Chapter Sixteen
It was amazing how far the ocean reached, spanning endless distances and touching everything in sight. Usopp had always admired the sea from the port town of Baratie, but he'd never actually gotten a chance to relish in the actual experience of being at sea. The wind invigorated and energized him as it made his dark hair dance wildly around his face. As his heart thrummed loudly in his chest, he almost felt a laugh bubble up within him at how he right this all felt. To be on a ship! Sailing and living his dreams! This was definitely the life he'd always pined for...
But then his thoughts would immediately turn to Sanji. This was such a life-changing experience, how could he not be sharing this with his best friend? Sanji had his own dreams that he had wanted to pursue, yet he was still doing dishes, or serving dinner, or cooking, or whatever it was Zeff had told him to do. Usopp's stomach nauseatingly churned as he seemed to sink lower into the crow's nest, drawing his knees to his chest. Suddenly, he didn't want to see how far away the ocean reached anymore. Because that meant that Sanji was that much farther away.
The subdued emotion did not extend across the ship, however. While Usopp struggled with his emotions and the loss of his friend, the others had already started to settle in. Nami set the course and disappeared into the room she had chosen as her cabin, claiming she needed some time alone to study the maps. Zoro took the time to settle himself on deck, his swords resting against him as he calmly tracked Luffy's movements.
Luffy, meanwhile, could not seem to decide where he wanted to be. He had spent a good amount of time running around the place with a huge grin and so much excitement that it exuded from him like an aura. He finally settled down at the starboard side of the bow, leaning over to watch the waves crash against the side of the ship. He took great pleasure in the mist that sprayed up refreshingly against his face, and held out a hand to watch the droplets collect along his palm.
Even the waves could not keep his attention for long, though, so it was only a matter of minutes before he found himself staring out at the vastness of the sea. Something caught his attention behind them and, quite forgetting the waves, he scurried his way closer to peer at the dot in the distance.
"Hey," he said mostly to himself, but he paused and narrowed his eyes, staring suspiciously. It was only a second before he suddenly straightened, his beaming grin back in place as he turned from the sea and yelled loudly, "Hey! A ship! Look! Look, we're already meeting new people!" He pointed excitedly in the direction of the rapidly approaching vessel.
As soon as the words had left Luffy's mouth, Usopp abruptly stood up, his eyes scanning over the horizon until he saw a speck of something in the distance. Immediately fumbled for his binoculars, he put them to his eyes and heavily leaned over the edge of the crow's nest.
It was a ship, all right. He could make out several people out on the dock, rugged men he'd never seen before...and a blonde head that almost certainly belonged to-
"Sanji?"
"What?" Luffy yelled at Usopp, holding his hat against his head as he craned his neck to peer up at the crow's nest. Wind whipped around him, making it difficult to hear. "Sun cheese? I want some!"
"No!" shouted Usopp. "Sanji! I see Sanji out there!"
Zoro's eyes cracked open from where he'd been resting on the deck, and he slowly sat up. "What? That's impossible-"
"I know!" Luffy turned to Zoro with a perplexed frown. "What're the odds Sanji'd have sun cheese too?"
"What the hell are you babbling about?" Zoro stood up, walking over to the railing. "You sure it's Sanji?" he called out to Usopp.
"Positive!" exclaimed the younger man, thrill coloring his voice.
"I'm talking about sun cheese," Luffy said in mild indignation, but then he finally paid attention to what else was being said. "Wait, Sanji? He's on that ship?"
"Yes!" said Usopp again, growing a little tired of answering the same questions over and over again.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Luffy laughed happily, his eyes squinting shut. "Tell him to come on board, then."
No matter how hard the curly-haired man waved, however, he didn't think he could catch Sanji's attention. "I don't know if he sees me!"
"That's alright, we'll just make him see," Luffy cheerfully assured Usopp, and looked around quickly for something to use. An empty discarded bottle rested near the railing; grabbing it in his right hand, he threw his arm behind himself and let the momentum elongate the limb while he braced his shoulder with his left hand and sturdied his legs.
