Chapter 3: All Sunday Discount Deal

"Albert. where am I?" I answered her question and asked my own.

"Alabasta," she replied shortly.

"… Okay, hehe, that didn't help me much. You could say I am quite new around here." I joked, hoping to ease the tension a bit.

She chuckled slightly, and her gaze softened a little. However, I could tell she was still quite wary of me.

"Fine, I'll give you the rundown. You are currently on 'blue earth', the fifth planet from the sun, on the first half of the Grand Line on the island-kingdom of Alabasta. Your current location should be in the Sandora desert, around 20 kilometers southeast of the nearest human settlement, Rainbase. And from what I can deduce, you should be lying on the ground, naked, no more than 3 meters away from the infamously reputable and fine lady, 'Miss All Sunday'. That enough for you?"

While her tone was playful on the surface, there was no doubt she wanted me to stop playing ignorant.

'If only she knew how much that little spiel of hers about my location helped me'.

"Look, I know you don't actually trust me, and you have no reason to put your faith in the words of a random naked person muttering to himself in the desert; however, I really don't know where I am. In truth, I don't remember anything at all besides my name and a few random facts about myself. Your explanation actually helped me quite a lot, if for nothing else than to tell me in which direction to go to find food and shelter."

I decided to spin a simple story for myself that would give me enough leeway to act as if everything in this world was new to me while hopefully garnering enough sympathy for her to help me out.

"… You seem quite calm for somebody with memory loss." Miss All Sunday eyed me somewhat skeptically.

I smiled wryly and replied in a dry tone. "There isn't really any reason to panic about something if you don't remember anything about it."

"I guess you make a good point," she conceded.

"Anyways, I am sorry to bother you, but could I perhaps get a lift to wherever you are going?" I eyed her mount, which was obediently waiting further behind her. It was an enormous yellow alligator with a banana vertically positioned across the end of its tail. On its back was a compartment that seemed large enough for two people to sit side by side comfortably. I would probably have been terrified to even come close to such a creature in my past life, but now, it even looked cute.

The beautiful woman looked to the side and quieted down for a second or two, seemingly in thought. However, A moment later, she looked back at me, her eyes focused straight on mine as she said with a slight smile, "Alright, but I have a condition. You have to do me a favor too."

"Fine", I shrugged. "I am not sure what I could offer you, though". I got up from the sand and started following as she began walking back towards her absolute unit of a ride.

"You are right, I do not know what you can offer me, but so far, since you do not seem scared by my F-Wani and aren't self-conscious about me seeing your bare body, I can attest that your character isn't that of an ordinary person. On top of that, your physique looks very robust. If I were to make a guess, you know how to fight, and reasonably well at that." She spoke with her back to me as we walked toward her alligator.

"And you like that I don't have any other loyalties", I stated as a matter of fact, as I looked to the back of her head, still covered by a white cowboy hat.

"…And you are quite smart". Her tone sounded a little miffed, and if I hadn't inferred that she wanted me to realize she liked my lack of loyalties, I might have thought she was actually mad at me.

'She is also quite smart', I mused to myself. 'While she is obviously taking a gamble by helping me out here, she hasn't yet revealed any of her cards. And I do not know what kind of favor she will ask me. If I hadn't been confident in my ability to keep myself safe no matter what situation I may find myself in, she would have had me wrapped around her little finger by now." A genuine smile spread across my face.

"Here, wear something before you get on. I'm heading towards Rainbase". With her words, an arm sprouted from the side of the compartment meant for sitting on the gator. The arm reached inside the cabin, fetched a large blanket, and threw it at me.

"Hm?.. Devil fruit", I mumbled to myself, seeing the arm once again disappear from its outcropping.

"Seems you do remember some things". All Sunday spoke casually while getting into her seat.

I used the small ladder to climb into the compartment and sat beside her. The inside was rather luxurious. Weirdly enough, instead of reigns to guide the mount, a modern steering wheel similar to one found in race cars was situated before the driver's seat. "I remembered it when I saw you use the power. You mentioned the Grand Line earlier, yeah? Well, I remember what that is now, too", I offhandedly remarked while looking around the cockpit.

In reality, these were just the random bits of information I had heard from my past life's limited interaction with the One Piece franchise.

When my eyes finally stopped inspecting the cockpit and returned to her, she had a slight frown on her face as she looked straight forward, driving the alligator.

I sighed quietly, 'It seems she doesn't like the idea of me remembering things from the past. She wants to continue taking advantage of my amnesiac state. She's a pretty cold one, huh? Whatever, I'll let her lead me along a bit; I want to see whether her intentions are of malice or desperation'.

I smiled wryly at the silence as we began traveling toward our destination.