Chapter 198

"Morning, Iceburg," I greeted Wilson, Elly, and myself, approaching him as we spotted him exiting the Galley-la headquarters after one guard informed him of our presence.

"Morning," Iceburg greeted back, his eye turning to look at Elly and Wilson, curiously checking them over. "And these two must be your crewmates, no?" he asked, smiling as he noted at the duo in greeting.

"Wilson, my first mate, and Elly, our land spotter," I introduced, gesturing towards my crewmates as I nodded my head, Wilson noncommittally shrugging while Elly smiled, waving her hand. "We're not holding you off your business, are we?" I asked, suddenly remembering Iceburg probably had a shit ton of work.

"I needed a break, besides Khalifa took the day off..." Iceburg replied, awkwardly scratching his head. "She handles most of the heavy lifting, and I'm ashamed to say I've grown to depend on her too much. I probably can't get anything done on my own at this point," he jokingly added, waving a hand to the side.

"And who could blame you? What red-blooded man wouldn't want to lean on a woman like that?" I remarked with a chuckle, shrugging my shoulder as I raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Although Iceburg said it jokingly, there was likely some truth in his remark. Khalifa probably intentionally made him reliant on her to cement her position as his secretary and keep a close eye on him. Not that it's any of my business.

As likable as Iceburg was, I had no intention of opening this particular can of worms. I already had a big target on my back, and involving myself with the Pluton ancient weapon debacle would only make it bigger.

Besides, Luffy should come along in a year or two and stop the CP9 plot, with Iceburg coming out of it none the worse, assuming I didn't already derail canon too much for that to happen. I'll deal with the CP9 myself if that's the case, but I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. Give it your all, future me. I'm cheering for you!

"In any case, we should get going," Iceburg said with a smile, making no comment on my suggestive remark. "We can only get a hold of Franky early morning..." he added, trailing off at the end of his sentence.

"He occupies himself with other... business for the rest of the day..." he concluded, heaving a sigh as he shook his head, walking away and gesturing for us to follow.

"Lead the way," I said with a smile, following behind Iceburg, with Wilson and Elly following suit.

I already knew that Franky would refuse to join. It took two arcs of fighting together, having his briefs stolen, and getting molested by Nico robin for him to join the straw hats, and I didn't have the energy nor the time to try convincing him.

Not to mention the fact I didn't want him on my crew in the first place. Don't get me wrong, Franky is a brilliant shipwright and inventor, but I want nothing to do with the ancient weapons or anything related to them.

I was merely humoring Iceburg by following him to meet Franky since I couldn't refuse meeting Franky without a valid excuse, as that would be too suspicious.

But I was definitely interested in the other person Iceburg mentioned. He basically had me as soon as he said the person was different. Maybe Wilson was right, after all? I do seem to like the company of misfits and weirdos.

...

"Great... another weirdo," Wilson said with a sigh as he looked at the building that looked like the angry child of something out of Alice In Wonderland and Cyperpunk.

The building looked very colorful, with gold letters reading FRANKY HOUSE in front and several large robot-like arms hanging off the sides.

"Hey! Don't look at me. I'm not the one who brought us here!" I said with twitching eyes as I gave Wilson the middle finger, much to Elly's exasperation and Iceburg's confusion.

"Don't mind the two blockheads. It's an inside joke," Elly said from the side as she looked at Iceburg, shaking her head with an expression that urged him not to look too deeply into it.

"Well, Franky is definitely an unusual person... I don't think anyone has ever accused him of being normal," Iceburg said, shaking his head with a wry smile.

He moved on to knock on the door as we stood behind him, waiting, and sure enough, the door opened several seconds later, a tall, round (And I literally mean round) wearing goggles, waistcoat, and a red bowtie to match, standing behind it.

"A balloon...?" Wilson muttered, looking at the round man with the most confused expression I've ever seen, and I couldn't really blame him for it.

'It's a good thing I got rid of my irrational fear of balloons... otherwise, this might have turned ugly...' I felt my eyes twitch as I looked at the round man, my eyes inadvertently drawn to the ridiculous bow tie on his neck.

How the hell that thing stayed in place was a mystery to me. Heck, the guy was so fat and round, it looked like he didn't have a neck in the first place, not to mention nothing was keeping the bowtie in place.

I've seen sky islands, gigantic monsters, and whatever monstrosity Bon Kurei was, but this man's bowtie and his mere existence has got to be the most bizarre thing I've seen so far by a long shot.

"Is Franky here, Tamagon?" Iceburg calmly asked as he looked at this monstrosity without so much a twitch of his eyes as he spoke with an even expression.

"Iceburg...?" The monstrosity spoke, looking down at Iceburg with a confused expression. "He's here. What'd you want?" it flatly asked, still confused.

"Tell him I'm here to see him. It's important," Iceburg replied, waving a hand to the side. "I have people who wish to meet him with me..." he added, gesturing towards us, and alerting the beast to our presence.

"I'll tell him, but don't get your hopes up. You know how big brother Franky can be..." The beast, no Toamgon (I need to stop mentally bullying the guy) said with a nod as he went back into Franky's House.

"So, is anyone else wondering how that bowtie is staying in place, or is it just me...?" I remarked, clearing my throat as I saw Tamagon go back into Franky's house.

I got three weird looks from my companions that suggested I was an idiot for my effort. "Crazy world equals people with crazy logic, I guess...." I muttered under my breath, shaking my head as the door opened again, Franky himself walking out to meet us, with several others trailing behind him.

"What'd you want, Stupid-Berg?" Franky asked as he stepped out of the house, crossing his arms in front of his bare chest, an annoyed expression on his face.

"These people are Kokoro's friends. They're pirates..." Iceburg said, his eyes twitching at the Stupid-Berg remark, but he let it pass nonetheless.

"They're looking for a shipwright," Iceburg concluded while gesturing towards Elly, Wilson, myself with his right hand.

Franky turned to look at us, frowning as he went on to say something, but he was interrupted by one of his followers whispering something into his ears before he could.

"Not interested," Franky said dismissively, shooing us away as he shook his head while looking at Iceburg with an annoyed expression.

"Now listen here, you bastard!" Iceburg exclaimed, suddenly snapping as he clutched Franky's collar. "You've been wallowing in self-pity here for long enough! Do you think this is what Tom would have wanted?!" he asked, a scowl on his usual calm, carefree face.

"The least you could do is think about it!" Iceburg concluded, taking a deep breath to calm himself as he let go of Franky's collar, and took a step back.

"You want me to think about it? Fine," Franky said with a mocking grin as he closed his for a second, seemingly in thought. "Still not interested!" he added, shrugging his shoulders, much to Iceburg's exasperation and my amusement.

"I'll even do you one better since they're Kokoro's friends..." Franky said as he turned to look at us. "Several guys from my family wanted to catch your crew and claim the bounties, but I'll call them off. You're welcome," Franky added, dismissively waving his hand. I was suddenly not amused anymore.

"You're doing your men a favor by calling them off, not us unless you were intentionally sending them to die or something," I said with a frown, my tone flat as I looked at Franky with contempt.

"You sure talk big, kid," Franky said as he walked toward me. "Do you wanna try your luck?" he asked, suddenly halting and pausing as Elly took out her rifle, pointing it straight at his neck.

"Do you?" Elly asked, squinting her eyes as she stood in front of me, her hand on the trigger, prepared to shoot at a moment's notice.