Survivors Guilt

Chapter 27

Zoro watched in mild amusement as the bounty hunters - as he had come to realize a while ago - had a meeting. They weren't very discrete or observant. He'd pretended to be asleep and followed them all out and had been watching them from the top of a building for the past hour and no one had noticed him. It was kind of pathetic. Though, he was also wondering what Luffy was doing. Surely, his knowledge of future events would have prevented him from getting drugged? Oh, well, method the madness he supposed.

Among the group, he had recognised the two stowaways that Luffy had basically taken hostage. The duo were standing at the front of the group near two others. THe two where tall and stocky in build and equally probably as eccentric in personality as Mr. Nine and Miss. Wednesday. He didn't know their names, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that they were in charge and had told everyone to attack his crew. Zoro wasn't about to let that slide.

"For a bunch of bounty hunters," the swordsman announced himself, catching the attention of the people on the ground, "you really aren't all that observant, are you, Baroque Works?" The collective reaction he got proved his theory to be true. He'd only guessed the name of the group and was satisfied he'd gotten it right.

"What the-?!" the tall woman near the front took half a step back in shock, "How did he get up there?!" No one had the answer.

"It doesn't matter," the man beside her, probably her partner, said, "Get him!" That spurred all of the bounty hunters into action and the chase was on. Zoro was more than happy to oblige.

***

Luffy chuckled to himself when he heard the fighting going on outside. He knew Zoro was having fun, so he wasn't going to join the fight yet. He was going to wake up Sanji and Usopp so that they could get a head start on leaving. He knew Nami was already awake and robbing the place for all it was worth so he wasn't going to worry about her right now.

As he was waking the chef and sniper, Luffy sensed a familiar presence on the island. Had she been here this early before? He didn't know. She very well could have been watching the entire exchange the first time he came here and he wouldn't have even known. It's not like it matters, though. As long as Robin didn't get in the way of their leaving the island, he wouldn't worry about her yet.

He quickly shook his two crewmates awake and told them what was happening. With a quiet order to pillage the town for food, ammo, and anything else they felt was needed, he left the building to go help Zoro.

When he reached his first mate, he laughed. Of course Zoro wouldn't need help with the underlings! The unconscious bodies littering the streets and building tops was enough proof of that. He did, however, need to stop him from attacking the Mr. Nine and Mr. Eight duos. So, using his Observation Haki, Luffy pinpointed where Zoro was now facing off against the four and rocketed himself over that way. Unable to resist it, he landed a punch on his swordsman before landing between the two sides.

"What the hell, Luffy?!" Zoro demanded.

"Don't attack them." It was a simple order that the swordsman complied to. He kept his hand on his swords even after he re-sheathed them. He wasn't going to let his guard down that easily, but he trusted his captain.

Luffy turned his attention to the four bounty hunters and smirked. "I know who your boss is." This caused an extreme reaction from the four.

"What?!" was the collective response, "How?!"

"Shishishi! Not telling!"

The light flutter of wings and the sound of scribbling paper caused the four number agents to stop dead in their tracks and turn to the source of the noise. Luffy and Zoro followed their gazes. In a tree not too far from them was an otter sitting on a vulture. In the otter's paws was a drawing of Luffy and Zoro.