Everyone bless the great SadEcho! Not only she is a great beta reader, but in a times of the highest need, her kicks aimed at my brain are greatly helping to get me out of writer's block!
Don't own One Piece, just love to mess with the characters in my own way.
Warning: Minor foul language
As the night is coming down, anxiety is spreading through the Sunny's deck ...
Awkward silence fell upon the room when the redhead stood up, feeling eight pairs of eyes upon himself that were filled with obvious disbelief. As he began to settle into a more presentable state, the whole crew watched him intently, trying to guess whether he's just fooling around again or speaking the truth.
Just look at the slender, yet undoubtedly firm body, where hints of calves and bare forearms along with strong muscles that sharply stood out against dark skin, marred with a few long, old, and roughly stitched up scars. Pinkish burn marks around the wrists and his quite broad shoulders that were wider than the hips . Just the latter mentioned were the only thing that was maybe just a bit wider than usual for a male.
But with no bulging boobs, nor femininely round bottom, and without any visible hint of hourglass figure, the strawhats were sure, the person, who was standing before them, was undoubtedly a man. Maybe those long legs, when they squinted really hard, might look like they belong to a female, but then again, one look at the Sanji's expression and all thoughts about the redhead's feminity were immediately dropped. The cook's ability to spot the female anywhere in about a kilometer wide radius was pretty legendary by now.
"The staring contest is over. And the winner iiiis ... the Greenie!" the sarcastically excited voice snapped the crew back to the reality as the redhead finished his dusting off. "Since his stare almost drilled a few new holes into my minority." Supposed-to-be Joyce stuck his tongue out in a impish gesture and paced through the kitchen to the table, ostensibly ignoring how the swordsman's face darkened. Spreading his hand towards the falcon, the bird climbed up it like a parrot and settled itself on top of his red hair.
As soon as his companion had claimed its observatory again, the redhead snatched his assigned bowl of soup and a few pieces of meat and vegetables that Luffy didn't have the chance to devour yet and turned back to the door. "Thanks for the food ... I bet it will taste as good as it smells, but ..." the pirate bent a little to pass through the door with the falcon still sitting on his head,"with chili it would just be better."
*SLAM!* "That goddamned, fucked up, redheaded, pain-in-the-ass! How dare he!" Sanji was sputtering with anger at the last comment, venting it out as he slammed his hands into the table.
"Bitten in the ass, ero-cook?" Zoro smirked with smug amusement, forgetting his own irritation. It wasn't that long ago when their roles were the opposite. But to insult Sanji's food ... that man had to have nerve.
"Shut up you shitty Marimo head! If you are asking for a fight, bring it on! I'll gladly kick your ass up into heaven right here, right now!" Sanji snapped harshly at the slightly surprised swordsman. Zoro didn't think that his friend would be so hyped up, but it had to be expected. No one ever insulted Sanji's food and got away with it. In a sense it was most probably more dangerous than provoking Zoro, given the fact that it was cooking that was at the stake.
"Sanji! Calm down please!" Nami rose her voice to snap the poor cook out of his state. Though still steaming like a sea train, the blonde man managed to turn his anger a little off for his favorite navigator. "Luffy! Are you really sure about this?!" she openly questioned her captain, who just finished his dinner.
"Okawari!" Luffy slammed his bowl into the table, sputtering a few crumbs around, as he tried chew and talk at the same time. It made Nami wonder whether her captain was even listening or aware of what had been happening just now.
"Looks like our captain is content with our guest." Robin pointed out with a smile.
"You seem to be pretty content with him too." Zoro frowned.
"Sometimes emitting hostility can do more bad than good." Robin replied, calmly stating her opinion in the matter. "But it would be foolish to let our guard down. We all might end up dead then."
"You are scaring me, Robin ..." Nami shuddered at the archaeologist's point. "But that could possibly happen. Someone should keep an eye on him," she turned towards the frowning swordsman, "Zoro?"
"What."
Just one glance was enough to convice Nami to forget her idea that was on her mind. Sanji will be a safer option, but given the ... circumstances ... Nami glanced towards the pissed off cook. Maybe not that much safer.
"Sanji?"
"Yes my dear! Anything for you!" the blonde man snapped out of his fuming right into his excited lovey-dovey dance faster than a blink of the eye.
That was an even better reaction than she had expected.
"Then it's settled." the navigator smiled with satisfaction. "Thank you!"
