Lol. Lmao, even.

I really won't say anything more than that. Pls enjoy the copium chapter.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, however. If you feel like you need to vent in the comments, I respect that and I share your sentiments. This is a safe(ish) space.

Illust. On Spacebattles and Questionable Questing as always. My tablet's been giving me issues again, but I somehow managed to scrounge up a rough sketch between dying connection ports and malfunctioning Wacom pens.

As always, big shoutout to all of 'yall on P atreon! Love you guys. The "cover story" illustration was pretty unique as far as chapter illustrations go, so it was fun to draw. Great choice.

FtS up next.

X

Fleet Admiral Sengoku was not having a great time.

The man stared down at the documents on his desk: an updated list of bounties that would be made public by the time that the News Coos start delivering the morning paper.

There was one name on this list in particular that stood at the forefront of his mind. The fact that it was here at all was bothersome, irrespective of the bounty tacked onto it; it was long past the point where he could do anything about it.

Monkey D. Luffy. Garp's grandson.

He'd been preparing for this day. For all that Garp liked to pretend that the boy would be "an upstanding marine" one day, it was clear where his influences lay. Pirate Emperor, Red Haired Shanks. Second division captain of the White Beard Pirates, Fire Fist Ace. The Hero of the marines was great at being just that, but as far as turning his family away from rebellion went, he might as well have not bothered to try at all. The man's own son and the kid's father, Dragon, was the most wanted man in the world, for crying out loud.

He had expected the day that Garp's grandson became a pirate, but the thought filled him with dread regardless. After all, he'd have to be the one to tell the man that the boy flipped him off. Whether Garp saw it coming or not was irrelevant; he would throw a tantrum either way.

Only…

"What the hell does Kaido have to do with any of this!?"

The kid's bounty was never going to be a small one, sure. He had destroyed a Marine base single-handedly while being unarmed too if the reports were to be believed, and while such a feat wasn't anything out of the ordinary for someone of that lineage, it was certainly an anomaly in the East Blue of all places. Relative to the "competition", Monkey D. Luffy would be a premier target of the local authorities for however little time he spent there before heading out to the Grand Line – which he would inevitably do.

This bounty wasn't large, though. It was comically overblown. Egregiously high. No rookie upstart should have a bounty like this in the Blues; it could threaten the very balance of the world if things were left to escalate from here.

As the Fleet Admiral, his "list" was much more than just a pile of bounty posters. He had a detailed list of the crimes committed as well as the reports offered by the officers responsible for issuing the bounty in the first place. Sometimes, there would be additional notes in case of situations that went beyond the pale where the officer would offer official, written justifications for issuing commands that went beyond their discretionary remit.

One such note was right here.

Emperor of the Sea, Kaido, has reached out and asked that a bounty of 500,000,000 Belly be placed on the head of one Monkey D. Luffy, to be paid out of his own pocket. Rear Admiral Sicily has ordered that we do not outright deny the request in order to maintain working relations with the Beast Pirates, though Kaido refused to divulge his reasons for the request. As such, we were able to lower the number significantly; on top of the original 6,000,000 Belly issued, an additional 150,000,000 Belly will be added for a total of 156,000,000 Belly. Kaido insists that the pirate must be captured alive.

As the criminal in question is an East Blue irregularity, we do not anticipate great risk in sorting out this issue promptly. A hand-picked retrieval squad will be sent to capture Monkey D. Luffy post-haste so as not to allow the bounty to cause any unrest in local waters.

Signed, Commander Brandnew, Navy Headquarters.

Sengoku's fingers were digging into his desk. The wood finish began to chip.

Honestly, seeing his men act according to the whims of a pirate infuriated him. The World Government was far from a perfect organization – he wasn't so blind as to not acknowledge at least that much – but moments like these really cemented that fact.

He understood why they did it. He understood why he was expected to look the other way. That did not change the fact that they were playing a very dangerous game.

