With the second round of the Davy Back Fight going under way, both crews are more than excited to see what the second game would bring.
As the Straw Hats head to the field, Nami sees Luffy still taking Rose with him by the hand and calls out to him. "Hey Luffy, come here! I need to talk to you!"
Luffy and Rose stop and look back at the smirking navigator. Rose is suspicious of what she has planning, but with how important the game's going to be it can't be anything stupid, so she pulls her hand free and walks head with Usopp and Robin.
Luffy is still confused but nonetheless goes over to her. "What's up?"
Nami's smirk doesn't falter at all as she speaks up. "I heard how you didn't tell Rose about your feelings for her. You have any idea when to tell her?"
He widens his eyes when he remembers that he didn't confess to her yet and turns to where his crush went. "I'll go tell her now!"
He starts walking, but she stops him by blocking his path. "Hold on, you can't just randomly tell her."
"Why not?"
"If you just tell her, then she'll play it off as you liking her as friends. You need to show her how special she is to you. Give me until the end of the game to come up with a way for you to do it. Deal?"
"Ok, thanks Nami!" Luffy grins from the help he's getting with this new feeling, and goes off with Nami to rejoin the group.
When the group reaches the field, where a life preserver ring is placed on each end of the field, they stop at the edge to see that Zoro and Sanji are still arguing.
The rest of the crew can only watch in disbelief of how they're behaving like ten-year olds at such a crucial moment. Nami goes to say something, but is stopped when Chopper, who's still in his human form, punches both of their heads!
"SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!" Chopper yells at the childish men as they rub their heads.
Both Sanji and Zoro groan before they glare at their crew mate.
Sanji clutches at the ball like hat in his right hand then points his other hand to the moss head beside him. "I'll shut up when you tell this clown that he needs to be the ball!"
"No way perv, a stick like you is better off as the ball!" Zoro says with his angry eyes pointed at the chef.
Sanji goes to say something, but Chopper cuts him off by taking the hat. "I'll be the ball, so knock it off!"
The two pirates blink at the compromise and calm themselves down. "Ok."
The doctor sighs in relief of how he solved the problem, and takes his own hat off. He goes to Usopp and hands it to him before he buckles the ball hat onto his head.
"You sure you're going to be alright Chopper?" Usopp asks in worry for how he has to deal with those two idiots.
The reindeer man can only sigh before he gives him his backpack. "I'm not sure, but we don't have a choice."
"Good luck." Usopp says for Chopper to nod as he walks back to his teammates.
The wind girl sees the exchange and softly frowns at the reindeer in guilt. She knows that it's her fault that he's stuck with them for getting Usopp's team to win, but compared to being taken by the other crew, this is the best option.
She and the others wait in anticipation for the next round while the announcer flies on his bird and starts speaking. "Now the rules of the Groggy Ring are simple! You will steal the enemy team's human ball and dunk them onto the enemy's goal that's shown on the opposite sides of the field! And without further ado, time to introduce the teams!"
The announcer scans the for the Straw Hat team who are standing by their ring goal and call out. "On the right side of the field, we have the Straw Hat team that consists of their reindeer doctor Chopper as the ball, the grumpy swordsman with a 60 million bounty, Zoro, and the swirly browed chef, Sanji!"
The team's crew mates cheer for the three pirates while everyone else just stays quiet. The announcer notices the quick tension, so he's more than relieved when he his crew's team heading to the field. "And heading to the left side of the field are our undefeated champions, Hamburg, Pickles, and Big Pan, who together are best known as the Groggy Monsters!"
The Foxy Pirates roar in cheer for their favorite team while the Straw Hats become horrified by the gigantic team. Each of the three men is larger than the last with Hamburg being the shortest, Pickles, a large man in green with shields on his shoulders, being the second tallest, and Big Pan being the biggest by being twice the height of the Merry.
Zoro, Sanji and Chopper look up at the towering men, and find that they have their work cut out for them, especially since the tallest member is wearing the ball hat.
"How are we going to put that guy in the ring?" Chopper asks as he stares up at the huge men.
Zoro chuckles before he pats the swords on his hip. "We just need to cut him down."
The referee notices the swords and whistles to him. "Hey, no weapons allowed in the game!"
The swordsman is surprised by the rule, but he reluctantly accepts the terms by taking his swords off of his hip and gives them to Robin to hold. "Hold them."
"Alright." Robin says as she keeps them secured in her arms before she and the others hear laughing from the slow beam user.
"Fehfehfeh! I feel sorry for your friend, but it wouldn't matter if he had his weapons. Our team is unbeatable."
"Probably from all the cheating right, you fucking slowpoke?" Rose asks which causes the captain to get depressed enough to fall on his hands and knees.
