Author's note:
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The chapter was beta'd by Gerbilfrind who helped me a lot with grammar and paraphrasing. She as always gave me a great feedback while writing which help me tremendously.
All my love and respect (*deep bow*).
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Warnings:
English is my fourth language. Warning may change in the future.
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Thank you to all that followed and favorited. It really warms my heart and gave me inspiration to continue on writing and dreaming OP(shishishi). THANK YOU, seriously!
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To all of you who reviewed, then I would like to say: you are awesomeness itself. Your feedback motivate me to write more! It always do! Here is the next chapter XD
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Hope you enjoy,
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See notes at the END, please.
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.…
"You look troubled Jinbe, any news?"
Jinbe was troubled indeed and he felt like shit as well. His head was spinning and he really wasn't sure what to think or what should he do and what was the best course of action to choose?
"No, nothing new Aladine," and then after small pause Jinbe added, "I am just unsure about all of this."
"You aren't the only one," snorted Aladine and got back to steering, leaving Jinbe to his depressing thoughts.
If he was going to pinpoint when things began to become strange, or maybe stranger? (gone to shit really), he would have to say it was about three months ago.
Three months ago, on what looked like another normal and boring day they opened the newspaper. A small article almost at the end of the newspaper said that Garp the Marine Hero had caught Arlong and his crew and freed an enslaved village under his rule.
He had conflicting feeling about this, but that wasn't unusual, he always had conflicting feelings about Arlong.
At one point, back so far that he almost couldn't even remember, he had thought of Arlong as his friend. They had both grown up in the Fishmen District. Arlong grew up to become a pirate and Jinbe had chosen to become a guard.
They shared a history, he couldn't deny that, and more importantly they both admired the same man, Fisher Tiger. The one person that could make them get along, they even called themselves nakama for him.
Jinbe had shed his guard attire willingly and happily to follow a man like Tiger, a man that stood for those that couldn't stand for themselves, and for a while now he had been standing in the seat as captain of the Sun pirates, trying to keep the promise that he gave Tiger in his deathbed.
Not day passed by that he didn't wonder what would Fisher Tiger think about what he was trying to achieve?
Would he approve of the way that Jinbe was trying to improve human/fishman relations, by joining the Shichibukai – the government that was responsible for his suffering and ultimately his demise as well as the suffering of countless of their people, or would he call him a 'government dog' like Arlong did when he freed him from Impel down.
No, Jinbe shook his head trying to get rid of the path his thoughts were taking.
Fisher Tiger wasn't this kind of person, even if he didn't agree with the route that Jinbe chose to sail he would still not hate him or insult him for it, he wasn't this kind of man.
Tiger saved Jinbe from himself, he had been very close to become something dark and merciless, letting his hatred blind him and consume him. He understood now about the dark demons that could seep into someone's heart. The demons which Tiger spoke about at his death bed, calling them the most terrifying of all.
Without Tiger's guidance Jinbe would have become something much worse than whatever Arlong could ever dream of becoming. For this, but not only, Fisher Tiger had his utmost respect and gratitude.
Jinbe had his doubts about humans. He thought that queen Otohime's ideology of improving relationships between the two races was a mere fantasy, but the promise he gave Tiger guided him, and he tried, maybe not whole heartedly at the beginning, but he tried to keep sailing on this route. And then he had met Whitebeard and his crew and he wasn't sure about it being just a mere fantasy anymore. He wished that Tiger was alive in that moment. He wished Tiger was there to hear a human, so naturally, call Jinbe a son.
Arlong, Jinbe grimaced at the mention of his name, disregarded Tiger's last wish of ending the cycle of hatred.
When he had Arlong released from Impel down after he accepted the offer of becoming a Shichibukai he had known that Arlong wouldn't be thankful, (that was understatement!).
Arlong had expressed his resentment towards him clearly and loudly calling him a 'government dog', implying that Jinbe was disrespecting Fisher Tiger's memory, and demanded to leave the Sun pirates and to go back to being captain of his own crew. Jinbe let him leave with whoever wanted to follow him, after beating the living shit out of him.
He wondered for long time if he maybe shouldn't have let him leave or maybe shouldn't have had him released to begin with. Aladdin, his trusted friend and first mate had assured Jinbe that if Arlong went too far, they would stop him themselves.
