Near Reverse Mountain - Grand Line
Since his captain had decided that they were providing an escort service to their two captives Zoro decided that it was about time they at least something about them. "So who are you two anyways?" Zoro demanded fixing them both with his usual menacing scowl as he squatted down in front of them where they were still tied up in the middle of the deck.
Despite the fact that Zoro's scowl was indeed effective the two captives did their best not to let it show. Instead they kept their haughty attitude, as if they were attempting to look down their noses at the Strawhats.
"You may call me Mr Nine," the weedy teen proclaimed proudly and if he had not been tied to the mast of the ship he would undoubtedly have been puffing out his chest.
"And you may call me miss Wednesday," interjected the blue haired girl, punctuating the end of her statement with her trademark villainous laugh.
Those two names set off alarm bells in Zoro's mind but for the life of him he was unable to work out why. Sadly for the two people he was interrogating his confusion manifested in the form of a murderous glare levelled in their direction.
"You know," Zoro began slowly looking between the tied up teens, "I'm pretty sure I've heard names like that before." Zoro's words immediately set the two on edge as they began to sweat nervously. "Captain may have decided to take you home but that still leaves the question about what to do with you 'till we get there." Zoro's face was only inches away from them by the time he finished speaking.
"Zoro get Usopp and Johnny to empty the storage room and throw the weirdo in there." Luffy announced from the top deck which had the effect of making Mr Nine's head sag in defeat.
"What about the girl?" Zoro asked despite having a pretty good idea what his captain was going to say.
"She can stay in my cabin...unless she wants to join him." Luffy said with a smirk directed at miss Wednesday.
"And just where are you gonna sleep?" Nami screeched behind him from her place at the helm.
Looking over his shoulder Luffy said to her in a tone that conveyed just how ridiculous he found her question, "In my cabin, duh."
Nami let out a half growl and half screech as she grit her teeth and clenched her fists tightly before stomping away to the very stern of the ship as far away from Luffy as she she could get while still managing their course.
Luffy was just perplexed at Nami's reaction so inwardly shrugging he turned back to smirk at miss Wednesday. Miss Wednesday upon seeing him looking back her ducked her head with her gaze locked on the deck of the ship unable to meet his eyes.
"No...no it's fine, I'll stay with Mr Nine," Miss Wednesday said in a quiet and barely audible voice that only served to fuel the smirk on Luffy's face that was slowly morphing into a full blown grin. Despite still looking at the deck of the ship miss Wednesday could almost feel the grin aimed her which caused her blush to deepen to epic proportions. In fact Luffy was actually surprised she had any blood in the rest of her body as it all seemed to be in her face and fueling her blush.
As soon as Luffy's grin stretched across his entire face he spoke one final time, "Oh well your loss, you've got no idea what your missing out on." And with those words he descended to the main deck and entered his cabin.
Zoro couldn't help but shake his head slightly and roll his eyes at his captain's behaviour. He may not know exactly what was going on with his captain and the sea witch but one thing he did know was the captain had just dug himself a shallow grave.
Giving the orders to Johnny and Usopp to prepare the storage room and turn in into an impromptu ship's brig Zoro untied their 'guests' and escorted them to their new accommodations. Returning to the deck of the ship none of the crew were anywhere to be found, as Zoro was wondering where they were his stomach gave a loud growl which was when he realised that everyone had missed dinner and they were most likely in the kitchen.
Zoro made his way into the kitchen and the first thing he noticed was the murderous intent radiating from Nami which caused him to shiver slightly as he took the only available seat which happened to be next to Luffy. It seemed to Zoro that he was not the only one that could see the killing intent being directed at Luffy and the rest of the crew had sought to put as much distance between them and Luffy as possible while still being in the same room.
"Here's yours shitty moss head." Sanji said as he set a plate of food down in front of Zoro.
Luffy either not noticing the glare being directed at him or simply not caring sat in his seat eating happily. "Hey Sanji this is great!"
"Thanks captain." Sanji said with a proud grin at the compliment to his food, after all he put his entire heart and soul into his food no matter how seemingly insignificant the meal seemed.
