I just heard compliments from my father about being an outstanding citizen. I hope many of your hear that from your parents. I hope that for my coauthor on this story too.
XXX
Doors and windows were shuttered. Every now and again, a building was missing, a crater marking where it used to be.
So far, anything remotely resembling a shop was either empty or utterly destroyed. Fletcher's stomach was starting to rumble, which was never a good sign, and his companions were starting to feel quite annoyed as well.
XXX
Yokai stared at the dragon, having finally realized something that should have been obvious to him from the start.
"Anetha's Treasure . . . was a dragon egg. And you're the dragon." he whispered in awe. The dragon rolled its eyes as if to say 'duh'.
XXX
KA-BOOM!
Right in front of the group, a flaming ball landed, the explosion sending dirt flying everywhere and demolishing the houses to either side.
Coughing and spluttering, brushing themselves off, the group glared at the newly created crater through a fog of dust. Fletcher's stomach growled loudly.
"Where can we get something to eat already?" he whined.
"When we find a shop that isn't looted." Christopher replied irritably.
Dorobou looked up at the sky, trying to figure out where the ball had come from. Sherry started walking again, eyes darting everywhere.
XXX
It had been an hour. They still hadn't found any supplies. But they had realized that the source of the random cannonfire was somewhere to the east of the town. Sherry got there before any of the boys. When she ate her devil fruit she gained the ability to turn into a small but fast four legged animal that was considered the most cuddly household pet and sometimes just something to throw cans at.
Her ears lay flat against her skull and her tail twitched from side to side as she hissed at the sight before her.
At the bottom of an enormous, fresh, crater lay a very fat man. By the fat man was a huge pile of food. In one hand, he held the biggest bazooka Sherry had ever seen, pointing it into the sky at an angle. As she watched, the fatty pulled the trigger, sending a cannonball hurling into the sky. When it reached a certain point, it caught fire. Sherry flinched, skittering back away towards the boys.
She knew none of the boys were weak enough to lose against that fat man. She however felt cowardly when it came to fighting. If possible the only weapons she would use is an instrument that could win all her battles but that wasn't aboard the pirate ship.
"What did you see?" Christopher asked as soon as she reached them. She laid her ears flat again, swishing her tail and hissing, her pupils blown wide. In her cat form, this was her way of saying 'warning, danger!'
Christopher seemed to get the message, nodding. So then Sherry began to mime eating, moving one paw between the ground and her mouth, pretending to chew.
Christopher grinned.
"Fletcher . . ." the cook said, "the guy who keeps firing that cannon has food."
That was all he needed to say. Fletcher took off running in the direction Sherry had come from, screaming "GIVE ME MY LUNCH!"
Christopher grabbed a surprised Dorobou's arm and started dragging him in the captain's wake.
XXX
Dorobou whistled, staring down over the lip of the crater.
"That's one big hole." He muttered.
" I can safely agree with that," said Christopher, standing beside Dorobou and staring down into the lip of the crater.
It was at that moment that Fletcher spotted the pile of food. His eyes gleamed, and he suddenly raced down the sides of the crater screaming "Give me my lunch!"
He threw a fist towards the fatty's position.
A few seconds later, the fatty squawked as something invisible dented his bulk. Fletcher expected him to get mad and use the weapon Sherry told him about. Although, what happened instead was roots grew out of the ground and literally sucked on his legs.
He summoned a blast of wind to get himself off the ground, staring in astonishment as his previous position was overcome by a crater full of vines.
It looked like Fletcher was going to be swallowed by the long pricked of vines from who knows what type of plant, but instead he shot up high into the air, out of the reach of the vines. A cannon ball came out of nowhere, about to hit him-
Eye wide with surprise, Fletcher instinctively deflected the sphere with another gust of wind . . . sending it flying towards where Christopher and Dorobou were watching from. Then the young captain began to fall, plummeting down towards the fat man.
Fletcher hit the fat man directly below his neck. The power of Fletcher's dive tossed the fat man off his feet. He grunted from the impact, landing on his butt and falling over backwards due to his own weight.
" You may have knocked me down but I can get back up and make you regret hitting me kid!"
It didn't sound very intimidating considering that he was too fat to stand on his own two feet. But he still had a hold of his cannon, and he was aiming it in Fletcher's direction. " Do you know what I'm holding? It's modified hand gripping cannon. Not even devil fruit powers can save you when I fire white phosphorous burning out your insides."
He was surprised to see that Fletcher was ignoring him, the boy heading in the direction of the enormous food pile, drooling in anticipation.
The man decided that that would be the perfect time to catch Fletcher unawares. He aimed at the young captain's back, and pulled the trigger back.
Click!
Nothing happened. The man pulled the trigger again.
Click!
Nothing. Very confused, the man turned the cannon around so he could peer inside the barrel-
Boom!
An explosion of soot smacked painfully into the fat man's wobbly face, turning his skin black.
