Chapter 25

Three days have passed for the crew since Robin's recruitment, and the journey has been for once a peaceful one. While some crew members are still suspicious of Robin, she managed to blend herself into the crew rather nicely and can read almost everyone now. She's managed to join in the crew's daily activities well by taking the lounge chair next to Nami's and reading a book.

When she turns the page, she looks up to see Rose sitting on the deck with her back to the mast, on the opposite side of where the sleeping swordsman lies, and reading her own book.

Ever since Robin discovered that Rose kept an eternal pose for herself, without telling the others, she's kept an eye on her to see if anything else was amiss, but so far, she hasn't come up with a lot. Rose never brought out the eternal pose again since that day, and allows Nami to guide them through the Grand Line with her log pose without giving any suggestions of going elsewhere. The wind girl always keeps her bag by her side, and even uses it as a pillow when she sleeps, so Robin can't look to see where the eternal pose leads, but it doesn't look like she has any desire to use it.

Even so, there's something about the brunette that she can't place her finger on. Rose does get along well with the others, but Robin can tell that she tends to keep to herself more than anyone else in the crew. Like right now, even though there's an empty chair with her and Nami, Rose stays on her spot by the mast with no signs of wanting to join them. However, whenever any of her crew mates need help with something, no matter what Rose's doing, she'd drop everything to help and then when she's done she puts herself back at a distance.

While Robin can't say that it's suspicious, she plans to keep an eye on Rose for another day to make sure that there's nothing to worry about.

Robin goes back into her book while Luffy, Usopp and Chopper continue to fish on the railing with their backs to the ship.

Chopper sighs in disappointment as he doesn't get a bite from his fishing rod. "Why can't we catch anything?"

Usopp tilts his head down to the water and reels his line in to find not even his bait on the hook anymore. "Maybe this area's the problem. Let's try on the other side of the ship."

Chopper and Luffy silently agree as they get off the railing with Usopp and head to the opposite side of the deck.

Rose takes a break from her book, and looks up to see that they're heading to the opposite side of the ship. She looks to the railing to see that they're fishing, something that she's never done before, so she scoots alongside the mast to learn more about the sport.

As the trio settles in their new seat on the railing, Luffy looks over his shoulder to see Rose looking down at her book as if she wasn't watching them. "Hey Rose, come fish with us."

The wind girl snaps out of her book, as if she's been reading all along, and looks at her captain with a small smile. "Sorry, I can't."

"How come?"

She scratches the back of her head nervously. "Well, I never fished before, so I won't be much help on your side of it. When you guys send the fish flying over the railing, then I'll catch them for you."

Usopp widens his eyes at the explanation before he scowls at her. "That's unacceptable!"

Rose raises an eyebrow in confusion before Usopp starts ranting. "If you're gonna help then you need to know every fishing step you need to take! I'll be right back!"

He gets off the railing and runs inside before he runs out with a second rod in his hand. Once he reaches Rose, he stops and hands her the new rod. "Ready to learn how to fish?"

Rose blinks at the invitation to learn before she nods and gets up. "Sure, let's do it."

She and Usopp walk past the sleeping swordsman, who's laying by the mast, as the four pirates get ready to start fishing.

Usopp smirks in pride as he grabs the open can of worms that's sitting and starts hooking his bait. "Now that I'm in a teaching mood, how about I teach you guys my secret cast?"

Luffy and Chopper look at him with wide eyes before they eagerly nod. "Yea, come on!"

Usopp grins at the excitement before he passes Rose the can of worms. "Ok, first you all need to hook your bait onto the hook."

Rose grabs the can, as she shows no fear for touching the slimy creature with her gloved hands, as she grabs a fat worm from the can. She hands Chopper, who's sitting right next to her, the can before she stabs the worm onto the hook until it's deep enough so that the point and barb of the hook weren't covered.

Once all their hooks hold some bait, Usopp puts his finger on top of the clip that's holding the spool of fishing line. "Now you have to get ready to release the line as you pull it back and then cast it out as far away from the boat as possible."

He pulls his rod back and, just before he casts it, he pulls the clip to release the line to cast it into the ocean.

Luffy, Chopper and Rose grin in excitement as the line flies about ten feet from the ship. Usopp grins at the long cast before he turns to the others. "Then the fish handle the rest. You guys give it a shot now."

Luffy nods as he casts his line out with no problems as it flies out at twice the distance that Usopp casted out.

Chopper goes into heavy point just when he and Rose find the clip to their poles. The two pirates pull back at the same time, but accidentally pull the clips too early to send their hooks flying backwards. When they pulled forward to cast their lines, they both freeze in shock when they hear something behind them rip. When their lines flew over them all four pirates look up in shock to see a white t-shirt caught in the two hooks, and land in the sea just a few feet away from them.

Chopper transforms back into brain point, when he looks down at the ripped up short sleeve shirt, and begins to get scared. "Umm guys, does that shirt belong to the person I think it does?"

