It was a quiet day in the east blue. The Straw Hat pirates had defeated Arlong just the day before. Luffy was relaxing on the deck just taking a little nap. He was thinking about how his Haki training over the past ten years had gotten him ready for challenges ahead. He had gotten pretty good with his Kenbunshoku Haki. Now he uses it almost subconsciously scanning the waters around the ship and keeping tabs on his nakama.
One other thing that was on Luffy's mind was that Nami kissed him. He did not expect that. She had never done that before. It's not like he didn't like it, he enjoyed it. He was surprised that Nami didn't charge him like she did after she flashed them in the palace bath in Alubarna. But then again she stood there naked in the bath for them all to see. The thought of a naked Nami stirred him from his nap.
'Why did I react when I saw Nami naked and not when I saw Hancock naked?' He thought scratching his head like he usually does when stumped. 'They were both bathing, and they were both completely naked.' That was when Luffy realized that he had a slight bloody nose. "Oh great I am turning into Sanji."
Sanji was below deck with Nami, Usopp and Zoro when he sneezed.
"Someone must be talking about you." Usopp said
"Hopefully it's a pretty girl." Sanji said with his one uncovered eye turning into a heart.
"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Usopp said drawing Sanji out of dream land
"You wanted to show us something, right Usopp." Zoro said
"Yeah, I did."
"So why isn't Luffy down here? I am sure he would be interested." Nami asked
"That's part of it, I am not sure why but I don't want Luffy to know about this yet."
"Alright, now you've lost me." Nami said scratching her head
"Alright so here it is. While I was fighting one of the Arlong pirates I was working on a strategy to beat him wh…" Usopp was interrupted
"Don't you mean you were hiding because you were scared." Sanji said
Usopp was a little bit annoyed at that comment. Not that it was wasn't partially true. "Either way I was hiding from the Fishman when a bag just appeared in front of me."
"What do you mean it just appeared in front of you?" Sanji asked
"Was there something hidden in the tree and you might have just knocked it out by accident while you were hiding?" Nami asked
"No, I was looking at the ground right in front of me when it appeared. One second it wasn't there and then the next it was." Usopp took the bag out of his satchel and emptied out the contents on the crate they had turned into a makeshift table.
"Look at all the different colored…What are they called?" Nami asked
"According to the information guide they are called Pop Greens and they will expand when they make contact with a target. Based on the patterns they all rapidly grow a different plant."
"Okay, so then what is this?" Sanji asked
"It's called the Kuro Kabuto."
"It looks like your sling shot." Nami said
"Yeah, except that this is supposed to be much more powerful. But that's not even the strangest part of all of this."
"It gets weirder" Nami said smacking her forehead out of frustration.
Usopp took out the note that he kept separate from the bag of weird plant based weaponry. Upon closer inspection and actually more time to look at it the paper was old, really old. He unfolded it and put it on the crate for them to read.
From a friend,
This care package will help you on your journey as you travel the Grand Line and in your travels beyond that. It is filled with plants from an "island" chain in the Grand Line. They are not like your normal stars. They are a lot more powerful and the first time you use one you will be surprised. I have provided you with a half dozen of each kind I use. This will be a good start, make sure not to run out.
In the guide I included a list of the ingredients you will need to make an insecticide. As well as everything you will need to know on how to grow these. Build yourself a garden so that you can plant these and grow more. You will need a constant supply of these.
Finally take care of Merry for me. Don't let anything get in the way of you and your friends. Not even Merry is worth losing your friends over. Also don't let the gap in strength between you and the monster trio be a deterrent or make you think you are not needed. Use your smarts to out think your opponents. You may never fight the big bad. Don't worry about that. Find what you can do and work to be the best at that.
WARNINGS :
Do not use all of these Pop Greens.
Only use one at a time. You will see why.
Don't go crazy and fire a lot of them no matter how crazy the situation gets.
Don't let your supply run out. You won't just come across these like you would normal iron pellets.
You will be a brave man of the sea one day.
Nami, Sanji and Zoro read over the note. Anything that had to do with the Pop Greens really wasn't of any interest to them. What really got to them was the third paragraph. They also kinda wanted to laugh at the last sentence but they all realized that they had crazy dreams and this one seemed realistically the most possible so they held in their laughter.
"What does that part about Merry mean Usopp?"
"How should I know?"
"How do we know you didn't write this?" Sanji asked quizzically
"Three problems with that Sanji. One, where would I get this stuff, you don't see it growing wild on any island in the East Blue and it's not at any store for you to just buy it. Two, where would I get paper that old, it looks like it could be hundreds of years old. And three, why the hell would I do that?"