"How long 'till we reach Sake summit?" Luffy asked the entire group. Silence was his only answer and looking up from his plate he noticed a few people shrugging. Still wanting an answer to his question he turned his gaze to Nami, raising a single eyebrow in question.
"Don't know," was all Nami grumbled out from between clenched teeth however seeing that Luffy was still staring at her she continued, "Maybe a week."
Having the answer he sought he give Nami a wide smile that quickly fell when he noticed her glare had only intensified. Finally picking up on the tension in the room Luffy quickly changed the subject. "Might wanna eat up guys, you're gonna need your strength tomorrow."
"Oh yeah why's that captain?" Gin asked immediatly desperately hoping that a change in subject would ease the tension.
"Now that we're on the Grand Line me and Zoro are gonna be stepping up your training, so far we've taught you some of the haki training exercises but now we're gonna intensify them."
Various groans could be heard around the table at that proclamation as for many of the Strawhats the training had been hell. Only Sanji, Zoro and Gin grinned in anticipation and in the case of Zoro the grin could be considered demonic.
"Right might as well get some rest, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow after all." Luffy then finished the last few scraps of food and left to return to his cabin.
"Captain has a point, you all might wanna get to bed or you won't be able to enjoy the fun as much tomorrow." Zoro said before he mimicked Luffy's actions and he too went to bed.
The next day mr Nine and miss Wednesday were sat on the railing of the Merry as they watched the captain and his first mate put the crew through their paces in a, what was in their opinion a ridiculous, training regiment and wincing slightly everytime a wooden practice sword made contact with flesh.
"You guys can't just dodge aimlessly, you need to stretch out with your senses and anticipate where the attack is coming from before you dodge." Luffy called out over the sound of thumping flesh as he looked over the exercise he had his crew doing.
The entire crew were divided into pairs with one sat on the floor wearing a blindfold and the other repeatedly striking their partner over the head with a wooden sword as they attempted to dodge. It wasn't an easy skill to awaken and Luffy wasn't disappointed that they hadn't made much progress as they had only been learning for not even two full months yet.
It was just as Luffy was thinking about the lack of progress they had been making that he watched as Sanji swung his wooden sword with all his might, only to hit nothing but thin air as Zoro leaned forwards in a perfectly timed dodge. Luffy stared at Zoro with rapt intensity and watched as Zoro managed to repeat his previous success another two times before his streak came to end as Sanji's strike connected with his temple.
Luffy decided that this was enough haki training for the day and gave the order to stop. "Good work guys." Luffy proclaimed with a grin as he stood in front of the crew with his hands on his hips, a few crew members perked up at his words while the majority groaned in pain as they still felt the agony of the training exercise.
"Really guys I mean it," sincerity was clear in Luffy's voice. "Zoro even managed to awaken his haki when he dodged a few of Sanji's strikes, we just need to make it more consistent," he said directing the last part to Zoro who gave him a nod to show that he agreed with his words. "And let's face it Zoro's not exactly got that much of a head start on this so you guys can easily catch up to him."
"What's next captain?" Zoro asked wincing in pain as he did so, Sanji's last strike had truly knocked him for six.
"We get some food then get some strength and speed training done."
"Why...why are you doing this to us captain? Usopp cried and when Luffy looked at him he saw that Johnny, Yozuku, Nami and Alvida all seemed to agree with his words.
"I've told you the Grand Line's a dangerous place and as captain it's my job to protect you all, but I can't be everywhere at once so you all need to be stronger."
Luffy looked over to the two bystanders who had been silently watching the whole training so far. "Hey do you two wanna get in on this?"
This panicked the two guests aboard the Merry and they began to frantically wave their hands in front of them and shake their heads violently as they stammered out numerous excuses that made no sense whatsoever. Luffy just grinned at them having already known what their response was going to be.
"Well we're gonna be sailing together for another week at least so if you change your mind feel free to join in."
After the first night on the Grand Line Nami decided that they would need to drop anchor at night rather than risk sailing at night because the sea's currents and weather patterns were far too unpredictable. This slowed down their voyage to the next island but the entire crew agreed it was better to get to their destination slower than get lost and not get there at all.