"Gomu Gomu no..." he yelled, a thrilled grin overtaking his expression as he felt his hand stop at the limits of his rubber body. "Pay Attention!" His arm snapped forward suddenly, his hand and the bottle shooting forward over the water until he let the bottle loose. It went soaring over the water like a missile and would have slammed right into Sanji's head if he hadn't turned and thrown himself to the side at the last minute with a startled expletive that could almost be heard even from that distance.
But at least he was looking at their ship now.
"Luffy!" shrieked Usopp, horrified. "You could have killed him-!" But then the gravity of what Luffy had actually done sunk in. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. What the hell did you just do? Your arm. I-I-I-It stretched..."
"So?" Luffy said blankly, looking up at Usopp in confusion. He rolled his right arm to get used to the feeling. He needed to work on the end... he almost got flipped onto his butt when his hand returned. "Your nose is long and I don't point that out." He didn't say it with any cruelty; it was more that he didn't understand why it was being brought up.
"You're made out of rubber," grumbled Zoro. "Have you ever met anyone made out of rubber before?"
"Huh? ...Oh, right!" Luffy grinned up at Usopp happily, stretching his cheek a ridiculous amount to demonstrate. "I'm a rubberman!" He was still a little unused to the feeling, but it was strange how quickly he was becoming accustomed to his new body. Like he'd always been like this but just hadn't bothered to try stretching before. He'd even forgotten Usopp didn't know.
Usopp felt a little woozy at this revelation, and he turned away. "Ugh, don't do that," he pleaded.
"Okay," Luffy agreed cheerfully enough, but he didn't seem to understand why Usopp would want him to stop. He had never seen a person stretch his cheek, so he really had no idea how strange it looked. "More importantly, is Sanji watching now? Tell him to come here!"
Usopp turned toward the ship again, raising his arm and giving a feeble wave. The only thing they'd probably succeeded in doing was nearly give Sanji a heart attack...
The ship was steadily gaining on them, enough that Sanji's expression was now visible even without the help of binoculars. Not that it helped any. Although he was watching the ship, he was leaning against the railing with an expression of utter bewilderment. Some of the people behind him pointed excitedly at where the bottle had shattered against the deck and toward Luffy, who was grinning in their general direction.
Usopp's movement must have caught Sanji's attention however, as it was not long before he tilted his head toward the crow's nest and suddenly broke out into a wide boyish smile and waved back with both his arms. He yelled something but he was too far away to be heard.
Usopp suddenly leaned over the edge of the crow's nest, waving back with just as much enthusiasm. "Sanji!" he called.
Zoro rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, he's on a ship..."
Luffy laughed in the background while Sanji, as if somehow understanding what had just happened, stopped waving and glared from afar. Although the ships were moving at a decent speed, it still seemed to take a long time for Sanji and the others to finally come within shouting distance. Even then, most of what passed between the ships in terms of conversation was incoherent and blurred as everyone yelled at once.
It wasn't until the ships were properly secured alongside each other and Sanji and the strangers with him climbed their way onto Luffy and the others' ship that anything started to make sense. A natural lull in the conversations fell when Sanji jumped onto the deck and stood there, a bag dangling from his hand as he looked at them all. There was something that seemed almost uncertain about his body language, but when he smirked and spoke he sounded perfectly confident.
"Hey," he said by way of an anticlimactic greeting.
Usopp, meanwhile, had hurriedly made his way down from the crow's nest, excitement dancing in his eyes. "Sanji!" he called happily when he made it to the deck. "What are you-? I don't understand, I thought you were-?"
"The bag says enough," drawled Zoro as he ambled over to the group. "He's obviously too afraid of the dark to sleep alone."
Sanji scowled at Zoro, ignoring Usopp's questions at first. "Says the guy who can't even sleep in a bed alone." He pointedly dropped the bag, as if to dare Zoro to demand that he leave.
As soon as the remark was uttered, Zoro gave a giant scowl. "Shut up, that's entirely different-"
"Oh, really?" Sanji drawled, smirking now in smug satisfaction from annoying the swordsman. He now knew damn well why Zoro was so protective, but he couldn't resist some teasing. "Are you sure Luffy's not just your security blanket?"
The green-haired man's cheeks immediately flushed a deep, hard red. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in my life," he snapped.
"Not so ridiculous you don't react," Sanji insisted, grinning a bit wickedly.
