I don't particularly like long ANs, in fact I'll probably just use them to answer questions or concerns in the reviews. So I'll just keep this short and sweet so we can get on to the regularly scheduled chapter.
So, while reading the reviews I came across two things that I actually wanted to talk about: What role the supernovas would play, and an update schedule. For the first, I'm still not quite sure what to do about them, since their characterization and how they use their abilities is relatively under wraps (save for Law and Kidd), so if some of them will be part of the crew it'll probably be late in the journey just so I have time to think about it.
As for the second, right now I'm writing and uploading whenever I can which would probably be daily, yeah, I'm hyped for my first story, don't blame me. But if I start slowing down, then I'd probably put a schedule of at least one chapter per week. Hopefully I won't end up straying from that schedule, but things happen in life. Anyways, that was it and on with the chapter.
Chapter 2: Forced Alliance? Bonney's Sudden Bounty!
Bonney was sore, very sore. She was currently walking through the marketplace in the village that was unfortunately on the other side of the island, which took her multiple hours to reach. So yeah, to say she was sore was the understatement of the century. Trying to take her mind off of the pain currently spreading through her feet, Bonney's purple orbs scanned through her surroundings, aiming to find anyone who might be selling a ship for her to take away from this island and go back to what she was doing.
At that thought, she dug her hands into her pockets to find out if she even had enough money to afford a makeshift raft. After a few seconds of struggling against her unnaturally cramped pockets, it dawned on her. She was flat broke. And sore. And tired. And worst of all? She was hungry. 'I've had bad days in my life, but this is the shittiest day I've ever had.'
She was brought out of her sulking when she heard a sudden voice talking next to her, asking her the same question she was asked hours ago.
"Join my crew?" She almost forgot he was there.
Biting back a fiery retort, she just responded with a curt no.
"Join my crew?"
"That's still a no."
"My crew join?"
Pausing for a moment to register the jumbled order of the sentence, she decided to jumble one of her own. "No that is."
He looked like he was about to ask again before he was interrupted with a sound and feeling that reminded Bonney of her hunger. Except that it was much louder than she expected her stomach would make. She felt her cheeks warm and turned to her companion, preparing to warn him to never speak of that happening ever again, only she realized that he wasn't paying any attention to her and was instead rubbing at his own stomach.
"Man, I'm reaaally hungry." Bonney could see him deflate and she felt a twinge of sympathy, knowing his pain. Her orbs settled on an apple vendor while the gears in her head started to turn. It wasn't her beloved pizza but it would have to do, she grinned and turned to her companion. "Don't move from here, I got an idea that'll land us something to eat."
Luffy shot her a look of confusion. "What're you gonna do?" Her grin only widened at his confusion, "Don't worry, you're about to see a hell of a genius at work." And with that statement in the air, she dashed towards the apple vendor. From his position, Luffy could see the vendor putting an unhealthy number of apples in the paper bag. And before the man had a chance to react, the paper bag was swiped from his hand by the pink haired girl, who took off running into a nearby alleyway. Luffy continued looking on as the man gave chase and ran straight through the alleyway.
Luffy considered moving to help her if she didn't manage to escape, but he was cut off by a girl who looked disarmingly similar to Bonney except she didn't look older than twelve years old approaching him while holding a paper bag. He tilted his head and voiced his one single thought, "Huh? Who're you?"
The girl smacked him on the head. "That's not how you thank the person that saved you from starving to death, dammit!" Luffy blankly stared for a few moments before his eyes light up in realization, "Are you Bonney's twin sister? Did she give you the apples while running away?"
Bonney started laughing, "I am Bonney, you dumbass!" was all she could manage to get out between her fits of laughing. After she calmed down and realized he was still confused, she decided to clear up his confusion. "I ate a devil fruit that lets me manipulate the ages of anyone."
Bonney could swear on her life that she saw his eyes sparkling as he exclaimed, "That's awesome!" The girl felt her cheeks warming, but she pushed the feeling down. She needed to remind herself that she was only stuck with him until she found a way off the island. Opening the paper bag, she wolfed down a few apples before holding out the bag Luffy's way.
Bonney thought he was going to take one apple, or three at most. It became apparent that she was wrong as she felt the weight in her hand get significantly lighter. At first, she thought he was clumsy and spilled them on the floor but after looking around his feet, she realized that wasn't the case.
