136 Chapter 136

136

"My money's on Johnny breaking a bone first!" Nami began betting.

"I say Yosaku will break first," Gin said, placing his bet. The rest of them sweat-dropped at their antics.

"That's not nice, guys." Luffy mumbled.

"Say that after putting her down, you rubber brain" Nami said totally forgetting about the money as Luffy still had Vivi in her arms.

"What? It's comfortable here, right?" Luffy asked while Vivi unconsciously nodded. She would be lying if she said otherwise. Luffy smiled before looking at Nami. "You wanna join? I can carry you as well," he questioned seriously.

Nami blinked, "Ye-no, I mean no. Stop flirting around, you baka captain. Baka!" She said, grumbling, biting her nail. But there was a certain blush on her face.

"Damn! My bro got some rizz."

Nami gave Sabo a stink eye, shutting the blonde up.

Nami sighed, before looking at Vivi. "And you… we will take you to your home… didn't you say, you were a princess?"

"Yes…" Vivi answered quickly not wanting to get on her bad side, Nami was a bit scary, even though currently the orange-haired woman looked like a tsundere trying to hide her blush with anger.

"We will save you, then. But… You're the princess of a big country, so… one billion Beris sounds about right."

"One billion?!" Usopp balked, having never considered an amount of that size. Such a price could buy his entire home island, after all.

"I don't know if I can give you that," Vivi answered truthfully as Luffy finally put her down, "See, my country is currently locked in a civil war caused by Baroque Works. They used the lack of rainfall and drought and manipulated events to frame my father King Cobra for the incident. Many people believe he is the one behind it and the resistance grows with each passing day, even though my father has drained our coffers trying to keep the people alive. Igaram and I infiltrated Baroque Works to get ahold of this information and I need to get it back to Alabasta. All I ask is that you take me there, and I'll give you everything I have."

"Then it's easy." Luffy said, putting his right fist on his left palm. "How about you?"

"Sorry?"

"I want you… didn't you say you are willing to give everything?" Luffy leaned in, making the girl blush again.

While Nami dragged the captain off of Vivi the others discussed the matter at hand.

"This seems risky," Gin commented, rubbing his chin as he watched the fight between Johnny, Yosaku and the agents. "There were a lot of agent guys back there, and it sounded like it was only one base out of many. Who's behind all of this?"

"No, I certainly can't tell you," the bluenette replied, a bit afraid. "He's one of the most fearsome men in this ocean, a man of cunning to the point of brilliance. His intellect is only rivaled by his evil, and he's been plotting how to take over the desert country of Alabasta for the past five years. If I told you his name, you'd also be put on his hit list. Everyone knows him as Mr. 0, and he claims his ultimate goal is to recreate Alabasta into a perfect paradise, with him as the unquestioned dictator on top. It's nothing but a lie, though."

"He don't sound tough to me." Bartolomeo said, flexing his biceps, "I'm sure captain can beat him just fine." As if that was a flex… well it was.

"Come on," Zoro yawned, completely unperturbed by the princess' rambling. "He can't be that tough."

"Not that tough?" Vivi demanded, spinning to look the swordsman dead in the eye. "You wouldn't be acting so tough if you knew Mr. 0 was Crocodile of the Seven Warlords, Mr. Bushido!"

"WHAT?!" Most of the strawhats panicked. The princess gasped in shame and covered her mouth, as if the action would take back the information she'd just given away.

"Crocodile!?" Coby demanded, his face rapidly switching between fury and panic.

"You mean the warlord, Crocodile!?" Johnny and Yosaku gasped.

"A Warlord..?" Gin whispered in shock, falling against the wall. His eyes grew unfocused, his mind no longer in the present. He almost felt a shiver run down his spine the previous time they managed to escape from one.

"The man who challenged Whitebeard and lost his arm." Hatchan said a bit afraid, himself. "I heard he is a logia user. Like Captain Smoker, but he has the ability of the sand."

"Y-Y-You can't be serious?" Bartolomeo stuttered, gulping down, before puffing his chest. "But I'm sure captain won't back down."

"Well, of course, I won't," Luffy said, putting his feet on top of a box, leaning in. "I will become the man that will be the strongest. The King of the Pirates, the man who will conquer the seas. I won't back down from some backwater crocodile. Shishishi…"

.

While this conversation was happening, no one noticed the two animals that had taken the picture of the whole crew from hiding under the shadows. The Unluckies.

But before they could leave, they suddenly felt two hands on their neck, it was Sparky.

"Stew…" the monkey said, before smashing both of their heads together knocking both of them out.

The six-armed monkey nodded to himself, he was sure Sanji could make a stew out of them.