Hey everyone! I've been gone for a bit longer than a "minute" this time. Ya boi got the 'rona, unfortunately. I'm starting to recover now, but it pretty much wiped me before then. As a result, I'm pretty far behind on everything.
But then again, when am I not?
Actually, that's a point that I'd like to bring up. There was once a time when I was able to put out weekly updates pretty consistently. I want to get back into those habits.
That's actually why I'm updating HP right now. I figured that I'd be able to get this out in a few days tops (in time for sunday) so that I could start fresh next week and give myself actual time to get Fear the Superhero ready for next weekend.
As always, big shoutout to you fellas on for keeping my muse alive. I love y'all. Another equally large thanks is sent out to our beta, Gregg'sEnjoyer6tea9.
X
Buggy liked this quaint little town. He liked it very much.
He and his men had only been here for a few weeks, but he had known straight away that this would be a perfect place to make himself at home for the time being.
There was no Marine base on this island and none of the villagers were in any position to put up a fight against a group of big, scary pirates. He had barely expended any resources in his effort to clear out the riffraff; his boys were settled in a matter of hours.
The blue-haired, clown-themed, pirate captain sighed and reclined into his wooden chair. His eyes lazily tracked from side to side, soaking in the sights of his crew having a merry time in this cozy, yet decently-sized, tavern that they were calling their base of operations. Booze of all sorts was being cracked open left and right. None of it was theirs of course; it belonged to whoever owned this joint before they had gotten here, but it wasn't like those guys were in a position to get on their cases about it.
Were the boys indulging a little too much? Perhaps, but it wasn't like he wasn't doing the same thing. It wasn't like running out of "local resources" was that much of a problem anyway. It was always the plan to kick out the locals, have a merry time, take whatever they had, move on and do it all over again somewhere else.
He was no fool. Settling down was a nice thought – a safe and cushy one at that – but such was not the life of a pirate. He liked the place, sure, but they were bound to ditch it eventually.
He figured they still had another month or so to gather their bearings before one of the hiding townspeople managed to get the word out to the Marines somehow.
The man rubbed the back of his neck.
"Someone toss me a bottle!" he yelled at the room. It was rowdy enough for him to have to raise his voice. "Are those other guys back yet? I sent them out for a sweep of the town a few hours ago now."
Mohji, his first mate, slid a bottle of rum to him from across the bar's counter.
"Sorry, Boss. No word yet," the beast tamer answered demurely. "Want me to get someone to go look for them?"
Buggy thought about it, stared at his new beverage and offered his response before taking a swig.
"Nah, don't care all that much. If they got too drunk and drowned in the ocean or something just send out another coupl'a guys in the morning to take their place. I want every house ransacked and every valuable taken, but we still have a little while to get everything done, so there's no rush."
"Aye, Cap'n."
The doors to the tavern burst inward at that moment.
"C-captain Buggy! Sir!" shouted one of the three men that entered. It was the trio of nincompoops that he sent out earlier to "explore" the houses by the harbour.
He narrowed his eyes.
"You three are late," he remarked simply, not paying any mind outwardly to their dishevelled and clearly injured appearance.
"Roronoa Zoro!" another one of them coughed out between haggard breaths. The whole tavern quieted after hearing the mention of that one man. "Roronoa Zoro is here! Not only that, there's this–"
Buggy had heard enough. He shot up from his seat so quickly that the chair skidded across the wooden flooring and toppled over.
He was furious. A vicious snarl was plastered across his face.
"What!?"
"Should we–"
Whoever decided that now was a good time to speak was instantly silenced by a floating, severed, hand grabbing his mouth. He whimpered; the grip tightened and the pain forced him to his knees.
Buggy sighed and extended his arm, releasing the poor man. His hand flew back to him and reattached itself to its proper place. Now wasn't the time for him to be losing his patience and allowing his devil fruit to run rampant on his crew.
"Find Roronoa and kill him. Let's not waste any time letting him come to us."
On one hand, it was a bit distressing to know that a man with such a reputation was coming for his head. Was it for his bounty? His treasures? His map detailing the path to the Grand Line couldn't have remained a secret for long after the Marines had taken brief possession of it.
On the other hand, it was quite flattering, in a way. Roronoa must've been fed up with bottom feeding and decided that it was time to hunt bigger game.
Not that he'd get very far.
A man that was at the top of the East Blue was still just a man in the East Blue. If rumours were to be believed, then the bounty hunter was a swordsman. Against an opponent who could not be cut, well… he'd be in for a surprise.