The next week passed by in a blur for the Straw Hats as they trained daily, unfortunately Zoro still remained the only one to have awakened the power of observation and even then it was still inconsistent. Despite the fact that the others had yet to awaken their power of observation that was not to say they hadn't begun to reap the benefits of their training.
So far Usopp, Johnny and Yozuku had added some muscle mass and toned up from their strength training which meant that the trio had gone from a string bean build to having an athletic frame.
It was during training that Nami attempted to get her own back on Luffy for his insensitivity. She took part in the various exercises one day wearing her brand new exercise clothes that were too tight in all the right places. This was done in order to catch Luffy's eye and get his blood boiling only to leave stew in his frustration. She was pleased that she did manage to catch him eying her several times but was frustrated herself when Luffy was seemingly unaffected.
Sanji was more affected by Nami's actions than Luffy and the more hot and bothered he became the worse his flirting became. Sanji's incessant flirting wasn't only limited to Nami though as both Alvida and Miss Wednesday were assaulted by Sanji's attempt at romance. No matter how embarrassed Miss Wednesday became or how hard Alvida bashed Sanji over the head with her iron mace he still returned for more, something that Luffy admitted to himself took serious dedication.
The crew had been sailing for twelve days when Zoro, tired of only crossing blades with Johnny and Yozuku, asked to spar with Luffy. Seeing no reason to disagree Luffy joined Zoro in the middle of the deck and drew his sword.
"Why are you still using that piece of junk captain?" Zoro asked confused.
"Well it's not like I've got another one laying about is it?" Luffy said slowly and privately wondering if he was missing something.
"What you on about? I got you a new sword back in Loguetown, a pretty damn good one too." Zoro looked at Luffy who had just raised a single eyebrow. "I did give it to you didn't I?" Luffy gave Zoro a small shake of his head. "Ah well, just wait here." Zoro went to his cabin to retrieve the sword he had bought for Luffy, finding it under his bed after rooting around for a while.
Handing the sword to Luffy he watched as his captain was rendered speechless by the beauty of the sword and pulling it from it's scabbard he marvelled at the obsidian blade. "She got a name?" Luffy asked not taking his eyes off his new sword as he took in every aspect of it's beauty from the sapphires in the hilt to the intricate design on the scabbard.
"It's called Gambit."
Luffy's eyes took on a gleam as he fell in love with his new sabre but also began thinking how much cooler his sword looked to Shanks'. Snapping out of his reverie he held up his new sabre ready to cross blades with Zoro. "So we doing this or what?" Zoro also readied his blades after tying his bandana around his head. The rest if the crew suddenly stopped whatever exercises they were still doing when they noticed Luffy and Zoro squaring off against one another.
It was Zoro that made the first move as he jumped at Luffy swiping at him with the blades held in his hands. Luffy ducked under one strike and parried the second before he brought his sword up in a slash aimed at Zoro's chest which was avoided as Zoro hastily jumped backwards. Not wanting to lose the opportunity Luffy pressed the advantage as he leapt at Zoro as he brought his sword down in an arc in an attack that would have bisected Zoro if it had connected. However it was Zoro's turn to counter as he deflected Luffy's strike with a single blade then launched a devastating flurry of strikes with all three of his blades.
Luffy was hard pressed to defend himself from the onslaught as he danced around several strikes and blocking many more. Needing to put a bit of distance between himself and Zoro he jumped backwards landing over a dozen feet away and just as his feet touched the deck of the ship he swung his sword straight upwards with all his might. This caused a blade of pressurised air to be launched at Zoro who in turn brought both of his swords down in a downwards arc and cut the air blades.
The two combatants continued to spar for some time, the tide of their fight maintaining it's back and forth tempo. Eventually Luffy held a hand up gave the signal to stop, "You know you're pretty handy with that sword captain." Zoro complimented as he regained his breath.
"Yeah but I'm at my limit as a swordsman." Luffy breathed out between ragged breaths. "You on the other hand the sky's the limit." Straightening up after regaining his breath he added, "We should get you working on creating air blades as well." At this Zoro perked up as it was a skill that Mihawk had displayed back at the Baratie. "It's hard to do, but it's not difficult to understand. Basically you've just gotta swing your sword as hard and as fast as you can, this'll create a blade of air that moves in the direction of your swing."
