Chapter Text
Miss Valentine, Miss All Sunday and Mr.5 all stare down at Mr.7 corpse.
"Looks like we need a new Mr.7." Mr.5 hums, "Or at least a Mr3-&-a-half." Miss Valentine giggles merrily at him.
"How disappointing," Miss All Sunday mumbles dispondently,
"Yeah, which part? One of our agents biting the dust? Or the East Blue punk who did it turning down an invitation to Baroque Works?" She looks over at him, unimpressed.
"Both."
"Mr. Zero's not going to be happy."
"No. I can't imagine he will be."
"Good things he's got us." Miss All Sunday ignores him and marches over to the Marine bound up in her hands.
"This is the handiwork of Roronoa Zoro, is it not?" He nods frantically behind his cupped mouth as Miss Valentine recovers Mr.7 with a gentle tap to the head and a 'Goodbye darling'. "We need to find him." The hand pulls away and bursts into pink petals.
"H-he left." The Marine stutters, "His captain & crewmate attacked the base and freed him. Then they escaped and made for the Grand Line."
"You telling us the pirate hunter is a pirate himself?" Mr.5 asked, disbelievingly.
"Awkward..."
"Who are these pirates?" Miss All Sunday asks as she steps forward, and her eyes follow the frantic gesture towards the table to her right, eyes catching on a pair of wanted posters stacked together. She plucks them off the desk and flips between them. "Nakayoshi Y/n & Monkey D. Luffy. Interesting."
"Nami, love, for lunch today, we have a sauteed black pepper octopus. Any idea where Y/n is, I have theirs here too, I don't want any blockheads eating it." Sanji's voice draw your eyes away from the horizon and you peer down to Nami's little desk.
"Thank you Sanji, they're up in the crow's nest if you want to try and get them down, they've been up there for hours."
"Yeah, you two get octopus, I had an egg sandwich." Usopp snarks bitterly as Sanji eyes travel up to find you, eyes masked from the sun and the top of your head just visible over the wooden railing of the crow's nest. "You coming down to rub your good food in my face or you gonna stay up there pouting about sea spray?!" Usopp hollers up to you and you bare your teeth at him jokingly with a hiss.
"Like I need to eat it to rub it in your face!" Despite your retort, you do scramble over the edge of nest, dropping and rolling on to the deck with a thump, just barely missing Zoro and his massive dumbell as he rolls his eyes at you.
You quickly scramble up beside Sanji and the others, pulling the plate from his hand and nipping at him at him gently, catching the sleeve of his shirt as he tries to pull it back.
"Oi, oi! Watch the shirt, those teeth of yours are sharp and I don't know if we would have the supplies to fix it if it tears." His face doesn't match the tone of his voice, his smile softening as he accepts the first bite you offer him. Usopp & Nami eye each other conspiratorially as you start wolfing down the octopus.
"Mit whelly gof!" You mumble around your mouthful.
"Yes, you've outdone yourself as always, Sanji." He grins bashfully.
"I aim to please."
"Although, for black pepper octopus, I don't taste very much pepper." Your eyes bounce from Sanji to Usopp as the blonde glares at the sharp shooter through Nami's magnifying glass. "So I think I have found our best route into the Grand Line. We're not far off but it looks like there's some dangerous traversal ahead. Looks like this waterway here cuts through the Red Line."
"I'm not the navigator," Usopp starts, "but doesn't this open ocean seem like a way safer option then sailing through a mountain? It connects right to the Grand Line."
"Well, good thing you are not the navigator, or we would all be screwed." You snigger into your near empty plate and Sanji beams down at your laugh. "This is the Calm Belt."
"I'm guessing it's not named that for its easy travel." Sanji ponders over the map.
"No. It's named for its still weather and lack of wind. You enter the Calm Belt and your sails instantly hang limp. No way to move. Becalmed and dead in the water."
"It's also one of the main breeding grounds for sea kings." You chirp happily, but falter as they turn to look at you confused. Sanji snorts as you duck your head. "I like knowing what lives where in the ocean. It's good for fishing..." You mumble awkwardly as Sanji loops his arm around your shoulder and pulls you into his side. Your face warms as your pressed into his firm muscular torso, and miss the smirk Nami sends Usopp.
"Oh, yeah. Let's not go there. I killed a bunch of them once. We got a lot of bad blood, so it's like..."
"Why don't we go to Lougetown?" Sanji interrupts his rambling before it can start.
"That sounds like a perfectly safe, non-dangerous place to visit. I like this." Nami stares at them both baffled as you blink in concentration, trying to remember why you know the name.
"Loguetown is the largest Marine hub in all of the East Blue."
"It's also an elephant tuna hub. Zeff got them shipped." You smile smugly up at Sanji as you finally remember.
"Let's not go there. I changed my mind. Let's go straight for the Grand Line."
"No, there's gotta be some safer islands around here." Nami searches across the paper as Sanji flaps his hand nonchalantly. "We're low on food and pretty much everything. This could be out last chance to stock up before we get into the Grand Line."
"It is dangerous to enter the Grand Line underprepared, and we're not far away..." Nami agrees.
"Would it not be equally dangerous, as pirates, to head into one of the most bustling hubs before the Grand Line that just so happens to be teeming with Marines?" You ask worriedly, Usopp gesturing at you in agreement.
"You're free for the first time in your life." Sanji scoots around you, swapping arms to scoop Nami up as well, "Haven't you earned the right to buy yourself a little something nice?"