But what was too far? When Arlong and his crew took control of small island, was that too far? When they killed humans and enslaved them, was that too far?
He heard about those conquests from second and third hands, but he chose to believe that it was an exaggeration, the marines would have done something if it was as bad as they said. Then the demise of queen Otohime happened, the one calling for better relationship between merpeople and humans had been shot by human no less, didn't help matters.
But in the end those were all excuses, he should have gone to East Blue the minute he heard what Arlong was intending to do.
He took the easy way out, the coward's way out, and for that he would be ashamed of himself for the rest of his life.
Jinbe took a deep breath and released it slowly. He saw Aladine covertly eyeing his sullen figure worriedly and tried to relax his body, taking another breath.
Hatchan, the only one to get away from the capture of Arlong's crew arrived at Fishman Island two months later telling a different story, the defeat of Arlong and his crew was not orchestrated by the marines, but by small boy with straw hat on his head called Luffy and his older sister, the one who's pointy shoes you should stay out of reach of.
This explained much yet brought even more questions.
He had wondered when he read the article for the first time, why had the marines decided now, of all times, to arrest Arlong (he had his answer now), and why wasn't the capture made a big deal of, if not the front page, maybe second or third page or even tenth? He had several clues now that could explain some of the uncanny mannerisms of the marines while handling this capture and now he wondered what was the Hero of the Marines, Garp the Fist doing in the weakest of all seas? What was his relationship to those brother and sister? Who were they? Did they hate fishmen? Were they marines or pirates? What crew did they belong too? What was their motivation?
Too many questions were running in his head, but now he at least knew their faces, he touched the right pocket of his coat were their wanted posters were concealed.
And then came their current situation, more than two weeks ago, he doesn't know how, nobody did...
Jinbe gritted his teeth.
Some pirates (no, slavers, kidnappers, the scum of earth and seas .. ) were able to abduct several mermaids and some of the taken were nothing but small children.
Jinbe tried to control the anger boiling inside him, he felt like a volcano ready to erupt any second, deep breaths.
Kidnapping was a very rare occurrence those days, since the Fishman Island had fallen under the protection of Whitebeard.
But what more surprising and suspicious was that those pirates fled to the New World and not to Paradise, to Sabaody Archipelago, where slavers did their business under the protection of the government that 'outlawed' slaves.
Jinbe clutched the rail hard enough that he heard the wood cracking and forced himself to let go immediately by taking a long breath. He couldn't let his anger cloud his thinking, he was the captain of the Sun pirates. He then forced into his lungs another deep breath.
A warning light should have blazed red in his head when he heard that they fled to the New World but prince Fukaboshi, the guards and everyone they spoke with on the Den Den Mushi said the same thing; the ship fled to the New World.
He had naively discouraged the prince from calling Whitebeard.
The Sun pirates were sailing in the New world, close to the red line, and they would be able to find the kidnappers faster, and found them they did, after a little more than week.
To find out, after gentle persuasion that the goods (he had raged in disgust hearing that word) weren't with them, but with the other ship that fled to Paradise.
There were two identical ships, one sailed to Paradise with his people and this one was a bait, a distraction, and they fell for it like morons (hook, line and sinker). This made Jinbe sure that someone in the inside helped them in the kidnapping, a fishman, or maybe more than one. That one mystery, he would have to tread very carefully in solving. When he get his hands on the ones responsible … the sound of wood cracking brought him back to reality and he sighed before letting go from the rail again.
He had sent word to the Fishman Island with the new information immediately, and they sent people to Sabaody, to find nothing there.
There was no trace or mention of mermaids being in any of the slaver's auction houses or markets in the last month.
What he could find from the trash they captured was that the buyer was some noble that lived in Paradise, where exactly? They didn't know (their coaxing method was guaranteed to bring quite the accurate and detailed information).
He called Whitebeard desperate for any kind of help and advice to find out, to his complete surprise, that some of pops' allies were already in Paradise and Sabaody. Pops was gracious enough not to reprimand him for not letting him know right away, and told him that he was sending Karma and Namur to the Fishman Island, and Jinbe should try to squeeze any information he could from the marines.
Pops was right, he did join the Shichibukai to have their help in keeping the Fishman Island safe.
