Chapter 10: A Reunion With Old Friends
Luffy grinned happily, chewing a fish tail bone between his teeth. He, Nami, and Zoro all sat in the same restaurant Usopp had taken them to the day before, a bunch of empty plates stacked in front of them. After the fight, Luffy had been hungry and demanded they go and eat. Nami and Zoro hadn't argued seeing as they hadn't eaten yet that day either, and so that was what they'd done. Usopp had left, telling them he'd see them later, and with that they separated ways.
"Well, we've eaten. We should get going now." Nami said to Luffy who nodded.
"Yeah..." He agreed, smelling a familiar scent heading their way. The door opened and in walked Kaya, a smile on her face.
"Here you are!" She said, Luffy feeling her relief and happiness as she entered the restaurant.
"Hey, Miss!" He greeted with a wave while Nami turned to look who was here.
"Are you alright, being out of bed?" She asked, not wanting Kaya to hurt herself.
"Yes... My sickness this past year was caused by the mental dismay from having lost my parents... And Usopp-san really cheered me up, too... I cant stay coddled forever!" She said with a genuine smile that caused Nami and Zoro to smile back.
"You've done so much for me. Thank you. I've prepared a present for you from the bottom of my heart! Please accept it!" She said, her excitement and hope rising, making Luffy curious as to what this present was.
Deciding to see what this present was, they followed the woman to the shore. Once they reached it, they all smiled happily as they saw an actual ship waiting for them.
"A caravel!" Nami exclaimed happily as she took in the sight of it. Luffy threw his arms out in excitement, looking to Kaya.
"Can we really have this?!" He asked, his smile stretching widely on his face.
"Yes, please use it!" Kaya confirmed with a pleased smile.
"Its a slightly older model, but I personally designed it! A carvel-make caravel, with lateen sails and a central stern rudder... the Going Merry! Let me explain the rigging! First, about the Kruger net yard adjustment-" The man who looked strangely like a goat, Merry, began explaining but Nami cut him off, pushing herself inbetween Merry and Luffy, who the man had been talking to.
"No, no! You can explain the ship stuff to me!" She told him, Luffy walking away with a shrug. He knew he wouldn't understand it anyway, and besides, Nami was the navigator. He trusted her to know about that stuff.
"What a good ship! Especially the front- it's so cool!" Luffy praised in awe as he examined the figurehead, holding his hat to his head as he did.
"We've loaded it with everything you might need on a voyage," Kaya told him.
"Thanks! It leaves nothing to beat tired!" Luffy said to her, making Zoro shake his head.
"That's, 'Leaves nothing to be desired,' you idiot." He told his Captain. Luffy blinked at this, but was ultimately not offended as he began laughing. A scream stopped their conversations though, all of them turning to see a big green... something rolling their way.
"Usopp-san!" Kaya gasped, recognizing the scream and Luffy knowing she was right once the man's scent drifted to him.
"What's he doing?" Luffy asked, not understanding.
"Let's just stop him for now, he's on a collision course with the ship," Zoro said, arms crossed over his chest as they watched Usopp roll closer and closer. Standing side by side, Zoro and Luffy both raised a foot, and when Usopp reached them they placed their feet firmly in front of them, stopping him from moving anymore.
"T-thanks..." Usopp mumbled, both Zoro and Luffy's feet firmly in his face.
"Sure thing." They replied in unison.
Once Usopp got himself off of his enormous backpack and he righted himself, Kaya stepped forward.
"So you are taking to the ocean Usopp-san?" She asked, the two of them watching the ocean as they spoke. The others had gone to transfer their things from their old boats onto the Going Merry, giving Usopp and Kaya some privacy.
Despite the fact that he was trying to give the two privacy, Luffy couldn't help but feel their emotions, having an idea as to what they were talking about. He was able to avoid hearing anything, but the feelings were enough to know that it was a goodbye that they were having.
Once they had everything on the Merry, Nami, Zoro, and Luffy all stood up at the helm; Luffy leaning over the railing and watching Kaya and Usopp.
"You guys take care too! Let's meet again sometime!" Usopp called up to them.
"How come?" Luffy asked plainly.
"Huh? How come? Man, you're antisocial... I'm gonna be a pirate too, so we'll meet on the high seas eventually!" Usopp told them, arms at his sides as he raised an eyebrow at them.
"What're you talkin' about? Get on already." Zoro told him impatiently, pointing to the Merry's deck.
"Eh?!" Usopp asked, leaning forward in shock.
"We're friends now, aren't we?" Luffy asked, a small look of confusion on his face. He knew Usopp was still scared of him at times, and he couldn't help but wonder if the man didn't want to be his friend like he'd originally thought.
Usopp and Luffy didn't say anything, the two of each other staring at each other, but when Luffy felt Usopps excitement and happiness slowly rise, he smiled, pleased to know that they were, indeed, friends.
Suddenly, with a whoop, Usopp jumped into the air, fist thrown up.
"I get to be Captain, right?!"
"Don't be dumb! I'm the Captain!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Cheers to our new ship and crewmate!" Luffy announced, raising his mug high into the air. The others did the same, all of them cheering happily as they did. They had sailed far enough away now that the Island that Syrup Village lay on was no longer visible. Luffy wasted no time in celebrating his new nakama, having been influenced by all the parties the Whitebeards would throw for even the littlest of things.