"No. NO." Usopp interjects sharply, but Sanji's on a roll, squeezing you tightly into him.
"And don't think I've noticed we're running low on sewing supplies. You're a pirate with a reputation now, can't let you be wandering about in a torn coat & mucky bandages," he plucks at the ripped seam on your sleeve and grubby stiff gauze wrapped around your wrists, "and I'm sure we could find something to ease the swelling from the chains, mon couer."
Your eyes flash with a sharp rage as your gaze snaps up to him.
"No doctors Sanji." He's already reaching for you before you even finish speaking
"I know, I know mon couer, that's not what I meant. Medicine, no doctors, just so it doesn't hurt I don't want you hurting if I can help it alright?" He cups your face gently, fingers soothing down your cheeks as your anger ebbs and your face warms again. "We take care of each other yeah?"
"No, Y/n, Nami, don't yous fall for it, don't let his charm bewitch you!" Nami purses her lips, trying desperately to hold in a smile while you avoid his eyes.
"I could do with a little shopping." Nami shrugs as Sanji cheers.
"What?! WHAT?! Y/n back me up, this is crazy stupid! Stupid crazy even!" You shrug awkwardly as Sanji loops around you again.
"I mean, I trust Nami..."
"Curse you Sanji! Curse you! And your charm and your chiselled jawline, your ocean eyes." The blond wheezes out a laugh as Usopp slams his fist down on the railing. "We need someone who can talk some sense into the- Zoro! Zoro!"
The green haired man doesn't look up from his weights as the four of you come wandering down. "Buddy, back me up here. Sanji, Nami & Y/n want to go to an island full of Marines to go shopping which I think is pretty stupid idea considering me and Luffy are on a wanted poster now."
"Hey!" You cut in, "I have one too. Hell I had one before Luffy!"
Usopp waves you off, "Unimportant, tell 'em you agree with me."
"Hm." Zoro grunts and drops the giant weight he'd been curling, "Shopping?
"Yeah, can you believe it?" Usopp shales his head smirking.
"Good idea."
"WHAT?!" Zoro half-shrugs.
"I need two more swords, I've been feeling off." You scoff at him.
"What, the one I stole for you not good enough?"
"No." He replies flatly and you splutter as Nami giggles at you.
"Since the sword-shattering arse-kicking Mihawk gave you?" Sanji grinned.
"Shut up, you weren't even there."
"Eeh, I saw what I needed to." Nami shrugged over at Usopp.
"Sorry, Usopp. That's another vote for Loguetown." Usopp turned his head away and raised his hand in frustration.
"This isn't over yet. Where's Luffy?"
"Where do you think?" You all turned to look at the figure head where Luffy was grinning out to sea.
"Hey Luffy! Crew meeting."
"Coming!" You all watched as he clambered down the figure head towards you all, "Okay! What's up?" He immediately went for the plate in Sanji's hands, before getting pulled away by Usopp.
"I've always respected your position as captain on this crew and now is the time for you to step up, put your foot down with these hooligans, otherwise we're gonna get killed." You muffle a snort as Luffy glances at the rest of you, only vaguely concerned.
"What'd you mean?"
"We need to make a stop."
"But we're going to the Grand Line so I can-" you all join in, you more cheerily than the others, finishing the line for him "-find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates." You raise you hand and vaguely point in the direction of the Grand Line.
"And we wanna get there too, Luffy," Nami starts, "but we need to stop in Loguetown to get some things first."
"What's in Loguetown?"
"DEATH!" You roll your eyes at Usopp.
"I don't want that."
"I need new swords." Zoro ignores Usopp's worries completely, resting his foot up on his giant dumbell.
"Good. That could help with the death." You nod and add,
"And we need more food for the journey ahead. Fishing will only get us so far." Sanji smirks down at you as Luffy smiles.
"Even better!"
"And someone needs treatment for the irritation on their arms before they get infected because they don't do doctors." You grit your teeth in a snarl but he just raises his eyebrows at you as Nami nods.
"Knowing our luck, they'd get so bad we'd need to sedate them just to get looked at." Luffy glances between the two as you shuffle awkwardly.
"Why no doctors again?"
"Can't trust them." You answer shortly, scratching at the bandages on your wrists, "No good ever comes from visiting doctors." Sanji shakes his head softly as Nami stares at the pair of you but Luffy just shrugs.
"Eh, we'll find a doctor at some point, and they'll be good, and you won't have to worry about it." Nami moves the conversation on as you bristle at the idea.
"Aaaand, it's also the place where Gold Roger was executed. The place where the King of the Pirates was born & died." Nami ignored the side eye Usopp was giving her as the awe started to register on Luffy's face. "Where the legend of the One Piece was born." A grin grew across all your faces as Luffy began quivering with excitement, "You want to see it, don't you?"
"You know I do!" Nami pouted at Usopp as Luffy clapped his shoulders and hopped away.
"And you thought we were gonna skip Loguetown."
"All right, Straw Hats, set course to, wait which way?" He glanced back at Nami who pointed him in the right direction, "Okay, set course to Loguetown!"
"Wow, we're really here!" Luffy exclaims.
"So many people."
"Look at this place!"
And you do, your eyes dancing across the streets bustling with people of shapes and sizes, skittering away from Marine patrols as a tram rattles past. The entire place vibrated with life, hundreds of people flitting back and forth, the wishes thrumming under you skin making your eyes tingle and your face itch and twitch.
