Strength (One Piece fanfiction)

Ch 35

I made it on the ship as Luffy and Zoro were getting their wounds treated.

"Oh Hana!" Luffy called as he saw me. "Where were you?"

"Just getting your medicine!" I dropped the bag near his feet. "Eat up!"

"Yahoo!" He dug into the bag.

I could feel Nami's irritation still, and I could hear her taking it out on Usopp and Chopper. I grabbed a few of the plates and made my way to Zoro.

"Good fighting," I grinned as I gave him the plate.

He took it gratefully, "thanks."

Robin came back on board with a map, and she gave us a new destination. On the other side of the island was a man who hasn't given up on dreaming. We decided that he may be the only one who'd take us seriously.

We set sail to meet him. We were interrupted by a large ship in our path. I glanced at the monkey figure head. Is he related to that Masira guy?

They conversed, and apparently, he was Masira's brother Shoujou. Upon finding out that we literally kicked his brother off of our ship, he attacked the ship with his sound waves, also hurting his own.

We quickly sailed away as we had no way to fight something we couldn't see.

We made it away, and even Luffy helped out in the repairs. "The boat is in even worse shape now," Usopp grumbled as he once again nailed in a board.

"This boat turned to crap in just one day, do we need a new one?" Zoro muttered. Usopp started yelling, this boat was important to him, after all!

"Usopp," Luffy called, "don't worry. The Going Merry is our friend. We just have to work hard and repair it!"

Usopp cried, "Luffy, you're such a good friend!"

The side of the ship Luffy hammered was destroyed as he accidentally put too much strength, "oops." He said.

"You idiot!"

I laughed and brought over more wooden boards. We did a decent job and soon we were looking at a cardboard cut out of a huge castle.

"What's his name again?" I asked.

"Montblanc Cricket," Robin answered.

"The man who talks of dreams," Nami added.

"That's so cool!!" Luffy shouted with stars in his eyes. "Is that his house?!"

"Idiot, look closely," Zoro said.

I followed Luffy onto the island and patted his back at his disappointment. "It's just a board?!"

Everyone else gathered on the island, and Robin mentioned that he dreamed of gold. Nami immediately set out to find it, and made Chopper dig in a random spot.

Nami picked up an old picture book, "King of Liars, Noland?" She read out loud.

I turned to Sanji as he sparked recognition, "that brings up memories," he said. "I used to read it a lot."

"Really, Sanji? But it says it was published in the North Blue?" Nami questioned.

"Yeah, I was born in the North Blue," he smiled. "Didn't I tell you?"

I stared at him as I felt his emotions. His eyes slid over to me and I quickly looked away before he could catch me looking. It's none of my business, and I won't try to make it mine. A pain like that isn't easy to talk about.

"It was a popular story, but I heard this Noland guy really did exist!" He continued. He went on to tell the story of Noland, but I tuned it out. I saw Luffy staring intently at the waters edge.