Laughs were shared as they celebrated, all of them sipping from their mugs as they sat together on the Merry's deck. Silently, Luffy mused with a smile that they needed a musician, because parties just weren't the same without music to go along with them.
"I didn't know you had a mini den den." Nami pointed out, glancing over to the tiny snail resting on one of the nearby barrels. Zoro and Usopp's eyes drifted over to the creature, Zoro not having noticed it before and Usopp having seen it when he'd eavesdropped on Luffy.
"Yeah, Pops and the others wanted me to bring it so I could call them. They made Sabo take one too when he left." Luffy told them with a grin, looking to the sky. Seeing as they had an actual ship now, Luffy had taken the den den out of his bag and put it on the barrel for now before leaving the bag, along with everything else in it, in the room he'd be sharing with Usopp and Zoro.
"Who's Sabo anyway? You've mentioned him a few times." Zoro noted, the name sounding familiar, as well it should seeing as Luffy was no doubt talking about a fellow Whitebeard Pirate, no doubt the person having a bounty he'd probably seen before.
"He's my older brother! Ace is older than both of us though- he's my other brother. We all joined the Whitebeards together after they saved us." Luffy mused.
"Sabo left the Whitebeards when I did. He wanted to be a refund- wait no, a restitution- no that wasn't it either... Revolutionary! That was it. He wanted to be a Revolutionary, so he left too." Luffy told them with a smile, drinking from his mug again as he did. Nami and Usopp were beginning to feel some nerves at his words, but Zoro was still unaffected beside him.
"Ace, and Sabo. Right, the other two of the demon trio." Nami said softly.
"The brothers of a monster are even bigger monsters," Usopp mumbled quietly- fearfully- as he remembered the bounties that the two had.
"Wait, that reminds me, how come you can feel other people's emotions? It's not because of your devil fruit, right?" Usopp asked, having still been curious over that. Although he'd been skeptical of the so-called abilities in the beginning, the more he'd hung out with Luffy- the more proof he'd seen of it- told every part of his logical thinking that the boy wasn't lying about them.
"Feel other people's emotions?" Zoro asked in confusion, he and Nami both giving equally confused looks to Luffy who blinked in surprise.
He hadn't really expected this so suddenly.
Usopp seemed to realize at this moment that Zoro and Nami didn't know about the boy's ability, and he remembered Luffys talk with that Whiskey person, Luffy having admitted that he hadn't told anyone but him about it.
"Oops..." Usopp said with a nervous chuckle, realizing he'd accidentally spilled the beans on that.
"Don't worry about it Usopp, it's not like I was hiding it," Luffy told the liar with a smile, knowing the man hadn't meant to out him like that.
"What's he talking about? Feeling emotions?" Nami asked, wondering what that could even mean.
"Ah, well, I can feel people's emotions," Luffy told her, hands behind his head.
"You can feel people's emotions," Nami repeated slowly, voice even and calm as she spoke.
"Yup!" Luffy affirmed with a nod and a grin. Both Nami and Zoro blinked, turned to look at each other, blinked again, and turned back to Luffy.
"Y-yeah, you know, I-I didn't believe it a-at first either! B-but, Luffy kind of convinced me, and I kind of overheard some things, and I'm pretty sure he's not lying about it!" Usopp fumbled out nervously, hoping to help the situation he'd caused.
"You can feel my emotions then?" Zoro asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"That's always everyone's first question," Luffy muttered to himself, wondering why that was. He said he could feel people's emotions, so why wouldn't that include them too?
"I can feel everyone's emotions, yours, Namis, Usopps, and anyone else I'm near," Luffy told them, pointing to each person as they said their names before shrugging.
"Oh really? And you didn't think to mention this earlier?" Nami asked, eyes narrowed skeptically and arms crossed over her chest as she watched Luffy.
"You didn't ask." He deadpanned, feeling Nami's anger and irritation rise.
"That's not just something you ask! Normal people can't feel other people's emotions!" She told him which made Luffy frown.
"I'm not normal." He said almost curtly, trying not to take offense at the navigator's words, knowing already that people didn't react well to unnatural things.
"Obviously! You really expect me to believe you're a rubber man who can feel people's emotions." She asked, leaning in closer to him, eyes still narrowed. Usopp was shifting uncomfortably beside her, feeling a bit bad that he'd started all of this. Beside Nami, Zoro was listening indifferently, his emotions not visible on his face.
"I don't expect you to believe anything. I can feel emotions, you can navigate, Usopps a liar-"
"Hey now!"
"-and Zoro fights with three swords. I'm not telling you you have to believe it, I'm just telling you something I can do." Luffy said, making Nami fall silent, a frown on her face. Luffy could still feel her skepticism and even a little bit of nervousness, but she wasn't saying anything anymore to him.
"So how do you do it?" Zoro asked, taking a swig of his drink after he asked. Nami turned an incredulous look his way while Usopps eyes darted between the two of them, still nervous and guilty.
"You believe him?!" She asked with wide eyes as if he were insane.
"Well, why not? He says he can do it, so I believe him." Zoro told her with a shrug, gesturing vaguely towards Luffy when he did. At his words, Luffy felt a smile creep onto his face, relief filling him that another person had accepted his ability and he wouldn't be losing a friend.
Well, there was still a chance he could lose Nami, but one out of two wasn't so bad.