Usopp and Luffy nervously nod as Rose looks back to see a shirtless Zoro waking up from his nap.

When he looks down to see the scar on his toned chest, instead of his shirt, he widens his eyes in shock. "What the hell happened to my shirt?!"

Rose quickly looks back to the ocean, in order to avoid suspicion, along with the rest of the boys.

Zoro looks at the fishermen in confusion. "Hey guys, do you know what happened to my shirt?"

The four of them only shake their heads as they keep their eyes on the water. Zoro raises an eyebrow at their nervousness when Rose and Chopper's lines start getting pulled.

"Oh crap, we caught something?!" Rose asks as she holds onto the rod with both hands, to make sure that she doesn't drop the rod, while Chopper goes into heavy point and starts reeling.

Luffy gets off the railing, and hands Zoro his fishing rod before he grabs a net for the fish.

Usopp sees that Rose isn't reeling the rod yet as she's fighting to keep the rod in her hands and points to the reel. "You gotta pull the handle and reel the line in!"

Rose looks at the reel and starts winding it up with her left hand as quickly as possible, but when the fish starts fighting back, it starts pulling Rose and Chopper towards the edge.

However, before either of them can go overboard Zoro and Luffy grab onto Chopper and Rose respectively and pull them back.

Usopp grabs the net from Luffy's hands as he drops his rod onto the deck and gets behind them. "Hurry up and reel it in before it gets away!"

"R-right!" Rose says with a heavy blush decorating her cheeks from Luffy's embrace. She does her best to reel it in while she tries to ignore Luffy's right arm around her waist and his other hand is over hers to help her reel it in.

Nami and Robin turn their attention to the noise and look to see them gathered together to reel in a fish. What surprised Robin though, was seeing Rose's face heat up from being held by Luffy as the group finally manages to pull up a yellow, two headed, fish that has one head on each hook.

Chopper yelps in shock at the squirming fish that's half the size of them as they pull it over the railing and into the net.

Usopp screams when the fish almost bites him, but he flips the net upside down so the fish can't escape and grabs his mallet from his satchel. "Usopp hammer!"

Rose holds herself back from laughing as she and others watch Usopp whack both heads with the hammer. He had to whack it at least ten times before the fish passed out with a group of lumps forming on the heads.

Luffy grins at the fish in excitement as he lets go of Rose and runs up to the catch. "This fish is huge!"

Rose recovers from the embrace and kneels in front to the sea creature to get the hooks out of their mouths. "That was pretty fun. Can we do it again?"

The others nod in agreement except for Zoro, who's noticing a piece of white fabric at the corner of the left head's mouth. "What's this?"

The four pirates stiffen up as Zoro opens the mouth and pulls out the fabric until a small, slimy, wad of Zoro's shirt comes out. The swordsman twitches an eyebrow at the remains of his shirt before he drops it and glares at the fishermen. "You used my shirt as bait?!"

The four of them nervously gulp under his glare as they step away from him.

Chopper runs behind the group to hide with most of his body visible. "I-it was an accident."

Rose quickly nods in agreement as she gives him a nervous smile. "T-that's right! It's my first time fishing, and I tried to do it the way Usopp showed me, but I hooked your shirt."

Luffy nods when he looks at the tasty fish with a large smile. "Your shirt makes a great bait though. Can we use another one?"

Usopp, Rose, and Chopper look at the captain in disbelief of the poorly timed request when they hear the sound of a sword unsheathing.

Once the four of them see Zoro with a sword in his hand, they waste no time in making a run for it.

"We're sorry!" Usopp calls out as he runs away and ducks to dodge the back of the blade from hitting his head.

"Sorry won't cut it!" Zoro says as he runs after them while he swings the back of the sword at them, but they continue to narrowly dodge it every time.

Nami sweat drops at the chase before she gets back to her magazine. "They're all hopeless…"

Robin giggles at the chase when she sees the four of them running around all over the deck to avoid the swordsman's wrath. When she sees Rose running around she remembers how she blushed in Luffy's arms, so she turns to Nami for some answers. "What's the story between Wind-chan and Captain-san?"

Nami blinks at the question, when she remembers seeing Rose blush when Luffy hugged her again, and sighs in disappointment. "Not much of a story to be honest. I'm sure that they have feelings for each other, but either they're too oblivious, denying it, or both…"

She looks to see the four fishermen still running until Rose finally remembers that she can fly, so she uses her wind to lift herself and the guys away from the furious swordsman.

Zoro growls in irritation as he watches Rose fly the four of them out of his reach, but he doesn't pursue them as he sheathes his blade and goes inside to get a new shirt.

Nami looks up at the group to see them relaxing now that their pursuer has given up. She sees Rose and Luffy talking to one another, and can't help but wonder what to do about them. Now that Rose joined the crew Nami thought that something would happen between them, but they only acted like buddies. At this rate, she worries that nothing will happen, so she feels that it's time to take matters into her own hands.

Once the group landed on the deck, Nami called out to them. "Rose, Luffy, come here!"

