Here is chapter three! Hope you guys enjoy! Big thank yous to you all who have followed/favorited this story! :D Cookies for everyone!
Luffy and Rika (Tani finally remember the girls name) where talking about how Zoro ate the rice balls. Tani smiled to herself as she watched Rika. The little girl was adorable, even though Rika did seem a bit scared of the young Bad Girl (Rika kept as far away from Tani as possible) Tani still thought of the little girl as cute. Something about her reminded her of Elegia. Maybe it was her kindness.
"I wonder if Zoro's really as evil as everyone says he is" Coby said, looking a bit depressed. Tani bopped him on the head lightly.
"Leave the depressin' cloud ta the Goths' aye?" Tani said. At Coby's confused look, Tani just smiled at him.
"He's not! He's good…" Rika said to Coby and she started explaining why Zoro was tied up in the first place. Tani already knew this, so she tuned it out. She leaned against the wall, and looked up at the sky. She's been doing that a lot, sky watching. She let her mind wander.
Elegia is probably hysterical right now. Or maybe she knows that where Tani is now is the best place she could be. Though knowing the younger twin, she'd still be really worried. If she even knew at all. Tani doubted her dad would say anything. So El might not even know that Tani's no longer there. 'I'm gonna miss her' Tani thought to herself. Maybe there might be a way to bring Elegia here? That would be nice, but Tani knew that Elegia wasn't much for adventuring and such. She was more of a closed off person, happy where she was. Or so she thought. Tani was the opposite. She loved adventures and being reckless. She loved fighting too, but tried not to purposely get into fights. That'd just scare her twin. It was strange, being identical twins but completely opposite. Tani had always wondered why Elegia and she had gotten along so well. Maybe that was the reason.
She got back down to earth when Coby said "I see why your upset" to Rika. That was when something crashed in the girl's mother's restaurant. Tani knew it was Helmeppo. They all got up and ran inside to see what was happening.
"I'm hungry. Bring us whatever you got and keep the check for yourself" Helmeppo said to Rika's mother. Tani clenched her fist, but kept her cool. She had to keep her promise. "And bring us a bottle of your finest moonshine or whatever crap it is that you serve. Put some speed to it, lady, I don't have all day."
Tani noticed Nami sitting at a table close by. Their eyes met for a second before Nami looked away quickly, focusing on what was happening. Luffy had stepped forward, probably getting ready to act if Helmeppo should hurt anyone. Tani stood at the ready to. She wanted to see Helmeppo get hit by Luffy. She leaned forward a bit, smiling to herself.
"That's more like it. I'm thinking of something fun to do since I'm bored out of my skull here. I suppose I could execute Zoro" He said, laughing. Tani could feel Luffy's anger even before he ran forward and punched Helmeppo. Luffy sent Helmeppo flying into a wall.
"You – You just hit me!"
"Luffy, No! You can't hit him!" Coby was holding Luffy back.
"This guy is SCUM" Luffy said angrily.
"You actually hit me!" Helmeppo sounded like he couldn't believe it. "I am Captain Morgan's SON, you know."
"Yeah, like I CARE!" Luffy answered. Tani thought 'well, he is a pirate…'
"You'll care after he executes you for this!" Helmeppo countered. He sounded like a child. Tani was having trouble restraining herself. Just one little kick…
'Tani…?" Coby asked as she walked forward until she was standing next to Helmeppo. Then, she kicked his side. Hard.
"I've wanted to do that for a while now" Tani said, cracking her knuckles and smiling a shit-eating grin. She had to remind herself of her promise again.
Helmeppo whimpered from pain, before he cried out "You-You hit me too!" He sounded surprised as well as in pain. Good.
"Why don't you just be a man and fight?!" Luffy yelled down at him.
"Luffy just ease off some! You too, Tani!" Coby said. He added the ending part when he saw Tani's face. Her face had always been either mildly happy or blank, but now she looked pissed. Tani clenched her fists tightly, pressing her nails into her palm. 'Calm down. Clam down!' "Why are you two trying to get on the marines bad side?"