"Your welc ... wait, what?" Sanji stopped in the middle of his noodling. "What did I just agreed to?"
"That you will watch over that redhead so he won't do anything stupid." Zoro replied with the corner of his lips tugging upwards.
"WHAT?!" A very unmanly squeak about an octave higher than usual escaped from the cook's lips in pure desperation. "That good-for-nothing pain-in-the-ass who dared to insult my perfect cooking?!"
"Exactly." the swordsman smugly smirked.
"Why me?!" the cook tried to protest.
"You agreed." the swordsman was enjoying this teasing of the poor cook, but well .. he called it on himself, so why not to take advantage of that?
"I would never agree to anything like that, you shitty swordsman!"
"Saaanji ... you wouldn't turned me down, would you?" Nami pulled out her first-class manipulative 'sad face' followed by the big puppy eyes almost with the quality reaching Luffy's level.
"I would never turned you down, my sweet Nami-swan!" the blonde resumed his noodling around. "Your wish is like an order for me!"
"Then I wish for you to look over our ... ehm ... passenger." the navigator smiled brightly with complete satisfaction as the cook stopped in the middle of his dance again, finally grasping how hilariously he was just manipulated.
"So Luffy just invited some freaking insane pervert ,with scary sharp eyes, who is claiming to have girl's name on board ... I think my disease of "I-can't-take-it-anymore is beginning to act up again ... " Usopp muttered as he leaned his head face down on the table. "With our luck it will be some kind of monster that will eat us all alive!" The sharpshooter shuddered at that thought, obviously influenced by Robin's point earlier, and already thinking about the possible, the most catastrophic, and the most crazy scenarios.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he would be monster. Who else would be able to survive alone on the Grand Line? Definitely not someone normal!" Nami shuddered. She didn't like the captain's idea in the slightest. Though maybe they should be glad that it all was solved peacefully ... who knows what might happened?
"For a possible monster, he has such a nice name!" Brook jumped in with excitement "It reminds me the ray of light that went through the cloudy sky after the storm is over to enlighten the day!" You can count on the musician to find inspiration at even the most unexpected of places.
"Such a precious gem, worthy of the most beautiful queen, was wasted on a shitty asshole like him!" Sanji declamed theatrically, almost like standing at the stage in a yellow light of a reflector during a heartbreaking tragedy scene. "But he won't get away with that so easily!" the cook immediately snapped back to his irritation, one visible blue eye literally burning with the passionate fire of revenge.
"I said calm down!" Nami barked at the blonde, hitting him hard on the head in the process.
"As you wish ..., " the cook muttered with a loving undertone, twitching on the floor.
"You are just hopeless, swirly-brow." Zoro face palmed over such idiocy that Sanji had been showing. If it was possible, it was even worse than two years ago.
"But that doesn't change the fact he is perverted." Usopp stood up with his opinion, frowning with worry.
"It's super that the ratio of perverts on board is slowly increasing!" Franky slammed his forearms together.
"That's nothing to be happy about!" Sanji screamed in irritation, jumping back to his feet again. "What if he harms Nami-swan or Robin-chwan?! What if he is a peeping tom, or a panty thief?!"
"Maybe we could stick with him and finally see the panties of our ladies! Though I don't have any eyes being just bones!"
*SLAM*
"... yohohohooooo ..." the skeleton beeped, scared as he looked at the place where his head almost had been plastered in.
"Don't even think about that, you shitty pervy skeleton!" Sanji screamed at Brook. His shiny boot slammed into the table exactly at the spot where Brook's head would have been if the skeleton had not evaded.
"That was close ..." the musician sighed in relief as he found himself hugging Franky's neck, where he had jumped to get himself out of Sanji's attacking range. "Eh, I'm sorry, Franky ..."
"Perverts have to stick together, don't we?" Franky grinned from ear to ear. "But Brook ... are you sure that was a super kind of a smart idea?"
"What?"
"You know ... that one about peeping ..." the cyborg whispered cautiously, throwing a very meaningful glance towards both of the ladies.
Small sparks coming from Nami's Clima tact and Robin's disapproving look were enough to send thousands of scared chills over Brook's back.
"T-that was a ... skull joke?" He tried, rubbing sheepishly at the back of his afro. "Yohohoho!"
"Why am I stuck with such idiots ..." Nami face palmed herself in defense. At least those meteorologians from the Weatheria weren't so obvious in their antics.
