Chapter 19: A Short Interlude
"Come on! Just one tangerine! You're such a cheapskate, Sanji!" Luffy whined, sticking his tongue out at the chef.
"No!" Sanjis immediate reply was. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in the chef as he said the word, and it was clear to Luffy that he wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried. Pout gone, Luffy smiled his D smile where he sat on the railing.
"Well, oh well! I'm happy now, anyway!" Luffy laughed, taking in the calm emotions from his new crew. Nami was nearby lounging on a lounge chair as she read the newspaper, Zoro was napping against the cabin, Sanji was guarding Namis tangerine trees and Usopp was lying on the deck with a wet cloth over his eyes after Luffy may or may not have caused him to get tabasco in his eyes.
"The world sure is a turbulent place. Another coup in Villa..." Nami trailed off as she turned the page of her newspaper, and when she did a piece of paper came fluttering out of it and past Luffy.
"What's that?" He asked, blinking as he watched it pass him. Usopp took the cloth off his eyes just in time for the paper to land beside him. Seeing it, Nami and Usopp's eyes widened in surprise, the two of them shrieking at the same time. Sanji, wanting to see what had them so worked up, walked over while Zoro continued napping.
"W-w-w-what?!" Usopp stuttered out, sitting up now. The wet cloth was long forgotten, the sniper's eyes rimmed with red still.
"Shishishi~! This is great!" Luffy cheered happily.
"Great?! What about this is great?!" Nami asked, picking the paper up and shoving it in Luffys face. It was the teens wanted poster, but the bounty had been, yet again, increased another 10 million for a grand total of 360 million. Not only that, but his picture had been updated for the first time since he'd had a wanted poster. It now displayed Luffy cheerily smiling his D smile to the camera, one hand raised and covering the corner of the frame, while to the left, behind Luffys shoulder, was the back of Usopps head.
"I have a new picture! And my bounties higher! Soon it'll be bigger than Aces!" Luffy said, smiling at the prospect as he took the poster from Nami's hands to examine it closer. The navigator blinked, slowly processing his words before a scowl formed on her face.
"Do you not understand what this means?! You're already a highly wanted criminal! Now it's even worse!" She cried, but her rage was quick to turn to despair when Luffy only continued laughing.
"What did I sign up for?" She moaned as she fell to the floor beside Usopp who was silently freaking out. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the abandoned newspaper lying on her lounge chair and reached out for it, ignoring Luffys laughing and Sanjis words as he asked the Captain what was going on.
Looking at the page she'd left off on, Nami was greeted with the picture of Luffy that was on his wanted poster, big bold letters beside it reading; '11097 Cuts Ties With Whitebeard: The Strongest Man In The World?!'
Reading over the article, she noticed that the Marines had definitely gotten some of the events wrong. Where they said Luffy had ruthlessly come to Cocoyashi and attacked Arlong without reason, only to harass the villagers after, she knew that hadn't been the case. There was talk of his fight with Buggy and Krieg, as well as speculation on what Luffy had done to be, 'Kicked out of the Whitebeards' as they put it, but for the most part, it was full of propaganda about Absolute Justice that the navigator had seen time and again.
Turning back to Luffy, Nami saw that even Zoro had woken up to see what was happening, he and Sanji both looking at the bounty poster. Luffy was smiling and talking happily to Usopp, the sniper looking utterly terrified still, but Luffy was just as quick to fall silent. With the loud, boisterous voice suddenly gone, everyone looked to the young Captain to see what was wrong, but he wasn't looking at them anymore. Instead, he was looking off at the horizon, a blank look on his face.
"What is it, Luffy?" Zoro asked, hand moving to his sword at his side. His other two had been destroyed during his fight with Hatchi, the octopus Fishman. Luffy tilted his head up, visibly smelling the air before turning to look at his crew.
"Someones coming," Luffy said, a sudden look of deep thought on his face, a finger on his chin.
"Someone? Do you know who it is?" Sanji asked, a little surprised to see Luffy smell the air like he had. Sure, Luffy had told him about his enhanced senses- and Sanji wasn't even going to try and figure out how that had happened- but it was strange to see him use those senses.