"Loguetown. The town of the beginning and the end." Nami read of a plate embedded in the base of a statue, Sanji keeping his hand on you the only thing grounding you to from spiralling from the inundation of sensation.
"This is where it all started. The hunt for the One Piece." You squeezed your eyes shut as the bustling crowds wishes washed over you. "HISTORY HAPPENED HERE!" You ducked your head as people looked over at Luffy's shout.
"Check it, it looks like they're having some kind of festival." Sanji looked around at the hanging banners, Zoro agreeing with him.
"For Gold Roger's execution." Sanji linked your arm with his, heat and pain flying up the dug in chains on your arms at movement despite his gentleness. He pulled you along to catch a hold of Luffy as Usopp muttered to Nami.
"A festival? Not so good for laying low."
"Then we'll just have to be smart. No attracting unnecessary attention."
"Agreed." You ignored the grimace she sent you at the rough tone of your voice and the peakiness of your face.
"I want to see the execution platform!" Luffy's hand was raised for his request.
"Of course you do." She started rummaging in her bag, "Sanji what if you took Luffy with you for some food shopping? Hmm?"
"Food first, then execution platform!" Luffy agreed easily.
"Right food'll keep him out of trouble. And I'm sure we can pop in to an apothecary to see if they have something of Y/n, aye?" You swallowed hard, eyes closed and sweat beading your forehead. Sanji's brow furrowed at the state of you, he was sure you weren't this bad even an hour ago on the Merry. He pulled you into him gently, hands careful on the heat emanating from your arms. "We can go get something for you first. I was serious about needing you taken care of." He whispered to you as Nami explained her plan for the trip to the others.
"I'll be fine, just with so many people, my Devil Fruit is running my head ragged." He sighed quietly.
"If you're sure." You nodded and tuned back in to Nami & Zoro's conversation.
"You take this, you pay back. With 300% interest." You can't catch the snigger from escaping at Nami's triumphant smile.
"What if I need more?"
"You haggle?" She shrugged at him like he was an idiot. "There's the price that they want and the price that they will take."
"Haggle..." Zoro agreed slowly. "Fine."
"We're gonna have a fun time bailing him out later." You mutter as he walks away. Nami snorts.
"Yeah, like we'd be paying for him. He can break himself out the same way he did last time." You eyed her carefully.
"Last time Luffy and I got lost in the sewers and untied him because we came out of the grate right in front of him." She stared at you half aghast.
"That liar said he broke out himself." You both snigger at the dumb lie. "Whatever, let's just get out stuff and get back to the ship."
"I'm gonna stay with Nami. Young woman in the big city, you gotta keep her safe." Nami rolled her eyes at him and you chuckled as she handed both you and Luffy extra cash.
"My hero. Alright, we will meet back here when we are done, and remember this is a large Marine town, so..."
You miss the end of her sentence as Sanji drags you along after Luffy as he begins barrelling through the streets.
"Hello Loguetown!"
"Luffy, wait up!"
"This is Shell Town all over again."
"Oh Sanji! I can't believe there's so much food from the East Blue that I've never tried before!" He peers gleefully at a stall covered in shell fish, "I just wanna eat it all."
"Yeah no I get it, it's nice to taste the flavours of home before we leave, but!" You pull the oyster shell out of his hands as Sanji steers him away from the stall, "Think of all the new things we're gonna try when we get into the Grand Line."
"I can't stop thinking about it." You trail along behind the pair, close but not crowd, gaze never leaving the stalls around you.
Your eyes flicker across the selections, Zeff's voice echoing through your mind as you eye up deals and offers. While the covered area you were walking through had sizzling pans of cooking meat and bubbling cauldrons of soup, the shade offered from the beating sun and the smaller collection of people had eased whatever fever had started to linger under your skin. The urge to itch bare skin wrestled your self restraint.
As you pull the edge of one of the bandages wrapped around your wrist to loosen it you feel something hard and unfamiliar etched into your skin. The groves scored into your skin are literally as familiar as, well, the back of your hand, but this is cool and smooth. You peel the gauze free just enough to spy flesh and furrow your brows at that sight that greets you. Instead of the raised red ridge of your chain tattoos that had lingered on your skin your entire life, looping around your wrist was sleek metal, cold to the touch. It was flush to your wrist unlike the chains but the shade was starkly obvious, because there, clamped around your wrist, was a manacle, the same colour as your chains.
"Y/n, love, you alright?" Your eyes snap up to meet Sanji's right blue ones swimming in concern. You tuck the bandage back into place around your wrist as your mind reels.
"Yeah, yeah. They're," You wave your wrist awkwardly and dig your fingers into your palms, "really itching is all."
"You sure?" He eyed you thoroughly as you squeeze your mouth shut, sending him a tight lipped smile he wasn't impressed with. His eyes soften as you rub your hands together, both beginning to shake and itch under his scrutiny. "We'll get you some ointment soon, hun. Don't be worrying."
"What?!" Both your eyes dart to Luffy as he grinned doofily at a fish with the tusks and trunk of an elephant. "What is this thing?"
"That is a blue-finned elephant tuna." He glances at the stall owner who nods to allow him his perusal. "They're actually native to the South Blue." The owner laughs.
"Good eye! You really know your stuff!" You smile at Sanji's preening.
