Wishfull-star: I agree the Sunny is much cooler than the Merry. So impossible, but awesome lol. But why ever think of logic in anime, am I right?
phoenix: Thank you! I bet Sanji defending Usopp from Luffy's words must have sparked the SanUso ship for the shippers just like every time Zoro calls Luffy his captain, it sparks my ZoLu instincts lol.
izzywolf: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! The fight scene was so sad, especially when it showed the Merry seeming to cry over it with the rain. She must have felt awful having both of them battle over her. Well, Usopp fight for her. Luffy was gonna give it to him anyways probably.
It was 7:20 right now. They all called him back, and then the deck was silent but for Chopper and Nami crying or sniffling. Luffy went to the boy's room and to the couch. Nami came in later, and tried convincing him to apologize. "I'm not in the wrong in this one. Besides, he's the one that decided on the duel, try and convince him not to. What's done is done. There's no going back."
"But you told him to leave."
"Yeah, I did. Go away," he said, and turned on his side. She left, slamming the hatch behind her. Luffy was glad nobody else came in. He wiped his tears of hurt and anger. He went to Luffy's weak spot, his "condition". How could Usopp ever complain about him drinking blood? It was a necessity. He looked at his marked arm, glaring at it. Sanji brought food to him, which Luffy thought was thoughtful. He did eat it, but his mouth was dry.
"He said those things in anger. He didn't mean them," Sanji said quietly.
"Maybe he didn't mean to say them. We all know there was truth behind his words. Am I a bad captain?" he asked, voice vulnerable.
"No, you're not," Sanji said firmly. "You're not perfect, none of us are, but you're not a bad captain." Luffy smiled at him, and he left. He heard Zoro and Sanji taking out their anger on one another, and Luffy knew there was no point in getting in the middle of it. There never was. Nami and Chopper knew this too and didn't try to stop them.
Them arguing was normal. The one between Luffy and Usopp was not normal at all.
When the time came, Luffy came out silently. Zoro hugged him and they waited for Usopp to show up. If he even did. Luffy handed him his hat. He didn't want it to be damaged. And he also didn't want to be wearing it when he beat up his own friend. If they even could be that ever again.
This felt like the end. Maybe if Usopp begged for forgiveness on his knees, maybe Luffy could forgive him. He wasn't sure. He definitely couldn't right now. He smelled and heard him before seeing. It was night time, dark out and both didn't have enhanced senses. Luffy was better off with sound and smells.
He got off the ship, arms crossed. "Don't come off the ship," he ordered the others. "Any of you," clearly referencing Zoro. He heard a quiet, "Love you." Only that he could hear. He just nodded. He stood across from Usopp, the chilly air blowing both of their hair, since Luffy wasn't wearing his hat.
"You look determined, but I hope you don't regret this decision later! This is what you want!" Luffy called, letting his fury out and not the hurt and betrayal. How could a person who ever thought of you as a friend target insecurities like that? He just couldn't see past it at all. It was the worst part. Insulting him and then calling him a bad captain.
But he wouldn't lose control or he'd end up killing him. Usopp at least trusted him not to kill him or he'd have been too scared to do anything. If he had even asked or demanded to have the Merry, Luffy would have given it to him. Why keep her if they weren't going to ever sail with her again? Idiot.
"Stop pretending and just come at me. I'll beat you. Don't think I'm the same as all of your other opponents! I know about all your weaknesses and how to target them!"
Behind him, Chopper was wishing to stop them since Usopp was still so hurt. "Go inside if you can't watch," Zoro said dryly. The others were silent.
The captain didn't budge when Usopp claimed he had all of these followers. He didn't know what the point of it was. "I know you're lying even without hearing!" Luffy called back. Then Usopp started to try and make him uncomfortable with words. Luffy didn't even budge when he pretended to cough up blood. "I know that's ketchup, stop fooling around!"
He ran at him, done with this stupid pretending before a flash dial was brought out and shined at him. Luffy forgot about the dials. Crap! Well, he would adapt. He couldn't see, but he could still hear and smell. He grabbed Usopp behind him, grabbing his hair but missing everywhere else until the putrid smell of rotten eggs and pepper blocked that sense. It was awful.
Then an air horn was put directly at his ears, rupturing the ear drums and causing blood to run from them. He ran away to the ocean so his sight could come back. "You asshole," Luffy snarled, unable to hear much. Even his own voice was muted. He was furious now. But he was right, he knew all of Luffy's weaknesses.
