MELANCHOLY ; one piece

11. - Second-Degree Criminals

"You're calling them criminals?" Pagaya questions the troops that all stared at us.

"Illegal? What's that?" He tilts his head as he glances at Pagaya and Conis, who looked frightened at the words the troops had spoken.

"There's no use making excuses," The leader started, reaching into his jacket and pulling out some photos-- photos of the entire crew, to be more specific. "Amazon, the inspector at Heaven's Gate, sent us pictures taken by a vision dial."

Pagaya turns to them as sweat dripped down his bald head, asking the captain, whose name is apparently McKinley, if this was some sort of mistake, and how this couldn't be right.

"What do you mean by illegal entry?" Sanji stuffed his hands in his pockets as he stared at Captain McKinley.

"Is it because of the ridiculous entrance fee of one billion extol per person? It's true that we didn't pay that," Robin confirmed.

"But to be fair, that old lady said we could pass, and she didn't really answer my question of what would happen if we didn't pay, soooo.." I drifted off as Usopp nodded.

"Yea, yea! She didn't try to stop us." He added on.

"It's no use. Please stop making excuses and admit it," The scarred male said with a stoic tone.

"But we literally just did--"

"However, there's no need to panic yet. 'Illegal entry' is only an eleventh-degree crime according to 'Heaven's Judgment.' Once you accept your punishment, you can become legal tourists on the spot."

"Oh, you should've said so sooner," Sanji rolls his eyes as he crossed his arms.

"I bet they're going to charge us more than eight billion extol." I snickered.

"Please pay ten times the entry fee."

"...I wasn't serious."

"Why did you open your mouth...?"

"If you pay right now, we will humbly write off your crime," The captain told us with a stern look, clearly not joking. "10 billion extol per person, that is 80 billion extol for all eight of you."

Usopp, alarmed by what is being told, proceeded to ask the one logical question. "Wait a minute, how much is one extol in berries?"

"Berry...," The captain thought for a moment. "That's the currency used in the Blue Sea, right? Today's exchange rate is ten thousand extols per berry."

I stared at Usopp as he counted on his fingers before turning to Robin, asking her how much that would be. She told us it'd be 8 million berries. ...8 million fucking berries and for what, we're already planning to go to areas we aren't allowed to.

As soon as he heard the price, Sanji's cigarette fell out of his mouth as he turned towards the captain and his squad, yelling at how expensive it was and how we simply can't accept that.

"This is your first warning," The captain states. "The White Berets serve directly under the Almighty Enel's priests. Arguing with us will only raise the degree of your crime."

"Oh, whatever. Let's just forget this guy."

"We'd better go find Nami, I'm worried. She might be in need of my tender affections right now."

"She's never in need of that."

In response, Luffy grinned and stated that as soon as the wind changes direction, we'd go out to find Nami (which is his excuse for adventure). But of course, Usopp was having his "adventure disease" and tried talking Luffy out of it.