Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. I only own my OC, Aurora.
Enjoy, and please remember to review!
Chapter 8
Buggy lay on the ground in pieces. The knife that had been in his hand was stuck in the rooftop.
"He died really easily…" Zoro said.
"Hehehehe…"
Aurora looked at the crewmembers suspiciously.
"Hey Zoro! Hurry and get me outta this thing!" Luffy shouted. Aurora glanced over at him briefly and then at Nami. She looked to be in shock.
'What's going on with these pirates? Their leader's dead but now they're laughing!' Nami thought.
"This thing won't open without a key. These iron bars won't slice." Zoro told Luffy.
"That's true."
"Hehehehe! AAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"What is so funny! Just give us the key!" Zoro demanded. "I don't want to fight you guys!"
"They're pretty weird…" Luffy said. Aurora silently agreed with Luffy.
"Ugh…!" Zoro grunted.
Aurora looked over at him and her eyes widened in shock. He had been stabbed. But that wasn't what shocked her. It was the fact that Buggy's hand stabbed him… without being attached to his body.
"Zoro?"
"What? That hand!"
"What the…!" Aurora gasped.
"KAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Zoro was able to pull the blade out of his side. It floated in mid-air, dripping blood.
"Damn it! What the hell is it!" Zoro wondered, clutching his side. "The hand…! The hand is floating in the air!"
"The Bara Bara Fruit!"
Zoro's eyes widened and Aurora felt hers do the same.
"That's the name of the Devil's Fruit that I ate! No matter how you try to slice me up, you can't because I'm a sectioned man!" Buggy explained, his body parts reattaching.
"He stuck his body back together! I thought the Devil's Fruit was just a myth!"
"A sectioned man?" Luffy questioned. "That guy's a monster!"
"I see I've missed your vital body parts… Roronoa Zoro! But it's still a pretty serious injury. It was an okay victory!"
'I actually knew that guy had eaten some kind of Devil's Fruit….. I was careless! He's winning for sure now. Dammit, I came to save Luffy but look at me now!' Zoro thought.
"Hiyaa- The captain's so cool!" the crewmates cheered. "Go kill him off! Send 'em away!"
'This is dangerous! The situation's reversed!' Nami thought worriedly. 'If I just stand here like an idiot those three, and obviously I also, will be killed!'
'We have to get out of here!' Aurora thought worriedly.
"Stabbing from the back, that's dirty! You big nose!" Luffy shouted. The members of Buggy's crew looked shocked he said that. Buggy on the other hand…
"That idiot, he could've said anything but that!" Nami said from next to Aurora.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BIG NOSE!"
Buggy's hand came off and flew toward Luffy, blade in the hand.
"Luffy!" Zoro shouted.
"Ehck…"
"I swear, I'm gonna take you down!" Luffy declared, breaking the blade between his teeth. Aurora sighed in relief and smiled gently.
"Oho… Take me down?" Buggy asked. "PUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You're gonna take me down? You're hilarious! You four are gonna die right now on the spot! PUHAHAHAHA!"
"Everything's finished! We're dead!" Nami said.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So you have the will to die, Straw-Hat? And just exactly how do you plan to take me down in this situation? Boys! Laugh at him!"
"RUN AWAY! ZORO! AURORA!" Luffy shouted.
"What!" Zoro and Aurora questioned.
"Hey… your friends came to rescue you, but you're telling them to run away! How about you!"
Zoro and Aurora looked at each other then at Luffy.
"Ok." Zoro said.
'Oh dammit! Pirates are definitely hard to understand. That's something I hate about them! I better hurry and think of a way to escape myself!' Nami thought in distress.
"Stupid idiot! You think I'm going to let you go Roronoa Zoro! Bara Bara Cannon!" Buggy shouted, his hands detaching from his body.
Aurora used her powers to put up a shield as Zoro ran.
"KAHAHAHAHA! Zoro's running away! You think you can escape from Captain Buggy!"
Aurora smiled when she saw where Zoro was headed. He managed to lift the cannon so it faced the opposite direction.