Zoro nodded to show his understanding of what was required to perform this technique, "You wanna go again captain? Can't get better unless I fight someone worthy now can I?"
"Maybe later right now I'm hungry." Luffy's gaze then sought out Sanji, "Oi Sanji I'm hungry, any chance you can cook me up some meat!"
Sanji pulled a fresh cigarette from his pack before nodding as he lit his cigarette and heading back to his kitchen to satiate his captain's often insatiable appetite.
"How long 'till we get to Sake Summit anyways?" Luffy asked the group expecting someone to know the answer.
Mr Nine whispered conspiratorially to his companion, "How many times do we have to tell him that it's called Whiskey Peak?"
Without taking her eyes off Luffy just in case he was listening in to what they were saying to one another she whispered back to him. "Sometimes I think he's nothing more than an idiot but the rest of the time it's like that that's all just an act."
Mr Nine at hearing his partner's words looked intently at Luffy and thought back on all their previous encounters before coming to his own conclusion. "Nah, I'm pretty sure he's just an idiot." Neither one of them spoke any more about Luffy as they saw him making his way towards them, fearful that he had overheard them they suddenly clammed up.
"Nami's just told me we should be at Sake Summit by this afternoon."
"It's Whiskey Peak you moron!" Mr Nine yelled at Luffy his anger at the name of his home being mangled in such a way overriding his self preservation instincts. Miss Wednesday however was more interested in Luffy's small smirk that vanished as quickly as it came which told her that Luffy knew exactly what the island was called and was only calling it Sake Summit to garner a reaction from them. This worried her somewhat because that proved that this pirate captain was actively trying to make him seem like an idiot, most likely to seem as small of a threat as possible.
"Oh that's good news," Miss Wednesday said lamely as she was still slightly uncomfortable in Luffy's presence because of the heavy flirting he was prone to. Luffy just nodded with a smirk on his face with his gaze inciting a blush on miss Wednesday's face. With the two guests being informed that they were nearly home he turned and headed to the kitchen to savour more of Sanji's delicious food.
It was later that afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to set, that Zoro whose turn it was to man the crows nest spotted an Island in the distance. Taking out the spyglass he'd borrowed from his captain, and mentally added buying his own to his to do list, Zoro observed the land mass in the distance. "Land dead ahead captain." Zoro called down to the rest if the crew alerting them to the fact they had reached their destination.
The rest of the crew gathered at the bow of the ship so they could take in the sight of their first island of the Grand Line where they were soon joined by Zoro. Their view however was obstructed as the Merry began to enter a thick fog, in fact the fog was so thick that the Strawhats were unable to see more than a few feet in front of the ship. Worried that they may crash into the island the crew set about reading in the sails to reduce their speed, just as they'd done that the fog began to clear little by little.
As the fog was clearing the Straw Hats could make out more and more of the island. This also meant that the inhabitants of the island could see them which was made obvious by the noise they were making. What was surprising to the Strawhats though was that the noise was cheering and celebration, and with the fog now almost entirely cleared the Straw Hats could see what seemed to be every inhabitant of the island lined up on the shore cheering and waving at them.
"Now I've seen everything, an island that actually welcomes pirates." Gin said in disbelief.
"The Grand Line sure is a weird place." Luffy replied in a tone that suggested that his response explained everything. Luffy looked at the rest of his crew and was amused to see Usopp flexing his newly acquired muscles at the girls of the island while Sanji blew kisses at them. Gin simply grinned happily at the reception he was getting as he waved back at the civilians while Johnny and Yozuku, ever the simpletons, stood proudly side by side on the guardrail of the Merry as they did all of what their fellow crew mates were doing. As for Alvida, she simply looked bored at it all as she rolled her eyes as the men in the crowd declared their love for her.
The most interesting reactions though were Zoro and Nami as both of them looked at the gathered crowd with suspicion. Luffy too shared their suspicions as no matter how friendly an Island was nobody welcomed pirates with open arms like these people. This told Luffy that this was an attempt to lull unsuspecting pirates into a false sense of security, after all what better way to do that than by being non threatening and playing on the pirate's vanity.
