Replies to reviews:
babe300: No, I don't have MSN, but my email address is if you'd like to email me. It would be great if you could!
B-chan77: Here you are, but I warn you—it may be disappointing.
tokie44: Thanks!
Digitaldreamer: You're right—when (if) Luffy gets his hat back, that's going to be the end of this story. But about the falling action: I think this story doesn't really have that kind of structure. I think that it's more of two stories—the Buggy part and then the Shanks part. Each of them brings different problems that have to be resolved. And all surrounding that hat. Thanks! Yes, I don't see that many Shanks and Ben fics… (grins) I know—you're a ZoLu person. I've read pretty much all your fics (though I've never reviewed, I think—how hypocritical of me. I'll get to it one of these days…), since ZoLu is one of the pairings that I read. I believe that romance is completely improbable on that ship (I believe that they all share a bond stronger than a romantic one, maybe even stronger than family), but I read certain pairings anyway…
VM: Here's the update! (Though naturally, if you're reading this you already know that.)
Revenge of the Clown
Chapter 9:Time
The Straw Hat crew stood motionless, staring at the man as he spoke with Ace. After only a brief conversation, however, the man who they had now identified as Shanks turned to look their way. For a moment, the captain of the Red Hair Pirates and the entire crew of the Straw Hat Pirates simply stood staring at one another. Then Shanks grinned at them.
As though a spell had been broken, the Straw Hat Pirates instantly began to move again. Usopp shot behind Sanji, gripping the cook's black jacket and mumbling pleas for protection. Sanji tried to shake him off. Chopper shot behind Robin's legs, attempting to hide himself. Robin shot a worried glance the navigator's way. Nami backed up a few steps, suddenly sure that she had been wrong after all, and they were now facing an extremely strong pirate who would defeat all of them. Zoro glanced at Luffy in surprise as the captain stiffened.
Shanks began walking toward them, and Ace turned away to the man treating the injured men on the dock. He had neglected his duty of seeing that his men were all right so far, and it was time that he started attending to that duty.
"You know, now that I think about it," Usopp said shakily with a gulp, "I think that we should just turn around. I must have been wrong after all."
No one replied. They remained completely still once more. The only sounds were that of the people talking in the surrounding areas, and that of Shanks's approaching footsteps. When he was only ten meters away, however, Luffy's face abruptly broke into a wide grin.
"Shanks! What're you doing here?"
He pulled away from the swordsman's loosened grip and took a few steps toward the older man. Luffy's grin, however, was not enough to break the tension, which was still so thick that it seemed as though the air could be cut with a knife. Shanks appeared to notice this as he stopped in front of Luffy. The grin on his face widened.
"Still as thoughtless as ever, I see. Really, Luffy, I thought that you'd drowned when I saw my hat floating around in the ocean."
Luffy burst out laughing. Zoro, Nami, Sanji and Robin gave small smiles, Usopp heaved a sigh of relief, releasing Sanji, and Chopper cocked his head in confusion, but stepped out from behind Robin. The tension had gone in an instant.
"Shanks, this is Zoro, he's a swordsman and uses three swords, Nami's our smart navigator, Usopp's the marksman, Sanji's the cook, Chopper's the doctor, and Robin is an archaeologist—she's a genius!"
Shanks raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I have to say that I recognize quite a few of you—Zoro, you're the pirate hunter, aren't you? And Nami—I seem to recall someone of your description being called the pirate-specializing thief in East Blue."
"Yup. They were my first two comrades." Shanks raised an eyebrow at this, and looked at the two being discussed.
"Well… Both of you were against pirates, and yet you decided to follow a pirate?"
"I was forced," said Zoro without missing a beat. Everyone stared at the swordsman. Then, slowly, Nami, Usopp and Sanji turned to stare at Luffy.
"You forced Zoro to come along?" asked Usopp.
"And he actually listened to you?" added Sanji.
"Why have we never heard about this?" asked Nami incredulously.
"There seems to be a severe lack of discussion among you, doesn't there?" commented Robin calmly.
"I was forced to choose between death or Luffy. I was tied against a pole, Luffy would only untie me if I agreed to join me, and we had a bunch of marines charging at us. And there wasn't anything to discuss," he added to Robin coldly, "because I don't regret joining Luffy in the least."
Nami shook her head.
"And I thought that I had it worst when it came to Luffy's persuasion…" she commented dryly.
"Why, what did he do to you?" Shanks inquired with an amused expression.
"He and Zoro decided that I was their navigator before I even agreed."
"Ha!" snorted Usopp. "That wasn't bad at all! He came onto the ship where I was captain, kicked all my men off my ship, and named himself captain!"
"Really, Usopp, you could at least stop your lies when we're in the presence of extremely powerful pirates." Nami spoke her words with an annoyed frown. Zoro snorted.
