Be Careful About Who Sees What Where

by Tatrin

"When my old Captain found One Piece," Shanks grinned, "Roger had arrived to this place with just his crew. The armies of marines trying to prevent his going to Raftel were eliminated before Roger reached Raftel currents. Luffy though, heheheh." In which the top dogs of the pirates, marines, revolutionaries and the princesses are going to witness Straw Hat Crew's Journey! (CaDiv)

3. Admonishing the Thief (Nami's Arc)

Be Careful about Who Sees What Where

Tatrin

The sixth sense he developed from years of fighting helped Garp to know that someone meant to trip him. A foot shot out in front of his leg, but instead of what they must be expecting, Garp stopped short from running forward to approach where his grandson was, and his blond grandson stumbled in surprise.

"What was that for, brat?"

Garp received a petulant 'tch', the kind they make when they're embarrassed and being obstinate. "Don't think I already forgot about Lu driving himself into a whirlpool, crazy old man."

"And you're blaming me?" Garp questioned.

"I went through SOME of your training," Sabo deadpanned.

In the boat they acquired from Shells Town, Zoro was leaning on the ship's mast, one arm securing his swords. Luffy was surrounded by numerous papers which, much like his own body, were tainted by paint. Upon inspection, they were the boy's attempts to draw his Jolly Roger. Along the bowsprit and shrouds, plump, small black-capped white birds with panda-like eyes fluttered around, pecking off the bread crumbs either Luffy or Zoro had thrown towards them. Most likely, it was Zoro.

Luffy examined the papers again before dumping it to his side. He blew a raspberry to show his annoyance. "I still can't make the one I want."

"Your imagination's too big," Zoro commented, "Jolly Rogers is supposed to be intimidating. Your drawings are..."

They were floating on the ocean surrounding the two, and not all of them felt the need to huddle closer just to see Luffy's messy attempt to design his pirate flag – especially the marines. The ones standing near them: Bartolomeo, Hancock, Garp, and Sabo, and the ones who are tall enough to glance at the paintings over everyone's heads: Shirahoshi, Katakuri, Ivankov and Marco, could see that Luffy's drawings were all very bright. Some were truly amazing, but they just don't scream a pirate flag. Some were very poorly drawn to the point they may have been scary enough to be a pirate flag.

Luffy leaned on the boat's side, suddenly extremely bored. After a short while, he looked like someone who had just given up on trying to pick out shapes from the clouds. He didn't seem to mind Zoro staring at him.

Zoro was evaluating him, really. Particularly his skin. You could tell from someone's skin whether they have spent their life fighting or if they have never done any weight lifting beyond heavy groceries. Luffy's skin was a disaster and showed the world he was used to taking punches. His muscles were solid too. Not the kind Zoro has – the ones you get from dedicated and repetitive training, but the kind of muscles one acquires by endless fists given and fists received. He wondered about the scar. It was too neat to be accidental, and Zoro figured he had been abused at some point, except that Luffy lacks all behavioural indicators that clue people on the idea that this guy has been abused.

"I'm hungry..." Luffy moaned.

Law looked at the empty paper bags strewn around them and predicted Luffy had eaten his fill not long ago.

Zoro yawned in reply. "Eat the birds then."

The birds crowed angrily and flew away from them.

"They're way too tiny."

"When are we going to reach land?"

"We go where the wind takes us," Luffy answered, ignoring Zoro who choked up on his own saliva. "I'm sure we'll find land... someday."

"What the hell—" Marco choked. "Yikes."

"Between Zoro who has no sense of direction and Lu who doesn't give a thought about planning," Sabo said, "It's like a story of the blind mice."

"He doesn't prepare at all?" Aokiji wondered.

"Luffy? Planning?" Vivi snickered.

"Oh, I wouldn't know," Carrot perked up. "Law managed that impossible feat."

"How stupid are you?" Zoro asked. Said. Asked?

This is what Sabo said is called rhetoric. It has a question mark at the end, but you are not meant to answer because the person who is asking it already knows the answer.

"That's a rhetorical question!"

"For a man who wants to be the Pirate King, it's strange that you don't even have any navigational skills."

"For a man who hunts pirates, I thought you'd know the way around."

"I never called myself a pirate hunter," Zoro said. "I went out to sea looking for a man. But the roads changed, and I got lost, so I had to rely on turning in bounties to survive."

"Oh, so you're just lost," Luffy said, his voice calm and controlled, but the undertone made Zoro's skin itch.

"What? No! No, I'm not lost. This—This is—" Zoro scowled. "I don't have a good answer."

"Pfft," Shanks snickered.

"You're so dumb."

"Don't say that!" The green-haired man yelled furiously. "You're the who's lost! Geez, a pirate who doesn't know how to navigate and you want to sail through Grand Line? You should hurry and find a crewmate who knows how to navigate!"

"And someone who can sing! And another who can cook! And—"

"Idiot! Wha—"

Leaping off the paddles' handles, Luffy jumped on him, "Shhhh!" Luffy cut him off with a finger to Zoro's lips as he spotted something far above them. It was a bird. "There's a bird! A big one!"

Zoro swatted Luffy's finger away. "So?"

"Let's eat that bird!"

"How are you going to catch it? We don't have guns."

"Guns?" Luffy looked at him. "Why would we need guns? We can just catch it!" The boy latched onto the sail's pole. "Gum Gum Rocket!"

Zoro watched his captain fly up high and right into the path of the bird. The spectacular aim, but no thought in planning whatsoever, which is why instead of catching the bird, the bird caught him in its mouth.

While some laughed good-heartedly, some were mostly exasperated. Sabo didn't even blink. Luffy getting eaten was a pretty common occurrence.

Zoro growled. He just saw his captain got eaten by a bird passing by. But somehow, he didn't feel like his piracy was over. Instead, this just felt like the beginning. He put his foot down and began to paddle furiously.

"Luffy-voy and Zoro-voy are separated," Ivankov commented, "Who are we going to be witnessing?"

It wasn't long to find out. The scene didn't blur, instead they merely slide along with Zoro who was paddling to reach Luffy and the bird. He's paddling quite fast. Of course, Shirahoshi was the first one to spot the three men drifting nearby.

"OI OI!"

"Stop the boat!"

"Help us!"

Zoro broke his gaze from his captain and looked back on his shoulders to see three men trying desperately to stay afloat. The swordsman growled in irritation, "I don't have time to stop! You guys get on yourselves!"

And Zoro didn't stop paddling. In fact, he went even faster actually, and the three men were knocked away by his force, but somehow managed to latch onto the sides and climb aboard.

Shanks jumped up in glee. "Hahahaha! He ran them over!"

"Oi!" One of the men said. This time, he was acting menacingly. He had drawn his sword, and his friends pulled an ugly face too. "Stop the boat! This is the pirate Buggy-sama's territory..."

Oh, now Shanks took notice of their attire. The man threatening Luffy's swordsman wore a hat with Buggy's Jolly Roger on it. "Oh, man. They met Buggy this early."

Zoro turned around to face them, sporting a scary expression. "What."

In an instant, two had taken handle of the paddles, and the one in the middle dropped his sword and instead clasped his hands, and all three of them smiled awkwardly. "Hehehehe, w-w-we didn't know you were the Pirate Hunter Zoro!"

"Ugh," Yasopp grimaced at how easily cowed those three were.

"You three made me lose track of my friend! Paddle faster! If I don't find him, you're dead!"

"Aye!"

"Hmmm."

"..."

"Hmmmmmm..."

They continued to follow Zoro (their positions just slide along actually).

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

"Oh, for God's sake, what is it?!" Smoker scowled at Emporio Ivankov.

"Ah," the man unfolded his arms. "I am merely curious how loyal Zoro-voy already is to Luffy-voy." The okama nodded to look wise but only looked stuck-up. "Logically, Luffy-voy getting eaten by a bird should have discouraged Zoro who was just recruited not an hour ago or so."

"That's because Luffy-senpai is awesome!" Bartolomeo shouted.

"Ignoring that highly biased input," Law drawled. "I don't see how that's such a curiosity."

"Well, what do you think then?" Law's former Warlord colleague goaded. Law wasn't sure who was more irritating, her or Crocodile.

He scoffed. "Mugiwara-ya just have an innate sense to recruit crazy people. The kind of crazy that makes adults abandon their entire life plans just to go along with his whims."

That actually made Coby smile. "Following their journey from the news," and from rumours. Coby had frequently been trying to follow their trails whenever the marines got word of their location. Once they arrive in an island, some of the time, they'll get reports of sightings of Straw Hat. Most of the time, the reports were useless, because somehow the crew were all over the bloody islands. "They're certainly irresponsible."

"Like they're living days that ended in childhood," Bartolomeo said with no small amount of wonder.

"Wild and free," Shanks grinned too.

"Wild and free, his crewmates, sure," Law grumbled to himself. Lu-ya's more like a barely controlled hurricane.

"Oh, yeah, why were you three swimming in the middle of the ocean?"

"That girl!"

"Yeah! That bad girl!"

"But she's really cute too!"

Everything blurred again, but they were still in the middle of the ocean. They surrounded a boat just like Luffy and Zoro's, but the ship's flag was black and sported Buggy's Jolly Roger.

"Yahoo! Buggy-sama will greatly reward us!"

"Who knew that tiny ship would carry so much loot!"

"Oi! What's that little boat doing there?"

"I spot someone lying limp there!"

Unable to identify the person far from him, Sabo was struck with curiosity. Could using kenbunshoku haki work on this 'false' reality? Flicking out the enormous presence of the people also witnessing Lu's pirate journey, Sabo pinpointed to the person by the small ship. It didn't take long for him to recognize that it was Luffy's navigator.

Vivi gasped. "Nami!"

"Nami-chin!" Shirahoshi exclaimed. "Oh, no, what has she been through?"

"It's a girl! Hey!" One shouted once they drew closer to Nami's boat. "You almost dead?"

From their insistent tugging, Nami finally woke up groggily. "Erm... Ah... Someone... I actually found someone..." She weakly tried to sit back up. "P-please help me. Give me a cup of water? I was in a shipwreck... A small piece of bread would be nice t-too." She weakly pointed to the treasure chest beside her. "I'll give this to you, just please save me..."

Shirahoshi stared in confusion. "That doesn't seem like Nami-chin at all. How had she become the person who loves money so much?"

"I don't think Nami-ya's actually that desperate," Law said. The doctor saw the ghost of a smirk. He knew a con when he sees one.

They grinned. "Sure! We'll help ya! But we'll see the treasure first!" All three of the Buggy pirates hopped over to Nami's boat and circled around the treasure chest, ignoring Nami who was still begging for water. "To get another treasure chest so soon! Lucky!"

"I'm glad you like it so much. I'll give you the boat too as a bonus!"

"WHAT?!" They yelled in shock, both from the fact that the weak, starving and dehydrated girl was actually quite healthy and just stole their boat, and the fact that her treasure chest was actually empty.

Everyone pitied those three, and even Sengoku was having a tough time to keep himself from smirking at the girl's trick.

"Oh, watch out for those clouds~" Nami sang. The turbulence intensity in the atmosphere had exceeded the threshold, and the microscopic water droplets collision rate will greatly increase, "They are storm clouds, you know? If I explain that cumulus cloud floating your way, your brains would probably explode from information overload! So I'll simplify it to you: The wind will pick up... and your boat will sink!" As if it was a magic word called forth by a witch, they were showered by an abrupt rainstorm, one violent enough that Nami's small boat was quickly overwhelmed by the weight of the water.

"Bye bye~ I'm taking your treasure!"

Sabo whistled in appreciation. He had to learn very hard to master navigational skills, but Nami seems to be a natural at it. Such a tough job, but she made it look so easy.

The quick shower gave away from existence, and the sinking ship suddenly lost the water drowning it. The three Buggy pirates were no longer screaming in fear but hid their terror behind false smiles as they cower before Zoro.

"So you got tricked," Zoro said with the same calm voice Luffy had used on him, the one that was so condescending the receiver's skin itches.

"If I find her, I'll kill her!"

"We have got to get our loot back from her!"

"If we go back with nothing, Buggy-sama will be angry!"

Zoro blinked. "Who's Buggy?"

"Haven't you heard of Buggy, the Clown?!"

"Oh, I heard of him. He's the best guy for birthday party tricks, right?"

Shanks spluttered in glee. Oh, Buggy! A clown for kids' birthday parties! Oh, the redhead clutched his stomach. It's so terrible Buggy's not here with us! He has got to KNOW that!

Ivankov didn't agree with the Yonko's glee. Buggy would sooner slice them with swords than play a clown.

"He's our pirate leader!"

"He's a dangerous man! He ate one of the Devil Fruits!"

Zoro hummed, finally interested.

The ship blurred again, appearing as a very big ship this time.

"Hmm, so that's Buggy's Big Top," Shanks stated. He had only ever seen it in its heavily damaged form.

Law, Vivi and Carue should be used to right-in-your-face colours after travelling on the Straw Hat's ships, but Buggy's Big Top was still an experience.

Big Top was a brightly coloured ship, giving off a circus-like feel (thank God the purple-painted wood wasn't awful). It sported some circus tents on the ship too. The figurehead was a yellow elephant, but its trunk was installed with a couple of bombards, ranging from three to five feet in length. A familiar redhead was climbing up the ship's keel and was reaching up to get a hold of one of the gun portholes.