Sharing a look with Nami and Zoro who had caught one another's eye he gave them a slight nod and as they disembarked the Merry he whispered to them to not only keep their guard up but to also go with flow and not let on they're suspicious.
A tall man with freakishly curly hair met them at the docks and greeted them cheerfully. "Welcome pirates! My name's Igarappoi and I'm the mayor of Whiskey Peak, the Grand Line's friendliest and most welcoming rest stop! Here you will be invited to drink and feast and rest your weary selves, all we ask is that you share all your courageous tales of your bravery!" This was evidently the right thing to say as half the crew once more started blowing kisses and flexing their muscles at the crowd.
'Well he certainly knows how to manipulate a weak willed idiot,' Nami thought to herself. Obeying her captain's orders Nami plastered a convincing fake smile on her face as she took smiled at the crowd.
"Oh yeah we picked up two people that said they were from this island," and Luffy seeing that he had the mayor's attention continued while idly scratching his face. "One's a weirdo that wears a a plastic crown, the other's a blue haired hottie." As Luffy was talking he carefully watched the mayor's reactions as he went from being happy that Mr Nine and Miss Wednesday had been rescued to furious at how Luffy spoke about Miss Wednesday. This told Luffy that the mayor was incredibly close with the girl with how worked up he got over Luffy talking about her like he did.
The Strawhats were lead into one of the nearby building that turned out to be a large tavern and true to the mayor's word the crew were fed and allowed to drink to their heart's content. Sadly for the mayor of Whiskey Peak he had severely underestimated the appetite of the Strawhats as well as the amount of alcohol they could drink.
Plate after plate of food was consumed by the small crew of pirates until they had almost eaten the island out of house and home. Wanting to try and knock the pirates out a drinking competition was established with a prize of a hundred thousand beli and the ever greedy navigator of the Straw Hats press ganged Zoro and Luffy into drinking with her.
The townspeople that the trio had been drinking against began to fall one by one and as they did Luffy and Zoro kept an eye on the rest of the crew and they watched as Sanji and Usopp passed out surrounded by women with lipstick marks all over their faces. Johnny and Yozuku fell not long after them however with that duo Luffy believed it to be due to the excitement of the day more than anything else. Gin and Alvida were the last of the crew to fall asleep as they held bottles of rum in their hands, this set alarm bells of in Luffy's head as he knew both Gin and Alvida could handle their booze even better than he could which could only mean the alcohol was being tampered with.
When the last of their drinking opponents finished puking their guts out and passed out Luffy nudged Zoro under the table giving him a subtle signal to pretend to fall asleep. Then turning his head to Nami who was seated directly next to him he buried his face in the crook of her neck so nobody watching could see him whisper to her, "We both need to pretend to fall asleep and then when we're alone I want you to do what you do best."
Nami who had closed her eyes and brought one hand up to the back of Luffy's head and grasped his hair tightly. To the other patrons of the tavern it seemed that Luffy and Nami were simply two lovers that were getting friendly with each other so they paid them little mind. "Oh yes," Nami murmured in pleasure her tone concealing that the two were planning anything.
With their plan concocted Luffy let his head fall and hit the table as he feigned sleep with Nami following suit a moment later and with that the patrons of the tavern relaxed and let out a sigh of relief as they slipped out of the tavern to begin setting the rest of their plan in place and to stand guard from outside.
The tall nun that had been serving the group drinks all night approached Igarappoi at the docks, pulling off her habit as she did so. "I don't see why we had to go through that entire ridiculous charade when we could've just ambushed those fools at the docks. Thanks to those pirates the entire island's nearly out of food and they've drunk us dry."
Igarappoi who was stood with Miss Wednesday and Mr Nine shook his head at the nun. "Now now miss Monday, you should know better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving." From within Igarappoi's long coat he pulled out a stack of wanted posters that Miss Monday snatched and quickly examined.
"What!" Muss Monday screeched in disbelief as she repeatedly flicked through each and every one of the wanted posters. "You mean to tell me that that pipsqueek in the straw hat is worth sixty five million and him and his crew is worth nearly a hundred and fifty million!" Igarappoi only nodded his head sagely. "Then what are we doing out here we need to get in there and cut their throats while we still can!"
