"Wakey, wakey."
The sleeping treasure hunter did not move. The bed was nice and warm – she didn't feel like moving out of it quite yet. But whoever was trying to wake her, prodded her in the side: her one most ticklish place. She flinched like a zapped fish.
"Shishishishishishishi." A masculine voice laughed. She knew that laugh from anywhere. The woman moaned audibly and scooted away from her annoying captain. He followed. "Jiruuuuuuuuuuu, I'll poke yooooou again."
"Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooo." Her sleepy answer came, as she plopped a pillow over her head. "Hnnnooooo."
"It's morning."
"…" The woman moaned again and curled up under the blankets.
"Oi, Luffy, you leave her alone. We're not ready for her to wake up." Usoppu's soft voice was heard. The way that the sniper spoke his words threw a red flag of warning in her sleep-hazed mind.
"Usoppuuuuuuu." Luffy's whiny voice answered back. "Why do we have to prank her like this?"
"She's the one that decided to sleep in the men's dorm, Luffy." Zoro's cranky voice came. "I'm only standing here like this for ten more damned seconds, Usoppu; then I'm leaving."
"I wanna test my theory, Zoro. Now is the perfect time to do it."
"I have the medical supplies ready, Usoppu!" Chopper's excited voice betrayed the fact SOMETHING was going to happen. The pillow-covered woman heard all this and dreaded opening her eyes.
"Oh god, I don't wanna get up: I don't wanna know…" The waking female uncurled her body and slowly removed the pillow from her head anyway. Rolling onto her back and looking up into her captain's dark eyes, she smiled lazily and stretched her limbs – something she always did upon waking. It was a good sign that her left foot only ached when moved.
"Good morning, Jiru-chan." Luffy sat on the side of the upper-level one-person bunk and grinned. "It's about time you woke up; you're the last to wake up."
"I am?"
"Yup. Look." Luffy pointed behind him and bit his lip in attempts to keep himself from laughing.
"Do I even wanna kno-" She sat up in the bed and gasped. Her hands flew to her face as it turned red.
In front of the bunk stood Zoro, wearing nothing but a white towel; which was draped over his shoulder. Zoro, being Zoro, was built like an Adonis; his muscles rippling under his scarred skin. He must have already worked out for the morning; because his skin was glistening with sweat. His hair was mused up and careless. Wearing a body that was honed for a swordsman's use, Zoro looked up at her with hot eyes and smirked. Her eyes trailed down from his chest scar to his torso and the fire in her belly roared into existence. A trickle of blood dribbled through her fingers in consequence of the sight.
"HA! I knew it!" Usoppu exclaimed in triumph. "It happens to women too."
The collector gasped again and tossed herself back down on the bed, hiding her face as they all laughed at her expense. The door slammed open and Sanji came stomping in.
"Hey, you idiots, you leave her to slee-." The cook stopped mid-word and twitched. "Oh THAT IS SO WRONG! SHITTY Swordsman; PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"
"Sanji, it worked! Hurry up and do it too, I bet we could have her in need of a blood transfusion!" Usoppu just wouldn't let the prank lie; as the sniper spoke to the cook. "If she sees you like that, I bet she'd pass out!"
"Neee, but I don't want Jiru-chan to pass out." Luffy stopped laughing and sounded concerned.
"I AM not going to do that to a woman, you perverted idiot!" Sanji's voice was raw with anger. "Just what did you do!"
"Showed her a naked Zoro." Chopper answered.
"WHAT!" The cook's anger upped itself to fury. "I'm going to kill you, Shitty-Marimo!"
"Tch, just relax, shit-cook." Zoro's amused voice aimed itself at his rival as he put his pants on. "It's nothing she hasn't seen before."
"ZORO!" In the bunk, the embarrassed female yelped loudly and threw the pillow back over her head. "Don't tell them THAT!"
"Chopper! Quick, Jiru has a bloody nose." Luffy turned away from his two fighting nakama and tore the pillow off the girl's head and caught her face in his hands.
"Coming, Luffy-san!" Chopper jumped into action, turning into his Human-point mode to reach up to his new patient. Usoppu was on the floor, holding his side as he became lost in a bout of merry laughter. Above the floored sniper, the cook and now-half-dressed swordsman were busy throwing hate-glares at each other.
"Luffy, I'm going to kill your best friend, and then kick his ass." Jiru's face was hot as her captain held it still for Chopper to attend to. The doctor pulled out tissues for her waning nosebleed and gently placed them over her nose.