Porche is furious by the attack and glares at the wind girl. "Have you no shame?!"
"I just call it as I see it." Rose casually answers with no remorse.
Nami is surprised by the other team's lack of denial and glares at the slow beam user. "Wait, you're able to cheat in this event?!"
Foxy recovers from his depression, and keeps a shit eating smirk on his face as he brushes the dirt off his clothes. "Of course! We can disrupt any game!"
He looks at his amazing team and crosses his arms over his chest. "I don't need to do anything for the Groggy Monsters though. They can beat your pathetic team all on their own."
Luffy grows furious by the taunt and yells out to his crew members on the field. "KICK THEIR ASSES GUYS!"
His team can only smirk when the announcers grabs his gun. "Alright, there's no time limit, so as soon as one of the teams get a point it's game over! Without further ado, LET'S BEGIN!"
The gunshot signals the start of the game with all chaos breaking loose between the two teams!
Hamburg's team keep on aiming for Chopper while Zoro and Sanji struggle to block the fierce tackles from Pickles. Hamburg tries to go after the reindeer, but Chopper fights back by going into a one on one brawl with him.
Sanji leaves Zoro to take care of Pickles while he takes a shot at Big Pan. As soon as he tries to kick on his legs though, his foot only slides on his skin due to Big Pan being a half, mudfish, fish man with slippery skin!
The giant half-fishman only swats down Sanji like a fly while Pickles tackles Zoro down to the ground.
Hamburg traps Chopper into a bear hug hold just before Big Pan kicks the two pirates into the air!
"CHOPPER!" Usopp and Luffy yell out in worry while the girls are horrified by what they're seeing.
Chopper struggles to escape the strong grip in mid-air while Zoro and Sanji are getting up. While Zoro is standing, Pickles goes for another tackle. Before he could reach him though, Sanji gives him a flying kick to the side to cover for him!
While Pickles is stumbling back from the kick, Zoro grabs his foot and uses his monstrous strength to throw him towards the flying pirates! As they reach towards the enemy goal, Chopper stops struggling in the hold and shrinks into his brain point.
Hamburg is astonished by the transformation, but before he could tighten the hold, Chopper jerks his head up as hard as he could to whack him in the nose with his left antler!
"THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT DOC!" Rose proudly cheers for the amazing move while Hamburg caresses his nose.
Chopper takes the chance to transform back into heavy point and grabs Hamburg's arms. He sees Pickles quickly approaching them so he throws his teammate back at him for the two bulky pirates to crash together.
Chopper safely lands back on his feet while Pickles and Hamburg tumble onto the ground and are unconscious from the sudden defense.
The Foxy Pirates are completely stunned by the defense while the Straw Hats are relieved that the game didn't end that quickly.
Foxy grows irritated by how his team might be losing to this tiny crew again and doesn't want to take chances. He starts to sneak off through the crowd, which doesn't go unnoticed by a few of the Straw Hats.
Rose follows the two black hair spikes, that are moving through the audience, with her eyes before she speaks up. "I'll be right back, I gotta go catch a fox."
Usopp saw the Fox captain leave and can tell what she's planning. "How about I back you up?"
"Me too!" Luffy says with no idea about what's going on.
"Alright, come on." Rose goes after him with both sniper and captain following.
Nami and Robin watch them for a moment, before they let them take care of things behind the scenes.
Meanwhile though, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper, are running for their lives all across the field because Big Pan is trying to step on them.
Nami is surprised by their cowardliness and calls out to them. "GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! HE'S THE BALL!"
"LOOK CLOSER NAMI! THERE ARE KNIVES UNDER HIS BOOTS!" Zoro yells back, with the girls seeing that he's right for there are blades poking out from the bottom of his red boots!
"THAT'S GOTTA BE AGAINST THE RULES!" Sanji calls out, but the referee only looks away while whistling.
He refuses to look at the weapons and instead keeps his eyes on the sky. "I don't see any weapons..."
"Why you cheating bastard!" Sanji runs over to kick him, but Chopper picks him up and carries him over his shoulder.
"Chopper, put me down!" Sanji struggles to get down, without hurting his crew mate, but to no avail.
The doctor keeps a strong hold of Sanji over his shoulder, and keeps running for his life. "You can't hurt him!"
"You'd better listen to the raccoon dog!" The referee yells out which pisses off Chopper.
"I'M A REINDEER!" Chopper yells as he goes to take a swing at him, himself, but Zoro follows Chopper's stunt by picking him up over his shoulder while the doctor is still holding Sanji!
"Follow your own example Chopper!" Zoro says as he's still running for his life from Big Pan!