Finding what she was definitely attempting to do interesting, they walked closer in curiosity to see whether she'll succeed or not. Ask them now, and they would definitely say Nami was a spectacular thief, but "back then", none of them knew.

Orange eyes glanced inside the keel. She found no one, or rather, confirmed there was nobody inside the ship and that every single one of the Buggy Pirates was situated on the decks, settling down to enjoy their beverages for the next hours and egging whoever was weak and humiliated one for the week just so they could make themselves look stronger. Nami giggled excitedly. "Not in education, employment, or training, and that lady think my life is hard?" Nami said to herself, remembering the remarks from one of the passengers on the cruise ship she pilfered the other day, "She's just a normal wife with a normal husband who never knows what it is in the seas." She gave no regard to the shouts on the upper deck, but Nami was vigilant all the same – she doesn't understand why some people just don't lock their windows or balcony doors, but it made everything easier – when entering Buggy's captain's cabin.

Out of habit, all the warriors present started taking note of all sharp objects within reaching distance, any obtrusive items or suspicious things – field reconnaissance a battle-ready person would do every time they enter unknown territory. It took one to three seconds for them to realize they and everything around them exists on different planes.

It was insane for a young teen like her to sneak inside a cabin belonging to the dangerous pirate who has been terrorizing so many towns, but a young teen such as herself was an exception. The planning, the sneaking, the lock-picking, the key-searching, the escaping completely without anyone noticing that she had stolen what was theirs and they were all now hers – it made her high, and Nami was aware it was a dangerous adrenaline addiction that she was indulging. "Robbing assholes blind is so much fun."

Vivi glanced at her redhead friend in worry. She kept looking back to the door, expecting it would suddenly open to reveal a Buggy Pirate and Nami would have to deal with whoever they are all alone without other Straw Hats. She felt a furry hand tap her shoulder and turned to see Carrot. "Don't worry, Princess," the mink's bunny ears twitched, "no one's near Nami. They're all above the deck."

"Worrying would not affect anything either," Marco commented. "All of this happened in the past. We all know the Straw Hats are perfectly fine."

Turning slightly to eye the Zoan user, Vivi opened her mouth but quickly bit her lip. Oh, boys. They don't know what life is like for a female. Every second around others without protection made women keenly aware of the possibility someone would force them to do vile things. Witnessing Luffy, and Zoro, an hour ago hadn't made her worry. Luffy was just. He was so strong, this worry she has had not crossed her mind. But now, seeing her friend, back to when she relied only on her cunning and never persistently bugged Zoro to train her to develop some strength, Vivi was worried to witness... bad things. Nami was very pretty, after all...

Nami wasn't advancing towards Buggy's desk in a straight line but instead circled the room towards it, idly letting her eyes roam. Whenever a particularly fancy trinket – money, jewellery, weaponry that would sell quite nicely – caught her orange eyes, her hands became as quick as a snake and the items were safely stored inside her shirt and skirt's outer and inner pockets.

Law almost gave the Cat Burglar applause. She stitched those pockets herself. It seems she took her profession as a thief very seriously.

Nami examined the desk for a moment before picking up a steel tea lid. Pivoting on her front leg, she opened the drawer in a gentle manner which was soon betrayed by her greedy fingers snatching up the parchment stored inside. Nami put the tea lid back, the item of no use – she had picked it just in case Buggy the Clown was the kind of smart and complicated man to put a trap such as an automatic gun mechanism to protect his drawer but alas, Buggy the Clown was not that sort of careful man.

As though it was a precious artefact, Nami unfurled the parchment with care and exploded into a grin. "Yessssss, the navigation chart to the Grand Line!"

"She's been planning to leave for Grand Line this early?" Vivi questioned worriedly.

Crocodile quirked an eyebrow. "Going to the Grand Line at her level?"

"Too ambitious for her own good," Law said. "Then again, so is Mugiwara-ya and Roronoa-ya."

"He really knows how to pick his crew," Sabo marvelled. Even Dragon found himself giving a small smile.

Continuing on, she opened the door.

And saw a head painted in chalk-white and two hands covered in white gloves floating in front of her, yellow-lensed eyes locking with hers.

Both the thief and the clown screamed.

"Oh, no! I didn't hear anything!" Carrot exclaimed. She forgot about Buggy's powers that enabled him to cut himself into pieces and fly from A to B, thus avoiding making any sounds of feet stepping on the floor.

"Nami, just swat him away like a fly!" Vivi yelled.

"Nami-chin, run!"

Nami didn't run, she jumped. Right out of the window because she remembered the Big Top was docked near the decks and there were barrels and crates below her.

"Do all thieves jump like that?" Sabo wondered to himself. He and his brothers always freaked Makino out whenever they blatantly showed their lack of regard for heights and sharp angles.

Clutching the navigational chart tightly in her hands, she made way past through the streets which were empty due to the Buggy Pirates terrorizing the people to cower inside their homes, three Buggy Pirates hot on her tail.

"You can't run from us!"

"Get that bitch!"

"Stop!"

"THIEF! THAT'S MY MAP!" Buggy yelled, his head and hands finally attached to his body above the decks.

"Buggy-sama!" One of the Buggy pirates alerted his hands on a binocular. "There's an unknown flying object in the air!"

"ARGH! SHOOT IT DOWN!"

"AYE!"

Freshly loaded since this morning, the Buggy Pirates shot the cannon and hit their target perfectly. The unknown flying object crashed right between Nami and the three Buggy Pirates. The unknown flying object actually looked like a certain someone.

Marco did applause at this. "Ace's little brother can certainly make fantastic first impressions."

"Mmmfufufu, Ve didn't vell from the sky too, did ve, Crocodile-buru?" The Okama nudged the sandman with an elbow. If he were a normal-sized human, Ivankov would have nudged Crocodile's side, but with him being three feet more than Crocodile's eight feet high, his elbow poked the man's cheeks instead.

The smoke from the impact revealed a heavily injured bird and a perfectly fine Luffy. Having been inside the bird's mouth, Luffy didn't have a speck of dirt, but he certainly smells like seawater, but thankfully, didn't reek of fish. "Who the heck shot me with a cannon?" Luffy grumbled, but his frown dissipated once his hand confirmed the safety of his hat on top of his head. "At least I have finally gotten out of that bird!"

An idea crossed Nami's mind. She scrambled up from her knees, discreetly tucking the navigation chart in her shirt, to clasp her hands and smiled at the new guy who just fell out of the sky, "Oh, Boss!"

"'Oh, Boss'?" Bartolomeo repeated.

"Oh, I know what she's doing," Law smirked.

"She's certainly fast to take advantage," Marco added, also aware of Nami's ploy. "Nice."

"You're finally here! Please save me, Boss!" Then the girl turned tail and ran away, "I'll leave everything to you!"

Nami, who was deviously grinning passed through Dragon's body as if she were a ghost.

Everyone else was preeeeetty curious how the man himself was feeling towards the Straw Hat navigator who just tossed his son under the bus, but his facial expression didn't betray any.

Everyone else was recovering from the shock of seeing someone literally fall out of the sky. "She's getting away!"

"We don't need to chase after her. Her Boss is right here!" One Buggy Pirate pointed to Luffy who was still watching the redhead fleeing the scene, and he caught Luffy's attention.

"Who're you?"

"You're her Boss!"

"Give us back the map!"

Luffy cocked his head in confusion. He didn't have any map, and he wasn't any female's boss.

His confused face was something Sabo was very familiar with. He bet his hat Luffy was thinking that maybe the Buggy Pirates mistook him for someone else, completely ignoring their hostility.

Sengoku wasn't certain whether Straw Hat even noticed their hostility.

Then it happened. One of them made a grave mistake.

One of them knocked Luffy's hat off.

It was a mistake that made anyone familiar with Straw Hats' rage against any slight against the Straw Hat of the Straw Hats tense just a little bit.

The pirate practically felt the anger fueling Luffy's punch to his face. The force made him crash to the rabble ground, and he had to choke out some dust and knocked off a tooth that was a little more than a bloody pebble. Having taken his revenge, Luffy gracefully put his hat back on. "None of you touches my treasure."

"You bastard!" The pirate's crewmate hurtled to the straw-hatted teen. Each was downed by Double Pistols.

"Wow!" Luffy lifted his head to see the same redhead sitting idly on a balcony above. He guessed she had watched the entire thing. "You're so strong! You were barehanded, but those swords were nothing to you!" She continued.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked, not impressed by the praise.

"Nami. I'm a thief who steals from pirates," Nami introduced herself. "Robbing assholes blind gets my blood running. The fighting's fun, but I didn't want to deal with it. Thanks for that! Hey, why don't you join me?"

"I have no reason to join you," Luffy turned around.

Bartolomeo and Vivi's jaws dropped.

"I admit, I didn't expect that-buru," Ivankov gasped.

Yasopp put a hand under his chin. "It's pretty funny how unimpressed he was with Zoro too."

Shanks shrugged, answering his sniper's question 'What did Nami did to make Luffy recruit her?' that went unspoken.

The blunt dismissal didn't deter her. "Hey, wait!" To close the distance between them, Nami gracefully jumped off the balcony. Catching up to the boy, she heard Luffy's stomach growl. "Hungry?"

Luffy affirmed.

This is her chance! "How about I treat you?"

Nami? Treating other people? As in, spending money for them? Vivi marvelled.

And for that matter, buying Lu-ya food? Law resisted the urge to pinch himself.

Brown eyes lit up in delight. "Really? Thanks!"

Nami nodded rapidly. She figured he was a nice guy, but she was still careful whenever her back was turned. Nami led Luffy to a house nearby. "There's the fridge. Help yourself."

Luffy whooped happily and raided the refrigerator. Nami spotted a plate filled with bread on the table in the kitchen, and after checking it wasn't stale or housing an insect or mushroom, she ate them while watching the boy wolf down the food inside like a starved man. How odd, he certainly didn't have any problems when beating up the Buggy Pirates. Plus, his body looked very healthy.

Suddenly, the lightweight in her hand disappeared. The bread instantly jumped from her hand and into Luffy's mouth. "Hey! You didn't have to steal my food!"

He steals EVERYONE's food.

(And by some miracle he keeps finding people who WOULD feed him.)

Luffy ignored her rebuke. "You live here alone?"

"I don't live here. Or this town, really," Nami answered truthfully. "The locals here ran away because the Buggy Pirates terrorized them. Some are still around but, they just hide in their homes and wait for one of the docks to clear to sail away."

Ah, Vivi relaxed her shoulders, releasing a tension she didn't realize to have conjured. The Cat Burglar was just giving Luffy other people's food.

"Why isn't anyone around?"

Nami stared. Didn't she just— "I just said they're avoiding the pirates! Weren't you listening?!"

"Oh, so you're stealing from these houses," Luffy said, quite hypocritical for the one eating what she's 'stealing' from said houses.

"The food was just lying around! Might as well not waste it," Nami dismissed. "And don't compare me to some petty house thief. I only steal from pirates!"

"But a thief's a thief right?" Luffy asked.

The way this boy is dismissing her… Nami set her jaw, scoffing. "When it comes down to it, technically I'm not even one. None of the money I steal is going to end up mine anyway."

"Oh, you're hunting? How much?"

Something must be possessing her to keep answering him. He just asked so earnestly. "100 million berry." He didn't react to the figure. "I'll get it. No matter what," Nami insisted.

"Kay," Luffy swallowed the entire content of the bucket of yoghurt. His teeth didn't even chatter from cold. "What do you need all that money for?"

A little bit pissed, Nami just said, "Secret."

"How are you going to get all that money?"

"If you have a map to the Grand Line," Nami crossed her arms, and stopped herself from sighing in relief when she felt the paper brush against her skin inside her shirt, "One hundred million berry isn't a dream."

Shanks knew somewhere, Anchor and his nakama were also watching this. He bet Nami's regretting to see this. Everyone does when they see exactly how mistaken and naïve they have been in the past.

"You a navigator?"

Nami smiled proudly for herself. "You're looking at one of the best navigators around."

"You're joining my pirate crew!"

Her attitude changed drastically. "When flowers start growing in hell!" She thought he was a nice guy, but clearly his whole—thing—whatever was just a friendly act. A pirate! "You're a pirate!"

"Yup," Luffy acted as the situation wasn't spiralling down, tenderly touching his straw hat. "I promised the man who gave me this hat that I would become a great pirate."

"W-wha…" That's such an earnest answer, such a good answer, but she couldn't believe such a nice promise was meant for him to become evil! A pirate!

Vivi cringed when Nami scowled coldly.

Bartolomeo's eyebrows rose, "Nami-senpai really hated pirates."

"Hey, is there more of this orange juice here?" The boy lightly slammed a glass he just emptied.

"You want some orange juice?"

"Thanks!"

"The jug is over there," Nami spat out.

Undeterred, Luffy leaned back from his seat in front of the refrigerator and bent backwards until his fingertips reached the jug, even though he could have just stretched himself. "Why do you hate pirates so much?" The self-proclaimed pirate asked.

"After what they did—!" Nami cut herself off. Shit! Why does she keep answering this boy! She slammed both of her hands on the table, making Luffy's fond expression disappear. "I hate pirates more than anything in the world! I only love money and tangerines!"