"Awh, don't kill Usoppu-san, Jiru, he didn't mean anything." Luffy frowned and scooted back so Chopper could tend to her. "He thought it would be funny."
"It was just a figure of speech, Luffy; I wasn't really going to kill him. Thanks Chopper." She sighed and tried to cool herself down. "I guess that's what I get for falling asleep in your lap."
She pointedly closed her eyes as Chopper sat her up and leaned her forward, allowing the blood to drain properly. It was a widely false-skewed concept that nose-bleeders had to lean back to stop the flow; the stomach doesn't digest blood, so why lean back and let the blood drain down the throat?
The Golden Thief thought back to last night, and sighed. She had fallen asleep a few turns after Brooke and his Silver Queen answer. The rest of the evening had been a blur, before she fell fully asleep after somebody moved her from the grassy deck to a bed.
"Oh, that's right, the game. Who won?" Jiru asked through the tissue.
"Not telling." Luffy looked at her with a straight face.
"Huh? Why not?"
"You have to kiss me to find out." Luffy's lips twitched with a smile.
"Say what!" Jiru stared at her captain's uncharacteristic flirting. "You are weird, Luffy."
"I am not!" He looked offended.
"Ok, fine." Jiru leaned forward and kissed her captain lightly on the cheek. Beside her, Chopper gasped in surprise, and below, the other three males grew quiet. Breaking the kiss, and sitting back, she smiled brightly and looked at Luffy.
"Well? Tell me, who won?"
"Usoppu." The captain smiled finally.
"I knew it."
"You idiot!" Sanji finally spoke. "Luffy just blackmailed a woman!"
"Sanji…" Jiru looked down at the irate cook.
"Yeeeeeeees, Jiru-swan!" Sanji fell into his love-sick mode.
"Is my breakfast ready?"
"!" He answered.
"Good. Now everybody but Chopper…GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
XXX
"So what's the plan once we get to the Shabody Grove, huh, Nami-chan?" Jiru sat on the upper railing of the Sunny-gou, slowly rotating her newly unwrapped left foot around. Doctor Chopper had declared her foot mended enough to begin exercising it.
It was an hour after she had finally exited her sleeping spot in the men's dorm. Nami and the rest of the crew had found out what happened in the room and lightly teased her about it. Luffy was in a good mood since she had kissed him on the cheek, and was scampering about with, Usoppu, Brooke, Pappug and Camie on the lower deck of the ship. Beside the treasure hunter, the Octo-fishman and the Navigator stood talking about the plan of action. It was a funny thing to see the two on speaking terms. Jiru knew Nami had been psychologically and physically abused by Arlong, and held hatred for the fishman that served under the shark-bully.
"I guess we go look for the ship-coater that Hachi spoke of last night." Nami turned to the collector and gave a vulpine smile. "But you wouldn't know that now, would, you, Lover-girl."
"NAMI!" Jiru sounded embarrassed and indignant. "I didn't CHOOSE to sleep in Luffy's bunk, he put he there."
"Suuure, I believe you." The navigator purred back. "Did your captain kiss you good-night?"
"Hay, SANJI-san!" Luffy jumped up to hang off the railing Hachi, Nami and Jiru were leaning against. "WE'RE HUNNNNNNNGRY!" the captain's voice echoed across the deck into the galley.
"Idiot!" Sanji's response came with him out of the galley. "You just ate your second meal with Jiru-chwan!"
"Luffy, what if I go help Sanji-kun make bento boxes for when we get to Shaboady Grove?"
"YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!" Luffy and Sanji both looked at the treasure hunter with love in their eyes.
"Go make your food! I love eating your cooking!" Luffy laughed further.
"Are you sure you wanna help me, Jiru-chwan?" Sanji looked at the woman affectionately. "It'll be a big job to fill the idiot's stomach for bento boxes."
"I am up for the challenge; we have a few minutes before we get there, right, Nami-chwan?"
"Ugh." Nami face-palmed herself as her friend grinned hugely at them. "Will you two ever stop thinking about food?"
"Nope." Luffy and Jiru answered together.
"What else is new?" Nami muttered. Beside her, the octo-fishman looked surprised.
XXX
An hour later, Sanji and Jiru exited the galley, carrying the horde of bento boxes they filled. Luffy jumped them both, wrapping his arms around the woman's waist to hang joyously. He had waited the whole time by the galley door. He, like the others that mooched food off the free-spirited treasure hunter, knew better than to interrupt the woman while she helped Sanji cook food. She had the tendency to be very violent when somebody messed with her ingredients.
