And THIS is what we've been working hard on.
Yes, I know, it's been a long time since we posted for this story, but we got a few new ideas for it recently that put us in the mood to work on it.
We also did some slight editing of earlier chapters not that long ago, for example, if you go to see Robin's introduction chapter, you'll see a SLIGHT edit was made to when she actually appears in the chapter.
Anyway, without further ado, we give you, the Alabasta Arc, Desire Cruise version.
"You'd think he would learn by now." Lumen sighed as he leaned on the railing.
"This IS Luffy we're talking about." Nami added in deadpan.
"Good point." Lumen said dryly, looking down to see Luffy with a goose egg on top of his head… because he tried to break off the lock on the fridge... AGAIN.
"Sanji at least is quick on the punishment." Nami said, glancing to the cook, whose leg was still practically smoking from how fast he cracked their idiot captain over the head.
"Yeah well we're SUPPOSED to make this food last us till the next stop. Honestly, his black hole of a stomach scares me sometimes." Lumen said, shaking his head.
"Think I could borrow some of those Candroids?" Sanji asked.
"What do you need them for?" Lumen blinked.
"Extra security," Sanji said dryly.
"...knock yourself out," Lumen responded just as dryly.
"And in the meantime, you guys keep fishing." Nami said towards Usopp, Chopper and Carue, who all saluted.
It was then Vivi exited the cabin "Everyone. Since we're so close to Alabasta, I think it's time we went over some of the details about what we're going to face there."
After a few small explanations…
"A hero? Crocodile is Alabasta's hero?" Nami blinked.
"To be one of the Royal Warlords, means you're a pirate employed by the World Government," Vivi said.
"So basically 'officially' he's a Privateer and thus one of the 'good guys'. Makes sense," Lumen mused.
"Yes," Vivi sighed. "Because of that, whether it's him or the Marines who stop the pirates that attack, the people are grateful to whoever saves them."
"I guess nobody would ever expect the Hero to be planning to take over the Kingdom," Sanji frowned.
"That's assuming he's not using what I like to call 'Engineered Heroics'," Lumen frowned.
"Huh?" everyone blinked at that one.
"It's basically when someone stages a crisis so they can 'save' the people from it and thus look like a hero to everyone," Lumen shrugged. "It's a pretty easy way to build a good reputation publicly."
Vivi frowned at that "It's certainly a possibility I had entertained for a while now. Though, from what I learned, the reason he's able to respond so quickly has to do with him having an effective Devil Fruit. I only saw him once, but he seemed to be controlling the sand around him and making it from his body."
Lumen paused at that, before perking up "Logia Type."
"Logia? What's that?" Usopp asked curiously.
"One of the three Devil Fruit types. Luffy is what's called a Paramecia, while Chopper is a Zoan. Crocodile, from the sound of it, is a Logia, also known as an elemental. He doesn't just generate and control sand, he IS sand." Lumen explained.
Luffy perked up at that "Like Smokey too then!"
"You mean that smoke guy I saved you from back in Loguetown? Yeah, he was a Logia too now that I think back." Lumen nodded.
"Sounds pretty strong," Sanji frowned.
"If I remember right it's gonna be a problem, since being well...sand...what do you think is gonna happen if we try to punch or kick it?" Lumen said.
Everyone paused...and paled a little when they realized what Lumen was getting at.
"It'd do absolutely nothing," Nami gulped.
"Then how do we hurt him?" Zoro wondered as he opened his eyes, showing he had been awake long enough to hear most of the conversation.
Lumen hummed at that "What did she say about that again?" he muttered, thinking back to his sister's words, before he snapped his fingers "Right, we need either Sea Stone, water, or… I think it was called Haki, but I don't know enough about that last one." he said with a frown.
"What's Haki?" Chopper asked.
"I think it's supposed to be the manifestation of willpower?" Lumen said, wracking his brain for his sister's explanations "I think… there's supposed to be three types. One for attacking, one for dodging, and another that I can't remember."
"That's a shame," Vivi frowned. "Still, if you can remember anything about that, please let us know. It sounds like it's going to be useful," Vivi said.
