Hai-hai~ Bonna-chan is posting another chapter! Hope you guys like it and, I know, the story develops way too fast… but I'll fix that soon!
"Another price increase? Don't you think it's getting a bit too expensive? Raise the price again and I won't be buying your papers anymore." The navigator slipped the coin in the satchel around the seagull's neck.
"The only thing you think about is money, isn't it?" Mai let out a bored sigh.
"Yes." Usopp answered instead of Nami "And what are you getting so worked up about? It's just a newspaper."
"Daily expenses add up, you know?" the money-freak started philosophizing.
"I thought you were done with saving money…?" the long-nose was crafting something in his little corner of the ship.
"Don't be ridiculous! From now on, I'm only gonna save money for myself!"
"Well then don't expect to get a big share from the crew's budget." Mai raised an eyebrow "What are we even talking about anyway…?"
"An enemy that gets this in their eye," Usopp was, once again, talking to himself about how great he is "will be rendered completely help-" Luffy was fighting with Sanji, and apparently lost, so he pushed Usopp and the tabasco splashed in his eye.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH-!"
"Can't I just have one?!" the fight was about the oranges that Nami brought along.
"Absolutely not!" he turned to Nami with his eyes shaped like hearts "Rest assured, my dear Nami, that your oranges are well guarded by my power of love~!"
"Thanks Sanji~!"
"You're just using him as your pet monkey." Mai declared, "sigh… I'm going to the Nest."
"Do as you please." The Sanji-user flipped a page of the paper.
A piece of paper then fell on the deck. They all looked at it, except for Zoro, who was taking a nap, as usual, and Usopp, who was still rolling around the ship from the spicy liquid that was in his eyes.
"AAAAH-!" the ship was now heading for Grand Line.
"Yipee~! Looks like we're wanted men now! And it says 30 million beli!"
SWEATDROP
"Once again, you fail to understand the gravity of the situation."
"Good enough amount for the first time." Mai smiled, grabbing the poster from the boy's hand.
"Hey, Mai…do you have a bounty?" Luffy turned to her.
"Yup…!" she grinned childishly.
"Really?!" Nami raised her head.
"Aha. I think I have a poster somewhere…" she dug in her pocket and pulled out a wrinkly piece of paper "Here it is!" she showed it to the others.
"450 MILLION?!"
"Is that a bad thing?" she tried to look as innocent as possible.
"What exactly did you do to get such a high amount?!"
"sigh…Long story short, I come from an island which I left on the age of three with my late mom's boat and I drifted aimlessly on the sea a few days and then I met this guy with yellow eyes who was heading to Loguetown and after we went there he decided to take me with him on his island. Oh, and, I've also been to Grand Line and fought a good amount of marine bastards."
"…Hawk-eyes?" Zoro asked.
"The one and only…" she smiled at the ground.
"That was too short!" Luffy pouted.
"I feel like it's enough for now. B'sides, there's an island over there." She pointed at one lonesome piece of land.
"Land ahoy!" the group suddenly became cheerful.
Mai smirked.
"What are you plotting…?" Nami looked at her suspiciously.
"Nothing… at the moment."
"Then what's that creepy smile for…?"
"Heh…" she threw her head back "Loguetown."
"The beginning of the end…" Nami shut her yap and looked at the death-trap of an island.
"Exactly."
At the town…
"So this is where the Pirate Era started, eh?" Sanji raised his twisted brow.
"Sure is big, ne?" Mai said protecting her eyes from the sun with her hand.
"I can get some fine food ingredients from here…!" Sanji went off to look for a food shop, also thinking about the high chances to find some beautiful women as well.
"I need some supplies as well." Usopp left the bunch and started looking around the town.
"Okay then, I'm gonna go see the execution stand!" the captain left, leaving only Mai, Nami and Zoro.
"Well…there is something I would like to buy, but…" Zoro browsed for a sword shop that was in his view.
"I'll gladly lend you money…at a 300% interest. Hihi."