"But you know, Sanji ... as a fellow pervert, you should stand with us." Franky turned towards the cook.
"I'm not a pervert!"
"No use in denying that, cook. I saw how you sniffed around that Ghosty Girl on Sabaody."
"Th-that was a ... I was evaluating her perfume!" Sanji defended himself, turning red in embarrassment. "Unlike certain someone, she smelled nice and not like rotten kimchi!"
"Who smelled like rotten kimchi?!" Zoro jumped up from the table. He knew well what the cook was referring to, and it irked him like hell.
"You, shitty idiot! Where the hell did you get lost that time?! Did you wandered into a fermenting jar, thinking you will find some more sake there?!"
"Like hell I would wander there! That was the fault of that perverted odd-eyed monstrous pain-in-the-ass our captain just so gracefully accepted on board!" the swordsman blurted out in irritation, red with embarrassment like Sanji, as he tried to defend his pride.
"He's not a monster! Even when he's a pervert, or having those scary eyes, he's a human!" the sudden hurt, disappointed, and maybe a bit angry, yell came from behind the kitchen's corner where Chopper had been hiding for the whole time, afraid of the peculiar newcomer. Saying that, the little doctor darted through the kitchen door, slamming them behind himself with a loud thud. The harshness of that action surprised everyone in the kitchen, since it went completely silent for a moment.
"Chopper?" Luffy asked uncertainly as he turned out from the opened, almost wiped out of food, fridge. What made the little doctor react in such way?
"What happened to him?" Usopp wondered out loud. Whatever had been said up until now, he was certain it wasn't meant as an insult or something like that.
"Congratulations, Marimo, you just managed to freak Chopper out again." Sanji growled at the dumbfounded and embarrassed Zoro, throwing all the guilt at the swordsman.
"Me?! Who has been spurting out about perverts, monsters, and such all the time?!" the insulted man yelled back in defense. "Don't you dare to throw everything at me!"
"Stop it, both of you!" Nami slammed her palm on the table, immediately regretting it, when pain shot through it.
"It looks to me like you have met him before." Brook mused, rubbing at his chin. "I had the feeling it couldn't be just a coincidence ..."
"That meeting had to be interesting." Robin smiled, her curiosity acting again.
Zoro would have reddened even more, if it was already possible, upon the embarrassing memory.
"No, not at all." he grunted out in annoyance, clearly hinting, it wouldn't be wise to ask him further.
"I think you are lying." Nami narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but couldn't suppress the mischievous gleam in them. She sensed that there's a great material hidden before her that just asked to be the perfect thing for future blackmailing and manipulating the incooperative swordsman into her ways. And it hinted to be a very, very juicy, thus providing a great lever.
"You are scared that we will find out." Sanji maliciously smirked, as he sensed the same thing as Nami did. "That must have been quite something ... "
"Super interesting!" Franky joined in, much to Zoro's distaste. But only until the swordsman's eyes fell upon the feasting captain.
"Something is telling me, it's nothing I want to know ..." Usopp waved it off with a scared sigh.
"Oi, cook. You should care less about me and more about your fridge." Zoro said with a frown, that turned into an amused smirk for some reason, as he looked behind Sanji's back.
"Admitting defeat?"
"Like hell I do." the swordsman replied with the same tone as the cook's eyes darted towards the direction he had importantly pointing out. Just then he realized what happened behind his back ...
Over the quiet sea boomed pissed off yell of a certain cook, for a moment disrupting the peace on the water surface.
"Luffy, you shitty rubber idiot! What the hell do you thinking you are doing?!"
"How could they ..." Chopper curled into his favorite spinning chair, locking himself inside the infimary "Like it was his fault, how he looks like ..."
The poor reindeer felt really bad. Not only his crewmates, but he too, had rejected the red-headed guest on the spot without knowing anything about him at all. It was even worse for him, since he knew all too well how it feels to be rejected by others just because of look. It hurt and upset him, that he let himself be dragged into such a primal reaction.
Was this how the people in Drum Kingdom had felt like when he had appeared at the town's outskirts? Were they scared of uncertainty like him? Afraid of what he could do to them? Or was it his unnatural look that scared them in the first place?
Too many questions flooded the poor doctor's mind, tormenting him. He wanted to cry at how cruel he was towards someone, who did nothing bad to him. Who just sat there and looked at him.
