After explaining the plan of him being a decoy, Igaram soon changed into Vivi's clothes and, after saying goodbye to her, prepared to leave. Meanwhile, Luffy quickly brought the still sleeping Sanji and Usopp to the shore, and just as Igaram was about to set off, Luffy mischievously brought Sanji's face close to Igaram's face and cooed into his ears in a sweet, feminine voice. "Oh Sanji~ Oh Sanji~"
"Mmm~" Sanji moaned as he slowly opened his eyes with a smile. "Oh, my beau-"
Any words he was thinking of flew right out of the window when he laid eyes on Igaram in makeup, and he yelped, jumping back in shock. "Gyaah! What the hell is that?!"
"HAHAHAHA!" Luffy, Zoro, Reiju, and even Vivi laughed while a thoroughly confused Sanji looked around.
"What's going on?" Usopp sleepily sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"Okay, you can go now. I've had my fun," Luffy grinned and Igaram sweat-dropped before he shrugged and turned to Vivi.
"May we meet again in our homeland, princess."
Vivi just nodded, clearly not wanting to part with him, but knew she couldn't be selfish. Igaram set off, while a very confused Sanji and Usopp looked around, trying to make sense of what was going on.
"Hey Vivi," Luffy slid up next to her as she watched Igaram go, and she lightly glared and pouted at him.
"What? You're mad at me?"
"You did call me a cu-… a salope…" she huffed.
"Oh, c'mon, I just wanted to hear a princess say such words, that's all," Luffy grinned. "Besides, cursing in another language is way more fun, don't you think? It doesn't even feel like you're cursing, you know."
"You made her curse?" Reiju laughed.
"Shishishi yeah!"
"Well," Vivi lost the glare and giggled like she was doing something mischievous. "I can't deny that." She then looked around as if making sure no one heard her and whispered, "And it's true, swear words were the first words I learnt too."
It took her two more seconds to realize just what he had said and she gasped. "Wait a minute! That means you knew who I was before we came to this island!"
"Yeah."
"How? I was in disguise!"
"Just saw through it, I guess."
"You did?" She groaned dejectedly. "I thought it was a good dis-"
KABOOOM!
The night sky suddenly lit up like it was day because of a huge pillar of fire and light that erupted on the horizon.
"Did that guy blow up?!"
"Damn! They got to him already?!"
"What the hell is happening?!"
"What happened?!"
Luffy vaguely heard his crew panicking as he watched the explosion with a bit of apprehension, wondering if Igaram was safe in that. He had let it happen as it was a good thing for him. With him seemingly dying here, the other Baroque Works members wouldn't look for him and thus, his journey to Alabasta would be safer and easier. But…
…Seeing the massive pillar of fire, he wondered just how he could have survived that. He just had to trust that Robin had caused the explosion in such a way that he wouldn't be harmed too much.
"LUFFY!"
Vivi and Nami's loud scream made him snap back to his senses and he was surprised to find himself airwalking high in the air going towards the explosion. He looked back to see both girls gesturing for him to come back while Zoro was taking the other two back towards the ship, and with another look towards the explosion, he went back.
"Let's go." was all Vivi said when he landed and he didn't miss the blood trailing down her lips from a bite mark.
"Okay."
Vivi turned around and ran ahead while Luffy and Nami ran a few paces behind her.
"She's a really strong girl," Nami said looking at her with respect. "She didn't even let herself cry."
"Yeah, she's strong… how are you holding up, though? Ever since we found out about Crocodile, you've been on edge."
"Can you blame me?" She huffed. "Last time we faced one of them, Zoro was toyed around with and the only reason he's still alive is because he earned some bullshit respect… and Crocodile doesn't sound like the type of guy who cares about honour and respect and stuff like that…"
"You guys ran into a Warlord already?"
"Story for another time," he said to Reiju before focusing on Nami. "You worry too much. Not all Warlords are the same."
"He's still a Warlord…"
"Honestly, he's the weakest of them all. If I'm serious, it'll not even take me a minute to take him down."
"Sure," Nami sighed thinking he was just saying that to make her feel better. And that was enough. "Well, no use worrying about it now. We have to take him down, for Vivi's sake…"
"Shishi that's the spirit!"
"…Wait a minute, this is your fault, isn't it?! You tempted fate earlier!"
"Oh, so you believe that now?"
"No! I mean… hmm… no no! It can't be true. That's so stupid!"
"Well, make up your mind before blowing up at me."
"Ugh…"
They neared their ship where Zoro was already raising the anchor, when Vivi suddenly stopped. "Wait! Where's Carue?!"
"Who?!"
"My duck!"
"Forget the bird. We don't have the time!"
"I can't le-"
"Look at the deck," Luffy interrupted as he ran ahead.
"You mean this guy?" Zoro asked pointing at Carue who was standing next to him. "He was here even before me."
"Quack!"
"That's where you were!" Nami and Vivi snapped simultaneously.
Ten minutes later, their ship was sailing upriver as per Vivi's instructions.
"What's going on?! Why are we setting sail so soon?! Who was that guy and why did he blow up?" Sanji demanded answers.
"Yeah, what the hell is happening?!" Usopp also joined him.
"Later," Nami brushed them off. "We need to leave this island first."
When they entered a foggy area, Luffy sensed a creature coming close to them and got excited. 'Finally! Robin!'
Robin. The one crewmate he was looking forward to meeting the most. Barring himself, Leo's favourite character was Robin and Luffy would be lying if he said that those feelings didn't influence him.
