Survivors Guilt

Chapter 26

'Relaxed' is a strong term. While, yes, the group were relaxing at the bottom of Reverse Mountain, it didn't last longer than thirty minutes. That was normally the case, but only Luffy and Sabo knew that. The others were pulled from their states of total relaxation when the two unconscious stowaway guests woke up with shouts wondering where they were. The two quickly shut up when Luffy shot them a glare. He was enjoying his nap and now he was awake. Just great.

"Who are you guys?" Nami asked the duo. She - as well as the others on her crew - was on edge and naturally wary of the two newcomers, but Luffy seemed to be calm about them so she'd be civil.

The male-female pair smirked and introduced themselves - for lack of a better word - flamboyantly. "I am Mr. Nine!"

"And I am Miss. Wednesday!"

"Bounty hunters?" Luffy not-really guessed with a tilt of his head. He was standing by Sanji now, asking for food.

The two blanched. "How'd he guess?!"

"I'm just good at guessing games." was the nonchalant answer. "Sanji! Food!"

"Hold your damn horses." The chef pushed his captain off and away from him before he turned to Miss. Wednesday with heart eyes. "You are more beautiful than the sunrise that greets us each morning! Would you allow me the pleasure of being there to greet you every morning-!" Nami cut him off by knocking him to the ground with a hit to the back of his head. It was bad enough that he flirted with her all the time, but to jump at someone they don't even know? Unbelievable.

Miss. Wednesday, to her credit, didn't react other than moving away from Sanji and more behind Mr. Nine. She didn't miss another beat, though. "Yes, we are bounty hunters. But we aren't here to get your bounty."

"You aren't?" Usopp asked despite not having a bounty. Luffy didn't seem to care, he was just hungry.

"Nope!" Mr. Nine answered, "We're here to kill the whale! If we bring that back with us, we'll have enough food to feed our entire island for months!" The duo brandished the harpoons they had with them and moved to attack.

Luffy didn't let them get too far, though. He jumped up just before the two bounty hunters and knocked their weapons into the sea, consequently sending the duo back onto the strip of land everyone was on. "No can do." he said, "This guy's my friend." Friend? That was news to everyone including the whale. No one mentioned it, though, despite their obvious want to. Luffy skillfully ignored the looks.

"Friend?" Mr. Nine spoke for everyone, "It's a whale."

"So?"

"'So'? You can't befriend a whale!"

"Who says I can't?" No one had an argument for that.

"Nevertheless," Miss. Wednesday called the attention back to the matter at hand, "We need food and that whale has plenty of meat on it."

Luffy was getting irritated now. Why wouldn't these two get it through their skulls that they couldn't kill Laboon?! Still irate, Luffy decided to knock the two out. It was quick and no one really knew how he did it. All he did was look at them and they were out cold! Crocus, though, gained a knowing glint in his eye. The kid has Conqueror's Haki.

"We'll take them with us." the young captain decided, throwing the two over his shoulder and taking them up onto the deck of the Going Merry. He put them down by the mast, giving the wooden pole a pat, before looking back over the ship's railing and calling out, "Where're we going, Nami?"

Nami blinked for a second before looking at the Log Pose on her wrist. She had freaked out earlier when the compass was spinning around, broken. Crocus had given her a Log Pose and had been explaining how it worked when the bounty hunter stowaway-guests had woken up. "Um..." a quick look to the old doctor made her quickly turn to look at the sky. It was obvious he wasn't going to be helping them any more than he already had. "East? East."