The pair immediately tense up at the order, thinking that she's mad about the chase, but nonetheless go to her while Usopp and Chopper bring the fish to the kitchen for Sanji to cook.

Once Rose and Luffy make it to Nami, the navigator keeps a sweet smile on her face as she puts the magazine down. "Now that we have more crew members on board I'm thinking of setting up a new night watch system."

Luffy calms down from her smile, but Rose is still wary of what Nami's planning. "What kind of system exactly?"

Nami keeps up her innocent grin before she points up to the crow's nest. "I'm thinking that from now on we can have our night watch done in pairs. For tonight, I want you both to try it out and see if it works."

Rose looks up at the crow's nest curiously, but before she can say anything Luffy speaks up with a grin. "Sure, we'll do it."

Rose blinks at the answer, but she can't see anything wrong with the idea, so she nods in agreement. "Yea alright, it can't hurt to try it out."

Nami's grin grows from the victory as she gives them a thumbs up. "Perfect, tell me how it works tomorrow and then I'll see if we can make it a regular thing."

The pair nods in agreement when Usopp and Chopper come back outside, so they go off to get back to fishing with them.

Robin chuckles at Nami's plan to get them alone as she goes back to her book. "You think this would work?"

Nami casually shrugs as she grabs her magazine and relaxes in her chair. "I'm sure something will come out of it. At the very least, I can see if we really can make this new system work."

Robin nods in agreement as she and the rest of the crew go back to their daily activities for the rest of the day.

Once dinner was finished, the crew relaxes outside where the sun has begun to set, except for Rose who decided to take a nap up on the crow's nest before it was time for night watch.

Luffy however, continues to play tag with Usopp and Chopper as the sun finishes setting.

Nami walks to the door to go inside when she sees Luffy still playing, so she calls out to him. "Luffy, it's time for night watch! Go join Rose up on the crow's nest!"

Luffy immediately stops playing when he hears the order, and looks up to see the stars and the moon starting to come out. He sighs in disappointment of not being able to play anymore, but nonetheless goes up the rope ladder to start his night watch.

Once he reaches the crow's nest, he's met with the freckled girl curled up at the other side of the crow's nest. With the help of the candle lit lamp on the bench next to her, he can see that she's fast asleep on her side facing him, with her green blanket wrapped around her, and her backpack as a pillow.

Luffy blinks at the sight as he swings his legs over the edge and sits cross legged across from Rose. With a closer look, he can see that she's scowling from a bad dream, and clenching her blanket to keep herself warm.

He reaches over to shake her awake, but he stops when he sees something shine right in front of her face. He looks curiously to see that it's the red and black crystal necklace that Rose always keeps on her with the gem laying face up in front of her, and the silver chain hanging loosely around her neck.

His curiosity got the better of him as he goes to grab the crystal to get a closer look at the two colored gem, just when a pair of purple eyes begin to slowly open.

Still groggy from her sleep, and with the first thing she sees is a hand about to touch her necklace, Rose grabs his wrist and pounces on the hand's owner without thinking.

Luffy widens his eyes to Rose's actions as her knees straddle his waist to pin him on his back. She keeps her grip on his wrist to pin it next to his head with her other hand holding down his other arm while she growls at him. "Never touch my-!"

She stops talking when she's awake enough to realize that she's not talking to one of her foster sisters, like she was in her dream, but to her captain who's just staring at her in shock. She looks down to at the suggestive position she has him in, which causes a blush to erupt on her freckled cheeks as she releases his arms.

Rose quickly scrambles off him with her blush still strong on her pale face as she rushes to the opposite side of the crow's nest. "I'm so sorry!"

Luffy blinks at her quick retreat as he sits back up while re-adjusting his hat back onto his head. "It's fine, but are you ok?"

Rose nods as her blush starts fading away, while she looks down with guilt, and scratches the back of her head. "Yea, I was just surprised when you…"

She stops herself when she remembers his hand going for her necklace, so she frowns at him. "What exactly were you doing?"

Luffy looks at the necklace and points to it. "I was curious about your necklace."

Rose quietly sighs in exasperation as she looks down at the necklace and caresses the crystal between her fingers. "You too huh?"

Luffy tilts his head at the question. "Too?"

Rose nods as she gently smiles at the beautiful gem that helped bring her to this world. "I've been wondering what this crystal is for years. My parents gave it to me back when I was a kid, but they never told me what it was before they died. No matter where I looked, I couldn't even find a name for this gem, but it's still special to me."

Luffy blinks at the explanation before he grins at her. "Oh, I get it! It's a mystery treasure!"

Rose chuckles at the name for her gem before she lets go of the necklace. "You can say that. I'm sure I'll find out more about it as I get deeper into my research since..."

She stops herself when she feels like she's giving him too many pieces of her secret. *Dammit, he's too easy to talk to!*

She shakes her head as she turns away from Luffy and looks out to the ocean for any oncoming ships. "Never mind, let's get started on this night watch."