While the others all had their eyes towards the front trying to see an opening in the fog-covered area, Luffy sat down on the railing as he sensed the creature reach their ship near the stern. He also quickly told Reiju that he wouldn't respond for a bit and put the earbuds back in as he didn't want Robin to think there was someone else hearing them.
He suddenly felt like someone was watching him from high above, and he had to fight his instincts to not look. 'Robin probably sprouted an eye under the crow's nest to observe the deck,' he concluded and just sat like he hadn't noticed.
Someone climbed up the side of their ship watching them all closely and Luffy felt eyes on him from three different directions. The person then walked towards the upper deck with stealthy steps and stayed there. He wanted to look at her, but he waited patiently for her to announce herself.
Robin was the one crewmate he had to be the most careful around. A slip of the tongue that let her know he knew who she was, and she would become wary of him. And there was no telling what kind of actions she would take then. At least until after Alabasta, he had to watch what he said and how he behaved around her.
He had thought a lot about how he should be around her. He could tell her right here that the poneglyph in Alabasta didn't have what she was looking for, but that would set off blaring alarms in her head. Besides, it wasn't like she would just blindly believe him and not seek out the poneglyph herself, so there was no point in taking that risk.
After a lot of thinking about various such scenarios, he had come to a few simple conclusions. 'Don't be too friendly like you know her. Act like she's a stranger. Recruit her after she sees the poneglyph herself in Alabasta.' That was it. Everything else he thought of had way too many variables for him to know how she would react. And thus, he waited, pretending to be oblivious to her presence.
"Looks like the fog is clearing up… there are some rocks ahead that we should be careful around," Vivi said and still, Robin didn't say anything.
Luffy waited for another minute and when she still didn't announce herself, he got impatient and pretending like he was sweeping a glance over the ship, turned towards the upper deck… and looked directly into the beautiful blue eyes of his future archaeologist that were staring right back at him.
'Fuck…'
Robin sat there in her cowboy-themed outfit, one leg over the other, with an amused smirk on her face as she observed him with a tilt of her head. For a fleeting moment, she reminded Luffy of the times Serena had cosplayed as Robin, wearing the same risque clothes she was currently wearing, and Leo and her had done thi- 'Don't think about that! Don't think about that! Come back to reality…'
He blinked once and squashed all those thoughts down with his iron will as Robin studied him closely and he thought about what to do.
She knew that he knew that she was there. She knew that he had pretended not to notice her, and he could see that she was on guard. Robin had years of experience on how to read people and just him sitting still and being too casual had probably given him away.
'Hmm, there's no way I can pretend to be oblivious in front of her huh…' he concluded before shrugging internally. 'Well, fuck it!' He couldn't pretend in front of her, so he threw caution to the wind and did what he wanted.
Luffy smiled back at her, swept a glance over his crew, looked back at her, and brought a finger up to his lips. 'Let's see how long it takes for them to notice you.'
She stared at him with unblinking eyes before her lips curled upwards and she nodded, understanding the message. 'He likes to play too.'
And so, the captain and the future archaeologist just stayed silent, exchanging glances and smirks with one another from time to time, and waited to see how long it would take for the others to notice the situation.
Zoro was the first to notice Luffy acting weirdly. He saw that he just sat by the side looking at them with a glint of amusement in his eyes, not saying anything.
"Uhh what's up, Luffy?" he asked and everyone turned towards him.
"Just waiting," Luffy said confusing them.
"For?" Nami asked but Luffy just smiled.
Zoro looked around trying to spot anything and almost jumped out of his skin when he noticed a person calmly sitting on the upper deck.
"The heck?!" he yelled scrambling to get his swords out of their sheaths and the rest finally noticed her too.
"Who's that?!"
"Fufufu," Robin lightly snickered. "Took quite a while, don't you think, Mr. Captain?"
"Shishishi yeah," Luffy grinned before addressing the others. "She just walked up and sat down like five minutes ago."
"Shit!" Zoro cursed himself for not noticing.
"Y-you…" Vivi gasped taking a step back in fear.
"Well, let me first say congratulations on your escape, Miss Wednesday," Robin said with an almost cocky smirk. "Oh, I also met up with Mr. Eight a little while ago…"
"You killed Igaram?!"
"Vivi, who is she?" Zoro asked, not taking his eyes off of her.
"She's Miss All Sunday. She's Mr. Zero's partner," Vivi spat through gritted teeth, making Nami freak out. "She was the only one who knew the boss' true identity. Which is why Igaram and I tailed after her to find out who the boss was."
"Well technically, it was more like I let you tail after me," Robin corrected smugly.
"I already knew that! And I bet it was you, wasn't it? Who told the boss that his identity has been leaked and about me?!" She screamed in frustration. "What exactly is your objective here?!"
"Now now, no need to get so worked up," Robin said placatingly before continuing with a wicked smile. "I only let you follow me because you looked so desperate. A single princess who foolishly thinks she can take on the entirety of Baroque Works… It was quite amusing to watch."
Vivi glared at her, feeling her frustration and anger reach a boiling point. "DON'T YOU DARE UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
The next second, Nami had pulled out her shock staff, Zoro had two swords out, Usopp was pointing a slingshot at her, and Sanji was pointing a gun. Only Luffy sat silently without doing anything.
"Hey Sanji, do you know wh-" Usopp began saying but got cut off when all the weapons were knocked out of everyone's hands and Sanji and Usopp fell from the upper deck.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't point such dangerous objects at me," Robin said with a weary sigh.
"Wha?! Is she using a devil fruit?!"
"What ability does she have?"
"I didn't see anything!"