It was wrong to judge the others without knowing anything, and he knew it well. He knew well, how it hurt ...
Quiet tapping on the door of the locked infimary disrupted Chopper's inner thoughts, as he warily lifted his round eyes and looked at the doorknob.
"Chopper?" Robin's soft voice, muted by the wood, caressed his hurting soul. "Are you there?" the doctor could hear genuine concern in that question, but right now he didn't feel like talking or trying to explain his behavior. That was another thing that pained him right now.
Whatever his nakamas said, he shouldn't just yell at them and then run away. It was insensitive from him and ... he shivered at that though ... maybe it made them angry or irritated. And that was something he never wanted. His mood dropped down even more down, if it has been even possible.
"If you will need something, you know you can come to us anytime." the archaeologist assured him, certain, that Chopper wanted to be alone for now. She knew well that he was locked in the infimary, but pressuring him wouldn't do any good right now. "If something happens, Sanji is taking the first watch." Quiet, light steps could be heard going away from the locked door.
"Thanks Robin." he muttered silently to himself, really thankful that she didn't try to come in, even though, he had locked the door. This was something that he would have to sort out inside of himself. Though he was sure, that if he came to share his feelings with them, no one would have turned him down. But he wasn't a kid anymore. He wanted to become a man, a person like Zoro was.
Would Zoro come to anyone to cry? Definitely not! He was a man!
But ... Chopper felt the chills running up to his spine at the memory of that feeling the redhead induced in him, when their eyes met, and all the courage he gained suddenly disappeared. But how to approach someone, who feels so dangerous, closed and possibly irritated or insulted?
His look fell upon the medical bag on his writing desk and he recalled the bandages and healing burns at the redhead's body. But to do this, he will need someone to back him up, just in case ...
"How is Chopper?" the question greeted the archaeologist right as she entered the girl's room. Nami sat on her bed, looking worried.
"He wants to be alone for now. But he will be all right." Robin answered calmly, pacing across the room to her sleeping place.
"I feel sorry for him ... we really overdid it ..." the navigator sighed in regret. Those, who witnessed the situation in the Drum Kingdom should have anticipated that reaction, and what's more, watched their mouths better. This was completely useless and needless and foremost, didn't need to happen at all.
"I don't think he is expecting an apology for him." the archaeologist pointed out, as she picked her pajamas from the dresser. "He's more upset with his own behavior. But to tell the truth, it wouldn't surprise me if our reactions were the last drops for him."
"But it's all that redhead's fault!" Nami pouted and crossed her arms before her chest in defense. "He just snuck over here, almost drowned Luffy, threatened to slice our Sunny, freaked Chopper out, pushed Zoro to his patience limits, and insulted Sanji's cooking in one go! On top of that, he's claiming a girl's name as his own! I don't really know what to think about him."
"And what would you do, being in his shoes?" Robin asked calmly, but with clear disagreement with what Nami said, at least from the most part of it.
"What do you mean ... ?"
"Would you trust someone, you just met, who ruined your ship and is openly hostile towards you?" the archaeologist asked in a conversational way, hinting at what she had on her mind.
"You are right." Nami admitted in defeat and sighed tiredly. "But it's pretty hard to trust him."
"I never said we should trust him completely." Robin corrected the misunderstanding. "That would be foolish of us."
"So what should we do? Being friendly towards him?" Nami frowned at that idea. She really didn't like to be friendly with someone so irritating, despite being potentially dangerous.
"That would be a good start. Maybe we can find out more info about him then." the archaeologist nodded in agreement. "Being hostile solves nothing, and will only make more problems for us. And since he's at least somewhat friendly towards us too ... "
"I don't really like that idea ... I hope Sanji and Zoro will keep their eyes on him. I don't really want to wake up with a sliced throat." Nami hit the pillow with her head, as she lied down.
"I don't think he would do something like that. He doesn't seem to be the type." Robin changed herself and slided under the bedsheets. "But it won't hurt to be on guard."
Uneasy silence fell upon the darkened room, only the sounds of occasional shifting under the covers disturbed the rocking of the waves.
"Ne, Robin ... what do you think about him? About his name?" Nami voiced out in uncertainty. "Do you think it's real?"
"Whether it's real or not is not the problem. I can understand why he doesn't want to reveal his name to someone he just met. What's more interesting is the rumors I have heard, including that name, shortly after we got separated ..."