Nami sweat drops at the strange sight of her three crew mates piled on together while the base of the pile is running from Big Pan, who is now wielding an axe. "Can't these idiots take anything seriously?!"
Robin softly frowns at how the game's progressing before she looks to the dishonest referee. "That's not the only problem we have."
Nami follows her gaze, and knows that she's right. It's only a matter of time before that referee gets smacked down by her team. When that moment comes, she needs to be ready to make sure that doesn't disqualify them. "Leave that to me."
Robin smiles at her confidence and accepts the request before they return their attention to the game.
*****************************************
After Foxy snuck off on his own, he made it to the back of the audience with none of his crew members noticing. He snickers in excitement of the brilliant plan he's come up with to take out the rotten crew.
He sneaks off to one of the tall trees nearby and begins to climb. It doesn't take long for him to reach the branches and hide himself in the brush of the tree. He looks out from his twenty-foot-high hiding spot to see that he has a perfect view of the field. When he scans the field, he finds Zoro, Sanji and Chopper getting the shit beaten out of them by Big Pan and his newly awaken teammates because they're all using illegal weapons.
Foxy chuckles at how his team is doing against the team. "Just as I'd expect from my crew. As the amazing captain that I am, it'd be an honor to help my amazing team."
He aims his hand in the direction of the field, and gets ready to fire a beam at the Straw Hat team.
"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Foxy almost jumps out of his seat from Luffy's loud voice, and looks down to see Luffy and Usopp running up to the tree.
The slow beam user smirks at the distance as he looks back to the field. "You'll see in just a moment when I slow down your team."
"Oh really? You think you can still aim after a punch in the nose?"
Foxy tenses up at the feminine voice from his left, when Rose's backfist lands on his big nose as hard as possible!
Foxy leans backwards in a daze from the hit and falls off the tree. He regains consciousness in time to grab a limb, halfway through his descent, to keep him from hitting the ground.
The wind girl can't help but laugh at his plight, and how he's hanging on a limb, before she gets comfortable on Foxy's former seat on the branch. "Man, you never learn, do you?"
"It's you who needs to learn your place!" Foxy furiously raises his free hand up and fires a slow beam at the wind girl!
The pink, circular, beam lands a direct hit on Rose, which causes her to slowly lose her grin.
"HEY!" Luffy angrily barks at Foxy as he pulls his fist back, while the slow beam user grabs a knife from inside his jacket and throws it at Rose's branch.
The weapon hits the mark and breaks it off the tree with the brunette slowly falling.
When Luffy sees that Rose can't create her wind, he abandons his intent to punch the bastard to go catch her.
That doesn't leave Foxy off the hook though, for Usopp quickly grabs his slingshot from his bag and aims at Foxy's butt. "TAKE THIS, YOU UGLY SPLIT HEAD! USOPP EXPLODING STAR!"
Foxy grows too depressed to defend himself thanks to the sniper's insult and takes the explosive attack on his ass!
He yelps in pain from the hit and loses his grip on the branch and freefalls, Luffy stretches his arm to grab the brunette's arm and bring her into his arms. The Straw Hat captain keeps his arms under her knees and the small on her back while she slowly smiles up at him with a small blush creeping on her face. "Thaaannnk Yooouuu."
Luffy happily smiles at the slow gratitude before, before he sees a shadow looming over them. Luffy looks up to see that Foxy is falling towards them, so he steps out of the way with his crew mate to let him land on his ass.
The fat man groans from the burning, and aching, feeling from the rough attack before he gets up and glares at the pirates. "That was a cheap shot!"
"You're the one who tried to cheat again!" Usopp argues back with the two pirates getting into a glaring matching.
Rose shakes her head at Foxy's stupidity when she feels her speed returning. She tries to get out of Luffy's hold, but he's keeping a surprisingly strong hold of her. "Hey Luffy, I think I got my speed back. You can put me down now."
Luffy reluctantly agrees and lets her down before he narrows his eyes on the slow beam user. "I ought to kick your ass right now."
Foxy turns his angry face to Luffy before he points an arm towards Luffy and another towards Usopp. "Try it and I'll slow you all down!"
Usopp flinches from the threat while his two crew mates are ready to fight.
Rose quickly goes in a different direction so that the three Straw Hats surround Foxy in three different directions. She keeps herself behind Foxy, while the slow beam user keeps moving his arms around from one pirate to the other, and gets her left hand ready to snap her fingers. "Use your power, and you'll find yourself in a tornado. Even a slow snap will create it."
Foxy growls at the threat, and finds himself in a standoff. Lucky for him though, there is another way he can mess with the game without using his power...
