I've returned, for a short while!
To be clear, I couldn't make the Amazon Lily Arc any longer than three chapters, including this one, but that was last us about a month, right? After these, I'll post the New Crew Episodes as I finish them, each probably two chapters or one long chapter. After that, I'll finish Marineford and its aftermath before bringing this section of the story to a close.
If you have any Ideas for how one of the new characters should develop once it's been revealed where they are now, go ahead and leave a review or DM me and I'll consider it. Heaven knows y'all might have better ideas than I do.
Anyway, y'all deserve something after all that waiting, so on to the story!
Chapter 128:
Amazon Lily
Anger, guilt, and fear swirled through Luffy's chest, none of them being helped by the understanding he now felt. The sky shown blue not too far above, clouds over and around him parting for the paw-shaped thing carrying him through the air. The captain mused, as well as he could with all the emotions he felt, apologizing to his friends over and over.
They had been outmatched, plain and simple. And very lucky in the past. Maybe they could have taken Kuma. Maybe they could have taken his grandfather. But only if either were alone and the crew all together, and even then he couldn't believe it would be easy. Garp had let them go at Water 7. Kuma had let them go at Thriller Bark, though he had seemed surprised that Gin survived, whatever that meant. Luffy suspected it had to do with Rum-Gin's double, not the alcohol-but that wasn't important.
How long had it been since that time? Hours? Days? Night had not yet come, so it was the same day, probably. Nami had said something before about Grand Line days never being the same length away from islands and even tried to explain it, but Luffy had chalked it up to being a mystery.
He missed her. He missed all of his friends, but he missed Nami the most. Two sides inside him warred over that. Part of him, his mind probably, felt guilty that he yearned for one of his Nakama more than any other, but his heart knew she was the one he couldn't live without. The one he could never part with. He would be lost without his navigator.
He certainly felt lost, but at least he knew they were alive.
He knew dwelling on his thoughts wouldn't take him anywhere good. It was why he disliked the silence. Why he made the most noise. People talked and scolded and did things when stuff happened. It kept things moving forward, so the past rarely caught up. It kept the nightmares away, too. Helped him forget about stuff like the Grey Terminal and his lost blond brother.
No, he shouldn't think like that. Luffy shook his head, fighting the thoughts away, and closed his watery eyes. It might make the pain worse later, but the Supernova willed himself to sleep. At least there was a chance he could see his crew, happy and healthy and together, in his dreams.
Luffy slept for two and a half days.
His reawakening was sudden, hitting the ground yet not, bouncing once harmlessly by the dispersion of his paw-bubble. The rough treatment woke the sleeping pirate, leaving him in a large, paw-sized divet. Hopefully his friends had similar landings. Despite his wondering, Luffy knew there was nothing he could do without finding where he was first.
Except... Luffy remembered Robin doing something during the fight with Kuma, slipping something into his pocket. Luffy reached for the item, pulling out a folded piece of paper. In Robin's neat handwriting was the name Rayleigh in the corner. Rayleigh was the ship-coating guy, wasn't he? Something nagged at the back of his minds, a couple quotes from before.
His brother before leaving them in Alabasta, giving him a paper. Take good care of this. It'll bring us together again some day.
Lola after Thriller Bark, too. It's a vivre card... It can guide you to the person and tells you about their health.
First, Luffy pulled Ace's vivre card from the band of his hat, finding the paper still slowly burning, but it was only a little smaller than the last time he'd seen it. That was good. Whatever has happening couldn't have been happening too fast.
Next, he needed to see if he was right. Holding the paper with Rayleigh's name on the palm of his hand, Luffy watched it scoot away from him.
Great as it was he had a way to get back, Luffy was sure he couldn't make it on his own. Two years, Kuma's voice muttered in the back of his head. He shook the thought away. First, he need to know where he was.
And that meant...
"Exploring," Luffy muttered, tucking both vivre cards in the band of his hat.