"Mm, I think so... I've smelled 'em before..." Luffy muttered, eyebrows furrowing as he thought harder.
"I-its not anyone bad... right?" Usopp asked frightfully, legs already shaking at the thought.
"Where did I smell them...?" Luffy muttered instead of answering the sniper.
"I don't see anyone. Are you sure there's someone there?" Nami asked as she leaned over the railing, looking where Luffy had.
"Familiar... familiar... food..." Luffy continued muttering.
"Would you answer us?!" Nami asked, hitting Luffy out of frustration. Due to the strength of the hit, Luffy fell off of the railing and onto the ground, but it seemed the hit didn't faze him as his expression suddenly lit up.
"That's right! It's that Shortbody guy!" Luffy exclaimed, placing a fist in his open palm at the realization.
At the name, everyone looked to Luffy, blinking unknowingly.
"Shortbody? What kind of a name is that?" Zoro asked, confused.
"Wait, maybe it wasn't Shortbody... the one Sanji beat up!" Luffy corrected, the crew looking to Sanji now in hopes that he knew the name.
"I beat up?" Sanji asked, pointing to himself. Luffy nodded, still grinning widely.
"I don't know, I've beat up a lot of people... Shortbody... wait, do you mean Fullbody?" He asked suddenly, Luffy nodding again.
"Yeah! That was his name! He's coming." Luffy said, standing up off the ground and looking back at the ocean.
"Fullbody? Wasn't he that Marine guy from the Baratie?" Nami asked, remembering their encounter with the Marine outside the Baratie, and again once they had gone inside.
"That's him. Bastard wasted his perfectly good soup in front of me." Sanji said with a scowl.
"What bad luck to run into him again..." Usopp said with a frown. He wasn't as scared as he had been the first time they'd run into the marine. Luffy had taken them all down pretty quickly after all.
"For who, us or them?" Sanji asked, also thinking back to how easy it had been to take down the Marine.
"In any case, I don't see anyone out there. You're not making things up, right?" Nami asked, because as much as she was trying to force herself to accept Luffys so-called abilities, there was still a large part of her that couldn't believe the teen.
"Of course not!" Luffy said, looking mildly offended at the accusation, but otherwise still quite cheery as he looked at the ocean.
"Alright, alright, I was just asking!" Nami said, holding her hands up in her defense.
After some time passed, Nami was almost convinced that Luffy had just been messing with them, but a shout from Usopp told them all that he had in fact been telling the truth.
"Hey, it's them!" Usopp shouted from the upper deck where he and Luffy were at.
Sanji was inside cooking and Zoro was napping yet again, so only Nami was left to look over the railing. It wasn't hard to spot the beat-up ship heading towards them, very clearly a marine ship. It didn't seem that the Marines were paying them any attention though as they slowly went right past them, but before they could fully pass, the few on the deck turned to look at them.
There was a shriek of terror from the marines and a commanding yell from Fullbody before the ship was turning around and heading right back to them.
"So Luffy wasn't lying then," Nami muttered to herself, glancing over to the captain. She had to admit, that had been some pretty damning evidence. The marine ship hadn't even been in sight, so for Luffy to not only know Marines were coming, but which specific marine, meant that he either was telling the truth on his abilities, or he had somehow gotten information on where Fullbody was going to be today.
The latter seemed far more unlikely than the former to her.
"Do you think someone attacked their ship? It's all scrapped..." Luffy said as he peered over to the ship, hand shielding his eyes from the sun as he did.
"It's not nice of the navy to toss its scrapped ships into the ocean..." Usopp agreed, the two of them clearly thinking that the ship was no longer being used despite the people on it.
"This is not a scrapped ship! Do you guys have keyholes for eyes?! Have you forgotten what Iron Fist Fullbody looks like?!" Fullbody asked, stepping onto the railing of his ship and holding out one of his fists to them in anger.
"Oh, right! You're on the ship! Are you stranded? You want us to help you?" Luffy asked, momentarily surprising the rest of his crew with his willingness to help a marine. Luffy wasn't bothered by the idea, because even though he may not like marines in the slightest, he wouldn't leave them to drift aimlessly and die. These ones hadn't really done him any harm, and he knew that even if they tried to turn on him, he could easily take them.
