One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.

-Chapter Seventy-Six-

"Huh?" we tilted our heads and watched as the old man's grin dropped upon seeing that he had already lost to one of Robin's disembodied arms.

"Well, I'll be..." he muttered in disbelief.

"Looks like we can get the ship back" Robin chuckled as the rest of us quickly gathered around the table.

"Nice" I lowly whistled as I looked down at the chessboard.

"Well, old man, give up?" Nami grinned as the geezer started to nervously sweat, gaze frantically flickering about the board in an attempt to see if there was any move he could make that would help turn things around back in his favor.

"You win" he inevitably sighed in defeat once he realized that he had truly lost.

"Hooray!" everyone cheered, throwing their arms up as a burst of bubbly laughter fluttered past my lips the moment I felt Zoro lift me up in his excitement. Grabbing my waist, he grinned as he hoisted me up—cheering with the rest as he tightly hugged me close to his chest, happily laughing alongside me.

"Great job, Robin!" I happily laughed, clapping my hands together the second my feet touched the ground as I instantly turned to face the older woman.

"Looks like we can always count on you, right, big sister?" Nami widely smiled.

"So, how's tricks with you?" Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy snickered.

"Don't rub it in" the old man sweat dropped as he backed away from the three. We soon jolted, our celebration coming to an immediate halt when he suddenly smashed his hands down onto the table as if he were upset before eventually, he threw them in the air and boisterously laughed. "I've lived for many years, but I've never met pirates as interesting as you! I love you, kids!" he grinned. "Let's have a party tonight and celebrate!" he cheerfully suggested, causing us to cheer in agreement.

-Later-

I sighed in contentment as I comfortably leaned against Zoro, fingers mindlessly scratching the top of Baxter's head which rested in my lap. Sweetly smiling down at him as he yawned, eyelids now drooping as he prepared to doze off.

"Gramps, you really are just like a pirate" Nami smiled as she poured the old man another glass of alcohol. "You sure do drink like one" she remarked, watching in amusement as he downed the drink in one gulp.

"Nami, do you think I'm a pirate?" he curiously inquired.

"Well, that would explain why you could afford to have such extravagant glassware, right?" Nami asked, motioning towards the glass he was holding.

"Can't argue with her on that, they do look too nice for you to have randomly found them on this island when you first arrived" I said, examining my own glass. "Unless there's some buried treasure here you're not telling us about" I said.

"Yes, it does look like it's from a treasure trove" Robin nodded in agreement.

"I see, you're trying to get the old man drunk so that you can make him tell you where he keeps the treasure—is that it?" Usopp asked.

"Well don't spell it out for him!" Nami snapped.

"So, goat man, do you have any hidden treasure? Huh?" Luffy suddenly asked before shoveling all of his food down his gullet in one bite.

"How you haven't choked yet surprises me" I sweat dropped, cringing at the visible lump that traveled down his throat as he swallowed. It was like watching an anaconda swallow prey much bigger than it.

"Didn't I just ask you guys to keep your mouths shut? At least you could have a little respect for the process!" Nami irritably huffed with a pout.

"I mean, it wasn't really that great of a plan to begin with" I said, turning my head as I took a sip of my drink.

"Who asked you?!" she snapped.

"You really want to know?" the old man questioned, causing the ginger to jolt as she instantly turned and eagerly nodded while the rest of us hummed in agreement. "My treasure is what I have shared all my joys and sorrows with, my beloved goats" he smiled.

"You hear that Baxter, you're treasure" I giggled, leaning down and rubbing my nose against the goat's head before smiling as he lifted his head and licked my cheek in response. "Is that jealousy I hear?" I teasingly asked when I suddenly heard a low growl from beside me.

"No, you're just imagining things..." Zoro grumbled as he yanked me closer. "What reason would I have to be jealous of a goat?" he asked.

"Because you're petty like that" I said.

"I'm not jealous—it's an animal" he frowned.

"You're also an attention whore" I hummed after a moment's thought.

"Are you even listening to me?!" he snapped, causing me to laugh.

"What a beautiful story" Luffy sniffed, already on the verge of tears because of what the old man said. I only watched in amusement as Zoro continued to deny his jealousy of Baxter while also trying to simultaneously push the goat away with his foot...

Yep, he sure was showing me just how not jealous he was.

"Ha! Got you!" the old man suddenly laughed.

"Oh, come on, gramps—please tell me!" Nami begged.

"Okay, you asked for it" he sighed as he finally gave in. "Of all the great pirates to sail the Grand Line, I was known as—"

"I knew it!" Nami suddenly exclaimed, cutting in and startling Usopp and Luffy.