Luffy freezes at the retreat when he remembers what they're supposed to be doing, so he turns around so that their backs are leaning on each other as he looks out for boats on his end.

After a few minutes of silence, Luffy breaks it by groaning to his boredom. "Man, where are all the ships?"

Rose chuckles at the complaint as she hugs her knees and keeps looking around. "Who knows, we probably won't see any tonight."

"Then what else can we do?"

She shrugs to the question, as if he can see her, before she looks up at the straw hat on top of his messy hair. "You know, I don't think you ever told me the story behind your hat."

Luffy perks up at the mention of his treasure before he stretches his neck backwards, so that he can see her. "You want to hear it?"

She nods with a large grin. "Since you were so curious about my treasure, I can't help but want to hear your story. If you don't want to talk about it though, it's fine."

"Nah, I'll tell you." Luffy says before he brings his neck back into place, turns around, and then turns Rose around to face him.

The captain takes his hat off and grins at it before he starts speaking. "I got this hat when I made a promise to a good friend."

As Luffy goes on to tell Rose the story of when Shanks saved his life, the wind girl is hanging on to every word he says. Even though she already knows the story, she'd rather hear it from Luffy's point of view any day, because it's all the more real and feels as if she's truly getting to know her captain.

For the entire story Luffy keeps a large smile on his face at the thought of his childhood hero, and when he reaches the end of the tale he puts his hat back on his head. "When Shanks gave me this, we made a promise that I'd give it back to him when I become a great pirate. I wonder how he's doing now."

Rose grins at the captain before she looks out at the vast ocean around them. "He's probably sailing around somewhere on this sea. Who knows, maybe you guys will run into each other when you get closer to the One Piece."

Luffy grins at the thought of seeing his friend again as he follows her gaze to the water. "Yea, I'm sure we will."

Rose adjusts herself so that her back is to Luffy as she gets back to searching for ships, but there are still none to be found. When she feels Luffy's back against hers again, she pauses when she feels him slightly shiver from the cold night. She grabs the blanket that she abandoned when she tackled Luffy and holds it up right above Luffy. "Here you go."

Luffy looks up at the large blanket before he brightly smiles and grabs it. "Thanks!"

"Any-" She stops herself when Luffy not only wraps himself in the blanket, but throws it over his shoulder so that she's tucked in along with him. She looks down at the blankets before she grins and looks back to the ocean. "Anytime."

She begins to relax as she goes back to her night watch duties, when Luffy looks up at the starry sky. "Hey Rose, what other star stories do you know?"

Rose blinks at the question before she looks up at the sky in thought of the next constellation to tell him about. "Let's see, you remember the story of Hercules?"

"Yea."

"Well, I failed to tell you that the story made more than one constellation. During Hercules' trials another constellation was made called the cancer constellation. It's supposed to represent a crab."

Luffy widens his eyes at the mentions of a crab before he looks over the night sky with stars shining in his own eyes. "Really?! Where is it?!"

Rose chuckles at the enthusiasm in his voice as she looks over her shoulder. "Why are you so excited? You can't eat it."

"I still wanna see it!"

She softly grins at his childlike excitement as she looks up at the countless stars above them. "Sorry, I can't tell which one it is from all these stars. I can still tell you the story if you want."

Luffy eagerly smiles as he looks up at the stars to search for the constellation as if he knows exactly what it looks like. "Yea, I wanna know!"

She chuckles at the request, before she begins telling him the story of the cancer constellation. The pattern then soon began with the pair exchanging adventure and constellation stories to one another under the star filled sky for the entire evening.

As the sun begins to rise for the next morning, the only sound that can be heard from the crow's nest was the sound of Luffy's loud snoring. However, the noise doesn't bother Rose as the two of them are fast asleep on the floor with the blanket covering them both from toe to neck.

Rose turns to her side away from Luffy and tries to grab her blanket, but she feels her arms stuck to her sides. She grumbles as she slowly wakes up and tries to move her arms to rub her eyes, but her arms are still stuck. "What the hell?"

She manages to sit up, which allows the blanket to fall off her to reveal Luffy's arms wrapped around her multiple times from her waist to just below her chest. Her red face starts to match Luffy's vest from the embrace as she tries to pull her arms free. "Ah dammit, wake up Lu- Ah!"

She yelps in shock when Luffy pulls her down until her face is just a few inches away from his. She looks at the peaceful face that doesn't have a care in the world, and sees that he shows no signs of letting her go. She looks down at how strong, yet not tight, his embrace is then looks at him in confusion. "Why do you keep hugging me?"

The only answer she got from him was the sound of his snores, so she sighs in frustration as she tries to squirm her arms free. She stops when she comes up with an idea, and smirks at the sleeping captain as if she's about to beat him in a fight. "You're not the only one who can use their powers here."

She flies up a few feet into the air, but Luffy's arms continue stretching to keep themselves around her. She doesn't give up though, as she turns her right arm into wind and re-materializes it out of his embrace. Her victorious smirk grows as she repeats the process with her other arm, so that she can use her arms again. "Alright, now we're getting somewhere."

