Sorry for the late update.
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Luffy and Zoro had been sailing for the past eighteen hours now, they had left shells town around mid-afternoon and now it was early morning the next day. Luffy was beginning to get worried, He'd been frequently reaching out with his observation haki for any sign of human life, but couldn't find anyone.
"So do you actually know anything about navigation?" Zoro poses a question.
Over the years Luffy had picked up many skills from his Nakama, unfortunately, navigation wasn't one of them. "Nope."
"What kind of pirate doesn't know how to navigate?" Zoro shouts.
"It doesn't really matter, as long as we get a navigator it'll be fine. For now we can just drift around."
"Didn't you say you had somewhere to be? Orange town."
"Yeah, I wanna meet a pirate there. Buggy the clown, apparently he used to sail under the same flag as a friend of mine."
"Well how are we supposed to get there... IF WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE!" Zoro
"Weren't you a bounty hunter who sailed the seas?" Luffy questions accusingly.
"I don't recall ever calling myself that, I set out to sea for one man, and when I couldn't find that man I couldn't find my way back to my village, so I began hunting bounties for a living."
"Oh so you're lost."
"DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!" Zoro shouts, rocking the boat. In the chaos that ensues, Luffy's hat is knocked off his head.
"Ahh! My hat!" Luffy instantly reaches for the hat, but it floats out of his reach. The hat twirls in the air and a gust of wind carries it towards the bow. Luffy scrambles to reach for it but its just out of reach, it blows further from his grasp and falls towards the ocean, before Zoro appears behind Luffy and snatches it out of the air, a foot above the waves. Luffy breathes a sigh of relief.
"Thanks."
Zoro hands the straw hat back to Luffy and sits down in the small boat once again, "So, whats so special about that hat?"
"It was given to me a long time ago, I made a promise to become a great pirate, and when I do I'm gonna give this back to him." Luffy explains.
Zoro nods, "Who gave it to you?" He asks.
"A great pirate, 'Red Hair' Shanks." Luffy answers proudly.
Zoro raises his eyebrow, "'Red Hair'? Where have I heard that before?"
"He's a big-time pirate, one of the four Yonko that rule over the second half of the grand line."
Zoro looks surprised, "So, how do you know such a infamous pirate?"
"He stayed in my village when I was just a kid, he used it as his base for about a year."
Zoro nods and looks thoughtful. Another hour of sailing later, a seagull appears in the sky above them. Luffy thinks he recognizes it as the one he tried to catch all those years ago.
"Hey look at that bird," Luffy says to Zoro, "I'm gonna catch it."
Before Zoro can say anything Luffy throws his arms out towards the sea bird and grabs it, which, as Luffy correctly assumed, was much bigger than at first glance. He rockets up to the bird, which tries to bite him, and succeeds. Luffy now hanging out of the birds beak calls to Zoro, "Hey, help!"
"What? Luffy! You idiot!" Zoro shouts as he desperately tries to row after the bird.
Luffy doesn't mind, safe in the assumption that the bird would carry him to Orange Town.
Zoro keeps on rowing and rowing. Unfortunately, he sees the bird, and his captain, becoming smaller and smaller in the distance. He hears the voices of three men, calling out for help. He sees three spluttering men shouting for their lives, but he can't stop to help them, lest he lose sight of his captain.
"You'll have to get on board yourselves, I don't have time to stop!" He tells them.
"What!" They shout in unison. As Zoro passes them, the three worn men manage to climb onto the small ship.
"What the hell man!" One of them shouts at Zoro.
"I'm sorry," Zoro grits through his teeth.
"Well, whatever, that doesn't matter," the second says.
"This is our ship now, we're Buggy pirates, sailing under the great pirate Star Clown Buggy," the last one says.
One -fight- ass-whooping later, the three pirates are rowing like their lives depended on it.
"We're sorry sir, we didn't know you pirate hunter Zoro, we swear," one of them pleads.
"Whatever, just keep rowing, I lost sight of my captain thanks to you," Zoro says grumpily.
"Yes, sir!"
Zoro raises his eyebrow as he remembers something, "did you say you were Buggy pirates?"
"Uhh.. Yeah... Why?"
Zoro sighs, "My captain on his way to meet him."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know, apparently an old friend of his served in the same pirate crew so he wants to meet him."
"Oh, who's your captain? and also... why is he your captain?" a logical question, after all, he was a notorious pirate hunter.
"Just keep rowing."
"Yes, sir!"
Luffy felt the wind through his hair as he flew through air... in the beak of a giant sea gull.
The island Orange Town was situated on was now in sight, though minutes before he had sensed two familiar aura's, Buggy's, and Nami's.
As they passed over the town, Luffy struggle to get out of the clamped beak around his midriff.
