A/N
I have an exciting news to share with you, my dear readers: 'Boy With a Scar' has it's own TV Tropes page now! I want to say big THANK YOU to The Patient One for creating it :) So, if you're familiar with TV Tropes, go check it out! You can find full link on my profile page.
English is still not my first language, although, I think I'm getting better at it! But as always, The Patient One worked his wonderful Betareader's magic over this chapter!
Chapter 18. Choosing One's Path
"Hmph, gone already..." Don Krieg grunted before erupting into laughter. "Hahahahaha! What a coward!"
Luffy snorted. "Ne, cook-ossan," he called. "They've already eaten, can I beat that fool now?"
Zeff smiled. "Do as you wish."
"Yosha!" he cheered with a huge, excited grin.
"But before that, kid," the head chef said, observing the young pirate intently. "Do you know that power you've used?"
Luffy stroked his chin in thought, wondering if he should answer or not. "I sometimes lose control of my mystery power," he finally explained, shrugging nonchalantly. "This time it wasn't so bad, I managed to focus it mostly on that hawk-guy." He let out a short laugh. "In the past, people fainted around me. That freaked me out the first time." The boy paused. "Well, the second time. The first time, I hadn't even realized that I used it."
"Mystery power, huh?" Zeff mused, smiling under his moustaches knowingly.
Everyone else, including the bounty hunters, Usopp, and Nami were staring at the straw-hatted boy with squinty eyes as though they were looking directly into the sun. A sound of a gunshot from the shipwreck drew their attention back to Don Krieg, who was yelling at his own crew, at the same time threatening them with the double-barreled pistol.
"Wow, he really likes to talk," Luffy remarked. He disassembled his Bo staff into separate parts and slipped them back into the holster on his lower back.
"O-Oi, kid, don't you need your weapon if you're gonna fight Don Krieg?" one of the cooks asked.
"Against him? Nah. I took it out because I didn't know what the hawk-guy was planning," Luffy informed, gazing back at the opposing captain, who was still talking. Suddenly, a mischievous grin spread on his face. "Oh, I know!" he exclaimed and quickly ducked inside the restaurant.
"Damn pests," Sanji growled, glaring at the Krieg's pirates. "They're gonna attack any minute now." He turned to one of the other cooks and said, "Go to the control room and open up the 'fins'."
"Eh? Are you sure?" the man doubted. "That'll just give out enemies a foothold."
"The geezer won't shut up if we fight inside the restaurant."
"Oh, right. On it!" the man cried out before scrambling to fulfill the request.
A short distance away, Don Krieg was riling up his men for an attack. "Now you understand that they are nothing special?!" he yelled. "That's why we need to get the log from that old man!" He pointed at the head chef, turning to face him. "Red Leg Zeff–" The pirate's speech abruptly broke off when a sticky octopus smacked right into his face. Krieg froze.
"Ha! Bull's-eye!" Luffy cheered as he fist-pumped the air. "Did you see that, Usopp?"
The long-nosed teen flashed a thumbs-up. "Good shot, Luffy!"
Nami simply burst into laughter, soon followed by Johnny, Yosaku, and the Baratie cooks. Stifled snickers could be heard even in Krieg's crew. The more composed pirates elbowed the ones who couldn't manage to stay quiet, in a vain attempt to shut them up.
Krieg stiffly reached for octopus, slowly ripped it off his face and squished it in his palm, a furious sneer distorting his features. With a wild roar, he brought out one of his shoulder plates as a shield in front of him and pointed it at the restaurant's direction. He grinned evilly and muttered, "MH5."
Krieg's crew went into chaos, fumbling around their clothes and yelling in a complete panic.
"Wait, captain, we won't make it on time!"
"Don't use it, please!"
"We're all gonna die!"
The cylinder-shaped projectile shot from the center of the shield with a bang. Krieg instantly whipped out a gas mask and put it on. Some of his crew pulled out their own gas masks, but the not so lucky men assaulted them, trying to grab it for themselves.
The cooks just stared dumbfounded, until Usopp's high-pitched shriek jolted them back into awareness.
"IT'S A POISON GAS!"
But there was no time to hide, especially for young pirates as Zoro was still lying unconscious on the Baratie deck. Some of the people dived into the water, trying to escape imminent doom.
