Journey to Raftel Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Journey to Raftel! Krieg Pirates vs the Straw Hats, plus Reiju and Sanji. Not sure this is going to take very long at all. Nami is gonna shut Krieg’s big mouth herself!

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 8 – Straw Hats vs Krieg Pirates

“So, Straw Hat, I hear your dream is to sail to the end of the Grand Line and find the One Piece on Raftel, right?” Zeff looked at the younger man with some interest.

“Yep!” Luffy had a wide smile on his face. “The island that only the Pirate King ever found, where he left the greatest treasure in the world, the One Piece. What could be a better adventure?”

“Sounds a bit like my old dream, and this dumb little eggplant’s too.” Zeff chuckled while pointing his thumb at Sanji.

“You have a dream too, Sanji?!” Luffy’s eyes had turned to sparkles again at hearing ‘the word’ and he practically bounced on his feet wanting to hear it.

“You ever heard of the All Blue?” Sanji sighed exhaling a puff of smoke as he looked over at Luffy.

“Nope.” Luffy shook his head. “But I want to know more about it now!” Sanji huffed before a smile crossed his face as he proceeded to tell the small Straw Hat crew about his dream.

-Krieg’s Galleon-

Outside, the surviving members of the Krieg Pirates were gorging themselves happily, enjoying the feeling of strength returning to their bodies. “We’re saved!” They cheered in relief. “We're alive! It's like a dream! We finally escaped that nightmare! The ‘Pirate's Graveyard’!”

“That's right!” Krieg roared to his men while fastening his spiked cape around his shoulders. “And we'll sail right back to the Grand Line soon.” The crew froze and stiffened up, looking at their Captain as though he were insane. “What's with those expressions?” He demanded as the vein on his forehead began pulsing again.

“W-we're going back there?” One of his crew asked in terror. His answer was a bullet from the pistol Krieg held in his hand.

“Any others want to disagree?” Krieg demanded. The pirates pretended to be happy, fake cheering and all. Krieg returned to smirking. “First we'll ditch this destroyed ship and seize that restaurant.” He ordered his crew. “Your enemies are a bunch of shitty cooks, so there should be no issues.”

-Inside the Baratie-

Sanji had just finished explaining his dream of finding the All Blue to the Straw Hats. All three of them found the idea of a sea that was home to every fish in the world amazing. Luffy was drooling slightly at the thought, making Nami giggle. Even Zoro thought it was a good dream for a chef, though he wouldn’t say it out loud.

“How’re you going to find the All Blue while you work here though?” Luffy asked wondering if the Baratie sailed around looking for it or something.

“He won’t, that’s why I keep telling him to leave this restaurant and go look for it!” Zeff growled at the blonde.

“Shut it you shitty geezer.” Sanji grumbled back. “You know why I’m not leaving.”

“Boy, I didn’t hack off my own leg just so you could NOT live your life and chase your dreams!” Zeff roared at the blonde, Sanji flinched back at the blunt statement from the old man.

“He’s got a point.” Luffy nodded. “If it’s both your dreams to find All Blue then why are you fighting with the old man so much?”

“If you don’t explain it to them, I will.” Reiju spoke up, making Sanji turn to her with a grimace.

“Fine…” Sanji ground his teeth and smashed out his cigarette into the ashtray that was on the nearest table. A short time later and the Straw Hats learned of both Sanji and Reiju’s history with Zeff, how the three of them had nearly starved to death on a godforsaken pillar of stone out in the middle of the ocean. How Zeff had given the siblings all the food and eaten his own leg to survive. By the end of the tale, Sanji was morose, Reiju’s eyes were dark, and Zeff was stone-faced.

“I agree with Zeff, you’re kind of an idiot.” Nami sighed making Zeff snort in amusement while Sanji looked horrified that the orangette thought anything negative of him. “He sacrificed his leg, his health, and all of the food just so you two could live. Yet your idea of repaying him is to NOT search for your shared dream? That makes no sense at all.”

“But…I…” Sanji tried only for Zoro to interrupt.

