One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Forty Three [Rewritten]

-Chapter Forty-Three-

"You idiot! Look closer, they got bananas growing out of them—they're weird gators, not weird bananas!" Usopp snapped.

"What? No, Vivi, what happened?" Luffy asked when the princess suddenly gave a startled gasp.

"A big Banana Gator just swallowed the key to your cell!" she cried out, her stress clearly only getting worse by the minute.

"Well then, go down there and make him spit it out!" Luffy frowned.

"And how exactly would she go about doing that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"By force!" he huffed, crossing his arms and looking at me as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"I see..." I sweat dropped.

"I wouldn't stand a chance, they're alpha predators at the top of the food chain—they're ferocious, they even prey on Sea Kings" Vivi quickly argued, clearly not on board with the captain's demand. "Get near one and they'll devour you in one bite."

"Sorry, you might have had the key if I hadn't accidentally dropped it" Crocodile grinned with feigned guilt. "Now there's no telling which of my pets swallowed it" he chuckled.

"Crap!" Luffy hissed.

"Thanks a lot, you jerk" Nami sneered.

"Dammit! If we could just get out of here, I can handle those overgrown reptiles" Zoro cursed.

"Oh man, you're really dumb Zoro, we can't get out because the key got swallowed" Luffy deadpanned, causing me to snort.

"Yeah, don't you remember?" I grinned as I threw an arm around Luffy. "What are you, stupid?" I giggled as the captain nodded.

"I know that, you idiots!" Zoro snapped at the two of us.

"Oh well, I'm sorry, but we must be going" Crocodile said as he checked the time. "Time is of the essence—oh, and speaking of time, this room will be destroyed in exactly one hour," he suddenly revealed, "it served me well, but it's no longer of any use" he sighed, taking a final glance around the room as he did so. "Soon the water of Rainbase's lake will fill this room and unless they're fish or one of my gators, anyone left in here won't survive" he remarked. "Well, it's either one million innocent citizens or a mere five pirates with no future—it's time to choose" he said. "But, to be honest, the odds are quite low for both.

"I hope you like gambling Miss Wednesday because as they do at the tables upstairs, you're gonna have to roll the dice, just like I did with this country" he grinned. "Which was simple with all the fools here—people like those juvenile Rebels and that old man digging in Yuba."

"You don't mean that dried-up old guy, do you?" Luffy questioned, his demeanor doing a complete one-eighty as he rushed toward the cage's bars once again.

"Of course, even though everyone else has abandoned it, that old fool keeps pecking away every day at an oasis that's long-dead" Crocodile chuckled. "Even as he's plagued by constant sandstorms, he still digs away."

"Shut up!" Luffy growled, not liking the man's mocking tone at all.

"You don't know much about sandstorms, do you, Straw Hat Luffy?" Crocodile asked. "Ever wonder how one can hit a town perfectly every time?" he grinned, causing mine and the other's stomachs to fill with dread as his words slowly sunk in.

"No, wait...you don't mean..." Vivi gasped at the sudden realization.

"It was you—you did it!" Luffy angrily sneered, quick to come to the same conclusion as the princess and the rest of us.