Regardless, he wasn't in the mood to deal with him personally. He'd rather drop a few dozen mooks on the bounty hunter's lap. Sure, maybe a few of them would kick the bucket, but it wasn't like Roronoa –or anyone around here– would be skillful enough to handle that many grown men at once.
But alas, it was best to play things safe. The quicker he dealt with the issue, the quicker he could return to drinking in peace.
Buggy eyeballed a line splitting the men at the nearby tables into two groups. He pointed out one of those two groups arbitrarily.
"You… you… you three, you guys, you two, you, you and you. That makes, what, sixteen of you?"
"Fourteen, Cap'n."
"That's fine. Follow those three back to wherever it was that they ran into Roronoa. It shouldn't take too long."
They all seemed eager enough. Or at least, no one was willing to disobey his orders. All fourteen of them got up and headed to the door.
"Yes, Sir!"
Buggy took another swig of booze.
X
The group of pirates walked through the desolate streets of Orange Town with a weariness that did not fit the usual exuberance of the crew of Buggy the Clown. Leading the pack was the trio that had already had the misfortune of running into their target.
Those behind them were staring at/into their backs cautiously. They were able to get around, sure, but it was obvious that they still weren't in great shape. They were bleeding quite profusely through the bandages wrapped haphazardly around their persons.
One was tapped on the shoulder.
"Hey, man. Since you ran into him and all, uh… This 'Zoro' guy: we'll be fine with this many of us, right? I've heard that he's a demon, and if your sorry state is anything to go by…"
If the man wanted to hear something encouraging, he was out of luck. The bandaged pirate looked away and gulped.
"I mean…"
The longer they trod the beaten path, the more time they were given to second guess how good of an idea this actually was. They weren't like the captain: they were normal people!
Normally they'd be all for fighting whoever the captain told them to – not that they could really say no – but it was a literal boogieman this time. It was hard for them to not second guess themselves.
The Tightrope Walking Funan Bros were among the best fighters in the crew! If even they couldn't handle one guy all at once, then…
"We're here."
The group stopped. They had reached the docks; an empty, unassuming dinghy was all they found.
"Man, you gotta be a real hardass to be sailing the seas in a crappy old thing like that!" one of the pirates remarked.
"He's not here," another one pointed out uselessly.
One of the bandaged crewmembers slammed a fist into his palm.
"We just gotta go out looking for him, then! This rinky-dink village isn't all that big. I'm sure that–"
"Hey. Assholes. Get out of the way."
They all froze and spun around.
Standing before them was a girl. She was young. Barely a woman. She was glaring at them with all the hate that she could muster.
The first instinct of the three injured pirates was to worry. She was with Roronoa, after all.
But…
She was alone and some girl was definitely no Roronoa. There was only one of her and seventeen of them.
Their startled expressions turned into shaky smiles.
"Or what?" one of the pirates challenged.
This girl wasn't in a good mood. She pulled a triple staff out from under her skirt and charged at them with a yell.
What a joke. Only an idiot would do that.
She put up a pretty good fight, though they'd never admit as much, but she was overwhelmed quickly. For every guy she smacked with her staff, she got a boot slamming into her back. It wasn't long before she tripped over her own two feet with a yelp.
The pirates gathered around and stared down at her sinisterly.
"Ah. Say, who is this chick anyway?"
The remark of one got the attention of the many. The pirates who hadn't had the misfortune of running into Roronoa and his two followers stopped to think about it.
"No idea."
"Maybe she's one of the villagers?"
"Nah, they're not that stupid."
"I don't know, she seems that stupid."
All the while, the girl's snarl never left her face.
"She's one of Roronoa's lackeys," a bandaged pirate shared. "I don't see the guy anywhere around here, though."
"What should we do with her, then?"
They all thought about it for a moment.
Another member of the unlucky trio came to a sudden realization.
They were chasing down Roronoa because they had to, but it wasn't like he had any misconceptions of what would happen if they actually found him. Maybe…
"Someone tie her up! We can bring her back to Cap'n Buggy as a hostage."
Some of the other guys weren't too hot on that idea.
"I don't know… Didn't he tell us to deal with it?"
"We'll have all the leverage this way," the man countered. "Captain won't mind dealing with Roronoa himself if we make it easy for him, right?"
Dimmly they realized that what was being suggested may give them a chance to make it out of this alive. Captain shouldn't be too upset if it were clear that they were still trying to deal with the problem in one way or another.
They giggled. One of them pulled out a length of rope.
