One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Two [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two-

"Our best bet is to put our strongest scores in one, three, and five" the blond eventually decided after a moment's thought. "Question is, who do we want to start out with?" he frowned as he realized that he now had to determine who exactly our best players were.

"Put me in two rounds, okay" Luffy grinned. "Please! Please!" he practically begged, impatiently bouncing in excitement the second the blond didn't respond.

"I'll think about it if you shut up and leave me alone for a second..." Sanji grumbled as he attempted to wave the rubber man off. "Since he's so full of energy, I'll put Luffy as Point Getter in round one and then again in round six" he concluded, causing the captain to cheer.

"Congrats, captain" I grinned, throwing an arm around Luffy and ruffling his hair as he happily laughed.

"Hey, Robin, looks like it's best to put you in round three—that okay?" Sanji asked.

"Sure, you seem to understand this better than anyone else" Robin nodded, clearly having no complaints about her placement.

"Thank you—wait, what if the other team has the same idea?" Sanji suddenly frowned as he realized that he now had to take into consideration what the opposing team planned on doing.

"Okay, come on! Hurry up!" Luffy impatiently frowned.

"Alright, I'm done!" Sanji irritably snapped as he finally wrote down who would go where. "Luffy has round one and six, Nami has two, Usopp has three, Robin has been moved to four, and Skylar has five" he huffed.

"Hey, hold on a second—why do you get to make all the big decisions without asking me?" Zoro frowned when he realized that the blond had never once consulted him in the placements of everyone.

"Huh?" Sanji blinked. "Cause the coach makes all the decisions, not the manager, and I'm the coach" he explained with a dismissive wave as if it were that simple.

"Why do you get to have the awesome job?! Why'd I get stuck following your stupid orders?!" Zoro angrily snapped.

"Obviously because I'm a genius and your brain is so rotten you're growing mold on your head" Sanji rolled his eyes, causing me to burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Don't laugh!" Zoro snapped before glaring daggers at the chef. "If you think you're a genius then your ego is as twisted as your eyebrows!" my laughter only grew in volume as I grabbed Luffy's shoulder and held my stomach while leaning over.

"At least your comebacks are getting better" I snorted, causing the captain to giggle as I wiped at my teary eyes.

"By the way, there's one more very important rule we need to go over" Itomimizu suddenly spoke up.

"Knock it off! I can't hear him!" Nami snapped at the two fighting.

"If any of the racers go in reverse or leave the course for whatever reasons, they will be immediately disqualified from the game" Itomimizu explained as Sanji handed our roster in. "Starting before the whistle means disqualification as well—okay, looks like everything is set!" he brightened once both rosters were handed to him. "In the first round—oh ho!" he exclaimed in amusement. "Coming in strong from the start, it's Straw Hat Luffy vs. our very own Porche! The anticipation is killing me!" he grinned.

"So, without further ado, let's get this thing started!" he announced.

"Hey look!" someone in the crowd suddenly pointed, drawing all eyes to the starting line.

"You're kidding me..." Nami groaned.

"No way!" Usopp gawked.

"You know, maybe we should have taken this possibility into account" I said, tilting my head.