"Well, you know, I've experimented a bit."
"He's the best cook in the whole East Blue." Luffy says proudly, clapping an arm over his shoulder.
"In the whole world!" You agree.
"Ha, well if you want it, it's yours. It's the last one anyway! The restaurant Baratie took almost everything I have. Adding a new item to their menu. True blue-fin sauté." You cough a chuckle into your hand as Sanji smiles awkwardly.
"Hey that sounds like the dish you made!" You can't catch the cackle that escapes you as Sanji nods woefully.
"That is the dish I made. So the old geezer stole it and put it on the menu."
"Sanjiiii." You bemoan, resting your chin on his shoulder with a pout and Luffy punches his other.
"Sounds like Zeff liked it."
"I guess he did. Well, then I'm gonna have to keep impressing him, so I'll take this beauty. And what else you got?"
The stall owner laughs jovially and leads Sanji away.
"Come with me!" Sanji glances back at you as he follows but you wave him away, patting Luffy's shoulder as his gaze drifts about.
"Come here, Luffy, we'll stick together."
"That doesn't mean go wandering about town, Sanji's gonna go ballistic if we're not there when he comes back!"
"I just want to see the execution platform, excuse me," he stops in front of a group of people chatting and you run square into his back, "do you guys know where the execution platform is?"
"Get lost." Luffy pulls you away before you go feral on the man and starts walking away.
"It's okay!" He calls over his shoulder, instead approaching a man busking in a side street. "DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE EXECUTION PLATFORM-" You quickly stuff a hand over his mouth and drag him back a bit.
"Sorry," you shrug sheepishly at the man's glare and drop your hand before rounding on your captain, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him down into a headlock. "Luffy if you ever do that again I'm going to drown you." He nods and pulls back from you.
"Okay okay, I'm sorry." He looks around with a sigh. "Why is it so hard to just get some directions?"
You both start walking again, the pair of you looking around for any signs or something to guide you, before Luffy bangs into someone.
"Luf!"
"Oh sorry!" The man, with green hair, sharp teeth and a tattoo on his eye grins merrily at the pair of you.
"Hello marks!" You squint at him for a moment and his smile drops in panic before laughing awkwardly. "I mean, mates! You wouldn't happen to be looking for Gold Roger's execution platform, would ya?" Luffy smiles happily at him. You let Luffy take the conversation but your squinting doesn't lessen and you see him swallow roughly under your gaze.
"That's exactly what we're looking for!"
"Isn't this your lucky day?" He relaxes instantly, and something about the shift makes you drop the squint. Seems more stupid than vicious. You'll just keep an eye on him. "I was just heading in that direction." He claps Luffy on the shoulder and starts leading you both. "Name's Bartolomeo, and I'm famous around this city for my... hospitality!"
"Wow!" Luffy beams at him. "What's it like being famous?"
"Oh, I'll tell you all about it!" Scampering after the pair as they move briskly through the crowd, you're so focused on keeping up you completely miss both yours and Luffy's wanted posters plastered across every wall.
The fesitival grounds are choc a block with people, stands and displays and games lining every avenue you move down. The high number of people is running up your power's abilities, and the sweat is beading on your forehead again despite the cooler night air.
"Does this whole fair ground set up creep you out as much as me, or am I just getting flashbacks to Bungie?"
"Nope just you!" Luffy chatters back.
He saunters happily though the crowds, yourself and your new companion Bartolomeo lingering a few steps behind as he gapes at the fun fair's set up.
"Look! That's it!" Luffy face grows serious as he gazes up at the execution platform. "The King of the Pirates died over there."
The whole thing was light up with string lights, a strangely whimsical chose for such a grotesque monument of a man's death.
"Never gave two shits about that guy."
You hum beside him. "But you can't deny the impact he made." The cobble stones and packed earth beneath your feet swell with wishes from that day, whisps of memories and images and directions flitting past you in a sickening concoction riding on the scent trails of fried dough and powdered sugar.
"Yeah, well, the Marines just make a big deal every year, tryna remind us of the rules. Get caught, get dead." You walk side by side with Luffy up the red carpet to the curtained off area of the courtyard.
"It's where the Great Pirate Era began."
"That why you want to see this place so bad, huh?"
"Wow..."
You breath out a heavy sigh into the stillness around you as you stop just passed the curtained doorway, allowing Luffy to step forward alone. Even the flailing powers moving endlessly under your skin still for a second as you gaze up at the silent platform.
"Everything I've done. Everywhere I'll go. It all started here." A smile crawls up his face. "I just wanted to see it for myself." With a small laugh he tilts the brim of his straw hat to the ghost of Gold Roger. You step aside as he enters back into the tented area, grinning at Bartolomeo. "Don't you have a dream you want to follow?"
"Uh..." he stutters, "I never thought about that..." Before he could continue the thought, something snatches the hat from Luffy's head.
With a yelp he chases after it, grabbing it as it approached the ramshackle merry go round you three had passed earlier. As he snatches it back, he reveals a pair of disembodied hands clad in white gloves. They flip the pair of you off before waving your defiled wanted posters in your faces before flying back and reattaching.
To the goddamn clown pirate.
"You miss me, dickbags?"
"Who the hell are you?" Bartomoleo stares, completely thrown. Luffy just fixes his hat and you sigh.
"Bunny."
"I hate being right." The clown pirate drops his malicious grin and stands, snarling.