Luffy disregarded her. "Oh well." His hand opened the bottom drawer of the fridge and to his delight, more food!

He blinked. Will this be a recurring theme? "It is rather strange to see how he easily dismisses them." They all agreed with Katakuri's assessment. Because, Monkey D. Luffy had never shown the kind of attitude he used to most people, especially persistent marines, the sort of attitude of giving absolutely no fucks until you feel like your nothing but cannon fodder, towards his nakama. Besides his amazingly terrifying habit to leave chaos everywhere, Straw Hat was famous for sticking up with his crew through heaven and hell.

Luffy put his whole attention to his food and most likely didn't notice Nami giving him a positively evil smile. "You know what? I change my mind."

"Really?" It was uttered by a mouth filled with food: only five minutes and the refrigerator's bare.

"Yeah, if you accept my conditions. I'll think about joining your crew."

"Hmmmmm, I have to repay you for getting me lunch anyway."

Law's lips twitched violently.

"I want you to meet Buggy the Clown."

"Kay! Let's go!" Kicking off the chair, Luffy ignored it crashing against a stool and headed for the front door.

His arm was caught by Nami, "Hey, wait! I gotta bring something first." Nami let him go to scour a nearby room and came back with several lengths of rope. "Now, we go. Follow me."

An amused look crossed Luffy's face. "Follow you?"

"Yes," Nami said with no mind and hoped she didn't show him her surprise at the weird question.

"What's with the rope?"

"Duh, it's a rope," Nami rolled her eyes. "How do you think we're going to climb up Buggy's ship, fly?"

Law's palm met his forehead. But, contrary to what he just predicted, Luffy didn't manhandle Nami to demonstrate his 'Gum Gum Rocket'.

The walk was surprisingly short, and they were unexpectedly lucky to have missed any Buggy Pirates lugging around or trying to 'coax' frightened townspeople outside of their cellars and attics. The thief and the pirate arrived in front of what looked like a pub, but it could be something entirely different from the circus tent on top of the big building.

"This is where the pirates are staying at. Here, quick – and stay put," Nami wrapped him up with the rope. The girl was almost tempted to laugh at the pirate's naivete. After securing the knot, she encircled her wrist with the other end of the rope to make sure Luffy won't run away. "Now lay down okay," she instructed gently. Luffy let her knock him to the ground with her knee to his back and tightened the ropes around him again. But then she yelled out, "Idiot!"

Luffy was confused. "What are you doing?" He yelled.

Sabo peeked through his fingers – his hands having covered his face. In shame? Certainly not in fear, but…

"This is how they met?" Vivi squeaked. "She certainly never mentioned this…"

"I know the Nami of now , but if this is how she was back then Lucy's really amazing to have changed her so much," Rebecca wondered.

Yasopp took a step to draw the princess of Dressrosa's attention. "I'm just wondering, why do you keep calling him 'Lucy'?"

"I met him when he was an old man," she said with a straight face.

"Oh, if this continues, you'll see why, anyway!" Carrot beamed.

"What is Nami-senpai going to do to Luffy-senpai?!"

There was a brief commotion after Nami's exclamation, pirates in various state of dresses spilt out of the bar. They all at least held onto a recurring theme: circus performers. Each was eccentric. Then a man came out, dressed in the most typical fashion of a clown with a giant red nose, white-painted face and lips covered in red.

Buggy the Clown. 15 million berries.

"What is going on here!"

The redhead slipped her hand in her skirt and showed the clown pirate the navigational chart to Grand Line. "I'm returning your chart and have captured you the guy who ordered me to, Buggy the Clown!" Nami said, conscious that every men here were watching her. Seeing Luffy's upset look at her lie, she stuck out her tongue at him.

Sengoku wanted to despair. "So… easily captured…" Why can't his marines ever manage this?!

"I see," Buggy grinned. "You're obediently returning the map to me. Why?"

A beautiful smile appeared on her face. "He's very stupid! Let me join the Buggy crew!"

Shanks applauded her. Someone had to. "Just look at Buggy's face."

"You do realize she sold Anchor off, right?" Yasopp questioned. His captain sometimes got a little too dim to realize things…

"It's not as if any of this will matter that greatly," Aokiji said, and the pirate returned the marine's pointed look.

Smoker sighed. "Bloody Straw Hats…"

Perfectly amused to the point he couldn't stop laughing for a minute, Buggy let her be part of his crew, and Luffy was promptly hauled inside a cage with steel bars, complete with a lock. At least it wasn't rusty. Luffy tched in annoyance, "I don't want her in my crew anymore!"

"Wait, so he was still trying to recruit her?" Hancock blurted out. It was in vain, but, she had been hoping Luffy had dismissed that woman. And that whatever character reformation she obviously went through to be such a loyal crew member would take a while longer.

God. It had been bad enough stewing in jealousy when it was just the swordsman and the marine boy.

Happy by the recovery of his map, Buggy emptied out the cellar of whoever the fuck previously owned the bar. Nami certainly wasn't intimidated from being surrounded by such large men. In fact, she was having fun drinking them down the table – though there were no tables and just crates and a bunch of stuff since they're partying on the roof – and winning bets.

Shanks pitifully continued to try lifting a beer bottle. His hand just kept passing through it.

While some were perfectly okay to just stand (or float? Shirahoshi still wasn't sure what her body was doing) like ghosts among the partying crew, most preferred to stick to the unoccupied floors due to their position being away from the stupid drunk men, coincidentally, that was also where Luffy's cage was placed on.

The semi-aquatic marine mammal stood the closest to Luffy, admiring how the boy was gnawing his teeth on the steel cage bars. Dugong was kind of amazed that human teeth could be that strong. Law had to take a second to distance himself from Luffy's ridiculousness to realize Luffy's teeth and gums were a lot more malleable than a normal human mouth.

Sidestepping another drunk Buggy Pirate, Nami approached Luffy. "How's it going~?"

"Let me out!" Luffy wanted to bang his head against the bars to free himself, but then he remembered he still had his hat on and he was hesitant to damage it. "I'm hungry too! Give me some food, at least!"

Nami exhaled and threw a look behind her shoulder. Everyone was too drunk, and Buggy wasn't paying attention to anything, so she walked over to the table of food – unknowingly passing through Sengoku and Katakuri when she tried to avoid the Buggy Pirates' drunken pathways. Yasopp turned to see his captain sporting a sad face, the beer bottle he was trying to get a sip on in vain snatched by a random Buggy Pirate – and came back to Luffy's cage with a plate of whatever she just randomly snatched from the mass of bodies dancing and brawling.

She knelt to put a slice of chicken meat into Luffy's mouth but considering the plate was very close, the boy's headshot forward and he practically inhaled the chunks of chicken cuts. Nami cursed and in her shock, the plate fell off her hands and broke into pieces on the floor.

"You," Luffy chewed, entirely unbothered by the few pieces of glass near his exposed ankles. "You're a nice person. Yum. I guess I'll let you join my crew."

Ivankov laughed while beside him, Hancock crossed her arms in annoyance.

"He makes it sound as if she was asking him to join his crew," Smoker smirked. Watching him instead of directly dealing with him proved to be amusing, actually.

Nami snapped at him, "I told you I don't want to join your crew, damn it! Don't you realize your situation?! You're probably going to be sold as a slave!"

"What!" Luffy was shocked.

Crocodile was mildly shocked that the boy didn't choke on his food.

"I don't wanna be a slave!"

"Then keep still. If my plan works, I'll unlock you and let you run away."

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Buggy came from behind – though Luffy and everyone watching knew he was approaching. "You've got yourself a pretty good follower there!"

"She's not my follower."

"Ah, yes. I completely forgot that she just BETRAYED you! BWAHAHAHA." Buggy ignored the girl scooting away in favour of getting closer to the thief's boss, smirking to intimidate him. "Even if she returned my map, you still told her to steal what is MINE! So you're getting what you deserve!"

Luffy wasn't intimidated. Actually, he didn't seem to realize he was even in danger. "Oh, you're letting me go?"

"Yeah I'm letting you go—YOU THINK I'M THAT STUPID?!" Buggy drank his glass empty and threw it to a nearby wall, "BOYS! Prepare the 'Buggy Special Cannon-ball!'"

Sengoku snorted in distaste. Years of dealing with pirates, and he was still surprised by how narcissistic they can get.

"Watch this!" Buggy rapped the cage and directed Luffy's attention by pointing to one of his men holding a seemingly ordinary cannon-ball, unique only due to having been given to some poor fellow forced to paint the Buggy JOLLY ROGER on it. "The Buggy Special Cannon-ball's power!"

They couldn't help but notice exactly where Buggy was aiming.

Yasopp wished Buggy could see his ex-cabin mate's disappointed look.

The cannon shot. Packed inside the average-looking ball was a tremendous amount of explosive power. If it were a normal cannonball, the round shot would just make spherical holes through some walls before getting stuck in the debris. But it was aptly named for a reason, and it shot through an entire row of houses. Made of wood, all eight individual house blocks were ruined, the bottom floors not surviving after being crushed by the top floors and their own roofs.

Vivi clenched her fists. "There are—there are still some people in these houses." Dugong and Carue frowned and tried to support her. The others were, well, honestly, they were… used to such destructive whims.

They continued to watch – not like they were able to do anything else, really. But any previous humour had vanished and Dragon was more than aware everyone was tense. The marines were reminded that they were destructive pirates and their hackles visibly raised.

The Buggy Pirates cheered, and their Captain swatted aside the pirate who had destroyed the houses to position the cannon so that the artillery's muzzle was pointed right at the straw-hatted boy. "The power is so great. It can wipe out this tiny town in one shot! The powers I have gained from my Devil Fruit assure my future success at the Grand Line!"

Shanks wanted to facepalm but opted to try to find a seat to sit down. Unfortunately, he fell on his butt.

Garp stared. "And you're doing…?"

"I forgot we couldn't touch anything here!" Shanks tched and crossed his legs, visibly upset.

Crocodile sneered at both of the ex-Roger Pirates.

"Now," Buggy finally turned his attention to his latest recruit, who was frozen like a statue. "It's your turn."

She looked at him, sweating. So Buggy continued, "You shoot your ex-boss to show me your loyalty and sincerity. Get rid of your old boss once and for all!"

"Nami-chin's not going to!" Shirahoshi yelled out of nowhere, but it was a sentiment Vivi wholeheartedly agree with. Law, and Rebecca too, would agree… but they know the strong woman who could fry you with the very thunder, not the thief who relies on trickery to weasel her way up, still possessing the naïve mindset that she could take on Grand Line just because she has the navigational chart to head there. Still, the mermaid clearly had faith.

"Kill that guy… Me?" Nami said quietly.

Luffy just looked at them.

Nami looked back to Buggy, her flailing hands betraying her nervousness. "N...Captain Buggy! I'm just fine forgetting about him! I don't need to kill him! Let's just drink some more! We were having fun!"

"Kill him."

She stood still, numb in fear. She wasn't sure what she was seeing, but she could hear all the Buggy Pirates shouting shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT, KILL HIM—

"You're hands are shaking."

Nami's vision focused on Luffy, who was smiling.

"That's what you get for only being half prepared to mess with pirates."

The fuse was there. "Prepared? Prepared to take human life so easily? Is that what it takes to be a pirate?" Nami asked. Why was she even asking for an answer?

She just needs to lit it to burn down the gunpowder.

"No."

Which will explode violently.

"You gotta be prepared to risk your own life."

And propel the cannon straight at Luffy.

"Oi, new kid, stop wasting your time!" A Buggy Pirate snatched the matchbox in Nami's tense hand. "Don't you know how to light a fuse?"

Or she can take on these fucking pirates.

In Luffy and Nami's silence and the general commotion of the Buggy Pirates egging her on, they discussed in either dread or unwavering faith, but one thing in common they all were demonstrating their morbid curiosity.

The mermaid and desert princess had faith Nami wasn't going to shoot at Luffy. It wasn't something most were certain about, and while Law and Rebecca were inclined to also agree… they held some doubts.

"She shot my husband?!" Hancock hissed.

"I haven't actually confirmed this, but are you and Luffy-senpai truly married?!" Bartolomeo exclaimed.

"How many times do I have to say this: you're not married to my precious grandson!" Garp snapped. Aokiji even nodded.

"Lu-ya's not your husband," Law grumbled.

"Since when are you two married?" Crocodile inquired.

"Youuuuu suuuuure about that?" Sabo grimaced.

Rebecca blinked. "Wait, so she's not?"

The pinkette was pulled down a bit so the mink could whisper to her ear, "I'm pretty sure she's delusional." Then Carrot leaned back and spoke with a normal volume. "Luffy never said he was married."

Vivi leaned back to get closer to them. "Yeah, this is Luffy after all."

Carue quacked. His pinniped friend sneezed.

"If Ace's baby brother was married, you'd think he'd throw a huge ass party over it," Marco said. "I've heard RUMORS about Straw Hats parties."

"Oh, they're fun," Aokiji said, nearly scaring the shit out of them for actually listening to the inane banter. "I've seen it."

"If there was no marine captain or higher blessing the wedding," Sengoku began, looking as if he was reciting a guide for marriage, and with the way, he was standing and looking over them as if they were children he might as well be, "Your marriage is not acknowledged."

