A/N: ZareEraz here! HQV and I aren't quite done with the Rainbow Mist arc, but I found a good scene to write about anyway. I take artistic license with this scene because I had to change when Zoro woke up to make it work so don't kill me for rewriting the script a little. Other than that, enjoy! :3
(Updated October 2024)
Chapter 14: Rude Awakening
"ONWARD! FULL SPEED AHEAD!" Luffy shouted from his perch on the Merry's head. Usopp just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at his captain. He then looked behind him and rolled his eyes at the sleeping Zoro. The sniper wondered how the swordsman could sleep through them going into the Rainbow Mist, encountering that loud bunch of kids that the old scientist guy Henzo knew, and then all Luffy's yelling on top of everything else. It was downright amazing what a heavy sleeper he could be!
"About that…are you certain we're moving forward, Luffy?" Usopp asked, knees trembling.
"Yeah! I said full speed straight ahead!" Luffy answered like there wasn't a care in the world when they were trapped in this creepy ship graveyard probably filled with real ghosts and not just kids pretending to be ghosts.
"Where exactly is it that you're trying to take us?" Henzo asked, walking up onto the forward deck with Robin in tow.
"Weeeellll…" Luffy started, dragging out his first word. "We're heading out of the mist, duh!"
"Don't be ridiculous," Henzo replied, looking around at the wrecked ships suspiciously. "Once you enter Abe's Concert there's no leaving it. This region of the sea is not like any other you've seen before!"
Just hearing him speak was making Usopp's knees quake even more, but Luffy didn't get it. What was the big deal? If they sail long enough going straight, they'd pop out of the mist in no time!
Usopp ran over to the port side of the ship and looked down after noticing something strange and scary. The Merry was passing another cluster of wrecked ships and on the figurehead of one of them, a white statue of a lady stood out to the sniper. They'd passed that ship already!
"Ummm, I'm pretty sure we passed that ship just a little while ago!" Usopp stammered, slapping his hands on the rail and panicking even more.
"Ah, don't worry!" Luffy replied. "There's a bunch of ships that all look alike no matter where you go!" Lots of people put ladies with boobies on the front of ships. For a moment, the rubber man wondered why they never put men on the fronts of ships, noting that the boobies part of it was probably the reason, and decided that Zoro had great boobies for a ship if someone were ever to use him for a model. Before he could think more about Zoro's chest, Luffy got distracted.
"I don't think so." Robin interrupted, walking up to Usopp. "That exact same ship was wrecked in the very first place we dropped anchor." The archeologist placed her hand on her hip. "I remember seeing the statue of that goddess on the bow."
"But what does that mean?! Does that mean we've come full circle back to where we started from!?" Usopp replied, freaking out.
"What's the big deal?" Luffy asked, still very unaffected by the whole situation. And Zoro was still sleeping, giving him the perfect opportunity to look at the man's boobies and confirm his decision that the swordsman would look great on the front of a ship. On the other hand, Usopp was once again wondering why the green-haired man always seemed to be asleep at the most important times, especially when it came to freak storms and creepy things on the Grand Line! He would've loved having a second strong fighter paying attention right now!
"That's why I asked if you were sure we were going forward earlier!" the sniper shrieked.
"I was watching! We were going straight!" Luffy declared, still unfazed by everything.
"How can you possibly see where straight is in all this mist!?" Usopp yelped again, asking questions to try and get Luffy to see that they were in big trouble.
"He can't," Robin replied sternly. She then crossed her arms in front of her body and closed her eyes, pulling her arms to either side of her and chanting, "Seis Fleurs!" Flower petals appeared around Robin's body and fluttered off. No one could see where her arms or legs were, but they heard the cannon at the bow shift and then fire, sending a cannonball flying off into the mist. Luffy laughed, knowing that Robin was the one who shot the cannon while they were on deck and stuck his right hand into a salute on his forehead to watch the cannonball scream into the distance. Then that whooshing scream was behind him for some reason as the cannonball crashed into the ocean right behind them, sending the Merry reeling on the waves. The impact sent a wall of water up into the air, soaking Usopp and a still-sleeping Zoro. He didn't even wake up, and now his shirt was all wet, which was even better for Luffy.
"What was the point of that?" Luffy asked, curious, still stealing glances at his sleeping boyfriend.
"She shot the cannon forward, but it landed right behind us!" Usopp explained as his and Robin's suspicions were confirmed. Everything was getting freakier now!
The archeologist nodded. "As I thought," she said.
Henzo nodded in agreement. "The fabric of space is distorted here," he added.
"What does that mean?" Luffy asked again, getting a great idea.
"It's something that I remember reading from that Rainbow Mist book earlier," Robin started explaining. "See, the inside of the Rainbow Mist is twisted around itself like a maze-" Since Luffy had a great idea, he decided that that was the moment to put it into action and stopped listening to his crewmate. He grabbed onto the Merry's horns and stretched his arms as he jumped backward. The rubber man hooked his legs around the ship's mainmast and smiled hugely, giggling.
