-Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen-
"Five?" Usopp questioned, quick to look to Robin for confirmation on whether his answer was right or not.
"80,000,000,000 extols is 80,000,000 belis, genius" Robin corrected, causing the cigarette in Sanji's mouth to fall out the minute his jaw dropped open in shock.
"Get real! Do you realize how expensive that is?!" Sanji snapped. "After risking our lives coming to this place, why should we have to pay a stupid fee just to enter your precious city? We can't agree to that!" he angrily sneered.
"You brought this on yourselves—if you had just paid the 800 belis in the first place, we wouldn't be having this talk" McKinley scowled, not really understanding why the blond was getting so upset.
"That's still way too expensive!" Sanji snapped.
"This is your first warning! The White Berets serve under the vassals of almighty Eneru—arguing with us will only raise the level of your crime!" McKinley warned.
"Oh whatever, man..." Sanji bitterly grumbled. "Let's forget these idiots, we need to start looking for Nami—I'm getting worried. She may need my tender affection right about now" he said, a look of love and adoration now crossing his face the minute he started to think about how much tender, love, and care he was going to give the ginger the minute we found her.
"Yeah, she's probably just dying to be wrapped up in your arms..." I sweat dropped.
"Is she in trouble?" Chopper asked.
"I doubt it" Luffy responded. "Soon as the wind changes direction, we can head out for another adventure—I mean look for Nami!" he quickly corrected as if wanting to keep up the illusion that his whole reason for wanting to go to the Upper Yard was because of Nami and not because he wanted to go on an exciting adventure.
"Nice save" I snorted.
"Listen to me!" Usopp frowned as he harshly grabbed Luffy's shoulders.
"Usopp...are you doing okay?" Luffy worriedly asked.
"You know, captain" Usopp suddenly said as he now attempted to calm himself. "If Nami's just taking a joyride around the island, she may be back any minute" he pointed out in sudden realization. "If we leave now, we could miss her—we wouldn't want that now, would we?" he tried to reason.
"You think so?" Luffy asked with the tilt of his head.
"Nothing you say is going to work, Usopp" I said, crossing my arms as I listened to the sharpshooter's pathetic attempts in trying to dissuade Luffy from wanting to go to the Upper Yard.
"She's taking way too long" Chopper worriedly pointed out.
"Shut up!" Usopp hissed as he quickly covered the reindeer's mouth. "The reason Luffy's here in the first place is to prove he can go to where he can't go—not to chase after Nami, stupid!" he harshly whispered.
"That's true" Robin nodded.
"It was rather obvious from the start" I sighed.
"Let's just go" Zoro said, clearly not caring one way or the other if we get in trouble or not.
"Yeah, guys, Conis warned us about that—remember?" Usopp asked. "If we go, we'll encounter Eneru's wrath—who knows how much trouble we'll be in?" he stressed, clearly not wanting to suffer the wrath of this land's God.
"So what now?" Chopper curiously asked.
"Our best bet is to wait for Nami and try not to upset the White Berets" Usopp said. "I mean, it's Nami we're talking about, she's got to have a secret stash of a few trillion belis somewhere. I mean, she can pay up and then we're out of here" he reasoned.
"That's a long shot of a guess that has a small chance of being true, I know she's a thief, but would she really keep that much beli hidden from us?" I asked.
"Yes" Usopp and Zoro deadpanned.
"O-okay" I sweat dropped, taken back by how certain they both sounded in their answer—not a single sign of hesitation to be detected.
"Alright, what are you all blabbering about over there?" McKinley asked, quickly growing suspicious of how we've all been arguing amongst one another this entire time. "And where's your eighth crewmate? I only count seven—do I need to add fleeing the island to your charges?" he scowled.
"Whoa! Whoa! Let's not get carried away here!" Usopp quickly shouted as he held his hands up and motioned for the man to slow down a bit and not jump to any conclusions that could make our situation worse. "She's just taking the waver out for a quick spin, soon as she gets back, she can pay the fine in its entirety" he assured the man. "You can trust us, sir, we're good for it" he innocently smiled before turning back around to face us.
"Okay, I think I bought us some time—now Luffy, don't do anything stupid to anger Nami, you know how she can get" he glared.
"Aw! Okay..." Luffy pouted as he nodded in disappointment.
"There, there, you'll be able to do stupid things to anger her as soon as the fine is paid" I assure him with a comforting pat on his back.
"Sanji, you too" Usopp added.
"Yeah, yeah..." the blond grumbled, waving a dismissive hand as he seemed to pay the sharpshooter's glare little mind.
"Great, so that's the plan—we'll meet back here later" Usopp grinned.
"So, Robin, Skylar? Can I treat either one of you to a cup of tea?" Sanji offered.
"Nah, I'm good" I said, dismissively waving off the blonde's offer who nodded before turning his full attention towards the raven-haired woman as they both walked off toward the ship.
"Sure" Robin gently smiled, taking the blond up on his offer. Looking toward Zoro, I gave him a wide smile as I carefully intertwined our fingers together and tugged on his arm.
