Chapter 046

"A different reason…?" Mr. 8 repeated dumbly. Miss Valentine laughed mockingly.

"You didn't really think we'd come all the way to the beginning of the Grand Line just to supervise your unimportant mission, did you?" she asked.

"Then, why are you here?" Miss Wednesday asked carefully.

"We've been assigned a mission by the boss," Mr. 5 answered. "His exact words were 'someone knows my secret.'"

Miss Wednesday and Mr. 8 had both adopted expressions of horror once again, while their partners just looked back and forth between them in confusion.

"Now, I don't know what that secret is, but I do know that Baroque Works is an organization sworn to secrecy. If someone were to find out something that the boss didn't want them to know, they'd have to be eliminated. Isn't that right, Miss Wednesday?" He smirked. "Or should I say, Princess Vivi of the Alabasta Kingdom?"

Mr. 8 reacted immediately, launching a series of bombs at the pair. Miss Valentine jumped into the air while Mr. 5 took the blast head-on. "Igaram!" Vivi yelled in worry.

"Run, Vivi! Take the Eternal Pose to Alabasta and flee this place! I'll hold them as long as I can!" The smoke from the blast cleared to reveal Mr. 5 standing completely unharmed.

"It would seem you fools know not your place," he said calmly, as he pulled out a small pistol and brought it up to his face. "Breeze Breath Bomb," he mumbled, before blowing into the gun. The pistol shot the volatile air towards Igaram and Vivi. Vivi ran, but Igaram was slow to react, and couldn't get out of the way as the explosive breath flew in his direction…and hit two people in front of him.

Igaram and Vivi looked on in horror as Mr. 9 and Miss Monday took the full force of the blast for their old comrades. Vivi felt tears escape her as their bodies fell lifelessly to the ground. If they took another hit like that, they wouldn't make it. Mr. 5 just scoffed at their stupidity and shot off another round of breath bombs at Igaram, who was engulfed in a series of fiery explosions.

"Igaram!" Vivi screamed in desperation. The explosions continued, and Mr. 5 spoke up.

"The Bomu Bomu no Mi. It turns my entire body into a bomb waiting to go off," Mr. 5 explained. He stilled though, as the explosions suddenly died out. Vivi looked on in amazement. The spot where Igaram had been standing was now engulfed in a dense whirlwind that seemed to have overfed the flames from the inside of the blast. Mr. 5's eyes widened under his sunglasses the whirlwind dissolved to reveal Mr. 8—or rather, Igaram—completely unharmed. In front of him stood a green-haired man with a sword drawn at his side and pointed at the ground.

"Wow, what a night," Zoro said with a grin. "Sorry, but for reasons I can't reveal, I can't let you kill them," he said as he faced Mr. 5.

"No need to apologize," a voice said from above. "That just means you'll die with them." Miss Valentine floated above their heads with an amused smile on her face. "Surprised?" she asked. "The Kilo Kilo no Mi. I can change my body mass from one kilogram to 10,000 kilograms at will. It makes for a pretty deadly fighting style, if I do say so myself." She smiled widely. "10,000 Kilogram Press!" She dropped through the air like an anvil, aiming to drop down on Zoro's head.

Zoro casually tilted his body to the side, and Miss Valentine completely missed him, getting stuck in a small crater in the ground. Zoro turned to Vivi and Igaram and scratched his head. "Hmm, what should I say?" he wondered aloud. "I guess I didn't really think this part through very well. Well, whatever. I think I can speak on behalf of my captain when I say we'd be willing to give you a lift to Alabasta." Igaram's eyes narrowed.

"Why would you go to such lengths to help us?" he asked in well-founded suspicion. Zoro shrugged.

"If you need a reason, then let's just say it's to thank you for the sake. We could have gone without what happened afterwards, but you guys couldn't have killed us even if you tried. So, taking into account that you didn't even try…we'll be forgiving."

"That doesn't explain why you'd go out of your way to help us though," Vivi said cautiously. Zoro tilted his head. What should I say to get them to trust me? he idly wondered, before a loud shout broke him out of his thoughts.

"Zoro!" The voice of his captain pierced the air, and Zoro turned toward Luffy. "Oh, hey, Captain," he said. "I thought you'd still be sleeping. Since you didn't wake up earlier, I just assumed you'd leave this to me. What's up?"

Luffy's hat shadowed his eyes. After a few seconds, he raised his head and a wide, mischievous grin spread across his face. He raised his fists in the air and shouted. "You bastard! I'll kick your ass!" Zoro didn't have much time to try to puzzle out this statement before his reflexes screamed at him and he moved his head to the side to dodge a punch that sent ripples through the rock formation behind him and shattered the stone, toppling nearby trees in the process. Luffy's stretched-out fist rushed back to his body, and Zoro pulled two swords out, his mind finally catching up to just what the hell was happening right now.

Oh, he cannot be serious.

Luffy was very much serious. Zoro watched as his arm took on a reddened tint and steam started rising from the limb. "Gomu Gomu no…" Zoro got his swords at the ready. "Jet Pistol!" Zoro blocked the attack using a cross formation with his two swords. His feet gave way and he slid back a few inches, but he was unharmed.

The strongest attack he's used since coming to the past. And he's using it on an ally for shits and giggles. Sometimes, his captain really frustrated him.

"Why are they fighting? Aren't they comrades?" Vivi asked in confusion. Suddenly, a new voice spoke up from behind them.

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