95 To Alabasta
Hiriluk's Sakura spread throughout the night sky of the now named Sakura Kingdom represents that the empire has been set free.
Hiriluk's Sakura has now become a legend. Not long after the incident, this country has been once again born under Hiriluk's Pirate Flag.
And now, we arrive at the Going Merry which was sailing away from the beautiful island.
"Chopper! Don't just stand there! Let's party together!" Usopp shouted while grinning at Chopper who was pretty shy at the attention he was getting.
"Karoo! Why did you jump in the frozen water?!" Vivi cried as she hugged the frozen Karoo. Zoro laughed.
"Quack quack...."
"Maybe he accidentally fell into the water! What a klutz! " Zoro teased, promoting Vivi to glare at him.
"He said that he saw Zoro jump into the water and disappear. He thought that Zoro was in danger, so he jumped into the water to try and save him, but he became ice. " Chopper explained. Nami slapped Zoro at the back of his head.
"It's all because of you!" Nami scolded Zoro who started grumbling. Vivi looked at Chopper while Luffy just laughed, happy that Nami was back to her normal violent self again..
" Tony-kun. Do you actually understand Karoo's words?" Vivi asked him.
"I used to be an animal. So I understand their language." Chopper explained.
" That's so great! Not only are you a superb doctor like Kaya! You also have other amazing talents! See guys, I told you it was a good idea to get him to join us! " Luffy grinned at them. Some of them rolled her eyes and smiled back at him.
" Damn it! I won't be happy with those words, you know!" Chopper shouted while dancing happily.
" If you're not happy, then why do you act like that?" Sanji grumbled feeling confused about Chopper's emotional state. Usopp whistled, gathering everyone's attention. He raised his beer mug up high.
"Kanpai to Tony Tony Chopper!! Our new crewmate and forever friend!!!!"
" KANPAI!!!! "
.
.
.
It was the next day, with everyone in the crew back to 100% again, the Straw Hat Pirates can now set sail towards Alabasta, the desert country with the fastest speed.
Everyone was still processing what just happened a few minutes ago. They had just met Mr 2, Bon Clay without even knowing who he was before.
It was only when he hopped onto his ship that they realized who he was due to his subordinates shouting his name loudly.
Bon Clay revealed to them that he ate the Mane Mane no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows him to transform into a physical lookalike of anyone whose face he has touched with his right hand.
He transforms himself by touching his own face with his right hand, and changes back to normal by touching his face with his left hand. This ability makes him a perfect master of disguise and deception.
He doesn't only duplicate faces, he can memorize and perfectly duplicate the entire physical appearance of his target, including their stature and voice. He is also able to mix and match the features of different faces in his collection, allowing him to create new faces.
"Well, meeting him was actually a blessing in disguise." Zoro revealed and grinned at them.
"Now we can use countermeasures, and I have just the perfect one. "
A few hours later, Nami went up to Vivi.
"Vivi, the wind and temperature have stabilized." Nami reported.
" We've entered the Alabasta Climate zone. The sea cat we met just now is more proof. " Vivi replied.
" I bet those things behind us are even more proof we're close to Alabasta. " Sanji muttered while pointing at a fleet of ships far away from them.
"Oh, they have the Baroque Works' Jolly Roger on them." Luffy commented with a grin on his face.
"Hey, you guys wanna deal with them?" He looked at his crew, making Vivi and Chopper widen their eyes.
"Wait! Luffy! That's dangerous! Look at how many ships there are!" Chopper argued.
" Man up and have some guts, Chopper. Me, Luffy and have sunken ships by ourselves by only using our weapons while the shitty cook over there sunk ships with his kicks." Zoro scolded while looking at the reindeer sternly.
"You're going to see a lot of weird wacky stuff when you're out in the Grand Line. A human sinking a fleet of ships is just the bare minimum of weirdness shown here." Luffy grinned and cracked his knuckles.
"Usopp, Nojiko, load up the cannons." Luffy ordered. The two immediately followed his order and loaded the cannons.
"Nami, turn the Going Merry towards them." Luffy ordered her. Nami nodded and went to do just that.
The Going Merry was going full speed towards the 5 Baroque Works ships heading towards Alabasta.
"We better finish this quickly before the Marines and the civilians on the island notice our movements. " Luffy muttered, Zoro and Sanji nodded.
" Fire!! "
*BOOOMM!!!! BOOOMM!!!!*
Two cannonballs were shot out from the cannons. They had their own separate targets.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!*
Two ships exploded violently as the cannonballs came in contact with them. Luffy ordered Usopp and Nojiko to load up two more of them. They completed the task in about a few seconds.