A platform suddenly emerged from the sea, joining with the restaurant's entrance bridge. Luffy instantly sprung forward, using the whole length of it to gain a momentum, and kicked off of the platform as soon as he reached its edge. He did a somersault mid-air, kicking the underside of the gas projectile and sending it high up into the sky where it exploded. Then the rubber boy stretched his arm, grabbed a railing, and pulled himself back onto the ship, landing gracefully in front of the shell-shocked chefs.
A minute ticked by as people, both cooks and pirates alike, were gawking at the unnatural purple cloud high above their heads where it couldn't harm anyone, still unable to shake the idea that they were so close to death. Krieg, however, glared at the straw-hatted kid, hating him even more for averting such a good plan so easily.
"Gin," Luffy's calm voice pierced the silence, "do you still think of that scum as your captain?"
The man flinched from becoming a target of the boy's attention so unexpectedly. Till now he had been hanging around the restaurant's shadows, silently observing what was happening outside. "I…" Gin felt the lack of words as he rolled the question around his head.
"He tried to kill you. He discarded you like an unwanted thing just because his pride was hurt," Luffy stated coldly before turning around and addressing the rest of Krieg's crew. "All of you. He tried to kill all of you."
"Poor sods," Sanji commented, blowing out a puff of smoke. "They really chose the wrong person to follow."
"I-I'm sure the captain wouldn't just have let us die!" one of Krieg's men spoke up.
"Yeah," another agreed. "He would have thought of something, how to protect us."
"The kid is trying to make us betray our Don!"
"Kill him! Kill them all!"
Luffy frowned as the more and more pirates joined into cheering for Don Krieg. They drew their weapons out, shouting battle cries.
"Hahahahaha!" their captain bellowed with laughter. "You see that, brat? They respect me and my decisions! If someone doesn't understand that, they are not worthy to serve under the great captain like me!"
"Respect should be mutual, asshole!" the straw-hatted boy snarled.
Back at the spot where Nami, Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku were sitting around injured Zoro, the sniper whistled. "The stupidity of those guys is truly remarkable," he commented.
Nami smiled sadly. "Really makes you appreciate our own captain, doesn't it?" she muttered under her breath.
As if to prove her words true, once the enemy crew began advancing on restaurant, Luffy's order rang sharply amid the noise of the crowd: "Nami, Usopp, protect Zoro!"
Usopp jumped to his feet and proudly puffed his chest, jabbing a thumb at himself. "Leave it to me!"
"I don't… I don't need protection," Zoro slurred, stirring from his unresponsive state.
"Waaah! Aniki! Don't move!" the hunter duo cried out in alarm.
Zoro managed to lift his body up a little and lean on his elbows.
Nami scowled. "Of course, you need protection in this state," she declared in a matter-of-fact tone before slapping a palm on the swordsman's chest, not so gently, and pushing him back down. "So, just stay down, you Neanderthal."
"Aaaaaah!" Johnny and Yosaku shrieked, seeing how the orange-haired girl handled their aniki. "Nami-aneki! Be more careful!"
Zoro cringed as the pain surged through his body. "You… damn witch…" he ground out words through clenched teeth. Luffy's straw hat slipped from his head and landed a bit farther from them.
"Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you," the thief warned Usopp who at that moment reached to pick the hat, stopping him mid-move.
"Eh?"
"As far as I know, Zoro is the only one allowed to touch it."
The sniper eyed the straw hat like it had personally insulted him. "But we're his nakama!" he exclaimed.
"I saw how he reacts to others trying to touch it. I doubt Luffy would do that to us, but better be safe than sorry." Nami shivered as she remembered Luffy's ruthlessness because of that thing and shook her head. "No, I'm not touching it."
Zoro sniggered, recalling his own first experience with picking up Luffy's straw hat from the ground. He pulled it closer by the brim, then put it on his head again. He would safeguard the future Pirate King's hat proudly until the latter would be done with his fight.
After Luffy gave the order to his crew and got an affirmation from Usopp, he turned to Krieg again who was smiling with contentment, watching as his men began to swim towards the platform and climb onto it. The cooks gathered behind the black-haired pirate with their weapons at a ready.
"Last chance to take your crew and go if you want to live, Don Krill!" Luffy yelled to Don causing him to sputter death threats and fume how stupid the kid was that he couldn't get his name right.
"You shouldn't insult the man if you want him to back off," Sanji pointed out, unable to stop an amused smile from spreading on his face.
