoro! Sanji! Usopp! Nami!" their captain had called. Then, a big smile appeared on his face as he continued. "Sorry. I'm dead."

The two of them looked over at Luffy, who was looking at them as well. The captain, who was normally so readable, held an entirely unreadable expression on his face as he looked at them. Then he gave them a small smile before turning back to Nami and opening his mouth.

Sanji instantly felt a sense of dread. Was Luffy going to tell all the others of his failure? But Zoro felt differently. He had felt that that smile had been Luffy's way of saying, "don't worry. You tried harder than ever. I saw."

"Alvida joined Buggy, too," Luffy told Nami and Robin.

"Alvida?" asked Nami and Chopper quizzically as Usopp leaned out of the observation deck with interest.

"Yeah. She changed a lot, though. She ate a Devil's Fruit, too… I think she became slippery. She was the one that Coby used to work for, you know." The last part was directed at the swordsman, who Coby had also befriended. Zoro gave a little nod, and then, looking at his captain's face, made his decision. Luffy trusted all of them beyond measure. Now he would show that same trust in his fellow crewmates.

"You're wrong about one thing though, Nami." Sanji looked around at Zoro dubiously. "The love cook and I couldn't do a thing to help Luffy. We never got close enough to the platform in time."

"Yes, Nami-san," cut in Sanji, his voice serious for once as he spoke to her. "It was a bolt of lightning that saved Luffy. It struck the platform exactly, just moments before he was beheaded."

Glancing over at Luffy, Sanji was surprised to see a large, proud smile on his captain's face, directed at himself and the green-haired swordsman.

"Oh," said Nami. Then her eyes narrowed. "And why did none of us hear about this until now?"

As Zoro muttered in annoyance and Sanji began to swoon once more, Luffy grinned even more widely. Things were back to normal and no one had made a big deal about it. That was why they were nakama. Just then, Usopp's voice cut in, returning everyone to the problems of the present.

"Nami," he called. "I can see the island more clearly now. Could you come up here and see if you know it?"

The navigator instantly climbed up to the observation deck, and taking the marksman's goggles, looked at the island beyond the ship ahead of them thoughtfully. After a few minutes, she finally shook her head and returned the goggles.

"I have no idea," she said. "I already told you, I don't know much about the islands of Grand Line."

"If you'll allow me to look, I'm sure I could tell," said a feminine voice from behind the two of them. Swinging around with a jump of surprise, they saw that Robin had climbed up as well.

"There isn't enough room up here!" grumbled Usopp as he handed over the goggles. "This is made for one person, not two or three!" Robin and Nami ignored him, Robin looking out at the ocean through the goggles, and Nami watching her expectantly.

Slowly removing the goggles from her eyes, the archaeologist handed them back to the marksman, an indescribable expression on her face. It was not the one of terror as when she had seen Aokiji, but her cool and calm exterior had still dissolved, and this worried Nami.

"It's a dangerous island," Robin said before anyone could ask. "I can't specifically remember its name, but this is not good. It's a perfectly welcoming island if you go peacefully—full of people and shops… A lot like Logue Town. Only here, there are no marine bases. Instead, it's swarmed with White Beard's men."

"Is that bad?" asked Nami tentatively.

"Not ordinarily, no," replied Robin. "They usually don't try to fight unless you do something. But in our case, it's definitely bad. We're going to be fighting, and like I said, it's a crowded place. We're likely to injure some innocent bystanders. And not just any innocent bystanders—people who are close to White Beard." She looked at the two standing beside her. "You may know that White Beard is known as the strongest pirate, and he does not forgive when his men are hurt. It may not sound so bad now," she added with a sigh. "But when we get there, we'll be in mortal danger if we fight."

Nami and Usopp exchanged a glance.

"There's no chance of turning around and surrendering?" Usopp asked hopelessly.

"Luffy's hat, Usopp. It's Luffy's hat!"

The two of them exchanged another look of despair, and then looked down at their companions.

"This might be the last time that we're all together like this…" muttered Nami.

Usopp wanted to tell her not to say such things, that surely it would turn out all right, but he couldn't. He knew that she was right. Their luck was at an end.

A/N: Well? What do you think? Nakama is comrades or companions, by the way, if you don't already know. It just sounds better and stronger as nakama, which is why I used it there…

This time, I'm asking for five more reviews before I update. So review!