"Besides, what's it matter if he can or can't do it anyway? Even if he is lying, then that just means you have nothing to worry about. Or is it that you're scared that he's not lying?" Zoro taunted, the navigator gaping at him as she listened. She huffed, arms crossing again as she looked away from them.
"Of course not! Why would I be scared about something like that?" She asked, and even though she was a much better liar than Usopp, Luffy could still feel the ingenuity of her emotions, telling him she was lying. Usopp must have realized this as well because now he was looking between Luffy and Nami, mouth opening as if he wanted to tell the navigator about Luffy's lie detection, but a smile from Luffy and a shake of his head stopped him.
"Then what are you worried about?" Zoro asked her. He leaned back on his free hand, the other raising his mug to his mouth as he eyed the woman. She looked back at him, her eyes narrowing again as she let out a sigh.
"Nothing at all. So you can feel our emotions? How?" She asked Luffy who'd remained silent. He could still feel her skepticism, but he could also feel the fight as a small part of her tried to accept his words as truth. He took that as a small win, smiling to her fully.
"I don't know, I just do. You... radiate them, like heat from the sun!" He told her, glancing to the sky as he basked in the warm sunlight hitting his skin.
"Happy emotions are the best! Like excitement or amusement or joy, because they make me feel happy too. Bad feelings aren't as fun, but I try really hard not to let those ones in, like anger and sadness and nervousness." Luffy told them, looking back at them as he continued.
"Let them in?" Usopp asked, brows creasing in confusion.
"Mm. Like the sunlight. You can feel the heat, you can't stop it from warming you. That's what it's like with emotions, whatever you feel, I feel it too. You can try and stop the warmth by going in the shade, and I can try and stop the emotions by... not letting them in." Luffy tried explaining, a thoughtful look on his face as he concentrated on finding the right words.
"Sometimes I can't though. If someone's emotions are too strong or a lot of people are feeling the same emotion at once, its harder for me to block out, and I end up feeling that same emotion myself, even if I don't want to." He continued, Usopp listening with wide, attentive eyes, while Zoro continued drinking and Nami listened with her perpetually narrowed eyes.
"You guys all saw it before. When we fought Kuro, I was mad at him, but he was mad too, and he got even angrier the more everyone fought. Because of that, and the fact that I was already mad, I got really really angry and I couldn't control myself." Luffy finished, remembering his out of control anger.
"Ah, that's right, I thought you sounded pretty mad," Zoro remembered, thinking back to the anger he'd heard in Luffy's voice before he'd left with Usopp to go after Jango. Nami seemed to be remembering the teen's anger as well, her eyes slowly going back to normal as she frowned, and Usopp was nodding in agreement with Zoro.
"Yeah, he pissed me off. Whiskey taught me lots of stuff, like how to handle emotions easier, but it doesn't always work." Usopp perked up at the name, remembering her as the one he'd heard Luffy talking with while Nami and Zoro looked confused.
"Whiskey?" Nami asked curiously.
"Shes a nurse back on the Moby. She helped us a lot." Luffy reminisced with a smaller smile.
"So how'd you get your... ability, then? Last I checked, rubber wouldn't let you do something like that. At least, I don't think it would." Zoro muttered at the end, wondering if it were possible.
Briefly, Luffy debated on whether he should use the excuse Sabo'd always used, that he was an 'empath'- whatever that meant. He quickly dashed that idea the second he had it though, knowing that he eventually did want to tell his crew about the facility, and he didn't like the idea of lying, even if it was for good reasons.
"Nah, it's not from my devil fruit. I got my abilities from the facility." Luffy told them, his smile falling and turning to a frown.
"The facility? How'd you get it there?" Usopp asked in confusion, leaning forward on his hands, wanting to know more about the strange ability.
"They gave 'em to me," Luffy said, the curtness back as his frown deepened, everyone realizing quickly that this wasn't a topic the teen seemed to want to talk about.
"So you got your devil fruit there too, then?" Nami asked almost hesitantly despite the red flags waving in her face to stop talking about this subject. It seemed that this question was safer than the one Usopp had asked though, the frown leaving Luffy's face quickly as he looked to Nami.
"My devil fruit? No, I ate it before I was taken." Luffy said easily, his bad mood gone completely as if it hadn't been there before.
"But you said abilit-ies, so I assumed you meant you got both your devil fruit and your ability to feel emotions there." She said, confused now. The others realized the wording now as well and agreed with Nami while Luffy's eyes lit up with this realization.
"Oh, I have more abilities." He said with a shrug as if it was no big deal. The other three present disagreed with this attitude however, all of their eyes widening at this news.
"Did you know about this too?!" Nami asked Usopp with a look of fury at being kept out of the loop. Usopp was quick to raise his hands in peace, backing away from the enraged woman.
"N-no! I only k-knew about the emotions thing!" Usopp stuttered to her. This seemed to appease her, Usopp breathing a sigh of relief as the anger was turned back to Luffy instead.
"Explain yourself!" She yelled, pointing a finger at him while he laughed, undeterred by her anger despite how strong it was.
"I have more than just the ability to feel people's emotions. I also have a really strong sense of smell, I can see colors around people, and I can see memories- ah, but I never look at memories. I don't like that." Luffy told them, face scrunching up in disgust at the thought of violating someone's privacy like that. All of the other things he couldn't control, but the memories were the only thing he couldn't, and he hated the idea that he'd ever have to use it.
