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"Hey, get up."
Who's shaking me? I forced my eyes open and saw Nami's face hovering over mine.
"Get up, this place is full of bounty hunters!" she yelled.
Oh, damn.
"Alright, I'm up, relax," I said, standing and walking to the window. I saw a man in a trench coat and a woman in a bright yellow dress standing in the middle of the street. Luffy was lying passed out right next to them.
Idiot! What are you doing?!
Gunshots rang out as Igaram shot at the man they called Mr. 5.
What the hell is going on?
"For a town of bounty hunters, there's no treasure here at all," Nami said, walking over to me.
"How tragic," I mumbled. "What happened?"
"Rose hit you with a mug, and you got knocked out," she explained.
"Right..." I said, the memory of her anger coming back to me. Thanks, sis... I owe you.
Now, the woman in yellow was attacking Miss Wednesday.
"The spy is Igaram, the head of the Alabasta royal guard," Mr. 5 announced, walking out of the smoke unscathed. "And the other is the princess herself, Nefertari Vivi." He held up a photo of a younger-looking Miss Wednesday.
I saw Zoro and Rose run out and grab Luffy, pulling him to safety.
What are they doing up at this hour?
The fight kept escalating, but I was bored. This had nothing to do with me. I walked out the back door, assuming Nami was following me. When I stepped outside, I saw Igaram grabbing Zoro's leg while Rose tried to pull him free.
"Please, protect the princess! If you get her home safely, I promise you'll be greatly rewarded," the man pleaded with Zoro.
"Rewarded, you say?" I heard Nami's voice.
Oh no. Oh no. OH NO!
"How about a billion Beli, then?" Nami asked the man.
Crap.
The man was taken aback by Nami's outlandish request. He was just a guard; he couldn't promise that kind of money.
"Come on, without the help of these three, your princess might die," Nami taunted.
"It's just highway robbery," Rose joked.
"If you save her, you can negotiate with her yourself!" Igaram retorted.
"Are you asking us to save the girl first? Fine, we'll take care of it," Nami told him. "Alright, you three, go get 'em!"
"Why us?!" Zoro yelled. "I'm not some part of your money-making scheme."
"The money may be mine, but the contract is for the whole crew, so get to work," Nami said, a cruel smile on her face.
"What kind of logic is that?!" I yelled.
Nami and I got into a screaming match in the street before she pulled out her trump card. "You still owe me that money from Loguetown, Zoro. Are you saying you can't keep a promise? If you do this, we can call it even."
"Are you extorting my Zoro?!" Rose shrieked.
Zoro and Rose ran off to help the princess and clear the debt. I followed them; there was no point in arguing about money with Nami.
By the time I caught up to them, Zoro was screaming something about boogers, and Rose was telling the princess that we were here to save her.
"It doesn't matter why you're here. You're in our way," Mr. 5 said.
"ZORO!" I looked down the street and saw Luffy running toward us, screaming the swordsman's name.
"What is it? I don't need your help; I've already got plenty!" Zoro shot back.
"I'll never forgive you! FIGHT ME!" Luffy screamed.
"WHAT?!" all three of us yelled.
"Stop spouting off idiotic nonsense!" I yelled at my friend.
"You shut up!"
Excuse me?
"Did Luffy just tell you to shut up?" Rose asked, her jaw on the floor.
"That ungrateful little twerp," I gritted my teeth.
"That ungrateful bastard needs to get his ass kicked! How dare you cut up all those townspeople? They were really nice and gave us food!"
He's an idiot. He doesn't even know the full story.
"Listen, Luffy, those people were actually…" Zoro tried to explain, but Luffy just punched at him.
Luffy and Zoro ran back into the buildings, fighting each other while Rose and I stayed with the princess.
"It appears those two won't be interfering. Let's finish the mission. Move out, Miss Valentine," Mr. 5 ordered.
"Roger, Mr. 5!" The two charged at us.