"Okay you make a fair argument." Nami said. "But we have one part we can solve now." Nami said pulling out some paper and something to write with. "Ok, write all of that word for word."
"Fine, I will." Usopp said. He began writing and after a while he did see the similarities between his new copy of the letter and the one he found in the bag. Once he was done and they were placed side by side they were almost exactly the same.
"Ok, that is freaky." Zoro said
"Yeah, it is." Nami and Sanji said in unison.
"Okay so it looks like I did write this." Usopp said with his head tilted to the side and arms crossed. He was just as puzzled as the others.
"But you have no idea what any of this means right?" Nami said
"None, not even a little. Well okay a little bit, but only from what I read in the guide."
"This is going to sound weird but does this feel kind of familiar to anyone else?" Zoro asked
"What are you talking about Zoro?" Nami asked
"Well about a little over a month ago now I was having lunch when my katana appeared in front of me kinda like this bag did for Usopp. Except when I touched the sword it felt like something was happening to my brain, I think it was something important. And once it was done my sword just vanished and I could remember events that haven't happened yet. A little after that all that I had just learned was gone. Only recently have I had weird thoughts that I can't explain like remembering small bits of information but not enough to make any sense of. And then now, today of all days I remember all of this and I still can't recall any of those other memories."
Nami, Usopp, and Sanji looked at Zoro and they were completely shocked that something like that could come out of Zoro's mouth.
"Well, say something" Zoro said getting annoyed that they were just standing there.
"Sorry, just had to process all of that." Sanji said. "But now that you mention it something strange like that happened to me and I think it was also just over a month ago."
"Something like this happened to me while I was on a boat looking at a map and one of Nojiko's bracelets appeared on the map, I touched it and not long after it was gone along with all of the memories."
"A duplicate of my slingshot."
"What are you talking about?"
"This same exact thing happened to me and my item was the slingshot my dad gave me when I was little."
"Okay, something important to Zoro is his sword, for Nami it is a bracelet your sister gave you or would give you, mine was my slingshot, and Sanji's was? What is the item that is most important to you?"
"A knife, it is the same knife I use now and it's the same one I have used for years. Zeff gave a set of knives to me as a present for finally becoming a chef worthy of cooking for people at the Baratie."
"Ok, so we all let someone use items precious to us to implant memories and who knows what else into our brains." Nami said
"Yeah it would seem that way." Zoro said
"I think we can draw one more conclusion from this." Usopp said
"What would that be?" Sanji asked
"It's likely that we all knew each other. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say that we have all known each other for at least a few years." Usopp said
"What makes you say that?" Nami asked
"Well, we've only known each other for a few weeks. Yet somehow the same thing happened to us all a little over a month ago. What are the odds that four people who have just met have had something precious to them appear and then disappear just as fast?" Usopp asked
"You know, you might be right. Well I think there is one thing we can do to get answers." Nami said with a devilish smile. "We get Luffy really drunk, ask him questions and hope he just begins talking."
"How do we know we will get the truth out of him if we do this?" Sanji asked
"Something tells me that he is a really bad liar and alcohol will get him to really open up. The next island we get to we buy lots of alcohol and one day while we are on the boat we get our captain really drunk." Nami said
The three guys agreed with Nami's idea. They weren't sure if they would actually get any useful information out of Luffy. Regardless it would be fun to get him drunk and ask him questions.
With that Usopp packed up all of his stuff and hid it for the time being. Nami and Usopp went to the back deck behind the kitchen and went about their day. Zoro went to the front of the ship to relax while Sanji went into the kitchen to prep for lunch.
Nami pulled out a lounge chair, an umbrella, set it up and began to relax. Zoro sat down and pulled his sword out of the holster on his waist and fell asleep near the front of the ship. Usopp went on to make new stars until he figured out what he was going to do with his new weapon. They all went on relaxing until a news coo flew down and landed on the railing of the Merry. Nami got up and begrudgingly paid the increased price for the newspaper. The news coo flew off before Nami could change her mind.
"Are you really upset about giving the news coo more money for the paper?" Usopp asked
"It adds up Usopp."
"Well we should stay up to date on current events and I don't know any other way while we are out on the sea. And you don't have to save money anymore, its ok to spend it once in a while."
"I don't want to be a poor pirate but I guess that's true. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."
