One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Forty Eight [Rewritten]

-Chapter Forty-Eight-

"However, don't make the mistake of thinking you're alone anymore" he added before the princess could dwell on his words for too long.

"Yeah, that's right, don't worry because...because Captain Usopp is going to protect you!" Usopp proclaimed despite clearly being scared out of his mind.

"Obviously, the best choice of protection you could ever hope for" I nodded, lips twitching upwards the moment I heard the sharpshooter give a quiet, low-pitched whine in return.

"Luffy!" Vivi called back towards the rubber man that was currently getting further and further away the longer we both went in separate directions. "Listen, we'll be waiting for you! We'll be in Alubarna!" she shouted.

"Yeah!" was his only response which brought a smile to all of our faces. It didn't even feel like a few minutes had passed by before the princess started to make small noises of distress.

"Vivi, what's wrong?" Usopp worriedly asked.

"There's a giant sandstorm moving towards Rainbase...it's Crocodile..." she muttered.

"Luffy, no..." Nami worriedly frowned as she and the rest of us stared off towards Rainbase which was slowly getting smaller by the minute the further away we got.

-A Few Minutes Later-

As time passed by, it was mainly silent between the seven of us as no one was in the mood to really talk it seems after departing with Luffy. Well...almost no one was in the mood to talk...

"And that's when it happened, I looked him straight in the eye and yelled—you bone-legged bastard!" Usopp boisterously shouted as he now stood up tall and proud. "And ever since that day, crabs throughout the world are self-conscious about being bone-legged" he concluded his tale as Chopper stared up at him in awe.

"That's the reason they walk sideways?" he innocently questioned.

"Yep, and at that moment, a lobster happened to be in earshot and heard the whole thing" Usopp nodded.

"Oh, so lobsters are crabs too?" Chopper innocently asked, tilting his head.

"Better believe it!" Usopp laughed, causing Vivi to sweat drop as I gave him a blank stare.

"Zoro, why don't you relax?" Nami suddenly suggested. "You're just wasting energy doing that" she pointed out as I turned away from the sharpshooter and his tall tales to look at the swordsman beside me.

"That's a...uh...unique way to create a makeshift dumbbell..." I sweat dropped the moment I saw that he had Eyelash resting on top of one of his swords which he was currently curling like a dumbbell.

"Who asked you?" the swordsman irritably bit back at the navigator who only huffed in return at his harsh response.

"Excuse him, Nami, he's hopeless" Sanji said. "Guys like Zoro, they got to keep moving or they won't stay focused—they have one-tracked minds," he insulted with a puff of smoke from his cigarette, "especially our own resident muscle freak here, now that he's tasted the Seven Warlords."

"That was a little harsh, don't you think?" I frowned, scratching the back of my head as I thought over the blonde's words.

"Don't think too much about it, those two are always insulting one another like this" Usopp whispered to me like I didn't already know that.

"Stop whining, just say what's on your mind or shut up!" Zoro grounded out.

"Ah, you need me to spell it out?" Sanji asked with a raised brow. "All this tough guy bluster is just a sad attempt to mask your fear that Luffy might lose this one" he pointed out, causing Vivi to gasp