Chapter Four
"Zoro, have you ever kissed anyone?"
The swordsman nearly choked on the apple he was chewing on, when Luffy had finished her abrupt comment.
The tides crashed loudly, as the sun shined down on the pirate duo. The boat the two had been in was filled with sand, as they felt the grainy friction through their clothing. They'd been drifting for days, hoping the waves would lead them to land soon.
A week had gone by after the two had left Coby back in Shells Town, where he could achieve his dreams of becoming a marine, and -since Luffy had blackmailed Zoro into joining her.
Zoro had never even considered the idea of becoming a pirate. Especially since he'd been hunting them until now. He originally concluded that the loud and obnoxious lifestyle wasn't for him- and yet here he was, sailing with a girl he met a week ago, helping her achieve her dreams of becoming the pirate king.
He was confused on how to even answer the girl's question. And pondered as to why she would even ask something so ridiculous to him.
"Why the hell would you ask me that?"
"Just curious?" She responded back, but her expression had been blank. Luffy had clearly been thinking too.
Luffy's torso was hanging over the edge of the boat, as she felt the warm salt water with the tip of her fingers. The sea water had caused her body to grow limp.
"I don't know. What does it mean when someone kisses you?" She continued,
Zoro's eyes widened at her statement. What was she going on about? He thought, cringing a little.
"Why are you asking me something so foolish?"
She darted her eyes toward him, and gave him a huge grin.
"Shishishi! You're right. Sorry, sorry. Shouldn't have asked that." She chuckled, sitting up from her previous position and grabbed an apple from the wooden barrel.
Zoro felt relieved that he didn't have to answer a question like that, but he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want to know what his captain had been on about. But he just shrugged it off.
It was quiet. He had thrown glances at his captain from time to time, unsure as to why really. Breaking the silence he finally managed to ask.
"Luffy, do you even know where we're going?" Zoro asked, trying to change the topic.
"Nope!" She responded honestly, causing the swordsman to groan.
"What the hell? How do you expect to be a pirate if you have no sense of navigation?"
Luffy stroked her chin with her thumb trying to think. "Mmm. That's what navigators are for!" She responded sheepishly, her face plastered with an innocent smile.
Zoro could only facepalm. It had been his own fault he'd been intertwined with such an idiot captain.
And so, Luffy had snagged herself a navigator and a liar in the process.
"Nami! Are we there yet?" Luffy groaned, annoying her navigator.
Nami sighed heavily, fed up with her troublesome captain.
Nami knew she hadn't been the most patient person, however when someone asked her the same question 12 times in the span of ten minutes- how could she not be irritated. She tightened her fist ready to punch the straw hat girl when suddenly the Going Merry had been met with a floating restaurant that had the words "BARATIE" painted on the front of it.
She relaxed her fist as she turned to Luffy, closing her eyes.
"We're here."
"WOOHOO!" Luffy exclaimed as she bounced around the deck. The girl had been acting like she hadn't eaten for days.
"Oi, Luffy." Zoro had announced, with one eye open. He used the end of his sword to point.
Usopp had already been aware, shrieking at the sight of the Navy ship that was parked right next to their vessel. His legs had been shaking, but he shifted his hands to his hips proudly standing upright.
"I-I! C-CCaptain Usopp shall burst down this navy ship with just a single movement with my finger!" He pointed at Zoro. "Zoro! Cut it down!"
The swordsman felt a bead of sweat drip down the temples of his head.
The crew had been on-edge, suspicious that nothing was done about them yet. Sure they were nameless pirates however-
"FIRE!"
Suddenly, a charcoal-colored cannon ball had been launched from the Navy ship, toward the Going Merry. Nami and Usopp shrieked, holding each other for comfort, while Zoro was ready to pull his sword out.
"I got it!" Luffy had called out, inflating herself bouncing the ball back- however her aim had been very far off. The ball had made its way to crash into the top left side of the sea restaurant.