The rubber boy grinned wickedly. "Too bad. I've warned him, though."
"No, stop!" Gin suddenly shouted with a wide, concerned eyes staring at Luffy. "You can't hope to beat Don!"
"Hahahaha! Listen to my Battle Commander, brat! You're an idiot to believe that you can even touch me!" Krieg scoffed.
Luffy simply stared at the other captain. "And I thought that the guy at Usopp's village was bad, but at least he had some kind of passion inside him, twisted and sick as it may have been," he said before his whole demeanor suddenly changed – his carefree manner melted away, shoulders straightened up, eyes unmercifully cold and dark. "But you… You're empty. Blinded with too much pride. Just like them." Luffy spat the last word out like it was something extremely nasty on his tongue.
"Oi, shrimp, don't talk like that with our captain!" a random pirate threatened, coming closer with his saber out.
The teen shot a glare at him for a briefest of moments, but it was long enough to make the man freeze and starting sweating. "You're right. I'm done talking or listening to him," Luffy stated and vanished.
Krieg had only a split second to blink when a punch into his gut sent him skidding backward. It didn't harm him because of his armor's protection, which made the pirate roar with laughter. "You can't make even a dent in my–!" Another impact in his protected stomach interrupted him. Krieg gritted his teeth in anger, lifted his shield and released a round of short steel spears.
Zeff hummed as he observed the fight. "He's dangerous," he murmured.
"Of course Krieg's dangerous," Sanji replied, nervously chewing on his cigarette. "He wouldn't be worth 17 million beli if he wasn't."
"I'm talking about the kid, numbskull!" the old man huffed. "I don't envy those who cross his path and become his enemy. Guys like that are the worst enemies you can have. They stop at nothing to reach their goal."
Luffy weaved around the projectiles with ease and soon Krieg ran out of ammo. None of them even grazed the black-haired boy.
"Argh! Enough!" Krieg yelled in frustration, whipping his hand in front of him and throwing several small bombs around the rubber boy.
Luffy quickly jumped on the nearby piece of wreck, avoiding an impact. When bombs exploded, he leaped high into the air and stretched both his arms far behind him.
The crowd erupted into surprised shouts.
Krieg sneered and suddenly pulled out a cape covered with sharp spikes. "Why don't you try hitting my porcupine cape?!" he challenged with a confident smirk on his face.
"Watch that boy carefully, Sanji," Zeff ordered, smiling. "In life and death fights, there is no place for hesitation. The one who fears death and hesitates for even an instant shall fall for their doom."
Sanji knitted his brow in contemplation. "What do you mean by that?"
"Within that boy lies no hesitation."
Luffy's arms snapped straight into Krieg's stomach ignoring the dangerous cape entirely. He didn't even blink as the spikes pierced his fists, the stoic expression on his face not changing in a slightest.
An impact sent Krieg flying and he smashed into his old ship's mast, breaking it in half and causing a huge cloud of debris to scatter in the air.
Luffy halted, staring at the cloud. Blood from his wounded hands slowly dripped on the destroyed galleon's deck.
Everyone held their breath.
Suddenly the teen sent his both arms backward again. "Gomu Gomu no…" he muttered.
With an enraged roar, Krieg emerged from the dust cloud, holding a huge spear in his hands. He swung it towards his opponent, the spear's blade singing while soaring through the air.
Luffy shot forward. "…Bazooka!" The rubber arms whipped into the same spot he'd targeted till now, but this time the armor protecting the older pirate's abdomen shattered, pieces of it flying in all directions, and the strike connected to his stomach.
Krieg coughed up blood. His spear slipped from his fingers and his body was thrown back again. Before he could drop into the sea below, Luffy grabbed him by his shirt with a stretched arm and swung him in a huge arc into the Baratie platform, making the pirates and cooks scurry to the sides with scared screams.
Krieg groaned and slightly opened his eyes. The black-haired teen was next to him, his merciless obsidian eyes staring down straight into Krieg's own as he wound back his fist for a finishing blow.
Krieg's heart almost stopped as the realization hit him. "Wait–!" he managed to croak out before the powerful attack hit his exposed chest.
The crunching sound of his bones breaking was deafening.
"I said that I was done talking or listening to you," Luffy remarked darkly a moment later as he stood up.