"Rumors?" Nami sprang up from the bed in alarm. Robin's information was usually correct in every way.
"There was a pirate, named Joyce, who had started to gain infamy during the past two years, in the Grand Line. But marines caught him around two months back. Probably someone really dangerous, since his first bounty was assigned three years ago, because according to the news he singlehandedly wiped out a marine base in South Blue from the surface of the world. Also during the past two years he really made the World Government's head hurt pretty bad, from what I heard and read."
"WHAT?!" Nami shrieked in dread and disbelief. "Robin, are you kidding?! You don't mean that person, do you?! Why didn't you point that out sooner?! If it's him, then we are in grave danger! He's rumored to be totally crazy, killing everything that moves!" her voice reeked with pure panic.
"He's most probably an impostor." the archaeologist calmly answered and Nami would swear, there was a smile on her lips in the darkness. "It wouldn't surprise me in this era. We met our impostors at Sabaody too. There are a few people, oblivious enough to the dangers, claiming to be someone infamous to reach their own goals ... this might be the same case."
"That didn't really convinced me to sleep calmly now ..." the navigator sighed again and slammed herself back onto the pillow.
"That's why I said we should stay on guard, watching our back. You never know ..." Robin paused for a second "Anyway, believing everything that the World Government news publishes is foolish too. According to them we are a bunch of bloodthirsty freaks, who are looking for a fight everywhere possible." she added with a knowing tone.
"But you said the marines caught him ... I remember reading something like that in the newspapers too." Nami sighed in a small relief.
"They did, but he might have escaped. And I don't think, the World Government would boast about such failure, given the list of things they had against him." Robin giggled.
"I think I don't want to talk about this anymore ..." the navigator covered her ears with the pillow, just in case Robin would wanted to continue. But after hearing all of this, it was pretty impossible to fall asleep. Anxiety spread through the mikan-head's mind, as she processed through heaps of different scenarios that might happen in the near future, which freaked her out even more. She would never tell she felt endangered and threatened on board of the Sunny.
"But that locket around his neck looks interesting." the archaeologist mused out loud, letting her ideas seep out. "I think I saw a similar one in the books ..."
"Yeah, I noticed that too." Nami's voice suddenly took a interested tone, reserved only for occasions where she was interested in the treasure. "It looks pretty expensive."
"Maybe not only from the material side, but it might have a nice historical value too ..." Robin stated out quietly and allowed her mind to finally drift off into sleep too.
Silence, that fell upon the dark room again, wasn't exactly the best thing to chase the bad thoughts away. Tossing and turning on her bed for quite some time, Nami was forced to got up again.
From Robin's bed she could hear a quiet breathing as the archaeologist slept. The navigator knew well, how light of a sleeper Robin was. Even if something would happen, Robin would be the second one to wake up, Zoro being the first, at the slightest sound or feeling of danger, despite his ability to sleep through anything that was happening around.
But right now, it wasn't anywhere near enough for the scared navigator. Right now she wanted to sleep, being exhausted from the storm they just went through ... and she knew where to find the most safest place in the whole ship.
Silently getting up, not to wake Robin, she scooped her pillow and blanket, and tiptoeing, disappeared from the girl's room into the darkness.
*Chrrrr* *puiii * * Chrrrrrr* * puiiii* * chrrrrrr*
*Dr dr dr dr dr dr dr ... *
*Chrrrr* *puiii * * Chrrrrrr* * puiiii* * chrrrrrr*
*Dr dr dr dr dr dr dr ... *
"Usopp ..." the swordsman grunted in mild annoyance, as he recognized the rattling of the sharpshooter's teeth in apparent fear despite the other loud sounds.
"W-w-what?" the curled bundle in the hammock above him answered warily and as quiet as possible.
"Stop that. It's bad enough with Luffy's snoring." Zoro informed his nakama through his usual grunts, and turned to the other side.
"S-s-sorry ... but ... did you hear what the girls were talking about?!" The poor sharpshooter obviously had heard something he shouldn't have.
"Then you shouldn't listen to them."
"A-a-aren't you scared it's true, what R-r-robin just said ...?"
"Why should I?" Zoro frowned as he lifted his head a little from off the pillow "He wouldn't dare to try something. It's nine against one, whatever he's blabbering about."
"Y-y-you are pretty certain about that ..." Usopp pointed out. "How can you ... ?"