These fools…

Sure, if everything went according to plan, Monkey D. Luffy wouldn't be a problem for long enough for anyone to notice. As was mentioned, an East Blue pirate, no matter the reason why or how he got on the bad side of an Emperor of the Sea, would not be able to hold a candle to the strength of the Grand Line.

This was Garp's grandson, however. Did they miss the part where it said that he toppled a Marine base single-handedly!?

The kid was an upstart hooligan that would be given public attention on the same scale as someone of the renown of a Warlord. Hooligan or not, they better hunt him down with the same ferocity they would an actual Warlord; if they didn't squash that reputation immediately before it could be given the chance to fester, who could tell how much this shitshow would snowball?

There was a knock at his door, the heavy wood flagging at the force of what was presumably meant to be a gentle rap. Sengoku forced himself to calm down.

"Come in, Garp."

A behemoth of a man walked through the entrance, bowing his head so as not to crack his head against the doorframe. Though he was obviously getting on in years, the youthful spark in his eye was still clear for all to see.

"Mm. What's up?"

Garp was holding a bag of crackers. His large, meaty, fingers rummaged through its contents for a moment before finally flicking a few into his mouth.

His loud chewing was quite obnoxious.

The Fleet Admiral did little else but sigh. Though he would have loved to have given the man a dressing-down over his manners…

"It's about your grandson. Luffy."

Garp's jaw froze mid-crunch.

"Hm?"

Instead of elaborating, Sengoku slid the hand-written note to the man. It took him little time to read it.

Slowly, Garp's curious expression morphed into a pout.

"Bah. Not my problem."

"Hah!?"

The large man turned to leave and waved his hand over his shoulder dismissively.

"I warned that brat but he doesn't listen. I'll beat some sense into him the next time I head out."

"I don't think you understand, Garp."

The man in question paused with his hand on the door. He looked over his shoulder to see Sengoku frowning at him seriously.

"There won't be a 'next time'. He has a bounty that sits well over a hundred million, and we're going to have to treat him like a man whose head is worth that much. You understand that, don't you?"

Garp scoffed. He shot back a parting remark before the door was shut behind him.

"Don't get your hopes too high."

Click.

"..."

Sengoku didn't know how to take that.

Now left to his own devices, he spent the next while toiling over whether he would order the Rear Admiral to double his task force at the risk of making himself out to be an overly cautious loon.

The poor man groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.

X

"Hey. Hey. Nami. Are we–"

"Yes! We're almost there! Can you stop asking now!?"

I stuck my tongue out at her and covered my ears. She could yell really loud.

"Ah! She's right!" Koby shouted. The kid leaned over the side of the boat and pointed at something in the distance. "There's the island! Right over there!"

Hoh?

I crawled over Zoro's body to get a better look. He was shouting at me to get off, but I thought it would be okay to ignore him for just a second longer so that I could make out what I was looking at.

I smiled.

"Haha! Awesome!"

Zoro had enough. He let go of the oar that he was holding and tried to push me off; I rolled off of him before he could.

"This place was pretty close after all," I thought out loud. "It's pretty lucky that there would be another place with a Marine base so close by."

Koby's eyes lit up. I could tell that he was looking forward to this after all that stuff that he was put through before.

Nami gave me a half-baked smile.

"Yeah. Crazy how that worked out, right?"

"What's this place called again?" Zoro asked, rubbing his chin. He either forgot that he was in charge of rowing the boat or just wanted to take a break. "Orange village?"

"Orange town," Nami corrected.

I slapped a fist into the palm of my hand.

"I'm gonna ask the townspeople if they know anything about Yamato! She probably came this way too."

Zoro started rowing again.

"You know, Luffy. If you keep asking around for a 'tall lady with a bat', you're not going to get anywhere. Be more specific or else no one's going to know what you're talking about."

I blinked and thought about it for a second. My eyes widened.

"Ah… seriously?"

"Seriously. You haven't had any luck so far, have you?"

