Neither words nor wind can describe the emotions that Rose began to feel when Zoro asked that question. However, she knows that there's only one response to this.
She holds her free hand up, to tell him to wait a second, then with the hand that's holding the liquor, she starts chugging it!
She ignores the disgusting taste of the contents, and keeps drinking as if it's the last drink she'll ever have, to help bury her fear about how he'd react to this.
Zoro sweat drops at how she's chugging her drink down, then starts to worry when he sees her cheeks getting red from drinking half of it so quickly. "Oi, ease up!"
He takes the drink back, and puts it behind him in case she tries to reach for it.
Lucky for him, Rose's tipsy self just gives him a childish pout from the calming juice being taken from her, and crosses her arms over her chest. "You're the one who gave it to me! What'd you fucking expect?!"
"So, it's true?" Zoro asks, which gets her to quit pouting.
Instead, she rests her back to the railing, and gives him a look that shows she'll fight him if needed. "If it is, then what would you do?"
He takes that as a yes, and judging from her defensive attitude, he knows that she won't go into detail about it. Still, he can't just leave this alone either. "I won't make you tell me everything. Just answer this, from what you saw, do we all make it?"
Rose widens her eyes slightly at the question, but she's glad that he's taking it better than she expected. "From what I've seen, none of us die. We get injured from time to time, and get stronger, but that's it."
Zoro nods from that, and slightly relaxes, but there's still more things that bother him. "In that case, it shouldn't be that bad to tell us. There's more to it, isn't there?"
She just chuckles at the correct assumption, and puts on a dry smirk. "You're turning into a real Detective Conan, aren't you?"
"Just answer the question."
She quietly sighs before she loses her smile. "You remember how I explained that I read something in my world that gave me this knowledge? Well, it's the crew's adventures that I read about. It not only held the adventures, but also each crew member's childhood pasts."
She watches as her words hit him like a moving train, then watches him grab his own drink, and take a swig to help him process this.
While he's busy with his own drink, she grabs her own from behind him, and takes a mouthful of it. When she pulls it away from her lips, she gives Zoro a sad frown when she sees him still drinking. "Like I said before, telling you guys the truth would freak you out..."
Zoro tenses up at the comment, stops drinking, and suddenly feels a soft, cold, breeze from her sadness flying towards him.
It's not as freezing as her scared breeze, but it still snaps him out of his shock to understand the gravity of the situation. "I get why now, but-!"
She angrily cuts him off, with a smack on the railing with her free hand, when the alcohol allows her to let out her pent up frustrations, and acts like she doesn't care anymore. "But fucking what?! You saw how the others reacted to my weird ass memory cloud! It wasn't the first time this shit happened either! Back in Alabasta, Usopp, Nami, and Sanji reacted so badly, to just the idea of other world people knowing about them, that they could barely look at me! If I told them, or anyone else back then, and even now, you'd all probably think I'm some creepy ass stalker, when..."
Rose begins to lose some of her anger, when her vision begins to blur from the tears building up in her eyes. She's quick to cover her eyes with her free hand, and finishes her sentence in a melancholy tone. "When I never planned for any of this crap. Not meeting you guys, not joining the crew, and especially not falling in love with Luffy..."
She chuckles at the memory of Luffy's reaction to her on the roof of Vivi's castle, before she wipes away her tears, and gives Zoro a weak smile. "Even though I didn't plan it, it doesn't mean I regret it. The time with you guys has been the best thing to ever happen to me. Because of that, I tried to use what I know to help behind the scenes, like with the Davy Back Fight. That way when the time comes for me to work up the courage to tell you all, I can say I've used it right. That said, I'm still scared about everyone, including you knowing all this, because I don't want to ruin what I have here..."
She looks to Zoro, and can tell that she just said all of that out loud because of how speechless he is. The brunette widens her eyes in astonishment for a moment, before she looks at the bottle. "Does this stuff always turn people into fucking chatterboxes? What the crap?! How can something so calming be so fucking annoying?"
The tipsy girl looks to Zoro, then back to her drink, before she shrugs her shoulders, like she didn't just pour her heart out. "Oh well, whenever you get out of your stupor, we can talk. If you're gonna tell the others though, let me know first, so I can prepare myself."
She doesn't look at him for a response, but instead turns to her right, folds her forearms onto the top of the railing, and looks up to stargaze.
On the other side of the nest, Zoro is still a bit stuck on how to react to all of this. Sure, he had a hunch about her knowing the crew's future, but he didn't expect her to know both their future and past. He can't imagine what that's like for his sparring partner.
He's a little pissed at how the others reacted to her, but he can't really blame them either. No one wants a stranger to look into their pasts, especially if they were traumatic. If Rose had revealed all this when they first met, he can't say it would've been a pleasant experience.
Still, when he thinks back on how she acted throughout their adventures, from blowing out the candles in the wax trap in Little Garden, to stopping Foxy from cheating in the Davy Back Fight, he knows that she truly has been trying to help them.
He knows that her telling the others won't be easy, especially to some of the more faint of heart members. As far as he's concerned though, she has the same right to be here as he does.
He softly frowns at the girl across from him, takes a swig of his liquor, then finally speaks up. "So, when did you plan to tell them?"
Rose perks up at his question, and looks to see him staring at her expectantly.
She's a bit confused at how that's his first question, but she doesn't see a reason not to answer it at this point. "After our adventures on the next island. I won't tell you the details, but when things settle down, it'll be as good a fucking time as any."
He slowly nods at the answer, and is a little relieved that they won't be stuck with this secret for long. "I see, then we'll go with that plan. I won't say anything to the others, and when you do tell them, I'll have your back."
She widens her eyes at the response, and can't believe what she's hearing. "You really mean that?!"
He didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed by her disbelief, but given what happened, he's going to be as blunt as possible. "I don't make empty promises. And I already told you that nothing changed from when we first met. You're still the same pain in the ass, and great friend that came into our lives at Little Garden."
Rose is slightly stunned by the weird reassurance, but she knows that it's Zoro's best way to explain it, so she happily grins at the answer. "Thank you!"
He returns the smile before he starts to see what he can find out. "No problem, but I'm curious, what exactly do you know about my past?"
She tenses up at the question, but she has no objections with telling him, since what she knows about him isn't too grim.
The brunette furrows her eyebrows in thought of what she knows about the swordsman, but the more she tries to remember his past, the more she realizes that she really doesn't know a lot about him. "Well, I know you trained your swordsmanship in East Blue, along with having a rivalry with Kuina, who for some reason looks an awful lot like Tashigi. Other than that, and that you used to be a bounty hunter with Johnny and Yosaku, I actually don't have that much on your past..."