“Dreams bequeathed to you by another should be chased to the ends of the Earth. Nothing should stand in your way, not even the possibility of death.” Zoro stated his hand wrapped tightly around Wado Ichimonji’s hilt.

“I…” Sanji tried again only for Luffy to speak up.

“Join my crew, Sanji! We’ll sail to every corner of every sea if we have to!” Luffy promised his fist raised in front of him. “Come chase your dream with us!” He offered as he held his hand out to the blonde chef. Sanji looked at the offered hand before glancing at Zeff.

“Do it Sanji…do it for both of us.” Zeff nodded to the young man who’d become like his own son. Sanji’s eyes widened at Zeff’s words and the intense look his surrogate father was giving him. Turning back to Luffy and his still outstretched hand, Sanji made his decision.

“Well shit…I guess I’m coming aboard, Captain.” Sanji sighed before grinning as he took Luffy’s hand and the two shook on it.

“Yeah!” Luffy cheered as he raised both fists into the air. “New nakama!” The rest of the Straw Hats cheered, except Zoro who only raised a glass into the air, having swiped it from one of the abandoned tables. “Reiju, you join too!” He smiled widely at the pinkette. “What’s your Dream?!” Luffy knew that she had to have one, he could feel it!

“There is something I’ve always wanted.” Reiju admitted, a little smile on her lips.

“What’s that?” Luffy leaned in, eager to hear about what Reiju’s dream entailed.

“A Family…” Reiju’s blue eyes were alight with life and joy as she spoke. “Also, to look after this little brother of mine, and make sure he fulfills his dream too.” She playfully ruffled Sanji’s hair, making the chef sigh, knowing she’d keep doing it no matter how old they were.

“A Family, huh?” Luffy’s smile turned into a beaming grin. “I like it! Come be nakama with us!” He held out his hand to the pink-haired woman, offering her a place on his crew.

“Of course, Captain…” Reiju giggled, a lilting tone in her voice that made Nami cock an eyebrow.

A loud battle cry interrupted the moment, coming from the damaged Galleon of the Krieg Pirates.

“Looks like they’re ready. Shishishishi.” Luffy chuckled as he and his nakama headed for the blown out front doors.

“Deploy the fins! I don’t want them busting up the restaurant!” Zeff ordered and the cooks rushed to fulfill their boss’ order. The Straw Hats emerged out on the small deck looking up towards the Krieg Galleon. Now that they were outside, the roar of the pirates increased as they prepared to attack the Baratie. A moment later and the entire restaurant ship shook as a large deck emerged from the water.

“That’s so cool!” Luffy called out with wide eyes. He loved seeing stuff like this! It was all so interesting!

“They’re the fins.” Sanji explained. “Large decks that we can raise to keep the fighting outside. Saves us money on replacing furniture and the like.”

“Not that it stops any of you from breaking the furniture inside when you fight with unruly customers.” Reiju shot a pointed look at her brother. Sanji wisely kept quiet, knowing better than to argue with his older sister.

“Here they come.” Nami mentioned as the Krieg Pirates practically poured down a makeshift gangplank and quickly filled up the larger deck.

“Get the hell out of the way unless you wanna die!” One Krieg pirate threatened as the large group of nearly a hundred men laughed and brandished their weapons.

“Hmm, looks like a large party today.” Reiju’s smile had something dark to it, a few of the Krieg Pirates actually flinched back from the look.

“Tch, they’re all small fry, you can tell just by looking.” Sanji scoffed at the pirates in front of them. “We’ve beaten the crap out of losers like you for years, bring it on.” He tapped the toe of his black dress shoe against the deck.

“You have a death wish or somethin’?” Another Krieg pirate demanded as the whole group started stalking forward. The pirates were clearly hoping to use their numbers to intimidate their opponents.

“Show me what you can do, Sanji, Reiju.” Luffy was already grinning brightly at what was about to happen.