"Will do," Lumen nodded.
"So… short version, if I want to beat Croc's butt, I need to take a dip first?" Luffy asked after a moment.
"Basically, he's made of sand, so water would make him more muddy essentially." Lumen shrugged.
"That'll make saving Alabasta easier." Nami rolled her eyes.
"If there IS any water when we fight him though." Vivi sighed "Before I left, we started having drought problems, so I'm not sure how well that plan will work."
"We'll work with what we have when the time comes," Lumen sighed.
"Uh...I got a question," Usopp said. "I'm kinda wondering about how Baroque Works, well...works. What's with the Mr and Ms codenames?"
Vivi nodded "It's actually quite simple. First, at the top, you have Crocodile, who uses the codename of Mr. 0. Then, you have the 12 people and 1 animal agent that receive their orders directly from him. They are identified by a number, that signifies their rank. They are then paired with a female agent of comparable strength, who has a codename based on specific days. The smaller number pairs use holidays, while the higher number pairs use regular days. Mr. 13 and Ms. Friday are special exceptions, since rather than regular agents, they are executioners and scouts."
She paused for a moment, before continuing "Among the numbered agents, those with the rank 5 and above are known as Officer Agents. They are among the strongest members, and almost all of them have Devil Fruits. They are also the ones to carry out the most important missions. They also have command of the Billions, non numbered agents, and there's about 200 of them. Below the Officer Agents, you have the Frontier Agents, which is what Igaram and I were ranked at when we infiltrated, and they have control of the Millions, which are roughly 1800 in numbers. Their goal is mostly to act like simple bounty hunters. That is the basic rundown of Baroque Works."
"So, in the end I just need to kick Crocodile's butt!" Luffy said.
"Wow you did NOT listen did you?" Lumen deadpanned.
"You say that like you were expecting something else," Nami said dryly.
"No, I honestly wasn't," Lumen sighed. "But IS Luffy right if you boil it down to the….EXTREMELY basic?"
"More or less," Vivi chuckled. "If you take out Crocodile, it should cause Baroque Works to topple, and with them gone, things should improve..."
"Though, now that I think about it, those Officer Agents…" Nami trailed off, giving Vivi a knowing look.
The princess nodded, knowing what the redhead was getting at "Yes, without a doubt, all of them will be gathering in Alabasta."
"And that'll be the biggest opening to topple Baroque Works," Lumen frowned. "Speaking of which, how ARE they planning to take over Alabasta?" he asked, since he wasn't too familiar with details, just the more important details like important players and some REALLY important events...even then the details weren't really there for him.
Vivi frowned as she thought about that "Well… I hadn't been able to hear much while we had infiltrated Baroque Works sadly, but I'm sure whatever it is, it's devious."
Nami paused at that, some of Vivi's words ringing in her head "Wait… infiltrated… that might be it!"
"What is it?" Chopper asked, wondering what she had figured out.
"What if Baroque Works infiltrated the rebels and the royals? Like, have some soldiers in both camps to rile everyone up more and more?" Nami explained.
Vivi's eyes widened at that one. "That...that would make a LOT of sense," she gasped. "If he has agents on both sides, he could put a stop to anything that might end the conflict."
"Damn...this just got a lot harder for us," Lumen groaned.
"Guess we'll just have to kick Crocodile's butt then," Luffy said simply.
"...anyone else starting to hate the fact that that's seriously starting to look like our best bet?" Usopp said dryly.
The group groaned, the collective answer obvious, before they started to make any plans that could help them in the long run, while steadily ignoring Luffy's consistent 'but I just need to beat him' comments.
A few days had passed, it was now a week since the crew had left Drum Island.
...And, as always, shenanigans were afoot on the Going Merry.
"What part of 'worms aren't for eating' do you NOT get?" Lumen groaned as once again Luffy had been eating the bait.
"At this rate we'll have to use something else as bait," Usopp groaned...and by some leap of logic that Lumen didn't want to try to understand...the two stooges had the bright idea of trying to use Carue as bait in hopes of catching a shark. Needless to say, Vivi put her foot, or rather fists, down on THAT idea.
