Yay, chapter 4, finally! We'll be adding another tick to the canon character tally.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
"Makino and Shanks had a baby?"
Even with the crew's limited knowledge of the involved people they could understand the urgency of the situation. So Luffy's innocent surprise in his question elicited several face-palms.
"Yes." Came the condescending reply from the Den Den Mushi. "Is that all you retained from what I said? Honestly, I don't know how your crew puts up with you."
There were a few begrudging agreements.
"But," Usopp interceded, "why are they going after this kid? He's just a-"
"Do you think the government cares about his age?" Robin asked in a quiet, but vicious, voice. "It's his blood. That's all that matters to them. They'll hurt Red-Hair anyway they can." She stared worriedly at the back of Luffy's head, still bowed slightly over the Den Den Mushi.
They had all come to the same conclusion as they heard Garp explain the situation. They knew what he would do, and this time they would be there to support him.
"Right, Jii-chan, thanks. See ya-" Luffy began to hang up abruptly.
"Wait."
Everyone turned to stare at the swordsman, who had kept to himself during the whole exchange. While everyone had had various questions he had kept a stoic frown on his features.
He walked up to the snail and Luffy offered him the receiver with a curious look. He took it and stared down at the device. "I understand the people involved have great meaning to my captain, but why are you giving us all this information? There's a pretty good chance, with all the people you've contacted, that you'll be found out by the government. So why? Why this time?" Zoro tried to keep his tone neutral throughout, but a little bitterness crept into the last question. He wasn't placing the blame on him. No, he knew it was a failure of his, too. They all did. But he couldn't help but think that if Garp had called them back then, when they were together, then they could have made some kind of difference.
There was a long pause. "Roronoa, right? The first mate?"
Zoro didn't reply.
There was a long sigh from the snail, making it somehow seem so much older. "I owe Makino a lot, for everything she's done for Ace and Luffy." That surprised the crew, again. "She's not the only one, of course, but she needs it most now. And… as much as I hate to admit it, I owe that damn Red-Hair even more." He truly sounded very frustrated, but only a few of the crew noticed Luffy lower the brim of his hat a bit to shade half his face. "I guess… Well, consider it a request from a regretful old man. I don't know if you can do anything about it, but I decided… this time, you deserved the chance."
No one really knew what to say to that, but they agreed. By the end they knew he was speaking only to Luffy and they felt a little intrusive just by their presence. Zoro lowered the mouthpiece to his captain, in case he had a reply. Luffy didn't take it, but still spoke.
"Jii-chan, I did have my chance." His hand reached halfway up to the scar on his chest. "I did everything I could. I know that now." He broke into a wide smile. "But you are right, we owe this to them. Thanks for letting me know."
Garp, from what they could tell from the snail's expression, seemed to be digesting the information and finally nodded, switching to a scowl. "Rumor has it you already have quite a few connections throughout the seas. Think you'll come up with something?"
Luffy's grin widened almost predatorily. "Maybe."
"...well, alright then." And he hung up.
The crew shared a silence as Luffy fiddled with his hat.
"Jeez, I can see where Luffy gets his bluntness." Nami sighed to the other's agreement.
"Sorry to be Mr. Negative, but how are we supposed to get to East Blue? We're in the right part of the Grand Line, but we still have who knows how much ocean to cross not to mention a Calm Belt!" Usopp pointed out in concern.
Robin smiled. "Actually, we're very close to the Calm Belt." Everyone looked at her in surprise, even Nami. "Most of the islands around here are uninhabited, and traffic to this one is scarce, for that very reason. No one really wants the risk of setting up or sailing near a sea king nest."
"What does that say about us?" Chopper looked doubly nervous now, as if the ship would start rocking from a sudden sea monster attack.
"And still, we have the Calm Belt between us. Not like we can row or-" Nami's eyes suddenly widened and she whirled towards Franky.
He struck a pose. "OW! That's right! Did you forget what ship you're sailing on?! Sunny can Coup de Burst through the Calm Belt! It might take a couple, but no problem!" He gave them all the thumbs-up as Chopper, Usopp, and Brook cheered.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
Everyone turned to Sanji. "Why not?"
He gave Franky an exasperated stare. "They didn't have much cola in town, did they?"
Franky nodded, unconcerned. "Just a few crates, I was only able to fill my personal stock with it. But we still have a bunch of barrels below-"
"But those are our reserve stash. We'd be relying on emergency supplies and if something went wrong, we'd be in deep shit." Many looked downtrodden at the sense of his words. "Don't get me wrong, a lady is in need of help and I want to rush to her side as much as anyone here." He somehow managed to avoid turning into a dancing noodle and glanced at Luffy. "Well, almost anyone. But it'll be worse if we get there and can't escape quickly enough."
