One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Twenty Eight [Rewritten]

-Chapter Twenty-Eight-

"Thanks for your concern!" she angrily snapped.

"There's a problem, captain!" one of Barbarossa's men suddenly cried out. "I've searched the ship's storage top to bottom and there just isn't enough spare lumber on board for us to repair the mainmast—the ship isn't going to be going anywhere! If we don't do something soon, we're going to wind up dying like dogs in the middle of the desert!" he wailed, riling up the rest of the men onboard the ship.

"We sand pirates are born right here on our ship and we'll die here as well, a true sand pirate would never think about abandoning ship" Barbarossa firmly stated. "The mast destruction was an act of fate and we sand pirates will never do anything to defy the flow of the sand—fate aside though, there is timber at a certain oasis" he recalled.

"And where's that?" Luffy asked. "I'll be glad to dash over and get it" he offered.

"Bad idea" Barbarossa said, shaking his head as he turned down the rubber man's offer to help. "The sands have changed lately—it's too dangerous for outsiders."

"I caused this, I'll take care of it!" Luffy huffed, standing his ground which caused the man to boisterously laugh.

"Alright, you're on—you can use this sand sleigh to bring back the lumber" he grinned, motioning for his men to lower down two sleighs from their ship and onto the sandy ground.

"It looks more like a canoe than a sleigh to me" Nami remarked as she observed the sand sleighs that were being presented to us.

"Huh, you're right, it kind of does" I agreed.

"Zaba and Rasa will show you to the oasis, they'll be your guides—Rasa is the best sand sledder on the ship" Barbarossa boasted. "These sleighs carry two, who will you take?" he asked.

"Hey, don't worry" Luffy dismissively waved. "I'll be fine alone" he confidently smiled, turning down the man's suggestion to bring someone else along.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked, jolting Vivi from her thoughts as her gaze quickly snapped away from the sleighs and towards me in a questioning manner. "Something wrong?" I asked, noting just how silent she had been since the sleighs were lowered.

"Huh?" she slowly blinked as if the gears in her head were still trying to catch up. "Oh, yeah," she eventually answered once she realized what I had asked, "I'm alright—just thinking is all" she smiled as I slowly nodded. From the corner of my eye did I watch as her smile wilted and her gaze drift back to the sand sleighs.

"Come on now, this is no time to get cocky" Usopp scolded the moment he heard Luffy's statement of going alone.

"It looks like it might be tough going, want me to come along?" Sanji offered before flinching as we all whirled around the second we heard Vivi suddenly scream. She was as stiff as a board, staring wide eye straight ahead and past the knife now embedded into the ship behind her. Looking in the direction that the knife had come from, we were greeted by the sight of a young woman atop the broken mast. Harsh was the glare that she wore as she effortlessly jumped from the broken mast and to the ground, perfectly landing on her feet as she did so.

"Very impressive, Rasa" Barbarossa praised.

"These others, they seem like outlanders, but you're from here" Rasa stated in an almost accusatory tone while pointing the knife in her hand at Vivi.

"How could she tell?" Luffy asked.

"Body structure and perhaps appearance as well—a person's body is made to withstand the area they're born in" I guessed, shrugging my shoulders despite my certainly in my answer.