One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Forty-Five-
"Shit! Nami!" I cursed before sighing in relief when the ginger suddenly pulled her arm out from underneath her sleeve, revealing that it was alright and that the gator hadn't bitten it clean off like I had first thought. "Almost gave me a heart attack there" I shakily laughed, holding my chest.
"I'm trying to lure the gator in close enough so that he'll bite this cage apart" Nami simply explained.
"Hey, that's not a bad idea" Usopp praised.
"It isn't, but couldn't you do it in a way that doesn't involve you almost losing your arm?" I worriedly frowned.
"What? Worried about me?" she asked, lightly blushing as I gave a firm nod. "Well, what else am I supposed to do?" she asked.
"I don't know, maybe anything other than sacrificing your limbs" I shrugged.
"Yeah! Come and get us you stupid banana! You rotten banana!" Luffy suddenly screamed, clearly on board with Nami's plan of having the gator bite open the cage.
"Yeah, do something like that" I nodded with a content smile as I motioned over toward our screaming captain, causing the navigator to sweat drop.
"Look, I told you, that thing isn't a banana" Usopp scowled. "It's an alligator with a banana growing out of its head" he once more tried to explain.
"But it's called a Banana Gator" Luffy argued.
"Just because it has the word banana in its name doesn't automatically make it food" I pointed out.
"How do you know?" Luffy asked.
"I don't know, Luffy, how do you know it's a banana just because the word is in the name?" I threw right back at him, causing him to frown and take a second to really think.
"Here, let me explain it to you" Usopp offered. "You've heard of the Monkey Dance, right?" he asked, grabbing hold of the captain's shoulders so that he could force the man to look at him.
"It's a banana!" Luffy angrily shouted, determined that he was right in his assumption that the reptile before us was nothing more than a piece of fruit that just so happened to have an animal growing out of it.
"Shut up and listen for a second!" Usopp snapped. "Okay, look, there's a dance called the Monkey Dance—you follow? Even though it's got the word monkey in it, it isn't an actual monkey" he explained before smacking Luffy's hand when he finally noticed that it was resting against the cage's bars. "Don't touch those bars!"
"How do you know they're not bananas if you haven't eaten one?" Luffy childishly asked.
"Pray tell, how would one go about eating one of those things?" I curiously asked.
"You'd just eat it like you would eat any other banana" Luffy huffed.
"Of course, how could I be so foolishly not to know that" I deadpanned, watching as he proudly puffed out his chest and nodded with a grin.
"Watch out!" Nami cried out as the cage violently started to shake thanks to the gator now clamping down on it in an attempt to rip it open. We tried our best to keep our balance thanks to the harsh movements of the cage before eventually watching in awe as the gator started to whimper, its teeth now cracking.
"The cage is too tough!" Usopp whined in realization.
"The Banana Gator didn't even dent it!" Luffy loudly complained.
"Aw, poor guy, that must have hurt badly" I frowned, feeling sympathy for the animal as it backed away from the catch and began attempting to nurse its aching mouth.
"Vivi, please hurry!" Usopp wailed, going straight back to doing what he and Luffy had been doing earlier.
"Hey, Straw Hats" I startled at Smoker's voice, having nearly forgotten he was in here with us due to how quiet he's been this entire time.
"We're about to die, how can you just sit there like that?!" Usopp scowled.
"You should be trying to help us get out of here too" Luffy chastised.
"Tell me something—how much do you guys know? What exactly is Crocodile after?" Smoker asked. "The woman at Crocodile's side, did you know the World Government has a sizable prize on her head for twenty years? As I recall, over seventy million beli" he suddenly revealed.
"Seventy million? Holy moly, why is it so much?" Usopp fearfully asked.
"It's almost as much as Crocodile had" Nami pointed out.
"Oh...so that's who that was..." I muttered in realization. "Been a long time since I've heard about her...so young to have such a large bounty placed on her head..." I sadly sighed.
"Hm? What was that Skylar?" Nami curiously asked, causing me to flinch as I quickly waved my hands in front of me.
"Oh! It's nothing, I was just talking to myself is all" I nervously smiled...I really needed to remember that not everyone had this kind of information just forcefully shoved down their throats the second they were able to properly think and process things from a young age. I sighed...it wasn't all bad I guess, knowing this stuff has its uses even if it did make people give me questioning looks.
"The moment those two joined forces, this insurrection became more than just a simple coup" Smoker frowned. "If they're not stopped here and now, this could very well turn into something the whole world will get dragged into" he explained.
"The whole world? Wait—what do you mean?" Nami frowned.
"This is starting to sound a little far-fetched..." Usopp mumbled in admittance.
"For one, this would cause political problems within the World Government if the ruler of this country was to suddenly change—they would have to strike up new deals and such to prevent any wars or problems from arising, wouldn't they?" I questioned as the Marine hummed with a nod while the others owlishly blinked. "Not only that, but I can also assume that it wouldn't look good in the eyes of the people if a Warlord of the Sea—someone meant to work alongside the World Government—was the one to seize this country, no doubt this would be a blow to the government's reputation if people found out that one of the pirates they allied with destroyed and conquered an entire nation" I continued. "Then there's that one specific part he mentioned..."
