Tangled Web
A role-play/joint-fic by Digitaldreamer and Constable Remington
Chapter fourteen: Nightmares
Well guys, here's chapter fourteen of Tangled Web. O.o I am completely amazed by how many people are reading this fic, it's insane! You people are cray-zee and I love you!
So, in this chapter you will see things definitely start to grow a bit darker…and…well…yeah. I got nothing more to say, get reading!
Zoro flopped against his bed, sighing and staring up at the ceiling. Luffy seemed to be having so much fun downstairs that he wouldn't bother going down there to call him for any reason. He didn't want to be accused of hogging the boy again or anything. Instead, he just curled up, kicking off his shoes, still in his jeans and t-shirt, and promptly fell asleep.
A few hours later the chaos from downstairs was finally dying down. After hearing several of Usopp's tales and being astounded by each and every one of them, regardless of the interjections of truth from the other boarders, Luffy had spent some time watching a few of the episodes on Nami's Cardcaptor Sakura DVD's. The boy had been so absorbed in the anime that the orange-haired senior was able to play with his hair without objections.
Eventually someone must have brought the brightly colored ribbons in his messy black hair to Luffy's attention, as the boy had immediately torn them out. After being chastised by Nami for ruining her work he had just laughed and gone to the kitchen for a snack, then ended up chatting with Vivi for a bit. Eventually they got onto the subject of the boarders that lived there, which led to Vivi's explanation of them.
"Well, let's see..." Vivi looked thoughtful for a moment. "You've met everyone here, I know. I'm Vivi, I run the boarding house and I go to the same school you'll be going to." She smiled towards him, beginning to count on her fingers. "Nami is a senior and works at the mall in a girls' clothing store called 'Mikan'. Usopp-san is a junior and does illustrations for children's' books and has that web comic... I think he makes a bit of money off that, too." She frowned a bit in thought, continuing on. "Sanji-san is already out-of-school; he works as the assistant head chef at the really nice restaurant downtown, All Blue... maybe we'll take you there sometime! Robin-san is a history teacher at the high school... and Zoro... Zoro's a senior as well, though he was supposed to graduate a year earlier..." She frowned. "He had to repeat his freshman year. He..." Vivi paused, blinking. "Come to think of it, what does Zoro do?"
Luffy, whom had been listening to this explanation with interest, blinked, cocking his head to the side. "You don't know what Zoro does?" he asked, sounding confused. Then he beamed. "Aw, who cares? I'm sure it's really cool, whatever it is!"
Vivi seemed a bit more bothered by this fact than Luffy, wondering how she could have overlooked that. Still, it was probably nothing. She did know he worked, but he didn't work regular hours... hmm.
"Yes, I'm sure it's cool," she said with a laugh. "What about you, Luffy? Will you get a job?"
The boy frowned thoughtfully before grinning and nodding. "Yeah! Or at least I'll try! Maybe I can be…um...um…a pirate!" he cried, punching his fist into the air. "Yeah! That'd be a cool job!"
"A pirate, huh?" Sanji had stepped into the room a few moments earlier, long enough to catch the question and its answer. He looked rather amused, and smiled winningly towards Vivi, quickly taking a seat beside her. "They could use bus boys at the restaurant, but I don't exactly trust you with that," he told Luffy, only half-joking.
Luffy blinked, brow furrowing in confusion. "'Bus boys'? What do they do? Do they ride buses?" he asked.
Sanji stared back in confusion, before he sighed. "No," he began, annoyed, trying to explain it as if he were speaking to a young child. "They bus the tables. That means they take all the plates and glasses and silverware from the tables after the customers leave."
"Oh!" Luffy snapped his fingers, grinning. "I could do that! Sounds like fun! I should try that!" he babbled.
Sanji didn't exactly feel like babysitting Luffy all day long on the job, but he just let the matter go for now, reclining a bit in his chair and giving a simple nod. "Yeah, I guess so." It certainly didn't sound like fun to him, but he had already decided that Luffy was strange.
Luffy was strange, the marimo was strange. They were fucking meant for each other.
"Okay, I've decided!" the boy declared, hoping to his feet from the table. "Tomorrow I'm gonna look for a job! And it'll be a really cool job! Like a pirate or a busboy or something! I'm gonna go tell Zoro!" With that he charged out of the room, yelling all about how he going to get a job.
