Chapter 50: Worthless Dreams?

Bars were a good place to get information. Plus, they could be found in every village with any form of economy. Thus, Luffy, Nami, Coby, Gin, and Amy found themselves inside of one of the many situated in Mock Town. The bar was an average place with no name, only a crudely painted sign reading "BAR, and pies" hanging over the door. Nevertheless, the place was nearly full, pirates of all shapes and sizes laughing together at each table.

"This whole trip has been pointless!" Nami complained, an empty glass sitting on front of her. Luffy sat to her right, his second mug of whatever he was drinking empty as well. The other three were stretched out on the navigator's left, their own various drinks sitting before them. "This town is filled with nothing but arrogant or stupid pirates."

"I'm sorry about that," the bartender apologized, replacing her empty drink with another. "This town's only real economy is from pirates, so level-headed people like yourself are hard to come by. Here. This one's on the house." The man shuffled away, only stopping to place a cherry pie in front of Luffy and another in front of the large man to the teen's right. He then moved backwards to start cleaning dishes.

The man next to Luffy was the personification of the pirate stereotype, the only thing missing being a parrot on his shoulder. The man was missing several teeth and those that he had were grey. Black, curly hair tumbled to his shoulders from his captain's hat and his brown eyes showed that he loved life. His dirty clothes consisted of a torn white shirt that showed his hairy chest and stretched at his gut, black pants held up with a belt, and black boots sized to his extra-large feet.

"Hey, Bartender!" both Luffy and the large man yelled, the younger with a disgusted look on his face. "This pie is the worst/best pie I've ever had!" The two stared at each other, lighting all but clashing from their glares before Nami yanked on Luffy's ear and the man behind the counter sighed.

"I don't work in the kitchen, so I really don't care what you think of the food. Now break it up. The most important rule in here is no fighting." Luffy grumbled as the man ordered a whopping 50 pies, paid, and left.

As he made his exit, another man strode in with his crew behind him. He was a tall man with a deep tan and medium-length blond hair. Cream-colored pants and dark shoes covered his lower body while his upper had a pink shirt and a blue captain's coat draped over his shoulders. His black eyes scanned the bar as he spoke, getting the attention of everyone there.

"I'm looking for a pirate who wears a straw hat!" Whispers broke out, eyes shifting from the man at the door and Luffy at the counter.

"That's Bellamy the Hyena."

"He's got a 55 million Beri bounty."

"They say he's faster than any other man alive."

"He's the man who killed Roshio the Executioner earlier."

Bellamy cared not for the whispers as he stepped forward, the rest of his crew entering behind him and forcing several pirates to abandon their seats. Their leader, however, made his way to the recently-vacated seat next to Luffy and sat down, eyeing the teen.

"So you're the kid with a 30-million bounty," he stated.

"Nope," Luffy denied. "I've got a 100-million Beri bounty." A laugh tore from the throats of Bellamy and his crew, the other patrons of the bar soon following in their example.

"That's a good one, kid," the man chuckled. "Bartender, get me a bottle from the top shelf and one of whatever this guy wants."

"No thanks," Luffy declined, "but if you could tell me anything you know about how to get to Sky Island, that'd be great." Bellamy twisted around in his seat and grabbed the back of Luffy's head before slamming his face into the counter, smashing the wood into kindling.

"Luffy!" Nami yelled, kneeling beside the rubber captain. Her cry was lost in the laughter of Bellamy's men.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bellamy questioned, eyeing the sword at his throat and the tonfa at his head.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Gin responded, him and Coby having their respective weapons pointed at the man who dared to the attack their captain.

"Listen up," Bellamy stated, bringing up his arm and batting away the Straw Hat weapons with a clang of metal on metal, "if your captain had passed my test, I'd have let you all join my crew, but I don't have room for daydreaming fools like you guys. Hundreds of people set out to sea, dreaming of cities of gold, or islands in the sky, or the great One Piece." He spread his arms, raising his voice. "There's a new era coming! One where those stupid dreamers are no more! The City of Gold is gone! There are no islands in the sky! And the fabled One Piece is fake! The sooner you accept that, the better your life will be."

"Then how do you explain ships falling out of the sky?" Amy demanded. "We were almost crushed by one on the way here. Explain it."

"I guess you don't know about the knockup stream, do you?" Bellamy answered with a sneer. "A natural occurrence that blasts anything caught in it impossibly high. Years ago, sailors saw boats falling from the sky and made up fantasies about an island in the clouds. They didn't know about the knockup stream, but we do. What do you think of that?!" The blond threw the rest of his drink down, the glass shattering next to Luffy's head and the remaining liquid covering his face. This spurred the rest of the bar to throw their own drinks at the fallen teen.

"I take back what I said about being passive," Nami told her captain. "Fight them."

"Guys," Luffy muttered, picking up his hat and dropping it on Nami's head. "Whatever they do, don't fight back. The bar's rules say no fighting. And we promised we wouldn't."

"But-" Gin was about to protest before stopping himself. He lowered his tonfa. "Yes, Don." Coby was slower, but he, too, relaxed his weapons and put them away.

Apparently, the other patrons didn't see their determination for what is was. While they stayed away from Nami and Amy, Luffy, Gin, and Coby were all fair game. They were all but passed around as the pirates used them as their personal punching bags. By the end of the one-sided fight, all three men were covered in scratches of all shapes and sizes and Coby and Gin were sporting very prominent bruises across their faces and arms. Their clothes were torn, but, luckily, all of their pants were intact. It seemed outside of life-or-death situations, even when no one cared about decency, pirates still avoided the lowest of blows.

Luffy was covered in his own blood by the time he fought back.