"Cause if he does, Luffy will be the first one to stand up against him and I definitely won't pass up that chance too. So stop freaking out and go to sleep." A swirl of killing intent just enhanced the warning in swordsman's words, leaving Usopp wondering, whether it was a good idea to ask at all.
"I-if you say so ... " Usopp nested further into his bed sheet "I-I'm counting on you."
"Hmm ..." the half-asleep grunt of acknowledgment eased the sharpshooter's nerves, but not by much.
For a few moments the silence inside of the room was disturbed only by loud snoring the and occassional rattle of teeth.
"Zoro?" Brook's soft voice asked from his hammock, slightly uncertain.
"Mhhmm..."
"What happened between you two?" it was obvious that the skeleton was pretty curious about the possibilities. Well, who wasn't in this crew?
"Brook?" Zoro asked, yawning like a lion, in answer.
"Yes?"
"Don't ask and let me sleep."
"But it had to be really something to tick you like this." Franky's musing voice reached to them from his sleeping place. "Are you sure, you don't want to share this with your nakama?"
"Frrranky ..."
"I understand, I said nothing." the cyborg giggled a bit. "Sleep well."
"Hmmhm." Zoro grunted for the last time, and turned to his back, folding his arms under his head, as he stared right into the bottom of the hammock above. It wasn't that bad, but he wasn't very eager to share this particular memory with everyone ... it was just ... embarrassing. Really.
The swordsman gritted his teeth, as the memory flashed through his frowned mind.
"Waiting sucks. How long does Luffy intend to take until he gets here? And the others, as well?" The green-haired swordsman frowned, tapping his empty mug on the table, clearly disappointed. "If it wasn't for that stupid accident, he wouldn't have been forced to come here so early! Damn you, Hawkeye ... don't think, you will get rid of me like this! I won't let you get off the hook so easily, you can bet on it!"
Stinging memories were flooding his slightly alcohol-numbed mind. Not that it ever worked on him, but drinking himself under the table was never such a appealing idea. At a times like these his immunity towards alcohol was more of a burden than the blessing. Every time his thoughts wandered around the past two years his newest scar, running down over his left eye, forcing it to stay in darkness forever, twitched in a painful reminder.
It was pointless to search for where the guilt lied. It had happened, and everything changed within the split of a second. Like when Kuina died ...
Zoro grit his teeth in anger and frustration. He would not let some freaking scar or injury to stop him from achieving his goal. For him it didn't change anything. But unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about his former teacher.
Some loud commotion from outside the inn he was drinking at for the past few hours tore him from his inner, gloomy musing. Not that he wanted to be here in particular, getting lost as usual, but he didn't care at this point where exactly he was as long as there was a plenty of booze. It sounded like someone was yelling, and despite being pretty loud, it was hard to catch what exactly was being said at all.
One of the windows near him suddenly shattered into thousands of shards, as a human body flew into the pub like a meteor head first. Zoro was lucky to save his bottle of booze and mug from the destruction as the visitor landed right at his table, crashing through it into the wooden floor. Immediately, the redhead sprang onto his feet and peeked from the shattered window to look outside where quite a few people rushed around.
"Find him! I want that fucked-up head of his on my table by evening!" someone shouted out loud in apparent anger. " One Hundred thousand belli to anyone who brings me his head!"
"That's pretty cheap." the redheaded meteor pouted in disappointment.
"Just wait, Akagami! The moment I get my hands on you, I'm going to kill you!" Whoever was shouting that had to be pretty strong to announce such a thing out loud.
"It's Akage, you idiot, Akage!" came the sharp, insulted hiss "If you want to refer to my head, at least do it right! Or is everyone deaf and blind ... or ... what ... ?" As the man, dressed in tattered and faded clothes, turned around he was slightly taken aback by incredulous stare that almost drilled a hole into his back. Eyebrow cocked up in ironic disbelief, Zoro was sitting just beside the intruder, holding his liquor out of the harm's way and staring hard at the cause of the mess outside.
"Hi!" the redhead grinned widely in a impossibly careless manner, slightly startling the swordsman since that grin reminded him of Luffy a bit too much for his taste. "Don't mind me, we are just playing hide and seek! Or do you want to join in?" the redhead behaved obliviously towards the tense atmosphere that spread through the bar the moment he flew inside, excited sparks of joy dancing in his odd eyes.