Zoro slightly nods at the confirmation that she really does know about their pasts, because he never told anyone about his dead rival. Still, he's a bit surprised that, that's all she knew about him. "Seriously? I thought you'd have more knowledge."
The outsider slightly frowns at that, but she's not offended. "Sorry, but what I read didn't cover your history that much. I didn't reach the end though, so maybe the later stuff in the series had more on you."
He knits his eyebrows at the weird reasoning. "What do you mean 'the end'?"
"The end of the crew's adventures. I wasn't able to see if the crew got to the One Piece, let alone find out where the treasure is. I only have knowledge of things that happen to the crew up to about 2 years in the future."
He drops his jaw at what she just said, because he didn't think that it'd be detailed enough to have the crew's timeline. "What kind of a book is this?"
She tenses up a bit at the question, and nervously rubs the back of her head. "It's a long story..."
Zoro accepts that for now, more so to keep himself from getting a headache, but when he thinks back at what the crew just went through, he's a bit curious. "Alright, just a few more things. Did you know about the sea horse adventure beforehand?"
Her guilt begins to grow back from remembering the rotten amnesia arc, and gives him an apologetic look. "I vaguely looked at the adventure back in my world, but I completely forgot about it beforehand, no pun intended. That cyclone of illusions of past enemies did happen, but he used my memories to add our future enemies to it.
She thinks back on all the people she saw, but pauses when she realizes that one of them was new to her. "Actually, scratch that. Everyone was from my memories, but the big blond guy. I don't know where that one came from..."
He grows confused by that, but Rose can't answer, because she's deep in her own thoughts. Even though she doesn't know where that man came from, she can guess from his weird eyebrows that the illusion involves Sanji.
Even though she's curious about if her hunch is right, she has a feeling that she should leave that piece alone. She's more worried about how Akainu spoke to her, because since Zoro explained that Kuma spoke to him, that means the rest of the crew could've heard things too. Fuck, this is getting complicated!
"What are you thinking about?"
She snaps out of her daze from Zoro's voice, and sees him holding a slightly stern look on his face.
She quietly sighs as she tries to relax in her seat. "I just realized the others must've gotten a message from those future illusions too."
He widens his eyes at the theory, but that can explain why people were either frozen or furiously attacking the illusions. He scowls at the possibility, and can tell that the wind girl wants to get involved. "I can ask some of the guys what they heard, to help you."
She thinks about the possible outcomes of his help, before she slowly shakes her head. "I appreciate it, but if we pry, they could get suspicious. I do have an idea that we can do to at least help one of them, but it has to wait for tomorrow."
Zoro slightly nods, and accepts it for now, so that he can know more abou their recent adventure. "Was the swordsman I fought from your memories too?"
She silently gulps at the question, before she tells him the truth. "Yea, the sea horse was supposed to only control you to attack Luffy. When I warned you about the kid though, it got off the rails. The asshole knew about my knowledge, so he used my memories to create illusions of other world warriors to attack us."
She can't help but grin when she remembers the epic sword fight between Zoro and Kenshin, and starts getting excited. "The swordsman you fought was Himura Kenshin. In his world, he's a legendary samurai known as Battosai the Man Slayer. His sword style, the Mitsurugi style is one of the fiercest kinds of swordsmanship over there. What was it like to fight him?"
Zoro is surprised by her quick change in mood, but he can't help but smirk when he remembered the challenge. "It was my second toughest battle. I never saw a sword fighting style like it."
He stops himself when he realizes that there are many kinds of sword styles out in the universes. If anything like the last adventure happens again, and with their luck it could, he could have more chances to fight other worldly swordsmen!
With the possibility in his head, he starts to smile at the world traveler. "So besides Kenshin, what other kinds of swordsmen are out there?"
Rose pauses at the question, and sees that he actually wants her to talk about other worlds. She beams with excitement, with a gentle, warm, gust flying off of her as she starts to nerd out. "There are so many kinds of swordsmen that you wouldn't believe it! You know how this world revolves around pirates right? Well, there's a whole world of these grim reaper type samurai who wield swords instead of scythes! Each grim reaper has a different kind of sword style, like one using their kido to create ice, or one turning their sword into a long wooden snake! And that's just the tip of the iceberg for their abilities!"
As the anime geek keeps rambling about the different kinds of sword styles in the Bleach world, Zoro is surprised by this new side of his friend. He's never seen her so open or comfortable, except for when she's around Luffy. Still, seeing her so happy from talking about other worlds, makes him glad that he helped her relieve this burden she has from her secret.
After a few minutes, Rose stops when she can tell that she overdid it by the dumbfounded look on his face, and bashfully scratches the back of her head. "Sorry, it's been a while since I talked about other worlds with someone..."
He chuckles at the apology, and starts to get up with his liquor. "It's fine, I should get to bed though. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day."
That's about an understatement of the century for Rose, so she nods to him before she gives him a small, grateful, grin. "That's about right. Good night, and thank you again for, well, everything."
He looks down at the wind girl, and quietly sighs as he climbs over the rail to get onto the rope ladder, and starts going down. "You can show your thanks by keep using what you know to help out. I'm sure an air head like you can do that much."
She growls at the nickname before she looks over the railing, and calls back to him. "I can do that and still kick your ass, like I did yesterday, you fucking hedge head!"
A tick mark grows on Zoro's head from the reminder that she overpowered him when they lost their memories, then returns the insult as he keeps climbing down. "Fucking alien!"
"Crappy chia pet!"
"Shitty swordswoman!"
"Mossy dingus!"
This string of insults towards each other keeps going throughout Zoro's climb, and even though they're giving each other harsh words, playful smirks are on both pirates' faces as if to confirm their friendship.
When the swordsman's feet finally reach the deck his gives his friend one last insult before he goes inside.
The wind girl watches his retreating figure, then once she's alone, she relaxes and thinks about how he reacted to her. It was natural for him to be shell shocked, but for him to react so kindly after he processed it, gives her a new hope that the others can accept her too.
I told you!
Rose widens her eyes at the familiar, childlike, voice, and looks to the front of the ship where she heard it from. Even though she can't see anyone, she remembers this voice when she spoke to the ship's spirit.
She chuckles at the thought of Merry gloating about how she was right to give the others a chance, but doesn't think too much on it.
Instead, she finishes her drink, grabs her guitar, then looks back up, to enjoy the view of the starry sky, while she strums soft melodies for the rest of the night.