The impact had caused the waves to crash, as the pathing of the sea was unbalanced. All boats were swaying, trying to stay afloat.
"WHAT THE HELL" they had heard a scream coming from the upstairs. The crew looked lifeless, as their captain had really screwed them over this time.
"I'm so sorry!" Luffy apologized, bowing down at the owner of the restaurant. She looked over as tears welled up in her eyes, noticing his missing leg.
"YOUR LEG!" She started to sob harder, going erratic over realizing what she had done. Her tears had stained the hardwood floor as she was causing damage to the floor with her unnatural strength.
Her nose was dripping snot and her face had puffed up.
"You friggin' brat! My leg has always been like this!"
She then stopped crying all of a sudden, realizing that she was not the cause of his detached limb.
"Whew! I thought I did something bad for a second gramps!" She jumped onto her feet, dusting off her knees with the palm of her hands.
The owner scoffed, looking at the teenage girl in frustration.
"You will pay me for the wreckage you have caused to the restaurant!"
"Eh? I don't have money!" she yelled, raising her hands in the air.
"Well then."
"Oh waiter! I would like a refill!" Nami called out with a snicker. She held her glass, shaking it slightly so the ice would clink against the rims.
Luffy walked out, wearing an apron, her feet dragging on the floor. She was devastated. She was living her biggest nightmare- being surrounded by food but not being allowed to eat it. The pirate captain cried internally.
She walked toward her crew that had been mocking her, rubbing it in her face that they were eating a delicious meal.
"HEY! You jerks! You're eating all this yummy food without me!" Luffy exclaimed, her stomach growling like mad. Her rubbery body limped to the floor, as her face was met with splinters. Luffy took in the humiliation her crew threw at her.
"Luffy, when can we go?" Complained Zoro, picking up his fork to take another bite of his food. The swordsman munched awaiting her response.
"I have to work here for a year!" She frowned, resting her face on the palm of her hands. "But I'll try to compromise with the owner, I can't stay here for that long!"
"Does this mean I get to be captain?!" Usopp joked, slamming his hand on the table from laughing. "NO! You bastard! I'm captain!" Luffy exclaimed, crossing her arms, as she glared at Usopp.
"Anyways," She continued, "I'll talk to gramps!" She finished with confidence.
…
"How may I take your-" Sanji paused, nearly gasping. His jaw dropped which caused the cigarette in his mouth to fall onto the marble crusted floor. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
His heart had dropped to his stomach, as adrenaline pumped into his stomach.
"Two angels? In front of me?" He whispered to himself. The seafaring cook grasped the end of his tie with his two hands, straightening it. In times like this, he must look presentable.
He gaped over to the two pirate girls that were only a couple of feet away from him.
One, an innocent like black haired beauty, who had been wearing the Baratie uniform to his surprise, who contrasted the other girl who he confidently described as a ginger -with a devilish charm.
"Sorry. Excuse me." He continued, leaving the couple who was waiting to order their food.
He walked over to their table excitedly, as steam could be seen growing out of his nostrils.
Once he had been close enough, he grabbed the hands of both the girls.
"OH! My chest! For It burns for the undying love I have for you two!" He announced, letting go of their hands, as he fell to his knees.
He slammed his fist against his heart dramatically, causing all the heads in the restaurant to turn toward his direction.
The strawhat crew had looked up at the blonde cook with confusion, stopping their banter from before. Zoro had scrunched up his face from disgust.
Who the hell was this guy? The swordsman thought.
"To think I'd be blessed by one -but two beauties!" Sanji quickly grabbed two roses from the china vase that had been placed in the middle of their table. He offered the roses to both the maidens who looked back at him, unsure of what to do.
Luffy then bursted out in laughter, breaking the short silence. "BAHAHAHA! This guy is really funny!" She took the rose from him and used her available to slam on the floor due to her obstreperous laughter.
