-Chapter Thirteen-
"Ah! I forgot about the crumbs!" Luffy shouted in a panic before quickly covering his mouth as if to both hide the evidence and shove the words he had foolishly spoken back down his throat.
"I knew it was you!" Sanji angrily snapped.
"Oh, ow..." I winced at the rough kick the captain received to the face which instantly sent him flying backward and into the wall.
"Jerk" Sanji irritably huffed before turning to look up at Nami and Vivi. "Hey, Nami, we need to do something—we need a better way of keeping the food safe from Luffy, can we please buy a refrigerator that locks?" he asked as little puffs of smoke in the shape of hearts now drifted from the end of his cigarette.
"Well, maybe" Nami mulled over the suggestion, her eyes still scanning the map in front of her. "Might be a good idea since it could be a matter of life and death..." she mumbled, lowering the map and looking towards Usopp, Carue, and Chopper. All three of them at a glance were peacefully fishing if you were to ignore the sound of chewing that could be heard coming from their direction.
"Well, we do need to catch something for Sanji" Usopp nervously argued as Carue quaked in agreement.
"So, how's the fishing going?" Sanji calmly asked as he walked up behind the three and rested his hands atop both Usopp and Carue's heads which caused the two to immediately tense up.
"Well...um...it's...um..." Usopp struggled before crying out in pain as his, Chopper, and Carue's heads were harshly smashed against one another without any warning.
"That's got to hurt" I hissed as my nose scrunched upwards into another wince.
"Pathetic, I can't take my eyes off anyone..." Sanji grumbled as the three fell over.
-Later-
Leaning over the railing from my spot between Luffy and Usopp, shifting just the slightest bit in discomfort upon hearing Luffy's tummy rumble.
"Whoa, I'm hungry" he moaned as he removed one of his hands off the fishing pole he was holding to place it over his now growling stomach. "And to make matters worse, the fish aren't even biting" he whined.
"I mean, when are you ever not hungry" I chuckled.
"Tell me about it—you do realize that this is all your fault?" Usopp frowned as he loudly huffed in annoyance. "You ate all the bait that we had, the fish won't ever bite if we don't give them a reason to!" he snapped.
"You...you ate all the fish bait?" I questioned in disgust as I looked to the captain.
"Hey, he ate some too!" he quickly defended as he childishly pointed towards Usopp.
"Yeah, but I only ate a little bit—what was stuck to the lid..." the sharpshooter mumbled as he too was quick to defend himself.
"Why would you even do that?" I gagged at the thought. "Surely you weren't that hungry" I argued.
"Hey now, it wasn't that bad" they both now defended as I shook my head and stuck my tongue out in disgust.
"I don't care if it tasted good—it's disgusting! What if you two get sick?" I frowned.
"Hey, guys" Vivi suddenly cut in as she wandered over and, thankfully, disrupted the current conversation we were stuck in. "How's it going?" she asked.
"Uh...not good..." I muttered as I leaned fully over the railing and peered down at the substitute "bait" the two had decided to use.
"Catch anything yet?" the princess questioned.
"Oh boy, this isn't going to end well" I sighed the closer the princess got, causing her to raise a questioning brow. Staring down at the struggling duck they had hanging over the water, I slowly scooted over before the princess' harshly shoved her way between Usopp and me the moment she heard her pet start to kick up a fuss.
"Carue!?" she shouted in shock.
"Do you think we can catch a shark?" Luffy asked.
"Don't know, I really want to catch a Sea King" Usopp shrugged.
"Stop fishing with my duck, you jerks!" Vivi snapped as she angrily struck the two on the back of the heads. "And you!" I jumped in startlement the moment she turned her glare onto me.
"What about me?" I innocently asked.
"Why didn't you stop them earlier?!"
"What was I supposed to do? They were already using your duck as bait when I first wandered over here" I argued. "Besides, they probably wouldn't have caught anything at all...I think..." I said, mumbling the last part to myself as I quickly averted my gaze.
"You think?!" she snapped.
"I mean, you don't think they really would have put Carue in danger do you?" I asked before raising my hands up in defense when I saw she was still seething. "Okay, I can see that you're mad," I began, "so I promise that next time I catch them doing something like this, I'll put a stop to it right away" I quickly promised with a small smile as she narrowed her eyes and stared me down as if she thought I was lying. After a tense second or two of utter silence, she eventually looked pleased with my response before finally walking away. Though she didn't get far before she suddenly stopped.
"Hey, look over there, you three" she suddenly pointed as she motioned toward the fog of green smoke that came billowing out of the sea.
"What is that stuff?" Usopp asked.
"Cotton candy?" Luffy suggested.
"What kind of cotton candy comes out of the ocean?" I asked with a raised brow.
"I don't know, the good kind?" Luffy shrugged.
"Yeah, if you're a fan of salt I guess" I sweat dropped.
"You guys, wait here, I'll go get Nami" Vivi said before racing off to retrieve the navigator.
"Oh, I see, there's nothing to worry about—it's just a little steam" Nami clarified the second she stepped out of the kitchen and spotted the billowing smoke off in the distance.
"You're saying that steam is coming out of the ocean?" Vivi questioned.
"Yeah, a hot spot, that's all" Nami nodded.
"What's a hot spot?" Luffy curiously asked.
"An area of the sea where magma is made—below the sea over there is an undersea volcano" the navigator simply explained as she pointed out towards the green smoke.
