One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Six-
"With all the water gone, there's no way we can sail" Usopp frowned as we stared at the barren land before us, practically ignoring Luffy's overexaggerated coughing once we realized he wasn't in any sort of danger.
"And that means..." Sanji heavily sighed.
"We can't sail out of this place either" Zoro scowled. "We're trapped here—we played right into their hands."
"Well, that sure sucks" I huffed. "And things were going so well just a second ago..." I muttered.
"Help! I can't swim!" Luffy coughed. "Hey, over here—somebody, throw me a line or something!" he flailed around, acting like a fish out of water as he rolled around in the dirt. Unaware that there was no water for him to be drowning in.
"Luffy, open your eyes—you're not drowning" I deadpanned.
"I'm getting sick of all these traps..." Sanji grumbled, ignoring our captain and his overdramatic antics.
"I'll say—so do we ditch the ship and run?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow as he wondered what the plan was now that there was no water for our ship to sail on as well as the damaged bottom.
"We could just make a stand here" Sanji suggested with a shrug.
"No, we can't! When the tide rolls back in, the ship's going to sink!" Usopp gasped.
"Then perhaps we should get started on fixing this hole" I said, finally looking away from our flailing captain as I reached a hand up and gently gripped the side of the hole we were peeking our heads out of, being mindful not to accidentally stab myself with the splintered wood. "Because there's no telling when the water will come back."
"The gold too" Chopper pointed out, making it clear that the ship wasn't the only thing going to sink once the water returned or be abandoned if we were to make a run for it.
"We need a plan here" Usopp said.
"Well that's obvious" I said.
"I got a plan, give me some food first—if you can't save your captain from drowning, you can at least make him some dinner" Luffy childishly huffed as he finally sat up once he realized that none of us were going to come to his aid.
"You weren't drowning in the first place, what are you talking about?" I asked.
"You don't know that" I gave him a blank stare as he said this before throwing my arms out as I motioned to the dry land all around us.
"Where's the water you were drowning in, captain? Please, enlighten me on where it is" I deadpanned, causing him to pout as he crossed his arms and turned his head.
"Hey, wait!" Usopp suddenly shouted, catching everyone's attention. "An Impact Dial! Oh, this could help us!" he excitedly grinned as he held up one of the dials he had brought back from our trip to Skypiea.
"On the bright side, the water's so low that we don't have to worry about the ship sinking until the next high tide" Robin remarked in an attempt to be positive.
"That's true, but we can't escape either" Nami frowned.
"It's a win-lose situation" I shrugged. "We may not be sinking, but we can't exactly escape either."
"Since we can't do anything else, let's eat" Luffy said, making it pretty clear that he was hungry.
"We've got more to worry about than your stomach—look!" Nami snapped as she pointed toward the Marines who now had their cannons aimed right at us.
"Attention, Straw Hat Luffy and his humble crewmates" a man's voice soon spoke up over an intercom. "All of you fought valiantly against one of the Marines' greatest fortress—for that, we sault you. You may be the enemy, but you impressed me greatly" he praised. "However, it's time to end this. This is checkmate, you've got nowhere to run and you're surrounded, so don't even think about trying to escape—you've put up a good fight, but accept it, you've been beaten.
"Now, listen" he said. "Surrender, and as Commander of this fortress, you may have my word that you and your crew will be treated with the utmost respect" he promised. "Give it up and I'll make you a deal" he suddenly offered.
"A deal?" I echoed.
"Luffy?" Nami questioned as she looked to the captain who was intently listening to what the man had to say.
"You and Roronoa Zoro are the only Straw Hats with bounties on your heads, so I have no choice but to hand you over to Headquarters" the Commander admitted, causing me to flinch at the idea of those two being sent to Marine Headquarters of all places. "However, I promise to let your crew go free—but if you attempt another escape, I'll get mad" he promised.
"Hey, guys" Usopp piped up, motioning for us to gather around. "I think I have an idea for our predicament, and it's right in my hands—tada!" he grinned as he showed us the Impact Dial he had mentioned earlier. "This Impact Dial! While escaping from the fortress—I kept using it to absorb impacts while those troopers tried to stop us" he explained. "There's so many inside, I bet you we can blast the Merry out of here with it!"
"Oh!" Chopper perked up.