I nodded.

"Okay. Thanks for the advice, then! I'll– hm? That's a funny-looking ship."

Me saying that caught everyone's attention. No one else noticed it until now, I guessed. It was covered in colours and patterns and stripes and stuff.

We were getting pretty close to it now. There was a Jolly Roger on the sail!

…Clown?

That ship looked like a clown. A clown ship.

Were there clowns on that clown ship? There must've been. Oh! They probably danced and sang and did clown stuff! Aw… that sounded like fun. I really hoped that we could meet them sometime. Maybe we could have a party. There would be meat! If their ship was that big, they definitely had meat.

"There's a pirate crew on this island," Zoro observed. Koby and Nami both looked a little white in the face.

"I– I recognize that flag!" Koby squeaked. "It's the Buggy Pirates! They're one of the most notorious pirate crews on the East Blue!"

Zoro yawned. "Those guys, huh? I've heard of them. The captain's head's worth fifteen million."

I hummed. Clowns were pretty tough, apparently.

"Is that a lot?"

"It is," Nami told me. She looked all serious-like. "You aren't going to find many pirate captains with bounties higher than that… they're all monsters."

Wow. I didn't know. Maybe this Buggy guy was actually a really popular clown.

We reached the shore right next to the giant ship. Nami stuck out her foot and pulled us toward the docks while Zoro stored away the oars. The second that I could, I jumped out to stretch my legs.

"Man!" I shouted. "It's pretty cramped in that tiny thing!"

We wouldn't even be able to dance on this boat if we ended up partying with the clown guys.

A bigger boat would be good, then. We should try looking for one after we found ourselves a cook and a musician.

Hm?

Nami was walking off somewhere. She was pretty quiet and was doing a suspiciously-good job of not getting seen by the other two, but I could still hear her moving. I was about to ask what she was up to–

"Hey! Who the hell are you people!?"

I froze with my hands still in the air. I turned my head around to see a couple of rough-looking guys marching up to us.

Pirate Troublemaker (LV18)

HP:689/700

Pirate Delinquent LV22)

HP:644/650

Pirate Goon (LV19)

HP:999/1 050

They were holding weapons. Were they trying to fight or something?

Koby shrieked and stumbled onto his butt. Nami lowered her hand to the side of her skirt and Zoro grabbed the handle of one of his swords.

Oh! Before we beat them up, I had to ask.

"I'm Luffy! Nice to meet you," I greeted them back. "Have you three seen Yamato anywhere?"

They looked at each other with scrunched-up faces. They were acting like they didn't understand what I said for some reason.

No luck. It was just as bad as how I was asking before. What gives? Didn't Zoro tell me to be more direct?

I heard Zoro groan behind me.

"That's not what I meant when I told you to– never mind."

One of the pirate guys growled.

"Quit trying to distract us. You don't have a ship; you're not normal sailors. You three must be bounty hunters after the Cap'n's head!"

I stuck my tongue out at them.

"No way! We're pirates!"

"Speak for yourself!" Nami whispered angrily.

The three of them looked at us with narrowed eyes. It looked like they were trying to think long and hard about something, but they eventually gave up and charged at us with their weapons swinging around in the air.

Zoro unsheathed his three swords. They stopped in their tracks, wide-eyed.

"No way… is that–"

They weren't able to say anything else. They were cut down in an instant by my new crewmate. These guys probably weren't dead or anything, but it didn't look like they would be getting up anytime soon.

Tche. So much for the party.

Nami let out a deep sigh and helped Koby up to his feet.

"A beach or a shoreline is one thing, but it's a bit surprising to see pirates acting so openly at the docks of a big town like this one," she said. "If they're a crew like the Buggy Pirates… I don't like what that spells for the people that live here."

Zoro stared down at the guys that he took down for a few moments longer before putting his weapons away.

