Luffy woke up the next day, feeling more refreshed than he had ever felt before. It was like a whole new world had just opened up to him, knowing that all the people who had died in the story in horrific and tragic ways were being taken care of by Leo. There were only six for now, but he knew Leo would pull out more eventually.
As for his new power, he didn't think much of it. It only worked at the grave of a specific person he knew and cared about, and there really weren't many graves available out there. Plus, he could only hold a conversation with Bellemere because Leo had already pulled her out of the Soul Plane. If not, he suspected it would be like with Rouge. He didn't know what the rules of that place were, and he didn't care much either. That was Leo's adventure. Maybe when he died, he would get to meet him and all the others, too? He shrugged, just happy to know that they were all up there somewhere.
He went to the kitchen to make himself some coffee and stared at everyone still sprawled out drunk on the floor. After his talk with Nojiko and Genzo, he had gone back to the party only to find all his crewmates were passed out drunk and thus, had brought them all back to Nami's house. He had gently tucked Nami into her bed upstairs while the rest were thrown in the living room.
The smell of the coffee made them slowly wake up, groggily groaning, and a few minutes later, they also came to the kitchen to drink water or eat something. Luffy cheerfully greeted them with a loud 'Good morning!' which had them snapping at him to not talk so loudly before Sanji started making hangover drinks. Nami eventually came down too, relatively sober than the rest.
They were all eating and talking when Nojiko came in with a bright smile on her face, humming to herself. She spotted Luffy and her face brightened up further. "Good morning, Luffy!" she enthusiastically greeted him, ignoring everyone else in the room.
"Morning, Noji," Luffy greeted back with a smile. She came up to him, hugged him tight, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "Thanks for last night. It was the best night of my life!"
Luffy just hummed with a smile before she carried on as if nothing had happened, humming to herself before picking up some food and leaving saying "Going to Genzo's house"
Luffy kept on eating, but soon noticed the silence in the room. He looked up to see that all his crewmates were staring at him, mouths ajar. "…What's up?"
"YOU DAMN SHITTY CAPTAIN!" Sanji cried.
"YOU SLEPT WITH MY SISTER?!" Nami shrieked, a hallucinatory volcano erupting behind her.
At the same time, Sanji came in with a flying kick while yelling "HOW DARE YOU SLEEP WITH A BEAUTIFUL ANGEL LIKE NOJIKO-SAN?!" which Luffy just dodged, causing Sanji to go over his head and crash into a wall.
"Wait, what?! What are you talking about?!"
"What did you do with her last night?!" Nami demanded, stomping towards him, "And why is she so happy?! And you called her Noji!"
"Ah… we just talked a bit, that's al.l"
"BULLSHIT!" Nami screamed and came at him to strangle him, but he escaped, running and hiding behind Zoro.
"Zoro! Help me!"
"What?! I'm terrified of the witch, too. Besides, you deserve it, you playboy."
"Wha? Et tu, Zoro?!"
"Well, it's the truth," Zoro smirked.
"Yeah, you slept with Moodie and now with Nojiko just a couple of days later. You are a playboy," Usopp added, nodding sagely.
"Moodie was a le-"
Nami smacked Luffy hard on the head, bringing a close to that conversation, and was about to continue hitting him, but Luffy backed away.
"Wait wait, it's not what you're thinking! Even Genzo was with us! Ask him! The three of us were together!"
"Then why was she so happy?! Why did she say it was the best night of her life?!"
"Why are you asking me?! Go ask her!" Luffy yelled before running out of the house while Nami screamed at him to come back.
———
After three days of partying on the island, the Strawhats were finally ready to leave. Zoro was in a stable condition on day 2 itself but Nako had dangerously insisted that he take another day off and also insisted that he not get into any fights for a month at least. (Zoro and Luffy both had laughed in his face at that and gotten a beating)
All the Strawhats except Nami were standing on the Merry while the rest of the villagers were at the shore to see them off. Johnny and Yosaku also said their goodbyes and they were only waiting for Nami to show up.
"You think she changed her mind at the last minute and decided not to come with us?" Usopp asked.
"What?! No way! She's 49.5 percent of the reason I'm here! My beautiful Nami-swan will definitely come!"
"49.5?" Luffy asked while holding out a recorder.
"Yes, another 49.5 percent is for the beautiful mystery genius inventor crewmate of ours!" Sanji sang, twirling around, and Luffy chuckled as he got the recording.
"Is this gonna blow up in his face?" Usopp whispered.
"Imagine the most hilarious thing you can think of and multiply that by a billion times. That's how hilarious it's gonna be when you all finally meet her," Luffy answered, and Usopp snickered, going "Can't wait."
"SET SAIL!" came Nami's loud shout, drowning out every other voice in the vicinity.
"Nami? What?" The villagers became confused when Nami started running.
"Well, you heard her, prepare to set sail!" Luffy ordered as he started raising the sails.
"Hey, are you really sure? Doesn't she need to say goodbye?" Sanji asked.
"Nah, it's her goodbye. Let her say it however she wants."
"Nami!" / "Nami! Don't leave like this!" / "At least let us thank you properly and say goodbye!"
The villagers pleaded with her to stop, but Nami weaved through the crowd and ran to the shore. She reached the shore and jumped onto the Merry, landing perfectly on the deck. The villagers still called out for her to stop, but they stopped when they saw a ton of wallets and purses falling out from under her shirt.
