We came across Zoro on some steps, examining a new sword with a pleased look. I blinked. In the three weeks I'd been here, I'd only seem him smile a few times, and it was surprising whenever it happened. Normally, he was a grouchy bastard.
Lucy stretched up to the steps and said, "Hey, that's a cool katana Zoro!"
"W-what?" he said, jumping about a mile. "Don't scare me like that!"
I sighed and ran up to where the Marimo was sitting. Lucy was asking him what he was doing here, and he replied, "Same goes to you?"
"We're looking for the execution platform," I informed him as I finally reached the two.
Lucy grinned and placed her hands on her hips proudly. "We're lost."
I sweatdropped and Zoro asked, "Why are you proud about that?"
"I have no idea," I muttered, shaking my head at her antics. "Hey, so do you know where the platform is? Well actually, we just need Main Street. We can get to it from there."
"Hey, I saw him!" someone shouted in the crowd down below. "That bastard who captured our crew!"
I blinked and turned around, as did Zoro and Lucy. A mustached man in a tan cloak and a black hat was surrounded by five pirates who had various weapons.
"What's this?" Lucy asked.
I grinned. "Looks like a fight in the making!"
"You asshole!" one of the pirates cried, gripping his longsword. "You sold our entire crew to the Marines! We're going to make you pay! Die!"
The pirates all attacked at once.
There were four shots in rapid succession.
For a moment, nothing happened. Nobody moved. Time seemed to have stood still. Then the cloaked man revealed two guns and four of the pirates fell to the ground. Lucy and I stared in awe while Zoro just raised an eyebrow. The last man who had been left standing, a red haired young guy who fell to the ground, shaking, backed away a little. But the cloaked man walked forward, leaned down, and... pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
I gagged. What was up with people and smoking? It was just unhealthy!
"Go home and ask your mama to bake you some cake, boy," said mister mustache. The man cowered back, then screamed and ran off.
"WOW! COOL! That old man beat all those pirates!" Lucy cheered, jumping up and down in excitement.
I nodded. "That was awesome!"
Zoro frowned thoughtfully. "That man's probably Daddy the Father."
My eyes lit up. "E-EH?! DADDY THE FATHER?! That cloaked dude's the famous Marine sharpshooter who suddenly descended into bounty hunting due to an incident with Usopp's dad?! OI, OSSAN!" I called. "CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?!"
Daddy the Father tilted his head up and looked at me, an eyebrow raised. "...No."
I sunk to the steps in depression.
As the famous bounty hunter walked off, Lucy's stomach growled, and Zoro sighed. "Oi, guys. There's a restaurant just down the corner. Let's eat there."
I was brought out of my funk. "Eh? Food? Great, I'm starving!"
"YOSHA!" Lucy giggled. "Let's go to the restaurant!"
And so we set off for the restaurant, though I wasn't complaining because I was starving, too. Fighting a tournament and smashing down a wall can really take it out of a guy, ya know? No? Screw you, then. Boring people…
𖦹𖦹𖦹
Lunch was great. They actually had hamburgers and french fries! Little fun fact. Did you know that hamburgers are originally German? And french fries aren't from France, they're from Belgium. Er... as I was saying, they actually had a bathroom at the restaurant. I was so tired of using the Merry's bicycle-powered chamber pot that a toilet seemed like a miracle. Seriously, I never realized how lucky I'd been to have a toilet back in the real world. Even on the streets, I was able to use public restrooms. Here, in the One Piece world? No such luck. Toilets were few and far between.
But enough about that. That's not really important. And kinda gross.
Strangely, the restaurant was playing some happy, cheerful song about a rubber woman with a straw hat that said how 'she will surely do it, gomu gomu no yeah-yeah.'
"Weird song," I muttered. "Ironic, eh? Makes you wonder who they're singing about on that radio."
Zoro shrugged and sipped his beer. "Who knows? It's a strange world."