He was very grateful for the help but it left a lot questions unanswered (that he didn't think to ask then but was now wondering), why were so many Whitebeard allies in Paradise? What was their purpose there? Pops had been very vague about this.
Jinbe didn't miss the fact that Karma and Namur were heading to the Fishman Island before Jinbe had called, they would even arrive at the island before them. Did pops knew about the kidnapping beforehand and didn't let them know?
No, that was impossible, Whitebeard wasn't that kind of person… but was it somehow related to the movement of his fleet? Will this explain the weird movement of the marines, and why Garp the Fist was in East Blue? Was a war brewing? He trembled thinking about this possibility.
The marines hadn't summoned the Shichibukai for a while now.
Jinbe shook himself violently. He was letting his imagination run wild, those things were unrelated. He was sure there was a simple answer to Pops behavior and he just didn't want to worry Jinbe needlessly.
"Jinbe stop sulking and talk to me, what is on your mind?"Aladine demanded cutting the thread of his thoughts.
Jinbe turned to face his friend.
"We should have called Whitebeard right away when we heard about the kidnapping .. "
"Maybe we should have or maybe we shouldn't have but you hear me Jinbe, we didn't." Jinbe opened his mouth to protest but he closed it when he saw the hard look Aladine was giving him.
"Even if we called Whitebeard, it wouldn't had changed anything. We were the ones closer to those monsters, and we were able to follow them and catch them. The fact that those monsters aren't the right one's that kidnapped.." Aladine voice wavered, while his hands became white from clutching hard the ship steering wheel. Aladine let his fingers unwind and looked Jinbe straight in the eyes.
"Well, it isn't our fault. As much as I hate to say this, the information we were given was wrong and misleading. So even if we had called Whitebeard then we would still be in the same situation now."
Aladine added after a short pause, "We are very lucky that for whatever reason, Whitebeard has some of his allies in Paradise that are willing to help."
Jinbe wasn't convinced, "They kidnapped children, Aladine. Ichika and Nika are barely seven, and Keimi is only seventeen, we should be able to do more."
"I know, but you can't blame yourself, the kidnappers are to blame."
The sound of crash interrupted their discussion.
"What is going on now?" muttered Aladine warily eyeing the entrance to the lower deck.
They had to break up several scuffles between the crew members the past few days. The current situation made everyone tense and tempers were easily lost.
Jinbe began heading inside to see what was happening with his crew and trying to master the patience to handle another needless brawl calmly when Kasugai, came running with the whole crew hot on his heels.
They were all screaming and fighting over something.
Jinbe narrowed his eyes, trying to see what made his crew behave so erratically this time.
Behind him Aladine snapped "what the hell is going on?"
Silence filled the deck and all of them froze in their place and turned to face the two of them, then it began anew, everyone speaking over each other gesturing and waving wildly in their hands.
Children behaved better, he thought and his head began to throb again with a vengeance.
"Silence," Jinbe demanded and everyone obeyed, "only Kasugai."
No one spoke, not even Kasugai.
Jinbe was about to demand again for one, and only one person, to explain.
"They found them," Kasugai blurt out, and chaos descended again.
"They are in Sabaody now….."
"They will arrive home in …"
"They are all safe and …"
"They met .."
"Hatchan said …"
"They were saved …"
Finally seeing that what they were all fighting over was a Den Den Mushi he decided that it was easier to just find out for himself.
"The Den Den Mushi, please," he asked quietly.
Those were the magic words apparently as everyone went deadly quiet.
Kasugai offered it to him like he was offering a precious and delicate gem.
Jinbe still eyeing them with uncertainty, took it and said, "Yes?"
A familiar voice answered "Brother Jinbe, is that you?"
"Yes. Hatchan?"
"Yeah, it's me brother Jinbe," Hatchan seemed relieved to hear his voice.
"What is going on? You found who?" Jinbe was trying to keep the lid on the bubbling hope inside of him from bursting.
Hatchan sighed, "As I was trying to say before they all went crazy, we found all the mermaids, they are all safe and sound. Luca needed some medical attention, but she is fine and only need food and rest. And in two and three days, we will all be back to Fishman Island."
Cheers erupted after he finished, Jinbe's whole body sagged with relief, and he found himself at loss for words.