"Smell? See colors? Memories? You've got to be lying!" Nami accused, eyebrows raised high in disbelief. Luffy pouted again at that, all progress he'd made with Nami gone in a flash at this new information.
"No I'm not..." He muttered, but again, he couldn't blame the redhead for her disbelief.
"Woah woah woah, what's this about seeing memories?!" Usopp asked, waving his hands as he asked, nearly falling over in his shock.
"Well, if I want to, I can see someone's memories when I look in their eyes, but I don't like to do that, so I never do." Luffy reiterated for them with a shrug.
"And these... colors?" Zoro asked, not quite sure what that even meant.
"Oh, that. I see colors around people. It shows me if you're good people or not. You all have really bright blue colors, but Kuros was dark, and that Marine Captain too." Luffy said, Zoro knowing he was talking about Morgan while Nami and Usopp were left to guess who this Captain was.
"And you got these powers at the... facility?" Usopp asked, still trying to wrap his head around all of this.
"Mm. I got the bad shots, and after that I had my abilities." Luffy told them, voice dark and low again. They were left to imagine what the, 'bad shots' were, because they weren't going to question him on it, not after the dark look and tone.
"I can't believe this. Nope. Too crazy!" Nami said, throwing her hands in the air and standing from the deck, leaving her mug on the ground as she did.
"I can't lie," Luffy told her suddenly, making her pause in her attempt to walk away.
"What?" She asked in confusion, turning to look at him over her shoulder. Zoro and Usopp watched in confusion as well, not understanding what Luffy was talking about all of a sudden.
"I can't lie. Everyone back on the Moby always made fun of me for it. Said it was only fair because I can tell when other people are lying." Luffy told her, and boy was she ready to yell at him about yet another ability of his- this time being that he could detect lies- but she didn't, instead turning to face him fully with narrowed eyes and arms crossed. She didn't say anything, merely stood there staring skeptically at the sitting teen, and after a few minutes, she turned back around and walked off into the Merry.
Luffy stared at the door Nami had disappeared through for a minute before smiling, turning back to Zoro and Usopp and taking a drink. The two remaining crew members weren't quite sure how to react to not only Nami's departure, but also the revelation that their new Captain was practically a superhuman.
"S-so... strong sense of smell, huh?" Usopp asked with a nervous laugh.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Time passed after Luffy revealed to everyone his abilities. Zoro and Usopp had asked a few more questions about these so-called abilities, and Luffy had diligently answered them, all smiles despite the abrupt departure of Nami.
Usopp was still on the fence on whether he believed Luffy or not, but Zoro was willing to take his Captain's words as truth because- as he'd told Nami earlier- so what if he was lying or telling the truth? It wouldn't change things, all that would be different was that Luffy could sense things regular people could not. Luffy, feeling that the two were willing to believe- Zoro more than Usopp- had been overjoyed, knowing that not everyone would be as easy to convince as them. When they got new crewmembers in the future, he knew some might have a harder time believing him.
Like Nami for example.
After she had left, Luffy could feel her turbulent emotions from inside the Merry. He could feel her confusion, her disbelief, her contradicting desire to believe, her frustration, and her anger. He knew it was all because of him, so he left her alone, not wanting to upset her anymore then he'd already done.
She stayed in there for about an hour. The sun was high in the sky, Usopp was on the upper deck, Zoro was laying on the main deck napping, and Luffy was in the corner, tongue sticking out in concentration as he focused on his task at hand.
When Nami came out, she was quick to scan the deck, but when no one paid her any attention, she slowly moved over to two barrels, sitting on one and placing her stack of maps on the other one before beginning to examine them. She glanced over to Luffy briefly, but didn't say anything. She wasn't going to believe him just yet, and in her mind, he was on thin ice, but she couldn't hide away in the Merry forever so here she was.
Usopp's voice as he spoke to himself drifted along the air, but even that was ignored, a peaceful air of calm hanging over the Merry as everyone stuck to their own idle tasks.
This was broken when Usopp jumped from the upper deck, landing near Luffy and holding a stick in the air, shouting something more, to which everyone continued ignoring.
"C'mon, you guys. Show some interest in other people..." He muttered with a raised eyebrow. He realized Nami was back out on the deck now and felt himself looking between her and Luffy, noting that the redhead had her back to the young Captain.
"All done!" Luffy suddenly shouted as he stood up, holding something in the air at the same time. Usopp shrieked in surprise, jumping away from him in surprise at the mans suddeness while everyone turned to look at the teen in confusion, wondering what he was talking about.
"Look! A pirate flag!" Luffy announced, holding out the black cloth to show off what he'd painted onto it.
"Now that Usopps joined and we have four people, we need to have our own mark!" He told them with a bright smile. Zoro sweatdrop as he took in the 'mark', trying to figure out just what he was seeing.
"That's our mark?" He asked. Luffy's smile didn't fade one bit despite the feelings coming from the swordsman, his D smile still as big as ever.
"Whad'ya think? Nice, huh?!" He asked. The three lined up in front of Luffy, observing the flag carefully.
"A pirate flag is a symbol of death. A symbol of fear." Zoro said.