"Quit fooling around! Our meeting here spells the end of your luck! 11097, Monkey D. Luffy, you're under arrest!" Fullbody exclaimed, holding up Luffys newest wanted poster with its updated picture and bounty.
"Yeah! That's a good picture of me, huh?!" Luffy asked happily.
"And the back of my head!" Usopp added, clearly proud of it.
"Shame you're still wanted Alive only. It doesn't say unharmed though! Aim the cannon!" Fullbody ordered, one of the other marines doing as told without hesitation.
"Oh? You're gonna shoot?" Luffy asked while Usopp began screaming in fear. Nami paled as she stared down the canon.
"They're aiming right at us! This is bad!" Usopp shrieked, backing away from the railing. Zoro finally woke from his nap, peeking an eye open and taking in the situation quickly before grabbing his only sword and standing.
"So these guys finally arrived, huh?" He muttered to himself as he stood.
"Alright! Leave it to me! I'll bounce it back!" Luffy cheered, lowering his stance in preparation. Feeling Zoros sudden confidence getting closer from behind him stopped him though.
"Luffy. Let me handle this one." Zoro said, grabbing Luffys shoulder and pulling him back towards Usopp.
"Sure thing, Zoro!" Luffy laughed, standing beside Usopp. There was a loud blast as the cannon went off, all of them watching as the cannonball flew towards Zoro. Without even an ounce of fear, the swordsman unsheathed his sword and sliced the ball in two. Usopp's jaw dropped while Luffy watched in awe.
"Awesome!" He cried, watching the destroyed cannonball fly past Zoro and fall safely into the water.
"That's impossible!" Fullbody yelled. Like Usopp, the marines all had their jaws dropped, eyeing Zoro as he sheathed his sword and glared at them.
"Don't bother people while their napping." Luffy could feel Zoros annoyance behind the words and laughed again, finding the whole situation funny. Despite the show of power, Fullbody wasn't done.
"There's plenty more where that came from! Fire!" The canon was readied again immediately and Luffy stopped laughing.
"Huh? This is bad..." Luffy said, surprising Usopp.
"It is?!" Usopp asked fearfully, thinking that Luffy would have had this handled. There wasn't any more time to deliberate as the boom went off again, but instead of the cannonball Usopp expected, the cannon itself exploded right in the marine and Fullbody's faces.
"See? There were cracks in the cannon." Luffy said.
"Yeah, that's definitely bad," Usopp said, sweatdropping and raising an eyebrow to the marines. Luffy felt the anger and irritation in Fullbody rise as the Marine ship hit the Merry.
"You damn brats! Don't you dare mock the power of a former Navy HQ Lieutenant! We'll just have to fight you hand-to-hand! Men! Follow me!" Fullbody yelled as he jumped over onto the Merry in front of Luffy.
"Yeah!" The other marines agreed despite their fear, following without much hesitation.
"I'll have your head!" Fullbody called as he punched Luffy in the face. Usopp screeched, having been standing behind Luffy, and quickly moved when Luffys entire head stretched back and over the railing. With a grin, Luffy let his neck stretch until it couldn't anymore and then promptly let it snap back.
"Gum Gum Bell!" Luffy called as he headbutted Fullbody. The marine flew back, hitting Merry's railing and falling to the deck, looking at Luffy in fear. It was quick to change to terror when all of his soldiers flew back towards the Marine ship and he looked up to see Sanji, pan in hand.
"You got some real balls, pickin' a fight during mealtime, tough guy. Don't got any soup bowls today. You plannin' to lick the deck or something?" Without any further prompting, Fullbody screamed and joined his men in jumping back to their ship and then into the water.
"Huh? He's done already?" Luffy asked, adjusting his hat.
"He was nothing but talk," Usopp said, arms crossed.
"He's as damn wimpy as ever," Sanji muttered. From the lower deck, Nami shook her head.
"I can't even relax and read the newspaper with all of this commotion," Nami said with a shake of her head, walking back over to her lounge chair and picking said paper up again.
"Nami-san! I'm finished preparing your meal!" Sanji cooed once he heard Nami.
"Ooh! I'm starving! Food! Food!" Luffy cheered hungrily.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
After another delicious meal made by Sanji, the crew sat on the deck in a circle, looking at a map that sat inbetween them.