"Uh.. hey... you can let go of me bird," Luffy tries to tell the annoying animal.
Luffy hears a bang from somewhere in town, it is at that moment he remember something about last time, as the bird is knocked out of the air by a flying cannon ball.
Thankfully, the bird lets go of Luffy. He turns around in the air to face the rapidly approaching ground, and catches eyes with a certain orange haired girl.
Luffy smashes into the ground throwing up dust and gravel, Luffy gets up on his feet as the cloud of dust clears, barely scratched. Luffy looks around and finds Nami, along with Buggy and his pirates, staring at him with open mouths.
While everyone present attempts to get over seeing a man falling from the sky and surviving, Luffy takes the chance to take in his suroundings, he sees Nami, tied up, surrounded by dozens of Buggy Pirates.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" Buggy shouts at him.
"I'm Monkey D Luffy," Luffy gives one of his trademark grins, "the man who's going to be the pirate king." Nami's eyes darken a little, she looks somewhat dissapointed.
"Pirate King? Don't be an idiot," Buggy says as he lifts his chin up and points his thumb at his chest, "I'll be the one to conquer the Grand Line."
"Hey! Shut up!" Luffy shouts, but tells himself to calm down, "So you're Buggy the pirate?"
"Well, at least you know who I am, I am the great pirate Buggy..."
"Yeah, a friend of mine told me about you," Luffy interrupts him before he can go on a tangent, "Shanks."
"That Red Hair bastard?" Buggy says in disdain, "Now that I look at that hat of yours, it reminds me of him."
"Bastard? Don't insult Shanks!"
"I have every right to insult him! He ruined me!"
"Shut up! Shanks would never do that!" Luffy couldn't control his temper.
"It's because of him I have this damned devil fruit..." Luffy stops listening when he sees his crew mate finally arrive, panting slightly.
"Ah, Zoro, there you are."
"Dammit Luffy, I almost lost you."
"Ah, Sorry about that."
"Hey Dammit youy guys! Don't ignore me!" Luffy turns to Buggy but finds himself impaled on the end of three daggers hel by a floating hand.
"Hahhh, You bastard!" How the hell did he sneak up on me! Wait, Buggy was a Roger pirate, he must be suppressing his aura, I didn't know he used haki.
"Ha! Now you won't ignore me!" he says slyly.
Nami's eyes widen.
"Ughh, Zoro lets get out of here."
"Right, Captain."
Luffy nods to Nami, "Help me carry her," he commands Zoro.
Her eyes widen even more, what did they want her for.
Zoro simply nods and hoists her over his shoulder.
"Follow me," Luffy says.
"Don't let them get away!" Buggy calls his underlings.
Luffy takes off, his right hand holding his stomach, trying to stem the blood flow.
"Hey wait a minute! Why are you taking me?" Nami questions accusingly.
"Do you want to stay here?" Luffy replies.
Nami pauses but eventually answers "No."
"Right, then lets go."
Luffy burst into a sprint with Zoro carrying Nami not far behind, the Buggy pirates, started firing on them, bullets whizzing past their ears.
Luffy slows down a little and lets the other two pass him. He uses his haki to predict the paths of the lead shots, and subtly place himself behind Zoro and Nami to protect them from those heading their way. They run through the village, through small side streets and the main road, eventually the gunfire dies down as they shake off their pursuers.
Luffy directs Zoro into a house, abandoned by the villagers.
Zoro pants slightly as he sets Nami down and sits down to rest himself.
"Hey, guys, you know now that we're done running away,do you mind letting me go?" She asks, a little frightened of the self proclaimed pirates.
"What? Oh yeah, Zoro?" Zoro nods and moves round Nami to untie the thick length of rope restraining her, while Luffy himself tries to tend to his wounds.
"So, why were you tied up?" Luffy asks as he wraps the cut in bandages.
"Why should I tell you that!"
"Because we just saved you from that pirate," Zoro answers.
"Aren't you guys pirates as well?"
"Yeah, So?" Luffy asks sincerely.
Nami couldn't find a way to answer that insulting them and possibly invoking their wrath, so instead she simply answered the previous question.
"I stole a map and some treasure from him."
"A map of what?"
"The grand line."
"Hey cool, you're going to the grand line?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Why don't you come with us?"
"No way! I'm not gonna join up with pirates!"
"Why not?"
"I hate pirates, their all horrible."
"Hey, don't say that!"
"Why not? You're all the same!"
"No we're not!"
Nami sighs, "Whatever, look, if you can help me get that map back from Buggy... I'll... consider teaming up with you for a little while."
"Ah cool," Luffy says excitedly.
"So," Zoro speaks up for the first time in a while, "how are we gonna get the map back?"
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Hope you enjoyed :)