"It's BUGGY! You know my name you stretchy little shitlick-"
"I said that-"
"Does it really matter if-"
"It's Bug- It's Buggy the Clown!"
"That's what I said-"
"We're just gonna kick your ass again dude, it really-"
"That's not, shut the FUCK up you little creepazoid compass, that's not what you said. Oh God, I forgot how annoying you two are!" He catches sight of Bartolomeo over your shoulders and sends you both careening out of the way. "And who is this? Let me guess. New crew member? You must be the ship'sssssssssssssssssssssssssss stylist?" You ignore the clown, already done with his nonsense as you pick up the scattered mini wanted posters and hand Luffy one of his. "I wanna make fun of you, but honestly I love what you're doing. You sure you wouldn't be better off with us?" You sigh as Luffy tucks his mini poster into his back pocket and turns to the clown again.
"He's famous around here, ya know?"
"Can we please not do this, my head is throbbing and my tummy hurts soooo bad." You whisper forlornly, but your captain persists.
"His name is-" Bartolomeo laughs over him and flicks away the butterfly knife in his hand.
"I'm nobody! I got nothing to do with him, or you or any other pirate. I'm outta here." He turns and tries to dip away and you roll your eyes back for a second as Buggy saunters after him.
"God I wish that were me."
"Hey, come on. What's the rush, friend? You know, I love a bit of audience participation."
"What'dya want any way? How'd you find us this time?" You sigh and roll your shoulders back.
"I knew you'd come here." Buggy starts advancing on you both, swinging Bartolomeo's knife. "Drawn like a shit moth to a shit flame. But that doesn't ever work out well for the moth, now, does it? Oh I can see it now!" Buggy hops away, doing a smug little dance in front of the merry go round. "Old Shanksy bouncing you on his knee, filling your head up with all the stories of Gold Roger's final curtain call, DREAMING that one day, you'd come to stand in his shadow."
"Is this another one of your shows?" Luffy asks smuggly.
"Oh no, tonight's not a show. Tonight, is a lesson. And it's where your brief, pathetic little journeys come to an end. It's a shame your other friends aren't here to see it. But LUCKY FOR YOU, I brought some friends of my own. Oh, honey bunny!" He crows cheerfully and a tall lady pulls the curtains open on a photo booth,
"I am not your honey bunny." Luffy peaks around Buggy.
"Alvida?" Buggy growls and watches him in annoyance.
"Her name you remember?" He turns to you and drops his arms in annoyance, "He met her once!"
"I've been thinking bout this for a long time, Straw Hat."
"Yeah, it's, it's been a while. How's your ship?"
"You lit it on fire." You can't stop the snort that escapes you, and Luffy joins you in chuckling.
"Right, whoa. Whoo! Anyways," He turns and nods to you, elbowing you in the side, "Gotta get going, guys! Grand Line's calling." You both turn to leave.
"Oh you're not walking out of here alive. Hehah!" You sigh and roll your neck.
"Of course, why would it be so simple?" Luffy is much happier with the statement.
"So you wanna fight?" Alvida eyes him smuggly.
"Take your best shot."
He shrugs. "Okay! GUM GUM-" He reels his fist back and it goes flying over the tent rooves, "-PISTOL!" When he flings it back towards Alvida, her confident face doesn't falter, especially as the punch slips right off her cheek and sends a clown behind her flying. "How'd you do that?"
"Same trick won't work twice! Not anymore, I ate the Slip Slip Fruit. Whatever you throw at me slides right off." You sigh heavily and rub your face in your hands.
"How did everyone else get cool fighting Devil Fruits and I get a compass that doesn't even work right. How's that fair?!" Luffy's hand smacks you in the chest and pats you confidently as he steps forward to face Alvida directly.
"I don't care about your devil fruit. You still can't beat me. Y/n, you go ahead and sit this one out, I got it covered." You glance behind you at the huge crowd of pirates encircling the pair of you, and don't move.
"I appreciate the thought but it's a bit late for it now, cap. Looks like it's two against one Mrs. Clown Show." Alvida smiles bitterly at you.
"Oh we'll see about that. I'm Captain Iron Mace Alvida, the most powerful & ruthless pirate in the East Blue and I will have my vengeance." She slides her flipflops off as she speaks before calling, "Slip Slip Tracks!" A pair of pirates lift the wooden board she had been resting on and she slides down and begins to circle you both, going around and around, quickly picking up speed (and her mace) as she went, before launching her mace into the two of you sending you both flying through the air, and everything turns black.
The void is quiet. That isn't a word you've ever been used to. Quiet. Silence. A lack of sound. There was always some noise, something lurking at the edge of your awareness when the rest of the world went to sleep. Some silent aspect of your devil fruit, sitting at the end of your bed when your eyes were closed, lingering in the corner of your vision during late nights doing dish, hovering on the stairs as you sat in the bowels of the Going Merry.
Normally your world ached with noise, constant and aimless stimulation just by virtue of existing near other people, the echoes and visions of the dreams and wishes knocking around endlessly for your attentions.
But now? Everything was still. There was stillness. There was silence. There was...
...a pair of stupid looking boots in your face and someone who won't stop shouting.
"Those fancy new bracelets of yours are made of sea stone, you ever HEARD OF IT?"
"Shhhhhhhhhh." You slur, the voice is very dismissive of the fact your head is stuffed full of cotton and your ears are ringing. The loud voice ignores you.