"Super! And if it can just get us over the cliff then we could reach open water!" Nami grinned.
"I mean, it sounds like a nice plan, but there's one teensy tiny problem" I pointed out.
"Yeah, out of the frying pan and into the fire—with that big hole, we'd sink right away" Sanji nodded, quick to understand what it was I was getting at.
"What if we could make the octopus balloon float again?" Robin suggested.
"Hey, that's a good idea" Zoro grinned, resting his chin against my shoulder as he lazily wrapped his arms around me from where I was seated between his legs and leaned back against him.
"Yeah, we could use the Flaming and Breath Dials to inflate it" Nami pointed out.
"It would have more hot air than Luffy" Chopper joked, causing us to laugh.
"Too bad we lost it..." Usopp heavily sighed as his shoulders drooped.
"Uh-huh" Chopper sadly nodded.
"I'll say..." Nami mumbled.
"Where did it go?" Sanji pondered.
"Probably fell down into the ocean somewhere" I sighed, crossing my arms.
"Octopus..." Robin mumbled.
"Yeah" Zoro nodded.
"I have it" Luffy grinned, finally climbing aboard the ship and joining our conversation.
"Luffy has it..." Usopp sighed.
"He does?" Chopper asked.
"That's what he said" Nami nodded.
"Who has it?" Sanji asked.
"Luffy" Robin answered.
"At least he says he does" I nodded as the corner of my lips twitched.
"He has it" Zoro agreed.
"Yep, sure do!" Luffy laughed as everyone shot up in surprise.
"What? Where?!" they shouted.
"Right here" my nose scrunched up in disgust as I watched how our captain reached down into his pants and pulled out the octopus we had been using as a hot air balloon since we left Skypiea.
"You mind telling us why that thing's in your pants?!" Nami snapped.
"He helped us out when we fell from the sky, so I wanted to keep him safe" Luffy explained.
"Oh, that poor creature..." I mumbled, resting a hand against my cheek as I looked at the sea creature with pity for having been subjected to such a fate as being stuffed in Luffy's pants this entire time.
"Wasn't that gross?" Zoro asked as the smile on Luffy's face started to become a bit too contagious to the point that I now found my disgust melting away and being replaced with bubbly laughter.
"For him or the octopus?" Sanji asked.
"Both probably" I chuckled.
"Gross how?" Luffy questioned, causing Robin to laugh a little as if she found amusement in the situation as well.
"Now that he's back in the fresh air, we should inflate the octopus" she suggested once her laughter subsided. "Right, Long-Nose?" she asked.
"Um...sure" Usopp slowly nodded. "Now if I can just find my Flame Dial, somehow it's gone missing..." he mumbled to himself as he started to think back to the last place he had seen it.
"I was playing with it in the kitchen, it's spiffy" Luffy snickered as he suddenly pressed the dial in his hands to Usopp's face—accidentally pressing down on its apex which in return caused flames to shoot out and char the sharpshooter's face.
"Ow...that's got to sting" I winced.
"Stop it or I'll give you a taste of this Impact Dial!" Usopp angrily threatened as he snatched the Flame Dial away from Luffy. "Speaking of which, who's going to fire it?" he curiously asked before starting to sweat bullets when he saw the mischievous glints in our eyes. "W-what gives?" he shakily asked.
"Who does the Impact Dial belong to?" Luffy asked.
"It's Usopp's" Zoro answered.
"That's right, he's the one that brought it along with us" I innocently smiled, crossing my arms behind my back.
"Right, Long-Nose?" Robin asked.
"Then it's only fair if we let the owner do it" Sanji suggested.
"You're the best, Usopp" Nami grinned.
"Good luck, Usopp!" Chopper sweetly cheered, his words genuine with no ill intent behind them. Bless his heart, he was far too sweet to understand why we were all pushing this responsibility onto Usopp.
"Hey, don't worry, old buddy" Zoro said, resting a hand on Usopp's shoulder. "We'll give you a hand" he grinned.
"It's decided then!" Luffy widely smiled, ignoring the pitiful sob that left our sharpshooter as I gave him back a comforting pat before we quickly got to work preparing the ship for take-off.
"Sergeant, prepare to open fire!" the Commander suddenly ordered from over the intercom as we raised our sails.
A/N: Enjoy
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