-Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-One-
"Considering that some of us have Devil Fruit powers, it makes sense to split up into two teams of four people" Sanji suggested.
"He's right, that seems like the best bet—don't want anyone to accidentally drown in the middle of the race" I agreed as Itomimizu went on to fully explain the rules for this first round. They were simple enough—only three barrels could be used and two oars to help make a boat, if you used anything else then you were out. It was as simple as that and none of us felt the need to question it, except there did seem to be one problem...
"I'm not exactly sure three barrels is enough to make the boat big enough to hold all four of us" Robin remarked.
"Right, we better go with three teams consisting of..." Zoro hummed, taking a moment to think before pairing everyone off. No one really complained about who they were paired up with and it wasn't long before we were finally ready to start building our boats. Humming, I handed another piece of cut wood from the pile to Chopper—watching as he hammered away before quickly jumping to his side the minute he accidentally hit his own finger.
"Ow!" he whimpered, clutching his now throbbing finger which I softly took and pressed a gentle kiss to in an attempt to help soothe the pain. Mimicking what my twin and I used to do for one another whenever we'd get hurt—an action we had learned from...
"Alright, I guess it's time we switched—I'll do the hammering and you pass the wood" I quickly suggested as I picked up the hammer and took the doctor's place in front of the boat we were slowly constructing.
"Do you even know how to use a hammer?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course! What idiot doesn't know how to use a hammer?" I pouted as I slung the hammer over my shoulder...only for it to go flying out of my grasp and almost hit Usopp who was busy making his, Nami, and Robin's boat. Quick was he to duck, just barely missing getting hit.
"Hey!" he snapped, turning as he angrily threw the hammer back until it landed on the ground with a muffled thud. "Watch where you throw that thing—you trying to kill me or something?!"
"Sorry..." I sheepishly apologized, face heating up the minute I heard Zoro snort.
"Yeah, really showing me those hammering skills of yours" he chuckled as I childishly stuck my tongue out, ignoring the ever-growing warmth of my face as Chopper curiously looked between the swordsman and me.
"Alright, I'll take this time while everyone's preparing to explain how the race works" Itomimizu suddenly piped up, deciding that now was the best time to go into a more detailed explanation of what to expect from this race. "The course consists of one lap around Long Ring Long Land—it may sound easy, but believe me, it's not. If your boat sinks, your team is immediately disqualified from the race" he explained. "Oh yeah, weapons? They're allowed—guns, cannons, explosives, anything you can think of!
"If that sounds unfair then you got no right at all to call yourself a pirate...and time is just about up! I hope everyone is ready!" you could practically hear the grin in his voice the minute he was handed a piece of paper. "Oh! Gather around folks, the final odds are in—I'll announce them in order of their popularity, starting with the most popular, of course! Just as I thought, the top spot goes to our idol and fellow Foxy Pirate, Porche!
"Helping her is the best man, Capote!" he announced as Porche and a Billfish Fishman pulled up in their boat by a brightly orange-colored shark covered in a yellow star pattern wearing a red and black striped mask. "Their vessel is the "Cutie Wagon" which is led by the Star Shark, Monda!"
"Yeah! Take them down, Porche—you can do it!" one of Foxy's men cheered.
"Hold on! You got a shark pulling your boat!" Nami scowled, pointing toward the oddly colored shark.
"I didn't hear him mention any rules forbidding the use of sharks" Porche grinned, quick in pointing out what many may consider a loophole.
"She's got you there, Nami" I said, causing the ginger to irritably huffed.
"The second most popular team...well this is certainly surprising, it's the Straw Hats "Hat Team" consisting of Navigator Nami, Sniper Usopp, and Archaeologist Robin!" Itomimizu exclaimed. "Their official boat is named the Barrel Tiger!"
"That chick with the red hair is smoking hot!" someone in the crowd wolf-whistled.
"I'm praying the dark-haired babe joins our crew!" another grinned.