"Back off!" I yelled, slamming my whip into the two, sending them flying back.
When the dust cleared, the woman was floating in the air.
"I'm going to crush you now with my Kilo-Kilo Fruit powers," Miss Valentine said from the sky as she slowly started to descend. "Right now, I'm light enough to float on a gentle breeze, but I can change my weight to 10,000 kg and bury you in the ground."
The woman was speeding right toward Rose. She looked up and, just before the woman landed, she jumped back with a handspring. "You're too heavy! Your attacks are easy to avoid! When you weigh that much, you can't change direction in the air."
Zoro and Luffy were still fighting in the middle of the street, getting in everyone's way.
"I want to run, but I don't even know if it's safe to pass," the princess mumbled.
"You can try and go if you want, but I wouldn't recommend getting between those two," Rose told her. "Also, we're supposed to protect you, so you should stick close."
The girl ignored my sister and walked forward, only to have Luffy and Zoro burst out of the walls and attack each other, barely missing the princess. I looked back and saw Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine pulling themselves up and charging toward Luffy and Zoro.
Rose and I turned around. "God, you two are so annoying." We both sent the two bounty hunters flying with quick attacks. "You're in the way!"
"They're so annoying!" Rose said.
"Who the hell are these people?" I asked, still confused.
"Baroque Works," Vivi answered.
"Never heard of them."
I looked back and saw that Nami had finally broken up the fight between Luffy and Zoro. She berated them for almost costing her money.
"Why did you save me? Who are you people?" Vivi asked us.
"Oh, you don't know anything yet. How about you and I make a contract?" Nami asked, dragging a still-bickering Luffy and Zoro over. After getting Luffy to sit down, we explained what had happened, and he finally calmed down. Nami continued to pester the princess for a reward.
"I refuse. Thank you for your help, but no," Vivi told Nami.
"But you're a princess! A billion should be pocket change!" Nami pleaded.
"I need to get home. I have to stop Baroque Works. They're the ones inciting a revolution in my country," the girl said with a sad look on her face. She explained that she had gone undercover with Igaram to discover who was leading the organization trying to tear down her country. She wanted to get home to stop them and save her people. Nami understood why she couldn't offer her money and gave up.
"So, who's the boss?" I asked.
"You mean his true identity? You don't want to know," Vivi warned. "If you did, Baroque Works would come after you."
"Yeah, best to leave us out of it," Nami sighed.
"Yeah, good. No matter how strong you may be, you're no match for Crocodile, one of the seven Warlords."
Did she just...?
"Did you just say his name?" Zoro said, his voice flat.
A bird and a monkey-like creature flew off after staring us down. Nami instantly flipped out. "We just entered the Grand Line, and we're already being targeted by a Warlord! It's been great traveling with you. They don't know my face, so I'm running away! Bye!"
Nami barely got ten steps away when she saw that the monkey had drawn pictures of all of us. "Now I can't run away!"
"Well, then all five of us are on their hit list now," Zoro said.
"Well, things are gonna get interesting," I smiled.
"This is so cool!" Luffy cheered.
Vivi was trying to console Nami, making her feel better. "Fear not," we looked back and saw Vivi's friend Igaram. He was dressed up to look like Vivi and was carrying five dummies. He said he was going to take a different route with the dummies to throw Baroque Works off our tail. He asked us to take Vivi home.
"Sure, we'll do it," Luffy told the man.
"Good. Alright, then, Princess, please hand me the Eternal Pose," Igaram asked Vivi. He explained that an Eternal Pose was a log that had permanently recorded an island's magnetic field. "Take care, Princess. May we meet again in our homeland," Igaram said, turning toward his ship.
"Aww, he left. He was such a funny guy," Luffy said, waving.
"Sure, Luffy, come on, let's get going," I said, tugging at his shirt.
