Hiding the Truth (One Piece)

Chapter 8 - Quickly to the Capital

The rocking motion beneath me swayed my body from side to side as I became more aware of my surroundings. Groaning from the splitting headache pounding at my temples, I tried to pry open my lids, the effort reducing at the loud shouts of whoever was beside me.

"Move Usopp, give her space!" Someone yelled at whoever was screaming and by the high pitch of their voice, my guesses were Chopper. My eyes fluttered open to have about everyones face pressed up against mine, Luffy's being the nearest.

"Woah, personal space!" I shouted and they all backed off sheepishly, relieved smiles all around. 

"I was so worried about you, do you have any idea what you put me through" Luffy growled with the rare glare distorting his face. I just stared at him, before shrugging, not being able to defend myself. Instead of answering, I just pulled him down to my height and gave him a rib crushing hug.

"God, I was so scared" I whispered in his ear only loud enough for him to hear, my words causing his grip to tighten. He pulled away after a moment, looking into my sea green eyes, his own brown hues contrasting greatly.

"It's alright now" he answered me with a goofy smile and a ruffle of my hair. I looked around to observe our surroundings, but couldn't help but notice we seemed to be on a...Crab?

"Someone please tell me that I'm not going crazy and that we are actually on a gigantic crab" I said drawing my knees closer to me and rubbed my temples hoping for the headache to go away. Someone chuckled beside me, looking up I saw Zoro sitting next to me but the thing that made me blush was with how close he was, if I moved just an inch it would practically be sitting on his lap. I quickly moved myself away to put some space between us, trying to gather as much dignity as I could.

"You're not mad. Problem is, the damn thing is just as perverted at the camel" he answered me with a frown and I groaned at the notion.

"Not another one, we already have the camel and Sanji. Sure, why not add a crab to the bloody list" he laughed really loud at that comment and I thought to myself that maybe we could get along. At least he got my humour. Nami walked up to me with a black aura around her and she plopped herself in front of me with a frown and crossed arms.

"Why didn't you mention that you were a devil fruit user?" At the question, everyone's heads turned to me and threw me an accusing look. I nervously rubbed the back of my neck and chuckled lightly.

"Well... I didn't exactly know how to bring it up. I couldn't exactly mention it out of the blue and it slipped my mind" I half lied trying to get off the topic, it was true that I couldn't mention it but it hadn't slipped my mind. I wondered, how long was I going to have to lie to these people who have shown me nothing but kindness. Nami gave me a look showing that she didn't quite believe me but didn't press on for an answer she wasn't going to get.

"So... What did I miss?" I asked hoping to defuse the tension. They filled me in on what happened after I fell unconscious and that Smoker had let them go because they saved his life when they escaped the crocodile fest.

"That sounds like him. He wouldn't want to be indebted to a pirate" I mused to myself and Nami made a noise as if she had just remembered something.

"Actually being on topic, how exactly do you know him?" Nami asked me.

"We've had a few run ins in the past, but it's a long story and I don't think we have time for it" Just then a gold hook grabbed at Vivi's waist, tugging her into the air and off the moving crab. I looked behind and noticed Robin and Crocodile standing at the outskirts of Rainbase.

"LUFFY GRAB HER!" I shouted, panicked at the quick turn of events and he jumped up grabbing ahold of the princess, unhooking her and threw her towards us. Zoro caught her and quickly passed her over to Nami and I. I rubbed her back in a comforting way as she clutched onto Nami, shivering and in shock at what had happened.

"Meet me at Alubana!" he shouts at us and all I could do was watch him as he neared the monster that ruined this country. As the crab crawled further away, the smaller Luffy seemed to be and eventually we lost sight of him completely. I turned to everyone, thinking of a way to get their minds off Luffy even though I was drowning in worry, it was evident the others were as well.

"So what's the plan?" I asked to no-one in particular. Nami and the rest seemed to focus on my question and began to pull themselves together.

"Well... We haven't exactly come up with one" Sanji admitted, the others nodding in agreement. 

"Oh okay... well who's the strategist?" I asked hoping they had one. It would have been foolish and downright lucky if they had gotten this far without one on the Grand Line.

"None of us really" Usopp answered and they all agreed, their reactions lacklustre as they mused the matter. These people would kill themselves off before they would see Luffy become the pirate king.

"Alright, how much further till Alubana?" I turned to Vivi hoping she knew the answer. She pulled a soaked ragged map out of her pocket, pulling the edges to straighten the drawing. 

"About 5 more hours" she informed me, with a nod I turned away looking up at the sky. From the darkness of the sky and how far up the moon was, it was roughly around 1 in the morning so we would get there at 6 which happened to be the predicted time for the rebels to arrive at the city.

"From what I remember, we're going to eventually come across a river. Chopper could you ask the crab if he can swim?" Chopper obliged and he looked at us gravely after speaking with the perverted weirdo.

"He can't, he says he'll just sink like a devil fruit user" the others grunted in anger, claiming that the creature wasn't of much use but I only turned away, thinking of a way we could tackle this.

"So we have two devil fruit users here, myself and Chopper. I don't think I'll be of much use, I wouldn't be able to divide the river, it runs too deep so I suggest someone partner up with each of us so if we do have to swim then they would provide help for us" I stated and Nami and Usopp looked at me as if I was crazy.

"You want us to swim across a river that's 100 metres wide?!" Nami shouted at me, shocked and incredulous at what I was suggesting.

"Do you have a better idea?!" I growled at her and she shut up begrudgingly, clear that she couldn't help. Vivi looked at me strangely and I noticed Zoro give me a calculating look but I just brushed it aside. I didn't have time to dwell on small things at the moment.

I was trying to come up with a better plan not noticing that we were crossing the river until we started to sink rapidly only 10 metres away from the shore. As I sank like a rock, a warm arm wrapped around my waist, heaving me above water. I gasped and hastily wrapped my arms around their neck not giving mind to who had saved me, my head resting over their shoulder as I coughed the water out of my lungs. I glanced to the side to see a mess of green hair and pinpointed it as Zoro.

"Thank you" I choked out holding onto him a little tighter, despite my ability the water ironically making my nervous. Even though we were in freshwater, the fact that I could't swim wasn't helping. Noticing this, Zoro held me tightly so I wouldn't fall back into the depths of the river. Not too far away, Chopper could be seen clutching onto Sanji's hair, having been propped onto his head to keep him above water.

"Let's get to the other side" I shouted when some type of sea fish suddenly jumped out the water, it's teeth sharped at us. Just as it was about to gobble us up, we were saved by the same sea creatures that Luffy had beaten at the start of our journey into the desert.

We'd thankfully made it to the shore when we spotted a large cloud of dust make its way towards us fast. Before any of us could react, before us materialised 6 ducks that looked very similar to Carue, Vivi's huge pet duck.

At that moment I had a thought of how we could approach the city without much trouble from the Baroque works and could probably help our sorry little asses save this country. I spilled my plan to the others and they all shared impressed looks, excited at the fighting chance we now had. 

"Wow you are some evil little genius aren't you?" Nami smirked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders, blushing slightly at the compliment. 

"I try". After getting ourselves ready, we made our way to the battlefield that would settle the fate of Alabasta.