𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 ˚ ONE PIECE

SIXTEEN

The sun casts a bright shine over the sea, reflecting it beautifully. Shiori is seated next to Nami, who scans over the map, almost trying to memorise it.

"Never seen that before.." she mutters to herself, it being the first thing Nami has said in a while.

"Hey guys! Shiori! Nami!" Luffy gains the twos attention and proudly holds up a badly made flag, the design being different from usual. "It's ready!"

"And.. what is it?" Nami awkwardly questions, although admittedly she doesn't care.

"Our Jolly Rodger. Every pirate crew has to have one, and now we do!"

"That looks great Lufe! What's um- what's that?" Shiori tries to show praise to the boy, which is an effort, and points to some random squares that are lined up in two rows.

"That's the teeth."

"And what are those?" Shiori points her hand a little further upwards.

"Those are the eyes.."

"And what are those sticks?"

"Well- they're just.. bones i guess."

"I see it now!" Shiori claps at Luffy's hard work on the flag, finally understanding what it's supposed to be.

Nami smirks, shaking her head, "that's not insulting." Then she realises Luffy's mistake that she hasn't since corrected, "we're not a crew and you are not hanging that on my boat."

Luffy's pride is momentarily damaged by the two girls, but his enthusiasm returns when Zoro steps out of the cabin and onto the deck. "Zoro! Zoro, check it out."

Zoro's dark eyes make it look like he's glaring at the captain, his silence only worsening it. "That's unique." He states, moving on. "Nami I think the toilets busted."

"Why're you telling me?"

"Because Luffy shits straight into the ocean and I'm not letting Shiori fix it because it's too gross." The swordsman explains, staring blankly.

A look of confusion takes over Nami's face, "we don't have a toilet."

"Oh." And awkward silence floats between the four, Zoro not particularly caring, "well then something back there is leaking."

"What?" Nami's confused face morphs into one of realisation as she runs towards the cabin.

"Where have you been doing your business?" Shiori is freaked out by the situation, backing away from the boy uncomfortably.

"Wel obviously not the toilet." Zoro kisses his lips, looking everywhere but in the girl's eyes. "My bad."

Nami frantically exits the cabin, stressed from the 'leak', "We're taking in water. What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." The green haired doesn't bother to raise his voice like the angered girl, knowing his innocence.

"The way you're clanging those swords around all the time you must've broken something."

"If you're such a good thief then maybe you should've stolen a better boat."

The two go back and forth, pinning the blame on eachother and defending themselves.

"Guys. Guys. Guys. Okay. Crew meeting." Luffy folds up his flag, realising that conversation has been over for a while.

"Not a crew!" The two state in sync.

"We're definitely a crew." Shiori chuckles before realising nothings even funny and stopping.

"We're gonna need a better ship to make it to the Grand Line." His words peak the other two's interest, and they start to actually listen, "a real pirate ship. Worthy of the straw hat crew."

The new label makes a pleased smile rise on Shiori's face, and she gets up, wrapping her arm around her captain sideways and patting his shoulder.

The others don't seem as impressed, immediately questioning the name.

"Wait. Straw hat crew? Really?" Nami blinks, not knowing if this is just a joke or if it's serious.

"Yeah! I thought it has a nice ring to it." Luffy smiles, his mind set on the name.

Shiori starts to mumble their new identity under her breath multiple times, realising she agrees with the boy, "it does have a nice ring to it!"

"'Demon' has a nice ring to it. 'Headgear'? Not scary." Zoro's words make Shiori cringe, feeling like he's too emo to be around sometimes.

"Who says pirates have to be scary?" Luffy questions innocently, making the others consider it. "The point is, we need a new ship. So.. where do we get one?"

The girl who recently remembered her kusarigama, and has since started swinging it carelessly, shrugs "The ship shop probably."

"To the ship shop!" The boy points into the sky, resting his other hand on his hip.

Nami goes to grab the map, not wanting to spend too long on the open sea without knowing where she is heading. "Our closest bet is.. the Gecko Islands. We can probably make it there before our ship sinks." The ginger looks up at her friends, waiting for any agreements, "Ditch this one and get a better one."

"Good. With a working toilet." Zoro mutters.

"And a disco!" Shiori jumps up, high fiving her green haired friend.

"Great job navigator." Luffy praises, still trying to get the map girl to join his crew.

"You're still not hanging that on my ship."

"The ships going down anyway!" Shiori tries to reason, feeling bad Luffy's hard effort will go to waste.

"Do you wanna go down with it?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"I want to kiss Zoro."

"Luffy if you don't stop, I swear I'll-"