Nami sat back down on the lounge chair, got comfortable and opened the paper. She began flipping through the pages until something fell out from between two pages. She picked up the piece of paper looked at it and screamed. "LUFFY" Nami yelled everyone except Zoro who was sleeping came running to see what was going on.
"What did I do?" Luffy said knowing it was likely his first wanted poster.
"Look at this!" Nami said
"Shishishi, my first wanted poster." Luffy said excited.
"Let me see that." Usopp said taking the poster from Nami. "What, 30,000,000 beri!"
"What's going on over here?" Sanji said finally making his way from the kitchen.
"Luffy's wanted!" Usopp said. "And look I am on the poster as well."
"What" Sanji said kind of shocked
Usopp pointed to the back of his head in the bottom left corner of the poster.
"That's the back of your head. It doesn't count." Sanji said kind of ticked off.
"Don't be jealous, you can get one too. You don't have to be captain to get one of these. Well that is if you work hard." Usopp and Sanji began goofing around and acting like idiots.
"You guys don't get it. This is going to be a problem." Nami said annoyed that they were just as care free as always. After goofing around Sanji went back to the kitchen to continue cooking lunch.
"Don't worry about it Nami." Luffy said. "We can handle anything the East Blue can throw at us and after a little time you guys will be able to handle anything in the Grand Line."
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
Zoro was on the other side of the ship awake. '30,000,000 beri. We are going to have to be ready to fight bounty hunters coming after a bounty that large. We won't be able to relax here in the East Blue and we will have our work cut out for us on the Grand Line. I am going to have to get stronger. That monster trio thing in that letter, I can only assume it's referring to me, Luffy and the love cook.'
After lunch the five Straw Hats were outside discussing where to go next.
"Luffy, there is one last island before we head for the Grand Line. I suggest we go there and stop for supplies. We have no idea what we are going to be up against when we reach the Grand Line." Nami said.
"That's Loguetown right?" Luffy asked
"Yeah, it's the Town of the Beginning and the End." Zoro said relaxing against a railing.
"That's the island where the King of the Pirates Gol D. Roger was born and was executed." Nami said
"Nami, how do we actually get to the Grand Line?" Usopp asked
"We have to go up Reverse Mountain to reach the Grand Line?" Nami said pointing to a map.
"We have to go up a… mountain… to get there. I can't imagine that." Usopp said scratching his head.
The next day the Straw Hats docked the ship on an unpopulated side of the island and they began walking towards town.
"Get everything we are going to need. We don't know when we will be able to get more supplies once we get to the Grand Line." Nami said
"Hey, are we missing someone?" Sanji asked
"When the hell did he disappear?" Zoro asked
"Whatever let him explore. We can get everything done first and drop it off at the ship. Either we will run into him or he will find us later." Nami said shrugging her shoulders
"Besides we know what he is here to see and really how much trouble can he get into?" Usopp said
"Sanji-kun you are responsible for getting the sake for our plan."
"Hai, Nami-swan." Sanji said with hearts in his eyes.
Everyone went off their separate ways.
Usopp began walking around for stuffy to buy. He found and purchased a pair of goggles from the North Blue. He went on to buy wood, nails and anything else he could think of that might be necessary to build a garden. Usopp had the man at the hardware store cut the wood into manageable pieces that he could carry. He also managed to find all of the ingredients for the insecticide he would have to make.
Nami had walked off to go shopping. She purchased more than enough clothes to last her for a little while. She managed to save a lot by buying from stores in bulk which while great for her also earned he a lot of flak from the owners of the store, essentially banning her from shopping there again. But while she was paying for her clothes at one store she was talking to the woman running the cash register.
"Ever since the new Marine Captain was put in charge of the base on this island it has been a lot more peaceful. This island is the last stop before the Grand Line. Pirates come here to restock. They arrive on this island on their own ships but leave on a Marine ship. I'm not sure how many pirates have actually made it off the island recently."
"Really?" Nami said trying not to freak out. After a moment she remembered something Zoro said about comparing Luffy to an iceberg and being stronger than all of the people on the East Blue.
"Do you know how he catches them?" Nami asked
"I have heard people say he is a devil fruit user. I thought they were just rumors."
"Yeah, I have never actually seen one myself but I believe they exist." Nami said. Nami payed for her sack of clothes and walked away with some valuable info. "Thank you" Nami said walking away from the cashier with a smile and a wave.