*****************************************
Just as Usopp, Luffy, Chopper, and Sanji were settling down in their beds, Zoro walks into the room with his liquor bottle still in his hands.
When Sanji sees the bottle, he grows pissed at the moss head for taking it from the kitchen. "What the fuck moss head?!"
"Shut up curly brow, I needed a drink." Zoro answers before he throws out the now empty bottle, and gets to his hammock.
Sanji growls at the insult, but after what they all dealt with today, he can't blame him for wanting a drink.
Luffy can notice the slight tension in the room, with not just the two other pieces of the monster trio, but with the other guys too. Being the straightforward person he is, he shows no tact in talking about it. "What's up with you guys?"
The boys slightly flinch at the question, because they almost forgot how observant he is with emotions.
Chopper looks around the room, and is the first to speak up about what happened with the nightmare cyclone. "Back when those scary illusions spoke up, I heard one of them, who looked just like Dr. Hogback. He said scary things like turning me into a zombie."
He shakes his head as if to get rid of the memory before he speaks up. "Dr. Hogback is a great doctor though, he'd never do anything like that. It doesn't make sense."
"My guy said something weird too!" Luffy answers which gets the attention of the others. The captain doesn't care about the eyes on him as he explains his message. "The dude I saw in Mock Town with Zoro and Nami said he was gonna be pirate king! Hell if I let him get it!"
He looks to Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro to try to see if they heard stuff too. "What about you guys?"
Usopp visibly flinches at the question when he remembers what Kuro told him about his uselessness. It could just be that the sea horse was bringing out everyone's fears, but with how he barely did anything during their last adventure, those words ring true to him...
He sadly frowns at the doubt clouding his mind again, like it did after their fight with the Admiral, but he refuses to show it to the others. "Someone I didn't recognize just spouted some random crap that I don't remember."
"I didn't hear anything." Sanji flat out lies, because the last thing he wants to do is open up about his childhood to the others. He lays his body down on his hammock and pretends that he doesn't have a care in the world. "There's no point in talking about some crappy illusions. It was just a dumb trick."
"For once, I agree with the love cook. It's over now, so there's no point in thinking on it." Zoro answers as he relaxes in his hammock.
Luffy relaxes at the answer, because he knows that Zoro's right. There's no point in thinking about something that's over with by now. With no more thought into it, he puts the matter to rest. "Yea, if we see the sea horse again, I'll kick his ass. We got nothing to worry about."
With no more words to say on the matter, the captain is quick to fall asleep without a care in the world.
Chopper sweat drops at how quickly he fell asleep, even though he brought up the conversation, but the more he thinks about his illusion, the more he thinks it's silly. He knows Dr. Hogback is a good man, so the sea horse must've just materialized everyone's fears. Chalking that up to his conclusion, the doctor doesn't let the illusion bother him anymore, and follows his captain into a deep slumber.
Usopp agrees that it's over now, but he still has the feeling of uselessness festering inside him. Honestly, he doesn't know how much longer he can keep it up at this rate. He covers himself with his blanket, as if that can block out the pain, and tries his best to sleep through the night.
As for the chef, the results are the same. After all, he hasn't seen his poor excuse of a dad in years. If he can help it, he'd make sure that it stays that way for the rest of his life. He forces himself to fall asleep, and pushes that rotten memory to the back of his mind.
With Zoro the last one to be awake, he surveys the room. From what the others said, he can tell that Sanji and Usopp were the most affected because they didn't talk about it outright. He's glad that it wasn't as bad as he thought, but he doesn't know what he can do for the chef and sniper except to let it go. Tomorrow might bring another story though, so for now he goes to sleep, and see how things stand in the morning.
***********************
As the darkness of the night begins to fade off to the dawn, Rose keeps her tired eyes onto the horizon. Lucky for her, she had a calm night after Zoro left, and had time to practice her guitar all night. She knows that today might be strange, especially with Zoro now knowing her, but she just needs to take it one step at a time.
She grins at the new resolve, and looks over the rail to see that Sanji's heading to the kitchen. With someone else now awake, she grabs her instrument, straps on her backpack, then floats down to the deck. Once she's inside, she stops in the hallway where she can see both the girls' room, and the guys' room doors.
When she uses her abilities to seep her head through the cracks of the wooden door of the guys' room, she sees Luffy sound asleep in his hammock.
She knows she could get in trouble for sneaking into his room, but after two nights of not cuddling him, she's starting to miss it. She takes a deep breath before she places her guitar in the supply closet. After peeking in the room again, to see that the rest of the boys are also asleep, she goes inside.
She carefully floats to Luffy's hammock before she gets under his blanket, and lays next to him, with a pink blush painting her face. She doesn't move when the hammock rocks a little, in the fear of it flipping over, but once it steadies itself, she wraps an arm around her lover's chest and quickly drifts off into sleep.
It only took a moment before the captain's body had a mind of its own, by turning towards the wind girl, and coiling both arms around her waist in three loops. Even though Luffy isn't awake, it's as if he can sense her close by, because a sweet smile graces his face as he pulls her close to him.
It didn't take long for the rest of the boys to start waking up, and noticing the intruder.
Chopper just tilts his head at the sight, but he pays the couple no mind before he leaves. As for Zoro and Usopp, they both snicker at the two love birds, and save this as teasing material before they head out.
Usopp though accidentally slams the door shut behind him. While the noise didn't wake up Rose, Luffy begins to stir awake.
When he feels his arms holding someone, he widens his eyes to see his queen next to him, not that he's complaining. If she didn't have night watch last night, he would've snuck into her bed again.
He looks around to see that they're the only ones in the room, so it's probably morning. With it being close to breakfast, he wants to start heading to the kitchen. At the same time though, he doesn't want to leave Rose's embrace yet.
He groans at the annoying situation, until he perks up from getting an idea. He brightly smiles when he releases his lover from his embrace, and slowly slips his legs off the bed.
He turns himself around, brings her arms up, so that they're loosely wrapping around his neck, then pulls her onto his back, with his hands holding onto her thighs, so she won't fall.
Rose doesn't wake up from the movement, but shows that she's alive by nuzzling the left side of her face to Luffy's right cheek for a moment, to get some warmth, before she lays her head down on his shoulder.
Luffy chuckles at the cute affection, then walks out to the deck with her.
When the others see him walking outside, they all stop what they're doing to get a glimpse of the weird view.
Since Rose still has her backpack on, it's like she's sleeping in a sandwich, with Luffy practically wearing a double backpack.
