A/N
I'm surprised at the traffic on this on the first day.
Sorry if my updates are sporadic. I don't even have an excuse. I'm lazy and I procrastinate.
I appreciate comments, but I don't expect them.
Line break
(Zoro)
How had he gotten into this situation again? Oh, right blackmail. Stupid captain attacking a bird. How had she even jumped that high?
(Nami)
A call dragged her attention away from her pursuers for a moment, "Look out below!"
Nami almost started running during her pursuers distraction (by a falling person; probably dead), but movement in the dust from a feminine figure made her pause.
"Ow, rude," the girl, the one who had called, whined.
"Oh, boss, you came to save me!" Nami exclaimed running up to Luffy with barely a pause.
The odd girl looked at her with a bemused smile upon her face, but didn't worry about it.
Nami ran off and climbed up a roof of a nearby building just in time to see the pirates get knocked out.
"Wow, you're strong. Want to partner up?" She asked with a smirk, "I'm a thief that only steals from pirates. My name is Nami."
"Nah," the girl shrugged her off before falling to her knees, "Fooooood."
Nami let the probably deranged woman into the house to get food.
(Luffy)
"Wow, this is good. Do you live here on your own?" Luffy asked after eating food.
"No, the owners all ran away from the Buggy pirates," the thief explained.
"So you're just a burglar, then."
"I only steal from pirates! Don't compare me to a common burglar!"
"A thief is a thief, right?"
"I have to get one-hundred million beli, no matter what," Nami mumbled into the distance.
"Oh? Why?"
"Secret. If you have a map of the grand line, it isn't a dream," Nami told him.
"A map, so you're a navigator, right?"
"I'm the best navigator, you'll ever see."
"Join my pirate crew!" Luffy demanded.
"You're a pirate?" Nami wondered.
"Yeah, I promised the one that gave me this hat I'd be pirate king," Luffy explained.
"I hate pirates. I only like money and mikans."
"Come on, please?"
"On one condition, I might join your crew."
"What is it?"
(Nami)
As they walked, Nami had discovered that the talkative brat's name is Luffy. She also learned that she was very trusting. When Nami had tied her up, she had only asked why once and took the answer at face value.
Nami told her to shut up and walked up to the roof of the bar that Buggy was occupying.
"I've decided that my boss is too stupid and that I'd rather join the Buggy pirates. I'll even return the map," Nami declared to Buggy, while pushing down Luffy. She then handed the map to Buggy.
"Nami, you jerk!"
Buggy laughed it off and immediately called for a party and threw Luffy into a cage.
"Prepare the special buggy ball!" Buggy called.
Nami, despite her hatred of pirates, felt worried for the petite pirate captain. She did her best to push aside the feeling.
"Fire!" Buggy called and a large number of houses were not only mowed down, but also decimated.
Nami stared at the pirate girl who hadn't even flinched.
(Luffy)
Luffy knew that if it really came down to it, she could protect herself not only with haki, but also her devil fruit. She had promised not to reveal them this early though.
(Flashback)
"Luffy, I know you rely a lot on your haki, but I want you to wait until you at least return to the grand line to reveal it. If you reveal it too soon, you may end up getting your crew killed," her dad had told her over the den den line.
"Then I promise I won't use it until the grand line!" She called, excited. "Except to show my nakama and teach them," she had amended shortly after.
"Alright. Good luck on your journey. Don't forget to call."
"Okay. I love you, dad. Tell, father I love him, too!"
"Okay," he had said. Then she heard him yell to the side, "Dragon, Luffy says she loves you!"
She sniggered and they said their farewells and hung up.
"Was that your dad?" Ace said, coming from wherever he was hanging out. Ace had come to visit to drop her off in the east blue. Sabo had wanted to come, but his friend, Koala, had taken a mission and dragged him along.
"Yeah, he says I shouldn't use my haki in the four blues until my crew can handle it," She explained.
"Did you promise, then?"
"Yup."
"I bet you'll use your devil fruit even more than usual to make up for it," Ace sniggered.
"I will not! I bet that I can get through the east blue without using my devil fruit or my haki."
"How much?"
"A quarter of whatever my first bounty as a pirate ends up being," she bet. She already had a bounty, but her name was spelled wrong and it was hand-drawn. Gramps had been pissed.
(Luffy - end flashback)
Luffy looked back up from her reminiscing. Nami was hesitating. Oh, she had been told to kill her. Time to be badass!
"What's the matter? Can't show the resolve of a pirate?"
"What! You mean killing innocent people without a second thought!?"
"No, I mean putting your life on the line."
No more words were spoken until, "Don't know how to light a match? Here, I'll show you," a buggy pirate offered, making to light the cannon.
Nami smashed her staff onto the pirate's head.
"Oh, so you're helping me now?" Luffy wondered.
"No! I just can't be like them! I can't kill senselessly!" Nami yelled.
"So, Nami, you're betraying me?" Buggy asked menacingly.
"My hand slipped. I'm so sorry," Nami apologized very fakely and it didn't fool anybody.
"Boys! Get her!" Buggy yelled angrily.