"It's an element with all the properties of the sea itself." The cuffs around your wrists must weigh a bazillion tonnes.
"It zaps you of all your obnoxiously spirited stamina. And your little friends snark."
"And the best part is, it nullifies your little devil fruit powers."
"Just like seawater."
"Good." Your mouth feels full of honey, sweet and tacky, "Maybe I can take a nap without seventy voices in my head wanning money..."
"How are they still saying this shit? I thought they were unconscious!"
"They are!"
"Obviously not enough. Cabaji, kick 'em."
And with a jolt to the side of the head, the void welcomes you back with open arms.
You can't say you've been to any courts before, but this one is for sure a scam. Hung by your wrists, again, thank you Bunky, the skin under the sea stone cuffs are red and raw to match the rest of the skin skating up and down your chains. Luffy was hung limply over some sort of faux witness stand, his mouth taped closed just like yours, with the clown as his defence and your head and stomach were working in tandem against you as you once again dangled uselessly beside Alvida's seat, feet just barely on the ground.
"My fellow pirates, citizens of Loguetown, the charges against this buffoon known as Monkey D. Luffy are as follows." You were very confident in saying her voice was as bad as dragging your head through shards of glass. "He destroyed my ship, kidnapped my precious Koby, and turned him against me, and worst of all daring to call himself the future King of the Pirates. The only justified sentence is death."
Luffy began struggling against the tape as the clown pirates cheered, shouting from behind it as Buggy shushed him continuously.
"As your lawyer, I advise that you let me do the talking." Alvida makes eye contact with you and you both roll your eyes. "Friends, good freaks, and residents of Loguetown, lend me your ears." He pranced into the centre of the tent, arms wide and falsely beseeching. "Now, is Luffy a stupid little dipshit? Yeah. Is his friend a mouthy little turd who needs to cool their jets? Also yes. And should we all be deeply humiliated that they have somehow become the most wanted pirates in the East Blue? Of course! And is he," he spins round pointing at Luffy, "so insufferably obnoxious that sometimes you just want to rip that ridiculous hat off his head and cram it down his throat? Absolutely. I know I do. But even with all that does he really deserve to die? The answer is yes, and I rest my case! Kill the kinky chain brat too while we're at it." All the pirates in the jury stand stand and cheer, delighted at the verdict. "Well, the system works!"
Buggy dumps his disguise in the corner of the tent before going to rip the tape off Luffy's face.
"You're not a very good lawyer." Buggy grabs him by the sides of his face and pulls it tight.
"Don't you understand the lesson yet, kid? The most powerful thing in the world isn't a weapon or a devil fruit," his eyes drop from Luffy and crawl up to meet yours, leaving the feeling of a slimey trail dripping down your body, "or even a dream. It's a story." Alvida gets down from her seat, swinging her mace with her.
"But all stories end. Including yours. TODAY!"
"And all of these fine folks are gonna bear witness. The boy who would be king chopped down before he ever left the East Blue."
"Y/n? Luffy?" You both perk up immediately at the voice.
"Sanji?!" Buggy drops Luffy's head instantly to go and check.
"Oh good the Shit Hats made it. Take care of the Luff troupe while I move on with the main event?" Alvida tosses him to the side with a growl.
"Ugh, out of my way!" Buggy hauls Luffy up and out of his stand.
"So you wanna be like the King of the Pirates huh? Well, be careful what you wish for." You struggle against your binds desperately, still groggy and nauseous. But knowing your crew was just outside gave you a renewed sense of urgency as Luffy got dragged away.
The pirates in the tent scattered as the fighting outside grew louder. Rattling your chains, you were well and truly stuck in place, and with your mouth covered it wasn't like you could shout for help from the others. You were once again hanging by a hook and chains in a frigging circus tent. Your eyes flick around the mostly empty tent for something, anything that might work to get you out, at the knocked over stand at the far end, the jury box, the discarded lawyer outfit underneath Alvida's seat.
Your eyes flash. Alvida's seat. That could work. Half way up the wall, the thing jutted out like a dunk tank seat, and might just be close enough. With a deep breath, you steel yourself, swallow down another wave of bile rising in your throat and kick your legs out. Now dangling your whole weight on your chains, you mange to catch the side of your foot on the seat, then the full foot, and the other. With an all mighty heave and push, you push yourself higher into the air and manage to slip the manacle chains out of the hooks grasp.
And into gravity's, as you flop face first on to the straw strewn ground.
But hey, you're off the hook.
Fumbling to your feet, you rip the tape from your mouth and gag desperately. You peek your head out of the tent and spot the back of a familiar bandanaed man, now with new goggles. And the purple haired clown sneaking up on him as he shoots his sling shot. Without thinking you jolt forward, wrapping the manacle's around the clowns throat with a strangled yell. With a twist and a drop, you fall to your knees behind him, chains pulled tight around the clowns throat as he scrambles furiously for 3, 4, 5 seconds before going still and dropping limp.
Usopp spins at the noise and stares aghast at you as you groggily stand to your feet. You untangle your manacles from the unconscious (hopefully) clown. "Sup."
"SUP? You just killed that guy!" You look back down at the guy in question.
"I hope not."
"Was that my pepper?" You both turn to look at Sanji as he stops short at the sight of you. "Y/n."
"Hi-" You let out a puff of air as he bangs into you and wrapping you up tightly. "Hi Sanji. Please let go before I throw up on you."