"How far are we till Alabasta?" Zoro asked from where he was watching the stupidity happen.
"We should be getting close," Nami sighed in annoyance. "The weather has been getting warmer, so it shouldn't be long now."
"It's so hot there's even steam on the ocean!" Chopper gasped, pointing at a mass of steam rising out of the ocean.
"Wait, steam?" Lumen blinked, looking at where Chopper was pointing "Huh… well what do you know? That's an underwater volcano."
"There's volcanoes underwater?!" Chopper asked in shock.
"It's how most islands end up being formed." Nami informed him "In thousands of years, this area here is going to have an island in it after the land has risen enough."
"Should we go around it?" Usopp asked from his spot on the floor… Carue still dangling from the fishing poles.
Nami waved him off "No need, it won't kill us, though it might stink of sulfur."
Luffy stared at the steam as they got closer and closer… "Mystery smoke." he said with a sure nod.
… Did anybody expect something different? No? Good, let's move on then.
The Merry sailed into the rising steam, and the crew coughed a little as they breathed in the air.
"Holy shit you weren't kidding about the sulfur!" Lumen said, before pinching his nose "God it stinks!"
"We can't see anything in this pea soup!" Usopp shouted.
"No way, it's WAY thicker than that, like, uh… clam chowder!" Luffy said.
"Not important you idiot!" Nami shouted, and a clonk could be heard through the smoke. "Let's just keep going everyone, we'll be out soon enough."
However, as they were going through the steam/fog, they felt a sudden wind. "Did something go right past us?" Lumen blinked.
"If they did, then good thing they missed us," Sanji sighed. It wouldn't have been funny if whatever that was rammed into them while they were in the steam. Eventually though, they got out.
"Glad to be out of there…" Lumen sighed, waving a hand in front of his nose, while Chopper looked like he wanted to hurl. However, that was also when they noticed something else. Nobody actually pulled Carue back on the ship, so as it turns out...the 'bait' actually DID catch something. "...wut?" was all Lumen could say to sum up the 'catch'.
It was… he was pretty sure it was a man... wearing some kind of weird blue tutu, makeup on his face, pom poms on his head, swan heads on his shoulders along with fake wings on his back, and a long pink coat with 'Okama Way' written on the back.
The weird person seemed just as surprised as them and in his surprise...he ended up letting go and falling into the ocean. "Man overboard!"
One impromptu rescue later, and the odd person was on their ship, thanking them for the rescue.
"Please forgive me for having wandered onto your boat." the okama said, bowing a little "To be rescued by pirates I have never heard of, I shall never forget my debt to you." he said, before straightening himself back up "Now, you wouldn't happen to have any soup? I'm quite peckish."
"Oi oi oi." Lumen, Zoro and Usopp waved in annoyance.
He seemed to take that in stride, before noticing Vivi. "Oh my! Such a cute little thing you are, and just my type too," he said, winking and puckering his lips...which was honestly more creepy than charming. "I could just eat you up!"
Vivi understandably recoiled at that, but thankfully Luffy 'came to her rescue'...by being himself. "So you can't swim, huh?" he asked.
"Yes, for I have eaten a Devil Fruit," the man said with a nod.
"Really? Which one?" Usopp asked curiously.
The man hummed "Well, I suppose I DO have some time to kill until my crew comes back to find me. Allow me to treat you daisies to a show." he smiled as he stood up, and reared a hand back "Behold, my ability!" he said with a grin as he… slammed his right hand into Luffy's face, sending the idiot down to the ground.
At once the crew got ready to attack the man, and it was obvious he noticed, holding his hands out,"Hold your horses! Didn't I say I'd treat you to a show?" he said… with a different voice… and everyone's eyes widened as they stared at him in shock.
"What the…?" Lumen said, his jaw hanging… because the man now had Luffy's face.
"Stoooop jooooking around!" the man said with a large grin.
"What?! It's me?!" Luffy gasped when he got up, while the man was laughing while using Luffy's face and voice.