The job market was doomed.
"Oh, god," Sanji muttered, raising a hand to his forehead as if a headache was coming on. He suddenly felt the need for another smoke. "That kid just causes trouble wherever he goes..."
Luffy took the stairs two at a time and then charged down the hall, going so fast he managed to miss Zoro's room completely and run all the way to the end of the hallway. He also managed to run into the door at the end with a loud BANG!
The boy yelped in pain, pulling back and rubbing his face before turning around and running back to Zoro's room.
He threw open the door with the cry of "ZORO! Zoro" He then paused, blinking at the sleeping form on the bed.
The boy grinned mischievously before flinging himself across the room, landing on top of the sleeping swordsman. "Zoro! Wake up!"
Awakening from his slumber almost instantly, Zoro's hands grabbed Luffy's arms roughly, flipping him over and pinning him down to the mattress as if subduing an attacker. His eyes held a strange, frightening sort of fire in them, but as Zoro saw that it was only Luffy, his grip on the boy's arms loosened considerably and the fire in his eyes extinguished.
"Luffy--" he blinked, frowning. "Don't do that to me."
Luffy yelped in surprise as he went from being on top of the older man to being pinned to the bed in a matter of seconds. He gave a large grin as Zoro's dangerous expression softened, giggling. "Heh, sorry Zoro."
Zoro sighed, but didn't bother moving away. "Well? What's so important that you had to come wake me up like that?" He was pretty sure he had been dreaming something nice, too... though he couldn't quite remember what it was.
"I'm gonna get a job!" the boy said excitedly, still grinning. "And it's gonna be a really cool job! Like a pirate or a busboy or…or…A NINJA! Oh! Or I could be a cardcaptor like Sakura!" he rambled, dark chocolate orbs wide and bright as he thought of the possibilities.
Zoro hardly had the energy to deal with this right now. "Luffy," he spoke softly, sighing. "You don't need to get a job. I can take care of you. You just need to worry about school, alright?" Zoro didn't even want to think about the trouble Luffy could cause with a job.
Luffy blinked up at the older man, cocking his head to the side. "But everyone else in the house has a job! I want one, it kind of looks like it would be fun…besides, if I had a job things would be easier on you right? I know you said you can take care of me, but if I had a job it'd make things a lot easier…wouldn't it?"
Zoro just sighed. "If you really want one, I can't stop you. But it's not as fun as you think."
The boy made a face at him, sticking out his tongue. "I bet it'll be lots of fun!" he declared, reaching up to poke Zoro in the forehead. "You're just…jealous cause my job's going to be awesome. Yeah."
"Sure. Whatever you say." Zoro couldn't say he particularly liked his job, but he didn't dislike it -- and as far as he knew, he had never killed anyone innocent, though he didn't ask too many questions. It helped him better his skills and it paid well -- what more could he ask for?
Looking down at Luffy, however, Zoro blinked, suddenly realizing the position he had pinned Luffy into. He quickly pulled his hands away, rolling off the boy to lie beside him instead.
Luffy beamed. "Yup! My job's gonna be the coolest ever!" he declared again with a small laugh as Zoro rolled off of him. He hadn't really minded that the swordsman had been on top of him, though it seemed the 'mystery feeling', which had made a small reappearance, left when he had moved away. Well, that was kind of sad, Luffy had grown to kind of like this 'mystery feeling'.
Come to think of it, said 'mystery feeling' tended to appear when he was in close contact with Zoro…and Luffy also rather liked just being close to Zoro…
Hmm. How weird.
The boy rolled over onto his side so he could face Zoro, propping himself up on his elbows. "So, what's your job like?" he inquired, curiosity shining in his innocent, dark eyes.
"My... job?" Zoro was caught off-guard by this question, and his sleepy mind was having a hard time producing an answer that was truthful without being revealing. "It's nothing special. I just work when I'm told to and get my job done, quick and easy." There. That sounded about right. No mention of blood, or death, or the way a sick sort of strangeness overtook him when he had those swords in his hands. No mention of how he loved to hear them scream, no mention of how gratifying it was to get a worthy opponent who fought back. "It's nothing you'd be interested in."
Luffy frowned. "Nothing I'd be interested in? Aw come on, that's not fair. I wanna know!" he pouted, folding his arms.
"There's nothing to know," Zoro said firmly, and as far as he was concerned, that was the end of that conversation. "C'mon, get to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. You have to go take that placement test and get your uniform."