"Whoa! She's really beautiful!" Only Sanji's reaction was different after he finally got a good look at Robin.
"No need to get so riled up," Robin smiled. "I haven't come here on any orders and I have no reason to fight with you either."
She then looked at Luffy, who had been silently watching the whole time. "Captain of the Strawhat pirates, Monkey D. Luffy," she intoned with a strange glint in her eyes. "You seem awfully calm compared to the others."
"Well…" Luffy drawled with a grin before glancing across from him where a disembodied eye was trained on him from the second she had come on board, causing her to narrow her eyes at him. "I just know what your power is."
"Is that so?" Robin smiled leaning back a bit and finally letting her guard down. 'He's just overconfident.'
Luffy's hat suddenly flew off his head and landed in Robin's hand, and Luffy didn't stop it. He thought of telling her not to touch it, but there was no way he could bring himself to act hostile towards her.
"I have to ask…" Robin smirked twirling the straw hat on her index finger before putting it over her cowboy hat. "What's with the unfortunate bounty picture?"
Luffy facepalmed. "That's gonna follow me around huh…"
"If I were you, I would tell myself to get used to it," Robin lightly chuckled. "At least until you get a new one."
"Yeah yeah…"
"I'm so lost but," Sanji hesitantly spoke up before kneeling down. "May I offer you a drink, Miss All Su-"
"She's the enemy, idiot," Nami smacked him and dragged him back, and Sanji looked totally lost as he eyed Luffy's calm expression and the straw hat on the stranger's head. 'She's wearing Luffy's hat and he isn't complaining, so how could she be the enemy?' was going through his head.
"You don't know what's happening, so sit still!" Nami snapped before pointing at Usopp, who was hiding behind the mast. "Like Usopp!"
"Y-Yes! T-that's definitely why I'm staying still…" Usopp shivered.
Still, Sanji looked at Luffy for clarification. "Really?"
"Yes!" Vivi answered instead, making Sanji flinch and shut his mouth.
"Stupid ero-cook," Zoro grumbled.
"The hell did you say, mosshead!" Sanji snapped and kicked at him, which he blocked with a sword. And as always, Nami punted them both, shutting them up.
"Quite a rambunctious lot, aren't you?" Robin lightly chuckled watching the crew's hijinks. "But you all are quite unfortunate. You befriended the princess, thus resulting in you all being targeted by the entire Baroque Works organization, and you," she glanced at Vivi, "a lone princess, who has no choice but to entrust herself to small-time pirates for protection." Her smile then widened even further as if she was relishing giving them bad news. "But what's even more unfortunate is the next island your log pose is pointing to."
"Our next destination?" Nami questioned checking her log pose.
"You're headed for a place called Little Garden. An island that will guarantee that I needn't even bother trying to kill you all. You won't even make it to Alabasta or get to see Crocodile's face."
"Wanna bet?" Luffy asked with a grin.
"Anyone can run their mouths," Robin said dismissively before fishing out something from somewhere which she tossed at Vivi and at the same time, she tossed Luffy's hat back towards him, which landed back on his head.
"An… an eternal pose?" Vivi blinked in surprise.
"You can skip all your future troubles with that. It's for an island called Nanimonai Island which is located just an island before Alabasta. Moreover, the route is unknown to our agents, so you won't be chased either."
"Wait," Nami said confused. "Are you helping us?"
"W-Why are you giving this to me?" Vivi demanded incredulously.
"It's probably a trap," Zoro stated.
"Is it, now?" Robin drawled.
Sandals on deck sounded as Luffy got up and walked over to Vivi, who was contemplating what to do. He just casually took the log pose and crushed it, throwing the choice away.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Nami screeched as her foot came at his face, but he ducked out of the way. "She just gave us an easy route! What if she was really trying to help us?!"
"Doesn't matter. Only I get to decide what route this ship takes."
That brought out soft silent gasps from everyone where they realized that no matter how laid back he was, Luffy didn't back down when it came to important matters.
"B-But she could have been helping us…" Nami protested weakly but seeing the unwavering look Luffy was giving her, huffed with a light pout. "Ugh… fine!"
"Cute pout," Luffy chuckled poking her cheek and Nami swatted his hand away yelling, "Don't treat me like a kid!" which only amused him more.
"Well, that is quite unfortunate," Robin said swinging her legs back over the railing and standing up. "But, I don't dislike bold men. L-"
"I don't dislike you either," Luffy grinned, getting an amused smile from her as she walked to the side of the ship.
"Well, let us meet again if you survive, Monkey D. Luffy," she nodded as she jumped off.
"Sure!" Luffy happily said as went to the side of the ship too and spotted a giant turtle wearing a cowboy hat and smoking a cigar. "Whoa! What a cool turtle! What's his name?"
"His name is Bunchi," Robin replied as she sat on a comfortable sofa that was saddled onto the back of the creature and a shade also opened up. "Let's go, Bunchi."
"Bunchi huh? Cool name."
"Thank you. I named him," she said, a little pride leaking in her voice and Luffy chuckled internally.
Just as she began going away, he called out to her again. "Hey! Do you like impressions?"
"Hm?" Robin looked back at him curiously. "I guess?"
"Okay, I'll do one for you!"
He suddenly put on a serious face for a moment and said 'Why?' in a tired old man's tone before coming back to normal and smiling.
Robin waited but Luffy didn't say anything more. "Is that it?"
"Yeah!" Luffy chirped. "That was Socrates."
Luffy watched with glee as Robin's eyes lit up with genuine amusement and her lips stretched into an actual smile. "That was quite good. I applaud you."
