"That guy's scary!" Usopp whimpered.
"Oh, shut up," I snapped quietly. My eye was twitching again, but this time it wasn't just out of annoyance.
"These arms are stronger than anybody's!" Krieg continued. "My super-alloy armor is tougher than anything! And I've got a diamond punch that can destroy anything! An army of 5000 men!" Which was defeated easily by a single man ... "I've never lost a battle in my life!" You just did a few days ago, buddy ... "I'm the perfect person to claim the title of 'Don!'" Actually, that's the captain with the unnamed zanpakuto from Bleach, I finished my thoughts. I got sarcastic when I was scared, and the power of this pirate captain was definitely freaking me out, even if I wasn't letting it show.
"Out of the way, girl." I saw Chef Zeff rolling a huge, lumpy canvas bag down the spiral staircase out of the corner of my eye, and he accidentally knocked Lucy over, sending her down to the bottom floor of the restaurant headfirst.
"Hey!" she complained indignantly. "Watch it! You could hurt someone with that, you know!"
Zeff ignored her and continued forward, plopping the bag down at the cunning captain's feet. "Here," he growled. "That's enough food and water for a hundred men. Take it to your ship."
"Owner Zeff!" the chefs gasped.
"You're... Redfoot Zeff!" Krieg gasped.
The tension in the Baratie was so thick you could practically cut it with a knife.
The ex-pirate turned and walked back. The chefs stared at him for a bit, then started shouting, "Oi! What do you think you're doing, Zeff-sama? If his crew's strength is returned, they'll beat us to the ground and take over this restaurant!"
"Only if they've got the guts," Zeff corrected. "Isn't that right, Mr. Couldn't-Get-Through-The-Grand-Line?"
Usopp squeaked in terror at the mention of the Grand Line, earning him a hit over the head from me. What a wimp. Seriously, there's a fine line between comic relief and cowardliness and he crossed it a long time ago.
"N-No way..." Carne muttered. "Not even the fabled Don Krieg could get through? That sea must be like a monster..."
"Nah, but it's got hundreds of monsters in it," I spoke up. Usopp gulped.
"M-Monsters?!"
"Yup. It's got your common Sea Kings and such, and then it's got fish the size of islands. And I'm not exaggerating either. There's a quite famous whale the size of a mountain that should be one of the very first things we encounter, if the Butterfly Effect doesn't change things..."
Zoro blinked and scowled, evidence that he was confused. "What's the Butterfly Effect?"
I waved my hand dismissively. "Nothing important. Let's return to these guys's conversation, yeah?"
He sweatdropped. "Sometimes you act more like a little girl than a street kid."
Before I could get too depressed, I felt a sharp gaze on me, and I flinched. Sure enough, it was Don Krieg, and it looked like he had overheard our conversation. "Say..." he mused. "It sounds like you're well-read on the Grand Line. You're talking about it almost as if you've been there before..."
I swallowed and waved my hands around, laughing nervously. "Heh heh heh, no, that's not it. M-My parents were j-just pirates who had s-sailed the Grand L-Line before and they t-told me stories about it. Heh heh heh!" I mentally beat myself up. What an idiot I was! Now he is gonna be even more interested than before!
Lucy slid into my line of view, eyes sparkling. "Really?! Your parents were pirates?! Cool!"
I was sweating bullets. "Shut it!"
Krieg laughed a loud, raucous, and ugly laugh. "Hahahaha! This is perfect. Gin, there's been a change of plans! We're still taking this ship, but I don't want Zeff's journal anymore!"
Everyone except me looked at him in confusion.
"I want that girl to be a part of my crew instead, whether she accepts or not!" He pointed to me curtly.
"NO WAY!" I freaked out.
"NO WAY!" Lucy agreed. "She's my nakama! You can't have her!" She ran in front of me protectively, her red jacket blowing behind her like a cape. It looked kinda cute, but I wasn't exactly processing that right now.
I blushed and shouted at her with shark teeth. "DON'T SAY THINGS THAT COULD BE TAKEN WRONGLY!"
She blinked. "Huh? Like what?"
Ignoring us, Krieg raised his hands dramatically. "With this ship and that girl's knowledge, I shall take over the Grand Line! Today is the dawn of a new era, and its name is 'Krieg!' I shall be the king of the pirates!"
There was a pregnant pause, and a strong wind blew through the Baratie. For a while, the only sound was that of the waves constantly lapping at the side of the ship. Then Lucy clenched her fists and, although I couldn't tell since she was in front of me, probably glared at him cutely. "Now wait just a minute," she spoke up. She raised her hand and pointed at Krieg. "I'm the one who's gonna be queen of the pirates, got it? And I ain't sharing that position with some smelly slime ball like you!"
