When we arrived at Alabasta, I had a random feeling of comfort, but I was scared out of my mind. There was a warlord here who wants my head. I had to be as discreet as possible. Well, that was the plan anyway...
"Hey (Y/N)! Wanna join me and go on an adventure and eat food?!"
"I uh..." My voice was coming back, but I couldn't say really long sentences, so I had a notepad in my pocket just in case. "Do I have a choice?"
"Nope! Shishishi!" He wrapped his limb around me and headed for town. I was holding onto the railing, trying not to be swept away again. As he was about 100 yards away, the railing I was holding onto broke, and I went flying into him, knocking him to the floor. He got up immediately and just chuckled at me, running into the desert.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'I would have more luck with even Zoro right now...'
We were in the middle of bum nowhere but technically stranded in the desert.
"Hm. It doesn't look like there'd be a food place here at all..." Luffy said, dumbfounded as I knocked him in the head hard enough for an impact, but not for him to be mad.
"Of course not you idiot! We need to find a town or city!" I said, looking around.
'Well, where should we look? For a town, or for people?... or maybe-'
"FOOD PLACE!"
As soon as I thought that, Luffy pulled my hand, literally using me like a kite, heading for a small shack by a large formation of rocks. "A-AH LUFFY!"
When we stopped, I fell to the ground next to him as he looked confused at the shack.
He mumbled about how this doesn't look like a food place. I got up and told him, "It's most likely not a food place..."
Luffy grumbled a little bit then looked back at the house, "Anyone here?!"
Silence...
"Huh? No one's even here?" Luffy started to look around.
"Maybe they are just not home, or ignoring us." I decided, Luffy nodding at me.
"Oh! Water!"
"Really?" I mumbled at Luffy's discovery, "Someone living this far from a town wouldn't leave their water out for bandits... right?"
Luffy turned the nob and as expected, no water came out. Luffy looked more disappointed than ever, so I chuckled and went into my small bag. "Here, Luffy!"
He whipped his head around and cheered,
"Oh! Real water this time! Thanks, (Y/N)!"
I smiled as he drank the whole thing. I wasn't mad about it though, I was just focused on the situation at hand.
When he gave the canteen back, I was putting it in my bag when he asked me what those bags were.
'Huh? What bags?'
I went over to where he was standing and there were about a dozen bags there, all looking to be containing the same material.
I got out the scissors that I use for cutting bandages and opened the bag, Luffy peering closely over my shoulder, "Huh?" I muttered out, not expecting what was in there.
"What's all this green powder?" He started opening all the bags.
I was stuttering asking him to stop until there was green powder almost everywhere, only 2 bags were untouched. For some stupid reason, Luffy came back to my bag and tasted the powder which he immediately regretted.
I laughed so hard I fell over, clutching my stomach, "Yuck! Yuck! What is this stuff?! Bleck, yuck! Oh! Perfect!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This stuff's obviously poison! Now you burn!"
We both got up and loaded two bags into the oven, which just appeared to burn them. "I don't know, Luffy. What if this stuff was important to whoever lives here?"
"Who would want that terrible tasting powder?! Yuck!"
I giggled again until Luffy started walking away, without me. I waited for a second, confused, then got up fast and caught up to him, following closely behind him. Then it slowly got dark and all of the sudden, it was cloudy?!
"HUH?!" Luffy and I yelled, staring at the sky.
'What's causing this?! It's only on our side of the sky!'
"What is that?!" Luffy muttered, turning to the house.
"Luffy, look! There is green in there!" I pointed to a section of thin clouds, to see none other than green powder laired thickly among the clouds. Then it started raining out of nowhere.
And it was still over only the shack. "The green powder must be the cause of this!"
"Rain..." After Luffy said that it came down so hard that I went back to the house, under the covered roof where we found the powder, while Luffy was just drinking the rain.
"W-What is this?!" A strange man busted through the door of the shack with a sword, confused about the rain.