"We're finally nearing the Grand Line. It looks like the only way into it is through Reverse Mountain here." Nami told them as she pointed to that spot on the map.
"What a pain. Cant we just go straight through it?" Zoro asked.
"Nope. From what the geezer told me, that's the only way boats can enter." Sanji said as he looked over the map as well.
"How come?" Usopp asked.
"Because it's dangerous," Sanji answered, but this didn't seem to please Usopp.
"But how come?" The sniper pressed, hands on his hips as he leaned towards Sanji.
"I don't know any more than that!" The chef barked back.
"The reason for that is..." Nami was cut off by Luffy.
"Ah, I can't wait! I've always wanted to go up Reverse Mountain!" He said wistfully, a grin on his face as he thought of all the things the Whitebeards had told him about it. The others all looked over at Luffy at his words, blinking.
"Wait a second... you haven't been to Reverse Mountain?" Nami asked.
"Huh? No, why?" Luffy asked, confused now.
"Then how did you get to the Grand Line before?" Zoro asked. At that, Luffy realized why they were asking and frowned.
"I don't remember," Luffy said with a shrug, because it wasn't a lie.
"You don't remember?" Usopp questioned, sitting down now.
"Nope. I was taken from my island here in the East Blue, but I don't know how we got to the Grand Line. We weren't allowed outside, so we never even knew we were in the Grand Line until Pops saved us and told us." Luffy told them with a frown, pushing back the memories of being trapped in the tiny, dark closet for weeks on end.
Hearing about Luffys kidnap again left the crew silent, none of them knowing quite how to respond to his dark words. With how cheery Luffy usually was, it was hard for them to remember that he'd been kidnapped and held in, what he deemed, a bad place.
"D-... Do you know anything about Reverse Mountain?" Nami finally decided on asking. The rest of the crew looked to Luffy now, wondering if he would respond. They were relieved when Luffy looked to be thinking, clearly not affected by his previous words. At least, he made it seem that way.
"Hm... Pops and the others always said it was, 'A pirates rite of passage!' Oh, and a lot of them said they were terrified when they first went, but then Thatch would always make fun of them and say that any real pirate shouldn't be scared of a tiny mountain and then that usually started an argument and Marco would come in and-"
"Reverse Mountain, Luffy..." Usopp muttered, sweatdropping at how off-track Luffy had gotten.
"Oh, right. I don't know much about it, just that it's a mountain, and it's apparently scary. A few said it was really fun, but that they were scared when they first saw it." Luffy said. His crew glanced at each other, all of them seeming to be communicating amongst themselves through looks.
"Shishishi, that's all I heard about it, but it sounds pretty cool!" Luffy finished with a laugh, ignoring the antics of the others.
"How did you get fun from terrifying scary mountain?" Usopp asked, trying to ignore the fact that, even while sitting, his legs were starting to shake at the thought. He wasn't given a response as Luffy only continued laughing loudly.
"Well, I don't know about terrifying or scary, but either way, we have to pass it," Nami said with a sigh.
"Yosh! But first, let's stop at an island and get meat! Meat! Meat!" Luffy declared. With a sigh, Nami stretched her arm out and pointed to a spot on the map close to where Reverse Mountain was.
"There's a famous city on this island... Loguetown." Nami said.
"Also known as the city of the beginning and the end... I'm pretty sure I heard that before." Zoro added, leaning against the railing and looking to the sky.
"It's the town where Gold Roger was born... and executed." Nami finished with a frown as she examined the map.
"The town where the King of the Pirates died..." Luffy said softly, face blank. Hearing his words, Nami turned to look at him with a grin.
"Wanna go?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah! I wanna see it! I wanna see the town where the man who got the One Piece- everything this world has to offer- was born and then died!" Luffy said, face still void of his usual smile as he spoke.
His words were all they needed though to direct their ship towards the island, all of them excited to some extent to visit their next island.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Unlike before, when Luffy and Zoro had been in a small rowboat with no space to even sleep comfortably, the Merry had a much bigger deck.
Now that they knew where they were going and everything that needed to be taken care of was good, that meant Luffy had time to do whatever he wanted. Most would relax, especially when time to relax as a pirate is scarce at best, but not Luffy.