"…I have some things to take care of… Be back in about an hour." Mai put her hands in her pockets and the two lost sight of her once she entered an alley.
After they all split…
"Seems like that boss of yours isn't here today…" a woman's voice came from the group of people.
"It's your fault that he's in prison!"
"If you still haven't learned your lesson, I will gladly teach it to you again."
"Oh…? Am I hearing correctly? A little miss like you wants to fight us?!" apparently the one talking was either of the two jerks.
"Well, why not!" the other creep laughed.
A few smack-talks here and there and a swing of a sword and they were both down (pathetic!).
"Wh-Whoa…!" after her victory, the girl tripped and fell in front of Zoro.
"Here you go." He passed her the glasses.
"T-Thank you…! And, sorry for troubling you." She blushed and put her glasses on. Zoro froze at the first better look at her. The mighty Pirate Hunter didn't know how to react to one single girl. Highlight the word single. And she did resemble Kuina quite a lot.
"Dragon." The black haired beauty spoke with an aura of mystery in her tone.
"Yajiko." The man with a heck of an awesome tattoo on the left side of his face nodded his head.
"You're following, aren't you…? Pretty sneaky of you."
"You joined him…?"
"Why not? I was looking for a small crew to join and while I was 'seeing' what was going on in Red's village, I stumbled upon this interesting enthusiastic boy and I decided to join him. I was just waiting for the right time to approach."
"As long as you don't cause him too much trouble, it's okay for me."
"His dream is to be a pirate. Of course he'll get into trouble."
"Heh. Farewell, Yajiko."
"See you soon, Dragon." She smiled under the shade of the alley and went for the coast.
Meanwhile, on a certain island…
"Hawk-eyes…! What're you doin' here?!"
"I wish to speak to your captain. To be hanging on islands such as this…what is that man thinking…?"
"CAAAAPTAAAAAAIN!"
"Hmm?"
"He-He's here *pant* Hawk-Eyes…!"
"Ah, quite the rare guest I have. Have you come to settle things with a fight once and for all? Even though I'm not in the mood."
"As if I'd want to fight a man with only one arm. I came to talk to you about a boy from a certain village…" he passed the flyer to the red-haired man.
"So, you've come out at last, Luffy…!" He smiled and his face was now slightly lightened up, revealing that he's Shanks himself (as if you didn't know it was him already…)
Back to Mai…
'Damn…they sure are far…Will I be able to catch him before he leaves? It's worth a try, anyway… The nerve of that old man, making me follow him 'round these pathetic seas… Guess I have no choice…' she dove into the water and after a flash of a second was half a kilometer away from the coast.
To the red-head and the yellow eyed…
"Well, I'll be leaving now." Mihawk (big surprise it's him) said after the whole 'party' was over.
"Come ooon~! Stay a bit longer and celebrate!" Shanks emptied another glass of beer.
"I have something to finish."
"Well, too bad. I can't force you to stay, after all."
"Farewell." He got on his coffin-boat and left the island.
A few minutes afterwards, the girl on a search reached the island.
"Gaah! Missed 'im by a hair… Yo Shanks! How's life treatin' ya?" Mai tried to start a normal conversation, even if she did know she can't keep it up for long.
"Mai! Don't go sayin' normal things like that, okay? You know, Mihawk was just here."
"I know, I know. Anyways, whatcha doin' on an island like this one?"
"Who knows…? Hey, you're gonna stay and drink some with us, right? I heard that Luffy finally showed his head and now we're celebratin'!"
"Ah, I heard as much. Wan' me ta' tell ya somethin'?"
"Go ahead, girlie."
"I joined his crew, hihi…!"
"Really?! How is he? Is he getting into too much trouble? What's the crew's name? Where are you right now?"
"Yes, just fine, of course, Strawhats an' Loguetown."
"Strawhats…"
"You're his inspiration, ya know. Although he hasn't mentioned ya in front of the crew yet, I recognized the hat."