"They can keep the guy."
"Yeah, agreed."
"Well sounds like the only thing our Foxy crew cares about is the pretty girls—what a bunch of horn dogs!" Itomimizu laughed.
"You sure this won't sink?" Nami warily asked, lightly tapping her oar against the side of her, Usopp, and Robin's boat.
"I told you, I'm not a professional shipwright, okay" the sharpshooter frowned. "I know it's at least better than those abominations" he huffed as he jabbed a thumb toward the rest of our crew as we finally pulled up to the starting line.
"You planned this, didn't you..." I embarrassingly grumbled, crossing my arms as I sat comfortably up on the swordsman's shoulders due to the fact that the boat's size made for too tight of a squeeze for me to just stand inside it with him.
"Don't know what you mean" Zoro hummed, a small grin tugging at his lips the minute I huffed before finally, I rested my hands on top of his mossy head and lightly began to rub my fingers against his scalp. His hair felt rather nice—much softer than one would really expect.
"Whoa! Look at the built on that one!" nearly choking on my own spit, my face exploded with color the minute I heard one of the men onshore shout this. Quickly, I turned my head the other way in embarrassment...not used to nor comfortable with this type of attention from complete strangers.
"Innocent looking and young—wouldn't mind her joining the crew along with the other two!" another whistled.
"Shut up!" Zoro growled, his temper seemingly flaring at the sounds of the men's rude and almost filthy remarks as his hand instantly reached for his swords.
"Don't...they're not worth your time..." I quietly mumbled, gently going back to scratching my fingers against his scalp. Despite my embarrassment and discomfort at the men's remarks, I didn't want him picking any fights and potentially causing any trouble that might come back and bite us in the ass later. Clearly, the opposing team had no trouble in seeking out loopholes that would give them the advantage, who's to say they wouldn't withhold or even interpret certain rules in an attempt to screw us over in the off chance we did something to upset them.
"Just cause it floats doesn't mean it's a boat! It's more like flotsam!" Sanji angrily snapped, catching my attention as I now curiously peered over toward him and Luffy's boat.
"Flotsam!" Luffy laughed as I sweat dropped the minute I got a good look at the mess that was their boat—how were they even still above the water? That thing looked like it should have sunk the minute they got on it.
"You got to do that the whole time?" Zoro questioned, raising an eyebrow as he watched Chopper pedal as fast as he could in an attempt to keep the boat afloat and moving. It was a flawed design, and I had tried to argue against it, but the reindeer seemed adamant that such a method of rowing was much quicker than just simply using regular paddles.
"I tried to tell him to do something different, but he insisted on this design" I sighed.
"Yep—it's a good thing I like running, huh?" Chopper panted, attempting to make a joke despite sounding as if he was nearly out of breath. I wasn't sure where he had gotten it into his head that this design was the best, but every attempt I made to change it had quickly been thwarted by him simply pouting or looking at me with those wide eyes of his to the point that I didn't have the heart to tell him no—to tell him that we couldn't go with his design.
"It's a miracle they float" Robin commented as she examined the mess that was Sanji and Luffy's boat.
"It's all on our shoulders if we want to win this race, as usual...l" Nami grumbled, dragging the palm of her hand down her face in both irritation and exhaustion as if she was already tired and done with today.
"And coming in third of our list is the "Harem Nocturne," a beautiful boat full of beautiful women in favor of beautiful people!" Itomimizu continued with his announcement. "In fourth place, we got the "Crab Crane," an old favorite and in the top ranks! In fifth and sixth are the "Swordfish Kings," one and two! In seventh place is the party-loving "Pleasure Boat," and in eighth place, the old reliable "Duke Special"! There you have it!" he concluded.
"What's the deal? You're not even going to mention our boat?!" Luffy frowned when he realized that his and Sanji's boat wasn't mentioned like the rest.
"Same here, what gives?!" Chopper huffed, quick to realize that our boat hadn't been mentioned either.
