The Thousand Sunny set out to sea in short order. Nami was still getting a hold on herself, but she was well enough to read the weather and the currents to navigate for Jinbe, who was manning the helm.
"Hey! Put some spirit into it or we're gonna sink!" Luffy complained.
"Have faith in your navigator, captain. She's doing better than most I've met even now." Jinbe defended.
"Yeah! I'm totally sure Nami has it covered! Though I've never seen a navigator in action before! This is SO cool!" Carrot cheered, appearing from the kitchen door.
"Oh, you really think so~?" Nami blushed in appreciation. "Wait…"
"Carrot?! Why are you here?!" Pedro shouted in alarm.
"I decided to come along too!" Carrot said, tackling Luffy to nibble his ear.
Carrot went from person to person with her own unique brand of Garchuu, that being chomping down on ears. She got to Cherry who just casually caught her out of the air and held her aloft by the waist.
"We've got to turn around and take you back! Thankfully, we aren't too far away from Zunesha." Pedro said, already decided on the best course of action.
"Nooo, please! Wanda is going to be FURIOUS with me!" Carrot cried, squirming in Cherry's clutches to no avail.
"You'll be a bother to our saviors! Not to mention that we're heading straight into a hostile emperor's territory!" Pedro stood firm.
"But I've always wanted to go on an adventure! Look, I've got my own supplies and everything! I've got lunch, a snack, a drink, and a change of clothes!" Carrot said.
"How long is that going to last you?" Pekoms asked, incredulous and amused. The fact that all her foodstuffs were carrots or carrot based was adorable.
"Half a day, easily!" Carrot rubbed her nose triumphantly, clearly proud of her foresight. "The sea is a big place, after all, right?"
"It sure is a big place, but it's a bit bigger than you think, Carrot." Nami said, trying not to laugh at the poor girl.
"Oh, should I have packed for a full day?" Carrot seemed concerned now.
"It'll take anywhere from one to two weeks just to arrive at our destination, depending on what the sea throws at us." Pekoms corrected.
"T-two weeks…?" Carrot's jaw dropped. "The ocean is an even more wondrous land than I ever imagined~!"
"It's not land, it's a sea." Pekoms corrected.
"It's no big deal, she can come with us. Can you handle yourself in a fight?" Luffy asked, munching on one of her carrots.
"I sure can-'' Carrot's eyes widened at the sight of him, then lunged with uncanny speed. Her teeth bore down on Luffy's jugular. "Who said you could eat my carrot?!"
"Ahhh?! I'm gonna die!" Luffy panicked.
"Just rub her head, Luffy!" Nami called out casually.
Luffy hastily complied and Carrot went from rabid beast to adorable pet in seconds. She said, "Hehe~ It's okay, you can have the carrot."
"I guess you are pretty tough…" Luffy calmed himself down.
"Why are you even snatching vegetables from people, Luffy?" Cherry asked.
"Vegetable? Carrots are fruit aren't they?" Luffy tilted his head.
"Carrot is a rabbit!" Carrot answered cutely.
"Carrots are vegetables, except this one." Cherry rubbed Carrot's head.
"Hmm, well it tastes okay." Luffy said, chomping down another bite.
Pedro stood to the side, looking a bit worried. "Carrot IS pretty strong, but…"
Cherry wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Don't you worry, Pedro my man! I'll put Carrot through some extra special time crunch training while we're at sea~!"
Chopper and Luffy shuddered and made themselves scarce.
"Special training? I don't need to learn blacksmithing, though?" Carrot tilted her head adorably.
"Oh, you sweet summer child…" Nami sighed in pity. "Good luck, Carrot."
"???" Carrot didn't understand.
"What does this special training of yours entail?" Pedro asked, though he was forming a vague impression based on how Cherry's friends were reacting.
"I can't tell you that, Pedro." Cherry shook her head. "Not knowing when it will end is part of it."
"I won't tell Carrot even if you tell me." Pedro assured.
Cherry's face twisted into a creepy smile.
"Oh," Pedro realized. His voice dropped an octave with a gulp, "Oh… I don't really need training, though. A-and I need to preserve my strength…"
"Fatigue won't be an issue, and you can always use more training. Hehehe~" Cherry chuckled like she had a brand new toy to play with.
"Ah, is that a news coo? I'll go get it!" Pedro escaped, clambering up the mast like his tail was on fire.