"That boy…"
"…is gonna become the Pirate King. Great minds think alike."
"Ya got a fine head on your shoulders. And you resemble your mother pretty much. Good luck with findin' that stone!"
"Thanks! And, I'd wish ya luck too, but Luffy's gonna beat ya to it, so I'm not gonna say anythin'!"
"Don't take the Red-Haired Pirates so lightly."
"Ya've said that a million times. Whoa, look at the time…well, I'll be getting' back now…! And thanks for the drinks!"
"See ya, Snake whisperer…OI! YOU DRANK ALL THE SAKE! AFTER HER, MEN!"
"See ya, suckaz!" she dove into the sea and was too distant from them so that they could catch up.
After the whole 'Luffy's gonna be executed' incident…
"AHAHHAHAAH! You idiots almost got killed by a 'witwe mawine'! AHAHAHAHA!"
"…Shut up."
"So, we're heading for the Grand Line, are we? I propose a toast!" Sanji brought out a barrel of sake "To find All Blue." He put his foot on the barrel.
"To become the Pirate King!" Luffy followed Sanji's lead.
"To be the world's greatest swordsman."
"To draw a map of the world!"
"To-To be a brave warrior of the sea…!"
"…To find the Serpent's Eye!" Mai said with a little trace of doubt.
"Off to Grand Line we go!"
CRACK
"Oi, Mai… What's the Serpent's Eye?" Zoro raised his brow.
"You don't need ta' know, bud." Usopp freaked out.
"Hey, Usopp…" Luffy turned to the member of the Idiot Trio, that would be complete after Chopper joined "Who do you think is scarier: Nami or Mai?"
"I'm only scary if you provoke me." Nami waved her hand.
"Same here. If you don't ask me about my personal things, I ain't gonna do ya any harm. But, if you do, may God have mercy on your soul."
"Let's test it out!" Luffy had another one of his 'brilliant' ideas "Men, huddle!"
SWEATDROP
The males of the crew gathered up, and quietly decided that it's gonna be Zoro who's gonna test the two out. He didn't like it, but pretty much nothing could scare him, so he went along with their little game.
"Well, Zoro, do something…"
"Like what…?" the captain whispered something in his ear.
"Fair enough." He ran to the orange trees, grabbing one of the fruits "Oi, Nami…! Mind if I take one?" he was pulling on the one he grabbed.
"Don't you dare touch my oranges."
"…creepy…" Usopp said from behind Sanji's back.
Now it was Mai's turn.
"Oi, Mai… what was the name of the island you left at age three aga-"
"If you ever bring up anything that I have told you about my past, I swear, I will stab you with your own swords and then I'll grind you under my feet like the little worthless pest you are."
"Ma-Mai's scary~!"
"She ain't that sca-"
"Hiss…"*
"I-I'm sorry…" she crawled back to the rest of the members, who were watching without a peep.
"Now then, let's continue with what we were doing, shall we?" Mai changed her mood faster than you could say 'Cheese and Whiskers'.
"You-You're the sca-scariest person I have ever come across…"
"That wasn't even my best."
"What is?" Zoro was playing with her patience.
"Try to provoke me and you'll see."
The crew, leaving out Nami, spent the rest of the day trying to find out just how scary Mai really is.
"Listen, guys. I know you're plotting to get me mad but I can't show my 'final scare-form' unless I truly hate someone."
"Who do you truly hate?" Luffy's head tilted to the left.
"A lot of people."
"Example…?"
"Well…my arch enemies are the marines, other than them there are pirates like Sea Hunter Earling and Big Kabora."
"Who are they?"
"Exactly."
"…"
"sigh…You people are too stupid. After their shameful loss, they retreated from being pirates."
"You got 'em that bad?" she was starting to rub off even on Usopp.
"Guess you could say so. Hey, you guys know my mark?"
"Nope."
"Then I'll show ya." She pulled out a dagger that was similar to the one that Mihawk stabbed Zoro in the chest with. He seemed to notice it.