Sanji had been walking around the island when he found the fish market. He began looking around and saw something that he had only seen in a book. It was a large elephant tuna. He decided he was going to buy it. He was a little disappointed to learn that that it was the grand prize for a cooking contest. He believed he could win, he just didn't want to have to compete. But because he wanted to cook the fish he entered. He was the last participant to enter the contest before registration closed at noon. After that Sanji continued to walk around until he found a liquor store. He bought plenty of alcohol for the crew to interrogate their captain someday soon. He also purchased enough food supplies to last them for at least a few weeks. But with Luffy's appetite who really knew how long it would last. He brought it all back to the ship and went back to the fish market in time for the cooking contest.
In the meantime Zoro was walking around looking for a sword shop. He saw that a crowd had gathered. Two pirates were harassing a blue haired woman carrying a sword. They were angry that their boss had been captured by Smoker. The pirates went to attack Tashigi. Zoro got ready to help but she dispatched both pirates easily. With the two pirates down on the ground Tashigi stumbled and fell over. She lost her glasses in the process. Zoro walked over and picked them up.
"Thank you for picking up my glasses." She said looking up at Zoro. But when Zoro saw how much she looked like his dead friend Kuina he involuntarily closed his hand and broke the her glasses.
"You broke my glasses." Tashigi said annoyed "Please pay for new ones."
"Sorry, I don't have any money." Zoro said. Tashigi started saying and accusing him of random things. He could not get a word in. She would just keep talking, coming up with ridiculous stories, none of which were true.
"Since you are having money troubles please follow me, I know a place that can always use more people." She said. Tashigi just started walking off. At this point Zoro didn't know she was a Marine but something was going off in his head like he had met her before. He knew that she wasn't Kuina. She died around a decade ago. She felt familiar somehow and it wasn't a good sense of familiarity, something about her just bothered him and he just couldn't figure out what it was. She had made it about ten feet before she turned around to look at him.
"Are you coming?" She asked in an irritated tone. Zoro didn't say anything. He just started walking and he followed her through town to a Marine base of all places.
'Well shit. Of all the places it had to be the Marines.'
"I am sure we can find you some work here." She said over joyed.
The two of them made it up to the third floor before she gave him something to do.
"Please clean the floors." She said. But before she could say anything else a Marine came up to her.
"Sergeant Major." A marine said saluting. "If you would follow me, afternoon drills are about to begin." He said.
The low ranking marine walked off and Tashigi followed but not before handing Zoro a mop and a bucket of water. After a minute she was out of sight.
"Well this sucks." Zoro said. "What am I supposed to do now?" He said to himself. So for lack of a better reason and because he was bored he began cleaning. He quickly realized that he was going to spending a lot of time mopping the whole floor. So he found two more mops and began cleaning like he would fight. He got a fair bit done while he was there. That was until two marines recognized him. He took them out rather fast and without drawing his sword. He took money out of their wallets. He left the money along with a note for Tashigi. After that he walked out of the Marine base and continued to look for new swords. After aimlessly walking around he found a sword shop. He walked in and up to the counter towards the back of the store and woke up who he suspected to be the owner of the store.
"I'm looking for two swords." Zoro said
"Oh, please feel free to look around." The owner Ippon-matsu said quite happily.
"I only have 100,000 beri to spend." Zoro said putting the money down on the counter. Hearing that the owner's mood did a complete 180.
"50,000 will get you a crappy sword."
"Whatever you have is fine, I don't really have the much money now."
'He must not be that good if he doesn't care what kind of blade he is getting."
That was when he spotted the sword on Zoro's hip. "Can I take a look at the sword you have there?" He asked stumbling over his words
"Weird old man" Zoro said under his breath.
The owner began to freak out at the sword that he held in his hands. It was a meitou. 'It's not every day a novice walks in with a named blade. I have to keep calm.'
"How about this, I will buy this old beat up katana off of you for 200,000 beri?"
"What are you talking about?"
"With that you can buy three decent swords for 100,000 each."
He kept offering incrementally more money. "Listen, that sword is not for sale. It doesn't matter how much you offer me."
The owner was going to pester Zoro more to sell the sword that was until Tashigi came into the store and asked if her sword Shigure was all done.
"I'm so glad you are ok. I heard someone broke into the Marine base. When I saw you were gone I was worried."
'What is wrong with this lady?'Zoro thought to himself. 'I definitly have met her before, you don't just forget someone this annoying.' Tashigi kept talking at Zoro.
"Since you are here that means you rejected my charity and ran out on honest work. Take your money back." She said stuffing the money into Zoro's hand. "I refuse to accept money from someone who refuses peoples good natured gestures. And look, I got new glasses" She put them on and got a good look at the katana in the owners hands. Is that the Wado Ichimonji?" Tashigi asked all excited to see such a magnificent blade.
