Darling Typhoon [One Piece Law x Luffy]

6. The Straw Hat Group Chat

AT A GLANCE, THE PROPERTY FOR THE ALAFIA RESORT AND SPA WAS A TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A COMMERCIAL RESORT. It was a combination of steep slopes and terraced flats, with an incline so steep in some parts it was nearly perpendicular to the ground. The surrounding shrubbery was unruly, and upon zooming out, the entire property formed a ring around a steep, conical mountain. The further up you went, the fewer buildings you could see.

Whichever volcano formed this mountain must have had particularly viscous lava. The bits of terraced parts must have been man-made. Despite all of the natural composition of land screaming: don't commercialize me!—the geysers filtered throughout the property was worth all the headache.

The 13th Garden was like it's own neighbourhood within a hotel, carefully situated on a collection of such terraces.

There was a gate to the front of the enclosure, manned by its own security. Roads, and smaller stone brick paths that lead to and from those roads, snaked between each little rectangular, stucco building that functioned as its own mini two-storey house. In total, there were 6 of these buildings, numbered 1301 to 1306, and currently, the cozy villa of 1306 was completely vacant.

The moon waned a milky white, and late into the hours of the night, a certain man in a straw hat observed its glistening phases.

It wasn't that Luffy didn't want to go to the Alafia Resort and Spa, he just got distracted by the photos of volcanoes littered throughout customs. Without thinking, he soon disappeared down a corridor that looked like it led outside (forgetting his carry-on in said corridor) and before he knew it, Luffy found himself on the rooftop of the airport.

As he thought, there really were volcanoes like those pictures, far, far, far off into the distance. Luffy took out his phone and zoomed in as much as he could, and his shaky hand snapped a fuzzy, pixelated picture.

The cold night air brushed past his face, through his short, silky hair, and past the tour bus, meant to drive him to the resort. The passengers down there couldn't wait any longer and took off without him. Luffy's frantic tour guide was busy having a melt down downstairs while Luffy looked on—fascinated—at the sight of volcanoes in the distance.

Poneiro island was indeed a volcanic island chain, but Luffy only found this out by squinting off into the night, and being filled with joy when he saw a flicker of neon orange light sluice down the side of a dark mountain. Luffy decided to himself that night— I'm definitely going to visit those volcanoes!

"You can't just visit the volcanoes," came the tour guides voice.

His name was something like Thomas. Luffy didn't really commit it to memory. They were in a smaller black vehicle—one of the reserves left at the hotel in case visitors requested a personal driver or if they rented a car. Luffy received special treatment nonetheless, out of sheer irresponsibility.

Now the young man made up his face. "Hah? What do you mean I can't just go? I would just take a boat!"

Thomas looked like he wanted to scream, but if he did, he would probably end up crashing the car. "Mr Luffy, that is an active volcano that has been erupting for the past 20 years. If you get anywhere near it you could die."

Luffy seemed to consider these words for about 2 seconds. "Then why doesn't it just stop so I can get close to it? Crying for 20 years—isn't it tired?"

Thomas wasn't sure what he meant by crying. maybe Luffy thought that when the volcano sputtered lava it wasn't trying to violently expel magma from below the earth's surface and cause devastation in its wake—instead, it was just feeling a little sad.

"I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to go near them," the guide settled for instead, and before the young man could argue with him anymore and cause an accident, he switched on the radio and turned up the volume to a polite 10. Loud enough that it could be used as an excuse for not hearing, but not so low that it was barely audible.