Then he realized he was in an area surrounded by spikes. Little ones. A firestar was sent at him, and his reaction was slow, his sight still bothered and unable to use his other senses. This was bad. It felt bad. He dodged the fire, but stepped on a caltrop and fell on top of them. Usopp was shouting something, but Luffy couldn't hear clearly. Something about winning and the Going Merry.
Then he shot shurikens at him! Where the hell did he get them from? And why didn't he fight like this against real enemies? Or was Luffy just someone worse than enemies? Fuck Usopp. Luffy dodged all of them, barely before he saw a purple haze around him. He couldn't hear what Usopp was saying, but he knew it would be bad.
He ran out of range easily, and slammed a fist into Usopp's face. "You're serious about this, so I will be, too!" Luffy shouted, the sounds warbled. Luffy ran after him, punching into the ground hard enough to crack it. He looked up and sent a pistol at him, but he barely dodged. But the explosion he made from the gas cloud Luffy escaped was massive, and threw both of them back.
Luffy rolled and then got back up, fighting off the memories he had of him. It was not real. He'd never respected him as a captain or friend. He could be sad later. Now he was angry. Usopp was still very injured, but with him having targeted Luffy's enhanced senses. He was about to unleash a gatling, ignoring burns from his flame stars.
He couldn't hear his attack name, but saw a little ball that hit his fist, and exploded into spikes flying everywhere, puncturing him all over. Barely missing his eyes. Was he trying to blind him, too? Luffy was angry, furious, but he kept control. His whole body hurt. His head hurt, the smell was still so strong.
He walked through the flames, burning his clothes. Usopp was injured from all the effort. "Taking damage since someone will just heal you later?" Luffy didn't reply, and pulled a hand back, and didn't hesitate to slam a rifle into his gut, making him cough off blood and be thrown away, rolling hard, making him cough harshly.
Unable to move, Usopp laid on his side. Luffy didn't hear any noises of pain from him because of the ruptured eardrums.
Even though Luffy was upset and angry, he felt terrible hurting him. Even if he felt no qualms about hurting Luffy first. "You asshole. You knew you could never beat me," he said, breathing heavily. "Do whatever you want with the Going Merry. We'll get a new ship, and go on to the seas beyond." Memories of happy days played through his mind as he walked away. "Bye, Usopp. It's been fun." He saw Chopper trying to get to Usopp and Sanji stopping him. Luffy didn't acknowledge the thick streams of tears down his cheeks, biting his lip hard. Maybe he should have kept his hat with him, he couldn't hide the tears.
Luffy couldn't hear what anybody was saying, but climbed back onto the ship. He needed to clear his sense of smell, and dunked his face and shoulders in the sink full of water, since that's where the eggs had hit. He could smell just fine afterwards.
Chopper was in front of him, asking him about his hearing. "I can hear a little bit. It's a lot worse in the right ear." Chopper didn't wait to get off the ship to treat his worse wound, which was the ears. "You need some blood."
"So I can cheat?" Luffy asked.
Zoro came in, and said, "It's not cheating. You need to hear for our safety. And you also need to be able to listen and see if you can hear Robin." Luffy knew that was true, and reluctantly drank enough to bring his hearing back, but not enough to fix everything. Zoro hugged Luffy, but he stopped crying. He'd cry later, probably.
"Be strong, don't waver. This is what being a captain is," he said against his hair. Luffy nodded, and they cleared out their things off the ship. They left food and furniture. And of course Usopp's belongings. He felt a lot better now that he could hear, but he still had spikes sticking out of his shoulders, and scrapes along his back and legs from falling. The burns weren't bad at all, so it wasn't a big problem.
They all passed Usopp a way off, taking the remaining money they had and going to a hotel.
They put their stuff there, even Nami's tangerine trees. The jolly roger stayed on the Merry. Usopp could take that down when he wanted. It wasn't like he would have the chance to do anything on it. The Merry was going to sink with him on it. It was only a matter of time.
When they got into the nice hotel, Luffy told them he couldn't hear Robin anywhere. Or smell. They were all disappointed, but Luffy needed to be treated since he refused blood. "We'll get some bags tomorrow," Nami said simply. "Usopp can say what he wants about it. You can go days without it, but we're still getting some regardless." Luffy nodded, glad nobody hated him for this. They all hated what Usopp had done and said to him. Knowing that it had always been a sore subject. All of them were hurt by his words. If he did that to Luffy, he could do it to them, too.
