บท 48: Chapter 048

"Hey, Nami, guess what? We're escorting Princess Vivi of the Alabasta Kingdom to her home country so she can prevent a civil war and overthrow the leader of an underground criminal organization." Vivi's eyes widened with each word. Not just the swordsman, but him too? Why did they know so much?

Nami stared at Luffy. "Why?" she asked bluntly. Luffy shrugged.

"I'm a little curious myself, Luffy, was it? Why are you so willing to help us?" Vivi asked.

"Because we know about the situation in Alabasta and what Baroque Works is doing there. If we don't get you there, hundreds of thousands of people will die over a misunderstanding. We want to prevent that." Vivi just stared at him for a second, and Zoro stared right back. It wasn't a lie. They did want to prevent it. But it was mostly for Vivi's sake. He couldn't exactly tell her that, though.

"Are you really pirates?" she finally asked. Luffy smiled.

"The best you'll ever find," he said confidently. Some crews came close in Luffy's mind. The Whitebeard Pirates, the Red Hair Pirates, the Heart Pirates, etc. But the Straw Hats were obviously the best. Vivi was still confused but nodded slowly.

"If you're willing to take me, I would highly appreciate an escort to Alabasta. Just be aware that Baroque Works will be sending officer agents after me the whole way through," she said.

"They won't be a problem," Zoro said nonchalantly. Nami asked again why they were doing this, and Luffy told Vivi to explain the full situation in her kingdom as well as the structure of Baroque Works. After hearing the story, Nami sighed and relented, knowing Luffy had made up his mind anyway.

"So, who is this Mr. 0 really, then?" she finally asked. Vivi started sweating and insisted that she couldn't say, lest they be targeted even after they dropped her off.

"It's Crocodile of the Seven Warlords," Luffy said. Vivi's jaw dropped, Igaram collapsed onto the ground, Nami punched Luffy over the head and started shaking him by his collar relentlessly, Usopp shrieked in fear, Sanji blinked, and Zoro laughed.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get going." Suddenly they heard the sound of scribbling, and looked over to find the Unluckies sitting across from them. Vivi and Igaram paled at the sight. They showed them 5 neatly drawn pictures, one of each of the Straw Hats, and then started to fly off, but they suddenly fell out of the air and onto the ground unconscious.

Zoro turned to Luffy with a raised eyebrow. Luffy shrugged. "They look tasty."

"All right, what's with the otter and the vulture?" Nami asked.

"The Unluckies report directly to Mr. 0," Vivi said with a shudder. "If they had gotten away, you would have been targeted immediately. We would have been in horrible danger."

"I fear we still are, Vivi," Igaram stated. "Without a report from the Mr. 5 pair, Mr. 0 is likely to send either the Mr. 3 or Mr. 4 pair next." Vivi's eyes widened at that.

"Then what should we do?"

Igaram suggested a plan in which he acted as a decoy and Vivi boarded the Straw Hats' ship. Luffy and Zoro reluctantly agreed, knowing what would happen. They were pretty sure the man wouldn't be killed, but decided to keep a close watch on his aura anyway…as well as any potential killing intent in the vicinity.

When Igaram's ship departed, they braced themselves for what was about to happen. They still couldn't sense any intent to kill, so they kept silent. When the large explosion engulfed his ship and covered the waters in flames, Luffy and Zoro dragged everyone onto the Going Merry. Vivi had a tormented expression on her face, and Zoro reassured her.

"Don't worry. He's not dead," he told her. Vivi's eyes widened.

"How do you—?"

"We can tell," Zoro interrupted. "We'll talk later. For now, we need to go."

"Wait, I can't leave without Carue!" she remembered as Zoro climbed onto the ship.

"Would Carue happen to be a giant duck?" he asked. This surprised Vivi, and she climbed onto the ship to see Carue already there.

"All right, if that's everything, let's go," Nami said, worry evident in her voice. As the ship sailed away from the island, Nami breathed a sigh of relief. "All right, it looks like we're in the clear," she said.

"Good thing, too. Baroque Works would have been here soon," a voice said.

"Yeah, good thing we escaped," Nami answered.

"Watch out for the shallow water so you don't damage the hull," the voice suggested.

"Right, you can count on me," Nami said confidently. After a few seconds, she turned nervously to Luffy. "Um…was that you…?"

Luffy shook his head and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. All eyes turned around to see an unidentified woman sitting peacefully on the railing. Half of the ship's occupants immediately panicked.

"This is a nice ship," the intruder said with a serene smile. Luffy turned to her.

"Glad you like it." Vivi ignored the informality and shouted.

"Why are you here!? Miss All Sunday!"

The intruder continued smiling, resting her face in the palm of her hand. "Hello, Miss Wednesday," the woman greeted, completely ignoring her question. "I ran into Mr. 8 not too long ago," she said, as if she was commenting on the weather. Vivi quickly became enraged.

"You…what did you do to him!?" she screamed. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to face Luffy.

"It's OK. He's still alive," he said in a reassuring tone. Vivi wanted to believe him along with the swordsman, but how could they be so sure? Miss All Sunday was wondering the same thing, but the smile never slipped from her face.

"Who is she?" Nami finally asked. "Which pair does she belong to?"

"She's part of the Mr. 0 pair, Crocodile's partner," Vivi whispered. Nami looked extremely worried now, and Usopp was visibly cowering, though to his credit, he did have one hand on his slingshot. Sanji was busy admiring her beauty, and Luffy and Zoro were suppressing the familiar pangs of guilt in their stomachs. They should have gotten use to this by now, but their survivor's guilt seemed to affect them separately for each individual comrade they had failed to save.

"She's the one I trailed to find out Mr. 0's identity," Vivi continued.

"Correction," the woman said. "I'm the one who let you trail me."

"I knew," Vivi whispered. "And you're the one who revealed us to Mr. 0, aren't you?" Her voice rose. "What are your intentions exactly?"

"Who knows? But you were so serious about it. I just had to let you follow me. Still, a princess infiltrates an underground criminal organization in a desperate attempt to save her dying country. It all seems a bit much, don't you think?" she said in a straight tone of voice.

"Stop mocking me!" Vivi screamed.

Nami and Usopp drew their weapons, getting ready for a conflict, before a sudden blast of Conqueror's Haki diffused the situation. The two stiffened and looked at their captain questioningly.

"Enough," Luffy said. The command, for it could be mistaken for nothing else, was obeyed. Miss All Sunday was looking down at Luffy curiously as a bead of sweat slid down her cheek. Despite this, she kept smiling. Luffy looked her dead in the eye. "You're on the losing side of this game, Robin."

The woman's composure instantly slipped away along with her smile, and her eyes widened slightly. There was a moment of silence before she regained her bearings and spoke. "So, you know my identity. You've piqued my curiosity, Monkey D. Luffy."

"Well, you look just like the wanted poster," he replied. Miss All Sunday smiled again, but Luffy could sense her discomfort.

"I see," is all she said. It wasn't a lie. She did look strikingly similar to her 8-year-old self. "It would seem you might have earned your reputation, Straw Hat Luffy. However, you won't make it to Alabasta," she said after a while. "Even if we do nothing, your next destination…is Little Garden." She didn't offer an Eternal Pose this time. Zoro suspected that much of the amusement she found in this had just died. As she jumped off the ship and onto a rather large turtle, she turned towards them one last time. "Good luck, I suppose," she said before leaving.

"To Little Garden, then," Zoro said when she was gone. The crew went about their business, and not for the first time, Vivi wondered what kind of pirates she had involved herself with.