One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Fifty Four [Rewritten]

-Chapter Fifty-Four-

"Yes, 4:30 is when it goes off" Vivi nodded, giving us the exact time the bomb had been planned to detonate.

"That soon?" Nami worriedly noted, worrying her lower lip as she looked at the clock tower.

"According to what Crocodile said—if the cannon is shot, no one within five kilometers from here will survive" Vivi frowned.

"Five kilometers? That means..." Nami released a startled gasp as the severity of what the princess had said hit her.

"Both the Rebel and Royal Armies will be completely wiped out!" Chopper cried out.

"He just plans on killing them all?" I frowned.

"That damn Crocodile!" Sanji growled, glaring up toward the top of the palace.

"What the hell are we supposed to do?!" Usopp frantically asked, already starting to panic.

"We find the cannon, we stop the cannoneer from shooting" Zoro calmly stated as if it was that simple.

"The cannoneer?" Chopper questioned.

"Okay, but how do we find him?" Usopp asked.

"And in ten minutes?" Nami questioned.

"Well, not by standing around here" Zoro said.

"True, but we can't just go running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off" I argued. "We need to at least have some basic idea of where the cannon might be located" I pointed out.

"Okay" Usopp nodded, now looking to be in deep thought. "We know that everything in this area is going to explode, so that means the cannon guy has to be far away—doesn't he?" he reasonably asked. "Or else he'd blow up with the rest of us" he rationalized.

"No way, no—he's close" Vivi frowned with the shake of her head. "The cannoneer is most certainly near the palace square" she firmly stated as if she was stating a simple fact.

"What? Are you serious, Vivi?" Usopp nervously frowned as he slowly processed what she had just said. "But that means he's going to be caught in the explosion too" he quickly pointed out as if pointing out a flaw in her logic.

"I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, it is Crocodile" Nami said after mulling over what the princess had said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure if the man ever did succeed in this crazy plan of his he would immediately slaughter everyone that helped him" I nodded after a moment's thought.

"What?! He's just going to let his own men die?!" Chopper gasped in horror.

"He's just plain evil..." Sanji grumbled in disgust.

"Come on, let's go" Zoro motioned before quickly reacting alongside Sanji the second a Billion suddenly tried to attack Vivi from behind. Usopp screamed as more of them suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

"Looks like we found you, princess" one of the men chuckled.

"I wonder how big of a promotion Crocodile will give us for killing you" another snickered.

"Billions" Vivi scowled.

"Not surprising that they're crawling around the place" I sighed. "Crocodile probably has them placed all over the place just to ensure his plan would go off without a hitch" I assumed.

"It looks like we'll lose some time" Sanji huffed, already looking ready for a fight.

"He's right, let's not waste all of it gibber-jabbering" Zoro nodded.