The sun's rays shone with a pleasant warmth on the little Going Merry, which lay happily in the calm harbor water and was occasionally lulled by the odd wave.
Nami's authoritative voice could be heard on the deck of the small ship as she tried to instill rules for the upcoming shore leave in her crew members.
"Don't forget. We're not here to go on vacation...or to annoy the islanders," she added with a meaningful sideways glance at Luffy, who was impatiently tapping his foot on the deck, "We need to stock up on supplies and that's it. Is that clear?"
Luffy unobtrusively avoided Nami's renewed penetrating gaze by squinting upwards into his hat frame.
Next to him, Sanji began to praise Nami's ingenuity and planning, causing Zoro on the other side to snort in annoyance.
"That especially goes for you, Luffy," Nami continued unapologetically, "I don't want to hear afterwards that you've done something stupid again. Understood?"
The corners of Luffy's mouth turned downwards sadly at this request and yet it was unclear to all those present whether he had understood Nami's demands.
Amused by the goings-on of his crew members, a slight grin spread across Zoro's face. Nami hadn't missed this, of course, and she looked at him sternly.
"And you, Zoro! Don't even get me started!" she put her arms on her hips angrily and Zoro's grin instantly froze on his face, "I don't know how you manage to get lost every time and even in the straightest streets. This time, please stay with the others so we don't have to send out another search party for you later."
This time, Luffy was the one who started grinning stupidly.
"Nami's angry," he said with a sense of genius.
Sanji started to praise Nami again.
"Nami-san is right as always. The stupid Marimo will get lost for sure, since there's not much in his head besides moss and idiocy."
- "Shut up," Zoro growled annoyed and put his hand threateningly on his sword hilts.
Nami watched as the two stubborn heads insulted each other and feared that they would start fighting as usual, when the third stubborn head sank to the ground with a pitiful wail.
"Namii," moaned Luffy, "I'm booored. When can we leave?"
This brash statement tore Sanji's attention away from his previous focus of wrath and he promptly gave his captain a quick kick on the head.
"How dare you talk to Nami-san like that?" the cook was outraged and his face turned red with anger, while Luffy began to laugh out loud.
Before the situation could escalate any further, Nami raised her hands appeasingly.
"Thank you, Sanji-kun," she said and then turned to her captain, "Yes, you can go now. I'm done with my briefing. Please don't forget to stay together. Ah, wait a moment. You'll need the shopping list."
She turned to get the list from her study and that short moment was enough for Luffy to stretch out with a loud cheer, wrap his arm around Zoro and catapult them both towards land with force.
"Off to adventure!" Luffy's cry echoed across the harbor, coupled with the panicked protests of Zoro, who was being dragged along against his will.
"That idiot," puffed Sanji and Nami only now noticed that he was lying on the ground. Ah, clever cook. He had probably recognized Luffy's plan in time and had managed to escape the rubber grip. Nami thought about the rough landing that the swordsman would now suffer thanks to Luffy and actually felt a little sorry for him.
These thoughts, however, were quickly replaced by annoyance as she thought about the fact that these two had the sense of direction of a potato and would therefore most certainly get lost.
She turned to the only sensible member of her crew at that moment, who had gotten up and was dusting dirt off his pants.
"Sanji-kun," she said earnestly, "Please wait a moment. I'll quickly grab the shopping list. Could you then please follow these two idiots and make sure they don't do anything stupid?"
Sanji began his usual flirtatious dance, but when he saw the serious expression on Nami's face, he stopped and adopted a serious demeanor himself.
"Of course, Nami-san." he said "Don't worry. I will keep everyone safe."
With a loud crash, Zoro and Luffy landed on an old wooden barn, which collapsed beneath them under the impact.
Luffy tried to soften the fall somewhat by inflating himself with Zoro in his arms, but all that did was send the latter bouncing off the rubber boy and crashing hard through the barn rubble onto the road.
With a low groan, Zoro rolled over onto his stomach and held his pounding head, which had just hit the asphalt roughly.
Shit.
Why couldn't Luffy ever take the normal path like everyone else?
The bright, carefree laughter of his captain rang out from beneath the ruined barn, and all at once a few loose planks were launched into the air as Luffy's rubber hand shot out from under the rubble.
Zoro had to leap up in a hurry and retreated a few steps just as one of the planks hit the spot where he had been lying.