"We could use the barrels then stop somewhere to restock as soon as we can."
Sanji was already shaking his head. "That's never a good idea when there's no guarantee. I worked on a traveling restaurant for years in that sea and, let me tell you, cola is not as common as you seem to think it is."
There was a depressed silence, only Luffy's irritated mutterings could be heard. Finally he turned to his navigator. "Nami~! Can you cut this paper out of here?" He whined.
She hadn't been paying attention to him, but glanced at the scrap tied to the inside of his hat ribbon and nodded. "Yeah, let me get my sewing scissors." She walked out of the room.
The crew stared at him in surprise and confusion. He seemed very calm for having heard such news. They would have liked to think he had a plan, but his track record wasn't so great on that front.
"My, this is quite a pickle." Brook chuckled humorlessly.
Franky folded his arms. "Got that right."
Luffy seemed to become impatient for Nami's return and started to try and knaw the thread off so Usopp swatted him and told him to wait. Sure enough, she came in with a small sewing kit and took the straw hat when it was offered to her. She sat down and carefully began to snip the small stitches. "So, Luffy, who is this Makino?"
Everyone's attention was instantly on the two.
Luffy tilted his head to the side and grinned happily. "She owns the bar in Windmill Village." He stated simply.
Nami glanced up at him quickly, then back down at her work. "Well, that would explain how she met Shanks." She muttered, and Zoro nodded. Pirates never went without plenty of alcohol, after all.
"Yeah! Shanks and his crew would be in there all day, every day, whenever they weren't out at sea." He laughed at the memory. "So that's where I would be, too."
"Every day?" Usopp asked skeptically. "Didn't you go out to play with A- Ahh, I mean- Your friends?" He finished a bit shrilly and sent apologetic looks to his crewmates' glares.
Luffy seemed to catch the slip, though. "Oh, I didn't meet Ace until after Shanks sailed away for the last time. The only one who played with me was Shanks- And grandpa. But that wasn't really play…" He said with a shudder. "Oh, but Makino would let me stay at the bar and color. Or, if it was closed, she'd play hide-and-seek with me." He smiled wide.
"It sounds like she took care of you a lot." Brook stated quietly. The room was dead quiet, Nami had stopped her work in favor of staring at her captain. This was the first time he had shared so much of his past. They would have felt sorry for him, most of them had lonely pasts, but he looked so happy.
"Yeah, I guess grandpa asked her and the mayor to look after me while he was away, so I stayed with her a lot. Except, after Shanks left, he decided that it wasn't enough anymore and sent me to live with Dadan and Ace."
They filed 'Dadan' away for later. "So." Nami began, going back to her work. "This Makino… she's kind of like your mother, huh?"
Luffy looked a little surprised, then thoughtful. "Mmm, I guess… Dadan said she was our mother too, though. So I guess I have two?" He seemed to think this was pretty funny, and laughed.
"Who's Dadan?" Chopper asked.
"She's the mountain bandit me and Ace lived with until we set sail."
"Your grandfather sent you to live with a mountain bandit and he still expected you to turn into a marine?" Zoro deadpanned.
Luffy laughed again.
"I guess simple-mindedness runs in the family too, then." Nami stated in exasperation, but she had new fire in her eyes as she cut off the last stitch and handed hat and paper to her captain. "I hope you actually do have a plan, we're going to have to act quickly."
"Yup." He unfolded the scrap twice and turned to the Den Den Mushi. Everyone leaned in a bit to see a string of numbers written inside. To their surprise, the paper started nudging itself away as soon as Luffy set it down.
"Whose vivre card is that?" Usopp asked curiously.
Luffy didn't seem to hear him as he carefully punched in the numbers onto the keypad.
"I think we'll find out soon." Robin muttered calmly, although she was just as curious. The snail immediately woke up and started to mutter blandly, 'buruburuburuburu.' They waited in tense silence.
Much too quickly, it seemed, the line was picked up.
"How dare you filthy marines call our private line?!" A female voice shrieked from the snail, it's face contorted in rage. Nearly everyone in the room jumped back. "What the hell do you want?!"
Luffy seemed unperturbed, he just laughed loudly. "This is Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be King of the Pirates!"
The snail's eyes bugged out and there was a distant crash on the other side. "L-L-Luffy-sama?! What are you- I mean, how- I-I'm so sorry! I thought this was a call from the government line! I didn't-"
Everyone was shocked by the speaker's franticness and polite tone. Talk about a 180.