His face grows a crooked smirk before he takes a deep breath through his nose and shouts out. "LISTEN UP GROGGY MONSTERS, MAKE ME A MONSTER BURGER!"
Usopp and Luffy grow confused by the order, but Rose immediately recognizes it from her world.
"Shit!" Rose turns her head towards the field and her suspicions are confirmed when she hears the Foxy Pirates starting to chant 'GROGGY!' as they await their team's finishing move.
"Let's get back to the field!" Rose says as she picks Foxy up with her wind.
"Wait, we're taking him with us?! He could slow down our team when he sees the field!" Usopp says with worry in his voice.
"We can't trust him to be left alone." Rose says when she turns her back to her friends, but brings Foxy in front of her with a friendly smile, that doesn't reflect the horrifying gleam in her purple eyes. "Besides, he should know by now that if he tries anything else, we'll be more than happy to kick his ass. Right?"
Foxy can feel a sense of fear wash over him from the evil look before he shakily nods. "Yup..."
Rose hums in satisfaction while she closes her eyes, so that the others don't have a chance of seeing her glare of death, and walks ahead with Foxy. "Then let's go."
The other boys quickly catch up and head to the field just in time to see the standoff between the Groggy Monsters, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper.
Rose stops using her wind on Foxy, and opens her eyes to see her three crew mates facing off the Groggy monsters while they're wielding weapons as if they weren't against the rules.
"WHAT THE HELL?! THEY SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED!" Usopp yells but when he looks at the referee, he sees his back turned to the field while he's doing stretches.
"WHY YOU!" Luffy goes to kick the referee's ass why Usopp holds him back.
"Fehfehfeh! Nice try, but you will only get your team disqualified if you hit him." Foxy says before he admires Hamburg's clubs, Pickles' swords and Big Pan's pair of giant pans. The team has it in an order of Hamburg ready to first clobber them with his clubs while Pickles spins in a twister of his ow with his swords ready to slice anything in its path. Once the deed is done, then Big Pan would finish the job by crushing the sliced-up players in his pan to turn them into mincemeat burgers.
Rose holds back a chuckle when she remembers the outcome of the game and doesn't worry at all. She sees Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper bruised and cut up from the fight, but they're still able to stand proudly with a determined look in their eyes.
As much as she wants to watch the show, she forces herself to keep an eye on Foxy so he doesn't pull anymore tricks on her friends.
Even though she doesn't pay attention to the fight, she can clearly hear the excitement as Hamburg goes to clobber Chopper.
However, the reindeer man was too fast for him because he transforms from his human form to his walking form and runs towards the gorilla-like man.
As he runs, Sanji jumps onto his back, and does a handstand, just when he turns around at the last moment so Chopper kicks him in the stomach while Sanji kicks him in the face!
Hamburg is surprised by the sudden attack and stops his clubs, but Sanji wasn't done yet because he jumps off of Chopper's back. He quickly flips in the air to land on his hands in front of the dizzy pirate, bends his legs, and kicks Hamburg under his chin hard enough to send him flying!
Pickles continues to spin as his wide eyes watch his flying crew mate go high enough to reach Big Pan. "CRAP! BIG PAN, CATCH HIM!"
The simpleminded half-giant didn't wasn't able to hear it though, so he continued clapping the pans together when Hamburg approaches them. Hamburg is still in a daze from the tough kicks that he endured, so there was nothing he could do to avoid the big iron pans from flattening him like a pancake!
Foxy and his crew gape in horror as they watch one of their strongest members fall off the pans and lie on the ground unconscious.
Pickles was more than furious about his crew mate's plight and charges towards the chef who caused it.
Zoro isn't having it though, for he runs in between the two pirates and rushes to the enemy swordsman. Despite Pickles actually having swords, Zoro doesn't hesitate to take his legs and use his monstrous strength to throw him into the air with the same speed and rotation that he's been spinning at.
"OH SHIT!" Pickles screams when he can't stop his spin as he flies towards Big Pan's chest!
The large pirate was too slow to dodge the attack and is forced to take the slicing attack to his chest. He drops the pans while taking the force of the attack and stumbles back towards the end of the field.
Sanji doesn't let him, for he won't land in the ring if he does, so he runs behind him as he falls toward the ground, jumps in the air, and gives his back a hard enough for him to stand back up in a daze from the eating.
Meanwhile, as Pickles falls towards the ground, Chopper takes this chance to take revenge on him by jumping in the air in his reindeer form. He transforms into brain point to avoid his swords then quickly goes into heavy point to give him a monstrous right cross punch to the jaw!