Satisfied with getting a real smile from her, Luffy waved at her. "Goodbye for now. See you in Alabasta soon!"
"Goodbye," Robin nodded as Bunchi swam away. Luffy watched her go with a small sigh, not wanting to part with her, but also knew he couldn't force her to join them now.
"Don't get smitten with the enemy, idiot!" Nami's foot came down on his head, flattening it against the railing. "She's one of the people who's destroying Vivi's country!"
"…Did it look like that?"
"What?"
"Did it look like I was smitten with her?"
"Yes!"
"Hm…" Luffy hummed looking thoughtful.
By acting totally oblivious and being calm at the beginning, he had definitely made Robin wary of him. She had been on guard at the beginning, and only once he said that he figured out what her powers were, implying that she wasn't a threat to him, did she finally let her guard down. He came off as just an overconfident rookie with more than average perception abilities, who liked a challenge, liked to play games, and run his mouth off when he didn't know anything about the real world… which were, in fact, all true except for the last part.
He was pretty sure that that's exactly what Robin thought of him, but given how he was behaving, maybe she also thought he had a freudian reason too. 'Stupid Leo…' he grumbled in his head before shrugging, not caring about it too much. And that reaction only left the others confused.
"Don't mind him," Zoro said to Vivi when he saw her looking puzzled. "He's always like that with enemies."
"Ah yes, Mr. Bushido. I've noticed." Vivi nodded. "He casually started talking with Valentine too…"
"Exactly." Nami agreed.
"Still," Vivi ground her teeth as she furiously massaged her head in frustration. "That woman is so secretive… I just wish I knew what was she was planning…"
"Well, then there's no use worrying about that," Nami said, patting her on the back consolingly.
"We also have someone incomprehensible like her on board," Zoro said pointedly looking at Luffy, who finally came out of his thoughts. "And scheming women too," he added pointedly looking at Nami.
THWACK!
"Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?!" Usopp finally snapped.
"Is Miss Wednesday joining us? And is that totally hot Miss All Sunday also joining us?!" Sanji asked twirling around, but both were ignored.
"I-I'm not sure if I should be here," Vivi hesitantly spoke up looking embarrassed and apologetic. "Are you really alright with me riding on your ship? I may just be putting you all in danger…"
"Oh please," Nami scoffed getting in her face and poking her forehead. "Your slip-up was why we were pulled into all this trouble in the first place. If you didn't want to trouble us, you should've done so from the beginning!"
"I said I was sorry…" Vivi whined.
"Shishi lay off her, Nami."
"Yeah yeah. Well, anyway, we promised to get you home, so don't worry about it. You'll definitely reach Alabasta. Right, Luffy?"
"Yep," Luffy said as he put the earbuds back in and also pulled the phone out. "Still there, Bubble?"
"Yep. I didn't understand most of what was going on though."
Vivi was immediately in front of him, looking at the phone in wonder. "I got a glimpse of this back during the storm and have been dying to know what it is… I've never seen anything like this!" She touched the screen and yelped when 'the inside things' moved.
"Whoa! I didn't notice that earlier!" Nami also came up with curious eyes.
Zoro, who also hadn't seen it earlier, walked up and studied it curiously too. "What the hell is that?"
Luffy sighed internally, knowing he had to explain things to them.
"Whoa! What is tha- No wait, first! Can someone please explain what's happening?!" Sanji and Usopp yelled in the background.
———
Thankfully for him, the novelty of the phone wore off fairly quickly and it just became another strange new thing they were learning about like a Vivre card or a painted whale stomach. In the meantime, Sanji and Usopp were also brought up to speed about everything that had happened. Nami had been up during the entire storm and also on Whisky Peak, so she was beyond tired and sleepy. The others were still sleepy too, and there was still a lot of time left before morning arrived, so they decided to drop anchor and go to sleep.
Luffy took night watch as he wasn't at all sleepy and thus, was spending the night catching up with Reiju.
"I'm really surprised she hasn't figured it out…" Reiju said amused and confused. "I mean… how can you not? Yonji tried to hit on her too, so she should be able to see the resemblance, no?"
"Hmm well, you see stranger and stranger looking people all the time, especially on the Grand Line. Do you really expect her to remember some small detail about a prince she saw once?"
"Hmm, I guess not. Maybe she'll figure it out if you ask her to focus on him?"
"Shishi maybe. We'll try it when she wakes up. Let's bet on it too."
"Okay… Are you really sure about going against Crocodile? He's a War-"
"Stop with this already. How many times are you gonna ask me the same question?"
"You don't seem to grasp the severity of the situation! Wh-"
"So what? You want me to abandon Vivi?"
Reiju stopped short, biting her lip, before letting out a sigh. "No…"
"Shishi good."
She let out another sigh before changing the topic. "So how long did it take you to reach Dawn Island after I left you?"
"Hmm around a year, I think."
"A year?!"
"Yep. Found a suitable island to train in South Blue, so spent a lot of time there."
"Oh god… how did Makino and the others on Dawn react when you showed up after so long?"
"Shishi it was hilarious!" Luffy chuckled as the two talked through the night.
Early next morning before the sun had even risen, Sanji walked into the kitchen to start prepping and Luffy walked in after him.
"Yo!"
"Oi, do you even sleep at night?" Sanji chided. "Five times a week, I find you still awake in the mornings."
"Don't worry, I take power naps during the day."
Sanji sighed and gave a light chop on his head before he went about his business, while Luffy set up the phone right in front of the counter.
"What are you doing?"