"Could it be!"
"KHHAAAA!" Buggy's crew cried. "He pointed the cannon in our direction!"
"AAAAHCK!" Buggy screeched. "That thing still has a "Buggy Special Cannonball" in it!"
"WAAH!" Luffy cried in amazement.
"Oi, I need a light!" Zoro shouted at Nami.
"Eh?"
"Hurry!"
"Yes… Yes!"
"STOP IT!" Buggy yelled. "DUCK!"
The cannon went off and the Buggy Special Cannonball flew, leaving a giant cloud of dust.
"This is a good time to go. Who are you anyways?"
"I… I'm a thief." Nami replied.
"That kid is our… navigator!" Luffy stated with a grin.
"You're an idiot, aren't you? You're still on about that? If you've got time to say things like that then how about thinking of a way to get outta that cage?"
"Hey, that's a good idea… I'll do that."
"No, it's okay." Zoro said. "You just stay in the cage!"
"Dammit I'm not gonna let them escape!" Buggy yelled.
"Arggh!" Zoro grunted, trying to lift the cage.
"Hey Zoro, its okay! Your stomach is gonna pop out if you do this!"
"If it wants to pop out, then let it!"
"Hey!" Nami cried.
"Don't tell me what to do. I'll do it my way!" Zoro said, finally lifting up the cage. "Don't butt in by saying anything!"
"Zoro…" Aurora whispered. She went over to him, pressing a hand against the wound. "At least let me make it bearable."
Zoro glanced down at the half-angel before nodding. "Fine. But make it quick."
'Why is he doing such things!' Nami wondered. 'He's just a pirate!'
"Where did those four go?" Buggy questioned.
"They've gone Captain!"
"Zoro! Nami! Even the cage?"
"No way! That cage took five people to drag it up here!"
"Crap, it's been stolen!" a crewmate cried.
"What has?" Buggy demanded.
"The cage's key… it's gone!
Elsewhere…
"EHCK!" Luffy grunted when Zoro put the cage down. Zoro was panting and holding his semi-healed wound.
"Dammit, if this cage would just open! Open!"
"We're in a dangerous situation here!" Zoro said. "But what's been started must be finished I suppose!"
Later…
Nami and Aurora were walking around town, looking for the guys. The girls found them lying in the middle of the street… with a… dog?
"Stupid dog!"
"Dammit… I don't have enough blood!"
"Guys…" Aurora tentatively said.
"What on earth are you guys doing?" Nami asked. "If you just lie around here in the middle of the street Buggy will definitely find you!"
"Hey it's Aurora… and our navigator!"
"Says who!" Nami shouted. "I just came to repay my debt to you, because you saved my life back there."
"Repay?" Luffy asked.
Aurora smiled. "You'll see…"
Nami took the key and threw it in front of the cage.
"The key! You stole the cage key!"
"Yeah… even if I think so myself it was a really dumb thing to do… because of that I couldn't steal any of the treasure."
"The cage was such a problem I thought we were gonna just die from the headache it gave us!"
"Phew… making such a difficult escape's reward is finally shining through."
Luffy went to grab the key, but the dog got to it. It grabbed it with its mouth and swallowed it. They all looked on in shock.
"YOU STUPID DOG!" Luffy yelled, strangling it. "Spit it out, that thing you just swallowed isn't food!"
"Umm… Luffy… please don't do that." Aurora told her Captain.
"Oi! You people! Don't do anything to Shushu!"
She turned around to see who was speaking. It was an old man decked out in armor and had a spear.
"Shushu?"
"Who're you mister?" Zoro asked.
"I'm the village's leader, or in other words, the chief, Boodle!"
After introductions, Boodle took the group to his house so Zoro could rest.
"How's Zoro?" Luffy asked, still inside the cage.
"I let him sleep at my house since it's just next door. Even though I told him that there's a doctor at the shelter, he won't listen and says that it'll get better after sleeping. Even though it's an enormous injury!"
"I would've healed it further, but Zoro was against it." Aurora commented.