"What?"
"Yeah these manacles are great fun."
"My name is MONKEY D. LUFFY. I will find the One Piece and become KING OF THE PIRATES!" You all turn to look up at the execution platform, where Buggy had Luffy kneeling and cuffed.
With a yell from one of the Marines, the fighting starts again. You duck beneath Sanji's kick and smash into some pirates legs, sinking your teeth into their thigh with a snarl as they squeal and try desperately to kick you away. Nami takes the opportunity to knock him down, smacking first in the chest, then in the face with her staff.
You lunge for another, whipping your bound hands up and over them, using their own momentum to garrotte them with the chains, sending you both crumbling to the ground. You try to heave yourself upright again but a well timed kick knocks you off balanced and you topple over, only for Nami to use you as a launch pad to attack another pirate.
"Zoro! Sanji! Usopp! Nami! Y/n!" You all look up at your captain, Buggy's sword to his throat. "I'm sorry. I'm dead."
"LUFFY!" You all yell and start fighting desperately, trying to move out of the swell of attacks to get to your captain. His laugh starts to echo around you all, smile still splitting his face as Buggy stood with his sword raised above his head. With a giggle his voice rings out.
"I'M DEAD!" And with that a screaming bolt of lightening catches Buggy's sword, sending the man screaming into pieces. For a second hope swells in your chest before another bolt chases its brethren and strikes true to the platform itself, sending an explosion cascade down the wooden slats and the entire structure tumbles to the ground. You all stare at the smouldering ruins as Luffy calmy retrieves his hat from Bartolomeo and walks into the main hub. "Lucky me! Everyone okay?"
"Us?" Usopp follows to the main group "You just got struck my lightning."
"Luffy we need to get back to the ship."
"And I would like these manacles off now, please and thank you." You sway groggily, Sanji and Usopp carefully catching your swaying form to steady you and keep you upright.
"HOLD IT. YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST BY ORDER OF THE MARINES!" The white garbed cadets start swarming the fair grounds and Bartolomeo interjects before anything starts.
"There's an exit over there. Get the hell out of here!" Luffy shoots him a finger gun.
"Thanks!"
"My bags!" Nami cries, and she and Usopp dash off to collect them. Sanji, for his part, scoops up your hand and starts dashing along with Luffy and Zoro. The jostling run over cobblestone sends unpleasant curls through your stomach and you tuck your head to your chin and squeee your eyes shut and Sanji's hand tightly. His squeezes back.
"Where are Nami & Usopp? Did they get lost?" Luffy calls to you both.
"Nami doesn't get lost, they're probably at the Merry." They go to cut through a square but Zoro hollers them back.
"This way." You all scuttle back together and make for the back alleys but are halted by a female voice.
"Stop right there."
"Or not..." Risking a peek through narrowed eyes, you spy a young woman with a blue coloured bob, a sword on her hip and a Marine coat.
"Marines. Why is it always Marines?"
"Angry ex?" Sanji whispers and you roll your eyes belatedly, dropping your head back to his shoulder.
"Get to the ship, I got this."
"Kay byyyyyeee." You mumble as Sanji and Luffy run, dragging you beleaguered self along with them.
Luffy is giggling happily as the three of you make it into a more open road through town, no Marines in sight. You vision is blurry and world around you is swinging to and through like a dingey in a storm, and your stomach is rolling right along with it. A bell rings in the distance. An alarm, warning of pirates.
"Monkey D. Luffy and Nakayoshi Y/n." The pair pull you to a stop and you stand as straight as you can. A man steps out of the shadows, another goddamn Marine, short blond hair cut tight on the sides and swooping back over his head, smoking two cigars, the putrid smoke rolling around him. "I'm Captain Smoker of the Marines. You're not going anywhere." The three of you glance at each other.
“Sorry Smokey, we’re kind of in a hurry right now.” You stare at Luffy aghast as Sanji grins smugly.
"I got this," he assures you, leaving you wobbling next to Luffy as he uses a wall run up to leap across at Smoker, sending a kick to his neck.
Or what should have been his neck.
Instead, the man dissolves into smoke and Sanji goes rolling across the cobblestones to the steps of a restaurant.
"He has a devil fruit!" He hollers.
"Oh yeah, you for sure got that, Sanji."
"Doesn't matter, we take him out." Luffy grinned as Smoker reformed and took off running at him, jumping to tackle on to get caught in the gut and sent flying. Sanji joins back in, getting up and kicking at his chest and you drop and go for his legs, teeth first. He is able to block you both, sending Sanji into a wall and you arse over ankles across the cobblestone street. Luffy looks over at you sprawled across the ground, and then at Sanji and snarls.
"GUM GUM GATLING!" You push yourself up onto your elbows and watch as none, none, of the dozens of punches connect, the Marine simply fading into smoke with each strike. You clamber slowly back to you feet and stand beside your captain as smoke begins to curl around the man's wrist. With an easy flick, he sends the lunging Sanji flying through the nearby window in a wave of smoke.
"Sanji-" "SANJI!!" Smoker smirks at your reactions, shaking his head.
"Small fries." You grit your teeth and raise your arms, still cuffed at the wrist and cross them in an X across the bottom of your face, your eyes swirling red and gold with rage. Smoke surrounds his wrists again as he launches two smoking fists at the pair of you.