"You, Usopp, were the only one of us with whom there was no issue joining us. He threatened my life, needed a fight to persuade Nami, spent days on end trying to get Love Cook over there, spent an entire day chasing Chopper all over the castle, and Robin…" Zoro shook his head. Usopp crossed his arms with an angry snort.
"That's only because there hasn't been a single person who Luffy wanted that hasn't joined him!" Nami opened her mouth to protest, but seemed to change her mind as the cook spoke up.
"He tried to strangle me, you know," added Sanji.
Shanks burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"I always knew that this kid would do well," he laughed. From behind him, a large man with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail walked up to them. He glanced over the people standing in front of Shanks.
"Captain, wha-" Then his eyes fell on Luffy, and his eyebrows shot up. "Luffy!"
"Sub-captain!" Luffy's grin widened even more, and then his eyes fell on the people approaching behind the captain and sub-captain, and his grin widened further.
"Roo! Yasopp! Everyone!" Usopp's eyes widened, and he stared at the approaching men. Indeed, among them was a man with the same curly hair, and the same face as himself, though with a much shorter nose.
"'Yasopp'?" he muttered in a small voice. Though the other man was much too far away to hear, he stopped in his tracks as though he had. The smile that he had been about to give Luffy vanished, and his eyes swept across the others to fall on Usopp. He froze.
"Dad?" Usopp's voice was just loud enough for the older man to hear this time. The man's eyes widened.
"Usopp!" without missing a beat, the man rushed over to embrace his son.
Luffy grinned, and beside him Shanks and Ben smiled.
"I thought it must be—he looks so much like Yasopp," said Shanks, as Ben beckoned to the astonished Straw Hats to move away, giving the reunited father and son a little privacy.
"So you did know what you were talking about," said Sanji, looking at Luffy with a surprised expression.
Luffy turned to glare at the cook and stomped his foot indignantly.
"Of course I know what I'm talking about! That was rude!" Sanji snorted, but did not reply.
"Oh, Luffy's never known what he was talking about," said Shanks lightly. The unified snort of agreement from Nami, Sanji and Zoro caused another grin to break out on the man's face.
"So, a pirate hunter, Zeff's boy, Yasopp's son, Nico Robin, a raccoon and a girl who I don't recognize," commented Lucky Roo. "You have done quite exceptionally so far, haven't you, Luffy?"
"I'm a reindeer!" said Chopper indignantly.
"Oh, he's Zeff's boy? Now that you mention it, I can see it. You may not recognize the girl by face, but remember that pirate-specializing thief we heard about from East Blue?" Sanji's brow furrowed, but Lucky Roo replied before he had a chance to speak.
"Oh, that's her? Then you've done exceptionally, Luffy, though I'd dearly like to know how you got two members whose previous professions set them strongly against pirates." Sanji considered whether to cut off the conversation, but Shanks spoke before he could even open his mouth.
"They were his first members," Shanks told the others with a grin. "He threatened Zoro and apparently persuaded the girl with a fight."
Making up his mind to ask, Sanji opened his mouth. Suddenly, Luffy's eyebrows shot up as he remembered something, and his question cut Sanji off once more.
"Shanks?" he addressed his idol. "You knew Buggy the Clown, didn't you?" Shanks shrugged.
"I suppose, in a way. Why?"
"Because I just killed him." Shanks looked around at the voice, grinning at Ace in greeting as he approached.
"It doesn't particularly bother me, if that's what you're asking, Luffy. I never really considered him a friend."
"Okay, then."
"How do you know me and Zeff?" Finally finding an opening, Sanji seized it, forgetting to even insult the old ex-pirate. Shanks looked at Sanji and raised his eyebrows.
"You don't remember? Well, you were quite young… Just after Baratie was set up, my men and I visited it briefly. I used to know Zeff, you see."
If Sanji was surprised, he hid it well.
Shanks smiled and pulled the black cloak that he always wore closer to his body with his right hand as a gust of wind swept past, threatening to pull back the cloak and expose his left arm. Nami raised an eyebrow at this.
"Is there something wrong with your left arm? You keep it covered with the cloak, and it doesn't even seem to move…" Shanks eyebrows shot upwards at the orange-haired navigator's inquiry.
"You know, you people really do seem to suffer from lack of communication. Luffy never said anything about it?" Zoro, Nami, Sanji and Chopper all shook their heads in unison. Robin glanced at the captain and raised an eyebrow.
"Navigator-san was the only one who knew that you and captain-san even knew each other. Long-nose-kun seems to have suspected, but seemed quite unsure."
"Which reminds me, where is Luffy?" asked Nami, looking around.
"Over there," Zoro replied instantly, nodding toward the Red Hair Pirates' ship. Luffy was talking and laughing with a number of crewmembers, appearing very much at home.
"Luffy!" called Shanks. Luffy looked around questioningly. "I'm surprised at you! I would have thought that you'd be a bit more grateful!" There was a teasing note in the man's voice, and Luffy rocketed himself back to Shanks and his crewmembers with a grin. "They just asked me about my left arm, and it appears that only your navigator and Yasopp's boy knew that you knew I existed!"