"Miss Monday you must calm yourself, we have them incapacitated and at our mercy. Besides the bounty drops thirty percent if they're handed over dead, after all the World Government likes to stage public executions." Igarappoi said calmly, his calm however was soon shattered when he heard a voice from the nearby tavern rooftop.
"I'd appreciate it if you could leave my friends to sleep for a while, we've had a long journey to get here after all." Zoro said with condescension dripping from his voice.
Just as the assembled group at the docks looked up and saw Zoro stood on the roof of the tavern with one sword drawn and slung carelessly over his shoulder one of the group's underlings ran up to them in a panic. "Mr Eight sir! Three of the pirates have vanished!" Their gazes then snapped back to Zoro who only smirked down at them.
'There's no way they could see through this charade,' Igarappoi thought angrily. More and more underlings made their way to the docks having been alerted to a problem when they heard their comrades yelling. Zoro only looked around the ever growing group impassively not worried about their force in the slightest.
"Let me guess, you out on a big show for naive pirates so you can drug them before Robbing them blind then selling them to the World Government to get their bounty. Isn't that right Baroque Works." Zoro said and shouting the name of their organisation for all of them to hear. Zoro's knowledge of their organisation sent a ripple of fear through the bounty hunters as they wondered what else the green haired swordsman knew about their highly secretive group.
"How...how do you know about Baroque Works?" Igarappoi demanded, his nervousness clear. Igarappoi was nervous, he had clearly understimated the Strawhats as not only had they seen through their act but had also deceived them and knew things that they couldn't possibly know.
"I used to be in the same line of work as you and made a bit of a name for myself back in the East Blue. Eventually someone from Baroque Works tried recruiting me but the whole thing seemed a bit shady to me, never knowing who is in charge and all those cheesy code names." Zoro shook his head before he threw it back as he let out a full belly laugh that only served to unnerve the assemble bounty hunters. "That recruiter wouldn't take no for an answer though so I had to kill him. Now there's a hundred of you and only one of me so this shouldn't take longer than an hour."
Those words were the last thing spoken before Zoro attacked. Ever since his spar with Luffy Zoro had wanted to try out the move that Luffy had used against him and this was the perfect oppertunity to practice throwing some of those wind blades. So with two of his swords now in hand he swing them down with all his might and sending two wind blades into the crowd of bounty hunters. While not quite as powerful as the one Luffy had produced earlier in their spar each wind blade still cut through over a dozen bounty hunters each.
Zoro's attack was the cue for the bounty hunters of Baroque Works to attack. As dozens of bounty hunters began making their way towards him Zoro jumped from the rooftop he was on and retreated back further into the town so as to reduce the risk of a gunman getting a lucky shot in on him. As Zoro made his way deeper into the town hopping from rooftop to rooftop various bounty hunters began attacking from all directions. Zoro dodged and parried before he swiped at each of the bounty hunters and with each swipe of his sword he felled another, sometimes he merely incapacitated them but more often than not the bounty hunter fell to ground dead.
When Zoro had jumped onto the newest rooftop he came face to face with both Mr Nine and Miss Wednesday. Mr Nine jumped at Zoro wildly swing a baseball bat and in response Zoro sidestepped the amateurish strike before he lifted his leg and stuck his foot straight into Mr Nine's chest which sent him flying over the side of the building and plummeting straight to the street below. While Zoro was distracted dealing with Mr Nine Miss Wednesday attacked with her weapon of choice which happened to be two sharpened rings attached to her fingers by a wire.
Zoro lazily dodged the attacks sent his way by Miss Wednesday but when he caught a smell of her perfume his reactions slowed considerably until he became all but incapable of moving.
"Hahaha you've fallen into my trap, my perfume it makes me irresistible doesn't it." Miss Wednesday said mockingly as she idly twirled her peacock slashers. As she got within range of attacking Zoro she was shocked to her core when the swordsman, who should be incapable of moving stepped behind her and lashed out with the scabbard if one of his swords striking her in the back of the head knocking her to the ground. She was saved from hitting the ground when she landed on her giant pet duck which then carried her safety.