The boy's face lit up again at the thought of what was to come tomorrow. "Oh yeah, the test thingy and the uniform th-" He was cut off by a loud yawn. "-thing…damnit Zoro, you made me all sleepy," he said, sitting up and pulling his knees up to his chest so he could pull back the covers.
"Now I'll actually have to do that-" he gave another yawn. "-sleeping thing…"
Zoro gave a subdued, gentle laugh, squirming a bit in an attempt to get comfortable. He pulled the covers over himself and Luffy, closing his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. 'Night, Luffy."
Luffy yawned again, snuggling a bit closer to Zoro as his eyes fell shut. "G'night Zoro."
It wasn't often that Zoro woke up in the middle of the night, but rather unpleasant dreams plagued him, and it wasn't long before they shattered and threw him into reality, breaking him awake in a cold sweat. His chest heaved, trying to get the terrible memories of the dream from his mind.
And then he realized that his arms were empty.
"...Luffy?" He sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking around. Where could Luffy possibly be?
The bedroom door wasn't open, but maybe he'd gone to the bathroom?
A sudden draft through the room made him shudder, and then he realized--
The window was open.
"What the hell?" He stood from the bed, albeit tiredly, and hobbled over to the window. What was going on?
And then he heard it. A voice, coming from -- above?
Was Luffy on the roof!
Zoro took a moment to make sure he wasn't hearing things, but no, there was certainly a voice coming from up there -- though it didn't sound exactly like Luffy's...
Zoro got a bad feeling in his stomach. He needed to get up there and check it out.
Quiet laughter rang through the cool night air in a voice that was almost like Luffy's. But it wasn't Luffy's laugh. Luffy's was carefree and loud, warm and filled with jovial energy, whereas this one was quiet, sinister, and cold.
"It's kind of funny…I didn't want him to remember anything, yet this memory was what triggered my release…how convenient." It did indeed sound like Luffy's voice, but there was an undertone to it that wasn't quite his. Something a bit deeper and richer…almost like an entirely different person's voice.
"It's fine…even if he remembers everything, it won't change anything." A soft chuckle, devoid of any mirth.
"Now isn't the time to be musing on it, anyway…after all, I do believe I owe a certain cigar-smoking bastard a visit. After all, I certainly can't leave him alive after seeing my face…he recognized my host, after all…"
Climbing up onto the roof wasn't a problem. What Zoro saw once he got up there was.
It was Luffy, that was for sure -- but he had his back towards him, and he hadn't even seemed to have noticed Zoro's arrival.
What the hell is he doing?
Zoro took a few steps closer, the wind whipping at his pajamas. Was Luffy insane?
The boy was silent for a few moments, strands of black hair flying around his head in the wind, oversized blue t-shirt flapping around him.
There was a soft chuckle. "Found him."
Then, without warning, Luffy flung out his arms and charged towards the edge of the roof.
"What the--!" Zoro didn't even think, he just broke into a run after Luffy, crying out his name in distress and, at the very last moment, catching the boy around his waist, before he could tumble to the pavement.
Luffy let out a howl of alarm as Zoro caught him, twisting in his grasp to glare at him, face twisted into a snarl. His pupils were dilated and his hair fell forward in front of his narrowed eyes, giving him a sort of crazed look. "What do you think you're doing, human?" he snarled, one small hand reaching out to grab hold of Zoro's shirt while the other pulled back to form a fist.
Zoro stared at Luffy with wide eyes, pulling him back further away from the edge of the roof. It was only a two-story house, so it probably wouldn't kill Luffy to fall off, but Zoro certainly didn't want him injured. "Luffy, what the hell are you talking about!"
Luffy opened his mouth to yell again, but before a sound could leave his lips his eyes flashed crimson, then fell halfway closed. His raised fist relaxed, falling to his side as he collapsed against the swordsman's chest with a groan.
Zoro stood on the roof a moment in silence, eyes searching Luffy, panicking, spooked, having no idea what to do. Then, finally, he decided that standing there on top of the house wasn't doing any good, and he held Luffy tighter to him as he approached the edge of the roof by his window and cautiously began to climb down, swinging back into the window and landing on his carpet with a gentle thump.
