In the crow's nest, Zoro looked up, his neck getting a crick in it from looking down for so long. He was rubbing his neck when he saw a little shape in the ocean ahead of him. He walked to the window in front of him, and peered out for a better look. It was a pirate ship with a snake on the flag! It had to be Dokueki's ship, there was no doubt.
"OI! MINNA! SHIP AHEAD!!" Everybody ran to the bow of the Thousand Sunny-gou, and examined closely the flag. It had a snake on it. They all whooped with joy, and Franky went to put it in a higher speed. The Thousand Sunny-gou sped forward with everyone practically leaning over the side with impatience.
On Dokueki's ship, he had finished with the previous girl, and still felt like he needed an itch scratched. He chuckled and thought to himself, I'll just get myself another girl. He ordered the guard outside to get rid of the still-panting girl in his bed, then headed to the room without accompaniment. He thought he was safe enough. They were all too scared to try anything. He went to the room, and saw it empty. Roaring with rage, he ordered a pirate that was walking by to tell him where his beauties had went. The guard quaked, and answered him,
"They were moved because they were trying to escape, cap'n. They're in that room I think," He pointed to the spare room. With an evil chuckle, Dokueki pushed the pirate out of his way, and headed for the room.
Franky put the Thousand Sunny-gou in a slightly higher gear, getting her ready for a surprise attack on the pirates.
"Minna, brace for impact!" Franky warned everyone. Everyone turned around to look at him, then turned back again to grip the rail hard.
Dokueki's fist was gripping the doorknob, and it twisted. The girls inside wiped the tears of hopelessness from their eyes, and turned to face the door with cold faces. It opened, and their worst nightmare walked through the door. Dokueki scanned the room from side, and selected his next victim. She was a fierce looking blonde with blue eyes. He sneered at her, and she sniffed harshly and held her head up higher. He motioned toward her with a finger to come toward him. Her face hardened more, and she stepped forward. He beckoned again, and she took only one more step forward. Growing impatient, he motioned with his whole hand. Finally, Suta walked over to Dokueki, still holding desperately onto the hope that Luffy would come and save her. Ever step to Dokueki's quarters was torture. Step. Step. Step. They still had a ways to go…
Everyone was hoping fervently that they hadn't been too late. They were were gripping the rail until their knuckles were white Just a little farther… Just a little farther…
The door loomed in front of Suta and Dokueki. It was a large, thick wooden door that wouldn't let sound out. Suta swallowed, and Dokueki slipped a wring on her finger that was made of kairoseki. How much of this crap does he have? Suta thought to herself as she crumpled to the floor. Dokueki opened the door, and dragged in Suta.
Everybody turned to look at Franky with wide eyes when the ship wasn't slowing down. They were coming up too fast on the pirate ship. 5 meters.. 4.. 3.. 2.. Everybody squeezed their eyes shut, and waited. They didn't have to wait long, as the lion head on the Thousand Sunny-gou bashed into the back of the pirate ship. Splinters flew as the crew kicked into gear and ran onto the ship, taking down random pirates. Zoro knocked down a door, and girls streamed out of it. Panting, he looked around for De-Ji, trying to not cut any of the women.
"DE-JI!! SUTA!!" he called out, desperate to find them. Luffy looked around for a little bit, but there were none with blonde hair, so he kept smashing open doors, letting Usopp and the others take care of the rest of the pirates. Zoro kept looking through the crowd.
De-Ji looked up. Was that Zoro? No, it was probably her imagination or a dream again. She looked away, then down, covering her eyes with hair and hands to hide the tears in her eyes.
Suta couldn't resist. Dokueki had looked around when the ship had shaken hard, but now he was touching her. All over, she shuddered. Dokueki chuckled to himself and licked his lips. Suta secured her eyes shut. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a nightmare or something. A tear leaked out from beneath one of her lids, and a raucous laugh erupted from Dokueki's throat.
Luffy looked around. There was only one more door. Huffing, he ran to the door and banged on it. It jiggled. Invigorated, Luffy pounded harder and harder on the door. Past the loud shouting and clanging of the battle, he heard a surprised shout.
Inside, Dokueki muttered to himself that he needed to hurry. He rubbed Suta's cheek, then moved his hand to his zipper. The door opened. He pulled down his zipper. A kid bursted through the opening, a straw hat flying off his head, but fell to his back, held by a string around his neck. With a guttural yell, he pulled back his arm, farther than was normally possible, and it sprang forward for Dokueki's face.