"Yeouch!" the man shrieked. Fletcher continued to ignore him. The man, now very very cross, aimed the unblocked cannon at him.
"Die, you little-"
Bonk!
Christopher had come down and knocked the man out. Christopher stole the cannon in the man's hands before his body hit the ground. What Christopher did next was pull out his sword and slice the cannon in half just in case the man would wake up and get his weapon back before they had a chance to leave. He then turned his attention to the pile of food Fletcher was rapidly guzzling. Summoning a few sacks out of nowhere, Christopher sought to rescue a few supplies before they all vanished down the walking black hole.
Still at the top of the crater, Dorobou watched the other two with raised eyebrows. He'd joined an interesting crew indeed.
XXX
Sherry had gone back to the ship, and was sitting on the deck bemused as she watched Yokai dance around deliriously around the sweat-dropping dragon. The monk was shouting at the sky praises for his goddess.
Deciding that she couldn't be bothered dealing with this, Sherry sneaked inside the kitchen to wait for the others to return.
In Christopher's workplace there was things she couldn't touch; a knife that looked like it was more for killing than cooking was left on a plate in the sink with brown water covering both the plate and the knife.
She eyed it distastefully. Boys were such dirty creatures. Still in her cat form, she curled up to sleep on a chair.
Soon, everyone was back on board, and the journey resumed.
XXX
"There it is." Yokai said, looking satisfied. He folded up his map and put away his compass for the time being. The dragon hummed in satisfaction beside him.
'It' was the island of Loguetown, the Town of the Beginning and the End, where Gold Roger, the Pirate King, had been born and executed. It was the last stop before the crew would head to the Grand Line.
Only Fletcher and Christopher cared about this though.
They needed to resupply their ship, and Yokai had been muttering to himself about posing logs, and Loguetown was the only place they could go.
"Try to keep a low profile." he advised, "I've heard rumors about some really tough marine on this island. Hardly anyone gets past him."
Of course, with Fletcher as a captain, they'd be lucky not to get noticed.
" I think Fletcher is the only one who can't keep a low profile," said Christopher. " I try teaching him to not draw attention to himself but in the end it's only the rest of you who can learn to stay hidden."
That was when Dorobou piped up with a question. "If we're keeping a low profile, what do we do with the dragon?"
Everyone turned to the large lizard, who was indulging his favourite pastime of squashing Yokai.
"Send him ahead?"
"Hide him?"
"Disgiuse him?"
Were the suggestions.
"Send him ahead." Christopher said after thinking for a moment.
A couple of minutes later, the dragon flew off with instructions to wait on the other side of what Yokai called 'Reverse Mountain'.
Having taken care of that, they adjusted the sails and made preparations to dock.
XXX
The ship was tied to the pier.
" I did it!" Sherry said happily as she looked at how well she could tie a ship.
The boys were all standing around as Sherry joined them. She was in a happy mood unlike the time she first met the crew and the times the boys gave her nothing to smile about. They all jumped down, quickly splitting up to go do their shopping. Fletcher rushed straight off, and Dorobou and Sherry each wandered off alone. Yokai found himself being dragged along by Christopher.
"Let's get this over with." the cook said resignedly.
XXX
Dorobou looked blackly at the list he'd compiled. Christopher (who had better organisational skills than Fletcher) had put the former businessman in charge of money and non-food supplies. The ship was sadly lacking.
XXX
Fletcher wandered aimlessly through Loguetown, taking in the sights. Fletcher had never been around so many people who smiled at his hyperactive speed.
It was a pleasant change from his cook yelling at him all the time. He skidded around the corner, narrowly avoiding smashing into someone. His eyes fell on a noticeboard covered in bounty posters. His gaze became riveted on one in particular. He snatched it off, corners ripping, and continued on his way.
XXX
Yokai hadn't spotted any place that sold Log Poses yet, and he was becoming quite bored. He stood behind Christopher, who was bargaining for bread, idly watching people pass by.
Christopher's voice faded to a drone in the background as Yokai's eyes zeroed in on a red-haired beauty walking through the crowd. Yokai knew he had to get close to her and tell her all the words sewn in his heart. Christopher turned around, just as a hand made a grab for-
"Thief." he growled, dropping one of his bags and grabbing the wrist of a redhead. She struggled to keep running. Try as the redhead did only her feet could move but her body couldn't. The last part of her capture was Christopher stepping in front of her.
Christopher was finding lots of problems with holding Nami's hand. For some reason her hand felt warmer than anyone else's.
Before he could ponder it further, Yokai came noodling up with hearts in his eyes.
"Oh, your beauty rivals my goddess, my love!" he said in a sappy tone.
Christopher might have been imagining it, but he could swear the girl muttered something like "not another one."
Whether she muttered it or not didn't change the fact that Christopher was thinking Yokai would end up helping this thief escape.