The look in her eyes was pure venom. "SHE shot my Luffy!"

"We don't know if she actually did!" The desert princess retorted, entirely missing Hancock's point. The Empress wasn't concerned about Luffy getting shot – such a stupid attack would never hurt her husband. Hancock was much more concerned about the navigator. The FEMALE navigator. "And even if she did, Luffy obviously had forgiven her!"

In the interest of ending this petty debacle, Law stoked the fire further, "This isn't the Nami we know."

Hancock shot Trafalgar glare. Not that MALES are any safer!

"Nami-chin's not going to!" Shirahoshi yelled out. Her eyes teared up, but the lone tear that escaped her tear ducts were swept away by something sticky and smelled very sweet. Following the appendage, she found it was attached to the Big Mom pirate present.

Katakuri offered her a nod. He hated it when people cry. With 82 younger siblings, he wasn't suffering babies crying if he could help it. "Rather than worrying about what Straw Hat's navigator has done, let's pay more attention to him."

Ivankov hmmed. "I agree!"

Dragon had been doing just that while everyone else was bickering. He knew his son wasn't married to the Pirate Empress. While time had passed only for three hours minus ten minutes for them, it had obviously gone a lot more for the people they are watching. His son has been sailing for at most three days, and he was curious as to how Luffy was handling the blatant threat to his mortality.

Luffy was as cool as a cucumber compared to Nami who was practically frozen like an ice cube slowly melting under the heat.

"You're hands are shaking."

Luffy had been silent up until now, and without realizing, they were hanging onto his words.

"That's what you get for only being half prepared to mess with pirates."

Shanks couldn't help but let the big ass grin occupy his face. Luffy seriously paid attention to him, didn't he? He just felt so flattered and damnably proud!

"Prepared? Prepared to take human life so easily? Is that what it takes to be a pirate?" Nami asked. Why was she even asking for an answer?

Hancock narrowed her eyes at the redhead's fingers propping the matchbox open.

"No," Luffy answered. "You gotta be prepared to risk your own life."

It was certainly something they all agreed with. Some even caught themselves nodding.

"Oi, new kid, stop wasting your time!" A Buggy Pirate snatched the matchbox in Nami's tense hand. "Don't you know how to light a fuse?"

As if Nami had not let her mind wander a hair too long, slightly bending her knee to lift her skirt, she swiftly fished out the three pieces of her bo staff strapped on her thigh. Attaching the pieces with a graceful motion, Nami knocked the Buggy Pirate down when the butt of her bo staff slammed his neck's sweet spot.

"I knew she wouldn't kill Luffy!"

"WHAT THE HELL!" Amongst the roar of anger and disbelief, Buggy's was the loudest. "I gave you the chance to shoot!"

Nami turned her back to Luffy and faced the volatile pirates. "Pirates stole the life of someone who was precious to me! I hate you, pirates, more than anything!"

"Maybe she'd kill Luffy later, bwahahaha," Garp joked.

"Huh?" Luffy cried out. "You're saving me now?"

The redhead answered him without turning her back to the pirates reaching for the swords and guns, "I'm not going to lower myself to kill like you beastly pirates!"

Then Luffy let out strings of cuss words when he noticed the fuse had been successfully lit. The pirate Nami took out had struck the match hard enough to make a spark, and now he's going to get blasted by a cannonball!

Which won't kill him but it will hurt like hell.

"Little bitch making a fool of me!" Unnecessarily pointing at her direction, Buggy yelled out. "Kill her!"

The Buggy Pirates, minus the captain himself, tried to swarm Nami. She swung her bo staff with surprising strength, but the arc was obvious and wide, and the Buggy Pirates simply jumped back to avoid her blow. They mocked her choice of move, but Nami didn't bother laughing at them for doing exactly as she intended to. She wasn't trying to sweep them away. While her risky childhood life as a thief let her develop a pretty high level of physical capabilities, she was aiming to move them far enough so she can safely turn her back a bit and stop Luffy from getting blasted right behind her. She was too panicked to instinctively reach for the item, so she ended up turning her entire back to burn out the lit fuse by putting out the fire with her bare hands.

She cried out and barely heard Luffy warning her, "Nami, behind you!"

Nami didn't know there were people other than Luffy warning her to avoid the oncoming assault.

But instead of crying out from being wounded, or possibly whimpering from being severely wounded, she heard the Buggy Pirates crying out in pain.

Throwing a look behind her shoulder, she saw a man in a dirty white shirt and black pants, holding two swords in each hand to block the Buggy Pirates. If they weren't sheathed, the four pirates attempting to attack Nami from behind would be losing half of their heads and one arm, one knee, and one dick.

"Zoro-senpai has come to the rescue!" Bartolomeo cheered. Carue and Dugong even followed.

Displaying enormous strength, the man pushed all four pirates to the floor. "Did you get hurt?" He asked her.

Nami looked down at her hands and grimaced at how ruined her palms were. That's what you get for putting out fire with your bare hands. She just hopes she could still fight well with her bo staff.

"Oh, Nami-senpai ruined her beautiful hands!" Bartolomeo cried.

"Oh, Zoro!" Luffy sounded happy, and she assumed this was another pirate. Any gratefulness or relief towards the green-haired man vanished in an instant. "Get me outta here!"

"You!" Zoro certainly didn't seem like was a happy rescuer. "Is this your idea of fun? You get caught by a bird, and now you're caught in a cage?"

Thank everything that is holy Law's cheeks didn't burn red at the OTHER meaning Zoro's words could be taken as.

But Hancock noticed he went rigid.

"Shit!" Luffy cursed again. "I forgot about the bird! I was gonna eat it!"

"And why are you staying in that cage? Can't you, I DUNNO, stretch out?"

"I dun' wanna slide out," Luffy whispered to him. "I wanna get rescued."

But the volume was audible for them anyway. Sengoku snorted.

…Then he subtly cringed away when he saw the dark beauty of a Warlord sighing and muttering 'I'll save you'.

"Zoro?"

"The Pirate Hunter?"

"The demon who sent bloody pieces of his targets?"

"Zoro was never that sort of violent," Vivi frowned. "Exactly how did he get THIS bad of a reputation?"

"You're definitely Zoro," Buggy said. "You after my head?"

"Not interested. Stopped hunting pirates actually," Zoro answered.

"You're his crew member?" Nami blurted out.

"But now I'm interested in making an example out of you," Buggy grinned.

"You know, Buggy looks really menacing here," Shanks mock-whispered to his sniper. "But seriously, he's still picking on small fries?"

Yasopp definitely tried to at least be discreet when he spoke. "We all know your reprimands last for an hour or two with him. You haven't check up on him since that year we met Anchor."

Zoro snorted, unsheathing his swords and putting the third one in his goddamned mouth. "If you want to fight me, I'll let you."

Nami flinched when in an instant, the green-haired pirate had sliced Buggy the Clown into three pieces. The strength he put behind him flung Buggy's body parts to crash onto the small roof garden of ylang-ylang. The Buggy Pirates—! What was wrong with them?! Their captain died, but they're just laughing. And Luffy was just fucking nonchalant about it asking for Zoro to find the key to open his cage because he couldn't eat his way out of the cage.

Pirates.

"I'm impressed Straw Hat somehow managed to make her loyal to him," Crocodile spoke.

Marco caught on and mulling it over for a second he nodded along. "She's high on hating pirates and said pirates just murdered a captain and said captain's pirates were just laughing," he pointed out. "Watching it from our perspective?"

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. "Pretty messed up."

"I can't believe you actually found me!"

"What, did you think I would have abandoned you?"

"It would be a reasonable choice," Katakuri intoned.

"Yes, no one sane would follow a child who just got himself eaten by a bird they're trying to eat," Aokiji shook his head.

"Nah, I thought you'd get lost," Luffy smiled.

"I don't get lost!"

"Oh, don't be mad! You love me!"

"Yes, and right now, I'm tempted to strangle you." But shortly after Zoro's scowl disappeared, replaced an odd mix of curiosity and disappointment because he realized something.

"Yes," Smoker said. He recognized that look. "It's impossible to strangle someone who can stretch."

Though they were chatting freely, the Buggy Pirates' laughter was getting to Zoro's skin. "What's so funny?!" Then pain flared through his lower abdomen, a familiar pain yet at the same time foreign. Because while Zoro had taken stab wounds at his stomach area plenty of times, he had never taken one at the back. As soon as he realized where he had been stabbed – at the back – he felt shame.

For fuck's sake, he let his arrogance get to him!

Dugong protested at the less than honourable attack, but the kung-fu proficient animal was the only one protesting. Everyone else was more than familiar at how there is almost nothing unfair between a pirate fight. They were more distracted by the body pieces of Buggy, not bloody and alive despite not being connected to the brain.

"A hand?!" Nami was shocked. It was clearly Buggy's hand that was floating in mid-air. Luffy would have screamed HOW COOL IS THAT, but he was much more preoccupied in his worry for Zoro who had doubled over in pain.

"I ate the Chop Chop Fruit!" Buggy said, and he put himself back together. "You can never kill me with a sword! I'm a splitting man!"

"You can s-split yourself apart…" Nami said.

"Shocked?" Buggy laughed. "You should be, little girl. I'm invisible! Once I kill your old boss and his crew and YOURSELF for your INSUBORDINATION, I'll use my chart and conquer the Grand Line!"

Wow! The amount of temerity this clown has… Garp coughed, doing a poor job of hiding his choked out 'grand line reject' insult.

Hancock just reminded herself that this clown was ignorant and couldn't help himself. The world needed stupid people like him too, right?

Marco spoke in a flat tone. "This coming from the guy who named his balls Buggy Bombs."

"He had the chart in the first place. Why hadn't he sail to Grand Line already?" Carrot asked.

"Oh, I doubt Buggy was planning to set sail to Grand Line anytime soon," Shanks shook his head. This – baseless boasting where he especially knew better – is kind of embarrassing. "He's been staying in East Blue for twenty years."

Carrot wrinkled her nose. "He couldn't handle the New World?"

Shanks crossed his arms and continued to watch his old friend. "Sick of it, actually." His eye twitched when Yasopp just wouldn't stop staring at the back of his head. "Mostly."

"His body went back together!" Nami shouted. "I thought Devil Fruits were just a myth!"

"Calm down—"Zoro was cut off.

"Never tell a girl to calm down!"

"Splitting man, what a freak," Luffy said.

"A rubber man is the last person to say that," Crocodile muttered.

Luffy got irritated as Buggy kept gloating over Zoro who had fallen to his knees. While the wound wasn't fatal, being stabbed in the gut was a serious pain. "You don't have the right to gloat after attacking from the back like a coward, you big red nose!"

"Darn, way to go," Shanks laughed. "He could have picked any insult, and he had to go with the one that makes Buggy explode."

Sure enough, all chanting and cheering stopped in fear because Buggy's head was resembling a red grenade. "Who... has... a..." Buggy stuttered as he shook in rage. "Big nose!"

He threw his curved dagger straight at the caged straw-hatted teen. His aim proved to be impeccable because the blade didn't bounce from the bars and struck Luffy at the neck.

"Luffy-sama!" Shirahoshi's cried. Fat blobs of teardrops poured out, and Law would have been doomed to spend the next several minutes being wet (maybe hours. There was no wind or sunlight able to affect them in this strange place) had he not managed to jump away. Why does she have to be so gigantic – not that freakishly tall Law has any right to complain either. Or, well almost anyone here.

Out of every single person living in this world, only Bepo would have noticed Law was 'cross-eyed' in confusion. Almost every famous pirate or marines are abnormally tall, and he realized Lu-ya might be the only who has normal height – which is kind of abnormal and brain-frying; Lu-ya being normal.

But the rubber man had easily caught the blade in his mouth. "You do!" Luffy confidently exclaimed as he bit down on the knife, breaking it in half.

The mermaid sagged in relief. She was too tall and much bigger than the others and unlike the other freakishly tall people who let their lower bodies sink into the roof's floor, Shirahoshi's size still only let her see everything from above, so she wasn't able to clearly see Luffy.

"How are his teeth strong enough to break steel?!" Coby asked.

"How come if he can break steel with his teeth he didn't manage to break the cage bars?" Rebecca retorted.

"I remember pulling his mouth for mouthing off," Garp rubbed his chin. "His teeth could stretch too."

"He really doesn't have any right to call anyone else a freak," Crocodile smirked.

"How come he didn't manage to eat his way out of that cage?" Rebecca repeated.

Law sighed. "Mugiwara-ya could have escaped any time he wanted. He's rubber. He can just compress his body and slide out."

"Oh," Vivi grumbled. "But doing that makes him feel uncomfortable, so while he COULD, he just didn't want to."

Dugong crossed his arms and wished he could chastise such laziness.

"I'll kick it after I kick your ass!" Then he looked directly at his swordsman. "Zoro, run!"

"Huh?"

Zoro caught what Luffy meant, and after a quick 'roger, captain' he ran towards the cannon. Taking advantage over everyone's confusion over Luffy's contradicting order with his intention to 'kick Buggy's ass', no one was able to stop Zoro from going under the cannon to make it easier on his stomach's wound as he flipped the cannon on its back; and now the muzzle was pointed at the Buggy Pirates. "Light it!"

