Zoro literally ran to Luffy, the urgent news pounding in his head and heart. Luffy was asking questions about the pirates, but was receiving no useful answers. The man obviously didn't want to get in trouble with them or something. Zoro pulled Luffy aside, ignoring the angry protests. Zoro explained carefully the situation. After it had been explained to Luffy, he grimly turned toward the rest of the crew and gave his orders. Zoro obeyed immediately. He knew the look on Luffy's face. He had seen it before when he was fighting strong enemies. Determination, grit, and strength were in his eyes. But there was something more this time. Something else was deep behind his eyes. Zoro recognized it, related to it. He didn't like to admit it, but it was love. Zoro ran with the rest of the crew to their ship. They moved out immediately, luckily they had learned enough from residents about where this cursed 'Dokueki' character was headed. Not to any specific island, but that was probably because he didn't want to be found. Not with his 'cargo' anyway. Luffy demanded impossible speeds, then retired to the top of the ship's head. His favorite spot. Everybody stopped in their tracks to watch him. He was just sitting their, but with his head down. They looked around at each other. Not wanting to be the one to help vent Luffy's wrath on himself, they hurried back to their duties, making the ship move at it's top speed. But it still wasn't fast enough. Once Zoro was done, he sat down. Closing his eyes, he let the wind batter his hair around his head. It felt strangely calming, reminding him of the time when De-Ji ran her feminine fingers through his hair. Angry, he jerked his head away from the memory and wind. He needed to find a place away from it. He stood up and aimlessly wandered the ship, forcefully keeping his mind focused on the task at hand. Room after room held memories, memories he couldn't deal with right now. Even Wado seemed to taunt him. Sighing, he looked up into the sunny sky, with a few puffy clouds roaming around happily. At least something was having a good day. Movement caught his eye, just under where he was looking and he looked down. His gaze rested on a pirate flag. Not pausing to take in the flag on top, he ran to Luffy. Luffy had already seen it and was in the middle of his gomu gomu no rocket. Zoro grabbed on, he didn't want to miss a fight.
Luffy looked down at Zoro, then sped off toward the ship. A few seconds, Luffy and Zoro smashed into the mast, breaking it. Luffy got up and brushed himself off, then gave a mighty war cry and launched himself at the attacking pirates. Barely taking time to differentiate pirate from ship, he threw punches everywhere. At some point in time, he heard a man cry out,
"CAPTAIN!!" Luffy must have punched him, sending him flying to hit the wall and knocked him out like a light. Zoro glanced toward the man and kept fighting. Finally the rest of the mugiwaras arrived and joined their two comrades who were fighting like the very demons from hell.
Nami stopped for a second, and let the pirates run by her, only to go flying by again by a powerful 'gomu gomu no pistol!' Barely anybody was fighting like Luffy, except maybe Zoro. Zoro wasn't fighting as hard as Luffy, but he was closer than all of them put together.
Usopp stepped back, barely dodging a person flying right his head. Looking at Zoro, who had 'oni giri'-ed him toward his direction, Usopp quickly looked back at the person, who was now standing up, only to fall as he just realized that he had been sliced. Usopp cringed as blood squirted out from his chest, right over his heart. Usopp turned to face his opponent again, to see that he had seen the same thing as Usopp had, and was frozen in place from fear. Grinning, he pushed him over and taunted him with,
"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR CHALLENGING THE GREAT CAPTAIN USOPP!!" then laughed.
Sanji kicked the man's head who was approaching him with a short sword in hand, and twirled around to kick another one, but he hit vacant air. Pushing with his arms, he back flipped back onto his feet and looked around. All of his crew were huffing around fallen pirates.
Luffy raised his head and screamed out in outrage, and yelled out,
"WHAT HAPPENED?! WHERE IS THE REST OF YOU?!" Breathing heavily, he gazed into the graying sky and saw the flag. The great victor fell to his knees and asked Nami how long it would be until they found the slither butt's ship. Nami assumed that 'slither butt' was Dokueki, and said she didn't know. They could be anywhere. Luffy glared at the flag that was flying in the wind above his head. He looked around at the crew, which must have been loyal to their nakama, because they were all wearing what was on the flag's skull's head. A beanie hat, like the ones you wear in winter(or maybe you don't', I dunno). They were all knitted, and in bright colors that didn't match together. The captain's was the most ridiculous, with lime green and hot pink poka dots and stripes. It was so comical, Luffy started laughing. The crew sighed in relief to hear the familiar sound, and then they all started laughing themselves.
They all returned to their ship, and set off in different directions to continue their activities as if nothing had happened. Luffy went to Suta's room, however. He was looking for a little box that he had caught her playing with once in a while. She shoved it under her pillow once, when Luffy had been sent to fetch her for breakfast, and other places depending on where she had been. It was always in a different spot though. First he looked under her pillow, but it wasn't there. He looked in her drawers, blushing when he got to a certain drawer full of girly underclothes. He looked in her 'treasure box', or a box where she held things of important value. Why she didn't keep it in there, he didn't know but it wasn't there either. He was about to give up and walk out of the room, he stepped on a secret loose floorboard, and it leapt up and hit him in the face. Luffy backed up a step, one hand going up defensively into a fist and the other touching his reddened face, testing the level of pain in his swelling flesh. The board fell down again with a loud CLACK, and Luffy cringed. If anybody heard that, he would be in trouble going through a girl's room. But he supposed it would be worth the trouble. He felt like he needed something to remind him that Suta was real, something tangible. After rubbing his face a little, to help disperse the pain, he stepped on the board again, but keeping the pressure under his foot under control. The board came up about halfway, and Luffy grabbed it. Pulling it out of the ground, he tossed it aside, not caring this time about the noise, and peered into the floor under the board. There was a little space, and Suta's little music box was sitting snugly in it. Letting the smile melt onto his still throbbing face, he picked up the music box and ran outside to sit on his favorite spot. At first smiling at the box, and turning it in his hands, enjoying the simple feeling of something solid in his hands. Almost like feeling Suta under his fingers. He looked up at the sky when he felt something wet on his face, and saw no clouds. His smile had turned into a frown, and little drops of salty tears were running down his tears as his memory was filled with images of Suta. She was always so carefree, and now she was gone. But he was getting her back. Unclenching his hand to stop himself from hurting the box, he ran back to Suta's room and put everything back the way it was.
just wanted to say, the chapters past this are a little repetitive, until the end XD. and if you don't like long chapters or something, I'm sorry. And sorry if I'm late again, I just get caught up in other stuff easily. Sorry!