Pickles falls at a fast rate towards the audience, more specifically the referee who's been turning a blind eye on all of the Groggy Monsters' rule breaking.
The referee was too busy stretching with his back to the field to notice until the bulky pirate body slams him! Pickles' face piles into the ground and loses his consciousness so he can't get off of his crew mate.
The referee unfortunately is still conscious and finally decides to take his role in the game seriously when he pulled his upper body free from under the large pirate. "That was on purpose! You are so-!"
He can't find his referee cards in his shirt, nor can he find the whistle that he wears as a necklace, and looks around the ground to see that he can't find them anywhere. He groggily searches for them before the pain from the blow grows too much for him so he falls unconscious.
Nami snickers at the referee's state, as she holds the missing cards in her hand then puts them in her pocket. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Robin giggles at Nami's sneakiness before she looks back to the field where the finale's happening. Which is by Zoro hopping onto Sanji's leg just as it's about to kick up so he can be launched towards Big Pan.
Just before Big Pan recovers from his dizzy state, the strong swordsman grabs him by the top half of his shark-like teeth and pulls him down towards the ground with him! All the while, Zoro aims the fishman's giant head towards the ring, so as soon as he lands on the ground, he slams his head, and the ball hat he's wearing, into the ring to win the match!
Every Foxy Pirate in the audience, including their mortified captain gape in silence of the incredible feat while the Straw Hats in the audience cheer for the second victory.
The referee slowly wakes up from the noise when Nami nonchalantly walks up to him to return the whistle. "Here's your whistle."
"Oh, thanks!" Still thinking that the game is still going on, he blows the whistle to go to penalize the Straw Hats for the malicious move.
However, the announcer snaps out of his daze from the sound of the whistle and gets back to his job. "THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! WITH THE SOUND OF THE WHISTLE, THE STRAW HATS' SECOND VICTORY HAS BEEN SEALED!"
The referee is more than confused by the announcement, but the rest of the crew, besides the captain, get into an uproar from seeing such an epic fight.
"WHOA, THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!"
"DID YOU SEE THEY WAY THE CHEF KICKED?! THAT WAS SO COOL!"
"THE SWORDSMAN WAS A TOTAL BADASS!"
"THE WAY THE REINDEER CHANGED DURING THE FIGHT WAS NUTS!"
The crew's ranting could clearly be heard by Foxy, who's more than pissed about how his crew lost again! "WILL YOU IDIOTS SHUT UP?! DON'T PRAISE THEM!"
His command was utterly ignored by his men as they continue their cheers which makes him all the more angrier. Especially since right next to him, Rose is chuckling at all the cheers while she's applauding for her crew mates' amazing teamwork.
He seethes at the wind girl's smug pride before he unleashes his temper. "Don't think you're safe, you evil bitch! Once I win the next round, there's no chance for you to be rescued!"
Rose is startled by the declaration, and looks to Foxy to see that he's walking away from the crowd, like a spoiled child on a tantrum. Even though he just threatened her, all she can do is chuckle. With the only game left being the boxing match between Luffy and Foxy, she doesn't have anything to fear since she knows the outcome.
If anything, she's all the more excited to see her captain about to fight with a kick ass afro!
The brunette can barely contain her excitement for the next match, as warm winds fly off her to reveal her happiness, so she walks away to calm herself down and not give what she knows away.
What she doesn't know though, is that Luffy, Usopp, and Nami heard Foxy's threat, so the sniper is holding his captain back from beating the shit out of Foxy.
"Don't be stupid Luffy!" Usopp says as he struggles to keep his captain from fighting Foxy in front of his crew.
Luffy however, won't listen as he struggles to get out of his grasp. "I can't just let him-!"
Nami whacks Luffy on the head to shut him up before she takes him from Usopp, and drags him away from the crowd by the back of his shirt.
Once they're out of earshot from the Foxy Pirates, Nami releases Luffy and narrows her brown eyes on him. "You can't beat up Foxy outside of the game! Especially not in front of his entire crew!"
"Fine, I'll beat him up at the game..." Luffy pouts at the compromise then looks back to see the smiling brunette in the distance as she's congratulating the team, while Chopper is patching them up. At the very least, he's glad that she's not scared of Foxy's threat.
Nami sees who her captain is staring at, and gains a mischievous glint in her eyes before she gives him an innocent smile. "You know, Rose is really brave."
Luffy hums in confusion of the off-topic comment when Nami continues on. "Hiding all her anxieties behind a smile, and acting like she doesn't have a care in the world. All for the sake of no one worrying about her being scared of the situation she's in. It's pretty impressive."