"So (Y/N) was right, you were ignoring me!" Luffy turned to the man, not worried about the rain.
He looked over at me because I was sitting where the bags were, as he yelled that they were gone. He got into a fighting stance with his sword, and pointed at me, as I squirmed and jumped up to protect myself, "What the hell did you do?!"
"AH! Don't hurt me, please! It was a misunderstanding!" I screeched, thrusting my hands in front of me to stop him somehow.
The man turned to Luffy and asked what he did with all the powder.
"I burned it all."
'Oh Luffy, you are so dumb...'
I decided to chime in to make the man's wrath slightly less, "B-But I saved two of the bags b-because I didn't k-know if they were important!" I walked to the side to show the man the two bags I was standing in front of.
"My Dance Powder! My treasure!" He looked relieved at me, but then angry at Luffy The old man fell to the floor crying and I ran over to check on him.
"What's with this old guy, (Y/N)," Luffy said, walking up from behind me, "Why's he so sad?"
I got up and turned to Luffy, "As I said earlier, the green powder, or Dance Powder as he called it, was important. I feel too bad!"
"What's so important about that awful tasting dust?!"
Luffy looked confused at me, then jumped as I ducked last minute because the man struck at us.
"Shut up! How dare you waste my prized powder! Do you know how much I spent on it?!" He yelled, standing from his spot on the ground.
I got up from when I ducked and went to stand beside Luffy, grabbing his arm and hiding behind it. "I don't care! Why would you want that poison anyway?!" Luffy yelled back, as the old man kept swinging, and I jumped behind the man, while Luffy was still being swung at.
"How dare you?! That powder was my dream!"
"That stuff was your dream?"
"That's right! It was one step towards my big ambition!"
"I'm very sorry!"
'At least he has manners...'
The old man started yelling more, telling us to pay for the powder.
I chimed in from near the old man, but at the same time at a safe distance, "W-Well, we don't have any money..." I sweatdropped.
He swung over my head as I yelped and ducked. I ran over to Luffy as the old man told me, "Well you have to pay me! One way or the other!"
The old man knelt to his knees and started crying, "I even built a cabin out here and finally managed to get this far..."
"Come on, don't be so down! You can just buy some more!"
"It's not that easy to buy! The world government outlawed it from being made or sold!"
Luffy completely blocked him out and said, "Come again?" I slapped him in the back of the head and explained.
"Luffy, it's illegal to make or sell it."
"WHAT?!" He looked at me shocked and turned to the old man, "So old man, you're a bad guy then?"
The old man started cackling under his breath, "So, you found me out?" He grabbed his sword and aimed for me, "Then die!" I didn't even see him come for me! It was too late to react!
Thankfully, Luffy saw it and pulled me out of the way, and pushed me behind him, which shocked me.
'Such a gentleman...'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh wow! You certainly are strong!" The old man said with a lisp because he got hit square in the jaw. The rain has stopped now and Luffy just beat up the old man for trying to attack us.
We were sitting with the old man, I was about to try to get some information.
"No one can beat me!" Luffy said, sitting up with his arms out to look bigger.
I chuckled and turned my attention to the old man. They both started making small talk and apologizing for aggravating one another. I cleared my throat, making them both look at me.
"So sir, what was that powder stuff exactly?" Luffy looked like I had taken the words out of his mouth and chimed in, "Yeah! I wanna know too!"
"Y-You both don't know?" The old man asked. I shook my head lightly and responded, "Lu- I-I mean we are new to this country, so we are curious..." I didn't want the old man to know I was from here, because the way he put it, it was obvious to know what that powder was, but I was oblivious.
"That stuff is known as Dance Powder!"
"Dance powder?"
"It's also called Rain-Summoning Powder. It's what caused that sudden downpour just now." The old man answered. The old man asked if Luffy got it too, but Luffy responded by saying he wouldn't get it anyway.