While Zoro was rapidly thinning the numbers of Baroque Works agents Luffy appeared behind Igarappoi bit instead of getting the agent's attention Luffy decided to relieve himself off the side of the dock. The sound of pouring water alerted Igarappoi to something behind him and he spun around only to see Luffy with his dick in his hand pissing over the side of the dock which caused Igarappoi's jaw to fall. 'These pirates think so little of us that he's comfortable pissing in front if me without any thought to defending himself, will our humiliation never end,' Igarappoi thought to himself as he stared at Luffy.
"I see Zoro's having fun." Luffy said over his shoulder and looking at Igarappoi.
Igarappoi was about to respond when Caroo, Miss Wednesday's giant pet duck, came running to the docks carrying both Miss Wednesday and her partner. "We can't...we just can't...they're too strong." Miss Wednesday immediately froze when she saw Luffy standing at the docks and began to sweat.
Before anything more could be said the sound of shrill laughter filled the air and everyone at the docks spun around to see two newcomers. The female of the duo was carrying a parasol and was wearing a short yellow dress with a lemon pattern on it that stopped mid thigh, whereas the man was a long brown overcoat with a purple scarf and tacky sunglasses. The sight of the two newcomers caused the remaining Baroque Works agents to pale considerably and take a step back.
"Mr five, Miss Valentine! Thank the heavens you're hear to help with these pirates!" Igarappoi shouted nervously while praying that he was mistaken about their reason for coming to Whiskey Peak. His hope was soon dashed when Miss Valentine's shrill laughter sounded out once again.
"You really think me and my partner came all the way to this shithole at the start of the Grand Line to bail you losers out."
"We were given an order by the boss, apparently 'someone knows his secret.' Now I don't know what that secret is and I don't wanna know either but our orders are to eliminate everyone that does." Mr five declared and his words sent terror through Miss Wednesday and Igarappoi. "Isn't that right princess Vivi Nefertiti of Alabasta?"
"Haha I knew you were only pretending to a bad guy and you were nice underneath everything." Luffy said drawing everyone's attention to him. Luffy then stepped around Igarappoi and positioned himself between Vivi and the two Baroque Works agents. "Now why don't you two leave while you've still got the legs to carry you?"
Mr five's response to Luffy's statement was to stick his finger up his nose and root around. He then withdrew his finger and flicked a bogey straight at Luffy and as soon as it connected with him he was engulfed in an explosion. "Takes care of him," said Mr five before looking straight at Vivi. Once more digging his finger in his nose he readied another attack only to be thrown off balance when the smoke from his last attack cleared.
"Did...did you just flick your nose pickings at me?" Luffy asked in a dangerous voice. Everyone turned to look at Luffy who was completely unharmed with a pissed off look on his face. Throwing his hand up into the air lightning began to envelop his hand before it it expanded past his hand then morphed into the shape of a giant warhammer. "Thunder God's lightning hammer." Luffy then swung his hand down at the two agents. Miss Valentine was able to avoid the attack by utilising her own devil fruit powers and turning her body weight to a single kilogram which caused her to fly up into the air. Mr five on the other hand took the full brunt of the attack and fell to the ground twitching and covered in severe burns.
"Ten thousand kilogram press." Miss Valentine shouted from above Luffy and with that she plummeted towards the ground at high speed. Luffy however made no effort to move and simply stood in place, Miss Valentine believing that she was catching the pirate off guard began to cackle madly however as she made contact with Luffy she passed straight through him and the lightning that made up his body began coursing through her, the voltage overwhelming her and sending her flying away unconscious.
"You know I've been inside plenty of girls but that's probably the first time a girl's been inside of me." Luffy stated with humour evident in his voice. His comment also served to cause everyone else present to gape at him. "Now Princess, you don't mind if me and my crew leave do you?" Luffy asked rhetorically with a smirk.
"Wwwait...wait," Igarappoi pleaded getting Luffy's attention. "You're strong, the Mr Five pair were no pushovers and you took them out like they were nothing. You...you can protect the princess and get her back home to Alabasta, I know I've got no right to ask this of you but please help."
Luffy who had begun to walk away stopped mid step. "What's in it for me? Actually you know what I'm sure we can work something out," and as he said that he gave Vivi a smirk which made her stare at the ground intently. "You! Curly hair, be a pal and wake my crew and tell them I want them back on the ship."