An absolute silence settled in the area, spectators too speechless from what just had happened in front of their eyes. Luffy's own crew gawked at him completely stunned by his action. They knew that Luffy sometimes could get ruthless, but none of them ever believed that the kid could actually kill somebody intentionally. The way he did it showed that it wasn't even his first kill.
"Now, he's no longer the strongest," Luffy stated coldly, looking at the former Krieg's crew. Then he turned and fixed his soul-piercing eyes on Gin. "Gin, you're free."
Nami visibly flinched from his words, even if they weren't intended to her.
Gin, however, was unable to comprehend what the young pirate captain was saying. "…What?" he asked.
"You're free," Luffy repeated patiently. "From him," he added, motioning at the body next to his feet.
"What… What should I do now?"
A dreamy grin spread on the rubber boy's face. "That's what freedom is about – doing whatever you want, and not what somebody else wants. You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Bye, Gin." He turned to go, but something shiny on Krieg's gauntlet caught his eye. Luffy pulled it off the man's hand and without a second glance walked away, leaving the cooks to deal with the rest of the pirates.
"Luffy-aniki!" Johnny and Yosaku cried out. "You've beaten Don Krieg!"
"If not for that weird cape thing, he would have lost one hit earlier. And I really wanted to shatter his armor," Luffy said nonchalantly, like it was not such a big deal at all. "Zoro, how're you feeling?"
"I'm fine," the swordsman responded with a grunt.
The black-haired boy hummed softly, satisfied with his reply. "Nami, this thing's shiny." He tossed the gauntlet to his navigator. "Maybe it's worth something."
The thief furrowed her brow in deep concentration as he studied the gems. Suddenly her face lit up. "Diamonds! True diamonds!" she squealed in delight, hugging the gauntlet.
Usopp frowned at the captain's fists. Blood was still oozing from many puncture wounds. "Luffy, sit," he ordered quietly. "I'll help you bandage your hands."
Luffy obeyed wordlessly, plopped down next where Zoro was seated and leaned against the wall mimicking him. The swordsman took the straw hat off and put it on the boy's head.
Luffy flashed him a tired smile. "Thanks, Zoro."
"No problem, captain."
Usopp squatted down in front of Luffy and dipped a cotton piece in a medicine to clean his injuries. "It'll sting a bit," he warned, then carefully touched one of the wound, but Luffy didn't even wince or showed any other sign of discomfort. The sniper briefly glanced at the cotton piece to make sure that he got medicine on it.
"I really thought you'd gonna invite that Gin guy to join our crew," Zoro admitted, watching how the former Krieg's crew surrendered now without any real fight.
Luffy hummed again. "Gin's a good guy. He didn't deserve that jerk as his captain," he said, his gaze shifting to the man in question. "But now he's lost and needs to find his own dream and goal." He paused. "Besides, who would want to work with a man who killed a person you respected and cared about?"
Nami chuckled bitterly. "No one."
The straw-hatted teen nodded. "And that's why I haven't invited him."
They sat there in a comfortable silence. Usopp finished bandaging Luffy's hands when a shout drew their attention to the sea.
"Hey, Straw Hat!" Gin was standing on the bowsprit of the boat which was fully occupied by the former Krieg's goons. The man smiled when Luffy's eyes met his. "Let's meet again out on the Grand Line!"
"EEEEHHHHHHH?!" the crew behind him let out a surprised screech.
"Shishishishi," Luffy chuckled as he waved his hand in goodbye. "Yep! See ya!"
"What are you talking about, Commander?!" one of former Krieg's men yelled.
"We're going back there after all?!" another added.
Gin turned to look at the crew, who were staring at him in horror. "We'll go, but not now. First, we need to get stronger. Let this," he motioned at the wreckage of their former ship, "be a lesson for us."
"But, Commander~!" somebody whined.
"Oi," one man elbowed his neighbor. "Gin is not the Commander anymore, is he?" The rest of them stared at the speaker, then everyone turned their heads to the man on the bowsprit.
"Captaaaaaain~!" their collective whine was heard even at the Baratie from which their almost sinking boat had been slowly drifting away.