He placed Luffy on the bed, then turned to shut the window. He turned back and leaned against the cool glass, staring at Luffy's form on the bed, a bad taste in his mouth. Everything felt so surreal. He was sure he was having some insane kind of dream...
Why the hell would Luffy go on the roof? Why had he looked that way? Why did he say what he did?
...too confusing. Zoro didn't like it.
He locked the window, moving to the bed and securely wrapping both arms around Luffy, nearly pulling the young boy under him, as if to insure that Luffy would not have a midnight walk again.
The next morning, it was almost as if nothing had happened. The autumn morning sun shown through the window, brightening the entire room. What few birds that stuck around with winter coming were chirping outside. It looked like it was going to be another nice day.
Luffy awoke to this, opening his eyes to look around the room sleepily. He gave a loud yawn, distantly wondering why Zoro's arms were wrapped around him so tightly and why he was pulled so close to him. Not that he minded.
He yawned again, snuggling closer to the swordsman. He certainly wouldn't mind staying like this for awhile.
Wakening with Luffy's squirming, he sighed, yawning a bit and mentally cursing the sun for being so bright.
He had nearly forgotten about the night before, but he was reminded with Luffy pulled so tightly against him...
Still, Zoro didn't move, unsure what to do or say.
Finally, he decided on a simple, "Sleep well?" which he leaned down and gruffly asked into Luffy's ear.
Luffy smiled and nodded, shifting a bit under the covers. "Yup."
Loosening his arms around Luffy, Zoro slightly pulled himself away, staring strangely into the boy's dark eyes.
"...if you say so." Maybe it had just been a dream. After all, how could something that weird happen in real life? And Luffy wouldn't lie to him about something like that, so it was probably nothing.
Luffy's smile became a grin as he sat up. "I say so!" He said cheerfully, bouncing on the bed as he sat up. He then cocked his head to side as he looked down at Zoro, raising an eyebrow and frowning. Zoro was acting kind of weird. "Did you?"
"Not really," he muttered, rubbing his eyes a bit. "Nightmares..."
Luffy's frown deepened. "Nightmares?" he repeated. "About what?"
He paused, not wanting to mention the ones about her dying, the ones about blood and loneliness and pain.
"You trying to jump off the roof, for one," he snorted, trying to make it sound almost humorous.
Luffy blinked at Zoro for a moment before giving a short laugh. "Me jumping off of a roof? That's weird, why would I do something like that?" he wondered aloud, still smiling.
"I have no idea," he muttered. Had it really been a dream? But it seemed so real... and the way he had been holding Luffy when he awoke...
Well, maybe he had just done that in his sleep.
"You'd better get ready to go take that test." Zoro didn't want to linger on the damn dream, really. It had freaked him out, and enough was enough.
"Oh yeah…the test thing…Does that mean I have to---what was it? Oh yeah, 'stooody'?" He made a face at the word, as if it were something completely foreign to him.
Zoro made a face. "Study? It's a little late for that now. Don't worry about it. Its just a test to see how much you know so they know where to put you, I guess." Hopefully Luffy hadn't forgotten his schooling like he had forgotten everything else, or they'd be enrolling the boy in Kindergarten.
"Oh…well that's okay then!" Luffy said cheerfully. "I can do that! Do you think they'll put me with you?" he asked, sounding hopeful.
"With me?" Zoro blinked some at him. "Well... you're only seventeen, right? So the highest level they'd put you at would be the one below mine." He shrugged. "We'll still see each other."
"So I won't be with you, but I'd still see you? Well…I guess that'd be okay. Isn't Ussop in that level? I think Vivi said he was…and I'll still get to see you and everyone else, yay!" he cheered.
Smiling a little, Zoro forced himself to sit up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He really didn't feel like being awake. "Yeah, you will. Just get ready."
"Okay!" Luffy said cheerfully, hopping out of bed. He began to dig through the plastic bags that held the clothes they had bought yesterday, tossing a few things this way and that. He blinked in confusion at one garment however, holding it up. "Zoro? Was Nami supposed to put one of those skirt thingies in here?"
Staring at the offending garment for a moment, Zoro frowned, grabbing it from Luffy's hand and staring at it. "Yeah, right, sure," he muttered sarcastically. "Why don't you go tell Nami all about how I made you put it on for me once it got dark and quiet last night?"