The girl tried to struggle, obviously. She bit. She kicked. She yelled. With this many men on top of her, though, there was no way for her to slip loose. They didn't have much difficulty dragging her off.
There were footsteps approaching from further out. Absentmindedly, a few of the pirates turned their heads to see who it was.
Those that recognized the pair went bug-eyed. It was Roronoa Zoro and those other two.
"Hey, is that–"
"Should we –I don't know– go up to them? That's what we're here for and all."
"I don't know. I mean, we got this girl as our hostage now, right? We can just… call them over later?"
The tied-up girl tried to say something. One of the pirates clasped his hand over her mouth to muffle her voice.
"Yeah!" the pirate agreed. He pointed at the bandaged trio. "You three talked to them before. You go tell Roronoa that we've got his buddy while we bring her back to the captain!"
The rest of the group seemed to be pretty okay with that suggestion while it took the three of them a few seconds to register what he was saying.
"Wait, hold on–"
"See ya later, then. Good luck!"
They were ditched before they could even get a word in.
X
Captain Buggy was not happy with what he was seeing.
He had asked for Roronoa's head. What did these dimwits come back with? A girl.
A girl!
"What am I looking at?" he asked calmly. There was always the chance that he was simply misunderstanding things, after all. Maybe the big, bad Roronoa Zoro was disguised as a little girl.
…Who was he kidding. He'd teach these fools a lesson, but at the very least they should be allowed to speak their minds first. He was a benevolent captain, after all.
"S-sir! This is, uh… well, we don't know her name, but she's Roronoa Zoro's friend for sure! He was with him when we ran into him earlier. Her and some other kid! We figured that we'd–"
"Oh? 'You figured that' what? I asked for a dead bounty hunter, not a hostage."
His little outburst made his men jump a little. Good! It meant that they knew that his word was law and they had disobeyed that law.
Still… their efforts weren't completely wasted. If Roronoa really did come to hunt him with a couple of bounty hunter upstarts, then it would be a stain on his image to let them die here… supposedly. While he didn't appreciate his crew trying to use him to clean up the mess that he was trying to use them to clean up, he supposed he didn't mind all that much in this instance.
He smirked and walked up to his new captive. The tavern was quiet; the only sound that could be heard was that of the floor creaking under the weight of his boots as he drew closer.
He grabbed the girl by the chin and lifted her head up. She grimaced and looked away. He chuckled.
"Quite the looker, aren't'cha? Don't worry, girlie. I won't bite. Say, you're here with Roronoa, aren't you? He'll come for you, won't he?"
"..."
She wasn't inclined to speak. That was fine. She'd come around eventually.
Buggy tapped his chin for a moment before his lips tugged at his cheeks. He rubbed two fingers together.
"You know… if only you were a little more cooperative, I wouldn't mind sharing some of my treasure with you. Some 'give and take', if you will."
She immediately perked up.
"Treasure?" she asked cautiously.
He burst out into a fit of laughter.
"Bwahaha! Of course not, you idiot!"
Did she know about the map? Maybe not. Who could say what Roronoa's intentions were? Maybe he really was after his head and nothing more.
Still… he knew the look in this woman's eye. She was like him; money made the world go round and she understood that. He didn't hate people like her.
Buggy sighed.
"Look, Lassie. Just tell me where Roronoa is. Be cooperative and I won't even kill 'ya."
She scoffed.
"...Just forget it. Those guys are probably long gone by now."
The way that some of his crew members reacted to that was a little… off. Strange.
Nonetheless, "You're saying they've already left? Why bother coming here at all, then?"
The second the question left his mouth, he cursed.
"Someone call the men on the ship! Check the treasury! I want every single coin accounted for!"
Could Roronoa have robbed him from right under his nose? Was that girl just a decoy? If so, he respected the move just as much as he despised that man with every fibre of his being. He'd hunt down that flashy bastard 'till the day he–
"Sir! Nothing's missing from our stash!"
One of his men interrupted his thoughts. He had a Den Den Mushi in hand.
Seriously? Then what in the hell–
CRASH
The doors were kicked in so hard that they flew right off the hinges. No one could help but look towards the entrance.
Two men and a boy were standing there. A lanky man with a straw hat, a short, chubby kid and a young green-haired man.
Three swords were strapped to his waist.
Buggy grinned viciously.
"Roronoa Zoro."
X
Nami would be the first to admit that she had messed up.
She got angry earlier. Much angrier than she should've. It wasn't even Luffy's fault. It's just…
She sighed.