"I've seen this happen a few times," he shared. "It's actually not that uncommon for a pirate crew to take over a small town or village and make it their base of operations for a while. It's tough for the locals to put up much of a fight and by the time the authorities are alerted, the pirates have already taken off again."

I frowned a little.

It was a little funny to think that Shanks did something like that, kind of, though obviously, Shanks turned out to be way cooler than these guys.

We started walking through the town. It was totally abandoned; aside from those pirates from earlier, I didn't see a single person.

Silently, we followed behind Nami. She wasn't looking back at us.

As time went on, everyone was getting a little more uncomfortable. Or at least, Nami and Koby were. Zoro was acting the same as ever, but I could tell that he was probably thinking the same thing as me.

"There isn't a Marine base on this island, is there?"

When I asked that, she stopped moving.

The girl turned around. Instead of answering my question, she asked one of her own.

"This is being a pirate. You understand that, don't you? Whenever you go around telling people what you think you are without a care in the world, this is what they'll think. They'll think of things like this because it's true."

Zoro stayed quiet, though Koby tried to come to my defence.

"Come on, now, isn't that a bit uncalled for? Luffy-san is a nice guy! He's proven that he's more than–"

"Yeah," I answered her, interrupting Koby. I scratched my ear. "If people think that, it's fine. I am a pirate, though."

She snarled. Up until now, Nami had been trying to smile around us as much as possible. That changed now.

"How can you put up with being compared to these… these pigs! Do you idolize this behaviour? Don't you see how awful all of this is?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why!?"

"Because this way, I'm free."

She marched up to me and grabbed the collar of my vest. She was huffing and puffing.

"Freedom isn't worth all these lives!"

I blinked.

"No, but it's worth mine."

Your bond status with Nami has changed from [pitied] to [bitter].

Your bond status with Zoro has changed from [neutral] to [respected].

She let go of me. In the same motion, Nami pushed me away.

She took a step backward, then another.

"There is no Marine base on this island. I just brought you here because it was convenient for me."

I didn't say anything and neither did Zoro. Koby seemed pretty rattled, though.

"B-but, Nami-san! I thought you–"

"I lied! I didn't want to spend any more time around a bunch of filthy pirates than I had to! I brought you to the closest island and it was my intention to make myself scarce the moment we touched land. I would've been gone by now if it weren't for those weirdos at the docks… so yeah. See ya."

She ended on an awkward note. Almost suddenly, she turned around and ran away. Nami disappeared between two buildings.

I didn't budge.

Zoro grunted.

"Stupid girl. She wouldn't have gotten far if one of us bothered to chase after her."

Koby was wide-eyed.

"Did she just abandon us here? But I…"

Zoro yawned.

"I could go for some booze."

I tapped my chin.

"I wonder if any of these houses still have food stocked in their fridges?" I wondered out loud. They didn't look like they were in awful condition or anything, so maybe I could still find something fresh.

Zoro smiled.

"Ah… Good thinking, Captain."

"How are you two acting as if nothing happened!?" Koby shouted.

We both paused for a moment.

Zoro patted Koby on the back encouragingly.

"Take things as they come to you, Kid. We'll take a minute to rest, then we'll be off again. I'm sure we'll find a place for you to enlist."

The pink-haired boy looked happy to hear it at first, but then he lost himself in thought.

"Thanks! I… I appreciate that you two are doing this for me. You're pirates, and even though I want to be a marine, you– gah!"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence. Zoro slapped him on the back again.

"Zip it, would you? Pirate or not, that has nothing to do with it."

The kid blinked.

"I mean, if you say– Luffy-san! What are you doing!"

I froze with half my body through the window of a nearby house.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"That's– you're–"

Zoro pushed him toward me.

"We just went over this. Are you coming in or not?"

"I didn't realize that you… anyway, it's wrong!"

"Who's gonna care?"

"Well, I–"

I laughed and pulled him in.

X

"Huah!"

