章 44: Chapter 044

"Welcome, pirates!" Most of the Straw Hats looked on in confusion as the entire town met their ship at the docks, waving, whistling, and cheering.

"Welcome to the Grand Line!"

"Welcome to Whiskey Peak!"

"Welcome, warriors of the sea!"

"A town that welcomes pirates?" Sanji asked skeptically. "The Grand Line sure is a strange place."

"We should probably sleep with our eyes open," Zoro commented. Sanji and Usopp thought he was joking of course. Unbeknownst to them, Zoro was half serious and Nami was already planning on doing just that. Sanji quickly forgot his skepticism as multiple women waved and blew kisses at him, and Usopp was a lost cause after the warriors of the sea comment. A tall man with freakishly curly hair met them at the docks once they dropped anchor, and greeted them cheerfully.

"Welcome, pirates! I am Mayor Igarappoi. This is Whiskey Peak, the Grand Line's most hospitable rest stop. We invite you to take a rest from your courageous and weary adventures to enjoy the food, drink, music, and cheerful atmosphere before you resume your journey." There was a moment of pseudo-hesitation before Sanji was flirting with a multitude of women and Luffy and Usopp were dancing through the streets as the townsfolk cheered them on.

Nami facepalmed and sighed. "Are they all idiots?" she whispered to Zoro. He shrugged.

"Either that, or they're much better actors than the people in this town." Nami frowned in thought. Now that she thought about it, Luffy was usually more insightful than this, despite his cheerful and carefree persona. She didn't have much hope for the other two, but could Luffy just be going along with it? He was being very convincing if he was. She decided to go with the flow as well, resolving to milk the situation for whatever it was worth once given the opportunity. There was no way anything could happen with Zoro on guard at the very least.

But she still found it strange. Zoro had made that comment in a lazy tone, but she somehow got the feeling that he had been referring to Luffy to begin with. She frowned again as she thought about the nature of the two's interactions. She sometimes felt like they could communicate telepathically or something. Her eyes widened as she remembered their lecture on Observation Haki. Masters of the skill could apparently read thoughts via the emotions that drove them as long as those emotions weren't being suppressed, so in theory, Luffy and Zoro could communicate nonverbally in a limited fashion. That was how they always held conversations without a single word. They were speaking with each other through conveyance of emotions.

But something like a conversation still wouldn't be possible with emotions alone. Something like that needed context. She thought back to that day in the bar in Shells Town and the first interaction she had witnessed between the two. For the first time she wondered when they had met. Did they really know each other so well that they could make an educated guess as to what the other was thinking and only need a quick confirmation using Observation Haki to signal messages? If they really deserved the credit that she was giving them right now, then there was really no doubt that Luffy was acting. If Zoro knew, Luffy knew.

Suddenly, the thought of what her two crewmates could supposedly do made her self-conscious. She peeked at Zoro through the corner of her eye and tried to get a read on him. If he was reading her emotions right now, he didn't show it. It wasn't that Nami didn't trust them with that kind of knowledge, but it would take quite a bit of restraint for her to not exercise a power like that liberally if she could use it.

As they continued walking, Nami turned to Zoro, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Hey, Zoro? How long have you known Luffy?"

Zoro looked at her curiously, but responded truthfully, "About two and a half years."

That made sense. Bonds like that could be developed in less time depending on the circumstances. This simply confirmed her suspicions. Luffy and Zoro knew each other as well, if not better, than they knew themselves.

Once Luffy had cleared all the food from the premises and caused the chefs to faint, their hosts started a drinking game with a prize of 100,000 Belly. Nami readily took part, and Luffy and Zoro followed suit, staring each other down from across the table. Once it started, it really started. The three Straw Hats had the rest of the participants puking and passing out in a matter of a minute, and they continued to chug, eventually abandoning the cups in favor of the bottles, as it was taking too long to pour. As the drink-off continued, the mayor seemed to be more and more troubled by something.

Inwardly, the mayor was fuming. The three should have passed out long before now. They had been strengthening the concentration of the alcohol in their drinks discretely until they started drinking right from the bottle and taking away the opportunity. But even without that added punch, they should have passed out ages ago. What were these three made of? He signaled to Miss Monday to initiate plan B, and she rigged the next batch of bottles with sleeping drugs. It was right as the swordsman and the Straw Hat kid got ready to chug those bottles as well that they finally collapsed to the floor. The woman seemed to frown at the sight. What was that about? Was she disappointed in them? No, it was more like…confusion. Mr. 8 filed away the observation as irrelevant as the woman passed out as well. He scoffed. What an annoying coincidence it was that they had all passed out right after they'd taken the effort to rig the booze. Mr. 8 would facepalm in embarrassment when he thought back on this later.

It wasn't long before the other two pirates had fallen asleep as well, content expression on their faces. Too bad those won't last, Igaram thought grimly. He met up with Miss Monday, Mr. 9, and Miss Wednesday and described their victims to the 9 couple. The two seemed to be disconcerted when they saw them, but they didn't voice it, so Mr. 8 ignored it.

"Was all this necessary, Mr. 8?" Miss Monday asked in a slightly annoyed tone. "We could have taken care of them at the port. It was only 5 people."

"You should know well by now not to carelessly underestimate our victims, Miss Monday," he said as he pulled out two wanted posters. Three pairs of eyes widened to epic proportions at what they saw.

"A total bounty of 73 million Belly?" Miss Wednesday whispered in awe. "Them?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Mr. 8 said simply. Miss Monday nodded apologetically. "No matter. Hurry and search their ship while we restrain them. It's preferable to take them alive. The rewards will be 30% less if we kill them."