Bonney tested out her hypothesis and tentatively asked, "Did you just… eat half of them in one bite?" Her fears were confirmed when Luffy gave her a short and sweet answer.
"Yup! Shishishi." Great.
She just had to meet a person that had an appetite as big as hers. Fearing for the rest of the apples, she immediately retracted her arm back to her side and started stuffing the rest of them in her mouth. From the corner of her eye, Bonney could see him looking at her while grinning.
Taking a moment from stuffing herself full of apples, she turned her face to him. "What?"
He stared at her for a few more seconds before elaborating on the reason for his stare, "Bonney's weird." To say Bonney felt insulted was nothing short of an understatement, did this guy not know how to deal with beautiful young women such as herself?
But before Bonney could find a chance to express her annoyance, she saw the familiar face of the vendor she stole from accompanied by a marine walking by his side. She could hear the vendor exclaim, "She was there one moment and then she was gone!" Bonney finished the remainder of her apples while smirking. There was no way he'd think the young woman who stole from him turned into this little girl.
Bonney became curious when the marine took out a transponder snail and started talking into it, she looked around to see if she could find out exactly what he was reporting on but came with no results. Deciding to let it go, Bonney walked along with her companion without a hitch. She was in the middle of mulling over another idea to get more food until a hand shot out to stop her.
Bonney turned her head to her raven-haired companion in confusion, "Luffy, what are you doing?" After getting no reply except for him staring straight ahead, she craned her head to look in the same direction.
Click!
She faintly heard the sound of a camera shutter, but that was the least of her worries. More marines than she could count were blocking their way. She almost didn't register Luffy's loud voice next to her, "What do you want with Bonney?!"
The marine in front of her, who she could only gleam as their leader, decided to answer Luffy. "Your friend here is under arrest." He elaborated no further, however, as he marched with the remaining marines to her position.
Bonney was attempting to get her thoughts under control and figure out how to escape this gloomy situation. But any further thoughts were cut off when she was spun to face Luffy, "Oi Bonney, do you trust me?"
"Wha? Hell no! I just met you a few hours ago!" And what the hell was he doing asking her questions like that in this kinda situation?!
"You can either trust me or you'll be arrested here. Shishishi." Luffy elaborated his question, with a grin. And here she was thinking he was actually innocent, the kid was evil! Swallowing her apprehension, she thought it was better to trust him to do something than get caught. "I'll trust you this once, dammit. But you better not think of betraying me."
Bonney had tried to gleam a reaction from his eyes after agreeing to his proposition, but the fact that he had moved his head so that the straw hat he was wearing covered his eyes prevented her. She was about to ask what his plan was when she felt something literally wrap around her waist. Looking down, she certainly didn't expect to see that his arm had actually extended and wrapped around her. It had dawned on her that he was also Devil Fruit eater.
Turning her head to look at the marines, she saw them approaching rather quickly and started to panic. What if they got to her before Luffy did anything? What if Luffy tricked her and was working with the marines? And why was the ground getting farther? Wait… The ground was getting farther? It took her a moment to realize that she and Luffy were flying, and it also took her a moment to realize she was screaming.
Over the sound of the wind and her screaming, she faintly heard Luffy yelling, "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" Too worried about the landing to take in the sights around her, Bonney got as close as she could to her companion to ask him if he had any plans for landing. His only response to her was laughing and telling her not to worry.
Soon, after almost half a second of flying, Bonney could feel the merciless tug of gravity pulling them down. And then it was hard not to worry. She felt her body be adjusted to be laying over his torso as she heard him prepare for landing, "Gomu Gomu no Balloon!" And then suddenly there was something inflating against her back, something akin to a balloon, the simple naming would've amused her if she wasn't in danger of dying at twenty-two years old due to terrible lifestyle choices and trusting a sketchy teen. She closed her eyes and hoped to whatever God there was in the sky to spare her.
She couldn't see anything through her closed eyes, but she felt something ripple against her back and realized that Luffy must've made contact with the ground. Her hypothesis was confirmed when she felt his body shrinking back to his normal size. Bonney turned her body around to take a look at what happened to Luffy, only to find him unharmed and grinning at her, "Gomu Gomu no Crash Landing."
She found herself returning his grin and muttering a small thank you, he deserved at least that much for saving her. Deciding she had enough body contact with the teen, she rolled off his torso and looked around, she found that she was surrounded by trees. She turned to Luffy and decided to voice her complaints, "I know you saved me and all, and thank you for that. But couldn't you have aimed for a better place?"
