The banquet of freedom lasted for three days. It was filled with laughter, singing, and dancing. Straw Hats enjoyed three days, especially Luffy and Liam who almost emptied the entire Cocoyasi Village's food stock.
On the fourth day,
Inside Nami's house,
Nami was packing her bags when the door opened and a figure walked in. This person was none other than Nojiko. She looked at Nami who had turned her head and smiled.
"So, you are going to leave today?"
Nami nodded her head and said, "Yeah, since our captain is soon going to get a bounty, it wouldn't be a good thing to stay here."
"Which captain are you talking about?" Nojiko asked with a trace of confusion in her eyes.
"I only have one captain now." Nami rolled her eyes and snorted.
Nojiko chuckled and said "I know. I know but I was wondering whether you talking about Luffy or Liam? Although Luffy is your captain, it seemed like Liam gives out the most orders."
Nami shook her head and said "I don't there is any official hierarchy in our crew. Luffy is the Captain in our hearts no matter who gives us the order. After all, if he wasn't capable enough to be a captain, would Liam, Zoro, Sanji, and even Usopp would have joined his crew?"
"Right! Right! It seems like I was worried for nothing. Anyway, how are things going on between you and Liam?" Nojiko asked.
Suddenly, Nami's face turned red as she shook her head.
"W-w-w-what do you mean? There is nothing going on between us."
Nojiko sighed and walked up to Nami who was literally trembling and patted her shoulder.
"The more you try to hide it inside your heart, the harder it will be to cooperate with your crew. The love between crew members isn't that uncommon but if you can't cooperate properly, your crew will suffer. Even though I am not a pirate, this isn't something I can't know."
Nami stopped trembling and her fist clenched. She bit her lip as she continued packing her clothes. Inside her heart, she was deciding on something.
After ten minutes, she finally came out of her house where Liam was waiting for her a bit far away from the house.
"So, is that all?" Liam looked at a large bag and turned at Nami.
Nami nodded her head and Liam picked it up.
"Alright, you finish saying goodbye." Liam left saying that.
He directly went to the ship. He saw Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp putting different stocks on the ship.
"Yo Liam, where have you been?" Luffy stretched his head from Merry's head and asked.
"I had something else to do." Liam answered while climbing the stairs. He looked at the sky and thought 'Our next destination is Logue Town. I need to find something important there.'
Liam put Nami's bag inside the cabin while the villagers were discussing about Nami. After all, Nami hadn't arrived on the ship.
"Oi Liam, You brought Nami's clothes, right?" Usopp asked.
"Don't worry, she will come but in her own way." Liam smirked and gave the command to his crew.
"Zoro, drop the anchor! Usopp, Sanji, drops the sails!"
"Aren't we going to wait for Nami?" Luffy looked at Liam and asked.
"Don't worry, she will arrive soon." Liam smiled as he slowly turned the rudder.
"Wait, wait, they are leaving too soon. Where is Nami? We haven't even properly said goodbye to her." Genzo looked around, searching for Nami, and eventually, he saw Nami behind them all.
"Nami, we haven't said goodbye properly." Genzo tried to stop her but Nami simply rushed into the crowd. She ran as she used her special move.
After she reached near the shore, she jumped. She directly landed on the deck and lifted her shirt. Dozens of wallets fell on the deck as she turned around and drop her shirt.
"Goodbye, everyone!"
A bright and big smile appeared on her face as she waved both of her hands.
"You little!!!" Genzo slowly smiled and waved his hand as well.
The entire village cheered as the crew drifted away.
"Hah! That was surely crazy." Usopp sat down and mumbled.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Luffy curiously looked at him and asked.
"What else? Fighting a crew whose Captain had a 20 million bounty. Not to mention, I didn't think I would fight someone whose strength was way above me so soon." Usopp spoke with an exhausted expression.
"They weren't that strong except for that Arlong." Zoro looked at Usopp and shook his head.
"That's easy for you to say. Don't forget how much trouble you were having without your three swords. If it wasn't for me getting two temporary swords for you, you would have been injured." Usopp rolled his eyes.
Liam who was listening to the conversation from the cabin also fell into deep thought.
In this battle, the person who had shown the most usefulness was definitely Usopp. After Luffy started the battle with his Battle Ax, his foot got stuck on the ground.
This time Zoro wasn't injured so he was taking down small Arlong Pirates with ease. But Hachi, one of the officers in Arlong's Pirates got in a battle with Zoro.
Sanji was also pushed into a serious battle as well as Usopp but the first one to finish the battle was Usopp. He not only finished the person he was fighting but also used different attacks to take down small pirates just like Liam.
Finally, he brought two swords for Zoro so that he could defeat Hachi. Only then did Zoro defeat Hachi. Zoro could have used his One Sword Style but Hachi's eight sword style made it harder for him.
Bang!
Suddenly, a cannon ball flew toward them and landed next to them.
"Luffy, it's marines." Sanji shouted as he was on the back.
"Marine? How did they come here so soon?" Liam mumbled with confusion. He hurriedly rushed to the back of the ship and took out the binoculars.
His eyes almost popped out when he saw three marine ships with a lot of marines on them.
'What the hell is going on? Why did so many marines appear here?' Liam almost freaked out.
'Calm down! It's just Pudding Pudding. This guy was defeated by Arlong with ease but why are there three ships? Did he get back up after I defeated the Nezumi's base?'
"What should we do, Liam? Run or fight?" Sanji turned his head at Liam and asked. He noticed Liam's unnatural behavior as well.
"Normally, I wouldn't hesitate to fight them but recently, I encountered a marine captain from HQ. Although the same thing might not happen again, nothing is certain at this moment."
"But, one thing bothers me the most. Where did this guy get so many marines under him?"
"Straw Hat Luffy! Surrender or we will blast your ship!" Using a loudspeaker, Pudding Pudding shouted from the main marine ship.
"Where did this guy get his guts? Wasn't he sunk into the sea by Arlong? He knows Luffy which means he should know about Luffy defeating the Arlong." Nami spoke with confusion.
At this moment, Liam's eyes widened.
"Everyone, we are running right now. Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, start paddling the ship as fast as you. Usopp, follow Nami's direction. Nami, we need to run as fast as we can."
Liam immediately rushed to the paddles and started paddling with all of his strength. Luffy and others didn't hesitate to follow his command and immediately started paddling.
"Running away so soon?" Suddenly, a voice rang from the top of the ship which startled everyone. They slowly raised their heads and saw a man at the top of the ship.
He was wearing greens and a normal outfit. It wasn't a marine's outfit. He had a flower coming out of his body that looked like a helicopter's wing.
Thud!
"Why? Why is he here?" Liam fell on his butt as he looked at the man in front of him with horror in his eyes.
"Oh! It seems like someone from this small crew knows me. Although you guys are very weak right now, it wouldn't be wise for a marine to ignore the pirates. So, I am going to kill all of you right now."
"Gomu-Gomu No- Rubber Fist!"
Luffy immediately compressed his hand and stretched it out simultaneously. His face was basically screaming with pain but seeing Liam's expression like that, he immediately understood the danger they were in.
Splash!
But, the man in front of them instantly blocked his fist. It didn't even faze him. He extended his finger and it turned into a branch piercing Luffy's stomach.
"Luffy!" Everyone screamed when the blood fell from Luffy's stomach but before they could make any move. That man instantly released his other fingers that stabbed everyone except Nami.
Liam fell to the ground as his eyes turned black.
'Why? Why did he appear here? He wasn't even supposed to be here.'
The man in front of him wasn't someone who should have appeared here but suddenly, his eyes widened.
'Green Island'
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