Luffy looked at Shanks, and then glanced at his comrades in surprise.
"You guys never asked," he said, apparently feeling that that was a good explanation.
"People don't go around asking other people, 'hey, do you happen to know Red-Haired Shanks by any chance?' on a regular basis," said Sanji, lighting a cigarette.
"He saved me," Luffy shrugged. "But the thing got his arm." His comrades, with the exception of Usopp, who was not there, and Robin, who was calm as usual, stared at him incredulously. Luffy stared back with wide, innocent eyes.
"Is that the best explanation we're going to get?" asked Zoro.
"Knowing Luffy, yes," replied Shanks without missing a beat.
"That was rude!" Luffy huffed, crossing his arms indignantly.
As they day went on, the Straw Hats continued to talk with Shanks. They became acquainted with Shanks, Ben, Yasopp, Lucky Roo, and other men who Luffy introduced them to. What little tension had remained after their initial conversation with Shanks disappeared soon afterwards, and soon they were all chatting like the oldest of friends.
Ben, however, noticed that something was not right. While everyone appeared to be having a good time, he could see a faint tension slowly building in his captain. Luffy, too, appeared slightly uneasy as the day went by. Though no one else appeared to notice, he knew the cause for this tension.
Things had not begun right. Luffy should have handed the hat over to Shanks directly, yet Shanks had found it floating in the ocean, fished it out, and then found Luffy on the dock with his comrades and brother. There should have been a serious conversation between the two, or at least some significant words passing between them.
Yet, because of their untimely arrival, none of this had happened. Not only that, but Luffy and Shanks were constantly surrounded by people, and could not bring up a topic of conversation that was private between the two of them alone.
The day was wearing on—it was already midafternoon. They would have to leave before dark. The Logue of this island took exactly half a day to collect. Right now, if they did not allow the Logue of this island to collect and followed their Logue Pose, they would get back to the island from where they had started. If the Logue of this island should collect, they would have to follow the chain of islands back again, which was very inconvenient.
This, however, meant that Luffy and Shanks would have to talk before that. Yet, it seemed as though that was not likely to happen. Whenever one topic of conversation became even a little boring, someone else always came up with something else. There was a feast, there was drinking… It showed no signs of ending any time soon.
Ben looked around at the members of Luffy's crew. The pirate-specializing thief was drinking; Yasopp's boy was talking enthusiastically to a crowd of people; Zeff's boy was flirting with every female in sight; the raccoon—or was it a reindeer?—was eating as though the food would disappear; Nico Robin sipped a drink as she read some books brought out by some Red Hair Pirates. Shanks appeared to be drinking, but while he usually consumed ridiculous amounts of alcohol, he did not appear to be consuming that much today; Luffy was eating, but though according to his crewmembers he ate to the extent that he would become as round as a balloon, he did not appear to be eating all that much, though still more than the average person could consume in one go. They both were talking with a large crowd of people about their adventures, but gradually, the two spoke less and less.
The pirate hunter, Rononoa Zoro, had been drinking until a short while ago, but now he sat leaning against the wall, watching with narrowed eyes. Ben approached him.
"Something's wrong with Luffy," Zoro said when Ben leaned against the wall beside him. Though he did not look up, and his mouth barely moved as he spoke, Ben knew at once that he was the one being addressed.
"I know. My captain as well," said Ben. He turned to look at Zoro seriously. "They need to talk. This meeting didn't go the way it should have at all."
"Luffy should have handed Shanks his hat on his own. They should have talked over what's happening together, not when surrounded by a huge crowd." Ben nodded. The swordsman understood.
"Don't the rest of your crew notice?" Ben asked. Zoro smiled wryly.
"Of course they do. Except for Usopp and Love Cook. They're too busy with their own things. But Nami lost two drinking contests, Chopper keeps dropping things, and Robin keeps glancing up from her book. They just don't know what's wrong, and they know better than to ask about it." Ben raised an eyebrow.
"Then how do you know what's wrong?" Zoro's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched his captain.
"I made a promise to a friend once, too. I know how I would have felt if I had fulfilled that promise, but was surrounded by so many people that I couldn't talk to her after that. It's not that much different from this. How did you know? None of the men in your ship seem to notice." Ben smiled.
"I know captain better than they do. He's an unpredictable man, so he's very hard to read."
"What do you plan to do about this?"
"That's what I wanted to ask you."
Zoro glanced at Ben and shrugged. With the number of people that Luffy and Shanks were talking to and time rapidly running out, the whole thing seemed thoroughly hopeless.
Author's Note:
Okay, that was hard to write. Nothing really happens, so it seemed extremely difficult. Especially the first half, you can just see my struggle. (snorts in self-disgust) But I like how the second half came out. So, I'm pretty sure that the next chapter will be the last. And since it's going to be the last chapter, I'd like to have more than six reviews before I update. You're welcome to criticize, go ahead; just review!