"How did you find them? I thought they weren't in Sabaody?" Aladine asked, leaving the steering wheel and coming to stand beside him, looking as relieved as Jinbe.
"We didn't," answered Hatchan. "They found us actually, you see ..."
Questions erupted from his crew cutting Hatchan explanation, Jinbe glared them to silence.
"…. Saved them, and then they swam only at night following the dolphin's directions. Whitey Bay, a Whitebeard ally spotted them and told us. So we are hiding here until they finish coating the ship, so we can go back."
Jinbe, maintaining his glare asked, "Who saved them?"
"ohh, the …"
"Hatchan, there you are .." yelled a young voice. Very young.
"We were looking for you," the same young voice continued.
"We were looking for you," echoed another young voice, very similar to the first.
"What are you doing?"
"What are you doing?" echoed the other voice.
"Ichika and Nika", murmured Aladine beside him, seemingly both amused and relieved.
They had really found them, those words were sinking in, he could see it happen in his crew's face.
"Hey, Ichika and Nika, weren't you supposed to stay with Keimi," Hatchan said in a slight panic.
"Keimi is boring."
"Very boring," Agreed her sister.
"We shouldn't go out."
"We shouldn't stay away."
"We shouldn't play."
"We shouldn't look for you."
"Boring," they both said simultaneously in conclusion.
"I see," said Hatchan. He seemed at loss in how to handle the two terrors, at least there were only two and not the full quintuplets. Small (or maybe in this case big, huge) mercy.
Jinbe took pity on him and said, "Hello Ichika and Nika, how are you?"
"We're good, we had an adventure," they answered at once.
"Who are you?"
"No it should be how are you?"
"No it's not."
Jinbe interrupted before it could develop into full blown fight, with "This is Jinbe speaking. I am fine, thank you. We were really worried about you two."
"Ohh, boss Jinbe."
"Boss Jinbe," cheered the other voice.
"I heard you were able to escape, you were very brave," he added.
"We are brave."
"The bravest in the sea."
"Big brother Luffy told us so."
"Luffy said to set sail you have to be brave."
"Be brave."
"Luffy?" Jinbe asked. Could it be the same Luffy? No, no. What were the chances?
The girls cheered.
"That what I was trying to say, apparently they were saved by Luffy and his sister …"
"Big sister Marcy," Ichika and Nika chorused, cutting Hatchan again.
"The same Luffy and Marcy that defeated Arlong?" Aladine asked, seemingly as lost as Jinbe was.
Hatchan began to answer, "Y .."
"Arlong was bad."
"He was really bad."
"He hurt Luffy's friend," they both echoed.
"Luffy's friend is nice."
"Very nice."
"She let him eat Tangerines"
"Eat Tangerines."
"Tangerines are yummy."
"You can eat them fresh, cock them, or make a juice."
"A really yummy juice."
"Boss Jinbe, did you ever eat Tangerines?" they chorused.
"No," Jinbe answered automatically, he lost them at the friend part, so did everybody else around him.
"Ohhh," came their disappointed reply.
"We want to eat Tangerines," they both demanded.
"I will see what we can find, we will ask around." Jinbe promised, it shouldn't be hard to find Tangerines, right?
They cheered at hearing his assurance.
A crash could be heard with screams in the background.
They all tensed, Jinbe said dangerously "Hatchan, you better keep …"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh," yell cut his warning.
"Hatchan, I lost them …" someone wept loudly, "what should I do?"
"Keimi, calm down …"
"You don't understand, they could have been kidnapped again, it's all my fault, I am so sorryyyy," the voice continued to wail hysterically.
The Den Den Mushi had tears in its eyes and snot was running down its face. It wasn't pretty sight.
"We are here big sister Keimi," two timid voices announced.
"We are sorry."
"Ichika and Nika, you are safe", the relief could be heard loud and clear in Keimi's voice, yet the rolling tears weren't stopping, and they seemed to triple in their quantity, coming faster and stronger.
Jinbe sighed, knowing that he would not be getting any answers until they all calmed down, feeling sorry for Hatchan stuck there with a crying teenager.
It took a while for the tears to stop rolling and the snot to stop flowing.
"Hatchan?" asked Jinbe unsure.
"Oh, ehi, brother Jinbe," Hatchan answered hesitantly and paused.