"Let's see—Doctor Chopper, Swordsman Zoro, and Swordswoman Skylar's boat "The Basically Barrels," their boat is third to last in popularity!" Itomimizu laughed.
"Yep, I was expecting worst" Zoro nodded.
"I don't remember agreeing on that name for this boat" I said. "Couldn't we have come up with something better?" I asked, peering down at Zoro who only shrugged as if he didn't really care and had just come up with the simplest of names that he could think of when naming our boat.
"And the "At Least It Floats" boat...looks like they win the Booby Prize!" Itomimizu proclaimed.
"Hey, what's a Booby Prize?" Luffy questioned.
"It means our boat is second to last" Sanji answered.
"Coming in last on the list in popularity, we've got the "Giant Marge," the behemoth mama ship monster!" Itomimizu concluded as he finally reached the end of the popularity list just as the final ship pulled up behind us all.
"It's rather big..." I remarked, tilting my head all the way back until I was staring up at the large boat behind us which was made of nothing more than three large barrels all stuck together.
"You're kidding me—the oars can't be long enough for that thing!" Zoro frowned.
"Then how are they supposed to steer?" Chopper curiously asked.
"Yeah, you guys are sharp" a blond man nodded as he called down to us from the top of the giant boat. "You're right about the oars though, way too short" he admitted. "And the damn thing is filled with seawater too!" he laughed.
"Not fair, those jerks!" Luffy frowned.
"Wait, there's no way that thing is just three barrels" Sanji said, having a hard time believing that the existence of this boat followed the rules that had been given at the beginning of the round.
"Sure it is!" another man on the large boat grinned. "We pieced together the three biggest barrels we could find—there ain't nothing in the rule book about how small your barrels got to be" he pointed out, making note of another loophole that could be found among the rules of this game.
"He's not wrong, but still..." I mumbled as I continued to eye the massive boat, now wondering where they were able to find such massive barrels to begin with.
"Okay, all of the boats are now at the starting line!" Itomimizu clapped, causing the crowd to start cheering in utter excitement now that they knew the round was about to officially start. "I will continue to provide commentary throughout the race with a bird's eye view of the action from atop Chirp Chirp, a rare South Blue Super Sparrow" he explained, making it clear exactly how he was going to be able to commentate fully on the race even when it was happening.
"Go, Porche!"
"Yeah, drown that long nose!"
"Who? Me?" Usopp nervously asked as he listened to the cheering crowd—all of who was rooting for the idol of their crew.
"That's it! We have to win this!" Nami huffed.
"Drowning is fair play, it's in the rules" Robin smiled.
"I like the way you think!" I laughed with the clap of my hands.
"Wow! They actually think they have a chance at winning!" Porche grinned in amusement.
"Let the fools think whatever they want to think, Porche, we'll sink them right off the bat—right, Monda?" Capote asked as the shark nodded in full agreement.
"I'm excited about this" Chopper excitedly smiled.
"What? About losing?" Zoro scoffed.
"Think positive and we might just win this, okay?" I gave a strained smile, wrapping my legs tightly around his neck which in return caused him to give out a strangled gasp as he quickly nodded.
"Okay..." he grunted, slapping my thigh in an attempt to get me to loosen my hold.
"Good boy" I chirped, patting the top of his head as he gasped for air before quickly turning his reddened face elsewhere with an embarrassed grumble.
"Now, pay close attention, Usopp! If anything happens to those two ladies, I'll fillet you—you too, Zoro!" Sanji scowled. "If anything happens to my darling Skylar, oh, you're going to get it!" he threatened.
"Whatever..." Zoro grumbled as he waved the chef off.
"We are going to win this race, I know it!" Luffy grinned.
"Fool! Does he honestly think they're going to win? What a riot!" Foxy laughed. "No one's ever beaten the Foxy Pirates—I doubt this will even last five minutes, am I right?" he asked the men around him.