"I've made up my mind. Today, Zoro joins my crew" Luffy stated. Tani had restrained herself, and held herself back. 'Enough, Tani! You're just an outsider! You do not belong here, so don't do anything rash!' She scolded herself. She grabbed her anger and pushed it all into a box, snapped the lid shut, added a lock and key, and some chains for good measure. While she had been controlling her anger, Helmeppo and his body guards had left.
"Come on. Let's go save Zoro" Luffy said. Tani nodded and Coby, surprisingly, agreed too.
Tani watched Zoro fall asleep. He was probably tired seeing as the position he was in looked very uncomfortable. Suddenly, Zoro whipped his head up, eyes wide, and then he relaxed. He noticed Luffy and Tani right then.
"Ugh, you two again. Don't you two have things to do?" Zoro said, sounding annoyed and board at the same time (how does he do that?)
"Not really" was Tani's cheeky response. Zoro shot her a glare, and then shifted his eyes back when Luffy started speaking.
"I'll untie you, but only if you promise to join my crew" Luffy said.
"You're what?" Zoro answered.
"I run a pirate crew and I'm looking for people to join up" Luffy said as he walked forward.
"No way! I'd never stoop to joining up with a criminal. Screw that business" Zoro said back.
"And what's wrong with being a pirate?" Luffy asked of him.
"Their despicable! Like I'd ever want to join up with one!" Zoro answered. Tani was getting annoyed. Come on, Zoro! Get your brain in gear and join already!
"Oh come on. Give me a break. Everyone already knows you as some vicious bounty hunter always out for blood" Luffy said. Tani wasn't going to get involved. She wasn't a part of the crew, so this wasn't her business. But she wanted to join. Deep down, she wanted to join up, even though that could mess up the plot. She knew that Luffy and his crew could give her what she needed, be the friends she needed so badly, not that she's admit it, but on the other hand, her presence could very well cause something that shouldn't have happened to happen.
"People can say whatever they want to about me, but I've never done a single thing in my life that I regret. I will make it through this challenge and then I'll accomplish what I want" Zoro said. Tani had a fan-girl moment in her head. She made sure to keep her face blank, though.
"Yeah... that's great. But I've already decided that you're going to be on my crew" Luffy said, the devil incarnate. He's one stubborn guy.
"WHAT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT" Zoro yelled at him.
"I hear your one of the best swordsman around."
"Well I am. But that idiot captain's son took mine away."
"Guess I'll just have to go get it back for you."
"What?" Tani was finding this interesting to watch. She could see who was winning this argument.
"So if you want your sword, you'll just have to join my crew!" Luffy said cheekily.
"NOW YOU'RE REALLY PISSING ME OFF" Zoro yelled back.
"Tani, untie the ropes, okay?" Luffy said before running off (in the wrong direction), laughing.
"Wait, he's actually gonna bust in there alone?" Zoro asked no one, or maybe Tani. She wasn't sure. "Hey, Genius, the base is in the other direction."
"GUM GUM ROCKET!" Luffy cried before rocketed past Tani and Zoro. Zoro looked after him wide-eyed. Tani looked amused.
"Wha – What the hell is this guy?" Zoro asked. Tani let him ponder that question as she walked up to Zoro's pole and started to pull at the ropes, trying to untie him.
"Hey, you'll be killed if you help me!" Zoro said to her, sounding annoyed and concerned. Tani looked at him and smiled.
"I don't care" She said back. That caused him to quiet down, though he settled for trying to scare her off with a glare. She ignored it. Tani continued to try to untie him. The knot was really tough, though and her arm was starting to throb. She kept at it, until her wound reopened. Well, she arm was above shoulder high (she wasn't the tallest person alive…)
"Your arm…!" Zoro said when he saw the blood drip to the ground. She was wearing the same thing she wore yesterday.