"No." Zoro deadpanned immediately, swiftly changing his expression back into his usual frown. Just from that one sentence, he already began to question the redhead's sanity.
"What a pity ... it's funnier when more people joins in." The redhead tried to rub off the small shards that had gotten stuck in his wildly sticking out long hairdo, much to Zoro's distaste. He didn't really wanted his drink to be enriched with glass.
What caught the swordsman's interest, was a pair of swords tucked firmly behind the redhead's waist and covered in long, black stripes of cloth with only the handles sticking out. One was black with an orange design and black tsuba, while the other was red with a silver design and silver tsuba. They didn't quite fit the redhead's exterior, as he looked more like a beggar than anything else, while the swords clearly hinted to be pretty valuable just from the amount of craftmanship engraved into them.
Not only his possible level of swordsmanship, but also the redhead's oblivious behavior towards the mess, managing to make even the inside of the pub just by being there for a few seconds, caught Zoro's eye. Though his unusual entry was most probably to be blamed too.
"Look who just complimented us with his presence guys." A bulky man, sitting at the opposite side of the bar rose his voice up with a smug smirk. "The great Akagami itself!" he laughed deeply in apparent sarcasm.
Zoro's eyes immediately squinted towards the redhead, who turned his head towards the talker. From what he heard during his travels with Luffy, the Yonko should have been one arm short, but this person had both hands still in the right places. Though maybe not for long. Even if the mentioned Yonko was on par with Mihawk back when he had both arms, for a swordsman, loosing his arm was a critical injury that cut strength at least by half. He knew well, how important is to have the chance to strike with a sword with both arms and how different it is from a simple one-handed strike, not mentioning for defense.
"One hundred thousand belli for someone who dares to claim the Yonko's name is nowhere near enough. It would be better if they were evaluating those scums by their idiocy. The more dumb, the more money from it."
"But for a rat, who is running away, it's not that bad of an offer. Look at those swords, it's apparent that he must have stolen them!" Three pair of eyes drilled into the squatting redhead, who turned his eyes away from Zoro towards the group gathered around the loudest table in the pub.
"Ehehee ..." the redhead laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck, completely covered with a green scarf "Don't take me wrong, gentlemen, but I think you are mistaking me for someone else..."
"You don't say ... if you are trying to talk yourself out of this, you just miserably failed." the bulky man laughed, clearly amused by the redhead's excuse.
"If you are gonna believe to everything that some idiot is shouting out loud outside, it makes you even more stupid than him." the redhead shrugged casually in answer, peeking out from the window again while turning his back towards the provocateurs.
"What did you just say?!"
"Get your ears checked, I'm not gonna to repeat it." the redhead immediately deadpanned over his shoulder, clearly not bothered with what was going on behind his back.
A high-pitched whistle, that pierced through eardrums, reached into the inn as some kind of signal. At that moment, the bulky man decided it was enough and swung his huge hammer in a clear attempt to turn the daring redhead into an oily splash on the floor.
*CRASH!* the redhead rolled backwards, right through the bulky man's widely spread legs, successfully avoiding the thunderous impact that turned the wooden floor into a crater full of splinters at that place.
From somewhere from the back flew a half-empty bottle, forewent with ominous crack, reminding the swordsman a sound of a whip, when the item shattered on the bulky man's head. A few of others followed them randomly from all directions.
Even Zoro's bottle wasn't spared, as something thin but firm suddenly tangled around the bottle's neck and with a sharp tug sent the item flying out of the swordsman's hand.
"Hey! That was my sake!" green-haired man shouted angrily at such loss, but it was pointless. In a matter of seconds, the whole bar was engaged in a first class brawl.
"Yeah, 'was'! It just happened to turn into my ammunition!" he heard a light-hearted, pretty amused answer coming from somewhere from the middle of the crowd.
Through the corner of his eye, he could see a few less courageous beings that crawled to safety outside of the pub, which turned into a battlefield. Not even the barman's shouts and shots were effective, but he had to admit that the elderly man had some balls. Pulling out a rifle and shooting it in such a situation required more than just a pair of them.
"Marines!" someone yelled in panic and the brawl proceeded into another level. Marine's squad stormed into the mess and began to pacify the rowdy pirates on the spot.
When some of the brawlers discovered, that the pub is encircled by another marine's squad, some of them tried to get away right now. But just as they jumped or ran out from the pub, the situation changed again, when another group of pirates tried to fight themselves into the said pub through the marine's barriers, successfully adding another good dose of chaos on top of everything.