Sanji turned to the straw hat girl as he grabbed her hand once again, looking up at her lovingly.
"For you my lady, I would humbly become your personal comedian."
Luffy bursted harder into laughter. "Shishishi! I like this guy, he's hilarious!"
"Eh?" Nami stated dumbfounded at the fact that Luffy was totally unaware that this guy had been hitting on them, -on her.
Sanji was already head over heels for Luffy, as she had been complimenting his best efforts- well, compliment was a way to put it.
Sanji was very much obviously infatuated with women, beautiful women in particular. He's been aware that his attempts at seduction have usually been brushed off and ignored, so when a woman- who was quite pretty, for the first time in his life isn't reacting in such a negative way, he can be no less than overjoyed.
But he calmed himself to ask the following question.
"Miss, may I ask why you're working here? I haven't seen you until today, and I would've noticed such a pretty face." He asked her, his legs wobbling like jello.
"Ah." She scratched the back of her head, her fingers intertwining with her short dark locks. "I destroyed a part of the restaurant so Gramps is making me do work here."
"EH?" Sanji couldn't believe that a cutie-chwan like her would be the one to cause the damage from before. Or believe that his old man would give her such a cruel punishment.
"Don't worry about this miss. I, your knight and shining armor will save you."
Luffy, clueless of what he meant exactly, brushed his statement off but decided to thank him anyway.
"Meal is free for the lady by the way!" He quickly chimed in, which led Nami to swoon in excitement. "Not for you two!" Sanji quickly added, pointing at Usopp and Zoro.
"That bastard." Usopp and Zoro groaned in unison.
And so- Sanji stormed upstairs into the old man's room.
"Old geezer! How could you make a cutie-chwan like her work! I won't accept this!"
Zedd could only sigh. "You friggin' brat, it was either money or make her work here." He explained, clearly frustrated by the blonde's gentleman's urges.
"I refuse! I won't allow it!" Sanji concluded, unwilling to listen to what Zedd had to say next.
In Zedd's case, he felt that he expressed himself better with actions, rather than words.
And so- He sent Sanji flying, where he found himself back near the pirate crew.
"I've decided!" Sanji turned his head toward the straw hat girl, as she was about to continue his thought.
"I want him in my crew."
Hello everyone! I am back with chapter four :D
First of all thanks so much for the feedback that you've all been sending me, I've gotten messages this past week and it seems pretty unanimous that everyone wants Ace to stay alive, so I must deliver and keep Ace alive! I mean I love Ace so of course I want him alive, so I shall try my hardest to do so! I even got some awesome suggestions on how to handle the Dressrosa arc, and Marineford so I will heavily take those into consideration. Also, I'm fairly new to this platform but I can see your ideas through email! I am seeing them :D
Feel free to leave back ideas if you have ideas for how to handle Ace being alive. I'm mostly kind of lost of what he's gonna be doing after and during timeskip, but I have a few ideas such as him and Marco taking over the Whitebeard pirates plainly to adventure, because they're family afterall- they're not gonna stop being family because their father passed away. Also I must sadly keep Whitebeard deceased because that was literally the catalyst of the new era xd
I would also like to apologize for what a sloppy job I did with chapter three. I was rereading it and it was so rushed and all over the place so I must do some heavy editing for that chapter when I can. I was lacking a lot of details so I want to heavily proofread and edit it ASAP! Also I apologize that this chapter nothing really happens, it's just Sanji's introduction. However, I'm planning on making the next chapter the start of Alabasta! So look forward to that hehe 3 I miss writing about Ace already
My SAT is next Saturday ;-; very sad. So this week will be relentless studying, so please understand if updates are extra slow this week. But hey, maybe I'll just end up writing anyway- I wrote half of this chapter during my online classes. LOL
I'm super excited to write the next few chapters, so please look forward to them! Like always, I shall see you guys next time :D
-Himech4n xoxo