"Is this dog's name Shushu?" Luffy asked.
"Yeah."
"What is he doing here?"
"He's guarding this store. "Boodle explained. "I just came to give him some food…"
"AA! You're right." Nami exclaimed. "Now that I'm looking carefully it's a store… I see it's a pet food store."
"The owner of this place is my friend, and ten years ago… he opened this store with Shushu. This precious store is filled with cherished memories for the two, although I like it too…" Boodle explained. "Look at these wounds. They're definitely from fighting with those pirates and protecting this store."
Nami spoke up. "But then, no matter how precious it is, what kind of thing is making a dog guard a store with pirates as the enemy? The store owner is with the other people at the shelter right?"
"No… that guy… he's already gone to the next world because of a sickness. Three months ago he was hospitalized and then…"
"Then… could it be the dog's continuing, just waiting for his owner to return?" Aurora wondered.
"That's what everyone says… but I see it in a different way. Since Shushu's an intelligent dog, he knows that his owner's already passed away."
"Then why still guard the store…?" Nami asked.
"Obviously, this store is a treasure to Shushu. He loved his owner so much and since this is the only property left by the owner, I think he'll continue to guard this store. It's an unendurable thing. I tried to take him into the shelter a few times, but he won't take a step away from this place… if I just left him here, I think that he'd stay until he starved to death."
"RRROOOOOOAAARRRR!"
Aurora's head snapped in the direction the roar came from and so did Nami and Boodle's.
"Wh… What is it, that roaring noise!"
"Th… That is that guy! The Beast Trainer Mohji!"
"RUN AWAY!" Nami and Boodle cried, actually running away.
"Wait!" Aurora called after them.
"Oi, now something's coming up. Give me that key you little thing." Luffy demanded. Shushu just woofed at him. Aurora jumped back when a man riding a lion came close.
"Well I found two guys… I'm Buggy's pirate crew member, The Beast Trainer Mohji."
"GGRRRRRR!" the lion growled.
"Hohoho….. so the people you were with just ditched you, except for this one? Poor thing, and you tried so hard to run away. Captain Buggy is pretty mad… you guys have committed a serious crime."
"Heck, are you supposed to be wearing a weird fur cap like that?"
Aurora fell over at Luffy's question, making a pile of dust rise up.
"WHAT!" Mohji squawked. "You idiot, watch what you're saying! This is my hair!"
"That just makes it even weirder."
"SHUDDUP! You… You're in the cage… so you don't know how scary I am. I'm telling you, there is no animal in this world that won't obey me! That includes that dog over there. Shake a paw."
Shushu didn't listen and bit Mohji.
"AAAAHCK!"
Aurora smiled proudly at the dog while Mohji recovered.
"You're just nameless common thieves."
"You gave up on the dog?" Luffy randomly asked. Mohji ignored his question and looked menacingly at the two.
"I have no reason not to kill you. Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is."
"GRRRRR!"
"I don't want to!"
"Neither do I." Aurora stated, even though she was a bit scared.
"KILL 'EM RICHIE!"
"GRRR!"
Aurora jumped out of the way as Richie tore the cage open.
"YAHOO! The cage's finally opened!" Luffy cheered. But neither of them expected what was next. Richie used his paw to send the cage into a building. Aurora tried to fly away but got caught behind it and was sent into the building as well.
"ROOOARR!"
"That was instantaneous! They talk back to me and that's what they get. Okay Richie, let's go find Roronoa Zoro." Mohji stopped speaking when Richie growled.
"What's up? Look at that… it's a pet food store. Goodness Richie… hurry up and finish your meal."
Shushu stood before the store, growling at the pair.
Meanwhile…
"Huh… what a shock. We ended up all the way here at the other side." Luffy observed. Aurora groaned, shaking off the blow. She'd managed to put a shield around herself at the last minute.
"But now I'm out of that stuffy cage! Okay, from now on after I get rid of these people, I'm gonna make Nami the Thief our navigator!"
Aurora merely smiled.