"Akagami's there! The Yonko is there! Eveyone run away!" Someone from the attacking pirates shouted all the way in. Even the marines were turning their heads around, trying to spot one of the strongest pirates of the world.
"I'm not him! Idiots!" heavily irritated scream of hoarse voice slashed the air like a crack of whip, but no one paid the attention to that.
In an impossibly short time, it stopped to be clear at all, who is fighting whom and who is just trying to escape and run for his life.
Marines beating up pirates, pirates beating up marines, pirates beating up pirates and even the marines, in some moments, beating up marines, that was a clear picture of how the calamity would looked like. Or a natural disaster, momentarily trying to turn the inn into the pile of a rubble.
Then Zoro caught a glimpse of a red hair, calmly walking away through the middle of brawling crowd, head up and back straight, as if the battlefield around had nothing to do with him. Unnoticed, skillfully evading the punches, kicks and flying bottles not even minding them along the way. And through the swordsman's mind suddenly flashed an ominous feeling about from where that impulsion, which started this whole mess, originated.
It wouldn't be hard for the swordsman to cut his way out of the middle of this brawl, but he doesn't really wanted to have his identity discovered, not yet. Even when he had nothing to do, at least he could wander around. If the marines would find him right now, Shakky would definitely make sure, he won't stick his nose out of the Rip-off bar anytime soon. Even Rayleigh was kind of helpless against her, when something (or someone) irritated her.
Not wanting to go through the unnecessary problems, Zoro weighted his chances and finally, decided to avoid direct confrontation as long as possible, quickly scanning the interior for a suitable cover. In a mere seconds, he found it and throwing the punches and kicks into all possible directions, he made his way towards it.
Finally, when he had a chance to get near, he jumped from the middle of a chaos into hiding behind the bar table head first ...
The sudden sway of his hammock disturbed the swordsman from his memories, as someone tried to get into it. He didn't even needed to crack his good eye open to know, who is trying to claim his sleeping place as his own.
"Oi, woman ..." Zoro grunted quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up. "You scared or what?"
"Move a little ... " Nami poked her nakama sharply into the side forcing the man to flinch "Don't be so mean ..." she whispered and didn't even bother to hide that whining undertone. It was clear, that she is afraid of staying in the girl's room alone, with just Robin, given the circumstances.
"Will you cut my debt down a bit if I do?" he asked with a huge yawn, almost popping his jaws out, but making a room for her anyways.
"No." she immediately replied, snuggling into the swordsman's firm side, using his shoulder as a pillow as he placed his arm around her "But ... I might think about that ..." she admitted quietly, letting her worries seep into her low voice. This wasn't a regular occurence, but in a few times like these, when her self-preservation instincts kicked in, she knew, where to find the safest place possible.
Only behind the Zoro's back.
Notes:
Okawari! - Next!/Another one! (mean as "next/another serving")
Kimchi - fermented cabbage, Korean traditional meal
Akagami - (no need to translate, I suppose :P) The Red-haired
Akage - The Redhead
Illustration: That was close! ( jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/That-was-close-374682840?q=gallery%3Ajittuse&qo=0 )
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, really terribly sorry! *repeatedly bowing deep down, smacking the forehead to the floor* My muse went on the unplanned vacation first, and when she returned, she immediately began a wildcat strike ... saying something about almost dying out of starvation :( It took me two weeks to convice her into some kind of cooperation again ...
So please, don't let her starve! She wants your reviews as a desserts ... or she will go into the strike again. :X
Please, I'm counting on you! Be it good or bad, she can't be that picky about them so I'll serve them all to her! :P
But at least, after some discussing, we managed to pull out together the chapter six. Even though all that struggling, it was pretty fun to write it down, once the writer's block lifted for a bit :)
(And thanks to SadEcho again, who successfully acted as my muse for the meantime! Without her, I would be lost like Zoro in a straight corridor ... *hopeless*)
I hope you enjoyed it :) I'll try to write and publish the next chapter as usual (about a week from now on), but when I take a look at my office table, I think I'll end buried under all that work before I will have a chance to write something down at all ... :X
Ugh ... I feel like I need to apologize right now for the future delay, since something is telling me it will inevitably come ... :X
Anyway! Thanks a lot for your support and stay tuned! :)
Jitt