Before he could continue, though, Luffy piped up with a wide smile. "Yeah it is, though! There's no way I'd be comfortable as a blanket..." He paused very briefly to consider, and shrugged lightly. "Maybe a pillow, but blanket? It'd never work!" He laughed at the idea.
Zoro shifted uncomfortably. "You never answered what the hell you were doing here," he said, wanting to change the subject.
Sanji grinned evilly at Zoro, tilting his head the slightest toward Luffy as if to silently say he hadn't missed any of that and fully intended to tease him more later. But he relented for the moment and straightened while adjusting his tie. "Well, for one, I knew no journey would be interesting without me. And for another, when I realized beautiful Nami-san would be stuck at sea with a bunch of hoodlums like you and no one to protect her, I had to come!" He glanced at Usopp though, his visible eye twinkling a bit even if the smirk-smile stayed in place.
Usopp returned the smile, his mouth positively beaming. He knew that Sanji coming had little to do with Nami, and perhaps even less to do with him. Indeed, the curly-haired man had a hunch it had more to do with the mythical All Blue, but he wasn't about to mention it if his friend didn't readily give up that piece of information.
"Glad you could make it!" he laughed instead.
Zoro, on the other hand, rolled his eyes. "You can do something useful around here, right?"
Sanji snorted, hooking the strap of his bag around his foot and jerking his leg upward so he could easily catch it and toss it over his shoulder. "Only kick more ass than you..." He narrowed his visible eye, a challenging smirk dominating his expression. "In about half the time."
"I'd like to see you try," growled Zoro. "You'll cook, though, right?"
Raising his eyebrow, Sanji nodded. "Of course," came his answer to both comments.
Luffy jumped in excitement, reaching out to yank Sanji's bag away. "Wow, a cook! Great idea! Let's eat now! Here, here, I'll go put this away for you and we'll meet you in the galley. I want meat!"
Sanji nearly fell over at the unexpected jerk, releasing his bag to preserve his balance and not give Zoro something to humiliate him over, like falling on his ass right after being so suave. "H-hey! I didn't say I'd cook now... What about these people I came with? Don't you even care who they are?" He reached for the bag but Luffy laughed and danced away with it, stowing the bag under one arm while he waved cheerfully at the people staring at them strangely from behind him.
"Hi everyone! I'm Luffy and this is my ship and I'm the Captain." He grinned so widely that it must have been painful.
As soon as Luffy spoke, an attractive woman with dark hair climbed onto the deck from her own ship. "Why, hello there," she said silkily, making a show of brushing some of her dark locks from her face. "You have a *very* lovely ship, don't you?"
Zoro watched her carefully from where he stood, not particularly fond of the way she carried herself and the vibes she seemed to bring with her. There was something very wrong about this person, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Luffy, however, was oblivious. "Thanks," he said enthusiastically, "I like it too!" Holding Sanji's bag securely in his arms, he grinned brightly at the newcomers. "Are you eating too?"
Watching him shrewdly, the woman's full lips twisted into a small smirk. "Is that an invitation?"
"Sure!" Luffy answered, hopping back and turning to Sanji with a grin. "You can start now. You'll need to make lots since they're here too."
"Leave it to me," Sanji said, snatching the bag back firmly. "Do you even have any rations, though? I can't make anything if you have no food."
"Oh, but there's lots!" Luffy grinned happily. "I checked right away and there's especially lots of meat so you should go make that now."
"Figures you'd look there first," Sanji grumbled, but he looked pleased to have something to do as he strode toward the galley. He grinned goofily in the woman's direction, promising to return with something wonderful for her to eat, and wandered in the direction of the galley.
Usopp watched him walk past, his mouth stretched into an amazed smile. "You...need any help?"
Smirking, Sanji shrugged. "I don't need any help, but I don't mind admirers," he teased.
Flushing some, Usopp looked away from a moment before looking back at Sanji doubtfully. "I'd better not, then. Your ego might get too big for the both of us to be in there."
Sanji laughed, and paused in the galley's doorway. "Suit yourself," he said with an all-too-innocent expression and tone, which he lowered considerably for his next words, "But I could use a taste-tester too." He glanced across the ship at Luffy, who was oblivious to the conversation. "I don't really trust that guy to know decent food when he sees it. Did you check the pantry too?"