"—the only moneylender that would do business with them" the old man finished, holding up his abacus as if to emphasize his words.

"Moneylender?" Luffy questioned.

"I'm Zenny the Moneylender, not Zenny the Pirate" Zenny nodded.

"You are..." Nami's deflated as her shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"That's too bad, huh? Nami" Usopp said, comfortingly patting the navigator's back.

"Looks like you jumped the gun a bit too earlier on that one" I hummed.

"He may not be an actual pirate, but it must have taken a lot of risks to lend money to them, huh, old man?" Sanji questioned.

"Why is that?" Luffy curiously asked.

"Hey, use your head" Usopp frowned.

"Think about it, Luffy, not all pirates are genuine enough to keep promises like you" I piped up, shoving away Zoro's leg so that Baxter could get close enough again to lay his head back down on my lap.

"She's right, do you think that most pirates are going to take out a loan and then pay it back with a smile? Not to mention the interest" Usopp nodded.

"Your friends are right, every one of those sea-bearing serpents tried to duke me out of my money—they all broke their word" Zenny huffed. "Went back on their contracts and did their best to betray me when it finally came time to collect" he scowled.

"Wow, gramps, I guess it's true—you really do hate pirates, huh?" Nami hummed.

"If I just sit back and take it from them, my business would have been wiped out in no time at all" Zenny argued. "Every time I went out to collect a debt, I had to fight against pirates at the risk of my own life!"

"So in order to stay in business, you would have to be stronger than any of them—wouldn't you?" Zoro curiously questioned.

"I mean, he'd have to if he wanted to come out of those meetings with them alive" I said.

"Well, were you that strong, old man?" Luffy asked.

"Hell no!" Zenny scoffed. "I was weaker than a kitten, but back in those days I had a dream" he grinned.

"A dream?" the rubber man echoed.

"You did?" Nami asked.

"I may have been weak, but I had a dream to fight for, and fight for it I did—no matter what the risk" Zenny said as he proudly puffed out his chest.

"What was your dream exactly?" Usopp curiously asked.

"Ever since I was just a little kid, I wanted to be a pirate—a real pirate, King of the Pirates" Zenny confessed. "That's why I first got started in the money-lending business" he said, humming in thought as he chugged down another glass of alcohol. "But, instead of realizing my dream, I ended up getting ambushed by a bunch of pirates out for revenge and ended up on this deserted island...fighting for my survival—that was twenty years ago."

"Are you telling me that you've been making your grave that whole twenty years?" Sanji questioned.

"At first, I planned to build a ship near the sea...but I realized rather quickly that hauling the lumber down from the mountain was too much" Zenny explained. "But I wasn't going to give up over a little thing like that, instead, I built it in the mountains. It was going to be a great adventure! But, somewhere along the way, I wised up" he wistfully sighed as a small smile settled on his face. "Before I knew it, I was too old to set sail for the Grand Line...it's funny the way time can sneak up on you like that. So much for my dream of being a pirate—well, dreams are just dreams."

"I don't understand why you gave up, old goat guy" Luffy suddenly spoke up through a mouthful of food, chewed-up pieces flying from his mouth as he spoke.

"Luffy" I scolded.

"Oh, sorry" he smiled, swallowing this time as I simply rolled my eyes. "Old age doesn't have anything to do with it, if you want to be a pirate, then you should do it" he said, looking back at the old man as he took another bite from the piece of meat he was eating.

"Now, hold on, what are we going to do when he starts taking you seriously?" Usopp frowned before diving straight into lecturing the rubber man over his careless way of speaking.

"Sanji, more fish!" Luffy demanded, simply ignoring the sharpshooter that was chastising him.

"Heads up" the blond said, tossing one of the cooked fishes at Luffy who was quick to catch it with his mouth.

"Thank you" he smiled before looking back at Usopp. "Then all we have to do is haul it down, right?" he questioned after hearing the sharpshooter mention the situation with the ship—reminding him and the rest of us of its inconvenient location.

"Don't say that like it's going to be easy" Usopp scolded.

"I don't know, I have to agree with Luffy on this" I piped up. "If the old guy wants to live out his dreams, then let him—better to die doing what you love than wondering what could have been" I said, not seeing anything wrong with the captain's encouragement of the old man's dream.

"Skylar, don't go agreeing with him! You'll only encourage him more!" Usopp frowned, causing me to shrug.

"That's true, there's still time..." Zenny muttered to himself.

"I warned you, he's taking it seriously" Usopp huffed.

"Nonsense, he's just a little bit drunk—aren't you?" Nami laughed, quick to wave off what the sharpshooter had said.

A/N: Enjoy

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