It sucked to see places like this. It was a reminder that no matter how much she suffered at the hands of pirates, her people weren't alone in their suffering. Cocoyasi Village wasn't the first village to be taken over by a pirate and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
For every pirate that roamed free on this earth, there was a village just waiting to be ruined.
Luffy just didn't get that. He was obviously sheltered; he never had to deal with real pirates like she did. Sure, he was strong thanks to that devil fruit, but the strength of a human was only impressive as long as humans were all that you had to compare yourself to.
When she got back to the docks and saw all those pirates hanging around, she lost it.
She knew her own strength. Normally, when outnumbered like that, she would fight to sneak away. That was what she always did. That was how she stayed alive.
She needed an outlet for her anger, and at the time, that's what those guys felt like. For that short-lived moment, that anger made her forget that she was weak.
She was reminded of that promptly.
She had been tied up and brought to the boss. Buggy the Clown.
He was just as bad as she thought he would be.
Those guys that Zoro beat up must have come back to tell him that a bounty hunter was in his town. It would have been easy enough to assume that the reason was to act on his responsibilities as a bounty hunter and chase the clown's bounty, but what he didn't know was that Zoro wasn't much of a bounty hunter anymore.
She didn't have any incentive to correct that misconception.
The pirate captain got into interrogating her right away. He was willing to pretend that he'd cut her a deal, even bribing her with money. Normally, she'd play along. She would get in the pirate's good graces – offer to join their crew, even – but she just wasn't in the mood right now. She couldn't muster the energy to fake a desire to be a vile piece of human garbage.
He asked about Zoro.
"...Just forget it. Those guys are probably long gone by now."
There was no reason for them to stay. The only reason why they were here was that she lied. She told them that there was a Marine base on this island but there wasn't. They didn't seem too hung up on her betrayal, thankfully; with any luck, they had already moved on and Koby would lead them properly. He might've been a kid, but at least he seemed competent. They were in good hands.
Unfortunately, Buggy misunderstood her. A murderous look crossed his face and she wondered if this would be the place where she died.
For all of a few seconds, the pirates were scrambling. When they discovered that they misunderstood the situation, however, the panic was replaced with confusion.
And then the doors were kicked in.
X
So this was where the clown pirate guys were hanging out?
I looked at the three shivering weirdos that led us here. I pointed at the door silently and they started nodding really fast.
I hummed with a slight frown on my face.
"Right. Zoro. Koby. Let's go get Nami now."
Zoro was standing beside me quietly.
"Wait!" Koby squealed. "Let's think about this a little! We're about to jump straight into the beast's maw here! Shouldn't we have a plan or something?"
"You're free to wait here," Zoro told him.
I was done waiting.
I didn't get strong just to be slowed down by some weakling in the East Blue. If I let someone like this bother me then I was better off just giving up now.
No chance I'd let that happen.
Without thinking about it anymore, I kicked the door.
There were a bunch of funny-looking pirates inside.
I thought so. I didn't want to believe it when I didn't hear any music coming from outside, but this was the worst possible outcome.
These guys were barely clowns at all! Just looking weird and wearing funny clothes wasn't enough! Where were the accordions? The juggling balls? The elephants? The– oh. That guy was drinking booze on a unicycle. He got a pass.
Him, and…
I could see Nami tied to a chair near the bar with the clowniest clown guy standing over her. He had the big red nose and the makeup and everything so he got a pass too.
He smirked at us.
"Roronoa Zoro," he said slowly.
I looked back at Zoro for a second before looking at the clown guy again. Seriously. I couldn't get over his nose.
I gave him a thumbs up and nodded slowly.
"Nice."
Everyone was super quiet all of a sudden. They were all looking at each other like they didn't know what I was talking about.
"L-Luffy!" Nami stuttered. "You guys… why are you–"
I made grabby hands at the clown guy.
"Can I honk your nose?"
He blinked.
"Hm? Oh, uh. Sure, if you…"
He trailed off. His wide-eyed look turned into a really, really angry one.
"Wait! Of course not, you brat! Who the hell do you think you are!? Do you have a death wish or something!?"
Red Nose was yelling at me. I tilted my head.
"Huh?"
Red Nose's frown got deeper but the other pirates were all smiling now for some reason.
"Cap'n's angry. It's over for you now!" one of them shouted at us.
Koby's knees were knocking together, but I was confused and didn't know what the big deal was. Zoro was keeping a straight face so he was useless too.
I heard Nami gasp.