The captain widens his eyes at the explanation and looks back at the carefree looking girl. He knows how she can fake a smile, like back in Alabasta, but he thought that her smile right now is genuine. Could she have gotten even better at hiding her pain than he thought?
He starts walking towards them, but Nami stops him by grabbing his shoulder. "Hold on, there's no point in calling her out on it."
Luffy furrows his eyebrows at her. "Then what am I supposed to do if she really is scared of being taken?"
The navigator smirks at how he took the bait and heads to the next step. "I know exactly how, and this will work for you to confessing how you feel too. Now, for this to work, you need to do exactly what I say. Can you do it?"
He eagerly nods, so she keeps him away from the others, and gives him a plan in hopes of finally getting the clueless couple together.
**************************************************
When the Foxy Pirates finally settled down with the Groggy Monsters and the referee in their infirmary, the announcer who narrated the first game is up on the stage to begin the prize selection. "Alright everyone, with the Straw Hats being the winner of the second game, it's time for their captain to choose their prize! I wonder who will be the newest member of his crew!"
Every Foxy Pirate grows anxious for the answer when Luffy looks at the crowd. However, he's quick to calm their fears by smiling and pointing to their ship. "I'll take the flag!"
"WHAT?!" Every pirate, but Nami, Robin, and Rose yell out in shock of his quick choice.
"You expect us to sail without a flag?!" Porsche yells out but Luffy barely cares.
"I'll draw you a new one when we're done with the third game." Luffy says which calms down the majority of the Foxy Pirates.
Foxy though, is miffed about how they took his pride, but can only watch as his men take down the flag from his ship. Thanks to this, he has a hard choice to make when he wins the final round. Either he lets go of his pettiness to take back his crew's flag or continue with his revenge plan to take the wind girl.
He growls at the decision, but he'll have plenty of time to make it.
For now, he needs to focus on the next round that the announcer is working on moving along right now. "There you have it everyone, we were safe from losing one of our own this time, but we lost our flag. We still have a chance to make the Straw Hats pay in the final battle between our two captains on none other than the Foxy Pirates' ship!"
The Foxy Pirates regain their spirits from the announcement and cheer in excitement of the epic battle that's to come.
After they give Luffy their flag, they head off to the ship to get the bleachers ready for everyone to watch the next fight.
The rest of the Straw Hats look at the pirate flag curiously before Sanji looks at Luffy. "Why didn't you pick a pirate?"
Luffy shrugs as he drops the flag on the ground. "It's not worth getting a crew mate though a Davy Back Fight."
"Then what are you going to do after this game?" Chopper asks with the others wondering the same thing.
Luffy knits his eyebrows at the question before he shrugs. "I don't know."
"Maybe we can suggest an item such as treasure instead." Robin suggests with Nami more than happy with the idea.
"As long as we can win this, I'm happy. Let's get going." Zoro says while he heads off towards the Merry.
"That's the wrong way!" Usopp calls out with Zoro flinching, then goes the right way with most of the others follows.
Rose chuckles at Zoro's lack of direction as she follows them, but Luffy stops her by taking her hand from behind.
The wind girl looks down at their joined hands then looks at Luffy in confusion. "Is everything ok?"
"I need to talk to you." Luffy says with determination in his eyes.
Rose has no idea what this is about, but has no complaints when Luffy drags her someplace private.
As soon as they reach a clearing, that's surrounded by long trees, and where no one else is around, Luffy stops walking, but he doesn't let go of her hand.
"So, what's this about?" Rose asks with slight nervousness when Luffy looks back at her with almost the same determination as when he tried to kiss her on their date.
The captain softly frowns at her before he pulls her into his embrace. "I heard about Foxy's threat."
Rose widens her eyes at this when Luffy slightly pulls away to look her in the eye. "I promise I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure he won't take you away from me, so I don't want you to worry. I heard of a way to make me lucky enough to conquer anything, but I need your help. What do you say?"
The wind girl is surprised at how serious he is about this, with a small blush creeping over her freckles, and is grateful about how much he cares about her. She's also curious about what this lucky technique is, so she eagerly nods. "Of course, I'll help you. What do I need to do?"
Luffy grins at how quickly she agreed, and leans down so that their faces are a few inches apart. "I just need you to hold still, and don't make me phase through you again."
Before Rose can question him, Luffy closes the gap between them by locking his slightly chapped lips to hers! She is completely stunned by the sudden kiss as her pale face turns scarlet as soon as their lips made contact!
She barely registers that she's been kissed when Luffy pulls his face away as quickly as he pulled in, but keeps her in his embrace.
The dumbfounded girl shakily touches her lips, that still remember the fiery sensation of Luffy's touch, then looks at his face to see that he's wearing the purest smile that she's ever seen. "W-what the hell?"