"Oi Luffy, damn it!" he shouted and wanted to add a few more swear words, but a searing pain in his head silenced him and he pressed a hand to his head in an effort to block it out.
A few seconds later, Luffy jumped out of the barn and stretched contentedly.
"Ah, that was fun!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around.
Then he was hit hard on the head.
"Don't fucking do that again!" Zoro shouted while his knuckles turned white in his clenched fist.
Luffy, who seemed to keep forgetting that other people weren't made of rubber, just laughed and rubbed his head.
" Sorry, sorry, Zoro. This is a new adventure. It's really fun! Look, we're already in the middle of it."
With the most innocent smile that made Zoro want to punch him again, Luffy pointed around expectantly.
"All I see are run-down houses ... and a ruined barn," grumbled Zoro, scowling at the pile of wood that had welcomed him so rudely to this island.
As if only now Luffy realized that despite the noise their arrival must have made, there was strangely not a single soul to be seen around them, his face instantly contorted in disappointment while he dropped his arms in frustration.
"Oh," he made sadly, but then his body suddenly shot back into an upright position and Zoro wondered how empty it must be in Luffy's head that he could so obviously see the lightbulb going off on him in there.
"Oh," Luffy exclaimed excitedly, "Then everyone must be somewhere else. That means we'll have to go find the adventure."
Before Zoro could protest, Luffy had taken off in a direction that Zoro was sure Luffy didn't know where it was leading.
"Oi, Luffy, where are you going? Slow down, damn it!" Zoro tried to encourage his enthusiastic captain to decelerate as he moved to follow him, not entirely with altruistic intentions as his headache pounded eagerly with every step.
As always, his suggestion fell on deaf ears and so he had no choice but to tag along with Luffy.
"One day I'll kill him," Zoro muttered annoyed as he ran after his captain.
By chance or sheer luck, after what felt like half a day's walk, they suddenly arrived at a market square where there were actually people bustling about.
For a brief moment, Zoro was deeply impressed by his captain's orientation skills, until he spotted the goods at the first food stall, which Luffy was heading straight for.
Of course. The glutton had simply followed his sense of smell to the freshly roasted meat that was being sold here. He should have figured as much.
"Hey Zoro! Come and try this meat! It's so delicious!" his captain called out to him as he caught up with him over the last few meters.
"Mmh," he simply said, eyeing the meat with interest. His hand inconspicuously felt his trouser pocket. He hadn't had a chance to take any money with him from the ship, thanks to Luffy, his departure had been such a quick and unexpected one.
Luffy, meanwhile, was already on at least his second skewer of meat and left no doubt that he liked it.
"MMMH, the meat is sO good, old man. Sanji needs to cook that too."
- "I'm very pleased that you like it, young sir," smiled the merchant, who, Zoro thought, reacted very calmly to Luffy plundering his wares, "The meat comes from our local cattle farms and is the pride of our little island."
Luffy nodded with interest, but his real focus was on grabbing another skewer of meat. However, Zoro interrupted this by seizing his captain's wrist.
"Cut it out, Luffy," he warned, "We can't pay for that. We have no money with us."
Quietly, he thought to himself that Nami, that red-haired witch, would surely increase his own debts to her as punishment if he incurred any here.
Luffy tried to extend his hand to reach for the skewer of meat despite the grip, but Zoro thwarted this too by blocking his captain's fingers with the hilt of Wado.
"Just one more, please. Zoro can have a bite too." Luffy whined, and Zoro watched as his captain, still eyeing the meat, salivated.
Zoro was about to offer a counterargument when he caught the merchant's gaze, who now, no longer so calm, stared with wide eyes at the sword hilt and Luffy's stretched rubbery fingers. Zoro furrowed his brow.
"Is there a problem, old man?" he asked, and the merchant swallowed hard before lifting his gaze, looking Zoro directly in the eyes with a strange expression.
Was it fear, or no, surprise?
Zoro's attempts at deciphering the old man's emotions were interrupted by the merchant's words as he finally dared to respond.
"No no, well, yes, maybe, no, well... Are you by any chance the Zoro, I mean Roronoa Zoro, the famous pirate hunter?"
- "Who wants to know?" Zoro retorted grimly, feeling it convenient that he already had one of his swords in a raised, thus presumably more threatening position.
Luffy seemed to be in a different mood.
"Yes, but of course he is," he proudly confirmed, "but now he's my first mate in my pirate crew."
It was typical of Luffy to play with such open cards, thought Zoro amusedly, but maintained his tough, stoic expression.