"Err yes...yes of course," and with that Igarappoi went into the tavern to rouse Straw Hats. While Igarappoi was gone Zoro and Nami, who was carrying a large bag of loot, returned and was filled in on everything by Luffy. The thought of possible reward money caused Nami's eyes to sparkle in anticipation and she saddled up to Vivi and slung an arm over her shoulders.
When the rest of the crew returned to the docks the tried to talk Luffy into letting them stay at least another night. Luffy's response to their complaining was to gesture all around him and it was then that the other Strawhats noticed all the death and destruction around them. How they hadn't spotted it when they first came out of the tavern Luffy would never know but all that it told him was their observation haki needed to be stepped up.
Igarappoi also came out of the tavern however when everyone saw what he was wearing they froze, Luffy even vomited in his mouth slightly. Igarappoi had changed his outfit so he was now wearing something that looked similar to what Vivi was wearing and judging by how small and tight it was it was fairly obvious that Igarappoi had simply pilfered it from her wardrobe. "Princess Vivi give me the Alabasta eternal pose, I'll be a decoy and make my way there taking a direct route while you can sneak around through the back."
Reluctantly Vivi handed over her eternal pose before suddenly throwing her arms around Igarappoi and hugging him for all she was worth. The Strawhats gave them a moment to themselves as they began to board the Merry, after they waited patiently Vivi finally boarded the ship and she watched as Igarappoi sailed away in a small sailboat. An explosion suddenly engulfed Igarappoi's sailboat making Vivi scream in panic.
The explosion also served to light a fire under the Straw Hats and they rapidly got the Merry out to sea. As they were sailing away Luffy felt an unknown presence behind them and Luffy let out a sigh when he realised that he was the only person that had sensed that someone had snuck aboard the ship.
"Make sure to watch out for the rocks," the voice said cheerfully from the very stern of the ship.
"Don't worry I will." Nami replied not noticing the voice was one she had never heard before.
"At least we're away from that dreadful island," the mystery voice once again piped up.
"Yeah...hang on, who the hell are you." Nami said finally looking around at the mystery voice. This had the knock on effect of causing the other crewmembers to look at the mystery voice.
"Miss All Sunday!" Vivi shouted providing a name to go along with the new face. This also told the Strawhats that she was a member of Baroque Works.
"You know this really is a nice ship."
"Yeah I think so too," said Luffy with a smile and taking in the sight of Miss All Sunday. "Love the sexy cowgirl look you've got going on."
"Luffy you can't flirt with her she's Mr Zero's partner. She's the partner of sir Crocodile." Vivi shouted and everyone aboard the ship including Miss All Sunday to stop and stare at her stupidity in revealing such a thing. Vivi however continued without stopping to think about the bombshell she had just dropped one everyone. "She's the one I followed when i was gathering information on who is behind all my country's problems."
"Correction I'm the one who allowed you to follow me." Miss All Sunday took a great deal of delight in seeing the dawning look of realisation on the princess's face. "After all how could I not, it was all just so amusing. A princess that infiltrates a criminal organisation to save her kingdom, it's almost storybook."
"Thats all well and good but what I wanna know is just what exactly I can do for the lovely Miss All Sunday." Luffy said as he looked straight at Miss All Sunday.
Miss All Sunday took out an eternal pose to Alabasta just like the one Vivi had handed over to Igarappoi and tossed it to Luffy who caught it effortlessly. "According to you log pose your next destination is Little Garden and if you go there you won't survive long enough to leave."
"I'm the captain and I decide where the ship goes." Luffy declared proudly and with a hint of anger and he was about to crush the eternal pose in his hand when another voice stopped him. If he hadn't been so distracted by the sexy cowgirl then the voice wouldn't have been able to sneak up on him.
"You know if you don't want that can I have it?" Zoro who was still feeling embarrassed that Miss All Sunday was able to sneak aboard the Merry was now livid that a second intruder had got on the ship without him noticing.
"And just who the hell are you?" Zoro demanded, a question that was not answered by the intruder but by his own captain.
"Ace!" Luffy shouted excitedly and the rest of the crew could only think 'what the hell.'