Relaxing was too boring for the energetic young Captain, so thoughts of laying down and doing nothing were quickly dashed from his mind. Seeing as he didn't want to relax though, that meant he had to find something else to do.
"Ne, Zoro? Neee~, Zoroooo~!" Luffy called, poking Zoros cheek with each word. The swordsman was, unlike Luffy, attempting to take a nap against the railing. This was proving unsuccessful however due to Luffys interference.
"Zooo~roooo~!" Luffy called. Finally, the swordsman cracked an eye open, looking at Luffy in annoyance.
"What?" He finally grumbled out, cheek still pushed in from Luffys finger.
"I'm bored!" Luffy whined, and despite the fact that he could feel Zoros annoyance, he ignored it.
"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Zoro asked with a sigh, sitting up to address his Captain better.
"Mm... I don't know. Oh! Let's play a game!" Luffy suggested with a grin, sitting in front of his swordsman.
"A game? What kind?" At Zoro's words, Luffy drew a blank. They didn't have any cards- they should probably get some at Loguetown- and even though the Merry was bigger than their previous rowboat, it was still too small for some of the more physical games Luffy could think of.
"Tag!" Zoro blinked at the sudden suggestion. Luffy was wearing a big smile on his face at the idea, nearly leaning forward on his hands towards Zoro in his excitement.
"Tag? No thanks. Go ask Usopp or something." The green-haired man said, closing his eyes and trying to settle down for the nap he'd attempted before.
"Aw, come on! Zoro~! Zoro, play tag! Please?! Pleeeaaasssee?!" Luffy whined, and every time Zoro thought his Captain had given up, he'd start asking again, sometimes even pulling on Zoros sleeve or poking his face. Slowly but surely, the swordsman's ire grew again until it was too much.
"That's it!" He roared. Luffy wasn't surprised by the outburst in the slightest, his smile back full force as both Zoro and Luffy jumped to their feet. With a whoop, Luffy took off running, Zoro close behind.
"Usopp! Run! Zoro's it!"
"What? ACK! Don't run towards me!" From her lounge chair, Nami threw the newspaper down, rubbing her forehead.
"How hard is it to just relax so I can read?!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Alright, I need some answers," Sanji said from beside Luffy. The teen looked over to the chef with a look of confusion.
"Answers? For what?" Luffy asked, wondering what Sanji was talking about.
After he'd angered Zoro into inadvertently playing tag- along with Usopp- Nami had gotten annoyed and yelled at all of them, stopping the game. With nothing left to do, Luffy had gone to sit on Merry's figurehead, watching the ocean. Sanji had been in the kitchen for the most part, so for him to suddenly be demanding answers from Luffy confused him.
"For your abilities, or whatever they are," Sanji said, gesturing vaguely.
"Oh, why didn't you say so? What do you want to know?" Luffy asked, turning to sit facing Sanji so that he could properly talk to him.
"First off, what the heck does, 'seeing colors' mean? Last I checked, most people could see colors." Sanji said, because after Luffy had announced that he could, 'See colors, smell really well, feel people's emotions, and see memories' the teen had left it at that and left Sanji wondering what the hell half of it meant.
"Easy, I see colors around people. Yours is blue, like Zoro, Nami and Usopp. It means you're good people. Bad people have darker colors, like grey or blue." Luffy explained to the best of his ability. To his credit, Sanji seemed to accept this answer and moved on to another question.
"Alright, and you can also feel people's emotions?" He questioned.
"Yup! You're curious, Usopp is still scared from Namis yelling, Zoro is angry and annoyed- oh, and tired- and Nami is angry, but she's calming down now and getting more relaxed." Luffy said, forgoing the rule he usually had to not share other crewmate's emotions with other crewmembers. He felt it would help explain things to Sanji better if he gave examples of his abilities, and the only way to do that was to give away everyone else's emotions.
"Ok, seeing colors and feeling emotions. Next is seeing memories. What's that about?" Sanji continued, and like most people, Luffy felt a slight fear and anxiety in the chef at his words. It was clear that he didn't like the idea that Luffy could possibly see his memories, but that was the same for most people.
