Chapter 6

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"DIAMOND-HEAD GUY!! MASIRA!! SHOUJOU!!" Luffy called out to the 3 that they had just found bloodied, bruised, and beaten.

"Who did this to them? Chopper, give me a hand here." Sanji told their doctor.

"Okay!" Chopper.

"Look! The Going Merry!" Usopp shouted as he pointed to their ship.

"What the...?! Who would do such a thing?!" Nami asked in shock at the state that their ship had been left in.

"I'll check the ship and see if they took anything from it." Anu announced as he went towards the ship.

"Sorry." Cricket sputtered out as he laid on the ground.

"Hey! Hey, mister! Are you okay?" Luffy asked as he knelt beside Cricket.

"I'm...sorry. We failed! We couldn't stop them! But there's...still time...before sunrise. We can fix the ship and..." Cricket continued to sputter out through coughing fits from his injuries.

"Hold it, mister! Just tell us what happened!!" Luffy pleaded with him.

"It doesn't matter. It's nothing..." Cricket got out as he sat up while Zoro approached while holding the South Bird. "You got the South Bird. Well done. That's good."

"LUFFY!!" Nami yelled out from within Cricket's house. "The gold ingots are gone!!" The statement had taken the rest of the present crew by surprise. Not only had Cricket, Masira, and Shoujou been beaten badly and their ship had been taken all but out of action, but all the gold that Cricket had spent a decade diving for had been stolen for.

"Yes... G-gone...But it doesn't matter. Forget about them." Cricket tried to convince the crew. "You have to..."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!" Usopp yelled at Cricket. "YOU DIVED FOR 10 YEARS TO FIND THAT GOLD! YOU ALMOST KILLED YOURSELF FOR IT!!"

"Quiet." Cricket told Usopp. "It doesn't matter... That's OUR problem. Now listen to me. If the entire Monkey Mountain Allied Force gets to work preparing your ship, you can still make it. We'll have your ship ready to sail by morning. All of you need to get ready to sail. We won't fail you! You're going up into the sky!"

"Mister..." Usopp was able to get out. "Now you'd better..."

"Hey Luffy." Zoro said as he thumbed to a mark painted on the side of the house.

" Zoro said as he thumbed to a mark painted on the side of the house

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"That's Bellamy's mark!" Nami yelled out.

"Need help?" Zoro asked Luffy.

"No thanks. I can handle them." Luffy told him.

"NO WAY LUFFY!" Nami yelled at him. "Don't even think about doing anything crazy! We have to set in just THREE HOURS."

"If I follow the coast, I'll come to the town, right?" Luffy asked Robin, completely ignoring Nami's outburst.

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