Like and Comment!
"Wow Coby, you're pretty good with the sails." Reina couldn't help but comment. Coby scratched the back of his head.
"Its something every sailor should know." he shrugged.
"That's why we have Rhea." both she and Luffy said and then grinned.
Honestly she had tried to learn navigating, but it made no sense whats so ever. She had decided to gather intelligence instead. Luffy on the other hand, simply said he'd get himself a navigator and that was the end of that. That was why they relied on Rhea.
"Soon we'll be at the marine base. Are you excited?" Luffy asked the young boy.
"I hope I'm allowed to join." he sagged a bit.
"Don't worry, they'll love you. I just can't wait to see a real marine base. It'll be so exciting!" Reina exclaimed, with Luffy cheering on the side.
"You guys shouldn't get so worked up. They say Roronoa Zoro is being held there. He's a pirate hunter and its said that he cuts people from the inside. He's a demon!" Coby warned.
Reina and Luffy grinned though.
"A Demon huh?" Reina smirked, a look of mischief in her eyes, only to be mirrored by Luffy's even wider grin.
"He'd make a great crew mate. I wonder how long we'll get there?" he laughed.
Coby just gaped at the two.
"Did you not hear a single word I just said? He'll kill you!" he waved his arms around in fright.
The other two just smiled and looked at the sea. They'd seen and done crazier things before. Their little family was filled with insane people. Their Gramps a marine vice-admiral, their brother a pirate and son of the late Pirate King and then there was Sabo, who was a run away noble who defied a Celestial Dragon even though he had died. A part of Reina, however, always believed that he had survived and that they would met one day.
"Don't worry would you. We'll simply see what kind of person he is first then we'll see from there." she waved off his concerns.
A couple hours later, they had finally reached the city. It was a beautiful and calm looking island, a place that had a sense of peace, but something felt off. Reina didn't know what it was, but kept her guard up.
They had reached a large iron gate. It had the Marine signs on it an it had a simple two building and a large yard with a fence surrounding it. There seemed to be someone tied to a post in the middle.
"Lets get a closer look at Zoro Rei." Luffy said as Coby tried to drag him away from the fence, but was instead dragged along. Reina sighed and simply followed. She had a feeling that this Zoro wasn't a horrible person and he would be joining their crew.
Once they reached the fence where he was close to, they had seen a small little girl or about eight or so looking around and then climbing a ladder. She dropped down and ran to where the tied up man-Zoro-was and gave him what looked like a riceball. Zoro on the other hand seemed to be denying it, until they were accosted by others.
"You know Zoro, people don't like bullies." an arrogant blonde walked up to the two with marines behind him. Reina instantly didn't like the guy as he looked spoiled and that everything was handed to him on a silver plate.
"Hm, rice balls huh?" he went and grabbed on, ignoring the crying little girl, which made her blood boil, "Yuck, why is this filled with sugar!? Rice balls are made with salt you idiot" he spat it out and then threw the other rice balls from her hands and stomped on it, making the girl cry harder.
"Don't you know that anyone helps a criminal will be killed? Captain Morgan signed it, he's my father by the way." he said arrogantly, "You there, throw her over the wall." he pointed to a marine.
The man looked nervous.
"Um, sir, she's just a little girl." and Reina really wanted to pound the idiot when he actually threw the girl just because he was afraid of the little tattletale. Luckily though, Luffy caught the little girl so there was no damage done.
"Thank you mister." the girl said, once he put her down.
"Are you alright?" Reina asked the young girl, who nodded.
"Yes miss. My name is Rika." she said.
"Its nice to met you Rika. My name is Reina. These here are Luffy and Coby. Where do you stay?" she asked the little girl now named Rika and they began making their way to the restaurant where her mother worked.
After getting some food to eat, it was explained to them how Helmeppo had came to their restaurant with his pet wolf while Zoro and the others were eating. He let his wolf go and it began eating the food of everyone there and the blonde pounce simply stood back and laughed at all the chaos and everyone's fear.