The old man chuckled and agreed with him and they laughed. I sweatdropped when Luffy suddenly took a late offense to that and told him he's a rude guy. I cleared my throat again so the old man would continue to give us information.
"Why would you wanna use that powder to make it rain?" Luffy asked.
"You don't seem to know anything about this country."
"Luffy, this country has been battling with drought forever. It's very hard to get water without needing to buy it from someone else." He looked at me as I explained and nodded, actually looking like he understood.
"That's right!" the old man looked at me with a smile and added, " The world government will execute you if you're seen using it!"
"I see, so why was it made illegal to market?" I said, leaning in to show I'm curious.
The only problem was that Luffy got up, not interested anymore, "But whatever, it has nothing to do with us. Guess we'll keep looking for a food place again."
"U-Umm! Please don't tell anyone about this!" The old man pleaded to us. I nodded my head reassuring him, as Luffy just mumbled he doesn't care.
"I beg you! I'll give you whatever I can!"
"For reals?!"
"For real! For real!" The old man looked happy to take the offer to hide his dirty secret.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The old man gave us each a lunch box and we thanked him, heading on our way.
"Thank you for not telling anyone!" [old man]
"We couldn't if we wanted to!" [Luffy]
"..." [old man]
"After all, we're pirates! See ya! Thanks for the food!" [Luffy]
"Oi, Luffy. I'm not a pirate, idiot." [(Y/N)]
"Oh right, Shishihsi!" [Luffy]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After walking for a little bit, and Luffy eating both out lunches, we finally saw a town, and low and behold, Luffy found a food place. He was running with me like a kite again as I was begging him to slow down, as he was just yelling for food.
The place that he was running to was called the spice bean. I had a gut feeling something was going to go wrong, but the fact that Luffy was there meant that something definitely was.
There was some sort of stand as we got closer, I could see through the doors, so I went to Luffy's ear and whispered, "Do what you want, just be on your guard and be careful." He could tell I was serious, so he nodded, and then his mind went back to food.
"GUM-GUM..."
"LUFFY I SAID TO BE CAREFUL!"
"ROCKET!"
"AAHH!"
We came crashing through the building and the stare-off. I jumped off of Luffy at the right time and watched three guts, one looking to be a marine, go through the bar wall and the wall behind that. "LUFFY! Are you ok?!" I shrieked, looking through the rubble he caused. When I found Luffy, I didn't even need to help him, he jumped up, held my hand, and sat at the bar.
Luffy ordered us a bunch of food for us, even though he was probably going to eat it all anyway. I looked over at the rubble and mumbled to Luffy, "Hey, those guys were having a stare-off... Recognize either of them?"
"Foo- Huh? Oh, no I don't think I do. Food! Food! Food!"
At least he had the courtesy to answer...
When the smoke cleared from the rubble, Luffy was already eating a feast. We saw two big figures, both somewhere near six feet tall.
"Um, you should probably start running..." The chef looked at both of us, worried.
"Huh? Why?" I asked curiously, as Luffy was listening, but still stuffing his face.
"That guy you sent flying just now... Do you know who he is?"
Luffy shook his head no and I thought about it... "He looked a little familiar, but I don't think I have met him... Why do you ask?"
Luffy asked when he sent someone flying and the chef pointed to the holes through EIGHT BUILDINGS?!
"Woah Luffy! Nice one! They went far!" I gawked as I gestured trying to find them with my hand over my eyes. He chuckled confidently at my compliment, still eating. I went back to my spot and asked the chef, "So, should we know the two he sent flying?"
"Why you–! Who the hell did this?!" I heard one of the men get up from the rubble, as I stole some spaghetti from Luffy, though still watching from next to him. The voice sounded young and angry, I scooted my chair closer to Luffy as we still watched to see who the man was.
"What the hell?!" The marine man got up and grumbled. Both men were looking in our direction. I was starting to get nervous, they looked pretty tall, and they were still all the way back there...