"Okay!" Luffy said, snatching the skirt from Zoro's hands and charging out of the room. "NAMI!" he yelled as he charged down the hall, stopping at the room which he was pretty sure was Nami's and banging on it. Then he realized he wasn't quite sure that one was Nami's.
"NAMI! NAMI NAMI NAMI NAMI!" Luffy continued to yell, running around and banging on EVERY door.
Zoro stood there for a few long, distant seconds in confusion, trying to figure out what had just happened...
When it occurred to him that Luffy apparently did not understand sarcasm.
"Oh, shit," he gasped, quickly rushing out of the room after the boy.
Eventually a VERY angry looking Nami threw open the first door that had been banged on. "WHAT? WHAT IS IT? I was trying to SLEEP Luffy! This is my only day that I get to sleep in!" she cried, throwing her hands into the air. "WHAT is so important that you feel the need to wake me up?"
Usopp came peeking out of his door was well, looking rather groggy and ticked off. "Yeah, what's with waking us ALL up, Luffy?" he demanded.
Luffy blinked, looking from Nami to Usopp and back before grinning and holding out the skirt. "Zoro told me to tell you about how he made me put this on last night when it got all dark and quiet!"
Silence.
Nami and Usopp both stared at Luffy for a few seconds. Then they both burst out laughing, Nami laughing so hard she had to use the doorframe to hold herself up where as Usopp just fell to the floor cackling.
"Y-you're kidding me!" Usopp cried through tears of laughter. "He actually did that?"
"Ha! I knew it! I so knew he'd find a use for that! I was right, he's so gay!" Nami cackled.
Zoro stopped dead in the hallway, feeling the life drain out of him as he heard these words. Sanji was in his doorway as well, arms crossed over his bare chest, smirking widely.
"I just wanna know what the marimo did to the poor boy once he got him out of it," he said coolly, and Zoro felt his face get hot with anger.
Luffy blinked in confusion, cocking his head to the side. Why were they laughing?
Nami fell into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. "Isn't it obvious? They had some hot steamy man-on-man SMEX!" she cried, punching her fist into the air.
Usopp, whom had just begun to breathe again, burst into laughter once more.
Sanji looked torn between cheering Nami-san on and making fun of Zoro, so he settled on a bit of both, laughing mirthfully himself. Zoro forced himself to take a few steps down the hall and grab Luffy's upper-arm, beginning to try and pull him back down the hall.
"That never happened," he stated firmly, shooting a scathing glare towards Nami.
Nami continued to crack up. "He came straight from the boy's mouth, Zoro! You're just in denial!" she declared.
Luffy still looked horribly confused. "How come everyone's laughing? Why are they laughing, Zoro? You told me to do it, so I did," he said, blinking up at Zoro.
"I didn't mean it, Luffy, I was being sarcastic!" he cried, eyes bulging. "It was just a joke!"
"Oh….it was a joke? Really? So I wasn't supposed to tell them? Um…whoops…" Luffy gave a sheepish laugh. Then he blinked in confusion. "Why wasn't I supposed to say that?"
"Because Zoro doesn't want the rest of us to know that he's finally accepted his inner gay side!" Usopp said, still chuckling as he finally managed to sit up.
"Yeah, what you guys did last night proves it!" Nami declared, pointing a finger at the two of them.
Luffy blinked in confusion. "But nothing happened. I went to sleep, that was it. I never wore the dress thing."
Both Nami and Usopp's faces fell.
"…Really?" Nami asked.
Luffy nodded, giving a sheepish laugh and scratching his head.
Both stood in silence for a moment.
"…Awwwwwwwwwwwwww…." Nami finally whined, stomping her foot. "Darn! Guess we'll just have to try harder until it comes true…" she said with a sigh.
Usopp nodded in agreement.
Finally, Zoro sighed, shaking his head, and forcefully pulled Luffy back into his bedroom, shutting the door tight. He pulled the skirt from Luffy's hands, crumpling it and tossing it into the corner of his room.
"Will you please just get ready?" he asked, angry. His cheeks were flushed, and he sighed.
Luffy's shoulders tensed a bit. Zoro seemed pretty mad…of course, he had a pretty good reason to be. He bit his lip, once again going through the bag full of clothes. "'Kay…"
He didn't really quite get what had been wrong with what had happened, but he figured it hadn't been a good thing since everyone had been laughing. And Zoro seemed mad...and embarrassed…and it was all Luffy's fault too.