"Hold on! No, Luffy!" Usopp shouted, knowing exactly what his friend was up to.
"Gum-Guuuummmm….Rocket!"Luffy shot up ahead of the ship, disappearing into the mist all by himself.
"T-t-too late," Usopp stammered. Robin caught Luffy's hat drifting down through the air when it fell off his head and then folded her arms, keeping the captain's treasured object safe until he came back. If he came back.
"He won't necessarily end up back in the same location that he started in," Henzo stated like it was no big deal.
"Luffy! You moron!" Usopp shouted, scared for his friend. What if he fell into the ocean and drowned because they couldn't find him?! Zoro would kill them all if Luffy died while he was sleeping, and they did nothing about it (even though he should be blamed for sleeping during such a crisis anyway)! Usopp did not want to be on the wrong end of those swords, especially when Zoro was so protective of Luffy in the first place! But the sniper needn't have worried too much about it because a few seconds later, Luffy came crashing back onto the Merry, hitting her mainsail with a thump, snapping one of the ropes holding the sail down with his force. That sent him careening down onto the ship, his course shifted by the sail, and right into the head of a sleeping Zoro, sending them both tumbling across the forward deck in an unceremonious heap.
"Okay! I get it now! It's a mystery mist!" Luffy declared, sitting up from his spot on a rudely awakened moss head, his face all red from the impact. "No matter which way you go you end up where you started."
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Zoro shouted, throwing Luffy's butt off him and holding his aching head.
"Hi, Zoro! You awake now?" Luffy asked, rolling across the deck from the shove and laughing.
"No thanks to you!" the swordsman hissed at him, a murderous look in his eyes for being disturbed from a good dream. It was about Luffy, but now that he was faced with the real one all it did was tick him off. "What were you doing?!"
"I shot off into the mystery mist and came back to where I started! It was fun!" the rubber man explained, running into the side of the ship.
"What?" Zoro asked looking around. He was definitely not in the same place where he'd fallen asleep - everything was misty and there were tons of wrecked ships around him. The green-haired man was so confused.
"It's a long story, sleeping beauty," Usopp sighed, happy that Luffy had gotten back on the ship okay and that he wasn't going to die for letting him wander (or shoot) off. But Zoro wasn't listening anymore – he was chasing Luffy around the Merry in an irritated rage.
"If I kiss you, will it make it better?" Luffy asked, dodging Zoro's swings as the swordsman tried to bash his head in for being the idiot who woke him up.
"No! Get over here so I can kill you!"
"No way! Not unless I get a kiss!"
"Why would I kiss you after what you did!?"
"Because you love me!"
"I hate you right now!"
"No, you don't!" Luffy jumped up the mast and Zoro followed close behind. Then the rubber man stretched his arms back behind him and wrapped them around the swordsman's neck and flipped himself upside down while retracting his arms, pulling him down until he hung like a pack on Zoro's back, his arms and legs hugging the man. Zoro growled as he leaped down to the deck, caught in Luffy's embrace, and frowned at his position. Despite not wanting a kiss, Luffy snaked his stretchy neck around to Zoro's front and gave him a sloppy one on the lips with a giggle.
"There! I'm sorry!" Luffy smiled. Zoro was blushing, but his frown was still there.
"No, you're not," he huffed, crossing his arm over Luffy's stretchy ones.
"But I really am! I didn't mean to wake you up," Luffy's smile dropped off, replaced by a pout.
Zoro sighed and saw that the rubber man did mean it, knowing that he'd lost the second that cute pout came out. He just really didn't like seeing Luffy sad. So, as an admission of forgiveness for disturbing his nap, Zoro grabbed the boy's head before it could snap back into place and gave Luffy his own kiss – one a lot less sloppy and a lot sweeter. When they broke away, the rubber man was smiling the hugest smile possible (and that was saying a lot since Luffy could stretch his mouth as wide as he needed it to be at any given moment) and Zoro was smiling too.
"You're hopeless," Usopp sighed, shaking his head at the pair. "You just can't win with Luffy can you?" The sniper shrugged, already knowing the answer.
"Nope," Robin replied, smiling as the swordsman walked up to the forward deck with her captain still clinging to his back.
"And it doesn't really matter that I woke you up, Zoro," Luffy started chattering again. "Since we're probably stuck in here forever, you can take all the naps you want!"
"What do you mean we're stuck in here forever?!" Zoro yelled, his face in a state of shock.
"You're hopeless," Usopp mumbled, getting ready to explain everything. Robin just smiled at her adorable crew and stifled a giggle when she saw Luffy stealing glances at Zoro's chest again.
To be Continued...
A/N: And there you go! See you all later! :3