Chopper had already been rejected by Usopp before the fight. He was burning all of his bridges. That was what he wanted, after all. Zoro took Luffy to the room's bathroom, and helped treat his wounds, not pressing him about blood. He helped carefully pick all of the needles out of his body and bandage the worst ones.
Zoro was seething. Luffy could tell, even if his face was blank. "I'm not gonna say he didn't mean it all. He meant to hurt you, and he did a good job. Asshole blew your eardrums."
"He said he knew all my weaknesses. He did," Luffy said in a flat voice, letting Zoro take care of him. He was tired and just wanted to sleep. Luffy sniffled and started to cry silently. He had his wobbling lips pressed together.
"I tried so hard. During the argument, I tried so hard to keep things under control. I failed," Luffy lamented. "If I had just noticed he was gone, stopped the Franky Family from beating him up, none of this would have happened. We'd all be sad about Merry together. Not more broken, missing two members."
Zoro took his scraped up hands in his gently. "You did your best, and I think you did a very good job keeping a cool head. This could have happened at any time. If he was this angry and bitter about being a weak member, then maybe things would have always ended up like this. Just not in this way," he said softly.
Luffy nodded, and after his injuries were treated, Zoro washed him off. He kept his underwear on when Zoro washed him with a wet towel, since Luffy didn't want to take a shower. He was afraid he'll be in the shower and when he came out, they'd all be gone. Went back to Usopp, maybe. After he was washed off and treated, his feet pained as he walked, Chopper was there and hugged his legs, crying.
Luffy bent down and picked him up, holding him like a teddy bear, squishing him close. Luffy had not scared Chopper. He was determined not to be a monster in front of him. Chopper said, "We're monsters together," in his neck.
"Yeah. Together," Luffy said softly, but didn't cry. He wasn't going to cry in front of them again, even though Nami was curled up in the bed in tears, and Sanji was smoking on the balcony with trembling hands.
For now, they needed sleep. Emotionally drained completely. So much had happened in just one day. One terrible, terrible day.
In the morning, Sanji and Nami were gone and Chopper was taking a bath in the bathroom. But Nami and Sanji's things were all still there, just fine. They hadn't left him. They wouldn't leave him, they agreed with Luffy, not Usopp. They all openly thought his conduct was terrible, but they all did want a resolution.
They'd look for Robin that day, all day. But for now, in the morning, Luffy was with Zoro. Zoro kissed his nose, and rolled them over so Luffy was below. He left soft kisses on Luffy's neck and jaw. Running his fingers through Luffy's hair, he looked at him almost in pride. "I'm proud of you for choosing the crew over the Going Merry. I know… how hard that decision must have been. If it was this hard for us, it must have been the worst for you. Even more than Usopp."
Luffy nodded, enjoying the soft touches. Zoro kissed the side of Luffy's mouth, lingering there. "Why don't we go look for Robin?" Zoro asked. "Give us something to focus on." Luffy agreed. They got dressed in new clothes for the day, and got some breakfast below before heading out. They were holding hands tightly.
The younger was distracted, looking at his feet as they walked. "Luffy, remember to pay attention?" Zoro asked patiently. He'd rarely seen this weak Luffy. Maybe once or so. But this was weak Luffy, distracted Luffy, upset Luffy. Nothing good was there. But he nodded and started paying attention more.
He heard a commotion from the shipyard. "There are people screaming up at the shipyard. A big commotion." Zoro said they should go see. He nodded, and they went and got a yagara, once again Luffy needing to promise he could push him over the side if he hurt it. Zoro hadn't tried one, so he was freaking out. Luffy couldn't even laugh at his reactions. They headed to the shipyard level, and found a mess in front of the Dock #1. They got off the bull, and asked what happened.
"Somebody tried to assassinate Iceberg last night!" Luffy gasped, wondering who would do such a thing. The whole place loved him. There were those government guys, maybe they caused problems. Luffy was worried. He was a nice guy, and it would be sad if Water 7 broke to pieces over the death of their mayor.
They were surprised when somebody waded through the crowd, the guy with the spike in his hair. "Are you Monkey D. Luffy?" Zoro looked dark, and Luffy told him not to worry. He was a shipwright. "My name is Lulu. We'd like your assistance in this matter."
"What? Why?" Zoro asked, both of them baffled.