Zeff had offered a room for Zoro to rest in and then invited the rest of them to the dinner. For their help defending the Baratie, he had said. While their injured nakama snored blissfully in his room after he had been checked over by one of the cooks who had a bit of medical knowledge, and guarded by his two loyal followers, the crew came to eat and found out that there were no chairs for them to sit on. Sanji was already settled on the floor, fuming against his co-workers. Nami got pissed and demanded a place to sit, so Sanji simply kicked one of the cooks into the wall and offered his chair to her. Meanwhile, Usopp was simply cheering for a chance to eat for free again and Luffy didn't care at all where exactly he was eating.
The soup was one of the best things they'd ever had. And as such, the pirates (and the thief) stared in total bafflement as the restaurant's owner followed his staff members ' example and also smashed his plate onto the floor.
"What's with this disgusting soup? Is it supposed to taste like sludge?" the head chef insulted Sanji. "We'd go out of business if we served this to the customers!"
That was the last straw for the blonde cook as he grabbed his mentor by his shirt and shook him. "Don't joke with me, you damned geezer!" he yelled in fury. "How's this any different from the soup you make?!"
"The soup I make…?" Zeff growled through gritted teeth. "Don't get cocky!" he shouted, planting a punch into the younger man's face. "It's a hundred years too early for a lil' eggplant like you to be comparing my soup with yours! I've cooked all around the world!"
Sanji spat a blood and glared at Zeff from where he fell on the floor. The latter glared back.
"Isn't that convenient?" a jaunty voice chimed in. Everyone snapped their eyes at Luffy who was grinning happily. "It's your chance to go around the world, Sanji! Come with me!"
"I've already told you NO!" the blonde exclaimed, frustrated. "How many times do I need to refuse you until you get it, shitty bastard?!"
Luffy's eyebrows bent into an annoyed scowl.
"Luffy, I don't think he wants to join…" Usopp pointed out in a hushed tone.
"Alright, it's time to get serious, then," the teen deadpanned, standing up. His straw hat shadowed his eyes, his lips were pulled into a thin line as he slowly walked over Sanji.
The cook tensed up, the way the kid had dealt with Krieg still fresh in his mind. Zeff, however, only smirked.
Luffy pointed a finger at the man on the floor and firmly stated, "It's me who refuses!"
Sanji only blinked dumbly. "...Eh? You refuse? Refuse what?"
"I refuse your refusal!"
There was a deathly silence before the blonde suddenly jumped on his feet and got in the pirates's face. "Are you a complete idiot?!" he screamed. "I'm not gonna leave until that shitty geezer acknowledges my cooking!"
Luffy turned slightly to the side and now was pointing at Zeff. "I also refuse your lies," he declared matter-of-factly.
The head chef's shook his head, still smiling. "You're fearfully observant brat," he said. Luffy flashed an innocent smirk.
That made Sanji pause. "Huh?" His confused gaze darted back and forth between the teen and his mentor.
"Sanji," Zeff called softly. "I don't have anything else to teach you, you're already the best here. You need to travel the world, to cook on other seas, to learn about different cuisines and spices to get better. You need to follow your– no, our dream, and find All Blue!"
Sanji stared at him with his mouth agape and eyes wide with shock, until Luffy slapped him on his back, hard.
"Good news!" the straw-hatted teen cheered. "We're leaving to travel the world and find One Piece tomorrow. Wanna join?"
Sanji shot a glare at the kid for the slap. Then sighed, pulled a new cigarette and lit it up. For a while, he smoked while staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Fine," he finally said, his one uncovered blue eye finding the obsidian orbs of Luffy. "I'll join you… captain."
The grin he received from his new captain could have extinguished the sun itself with its brightness.
Nami was leaning on Going Merry's railing, lazily twiddling the gold colored gauntlet in her hand. The diamonds on it sometimes caught the light from the lone oil lamp, standing at her left.
It was almost midnight. The ship was empty. The rest of the crew was sleeping inside the restaurant tonight, crowding the room where the owner had allowed Zoro to rest. After Sanji agreed to join, at last, Luffy announced that they were leaving for the Grand Line early in the morning.
The thief sighed. With these diamonds, she definitely had the necessary amount of beli to pay Arlong for her village. She didn't need to go to the Grand Line anymore, not for the money at least. And during this short trip with Luffy, Nami realized how naïve she had been, believing that she could handle that part of the ocean alone. She would need to stick close to the boys and they would certainly not want to go back to the East Blue before reaching their dreams or perishing on their path there.
Nami twisted the gauntlet, marveled by the light's reflection on the gems. Maybe the boys would agree to deal with Arlong for her?
