-Chapter Forty-Nine-
"Hold on a second, are you sure there aren't any boats around here? How long will it take us to reach the shore?" Usopp asked.
"The rest of the night" Vivi dejectedly responded.
"That's insane!" he cried out.
"It can't be helped, the least we can do now is keep moving and not stop" I shrugged, not seeing any other option.
"Thanks a lot! Thanks for the ride, bye!" Chopper waved back at the crab, the only one willing to thank it for getting us this far.
"Oh, shut up—he's the reason we're in this mess..." Usopp bitterly grumbled.
"Oh, come on, you can at least try and be thankful that he got us this far" I said, rolling my eyes as he only seemed to pout.
"What the..?" he soon questioned when the water around us suddenly started to shift before screaming as a giant fish came bursting out of the water.
"It's a Sandora Catfish—they're rarely seen by humans!" Vivi gasped.
"Doesn't seem that rare to me!" Usopp cried in fear.
"Why are half the animals in this country so big?" I pondered once again.
"Did I also mention that they love to eat human flesh" Vivi nervously added as we started to quickly wade through the water.
"You could have told us sooner!" Usopp snapped, desperately trying to move away from the giant predator that clearly looked ready to swallow us whole. We soon stopped though when we realize that the fish had halted in its attempts and was now starting to violently shake.
"Get off me, dammit! I can't see a thing with you hanging on so tight, Chopper!" Zoro cursed as he tried to pull off the reindeer that was currently clinging to his face out of fear.
"Dugongs?" I questioned, tilting my head as the small animals that we had first met before entering the desert came bursting out of the water. Violently throwing the large catfish into the air.
"What? Kung Fu Dugongs?" Usopp blinked.
It wasn't long after before we were seated on top of the now knocked-out catfish while the Dugongs pulled it through the water.
"They said they were just looking out for their fellow pupils" Chopper translated for one of the Dugongs that tried talking to us.
"Aw, that's so sweet of them" I cooed.
"Pupils?" Usopp frowned. "What? They think Luffy's our master? Please!" he scoffed with the roll of his eyes.
"You really want to argue with them?" Vivi asked.
"Yeah, why don't you try showing them your strength, Captain Usopp" I lightly teased, causing the sharpshooter to cough into his hand as he started to nervously sweat.
"Hang in there, guys! Just a little further!" he suddenly cheered, opting to ignore the slight giggling that came from a few of us.
-Later-
"Thanks a lot" Vivi smiled as she, Chopper, and I all waved goodbye to the Dugongs.
"You guys were of great help to us" I happily chirped.
"Bye, bye" Chopper waved.
"Now that things are going smoothly, can we make it in time?" Zoro asked, grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers together.
"I don't know...even riding Eyelash...I'm not sure when we'll get there" Vivi admitted, worrying her lower lip after a moment of thought.
"Well this is rather troublesome" I sighed as the others nodded.
"Not to be pessimistic, but Eyelash can only carry three of us" Usopp reminded us. "If Baroque Works is going to attack us, it will be from here on, so we can't split up—isn't there any way for us to stick together?" he asked. "Damn, this isn't good" he quietly cursed when he saw that none of us had an answer to his question.
"Look over there!" Nami suddenly exclaimed as she pointed out toward the distance.
"What is it now? Is it the enemy?" Usopp fearfully asked. "Don't tell me they're here to kill us already" he whimpered.
"I don't think they could have found us that quickly" I said.
"No, wait, that sound..." Vivi brightened the moment she spotted Carue who was currently leading a bunch of other ducks toward us. "Carue and the Supersonic Duck Squadron!" she gasped as the ducks came to a screeching halt in front of us, saluting the princess in the process. "You've come to help us, haven't you, Carue?" she sweetly smiled, hugging the large duck before climbing onto him and motioning for the rest of us to follow.
-The Next Morning-
Already was the morning sun starting to rise by the time we reached Alubarna. Under the guide of our plan, everyone now wore white robes in an attempt to obscure our features and confuse the enemy on who exactly was who. There had only been seven ducks, so Zoro opted for me to ride with him and let Eyelash take the last one...funny how a camel got to ride its own duck while I was stuck clinging to the swordsman...
Not that I was really complaining though.
"Dodge it!" Zoro commanded right as a baseball was suddenly shot at us. Moving out of the way, we split off into groups and took our own designated routes through the city as we had discussed earlier. When we were far enough, we stopped and finally turned to face the two Baroque Works members that had followed us.
"Too bad, but it looks like your guess was wrong!" Nami, Zoro, and I grinned.
"What?" the two frowned in displeasure when they saw that none of us were the princess.
"Yeah, come on, Zoro! Let them have it!" Nami cheered on the sidelines.
"Yeah, come on—what are you waiting for?" I laughed as I realized that the navigator was expecting the swordsman to do all the work.
"Would you two keep it quiet over there!" he irritably snapped.