He paid the bird for a paper and climbed back down, with some hesitance.
"Seems something big happened." Pedro commented, showing the front page off.
Cherry went from smiling like a devil to a dark frown. "The Revolutionary Army's headquarters at Baltigo was found and destroyed…"
"What?! Is Sabo okay?" Luffy charged over as he overheard.
"Your dad too." Chopper added.
The others gathered around as well to hear the news, either out of curiosity or personal interest in certain individuals.
"Black Beard? Those guys were the cause?" Luffy said.
"Yes, the government caught wind of them too, but only arrived after the base had been destroyed." Nami affirmed. "Ugh, but they apparently found Wapol in the rubble, gross."
"Wapol?! Why was HE there?!" Chopper exclaimed.
"I king-napped him and brainwashed him to be a human factory for the Revolutionary Army." Cherry casually explained, frown still marring her face as she read ahead.
"Doesn't mention any casualties. Cipher Pol had a small skirmish with Black Beard before he retreated. So your father and Sabo should be fine." Pedro deduced.
"Yes, the government would have proclaimed any deaths among the leadership as some grand victory. That doesn't mean no one died though." Cherry spoke, clearly disturbed.
"You and Robin spent some time with them, didn't you? I hope they're all okay." Nami said consolingly.
"Mm. Those lot are all survivors above all else, and if not then they knew what they were signing up for." Cherry sighed.
"You gotta admire the revolutionaries. Being a pirate is one thing, but actively fighting the government? That takes balls of steel. It's even more impressive that it took this long for the government to score a major victory against them, and it wasn't even the government's win." Pekoms complimented.
"Shishishi! That's right, Sabo has HUGE balls!" Luffy accepted the praise in his sworn brother's place.
"Really? He should probably see a doctor about that." Chopper commented.
"Pfft~!" Cherry and Brook covered their mouths to stop the barks of laughter from escaping.
"Oh, grow up you two!" Nami chastised, though her heart clearly wasn't in it judging by her smile.
A sudden gust took Nami's attention and she started ordering people about to alter their course. Luffy stole away into the kitchens for painfully obvious reasons, so Cherry made a mental note to ask Takako to get some food for them later. Subsisting off of fish and/or sea king meat alone wasn't great nutritionally speaking, but they'd be fine like that for a couple weeks anyways.
"Now then, my little kitten and bunny~!" Cherry announced, drawing a shudder from both Pedro and Carrot, though the latter wasn't sure why just yet. "Let's get started with your training, shall we?"
"I thought I was the only one who could separate my soul from my body, yohohohoho!" Brook laughed.
Pedro and Carrot were slumped forward on the deck with the illusion of their souls leaving their bodies. Cherry stood over them domineeringly and clicked her tongue in disappointment.
"Aren't you supposed to be from a warrior race? How are you already tired?" Cherry asked indignantly.
"I have soreness in muscles I didn't know I had…" Pedro groaned.
"I feel like an overcooked carrot…" Carrot whined.
"Up and at 'em!" Cherry jabbed them both in the back with a finger.
Pedro and Carrot shot up to their feet, suddenly full of energy.
"Now, let's do it again!" Cherry smiled.
Pedro and Carrot paled.
"I've got dinner ready!" Luffy cheered, looking quite pleased with himself.
The fact that he had been in the kitchen for hours now didn't bode well at all, but most of the crew hadn't noticed when he'd first gone in.
"Oh no, what has he done now…" Nami spoke hesitantly, clearly not wanting to even confront whatever Luffy had 'cooked' for all of them.
They filed into the dining room to find the most horrid excuse of food any of them had ever witnessed. Somehow the resultant mass of biomatter was violently purple with noxious fumes seeping from a saucy substance from bubbles.
"Luffy, this isn't edible! Did you use all of our food for this?!" Nami was irate, more angry at herself for forgetting that Sanji wasn't here to fend off her goofball captain from the kitchen.
"Of course not!" Luffy denied.
Nami sighed in relief.
"I used the rest as practice!" Luffy smiled like he was terribly clever.
"We can't eat this, Luffy! It'll kill us all!" Nami throttled him.
"Don't be rude! How could it be bad when I worked so hard on it!" Luffy pouted. His head and hand stretched over to the platter of primordial ooze and put a big spoonful into his mouth.
"?!?!?!?!" Luffy went green in the face instantaneously.
"What are we going to do?!" Nami rubbed her forehead, feeling faint.