Robin is the first to react, from her seat at a lawn chair, by giggling at the cute sight before she speaks up. "Wind-chan snuck into your bed this time?"
"What?!" Nami asks in shock, but Luffy doesn't bother with her reaction.
Instead, he nods with a toothy grin, and without a care in the world. "Yea, I woke up to her cuddling me. I didn't wanna leave her in my room, so she's staying like this."
"Very good captain-san." Robin answers before she gets back to her book.
Luffy looks over to Usopp and Chopper, and calls to them. "Hey guys, wanna play cards?"
The boys snap out of the stupor, with the boys getting over the weird look.
"Sure, I'll go get my cards." Usopp answers before he goes inside then back in a flash, and sits by the mast, with Chopper sitting across from him.
As for Luffy, he steps up to the boys, then he gently lowers himself until he's sitting on the deck, and lets go of Rose's legs.
Missing the warmth, the wind girl unconsciously wraps her legs around his waist to keep him close.
Usopp holds back a snicker at the affection, while Chopper looks at them indifferently, before he starts dealing out the hands for go fish.
As for Nami, she can't help but laugh at the display of affection before she goes up to the odd couple and bends down. "Mind if I go into Rose's backpack Luffy? I wanna grab her camera to take a picture of this."
Luffy nods with a grin before he grabs his cards. "Sure, just try not to wake her."
That's not a problem for the navigator, for no matter how loud the boys are being in the game, the sleeping beauty won't move an inch. Looking for the camera in the massive bag though was another story, because as soon as she looked inside, all she could see was a huge load of stuff, from a small first aid kit, to the blanket from Alabasta.
She gently digs around for her prize, until she shivers from accidentally touching a box that's at the bottom of the bag. Even though it's wrapped up in a blue rag, it's still freezing to the point that a slight touch could make her cold.
The redhead looks to the sleeping girl in curiosity of what that box holds, but she knows that even if she asked, she won't get a proper answer from her.
She quietly sighs at how elusive her crew mate is, but she can't complain. It's not like she didn't have a secret or two herself after all.
Still, after the way Rose acted at the last island, something doesn't seem right. She's pretty sure that Rose's memory cloud was the strange one, because of the whole ordeal back in Skypiea. It's just odd that she always seems to stand out in these kinds of things. Unless...
She looks to the sleeping brunette, with wide eyes, when she connects the astronomer's research with her anomalies. If Rose had used her research before they met, to travel to this world from some other realm, then it could be the reason why she's so strange.
Sadly, this is all just a theory. She can't make it a conclusion, without any proof. Especially when she remembers what happened in Alabasta when her, Sanji, and Usopp reacted poorly to her research. If she confronts her too bluntly about this, and turns out to be wrong, then their friendship would be a mess...
She shakes her head at the possibility, and tries not to think about it too much right now. Later in the day, when she can be alone with Rose, then maybe she can gently talk to her about her past. If she can't get anything though, she'll accept things as they are until the astronomer is ready to open up.
Nami focuses back on her search for a camera until she finally finds it in an inner pocket of the bag. With her original goal back on track, she gives a slight smirk as she gets up, and goes behind Usopp and Chopper.
As soon as she gets the camera focused, she takes the perfect shot of Rose's face cuddled up next to Luffy.
Once the shot was taken though, Rose stirs from the flash of her camera, and groggily wakes up to hear the camera go off again. She widens her eyes to see Nami with her camera, and scowls at her. "What the fuck are you doing?!"
She gets blinded by the flash of her camera, and has to hold off on her anger to rub her eyes.
Nami chuckles at the reaction before she lowers her weapon. "Just helping you with your photo album. I'm sure you won't want to forget this moment."
Rose knits her eyebrows in confusion before she realizes that she's now outside instead of in Luffy's room. She looks down at the position that she's in, with her being on Luffy's back and cuddling him like he's a teddy bear. "WHAT THE CRAP?!"
Luffy groans at the loud question, while ignoring Nami and Usopp's laughter, before he turns his head to see the blushing girl getting off of him and standing up. "Why are you shouting?"
"Why was I on your back?" Rose answers with a question as she takes back her camera.
"I wanted to get up, but I didn't want to leave you alone in my bed either, so I took you with me." Luffy answers as if he didn't say anything weird.
Rose though started feeling warm from the sweet comment, but would never admit it. "Gotcha..."
She doesn't say anything else about it, but instead sits next to him, and looks to the sniper. "Usopp, deal me in the next round."
"Sure." Usopp answers with a small smirk as he finishes the game quickly.
Before another game can be played though, Sanji steps outside. "OI, BREAKFAST IS READY!"
The group is quick to stop what they're doing and rush off to the kitchen to begin their day.
******************************
As soon as the meal was finished, the crew was quick to split up for the day with Rose heading to the back deck to get some sword training in.
As soon as Zoro finds her waiting for him, he's quick to approach her with what he found out last night. "When I got back to the room last night, some of the guys talked about what they saw from the illusions. Do you want to hear them?"
Rose widens her eyes at the news and nods in affirmation. "What did they say?"
"Luffy had an illusion of a big guy, that we met at Mock Town, saying he'll be pirate king. Chopper also got a really bizarre one, of his doctor hero threatening to turn him into a zombie. Is that one even possible?"
Sadly, Rose knows that it's all too real, from the Thriller Bark arc, and slowly nods to his question. "The first thing I learned about the Grand Line is that nothing is impossible here. That includes zombies. How serious did they take the illusions?"
He frowns at her confirmation that it's true, but it doesn't stop him from answering her. "They both thought that it was just the sea horse playing into their worst nightmares. I'm more bothered by Sanji and Usopp though. They said that it wasn't a big deal, but the way they brushed it off tells the opposite."
She softly hums in thought as she tries to imagine what those two's illusions could be. Given from what she's heard, it looks like the sea horse was really showing the crew mates' fear by showing future facts. It couldn't have been any different for Sanji and Usopp.
For the sniper, it's easy to theorize that it's about his ability to protect everyone, given that Water Seven isn't far away. Luckily, she has a plan to help boost his confidence again, even if it's just a little bit.
As for Sanji though, that large man that she didn't have knowledge of pops up in her mind. She knows for a fact that she never saw him in the Baratie arc, so if Sanji really knows him, it has to have been before Sanji met Zeff.
She knows that her other world knowledge can't help him here, but with what she knows about him now, maybe there's a better way to cheer him up...