"I don't care if all that is true!" Luffy suddenly huffed, crossing his arms
"Huh?" Nami, Usopp, and I questioned.
"I don't need any other excuses, I'm still going to kick that guy's ass" he angrily huffed.
"Hm, I see" Smoker hummed as he took in the captain's words. "So how do you intend to get out of here?" he asked.
"Ah! It's all the way up to my legs now!" Luffy shouted in shock the second he realized that the water had now risen up to his knees.
"Ah! We're drowning!" Usopp cried out as he started to run around like a chicken with its head cut off.
"Uh...suddenly I feel a little…" Luffy weakly groaned, kneeling right over as he was sapped of his strength.
"No—hey, wait" Usopp said as he came to a halt. "Just tough it out, Vivi said she'd bring some help back!" he encouraged as he grabbed hold of the captain's shoulders and pulled him back up into a standing position...only for Luffy's head to droop downwards and bounce around in return.
"Dammit!" Zoro cursed. "If only my swordsmanship was better, I could cut through this stupid cage—we'd be free" he bitterly spat, causing me to frown.
"There's no point in beating yourself up about something like that now, you can always work to improve yourself when we get out" I softly told him, not liking the way he was berating himself for something he couldn't really control at the moment. "There's no point in getting frustrated over something you can't control" I said, resting my hand on his arm which caused him to smile a little
"That doesn't change how I feel though..." he grumbled in admittance, frown returning the second he looked back down at his sword and was reminded of his shortcomings.
"It's really impolite to make a lot of noise at mealtime like what you were doing" a familiar voice piped up as the owner of it suddenly kicked the gator in the stomach with such a strong degree of force that the animal immediately coughed out some of the things it had eaten earlier. "I'll teach you how to behave" I winced as the animal was ruthlessly beaten to the point of unconsciousness, resulting in it flying back and hitting the destroyed staircase. "Hey guys, been waiting long?" Sanji greeted with a grin the second he was finished.
"Yeah, it's Mr. Prince—we're free! Finally, we can get out of here now!" Luffy and Usopp cheered.
"Thank you" Nami smiled.
"Glad to know you're alright, I was worried a bit there earlier" I brightly smiled as I waved to the blond, happy to see that he was still alive and well.
"Well, don't just stand there, find the key and get us out of here" Zoro frowned.
"Nami, Skylar, my dears!" Sanji happily cooed as he ignored the others.. "Do you love me now? Huh? Well, my sweets?" he asked, hearts floating all around him as he wiggled his arms in excitement while waiting for an answer.
"Uh...sure," Nami sweat dropped, "and I'll love you even more if you hurry up and open this cage—Skylar will as well" she quickly added as if to encourage the blond in hurrying up.
"What, I never—" I barely got a word out before the ginger slapped her hand against my mouth while venomously hissing for me to be silent.
"The hell she will!" Zoro snapped before grunting as Nami struck the back of his head.
"Vivi! Alright, way to go!" Luffy cheered the moment he spotted the princess atop the ruined staircase who happily beamed right back at him.
"More diners with bad manners, huh?" Sanji hummed when he noticed that even more Banana Gators had appeared.
"Get them, Sanji! Smash those weird bananas into pudding!" Luffy cheered.
"That's going to be one disgusting pudding" I said.
"Don't worry, I'm going to teach these bananas some proper manners, alright" Sanji said. "Since theirs are so bad and they attacked the ladies, I'll take my sweet time doing it too because nobody does that to Nami and Skylar" he practically ranted.
"We don't have time for chivalry, one-second strike—no! Make that one instant strike!" Usopp demanded.
"The third one that just came in has the key" Smoker suddenly said.
"Hey, how do you know that, Smokey?" Luffy asked, curiously tilting his head.
"Guess your ears aren't as big as your mouth" Smoker insulted. "It's that one's growl that's the same as the one that swallowed the key" he explained as Usopp and Luffy now started to listen closely to each of the gators' growls.
"I can't really tell" Luffy confessed.
"You must have some good hearing if you can tell the difference in their growls" I remarked as Sanji began to beat on the gators. It wasn't long before he kicked one hard in the stomach, causing it to hack up a strange yet smooth, white round ball that landed in the rising water with a loud splash.
"Key?" Luffy and Usopp questioned.
"There it is—get it!" Luffy quickly ordered.
"Hey, wait a minute..." Usopp frowned.
"That doesn't look like the key" Luffy finally realized.
"No, it doesn't—what does Crocodile feed these things?" I worriedly frowned.
"Does he even feed them at all?" Nami questioned.
"Good point..." I muttered, realizing that there was a chance he didn't even bother feeding them unless it was to get rid of someone.
"Wax Wax Ball..." a weak voice rasped out from within the ball as it started to crack open.
"What the...?" we questioned in shock as we watched a strange, mummified-looking man emerge from inside the ball. His arms stretched outwards as he instantly released a loud scream the moment he was able to breathe proper air.
"Yes, water at last! It's a miracle!" he joyfully cried, dropping to the floor as he now started to lap up the water that was still flooding the room.
"Hey, it's him" Zoro suddenly pointed out with a look of realization.
"Who?" I asked, tilting my head.
A/N: Enjoy
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