Rising to his feet, Luffy's stomach rumbled.
"Exploring and hunting," Luffy amended.
The world around him was a jungle, not dissimilar to places like Mount Corvo, Jaya, or Upper Yard. That meant large animals and lots of meat. Despite his desperate situation, the rubber-man felt his mouth salivating at the thought.
Worried as he was, his hunger was what he could deal with now. He could worry about finding his friends with a full stomach.
A twig snapped. Slowly, a light twinkling in his eyes he hadn't felt since he left the mountains over Fusha Village, Luffy's gaze turned to the giant boar that was trying to sneak up behind him. Subconsciously, he licked his lips, the boar realizing the danger and stepping back.
The hunt was short but satisfying, leaving Luffy with a bulging stomach and a pile of bones. Sighing with contentment at his sated hunger if nothing else, Luffy finally noticed some of his other surroundings. Mushrooms of all sorts grew around the forest, and he could have sworn he'd seen pictures of them from those times he got so bored he read Sanji's cookbooks. Laughing Shrooms were supposed to make you laugh. Crying Shrooms made you cry. Luffy didn't get the science, but listening to Grace and Sanji talk about it made him smile.
The pirate captain chowed through the mushrooms like an Italian plumber, not that he knew what that was, until he came to a kind he didn't quite recognize. It had a white stem and a red top, not unlike the Rage Shrooms he had minutes ago, but there was a white dot on it. Maybe it was a sort of mix? Shrugging, Luffy tossed the mushroom down his throat. Woozyness suddenly struck, Luffy's vision fading.
He was on fire! And not in the good way! Not in the metaphysical way! Literal fire! AAAAHHHHH!
Luffy passed out again.
Painful as it had been, being on fire caused Luffy's mind to kickstart, but it was a slow process. He had no control or awareness as someone or something carried him somewhere, but it was warm enough and wet to ease his tender skin. Something rubbed against his chest soothingly, putting him at ease to the blurry world. That was, until something grabbed his lower parts. That was the start of Luffy's transition into true consciousness.
"What should we do?" a gruffer voice asked. "These last couple mushrooms won't come off her."
"Perhaps we should burn them like the rest?" a female voice suggested.
"I'm not sure," yet another female voice muttered. "She screamed a lot when we did that last time."
"Belladonna said fire kills the mushrooms," the second voice argued.
"Wha?" Luffy blinked slowly, all eyes in the area turning to him. "Were'm Ah?"
"Easy," the third voice whispered. They had blonde hair from what Luffy could see, but it wasn't quite right to be Sanji or Amy. "We found you in the woods covered in mushrooms. You're safe here."
"Except you've still got two stuck," the gruff voice said. They were on the wider side with brown hair through Luffy's unfocused eyes. Something tugged on his neither regions again, hard.
Luffy snapped awake.
"Wh-What are you doing?" he demanded, pulling out of their grip. They were women, the blonde one thin and the other large. Both wore simple animal-skin clothing. Other women, nearly 50 in all, watched from the rocks surrounding the natural spring Luffy found himself in. The water didn't concern him so much as one of the women touching something that didn't belong to her.
"You ate a parasitic mushroom," the blonde explained. "They grew all over your body, so we pulled them off and were giving you a bath. But we missed one or two."
"That belongs to Nami," Luffy heard himself say before he could properly think, a deep blush burning across his face afterward. His hands covered his bits, mortified, before weakness snuck up through his legs. "Oh."
Unable to stay upright due to the side-effects of having a Devil Fruit in standing water, the pirate tilted forward, splashing into the stream.
Women cried out in confusion and worry, the blonde reaching down to pull the confusing individual from the water. Rather than his body, though, Luffy's arm stretched as the blonde tried to pull him free, leaving the rest of the pirate's body submerged.
"What seems to be the problem here?" an aged voice asked as the two women in the water pulled a coughing Luffy from below, having thrown his arms over their shoulders and grabbing his underarms.
