One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-

"Hold on a second" Nami butted in, stopping the captain before he could make an official decision.

"What's up, Nami?" Luffy curiously asked, confused by the ginger's sudden interruptance.

"Think about it—their boss is probably going to take part in the next round, right?" she asked.

"Yeah" Luffy nodded, not fully understanding where she was going with this yet playing along all the same as he carefully listened. I raised an eyebrow, curious to know where exactly she was going with this despite having an inkling that I possibly already knew.

"We've already seen what his Slow Slow Beam can do—if he fights, we won't stand a chance in any game no matter what the rules are, so the answer is obvious" Nami pointed out. "If Foxy's going to be our threat in Round Three then we should recruit him so we have the advantage" she suggested. "Sure, we'd all like to get Chopper back, but if we end up losing the next round then they'll probably take him right back and our win will go to waste" she argued, pointing out an obvious flaw none of us had ever really considered. "Since his crew would be dumbstruck when they lose their precious boss, we'll stomp them with no problem and claim Chopper in Round Three—then we're guaranteed to keep him for good, get it?" she grinned.

"No, say it ain't so! They're really going to take our captain away!" Itomimizu gasped.

"That's the Peanut Strategy!"

"You guys are the lowest of the low!"

"Go home, lousy Peanuts!"

"Are you afraid to fight us fair?!"

"Fair?" I questioned with a raised brow. "Sounds strange hearing those words from pathetic lowlifes like you" I scoffed, crossing my arms and glaring at the crowd. How hypocritical of them to cry about fairness when all they've been doing this entire time is cheat and use dirty tricks to get their way.

"Although there are no rules against this strategy, it certainly seems a bit underhanded" Itomimizu admitted. "A little cheating is expected of pirates, but suddenly taking a crew's captain away in the middle of a game is no different than running from a fight!" he huffed, having no shame in admitting to his crew's cheating habits yet still finding the gall to condemn Nami for her plan. "Shame! Shame on you Straw Hats and shame on the heartless devil of a woman who came up with this plan—you're truly a nefarious navigator, Nami!" he berated.

"How dare you talk trash about Nami! I ought to fillet you punks!" Sanji sneered.

"In the long history of Davy Back Fights, no one has ever had the audacity to pull such a lousy no-good stunt!" Itomimizu proclaimed which I found a bit hard to believe. Pirates weren't known to be noble and fair fighters—it was in their nature to play dirty and use underhanded tricks in hopes of getting what they wanted, to act like our navigator was a monster for doing the exact same thing as them was baffling. "So what do you say, men? You can't call a win against a crew with no captain a true victory, can you?!" he bellowed.

"No!" the crowd shouted.

"After swearing on Davy Jones' name, is it right to throw away your honor as a pirate? Just to win a match?" he asked.

"No!" they once again shouted.

"Why are they so mean?" Nami whimpered as Robin and I now comforted her.

"Well, even if it doesn't go against the rules, it does seem to go against their pirate sensibility" Robin remarked, comfortingly patting the ginger's back.

"Seems kind of strange coming from those guys after all the shit they've done" I frowned, soothingly stroking the navigator's hair as I softly murmured words of comfort to her every now and then as she continued to weep over how cruel the men were being.