"Surprised? Surprised?" he laughed, before holding up his left hand "And if I touch my face with my left hand…" he said, doing just that and turning back to normal. "Tada! Back to normal! This is the power of the Copy Copy Fruit I ate!" he said.
"Wow...that's honestly impressive," Lumen had to admit.
"Not just his voice...his body was the same too…" Usopp agreed.
"Of course, I didn't actually need to hit you for that. I got a bit over excited," the man admitted, before patting everyone on the cheek with his right hand...and promptly started showing off with the faces of Zoro, Usopp, Chopper, Lumen, and Nami. (with Lumen being unsettled at the expression his own face was making while being worn by the man). "Whoever I touch with my right hand, I can copy their faces. Not just that…" he said, currently using Nami's face...and promptly flashed everyone. "I can copy their body shape too!"
CLONK!
"Quit it!" Nami seethed after smashing the man in the head, doing the same to Luffy and Usopp as well for good measure, before turning to Lumen… and shook her head in amusement as his eyes were screwed shut and his face red, going up to pat his shoulder "He's done being an idiot."
At that the blonde opened his eyes, before letting out a sigh of relief "I was NOT comfortable with that."
Nami grinned teasingly "Why? Don't want to see me naked?"
Lumen chuckled a bit even as his cheeks were red "More like it wouldn't be right to stare at you like that, especially when it's someone copying your looks."
Nami smiled a bit at that, before shaking her head "Try not to be TOO chivalrous. Though I DO appreciate it."
"I'd like to think my parents raised me better than SOME people," Lumen said, eyes going to the other crew members a bit dryly, seeing as the idiots were back up and asking for more...and the guy who had started saying that was all up and decided 'sure why not', and proceeded to explain how he could also copy faces he'd touched or used before, going through several...including one that seemed to cause Vivi to perk up in surprise. Either way, the idiots seemed to be having a lot of fun, all the way till Nami noticed a ship coming their way.
The odd man noticed it too and identified it as his crew, bidding them a fond farewell, before he soon boarded the ship that came by, waving goodbye and basically making it feel like in the short time he'd been with them, he considered them friends...a feeling that Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper clearly returned as they hoped to meet him again someday.
"Weirdness and stupidity aside, he was a nice guy," Lumen admitted with a slight smile as the man told his crew that it was time to be off.
"Yes sir! Mr. 2 Bon Clay sir!" his crew shouted back at him, and they were soon off.
… It took 7 seconds before the crew fully registered what they heard.
"Mr. 2?!" they all gasped in shock.
"That was one of the top Officer Agents?!" Lumen said incredulously.
"Vivi! You didn't know what he looked like?!" Luffy asked the princess in surprise.
Vivi shook her head as she sank to her knees "I… no. I've never seen Mr. 2, nor Mr. 1 and his partner before. I don't even know their abilities. Though, I had heard rumours about Mr. 2… that he was an extremely flamboyant individual, and wears a swan coat with the words Okama Way on the back."
"You really, really, REALLY should have realized it sooner." Luffy, Usopp and Zoro all told her in deadpan, while Lumen and Nami facepalmed with a groan.
"Betcha 5 coins she forgets her own birthday." Lumen muttered to the redhead.
"Sure, nice little experiment." Nami said, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
"I know I should have, but I'm more worried about something else," Vivi said, looking like she was about to have a small break down. "When he was showing off the faces he'd memorized, one of them was my father's face!"
Everyone stopped short at that one, to the point you could hear a pin drop, as everyone (except the guy with a negative IQ and the one who probably didn't understand why that was important), was probably already piecing together just how bad this was.
"We just… let a REALLY dangerous guy slip past our fingers." Usopp said with a wince.
"He was an enemy then?... but he was so nice." Chopper muttered with a confused frown.
"Think of it like us Chopper. To the world at large, we're evil just because we sail a black flag, but we're all decent human beings. It's kind of the same for him, he may have some kindness, but he's also an enemy because of how we stand." Lumen told the reindeer, who nodded after a moment.
"Still… the fact is, he copied all of our faces save for Vivi. He'd be able to make us all turn against one another." Nami said in worry.