A small smirk begins to form on her face, when a strategy begins to form in her mind, and looks to Zoro. "I do have a plan to get Sanji's mind off of it, but it'll have to wait. Right now though, I'm gonna start on my plan for Usopp. You want to join in this one?"
He quirks an eyebrow at the invitation, but is curious to see where this goes, so he nods his head. "Alright, what's the plan?"
"Just wait here." Rose answers before she heads to the stairs, and sees Usopp fishing by himself while Chopper and Luffy are playing hide and seek below deck.
With how Usopp looks so solemn from staring at the ocean, you'd think it killed his family or something. For Rose though, it just shows her how serious Usopp was affected by the illusion.
She softly frowns at the upset sniper, but is quick to mask her emotions with a bright smile before she shouts. "Oi, Usopp, can you come over here?! We need you!"
Usopp snaps out of his daze before he looks to the astronomer, then back to his rod. He softly sighs at not being able to catch anything before he starts reeling it in. "I'll be there in a minute!"
"Ok!" Rose answers, before she walks further into the back deck, and gets her sword out.
Zoro is still not following what she's planning, especially with a sword. "Are you going to tell me the plan now?"
"I'll explain in a moment. Right now, you need to get your sword out." Rose answers before she sees Usopp heading up the stairs to them.
While the swordsman is confused, he still follows along by grabbing out of his swords, which makes the sniper nervous.
He shifts his eyes between the two swordsmen, and feels ready to make a run for it, if necessary. "U-um, what do you guys need me for?"
Rose steps up with a small grin, and starts explaining her idea. "Zoro and I need a change in our training regimen. We've been sparring every day, but if we're shot at by a marine firing squad, I'd only survive with my devil fruit while Zoro would get more holes in him than moldy cheese."
"Oi!" Zoro calls out in anger, and starts getting tempted to attack her.
Rose though ignores his protest while she continues explaining herself. "That's where you come in. We need your master shooting skills to attack us while we train to deflect your ammo. It shouldn't be any problem for a sniper of your caliber, right?"
Usopp widens his eyes to the idea, and starts crossing his arms in thought of how to go about it. It's not that it can't be done, but with two people training for this he needs to go at it from a lot of angles. As well as make sure that this is a challenge worthy of monsters like these two. Honestly, that's a challenge in itself for him, but he'd be damned if he gives up when they called him a master of his craft!
When he has a full-fledged plan in his mind, he wears a determined smirk, and hits his chest with his right fist in pride. "Leave it to captain Usopp! I just need to get my pellets, and my two assistants! I'll be right back!"
He rushes off to get what he needs, while Zoro sweat drops at his change of attitude. He looks over to the outsider, just to see her smiling as if she just won a battle. "This is your plan?"
She nods to him before she briefly explains it to him. "With this, we're boosting Usopp's confidence in himself, and taking his mind off what he saw. We could use this kind of training too, so it's a win-win all around."
Zoro can see her point, since there's a good chance of encountering gunmen on their journey. And from seeing how Usopp quickly cheered up from the request, he can't see any harm in this.
He smirks at the new challenge before he grabs a second sword, to help him get a better training experience out of this. "Now that's an idea I can go with. Just be sure not to cry when you miss more than I do."
His friend mirrors his smirk while she practices a few swings with the air in front of her. "That's my line hedge head."
He groans at the insult, but before he could make a comeback, Usopp rushes back to them. Both doctor and captain aren't too far behind with a slingshot in their hands, and a bag of steel pellets strapped to their hips.
Usopp though, is taking his job as trainer to the next level for he's holding a slingshot that has two barrels, so that he can shoot at both swordsmen at once. He even has a bag of pellets on each hip to make sure he has enough ammo for each slingshot.
If that wasn't enough to show his excitement, his prideful smirk is a dead giveaway, when he looks to his two appointed assistants. "Alright, Chopper, position yourself to the left of the targets, Luffy go to their right, I'll take care of the center! If this is anything like how I trained my eight thousand swordsmen back home, these two will master this skill in no time!"
"Right!" Chopper and Luffy answer with a salute before they get into their positions, with Usopp between the swordsmen and Nami's trees.
Zoro sweat drops at how serious they're taking this, while Rose giggles in excitement as she gets in a stance in front of Usopp. "Let's see how you trained them Usopp!"
"Right, fire at will!" Usopp takes the first shot by shooting them from both of the barrels so each swordsman has something to deflect.
As Rose and Zoro are blocking the pellets, Chopper and Luffy and Usopp fire at them. Chopper aims at Zoro's leg, so he takes a low swipe to deflect it, so it flies to the back of the ship.
Luffy is quick to badly aim at Rose's arm, but she's still able to see where the ammo was going, and hits it with the back of her blade, like a baseball bat, to send it flying. As soon as those blocks were made, Usopp barely gave them time to turn to him, before he managed to hit both of their foreheads with his next shots.
Both their foreheads sting from the shots, but they didn't have time to react before they had to block the next shots.
Chopper is precise with his shots with Zoro, and while they may not be as quick as Usopp's shots, they're still a good challenge for Zoro to have to protect himself from two shooters.
As for Luffy, even though his shots may be sloppy, he tries his best to aim at Rose. Even with his attacks barely making it to her, she still treats them as if they're Usopp's shots by deflecting them instead of dodging.
With each passing second, the shots feel like they're coming in faster than the last, and thanks to the shooters getting deeper into the game. More with Usopp than anyone else, because he feels like his plan is actually working to get the swordsmen a challenge worthy of them. The way he knows is because with how fast they're going, at least a third of the hits manage to hit them.
Regardless of the mild pain all over their bodies, both Rose and Zoro are having the time of their lives with the crazy exercise. Zoro is starting to focus on hearing when the shots are being fired from Usopp and Chopper, and uses that to improve on his reaction times.
As for Rose, she doesn't pick up the pace as fast as Zoro, so she gets hit more, but seeing how excited Usopp is during the game makes the pain worth it.
After ten minutes of training, there's no sign of the shooters stopping, just the swordsmen getting better at blocking. Zoro and Rose start to almost be in sync with them going from blocking their unique shooters, then almost turn at the same time to react to Usopp's attacks.
Usopp can see the repetition, and that he needs to up his game, so when Rose and Zoro turned to the other shooters, He doubled the ammo on both slingshot barrels, and aimed at them both.
As soon as they turned to him, the sniper fired the double shots, and surprised the targets with the extra ammo. Acting on reflex, Zoro is quick to maneuver his sword's angle to hit both shots and send them flying up into the air. As for Rose, she was able to hit them both, but in an awkward angle that got them flying back to their shooter!