Zoro let out a satisfied sigh as he dropped onto the couch of whoever used to live here with a big bottle of booze in hand. Koby was still acting kind of nervous, but I was sure that he'd come around eventually.

My eyes narrowed as I looked through the kitchen fridge. I found some crackers in the cabinets but I was really hoping for something more.

There were some condiments here, sauces, juice…

Ah!

I smiled and pulled out a thick slab of ham.

Lucky!

I didn't bother to sniff it before putting it in my mouth, but it tasted just fine. This house couldn't have been abandoned for that long after all.

Once I turned around and pulled out a chair for myself, Koby lifted his hand.

"Uh, Luffy-san, do you think that maybe, I don't know… that you'll be going after Nami? To try to get her to travel with us again, I mean. She couldn't possibly be planning on staying on this Island by herself, right? There's a dangerous pirate crew here, after all."

Zoro crossed his legs and took a swig of whatever alcohol was in that bottle.

"That woman can take care of herself."

The kid didn't seem satisfied with that answer. He was staring at the ground sadly.

"I don't know… It just felt like something was off or something. Even though she said she didn't like pirates, we were all getting along just fine before, right? It never seemed like she actually hated you or Luffy-san."

I lifted the juice carton to my lips to wash down the ham.

"You can't force someone out to sea," Zoro told him. "If you know that the journey is going to be a dangerous one, then relying on someone who doesn't want to be out there watching your back is a good way to end up dead."

Koby sighed.

"I know that, but…"

"It's not like I didn't want Nami to join us," I said after swallowing. "I suck at directions, but Nami was pretty good at finding places and stuff. It'll suck to not have her with us, but I agree with Zoro. Besides…"

I leaned back into the chair's back and shot Zoro a confident smile.

"If my crew isn't ready for what's coming, we're all gonna die! Shishishi…"

Zoro put down the bottle and Koby stammered.

"W-what do you mean by that!?"

"Captain wants to be the Pirate King," Zoro answered simply. "For that, we'd need to find the 'One Piece', isn't that right? That treasure left behind by the previous Pirate King, Gold Roger: it's somewhere on the Grand Line… or so the story goes. Anyone treading those waters caught unprepared is bound to die eventually."

I nodded. Zoro was pretty knowledgeable about these sorts of things, apparently.

"Right! Oh, and also, we gotta fight a Pirate Emperor before all of that. I forgot to mention."

"..."

"..."

Coby and Zoro were staring at me open-mouthed.

"Something wrong?"

Koby chuckled nervously.

"I could've sworn I heard you mention a Pirate Emperor! Haha…"

I nodded.

"That's right. We gotta beat him up once we get to the Grand Line or else a bunch of bad stuff will happen."

Zoro buried his face in his hands.

"Damn it. Couldn't you have said something about this sooner? Would you care to explain!?"

"Shishi… Sorry! It's because of Yamato."

Zoro forced himself off the couch and took a seat across from me at the table.

"This Yamato person," he started. "You keep talking about her, but who is she, exactly? You say that she's your 'friend', but there must be more to it than that."

Koby seemed interested too. He joined us at the table quietly.

I crossed my arms and hummed. My head tilted from side to side as I thought of the best way to explain this.

"...Yamato and I have been friends for a really long time now, but when I met her, she was being kept locked up by her dad. She hates him a lot; apparently, he's got a whole island trapped under his thumb and everyone there is miserable. So–"

"Is her dad the Pirate Emperor?" Zoro asked, interrupting me.

"Yeah, that's right." I tried to get back on track. "But anyway, Yamato really wants to beat up her dad for being so crappy, except some stuff happened and she's been stuck in the East Blue with me for the past while. So… that's that! I'm gonna help her beat up her dad, then we're gonna find the One Piece! It should be on the way, more or less."

Zoro kept a super straight face.

"Is… the One Piece even real?" asked Koby. He was really quiet. "I mean, it's just a myth, right?"

I didn't answer properly. I just stuck my tongue out at him and blew a raspberry.