"You idiot, get off her." Sanji planted his foot in Luffy's rubbery face and tried to push the pirate off his floating Su-Chef.
"Luffy you need to wai-." Jiru sighed, a soft smile of amusement on her lips.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I wanna eat a box now!" Luffy looked up at her and made puppy-eyes. "Pleeeeease!"
"Why is it whenever I tell YOU no; you ignore the word like it was never said?" the dark-haired collector chuckled. "But you use the same word so often?"
"I'm hungry!" Luffy demand now, reaching for the green box in the woman's hands.
"NO! This is my box! It has chocolate toppings and shrimp-giri."
"Yummy!" Luffy stretched his arm to grab the box. The treasure hunter floated away from the deck to keep the box away from her captain.
"I'm serious! THIS IS MY BOX!"
The deck of the Sunny-gou was clear and sunny, the grass having sucked up or burned off the night-time dew that accumulated. Luffy clung to the aura-pad that the woman was sitting on, and moved off the higher level of deck. He hung off like a person clinging for dear life over lava.
"Luffy, what are you doing up there?" Usoppu asked from below. "Are you trying to eat Jiru-san's food again?"
"Usoppu!" Luffy laughed. "She made bento!"
"Jiru-Bento!" the sniper's face lit up. It was argued that Jiru-made bento was possibly better than Sanji-made bento. Jiru used outrageous ingredients that made the bento rice – a permanent feature in the seven-part box – burn your tongue with sweet-spiciness.
"I want some!" The sniper turned to the steps in order to grab a box of bento.
"Holy CRAP! Those are big!" Jiru was about to stop Usoppu from grabbing a bento box when she ceased her attention on deck and looked out over the water. She tensed slightly. One by one, the crew followed her gaze. Luffy followed the treasure-hunter's gaze, and, just as Jiru, he immediately went on full alert.
"Whoa!" he cried.
"What the…?" Franky muttered.
"So pretty…!" Nami whispered.
"What is that?" Usoppu questioned.
"Something's flying up there." Sanji said, finally finished tying the bento boxes in cloth; sectioning them off for those who would disembark on Shaboady Grove.
"Oh, my!" Brooke gasped in amazement.
"It's like a dream…" Robin commented, joining the crew on the upper deck.
"WOW!" Chopper breathed.
"Bubbles?" Zoro mumbled.
Up ahead, it was revealed that the Thousand Sunny had arrived at a huge, forest-like island. The trees had grey and white stripes with numbers on them, and their roots grew into the ocean beneath them. What caught the pirates' attention most; however, were the bubbles that were rising into the air.
"Welcome to the Sabaody Archipelago!" Pappug declared.
"A-are those soap bubbles?" Usoppu asked. "What's going on? They keep drifting up, one after another! Are they coming from the island?"
"Who's blowing them?" Luffy asked, having released the air-pad and dropped on the upper deck.
"No one." Camie answered, joining the higher ground to see the sight. "The island makes them."
"The island?" Usoppu repeated, questioningly.
"How so?" Jiru inquired.
"Excuse for interrupting." Robin toned it. "But Nami, what does the Log Pose say?"
"Oh, yeah!" the navigator said in realization as she looked down at the Log Pose. "Right now, the needle is still pointing to Fishman Island. Wait…Camie! Will this island reset the log?"
"Oh, not at all." Hachi reassured. "The Shabody Archipelago is really just one huge clump of trees! It doesn't have a magnetic force."
"It's not an island?" Jiru sounded surprised.
"You do know what mangroves are, don't you?" the octoman asked the woman.
"Yeah." She answered. "Mangroves are trees with roots above or below the water, depending on the tide, am I right?"
"Exactly!" Hachi said. "Here, the roots are always above water! The Shabaody Archipelago is a collection of the world's largest mangroves: the Yarukiman Mangroves."
"The Yarukiman Mangroves?" Luffy repeated. "Sounds cool! Let's goooo, Jiru!"
"Wait!" Hachi said. "There's more! There are a total of seventy-nine trees. Each tree has a town or some facilities. There are also seventy-nine 'islands', altogether, and they all make up the Shabaody Archipelago! The grove right in front of us is Grove 44, the private entrance, so we should dock further back."
"Alright then, let's GOOOO!" Luffy repeated himself.