"Aw, but we're just trying to be supportive of you" I chuckled. "What? Embarrassed?" I teasingly asked, causing Nami to laugh once she saw how flustered the swordsman became.
"N-no!" he sputtered out, stumbling over his words for a few seconds. "Shut up! Now isn't the time to be messing around!" he growled.
"They fooled us" Mr. One grunted...at least I assumed that was his alias based on the giant one written on his chest and stomach. If I remember correctly based on what Vivi had told us, his partner was Miss Doublefinger.
"That's a first" the woman beside him sighed, watching the three of us in slight amusement as we interacted with one another.
"Go ahead, Zoro—what are you waiting for? Punch them out!" Nami continued to cheer.
"Yeah, Zoro, show them who's boss!" I teasingly cheered as well, giggling at the irritated glare he gave us.
"I don't need a cheering squad! Go hide somewhere!" he snapped before turning away from us and facing the duo in front of him. "Alright, you guys, do you think you can make this a little challenging?" he asked...before quickly growing confused as the two seemed to simply walk right past him.
"Hurry up and finish those...really ugly...bad looking people..." Nami slowly trailed off in confusion once she spotted the two walking past the swordsman like they didn't even see him.
"Eh?" I frowned, quick to react when I realized that they were heading straight toward Nami and me.
"What do you think you're doing?" Zoro frowned. "Hold up!" he growled when he was only ignored.
"Primary rule to assassination says all weaker targets are to be eliminated first" Mr. One bluntly answered.
"We'll show you how professionals handle these sorts of things" Miss Doublefinger smiled, causing Nami to become distressed.
"Funny, I thought it would be easier to take out the strongest first so you don't have any trouble taking out the rest" I sneered, tensing up the closer they got.
"W-wait, you mean us?" Nami sputtered, struggling to process what she just heard.
"I mean, speak for yourself..." I muttered with the roll of my eyes—I may not be on Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji's level when it came to fighting, but I could still defend myself just a little bit better compared to the rest.
"Hold on just a minute, getting rid of us won't accomplish anything at all—sure we're pretty and we know how to dress, but that's all" Nami started to ramble. "I mean, I don't really have any fighting skills" she continued to babble as Zoro now began to seethe upon realizing that he was being completely ignored.
"Yes, we know, it's clearly obvious" Miss Doublefinger nodded, not disagreeing with the ginger at all. "As we said, picking off the weak ones first is the fastest way to work—first you, then the other young missy beside you, and finally the swordsman" she explained, listing off the order in which the two planned to eliminate us all.
"Sure, of course, it is—well, naturally, I know you're right about that one" Nami quickly nodded. "I'd do the same thing myself in this situation" she nervously laughed while lightly hitting herself over the head before finally, she took off running. Swallowing thickly, I stood my ground as I gave a stern look when I saw that they were getting extremely closer now before relaxing a little when they simply walked right past me.
"What? Not even going to acknowledge my presence?" I asked. "I thought you said you were going to kill me as well?" I raised an eyebrow.
"As I said before, first we'll take care of the weakest out of the three of you—that girl that just took off running—and then we'll come back for you" Miss Doublefinger hummed. "Clearly you have some bite in you" she grinned as she and Mr. One continued on their way.
"Thanks...I guess...?" I muttered, not exactly sure how to feel about the compliment I was given.
"And that's exactly why I told her to shut up and hide somewhere" Zoro sweat dropped.
"Aw, come on, she was just trying to be a supportive friend" I sighed, smiling a little as I scratched the back of my head. "Shall we go after them before they catch her?" I asked, watching as he nodded before we took after the three. "Hm? What was that?" I asked as a loud rumble suddenly shook the ground before a smoke cloud could be seen off somewhere in the distance.
"Who cares? Let's just keep looking—she doesn't seem to be around here..." Zoro grumbled as we continued looking for our missing navigator. "That brainless little fool, where did she manage to lose herself this time? That's why I told her to pipe down and hide, but no, she had to go running off on her own and make me waste my time looking for her—stupid Nami" he angrily rambled. "And what are you laughing at?" he frowned the moment he heard me chuckle.
"Sorry, it's just...you're pretty cute when you ramble like that" I smiled.
"S-shut up! Quit joking around, this is serious!" he embarrassingly snapped, turning away as he now began to grumble.
By the time we finally found Nami, she was already being cornered by Mr. One. Zoro was the quickest to react between the two of us as he ran and blocked the man's attack—saving the ginger from a very gory fate. Rushing to her side, she was quick to latch onto me as her entire body started shaking in fear due to the close encounter she just had with death.
"Zoro...Skylar..." she shakily whimpered before gasping as the stone column she had been cornered against mere seconds ago split into a multitude of pieces. "That stone column split into pieces!" she gaped in horror.
"It didn't split, it was sliced—only a swordsman could do something like that" Zoro glared.