"Bubble wanted to talk to everyone, and you're up first…" he said as he made sure that Reiju could see the whole counter and mainly Sanji while not showing her side.
"Good morning, Sanji!" Reiju greeted and Sanji went into full love mode.
"Oh, my lovely Bubble-chan! How blessed am I to be greeted by a lovely angel at the beginning of the day!"
"Right… So, what's for breakfast?"
"Oh, I'm making pancakes today."
"And meat!" Luffy interjected.
"No. Meat in the afternoon," Sanji said strictly and Luffy whined.
"Ooh pancakes huh… Can I watch?"
"It would be my honour, my dear Bubble-chan!" Sanji swooned.
"Hehe, you sure like to flirt huh?"
"Ah, if it makes you unc-"
"No no, don't worry. Just be yourself. I want to get to know the real you. And just call me Bubble."
"Whatever you say, Bubble."
"Luffy told me you used to work at some floating restaurant before he kidnapped you? That sounds amazing. What was it like?"
"Yes, it's called the Baratie…"
Luffy walked out with a happy smile on his face, letting the brother-sister pair bond with one another.
An hour later when Luffy was sparring with Zoro, Sanji came up to him and calmly handed the phone over. "Is this thing off?"
Luffy checked and nodded without much thought. "Yea-"
The word hadn't left his mouth before he found a heavily breathing Sanji grabbing his shoulders and yelling in his face. "BUBBLE IS A PURE GODDESS! WHEN WILL SHE BE JOINING US?!"
"Whoa whoa, calm down," Luffy placated but his fingers immediately pressed the record button.
"She is an actual goddess, isn't she?! She has to be! She's so so lovely! Ahh my lovely Bubble~" he trailed off with a wistful smile before latching onto Luffy again, who looked on amused. "Please tell me we'll get to meet her soon!"
"Umm… I want her to, but she isn't agreeing to it."
"You said some people were after her, didn't you?!" Sanji exclaimed in unholy wrath. "WHO THE HELL DARES TO HUNT MY DEAR BUBBLE?! I'LL KILL THEM!"
"Ah!" Luffy grinned darkly remembering Sanji's childhood and put a hand on his shoulder. "That's something we can totally agree on. When we finally get a chance to beat them up, we'll eviscerate them completely!"
"YES!" Sanji roared. "Let's go hunt them down! Anyone who hurts my dear Bu-"
THWACK!
"Why are you being so noisy so early in the morning?" Nami, still drowsy, growled softly.
"Ah Nami-swan! Good morning!"
While Sanji began his usual tirade, Luffy wondered if the joke was getting too out of hand. He then imagined Sanji's face when he eventually learned who Bubble was… and decided to make multiple copies of the recordings to keep them safe and secure.
———
"And that's the Duck song!" Luffy grinned as he finished playing the song while Zoro, Sanji, Usopp and Carue looked on with blank expressions while sipping drinks.
"Okay… a song about a duck who keeps asking for grapes at a lemonade stand…" Usopp summarized. "You said this was a funny song…"
"Where's the 'funny' part?" Sanji asked.
"Quack!" Carue also nodded as if asking the same thing.
"Oh c'mon! The whole song is golden!"
They all looked unimpressed and Luffy slumped down and slowly sipped his drink through a straw. "You guys just don't get it…"
"Or your sense of humour is broken," Zoro suggested.
"Well…" Luffy scratched his head thoughtfully, thinking back to all the stupid memes that made no sense without context. "I can't deny that."
"You guys can't be this carefree!" Vivi suddenly yelled and all eyes turned towards the upper deck where she was standing, huffing and puffing.
"Oh Vivi-chan, you're up. Let me get you a fresh cup of tea."
"No, no, before that, what are you all doing?!" Vivi yelled incredulously. "There is no one in the crow's nest watching our surroundings! There is no one manning the sails! I know the weather won't get as crazy as it did during the start, but this is still the Grand Line! It is absolutely imperative that you do not underestimate this sea and always be on guard!"
SLURP!
"Hey, Carue! Don't steal my drink!"
"Quack!"
"No, no wait, even with a beak like that, a duck is still managing to use a straw? That's…wow…" Usopp noted impressed.
"He's from a desert country, so he should be able to retain a lot too… I think?"
"Oh yeah. Wonder how fast he can drink and how much he can drink," Sanji mused.
"Let's test it!" Luffy said excitedly. "Get a bucket of water!"
"Yes!"
"Quack!" Carue nodded challengingly.
"You guys!" Vivi shrieked when she was completely ignored. Nami calmly walked out of the kitchen then and Vivi pointed at all the boys accusingly. "Are you sure things will be fine like this?!"
"Hm? Yeah, it'll be fine," Nami said nonchalantly as she sipped her own drink. "They'll work hard when we come across rough seas. It's not like they want to die or anything, you know. Here, drink up." She handed Vivi a drink, who begrudgingly accepted it.
"That's true… but we might be caught unaware at this rate…"
Nami grinned patting her back. "You're too high-strung, Vivi."
"Says the girl who's always high-strung herself," Luffy yelled out from below.
"Don't make me come down there~" Nami cooed sweetly.
"Heh, do you remember the Snapping War?" Zoro asked with a laugh, and Luffy nodded grinning.
"The what war?" Sanji asked.
"Eh, it'll be better as a surprise. You'll see when we run into Ann," Luffy said snickering along with Zoro.
"I brought the water!" Usopp announced hauling a bucket of water.
"Okay, let's time him!" Sanji said shoving a straw in Carue's mouth just as Usopp placed the bucket of water under him.