“Yeah, yeah, Captain…” Sanji huffed as he leapt the entire distance between his starting point and the Krieg Pirates. The first pirate couldn’t even scream before his face nearly collapsed under Sanji’s shoe. A front kick sent the next pirate flying into the drink with a broken sternum. A roundhouse to the head sent another pirate cartwheeling into the deck with a sickening thud. Sanji spun while unleashing kicks that most of the Krieg Pirates couldn’t even see. Men went sailing off the deck screaming from broken limbs or silent from being unconscious or dead. The Sous Chef knew this would be the last time he’d get to fight for the place that had been his home for the last several years. So, with that thought in mind Sanji let loose, sending pirates flying off the Baratie crippled or dead. An axe kick finished off the last pirate near him, the man’s skull cracked and indented by Sanji’s heel as he crumpled to the deck, dead. In only a minute or so, the blonde man had decimated thirty of the hundred pirates.

“What the fuck is he?!” A Krieg Pirate staggered backwards away from Sanji’s position in terror.

“You should be far more worried about yourself.” Reiju’s voice came from behind the man. He didn’t even get to turn around before a palm strike slammed into his back, an audible crack heard from the impact. The pirate went sailing off the fins and splashed into the ocean dozens of meters away.

“Where the hell did she come from?!” Several Krieg Pirates cried out in alarm, seeing as Reiju had entered their midst while they’d been distracted watching Sanji.

Reiju was untouchable to the pirates, even as they tried to rally together against her. She weaved between them easily, as palms, fists, knees, elbows, and kicks practically shattered the Krieg Pirates. Some of the pirates were only grazed, a glancing swipe from Reiju’s hands against them. The force behind the glancing blows was still strong, of course, but it was quickly made apparent that Reiju wasn’t missing from a lack of skill or experience. That was proven when the first pirate she’d lightly struck collapsed face first onto the deck unconscious. Then the second. And the third. Then more and more men hit the deck or fell backwards into the sea around the Baratie.

“What…what the fuck is going on?!” A Krieg Pirate leapt at Reiju, bring his cutlass down on the waitress in an overhead swing.

“It’s poison.” Reiju’s answered, her palm slamming into the man’s face. As he reeled back, dropping his cutlass in the process, a purple handprint was on his face. He collapsed backward without another word and Reiju smiled at the remaining pirates, all thirty-ish of them, making them scramble away from her in fear.

“Damn…” Nami whistled at the strength of the siblings. “Seventy pirates in about two minutes. They’re good.”

“They’re awesome!” Luffy cheered, sparkles in his eyes at seeing the skills of his new nakama in action.

“Not bad.” Zoro nodded; he’d give recognition where it was due. His eyes narrowed and he nearly blurred forward when he saw someone emerge from the sea behind Reiju.

“Behold! My invincible iron wall!” The man that had appeared from the water was wearing rather, odd, attire according to everyone else at the Baratie. He had giant iron plates on both his front and his back, which made him look round. They covered his body from crotch to collar. On his feet, knees, elbows, hands, and even his head were smaller iron plates, and every single one of them had a brilliant looking pearl in the middle.

‘I wonder how much those are worth?’ Nami mused idly, making a mental note to collect them if possible.

“I’m ‘Iron Shield’ Pearl!” The now named Pearl started laughing. “I see you’ve been dealing with my crew little girl. But I’ll be the one to end you!” His obnoxious laughter was cut off as he raised both of the shields attached to his hands to block Zoro’s three swords.

“Sneak attacks are no good.” Zoro glared into the pirate’s eyes. “I’ll deal with you.”

“You? Take medown? Don't make me laugh.” Pearl started chuckling again. “In the past sixty one fights I've been in I've won them all without a single scratch. You might be pretty good with those swords, but I’ve protected my entire body!” He boasted, the annoying laughter still going. “In every single fight I've been in, I've not lost a single drop of blood! Not a single drop! That's proof of my invincible strength! That's why they call me ‘Iron Shield’ Pearl!” He grinned, his teeth actually pinging in the light. “And my iron defense is quite fashionable too!”