She looks down at her torso to try to find Luffy's hands, but when she looks down she sees Zoro looking up at her with a shit eating smirk. "Had fun with Luffy last night?"

Rose narrows her eyes at the swordsman as she tries to pull herself free. "Shut up, nothing happened!"

Zoro snickers at her situation as he watches her search for the hands. "Doesn't look like nothing happened."

"Fight me!" Rose says when she finds Luffy's hands on her sides and starts unwrapping herself. When she reaches the last loop, she smirks in victory as she releases the hands so that his arms retract to their owner.

Zoro continues to watch as Rose descends until she's just above the crow's nest, then uses her wind to grab her bag. As she straps it onto her back, he fails to tell her that Luffy's arms are stretching towards her.

Just when Rose is about to descend, she yelps in shock when Luffy's arms wrap around her waist and pulls her onto the crow's nest again.

She groans at the pull when she finds herself lying on Luffy's chest with her face just next to his unconscious face. She blushes at the new position as Zoro's laughter fills in the air from witnessing the pull.

Once Zoro finished laughing, he calls up to Rose while he heads to the back deck to train. "Looks like you got your hands full to fight me right now. Come down when you guys are done with your fun."

Rose twitches an eyebrow at the remark as she plans to get back at the swordsman once she's free. Speaking of which, she tries to get off Luffy's chest, but his arms won't let her out as he keeps a strong hold around her waist.

She groans in frustration as she gets ready to shake him, but stops when she sees Luffy so relaxed in his sleep. Compared to how hyper he is during the day, this is another side of him that she hasn't seen a lot of. She doesn't have the heart to wake him up when he looks so peaceful, so she decides to go back to sleep for a bit.

She lays her head just next to his as she lets her arms rest on top of Luffy's muscular chest, and shuts her eyes to drift off to sleep. However, the peace was short lived for after a few minutes Sanji's voice fills the air.

"GUYS, BREAKFAST!"

Luffy's eyes immediately shot open at the sound of food, and he immediately sits up and lets go of Rose. "Food!"

He looks to see that he accidentally dropped his astronomer as she groans and sits up. "You can't sleep all day Rose, we gotta eat!"

Rose twitches an eyebrow at the complaint as she watches him get up and climb down with only one thing in mind. *I'm waking his rubber ass up next time.*

She sighs as she puts her blanket back in the bag, and flies off the crow's nest to get onto the deck. As she walks to the kitchen Nami stops her with an eager smile. "So Rose, how did night watch go?"

She scowls at the reminder of what caused her crazy morning while a light gust of hot air blows off of her. "Your new system sucks. We wound up falling asleep. Just keep having one member up a night."

Nami blinks at the answer as she watches Rose walk off in agitation. She sighs in disappointment of her plan not giving them any progress, and goes into the kitchen to start the day with the others.

As the morning continues on for the crew, the sound of two swords clashing fills the air as Zoro does his daily sparring match with Rose on the back deck.

Zoro chuckles as the one sword he's using continuously attacks Rose while his opponent rushes to block the blows with her katana. "You know you gotta hit back to win, right?"

Rose clenches her teeth as she resists the urge to kick him as she struggles to block and search for an opening. She sees him about to do another sideways strike, so she decides to risk it as she ducks to dodge the blow and gives him an upwards strike with the back of the blade. However, before it can touch anything, Zoro steps back to avoid the blow and then low sweeps her with the back of his blade to knock her off balance.

Zoro chuckles at the attempt to get him as he watches her fall on her back. "Not bad, you almost got a hit today."

Rose quickly gets up for another round, but Zoro sheathes his blade and walks off. "One loss a day is enough for you. We can start having two matches a day when you can land a hit on me."

Rose twitches an eyebrow at the smugness in his voice as he goes to his weights, but she silently agrees to the deal as she sheathes her sword and goes below deck to hit the showers.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew are sailing on when they see a large island coming into view.

Luffy grins at the island mixed with forest and cities nearby, before he turns to the others. "Let's go check it out!"

Nami looks at the log pose to see that the island isn't what the log pose is leading to. "We can't stay too long; the pose isn't set for this island."

"That's fine as long as we can go see it." Luffy says as they get to work on moving the ship towards the island.

As the ship gets to a hidden spot near the woods to dock, Nami goes inside to collect her bag of eternal poses to sell in town, before she heads off the ship with the boys.

Sanji looks up to see that Robin's not leaving the ship. "You're not coming Robin?"

Robin nods with a calm smile as she leans on the railing. "Not this time, I have some reading I want to catch up on."

"As you wish Robin-chan!" Sanji says with hearts in his eyes as he joins Nami.

The navigator looks back at Robin and calls out to her. "When Rose comes out, tell her that she can come join us if she wants."

Robin nods in agreement as she waves them off.

Zoro trails behind and looks back to see Robin still smiling at them from the ship. He starts having second thoughts about leaving Robin there, but since Rose is still on board he allows himself to head off into the woods to go train.