When we turned to leave, there was a huge explosion. The ship that had just left exploded, leaving a huge flaming wreck that illuminated the whole shore. Everyone looked shocked. Luffy started screaming at the fire.
"We have to leave! Nami, how's the log?" I turned and asked.
"It's set! Let's go!" she screamed.
"Luffy, go get Sanji and Usopp. Zoro, Rose, we're getting the ship ready," I said, running back to the boat.
When we got back, the three of us were running around, setting ropes and pulling up the anchor. It wasn't long before Luffy arrived with the chef and the sniper, dragging them behind him.
"Luffy, get on! We're leaving! Nami, let's go! What's the hold up?!" I saw Nami and Vivi were arguing on the beach.
"She says she won't leave without her duck," Nami explained.
"You mean this thing?" Rose pointed out.
"He was here when we got back," Zoro told them.
QUACK!
We lowered the sails and pulled away from the island.
"How many people are going to be coming after us?" Luffy asked.
"I'm not sure," Vivi explained. "Baroque Works is rumored to have 2,000 people working for them."
Sanji and Usopp woke up and started screaming about why we had left the island. Nami knocked them both out, saying she would explain the situation to them later.
"You should be careful of the rocks along the shore. Congrats on escaping, by the way."
We all turned to see a woman sitting on the railing. She was wearing a purple cowboy hat along with a purple skirt and vest. She had tanned skin and looked to be older than me and Rose, probably in her late 20s, maybe 28 or 29.
She's very pretty. She smells like a field of flowers.
"I just met up with Mr. 8," she said.
"That was you..." Vivi started to tremble. "What are you doing here, Miss All-Sunday?"
"Who's her partner?" Rose asked.
"She's Mr. 0's partner. Igaram and I trailed her to find out the boss's identity."
"Actually," the woman spoke. "I let you follow me."
So she's an ally?
"Why are you on my ship?" I said, looking at the woman with a raised eyebrow.
I looked up and saw Sanji and Usopp holding weapons at the woman's face. As soon as the two arrived, they were thrown over the railing.
"Please don't point such dangerous things at me."
A Devil Fruit?
"You still didn't answer me, beautiful. What are you doing on my ship?" I said, staring her down.
"Relax, handsome," she smiled at me. "I'm not here on orders, and I have no intention of fighting you."
The two of us just stared at each other for a few moments. My immediate instinct was to protect the others and fight her, but... my hands wouldn't move.
"So you're the captain? Mr. Steve. How unfortunate your tiny crew has to babysit a princess," she sighed, crossing her legs. "The real tragedy is where your log is pointed. Your next destination is Little Garden." She threw a device to Vivi. "That will take you to an island just outside of Alabasta. No one will follow you if you take that route."
"It's probably a trap," Zoro said.
Nami was excited about being able to skip most of the journey. Vivi was holding the Pose, thinking hard about what to do.
"Give that here," I said, grabbing the Pose from Vivi and crushing it in my fist. Glass shards dug into my hand. Nami kicked me, but I ignored her. "I don't care how beautiful you are; you don't decide where this ship goes!"
The woman laughed. "I see... Well, I do like bold men. I do hope we meet again, Steve, if you survive."
Was she just flirting with me?
Miss All-Sunday jumped off the ship and landed on a turtle that swam away.
Who the hell was that woman?
Vivi was having a breakdown on the floor, with Nami and Rose trying to console her. Zoro walked up to me. "The lady was strange; I don't trust her."
Luffy walked up to us as well and laughed. "I think she liked you."
I could feel the blood rush to my face. "What are you talking about, twerp? Go eat or something."
"Let's set sail! Onward to Little Garden!" Luffy yelled.
Robin's Point of View
I was on my way back to Rainbase.
You are certainly very intriguing, Steve. Very cute, too.
I looked out at the horizon and sighed. "The sunrise... Thoughts like thinking someone is cute are just... a waste. Someone like me doesn't have that kind of luxury."