"Actually… he didn't get Sanji either." Usopp realised after a moment, looking at the door to the kitchen.
"Right, dartboard brow was cooking. Guess we have some luck then." Zoro said in thought.
"I heard that moss head!" Sanji shouted from the kitchen.
"Do NOT reply to him, this is not the time." Nami hissed towards Zoro when he opened his mouth, the swordsman closing it after a moment, knowing she had a point.
"I don't see the problem." Luffy said after a moment.
Nami sighed, about to slap him upside the head, before Lumen held up a hand "Actually… Luffy's not half wrong… this can be used to our advantage."
Zoro started to grin at that "He's right. We can make a countermeasure to him now that we've met him."
"This ought to work." Zoro said with a smirk as they tightened the bandages on their forearms.
"I know a certain scarecrow that would be proud of the idea." Lumen chuckled.
"With this, even if he copies our faces, he won't be able to fool us," Nami agreed.
"And we're almost at Nanohana," Vivi said with a smile at seeing the familiar sight of one of the towns in her homeland.
"Though...we've got problems coming up too…" Usopp gulped, to which everyone went to see what had him worried...and had to admit...this was a good reason to be worried.
"Well...guess this is the final proof we're in Alabasta," Sanji sweat dropped as up ahead (albeit thankfully not between them and Nanohana) was a large number of ships with the Baroque Works mark on their sails, too far away to actually attack them, but considering they were just staying in place, the function was obvious. They were forming a barricade to ensure they didn't go any further.
"...well this complicates things a lot," Lumen frowned. "... Though they suck at their jobs if they didn't notice us."
"Anyway, we're almost there now." Nami said with a sigh, looking to the desert island "We're close to the port, but we'll dock our ship a little ways away to hide, just to make sure Crocodile doesn't hear about us too quickly."
"Alright, then, while we're in Alabasta, this mark on our left arms will be the mark of our bonds!" Luffy said, the rest of the crew holding their arms out in a circle, smiling or grinning, all of them ready for their next fight.
Meanwhile, in Nanohana…
"What?! Someone just dropped dead?!" Akira gasped. In light of the recent unrest in Alabasta, he'd come along with Smoker to try and get to the bottom of things, especially since Smoker seemed to think some foul play was at hand. If that was the truth, then as Marines they HAD to stop it before countless lives were lost.
"According to the locals he just died mid-sentence. They think it might be because of poison, but they haven't moved his body since they aren't sure," Smoker frowned.
Tashigi brought out a small book, leafing through it "Poison… the Desert Strawberry then? It says it's a highly poisonous spider with a body that looks like a strawberry, and because of that, people sometimes eat it, which makes the poison drop into their digestive system and spread through the rest of their body, suddenly killing them a few days later."
Smoker grunted, accepting the information and filing it away, it was good to be warned "Either way we might as well check. For all we know it could be foul play," he said...right before another Marine ran up to them, and soon revealed...that the person hadn't died...but instead had somehow fallen asleep mid-sentence and meal, before waking up like it was nothing.
On top of that, his identity was…
"Of all people." Smoker said with a frown as he and Akira went towards the diner in question, before simply barging in as the man in question was talking to the owner of the diner.
The man had an orange hat sitting on top of his black hair, freckles on his face, a red pearl necklace around his neck and a pair of bracelets on his left wrist. He was wearing a pair of black shorts with a dagger at his hip, along with a pair of shoes on his feet, and nothing on his torso, exposing the tattoo on his arm that was written as ASCE, but with the S crossed out, while his back held a large tattoo that anybody with half a brain would recognize, as it was a purple cross with a grinning skull that had a white mustache.
"You seem to be eating without a care in the world." Smoker said, drawing the man's attention, making him look over his shoulder "So… what brings the commander of the 2nd Division of the Whitebeard Pirates all the way over here? Well, Portgas D Ace?"
"Nothing much really," Ace chuckled, not even stopping from his meal. "I'm just looking around. For my little brother, that is." he said, while idly tapping a wanted poster on the counter, one that Smoker annoyingly couldn't see perfectly from this angle.