"I do sense fear though... Fear of your talent." Nami muttered with a finger to her chin, her previous misgivings forgotten as she addressed the teen. Beside her, Usopp tsked, waving a finger in the air.
"Wish you would've told me first! Don't forget about me, the gifted artist!" He told them all with a confident smile.
"Gifted artist?" Luffy asked, feeling Usopps confidence in his abilities.
"I've drawn graffiti on walls for 50 years straight! When it comes to painting, I'm in a league all my own!" Usopp boasted, standing tall with his head raised. Luffy listened in awe, and despite the fact that he could literally feel the lies Usopp was telling him, he still believed him.
"Awesome! 50 years?!" Luffy asked with wide eyes, leaning closer to Usopp who beamed at the awe.
"That means he's an old man now!" Zoro piped up, arms crossed over his chest as he smirked.
"Not only that, he must have 5 or 6 grandkids by now!" Nami added with a smirk of her own.
"That's awesome too! Oh, wait, you're lying..." The beginning was said with awe, but then Luffy finally realized Usopp was lying, blinking as he did.
"Oi!"
With that said, Usopp got to work on remaking the mark, using the paints Luffy'd already had out while everyone waited to see how it would turn out. It took a couple of minutes, but finally, he'd finished.
"Alright! Behold this work of art!" Usopp announced proudly, standing up and grabbing the flag, holding it up for everyone to see. Zoro and Luffy stood on either side of him, peeking around the flag and taking in the long-nosed skull along with the slingshot behind it.
"Who told you to make your flag?!" They asked simultaneously, hitting Usopp on either side of the head at the same time.
Another few minutes later, and everyone was standing around Usopp as he painted the last bit of the new design.
"I guess that's more like it," Usopp said from where he sat, paintbrush still in hand. Nami was crouching slightly as she looked at the flag and found herself smiling.
"Wow, its pretty good!" She complimented.
"Yeah! It's good! I like it!" Luffy commented with a grin, hands on his hips where he stood beside Usopp, observing the mark.
"So this is our mark..." Zoro said, sitting cross-legged across from Usopp. It was a classic skull and crossbones, but instead of an intimidating or angry look, the skull was smiling, and on it, it was wearing Luffy's straw hat.
"Alright! Usopp! Draw one on the sail, too!" Luffy said excitedly, pointing up at the sail.
"Right!"
Immediately, Usopp got to work, painting the mark as carefully and precisely on the sail while Luffy watched, yelling what he thought was helpful advice. Nami went back to her maps, and Zoro was napping against the mast while they waited. Eventually, the sail, as well as two black flags were painted and hoisted with the new pirate mark, all of them grinning happily as they looked at it.
"Alright! All set! Now the Going Merry pirate ship is all set!" Luffy exclaimed, arms outstretched happily.
"I'm pooped!" Usopp groaned, laying flat on his back near Zoro.
Some more time passed after that, and once Luffy had decided Usopp had rested enough, he immediately dragged him off to do something else. Zoro decided that the main deck was too loud so he went to the upper deck in hopes that it might be just a smidge quieter up there, laying on the deck and closing his eyes.
Nami went back to her charts and maps, shaking her head at the two rambunctious teens, but smiling none-the-less. For all the news articles condemning Luffy as a ruthless, bloodthirsty maniac, he sure didn't play that part. If anything, he acted like a child who was finally allowed to go play outside with his friends.
Her eyes drifted away from her charts and over to the two running teens, her eyes following the bright red vest that the straw-hatted captain wore.
He'd told her that he couldn't lie, that he was telling the truth about all of his crazy so-called abilities, but had that itself been a lie? Was he just trying to deceive her? Make her think he was more... all-knowing then he really was?
But why? Why would he do that? To deceive her? Make her fear him? Bluff her into only telling him things he'd want to hear? Luffy didn't seem like the manipulating mastermind that her mind was making him out to be, but really, she didn't know much about Luffy himself other than what the Marines had said about him and what he'd said about himself. They were two drastically different stories, and from what she was seeing, she couldn't believe Luffy to be the evil manipulator.
But what if it was an act?
Nami sighed, having had many more similar thoughts when she'd stormed off into the Merry alone earlier. She didn't know what to believe, and she already had enough on her plate right now. Deciding whether this newly pirate captain was trying to deceive her or not wasn't high up on her list of things to worry about.
Besides, she could always leave whenever she wanted. Rob these guys blind and get out before they were any the wiser. Even if this guy was a former Whitebeard Pirate, he was a useless navigator and wouldn't even know where to start looking for her on this big blue ocean. So long as she got back to Arlong before they caught up to her, she'd be home free.
A loud blast from a canon made her jump, holding her chest as she turned to where it'd come from, eyes wide. Luffy was leaned over the canon, giant smile on his face, while Usopp stood a few steps away, smiling as well. Zoro sat up from his nap on the upper deck and looked to them as well, eyebrow raised.
"Huh? What're you guys doing?" He asked in confusion, only slightly annoyed that his nap had been, once again, interrupted.
"Canon practice!" Luffy chirped happily.
"But they sure don't fly good..." He said with a look of confusion now, finger wrapped around his chin as he remembered the canons on the Moby. Whenever they were fired they went super far and almost always hit something. The one he'd fired, however, had barely gone a few feet before slamming into the ocean.
"I'm telling you, let me try!" Usopp said as he pointed to himself, walking up to the cannon.