Que more tension and an angry Krieg.
"What was that?!" he roared. "Listen up, bitch! I had enough men, enough power, and enough ambition! The only thing I was lacking was information! That's the only reason I failed." Gin was on his knees with a hand on his forehead, looking like he was crying. Krieg shook his fist. "I must have that girl's knowledge! I don't care whose nakama she is! Once she is on my ship, and once I have gathered together another fleet to sail the Grand Line, the great treasure One Piece is as good as mine!"
"Didn't you hear anything I just said?" Lucy sighed, folding her hands in front of her chest. "I'm the one who'll be queen of the pirates!"
The chefs had enough. "Oi, waiter girl! That's enough! If you continue talking like this, you'll get killed! That guy's no match for you, ya know!"
Zoro smirked. "Lucy? Killed? Don't make me laugh. That brat's got the luck of the devil."
Lucy turned her head and nodded. I could see now that she was smirking, too, and it looked really cute on her. I blushed and hit myself mentally. "That's right!" she agreed. "I can't do a thing like backing down now. Krieg threatened my friend and my future position as pirate queen. If nobody stands up to him, Yuril'll be as good as dead."
"Lucy..." I muttered.
Krieg frowned. "What was that, girl? If you shut up right now, I'll pretend I didn't hear that..."
"You don't have to," she cut in, hands on her hips. "I'm just saying things how they are."
"This is no game."
"Of course it isn't." I could feel the confidence in her voice. "I'll be the one who'll get to the Grand Line, and I'll protect my nakama!"
I blinked and smiled. Lucy... she was a very strong girl, and her confidence was already eating away at my fears of being stuck on Krieg's crew until I could learn how to control my powers better, and Lord knows how long that would take.
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY, BITCH!" Krieg snapped, bending forward and shaking his fist some more. "It may have just been a lack of information, but even a fleet of 5,000 men was defeated in just seven days! Only a week!" Gin's body shook, and he was clenching his head. I frowned. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN DO IT, EH?"
"Sev... Seven days?!" Patty gasped.
"Krieg's men only lasted seven days?" Carne repeated in shocked disbelief.
"What could have happened to them?"
"How could we possibly survive?" Usopp moaned. "We're screwed! Screwed, I tell you!"
"Shut it," I said, my eye twitching nervously.
"Sorry," Krieg told Lucy, ignoring everyone else, "but your kind of humor is what I hate the most. Should I just kill you off right now?"
Lucy took a leaf out of Zeff's book, raising her fist like she was getting ready to throw a punch. "If you think you're up to it," she said.
"What?" Krieg smirked, too. "Very well then. You want to be sent to the next world?" He drew his fists back, and my eyes widened, remembering from the anime what was about to happen.
"Everyone get down!" I bellowed, ducking behind another table myself. The golden plates on the armor-clad pirate captain whirred and spun, lifting upward to reveal a set of two guns each. The Baratie staff all backed up a step—all except for Zeff and Lucy, that is, who simply glared at him and drew her own fist back. Zoro thumbed his sword open and Usopp placed his hands on his hips, faking bravery as always. I began concentrating on the air around me, focusing on the water vapor. I had a theory that if I could control water, then I could draw water from the air, since water vapor was really just water evaporating into a gas. It took a good bit of my energy, but I managed to create a ball of water that I gripped in my hand.
"Starting a brawl, Lucy-chan?" Zoro grinned. "Need a hand?"
"W-We don't have to, y-you know..." Usopp told him, knees shaking.
"I can protect myself, Luce," I said, though I seriously doubted I could do much at the moment against a man like Don Krieg.
"It's okay," Lucy said, turning and grinning at us. "You guys just sit and watch, yeah?"
Zoro sheathed his katana again. I returned the water ball to the air, and Usopp slightly relaxed. "Well, if you don't need us, then there's nothing we can do about that, heh!" he announced, laughing nervously. "I-I'll help you if you still need it, though! G-Good luck!"
"Idiot," I sighed, rolling my eyes and panting a little from the exertion of controlling water. Rick Riordan hadn't mentioned just how tired bending water to your will can be.
Zoro tic-pulsed at Usopp's crazed giggling and scored a TKO with his elbow.
"What the hell was that for, Zoro-kun?!" Usopp whined.
"Shut up," the swordsman told him.