"...Fire Fist has a younger brother?" Akira whispered.
"No idea. Annoyingly though it doesn't always have to be blood related," Smoker grunted.
"So it could be anyone," Akira frowned, before returning focus to Ace.
"So, what do you want me to do anyway?" Ace chuckled, looking quite relaxed.
"That should be obvious," Akira sighed. "Just give yourself up peacefully. You're not the type to cause unnecessary problems for people."
"Sorry, no can do," Ace smirked a bit.
Smoker sighed in annoyance at that. "Always the hard way with you damn pirates."
Ace simply grinned, chuckling at that.
Meanwhile…
"Dammit Luffy." Lumen sighed as they watched their captain dash into Nanohana, screaming his head off about food.
"Of course that's the first thing on his mind." Usopp groaned.
"How are we even going to find him like this." Vivi said in worry "Nanohana is a decently big town with more than a few restaurants."
"Trouble finds him, so just look for the biggest commotion." Nami said with a shrug.
"Although the fact the idiot keeps forgetting about the bounty on his head is annoying." Sanji said as he breathed out some smoke.
"Oh no, he remembers." Zoro corrected "He just doesn't view it as a problem."
"That's… a problem." Chopper said after a moment.
"And as the people who were crazy enough to more or less agree to join his crew, it's our 'job' to run damage control," Lumen sighed. "Well, first things first...we should try to avoid being noticed or recognized before we go into town."
"There's another thing we need to worry about," Vivi said, pointing at a ship docked around some rocks not too far away. "That's Mr. 3's ship!" she said in alarm.
"Guess he survived the beating you and Luffy gave him," Usopp frowned.
"He has to. That ship can't be operated without the Wax Wax Fruit's power," Vivi said with a frown.
"Then we'll have to keep our guard up while we're here," Zoro frowned.
Back with Luffy…
"Gum Gum… Rocket!" he shouted as he launched himself at the first restaurant he found… though why did he feel like he just slammed into someone?
Oh, hey, hole in the wall, neat.
"Hey, mister! Give me some food!" he shouted, disregarding the hole and sitting at the counter.
Meanwhile, behind him, Akira stared at the hole in shock… considering Smoker had just gotten launched right through it… along with Fire Fist… and now Straw Hat was just eating food without a care in the world. "...you have no idea what you've just done, do you?" he asked dryly, while Straw Hat continued to stuff his face happily. True enough, Fire Fist was soon coming back from the hole he'd ended up going through...which now that he looked...went through several buildings. Yep, Straw Hat had just dug his own grave. As it was, it seemed that Fire Fist was going to tear Straw Hat a new one. Figuratively AND litera…
"STRAW HAT!"
...never mind, Fire Fist was going to have to settle for whatever was left after Smoker was done.
… and Straw Hat just had the gall to continue eating while staring at Smoker...before it seemed his brain FINALLY realized what was going on, or at least who he was dealing with...leading to him to gasp and talk...while his mouth was still full, causing slobber and bits of food to fly...and hit Smoker. Yeah...if Smoker wasn't a professional, he'd ask the men to prepare a body bag….
Straw Hat's reaction...was to grab all the food he hadn't eaten, stuff them into his mouth like a gerbil, and proceed to run away, Smoker soon hot on his tail. "...why do I feel like that Pirate is going to make me question my life choices?" Akira said dryly as they ran off, before soon joining the chase, though not before seeing Fire Fist joining the chase as well.
(Insert Benny Hills Theme)
The chase quickly spilled into the streets as Straw Hat proved to be quite good at running...even if he did look like an oversized gerbil right now with that food he was trying to swallow. Smoker was hot on Straw Hat's tail, using his abilities to try to catch Straw Hat, but the pirate continued to dodge. However, it was clear Smoker was doing more than just wildly trying to catch him, he was aiming to herd Straw Hat into a particular direction it seemed. True enough...Straw Hat was headed straight for where Tashigi and the others were.