"SHE ISN'T HERE!!" Zoro screamed into the air. De-Ji put her hands over her ears to block out what she thought was her mind playing tricks on her. Nami, being done with beating the few pirates that were on the ship, looked through the crowd who were whooping and dancing on and around the bodies of the beaten pirates. There were some girls with brown hair, but none of them were De-Ji.
Dokueki held up a big chunk of kairoseki in front of him just in time for the rubber hand to collide into it, then limply thump onto the floor, and slithered back to Luffy's arm. He shook his hand and glared at the man. He looked past him to make sure Suta was ok. She was lying on the bed with her eyes closed still.
"Oi, Suta. Are you ok?" He asked her. She opened her eyes timidly, scared it was another dream. She had dreamed that he would save her every time she closed her eyes. Luffy was peering at her from behind of her captor.
Nami yelled toward Zoro, but the girls were being too loud. She grabbed Usopp, who was being bombarded by happy girls, by the back of his overalls and whispered in his ear. Usopp nodded, and pulled out a missile out of his bag, and fired it. It went straight to Zoro's head, and the rotten egg splattered against the back of his green hair. Turning around, he yelled to the crowd,
"WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT FOR?!" A few girls stepped out of his path, and he saw Nami pointing to a room. It was the room he had opened and released the cacophony from. He looked in again, and saw someone sitting in the room, with their face hidden in their arms and behind their knees. Not quite daring to hope, he walked slowly toward the figure.
With eyes watering, Suta nodded. Luffy grinned, then grunted, signaling that he was going to beat the guy up. Luffy turned his attention back to the big man in front of him, who was yelling something about being ignored. He chucked the piece of kairoseki, but Luffy easily dodged it, and lunged forward.
"GOMU GOMU NO… GATLING GUN!!" Luffy cried out, then what looked like countless hands pounded into Dokueki's body, sending blood spraying out of his mouth. He choked and took a step backward, and wiped his mouth with a hand. Then, he put up his hands in front of his body, his hands in fists. Luffy grinned and went into the same position, and was about to attack again, but Dokueki fell to the ground. Luffy looked to Suta, who was now sitting up with her legs crossed in front of her. Sunlight glided through the sandy strands of hair that floated on her head in a breeze. Her blue eyes were flooded with happiness and relief. Luffy leaped the last few steps, and glomped her. They both blushed, then Luffy kissed her on the forehead. Suta bit her lower lip, then fully kissed.
Zoro was standing still in the doorway. His knees wanted to quiver, but he stopped them. He walked into the room, letting his stealthy nature take over his feet. De-Ji heard his footsteps faintly, and recognized the rhythm of them. Her eyes flew open, and waited. She couldn't breathe. Was it really him? Zoro knelt before the girl. The hair looked like hers, a brown that reminded him of mud after rain with ever-so-slight gold streaks that you could only see in sunlight. He pushed a strand of her long bangs aside, behind her ear. She looked up. Molten pickles greeted his eyes. De-Ji stared into the bottomless grey of her Zoro's eyes.
"Z..Zoro? is it really you?" She asked. He blinked and nodded. Relief flooded her, and she jumped up a little and threw her arms around his shoulders and neck. She turned her head and looked at his moss-green hair. She krinkled her nose at the rotten egg, and turned her head away from it, then took in a deep breath. His clean, yet sweaty, scent came through the white cotton. Zoro put his arms around her body, thankful to feel her again. They both pulled away to look each other in the face again, then at the same time, they leaned forward to kiss.
After a while, Nami interrupted the two couples so they could all go back to the ship, which was undamaged because of the rotten state of the pirate ship's hull. Everybody headed straight to the kitchen. Everybody was hungry. Sanji started cooking away, flirting as always and twirling around his cooking utensils, showing off his skills. Suta's and Luffy's stomach growled, and they laughed and started goofing off with Brooke. Nami let them for a while, before they started getting way too loud, so she bonked them on the head. Usopp was telling Chopper one of his tall tales, and Robin and Franky were watching the whole thing. Everything was back to normal. De-Ji smiled and rested her head on Zoro's shoulder, glad it was finally over and everything was back to normal.