Usopp nodded. "Yeah, I did. I hadn't realized that they had bought so much food. Looked pretty nice, too, actually." Usopp's voice lowered. "I guess 'cause he's...y'know..."
Sanji nodded, his expression a little more serious. "Must be." He paused, glanced at the others in the middle of a conversation, and shrugged with one shoulder. "I'd better go make something before he tries eating us. Join me or not, whichever you like." His tone was light, softening his abrupt exit as he stepped back and let the galley door swing closed behind him.
Hesitating a moment, Usopp promptly followed the chef into the galley.
A good period of time passed relatively peacefully on the ship. The galley was filled with the clinking of dishes, sizzling of meat, and banging of pans as Sanji set to creating a banquet befitting the small army they had wandering the deck. Usopp opened his mouth several times to speak, but after a bit of hesitation and nervous laughter, he inevitably ended up commenting on Sanji's cooking style, or talking about an idea he had for a new experiment, or relaying a story of adventure and bravery he had told many times before. Sanji responded easily, saying nothing about recent events, just acting as if it were perfectly normal for them to be at sea on a boat instead of in the kitchen of Baratie Restaurant wasting time between customers.
Outside, the newcomers found their way around the ship to claim resting spots and places to slap down a deck of cards and loudly call each other cheaters. Someone had gotten into the liquor cabinet early but the woman ('Alvida' she had introduced herself later) quickly stopped most of them from drinking. To avoid annoying their hosts with their behavior, she said.
Zoro had seemed displeased about her presence but said nothing, while Luffy spent the time loudly telling anyone in the vicinity how great their ship was and how he could beat them all at cards. He eventually got roped into a game and beat them once, but lost twice after that.
His pouting was almost as loud as his bragging.
It was in the middle of what looked like would be a fourth loss that he abruptly stood, threw his cards down, and ran to the galley with a grin. He smelled meat, he told anyone who asked what the rush was, and that was all that was needed for others to recognize the smell of a cooked meal themselves and to migrate noisily to the galley.
Usopp had his mouth open again, this time looking more determined than ever to get whatever was on his mind out into the open, but all he got out was, "Sanji, why-?" before Luffy slammed the door open and everyone poured in.
"I'm here for meat!" Luffy announced brightly, as if his motives were unclear.
"Imagine that," Sanji answered with a slight smirk. He did not look away from the green peppers he had hissing in the pan, though, and tilted his head toward the deck. "Get a table ready out there, then. There's not enough room in here and I'll bring everything out in a minute."
"Okay!" Luffy nearly yelled in his enthusiasm, and he managed to drag a good bunch of the group out with him to delegate to Table Setting Up Duties so they could eat even faster.
Glancing over his shoulder, Sanji asked idly while he ignored the three visitors prowling the galley still. "What were you saying, Usopp?"
Frowning some, Usopp glanced at the loud group of newcomers, shaking his head. "It's...it's nothing. We'll talk about it later."
Looking at Usopp oddly, Sanji just nodded, shrugged, and made a quick motion with his wrist that had the green peppers flying in the air to land, sizzling, once more in the pan.
Dinner was served soon enough, various people crowding around at the table and throughout the galley. Zoro was seated in the midst of them, his eyes narrowed slightly as he occasionally took a sip of alcohol from his mug. He had gone to tell Nami about the newcomers, but the orange-haired girl had firmly cut him off from behind the door, telling him that, no, she wasn't done with her map and, no, she didn't want to be bothered with anything until she was finished.
Well, that suited the swordsman just fine. He was better off keeping his concerns to himself anyway, seeing how easily everyone else trusted the strangers, especially the dark-haired woman. As such, Zoro had made a mental note not to consume too much beer lest he lose his focus on the matter at hand.
Surprisingly, the meal went by with little incident. A couple of men got into a small scuffle, but Alvida had promptly put them into their place by threateningly waving a spiked club that she seemed to carry beneath her feminine cloak. But the food was good, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits. Even so, Zoro never lost his alert edge over what was going on around him.