The boy pulled out the hoodie from the day before and glanced at it for a moment before pulled off Zoro's oversized blue t-shirt with a fluid motion. He yanked the hoodie over his head. "Sorry Zoro," he mumbled, voice muffled a bit by the fabric. "I didn't know you were joking…" he added as his head poked through the top, glancing down at his feet. "Sorry."
Watching Luffy, Zoro sighed, looking away and crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, going to the dresser and fishing through for his own clothes. "Just don't do it again."
"…Okay," Luffy said as he kicked off the swordsman's jeans and pulled on the khaki's from the day before. He couldn't help but smile a bit as he moved around. As much as he loved Zoro's clothes, it was nice to be wearing something that actually fit him for a change.
Finding some clothes, Zoro pulled them on and sighed, looking around to Luffy. "We'll eat breakfast and go," he said, still a bit angry from before but trying not to show Luffy.
Luffy perked up a bit at the mention of food, smile becoming a small grin. "Okay!" he said, rushing over to the door. He paused as his hand reached the handle, turning to glance back at Zoro as if waiting for him.
Zoro blinked, but took a few steps closer to follow, grabbing his motorcycle's keys off the dresser as he went.
To be continued…
Poor Zoro…we do abuse him so. Anyway, reviews! (Gigantic, hard-covered dictionary falls onto Digital's head)
KuroKame: Oh, nothing more happened in the tale of the demon rat. They found it and Ussop screamed and ranted until someone got sick of the screaming and tossed it outside. The end.
Katiiey: Yeeaaah, Luffy's not rubber. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock! Sorry, I had to say that. Yes, talk about a major loyalty conflict, we'll see how things work out, ne?
poxmaker: Tsk tsk! So many questions and none that I can answer without giving anything away. You'll just have to read and find out!
Griever5: Oh yes…when this fic ends, you will be sad! But I won't tell you why…(grins) And of course Robin knows more than the others…it like, has to be so.
Hasuko: XP That line from Sanji was indeed genius, Constable wrote it! And hey, maybe Robin's involved, maybe she's not and she's just now sticking her head in? Who knows? Yes, I will update with tremendous speed! Yes I will!
AlibisDragon: Well, what did you think of Nami's "simple action"? XP
eclipse-moon: Somehow I don't feel too intimidated by a intangible spirit threatening me with a carving knife, really. As for the villain, he is a villain from One Piece but I can say that he's not Kuro. If you didn't recognize him by his codename though, you're probably not far enough into the series to know who he is anyway.
Mai Hayami: Why thank you.
Miya: Heh, I'm glad you connect with the characters. That must mean we're doing a good job, right? We're rooting for them to get together soon too!
Dark Angel Kira: Um…alright, I updated. Um…yay? Maybe Mister denial there won't be in denial anymore after he reads this chapter, ne?
Raikou Ikazuchi: Wow…um…thank you. (revives you from your exploded state) You crave more of this fic? I feel special. As for Smoker…(smiles deviously) Oh yes, he'll appear for a short time…
morgan: Zoro is so the man. Damn straight.
WhiteTigeress666: Yay, Ussop was hilarious! I feel special.
Lamia Metisou: Ah yes, DBZ. I thought that was it, I was just making sure.
Griffingurl: Last chapter made your brain hurt? I'm sorry, here's some ice to make it feel better. I hope you didn't die during Go-karting, because I would genuinely miss you and your reviews!
Xeora: Oh yay, a puppy! Um…crap, it's chewing on my stuff and peeing on my floor and…eewww. Here, you can have your puppy back.
queen of the world: Wow, I feel loved. People have things to hide in this fic? Whatever gave you that idea? (shifty eyes)
YuugiLover3: (laughs) No, Zoro is not Luffy's daddy. He's just sort of responsible for him, kind of like a husband is for his wife and vice versa. Since Luffy is nearly an adult anyway, Zoro's just kind of his guardian until Luffy's next birthday. As for the sweater, I don't care how long it takes. Take your time! And yay, Captain Kuro costume! Good luck with that!
…We have rabid fangirls?
KairiQueen: You'd better have gotten some SLEEP by the time you read this. Devil fruit powers? Well, some people do have powers, but they aren't from the devil fruit. Woot, I get a sock with black turtles! Yay! Merry Christmas to you too!
Next chapter: Small things forgotten and the placement test.