Krieg was staring at us as though he couldn't really believe what he was seeing. I couldn't blame him. We looked like a bunch of idiots, and Usopp didn't exactly help the image any. The only one of us Straw Hats who looked even remotely like a pirate was Zoro. Then the enemy captain started laughing.
"Are those your crew?" he asked Lucy, who turned to him and said simply–+
"Yup."
"I said not to include me with your crew, Luce..."
"Are they all you've got with you?"
"What are you talking about? I've got two more!" She pouted and stuck out two fingers for emphasis.
"Why do you keep counting me in, too?" Sanji asked.
Krieg snorted and the plates on his shoulders shut with a metallic clang. "I'll deal with you guys later," he decided. Lucy blinked. "Right now I've gotta feed my men, and a certain fellow I picked up on the way here."
I frowned. A certain fellow? I hadn't seen this part in the anime, but then again, Krieg changing his plans to kidnap me wasn't in the anime either. Could this be a result of the disturbance I must have created from entering this universe? I hoped not.
Krieg picked up his sack of food and slung it on his back like an evil, gold-loving twin of Santa Claus. "Any of you who wish to live, I suggest you leave immediately. All who are still here when I return are as good as dead. Remember, the only things I want are that girl and the ship." And with that, he turned sharply and went to exit the Baratie, but then he paused. "However, if you really want to, throw your lives away and stay. I'll be going out of my way, but I'd be happy to send all of you to the bottom of the ocean! Keep that in mind"
A chill ran down my spine. I really didn't want to imagine myself somewhere on the ocean floor, with fish eating me and all.
Krieg fully left the Baratie, leaving Gin to his own devices.
Lucy placed a hand on her straw hat.
"I'm sorry, Sanji-san..." Gin moaned in pain, clutching his shoulder, which was probably broken or at least sprained. "I never expected things to turn out like this! I'm sorry to you, too, Lucy-chan. I can tell your nakama means a lot to you."
"I don't need an apology from the likes of you, idiot!" Zeff barked. Gin stared at him, not understanding. "We are but cooks in this establishment. We'll feed anybody who comes along."
"Owner Zeff!" Patty said, still gripping his weapon. "Why are you siding with Sanji?! What's going on here?!"
"Starvation is a terrible thing," I said, shaking my head. "And nobody deserves it, no matter how evil they may be."
A cook with long hair pointed at Sanji angrily. "This is all his fault! He's going to destroy your precious restaurant and get an innocent girl kidnapped!"
"I ain't gettin' kidnapped!" I yelled angrily. Damn cooks! Think I'm weak for no reason at all! 'Course, compared to some of the baddies in this world, I was pretty weak, but let's not dwell on that right now, eh?
"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU IDIOT EGGPLANTS!" Zeff bellowed over the ruckus.
We shut the hell up.
"Have you ever had the experience of starving to death?" the best cook growled. "Can you imagine how horrible it is? Having no food or water in this vast ocean?"
"W-What do you mean, old man?" Patty said.
"The difference between all of you and Sanji and Yuril is that those two know that feeling."
The cooks frowned and looked at each other, muttering, "What does he mean? What do those two know about?"
Zeff gritted his teeth. "Rather than just standing around here like morons with petty talk, you'd all better leave this place now!" The chefs gasped.
Patty gripped his weapon. "I'm staying here to fight! I can't let them simply trample over me like a common dog!" He hit the end of his staff thing on the floor. Next to him, Carne nodded.
"This is the place where I work!" another chef agreed.
"I have no other place to go anyway."
One by one, the rest of the cooks also reestablished their grips on their weapons and raised them, grinning. Gin looked from one to the other, gasping in horror. He knelt low and slapped his hands against the floor, making all of us jump and look at him.
"What are you doing?" he freaked. "Didn't you see how strong my captain is?"
"Oi, Gin."
Gin blinked.
Sanji walked forward with one hand in a pocket and the other on his hip, saying, "Feeding the hungry is what being a cook is all about." He placed his leg on the leg of a table that had been turned on its side, swept down, and the table was flung into the air before it landed on all fours, upright. He sat on it smoothly. I stared. That had been pretty damn legit. "But now that your captain's all filled up, he's nothing more than a plunderer. Whatever I do to your pals, don't come bitchin' at me. I'll kill anybody who tries to take this restaurant! Including you!"
Lucy nodded. "Same here. If they think they can take my nakama, they've got another thing coming!"
"Get that?" They said in unison.
Gin swallowed.