Sanji automatically began cleaning up at the end of the meal, and without thinking about it, Usopp joined him. Old habits died hard, and the two had lived in a restaurant long enough that the busboy routine was firmly ingrained in their psyches.
That didn't stop Sanji from kicking Zoro and Luffy as he passed, though. "Hey. Help clean up, you lazy bums," he growled, but it was not so much anger behind his words as it was his needing to needle them both.
Luffy looked up from where he was still stuffing food into his cheeks, now puffed massively out as his rubber body accounted for it. He asked something, but it was so garbled by the meat and bread crowding his mouth that he may as well have been speaking another language.
Looking away in mild disgust, Sanji sighed lightly. "Nevermind..." he said, in a tone that implied he had pretty much expected that result.
"Aw, don't be so hard on him," Usopp teased. "He's just enjoying your great food, right?"
"Yeah, mashing it all together for everyone to see," he grumbled, though he really didn't sound all that upset.
Suddenly, the door pushed open and Nami stepped outside. "What's going on around here?" she said sharply. "It's so loud, and there are all these people I've never met everywhere!"
Luffy waved and tried to yell something but, again, it was lost to incoherency and pieces of scattering meat.
"Nami-swan!" Sanji swooned loudly over Luffy's muffled call. How he managed to balance the trays as he leaned toward her and accounted for the rolling of the ship without losing even one morsel of food was just another of his mysterious skills. "You look so beautiful when angry! Would you like my special dessert I saved especially for you? It has strawberries and cream, mixed in with the love from my heart..." His voice trailed off as he closed his eyes happily, his nostrils growing larger to better inhale the intoxicating scent of her hair.
"Sanji-kun?" she asked incredulously. "How the hell did you get here?"
"I followed the scent of your perfume from Baratie itself, crossing the ocean to protect you from these bastards," came his dreamy reply as he leaned even closer and shifted all the plates to one hand so he could slip his arm around her shoulders. "Are you happy to see me? Don't hold back, Nami-san! I won't turn away."
She laughed a little. "Oh, really? Well, there had to have been some way that you got to this ship. I know you didn't walk on water."
"Of course not," Sanji said, pulling away and redistributing the plates as he grinned down at her with a more normal expression. "I ran into some people who were looking for their ship, actually. I offered to help them if they'd let me off with my friends if we saw them. I figured we'd have a good chance of finding all of you if we caught up around the river or just past it."
The navigator raised an eyebrow. "Find their ship? Did they lose it or something?"
Sanji shrugged, looking over at the crew as they milled about the deck. "I'm not sure," he said absently, smirking slightly when one of the men stumbled into Zoro and almost made him spill his beer. The man retreated quickly when he saw the swordsman's expression, though.
"They were in a frenzy at the riverbanks when I showed up. From what I overheard, most of them were partying or shopping and only a few were on the ship. But when they got back from buying supplies or getting drunk, the ship was gone and their crew was knocked out. I'm assuming it was stolen but maybe it was mutiny. They didn't say." He finally turned back to look at Nami.
Visibly paling, Nami looked around at the partying pirates, her eyebrows furrowed. "You don't say…"
"Yes!" said Alvida loudly as she came up from behind Sanji. "It was a horrible tragedy, and it'll be a huge setback to the crew if we don't get it back."
Noting Nami's reaction but not really knowing what to make of it, he glanced at her oddly before turning back to Alvida. "Ah, that reminds me. Since I've found my friends, I'll obviously not come with you when you keep searching. Good luck finding the ship, though. And thanks for the ride."
"Oh, no, I don't think continuing our search is necessary," said Alvida smoothly. "Come to think of it, I'm not so sure I'd want you coming along anyway."
Suddenly, a bottle smashed down over Sanji's head from behind, bits of glass scattering through the air. The next few moments were pandemonium between Zoro leaping up and charging at the group of pirates that had started attacking and Usopp's startled screams. But as soon as the bodyguard's swords were unsheathed, it only became more chaotic as bodies began to fall against the deck.
Stumbling against the wall, Sanji brought his hands up to the blood staining his light hair, and slumped to the ground. A fall of blond covering his eyes and the blood running down his face made it difficult to see if he was unconscious or simply trying to gather his wits before attacking.