“If you say so.” Zoro deadpanned, kicking Pearl away and taking up his stance. “I’ve yet to cut steel, but I’m sure I can take you down.”

Pearl rushed Zoro with some considerable speed for a man wearing iron plates. The first swing of Pearl’s shield-clad fist was backstepped. Zoro countered with a swing to the exposed leg between the large torso shield and the shield strapped over Pearl’s knee. The armored man raised his knee, blocking the nameless sword easily, before lashing out with a combo of jabs and punches as he rushed forward. A simple sidestep to his right got Zoro out of the man’s charging line. Seeing an opening he swung Wado at the back of Pearl’s head. The man ducked forward and the blade glanced off the top of the large iron plate on his back, leaving a visible scratch. With a backhand strike that Zoro easily dodged, Pearl swung around to face Zoro again.

“Your little swords won’t do you any good against me.” Pearl laughed while rushing at Zoro with a flurry of punches from his iron shields. Zoro narrowed his eyes and stalled the other man’s rush with his own attack, leaving them in a stalemate. This moron’s armor was actually more of a hindrance than he wanted to admit. But the fact that Pearl had the stamina to keep up his rush of punches at least made this fight more interesting.

Zoro continued blocking, parrying, and dodging around Pearl’s attacks as his eyes carefully watched the pirate’s reactions. He was already starting to see the pattern of Pearl’s attacks. Any slash or stab near the pirate’s face was always blocked as Pearl raised both arms to protect his head. That was a reaction that Zoro could exploit. Pearl rushed forward again, raining down punches which Zoro blocked and parried with his three swords. When Pearl paused to reset himself, something he had to do lest he lose his balance with the heavy iron plates strapped all over his body, Zoro lashed out towards his face with Wado. Predictably Pearl’s reaction was to bring up the shields on both arms to block. The blade and the iron plate let off the ting of metal hitting metal. Zoro’s left hand sword stabbed downward as he aimed for a place that Pearl wouldn’t be able to protect after obstructing his vision with the two shields on his hands.

“Aaaahhhh!” Pearl screamed as he fell to one knee on the deck, Zoro’s left hand sword stabbed through his unprotected thigh. “My leg! My leg!” The man screamed over and over again as Zoro pulled the nameless blade from Pearl’s thigh. “Danger! I’m in danger!” Pearl began freaking out and Zoro prepared his right hand sword to finish the pirate off.

“CALM DOWN PEARL!!! This isn't the jungle! There's no need to go wild over a single injury!” Krieg roared at the flailing Pearl. The pirate captain was practically stomping down the gangplank from the damaged Galleon. He had a cloak covering his form, but the shape of his armor was noticeable around the shoulders. His loud appearance had gotten everyone’s attention, which allowed Pearl to continue his freakout.

“Danger! I'm in danger! Danger! DANGER!!!” Pearl was slamming his shields together like a cymbal banging monkey. “DANGER!!!” He screamed loudly, before all of his shields ignited and he was engulfed in fire.

“Did he just set himself on fire?!” Nami exclaimed in shock that anyone would do such a ridiculous thing. Luffy was all for the show, however, practically bouncing on his heels as he watched on.”

“DON'T YOU DARE GET CLOSE TO ME!!!" Pearl was absolutely hysterical as he forced himself to stand up. “Fire Pearls!” He roared, and flaming balls of fire erupted from the flames on his shields in every direction. Zoro sliced any that came at him out of the air. But the rest of the Krieg Pirates began to panic as the deck caught flame and any of them struck by one of the Fire Pearls was quickly set ablaze.

“Pearl!”

“Stop it!”

“Hot, hot, hot!”

“You’re burning the ship!”

“You’re hitting us!”

“I’m burning!”

“You damn moron!” Zoro’s right sword flashed out, too fast for most people to keep track of. A nearly inaudible whistle was heard as Zoro’s imperfect Flying Cut was sent at the panicking Pearl. The burning pirate, still slamming his hand shields together to keep his self-blaze going, didn’t even see the attack coming.