When the rest of the crew is out of their sights, Robin looks to the door leading to below deck to see that Rose still hasn't come out yet. With the two of them the only ones on the ship, Robin feels that now could be as good a time as any to put her suspicions against her to rest.

Robin grabs the notebook that's lying on the table and writes a note on it, before she tears the page out of the book. She tied the page onto the mast with a piece of rope before she goes into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Rose goes outside to join the others, but sees that there's no one on the deck. "Guys?"

She looks around to see if anyone's around, but stops when she sees that they docked. "Another island?" She starts heading to the railing, when she sees the note on the mast that's tied on by a piece of rope.

She walks up to the mast and grabs the paper as she looks at the message in confusion.

Hello Wind-chan,

Sorry for the short notice, but everyone went out to resupply. Navigator-san says that you're to guard the ship until we get back. We have to pick up a lot of ingredients for Cook-san, so don't expect us back for a while.

Robin

Rose sweat drops at the message before she sighs, folds it, and places it in her pocket. *At least Robin left me a note. Guess I got the place to myself.*

She looks around for something to do when she spots the goat figurehead standing isolated at the front of the ship. She softly stares at the ship when she thinks of how every time the crew docks on the island, the ship has to stay behind during the adventures. Knowing that the ship doesn't have a lot of adventures left, Rose decides that she's going to spend the day entertaining Merry.

Full of new determination, Rose goes back inside the ship and comes out just a few moments later with her guitar in hand.

Rose grins in excitement as she sits on the railing, right next to the figurehead, with her legs hanging over the edge to the outside of the ship. The brunette leaves the instrument on her lap as she takes off her gloves and stuffs them in her jacket pocket before she turns her attention to the guitar's tuning keys. "Sorry I'm not as good as Brook, but I'm confident that I know all the chords for this one."

The guitarist is only answered with silence as she finishes tuning the guitar and starts playing the chords to Binks' Sake.

As Rose wholeheartedly sings the lyrics to her favorite song from this world, she doesn't notice that on the mast Robin planted an eye and an ear to observe her. However, once she sees that Rose is only performing, she cancels the eye and allows the ear to stay to listen to the smooth singing voice outside.

Robin relaxes on her seat at the table and grins at the fact that even though Rose thinks that she's alone, she has no desire to use the eternal pose whatsoever. *Looks like she's not going to steal the ship after all. I wonder who Brook is.*

She disregards the thought as she gets back to her place in the book she kept in the kitchen. Now that she knows that the ship won't be hijacked, she allows herself a peaceful afternoon while listening to Rose's song.

As the crew went off on their own to explore the island, Luffy wanders around on his own in the woods to find an adventure, but instead found a tree full of bananas. He grins in excitement as he climbs on the tree and eats one banana after the other.

As he feasts on the fruit at the top of the tree, he fails to notice that in the surrounding trees tops a horde of twenty monkeys are glaring at their banana thief.

As Luffy chews on his tenth banana, he stops when he hears rustling in the trees and the looks around just when the monkeys jump out of their trees to attack him. However, Luffy quickly jumps up to dodge their fury and pulls his fists back. "Gum Gum Gatling!"

The monkeys look up in shock just before Luffy punches them so fast that they couldn't see it coming until they plummeted to the ground. Once every monkey was knocked out, Luffy lands on the ground while he looks down at them. "Man, what's with the monkeys here?"

He shrugs to himself as he goes off to wander when he hears a guitar playing. He blinks at the music before he curiously follows the sound. As he gets closer to the source, he starts hearing a feminine voice singing along to the chords.

Well you done, done me and you bet I felt it~

I tried to be chill but you're so hot I melted~

I fell right through the cracks~

And now I'm trying to get back~

Before the cool done run out~

I'll be giving it my best-est~

And nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention~

I reckon it's again my turn,~

To win some or learn some~

But I won't hesitate no more, no more~

It cannot wait, I'm yours~

Luffy blinks at the odd lyrics that he's never heard before as he keeps following the sound until he sees the Going Merry in view. "Huh?"

He goes to the ship while he listens to the next verse of I'm Yours by Jason Mraz.

Well open up your mind and see like me~

Open up your plans and damn you're free~

Look into your heart and you'll find love, love, love, love~

Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing~

We are just one big family~

And it's our God-forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved~

As Luffy listens to the song, he stretches his arms up to grab the railing and pulls himself up. He keeps his arms on the railing as he hangs on and scans the deck for the source of the music. When he looks towards the figurehead he drops his jaw when he sees Rose seated on the railing with her guitar. *SHE'S A MUSICIAN?!*

Rose doesn't notice the new addition to the audience, as she relaxes on her seat next to the figurehead with her back to the goat statue, while she stares at the space in front of her. She continues to block out everything around her as she strums up the guitar on her lap.