Being without food or fresh water was deadly on a normal sea, let alone the most dangerous sea in the world!
As if to prove that fact, the entire ship lurched and tilted as a sudden tidal wave formed in front of it.
"Why now?!" Nami rushed outside to help Jinbe who was still manning the helm.
Several difficult hours passed before the sea calmed once more in the dead of night.
"Haaah!" Nami slumped to her knees, heaving a great sigh. Her stomach growled in protest for all the energy she's been spending running around or holding onto anything in reach for dear life.
Unfortunately, Luffy had destroyed all of their food, so she was going to have to grit her teeth and bear it. Hopefully the sea would be calm enough for a while to try their hand at catching some fish.
"Food's ready!" Cherry sing-songed out of the kitchen door.
Nami's head shot up in disbelief. She found enough energy to run for the kitchen and shockingly reached it even before Luffy did.
Standing in the doorway of the dining room, she saw a simple but abundant feast laid upon the table.
"How? Was I just having a nightmare; or am I dreaming now?" Nami pinched her cheek.
"I just used my devil fruit to separate the component parts of that slop Luffy made. Some of it I couldn't make heads or tails of and some of it was too overcooked for consumption, but I managed to salvage a fair portion of the mess." Cherry said.
Cherry looked like an angel in Nami's eyes at that moment.
Luffy slipped past her and dived at the table. "Foooooooood~!!!"
Once again Nami's panic and anger flared up at Luffy's second attempt to sabotage their supplies today.
"Geh?!" Luffy's trajectory through the air was suddenly diverted as a net slammed into him and pinned him to the wall of the dining room. He struggled in the unexpected trap, but quickly lost his strength. "Sea stone…?!"
"This is too much of an emotional rollercoaster. Thanks, Cherry." Nami walked in and sat down to tentatively test the food, as if it may still be tainted by whatever dark magics Luffy performed on them before.
"Come on…! Let me eat…! I'm starving…!" Luffy's flesh seemed to recede, allowing his bones to show through the skin.
"You can have what's left when everyone else has had their fill, Luffy. Don't pretend like you didn't snack on everything you pleased while you were 'cooking'." Cherry said, taking a seat.
"Sanji tastes the food before he serves it too…!" Luffy argued.
"Tastes, yes, not devours." Nami retorted.
Everyone had a nice peaceful meal, pleasantly surprised at the food's quality even though it wasn't all that impressive. Brook took a portion out to Jinbe and Luffy was released to gorge himself on the leftovers, which was plenty even though he bemoaned the amount remaining.
"We'll still need to come up with something, but at least we won't be starving tomorrow. If the weather is forgiving we should hopefully be able to fish something up." Nami said.
They still had Nami's orange trees, of course, but Nami was loath to hand them out willy-nilly. Scurvy was a serious health concern on the sea after all, they couldn't just eat their entire source of vitamin C. Not to mention that they're a keepsake that reminds her of home.
"I'll just have Takako grab something, no big deal." Cherry said.
"..." Nami blinked at her. "Right, your pet kraken. How could I forget that…? Wait, you knew food wouldn't be a problem from the start? Why did you let me worry about it, then?!"
"It's not my fault if you forgot my beautiful baby girl~" Cherry gushed.
"Remind me why we aren't having her pull the ship to our destination?" Nami asked.
"I will if time gets tight, but it's better not to arrive too early to a party." Cherry spoke as if it were natural.
"You're planning to crash that party, though. Wouldn't it be easier to do that early? What if we're too late and Sanji gets married before we get there?" Nami asked irritably.
"We'll bring his new wife with us? He's a grown ass man and he can make his own decisions, and live with the consequences of his actions." Cherry said with finality. "We're still going to get him back, though."
Nami sighed and supposed that was true to an extent.
"Yeah!" Luffy concurred, stomach bulging a bit less than the captain probably preferred. "And don't take the romance of sailing on the seas away from me! Takako is fun, but there's no harm in adventuring at our own pace!"
Jinbe could be heard chuckling at that, seeming to agree with the sentiment.
"Roger took, what, two or three decades to become king of the pirates? Slow is the way to go!" Cherry nodded. "And we're already on the right track to beat his time by no small amount, too!"
"Yeah, we're gonna beat his time! Fastest pirate king in history, shishishi!" Luffy laughed.
*Fwoom*
"""Cyclone?!?!?!"""
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