“Eww…” Nami grimaced as Pearl’s head left his shoulders and hit the deck behind him. The flames quickly burned out on his shields as his body fell to the deck, staining the wood red with his blood.

“Someone put out the fire!” Zeff ordered and both Patty and Carne rushed forward with large buckets of water to put out the flames. Any Krieg Pirate that got in the way was barreled into and knocked aside, or into the sea.

“Gin!” Krieg bellowed and everyone heard the loud cocking of a gun.

Gin was beside Zeff with a large caliber pistol in hand, pointed at the old chef’s head. “That's enough! No one move!” Both Sanji and Reiju were nearly snarling at Gin for threatening Zeff. “You want to save this man, don't you? Then get the hell off of this ship!”

“Hey geezer! Isn't this a bad example to be setting when we're out here fighting?” Sanji looked pointedly at the older blonde.

“Hmph.” Zeff snorted, arms still crossed like nothing was wrong. “I don't need a little eggplant like you worrying about me.” Reiju calmed slightly, seeing the total lack of concern on Zeff’s part. Their surrogate father could probably get himself out of the situation if he wanted to.

“Nope!” Luffy’s smiling face was the last thing Gin saw for a second, then darkness and the feeling of wind rushing past him, before his back hit the deck so hard the wind was knocked out of him. The pistol left his weakened grip and he looked up to see the straw-hatted young man standing over him. “You’re fighting me!” Luffy declared with way too much enthusiasm for Gin’s liking.

“Kid, this doesn’t have to happen…” Gin spoke while standing up. “If you all just get off this ship, no one has to get hurt.” He pulled a pair of tonfa from the sash around his waist. Unlike normal tonfa, this pair each had a large iron ball on the ends, reminiscent of cannonballs.

“No can do,” Luffy shook his head. “This restaurant is the old guy’s treasure and you’re trying to take it away from him.” His eyes narrowed at Gin. “You should never threaten what someone else calls their treasure.”

“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you!” Gin rushed forward, both tonfas spinning. The iron balls on the ends allowing for a greater build up of momentum and force as he closed the distance and lashed out at Luffy.

Luffy dodged the first strike, but Gin seemed to have anticipated that as he spun a full three-hundred-sixty degrees to strike at Luffy with the opposite tonfa. Once again, Luffy dodged, this time dropping into a crouch as the iron ball passed through where he’d been. Gin had to slam his foot into the wooden deck and adjust his body to continue his chain of attacks. Right, left, overhead, below, and yet nothing ever touched Luffy. He was always just out of the way while watching Gin.

“How?” Gin grunted as Luffy dodged another swing. “How’re you doing this?!” He’d never met someone that could so casually dodge his attacks before.

“You’re slow and your attacks are predictable.” Luffy answered simply, making Gin grind his teeth while a vein became visible on his forehead.

“Then let me make it more difficult for you!” Gin declared as his tonfa’s rotation speed increased and he flew at Luffy with a flurry of attacks.

It didn’t make any difference.

Luffy was always a step ahead, reading through Gin’s attacks easily. The harder the ‘Man-Demon’ pushed himself, the less Luffy appeared to try. The Mythical Zoan user’s footwork was leagues better than Gin’s and he practically danced around the older man. Gin was starting to sweat when the realization that Luffy was merely playing with him struck. He was proven correct when Luffy made his first counterattack of their fight. The sandal-clad foot hooked behind Gin’s ankle, and with a strong movement, took the pirate’s leg out from under him. This was done with enough force to literally flip Gin horizontal, his back hovering over the deck. The pirate didn’t even have time to register this before Luffy’s fist slammed into his face. The wooden boards below Gin splintered as the man was buried headfirst into the deck via Luffy’s punch. The Combat Commander of the Krieg Armada went limp as he lost consciousness, both tonfa falling from his hands to lay on the shattered wood around him.

“Commander Gin!” The last few remaining Krieg Pirates screamed in terror, watching as their second strongest fighter was taken out.