So, I won't hesitate no more, no more~

It cannot wait I'm sure~

There's no need to complicate~

Our time is short~

This is our fate, I'm yours.~

Luffy becomes completely speechless at the amazing voice as his heart starts to feel like it's floating on air. He pulls his body over the railing and takes a seat as he looks down at his chest. *Why do I feel so weird?*

He puts his hand to his chest, but it doesn't change the strange feeling in his chest. He looks back to see Rose flashing a lovely smile up to the sky as she keeps playing.

I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror~

And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer~

But my breath fogged up the glass~

And so I drew a new face and I laughed~

Luffy chuckles at the weird lyrics as he lets go of his chest and ignores the mystery feeling as he sways to the fun rhythm.

I guess what I been saying is there ain't no better reason~

To rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons~

It's what we aim to do~

Our name is our virtue~

But I won't hesitate no more, no more~

It cannot wait I'm yours~

As Luffy listens to the last refrain of the song he can't help but enjoy every second of this new side of his crew mate. When he normally sees her space out, it always feels like she's putting up a barrier around herself. However, as she's off in her own world with her guitar, it's more like she's lowering her walls to give whoever is hearing a taste of what she's holding out on them. Because of that, he doesn't want the song to ever end.

Sadly though, the final chord has been played followed by Rose chuckling at the fun performance she had. She still doesn't notice the extra audience as she lifts her head back, so that she can look up at the figurehead. "I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did Merry. My next song was always a crowd pleaser too."

"You would perform for the ship, but not your crew?!" Rose finally realizes that she's not alone and looks to see Luffy walking up to her.

Rose blinks at her annoyed captain's arrival as she swings her legs, so that they're dangling off the rails to the deck. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here since halfway through the song! How come you never told me that you were a musician?!"

Rose looks down at the guitar then back to the lanky boy in front of her before she chuckles. "Sorry Luffy, it slipped my mind. Though I don't think you can call me a musician since I don't plan to be one."

Luffy widens his dark eyes at the news. "Eh?! Why not?!"

"As much as I love performing I'm nowhere near as good as a professional. Besides, I got my research to work on. You need someone who's fully committed to music to be your musician."

He can only blink at the explanation before he sighs in disappointment. "Fine, but can you still play until we find one?"

Rose grins at the request and nods. "Sure, I can use the practice. What did you think of the song I just played?"

Luffy thinks back on how he felt during her song and realizes that his chest doesn't have that mystery feeling anymore. "It made me feel weird."

The guitarist raises an eyebrow at the critique. "Weird?"

The captain nods before he puts a hand on his heart. "Yea, my chest felt funny when I heard you sing."

She knits her eyebrows in thought on how that's possible. "That's odd, you don't feel anything now right?"

He shakes his head. "No, I feel fine now."

She hums in confusion as she tries to come up with an explanation for this. *That song is pretty good, but it's not really meant to move people… Then again, I never drew as large of a crowd than when I played in Alabasta…*

She chuckles at the explanation she came up with while she relaxes. "I think I know what's going on. You're just enjoying a new song."

Luffy tilts his head at the explanation. "What do you mean?"

"When someone hears a new song then they get drawn to it if they like it."

He blinks at the reasoning before he smiles at her. "Oh, well I liked that song. Can you play another one?"

She nods before she looks at her guitar in thought of a fun song for the two of them to enjoy. When she picks a song, she gets her fingers on the guitar strings while she gives her captain a playful smirk. "I know just the song to pass the time."

As Nami, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper walk back to the ship, they stop when they see Zoro walking from the woods to head to town.

When Zoro sees them, he stops and looks at them in confusion. "What are you guys doing?"

"We should be asking you that. Where were you this whole time?" Usopp asks causing Zoro to point ahead.

"I was training and now I'm getting back to the ship."

"But the ship's that way." Chopper says as he points to the path behind him, so he groans in frustration.

"You better just come with us, so you don't get lost moss head." Sanji says, earning a glare from the swordsman as they head back towards the ship.

Zoro looks at the group to see a rubber man is missing, and looks at them in confusion. "Luffy's not with you guys?"

Nami sighs in frustration of how they lost their captain in just five minutes of arriving at the island, and looks at the Going Merry that's up ahead. "He went off on his own. We didn't hear any chaos in town so he's probably in the woods. When I put this stuff away I'll-"

HAKUNA MATATA!~

What a wonderful phrase!~

The group stops their conversation when they hear two voices singing boisterously to Hakuna Matata, with a guitar playing in the background, as they approach the ship.

Hakuna Matata!~

Ain't no passing craze!~

The crew climbs onto the ship, and widens their eyes when they see Rose playing the guitar on the railing with Luffy sitting next to her as the two of them sing their hearts out.

It means no worries for the rest of your days!~

It's our problem free!~

Philosophy!~

Hakuna Matata!~

The pair stop singing to laugh at the fun song while the others just look at them in confusion.

"What kind of a song was that?" The pair stops to Usopp's question to see that they have company.

Rose grins at the group while she rests her arms on the guitar. "Hey guys, that was just a song from my childhood."

"Yea, her songs are pretty fun." Luffy says with a toothy grin.

