One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Ten [Rewritten]

-Chapter Ten-

"Nami, you really shouldn't be out of bed—you don't want Kureha to lengthen our stay here, do you?" I asked, lazily following behind the sick navigator as she explored the castle. Stopping every now and again to check out the surrounding rooms as if she was looking for something in particular.

"No, but do you think I would miss out on the chance to find any treasure kept here?" she asked me. "Besides, I'm wrapped in a blanket, aren't I? That should be enough to keep me warm from the cold" she grinned as she looked back at me while we were leaving one of the rooms. Though her grin was quick to fall the second she faced forward and came to halt upon seeing that our way was now blocked by a rather irritated Wapol.

'Shouldn't he still be outside fighting with Luffy?' I pondered, raising an eyebrow as I watched how Nami lean back towards me the second the king leaned towards her with a look of suspicion—eyes narrowed as they seemed to just examine her from head to toe.

"Exactly who are you and what are you doing in my castle?" he angrily seethed, seemingly not pleased to find a complete stranger in his home. Nami only gave a nervous laugh as she started to sprout some sort of believable lie as we slowly attempted to slip by him. It almost looked like he was going to believe her until he caught sight of me—you could almost hear the gears in his head start to turn as his brain eventually put two and two together before he finally shouted and gave chase. Nami was obviously confused by his sudden change in attitude as we quickly ran down the hall, taking sharp turns in an attempt to lose him before finally racing down the stairs towards the main entrance. My ears soon perked up to the sound of a loud grunt as I skidded to a halt and curiously looked back up the staircase only to choke on my laughter the second I saw that the king had gotten himself stuck in the stairway passage due to his immense size.

"Looks like we lost him" Nami panted when we finally reached the main entrance of the castle and she saw that the king was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah, looks like we did" I laughed, the sight I had seen still burned into my memory. I ignored the questioning look she gave me as she raised an eyebrow but didn't seem to want to question me as she instead started walking towards the opened front doors. I calmed myself first before following, flinching when she was suddenly tackled onto the floor as a now very thinned down Wapol pinned her to the ground while he viciously snapped his jaws at her like that of a hungry shark. "What the hell!? How did you become so skinny so fast!?" I shouted as Nami began to scream in fear.

Quickly did I start to frantically hit the man's back and try to pry him off her—now wishing I had my swords with me as my shoulders decided to protest at the thought of moving a full-grown man off of someone. Though I soon stopped what I was trying to do the moment I caught sight of Luffy rushing towards us from the corner of my eye. Just the sight of him was enough to cause me to take a step back and watch as he kicked the man right off Nami, allowing me to be the one to help her up off the ground.

"Hey, that's funny, wasn't that guy a big fatso before?" Luffy asked with the tilt of his head once he saw how slim Wapol now was. I silently watched as Nami quietly stalked towards the captain and instead of giving him a small "thank you" or any other kind gesture that showed she was thankful to him for saving her. She instead harshly hit him on the back of the head.

"Mind telling me why the coat I lent you is all torn up before I murder you?" she gave a strained smile as she now patted Luffy's shoulder while I raised an eyebrow. Wincing at the dark aura that just seemed to surround her. "Do you have any idea how much I paid for that thing?! I paid 6,800 beli and that was after haggling it!" she roared, causing Luffy to drawback with a terrified look.

"How much did it cost before?" I curiously asked.

"Too much that I wasn't even going to pay the original price—hell, I didn't want to pay for it with this price either!" she seethed as she went back to ranting at the captain who stood there, clearly petrified. When she started showing signs of calming down, he finally found his voice and gave us both a quick rundown of what had been going on outside this entire time during our absences. "If that's the case then it's okay that you destroyed my coat, you can just pay me back with interest—that'll be 14,000 beli" the ginger grinned, a mischievous glint in her eyes.