"Come on, let's go somewhere peaceful to sit—I know you're just dying to fall back asleep" I teased, causing him to roll his eyes before giving my hand a gentle squeeze as he nodded in agreement. Walking, we soon started to talk about small, minimal things that held no real importance to either of us. It was something peaceful that I quite enjoyed doing with him whenever it was just the two of us. It was nice to just throw out random topic after random topic until we were both a jumbled-up mess that didn't quite know what we were talking about after losing sight of the original conversation. Zoro wasted no time in taking a seat underneath the shade of a tree we had come upon, pulling me down between his legs without a second thought as the conversation between us continued—as the disagreements between us on whatever we were talking about continued.
It always seemed like we could never come to a full agreement on anything whenever we'd talk like this. I'd make one statement, he'd intentionally make another and then we'd just go from there. Quietly bickering with stupid grins on our faces as we'd poke fun at one another, playfully bullying each other with childish insults and the occasional pinch or jab or flick that left us to either pout or laugh...
It was nice.
As time sluggishly ticked by, the conversation between us started to die down as Zoro drifted off to sleep, something he commonly did whenever we'd talk for far too long and about things that neither of us really cared for but still chose to speak about because we just enjoyed hearing the other talk and laugh. Eventually, I was left with nothing more than my thoughts to keep me company as I leaned back and stared up toward the sky. Everything was just so calm and peaceful...
Well, it was until Conis started to scream.
Zoro had been quick to react out of everyone, gently moving me from between his legs before he shot forward while I followed close behind. Quickly did I make my way over toward the fallen and frightened blonde as the swordsman cut down the large fish that had been flying straight at her and looked just about ready to swallow her whole.
"What did we catch? A fish or a monster?!" Usopp fearfully cried as he looked at whatever it was he had exactly caught while fishing.
"You alright?" I asked, already dropping to my knees as I started to look the blonde over for any cuts or bruises.
"I think so " Conis hesitantly nodded, shakily holding herself in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves.
"What happened?" I asked, looking over toward Usopp and Chopper who came running over to check up on the blonde angel as well.
"It tried to eat Conis!" Chopper cried, frantically motioning towards the giant fish that Zoro had cut.
"Take it this is a Sky Fish" Zoro guessed as he lightly kicked at the sea creature that was now sprawled out across the beach.
"You're heroes!" Pagaya exclaimed as he came rushing toward us and over to his daughter to make sure she was truly alright. "Mere words cannot explain how grateful I am toward you for saving my daughter!"
"Father, look!" Conis gasped as she pointed toward the fish after finally getting a closer look at it.
"We're in trouble..." the man dreadfully mumbled just as the White Berets made their way over to us to see what all the commotion was about.
"Why am I not surprised?" McKinley scoffed after taking one look at the Sky Fish. "This species of Sky Fish is so rare that it's forbidden to catch it, your incompetence has once again earned you a violation of the law—this time it's a ninth-degree crime!"
"Now hold on a minute, that's not fair!" I scowled. "We don't know all of the laws around here and besides, how would they have even known that they would have caught a rare species of Sky Fish fishing here?!"
"Yeah, why is that a crime? That thing was going to eat Conis—Zoro saved her life!" Chopper argued, causing the man to laugh as he clearly didn't care all that much that the swordsman had only done what he needed to, to save Conis' life.
"Wait, Zoro, you didn't kill it...did you?" Usopp hesitantly asked.
"Don't think so" the swordsman shook his head.
"Well, if it's not dead then we didn't commit a crime" Usopp stated as he walked over to the fish and kicked it. "See, what did I tell you? It's alive" he grinned as the fish started to jostle about in response to the sudden and harsh kick it had received.
"Yum!" Luffy drooled.
"Don't eat it, Luffy! Stop!" Usopp snapped just as Luffy stretched his arms out to knock the sharpshooter away so that he could bite right into the fish, not caring at all that it was still raw and alive.
"You just dug your own grave, son" McKinley cockily grinned as the fish whimpered in pain in response to the bite. "Eating an endangered species is an eighth-degree crime" he informed us.
"Little on the tough side" Luffy remarked, not really caring to listen to what the man had to say.
"Of course, it is! It's still alive, you idiot!" I snapped. "Spit it out before you get a parasite or something!"
"That's enough! Get off it, Luffy!" Usopp snapped as he tore the captain away from the fish. "And Sky Fish, go back to your home—and if you see any bait on a hook, don't bite it!" he scolded as the fish was finally thrown back into the ocean.
"You know, I've been biting my tongue for the last time, listening to all these bogus crimes you're accusing us of..." Zoro growled as he took an offensive stance. "If you don't cut it out, I'll—"
"Zoro, wait! Think about what you're saying!" Usopp begged as he quickly blocked the swordsman's path.
"This has become ridiculous, your behavior is obviously an attempt at extortion—congratulation, seventh-degree crime!" McKinley frowned.
"Zoro wasn't trying to extort you! He was about to say, "if you don't cut it out, I will have a good laugh," it's kind of his catchphrase—a silly gag" Usopp nervously laughed as he came up with a shitty lie right on the fly.
"That was a weak attempt of a cover-up and you know it" I said, casing the sharpshooter to motion with his hands for me to shut up.
"This isn't fair, he's just trying to get us in trouble on purpose!" Chopper pouted.
"Chopper, shut up! You're only going to make things worst!" Usopp snapped.
"The only way not to get in trouble is to do nothing!" Chopper angrily huffed.