"Your crew?" exclaimed the merchant in surprise, "then you must be the Straw Hat, right? I heard about a new pirate crew with a captain wearing a straw hat, but when I saw you I wasn't sure."
Zoro didn't appreciate the merchant's curious tone, but since Luffy didn't seem to mind, he decided not to have a problem with it either.
Luffy burst into laughter and removed his hand from Zoro's sword to adjust his hat.
"Hehe. That's me. My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pirates."
Zoro repositioned Wado to its rightful place at his hip and felt immensely proud at that moment to be part of Luffy's crew.
The merchant laughed warmly and looked at the young men with a very friendly gaze. "Well, that's certainly a worthy goal."
Upon noticing the longing look Luffy cast towards the meat, he added, "Please, help yourselves. It's on the house. In honor of this esteemed visit."
Luffy needed no further encouragement and immediately grabbed several skewers of meat with both hands.
After Zoro had furrowed his brow thoughtfully at the merchant's exaggerated solemnity, he nevertheless helped himself to one of the delicious-looking skewers of meat.
Luffy was right, he thought instantly. It was delicious!
With half an ear, Zoro caught snippets of the ongoing conversation between the merchant and his captain, which, as he found, was rather one-sided, causing him to quickly lose interest.
The old man rambled on about inner peace and life dreams, to which Luffy merely contributed munching noises.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the old merchant take something out of his pocket.
Zoro's hand immediately went to his swords.
On careful inspection, however, he realized that it was only a necklace with a stone pendant.
So, not a weapon.
Feeling somewhat relieved, he turned his attention back to his meal, which he should have finished in a few bites.
"You will feel incredibly strong in every battle," said the merchant in a boring, monotonous voice as he swung the pendant back and forth in front of Luffy, "Especially when you hear the name of the person I am about to mention, you will yearn to fight them, and you will do so relentlessly until you are victorious, and they are incapacitated. Their name is..."
What the merchant said next was drowned out by one of the most annoying voices Zoro was familiar with.
"IDIOT Mosshead," the unfortunately all too familiar voice yelled almost right next to his ear and Zoro immediately felt his previously subsided headache return.
"I've been looking for you for three hours. How stupid can one be to catapult oneself onto a completely unknown island without having a clue about anything? You should be grateful that Nami-san is worried about you. If it were up to me, we would have sailed off without your stupid asses."
Sanji's curled eyebrows twichted in annoyance as he took a smoke of his cigarette, regarding his two trouble-maker crewmates with a disapproving look.
- "What are you yelling at me for, eh?", Zoro shouted back, hands instinctlively at his sword hilts again, ready to fight the annoying cook, "It's not like I volunteered to be catapulted onto this shitty island. That's on Luffy, not me!"
- "You're right. With Luffy, it's clear by now that he doesn't think before he acts. Why do I still assume there's a brain under that mosshead of yours!"
It was clear that a fight between the two of them was almost inevitable now. Zoro had drawn one of his swords and Sanji had raised his leg slightly, and the air around them seemed to be getting hotter and hotter with the many breaths of anger being exhaled.
"Sanji is there!", exclaimed Luffy while still stuffing his mouth and surprisingly carrying two boxes in his one hand, "Look at what this old man gave us. Free meat! It's so delicious! Make me some food with it now!"
This unexpected demand snapped Sanji out of his heated argument, and he furrowed his curled eyebrows. The idea of someone giving Luffy two boxes of meat for free was quite strange. Perhaps there was something wrong with the meat, and someone wanted to get rid of it?! As a cook, all his alarm bells were ringing.
The merchant must have noticed his doubts because he nodded kindly and said, "Yes, indeed, it's a gift from the house to Mr. Straw Hat, so he doesn't forget us when he becomes the Pirate King."
Sanji snorted. Had Luffy made a striking impression? At first sight? That would be something new!
"Anyway," he sighed and stubbed out his cigarette on the ground, "Now that I've found you, we can finally do the shopping for Nami-san. Let's go! And if any of you get lost on the way, I'll personally knock your teeth in."
Luffy laughted whole-heartedly and reached for another meat skewer from one of the boxes. Zoro also protested with an insult towards the cook but began to follow the blond suit-wearing man.
"Such nice young people," the old merchant muttered as he watched the three disappear into the crowd of the marketplace. Then he looked at the pendant in his hand, "I only hope it worked!"