"Wado Ichimonji" Zoro said to himself. It was then that something in Zoro's head clicked and just like that everything came flooding back to him. It was like a dam burst and suddenly he could recall all of the things he learned for those brief few moments over a month ago now. 'I am going to kill him.' Zoro thought to himself annoyed by the idiotic actions of his captain. Instead of acting on it and leaving to beat up Luffy, Zoro let this play itself out.
"It is the Wado Ichimonji isn't it?" She asked
'Don't say it! Don't say it!'
"This is definitely one of the 21 legendary O Wazamono" Tashigi pulled out a pocket sized book on swords and flipped to the page that contained info on the sword in her hand. "This sword is worth more than 20,000,000 beri. Why would a person like you have such a famous Meitou?" Tashigi asked not really trying to be insulting but she had succeeded in doing so any way. But Zoro kept his cool. He was not going to let her bother him. After all she wasn't so bad. She was just very passionate about swords and that was something he could understand, even if she did take it just a little bit too far.
"YOU! You told him everything! You're ruining my business!"
"Ruining your business? I'm sorry, did I say something bad?" Tashigi said adjusting her glasses.
"You came here for your Shigure, right? Here! It's been sharpened. Now take it and get out!" He tossed the sword to her and stumbled over to the rack of katanas and knocked them all down.
"Why would you do that? What is wrong with you?"
"I'm sorry."
"That girl saved you. That sword is a famous meitou, something an amature like you doesn't deserve to carry. The swords in the barrels over there are 50,000 beri each. Pick two and get out of my store!"
Zoro walked over to the barrels and looked through them just long enough for Tashigi to walk over to him.
"You must really like swords to be carrying three of them. It sounds like this one bounty hunter."
"A bounty hunter, huh?"
"He's infamous his name is Roronoa Zoro."
"I hear the name a lot."
"He has a reputation throughout the East Blue as a great swordsman. But he is evil. Using a sword as a tool to acquire money is unforgivable! Why do all of the famous swords belong to pirates or bounty hunters?"
"Well different people have different circumstances, don't they? Peoples occupations are determined by the time they live in." Zoro said
"I swear, with this Shigure I will be a swordsman and improve my skills. One day I'm going to travel the world and free the meitou from undeserving hands!"
"You gonna take this katana too? The Wado Ichimonji." Zoro said unsheathng the sword just a little for Tashigi to get a glimpse of the blade.
"No, I don't want to own the meitou. I just don't want them in the hands of evil people." That was when Zoro grabbed the Sandai Kitetsu. 'Here we go.' Zoro thought to himself.
"That katana is…" She grabbed her book and found the page about the Sandai Kitestu. "Are you really gonna sell this katana for only 50,000?" Tashigi asked but by now Zoro had unsheathed the sword and was looking at his problem child once again. "That's an amazing deal! It's a legendary sword. You really should get it. It's worth 1,000,000 beri."
"No, I won't sell it!"
"I knew it, it seems strange to sell this sword for so little."
"No, it's not that!"
"It's cursed." Zoro said still looking at the sword and admiring the blade on it.
"You knew?"
"No, I feel it."
"The three of them are all excellent katana. But they are all cursed! You won't find anyone using a Kitetsu today." Matsu said
"I'm sorry! I had no idea it was so terrible!" Tashigi said "I shouldn't have gotten involved."
"I like it. I'll take it."
"Are you crazy? If I sell it to you and you die, won't it be like I killed you?"
"How about this? My luck and this swords curse. Let's see which one is stronger!" Zoro said as he tossed the sword up into the air and he held his arm out in the way of the blade.
"Are you crazy, that sword will chop off your arm!" Mastu said panicking. Zoro closed his eyes and waited for the results. The sword spun harmlessly around his arm and embedded itself deep into the floor.
"I'll take it." Zoro said pleased with himself. Tashigi and Matsu both just fell down.
"Oi. Pick out one more for me, will you?" Zoro said to Tashigi " " Tashigi said still shaken up by what she had just seen.
"Wait a minute" Matsu said as he got up and went up the stairs behind the counter. He came back down with another katana. It was Yubashiri. "This may not be a big store, but this is the best katana I have."
"I can't buy it! I told you, didn't I? I don't have the money."
"Forget the money. I'm not charging you for either sword. I'm sorry for trying to cheat you before. It's been a long time since I saw a true swordsman. They say a katana chooses its master. I'll pray for your good fortune."
