𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕕 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

chapter 18

The Marines were persistent, day after day, attack after attack, the Strawhats escaping with every member mostly in one piece, it was a wound to their pride, to their control over the world. They had attacked New Marineford alone, with no back up, snuck into Mariejois and rescued their captain. The world government's image was irreparably damaged, even if they were to capture the strawhats now.

That didn't mean they were gonna give up, no it meant they were going to try even harder, they were ravenous. And it was getting harder and harder to stop Luffy from joining the fight, even though his body was still a mess of wounds that would open at the slightest movement. Chopper was worried about his back, it was bad, really bad. Chopper had to keep Luffy pretty dosed up, as to not feel the pain of it.

Luffy was wobbly and incoherent, making him even more unpredictable, and him being in such a state was dangerous for them. With the Navy coming at them with increased fervour and their hardest hitter out of commission, it was getting increasingly more difficult to to defend themselves. Zoro was at his wits end, getting woken up at odd times of the night to fight the Marines was taking its toll.

"Okay!" Nami voiced, clapping her hands to try to gain the attention of the sleep deprived crew, Zoro was already asleep. "I think we need to plan our next destination, we can't keep living like this, we need to find somewhere to recuperate." Nami said definitively, her eyes still on Luffy who slept peacefully on the grass, his hat covering his eyes.

"Any suggestions?" Nami asked, scanning the crew for a raised hand or any sign of actual thought at all.

"Lets go to water 7!" Franky sung enthusiastically.

"Maybe we could visit drum island?" Chopper said tiredly, toeing the ground awkwardly.

"Okay... Maybe we should go and visit everyone's home or an island of interest?" Nami compiled the two ideas with a thoughtful hand on her chin.

"I could visit the old man," Sanji added offhandedly, sounding completely unenthusiastic, but Nami saw a glimmer of excitement in his tired eyes.

"It would take a while to visit all the islands, do we have that kind of time?" Robin questioned, always the voice of reason.

"Well it's not like Luffy is in a rush, we all know that, and it would be nice to see everyone," Nami said, humming thoughtfully. Zoro opened his eyes, dark circles under them evidence of how much sleep he'd been allowed recently, he always seemed to wake up in time to say his piece.

"What about the calm belt, do we have the strength for that right now?" Zoro asked, yawning through almost the whole sentence.

"Well that's up to all of us, do you think were up for it?" Nami said, almost immediately knowing what the response would be.

"Passing through the calm belt alone is meant to be impossible, doing it while sleep deprived?" Sanji said, pausing for effect "Piece of cake!" He mused, a triumphant smirk on his face. The rest of the crew had similar looks on their faces, their next course of action was decided it seems.

"What do you think Captain?" Nami said, walking over to him so that her shadow blocked the sun from his covered face. He was silent for a moment before his hand reached up slowly, picking his hat up.

"I think, that sounds like fun," He said smiling, weakly.

"Alright! Hard to port bow, were cutting straight through the calm belt!" Nami shouted enthusiastically, instilling a bit of energy into the tired crew.

___

"I have so many regrets," Nami cried as she huddled for safety behind a tangerine tree. Massive sea kings worked their way around the ship, trying their best to chomp and bite it to bits. Zoro and Sanji worked hard on cutting through the ones that got too close for comfort. The paddles of the Thousand Sunny puttered away in the background launching them through the currentless sea.