Luffy just interrupted her apologies, though. "It's fine, but I need to talk to-"
Suddenly there was a deafening crash and splintering wood from the snail and several cries of surprise.
"Hebi-hime-sama-!"
"GIVE ME THE SNAIL! GIVE IT TO ME!" A new woman yelled hysterically. As soon as the receiver was handed off the snail's expression changed instantly from desperate rage to a blushing smile, and the voice became sickeningly sweet and soft. "Luffy~? Is that you? How are you doing? You're not sick are you? Have you been dressing properly? The New World has treacherous conditions, you could easily-" There was a sudden pause as she seemed to notice where the call was coming from; the voice changed to worry. "Luffy, why is this call coming from a military line?" It rose exponentially in worry and rage. "Are you hurt? What-?!"
"Calm down! I got a Den Den Mushi from the marines."
Hancock seemed to easily accept the explanation, but before she could continue Nami leaned over to Luffy and whispered. "Who is this?"
He was about to answer when the voice went icy. "Who was that, Luffy?"
Nami recoiled at the venom in the tone but Luffy answered happily. "That's Nami, my navigator." He seemed to suddenly remember his manners and looked around at them all sheepishly. "My whole crew is here, I told you about them, remember? Everyone, this is Hancock, my friend, she helped me a lot while we were all separated."
There were startled shouts from most of the crew as they remembered exactly who Hancock was, especially from Sanji. It was so loud, in fact, that Robin was the only one who heard the snail exclaim happily, 'That was the 100th time you said my name! Does that mean we're engaged now?" Luffy just laughed at the commotion as Sanji shook him by his shirt.
Zoro suddenly yelled over them all. "ENOUGH!" It quieted down and he looked to Luffy. "Didn't you call her for a reason?" As surprised as he was, they still had business to attend to.
"Oh, yeah." He became serious as he took the receiver in hand again. "Hancock, I need your help."
"Anything, my darling! Just ask and I would give you the moon! I'd-"
"It's like a female Sanji." Chopper muttered in surprise as Luffy interrupted her. Said cook was crying.
"How long would it take you to meet us and get us across the Calm Belt, into the East Blue?"
Sanji gritted his cigarette over his captain's blunt request, but held his tongue.
Hancock muttered to someone on the other side, probably her navigator, and came back with an apologetic tone. "I can be there in about three days. I'm sorry it will take so long, but we have to let the Yuda rest if they're going to be crossing the Calm Belt and the currents will already be unfavorable-"
"That fast? Are you that close?" Nami exclaimed.
She seemed irritated by the interruption but answered out of courtesy to her crush. "Yes. If you must know, I was sailing in the vicinity when I heard of Luffy's battle with the Emperor Kaido. I wanted to be close in case he needed my help." Her voice became light again, unconcerned with how stalkerish she sounded. "My crew is changing course, we'll follow the vivre card. I have to hang up now, but I'll see you soon, okay, Luffy? Get plenty of food and rest until then, my love." She seemed almost tearful.
"Yup, thanks Hancock." He hung up and looked at his crew, blinking at the looks they were giving him. "What?"
Where to begin?
"She has your vivre card?" Usopp squeaked, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to cheer his captain or throttle him. Just the memory of that one glimpse of the Warlord on Sabaody…
"Yeah." He held up the paper he had used earlier. "Grandma Nyon said it would be useful to always have the means to find each other, in case I needed help." He looked thoughtful. "She also said something about staving off a sickness for Hancock. I dunno."
Robin chuckled. "You don't seem very surprised by her affections."
Luffy made a face and shrugged. "Whatever, as long as she doesn't ask me to marry her again."
Ah, Luffy, I love how he can go from wise to innocent, oblivious to surprisingly insightful and aware.
Also, to clarify, I think Zoro and the crew still hold some guilt that they weren't with Luffy two years ago. Not that it's their fault of course, but it's interesting and angsty to write.
So, Hancock. I've heard a lot of people don't like her, but I think it's really cute how she dotes on Luffy. Especially since he's made it clear he doesn't feel the same way. I don't really want him to go the same way as Goku, but Oda can do no wrong! Anyway, that's pretty much the same relationship I'll be going for from here on out.
Oh, my gosh. Chapter 5 did not want to be written! And just when I thought, 'the Strawhat chapters are always longer than the Makino/Marines ones', it turns out to be nearly three times as long! So the next chapter will be split into two parts, chapters 5 and 6. Unless you all want a short (maybe) Strawhat chapter between them? Well, let me know, I still haven't started 6 yet so I can still work something out. I'm leaving on a trip next week and I'll probably be out of internet for a couple days, so it's prime writing time! Hopefully, anyway. But I also might not update for a couple weeks ':)