"I heard that I can conquer anything, after I kiss the girl I'm in love with!"
Rose's jaw hangs lifelessly from the confession, but Luffy only releases her from his arms.
He doesn't explain anything else about it to the speechless girl, because he feels more pumped than ever from finally kissing her. "I think it worked because I feel great, thanks! I'll see you after the game!"
Before she could say anything, he runs off on his own to get ready for his match. The poor girl can only act like a frozen statue from what just happened, with her blush dying down to a light pink, and replays what he just said in her mind in an endless loop to see if it could anyway not be a confession.
However, the more times she replays what he said, the more that she can't deny the truth until she finally admits it. "H-he's in fucking love with me... Monkey D. Luffy just said that he's in motherfucking love with me..."
As soon as she said those words, she starts to giggle, because she becomes so drunk in happiness that a strong, warm, mood breeze flies off of her and lifts her a few feet into the air. She couldn't care less about the sudden flight, as she lets the strong wind bring her to the direction of the game. She slowly floats around in glee when she reaches the small festival area, that's on the way to Foxy's ship.
As she looks around, she spots Nami walking around the snack stands as if she's searching for something.
When the navigator sees Rose flying towards her, she's startled when she sees nearby Foxy Pirates becoming giddy when they get close to Rose's mood breeze.
When she starts feeling the warm gust, she can understand why because of how relaxing it feels on her skin, almost as if all her negative emotions are blown away by this wind. She can only guess that her plan for Luffy's confession had worked, especially when she sees the goofy grin that's stuck on Rose's face, so she's going to have some fun. "What rainbow did you eat?"
Rose snaps out of her daze a bit, but not enough to wipe away her smile, so she shyly looks away while she scratches the back of her head. "I'm just happy..."
"Would it have anything to do with Luffy's confession?" Nami asks with a teasing smirk, which makes the wind girl's pink blush to recover back to a bright red. She should've known that Nami would be involved, but what if Luffy was just going through a script that she gave him?
As the doubt for Luffy's confession grows in her mind, her blush completely fades away while her happy wind drops her feet back to the ground, and stops blowing off of her. She softly frowns at her crew mate, who's growing curious about her silence, and tries to get to the bottom of this. "How much of this was your idea?"
Nami is surprised by the question, and can tell what she's thinking, so she tries to shoot down any doubts that she has. "I gave him the part about taking you somewhere alone to talk, and being honest about his feelings for you. The kiss was his idea."
Rose widens her eyes at this, but there's no trace of deceit on her face. "You're serious about this?!"
The navigator nods with an eager smile to get the details. "Yea, so what did you say to him?!"
The lovesick girl flinches at the question when she realizes that she never said anything to him about her feelings.
Nami notices her reaction and figures it out as well. "He ran off before you could say anything, didn't he?"
She slowly nods as she slumps her shoulders. "To be fair, it would've taken a while for me to respond after that shock anyway."
"You needed a shock to get it through your thick head."
"Shut up..." Rose pouts at the truthful comment and turns away from the arrogant girl. Still, she can't just leave Luffy's confession unanswered for too long. After they leave the island, she'll find a way to say it without sounding like a moron.
In the meantime, she's going to let herself enjoy what's left of the Davy Back Fight. She gives her friend a small, yet grateful grin for meddling, and points to the food stands that are on the way to the bleachers. "You want anything from the stands? It's my treat."
Nami is surprised by the offer, but she doesn't mind taking it for the match. "Alright, let's go!"
The two friends head off for some buckets of popcorn, and drinks, before they leave to rejoin the others in the bleachers, just off the coast where Foxy's ship is docked.
The two pirates walk down the coast and scan the stands for their crew in the crowd of hundreds but can't seem to find them anywhere. They keep scanning the area until a familiar hand sprouts onto Nami's left shoulder and pokes her cheek.
The redhead squeaks in fear and fumbles to keep herself from dropping her refreshments.
Rose covers her mouth to suppress her laughter from the scare before she sees Robin's hand pointing up towards the top of the bleachers. Her purple eyes follow the direction to see the calm archaeologist waving down from near the highest parts of the bleachers with everyone, but Usopp and Luffy, keeping her company.
"She could've just called down to us..." Nami grumbles from being scared of the sudden hand, before she shakes her shoulder to get rid of the pink flower petals that were made when the appendage disappeared.
The wind girl shrugs it off before she creates a gust of wind for the two pirates to float on. They quickly rise above the crowds and land in the empty space next to their friends in anticipation for the game.
"About time you guys showed up, what were you doing?" Zoro asks with Rose looking away from the group as if it could prevent her from talking about it.