"Judging from the last flying distance... This should do it!" Usopp announced once he'd finished angling the canon how he wanted it.
"Fire!" And with that, a loud boom went off, the cannonball flying and smashing into a rock, knocking the entire top half of it off.
"Sugoi! You hit it on your first try!" Luffy cheered, shielding his eyes with his hand to see the shattering rock better. It was pretty far away, and he was honestly amazed Usopp had hit it in the first place.
"I really hit it..." Usopp muttered to himself, Luffy feeling he was just as surprised to have done so.
"Whad'ya think?! I'm awesome when it comes to aiming! Impressed?!" Usopp boasted, still sweating a little nervously.
"Yeah! Yeah! It's settled, you're our sniper!" Luffy told him. Zoro smiled from where he was watching while Nami shook her head, turning back to her maps as she attempted to calm her racing heart from the fear of the sudden noise.
"What?! I don't get to be Captain?!" Usopp asked which only annoyed Luffy.
"I'm the Captain!" He retorted, Usopp only laughing at that.
"Well, I'll humor you for now, but if you do anything too cowardly, I'm taking over immediately!" He said. Despite his words, Luffy could feel that he didn't really mean them, that he didn't truly want the title of Captain, but he smiled anyway.
"Yeah, that's fine." He said with a shrug, knowing that wouldn't happen.
"But anyway, I was thinking, there's one other position we need to fill before going into Para- I mean, the Grand Line!" Luffy said, correcting himself before he called the Grand Line Paradise, knowing the others didn't know it as such.
"That's right," Nami piped up from her barrel, setting her map down and turning to them.
"We have a pretty fancy kitchen, too. If you pay me, I can do it!" She said with an innocent smile.
"An important necessity for long trips, right?" Zoro asked, lounging as he joined in on the conversation too.
"Yeah, all pirate ships need one, huh?! A musician!" Luffy told them, his smile growing.
"Are you an idiot?!"
"What do you see voyages as?!"
"Just when it seemed you were gonna say something smart..." One after the other, Zoro, Nami, and Usopp all chastised Luffy for not thinking about the important things first and foremost.
"But pirates sing, you know!" Luffy told them with a pout in an attempt to defend himself. As the others were getting ready to yell at him again, he felt something coming from the area the rock had been in, making him tilt his head, eyebrows furrowing. Everyone seemed to realize he was up to something, silencing as he turned to look at the ocean.
"Someones coming," Luffy told them, scanning the waters and quickly spotting a tiny boat headed their way, animosity and anger filling whoever was on it. He could feel another person on the boat too, but their presence was weak, their feelings muted, telling Luffy that they were most likely hurt and unconscious.
"They're angry, and whoever's with them is hurt I think." He told them, Nami and Usopp moving quickly to the railing to see what Luffy was seeing.
"What? How do you know that?" Nami asked in confusion, already forgetting about the earlier talk of Luffy's abilities.
"I can feel it. The one guy is really angry and whoever's with them has a weak presence and their emotions are muted. That only happens when someones asleep." Luffy explained. Everyone quickly took in this new information, Zoro and Usopp with blinking understanding, while Nami took it more with a grain of salt, still unsure whether these abilities were to be trusted or not.
"But there's only two of them? And one of them is hurt? That means you can take 'em easy if they want to fight, right?" Usopp asked, trying to keep his legs from shaking at the idea that they were being attacked so soon.
"Yeah," Luffy affirmed without hesitation, confident he could do it with his hands behind his back. Usopp sighed in relief at that, grinning.
"Well then, Captain, I leave it to you!" Usopp told him, patting him on the back as he did so. Luffy eyed him weirdly at that, but only shrugged him off, turning back to the man.
"I don't know what he's mad about, but I think we did something," Luffy told them, forgetting Usopps words quickly.
"What makes you say that?" Zoro asked as he came down from where he'd been resting, interested.
"Well, when I feel emotions, I can get a vague... idea of why someones feeling that way. Like when Usopps scared, I can feel that it's because of me. This guy is angry, and I can feel that it has something to do with us, but I don't really know what we did." Luffy said, head tilting as he tried to figure it out.
"Maybe they don't like pirates." Zoro suggested, gesturing to their newly painted pirate flag.
"You think?!" Luffy asked, eyes wide, and Zoro couldn't tell if he was upset or happy at the idea.
"Oi! You damn pirates!" A voice shouted over to them, everyone noticing that the boat was nearly beside the Merry now.
"Definitely doesn't sound like someone happy to see us," Nami muttered, peering carefully over the railing to get a better look at whoever was down there. She didn't know if she wanted to chalk Luffy's words up as luck or him actually having abilities, but this guy did look pretty angry.
"Who are you?" Luffy asked them, unbothered as he leaned over the railing, no sense of self-preservation as he stared the very angry man who was drawing a sword now.
"Who I am doesn't matter! We've taken the heads of many a pirate! Are you nameless wannabes trying to kill my partner?!" The man called up to them, standing up in his boat and beginning to climb up the side of the Merry.
"H-heads?!" Usopp asked fearfully, despite the fact it was only one man.
"Nameless?" Luffy asked with a pout, because last he checked, he had a name.
"Kill?" Nami asked with a frown, trying to get a better look into the boat.
"That voice..." Zoro muttered to himself, walking over the railing.