She wasted a couple of seconds, but she was still faster than the Buggy Pirates and successfully lit the fuse. The thief and swordsman dove for cover while Luffy cheered in delight as the cannon fired straight at the pirates.

Seeing as they were standing among the Buggy Pirates, they could clearly see the Buggy Bomb's effect. There were no body parts torn to chunks, muscles shredded, or throats screaming. By some miracle, the cannon did not injure any of the Buggy Pirates. DIRECTLY. Plenty of them dove from the building to avoid the blast.

"If Buggy's cannon actually hit them when they were clustering, this would have been a pretty brutal massacre," Marco said. "Not what I expected from Straw Hats."

"What makes you think that?" Aokiji raised an eyebrow. "As odd as they are, they're still pirates."

"Luffy just never strikes me to be someone who would partake in the killing. I saw as much in Marineford. He mostly shoved you marines out of the way."

Smoker growled and slightly moved closer to his former Fleet Admiral at the reminder of their different sides.

In the interest of preventing the budding hostility, Vivi changed the subject. "I wonder how Zoro managed to understand what Luffy meant."

"Yeah, Luffy-san just shouted at him to run away," Coby scratched his neck.

He got a nod from Ivankov. "Luffy-voy did not even make any gesture to indicate ze cannon. How curious-buru."

The cloud dust and debris flying were a good enough cover for Zoro to turn around to Luffy's cage. Remembering the girl, Zoro absentmindedly asked her. "Who are you?"

"I… I'm a thief," Nami answered.

"She's our navigator," Luffy answered as if Nami didn't respond at all.

…they sympathized with Nami.

She gritted her teeth. "Idiot! I NEVER agreed! If you have time saying stupid things, why don't you use it to figure out how to get out of that stupid cage?!"

"No time." Zoro knelt beside Luffy's cage. He looped his arms to hold onto it, and with a shout (zero part for the encouragement and mostly from the pain) he lifted Luffy in the steel barred stone cage on his shoulders. "Time to go."

"Zoro!" Luffy protested. "Your stomach is going to pop out if you carry me!"

"If my stomach wants to pop out!" Zoro huffed, almost gurgled over the blood pouring out of his throat. With whatever strength he possessed, Zoro jumped over the roof's fence to the roof of a house that has not been demolished next to it and grunted as the weight was increased due to gravity, and he nearly knocked onto a plumbing vent. "Then let it!" Zoro's stubbornness just made Luffy feel pissed, and the rubber man began to trash at his cage. It made Zoro even more pissed and gained strength out of nowhere to jump to another roof and instead of going around, he was bullheaded enough to jump over a ridge vent and hide behind a dormer window. He perched himself on a roof's valley to spit the blood pooling in his mouth and take a breath.

Sending a small wave of sand to make the animals shut up and stay put from their panic, Crocodile took another drag from his cigarette. "What an idiot. He knew Straw Hat was rubber."

"Cut Zoro-voy some slack, Croc-chan~" Ivankov chuckled. "As of vesterday, Devil Fruits vere practically a myth to the voy."

"Can't Zoro-senpai cut the cage bars to free Luffy-senpai?" Bartolomeo questioned.

Katakuri, who was the one to stand the farthest from the rest but now is the closest to the caged Luffy and injured Zoro, shook his head. "I think it is possible that the swordsman did not know how to cut steel during this time."

"Those impudent fools! They dare to steal and make fun of me!" Zoro huffed as he heard Buggy shouting to the world. "Who am I?!"

"The pirate "Buggy the Clown", Captain!"

Carrot mimicked Zoro cringing at the obvious ass-licking.

"That's right! That cage took five men to bring up here! I can see quite well. These are no ordinary thieves! THIS MEANS WAR!"

Zoro merely rolled his eyes at how easily riled up the splitting man was and proceeded to lift Luffy's cage up again – the rubber man having already stopped trashing and opted to simply stare at Zoro. Zoro ignored Luffy's stare and continued to drag the cage with only one hand. He used his other hand to clutch his stomach's wound from leaking too much blood.

"Why won't Luffy just slide out? He knows he can. He's been doing it since we were kids," Sabo wondered to himself.

While the Blue Gentleman was muttering, Shanks, who stood beside him, heard his confused statement. "I thought it should be pretty obvious."

"What do you mean, Shanks…" Kind of awkward. Sabo had never actually talked with the Red Emperor until now "-san."

The one-armed man waved a non-existent fly. "Just call me by name, kid. As for your question, well, Luffy could get out, but his hat would be stuck inside. It's too big to slide out."

"And Luffy would never damage his treasure," Sabo nodded.

"And breaking a solid steel bar is different from breaking a sharp, relatively thin blade."

Then they heard Zoro curse loudly.

Zoro finally gave in and collapsed. Letting out another curse because he forgot to hold back some pain on his stomach, he turned sideways and was greeted by a white dog staring right at him. "SHIT!"

"Oooooooh! A dog!" Luffy exclaimed in happiness and hopped the cage to get closer to it.

They stared.

"He can…" Coby tried to find the right words without resorting to using fillers. "Jump on his crossed legs and lift that heavy thing to the air."

"Did Zoro notice that?" Vivi asked.

Rebecca answered her. "I don't think he did."

"I'm pretty sure if Roronoa-ya noticed he would have chewed Mugiwara-ya out already."

Zoro scrambled away lest he got licked or mauled by dog slobber, but the white dog didn't move at all. "What's with this dog?" He dragged his ass to lean back against a wooden pillar.

"What is this? Is it really a dog? It's not moving at all."

"Who cares? What it does is up to the dog! Hurry up and get out of that cage!"

"I wonder if it's dead…" Luffy poked the dog's eyes with his fingers.

And got his face bitten instantly.

"You u'id og!" Luffy couldn't pronounce his words clearly because his nose and eyes and mouth was stretched because the teeth dug in and tried to yank his head off. He punched its jaw, and the dog scratched Luffy's foot. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?!"

"Woof woof!"

A tick mark appeared on Zoro's forehead. "You idiot! Do you even know the seriousness of the situation here?!" His wound was aggravated further.

It was too funny to not laugh, and Shirahoshi's laugh drowned out the rest when Luffy gave up, Zoro collapsed, and the dog went back to not moving as if it just declared itself the champion.

"You two…" Nami spoke, walking towards them – striding past through Dugong and Carue who were rolling on the ground in laughter – "What on earth are you guys doing? If you just lie around here in the middle of the street Buggy will definitely find you."

"Hey, navigator."

"SAYS WHO?!" She sucked her breath and exhaled. Then Nami tossed something to the ground beside Luffy's cage. "I'm just repaying my debt to you because you saved my life back there."

"Oh! The key! You stole it!"

"You don't have to focus on the fact that I stole it!" Nami's irritation was ignored by Luffy celebrating. A celebration done too early because suddenly, the white dog bent its head down and swallowed the key.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"YOU STUPID DOG!" Luffy proceeded to choke the life out of the poor thing. "SPIT IT OUT! That thing you just swallowed isn't food!"

"Oh my God... Haa…" Sabo clutched his stomach.

Even a hard ass like Sengoku couldn't hold back the humour in the situation.

"They're a riot!" Shanks laughed. "And I forgot how funny it is to see Anchor panicking!"

"I think," Coby started, "He's either panicking for himself or for the dog."

Katakuri frowned - not that anyone could see he was frowning, "Did you already forget he said he just wants to "be rescued"?"

"DON'T DO ANYTHING TO CHOUCHOU!" An old man garbed in wooden armour and a spear shouted at the three teenagers as if a green-haired man bleeding out his stomach or a straw-hatted boy in a cage with his face being stretched by an angry dog was an occupational hazard.

"Who are you, mister?" Nami asked.

"I'm the village's leader, or in other words, the chief! My name is Boodle."

"Huh?" Luffy pulled his cheeks out of the dog's mouth and held it at bay by letting it bite his leg instead. "I thought all the people sailed away already."

"I managed to get some of them out, but I'm staying behind for the rest of my people who didn't manage to sneak off a boat. Young man!" Boodle finally turned to Zoro. "You are injured. That house," he pointed to the house beside the one they stopped in front of, "is my house. I'll let you sleep in there."

"Huh," Zoro groaned as he forced himself to stand up again. "Thanks."

"There's a doctor, but he's at the shelter, and I'm afraid we won't be able to go there with your injury and the pirates milling about!" The old man escorted Zoro and shortly after, he came out.

"Hey, this dog's name is Chouchou?" Luffy asked. "Is he yours? Why'd you leave him alone in the streets?"

"Chouchou belongs to my friend, Hocker," Boodle sighed, handing over a bowl of dog food he had brought out when he had entered the house to guide Zoro to the guest room. "When Hocker left one day for the doctor, he entrusted his pet shop to Chouchou. Hocker eventually died of an unknown illness and never returned. Chouchou's intelligent. He's a smart dog. Deep down, Chouchou knew his friend has passed away, but refused to move from the shop, adamant in protecting it. Look at those wounds. Even when the Buggy Pirates attacked the town, and the rest of the townspeople fled to a refuge on the outskirts, Chouchou continuously refused to budge. I would come from time-to-time to feed Chouchou, as well as try to convince him to go to the refuge."

"If Chouchou knows, why is he still guarding the store?" Nami frowned.

Boodle smiled. "Obviously, this store is Chouchou's treasure."

Vivi wiped a tear. Only Kohza knew she was a sucker for sob stories.

"RROOOAARRR!"

"What is that?!" Nami shouted.

"Oh, no! It's the beast trainer Mohji! RUN!"

In panic the two ran away, but it's like Luffy didn't even acknowledge the impending danger. Growing up in Dawn Island's forests, an animal's fierce roar was basically background music. He just pouted at the white dog. "Give me the key."

"…"

"You little thing," Luffy added petulantly.

"Woof."

"How could Nami-senpai leave Luffy-senpai behind?" Bartolomeo twitched. There was ditching someone when he's purposefully being an asshole or a retarded, and then there was ditching a friend.

"Barto-ya, keep in mind that Nami-ya still hates pirates at this moment," Law said.

The dog and the boy were entirely unruffled by the appearance of a giant lion with an angry red mane. Chouchou kept standing firm in front of the pet food store, while Luffy was much more interested at the guy sitting on top of the… um… lion… hmm…

"By the blues, he—" Rebecca face met her palm. "Lucy is seriously drooling over the lion."

Sabo let out a weak laugh. He – and Hancock too – knew why a lion wouldn't bother Luffy at all. Compared to the animals in Dawn Island's wild forest and Rusukaina Island, this lion was nothing.

"Well, I found one guy… I'm Buggy's pirate crew member, the beast trainer Mohji."

Katakuri, Crocodile and Smoker walked away from the scene, opting to see Straw Hat's navigator and swordsman. Pointless gloating such as that was so tasteless.

"Hohoho… so the people you were with just ditched you?" Mohji gloated. "Poor thing, and you tried so hard to run away… Captain Buggy is pretty mad. You guys have committed a pretty serious crime…"

"What's that weird hood you're wearing?" Luffy ignored his monologue.

Mohji choked, "YOU IDIOT!" He shouted, completely losing his composure.

As everyone does when they're confronted by the rubber man's ridiculous lack of attention span.

"Watch what you're saying! THIS IS MY HAIR!"

"That just makes it even weirder."

"SHUDDUP!"

"You look like a mouse!" Luffy smiled.

Coby had a thoughtful look on his face. Perhaps entirely ignoring threats can be an excellent way to throw away opponents' composure…

Mohji bristled in indignation. "You are... in a cage. So you don't know how scary I am…"

"That guy…" Nami's face was pale. "He wants to die, doesn't he…"

"That idiot…" Boodle agreed, feet shaky along with Nami as they both hid behind an alley.

"I'm telling you, there is no animal in this world that won't obey me!" Mohji gloated again. He spotted Chouchou and pointed at the dog. "That includes that dog over there." Mohji jumped down his lion and extended a hand to Chouchou. "Shake a paw—"

Chouchou bit his wrist.

"AAAHCK!"

"You're just a nameless common thief," Mohji said after climbing up his lion again with a straight face.

"You gave up on the dog?" Luffy stared.

Katakuri couldn't believe how stupid pirates are nowadays.

"I have no reason not to kill you. Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is." The lion growled louder.

"I don't wanna!"

"Kill him, Richie!" The lion pounced on Luffy's cage. Its considerable weight, strong teeth and claws only took a second to break the thick slab of the steel-reinforced stone cage and consequently freeing Luffy and enabling the carnivore to slam the boy straight at the house across them. "Good, Richie. Now let's find Roronoa Zoro. If I kill him, I'll get a better reputation—hmm? What is it?" Mohji recognized what Richie's next growl indicates and the building Richie was staring at confirmed his guess. "Hungry, eh? Goodness, Richie, hurry up and finish your meal."

But that's when the white dog who bit his hand earlier gave a growl of equal aggressiveness to Richie.

"Don't tell me…"

"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"

"You're a guard dog for this tiny shop."

"WOOF!"

Richie didn't care. He swiped Chouchou away with one strike and Chouchou's shoulder bled and was further aggravated as he skidded across the path. Chouchou barked angrily and bit Richie's front leg so hard it bled despite Chouchou's tiny teeth. Richie flailed his leg and Chouchou got slammed to the pet food store's window and fell because the glass shards dug into Chouchou's back.