"One, two, three, go!"
Carue began sucking up the water as fast as he could while the boys all went "Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"
Nami leaned on the railing and gave Vivi a bright smile. "When you're on this ship…" she gestured to the boys who were laughing at Carue who had choked on the water. "Don't all your worries just melt away?"
Vivi stared at her for a moment before glancing at the deck… and a small smile spread across her face too as her muscles relaxed. "Well," she sipped her drink as a gentle breeze swept across her. "This is quite relaxing…"
SPLASH!
"Hey look, a dolphin…" Sanji pointed out.
"Oh, how cute…"
They all watched it with peaceful smiles on their faces… until it came closer and closer and they realized just how big it actually was.
"IT'S FREAKIN' HUGE!"
"TO YOUR STATIONS! LET'S STEER AWAY!"
"AYE!"
———o——o——o———
"Vivi," Luffy called out, gesturing her to come to him as they sailed towards Little Garden and she walked up to him with a questioning look.
"What's up?"
"Sanji…" Luffy pointed at said person who was cooking inside the kitchen. "Thoughts?"
"Thoughts?" Vivi repeated surprised. "Umm… He's okay, I guess? He made me uncomfortable at the beginning… before I realized he doesn't mean much when he professes all that love…"
"Okay. Anything else?"
"Umm… his food is amazing. Even better than what I have at my palace."
"Anything else?" Reiju drawled, disbelief evident in her voice.
"Umm," she blushed slightly. "Do you mean if I like him or something? We just met like a couple of days ago, so why are you asking me that?"
"No no, that's not what I meant."
"Then what exactly?"
"Look at his face."
Vivi just tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what Luffy was getting at, and just stared at Sanji's side profile for a few seconds. "Okay… What's wrong with his face?"
She then looked back at Luffy who was looking at her expectantly. "… Luffy, I have no idea what's going on here."
"Well, forget it," Luffy finally gave up, waving it off while Vivi just looked confused. "So how many languages do you know?" He changed the topic and they chatted for a while before breaking up.
"You owe me a hundred berries," Luffy said with a chuckle as she walked away.
"Yeah, guess you were right." Reiju sighed. "She's a bigger airhead than I thought."
"Well, let's see if she'll figure it out at some point."
"Make sure to shut her up when she does. I don't want to ruin the surprise for Sanji."
"Of course, of course," Luffy grinned before his phone rang and he saw it was Koala. He quickly said goodbye to Reiju and picked up Koala's call.
"Hey, Cuddly!"
"Hey. Have you read the paper?" Koala excitedly asked getting straight to the point. Luffy wanted to tell her about the phone but postponed it for another time.
"Yeah, saw it. It was only just a mention that corrupt Marines were exposed in East Blue though. There was nothing too detailed in it."
"Oh right, you're on the Grand Line, so you wouldn't have gotten it. The papers here in East Blue have a ten-page expose detailing everything. We anonymously dropped off Moodie's article around five days ago. It was published four days ago, and well," Koala laughed. "It's actually gone waaay better than even we expected."
"Really? I honestly didn't think much would happen."
"Oh let me tell you what all is happening…"
An hour later, Luffy grinned as he cut the call with Koala. 'Sengoku should be majorly annoyed right about now…'
He called Makino next, let her know that she could reach him anytime she wanted, and after catching up for a bit, got another number from her. The Marine Base there had a number over which they would send pictures to the Main HQ, which he had just gotten.
Any texts he sent would be treated like a fax, so the receiving end would just print out the message he sent on paper. So, he wrote a short one-line text which he knew would piss off Sengoku and sent it the Marine HQ.
———
MARINE HQ
Sengoku sighed as he went through all the allegations against thirteen Marine Lieutenants and many many more Marines that were working under them. The bombshell article had dropped out of nowhere four days ago and even though it was in East Blue, it had come to his personal attention due to a few events that had followed.
The Criminal Investigation unit was working on verifying the legitimacy of the allegations, but in the meantime, things were happening in the world.
Some of the Marines in Loguetown, where the HQ of the East Blue branch of World Economy News Paper was located, had apparently furiously charged right into their office and made a ruckus. They demanded that the person who wrote the article and made the accusations be brought to them as it was authored by 'Anonymous' in the papers, and when the Journalists told them they didn't know, things had gotten out of hand and a few journalists and civilians had gotten hurt.
It might have seemed like a very small incident, but it involved a personal close friend of Sengoku, who had also gotten hurt.
"You know I respect the Marines, Fleet Admiral," an old man's voice came from a transponder snail that was in front of Sengoku. "But I've seen things like this a lot… and honestly, the more time passes, the more faith I lose in the Marines…"
"Fabre…" Sengoku sighed softly.
"I honestly believed in the Marines a lot back in my heyday, you know…" Fabre said wistfully. "And there's a part of me that wants to think that the Marines were a more just organization when I was younger and that it has only gotten corrupt now… but…" the old man clicked his tongue. "I'm no longer blinded by the brilliance that Garp the Hero was. He attracted all the spotlight, and everything unsavoury was swept away under his shadow…"
Sengoku stayed silent and the old man also remained silent for a few seconds before sighing deeply. "Well, don't worry about this old man's ramblings. It's just regrets in life I guess… I'm resigning from my post as the Chief today."
"You are?"
"It has nothing to do with this incident. I just think it's time I moved on. I'm planning to head to the Grand Line now if you can believe it."
"I see. Be safe, Fabre."
"You too, Senny. God bless you… cause you need all the blessings you can get."