"Ah!" Usopp yelps before he ducks to avoid the hits, and is relieved that he didn't get hurt. That is until...
Crack!
Everyone in the game stops what they're doing when they hear the crack near Nami's tree. When they heard a thud right after though, they had no choice, but to slowly turn to the tree.
It sadly confirmed their suspicions when they find a big branch, that had two almost ripe tangerines on the deck, with a broken end from where Rose shot it down.
"What was that sound?"
Everyone practically jumps from Nami's voice from the front deck, and begin to hear her footsteps.
"Fuck, guys, run!" Rose tells them, and they start leaving, but they took the stairs that Nami's walking on, and slowly back away when she goes to the upper deck.
Frozen in fear, the boys stood still, while Rose dug into her backpack, when Nami looked around, until her brown eyes landed on the fallen branch. As soon as she saw the damage to some of her tangerines, an evil aura began to fly out of her body. "So that's how it is..."
Before anyone can apologize, she gets her clima-tact from her belt and gets it ready for attack.
Before she can do anything though, Rose runs in between them, with a dial in her right hand. "Wait Nami, this was my fault! It was my idea to do this exercise, and it was my move that hit your branch! I'm sorry! You can have this dial, and some others I have, as an apology!"
"That's not enough! And you're all to blame in my book!" Nami answers, with her eyes practically red with fury, and gets ready to swing.
Rose however anticipated that, so she activated the milky dial in her hand to create a large cloud around them for a smokescreen! "FUCKING SCATTER!"
The boys didn't think twice before they ran below deck to avoid her wrath. As for Nami, she takes a page out of Rose's book by using her clima-tact to create a gust, not as strong as the wind girl's, but enough to clear out the cloud enough to see that her targets are gone.
"DAMMIT!" She runs down below deck, with the hunt for her prey in her mind. One by one, she was able to find each boy on her shit list, then give them a good beating as well as doubling their debt. However, no matter where she looked, she couldn't find the girl responsible for this mess.
She growls in frustration as she checks outside again, but all she can find are the three stooges who she already took her anger out on. She stalks up to them, with them flinching in fear, but she doesn't make any move to hit them, so they don't run. "Where's Rose?"
Luffy looks around to see that she's not on the deck, and then looks to Nami. "I haven't seen her since we made a run for it."
The others both mutter in agreement, since none of them have seen her.
Nami only frowns in disappointment, and leaves them alone to assess the rest of the damage to her trees. Thankfully, when she takes a looks at her treasures, she doesn't see anything else being hit from their stupid game. Still, she can't just let Rose get away with just a debt increase for this. Especially if she's the one responsible for this.
She quietly groans at running out of ideas to find her target, and decides that she needs to take a step back from this. She takes a seat under her tree, and looks up at the sky to enjoy the calm weather. With only a few clouds in the sky, she doesn't have any feelings of storms approaching.
Even with the soft breeze brushing past her, the only thing that she sees happening are the clouds moving, except for one.
She widens her eyes at the small, thick, cloud that's half a mile above the ship, and not moving to the wind until a few seconds after the others did. That small pause for the cloud though was just enough for Nami to figure out where her next target is.
With a sinister smirk, she gets her clima-tact ready, and starts forming electric bubbles.
Meanwhile, Rose is cautiously flying in the air pocket she made, that keeps her from getting wet inside the cloud she's hiding in. She knows that she can't stay in there forever, but she's hoping that Nami would've at least calmed down before she goes.
With no idea if she has or not, she decides to take a peek by slowly molding a hole in the cloud to make a window to the outside world. She's quick to regret the decision though, because as soon as she sees a shadow over herself, and looks up to see a thunder cloud above her! "Shi-!"
"THUNDERBOLT TEMPO!" Nami screams out, with a wave of her clima-tact activating her thunder to shoot lightning down at Rose's cloud!
The boys freeze when they hear a painful shout from above, and look to the source to find Rose falling from the sky.
She didn't lose consciousness from the attack, but she lost enough focus for her to fall through the cloud, and get her slightly charred body soaked from the cloud.
Rose gets ready to catch herself before she hits the water, but before she could even do anything, Luffy stretches his arm at her, loops it around her waist and pulls her back to him.
As soon as she was back on the ship, and in Luffy's arms, Rose can't help but grin at the crazy flight as she looks up at him. "Thanks for the catch."
"No problem." Luffy returns the smile when he sees that she's alright, but quickly loses that smile when he sees Nami coming downstairs.
The boys flinch when they see her coming, while Rose phases out of Luffy's arms, and sees her. While Rose is glad that she's less angry than she originally was, she doesn't look too happy either.
When Nami reaches them, she only glares at the wind girl for a moment before she tiredly sighs. "Your debt is being tripled since you're the ringleader of this circus, got it?"
Rose only nods to the demand before her guilt starts to creep onto her face. "Alright, I'm sorry again about your tree. Do you need any help with tending it?"
Nami only shakes her head at the offer. "Lucky for you, that branch was the only real damage. This afternoon though, I want to see how far you've gotten with lock picking, so meet me in our room after lunch."
She mutters a yes to the plan before she and the others watch Nami head to the kitchen.
Once the navigator's inside, she slumps in the first chair she could grab, and tries to relax by laying her head on the table, with her eyes shut, while listening to Sanji cooking on the stove.
As soon as the chef heard the lovely lady walk in though, he listened intently until she sat down, then looked over his shoulder to see her exhausted.
Knowing where his priorities stand, he lowers the heat of his stove, that's heating his frying pans, down to simmer, then goes to the fridge for new ingredients.
As he's working on the new creation, Nami just listens to the peaceful sound of Sanji working his magic. Honestly, to her, one of the nicest things that she can hear on this ship is the sound of Sanji cooking. The way that he flawlessly works with the ingredients without missing a single step, is almost like music to her. Even with the tempo changing, because he went from using the stove to a blender, she still finds it soothing, because she knows that nothing he does here will cause trouble.
With her distracted by Sanji's cooking, she almost dozes off, but is snapped out of it, by the gentle sound of something being gently placed in front of her. With the sweet smell of oranges invading her nose, she opens her eyes, and lifts her head to find a slim glass of an orange smoothie, topped with whipped cream, and a red straw peeking from the drink.
She looks from the cute drink, to the chef responsible to find him giving her a soft grin. "I hope this can help bring a smile back to your lovely face Nami-san. If you wish for anything different, I'll be right here."