Luffy had nearly choked at the sudden attack, and it took a few seconds of serious coughing to be able to breathe correctly again. Looking around wildly, he was surprised to see Zoro cutting away at the pirates as easily as a child flattening the grass running through a field.
Movement caught his eye and he looked over just in time to see Sanji dropping to the ground with Alvida standing nearby. One of her crew was standing beside Sanji with a broken bottle still held in his hand, while Nami and Usopp were kneeling by the chef. Noticing Alvida's wide smirk and the confident way she wielded her spiked club, he knew they had planned this all along.
"Alvida!" he yelled, running at her as she moved across the ship.
The dark-haired woman gave a cruel smile as she stared down at Luffy. "So you're the fools who stole our ship. Somehow, I'm not surprised just by looking at you. Too poor to afford a ship of your own, no doubt."
Not bothering to respond to her taunt, he just grit his teeth and snapped his arm back. His fist flew forward in a punch, as he hoped to get her right away.
Her head didn't move even a centimeter as the prince's fist connected - and slipped - against her jaw. A smirk drew across her face as she looked up, apparently unscathed. "I ate a devil fruit, too. You can't hurt me like that."
Now it was her turn. Gripping tightly onto her club, she charged forward and swung it outward toward Luffy.
So surprised to find another Devil Fruit, especially one whose power seemed different than his, Luffy almost didn't think to dodge in time. His shirt caught and ripped on the spikes of her club as it swooshed past him, and he jumped back to give himself more room. "What the hell!" he blurted, looking down at his fist in shock. Why didn't it hit her? Did she dodge that fast?
Drawing his arm back again, he tried again. "Don't run away this time! Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
Yet again the punch was deflected right off her very skin. "Nice try!" she sneered, whipping the club out again.
Luffy dodged quickly, again barely making it out of the way before he got hit. He thought he felt the spikes graze his skin that time but he ignored it. Jerking to a stop a few steps away, his hat fell off in the motion. It rustled against the back of his neck, held on by the string, as he glared at her. "Why doesn't it work?" he demanded, frustrated. "How can you dodge so fast?"
"You will never be able to hit me," she laughed. "Why do you keep trying? The sube sube fruit will never let you touch me. My body will always be perfect." She gave a coy smile. "You know you want it, though."
Gritting his teeth, Luffy took a brief moment to think. She said nothing would touch her, but maybe he just wasn't being fast enough. Or he wasn't aiming well enough. Could a fruit really make her body so smooth it couldn't be touched? He shouldn't wonder, really, since he was rubber now, but the fruits seemed so impossible.
Making up his mind, he tried something new. He punched one fist then the other, back and forth, and soon the rubber was snapping his hands forward and back so fast that his arms appeared to multiply. "Gomu Gomu no Gattling Gun!" he yelled, aiming for her torso where he shouldn't be able to miss with so many fists.
She didn't even bother moving this time; her hand neatly clutching the club as each punch was deflected.
Meanwhile, Zoro was catching this exchange from the corner of his eye. Thrusting all of his weight forward, he tossed several other enemies overboard as he valiantly tried to move his way toward the prince. "Luffy-!"
Snapping his arms back, Luffy twisted a bit to contain the momentum and slid to a stop near the railing of the deck. He couldn't hear Zoro's yell over the sounds of battle all around them, and even if he had, he was too involved in the fight to respond.
"I can hit you!" he growled in a belated answer to her earlier taunt. "Even with a fruit you're not invincible!" Seriously frustrated, he whipped his leg around, hoping to catch her legs with his and knock her to the ground where she couldn't possibly evade his punches.
But Alvida was growing bored with her one-sided battle. As soon as the kick was deflected, she scowled and kicked off one of her shoes. Running forward, she gained momentum and slid forward on the bare sole of her foot, swinging mightily at the prince with the spiked weapon.
Off-balance, Luffy tried to account for the failure and dodge again, but Alvida was taking no chances this time. Even as he tried to throw himself backwards, her speed was too great with the new skill she showed.
Being rubber probably kept the club from ripping through his skin, muscles and organs, but it didn't diminish the strength of her hit at all. All the breath slammed out of his body even as he felt himself fly over the railing. There was a moment of confusion where the sea was above him and the ship was upside down and his entire right side burned in pain. He didn't think to reach for the railing and even if he had, he didn't have time before the ocean reached up to swallow him. All he got was a quick breath of air dragged through a throbbing torso, and then it was darkness.