At Smoker's alert, Tashigi and the rest of the crew were immediately on alert, and were soon helping in trying to catch, or at least slow down, Straw Hat.
As for Akira… he had to dodge out of errant flames being thrown by Fire Fist… and he was beginning to think the man was NOT chasing after Straw Hat out of anger when he saw the grin of nostalgia on his face.
(end song)
A few minutes ago...
"You are incorrigible." Lumen said as he saw what Sanji had bought for the girls.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sanji denied… with the biggest and most stupid smile on his face he could manage.
The crew had been preparing themselves for the desert while they were in town, doing so quickly as they had the sinking feeling Luffy would drag chaos back with him when he came back, and had gotten some clothes that were perfect to traverse the harsh sands of the Sandy Island.
Sanji's own desert robe consisted of a greyish blue robe with a sun shaped mark on the sleeves, Zoro was wearing a zebra patterned robe with an orange ghutrah on his head, Usopp was wearing brown robes with a yellow scarf wrapped around his head and neck, his goggles poking through, Chopper was wearing yellow robes over himself, though he was also lying down and panting due to the heat, and Lumen was wearing orange robes with a scale pattern on them and a purple ghutrah.
As for the girls… Sanji had bought them exotic dancer clothes… no, that was not an exaggeration, that was literally what he bought them.
Thankfully, Lumen had bought them ACTUAL robes to wear over the outfits… though he had to admit, when Nami stepped out from her cover in the exotic outfit, he DID appreciate the sight a bit.
"Well, aside from being impractical in the desert, this DOES look pretty good." Nami admitted, wearing a red and pink outfit while Vivi was wearing a green and yellow one.
"I suppose." Vivi admitted reluctantly, while Sanji started fawning over them.
Shaking his head, Lumen looked down at Chopper, who was now clutching his nose with his hooves "You alright there Chopper?"
"My nose feels like it's on fire. There's some super strong smell in the air." he said, whining a bit, not that Lumen could blame him though.
"Your nose must be quite powerful then Chopper. Nanohana is famous for its various perfumes." Vivi said while accepting a more covering robe from Lumen. "They're all made from mixing various pungent ingredients."
"You mean like this one?" Nami said as she sprayed a perfume onto herself, which Lumen had to admit, did smell decently nice.
Chopper on the other hand… "GAAHH! STOP THAT!" he shouted as he backed away from her, his nose burning even more.
"I would fall in love with you all the way to the gates of hell Nami~!" three guesses who said that and the first two don't count.
"Retard." Zoro said as he took a sip of his alcohol.
"What was that bastard?!" Sanji flipped over to him with a roar.
"Enough with the comedy act you two," Lumen sighed, handing the other robe to Nami. "Let's go find Luffy before he manages to bring the whole town down on us or something."
Right as he said that, they noticed a commotion, namely Marines running around...while being hot on Luffy's tail. "...I wasn't being serious dammit," Lumen groaned to the sky.
And then Luffy noticed them "Oh! Hey guys!" he shouted and turned towards them.
"Oh for the love of-!" Zoro shouted in exasperation.
And then the Marines noticed them too.
"Oh come on, even Smoker and Date are here!" Lumen said with a loud groan as he saw the two high ranking marines rushing forwards to try and catch Luffy.
"White Out!" Smoker shouted as his arm shot out with a trail of smoke, reaching out to grab Luffy.
But…
"Heat Haze!" another voice shouted as a wall of fire appeared between Smoker and Luffy, with a person forming from the flames as they gathered into a single point.
When Luffy looked back, his eyes went wide, while the rest of his crew looked on in confusion.
"Who's that?" Sanji asked in confusion, wondering who their mysterious savior was.
"Ace?!" Luffy gasped in recognition.
Ace grinned, before looking back over his shoulder "You haven't changed at all, have you, Luffy?"
And there's the first Alabasta chapter!
Don't worry, the rest will come by one at a time. I'll probably wait an hour or two before posting the next one, maybe less depending on how thins go, we'll see.
Count The Medals:
Red: Taka
Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta
Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah
Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou
Blue: Unagi
Orange: Kame
Purple: Tyranno