"Paulie said you have superb senses. We don't know who the perpetrator is. Will you help us? Maybe we can give you a discount on your ship." Luffy would help regardless, but that was a nice perk. He nodded, and Zoro trailed behind.
"So what happened?" Luffy wondered. "Isn't he a good guy? Everyone likes him here!" Lulu nodded. They had no idea who it was. But he was shot in his bedroom. No doors were opened, no locks unlocked. "Whoever got him probably has a devil fruit."
Zoro asked who Iceberg was, and Lulu explained. He kept pressing his hand to his hair spike only for it to pop out the other side of his head. They shoved through the crowd of concerned people and journalists to get inside. They hurried upstairs, and Luffy was a surprise guest to some of the others.
"What's he doing here?" the pigeon asked for Lucci. He was a weird guy. Smelling in deeply, he smelled like a cat. Weird.
"We thought he could be useful for an investigation. He has great senses. It can't harm anything, we'll keep an eye on him if anything happens." Luffy was led inside, and immediately smelled Robin, but another strong scent. It was in the middle of the room, not near any entrance or exit. He smelled deeply again, and could smell where the one other than Robin stood. He wouldn't say a thing about Robin. He smelled the floor. Zoro stood in the corner with the door wide open.
"Smells like alcohol. But faintly. Like they were around alcohol but hadn't been drunk. It… um kind of smells like one of you, too." He was immediately yelled at about accusing them of something. "Well, it does. But really, really faint. Maybe he was in the shipyard some time recently."
"Who else?"
"Nico Robin," Iceberg said, suddenly awake. They celebrated him waking up before they heard it was Robin that did it. "Correct?"
"...Yeah." Luffy wasn't going to lie. Iceberg was a witness and trusted by everybody. Nobody would believe Luffy lying over him. "But it wasn't her alone." Zoro had his hand on his swords in case a fight broke out. "Though there's no scent going to any entrance or exit. It's like they were right here and then they weren't."
"You're an accomplice! She's on your crew!"
Zoro spoke. "Robin has been AWOL since yesterday morning. We have no idea where she went or what she's been doing. Did she frame us? That woman…" he snarled.
Luffy said, "She must have a reason! But, why? It doesn't make sense! She was with us! What did we do wrong? What did I do wrong?" They were all genuinely surprised with Luffy's demeanor and words.
"It's not your fault, maybe she never was one of us, Luffy. You could never tell if she was lying. Right?" Luffy denied it, but he felt another lance of doubt and betrayal go through his heart. Water 7 was horrible. "Iceberg, was there anything else? Did she say anything?" he begged.
"No. She shot me and the big man with her in a mask was there. I don't know who he was. To be honest, I believe that you, at least, are not an accomplice. Can you search for the second man?" Luffy nodded. Not to help them out, but to find Robin and ask her what the hell she was doing and why she was leaving. Zoro didn't protest.
"Should we check the bars? He smelled like alcohol, right?" Paulie asked. With Iceberg believing he was innocent, maybe they trusted him more. They seemed suspicious of him, but not severely. Zoro asked if he should go tell the others.
"You won't be able to find them on your own," Luffy said honestly. Zoro huffed, but knew he was completely correct. They went around looking in bars before it started to storm. "Oh no! The storm'll wipe away all the scents!" Luffy said over the wind and rain. There was a warning blaring about an aqua laguna. It was a high tide that brought storms and tsunamis to the island.
They went quickly, looking in bars for anything. They were brought to a seedy one, the last one they looked at. "He was here," Luffy said simply. "He was here a lot."
Zoro looked around, checking in drawers, cupboards. Lulu asked the bar owner where the workers were. She was the only one there, and wasn't serving drinks. Though there were no customers either. "Blueno quit yesterday. Charline went on maternity leave. Someone here to work for me?"
"Blueno… did he do this?" Paulie demanded. Luffy and Zoro didn't know who he was, so didn't have any real opinions on him. Other than anger that he was with Robin when they weren't. The storm outside was getting really bad, and Luffy couldn't smell anything. The rain was wiping every scent but the strongest away. It was a violent storm so far.
"We should go get the others!" Luffy called to Zoro.
"Yeah!" he agreed. "Where's the hotel, though?!" Luffy had no idea. He relied on his senses for stuff like that. He was being robbed of them too much lately. Maybe he should have healed fully after all. Paulie offered to lead them back. They picked up two yagaras, with the foreman seeing just how scared of him it was.