"Oh, Elder Nyon," the blonde greeted. "We found this girl in the woods covered in mushrooms, so we were taking care of her. She suddenly started freaking out."
Nyon was very short with red clothing, standing about four feet tall. Both her wrinkles and her white hair were signs of wisdom borne of many years. In her hand was a blue snake acting like a walking stick.
The elder studied their find, her eyes roving over the person before settling on something between the pirate's legs. She paled.
"That's nyo girl!" Elder Nyon screeched. "Nyot at all! That... That's a man! A maaaaaan!"
This time, it was Nyon who fainted.
Other women around the spring jumped to the elder's aid, the two holding the pirate letting go in panic. Luffy blubbered underwater, unable to do anything else.
"What do we do?" the blonde questioned. "We've never had a man here! Belladonna?"
"I say we kill it, Margaret," Belladona answered. She was the woman who had suggested burning the pirate's "mushroom". Her cheekbones were incredibly high with long black hair and tan skin. "That is what our Empress would do."
"But this may be our only chance to see a man!" Margaret, the blonde, argued. "Sweet Pea?"
"It's drowning!" one of the women on the outer ring called. Margaret ducked into the water, pulling the pirate's torso out. Luffy gasped, but remained limp.
"Does every man not know how to swim?" the large woman, Sweet Pea, wondered. "We should keep it for study."
"Fine," Belladonna sighed. "Put it in the jail cell. We'll ask our Empress what to do when she returns."
The women carried Luffy to a cell in the center of the city, the extended contact with water having caused him to pass out again. The cell was spartan, holding only a bed, which Luffy was tucked into, and a toilet with barriers on either side. One wall was nothing but crossed steel beams, allowing the women to crowd around to watch the shifting pirate as he slept, taking notes. Each had a snake wrapped around them.
"Nami..." Luffy muttered in his uneven sleep, reaching for something only he could see. "No... Nooo...! Give... Give them back...!"
"Do all men talk in their sleep?" Margaret asked from near the front of the group. Luffy's tossing and turning had loosened the blankets around him, leaving most of his naked body exposed.
"What great research!" another Amazon smiled, taking notes and drawing diagrams. "What do you think it's talking about?"
"It sounds like a name," Sweet Pea commented, wearing the hat they had found with the man. "Perhaps it's related to why it's here?"
"Then it's looking for this 'Nami' person?" Aphelandra asked. She was of Giant descent, standing over 20 feet tall with a cowboy-style hat and wavy brown hair. "Do you think it's another man?"
"Probably," Belladonna agreed. "The only women in the world are here on this island, after all. They must know each other well if it guards something of theirs by attaching it to its body."
"It's waking." The woman who just spoke was Kikyo, one of the more powerful Amazons currently in the village. She had naturally-tanned skin and long, straight black hair kept in a high ponytail. Her defining feature was the purple eyeliner she wore.
"Nami!" Luffy gasped, his eyes snapping open as he bolted upright. The pirate panted in the bed, slowly realizing the memory he had relived, though recent, was only a dream. He shook his head, drawing the covers closer. He blinked, realizing all the women were watching him, a worried blush heating his face. "H-How long have you been there?"
"You've been asleep about an hour," the Giant woman answered. "We've been watching the whole time."
"And I'm naked... why?" It's not that Luffy was uncomfortable-physically, anyway. He'd slept in the nude plenty of times, but he usually had a bedmate then and certainly not with an audience.
"We-"
"My hat!" Luffy cried, realizing his precious treasure was missing. His eyes found it on the head of one of the women, his arm instinctively snapping forward. It was dangerous, stealing his hat back when everyone here could attack him, but Luffy was too concerned about both Shanks' gift and the vivre cards he'd stashed inside it.
The women stared with awe and fear as Luffy's arm stretched, taking his hat from Sweet Pea's head and cradling it to his chest. Several drew bows, their snakes having straightened to become the recurve and handles.