Nami sighs at the comment as she looks back at the peaceful town they shopped at. "If you wanted to play your guitar, then you should've performed in town. You could've made some good money from it."

Rose raises an eyebrow at the suggestion when she remembers the note telling her to stay on the ship. "But-"

She stops when, from the corner of her eye, she sees the door quietly open as Robin sneaks into the back of the group.

Nami looks at her in confusion as she waits for her to finish. "But what?"

She looks to see Robin standing in the crowd as if she was always there before she smiles at Nami. "But then Merry would've been bored all day. I can't leave her out of the fun."

Nami sweat drops at the weird comment before she tiredly sighs. "Alright, whatever." She looks to see that everyone's present before she looks down at her log pose. "We should get going before the log pose resets itself."

"Yes Nami!" Sanji says with hearts in his eyes as he goes off with all the boys to sail off the island.

As the ship leaves the island to get back on course, Rose stays on her seat on the railing as she looks over to Robin to see her enjoying the ocean view from her seat at the lawn table. Whether or not Robin notices that she's being watched is uncertain to the astronomer, but regardless Rose turns away to stare at the ocean to try to figure out what's going on.

Rose knows for certain that Robin was here with her, but what she doesn't understand is why would she make it look like she was alone on the ship. As she keeps wondering what Robin's planning, she can't help but start to worry. *Was she trying to test me? I thought I was being careful with my knowledge. Wait, oh shit...*

She widens her eyes in shock as she realizes that she spoke the crew's future musician's name out loud, with Robin overhearing. She groans to herself as she runs a hand through her brown hair. She knows that just saying Brook's name doesn't reveal anything, but she knows now that she needs to be more careful around the archaeologist in the future arcs.

"Rose, wake up!" The wind girl snaps back to reality to Luffy's voice and sees him, Usopp and Chopper going up to her.

Rose looks at them in confusion as she adjusts the guitar on her lap. "What's up?"

"Can you play that song you were singing with Luffy again?" Chopper asks with pleading eyes.

Rose couldn't help but grin at the adorable reindeer as she gets her hands on the strings. "Absolutely, the name of the song is-"

She stops herself when something lands right beside her. She and the others look in confusion to see that it's a wood chip.

"Did that fall from the crow's nest?" Usopp asks when another piece of wood lands right next to him.

The group looks at it in confusion and then looks up to try to find the source. What they didn't expect though, was pieces of a ship falling from the sky.

"What the hell?" Sanji asks as he stops smoking on the deck when a wood chip hits his shoulder. He and the rest of the crew look up in confusion.

However, once they look up they drop their jaws along with Luffy's group to see that not just wood chips are falling, but also a giant, old, battle worn warship.

"Is that a galleon?!" Nami asks when Rose sets the guitar on the deck and flies up to the sails.

"Guys, grab onto something!" Rose calls out as she starts blasting her wind onto the sails to try to get them at a safe distance from the ship. However, she wasn't quick enough as the galleon hits the water and creates a mass of tidal waves for the Merry to endure.

The ship moves along the waves with the screaming crew on board as they hold onto the boat for dear life.

As the ship moves to the waves, Rose had to fly to the right to dodge the shaking mast from hitting her. She quickly lands on the crow's nest and holds onto the edge while she looks over the broken down galleon, that's fragments are floating not even a mile away from them. *This is it, we're heading to the Sky Island arc!*

She uses her wind to block any wooden beams from crashing onto the ship as she continues to hold onto the crow's nest.

"This can't be happening! This has to be a nightmare!" Usopp says as he links his arm to the railing while closing his eyes. "Everything should be back to normal once I wake up."

He opens his eyes again, but instead of the peaceful morning that he was hoping for, he opens his eyes to a skeleton falling towards him. "AAAH! SKELETON!"

He jumps backwards to avoid the skeleton where he bumps into Nami. Once she sees the skeleton on the deck, she joins him in screaming in fright as the waves continue to send Merry on a wild ride.

Once the waves finally settle down, the crew finds the ship floating just in front of the broken ship. Rose silently flies off the crow's nest to join the rest of the crew as they recover from the crazy experience they just had.

Luffy adjusts his hat and looks up at the sky in confusion to see that there's nothing out of the ordinary in the blue sky. "How did a ship fall from the sky?"

"No clue, there's nothing up there." Zoro says as he stands up and looks up along with most of the others.

Nami sees nothing there, then checks their direction on the log pose to see that instead of the arrow pointing forward it's pointing up. "On no! What now?!"

Sanji looks at Nami in confusion. "What's the matter Nami?"

The navigator looks at the log pose on her wrist with concern on how to get the crew on track. "The log pose must be broken. It's pointing up."

Robin takes a closer look at the log pose then stares up at the sky with a serious look on her face. "The log pose isn't broken. It's being attracted to another magnetic field. Since it's pointing up, that means it's a sky island."

The rest of the crew look at her in utter shock while Rose could only stare at the sky where the crew's new adventures and challenges await them.

TO BE CONTINUED