The captain was in a worse state than either of his companions. Crimson liquid dripped from cuts along his arms, legs, and head from where Bellamy had smashed him into a window, shattering the glass. Nami ran to him as he laid on the floor.

"Luffy!" Nami dropped beside him, checking for any permanent injuries. Laughter continued to ring throughout the bar.

"Hey, girl," Sarkies called, his eyes locking with Nami's anger-filled orbs. "You seem like a pretty sensible chick. Why don't you let me buy you? Come with us. You'll just get left behind if you stick around with these clowns."

"What did you say?" Luffy questioned from the floor, only tilting his head enough to see the man.

"I wasn't talking to you," Sarkies snapped. "I was talking to the babe." Luffy stood and placed himself before Nami.

"Hey, Bartender," the rubber-man said emotionlessly, cracking his knuckles. "Sorry about this." Luffy reared his arm back, causing Bellamy and his crew to laugh. What did this kid think he was doing, punching the air? They were in for a shock when Luffy's arm didn't stop at an arm's length.

Luffy's fist met Sarkies' face with the sound of a breaking nose. He slumped backwards over the counter, barely conscious. Even if Sarkies didn't, the rest of Bellamy's crew heard the words that came out of Luffy's mouth next.

"You can insult my dreams. You can beat me and call me stupid. You can knock me down and spit on me. But no one, and I mean no one, talks to Nami like that in front of me and gets away with it!" Punches rained down on Sarkies, leaving him as a black-and-blue mess.

"You bastard!" Bellamy growled, his legs morphing into springs. "Spring-!"

"I wouldn't do that is I were you," Coby warned, suddenly behind the blond pirate captain, his Sabaku no Kiba blades crossed in front of the spring-man's neck. "My teacher taught me to always keep my swords sharp. If you jump, I can promise you that your neck would give out first."

"You no-name brat!" Bellamy spat.

"Let him go, Coby," Luffy ordered. "We're leaving." The teen turned toward the door, throwing some money over his shoulder to the bartender to help pay for the damages. Coby waited until Gin was next to Luffy before he released their opponent.

Bellamy jumped as soon as he was free, kicking both legs into Coby's solar plexus and rocketing toward Luffy, Nami, and Gin while throwing the rosette into and through the bar. The Man-Demon spun, one tonfa meeting the Hyena's face mid-flight, redirecting him into an uncontrolled spiral that crashed into a side wall.

"Tch," Gin grunted. "Bastard." He tucked his tonfa away and walked back across the bar, offering the dazed Zoan a hand out of the wreckage of the bar. Coby, now dripping with spirits, accepted the hand and rubbed his sore back. Favoring his right leg, Coby limped to the doorway with Gin following.

"Hey, Gin?" Coby asked. "Why didn't the rest of his crew intervene?"

"Because of me," Amy answered, her yellow umbrella now having some small spots of red. "It wasn't too hard. They were too busy watching their captain have his ass handed to them to notice me until it was too late. Kyahahaha!"

As one, the group of five exited the silent bar. Outside, they found the black-haired man who had ordered the pies, eating them in the street and laughing.

"Do you have something to add?" Gin growled.

"ZEHAHAHA! Yeah, I do. You all, I heard everything that happened in there. You'd have won that fight without throwing a punch. A new era is coming? Bullshit!" He raised his hands. "The age when pirates dream will never die! ZEHAHAHAHA!"

The pirates walked away, their spirits slightly lifted and the man's jolly laughter in their ears.

"It's a perfect day for a bottle of rum! ZEHAHAHA!"

"What the Hell happened to you guys?"

Those were the first words out of Usopp's mouth upon seeing the state of the three men approaching the Merry. Coby was still limping and Gin's clothes would need a lot of cleaning.

"Luffy decided he didn't want to fight when some loud-mouthed asshole badmouthed his dream and these two waited until Luffy finally fought back," Nami answered. She was still slightly miffed at the fact that Luffy hadn't retaliated until Sarkies made a pass at her. Thinking about that made her cheeks light up. Luffy was willing to go to blows for her when he'd held back while Bellamy spat on his dreams. What did that say about her boyfriend? "And Luffy, you should have let me handle that asshole back there."

"Sorry?" Luffy shrugged. "Did you expect me not to say anything?"

"What's going on?" Chopper questioned, walking over to the railing to join the conversation. "What the Hell?! What happened to you guys?!" The little reindeer ran back to grab his medical bag before jumping to the dock to treat the men. Coby ended up going first as Gin insisted that he was fine and climbed onto the Merry while Luffy insisted that, as captain, he should go last.

Chopper was in the finishing stages of patching up his captain when Zoro and Robin returned, the annoyed swordsman loaded down by multiple shopping bags. Apparently, Robin had convinced him that it was some sort of strength training and that it was the reason Nami could hit so hard. Robin climbed aboard the ship first before using her powers to relieve Zoro of the bags one at a time.

As that was happening, the archeologist moved over to Nami and handed her a rolled-up paper with a smile. The navigator opened the paper to show that it was a map of Jaya, showing that the island looked like the mouth of a skull that was connected on the right side. Near the top of the map, on the opposite side of the island from Mock Town, was a red X.

"Hey, Robin," Luffy greeted as Chopper placed a Band-Aid under his left eye, opposite his scar. "How was your day?"

"Quite enlightening," the woman answered. "I spent the day looking for information on Sky Island, but I didn't find much. I did, however, hear tell of a man who may know how to get us there. His name is Montblanc Cricket, and he lives on the other side of the island. Apparently, he was banned from the town because he talked about his dreams too much."

"Sounds like we know our next destination," Luffy smiled. "Everyone, set sail! Let's go find this Cricket guy!"

End of Chapter 50

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-SwordOfTheGods