"Look out!" she screamed.
Hm?
A hand with three knives held between the fingers shot out at me.
Just the hand.
My jaw dropped.
"Wha–"
I caught the hand just in time and sighed. I wasn't holding onto it all that hard, so I wasn't able to do anything when it flew back and attached itself to Red Nose.
"Cap'n ate the devil's fruit!" one of the pirates said. "Tough luck, you bozos!"
A devil fruit? Ah. That made sense.
Red Nose grunted and shook his hand.
"I didn't expect you to catch my hand,," he muttered. "I've got no idea who you are. Are you and Roronoa partners or something?"
Zoro smirked but didn't say anything.
I ignored Red Nose and started walking up to Nami.
"Hey, Nami! We've come to save you. Let's go."
She had a pretty panicked look on her face.
"What? Leave! Get out of here, dumbass! Didn't you see? This pirate has a devil fruit too! This won't be the fight you're expecting it to be!"
A bunch of limbs with knives stuck to them suddenly started flying at me from all angles. It was easy enough to dodge them all, but it still caught me by surprise a little bit.
I think Koby was more freaked out about it than I was. Strangely enough, Zoro still hadn't budged. He was just standing there with crossed arms.
"You're not too shabby, Kid. How come I've never heard of ya?" Red Nose asked me. His head was just floating in the air on its own, which was sort of creepy but also sort of cool. I wish my head could do that.
…Actually, maybe not.
Nami tried to kick me when I walked close to her.
"Are you even listening!? I told you to piss off! I don't need your help!"
"Okay," I answered.
I quickly spun on my heel and hopped forward. I grabbed Red Nose's head before he could do anything. I could feel him exhale sharply against the palm of my hand when I gripped his face tightly and tossed it straight to the ground.
The floor cratered and the tavern fell silent. The pirate guys were staring at me with their jaws hanging at their feet.
Slowly, all the floating limbs came back together and made a single, whole Big Nose. I let it happen.
"D-did you see that!?" whispered one of the pirates a little too loudly.
"I couldn't even see him move!"
"Is he even human?"
Zoro's smile got wider. He finally spoke.
"Your captain isn't the only one who ate a devil fruit."
The pirates reacted to that right away.
"This kid ate one too?"
"Man… is the captain gonna be okay?"
"He seems pretty strong…"
"Shut up!" Buggy snapped at them before looking at me. He seemed pretty angry earlier but now he was dead serious. "Devil fruit my ass. I know a devil fruit's power when I see one and that's not it."
Nami froze. I didn't look behind me, but I couldn't hear Zoro or Koby saying anything.
"Wha-what? I don't understand. What are you…" she mumbled before trailing off.
Man… Everyone's mood was all over the place and I couldn't keep up. I was getting kind of annoyed cuz it felt like I was missing out on what these guys were actually talking about.
I slammed my fists together.
"Never mind all that!" I shouted. "Zoro, let's get rid of these–huh?"
「Your bounty has been reevaluated!」
「Destruction of World Government property: + 5 000 000
Defeated Enemies (World Government): + 900 000
Defeated Enemies (Unaffiliated): + 100 000
Infamy: + 150 000 000
Total: 156 000 000」
「You now have a bounty!」
Huh. My bounty was way bigger than this guy's. I should tell him.
"Hey Big Nose! Guess what? So it turns out that I have a bounty and it's–"
X
"Captain Smoker, Sir! The bounties are in."
The large marine officer was seated comfortably in his chair, his legs propped onto his desk and his free hand holding two lit cigars to his lips. He paid no more than cursory attention to his subordinate who had just walked in; he was preoccupied by the paper held at a hand's width from his face.
"Yeah, I figured those would get to me soon. Just put 'em on my desk."
The marine did as he was asked before bowing respectfully and leaving the room.
A moment later, Smoker let out a sigh.
If this order from headquarters was anything to go by, somewhere in that pile was a bounty poster belonging to a certain East Blue pirate worth a hundred and fifty-six million Belly. A large number, certainly, but they were assuring him that the number wasn't indicative of the threat that the man posed to the World Government.
The higher-ups wanted him to leave his post and hunt this pirate down.
He had problems with that, obviously. He knew why he was here and so did they: he was the only thing keeping pirates out of the Grand Line. In all the years that he'd been stationed at Loguetown, not a single criminal had been able to slip by him.
For him to do as he was asked, that spotless record would have to be abandoned. There was no doubt in his mind that all kinds of terrible people would take advantage of that window of opportunity and carry on with their crimes without facing punishment.