They fired them again, destroying two more of the five ships. Luffy quickly went into action and leaped towards the ships who were lined up perfectly for him to cut them down.
He narrowed his eyes at the ships while he was in the middle of unsheathing his cutlass, Ace.
"Divine Departure."
*SHIIINNG!!!!!!*
*FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!*
The next second, the ships were cut in half horizontally. Luffy used Geppo and landed gracefully on his ship, leaving the ships to sink and the foot soldiers in it for the Death Gods to drag them down to hell.
Vivi was in awe. She still can't believe this is how the Straw Hat Pirates act during combat. When they were out of combat, they were fun and loving, especially Luffy, he was full of jokes and stories.
Vivi liked him for his confidence and his ability to make funny and knowledgeable things on the spot.
Chopper meanwhile was thinking. He now understood why Zoro told him to man up. Battles were about survival.
Chopper mentally noted that he needed to get stronger not only for his own good, but to contribute to his captain's crew's survivability.
Luffy then told Kaya and Vivi to explain to everyone about the layout of Alabasta. And so they did.
Alabasta is an established kingdom with a long history. It is located on Sandy Island, roughly half-way through the first part of the Grand Line. Sandy Island is a Summer Island.
Alabasta's architecture is very similar to Middle Eastern and Moorish buildings. However, the styles vary between cities.
"There's only 10 of us, so tie them on tight. Our enemies have plenty of mysteries. As long as we can see this, we don't need to doubt one another." Zoro reminded them while tying a bandage over his left wrist.
"Now that we know that Bon Clay dude is the enemy, we can't allow for any careless actions. " Luffy advised them while his left wrist was getting bandaged up by Nami.
"We're coming up to that harbor. Let's stop in that inlet to the west so that we can hide our ship. " Nojiko commented. Luffy grinned and stood up.
" Alright! Whatever happens from now on, this left arm is proof of our friendship! " Luffy shouted as he held his fist out. Everyone gathered around and held their fists out.
"YEAH!!"
"Alright!!! Let's get onto dry land!! To a restaurant!!! Then Alabasta!!!"
.
.
In a restaurant called Spice Bean which was in the Nanohana port town... Everyone was looking at an unresponsive woman whose face was on a plate full of rice.
Suddenly, the woman woke up and wiped her face with her own hands. She sighed and smiled sheepishly.
"Maaan..... Damn..... I fell asleep again..... " She muttered while smiling a little.
" YOU FELL ASLEEP IN THE MIDDLE OF A MEAL AND A CONVERSATION?! "
She grinned at them and continued eating, ignoring their shocked expressions directed at her.
She had a tattoo on her back of the Whitebeard symbol—purple bones formed in a cross behind a purple skull with a white mustache.
She had a tattoo written as 'ACE' on her upper left bicep. She wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around her left leg.
She also wore a short second belt with a large red 'A' on the silver buckle over her right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of her shorts.
A dagger in a green sheath hung at her left hip. On her left arm, she wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around her wrist, an orange elbow guard and her 'ACE' tattoo.
She wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim.
Two long orange side straps hung down sides of her hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. She was wearing nothing but a white colored bra on her upper body.
She is Ace and she has grown a lot. Her height genetics seemingly doesn't have an end to it as she now stands at a staggering 190.50cm(6′ 3″). She was just a seven inches shorter than Luffy who is now 208.28cm(6′ 10″).
"Oh and by the way, mister." Ace grinned
at the owner of the restaurant she was eating in called Spice Bean.
The owner, Yoshimoto, is a tall, middle-aged man. He is bald and wears a chef's hat. He wears a blue robe, with a purple lining that has yellow circles on it. Under his robes, he has a yellow shirt with orange lining and a large star on it.
Ace held up a wanted poster for Yoshimoto to see. It was a wanted poster of Luffy. "Has this guy come into town?" She asked him.
"No. But why would Straw Hat Luffy be here out of all places? " Yoshimoto wondered. Ace's eyes suddenly narrowed as she put down the wanted poster in her hand.
She looked behind her to see Smoker who was smoking two cigars in his mouth. His outfit was the same but now he also sported goggles.
"Gol D Ace, what are you doing here? What does the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates want in this country? " Smoker asked. Everyone looked at Ace with a baffled expression when Smoker mentioned who she was. Ace smirked at him.
" I think you know why Smokey, you're chasing him right now aren't you? I'm on a search for my sworn lover..... "
To be continued...