"I know it's a lot like Dracule's." She looked up at him and then started engraving her symbol in the planks of the Nest. (I hope Mr. Internet is nice enough to let you open this, so you could see what it looks like: imanager/image_ ?imageid=621415&width=300&hash=53843c859b5f348c7a4ea1926ee5 3d45 Otherwise, it's something like a crossover between the letters M(ai) and Y(ajiko), and the 'neck' of the Y is drawn like a diamond and the lines of the letter in different colors that represent the main color-changes of her eyes: blue, green, yellow and red. And then again, if it does let you open, sorry for the bad quality but it was drawn in Paint, thank you very much)
"It's cool!" Of course the captain would say something like that.
"Where do you use it…?" Sanji took a better look at the weird symbol (Note: on the wooden planks it was not in color)
"Ah, yes. The reason I brought it up… I use this little dagger to forever scar it onto the skin of the people I truly hate. So, about one quarter of the entire worth of those pathetic marines in this puny world has this somewhere on their bodies."
"Evil~!"
"I know~ MUAHAHAHAHA" She laughed maniacally "Maybe you'll see me doing it to someone that will do harm to one of you or some other friend, hihi."
"Where are you, idiots?! I discovered something…!" they got down from the Nest and went into the kitchen/dining room.
Nami spread the map on the table "No matter how you look at it, the entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain…!"
"WHAT?!"
"That can't be possible…!"
"it's true, actually." Mai seemed pretty calm, unlike the others "You see, there's a canal across the mountain, so if we can sail through it we'll be fine. Also, Nami, watch out so we don't enter the Calm Belt, okay?" she gave a wink to the navigator.
"You're right. It would be the end if we entered the Calm Belt. Sanji, Usopp, steer the ship towards the mountain!"
"Aye-aye Nami-chwan~!" Sanji's eyes were shaped like hearts.
After the direction was set and they entered the canal, Nami praised Mai "You saved us from a lot of trouble, you know…"
"I know, hihi."
"Mai-kwun~! You are so brilliant! You too, Nami-chwan~!" The cook's cig was making heart-shaped smoke clouds.
SWEATDROP
"AAAH! We're gonna hit the side! Grab the rudder and steer away from the gate!"
Sanji and Usopp ran to the rudder "It's stuck!"
CRACK
"It-It…" Nami started crying anime-tears.
"Gomu-gomu no Balloon!" Luffy jumped off the ship and landed between it and the gate just in time to bounce it off.
"Phew…that was close." Mai sighed in relief.
"Luffy! Grab my hand!"
"Yahoo! We reached the Grand Line!" Mai was jumping around the ship excitedly.
"You sure are happy for someone who's been there before." Zoro commented.
"I've been to Grand Line before, yes, but I've only entered it once."
"How long did ya stay?"
"About 7 years."
"…"
"Hihi. Grand Line, here we come!" She laughed out loud like the weirdo she was.
"I can see it up ahead!" the captain was hanging on to Merry's head and was looking at the vast distance that they were heading for.
The six-member crew was now sailing for the destination they chose as their final.
"A mountain!"
"It's a whale, dimwit!" Mai smacked Usopp on the head.
"It's huge…!"
"How are we gonna pass it?!"
"Solve it yourselves. I already 'saw' what's gonna happen so I'll sit this out."
"WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN?!"
But it was too late because she already jumped off the ship and into the water, swimming out of their sight.
"YOU LITTLE BITCH! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!" Zoro was shouting…and then they got swallowed by a whale.
"GAHAHAHAHA IDIOTS~!" she was rolling on the sandy beach where the lighthouse was located.
*The hiss is supposed to be something like a snake sound or whatever…
Bonna: Did you like the chapter~? Review and I'll force Mai to kiss Zoro in the cheek ^_^
Mai: WHY THE HELL WOULD I DO THAT?!
Bonna: Hush, child. Do not speak. For I know your thoughts.
Mai: AND STOP TALKING LIKE A POET!
Seriously though, review.