"Yeah, they were the same Luffy and Marcy that defeated Arlong, we showed them the wanted posters and they …"
"Their wanted posters are soooo awesome," two happy voices announced at once, tears forgotten.
"We want our own wanted posters too," they demanded.
Jinbe looked even more lost, he gazed at his first mate for advice but Aladien only shrugged. No help there.
"Ehi, getting a wanted poster mean that you are a pirate, you will be hunted down by the strong marines, and if they catch you they will put you in a really scary prison."
"Nooooooooooo," they both yelled.
"Luffy said being a pirate mean freedom."
"It mean you go on an adventure."
"You have a lot of nakama."
"Have a lot of fun."
"Eat a mountain of meat."
"Meat."
"Is meat tasty?" Keimi asked joining the conversation, her voice was almost back to normal.
"It is. Luffy said it is," the girls answered instantly, little bit of anger coloring their voice.
To Jinbe it sounded like they were saying, "How dare you suggest it isn't tasty. If Luffy said it is tasty, then it is tasty, end of discussion (there shouldn't be a discussion to begin with!)." What kind of person was this Luffy, to be able to influence those headstrong little girls in such short time? Their parents were having trouble handling their small time fights and let's not talk about important issues.
"Right," Keimi answered in pitiful voice.
"Anyway," Ichika and Nika said and paused.
"Boss Jinbe is a pirate too and he is awesome."
The cheers that erupted this time were from his crew.
Jinbe looked at his first mate helplessly, asking silently for advice, Aladine only shrugged. No help there, why did he appoint Aladine as his first mate again?
"They have a point, you know," remarked Aladine, patting him on the shoulder.
"We will discuss this later when you are safe back home," was the only thing that Jinbe could think of to say to the two terrors.
"Oh right," they ignored him and demanded, "Hatchan, we want big brother Luffy's and big sister Marcy's posters."
"Ehhi, why?" Hatchan seemed unsure of why, like the rest of the Sun pirates.
"We want to show Sanka, Yonka and Yonka two," their tone of voice made no doubt what they thought of the question.
"I see," said Jinbe "you want to show your sisters your new friends."
They cheered in agreement, he was pretty sure he heard Keimi cheer too.
"We will frame them .." one of them revealed. It felt like she was revealing a hidden conspiracy.
"..and put them in our rooms!" and the other sister continued, her voice sounded dreamy. She was seven for God sake, dreamy! What in the seven seas was going on?
The two small sisters collapsed into fit of giggles, this time there was no doubt that Keimi joined them.
Aladine murmured beside him, "Give it up Jinbe, there is gonna be a small pirate crew by the time we get back, a fan pirate crew at that."
Jinbe sighed and shook his head, he tried to change the subject, "did your new friends tell you to where they were sailing? And what are they going to do?"
Silence welcomed him.
"Hmmm, they were looking for their big brother Ace …Ouch." Keimi's answer was cut off with painful yelp.
Ace, they meant Fire Fist Ace? The one he fought. The new son of pops, Jinbe didn't remember Ace mentioning he had siblings. What were the chances?
"Shhhhhh," two angry voices whispered.
"It is a secret!" They echoed softly, their voices carrying clearly by the Den Den Mushi.
"Oh right, sorry, sorry," Keimi wailed, tears were rolling down slowly again. "Sorry," she whispered brokenly.
"Boss Jinbe and everyone, forget it." Two small angry voices demanded.
"Forget it," Keimi whimpered in agreement.
"We did," assured Jinbe and everyone around quickly echoed the agreement, scared to death of another avalanche of tears.
Grown men, the greatest pirates of the Fishman Island defeated by the water-works, mused to himself Jinbe, the irony.
"How did they defeat the bad guys?" he asked instead, trying to distract them again.
"They beat the shit out of them," the two little girls said instantly and broke into fit of giggles.
Keimi began hesitantly, "Marcy said, if bad men tried to touch you or speak to you, you should shout rape really loud."
"Or kick them in the jewels," Ichika and Nika chorused.
"The jewels?" murmured some of his crew uncomprehending, she didn't mean ..
"The family jewels," the two sisters echoed enthusiastically.
Aladine snorted, laughter spluttering as he dropped into the floor.