"I'm not doing anything," Luffy commented, checking to make sure the life papers were still in place. They were. He relaxed with a sigh. "They're here. I can get back."
"We have questions for you," Kikyo said, no room for argument as her arrow aimed for Luffy's chest. "Answer them truthfully or else."
"Listen, lady," Luffy responded. "I don't know what's going on. I just want to get back to my friends."
"Answer our questions!"
"You haven't asked them," the pirate countered. Kikyo floundered.
"Do all men stretch?" Margaret asked. "Your body did something similar when we gave you that bath."
"No." Luffy shook his head. "Only me. I ate a Devil Fruit when I was little and it turned me into rubber." The pirate replaced his hat on his head before hooking his fingers into his cheek, giving the same show he always did when introducing his powers. "But because of that, I can't swim."
"A food can give men strange powers?"
"Devil Fruits are weird and special," Luffy shrugged. "Every one's different."
"What is your name?" Sweet Pea questioned. "Men do have names, right?"
"Yeah, everyone has a name. I'm Luffy."
"What is that thing between your legs?" the Amazon with the notepad wondered.
"Those are... uh... How do I say this...?" Luffy's blush returned, both at having to explain and realizing he'd said they belonged to Nami. "They're my special parts," he finally decided. "Only guys have them."
"Who is Nami?" Belladonna asked, unable to hold back her curiosity. "They sound important to you."
Luffy leaned against the wall behind him, giving a wan smile.
"Nami is my best friend," he began. "My everything. I helped her escape a monster that was ruining her life, and she gave me the world in return. She's the navigator of my pirate crew and my lifelong partner. she's my wife."
"Her?" and "Wife?" bounced around the group of women, clearly confused.
"She?" Kikyo pressed. "You lie. Women only live here on Amazon Lily."
"I'm... pretty sure that's not true," Luffy replied, cocking his head. "I've met plenty of women in my life. And I'd never lie about Nami."
"You lie!" Kikyo affirmed. Luffy didn't budge. "You lie!"
"Assuming you're telling the truth," Margaret cut in, "what is a wife?"
"Nami is the one I chose to spend my life with," the pirate answered simply. "We're married. She agreed to be my wife and I am her husband because she's a girl and I'm a guy." Luffy checked his hands, finding his ring still on his finger. Good thing, too. Nami would've killed him if he lost it. He showed it to the other women. "This ring is our promise to stay with each other, through good and bad, until we die."
"Saga of not knowing what to say," an Amazon whispered through the silence that blanketed the crowd.
"Where is... she?" Aphelandra asked slowly.
"I..." Luffy wavered. "I don't know. My crew got separated. They could be anywhere. I need to find Nami or get a message to everyone."
None of the Amazons had a response to that, which allowed Luffy to start his own questions.
"Hey," Luffy called. "Where am I, anyway? And can I have my clothes back?"
"This is... Amazon Lily," Kikyo answered carefully, finally easing her arrow loose. "Home of the Kuja Empire."
"Here are your clothes," Margaret said, reaching through the bars to offer Luffy his clothing. The rubber pirate reached for them, quickly putting his pants on under the covers. The vest was different than he remembered.
"It's... flowery," he commented. The blonde had sewn two layers of sunflowers onto the vest, white frills lining its edges.
"Of course!" Margaret smiled. "The flowers say 'I'm confident' while the frills say 'I'm cute'."
Luffy sighed, reluctantly putting his altered vest on while swearing no one of his crew would ever learn of it. He'd watched Nami sewing enough that he could probably get the adornments out with a little time. Besides, if he had to be here for two years like Kuma implied, pissing off the locals would be a bad idea.
"Can I have some meat?" Luffy asked, trying to ignore the looks of appreciation the women were giving his vest. "I'm starving."
"No," Kikyo shot back. "You shall get nothing until our Empress returns. She will decide your fate.
"But I'm hungry!" Luffy whined. "When will she be back?"