“Oi Gin, stop playing around.” Krieg’s voice was like gravel grinding together. Not seeing any movement from Gin, Krieg roared louder. “GIN! YOU'RE MY BATTLE COMMANDER! I’M ORDERING YOU TO GET ON YOUR FEET!” Gin couldn’t even hear his Captain, unconscious as he was. A large vein started pulsing on Don Krieg's temple, as he started to grit his teeth. His rage was palpable at the remains of his crew being decimated. “Damn you all…you’re nothing but failures!” Krieg’s gaze drilled into every one of his still standing subordinates. “I see now it’s better to just start with a clean slate! I’ll kill all of you and rebuild my armada from scratch!”

“What’ve you even done?” Nami stepped forward with a glare at the man that towered over her. Krieg stood at roughly 240cms, compared to Nami’s 169cms, dwarfing the navigator substantially. But despite this, Nami strode forward without a hint of fear. “You’ve barked orders while your men fought and nothing else. You seem to be nothing but talk.”

“You…little…WHORE!!!” Krieg snapped throwing his cloak wide open to reveal his damaged armor while he reached for his pistols.

“Burn.” Nami stated as her hair lit with flame and her eyes began to glow. A ring of fire spun into existence around Krieg at Nami’s will.

“What the hell?!” Krieg stopped his attempt to attack in shock, and it cost him. The ring of flames exploded into a tornado of fire with Krieg in the center. “AAARRRGGGHHH!!!” Krieg howled in pain as he charged out of the flames, he was quick to toss of his burning cloak, revealing the opposite sided to be lined with hidden spikes. Smoke wafted off the Pirate Admiral as he whipped around to stare at Nami. “A Devil Fruit?!”

“Mhmm,” Nami gave a brief nod. “I’ve only had it for a while, so I’m still figuring everything out. You’re exactly the kind of pirate bastard that I hate the most. So, I’m going to use you to test out my control. Hope you don’t mind being set on fire again.”

“You first!” Krieg raised his arm and a section of his right gauntlet popped open to reveal a nozzle and a small flame. With a wide grin, Krieg activated the device sending a torrent of flames at Nami. The fire washed over Nami without the orangette even moving.

“No!” Sanji was about to rush forward, but was stopped dead by Luffy’s hand on his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing?! We have to save her!”

“She’s fine.” Luffy stated with such simplicity that Sanji’s anger stalled before it could form. It was like the straw-hatted man was talking about the weather.

“Is this all?” Nami’s voice was heard over the flames of Krieg’s hidden flamethrower. “I kind of expected it to be a lot hotter.” She walked through the fire like it was a summer breeze and Krieg stare at her in horror, his face taking on a blue color.

“Wh-what the hell are you?” Krieg took two steps backwards from the Hybrid Form of Nami.

“Not sure, we’re still figuring that out.” Nami shrugged before her glowing yellow eyes locked onto Krieg’s panicked gaze. “Do you know how hot steel gets before it melts?” The Pirate Admiral instantly realized what was about to happen and tried to pull his damaged armor off. The area around Krieg erupted into flames that instantly scorched the wood black.

“You bitch!” Krieg roared as he charged out of the flames, tearing off his almost glowing hot armor in a rush. “I bet you can’t walk off bullets!” He grabbed his pistols and opened fire, but Nami was a blur of flames to him.

“So, I can do this, good to know.” Nami’s voice came from the blurring flames dashing across the deck. No new fires were started, but wherever the blurring ball of flames went, a black trail of scorched wood was left behind. “I’ll figure out a name for this little fire dash later.”

“Shit!” Krieg cursed as the audible clicks from his empty pistols rang throughout the air.

“I wonder how precise I can be?” Nami came to a stop, the flames disappearing from around her body, leaving only her feet covered in fire before they also extinguished. “Hold still, okay?” She requested of the enraged, burned, and panicking Krieg. A flame appeared in her right hand for a second before Nami threw it at the pirate like a knife. It was less fireball and more firebolt as it crossed the distance and Krieg jumped out of the way of the projectile.