"Luffy!" Zoro's teeth gritted as he saw the prince plunge into the watery depths below. Though his heart stopped momentarily, he took in a sharp breath and bravely sliced at one of his attackers. Whirling around toward the female captain, he focused on his next target. Dark eyes narrowing, he growled before lunging forward. "Damn you!"
But his blades made no impact against her either, and his mind suddenly reeled at how baffling this was. What was going on? Why couldn't he touch her?
Alvida only snorted. "Men can be so stupid."
Usopp was tensely watching the exchange from the sidelines, a hand tightly gripping onto Sanji's slack arm. "This doesn't look good," he murmured to Nami. He looked down at Sanji, concern etched deeply into his face. "We gotta do something."
Nami nodded absently, her expression serious as she glanced around quickly. Zoro had managed to decimate most of the pirates, but there were still a few groups struggling back to their feet and looking ready to pounce. "Having another fighter around would be really helpful right about now." Turning back to Usopp, she stared at him intently. "We need to get rid of that woman; her crew probably won't stop at least until then. Maybe even after she's defeated, but it's worth a try. Have any ideas?"
The curly-haired man hesitated a moment as he looked at some of the pirates coming their way. "O-oi, why do I have to be the one to come up with ideas?" But then he glanced at Sanji again before shifting his attention to Zoro's fruitless attempts at fighting Alvida. "I…I think I have an idea, but I don't want anything to happen to Sanji while I pull it off…"
"Don't worry about that," Nami said with a fierce smile, readying herself to stand. "I can protect him for awhile, I just can't do it indefinitely." Straightening, she reached down her shirt and produced three rods that, with a practiced flick of her wrist, she reattached into a staff. Widening her stance and holding the weapon toward the approaching pirates, she said over her shoulder, "If you can handle the woman, I can handle Sanji. Go!"
Visibly paling, Usopp shakily stood as he watched Nami assume a fighting position. "Y-you better not mess up," he said. "'Cause the Great Captain Usopp won't forgive you!" Swallowing hard, he turned away and began to head up the stairs and toward the storage room.
Zoro, meanwhile, had decided that he wasn't faring well. Between trying to lay a hit against Alvida and avoiding her fierce club, a part of him was worrying over what had become of Luffy. He vaguely remembered the boy telling him that he could hold his breath for long periods of time, which was definitely good for them both in this case.
Nami narrowed her eyes as the pirates came rushing at her, ignoring Zoro who was clearly fighting their boss, and Usopp who had run away. They would get the coward later. She could see they were amused that a mere girl was there to fight them, but she would show them the power women could hold. They should know better, anyway, given that their captain was a woman too.
She slammed the staff into the first man, knocking him to the side immediately. Another came but she was there for him, swiping his legs from beneath him by attacking the back of his knees and he was on the ground. Smacking the staff against his head, she moved on to the next.
There weren't that many left, but there were enough. She was just about to curse Sanji eternally for getting knocked out so soon in the battle when she heard him twitch and groan. "Sanji!" she yelled urgently as a man nearly gutted her with his knife. How in the world had she almost missed that?
There was a slightly louder groan as Sanji shifted and lifted a hand to his head groggily. "Sanji!" she yelled again, determined. "You have to get up! We need your help!"
He looked up, the grogginess and confusion in his eye as well as body language, but he quickly noted the sprawled bodies around them and Nami narrowly dodging another knife. Cursing, he jumped to his feet and took a moment for the wooziness to subside before he appeared at her side to continue the fight.
Alvida barely noticed that the blond had woken up. Instead, she was focusing her attention on trying to beat Zoro. The swordsman barely dodged another blow from the club, and she persisted once again, nicking him with a second strike. "You'll be drowning with that boy in a moment!" she laughed.
"What?" Zoro snarled. Was Luffy drowning? The prince had told him that he was capable of swimming; this woman wasn't making any sense. But the statement unnerved him enough to where he had once again failed to dodge a blow, the strike drawing blood as he fell back against the deck.
