Two Dreams, One Adventure

Too Much and Not Enough

The instant they went inside and seemed welcome, Zoro picked the best bottle of alcohol he could find behind the counter while Luffy and Brook raided the refrigerator. Zoro sat and leaned against a wall and drank silently. Chopper was the one bothered the most, but Shakky didn't seem to care at all as she and Hachi caught up with one another.

Chopper was gifted by a sudden cotton candy, much to his delight. "Neh, how do you know what Chopper likes?" Luffy asked, a cold chicken leg in his mouth. She stored random stuff here, not just stuff you'd serve at a bar. Zoro was on his second bottle.

"I've been following you guys for quite awhile."

"All of us?!" Chopper asked. Then he was sad about his bounty.

"Well, all of you but a talking skeleton. I didn't know that was possible. I've read about your Enies Lobby incident. How much of it was true?"

"Eh, do we gotta talk about it? It was a pain in the ass," Luffy said, taking a little piece of Chopper's cotton candy. His hand was bitten by the reindeer. "Ahahaha! Sorry, sorry, Chopper."

"That's my cotton candy! You didn't even ask!" Luffy laughed and apologized again, giving him the cotton candy. "But now it's not fluffy anymore! You ruined it!" Shakky brought out a plastic tub with more cotton candy. She offered it to him. "Yay! Thank you!"

Zoro eyed Luffy with a small smile. "You've got the same name as Garp the Fist, a marine."

"That's my grandpa," Luffy replied. Shakky smiled, and said that Garp had been after her before. "Hah? Why?"

Hachi said Shakky had been a retired pirate for 40 years. Luffy wondered how old she was, but she didn't acknowledge his question. "I'm rooting for you rookies. My husband has had his eye on you, too, for some reason."

Zoro asked who her husband was. "Rayleigh-san, a retired pirate. I don't know why he has his eye on you, though. But I quite like you from your escapades well." Luffy wondered why her husband liked him.

"Well, you're really likable, so," Zoro said. "Is he not here, then?" Shakky said he'd been gone for a while, and that they should check the gambling halls. "Not necessary. Luffy, you can find him, right?" Zoro said. Chopper was still eating cotton candy.

"Yup. Do you have something that smells like him?" Luffy asked curiously, eyeing the cotton candy but not taking any more. Shakky looked very unbothered. She gave him a coat. Luffy smelled it and easily had a scent. "Neh, it might be harder if he hasn't been here in awhile."

"He wouldn't have gone too far, from grove 1 to 9. Mostly to gamble and drink at the bars." Shakky was really chill, not seeming to think this was strange at all. "By the way, the places he is mostly at aren't frequented by the Celestial Dragons. An explosion or two won't be that big of a problem." Zoro narrowed his eyes. "I heard you from inside. Broken windows at a bar or gambling hall isn't that bad. Monkey-chan, you sure are interesting so far. If he's not in those places, check Sabaody park-"

"The amusement park!" Luffy cheered.

"Well, wherever you go, be careful. My sources tell me there are 11 pirates on Sabaody with bounties over 100 million right now."

"That many?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"9 others than Monkey-chan and Roronoa-chan," Shakky confirmed. They were all from the other paths on the Grand Line, so they'd never come into contact with one another. All of the routes met up at Fishman Island, including Sabaody. Luffy was shocked that Luffy wasn't the highest bounty. The names Shakky listed didn't ring a bell for any of them. Zoro looked mildly interested.

The highest bounty was 20 million more, to someone named Eustass "Captain" Kid. "Mountains of pirates enter the Grand Line, but most die out before making it this far. As if the first half is one grand survival tournament. Each survivor from each route proves themselves just by making it all the way to the halfway point. The fittest, the elite pirates. Your crew is a minority. And all of your members are still alive, too. Quite the feat," she said.