KA-CHAK
The very awkward conversation ended and Sengoku remained silent as he stared at the snail with a blank expression on his face.
"Who was that?" Tsuru asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.
Sengoku rubbed his face as he answered, "A friend back when Garp and I were still starting out. He went into journalism at one point and eventually became the Chief of the East Blue branch of Morgans paper… He's retiring now as you heard. He called about the incident that happened. Marines apparently attacked him too when he tried to reason with them."
"I see…" Tsuru nodded as she clicked her tongue. "I've lost a lot of friends because I work for the Marines too…"
Sengoku just nodded solemnly and leaned back in his chair. "… You ever think about retiring any time soon?"
"Not soon… Kujaku is climbing up the ranks rather quickly," she said with a smile on her face. "I need to be here so that I can keep her away from the truly horrible things that go on in this organization."
Sengoku nodded. "I think I'll break so-"
Knock Knock
Sengoku sighed as he came out of his thoughts and sat back up straight. "Come in."
A middle-aged man with slicked-back light hair and a somewhat pointed nose walked in holding a few files. It was Tensei, also known as Kurouma, the Director of the Marine Criminal Investigative Service.
"Ah Kurouma, I wasn't expecting you so soon," Sengoku said gesturing him to take a seat across from him.
"Yes sir! The investigation has borne results."
"Okay, give me the bad news," Sengoku said already knowing it was going to be bad.
Kurouma nodded and started reading off of the numerous files he was holding. "First off, the Marines who attacked the Newspaper agency four days ago were all interrogated and found to be collaborators of some of the accused Marine Lieutenants that were mentioned in the papers. They have been punished accordingly."
"Good."
"Now, about all the allegations themselves. We reached out to Chief Fabre and he provided us all the proofs that they received. We are still investigating some of the allegations, but so far, over ninety percent of the allegations are true."
Sengoku and Tsuru sighed deeply.
"Few Kingdoms have taken these allegations very seriously as some of the towns and villages that were being mistreated fell into their jurisdictions. They have carried out their own personal investigations, found the allegations to be true, and have requested that the World Government deal with the corrupt Marines lest they take matters into their own hands."
"More of a threat rather than a request," Tsuru grumbled.
"Yes," Kurouma nodded. "Prominent of these threats is being made by Ban Dedessinée, Queen of Frauce Kingdom. She has hounded the Marines for answers and a call for action, twice a day, everyday, for the past four days."
"She's not a patient woman," Sengoku groaned. "She will look for an 'efficient solution' if we don't do something soon."
"Yes, sir. There are other Kingdoms demanding action too, but they are just for name's sake. Apart from that, you must be aware of Clockwork Island."
"Makino called too?" Sengoku said, whining internally.
"Yes, but not to complain. The Marines stationed there are some of Garp's students, so they are actually asking if they could be of help in any way. Some of the accused Marines have disappeared, so I was thinking of sending Garp's students to investigate and capture them."
"Oh, one good news at least. Yes, let's use them."
"Yes, sir. The Revolutionary Army is also on the move in at least four Kingdoms as far as we know. Three of these are Kingdoms where a war against the Crown was already taking place. The news of the corrupt Marines is being blown out of proportion and people are being told that the whole World Government, and by conjunction, the Crown of the respective Kingdoms, are also corrupt, and thus, the Army is gaining more supporters. In one Kingdom, we got news last night that the Royal Crown has already been overthrown and it is now a Revolutionary Army affiliated country."
Sengoku's brows furrowed as he let out a deep sigh. "Damn Revolutionaries…"
"One more incident happ-"
"How many more you got?" Sengoku asked with a frown.
"Many more, sir."
"… Go on."
"Vice Admiral Garp was close to one of the accused Marines, so he went there, arrested all the corrupted ones and beat the entire Marine Base into shape for being quiet and complicit."
Sengoku rubbed her forehead grumbling curses at his old friend. "Well, that's actually good in a way. I'll tell him to visit a few more places."
"But he didn't follow any due process," Kurouma said, but it wasn't a protest, but just a statement.
"Yeah well, what's new?" Sengoku scoffed massaging his head.
"Just letting you know, sir. That's all." Kurouma said clearing his throat.
"Tell Smoker to join in on the cleanup too."
"Sir, Smoker left his post a few days ago."
"What?!" Sengoku softly growled.
"Yes, sir. After losing to a pirate called Strawhat Luffy, he left for the Grand Line to chase after him."
Sengoku automatically grew annoyed at the mention of that name but he ignored it. "He just up and left?! Which Vice Admiral is in charge of him?"
"Ah, it didn't matter, sir. Captain Smoker's exact words were 'You don't tell me what to do!'"
Sengoku sighed deeply and felt like tearing his hair out. "Go on."
"Some riots and stoning incidents have happened to a few Bases too. Until now, we've received 35 such reports. So, the masses are also riled up. But we expect it will die down soon enough."
Tsuru picked up the newspaper where the allegations were published and sighed. "The article ends with the Author asking people to not stay quiet if they see injustice and if possible, take matters into their hands by contacting the relevant authorities. So of course, there will be many who misinterpret that as take matters into your own hands and start riots…"
"Let's be glad that the paper was circulated only in East Blue," Sengoku sighed.
"About that sir," Kurouma spoke up.
"Oh no."
"Big News Morgans is mad that his people were attacked. Especially since Chief Fabre resigned, he is beyond furious, blaming his resignation on us, and has informed us that he will be publishing the same in all the Blues and the Grand Line too."
Sengoku felt like banging his head on his desk. "Anything else?"
