One by one they all awoke; Sanji and the Joji brothers had been the first to stir from their slumber. Sanji scratched his head as he slowly began to rise. He was not wearing his jacket as he had been using it as a pillow. He grabbed his jacket and put it on.
He noticed that it was a shockingly foggy day, the sunlight only barely penetrating the thick mist. He hoped that this wouldn't prove to be an impediment to any of their activities.
The beach was littered with people, wood and leftover food which was now covered with an army of flies and was being ravenously devoured by a pack of foxes. Sanji furrows his brow in annoyance as even the thought of wasting food makes his blood boil. He scoffs at himself incredulously, scolding himself for falling asleep before packing and putting the leftovers away. He decided that at least the foxes were having a good meal, for a change he assumed.
Sanji looks to his right and sees the pair of chefs with whom he had cooked with the previous night. The Joji brothers were a pair of twins: they had long, flowing, raven colored hair; chubby faces yet their bodies were quite thin, almost as if they were ill; they wore a pair of yellow gloves that went up to their elbows and beyond that they had green jumpsuits on – nothing distinguishable between the two. It was bewildering enough that the two looked the same but they had to act the same as well.
"Hello!" they chimed together which startled Sanji, making him take a step back. The two brothers smiled widely at him, there was almost no distance between the two.
"Don't get so close, it's creepy." Sanji commented with slight agitation.
"Ah, I told you we shouldn't get so close." Said the elder of the two brothers, Gon.
"No, I recall you saying nothing of the sorts" The younger, Bo, retorted.
"You have selective hearing."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
The two continued to talk argue amongst themselves, the two had a proclivity to partake in brotherly banter, much to the dismay of the people around them. Sanji quickly made his way away from the two annoying brothers. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one; he stood next to the Sunny as he smoked in peace.
Eventually all of them had gotten up: stretching, yawning, and grumbling about the lack of night. The only one who had failed to wake up was Zoro, who continued to snore loudly, his swords tucked away under his right arm.
"Sanji, FOOOOOOOOOOOD!" Luffy bellowed out. Sanji clicked his tongue in vexation. "You'll get your damn food when I'm good and ready." Sanji yelled back as he continued to fry the leftover, raw shark meat they still had.
"Gon, Bo, FOOOOOOO-" Mizolo cut off mid-sentence. Gon and Bo were cooking a few feet away from Sanji, both sporting pink aprons. "Yeah, yeah, just give us a minute." Gon replied. "No, two minutes." Bo interjected.
"One minute!"
"Two minutes!"
"One minutes!" The twins butted heads though none seem to pay heed to the squabbling duo. Up until that point the only sounds to penetrate their ears were the gentle splashing of the waves and serene singing of the birds that made nest there, however that sound was replaced by a cacophony of loud yells and discordant bickering of the people who currently inhabited it.
"Luffy, I know we've made friends but we can't stay here for that long!" Luffy was reprimanded by Nami; the latter was currently dress in her signature bikini and blue jeans, her hair hanging loose; the former was shirtless – stating that it was a beach so nobody would care if he took it off – and his infamous Straw Hat hung loosely around his neck.
"Oh come on, Nami, a week wouldn't hurt us!" Luffy pouted as if he were a child.
Anger starts to bubble up inside Nami as she remembers that arguing with Luffy is no different than presenting a well thought out case to a stump.
"Luffy…" Nami whispers menacingly, making the rubber captain sweat profusely.
"Rihahahaha, she's right, Straw Hat. As much as we like this island, we, too, will be leaving soon. No point in you lot staying for longer than you have to." Alexander struts his way over to the two.
Hearing the news makes Luffy grow sad, an air of melancholy hanging around him. "But we only just met, and we had so much fun last night."
Alexander snickers at the last comment. "Yes we did, and so we're gonna have another party before we leave! Rihahahahaha!" Luffy beams at this, the melancholy that shrouded him completely gone. Luffy joins in on the laughter and echoing across the sandy shores is a pair of inharmonious chortling; though nobody seemed to mind it in the least. Nami shakes her head at the antics of the two friends in front of her as she struts away.
"Plus, I wanna catch more of those sharks as a payment for these fine folks here." Alexander gestures towards a couple that stood only a few feet away from them. The couple – who were in their late thirties to early 40's – were dressed in ragged clothing, exemplifying the decrepit state in which the entire village lived in; they were also quite thin, and had thinning gray hair at the very edge of their scalps. The couple turned towards the loud captain, a look of guilt apparent on their faces.
"You're really nice, color ossan. Shishishi. I'll help you out." Luffy suggests as he whips his arm around, a way of saying 'alright, let's go, I'm ready'.
Alexander steps to the side to let his compatriot through.
"Wait!" The woman yelled out.
"Carol, what are you doing?" The man besides her questioned with fear and worry visible in his eyes. The two captains stared at them with curiosity.
"I can't do this anymore! These people have done nothing wrong; they've helped us for goodness sake!" Carol loudly yelled back at her husband.