"Oi, you're scratching our ship!" Luffy shouted once he realized the man was using his sword to pierce into the wood as he climbed. Annoyed at both being called nameless, as well as the damage to their new ship, Luffy stretched his arm towards the man. This made the unknown person yell out in surprise as his jacket was grabbed and he was pulled onto the ship, flung into the opposite railing.
"L-lost by a hair..." He uttered out as he collapsed against the wooden rail.
"T-that might have been a bit harsh, Luffy..." Usopp said with a wince, noticing that the man had hit the rail pretty hard.
"Hey, is that you, Johnny?!" Zoro asked with a grin as he took in the newcomer's appearance. Hearing his name, 'Johnny' lifted his head, a glare on his face.
"Who's saying my name all familiar-like?!" He yelled, only to realize it was Zoro.
"Z-Zoro-Aniki!" He shouted in surprise, sitting up straighter as he did.
"It is you, Johnny!" Zoro laughed, hands on his hips as he observed him.
"What are you doing here, Aniki?!" Johnny asked, jumping to his feet, still sweating and jaw dropped.
"Wheres Yosaku? Isn't he with you?" Zoro asked, completely disregarding the previous question as he glanced around, as if expecting the other man to suddenly appear.
"What now? What now?" Usopp asked, eyes darting between the two in both confusion and shock that they knew each other.
"What's going on?" Nami asked, just as confused as Usopp. They were ignored as Johnny suddenly had tears running down his face, quickly running over to the railing his boat was near and looking over it. Zoro followed and everyone peered over it again to see another man laying on the boat, stomach wrapped in bandages that were being bled through.
"Y-Yosaku is..." Zoro placed a hand on Johnny's shoulder in understanding while everyone realized this was the person Luffy had mentioned earlier, the hurt one.
Nami tried to ignore the fact that there was no way he could have known that before. It had to have been a lucky guess.
Working together, they got Yosaku onto the Merry, laying him on the deck. The guys all stood around him, taking in Yosakus pale and sweaty appearance, while Nami stood nearby, not getting too close as she watched.
"He's sick. Although he was full of life up until a few days ago, now he keeps getting pale suddenly and then fainting! I have no idea what's causing it..." Johnny cried, sitting beside Yosaku.
"In the end, his teeth fell out and his old wound opened up and started bleeding. I didn't know what to do anymore so we were on a rocky island letting him rest quietly. But then... a cannonball came flying from this ship..." Johnny continued crying, Luffy feeling his distress clearly. At the mention of the cannonball, both Luffy and Usopp's jaws dropped, realizing they were at fault for that.
"W-we're sorry!" They apologized simultaneously, both feeling bad for their part in this.
"Sorry doesn't cut it... Isn't that right, partner?" Johnny asked the unresponsive Yosaku. Usopp and Luffy blanched at their apology being brushed off completely, not knowing if they should feel offended by that or not.
"Aniki... Is he going to die?" Johnny asked Zoro, tears never stopping. Zoro froze, not knowing what to say. He wasn't a doctor, but he knew Yosaku wasn't doing so well. He didn't need to worry about responding though, because Nami beat him to it, walking over to them.
"Are you all stupid?" She asked standing beside the still apologizing Usopp and Luffy.
"What'd you say?!" Zoro barked at Nami, annoyed that she was calling them names while his friend was possibly dying. Kneeling beside Yosaku, across from Johnny, she pulled out the ailing man's tongue, simultaneously opening one of his eyes and looking at it. She wasn't able to proceed any further than that when Johnny suddenly grabbed her arm, pulling it away and yelling in her face.
"Wh-What're you doing?!" He shouted, Nami's face scrunching in disgust as she felt spit get on her face.
"Ouch!" She cried at the pain from her arm being pulled.
"If you mock my partner's death, you'll pay for it-" Nami stopped the angry man from any further yelling by shoving her hand, the one not being pulled, in Johnny's face.
"Luffy! Usopp! Remember we have limes in the storage?" The two didn't respond, tears falling down their faces as they looked at Yosaku. Luffy couldn't tell if he was feeling his own distress and grief, or if it was a mixture of everyone else's around him.
"Are you listening?! Bring them here. Now!" Nami ordered, snapping them out of it and sending them running to the storage room.
"Y-yes ma'am!" They cried out as they ran off, both trying to fit inside the door frame at the same time and getting stuck.
"Out of my way!"
"Out of my way!" With a crash, the two fell into the room, both yelling out as they did while Nami facepalmed, pulling her arm out of Johnny's grip and frowning at it, knowing it was most likely going to bruise.
When Luffy and Usopp returned, limes in hand, she had them squeeze the juice into Yosaku's mouth, Zoro, Johnny, and Nami all watching as they did.
"It's scurvy," Nami told them finally.
"Scurvy?" Johnny asked in a tone of disbelief.
"If we weren't too late, he'll be fine in just a few days." Nami continued. This excited Johnny, a smile finally forming on his face for the first time as he leaned towards Nami.
"R-really, big sis?! Big sis, is he really..." Nami stopped him once again- annoyed as there was even more spit on her face- by slapping her hand over his mouth.
"Stop... calling me that." She told him, only slightly irritated. The man was thanking her after all, so there wasn't any reason to get too mad.
