Chapter 319: Eternal smiles

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'sample'

Author notes -sample-

Disclaimer: One Piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 319: Eternal smiles

"This is a bad idea," Robin repeated.

"This is a terrible idea." So did Usopp.

"How so?, I'm not even going that far!" Vivi said with indignation.

They were currently inside a big warehouse that used to serve as the town food storage but was currently empty.

The townspeople were very friendly and agreed to let them use the place in exchange for a few coins.

They also seemed happy to lend some of their clothes to the prisoners.

Now that things were all set up, the only thing missing was to bring everyone here.

But when Vivi told them that she was going to look for the rest of the crew, they started to complain.

"I won't get lost like Zoro, I promise!" Vivi tried to reassure them.

"Hey!" Zoro shouted.

"That's not what we are worried about." Usopp frowned.

Robin nodded in agreement.

She was going to retort when an idea came to her mind.

"What do you say, Captain? I'll be back in an hour and I'll bring you some food." Vivi approached Luffy.

"Have a good trip then!" Luffy pushed her towards the door.

"That was a dirty move…" Robin didn't look pleased.

"Try not to cause much of a mess." Zoro huffed.

"At the very least don't do something stupid, like killing the Shogun!" Usopp shouted as she was leaving.

"Why would I do that?, I don't even know the guy." Vivi wondered.

She closed the door and started to walk around the town.

"Mmm…how strange. There is barely anyone around here."

When they arrived in the town, there were a lot of people walking the streets, and everyone looked very lively and happy.

She used her abilities and located a very large number of persons in one single point, a short distance towards the north.

'Maybe there is a festival or something. I should go take a look. I can take the chance and pick some food for Luffy.'

She rather not think about what could happen if she were to return with empty hands.

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The place in question where everyone was congregating looked like some sort of oriental castle, with an old wooden fence all around it.

The citizens were behind the fence, looking at the front yard of the building, where something was tied to the top of a pole.

"This does not look like a festival at all…" Vivi muttered.

As she approached more, she realized that the 'thing' tied to the pole was a man. The middle-aged-looking man was very much beaten up but remained smiling.

"What is going on here?" Vivi asked a nearby person.

"They are going to execute Tomayasu…" 

His voice sounded almost sad, but there was a wide, almost creepy, smile drawn on his face.

She had no idea who this Tomayasu was but decided to stay away from the smiling man.

But then she noticed that all of the citizens around here were also looking at the man on the pole with smiles on their faces. Some of them were even chuckling.

"Is this really an execution?...why is everyone so happy? is this man a serial killer or something?" Vivi asked no one in particular.

"Of course not!" An old lady at her side shouted.

"Tomayasu is the most wonderful man in the world…"

"The truth is… he's been arrested because he was stealing from the rich and giving the money to us, so we could afford to buy some rice and clean water…" A nearby old man told her.

'So he is like some sort of Robin Hood type of guy.' She thought.

"But then…why does everyone look like this?" Vivi asked.

"You must have come from a very afar land, young lady. The citizens of Ebisu town are cursed with eternal smiles. Everyone knows that…" An old man chuckled. 

"Eternal smiles?" Vivi said.

'So they weren't actually happy the whole time. I thought that was strange…'

"This is a curse brought down by those strange apples they gave us some time ago…We were starving and ate them all without knowing the side effects. The townsfolk have been like this since then. Unable to show any emotion but happiness…no matter how we actually feel." The old man gave her a toothy smile.

"Look over there…." He pointed to a little girl, clutching at the wooden fence and laughing.

"That is Tomayasu's daughter…the poor girl can do nothing but laugh as her father is executed…that is the only thing she can do. Isn't that cruel?" 

"That messed up…" Vivi had seen many terrible things done to innocent people since she arrived in this world, but this one was definitely at the top.

'I wonder if those apples they ate are some subproduct of the artificial devil fruits that Dofflaming sold to Kaidou. After all, those fruits were called Smiles or something like that.'

There was a chance that they gave these people some defective ones or maybe they were using them for some experiment or test.

It was terrible either way…

"Stop this!"

"Put him down!"

The people of Ebisu Town had started to yell at the guards inside.

"Lord Yasue!"

"Let the Lord go!"

"This is a disgrace?"

"Wait, he is a Lord? I thought he was a thief." Vivi said.

"He used to be the Daimyo of Hakima. He was a very strict man back then. I still remember it clearly." The old lady said.

"Most of us, old folk, always knew who he really was when he came to live in this town. But he wanted to keep his identity a secret, so we said nothing…"

"Ah…, so I have not been forgotten after all. But your efforts are in vain…Orochi will never let me go." Lord Yasue spoke from the top of his pole where he had been tied.

"But before I die, there is something I want to say…"

'

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