One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-

"About who fixed the Going Merry for us—what else?" Chopper asked, curiously tilting his head as he wondered why the woman wasn't the least curious about who this mysterious shipwright of ours was.

"Who cares?" Nami dismissively waved. "If they wrecked it that would be another thing, but it's fixed—what do you want me to do? You want me to track them down and thank them?" she asked, not really understanding what the reindeer was wanting from her.

"Well, no..." Chopper mumbled. "But I..." he trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

"Chances are our mysterious shipwright just doesn't want to be known, so finding them probably wouldn't be a good idea" I shrugged.

"Why not?" Chopper confusedly frowned.

"Not everyone's comfortable with being shown gratitude—instead of wondering who fixed the ship, we should just be grateful that they even did it in the first place despite clearly not having to" I said, watching as the reindeer slowly nodded despite still having troubles understanding what I was saying. I didn't blame him, the concept of someone not wanting to be known for their good deeds is difficult for some to grasp—everyone wants to be shown some form of gratitude in their life that it's difficult to really understand those that don't when you run upon them.

"How could he have possibly known...?" Usopp mumbled to himself as he continued to look around the repaired ship. "Come on, Merry, just tell me who I saw..." he never got an answer as the rest of us continued on with our day.

Sitting up on the stairs of the altar with my head propped up with the palm of my hand, I watched alongside the rest as Usopp and Chopper sailed around using the boat he, Sanji, and Luffy had arrived in.

"Hey, what are you doing? You got a plan, Usopp?" Nami called out to the two, not quite understanding why the sharpshooter had decided to take the smaller boat out onto the water.

"That or maybe he just wanted to go on a joyride" I joked as I shifted around until I was now leaning back. Curiously, I watched as the sharpshooter came back and attached a piece of rope to the front of the Merry, making sure it was secure and that it wouldn't break before he got back into the smaller boat and began to use it to help him in trying to pull the Merry down and off the altar. Everyone cheered as they watched—shouting words of encouragement for this plan of his. For a while there, it almost looked like it would have worked until the small boat suddenly snapped in two due to the immense pressure it had been put under in trying to pull down a boat that was twice its size. Though, this didn't seem to discourage Usopp and only seemed to further fuel his need to make sure that this plan of his succeeded.

Sloppily was little boat fixed up and it wasn't long before he and Chopper were silently whispering amongst themselves as they tried to come up with a new plan that would actually work. The plan they came up with was one that I didn't really approve of as a frown settled on my face and deepened the longer I watched the sharpshooter now dangle Chopper right over the cloudy water as if he was using him for fish bait. Already could I feel arms wrap themselves around my waist to hold me back as Nami quickly raced down the stairs after me and stopped me from jumping right into the water the minute I heard Chopper start to cry.

"Wait! Just wait and see what he's going to do!" she frantically pleaded in an attempt to soothe my anger and keep me from heading out there and either getting myself killed or killing Usopp. "Chopper will be alright, I promise—I promise!" she desperately tried to assure me.

"Usopp! If something happens to Chopper, I will not hesitate to beat the ever-loving shit out of you!" I angrily shouted out toward the sharpshooter who shivered upon hearing my threat.