The man in the green cloak and cowl from before was eating at a table behind us along with another cloaked guy, except his friend had a tall face and a white goatee. They were complaining about not being able to find some girl. I had a feeling this girl was Lucy, so I didn't let them know we were sitting right next to them.
Lucy sighed happily and leaned back in her chair, her belly now roughly the size of a wrecking ball. "Man," she burped. "I'm stuffed! I haven't had anything to eat since we got into Loguetown. I was getting pretty hungry."
I polished off the last of my fries. "Same here."
"Yeah, me too," Zoro agreed, pouring himself more booze. "I was starving but I didn't have any money left on me." He grinned. "Good thing I bumped into the two of you."
Lucy blinked. "If you mean money, I don't have any."
Zoro face-faulted and slammed his glass against the table. "WHAT!?"
"Don't you have any?"
"Why the hell would I have any?!"
I sighed and rubbed my temple as Lucy erupted into giggles. "I'm still here, guys. I—"
But the two ignored me. "So how are we gonna pay for this?"
"I dunno," Lucy said, shrugging. "Maybe they'll let us off."
"Oi, guys..." I cut in. They blinked and looked at me, then face-faulted as they remembered that I had a bag of 100,000 belli, but before I could offer to pay, the cloaked guy yelled and pounded his table. A bag soared through the air and landed on the brim of Lucy's hat. When we looked in, it was full of money.
"Oo, lucky!" our captain exclaimed, turning to the other customer. "Are you treating us, ossan? How nice of you!"
We set the bag back down on his table and walked off, me whistling. That had just saved me a bunch of money that I could now use on myself... if Nami didn't confiscate it, that is.
"Thanks, dude!" I said as we exited the restaurant.
He paused for a moment, then replied. "Don't... mention it."
"Come again!" The restaurant owner called as we left.
"Great food!" Lucy approved.
As we walked down the street, we heard the cloaked dude suddenly shout in surprise and recognition.
"TH-THAT VOICE! ... YOU FLASHY SIMPLETON! GO CHASE AFTER HER NOW!" But we were already halfway down the road.
Suddenly a sharp wind ripped through the city and it blew off Lucy's hat. She gasped in surprise and ran after it before Zoro or I could react. "WAIT!" she called after it.
"Oi, wait yourself!" I complained, jogging after her. But when we turned the next corner, she was already gone.
Zoro hit the top of my head, making me wince. His fist was hard . "Why the hell did you have to lose Lucy, you idiot?" he grumbled.
I rubbed my head, tic-pulsing. "Well I didn't mean to, dumbass! And besides, I don't see you finding her!"
"Spaz!" he spat.
My eye twitched. "Marimo!"
"Water-For-Brains!"
"Broken Compass!"
"ONI GIRI!"
"AQUA BLAST!"
"WHY THE HELL DO YOU TWO ALWAYS HAVE TO BE FIGHTING?!" Nami's voice screeched angrily, and her fist flew out of nowhere, hitting both of us in one fell swoop. We dropped to the cobblestone street with dizzy eyes. When my vision cleared, I saw her standing in front of Usopp and Sanji, who were holding a strange-looking fish and regarding us curiously.
I frowned. "What's that fish? It looks weird."
Sanji grinned and patted the creature, which was enormous, had a long snout, and also had two tusks. "Oh, this baby? It's a blue-finned elephant tuna. It's one of the rarest ingredients in the world and I won it in a cooking contest."
"And I have to carry the heavy end," Usopp whined.
"More importantly," Nami said, glaring at me, "you two need to just make up already! By the way, do you know where Lucy is? There's gonna be a storm soon and we've been searching for you guys everywhere."
Oh, great. Just when we need Lucy, we lose her, I thought. "Er, actually, she was just with us, but her hat got blown off by a gust of wind and she chased after it, making us lose her."
"That idiot," the gingerhead muttered, shaking her head. "If she just had something to keep it on, this wouldn't be a problem..."
"Come on, let's look for her," I said as the four of us took in a random direction.