“You bitch! I’m not some target you can use for practice! I’m Don Krieg!” Krieg bellowed like a mad beast as he reached down to part of his discarded armor and grabbed the left pauldron. “I’ll kill you all now!” He pulled a gas mask from the back of the large pauldron and slipped it on.

“Don Krieg! Wait! We don’t have our masks on yet!” All of his remaining subordinates cried out as they frantically fumbled to try and get to their own masks.

“Masks?” Reiju narrowed her eyes at what was happening.

“DON’T YOU DARE PUT THOSE MASKS ON!!!” Krieg roared at his last remaining subordinates. “NONE OF YOU ARE WORTHY TO SURVIVE THIS!!! ANYONE THAT SURVIVES WILL BE KILLED BY ME!!!” The last few Krieg Pirates stared at their Captain in terror and shock. The first one to break ranks dived into the sea just as the mouth of the Jolly Roger painted on the pauldron opened up. He was quickly followed by the rest of his crewmates.

“What the hell is he doing?!” Sanji demanded, seeing the pirates jumping ship to try an escape whatever was coming.

“Now you can all just die! I’ll take the ship and rebuild my crew after tossing your corpses into the sea! Lethal poison gas bomb! M! H! 5!” Krieg yelled out as the pauldron fired a projectile towards the Baratie.

“MH5?!” Reiju quickly grabbed Sanji and rushed towards Luffy and Zoro. The pinkette proved her incredible strength when she practically carried all three men towards Zeff. The former pirate didn’t even have time to say anything as Reiju shoved Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro at him, knocking them back into the Baratie. “Everyone get away from the door and windows, now!” It was a testament to Reiju’s authority within Baratie that every cook watching the fight scramble back towards the kitchen without a word of question. A blast went off outside and Reiju rushed back out to see a thick cloud of purple smog rapidly spreading from where she’d last seen Nami. “Shit…” The pinkette was about to move into the expanding cloud when a positively MASSIVE tower of fire erupted from within. The toxic gas burned away instantly to reveal Nami standing amidst the flames, only now her skin had darkened and her hair looked longer. That turned out to be an illusion though, as the new length was pure fire.

“Krieg!” Nami’s voice seemed to rumble like a volcano about to erupt. In the next instant Nami flaming form was in front of the Pirate Admiral. Her fist was surrounded by boiling lava when she slammed it into the much taller man’s midsection. Krieg cried out in agony for a short time before lava erupted out of his back in a burst. He was dead and smoldering as the lava landed in the sea and steam clouds formed from immense heat of the molten earth.

“Nami?!” Luffy called out to his lover, leaping from the door of the Baratie over to the slowly cooling woman.

“I…lost it there…at the end.” Nami gave him a lopsided smile as she reverted to her normal form. Luffy could see a sickly purple tinge to Nami’s skin already and he was quick to take her into his arms.

“We need to get you to a doctor.” Luffy looked around, wondering which way to the nearest island, before Reiju called out to him.

“Stop!” Reiju rushed over and inspected Nami quickly. “MH5 is a toxin that kills within an hour of breathing it. It shuts down organs and causes internal bleeding.”

“What?!” Luffy exclaimed, nearly summoning a Somersault Cloud before remembering that he had no idea where the nearest island with a doctor was.

“Sorry, Luffy…” Nami leaned into his embrace as worry flooded her mind. She wasn’t going to make it to Cocoyashi, her family and friends were going to suffer under Arlong forever. She’d failed them all.

“I can cure her.” Reiju informed her new nakama.

“Eh?!” Both Luffy and Nami gaped at Reiju. “You can?!”

“Yes, come here, Nami.” Reiju smiled gently before gently cupping the navigator’s cheeks and bringing their lips together.

“Mmph!” Nami’s eyes went wide as Reiju kissed her. Not a regular kiss either, a full on French kiss as Reiju’s tongue entered her mouth!

“How is that going to help?” Luffy tilted his head in confusion. It wasn’t until he saw the sickly purple color travel from Nami’s skin and onto Reiju’s that he realized what the waitress was doing.