He, once again, pointed out his life was in the hands of the bulls, and they went back to the hotel. When they got there, Sanji and Chopper were gone. Nami wasn't there either. Hopefully they got to safety. It was getting late and the storm was getting worse. It felt like the day just started, yet it was getting darker already. He wished he could search for them, but he didn't know where to begin. And what about Usopp? Luffy didn't want to see him but felt worried about him being out there on the broken Merry.
Zoro took his hand and shook his head. "Let's get to safety first! Then we can think of what to do next!" Luffy nodded. On their way back, they ran into Nami, who demanded to know where they were.
"Did you know what happened to Iceberg?!"
They explained what had happened on their way. "There's no way Robin would do that for no reason!" Luffy agreed while she lost nearly all trust by Zoro. They'd never been close, so it wasn't too hard to picture him losing trust in their newest member. On their way, they ran into a very angry man with blue hair and a speedo, even in this weather.
Luffy didn't know who he was. He could barely hear him as he shouted about him hurting his boys. "What are you talking about, Franky? Go away, we're busy with important stuff!" But it clicked with all three Straw Hats that this was the Franky. He was the real reason everything went wrong with Usopp. If he'd never stolen the money, then the fight would have never happened! Right?
"You're Franky?!" Luffy roared, looking furious. Zoro drew his swords. "Yeah! We beat up your guys for beating up ours!" Franky attacked Luffy more than Zoro.
"You don't look like some monster! They said you scared them? Please!" he slammed a fist into Luffy's stomach, throwing him into the wall. His senses were off. He relied on them way too much. Way too much. When Zoro got a slice in on him, it did nothing to his front. "Hahaha! Your swords are useless against me!"
"What are you?!"
He took his glasses off. "A cyborg." Luffy wasn't fighting too good against him, bogged down by everything going on. It wasn't just because of his emotions, though. He was tired. He hadn't slept very well, he didn't have lunch, and he had had a fight the night before. He was not in a good shape to fight somebody tough. Buildings around were damaged as the Galley-La guys tried to get them to stop. "Your obstructing an investigation about who tried to murder Iceberg, you dumbass!" Paulie shouted.
His ropes caught Franky and pulled him down. But the thug leader was surprised at this, and raised his brows. "Baka-berg was attacked?"
"Yes, now go away!"
"I have a bone to pick with him! Don't interrupt!"
Nami took this to her advantage and slammed her clima tact into the back of his knees so he landed in the downhill water slope and got taken away. "Now, let's get somewhere safe!"
"Nice, Nami!" Luffy said with a smile. She grinned back. He had been pretty useless against him, not in fighting shape at all. They headed back to the Galley-La Company, promising safety there. Everyone was taking shelter from the rain and wind, and not directly outside of the building. They headed inside, and hurried to Iceberg's room. They all came across dead bodies of multiple foremen!
"Lucci, Kaku! Tielstone!" Lulu shouted. He ran to them. Luffy calmly pointed out that two of those bodies were fake. "What?!"
"Lucci and Kaku's bodies are fake. They don't smell like bodies or even fresh blood. They're in Iceberg's room." He was tired, he didn't want anymore drama. He was just tired. In body, too, after the fight with Franky that was just him losing and embarrassed. He hoped nothing else happened while he was this weak.
Paluie tried busting the door down, but it was locked. There was also something in front of it. Luffy broke it open with a gomu gomu pistol. They barged in, and Luffy found Robin. She had somehow been concealing her scent, since he didn't smell her through the door at all. He should have been able to.
"Robin!" Luffy and Nami shouted while Paulie and Lulu focused on Kaku, Lucci and Kalifa all in different outfits. See, the bodies really weren't real. Iceberg was bleeding badly on the ground. Robin glared at all three of them coldly. And Luffy could tell that was a lie. "Whatever you're about to say, you won't mean it."
She was a bit startled. "I can't tell if you're lying, but I can see the pain all over your face!" Luffy shouted. "Why are you with them?! They're the bad guys!" Luffy said.
"Take him out of here, he's a danger to our operation," Lucci said, though Luffy couldn't tell the source since he'd never heard his voice before. Zoro shouted his name before Luffy fell through a trap door in the floor that came out of nowhere. He landed inside, and found nothing there. He ran in one direction, but never made it to any destination. It was like he was in a loop, or libmo. Was it a devil fruit?
I changed up this version of Water 7 post-Iceberg attack a lot. And the fight with Franky might seem underwhelming, sorry about that if anyone is disappointed.