Nami shouldn't be surprised that Sanji would do this sort of thing for her. If anything, what's more of a surprise for her is the way he's smiling at her. Instead of him showing the goofy love cook smile, he normally shows to her, now he shows a gentle smile of someone who cares about her.
For some reason, that sweet smile gets to her, to the point that she has to focus her eyes on the drink, to keep herself from being flustered. "This is perfect, thank you Sanji."
"My pleasure, Nami-san." Sanji answers, before he gets back to his original task of setting up lunch.
As soon as his back's turned, Nami enjoys her drink, while staring at the chef's movements to enjoy the sight of his work. As much as the sound of Sanji's work relaxes her, the sight of it is all the more beautiful.
For him to be able to cook for eight pirates, especially with one with Luffy's appetite, all by himself is all the more amazing to her. She knows that sometimes Rose helps him with the dishes, or her or Robin come here to relax, but it still seems like he could be pretty lonely in here.
She slightly frowns at that thought as she slurps up the drink that he took the time to make for her. Once she's done, she looks down at the empty cup, then back to the chef. She doesn't want to just leave him alone, but she doesn't want to do nothing here either...
With a small plan to spend some time with Sanji, she gets up, with her cup in hand, and heads to the sink.
From the corner of his eye, Sanji watches Nami, thinking that she's going to leave it for him later, but to his surprise, he sees Nami grabbing a sponge. "You don't need to clean it Nami-san, I-!"
Nami stops him by placing a finger on his lips, as a sign to shut up, and gives him a smug grin. "I insist Sanji-kun, and I'm not taking no for an answer. Just think of it as a thank you for the drink."
All Sanji can do is nod, before Nami drops her hand, and gets to work.
While Nami is cleaning her cup, along with the other pots in there, Sanji is keeping his eyes on his work, while fighting a light pink blush. He's used to seeing Nami's pretty smile, but she never insisted on helping him before. The way she was so persistent to stay by his side, even if it's just to clean with him, makes him feel as giddy as can be.
He holds back a giggle, in fear of creeping her out, and keeps his mind on the task on hand. Not knowing that the navigator is almost as happy to be there with him, as he is to be with her.
*******************************************************
With the tree incident put behind everybody, the afternoon has turned into a rather relaxing one. With lunch already behind them, Rose and Nami are in their room with Nami training Rose on lockpicking.
Training though is being put lightly. For while Rose is sitting on her futon, struggling to pick open one of Nami's hardest locks, the renowned thief is filing her nails on her bed.
When Rose is finally able to open it, she beams in joy and lifts the open lock up. "Time!"
Nami stops her nail work, along with the timer that's on the desk next to her, and slightly frowns at the time. "Eight and a half minutes, better than your last time, but there's still room for improvement."
Rose nods in agreement as she resets the lock, and gets ready with the needle that Chopper gave her. "Ok, reset the time."
Nami does as she's told, but this time doesn't file her nails. Instead, she watches her friend hard at work on improving her time to pick open the lock.
The thought of the theory she had on Rose's origins begins to creep back on her, and with them being the only ones in the room, now's as good a time as any to see what she can put to rest. "I'm going to give you a bigger challenge by asking questions while you're working."
"Good idea, ask away." Rose says with her eyes still focused on her lock.
Nami takes a small breath through her nose, and decides to start with something random. "What's your favorite season?"
"I like winter. What about you?" Rose asks back without a second thought.
"I'm a summer person. When's your birthday?"
"January 10th, yours?"
"July 3rd..." Nami hesitates for a second, but then decides to get closer to her real questions. "Were you born on the Grand Line?"
That question causes a pause in the wind girl's work, but she quickly gets back to it while keeping her eyes on her tools. "No, I wasn't."
Nami relaxes a bit in that she wasn't shot down, and decides to go a little deeper. "Which ocean were you born in then?"
"... I can't really say. When I was in that place, I never really cared to see which ocean I was in. I just wanted out." Rose calmly answers, but her nervousness is showing with the fumbling of her lock.
Nami can see that she's getting nervous, but she keeps testing her limits. "What kind of a place was your homeland? Was it really that bad?"
Rose quietly sighs, more in relief that she stopped asking about where she came from. "It was your basic big city kind of place, that had its ups and downs. In the right kind of situation, you could have a decent life. If not, well, you just had to learn to survive."
She stops working on the lock, and looks at her friend to give her a smile. "But struggling to survive back then got me to meet you guys, so I guess my luck was just waiting for the right time to be used."
Nami widens her eyes at the sweet answer, and stays quiet while Rose gets back to work. Honestly, she can't find anything else to say after hearing how much Rose appreciates being with them. Even if her theory about her was right, she doesn't know if she would care anymore, since they've been through so many adventures together already. The only thing that matters is if Rose's ready to talk about it, and since she's not, she'll leave it alone for now.
Just as the plan is set in her mind, the click of a lock opening snaps her out of it.
Rose lifts the lock up to their eye level, and lightly giggles. "How much time was it?!"
Nami rushes to turn off the timer, and takes a few seconds off from the delay. "Nine minutes and fifty seconds. You need to be more careful."
"Right." The wind girl slowly nods before she resets the lock, and looks to Nami. "One more time?"
The navigator hums in agreement before restarting the timer, and watches her. What's got Nami worried though, is that she sees a smirk is forming on the freckled girl's face.
Before she can question it, Rose speaks up. "What got you staying in the kitchen after lunch?"
Nami twitches at the question, while Rose acts like she said nothing wrong by continuing to fiddle with the lock.
The redhead gets annoyed by the cocky attitude, but she knows she'd just ask again if she stays silent, so she answers. "I just helped Sanji with some cleaning."
From the corner of her eye, Rose can see her a little flustered, but keeps going as payback for the questions she got. "Oh yea? You seemed pretty happy from just cleaning."
"What are you getting at?"
"I'm just saying. Was it really the cleaning that got you to stay, or was it the chef in the kitchen?"
She groans at the question before she gets her clima-tact. "I can zap you again."
Rose can't help but laugh at the reaction, just when she finishes her lock. "Time!"
Nami calms down from the new topic, and checks the timer. "Eight minutes flat..."
Rose grins at the best time yet, before she chuckles. "I should ask you about Sanji more often."
"Shut up!" Nami bites back before she grabs a pillow and throws it at her.
The brunette is quick to catch the pillow, but falls onto her futon in laughter of how irritated she made her. "Hahaha, relax. There's nothing to be ashamed of here. You two make a sweet couple."
The redhead starts getting a little embarrassed by the comment, but won't give her the satisfaction of talking about it. Instead, she slides off the bed to sit in front for Rose's futon and takes the lock back. "Yea, whatever. We're done today."