Nami's lips curl up into a smirk before she points her thumb to the shy girl. "Just witnessing the aftermath of my plan working."
Rose tenses up from the explanation because she didn't need to look to know that Zoro, Sanji, and Robin completely understand what that means.
The chef only lights up his cigarette to help him relax in the relief of not having to deal with Luffy's cluelessness anymore. Robin only shows her collected smile at how it worked while Zoro smirks and points a knowing look to his sparring partner.
Chopper has no idea what they're talking about and looks over to Rose. "What's Nami talking about Rose?"
"Nothing!" Rose yelps out, and ignores Zoro and Nami's laughs, while she quickly changes the subject. "Where the hell's Usopp?! The game should be starting soon!"
Robin giggles at her reaction before she turns her blue eyes to the large ship. "He's helping Captain-san get ready for the fight."
Rose perks up at the explanation before she moves her mind towards seeing her captain in an afro. She could barely contain her excitement as she turns her attention to the ship.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to wait long for in a matter of seconds, the ship's cannons fire into the sky! Instead of an explosion, that the Straw Hats were expecting, the cannonballs disperse a cloud of smoke dark enough to turn day into night!
The Foxy Pirates roar in cheers while their opposing crew is wondering what's going on. They get their answer when spotlights beam up to the sky to show both pirate captains' wanted posters flying across the black sky with the announcer's shrill voice in the background. "Alright folks, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for! A battle of strength and will between our two captains!"
The roar of cheers from both crews barely phase the announcer on his spot on the coast as he explains the rules through his intercom. "The rules are simple; the loser is the opponent to fall out of the ship or lose consciousness for more than ten seconds! The winner of this round will be able to take a crew member from the losing side with no chance for that person to be taken back so all bets are off!"
When he spots the first contender coming into view on the deck, along with two men beside him, he gets started on introductions. "And now for our contestants! On the left, our beloved champion with 920 victories under his belt! Foxy the Silver Fox!"
Foxy's laughs in delight of the loud praise and love from his henchmen when they see him. His bulky henchmen pose next to Foxy as he proudly marches to the center of the deck without a shirt, but with his suspender shorts and sneakers, while he raises his boxing glove covered hands into the air.
The announcer allows his captain to enjoy the admiration for a few seconds before he spots the second captain coming out to the deck with his sniper by his side.
As he watches the challenger walk to the center of the deck, with a white cloak shrouding his body and Usopp walking by his side with his straw hat on his head, he begins his introduction. "And now ladies and gentlemen, here comes the challenger! The man with the small, but mighty crew and with a 100 million beli bounty is the man who vows to become the Pirate King! Monkey D Luffy!"
As soon as his name is called out, the rubber man throws the cloth off his shirtless body to reveal a mighty black afro sitting on top of his head! The new boxer yells out in excitement as he raises his boxing gloves into the air so everyone could get a good look at the crazy new look.
Zoro and Nami are completely dumbfounded by the new look while everyone else is in a frenzy for the awesome hairdo.
"SO COOL!" Chopper yells with pure admiration in his eyes.
"GOOD CHOICE IN THE AFRO LUFFY! YOU'LL WIN FOR SURE NOW!" Sanji cheers for the power of the afro.
"Why can't they be serious?" Nami tiredly asks, but becomes startled when she feels a warm gust next to her.
The rest of the crew can feel it to, so they look towards Rose to see her practically smiling from ear to ear from seeing Luffy's look.
She doesn't notice that her mood breeze is affecting the people around her, but she barely cares because she's too busy cheering for her captain, with small stars in her eyes. "GIVE HIM HELL CAPTAIN! SHOW HIM THE POWER OF THE MIGHTY AFRO!"
Nami sweat drops at the nerd's excitement, before she looks to Sanji. "An afro has power?"
"Yes, it does. You'll see right now." Sanji says in before he looks to the ship in anticipation.
The navigator still doesn't get it, but as long as Luffy wins she couldn't care less, so she joins in the cheering.
While Usopp and Foxy's henchmen get off the ship, Foxy snickers at everyone's reactions and smirks at his opponent. "I like the new style Straw Hat, but don't think that it will change anything. You're going to lose a crew mate today."
A vein pops on the rubber man's forehead as he furiously glares at his opponent and gets in a stance. "The only one losing is you bastard!"
"We'll see." Foxy comments before he copies Luffy's stance in anticipation for the start.
The announcer on the sidelines doesn't want to keep everyone waiting anymore, so when he sees the two captains in a stance he yells out to the stands while he gets ready to ring the bell. "Without further delay, let's get this show on the road with our final match of the Davy Back Fight!"
TO BE CONTINUED