Patty snorted, unamused. "Heh. So you saved his life just to kill him off later, eh? You're so thoughtful, Sanji!"
Lucy turned to us happily. "Didn't I tell you he was something?"
"Who cares about him now?!" Usopp started. "We'd better get the hell outta here or Yuril's gonna die!"
"Calm down," Zoro groaned. "Even though he's Krieg, he's all battered up."
Our captain turned to the man by the door. "Oi! Gin! You said once before that you knew nothing about the Grand Line, right? But you have been there, haven't you?" The cooks all raised their eyebrows. Said second-in-command swallowed and looked at the floor.
"The truth is I really don't know anything. What happened at the Grand Line on the seventh day... Was it a dream? Or reality...? It's still fresh in my mind... It was unbelievable. Just one man destroyed a whole fleet of 50 ships!"
The cooks's jaws dropped, as did mine and Usopp's. Sure, I had heard this all before, but hearing it in real life was so different! Fifty ships sunk by one man in a world without powerful bombs or anything crazy like that... It was remarkably scary to think about. I could barely wrap my mind around the idea of someone that powerful, and I knew who it was, even!
Usopp and Lucy screamed like morons.
"WHAT?!" everyone shouted.
***
"It all happened so suddenly," Gin continued. "He just appeared out of nowhere, sinking ships one after the other! if a storm hadn't showed up all of sudden, our flag ship would've been doomed too." He shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know how many of my nakama died in that brutal attack, but I refused to accept that it had happened! I don't even want to think about it!
"That man... His stare pierces right through you, like the eyes of a hawk!"
Zoro gasped. "What?" Usopp turned to look at him, tilting his head in confusion. "What did you say...?"
"That guy," Zeff supplied, "is probably the man known as 'Hawk Eyes.' The fact that you noticed his eyes leads me to believe it was him. It sounds like something he would do."
"The Hawk Eyes Man!" Zoro muttered, shaking, though with fear or anticipation I couldn't tell.
Lucy bent back to look at him. "You know that dude, Zoro?"
Marimo relaxed. "That's the man I've been looking for. I sailed across the oceans in search of him. Maybe he had some kind of grudge to settle with you guys...?"
"Not that I know of." Ghin denied.
"Perhaps you disturbed his nap," Zeff offered.
"STOP THE BULLSHIT! Why in the world would he destroy our fleet just for that?"
"I would," I muttered.
"Don't get so worked up. I'm just making suggestions. Stuff like that happens at the Grand Line."
Now that all the excitement was siphoning out, I was getting bored. ADHD, which I suspected I had, tends to do that to a person. I pulled out my iPod from my jeans pocket and selected the album Some Nights by Fun. on my playlist, plugging in my earbuds at the same time. "Fun." was one of my favorite bands.
I totally zoned out for the next few minutes, happily listening to random songs on the album like Carry On, All Alright, and others. Then a sudden groaning and creaking like a ship splitting apart worked its way over the sound of my earbuds, and I pulled them out in surprise. "Hey, what's going on?" I asked, pressing the pause button.
"What was that?" Lucy wondered.
Usopp was stammering something nobody could understand.
Then out of nowhere, the floor started shaking and there was the sound of a giant wave outside, and the entire ship started rocking crazily from side to side. I was knocked into Lucy and we rolled across the floor, ending up in an awkward position (me on top, her on bottom, like an ecchi anime or something) when it finally calmed down.
"We're gonna sink!" a chef shouted.
"Go hoist the anchor or our ship'll get pulled under with Krieg's!" Zeff bellowed. One of his subordinates did as he was told.
"This is bad!" Zoro worried. "Nami, Johnny, and Yosaku are still on our ship!"
"They'll be fine," I told him, but he completely ignored me and jumped to action. Usopp blinked and ran after him.
"We may already be too late!"
"I said they'd be fine," I sighed, sweatdropping. I shook my head and followed suit. Out on the floating restaurant's deck, we could all see what had happened: Don Krieg's flagship had been... it was... it was cut cleanly in two, and both parts were sinking!
All our jaws dropped.
Two shouts of "Aniki!" turned our attention away from the remains of the flagship. Johnny and Yosaku were in the ocean, somehow managing not to drown.
"Are you guys alright?!" Lucy called, running to the railing.
"Where's the ship?" Zoro growled.
"What happened to Nami?" asked Usopp.
"She's..." Johnny moaned. "I'm sorry aniki! She left!"
"Nami-aneki," Yosaku cried, "she took all the treasure and sailed away!"
There was a short pause. Then all of us turned blue and shouted, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"