"What's the big idea?!" The younger voice was coming closer and I saw his body from far away.
'Orange and black clothes, shirtless, young...'
I took a mental note of his appearance. He suddenly stopped in one house and bowed to some bystanders whose house he had just broken.
The grumbly voice started walking too, 'Gray hair, over 6'5'', Gray hair, definitly a marine, heavy smoker...' I made yet another mental note of the appearance.
"What idiot would do something this crazy?" The young voice was so close I could hear him clearly now, with the grumbly voice not too far behind. All the bystanders fled when the young man came into view, looking pretty mad.
I scooted closer to Luffy when he looked at us, still eating. When the young man and the Marine saw us, the young boy looked excited, and the marine... not so much...
The young man almost screamed Luffy's name as the marine pinned his head to the ground and yelled "Straw Hat!" I squealed slightly and held Luffy's arm, who was still eating. The Marine stood in front of us at the bar. He was mainly looking at Luffy, but every now and again would glance over at me, which made me sweat bullets.
"I've been looking for you, Straw Hat. So you did come to Alabasta." The marine man was trying to act all serious, but I stifled a chuckle because Luffy was still eating, not responding, but keeping eye contact.
My slight laugh earned me a glare from the marine, and I immediately cried inside as I clung to Luffy's arm tighter.
...Munch Munch Munch...
"Quit Eating!"
...Munch Munch Munch...
I laughed again, this time louder, and I got a good look from Luffy, and a bad one from the Marine. Luffy's eating slowed a little bit, as his look got a little serious, as it remembered something. Luffy started to sweat badly.
"H-Hey Luffy! Y-You're not supposed to be scared! Y-You're supposed t-to protect me!" I stuttered, sweating more now that my protector was sweating.
Luffy spat out his food at the smoker and looked at him, shocked, "You're that smoke! What're you doing here?!"
"Hm? Smoke?" I mumbled, looking at the marine, who noticed, "A devil fruit?"
"Bastard..." The smoke guy was not happy with the food on his face.
Luffy told him to wait as he grabbed my hand. Luffy was chewing profusely as I was just confused.
"Uh... Luffy?..." I muttered, looking back and forth from the marine to Luffy.
Before I knew it, Luffy had eaten all the food in front of him, held me under his arms, and ran.
"WHAT?! Luffy, you can't take that guy?!"
"I've met him before, he has a confusing power! My moves don't work on him, so all we can do is run!"
"AHH! I'M GONNA DIE!" I yelled as I gained stares from everyone, including the marine, who I think thought I was kidnapped.
"Halt!" The marine yelled, chasing after us.
"AH! Luffy he's coming!"
I heard a faint voice from the restaurant and the younger guy was running after us too. Why does everyone wanna kill us?!
"Tashigi!" The smoke man yelled from behind us. We saw ahead of us a nice-looking girl who responded and apparently was Smoke guy's right-hand man, or woman...
She tried to strike us with her sword, but Luffy was quick and jumped to the roof next to us.
"Nice thinking Luffy!" I complimented, looking back to see if the marine followed us.
Luffy had by now swallowed all the food when I saw the smoke guy come over the edge of the building with his lower half as... smoke?!
"AH! LUFFY HE'S BEHIND US RUN FASTER!!"
The marine shot a move at us, which was intended to grab us. I screeched as Luffy ran as fast as he could.
"Straw Hat, Why did you come to this kingdom?!"
"What am I here for? I'm here to beat up a guy named Crocodile!"
"What? How are you and Crocodile connected?!"
I scraped my foot against the roof, so I was touching it and put a wood wall up to stop his attack. I don't even know how, my damn body moved on its own once again...
"Nice one, (Y/N)!" Luffy cheered at me as I looked as cocky as ever, even though I still didn't help much, because the smoke guy was still on our tail.
'I don't know if revealing my devil fruit so soon was such a smart idea...'