Chouchou didn't give up though and continued to attack Richie. Unfortunately, the tiny dog entirely ignored Mohji who delivered his own strike at the dog when Chouchou attacked Richie's skull. Chouchou cried out but retaliated by biting Mohji's already bitten wrist even harder, but was jostled off to the ground because Richie couldn't keep his patience anymore and ransacked the pet food store, destroying the interior.

Around the corner, Luffy finally arrived, casually walking. But the boy was greeted to the sight of Chouchou's pet food store burning to the ground and the dog wailing.

Luffy stared at the burning building.

Shirahoshi, Vivi, Coby and Carrot were crying along with Chouchou. Smoker couldn't believe he was also feeling sad for a dog. Only Dragon noticed Sabo staring at Luffy, mumbling a curse.

His son just stood still with his hands in his pockets, and Dragon didn't need to wonder about what he wouldn't give to be able to know why Luffy wasn't comforting the dog. Luffy inherited that much from him at least.

They'd rather deal with the problem directly than waste time saying sweet nothings.

Luffy walked away from Chouchou and had an easy time finding Mohji and Richie. He stood directly in their path.

Mohji was shocked. He had firmly believed Luffy was dead.

"You can't kill me that easily. I'm a rubber man!"

"So you ate one of the mystical fruits?! Doesn't matter. Showing your face here again was a huge mistake! Chomp his head off, Richie!"

Luffy didn't dodge. Instead, he made a weird stance; he crossed his arms in front of him as if to push something, but then his arms twisted like a spring, both hands successfully gripping Richie's cheeks. Between Luffy's strength and the big lion's, Richie has spun around in the same order as Luffy's arm twists. Half-way through the completion of Luffy's "Gomu Gomu no Tsuchi", Richie already passed out from sheer dizziness.

"Oh, you poor lion," Shirahoshi mumbled. It should not be right to find the lion's head stuck in the rock pavement and its body upside down to be funny.

"You—you monster! What the hell are you?!"

"I ate the Gum Gum Fruit," Luffy absentmindedly explained as he located his straw hat. Hmph. It keeps falling off his head…

"T-T-Then, you… you have a Devil Fruit power, just like Captain Buggy!" Mohji broke out in a sweat and held out his hands – and Shanks was rather disappointed that so far, all of the Buggy Pirates turned out to be complete cowards. "O… Okay! I'll give you as much treasure as you want! Please forgive me! I'm sorry!"

"There's no need to apologize," Luffy let his hat stay on the ground in favour of showing his irritation at Mohji's grovelling. "Nothing you can possibly do will bring that dog's treasure back now." He reared his arm back. "I came back here to kick your ass."

There was Straw Hat, Crocodile mused, the one that was famous for his recklessness and airheadedness. Then there was Straw Hat, the quiet one – the dangerous one.

His left hand caught Mohji's clothes – weird chest hair? – and Mohji cried in fear as his feet failed to prevent his body from being dragged towards Luffy. "Learn your lesson."

"HELP M—" Mohji's face was pummeled straight with a mean right hook, and his nose broke. The back of his head hit the pavement harshly, and it didn't take long for Mohji to pass out from Luffy's assault.

Hancock hmphed, walking alongside Luffy – after picking up his hat and the dog food – who was heading towards Zoro's location. "Good riddance."

Seeing Luffy's certainty in beating up the lowlife, Law started piecing a bigger picture on Lu-ya. Law knew the Straw Hats were ruthless when it came to grudges, but he had assumed Luffy came to possess that trait because of the harshness of the life of piracy. Not something he already possessed from the start.

Luffy heard the tail-end of Nami's furious rant. "…Same! Pirates are all the same! They just casually destroy everything people hold dear!"

Then she heard Luffy's footsteps. "Hm?"

"Oh. I see you're alive, pirate."

"Oh, no," Vivi exclaimed. "Is she mistaking Luffy to be the one who burned down Chouchou's store?"

"I was certain you'd be eaten by that lion."

"Hey…" Boodle finally spoke up. "How can you say that? Aren't you friends?"

"FRIENDS?!" Nami exploded and attempted to run to Luffy, but Boodle held her back. "I'LL KILL YOU! Here and now! Before you get the chance to gather crewmates and attack towns like this one!"

Luffy scrunched up his face and stuck out his tongue at her. "As if you could beat me."

"Hee Haw!" Ivankov soon became too busy trying not to laugh. A task some were also struggling with unless they were sadists like the warlords and ex-warlord who smirked or Garp who never held back his amusement.

"WHAT?!"

Luffy stepped around Nami.

"DAMN PIRATE! Let's find out, shall we?!"

Luffy put a yellow package in front of a still and heavily injured Chouchou. Unlike previous times, the white dog perked up this time, though it still didn't move its head, opting to stare at his destroyed treasure rather than acknowledging the straw-hatted boy's chatter beside him. "This was the only thing left!" Luffy smiled and sat down, crossing his legs. "He ate all the rest."

Nami blinked. The pirate… went to fight that lion… just for the dog!

"You did good! You put up quite a fight!" Luffy paid no mind that the dog wasn't facing him. Staring at someplace else doesn't mean it wasn't listening to Luffy. "Not that I was there to see it. But I can tell!"

Chouchou picked up Hocker's dog food package and walked away. He stopped to bark at Luffy in an obviously friendly manner.

"Yeah! Good luck to you too!"

"Woof! Woof!"

Boodle deemed it finally safe to let Nami out of his hold, now that she doesn't see to be in the mood to maul the crazy kid.

"Oh! Luffy-sama!" Shirahoshi cried.

"That was so adorable of him!" Vivi agreed.

"Did we seriously spend a god damned hour just watching Straw Hat befriending a mutt?" Crocodile sneered.

"Croc-chan! It's only veen ten vinutes!" The Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom fished out his wristwatch from what-in-the-devil pockets of his elastic bodysuit and showed it to Crocodile, as if the warlord had actually been paying attention to the time to see if it really has been only a few minutes. Ivankov leered at him. "I know you just vant some love too, mmmfufufu~"

The sand Logia cringed. Of all the people in the world to know his precious weakness, it had to be THIS weirdo.

The dog picked up his friend's last dog food package and continued to walk away. What an intelligent dog. Nami had a feeling it knew the way to the shelter the mayor had mentioned. She turned to Luffy. Well, she wasn't a timid girl. "Hey," she spoke, "Sorry for yelling at you."

"S'kay!" Luffy grinned at her, and she felt a smile tugging at her lips too. "Someone precious to you was killed by a pirate." Oh, so he does pay attention to what she's saying. He had never really shown the attention span required to. "I'm sure you've got your own problems to worry about. Not that I wanna hear about 'em."

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Boodle suddenly exploded out of nowhere. "IT'S JUST NOT FAIR! IT IS NOT! EVEN CHOUCHOU AND THESE KIDS HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR US!"

Dugong made a sound to catch his princess' attention and his paw made a motion circle in question. Vivi swatted him because it was rude to ask 'did he lost his marbles?'

"How can I, the mayor, sit by and watch my home be destroyed without lifting a finger a finger?! There are some fights a man cannot back down!" Nami berated Luffy who, instead of helping her to tell the old man to calm the fuck down, egged the man's fury. "It all started 40 years ago! This place was nothing but a simple wasteland! 'Let's erect a town here, and forget the old town that was destroyed by pirates!' At first, it was nothing but a few tiny houses! But look now! That meager village has grown into a splendid port town! A town built by all the old folks who started it years ago! We made this town!" He continued. "What kind of mayor fails to protect his own town?! I WILL FIGHT!"

"FIRE THE SPECIAL BUGGY BALL!"

The entire row of houses in front of them was instantly destroyed by Buggy, including the mayor's house.

Smoker elbowed Sengoku. "After this, I want to treat you to none of us ending up in the hospital if we get out with our minds intact."

"My house!"

"Zoro!"

"Here!" Zoro called out. The smoke cleared and they could see for themselves that Zoro was miraculously okay. "Talk about a rude awakening."

"Great! You're alive!"

"H…How can you still be alive?!"

The mayor continued to rant, to scream, to rage, and it while the other boys were just standing and watching Nami wouldn't let the old man waste his life. "This is beyond reckless!"

"I KNOW IT'S RECKLESS!" Boodle finally faced them and showed his tears. It was enough of a shock for Nami to let go of his hand and Boodle ran away to find Buggy.

Ivankov really shouldn't, buuuuuuut, "So~" The okama leaned to the closest marine, the ice Logia. "Vere are the marines-buru?"

Crocodile joined in, "So far, we haven't seen you protecting the innocents."

"Yes," Hancock tersely put in. "As far as we have seen here, my Luffy's been the one doing your job."

Aokiji didn't acknowledge their jabs, but Sengoku felt the need to straighten these ruffians. "Contrary to what you think, marines can't be everywhere in a world where you outlaws outnumber us."

"The mayor was crying…"

"Really? I didn't notice."

Zoro replied Luffy's smirk. "Things are starting to get interesting."

"Shishishi! Yup."

Nami growled. "This is no time to be laughing!"

"It's fine~ I like 'im. I won't let that old man die!"

"What's giving you the confidence to just stand here and laugh about it?!"

Luffy grin became wider. "We're goin' to the Grand Line. So we need the map. You need it too, and ya want your treasure, right?" He held out his hand. "Join my crew!"

Nami looked considering.

"Finally," Garp picked his nose.

"I refuse to become a pirate!"

"Never mind."

Nami slapped his palm. "Call it an alliance instead. You're a weirdo," Nami smirked. "But you can back up your weirdness."

His grin was blinding. "Awesome! I got my navigator!" Best birthday ever!

"I TOLD YOU I'M NOT YOUR ANYTHING!"

The demolished buildings blurred back to, well, demolished buildings too but these ones were obviously different than the rest, most notably by one building that has not been destroyed – the one occupied by the Buggy Pirates. Greedy men who found some joy in terrorizing civilians who were very incensed because the thief's boss who had escaped, came back and stopped them from killing the impudent mayor.

Luffy and his companions ignored Buggy who was yelling threats angrily on the roof. Nami turned to them, "Listen, I don't care whether you fight or not—"

"I want to see if I can kill a splitting man," Zoro answered, even though Nami wasn't really asking a question.

So Luffy piped in as well, "I told him I'd kick his ass."

Nami rolled her eyes. "You guys do as you wish. I'm just here for the map and the treasure."

Finished spatting out the blood he got after injuring his own neck by punching Buggy's detached hand that had been choking him, Boodle gritted his teeth at the children. "All of you… What did you come back for? You three just stay out of this. This is my war! I AM THE ONE WHO MUST PROTECT THIS VILLAGE! Don't interfe—"

Katakuri blinked.

Luffy slammed Boodle's head to the wall.

Inspector General Sengoku couldn't help but startle.

"What!" Vivi yelled.

"Luffy-san?!" Coby shouted.

"Smart," Hancock nodded to herself.

"IDIOT!" Nami fretted. The pirate made Boodle's head bleeding! "What the fuck! Why did you do that to the chief?!"

"'Cause he'd just get in the way," Luffy's voice was smooth, and his grin was sharp. The kind Nami wasn't inclined to see again anytime soon.

A little jarring, and the callousness plus ruthlessness made some eyebrows raise, but no one was left stunned (by the reasoning. Vivi had plenty to say to Luffy for doing that to a civilian!). Everybody here knew too much about Straw Hat Luffy by now to be surprised that despite his kindness, he's really not considerate. Not when it comes to a fight. He's very selfish about the prospect of kicking asses. After said fights though…

Katakuri absently touched the fedora Straw Hat gave him.*

"This better be a good fight," Zoro stated rather menacingly, but then he fucking yawned.

"This coming from the guy whose first complaint was to sleep more after getting shot by a freak bomb," Nami complained.

She wasn't trying to be quiet, and her subtle insult riled up the clown pirate. "So you survived after getting hit by my Special Buggy Bomb?! I'll make sure this time you're all corpses!"

Naturally, Luffy praised Zoro and gave no fuck about giving Buggy a clear path.

"He'll just bounce it back," Smoker stated, beginning to get bored.

"Nah!" Garp objected. "He'll show he learned a thing or two from me and catch that thing with his bare hands!"

Shanks laughed. "We're not even contemplating him avoiding it, are we?"

"How are you gonna try to kill us, Mr. Booger?" Luffy asked loudly to Buggy. "With that huge red cannonball attached to your face?"

They cracked up at Luffy innocently blinking at the Buggy Pirates.

The bait Luffy threw to Buggy was gobbled up instantly, and as a whole, the Buggy Pirates got angry. "Flashily DIE!"

Carue tucked his head in his wings to express the duck's exasperation. He's practically begging for it.

The cannonball was shot towards them at speed Nami cursed for being unable to match, and she cursed her own stupidity for not moving away when the reckless boy captain started mouthing off. That same survival instinct which was shared by Zoro was ignored by the green-haired man in favour of watching his captain. He had seen the rubber man deflect bullets, but would he be strong enough to deflect something as heavy and explosive as a cannonball?

Expecting or not, Zoro jumped back in shock too just like Nami when Luffy started getting fatter and fatter and resembled a balloon. But the rubber wasn't thin or fragile like an actual balloon. The skin was strong, and Luffy's body deflected the cannonball with twice the speed.

Nami's scream was drowned by the building being destroyed, but Luffy heard it anyway and answered, "I'm a rubberman!"