"White Blow!" While you going flying with the force of the blow, Luffy manages to snag both arms and launch himself at Smoker, only to once again get nowhere as he passes straight through in a torrent of smoke. As Luffy rights himself, Smoker's arms dissolve, plumes of smoke pouring from their places, swirling up and around thickening the air with smog and catching Luffy by both arms. The boy gets pulled through the air before getting sling shotted into a table and chairs set up in front of a restaurant. You struggle to sit up as one of the jets of smoke catches you the neck dragging you along with the Marine as he clamps down on Luffy's head.
"You're worth 30 million berry." He tells him smugly, and leers up at you, "And you aren't far off it." The swirling smoke around your neck begins to creep up around your mouth and nose, sickly sweet tasting and chokingly cloying, sending tears streaming down your face as you cough and splutter. "Looks like your lucks run out, kids."
He begins to pull his weapon free, only for his wrist to be caught by a robed man with a face tattoo.
"Who's luck did you say?"
"You." Smoker sneers up at him.
"Who are we to stand in the way of another man's voyage?"
"World Government wants your head."
"Hm. Not today. The world is still waiting for our answer." An impossibly strong wind starts blowing, the smoke around your mouth and Luffy's mouth and the man creating it being blown away as Sanji staggers out of the shop. The pair of you are left lying on the ground where he stood and for a second, you don't stand up, coughing the remnants of Smoker from your lungs.
"Y/n?! Luffy!" Sanji pulls you both up gently. "Let's go." Your legs disagree, strength well and truly sapped by the sea stone cuffs and he instead scoops you up, princess style. "Hey, you're okay. Come on, we'll get these off you shortly come on, Luffy come on."
"The hell happened back there?" Zoro calls to the three of you, as Luffy clambers aboard behind you and Sanji as he sets you down carefully on a barrel, propped up against the mast.
"Rain's about to hit, Zoro, Usopp, drop the sails!"
"Nami, we need your lock picking skills down here, darling, we need to get these cuffs off now!" You blink blearily up at Sanji, and he smiles nervously as Nami joins him, picking the lock on the cuffs with ease. You peer up at Luffy, whos eyes hadn't left the dock.
"That guy who saved us," you voice is croaky, still rough from the smoke and groggy from the cuffs that fall free into Nami's skilled hands. He glances at you, "Who was that?"
His eyes don't leave the dock, and as you lurch up to stand beside him, your eyes catch a figure in a dark cloak.
"No idea."
Luffy turns away as Sanji runs his hand up your arm carefully as the rain starts to cascade down on the ship. He pulls your hand to him and presses something smooth and cool into it.
An ointment jar.
"Sorry I was late." You barely hear his whisper over the wind as he pulls away again.
Later that night, as the darkness fully seeps into the air of the Merry, you spread the ointment over your arms by the light of one candle. The only thing separating your side of the room from Nami's is a wicker screen, woven with waves and orange blossoms, and light spills through the space haphazardly, so you're careful not to wake the woman when sleep evades you, leaving you to search for it in weaving rows of wool or the plucked seams of shirts.
Tonight it seems like you're unsuccessful, as your new ritual is interrupted by the creak of the next bed over.
"You okay?" Her voice shakes with trepidation, not wanting to poke too hard at a raw wound.
"The redness if going down," You inspect the skin of your arms, the newly emerging manacles around your wrists faring the worst, raised and gleaming where the sea stone cuffs, like a layer of skin had been rubbed off leaving metal exposed. Like your chains. You suppose that's why they hurt so much all the time.
"I meant," you knew, you didn't want to talk about it, "the cuffs. I know what it's like. Better than most." A little orange haired girl chained in the map room of a fallen tower darts through your mind. The child with h/c locks hanging greasily over their face, wrists locked in front of them in a sealed glass chamber wants to chase her desperately.
"Yeah. I guess you would." You catch her eyes through the wicker, watching as she sits up to rummage for something before standing.
"Here." Something lands quietly beside you. A pair of white leather gloves with gold detailing lay on your blanket, just long enough to hit your wrist, but no longer. "You don't change those bandages enough for it to be actual wounds. I don't know what you're hiding under there, but until you're ready to show us, maybe these will help."
You stare, mesmerised by the gift, the silence dragging on around you for several minutes. When you look up, searching for her eyes in the flickering candle light, you're only meet with orange hair.
You whisper a thank you as you blow out your candle.
And when she sees the mucky used gauze crumpled in the paper bin by her desk, and sees you showing off your new gloves to a gently smirking Sanji in the bright light of the morning, the thrill that runs through her forces as smile on her face, one that you match when you catch her eye with a merry wave.
You two need to stick together after all, you're both outnumbered on this ship otherwise.
"Guys! Look!" The daylight sweeps over the deck as you all gather to watch the final approach of the Grand Line.
"We made it!" You grin down at Sanji before Nami nudges your shoulder and you beam at her.
"Very well done Miss Navigator!"
"Thank you very much, Most Magical Compass." You roll your eyes and sigh as she giggles to herself.
"Is that-"
"Reverse Mountain. The entrance to the Grand Line."
"Our journey is a lot harder from here!"
"Harder than Warlords?
"Killer sharks?"
"Whoever that lady with the mace was?"
"Yeah!" Luffy looked thrilled. "But there's nothing we can't take on, together! Grand Line, here we COMEEEEEEEE!!!! Whoooo! Yahoo!"