When the marine launched his attack yet again, I could feel we were not on the roof anymore. The marine thought we disappeared, but Luffy just fell between two buildings, landing us in some rubble.
I jumped up and now held Luffy as he held me, and started running instead of him. He noticed me and yelled for Straw Hat since he didn't know who I was. There was now a hoard after me and Luffy, along with the Smoker on our tail. Luffy was laughing in my grasp as I scolded him, but he didn't care. All I could do was go straight because there were marines on my left and right. I and Luffy screamed as we passed the edge of town, still desperately trying to shake the navy soldiers.
"Heya, Zoro!" Luffy noticed the crew and told me to run over to them. I'm sure I got the Navy off my tail, even for a second. I turned and ran towards the open desert and the pile of rubble the crew was hiding behind.
"There's the straw hat crew! Over there!"
"I'M SORRY GUYS!" I yelled crying a little, as the crew scolded us from afar. As Luffy instructed, I didn't stop running and headed past the crew as they followed close behind.
"Yikes, here he comes! (Y/N) run faster!"
"I'm trying, Luffy. Trust me!" I truly was running as fast as I could, but it wasn't enough, the smoke guy was on our tail. I had an idea. "Luffy. Trust me."
He hesitated for a second and nodded. I started to slow down to be behind the crew. "Guys keep running, I have a plan!"
"What?! Are you crazy, (Y/N)?!" Usopp yelled, not even knowing what the plan was. Before I could respond, the attack the smoke guy sent from earlier was back. "Luffy, when I drop you, keep running, don't get caught!"
"Alright!" as the attack got close enough to grab me, I sent a wooden bean shooting Luffy to the front of the group. Sadly my plan was to get everyone and all of us get shot to get a head start. But I was caught instead by the smoke guy.
I was trapped in the smoke and tried to wiggle my way out. He told me it's no use. I told him I'm not a pirate, but he didn't believe me, pulling me closer to him to take custody of me.
This was going poorly...
"You still helped that pirate escape, you are a criminal!" He threw me against the ground, still engulfed in smoke. The smoke stayed but he stood over me, as I was trying to get out.
"(Y/N)!" I heard the crew stop, thankfully a safe distance away.
"Luffy! I told you to not stop running, I'll be ok-" I was cut off by a booming voice yelling "Heat Haze!"
The next thing I knew, no more smoke was covering me, and a young man, wearing orange and black, and not wearing a shirt stood in front of me, fire coming off of his head and shoulders.
'Oh boy, that was a lot of fire, and Fire isn't good for wood!'
I thought, but I toughed through it.
'If this guy could be an ally, fighting Croco could be much easier!'
I looked up at the man who saved me, to my shock, he looked only a little older than me, I would say only about four years or so older. He turned and looked at me.
"Hey missy, are you ok?" He said it in such a cocky tone, that I almost didn't want him to be the one who saved me.
"I'm fi-"
"You, huh?" The smoke guy rudely interrupted me. And I was sitting up, looking at their stand-off.
'Wow, Logia vs Logia... What a fight this would be! Although...'
The words were taken out of my head when the guy said that Smoke fighting fire was pointless.
"Ace..."
"You haven't changed a bit, Luffy..."
"Wait wait wait," I chimed in, causing the attention of the man know known as Ace and the smoke guy, "You know Luffy?! How?"
"Ace?! Is that you ace?! You ate a devil fruit?!"
"Yep! The Flare-Flare Fruit! Anyways, we can't chat, I'll hold these guys off while you escape!"
"OK!" I heard Luffy yell
"Thank you, Ac- ACK!" Ace looked at me, then looked shocked to see me taken away so fast.
Luffy had grabbed me before I could say thank you, slung me over his shoulder, and started running. "LUFFY!" I could hear both Luffy and Ace chuckling, I wonder how they know each other.
(A/N - Edited 7/26/22)