Quickly checking for their own wallets and finding them missing, they realized what Nami had done.
"Take care, everyone~!" Nami drawled with a smug grin.
"YOU ROTTEN LITTLE THIEF!" they yelled in unison. "YOU TRICKED US!"
Nami laughed loudly, and so did the other Strawhats, while the villagers yelled at her to come back and return their wallets, but it soon turned into farewells.
"BYE, NAMI!"
"STAY SAFE, NAMI!"
"COME BACK ANY TIME YOU WANT!"
"GOODBYE, EVERYONE!" Nami yelled, waving at them with a bright smile. "I'LL BE OFF NOW!"
"STRAWHAT! YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR PROMISE! BOTH OF THEM!" Genzo yelled.
"COME BACK SOON, LUFFY! I'LL BE WAITING!" Nojiko yelled happily, waving goodbye.
Luffy gave them both a thumbs up with a grin.
The first promise he had made to Genzo was the one about protecting Nami's smile. The second promise, which he had made to Nojiko, too, was to somehow let them talk to Bellemere.
They had grabbed him the subsequent nights too and asked him to summon Bellemere again while they hid in the bushes far away, but it hadn't worked. And the two were left disappointed. So, he had promised them that by the time he came back, he would have learned how it worked and if it was even possible to let them talk to Bellemere.
And hence, Nojiko's enthusiasm in wanting Luffy to come back soon so that she can talk to her dead mother… But to the Strawhats who had heard the 'best night of my life' comment, it seemed a little different. Luffy gulped, feeling piercing gazes from some of his crew.
"Damn playboy…" Usopp grumbled.
"Shitty captain!" Sanji cursed through gritted teeth.
Zoro stayed silent but looked at Luffy with amusement.
"Even my sister…." Nami said darkly before walking up behind him and was about to grab his neck, but Luffy ducked out of the way. "Tell me what you did with her, or I'll throw you overboard!" She threatened regardless.
"Not this again… I told you to ask Noji."
"I did!" She hissed, feeling irritated at his use of a nickname for her sister, "And she told me it's a secret between you and her! When I pressed on, she told me to ask you! And you tell me to ask her! For the last two days, I've been running around you two! And I'm getting no answers! What did you two do?!"
"Ugh…" Luffy sighed, "C'mon, it's your farewell. Say goodbye to your home. Who knows when you'll get to see it again…"
"Tell me now!"
Luffy rolled his eyes before pointing in a random direction, "Look! It's a dinosaur!"
While Usopp and Sanji fell for it and looked, Nami lunged at Luffy yelling, "I'm not gonna fall for that!"
"Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed as he ran and Nami chased him around the deck.
———
East Blue Marine HQ
It was early in the morning, when people were lazily coming into work, that they received a strange call. "Hello," a Marine picked up the snail and talked in a bored tone, "East Blue, Marine HQ. Please state your rank and purpose of call."
"D-D-D-DEMON!" was the first word that was said-no, screamed, and the Marine grumbled in irritation.
"What the he-"
"T-THERE'S A DEMON! A DEMON!"
"Fuck you, whoever you are! Stop prank calling!" The Marine spat and cut the call. Just a few seconds later, the snail rang again and he picked it up.
"HOW DARE YOU HANG UP ON ME?!"
"Ugh, listen man, it's early in the morni-"
"I'M CAPTAIN NEZUMI OF THE 16TH BRANCH!"
"Well, you should've opened with that, then instead of yelling demon like a crazy person."
The other end got silent, and the fear in Nezumi's voice was back. "I-I-I need to issue a bounty on a demon!"
"A bounty on a demon?"
"A DEMON! YES!"
"A demon?"
"YES! YES! HE WAS A TERRIFYING DEMON!"
"Right"
"YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?!"
"Well, you are shouting about a demon. Are you one of those people who say that there are mole people living at the center of the planet?"
"NO! I SAW A DEMON!"
"Uh-huh… Do you have a picture of this demon and its name?"
"YES! I'm sending it now! Issue the highest bounty on this demon! He dared to attack me and I'm sure he'll attack humanity soon too!"
"…good god, you are psychotic," The Marine sighed as the pic-snail received the image and printed it. It showed the image of a kid in a straw hat with a wide smile looking directly at the camera. "It's a kid."
"NO! DON'T LET HIS APPEARANCE FOOL YOU! HE'S A DEMON!"
"And what exactly did this demon do?"
"HE TOOK DOWN ARLONG'S WHOLE CREW!"
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. His name?"
"DEMON LUFFY!"
"Yeah, I'm not calling him Demon Luffy. We already have a Demon Child epithet for someone else. So, it's just lazy branding by us if we called him that"
"BUT HE'S A DEMON!"
"Right. Give me more details"
"H-He's a demon!"
"Anything other than that, please"
"He's a demon!"
"…Goodbye." he said cutting the call. He didn't know what had happened, but looked like Nezumi was mentally scarred. 'Not my problem…'
The snail rang again a few seconds later and he picked it up, "Are we ready to talk like normal adults?"
"Yes! Yes! Just issue a bounty on this demon!"
"Tell me what he did, or I'm cutting the call and won't receive it again"
"Okay!"
"Good, now start from the beginning…"
************