Chapter 21 – Trip to Syrup Village.
[Chapter Size: 1443 Words.]
Third Person POV
Somewhere in the East Blue Sea.
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After two days in the middle of the ocean, a Marine ship was anchored in the waters, while Luffy used the power of his Devil Fruit to slow down the ship, almost coming to a stop. Next to the Marine ship, there was a smaller and peculiar boat.
"What is this?" Yamato couldn't help but ask in amazement.
"This is a speedboat!" Luffy said proudly. He purchased it using the system, taking an existing model in this world and adding a few modifications.
The young man with the straw hat used his money from the shop system to buy and assemble a steam-powered speedboat.
"What's a speedboat, Luffy-Sama?" Shirahoshi looked curiously at the small, peculiar boat with an engine at the back.
"This is a small motorized boat that can move faster than most boats in this world. It will be a secondary boat for the crew, mainly used by Lami as she delivers the heads of the pirates we captured while we were here in the East Blue," Luffy explained proudly.
"Incredible!" Yamato exclaimed with starry eyes.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT A MOTOR IS!" Lami said from the side, thinking that the tall woman with horns was missing a few screws in her head.
Luffy had an appreciative look for Lami at this moment. Although the concept of a motor wasn't new to this world, as they had a sea train in Water 7, for most people, it was strange and unfamiliar. Lami in the original story had a damn submarine like Law, so it's no surprise that she's the only one who has an idea of what a motor is.
"Anyway, I'll teach Lami and Bepo how to operate the speedboat with the fuel now. Please wait for me to finish before we continue our journey," I said, jumping onto the boat, with Lami and Bepo following me.
"But first of all, where did you get all of this? Did you already have it in your pocket?" Lami asked, curious. It was a recurring question among the crew, but everyone inclined to the idea that Luffy had these things before they met him, and he had simply shrunk them and kept them until the occasion.
"No, I got these with the money we obtained from Buggy. It's pretty hard to explain right now, so I'll do it another time. Let's focus on the boat's operation for now," Luffy planned to talk about the concept of the shop later; now he had other concerns.
While Luffy explained the concept and the manual of the speedboat, on the Marine ship, everyone was looking at that strange, small motorized boat. A woman with orange hair was standing beside them.
She was dressed as a French maid, nothing too sensual, but she had her own uniform, like Baby 5. She held a mop in her hand, squeezing it tightly, with veins popping on her head.
"I'm a maid? A maid?!" Nami was furious with her fate in the midst of all these pirates, as her role was to clean the ship and attend to the captain's requests.
"First, he doesn't see me as a navigator and brings me into his crew as a maid. Now he's making me wear this uniform and asking me to keep cleaning the ship?! Damn you, Luffy, you're lucky you hid all that gold, but I'll find it! I'll take it along with the reward you'll receive from Buggy!" Nami was furious at first, but soon had a malicious smile at the prospect of getting all that money from this crew.
"So, I'll keep cleaning the place until I get that money!" She was determined as she resumed her task with a rather happy demeanor, which left everyone who knew her intentions quite concerned as the maid cleaned with a scary smile.
After explaining everything, Luffy summoned a raft to be pulled by the speedboat with Buggy's crew tied together on it.
"With this, I believe you can go. Take my Vivre Card and come to us when you're done," Luffy said, taking a paper from his pocket and handing it to Lami, who accepted it.
"Okay, see you later, Captain." She smiled. In the beginning, Lami had some grievances with Luffy, and they still had some differences, but over the days, they were building some kind of relationship between them, despite a few jokes back and forth.
"Remember, don't use your Devil Fruit powers too easily. My grandfather is already coming after me, and if the headquarters finds out about the potential of the people around me, they'll try to send more forces here. Not that it would scare me if it happened, but I want to delay it as much as possible while we're in this sea."
She nodded in understanding.
"Then, see you later." Luffy said with a nod, not taking his eyes off the emo-styled woman. After a few seconds, he turned to the bear beside him, who wore his orange jumpsuit, one that Luffy bought in the shop, as it belonged to the canonical Bepo without a pirate symbol.
"You too, Bepo, take care and keep this emo here out of trouble," Luffy smiled.
"Who's emo?!" Lami yelled.
"Yes, Captain!" Bepo said, saluting with his hand on his forehead, mimicking a military salute.
"So, I'm off." Luffy jumped onto the Marine ship, while Lami started the coal-powered engines and began to move away from the ship with the raft full of clown-dressed prisoners begging to be set free.
"Now, let's continue our journey. Our sharpshooter with a long nose is waiting for us!" Luffy announced as the ship resumed sailing in the direction they were heading.
For the rest of the day, Luffy trained them with his powers, but this didn't include Nami. Luffy wasn't naive to her real intentions here, as was almost everyone else on the crew. He was just toying with the cat burglar. Even though he needed a navigator, seeing her cleaning the ship with a uniform was too much fun. She would grumble when she broke her broom or the dustpan after realizing her own situation in anger.
"Nami, you've broken another broom. You owe me 50 berries now!" Luffy exclaimed, enjoying himself, while Nami had a dead look as she saw herself either further in debt or losing money, no matter how insignificant 50 berries might be.
As for not training the cat burglar yet, Luffy wanted to see how she would fare on her journey. He wasn't like the canon Luffy to forgive that betrayal so easily. He wanted to test the waters with Nami before making a decision, even though he would appreciate it if she came to ask for help in dealing with Arlong without stealing from him.
"The sun is so warm and nice!" Shirahoshi commented.
"Nami, get some orange juice for me, Yamato, and Shirahoshi?" A shirtless Luffy in flowery shorts asked, as he and Kaido's daughter in a beautiful white bikini, and a serious woman sat side by side, sunbathing on chairs in the middle of the ship. Each of them wore sunglasses to enjoy the moment.
Meanwhile, Chouch
ou was on the mast like a lookout or guard dog, and Zoro and Kuina were still training, swinging a piece of wood, which I increased in weight multiple times.
"Sharky!" A disgruntled Megalo barked from the side of the mermaid, who was on another chair.
"Oh, I forgot, one for Megalo too." Luffy quickly said apologetically.
While they enjoyed their time relaxing at sea after their intense training, Nami had to comply with the captain's request.
"Of course!" Nami replied, gritting her teeth. She despised everything about the situation, but it was necessary to get her precious gold.
"Thanks, maid!" Luffy commented with a smile.
"Thank you, Nami!"
"Thank you, Maid-Sama!"
"Sharky!"
Everyone expressed their gratitude.
"You're welcome." Nami smiled with closed eyes but had visible veins on her forehead as she tried to hide her anger. She began to walk in a stiff and squared manner as her unmasked rage consumed her, heading toward the Marine ship's kitchen.
"She pretends so poorly. How did she manage to steal from all those pirates?" Luffy couldn't help but wonder internally as he watched her walk away from the group.
"Woof! Woof!" Everyone heard barking from the mast, and Luffy understood what it meant.
"It seems Chouchou spotted land!" Luffy commented with a sigh. Anyway, it didn't take much more than a day after Lami separated from the group for the ship to see the Village of Syrup in the distance.
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