"A rubber man?!" Nami repeated. It was outrageous! How strong he was while being so tiny.

"A RUBBERMAN?!" Buggy yelled out in shock.

"Oh," Luffy tilted his head back up. "You're still alive?"

And many of them were dead already. Smoker eyed Straw Hat wearily. Good person or not, causing this sort of 'collateral damage' earned him jail time.

Shanks almost wanted to run and tattle to Roger. Buggy used to be just the fun friend who just happened to have a startling amount of swaggering air of pretension which marks a man who is trying to elbow his way upward in the world, and now he's… well, the same but, really, using your own crew like that? To the point, his own crew follows the shitty example? He's going to have to teach the star clown a thing or two about How to Not be an Incompetent Captain.

"Explain yourself! I don't understand this at all! From the moment you fell out of the sky UNINJURED and fought the giant lion and come back uninjured again and now THIS! This isn't humanly possible! How the hell did you just swell up like a balloon?"

Luffy crossed his arms – likely in an attempt to look cool; God knows how many times Ace does that too, Sabo thought. "Gomu Gomu Balloon!"

"I'm not asking for the name!"

"The kid in the straw hat!" Someone shouted, and they turned to find that it was the guy with the weird hair. "Captain Buggy be careful of that kid! That kid also gained powers from the Devil Fruit!"

Mohji's warning was greeted by a chokehold from his captain's detached hand.

"IF YOU KNEW WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO?!" Buggy threw Mohji straight at Luffy who simply kicked him out of the way right in the face – and dodged Nami's swipe because he had subsequently kicked Mohji in her direction.

What followed after was Buggy's commander slash acrobat, Cabaji, exploiting Zoro's wound during their little one-on-one. Nami berated Luffy for not doing anything while Zoro was getting his ass kicked by the lack of recovery time. "Why are you just watching with a silent, stone-face?! That guy's gonna die!"

But then Zoro blocked Cabaji's attack, the strength behind it forcing Cabaji's body to get flung away by several meters. And Luffy finally looked ecstatic, and then Zoro cut himself.

"Zoro?!" Carrot and Vivi exclaimed, the action shocking enough even for Law to facepalm and Marco to wonder aloud, "What the heck was that for?"

"You find tearing up my wound that much fun?" Zoro moved his hand to place one of his swords in his mouth, showing off the blood. "Is my condition satisfying now?"

Then Zoro fell onto the ground. But it wasn't the same Zoro. This one was younger, and the swords in his hands were made of wood and counted up to two.

"Kuina wins!" A black-haired man crossing his arms, wearing a traditional uniform for dojo trainers, called out. "Zoro, who used double swords, loses! Kuina is in the lead with 2000 wins to 0!"

Shanks whistled. "Well isn't this impressive?"

"What is this? We see a very old memory again," Carrot asked.

"For lack of better words," Shanks said, "It's a flashback. I think they're generally shown because the guys having them are thinking of it pretty deeply in their situations?"

"You're not certain." Dragon's statement lacked the inflexion to make it into a question, but they heard it as such all the same.

"Hey, I've been at this twice only. I'm not an expert."

"You're ze only expert," Ivankov pointed out.

"Hmph." A girl with dark blue hair – looking remarkably similar to Tashigi, Smoker noted, though her name was different – turned her back to Zoro and swung her training sword on her shoulder. "A boy… and so useless."

"Sensei! You've been secretly training her because she's your daughter, right?!" The kids began complaining on behalf of Zoro who, according to them, was the best in the dojo. But while they were protesting, Zoro was questioning. "Why can't I defeat her?!"

"Kuina is older than you."

"Even adults can't beat me! I want to sail and become the world's number one swordsman! I won't lose to anyone ever again!" He walked away, and the wooden swords in his arms turned into real katana, the dirty white shirt morphed into black, and the sky darkened, and the street emptied save for him and Kuina. "Kuina! Duel with me with a katana! I've brought real katana!"

"With me? Okay."

The two jumped, shadows lit by moonlight.

The only ones who could call themselves an expert in sword art were Law, Rebecca and Shanks. Though this was a kid's fight and they were heavily biased towards Zoro seeing as they only knew Zoro who was well on his way to cementing the status of Strongest Swordsman and nothing on the girl, it was clear that she was the one with technique and skill to win this obviously unauthorized duel.

"My…" Kuina gasped, though she barely broke a sweat. "2001st victory."

"It's a bit strange knowing Zoro-san had been losing that many times," Rebecca's lip curled up.

"Bwahahaha! You gotta start SOMEWHERE to be strong!"

Sengoku shot an ugly look at his best friend. "That is very rich coming from you."

"Damn it! I don't believe this!" Zoro shouted, clearly upset.

"Actually… the one who should feel upset is me."

"Eh?!"

"When a girl grows up, she will lose out to guys in physical strength. I'm going to fall behind you people soon…"

Smoker's eyebrows rose. This Kuina reminded him of Tashigi when she started out as a marine.

"You wanna become the world's number one swordsman? Papa says that girls will never be the world's number one. It's good that you're a guy," tears build up in her eyes. "I want to be the world's best too! My chest has started to develop… If only I were a guy—"

"YOU'RE TELLING ME ALL THIS CRAP AFTER YOU BEAT ME?! THAT'S UNFAIR! TO BECOME LIKE YOU IS MY AMBITION!"

Some of them blushed. Wow. Was that romantic.

"Does this mean that if I beat you one day, it is not because of my strength?! Doesn't this make me who has been training extremely hard to beat you look like an idiot? Let's make a promise! One of us MUST become the number one swordsman of the world!"

"Damn it," Shanks gushed. "Where's Hawky when you need him? He HAS GOT to see this!"

"Let's see who can reach that goal first!"

Zoro's hotheadedness succeeded in bringing a smile on Kuina's teary face. Calling him stupid, she reached out with her hand and Zoro met hers. "I promise you."

Then Kuina's form vanished, and a sleeping Kuina appeared on the now crowded, wooden floor. Zoro stayed where he stood, but the smile morphed into a blank expression.

"Kuina… She… She fell down from the stairs… and died!"

Shirahoshi's gasp was the loudest, but Ivankov was the one who started crying.

Dragon openly sighed, showing his sadness at that sudden, tragic turn.

Three seconds later, the news had sunk, and Zoro exploded at Kuina's lifeless body. "YOU BASTARD! BOTH OF US MADE A PROMISE LAST NIGHT! AND NOW YOU'RE RUNNING AWAY?!"

Law lowered his hat in sympathy. But his brain also latched onto the thought that this is something that none of them should ever witness. It's… intensely private, and who knows what the lazy but crazy first mate of Lu-ya would do if he knew they all knew about this now. His brain, used to thinking multiple things, shared Hancock's thoughts - of how they themselves would react if, probably when they found out about their own history through this memory viewing phenomena.

"Zoro, please, don't be like this," Kuina's father calmed the boy down. "Humans are really fragile beings, Zoro."

Zoro tried to stop his tears, but that endeavour failed, and he fell to his knees. "Sensei! Please! Gift me with her sword!"

Koshiro pulled up a smile from somewhere in his depth. "Okay."

Zoro looked up with fierce eyes – and finally resembled the swordsman they all got to know now – "I will be even greater! I will become the world's number one swordsman, so famous that even heaven will hear of my great name!"

Then the child quickly grew into a man. His empty hands now bloody and occupied with two swords, one clenched between his teeth, and the dojo morphed back to the streets where Zoro was fighting Buggy's sanbouchou.

"My goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman. This? I'll teach you the level difference between us."

And as if Luffy's grin decided the outcome, Zoro began to trounce Cabaji in their sword fight in spite of his severe stomach wound. Luffy's attention was tugged away when he noticed Nami's footsteps. "Where are you goin'?"

Watching the fight was no longer entertaining or gave them new insight, so they shifted their attention too. Was the redhead ditching?

Nami halted and hastily put up a smile. "The pub you destroyed," she pointed with her thumb. "I bet the map's with Buggy, but the treasure has got to be somewhere over there. The pirates are still unconscious or dead from your attack, so I gotta—I'm gonna get it," she smirked. Though inwardly, she was desperate.

Arlong had just had his birthday a couple of days ago and as usual, demanded one hundred thousand Berry from Nami, despite her already paying the same amount on the first of May. She needed to make up for it quickly. "After that, I'll escape. Whether you win your fights or not has nothing to do with me."

"Really?"

"Well, I suppose if you actually win and get the map… let's cooperate again!" Then she fled.

And Cabaji, knowing a straight sword fight isn't going to cut it, used his tricks. With a unicycle, he showed his experience in handling gravity by wall riding upwards, taking a smooth, straight, relatively safe line because he had successfully distracted Zoro with his One Hundred Tops Typhoon. Jumping to the air, he positioned his sword for a direct stab at Zoro who was swiftly exhausted from exerting the use of his body to deflect the one hundred little attacks.

Then Luffy stopped Buggy's dirty move by stomping hard on the man's detached hand from interfering Zoro's fight.

While it also distracted Zoro, it wasn't as fatal as what Buggy was going to do, so Zoro managed to dodge Cabaji's stab, although it wasn't a graceful dodge. "Stop now. I'm tired."

The acrobat was enough of a dumbass to waste his time mocking Zoro, so the green-haired man easily knocked him off his unicycle and feet. "I meant I'm tired of being the opponent of someone who has such pitiful skills."

A graceful execution of his signature technique Onigiri and Cabaji fell. "Not a common thief. But a pirate."

And Zoro followed. "Luffy… I'm gonna take a nap."

Carrot giggled, Dugong and Carue joining in. To think the intimidating swordsman started that napping habit that early! It was cute to see, and thankfully dispelled the sombre atmosphere that's been creeping in from seeing the sad parting of Zoro's female rival.

"You mean you guys are pirates?!" Buggy yelled from a distance.

Luffy enthusiastically nodded. "Yeah. So hand over the Grand Line map!"

"A flashy weakling like you want the map? You wanna go have a sight-seeing tour there?" Buggy sneered.

"I'm gonna become the pirate king."

Both Smoker and Crocodile exhaled a substantial amount of smoke. That would have earned the kid a good insult… had he not actually made it true.

At first, Buggy could only stare dumbfounded at that matter-of-fact declaration. Then it was as if his head grew bigger and his vocal cords allowed his voice to be very, very loud. "Don't kid around! You idiotic fool! YOU become Pirate King?! THEN I'M A GOD! The person who'll get his hands on all the treasure in the world WILL BE ME! Don't even dream about it!"

Luffy swatted an annoying mosquito. "Shut up and skip the lecture." The straw-hatted teen readied his right arm. "You're too loud, you idiot."

"You're the last person who can say that!" Sabo yelled.

"You should shut it! Seeing your straw hat reminds me of a guy I knew long time ago. The impudent red haired guy!"

Instead of bristling or anger or an unrealistic sudden camaraderie over a hatred of scarred red haired man, Buggy's growl was met with an excited look from Luffy. "Are you talking about Shanks?!"

Everyone, but Yasopp especially, could see said man puffing up his chest.

"Don't look so proud!" Garp barked.

Can't we just skip to Dressrosa? Bartolomeo REALLY wanted to know what his idol thought of him.

Instead of giving a straight answer, Buggy gave the boy a vague, "If I know then I know, and if I don't know then I could also not know anything at all~" It was a poor choice, considering a blunt answer is the only kind of response Luffy actually understands, and so Luffy questioned his intelligence.

Earning him Buggy's detached legs adorned with knife-inside-shoes'-soles spinning right at him. Luffy easily dodged it by jumping in the air, but the action made Buggy cackle because it means Luffy won't be able to dodge a barrage of knives.

Luckily the kid's made of rubber, and Luffy simply stretched his hand to grab a pillar and let his body be pulled to avoid Buggy's attack, making a quick work of Buggy's knife supply.

And the fight continued like that. Luffy being lucky that his Devil Fruit allows him to dodge fatal attacks, and Buggy's own Devil Fruit enables the clown to bypass Luffy's blows.

One thing they could get through, it clearly showcased Luffy's inexperience in fighting another Devil Fruit user.

A minute later, everyone could tell the table has been shifted the moment Buggy drove three knives through Luffy's straw hat.

The red-haired man in the group either didn't realize or didn't care he was letting his haki wash over them. "He ruined my hat."

"And it's clearly fixed," Hancock huffed.

"He ruined my hat," Shanks repeated.

Yasopp scoffed in good humour. "You have no right to complain, you know. Captain, how many times have you ruined the hat too?"

The Yonko pouted.

"That's the hat I swore myself to with Shanks!"

"This is Shanks's hat?! I thought it looked familiar. Me and that guy used to be in the same pirate ship. He was my comrade when we were still pirate trainees."

Luffy ran straight at Buggy, clearly showing he was going to punch the blue-haired man with his left fist. "Shanks is a great man. You say that he was your comrade?!"

Avoiding the blow by detaching his head proved useless because Luffy didn't repeat the move he had used earlier. Instead Luffy's fist dug snugly right at Buggy's—

All the males hissed quietly in pain.

Then Luffy kicked the same spot and sent Buggy's body onto the ground.

They pitied the clown.

"Dammit, how dare you treat my treasure like that," Luffy grumbled, sat on Buggy's prone form and shoved his ruined hat at the man's nose. "You even spat on it!"