But Alvida only shook her head, laughing as she held the club over Zoro's body. "You fool. The ocean swallows every devil fruit user." Just as she was about to slam the weapon into Zoro's paling face, a fish net suddenly dropped from one of the higher levels of the ship, entangling the woman and sending her slipping onto the deck beside Zoro.
"Ah-hah!" cried Usopp triumphantly from above, lingering beside a set of stairs. "Take that, you bottle-wielding fiend!" As soon as he started laughing happily, Zoro had gotten up and taken a dive into the chilly water below.
Luffy had expected to fall underwater, to scrabble around in the salty darkness for a bit with flailing arms and legs, and to resurface for a great gasp of air as he tried to find a way back on deck. He had planned to get a better breath when he was above water, had figured that even if at first he was really clumsy in righting himself underwater, he would be fine.
He should have been fine, but he wasn't.
He knew immediately that something was wrong. He had fallen into the sea enough times to know that the impact could be shocking at first, but he always recovered quickly and scrambled his way back to air. This time, the water engulfed him... and he couldn't move.
He couldn't move.
His eyes strained open in shock, teeth gritted to keep the bit of air in his lungs he'd managed to catch, and his arms and legs were just resting calmly in the currents around him and he couldn't move!
He tried to tell his legs to twitch, tried to tell his arms to jerk and his feet to paddle and his body to move steadily toward the diminishing light above him. But he was caught, paralyzed by the depth and strength of the sea, and it was all he could do to force his mouth to remain shut and air to stay trapped in his lungs.
As he drifted further down, he couldn't help thinking that he felt heavier than he should. That the water felt heavier too. Dark, cold currents and they reached for him cloyingly, wrapped around him and gently eased the strength away from his body. Felt like the life was being sucked out of him slowly, quietly, taken by the ocean at the center of his most treasured dreams. Pulling silently at his control and his eyes felt heavy with the depth of the sea and situation even as his heart rocketed around in his chest.
-He needed to move. He needed to move! -
But there was no movement and he was alone, and it was quiet and peaceful down there, even if his heartbeat was an angry tattoo in his chest and he could feel the blood thundering distantly through his head. The ocean pressed in around him darkly and he could see his own hand floating above him, floating like someone else's, because he could feel it but it wasn't his and it wouldn't move and it was getting darker.
-had to move, had to-
He tried to look up at the light but it seemed far away and wasn't he sinking too fast? He felt too heavy, everything was heavy, everything but the parts that seemed numb. And it was quiet down here, down in the depths with the currents, and his lungs burned painfully for air. Burned and he tried to hold his breath, tried really hard, he was the best underwater-breath-holder anyone knew, but he didn't have enough in the first place.
Didn't have enough, so how could he expect it to last?
-move! Had to move..! Had... had to... -
Violent burning and there was no air. A cloud of bubbles obstructed his vision, and the water came rushing in where air had been. A moment of panic, eyes wide and senses alert and the darkness and heaviness pushed away as his body reacted violently to the water seeping into his lungs. But he couldn't even struggle more than a jerk and a twitch-couldn't even make his body react more than that!-and there he was, alone in the darkness with lungs that were now growing heavy too.
No breath, and the sea was cloying, gentle, peaceful; terrifyingly, resoundingly silent, and all he had was the diminishing light to stare at. The pull at his life and he was paralyzed but he knew that he was gliding down, sinking-falling too fast and it was dark and there it went, his strength, dispersed into the water to float away, away, wash up on shore somewhere else and live inside a shell with a hermit crab.
It was dark, really dark, but did he close his eyes or did he just go so deep he lost the light?
Dark, but it was gentle. Gentle pull and a terrible, solid feeling of never returning to the air ever again. Did that mean he was dying?
It should bother him, the thought, but his eyes were closed, or the salt didn't burn anymore, and his lungs couldn't burn when they were filled with that water too and everything was water, inside and out, even his mind was shifting and spreading like water to sea and he couldn't think, closed his eyes if they weren't already, and it was darkness and darkness and gentle, gentle tugging at his life like the tide at the sand. Like the tide... like..
Gentle.. but quiet...
-ying, was he dyin-?
Gentle.
A gentle death, but a death nonetheless.