"Who knows," Kikyo shrugged with the tiniest of smirks. "She is the captain of her own pirate crew. She could be here today or a year from now."
"She's a pirate?!" Luffy smiled. "I've met lots of pirates! Maybe I've met her!"
"Never. You would be dead if you had, for our Empress is Boa Hancock, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea."
Kikyo waited for the man to be impressed, and maybe to swoon at the mere mention of the name. Several of the women certainly swooned, but the man didn't react. He barely moved.
"Never heard of her," Luffy muttered, tilting his head and talking to himself. "Coby would probably know something. He knows lots about things. Robin, too. Neat that she's a Warlord, though."
"You don't know about the Snake Princess?!" Margaret demanded. "She's the most beautiful and most powerful woman in the world!"
"Nu-uh!" Luffy argued. "Nami's the most beautiful woman in the world!"
"You will die for your insolence," Kikyo growled, drawing her snake-bow.
"Wait," Belladonna ordered, despite the taller Amazon having more power. "It may be a man, but does it not deserve to see the Empress before it dies? She may want to kill it herself."
"You just want to study it more!"
Suddenly, bells began ringing, one deep tone starting the call from the edge of the village until every bell on the island was ringing.
"What is that?" Luffy questioned.
"The Snake Princess has returned!" Aphelandra cheered. "Our Empress victorious!"
"You are lucky this time," Kikyo hissed. "Or maybe not. Only your manner of death has changed." With that, the eyeliner-wearing Amazon stomped away, the rest of the women dispersing as they prepared for the return of their queen. Within minutes, Luffy was left alone in his cell.
"Huh. Wonder what this Snake Princess is like. Eh, I'll meet her eventually. Mmm, meat~! Awe man, I'm hungry." With nothing else to distract him, Luffy dropped to the bed, shrugged off his vest, and began the tedious task of removing the flowers and frills.
"Hancock," Vice-Admiral Momonga snarled, the statues of his one-upon-a-time crew scattered across the deck. Blood dripped from his hand where the man had stabbed himself to break the gorgon's curse before he could follow the foolish marines into the afterlife.
"Clever," Boa Hancock noted with a beautiful smirk. She was dressed in mostly red, her dress' neckline plunging to the sash around her torso to show the full length of her inner breasts ad leaving her midriff below bare. Her left leg, smooth and alluring, slid through the slit of her long skirt. Her hair fell like a waterfall of pure night, dark and perfect, reaching her waist. Her dark eyes shimmered with sadistic pleasure while her golden snake earrings helped strengthen her already beautiful visage. "You killed your lecherous thoughts with pain."
"You will not get away with this," Momonga hissed, pulling his knife free. "If you do not answer this summons, your status as a Warlord will be revoked."
"I think not," Hancock waved off without a care. "It doesn't matter if I lie, steal, cheat, or even kill. The world will forgive me... because I'm beautiful." She flipped her hair, inciting cries and swooning from her all-female crew.
"Snake Princess! Kyaaa~!"
"Though I enjoy my position, I loath the World Government. Still, as I said, I rather like my title, so I shall maintain it, but this battle and war you want does not interest me. I will not go." She whistled, causing the venomous Sea Snake whose head she rode to return to the Yuda, the ship of the Kuja Pirates.
"The execution of Portgus D. Ace of the Whitebeard Pirates has been delayed to five days from now at Marineford!" Momonga yelled, his voice echoing over the waters. "Then, he will be executed alongside 'Tri-Horn' Coby of the Straw Hat Pirates, the student of the man who attacked a Celestial Dragon! I shall wait here for three days for you to change your mind! If you do not, I will return to Marine HQ and revoke your title as a Warlord. For your tribe's sake, I hope you come to your senses."
"That is as likely as me finding a man I want on Amazon Lily," Hancock laughed, even her sneer beautiful. "Impossible!"
"DAMN YOU, BOA HANCOCK!"
End of Chapter 128
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-SwordOfTheGods