Rose only nods at the order before she sticks the needle back into the cuff of her sleeve, then gets up. "Alright, thanks again for the session. And just so you know. Whenever you're ready to woo Sanji, I got your back."
"Out!" Nami barks out, with her grabbing another pillow, but Rose is already running out the door to avoid her wrath.
As soon as Rose's in the hall, and out of Nami's line of fire, she stops in her tracks, and releases a giggle from her friend's reaction. She can see why Nami teased her so much about her crush in the past. This is too fun.
She settles her giggles down when she thinks about the joy on Sanji's face during lunch. With Nami keeping him company before and after lunch, it was plain to see that he's not thinking about the illusion anymore. If Nami decides to make her stay in Sanji's kitchen regularly, then there's no need for her to interfere with the chef anymore.
She sighs in relief of that possibility, as she starts heading outside, but is stopped when Luffy runs in. He stops just in front of his queen, and gives her a toothy grin. "There you are, the guys are going fishing, want to join us?"
Rose happily nods to the invitation before the two of them rush off to join Usopp and Chopper in fishing for the rest of the afternoon.
*********************************************
With the stars peeking out in the night sky, the crew is wrapping up dinner with everyone going to relax for the night.
When Rose leaves the kitchen though, she looks back through the door's window to see that Nami stayed behind again to help Sanji.
A small smirk graces her lips at the confirmation that Nami will keep the blond's mind off the illusion, and turns around to leave them alone. She looks up at the night sky to see that the night is cloud free, and starts heading to the railing.
Before she can reach there though, Luffy stops her by taking her hand into his. "Hold on, where are you going?"
Rose looks back to the rail then to her lover with a small grin. "Just going stargazing. Why?"
"I know a better place to do that. Close your eyes."
She's a bit skeptic of what he's planning, but allows herself to trust him by shutting her eyes. "Ok, lead the- Ah!"
She yelps in surprise when Luffy wraps an arm around her shoulders, and the other under her knees to carry her like a bride. Even though she's shocked, she keeps her trust in her love by keeping her eyes shut, while she's gripping his shoulders to keep herself from falling. "Fucking warn me before you do that!"
Luffy just laughs at the girl's complaint before he starts walking. "Sorry, but the surprise is worth it!"
She just hums in acknowledgement, because there's no point in arguing when he gets like this. Weirdly enough, she knows that they're going up, because of the motion in Luffy's steps, but they're not going high enough to be at the crow's nest. Are they going to the back deck?
She gets tempted to peek, but found that she didn't have to wait long, because in a quick moment, Luffy stops climbing, and sits cross-legged with her on his lap. He's quick to adjust her in his lap, by resting her back on his chest, and wraps his legs around her waist. As soon as he wraps his arms around her shoulders again, he looks at her face. "Alright, open them!"
When Rose's purple eyes slowly open, they almost bulge out from the amazing view of both the ocean and sky right in front of her. She quickly looks down, with a bright smile, to find them on top of the Merry's figurehead. "We're on your seat?!"
Luffy couldn't help but laugh at her reaction, when he feels a warm mood breeze blowing out of her body, and rests his chin on her head. "Yup, you're only allowed up here when I'm with you!"
The astronomer giggles at the new rule, before she shifts her eyes up to look at him, without getting him off her head. "Works for me! Thank you for showing me this!"
"Don't worry about it, what kind of stars are you looking for tonight?!"
She hums in thought as she looks up at the field of starlight above her. With the ocean almost reflecting its beauty there's only one constellation story that she could think of that'll amuse him. "Well, out of all the constellation stories I know of, my favorite has to be the story of the Perseus constellation."
Luffy hums in curiosity of the new Greek name before he looks up at the sky, as if he knows what the constellation looks like. "What did he do to be up there?"
"He took down a monster that can turn you to stone with just their gaze, cut off its head, and used it to turn a titan, a powerful monster that's as large as a giant, to stone."
Luffy widens his eyes at the weird tale, then he lowers his head to her shoulder, and stretches it out so he can turn it to face her. "He used a monster's head to kill a giant?!"
"Yup, and that's just the tip of the iceberg for this guy. You want to hear it?"
"Yea!"
Rose chuckles at his excitement, relaxes in her love's hold then gives him a detailed story of the story of the demigod. With each passing minute of the story, Luffy's excitement for the battles gets brighter, with Rose enjoying every reaction he has to each passing part.
As soon as the tale has reached its finale with Perseus being immortalized into the stars, Luffy looks up to the stars to look around it. "Where is it?!"
She softly grins at his excitement before she looks up at the beautiful night. "I know it's in the northern sky, but since it's impossible to point out where north is on this ocean, the constellation could be anywhere."
"Let's look then!" Luffy declares, as if it's something easy to do.
Rose though barely cares if it is or not, as she gets her eyes to the sky. "First one to find it wins!"
"You're on!" Luffy calls out, with pure confidence of finding it, even though he doesn't know what it looks like.
For the next few hours, the two compete in the searching game, with Luffy pointing to random stars every few minutes, and Rose confirming that it's not Perseus.
When fatigue starts to take over, Rose covers her mouth with her hand to stifle a yawn. Luffy though, was still able to hear it, and knows that the game's over. "Wanna go to bed?"
Rose slowly nods, and goes to get up, but Luffy is quick to act in picking her up in the same hold he had on her when he brought her here, and starts getting up.
Rose blushes at the sweet hold, but this time puts her foot down by transforming her body into air, seeps out of his arms, then gets Luffy floating as well until they reach the deck. Once Luffy's feet are gently on the floor, the wind girl rematerializes next to him with a cheeky smirk. "I appreciate the gesture, but I can still walk to my room."
Luffy pouts at the comment, but accepts it, and takes her hand as a consolation. "Fine, can we at least sleep together tonight?"
Rose happily nods to the idea and starts leading him inside. "Yea, let's go."
As the two head inside to get some rest, neither of them notice that they were being watched from the back deck.
Robin softly grins at the young couple's happiness, from her spot on the back deck, and can see that both them and the others are recovering well from their last adventure.
As for her, she's still a little shaken from what she saw in that nightmare cyclone, but she knows what she has to do if the crew does get threatened. She just hopes it never has to come to that.
She looks up at the ocean one last time for the night, then follows the others inside for a good night's sleep. Something tells her that the next adventure will be one even more challenging than the last one, but whatever happens, her top priority would be to protect the Straw Hats.
TO BE CONTINUED