"Yes, sir. We don't know if this is related but the Revolutionary Dragon was spotted in Loguetown a few days ago."
Sengoku banged his fist on the desk angrily. "That bastard is behind all this?!"
"Honestly, we don't know. But that's not what I was going to report," Kurouma paused before continuing. "The Food Cache in East Blue that was scheduled to be shipped to the Celestial Dragons was attacked yesterday."
"What?! Why is he acting now?!"
"Half the food disappeared while the other half was destroyed." Kurouma continued before sliding a file towards Sengoku. "We have received pictures, and it's not good."
Sengoku opened it with apprehension and found pictures of a place that looked to be utterly ravaged. Huge battalions were destroyed and found a mile inland. Trees and houses smashed into smithereens. Traces of lightning and fires could be seen everywhere. The port was so utterly destroyed that it couldn't be called a port anymore. It honestly looked like a few natural disasters had ravaged the land one after the other.
"Except for the workers who were just hired to load the supplies and the slaves who have disappeared, everyone else was killed," Kurouma informed.
"This seems like…" Tsuru eyed all the pictures for a while before saying, "Rage."
"Yes," Sengoku agreed with a grim look. "If I didn't know any better, I would say Dragon was blowing off some steam here… What reason would he have to do this at this point in time?" He grumbled, not knowing he was right with his first guess. He just gritted his teeth in frustration and closed the file. "I'm not dealing with this. Pass this up to the Gorosei. Let their Knights deal with this."
"Yes, sir."
"We done here?" He asked, annoyance leaking into his voice.
"Not yet. A few slave traders were also exposed in the article with whom the corrupt Marines were collaborating. We followed up and found a big network of slavers. A particular name keeps popping up as the destination for where the slaves are being taken, but we are finding it hard to pinpoint where the place is exactly. It's called Tequila Wolf an-"
"Forget about it." Sengoku interrupted blankly.
Kurouma stared at Sengoku for a few moments before nodding. "Yes, sir."
He then collected all the papers that had anything to do with Tequila Wolf in his files, walked up to a trash can and threw them away, while Sengoku and Tsuru just stared ahead blankly.
"That is all, sir," Kurouma said going for the door and Sengoku nodded.
Kurouma was about to walk out but hesitated for a second. "Umm, this is unrelated but there was a strange incident that occurred a couple of hours ago."
"What?"
"Ah, it's nothing important. Just strange, that's all," He fished out a sheet of paper and handed it over. "This got printed out of nowhere. It isn't a picture but just a text message, which is already weird. But what's even weirder is that we can't seem to figure out who sent it. It's like the snail printed it with no prompt from anyone… We're looking for any defects in the machine right now… but I think the message is addressed to you… Am I right?"
Sengoku saw what the message was and his face hardened, his eyes flared up in annoyance and he grew furious as his brain made a few connections. "Yes, this is addressed to me. Leave it be." He said coldly.
Kurouma just nodded awkwardly and with a goodbye, left.
As soon as the door closed, Sengoku banged his fists on his desk and growled, "It's that annoying brat that's behind all this! I should've known!"
"What are you talking about?" Tsuru said as she walked over to see what was written on the sheet of paper.
How many desks have you broken, Sen? : D
Realization dawned on Tsuru's face. "Are you telling me Luffy was the one behind all this?"
"Morgan and Nezumi were in that list of accused Marines…" Sengoku spat. "I should've realized it the moment I saw those names… He's definitely involved somehow!" Sengoku growled, but Tsuru just chuckled, causing him to snap at her. "You're laughing?!"
"Heh… the boy did tell us that he would be butting heads with all the corrupt Marines. You're just too close to this to notice now, but in a few years, you'll look back and see that this is a good thing."
"Yeah sure!" Sengoku spat furiously. "I have to clean all this up. So many Marine Lieutenant positions need to be filled now. All the Marines that are found to be guilty need to be investigated, stripped off and replaced. That will take a lot of resources, and we are already stretched thin. We also have to fast-track training and employ more Marines now! And that will just result in incompetent Marines being promoted quicker, which will in turn lead to more corrupt assholes! Which will in turn lead to more tragedies! Don't you get it?! This is not the way!"
"Well, I would agree with you," Tsuru smiled bitterly. "But with the way things are currently, you can't use that excuse."
"Things will only get worse than it is now!" Sengoku snapped furiously.
"Things are already 'worse'. If we had a solution, sure, the kid is wrong. But when we have none, you can't expect people to just stay still and not do anything, hoping that things will eventually get better."
"Whose side are you on?!" Sengoku growled.
"Don't take your anger out on me," Tsuru said calmly and Sengoku glared at her for a few seconds before hanging his head low.
"Sorry…"
"I know you are."
Sengoku sighed as he stared at the message, especially the ': D' at the end. "What the hell does a colon D even mean? Is that how he signs the message? Is he referring to the Will of D? Does he kn-"
"Pfft!" Tsuru spluttered out a laugh. "Will of D he says! Pffhehehehehe!"
"What's so funny?"
"Hehe… young people use it in letters these days," Tsuru educated him as she amusedly rotated the piece of paper. "Kujaku uses it too. It's supposed to be a smiley face."
"…Oh…" Sengoku blinked dumbly at the now upright smiley face.
For some reason, his annoyance and anger flared up even higher as he stared at the face. It really got on his nerves. It felt like it was mocking him… Laughing at his misery… He reflexively punched it in rage, and his anger only rose higher when his desk broke.
And still, the smiley face stared up at him from the broken debris, laughing at him…
: D