The very thought made him sick to his stomach.
On the other hand, he was told that this pirate was not someone to be underestimated.
Was he deserving of a bounty that would befit being the equivalent of a government-sanctioned pirate? Absolutely not, but he had it on good authority that he was the only marine nearby that would be capable of arresting him without taking too much of a risk.
For that reason alone, he couldn't turn this down.
He sighed and dropped his feet back onto the ground. What a bother.
…It was time to go find Tashigi, then. If he was going to be gone for the next while, it'd be up to her to look after the base and keep things in order.
It would almost certainly go poorly, but he would much rather pretend to be oblivious than spend the entire voyage worrying about how the Master Chief Petty Officer would find a way to screw something up.
And so, he left his office to go look for her.
The journey wasn't a long one. The woman was quite easy to find; she was out in the courtyard with a few of the other men and–
Was that a dog?
"Hey. Tashigi."
The marines didn't even realize that he was there. They were all too occupied with that strange dog.
Tashigi in particular was quite taken with the animal. She was sitting cross-legged in front of it with a bunch of playing cards laid out between them.
…Was that idiot pretending to play blackjack with a dog?
"Tashigi," he repeated. Again, no one could hear him. The other marines were gathered around the woman and the dog, cheering for them as if they were–
"Gah! You beat me again!"
"Hahahah! Shiro-chan whooped ya!"
"You suck, Officer Tashigi!"
"Tashigi!" he said once more, this time a little louder. They all jumped, straightened their backs and saluted.
"S-sir!"
He could only sigh.
"Tashigi, what the hell is that thing?" he asked flatly.
She beamed at him.
"This is Shiro-chan, Captain!"
He chewed on his cigars.
"Shiro-chan, huh?"
The dog was pretty big. It was more of a large wolf, actually. He could understand where the name came from; the thing was almost pure white.
Were those horns on its–? No, he wouldn't ask. It wasn't worth it.
It was sitting down and staring at him with wide, happy eyes. Its tail wagged idly behind its back. Smoker soullessly stared right back at it.
His second in command nodded.
"Yeah! We were teaching her how to play card games! She's pretty good at them."
Woman, I promise you that animal has not learned any card game and it did not actually beat you at poker.
Those thoughts were not shared aloud, of course.
"What's 'Shiro-chan' doing here, exactly?"
Another marine answered.
"We think he's from one of those circus acts that pass threw town every few weeks. Probably got separated. I'm sure he'll be off whenever they come around again. In the meantime, he's been hanging with us! Shiro-chan has been a real help around the base –running errands fetching supplies– he's super smart!"
Another marine, a woman, propped her fists on her hips and frowned.
"'He'? Shiro-chan is obviously a girl."
"What? No way! He's a boy dog for sure!"
"Nuh-uh! Shiro-chan is too smart to be a boy!"
Smoker's grimace was pronounced. He looked at Tashigi tiredly.
"Are they serious?"
The Master Chief Petty Officer sighed.
"I know. She's a girl without a doubt, but they've been on about this since forever. I wish Shiro-chan would just let us check, but she doesn't let us get too close."
Are you people a bunch of little kids!?
"Forget it," he grumbled. "Play with your dog later. We need to discuss arrangements for looking after the base.
Tashigi blinked.
"Arrangements? Are you going somewhere, Captain?"
He was only here to speak with Tashigi but the others were gathering around to listen in. That was fine, he supposed.
"Mm. I'll be taking a few dozen men with me to chase down some upstart ruffian that's been causing the Navy some issues recently– a kid named Monkey D. Luffy. You'll be seeing his bounty posters soon, I'm sure. I shouldn't be gone for too long, but you'll need to stay back to look after things."
Tashigi looked nervous at the thought. Understandable; she hasn't ever been left to lead a large group on her own before. Oh well. Live and learn, as they said.
"W-when will you be leaving, Captain?"
"This evening. Don't worry. I'll get you sorted out before then. In the meantime, do something about the dog."
There was an audible gasp from most of the crowd. Smoker wanted to bury his face in his palms.
"But sir!"
"Why can't we keep Shiro-chan?"
"Shiro-chan is the best!"
"Shiro-chan doesn't get in the way, honest!"
He cracked.
"Damn it. Fine! Keep the dog."
They cheered as if he'd given them the week off or something. Buch of weirdos, that lot.
As he made his way back to his office, Smoker didn't notice the way that Shiro-chan's eyes were following his back with a laser-like focus.