Zoro collected himself. His shoulders dropped.

"That's quite the bomb you've dropped on me, Captain. Though I suppose if I plan on becoming the world's greatest swordsman, something like a Pirate Emperor shouldn't be that big of a deal, right?"

His smile was shaky, but it wasn't hiding any kind of doubt. He realized how big of a deal this was but he was willing to go through with it anyway.

I made sure to match it with my own.

Asking Zoro to join my crew was the right decision after all.

X

We walked back to our boat with bags full of food. Zoro brought a bit too much booze, maybe, but it was fine since there would still be enough meat for me between what the three of us were carrying.

I was happy to see that we still had something to set sail on when we got to the docks. Nami didn't take our boat; I was a little surprised, actually.

I tried to think of another way for her to have gotten off the island for a moment but I gave up kind of fast.

Oh well. Good for us!

"Ready to head out, Captain?" Zoro asked me. He was helping Koby load everything up.

I hummed.

"Yeah. Does either one of you know where we could find another Marine base?"

I haven't been out to sea for all that long. These guys probably knew their way around the East Blue better than I did.

Koby tapped his chin.

"Well… I know for a fact that there's a pretty big one in Loguetown, but…"

Zoro quirked a brow.

"But?"

"But it's really far," the kid finished. "We definitely won't be able to make it all the way there on this thing."

He pointed at our boat.

Hm… I see.

"We need to get a proper ship first, then," I concluded.

"Any thoughts on how to do that?" Zoro asked, scratching his head. "That's not usually something that a guy can just 'get' at the drop of a hat, let alone without money."

I flashed him a toothy grin.

"We'll think about that stuff later! Let's just try to find one first."

"Oh!" shouted Koby. "I know! Back when I was sailing under Lady Alvida, there was this one island that we passed by frequently and it always seemed to have an old caravel anchored near a village. I've never seen it go anywhere, so there's a good chance that no one's using it!"

I slapped my fist into the palm of my hand.

"Great thinking! We'll go there, then."

"W-wait!"

We all turned around. The pirate guys from earlier had run up to us; they looked a little beat up from what Zoro had done to them before and it was obvious that none of them wanted to get too close to us.

"Oh. It's just you guys. What's up?"

I hopped in the boat and started messing with the knot keeping us tied to the land. After struggling for a little bit, Zoro slapped my hand away and untied it himself.

One of the funny-looking pirates frowned. Slowly, we started to drift away.

"Wait! You can't leave! We're holding your crewmate hostage!"

Koby looked worried.

"They don't mean…"

I was drawing a blank.

"Who are you talking about!?" I shouted back at them. We were getting far, so it was easier to hear me this way.

"The orange-haired girl! You're not just gonna let our Captain mess her up, right!?"

Right as he said that, my arm stretched out to grab him by the shirt.

I held on for a moment without moving. Slowly, he looked down at my hand and his eyes tracked down the length of my arm until they landed on me. His two friends were standing on wobbly legs.

"Wha… Wha…"

I pulled.

He started to stumble forward. His friends tried to hold on to him, but they got dragged along too. All three of them hugged a piling so that they wouldn't get dragged into the water.

In the same instant, our boat was rocketed back toward the island and the guy that I was holding onto lurched forward. The other guys tried to hold onto him, but all three of them toppled into the ocean.

I didn't bother saying anything to Zoro and Koby. I got out of the boat quietly.

A new quest is now available!

[Rescue Mission: Save Nami!]

Is she your friend? Probably. Nami has been captured by a dangerous pirate crew. Defeat them and get Nami out of there in one piece.

Unlocks: [Navigation Menu]

Completion Rewards: [Crewmate: Nami] + [777 EXP]

Bonus Rewards: [?]

Time limit: 3H : 59M : 58S

Begin now? [Yes/No]

I took a deep breath.

"Zoro! Let's go save Nami!"

A new quest has commenced!