Missing Piece

Chapter 5

Luck. A whole shit ton of luck. Charlotte feverishly believed.

The next time the door next to them opened, Charlotte had thought it would be more of the lucky pirate crew and she found herself wishing it was even if they were cursed Devil Fruit users. She preferred them to a Celestial any day. She clenched her fist and let the cool metal of her blade pressed against her heated skin calming her slightly. Her mood souring further.

A scream brought her attention back towards the stage. There was a tall pirate standing on the stage and she yawned. What's so scary about a pirate? The archipelago was basically crawling with them. The rusty smell of iron reached her, and Charlotte narrowed her gaze, noticing the blood dripping form the man's lower lip and mixing with his black beard before staining the floor. The pirate had bit off his own tongue. Charlotte wasn't sure whether to call the action impressive or stupid.

"Uh, number 16, the pirate Rakyuba was taken to emergency care for a nosebleed. Though he collapsed, we hope to bring him back to you in a few days." Their announcer, Mister Disco, excused quickly when the curtains were drawn again after a quick intermission. The pirates and Charlotte scoffed at the obvious lie, seeing to be the only ones who caught it.

"But ladies and gentlemen," Disco continued with enthusiasm. "The item I am about to present to you will blow all your troubles in an instant!" He started and the crowd was immediately hooked, including the Straw Hat Pirates who Charlotte was starting to feel like they had a different agenda than the other two crews here. She eyed the man with the strange star-shape hair again. She felt like she had saw him somewhere before. "Our super special item! All the way from Fishman Island! Camie the Mermaid!" As soon as he finished the crowd grew wild and so did the few Straw Hats. Charlotte finally remembered where she met him before.

He was the one warned their green haired friend about her. The green haired mermaid sneaking on the island full of slave traders. The green hair mermaid who was friends with the attention-driving Straw Hat crew.

Shit! Charlotte cussed. Today was going to be so much busier than I thought.

"500 million beri!" Came a long shout that shushed the entire house into shock. "I'll pay 500 million!"

"... What was that? All of the sudden! We don't have nearly enough..." Charlotte overheard their navigator muttered, still trying to process through the shock. She looked grimly ahead, so they came here to buy their friend back.

"Charlos, you're wasting money again..." Sir Roswald, father of the bidding Celestial reprimanded lightly with no real intent in his voice. "And you're keeping piranhas in your aquarium, aren't you?"

"It'll be fun to watch them chase her. Mermaids are the fastest creatures in the water, right, Father?" He replied with a laugh.

"T-The whole audience is speechless." Disco shouted into his microphone, voice still a little light from shock. He asked the audience if there were any other bids as per protocol though everyone in the room knew there weren't any. "Today's big prize, Camie the mermaid, will go to the world Noble, Saint Carlos for the price of 500 million!"

"What a farce, and the marines hunt us." Kid scoffed, turning to leave. "They make us pirates look humane."

For once, Charlotte agreed with the pirate's words, but she remained her ground while the rest of the crew filed out after their boss. Her eyes locked onto her target still sitting a few rows down. An echoing scream pulled her attention back towards the double doors just in time to see them burst open and something shot through, narrowly missing the Kid Pirates.

Climbing out from the smoke with no grace and much noise was none other than the two supernovas of the Straw Hat Pirates: Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro. Though the two didn't seem to have noticed exactly where they were as the two continued to argue amongst themselves and the flying fish rider they flew in on.