Rika had explained that she tried to shoo it away wit her broom, but it had began attacking her instead. Zoro had came in and rescued her by hitting the wolf, killing it. Helmeppo wanted to punish her, but Zoro had taken her punishment and it was decided that if he could survive tied up to the post for one month without food or water, then he'd be free and there would be no punishment.
Reina could already tell that Luffy had made up his mind and decided to make the swordsman join his crew and Reina couldn't fault him. This Zoro wasn't a demon, but a very honorable guy, but she had a feeling that Helmeppo wasn't and that he was going to cut off the deal. She had to plan.
She left and discreetly made her way back to the marine base. Searching it, she found a couple maps and money and stashed them away into her bag. She ran into a room, which she saw three swords. Remembering that Zoro was a swordsman, she wondered which one was his before she simply grabbed all three. She also grabbed a camera for taking pictures to add to her journal where she wrote about their adventure.
Once she made it out, she was greeted to the sight of a large man with an ax threatening Zoro and Luffy seemed to have just deflected some bullets.
She brought out her Snythe and began shooting them from behind as Luffy took care of the marines. She untied Zoro and handed him the his swords.
"I didn't know which ones were yours so here. Nice to officially met you new crewmate." she didn't give him time to answer as she went and punched Helmeppo in the gut, who was holding Coby at gun point. The pink haired boy hugged her as he sobbed, probably scared shitless. She patted his head. He had gone through so much of her and Luffy's craziness she knew he deserved a break down.
She sighed in relief as Luffy had finally defeated Axe-Hand Morgan and surprisingly all the marines cheered. Apparently the man was a tyrant that nobody liked but were too afraid of him regardless. Zoro had actually agreed to join their crew sometime during the fight, which made her happy. She didn't know what Luffy said to the guy, but having a Pirate Hunter become a Pirate was no easy task.
But then again, it was Luffy. Miracles were bound to happen.
As they were enjoying their meal, Rika and her mother had given it to them for free and the other villagers thanked them as well. They were figuring out a way for Coby to join the marines, without them thinking that he knew them. Zoro she learned was obsessed with booze, so made sure to buy lots before they headed out for the next island.
Soon enough, the restaurant was surrounded by marines. One of them, who was the acting commander, had stood in front of them.
"It has come to our attention that you three are pirates and as marines, we are to arrest you." he said and everyone in the bar protested, "However as thanks for defeating the tyrant Axe-Hand Morgan, we shall let you leave in peace."
Reina sagged in her seat a bit, glad that they were going to be able to leave peacefully. She saw fromt he corner of her eye Luffy whispering harshly to Coby and much to her surprise had punch Luffy calling him scum for being a pirate. From there on, the marines asked Coby to join them but they all knew it was for show.
"That was a nice thing you did for the kid captain." Zoro said as they readied thier boat for departure.
"He's right Luffy, you did good." Reina added as Luffy laughed happiness.
"Its his dream to become a marine. He shouldn't have to give it up just because of us." he said and they nodded in agreement.
"Luffy, Reina, Zoro. Thank you so much for helping me, but next time we met I'll have to arrest you!" Coby waved at them, happy that he could finally begin his dream, something hadn't though possible before. Reina had nearly forgotten she had wanted to give Coby something and ran up to him.
"Here. If you want to get serious with your training, ask the higher ups to patch you in with Garp. If they ask why, tell them you have a message from Reina. He should understand." she explained as she thrust a paper into his hands, before she rejoined the others.
"Thanks you." he called out and she waved.
"Men, salute!" and all the marines saluted at the pirates, "For saluting to pirates we shall not eat food for the next three days!"
"Yes sir!"
But the marines were happy that pirate or no, they had saved them from a tyrant. They might be marines, but that didn't mean they were all good. Perhaps the same could be seen by some pirates.
"I never though I'd see the day where marines salute to pirates." Zoro commented before they busted into laughter. They couldn't wait to see what their next adventure would take them next, but where ever it was, it would be fun.