Luffy tilted his head at her, "But this is the perfect place for us to get off this island." Come again? How exactly was this place going to help them? Bonney kneeled down to Luffy's eyelevel, "And how exactly is this place going to help us get off this island?" Luffy laughed in response, and she huffed, was he laughing at her? How dare he laugh at her?
She was definitely not prepared for Luffy's next statement, and had she been in any other situation, she would've definitely gave him a good punch or two for wasting her time before walking away.
"I'll help you get off this island with me… But only if you join my crew."
She found herself compelled to agree, if only to escape this island… Yep, just escaping the island. It had nothing to do with how she couldn't bring herself to tell him no after saving her life from those marines. It was definitely just manipulation.
"Alright, fine! You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?" She could hear him just give his signature laugh in the background. She just shook her head in response.
Meanwhile, in a bar at another island in the East Blue.
A man walks into the bar and goes up to the bartender. "Business sure is slow today, ain't it?"
The bartender looks back to acknowledge the man's presence and goes back to pouring a drink, he tries and fails to keep the contempt out of his voice as he replies. "Most of our customers are pirates, and they won't come if he's here."
They're interrupted by another man kicking open the doors to the pub and entering, the bartender looks behind him and freezes as he takes in his appearance.
The unknown man had tanned skin and was quite muscular, he was wearing a white plain shirt, with a black bandana tied around his left bicep, and black pants that were tucked into his boots. Though his most defining features were his cropped green hair, and three swords on his right hip, bundled up with a green haramaki over his waist. The man goes over and sits on one of the tables, yelling his order over to the bartender. "I want as much sake as you can get me."
Bonney blinked at her Captain's, she insists it's only temporary, idea. A makeshift raft was waiting for her as she approached the beach, which aside from looking like it'd fall apart if it even went around a rainstorm, looked actually kind of seaworthy. She turned her head to look at Luffy, who looked more like a child proud after making his first sand castle. Bonney found that she couldn't help but smile at his innocent expression, but she turned her head back to look at the raft when he turned to speak to her, "You ready for our adventure to find the One Piece, Bonney?"
The girl in question found herself answering before she had any chance to process the words coming out of her mouth. "Definitely." Once her mind caught up with her mouth, it was already too late to take anything back. She felt that she was digging herself in deeper, but it didn't matter. She'd deal with the consequences as it came, she was always a "go with the flow" type of girl. Realizing that Luffy was looking at her expectantly, she nodded to him and they both jumped on the raft. Was it a good sign that the raft was already wobbling from them getting on? Hell no. But it was already too late to go back to the drawing board as the raft kept moving away from the island.
The unknown man had finished tenth bottle of sake and placed it aside before someone sat across from him, he looked up at the newcomer and smirked. "What do you have for me now, Johnny?"
The man in question was tanned as well, with a tattoo that was on his right cheek. He was wearing a blue hooded jacket with a purple undershirt over his tan pants and boots. He took off his sunglasses and placed them on the table, using his other hand to slide a wanted poster over to the green-haired man. "It's a good catch, pretty much came out today. It's an easy pay-out of 12 million berries, and on the plus side, it doesn't have to get messy."
The three-sword wielder's brown orbs settled on the wanted poster of what appeared to be a girl with long pink hair, his attention was taken however by the writing underneath the picture of the girl: ONLY ALIVE. So that's what Johnny meant by what he said.
"So, what do you say, Zoro?" The man in question, Zoro, looked up to see his partner waiting for his answer expectantly. In response, Zoro smirked, "I did need new swords… And I could do with more sake." Johnny nodded, putting on his sunglasses and leaving the bar to make preparations for their new hunt.
Zoro grinned to himself, "This Bonney girl better be a good fighter, I'd hate for a 12 million bounty to disappoint me, especially when I've been itching for a fight."
TO BE CONTINUED
Well, that's the second chapter done. A lot more Bonney and Luffy focused than the first and maybe I made it too much? But I hope it works. And it looks like Zoro's first meeting with Luffy will be a lot more heated now that he's after Bonney's bounty. Now, you might believe this to be insane, but I spent more time than I expected trying to decide on Bonney's eye color since in the manga she has brown eyes but, in the anime, she has purple eyes. I decided on purple because I thought it fit her look more and most people are familiar with the anime.