(Zoro)
After his stupid captain got taken away by a bird, Zoro had rowed after her and picked up three moronic strays that he beat up. Land. Why the fuck were so many people attacking that girl? Not his problem. Nevermind, his captain was in a cage.
"How many of you… are ganging up on one girl?" He asked with a menacing pause.
"Zoro!" His captain called cheerfully as though she wasn't in a cage. Stupid captain.
Some idiot clown came to challenge him. "So you've finally come for my head, eh?"
"Nope," Zoro dismissed, but unclicked Kuina's sword from its sheath with a bloodthirsty grin.
The two had a short one-sided duel in which the clown was sliced into pieces.
"Too easy," Zoro dismissed. He wondered why the clown's crew was laughing.
"Zoro! Look out!" Luffy called a second before he felt his side being impaled.
"Gyahahaha! With my bara bara no mi, blades don't work on me," Buggy gloated.
"HEY, BIG NOSE! THAT WAS A DIRTY TRICK!" Luffy yelled angrily.
Buggy threw a knife at Luffy and she went flying back in her cage, "Who has a big nose?"
"I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy said, muffled by the knife she just revealed in her mouth. She then bit through the knife and it shattered. "Zoro!" He looked over. "Run."
Zoro could see that she knew his pride wouldn't allow him to leave her behind, so she had very subtly motioned toward the cannon. He could work with that.
(Mayor Boodle)
He was just doing his usual trip to feed ChouChou, but he paused when he saw ChouChou glaring warily at a young lady in a cage. "Hey, what are you doing to ChouChou!?"
The girl in the cage looked over. "Oh? So that's the dog's name. He's pretty brave."
"What's that supposed to mean?" The ginger young lady demanded.
"His instincts are probably screaming at him that I'm dangerous, and he has only a vague idea as to why. I've had anything from rabid wolves to tigers cower at a glance."
Boodle had no idea what the girl was talking about, and didn't really believe her. He looked past the two girls and saw a heavily injured man sitting on the ground.
"That's some wound. Let me get that cleaned up."
(Luffy)
She could tell that the strange man meant no harm, even without her haki. Not using haki was annoying. Being tied up was similarly so.
"Nami, could you untie these ropes?"
"While you're inside the cage?"
"Sure. I'm pretty sure you'd have trouble breaking this cage."
"Have trouble? That's impossible."
"Please just untie me."
"Fine."
After Nami untied Luffy, Luffy grabbed the bars. "This isn't too bad. At least it isn't sea stone…" She mumbled.
"Seastone?" Nami wondered.
"Government material. Weakens devil fruit users. Hard as diamonds," Luffy listed off before breaking the bars of the cage.
The weird guy came back at that moment.
"... How…? What are you?..." He gaped, but quicker than most calmed down, "I'm mayor Boodle. You look like you've had a runin with Buggy."
"Yeah. How's Zoro?" Luffy asked, dusting off her shorts.
"His wound is pretty bad, but he insisted he could just sleep it off."
"Shishishi, he's strong. He'll be fine," Luffy chuckled.
The mayor then told ChouChou's story. The story of a dog with a deep understanding of responsibility.
"So he's been waiting for his master this whole time?" Nami asked.
"Nah, he knows. He just wants to protect his master's treasure. What a good dog," Luffy explained.
The mayor looked surprised, "I think the same. I can't get him to take shelter."
Stomping sounds could be heard reverberating off the buildings. Soon a guy that looked weirder than the Mayor-guy came around the corner. Nami and the Mayor-guy hid complaining about some beast-tamer or something.
A guy with a really weird hat came around the corner riding a lion. "How'd you get out of the cage!?"
"By breaking it?"
"Doesn't matter. Richie, kill her!"
"That's a really weird hat."
"How rude! This is my hair!"
"That's even weirder," Luffy decided and dodged the first swipe of the lion's paw. She got hit by the second, and it sent her sliding back and right through a wall of a house. "Ow, rude."
It took her some time to walk back out, and by the time she accomplished it, the weird guy was inside ChouChou's pet food store. While ChouChou was on the ground in pain trying to stand up to protect it.
She walked past the injured dog. "Sorry about that. I'll take him from here. You did well," She praised the dog and then pulled the lion out by jumping up and pulling his scruff towards the door. "How dare you attack ChouChou's treasure!"
"How are you not dead?"
"I used to fight tigers and bears at least twice the size of him."
"Y-you ate a devil fruit didn't you!?"
"What does that have to do with this conversation? I don't need it to crush your entire crew," Luffy wondered, but ignored it, "I'm gonna kick your ass. You hurt ChouChou."
"Heh, so you don't have a devil fruit, I can deal with you."
"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Luffy asked before punching the moron. She then kicked the moron's lion in the same direction. "Whoops, I threw the lion pretty far when I knocked him out of the pet food store, huh?" Luffy looked around. She noticed a box of pet food laying on the ground and picked it up, carrying it back to the shop.
(A/N) Sorry, I'm the worst. I meant to write this sooner, but got lazy. I didn't even finish the buggy arc. It's always longer than expected. Other plot bunnies keep popping up randomly, too. It's really hard to be a consistent writer.