"There are volcanoes under the sea?" Chopper questioned before listening closely to the ginger-haired woman who went on to explain to him the scientific reason why such a thing was possible.
"Shouldn't you two be pulling Carue back up by now?" I asked, once more directing my attention back towards the duck as I wasn't really interested in having a lesson about geography.
"Huh? Oh, we will...but let's just wait a little bit longer" Luffy suggested.
"Yeah, we'll pull him up the minute we sense he's in danger" Usopp agreed, hastily nodding his head as well.
"You're both terrible" I sweat dropped before scrunching my nose up in disgust the moment we started to pass through the billowing cloud of green smoke we had spotted earlier.
"Yuck! It smells like sulfur!" Usopp gagged as we desperately tried to cover our noses from the horrible stench that was now assaulting our senses.
"I can't see anything, there's steam everywhere!" Luffy coughed as he squinted his eyes in an attempt to peer through the smog.
"Bear with it, we should be out of this steam soon!" Nami assured us, her hands now clamped over her mouth and nose in an attempt to block out the smell. It was right when we finally left the green smoke and started sailing further and further away from it that I noticed Usopp and Luffy's fishing poles being weighed down.
"Hey, I think you two caught something" I pointed out.
"Really?!" they excitedly asked before hurriedly reeling their fishing lines back up. Just as Carue was finally starting to come back into view, almost everyone's jaw dropped the moment they saw what exactly the two had caught.
"Wahh!" Carue frantically cried out upon noticing the strangely dressed man(?) that was now clinging to him as he began to flail about.
"No really, this is getting out of hand—I really need to stop jumping onto every random duck I see" the stranger wistfully sighed.
"What is that?" Luffy asked as he looked at Usopp and me.
"I believe it's a man...I think" I answered. "If I'm being honest, the outfit is really throwing me off but so are the unshaved legs" I said before flinching as the stranger finally lost their grip on Carue and fell right back into the water.
"You have to help me, please! Get me out, please—I can't swim!" the man frantically begged as he started to flail. Water splashed all around him as he desperately attempted to keep his head above water. Reacting fast, we made quick work of pulling him out of the water and back onto the safety of the ship where he then collapsed into a panting mess of discombobulated limbs. "I thought I was going to die there for a minute" he heavily panted as he clutched at his chest.
"Yes?" I jolted a little in surprise the moment I felt something slip around my ankle before relaxing the moment I saw it was only Zoro's hand.
"Nothing, pay attention" he grunted even as his thumb slowly began to rub soothing circles against the jut of my ankle, causing my eyebrow to raise in a questioning manner.
'Strange...but also sort of cute' I softly chuckled as I realized that the hold he had on me was almost akin to that of a protective one based on the wary look that he wore as he eyed the strange man before us. I was practically reminded of our youth and the way that he'd sometimes take hold of my hand or move in front of me in an almost protective manner anytime something alarming would happen...
I wonder if he remembers or if he's just being his usual protective self.
"Hey, you saved me, thanks" the strange man thanked as he gave a grateful bow. "I never thought my life would be saved by complete strangers, thanks again—I'll never forget your kindness" he continued, bowing over and over before eventually stopping the moment his stomach began to growl. "Although, could I trouble you for a cup of warm soup? Chicken noodle will do."
"No way!" the others shouted.
"We can't even feed ourselves!" Zoro snapped.
"I don't know...we did go through the trouble of saving the poor guy, so maybe—"
"Don't" Nami glared.
"Alright, alright, I guess we've fulfilled our quota of good deeds for today" I softly joked, causing the ginger to roll her eyes.
"Oh, hey" the man suddenly piped up the second he spotted Vivi. "You're just an absolute cutie, aren't you? Oh yeah, sexy" he praised as he looked up at the princess who stared down at us from the upper part of the deck.
"Ugh...so weird..." Vivi muttered in slight disgust.
"So...um...you really can't swim, huh?" Luffy questioned in an attempt to strike up a conversation with this strange man.
"That's right, you see, I ate a Devil Fruit" the man nodded. "So I can't swim" he confessed as his body began to sway from side to side.
"What kind of fruit?" Usopp inquired as he curiously leaned forward.
"Let's see, well since I can't go anywhere until my ship picks me up, I guess there's no harm in a little fun" the man hummed as he finally stood up. "For saving my life, I'll show you, now get ready—this is my power!" he boasted before suddenly striking Luffy and sending the rubber man flying backward. Instantly did Zoro's hand slip away from my ankle as he grabbed hold of his swords while the rest of us stood around in shock at the sudden attack.
"Why you..." the swordsman grounded out as he stood and drew two of his swords.
"Wait, wait—hold on a second! This is all for a little fun, remember?" a shockingly familiar voice asked as the strange man now held his hands up in defense. No longer were his face and voice his own and instead were now identical to the captain's.
"H-huh?" Zoro sputtered out as he screeched to a halt, shocked by what he was seeing.
"Hey now, mean guy, relax" the strange man cooed in Luffy's voice as he leaned forward with a wide grin.
"No way, that's me!" Luffy gaped as he hopped back up off the ground and stared in awe at the man who looked nearly identical to him saved for the clothes.
"Fun, fun, fun" the man repeatedly sang with a goofy smile spread across his face. "And if I touch my face with my left hand, I'm back to normal!" he cheerily laughed as his face and voice returned back to normal the second he touched his left hand to his face.