As soon as that thought came to her mind, the image of their broken, bloody bodies lying at that despicable Fishman's feet flashed before Nami's eyes, the mocking laughter 'Shahahaha!' soon echoing in her ears. The navigator shuddered.
"Stupid…!" she berated herself, lowering her head on her forearm.
"Who are you calling stupid?"
Nami jumped from fright, feeling her heart almost leaping out. The gauntlet juggled in her hands until she managed to secure it by pressing it to her chest. The thief spun around and glowered at the grinning straw-hatted idiot. "You! Don't sneak up on me like that!" she fumed.
"Shishishishi… Sorry, sorry," Luffy apologized, and for once he actually sounded sorry. Amused, but sorry nonetheless.
"What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep in that room. I feel better… safer here." Luffy slowly brushed his fingers across Merry's railings. "This ship… it's our home now, you know?"
Nami stared at the boy's serene face with a soft smile curled on his lips. It was so strange seeing him like that. It reminded her of that night when she cried into his chest after the nightmare. Considering that, Nami finally asked the question that had been bothering her since that very night.
"Why did you become a pirate, Luffy?"
The teen looked up, his eyes locking with hers. "At first it was an ambition, a promise to a friend. After…" He frowned slightly, as though he was trying to work out the correct wording, unconsciously placing a hand on the left side of his neck where the scar was hidden under his black bandana. "After something bad happened to me, I couldn't become anything else even if I wanted to. Pirates are free, Nami!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed with a wide, toothy grin. "They are free to go wherever they want, do whatever they want whenever they want!"
"Yeah, like destroy towns and kill people," the navigator scoffed, causing the rubber boy's grin fall.
"There are pirates like that," he agreed calmly. "But there are also those who would sacrifice their own arm to save a child from becoming a dinner to a sea monster," Luffy reminisced while gently caressing the rim of his straw hat, all his wistfulness and affection in the motion. "Also, pirates can save an innocent man from execution by the Marines, or good men and their homes from a bunch of other pirates." He smiled softly at Nami and added, "Or save a girl from a bully."
The thief's eyes widened, wondering if Luffy had suspected something about her. "W-What do you mean by that?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even.
The straw-hatted teen gave her a peculiar stare. "The situation we had found you in, what else?"
Nami let out a short bitter laugh. "Oh, right."
Some part of her mind wished that Luffy would have actually found out about a tie-up between Arlong and her; that he would corner her into telling him everything so that she wouldn't need to leave. The same image of their decimated corpses at Arlong's feet slivered into her mind. Feeling a sting of tears in her eyes, she quickly turned around.
"You can go to sleep, I'll keep watch," the navigator stated, unable to fully keep a shaking from her tone.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, of course. It's just… today was full of surprises!"
Nami felt Luffy linger behind her a bit longer, his heavy gaze drilling at the back of her head.
"Okay…" he finally conceded. Silent footsteps receded towards the main mast, after a moment the latch into boy's room was opened. "But, Nami," Luffy called, "you know that if you need help you can simply ask me, right?"
"Of course!"
The captain stared at the thief, unimpressed by her wide, fake grin she'd sent to him over her shoulder, but he didn't push it. With a quiet "Good night, Nami," he was gone.
Nami heaved a heavy sigh, twiddling the gauntlet and absentmindedly watching the playful reflection of the oil lamp's light on the surface of the diamonds.
Tonight she would leave.
Nami was planning to steal the Going Merry earlier that day, but she got worried after those freaky waves came out of nowhere. Now, with the captain sleeping on his own ship instead of the restaurant, that option was out of the question. Besides, with how fondly Luffy was speaking of it, the thief doubted that he would have just let it go. He would have probably hunted her down to get Merry back.
Her gaze wandered to the boat of the bounty hunters. That would do. She'd have to move all the treasure to it once Luffy fell asleep. Nami hoped that his sleep would be free from nightmares tonight.
The thief's hand moved to her mouth to muffle the sobs as tears finally began streaming down her face. "I want to be free… Please, help me…" she pleaded in a whisper, knowing well that it was too hushed even for Luffy to hear, but she couldn't stop those words from escaping her.
Next Chapter: The Runaway Nakama
A/N
So, I guess, the Baratie arc is pretty much done. The Arlong Park arc is coming next. Who's excited? I know, I am!