Several long moments later and Reiju pulled back from Nami’s lips, a line of saliva connecting them for a second before it broke. The orangette looked completely fine and Reiju sighed out a small cloud of off-white smoke.

“That wasn’t very good.” Reiju shook her head at the taste. “The poison, I mean, the kiss was fine.” She grinned at the stunned Nami.

“Are you going to be okay?” Luffy was now looking at Reiju with concern.

“She’ll be fine.” Sanji approached with a newly lit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. “Poison doesn’t work on Reiju.” He shook his head.

“A Devil Fruit?” Nami looked between Sanji and Reiju in question.

“No, it’s just how my body works.” Reiju shook her head. “Consider it a special biological ability, if you’d like.”

“Okay…” Luffy looked a bit lost. “But you’re both okay, right?” His concern made Nami smile and lean into him, while Reiju smiled softly and confirmed that they were both alright.

“So…what now?” Zoro questioned as he made his way over to his crew.

“Now, we loot!” Nami declared with Beri Symbols for eyes. “Zoro, go collect those huge pearls from that pirate you killed, don’t miss a single one!” Zoro gained a tic mark at being told to do something to satisfy the navigator’s greed. “Luffy, if you’d be so kind as to pry those diamonds out of Krieg’s gauntlets, I’ll be happy to reward you later.” She pecked his cheek with a saucy little grin. “Sanji, Reiju, come with me to take everything of value from the Galleon!” She threw her fist into the air with a cheer.

“Yes, Nami-swan~!” Sanji was noodling about with heart-shaped eyes.

“Dumbass.” Zoro scoffed at the cook.

“What was that, you Marimo-headed punk?!” Sanji was in Zoro’s face with a glare.

“Just what I said, You perverted Dartbrow!” Zoro growled back at the blonde man.

“Dartbrow?!” Sanji’s teeth suddenly looked sharp.

“Dartboard Eyebrow!” Zoro also had sharp-looking teeth now.

“Real fucking clever, you moss-headed shit!” Sanji retorted as lightning practically clashed between the two new nakama.

‘Hmm…Krieg was 17,000,000, Gin was 12,000,000, and that Pearl guy was 10,000,000…but since they’re dead, that’s thirty percent less…hmm…’ A clone of Luffy was trying to figure up the math in his head. He and a few others had been left on the Going Merry to protect it. Johnny and Yosaku were also hiding on the ship in the Men’s Quarters at the moment. But both Bounty Hunters would say they were helping to protect the ship instead. “That means we’ll get…27,300,000 Beri when we turn them in…I think?” Luffy wasn’t the best at numbers, but he knew basic math, so all of his clones did too.

Nami would figure this out herself not too long afterwards and would mourn the lost 11,700,000 Beri that could’ve been. The spoils they were collecting now would keep it from her mind though.

On the horizon, sailing towards the Baratie, a small boat that looked somewhat like a coffin was seen. Two candles with green flames burned on the corners as the lone occupant’s yellow eyes, almost hawk-like in appearance, stared directly at the damaged Galleon moored beside the smaller Baratie.

-End Chapter-

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Dun, dun, dun!

A certain someone is approaching...hopefully he’s not in a bad mood or anything.

Two new nakama! Woohoo!

We see that Sanji is still a Monster with his kicks.

Reiju combines hand-to-hand with her poison ability that she got from Judge’s modifications. Not many are going to stand up to her for long.

Gin couldn’t even touch Luffy, but what can you expect from a self-taught fighter versus someone directly trained by Garp, on top of having the Sun Wukong Fruit! Martial Master don’t take no hits from low-tier pirates!

Nami kills Krieg in a fit of rage over his use of the MH5! Sakazuki isn’t the only one that can pull off a Lava Fist anymore!

Oh, but how Nami will mourn that lost 11.7 Million Beri! So sad!

But…Nami and Reiju shared a steamy kiss, nice~

Sure, it was for medical purposes, but still! *Giggles*

Sanji and Zoro are already at each other’s throats! Ah, bros! Kek!

Keep reading to find out!

Until next time, later!