The sun's rays shone with a pleasant warmth on the little Going Merry, which lay happily in the calm harbor water and was occasionally lulled by the odd wave.

Nami's authoritative voice could be heard on the deck of the small ship as she tried to instill rules for the upcoming shore leave in her crew members.

"Don't forget. We're not here to go on vacation...or to annoy the islanders," she added with a meaningful sideways glance at Luffy, who was impatiently tapping his foot on the deck, "We need to stock up on supplies and that's it. Is that clear?"

Luffy unobtrusively avoided Nami's renewed penetrating gaze by squinting upwards into his hat frame.

Next to him, Sanji began to praise Nami's ingenuity and planning, causing Zoro on the other side to snort in annoyance.

"That especially goes for you, Luffy," Nami continued unapologetically, "I don't want to hear afterwards that you've done something stupid again. Understood?"

The corners of Luffy's mouth turned downwards sadly at this request and yet it was unclear to all those present whether he had understood Nami's demands.

Amused by the goings-on of his crew members, a slight grin spread across Zoro's face. Nami hadn't missed this, of course, and she looked at him sternly.

"And you, Zoro! Don't even get me started!" she put her arms on her hips angrily and Zoro's grin instantly froze on his face, "I don't know how you manage to get lost every time and even in the straightest streets. This time, please stay with the others so we don't have to send out another search party for you later."

This time, Luffy was the one who started grinning stupidly.

"Nami's angry," he said with a sense of genius.

Sanji started to praise Nami again.

"Nami-san is right as always. The stupid Marimo will get lost for sure, since there's not much in his head besides moss and idiocy."

- "Shut up," Zoro growled annoyed and put his hand threateningly on his sword hilts.

Nami watched as the two stubborn heads insulted each other and feared that they would start fighting as usual, when the third stubborn head sank to the ground with a pitiful wail.

"Namii," moaned Luffy, "I'm booored. When can we leave?"

This brash statement tore Sanji's attention away from his previous focus of wrath and he promptly gave his captain a quick kick on the head.

"How dare you talk to Nami-san like that?" the cook was outraged and his face turned red with anger, while Luffy began to laugh out loud.

Before the situation could escalate any further, Nami raised her hands appeasingly.

"Thank you, Sanji-kun," she said and then turned to her captain, "Yes, you can go now. I'm done with my briefing. Please don't forget to stay together. Ah, wait a moment. You'll need the shopping list."

She turned to get the list from her study and that short moment was enough for Luffy to stretch out with a loud cheer, wrap his arm around Zoro and catapult them both towards land with force.

"Off to adventure!" Luffy's cry echoed across the harbor, coupled with the panicked protests of Zoro, who was being dragged along against his will.

"That idiot," puffed Sanji and Nami only now noticed that he was lying on the ground. Ah, clever cook. He had probably recognized Luffy's plan in time and had managed to escape the rubber grip. Nami thought about the rough landing that the swordsman would now suffer thanks to Luffy and actually felt a little sorry for him.

These thoughts, however, were quickly replaced by annoyance as she thought about the fact that these two had the sense of direction of a potato and would therefore most certainly get lost.

She turned to the only sensible member of her crew at that moment, who had gotten up and was dusting dirt off his pants.

"Sanji-kun," she said earnestly, "Please wait a moment. I'll quickly grab the shopping list. Could you then please follow these two idiots and make sure they don't do anything stupid?"

Sanji began his usual flirtatious dance, but when he saw the serious expression on Nami's face, he stopped and adopted a serious demeanor himself.

"Of course, Nami-san." he said "Don't worry. I will keep everyone safe."

With a loud crash, Zoro and Luffy landed on an old wooden barn, which collapsed beneath them under the impact.

Luffy tried to soften the fall somewhat by inflating himself with Zoro in his arms, but all that did was send the latter bouncing off the rubber boy and crashing hard through the barn rubble onto the road.

With a low groan, Zoro rolled over onto his stomach and held his pounding head, which had just hit the asphalt roughly.

Shit.

Why couldn't Luffy ever take the normal path like everyone else?

The bright, carefree laughter of his captain rang out from beneath the ruined barn, and all at once a few loose planks were launched into the air as Luffy's rubber hand shot out from under the rubble.

Zoro had to leap up in a hurry and retreated a few steps just as one of the planks hit the spot where he had been lying.

"Oi Luffy, damn it!" he shouted and wanted to add a few more swear words, but a searing pain in his head silenced him and he pressed a hand to his head in an effort to block it out.

A few seconds later, Luffy jumped out of the barn and stretched contentedly.

"Ah, that was fun!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around.

Then he was hit hard on the head.

"Don't fucking do that again!" Zoro shouted while his knuckles turned white in his clenched fist.

Luffy, who seemed to keep forgetting that other people weren't made of rubber, just laughed and rubbed his head.

" Sorry, sorry, Zoro. This is a new adventure. It's really fun! Look, we're already in the middle of it."

With the most innocent smile that made Zoro want to punch him again, Luffy pointed around expectantly.

"All I see are run-down houses ... and a ruined barn," grumbled Zoro, scowling at the pile of wood that had welcomed him so rudely to this island.

As if only now Luffy realized that despite the noise their arrival must have made, there was strangely not a single soul to be seen around them, his face instantly contorted in disappointment while he dropped his arms in frustration.

"Oh," he made sadly, but then his body suddenly shot back into an upright position and Zoro wondered how empty it must be in Luffy's head that he could so obviously see the lightbulb going off on him in there.

"Oh," Luffy exclaimed excitedly, "Then everyone must be somewhere else. That means we'll have to go find the adventure."

Before Zoro could protest, Luffy had taken off in a direction that Zoro was sure Luffy didn't know where it was leading.

"Oi, Luffy, where are you going? Slow down, damn it!" Zoro tried to encourage his enthusiastic captain to decelerate as he moved to follow him, not entirely with altruistic intentions as his headache pounded eagerly with every step.

As always, his suggestion fell on deaf ears and so he had no choice but to tag along with Luffy.

"One day I'll kill him," Zoro muttered annoyed as he ran after his captain.