"Carol, if we tell them anything…"
"They won't know; if they leave now then it won't matter. We can just tell them that we couldn't convince them to stay." Carol riposted, more loudly than she had hoped for as a majority of the inhabitants of the beach had now turned towards her, some furrowing their brows in confusion, others giggling like a bunch of school girls and others with a dead pan look on their faces.
"Listen!" Carol turns back to the two captains. The said captains crouch down close to her so she may say whatever she has to in a calmer way.
"This island is a front. It's really a hideout for a criminal faction. Their hideout is in the middle of this island and they force us to stay out here and make sure nobody ever goes wandering around. We provide people with food and shelter so that they would have no reason to snoop around; and to kidnap unsuspecting travelers or to kill men with bounties." Carol takes a breath; she had quickly said everything as if it were a sin for her to do so. "They force us do this, they kidnapped our families and make sure that we never double cross 'em." Tears begin to well up in her eyes. "But I can't do this anymore, you people have been kind to us, you treat us like we're your friends and I can't do this to people who think of me as a friend. When you were all asleep they came to us and told us to keep you on the island for at least a day, we don't know why but we know it ain't for any good reason. You need to leave this island, now!" Carol finished.
Both captains looked grim, an aura of anger and ferocity radiating off of them. "They kidnapped your families?" Luffy was the first to speak.
"Where'd you say they were again?" Alexander posed the second question.
Carol was taken aback by their response. "Please, don't, we'll get into enough trouble as it is, please don't add to it; just leave!" Carol was now crying, her husband was circling his hand around her back, trying to comfort her in some way.
"Look, you all need to – " Carol's husband couldn't finish his statement as a hail of cannon fire descended upon them.
Everyone on the shore looked around and saw that surrounding them in nearly all directions were large, black battleships; they weren't the marines as they didn't carry the flag of the navy. The ships had black sails, other than that it looked like any other run of the mill battleship.
It seems that the ships had used the mist as a way to hide themselves. The people who were proficient in observation haki were in a false sense of security and had not paid much attention to their surroundings and it was only too late for them to realize that they were standing in the middle of a large bull's eye.
The fog had dissipated enough that they could make out their surroundings.
"What do we do?!" Yelled out Usopp and a few of Alexander's crew mates.
However their plea fell on deaf ears as the captains stared with wide eyes at the sight before them: Carol and her husband lay sprawled on the ground, their body bloody and devoid of any life. The cannon shot had landed only a few feet away from them; Luffy and Alexander being immensely powerful fighters were able to withstand the impact, Carol and her husband had not been so lucky.
Alexander held onto his battle ax in one hand and clutched tightly on his tomahawk with his other hand. Luffy buried his fingers into his palm, nails digging into his skin, drawing blood. The two captains slowly made their way to their opponents.
"Wait, captain!" "Luffy, hold up!" Dizo and Zoro stopped their respective captains.
"The ships are too close – I mean too far, no point in you going; you can't reach 'em." Dizo explained to them. "Yeah, we need to get out of here first!" Zoro chimed in.
"Fine, get to the ships." Alexander basically growled.
"Get on the Sunny, we're gonna beat those bastards to a pulp." Luffy said in a low, imperious way. The first mates nodded their heads but as they were about to move another hail of cannon fire rained downed upon them, forcing them to disperse.
"We can't reach the ships." Alexander basically screamed.
"Damn bastards." Luffy bellowed out.
"Oi, everyone, run to the forest, we'll regroup there!" Luffy commanded everyone, including the captain besides him. And so they all ran: the Straw Hats, the Party Pirates and the villagers. They all ran with inhibition, some yelling out expletives at their enemies, but they all ran nonetheless.
A little while earlier…
"Alright, fellas, we've given them the message so I think we're good for now. I've contacted all nearby ships, they'll be here in an hour; they'll produce some mist as cover so don't be alarmed by it. With them surrounding the island, I can't think of any way for these guys to get off." Willow giddily informed the people in front of her. In front of her stood a plethora of men and women, all who worked for this criminal faction. "I think we should send the man in, just to be safe." The slender man (minus his glasses) said in a shallow whisper.
"This is… an important task, don't want screw ups!" He continued in a forbidding manner.
"He'll keep a close eye, make sure everything goes without a hitch."
The people around the slender man gulped; there was something about this man that was eerily ominous; a shiver ran down their spines.
J-Bone and Axol had noted the change in his demeanor, from a somewhat dunderhead to a threatening force in just a short while. He hadn't been with them for long so they didn't know how to react to it.
"Ah, you're right, silly of me. Since you suggest it, guess you're it." Willow said with a childish smile which was enough to balance out the slender man's dark aura. He nods his head and leaves.
A short while later…
"This island is a front…" Carol's voice could be heard a few yards away from where the slender man stood.
"Oh my God, I can't believe she's betraying us!" He thinks to himself, his thoughts uttered with dramatic flair. He pulls out a baby den den mushi.
"Oi, plans a no go. One of these villagers just stabbed us in the back!" He whispered, a form of hurt could be hard in his voice. "Start firing, we have no other choice."
"Roger." Was the only response from the other line.
The slender man got up and ran to the middle of the island, to his base.