"It's nothing. Just an old wound that reopened" Tani said, lowering her arms and holding the injured place. She lifted her sleeve to her shoulder to get a good look at it. It was still bandaged, but now the bandage was being stained with blood at a fast pace.
"Tch" Tani scoffed. She'd need some medical attention later. That was when Coby ran over to them. Tani sat on her ass in the dirt, holding her wound.
"AH! Tani, you're bleeding!" Coby yelled when he saw her.
"I know. Coby, untie Zoro" Tani told him, pulling pressure on her wound, to stop the bleeding.
"Okay. You have to get out of here, Zoro" Coby said as he started pulling on the ropes.
"That manic is gonna kill you both for what you're doing right now" Zoro said, looking from Coby to Tani.
"I can't stand to watch the marines behave like this anymore. A true marine should be honorable" Coby said. Tani smiled and said "'ear 'ear!"
"Look, kid, I can't leave. I've got 10 days left and then their-"
"Well, not quite. Their gonna execute you tomorrow"
"Their what?" Zoro sounded shocked. Tani nodded her head, showing that Coby is right.
"Helmeppo never intended to honor your agreement. He planned on killing you from the start. Which made Luffy really angry so he just knocked them out" Coby explained.
"He... did?" Zoro was looking ahead of him, with a bit of a faraway look on his face.
"Now that the marines are mad, their dead set on catching Luffy. Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask you to become a pirate. But I hope that you'll help him. You've got a lot of strength you can offer" Coby continued.
"Luffy will defiantly need it, too. Since he's a brainless idiot" Tani said from where she was sitting. There was a small pool of blood growing where she was sitting.
"Ah! Tani, you need a doctor!" Coby said to her, when he saw the amount of blood.
"Ignore me, and focus on freeing Zoro" Tani said. She had one leg bent with her injured arm resting on it. She had her head resting on her forearm, the uninjured part. She was feeling lightheaded again. It didn't help that the pear wasn't enough food. Damn her old man to hell.
"I'm a bit worried for her. She looks like she's going to faint." Zoro said, watching Tani.
Tani waved a hand and said "I'll be fine, now ignore me."
"He's the only person here who can save you from execution" Coby continued where he left off. "And, of course, you're the only one who can save him, from a very similar fate."
"End of the line!" Captain Morgan said. He brought his cronies with him and all of them where pointing guns at the group of three. Tani whistled at the amount of guns. There was a lot.
"For the crime of treason against me, I sentence you three to die where you stand" Captain Morgan continued. Coby had a scared look on his face, Zoro looked shocked. Tani, however, was not concerned at all.
"We'll be just fine" She said, causing the other two to stare at her as if she'd gone insane. The gun guys cocked their guns and Coby started crying from fear.
"You've been pulling some interesting moves around here. What is this, some sort of poorly executed coup? You three plan with the Straw Hat?" Morgan's voice was getting on her nerves.
"I've always fought alone, like a real man does! Not like a coward, who hides behind his wall of expendable cronies!" Ah, Zoro. Always so awesome when facing death.
"Roronoa Zoro. Don't you dare underestimate me; you may be a strong fight, but under my authority you're just a rat we throw out with the trash. Take aim!" Morgan gave a command. Tani looked at Zoro and knew what he was thinking. Tani looked back over at the gun people, and felt a seed of dread. What if Luffy didn't show up in time? What would her presence here change?
"Fire!"
Luffy landed right in front of them, effectively in the line of fire. The bullets hit him.
"WHAT!?" Zoro yelled.
"LUFFY, NOOO!" Coby yelled.
"Straw Hat!" Morgan said.
The bullets skunk into his skin, one almost touched her nose. Luffy smiled, and then bounced them back.
"SEE YAH!" He yelled. "HAHAHAHAHAH! That won't work on me! Told ya I was strong!"
"What the?" Zoro sounded stunted. "Who the hell are you?"
"My names Monkey D. Luffy and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"
And with that note, let's stop there! I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know your thoughts through reviews or you can pm me as well. Hugs to all! :)