"In the past, it was a hopeless disease that accompanied sea journeys. But the cause was simply a deficiency of plant-derived nutrients. Ships in the past didn't carry fresh fruits and vegetables since they weren't storable, so..." Nami explained, turning back to look at Usopp and Luffy who were still pouring as much of the lime juice as they could into Yosakus open mouth. Once they couldn't get any more of the juice out, they began stuffing the limes whole into his mouth next.
"Okay now, put them all in his mouth. Now he'll be fine." Usopp encouraged, still feeling a little bad. Nami had an unimpressed look on her face, but didn't say anything.
"You're amazing! You're like a doctor!" Luffy praised Nami with a smile.
"Well, I always thought you were smart!" Usopp told her with his own smile, Yosaku gurgling beside him, hands moving to the many limes stuffed in his mouth.
"Yeah, you're right. She is." Luffy agreed with a nod.
"You should know at least that much! You could die if you don't!" Nami screeched, teeth sharp as she leaned forward towards them, finally fed up with their idiocy. Beside Luffy and Usopp, Yosaku coughed up the limes, all of them flying straight upwards into the air before he sat up.
"Wha-" Namis face of anger was replaced with surprise at the suddenness, but without missing a beat, Johnny ran forward, he and Yosaku beginning to dance.
"Yaay! Yaay! Yaay!" Everyone watched as they spun in circles, arms linked, while Yosaku waved his free arm in the air.
"All those nutrients revived me!"
"Alright, partner!"
"There's no way you can recover this quickly!" Nami screeched, teeth sharp again as she reprimanded them. This made the two stop, turning to look formally towards the small group.
"Sorry for not introducing ourselves first." They said simultaneously.
"My name is Johnny."
"I'm Yosaku."
"The pirate bounty hunter duo!" They finished together, standing tall.
"We used to be colleagues of Zoro-Aniki." Johnny continued.
"Glad to make you acquaintance." Yosaku finished. With a smile, Zoro walked over to them.
"I never thought that I'd see you guys here..." He told them. Meanwhile, Usopp and Nami were still looking at the two in surprise while Luffy was watching them carefully, checking their colors and emotions. With no hints of darkness anywhere, he smiled to them as well, finding no reason not to like them.
"But again, we're surprised..." Johnny started.
"We never imagined that the pirate hunter Zoro would become a pirate..." Yosaku finished.
"Yeah, I know-" Zoro couldn't even finish his sentence before Yosaku suddenly gave a hack and was falling face-first to the ground.
"O-oi! Yosaku?!" Johnny asked in concern. Nami face palmed while Usopp and Luffy both yelled in surprise.
They left Yosaku to rest in the storage room, and seeing as the sky was darkening, they all went to the galley to sit and talk.
"This is a lesson," Nami told them, sitting at the table with Usopp and Luffy as she wrote something down in a book.
"Yeah. There're pitfalls like this when you travel on the sea for a long time." Zoro said, resting on the ground beside the table, arms crossed and legs stretched out in front of him.
"Which means on the ship, we have to consider the distribution of nutrients using limited kinds of food," Usopp added, Johnny nodding from where he was leaning against the counter of the small kitchen.
"When we think about it carefully, its a necessary ability..." Nami trailed off as she stared at her book, Luffy taking a bite from some bread as he listened.
"Mm, that's right. Okay, then! A seafaring cook!" He announced, everyone turning to look at him.
"That's our next goal! To get ourselves a cook!" Luffy told them with a smile, thinking back to all the chefs that had been apart of the Whitebeards.
"Aha! Then we'll be able to eat yummy food even on the ship!" Usopp said with an equally big smile.
"Exactly!" Luffy agreed, tongue lolling out at the thought of all the meat he could have.
"If you're looking for a cook like that, there's a perfect place for that." Johnny piped up with his own small smile.
"Alright! Where is it?" Luffy asked him excitedly.
"It's close to the Grand Line, and I've heard rumors about the hawk-eyed man you've been looking for..." Johnny said, walking in front of Zoro as he said this. The swordsman, whose eyes had been closed as he listened, suddenly opened them, grinning as he grabbed his sword.
"We'll head... north-northeast!" Johnny said, pointing in said direction, everyone agreeing.
"Our destination is... the sea restaurant... Baratie!"
Up next is the Baratie Arc! Is everyone excited to see Sanji?
Zoro, Nami and Usopp now know about Luffy's abilities, and while Nami's still skeptical of them, she's not outright denying them like Usopp had. I felt that Zoro would be rather excepting of them because, as mentioned, it wouldn't matter to him whether he was telling the truth about them or not. If he had them, it wouldn't change anything. Nami, however, has things to hide so of course she would feel off about knowing that Luffy could sense these things about her. Not only that, but Nami is a very logical thinker. She believes in things she can see and things that can be proven. Luffy's abilities don't exactly fall into either of those categories which means she's not going to be quick to believe this fantastical idea of him being more of a superhuman then he already is.
In other news, we've reached over 100 reviews! Thank you all so much for your support, criticism, and love on this story! I can never express how much it means to me that I have such a loyal following on this series. If it weren't for all of you amazing people, I probably never would have gotten the motivation to write a sequel to The Devil Wears White in the first place. I honestly never expected to get as much love for these stories as I have, and I'm eternally grateful for all of you.
So, with that, I'll see you all again with the next chapter and the start of the Baratie Arc in two weeks. Until then, stay safe everyone!