"Puuht!" The hat had been tousled, and the dirt and dust it collected were entering Buggy's breathing system. "That's dirty, stop it!"

"It's your own saliva!" Luffy put the hat away in a gentle manner and then proceeded to stretch Buggy's cheeks harshly. "Shanks being your comrade… don't you dare repeat those words ever again!"

"Aye 'unno sorto shionship you've with 'im! Is my choice how I speak of 'im! Bara Bara—"

"Stay still!" Luffy karate chopped his forehead.

"So funny!" Bartolomeo was in the lead when it comes to the hardest laughter rolling around the group.

"This is just ridiculous," Aokiji said.

"Exactly how is he an ex-Roger Pirate?" Sengoku wondered.

As if answering Sengoku's question, Buggy launched into a spiel.

Buggy ranted about how much he and Shanks disagree on matters about pirates and treasure, how he found a Devil Fruit, how he tricked the whole crew that he ate it when he actually ate a convincing fake he had spent all night working on, how he had to hide the real Devil Fruit inside his mouth when Shanks unexpectedly jumped on him, how he got a jump scare when Shanks unexpectedly came back, and so Buggy accidentally swallowed the fruit, how the map sank into the ocean, how Shanks saved him.

"Oh," apparently Buggy's angry undertone, seldom butchering of grammar, and excessive use of insults while telling his tale didn't stop Luffy from taking a simple point from the long story. "So Shanks saved your life."

"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT PART!" His upper body floated into the air as he yelled angrily, and so he caught sight of Nami hugging a bundle filled with suspiciously shiny gold things. "YOU! Since when do you think you can fool me Nami! Let me send you to the netherworld for stealing my treasure!"

"I'm not giving a single thing!"

Luffy blankly stared at Buggy's neglected lower body.

Hancock's lip twitched, already guessing what was in Luffy's mind.

He swung his left foot upwards between Buggy's legs.

Dragon let himself chuckle in amusement. His son's first sight with a Devil Fruit user was definitely funny.

Katakuri knew Straw Hat doesn't take cheap shots, but the Sweet Commander honestly didn't know Straw Hat was the type to like hitting below the belt. Inwardly, he shuddered at the thought that he might receive it too had the whim struck Straw Hat's mind.

Because the kid wasn't cruel, he just lacks control over his impulses.

"Oi!" Luffy shouted, and Nami figured he was addressing her instead of Buggy because, despite the tone being the same as the one the boy used when he was beating Buggy, the clown was incapacitated at the moment, crying about his painful bottom half. "Put that treasure down and go somewhere safer else you're going to get chased again!"

"Put my treasure down? I don't want to!"

"YOUR treasure?" Buggy yelled indignantly.

"Of course! Since I'm a pirate-treasure thief and I just stole from a pirate, I'm telling you this treasure is MINE!"

"Ah." Luffy lightly slammed a fist on his right palm. "I see."

"I don't see any logic from that!" Buggy yelled out, though his upper body and lower body were still whimpering. "That treasure is mine! Do you think that if you steal it it's yours?!"

"I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong," Nami said chirpily. And at his flabbergasted expression, and at the face of Luffy's strength, she stuck out her tongue cutely. "I don't think I've done anything bad enough to be lectured by a pirate~."

"Emporio Onna Hormone~!" Everyone yelped at the suddenness coming from the large man and could only stare in bewilderment as the man stabbed himself with his long, sharp nails stretching the impossibly sturdy nylon glove. The afro hair and arrow-head-like chin stayed the same, but everything else changed. The fat gave way to height, the weight in his belly bulged its way upwards, and the mouth shrunk to an obviously kissable pair of purple-coloured lips.

Excluding the Revolutionary Army's leader and second-in-command, as well as the sand Logia user, they were highly disturbed at seeing the disturbingly visible nether region's "metamorphosis".

"Mmmfufufufu!" The okama laughed, voice tilting between feminine and masculine. "What spunk! I think I'm beginning to like Luffy-voy's navigator!"

"No matter how many times I see that technique," Sabo muttered. "It's still bizarre."

"Gyahahaha! You think you can win, eh?! BARA BARA FESTIVAL!" Now Buggy's body didn't look like they just got sliced by an invisible razor at its transverse plane, but all 6 feet of him was sliced into small parts.

Looking to their right, they could see Nami panicking over Buggy's flying body parts chasing her. At the other end of the street, they could see Luffy looking very interested in one particular body part.

"I don't know if he's a genius or insane," Coby said.

"You know there's a fine line between those two," Smoker grouched.

"Bwahahahaha! I think my grandson just erased that line!"

A devilish grin decorated Luffy's face, and he looked ten years younger as he sat down, crossed legs, tickling a foot.

Buggy's flying head let loose uncontrolled laughter and painful tears.

"How's this?" Luffy took a firm grip over the skin covering Buggy's Achilles tendon and slammed the toes on the hard pebbled ground.

Smoke came out of the red nose, and the teeth were gritting in pain.

"You're pretty tough…" Luffy pinched the heel and dug his short nails on the skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Nami screamed in fright. In a desperate attempt, she swung the heavy bag of gold at the flying head. But Buggy was fast in using his dismembered hands to stop it from slamming his face. Pity for him, he wasn't fast enough to stop Luffy from slamming his face.

"Yoohoo~" Luffy whistled, happy that he managed to pickpocket the guy's pants when he kicked his nuts. "I got the map!"

"Wait! Rubberman!"

"Eeeeeeh, you're still alive?" Luffy repeated his question from when he had reflected Buggy's Special Cannon Ball.

Buggy's head bristled in anger. "I'll kill you once and for all! Gather up! Bara Bara Parts!"

Every single one of them, Coby, Garp, Sengoku, Smoker, even the lazy as shit ice Logia, the royalties and pirates and revolutionaries laughed out loud. None as loud as Shanks.

Buggy was ridiculous! Two pairs of short feet that lacked legs and hands that lacked arms attached themselves to the section where Buggy's shoulders were supposed to connect to his neck. The result was a short clown in an orange cape, being stared down by Monkey D. Luffy who was the third shortest person of the future Straw Hat Pirates.

Highly amused to see Nami had been cleverly quick to tie up Buggy's body parts super tight, Luffy happily sent Buggy to get lost with a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka.

"What have you done?!"

"Mayor?!"

"Chief Boodle!"

"Goodness gracious!"

"It's definitely the work of those pirates!"

"Ah, sorry," Luffy's voice somehow carried out to the townspeople who arrived with wooden bats and rakes. "I did that to the chief."

Law wanted to facepalm.

"Why'd you answer it like that?!" Nami yelled.

"But it's the truth?" Luffy stared at her in confusion.

"Who the hell are you?!" The townspeople yelled.

"We are pirates."

"WHY'D YOU ANSWER IT LIKE THAT?!"

"But it's the truth!"

Despite his pain, Zoro laughed at the idiocy of everything, going on despite Luffy's manhandling as they escaped the incensed people of Orange Town.

"Why the hell did you make the situation more complicated?!" Nami berated him.

"This is a good village!"

"What?" That wasn't an answer! What's with the non-sequitor?

From the corner of his eyes, Zoro spied Luffy's happy grin. "For their chief, just one person, they're all getting that mad~!"

Vivi could only slump in exasperation and fondness. Coby sported a look of awe which was shared by Bartolomeo. "Luffy-san/senpai…"

"Shishishi! No matter what excuse we give, they'll still be mad at us!"

Slipping into an alleyway, Zoro's limp legs would have been caught by the nearest makeshift weapon had Chouchou didn't growl loudly and barked at his people. The tiny cute dog, barking menacingly along with the equally angry but confused townspeople made Luffy laugh in delight. Thanks to Chouchou, they arrived at the empty harbour safely.

Dragon spotted the giant mermaid princess' frown and, after craning his neck a little bit, saw the three Buggy Pirates crouching in the ship his son and his friends were approaching.

All three were sent away with one scary glare from Zoro.

Which they really did deserve. How stupid, petting Roronoa Zoro's head like a pet, Rebecca thought.

"Oh!" Luffy perked up, seeing something from afar. "Mister chief!"

The white-haired mayor stopped at the edge, painting heavily. And then, forehead still caked in a small amount of blood, he lifted his head to show his crying happy face. "I'M SORRY! I OWE YOU!"

That brought smiles to all the three teenagers.

"Don't worry about it!" Luffy's grin outshone the white sail his boat was sailing with. "Just live happy lives! I left some of Buggy's treasure there!"

The open smile on Nami's face morphed into satanic gritting teeth.**

Dugong and Carue almost fainted because they were standing directly between Luffy and Nami.

"YOU LEFT BEHIND THE TREASURE?!"

"Yeah. They'll need money to repair the village."

"THAT'S MY FIVE MILLION BERRY!" Her hands snaked to his neck, and Luffy only had time to grab the edge of the boat before Nami's jumping with her entire weight to his body successfully drowned him into the suddenly violent stormy seas.

"W-W-STOP! I CAN'T SWIM! IF YOU WANT IT SO BADLY, GO AND TAKE IT BACK!"

"AND WASTE MY PRECIOUS TIME AND STAMINA TURNING THIS BOAT AGAINST THE WIND AND WAVE? IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I'LL MURDER YOU!"

"I'll murder you first!" Hancock swiped Nami's head with her beautiful long legs in vain. "WITCH!"

"How cute." Sengoku actually wanted to say 'How useless.'

"Aww, Sen! What do I have to do to see that scowl off your face?" Garp laughed.

"You could at least be miserable for once," Sengoku replied smoothly.

"Cute battle," Coby commented.

"It's still strange how he could be so incompetent," Marco said.

"He's prone to gross misjudgment, 's all," Shanks shook his head. "That, and I think he could have turned out better if he doesn't hate his own Power so much."

"Because of you?" Garp snorted and proceeded to pick his nose to show he was uninterested at any answer or possible comeback.

"He did turn out better, didn't he? He became a pretty strong Shichibukai, right?" Carrot perked up. "Fighting him was a pain."

"Being a Warlord doesn't make it better," Sabo sweatdropped.

"Miss navigator is still strangling Mugiwara-ya," Law brought their attention back.

"How fun-buru!" Ivankov laughed, her hand clutching her cheeks which hurt from all the laughter she released from witnessing Luffy's cute little battle with Buggy-boy.

"I'm still angry that you told them you attacked the mayor!"

"But everyone always says that you always have to tell the truth," Luffy whined.

What should have been a short answer somehow turned into a long lecture about socially-constructed and socially-accepted politeness. Nami explained they don't really mean this because you are not allowed to tell old people that they are old and you are not allowed to tell people if they smell funny or if a grown-up has made a fart and you are not allowed to say "I don't like you" unless that person has been horrible to you.

But all Luffy did in response was to smile cutely. "It's a mystery."

He screamed when she dunked his head in the water, and she pulled him out quickly once she realized he didn't have the common sense to stop breathing or closing his trap.

Garp stroked his chin. "I don't know if I should praise that girl or give her some crackers."

"Why… crackers?" Coby asked.

"The redhead's very stressed."

"That's the general disease that afflicts everyone who came into contact with your grandson," Crocodile said.

The ex-Shichibukai tilted his head and caught the Inspector General's attention. "You think Garp-ya's stupid."

"I'm not saying he's not smart," Sengoku defended.

"His grandson almost got drowned," Hancock hissed.

"Murdered by his own crew no less," Katakuri looked thoughtful.

"He thinks food is a universal remedy," Law deadpanned. "Now I know where Mugiwara-ya got that idea in his head."

"So where to navigator?"

Nami muttered about selective hearing. "Look, I'll join your crew… if you can hold your liquor," Nami smirked. "Got it?" Luffy could see nothing but the point of her forefinger at that point, seeing as Nami was shoving it right in his face.

To which Luffy replied with a happy grin. "Yay! Drinking competition!"

Zoro opened one eye. "I hear booze?"

"I didn't mean right this exact moment you idiots, there's a storm coming!"

The boys looked at her like she grew a second head.

"It's not here yet."

"We're supposed to stop just cuz rain's coming?"

Then came some grunts, and clicks, and whistles that were vaguely playful. Between their boats, dolphins were swimming and staring at Nami too. "…You gotta be kidding me."

Somehow, after a weird conversation, none could really recall, bottles and mugs were distributed. Luffy and Zoro drank, the former from his mug and the latter straight from his bottle. Zoro was resting by the mast pillar while Luffy was in some kind of drinking contest with a particularly intelligent dolphin who copied the way Luffy was holding the straw to drink. It had to slap Luffy's hand away when the human finished first and was attempting to put his straw into the dolphin's mug of low quality whiskey.

Light flashed all of a sudden, and Nami ushered the two drunkards inside the cabin – "No, Luffy, you can't invite the dolphins to sleep inside," and because when someone told Zoro to walk, with a typical amount of childishness, he felt the need to rebel and do the opposite, "No, fuck you Zoro," – when the thunder came.

It felt WEIRD, Shanks mused, to stand/float under the rain but none of them even makes you wet, just passing through your toes and ears and eyelids.

"So we've seen Luffy recruiting his swordsman and navigator," Sabo spoke.

Bartolomeo nodded. "Yes, and the next person Luffy-senpai recruited should be Usopp-senpai."

---

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