Jinbe was left speechless while most of his crew, the ones that understood, followed Aladine example (the others were looking at the laughing pirates uncomprehending, waiting for someone to explain the punch line ).
"You should use something pointy if you don't have legs," Keimi continued, seemingly unsure about the laughter she was hearing, but wanting to feel useful.
"Big sister Marcy has shoes," the two terrors added unbothered by the laug..….by anything really.
"Shoessss."
"They are cool."
"Red."
"pointyyyyy," they announced cheerily together.
"I see," was all Jinbe could find in himself to say.
"Ahh, don't you want shoes too?" he asked trying to clear the fog filling his aching head.
"Silly Jinbe, mermaids don't have legs," they answered. Jinbe could swear he heard the tisk, tisk, tisk sound underlying their words.
"Right," Jinbe answered, "Silly me," he muttered under his breath. Aladine's fit of laughter seemed to intensify at hearing that.
"Brother Den promised to make us spears with pointy ends," they shared with him, you could hear how proud they were of this accomplishment.
They deadpanned obviously imitating someone, probably 'Marcy' "Stick them with the pointy end," and they burst into more giggles.
He could hear the groans all around him, Aladine give up on trying to stand up and get comfortable on the floor still laughing "Oh boy, this gonna be fun."
"They could attack you with the pointy end," Jinbe couldn't help pointing out to him, this fact still didn't help diminish his loud laughter.
"Do fishmen have family jewels?" asked Keimi, back to her cheery self.
"They do."
"Big sister Marcy said so."
Did he hear Hatchan whimper or was that his imagination.
After a long pause, wondering, if he should actually explain to the clueless girl (and still some of his own crew), what family jewels meant he spoke with great hesitation, refusing to make any eye contact whatsoever, and ignoring the snorting laughter behind him.
"Yes they do, but you have to be careful, you could hurt your friends and not the bad men."
Jinbe was trying to minimize the approaching disaster, five identical twins with pointy spears swimming around while fighting evil. He would bet his title, that they would have all the children of the island demanding spears in under a week, his head was gonna explode.
Maybe he should consider seriously in investing in genital protection gear for him and the crew (well, excluding Aladine) before returning home (or maybe they should not return for a while, he was sure he could find some urgent reason for long, longgggg voyage with unknown return date).
"We promised," they defended full with passion. They were seven for god sake!
"We will attack bad guys only."
"I see," Jinbe said "good to hear." This was a lost cause, he need to think.
"Hatchan, call us later, for an update", he stressed the words, hoping to deliver the message, that he wanted to speak to Hatchan privately.
"Of course brother Jinbe."
They all said their goodbyes and Jinbe stressed the fact that they should keep their guard up, Sabaody was by no means a safe heaven, the opposite really.
Jinbe collapsed by Aladine side on the floor, his crew who now was in much better mood was going back to their duties.
"That was exhausting," he muttered.
"You mean utterly amusing," Aladine corrected.
Jinbe glared at him halfheartedly, not able to master more will power.
"They are safe," he repeated aloud the words echoing in his head. Still unbelieving, not half hour ago he was feeling as if his world was ending and now the strangling weight that he was dragging on his back had disappeared completely.
Aladine nodded and said what was on Jinbei's mind since he heard those names.
"Those two took care of another problem for us, who the heck are they?"
Exactly, Jinbe pondered, who are they? And why? They didn't seem to hate merpeople as he first thought (not that he would blame them if they did, Arlong did things to your perception).
His head felt like it just escaped from a full blown sea whirlpool.
He knew one thing for sure. He knew somebody who would have some of the answers.
"How far are we from the Moby Dick?"
Aladine finally stood up, seeming to follow the thread of Jinbe's thoughts.
"Two, maybe three days, could be less, it depends on the currents, should we change course?"
"Yes."
Maybe the uneasiness that he had been feeling for the last two months, would be soothed when he spoke with pops face to face.
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Aren't Ichika and Nika the most adorable thing ever? So what you think? Poor Jinbe...
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I am considering writing a scene with Luffy and Marcy, Ichika, Nika and the other three sisters? Your thoughts? I actually don't know where to begin to write such a conversation. But still it will be sooooo fun to read...
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As always thank you for your encouragement and support!
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Please leave a review and share the love ^^