With that Zoro took the two swords and walked out of the store. Walking through town he was thinking about all of the new things going through his head. 'I am not even sure what to think right now. All of our adventures we have to do them all over again.' Instead of being mad he was actually more excited than he probably should be. 'I can work on my Haki with Luffy and improve that considerably before we get to the New World.'
Speaking of Luffy, like last time he was wandering all around town looking for the execution platform. He still had no idea where it was located. He managed to make his way back to the docks where he first met Smoker. Smoker had just taken care of a group of pirates who had been restocking before heading for the Grand Line.
"Hey, do you know how to get to the execution platform?" Luffy asked
"Why do you want to go there?" Smoker asked curious as to why this boy in a straw hat was looking for such a place.
"I want to see where the pirate king died!"
"Follow the smoke" he said as a long white gray trail of smoke pointed him in the right direction.
"Thanks Smokey." Luffy said
"What a strange kid!" Smoker said as he ordered his men to take the captured pirates back to the marine base.
Luffy continued to wander around town. That was until he sensed Zoro who was wandering around and happened to be nearby. Luffy made a b-line and ran towards Zoro.
"Hey, Zoro" Luffy said just loud enough to get his attention.
"Where have you been?" Zoro asked
"I was just down at the docks. I ran into an old friend." Luffy said chuckling. "Oh you got new swords. Did you have to borrow money from Nami?"
"Yeah, I did, but I didn't have to spend any of it. The owner of the store tried to rip me off so he gave me these as an apology."
"That is really nice of him." Luffy said as he began to walk away.
"Luffy, where are you going?" Luffy turned and smiled. "Going to have lunch, you coming?"
"Yeah, sure." Zoro said as he shrugged it off and began walking.
Twenty minutes later Luffy and Zoro walked into a restaurant. There were plenty of normal people around. But there was one table that was suspicious. Two people had cloaks on which wasn't unusual but made them stick out. Luffy could tell it was Buggy. The two of them had lunch and Luffy ate like usual. When it was time to pay for their meal something happened as Buggy and Mohji were talking. Buggy was hitting the table consecutive times, over the course of the pounding on the table their money ended up on a fork. Buggy hit the end of the fork and the money was launched into the air and ended up on Luffy and Zoro's table. Zoro took a few gold coins out of the bag to pay for their lunch and they got up and walked out of the restaurant but not before putting the bag of coins back on the table.
"Where to now Luffy?"
"I am still looking for the execution platform."
"Alright, let's go."
While Luffy and Zoro were having lunch Sanji competed in the cooking contest. Nami and Usopp had found their way to the docks and watched Sanji beat all of the people he went up against in the contest. Sanji claimed the grand prize the elephant tuna. He and Usopp were now carrying the fish when Nami stopped them.
"It looks like a storm is headed our way."
"Really, but it is so nice out right now." Usopp said skeptical of Nami's prediction.
"Usopp you and Nami go ready the ship so we are prepared if we have to leave town in a hurry."
"Who put you in charge?" Usopp asked
"Do you want to fight off whoever might be chasing our idiot captain and the marimo?"
"No I don't."
"Ok then, now go." Nami and Usopp began running towards the ship.
Eventually the two of them managed to find their way to the center of town where the execution platform was located. Luffy climbed the platform and was now standing where the former pirate king Gol D. Roger stood and saw what he saw.
'This is just as cool the second time.' Luffy thought to himself. As Luffy was looking out at the view before him people started gathering. It wasn't long before the police showed up and were telling him to get off the platform. The captain was about to say something but was smacked in the head with an iron club and fell to the ground. One pirate took off her cloak and began talking to Luffy. He knew this time that it was Alvida. He still couldn't believe how much she changed it was crazy. Soon a cannon ball hit the fountain in the middle of the square. It broke up and a large piece began flying towards her. It harmlessly slid off her skin and into the building nearby. Buggy and the rest of the Buggy pirates removed their cloaks. People recognized Buggy and they began to run. But they didn't make it that far before yelled and they all stopped. As this was happening more clouds were gathering and that was when it happened again. Luffy was pinned to the platform.
"Are you ready to be flashily executed?" Buggy said to his rubber hostage.
"I'm sorry, please don't kill me." Luffy said sarcastically
Sanji made it to the plaza earlier and had made his way through the crowd of people. He managed to find Zoro who was looking up at his captain who had just been captured.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" Sanji said really annoyed at Zoro
"You don't have to worry about Luffy, just be ready to fight your way out of here."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Trust me, just watch."