"Don't worry, I can control that one. I don't like looking at people's memories, so I don't. If I wanted to, I just have to look in someone's eyes and I'll see their entire life up until now. I wouldn't ever do it unless absolutely necessary though." Luffy told the chef, feeling that he was more reassured than before.
"So you haven't looked into any of our memories then?" Sanji asked, making sure.
"Nope. Don't wanna." Luffy confirmed.
"Then that leaves smell. I understand that you have a strong sense of smell, but just how strong is it? Do any of the spices in the kitchen bother you?" He asked, now worried.
"Not really. If there's a lot of pepper on something I'll start sneezing a lot, and chili powder makes my nose burn. Oh, and paprika. I don't like the smell of that either." Luffy said, trying to think of all the smells Thatch and the other chefs had used in their foods.
"What about foods then? I'd think hot peppers seeing as chili powder makes your nose burn, but anything else?" The chef asked, clearly taking note mentally. Luffy smiled softly at that, happy that the chef cared enough to ask.
"Right. Vinegar's strong and smelly, so I usually stay away from that. If you're cutting a lot of citrusy things like oranges and lemons it'll give me a headache, and a lot of mint does the same thing too. Other than that, I don't think there's anything else. If I think of anything else I'll tell you." Luffy said after thinking about it. Sanji nodded, dedicating the list to memory.
"Usually it's only when cooking that the smells bother me the most, because that's when they're strongest. If there's pepper on food, it usually won't bother me unless there's a lot of it. And if you make citrus things, once it's made, it's fine, but when you're cutting it or peeling it they smell stronger. I try and stay away from the kitchen if I smell something that bothers my nose." Luffy explained further. Even though the smells bothered him, he didn't want Sanji to stop using the ingredients completely. He knew people liked the taste of oranges and spices- he did too- but when chefs work with them the smell is stronger and can irritate his nose.
After the explanation, Sanji sighed, taking the cigarette out of his mouth.
"Got it. How did you get all these weird abilities anyhow? That's not exactly something people are born with." Sanji said, and then immediately wondered if Luffy had been born with the abilities. Sure, it would be weird, but it could very well be something as simple as that.
"The facility. I don't think I told you, but it wasn't a mental hospital like they said. It's a bad place run by the government and that's why they want us back so bad. So we don't say anything about it." The answer was short and simple, but the murky look in Luffys eyes and the change in tone told Sanji that that was all the explanation he would be getting on the subject. After a second of silence, the chef nodded, turning and putting the cigarette back between his lips.
"I'm starting dinner now. I'll avoid foods with too much pepper." He said. Luffys smile returned and he nodded.
"Mm! Will it be meat?!"
This is one of my shorter chapters, so sorry about that, but it had some necessary bits in it. Loguetown will for sure be starting next chapter and that chapter is much longer then this one was! Also, we'll be getting a visit from a certain someone that I'm sure all of you will be happy to see!
Anyway, before I spoil the whole thing, I completely forgot to thank you guys for 200 reviews last chapter! Holy moly you all! I'm still in disbelief that there are people who love this story to write comments on it, sometimes every time a chapter comes out! I thank you all sincerely from the bottom of my heart, whether you reviewed, favorited, followed, or even just read my story. Thank you all so so much. Honestly, I could gush about all of you all day, but I think that'd get pretty boring after a while.
In any case, why don't we talk about this chapter instead? As the title indicates, this one was a shorter- one of my shortest- chapter to help ease into Loguetown as well as answer a few questions such as Luffy's bounty. It is much much higher then canon, obviously, due to his previous exploits, and it will only continue to increase from here on out. Also, Sanji has now been briefed about the facility and Luffy's abilities as well. Before he was just going off the assumption that Luffy truly had escaped from a mental hospital, but after watching Luffy long enough he rationalized that Luffy couldn't be all that crazy and decided to join the crew regardless. What this says about how I've decided to characterize Sanji, I don't know, but at least in this story he was willing to follow a potential mental hospital escapee.
Well, after that long AN, I think I'll be leaving you all for now! In two weeks time we'll be sailing straight into Loguetown and seeing that certain someone I mentioned earlier. Until then, thank you all for the love and support! You guys are the absolute best!