The storm was becoming even worse. The thunder was crackling every so often.
"Since there is such a large crowd do you have any last words Mugiwara?"
"I'M THE MAN WHO IS GOING TO BECOME THE KING OF THE PIRATES!" Luffy yelled out to the crowded plaza. The people in the plaza were shocked that someone would say something like that so close to death in the same place the Gold Roger died.
After Luffy said that Buggy swung his sword down to Luffy's neck. Like last time Luffy smiled and just before the sword could make contact a bolt of lightning struck the platform causing it to catch on fire and fall over. The rain began falling. A few moments later people were just standing there with their mouths wide open. Luffy picked up his hat, brushed it off, put it on his head and walked over to Sanji and Zoro.
"What did I tell you?" Zoro said
"Are you guys ready to go?"
Sanji and Zoro nodded their heads and they began to walk away. Alvida ordered the Buggy Pirates to attack Luffy, Sanji and Zoro. The three straw hats began fighting back and were having no problem taking out the pirates. In the meantime the marines had showed up and started fighting pirates and evacuating civilians. The three straw hats made their way out of the plaza and started running thru the streets towards their ship.
By now Nami and Usopp were on the Going Merry. Usopp managed to distract Richie with food and Nami whacked Mohji with her staff knocking him to the ground. As Nami and Usopp were getting ready to climb up the rope ladder some Marines began firing on them.
Back with the three guys, they continued running towards the Merry. That was until Zoro saw Tashigi standing there in the rain with her head down her hair covering her eyes.
Luffy looked back at Zoro and saw that his expression had changed.
"You lied to me. You didn't tell me you were Roronoa Zoro. I can't let you have the legendary Wado Ichimonji."
"How dare you lie to a lady."
"I didn't lie to her, she never asked my name."
"Sanji lets keep going." Luffy began running and Sanji reluctantly ran to catch up to Luffy.
The two of them were running and it wasn't long before they ran into Smoker.
"Sanji keep going, I can handle him."
"Alright, don't take too long." Luffy nodded and Sanji took off running.
"I was hoping to avoid facing you." 'I think it would be a bad idea to use Haki on him now.'
"I won't let you escape and make it out to sea."
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol" Luffy said as he went to punch smoker and his fist went through Smoker. "You're a devil fruit user?" Smoker said a little surprised. "White Snakes" Smoker said as his arms turned to smoke and extended out towards Luffy. Luffy wasn't trying very hard but avoiding things had almost become second nature to him.
While Smoker and Luffy were fighting Nami and Usopp had gotten the ship ready. They were setting sail as Sanji finally made his way to the ship. Marines weren't too far behind. Sanji began to attack the marines. Usopp began shooting at the Marines trying to help Sanji. After a short fight most of the marines were on the ground. Sanji began running along the coast and jumped onto the railing of the Merry. They made sure to stay close to the coast while they continued sailing. While sailing they were waiting for Luffy and Zoro to show up.
Back with Luffy and Smoker fighting. Luffy stood in between Smokers elongated arms. Smoker expanded the smoke so that it was would be possible to capture Luffy. . Luffy let himself get caught he didn't want to give the Marines a reason to send stronger soldiers after them just yet. Smoker arms retracted back to himself. "For 30,000,000 I was expecting more of a challenge." "Sorry to disappoint you Smokey." Luffy just chuckled and cracked a smile.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Just thinking."
"You will have plenty of time to think now that I have captured you." Luffy was lying on the ground. Smoker was sitting on his back. It wouldn't be difficult for Luffy to escape but he knew something good was going to happen soon.
"Your luck has run out." Smoker said as he went to grab his jutte. But was stopped by Dragon.
"You're Dragon!" Smoker said
"What, who's there?" Luffy said knowing exactly who he was. But he couldn't tell either of them that. Right now it's just better to play ignorant.
"The government wants your head." Smoker said
"The world is waiting for our answer"
Suddenly an enormous gust of wind blew through the entire town. The pirates who had been captured by Smoker and the Marines were freed and and were sent flying through the streets. Luffy and Smoker were sent flying. Zoro was blown down towards the water. As fast as the wind started it stopped. Luffy made it out unscathed. Nearby someone was climbing out of the rubble.
"Zoro" Luffy said catching the attention of the green haired swordsman.
"Luffy, where are the others?"
"Out there." Luffy said pointing out to sea. Luffy ran towards a building, grabbed onto a railing.
"Oh shit" Zoro said as Luffy and launched the two of them out to sea.
Luffy & Zoro hit the back sail and landed on the back deck of the ship.
"You two ok?" Nami asked concerned for her friends.
"Of course, why wouldn't we be?" Luffy said just smiling and laughing it off like nothing happened.
"You have to be kidding." Zoro said "I'm fine but look how far we were just launched, you can go and do crazy stuff like that because you are made out of rubber. But be a little cautious when pulling stunts like that with the rest of us." Zoro said pulling on Luffy's cheek.
"Sorry Zoro, I will try to be more careful." Luffy said rubbing the back of his neck. "But to be fair I couldn't see you swimming with me in this weather. I can't swim so this was the fastest option."
"Huh…" Zoro said scratching his head. "Fine just a little warning next time."
"I will try." Luffy said laughing it off.
Sometime later the storm hadn't cleared up yet. They were making some progress but the wind wasn't always blowing in their favor. Eventually they could see the lighthouse guiding them towards the entrance to the Grand Line.
"There it is" Nami said "That lighthouse shows us the way to the Grand Line. Do you want to wait out the storm?"
"Let's head for the Grand Line" Luffy said very excited
"One last thing we have to do before we head for that ocean." Sanji said pulling out a barrel. The five of them stood around the barrel and Sanji began.
"To find the All Blue" Sanji said putting one foot on the barrel
"To become King of the pirates" Luffy said doing the same
"To become the world's greatest swordsman."
"To draw a map of the whole world."
"To become a brave warrior of the sea."
They all stated their dreams, lifted the foot that was on the barrel into the air. In one swift motion they all brought their feet down destroying the barrel.
"Let's go to the Grand Line?" Luffy said raising both fists into the air. 'Robin, Chopper, Franky, Brook. We are one step closer to having you rejoin us. Someday I hope you will listen to my story and understand why I did what I did. I hope you will all be able to forgive me for being so selfish.'
Back to the future Straw Hats watching through the portal
"How dare you kiss Robin-chawn you idiot swordsman!" Sanji said furious
"What are you talking about you ero cook. She kissed me."
"I don't care who kissed who, it's just that you did that bothers me."
"Would you get over it" Zoro said having enough of this conversation. "Although, it did feel good." Zoro said just thinking about it and cracking an evil smile in the direction of the already pissed off Sanji.
Nami got ready to hit Sanji but Franky did it for her.
"Sorry Nami, I always wanted to do that. Now I know why you do it."
"Why is that?" Nami said kind of curious as to the cyborgs answer
"Great stress relief." Franky said
"Yes and no" Nami said. "That isn't exactly right but it is pretty close." Nami said before her mouth hit the floor again.
Zoro had walked over to Robin, wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned in to kiss her again. At first Robin was a little surprised but after a bit she really began to enjoy the kiss. They kissed passionately for a few minutes until they had to break apart to catch their breath.
"Zoro-san, I didn't know you had it in you." Brook said a little jealous but also kind of shocked that Zoro would go for more. Robin started it, no one figured that Zoro would step up and try to make a move on the archeologist.
No one was more stunned than Sanji. He went off to cry, soon followed by Chopper who went off to try and make him feel a little better.
"It's about time." Franky said
"I agree." Nami said "You could feel the sexual tension between the two of them since we made it back to Sabaody around a year ago."
Sanji had calmed down and was now composed. Although you could tell he had been upset. "Zoro, I concede to you and Luffy, should we see him again. I have already found my princess, I just hope she will accept me."
Everyone was stunned. None of them had seen this side of Sanji before. He accepted defeat like a man at least when it came to the ladies on the crew.
"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?" Nami asked
"In the bottom of my heart I always had a feeling I could never truly win your heart and be your knight Nami-san. We all knew that you've had feelings for Luffy for a long time even if you didn't recognize them yourself. You never had the chance to express them. Luffy was always going crazy and never really understood romance."
Nami stood there shocked along with the rest of the crew. "You really have matured Sanji-kun."
"Thank you." Nami said, her cheeks bright red. "I just hope Luffy feels the same way." Nami said twiddling her thumbs.
A/N: I want to assume now that Zoro has his memories back he can use his Haki. Maybe not at the same level as post timeskip, specifically in one of the most recent chapters in the manga. But he has it. Haki is a spiritual thing and not exactly based on strength alone. I am going to assume from here on out Zoro can also cut metal. If I recall correctly it was all in his head when he learned to cut metal fighting against Mr. 1.